Ding-Dong!

It ringed. Aria opened the door and stared into the, by now, familiar purple face. She looked behind her, then let her eyes pan from the left to the figure and from the figure to the right. Then she returned to stare at her. Still barring the way.

“Hi.” The girl said.

Aria blinked once and then finally let her in without a word, shutting the door closed. Turning around she looked at the new girl again before walking off without a single word. As she left the foyer towards the kitchen, she passed her former roommate, now homemate in a way.

“Morning Twilight!” Dawn exclaimed enthusiastically. “You’re ready for today?”

“Yes, I am.” The purple student replied, letting herself be infected with the other’s enthusiasm. “Is Aria… she is acting a bit strange, did something happen?”

Dawn laughed very sheepishly at that, rubbing her neck with a hand. “Weee, kinda had a bit of a… fight yesterday.” They had argued about her former band again. She didn’t know what had started it, only how it had ended. Aria had talked shit about them, going on about how they had failed and betrayed her. She had gotten angry at that and responded by yelling at the siren. Not long after that and they had seperated to go and calm down in their respective rooms.

Twilight’s eyes were almost as wide as tea saucers. Carefully she looked past Dawn to see if Aria was still there, only to find no trace or sound of the siren. “But-you-that… Does that mean…” She stammered.

“No, don’t worry! Everything is okay, we just had to calm off. She is still a bit rattled because she could not sleep well because of it all.” Dawn tried to assure the mind of her friend. She was only telling half the truth. There was a bigger reason for Aria’s strange activity.

For it had been Dawn who couldn’t sleep well. And when she got up she came near Aria’s room, where she heard worrying sounds from. Indeed, Aria was having another nightmare, very similar to that one night that lead to Dawn learning about the siren’s past.

As she was guiding Twiligt down towards the training room, Dawn took the lead to hide her already red cheeks darkening a little as she remembered last night. Still in a state of fuzzy sleep-deprivation, she had naturally worried for her friend regardless of their early fight, wanting to help her. So, with the rationale that only those not entirely in their functional mind can have, she had crawled into the bed and under the cover, snuggling up next to her twisting friend and wrapping her arms around her. Soon, she lost herself in her own slumber.

Aria’s current detached state was more likely an after-effect of waking up being cuddled by her friend in her bed. Which was still surprising, considering it was Aria Blaze. It often seemed like the ancient siren could never be surprised, shrugging off everything with a smirk and snarky remark. Yet, when her sleep-dazed mind had fully realized who was laying right next to her, she had frozen up completely. Dawn, who had been stirred by the awakening of her friend, had looked up to see the siren starring down at her like that.

She would probably never forget that expression. Confusion mixed with absolute shock in a brain that was too slow to fully process everything, leaving the body with the mouth hanging open. Dawn had to suppress giggling about the mental image again.

Luckily, they had arrived on the basement level, so she could stop thinking about Aria’s funny, and somewhat cute, reactions by focusing on the training. The purple siren had suggested it as something they could do together, sometime before they had visited the museum. Twilight had already met with them a couple of times, though at these meetings she had stayed mostly close to Dawn. Which was understandable. It still made Dawn happy to see that the young scientist was actually starting to open up to them, to a varrying degree atleast. And surprisingly the work-outs were proving an excellent medium for that.

At some point, Twilight had explained to her that she was likely to be chosen by her school for an upcoming competition. Ironically named the ‘Friendship Games’, a contest would be held between Crystal Prep and Canterlot High. Each school would assemble a team to compete in both theoratical and physical challenges, and Twilight was almost certainly part of her school’s team. It didn’t seem to Dawn like the frail would-be scientist had any say in the matter.

This did explain her determination though, for no matter how exhausted Twilight got, and she got exhausted fast, she still tried to push herself just a bit further. Still, she just couldn’t keep up with Dawn, and Aria was literal ages out of her reach. There was progress, slow but steady, partially helped with Aria making them strong meals afterwards.

Every session was hard and exhaustive, and this day was of course no exception. Once Aria had arrived she quickly fell back into her role as the impromptu trainer, setting the regimen and spurring them onwards relentlessly.

They were going at it for two hours straight before stopping, which was an improvement. The first time, they had not even gotten one hour done before Twilight had to tapp out.

“You two can take a break if you wanna. I’ll take a walk outside.” Aria declared as she got up and walked out of the training room. Dawn waved after her, still panting, while Twilight was laying down onto the bench, still struggling to normalize her breathing.

“Don’t burn everything down!” The lady of the house called out before she left through the front door.

Taking a deep breath, she let herself enjoy the fresh air for a moment, before opening her eyes again and making her way towards her destination.

It was time for yet another check-up.

Some would say that irregularly visiting three separate homes, stalking and standing around them for hours in a hope to catch up some sort of useful information, was an unreliable way to go about it. And Aria would agree, having more than enough experience in this sort of thing. However, she simply did not have the time for more than that; there was only so many times that one could go out ‘for a walk’ before others got suspicious, and there was only so long you could be away before ‘a walk’ was not a valid excuse anymore. Secondly, and however stupid it might be to rely on it, Aria had had coincedentially helpful circumstances quite frequent recently. Better to do something sporadically and hope for luck than nothing at all.

Finding out who was behind all that mess was too important to do nothing.

The Carousel Boutique was currently closed. Not that Aria would have desired to buy anything there, not by a longshot. In fact, this was more to her benefit, since now she had a better chance of catching her target in privat. There were only two people living here. The store owner and her younger sister, Rarity and Sweetie Belle.

It had been roughly the same with all three locations that Twilight had forwarded to her. One member of the ‘Rainbooms’ was living there with their family, but that was not the only similarity. Sweetie Belle and the younger sister of the farmgirl, one Apple Bloom, were regularly meeting with a young girl that was living in the same building as the overly-impulsive athlete of the band, a girl that was very close with said athlete.

Not necessarily important, unless one knew what Aria did. That from all three locations, those in the city had roughly the same amount of posts, while the farm had more than the other two combined. Which was certainly strange until one found out that these three girls had their own little club complete with a club house, which was incidentally located on the farm grounds.

But surely, these were kids, their older siblings/friends were more likely candidates… except, they were not.

This was simply because, when Aria had gone over the Anon-A-Miss debacle itself, she had quickly realized something. It had started secrets and photos specifically about the Rainbooms; from what she had been able to gather by talking with Dawn and subtly navigating the conversation to said events, it appeared that the entire group had made a slumber party at one of their member’s homes. Which provided several crucial clues.

First of all, unless the culprit was a rather good hacker which was unlikely since Twilight had no trouble finding the origin of the posts, they would have been there. So, the suspects were any of the band and any family member that lived with them. Only problem was that Aria could not find out where the parties had taken place without risking Dawn figuring her plans out.

Second of all, every member of the Rainbooms was practically excempt from her list of potential culprits. Not just because they were the first to be targeted. It would have been a decent tactic, to make oneself the first victim to divert suspicion, the problem was why? There was no reason that sprung to Aria’s mind that required such actions that couldn’t be made without it too. Except to sever ties with Dawn, or rather Sunset Shimmer.

However, from all that she had heard, there was no reason for them to do that either. In fact, everything had gone great for them after the… Band Battle Shitshow. There had been enough trust to make such actions wildly out of character.

Unless of course, Sunset turned out to revert back to the manipulative queen of Canterlot High, who had tormented each of the Rainbooms in a different way. That would be enough reason to properly destroy this friendship. Aria was glad that she had been alone when this thought crossed her mind, for she had burst out laughing for a solid minute. As simple as the plan was and as flawed as it was for relying on the stupidity and impulsiveness of the entire student body, it had proven to work quite effectively. She was almost impressed. Almost.

So, the culprit’s goal was most likely to bring Sunset down, specifically to tear her away from her newfound friends, as proven by the first posts. Thusly her targets where people close to each Rainboom member of whom she had the adress, that wanted to get rid of Sunset.

And that was not a long list, unfortunately not an easy one to choose from either. The family of the athlete, Rainbow Dash, was too straightfoward for such a thing, also her father worked with the police, too unlikely. With the other two, Rarity and Applejack the farmgirl, they both had no parents present. Applejack lived with her old granny, obvious pass on her, and her older brother. Rarity, she already knew, only lived with her younger sister, her parents out of town almost always.

So, she had the stoic older brother and three young girls as the only potential targets, atleast until Twilight finally gave her actual names. Speaking of…

Little Sweetie Belle had just left her home, to go and meet with her friends, and Aria was only too happy to follow her to the meeting point. Standing in the bushes near an open window so she could hear into the building was certainly not the most entertaining thing to do, unless something interesting happened inside. And considering that the resident seamstress was in yet another meditation & relaxation meeting with the butter-coloured shygirl, nothing good was going to happen anytime soon.

Tailing the young white girl was a literal child’s game for her, especially when the kid put earbuds in to listen to some music. Still, even with chances of her gaining any suspicion being practically zero, Aria had started to put some extra effort into keeping subtle and undercover. It felt strange to be back doing this after several decades, pursuing a child for such, admittedly minor reasons, compared to her targets long ago. But in another way, it felt good to flex that particular ability ingrained in her mind and body.

It also helped that she already knew the route they were walking. Straight towards the nearest bus stop, and then wait for the next ride that would take one to the stop near Sweet Apple Acres.

There were not many people taking a bus this far out from the city, usually other farmers or such. Even then, not once had Aria received a direct glance or any sign that she was arousing suspicion, and never once had she been really noticed by those she was trailing.

The, in contrast, hardest part was yet to come, however. Incidently it was the part that required Aria to put in the earnest of efforts, and thus the most enjoyable part for the siren.

Quietly she followed Sweetie Belle through the massive achres towards the club house, stepping carefully yet quickly to keep track but also quiet. This was different than casually following someone in the city; if she was caught here, she would be in serious trouble, trespassing and stalking someone, not helped by the fact that the people here would already be badly inclined towards her.

But nobody saw her, and she didn’t even have to resort to using her magic. Finally, the clubhouse appeared between the countless trees, an animated discussion evidencing that the other two members of the club were already here. Aria stopped and waited for a moment, letting Sweetie Belle enter the house and close the door, before she took position underneath one of the windows. She could follow their words well enough.

Whatever the kids talked about, Aria had soon forgotten about it for it had been unimportant and boring. That was the sobering truth, ninety-five percent of what you heard when eavesdropping was useless small-talk or trivial things, the art was to tune it out and keep your ears open for the important stuff.

She could have used her magic of course to try and bring the kids to confess. Would have been much easier to do so than trying to listen in and pick up something that would prove her correct. However, it wasn’t that simple, atleast for her. This world was still starved of magical energy and she had already used fair amounts when Dawn had awoken and after that when they had gone to the police to give Twilight an aliby for skipping school.

Unless she found atleast one of them in a position where it would be easier to bring them to talk, using her magic would be costly in terms of energy. She had enough in her to probably do it, but it would leave her nearly empty, something she wanted to avoid. One can never know what might just happen, so it was best to have good reserves available.

And it wasn’t like she was in a rush at the moment, so she could afford preserving her magic in favor of these more classical approaches and maintain her reserves for when it was really necessary. One didn’t survive for centuries without contingencies.

“Rarity has been doing better recently. She is meeting often with Fluttershy, doing things together. Lot of meditation, or they talk about things.” Sweetie Belle told her friends. Then her voice dropped, a sadness creeping in. “They’re both still coping with eachother. It’s… I can’t stay in the house very long when they do that, it… it just hurts to see Rarity so sad when they talk, or when F-fluttershy starts to shake again.”

The other one, Scootaloo, shuffled around, likely getting next to her friend. “I know, Rainbow always goes on about how weak Fluttershy still is, she constantly fears something is going to cause her breaking down again.”

“Dunno how I could live with it if somethin’ happened to her. It would be our fault, ultimately.” The young farmgirl, Apple Bloom, muttered.

Bingo! I knew I was onto something! Aria thought to herself, perking her eyes to capture every single word.

“The worst part is… we got lucky. We could have lost our sisters so easily.” Sweetie Belle told the others. “Apple Bloom, you told us how Applejack had behaved after Suns-after she passed away. She managed to get a hold of herself again but, it is frightening to think how easily she could have lost control of it all. A-and Rarity… I, I was afraid whenever I woke up and didn’t hear anything in the house that she…” And that point Sweetie choked on her words, not able to complete what she was about to say. More shuffling could be heard and soon one of the other children was softly telling her that everything was right, intermingled with light sobbing.

“I still get nightmares sometimes. That I wake up and… she is just gone. Or just lying on the ground.” She almost whispered.

“All that because we made that stupid account. I wish I could go back in time and punch myself.” Scootaloo grumbled.

“I’m with ya, Scoots, but sadly we can’t.” Apple Bloom replied somberly. “Just gotta keep moving forward.”

Down on the ground, Aria allowed herself a smile, she had heard more than enough. It had paid off at last, all those hours standing next to open windows and listening to asinine conversations. Now, she had proof of who had been behind all this. Now she could focus on getting a full confession from the little turds. And then, her vengeance for her friend.

Silently, she began to move away from the clubhouse, though as she reached the safety of the apple trees an idea wormed itself into her head. It was too good to pass up. And so, getting on her knees, Aria quickly gathered three decent-sized stones. She got into position and listened once more. The kids were still talking, not having noticed anything.

Inside the clubhouse, the three young girls’ conversation was stopped as something impacted the side of the small building with a loud thud. All three stared for a moment at the wall from where the sound had originated, then looking at eachother with wide eyes.

“Sh-shouldn’t we stay inside?” Sweetie Belle asked, as her two friends both got up and rushed to the door. She only kept sitting for a few more seconds before running after them, curiosity paired with the fear of being left alone outweighing her caution.

Yet as the group were now standing outside, looking at the wall where the noise had come from and scanning the ground, they could find nothing. Apple Bloom scanned the trees surrounding them, yet she saw no movement.

“Maybe it was a bird and it has already flown aw-“ She said before being interrupted, as another thud echoed through the achre, this time from the other side of the clubhouse. All three girls jumped at the sudden noise.

Cautiously, they stepped around, their eyes darting around wildly. Yet again, there was no sign of anything, not on the ground, not in the trees, nowhere. It didn’t help that it was slowly starting to get dark.

“How about we go to my house?” Applebloom proposed, keeping the fear from creeping into her voice as much as possible. The other girls nodded and so, they rushed inside the clubhouse again to grab their things. Scootaloo had just picked up her scooter, sharing a nod with her two friends as…

Thud!

This time, it had come from the door.

The girls stared at it. Looks were thrown out of the windows for signs of, well anything really. But nothing, just as the other times. There was only one way out. They had to try it.

Carefully, Apple Bloom approached the door, holding an ear against it for a moment. She could hear nothing on the other side. Looking back, her two friends right behind her and reaffirming her, she pushed down the door handle.

Slowly, very slowly, the door was opened, granting more and more of the view outside. Three sets of eyes were wide open, looking fearfully for whatever was lurking here. It felt like months, if not a few years had passed, until the door would not open further.

The three girls stood there in the door frame, each having her heart beat right up into the throat, awaiting the next sudden sound, or worse, something striking one of them.+

But nothing. The apple trees quiet and peaceful.

“L-let’s just g-g-go.” Scootaloo said, shaking slightly as she descended the small stair case, the others followed her quickly.

Picking up the pace they almost ran towards the Apple family house. Their silent observer did not follow them. She had listened enough and she had had her fun for tonight.

Aria casually made her way back through the achres, quietly humming to herself. The little game had certainly lifted up her already good mood considerably. Things were moving forward.

When Aria returned to her house, her face had not changed at all. She smirked as she parked her bike in the garage, just like she smirked while casually strolling the front door. Only when she entered did she change her expression, so as to not give away her newly found secret.

Twilight’s shoes were still at the door, so they must still be somewhere. Depending on how long the young girl planned to stay, she might have to cook for three people. It had been a while since she did that…

With a rapid shake, Aria interrupted that line of thought. She did not want to have her good mood ruined by getting sentimental again. She focused on listening into the house, trying to get a sense of where the two were right now. Standing completely still in the hallway, she perked her ears attentively. After a minute she opened her mouth partly and played with her vocal cords for a moment, before sending a few pulses into the halls of her home.

There they were! Casually, she began to make her way towards the basement. Apparently, they had continued with training even after she had left already. The door downwards was shut, which allowed only a fraction of her pulse waves to make it through. However, Dawn’s aura was more than familiar to her by now, and it had only become easier to pick up since the girl’s magic had been ‘awakened’ again.

She was already making her way down the stairs when the door to the training area opened up and her friend stepped through.

“I felt that, the… wave thingy that you do.” Dawn told the siren straight up, though she was keeping her voice down for some reason.

Aria raised both her eyebrows at that, stepping down the last stairs and standing right in front of the red girl. “Interesting.” She replied. “Though I should not be that surprised I suppose. Also why are you so quiet.”

Instead of an answer, Dawn simply gestured to something in the training room. Sticking her head inside, Aria could plainly see Twilight’s limp body resting on one of the benches that had been somewhat polstered with towels. A thin blanket had been draped over her. She could also her light breathing; the young scientist was actually sleeping.

“She laid down for but a moment and next I know she is snoozing already.” Dawn recounted, not able to keep an amused smile off her lipps. Carefully she closed the door to let Twilight have her nap. Turning to her friend again she clasped her hands behind her back.

“Aria, I thought about it. And I don’t think you will like it…” Dawn said almost in a formal way.

Whatever trace of a smile had been forming on Aria’s face, it vanished immediately. There was only one thing that Dawn could be talking about it, after she had very intendly ended the question of wether or not pursuing revenge.

“I want to contact the Princess.”

Author's Note

Dawn:"And you're promise that you won't go after revenge."
Aria:"Yes. But actually no, big no."

🎉 This is the 1st Anniversary of Born from Flames!
One year, nearly 90k words, 1,5k views and 4/70 dis/likes as of today.
That is amazing ...and slightly scary, oh god what am I doing?
Never thought I would go so far with a bunch of ideas and brain ~~farts~~ images; well here we are!

I should also tell everyone that after this there are only two more chapters (+epilogue) for this story. The first will set everything up for the finale and the second is going to handle the final climax and ending, epilogue is going to handle some lose ends and sh*t. That will be interesting and even more scary.

Also lastly: Thank you, for reading this weird story to this point and giving your opinion.
Stay safe out there and do not forget to love eachother.