Aria decided to stay at my place for the night, since Sunset and Adagio had a part in all this, and she didn’t want to confront them. We came up to my apartment door on the second floor, and as I was getting my keys out, Aria took a look from the outside edge to see the view that was towards the school. She had an idea of the limited view from here when those last two magic events happened. I finally unlocked the door and invited her in.
“Welcome to my humble apartment. It’s not much, but it gets me through the days.”
My place was a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment, with the kitchen in the open view of the living area.
“You want something to eat?” I asked Aria. “I have sandwich food, microwave pizza…”
“Pizza sounds good,” She quickly responded. “You have cheese pizza?”
“Will four-cheese pizza do?” She happily nodded. “Why don’t you look around while I warm it up.”
I went to the freezer to grab a four-cheese pizza, take it out of its box, placed it on it’s heating pad, and popped it in the microwave. Aria went to my bookcase to look at some of the books and DVDs that I had placed there.
“Ninja Turtles!? You a fan of them?” she asked me.
“Yep. Have you ever seen any of their movies?”
“Only the first one…zip neck.”
Oh, so she knows the insults scene in the movie. This will be good.
I said, “Really…atomic mouth?”
She replies, “Yea, barfaroni.”
“I didn’t know you were a geek, camel breath.”
“I’m not, dome head.”
“My head is not shaped like that, elf lips.”
“Watch it, funkoid.”
“You wish, gak face.”
“Excuse me, horse brain.”
We stopped and looked at each other, knowing that was the last insult listed in the movie, and just giggled.
“I can’t believe you remember the insults used while they were fixing the old truck,” I said.
“And it end it off is by saying ‘it works’. I wish there was an insult that starts with the letter ‘I’,” she responded. She looked at some of the other DVDs on the shelf and asked, “What are these cartoons you have here. Fullmetal Alchemist, Sailor Moon, Ronin Warriors…”
“Oh, that’s anime,” I responded. “It’s like cartoons, but from overseas and for older people. While you’re there, can you grab volumes one and two of Full Metal Panic. That has a mix of action, comedy, drama, and sci-fi all in one.”
“Sure,” she said. “Just make sure you have some cola out to go with the pizza.”
I went into the fridge and grabbed a couple cans of cola. As I was waiting on the pizza to finish, I noticed that she got the DVDs I asked for, but was looking at the diary that was on my desk.
“Gears, who’s Sombra?” she asked.
“Oh, Sunset gave me that book from Twilight. He was some evil king of a crystal empire back in the other world.”
“Wait, did you say the Crystal Empire?”
I heard the microwave beep and went to get the pizza out, letting it settle for a moment. “Yea, you’ve been there in your time?”
“Heck no,” she said. “One, our music doesn’t have an effect on crystal ponies. And two, it’s surrounded by freezing weather. We wouldn’t last a minute to get there.”
“So it’s far north?” I asked her.
“In a way, but I’m not sure how far north it is. Besides, why do you want to know about this stuff?”
“I’m helping Sunset out on some of her research into dark magic. She wants to make sure that her friends can catch on to any new signs that show up so we don’t have another crazy magic event happening again…no offense.”
“She has studied magic. Why can’t she…” Aria stopped and realized her reasoning for this. “I forgot. She was exposed to magic that turned her into a she-demon.”
“She’s scared that if she explored how dark magic is created, she could become that raging she-demon again,” I said. “Bring it over here, if you don’t mind.”
“Sure…Fluttershy.” I should have seen that coming.
She brought the book and DVDs over while I started to cut the small pizza into four slices. When she opened the book back up, she flipped through some of the pages until one page stood out to her.
“An Umbrum?”
“You know of this term, Aria?”
“I’ve heard it somewhere before. Some kind of…dark pony race. I think my sister Adagio would know this better than me.” She looked through more of the diary while eating some pizza until the last written page. “Did you know what happened after all that?”
“Twilight wrote down some lose notes explaining what happened after that. She was scared of taking the book away from its location, but with events happening in both worlds, they needed answers to prepare for what’s to come. And I have a way with creating theories from what I look at, so I hope that I can help out.”
“But you’re no expert in magic. You can’t even cast any like the Rainbooms,” she replied
“It’s not a matter of using magic, but how to identify it. When I show you what’s on those DVDs,” I pointed to the two that I asked her to collect, “You’ll get an understanding of what I mean.”
After we finished our pizza, she went to put the book back on my desk while I went to the DVD player with the DVDs. As I was getting set up, she walked up to me and said, “What is this?” I looked back at her and saw that she was holding my dice bag. But I didn’t have dice in that bag. She pulled out a red crystal fragment.
I said, “I wish you didn’t see what was in there.”
“Well guess what? I did.” She threw the piece at me and said, “Why do you have pieces from our broken pendants?”
“Because I was trying to figure out how it kept what little magic was left in those when you arrived here and how it was lost when they broke.”
“The last thing I needed to be reminded of is…this…damn…CURSE!!!” she said as she threw piece after piece at me. When she pulled out a bigger shard, I stood up and grabbed her arm before she threw the shard at me. “Let go of me.”
“No,” I replied.
She gave me that mean looked and said again, “Let go of me!”
“NO!!!”
She started to grab my arm, trying to get me to release her. “I said LET…GO…OF…ME!!!”
“STOP IT!!!”
“NOT UNTIL…YOU…” She kept trying until she gave up in dropped the shard. Once I let go of her, she fell on to her knees and starting to cry.
I got onto my knees, looked at her and said, “Look, it was Adagio who handed these to me. She said that Sunset collected them after you ran off the stage in defeat. Adagio didn’t want to see them either, and decided to bring them to me to keep them out of your sight.”
She rubbed the tears from her eyes and said, “Then why are you studying them? What purpose are they good for?”
“Sunset believes that Equestrian magic could still be around here, and it’s possible that there could be others who have something like this to contain what magic they need to do what needs to be done. I haven’t had much time to study what kind of crystal they are, but they are not like any I have studied before. Plus they both wanted to make sure they don’t fall into the wrong hands and trusted me with them.”
“The last thing I need is to be reminded of who I was before and not who I am now,” she said.
“We all have our own scars to deal with,” I said. “All we can do is just bear with what we have done in the past and just try to move forward. And if that’s something you can’t do alone…then I’ll be happy to help you through it. I’ve already dealt with my scars in the past before coming here. And if it makes you feel any better, then I’ll help you deal with yours.”
She started to stare into my eyes while trying to make out what I just said. Once she understood, she rushed towards me and kissed me. It wasn’t just any kiss, but one of forgiveness. Once our lips were separated, she said, “I’m sorry. I was rushed to judgment before understanding what was going on. You’re doing what you can to keep others safe from harm, and making sure that people like us don’t become the monsters that we were once before.
After seeing the forgiveness in her, I got up to my feet and extended my hands to her to help her up. When she grabbed both of my hands, I pulled her up so fast that she was pressed in front of me. Putting my arms around her waist, I stared into her eyes and kissed her back. This time with a longer, more passionate kiss. Once our lips were separated, she stared at me, trying to catch her breath.
“You need to work on how to kiss a girl,” she said.
“You know that you’re the first girl I kissed in my entire life,” I replied.
“And you’re the first human I have kissed in my entire life. But it’s a start.” She noticed the DVD cases on the floor. “So, are you just going to stand there like a statue, or are you planning to show my that show you wanted to play?”
“If you can collect those shards that you threw at me and place them back in the bag, I’ll finish setting up.” She gave me this surprised, but scared look. “Consider this as your first step in the healing process.” She agreed with me and started to grab the shards and placed them back in the bag, closing the bag and placing it back on the table. I finished getting the show ready and sat down on the couch with the remote in my hand, inviting her to sit next to me.
***Three hours later***
“That had to be magic that was used to destroy that big machine,” she said.
“It’s not magic, Aria. It’s advance technology that has yet to be made in this time of day. The Lambda Driver bends the fabric of reality to how you want it to be. In this day of age, science and technology does what magic did ages ago.”
“I don’t think I can grasp the process of how all that is created. But if I can make a paper fan and use it to slap Sonata senseless, I’ll go with that.”
“You just want to knock her senseless every single time she says something that means nothing at all.”
“Because she’s an airhead. I don’t even know how you put up with her in the same class that you share with her.”
“For some reason, she’s pretty good in English class.” Aria’s eyes went wide open. “I mean it. She’s that good when she’s into the stories that we have to read. It’s like she’s a part of the story.”
She just shook her head and said, “I can’t even phantom the idea that she can do that.” She got up and started to stretch out, feeling tired after a long and crazy day that we went through. “OK if I take a shower before getting some sleep?”
“Sure,” I replied. “Bathroom is to your right and the towels are in the closet at the back.” But she decided to pull me up off the couch. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to get you to join me,” she said.
“Wait, what?”
“Oh come on. You know you want to join me. What are you, chicken?”
“I’m trying to be a gentleman, thank you very much.”
She let go of me and put her hands on her hips and puffed up her face. “See, that’s the problem that you have. You’re too kind and respectful to others that either they plan to use you or think you’re too good for them. That’s why you couldn’t get a girlfriend in the first place.”
“And what am I supposed to do about that?” I ask.
“For starters, you can join me in a shower. It’s not like you’ve seen anything new. On second thought, you’re seeing something for the first time. And I know you don’t have a body that any girl would love to see in the buff.”
“Like Adagio?” I added.
She laughed and then said, “Yes, like Adagio. Only she would go for a guy like that. And just so you know, I don’t have a good looking body myself, so that makes us even. Besides, I think you’ve earned my trust.” She started to make her way to the closet to grab a couple towels and looked back at me. “Just so you know, that doesn’t me that you can ‘do it’ with me.”
“Works fine with me,” I responded.
So we got undressed and took a shower together. It was ‘I scrub your back if you scrub mine’ kind of shower. And we did noticed that we have our flaws in looks, but that didn’t bother us. But it was when I was scrubbing her back that I noticed that she was spaced out while the water was flowing above her. After getting out of the shower and drying off, I wrapped my towel around my waist and she wrapped hers around her body, and we went back to my bedroom to get some sleep wear for Aria. That’s when I noticed her sitting on the bed, looking spaced out again. I had a guess what was on her mind and had to ask.
“Do you miss your home?”
She snapped back into reality and responded, “Why should I care about Equestria?”
“I’m not talking about Equestria in general, but your hometown.” She gave me a confused look as to why I was asking that. “You’ve been spaced out since our shower. Does the feel of water make you miss it?”
She looked down and said, “Kind of, but I doubt it’s no longer around, since it was in the deep sea over a thousand years ago.”
Still with my towel around my waist, I sat down next to her and put my arm around her shoulder, causing her to place her head next to me. “Maybe it’s still around. You could ask Sunset about your hometown, and she can contact Twilight to look into it.”
“Who cares. Sonata would have forgotten about it, and Adagio has lost interested in returning there, now that we are no longer sirens.”
“Doesn’t hurt to try,” I said.
“There’s no need to try. It’s in the past, and I need to start moving forward,” she said.
“Well, next time you want to stay at my place, I’ll make sure you get a bubble bath instead of a shower. Might help you relax while you reflect on the good times back in your hometown.”
“I’ll hold you to that promise. Now do you have something for me to sleep in, or am I just going to sleep naked?”
I got up and went to my closet. I found a baseball jersey I had and threw it to her. “Here, wear this. It’s an old baseball jersey that our school was selling after they got new jerseys for the team. Should be big enough for you.” I looked away and went to get out some boxers for me to sleep in. After putting them on and removing the towel, I noticed Aria with the jersey on, covering her body and halfway reaching to her knees.
“How do I look?” she asked me.
“Like you are officially my girlfriend.”
She sat back down on the bed and giggled. “This has been the craziest day ever…for the both of us.” She paused to think before she continued. “Do you think this will work, you know, between us?”
I sat back down next to her to think of an answer to her question. “I don’t know. Maybe this is common in a relationship. You know, having to deal with its ups and downs. I guess the only way to know is to give it a chance and see what happens.”
So I went and turned off the light and we both slept together in my bed. Just then, she decided to cuddle up with me. “Aria?” She looked up at me. “I thought you didn’t like to cuddle.”
“I’m making an exception. Night.” She cuddled back up and went to sleep. I decided to kiss on her forehead and went to sleep as well.