//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: Anxiety And Ancient History 
// Story: A Shattered Rainbow Rock 
// by FourShadow 
//------------------------------//

After Adagio and her sisters bowed to the audience, appreciating their round of applause, the principals excused them allowing them to leave again. It was time to see the next band coming up which was going to be the one that was going up against the Dazzlings.

"Next on stage, is Snips 'N Snails." 

Aria moaned. "Great, those two..."

"What? They're not that annoying... are they?"

"In another universe, I'm sure of it. But, they actually ran by their... 'rap' to me, and, it was just so terrible!" Aria complained. 

"It can't be that bad." Adagio said, sitting down on one of the bleachers. 





One performance later, Aria was left astounded. Snips and Snails weren't... bad. They didn't perform bad, at all! In fact, they were good! Their voices were on key, their lyrics weren't too awful, and on top of that, they were really warming up to the crowd. Everyone was enjoying their performance, and it wasn't painful or cringy in the slightest. In fact, they were even bouncing to their rap! How was that possible!? 

Soon as they finished, the two of them bowed before the crowd, receiving a round of applause from the crowd. After everyone finished clapping, the two principals finished marking down their final verdicts on the paper, and called for the next band to perform.

Not even one second after they began Aria slumped in her seat.

"Well I'm bored. Come on, lets just go see how the rest of the girls are doing." 

Adagio rolled her eyes. "The competition has barely started." 

"But I hate classical piano! Please Adagio! Don't make me suffer through this, I can't stand it!!!" 

Adagio chuckled and stood up. "Oh alright... come on Sonata, lets go see the others." 

Sonata shook her head as she got up. 

"You know Aria, you can't always just beg and whine to get out of places you know." Sonata quipped.

"Why not? It worked right now. And you whined too at times." Aria said with a smug look.

"Only because we need to see our friends. In any other scenario, you kicking and screaming would never work. Didn't work when you were a younger adolescent, and it hasn't worked now," Adagio said. 

Aria rolled her eyes.

"Don't roll your eyes, you know I can see that!" Adagio yelled overhead. 

Aria chuckled. "Sure, mom." 

After turning around another corner, they found the rest of their friends, or Song Of The Sea as they were now called. In one of the practice rooms, they found them gathered with all of their instruments. 

"Excellent girls, its great to see you all here." Adagio chimed with content. 

"Why wouldn't we? Oh and by the way, great performance out there girls. You had the audience eating out of the palm of your hands." Octavia smirked.

Adagio let out a light chuckle. "I wouldn't say that, but yes." 

Aria glanced to look around at their group, but noticed something was amiss.

"Um, isn't Amethyst supposed to be here?" Aria asked.

"She's changing clothes. We told her she couldn't wear those shoulder pads or parachute pants since, well... you know--"

Aria understood very well what Bon Bon meant. If Amethyst even wore a inch of the clothes the girls knew she wore, the Rainbooms or worse possibly the staff and or other students would catch onto her for sure. This wouldn't be too big an issue, but the problem was she wasn't allowed to come back here and she was here. 

"Well just to be safe, I'm going to stay with her so no one tries anything funny. Where is she?"

"Girls locker room." 

Without another word, Aria spun herself around and walked out of the practice room. There was only one place in mind to where she was going. 

"But speaking of missing people... where's Trixie?" Lyra asked.

"You don't think she's gone is she?"

Sonata looked behind her and gave a deadpan look. "Oh wait. Never mind, I see her. She's just hiding behind the door." 

Trixie's head ducked back and she slammed her body against the back of the door making a light slam. She tried to slow her breathing down, but unfortunately the slam was loud enough for everyone to hear. 

"Trixie? Is that you?" Adagio asked.

"Y-Y-Yeah, its just me!" Trixie gulped.

"Well come on in, no need to be shy." 

The bespectacled girl slowly peaked her violet eyes from the side. Slowly, she appeared from behind the door, wandering into the room again.

"Trixie, are you okay?" Octavia asked.

"Y-Y-Yes, I'm... I'm fine." Trixie stuttered, even more than usual.

"You don't sound okay. You look like you saw a ghost." 

"Ghosts aren't real, silly!" Lyra giggled.

"Those Rainbooms didn't do anything to you, did they?" Adagio asked with concern. 

"N-No, they didn't." 

Adagio gave a smirk. "Good." 

Trixie gulped. "W-Why?"

Adagio slowly walked past Trixie, appearing behind her with the same sly grin. "Because then I couldn't do this!"

Adagio's fingers started running up and down Trixie's side, making her giggle and laugh. The feeling of her in the right tickling places was too much.

"N-No, no, no come on!" Trixie laughed. "Come on, those are my weak spots!" 

Adagio eventually stopped tickling her, chuckling herself. Trixie looked back at her still laughing.

"What was that for?"

Adagio surprised her with a side-hug. "I just wanted to see you smile again, that's all." 

Trixie for a moment, felt a little uneasy. The image of Adagio and her sisters attracting everyone like sirens was still imprinted in her noggin. But at the same time, she knew Adagio was still being as kind as could be. All she could do was offer her a full hug, embracing her. 





In the women's locker room, Amethyst had finished dressing up. And in addition, Vinyl was helping applying some new makeup and adjusting Amethyst's hairstyle in an attempt to make her look less, 'inconspicuous' . 

Amethyst groaned. "Why do I have to change my hairstyle?"

"Amethyst, you're trying to hide from Sunset and the Rainbooms, right?" 

"Yes..." Amethyst moaned. 

"Then we're changing your hairstyle." 

Eventually the sound of a door swing hit their ears, and Aria was seen walking from the side. One look at Amethyst was enough to make Aria let out a loud shriek. So loud that Vinyl nearly jumped, and she felt her heart pounding against her chest. 

"Vinyl! What did you do to Amethyst!?"

"I was trying to hide her identity!" 

"By making her look like... like..."

"Like what?" Vinyl asked.

Aria's finger drooped. "I have a word to perfectly describe her look... but I'm not going to because its inappropriate."

On Amethyst's face, there were some black eye-shadow applied, her eyelashes were darkened some more, her lips were now teal, and there were two musical notes clipped onto her ears as earrings. In Amethyst's mind, all she could see was a monster on the other side. But she couldn't just tell Vinyl to get rid of it. Not after all the hard works he did. But she couldn't just sit there and be miserable. 

"Um... Vinyl?" Amethyst asked. "I know you worked really hard but... is it alright if you could remove some of this?" 

Vinyl looked back at her and smiled. "Its no problem. What do you need?"

"Well... I'm not really comfortable with the earrings, or the eye-shadow. Maybe you can remove those?" 

Vinyl grinned. "Its no problem. I'm gonna need to get some remover from my bag, just give me a second."

As Vinyl left the locker room, Aria took a seat on the bench, examining Amethyst's clothing choices. Instead of her neon shoulder pads, jacket, and parachute pants, she wore clothes that would be more accepted by today's standards. She wore black pants with some holes in them, white sneakers, a blue denim jacket, with some blue bracelets on her wrists. And she could see three blue diamonds on her white t-shirt. 

"So... how's it feel to be back here again?" 

Amethyst didn't look back at her, and instead looked in the mirror, staring at her own face. Her annoyed face had washed away and was replaced with a frown, and quivering eyes. 

"Aria. If I can be completely honest... I feel horrible being back here."

Aria moved a little closer, sitting beside her, looking into the same mirror she was looking into. 

"How come?" 

Amethyst sighed. "You know why, Aria. I just... I just... After tonight, I can never come here again. I'm already breaking the law by even being on these grounds, but... I know I will NEVER be allowed here again. And you know what? I-I miss this school..."

Amethyst sniffled, and tears were pushing through her eyes.

Aria frowned as she looked at her, and gave her a side hug, holding her close. 

"I miss it Aria. I miss these halls, I miss eating with my friends, I... I even loved learning here! School's not fun, I know, but with all of my friends here and the teachers... they made each passing day worth it. And the fact I can't come back here to even finish the rest of my high school just... it hurts, you know?" 

Aria wiped away a tear off her face. "I understand."

But as they looked in the mirror, Aria gave her a hopeful smile. "You know... if this is gonna be your last day here, why not make it a little interesting?" 

Amethyst looked back at her. 

"How?" 

Aria gave a mischievous grin. "They messed with you... why not mess with them?" 

Amethyst gave a mischievous smile back. Her face reeked with evil.

"I've got a few ideas..." 





As the competition continued to go on and the judges kept on marking and crossing out who was succeeding and who was eliminated, the Rainbooms decided to take advantage of this time. If they were gonna find any valuable information on the Dazzlings, now would be the time. Not when they would have to go on and perform!

In the library, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were performing tons of searches online. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of luck came their way. There was barely any info online that matched up to their names.

"Ugh, nothing." Rainbow moaned. "Not a single thing." 

Applejack sighed. "Keep trying, we're bound to find something eventually." 

"Yeah, I guess." 

Rainbow typed another search into the computer, but she paused for a brief moment. She looked over to her side, watching Applejack continue to type.

"Hey uh, Applejack?" 

"Yeah?" 

Rainbow bit her lip, and tapped the desk with her fingertips.

"You think when we finally get that crown that Sunset's after, we're finally gonna be happy?" 

Applejack stopped typing. "Why are you saying that?"

"Well, I'm just asking, that's all. I mean if you really think about it... everyone here didn't actually do anything to us. Should we really try and make the Dazzlings just as miserable?" 

Applejack never did have this food for thought. It didn't occur to her how everyone around her would be feeling with her actions. 

"Maybe... maybe not."

"Seriously? We're only now having a conversation about not being soulless?" 

Rainbow and Applejack nearly shrieked. Up above them, without anything holding her up in the air or even anything possible, they found Pinkie Pie appearing above thin air, looking as if she was just standing... upside down. And she wasn't even standing on a surface!

"Pinkie! How are you doing that!?" Applejack exclaimed. 

"Don't. Question. Anything." Rainbow shook her head.

Pinkie Pie eventually jumped down onto solid ground, and in her hands they could see a few books that were stacked. 

"I found something, and I think you may want to see this..." Pinkie said with a cat-like voice.

Rainbow and Applejack got up from their chairs and Pinkie Pie set a few photos that were printed on the table, and the books. In the pages, there were a few slips of paper bookmarking the pages she found. 

"So, what did you find?"

"Okay, I'm gonna warn you right now... what I've seen is really really REALLY weird! This is a photo of them when they first got here at CHS," Pinkie said, slapping a photo on the table, "But this one... Oh boy."

"What?"

Pinkie looked at them dead in the eye.

"This photo that I'm about to show you, is a picture taken from 1962." 

She showed them a black and white photo that she bookmarked. The image itself was meant to be part of the visuals to explain about a war taken place in that time. In the photo there were some people holding signs meant to protest against the war, but there was something else in that picture. Near off to the left side, there was a girl with pigtails... exactly like Aria's hairstyle. But it wasn't just the hair, that face... that same scowling face, the same furled eyebrows...

"No... wait. That's Aria! But... but that's impossible!" Applejack gasped.

"Maybe Aria took inspiration from this photo?" Rainbow asked.

"Don't think so." 

Pinkie opened up another history book, flipping over to a section of World War II. 

"This one was back in 1944, during the second World War."

The two girls looked down and their eyes ballooned. There was a group of soldiers huddled together for a giant group photo, nothing out of the ordinary. But what really was striking was the three girls in the middle of the photo. One in the middle had big puffy hair hanging behind her head, the one on her left with a pony-tail, and the girl on the right having pig-tails. Even adding on, all of them were wearing military camouflage.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack looked at each other, and then back at the paper. Zipping back to each other, and then back at the paper. Were their eyes deceiving them? Were they just imagining them?  

"No... no that can't be." 

Pinkie flipped onto another page. "1930."

In a page labeled, The Great Depression, the same girls were found standing with people who were protesting, holding giant signs, pleading to be taken in from their homeless dilemmas. 

"Oh wait... take a look at this. This one was from 1917."

Another group photo, same three girls, same three hairstyles within the black and white. 

"Pinkie?"

"Yes Applejack?" Pinkie blinked her eyelashes back and forth.

Rainbow and Applejack sternly looked at her, completely serious.

"Show us more." 





In the hallways, Pinkie Pie's locker was hanging wide open. There were some belongings that had fallen out from it, but no one was around to see. Not even a security camera to see who had busted it open.

Amethyst was the one who got it open, and Amethyst was too busy messing with her items. Licking her books, ripping some pages out, and even going the more immature route; rubbing her butt on her items. Aria just stood there and was trying really hard not to burst out laughing.

"Hey Pinkie Pie!" Amethyst yelled in the hallway, rubbing her butt over her locker door. "I'm rubbing my butt all over your stuff! You're getting sooo much glitter all over your stuff and you won't even want it!" 

Aria snickered some more. Her face was turning more and more red. 

Amethyst even took one of the spare cell phones she found in the locker, and just licked the screen. 

"Kick me out of school, you get a licked phone!" 

Aria snickered some more. "O-Okay, I think we're good!" 

Amethyst laughed again, but she wasn't done. She dug into her own handbag and pulled out two Rubik's cubes. With a grin, she tossed them both into her locker, with all of her other stuff that had fallen out. Once everything was shoved back in, she slammed the locker closed and put the lock back on.

"Oooh, she is SO getting it now!" Amethyst chuckled, walking away with Aria. "Geez, Aria, take a breather. Your face is turning red, you could be a tomato by now!" 

Aria snickered a bit. "I'm sorry, I'm trying not to laugh, I have the most obnoxious laugh on Earth."

Amethyst looked at her with a crafty face. "Come on Aria, you can't just keep it all contained. Come on, go ahead and laugh." 

Aria snickered some more, but she couldn't take it. She nearly collapsed, and she held onto her sides, laughing hard. Her fist slammed against the locker on her left, along with spamming uncontrollably. 

Amethyst couldn't help but smile. "You good now?"

Aria laughed. "I'm good, I'm good. Say uh, what did you put in Pinkie Pie's locker anyway?"

"Oh don't worry, she'll find out soon enough!" 





Back with the rest of the Rainbooms, Rarity and Fluttershy were busy waiting for Sunset Shimmer. She had been gone for a while, off to do 'research' as she told them. But she barely said a word as to what she was looking up, or even what she was looking for. So vague that Rarity and Fluttershy were left blank in expressions when she left.

"Ugh, how long must we wait?" Rarity whined. "I cannot stand waiting!"

"Oh shut it you!" Fluttershy snapped. 

Just then, the door slammed open. Sunset Shimmer rushed inside with some books, and printed pictures. 

"Girls, you are not going to believe this. We have hit a gold mine!" 

"New petition against tax again?" Fluttershy asked.

"No, I... that doesn't even make sense Fluttershy. No, I've found some photos that I think may be a starting point of a friendship breakup." 

Rarity raised a single brow. "How?"

"Well without context, these could mean anything." 

Sunset handed them a photograph she printed out from a history book she was busy scouring through. The photo was a piece of artwork back in Ancient Greece, depicting the times and livelihoods of everyone from there. But there was something amiss. In the photo they were looking at, there was a familiar girl with yellow-orange skin, raising a child up in her arms with joy. Nearby her were a girl with purple skin with pigtails, and a blue skinned girl with a ponytail. All of them were wearing toga outfits.

Rarity and Fluttershy's jaws hit the floor. 

"Oh, and take a look at this. This picture was taken as a depiction of the 5th century, during the Middle Ages. It would seem our 'Dazzling' friends have something that we did not know about."

Their eyes were now looking onto a tapestry picture, showing King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. All of them were gathered together, looking cautious and holding their swords out. In front of them were three young girls, one older than the rest. She stood with her two younger siblings, but the one detail standing out was their eyes all looking as red as a ruby. 

"Oh, my..." Rarity said, gasping at the photos.

"Wait, this can't mean anything. So you found a few pictures of them, they could have easily been made from artists. Really talented artists, but still!"

"Fluttershy, these pictures were taken and done by people who existed long before us. Long before these girls would have lived, technically." 

Their eyes squinted as they looked at the pictures.

"You mean to tell me..." 

"I'm not telling you. I'm showing you exactly what I am saying."

"Well if that's the case, I think you're gonna be mighty happy when you see this."

Standing at the doorway was Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. All of them were grinning deviously. 

"We looked around some more, and we found some more interesting timelines that you may want to see. And in addition, we talked to some friends over at Cloudsdale who had a similar encounter..."

Applejack set her laptop down on Sunset's lap, and pressed play on the video loaded. Sunset's eyes were now glued to the screen, wondering what Applejack was even talking about. Neither Fluttershy or Rarity saw what she saw. All they could see were the multiple expressions jumping all over her face accompanied by the sounds from the video. There were sounds of monstrous roaring, along with screams at terror. At first, her eyes were bugging out and her jaw was dropping... but then it changed. Her eyebrows went cross and a mischievous grin followed. 

This is going to be juicy, Sunset thought. "Girls."

The Rainbooms looked back at Sunset. 

"Our friends at Cloudsdale have done us a good deed today. Girls, lets print some more copies of these photographs. And keep this video up. We've got all the information we need."

"What kind of information?" Pinkie asked.

Sunset chuckled with malicious intent. "The kind of information that will tear their Dazzlings friendship apart... for good."