//------------------------------// // Interlude 1-3: Things You Shouldn't Say in Polite Company // Story: Delinquency // by Daemon McRae //------------------------------// Interlude 1-3: Things You Shouldn’t Say in Polite Company Imagine the stereotype of a group of unsupervised teens at a party on the weekend. Most of what comes to mind isn’t really appropriate to say out loud. Plenty of teens with little to no social agenda imagine plenty of physical intimacy, racy party games, and gratuitous nudity. Many of these people haven’t been to an actual high school party. The majority of the Rainbooms and the guys had kind of diverged into smaller conversations, taking the party as an excuse to socialize in a more relaxed environment than they were used to. Not to say that the guys weren’t ridiculously relaxed in almost any setting they found themselves in, but even they had certain topics they wouldn’t cover in say, the middle of the classroom. Anymore. “So, like, have you actually had sex with Adagio, or what?” Rainbow asked, more out of boredom than curiosity. She had long since been outplayed, and was simply watching the pot trade ownership between Treble, Sunset, and surprisingly, AJ, with a big bowl of chips in her lap. Despite being the element of Honest, or perhaps because of that, she had a great grasp on whether someone else was lying or not. She didn’t bother to hide her own emotions, instead opting to weed out the lies and call when she saw a bluff. Treble poured over his hand as if they were the answers to a test he was about to fail. Which, given the small stack of pretzels in front of him, wasn’t far off the mark. “No. Now hush, adults are thinking.” Sunset raised an eyebrow at him, barely visible above her own hand of cards. “Really? I thought someone had just burned the hot dogs.” “FUCK YOU I’M TRYING!” Rubble growled from the grill they had set up. “NOT YOU,” Sunset shouted back. “I have to say, I’m surprised. I’d figured you and Adagio would have bumped uglies a long time ago.” Treble didn’t look up from his hand, moving the cards around and putting two on the table. “Just because we flirt all the time doesn’t mean we’re screwing. There’s a difference between being a relentless flirt and a manwhore.” “Really?” Rainbow asked, shoving a handful of chips in her mouth. “Yeah, a manwhore actually gets some,” ribbed Dusty. “Take two,” Treble grunted, with an added glare to his ‘friend’. Sunset traded out one card in her hand. “Well, it’s not like anyone else here besides Sonata has gotten any. And no, you don’t want to as her about it. My god I’ve never wanted a drink more.” Sonata leaned against her chair until she was so far back she was practically in Sunset’s hair. “Oh, you know you liked it.” Shimmer just shivered. Treble raised his eyebrow at the siren. “I don’t know, it was kind of weird. And I’ve seen weird. All flavors.” “What are you, the Baskin Robbins of freaky shit?” Dash drawled, picking through the bowl of chips, chasing an elusive big chip with her fingers lazily. “I guess that makes me the Heinz 57, then?” Spooks asked over his shoulder, in that kind of monotone that blurred the line between serious and sarcasm. A few people laughed, but were quickly drowned out by the music suddenly spiking in volume. Those who hadn’t protected their poor ears simply glared at Pinkie, who stood next to the sound system with an innocent look on her face. “Whaaaat? I can’t be the only one who wants to dance!” There was a multitude of exchange glances before the crowd answered in unison, “YES.” Rubble gestured obtusely at the others, then tapped his brace with the barbeque tongs. “Look, Pinkie, even if I could dance, I still couldn’t dance. I believe the words Double D used last time I tried was-” “Waltz of drunken elephants?” Dusty finished helpfully. “It’s not pretty. I mean, the only one of us with any talent on the dance floor is Bones, and that’s all ballroom dancing, for some awful reason.” “It’s called parenting,” Spooks drawled. “Like I said, ‘awful’.” Pinkie pouted largely. “Awww, come ON! What about you, Trey? Surely you got some moves!” The boys exchanged knowing looks, with varying degrees of success in hiding their smiles. After a few moments, they all broke down laughing. “HA. Hahahaha. HA!” Treble barked, half sarcastically. “Pinkie, the closest thing I come to dancing is running away with style. Even Adagio had a few choice words about the condition of her feet after she insisted I join her in a slow song last week.” Sunset coughed out a laugh. “I thought you were all ‘rock and roll’? Don’t tell me none of that equates to knowing how to dance?” Treble opened his mouth to respond, only to be cut off by Dusty. “Please. He’s still having trouble with the ‘rock’ part. I’ll admit he’s getting better with a guitar, in that he doesn’t attract feral cats anymore, but his voice still needs work. Like, construction-that-redirects-traffic kind of work. Flaggers and all.” “Oh gee thanks you’re so nice I’m so glad we’re friends go fuck yourself,” DT groaned. “I’m getting better at singing, thank you very much. I better, with what they’re charging me for these lessons.” Science Twilight adjusted her glasses as she gave Treble an appraising look. “How do you even pay for those lessons? I know Rubble was doing construction up until recently, but what do the rest of you do for money?” Dusty snickered. “What don’t we do? I mean yeah, Treble has a part-time job, what is it, receptionist or something?” “I wish. At least I’d have a reason to talk to all the artists that walk through the door. No, I get all the fame and glory that comes with being an assistant sound tech at a recording studio. Which basically means I carry shit around and get blamed when the sound guy fucks up,” DT helped himself to a handful of chips from Dash’s bowl and punctuated his sentence with a frustrated crunch. “Right, sound bitch,” Dusty summarized playfully, with a glare from Treble. “I just kind of do odd jobs and stuff. Most guys don’t want a teenage parolee working with their stuff, so I just get work under the table when I can. You’d be surprised how many people have no qualms hiring somebody who’s quick on their feet who doesn’t ask questions. Most of my work is ‘I know a guy who knows a guy who needs a thing done’.” Princess Twilight scrunched her nose. “That sounds a little… illegal.” Rubble raised an eyebrow at her over the open grill top. Putting a few hot dogs on a nearby plate, with one or two making their way into the trash can, he grunted, “What part of ‘parolee’ escaped your attention?” Dusty talked over the protest forming on Twilight’s lips, looking to avoid another argument. Rubble had been grumpier than usual all week, with good reason, even if he had a greater tendency for being an ass than normal. “Spooks does… well, mostly we don’t ask. I know he sold some paintings recently,” a statement that elicited more than a few cringes and a flinch or two, “But mostly he just… I don’t even know. What DO you do?” “Writing, mostly,” Spooks offered. “I do short story entries for a small online horror magazine. And I’ve actually been selling more artwork lately. My mom thinks I should pursue it professionally after I graduate, since I’m already making money off of it.” Applejack, with all the brutal honesty of a cancer diagnosis, asked, “Who’n the hell would buy those two-dimensional nightmares?” “There’s a pop-up haunted house in Appleoosa that bought a couple, and the editor of the horror magazine bought one Monday,” Bones explained. “I shipped it off yesterday, actually. You’d be surprised how expensive shipping canvases are. Between that, the cost of painting materials, the reference books for our adventures, and the fines we pile up for destruction of public property-” “Which is absolute bullshit we didn’t even do most of that shit,” RM grumbled. “Yes, well, they can’t exactly fine the monsters, can they?” Treble quipped, with a brief smirk in Sunset and Sonata’s direction. “Hey, we didn’t even break anything!” Sonata protested. “...this time,” she added sheepishly. Sunset considered Treble with an all-too-familiar glare. “Excuse me, but I’m not the one who blew up the lawn at school. That one was all Friendship Magic.” “Ehehe yeah… Principal Celestia was rather… insistent that I reimburse the school for that one,” Princess Twilight volunteered. Spooks carefully considered an unopened can of soda in front of him, deciding to crack it open and take a sip. “Yes, but who had to help fill it in?” Dusty stood up to help Rubble move the hot dogs, which had since been joined by hamburger patties, over to the table of food. As Rubble sat down, DD plated up both of them a meal, and balanced them on one arm as the other hand fished out a couple drinks from the cooler. “Well, to be fair, that was right after the summer I’d decided to tag the gym. That was mostly community service on my part,” he said as he sat down. Rubble rolled his shoulders. “And I may or may not have shoved Hoops in a trash can and rolled him down the hill to the soccer fields a couple of weeks before. That one we kind of… earned. Although you never did tell us why you had to help, Treble,” he added, before taking an almost inhuman bite of burger. DT, who had just reached the table and was piling food onto his own plate, froze. The crowd stared at him interestedly as he shrugged nonchalantly, with his back to the crowd. “Not much to tell. Got in trouble, they needed more than a couple meatheads to undig the hole.” Most of the girls traded knowing glances, as the guys just grinned at each other. Science Twilight, however, noticed Fluttershy had blushed rather deeply, and was hiding herself in her chair. Which was a skill that seemed almost unique to her. “Fluttershy, are you ok?” “Um… I’m fine. Really,” she insisted, with as much confidence as she could muster. Which wasn’t much, especially as her blush didn’t diminish in the least. The girls looked as though they were trying to decide who should talk to her first, when Rarity stepped out of Sunset’s back door onto the lawn. Treble turned to address her with a look of barely concealed relief on his face (which the rest of the party couldn’t see, as he still had his back to them. “Rarity, oh thank good- I mean where have you been?” Then he raised his eyebrows as he saw that she had changed her outfit entirely, into a sundress with a light coat and a parasol. “Yeah, you like, totally disappeared when we all came outside!” Pinkie exclaimed. Rarity strolled across the lawn to take a soda from the cooler. “Well, to be honest, I’m not a fan of garden parties. As much as I enjoy a good social gathering, I prefer to enjoy them indoors. I hadn’t realized we were even going to be outside until a little after I’d gotten here myself, and I was hardly dressed for the occasion. So I simply opted to change into more proper attire.” Rainbow heaved a sigh. “Don’t tell me you actually brought a spare outfit with you, did you?” Rarity took a seat at the Twilight’s table and scoffed lightly. “Of course I did, darling. A lady must always be prepared. Now, I do believe Treble here has an answer as to our dear Fluttershy’s current sporting shade of vermillion.” There was a loud clatter as Treble dropped a serving fork onto the table with all the grace of a wall-eyed pigeon. A gesture that did not go unnoticed by the rest of the group. “Alright,” Sunset growled. “What did you do?” Flutershy waved her hands defensively. “No, really, it’s ok. I mean...” she trailed off, having run into the problem of explaining why nothing needed to be explained without actually explaining things. Dash glared at Treble as the teen gathered his food and sat down next to Rubble, across the table from Fluttershy. Which was, in fact, a rather poorly calculated decision, as the two couldn’t look at each other properly. “No seriously, Deep, if you did something to Fluttershy-” “She walked in while I was copping a feel in the Principal’s office, ok?!” DT barked, followed quickly by hiding his face in his hands. “Her AND Principal Luna.” What followed was a silence so stunned as to be catatonic. Even Treble’s friends, who normally would have laughed uproariously at such an embarrassing revelation, were quiet. Though one or two of them made a mental note to laugh later. Eventually, Rarity spoke up. “Oh… my. I must admit, that’s not where I thought this was going.” Rainbow stammered out a response, “Bu-wuh-how?! How did you not tell me about this?!” she asked Fluttershy, in a voice much louder than she had intended. The yellow-skinned girl shrunk further into her chair. “I… um… I promised that I wouldn’t say anything. It was a… it was complicated.” “How ‘complicated’ could it be?” Sunset groaned. “You and Luna walked into the office just as he was trying to get it on with some random girl. Sounds like something out of a teen drama.” “Who was the girl?” Sonata asked, leaning on Treble’s table with all kinds of curiosity. “Daisy? Tavi? Blossomforth?” She gasped audibly as an idea struck her. “Was it ADAGIO?!” Applejack gave the siren a curious look. “Sonata, you girls weren’t even AT the school back then.” “Oh yeah...” Sonata said dreamily, then hopped up and down as she pestered her neighbor. “Tell me tell me tell me tell me tell me!” “Oh my god,” Treble groaned, leaning back in his chair and looking to the sky as if trying to find the best angle from which to get taken out by a meteorite. “You don’t even know the girl. Probably. I dunno.” Dusty’s eyes rolled in his sockets back and forth as he did some mental math. “Wait… wait. Oh. Oh my god. THAT’S why Photo Finish refuses to take your picture! It was totally Pixel Pizzazz, wasn’t it?!” Rubble choked on a piece of hot dog. “HRK. HACK. GRRK. Ex-cuse me?! You said you just flipped her off in a photo one time!” Not finding that fateful piece of space debris with which to end himself, and thus the conversation, Treble groaned. “Yeah. Flutters and Principal Luna opened the door and turned on the light just as she was taking her shirt off. Although I did flip Photo off. God she annoys the shit outta me.” Rainbow grinned widely at Treble, then at Fluttershy. “So, see anything good, ‘Shy?” “Um… not really. I mean, Treble still had most of his clothes on, and he was standing in front of Pixel, who was sittong on the desk, and-” “Ok, OK!” AJ interrupted. “Don’t need the details, girl!” “Wow, you really are a manwhore,” Dusty said admirably, taking a bite of burger. Treble just rested his head on the table with a loud groan.