//------------------------------// // Week of Comradery // Story: Fall of Harmony // by Moon-Lite //------------------------------// Week of Comradery Monday Sunset sighed happily. So far, none of her teachers were the least bit perturbed by her missing school Friday. They both mentioned that Cadence had informed them that she was unable to make it due to personal issues. She made a mental note to thank Cadence for covering for her. She continued the long trek around all the lunch tables full of Crystal Prep students eagerly digging into their academy provided lunches, some taking the time to take silly pictures to post onto some sort of picture sharing website. Sunset shook her head, wondering why people tried to make something big out of food that they were about to ingest. “Heya Red!” Sunset paused as she rounded the last bend to the table she and Twilight oft shared with the Sirens, now with five additional girls seated in normally vacant seats. “What are you standing there for?” Indigo asked, staring at the unmoving teen, “Hurry up and sit down already.” Sunset looked at her regular table mates, three of which shrugged nonchalantly while Sonata waved adorably, before strutting over to the table and taking the last open seat between Twilight and Sour Sweet and across from Indigo. “So how has your morning of catch up gone?” The google wearing teen asked, voice muffled from a cold cut sandwich, “I hope it didn’t tucker you out too much, ‘cause I need an actual challenge in our dodgeball game that Sombra announced for today.” Sour Sweet scoffed at a small bit of food slipped from Indigo’s mouth, “My god! Do you lack any sort of etiquette?” “Stop being such a tsundere, Sour,” Adagio called out, causing the ponytailed teen to look at the Siren in utter bewilderment. “What did you just call me?” “Tsundere.” Came the curt response from Sugarcoat, eyes never leaving the food on her tray, “A Neighponese that combines both the descriptions for someone who is cold and blunt, tsun, and one who is secretly lovestruck, dere.” The rest of the table burst out in laughter at Sour’s reaction, the girl crossing her arms and giving a might “Hrumph!” as she looked away, crimson tinging her cheeks. “Whatever, geek.” Sugarcoat probably didn’t hear Sour Sweet’s remark, her eyes closed as she slowly took a small sip from her diet pop. The table returned to small talk with Lemon gushing about this new album she downloaded online from someone called ‘DJ Pon-3’ whilst Sunny Flare was walking Sunset through what she had missed in Advanced Social Studies from Friday in preparation for the unit exam the next day. “Oh! I knew I forgot to tell you something!” Sonata said, realization flashing across her face, “We got a baking exam on Wednesday!” Sunset looked at the Siren with a grin, “I’m gonna guess that you forgot cause it doesn’t involve tacos?” The Siren stuck her tongue out, only for Adagio to reach over and pull on it, causing Sonata to flail around as she tried to free herself. “That wasn’t funny, Dagi!” The Siren wailed, tears coming to her naturally puppy dog looking eyes. The team mom shrugged, before casting her eyes down the rest of the table. “Anyone else got anything for Shimmer here know about this week’s classes?” One of Lemon Zest’s hands shot up, the other holding an empty water bottle. “There’s an English exam on Thursday!” “We are supposed to be doing a lab exam in Chem on Friday.” Sugarcoat monotoned, “That way if someone messes up the school can aerate over the weekend and not make anyone sick again.” Twilight had remained silent through the whole thing, counting on her fingers each time a girl informed Sunset about an upcoming exam. “So wait,” She said, looking at the teen beside her, “Including the Math exam you did today, which you more or less went into blind and finished before me, you have exams in each of your classes?” she pushed her glasses back up her delicate nose, brows furrowing in concern, “And not only that, but they are all Advanced level classes?” “Don’t forget about gym!” Indigo blurted out, standing up and smashing the table with her hands in excitement, “Sombra does dodgeball as version of exams! You get graded on how many people you hit, how many balls you catch-” “Okay so all your classes have an exam, or the equivalent in the case of gym. Are you sure you can handle this, Sunset?” The table watched as the teen regarded her concerned friend, before reeling in shock as the crimson and gold crowned girl leaned back with mirthful laughter. “That’s so -hehe!- precious!” Sunset mused, wiping a tear from her eye before her features set in a deviously cocky grin, “I’m gonna tear this week a new one!” ************************************************** The shrill whistle ripped through the air. “Trenderhoof! Out!” Mr. Sombra yelled out whilst he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. The dodgeball game had been going fast and furious, the two teams slowly whittling one another down over time. Sunset took a moment to rebalance herself after striking out the blond haired teen, who was now leaving the playing field dejectedly, scanning over the enemy team before her. Sombra had done his best to separate the class evenly as far as members were concerned, though with Sunset transferring in he now had thirteen on one side, twelve on the other, and Sunset was feeling the tiredness of playing a person down. Indigo had looked incredibly pleased at the start of the match, Sunset had been placed on the other team allowing the two of them to gaze at each other from across the pitch. Aria on the other hand complained when she was put on Indigo’s team, bitter that she had to try and knock out her friend. The game had started out incredibly fast with a blitzkrieg of small foam balls pelting the weakest members of each team, though the weakest of them could easily pass as Wonderbolts on an average day. Indigo looked like a woman on a mission, pelting member after member of Sunset’s squad with amazing accuracy, whilst simultaneously being impossible to hit. Aria meanwhile carried herself with an air of indifference, slugging teens with deadly force and catching anything near her with an air of boredom. Sunset grinned grimly, finally coming to realize the plan of Indigo. “Come on, Red,” the goggles over the indigo haired teen’s eyes glinting and reflecting the light of the gym, “Make it easy on yourself!” Sunset chuckled, “Two versus one!” She yelled back, her ponytail flitting behind her, “I feel bad for your odds.” “Don’t make us have to hurt you, Sunset!” Aria called back, a pair of the foam balls gripped by her side. “Let us hit you with an easy one and we can all get out of here together.” “Nah, I’d rather see you two leave in bodybags!” The one sided mexican standoff drew silent, all three teens stopping to recover their breaths. Sunset was grimacing internally, not only did the other two have all of the balls stockpiled on their side but she had twisted her leg painfully with the last throw, making it hard to move at her previous speed. Her two opponents watch her carefully, taking a moment to strategize it looked like, before nodding and starting to pile the balls around them. “You’ve given us no choice, newbie!” Indigo said, fake sad smile flitting across her face, “Guess we have to do this the hard way.” “The only thing is hard is how you will hit the floor!” Sunset replied, dangerous glint in her eyes. “Now shut up and hit me, if you think you can with those lousy arms of yours!” Sunset had mere moments to come up with a plan, before the two teens across from her started to level deadly volleys at her, pushing her to her limit as she dodged, ducked, dipped, and dove through the storm of foam. They were being smart about it, keeping balls back and doing their best to throw with enough to ricochet back to them when they missed the amber teen. Sunset felt her twisted leg scream at her, demanding she stop and end this, but she grit her teeth. She had to find some way to get back at them, but they were making it impossible to find any sort of ammunition without risk of being pelted. Eventually the other teens had ran short on their first wave of projectiles, leaving Indigo staring down Sunset while Aria went foraging. Indigo had slid her goggles down around her neck, their fogging starting to blind her. Sunset took stock of the floor, noticing a few balls close to the line of scrimmage, though Indigo stood over them, ready to pelt her should she risk it. Taking a deep breath, Sunset prepared for her hail mary. Getting down into a sprinting stance, she looked at the teen before her. “I win.” She stated calmly, before leaping up and towards the precious balls. “Not today, Red!” Indigo shouted, launching her projectile with blazing speed. Sunsted grimaced as she fell down, sliding painfully on her sweatpants encased knees as she passed under the ball of defeat, reaching out and picking up the first ball to come within range, torquing her shoulder and releasing the ball at the shocked girl. Only for it to spin past her knees harmlessly. “You missed!?” Indigo shouted, before feeling something contact her back, Mr. Sombra’s shrill whistle calling out. “Aria! Indigo! Your out!” He jerked both ebony grey thumbs across his shoulders. “Good throw, new girl.” Indigo slowly turned around, noticing in shock that Aria was laying down on her back, arms splayed out and surrounded by balls she had been carrying. She had been directly in front of the Siren, screening Sunset from the girls view and allowing the amber teen to ricochet a ball off her purple legs and into Indigo’s back. “Woo!” Sunset breathed heavily, adopting a stance similar to Aria’s though her hands were held up, forefingers declaring her rank. Indigo could only start laughing, though she was overcome by the noise the rest of the class was making at the amazing play of Sunset. She slowly walked over to Aria and helped the beaten girl up, and the two of them headed over to their still motionless friend. “What the shit was that, Shimmer?” Aria asked in pure shock, “By Celestia’s beard! I don’t know how the hell you pulled that stunt off!” Sunset grinned in joy as she was slowly picked up off her back, the other two teens slinging her arms around their shoulders as they walked over to the gathering of students in front of Mr. Sombra. Sunset’s team made sure to all give the girl a firm pat on the back, everyone present still reeling from the display. “Sunset,” rumbled Mr. Sombra, “Never in my days have I seen anyone, let alone a student, attempt such a stunt. And never would I have assumed that it would have worked!” He let out an uncharacteristic bark of laughter, before returning to his traditional grim state. “For that, you get a perfect score for today’s class. Now all of you, go get changed and hit the showers. New girl here just saved you all from doing laps for the last ten minutes of class. Sunset grinned as cheers rang throughout the class. **************************** Tuesday “Could you try not showing off so much in front of Indigo?” Sour Sweet hissed as the trio of Sonata, Sunset, and herself left, their very successful baking exam. “She would not shut up about how you, and I quote, “absolutely destroyed physics, as well as melted her brain, with how badass your game winning play was.”. I mean, seriously?” She affixed Sunset with a glare, the teen shrugging as she limped along. Her leg was still bothering her from yesterday's dodgeball game, and Mr. Sombra had been nice enough to let her only do light duty in gym class for the rest of the week to make sure she didn’t hurt herself more. Twilight had tried to convince the teen to get some crutches, but Sunset shut her down saying that it would only make things worse. “Aria said that she wasn’t sure what was wetter, her underwear, or her skin,” Sonata chimed in innocently, happy little smile on her face, “I wonder what she meant?” She was looking away in thought as the other two stared at the Siren incredulously. “I didn’t know that you were such a cook, Sonata!” Sunset said, hoping to distract the airhead from pursuing any more thoughts into Aria’s crass comment. “You really saved our bacon in there!” “There was no bacon, silly Sun-Shim!” The Siren ruffled the teen’s hair playfully, “Just a delicious recipe I remember inventing long ago!” Sour Sweet rolled her eyes assuming Sonata was being her usual self, not realizing that the ancient Equestrian was telling the truth. “For realsies! I don’t know how people keep messing it up, it’s so simple!” Sunset laughed at the bounce that the teen had, before turning her eyes to Sour. “Hey,” she bumped the Shadowbolt with her shoulder, “Thanks for all the help today. Appreciate you helping keep Sonata there in line.” Sour Sweet grinned haughtily, “But of course sweetie,” she brushed her ponytail dramatically, “Who else but the best to keep you all in check?” Sunset shrugged, knowing the girl meant no harm. ************************************************* Wednesday “So how do you think you did, Sunny?” Sunset asked as the two of them sat down to eat while Adagio was still in line ordering. The mulberry haired girl glanced back at the question bearer and shrugged, “Pretty good, I think. Just had some concerns with that long answer question on the fifth page.” “Oh yeah!” Sunset snapped her fingers, “Prance de Leon! Hard to think people would believe in something like a ‘Fountain of Youth’, huh?” Sunny Flare looked back at Sunset, eyebrow raised, “How did you know that? We passed over that section of the textbook well before you showed up.” “Probably cause this girl may as be a unicorn with how magical she is.” Adagio said slyly as she joined the two at their empty table. “Not only have you enchanted Aria, but now you have also enthralled Sonata as well!” She jabbed her fork at Sunset, “Thanks to you, I now have to deal with two bumbling idiots, one of which could be used as an image to describe the word blithe!” Sunny Flare regarded the grumbling Siren, before returning her attention to Sunset. “So if I remember correctly, you were studying at CHS, correct?” Sunset slowly finished chewing the lettuce in her mouth before nodding, “Yup, though they didn’t have any really advanced classes like here, so it’s nice to be able to push myself with my academics again.” “And where did you study before that? My parent’s looked at enrolling me in Canterlot High, but they decided on Crystal Prep because of the fact that the teachers here were actually intelligent.” Sunset watched as a small flicker of something passed through the Shadowbolt’s eyes, breaking the normal shell of cold calculation she portrayed. “Well, I was at a school for ‘Gifted U… Youth’ before I came to CHS,” Sunset cursed at herself in her mind for almost mentioning Equestria. “And where was it situated?” Sunny Flare pressed on, as if she was trying to find out Sunset’s secret. Did she suspect something? No, couldn’t be. “Does this really matter?” Adagio cut in, annoyed at being ignored. “She’s crazy smart, super athletic, and puts all the rest of girls here to shame in the looks and personality depart. She’s perfect, so just deal with it.” Sunset blushed at how Adagio so calmly described her. She wasn’t perfect, in fact Sunset was more of a buck up than the Siren knew of. “Whatever.” Sunny Flare shrugged, turning back to her food, before peering up towards Sunset, “Would you, uh…” she trailed off as Sunset glanced back. “Would I…?” “Would you mind being study partners with me for Mrs. Lime’s class?” ******************************************* Thursday “Man! That album Pon-3 released at the start of the week is killer man!” Lemon Zest was incredibly exuberant today, now that the exam was finished and the two were allowed to leave early. They had decided to relax in one of the secluded empty club rooms, which should have been vacant except for the various things Lemon and her group of fellow Shadowbolt’s have stashed around the room. “Like this song right here!” She tore a set of earbuds out of some packaging, the new bulbous ends glinting in the light. “Here, you gotta jack in and listen to this!” Sunset took the offered item, popping them gently into her ear. She remembered Vinyl well, her and Octavia had let Sunset know that they didn’t think the girl was Anon-A-Miss, but they couldn’t offer to speak out about their feelings on the matter. Vinyl had been a maven of the turntable, able to mix and remix beats that could make anybody start to jam out. Her usual affair was lively, energetic. What she was listening too was deep, somber, as if… “Is that morse code?” Sunset wondered aloud, the high frequency beeps barely heard over the bass. “Who knows?” Lemon yelled as she moved her head to the beat, “All I care is that this is a nice change of pace from the rest of the album, something very few musicians seem to try.” Sunset rifled around in her binder, tearing out a piece of loose leaf and grabbing a mechanical pencil as she waited for the ‘chorus’ of the song to repeat again. She was ready when the beeps started, making sure to carefully mark the beeps, clicks, and whistles on the paper. “So why do you think that is morse?” Lemon asked when the song finished, hands closing around the earbuds fresh out of Sunset’s ears. “And how do you even know morse code for that matter?” Sunset shrugged sheepishly, “I’ve had a lot of time to study random things, and morse code seemed really interesting for some reason, so I decided to take a few online courses in the past.” “But why do you think that is morse?” Sunset looked at the teen, her normal extrovert appearance disturbingly calm. “Just a feeling I guess. It probably isn’t, and I’m probably looking into something way more than is necessary.” Sunset watched the amber eyed girl, “Do you know morse?” The teen sat back and sighed, “Parents were military, so some leaked down into my life. Now what do you think this says?” Sunset looked over the mess of dots and dashes. “Hell if I know.” She said as she crumpled it up before tossing it into the trash. “Got any more music recommendations?” As if nothing had happened, Lemon thrust the earbuds back to Sunset. “This one should knock your socks off!” Sunset tried to ignore what she had read, attempting to use the loud music to wash away the message playing in her mind, only to have a steady set of beeps play over and over again. ... --- .-. .-. -.-- / ... ..- -. ... . - ******************************************** Friday “Acceptable work you two.” Mr. Vial looked at the small beaker of fluid on the table between Sunset and Sugarcoat. “You may leave, just make sure to clean up first.” The two went to work tidying up their lab station, the other groups still messing around with trying to figure out how to not blow up the chemicals they were mixing. “So…” Sunset started as the pair finished washing their hands with distilled water. They had worked incredibly well, though Sugarcoat never said more than a few words, generally instructions on what went with what even though Sunset knew what she was doing. “Is he always that…” “Down putting? Yes.” Sugarcoat removed the safety goggles and hung up her lab borrowed lab coat as the two left. “He thinks he should be teaching at Canterlot University, and is angry at himself for accepting the contract offer from Cinch.” Sunset watched the unmoving visage of the pale blue teen. “How do you know that?” The Shadowbolt shrugged, stating, “I did a little bit of digging into him. Nothing too fancy.” Sunset looked on in shock, wasn’t that illegal? Mind you she had done it in the past as well, so who was she to judge? “Nothing too fancy? Why did you feel the need to?” “Because knowledge is power.” Sugarcoat replied succinctly, “With knowledge, comes power, and if you have knowledge then you can know when someone is lying to you. They say ‘ignorance is bliss’, but that is only an excuse used by the weak to justify their stupidity.” Sunset was shocked to see the girl actually displaying emotions, anger and… disappointment? “Why do you say that?” Sunset asked, reaching a worried hand out and placing it on the other teen’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter.” Sugarcoat responded, shaking the hand off after a moment. “I know that you trying to be considerate, but I don’t need any sort of falsified compassions.” She started walking off, only for Sunset to call after her. “Well what if I do some digging into you?” The white haired teen stopped, looking back at Sunset with yet another unexpected display of emotion, this time of slight joy if her eye’s were to be believed. “You’re welcome to try.” ****************************************** Saturday There was a large crowd in the basement of the house, two teens sitting in front of a large television set whilst hammering away on their controllers. “You’re goin down, Sonata!” Indigo Zap yelled, throwing a devastating combo at the Siren’s avatar. Only to have it reversed on her. “Ya right! Your desert is mine!” Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet burst out in fresh laughter as they watched the indigo haired teen’s character get absolutely demolished by the skilled button presses of Sonata. They jeered at the display, giggling when Indigo stood up and glared at them in mock frustration. Sonata had decided to do a little victory dance, ending with a small lap around the room, nearly knocking into Aria and Lemon Zest. The two girls of contrasting colours were listening to music, discussing who they liked the most. “It’s totally the Stones!” Aria called out, arms raised out in frustration, “They’re still freaking touring to this day!” “Yeah,” Lemon said, grinning cockily, “touring retirement homes! They should just turn it in, let the new generation prove how much their better then those old farts!” The debate raged on between the two, each teen throwing verbal jabs and counter jabs at the other, music blaring from the headphones around Lemon’s neck, gaining the ireful look of both Adagio and Sunny flare, the two of them seated in fancy looking recliners as they discussed world history. “I don’t know about you dear,” Adagio said as she rolled her eyes, “But as amazing as technology is, there’s just something about the classic’s.” Sunny nodded her head, “A time where musicians actually had to compose their own music, not pay someone else for it.” She said knowingly. “A time when a man would woo a woman by serenading her in the middle of the night from outside her window, describing how much she reminded him of the blazing glory of the sun.” Sunny Flare chuckled as the Siren, Adagio flashing back in time to when she would receive such attentions, gazing at the stairway lost in thought even as Twilight Sparkle descended it. She wove her way through the room, before depositing herself on the sofa right beside Sunset, the teen wearing a massive smile. “So how was your first full month?” Twilight asked, hand patting the jeaned thigh of her best friend. “Pretty good,” Sunset said smiling at her couch partner, “Being able to make friends, real actual friends this time, was really nice. For once, I feel like I have a purpose, a home that is more than just somewhere where I sleep, a family that cares about me, even if I am not related by blood.” “I’m glad that everything has come around for you.” The teen whispered, pushing her glasses up her nose, “And you seem to be doing incredibly well at school as well, which is amazing given the course load you took.” Sunset grinned. She may have been tied with Twilight as far as marks in Math was concerned, but she was top student in all of her other classes. The worries of her friends and family were proven wrong, Sunset enjoying the chance to prove her intelligence once more. “Yo, Lemon!” Indigo called out, “I think Twilight has a bigger T.V. here than you!” Twilight giggled as Lemon started to explain how Indigo was wrong. She had never expected that she would be able to make friends at Crystal Prep, thanks to how much of a shark tank Principal Cinch had been growing it as. She looked over the multitude of teens, each enjoying one another’s company in the dimly lit room. “So, you gonna sign up for the Friendship Games?” Twilight asked, turning back to Sunset, “Might be a good chance to show them up? Though I wouldn’t blame you for skipping it entirely like me and the three sisters.” Sunset sighed as she looked up at the roof. “I dunno Twilight… After the fiasco of that assembly, I kinda promised myself that I wouldn’t return. I mean, I closed that chapter right? No more reasons to go back.” “That’s good.” Twilight gripped the teens hand in a caring embrace, “You shouldn’t have to worry about going back there, I mean, what’s gonna happen? Principal Cinch blackmailing us into going?” Twilight chuckled at her joke. “She may be evil, but she’s not that evil!”