//------------------------------// // Dazzling Demons // Story: Sunset Heritage // by luckyboys121 //------------------------------// A loud noise, that was what Sunset was greeted to as she woke up and whether it be on instinct or from her practice session the day before, she activated her glowing right arm and gestured it to the side, grabbing the source of the offending noise. Her eyes went wide for a moment as she realized said offending object was her own alarm as she blushed slightly with a chuckle saying, "Guess it has been a few days since I was woken up by this instead of a knock at the door or something." Sunset slowly sat the clock back down as she did her best to calm herself as the arm stopped glowing. "There we go, if I really want to control this thing I need to try and turn it off with my mind as much I can instead of just grabbing something." She then stretched before becoming startled again by another noise, this time she thankfully only looked towards it as she sighed saying, "And there's the alarm reminding me to take my medication," as she silenced it before taking a pill and heading down stairs as she quickly grabbed some frozen waffles and popped them in microwave before letting out a slight groan as she said, "Next time Fluttershy stops by I gotta ask her to make some extra omelets for me to reheat later... or I suppose I could ask her to teach me how to make them," she paused in thought for a moment before shaking her head saying, "Nah, no way I could make anything that good." She soon got to work eating her mediocre food before heading back up stairs as she quickly removed her pajamas she put on her street clothes with the cloak and necklace over top as she glanced at herself in the mirror. She cocked her head slightly before doing something she'd almost never done, buttoned up her leather jacket as somehow the red cloak over top the black with the red yellow and white of hair, finally complemented by the necklace seemed to all go together in the best way. She smiled as she said, "Hum, not bad," before glancing down at her orange skirt as she said, "Mostly..." she then trailed off as she looked in the closet saying, "For some reason I feel like either a red dress skirt or black leather pants would look best... neither of which I own so I guess jeans and leather boots will have to do." She quickly changed again before taking her look in as she said, "There we are... don't know when I suddenly became a fashion snob but this just feels... right." She then nodded towards herself before grabbing her bag and heading out on her bike. As Sunset entered the school building she expected to see the usual glares from everyone that she typically got, what she didn't expect though was the students to all give her soft looks and gentle waves as she passed by. As she looked around at them all she was suddenly greeted by a familiar voice say, "Um Sunset." She turned towards the voice as she took grey girl before her saying, "Um... hi Octavia, what's up?" "Well I..." she said as she looked away for a moment in shame saying, "I just wanted to say sorry for how I treated you the other day and I'm happy to see you back at school." She then reached into her bag before she pulled out some tupperware saying, "And here, you should have some of this spagheti, it always makes me feel better." "Wow, thanks," said Sunset as she smiled at that and took the container, though it was slightly tapered by how out of nowhere this seemed. "No problem, and if there's anything else I can do let me know," said Ocatvai as Sunset nodded before walking off. Quickly she caught sight of Rarity going through her locker as she ran up to the girl, Rarity quickly caught sight of her as she looked away saying, "Oh Sunset, good to see you... lovely day isn't it?" "Yeah, a little too lovely since all the students seem to be treating extra nice," said Sunset. "Oh, well that's good isn't it?" said Rarity as she laughed awkwardly. "Yeah, they sure surprised me just like you said they would... care to explain why that is?" said Sunset. 'Well um," began Rarity before sighing as she said, "When you passed out the other day and we had to carry you to the van a couple of other students saw us and one thing led to another, a rumor started going around that you weren't eating or sleeping enough due to the stress of everyone being rude to you and we... never really bothered to correct them." "So... the're being nice to me out of guilt and pity?" asked Sunset. "Fraid so," said Rarity. Sunset glanced around taking in the looks of everyone around her as she shrugged saying, "You know I should be mad about that but it's honestly a pretty big step up for me." Rarity smiled as she let out a relieved sigh and said, "Well I'm happy you feel that way, well regardless I'm happy to see you here and I'll see you in class soon." "Sure thing," said Sunset with a nod as she turned and began walking to her own locker, only to see a familiar yellow girl standing in front of it. She smiled saying, "Hey Fluttershy, how's it going?" Fluttershy seemed to blush as she said, "Oh... um real good and oh, here," she then stepped aside and let Sunset into her locker. As she opened it and began putting her stuff away she asked, "Is everything alright?" "Oh, of course I was just wondering... you're coming to the Musical Show Case tomorrow right?" asked Fluttershy. "Of course, I'm super excited to see you girls perform, plus since we took finals two weeks ago it's pretty much the only reason to come to school," said Sunset as she cracked a smile. Fluttershy had her own smile at that as her blush intensified. She began saying, "That's good, because I've been working on this new song and-" Before she could finish a voice rang over the intercom saying, "Sunset Shimmer you are needed by the entrance to welcome some new students, repeat Sunset Shimmer to the entrance to welcome new students." Sunset scratched her head as she said, "Oh, guess I forgot I signed up to be student ambassador, didn't think anyone would enroll at this point in the semester either but I guess they just wanted to familiarize themselves with the school before starting in the fall." "Ye-yeah," said Fluttershy somewhat deflated. "Oh, don't worry I'm sure this won't take long, I'll see you later," said Sunset as she headed off. "Yeah, see ya," said Fluttershy slightly pouting as she thought, "Spend the day working up the courage to talk to her only to be interrupted.... well I suppose that's why I wrote the song," as she clutched her music journal to her chest before heading off. As Adagio walked through the doors with her sisters flanking her, she briefly glanced back saying, "You sure you're good Sonata?" The girl in question gave a salute and a smirk as she said, "I'm A-OK, thanks again for giving me the big bed and bringing me food yesterday." Aria was about to snark on this, only to remember how the blue girl threw someone three times her size into a wall as she said, "It was no sweat, you'd do the same for any of us if we felt off." Sonata smiled even harder at that as she said, "You bet! I just hope I can help you find this energy stuff to help pay you all back, that and..." suddenly her smile turned slightly darker as she said, "It felt REALLY good when I had it!" Just as quickly as it turned dark though, it went back to innocent, which only served to unnerve the others further as they turned their attention forward as Adagio said, "Yeah... anyway I think I see our guide coming here," as she pointed towards the approaching girl. "What's with the cloak, what she rocking a little ride riding head look or something?" said Aria. "I think it looks nice," said Sonata as her innocent smile persisted. As the girl appeared to wave to them they briefly noticed her arm start to flicker before she suddenly ducked behind a group of lockers. The three blinked in disbelief before Adagio said, "Well well, looks like we may have caught a lucky break." As Sunset stared at her glowing arm she did her best to calm down as she tried to get it to stop, only for the glow to intensify. She tried grabbing it with her other hand only for nothing to happen as she shook it saying, "What is with you?!" Once again she heard the voice echo in her head as it said, "Without strength you can not protect anything... let alone yourself." "And what does that mean?!" Sunset whisper yelled at the appendage. But just as she felt like it might answer again, the glow of it began to fade before returning to normal. Sunset breathed a slight sigh of relief as unbeknownst to her, a red mist flowed from her to just on the opposite of the lockers. Adagio, Sonata, and Aria breathed in this strange energy as they felt its new found strength fill them up, she briefly looked back at them as she saw Aria flex her hand like she wanted to try it out immediately where as Sonata seemed to have a sinister smile once again at having this power back. Now confident she could respond to this though she said, "Not now, that was just a taste and now that we know the source we need to tread carefully." She then gave a look that said, "Follow my lead," before turning towards the girl now coming from behind the lockers as she said, "Are you alright sweetie?" "Yeah, I'm good just... thought I saw a quarter," said Sunset as she let out a nervous laugh at the lie. She then waved her thankfully non glowing hand as she said, "Sunset Shimmer by the way, nice to meet you all." "I'm Adagio Dazzle, and these are my sisters Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk," said Adagio as she gestured back at the two. "What's up," said Aria. "Nice to meet you," said Sonata. "Oh, so you're all siblings?" asked Sunset. "Technically we're triplets, but Adagio won't let anyone forget the order we where technically born in," said Aria as she looked at her nails. "It's not my fault that those extra few seconds have apparently made me more mature," said Adagio with a smirk. As Aria rolled her eyes, Sonata simply giggles while Sunset let out a smirk of her own thinking, "Yup definitely siblings," as her eyes where suddenly caught by something. She glanced down to see them all wearing matching red necklaces that seemed to glow for just the slightest moment as she looked up at them saying, "Guess that explains the matching necklaces." On reflex Adagio suddenly held hers closer to herself before smiling as she said, "Yes well, they are something very precis to our little family." "Oh I understand, in fact I have something similar myself," said Sunset as she gestured to her own necklace. "Hum, how funny," said Adagio as she looked at it thinking, "Might be useful to know later." "Did your parents give that to you?" Sunset briefly lurched as she simply said, "Yes." Adagio smiled wider as she thought, "Oh, touched a nerve there... definitely useful." The four stood in silence for a moment before Aria spoke up saying, "Anyway, shouldn't we get on with tour?" "Oh, of course," said Sunset as she snapped back to reality and turned and led them down the hall. "There are a couple of classes along this hall, though since finals have all been taken care of it's pretty much all busy work, though a handful of cool teachers are playing movies," Sunset then leaned towards them as she said, "I'd be happy to point them out so you can duck out of the busy work classes and stop by, since you're all here to just familiarize yourself with the school I'm sure you could get away with it." Sonata chuckled at that while the others simply smirked at it. Sunset continued saying, "Over there is the gym, and here's the library, OH!" She then stopped in front a poster saying, "Tomorrow we're having a Musical Showcase, I'm sure Principal Celestia can fit you in the line up if you're interested." "A musical showcase you say," said Adagio as her face lit up at it. "Yeah, do you three play anything?" asked Sunset. "Not really," said Sonata. "But we do sing from time to time," added Aria. "Awesome, I'd love to hear it," said Sunset as she led on. "And I'm sure it would be great to hear you as well," said Adagio. Sunset briefly flinched as she said, "Actually I'm not in it." "Oh," said Adagio as her smile turned more devious. "Why not, I mean you have a nice gruff to your voice that I know I'd love to hear." Sunset slightly blushed at the complement as she said, "Thanks but.. I'm just happy to sit on the sidelines and support my friends." "I see," said Adagio as she said, "Feeling like an outsider, clearly something going on with her family, and a necklace that coincidentally looks like ours... yeah I think I'm starting to figure out how this will go down." Sunset didn't seem to notice anything wrong as she said, "And here's the principal's office, where you'll be getting your schedules, anyway I gotta head to class, Mrs. Cheerilee is gonna be showing The Little Witch Academia movie, but if you see me in the halls feel free to ask me any questions you might have." "You got it," said Adagio as she and the other waved goodbye to the retreating Sunset. "Are you sure it's good to let her walk away like that, I mean the source of this energy stuff right there and we're just letting her escape," groaned Aria. "Not escaping, just giving her time while my plan gets in motion," said Adagio. "And what plan is that?" asked Sonata. "In due time sisters, for now let's play the principal a visit and see if we can't make this musical showcase a little more interesting," said Adagio as she led them into the room.