It was a cold night in Canterlot. Cruel winds whipped harshly at anybody that stepped outside even for a moment. Thankfully for the city's inhabitants, the power didn't go out- as long as you had central heating, you could stand around the house in shorts if you wanted, blissfully ignorant of the oppressive cold. This was little consolation to the Dazzlings, who huddled and shivered together in a tent they had managed to sneak out of a sporting goods store. The thin vinyl walls, if they could be called that, offered only a hint of protection from the bone chilling gale, and as ice began to set in on the concrete, it was clear to the girls that it would be another brutal night.
Calling the three girls clinging to one another on that night 'the Dazzlings' is not entirely accurate, either. After their failed attempt to hypnotize Canterlot High, Princess Twilight Sparkle had stripped them of their siren powers, without which they had all the range and timbre of an injured dolphin. None of the three could so much as hold a note. Needless to say, there was no longer a band known as the Dazzlings. Hated and ostracized by the people around them, and without their ability to manipulate others, Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze had fallen on decisively hard times.
Sonata coughed heavily. She'd been doing so for the last few days- it was a sound almost like a dog barking, but wetter and more irregular. The wind howled loudly, winding up and down and threatening to tear the tent away with every crescendo of intensity. The tent flapped, whipping every now and then to whichever direction the wind took it.
This unending cacophony of noises made it impossible to sleep for Adagio, even as she curled up into a ball and tried to ignore it. Tears welled up at the edges of her clenched-shut eyes as she sobbed, silently and breathlessly. Suddenly, as if punishing her for showing weakness, an enormous gale threw the tent off the ground. The exhausted girls leapt to their feet in a panic as adrenaline surged through them, desperately chasing the tent as it danced around in the storm like a puppet pulled by a particularly cruel prankster.
Aria managed to grab hold of it for a moment, but the wind quickly tore it from her weakened, tired grip. The girls could barely muster the energy to continue giving chase as the increasingly violent storm beat them down. Luckily for them, the tent finally found itself stuck between two posts on somebody's porch. Unluckily for them, the sudden loud THWAP of the tent hitting the porch seemed to have woken that somebody up. The house light flicked on even as the girls attempted to quickly retrieve their tent before the owner investigated the noise. Just as Sonata's hand took hold of the beat-up vinyl, the door opened.
A guy, one who looked about the girls' age, stood on the porch with a flashlight and a baseball bat in either hand. He had a confused expression on his face before a look of recognition slowly took hold.
"Hold on... aren't yall the Dazzlings? What are you doing messing around on my porch? Especially on a night like tonight, Jesus."
He shivered as if to emphasize his point.
"It's fuckin' freezing."
The girls just stood there for a moment, blank expressions of shock on their faces as they slowly came to recognize him. He was a student at Canterlot High, he'd even been in the crowd at the Battle of the Bands. Sonata had another coughing fit as Adagio looked at the guy, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly.
"We were, uh, just getting our tent. Sorry if we, like, woke you up."
He raised an eyebrow.
"Your tent? Seriously? I don't know what drugs you're on, but yall need to go home. You'll get pneumonia and die camping in this weather."
Sonata kept coughing as Aria crossed her arms in annoyance.
"Not like we have much other choice. It's either the tent, or sleeping under the stars. And I'm not feelin particularly fuckin' romantic tonight."
A bit of venom seeped into Aria's voice as she bitterly contemplated her options. The guy simply looked confused and a little concerned.
"Do you guys seriously not have anywhere to go? No parents, no relatives? Nothing?"
They all shook her head. Sonata's coughing fit finally came to an end as she looked up at him.
"Nothing..."
She leaned on one foot, her hands clasped behind her as she looked back at the ground. They stood there silently for a few seconds before the guy let out a long slow sigh.
"Fuck it. I don't know if you guys are lying or what, and I still don't forgive you for hypnotizing the entire school, but fuck it. I can't leave you out in weather like this. Come on."
He motioned for them to enter the house as he held the door open, pointing inside with the baseball bat. The girls were dazed for a moment, clearly feeling hesitant to come inside a near-strangers house, but began to quickly make their way in as the storm began to pick up again. He closed the door behind them, laying the bat back down near the door.
"Yall better not steal any of my shit."
He grumbled his statement, partly to them but mostly to himself. The three girls sat awkwardly on the couch in the living room, looking around but mostly just savoring the feeling of central heating. They were still numb from the cold, but as the warmth of the house seeped in they went from feeling almost nothing, to feeling cool, to finally feeling warm. They barely registered him as he went to the kitchen.
"So... have yall eaten anything recently? You look like you can barely stand up."
Aria grit her teeth, annoyed at having to be at the mercy of some random guy. Sonata, however, clearly different.
"No, the last thing we had was, like, some bread a baker or whatever tossed out yesterday..."
Adagio and Aria both looked at her with irritation at her saying such an embarrassing thing. Sonata just shrugged.
"What? It's true."
He stepped back in the living room, putting some stuff on the coffee table for them.
"It's 2AM, so you're not gettin' a sandwich. Some Pop Tarts, Cheez Its and beef jerky should be fine, right?"
Aria simply nodded as Sonata began tearing into the food. Adagio looked at him with equal parts shame and gratitude.
"Thanks..."
He simply shrugged.
"It's nothing. I'm Anon, by the way."
Adagio smiled sheepishly at him.
"I'm Adagio. This is Sonata, and that's Aria."
Sonata waved as she continued to wolf down a strawberry Pop Tart. Aria simply gave him a nonchalant peace sign, taking a big bite of a hunk of beef jerky. Adagio giggled as she opened a soda, and the other girls started giggling as well, building up until all three were laughing with tears in their eyes. Nothing was particularly funny, but sitting in that room with heating and food on a comfortable couch just felt so good they couldn't help but laugh. Anon simply raised an eyebrow as he walked up the staircase.
"Totally not suspicious. I'm goin to bed, see yall tomorrow. And I know how much cash I have in the house, by the way."
"Gmff Nfft!"
Sonata called out to him, mouth still full of food before she swallowed.
"I mean, good night!"
He couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
"Yeah. Good night yall."
With that, he stepped in his room, sighing as he sat down on his bed. This was one of those nights where he wished he had a lock for his bedroom door. It's not as though he thought the girls would try to rob him or kill him or whatever, but you never knew. Better safe than sorry, as his dad always used to say. His brow furrowed as he lay down, thinking about the events that led him to own that house even as an 18 year old still in high school as he slowly drifted to sleep.
