7. Seeing Stars
“Hell no!”
Aria’s voice resounded down the hallway, getting the attention of the few other students around so early in the morning. Adagio glared at Aria, who blushed, taking a deep breath to calm down as Sonata rubbed her shoulder. Across from them stood Rainbow Dash, slightly surprised at the outburst, and Applejack, who was not at all surprised at the outburst and counted her blessings for convincing Rainbow Dash to talk to the Night-Lights early in the morning rather than when the school was more crowded.
“But why not?” Rainbow blurted. “Sunset said you loved sports.”
“Uh, hello!” Aria snapped. “Because soccer’s a team sport, and everyone here hates me? Are we the only ones playing?”
“Well…no,” Rainbow mumbled, causing Aria to cross her arms with a glare. “But it’s not the whole team!” Rainbow rebutted. “Just a few.”
“Look, Aria,” Applejack said, “I know we’re the only ones here willin’ to give ya a chance so far, but completely avoidin’ everyone isn’t doin’ ya any favors, neither. I know it sounds weird, but maybe hangin’ out with Rainbow and her teammates will help show you’re on the up-and-up.” At Aria’s incredulous look, Applejack said, “Look, Rainbow’s the captain, and everyone on the team respects her enough to do what she says. If she tells ‘em to lay off, they’ll listen.”
“Yeah, but what if she doesn’t?”
“What!?” Rainbow snapped.
“How do I know you’re not gonna flip out on us over another misunderstanding like you did after we scared Fluttershy? Or worse, what if one of them cries wolf? How do I know you won’t jump to conclusions and take their side?”
Rainbow huffed. “You’re just gonna have to trust me!”
“But we don’t,” Aria said simply.
Rainbow grunted, looking toward Adagio.
“Don’t look at me,” Adagio said. “Aria’s a big girl. She can make her own decisions, but I can’t say I like the idea of her being surrounded by a bunch of athletes kicking balls at her and ‘accidentally’ knocking her around. Or just outright attacking her.”
“They’re not gonna attack you,” Rainbow said.
“Hello!” Aria snapped again, pointedly grabbing at the end of her now-shoulder-length hair.
Rainbow paused. “I won’t let them,” she finally said.
“What about the students surrounding us on the bleachers,” Sonata piped up. “Can’t say I’m comfortable with that.”
“There won’t be anyone on the bleachers,” Rainbow said. “They don’t even know you’re coming. I just asked them to hang out and practice a bit after school.”
“And before you ask,” Applejack said, “I talked to Sunset, and she’ll be there. She said that, for the record, she trusts Rainbow enough to know Rainbow can break up any problems, but she also knows y’all’re a mite wary of her. She’ll meet ya after school.”
Aria looked down, arguing with herself, before finally, she groaned. “Fine! But you’re paying my medical bills!”
“Yes!” Rainbow cheered. “You won’t regret it!” With that, Rainbow dashed off to her first class, Applejack giving the trio a grateful smile before departing herself.
When Applejack was out of earshot, Adagio turned to Aria. “Interesting decision.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Aria answered. “I don’t want to, but Sunset will be there, and she wants us to play nice with her friends. I owe her at least this much for putting up with us so much.”
“’Putting up with us’?” Sonata repeated. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” Aria said. “I kinda feel like we’re crowding her. Having her walk us home and to school, making her sleep over, not doing anything with her friends without her around.”
“Well, it’s not like we’re clingy for no reason,” Adagio rebutted.
“Oh, yeah, I know that,” Aria responded, “but still. Do you think it bothers her to have to babysit us so much? It’d probably bother me.”
“Maybe,” Adagio began slowly, “but it’s either stick near the only one in this school we truly trust or try to stay afloat alone. And I don’t think that’s an option.”
“Besides, she looks like she likes hanging out with us,” Sonata said.
“I guess,” Aria said uncertainly. “I just don’t want to overstay our welcome. We can’t exactly afford to scare her away.”
“Look, Aria,” Adagio said. “She seems to be taking this siren situation seriously, so I don’t think she’ll just abandon us for wanting to stay safe. And after she gets rid of them, we won’t need to spend all our time with her, especially if we can prove that we’re not the sirens. We just need to hold out until Sunset deals with them.”
“Yeah,” Aria mumbled. “I just wish we could do something about them ourselves.”
“I think this is a job best left to the experts,” Adagio said. “I, for one, would be happy if we never saw them again.”
“Ditto!” Sonata chirped.
“Yeah,” Aria said. “Yeah, same.”
The sisters fell to silence, and with nothing left to say, they awkwardly parted ways to get to class.
Aria slammed her locker closed, taking a deep breath. “It’s just an hour or so,” she tried telling herself. “You’re just meeting up for some soccer. They won’t like it, but they’ll get used to it.” Try as she might, though, she just couldn’t shake her nerves about the whole thing. It was as if—gasp!—surrounding herself with Rainbow Dash and a bunch of adrenaline-high athletes who hated her was a bad idea!
She was brought out of her musings by the sound of her sisters arriving. With them were Rainbow and Sunset, the former looking excited, the latter looking nervous. Rainbow was carrying a small duffel bag under her arm.
“You ready to play, Aria?” Rainbow half-shouted enthusiastically.
Aria sighed. “As I’ll ever be, I guess. You got a change of clothes?”
“Yup!” Rainbow chirped, patting the duffel bag. “Got a spare set of my gym clothes. Don’t worry; they’re clean.”
“Thanks,” Aria said tiredly. “Let’s get this over with.”
Twenty minutes later, the now-changed Rainbow and Aria walked onto the field, the other sisters and Sunset behind them. In the middle of the field stood six other students, just chatting and joking around, by the looks of it. Finally, one of them noticed Rainbow and Aria approaching, and he instantly scowled. He signaled to his friends, and they gave the newcomers their undivided, unhappy attention.
“What are they doing here?” one of the players, a yellow-skinned girl with short, fire-like hair, demanded to Rainbow.
“They’re gonna play some ball with us,” Rainbow said casually. “Well, Aria is. The other two are gonna watch. Aria, meet Soarin’, Spitfire, Flitter, Cloudchaser, Thunderlane, and Fleetfoot.”
“Woah, hold on! We didn’t agree to this!” said one of the guys. Soarin’, Aria guessed. The other players nodded their agreement.
“Oh, come on, guys!” Rainbow said. “She’s not the siren.”
“And how would you know?” challenges the other guy, who must be Thunderlane.
“Uh, I’m magic now. Duh,” Rainbow rebuts. “Don’t you think I’d know if they’re the sirens. Sunset can vouch for them, too, and she’s actually from Equestria.” Sunset nodded at the questioning looks the team gave her.
The team exchanged glances, then walked a few yards away and huddled up. After an anxious minute of waiting, the team broke huddle and approached.
“Okay,” the fire-haired girl, who must be Spitfire, began, “we talked about it. We think they’re full of it.” When Rainbow opened her mouth, the girl interrupted, “Hold on! We think they’re full of it. We think they’re just trying to trick all of us. But we came here to play soccer, and since someone made sure there’d only be seven of us, I guess we don’t really have a choice. But we don’t trust her.”
Rainbow paused for a moment before saying, “I’ll take it! Alright, team, let’s show the newbies that Canterlot Wondercolt spirit!”
Aria mumbled something around the wad of grass in her mouth as she once more lay face-down on the field, the result of the ball colliding with the back of her head.
“Uh, what?” Rainbow asked, standing over her.
Aria lifted her head up and spat out the grass. “I said I can really feel that Canterlot Wondercolt spirit,” she repeated angrily.
Rainbow chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I guess they, uh, really brought their A game.”
Aria sorely climbed to her feet, grumbling, “That’s one way to put it.” She looked back at the other players, who were snickering at her. “I told you this was a bad idea.”
“Ah, come on, Aria,” Rainbow said. “The longer we play, the more they’ll calm down and stop picking on you.”
“They shouldn’t be picking on me in the first place!” Aria snapped. “I didn’t do anything to them! If anything, I should be the one mad at them. And I am!”
“Alright, alright, I get ya,” Rainbow said, waving her arms placatingly. She started walking back to the others. “Come on, guys, this is practice. You can’t trip the opponents, so stop knocking her around. And Fleetfoot, either pass to her or just don’t kick the ball at her! This is soccer, not target practice.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Fleetfoot replied flippantly.
Rainbow sighed in irritation, but she didn’t snap back, and soon, Aria was back in the game. The next thirty minutes or so passed relatively quickly for Aria, and while almost no one passed to her except by accident, the others stopped tripping her as much while under Rainbow’s watchful eye. At least Applejack was right about that. Aria also managed a couple of trick shots that had a few of the others impressed, albeit begrudgingly.
“Alright, team, that’s enough. Let’s call it a day,” Rainbow said after Soarin’ made one last goal past Spitfire. “You did great, guys. Other than a few hang-ups, anyway.”
“Well, it’s not like we wanted to play with her!” Cloudchaser (or Flitter) snapped.
“Don’t do that again, Dash!” Flitter (or Cloudchaser) followed.
“Oh, come on, it didn’t kill you!” Rainbow fired back. “But fine. I’ll warn you next time.”
“We’d rather there not be a next time,” Spitfire replied.
“Fine by me,” Aria spat.
“Stay outta this, siren!” Spitfire snapped.
“I’m not a damn siren!” Aria shouted.
“Practice is over. Get lost,” Thunderlane spat. “And take the other two with you. Making the bleachers smell like fish.”
“Oh, that’s it!” Aria snapped, stomping toward Thunderlane, who accepted the challenge, stomping toward Aria. They got almost within arm’s length of each other before Rainbow and Sunset rushed in, Rainbow holding back her teammate and Sunset pushing back Aria.
“Settle down, you two!” Rainbow commanded.
“Tell them to lay off!” Aria snapped.
“Tell them to shove off!” Thunderlane fired back.
“Guys, they’re not the sirens,” Sunset said calmly.
“Prove it!” Flitter said.
“Yeah, prove it!” Cloudchaser repeated.
“How?” Sunset asked.
“Give us concrete evidence. A photo, a video, something!”
Sunset rolled her eyes, hastily saying, “You’re asking a lot, but I’ll see what I can do. Come on, girls.” With that, she and the Night-Lights stalked away from the field, hearing Rainbow trying to reason with her team in the distance.
“Never doing that again!” Aria snapped once they could no longer hear the students on the field.
“Well, you tried. That’s what matters,” Sunset said, sighing.
“Why are we even trying?” Aria said. “We should just transfer. CHS isn’t the only high school in town.”
“But it is the closest and one of the top-rated,” Adagio responded.
“I’ll walk the extra distance,” Aria said, shrugging.
“Yeah, but, like, what if we run into the sirens there? We won’t have Sunset or her friends around.”
Aria groaned. “Oh, yeah…” The group fell into an uncomfortable silence, until Aria finally says, “We gotta find them.”
There was a surprised pause before Adagio says, “Excuse me?”
“You heard them! We just gotta snap a photo or something. Hell, I’ll even let the other Aria kick me around for a bit if it means getting everyone else off our backs.”
“But what if they just say we edited the photo?” Sonata asked.
Aria thought for a moment. “Well, we could get a video instead. That’s much harder to fake. And if we find the other Aria, that should prove things even more since, as far as I know, she still has ponytails.”
Adagio shook her head. “That’s too dangerous. We don’t know how far their morals go.”
“Well, what else should we do?” Aria snapped.
“I don’t know!” Adagio yelled. “Sunset, have you found anything?”
Sunset shook her head. “Canterlot’s a big city. Like I said, unless I get lucky, I doubt I’ll find them.”
Aria growled. “So, we’re just gonna keep looking over our shoulder for the rest of our lives? No way! I say we find them before they find us.”
“And then what?” Adagio challenged.
“We kick their asses!” Aria snapped. “We drive them out of town!”
“And if we can’t?” Adagio asked.
“I don’t know, try to bargain with them?” Aria said. “Beg them to prove we’re not the sirens and then to leave us alone?”
“Why don’t we start with that?” Sonata asked. “They might be more willing to listen if we don’t just start trying to beat them up.”
“Fine, we’ll start with that,” Aria said. “I just wanna find them and get them and all of CHS off our backs!”
“Where would we start looking?” Sonata asked.
“Same place Sunset did: the bus route,” Aria replied, shrugging.
“I…suppose if we took the bus at around the same time we did when we saw the other Sonata, we’re more likely to run into one,” Adagio murmured.
Sunset listened to the sisters’ conversation, growing increasingly nervous as it went on. “Girls, let’s not do anything rash,” she said.
“I’d rather we do something rash than anyone else. Again,” Aria replied, pointing at her hair. “You’re already doing so much for us. Let us take a swing at this!”
“Girls, please,” Sunset practically begged. “Let me handle it. I’ll redouble my efforts. Promise. Just please keep going with plan A. They could still be dangerous, and I don’t want you three getting hurt.”
The sisters exchanged glances, mainly Adagio and Sonata silently telling Aria to agree with Sunset. Aria threw her hands up. “Fine!” she said. “I’ll give it a few more days.”
Sunset sighed in relief. “Thanks, Aria.”
“Whatever. Let’s just go home.”
The girls tried to change the subject to more pleasant things as they walked, but no matter what they talked about, they couldn’t shake the specter of worry that hung over them, and Sunset spent the time making mental plans on how to find the sirens tomorrow, vowing not to stop searching until the sun set if she had to.
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Happy to see this update although admittedly I feel it's stretching things by the other students being so unwilling to listen to Sunset and the others. Looking forward to the next chapter.
honestly at this point im with aria
like even if they are proven wrong. i dont think aria will be willing to forgive anyone and i really hope she doesnt. hope the school feels guilty over this.
Why can’t Sunset sent them back to Equestria? And don’t say that their creatures that are evil because the human 7 screwed up giving them another chance and it’s The Sirens are Equestria’s responsibility since Starswirl send them there
Switches to present tense here.
Should be "like I said".
9599215
No one said she can't, but she's gotta find them first.
9599227
The first person the sirens went to the first time around was Celestia. Most of the students simply don't trust anyone to tell them that the three girls aren't the hypnotic sirens.
9599273
Fixed! Thanks for pointing those out!
9598985
Glad to hear you're liking it so far! I know it seems a stretch, and it certainly felt like a stretch when I was writing it, but it seemed in character since they were so slow to accept Sunset even with the school's saviors on her side. CHS students are really unforgiving, it seems (except with human Twilight, I guess).
9599406
But if she finds them will Twilight allow them back since she fail to give them a second chance like she did with Sunset
9599443
She never got a chance to give them a second chance. The sirens ran away immediately after the fight before Twilight could say three words to them.
That said, you'll have to read on to see how Sunset deals with them
.
9599447
Ok but Friendship in this show to me personally is kinda weak since they barely show a villains reason for being to hate ponies. Also the that movie showed she didn’t even try to go after them. She said that they’re now normal girls and did a encore and left in the morning
9599474
I don't know why she didn't make an effort to chase them, but I do know she'd have no idea where they ran off to. Canterlot's a big city when you're trying to find three specific girls. After even five minutes, they would be very difficult to find.
The show also does give the villains a reason for their antagonism, but that's a different point altogether and doesn't have much to do with this story.
Some might feel the "Night Lights" are a bit overly frightened by the existence of Siren-Sonata, but I find it believable: in modern pop cultural reference, after all, an exact duplicate is most likely to be a Pod Person or robot or other monster out to kill you and take your place, not your wacky fun dimensional counterpart.
Of course, what follows depends on what the original Sirens are like in this universe. If they're anything like Justice3442's Sirens, the "Night Lights" have good reason to be afraid.
9599409
I suppose that makes sense. In any case, I'm looking forward to reading what happens next.
9599495
You'll just have to wait and see~!
9599815
Glad to hear it!
Boxing match of good sirens VS morally dubious ones when?
camo.fimfiction.net/sXc2lXWugvSV4rIzOvJDrF4cSwQd_1NBS4OXkx1JIYM?url=https%3A%2F%2Fencrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com%2Fimages%3Fq%3Dtbn%253AANd9GcSsR7y-JYiqN_Q402b-qG9jiesMKUF45xqfLfeC9Dq8z9NzaWNL
Do you have any plans to continue this? This is a pretty great story centering around a fairly unique story concept.
Hope to see an update to this one soon!^_^
Aw man, can't believe this masterpiece is abandoned :(