A Dazzling Sunset
Chapter 10
Snails grinned ear-to-ear, his shaggy hairdo bouncing when he looked up from his phone. The phone’s camera flashed again. “Oh hey, Sunset. D’you have weekend classes?”
“More like detention!” Snips snorted, his thick fingers tapping deftly on his smartphone’s screen. “Remember she was still cleaning up that mess from months ago, you dummy? Vice Principal Luna prob’ly has her coming in for detention every day!”
“Oh...yeah.” Snails nodded, but his eyes locked onto something in the middle distance, not really focusing on any other person. “Wait...then why don’t we see her there when we’re there?”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
“Uh...Snips?”
“What? Can’t you see I’m…” The boy faded out, when he looked up from his tapping. Standing less than half a classroom away two girls were giving them funny looks. Which wasn’t hard since one of them had pony ears and was glowing. The other one had a familiar enough looking violent scowl on her face, but it looked weird thanks to the black colored eyes and fangs in her mouth.
“Uh...Snails?”
“Eeyuh?” The taller high schooler's grin dimmed somewhat when he saw the frightened look on Snips’ face.
“Run.”
While Snails was known around CHS—charitably—for being slow on the pick-up, he was less well known for his athletic acumen. He didn’t need to be told twice when he needed to be somewhere else in a hurry. Snails pulled ahead of Snips instantly, running back down the hallway toward the school’s main body. Behind him, he could hear Snips’ baggy pants swishing rapidly to keep up.
Snails spared a look over his shoulder, but all he caught was the door of the AV room flying open to release a flaming redhead. He liked Sunset, really, but experience told him that she wasn’t the easiest to reason with when angry. Seeing her hair whipping around her like fire spurred him to put on another burst of speed. He pumped his long legs furiously, running as fast as he could for the intersection. If he could just reach that, he’d be in the clear. Someone would see him and then Sunset wouldn’t be able to do...whatever she was trying to do.
Snails wasn’t entirely sure yet why they were running from their former companion and the glowy girl with the really big hair. But he knew he could wait until they were safe to find out. He was just passing the doors to the next to last classrooms on the hall when he heard something slam into the lockers at his heels. Snips cried out in pain, but this seemed like a bad time to help a bro out, so he grit his teeth and forgot about his buddy. All he needed to do was cover the last twenty feet to safety.
“Stop right there! The power of ME compels you!”
Almost there, Snail’s brian locked up, that last thought of his own replaced by the voice and the sudden want to stop running. His feet, ever faster than his mind, got the message first and Snails flew a good half of the remaining length of the hall in an uncontrolled sprawl until he kissed the heavy duty floor tiles. First with his face, then all the rest of his body in very rapid succession. He didn’t skid very far, but he lost grip on his phone and the pocket sized device made it right up to the edge of the intersection.
“Haha HA! Did you see that, Shimmer? Totally stopped him in his tracks!”
There was a lot of grunting going on behind him. Now that his heart wasn’t hammering in his ears, Snails could hear Sunset’s voice cursing quietly with each grunt he guessed his friend was making. He started to push himself up, and took another look back. Snips was down on the ground, in the corner of the wall and floor, Sunset’s knee and one hand on his back, holding the pudgy boy down, Snips’ cell phone in Sunset’s other hand.
“Yeah yeah...umph...very impressive. Just grab him and the cell phone.” Sunset shoved her knee harder into Snips’ back, glaring at the boy. “If you want this back, Snips, you are not going to force me to carry your unconscious butt back into the AV storeage room. If you even think about making a break for it, I will break this thing into a thousand pieces.”
“You wouldn’t!” Snips turned his head as best as he could to look up at the girl riding his back. “Yo-you’re ‘sposed to be good now, Sunset!”
“I am good! You two are the ones that just took pictures of us without permission.” Sunset sneered and leaned in closer to whisper. “The law doesn’t look very kindly on that sort of stuff these days, does it?”
Snips groaned, pressing himself tighter into the floor the edge away from Sunset. The former queen bee of the school had always been intimidating, but being on the direct receiving end of Sunset’s ire was something he hadn’t experienced since the whole she-demon incident. “Have your knees always been this pointy?”
Sunset blinked, her sneer vanishing as she looked down at her knee digging into Snips’ back. “Uh...maybe? Are they really that pointy?”
“Yes!”
Sunset shook her head and stood up, hauling the shorter boy up by his black t-shirt. “The pointiness of my knees isn’t up for discussion, Snips. Now get in the storeroom!” She growled for good measure and looked back down the hall. “You grab the phone?”
Adagio smiled playfully, kicking her legs like a child while she floated a few inches off the ground. “I got it, don’t worry. If this is what I get when I use the magic here, I could almost do without my gem.” She laughed delicately, throwing Snails forward with an effortless underhanded toss. The boy landed in a graceless pile at Sunset’s feet, groaning. “I could get used to this!”
“Don’t get too comfortable. Ponying up doesn’t last that long. Help me with these two and then we’ll get back to the plan.”
“‘Ponying up?’ Is that what you seriously call this?” Adagio grimaced. “Show some imagination, please, Shimmer. Can’t we call it something...less on the nose?”
Sunset helped Snails unsteadily to his feet, rolling her eyes at the siren. “I’m a scientist at heart, Adagio. ‘On the nose’ is how the labcoat class rolls.” She shoved the two boys forward, gripping their shirts as she marched them back into the Audio Visual equipment room. Once everyone was inside, Sunset kicked the door shut and let go of her former lackeys. “Okay you two, what the hell do you think you’re doing taking pictures of us without even asking for permission?”
Snails blinked, scratching his head.
Snips sneered, readjusting his shirt and looking back and forth between Sunset and the floating girl. “We don’t need permission, Sunset, this is public property and I haven’t seen any ‘no photography’ signs anywhere around here. Besides,” Snips gestured at his phone in Sunset’s hand, “you didn’t seem to care back when you had us take pictures of that girl you blackmailed.”
“Oh snap!” Adagio settled herself onto one of the less cluttered desks, tossing Snail’s phone end over end before catching it again. “Blackmail too, Sunset? I’m liking you more and more!”
“You’re not helping.”
Adagio blew a raspberry at Sunset’s back, catching the phone again. She swiped her thumb across the screen, calling up the devices cluttered mess of apps. She tapped on the one with the camera icon, her eyes widening at the number of folders and images that appeared in the gallery.
“Look...Snips, Snails, I’m not the Sunset I once was. You know that already. You two were here when the sirens nearly took over, so you know she’s not someone to mess with either. We’ve got...stuff to deal with, so I’ll let you off easy if you promise not to talk about what you saw and delete the pictures, okay?” Sunset put her hands on her hips, one side of her mouth turning up in a smile. The boys weren’t all that bad, and they had been helpful back when she was still friendless and evil. If they’d agree to her simple request, Sunset was more than ready to let them go. Dealing with siren grudge matches was enough for her without a rumor starting at school about her and other girls.
“Sunset?”
Snips looked like he was thinking over her offer. Snails...Sunset honestly wasn’t sure what the human was thinking about—if he was thinking anything at all. Sunset turned slightly, looking back over her shoulder at Adagio. The siren had a blank look on her face, eyes on the confiscated phone. “What?”
“Look.” Adagio turned the phone around and held it out. On the screen was a picture that must have been taken during the Battle of the Bands a few weeks ago. It was taken from a very low angle, pointing up into a red technicolor sky where the clouds were just parting to reveal an enormous alicorn. But right in the middle of the frame was Sunset and her friends as they channeled magic into the atmosphere where, thanks to the angle, Sunset’s legs and bright white panties were the obvious focus.
“What.” Sunset blinked, her voice flat. She turned back to the boys slowly, eyes narrowing. “What?”
Snips and Snails both recoiled, backing up against the blackboard. They scrabbled on the dusty floor, sneakers squeaking until Sunset's hands slammed into the wall on either side of them, effectively trapping them in place. Snails grinned nervously, his voice breaking awkwardly.
“Uh...it was a good shot? Li-like artistically?”
Snips nodded quickly. “Yeah! That sky horse thing you summoned was really good looking!”
Sunset glared angrily at them, her pupils shrunken to pinpoints. “And my underwear just happened to get in the way?”
Adagio tapped on the phone a few more times. “Looks like there's a lot of pictures here. They're even organized into folders based on things like ‘up skirt’ and ‘cleavage’ then broken down by the girl's name.”
She smirked again, the phone making exaggerated clicking sounds as she navigated. Her eyes went wide again. “Oooh! They even have folders for the staff too! Here's a shot up the principal’s skirt...whoa, those are surprisingly lacy to wear to school…”
“Principal Celestia wears skirts?” Sunset blinked again, her rage momentarily distracted.
“Like...once a year...” Snips mumbled under his breath.
“That wasn't as hard of a shot to get as you might think.” Snails grinned smugly, puffing out his chest proudly. “Just got to be in the right place at the right time.”
“And you two just seem to find that...sweet spot...a lot?” Sunset frowned, her voice dangerously soft. Even Snails seem to finally take a hint as he deflated against the wall. Behind her, Sunset heard more clicking, nails tapping on the phone’s glass screen while the siren made a low noise that was somewhere between a curse and a grunt of anger.
“You two are lucky I’m in a good mood.” Sunset growled, her own nails grating against the blackboard when her hands decided that they’d rather be fists.
“Y-you coulda fooled us!” Snips gulped, his pudgy Adam’s apple bobbing as his voice broke into a high pitched squeal. Snails nodded along and started to shiver in place, his eyes locked on Sunset.
“What the…?” Adagio bit her lip, squinting at the phone. Sure enough, there were three folders dedicated to herself, Aria and Sonata. But the odd thing was the little string of numbers for the date since the last update. If she was reading it right, Sonata’s folder had been updated just a few days ago. Aria’s and her own had older dates, but they only went back to the night of the Battle of the Bands.
She tapped on the folder with her name and then the small clock icon that arranged the images by timestamp. The newest images, unsurprisingly, was from the night of the Battle, grainy shots from somewhere in the crowd of students. She was glowing a lot more brightly on that stage than she was right now, and she looked fabulous. It wasn’t really that bad of a photo. Graininess aside, whoever had taken it had a steady hand and an eye for this sort of thing.
Adagio flicked her fingers across the screen, scrolling back through time and memories, seeing herself from the outside. She slammed her thumb down a second later and tapped on a thumbnail that looked different. At first, she didn’t understand what she was seeing, other than her hair, and what looked like grass and a wooden deck she was laying on while pouring a drink awkwardly on herself. I don’t remember ever doing that...wait.
Adagio turned the phone in her hand. Where is the shot coming from?
Suddenly it clicked and she realized that the picture had been taken from above her. She was looking down at the top of her head while she leaned against a wall with a red plastic cup in her hand. She could even see a little down her own top. Then all the pieces fell into place. The drink had been a cheap non-alcoholic wine cooler. The wall was a large split level home in the Canterlot suburbs. She could remember being able to taste the pretentiousness on the air as thickly as the hormones leaking out of all those teenagers.
She groaned low in her throat. “This was from that high school party we crashed a couple of weeks ago…” Adagio looked up at the boys Sunset was busy intimidating. They didn’t seem familiar, but then again she hadn’t been paying much attention to the students there. The male ones least of all.
She turned her attention back to the phone and pawed back to folder directory to check the dates again. She had a cold pit in her middle that kept growing as she confirmed that Sonata’s had a newer entry than either hers or Aria’s. She tapped it and the clock on the next screen to arrange the pictures by time again. The tiny thumbnails on the screen were far too small to make out any fine details, but even without enlarging the newest picture from earlier this week, Adagio could easily make out her cousin’s long blue hair and signature high ponytail.
With the picture full screened, Adagio could see that it was taken surprisingly close and outside in the rain. Or at least Sonata was out in the rain, soaked to the bone and carrying a couple of overloaded plastic grocery bags, while the cameraman was shooting from the dry interior of a passing car. Sonata wasn’t looking the camera’s way, her attention focused on something else as she turned into the trailer park where they’d hidden themselves away from the world. Enlarging the high res photo more revealed why the humans had even bothered with recording the moment. Sonata had apparently gone to the store and neglected to wear a bra, which the rain soaking and bag carrying made rather obvious.
Adagio coughed dryly and moved the image to center on the other siren’s face and enlarged it until it started to pixilate. She could only see half of it, but Sonata, in the rain and trudging home with food, still wore her trademarked smile. But to her, Sonata looked tired. Haunted. It wasn’t Sonata’s normal never-say-die smile.
This was the day I stole that tarp to put up in my camp, wasn’t it? That was what...three—four—days ago? Adagio stared at that smile. While I was out cursing and choking on my own hubris, she was out making do. Keeping on keeping on. I thought I had it bad...I really hope Sonata’s been alright with just Aria…
Adagio backed out of that folder to the larger directory, her eyes scanning the names of high school girls. She didn’t really care whatever compromising situation the two had caught Aria in, so she let her thumb hover around the names alphabetically near Sonata’s. Her eyes flicked back over to the folder with Sunset’s name. It hadn’t been updated in since the battle, but the number of files in the folder was pretty big. Sunset was still berating Snips and Snails, so she pressed her thumb to the tiny icon and opened the gallery again.
There was something that itched at her mind about the redhead and she needed to see if these idiots had what she wanted. Adagio scrolled through the images, working her way back in time so fast that everything was a blur on the phone screen. Black, orange, and red ran together like a digital fire in the night until there was a tiny shift in the color placement. Adagio slammed her finger down to stop the scroll and stared.
On the screen, a dozen Sunsets glared in equal amounts of anger and seduction back at her. Her hair was even more fiery, and her black jacket was gone, revealing tracts of bare arms and shoulders. Adagio wondered if Sunset had ditched it or if it gotten eaten in the transformation that produced Sunset’s red skin and massive demonic wings.
’Went full she-demon’ is a damn understatement! Picture after picture showed her a school full of slack jawed students gazing up at dark perfection. This...this pony was a succubus...a outright demon… Adagio swallowed roughly, feeling her cheeks heat when one upskirt image showed her that the jacket wasn’t the only thing Sunset had lost in the transformation. ...and she still made it out the other side.
Adagio swiped to another image that showed a bright light coming from Sunset and that purple girl Sunset said was another pony. The one that ‘reformed’ Sunset. Those brief flashes of fire and black eyes back in the school atrium threw some doubt on that for Adagio. There was still a tiny bit of Succubus Sunset in there. Maybe Sunset hadn’t lost it, so much as gained a little control?
There was a sharp noise, knuckles on blackboard, that brought her back into the conversation at the front of the room. Snips and Snails were both shivering, their eyes wide and glued on Sunset. The redhead somehow loomed over the two, despite actually being shorter than Snails by a few inches. Adagio smirked, imagining two ragged wings sprouting from Sunset’s back.
Her imagination was kind enough to remove Sunset’s clothes while it was at it.
“This is not a joke! From here on out, I don’t want either of you to take pictures of anyone without permission!” Sunset growled, straightening up and stuffing her hands into her pockets. The boys weren’t going to get any more terrified at this point—plus her hand hurt from punching the wall—so she settled into her practiced ‘cool and in charge’ pose.
A small part of her felt a twinge of regret about using her old tricks to manipulate the duo, but this time she was pretty sure it was for the greater good.
“Now get out of here, and do not breathe a word about what you saw here.”
“Um...wh-what about-t our phones?”
“My dad’ll kill me if I lose another one!” Snails yelped, his face going just a touch paler. “C’mon Sunset! Be cool, please, we won’t do it again!”
“Yeah!” Snips bobbed his head up and down. “P-promise!”
Sunset frowned halfheartedly, one corner of her mouth turned down in a semi-pout. She stared in silence, counting mentally to five before rolling her eyes and sighing. She’d let them sweat enough. “Fine. I will give you back your phones at the end of the day. I have something to take care of first. I’m serious about this, guys. Don’t make me go get the girls and you two get to have a chat with the laser sky horse.”
“That...that..uh...seems fair!” Snips bobbed his head again hard enough to make his cheeks wobble. Snails made sniveling in agreeance noises next to him.
Sunset really frowned and took a step back from the humans, swinging out her unharmed hand to gesture at the door. The boys didn’t stick around for any final farewells and the metal door rattled in its frame a moment later on the heels of the last sneaker out into the hall.
She spun on her own heels, turning to face Adagio. “One crisis averted, let's get back to the plan. All we need to do now is get Aria to come here to the school and you do your thing, then we can sort out...whatever this is…” Sunset flicked her fingers back and forth, indicating them both.
Adagio snorted. “Right, like that’s going to turn out well.” She smirked, but her smile faltered a second later and she looking down at the phone again. “So what’s the plan? How are we going to get Aria over here?”
Sunset stared at Adagio for a moment, blinking when her eyes started to feel dry and the siren didn’t commit further. “What do you mean? Can’t you just...like call her or something? Don’t you have some special siren thing you can do? Yell really loud?”
“What do you think I am? Up until five minutes ago I was completely magicless, and sirens aren’t whales, you nimrod!” Adagio palmed her face, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “We don’t keep phones for obvious reasons, when we’re in hiding. I can’t just call her, and I highly doubt she’d come back here if we went to go get her! This whole thing is starting to get shakier by the minute!”
“What about sending someone else to go get Aria?”
Adagio threw her hands up into the air. “I was just starting to respect you a little, you know that? Now you sound about as bad as Sonata! What part of ‘in hiding’ do you not understand, Sunset? No one knows where we’re…” She froze, memories of their ratty little ‘emergency’ trailer in its equally ratty trailer park dancing behind her eyes. She looked back down at the phone next to her on the table, it’s lock screen showing her the time and date on top of a static image of cartoon character.
“They know.”
Sunset blinked, hooking her thumb over her shoulder. “Wait...they? Snips and Snails, ‘they?’”
The siren nodded, dropping her arms and scooping up the smartphone in one motion. “They know!” She swiped away the lock screen, bringing up the directory of folders. Her fingers danced on the phone, navigating back to the most recent image of her cousin. Adagio flipped it around and held it up.
“Ew...the trailer park on the south side of town?” Sunset blanched, wrinkling her nose at the imagined stench of the place. She’d never had a reason to go there, but in all her years in the human world, no one ever said anything remotely positive about it.
“It was an emergency!” Adagio huffed angrily. “Forget it though, those two thralls of yours know where it is!”
“They can go get Aria for us!” Sunset grinned. “This is going to work out, Adagio!”
“Not if they get away from us!”
“Oh.”
Adagio resisted the urge to facepalm again and flared her wings. “C’mon, we’ve gotta catch them before they make it to whatever class or detention they're supposed to be at.” She launched herself at the door, but before she could even grab it, gravity suddenly reached up and dragged her back to the ground in a stumble. Adagio gasped and looked down at herself as the magical glow that had surrounded her faded away in just a couple of breaths. “Oh for the love of Tartarus! Why now?”
“The transformations never last that long.” Sunset patted Adagio on the shoulder as she passed the girl, yanking the classroom door open. “Snips! Snails! Get back here!”
“Oh yeah, yell at the the terrified humans. That always makes them do what you want them to.”
Sunset flashed a look at Adagio and started back down the hallway toward the main body of the school building. Unless things had changed in the last few weeks, detention was generally held in the library. She’d spent too many weekends getting familiar with the way the school handled discipline cases after the whole world takeover plan fell through. Thankfully, that also meant she’d learned all the places a student could hide if they didn’t want to actually show up for said detention. No matter where Snips and Snails went, she’d find them.
At the intersection, Sunset pulled to a stop, looking both ways as she mapped out the most likely path the boys would be on in her head. If they cut through the cafeteria, they would cut off a minute of travel time and put themselves in the position to either continue on to the library, or take a left into one of the abandoned halls. The janitor frequently left the interior doors unlocked, and more than once she’d time it to slip into one of them unseen to wait out a detention sentence.
She waved her hand for Adagio, turning on her heel toward the cafeteria. “I think I know where they’re headed. We can catch them this way.”
She broke into a run, sprinting down the hall away from the classes, back towards the atrium. Sunset’s boots skidded on the smooth linoleum at the next intersection, barely catching enough traction to make the turn. Ahead of her, she could see the double doors to the cafeteria just starting to swing close, the boys only just at the first row of long tables.
“Hey, come back here!”
“That’s,” Adagio panted behind Sunset as she struggled to keep up with the pony turned human, “still…uff...not gonna work…”
Sunset ignored her and put on another burst of speed to catch the door before it shut. Snips and Snails, however, heard her shout—and rather infuriatingly—took Adagio’s side by taking off in their own ungainly run.
On a good day, Snails’ long legs could give a track and field star a run for her money, but he was uncoordinated and loyalty to his shorter friend kept him tethered. She mayn’t’ve been Rainbow Dash, but Sunset still thought of herself as equine and running quickly was an expectation she gladly held herself to. She tore across the open and empty room after the boys as they rounded one end of the tables, her strides taking her up onto the attached bench seats before she simply vaulted the cafeteria table. Her short cut halved the distance between them and made the boys stumble in surprise.
“I said stop!” Sunset barked, gnashing her teeth when she got within arm’s reach of Snips’ flailing limbs. She grabbed his elbow and spun the boy around, the two of them skidding and tumbling to a halt, respectively.
Snips cursed unintelligibly when the air was knocked from him in the second tackle he’d taken this morning. He rolled as he could with the fall and glared up at Sunset with all the anger he could muster until he was able to breathe again. “Why...do…huff...do you keep...going after me?! Tackle Snails...for a change!”
“Yeah!” Snails barked, his own run canceled out a few steps away. “Wait...what?”
“Look you two, I need you…” Sunset gulped down air, her body only just now noticing the exertion she’d just pushed it through, “...to do something for me…”
“Like hell, Sunset!” Snips groaned, pushing himself up onto her elbows. “Why should we? We’re already going to be late for detention, and you basically stole our phones!”
“You basically took candid photos of girls without permission!” Sunset hissed, balling her fists. “Be glad I’m turning them in to the principals, or to the police or something!” The boys deflated at her mention of the authorities and Sunset hunched over to offer a hand to the downed Snips. When he didn’t take it, she straightened again. “Look, I’ll level with you. Do me this one favor, and as soon as it’s done, you can get your phones back. Then we walk our separate ways, no harm no fowl.”
“Uh...what do you want us to do?” Snails scratched his head, looking over Sunset’s shoulder at the whizzing approach of Adagio Dazzle. “We aren’t supposed to blackmail anyone again, remember? Principal Celestia said so. Plus, you gots our phones.”
“No blackmail this time.” Sunset took a deep breath. “I just need you to go get someone and bring them back here.”
“Do most kids ride bikes to school these days?”
“Heck if I know.” Sunset frowned, squeezing the cell phone in her hand while she watched the two teenage boys pedal off across the school parking lot. Once they were around the corner, she flipped it over and popped open the battery cover. She took out the plastic covered pack and tossed it in a nearby garbage can.
“Why did you do that?” Adagio crossed her arms in front of herself. “I thought you were going to give it back once this was over?”
“Pfft. As if.” Sunset turned the phone back over and touched the unresponsive screen experimentally. Without power, it was a useless brick. “Assuming this doesn’t end with the school partially collapsed, he’ll get it back eventually. But I’m not going to let go of it easily.”
Adagio’s mouth formed a mocking, surprised ‘o’ shape. “But Sunset Shimmer, those two were your loyal thralls! How could you abuse that trust?” She grinned at Sunset’s sneer, her eyes tracking the shiny smart phone as it sailed through the air and into the school’s athletic field. “Why not just destroy it? I could crush it for you. Do it right in front of him, what you say?”
“No…” Sunset sighed tiredly. “That would just be setting myself up for even more legal issues, and it wouldn’t guarantee the pictures would be gone. Snips and Snails aren’t that bright, but even they are tech savvy enough to have a backup somewhere. This way will scare them more than anything else.”
She grinned then, laughing dryly. “It’s my own fault for encouraging them back when Princess Twilight first came here. Serves me right that they have plenty of images of me mixed in there with everyone else.” Sunset looked at Adagio, crossing her own arms to match the blond’s pose. “Plus, I told you, they are minions, not ‘thralls.’”
“If you say so.”
“So...how’s this going to go down? Do sirens have a way they fight each other? Like, some sort of ceremony or something like a formal duel?” Sunset tapped a finger thoughtfully against her lips. “Should we do this inside, so it’s less likely to be seen? Or out here to minimize damage and potential detention time?”
Adagio blew air between her lips in a forced sigh. “No, there isn’t anything formal about most fights. Normally, you just kick and scream the other bitch into submission, or rip up her membranes so it hurts to breathe.”
“Do sirens have gills?” Sunset tilted her head, looking at Adagio. “Like, if you were in the ocean, would you go for the gills to drown a rival?”
“Don’t be barbaric, Shimmer.” Adagio smirked. “I’d feed them tail flukes first to the sharks.”
“Uh oh, look out, we got a badass fish over here!”
Adagio’s grin morphed into a sneer. “I told you, we aren’t fish! And I’m not going to tell you if we lay eggs either!”
Sunset smiled at the girl’s reference to the last note Princess Twilight had sent her in the journal. She shook her head, laughter bubbling up and out her throat until she was shaking all over. Adagio’s own deep chuckles joined hers a moment later. Sunset blinked a few times and reached for her satchel, slipping out the magical book. She drummed her fingers along the book’s spine. “So…”
Adagio folded her arms in front of herself, pretending she didn’t know what Sunset was thinking. “So what?”
“Er...now that we’re alone again...do you want to talk about what happened back there?” Sunset looked at the journal in her hands, her heart and voice speeding up. “About the kiss, not the transformation. Thought I’d like to talk about that too. Like, why do you get wings? Is there some sort of connection with flying sirens I’m not getting? Human mythology has harpies—but I’ve never heard of them in Equestria—and those are sort of related to the human version of sirens.”
Adagio shrugged gracefully, her eyes focused on nothing. The magical wings the transformation generated were as much a mystery to her as anything else related to magic. Maybe I should start learning about this sort of stuff? I bet I look like an idiot in front of her. She examined Sunset out the corner of her eye, not willing to look directly at the redhead. And now she’s a triple threat too...brains, power, and she goes commando when she’s a literal demon.
She looked back toward the school building, feeling her cheeks starting to flush and stomach tighten. “C’mon, it’s starting to get warm out here. Let’s get some shade, at least.” Adagio started off, heading for the side of the school were the morning shadows still lingered and the landscaped bushes would give them more of a hint of privacy. She didn’t really want to talk about the kiss they’ed shared back in the school. She wanted to repeat it. She wanted to transform again and feel the magic coursing through her veins.
Adagio smiled to herself. Power is mine again! Aria isn’t going to know what hit her! She chuckled quietly under her breath. “And I get the girl this time too.”
“What was that?” Sunset lengthened her stride, pulling up besides Adagio. “I didn’t hear you.”
“It was nothing.”
Sunset’s eyebrow raised skeptically. She opened her mouth again, but then snapped it shut, swallowing her comment. She wanted Adagio to open up, but it felt like if she pushed, it would feel like she was desperate. You haven’t kissed another filly in years, Sunset. Cool your jets. I just need to play it loose...let things unfold naturally. I mean, it’s not like it didn’t affect her.
Sunset frowned as she followed Adagio into the shade provided by a couple of tall bushes and the corner of the building itself. The temperature dropped a couple of degrees, cutting away the oppressive edge of the summer’s heat. The ground here was still moist from the previous night’s rain and the grass was thinly spaced. Sunset watched her feet to avoid any mud, but her eyes kept drifting forward to watch Adagio’s spiked heels flash with each step.
Of course it affected her. She’s been trapped here even longer than I have. Adagio’s got to be feeling alone...right? A little voice in her head whispered doubt and pulled out a memory from their conversation over tea. The siren giving her a look with a tiny smile and grabbing the tea she’d served. Adagio asked me ‘Have you had girlfriend since you came to this world?’ in that tone of hers. Kinda implies she’s had plenty of girlfriends, doesn’t it? Humans, ponies, other sirens…
Sunset’s eyes climbed upwards, following the heels to the top of the boots, up the patterned tights to where Adagio’s hips and hair played peek-a-boo with the swell of the siren’s butt. Yeah...a lot of girlfriends, I bet. Kissing me was probably nothing to her but another notch in her...whatever it is sirens put notches in.
Her imagination pictured Adagio lounging in some huge four poster bed with lots of hanging silks and downy pillows, or underwater on some tropical coral reef complete with sunken galleon and a seashell top for the blonde. Which Sunset was having serious trouble rationalizing with the knowledge of where Adagio had been sleeping for the last few weeks. Her couch, or a sleeping bag in the woods, certainly didn’t feel like the sorts of places one would find someone as exotic as Adagio Dazzle.
She sighed, blowing a strand of her hair out of her face, and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jacket. Adagio came to a stop just ahead of her between two larger, but widely placed trimmed bushes. There was just enough space for the two of them to stand or lean against the brick of Canterlot High’s western wall. Sunset stopped at the edge, letting Adagio fill the space by herself and mumbled softly under her breath. “Just play it cool...talk about magic, Equestria, fighting, anything but that stupid kiss…”
“This looks comfortable enough.” Adagio turned on her heel and leaned back in a single motion, coming to rest against the building wall. Sunset looked somewhat flushed, cheeks red and lips tight and thin. “Is something wrong? You said you wanted to talk.”
Sunset sputtered, flapping her jacket open and closed awkwardly. “Uh...yeah...about…”
Adagio smirked as the girl just faded out, apparently struggling to get the words out now when she’d been going on a mile a minute just a moment ago. Adagio watched Sunset’s blue eyes bounce around the small area, refusing to focus directly on her. The stammering chicken act was sort of cute, when she thought about it, but she much preferred the Sunset with fire in her eyes and a snarl on her lips.
She reached out, grabbing a handful of leather and pulled Sunset up against her with a leering smile. “About what?” Adagio chuckled, her other hand settling lightly on Sunset’s denim covered hip. She shifted her stance slightly, with her back to the wall so that the other girl was basically riding her leg, mirroring their earlier dance. Adagio breathed in deeply, drinking in the scent of Sunset’s hair as it mingled with the earthy scent of the damp ground.
Sunset gasped, her eyes going wide when Adagio yanked her forward, pressing their chests together. She threw her hands up, palms slamming into the brick facade on either side of the siren. “Hey! Adagio...this isn’t what I meant! Someone could see us out here!”
This is what you want. Sunset’s arm locked up, trapping her practically on top of Adagio. She desperately wanted to push away and look around, check if anyone was able to see them. She didn’t trust the semi-privacy the plantlife provided to keep them from being spotted by some random passerby. But something in her heart made her pause. You want this, even if it’s not serious for her. You’re desperate.
“So what if they see us?” Adagio’s leer turned into a confident smirk. “I’ll just transform again and then what are they going to do when I tell them to walk off and forget it?” She chuckled, the hand on Sunset’s hip sliding around to the small of the girl’s back where the denim met the light cotton shirt under the jacket. She spread her fingers, slipping under the shirt where she could feel that silky smooth skin and the top edge of whatever Sunset had on under the jeans.
Sunset growled in her ear, that fire sparking to life behind those whirlpool eyes. Idly, Adagio wondered just how much of that fire she’d have to stoke in the girl to get her to start showing that succubus form again. Just a little push in the right direction and she could find out if Sunset smelled the same when she was big and red. Plus, if I get my own powers back in the process, it’s a double win. We could rule this school, then this city, then the whole world!
Adagio tightened her grip when Sunset started to pull back. “C’mon Sunset, let’s fire up the magic again...kiss me. After I have my revenge on Aria, you and me...maybe Sonata too, we could turn our luck around and rule this whole place! We could be adored! You wouldn’t have to hide who you are any more.”
Sunset frowned, her cheeks warming again. Adagio’s grip and her own rebellious arms wouldn’t let her pull back any further and the siren had a gleam in her eyes that gave Sunset unpleasant flashes of herself from not too long ago. “Adagio, listen to yourself! This isn’t the way to do things. How would you even ponyup on command? You’ve only done it once!”
“Like this.” Adagio flashed a wide grin at Sunset and darted her head forward, catching the former pony’s lips with her own. Sunset’s lips were just as soft as she remembered, with a slightly sweet flavor to them.
Sunset froze in Adagio’s arms, another gasp catching in her throat until the siren pulled back. This time, when they separated, the blonde wasn’t glowing, floating, or sprouting wings. She was still infuriatingly gorgeous, but desperation or not, Sunset refused to let her libido rule her. Instead of lust, she reached down inside and took hold of her anger. It rushed up from the pit of her stomach like a wildfire and it felt good.
Adagio smacked her lips and looked down at herself. “Wait...why didn’t it work this time? Shouldn’t I be...like flowing with magic? I don’t feel anything. It worked last time.” Adagio pursed her lips into a pout and looked back up. “Hey, Sunset, what—”
Sunset’s forehead connected with Adagio’s at speed, making a sound not unlike two coconuts banging together, and knocking them loose of each other. Sunset stumbled backward, groaning and clutching her her face. She glared at Adagio through her hair and fingers, scowling. “You kissed me...for magic?”
Adagio grunted in pain, holding her own head as she sunk into her curls up against the wall. She rubbed rapidly at the site were their skulls impacted each other with one hand before returning Sunset’s glare two-fold. “Uhg...well duh! You didn’t complain about it last time...am I bleeding?”
“You’re not bleeding, you big baby.” Sunset rubbed her own forehead for a moment. The pain from the headbutt stung like hell, and her vision was a little wobbly, but her hand came away clean. “And I didn’t complain last time because I thought...I thought…grrrr...”
She clenched her teeth hard, growling more at herself than Adagio. She’d let her hopes rise. She’d thought, fleetingly, that things might have been looking up on the romance front. That Adagio could possibly become more than a friend. She’d been a fool.
Sunset balled her hands into fist, her brow lowering as the wildfire of her anger whipped around and tore at itself and her insides. If there was one thing Sunset hated most, it was feeling like an idiot and right now that was the only thing bouncing around in her head.
Of course, Adagio friggin’ Dazzle would use me for power! Why am I so blind? She doesn’t care! She’s just in it for the magic, she’s never wanted to be my friend, she’s never wanted to understand or grow or anything I had to go through! Playing with my heart was just the cherry on top...she’s a damn siren for crying out loud!
Sunset stepped back forward, her fist rising and tears starting to blur Adagio into a purple and gold smear. “You used me!”
Adagio blinked a few times to uncross her eyes and looked up at Sunset. The girl looked furious. Sunset’s hair was lifting up past her shoulders, despite the lack of any appreciable breeze. The whites of Sunset’s eyes were already starting to run black, like ink in water. Crap...I really stepped in it this time didn’t I?
“Okay, so that was a bad call on my part...but can you blame me?” Adagio grinned nervously, one hand over her chest. “It’s magic...it’s power, Sunset. It’s not like I don’t have a life long habit of chasing after it and using people!”
She swallowed, sinking deeper into her own hair, until she could feel the texture of the brick wall on the back of her head. “It’s not like I planned the first kiss! I...meant that one, really, I did!”
Sunset continued forward, grabbing Adagio’s short jacket and shoving the girl the last few inches back against the wall. She snarled again, making the other girl cringe, and brought their faces close together. Sunset lowered her voice to hiss in Adagio’s ear. “I was beginning to believe you might be able to change, Adagio, that you might actually want to learn how to be a friend. I thought—stupidly—that you might even like me. But now I see that I’m just a tool for your personal little vendetta. Someone you could get some kicks from messing with until you had Aria back under your thumb.” Tears blurred her vision again, her anger sputtering under a sudden upwelling of sorrow. “That’s...th-that’s all I am to you, isn’t it?”
Adagio shivered in Sunset’s grip, the girl’s eyes now completely black, making the blue iris seem even brighter. She tried to look away from them, but every time she did, she was drawn back to them. Adagio’s nervous grin quivered, one corner rising higher than the other before she opened her mouth to speak.
Just as she was doing so, one of the ever present background noises grew louder and came to the forefront with the high pitched squeal of brakes and metallic groaning of a large vehicle coming to a stop in the adjacent parking lot. The sound of two doors opening, followed by dual slams drifted through the foliage.
“Granny, I know you come here every day, but that’s cuz’ it’s yer job!” A throaty voice echoed over the ticks and pops of whatever truck or car engine was starting to cool down from the drive. “Being a student is totally different. I don’t mind helpin’, but I’d rather not be at school on a Saturday!”