//------------------------------// // Being Right Can Suck Sometimes // Story: A Tad Screwy: The Laughing Dazzling // by Discorded SheepcityUSA //------------------------------// Sunset and Screwball walked into the lunchroom, one of the two of them unsure of what exactly it was that’d just happened to them. The other wasn’t quite sure what to think of the three mysterious girls either, but she had a pretty good idea about the possibilities of what they were dealing with here. It was all purely speculation right now, but evil masterminds that are hell-bent on taking over a high school wasn’t out of the realm of realism. The pair managed to find their friend’s table and sat with them; Sunset next to Applejack and Screwball directly across from both of them. Applejack could take one look at their expressions and gather that something wasn’t right with either of them. “…Sooo uh, how’d the tour go? Ya’ll make a good first impression?” “Oh I dunno Applejack. Does these look like faces that say we’re up to our armpits in new friends right now?” Screwball said with sarcastic implications and a deadpanned look on her face. “Weeeeell you’re the shortest one in the entire group Screwy so technically-“ Rainbow was then interrupted by purple finger belonging to the twelve year-old being put to her lips to keep her mouth shut. “Now hang on Rainbow, I’m gonna let you finish but I just wanted to say…never make the obvious joke of making fun of a prepubescent kid’s height. It’s way too obvious. I mean, I’m twelve gimme a break.” Screwball said in a patronizing tone to Rainbow. This comment was enough to make Rainbow not even bother with the joke and just keep quiet afterwards about it. Fluttershy frowned a little. “Oh goodness. Was meeting the new students really that bad?” she asked. “They were…something. They acted pretty weird around both of us. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but they really didn’t seem to be 100% normal.” Sunset said with a slight frown, pondering herself over the scenario just as much as the other six girls. “It wasn’t just that. They acted like they had a bad run-in with Screwball before, but she swears up and down that she’s never met them.” The girls all took a good, questioning look at Screwball, who simply shrugged her shoulders. “Hey, I might not remember every face of all the people I’ve pissed off by playing driveby mailbox baseball or just whatever in my short time on this earth, but hair and outfits like THOSE are not something I’d ever forget. If I’d messed with them before now, I’d know.” Screwball said, taking a bite out of an apple on her lunch tray and taking a bite out of it. Seeming somewhat unsatisfied with it, she took out a tube of frosting (seemingly out of completely nowhere) and drew a horrified face on the apple. Smiling big, she took a huge bite out of the side of the apple’s ‘face’. “Aaaaah nooo! I was two weeks from retirement!” she said in an overdramatic and intentionally squeaky voice to make it seem that the apple was sentient. The girls all just gave her a highly disturbed stare with widened eyes. “Erm, isn’t that rather morbid?” Rarity asked with a cringe over her face. “I don’t have a problem, I swear.” Screwball said as she took another bite out of her apple, again giving it the same scream. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata all stood outside the cafeteria doors, getting ready to make their first move to ensure their conquest of this dimension. “This is it girls. The moment we’ve been waiting for.” She said with a large smirk forming. “Lunch?!” Sonata asked with an enthusiastic smile. Adagio immediately frowned and put a palm to her face. How it was that Sonata managed to get the group into the most annoyed of moods within seconds was beyond her knowledge. Not that she cared to know much. She just wondered more about how someone can be as air-headed as she was. “Ugh. The chance to get our true Equestrian magic back” she agitatedly corrected her cohort. “Oh. Right.” Sonata said, seemingly oblivious to Adagio’s annoyance. “Okay, can I just say right now how much I hate this plan? Mainly because it’s what we always do anyway only this time getting someone actually worse than Sonata involved. This is a good idea how?!” Aria said, obviously very annoyed at the prospect of Screwball being in on their plans for domination. She’d dealt with a Screwball once before, and there was no way in hell she would be able to take dealing with another one again, only even MORE regularly than before. Adagio waved a dismissive and hand at Aria in a condescending sort of way. “Relax. I get it, Screwball is a menace no matter the dimension; I was there too. But if she’s anything like any other human, she can be controlled with the magic of our voices just as well. And if she can’t…well then we go to Plan B. One-on-One manipulation.” Aria narrowed her eyes. “Oh yeah that’ll work real well…except she looked like she’s been onto us since the minute we walked in here; real nice plan Adagio. No holes ANYWHERE.” Adagio only smirked a little at that. “You underestimate my wits Aria. Her suspicions of us is exactly what I’m counting on.” She said menacingly rubbing her hands together. “Oh this is going to be delicious. Not only will we get our magic back and rule this pathetic reality, but the smiling, overly happy little pest won’t ever bother us once this is over.” Sonata nodded happily. “Ooh yeah, delicious! But not as delicious as that!” she cheered as she pointed to a poster advertising “Taco Tuesday” in the cafeteria. Adagio facepalmed again, this time with Aria joining her. ‘Uuuugh. Priority number 2, get Sonata’s head examined.’ She thought to herself Ah, ah-ah, ah-ahh Ah, ah-ah, ah-ahh Ah, ah-ah, ah-ahh Ah, ah-ah, ah-ahh Without any warning whatsoever, the cafeteria double doors swung open and was followed by the sound of three alluring and melodious echoing off the walls of the room. The students eating all turned their heads (aside from Vinyl Scratch who was still head-banging to her own music through her headphones) to the source of the voices, including Sunset and her friends. At the lead of the singing was none other than Adagio Dazzle, with Aria and Sonata backing her up. Screwball could tell nearly right away that this had bad intentions written all over it; there was nothing else that this scenario could possibly mean, especially with all the motions that went along with Adagio’s singing. She wasn’t the only one to notice either, given the quizzical looks the rest of her group had. We heard you want to get together We heard you want to rock this school We've thought of something that is better Something that changes all the rules Why pretend we're all the same When some of us shine brighter? Here's a chance to find your flame Are you a loser or a fighter? The Dazzlings all got closer to each other and started to slowly and slightly seductively dance along with their singing. Me and you, you and me Why don't we see who is better? We don't have to be one and the same thing Oh, what's so wrong with a little competition? Are you afraid of failing the audition? Once again, Adagio began to solo-sing the lyrics while Aria and Sonata backed her up. She began to get all up in the student’s faces and giving them smug and tempting smiles as she sang her tune. You're a star and you should know it Yeah, you rise above the rest It doesn't matter who you hurt If you're just proving you're the best Ah, ahh-ahh-ahhh ‘Okay this is like, Disney-baddie levels of subtle now. I know I’m not subtle by any definition either but come on.’ Screwball thought to herself sarcastically. Although she was rolling her eyes at the three girl’s obvious intentions, she did have to admit it. Adagio’s behind was really something else. Battle! You wanna win it Let's have a battle, battle of the bands Let's have a battle, we'll go all in it Let's have a battle, battle, battle Battle of the bands That was when things began to get out of hand. Almost out of completely nowhere, a few of the students started arguing and yelling at each other over who was a better singer and who could beat who in a music competition. This was unusual beyond everything she’d known about the school since Screwball’d gotten there. For the most part, the students looked happier than most teenagers should be. She’d only really heard myths and legends about teenagers, but they were made out to be probably the worst creatures to ever walk the Earth. Dramatic as hell, overly emotional, freaking out at even the slightest sign of a pimple, and as stupid and horny as a human being can come. CHS’s students though, she found to not be like that at all. They mostly acted way too nice for their own good. They were PG levels of nice, and to her it was so surreal. The only time she’d seen differently was over herself and over Sunset. Not surprising; people don’t just forget things like this. Now though. Everyone wasn’t angry at her or Sunset. They were angry at EACH OTHER. Over who’s better at the flute and shit. That didn’t connect at ALL. And that’s when Screwball noticed the smoke. Green smoke began to flow around the students in the cafeteria, seemingly as they all got angrier and angrier as the song continued. That set off so many uncountable red flags in Screwball’s head. Negativity, over the top antics, how they were so protective of their pendants, green smoke. These were not typical, stereotypical mean and manipulative teenage girls here. Screwball’s hunches were right from the start. ‘Well uh, this is that moment where I REALLY didn’t want to be right but sadly I was. Shit.’ Screwball thought to herself, a slightly fearful frown beginning to make its way to her face. Me and you, you and me Why don't we see who is better? We don't have to be one and the same thing Oh, what's so wrong with a little competition? All the students in the cafeteria then shouted in unison, confidently throwing their hands up as they did so. I'm going out and winning the audition! The rest of the girls at the table observed the scene before them, starting to put together what was happening. Obviously these girls had some form of dark magic that they fed off of with their pendants. Their singing was getting to the student’s heads somehow and making them fight. But for whatever reason, Sunset and her friends weren’t affected by any of it. She could chalk that up to them having some remaining magic, but what was Screwball’s excuse? She never had any magic of her own, and yet she wasn’t following any of this. Battle! We wanna win it Let's have a battle, battle of the bands Let's have a battle, we'll go all in it Let's have a battle, battle, battle Battle of the bands! The Dazzlings finished off their song in a dramatic pose among the student’s arguing and yelling at each other over their musical talents. The girls that were unaffected simply stared blankly at the group, only with the occasional blink. “…Soooo this is what weird looks like.” Pinkie Pie said, realizing what Sunset and Screwball meant earlier. “Okayyyy I’m just gonna say what we’re all thinking right now, m’kay?” Screwball cleared her throat a little. “Ahem…WHAT. THE. FUCK?!?” She yelled, loud enough for practically the entire hallway the group was now walking in to hear her. Rarity looked around at the awkward stares they were all getting and quickly covered Screwball’s mouth, giving a sheepish smile. “Ehehe, now darling, it’s very unbecoming of a young lady to use those wor-EEEW SHE LICKED MY HAND!” Rarity screeched as she withdrew her now-wet hand from Screwball’s mouth in disgust. “I will NOT be censored in times like this Rarity! Did you even SEE what happened in there?!” Screwball continued to yell. Sunset tried to calmly calm her young friend. “Yes, we saw it. We ALL did. Those three obviously have dark magic and aren’t up to any good. Yelling and screaming isn’t going to solve anything though. We need to be quiet about this if we’re going to stop whatever they’re doing.” Screwball tried to relax a little bit at that, but it wasn’t doing much good. “Well then…what are we going to do about it then?” “Well Ah suggest we let Principal Celestia know about all this, and then they’ll be kicked to the curb in no time!” Applejack chimed in, attempting to stay positive about the grim situation that had just reared its head. While the rest of the girls all seemed to smile and nod in agreeance at the idea, Screwball stopped dead in her tracks when that sentence left Applejack’s mouth. “...Oh that’s your plan huh? Well, okay, okay. Seems legit enough. Though I see one big gaping sinkhole in that idea. Wanna know what it is?...THESE THINGS HAVE MAGIC, DO YOU THINK THEY’RE GOING TO GIVE TWO SHITS IF THEY GET SUSPENDED?! NO! THEY CAN MANIPULATE WHOEVER AND GET BACK IN IN LESS THAN A FEW MINUTES!” Screwball yelled again, earning some more stares from the students. The girls flinched a little and surrounded Screwball, hoping to keep her quiet. “Woah woah hey calm down! As much as I’d like to curb-stomp those three, we can’t do that! We need to handle this quieter than that so we don’t make anyone freak out!” Rainbow shouted back at her. “She’s right. Listen, I respect you a lot as my friend Screwball. But you have a tendency to go way overboard sometimes. We can’t risk causing a riot with anything like that. At this point, telling Celestia about what’s happening is our best bet. Just, go with it alright? It’s for the best.” Sunset said gently, putting a hand on her shoulder and looking in her swirly, purple eyes. Screwball didn’t know what to think right now. On one hand, her brain was telling her that this was not a good way to solve the problems of a potential threat to the school. On the other, her friend was asking her to trust her and her friend’s judgement. She didn’t like the complications this was presenting. “…I don’t like it, but…I guess you guys should just do your thing. I’ll just stay out of your way on this one.” She said, sighing a little. Sunset smiled a little and patted her shoulder. “Trust me, this will all work out, just wait and see.” Sunset said, looking back at her friends. “Okay, let’s get to Celestia’s office and sort this out before things can get any worse.” The group walked back to through the hallway, Screwball seeming to stay behind. All she did was stand there and watch her group walk right into what she could very well be a disaster zone. As much as she just wanted to let Sunset handle this one, she felt like she couldn’t. She was the only one that seemed to know how to actually get this done and yet they were just treating her like she was one-note nuts. She didn’t like that at all; it was just like how they’d left her out of their music practice from earlier. She knew she would be able to participate in the showcase, but she’d at least love to sing with her friends. Well she wasn’t going back on this one. Not by a long shot. “Wait and see. Humph. My ass. Don’t want to let me help, fine. I’ll do this myself.” She said angrily as she narrowed her eyes. “Cue the music.” *1