• Published 14th Oct 2014
  • 2,306 Views, 48 Comments

This Night Aria - Ianpiersonjdavis



The Dazzlings now with no magic and no singing ability, lament their most recent failure while Aria berates Adagio before revealing her plan for revenge and finally returning home.

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The Face of Evil

Luckily, Twilight apparently didn’t feel it was necessary to contact Sunset again, since the book had been idle for the remainder of the class. Picking it up, Sunset realized that it would probably be safer to keep it in her locker as long as the Dazzlings were following her around, she’d have to check to see what Twilight had written and respond when she had some time alone. Now that her cellphone was gone, there wasn’t really much else that the book could be mistaken for if it went off again.


Exiting the classroom, the Dazzlings followed closely behind her once more. Under any other circumstance, this might have been a problem, but since she needed to return to her locker to get another textbook anyway it probably wouldn’t raise much suspicion from them. Plus, she still needed that note from Celestia for those teacher who were still suspicious of her.


“So, what’s next, teach?” Aria asked.


“She’s not a teacher, silly!” Sonata replied, causing her to roll her eyes in exasperation.


“She means, what’s the next class?” Adagio explained.


“Algebra, which is why I need to go back to my locker to get another textbook.” Sunset replied.


The Dazzlings followed Sunset to her locker and as she turned the dial to each number of the combination the trio stood around her, watching silently.


Sunset then pulled the door open to reveal a piece of lined paper taped up on the inside of the door. On it was the design of a blue shield with a speaker in the center and a lightning bolt on either side, with several multicolored wires beneath it and four different colored stage lights above it. The image appeared to have been created with colored pencil.


“What’s that?” Sonata asked, pointing to the paper.


“It looks like that one lame band that lost near the end of the Musical Showcase.” Aria commented.


“Still better than your singing.” Sunset muttered under her breath. “Actually, it was the design I was helping Flash come up with for his band back when we were going out.”


“Oh, and that was before he dumped you for that other girl, right?” Adagio asked.


Before Twilight showed up, actually.” Sunset growled, bitterly. “And that was mostly because of my attitude at the time-originally, I only dated him because he was the most popular guy in school and I knew I could use that to my advantage.”


“Only to get dumped by him, instead.” Adagio chuckled. “Still, you have to admit, it’s kind of ironic to be tossed aside like that after treating so many others the same way.”


“Yeah…”Sunset sighed.


“And yet, the other girl seemed to be almost exactly like you in every way, except personality-what do they say about karma, again?”


“I don’t know you tell me.” Sunset replied coolly, causing a brief flash of rage to appear across Adagio’s face before Aria place a hand on her shoulder and cut in between the two.


“You’re going to have to excuse her, we didn’t have breakfast this morning.”


“Oh, is that all?” Sunset replied skeptically before placing both books in her locker and taking out the algebra textbook.


“Why are you putting the other book away?” Aria asked.


“Huh?”


“I thought you said earlier that you liked to take it with you for notes and stuff?”


“Well, yeah-but, I think I’ve got the rest of my classes pretty much covered.” Sunset replied, which was technically half true.


“Yeah, but in class you didn’t write in it at all.” Sonata pointed out.


“For once, she’s right.” Aria agreed.


“Well, I already knew about what we were going over today and have it more or less memorized, so I didn’t feel the need to write any of it down.


“Oh, yeah?” Aria challenged, crossing her arms. “Prove it.”


“Gravity Force also known as Weight is the force with which the Earth, Moon, or other massively large object attracts another object towards itself. By definition, it is the weight of the object. All objects upon the Earth experience a force of gravity that is directed by what we perceive as “downward” towards the center of the Earth.” She recited, annoyed. “Now are you satisfied, or shall I recite the equation for it as well?”


The Dazzlings all stood around her, mouths agape at the detail in which she was able to memorize the lecture.


“Lucky guess.” Aria grunted.


“How do you remember all of that?” Sonata asked, impressed.


Please, I passed my first course of Advanced Magical Theory when I was seven and that was after I had to beg Celestia to let me take it because she was worried it would be too overwhelming for someone so young.” Sunset replied. “Speaking of, I need to stop by Principal Celestia’s office again to get a slip verifying our situation to the other teachers.”


---


“Why don’t you three wait out here?” Sunset suggested before entering Celestia’s office.


To her surprise, the Dazzlings complied without protest.


Celestia was filling out some paperwork on her desk before she looked up disdainfully at Sunset.


“Hey, I know that earlier emotions were running pretty high and I think that’s probably why we both forgot about some kind of slip telling the teachers of my classes what’s going on with the Dazzlings.” Sunset began, awkwardly massaging the back of her neck.


“I didn’t forget.” Celestia replied, coldly.


“Well, I kind of need it for the Dazzlings’ reformation.” Sunset continued. “Some of the faculty members still don’t trust me enough to take my words on things most of the time.”


“And this surprises you?”


“Not really,” Sunset sighed, looking down at the maroon carpet. “And I know that I was pretty terrible in the past…but, I’ve been trying to make up for it ever since the night of the Fall Formal.”


Celestia merely looked at her skeptically.


“And you are doing quite poorly, I might add. Sure, you may be doing small good deeds, but rescuing animals from trees and helping old ladies across the street isn’t enough to make up for attempted murder.” Celestia retorted. “Just how many lives have you actually tried to save to make up for the damage you not only caused, but the lives you nearly took?”


“Well, I think saving you, Luna, and the entire school from being brainwashed and possibly killed by the Dazzlings at the Musical Showcase may have been a good start!” Sunset replied, angrily. “Again, I came to you and Luna to ask for help, telling we thought they were using dark magic, but you didn’t believe me or my friends because you were brainwashed and thought we just wanted them kicked out of the contest for our own glory! And what did you do leading up to the Fall Formal?”


“I could only do what you made me, you brainwashed Luna and I along with the student body, if footage from students’ cellular phones are to be believed.” Celestia replied.


“I’m talking about before that, I’d been causing problems for the other students here for years.” She elaborated. “What did you do when Twilight Sparkle first came to this school? Did you try to help her in any way?”


“I let her know that my door was always open.”


“Uh-huh, which is code for ‘get out, I’m busy’.” Sunset sighed. “After all of the hate and passive-aggressiveness I’ve gone through and the public humiliation I’ve suffered since the Fall Formal, if I had any malicious intent towards you or the other students here-don’t you think I would have carried out any plans I did have by now?”


Celestia sat at her desk silently.


“Besides, I have friends now-real friends, not some sham relationships for good publicity, like I had with Flash. When I saw our friendships being torn apart by infighting thanks to the Dazzlings-it actually hurt me and I hated it. I saw what it was like firsthand to go through what I had been doing to others for years and I hated no being able to do anything about it.” Sunset recalled, tears of frustration welling up in her eyes. “So, I want to know why you hate me so much-others have hated me-and some still do, but nowhere near the extent that you seem to. So why?”


Celestia tilted to the side of her chair to make sure the blind on the inside window of her office door was pulled down behind Sunset before turning around and closing the blinds to the windows outside. Once she was certain that nobody could see into the office, she sat back down in her chair. Sunset looked at her uneasily.


“What I am about to tell you does not leave this office, do you understand?”


Sunset nodded, shakily.


“While it is true that your transformation and subsequent rampage at the Fall Formal has made me distrustful of you, there is another reason why I’ve been so hard on you….are you aware that Vice Principal Luna is my younger sister?” Celestia began.


“Yeah, she was in Equestria-in my world, I mean.”


“Well, when we were younger our parents would go on business trips a lot, leaving the two of us alone. I practically raised Luna and I was always kind to her-perhaps a little too kind. Whenever she did something wrong, I would politely ask her not to do it and never punish her-no matter how serious whatever she had done wrong was. Eventually, I was more focused on my education and getting ready for my career as an educator when Luna became restless, now that we were no longer as close as we used to be.”


“So what happened?” Sunset asked, shakily.


“At first I naturally assumed that she was merely misbehaving to get attention. However, her actions soon became much more malevolent. Luna had joined a gang, at first she was loud, obnoxious, and self-centered, but then she began stealing, hurting people-even other members of her gang. This went on until finally, they were terrified of her and soon she ended up in a jail cell, using her phone call to ask me to bail her out.”


“Did you?” Sunset asked, beginning to draw parallels to a certain Equestrian legend.


“Of course, we were family and just because I couldn’t focus as much time on her as we would have liked, didn’t mean that I stopped caring for her. On the phone, she was certain that one or all of the remaining members of the gang had set her up. With how out of control her behavior was, they very well might have...”


Celestia looked at Sunset sternly.


“There aren’t many things in this world that scare me, Sunset…but, that Luna-the one in the gang was not my sister. It’s hard to explain, but it was like she was another entity-something that took all of the negative attributes of her personality and amplified them. Sometimes she even looked monstrous…I know how crazy this would sound to most people, but Luna and I agree that whatever that thing was-it definitely wasn’t her.”


“So, she had what? Slits for pupils? Fangs?” Sunset prompted.


“I can’t tell if you’re mocking me, but yes.” Celestia replied. “But, she would only appear to be that way temporarily, it made me feel like I was losing my mind whenever I saw her like that for just a few seconds…that’s why I was terrified of going to see her, even if she was behind bars.”


“Was she like that….when you went to see her?”


“No, thankfully. In fact, it was the first time in years that I saw her as my baby sister again….perhaps being stuck in that cell made her realize that gravity of the situation. Or perhaps, it was because I was the only one in her life that was still there for her after everything else.”


“And you bailed her out?”


“I did, on the conditions that she got clean, went back to school and worked towards a positive career goal.”


“So she decided to become a Vice Principle?” Sunset pressed.


“Not at first, originally all she knew was that she wanted a career in education-which, lead to her following in my footsteps. Once she got clean and applied herself, she made excellent progress. It really helped securing her position here.”


“So, nepotism wasn’t a factor? I mean, with her history, wouldn’t that have created some skepticism about her qualifications?”


“It did, indeed. And I had to vouch for her in order to get the job.”


“So…no offense, but what does this have to do with me?” Sunset asked.


“At the Fall Formal, the way you were acting and that creature you turned into was so much like that thing that seemed to have controlled Luna…I was worried that something similar would happen or that it would come back if I wasn’t harsh enough when it came to punishing you. Luna had told me that she thought I didn’t teach her about consequences because I didn’t care, but the opposite was true. And now it seems that I have made a mistake about going in the opposite direction with you-even after learning your lesson.” Celestia conceded.


“I’m not asking for your forgiveness, but I would like you to understand that before the Fall Formal, magic was nothing more than a concept her. It was nothing more than fantasy or sleights of hand during one of our students’ stage shows. I was worried about how to deal with something I still know very little about.”


“I do understand, you were worried that any inaction would lead to a similar situation.” Sunset replied, sympathetically as she took a step forward. “And I’m sorry for yelling earlier, but it’s very frustrating when you try your hardest to change and some of the people who matter the most aren’t even willing to give you the benefit of a doubt for your efforts. As for what happened to Luna, I can’t say for certain, but in our world there was something similar; she changed due to jealousy and her alter ego referred was referred to as ‘Nightmare Moon’.”


“Fitting name.” Celestia commented. “It feels good to be able to talk about this with someone besides Luna, and I would like to apologize for my poor treatment of you in the past. But, do you really think it’s wise to trust the Dazzlings? You seemed hesitant earlier.”


“I…don’t really think so, but it would be pretty hypocritical of me not to on the off-chance that they are telling the truth. Besides, they say that they’re dying without being able to feed on conflict and I’ve asked Twilight to look up whether that’s true and if there’s a way for them to feed without returning their powers or letting them hurt anyone.”


“I see…and how are you able to contact Twilight?”


“Through a magical book that you gave me….well, the other you in Equestria, back when I was her student.” Sunset explained. “You just write in it and the message will appear in the other book that it’s magically connected to.”


“Interesting, but I’m afraid I’ve kept you too long.” Celestia replied, looking up at the clock and realizing that Sunset’s class was half over by now. “Sorry, I keep forgetting it’s difficult to hear the bell in here, I’ll write you that note you asked for.”


“And the Dazzlings?” Sunset pressed.


“I will speak with Luna and inform her that I have changed my mind about punishing you along with them, but I don’t want you to take this as a free pass for causing mayhem.” She warned.


“Don’t worry, I won’t.” Sunset promised, taking the blue slip of paper and exiting back out into the hall.


“Took you long enough.” Aria grunted. “You know the bell already rung, like twenty minutes ago?”


“Sorry,” Sunset apologized. “I really didn’t expect it take that long. I’ve got the slip, so there shouldn’t be any more issues with the teachers.”


While it felt nice to finally be on the same page with Principal Celestia, the mysterious circumstances surrounding the events she described were disturbing. Perhaps, Celestia had been holding something back from her story, but as far as she knew-this world didn't have any magic aside from creatures and artifacts from Equestria. Was it possible that Vice Principal Luna somehow came in contact with a magical artifact and that triggered her transformation into this world's equivalent of Nightmare Moon? The potential ramifications didn't sound as dire as eternal night and the transformation sounded pretty short-lived, meaning whatever triggered it couldn't have been too powerful...


Maybe there was a way to keep the Dazzlings alive and healthy, without their need to feed on others, after all.

Comments ( 6 )

Celestia doesn´t seem really surprised learning about her and Luna´s Princesses counterpart. :applejackunsure:

I really hope you are planning on continuing this.

It's a good story. Please tell me you didn't gave up on it!

6126276

I hit a bit of writer's block and there is another story that I've been working on for a while, so I'm trying to wrap that one up before continuing this one.

6133968 Take all the time you need. It's not worth rushing quality. Still, I'm really hyped up for the continuation.

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