//------------------------------// // 7. Friendship is... Magic? // Story: Pinkie Pie Swear // by Annuska //------------------------------// The party was boring. Parties weren’t supposed to be boring – that was the opposite of, the very antonym of a party – and, in any other situation, Pinkie felt it was as good as her civic duty to spin such things into what they were supposed to be: fun and exciting! But in this situation, Pinkie was still standing at the snack table, stuffing cookies into her mouth, with no particular regard for the lack of partying at the party. She saw Twilight wander off with a cup of juice out of the corner of her eye, but couldn’t bring herself to find out where she had gone—specifically, she couldn’t bring herself to turn away from the plate of cookies. She had managed to stabilise herself by now, but she wasn’t sure that was what she wanted, because she wasn’t in her typical state of being bouncy or bubbly or any other synonym of; just still and stabilised and— Highly offended as Rainbow Dash picked a chocolate chip off one of her cookies mid-bite. Pinkie turned to throw her friend a look – but her friend was too busy throwing looks (and the chocolate chip) at Twilight – and that was when something else caught Pinkie’s attention: the Dazzlings, standing by the door. Oh, boy. Pinkie wasn’t entirely aware – or ready – when Fluttershy and Rarity left the vicinity of the table, followed by Rainbow and Applejack, and finally, Sunset. Pinkie turned to face the plate again, grabbing an extra supply of cookies for later, before finally joining her friends. She was sure that she’d need it. ··· A quick glimpse around the gymnasium was enough to tell Sonata that the socially disjointed atmosphere of the cafeteria had carried over from lunch and still heavily blanketed the Canterlot High student body; kids in small groups of what she presumed to be their own bands, gaping space between each group, and even a bit of bickering taking place near the stage. The glimpse was also enough to tell her exactly where not to look to both keep from drawing Pinkie’s attention to her presence and to keep from drawing Adagio and Aria’s attention to her discomfort. The party had sounded like fun, but that was before she ran into Pinkie – now she felt the heavy atmosphere and wanted to leave more than even Aria did—or she imagined she did, but she wasn’t sure she could sink to Aria’s negative levels of enthusiasm for things like parties, even in her current state of unease. Following behind Adagio, Sonata continued to scan the room and keep her eyes every and anywhere but the refreshment table, where she had caught sight of curly pink hair (thankfully turned away from her), causing her to nearly walk into Aria as they came to a stop in the middle of the room. Aria’s immediate glare barely even registered with her. Adagio made a comment about underlying tension, prompting Sonata to think back on the exchange she had with Pinkie only some fifteen or twenty minutes ago, and her heart jumped in a decidedly unexcited way. “It’s the fruit punch, isn’t it?” She blurted out. It was the denying of Pinkie’s request to talk. “I knew I used too much grape juice.” She had wanted so badly to, but there had been no time, it’d do no good, she couldn’t tell her— Adagio didn’t even turn to look at Sonata as she very pointedly informed her that no, it was not the fruit punch. Aria decided to very pointedly add that the punch was awful, anyway. Sonata very pointedly smacked Aria in the face. And before Sonata could retaliate to Aria’s retaliation of mussing up her fringe, Adagio stopped both of them. She showed no further frustration with their bantering, now vivaciously assessing the disharmony clouding the room and predicting its progression into complete dissonance during the Battle of the Bands—when a voice interrupted to very pointedly inform her that there wouldn’t be a Battle at all. The three Dazzlings turned toward the voice and Sonata’s eyes widened as she saw not only the voice’s owner, but a group of five other girls with her – including Pinkie Pie. Their eyes didn’t meet (to Sonata’s only slight relief) and she was able to quickly look in the opposite direction at one of the other girls as the six of them linked arms, and the one standing in the middle (who had rather uncouthly interrupted Adagio) shouted: ··· “Friendship iiiis Maaaagiiiiic!” Pinkie closed her eyes tightly, lifting her un-linked arm high in the air, cookie still in her mouth. She still fully intended to stick to her original plan of apologising to Sonata post-cascading rainbow ribbon magic, even if their earlier, unexpected meeting threw a small bump into that plan. She could totally wing it after the Dazzlings were properly de-vilified, since the whole cookies thing was out. Or she hoped she could. And as she stood there, waiting for the rumbling, the boom, the bright lights, she began to rehearse all the ways the apology could go: are you okay? how do you feel? might be a good way to start, then I’m sorry we had to totally blast you and your friends with magic but— —but it was just eerily quiet? No rumbling? No boom? No bright lights? Pinkie kept her eyes shut firmly and tightened her grasp on Rarity’s hand nonetheless; maybe the cascading rainbow ribbon magic was juuuuust taking its time, and maybe she wasn’t ready to face Sonata juuuuust yet. ··· The six girls stood in silence, posed as if the middlemost girl’s (very strange) proclamation should have been followed by some showstopping display of . . . something, and for a moment, even Adagio seemed dumbfounded by the presentation, looking toward Sonata and Aria as though either of them had an answer as to what had just happened. Sonata made it a point to give an exaggerated shrug in response, wanting Adagio to be absolutely sure that she had no idea who any of these girls were or what they were doing. And she really didn’t know what they were doing, even if she did know one of them. She assumed the other five were Pinkie’s bandmates, which just made the stand-off seem all the stranger. Something was . . . off about it. Off about them. Sonata stole a quick glance back toward Pinkie, unsure what to make of her rather enthusiastic mannerisms, arm shot high into the air and eyes shut tight even after the other girls had snapped out of their own poses. The only thing she could make anything of was the remnant cookie crumbs all over Pinkie’s face, but even then, all she made of it was that it was kind of cute. Not the time, Sonata. Breaking her gaze away from Pinkie, Sonata furrowed her brow as she surveyed the five other girls and their held hands and whispers to each other once they seemed to realise that whatever trick they had tried to perform failed to produce the desired result. Pinkie’s friends were a bunch of weirdos. And then something struck Sonata and struck her hard – hard enough to displace the seaweed tangling up her neurons and give her enough surface air to breathe and to think clearly again. She again surveyed the girls, but this time, with a smile on her face and her hands on her hips, that something offering her a glimmer of hope. ··· That didn’t work. With the rumbling-boom-bright lights magic showing no indication of making an appearance, Pinkie finally yielded to opening her eyes and easing her grip on Rarity’s hand. She looked around the gymnasium, finding it to be host to a myriad of uncomfortable, perplexed, and even irate faces – including a grimacing Sunset Shimmer standing some feet away from the girls. Pinkie swallowed down hard and turned toward the Dazzlings, catching Sonata’s glance, but only momentarily; Sonata quickly looked away, turning her attention to one of her (assumed) roommates, who now paced about the six of them. “Talk about throwing down the gauntlet!” The girl flourished her imposingly large, curly orange hair as she spoke, turning her gaze toward Twilight with a self-important smile. Pinkie narrowed her eyes. “This group is obviously serious about winning,” the girl continued with a laugh, turning her face away from Twilight as she turned to continue pacing. “Heh, a little cocky, though, aren’t they? Claiming there won’t really be a battle.” She stopped, staring Twilight square in the eye as she set her hands on her hips. “Seems they think they already got this thing all locked up.” Pinkie’s eyes darted across the room and she caught sight of Trixie poised dramatically, looking ready to offer her own input on the matter – when Twilight stepped forward and took the floor instead, a renewed vigour in her voice. “We know what you’re doing, Dazzlings, and we won’t allow it!” ··· Sonata wasn’t sure what was more shocking: the blatant defiance from Pinkie’s friend, or Adagio letting her smile slip. It was only a brief second, but the second was one of uncertainty, a second where Sonata’s anxieties returned to her anew in fear of their being exposed and everything falling through the cracks and her own newfound solution to her relationship problem being sabotaged right along with it—because if Adagio couldn’t keep her composure, how could she, how could Aria—but the brief second ended and Adagio found her smile again and stepped forward to face the rather bold girl. “You know what we’re doing?” she repeated innocently, regarding the indigo-haired girl with a look of thinly-veiled condescension. “Trying to have fun and compete just like anyone else? I don’t know why you’d want to stop that! That’s all everyone here wants – isn’t it?” A murmur arose from the students around them. “So why make such a big fuss and ruin it for everyone?” The murmur climbed to a hostile din, and with it came an ensuing aura of negative energy. Sonata and Aria exchanged grins in this reassurance that the three of them were, in fact, still wholly in control, and Sonata could feel her anxiety melting away. There was no way their plans could fail, which meant there was no way her plan could fail. From the opposing group, the girl whose hand Pinkie had held onto stepped forward, taking hold of their assumed ring leader's shoulder. She whispered her words, but not quietly enough that Sonata didn’t hear— “Twilight, dearest, it may be time for us to leave.” —and not quietly enough that Adagio didn’t hear. “Twilight, is it?” Adagio stepped closer, lifting a hand to strum her fingers across Twilight’s hair. “What a pretty name to match such a pretty face.” Twilight’s reaction was one of flustered vexation, to be sure, but not one of enchantment or spellbound awe, as they were so used to seeing. Sonata narrowed her eyes. Something was definitely off. “I’m onto you,” Twilight finally said as she managed to bring her eyes up to meet Adagio’s. “Oh? You’re oooon to uuuuus?” Adagio sang her words crisply – but Twilight continued to glare unwaveringly. Adagio relinquished her hold on Twilight’s hair, stared at her a moment, then lifted a hand dismissively. “I can’t say I have any idea what you mean.” Adagio waved the lifted hand and returned to her position between Sonata and Aria. “In fact! Instead of claiming to be better than the rest of us, why don’t you and your band go sit outside and have a peaceful Friendship is Magic protest while we take part in this school event like good, faithful students?” And on cue, Sonata and Aria laughed— “After all, there’s nothing more disruptive to a student body than a group of self-assured miscreants trying to keep everyone else from enjoying themselves because they think they’re the best.” —and the students erupted into an uproar. “The Great and Powerful Trixie will allow no one to stand between her and victory!” “Whatever, Trixie! Our band is gonna win!” “Yeah, right, Trash Sentry! The Crusaders are the best and your band is just trash!” “Ohh, good burn, Scootaloo! Trash and trash, just like your dumb costumes! I’ve seen ‘em!” “Leave her alone! What do you know about good costumes anyway, Snips?” “More than you, for someone who’s got a fashionista for an older sister!” Twilight stepped back, away from the Dazzlings and away from the enclosing chaos, bumping into her own friends as the uproar in the room escalated into cacophonous contention, and as soon as she’d been helped back upright, the six of them and Sunset Shimmer wasted no time in turning heel to leave. Sonata lifted a hand to her mouth and giggled. ··· Once her six friends had filed out through the school’s front entrance after her, Pinkie let the door slip from her grasp to swing shut. She watched them all – save for Twilight – seat themselves on the front steps, and balanced herself on the hand rail beside them. Free from the suffocating atmosphere of the gym, she finally let her breath out— then remembered seeing Sonata laughing at them— and felt like holding her breath in tightly again. Pinkie found one of the cookies she’d tucked away, slouching her shoulders as she stuffed it into her mouth. So much for Plans A and B.