//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: History And Learning // Story: A Shattered Rainbow Rock // by FourShadow //------------------------------// The very next day at school was much more calm. Especially since there wasn't anything big happening on today, Wednesday, or Thursday. Friday however was the big one. The finale. The final round of the Battle Of The Bands. It would be that day that the winner would be chosen, estimated by how much applause they'd receive. The Dazzlings didn't return back to school the next day. Not after their confrontation from the night before. They couldn't go back and face their 'friends' after what happened. Now the fate of the Battle of the Bands was all on the Song Of The Sea. To say Vinyl's team was stressed would be a complete understatement. "I can't, I can't, I just, I can't do this!" Lyra panicked, shaking the entire table that they were sitting at, in the cafeteria. "Lyra, you got to calm down!" Bon Bon said, trying to hold her BFF together. "I can't! We've only got til Friday to get ourselves together, and those Rainbooms are gonna kill us! They're gonna--" Octavia grabbed a cup of her water and splashed it straight into Lyra's face, ceasing her anxious voice. She stayed still for a moment, while water began to drip from her. "... Thank you, Octavia." "Look, we need to get ourselves together, we're going to be fine. We don't need those Dazzlings, we can face that lot on our own." Octavia said, Trixie however, couldn't bring herself to eat or drink. She was too busy thinking about everything that they had learned last night. That was the single thing that stayed with her head that day. She didn't even say a word to her new friends when she got to school the next day. She just held her face up, looking depressed into her food. "Trixie? Are you alright?" Vinyl asked. Trixie sighed. "No..." "This isn't about last night, is it?" "No, she's upset because they keep changing the taste of Cooler Cola." Octavia sarcastically replied. "Girls, I'm just... I don't know." "Come on, you can't be mad over that." Lyra said, patting her hand on Trixie's. "Its not your fault." "I never said it was." Trixie said, glaring at Lyra. "I just... why would they hide that?" "Because they're untrustworthy liars, that's why... or, well that's what Amethyst would say." Octavia shrugged. "Girls, don't you think we may have stepped over a line? I mean, yeah, I freaked out too but... couldn't we have talked to them about it?" "What's there to talk about?" Vinyl sneered. "They're liars, plain and simple." Trixie shook her head. "I know its not just that. There's always reason behind one's actions. Therefore, there has to be some logical reason for why they didn't tell us about this." "Trixie, what we just saw was on par with the Rainbooms power. And did you not forget that they admitted to being in those pictures?" "Yes, but we should have heard them out." Trixie said. "Where are they anyway?" "Face it Trixie, they're never going to show up here again. Not after being ratted out." Octavia said, biting into her pizza. It didn't matter what anyone else said to her, Trixie wouldn't believe them. She refused to believe that they were just lying to them for no good reason. She was going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what took her! Except, well, the school schedule. Okay, maybe later I'll go and do some research on them, Trixie thought. Once another session of freetime had opened up, Trixie immediately moved to the one place she knew she'd get some information; the library. She didn't let anyone or anything else distract her, instantly she dived straight to the library. Nothing was gonna distract her, nothing! Upon entering, she could see a few of her classmates performing research on their own. Some collaborating for big projects, some studying, some working on their own, it was a full house. She wandered around some more, and eventually found an open computer. Taking a seat, she set her stuff down, and logged in. Once the loading screens had ended, she opened up an internet browser and typed in the first thing in her head. Sirens. The first link she found, she clicked instantly. What she clicked on, took her to a website intended for Greek Mythology. In a painting, there enough was an image of what was described, a Siren. But the picture just made Trixie's spine tingle, seeing the near resemblance to Adagio Dazzle. "Sirens, here we go..." Trixie muttered to herself, reading out loud. "In Greek Mythology, they were dangerous creatures who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and singing voices to their doom, causing ships to crash on reefs near their islands..." From behind, she heard a voice speak to her. "Researching Greek Mythology?" Trixie looked behind, and noticed Principal Luna was the one who had spoken to her. With a nervous smile, Trixie nodded. "Yeah, totally!" Luna gave a smile back. "I loved studying Greek Mythology back in my old teaching days. The mythology was just so fascinating..." "Hehe, yeah, I guess so." Trixie turned around her in chair. "Is everything alright? You seem a little anxious." Principal Luna asked. "I am, I'm just... I don't know. My friends aren't talking with one another, and we were told one thing about another and... well, now we're not talking to each other." "Did any of you girls think maybe what was told could have been rumors?" Principal Luna asked. Trixie stopped typing. "Well, no... but for the sake of this scenario, I'm just referring to Girl A, B, and C because they admitted to the rumor." "Well, I don't know if this rumor is true or not, but maybe you all should talk about it." "That's the thing, I can't get them to listen. How can I get everyone to calm down and talk everything out if no one will listen?" Trixie said, leaning her head back in the chair. Luna smiled. "I know just how to handle this situation Trixie. My sister Celestia and I have had this situation happened times before." "You know how to fix it?" "Yes. The thing with friends is, they're not going to talk to each other if they're all riled up from new information that is going to be hard to take. You need to give them some time to calm down, and once they do, that's when you can gather them all together and that's when you can talk things out. Learn from everyone's perspectives, and try to come to a form of agreement." "But what happens then?" "I'm afraid that's when you'll be on your own to decide. But I know you and your friends can work things out." Principal Luna smiled, before leaving the library. Trixie took food for thought before going back to her research. Perhaps she was right. Everyone was still mad, and it was information they had only learned from last night. Now when there were so many raging and spurning emotions all around. She'd have to talk to them later. She pressed the print button, printing the page that withheld information about the Sirens from Greek Mythology. But her research wasn't going to stop there; she had much more to find! By the time the sun was starting to set, Trixie had zipped through the whole library, looking through textbooks, research books, books dedicated to supernatural, everything. She was desperate to find every piece of information she could get on the Dazzlings no matter what. As she looked through some of the books text, she even found more pictures of them, in more and more time periods. Even online she found some old pictures of them. One of them she found what appeared to be them in a Japanese diner, back in Kyoto. All three of them were wearing kimonos, and across from them was a smiling Japanese woman in her 20s, making tea. Below the photograph was a little date, set in 1982, and there were names of all four girls. "Adagio, Aria, Sonata and... Tībaggu?" Trixie asked herself. Instantly she printed out a full article of that document, just in case, the picture coming along with it. As her research continued, her pile of notes and information started to get bigger and bigger. And in each of her notes, there was some pieces of text that were highlight. And while Trixie read through them all, she started to notice several patterns in each piece. All of the documents she printed out were of different places in time, all from different centuries and eras, but there was something in each one she found. Scared. Ran off. Hunted. Chased. Every document, every article she found said that these girls were chased off. And it was always when their true selves had been shown off. Even in information about them being in the Middle Ages said that upon their powers being exposed, King Arthur and his Knights chased them out. Why was it that the articles and pieces of texts said they were chased out? Well if she was going to find out, it was going to be a question reserved for the Dazzlings. She gathered up all of her printed documents together, and left the library, on her way. As she made around another corner in the hallways, she stopped when she heard a familiar group of voices. She poked her head from the side and held in a gasp of shock. There were all the Rainbooms, but no Sunset Shimmer. All together in that corner area where Pinkie's locker was. "--Girls, I'm telling you, maybe what we're doing is wrong." Applejack spoke. "You mean having souls and destroying people's lives without any regard for their feelings or well being?" Pinkie asked. "No, I... well, technically yeah, but still, we gotta win this competition. Know what will happen if we don't?" Everyone nodded with gulps. "Several thousand beatdowns..." "And more to come..." Rarity shivered. Trixie raised a brow as she listened to them. This was sounding pretty fishy. "But we have these bad boys, don't we?" Rainbow Dash asked, showing off her pendent. "Maybe so, but Sunset Shimmer knows how to use them a lot more than we do. She could turn them against us." Fluttershy replied. "And lets not forget... poor Applebloom and Sweetie Belle," Rarity whimpered. "Yeah..." Applejack sighed. "But I don't know about you, I'm not sure I can keep this up anymore. I need the prize money more than anything." "You mean the thing that was NEVER BROUGHT UP OR MENTIONED EVER!? I mean seriously, how many things just get brought up like they've always happened when they were only just brought up now? It's pretty inconsistent. And why didn't you tell me that there was money involved!?" Pinkie rambled. Applejack rolled her eyes at Pinkie. "Anyways, the point I'm tryin' to make is, are we sure this is right?" "Look, girls... we're all tired of not getting attention, and I know you and Rarity want to win the prize money to pay for what Sunset Shimmer did but... come on! We've been pushed around long enough, its time we take some control for once!" Pinkie snapped. "But Pinkie, what if what we're doing is wrong?" Pinkie zoomed right up at Applejack, pulling her right up close to her face. "Applejack. LOOK AT ME. Friday is going to be the night we finally gain victory, and we've already scared everyone in the entire school. We have no more souls to lose!" Applejack pushed Pinkie off of her and huffed. "I'm just saying... its at least something worth thinking about." "Oh please, its not like we're gonna pay for--" Pinkie opened up her locker, and right at that moment, the two Rubik's cubes that were in there, exploded, splattering Pinkie in bright colorful paint. The explosion was so big that it even spread all over the inside of Pinkie's locker, coating everything in bright colors. Pinkie's teeth turned to daggers, steam puffed out of her ears, and her eyes became voids of fire. "Curse your 80s gimmick Amethyst!!!" Trixie held a hand over her mouth, stifling a giggle. The reaction on Pinkie's face was enough to make her want to burst out in laughter. About time the bombs went off. After school, everyone went on their own way and went home. Trixie however, had a plan. They had until Friday before the final Battle of the Bands round would happen, and she had to get everyone to apologize. This was something they had to do. Everyone was gathered over at Vinyl's house, over for a big study group. All they were doing now was just waiting for Trixie. Vinyl got up to answer the door, immediately as it ringed. And loe and behold, on the other side there was Trixie with her materials and supplies. "Trixie, excellent, you made it!" Vinyl said, welcoming her inside. "Thanks for letting me." Trixie said, putting on a pair of crocs. Trixie closed the door behind her, and she sat on the floor, pulling up to the coffee table where everyone was gathered. Over in the kitchen, Bon Bon was busy stirring away in a bowl, trying to prepare dinner. "So, why did you all want us to specifically come over here tonight?" Octavia asked. Trixie looked at everyone, who all turned their gaze towards her. Well, all except for Bon Bon who couldn't take her eyes off of the food she was making. "Okay, I... promise you're not going to be mad?" "Sweetheart, why would we be mad at you? You didn't do anything bad, did you?" Octavia asked with some slight precaution. "No, I didn't. I just... I know we're all still a little sensitive about this, but I think its worth talking about." "Yeah, what is it?" Amethyst asked. Trixie took a deep breath, calming herself down. If she was going to speak herself out, she needed to be as calm as possible. "We have to talk to the Dazzlings." Everyone was in an instant collective groan, and they could hear Bon Bon dropping something in the kitchen. Everyone looked back at her, seeing her pull herself off from the ground behind the counter. "Sorry, just dropped my spatula! I'll get a new one!" Trixie blinked, and then looked back to the girls. "Okay, so, if we--" "No. Out of the question." Vinyl huffed. "I don't give a flying feather about them, we don't need to associate ourselves with that sort." "Girls." Trixie tried to speak. "And why should we? They lied to us, they hid some pretty damning truths behind our backs, why should we talk to them?" "Girls." "And for that matter Trixie, why are you even offering them sympathy? Why are you giving them the satisfaction?" "GIRLS!" Trixie yelled, getting all of them to shut up and sit up straight, dropping to their seats. Noticing all of them had stopped talking, she took another deep breath to calm down. "Thank you. Now, if I can talk about this without being interrupted, its because I've found these. Here's an example." Trixie cleared her throat, and then spoke. "During the events of the World War II, there had been speculation of mystical creatures among our kind during the war. During a bombing attack out at sea, three strange creatures with aquatic and equine like features were found flying over the battle zone. Not after a second of seeing them, everyone turned their gaze upon the three of them and fired upon them for their massive size..." Trixie placed some documents and photographs on the table, allowing them to view for themselves. Vinyl was the first to pick one up. "Oooh, their outfits are so... classy. I love it! They're wearing penguin tuxedos at a banquet!" "When was that picture dated?" "Back in 1975." Vinyl replied. Octavia picked up another article. "Loch Ness Monsters Are Real? In 1996, a heavy metal rock and roll tour group was practicing over in the open spaces of Scotland, when one of the band members spotted what appeared to be sea like creatures swimming about in the Loch. Many have speculated to be the legendary Loch Ness Monster, but no further evidence suggested this fact was true." Amethyst picked up another document, looking at the photograph from the 1980s with the three sisters and the Japanese woman. Lyra leaned over, taking a look at the picture. "Ooh, I love the kimonos!" Lyra grinned. "My question is, who was this Tībaggu woman?" Amethyst asked. Bon Bon walked from the kitchen to the living room, to see what all of the commotion was about. This time, she picked up a newspaper article she read dating back to the 1950s. "In an attempt to deal with a few hooligans, three gals tried to stand in and defend a child, but their attempts had drawn several police forces to them who scared them off, and thankfully brought them to the attention to arrest the man before he made the attempted murder. The three girls were no where to be seen but they had been speculated to be gods for their enchanting singing voices and their strange magic..." Bon Bon stated. Amethyst picked up another picture, and she found herself snickering. "Oh my gosh... look at this. Look at what Aria's wearing!" Lyra and Bon Bon looked over and stifled a giggle. In a picture was an picture from 1985, shown to be in a gym. Aria appeared to be sitting on an exercise ball with her legs out to hold herself up, while in the mirror behind, they could see several other people on exercise balls and imitating her movement. Aria herself had a pink leotard on, high fitness briefs over spandex pants, a spandex shirt underneath her unitard, and leg warmers. In addition, she had a headband, and her clothes were all in bright neon "She's calling my shoulder pads and parachute pants dated, when she herself is wearing... this! This is great! I'm holding onto this!" Amethyst said, holding onto her sides. "Wait... look at this one." Octavia said, picking up another document. Everyone had gathered around to look at what she was reading. "This one dates back to the 1700s. In an attempt to free themselves from the taxations, three girls had been seen in the streets attempting to calm everyone in the all of the protests. However, the King's men claimed their act to be an act of witchcraft and ordered all men to kill... them... all..." By now, everyone was in total shock. All of their eyes looked back to Trixie who was sharing the shock and sadness of the reality. They ran all over the world, and in every other document and piece of history Trixie had found, there was always something about them being hunted down by people with weapons. "You mean to tell us... everywhere these girls were in, there was always someone trying to kill them?" Trixie nodded. "Oh my goodness..." Vinyl said, falling limp onto her armchair. "We have to apologize to them." "And talk to them. We have to talk about this, or we're never going to move on. We all owe them an apology." Trixie said. Everyone exchanged glances, some giving understanding looks with only the bob of their heads. After a few seconds of silence, everyone looked back at Trixie. "You know Trixie, for as nerdy as you may be... I think you might be the wisest of us all." Amethyst said, with a serious face. Trixie felt herself a little blush. "I don't think I'm that wise..." "Well if we're going to apologize, I think there's one more thing we need answered first..." Lyra said, raising her finger. "Yeah?" Lyra cleared her throat. "Where can I get a kimono?"