“Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise. Loathsomeness waits and dreams in the deep, and decay spreads over the tottering cities of men.” and ponies, I silently added. I felt the same old anger as I thought of Equestria and its tranquility, the peaceful lives of the ponies. It must be so much worse now than back then. When they still remembered the constant wars between the three tribes and the terror of that awful winter that seemed like it would never end back when Heart's Warming Eve meant something. But even then the complacency was taking root and it was all the Alicorn’s fault. Every pony was so eager to fall to their knees and swallow their lies of peace and harmony. But I remembered what it was like to be hungry, to be afraid, to want. Becoming a siren was the best thing that ever happened to me. I could make all those complacent nags remember. Say what you will about humans, when they felt fear they’re always gung ho and ready to blow up anything that made them even a little bit nervous. not like….
Just then my reverie was shattered by the most annoying sound in this or any world, “Ohhh, Aria are you reading a dating advice book? Who is he? Is it that flash guy? It’s like every girl at school likes him, or is it?” I cut her off.
“It’s not a dating book, Sonata.”
She blinked and paused momentarily as she struggled to assimilate new information before shooting back slyly, “Then why is the book called Lovecraft Volume One?”
I replied “Lovecraft is the author.”
During Sonata’s half-second pause before replying I pictured a giant cartoon light bulb over her head slowly flickering to life. “So what’s it about then?”
“Impending doom and stuff,” I replied.
Sonata shrugged and walked around the couch before saying, “Move over ‘Mare do Well Begins’ starts in 5 minutes.”
“Really?” I said. “What time is it?” I answered my own question by looking at the clock. 9:55 PM. It was later than I’d thought. Usually our fearless leader puts in an appearance around dinnertime, but she’d been hiding in her room since we got back from school. I stood up and asked if Sonata had seen Adagio. “Na Hu,” she replied.
“Well, I guess I’ll make sure she doesn’t go hungry while she’s plotting or painting her nails or whatever. Somebody has to.”
Sonata was too busy hunting for the remote to answer, so I opened the pizza box and gathered the remaining three slices of veggie lovers onto a paper plate before nuking them. Beethoven padded over and I scratched him behind the ears until I heard the ding sound. By then Sonata had the TV on, an anchorman with hair that looked like it was held in place with rubber cement was going on about “micro quakes” that were hitting town. I was spared his babbling by Sonata changing the channel. As I walked down the hall I heard a faint sound coming from Adagio’s room. As I knocked on the door, the wordless singing was replaced with “What is it?”
“I come bearing a reheated pizza” I replied. There was a sound as though Adagio had just slid a drawer shut, then a pause before she opened the door. “Thanks” she stated as she took the plate from my hands.
“What have you been up to all day?” I said.
“Working on a new song,” she replied as she walked over to her bed, sat down, and started in on the microwaved masterpiece.
“Really, a new song? With our voices?” I replied.
Through a mouthful of mass produced Italian food I’m pretty sure I heard, “We sounded better than we did two weeks ago,” brief pause while swallowing, “and we’re only going to get better.”
“But it doesn’t matter how good we sound, our singing isn’t magic anymore,” I replied.
Adagio was silent at that before saying, “What have you been doing?”
“Not much,” I said, “just reading. Sonata is watching ‘Mare do Well Begins’ for like the 10th time.
Adagio looked up from her dinner at this. “The sequel is better.”
“Best Mane-iac ever,” I replied as I turned and walked out of the room, before adding, “don’t stay up too late.”
I crossed the short distance to my room, shut the door and flopped on the bed in a very graceful and ladylike way. I was bored, so I pulled out my laptop and logged on to Facelook to update my status before realizing that yet again I had nothing to say. Being human is barely any better than being an earth pony. No magic, no flying, no nothing, but as a siren I could do both. I definitely got more out of it then either Adagio or Sonata, who also happen to be my only 2 Facelook friends. Out of curiosity I looked to see how many friends they had. Adagio 10 friends. OK, a little bit better than me, and Sonata 586… Come on, how is that even possible? Who are these people; Lyra, Sweetie Belle, June Bug, Ditzy Doo. I don’t even know who that is. Pinkie Pie? Why! How many friends does she have, 1342. Figures. I spent the next hour cruising through Sonata’s Facelook friends, each one more baffling than the last, until it was bedtime.
Adagio and Sonata would both be up for at least another hour which is fine by me. I like having the apartment to myself in the morning. As I lay in bed staring at the glow in the dark stars on my ceiling, I wondered when my stars would come around again, before falling asleep. I had the dream again, I saw the driving rain, a brilliant flash of spell fire. I heard his voice “Go back into the sea!” followed by Adagio, her voice ringing with an unnatural resonance, “Do you not know death when you see it, old stallion, this is my hour!” followed by a wordless shriek in Sonata’s voice that somehow conveyed a rage and contempt that I’d never heard before or since and finally “You shall not pass!” My eyes shot open at the ring of my alarm. I reached over to my clock. It was clutched in the flabby stuffed claws of my Hiyoooo Cthulhu plushie and shut it off. I hate that dream every time I have it. I feel a creeping doubt about what we’ve done as the Sirens. About what that power did to us… No, that wretched wizard attacked us, and the ponies needed a reminder on the price of complacency. I wanted, I needed my powers back. There must be a way.
I got up and went into the kitchen and started the coffee maker, one of the few things I had all to myself, neither of my friends ever drink it, the Philistines. I got out a mug and set it on the counter while I got out the silverware. Just then Beethoven decided it was a good time to ask for breakfast by barking. How a giant walking fur ball can sneak up on me I have no idea, but I knocked over the coffee mug with a nervous jerk. First, I got mad, ready to tell off the big mutt for that, but then I stopped and stared at the shards remaining of the mug. I picked up the handle and part of the base and fitted them back together. As the idea formed in my head a smile spread across my face. I said in a cheery voice, “Good news, boy. Momma’s not going to make you into a shag carpet.” Thirty minutes later Beethoven was happily chowing down on a big bowl of kibble and I was dressed. Just as I finished clipping my hair into its customary pigtails, Sonata trotted up infuriatingly bubbly for someone who literally just rolled out of bed. While she got ready, I loudly knocked on Adagio’s door. After a very, very long pause it opened, she was dressed in jeans and a hoodie the whole ensemble screamed I don’t care right now as did her half open eyes. She stared at me for a ½ second and said “I should have told Principle Celestia to start school at a decent hour like 11.”
“Too late now” I replied.
After another half second pause Adagio said, “You’re driving.”
I’m not sure if that was a question or an order, but my good mood was undaunted, so I replied, “Don’t I always?”
Rather than reply Adagio shuffled pass me as she pulled her hood up. There’s a simple trick to pulling a hoodie over luxurious high volume waist length hair that Adagio, Sonata, and I have mastered… What is it? I’ll never tell.
By the time we all piled into our old minivan with “The Dazzlings” stenciled on the side we had maybe 20 minutes to get to school, but traffic sucked. After 10 minutes we finally hit the problem, a sink hole opened in the middle of the road. Construction workers milled around as thin black smoke rose from out of the hole. Rather than deal with the detour I pulled into the parking lot of Filthy Rich’s Custom Logo and Apparel hut. Adagio rose from her stupor and mumbled, “We’re not at school.”
“No,” I replied. “It’s faster to walk from here, and look on the bright side you’re already at work.” We were only a block away, but still barely arrived in time for class, but right on time for the stink eye from Vice Principal Luna. It’s a good thing our powers have short term memory loss as a side effect or she would actually know why she didn’t like us.
The first two periods passed uneventfully with the only highlight being Fluttershy running out of the classroom crying when it came time to dissect a frog. At least Sonata had the fortitude to just hide under the desk. As we were heading to the cafeteria for lunch we ran into Flash Sentry. He gave us “The Look” before saying “Oh, it’s you two.” Followed by a much more upbeat, “Hey Sonata.”
“What’s the matter, tiger, not happy to see little old us?” Adagio replied, as Sonata give a friendly wave and a “Hiya Flash!”
“You made me look like a complete jerk in front of Twilight.”
“Did I?” Adagio replied, her voice inflected to say, yeah how?
Flash stammered “Well… ya you you… Got the whole school riled up with your battle of the bands!”
“OK Killer,” Adagio said with an undercurrent of sarcasm, “let’s assume that I pushed a few buttons with my suggestion. After you got all worked up, what you did was all you, Tiger.” His eyes narrowed at that, but he turned around and walked off.
As we got to the cafeteria I asked Adagio, “Do you really believe that?”
She stopped. “We needed the negative energy and that doesn’t come from bright shiny happy thoughts,” she said, “but we didn’t make anyone do anything, except Trixie.”
“And we didn’t even need magic for her,” Sonata interjected.
“The point is I care about the two of you, and as long as we take care of each other, the world can take care of itself,” Adagio concluded as she walked into the cafeteria.
It was Fish Fry Friday, but rather than opt for the battered mercury soaked bottom feeders the three of us stuck with our vegetarian diet. That’s pasta salad, fruit salad, and salad salad. As I ate I scanned the cafeteria. The Rainblossoms, or whatever they call themselves, were sitting at their private table in the corner. Rarity was talking animatedly to Fluttershy and intermittently gesturing to Sunset Shimmer. Presumably pointing out of this or that detail of the new outfit she was wearing today. The sky blue long top and skinny jeans were not to my taste. The short jacket and matching boots, however, looked amazing. Rarity was a good seamstress, even if she was absolutely insufferable. Rainbow Dash and Applejack seemed to be having a more heated discussion while Pinkie Pie nodded in enthusiastic agreement with whichever one was speaking at the moment. I don’t care what anyone says, those six are a clique like any other.
Trixie, and her emergency backup Trixies, were sitting with Photo Finish and the rest of the Arsenic Candy gang. I needed someone who knew what went down at the amphitheater after we split, but not smart enough to work out what my game was. Then bingo! At the table right behind the goofy cross eyed blonde with a muffin addiction, Snips and Snails.
I stood up and said, “See you two in class.” I dropped off my tray and walked over to Snips and Snails who were engrossed in their card game.
“Oh yeah,” Snips said, “well I play undead diamond dogs!”
“You activated my trap card,” Snails replied, “go doom cloud!”
“Well great,” Snips said, “best two out of three?”
As I sat down beside Snails I said, “So what kind of decks are you guys using?”
Snips blinked and said suspiciously, “I use a black zombie deck and Snails is using a red cloud gremlin.”
Snails looked at me and said, “Do you play Sorcery the Grouping, Aria?”
“Absolutely, ” I replied. “I’ve got a blue black fairy deck right here. Wanna play?”
“OK!” the boys replied in unison. As we started to play, I casually said, “Do you still hang out with Sunset?”
“Na,” Snips replied. “She’s got a bunch of new friends or something,” an edge of irritation breaking into his voice.
“Too bad, she has a killer red demon deck,” Snails added.
We made small talk as we played for the next 15 minutes, finally I drew the card I needed to end the game and figured now’s the time to see what they knew. “So what happened after we bombed on stage at the battle of the bands?”
Snails laughed, “Yeah, you guys sounded worse than us.”
I had a sudden urge to stomp on his foot, but I ignored it. Snips thought and then said, “Well the Rainbooms played like three encores.”
“Seriously who does that,” I replied, “did you help clean up or anything?”
“Oh yeah,” replied Snails, “we always get roped into that kind of stuff, but it was cool that time. Trixie actually stayed to help us and so did that one weird girl who smells like dirt.”
“Pinkie’s sister Maud,” Snips cut in.
That was good to know. I felt the smirk break across my face again as I played my final hand. “I spend 4 blue Mana and 4 black Mana to play my Changeling Queen, also since I have Breezie Stronghold untapped I can use her now. So Snails, I now control your indestructible cloud fortress and I’ll use its crash landing ability to take Snips down to 0 life. Now send cloud fortress to your graveyard. Snails with nothing to protect you, I’ll attack with Changeling Swarm, also because their queen is on the field they go from being a 2/2 to a 5/5, so there go your last 4 life points.”
“Wow, good game, Aria. You wanna play again?” Snips said.
“Sorry, I’ve got stuff to do. Some other time,” I replied.
As I walked off, I looked for Trixie, but she seemed to have left already along with most of the other students. Luckily, out in the hallway I ran into Photo Finish. “You know where Trixie went?” I asked in a nonchalant manner.
I could see her eyes narrow behind her glasses before she said, “I sink she vas goink to zhe music room.”
“Thanks,” I replied as I wandered off. When I neared the music room I heard an electric guitar being strummed and sure enough it was Trixie. But then my eyes were drawn to her guitar pick. It flashed red in the sunshine from the open window. Trixie looked up as I entered. “Well, well, if it isn’t the fallen Aria come to behold the amazing… Amazingness of the great and…”
So help me I’d had enough subtlety, beating around the bush with Snips and Snails, and with lunch almost over I opted for the direct approach. Before Trixie could finish I said, “Can I have your guitar pick?”
“...power… What no!” she shot back. “I know what you are Aria Blaze!” I doubt that very much, I thought. “And now with your magic, the great and powerful Trixie will be the most popular girl at CHS HAHAHAHAHA.”
As she continued laughing maniacally, I grabbed a chair and sat down. “So if you’re so great why do you need it?” I asked.
Trixie paused and put her guitar down. “Well, despite the undeniable show stopping ability of the great and powerful Trixie, I still only have 28 subscribers on ViewTube”.
“You're on ViewTube! I’ve got to see this,” I said.
“It’s thegreatandpowerfulTrixie, all one word,” she replied.
As I looked her up on my smart phone I said, “28 subs. That must suck.”
“I know,” she stated. “The Crusaders have over 1700 and I work twice as hard as them. They’ve got, what, 5 videos.”
“Well you do have a lot of videos, I’ll give you that,” I said. I picked one of her videos at random and start watching it. After a minute or so I said, “You’re actually pretty good, but I don’t think that amulet fragment will help you”.
Trixie frowned before saying, “Why not?”
“Oh sure, if you could use it you could make people listen to you, even tell you that they like you, or anything you want really. But it isn’t real, in the end that kind of admiration is about a satisfying as a tea party with your stuffed animals.”
“But what am I supposed to do?” she said in a slightly tired way.
“Just what you’ve been doing, work hard, and do it because it’s what you like, not to be popular.”
“Do you really think I’m good or are you just saying that?” she said, an edge of suspicion entering her voice.
I smiled and replied, “Either I like you enough to lie and spare your feelings, or I actually think you’re good. Either way it’s a compliment.”
Trixie sighed heavily and said, “Well, I guess you’re right. I suppose you can have this.” She walked over and handed me her guitar pick.
“Well, it’s getting to be time for class, I’ll see you around, and, Trixie, keep up the good work”.
As I walked out the door Trixie said, “Aria… Thanks”
I had about 3 minutes to get to class and just barely made it on time. It’s a good thing Granny Smith’s home economics class isn’t the most orderly or structured environment. I joined Adagio and Sonata at a workstation. “So where did you disappear to?” Adagio asked. “Oh, she was playing cards with Snips and Snails,” Sonata answered for me.
“Thank you Aria…” Adagio said with undisguised annoyance. I only half listened as I looked around the room, and saw who I was looking for immediately. Dressed in a blue gray turtleneck dress, that would’ve looked frumpy even during the frontier days, was Maude. High off my success with Trixie I just walked over “Hey, Maude, right?” I said.
But as the girl slowly opened her mouth to reply there was a sudden explosion of noise and pinkness, “You stay away from my sister, you… you, not nice you… you.” Pinkie Pie had pretty much jumped between me and Maude. But before I could say anything Granny Smith smacked the table with a comically oversized wooden spoon and addressed the class, “All right yall, today we’re going to be making…”
As I arrived back at the WorkStation I said, “If it’s got Apples in it again I’m going to hurl”.
“…apple pie!” Granny Smith said with a level of enthusiasm only Japanese game show hosts and soccer announcers should ever have. Adagio smirked and slid our garbage can six inches closer to me.
During the baking phase of home economics projects there tends to be some downtime, so that’s when I decided to make my move. But first, I needed to deal with Pinkie, and I knew just how to do it. “Hey, Sonata, distract Pinkie Pie will you,” I said. Sonata saluted me before walking over to the pink party animal.
“Oh, hey, Sonata, what’s up?” Pinkie said brightly.
“Hi ya Pinkie,” Sonata replied. “I have a question. Is there a difference between ice cream and gelato?”
Pinkie’s face became impassive as she said, “Pardon me.” She then reached into her backpack, pulled up a bottle of water, took a large gulp and then spit it out in a comically over the top way. Then seizing Sonata by her jacket lapels and saying intensely, “O you poor, poor fool come with me!” before dragging Sonata from the room. This somehow went unnoticed by Granny Smith.
Not wasting a second I stepped over to Maude, “So anyway, Maude, I’m…”
Just then she cut me off. “I don’t think my sister likes you”
I blinked trying to think of how best to react before saying, “Do…you…like me?”
Maude paused. I wasn’t sure if she was thinking or that’s how she talked. Finally she said, “No.”
“Can I ask why?” I replied.
“You just did, but if you mean why, I can’t help but feel like you’ve done something to deserve it, but I don’t know what.”
This was going to be tough but I didn’t have time for subtlety so I just dove in. “I broke my necklace at the battle of the bands and Snips and Snails mentioned you helped clean up. Did you find anything?”
Maude blinked slowly, “I found a piece of colored glass,” she said as she pulled a fragment out of her pocket.
“Colored glass?” I said as she handed it to me.
“Yes” she replied. “It’s not a crystal or gem of any kind I hope you didn’t pay a lot for it.”
“Are you sure?” I replied, uncertainty creeping into my voice.
“I don’t mean to brag, but I may know more about rocks than any other student at CHS,” Maude said with what might have been satisfaction, but could just as easily have been deep depression.
“So, are rocks the only thing you’re interested in?” I said.
“I also write poetry,” Maude replied.
“So do I,” I responded.
“You should come to poetry night at Sugar Cube Corners,”Maude stated.
“I might just do that” I said as I walked off.
I arrived back at our WorkStation just as Sonata did. She had somehow gotten a hold of an ice cream cone and was working away at it contentedly. Adagio was reading from a book titled Chekov’s Guide to Ear Worms. As we approached, she looked up and said, “Sonata, where did you get that ice cream?”
“Well you see, Pinkie and I…,” suddenly the timer sounded and we had to get back to work. The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully.
As we joined the throng of students headed for the doors, I said to Adagio and Sonata, “Got stuff to do, see you at home”
“You’re being mysterious today,” Adagio said.
“More so,” Sonata added with a smile.
“It’s nothing” I replied.
“You know if there’s anything bothering you, you can tell us,” Adagio stated.
“Really, it’s nothing,” I said as I went off by myself.
The amphitheater was abandoned, thank goodness, but two hours of fruitless searching later, frustration was starting to set in. I checked the stage, I checked the stairs, I checked the rafters and by that point I had developed an intense desire to burn the place down. But after a few calming breaths, I decided to take a short break. I sat down in one of the many many empty chairs and started reading "Call of Cthulhu". I had nearly finished the story last night, so it didn’t take me long to get through it. I had just started in on "Rats in the Walls" when I heard a pleasant voice. “Some people consider Lovecraft depressing, but looking at it from the right perspective he can be very uplifting.”
I looked up to see a janitor, his rumpled jumpsuit had one sleeve rolled up while the other was left down, he also sported a tennis shoe and a yellow rain boot at the same time, finally his unruly dark hair clashed wildly with his gray goatee.
“What perspective is that?” I asked.
“Why the monster’s perspective, of course. Take Cthulhu, for example, all those years trapped in stone yearning for freedom” he said.
I blinked at that. “You mean under the sea, he’s trapped beneath the sea.” I replied.
“Right, right, but the point is to be so long without power and then get it all back. But I’ve always wondered what exactly did he intend to do once he was back on top?”
I snorted, “That’s easy, remake the world however he wanted.”
The janitor laughed and said, “True, true, but after that. I mean what do you do after you get everything you want?”
I thought for a second, “Live happily ever after?”
“Sounds good to me,” he said, “but I don’t think a happily ever after counts for much unless you’ve got a few friends to share it with. Now if you’ll excuse me, Miss, I’ve got to clean under the stage, I swear they never clean under there more often than once a month, if that.”
“Can I come with you? I’m looking for something.” He smiled and nodded at my request and we went over to the door that led under the stage. He unlocked it and we went inside. No one had cleaned out the place since the Rainbooms were trapped down there. As the evening light illuminated the room a glint of red caught my eye. I walked over to it and saw it was another shard. It must’ve dropped through the gap between the trapdoor and the stage. As I picked it up and slipped it into my jeans’ pocket, I heard the janitors voice say, “Find what you’re looking for, Aria?” I whirled around at the sound of my name only to find that I was alone. With a sinking dread in my stomach I closed the door and quickly left the amphitheater.
It was getting close to dinner time, so I texted Sonata to see if she was up for veggie burgers downtown. She was, so we met up at Filthy Rich’s Burger Barn. After eating and getting a to-go bag for Adagio I said, “Hey Sonata, you wanna hear some really bad poetry?” She nodded with enthusiasm and we made our way to Sugar Cube Corners. The first guy up was the green dreadlocked hippie from the ecokid group at school. His writing wasn’t that bad really, but he delivered every line like he was passing a kidney stone. Between sets Sonata whispered, “Let me text Adagio. She won’t want to miss this.” Twenty minutes later Adagio stepped through the door wearing a T shirt and visor emblazoned with Filthy Rich’s Custom Logo and Apparel Hut.
“Evening girls,” she said as she sat down, before digging into her veggie burger.
“I was wondering if you two would help me with an experiment?” I said. “We need our necklaces to use our powers, but maybe we can still use our magic with these.” I opened my hand revealing the three gem fragments.
“Is that what you’ve been up to?” Adagio said, as she reached into her backpack. Pulling out a small box, she opened it revealing five gemstone fragments.
“And look what I’ve got!” said Sonata, as she pulled a bottle of glue out from her backpack. “This stuff is great,” she continued. “I wonder what it’s made out of?”
Adagio and I looked at each other, before Adagio said, “Um I’m sure it’s a very complicated recipe,” she reached out and took Sonata’s glue before saying, “I’ve been trying to draw out any magic in the fragments on my own, but so far nothing.”
“Well there are more fragments now, and more of us, so I say we give it a shot right now!” Sonata said with enthusiasm. So in unison, we all started the same old harmonic rhythm that began the draw of negative energy from the people around us. After 5 seconds there was nothing from the shards, after 15 seconds there was nothing. We were going on 20 when suddenly a voice cut in.
“Glad to see you made it, Aria.” It was Maude.
I coughed breaking the harmony “Ah…yeah?!” I said turning to face her.
“Would you mind watching my books. I’m up next?” Maude said as she set a bag of books on the table. Before she turned away she said, “Most people don’t actually show up.”
I let out a heavy sigh when she had moved away. “Well, that didn’t work,” I said in my usual sardonic way.
Adagio slammed her fist on the table, “There must be a way!”
Her assault on the table upset Maude’s bag. It spilled open revealing several gray boring looking textbooks and a bright pink notebook with pictures of balloons on it. With an opportunity like that how could we not snoop. I flipped the notebook open as Adagio continued. “We may need to return to Equestria, but it’s risky. The first step is finding out where the portal is.”
I was only half listening when a song Pinkie had written caught my attention. “Hey girls look at this.”
Sonata leaned in and read aloud, “Smile, smile, smile?”
“Let me see that!” Adagio said. We spent the next minute or so giggling at Pinkie’s lyrics.
Then the café’s owner Mr. Cake caught my eye when he walked on stage dressed in a yellow rain slicker and matching hat. He said, “OK everyone, give a warm welcome to…(sigh) Maud Pie.” Just as he finished a storm of boos started and a ½ finish strawberry milkshake bounced off of his shoulder. Maud, dressed in the same attire, took the stage. Random food missiles and insults passed by her. As she started, “Rock you are a rock…” a girl with creamed color skin and blue and pink two-toned hair shouted, “You suck!” at the table next to us as a ½ eaten doughnut bounced off of Maud’s yellow plastic hat. What I did next I still don’t understand, I quickly crossed over to the stage, seized the microphone and said, with a smile faker than a $3.00 bill, “How about a song, you all like singing right? ” Before I could get a response I started in on the first song that came to my mind, “My name is Ah-RE-a and I’m here to say I’m here to make you smile and I will brighten up your day.”
Then suddenly another voice joined with me. It was Sonata. “It doesn’t matter now if you’re sad or blue.” Then Adagio, “Cuz cheering up our friends is just what we’re here to do.” As all three of us began to sing together, I noticed something. The audience was swaying along in time followed by smiles spreading across the faces of everyone in the crowd. But not the sleepy Novocain smiles I was used to seeing. They were more… real and as we reached the climax, “Come on everybody smile, smile, smile!” was it my imagination or was there a faint mist swirling around the crowd’s feet and then the song was over. The crowd was applauding. We descended the small stage followed by Maud. When we reached the back of the room, she took off her hat and said, “Thanks for helping me, Aria.”
“I know what flopping feels like, what happened anyway?” I said.
“Nothing, they always do that,” she said, “ and I think I’ve changed my mind. I do like you.”
“Well thanks,” I said and gave one of my rare smiles.
“No offence to your sister Maud,” Adagio cut in, “but I’d rather not sing that again. I’m afraid it’ll give me cavities. Now, if you’ll excuse me, my dinner break is about up.”
Sonata added, “Yeah, I’ve gotta go too. Aria wanna ride home?”
“Sounds good,” I replied. I turned back to Maud and said, “See you on Monday.”
When I got home I went straight to my room and placed the three gem fragments in my desk for safekeeping and lay down on the bed. I stared at the ceiling thinking about what happened at Sugar Cube Corners. I wondered about whether our powers were really back, and if they were what should we do with them. So many questions so few answers, but one thing I felt sure of, no matter if I was a human, a pony or a siren, I would decide how I used my powers, I would never let them use me. I reached beside my bed and pulled up my laptop then logged in to Facelook. I had 4 new messages. They were friend requests from Snips, Snails, Trixie, and Maud. I paused for just a second before pressing the button labeled Friendship Accepted.