• Member Since 5th Jan, 2015
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NaiadSagaIotaOar


do not throw souls

T
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“... and we are absolutely, definitely, no questions asked, not going anywhere near Sunset Shimmer,” Adagio declared, concluding her presentation of The Plan with a flick of her wrist and a bold flourish of the chalk she’d been scrawling on the blackboard with. “Are we clear?”


“... but she’s a bitch, so I thought it’d be funny to screw with her and do exactly not that,” Aria explained to Sunset.


Originally conceptualized for the Uncommon Dazzlings Ships group’s SunAria month.

Preread by forbloodysummer.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 44 )

“We’re gonna do it exactly like that, just less like we’re perky schoolgirls and more like we’re crotch-hunting sledgehammers.”

:yay::yay::yay:

This was great. Really.:twilightsmile: :pinkiehappy:

You can do comedy well, too? Now I feel wholly inadequate.

Ya know, I just wanted something to mindlessly ponder existence with while I had some tea. I ended up learning, like, eight new words. That was entirely unexpected.

9572977
I aim to surprise! Which words were new for you?

9572589
You're too kind :twilightblush:

9572484
Thankies! Glad you enjoyed :twilightsmile:

9572361
That might be one of my favorite lines from the story :pinkiehappy:

9573054
Let's see; tumult, defenestration, simper, ambivalent, stygian, coquettish. There are a couple others but I didn't write them down. I think they just rolled off so smoothly that I figured: I'll remember 'em if I see 'em again, or I didn't think they were awesome enough to put in my Awesome Word Book lol

9573178
Defenestration and ambivalent are probably two of my favorite words in the English language, so I'm glad you've been introduced to them :twilightsmile:

What if Sunset's in a relationship and done it with all 3 at once?

I can’t imagine what the pavement must be like that defenestration would lead to person bits. Unless this is like 20 stories up I suppose.

9573388 Can confirm: pavement made of lasers.

9573517
That sounds impractical, dangerous, and ridiculously awesome.

9573519 Not great for the planet, either, with the amount of energy required to keep it running. But, you know, pavements gotta pave and stuff.

This is the first one-shot in a very long time that has had me dreading the moment I'd reach the end and yet so voraciously consuming it I had to restrain myself from skipping lines in my nigh-desperate desire to see what happens next. I so badly want more, but like the video game Portal, more might be just a pleasant aftershock to the orgasm earthquake that was the genius of the short, sweet, and near perfect entry we have here. 100/10, gold star, you won the Internet.

Wanderer D
Moderator

This was an awesome read, the dynamic between the two was amazing, and I love the fact that despite it being a one-shot, we do get a sense of time passing and their teasing/offending Adagio was going on for a while. Didn't expect the ending, tho which makes it even better

Good job!

9573194
Been done, cant remember name of it... but its been done

9573183
I can absolutely see why! Given your propensity and trudged acclivity toward language and -- from what I see here -- having a freedom-loving spirit, I bet we could have a pretty dope, kindred conversation together. Keep it up, mon ami!

9574261
I'm always down to meet new people, so you're welcome to drop me a line sometime if you want to chat :twilightsmile:

9573627
Thanks, that's very high praise! :twilightblush:

I'd started writing this one back in September 2018, then pretty much sat on it an hour's worth of editing away from publishing until a day or two ago, so with that track record I'd not expect to see any more soon, if ever at all.

9573194
Then, uh, she'd be in a very different story, so, like, anything could happen I guess?

9573702
:yay: Awesome, I'm glad you liked it! The passage of time was something I was a little iffy about, since all the scenes are so short and the transitions so jumpy, so I'm really happy that aspect came through okay :pinkiehappy:

The world really does need more SunAria in it, it's just a good ship, one of the best~

And you pulled it off magnificently as well, excellent work! All of my favorites and kudos to you :heart:

Enjoyed this, it was entertaining. A little choppy for me with the rapid scene cuts but it was fun.

9574594
Yeah! It's not like Sunset Shimmer locked herself with the Dazzlings in the Principal's office then steamy shenanigans occurred.

I've never been a fan of shipping Aria and Sunset—too similar, in my mind—but I also never portrayed Sunset in this way. Perhaps the goody-goody thing makes more sense, but I always saw her as, like, the middle ground between Twilight and Rainbow; street-smart with riff-raff tendencies but with a stronger moral compass and straight As.

This, however, was fantastic. The concept alone deserves props for its simplistic brilliance (seriously, very annoyed that, during all of my musings on Aria and Sunset, I never once came up with an idea like this), and your execution was equally stellar. About halfway through, I began to formulate the complaint that this was a one-shot rather than a series of six or so chapters in which each scene/date/interaction is really expanded upon, and then I realized that I was wrong. The pacing and structuring of these shorter, more snippet-like moments was perfect for this story.

I'm a big fan of character interaction-driven stories like this, where nothing particularly special or exciting happens, and the story is mostly just two characters jaw-jacking and fucking around for a bit. To say you nailed that vibe would be an understatement. As an Aria obsessive, I am very happy to report that this is among my favorite depictions of the character I've seen to date. That dry, sarcastic wit, the spiteful, bitter, "fuck-you-Adagio-munch-my-nuts" attitude, all wrapped up in a fantastically tsundere, emo package... It's exactly up my alley.

If I had to complain about something (and, if you know anything about me, you know that I do), I would say that some actions are described in a kinda wordy, vague sort of way (the example that comes to mind is when Adagio yeets the phonebook at Aria. Very funny, but I feel like it might maybe have been able to be worded a bit better?). In any case, this is a solid story, and I will forever resent you for coming up with and executing this concept so well before me so that I can't do it and reap all of the glory.

Good work, is basically what I'm trying to say.

9574626
The world soooo does need more SunAria in it! Aria in general needs more love, to be honest, and this is probably one of my favorite ships for her these days.

Thanks for reading, super glad you enjoyed :twilightsmile:

9574660
Yep, fair enough, can see the choppiness being annoying. I usually go for much more drawn-out introspective scenes, so I kinda wanted to run shrieking in the opposite direction with this one. I'm glad it was still entertaining, though :twilightsmile:

9574839
The scene flitting isn't bad, just to clarify, it just throws me off personally, lol. It strikes me as like, a series of vignettes. It's really well done considering that each individual scene stands up on its own. On another note; it's so weird that I barely saw any Aria-focused fics before now, like, 'Aria-focus' not Siren fics, and then I post up the first chapter of mine, and within two days I see two more quality fics (yours among them) appear. I love it, I've wanted Aria to have more love for a while now.

9574849
I definitely agree that Aria needs more love--when people get her character right, I think there's a treasure trove of material to be found in examining her relationship with the other two, and the stories that use her well are mesmerizing. Unfortunately, I've always found that writing Adagio comes more easily to me (I appreciate particularly that she can be a bit more flowery and eloquent than I think Aria can get away with, while also having a fair bit of room for sass and that juicy, juicy bitchiness), so if I have to pick one siren to build a story around, it's her almost every time.

As for the timing, there's perhaps more causation at work than you realize! As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I sat on this one for quite a while before getting around to publishing, and two Aria stories, one of them your recent one, were a factor in what made me decide it was finally time to throw this one out there.

9574838
Thank you very much for the nice long comment! Those're always my favorite :pinkiehappy: And I'm of course quite glad you enjoyed reading it :twilightsmile:

Perhaps the goody-goody thing makes more sense, but I always saw her as, like, the middle ground between Twilight and Rainbow; street-smart with riff-raff tendencies but with a stronger moral compass and straight As.

Ooo, hmm, interesting. It's hard for me to say, I think, how I feel about Sunset--I almost exclusively write her in siren-centric stories, and I think she feels much more like a goody-goody character when she's next to, say, Adagio, than when she's with her friends. So my impressions of her might be a bit skewed by that, since I'm a bit out of touch with the recent Equestria Girls canon, but in my head I do tend to see her as something of a goody-goody character. I think part of that is her contrasting with Starlight, who has sort of similar background but seems to have retained her morally grey, 'magic solves everything' mentality more than Sunset's retained her more villainous traits.

But I think the joy of a lot of pony characters is that you can portray different sides of them in various circumstances. So Sunset being less of a goody-goody character makes a lot of sense when she's with, say, Twilight, because that lets her add something new that Twilight wouldn't do so much of. But if you make Sunset, say, the smart one, then obviously Twilight's stepping on her shoes, and if she's the hotheaded rebellious one she's clashing with Rainbow Dash, so splitting the difference might very well be the best option for her in some stories.

That dry, sarcastic wit, the spiteful, bitter, "fuck-you-Adagio-munch-my-nuts" attitude, all wrapped up in a fantastically tsundere, emo package... It's exactly up my alley.

This, to me, is more or less the essence of a good Aria rolled up in a nice compact sentence :raritystarry:

If I had to complain about something (and, if you know anything about me, you know that I do), I would say that some actions are described in a kinda wordy, vague sort of way (the example that comes to mind is when Adagio yeets the phonebook at Aria. Very funny, but I feel like it might maybe have been able to be worded a bit better?).

Sorry, would you mind if I asked you to clarify with that example? The criticism's one I've gotten before, so I can believe it's something I need to work on, it just seems like in that instance, the action isn't described at all, pretty much, and it's just the consequence that's shown?

In any case, this is a solid story, and I will forever resent you for coming up with and executing this concept so well before me so that I can't do it and reap all of the glory.

I know the feeling :twilightsheepish: And thanks for the kind words, but I can't take all the credit--the original story pitch I think came from forbloodysummer, as did probably at least one or two of the date ideas.

9574868
I’m incredibly flattered that my fic was part of what encouraged you to post this; I’d love to hear your thoughts on it if you ever get a chance.

I thoroughly enjoy writing all of the Sirens. Each of them have a very clear voice in my mind. To date my favorite story I’ve ever written is Adagio’s Lament, which is a companion story to my ‘Dead by Sunset’ story. Aria has a piece in that one too, and in the follow up, Sonata for Sisterhood.

You have a really fun voice for Aria, very punky, death-metal, contrarian that’s incredibly entertaining to read. My voice for Aria is a lot more of the Chaotic Neutral Succubus, at least in Rules.

9574919
Yeah, I think I probably explained my gripe in extremely poor words. You'll have to forgive me, I'm operating on like 3 hours of sleep over the last four days.

My (very minor, ultimately inconsequential) issue wasn't so much that you described the action too much or anything like that. It's more like it took me a beat too long to realize what was going on.

Aria stepped outside the door, and paused. One second passed. Two. Three.

She ducked.

Fwish.

Thunk.

I read this chunk like three or four times, trying to understand what occurred. I thought I missed something, or maybe a sentence got lost in editing, but it turns out I just had to wait for the next sentence to see that Aria stepped on a phonebook, and then piece things together that way. This isn't necessarily wrong or a bad thing, but it feels like it could've been phrased just a bit differently for mentally exhausted, potentially dyslexic dumbasses like myself.

I 100% agree with you on the character portrayal notes. It's one of the reasons I think Pinkie is one of the most fascinating characters in the entire series. Pinkie is a chameleon, she can be basically anything if you just angle it. She can be a class clown, or she could do incredibly well in school on account of her photographic memory. She could be bad at sports due to her diet, or she could be really athletic because she can move at the speed of light. She could be super innocent and naive, or she could be a dirty, immature joker. Possibilities are endless, and that applies for pretty much all of them. And, as I said, I tend to see Sunny as the sorta "lawful bad girl", so to speak, so it is refreshing to see her spun in other ways, particularly the way you have.

9574943
Ah, right, okay, that makes more sense now. My intent there was that the chunk you quoted would suggest that something had been thrown, so the only revelation in the next bit would be the clarification that it was a phone book, but I can see how that could be tricky to piece together quickly. I don't know that I'd change that section much, I think I really like the way it is now, but I really appreciate you making me think about it.

Ooo, that is a really interesting take on Pinkie! With her, I almost wonder if she takes that aspect too far: I feel like, of the mane cast, she's the one who suffers the most going from a visual medium to a written one--as opposed to someone, like, say, Rarity, who I think is usually funny because of her dialogue, and that carries over to writing just fine--which forces you to kind of invent your own ways to make Pinkie work as a character, and that makes it a lot harder to know what to do with her.

(I say this as somebody who's essentially never written Pinkie)

I do agree, though, possibilities are endless. I'm more and more of the mind recently that it's much more important that a story be consistent with itself than with canon, when it comes to characterization.

This was fun and pretty cute, but not exactly for me.
Nonetheless, you seem to have made many fans from this short story and I wish you good luck with your future endeavors as well. :twilightsmile:

While I did enjoy the read, I always had Sunset's character to be more of a "cool" badass kind of girl; sadly I didn't get the same vibe here, as when she tried it seemed a little over the top and a little too Pinkie-Pie when she wasn't. That's probably headcanon issues anyway. I still enjoyed the read, thank you!

“Oh, she and Sonata apparently dragged your old boytoy out to a mall with them, dressed him up like a ballerina, and then ran about ninety thousand skimpy outfits by him so he could think about all the action he wasn’t getting.”

Um, how did they get Flash to agree to that? I know he's a milksop, but I like to think he has some sense of dignity.

9576920 Maybe Flash was being written by shortskirtsandexplosions :trollestia:

Although actually that line was written a few months before skirts came out with his new focus. Can't fault Flash, though. I'd agree to that, no questions asked.

9576920
Adagio can be very persuasive when she puts her mind to it. And who’s to say Flash didn’t make a very dignified ballerina?

Yes, Aria clearly has Nihilism down to a science. Gotta help Sunset relearn it so she can be cool again! At least she's back at the leather.

Adagio can't help getting people together, one way or the other. Fortunately Aria's wise to her games so maybe just maybe ot won't end in disaster. Then again, it's ARIA.

9582841
She'd never admit it, but I like to think Adagio's got something of a soft spot for budding relationships--at heart, she's something of a romantic, and likely developed her matchmaking skills to the point they're rather instinctual.

… granted, that's usually because breakups make for a tasty snack.

That is sooooo Aria. I like this kind of Sunset, still a bad girl on the inside. A little trolling goes a long way too. :rainbowlaugh: We need more Aria X Sunset troll fics.

… This is a picture of Star Swirl.

Aria and Sunset shared another glance—the former shrugged.

If he’s too small, I’ll find you another one, but he’s the biggest dick I have on hand.

:rainbowlaugh:

“... and we are absolutely, definitely, no questions asked, not going anywhere near Sunset Shimmer,” Adagio declared, concluding her presentation of The Plan with a flick of her wrist

This made me think of The "Hitler Rants" video's

This Aria is such an edge-boy. Conforming to nonconformity is still conformity. The true rebels do what they want to do. I like my metal with unicorns and laserguns, so that’s how I take it.

Next story, break the news that Aria and Sunset are dating like badasses to Sunsets friends. Enter mixed reactions ranging from joy that Sunset is in a relationship to disbelief that she is dating Aria to outrage that she's acting a bit like she used to. :trixieshiftright:

10588265
Implying there would be anything but jealousy over Sunset dating a siren 🤔

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