Siren Days

by Spyder27

Hogwash

Author's Note:

Author's notes at the end of the chapter~ :)

Chapter VI: Hogwash

Running down the hallway as fast as I can, I barely hold onto the sheet. I really need to find Adagio… Scoots is right behind me at this point, so we’re in a pickle here. Why didn’t we decide to steal this outside of the maze? Horse apples… We need to give the answers to the puzzles at the end of the maze, which means one of us needs to distract them… Dang it. Dang it. Ugh! Why does this have to be so hard? Sprinting around a corner, I see bright orange hair in front of me. Running up to Adagio, I quickly grab her arm and drag her off into a new pathway, trying to get away from Dash ASAP.

A smile comes to my face as I look back at Adagio, happy that we can take this time to make a plan. “Am I glad to see ya!” I tell her with a big smile, pulling her as fast as I can down multiple pathways. Surprisingly, there’s quite a lot of boxes or different obstacles inside this darn maze.

“What’s the reason for dragging me this time?” Adagio quickly asks me, holding onto her scarf as we run. Showing her the piece of paper, I try to smile widely, knowing that this gives us an edge.

“I got it!” Dodging under a low-hanging board, I pull Adagio into a sharp left, trying to take deep breaths. “Scoots had it on her! Now she’s tryna find me as fast as she can, so um… That means Dash is gonna be on our tails too.” As soon as I say that, Adagio’s face loses its color slightly, looking like she’s concerned.

“Did you-”

“Yeah, I finished the other two puzzles with Scoots. Do ya have the answer to the third one?” Please have the answer, Adagio… We don’t have that much time left, so we need to hurry… I really should have stolen the sheet from Scoots outside of the maze, but I jumped into action way too soon. My big sis told me to try and avoid doing that…

“The answer is a lullaby. That’s what I think it is at least. Dash ended up telling me she thought it had something to do with rest, so I think that was the hint for it.” Yes! She actually completed the third puzzle with Dash. That’ll save us some time~ All we have to do now is get to the end without losing the cheat sheet. Unfortunately, that means one of us will probably need to distract Dash and Scoots.

“One of us will need to go to the end and all. The other should keep a hold of this cheat sheet. Which job do you want to do?” I ask her quickly, not wanting to hit a dead end before we make a plan. I’d be fine with either job, honestly. I could probably do a better job at distracting them and Adagio can go finish our remaining tasks, but I’m giving her the choice since I dragged her here to begin with.

“I’ll hold onto this,” Adagio tells me shortly before grabbing the sheet from my hand. If she’s going to distract them, then I will probably need the gold pieces… I’ll be the one completing our activities, so I will need them to finish the competition. Holding my hand out, Adagio quickly pulls the pieces out of her bag, placing them in my hand.

“Just make sure ya don’t lose it!” I carefully tell her, giving a thumbs up as a sign of good luck. From here on out, Adagio and I need to go our separate ways. Hopefully, she can keep them distracted for the time being and either get the cheat sheet back to me or send me a copy of some kind. Sprinting down a corner to my left, I try to go in the general direction of the exit, pushing the gold pieces into my pocket. For now, I just need to remember the answers to the puzzles to get the gold piece at the end of this maze… I’m not sure where Scoots or Dash are, but I just hope I don’t run into them. If I remember correctly, we have two more activities to finish after the maze… I think I can do it.

Turning a corner, I can see the end of the maze. Thankfully, Scoots or Dash isn’t anywhere in sight, so I should have a couple minutes to get the gold piece. Running up to the moderator at the end of the maze, I can’t help but look behind me just to make sure no one is following me. “Hi there! Is this where I give my answers?” The guy stops looking at his phone for a second to make eye contact with me, clearly bored.

“Uh, yeah. Sure. What did you get for answers?” he asks me slowly, returning his eyes to his phone. Even though he’s supposed to be a moderator here, I can’t help but feel like he isn’t interested in doing his job…

“Well, I got the sun, stars, and a lullaby,” I tell him quietly, still checking over my shoulder for any sign of Scoots or Dash. Without even thinking about my answers, he simply reaches inside his pocket and gives me another gold piece, nodding slowly.

“Good job and have a good time,” he tells me in a tired voice. Normally, I’d be a little weirded out by this guy’s lack of work ethic, but I think both of us have had a long day. Besides, I have a couple people I need to get far away from as quickly as possible.

“Thanks!” I say loudly before sprinting towards the door, putting the piece in my pocket. I hope Adagio is doing alright… I really need her to keep going. Opening the doors, I turn to the right, slowing down and taking my phone out. What activities do we have left? I think one is another memory game, but I’m not quite sure what the last one is. Looking at my phone, I see the list of activities, quickly marking off multiple of them in my head. Huh. It seems one of the things we haven’t done is simply visit the bonfire. That seems like it would be the easiest one, so I should go do that.

Turning around, I run down the hallway and put my phone back in my pocket, quickly making my way towards the back of the school. Thankfully, the only sound I hear is the sound of my own footsteps, so that means I’m safe for now. As long as Dash and Scoots don’t realize that I’m going to do my best to complete the rest of the activities, they should keep their attention on Adagio. Opening the back door, I see all the people outside with the major attraction being the bonfire. Bingo. All I have to do is find the moderator for the bonfire and I’ll be golden. Well, not literally. If I was literally gold, I’d be a lot heavier than I am right now. Would I be stronger? Maybe I would be stronger than Big Mac.

Focus, Apple Bloom! Shaking my head, I run over to the bonfire, looking around the crowd for one of the moderators. Spotting someone in one of the Canterlot High coats, I make my way over to them, my eyes widening when I see their face… Why would Rarity be handing out gold pieces? Her face looks nervous and confused as she hands gold pieces to a bunch of people. I mean, it’s not necessarily unusual for Rarity to be stressed out, but I feel sorry for her here.

“Here you go. Um… You need one too? Alright, just hold on a second,” Rarity says with a nervous tone, searching her pockets. I thought she was working with Sweetie Belle.

“Hey, Rarity,” I say carefully, walking up to her after most of the people have left her alone.

“Oh! Apple Bloom! How are you doing, darling?” Her eyes look towards the gold cape I have on, smiling at me. “Nice apparel~! Where did you get it?” Honestly, I think she helped make the capes to begin with, so I don’t particularly believe her tone of surprise.

“From Adagio. Do ya mind if I ask why you are here? I thought Sweetie Belle asked you to help her.”

“Oh, yes, she did. But when we got here, the moderator we asked to get the gold piece from fell ill and… well, I decided to help out. Besides, it would be a sin to not show off this fabulous coat all the moderators have~” Rarity gives me a slight spin, showing off the school coat with a smile. “I told Sweetie Belle to finish our tasks without me or until someone relieves me from this position. Though, I am contemplating taking this coat and adding some more accessories to it. Oh, do you need a piece too, darling?” Rarity asks me, suddenly remembering what she is doing here in the first place.

“Yeah, I kinda need it to finish the competition and all. Good luck with the rest of this shift.” Without wasting a moment, I take the gold piece from Rarity’s hand and quickly move past her, seeing her give me a wave.

“Good luck then!” she calls out to me before turning to some other people to give them gold pieces. At least that task wasn’t that difficult. The next thing I need to do is a scavenger hunt from what the list says… Apparently, a bunch of gold eggs are hidden all over the place and they have one of the pieces I need. The only problem is that I don’t know where any of them are…

A vibrant buzz comes from my phone, making me come to a halt to check the notification. It’s a text from Adagio…? How did she have enough time to text me…? Opening her contact, two pictures instantly come onto screen, showing the two sides of the cheat sheet. “Finish the final tasks without me. I have to distract Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash. Good luck,” Adagio’s text tells me, seemingly sent in a hurry. Good job, Adagio… You’re helping a lot here.

Tapping the first picture, I look through all of the answers and hints for tasks we’ve already done. I only have two more. A memory game and a scavenger hunt. The cheat sheet has each activity alphabetized, so it isn’t that hard to find the scavenger hunt answers. Huh. Dash and Scootaloo actually marked out the ones that were already found…? I guess they had a lot of spots they couldn’t find it. One of the last spots that haven’t been marked out is… Wait. What? All the answers give out actual locations in the school except this one… All it says is Vice Principal Luna…? Does she have an egg? If so, who would even guess that except for… the Moon Knights. Heck, you have to report to Celestia and Luna to finish the competition.

Putting my phone back in my pocket, I run in the direction of the memory game. I should actually see if Luna has an egg after I finish the memory game. If she does, then I would win the competition right then and there. Why would Dash and Scoots not get the one from Luna?

==================================================

“Scoots! We can talk about this!” I exclaim while jumping over a bush, hearing Scootaloo right behind me. “Why are ya even chasing me? I don’t have your sheet!”

“But if you didn’t have a copy, then Adagio would be trying to get to you! She was just distracting us for the longest time!” Dang it… Scootaloo caught on to that fact. I do have a copy of the cheat sheet, but the only thing I have left to do is to actually get the gold egg from Vice Principal Luna. I can’t just lead Scoots there. She could sabotage my attempt to win this competition. Who knows how close she and Dash are to winning?!

“But you two can catch Adagio, right? She’s not faster than Dash!” I call back, running around the corner of the school building, trying my best to keep away from Scootaloo. Despite the fact that she didn’t grow up on a farm, she’s pretty fast.

“You’d think! Adagio has a lot of tricks up her sleeve, though,” Scootaloo responds to me, briefly grabbing onto my arm before I shake her off. Running inside the school, I quickly lock the door behind me, seeing the door struggling to open. “HEY! Apple Bloom! Open this door right now!” Scootaloo calls out to me, still trying to open it to the best of her ability. Now’s my chance to lose her… I feel a little dirty for doing this, but it has to be done.

Turning around, I sprint down the hallway, making my way towards the auditorium. The gymnasium doubles as an auditorium, so the maze should still be up until all teams have had a chance to complete it. In the meantime, I just have to go to the stage and find Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna. I just need to get there before Scootaloo goes to another door and finds me. Turning sharply to my right, I sprint down the final hallway that leads to the auditorium, making a small smile appear on my face. I told Adagio we could do it! Come on, Apple Bloom. Just a few more steps and you’ll be there!

Quickly opening the door to the gymnasium, I run towards the stage, seeing both Celestia and Luna looking at the maze and chatting with each other. “Hi, Principal Celestia!” I say with a wave before passing her, quickly making eye contact with her sister. “Vice Principal Luna? Do you mind if I ask you something?” Luna raises her eyebrow slowly, looking towards Celestia before nodding.

“Yes, Apple Bloom? What is your question?” she asks me as politely as usual. Sometimes, I feel a little intimidated by Luna’s overly polite nature… I guess it’s because she is an adult and has some form of authority over me.

“Do you happen to have a gold egg?” A surprised look comes over the vice principal, leaning back in her seat for a moment. Celestia herself seems curious, giggling at our interaction.

“I see. I assume you got it from the Moon Knights then?” Luna asks me with a smile, pulling a gold egg out of her pocket and handing it to me. Quickly opening the egg, I can’t help but smile at the final gold piece, dumping my pocket’s contents onto the table.

“Ya could say that,” I say with a prideful smile, quickly putting the pieces together. Finally, the school’s symbol is formed from the stupid plastic pieces I’ve been collecting all afternoon. I waste no time before pushing the symbol towards Luna and Celestia, taking deep breaths. “There ya go! My team has completed all the activities!”

Celestia carefully takes the symbol in her hands, chuckling at the situation before giving me a nod. “So you have~ Congratulations, Apple Bloom. You win this year’s School Days competition~” Looking towards Luna, Celestia points towards the microphone with a knowing stare. “You can announce it now, Luna.”

“Yes, sister~” Luna responds with a happy smile, clearing her throat before bringing the microphone closer to her mouth. This happens every year… She loves to mimic old English when announcing something to the school, so I can’t help but giggle, knowing what’s coming. “Teams of the School Days competition! We art eternally grateful to tell thou that we have a first place winner! Do thou best to complete the rest of thine activities and we’ll see you at the school’s auditorium!” Obviously, it’s not perfect, but Luna seems to enjoy it a lot. After her announcement, Celestia hands me a gold medal with a blue ribbon. Right before a loud bang of the gymnasium door catches my attention.

Looking towards the door, Scootaloo stands in the doorway with a shocked expression, her shoulders dropping upon seeing the medal. “God damn it!”

Epilogue

Taking a big sip of my slushie, I look at the empty stage with a smile. Honestly, I kinda enjoy coming here from time to time since it’s so quiet. Only the sound of the wind can bother you. Since it’s a big outdoor stage, there’s a lot of seating to pick from as well! No one is usually here~ Adagio, on the other hand, seems hesitant to even sit here. I guess it’s because this is where Sunset and her friends defeated the Dazzlings… In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the best idea to bring her here.

“Sorry. I kinda forgot that you still have bad memories of this place.” I try to give her my best smile, looking at her solemn expression. Her eyes are locked on the stage as she takes a bite of her cherry cheesecake, a treat she decided to get herself after the competition.

“No, it’s fine. Really. I probably needed to face this place again someday, right? Better now than later.” A small smile comes to her face as she swallows another bite of her cake, looking at me with a wink. “It’s just easier to handle when I have something like this, huh?” Nodding at Adagio’s words, both of us look at the empty stage for a moment, the wind being the only thing we can hear. I’m glad that Adagio is confronting her fears~ She’s a good friend and it’s inspiring to see her confidence come back to her.

“I just wish Diamond Tiara could have been here,” I whisper before drinking more of my slushie, making Adagio look at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Diamond Tiara? I thought you hated her.”

“Well, she did bully me…” Taking a deep breath, I lock my eyes with Adagio’s, giving her a smile. “But I kinda took your advice and decided to try and be nicer to her. We are kinda friends now. She’s just really sick, so we don’t get to hang out a lot.” Patting my shoulder, Adagio pulls me closer to her with a chuckle.

“That’s good~ I’m proud that you gave it a shot,” she tells me with a happy tone to her voice, clearly impressed with the fact that I made a friend in a previous bully. Adagio takes the last bite of her cherry cheesecake after letting me go, still looking at me with a smile.

“Thanks~ I’ll show her the medal we got later, but for now…” Standing up from my seat, I walk down the staircase towards the stage. Adagio follows me after a moment, both of us walking up the steps to the stage. “I want to do one more thing before we go home~” Quickly walking up to the front of the stage, I smile at the empty crowd, waving at imaginary fans. “Can you turn on the lights?” I ask her, pointing towards a console at the side of the platform.

“Um. Sure?” Within a moment, bright neon lights shine down on me and the stage, making me giggle slightly. As soon as Adagio walks up to my side, I give her a white fedora, putting one on my head.

“Ready?” I ask her excitedly, feeling adrenaline go throughout my body.

“Where did you get this? And what are we doing exactly?” she asks me with a confused look, taking off her spiked headband to put the hat on.

“Just follow my lead, alright?” Striking a pose with my hand on my hat, Adagio does a similar pose. “Ow!” I exclaim with a smile right as the music starts to play, pointing my finger towards the audience. I’ve always wanted to do this~ This competition had to handle Adagio and me, but now? Now the world will have to handle a couple of smooth criminals~

The End~
...
For now~

Authors notes:

Hello, everyone! My name is Spyder27 and I just wanted to thank everyone for reading this fic! I know the whole idea of Apple Bloom and Adagio being friends is a weird idea, but I’m glad how this short story turned out! This is the first short story that is in continuity with A Dazzling World and A Shimmering Heartbreak and I have a few more planned before I get to the full sequel, A Dazzling Trio. Once again, thank you so much for reading this work! It’s definitely a new process for me to write something from Apple Bloom’s perspective, but yeah! It was a lot of fun for me~ The next story I’m going to write that will be in continuity with this overarching narrative will be called The Curious Caper of the Missing Baker! After that, I have a story lined up called Follow Suit! Just as a small teaser for everyone, I’ll go ahead and give you the bio for Follow Suit! As always, have a great day and I’ll see you next time!

It’s been a couple months since Sunset Shimmer’s birthday and Adagio has a debt to repay. Filthy Rich asks for Dazzle to fulfill her end of the bargain and she’s all too eager to get it done with. The idea of being in debt to Filthy Rich isn’t appealing to the siren in the slightest, but the particular task she needs to do to repay the crime boss isn’t exciting either. Right when her anxiety is highest, Adagio Dazzle has to put on a brave face and a dashing suit. No more debts. No more deals. Just one thing left to do.

Comments

[Blood Rarity]

[Fetch]

https://youtu.be/FX5ClEBE_EM

https://youtu.be/gmJ2Bkx2C5A

[Spyder27]

11424980
Thank you so much for this comment~ This is definitely the intent I had with that epilogue and I'm glad you enjoyed it! (P.S. I can't stop giggling at this.)

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

Turning around, I run down the hallway and put my phone back in my pocket, quickly making my way towards the back of the school. Thankfully, the only sound I hear is the sound of my own footsteps, so that means I’m safe for now. As long as Dash and Scoots don’t realize that I’m going to do my best to complete the rest of the activities, they should keep their attention on Adagio. Opening the back door, I see all the people outside with the major attraction being the bonfire. Bingo. All I have to do is find the moderator for the bonfire and I’ll be golden. Well, not literally. If I was literally gold, I’d be a lot heavier than I am right now. Would I be stronger? Maybe I would be stronger than Big Mac.

Not the time to think AB!

“Oh, yes, she did. But when we got here, the moderator we asked to get the gold piece from fell ill and… well, I decided to help out. Besides, it would be a sin to not show off this fabulous coat all the moderators have~” Rarity gives me a slight spin, showing off the school coat with a smile. “I told Sweetie Belle to finish our tasks without me or until someone relieves me from this position. Though, I am contemplating taking this coat and adding some more accessories to it. Oh, do you need a piece too, darling?” Rarity asks me, suddenly remembering what she is doing here in the first place.

She's so gonna be in trouble if she keeps that jacket without permission.

“No, it’s fine. Really. I probably needed to face this place again someday, right? Better now than later.” A small smile comes to her face as she swallows another bite of her cake, looking at me with a wink. “It’s just easier to handle when I have something like this, huh?” Nodding at Adagio’s words, both of us look at the empty stage for a moment, the wind being the only thing we can hear. I’m glad that Adagio is confronting her fears~ She’s a good friend and it’s inspiring to see her confidence come back to her.

Good for her.