Our Love is Iron

Chapters

II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
I

II

Prisoner of your eyes

Earlier

As Sunset waited in the foyer for the new students to arrive, thoughts began to enter into her head. She remembered that the whole reason she started to show new students around the school was part of an act of penance for her misdeeds. She remembered that the first new students she helped were the Dazzlings, who came in search for Equestrian magic and would have succeeded were it not for the combined effort of both her and her friends. Since then, giving new students a tour had become more pleasant despite first impressions. Of all the students she remembered showing around, one in particular stood out in her mind; Applejack's very cousin Soul Writer.

Soul was interesting. Where as Applejack was a hardworking cowgirl and respected athlete, Soul was a total sci-fi nerd and an utter goof at times. While she may have questioned how two people who appeared to be polar opposites could ever be related, she remembered her encounter with Maud, Pinkie's sister, and realized that she has seen stranger things. And despite his nerdiness, she found him to be rather charming and cute.

Realizing that she was now blushing, she shook her head to get rid of these distracting thoughts and tried to look professional for the new students. As she waited however, she remembered another thing about Soul that made him stand out, his open friendship with Sonata Dusk. Since Soul was a new student, he was not present during the Battle of the Bands, and did not know that Sonata and her band had tried to steal Equestrian magic and force everyone to adore them. While pretty much every new student she showed around eventually heard what happened and began to join the band-wagon and hatting the Dazzlings, Soul did not. He said that he didn't judge people by their past and wanted to be Sonata's friend when he saw that she was feeling lonely. While his plea's to the students on forgiving Sonata had often fallen on deaf ears, Sunset was listening. She knew fully well what it was like to want power and force others into following you, and what it was like to have it ripped from you and be left with nothing.

On more than one occasion, she thought about approaching Sonata and the others, about offering them her friendship, but then she remembered Applejack's words regarding that they have not apologized for their actions to which she agreed with. Plus while she wouldn't admit it, she was still somewhat bitter about how they treated her when she tried to confront them alone; and also, she was worried that if she was seen associating with them, she would go back to being loathed by the school, something she did not want to repeat.

Sunset suddenly snapped out of her thoughts when she heard the doors open and looked up to see the new students she was meant to shadow. There were eight of them, two girls about the crusaders age, and six boys around her age.

"Hi, are you the new student's that I'm supposed to show around?" Sunset said in a cheerful voice.

One of the boys, wearing a black hoodie with blue flames on the arms, answered, "We are."

"Great, I'm Sunset Shimmer, and I would like to be the first to welcome you to Canterlot High."

Another of the boys, wearing a red biker jacket, came forward and extended his left hand and said, "It's good to meet you, I'm Daemon Wraith."

This act confused Sunset at first, as people usually shake hands with their right hand instead of the left, but she quickly shook this off. For all she knew, Damien might be left handed. She reached out with her left hand as well and got a firm grasp of Daemon's. But before she could say anything, Daemon's hand suddenly fall off with Sunset still gripping it.

Daemon started screaming like he was in pain as he grabbed the stump where his hand was, causing Sunset to panic.

"OH MY GOD! I'M SO SORRY! I DON'T EVEN-"

Before Sunset could finish, Daemon started laughing like a hyena. Unable to form a response, just stood there frozen in confusion.

"Ha ha ha, you should see your face!" Daemon laughed.

Finally he stopped laughing and reached for his left hand and placed it back on his stump and Sunset heard a mechanical sound, like something was being locked in place. "It's just a prosthetic limb, sorry I couldn't help it," Daemon explained.

"Did you really have to do that to her Daemon?" the blue skinned boy asked.

"Oh lightened up Artemis, I mean seriously, how often do we get to see something as hilarious as this in real life?" asked the Clyde clone.

"Yeah, it was almost as funny as how you almost pissed yourself when Daemon tried that stunt on you Zero," asked the young, silver skinned girl said with a smirk on her face.

Blushing from embarrassment, the Clyde clone named Zero stammered, "Yeah well....... it was still funny."

Shaking his head, the blue skinned boy walked up to the recovering Sunset, smiled and said, "Sorry about that, he did same thing to us when we met up earlier and he made us swear not tell you. My name is Artemis Arrow."

Finally recovering from earlier, Sunset smiled and said, "It's a pleasure to meet Artemis."

"Please, call me Arrow, all my friends do."

Sunset smiled when she heard that, already she made a new friend.

The other young girl, who looked almost like Artemis, walked up to Sunset with a huge smile on her face and introduced herself, "Hi, I'm Diana, I'm Arrow's sister. It's nice to meet ya."

"It's nice to meet you too Diana."

The Clyde clone started to move forward to introduce himself but the silver girl beat him to it, "Hi, I'm Solar Wind, and this guy here is my brother, Zero Gravity."

"Hey, how come you introduced me? I had this cool intro planned and everything."

"It's not my fault your intro is bullshit."

"She's got a point Zero, right now the author is trying his best to finish our introductions so he can get on to the main story, which isn't easy considering he's addicted to Blizzard games like WOW and Diablo," said the white skinned boy with spikey hairdo and block sunglasses.

Everyone just started at him like he grew a third arm out of his anus for half a minute before the other grey skinned youth with slicked back, black hair and arm bandages with an x on the hands said, "Right, getting back to reality, my name is Straight Edge, but would prefer if you called me Punk."

Sunset smiled and was about to shake his hand until the same white skinned boy from before zoomed in front of her and said, "What's up bacon hair, my name's Treble, Treble Mix. We actually already met but since the author felt this story was shit he decided to remake it on account of the new people that joined the POME group, like yours truly. I enjoy Dubstep, have parents from the Borderlands games, and I have a sister who will most likely not make it into this story anytime soon due to the large cast and because the author still hasn't read the story that features her yet. Come on Grann or Fennyo or whatever your name is now get to it!"

Sunset just stood there for a good moment to process what she had just witnessed. Was it possible that she has encountered someone who is on the same crazy level as Pinkie Pie?

"Yes, yes it is ketchup and mustard."

Deciding to salvage some semblance of sanity as the new students tried to process the entity that is Treble Mix, Sunset turned to the last student who hadn't introduced himself yet. He was further away from the group and seemed to be lost in his thoughts. His physical appearance alone made him stand out from the other students, with his blood red eyes, green skin, long brown hair, rough beard, combat boots and green camo pants, and black t-shirt with a white shirt like tabard that had a shattered sword pointing down, the fragments of which formed a screaming bird.

"Excuse me?" That got his attention, "I don't think I got your name."

In a somewhat quiet and neutral tone of voice, he said, "Oh, my turn? My name is Jon Warhawk."

Trying her best to be friendly and inviting, Sunset smiled and reached out with her hand and said, "It's nice to meet you Jon."

Taking her hand with a firm grip of his own, he answered, "It's nice to meet you too, and I prefer to be called Warhawk."

With the introductions out of the way, Sunset proceeded with her tour.

Throughout the tour, Sunset noticed that while the new students were conversing with themselves as if they were friends already, she noticed that Warhawk was keeping himself at a distance and just kept quiet. Even when Arrow tried to break the ice and make small talk with him, he only gave short answers without making any real conversations. This concerned her as it would seem that Warhawk would have a tougher time making friends. Hopefully, she and her friends can help change that. But first, she had a tour to finish.

"That's the science lab, computer lab is down there. Oh," Sunset noticed a familiar poster and rushed towards it, "I forgot to mention that we're having Musical Showcase in a couple of weeks. The whole school is pretty much rallying around it."

"Really?" asked Arrow.

"Yeah and if you want, Principal Celestia will let you sign up if your interested."

"Of course I will, music is my passion!"

"Don't you mean, 'Blazing Passion'?" asked Treble.

As if it were a running gag, every one turned to stare at the enigma of Treble Mix.

When the starring was over, Zero said, "Anyway, I would have preferred a Battle of the Bands, but this will work. I can't wait to start attaining awesomeness through my rad guitar shredding skill!"

"Bro you don't know how to play guitar, or own one for that matter," Solar Wind pointed out.

"I can get a guitar, and besides haven't you watched MTV lately? You don't even have to know how to play an instrument to be famous."

Arrow looked at him with wide eyes and said, "How can you say that Zero, real music comes from the heart and soul."

"Dude do you have any idea how corny that sounded?" asked Straight Edge.

As the group continued to bicker, Warhawk stood by himself and began to escape into his thoughts. He thought about his old school, and how he had to leave his few friends to come here when his decided to move in order to find new work. He didn't argue with them but was still sad that he would have to leave his old life behind. Thinking about the present, he was somewhat interested in the group he was in, but also thought that some of them, especially Treble, would just cause him grief. Also, he was wary of Zero, due to his laid back attitude and general demeanor. As for the school, everyone here seemed friendly enough, however time will tell if the smiles that these people wear are real or not.

"Warhawk?"

Snapping out of his thoughts at the sound of his name, Warhawk turned to face Sunset.

"You thinking about joining the Showcase?"

"No not really." He answered in his usual quiet tone.

Sunset frowned at that but quickly regained her smile and said, "Well that concludes the tour, I hope you all have a great time here. So any questions?"

Warhawk raised his hand.

"Yes Warhawk?"

"Do you know where locker 193 is?"

"Its on our floor down the hall to the left next to the bathrooms."

"Thank you."

The rest of the new students asked Sunset various questions like, 'what kind of sporting events are coming up' and 'what kind of clubs there are', and other general questions about the school. All the while, Warhawk kept quiet until the questions were done and was allowed to leave.

Later

"Here we are, locker 193."

When Warhawk opened his locker, he was bombarded by an explosion of confetti.

"AH WHAT THE FU-"

"HELLO!"

Warhawk turned to see a pink girl with curly hair and a huge smile on her face.

"My names Pinkie Pie, what's your name?"

Warhawk just stood there stunned, unable to process what just happened. Then, through some primal instinct, he responded.

"Jon Warhawk?"

"*Inhales deeply* That's great! See I thought that since Sunset Shimmer was showing around new students like you, I should do may part and say welcome to you too. Especially since after-"

Pinkie Pie continued to ramble on at a ridiculous speed as poor Warhawk stood there dumbstruck, his mind gone blank at the nonsense being thrown at his face. After what felt like and eternity, his mind snapped back into reality.

"- and now I would like to sing for you my welcome song."

"......... welcome so-"

"Welcome, welcome, welcome, a fine welcome to you,"

Pinkie started to sing. As she did this, she started jumping around and dancing all around Warhawk, she even pulled a giant drum out from what Warhawk assumed to be the twisting nether and played a few notes on it.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome, to CHS today! "

Then out from nowhere, she pulled out some strange contraption that had an oven and confetti blowers attached, except that when the oven opened, confetti shot out instead and the confetti blowers, now aimed at Warhawk and Pinkie, shot out a sticky wet substance.

After licking her face clean in a comical manner, Pinkie said, "Whoops, *giggle* looks like I put the confetti in the oven and the cake batter in the confetti cannon, *more giggling* again."

Warhawk groaned as he struggled to get the batter off his face.

"Okay, there're many questions. One, where did you get this contraption? Two, where were you keeping it? Three, how did you confuse cake batter with confetti and vice versa? And four where the fuck did that music come from!?"

When Warhawk finished his rant and managed to clean out the batter from his eyes, he was surprised to see that Pinkie was nowhere to be found. Instead, he found a note on the floor. When he picked it up, it said:

"Sorry, can't stay to chat, my Pinkie sense just picked up and now I have to welcome the other new students. Hope to see you again. Your new friend Pinkie Pie :pinkiehappy: "

"What the fuck is... I don't even..... WHAT?!"

Warhawk had no idea what just happened or why it did, and the more he thought about it, the more his head hurt and his frustration build. Fate seemed to be kind however as Warhawk noticed that the men's restroom was across the hall.

Sighing with relief, Warhawk made his way to get himself cleaned up, being extra careful not to slip due to the cake batter. When he finally got to the restroom, he began to clean himself up and when he saw to no one else was around, he began to talk to himself about today's events thus far.

"So just to recap what's happened, I transferred to a new school, ran into the teenage versions of Johnny Knoxville and Freakazoid, got shown around said school with a punk rock slash pop star wannabe, and had an encounter with what I assumed to be an insane, overly happy, jibber-jabbing, psychopath, who I am convinced has committed manslaughter on a grand scale. And the best part? Haha, the best part is the day isn't even over yet, oh no. This is just the start. Hahahahaha, *inhale* oh kill me."

And with that, he finished washing himself clean and was relieved that the batter hadn't stained his shirt. He exited the restroom and made his way back to his locker, still wondering what was next for him. Then fate it seemed decided to turn it's kindness into cruelty as the moment he left the restroom, someone had run into him and they both fell to the floor, with Warhawk landing first. Naturally he was upset.

"Oh great, just fucking great, beautiful, fantastic. On top of everything that has happened, now I got this shit to deal with, well fuck it, I ain't going to take this anymore.

Warhawk raised himself up to glare at who the dumbass was that knocked him down and said in a aggressive tone, "Hey watch where.."

It was then that Warhawk got a real good look at this person. The person was a girl, with pale blue skin, cerulean blue hair with dark blue highlights, all styled into a big ponytail, she appeared to be wearing a purple burgundy outfit with some pink. But what really drew Warhawks attention and quelled his wrath, were her raspberry colored eyes, which were full of sorrowful tears. Her whole face was etched with pain.

Warhawks glare receded, and in a gentler tone he said, "..... you're..."

Before he could say anything else, the girl closed her eyes, sniffled, got right back up and ran.

Warhwak reached his hand out to where she ran and said, "No wait! I'm.... sorry."

It was too late, she was already gone, and Warhawk looked down upon the floor in shame and regret at what he had done. He was having a bad day, but so was that girl, and from the look in her eyes, she was having it worse.

Warhawk got up from the ground and continued to look at the direction where the girl had run.

"Not having a good first day?"

Warhawk turned around to see an adult woman with white skin and light rainbow hair.

"I'm sorry you are.....?"

"Oh right, I haven't introduced myself, My name is Celestia, I am the Principal of Canterlot High."

"You're the school Principal?"

"Yes I am, and I see you have just met Sonata Dusk."

"That's her name?"

"Yes and sadly Sonata is having a rough time here."

"Why, if I may ask?"

"Well if you would like to step into my office, I can explain Sonata's situation. Besides since you are a new student, I feel that there are some things you should know about."

"Uh, sure I got time."

Warhawk and Principal Celestia walked over to the Principals office where they both took a seat. From there, Celestia began to explain the recent events that involved magic. She explained how it all started when Sunset Shimmer, the very same person who gave Warhawk a tour and was kind and outgoing, was once cruel and vindicative. That she was in fact from another world called Equestria, a land ruled by talking magical ponies. Sunset had apparently exiled herself to the human world through a mirror portal that was linked to the horse statue at the school entrance, in order to fulfill her mad dream of ruling Equestria. One day she went through the portal in order to steal a magic crown from the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, so that she may bring magic to the human world and use it to build an army of teenage zombie's in order to conquer Equestria, but Twilight followed her and was able to rally the school against her. Enraged at Twilights meddling, Sunset placed the crown upon her head, where her own inner darkness came out and transformed her into a fearsome demon. She was able to hypnotize the school so that she might at last achieve her mad dream, but Twilight managed to bring CHS's Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie (which surprised Warhawk), Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack together and from their friendship, came a beam of harmonic magic that cleansed Sunset of her wicked darkness. Remorseful of what she had done, Sunset apologized to everyone and swore that she would redeem herself. With her crown in hand, Twilight left to return to her own world, leaving Sunset in the care of her new friends.

With that story finished, Celestia said that Sunset endured much strife for what she had done, but was able earn true forgiveness from those she had wronged when she helped saved the school from another threat. It was then that Celestia began her other tale that concerns Sonata and her sisters. As it turns out, Sonata is also from Equestria; a siren who had an enchanted voice that control others and was fueled by negative energy. Sonata and her sisters, Adagio and Aria, once sought to conquer Equestria with their enchanted songs, but were banished before they could do any permanent damage. It was hoped that by banishing them to a world without magic that they would be rendered powerless; however, they once wore red jeweled pendants around their necks that served as their magical source, so they never truly lost their power. They could still feed on negative energy to maintain their voices, but not enough to conquer a world. It wasn't until they saw the same explosion of magic that defeated Sunset that they became aware that magic was brought to this world, and so they sought out to claim it. As it turns out, the school was preparing a musical showcase then like it is now, and the sirens, now going by the name The Dazzlings, used their power to turn the Showcase into a Battle of the Bands in order to feed on the negative energy brought about by over-competitive teenagers. The only ones who weren't affected by The Dazzlings spell were Sunset and the very ones who had defeated her. Fortunately for them, Sunset had kept a book from Equestria that allowed her to commune with her old teacher in the past, and intended to use it to summon Twilight in order to combat the three. They competed in the Battle of the Bands with the hopes that they would be able to use a counter spell to The Dazzlings' but as the competition progressed, the girls began to argue with each other over little things and when it came time for the final round, The Dazzlings trapped them in room below the stage where they would perform, leaving them to argue further and allow The Dazzlings to feed on the energy, thus regaining their full power. Sunset however, saw what was going on, and urged the girls to stop fighting and work together, she told them that she saw how they were arguing and felt that she didn't have the right to intervene, but then realized if they didn't stop, The Dazzlings would win. Her words inspired the girls to set aside their differences and they managed to escape with the help of another student who never takes her headphones off and were able to perform their own song to counter The Dazzlings. But they would not fall easily, in fact they managed to push the girls to the edge of defeat and it was only when Sunset joined the battle, that they were able to break The Dazzlings spell and shatter their pendants, thus taking away their ability to sing. The crowd booed them off stage and threw food at them. With the battle over, Twilight returned to her home and Sunset was hailed as a hero.

Four months had passed since then, and in that time no one had heard from or seen The Dazzlings since their humiliating defeat, until now. Celestia explained that during their time here, Adagio has made it an effort to not show any weakness and act like nothing happened, Aria has been known to get into fights on a regular basis, and that Sonata had been acting like the way she did when she first came in, carefree and ditzy, she also tried to make friends but was met with the same scorn as Sunset one endured.

Through it all, Warhawk had remained quiet as he listened to Celestia's tale. Under normal circumstances, he would have dismissed this as nonsensical bull shit, but since this was the school Principal, and judging from her serious tone, meant she was telling the truth. It was a lot for him to take in.

"I'm sure you have questions?" Celestia asked.

"Yeah understatement of the year lady. I just collided into a girl who hails from a world that sounds like the setting for a shitty cartoon show for little girls, and this is all supposed to be true!?"

Collecting his thoughts after his mental rant and taking a breath, Warhawk said, "Okay, this is not what I expected to hear."

"I know this is a lot to take in, but it is the truth Jon."

"Please, call me Warhawk, and this is just...... wow, I mean, just wow."

"Pretty extraordinary, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I mean a world of magic? I mean I love fantasy settings like Tolkien, Game of Thrones, World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls to name a few. But this? It makes me wonder what it would be like to live in that world."

"I'm amazed your taking this so well."

"Like I said, I enjoy fantasy moves and books, play a lot of video games, and listen to heavy metal, I'm no stranger to fantasy."

"Well then, getting back to why I brought you here and told what has happened here in the past couple of months; I must ask. How do you feel about Sonata and the others after hearing all of what I said?"

Warhawk took a moment to think before he responded.

"Do you know why they did it?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow to this.

"I mean I understand that they use negative energy to maintain their voices, but what caused them to make the choices they made, like were they always like this? Were the pendants cursed? Did they lose someone they care about? Just, why did they do it?"

"You continue to surprise me Warhawk, that your curios enough to want to know their past. But tell me, do you believe that they deserve what has happened to them?"

Again, Warhawk took a moment to think and collect his thoughts before he spoke again.

"Have they done anything else bad?"

"Aside from Aria getting into fights, no. And from what I understand, she was provoked into those fights."

"Then......... it seems that the students here don't understand the difference between justice and revenge. Justice tries to be fair to all, even the one's who've done wrong. Revenge is selfish and often just cause's more pain and doesn't bring peace. And it sounds to me that justice has already been done when those girls lost their power. Anything else that happens is just in called for."

"And do you truly believe that?"

"Taking away a persons freedom is something that a monster does. But when I looked into that girls eyes, I didn't see a monster, I saw a girl who was hurt, sad, and fearful. And I just helped add to that. If anyone is a monster here, it's me for making her day worse."

Warhawk's gaze turned down as shame and regret had trickled across his face. Celestia in turn looked at him with pity.

"I'm sure that if you apologize, she will forgive you. And I'm sure that she would appreciate a new friend."

"Yeah, assuming I deserve that," Regardless of how he thought, Warhawk looked up and nodded to Celestia.

"Would you like to know why it is I allowed Sonata and her sisters to come back?"

"Sure."

"My sister, who is the Vice Principal here, and I believe in second chances. We believe that anyone who is capable of doing terrible things, is also capable of doing good things. Just look at Sunset Shimmer for example."

"Or Oskar Schindler."

"Hmm?" Celestia arched an eyebrow at this.

"Oskar Schindler was a member of the Nazi Party that controlled Germany in the aftermath of World War I. The same Nazi Party that enacted what they called 'The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem' which killed millions of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, and anyone else that didn't fit Hitler's image of what he considered the perfect man. Schindler was an industrialist who saw he Jews being sent away to the camps as a source of cheap labor. So he gathered what Jews he could and had them work in his factories for next to nothing all while he profited. Thing is though, many Jews saw this as a sanctuary from the Nazi's unimaginable cruelty, since Schindler was a favored member of the Nazi Party and was providing for the Nazi's. Over time, Schindler became more and more aware of the Jew's suffering and so he used his fortune to bribe what Nazi's he could in order to transfer as many Jews as he could to 'work' in his factories where they would be safe. In the end, he saved over seven thousand Jews from extermination, and he still believed he could have saved more, even if it was just one more."

Warhawk paused for a moment before letting out a small laugh.

"It's amazing how someone who once saw a people as a source of cheap labor could come to care so deeply about them that he would give up everything he has and still not believe it to be enough. You don't have to convince me that people can change Principal Celestia, I know they can. History has proven this."

Celestia smiled at Warhawk.

"I am glad to heart that Warhawk, and it also gladdens me to know that you take an interest in history. I have a feeling that you are going to enjoy your time here at CHS. And hopefully, your ideal will spread to the rest of the student's."

"One can hope right?"

"Indeed, now I believe that I have taken enough of your time. You should be getting to your first class."

Warhawk looked at the clock and saw that she was right. So he started to get up.

"Your right, and thank you for explaining the school to me Principal Celestia."

"Your welcome, and Warhawk if you need anything else, my door is always open."

"Thank you," Warahwk turned to leave and started to walk out, but stopped at the door in order to turn around and say, "Oh and Prinipal Celestia?"

"Yes?"

"Just remember that people that while terrible people could do good things, good people could also do terrible things as well."

And with that, Warhawk left the room, leaving Celestia with an acknowledged frown.

The rest of the day went smoothly for Warhawk. He had classes with Mr. Cranky, Miss Cheerlie, but when he had his class with Miss Harshwinny, Zero thought it would be a good idea to launch himself into the class through a window via human slingshot. What Zero didn't realize was that the window was closed the moment he launched himself and shattered the glass, injuring him greatly and getting a loud reprimand from Miss Harshwinny. All in all it was a good day for Warhawk, except that he was distracted by one thing, that girl that ran into him. He hadn't seen her since, but he knew that he had to do something to make amends with her. But for now, it was time for lunch.

When Warhawk entered the cafeteria, to his dismay he found that nearly every table was either full or had some of the students. He had hoped to find an empty table so that he could eat in relative peace, which would be difficult considering all the loud conversations going on around him. It just made him miss his time at his old school where he and his small, select group of friends would have lunch in the Liberians office, always with permission of course. However, luck seemed to smile on him as he noticed an empty table in the far corner of the cafeteria that looked like it was rarely used.

"Perfect."

So he made his way and had a seat by himself and rooted around in his backpack for his lunch, Chunky Beef soup and Chocolate Chip cookies. As he ate, he did his best to tune out the other students conversations and get lost into his own thoughts when he was interrupted.

"Uh, excuse us?"

Warhawk turned to see two girls looking at him with scrutinizing eyes, one was a light purple skinned girl with purple hair and teal highlights that were styled in two long pigtails with star hair clips, and was wearing what looked like a punk rock outfit. The other had the poofiest golden yellow hair ever, yellow skin and light purple outfit.

"Sweet Jerimiah Johnson, that one's got hair like Hatsune Miku, and the other one must go through a wind tunnel to style her doo!"

Puffy hair spoke again, "Do you know whose table your sitting in?"

"Sorry, didn't realize this table was claimed."

Warhawk started to get up in order to eat in the corner on the floor, but was stopped.

"Wait, I don't recognize you. Are you new here?"

"I am."

"I see, so take it you haven't heard of us."

"I might have, who are you two exactly?"

The yellow one seemed to take a moment to compose herself and the spoke with some pride in her voice, "Well my name is Adagio Dazzle, and this is Aria Blaze."

The purple one named Aria just crossed her arms and looked to the side and scoffed.

Before Warhawk could say anything else, a familiar and annoying voice spoke up.

"Hey Fennyo!"

"Ahh, shit, not this clown again!"

Sure enough Treble Mix, in all his fourth wall breaking glory, showed up.

"What's up man it feels like it's been a decade since I last saw you."

"It's only been a few hours, hardly a decade."

"Well it feels like it to me man. Now who are these-"

Treble paused when he saw Adagio and Aria looking at him puzzled. He took off his glasses to get a clear look at them and then shouted which surprised them.

"HOLY SKAGFUCK! YOUR HAIR! It looks glorious!"

Adagio and Aria just stood there looking at him, unsure of how to respond.

Adagio broke the silence, "Umm, thanks?"

"Warhawk, Treble, what's happening?"

They turned to find Zero approaching them, with several bandages covering his face due to his entrance fail earlier.

"Great, first tweedle-dip, now tweedle-shit"

"Sup guys, and-" Zero paused as he ogled Adagio and Aria, "Hello ladies."

Adagio and Aria smirked, even without their power, they still got it.

"Hey asshole's." The group turned to see Straight Edge had come as well. He took one look at Zero and said, "Nice job on your face Zero, now it can match your ass."

Before Zero could make any sort of comeback, Damien and Arrow turned up.

"Hey you guys, glad to see you all again, and..... Oh hey Aria," said Arrow.

"Oh great, you again."

"Hey come on, don't be like that."

Aria just scoffed again.

Damien then took the opportunity to speak, "Fancy meeting you again fuzzball."

Adagio growled as Aria snickered, "My name is Adagio, not fuzzball you dweeb."

"You guys have already met?" Warhawk asked.

"Yeah, I met Aria outside after our tour, she seemed down so I decided to talk to her," Arrow explained.

Aria scowled, "I didn't ask for your pity and I don't want it!"

"Hey chill out twin tail I was just-"

Before he could finish, Ari grabbed him by the collar and brought him in close with absolute, seething hate in her eyes.

"My name is Aria! You hear me! Not twin tail! You call me that again and I'll knock you into last week. You got it!"

She then roughly threw him off and proceeded to go to her seat.

After Arrow took some time to adjust his hoodie and get his bearings he said with a smirk, "Sure thing Ari."

Aria's left eye twitched for a bit, but decided not to smash Arrow's face in, at least not in public.

Damien said, "As for me, I accidentally ran into Adagio and she initially waved it off. But then we had class together and I saw how the other students were whispering to themselves and saw that Adagio was upset about that."

"I told you, It doesn't bother me. Why would you care anyway?"

"Just curious, nothing wrong with that right? Besides, after hearing your story, I can't help but be interested."

"Wait, what story?" Zero asked.

"Well since we got lunch and a table, we could go ahead and talk about it," Arrow answered. "Is that alright with you two?"

"I suppose it doesn't really matter to me," said Adagio as she sat down.

"*pfft* Whatever," said Aria as she also sat down.

The whole group followed except for Warhawk who was about to leave until Arrow noticed, "Hey Warhawk, where you going?"

"I was.... gonna find a corner to eat my lunch, no offense but I would rather eat alone."

"Hey come on, don't be anti social," said Zero.

All of a sudden, Treble shot up and wrapped his arm around Warhawk, grinning like an idiot, "Yeah and you could sit next to me, we could be the best of buddies,"

After enduring Pinkie, Warhawk was not about to deal with Treble's nonsense. So he got out of his hold and looked him dead in the eyes.

"I would sooner jump into a pit of scorpions butt naked while being subjected to Beiber's shitty ass music, then even consider the notion of sitting next to you, ya festering asshole!"

That took everyone by surprise, Warhawk usually spoke in a reserved tone, speaking in short sentences. This was the first taste of his true personality.

Warhawk took a breath before he spoke again, "Look man, I've had a bit of a day so my tolerance for this shit is in really short supply. If you guys really want me to sit down and have lunch with you, fine. I suppose it is better than sitting in the corner."

With that, Treble smiled again and said, "That's the spirit Jonny boy! Here High Five!"

Warhawk just glared at him before he punched him in the face and sending him into the ground, again surprising everyone. He then took a seat next to Aria and ate his soup like nothing happened.

"Jeez Warhawk, he was just trying to be friends," said Arrow.

"No, he was being an annoying parasite he needed his bitch smacked up."

Warhawk heard quiet giggling to his right and saw both Adagio and Aria with their hands to their mouths. But quickly regained composure when they saw that he was looking at them.

Treble got up from the ground and took a seat and kept on grinning, like nothing bad had happened.

"See he doesn't even care."

"But Warhaw-" "Nah he's right, we're all good here."

Everyone looked at Treble like has was crazy for the umpteenth time.

'Ughh seriously, did you guys get lost on your way to an idiot convention or something?" asked Aria.

"Seriously?"

This time, all eyes were on Warhawk, "Idiot convention, that's the best you've got?"

'What? You think you can do better?" Aria asked as she glared at Warhawk.

"Yeah, you could have said like, 'was there a mass breakout in the fuck factory and did rejects just decide to migrate to this cesspit of a school?' Then again, you could have said, 'did these assholes crash land on a ship from the planet ass, and decide to build their new society of new assholeian here?' Then again, you could have said, 'is today the day, when all the slack jawed fuck ups of the world, would conglomerate at our sacred table and fondle their balls because God knows they got nothing better to do with their sad, pathetic lives.'"

Aria just sat their staring at Warhawk speechless, with no emotion on her face, as did Adagio. The rest were stunned again, even Trble was taken aback.

Then, Aria's lip twitched, then came a noise from her mouth. That noise almost sounded like a giggle, then her lip curled upwards. She put her hand to her mouth to stifle her giggles, but it was to no avail. she then started laughing, with Adagio following suit. Soon enough, everyone was laughing at Warhawk's rant.

'Oh man, that was good," said Aria.

"See, you can smile Ari," said Arrow.

And with that, Aria smile was gone and her scowl came back.

Adagio giggled for a bit before speaking again, "My, my, you have a dirty mouth don't you?"

"Yeah what happened to the guy who only spoke in short sentences?" asked Straight Edge.

"He's sitting right here. Oh!"

Eyes were on Warhawk again. He turned to Aria and Adagio and said, "In this sea of stupidity I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Jon Warhawk."

Adagio giggled again, "It's a pleasure."

"Likewise, and I mean that sincerely."

"You might think twice when you hear our story," said Aria.

"Yeah what's this about a story?" Asked Zero.

Adagio and Aria then explained who they were, where they came from, and what they've done.

"So just to recap, you two are sirens from a world full of technicolor pony's?" Asked Zero.

"Yep, that's about it." Aria answered.

"Oh," Zero paused for a moment before bursting out into laughter with Straight Edge and Treble joining in, earning an annoyed look from Adagio and Aria.

"And here it goes," said Adagio.

"You guys seriously expect me to buy any of this?" Asked Zero as he still struggled to contain his laughter.

"Yeah that's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life," said Straight Edge.

"Guys their telling the truth," said Arrow.

That got them to stop laughing.

"Oh come on Arrow you don't seriously believe that do you?" asked Zero.

"Yeah, Aria told me already and I believe her."

Aria looked at him surprised, but shook it off.

"You can't be serious, Arrow," said Straight. "Right Daemon?"

"Believe it or not, it's the truth. It's crazy I know, but the Adagio told me has me convinced."

Adagio shared Aria's look at Daemon, but also shook it off.

Both Zero and Straight Edge looked at them like they were crazy, then Zero said, "Oh come on even Treble doesn't buy into any of this, right Treble?"

"Actually it's the truth guys."

"SERIOUSLY! WHY!?"

"Well it's because this is fic is based on the movie 'Rainbow Rocks' which belongs to 'My Little Pony: Equestria Girls'."

If there was any hope of understanding Treble, it had long since died.

"Warhawk don't tell me you believe this crap too?" asked Zero.

"It's the truth Zero. I had a talk with Principal Celestia and she told me the same story, she even told me that Sunset Shimmer is actually a unicorn from Equestria."

"Warhawk, how do you know that she's not messing with you."

"She's the school Principal, why would she lie about that? And also, I've been asking around, everyone I talked to has said the same damn story. Now this is either a well orchestrated ruse to mess with us, which I doubt due to the lack of anything to actually gain other than cheap laughs, or it's the truth."

Zero and Straight Edge both sat their to think, but then they noticed the other student's conversations had died down to whispering. Everyone turned their heads to see a familiar girl had entered the cafeteria and was making her way to the lunch lady with an optimistic smile. But as she walked, she noticed the whispering and looks of contempt, and her smile faltered.

Warhawk recognized her as the girl who ran into him earlier, the one the he unintentionally hurt.

"That's her."

"Hmm," Adagio noticed.

"That's your sister right?"

"You've met Sonata?"

"She ran into me earlier, she was upset about something."

"Probably upset about that note she found in her locker."

'Aria!"

"What, you know it's true."

'What note?"

They turned and arched their eyebrows at him.

"Look, I don't mean to butt into any personal stuff, and I know we just met, but if theirs anything I can do to help her, I want to do it."

"Why do you care?"

"Aria."

Warhawk raised his hand to stop Arrow, "No Arrow, she has the right to ask me that." He then turned his focus on Aria and Adagio, "Look I made a mistake that involves your sister, and I feel bad about that. I want to make things right, and that would be easier if I knew what upset her."

The two sister's looked at each other unsure.

"Please?" Warhawk stressed.

Then with a sigh, Adagio pulled out the note and handed it to Warhawk, "Here it is, for all the good it will do."

"Thank you."

Warhawk began to read the note while the others were watching Sonata get her food, and smile starting to die until it was replaced with a frown.

"Man I feel bad for her," said Daemon.

"Well if what you guys said was true, this is her comeuppance."

"Punk!" said Arrow.

"What? She and her sister's tried to take over the world!" said Straight Edge with Zero nodding.

"Yeah but do you think she really deserves this?"

The groups fell silent again.

"Holy skagfuck that's a lot of tacos."

Everyone except Warhwak turned to stare at Treble.

"What? Just pointing it for comedic sake."

As this was going on, Warhawk immersed in reading the note. What he read shocked him, and began to fill with rage and fury at the one who dared to write this. Just then, he heard a splat and looked up to find Sonata had fallen face first into her tray of tacos with the entire cafeteria laughing at her expense. Without a second thought, he got up, grabbed some napkins and rushed towards her, ignoring what the others in the group were saying.

As he moved he took a quick glance at the students around him, their laughing faces filled him with rage.

"May you all rot in a pit of vipers you bastards."

He stopped when he finally reached Sonata. Before he could say anything, she raised her head. Her face was covered in taco meat, cheese, lettuce, and hot sauce. He also saw that her face had some nicks, due to the shells cutting her face. And then their were her eyes. Eyes that were filled with the same pain and sadness that she had when they first met. Eyes that were on the brink of tearing up.

Warhawk's heart swelled with pity and regret. In that moment, he offered his hand to her. She looked at it with confusion and suspicion before looking back up at him again.

In the softest and compassionate of tones he could muster Warhawk said, "It's okay, "I'm not going to hurt you."

Author's Note

III

The Siren and The Fighter

The two of them remained in place for what felt like an eternity. The whole cafeteria had quieted down as the students observed the former siren on the ground in tacos, and the new guy who offered her his hand. They whispered to each other, unsure of how to make of this.

"Who's the green guy?"

"Is he new?"

"Doesn't he know who she is?"

"Is he under her spell?"

"Does she have her power again?"

"Why is he helping her?"

As this was going on, Sonata looked at Warhawk perplexed. Just before she had talked with Luna, she ran into this guy after she read that nasty note. His looked at her with the same scorn that everyone else had. And now, he looked like a completely different person and offered to help her. No one wanted to help her, except for Soul.

"It's okay."

Sonata looked back up at Warhawks eyes, seeing the same sincerity and compassion Soul had in his eyes.

"Please let me help you."

Her eyes went back to his hand, then back to his eyes, then back to his hand. Finally, she slowly reached out with her right hand, but before she could grab on, she hesitated. She looked back up and saw something else in Warhawks eyes, desperation. It was as if, he was desperate to help her, begging her to trust him. With that, she grabbed his hand, and Warhawk took his other hand and placed it on top of her hand. With both arms, he helped pull her up from the taco mess and to her feet.

For a moment, they just stood where they were, looking at each other. The whispering had stopped as the students focused on the two, waiting to see what would happed.

Then Warhawk pulled out the napkins he brought and offered them to Sonata.

"Here, you can use these to clean your face."

Sonata was still confused by all of this, his talk of helping her so far seemed genuine. Gingerly, she took the napkins and began to clean off the mess of meat, cheese, and shell from her face. She was thankful that at least none of the taco stuff had gotten on her clothes, that would have really made her day worse. When she finished cleaning her face and opened her eyes, she was surprised again.

Warhawk had gotten down on one knee and began to clean up the mess she had made, by gathering remains of her taco feats back onto her tray. When he finished, he looked back up to her. While keeping his focus on her, he grabbed the tray and got back up to his feet, where the two stared at each other again, with all of the students silent and baffled by all of this.

"Hey! New guy!"

Both Sonata and Warhawk turned to see one of the students had gotten up and walked towards them. He had pale white skin and a tone body. He wore black sweats and black and red sneakers. He also wore a black wristband on his right arm that was studded with steel studs. His shirt was a sleeveless red t, that had two black, faded lightning bolts that crossed together that formed an x in a white circle. He also bore a shaved bald head and burning red eyes that glared at the two.

"Do you have any idea what your doing?"

Warhawk arched an eyebrow and turned to look at Sonata, she looked scared and nervous. He turned back to the irate student to say, "Helping a girl who fell face first in tacos?"

The student looked at him with disbelief before saying, "Look, your new here so clearly you don't who, or better yet, 'what' it is your helping."

Before Warhawk could retort, he heard a unfamiliar voice, "Sonata are you okay?"

Warhawk turned to see a another student arrive on the scene, he had white hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a black t-shirt underneath his white, half sleeve hoodie with black pants on. He was also wearing a pair of long, black, fingerless gloves.

Sonata smiled a little bit, "Hey Soul."

"Oh great, you again?"

Soul glared at the other student. Just then, Arrow, Damien, Zero, Punk, and Treble made their way to join up with Warhawk.

"Is everything okay here Warhawk?" Damien asked.

"Yes Damien."

Arrow walked over to Sonata and asked, "Are you okay?"

Sonata was surprised to see Arrow showing the same compassion Warhawk and Soul had shown her. She looked around to see the others also shred their looks.

The student took a breath before speaking, "Okay, new guys, let me explain something to you. That bitch and her sisters aren't human. They deser-"

Before he could go further, Arrow walked right up to him and said, "Who the hell do you think you are?!"

The student was surprised by this, but regained his glare and said, "I'm trying to warn you that that whor-" "DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT!"

Everyone I the cafeteria looked at Arrow shocked by this outburst.

"Look shithead, I'm trying to tell that she-" "Once did terrible things, yeah I know that. But that does not give you the right insult and threaten her. I hope your happy because you just proved that your no better than that!"

"You don't know shit, you fucking moron!"

Damien than stepped up to say, "Hey pal if I were you, I'd stop right now."

"Yeah we don't appreciate what you're saying to our friend Arrow here," Zero added.

"And in case you can't count, there are eight of us and only one of you," said Punk.

"Damn Straight, Straight Edge," said Treble.

The new student looked at them with frustration, he couldn't believe that these idiots were doing this. His eyes focused in on Warhawk, who glared at him with the utmost intensity, as if he was trying to burn a hole in his soul.

"You know what? Fuck this," he pointed at Sonata, "Contract cancer and rot bitch!"

As he turned to leave, Zero was about to throw a punch at him, only for Warhawk to stop him. Damien then said, "Well that guy was a real piece of work," He turned to Soul, "Who was he?"

"That's Axis, he's the school bully. Really nasty man."

"Yeah, we can tell," said Punk.

Zero turned to Arrow with a smile on his face, "That was awesome how you stood up to him Arrow!"

Arrow scratched the back of is head a bit with a modest look on his face. As the group conversed about what happened, Warhawk focused in on Sonata, clearly Axis's words had hurt her as fresh tears streamed down her face.

"Hey guys?" the group turned to Warhawk, "Can you help her to the table? I'm gonna go throw this crap away."

Arrow turned to Warhawk and said, " Sure thing man," he then turned to Sonata, "Hey, it's okay. Just forget what they guy said."

Sonata was still crying when she looked at her saviors. She turned to Warhawk who had given her a look of reassurance. She then turned to Soul who smiled encouragingly. With that, she left with the group, with Warhawk keeping his focus on her, still feeling pity for the poor girl.

"Hey."

Snapping out of his thoughts, Warhawk turned to Soul.

"Thanks for doing what you did, it's nice knowing that someone else cares for Sonata. I'm Soul Writer."

Soul extended his hand.

"Jon Warhawk, I'd shake your hand but I'm carrying a tray full of tacos right now."

Sonata sat down next to Adagio with a glum look. She was sad about a lot of things, she didn't get her tacos, the school still hated her, and that one guy Axis was just the worst.

Everyone else, minus Adagio and Aria, looked at her with concern. They knew that she was hurting, but they didn't know how to help, or what to say. Finally Treble broke the silence, in his usual style.

"So what's it like being over a thousand years old?"

That got everyone's attention as they turned to Treble like he was crazy, again. Adagio, Aria and Sonata had faces that ranged to bewilderment, confusion, shook, and offense. "What?" was all Adagio could say.

"Well you girls were banished here from another world a thousand years ago right? So wouldn't that mean your a thousand years old?"

"We're not a thousand years old dumbass, we've only been in this armpit of a world for over six months," Aria said with a glare.

"And I'll have you know that I was eighteen years old when we were banished," Adagio finished with a humph.

"Where did you even come up with that idea that we were a thousand years old?" asked Aria.

Treble thought for a moment before saying, "Oh I get it, we're going with your comic book origins."

"Huh?" said everyone.

"Yeah in the movie it said that Starswirl the Bearded banished you a thousand years ago, everyone just assumed that you've been wandering the world for a thousand years, which actually does sound dumb since you don't act like your a thousand years old but anyway, when MLP FIENDship is Magic, issue three came out, it told your backstory that nerds today continue to debate as to weather or not it's cannon. But I guess it's safe to sa- *CRUNCH* AAAHHH!!"

Suddenly Treble grabbed his crotch are and screamed in pain. "Treble you okay?" asked Arrow.

"Yeah, I think the author is getting pissed at me for breaking the fourth wall, so he decided to have my underwear constrict on meEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

Treble continued to writhe in agony while everyone else sat where they were, confused as to what the hell happened. But it was becoming apparent that questioning Treble's sanity, or in general, was becoming a fruitless effort and should be abandoned.

Eventually Arrow turned his attention back to Sonata and said, "Sorry about that, we're starting to learn that we shouldn't question Treble. Anyway, I don't think we introduced our selves yet. My name is Artemis Arrow, but you can just call me Arrow."

"I'm Damien Wraith."

"Zero Gravity."

"Straight Edge, but call me Punk."

Treble Mix continued to clutch his ball. "And he's Treble Mix," Zero answered.

"And you're Sonata Dusk right?" asked Arrow. Sonata nodded, still frowning from earlier. Arrow's heart swelled with pity seeing this and said, "Hey don't worry about what that jerk said. We all know about what you and your sisters did, and personally I think that you've suffered enough."

This took Sonata by surprise, for months she has known nothing but hate the other students, save one . Now all of a sudden, she encounters six people who stood up for her? Why? Why help her? shouldn't they hate her like the others?

Arrow just kept on smiling to try and offer some comfort to the poor girl, "Hey you're among friends now, and we would like to help."

Treble finally manage to get back to his seat when Sonata managed to find her voice, "Friends? You all want to be my friends?"

"Yeah, and your sisters as well." Arrow answered.

Sonata was stunned by this, but before she could say anything else, Treble said, "Hey look Warhawk is coming back.............. with a huge tray of tacos."

Sure enough, everyone turned to see Warhawk was indeed walking towards them with a tray full of fresh tacos, and was struggling to keep them from spilling over. "How in the ice cream hell can anyone eat this much beef and cheese? I do not envy this girls toilet."

Warhawk managed to reach the table and placed the tray right in front of surprised Sonata, then he took a seat next to her. She looked back at the tacos, then back to Warhawk and asked, "Is this for me?"

"Well you can't eat tacos that fell on the floor and got smashed by your face, hehe," He paused for a moment, "Well I suppose you could actually though I don't think that would be sanitary. So I got you some fresh ones."

Sonata looked back at the food, then back to Warhawk, then back to her food. After a brief moment, she tore into the taco pile like a rabid animal, earning surprised looks from the boys, eye rolls from the girls. Regaining his composure, Arrow cleared his throat and said, "Isn't there something you should say?"

Sonata stopped, with cheeks full like a squirrel with nuts, and looked at Arrow with a questioning look. Before Arrow could elaborate, Warhawk spoke up, "She doesn't have to say anything if she doesn't want to, I didn't do this expecting thanks."

"But-" "It's fine, just let her eat, she's been through enough shit as it is." Arrow looked reluctant but nodded. With that, Sonata swallowed her food and went back into her pile. It was rather amusing to see a girl eat in such an un-lady like manner. This went on for a few brief moments and as Sonata was about to make a grab for another Taco, Warhawk spoke again, "I'm sorry."

That got Sonata's attention, she turned to look at Warhawk. "When..... we first met, and when you ran into me, I was going through a stressful time. That's why I yelled at you, but I didn't realize that you were going through a rougher time then me. I shouldn't have lost it," He paused for a moment to take a breath in as Sonata listened quietly, the same with everyone at the table.

Warhawk took this moment to take a breath. "I...... I know about the note that you got," Sonata's spirts seem to sink further, "I.... I read it and......," Warhawk struggled to find the right words to say, "It's not true okay, what the note said. You didn't deserve that. You don't deserve.... any of it. I....... What I'm trying to say is that, I'm so, so sorry about what's happened to you."

The whole group looked at Warhawk in silence as they waited for him to speak again, "I can't even begin to imagine the heartache and pain you endure," He looked at Adagio and Aria, "That all of you endure." Adagio and Aria just looked off with sad faces.

"I just...... I want....," Warhawk continued to struggle to find the words, "Reading that note, seeing the others laugh at you, what that... piece of *grunt*!" Warhawk paused to in order to get his breathing under control, "It's frustrating to me that people can be that malicious and think their good. And this notion that apparently these people were 'saved' thanks to 'Magic of Friendship' and yet act like this, it's not only bad, it's..... it's offensive. A god-damn slap in the face and it's*Grrr*!"

Warhawk tried to compose himself until he was calm again, "I'm sorry I'm probably making a mess of out of this whole thing. It's just, I just feel bad for you, and the fact that I helped make it worse is just, unforgivable. And I just want to make things right but I-"

Warhawk stopped when he saw that Sonata had tears forming in her eyes. She started sniffling and was on the verge of full blown sobbing. This sent Warhawk into panic mode, "No, please don't cry. I didn't mean to make things worse, I'm sorry I-"

He was cut off when Sonata lunged forward and wrapped her arms around him, placing her face on his left shoulder and let loose the river of tears she was holding back. Warhawk was stunned. His arms held out in front of him as he tried to process what just happened. Being the person that he is, he didn't know how to react to this. Eventually he looked down at the weeping girl and slowy, he began to relax. His shoulders lost tension and wrapped his arms around the crying girl. He closed his eyes and started stroking Sonata's back in an attempt to comfort her.

The rest of the table looked on with pity in their eyes, Adagio and Aria tried to keep their composure, Adagio trying to maintain her look of being above it all and Aria not caring about anything, but even they could not hide the empathy the felt for their sister. Unbeknownst to them, the whole cafeteria was looking at the in silence, and the Rainbooms themselves looked on with sorrow and the tiniest bit of guilt.

After a few minutes had passed, Sonata finally let go of Warhawk. Her eyes were red and puffy from her crying and she was still sniffling. Warhawk grabbed some napkins and offered them to Sonata, which she took and used to wipe away her tears. "Do you, feel better now?" He asked.

Sonata nodded and said, "Uh-huh, thanks, uh, I don't even know your name."

Warhawk felt stupid for not introducing himself proper, "My name is Jon Warhawk."

Sonata smiled and said, "Hi Jon, I'm Sonata Dusk." Warhawk smiled in turn, "I'm glad to meet you Sonata."

"Actually," they both turned to Treble, "He prefers to be called Warhawk." Warhawk responded, "No it's fine." He turned back to Sonata with a smile on his face as she turned back to him, "She can call me Jon if she wants."

Sonata smiled in turn, she then reached for one of her tacos and offered one to Warhawk, "Want one of my Tacos?" This drew her sisters attention.

Warhawk raised his hand and said, "You don't have to do that, I got those for you as an apology."

"It's okay, I want you to have one."

"Sonata."

Both Sonata and Warhawk turned towards Adagio, "You never share your tacos with anyone, why the sudden change?"

Sonata just shrugged and said, "I just felt like sharing today."

Unable to decline her offer, Warhawk took the taco saying, "Thank you."

"Your welcome," she then started to share her tacos with the whole group, even her sister, further surprising them, but decided to take the tacos anyway.

For the rest of lunch, the group ate and conversed about any topics that sprang to mind.

"Hey Arrow, leave some for us will ya," said Damien.

IV

So Called Heroes

After lunch was over, the rest of the school day passed by uneventfully, though Warhawk did catch the occasional student whispering to another. Undoubtedly talking about him helping up Sonata when she fell. It was annoying, but he held his tongue.

"Well this has been quite the day. New school, new teachers, and new annoyances. Oh, and I forgot one thing, I am now officially marked by everyone in the school, simply by being a decent human being, ain't that a kick in the head. Still, I suppose not all is bad. I mean, Sonata is nice depite how I treated her at first. Not to mention that Adagio and Aria seem fun to hang out with. "

Finally Warhawk reached the front door of the school and eagerly exited outside, "Ah finally, now that school is done I can go home and....... get ready for work................. Bullocks!"

Feeling dejected about having to work at his part time job, and thus being denied his video game time, Warhawk continued his journey to his car. He was just about to pass by the horse statue that stood in front of the school, a loud , raspy voice shouted, "HEY NEW GUY!"

Warhawk turned around to find none other than Rainbow Dash and her friends. Rainbow looked at him with a challenging stare. Applejack and Rarity did the same, though theirs were softer. Sunset and Fluttershy looked more concerned than anything else; and Pinkie kept looking at him with the same smile when they first met. Yes, Warhawk knew exactly who they were, 'The Heroes of Harmony' or something stupid like that. The same girls, along with their pony princess friend Twilight Sparkle, were the ones who destroyed the Sirens gems that rendered them unable to sing.

"Oh fuck me, I knew this was going to happen. Lets get this over with."

"Yes may I help you?"

Before Rainbow could respond, Sunset spoke first, "Hey Warhawk, how was your first day at CHS?"

"It was okay," Warhawk responded politely.

"Great..... so did you make any new friends?"

"A few I think."

"Ugh, enough tiptoeing around Sunset, ask him about the Dazzlings!" Rainbow brazenly said.

"Ahem, while I don't approve of Rainbow Dash's tone, I do believe she has a point darling. The sooner we ask him, the better," reasoned Rarity.

Sunset sighed as many of the other students began to take notice of the conversation, including Soul and his friends, Artemis and the other new guys, and finally Sonata and her siblings, "Warhawk, we saw what you did for Sonata in the cafeteria, and we saw that you were siting with her, Adagio and Aria."

"Wasn't just me siting with them, but yes," answered Warhawk.

The girls looked at each other before turning back to Warhawk with Sunset saying, "Look Warhawk, since your new here, you probably don't know the truth about them, or about what happened here recently. You see those three-"

"Are sirens from another world that once tried to get everyone here to adore them. Yes I know who they are, I know who you and your friends are, and I know about Twilight Sparkle."

Taken off guard by Warhawk's interruption, the girls again looked to each other, as the students now formed a crowd around them, wondering how this will turn out.

"If you already know who they are and what they've done, why are you hanging out with them?" Sunset asked.

Warhawk sighed before responding, "Look I know this is big, but can we please have this conversation another day, I have to work after school and I really must be going."

Warhakw turned and was about to leave with Rainbow seeming like she was about ready to shout to get his attention again, but Pinkie beat him to it, "Are you under their spell?"

Warhawk stopped and turned around immediately asking, "What?!"

"Did they sing to you and put you under their spell so that you and the other new guys could start fighting, then get the school involved in another battle of the bands where we would have to use the Magic of Friendship to save the day again?" Pinkie asked in a quick voice ending with a smile.

That smile, that taunting, shit eating smile, made Warhawk's blood boil as the students began to glare at the Dazzlings, making them nervous, especially Sonata.

"No," Warhawk responded with an edge in his voice, "I'm not under any spell."

"So why are you hanging out with them after all they did?" demanded Rainbow.

"Indeed darling, those three have caused a lot of hearts to be broken," said Rarity, remembering her breakup with Clyde.

"They were pretty mean," whispered Fluttershy.

"Y'all seem like a descent person Warhawk, so why in the hay would you be associating with them?" asked Applejack.

"Why the hell are you hanging out with her?!" Warhawk demanded as he pointed to Sunset Shimmer, surprising her and the crowd.

"Sunset Shimmer?" Pinkie asked innocently.

"No, the fucking doors to the school, yes Sunset Shimmer!" Warhawk responded with a more aggressive tone, shocking the girls and the crowd.

Before the girls could respond, Warhawk bet them to it, "You know, Sunset Shimmer? The Queen Bee, the Alpha Diva, the Raging She Demon, Sunset Satan, Bloody Shimmer? Need I go on?" Each of those names seemed to hurt Sunset, as they name she was known by in her past. It was also shocking hearing these things from him, this was not the same quiet Warhawk she remembered giving a tour with.

"Hey that's our friend your talking about!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"The same friend who tricked you into never speaking with each other?" That got Rainbow to flinch, "Again, I ask why are you hanging out with her? Because it seems to me that she has done more personal harm to you five girls, and this school I might add, than those three have ever done. So answer me, why?!"

Applejack took a breath before stepping in front of the group, "It's true, Sunset has done terrible things to us in the past, and we have more reason than most to hate her." Those words cause Sunset to lower her head in shame, causing Fluttershy to put her hand on her shoulder as the others gathered closer to comfort her. "But after she was shown the monster she was, she did everything in her power to make things right. She sacrificed and struggled to make amends. Heck, she even saved our friendship when those three varmints tried to split us up."

The Dazzlings could practically feel glares the students were giving them.

"She has done so much for us and the school, and I am proud to call her friend," said Applejack as she turned to smile at Sunset, who in turn smiled at her. Then Applejack turned back to the unimpressed Warhawk to resume her speech, "Those three on the other hand haven't so much as said 'I'm sorry' to anyone. Adagio still acts all high and mighty, as if we don't matter, Aria gets into fights on a regular basis, and Sonata is completely oblivious to the pain she's caused."

The student's glares only intensified towards the Dazzlings.

"Until those three take responsibility for the harm they've done like Sunset has, than I would be willing to let bygones be bygones."

When Applejack finished her speech, the rest of her friends and student's looked at her approvingly, even Zero, Treble, and Straight Edge, though Damien and Artemis looked undecided on how to feel.

Warhawk didn't say anything for a while, he was trying to process what he had heard. Then, surprising everyone, he chuckled, "My God, you really don't see the irony, or the hypocrisy."

"Hypocrisy? What are you taking about?" asked Applejack.

"I just can't believe that you all are supposed to have 'magic' that comes from friendship, and yet it is because of people like you, who think like you do, that we still have so much evil in the world, like killing over six million people in the name of social improvement."

"WHAT!" shouted the group of friends. The crowd were confused as well.

Warhawk just pinched his nose and said, "You know, I would love to go into how I see that this relates to the history of World War II and all the shit that came with like the Holocaust; but to avoid a lengthy discussion, I'll just get right down to the point of how I know your philosophy is wrong, and how you are hypocrites for believing your actions are justified."

"You say that they need to take responsibility for their misdeed's; but tell me, why should they take responsibility for their actions, when you won't take responsibility for your actions."

"Our actions?" asked Rarity.

"You destroyed their pendants and took away their ability to sing!"

"They were trying to brainwash the school!" said Rainbow.

"Yes, they were, I get that. It still doesn't change the fact that in order to stop them, you had to hurt them, wound them, and instead of helping to heal the wounds you've caused, you've only allowed them to fester, and when wounds like that fester, bad shit always happens."

"Like what?" asked Sunset.

"Xenophobic bigotry, mass shootings, riots, fucking wars!"

"Don't you think that's a bit extreme?" asked Rarity.

Warhawk looked at her in disbelief, "My God woman, you must have your head buried in the fucking sand if you honestly believe that."

Clyde, Rarity's boyfriend, looked like he was ready to jump at Warhawk for what he said, however, he was held back by Soul and Swift.

"Stop insulting my friends you jerk!" shouted Rainbow.

"Sure, as soon as you actually start to actually live up to what your magic represents you fucking hypocritical whores!!"

That caused the crowd to gasp and got Rainbow mad enough to grab Warhawk his shirt and shout in his face," THOSE THREE ARE EVIL MONSTER WHO DESERVE WHAT THEY GOT!"

Silence fell amongst the crowd after Rainbows display. Warhawk himself felt surprise and fear after getting grabbed so suddenly. But he found his courage again and started to dig into his pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper and held it out in front of Rainbow's face. She looked at it briefly before letting go of Warhawk and snatching it from his hands.

"What is this?" Rainbow said spitefully.

"A letter written by one of the student's you saved through friendship. It was found in Sonata's locker" Warhawk responded bitterly, and surprising Sonata at the same time.

Rainbow started to read through the letter, and as she read, her scowling eyes began to give way to shock and disbelief. Her friends, seeing this, went over and started to read the letter as well. They too couldn't believe what the were reading, Applejack looked ashamed, Rarity looked aghast, Pinkie's hair went flat, (which shocked and disturbed Warhawk) Sunset looked guilty, and Fluttershy looked like she was fighting back some tears.

The crowd began to whisper to each other, curious about what the letter had said. Sonata however looked down in despair, she remembered exactly what that nasty letter had said, and it still pained her.

"Well go on, read it."

The girls looked up in surprise at what Warhawk had asked them to do.

"What's the matter read it, that's the result of you saving this school and teaching everyone here the value of friendship. Aren't you proud of your accomplishment?"

The girls were hesitant to even speak, they may have even felt sick to themselves. Still, Warhawk mercilessly kept challenging them, "I mean that's what you wanted right? It's what Sonata and the other's deserve according to Rainbow correct?"

Rainbow started to go pale.

Having had enough waiting around, Warhawk walked up and snatched the letter from them and said, "Cat got your tongues huh; fine, I'll read it myself. So that all of the students here may understand what friendship means through your actions."

Warhawk cleared his throat and proceeded to read, "You worthless, fucking, cunt. Why are you still here? Don't you know that no one here want's you here. That you are a waste of breath, that you never should have been born. You are a slutty whore who deserves to fucking die and burn in hell! you worthless piece of shit. Why don't you just do us all a favor and just-"

Warhawk stopped himself for a moment to look at Sonata, who looked like she was about ready to break down in tears. It pained him to see her like this, but he had to make his point. So he carried on, "- kill yourself. Hang yourself, slit your wrists, drown your self, burn yourself, fucking throw yourself out a fucking ten story window. Hell shooting yourself will work. Just. Fucking. Die already. You are not wanted here, so just kill yourself, and your bitch sisters too."

After Warhawk finished reading, he took the time to observe the crowd, they were clearly shocked by this, all except one student he recognized, Axis. Indeed he almost seemed pleased with what he had heard. It sickened him, and gave him a pretty good idea on who wrote the letter in the first place.

But the girls took this revelation the hardest, Fluttershy especially. None of them dared to say anything. So Warhawk spoke again, "Well what's the matter? This is what you wanted right? This is what friendship is supposed to be about. You wanted this, they deserve this right?" Their was a pause before he asked again, "Right?!"

"NO!" shouted Fluttershy, "We never wanted any of this to happen!"

"Then why did you let it come to this?"

The girls looked like they were trying to find an answer, but couldn't find the words.

"How could you let it come to this? How can you do something as being able to help someone overcome her past an be a better person, yet not give others the same courtesy! Is it really because you needed an apology first, are you really that shallow?"

Those words seemed to hurt the girls in mores ways than one.

"I mean, I guess I can expect this from you five given your track record, but you?" He said while looking towards Sunset, "After all the shit you've been put through, I would at least expect you to understand the value of second chance. I mean for fucks sake, you gave them a second chance after they all accused you of stealing their secrets and putting them online despite saving them at the Battle of the Bands; and yes, I know about the Anon-A-Miss incident."

That brought up some painful memories for the girls and the crowd, especially for a certain trio of friends.

"Are you all really this stupid? Have you really not learned a damn thing? Is this-" he said while holding up the note, "-really what it takes for you to see horror you've caused?" He continued to say with an almost pleading look on his face, "Were you really okay with just standing by and allowing this kind of crap to happen? I don't even..."

Warhawk stopped and looked down. He took a couple of breaths before looking back up with his serious expression retuning.

"You want to know why I did what I did? Why I helped Sonata? And why I'm standing up for them know? Their are three reasons why."

"First, helping someone who is hurt or in trouble is the right thing to do. Their is no debating that, it doesn't matter who they are, it doesn't matter what they've done in the past; helping our fellow man is the morally justified, non-debatable, right thing to do."

"Second," he said while pointing to the crowd, "these people weren't going to do anything to help them. They would rather let them squirm and suffer and thing their the good guys for doing so!"

Many of the students looked ashamed of themselves after hearing Warhawk's words.

"And third, its because its what you, the 'Elements of Harmony' or whatever the fuck you call yourselves, should have done. You should have owned up to your responsibilities and help show these girls a better way of life, but you're just too fucking petty to do so."

Warhawk stopped his rant as he let his words sink in. Then he pulled out his phone and said to himself, "Crap now I'm gonna have to rush to get home and get ready to work." Then he took another look at the girls and said, "Go ahead and keep doing what your doing, just know that you're FUCKING US ALL in the long run!"

And with that, he turned and started to walk away. But suddenly he stopped and turned, "You know I do have one more question, if Twilight hadn't asked you to, would you really have given Sunset a second chance?"

He then turned and continued on his way, leaving the crowd speechless. Sunset and her friends looked at each other with sadness in their eyes. As for Adagio, Aria and Sonata, they looked at the departing Warhawk with surprise and awe. They looked at each other nodded, and went after him.

Warhawk had finally got to his car and was about to open the door when he heard Adagio say,"Hey Warhawk."

"I assume this is about what happened?"

The three girls looked at each other and then said, "Yes, it was... impressive."

"Impressive?" Aria said in a tone that didn't sound bored, "I don't usually say things like this, but that was pretty hardcore."

Warhawk scratched the back of his head a bit before responding, "Yes, well I'm pretty sure that I just painted a target on my back, so you know, fuck me right?"

"You painted a target on your back?" asked Sonata, which caught Warhawk off guard and caused Adagio to facepalm and Aria to roll her eyes. "Because I didn't see it when we were walking up to you; is it white so it blend in with your shirt?"

"What? No, I didn't mean a literal target I just meant that now I'm likely going to be hated by the school now for basically pissing on their heroes."

"Eww!" grimaced Sonata as she stuck out her tongue.

With a panicked and slightly embarrassed look, Warhawk quickly said, "Not literally urinating on them I just meant that-" "You're wasting your time." Adagio interrupted, "Expressions go over Sonata's head."

With that said, Sonata looked up to see if anything was going over her head, causing both Adagio and Aria to facepalm. Warhawk looked in disbelief but shook his head, "Okay, as amusing as this conversation is, I really need to get going now."

Warhawk got into his car and started the engine, then Adagio said, "You didn't have to do that."

He looked up to see her and the others with, almost humbled looks on their faces, "It would have been easier for you to just join the crowd."

Warhawk paused before replying, "Life would be so much easier if we could just choose our obligations, but we can't. We shouldn't, and Sonata?"

Sonata paid utmost attention when she heard her name and saw the sympathy in Warhawks eyes, "I'm sorry about reading the note, you deserve to live and be happy," then he looked at the others briefly, "All of you do. I see you tomorrow."

With that, he closed the car door and drove off, leaving the girls to ponder on his words and for the first time in a long time, felt a small spark of happiness that didn't come from causing others pain.

Author's Note

This has been a long time coming.

V

Apologies

The next day

Warhawk had just arrived at CHS, during his drive to school and even as he got out of his car, he thought about yesterday. He wondered if he did the smart thing, standing up for girls he only just met, insulting the school heroes and by extension the student body, and generally making him a know figure when he would have preferred to stay in background.

But then he remembered when he first met Sonata and the pain she felt, he remembered the tears in her eyes when she was ridiculed in the cafeteria for falling in her Taco lunch, he remembered her crying on his shoulder when she needed to let out her sorrow after he helped her and comforted her. He remembered how Sonata and her sisters bore grateful looks to him after he virtually roasted the Rainbooms; and then he thought to himself, 'yes, it was worth it.'

Now he just had to deal with being a misfit like the Dazzlings, but if doing the right thing was easy, everyone would do it.

"YO FENNYO!"

"Aw shit not him."

Sure enough, Warhawk turned to meet Treble Mix and the rest of the new guys.

"Why do you keep calling me Fennyo? My name is Jon Warhawk."

"Yeah but your author is named Fennyo, though it used to be Grann until he decided to change it into a universal name that can be used for both a Fantasy and Sci-Fi setting. Of course his real name is-"

Suddenly the group heard a loud, growling noise coming from Treble as he began to clutch his gut in pain.

"Uh Treble, you okay?" asked Arrow.

"Yeah," Treble struggled to say, "I think the author is giving me explosive diarrhea as punishment," Treble's face contorted as he tried desperately to keep his bowels shut, "GOTTA GO!"

Treble took off for the nearest bathroom while clutching his buttocks, cursing the author for his misery which only made need to go even more.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group stared off in disbelief. "What is wrong with that guy?" asked Straight Edge.

"I imagine lots of things Punk," answered Damien.

"Anyway," said Arrow, "Warhawk, we kind of wanted to talk about yesterday."

Warhawk's expression turned into a slight scowl as he crossed his arms and said, "You think I was wrong in cursing out the school?"

Arrow shock his head, "No, you did the right thing. If you didn't do it, I would have, Although I probably wouldn't be as.... crass as you."

"I only said what I felt needed to be said, nothing more," replied Warhawk.

"Yeah, well you sure know how to roast people Warhawk, I'm impressed. Didn't think you had it in you," said Zero.

"Not sure if the rest of the school will agree though," said a downcast Warhawk.

Arrow walked up to Warhawk and placed his hand his shoulder, causing Warhawk to flinch a bit, "Hey man we got your back."

The other's nodded as Treble came back looking much more relived, "Ugh, I would not recommend going in the girls bathroom for a while."

The rest all looked at Treble with shock, surprise, and slight disgust. "You took an explosive diarrhea dump in the girls bathroom?!" questioned Warhawk.

"Hey man, the poop baby needed to be delivered, cause the last time I held one in, I literally shot off in the stratosphere."

"The hell is wrong with you?" asked Warhawk.

"Oh I'm just doing my part in this story, being a general annoyance to you." Treble answered with a smirk.

"You know, fuck you," said Warhawk as he flipped the bird.

The group was than approached by Soul Writer and two other boys; one with grey skin, black hair and blue eyes that wore a black t shirt with a basketball with a music note on it; and the other was light blue skin, brown hair and yellow eyes and wore a white shirt with a blue hoodie.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" asked Soul.

"It's going well and- HOLY SKAGFUUCK SOUL?!" shouted Treble

Soul looked confused until he recognized him, "Treble? How did I not notice you before?"

"Ah, laziness on the author's part I imagine."

"You two know each other?" asked Warhawk.

"Yeah, my dad and his dad use to work construction together," answered Soul.

"Soul, I know that this is an old friend but we came here for a reason," said the grey skin man.

"Hey wait a minute, you look almost exactly like me," said Zero who then began to look more closely and accusingly at the grey skinned man, "Are you trying to steal my look."

"What? No. I just.. look my name is Clyde and this is Swift."

"Sup."

"And I don't mean to sound rude, but we came here to talk to Warhawk."

Warhawk sighed and said, "Let me guess, this is about yesterday isn't it?"

"Yes it is," said Clyde, "I have to say that I don't really appreciate you insulting my friends and my boo."

Warhawk raised his eyebrow, "Who?"

"Rarity, my girlfriend."

"Oh, I see. So what happens know?"

Clyde looked at Warhawk with some anger in his eye's, but calmed down and said, "I get why you said what you said, heck if I found that note, I would be just as angry. But you need to understand that those girls did a lot of harm here, they tricked me into breaking up with Rarity. You can't even begin to imagine how much that hurt."

"They paid for their mistakes," answered Warhawk, "Now I'm not in the mood for a repeat of yesterday, so if you got anything else you want to get off your chest, just say so."

Clyde took some time to think before he responded, "I just wanted to let you know that I can forgive them, but I wont forget what they did."

"Fair enough."

After Soul and his friends left, Warhawk and the boys continued down the halls. Along the way, several students were whispering to themselves, undoubtedly talking about what Warhawk did yesterday. Though it was expected, Warhawk still found it annoying. Thankfully, seeing three familiar faces at their lockers provided some relief.

"Hey cheesepuff, how's it going?" said Damien.

Adagio turned around with a flustered look on her face as her sisters giggled at her expense, "I told you to stop calling me that you pond scum!"

"Heh, whatever you say... fluffykins," Damien said with a smirk.

Adagio's face went red from frustration and embarrassment, her now laughing sisters didn't help her situation any better.

"Hey Ari," said Artemis.

Aria stopped laughing and went back to her usually grumpy self, "My name is Aria you moron."

Adagio started to giggle to herself, "Not so funny now, is it?"

"Oh shut up cheesepuff!"

"Okay now, that's enough you two. You shouldn't be fighting," reasoned Artemis.

Aria just crossed her arms and huffed to herself, mutter something about being 'the worst', and Adagio just flipped some of her hair.

Then suddenly, the students began to talk louder amongst themselves.

"Hey, look who it is," one said.

"She's back," said another.

The group turned to see that they were being approached by Sunset and her friends. However, their was an added addition to the group, and new girl with light purple skin and dark purple hair.

Adagio narrowed her eyes and proceeded to walk forward to greet the girls, followed by Aria and Sonata. Adagio placed her right hand on her hip and smirked while Aria crossed her arms and scowled. Sonata placed her hands behind her back and looked slightly scared at the group.

Meanwhile, many of the students, including Soul and his friends, Axis, and Warhawk's group watched curiously to see how this would play out.

"Well, well, well," said Adagio, "Look what we got here. The whole band is back together, with Princess Twilight Sparkle, coming to grace this school, with her presence," she continued in a mocking tone.

Her words seemed to upset Rainbow and Applejack, but they restrained themselves.

"What are you doing here?" asked Aria, "Don't you have princessy stuff to do like, smile and wave or whatever?"

The girls looked nervous while the boys commented," Come on Aria don't be like that," whispered Arrow.

"Though she does bring up a good point, what is she doing here?" whispered Warhawk.

"I do more than smile and wave now but-"

"Then why have you come here?" interrupted Adagio, "Are you taking a vacation from your royal duties to catch up Sunset and the others?"

"She came here because I asked her to, because we have something important to say to you three," said Sunset.

"And what might that be? Is it a lecture on how wrong we were in trying to get this world to do our bidding and how friendship will always win in the end?" mocked Adagio.

"No that's not it," said Twilight. "The truth is," she paused to take a deep breath, "I came here with my friends so we could say.... we're sorry."

That took everyone by surprise, more so with the Dazzlings as they were left utterly dumbfounded by this.

When she finally managed to get over her shock, Adagio asked in a uncharacteristically quiet voice, "Come again?"

"We're sorry about what happened to you three," said Twilight.

Applejack then took a few step forward and said, "What Warhawk said was harsh, but it was also true, we didn't do right by you three."

"Now don't get us wrong," said Rainbow, "What you did was evil and we had to stop you, but we didn't mean for anymore bad stuff to happen to you."

"We saw how Sonata was trying to be friendly and we thought she was just acting, but after seeing that letter.... no one deserves that," said Flutershy.

Sonata looked to the ground in sadness as Axis tightened his fist.

"Quite right," said Rarity, "It was wrong of us to ignore you."

"If we tried to make up with you earlier, we could have three new friends to smile with, but I just assume you three were still a bunch of meanies," said Pinkie, "But I Pinke Promise to not make that mistake again."

"As someone who once walked in your shoes, I more than anyone should know what it's like to be hated for what you did in the past, and the value of giving others a second chance," said Sunset, "I should have been the first to volunteer to help and understand you three, but after being hated by the school for so long, I was afraid that if I was seen helping you, I would go right back to being hated."

The students, minus Axis, looked ashamed.

"As the Princess of Friendship, it is my duty to spread it's magic, not just in Equestria, but to here as well," said Twilight, " And after reading what Sunset wrote to me about what happened to you three, how badly you were being treated, I realized that I should also try to extend my hoof, um hand, to former enemies as well, because if they can understand friendship, then they wont be enemies anymore," Twilight turned briefly to Sunset who looked down in shame, remembering her past, but Twilight put her hand on her should to reassure her. Sunset then looked up to smile at Twilight, as she smiled back.

Suddenly, Adagio began to laugh. It wasn't her usual one, it sounded more forced, and it took Aria, Sonata, and everyone else by surprise.

"How rich, this is just too funny," said Adagio, "The great Princess Twilight and her little pose going through all this trouble to apologize to US!" She began to laugh again, confusing everyone. "Love the speech by the way, tell me, did you rehearse it?"

"Um Adagio?" asked Aria, "Are you okay?"

Adagio gasped in an exaggerated fashion, "My gloomy, uncaring sister Aria showing concern? This truly is a day of miracles!"

That shocked Aria to the point of speechlessness while Adagio turned back the girls and began laughing again before she spoke with a little venom, "Seriously though, do you think some cheap words like' I'm sorry' can make up for the pain you've me and my sisters?!"

"Where is this coming from?" asked Rainbow, "You were acting so high and mighty for so long that you didn't seem to cared about it."

"OF COURSE I CARED!" shouted Adagio, taking everyone by surprise.

Gone were any traces of mock amusement, replaced now by seething rage. Her hands were balled up so tightly they almost drew blood. Her eyes pierced into the Rainbooms very souls with hate and anger.

"That magic was our birthright. We were born with those pendants, they weren't just trinkets, they were part of us! They gave us our beautiful voices which we used to sing songs so powerful that we could do anything. The magic, the pendants, our singing, all those things are what made me and sisters what we are. Sirens of Equestria!"

No one dared to interrupt Adagio as she, for the first time since The Battle of the Bands, expressed the feelings that she had buried for so long.

"Oh sure, we used our magic to make ponies fight and gather the negative energy. But that was the only way for us to gather power for our voices, because without a strong voice, a siren is nothing! That's why we ventured out beyond the sea, because making our voices stronger is what makes us who and what we are!"

"Even when we were banished here, we still had a sliver of power, and with that power came hope. Hope that we could gather enough energy to go back home, finish what we started, and make our family proud," She then pointed to the now shocked Rainbooms with tears in her eyes, "And you DESTROYED IT!"

"You destroyed everything! You could have just stepped aside and let us do what we were born to do, but no, you couldn't do that could you? You just had to be the heroes and stop the monsters right? Okay sure, good for you, you saved a group of people who fight's with one of my sisters and torments the other, isn't friendship magic!"

That surprised Aria and Sonata completely. They knew that Adagio cared about being adored and gathering power, while generally not seeming to care about them, even going as far to call them idiots; still she stuck around because they were still family, and as the eldest it was her responsibility to look after them. But they didn't realize that she cared about them so much.

"You have no idea what it's like to lose everything! I had power, I had adoration, I had a beautiful voice that was mine, and now-" she stopped to take a couple of breathes. Her anger was replaced by sorrow as she looked to the ground and started to sniffle as more tears began to fall, "I have nothing, *sniff* we have nothing. *sniff* We're not even sirens anymore. We're just-" she than fell to her knees and placed her hands over her eyes, "nothing."

The whole hallway was completely silent, save for Adagio's sobs crying. The girls looked at her with shock and pity, they had no idea how important those gems were to them. But it makes sense. Those were the only thing connecting them to home, and they were gone.

Sonata looked at her elder sister with tears of her own forming, even Aria felt a lump in her throat.

Then Twilight began to walk forward to Adagio and crouched down to her level.

"Oh please *sniff*" Adagio said in a bitter tone, "Spare me your pity, *sniff* you don't anything about loss. To feel so_"

"Hollow," Adagio looked up in surprise to Twilight's face, "You feel empty inside don't you?"

"What?" Adagio managed to ask, genuinely confused.

"Because that's how I felt when something precious was taken from me."

Twilight paused for a moment before speaking again, "Do you know what cutie marks are?"

Adagio was silent but nodded, curious as to what the princess had to say.

"A while ago, my friends from Equestria and I went to a remote village where the ponies had their cutie marks and special talents taken away by a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer, she believed that if nopony had cutie marks or special talents, the world would be a better place."

Hearing this shocked many of the listening students, even though they did not know what cutie marks were, but Warhawk was completely appalled by this. He knew how disastrous such a philosophy was, but opted to not speak in order to see how the scene before him would play out.

"Eventually, she managed to take away mine and my friends cutie marks as well, and tried to indoctrinate us to accept her way of thinking. Without my mark, I couldn't do even the simplest of magic, and it felt so awful to lose something that close to you. Even though we were able to help the villagers see that what Starlight was doing was wrong when we shoed them that she still had her cutie mark and managed to get back our marls and theirs, I never forgot that cold, empty felling of what it was like to lose it."

"So the way I see it, you losing your gems, is like when I lost my cutie mark." Twilight stopped talking for a moment to look at Adagio, who was trying to process what she had heard, Then she placed her hand on her shoulder, "Adagio, I can't take back what happened in the past, all I can say is that I am sorry for what happened, I'm sorry that circumstances led us to fight, I'm sorry that you and her family have suffered so long here, and I am sorry for all that you have lost."

Adagio wanted to snap Twilights hand away, she wanted to attack her for what she had done to her, she wanted to say that she was not to be pitied nor wanted her sympathy, that her apologies were worthless. But she didn't, all she could do was continue to allow her enemy, perhaps former enemy, console her.

"But if theirs anything I've learned, it's that it's never too late to make a change. You and your sisters have an opportunity to gain so much more here, just like Sunset did. You can start anew, make new friends and you might be happier for it." Twilight said with a smile on her face.

Damien than approached Adagio and said, "She's right."

Adagio looked at him with questioning look, "I know that I like to tease you and that it annoys you, but I would like to get to know you better."

"Why?"

Damien smiled and said, "Because I believe theirs more to you than being a siren, I know that deep done, you are a good, caring, and beautiful person."

Adagio blushed at his comment. Damien than held out his hand to her and said, "Will you let me help you?"

Adagio looked at his hand for a moment before finally taking it. Damien helped Adagio unto her feet. She then turned to look at the Rainbooms, who bore hopeful looks on their faces, she turned to see that students also give her an apologetic and sympathetic look, she turned to see Treble, Zero, Artemis, and Punk give encouraging smiles, she looked at her sisters who also regarded her with the same look. She saw Warhawk nod to her, as if he said, 'don't waste this chance'.

Finally, she took a deep breath and said, "I will try." Suddenly, Sonata pulled Adagio in a bone crushing hug, while Aria reluctantly joined in. The Rainbooms looked on with smiles on their faces, but were surprised when Adagio sighed and said said, "Well what are you waiting for, an invitation?" Than the girls joined in while the students looked on approvingly. Unbeknownst to them, Axis looked at the scene with disgust, and turned to leave.

The hug broke off and the girls began talking with each other, except for Twilight who made her way to Warhawk.

"Your name is Warhawk right?"

"It is your grace," he responded.

"You don't have to call me that."

"As her grace commands," Warhawk said with a smirk as Twilight got a bit annoyed but put it behind her.

"I just wanted to say thank you for doing what you did, if you hadn't, I nor any of my friends here wouldn't have known about what those three were going through."

"You would have, if you asked Sunset to look after those three like you did with those five," he said while pointing to the other Rainbooms.

Twilight looked ashamed after hearing that.

"Although, I guess we are only human and we still make mistakes."

Twilight than smirked and said, "You know I'm really a pony right?"

"Yeah well you're human here your highness. But seriously, I didn't think any of this would happen. I assumed that I would be hated for it, but it seems that I was wrong."

Suddenly, the bell rang.

"Please tell me that wasn't the bell for the start of class?" Warhawk asked.

Everyone looked at each other and realized that they were still in school, and scrambled to get to class, even Twilight despite the fact that she wasn't a student at CHS.

Author's Note

Hopefully I din't fudge this up too badly.

If you have any suggestions for how to improve this story, or any ideas on future chapters, feel free to send me a message.

VI

Pinkie's Plans

It's been two weeks since The Rainbooms apologized to The Dazzlings. Even though they agreed to try and get along, their was still an air tension between the two. Adagio and the others still refused to apologize for their actions, and many of the students were irked by that, namely Rainbow, Clyde, and Applejack, though ever since Punk began hanging out with A.J. when circumstances forced Punk to work on her farm when a video stunt gone wrong caused damage to some of the tress in A.J.'s apple orchard; he tried to serve as a mediator between her and The Dazzlings. So that, combined with her cousin's persistence, she gradually began to warm up to the former sirens.

The same could not be said for Axis and his followers who flat out hated the Dazzlings and resented the Rainbooms for even attempting to extend the hand of friendship, although this wasn't too surprising, as Axis already distrusted the Rainbooms before the Dazzlings even showed up. As such, he did whatever he could to bully both groups, mainly targeting Sonata, as she was easy prey.

Despite this, progress had been made towards healing the wounds left behind by The Battle of the Bands. Damien and Adagio began to grow closer as he would stick up for her when she needed the help, and endured her name calling and vice versa. Their was even a time when he shielded her from being hit by food thrown by Axis and his goons one time at lunch. Though he still teases her on occasion, and she in turn insults him, she occasionally stares at him when no ones looking and blushes to herself.

Similarly, Arrow began to try and get to know Aria more. Despite her stubbornness and the occasional insult, she did like the company, though she would never admit it. Sonata and Soul still hung out together, and Sonata still hoped to make Soul her boyfriend for being the first to stand up for her, even though his eyes are on Sunset.

Finally, in an effort to bring both groups together, Pinkie threw a party at Sugar Cube Café. Despite some initial awkwardness, all the party goers had a great time. Treble was also literally struck by Cupids arrow when he saw the D.J. and went over to introduce himself and get to know the girl, despite his bleeding buttocks. Zero also tried to spice the punch with extra sugar, witch turned out to be a huge mistake when Pinkie and Treble got the ultimate sugar rush and nearly destroyed the building. Overall, Pinkie was very satisfied with the way the party went except for one detail; Warhawk hadn't shown up.

Pinkie wanted him to come as well as he was the one who convinced her and the others to give The Dazzlings a second chance and show him a good time. But he had always kept his distance, only seen eating with Dazzlings and the other boys lunch table, and she saw that he wasn't very talkative. So she was determined to throw him a party and get him out his shell.

CHS Cafeteria

"Some day, I'm gonna make Soul my boyfriend!"

"Gee Sonata, that is fascinating, almost as fascinating as the last fifty times you've said it!" complained Straight Edge.

"Punk don't be like that, I think it's great that Sonata want's to be with Soul," said Arrow, "Although are you sure that you're meant for each other?"

Sonata nodded her head, "Definitely, he's smart, funny, good looking, cool, and he was the first to be my friend here."

Arrow still had doubts as he figured that Soul was interested in Sunset, in fact the whole school knew, but he didn't dare tell that to Sonata. He didn't want to see her beaming face turn sad with tears.

"Ugh the way you fawn over him is nauseating," said Aria, "Seriously, why does having a boyfriend interest you so much?"

Sonata glared at her sister, "Because it would the most wonderful thing in the world, just ask Adagio, she likes Damien now."

Adagio and Damien both blushed after hearing that with Adagio stuutering, "Th-th-their's no way I would be caught dead hooking up with this dork!"

"Hey!"

Sonata looked at her elder sister questioningly, "For realsies? Because I see you blush after he leaves and you giggle to yourself sometimes and mphf"

Adagio had placed her hand over Sonata's mouth and with a glare said, "DO NOT finish that sentence!"

Damien looked pleased with himself and said, "Oh puffball, I didn't know you cared so much."

Adagio swiftly turned around and pointed a finger at him with a beet red face, "You will forget that you ever heard that!"

The rest of the gang started laughing at Adagio's expense except for Warhawk, who was quietly eating his lunch.

"Hey Warhawk."

Warhawk looked up to Zero.

"How come I never see you after school?"

"Because I go home after school."

"Well yeah but, what about the weekends?"

"Since I work after school, I don't have much time to myself, so on the weekends, I prefer to play videogames and relax."

"I get that, but maybe you should try mixing it up? Maybe hang out at the mall?"

"Why would I want to hang out at the mall?"

The rest of the group looked on with interest and concern as Warhawk started to sound more irritated by these questions.

"To socialize with other people?' said a frustrated Zero.

"Zero, where is this coming from?"

"When Pinkie threw that awesome party, you never showed up. You should have been their man, it was amazing. Their was awesome music, great food, dancing, it was a blast."

"For you maybe, to me, not so much."

"He does have a point Warhawk," said Arrow, "It's not good for you to stay locked up by your self. I know you like to play video games but-"

"Do you know what kind of work I do?"

"Well no but-"

"Do you have a job after school?"

Arrow hesitated for a minute, "No bu-"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to balance being and apprentice maintenance technician at the local bread bakery with high school homework?!"

Arrow tried to answer but couldn't find the words.

"Do you know how stressful it is to do all that while balancing out paying rent for an apartment and basic grocery shopping due to living alone because you choose to move out from your parents basement in order to prove that you can make it in this world?!"

Arrow just shock his head.

"Of course you don't. I have barely enough time to myself. My weekends are the only free time I have, and would rather spend my free time doing what I love, rather than go to some loud, obnoxious gathering of assholes, get a headache, and go home wishing I never went in the first place. Now can we please drop this subject already!"

"For realsies?"

Warhawk and the others turned to a confused Sonata.

"Because party's don't give me headaches," said Sonata, "Like Zero said, their fun, you get some great food, feed off the negative energy-"

"We don't do that last part anymore dummy.," said Aria.

"Oh, right. Well we can still do the other things I said," said Sonata while the other boys smiled approvingly.

Warhawk took deep breath and sighed, "I'm glad you think that's fun Sonata, for me however. There're just not my thing."

Sonata looked at Warhawk for a moment and simply said, "Okay."

Warhawk was surprised by that answer, but not as much as Zero who said, "Sonata are you serious?"

"If Warhawk doesn't want to go to a party because he doesn't think their fun, then he shouldn't go. I know I wouldn't want to do something that isn't fun," Sonata said matter of factly.

Zero looked like he wanted to argue, but gave up the thought.

"Wow Sonata, "said Aria, "That might be the first smart thing you've said all day."

"Yeah- Hey!"

And so the two sisters started to bicker with each other, earning a groan from Adagio and a shaking head from Arrow while the others just went about eating lunch, having gotten use to these little sessions.

Warhawk also went back to his lunch, but he was grateful that Sonata understood his reasoning.

Later, in the hallway

Warhawk was walking to his locker, thinking of his talk with Zero and Arrow. Part of him was considering what they said about him going out once in a while, but he quickly quashed those notions.

He then got to his locker and opened it up, only to be greeted by a familiar confetti explosion. Then, from out of nowhere again, Pinkie appeared.

"SURPISE!"

'PINKIE! Don't do that!"

Pinkie laughed and said, "Aww, then it wouldn't be a surprise."

"Exactly! What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?"

"No silly, I wanted to give you this."

Pinkie held out an envelope in front of Warhwak. He knew he shouldn't take it, but also knew that Pinkie wouldn't let him go if he didn't. So reluctantly, he took it.

"What is this?"

"It's an invitation, to a party I'm throwing tonight. I know that you didn't make it to my last one, which I assumed was because you didn't get my email invite. So I thought that I would hand one to you in person, so that way, you couldn't have not known about my party that I was throwing. So what do you say? Will you come, will you, huh, huh, huh?" Pinkie said in a hyper fast voice ending with a huge smile.

Warhawk, with half covered eyes simply said, "No."

Pinkie, still smiling, blinked a couple of time before asking, "I'm sorry what?"

"No."

Pinkie's smile began to die down, "No what?"

Warhawk rolled his eyes and placed the invite in Pinkie's hair and said, "No, I am not going to your party."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to."

Before Pinkie could reply, Warhawk turned around and left. Pinkie just stood by herself for a moment and then said, "Ohhh I get it. If Warhawk can't come to my party, "I'll just have to bring the party to him. This is such a good idea."

"That doesn't sound like a good idea Pinkie."

After school was over, Pinkie went to the band room where she and the rest of her friends would hang together to practice music and otherwise socialize with each other. This time they were joined by Clyde, Swift, Soul, Zero, Punk, Arrow, Damien and Treble.

After the band practiced a song (and 'ponied' which made Zero a firm believer of magic now) Pinkie talked about her plans to throw Warhawk a surprise party. But Sunset expressed her doubts, much to Pinkie's disappointment.

"Why not?"

"Warhawk just doesn't seem like the partying type to me."

"And if he does work after school a lot," said Damien, "he probably doesn't have much time do party anyway."

"Not to mention it would be an invasion of privacy if we do throw it in his apartment like you suggested," said Arrow.

"I get what you guys are saying," said Zero, "But I think this would be good for him. The guy needs to break out of his shell and socialize more. I mean the guy barely talks in our group, and I haven't seen him to speak to anyone else here."

"Yeah, the guy's worse than Fluttershy in Freshmen year," said Rainbow, "No offense."

"Oh, none taken. I know that I still have a way's to go, but I'll get there."

"We know sugar cube, "said Applejack, "We know."

"So what are we gonna do?" asked Zero.

"What do you mean what are we gonna do?" asked Straight Edge, "We should we do anything? If the man wants to be left alone, I say leave him be."

"I can't just stand here and watch that guy stay alone and be miserable when he could be out with us and enjoying the world."

"Hmm," said Rarity, "It could do him wonders to be a little more open with others, and a party might be the thing."

"No offense boo," said Clyde, "But isn't it a little presumptuous of us to assume what's best for him?'

Zero just raised an eye at him and asked, "Is that even a word?"

"Presumptuous means failing to observe the limits of what is deemed appropriate."

Everyone turned to Swift after he said that.

"What? I just looked it up online."

"Anyway, I agree with Clyde, I mean I know what it's like to get immersed in video games too," said Soul.

"Soul, you are no where near as bad as Warhawk when it comes to talkin' with others, "said Applejack.

The group stopped talking for a moment in order to mull things over. After some time, Rainbow broke the silence.

"Well I say we just go for it!"

"But Rainbow-"

"But nothing Sunset, that guy needs to take a serious chill pill, and one of Pinkie's parties is the best way to go!" she said much to the approval of Pinkie and Zero.

"Reckon that this would be the only way to get him to a party, short of kidnapping him."

"Lets not give Pinkie anymore ideas A.J." said Straight Edge.

Rarity took a breath and said, "I suppose that if we are going to help Warhawk be more open, this does seem like the best course."

"Besides, Warhawk helped us be more open to the Dazzlings, it's only fair we do this for him!" said a determined Pinkie.

"Hell yeah! Lets bring it in!" said Zero. He and the others placed their right hands on top of each other in a circle. They ware only waiting for Sunset, who reluctantly placed hers in as well. With that, they shot their hands in the air and cheered.

Treble then turned to the screen and said, "This will not end well."

At Warhawk's apartment

After learning where Warhawk's apartment was through the use of the school directory, Pinkie and the others wasted no time in sending invites to every student in school and traveling to Warhawk's apartment. After unlocking his front door, they found that Warhawk had decorated his home with various posters of a band named Gorillaz, several Star Wars posters, fantasy like maps of a world called Tamriel, and huge gamming computer with a massive computer screen. The group then began to decorate the place with festive party streamers, balloons, party food and drink, and set up a D.J. turntable for Treble and Vinyl Scratch.

Shortly after, the guests began to arrive, and the party had unofficially begun, as the guest of honor was still away.

"Ohmygosh, this is so exciting!"

Pinkie looked like she was about to explode from anticipation, but Sunset still looked worried.

"What's the matter, Sunset?" asked Soul.

"I... guess I'm still worried about how Warhawk is going to take all this, he already doesn't like surprises, and this is a pretty big surprise."

"Relax Sunny, just leave this to your Auntie Pinkie Pie."

Sunset looked a bit annoyed at the comment, but said nothing.

"Oh, I can't wait until seven thirty!" said Pinkie.

"Why?" asked Sunset.

"Because that's when Warhawk comes home after work."

Sunset raised her eyebrow at this, "And you know this how?"

"From watching Warhawk for a week now."

"Wait, you stalked him?!"

"No, I was spying oh him. Big difference."

With that, Pinkie began to jump up and down excitedly, while Sunset bore concern on her face.

"Oh here he comes, everyone be quiet."

Earlier

Warhawk was driving back home after he finished his shift. It was a down day, which meant that the machines were turned off in order to perform maintenance that required the machines to be offline. Warhawk's job was to lube chains inside the ovens that moved the pans throw to be baked. It was a tedious task that often resulted in his foot falling asleep, due to him sitting down in an awkward position for half an hour, but it least it was simple. However the day took an unexpected turn when he accidently dropped one of the heavy oiling doors for the bun oven on his shin. Luckily it didn't break, but it was bruised very badly. It was for these reasons that Warhawk had began to study for the Exam 473, the test for getting a job with the Postal Service. It added another lair of stress to the already fatigued teenager who just wanted to play video games for a living, but he knew that it would be worth it in the end.

"Thank God my shin is doing better, still I can't wait till I get home. All I want to do is just relax."

Wathawk finally arrived at his apartment. It had been a long day and at last he could eat some dinner, study for a bit, and hopefully find some time to play some StarCraft. All he wanted to do was unwind, unfortunately, Murphy had other plans when he opened his front door, and was greeted by a massive explosion of confetti.

"SUPRISE!!!"

Warhawk's heart stopped for a brief moment and his mind suddenly went blank. Never in a million years would he have ever expected to open his front door and be greeted by an explosion. When he finally came back to his sense's, he say that his home was decorated in streamers and balloons that better fit five year olds birthday. He saw many students from school had come to his home as well, including the gang he sat with, usually by default. and The Rainbooms all wearing party hats.

And then their was Pinkie. She had apparently been talking in her usually fast, hyper voice to Warhawk, but was so shook up, he couldn't understand anything she had said. Except for the last bit.

"And now that your here, lets paaarrrrrrty!"

She finished with an explosion of confetti, as Vinyl Scratch and Treble loaded up a record on the turntable and began to play loud dance music. With that, everyone began to dance wildly.

For Pinkie, it was paradise, for Warhawk, it was the tenth circle of Hell. He firmly placed his hands on his already sore ears, after having to wear hearing protection from work, and tried in desperation to tune out the noise. With every ounce of willpower he could muster, he made his way to the sound system and pulled the plug, stopping the onslaught of music.

Everyone was confused by the sudden stop of tunes as Warhawk turned to face Pinkie with seething anger, "Get. Out."

Pinkie was taken aback by his angry tone, "What?"

"Get out of my home!" Warhawk's rage was burning ever more.

"But this is you-"

"I SAID GET OUT!"

This shocked everyone in the room, and Pinkie was practically trembling now, "Bu-bu"

"ARE YOU DEAF AS WELL AS STUPID WOMAN!" Warhawk shouted with fire and brimstone. "I said get out and take these freeloading parasites with you!"

Pinkie's hair had know gone flat and began to tear up, "I- uh"

But Warhawk wasn't moved, only angry, "You have been nothing but a life eating pestilence since the day I first met you. Your very existence causes me nothing but pain and misery. Do you enjoy tormenting me?! You stupid, backward fucking idiot!"

Suddenly, Swift went up to Warhawk and punched him right in the face, sending him to the ground and landing on his bad shin, casing Warhawk to grunt in pain.

"That's enough!" said Swift, "No one talks that way to Pinkie Pie. She threw this party for you! She just wanted to help you break out of your shell and enjoy life instead of being by yourself and this is how you say thanks?! Well let me tell-"

Swift stopped talking when he saw Warhawk struggle to get up, clutching his shin. His face was etched with pain. Swifts anger then faded and now looked concerned.

"Warhawk, are you okay?"

"The FUCK do you care!!"

To say Warhawk was angry was an understatement. He then limped his way towards Pinkie and said, "I want you out of my home and out of my life. While your at it, please let the door hit you on the way out!"

To Pinkie's credit, she didn't bawl her eyes out in some dramatic way, she just lowered her head, covered her eyes, and wept. The rest of the Rainbooms than came to her and tried to comfort their friend.

Zero was livid about what had happened, and tried to rush Warhawk, but he was held back by Damien and Straight Edge, "Forget it Zero, he's not worth it," said Damien.

Zero seemed to calm down, but Arrow wasn't just gonna let this slide. He walked towards Warhawk with anger in his eyes. Then he grabbed Warhawk by his shoulder.

"Warhawk-"

Almost immediately, Warhawk spun around to face Arrow, "I'm going to my room to get changed, and when I come out, I don't want to see any of you here. Or I'm calling the cops!"

With that, he smacked Arrow's hand off and made his way to his room and slammed the door. The party guests were unsure of what to make of the situation. Applejack then broke the silence.

"Come on y'all, let's just go."

Everyone then started to clean up the decorations, and began to depart.

"What a total jerk!" said Rainbow.

"Most uncouth." said Rarity.

The girls were currently outside of Warhawk's apartment, they had decided to wait until Pinkie was finished letting out her sad emotions. Everyone else however had left, with Zero and the others being last. After reassurance from Sunset that Pinkie would be fine but wanted to stay behind and comfort her, they agreed and went about their way home.

"*sniff* I just wa-wa-wanted to make him smile," Pinkie sobbed with Fluttershy holding her.

"We know Pinkie, we know," soothed Fluttershy.

"That Warhawk is meaner then a junkyard dog," commented Applejack.

"Yeah, it's no wonder he has zero friends," said Rainbow Dash.

"Well to be fair," said Sunset, "We did invade his privacy."

Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity looked at Sunset with disbelief.

"Don't get me wrong, I think Warhawk went too far, but his outburst is understandable with him working after school all the time. Plus didn't you notice how he was limping? I think he may have gotten hurt at work. So that definitely didn't help things."

The others considered her words, and while they were reluctant to admit it, Sunset did have a point.

"So what do we do know?" asked Rainbow.

"I don't know," said Sunset, "But right now it's late and we should probably get home."

The others agreed, after all it was a school night. But while her friends started to leave, Sunset looked at Warhawk's apartment one more time. She then sighed to herself and left. Hopping that tomorrow would be better.

Author's Note

Judge me accordingly.

VII

Consolation

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"NO!"

"Ugh, sweet McCarthy Sonata, when we get their we will tell you," said Adagio.

"Of course we would have been there sooner if dummy here didn't take so long to make her awful punch and put the wrong address in the G.P.S." said Aria.

"Hey, my fruit punch is awesome, and way better than any punch you can make!"

"Is not."

"Is too."

"Will you two knock it off, it's bad enough that we're late, but I don't need to here you two bicker like idiots again."

Aria and Sonata both stuck their tongues at each other but otherwise remained silent.

"That's better, now we shouldn't be too much longer."

"Good, because I can't wait to see Warhawk drink my punch," Sonata said with a smile.

Aria just shook her head at Sonata's words, but instead of making a demeaning comment at her younger sister, she instead turned to Adagio.

"It's still strikes me as odd, Warhawk already said he doesn't like parties, so why host one?"

"Well Pinkie did say it was a surprise party, though I don't know how he's going to react."

"Especially since he doesn't talk much."

"Well maybe he's changed his mind," Sonata joined in.

"I suppose we'll find out soon enough," said Adagio.

After a couple more minutes driving, Adagio slowed the car down to a stop at the curb. Sonata gasped with excitement.

"Does this mean-"

"Yes Sonata," said Adagio, "According to the G.P.S., we are finally here."

"WOHOO!"

The girls each got out of the car with Sonata rushing to the back and Adagio and Aria walking up to the apartment building.

"So this is Warhawk's place?" asked Aria, "Not bad."

"Indeed."

After a couple seconds of observation, Adagio noticed something was off. Their was no music playing and most of the lights were off inside. Aria noticed this as well but before she could say anything, they heard Sonata grunting. They turned to see Sonata struggling to lift a giant bowl of punch out from the car trunk.

Adagio pinched herself between her eyes and said, "Help Sonata out with the punch will you?"

"Ugh," Aria rolled her eyes and walked towards Sonata.

"I told you not to make so much."

"And I told you that I didn't make enough last time, so this time I'm gonna make sure that everyone gets some punch."

"Yeah, but the few that did drink some ended up in the bathroom almost immediately."

As Sonata and Aria continued to argue back and forth, Adagio put her hand to her face and sighed. After that, she walked up to Warhawk's front porch and rang the door bell.

She became puzzled again when their was no answer, so she tried again. Then after a minute, the door opened to reveal a tired and, if Adagio wasn't mistaken, sad looking Warhawk.

"Adagio? What are you doing here?"

Before Adagio could answer, Sonata spoke first, "We're here for the party!"

Warhawk was surprised to see an excited Sonata and physically struggling Aria holding up a giant bowl of punch.

"Party? What part-" Warhawk's eyebrows raised up in realization, "Oh."

Then his eyes went back to his tired, sad look.

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but their is no party."

Adagio was hardly surprised by this answer, but Sonata looked confused.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean..... I .. cancelled it."

"For realizes?"

"I'm sorry you wasted your time coming here."

"Oh."

Sonata's expression turned sad.

"We're sorry to bother you Warhawk," said Adagio, "We'll just be on our way."

With that, Adagio, Sonata, and a still struggling Aria, walked their way back to their car.

"Wait."

They stopped and turned to Warhawk.

"You don't have to leave. To be honest I, uh..... could use some company right now, I think."

Adagio raised an eyebrow and Sonata looked excited again, but Aria just grunted, "That's great, but can we please put this thing down soon?

"So you made this punch yourself?"

"Yep!"

The girls and Warhawk were sitting in the kitchen area, and Sonata wasted no time in pouring a glass of punch. It was a neon green liquid reminded Warhawk of the Blood of Mannoroth from World of Warcraft.

"Just don't say I didn't warn you if your pee starts to glow," said Aria.

"What does she mean by that?"

"Oh don't listen to her, she's just jealous that she can't make good fruit punch."

The two sisters glared at each other with Adagio sighing in exasperation.

Warhawk looked nervously at the drink, but if he learned anything in life, it was to try new things. So he took a sip; then his eyes opened wide and started to down the rest of his drink.

"That was good!"

Sonata's face lit up with a huge smile, "For realizes?"

"Yeah, it tastes like Mountain Dew, only better."

Sonata turned to Aria and smirked while Aria crossed her arms and scoffed, "Whatever."

"So Warhawk," said Adagio, "You said that you cancelled your own surprise party."

Warhawk's face turned sad again, "Yes I.... I did."

"May I ask why? I mean, I know that you already said that you didn't like parties, so I can only imagine how you might have reacted, but why did you invite us in? And if I may be so bold, why do look like something's bothering you?"

Shame was etched across Warhawk's face, drawing concern from the girls, still he remained silent.

"If you don't want to talk abo-" I..." Warhawk interrupted Adagio.

"Fubar."

The girls were confused by this, "Fubar?" asked Sonata.

"I fucked up beyond all reason, that's what I did."

"What do you mean?" asked Sonata.

Warhawk sighed to himself and rested his head on his hand, "Pinkie did try to throw me a surprise party, and I yelled at her."

"Is that why you look so bummed?" asked Aria, "Because this isn't the first time you cussed her out."

"That time was different," answered Warhawk, "I was standing up for you three. This time was... *sigh* inexcusable."

Adagio walked over and sat in front of Warhawk, "Maybe you should start from the beginning?"

Warhawk took some time to gather his thoughts, "When Pinkie first tried to invite me to a party, I said no. Then when she tried to invite to another one in person I said no again, but thinking back I could have said my words better. Then, when I came home expecting to relax after work, I was greeted by a barrage of confetti and Pinkie's ceaseless talking. Seeing so many people in my home, taken by surprise with a confetti explosion, and Pinkie, I just lost control. It didn't help that this week has been absolutely grueling, coupled by the fact that I almost broke my shin today."

"For realsies?"

Warhawk lifted up his pant leg to show the cut slash bruise on his right shin.

"Dang, that's one nasty shiner," said Aria.

"Thankfully it happened near the end of my shift, and I was able to drive home safe."

"Okay, so you've been under a lot of stress and you hurt yourself," said Adagio, "But that still doesn't really answer Aria's question. Why are you feeling down about yelling at Pinkie, because it sounds like she deserved it when all was said and done."

"Because despite popular opinion, I don't like hurting other people, and I called her stupid among other things when she was trying to help me have fun. I see that now, but I was just so angry that I,"

Warhawk had to stop to catch his breath.

"I just lost it. It also doesn't help that everyone at school is gonna hate my guts for what I did, hell even Swift punched me in the face, not like I didn't deserve it."

Sonata looked at him with pity, "I'm sorry."

Warhawk didn't respond, he just lowered his head. After a couple seconds of silence, Adagio took the opportunity to ask more questions.

"Warhawk? Why is it that you never speak to anyone at school? I mean aside from me, my sisters, and the others at our usual table. It can't just be because of your job."

Warhawk looked at Adagio confused.

"Look I know that we haven't really spoken a lot, but after what you did for us, and as much as it pains me to admit it to the Rainbooms, you're someone I consider a friend. Maybe the first friend we've ever had in a long time."

Both Aria and Sonata nodded in agreement.

"So please, tell us what's wrong."

Warhawk took a deep breath, "It's true that my job takes it toll on me, but the truth is... *sigh* I have a mental condition called Asperger's."

"You have butt burgers?" asked Sonata.

"What? No. its... *sigh* it's a mental disorder."

"You're retarded?"

"No Sonata, I'm not retarded. Asperger's is a form of Autism. It basically means that it's hard for me to socialize with other people. My case is minor and I was lucky enough to go to several speech counseling sessions when I was younger, so I can hold a small conversation and understand sarcasm. People with Asperger's can also be very stubborn about what interests them, like me with video games. I also don't like it when things are sprung at me at the last minute."

"Like Pinkie's party," said Adagio.

"Exactly. Another thing that I personally deal with, is that when I make a mistake, it haunts me. Like I can't stop thinking about even if I tried to stop. I mean, that's great in teaching me to not make that mistake again, but I also curse myself for making it in the first place because it seems so obvious that it was a mistake."

"So just to recap, you work a tough job, go to high school, and have Asperger's," said Aria.

"I also have a metal rod in my back to keep my spine straight."

"Wow, sucks to be you."

Warhawk bowed his head again and said in a said tone, "Yeah, it does."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" but Warhawk wasn't listening as Aria's sisters glared at her.

"You know, I told myself that I wasn't ashamed of myself. That I should own the fact that I have Asperger's. Hell, I even tried to put it on my resume when I was looking for work, but my parents said I shouldn't. They said that the employers wouldn't understand and just assume I would be more trouble than I was worth. I didn't like the idea but I went along with it. But after this?!"

Then in a half whisper, he said, "I just don't know. Stupid."

The girls looked at Warhawk with pity. They didn't realize that he had a lot of things working against him. Adagio and Aria tried to find the right words to say, but could find none. Sonata on the other hand.

"I don't think you're stupid."

That got Warhawk's attention.

"I think that you just made a mistake and that you should apologize."

Warhawk looked at Sonata in disbelief, "Sonata, it's not that simple."

"Yes it is, just say the words, 'I'm sorry' to Pinkie Pie."

Adagio place her hand on her face and Aria rolled her eye's at Sonata's oblivious statement, knowing full well that apologizing isn't that simple. But Warhawk listened.

"I want to apologize and make things right, but I just don't think that I can."

"Hello, you like shouted at the entire school, I think you can handle one little apology."

Both Adagio and Aria eyed their sister like she said dumbest thing possible. Confused by this, she said, "Wha-what did I say?"

Before Adagio could say anything, Warhawk spoke first, "Your right."

"She is?"

"I am?"

"I know that I need to face Pinkie and her friends and apologize, but what if they don't accept it? What if it's not enough?"

"Well than I think that their missing out, because I think you're pretty cool," said Sonata.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean, you didn't hate us like the rest of the school, and you got a lot of cool stuff. I don't know what any of it is, but they look pretty."

"Oh, well those are my posters of Gorillaz. Their one of my favorite bands."

"For realsies? What kind of music do they play?"

"I think what Sonata is trying to say, "said Adagio, "Is that you shouldn't underestimate yourself."

"Ah oh yeah, what she said is what I meant to say. That's what I meant...... to say."

"And what you would have said if you weren't the worst."

"You are!"

"Ugh, I can't take you idiots anywhere, can I."

"Are you sure you're called The Dazzlings and not the Three Stooges?"

The girls looked at Warhawk confused, causing him to be slightly embarrassed.

"You see they were a comedy group from, um, never mind, bad joke. But seriously, you really think I can do this? Face the others and apologize?"

"Yeah," said Aria, "You're a tough guy, and it's like Sonata said, you're pretty cool."

'Since when the hell did you get so nice?"

"Don't push it."

"Sorry."

"And if it helps," said Adagio as she leaned forward and placed her right hand on Warhawk's shoulder and looked him right in the eye, "We'll be there for you. just like you were there for us."

Warhawk looked at the others as they both gave reassuring nods.

"Thank you, I would appreciate that."

Adagio smiled, not in a cruel way like she used to, but in a warm, comforting way, "It's no problem."

"Sooo."

They all turned to Sonata.

"How about you show us around? You got a lot of cool stuff that I don't understand, like these things," she said as she pointed to some of Warhawk's movies.

Warhawk smiled and got up, "Okay, you see, those are my Star Wars movie."

"What's Star Wars?"

"Well, if you're willing to share more of that punch and stick around for a bit, I'll show."

"This isn't going to be some lame movies with a whiny character, weak romance, and an unnecessarily stupid and annoying side character right?" said Aria.

Warhawk looked at her with offense, "No, that's episode 1, I'm gonna show the first movie as it was."

Author's Note

God this one was hard to write.

VIII

Begin Again

"Here you go dearie, one cupcake with pink frosting and sprinkles."

"Thank you miss, here's the money."

"Thank you, have a pleasant day."

"You as well."

After the events of last night, Warhawk was determined to make things right with Pinkie and her friends. To do this, he figured the best approach was to purchase Pinkie a cupcake, or an apology cupcake as it were. She seemed like the kind of girl that would be receptive to that. So, after purchasing a cupcake from the appropriately named, Mrs. Cake, he went about his journey to school.

The drive would have been his normal routine of driving and listening to whatever cd's that struck his interest, were it not for the fact that he was going to face a girl he had hurt and her friends. He tried to tell himself to not be nervous, but he just couldn't shake that feeling.

Finally he made it to the school, and after entering the building, he only had one thing to say.

"Oh fuck me."

"Sure, but only if you buy me dinner first."

Warhawk turned to the direction of the familiar voice and saw Adagio, wearing her trademark grin, Aria, and Sonata.

"I thought you were saving yourself for Daemon?"

That got Adagio to blush a bit but she quickly regained her composure, "Theirs nothing going on between me and Daemon, and besides; I can still have some fun."

Warhawk shook his head, "So I take it that you three are here for moral support?"

"No, we just wanted to watch you fail at saying sorry to cotton candy head," said Aria.

"But I thought that we agreed to be with Jon when he said he was sorry?"

Both Aria and Adagio stared half-eyed at their dimwitted sister while Warhawk raised an eyebrow and said, "I believe she was being sarcastic Sonata."

Sonata looked confused and asked, "What's sarcasm?"

Warhawk was surprised by this and turned to Adagio and Aria, "You never taught your sister sarcasm?!"

"Have you met our sister? It's not our fault she's the worst," said Aria.

"You are!" said Sonata.

As the two sister's glared at each other, Warhawk saw Adagio put a hand to her head.

"So this is what you have to put up with on a daily basis?"

"Such is my fate," Adagio answered wearily.

"You have my pity."

"Oh it could be worse I suppose. I could have Asperger's."

"Heh, I suppose you could."

Both Warhawk and Adagio laughed at the little jab while Aria and Sonata finally stopped glaring at each other. Warhawk then took a breath and said, "Well, I guess I better find Pinkie and apologize before classes start. Don't want a repeat of what happened the last time a big apology was made."

The girls nodded as Warhawk turned toward the hallway's. They were filling up with students, some of whom were at the party last night and were giving Warhawk dirty looks.

"Just got to wade through this sea of filth first."

"Theirs no sea, just hallways filled with angry students giving you dirty looks about what happened last night."

Warhawk turned to Sonata and stared for a moment, "Okay, Sarcasm, and Expressions. I will teach you both of these one day."

"Tch, good luck with that," said Aria.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

With all that said, Warhawk and the Dazzlings made their way through the angry students and towards Pinkie's locker; and with each step, Warhawk began to feel more and more nervous, but was reassured with his new friends by his side.

If sorrow and depression had a physical appearance, it would be in the shape of Pinkie Pie. Ever since last night, she hasn't so much as attempted to turn her lips upwards. Her hair had lost all of it's curl, her eyes had no sparkle of happiness, and her even her bright pink color had lost it's luster.

Yes, it was as if she was emitting a perpetual aura of sadness, and everyone around her felt it. Indeed, where once people would look upon the ever smiling Pinkie Pie and feel the urge to smile and laugh no matter how sad they might have been, now they couldn't help but feel sad along with her. And none felt this more than her friends.

"Come on sugar cube, cheer up," asked Applejack.

"Yeah Pinks, this isn't like you," said Rainbow.

Despite her friends best efforts to cheer her up, Pinkie would not smile. In fact the more she was told to forget about last night, the sadder she felt.

While this was going on, Artemis and the rest of the boys made their own comments about the situation.

"Poor Pinkie," said Swift, "I wish their was something I could do."

"Same here," said Arrow.

"I still can't believe what Warhawk did last night," said Zero, "I mean, Pinkie goes out of her way to be his friend and help him open up, and he yells at her. What kind of person does that!"

"I hear ya Zero," said Punk, "But Warhawk did say he wanted to be left alone, and he did tell Pinkie 'no' many times before. I hate to say it, but this was probably destined to happen."

"I get what you're saying Punk but still."

"Well theirs not much we can do about it," said Daemon.

As the guys continued to have their conversation, the girls still tried to make the party girl smile.

"Pinkie dear, you simply must try to lift yourself out of this funk. All this frowning cannot be good for you face," said Rarity.

"Yeah, it's not your fault Warhawk is an insensitive jerk!"

"Rainbow!" chided Sunset.

"What? He is!"

"We already agreed that we shouldn't entirely blame Warhawk on this," said Applejack.

"Especially since he looked stressed and hurt last night," said Fluttershy.

Before Rainbow could respond, the sound of sniffling drew their attention.

"*sniff* I'm sorry girls," Pinkie said in a depressed.

"Oh Pinkie," comforted Fluttershy, "You don't have to apologize to us."

"Yeah Warhawk's the one who should apologize to you," said Rainbow.

Before her friends could say anything, Pinkie beat her to it, "No, he shouldn't."

That took the group by surprise. Then Pinkie turned to Sunset and said, "You were right Sunset, I should have listened to you. I just wanted to make Warhawk smile; but I should have done it in a better way that intrude on his privacy, He told me that he wasn't interested in my parties so many times, but I didn't listen."

Pinkie looked down in growing sadness as she continued to open up to her friends, "I thought I could make him like my parties, but I was an idiot. And now he hates me."

That caused her friends to gasp, leading to Sunset to place her hand on Pinkie's shoulder and say, "You're not an idiot Pinkie Pie, you just made a mistake. I'm sure that if you go to Warhawk and tell him how you feel, he'll forgive you and apologize to you in turn."

Pinkie just shook her heard and walked away, letting Sunset's hand slip from her shoulder. Then she turned around to her disappointed friends and said, "Thanks girls, I really appreciated what you're trying to do. But right now, I just wish Warhawk and I could start over, but I cant. Warhawk hates me, and that's never gonna change. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go find a corner to cry in."

With that, Pinkie turned around only to stop to find Warhawk himself was right behind her. Next to him stood the Dazzlings. Warhawk himself looked sad and remorseful as he saw the tears in Pinkie's eyes, her dulled color, and her straight, flat hair.

The other girls were surprised to see Warhawk, but Rainbow was filled with rage and immediately went to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, taking him by surprise.

"You!" She said, "Haven't you done enough?!"

Before Warhawk could respond, Aria grabbed Rainbow by her shirt and slammed her into the nearby lockers. She got close to her face with a glare that could bore holes into her skull and said, "You ever get in his face like that again, and I'll tear you a new one bigger than the Mariana Trench."

Whatever anger Rainbow felt was swiftly replaced by fear and slight confusion, "Mariana Trench?"

Aria scoffed, rolled her eyes and said, "It's the deepest part of the ocean you moron, read a book besides Daring Doo."

Aria then let Rainbow go and went back to join Warhawk and the others, as a crowd of students began to gather.

A bit of awkward silence followed until Warhawk broke the ice, "I got this for you." Warhawk than presented a cupcake with pink frosting with multi-colored sprinkles. Pinkie took the confection and eyed it for a moment before returning her gaze to Warhawk. "Don't worry, I didn't lace to give you the runs, heh."

More awkward silence followed until Warhawk tried again, "You know, your hair actually isn't bad like that? You should consider getting you hair straightened out more often, heh, heh."

Seeing that his attempt at humor failed as Pinkie remained sad and slightly confused, Warhawk sighed and spoke in a somber tone, "Pinkie I'm really sorry about last night."

That got Pinkie to be taken aback.

"I was...... I was so tired, and with my injury. I... I know that's no excuse for what I did but,"

Warhawk stopped in order to try to find the right words as Pinkie just kept quiet and listened.

"I just..... I know that we've never really gotten along and I know that you mean well but, ....... do you think that maybe we could, ... start over? *sigh* I don't expect you to forgive me, and I wouldn't blame you. I just, wanted you to know that I'm sorry."

More silence followed as everyone waited to see what would happen next. Then, slowly but surely, Pinkie began to smile a bit, her color brightened a bit, and her hair began to curly as she said, "Hello."

"Huh?' replied Warhawk.

"My name is Pinkie Pie. My favorite color is pink, I grew up on a rock farm with three sisters," as Pinkie spoke, telling more facts about herself, more of her smile, color, and curly hair began to return, much to everyone's surprise, especially Warhawk.

"I love to throw parties, bake all kinds of sweet things, and most importantly, I love to see my friends smile. So what's your name?"

Warhawk still looked confused and unsure of himself. Then he noticed Sonata and her sisters out of the corner of his eye, giving him encouraging looks with Adagio gesturing to him saying 'go on.'

Warhawk turned his head back to face Pinkie's smiling face and said slowly, "My name is, Jon Warhawk. I enjoy reading fantasy books, listening to heavy metal music, playing role-play video games, and I have Asperger's."

Pinkie laughed for a bit and asked, "You have butt burgers?"

Before Warhawk could explain, Sonata stepped up and said, "No silly, it's mental condition that basically means that Warhawk see's to world differently and thinks differently."

Pinkie opened her mouth to say, "Ooohhhh, kind of like me!"

Warhawk smiled a bit and said, "Yeah, I guess that's true."

Pinkie gasped for a bit, then smiled and said, "I did it, I got you to smile!"

Warhawk was rather amused by her display, "Got me their."

Soon they began to converse on various things with Pinkie's friends and Aria and Sonata joining in. Sunset herself looked on at the sight with a warm smile, Then she noticed Adagio walking up to her and turned around to watch the scene before them.

"You know, I never thought that we would ever be standing together and watch something like this," said Sunset.

"I never thought that getting banished would lead us to finding true friends," said Adagio.

Sunset turned to her and smirked, "Really?"

Adagio rolled her eyes and admitted,"Yes really."

They turned back to see Warhawk chatting with the others, wearing a smile on his face.

"My sisters and I really are lucky to have met him," said Adagio.

"I think we're all lucky to have met him," said Sunset.

Adagio then noticed Swift and said to Sunset, "If you'll excuse me Sunset, I need to have a little talk with Swift over there," then before Sunset could say anything, Adagio was already on her way to speak with Swift.

"Hello, Swift right?"

Swift was caught off guard and was unnerved to see Adagio speaking with him, before he could say anything Adagio said, "I heard what you did last night to Warhawk."

That made Swift even more nervous as he tried to speak, "Uh, look about that-"

"it's fine," Adagio interrupted, taking Swift by surprise, "Warhawk doesn't blame you and I certainly don't blame you for hitting him."

That got Swift to breath out a sigh of relive.

"However."

That got Swift's attention again.

"If you ever hit Warhawk like that again, you will cease being able to use that hand," Adagio spoke softly in a calm one, "Do I make myself clear?"

Swift nodded as sweat poured from his face.

"Good."

Adagio than lightly smacked him on the bottom, getting him to seize up.

"I'm glad we had this talk."

Adagio then walked away as Swift nearly passed out.

Author's Note

Hope the wait was worth it.

IX

Brilliant Plans and Balls

It was another Monday morning at CHS. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Sonata was out in front of the school next to the statue in a kiss me both. Yep, last night Sonata got a 'brilliant' idea on how to get Souls attention and eventually make him her boyfriend. That idea came in the form of building a kiss me both in front of the school with intention of having Soul kiss her. She got the idea from her last visit at the state carnival, where she saw a similar both set up, with people actually lining up to kiss the pretty girl. In Sonata's mind, if she could get Soul to kiss her, then he would immediately fall in love and it would be happily ever after, and make a cool 25 cents.

Unfortunately for Sonata, not only is that not how true romance works, but this whole plan not only required Soul to be willing to pay for the 'services' that she would provide, but it also means that literally anyone could get in front of her booth, pay the fee, and get a smooch. And as if by some cruel joke of the spirit of chaos himself, someone was already in front of Sonata's booth.

"So I was right, you really are a whore," Axis said with venom as he looked at Sonata with disgust.

Sonata whimpered for a bit, but gained some confidence and glared back at Axis with her hands on her hips, "For your information, I made this booth for Soul, not for you."

Axis's eyebrows dipped down further, "Not only are you a skank, but also an idiot if you think that Soul would even consider paying you for a kiss bitch."

That got Sonata's face red. For months she had to put up with Axis tormenting her, insulting her, writing her that nasty letter. Well, she had enough, "Warhawk said I don't have to take any of your stuff, and even though he didn't exactly say stuff, he's right. So why don't you just leave me alone!"

Slamming his fist on the table, Axis got in close to Sonata's face, robbed her of her confidence and shouted, "Just try making me bitch!"

"What is going on here!?"

Axis and Sonata turned to see none other than Vice-Principal. She had her arms crossed and looked at Axis with disapproval, "Causing trouble for Sonata again Axis?"

"I was simply telling this freak what she is," Axis replied bitterly.

Luna's glare intensified and simply said, "Axis you will report to my office at once."

"But Vice- Princi-" "No buts! You just got yourself one week of detention young man, now move!"

Axis growled as he stomped away from Sonata and made his way to the school entrance. But before he entered, he turned around and said "You'll pay for this bitch! Mark my-"

"You just got your self two weeks of detention Axis!" Luna said with authority.

Axis growled again and shook with anger.

"You want to make it three!?" said Luna.

With that, Axis turned around and entered the school. Luna took a deep breath and sighed. She than turned to see that Sonata was looking down and depressed, "Why does he still hate me?"

Luna gave her an empathetic look, "It can be hard for people to let go of grudges Miss Dusk. Now would you mind explaining to me what this stand is for?"

"Oh. I made this stand so that when Soul this, he'll kiss me. And when he kisses me, that's when he'll say, 'Hey Sonata, would you like to be my girlfriend?" and I would say, 'For realizes?' and he would say, 'for realizes,' and then we'll kiss again, go out on dates, and then get married, and then have kids and live happily ever after." Sonata finished with a sigh and daydream look.

Luna just stared at Sonata for a minute before she put her hand to her face and sighed, Miss Dus- Sonata, I admire your optimism and I truly hope that you do find fulfillment in your life. However, I must ask you to please tear down this stand."

"What, but why?"

"You can't set up a stand on school grounds without asking for permission, especially a kissing both. Now hurry up and take this down, classes will be starting up soon."

"But how will I get Souls to kiss me and fall in love?"

"I'm sure you'll find another way to get his attention," Luna then turned to leave, leaving Sonata to sulk. She had come up with the best plan to win Soul's heart (In her mind) and now it was ruined before she had the chance. But then she remembered that gym was today and got another idea on how to gain Soul's attention.

"Time for plan B."

The Gym

It was now time for Physical Ed, and today's activity the coaches favorite sport, Dodgeball. Warhawk exited the locker room in his gym uniform with the look of someone who would rather be anywhere else but here. It didn't help that a certain someone was bothering him.

"You excited to play some ball Fennyo?"

Warhawk just eyed Treble with disdain per the norm, "About as excited as getting gonorrhea."

Zero than came to Warhawk and said, "Aw come on Warhawk don't be like that, dodgeball's awesome. It builds character and puts hair on your chest."

"Sure, because getting pelted by balls is always a great pastime."

"Someone's cheery today," said Daemon.

"Well this is mister miserable we're talking about so go figure," said Straight Edge.

Warhawk raised his middle finger to all of them, "You know fuck you all."

The guys just chuckled at Warhawks crude behavior after getting used to it. When he was done flipping the bird though, Warhawk looked around for a bit an noticed someone was missing, "Hey do any of you guys know where Artemis is?"

"I don't know man I didn't see him in the locker room," said Zero.

"He's probably running late," said Straight Edge.

"But Artemis is never late," said Warhawk.

"I didn't know you cared so much Warhawk," teased Daemon.

Warhawk's eyes narrowed, "I'm serious Daemon, he's gonna be late."

"Well there he is right now," Zero pointed out.

Sure enough, Artemis did enter the gym in his uniform, and he was wearing a particularly excited grin, "Sup guys."

"Cutting it pretty close huntress," said Daemon.

Artemis narrowed his eyes, ever since Warhawk told the guys that Artemis was the name of the Greek goddess of the hunt, they couldn't resist poking fun at him for it. Then he turned his glare at Warhawk who held up his hands, "Hey I didn't name you, your parents did. Blame them for your misfortune."

"Yeah besides Arrow," said Zero, "I think it's cool that your named after a god."

Arrow smiled a bit, until Warhawk said, "Yeah but they could have given him a masculine name like Zeus, or Apollo, Poseidon."

"Athena?" added Straight Edge.

"That's another goddess dude."

"Aphrodite?" added Daemon.

"Okay, now your just being an ass."

"Anyway," interjected Arrow, "the reason why I'm late is because I was with Aria earlier,"

"And the fact that your head is still firmly attached to your shoulders and not up your ass seems to indicate that it was a somewhat pleasant meeting." said Warhawk.

"Ha, ha," sarcastically said Arrow, "Anyway when I was walking to gym, I saw her trying to sing the them for Kingdom Hearts-"

"Simple and Clean?" interrupted Zero.

"That's the one."

"Man I love that song, who knew that Aria was into Kingdom Hearts."

"Yeah man, surprised me too. Anyway I heard her singing and, well." Artemis hesitated to say anything further until Daemon broke the ice, "Well what?"

"It was uh, not very good."

"Did you tell Aria that?" asked Straight Edge.

"If he did, you think he'd be standing here right now?" commented Warhawk.

"Yeah well, she was definitely surprised to see me catching her sing, and she did threated to break me legs. But than I offered to give her singing lessons for the showcase coming up in a couple of weeks."

"How'd she take that?" asked Zero.

"Well at first she was suspicious, but she warmed up to it saying something like 'not like I can get any worse'."

"What about Adagio and Sonata?" asked Warhawk, "I imagine that they would like to be able to sing again too. Plus, call it morbid curiosity, but I would like to hear the voices that supposedly can be used to enslave entire nations."

"Me too." added Treble.

"That does sound awesome, but what about the other students?" questioned Daemon, "You think that they might have a problem with you helping Adagio and her sisters sing again?"

"Who gives a shit what they think," said Warhawk, "If they don't like it than they can go fuck themselves."

"That's not how I would have put it, but I agree. I think Aria and her sisters have suffered enough and deserve to be able to sing again. In fact, Daemon, Warhawk, would you guys like to help me?"

"Us?" asked Warhawk.

"What can we do?" asked Daemon.

"Offer moral support, I know your close to Adagio Daemon," Daemon blushed a bit after hearing that, "and I know that Sonata and the others would be thrilled with you cheering them on Warhawk."

Both Daemon and Warhawk considered Arrow's words for a moment, with Daemon nodding and saying, "You know what? Yeah, I'm in."

"Me too."

"Great! The girls are gonna love this!"

"Speaking of the girls, here they...………. come?"

The guys looked at Treble, confused as to why he trailed off. They turned their head to see what he was looking at, only to be rendered speechless themselves.

The Dazzlings has indeed entered the gym wearing their uniforms, Only Sonata's uniform was, a bit on the small side. And by that, I mean that it left very little to the imagination. Her shorts were too short, her midriff exposed, and her shirt made it impossible not to notice.

Soon, everyone was gawking at her, from the boys with their slack jawed expressions, to the girls who felt a bit, inferior.

Adagio looked rather amused by the whole affair, while Aria just kept her hand to her face to hider embarrassment. Sonata herself, just retained her usual, blissful expression.

The girls saw Warhawk and his group and went to meet up with them.

"Hey guys?" greeted Sonata, "What's up?"

The guys were still shell shocked at what they had witnessed, much to Adagio's amusement and Aria's embarrassment, but Warhawk was able to recover first and spoke.

"Oh sweet green Jesus Sonata."

"Wha?" asked Sonata.

"What. The fuck. Are you wearing?"

"Um, my gym uniform?"

Warhawk became flustered at that response but was able to recover.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Why is your gym uniform so small? Did you not have anymore in your size? The school would have gotten you a better replacement."

"No, I picked this one on my own."

"What!? Why!? Why would you wear that on purpose?" He than turned to her sisters, "And why would you let her do this?"

"I for one find it amusing to watch everyone here get all flustered by my little sister," answered Adagio.

"I tried telling her she was the worst for wearing that just to get space geeks attention," said Aria.

"Who?"

"The white haired kid, Soul……. whatever."

Warhawk turned to look at Soul and saw that he was big eyed and red in the face, in fact Warhawk could almost swear he saw some blood dripping out of his nose. He also noticed that Sunset was giving Soul an annoyed look with her arms crossed. Shaking his head at this, he turned back to Sonata.

"Sonata, please change your clothes."

"What?" a surprised Sonata said, "Why?"

"Because your degrading yourself wearing that," Warhawk explained, "I mean for the love of God, it's a miracle that your underwear isn't visible!"

"But, I'm not wearing underwear."

That caused every male to lose their balance save for Warhawk. He was stunned to do so. All he could do was stare in disbelief for a bit and let out some noises from his open mouth. Slowly, he turned to Adagio and Aria to silently beg for answers. Adagio just kept on smirking while Aria just let out a groan and said, "She really does forget to wear underwear from time to time." Then she turned to Sonata to say, "Idiot."

Sonata just looked confused at this ordeal which did not do Warhawk any favors for his sanity. He knew that the girl could be a dimwit at times but this really pushed it for him.

Fortunately, he was able to regain his composure and looked Sonata right in her eyes, "Sonata, I'm begging you, change, your, clothes."

"But this is my plan b for getting Soul to be my boyfriend. I don't have a plan c! How else am I going to get his attention?"

"Plan b? Well what was plan- You know what? I don't want to know. Look Sonata there are better ways to get a mans attention."

"But I already got Soul's attention, and everyone else's attention too."

Warhawk facepalmed himself, "That's not the kind of attention you want Sonata. Look, a man shouldn't be interested in you just based on how you look, or how little you dress. A man should like you for who you are."

Sonata than put her hands together in a begging motion up against her chest, a posture that threatened to break poor Warhawk.

"But..... but-"

"Oh fucking bullocks. Does anyone here have a spare change of clothes for Sonata?" Warhawk asked aloud.

"Don't worry Warhawk," said Pinkie as she appeared suddenly and reached into the nearby bleachers to pull out a spare uniform, "I always keep spare uniforms around CHS. In case of spare uniform emergencies."

Warhawk stared at Pinkie with a raised eyebrow for a bit before he took the uniform, "You keep spare uniforms around the school?"

"Yep!"

"In case you or anyone might need a spare uniform?"

"Yes sir!"

"Pinkie Pie, you are so...………….. predictable," deadpanned Warhawk.

"Well that's funny, usually people say I'm random."

"And that's so predictable of you."

Warhawk than turned around and presented Sonata with the spare uniform which she reluctantly took. She glared at Warhawk for a bit before turning around and headed back to the locker room. Warhawk took in a big breath and sighed to himself and shook his head, not noticing that his friends had come up to him.

"You did the right thing Warhawk," said Arrow, "I'm proud of you."

"Man, we could have had some eye candy for class," Zero said to himself. But then he realized that the others were glaring at him, Warhawk worst of all. Seeing this, he defensively raised his hands and laughed nervously, "I mean, yeah way to go Warhawk!" Warhawk just snorted at his response.

It didn't take long for Sonata to come out with a more appropriate fitting uniform, but she was obviously still miffed at Warhawk. He just scratched his head nervously in response. But before anything could come of it, Ironwill, the coach for CHS came in.

What followed was a series of grueling exercises, training regiments, and all manor of physical hellish activities. "Ironwill is impressed that you all managed to survive this long."

"Who does this guy think he is, a drill seargent?!" Warhawk thought bitterly.

"But now it is time for you all to play the ultimate of all sports, which is?!"

"Cricket?" asked Treble.

"DODGEBALL!" Ironwill shouted in Trebles face, sending him flying into the wall.

"For this particular game, Ironwill has decided that instead of picking team captains and letting them pick their teams, we are going to have the boys and the girls duke it out and see which sex is stronger!"

That got a mixed reaction from the students, many were confused, like Rarity and Clyde, some were excited, like Rainbow and Zero, and some were nervous, like Fluttershy and Swift.

"SJW's would have a fucking field day with this clown."

"You have five minutes to prepare, so get to it!"

With that, the boys and the girls went to two different sides of the gym to talk strategy.

"This is certainly, unorthodox," said Daemon.

"Yeah, I don't feel comfortable with this," said Arrow.

"The coach has put us in an impossible position," said Soul, "If we win, we just beat up some girls. If we lose, we just got beat by girls."

"Not to mention we're pretty much screwed," said Warhawk, "They got Rainbow on their team, she's the captain of every sports team in the school, and Applejack is exceptional competitor. Plus, Aria looks like she can scrap with the best of them."

"Come on guys," said Zero, "We cant think like that!"

"Look Zero," said Warhawk, "I appreciate what your trying to do."

"No you don't"

"...… Your right, I don't, but seriously we got to face the fact here. We're boned."

"Come on guys, we can do this!" said Zero, "So long as we believe in our selves, we can win!"

"Like the heart of the cards!" said Arrow

"You know that's complete bullshit, right?"

The others ignored Warhawk as Zero tried to rally the guys with a motivational speech and giving out pointless codenames.

"Are you with me?!" exclaimed Zero.

"Yeah!" everyone but Warhawk said.

"Then lets do this!"

One one sided beating later

"Nice try guys, better luck next time," said Rainbow.

The guys were all on the ground after suffering a thorough and crushing defeat from the girls. To say it was a battle was a lie, it was a massacre.

"Hey Zero, how do you feel now?"

Zero just groaned at Warhawk's sarcastic comment.

"That's what I thought."

After P.E., Warhawk got changed back into his usual clothes and was about to head to his next class, but before he left, he noticed that Sonata was leaned up against the wall, looking miserable. Warhawk felt guilty, for he knew exactly what was wrong. As such, he approached Sonata.

"Hey Sonata."

He got no response.

"Right, still mad at me. *sigh* look, I'm sorry about getting on your case about your clothes. I just, I just don't want you get taken advantage of, or give people the wrong impression about you. I don honestly wish you luck in finding a boyfriend, and Soul does seem like a good guy. I just, don't want you to hurt yourself along the way."

Sonata sighed, then she turned to Warhawk with an apologetic look, "It's okay Jon, I'm sorry for throwing that dodgeball at your crotch area."

Warhawk winced as he was reminded of the painful experience, "It's.... no problem," he lied. "But anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"What?"

"Well, I was talking to Arrow and Daemon earlier at gym, and again in the locker room, and Arrow want's to help you and your sisters sing again for the showcase, and he want's me and Daemon there as moral support."

Sonata's eyes widened in surprise, "FOR REALSIES!?"

Author's Note

"I finally did it," said Fennyo, "I finally managed to make a new chapter."

His attention was then drawn to his virtual A.I. assistant as she spoke in a language that only he understood.

"Yes my friend, it has been rathar trying, what with reading my friend Antiquarian story and hearing how he managed to evade the angry mob, and me trying to create my future youtube channel, as well as binging anime and Voltron Legends, I'm ammazed I managed to get this thing done."

The A.I. said something else.

"Thanks for the kind words, soon everyone will know my name, and my true goal will finally be in reach."

X

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

I

Heart Broken Siren

It was a familiar scenario at Canterlot High. Students were in the Gym preparing for a special event, setting up a stage, painting signs and most importantly, they were doing this together. Then, as a certain trio of middle school kids were painting their own sign. A familiar flame colored hair girl took up a paint brush and asked with a smile,

"Want some help?"

"Nah, were almost finished Sunset Shimmer, but thanks anyway," Applebloom replied.

"Oh, alright then," said Sunset, before she handed back the brush. Just then she heard a loud, familiar voice.

"SUNSET SHIMMER!"

Turning around, she saw her group of friends, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and the one who shouted her name, Pinkie Pie.

"OVER HERE!" Pinkie shouted as she waved her hand at Sunset.

Smiling at the party girl's antics, Sunset walked towards her friends while the students she passed by greeted her warmly.

"This sure is a nice change of pace from the last time we tried to do a Musical Showcase," Sunset commented, with the girls nodding in reply.

"Guess that's what happens when you help save the school," said Applejack.

"Indeed, between that and you escorting the new students that come to our school Sunset Shimmer, I think it's safe to say that everyone here has forgiven you for your past, ahem, boo-boos," explained Rarity.

"Thanks Rarity."

"Anytime dear."

"EEEEHHHH! I'm so excited. Fluttershy are you excited?"

"Um, yes?"

"Because I'm excited! This Musical Showcase is going to be the best Musical Showcase ever. WOO HOO!!" Pinkie said in her typical fast talk when she gets excited, finishing with confetti exploding around her from out of no where.

"Heck yeah! I can't wait to show off my awesome guitar shredding skills that will be so awesome, it will blow every one away," said Rainbow as she jammed on an air guitar.

"Uh Rainbow Dash, this is a Musical Showcase, not a Battle of the Bands," Applejack said sternly to Rainbow Dash, earning an eye roll and a groan from her.

"Yeah, yeah, I know but that doesn't mean I can't show off how cool my band is, I mean our band is."

Before Applejack could retort, Sunset interjected, "What's important is that no matter what happens, we don't start fights among the school. The last thing anyone wants is a repeat of the Battle of the Bands."

"Sunset Shimmer is right, especially now that The Dazzlings have come back."

After hearing Rarity say that name, the girls remembered back to when The Dazzlings, a.k.a. The Sirens, Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk, first arrived at CHS in search of their magic. How they managed to use their own magic to not only turn the original High School Musical Showcase into a Battle of the Bands, but also turn the students against each other in order to use the negative energy generated from the fighting to fuel their own power. They also remembered how they managed to stop them with the aid of their friend Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship, by striping them of their power and their singing voices, making them sound like cats dying in a blender with nails and chalkboard thrown in whenever they tried to sing again.

After the Dazzlings spell was broken and having been booed off stage, no one had seen or heard from the Dazzlings since; until they showed up three weeks ago. Needless to say, the reception they got was not pleasant.

"I still don't get what those three are doing here or why they bothered to show their faces after what they did," said Rainbow.

"Yep, they got some nerve alright," said Applejack.

"Well it's not like they can sing again without their pendants," Rarity paused before asking, "Right Sunset?"

"I'm not so sure Rarity, when Twilight defeated me and took back her crown, some of it's magic was left behind. After all we did use it to break the Dazzlings spell. So it is possible that some of the magic in their pendants might still lie dormant in them."

"But didn't Twilight say that without those pendants, those three would be normal teenage girls?" asked Fluttershy.

"Like I said, I'm not sure."

"Speaking of the Dazzlings, here's one of them now," said Pinkie as she pointed a finger.

The girls looked to the direction of where Pinkie was pointing and sure enough, a familiar blur haired girl with a pony tail was walking in. She stopped and looked around for a bit with a smile on her face, but Pinkie could see that beneath her smile, she was both nervous and anxious, nervanxious she would call it.

The blue haired girl, known as Sonata Dusk, spotted the same group of kids that Sunset just talked to and walked over to them in order them aid in their poster.

"Hiya."

"Umm hey," Applebloom said awkwardly with Sweetie Belle and Sctootaloo giving her the same look.

"Neato poster you three have, want some help with it?" Sonata asked with a smile and hope in her eyes.

"Uh no thanks, were good," Applebloom responded, feeling a strange case of Deja vu.

Sonata, with a smile still on her face, replied, "Oh alrighty then."

With that, she turned around to try again with another group but was greeted by the whole gymnasium looking at her with scorn in their eyes as they whispered amongst each other. Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie shared those same looks where as Sunset and Fluttershy looked off to the side. Seeing this cause Sonata's smile to die and took on a saddened face as she hung her head low and walked out of the gym with a message burning in her mind. She was not welcomed here, and among those the students giving her dirty looks, one white skinned, red eyed, bald young man looked at her with complete hatred.

"I still can't believe she thought she could just waltz in and pretend that nothing happened," said Rainbow.

"Indeed darling, especially after she and her fellow sirens caused me and my dearest Clyde to break up over something so trivial. It still breaks my heart every time I think back to that time," said Rarity.

"Yep, those girls are a bunch of meanie mean pant's," Pinkie added while Applejack nodded in agreement.

"Um actually, it looked like she was sad and it makes my feel bad for her," Fluttershy said meekly, causing Rainbow to turn around and say, "Fluttershy are you serious?!" Causing Fluttershy to meep at the sudden reaction of her friend.

"Well, it's just......." Fluttershy said quietly, "I know that she and her friends did some bad things-"

"Like taking over the world or nearly forcing us apart!" said an annoyed Rainbow.

"Well, yes. But I still feel bad whenever I see her look so sad."

Rainbow continued to look at her in disbelief while Applejack sighed and said, "Look Shy, I get where your coming from. But Rainbow's right. Those girls did some mighty terrible things. This is them gettin their just desserts."

"Their getting desserts?! Where?" Pinkie randomly asked. The others just looked at her half-lid expressions either shook their heads, or face palming themselves. Pinkie was being Pinkie after all.

"But we gave Sunset a second chance right? Don't you think that maybe they deserve a second chance too?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, but Sunset was sorry about what she did, those girls ain't. It's like what I told my cousin Soul, until those girls take responsibility for their actions, I won't have anything to do with them."

At this point, Sunset looked like she was about to say something, but kept quiet.

"I.... guess your right," Fluttershy said in a defeated tone.

"Speaking of Soul, isn't it time for you to welcome the new students Sunset?"

Hearing this, Sunset jolted a bit and looked at the clock and saw that she if she didn't leave now, she was going to be late showing the new students around.

"Oh my gosh, you're right. Thanks for reminding me Pinkie."

"No problamo."

"Sorry girls but I got to leave now."

"We understand dearie, go on now," said Rarity.

Sunset smiled and started to run to the school entrance when Rainbow shouted, "Don't forget about band practice today!"

Sonata continued on her march as she tried to smile and wave at the occasional student she passed by, only to be greeted with the same scorn she received from the gym. It has been like this since they first came back. Aria responded to them by giving off her own sour look and often at times got into fights with some of the students, winning no sympathy from anyone. Adagio tried to ignore them honestly and show that she wasn't affected by them, but that just gave off a sense of smugness to the students, earning her more of their ire. Of all of them, Sonata was the only one to try and make friends, only to be met with the same results like back at the gym.

The only one to actually show her care was her one and only friend, Soul Writer. Soul had come to CHS about two weeks ago, and saw that Sonata was feeling down in the dumps. Despite hearing about what she had done, Soul still showed her concern as he said that he didn't judge people for what they did in the past. He tried to convince his friends, Swift Justice, Clyde, and even his own cousin Applejack to let Sonata in, only to be shot down. Disappointed with his friends and family, Soul continued to be Sonata's friend; causing Sonata to see Soul as a potential boyfriend, unaware that he had feelings for Sunset Shimmer instead. In spite of all of this, it was just nice to have one friend to help ease the pain she felt every time she see's those disgusted looks, but it still hurt.

Finally, she reached her locker where Aria was arguing with Adagio...... again.

"I still don't see why we had to come back to this dump of a school," said Aria.

Adagio groaned and replied, "I've already explained this Aria, ever since we lost or pendants, we lost our magic, which means, we can't charm others into giving us their money, which means we need to find a new source of money when we eventually run out and the best way to do that is to get a job, and the best jobs are offered to those who complete high school. And since we are already enrolled here, it only makes sense for us to return, especially since the principal offered to take us back in. It also get's that truant officer off our case. So deal with it."

"Pft. We wouldn't be in this situation if your plan didn't back fire," challenged Aria.

"Don't you start that with me again Aria, it wasn't my fault," defended Adagio.

"Yeah it was. Seriously, the only thing worse than that plan is Sonata."

Turning around, Sonata rebottled, "Hey, I'm not worse than Adagio's plan, your worse than Adagio's plan!"

"Whatever you say, your still the worst,' Aria snipped.

This caused Sonata's face to go slightly red, "Well I think your the worsiest worse of all the worsest things in this worst world, you worst!"

"ENOUGH!!"

Both girls turned to see Adagio had reached her boiling point with them.

"Like it or not, were stuck here. This is the hand that we've been dealt and we need to help each other, because no one else will."

Aria scuffed and went to her own locker while Sonata blew a raspberry at her and opened her own. Inside, she was surprised to find something that wasn't their before.

"Hu, what's this?"

"What's what?" Adagio asked.

"This," Sonata answered, showing Adagio what she had found while Aria continued to rummage through her locker.

"Hmm..... looks like a letter from a student," Adagio guessed.

"A letter? What do you think it says?"

"Probably a letter telling you how much the students here hate us," said Aria in an uncaring tone.

Sonata looked sad after hearing that, but the brightened up and suggested, "Or maybe it's a letter from a secret admirer, like maybe it's Soul, telling me that he want's to be my boyfriend!"

"Pft. Don't hold your breath," Aria said.

Adagio gave her an evil eye look while Sonata ignored her as she opened the letter with a hopeful smile on her face. A smile that died into a shocked expression.

"Well don't keep us in suspense, what does it say?" Adagio asked.

Sonata didn't respond as Aria turned around and asked, "What, was I right? Does that letter come from one of our haters?"

Sonata's hands started to tremble as her eyes began to get watery as Adagio and Aria started to show some concern in their expressions. "Hey Sonata, what's wrong?" Adagio asked.

Sonata's breath began to quicken and she started to sniffle and two tears started to drop from her eyes.

"Umm, Sonata-" Aria started to say but before she finished, Sonata had dropped the note as more tears left her eyes. At this point, she put her hands over her eyes and started to sob. Before Adagio or Aria could do anything, Sonata turned around and ran, crying all the way. Both of them were confused by this and Adagio picked up the note to see what was written. The both of them let out quiet gasps as they looked to where Sonata had ran and felt something they haven't felt for a long time. Pity.

Sonata continued to run, not looking where she was going. As she was running, she didn't see that the boys bathroom door had opened and someone had stepped through. Before he could see Sonata, she collided into him, resulting in the both of them falling on the ground. Sonata was the first to get up, shaking her head and still crying as she tried to register just what had happened. before she could react, she heard muffled curses and looked to see that the person she ran into was someone she never saw before. He shook his head and opened his eyes and glared right at her with blood red eyes, coupled with an expression that screamed anger.

"Hey watch where........... you're......"

Sonata knew that whoever this person is, he was just someone who hated her like everyone else in this school, so she got up and ran, not hearing what he said after words. In her mind, it was probably more curses for her.

Eventually, she stopped running and sat down on the floor with her back against a wall as she continued to cry. She continued to keep her face buried and hugging her knees until she heard a familiar voice, "Miss Dusk?"

Sonata looked up to see Vice Principal Luna looking at her with a concerned look, "Why are you crying?"

Sonata was unable to respond as she just kept sniffling and having tears continue to pour out of her now red and puffy eyes.

Luna's expression grew more sympathetic as she offered Sonata her hand. Sonata looked at Luna's hand for a bit, but grabbed it and let Luna help her up to her feet.

"Please, come into my office Miss Dusk, I'll get some tissue's and some water for you," Luna offered. Sonata sniffled again, but nodded gratefully.

Half an hour had passed as Sonata sat in a chair opposite of Vice Principal Luna, as she waited patiently for Sonata to calm down. Finally, Sonata appeared to have stopped crying and her sniffling had decreased enough for her to speak.

"Now Miss Dusk, would you like to tell me what happened?"

Sonata hesitated, but Luna gave her a reassuring look. Taking a deep breath, Sonata explained that ever since she came back to CHS, she had been trying to make friends, but was being given nothing but grief for it. She also said that ever since the battle of the bands, She and Adagio and Aria had been more at each other throats than usual. Finally, she told Luna about the letter she got.

"Would you like to tell me what the letter said Miss Dusk?"

Sonata just shook her head as fresh tears began to form and she blew her nose into some tissue paper.

Luna sighed quietly and said, "Well whatever it said, I'm sure that it's not true. Do you have any idea who could have written such a letter?"

Sonata shook her head again.

"I see. Miss Dusk, would you like to know why my sister and I let you and the others back in?"

"*sniff* umm, sure?"

"Because my sister and I believe in second chances, just like the one she gave me."

"What do you mean?"

Luna closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She opened her eyes again and said to Sonata, "When Tia and I were your age, I tried to turn this very high school against her."

"Why?"

"Because ever since we were young, Celestia was always the favorite one, our parents showed her more affection for her achievements, which over shadowed my own. It was worse in High School when everyone praised her and not me. She was once called a rising sun that could outshine any one, and I hated her for it. Eventually, I tried to spread nasty rumors about her around in secret. I even created a secret identity to carry out my ill deeds against my sister. I called myself Nightmare Moon. If Celestia was going to be the sun that outshines everything, then I would be the moon to make her life a living nightmare."

Sonata listened as Luna continued her tale.

"It wasn't long before I turned the whole school against my sister, and she was left miserable for it. For a while she continued to suffer through the hate of the students as opposed to the love she once received, but eventually, I screwed up. Celestia caught me writing up the latest rumor about her and she demanded to know why I had done this. I told her that I was feeling left out, she got all the praise and love from everyone, while I got nothing. This shocked my sister as she had no idea about how I was feeling and then told me that she was sorry for not seeing this sooner, but I didn't listen. It wasn't long before the whole school found out, and the hatred that once had been thrown against my sister, was now being thrown against me. But then something happened that I didn't expect to happen."

"What happened Vice Principal Luna?"

Luna smiled and answered, "My sister stood up for me, she explained why I did what I did and that she was partly to blame. She then lectured the whole student body about not letting their hatred cloud their judgements and that we should give each other a second chance if we can, otherwise the world will be a miserable place. It took some time, but eventually I was able to make up my deeds to everyone I hurt, and I became closer to my sister as well."

"That's a good story Vice Principal Luna."

"Thank you Miss Dusk. Now I know that things are bad for you now, but what's important is that you don't give up hope that you can be accepted, and that you do deserve a second chance, and not let depression beat you down."

"But..... it's just so.... hard. I mean I know I did some bad things, but how can I ever make things better? How is it that what you said is true?"

"Because it's what my sister said to me, when I was trying to make things right."

"For realizes?" Sonata asked with some glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Luna chuckled and answered, "Yes Miss Dusk, for realizes."

That got Sonata to smile a little and join in on the laugh.

"Now, if I'm not mistaken, It's almost lunch time, and since today is Tuesday that means......."

Sonata's eyes began to widen and her smile began to grow as she said "Today is Taco Tuesday!"

"Well you better get going if you want to get some tacos."

"Your right! Thanks so much Vice Principal Luna!" said Sonata as she began to run out the door.

"And Sonata."

Sonata turned around to see Luna smiling at her encouragingly, "If you ever need to talk, my office and my sister's are always open."

Sonata continued to smile and nodded in acknowledgement, as she turned to run out the door to get her hands on some delicious tacos.

"And no running in the halls!" Luna said in amusement.

Sonata continued jogging at a brisk pace as she finally approached the cafeteria. She took a deep breath and remembered Vice Principal Luna's words and steeled herself for the same ill welcome she got every time she entered the cafeteria. As she opened the doors, she say that the room went quiet, as the students began to whisper amongst themselves. It was the gym all over again. But Sonata would not be deterred, she moved to where Granny Smith, the lunch lady and Applejack's grandma, was and picked up a tray. She then began to load it full of Tacos until the Taco stack was almost at a comically high elevation. To Granny Smith, this was the normal routine on every Tuesday, so she made sure to make extra Tacos.

Once Sonata got her precious Tacos, she proceeded to walk to where Adagio and Aria were. As she walked, she noticed that the student's dirty looks still hadn't left her face, and though she tried to stay strong, she couldn't help but feel a little hurt by them. All the while, she tried to remember Luna's story and it gave her some encouragement, but alas, she couldn't see the ball that was rolled unto her path.

You see, every time Sonata get's her Tacos, a group of students roll a ball in her path to try and get her to trip and fall. It was actually set up as a betting pool. So far Sonata had been lucky to avoid the ball, this time though, her luck ran out.

Her foot caught the ball underneath an allowed her to trip and fall with out having the time to scream, as she fell face first into her tacos causing everyone to turn to her and saw that she was face first in Tacos. This caused everyone to laugh out loud.

Sonata managed to lift her taco covered face enough to look at everyone laughing at her. She turned around and saw Rainbow laughing her head off and most of the other girls putting their hands on their mouths as the tried to control their laughter. Sonata even imagined Soul laughing at her and Adagio and Aria as well and tears began to form in her eyes again and was about to start crying. but then she noticed someone had walked up to her.

She looked up and saw that it was the same boy she ran into, and this was when she got a real first look at him. He had pale green skin and long, dark brown hair that covered his ears. He wore a pair of brown army combat boots and green cameo pants. He wore a black t shirt with a white, sleeveless shirt over it that showed a sword, shattering in the middle, with the fragments forming a bird, like a Hawk. He also had a rough beard on his face, which was rare around school. And of course, his blood red eyes. Only instead of showing hate like the last time, he had a look of concern, the same as Luna's. He then offered her his hand.

Sonata looked at this suspiciously, but the boy said in the most compassionate tone he could muster, "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you."

Author's Note

(please refer to my 12 blog post)