//------------------------------// // The Sirens // Story: A Tad Screwy: The Laughing Dazzling // by Discorded SheepcityUSA //------------------------------// Screwball not laughing at something ridiculous was practically unheard of. She’s the kind of absurd little girl that finds humor in way more things than she should. The one area she’d been trying to get past is finding humor in the suffering of others. It wasn’t until recently that she had learned the meaning of the word “empathy” and tried to actually get what others go through. Seeing these girls though and finding humor in them, was something else altogether. From her perspective, these three were over the top evil sounding. The ways they talked, acted, and even dressed sounded like something she’d hear from a supervillain undercover in a spy movie or something and it made her snicker. If they really WERE up to no good, then being subtle about it was not their strong suit. Especially not the blue one, who seemed particularly boneheaded compared to the other two. Before they could notice the huge smile on her face though, Screwball quickly composed herself and tried to deliver a slightly smaller and more genuine-looking smile. Best to not make accusations when they’re only acting evil right? “Heya. Nice to meet you~” Screwball said in the most sickeningly sweet voice that she could muster. The girls all looked down at the little purple twelve year old, each of them having their own reactions to seeing her. Aria scowled a little the second she laid eyes upon her. Adagio’s reaction wasn’t much different but it looked like she was more disturbed by Screwball’s sudden outgoing sweetness than outright disgusted with it. Sonata simply smiled widely and waved. “…Yeah…real nice.” Aria said, gritting her teeth. ‘Wow, I’ve only said five words and she already looks pissed. That’s a new record. How am I actually getting WORSE at getting people to like me?!’ Screwball yelled to herself in her head. Sunset noticed the looks the three girls were giving her. While one of them seemed to be acting positive, the other two looked just a little displeased. She wasn’t ENTIRELY surprised since Screwball had this kind of effect on people, but she’d barely even said anything. What was their problem all of a sudden? Sunset quickly shook her head and kept smiling. Needed to make a good first impression. “Anyway, I’ll show you three around to get you started. Canterlot High’s a great school, I’m sure you’ll like it.” Sunset said, keeping her smile and leading the way down the hall. Adagio looked back at Sunset and followed her, gesturing for the other two girls to do the same. “Oh yes. We really sense there’s something magical about this place” Adagio said, smirking a little. Aria did the same as she did, only slightly more menacing-looking and Sonata just kept her usual, dopey grin. “A-AHK-SUBTLE.” She said under a couple of fake coughs. Sonata looked behind her at Screwball with what looked like legitimate worry. “Are you alright? That cough sounds awful bad.” She asked. ‘Oh this one is gonna be a LOT of fun, I can tell.’ Screwball thought to herself. She didn’t think anyone she’d ever meet could be more empty headed than her pet raccoon under anesthetics after he had to get some teeth pulled. Turns out she was completely wrong. If her theory about these three being baddies was true and she was just acting dumb, she’d be eating her words though. ‘Well this is just going eleven different kinds of bad for me.’ Screwball thought to herself as she tried helping Sunset with showing the new girls around the school. She’d made some attempt at making small talk with them but they very casually shut her down and didn’t pay her any attention. The only one that even somewhat gave her the time of day was Sonata, but from the way Screwball was seeing it, she didn’t seem to know up from down. She might’ve been being too harsh by thinking that, but it’s hard not to get frustrated over the whole dilemma. It was one thing to be considered a nuisance by people, but being ignored altogether she could say for sure was worse. Screwball tried not to make it obvious, but this was starting to physically hurt. ‘First the girls go on a whole friendship song transformation without me, then like an idiot I walk in the boy’s bathroom, and now this? I just can’t win today’ She sadly thought to herself. “That’s the science lab. The computer lab is in there-“ Sunset continued on giving her tour of the school. She then spotted a poster advertising the upcoming musical showcase on a nearby wall. “Oh! We’re having a big musical showcase this weekend. The whole school is pretty much rallying around it!” “Yeah everyone except me.” Screwball grumbled bitterly under her breath to where no one could hear. This really got the girls smiling once they heard about the showcase. “A musical showcase?” Adagio asked looking back at the other two who were also smiling all the bigger at the mention of the idea. Screwball quickly popped up in between the three and tried giving a bigger smile. “If you wanna enter, I might be able to put a good word in for ya to Principal Celestia! That’s what friends are for isn’t it?~” Screwball said, really trying her hardest to be optimistic in this situation. If she messed this up, it could really hurt not just her chances for having new friends, but Sunset’s too. After everything that’d happened between them, the absolute last thing she wanted to do was disappoint Sunset. Aria wore the same slightly irritated face she’d had before. “…I think we’ll be able to handle it ourselves. We’ll be just fine.” she growled a bit, putting extra emphasis on the last word, making Screwball’s smile turn a little less genuine and more of nervousness and embarrassment. “…Right, hehe…what was I thinking?” she asked. Now this was beginning to get strange in Sunset’s eyes. She’d seen Screwball irritate people before, but this was ridiculous. All she was trying to do was make friends right now. Now that she’d thought about it, they were acting pretty weird around herself too. Her best guess is that someone got to them before her about the things she and Screwball did before. ‘Oh please, don’t let that be true. I have enough people that hate me as it is, I don’t need three more.’ Sunset thought to herself. Sunset then took notice of the matching pendants all three of the girls had around their necks and seeing how bright they looked when light reflected off of them. “Those are pretty. Where did you-“ Just as Sunset reached a hand out to Adagio’s pendant but was stopped almost immediately by Adagio’s own hand. Quickly realizing how awkward and strange this must have looked, Adagio quickly let go and smiled somewhat sheepishly. “Hehehehee, sorry. These pendants mean an awful lot to us. We’d just hate for anything to happen to them” she said. As she started to walk away from Screwball and Sunset with Aria following, she noticed Sonata was still standing there staring and quickly pulled her back towards their group and making her yelp a little. “...I dunno about you Sunset, but I think my chances of being friends with them are about as good as getting struck by multi-colored lightning on Friday the 13th with all the planets aligned.” Screwball said, very visibly deflating. “You noticed how weird they were acting though right? It’s not just me is it?” Sunset asked looking at Screwball with a sad look in her eyes. “You don’t think someone already told them about us do you?” “I wouldn’t rule it out Sunny…” Screwball said without much enthusiasm. “When someone’s as infamous as we are, word can get around pretty fast.” ‘Though, I think I might have my own suspicions.’ Screwball thought to herself. Once they were sure they were out of sight, Adagio, and Aria took a deep breath of relief. Getting away from that purple menace even if it was only for a few minutes was a godsend. Her smile really made them want to just punch her teeth out right then and there. Sonata seemed to be the only confused one out of the group on the matter. “Um, are you alright?” She asked with a little bit of a concerned voice. “No” Aria growled bitterly. She then turned around to face Adagio and grabbed a hold of her shirt collar, pulling her right into her face. “You promised there wasn’t going to be another one of HER in this dimension! I can’t deal with another one of that little pest, I just can’t!” she said, gritting her teeth and eyes dilated. “Aria relax. Her pony counterpart got on my nerves just as bad. She’s so annoying that I wanna drink bleach too, I get it.” Adagio said, eyes widened a little but didn’t really look afraid of Aria. “Um, I don’t know girls. I thought she was funny. I kinda liked her.” Sonata said, shrugging a little. She really didn’t get what her sisters were freaking out over. She got along with the pony counterpart of Screwball okay a couple of thousand years ago, and this one didn’t bother her either. “Well of course YOU’D like her, you’re both obnoxious as all hell.” Aria said with her almost permanent scowl. Sonata crossed her arms, pouting a little and looking away. “Mmmph…well you’re worse.” Adagio quickly put herself in between the two of them to hopefully keep them from ripping each other apart. “I don’t want to hear you two idiots going at it anymore today. We’ve got to keep our eyes on the prize. And if this Screwball is anything like the one in Equestria, she’s going to go out of her way to make our lives miserable.” She said to quickly remind them of their goal. “Are you sure about that Adagio? She didn’t look like she wanted to hurt us. Her face just screamed ‘I’m desperate for friends’ near the end of the tour back there.” Sonata added, frowning a little. Adagio was about to try and make some sort of witty comeback at Sonata’s stupid comment, but stopped when she thought about what she was really saying. She DID look really desperate didn’t she? And she couldn’t just let her still be in commission while they were trying to accomplish their goals of getting the world kneeling before them. She’d truly get in the way if she tried anything against them. But it got her thinking of something. Maybe Sonata wasn’t as dumb and useless as she acted. “…Girls…I have an idea…it might lose us some brain cells in the process and Aria, you’re probably going to hate it, but I'm positive it'll work.” Adagio said with her eyes widening a little in realization.