Phoenix

Fireside stood in awe at the massive monument to consumerism that loomed high above her. She leaned onto her right side, her sisters moving around to stand beside her.

“That’s a mall!?” she looked around at the three girls beside her, each of them either chuckling or grinning at Fireside’s outburst.

“Yup.” Aria nodded, her smile deepening. “Six floors and more than four million feet of space dedicated to sin. You can find anything from clothing stores and food courts, to racetracks for horses and adult only shops.”

“Please tell me we aren’t visiting one of those.” Fireside blanched as she stared at Aria in dread, the feeling only amplifying as the crass girl’s grin deepened.

“No we won’t.” Adagio interjected, lightly cuffing her errant sister on the back of the head before turning to Fireside who was busy sighing in relief. “At least, not today.”

Fireside’s rapidly swapped from pale with dread to flushed with embarrassment. “A-Addy!”

“Oh! We should stop by the Herb and Spice trading Company while we are here!” Sonata leaned forward, her santa hat bopping her in the face. “I need to restock out spice cabinet!”

“This shopping trip is for Fireside, Sonata. Remember?” Adagio stared sternly at the bubbly girl, her hands resting on her hips.

“I know that! But we really need the spices for my homemade taco seasoning!” Sonata stared back at her sister, her puppy dog eyes threatening to release the torrent held within.

“We’ll see.” Adagio turned on her heel, starting to march her way towards the ocean of people making their own ways in and out of the mall. “Come along now, I do not wish to freeze to death out here.”

“Agreed. It is waaay too cold here.” Aria rubbed her arms and stormed after Adagio, leaving Sonata and Fireside alone beside Adagio’s car.

“I’m fine if you three want to do some of your own running around, by the way.” Fireside said as she started making her way with Sonata after their two hurried sisters. “I do hope that we don’t end up spending all that money.”

“Oh boy, Glowy, Are you in for a surprise!” Sonata playfully clapped the injured girl across the back. “With everything we have planned, we’re gonna need more money.”

Fireside stopped immediately.

***

“There you two are!” Aria called out as Sonata slowly dragged Fireside into the behemoth of a building “I was worried that you two had turned to popsicles out there!”

“I’m guessing Sonata may have let word out about our intentions, Aria.” Adagio grinned at the mess of a person Fireside was looking like. “And given how stubborn our dear Fireside is, I’m going to assume that Sonata had to prove how strong she is to get the two of them into here.”

“Okayokayokay!” Fireside lightly shook free from Sonata’s hold as she moved to stop in front Adagio. “I figured that that gift card was just a joke, but you guys managed to convince me for some reason to take it. But then! Then Sonata mentions that we are somehow going to need more money to be spent on me? What are we going to be doing here? Buying the whole dang mall!?”

“Seriously, Glow, would it kill you to cuss for once?” chuckles erupted from Aria as the girl made her way forward through the crowd of people before resting a hand on the girl’s right shoulder. “I swear, I could put my hand through a god damn blender and still be able to count the number of times you’ve uttered a curse.”

“Not all of us make sailors blush on a regular basis, Aria.” Adagio tapped her foot from further ahead. “Now would you three come along? It will be a bit of a wait for one of the elevators it looks like, and we do have places to be.”

“Fine, fine. But I’m fine with taking the stairs.” Fireside slowly made her way forward, attempting to pass Adagio only to be immediately be stopped by a firm arm from the smallest of the four sisters.

“Trust me, you aren’t gonna make it through that crowd without breaking the other half of your body.” Adagio’s head jerked back towards the stairs, causing Fireside to stop and take in the unbreakable tide of people clamoring to get up or down the stairs. “We’ll take an elevator.”

“Well! Speak of the devils!” a voice shouted out from behind Adagio, causing the girl to start to turn around. “Or should I say, Dazzlings.”

“Well, shit. What are you doing here, Zappy?” Aria had strode forward, intercepting a girl with hair striped by multiple shades of blue, and pulling her into a rough embrace. “How’s your holidays?”

“Eh, it’s cold so not too much fun outdoors sadly, you?” ‘Zappy’ asked, grinning as she rustled Aria around.

“Just taking care of our wayward sister here.” the peach coloured girl turned to look towards Fireside, whom Aria had just jerked her head towards. “And I see the rest of your posse is with ya.”

“Well we couldn’t exactly leave Indigo here by herself, now could we?” a yellow skinned girl strode forward, resting a hand on a hip as she flipped her long red and green streaked ponytail behind herself.

“More like you called us as like seven in the morning cause you were feeling lonely, Sour, so we were forced to brave the mall for no other reason.” said the long, green haired girl who was busy moving her large headphones down to rest around her neck, earning a dark glare from ‘Sour’ as she turned to look at Fireside. “So what happened to you?”

“Lemon Zest? Why would you ask someone you do not know about their injuries?” asked the girl with short purple and reddish hair, only to turn towards Fireside as well. “I do apologize for all of my associates inappropriate actions.”

“No worries.” Fireside gave an uneasy chuckle as she rubbed the back of her head, noticing a fifth girl in the back, remaining silent as she rubbed her delicate blue chin as she seemed to studied Fireside. “They meant no wrong.”

“Jeez, you’re as nice as Sonata it seems. What’s your name, Red?” asked ‘Zappy’, or whom Fireside guessed was Indigo.

“I’m Fireside Glow, the fourth sister of this group it seems.” Fireside smiled as she bowed her head “I take it you girls know my sisters then?”

“We’re classmates.” said the polite girl with the purple and reddish hair. “At Crystal Prep Academy. They never made mention of you before though.”

“How come?” came the simple and blunt question from the pale blue girl with large white pigtails.

“I don’t know to be honest. I don’t remember any reason why, but truth be told I blame the amnesia for that.” Fireside gave a knowing smile.

“Are you five about done doing the impromptu inquisition of our sister?” Adagio crossed her arms as she came to Fireside’s defense, staying close with the girl. “And does it really matter if we never mentioned her before? The three of us have been busy fighting for our spot in the schools hierarchy.”

“Fireside was busy studying abroad but got homesick and decided to come home, but didn’t tell us when. We lucked out and found her one night after she was attacked and she’s been staying with us since.” Sonata summarized, stepping between Fireside and the other five girls before turning to Fireside, pointing in turn to each of the other five girls. “These are Indigo Zap, Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Sour Sweet, and Sugarcoat. They are schoolmates of ours and, hopefully, yours as well soon.”

“Nice to meet you girls. Hopefully we can all be good friends!” Fireside smiled warmly as she looked at the five of them.

“If introductions are done, we really should be going. We have a lot to buy for Fireside here.” Adagio was doing her best to to break up the two groups and getting on with their shopping trip.

“Alright, alright, we’ll get goin then, Adagio.” Indigo said, embracing Aria one last time before walking up to Fireside and slapping a hand on the girl’s good shoulder. “Well hopefully you end up joining us over at Crystal Prep! If your sisters are anything to go by, you should be one hell of a gal.”

“Er… Thanks? I -I think?” Fireside could only smile then frown in confusion as Indigo, followed by the other four girls, bid farewell and made their way out of the mall.

“Alright, interruptions are hopefully done for the day.” Adagio pulled up her left arm and took a look at the watch wrapped around her thin wrist. “We should try and get into an elevator now.”

“Well, why don’t you go ahead and get one then? I’m probably gonna take an hour to get through this sea of people.” Fireside noticed that the amount of people around her seemed to be somehow increasing. “I’ll get there eventually.”

“Come along, then.” Adagio instructed, powering her way through the crowd in a way that only she could as the other three sisters looked among one another, shrugging.

***

“Is a feathered quill really that important?” Aria stared with dead, glossy eyes as Fireside fawned over the red and yellow tipped feather quill with a brass ink pot that she held in her hands.

“Are you kidding me? This thing is so awesome!” Fireside beamed at the scoffing girl, ignoring the tantrum Aria was acting out. “Don’t you agree, Sonata?”

“I know, right!” Sonata was holding up a dual toned blue quill with a silver ink pot. “We’ll totally match!”

Adagio shook her head, Aria faked sticking a finger down her throat, but Sonata and Fireside ignored them as they squealed in excitement about the items in their grasps.

***

“Okay, so school supplies are done, but why aren’t we taking the bags with us?” Fireside looked over shoulder as they left Paperclips without a single item they had just purchased.

“Like we said, the mall has a shipping service, so our items will arrive home at the end of the day.” Adagio said as the four of them made their way back into the over packed halls. “Now, there’s three hundred spent on school supplies, next up should be some home decor for you, because your room is in desperate need of some TLC, darling.”

“So where to then? Only place in the mall would be Broils, and that place is on it’s way out of business last I heard.” Aria paused in front of the elevator, glaring at people and pointing at Fireside.

“Well then that’s the best reason to go there/” Adagio got into the elevator first, making sure that it was clear for Fireside to enter. “Come along, dears. We have more goodies to buy.”

“Joy.” Fireside rolled her eyes as she made her way into the elevator.

***

“Please tell me Sonata is gonna help me with all of this.”

The four girls stood in front of a mass of boxes that would be used to spruce up Fireside’s room, Aria slumping at the thought of all the construction that was awaiting her in the future while Adagio was handing the gift card over to the teller.

“I’m sure she would be more than happy to help you, isn’t that right, Sonata?” Adagio turned and smiled as she interrupted the girl who was busy chatting with Fireside.

“Do I gotta? Aria’s the strong one!” Sonata pouted as Adagio tilted her chin down at an angle. “Fiiiiine. But Fireside has to be in the room helping us by pointing where everything is going!”

“I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to at least do that.” the amber girl shifted about on her crutches as she looked over at the boxes. “I thought my room was already pretty good.”

“Well now it will be even better.” Adagio rook the card back from the teller with a nod, urging the girls towards the exit. “Since you’re going to be joining us at CPA you needed a proper desk, one that will be holding whatever sort of computer that you decide on, as well as some bookshelves.”

“Okay, but did I need that… Is that thing even a chair?” Fireside looked back as a younger looking teenager walked up to the till they were just at, his face galling as he looked over all the boxes laying there.

“It’s a chaise longue, Prench for lounge chair, and everyone in our family has to have their own chair. That’s the one you chose, so it will be getting added to the living room tomorrow morning, right, Aria?”

Aria let out a guttural growl and spat out something that may have sounded like a word in another language.

“Aria! Five bucks for the curse jar when we get home!” Sonata called out, swatting the girl in the back of the head.

“Um… What did she just say?” Fireside looked around at her sisters, Adagio doing her best to keep Sonata and Aria away from one another.

“Think nothing of it, Fireside. Just Aria using some colorful language that I told her not to use is all.” Adagio glowered at the suddenly backpedaling Aria.

How is pony hugger a curse? Fireside thought as she followed along with her sisters.

***

“Food time!” Sonata called out, giving a small hop on the escalator and earning glares or confused looks from those around them. “I am dying for a seven layered quesarito chipotle beefy nacho supreme!”

“What the heck is that?” Fireside looked in shock at the girl who was staring off into space, a small bit of drool building at the corner of her mouth.

“Some kind of special menu item Sonny likes to get from the taco place in the food court.” Aria shrugged as she nudged Sonata from her stupor, the girls getting off of the escalator. “I’m just gonna go over to Kegly’s and get me a steak. Text me when you all are done.”

“Oh? We’re not having lunch together?” Aria turned and froze in spot, her face looking uneasy as she took in the pouts that were aimed at her.

On a bad day, a Sonata pout could stop all war in the world, but the ponytail wearing girl was giving her saddest puppy dog eyes as she leaned onto Fireside, the girl trying to give a percentile as convincing of a pout as her sister.

“S-stop that!” the brash sister called out, shaking as she tried to look away. “I had to put up with all of your shopping and I want a steak, damnit!” Tears slowly started to build at the corner of the eyes staring at her.

“Gah! Fine! But you two are buying!” Aria huffed as she crossed her arms, slowly making her way back towards her three sisters, Adagio hiding her chuckles of amusement as Sonata embraced her sister with patented vigor.

“Well what all do we have in this place?” Fireside managed to get out between chuckles of her own and gasps of air. “I don’t have a clue of what could fit my apparent needs.”

“Well, maybe a veggie taco from Morgan’s Taco’s?” Sonata stood still in reserved thought, before bursting into an active frenzy of poses. “Oh! And you have to try the Strawberry Banana Wendell from Blue Wendell’s!”

“Alright, alright, just lead the way, Sona.” Fireside chuckled as she followed along behind the enthusiastic girl, her other two sisters a few steps behind.

“Alright! Drinks first!” Sonata stopped at the end of the lineup for Blue Wendell’s, spinning on her heel as she looked back at Fireside. “Now I know you can’t handle meat, but if you ever want to try someday, these guys have the best weiners!”

Aria burst into howls of laughter at her sister’s innocent comment, the girl tilting her head in confusion at the action, watching as Fireside ducked in embarrassment. Adagio was merely shaking her head into her palm, a well used sigh escaping from her lips.

“Er… Sonata? Maybe you should keep it down?” Fireside said, standing up straight again, looking at the group of girls ahead of them.

They were a quartet, one the height of Adagio it seemed, but with hips even wider. Music blared from her headphones, much like Lemon Zest from earlier, and she bobbed her blue on blue striped hair in time with the music. The second, around Aria’s height, tried her best to not let Fireside see her sneaking looks, her mouth barely moving in rapid actions as she brushed her pink and blue split hair. The third may no effort to be subtle, earning a remark of some sort from the second, as she waved a mint green hand before turning to look back at Fireside. The girl paused before shooting out that pale green hand and roughly shaking on the shoulder of the charcoal haired girl.

“I do say, Lyra, what is the… the… issue…?” the girl turned around, her mulberry eyes widening in shock as she paused.

“S… Sunset…?” the refined tone of her voice carried an assortment of emotions, shock, amazement… worry? Fireside looked around, only to notice her sisters frozen in place.

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Aria added eloquently.

“Uh oh…” Sonata added quietly, looking with worried eyes at both the group in front of them, and Fireside.

“Oh, hello you four.” Adagio said, putting on a warm smile. “We haven’t seen the four of you in ages!”

The pale, off white one with the spike dual toned blue hair ripped her headphones off, the techy sounding music blaring from them as she pointed Fireside, her eyes hidden by her purple glasses.

“Er… Addy? Should I know these girls?” Fireside looked back at her sister, then back to the four girls, each of them looking at her in shock. “Er… Hi? I guess? I’m really sorry, I don’t know what’s happening right now.”

“Sunset? What are you doing with those… monsters?” asked the cream skinned one, stepping forward and studying Fireside intently.

“Monsters? I’m sorry, but you must be mistaken!” Fireside shot back, riled up by the insult directed at her sisters. “These are my sisters, and they are the nicest people in this whole damn world, thank you very much!”

“Damn, so that’s what it took for ya to pop your cursing cherry, huh?” Aria strode her way towards her sister, slinging an arm around the angry girl. “Relax girl. They meant nothing of it, I assure you.” Fireside looked back at Aria, noticing the look she was giving the four girls ahead of them, then returned to glaring at the four girls, all of whom were still frozen in shock.

“These four must know you from some time before you started studying abroad, Fireside.” Adagio walked forward, her arms laying across her chest. “We know them from the short time we studied at Canterlot High School.”

“Would you three mind stepping away from out friend there?” the mint one strode forward with purpose, stopping right in front of Fireside.

“Friend? Look, I’m sorry, but you four must be mistaken. That, or my amnesia is making issues again…” Fireside’s anger slowly flowed away, replaced with embarrassment and confusion, as well as a dull pain blossoming in the back of her mind. “But you say that I’m your friend? But you keep calling me Sunset? How come?”

“Because that’s your name, love.” the grey skinned girl said, looking up at the taller girl’s aquamarine eyes.

“My name? My name is Fireside, not Sunset.” the amber girl studied the tallest of the other quartet, noticing the girl taking a step back, before reassessing her confident pose.

“No, your name is Sunset Shimmer. You are a student at… well, you did study with us at Canterlot High School. Don’t you remember that?”

“She said she was suffering from amnesia.” Aria said, Fireside looking back and finally noticing how quiet Sonata was being, the girl seeming to be coming to tears.

“Sonata?” Fireside shook free of Aria’s hold, shuffling her way back to Sonata, only to have the girl let out a wail and start running away. “Sonata! Wait, come back!”

“Sunset? What are you doing chasing after her?” one of the other girl’s voices trailed after her as she rushed to find her Sister, the girl finally stopping as she arrived at the entrance to the washrooms.

“Sonata? What’s wrong?” Fireside slowly walked over, doing her best to embrace the girl given her injured condition, and starting to try and comfort the sobbing girl. “Shh, I’m here, Sona. Everything is fine.” The girl remained silent, shaking as dry sobs wracked her frame.

“Did those girls mean it when they said you were monsters? I should go teach them a lesson!” Fireside’s comforting tone bled way to a snarl of protective rage as she started to pull away, only to get locked in place when Sonata’s hand latched onto the sleeve of her good arm.

“D-don’t, okay?” she looked up, her magenta eyes still brimming with tears as she choked out her response between small sobs. “I’ll be- I’ll be fine. They were right to call the three of us monsters… Especially after what we did to them all…”

“What do you mean?” Fireside looked down in worry at her sister, her emotions going wild at how despondent and sorrowful the usually unnaturally happy girl had become.

“What she means, is, that we were a little… forceful in our approach to CHS’s Muscial Showcase when we turned it into a Battle of the Bands.” came Adagio’s calm response, Fireside turning around and watching as her two sisters walked towards her, the other four girls following closely behind. “Things got a little heated because of us, to say the least.”

“Yeah, that’s part of why our tenure there was so short.” Aria rolled her eyes, her voice radiating her annoyance at whatever the event was. “We transferred to CPA shortly afterwards and, well, you know the base of the story.”

“Okay, but why do those four keep calling me… What was it again?” Fireside passed her eyes over each of the girls in turn, taking in the worried expressions they wore, the way it affected their movement.

“Sunset Shimmer.” said the grey skinned girl, obviously the leader of the four of them. “At least, that’s what we called you while you were there.”

“I was a student at CHS? When?” Fireside looked at her sisters even as she directed the question to the other four girls.

“Since the start of ninth grade, so like three years ago.” the mint green girl added.

“Okay, then why didn’t I see my sisters? And why would I go to that school if my, uh… my sisters…?” Fireside started to rub her temples, the headache blossoming painfully.

“We don’t know why you stopped attending after eleventh grade.” came one of the voices, the creme one Fireside thought as she tried to fight the fury building in her head.

“Are you okay there?”

“Hm? Ye-yeah, I’m fine. Just, erm… Just trying to take this all in is all.” Fireside gave a nervous chuckle as she tried her best to sell her false truth.

“Regardless, you five knew each other before, so there’s no reason to not start again. Who knows, maybe it will help jog your memory.” Adagio came to stand beside her sister, hugging her as close to her side as her wide hips would allow. “Why don’t you girls introduce yourselves to our dear sister here, hm?”

The four girls looked around at one another, the other three eventually stopping their eyes on the tall, dark haired girl, or at least Fireside thought, as the dark purple glasses hid the eyes of the near white girl.

“Alright then.” she said, coughing slightly as she stepped forward before brushing an errant strand of charcoal hair out of her face. “My name is Octavia Melody, and these are my friends, Vinyl Scratch, Lyra Heartstrings, and Bon Bon.” Fireside nodded to each in turn, responding to the greetings they gave.

“I do apologize about earlier,” said the blue and pink haired one. “Things didn’t end on the best footing with your… sisters.”

“Aria probably made a fool of herself or something, I take it?” Fireside smiled as she looked at the four of them. “No worries, I’m sorry about getting so protective of them. I don’t have much, so I value the three of them above anything.”

“Well, seeing as everyone has said their pieces, why don’t we all go our separate ways now?” Adagio stepped between the two groups, turning so she could face both at the same time. “It was nice to see the four of you again, even if things were a little messy last time.” Everybody nodded before starting to break away, only for the music loving girl to pause and look back at Fireside before rushing over to her.

“Give me your phone.” she said so quietly Fireside almost didn’t hear, the lyrical tones barely making it to Fireside’s ears.

“Phone? I-I’m sorry, I don’t have one.” Fireside looked down apologetically to the girl, only to have a small device shoot into her vision.

“She can use mine.” came Sonata’s voice, the pale blue hand holding the phone shaking it. “I’ll add it to yours, Fireside, once we pick it up.”

“Oh, um… sure?” Fireside took the device from Sonata and handed it towards Vinyl Scratch. “Is that okay?”

The girl’s action was her response, as she stole the device right out of Fireside’s hand and started tapping away furiously at the screen before handing it back and waving hesitantly as she retreated.

“Um… What just happened?” Aria asked, looking in confusion at the device in Fireside’s hand.

“I, uh… I guess I’m gonna have to stay in touch with my friends?” Fireside gave a weak shrug to go with an equally lame shrug.