//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Meeting // Story: Aria Sour or Sweet? // by Nico-Stone Rupan //------------------------------// "Excuse me, miss, but can you give me directions to...?" Wallflower Blush halted her feet and reluctantly tore her gaze up from the sidewalk to the older man. A question? Directions? Oh, no... Her heart immediately began thumping with sweat forming on her green face. Wallflower never really paid much attention to street names and such. She was content on simply memorizing the general paths to get where she needed to go. That way, she could enjoy preoccupying her mind with more important stuff such as gardening or her Naruto fanfics. Should I tell him that I don't know? Would he think I'm stupid? That I'm inferior? What do I do? What do I do? "Uh, miss...?" the man asked, noticing her hesitation. Wallflower's eyes opened wide. Worthless dumbass, tell him something! "Oh, yeah, that, um, place you want to go is easy to find!" she blurted with faux confidence. "It's just three blocks ahead, turn on, uh, Hidden Leaf Avenue, and there it'll be on the right!" "Oh," the man sounded gratefully with a nod. "Thank you very much." He began on his way which only made Wallflower's anxiety rise to critical mass. Blockhead, those are the completely wrong directions! Are you trying to get him lost? What if he gets into trouble? What if word gets around that you are a crappy direction-giver? Old people will never want to approach me ag-- Wallflower suddenly paused and took a long, deep breath. Calm down. No one will ever know how hopeless you are. You have the power to fix this, remember? With that, she reached into her backpack. Her fingers felt the stone which was very smooth except for the stylized carvings including an eye upon it. A gift courtesy of another world. **************** "Aria, sweetie, pull over there and get us some snacks, would you?" "I'm not hungry," the tour van's driver stated bluntly. "But I am," Adagio Dazzle growled from the comfort of the passenger's seat. Aria Blaze gripped the steering wheel in frustration. She had hoped that learning how to drive the humans' metal deathtraps would grant her at least some ounce of freedom in this world. Oh, how naïve she was. She was treated as no more than a personal chauffeur by her two annoying sisters. She wasn't even allowed to play her favorite tracks by Avril Lavigne, about the only human Aria considered worth anything in this ridiculous world. Aria didn't feel like arguing with her domineering sibling that night, especially with Sonata Dusk sound asleep in the back of the tour van, cradling her precious toaster. The more time without her airheaded sibling conscious, the better, Aria reasoned. So, she obeyed this time and pulled over at a convenience store. She entered and took a cursory glance at the front counter, which of course was the usual monument of cigarette cartons and CBD gummies. It amused Aria to remember how only mere decades ago 99% of people smoked Tabaco and marijuana was preached as "the devil's weed". These days there were anti-smoking PSAs everywhere and millionaires being born in the pot business. Aria wished that the silly humans would figure out what they actually valued one day, instead of see-sawing their morals every generation. It made her wonder when public orgies would come back into fashion. Aria moved on to the snack section. She grabbed her favorite jalapeno chips first. Adagio had requested 'anything as long as it's chocolate', but Aria decided to get a bag of cheese puffs just to troll her. She cringed when she spotted a large display of butter-covered, deep fried Oreos in a can. She was about to step far away, before a thought came to her. Perhaps she could get Sonata to eat them. So, she picked up a can. With her bag of "goodies" in hand and a few bucks poorer, Aria exited the store only to suddenly bump into another girl. "Watch it!" Aria snapped. She took in the sight of the stranger. Her hair was in a large ponytail, green eyeshadow accentuated her freckled and yellow face, and wore a risque ensemple which included a skirt so short that it made Aria question if she was wearing anything underneath. "Fuck, you're like a sluttier version of my dumb sister..." Aria couldn't resist in commenting. Sour Sweet instantly grew furious and in a gruff tone, spat back, "Yeah, well, SHIT, with your huge pigtails, you look like an EMO version of my smart friend!" Aria grew a small smirk. She could use a good spar for a moment. "You're looking pretty trashy there, freckles. Got a hot date or you walking the streets tonight?" Sour quickly noted the snack bag. "I see that you're stocked up on deep fried Oreos. What, run out of razors to punish yourself with?" "I can see you getting punished in a back alley tonight..." "And I can see you crying in bed listening to Avril Levigne tonight." Aria's eyes narrowed. "Leave Avril out of this." In the tour van, Adagio listened to this back and forth with half interest. An abrupt flash of light soon caught her attention. Before she even needed to turn and look, a sensation shot through her body. A certain tingling which reverberated from her poofy head to her toes far stronger than any orgasm ever could. It was a feeling she had longed to experience every single day. "Equestrian magic," those desired words escaped her lips. Adagio whipped her head toward the other side of the street. There she witnessed the scene of some green girl holding up a small object up to a stupefied-looking elderly man. The girl quickly stuffed the object into her backpack and ran off. The elderly man then snapped out of his daze and looked around in a confused manner. Adagio needed no further context to know that she had witnessed the power of an Equestrian artifact. "Aria!!!" Adagio barked out the window with strict authority. "Enough chit-chat! We need to go!" Aria rolled her eyes and departed from Sour with a final shot, "Make dat money tonight." Sour simply growled and stormed off on her original way. "What is it now, Adagio?" Aria sighed as she got back into the driver's seat. "We have Equestrian magic to hunt down," Adagio stated intensely. Not many things could instantly perk Aria's interest as a chance to regain some precious magic. She swiftly started the engine. They needed to catch up with the human with it before she got too far. Sometimes Aria was thankful for her sister's eagle eyes. **************** Wallflower Blush dragged her feet down the sidewalk in despair. She had to do it again. She shook her head. No, she didn't have to, but it happened either way. How many people had she mindwiped since discovering the Memory Stone? Too many she would care to admit. As much as the guilt tugged at her, she still considered that the knowledge of someone somewhere having the slightest negative opinion of her freaked her out even more. She shook her head again. Stop dwelling on it, you freak. She tried to think of something else. Magnolias, sweeping valley landscapes, Sasuke x Gaara yaoi... Those pleasant thoughts were suddenly interrupted as she noticed bright headlights flooding over her. She turned to see a van barreling down the street her way. The side door slid open to reveal a blue girl, now wide awake and grinning wickedly. Wallflower instinctively began running, but the van quickly caught up. Sonata reached out and violently grabbed her backpack. With the van continuing ahead and the backpack still secure upon her, Wallflower's body was taken off. Her shoes scraped along the sidewalk as she tried to keep up with the vehicle's speed. "Hey, stop!!!" she cried desperately. "STOP!!!!" She tried to fight Sonata off, but suddenly another girl with the poofiest hair she had ever seen popped out of the passenger's side window and tried to grab her hands. At the wheel, Aria grew nervous as she saw that they were approaching a crossway. Her fears were of course confirmed when she glimpsed another car about to drive in front of them. She hit the break. The van loudly screeched to a halt, which caused Adagio and Sonata to let go of their target in order to brace themselves for safety. Free from her abductors but still at the mercy of the laws of motion, Wallflower tumbled violently to the pavement. Despite the pain of cuts and bruises, she managed to hobble up and get away as fast as she was able. "Aria, find somewhere to park!" Adagio ordered. "Sonata, come with me!" The two sisters jumped out of their tour van to pursue their wounded prey on foot. **************** Sour Sweet angrily huffed along to her destination of Sugarcube Corner. She checked the time to see she was already five minutes late for meeting up with her boyfriend. He can wait... she shrugged her tardiness off ...or at least he BETTER... The thing Sour couldn't completely shrug off, however, was her little encounter with the pissy emo. She'd always found it difficult to get over insults. The hope of crossing paths with her again for round two made Sour's blood boil with anticipation. "HELP!!! SOMEONE HELP ME!!!" Sour immediately stopped. A female cry for help on a dark night? Sour's fists gripped with righteous anger and determination. She grinned. It was time to cross an item off her bucket list. She had always wanted to take on an assaulter. She ran off into battle...