He saw her sitting on the edge of a bridge just outside town, her legs dangling loosely above the rolling rapids of a thick river far below. Timing swift steps between the hum of passing motor vehicles, Flash Sentry eventually made his way to the young woman's side. Only when he was within shouting distance did he realize that she was seated quite casually—and safely—upon that precipice, neither dangling nor daring to do anything but remain upright, level with the rest of the structure, and as dry as he was.
If she noticed his arrival, Aria Blaze made no show of it. It was this casual disregard for anything and everything that finally convinced Flash Sentry that he was indeed witnessing one of the notorious sirens in-person, the first time he had stumbled upon any of them in the flesh since... well... since his life and the lives of countless of his other fellow CHS students were so needlessly complicated during the Battle of the Bands.
With her hair done in flashy twin ponytails and her lithe body adorned in punk pastels, it was hard to accept Aria Blaze as anything other than an edgy teenage girl. And—all things considered—that was perhaps the best way to approach her.
If there was any point in approaching her.
At last, when he stood so close to the young woman that his body blocked a portion of the valley's pelting wind, she finally shifted slightly in her seated stance. It was the first and only sign that she acknowledged his presence, and it was scant at best. With bored eyes levitating low above a permanent-resting-coma-patient-face, Aria stretched her upper limbs—looking more lazy than sexy. A long and dull sigh rolled through her torso. Flash watched as she reached into a vest pocket. After some fishing around, she pulled out a half-empty pack of cigarettes. Pulling out a death stick, she plucked it in her mouth before fumbling through another pocket vest. This went on for an extraordinarily long period of time—so much so that the casual, slothful flare of her liquid gesture was swiftly falling apart.
With a slight jump, Flash Sentry urged himself into the moment. He announced his action by pivoting on the concrete path of the bridge in such a way that the sole of his sneaker scraped the asphalt offensively.
This summoned a lethargic glance from Aria Blaze. Her violet eyes reflected a lighter in the young man's grasp. When a fresh flame lit up, she merely leaned into it until the edge of her cigarette caught alight. After a puff or two, the cigarette began its burn. She sat up straight, faced the river below, and took the first of many cancerous drags of the stick.
For better or for worse, peace was made. Flash slapped his lighter cap shut. Then—as gracefully as he could manage, he slid his rump over the railing of the bridge and sat neatly beside her. Just as precarious. Just as contemplative. If nothing else, this would—hopefully—cement that all-too-fragile truce between the two.
It went without saying that Aria Blaze was far more comfortable with this passive trapeze act than Flash was—by a huge margin, too. She took drag after slow drag of the cigarette, meanwhile Flash sweated bullets and squeezed his kneecaps through his jeans as he stared with nervous, beady eyes at the river's surface far below. A gust of wind blew at their shoulders, and Flash anchored himself in place the best that he could, even if it meant using the siren's second-hand smoke as chains.
And Aria—in the meantime—puffed and gazed out into the verdant countryside. A setting sun had begun its amber descent, and she devoured it like drying paint, a flipnote in some private eternity. She even added some casual aplomb, propping one leg up and resting her cigarette hand on the joint while blowing smoke into the atmosphere.
And when that cancerous breath was fully spent...
“Wanna fuck?” she asked.
Flash grimaced. Like a cartoon. He suddenly suffered no risk of falling into the drink below, because his entire body had locked up like a bronze statue, weighted safely away from the edge and towards the elevated road directly behind them. He didn't dare look at her for the next twenty seconds.
“Mrmfffff...” Aria Blaze grunted, and took another drag of the death stick before anyone could interpret the tiniest hint of disappointment or relief from her stonefaced features.
A school bus rolled closely by. Children laughed. Some spat out the window at the two, but missed. Middle schoolers.
“So much will be underwater soon,” Aria Blaze droned to the melting heavens. Another drag. The smoke rolled through her imperfect vocal cords with tantalizing grace. “I really don't get why so many think that's gonna be a bad thing.” A blink. “Oh right.” She blew out the side of her mouth. “The plastics.”
“Erm...” Flash squeezed his jean'd kneecaps even harder. At last, he dared a side glance at the girl. “I was... uhm... wondering if I could ask you something.”
“You just did.”
The young man was dead silent.
She inhaled, puffed, and blew. “Go ahead, kid. Get it out of your system.”
“Last semester... uhhh... months ago. Back during the Canterlot High Battle of the Bands when you and Adagio Dazzle and Sonata Dusk... uhm...” Flash Sentry cleared his throat. “...y'know...”
“Uh huh...?”
He bit his lip, hesitated, then let it out. His tone was cold. Dire. But sprinkled with a weak sense of doubt: “Princess Twilight was visiting. Y'know... from Equestria? And I... uh...” Flash Sentry rubbed a hand through the back of his spiky blue bangs. “...I said some really... really nasty things to her.” He shuddered as the hideous thought manifested itself in honest dialogue. “I accused Twilight of trying to steal First Place from my friends and I, even... when all she was doing was trying to help all of us—help CHS, y'know?”
“Yeah. And?”
“And...” Flash's hands squeezed into fists. He took a sharp breath, struggling not to cough from the smoke. Eventually, he unrolled: “...and I've long wondered... how much of that was actually me being a jerk... and...” He dared a look at the siren. “...just h-how much of it was interference from the spell that you and the other Dazzlings were casting on us the whole time?”
Aria Blaze's nostrils flared. Without looking at him, she reached the length of her arm out fully, flicking ashes into the breeze—and the river below.
“Do you know how fuckin' hard it's been tryin' to find work... to find sustenance now that the three of us can no longer sing like we used to?”
Flash blinked. His features reddened slightly, and he felt a nervous shiver running up his masculine figure. “Uhm—”
“Your precious Twilight Dollface and her friends shattered our jewels,” Aria Blaze growled, frowning into the sunset. “We need them to live. We've depended on them for ages. And ever since Sunshit Shimmer and company had their little musical victory lap around us, we've been living out of a van, scraping food out of garbage dumps. It's gotten so bad that Sonata Dusk's become a janitor and Dagi's been quietly persuading me to lease my cunt off to bums on the street.”
“I... uh—”
“But please...” Aria sliced her eyes towards him, cutting at the young man's jugular. “...do tell me how all this has ruined your precious boner for some lousy princess back in the horse realm where we were all exiled from.”
Flash winced. He sunk his eyes back into the river below. “I'm sorry.”
“No you're not.”
He winced again.
She took one last drag of the cigarette and flicked the butt of it far off the bridge. “So... lover boy...” She tossed one ponytail back, then the other. “Lemme guess. Now's the time that you pat yourself on the back by telling me how showing up and sitting here has fatefully stopped me from throwing my worthwhile body clear off this bridge.”
Flash bit his bottom lip.
“Well?” Aria Blaze stood up entirely, balanced on the ledge with her hands on her hips. “You wouldn't even stop me right now if you could. If I jumped this very fuckin' second, you wouldn't even flinch. Would you?”
He remained frozen in place.
Her head cocked to the side. “What's this? Not even gonna double-down and defend yourself against what I'm saying either? Pffft...” Her eyes rolled—slowly and heavily—in a pathetic circle until they regretfully found the sight of him again. “Goddess, I don't know which makes you more pathetic.”
Flash hung his head. But he couldn't help but gasp as Aria Blaze jumped...
...back onto the solid road behind him. Standing safely atop the asphalt, she stretched her nimble body with arms scraping the amber heavens.
“Mmmmmfggghhh...” Aria cracked the joints in her upper body. “Time that I asked you a question kid. So you did an awful lot of lame-ass shit back when my sisters and I visited your lousy school. Big whoop. Sure, our siren spell did a number on you punks. That was the whole point for feeding off the Battle of the Bands. But did you ever stop to think that maybe...” She stood at rest with a hand on her hip. “...you acted like an awful human being because all that toxic crap was just lying deep inside you for the three of us to drag out?”
Flash blinked.
“I've been around on this stinkin' globe far longer than you can possibly think. And—you know what? The more things stay the same, the more people suffer. It never fails. So—maybe we should all ask ourselves this.” She waved a hand at the countryside beyond. “Is keeping things the way they are really what one should call 'good?' Or is it all just simply way fuckin' easier to deal with the way we maintain it?”
Again, he had nothing to say.
Not that she expected much. “Suffering. Hunger. Avarice. They bring out the worst in us. But rubbin' off all that abrasive shit is also what brings about the most change.” Aria Blaze said, “My sisters and I got you assholes really close to what it meant to be us. And maybe—just maybe—you almost saw something worth waking up to. Or do you think you're much better off being...” She looked like she was gonna vomit, so she simply pointed at the space the young man was occupying without having to look at him. “...this?”
Flash Sentry sighed heavily. He hugged himself, gazing into the waters below. If he fell instead, it was no longer clear if he'd make so much as a splash.
“Meh. Do whatever. I don't care.” She turned and began walking down the road... only to stop and point past him. “Oh... and by the way...”
He braved a wary glance at her.
Aria Blaze gestured towards the river beneath them. “I can swim like you wouldn't believe.” And she left.
Flash sat alone. For a while longer than was likely healthy. And just as unhealthily—as the sun dipped down and cast a shroud over all he saw—he pulled his lighter out and examined it closely. With the flick of the finger, he summoned a tiny flame once more. It was hot. It was wild. And—with the right or wrong intent—it could spark unfathomable blazes.
But it was still tiny. All it took was a sigh, and he flipped the metal cap shut completely. Snuffing it.
In that all-too-comforting darkness, Flash Sentry stood up.
And returned.
