Delinquency

by Daemon McRae

Level Twelve: Choose Your Character

Level Twelve: Choose Your Character

There’s something terrifying about a school at night. The empty, soulless hallways. The bare classrooms which just a few hours ago thrived with life. The bright youthful colors of cork board displays and welcome signs dampened by the lack of any illumination to highlight there gaudy sheen. Normally the school is a cacophony of sound, as thousands of footfalls echo through each crack and crevice, dispelling any sense of isolation, or indeed, privacy. Yet at night those footsteps echo in the emptiness with a sense of almost theatrical dread as a grave reminder of the lack of any other people.

Or, at least, that’s what it’s supposed to be like. The eve of the dance was just as lively as if no one had even bothered to leave the school. They had though, and come back, as evidenced by the formal attire, the suits and dresses, the bouquets of flowers that would normally have never survived an hour in a normal school environment. Bright fluorescent lights illuminated the front of the school, drawing the eye towards the “approved” entryway into the school for the evening, guiding students down an easily monitored path to the gym, where the dance was being held.

Barring a few choice outliers, of course. “Why the hell are we here so early?” Dusty groaned. Without a date, he had spent the night lamenting that his presence leading up to the “big showdown” was almost entirely ornamental. Ornamental was Treble’s shtick. Even the simple black tux he was wearing bothered him, not in the least because of how restricting it was. He was looking forward to ditching it at the first chance he got.

Rubble, neck deep in a large black trunk full of shiny metal objects, lifted an arm to hand Dusty a brick of some brown-and-silver material, wrapped in warning labels. The tag on the back of his neck from his own tux rental stuck out like a tongue. “Because we need to scatter this stuff throughout the school. Kind of hard to store thermite and technically-illegal flashbangs in strategic places when those places are full of students who snuck off to do God knows what to each other.”

“Oh please,” Dusty rolled his eyes. “Like any of these Teletubbies are gonna roll off into the darkity-dark to get their groove on. The most rebellious students in the school are literally right here. Who do you know that would sneak off for a quick shag in the middle of the dance?”

“I know I would,” came a sultry voice from the end of the hall. Dusty turned his head to see Adagio and Treble walking arm-in-arm towards them. Treble’s tux was decidedly more ornate than the other two boys, a dark blue coat and slacks with a white button-down shirt and green tie. Unlike tDusty and Rubble, who had rented theirs, Treble had gone out and bought his own tux over a year ago, for last year’s dance. It was a miracle that it had survived the night, let alone fit him a year later. Although the sleeves were dangerously close to being considered too short.

Adagio had opted for a simple over-the shoulder number in her typical shade of purple, a slit down one side, with long gloves to match. Her hair was, in contrast to it’s usual style, done in gentle waves down her back. Dusty could only imagine how much time, effort, and flammable chemicals they’d wasted taming that beast.

Treble nodded his agreement. “Yeah, me too. I think that’s the plan, actually. Set up weapons caches, make out a bit, dance, maybe tome heavy petting, more dance, shag, dance, then fight. Lots and lots of fight.”

“And here I was thinking we’d shown up for nothing.” The group turned to look behind Treble and Adagio, where the latter’s sisters were standing. Their outfits were almost identical to their sister’s, save for Aria’s choice of black, and Sonata’s light blue. In fact, Sonata had chosen a dress so close to her own skin tone that in certain lights she looked almost risque. They had also both let their hair down, although it most likely took much less taming for the same effect. Aria leaned against a locker, watching Rubble fish through the large crate for… something. “I thought we were just here to look pretty.”

Ruble grunted in satisfaction as he found his target. “AHA. Come to papa!” He stood up proudly, holding a pair of black sheaths no longer than his forearm.

Treble sighed. “Really? The knives? You do know we gotta set these things on fire, right? Like, I think that’s been a major point of conversation the last couple of days.”

Rubble tutted, waving a sheathed knife back and forth disapprovingly. “Poor, misguided Treble. These aren’t for the golems. They’re for the asshat controlling them. I seriously doubt the dude’s not gonna make some kind of personal appearance during the night. Probably with lots of smoke and flashing lights in the middle of the stage while they make some big speech about becoming a god and demanding our worship.”

“What if it’s a girl?” said Spooks, behind Rubble.

The entire group jumped, some of them rather impressively. “God-DAMMIT Spooks what have I told you about sneaking up behind me when I’m armed?!” Rubble barked.

Spooks took a moment to give a pointed look at the ten or so feet between himself and his friends. “Do so from a safe distance?”

Rubble’s eye twitched. “Fine. You got the other side of the school taken care of?”

Aria rolled her eyes. “Noooo, we just left an entire crate of incendiary devices in the middle of the hall where anyone could find it.” Again, the group looked at her. “Wha-THAT WAS ONE TIME. Fine, YES. We did the thing!”

Treble chuckled smugly to himself, then gave his friend a once-over. “Lookin sharp, Bones.”

He was, indeed, well dressed. A black suit akin to most butlers in most horror stories, with a pitch undershirt and a simple red-string tie. He’d even gone out of his way to slick his hair back, which did little more than accentuate his pale, black-spotted complexion. On anyone else, the suit would look spot-on. On Spooky Bones, he might as well have hopped out of a Stephen King novel with the intent on collecting the reader’s eternal soul. “Thanks,” he said in a voice little more than a whisper.

“Right!” Dusty exclaimed, clapping his hands. “Gang’s all here, weapons are stashed, we’re all prettied up for the little boys and girls. What’s next?”

“Oh, you have GOT to be KIDDING ME,” came a very angry voice from a very angry redhead at the other end of the hall.

Treble frowned and pointed at the newly arrived Sunset Shimmer. “THAT.”

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“The SIRENS?! Are you CRAZY?!” Sunset yelled, jabbing a finger in Treble’s face. They had since dispersed from the hallway, Rubble hauling the crate and it’s remaining contents to a hiding spot in the gym. The same room where a certain ex-pony was berating a certain wannabe-rocker.

“And what’s your problem with the Sirens?” Treble asked pointedly.

Sunset opened her mouth to reply, then stopped short. “Ohhh, no. I’m not getting into THAT argument again. But seriously, you couldn’t, like, find anyone else to bring here? We have enough to worry about, thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” Treble added smugly. When Sunset looked ready to go off again, he added, “Look, they’re not here to cause trouble. Mostly. But they’ve been around for god knows how long, and know a thing or two about keeping themselves alive when shit goes south for the winter. The boys and I weren’t about to bring a bunch of girls who were just gonna get in the way or get themselves killed while we did our thing.”

Sunset groaned, and rubbed her temples. “Why… why did you need to bring anyone at ALL?! You could have just like, shown up as security or something! Who said you needed to bring a date?!”

At that point, Treble gave Sunset a very, very pointed look. “Maybe because my last two Fall Formals were, I don’t know, total garbage? I’d like at least one with some fond memories before I graduate, you know.”

Sunset had the courtesy to look sheepish. “I said I was sorry.”

“NO YOU DIDN’T!” Treble barked, throwing his hands in the air. “That’s LITERALLY half my problem with you!”

“I… fine! Look, just go back to Sonata or whatever, try not to light anything important on fire, and just… don’t do anything stupid, ok? Sunset growled.

“See, right there! You can’t even apologize now! Not that I blame you, I wouldn’t believe it if you did. But still, the point stands!” Treble fumed, marching past Sunset with an aggressive shoulder. “And I came here with Adagio, thank you very much.”

Sunset watched him leave, rubbing the spot on her arm where he’d shouldered her out of the way. As he stormed off to join his friends, only relaxing his stride once there was a sizable distance between them, she muttered, “Goddammit.”

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Spooks and Sonata watched the exchange with mixed levels of interest. Sonata turned to her date and pointed a finger at Sunset as Treble marched off towards Adagio. “What’s their deal?”

Spooks sighed wearily. “It’s a really long story. When Sunset first showed up here, Treble was basically over the moon for her. Mind you, he was nowhere near as outgoing and flirtatious as he is now. The first Fall Formal after she popped up, he’d asked her out, and she’d said yes. Then she showed up at the dance arm-in-arm with Flash Sentry, and completely ignored him. He was miserable for a while. I think that’s about the time he met Rubble. Or was it Dusty? I can’t remember. I just know I was late to the party there. But anyway, he’d spent the next several months trying to get over her, while she basically mocked him for being some gullible lovesick puppy.

“Then the next Fall Formal happened. You know most of the story there. Except Treble had actually found a date that was happy to go with him. I don’t remember who, I think she graduated last year. But Sunset just saw it as another opportunity to make him miserable again. To her, he was just another easy target. So she dropped a few hints around the dance, before and during, that he’d gone and slept with, I think it was the girl’s sister or something, I don’t know. But a bunch of girls cornered her in the bathroom at the Formal, and ripped into her about dating some backstabbing cheat. She confronted him, and of course he denied it, because it wasn’t true. But she didn’t believe him. She even put her cigarette out on his collar bone. He’s still got the mark,” Spooks finished sadly.

Sonata raised an eyebrow and whistled, impressed. “Dayum. She would have made a great Siren if we were still, you know, evil. Or whatever. But that’s just harsh.”

Spooks nodded slowly. “Yeah. But he’s… well, he’s not over it, obviously. More like he’s ignoring it. Mostly. Until Shimmer walks in the room. I don’t know why she hasn’t apologized to him directly. It might have something to do with the fact that they fight every time they’re in a room together. Kind of hard to convince the other person you’re sorry when you’re yelling all the time.”

Sonata gave a sagely nod. “I can see that.” She paused for a moment, then looked around the room, her eyes settling on the refreshments table. “Wanna get punch?”

“Sure,” Spooks said with a nod, following her across the room.

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“Jesus, seriously?” Aria asked, leaning back in her chair and staring at Treble, who was now talking adamantly to her eldest sister. “That’s fucked up. That’s like, pre-Rainbow-Rape-Laser-Siren fucked up,” Aria noted.

Rubble took a swig of his drink, which was decidedly a different color than the punch. He made a face, then grunted. “Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, Treble’s one of my best buds, but they’re both basically little toddlers when it comes to each other. They get all huffy and start yelling and never make any progress. Sometimes I think they only talk to each other when they have something to say the other won’t like. If not for the fact I was there for the latter half of that story, I’d think Treble actually enjoyed this.”

“He’d almost have to to put up with it this long. Why doesn’t he just like, ignore her completely?” Aria asked, sitting up in her seat and returning her gaze to her conversation partner. At this point, the dance had picked up somewhat, so they’d had to raise their voices to be heard.

“We all have ways to vent. I punch stuff. Dusty goes skating and drops graffiti. Spooks reads. I’m pretty sure Treble’s outlet is just yelling at Sunset now. Not the healthiest thing. Part of me expects them to break down one day and have angry sex in an empty classroom,” he joked, taking another sip.

When his face tightened again, Aria raised an eyebrow. “You… ok? What even is that stuff?”

“You don’t wanna know. Want some?” Rubble offered, handing her the glass.

She took it. “Hell yeah I do.”

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Adagio patted Treble’s shoulder. “Well, don’t think about her too much, OK? You’re here to have fun. Then fight some horrible monstrosity with your friends. Which I think also counts as fun?”

Treble let out a short, but genuine, laugh. “Naw, that’s Rubble. Mostly I just do my best to get everyone out of the way who isn’t there to do any fighting.” He looked around the room, gauging the crowd. The Rainbooms had spread out a little, still bunched up, but in smaller groups. Rarity and Twilight were talking with a still-bitter-looking Sunset, who looked up, caught his eye, and turned away huffily. The rest of the crowd looked like any typical high school dance. “The question is how we’re going to get all the civies out of here, and how much time we’re gonna have to do it. According to Spooks, showtime’s in like four hours.”

Adagio ran a hand up his thigh. “That should be plenty of time to do all that ‘dancing’ you were talking about earlier,” she said in a husky whisper.

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Sunset looked around the room at her friends and the… other kids involved in tonight’s “big event”. Her eyes settled on Treble and Adagio again, in time to watch her make some rather inappropriate advances. She scoffed and marched off to look for someone to dance with.

Comments

[Jarimor]

ruh-ruoh.

[RainCrasher]

I have to say i agree with Rubble's comment on Trebles and Sunsets dynamic.

[Ytak]

In fact, Sonata had chosen a dress so close to her own skin tone that in certain lights she looked almost risque.

Pulling a Marilyn Monroe, is she?

“You don’t wanna know. Want some?” Rubble offered, handing her the glass.
She took it. “Hell yeah I do.”

HAH! Absolutely fearless. Guess being who knows how many centuries old means little discourages you.

The Sunset-Treble dynamics are interesting. I almost agree with the angry sex part. But I suspect that Sunset is more likely to end up yelling her apology and then go off on how she is angry at her stupid younger self for making those cruel decisions and stuff along that line. But not yet. Or maybe an apology in the heat of battle. The battle is coming up.

[Blaze the draconic mage]

Pls make more this is amazing

[Dlaf rferg]

You made Sunset the tsundere. Niiiceeee.

[Deadmetal]

Hmm, well I can see where Treble and sunset are going a mile away. A little too obvious but if it works, it works. Another awesome chapter all the same.

[Alondro]

At what point do the boys consider that they're dating 1000+ year old fishhorse aliens from another dimension?

And how many of them find that notion surprisingly hot?

[Mr Good Guy]

What, no lanyard straps? How do you expect to fight evil without lanyard straps?