//------------------------------// // 5 - In Defense of a Friend // Story: A Clean Slate for a Former Siren // by AlchemicBlaze21 //------------------------------// Tuesday began a little bit better than the previous day. Sonata was able to get some breakfast while she waited for Aria to finish hogging the shower. She got through her morning routine relatively fast and kept up with Aria's and Adagio's pace as they rushed to the school. At least, they can't say I held them up today, Sonata thought to herself. "Alright girls, here's the plan," Adagio said to them as they walked along. "Aria is going to look around during the first half of the day for any leads that we can use. I will check around the school at lunch to see if I can find out exactly where all the Rainbooms’ lockers are. And Sonata, just listen around for anything useful, or at the very least don't do anything to give away our plans. Got it?" "Okay," Sonata said, trying to ignore Adagio’s clear lack of confidence in her. "So what, you want me to ditch class?" Aria asked in a flat tone. "Not that I have a problem with it, but that kind of seems counterproductive to your ‘big plan.'" "No, you moron!" Adagio snapped at Aria. "If you don't find out anything useful in the class, then ask to be excused and quickly check around the hallways." At that moment, Sonata was trying and failing to suppress her giggling. "And what's so funny, you airhead?" Aria hissed back at her. "Just that I called it last night," Sonata said with a huge grin. Aria shot daggers at her but didn't say anything else. "Focus you two, we need this to work if we want to restore our powers." Adagio reminded them, again. They both nodded. When the Dazzlings had arrived at the school ahead of most of the other students, they decided to wait in the foyer till classes began. When I got up that morning, I was a bit anxious about how the day would turn out and hoped that it wouldn’t be a repeat of the day before, more for Sonata's sake than anything else. I got ready almost instantly as I tossed my books and pens into my backpack along with a small sling bag with my uniform for later. I even managed to speed through my breakfast almost as fast as Sonata would have. When dad was ready, we rushed out to the car, and he dropped me off at the front of the school in record time. "Hey, Slate, since I'm going in early today I should be able to pick you up from your karate practice," dad said through a rolled down window, "so just wait for me when you finish and I'll see you later." "Alright, dad, see you later," I said. With that, he rolled up the window and took off to work. I turned to the school and headed into the foyer where several students were waiting around. With thirty minutes till the first bell I looked around but couldn't find Sonata anywhere. Maybe I'll catch her near our history class. When I turned the corner to the “history” hallway, I bumped into her. She lost her balance and was about to fall back, so I grabbed her by the hand to steady her. "Whoa!" she exclaimed in surprise. She then noticed that I was holding her up. "Oh, hi, Slate." "Hi, Sonata, what are you doing here already?" I asked a little embarrassed at almost knocking her down. "Just killing time," she said. "Oh, I meant like here at school. I thought you might still be on your way from the apartments," I said to her as I let her have her hand back. "No, my sisters and I got here pretty early," she said. "When everyone else started showing up, we went to wait near our first-period classrooms. I got kind of bored and started to think about that meeting today. I guess I started pacing." "Well, you don't need to worry about that," I told her. "I'm sure everything is going to be fine." "Okay," she said, still unsure about the whole thing. Just then, Mr. Donkey came along and greeted us in a gruff tone, "Hello, students, you're here early." "Hello, Mr. Donkey, just wanted to be ready to take in the lecture today," I said. Pretty sure he'd appreciate that. "Yeah," Sonata said with a smile. "Ah, glad to hear that," Mr. Donkey replied as he unlocked the classroom and turned on the lights. "Well, feel free to take your seats." "Thanks," Sonata and I replied and sat in the back row. Since we were the first ones there, we avoided the crowd to get to our seats. It still didn't keep the students from throwing glares over at Sonata and occasionally me as they took their seats when they arrived. Throughout that class we ignored everybody else as we took down notes and listened to the lecture on World War II. Close to the end of class, Mr. Donkey passed some handouts detailing how to write a report for homework. At least, it wasn't due until next Monday. I thought to myself, well, it wouldn't be a history class without any written reports, as I placed it in my backpack. Soon, everyone was off to their next class. Sonata and I got to our math class and turned in our homework as we walked in. Even though she got what we had gone over the night before, she was still having trouble understanding the work so I would explain to her how the new formulas and processes worked as best as I could. At least, this ensured that I was getting all the material down as well. Nevertheless, we wound up with homework for that class again. The next bell rang, and we had to go to our separate classes. "Hey, Sonata," I said to her as I gathered my things to leave. "Yeah, what is it?" she asked looking up from her backpack. "Could you meet me at the cafeteria right when lunch starts, that way we can get our food quickly and head over to the music room," I said walking with her to the hallway. "Alright, I'll see you there," she answered as she waved at me and headed in the opposite direction. One confusing chemistry class and a pretty interesting French lesson later, and I was out to lunch. I sprinted to the cafeteria, dodging in between the other students to be able to get there and wait for Sonata. A few minutes had passed before I saw her coming down the hallway along with two other girls. The one with incredibly huge orange hair turned to Sonata and the other girl and said something, to which they both nodded. She then turned down another hallway, while Sonata and the pigtailed girl continued on in my direction. When Sonata spotted me, she rushed over and gave me a quick hug. Of course, this drew a few of the other student's attention, but I didn't pay them any mind and returned the gesture. The pigtailed girl then came up and cleared her throat, "Ahem." Sonata then turned to her and then back to me. "Oh, this is my sister, Aria," she said. "Hello, Aria, I'm Slate," I said introducing myself, "It's nice to meet you." "Yeah, nice to meet you too, Nate," Aria said dismissively as she examined her nails. "It's Slate," I corrected. "Whatever," she responded. "Hey, Sonata, are we done here?" "Uh, yes," Sonata said sounding disappointed, to which Aria headed for the lunch lines. "Wow, she's got such a magnetic personality," I said sarcastically. Sonata then turned to me and asked a bit confused, "You think so, because that was pretty terrible." "Eh, It's fine," I said, brushing it off. "So, is she always like that?" "Yeah, for the most part," she said, looking down at the floor. Hmm, well that's unfortunate, it's hard to believe that they're related, I thought as we go in line to get our trays. The line we chose was actually short since there were only three other people ahead of us. I guess not a whole lot of the students cared much for tacos. We paid for our lunch and quickly found a nearby seat to give ourselves plenty of time. We both finished up pretty fast, although it probably would have been better if we were able to take our time. Regardless, we got our trays to the back of the cafeteria and headed to the foyer. "Okay, Fluttershy said the music room is located in East 110," I told Sonata. "East wing it is then," Sonata said in response. After a few minutes of walking down the hallways and checking the numbers that hung by the doors, we heard some music coming from further down that corridor. It was emanating from behind a closed door with a panel that read ‘East 110' posted right next to it. I turned to Sonata and asked her, "Well, are you ready to head in?" "Yes," she said a little anxiously. "Um, want me to go in first?" I asked. "Yes please," she practically squeaked. "Okay," I said as I grabbed a hold of the door handle and carefully pushed it open. As I walked in, I saw that there were six girls there. Rainbow Dash was there in the front with a dark blue electric guitar along with Fluttershy, who was carrying a tambourine. The rest of the group consisted of a bassist with a Stetson hat; another guitarist with fiery red and yellow hair; a girl with flowing purple hair and a keytar, I guess; and a crazed looking pink haired drummer. Usually, I'm not particularly shy, but to have all of them turn to look at me as I entered felt a bit awkward. All of them except Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had perplexed looks on their faces. Rainbow was narrowing her eyes at me while Fluttershy seemed surprised, maybe at the fact that I showed up. The first one to speak up was the bassist. "Howdy, can we help you?" "Uh, hi, I was asked to come here along with my friend," I answered her, "something about talking to Rainbow Dash’s friends." "Oh, you must be Slate, right?" the fiery haired girl asked. "Yes, that's me." "So then that means that you're the boy that's friends with one of the Dazzlings?" the keytarist asked. "And here we go," I said under my breath. I then answered her with, "Yes, I suppose so." "I see, by the way, where is she anyway?" she asked. While I was talking to those girls, Sonata snuck in and tried to hide behind me. She then nervously whispered to me, "Is it safe to come in?" Before I could answer Sonata, the drummer appeared next to us and in a loud cheery voice said, "Of course it's safe to come in here, silly." Sonata in her surprise let out an eep as she got a hold of my shoulders with a firm grip and tried even harder to hide behind me. "Jeez!" was all I managed to get out during my mini heart attack thanks to the drummer and Sonata almost throwing me on the floor. I was sure that she had been sitting behind her drum set just a second earlier. "Oops, didn't mean to scare you two like that," she apologized while placing a hand on Sonatas' shoulder to reassure her. I straightened myself out and said, "It's alright. It was probably just a few seconds off of my life expectancy, heh-heh." Sonata looked up at her and said: "Okay, just don't do it again." A moment of awkward silence had passed before the keytar player spoke up. "Oh, where are our manners? We haven't even introduced ourselves yet. I'm Rarity; the girl on the bass is AppleJack; the girl who surprised you two is Pinkie Pie, and the girl on the light blue guitar is Sunset Shimmer. I presume you've already met Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy?" "Uh, yes," I said. "Well, I'd like to say it's nice to meet you all. So, what was it that you guys wanted to talk to us about, exactly?" "Well, after hearing what Rainbow had to say yesterday, we wanted to make sure that nothing suspicious was going on with the Dazzlings," Sunset said. "After all, with everything that went on during the battle of the bands, a few of us were concerned about this news." "Well, Sonata told me about everything that happened over the past couple of weeks, and we did meet under strange circumstances. But, I think it's pretty safe to say that there isn't anything going on," I said confidently. "Yeah, er, that's right," Sonata said, sounding a bit less so. "Right," Sunset said. "And how was it that you two met?" "We met last Friday," Sonata spoke up, "when three gray guys from the battle of the bands attacked me." "You mean the Diamond Dogs?" Rarity asked. "Yes, them," Sonata said. "I was having such a hard time remembering their group's name." "Well, I've heard of them causing trouble from time to time. What caused them to attack you?" "Do you have to ask?" Sonata responded a little upset at the question. "The whole school would like nothing more than to get back at us for what happened. They saw their chance to do that when I was walking alone that evening. I was just really lucky that Slate was there to stop them from hurting me." "That's pretty much what happened," I confirmed, "and we've been hanging out together since then." Rainbow Dash gave me a skeptical look and said, "Since she told you everything, then you must know that her and her friends, or sisters, or whatever they are to her, are sirens. You know, evil creatures that feed on negativity." Sonata spoke up in response, "Look, I know that what my sisters and I have done has caused a lot of trouble for everyone. And I know that you don't really have any reason to believe me, but after being able to think about it for the past week, I feel terrible about everything that we did." The look on Sonata’s face was just so sincerely sad, so I whispered to her, "Let me take care of this." I then turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, "Yes, I'm aware of what she is, but I have also gotten to know her a bit, and can tell you that she isn't as malicious as you have been making her out to be. In fact, she'd like to try and make things right. That's why she even agreed to come talk with all of you today in the first place." From the looks of it, Rainbow Dash still didn't believe me. Some of her friends, however, were at least considering what I said. "Well, if that's true, Slate, then we should be able to help Sonata with what she's trying to accomplish," Sunset said. "How exactly would you do that?" I asked. "We could put in a good word with the principal to allow her to get more involved here at school and the community so she could make a positive contribution, and hopefully be able to change her ways," Sunset suggested. "Granted, it would take some time." "I see, well, what do you think, Sonata?" I asked. "Hmm, I-I guess it can't be any worse than what has already happened…" Sonata said sounding unsure of herself. "Don't worry, if you need some time to think it over, go ahead," Sunset offered. "In the meantime, feel free to talk to any of us whenever you want. Just let us know what you decide when you're ready." "Uh, thanks," Sonata said uneasily. "Well, we should be on our way." "Yeah, I think lunch is almost over," I said in response. "Well, I guess we'll be seeing you guys around." "Okey dokey lokey, see you two later," Pinkie Pie said still in a very cheery tone as she got the door for us. "Oh, thanks," Sonata and I said as she waved back at us. Walking down the hallway away from the music room, I said to Sonata, "Well, that went better than I was expecting." "Yeah, they were pretty nice, for the most part," Sonata said. Just then that other girl I saw with Sonata and Aria earlier walked out from another hallway directly in front of us. I had to stop completely on my toes before I bumped into her. When she turned to see me, she looked annoyed at my proximity, but then changed her expression when she saw that I was with Sonata. "Oh, there you are Sonata.” “Uh, hi. What’s up?” Sonata asked a bit apprehensively. “Nothing really. And I see this must be that friend of yours, Slate, was it?" she said. "Uh, yes. I guess Sonata told you about me," I said. "So I take it you're her sister, Adagio?" "Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you, Slate," Adagio said. "Likewise," I responded. Just then the bell rang, and students began pouring into the hallway. "Well, isn't that a shame," Adagio said. "Still, I wouldn't want to hold you two up much longer, so I'll be on my way, take care," Adagio said. "Alright, um, see you around," I said. As Sonata and I continued on our way, I couldn't help but think that Adagio was putting up a façade while I talked to her. I guess it was her initial reaction to seeing someone other than Sonata or Aria that gave me that impression. Anyways, we made it to the library and found a place that was secluded from the rest of the students there for study hall. Since I wasn't going to be able to meet Sonata after school that day, I decided to help her with the math homework right away. We worked out the problems as much as we could, and whenever she got stuck on one of them I'd show her the process to complete it. All in all, we finished the work a bit quicker than the night before, and we still had twenty minutes to spare. That, at least, proved to me that she was getting the hang of it. While I was putting away my math notebook, Sonata spoke up. "Hey, Slate, thanks for helping me," she said. "It's not a problem, I'm just glad that this homework isn't too long," I said as I placed my backpack next to my seat and turned to Sonata. "Oh, no, I meant for earlier with the Rainbooms," she said shaking her head. "If you hadn't vouched for me, I don't think that they would have given what I had to say a second thought." "Oh, well, it's just that I hate to see you as sad as you were right then and there," I said. I then realized just how sappy that sounded on my part, and so I tried to clarify what I meant. "I mean, I wanted to make sure that you were given a fair chance." I still couldn't keep myself from blushing in front of her. "Aww, thank you," she said with a smile. She then scooted closer to me and gave me a hug around my shoulders and a quick kiss on the cheek, which only made my blushing worsen. At least no one had been paying attention to us. I cleared my throat and asked her, "So, um, are you going to take them up on their offer?" "Well, I'd like to, but the thing is that Adagio is still pretty upset with them," she said disappointedly. "I don't know how she'd react if she even found out that I had talked to them." "Hmm, any chance that she would consider the offer." "Maybe, but I really doubt it," she said resting her head on her hands. “Really? Why not?” "She’s never taken failure well. She’d never hang out with the people who beat her." I wasn't sure what I could do or say that could help, and wound up thinking about any possible solutions. Sonata just sat there lost in thought as well. The bell rang and snapped us out of our thoughts, so we started gathering our things to go. I didn't want to leave on such a bitter note, so I turned to her and said, "Sonata, if she wants to stay upset, then there isn't much that can be done, but I feel that you should at least give it a try. But, I'll go along with whatever you decide." She smiled slightly and said, "Thanks. I'll see you later." "Alright, I'll be by the library entrance right after school." "Okay," she said as we both headed to our last classes for the day. The class that I had right after study hall was English. It wasn't exceedingly dull, at least some of the reading material was interesting enough to not doze off to. Still, the teacher would assign essays that weren't always clear and that kind of killed me a little. At least they didn't have to be extremely long. Luckily there wasn't any homework assigned for that day, so when the bell rang, I quickly headed to my last class. The final class was alright by all accounts. It dealt with learning how to use the main programs for the computer office as well as a little bit of the most fundamental programing skills. It was pretty cool, just show up and learn a new computer-based skill, and the best part was that there was hardly any homework for that class. Time would fly by pretty quickly and before I knew it the last bell rang. When I got to the library, Sonata was already waiting there for me. "Hey Sonata," I said. "Hey Slate, did you want to tell me something?" She asked. "Actually yes," I started, "today I've got practice till later in the afternoon, so I'm not sure if we would have any time to hang out afterward." "Hmm, well, I'll just text you then," she said with a shrug. "Sounds good. Well then, were you going to meet with Adagio and Aria here again?" I asked her "Yeah, so I should probably head in now. I'll talk to you later." "Alright, talk to you later," I said. She waved and went into the library. With all my gear in tow, I headed for the dojo. The whole trek took a while, but at least I got there with enough time to change and stretch out before the class started. Sitting on the other side of the room was Rainbow Dash, and from the look on her face, she had a bone to pick with me. When we lined up, she got a spot right next to me. Even though I was doing my best not to make eye contact with her, it was like I could feel her gaze land on me. As the whole class was stretching, she whispered over to me, "So, you're still going to defend that siren, knowing what she's done?" I whispered back, "Of course I am, she's my friend." "Sure, keep telling yourself that," she whispered. "What's that supposed to mean," I whispered back in response. "It's probably only part of a ruse to further whatever plan those Dazzlings have in mind," she whispered, making her disdain for Sonata apparent now. "Really, and what if she genuinely wants to make things right. Just turn her away," I whispered more forcefully. "She's been torn up about this." Master Will then yelled out, "Alright, fifteen laps around the dojo, gotta get those muscles warmed up!" We continued our debate while we ran, with Rainbow Dash saying, "Good, she should be." "Okay, and what does that tell you about her?" I asked wanting to see what she'd come out with next. "That she, and more than likely the other two, are just sorry about their old plan falling through," she said. "Unbelievable, you are so freaking stubborn," I said in frustration. "And you're too blind to see that she and her friends are manipulative monsters," Rainbow Dash said. "Okay, you know what, this is going nowhere," I said as I picked up my pace to try to leave her behind. Easier said than done. We finished all the laps and returned to our original spots. From there Mr. Will drilled us on all the basics with several other exercises sprinkled throughout. All the while Rainbow Dash and I were having an unspoken competition to show up the other throughout the class. Mr. Will then said, "Okay, for the last few exercises I'm going to pair you up with a partner to work on the kicking shields. You'll be practicing your front, side and roundhouse kicks." I nearly groaned out loud, but stopped myself, when I was paired up with Rainbow Dash. On top of that, she looked ready to tear my head off. Did I mention that I was first up to hold the kicking shield? Every one of her front kicks practically bent the shield inward to the point that I might as well have been using a piece of cardboard to absorb the blows. I was just glad that I wasn’t standing in front of a pit or something. Still, it was like she was using every kick to say that she was right. So, when it was my turn I matched every kick to hers, and she looked less than happy to be on the receiving end. We then moved on to the sidekicks, Rainbow Dash proceeded to tell me how wrong I was for defending Sonata. "She's just playing you to her advantage," she said as she threw her kicks. "I don't buy that for a second, Rainbow," I retorted along with my kicks. The last set we moved onto were the roundhouse kicks. At this point, we had nothing left to say to each other, and let our kicks do the talking. By the end of the round, we were both breathing heavily while our legs shook underneath us as we glared at each other. Mr. Will then came up to the two of us and announced to the class in a loud voice, "Now that's what I like to see. In the future, I hope all of you will try to work as hard as these two here every time you come to class." I guess he hadn't heard our argument throughout the entire class. Regardless, he ended the lesson and dismissed the class shortly after. As I was getting my things together from the back area to leave, Rainbow Dash leaned against the wall with her arms crossed. She then asked, "Just tell me, why you won't listen to me about Sonata?" "Because, based on everything that I've seen and heard, she's only ever known what she's had to do to survive and I would like to help her to change that," I said. "To give her a chance to make up for the things she did wrong. But I'm probably just wasting my breath. I’m sure that all of your friends are perfect and haven't made any mistakes, right?" The look on Rainbow Dash’s face slowly went from anger to apologetic as she thought about what I had said. I was expecting some response, but it never came. I guess something I said stuck. As I passed by her, it looked like she wanted to tell me something but just couldn't. Seeing as it was getting late, I didn't bother to stick around and guess at whatever she had to say. When I got outside, dad had already been waiting around and looked pretty beat. "What's the holdup?" he asked. "Sorry, I was just talking to one of my classmates, guess I let the time slip by," I said. "That's fine, let's just get back home," dad said. "Today was pretty long." With that, he drove us back to the apartment complex. Back at home, I found that Sonata had sent two text messages. The first one read, "Almost done with practice?" and was sent while I was still at the dojo. The second one about twenty minutes later and read "Guess not, anywho, txt me when you get the chance." I quickly composed a text that read, "Hey, what's up? I barely got back home." Shortly after, Sonata replied with, "Not much, so how was practice?" "Well, it was interesting. Rainbow Dash was there," I sent back. "For realsies, what happened?" her text read. "We argued back and forth throughout the class, pretty much," mine explained. "You didn't get in trouble for that, did you?" her next message read. "Nah, we were able to keep it mainly to ourselves," I said. "But after class, she wanted to keep that going, until she stopped altogether for no reason." "Why? I would think she would just keep on arguing till she got you to say you were wrong," she said. "I know, but I guess something I said finally got to her," I said. "Well what was the last thing you told her?" she asked. "Something about her friends, I don't recall. I was a bit frustrated," I responded. "All I know is that it was a little odd." "Yeah, that is weird," she sent back. "Well, was there anything else that you wanted to talk about?" I asked. "No, that's alright," she sent. "Well then, see you tomorrow. Night." "Okay, good night," I sent back and put away my phone. I thought back to the dojo and Rainbow Dash the rest of the time that I was awake. I couldn't help but think that it might have been something important that she would have had to say. Then again, she could have just been trying to think of some other reason I should just leave Sonata alone. After a while of thinking about it, I gave up attempting to theorize a possible answer and just got settled in to get some rest.