“All I’m saying is that the film had a lot of flaws,” Kiwi Lollipop said as she grabbed herself a bottle of lemonade out of the refrigerator. “The story was completely unoriginal and had some serious pacing problems.”
“Really?” Adagio Dazzle replied from her seat at the kitchen table with the slightest hint of contempt in her voice. “Please, elaborate.”
“Well first off, King Ghidorah was brought in way too soon,” Kiwi explained as she took a seat at the table across from Adagio. “I get that he’s supposed to be the big baddie, but bringing him in so soon like that just made the other titans like Rodan look pathetic by comparison. Plus, unlike in 1964’s Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, he wasn’t given much of a build-up. I mean, how are we supposed to be intimidated by him from the start if we know virtually nothing about him?”
Adagio could only give Kiwi a mildly disdainful look as she contemplated her response to the girl’s criticisms.
Ever since the two girls, along with Aria, Sonata, and Su-Z, had watched Godzilla: King of the Monsters the other night, they’d been ‘debating’ back and forth about whether the movie was actually good or not. Adagio, who was an avid kaiju fan and the one who’d selected the movie for movie night, had found it to be both enjoyable and a worthy entry in the vast collection of Godzilla movies. Kiwi on the other hand, who was a major cinephile and not big on blockbusters, had found it to be a less-than-stellar film. So far neither girl had conceded any metaphorical ground to the other, and it didn’t seem like that was going to change anytime soon.
“Okay, first off, it didn’t matter when Ghidorah was brought in,” Adagio refuted staunchly. “The reason that Rodan and the other titans looked pathetic in comparison to him is because they are pathetic in comparison to him. He’s just more powerful than they are, period. And as for Ghidorah needing to be built up, it wasn’t necessary. People already knew who he was going into the movie, and even if they didn’t I’d say he was plenty intimidating right from the start when he was holding his own against Godzilla.”
The PostCrush girl was quick to return Adagio’s expression of mild disdain. She stared the Dazzling down with laser-sharp focus while she tried to think of another criticism to elucidate her argument. In fact, she was so focused on what her next critique would be that she failed to notice Aria Blaze enter the room.
“Okay, we’re all set for tomorrow,” The pig-tailed Dazzling casually remarked to both her and Adagio as she approached the table.
“Well the biggest problem with the movie was definitely the humans,” Kiwi strongly remarked, ignoring Aria. “It spent so little time on them that none of their characters were properly developed. Well, except for Ken Watanabe’s character, but that doesn’t count since he was in the previous film.”
“Excuse me, but didn’t you say that the biggest problem with the previous Godzilla movie was that it spent too much time with the humans?” Adagio just as strongly rebutted, also ignoring Aria.
“Um, hello? Did you hear me-” Aria attempted to interject.
“Yes, I did say that about the last Godzilla film,” Kiwi cut her off. “And what I’m saying right now about King of the Monsters is that it spent too little time with the humans. It just went from one extreme to the other.”
“Is that so?” Adagio replied crisply. “Well then tell me, what’s the magic number of minutes that should be spent with the humans in these movies, since the last one was too many and this one was too few?”
The more Aria listened to Adagio and Kiwi’s argument, the more she began to realize that she wasn’t going to get through to either of them by simply trying to intercalate herself into the conversation. After all, this type of scene involving her older sister wasn’t anything new. She couldn’t recall the number of times throughout the years where Adagio had gotten into heated arguments with people over a topic that she was especially passionate about. Heck she couldn’t even recall the number of times Adagio had argued with her over a topic that she was particularly passionate about. Regardless though, most of the time these arguments were no big deal, as whoever Adagio was arguing with would usually yield fairly quickly and everyone would get on with their lives. This time, however, she felt that that wasn’t going to be the case.
Despite having known Kiwi for only a short time, Aria had gotten the distinct impression that she, much like Adagio, was the stubborn type. The type who had strong opinions and beliefs about things and would stick to them no matter what. And judging from the fact that she’d lasted more than ten minutes arguing with Adagio and was still arguing with her, the Dazzling knew she’d been right in her assessment of the PostCrush girl. Which meant that she was stuck in the middle of a real ‘Unstoppable force meets the immovable object’ scenario.
The only solution that Aria could come up with - other than waiting until one of them snapped and tried to kill the other – was to say something that was so wild and outlandish that it would undoubtably interrupt the argument currently playing out before her. But what? What could she possibly say that would not only sound incredibly crazy, but would also gain her the attention of both Adagio and Kiwi? She pondered this question for a few seconds, but quickly came up with something that she knew would work perfectly.
“Sonata just called,” She began to say as she tried to hide the mischievous smile that was slowly growing on her face. “She said she’s pregnant again and that her and Su-Z are eloping to Whinnyapolis to raise the baby together.”
“WHAT?!” Adagio and Kiwi shouted in unison as they both stood up vehemently and turned to face Aria with expressions of shock.
Upon seeing that her outrageously bizarre statement had achieved its desired effect, Aria allowed her impish smile to fully cross her face.
“Well that worked like a charm,” She triumphantly said as she took a seat at the table. “And now that you two have stopped bickering for a bit, we can discuss the plan for helping Kiwi with the emu tomorrow.”
Aria was referring to the help that she and her sisters had come up with together to help Kiwi after her troublesome first day working on the emu farm. Much to everyone’s confusion not a single emu had allowed the former popstar to get close to it, and given that the girl’s job on the farm was to take care of them it was, needless to say, a real problem. Having no idea why this was so, the three Dazzlings had come to the conclusion that they needed to turn to someone with far more years of farm experience than them for help. Someone they’d once considered an enemy, but now considered a close friend.
“So Applejack agreed to help then?” Adagio asked as she sat back down, slyly shooting her younger sister a brief, piercing glance as she did so for having bamboozled her with that remark about Sonata and Su-Z.
“Um, yeah, about that,” Aria tentatively began to reply. “She-”
“Sorry, I just need clarification on something really quick,” Kiwi interrupted her as she too sat back down. “Su-Z didn’t really elope to Whinnyapolis with Sonata, did she?”
It was clear to Aria and Adagio by the tone of Kiwi’s voice that she was being 100% serious in asking them if what Aria had said a moment ago was true.
“Uh, no, she didn’t,” Aria plainly clarified. “I made that whole thing up.”
“Oh good.” Kiwi replied in relief.
The fact that Kiwi needed Aria to clarify that her remark was a falsehood confused the two Dazzlings, and earned the PostCrush girl a couple of bewildered expressions from them.
“You actually believed that?” Adagio inquired, sounding somewhat smug.
“Hey, you gave the same startled reaction as I did,” Kiwi staunchly reminded the Dazzling, picking up on her pompous attitude. “And besides, I wouldn’t put it past Su-Z to actually do something like that.”
Aria and Adagio just gave each other a confused look for a moment, as if silently asking one another what sort of things Su-Z had done in the past to warrant her best friend believing such a ridiculous claim about her. They were curious, to be sure, but figured that their curiosity would have to wait until another time to be sated. There were more important things to discuss right now.
“So anyways, about Applejack,” Aria spoke up, getting the conversation back on track. “She said she’d help if she could but she’s…unavailable at the moment.”
“Unavailable?” Adagio curiously queried.
“Yeah, she said she and her family are all on their way out of town right now to visit a sick relative,” Aria explained. “So she’s not going to be around for the next few days.”
“I see,” Adagio replied in a distrait manner as she brought her right hand up to her chin, no doubt pondering potential new solutions to try and fix Kiwi’s emu problem.
“So are we going to wait until Applejack gets back then before I try getting close to the emu again?” Kiwi inquired.
“No, we’re still going to try again tomorrow,” Aria explained. “I was able to get someone else with practically the same amount of farm experience who was willing to help.”
Adagio immediately lowered her hand from her chin and dawned a surprised expression when she heard her sister say this. She tried to figure out who Aria was talking about but no one came to mind. Who else did they know who had just as much farm experience as Applejack?
“Who?” Kiwi asked before the Dazzling had a chance to.
“Pinkie’s sister, Limestone.” Aria answered.
The surprised look on Adagio’s face quickly turned to outright shock when she heard her sister utter Limestone’s name, though neither Aria nor Kiwi seemed to notice. Or if they did, they simply didn’t give any response to it.
Was Aria serious? She’d asked Limestone Pie, the girl whose own sister at times referred to her as ‘Captain Grumpy’, to help someone as obstinate as Kiwi with the emus?
“Huh, I didn’t know Pinkie had a sister,” Kiwi remarked.
“She has three actually,” Aria informed the girl. “They’ve all worked on their family farm for a number of years, but Limestone’s the one who essentially runs the place now so I figured she was the best one to ask. Plus she and I are kinda friends.”
It was at this point that Adagio opened her mouth to verbally raise her concern about Aria’s plan, but before she could get a single word out the front door suddenly swung open and Sonata and Su-Z walked in with dinner in-hand.
“We got tacos!” Sonata vivaciously declared as she walked into the kitchen and held the bags in her hands up high for all to see.
“Sorry we took so long,” Su-Z apologized as she followed behind Sonata, sounding slightly annoyed. “We had to go back because someone ate half the food on the way home.”
Sonata could only give a small, embarrassed laugh in response as she put her bags of food down on the table, eliciting eye-rolls from both Aria and Adagio.
“So long as the car doesn’t look like a tornado of taco fixings blew through it, it’s fine,” Aria said as she opened one of the bags and started distributing food accordingly.
“Well, actually, there is-” Su-Z started to reply, but abruptly stopped.
Curious as to why Su-Z had precipitously ceased speaking, Aria, Adagio, and Kiwi all turned to face the direction the girl had been staring to see Sonata giving a couple of rapid slashing motions across her throat with her right hand, which she quickly halted when she realized all eyes were on her.
“Sonata?” Adagio firmly said in her big sister voice.
“Um…w-well,” Sonata stammered, struggling to find just the right way to explain things. “I…may have made a…teeny, tiny mess in the car when I ate some of the tacos on the way home.”
“It looks like a tornado of taco fixings blew through it,” Su-Z impassively chimed in, much to Sonata’s chagrin.
Kiwi chuckled lightly at her best friend’s remark. Adagio and Aria, however, simply gave their younger sister the evil eye, who in turn gave them an awkward smile.
“As soon as we’re done eating you’re cleaning the car, Sonata,” Adagio sternly told the girl.
“Aw, can’t I wait until tomorrow to clean it?” Sonata whined. “It’s dark outside and I won’t be able to see what I’m doing.”
As much as both Adagio and Aria hated to admit it, Sonata had a valid point there.
“Fine, you can wait till tomorrow,” Aria acceded. “But you’re taking care of it first thing in the morning, got it?”
“Got it,” Sonata gaily confirmed, happy that her sisters had acquiesced to her request, just before taking a seat next to Kiwi and digging into her tacos.
As Kiwi unwrapped her own tacos and perforce observed Sonata eating hers, it wasn’t difficult for her to see how the Dazzling might have dirtied up the car a bit. The pony-tailed girl wasn’t so much eating her food as she was inhaling it, taking such quick, large bites and swiftly moving on to another taco that some fixings were splattering around her. Quite frankly though, Kiwi was more concerned about whether Sonata was actually chewing her food before swallowing it than the flying fixings.
Soon enough Su-Z sat down as well and all five girls were enjoying their dinner. At first there was little noise other than the sound of tacos being bitten into and drinks being drunk, but eventually conversations began to form among small groups, like Aria and Adagio.
“Are you sure bringing Limestone to help Kiwi is a good idea?” The elder of the two Dazzlings softly asked her younger sibling.
“Look, I know she wasn’t our first-round draft pick,” Aria just as softly answered, sensing her sister’s unease. “But with Applejack and her family gone she’s the only other person we know who has any farm experience.”
“She has rock farm experience, Aria,” Adagio obdurately reminded her. “Which means that I’m willing to bet she doesn’t have much experience dealing with any farm animals. And besides, that isn’t even my biggest concern.”
“What do you mean?” Aria asked confusedly.
“I mean you know how hot-tempered Limestone can be,” Adagio explained. “And given how contumacious Kiwi can be don’t you think that bringing the two of them together like this might be a recipe for disaster?”
The fact that Limestone and Kiwi both had such strong personalities wasn’t something Aria had considered earlier, and she realized that in hindsight she probably should have. She did indeed know how hot-tempered Limestone could be since the girl tried to beat her up for accidentally running into her at the mall when they’d first met. And as for Kiwi, well, she’d seen firsthand how headstrong she could be only a few minutes ago. It really wasn’t entirely impossible that the two of them might get into it as Adagio postulated.
Even still though, Aria didn’t feel that things would come to that. Limestone was her friend and she knew that as such the Pie girl wouldn’t do anything to cause her trouble….at least not intentionally.
“I get what you’re saying, sis, but I think the odds of anything happening between them are pretty low,” She assuredly told her older sister. “Despite Limestone’s gruff demeanor she’s not as bad as she seems. I mean, you should have heard her when I asked her if she’d help. She sounded almost, I dunno…flattered.”
Of all the words that one could possibly use to describe Limestone Pie, Adagio never imagined she’d hear ‘flattered’ be one of them.
“And for as obstinate as Kiwi can be I seriously doubt she’ll instigate anything,” Aria continued. “Especially not after what happened on Wednesday.”
It was difficult for Adagio to deny that Kiwi would most likely be on her best behavior when it came to working with the emu. After the PostCrush girl had lost her cool on Wednesday she seemed resolved to do just about anything necessary to get the emu to cozy up to her so that she could do her job.
“Plus if anything does happen, don’t forget there’s three of us and two of them,” Aria continued. “I’m pretty sure that means we’ll be able to anything that may arise between them.”
Once again, it was difficult for Adagio to argue with Aria’s words. While she still had her doubts about Limestone, she trusted her sister’s judgement enough to not ask that she call the Pie girl back and tell her tomorrow was off.
“Alright, if you say so,” She said as she reached for her drink. “I just hope you’re right about all of that.”
Although Aria didn’t say anything out loud, mentally she hoped that she was right as well.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Kiwi, Su-Z, and Sonata were having a conversation of their own.
“Can I ask you a personal question, Sonata?” Kiwi asked the Dazzling.
Since Sonata’s mouth was full of delicious taco-y goodness when Kiwi addressed her, she just gave a few small yet vigorous head nods to signal yes.
“Have you…been pregnant before?” Kiwi then inquired gingerly.
Not surprisingly, Sonata was caught a bit off-guard by Kiwi’s question, not only because she’d been asked it but also because she was completely befuddled as to why she’d been asked it in the first place. What was surprising though was that Su-Z appeared to be just as caught off-guard and bewildered as Sonata was, despite the fact that the question hadn’t been directed at her.
It took Sonata a few seconds to finish chewing and swallowing the food in her mouth, but once she had she promptly replied to the PostCrush girl’s query.
“Um, yeah, once,” She answered, her befuddlement evident in her voice. “Why do you ask?”
“Well while you were gone Aria made a, um…joke that you were pregnant again,” Kiwi explained. “So I was just, you know, a little curious.”
“Wait, so does that mean you…you have a child?” Su-Z chimed in, sounding rather enthusiastically astonished.
“Mmhmm, a daughter; Dolly,” Sonata replied. “She’s in school studying to become a marine biologist right now.”
Kiwi was unable to hide her surprise at hearing that Sonata’s daughter was studying to become a marine biologist. She knew that the Dazzlings were older than they looked, but she hadn’t figured that any of them were old enough to have a child who was in college. Sure, it was possible that Dolly was still just a young girl and happened to be an especially gifted child, but Kiwi figured if that were the case than Sonata would’ve said something about that already. The whole thing made Kiwi wonder just how old the Dazzlings really were.
Similarly, Su-Z was also unable to hide her feelings. Though unlike Kiwi, her feelings were more of excitement than surprise.
“OMG, I’d love to meet your daughter,” The younger PostCrush girl exclaimed fervently.
Now it was Sonata’s turn to feel taken aback, thanks to Su-Z’s rather unexpected zeal.
“Oh, um, okay,” The Dazzling said tentatively. “Well she’s coming for a visit on the 10th, so I’m sure you’ll have a chance to meet her then.”
“Goodie,” Su-Z happily proclaimed just as Kiwi came to a sudden realization.
“Uh, Sonata, the 10th is tomorrow,” The older PostCrush girl informed the Dazzling.
“What? No it’s not,” Sonata retorted as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Today’s only the-”
Sonata immediately cut herself off when she that the date on her phone was the 9th and quickly dawned an expression of shock. She then hastily stood up from her seat and turned to face her sisters.
“DOLLY’S VISITING TOMORROW!” She alarmingly shouted over to them, causing both Adagio and Aria to nearly fall out of their chairs.
“What are you talking about, Sonata?” Adagio asked in response, after making sure she was once again firmly in her seat. “Dolly’s visit isn’t until the 10th.”
“Yeah, and today’s the 9th!” Sonata informed her and Aria as she held her phone out in front of them. “See?!”
Adagio and Aria both looked at Sonata’s phone and practically dawned the same shocked expression as their younger sister when they saw the date it displayed. In that moment, all three Dazzlings realized that in all the hullabaloo of accepting Kiwi and Su-Z into their home, starting their new job at CHS, and trying to help Kiwi with the emus, they’d completely lost track of how late into the month it already was. And as a result, they’d inadvertently put themselves between a rock and a hard place.
“Well fuck,” Aria uttered in frustration as she facepalmed in a very Picard-like manner before reaching for her phone. “I’ll call Limestone and tell her we have to reschedule.”
Hearing that they were going to have to reschedule with Limestone made Kiwi feel a tad dismayed. Her strong work ethic made her want to get this problem she was having with the emu resolved sooner rather than later so that she could do the job she’d been hired to do. Every day that passed by where she couldn’t do said job was making her feel more and more like a sponge within the Dazzling household, and she was getting really tired of feeling like a sponge.
“Hold on a second, Aria,” Adagio spoke up just before her sister made her call. “I think there’s a way we can work everything in tomorrow.”
“How?” Aria inquired as she lowered her phone. “We can’t monitor Kiwi and Limestone and talk to Dolly about the Overlook at the same time.”
“The Overlook?” Kiwi softly whispered to Su-Z, to which Su-Z simply gave her a confused shrug in response.
“We can if we split up,” Adagio explained. “Sonata and I will talk with Dolly and you’ll go with Kiwi and Limestone. Sound good?”
In all honesty, Adagio’s proposal didn’t sound that good to Aria. The idea that she’d be the only person around to try and defuse any conflict that may arise between Kiwi and Limestone wasn’t exactly a cheerful one. She truly did believe what she’d said earlier about the odds of the two girls getting into anything being low, but she figured that with her luck even a 1% chance would mean something would definitely happen. Even still though, she knew she couldn’t refuse after having defended her belief so ardently to Adagio.
“Yeah, sounds good,” She answered, trying hard to hide any possible hints of reluctance in her voice. “I didn’t really want to have to talk to Dolly about the Overlook and relive that nightmare anyways.”
“Alright then, problem solved,” Adagio nonchalantly stated just before she went back to eating her dinner.
Upon hearing that everything was still on as planned for her tomorrow, Kiwi gave a small, barely noticeable smile.
“Uh, what about me?” Su-Z spoke up as she raised her hand for some reason. “What should I do tomorrow?”
“Hmm?” Adagio uttered before quickly swallowing the food in her mouth. “I don’t know, just…do whatever you want, Su-Z.”
Su-Z, in response, just gave a happy sounding squee and a few swift, cheery claps before returning to her dinner as well.
The rest of the meal was spent in relative normalcy, as was the rest of the evening. Eventually though, it came time for each of the girls to call it a day as one by one they retired to their beds for a good night’s sleep.
The next morning Aria arose a tad earlier than she usually did on a Saturday. Normally on the weekends she’d sleep in until around 9:00, but as far as she was concerned today was a work day and as such she’d set the alarm on her phone the previous night to wake her up like it was. After all, it was the day Limestone was supposed to show up to help Kiwi, and she knew that she needed to get an early start to the day in order to be ready for her friend’s arrival.
After quickly changing out of her pajamas Aria made her way out into the hallway and towards the kitchen to make herself some breakfast, and was surprised to see that Sonata was already up and eating her own breakfast.
“Hey,” Her sister casually greeted her in between bites of cereal.
“Hey,” Aria replied back as she made her way over to the cabinets to get a bowl. “Why’re you up so early?”
“I wanted to get as much of a head start on cleaning the car as I could,” Sonata answered. “You know, try and have it done before Dolly shows up.”
“Yeah, probably for the best,” She remarked as she grabbed a bowl out of the cabinet, followed soon after by a spoon out of a nearby drawer. “I don’t think Dolly needs to see her mother covered in taco fixings again.”
“Gee, thanks for that reminder,” Sonata replied sarcastically, clearly annoyed by the fact that Aria had alluded to the time when she’d accidentally tripped and spilled a plate of tacos onto herself in front of Dolly when she was still a little girl.
Seeing that her remark got a small rise out of her younger sister, Aria gave a barely audible chuckle as she sat down and poured herself a bowl of cereal.
It wasn’t long before Adagio, Kiwi, and Su-Z got up and each made themselves some breakfast as well. Afterwards, Sonata went out to clean the car as promised, Adagio and Su-Z parked themselves in front of the TV, and Aria and Kiwi went out onto the porch to await Limestone’s arrival.
As they waited, Aria tried to discreetly distance herself from Kiwi as she found the girl’s Vita Parfum Flamma Santai perfume to be especially strong today, while Kiwi tried to keep herself from gawking at Sonata while she cleaned the car. She’d caught a glimpse of the mess inside the vehicle when she first stepped outside, and when she did she realized that Su-Z hadn’t been exaggerating when she said it looked like a tornado of taco fixings blew through the car. Though in her opinion it looked more like John Travolta had accidentally shot a taco in the face in there, but same difference.
“So…how come Sonata has a child but you and Adagio don’t?” The PostCrush girl spoke up in an attempt to keep her attention off of Sonata and the car.
“It’s a long, embarrassing, and frankly uncomfortable story,” Aria answered. “If you really want to know you should ask Adagio, she feels practically no shame in telling it. Plus I’m pretty sure she remembers that period of time better than Sonata or I anyways.”
“Um, okay then,” Kiwi awkwardly replied just before noticing a car pulling into the driveway.
Once Aria noticed the car as well she made her way off of the porch and down towards the driveway, followed closely by Kiwi. The car stopped behind the Dazzling’s car and soon enough the driver got out and started making her way up the rest of the driveway. As she did, she dawned a very noticeable look of confusion when she noticed that Sonata was cleaning the inside of the Dazzling’s car.
“Hey, Limestone,” Aria greeted the girl once she was close enough.
“Hey, Aria,” Limestone greeted back before pointing her right thumb at the car. “So, what’s the deal with your sister and your car there?”
“Oh, Sonata’s just cleaning up a taco-related calamity she caused in there,” Aria answered, with no small hint of amusement in her voice. “Pay her no mind.”
“Yeah, that won’t be a problem,” Limestone simply replied.
As Kiwi observed the conversation between Aria and Limestone, she couldn’t help but take note of a couple of things. One, despite being Pinkie’s sister, Limestone seemed to be a lot more…sullen than the perky party girl, and two, Aria appeared to be getting along with Limestone better than she did with her own sisters. Of course, being an only child, she knew that she was entirely unfamiliar with the complicated social dynamics of having a sibling, and figured that the reason the two girls seemed to get along so well was simply because they shared more than a few personality traits.
“So anyways, Kiwi, this is Limestone,” Aria introduced her. “Limestone, this is Kiwi.”
“Oh, um, nice to meet you,” Kiwi said as she snapped out of her train of thought and extended her hand out to Limestone.
“So you’re the famous Kiwi Lollipop of PostCrush, huh?” Limestone said back in a slightly inimical manner as she took Kiwi’s hand and shook it. “Then I guess I have you to thank for my sister playing those annoying pop songs all the time.”
Kiwi immediately withdrew her hand upon hearing Limestone say this, and Aria dawned a look of mild anxiety.
“Um, s-sorry about that,” Kiwi gingerly apologized, which caused Limestone to then sniggle.
“Relax, I’m just messing with you,” She explained lightheartedly. “I mean, Pinkie actually does play your music all the damn time, but your stuff is a lot more bearable to listen to than all the other upbeat pop crap she likes.”
“Uh, thanks?” Kiwi replied confusedly, feeling unsure whether she’d just been complimented or insulted.
As far as Aria was concerned, things were going fairly well so far between Kiwi and Limestone. At least, compared to how they could have gone so far given that Limestone had essentially referred to Kiwi’s style of music as garbage.
“Why don’t we get started,” The Dazzling suggested before things potentially escalated. “The emu should be waking up about now and they might not be as finicky at this early hour.”
“Sounds good,” Limestone said as she started making her way over to the barn. “Come on, Ariana Grande, let’s get to work.”
Much like when Aria had referred to her by names like ‘Britney Spears’ or ‘Lady Gaga’, Kiwi dawned a small scowl and gave a low groan when she heard Limestone call her ‘Ariana Grande’, which didn’t go unnoticed by Aria.
“Hey, Limestone,” The Dazzling softly began to say as she walked alongside the girl. “You might want to ixnay on the nicknames with Kiwi. She can get pretty temperamental when it comes to them, trust me.”
At first Limestone just gave Aria a confused look that seemed to silently ask if Kiwi was a snowflake or something, but she soon lost it when she gave a shrug of indifference.
“Alright, if you say so,” The Pie girl replied, sounding almost exactly like Adagio when she’d said the very same words during dinner last night.
It wasn’t much longer before all three girls arrived at the barn and, sure enough, most of the emu appeared to be in the process of waking up like Aria had said. Upon entering the barn, Kiwi had half-expected to see Limestone give the same nauseated reaction that she and Su-Z had given when they’d entered it for the first time, but she didn’t. It perplexed her at first, but then she remembered that Limestone lived on a farm too and thus figured it was probably because she was simply used to such potent smells.
“So, which one of these mini-ostriches should we start with?” Limestone asked her friend once they were all inside.
“Cole would probably be good,” Aria answered as she pointed over towards Cole’s stall. “He was the first one we started with last time.”
“Okay, come on, Mariah-I mean, Kiwi,” Limestone instructed the PostCrush girl as she headed to where Aria had pointed.
As Kiwi followed behind Limestone, she began to wonder what kind of advice an experienced farm girl like her would share with her. She’d been curious about this since last night but only now was she really starting to speculate about it.
“So tell me,” Limestone spoke up as they approached Cole’s stall. “When you tried getting close to this emu before, how did you act?”
“Act?” Kiwi said as she tried to figure out how to put into words how she was around Cole last time. “Um, just…friendly, I guess.”
“Show me,” Limestone told her.
Doing as Limestone requested, Kiwi opened the gate to the stall, stepped inside, and carefully approached the large bird. Once Cole took note of her presence, she stopped and held out her hand to him in a very nonthreatening manner.
“H-Hey, Cole,” She somewhat nervously said as she tried to get close enough to touch him.
*RRMMOO*
Just like last time, Cole gave out a small cry before taking a few steps backwards away from Kiwi, much to the PostCrush girls continued dismay.
“It was like this with every emu she tried to get close to,” Aria informed Limestone.
“Well no duh,” Limestone replied as she entered the stall. “Your problem is as clear as day.”
“It is?” Kiwi confusedly inquired as she turned around.
“Uh, it is?” Aria just as confusedly reiterated.
“Yeah, it is,” Limestone told them. “Your problem is that you’re being too soft. You have to be firm with the emu, like you would be with a dog you’re training.”
Firm, of course, it was so simple. So simple, in fact, that Kiwi almost felt embarrassed for not realizing it herself.
“You have to show Cole that you’re the one in charge here,” Limestone continued as she placed a supportive hand on Kiwi’s shoulder. “Farming is all about attitude. It doesn’t matter whether you’re farming emus or farming rocks, it’s all about how you approach it.”
“Farming rocks?” Kiwi wondered aloud, though not loud enough for Limestone to notice.
“Now try again,” Limestone said as she removed her hand from Kiwi’s shoulders and gave the girl a small push forward. “And this time, be firm.”
As Aria watched Kiwi take a deep breath as she prepared to approach Cole again, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of worry. Limestone wasn’t necessarily wrong when she claimed that Kiwi might benefit from being firmer with the emu, but she feared that perhaps the girl would get a little too firm and cause Cole to feel threatened. And if that happened, well…
“Cole,” Kiwi more firmly said, which surprisingly did manage to get the large bird’s attention. “Come here.”
Aria stared at Cole with incredible intent for any signs of hostility from him, and when she saw him raise his head to the point that his neck was nearly upright she got worried. Feeling fearful that the large bird was about to get defensive she quickly entered the stall to pull Kiwi away from him, but thankfully by the time she got in there he had lowered his head back down and turned away from the PostCrush girl once again.
“Okay, maybe we should try something else,” The Dazzling spoke up gingerly, not wanting to push the envelope any further. “You don’t want to get too aggressive and make him feel threatened, remember?”
Kiwi had, as a matter of fact, forgotten the importance of making sure the emu didn’t feel threatened by her. While she wasn’t afraid of the emu themselves she was a tad timorous of their sharp toe claws, and the last thing she wanted today was to find out firsthand just how sharp those things really were.
“Y-Yeah,” She agilely said as she backed up a bit from Cole and then looked over towards Limestone. “Maybe we should try something else.”
“Don’t be so scared,” Limestone replied in a surprisingly austere manner. “There’s a difference between being firm and being aggressive.”
It was then that Limestone stepped forward in front of Kiwi and stopped only when she was within a few feet of Cole.
“Let me show you,” The girl then said as she extended her right hand outwards and pointed down at the ground in front of her.
“Cole, come here,” She firmly instructed the emu, sounding even firmer than Kiwi had a moment ago.
Once again, Cole responded to the command by craning his neck upwards, causing Aria and Kiwi’s anxiety to spike. Limestone, however, didn’t seem to be fazed by this in the slightest.
“Limestone, don’t-” Aria tried to warn her friend before she was cut off.
“Cole, come here,” Limestone reiterated even firmer than last time, sounding borderline aggressive now.
This time, Cole responded by ruffling the feathers along his neck and opening his beak to give a low, angry hissing sound that made Limestone realize she’d probably taken things too far.
“Okay, e-easy, Cole,” She said timidly, suddenly losing all of her rabidity, as she slowly backed away from the large bird with her hands out in front of her.
But Cole didn’t take it easy. He kept his neck upright, his feathers ruffled, and gave another hiss as he slowly advanced on Limestone. Not surprisingly, because the Pie girl wasn’t watching where she was walking she tripped and fell onto her backside, which gave her a good view of Cole raising his right leg to attack.
“Limestone!” Aria shouted as she hastily rushed over and placed herself between Cole and Limestone just as Cole delivered his kick, causing her to take the blow instead of her friend.
“AHHH!” The Dazzling shouted as Cole’s toe claw made contact with her left leg, sending a sharp and searing pain running through it that sent her falling onto her side.
“Aria!” Both Limestone and Kiwi shouted as they each hurried over to aid the girl, completely disregarding the possibility of Cole attacking again.
Fortunately Cole appeared to have calmed down after striking Aria and he quickly moved to the other end of the stall, away from the group of girls.
“Fuck that hurts,” Aria uttered from between clenched teeth as she held her left hand up against the bleeding wound now on her leg.
“Oh god I’m so sorry, Aria,” Limestone emotionally apologized as her mind reeled trying to figure out what she should do to help her friend. “I’m so, so, sorry.”
“Don’t…don’t worry about it. I’m okay,” Aria tried to assure the distraught girl, unconvincingly, as she attempted to get up off her side. “Just…help me get back to the house.”
“Are you sure you want to move?” Kiwi inquired concernedly.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Aria confirmed. “I just need some help so that I don’t put too much…too much pressure on my leg.”
Kiwi and Limestone looked at each other for a second, silently asking one another if they were sure they should try to move Aria. And without saying a word, they each wrapped one of Aria’s arms around their shoulders and gently hoisted her up off the ground. The Dazzling gave a small grunt as she was lifted up, but managed to get onto her feet with relative ease.
“Alright, let’s go,” She told the two girls holding her up, prompting them to start walking.
As they all steadily made their way through the barn, Aria tried her best to keep her left leg slightly elevated in order to minimize the pressure she was putting on it, but knew that she couldn’t keep the action up for long. She only hoped that she’d make it to the house before she had to lower it back down, or at least make it close enough that it didn’t start to really hurt.
Thankfully Kiwi and Limestone seemed to be in relative synch in terms of the pace they were walking, so they were moving as quickly as they could without aggravating Aria’s wounded leg. They made it outside fairly quickly and headed straight for the house where Sonata was sitting out on the porch, presumably resting there after finishing up her cleaning. It wasn’t long before the pony-tailed girl noticed them and immediately ran out to them with a look of fearful concern on her face.
“What happened?!” She asked anxiously once she was close enough, her fearful look only growing once she saw her sister’s bleeding leg.
“Cole got a little defensive,” Aria answered. “Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it looks.”
“I’ll go get the first-aid kit,” Sonata said before she rushed off and into the house as quickly as she could.
It wasn’t much longer before Aria, Kiwi, and Limestone made their way into the house as well, where they were immediately greeted by a worried-looking Adagio and Su-Z.
“Sonata told us what happened,” Adagio informed them as she hastily grabbed a chair from the kitchen and put it down in front of them. “Sit her down here.”
Kiwi and Limestone did as instructed and gently placed Aria in the chair.
“Let me see the wound,” Adagio said as she knelt down next to her sister in order to assess the damage to her leg.
“Calm down, sis, it’s not that bad,” Aria assured her older sibling just as Sonata ran into the room with the first-aid kit.
“What happened?” Su-Z asked Kiwi and Limestone as Adagio and Sonata attended to Aria.
Kiwi wasn’t sure how to answer her friend’s question. She obviously knew what the answer was since she was there when Cole struck Aria, but what she wasn’t sure of was how to answer. From a certain point of view it was plausible to say that it was Limestone’s fault because she’d been too reckless in trying to approach Cole, but she didn’t want to cast blame like that. Not only that, but the only reason Aria had gotten hurt was because she’d made the conscious and willful decision to step in front of Cole before he attacked, and Limestone could hardly be blamed for that part.
“It was all my fault,” Limestone spoke up before Kiwi had a chance to, sounding more remorseful than either PostCrush girl had ever heard anyone be remorseful before. “It was all my goddamn fault!”
After claiming guilt for the incident, Limestone abruptly ran out of the house with tears in her eyes, much to both Kiwi and Su-Z’s surprise. Kiwi almost went after her, but stopped herself when she heard Adagio speak up again.
“Well thankfully you’re right, it’s not that bad,” The eldest Dazzling informed her sister as she started going through the first-aid kit. “The wound isn’t deep enough that you’ll need to go to the hospital for stitches or anything. All we’ll need to do is sterilize it and then bandage it up with some gauze.”
A collective sigh of relief was heard throughout the room at the news that Aria would be fine and didn’t need to go to the hospital. As Adagio began applying first-aid to Aria’s leg, Sonata and Su-Z gathered around Aria to see if there was anything they could do or get for her. Kiwi, meanwhile, discreetly headed for the front door to check on Limestone.
As soon as Kiwi stepped out the door and onto the porch, she saw Limestone leaning face-forward against one of the nearby support posts by her arms, still with tears in her eyes.
“How is she?” The Pie girl emotionally asked her without turning her head away from the post.
“Adagio said Aria will be fine,” Kiwi answered compassionately. “The wound wasn’t that deep so she won’t need to go to the hospital.”
“Thank goodness,” Limestone replied in relief as she lowered her arms and ceased leaning against the post.
Limestone then made her way over to the chair where Sonata had been sitting earlier and dejectedly sat down in it, prompting Kiwi to take a seat in the chair next to her.
“How about you?” The PostCrush girl asked. “You okay?”
“Do I look okay?” Limestone answered pugnaciously.
From the belligerent way Limestone had answered her question, Kiwi began to wonder if maybe it would be better to give Limestone some space and let her sort through her feelings by herself. She started to get up from her seat to leave but was stopped when Limestone took ahold of her arm.
“Look, I’m…I’m sorry I got snippy with you just now,” She apologized as she let go of her arm. “I tend to get pretty defensive when I’m upset.”
“It’s fine,” Kiwi genially assured the Pie girl as she sat back down. “Don’t worry about it.”
“It’s just, I…I can’t believe I got my friend hurt like that,” Limestone confessed. “I came here to help her and I ended up getting her hurt.”
Once more, Kiwi found herself at a loss for words. There was no denying that Limestone’s actions did play a part in Aria getting hurt, but she still didn’t want to cast blame on her and make her feel even worse than she already was.
“I never should’ve agreed to do this,” Limestone continued dolefully. “I mean, I work on a rock farm for crying out loud. Why did I think I could help you guys with your emu?”
Kiwi dawned a confused look when she heard Limestone say that she worked on a rock farm…for a couple of reasons. For one, she didn’t know what a rock farm was or how one even farmed rocks, but mostly she was confused as to why Limestone had, in fact, agreed to help with the emu when she had no experience with farm animals before.
“So, why did you agree to do this?” She asked aloud.
“Because…” Limestone began to say before she precipitously paused to take a quick, deep breath. “Because Aria’s my only friend and when she asked me for help I didn’t want to tell her no.”
Now Kiwi felt confused for a whole different reason.
“Aria’s your only friend?” She asked.
“Yep. My only friend who’s not related to me anyways,” Limestone replied dejectedly. “As you’ve probably figured out I don’t have a very cherry disposition like Pinkie does, so most people don’t even try to be my friend when they meet me. Aria’s the only one who ever has, even after I tried to beat her up.”
Quite a few questions popped into Kiwi’s head in regards to the last part of Limestone’s sentence, but she refrained from asking any of them for the time being.
“When we had lunch together for the first time she opened up to me, confided in me, treated me like I’d been her friend for years,” Limestone continued. “No one other than my sisters had ever done anything like that before, and as time went on and we grew closer I really came to value our friendship. So when she called me and said she needed my help I just…I didn’t want to let her down, you know?”
“Yeah, I get it,” Kiwi sympathized with the distraught girl.
“I get it too,” Aria’s voice unexpectedly then said.
Both Limestone and Kiwi turned their attention towards the front door where they’d heard the voice coming from and saw Aria standing there, her left leg slightly elevated and wrapped in gauze where she’d been struck. Limestone immediately stood up like she’d just been caught in the middle of performing an embarrassing act. Kiwi stood up as well but not as alarmedly.
“H-How much of that did you hear?” Limestone asked anxiously.
“Just about everything,” Aria replied as she slowly started walking over to her friend, being mindful of her wounded leg. “And just so you know, Limestone, I value our friendship too. And that wouldn’t have changed if you’d told me no when I called you.”
“I-It wouldn’t have?” Limestone inquired emotionally.
“Nope,” Aria confirmed as she stopped directly in front of Limestone and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “I’m glad you wanted to help me so badly, but don’t ever feel like you’d be letting me down by saying no if it’s because you feel that you can’t.”
A single tear could be seen rolling down Limestone’s cheek when she heard this.
“I want you to be honest with me, Limestone,” Aria continued. “Even if that means giving me an answer you know I’d rather not get.”
Limestone dawned a small smile as she quickly wiped the tear from her face before responding.
“You got it,” She said. “But just know I’m going to remember that if you ever ask me to help you hide a body.”
“Good to know,” Aria replied jokingly.
The two girls shared a small laugh together right before Kiwi stepped forward and stopped at Aria’s side.
“And you know, Limestone, if you want more than one friend I’m willing to be your friend too,” She said sincerely.
Not surprisingly, Limestone was caught completely off-guard by this statement.
“Y-You are?” She asked.
“Sure,” Kiwi confirmed. “I’d be honored to be your friend.”
Another tear started to roll down Limestone’s cheek, but this time she let roll down without wiping it away.
“Thanks, Kiwi,” She responded wholeheartedly. “I’d be honored to be your friend too.”
After Limestone said this, the three girls just stood together in awkward silence for a few seconds until Kiwi decided to speak up.
“So, should we maybe…hug, or something?” She asked curiously.
“Hug?” Limestone said as she furrowed her brow. “Why would we do that?”
“I don’t know, it just feels like we should,” Kiwi replied. “I mean we all just had a big emotional moment together and it feels like we should cap it off with a group hug.”
Aria and Limestone looked at one another for a second before turning their heads away in embarrassment.
“W-Well if you guys want to hug I guess I’d be game for that as well,” The Dazzling stated.
“Y-Yeah,” Limestone concurred. “It’s not like I really want to hug or anything, but if that’s what you guys want to do I’m fine with it.”
Kiwi just playfully rolled her eyes at the very tsundere display by both Aria and Limestone before wrapping her arms around the two of them in a group hug. At first neither Aria nor Limestone returned the hug, but soon enough they wrapped their arms around one another and Kiwi and the group hug was complete. They stayed like this for a few seconds until they heard a voice call out to them from down by the driveway.
“Um, hi there,” Dolly Dusk somewhat awkwardly addressed them as she came up onto the porch, causing the group hug to promptly end. “Sorry if I’m interrupting something.”
“Oh, uh, hey, Dolly,” Aria greeted her niece, sounding more awkward than she had, as she walked over to her. “Don’t worry, you’re not interrupting anything.”
“Oh my gosh, Aunt Aria, your leg!” Dolly worryingly exclaimed as she noticed the gauze around her aunt’s left leg. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Oh it’s nothing, just a flesh wound,” Aria assured Dolly, trying to assuage her worry. “One of the emu got a little frightened and defensive is all.”
“Well, as long as you’re okay,” Dolly replied as she gave her aunt a hug. “It’s good to see you again, Aunt Aria.”
“It’s good to see you too, kid,” Aria warmly reciprocated as she returned the hug.
Both Kiwi and Limestone felt a twinge of warmth in their hearts as they looked on at Aria and her niece sharing a hug.
“Oh by the way, this is Kiwi and Limestone,” Aria introduced her friends as she broke the hug. “Kiwi lives with us now and works on the farm, and Limestone’s helping us with a little problem today.”
Needless to say, Dolly had a few questions for her aunt about how it was Kiwi had come to live with them, but she figured they could wait until after introductions.
“Nice to meet you both,” She said as she held out her hand to the two of them.
“Nice to meet you too,” Kiwi replied as she shook Dolly’s hand.
“Likewise,” Limestone said as she shook Dolly’s hand after Kiwi.
“Come on, let’s go inside,” Aria said as she headed for the front door. “Your mom’s been looking forward to your visit.”
And so Aria, Dolly, Kiwi and Limestone all headed inside, where they were immediately greeted to a warm reception by Sonata, Adagio, and Su-Z.
“Dolly!” Sonata shouted exuberantly as she wrapped her arms around her daughter in a big hug. “It’s so, so good to see you, sweetheart!”
“It’s good to see you too, Mom,” Dolly replied as she returned the hug.
After Sonata broke her hug with Dolly, Adagio immediately moved in for one herself.
“We missed you so much, honey,” Adagio affectionately told her niece.
“I missed you guys too, Aunt Adagio,” Dolly said back as she returned this hug as well.
Once Adagio broke her hug with Dolly, Su-Z then swiftly moved in and gave the girl a hug as well, much to everyone’s surprise.
“It’s so great to meet you, Dolly!” The PostCrush girl gleefully declared as she held Dolly tight. “I’m Su-Z!”
“Um…it’s great to meet you too, Su-Z,” Dolly unadroitly replied, not returning this hug on account of her arms being pinned to her side by Su-Z’s embrace.
Various looks of confusion could be seen throughout the room as Su-Z continued to hug Dolly for longer than the standard two to three seconds. Some looked away from the scene out of a sense of awkwardness, but no one said anything. That is, until Aria leaned over to Kiwi to ask her a question.
“What’s going on with Su-Z?” She inquired curiously.
Kiwi had a pretty good idea why it was that Su-Z was cozying up to Dolly like she was, but she knew that it wasn’t her place to say anything about it due to its incredibly personal nature. That explanation would have to come from Su-Z herself and at a time when she would feel comfortable enough sharing it.
“No idea,” The girl fibbed.
Soon enough Su-Z did let go of Dolly and all the girl’s sat down together in the living room to simply talk. Dolly was the focus for a while at the beginning with the Dazzlings, and Su-Z, asking her about things like how school was going and if she’d met anyone special. Eventually though the conversation shifted to the events of the morning thus far, brought about by Adagio.
“So did you guys manage to figure out what the problem with the emu was before Cole got violent?” The eldest Dazzling asked Aria and Limestone.
“No, we didn’t,” Aria admitted dejectedly. “It’s still a complete mystery.”
“Problem with the emu?” Dolly quizzically inquired. “What problem with the emu?”
“I can’t get close to them,” Kiwi explained. “Every time I try they just back away from me like I have the plague or something. We can’t figure out why.”
“Oh, it’s probably just because of your perfume,” Dolly speculated with no shortage of confidence.
Everyone else in the room immediately dawned faces of shock and confusion when they heard Dolly say this.
“My perfume?” Kiwi asked in her bewilderment. “I don’t understand.”
“Animals can be pretty sensitive when it comes to smell. I learned about it at school,” Dolly elucidated. “I mean, yeah, it was in regards to marine animals, but I’m guessing it’s the same when it comes to non-marine animals like emu as well.”
The more each of the other girl’s thought about it, the more it started to make sense to each them. How could they have missed something so simple, so obvious?
“And let me tell you, Kiwi, that stuff you’re using right now is pretty strong. I got a good whiff of it earlier when I shook your hand,” Dolly continued. “Flamma Santai, right?”
“Y-Yeah,” Kiwi confirmed.
“I thought so. You’ve got good taste in perfume, by the way,” Dolly complimented her. “But anyways, if you take a shower and wash that stuff off you’ll probably be fine.”
Within what seemed to be the span of a single heartbeat, Kiwi got up from her seat and dashed up the hallway, presumably heading for the bathroom to take a shower. It wasn’t much longer before the sound of the shower turning on was faintly heard in the living room, confirming what everyone had assumed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone run that fast before,” Adagio softly said to herself before turning towards Su-Z and Limestone to address them. “When Kiwi comes back out can you two go with her to the barn to see if the emu will let her near them? My sisters and I need a few minutes to talk with Dolly in private.”
Both Su-Z and Limestone agreed to Adagio’s request without quarrel. The next few minutes were once again filled with idol chit-chat amongst the group of girls until Kiwi reentered the living room after finishing her shower, at which point she, Su-Z, and Limestone all proceeded to go out to the barn.
As the three girls made their way to the barn, Kiwi couldn’t help but still feel a bit nervous about trying to get close to the emu. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe that Dolly was wrong about her perfume being the problem or that the emu would get violent again or anything like that, but after so many failed attempts already the feeling just came naturally to her. But despite this feeling, she still had hope that this time would be different.
Once inside the barn both Kiwi and Limestone thought it best to avoid Cole for the time being just in case he was still feeling defensive, so they went to Drew’s stall to try with him. Like all the other times, Kiwi approached the large bird slowly and extended her arm outward towards him. For a few seconds Drew just sort of stared at her, but eventually he took a few steps towards her, bridging the gap between them and allowing her to pet him. To say that this made Kiwi happy would be an understatement; it made her ecstatic, though she was careful not to let it show too much so as not to scare Drew. Su-Z and Limestone felt the same way as well, but likewise refrained from showing it too much.
After a few minutes of petting Drew, Kiwi went over to Tom’s stall to make sure that what happened with Drew wasn’t just a fluke, and sure enough it wasn’t. Tom let her get close enough to him as well, as did Brie, Pat, and all the other emu. Dolly had been right about what her problem had been, and now that the problem had been fixed she could do her job without hindrance. She was a bit sad that she’d stop having to use her Vita Parfum Flamma Santai perfume, but as far as she was concerned it was a small price to pay if it meant she could get close to the emu.
The three girls stayed in the barn with the emu for about an hour until they decided to return to the house, confident that the Dazzlings had finished talking with Dolly about whatever the Overlook was by that point, and for the rest of the day all seven of the girls just hung out together. They had lunch, played some games, talked a bit more, and even got a couple of pizzas for dinner. By the time the evening rolled around both Dolly and Limestone had agreed to stay a bit longer for movie night, and soon everyone was gathered around the TV.
“Okay, who’s turn is it to pick the movie?” Adagio inquired as she turned on the TV from the couch.
“I think it’s Aria’s turn,” Su-Z answered.
“That sounds about right,” Adagio replied as she handed the remote off to Aria. “Alright, Aria, what’ll it be?”
In all the chaos of the day Aria had completely forgotten that she was next up to pick the movie, so she didn’t have one already in mind like she usually did. Rather than spend time blindly scrolling through the Smart TV looking for something, she simply decided to just go with the first movie that popped into her head.
“Uh…Watchmen?” She said.
“Another superhero movie, what a shock,” Adagio remarked, feigning surprise. “And a three hour snoozefest of a superhero movie at that.”
“Hey, Watchmen is an excellent film,” Kiwi passionately defended the movie. “It managed to successfully translate the complex narratives of the book into a film that remained faithful to Alan Moore’s story.”
“Uh, I don’t know what Watchmen movie you’re talking about, but the one I’ve seen was not faithful to Alan Moore’s story,” Adagio retorted. “There were tons of supporting characters missing and there was no giant alien squid at the end.”
“Oh come on, those were extremely minor changes that didn’t affect the narrative of the story at all,” Kiwi practically barked back.
“Are you crazy? Of course those changes affected the narrative of the story,” Adagio rebutted vehemently. “By leaving out the giant squid at the end the whole story…”
As the two bullheaded girls continued to argue, Sonata, Su-Z, Dolly, and Limestone just stared on in both trepidation and amazement at the scene unfolding in front of them, unsure of whether or not they should try to intervene and put an end to it. Aria, though, knew better than to even speculate that she could stop the argument and just chose to ignore it as she started scrolling through the Smart TV in search of the movie she’d chosen.
“You know, in hindsight we probably should’ve just asked Fluttershy for help with the emu from the very beginning,” Sonata randomly said as she leaned over to her. “I mean, since she can talk to animals and stuff she probably could’ve solved our problem with the emu in like, a minute or two, don’t you think?”
Aria abruptly stopped scrolling when she heard her sister’s words. In that moment she dawned a thousand-yard stare straight ahead at the TV as she tried to figure out why it was that the thought of asking Fluttershy for help never once crossed her mind throughout this whole ordeal. Much to her dismay, she couldn’t come up with any answer other than it was because she’d had…a small lapse in critical thinking.
“Shut up, Sonata,” Was all she could say in response as she went back to scrolling, hoping that she’d find her movie soon so that she could just sit back and forget about the day she’d just had.