Dazzling Doubles

by icecreammac

2. A Brilliant Start

The alarm clock rang, and Adagio leapt to shut it off.

Truth be told, Adagio had already been up for half an hour already, too excited to sleep that last thirty minutes, and she had forgotten to turn her alarm clock off before jumping in the shower. The sudden alarm certainly gave her a fright, but her racing heart just brought a smile to her face as she walked to her closet to get dressed.

The weekend had gone surprisingly well despite their trepidations after Friday. Celestia and Luna were both very pleasant, and, perhaps to make up for scaring the trio the previous day, the two allowed the girls to tour the school on their own, which took another forty minutes given how large and grand the school is.

The girls spent the rest of the weekend shopping for new clothes to wear, sampling the Canterlot cuisine, and waiting anxiously for Monday.

The smell of bacon reached Adagio’s nose, bringing her back to the present. She quickly put on her underwear and pulled out a short-sleeved, purple, knee-length dress cinched with a pink sash. She pulled on white wool tights to keep her legs warm and donned her favorite purple winter boots.

Deciding to skip the nail polish, she quickly but expertly applied red lipstick and yellow eye-shadow a few shades darker than her skin, then rushed downstairs to the kitchen.

As she expected, Sonata stood at the stove, a pan of bacon and eggs sizzling in front of her, a tacky but cute apron protecting her green sweater and darker-green, knee-length skirt from flying grease. She tapped her booted foot to the rhythm of a song she was humming.

Sitting at the table, playing on her phone while she waited for breakfast, was Aria, wearing a tight, black t-shirt and grey jeans with sneakers, while next to her, their mother Melody Lights stared at her laptop, reading something on the screen intently.

“Morning, sweetie,” Melody said as Adagio rushed into the room. “You’re just in time for breakfast.”

“Good morning, Mother,” Adagio replied, walking over to see what her mother was reading. “The stock market again?”

“But, of course,” Melody sang, smirking proudly. Melody was a tall, beautiful woman with dark-pink skin and raspberry hair. Like her daughters, her hair was extremely long, so she kept it tied back in a loop bun, the rest of the tail flowing down to the small of her back. As usual, not a single hair was out of place. She spent much of her time in the stock market, taking some of the money her husband Soprano Nights earned as a fisherman and putting that money to further work. And judging by Melody’s business attire, she was planning on meeting a promising entrepreneur today. “A new city means new opportunities.”

“And I suppose Father’s already left?”

“Yes, he decided to head to the coast early to try to make a good first impression.” Melody’s brow furrowed. “I hope they don’t haze him too hard.”

Adagio scrunched up her nose as Aria snickered; their father’s clothes smelled like fish for a week after his first day at his old job in Manehatten.

“Order up!” Sonata cheered as she pulled the pan off the flame to keep the food from burning. She quickly pulled out and filled four plates, setting three of them before the rest of her family before finally sitting down with her own food and digging in.

“So, are my little divas excited for their first day at school?” Melody teased.

Adagio and Aria rolled their eyes good-naturedly as Sonata nodded vigorously, her mouth full. “Totally! It’s gonna be great!” Sonata replied after swallowing. “I just hope we don’t get lost; that place is massive!”

The trio had told their parents of their time at Canterlot High on Friday and Saturday and how well things went. They didn’t tell their parents of Celestia’s and Luna’s reception upon first meeting them, hoping that Adagio was right about it simply being a lesson.

“Is it really?” Melody asked. When her daughters all nodded, she continued, “Well, I’ve got time before my meeting. Would you mind if I went with you?” She smirked, already knowing the answer.

“Come on, Mom, you can’t embarrass us on our first day,” Aria said, though she grinned. “Save that for later.”

“If you say so,” Melody sang.

The conversation moved to other things, mainly thoughts and opinions about Canterlot so far and hopes for the near future. Soon, the girls finished breakfast, washed their plates, and, after giving their mother a kiss on the cheek, grabbed their coats and backpacks and left for school.

---

“Well, girls, it’s finally here: our first day at Canterlot High School.”

The three girls stared at the school, still taken aback by its size, though most of their surprise wore off during their tour over the weekend. They decided to stand off to the side this time, trying to calm the butterflies in their stomachs before anyone noticed them.

“I’m so excited!” Sonata cheered, bouncing on her heels. “We’re gonna make so many friends and have so much fun and join so many clubs and—”

“Sonata, it’s still a school,” Aria said. “Don’t go in expecting a carnival.”

“I know, but still,” Sonata said. Suddenly, she pointed toward the statue and said, “Ooh, ooh! Look, girls! I spy with my little eye our first new friend!”

Adagio and Aria followed Sonata’s finger, and sure enough, they spotted a student standing near the statue, a stack of papers in her hands. Her sweater and pants were seafoam green, and she had butter-yellow skin, though her light-pink hair covering half of her face made it hard to make out her skin color. Given how early it was—class wouldn’t start for another forty minutes—the girl was alone.

The trio approached the girl, ready to make a friend. “Good morning!” Adagio called from a distance as she approached, not wanting to startle the girl.

“Good morning,” the girl said softly as she turned around, a smile on her face and a sheet of paper in her outstretched hand. “Would you like to volunteer for—Ahh!” The quiet girl cut herself off with a scream as she jumped backward, falling on her rear and scattering her papers everywhere.

“Oh, gosh! Are you okay?” Adagio asked quickly, bending over to help pick up the papers, pausing as she got a good look at them while her sisters continued to gather them. They were fliers featuring a bunch of cute animals asking for help at a local animal shelter. She looked at the shivering girl in front of her. “Did you make these?”

The girl stared at her with eyes that belonged more on a cornered rabbit than a high school girl. Her lip trembling, she wordlessly nodded.

Adagio looked at her expression curiously, and after Aria and Sonata gave Adagio the stack of fliers, she handed them to the girl, smiling brightly and saying, “They’re adorable!”

The girl suddenly shoved the fliers into Adagio’s chest. “You can keep them!” she shouted as she ran away, sobbing.

There was a moment of surprised silence before Aria asked, “What was that?”

Adagio stared after the girl, still clutching the fliers. “Was it something I said?” she muttered.

“Maybe she was just really eager to give out the fliers?” Sonata suggested.

“Oh, come on,” Aria replied.

“Well, how would you explain it?” Sonata shot back.

“I don’t know!” Aria said. “Maybe she’s…cripplingly shy? But then, why would she be out here handing out fliers? Maybe she never got over the principals’ lesson and is afraid to break any rules.”

“Maybe,” Adagio mumbled. Raising her voice, she continued, “Well, it’s fine; if at first you don’t succeed, right?”

With that, the trio walked into the school to get ready for class.

---

Aria stood outside her first class, waiting for the teacher, a young woman named Miss Cheerilee, to introduce her to the class. Even though Aria was the first to arrive, Cheerilee asked her to stand outside out of sight and return soon after class started. It was inconvenient, but Aria wasn’t about to get on the teacher’s bad side on her first day.

Thankfully, Cheerilee was speaking loudly, allowing Aria to hear her. Oddly, though, Cheerilee seemed very nervous about the whole situation, something that Aria’s been seeing from literally everyone they’ve seen so far, and even though they haven’t seen many people so far, it was still weird.

“What’s the big deal?” she thought. “Are new students so rare that they freak people out?”

Aria tuned back in and noticed that her cue was coming up.

“—give her a warm, friendly, calm welcome.” Cheerilee turned to the door, waving Aria in.

Aria rolled her neck to ease the tension. “Showtime.” She opened the door boldly, striding into the room to a chorus of gasps and whirling to face the class when she reached the middle, a confident smirk on her face.

She was met with the same reaction as always: wide eyes and slack jaws. Looking around, Aria could see other things, too, like worry, fear, and most disturbingly, anger.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Cheerilee mime something frantically to the class, but when Aria looked at her, the teacher acted like she was doing nothing. “So, Aria, why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Cheerilee said.

Trying to ignore the looks—“Don’t let it get to you, Aria.”—Aria put on her smirk again as she said, “Hey, I’m Aria Blaze. I moved here a week ago from Manehatten. Pretty cool city you got here. Definitely better than Manehatten.” Aria ended her sentence with a playful roll of her eyes.

Aria gauged the crowed, hoping that she eased the tension some. Oddly, she noticed many students looking at each other confusedly, some even shooting her incredulous looks, as if they didn’t believe her or something.

“What the hell is going on in this school?”

Trying to act natural, Aria awkwardly walked down the rows until she reached the one empty desk, which only had students on three sides, fortunately. Unfortunately, one of those students was behind her, and Aria had a hard time feeling comfortable about that.

Thankfully, Cheerilee began teaching, and one by one, the students began to concentrate more on the lecture, except for the girl sitting right next to her, a pretty, snow-white girl with blue eyes and purple hair in a fancy style Aria couldn’t hope to name. The girl simply stared in surprise at Aria, and when Aria made eye contact and waved a silent greeting, mouthing, “Yo,” the girl turned to her friend, another girl with pink skin and dark-pink, fluffy hair. The two signed a silent conversation, but Aria couldn’t help but notice the suspicious glances the pair threw at her.

Swallowing nervously, Aria yanked out her notebook and started scribbling notes, suddenly feeling very, very uncomfortable.

---

“This school is really weird,” Aria whispered.

The trio met during first break at their lockers, which were blessedly right next to each other. Everyone around them gave them a wide berth, save for the students whose lockers were right next to the sisters’; those particular students rushed to switch out their things and sped off to their next classroom without making eye contact with the trio.

Despite everyone’s physical distance from them, they still spoke in hushed tones, not wanting to say aloud anything that might insult someone. Their whispering fit in quite well with the whispering of everyone else.

“Tell me about it,” Sonata said. “Not a single soul said hi to me. Even the teacher wasn’t all that happy to talk to me. They just seemed so mad.”

“What about you, Adagio?” Aria asked. “Did you fare any better?”

“I’m afraid not,” Adagio said. “My first class went about the same, save for the fact that my classmates seemed more afraid than angry.”

“What the hell’s going on?” Aria asked.

Adagio thought about it, then sighed. “I-I don’t know,” she finally said. “Maybe—"

“Hey, Dazzlings!”

The trio turned to the direction of the shout and saw a blue girl with rainbow-colored hair storming toward them, the shy girl from earlier on her tail.

“What did you do to Fluttershy?” she demanded, stopping threateningly close to Adagio.

“Rainbow, don’t!” the shy girl said.

“Fluttershy?” Adagio asked, stepping back.

“’Dazzlings’?” Aria repeated incredulously.

Ignoring Aria, Rainbow pointed to the shy girl, presumably named Fluttershy, while glaring at Adagio.

“I didn’t do anything to her,” Adagio said.

“Oh, yeah, right!” Rainbow snapped. “She ran to me crying after you got done scaring her half to death!”

Adagio paused, formulating her words. “I suppose that’s not untrue,” she finally said, “but—”

“I knew it!” Rainbow said, suddenly grabbing Adagio by the collar and yanking her closer, her enraged eyes meeting Adagio’s scared eyes. “You stay away from Fluttershy, or I’ll—”

“Hey, chill out, would you?” Aria snapped, forcing herself in between Rainbow and Adagio, breaking the former’s grip on the latter. Aria looked at Fluttershy and commanded, “Tell your girlfriend to back off!”

“Girlfriend!?” Rainbow yelled, surprised.

“Oh, and while you’re at it, you should find another one,” Sonata said, smirking as she held her arms behind her back innocently. “This one has a bit of a jealous streak.”

“Hey!”

“Come on, Adagio,” Aria said, pulling Adagio away from the fuming Rainbow. “We’re gonna be late for class.”

“Y-Yes, alright,” Adagio mumbled, turning around and walking with her sisters.

“Hey, get back here! I’m not done with you!” Rainbow shouted. Fluttershy said something to Rainbow, though the sisters were too far to hear it, and Rainbow growled, her growl growing even louder as she noticed exactly what Sonata was hiding behind her back: a single, raised finger in her direction. “This isn’t over, Dazzlings!” she yelled, stomping away and leaving the trio alone.

---

The trio sat together at an empty lunch table, surrounded by empty chairs. Thankfully, the other students were too preoccupied with their own lunches to do more than glare at the girls.

“You okay, Adagio?” Aria asked.

“After what, our run-in with that prismatic barbarian or our getting turned away from every table in this whole damn cafeteria?” Adagio asked, aggressively spearing her salad with her fork.

“Well, both, I guess, but especially the first.”

“Oh, I’m just peachy!” Adagio said sarcastically. “Honestly, the first thing I said when I woke up this morning was, ‘Gee, I can’t wait for some brute to punch my lights out for talking to her girl!’”

“Look on the bright side!” Sonata chirped. “You handled it way better than you usually do. I’m surprised you didn’t start…y’know,” she finished, whispering her last word.

“Honestly, I was too scared to flirt,” Adagio said. “Not even the best defense works if you’re taken by surprise, and boy, was I.”

“Yeah, it was like she thought you were a monster or something,” Aria said.

“I’ve been getting that vibe, too,” Sonata said. “You should’ve seen this wannabe cowgirl in second period. She looked at me like she thought I was gonna steal her cattle.”

“And what’s up with the ‘Dazzlings’ thing?”

“Oh, yeah, she did call us that, didn’t she?” Sonata said.

Adagio considered it. “Maybe…she just said ‘Dazzling’? Maybe you misheard the ‘s’.”

“Maybe…” Aria said, though she was visibly doubtful.

Adagio thought a bit more. “Still not a very good nickname, though. Or a very good insult.”

Her sisters snickered at that, and Adagio, a bit of her usual self back, said, “Well, let’s not let one aggressive student get the best of us. Obviously, the students here have an issue with new students. Hopefully, they’re just hazing us, and by this time next week, it’ll be as if we’ve always gone here. We just…” Adagio’s shoulders fell. “We just have to endure it.”

---

Somehow, the trio managed to make it through the second half of the day. It certainly helped that no one was openly hostile toward them throughout their last classes, and finally, the sisters met at their lockers to get ready to go home.

“Well, this sucked,” Aria said, not even bothering to keep her voice down.

“Totally! Who knew the students here would be so mean?” Sonata said, hefting her backpack and for once looking forward to just going home and doing homework.

“Well, it’s over now,” Adagio said, sighing as she closed her locker. “Let’s go home, girls.”

Adagio and her sisters made their way to the school’s exit, but as they approached, they were suddenly cut off by a group of six girls, blocking their path to the doors. Rainbow and Fluttershy were there, as were the white and pink girls Aria saw in first period and the orange-skinned, blonde cowgirl Sonata mentioned. There was another girl, amber with red-and-yellow hair, that Adagio recognized from her last period class. She didn’t give Adagio any problem in particular, but given that she was Rainbow’s friend, she likely meant bad news.

Adagio sighed. “Can I help you?” she asked, getting tired of the antagonism.

“You know why we’re here!” Rainbow barked.

Adagio sighed again. “Alright, alright,” she said. She turned to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, I’m sorry for accidentally startling you this morning, but I do wish you would tell Rainbow that that’s all I did.”

“That’s not what this is about, and you know it!” Rainbow snapped.

“Then why don’t you stop beating around the bush and tell us what this is about!” Aria shot back.

“Like you don’t know!” Rainbow said. “The Musical Showcase? The Battle of the Bands?”

“…What?” Adagio said.

“Don’t play dumb! We haven’t forgotten what you’ve done to this school!” Rainbow yelled.

“But we weren’t here for that stuff,” Sonata said. “We just moved here a week ago.”

“Don’t even try the innocent act!” the cowgirl snapped. “Lie all you want, but we’ll see right through it. Y’all ain’t welcome here!”

Adagio stood her ground, but curiously, she noticed the amber girl in the back visibly wince after the cowgirl finished speaking. None of the others seemed to notice, and Adagio made sure not to show her surprise, putting it in the back of her mind for later. Looking back at Rainbow and the cowgirl, Adagio said, “Well, Principal Celestia certainly seems to think we’re welcome here, and last I checked, she’s the boss.”

“Of course, you went after the principal first!” Rainbow snapped, throwing her hands up. “Why am I even surprised?”

“’Went after’—What the hell are you on about?” Aria demanded.

“We don’t know what you’re after, but you’re not gonna get it!” the pink girl snapped, speaking for the first time.

“Honestly, what are you doing back here?” the white girl asked. “Your gems are gone. There’s nothing for you here.”

“We’re here because we have to go to school, duh. And this one’s closest to our place,” Sonata said. “And it has a good social reputation, somehow.”

“Hold on,” Adagio said. “What gems?”

“Your magic gems, duh!” Rainbow yelled. “The ones you used to absorb everyone’s energy after hypnotizing the whole school!”

The trio simply stood there, stunned. Suddenly, a snort erupted from Sonata as she started giggling, and Aria soon followed.

“Magic gems? Really?” Aria said. “Come on, what do you take us for?” Her snickering continued until she caught a glimpse of Adagio, who was most certainly not laughing.

Sonata stopped giggling as she, too, noticed Adagio’s expression. “Adagio?”

“How dare you?” Adagio growled. “How dare you slander us with these wild accusations! To think that you and your cowardly girlfriend would spread lies and tell everyone that we’re…evil witches! And to think that everyone believes you!”

“You leave Fluttershy—”

“Shut up!” Adagio shouted. Aria and Sonata exchanged worried glances, and even the girls aggressing them began to look uncomfortable. “I don’t know what we’ve done to you to deserve this, but frankly, I don’t care anymore. We’re going home. Get out of our way.”

Adagio immediately began stalking forward, pushing through the stunned group. Aria and Sonata nervously followed behind. Thankfully, Rainbow didn’t shoot any parting shots at them, likely too surprised at Adagio’s sudden outburst, and the trio left the premises unmolested.

---

“You okay, Adagio?” Aria asked again after the trio got away from the school.

“I’m fine!” Adagio snapped, but Aria and Sonata could hear Adagio’s voice cracking. Adagio took a deep breath and repeated more calmly, “I’m fine.”

“Do you, uh…Do you still think we’re just being hazed?” Sonata asked.

Adagio sighed. “I don’t know. I hope so.”

“Oh, come one, Adagio, that’s gotta be it,” Aria said, a smirk on her face. “I mean, really? Magic gems? Hypnotizing the school? Even if the school’s superstitious enough to believe in those things, saying that stuff about three girls who just showed up a week ago is too farfetched to be anything but a prank.”

Adagio allowed herself a small smile. “Well, I suppose it is quite silly.” Her smile fell. “Still, I let them get to me. There will be…consequences for that.”

“It’s no big deal,” Aria assured her. “If they keep teasing us, so what? We’ve been through worse. This time around, we’ll just make some friends to help us get through it.” Aria’s confidence rose as she saw Sonata emphatically nodding along.

Adagio smiled, regaining some of her regal posture. “You’re right, of course,” she said. “We’ll just have to try again tomorrow. First impressions are rarely accurate, after all.” The girls put some more pep in their step as they continued home. “I’m sure it’s all up from here.”

Comments

[KR Chrome]

You know, Rainbow and the others are gonna feel real shitty when they realize they've been harassing the wrong Dazzlings.

[flamecom]

This story is looking good so far. I always love a good story about the dazzlings even though they aren't technically the dazzlings.

[icecreammac]

9133987 Glad you like it so far! I love those three, too!

[Queensarrow]

Hmm, you would think Celestia would have given the Rainbooms, at least if not others, a heads up about this.