Equestria Girls: Life Goes On

by Blackbird2

The Beginning of An Unusual Friendship

Equestria Girls: Life Goes On

Chapter 2: The Beginning of An Unusual Friendship

Aria stood anxiously outside the apartment door. She stared at the “138" number on it as her mind continued to go back and forth on whether she actually wanted to go through with this or not. After a series of texts they decided to meet up at Blackbird’s apartment just so she wouldn’t have to deal with her sisters while trying to work. But now she wondered if going to the apartment of a guy she barely knew alone was the best idea. Not that she didn’t think she couldn’t kick his ass if need be but she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of that stuff. That was the thought that almost made her turn around and leave but instead she merely gave a small shrug and exasperated sigh.

Well I’m already here might as well just do this, she thought.

She brought her hand up to the door and right before she could knock on it, it practically flew open to review the blue girl she had seen with Blackbird the other day. They both stared at each other in surprise for a moment before the other smiled a bit.

“Oh if you’re looking for Blackbird he’s inside,” she informed Aria as she slipped past her.

The confused former siren watched as the girl slung a backpack over her shoulder as she ran down the hallway to the elevator. Before she could even process that encounter another voice spoke to her.

“Oh hey you actually showed up” Blackbird remarked, now standing in the open doorway. “Not gonna lie, part of me thought you’d just bail on the whole thing.”

Instead of giving a snarky reply back, Aria had to voice the one thought that was currently going through her mind.

“Who was that?” she asked, pointing her thumb in the direction the other girl had gone.

“Oh that was my girlfriend Moonie,” he explained as he stood aside and held the door open for her to come in.

“So, what, you two decide to have a quickie together before I showed up?” Aria snorted as she stepped into the apartment.

“No we live together,” Blackbird explain.

“Wait, seriously?” she exclaimed in disbelief.

She wasn’t sure why that answer caught her off guard. Maybe it’s because the apartment the two supposedly shared seemed somehow even smaller than the ones she shared with her sisters. There was a small kitchenette area off to her left, a living room area that seemed more long than wide that had two doors on either side of it and a bathroom off to the right. It had enough amenities that it could work but would definitely seem crowded. Especially for a couple living together.

Course maybe the other reason the revelation caught her off guard is because neither of them looked much older than the students she had seen at CHS, and that sort of thing was unusual for the human world from what she had gathered while living in it.

Or maybe it was the fact she was surprised this dork had a girlfriend at all.

“Let me guess, you’re amazed something like me even has a girlfriend, right” Blackbird joked, taking her a bit off guard.

Aria blinked at how correctly he guessed that but quickly recovered and placed her hands on her hips.

“Well you do give off a very nerdy vibe,” she quipped. “Course then again so did she, so maybe it’s not so weird.”

“We definitely are a couple of nerds,” he said with a wistful smile as he crossed over to the couch. “And if you’re wondering how we’re living together, the college made a mistake in our favor and put us here when they were trying to find a place for the overflow of freshmen.”

“I wasn’t that worried about it, but I guess that’s good to know,” Aria remarked with a shrug as she walked over to the couch as well. “So what did you want to review together?”

In response he held up a DVD box whose cover featured a ventriloquist dummy holding up a bloody knife with a girl’s face reflected in the blade. Apparently this no doubt cinematic masterpiece was called “Triloquist”.

“What is this?” Aria growled as she took the box and studied it.

When she flipped it over and read the summary on the back one of her eyebrows arched up.

“Wow this sounds...really dumb,” she remarked and handed him back the case.

“Oh you have no idea” Blackbird replied. “Obviously I’ve already seen it so I’m gonna take a few extra notes and if you want to take some down while watching it we could hammer out a script after that.”

“Sounds good,” Aria nodded and pulled out her phone from her pocket. “Alright, let’s see this thing.”

“Prepare yourself,” he warned.

He then started the movie and put his laptop on his lap to finish up the notes he had made earlier. As the movie played he alternated between watching it, typing up his notes and occasionally looking over at Aria to see her reactions. He had to stifle a laugh more than once at some of the facial expressions she pulled. While she did make a few notes in her phone it seemed she mostly watched the movie in a state of utter bewilderment. A state that was only broken wasn’t the movie ended.

“Okay, what the hell was THAT?!” she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in confusion. “I mean was the dummy alive or not?! What was that stupid dance the kid did around the cops?! Did the sister really have sex with her brother or was it the dummy’s? And how does THAT work?!”

“Pretty bad, huh?” Blackbird smirked.

Aria whipped her head around, which caused him to have to duck to avoid one of her wildly flying pigtails, and glared daggers at him.

“I should punch you for making me watch something this stupid!” she threatened.

“What? I thought you could handle watching stupid movies,” he taunted, his smirk growing wider.

“I can! But this was...was...I dunno WHAT that was, but I am so ready to rip it to shreds!”

“Well then, let’s compare notes then, shall we?”

The pair not only compared notes but started enthusiastically started writing the script. They bounced ideas off each other, came up with jokes that made each other laugh and bared through having to watch scenes again for reference. Time seemed to fly by as they worked and it was only halted when Blackbird looked down at the clock on his computer.

“Shoot! I gotta get to class soon!” he stated in a slightly panicked tone. “Good thing we got the script finished though. Think you can come over this weekend so we can polish it up a bit and start filming?”

“Yeah I think I can do that,” Aria shrugged.

“Sweet!” he exclaimed then held his hand out to her. “And thanks for agreeing to do this, it’s been really fun.”

“Eh it’s not been terrible,” Aria retorted as she took his hand and shook it. “Except for the movie, that was the worst!”
“Yeah but doesn’t that kind of make it the best in our line of work?” he shot back.

“Whatever,” she scoffed with a roll of her eyes then stood. “Anyway I need to get going myself. Gotta work tonight. Ugh.”

“Well good luck with that,” he remarked as he stood up and walked her to the door. “And I’ll talk to you later.”

“Yeah. Later,” she waved as she walked stepped out into the hallway.

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

The week passed surprisingly quickly and before she knew it, Aria found herself back in Blackbird’s apartment to work on the script. The writing when unexpectedly smoothly and soon enough they had it finished. After a few quick rewrites and added notes, they went ahead and started filming.

“Okay so we’ll film my stuff on the couch first and then come back and film your bits for the intro and I’ll put that together in editing. Sound good?” Blackbird asked her.

“Yeah that’ll work,” Aria agreed with the usual enthusiasm she for these things.

Blackbird paused and stared at her for a second to try to see if she was being serious or sarcastic. Quickly enough, he just shook his head then went over to check the front door.

“Okay so this shouldn’t lock now so you should be able to open it from the outside,” he explained.

“You sure you won’t get in trouble for me putting a hole in the wall from kicking that thing in?” Aria asked with a slight smirk.

Again he wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.

“Please don’t actually kick my door in,” he pleaded.

“We’ll see,” she teased as she walked into the hallway.

Blackbird stared at the door for a second before he went over to sit on his usual spot on the couch. He made sure the camera was in the proper position before hitting the record button.

“And recording!” he called out. He then took a breath and started saying what they had typed up. “Well today’s movie has been a long time coming! For those of you who have been around for a while you’ll know I hinted at this movie all the way back in the preview for this show! Well no more putting it off! It’s now time to get to-”

He legitimately jumped at that sound of the door banging against the wall from how hard Aria had kicked it. He recovered quickly enough to continue the bit and looked towards it in surprise.

“Aria Blaze of Blazing Reviews?! What are you doing here?!” he exclaimed in an over exaggerated way.

Off camera, however, Aria let out an annoyed sigh and placed one hand on her hip.

“Really? That’s how you’re going to say it?” she scoffed.

Blackbird bit his lip to keep from laughing and ruining the take. The line was a bit different from how they had written it and like with the door caught him a bit off guard.

“Well how else is my audience supposed to know who you are?” he asked, motioning towards the camera.

“Trust me, more people know who I am than who you are,” she smirked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Awww,” he whimpered dejectedly and lowered his head. “That’s hurtful.”

“It’s true.”

There was a pause before Blackbird reached up to turn off the camera again.

“Okay that was good,” he said, adding a quick laugh. “I almost broke at the way you changed up that one line. That’s a good tweak!”

Aria shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a natural at cutting people down.”

“Long as you don’t do it too seriously,” Blackbird remarked as he set the camera up on a nearby tripod and set it so it faced the door. “Ready to do your bit again?”

She smiled. “Oh yeah, I think I can do that again.”

“Again...please don’t actually kick my door down.”

She gave another vague response as she stepped out into the hallway and prepared to do it again. Once they had reenacted the intro, she joined him on the couch and they began the review in full. They played off each other surprisingly well and even ad-libbed a few lines here and there. That was mostly due to Aria’s natural snarky attitude but it worked well for the overall flow of the video. Even if it did result in a few retakes as Blackbird couldn’t help but laugh at them. Before they knew it they had reached that end of the script.

“And so that was Triloquist! I hope you’re all happy I finally got to it!” Blackbird snarked towards the camera.

“I’m not! That was horrible! Even by my show’s standards!” Aria snorted as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Blackbird give her an incredulous look. “Then why did you break in here?!”

She shrugged. “Seemed like the thing to do at the time.”

He stared at her for a moment with a perplexed look and seemed like he was going to say something but shook his head instead.

“Well now that you’ve had to suffer through that movie, what are you gonna do next on your show?” he asked.

“I dunno, probably something with guys in monster suits breaking model buildings or something,” she muttered with a dismissive wave.

“Monster suits you say?” he asked then placed a hand on his chin thoughtfully.

He held that pose for a moment while Aria looked at him in confusion. She was about to say something when he finally broke it as he reached over to shut off the camera.

“And done!” he happily proclaimed. “That was actually really fun!”

“Yeah I guess it wasn’t too bad,” she said with her usual cool demeanor.

“Hey I saw you smile every so often!” he teased her.

“Whatever dude,” Aria snorted with a roll of her eyes.

“You know we should follow up on that ending,” Blackbird suggested.

“Huh?”

“Do another collab. This time at your place that you can post on your channel.”

She seemed to stiffen up at that thought.

“How about we just focus on this one for the moment?” she commented.

“Yeah good point,” he nodded then picked up the camera. “Well I’m gonna go pull the footage from the camera and then edit it throughout the week. Hopefully I’ll get it posted next weekend. I’ll let you know.”

“Alright. Soooo...that’s it then?” she asked.

“For now. It’s getting late and I’m a bit tired,” he confessed. “But...if you want to keep in contact and talk outside of the collab...I’d be totally cool with that.”

Aria stared at him in almost disbelief.

“Like...be friends?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yeah. Why not? I mean, yeah, I know I come off as a total fanboy but it wouldbe cool to be your friend. You seem like a cool person and if nothing else we could have a blast making fun of crappy movies together.”

Aria just continued to stare at him like he had grown another head. A week ago she had no idea who this guy was and now here he was asking to be her friend. Part of her, the old part, wanted to slap his across the face and scream at him about how stupid he was for even asking her that. The other part, the part of her that was actually trying to build a life in this world, actually liked that idea. Surprisingly so in fact.

“Yeah. Sure,” she said softly with a small smile. “I think I can stand being you around enough to try being your friend.”

“Gee thanks,” Blackbird muttered flatly.

“Hey you want to be my friend, that’s what you gotta deal with!” she retorted and gave him a rather hard pat on the back. “But for now, I’m gonna head out and get some food while you edit that video together.”

“Yeah I think I’m gonna get some too while I transfer the footage,” he remarked as his stomach growled for food. “You want to go get something together?”

“Yeah don’t push your luck there buddy,” Aria warned as she stood up and headed for the door.

Blackbird tilted his head in confusion before what he said dawned on him.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” he clarified. “I mean, you know, as friends!”

“Suuuure you didn’t,” Aria teased as she walked towards the front door. “You’ve been looking me up and down since you met me dude!”

A deep red blush came to his grey cheeks.

“I didn’t...I mean...I..uh...I...” he stammered.

“I can feel you looking at my ass!” she continued to tease as she walked into the hallway.

Blackbird continued to stammer as the door slowly creaked closed and when it finally shut he let out a long, low sigh and slumped against the couch.
“Good going guy. Just...top notch there!” he chided himself.

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

Despite the awkward farewell, they actually did stay in contact during the week. At first it was mostly just discussing things about the video and Blackbird showing Aria the progress for it but eventually did start talking about other things. Much to her surprise, Aria found she actually enjoyed talking to him, but again that might because it was nice to talk to someone outside of her sisters and managers.

Soon enough he sent her the link to the completed video and again she was surprised at how well it came out. She had to admit he was pretty good at editing, even if it was really basic, and the way he used the clips actually made her laugh even though she knew the jokes were coming. She made sure to send the link out on her social media accounts then went back to her everyday life.

It was about a week later when she was in the middle of being bored of that everyday life thanks to one of the slow times at work that she got another text. She looked around to see if Glinda or Cupcake were around before she pulled out her phone and carefully looked at it under the counter.

-Hey, the video’s actually doing really well!- Blackbird texted.

He sent a screengrab of the viewcount showing that video had already reached 300 views.

-That’s probably not a lot for you but it’s HUGE for me- he added.

-Yeah that’s a little low for me but I guess it’s cool it’s helping you.- she replied.

-So what do you say? Want to do it again?-

She paused as she thought it over. If he really did want to do the next collab at her apartment they’d have to work around Adagio and Sonata. Which wouldn’t be impossible, just difficult. Difficult enough she almost suggested recording at his place again but she would like to do the next one on her home turf. With a slightly defeated sigh she put her thumbs to her phone again.

-Yeah. Sure. Just let me move some things around so we won’t have to deal with my sisters.- she explained.

-Sounds good. Just let me know!- he replied.

-Right-

After a bit of ironing out the details, they decided the best course of action was to watch the movie and write the script at Blackbird’s apartment before filming at Aria’s. Much like before the writing process went surprisingly well and before they knew it they were ready to film. That required working around when Adagio and Sonata were out of the apartment eventually she got the day alone they needed. She set up her laptop and camera and started to record the intro they wrote.

“Okay, so, today’s movie is some stupid movie involving guys in a rubber monster suits breaking a fake city,” she said in her usual mocking tone.

“Did someone say rubber monster suits?!” Blackbird asked, as he popped his head up from behind the couch.

“Gah! How did you get in here?!” she demanded.

“I have my ways,” he said cryptically before he jumped over the back of the couch to sit next to her. “So what we are watching today?”

“What’s this we stuff?” she snorted, crossing her arms and glaring at him.

“Hey, you broke into my place to review a movie with me so it’s only fair I get to do the same to you!” he countered.

“Whatever,” she scoffed with a roll of her eyes.

And so as with before, the duo ran through their script with few retakes and ad-libs. This time it was Aria’s turn to edit and post it. Once again, the video received a lot of views and likes as well as positive comments. Of course she never spent too much time scrolling through the comments since a lot of them were just terrible and usually about how hot she was. While that was true, she didn’t need a bunch of lonely dorks making perverted comments about her. But as she scrolled through these ones a surprising thread caught her eye.

-Is it just me or are these two kind of adorable together?-

-Totally! Like, I thought they were dating.-

-Are they?-

-I dunno but I totally ship it!-

-Hell yeah!-

She raised an eyebrow in both disbelief and disgust. She wanted to scream about how stupid they all were but at the moment she was looking at her phone in bed and didn’t want to have to deal with the fallout if she woke up Sonata. So instead she just turned her phone off and placed it on the bedside table before she turned over and pulled the covers over her head.

“Dating,” she muttered. “Yeah right. Like that would ever happen. MyTube comments are the worst.”

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

Ain’t that just the truth? Don’t read the comments on YouTube videos. Most of them are just horrible. But DO leave comments though! I like getting feedback! It let’s me know how I’m doing with these like this or my own YouTube videos. Which is why this chapter is a bit late. Might be slow going between YouTube videos and work so I hope whoever is reading this fic will stick with it. And hope you’re all enjoying this wild bit of self-indulgence!

See ya next time!