//------------------------------// // Discussion // Story: Recompense and Redemption // by CoverArt //------------------------------// Celestia looks to me with neutral eyes. Probably thinking about if she believes my story or not. I don’t blame her, my sisters and I used our magic on her and her sister as well as their students. She has no reason to believe or trust me. In fact, she probably will call the cops, though that’s why I made sure not to bring Sonata or Aria. They can take care of each other if I’m not there for them, they’re strong. Celestia shifts slightly, leaning forward, putting her elbows on her desk. I squirm a bit in my seat under her gaze, I wonder if this is what it’s like to be around Princess Celestia. My eyes widen slightly as I see her eyes go from neutral looking too sympathetic. “Miss Dazzle, I am really sorry that you and your sisters were pushed to do such drastic things.” That was surprising. After everything that happened, all the anger and pain we caused, she believes me. Even more shocking, she’s sympathetic, why? Why would she be nice to me after everything that’s happened? I mean I’m not about to complain about it, I had hoped for it really, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t dumbfounded when it happened. “A-after everything we’ve done, you believe me? Why?” She gives a downtrodden smile before answering my question, “I’m sure you know Vice Principal Luna is my sister. I know all too well the lengths siblings go to help each other, granted I’ve never had to deal with magic before the whole Fall Formal incident, but it’s more or less the same thing.” I gaze at her with understanding. It was something I actually didn’t think about. Though the past week I haven’t thought about much other than how we failed. To think someone actually understood, maybe even went through something similar to what we went through was honestly reassuring. Maybe there was hope for us after all. “So you’ll help me find them?” I ask, she never actually said she would yet. “Well it shouldn’t be too hard to find them, lunch is soon, so they should be in the cafeteria then. If you want I could even call them here. Though before any of that, I do have one question.” I tilted my head, raising an eyebrow. “How did it come to this in the first place?” “You mean: How did we get exiled?” She gives a small nod. Once again, I’m surprised, not expecting her to want to hear, or care about that part of the story. Admittedly, I don’t want to explain it all, it is a long story and it could be easily summed up anyway. “Basically, cultural differences, we went to Equestria to get magical energy to kind of prove our worth to our hometown, the Equestrians responded by sending their most powerful mage. The court mage against three, new to magic, sirens, fair fight, right? Well, this is the result.” Celestia gives a frustrated sigh, dumbfounding me for the third time in this conversation. “Cultural differences seem to cause every problem in the, apparently, many universes it seems. Again, I’m sorry you had that happen to you.” I just tilt my head, not something I could argue for or against. A moment later I just simply nod. “Now do you want to go meet them at the cafeteria or do you want me to send for them?” I think about it for a bit. I wanted to go to them, a show of good faith. Thinking about it now though, I wasn’t sure. I would have to walk the halls of a school that probably hated me; to be in a cafeteria filled with people that very well might tear me apart, not that I wasn’t expecting that from the seven either. I give out a defeated sigh. “Can you call them here? You might be forgiving, but the other kids I’m not so sure about.” “While I would love to disagree with you there, but I know you are probably right. Hold on one moment,” She leans over to an intercom on her desk, pressing a button to activate it, “Cherry, can you please call Sunset Shimmer, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack to my office please, thank you.” “What about Twilight Sparkle?” She was the one person I think could help us, she was, of course, from Equestria. “Oh, unfortunately, she left soon after the Battle of the Bands. Is that a problem?” I let out a breath. Could we even get home now? Damn… Well, I’m already here and there’s no harm in asking them… “Let's hope not…” She nods, opening her mouth to say something but the intercom cuts her off. “Principal Celestia, the six are here, should I send them in?” “Yes please Cherry,” Celestia replies. She looks to me with a reassuring smile. “You ready?” “Not really…” I wrap my arms around myself under my hoodie, comforting myself as best I can, I am really not prepared for this. We both look over to the door as it starts to open. The first one to enter is the rainbow-haired lead guitarist. It suddenly dawns on me that I don’t know any of these girls names except Sunset Shimmer. Rainbow hair’s eyes first go to Celestia, then finds their way to me. As she sees me, her demeanor changes to a grimace. “What is she doing here?” She asks in her tomboyish voice. She opens her mouth to go into a rant, most likely, and I lean forward slightly, getting ready to try to defend myself. However, before either of us could get a word out, a proper and crystal-like voice cuts in. “It is a school Rainbow Dash, she has a right to be here, don’t be so rude.” The voice belongs to the purple haired keytar player of the group. She walks in with a sway, similar to how my sisters and I normally walk when we’re needing to get something. Behind her walks the pink haired, shy, tambourine player and the pink haired, hyperactive, drummer. Behind them is the farm girl who plays bass and Sunset Shimmer. I keep my eyes on her for a moment before the farm girl catches my attention. “Ah don’t know Rarity, you saw what ‘appened, can we really trust ‘er?” “Applejack, doesn’t she deserve a chance? I mean you gave one to me.” Sunset Shimmer responds to the farm girl. “Girls, you know she’s right here right?” Celestia silences them with her question. They look to her, apologizing. “Now girls, I called you all here because Miss Dazzle here wanted to talk to you,” She motions with her hand to me. I bite my lip as I watch all of their eyes turn to me. I normally don’t have this kind of problem, especially not with a group this small, but after everything that happened…I don’t know, it’s just different. I take a deep breath before opening up. “W-well I know this is going to sound crazy, and you really have no reason to trust me, but… I need your help…” The bass player, Applejack, I think I heard Sunset call her, raises an eyebrow, crossing her arms. “Say what now?” “Its like I said, I… or really my sisters and I need you girl’s help…” Of course, they don’t trust me, I just hope I can convince them. “Uh… help with what?” Sunset speaks up this time. This is the part I know they won’t like, probably wouldn’t agree to. “We need to get back to Equestria, and to do that we need your help.” I close my eyes, waiting for the shock and disapproval of the six girls. I’m not exactly disappointed as I hear a few ‘what’s’. Their voices are a mix of shock, anger, and curiosity. Slowly, I open my eyes, again, it’s as I expected. The lead guitarist, Rainbow Dash, has her arms crossed, a scowl on her face, she really seems to be a stubborn one. Then again, she did have a song called Awesome as I wanna be. Applejack also has her arms crossed but seems to be more curious and skeptical than anything. The rest of the group just seems to be curious, looking at me like I have two heads. I simply sigh, looking down. “Listen, I know you probably won’t believe me, but my sisters and I need to get home, our home.” “What do you mean by home? You just want to go back to Equestria to take it over,” Rainbow exclaims. This is the kind of thing I expected, at least I was prepared for it. “We never wanted to take over Equestria, the whole thing was a misunderstanding. Did we do some bad? Yes, but that doesn’t make us demons. We just want to get home.” There is a large moment of silence, I’m not entirely sure how long it dragged out, but it felt like it would go on forever. Thankfully, Applejack broke the silence. “Well… Ah believe her.” My eyes shoot up to her, not expecting that from anyone here, though maybe it has to do with them being magical. “I’m a little skeptical, there’s a lot of stories about the sirens from Equestrian history, but, I’m willing to give you girls a chance,” Sunset adds. I smile as I start to hear two more voices support me, the two pink haired girls. However, there still are some doubts. “I don’t know girls, they’ve already shown that they are good at deception and trickery. I’m not saying that she isn’t telling the truth, I’m just saying let us take this with a grain of salt, and not throw ourselves into the fire as it were,” Rarity warns. I’m not exactly mad or upset. She’s probably the smartest among them for thinking that way. “Yea, we can’t just believe her just like that, what if she’s just trying to break us up,” Rainbow raises her arms over her head. She seems angrier than the others, though it's understandable why, given what she said. It was our plan to make the six break up so they couldn’t hinder our plans. I take a deep breath before standing up. I could spend hours trying to persuade them to my side, but in the end, it’s their decision, so I’ll leave them to make their decision. I walk up to Sunset, pulling a note out of my pocket to hand to her. “This is our address. I don’t want to force you girls to do anything you don’t want to, so if you decide to help us, come see us. If not…” I shrug and start to head out, though before I do I turn back. “Thanks for helping Principal Celestia, and thank you girls for coming here.” Hopefully, they’ll help us, if not, who knows what my sisters and I will do.