The next day, I was met by three different people wanting to tell me three different things.
Snails was there with his face in complete anguish, Sunset was clear that she needed to discuss... things (most likely siren-related) and Aria just really wanted to tell me how her night went. Is it any surprise that I picked Aria?
I let the others know I would catch them later and I walked away with Aria. She told me what had happened after she received a text midway through the movie and left. She had denied me walking her to the bus stop as her sisters were going to pick her up and she wasn't ready to tell them about us as of yet. She went on about how unnaturally nice they were to her in the car and how they didn't blame her for what happened with Silver and the news. In fact, she excitedly told me that they too had gotten their powers back and had used them to ward off the news people. That worried me a little but she assured me that it was fine and that they had no desire for revenge. She went on to admit that they pried out of her the fact that she and I were now a thing, but they seemed cool with it. By cool with it, she meant that neither of them were at school with her threatening to kill me and that was good enough.
I dropped Aria off at her classroom before heading to mine. After, I went to English where Sunset was waiting for me with her arms folded. I made my way over to the empty seat beside her but, before I could sit down, Rarity claimed it. I sighed and found another seat, Sunset's news would have to wait.
If there was one thing to say about Sunset, she was determined. Through a combination of yelling out random jokes and throwing paper balls at me, she had managed to get us both detention. At the very least, she seemed pretty pleased with herself.
I wanted to sit with Aria at lunch, but I also wanted to go talk to Dash. I got to do neither of those things as Snails commandeered me and walked me toward the boys' bathroom. This had to be serious.
"I messed up," he said. The distressed look on his face hadn't changed since the morning.
"Obviously," I commented. "What happened? She didn't like your creepy, I mean charming knowledge of everything about her."
He shook his head. "That part was fine," he said. "In fact, the whole dinner was great."
I arched one of my eyebrows to let him know that I was waiting for the part where he screwed up.
"I took her home," he explained. "Snips wasn't there. Something about an emergency release at the comic book store, so I walked her to the door. Then she leaned in for a goodbye kiss."
"This is all so fascinating," I chimed in. "But it seems everything went even better than our practice."
"I'm getting to the bad part," he continued. "So, I kissed her... and then we started making out and it was great... and then it wasn't."
"What?"
Snails shrugged. "I dunno. One minute everything was perfect, the next I realized that I was tongue wrestling little Sugar."
"In all fairness," I offered. "Sugar isn't that little anymore. She's only a year younger than us, but you probably feel that way because we grew up knowing her as Snip's little sister."
"Maybe."
"Did she feel that way too?"
"Maybe, I don't know. I pulled away, told her goodnight and left," he sobbed.
I patted his back. "Come on, it's not that bad. I mean, compare that with my first date with Aria."
"You haven't had any kind of date with Aria," he reminded me.
I scowled at him.
"This is why you're forever alone," I said as I walked toward the door. I turned back out of sympathy and general best friendliness, "Call her and apologize. Tell her you had a good time and would like to do it again."
Snails gave me a smile. "Thanks, Lost."
Detention for the English teacher was a lot less interactive than Ms. Cheerilee's. Our only task was to sit in the same room until the end; whatever we wanted to do was our business.
"About the sirens," Sunset hissed. "They have their powers back. All of them."
"I know," I whispered back. "Aria told me."
Talking was among the things we could do in the detention room, but we figured that it was best if no one knew that were were discussing.
"She said it was fine though," I added.
Sunset nodded in agreement. "I know," she confirmed. "Something about them changed. They're still angry little monsters that should be avoided at all costs, but they're no longer bitter."
"Question," I voiced. "If they're magical beings that feed on hatred, what have they been eating this whole time? If they could eat regular food before then why didn't they instead of starving?"
"Magic and this world are two very different things," Sunset answered. "Before, the sirens could only feed on negative emotions and, for some reason, tacos. The moment they lost their powers, they effectively became human and able to digest regular food. The thing is, now, it seems that this world has integrated with their Equestrian biology too much and so, even with their powers back, they can eat regular food so there's no need for them to incite rage anymore."
"That's great," I whispered.
She smiled. "I know."
I got the feeling that there was something else.
Before I could ask, she muttered, "No there's no need to send them there."
"Send them where?" I asked slightly defensively. "What are you talking about?"
"A little while back, I asked Twilight for a spell to banish the the sirens to Tartarus," she admitted.
I jumped up and raised my voice, "You were going to send Aria to hell!?"
The teacher looked up and fixed me with a disapproving glare. I sat down.
"It's fine," Sunset said. "She hasn't been able to find one yet and, even if she does, I have no reason to use it." She repeated, "It's fine."
We walked out of the detention room in silence. Aria stood there waiting for me. She immediately flung herself at me and I caught her.
"Hi Lost!" she was perky, very happy. She gave me a quick kiss as a greeting.
She'd gotten really attached, really fast. I didn't really have a problem with that, but I couldn't help but wondering if the real Aria, if I had managed to woo her, would have gotten this close this fast. I must have stopped smiling during my thoughts because she cocked her head to the side and asked if I was okay. I wasn't sad, by any means, but I had to force a smile to tell her that I was okay. Then her smile faded. Somewhere, faintly, I heard a brief crackling of electricity.
"Are you okay?" I asked her. I cast a glance at Sunset but she was focused on Aria.
After a while Aria shook her head slightly and said, "Yeah," in an annoyed voice. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Inside my head, I saw the words 'Be Careful What You Wish For' flash for a moment.
Put her back! I thought quickly.
Aria blinked as if she was waking from a dream and smiled.
"I'm going home," she said. "And no, I'm fine on my own."
"Are you sure?" I wondered out loud. "Because I have no prob-"
She kissed me to shut me up. Not a bad way, to be honest.
"Bye, Lost," she said when she'd pulled away and ran off toward the back of the school.
I looked at Sunset who looked mildly concerned. I agreed that something felt slightly off but I really didn't want to go into that at the moment so I kept walking. When we'd reached the school steps, I turned to her.
"Is Dash coming to pick you up?"
She shook her head. "Dash hasn't been herself lately," she replied. "In fact, I think she skipped today."
Thinking about it, I hadn't seen her in PE. I was about to respond when Ol' Tailchaser rolled up. Snips stuck his head over the door.
"Hey Lost, since you're still here, want a lift?" he asked. He cast a scornful glance at Sunset. "I suppose you can come too."
"You're too kind," she cringed as she wriggled in next to me.
"Onward, Chariot Man!" I commanded in my most high and mighty voice. "Bring me to the gates of my castle... after dropping off the fair maiden."
"Fair!?" Sunset put as much exaggeration into her voice as possible. "Good sir, I am a princess!"
"And I'm the Third Fool of Banterbury, bring this wench to the local brothel!" I retorted.
She punched me lightly and spoke, "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, fool." She turned to Snips and pointed forward, "Now make haste, my palace awaits."
"You can both bite a spicy pickle!" Snails joined in our game and drove off.
"Oh, hi Sugar," I greeted when I noticed her sitting in the shotgun seat.
She nodded.
"Is something wrong?" I asked, briefly forgetting the whole situation with Snails.
"Don't mind her," Snips advised. "She's been like that since yesterday."
I tapped her shoulder discreetly and she turned around. I pushed my hand across my field of vision slowly, then I made my hand into a phone and put it to my ear and then I pointed to her. She seemed to get the message that Snails would call her later and her eyes brightened.
That was one problem solved and I was done for the day.
Snips dropped me off before Sunset and I waved goodbye to them. I couldn't wait to get inside, get some tea and maybe worry about Aria for a couple of hours.
I stepped in and called for my mom to make me some tea.
"Hi Lost."
"Hi Mo-" I stopped short. That wasn't my mother's voice.
I looked up into my living room and groaned at a scene that only I could hate. Two beautiful girls kicking back on my couch. Granted, these girls were Adagio and Sonata.