"...and theeeeennnn I popped up out of her surprise cake screaming 'HAPPY CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING THAT SUPER DUPER A+!' Hehehe. Poor Twilight fell over into the punch bowl."

The girls at the table burst into uproarious laughter at Pinkie's story, Twilight adjusting her glasses with an embarrassed expression supplementing her grin.

"Well, to be fair, I really was very surprised." She admitted. "Luckily, Pinkie was prepared, and doused me in a bucket of water so the punch washed right off. Although...the living room floor was a disaster."

"Totally awesome!" Rainbow stated, fist-bumping the hyperactive party girl. "I wish I could have seen that!"

"Dear me, the thought of that fabulous outfit ruined by red punch stains though..." Rarity shuddered and then smirked. "But I suppose it was quite the hilarious picture."

"Oh it was." Applejack was grinning widely. "Pinkie dragged me an' Fluttershy along. Gotta say it was quite a hoot watchin' Twilight tryin' to get that punch bowl unstuck from herself."

Fluttershy giggled, nodding in agreement with the farm girl's statements. Sunset, for her part, wiped a stray tear of laughter from her eye and inhaled deeply to regain her composure.

The only one not in hysterics at the table drew their attention from their mirth, and Rainbow arched an eyebrow.

"Yo, Syntax! You ok over there?"

The teen didn't even't seem to register her words. She was sitting with her elbows on the table and her chin resting in her palms, gazing with a fairly dreamy expression across the room, apparently lost in deep contemplation.

"What is she even staring at?" Twilight frowned, trying to follow the girl's line of vision.

"Syntax!" Rainbow all but yelled, at the same time giving her pale lavender and light peach coloured braid a tug.

"Huh?!!" Syntax snapped out of her daze with a jolt. "Wha- Oh. Uh....sorry."

"Are you alright, you looked like you were in another dimension for a moment." Rarity commented.

"Uhhhh...y-yeah. Yeah, I'm good! Totally!" Syntax rubbed her neck with an embarrassed chuckle, face flushing slightly. "S-sorry. I guess I just zoned out."

"I'll say." Rainbow stared at her intensely. "What were you staring at so hard?"

Syntax gulped, letting her dark blue eyes slowly shift back to the object of her earlier intense interest. This time, her line of vision was fairly easy to follow, and her expression was very easy to read, and several jaws dropped in astonishment.

Across the room, singled out from everyone else by Syntax's gaze, was one of three notorious troublemakers. Aria Blaze. One of the Dazzling sisters that had been defeated in the battle of the bands, Aria was, for all intents and purposes, the worst of the lot now, having taken that position from Adagio. The eldest and youngest of the trio were remarkably calmer and easier to deal with, but Aria was still a very difficult pill to swallow.

The only one who had thus far gotten anywhere close to cracking the mystery of the intimidating girl was Syntax. Aria let her in on a deeper level than she allowed to anyone else, and the two of them had gotten to be friends. Syntax was the only one who could come close to matching Aria's attitudes and sarcasm, as well as her strength, and she was the only one who seemed to deeply understand the siren.

Aria, having apparently caught the stares, glared across the room from the table she shared with her sisters, though her expression softened a fraction as her eyes fell on Syntax and she nodded to her friend. Syntax grinned slightly and waved in return, before Aria grew occupied in conversation with her sisters again.

"Uh, darling, forgive my bluntness, but...your face right now..." Rarity hesitated.

Syntax looked at her, slightly arching one eyebrow in confusion.

"What she means," Sunset offered hesitantly, "is that uh, your expression just now when Aria met your look, well, it was uh..."

"Very loving." Twilight offered.

Syntax blinked and her face turned scarlet as she nervously laughed. "Uh...heh heh. I, uh, I don't know what you mean."

"Sure you do, silly! You have a crush on Aria!" Pinkie piped up cheerfully.

"I-" Syntax grappled for the words to answer the statement, finally settling on something. "W-we're just friends! Really good friends! And well, I'm practically her sister, just like Adagio and Sonata, she said so herself! And uh, yeah. That."

"Syntax, your face could rival a tomato right now, and your eyes are telling us different from what your mouth is." Sunset grinned at her.

"I'm no romance expert, but even I can see you totally have a huge crush on her!" Rainbow put in with a wink.

"But-" Syntax was desperately searching her mind for some form of plausible denial, but it was eluding her.

"Darling, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Rarity assured her with a warm smile. "Honestly, you two are actually quite perfect for each other from what we have seen of your interactions."

"Why?" Syntax asked, only to redden further. "I m-mean, if I had a crush, w-which I don't."

"You compliment her nicely." Rarity said with a knowing grin. "In other words, darling, you provide balance. She is, well, you know how she is. And you are able to handle her attitudes and behaviours quite well and easily. We have watched you."

Syntax inhaled. "I just understand her, I guess. We get along pretty well."

"You do." Sunset nodded. "You guys have a lot of fun times, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Why not tell us some of them, darling?" Rarity asked, genuine curiosity on her face.

"Yeah! Tell us what super fun awesome fantastic stuff you do!" Pinkie bounced in her seat. "We only know her as kind of a mean meany pants, but she's trying to be nicer, but she's at her nicest with you so what's she like?!"

Syntax grinned at the energetic babbling. "Well, I mean, she's a lot of fun to hang out with. We go to the mall, the movies, out to grab pizza. Pineapple is still best, by the way, Rainbow!"

"Bite your tongue!" Rainbow spat in mock fury. "Pineapple pizza sucks and you should be banished for liking it!"

These two had, for a long time, had a running feud between them over the existence of pineapple on pizza, with Rainbow swearing up and down that it should be eradicated from the very universe, and Syntax counter-arguing that it shouldn't because it was absolutely delicious.

"Pineapple pizza rocks and you should be banished for hating it!" Syntax shot back.

"You can't make me like it!"

"You can't make me NOT like it!"

"NOW LOOK, PINEAPPLE ON PIZZA IS A WAR CRIME!"

"NO, ITS YOUR HATE OF IT THAT'S A WAR CRIME!"

"Ahem!! Girls!!"

Sunset's interruption made both girls cease arguing and look at each other, realizing they had gotten up and were now both practically kneeling on the table, right up in each other's faces. Play fight forgotten, they both laughed and took their seats.

"If it makes you feel better," Syntax said, "Aria hates it too."

"Good! She has common sense."

"We're gonna continue this later, Rainbow!"

"You better bet we are!"

"Girls, please!" Rarity interjected, rolling her eyes. "Spare us the drama between you!"

"...says the ultimate drama queen." Rainbow and Syntax chorused, before smirking and high-fiving each other.

"Wha-! How dare you! I am utterly offended!" Rarity said indignantly.

"Now now, simmer down Sally." Applejack snickered, draping an arm around her. "Ya know they're just teasin', sugarcube. Plus they're a tad bit right."

"Traitor." Rarity huffed in mock annoyance, before leaning into her embrace. Applejack just grinned and planted a kiss on her forehead.

"So, back to the subject at hand..." Sunset said with a shake of her head.

"What were we talking about again?" Syntax asked, confused.

"You and Aria." Fluttershy replied with a soft smile. "You were um, sharing your fun times with her."

"Oh yeah." Syntax took a deep breath and refocused her thoughts. "Movies, mall, pizza, phone calls, texts. We like to spend a lot of time together. She's pretty cool to hang out with. We talk a lot and laugh, and we're both really adventurous and we can both be smartasses."

"I ship it." Pinkie said randomly, guzzling down her soda from lunch.

"We're not a ship." Syntax said drily.

"SyntaxBlaze. AriaTax. SynAria." Pinkie shut one eye, squinting at the ceiling as she rattled off couple names. "Blyntax."

"Pinkie, we're not-"

"TaxAria. Blazyn. Oooohhhh...Blazyn sounds good!"

Syntax facepalmed while the others just laughed.

"You two are Blazyn hot together! Huh? Huh??" Pinkie grinned widely, clearly impressed with her own pun while the others stopped laughing and shook their heads.

"No. Just no." Rainbow said in some distaste. "Pinkie, that was horrible."

"I'll work on it!"

"So anyway!" Rarity interrupted before the discussion could get derailed further. "How do you see her, darling? You've told us what she sees you as, but how do you see her? What does she make you feel?"

Syntax opened her mouth to reply, then shut it and let herself think for a long moment. Her gaze wandered over to Aria, who was currently busy snitching fries from Adagio's plate, and her lips curved into a slight smile. She never took her eyes off the siren as she finally responded to Rarity's question.

"She makes me feel happy. She makes me feel like I'm on top of the world just hanging out with her. She can make me laugh when I don't even want to smile, and I get a little tongue tied at times trying to talk to her, but she understand me perfectly. She's in my head, she knows what I'm thinking before I say it, and she can sense my mood before I even open my mouth. Whenever she says my name or just looks at me, my heart just goes all crazy and I could absolutely melt. I'm at my happiest when I'm with her, and when we part ways it's as if I don't want to spend even a moment away from her. I want her by my side all....the..."

She broke off, realizing what she was saying as soon as it left her mouth, her eyes widening in shock as they snapped to her grinning companions.

"Oh. Oh god. Guys...?"

"Yesssss??" Pinkie answered first, and she was grinning the widest of all of them.

"Forget a crush. I think I..." Syntax swallowed hard. "I think I'm completely in love."

"Well, obviously." Rarity said with a smirk. "Darling, it's all over your face. And in your eyes when you look at her."

Syntax let her head drop on the table with a soft thump. "Shit. I didn't want to fall in love. Love sucks at times. I don't want either of us hurt."

"True." Sunset leaned back in her chair. "But regardless of whether you wanted to or not, you did fall in love. And I personally think that's great."

Syntax lifted her head and looked at Aria again, feeling her heart rate increase exponentially when the other girl caught her staring and gazed back intently. She finally looked back at the others.

"I'm definitely in love."

The girls snickered and grinned as they watched her plop her head back down on the table with a huge sigh of mixed confusion and happiness, before the sudden sound of the bell that signaled lunch was over sent them all scrambling to ditch their trash and rush to their next classes.

Author's Note

I have a friend, and he and I, much like Syntax and Rainbow, have a constantly running feud over pineapple pizza XD

Syntax's position = My position
Rainbow's position = His position

It's not mandatory, but share your position in the comments!
Comment #pineapplepizzagang if you agree with it, and #warcrime if you're against it xD

Also, you can comment on it on his user page too, here's the link: Liuv

Still like ya Liuv, even though you're wrong XD