This Night Aria

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Negotiation

Unsurprisingly, everyone jumped up from the table as soon as they saw the Dazzlings enter.

“What are they doing here!?” Dash demanded as she was about to charge towards them before being held back by Applejack.

“Now, hold on!” she grunted. “I want to hear what they have to say, though they’ve certainly got a lot of nerve coming back here after all they’ve done.”

“Well, that’s a funny reception coming from Sunset Shimmer’s friends.” Adagio smirked.

“Now girls, settle down-we just came here to talk.” Aria replied as she took a seat at the far end of the table with Adagio and Sonata taking Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s chairs to join her on either side.

The rest of the girls stood around the opposite end of the stable, grouped around Sunset’s chair as she sat down.

“What do you want?” she asked, irritably.

“Someone’s in a mood…” Aria commented. “Anyway, we realize that we didn’t really part on the best of terms, but we’ve come apologize and seek forgiveness for our misdeeds…”

“Wait a minute-I thought that one was the leader?” Sunset commented, jerking her thumb in Adagio’s direction.

Adagio looked like a deer caught in the headlights before Aria answered for her.

“Oh, she’s not very good at the whole ‘humility’ thing.”

This earned her a glare from Adagio.

“Yeah, well you’re going to have to excuse us if we’re a little skeptical.” Sunset replied, crossing her arms. “You’ve been preying on the emotions and insecurities of everyone since you first came to this school and during that time you weren’t really known for your honesty.”

“Well, what could we possibly gain from causing such chaos now?” Aria challenged.

“Yeah,” Sonata added. “Our amulets shattered, so we can’t use them to stay young or feed on emotions anymore.”

“…Or sing, apparently.” Rarity muttered dryly.

“So?” Dash pressed, now relaxed enough that Applejack released her. “Everyone gets old, what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that we are over a thousand years old and without magic keeping us young, the years that should have affected our bodies in the past might catch up to us at an accelerated rate and kill us.” Aria explained.

“Okay,” Sunset leaned back in her chair. “I see now; you either want to find a way back to Equestria or see if we know of a way to restore your powers-which is not going to happen after what you pulled.”

“You mean that lever?” Sonata asked. “Because that was Trixie and her band, not us!”

Ignoring her, Aria continued.

“We’re not asking for you to restore our powers-we just don’t want to die, surely you won’t be able to stand by as someone’s life slowly drains away…”

“Watch us.”

Aria slammed her hand on the table as she stood up in outrage.

“You can’t be serious! Are you really saying you’d rather just let us die than even give us a chance at redeeming ourselves!?”

“Maybe she’s still just as much of a monster as she was when she destroyed the school...” Adagio commented, causing Sunset to grit her teeth.

“Yeah, that’s pretty mean.” Sonata added.

“I’m sorry, what was it that you said to me before?” Sunset asked, turning to her. “’Too bad, so sad’? Welcome to the world of being normal and magic-less, kind of sucks-doesn’t it?”

After they had taunted and humiliated her throughout the Musical Showcase, there was a great deal of satisfaction she was finding at the prospect of seeing them suffer so much, even more so when she could be the one to prevent them from returning to power.

“Um, Sunset?” Fluttershy spoke up. “Maybe we should give them a chance…they might actually be telling the truth…” she caught the looks of disbelief the other girls were giving her and timidly back away into the corner.

“Or not….”

The other girls exchanged glances as Sunset thought about this; on the one hand, these girls had caused nothing, but trouble and sabotaged her attempts to redeem herself in the eyes of the student body at every turn. But, on the other hand, as horrible as they had been-in the off-chance that they were actually telling the truth, if they died as a result of her inaction, she may as well have killed them herself and as much contempt as she had for them, the last thing she needed was more guilt.

Even the old Sunset had a few qualms about such actions before she her mind had been completely consumed by dark magic after taking the crown. There was also the guilt that the other girls would have to go through if they decided to ignore the Dazzlings. What would Twilight do in this situation?

“What makes you think we would even know to deal with your issue-or, even have the resources if we did?” Sunset challenged.

“You’re from Equestria,” Aria replied, sitting back down. “You already know far more about magic than anyone else in this world, besides you were able to bring Equestrian magic here before.”

“Yes, but that was due in large part to good timing-the gateway between worlds only opens every two and a half years-so, you’re in for a long wait.” Sunset countered, crossing her arms.

“That friend of yours...Skylight Sprinkle, or whatever her name was didn’t seem to be stopped by it.” Aria noted. “And since you were able to get her to help you before it shouldn’t be too much trouble to do it again, since she obviously found a way to bypass that time restraint.”

'Twilight…what would she do in this situation?'

“Alright, you called my bluff.” Sunset sighed. “If you guys are really serious about changing, then I guess I can give a chance.”

“You can’t be serious!” Dash shouted. “After everything they’ve done, you’re actually going to help them?”

"For realzies?" Sonata added, excitedly.

“Twilight and the rest of you girls gave me a second chance when I asked for it, it would be a little hypocritical of me to not even consider the possibility that they might be telling the truth.”

“And if they’re not?” Applejack pressed.

“We’ve beaten them once before and we can do it again.” Sunset replied, confidently.

“But, we had Twilight here to help us.” Rarity reminded her.

“I still think we can handle them without her, besides we can’t just keep calling her over her every time we run into a problem-she has a life and a job with family and friends of her own in Equestria.”

“So we have a deal then?” Aria asked.

“We do,” Sunset replied. “If you can prove to us that you’re actually trying to reform.”

“Sounds easy enough…” Adagio muttered.

“But, how can we reform without magic?” Sonata asked, tilting her head and earning annoyed looks from Aria and Adagio.

“Reform, as in change your ways-prove to us that you’re not going to abuse your magic like you did before.” Sunset elaborated. “And we also need to know that you can live without turning everyone against each other, even I was able to do that without magic-so we'll be watching you.”

“But, then how are we going to-” she was cut off as Aria cupped her hands over Sonata’s mouth.

“Mmmgh! Mmmph! Mmmgph!”

“You don’t need to worry about us,” Adagio assured them as the Dazzlings stood open and began walking out of the room with Aria keeping her hands cupped over Sonata’s mouth. “We can play nice, you just worry about finding a way to keep us alive and healthy-of course, we’ll need you girls to vouch for us if we’re going to come back to this school.”

“Aw….I wanted to hear what she had to say!” lamented Pinkie.

“I still say this is a bad idea,” Dash insisted, heading back to her seat. “I don’t trust those three and I don’t think anyone else here should either.”

“I think we all agree with you on the first part,” Applejack conceded. “But, as Sunset said; if we didn’t give her another chance, where would we be after the Dazzlings first showed up?”

“We certainly wouldn’t have had the power we needed to stop them.” Rarity agreed before turning to Sunset. “If they are being honest and have changed there ways with kind of power they had before, then they could be of great assistance if another threat shows up from your world-which, unfortunately seeming to become a more common occurrence as of late... ”

“And we could throw a ‘You’re not evil Siren anymore, so now we can all be friends!’ party!” Pinkie added, excitedly.

“Fluttershy?” Sunset prompted. “Do you really think they can be reformed?”

“I…I think there’s a chance if we just show them a little kindness…”

“You mean like Sunset did when she first lead them around the school?” Applejack noted, dryly.

“Look, we’re not instantly going to give them whatever answers we find as soon as we find them-we’re not stupid.” Sunset elaborated. “We need to observe them to make sure they’re putting forth some actual effort as proof that they are trying to change for the better, otherwise it’s just going to be the Musical Showcase all over again.”

She stood up, intending to get a book from her locker.

“Now, I knew a lot about magic, but unfortunately I don’t have the knowledge or resources I would like to properly research Equestrian Sirens-I don’t think it will be too much of an imposition to request some reading material of Twilight and getting her to send it over, so we can figure out a solution to their problem.”

“Uh, what if they find out you have a book that could solve it for them and try to steal it from you?” Dash challenged, draping her arm over the back of her chair.

“That won’t be a problem because I’ll be keeping the book safe in my locker, when it’s not in my sight.” Sunset replied before looking around the room at the other girls. “Now with that said, this is a team effort and while we’re keeping an eye on the Dazzlings, we need to be constructive to their efforts, and judge them for their actions now, instead of tearing them done for what they’ve done in the past.”

'Now, the only issue other major issue is going to be trying to convince Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna of this plan...'