When Life Gives You Snow...

by TheGJ90

Movie Quiz and Cooking Horror

While the Sirens' health slowly improved over time, Aria and Adagio's moods did not become remarkably pleasant. True to their word, they held polite conversations whenever necessary, so no insults were thrown around. However, the former was grumpy and standoffish, while the latter was a tad arrogant and almost as grumpy. Sonata, by contrast, was the only Siren who was genuinely sweet to their caregivers, especially to the three younger girls. But, just like her sisters, she was quite reserved when it came to her personal affairs (although she did need to get the occasional reminder to keep her mouth shut from Aria). As for Apple Bloom and her two best friends, while they were quite annoyed with the Sirens in general, they were far more inclined to be friendly with them. They were, of course, about as reserved, with one exception;

"So... I remember something about you three being in a club...", Adagio commented while enjoying a cup of tea. Her stomach, by this point, had improved enough to be able to handle tea and spicy foods, with her sisters not being far off from that point. Their noses were not as stuffed up as before and their throats had all but recovered. Sci-Twi was busy cleaning up her parents' room, so it was just the three sirens and the three girls sitting in the same places as before. Speaking of the girls, they responded to Adagio's comment by looking at each other excitedly before announcing with more joy in their voices than there was snow outside;

"We are..."

They then performed a triple high-five while exclaiming to the skies above, their smiles beaming with pride and happiness;

"THE CANTERLOT MOVIE CLUB!!! YAY!!!"

If their voices were but a decibel higher, they would have inflamed the Sirens' headaches! They still had to cover their ears, though. After recovering from the sudden blast of vocalized cheer, Adagio decided, instead of throwing shade, to ask the CMCs, if nothing else but to take her mind off of her ears ringing;

"Ah, so you're movie buffs, then?"

Apple Bloom responded by pounding her chest with her right fist before declaring proudly;

"Darn tootin'! We may do lots of other fun stuff, but movies are our bread and butter!"

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked no less prideful. Aria, feeling slightly intrigued, chimed in;

"Okay then, what are your favorite movies?"

As for Sonata, she was positively beaming with joy, barely able to hold herself back from interrupting her sisters with a verbal gushing over something as seemingly mundane as movies. The CMCs looked at each other for a moment, as if silently discussing Aria's question with just their eyes. With affirmative nods to one another, they looked back at the Sirens with smiles on their faces. Scootaloo took this opportunity to explain;

"We'll do you one better: Each of us will quote a line or several lines from our favorite movies and it will be up to the three of you to figure out what movies we're referencing!"

Two confident, almost predatory smirks grew on Adagio and Aria's faces, while Sonata's smile was more joyful and less menacing. The eldest Dazzling answered on her sisters behalf with confidence oozing from her voice;

"A test of our movie knowledge?"

Much to the CMCs slight internalized terror, she expressed a soft cackle that served as an echo of the sickeningly villainous laughter that they remembered all-too-well. With a glare that silently told them to "bring it", she finished;

"Good luck with stumping us, movie club. We've seen more than a few movies in our time."

Aria decided to add to her claim;

"Yeah, Humans are utterly dull and pathetic, but at least they make movies that aren't boring!"

Sonata could not contain herself any longer;

"Oh, this is gonna be totes fun! I LOVE watching movies so much! Almost as much as I love tacos!"

Adagio may not have been interested in befriending the CMCs in any way whatsoever, but she could sense that this little game of theirs would at least give her and her sisters some entertainment for a while. With confident smiles etched on every club member's face, Sweetie Belle happily declared;

"Let the games begin!"

---

Scootaloo was the first one to step up. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle took a few steps back to give her room to perform. As all of this was going on, Sci-Twi had just stepped back into the living room without anyone else noticing. She stood at the doorway to watch what was happening out of curiosity. The Dazzlings watched with intent as Scootaloo took a few deep breaths and belted out as menacing and deep a voice as she could manage;

"Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, ash nazg thrakatulûk, agh burzum-ishi krimpatul!"

The Dazzlings were utterly, and visibly, perplexed by what they had heard. Sci-Twi, however, was acutely aware of the source of Scootaloo's line of choice. With a knowing smile and a head shake, she thought to herself;

"Never before has any voice uttered the words of that tongue here in this household."

Giggling over the sisters' dumbfounded expressions, Apple Bloom challenged them excitedly;

"Well, go on! Take a guess!"

It took all of five seconds for Aria to exclaim;

"What kind of twisted Human language was that?!"

"It sounded like a dark incantation from ancient times...", noted an exasperated Adagio, who was just as clueless as Aria over what the correct answer was. Sonata's response held no answers either;

"Hmmm... nope, I've got nothing."

Upon hearing all of this, Scootaloo erupted into a jolly fit of laughter while clutching her sides in an attempt to keep herself from losing all control of herself. After about thirty seconds of mirth, she calmed down enough to explain with a smile;

"That was from 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'!"

The Sirens were now both shocked and confused, especially Adagio, who exclaimed angrily;

"Wait a minute! We saw that movie in a theater once and we would have remembered a line like that!"

Sweetie Belle jumped into the conversation with her right index finger pointed up to the roof and a comment as sly as her smirk;

"Unless you've never watched the Extended Edition, which was never released to theaters!"

Sci-Twi could hear the smack of Aria face-palming herself from her spot at the living room doorway. With a frustrated groan, she remarked while giving Adagio an intense death glare;

"Darn it, Dagi! I told you we should have gotten that edition of the film on DVD!"

It was Adagio's turn to glare back at her as she replied out of annoyance;

"We would have, if Sonata..."

She turned her fearsome attention to her younger sister, who looked a bit taken aback by the sudden confrontation;

"Hadn't used too much of our spending money on snacks!"

With an angry pout, Sonata replied sharply;

"Come on, those snacks were for all of us to enjoy!"

"They were a waste of our money!", Aria argued while glaring at Sonata intensely. But, before the two of them could get into one of their innumerable arguments, Adagio interrupted them by switching the topic;

"Anyway..."

She turned her attention back at the CMCs, her predatory grin back in full force;

"You may have gotten lucky that time, but you won't be so fortunate from here on. Who's next?"

---

With The Dazzlings watching closely, Sweetie Belle mentally prepared herself for a moment or two before blasting out in well-acted disbelief;

"INCONCEIVABLE!"

She then transitioned from shock to politely expressed bemusement as she delivered another line with quiet dignity and a fine-tuned Spaniard accent;

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

Hearing this prompted Adagio to cackle with a level of certainty and arrogance that made every club member present roll their eyes in response. She then proudly delivered her answer;

"The Princess Bride!"

Aria chuckled as well before noting;

"To be clear; we never watched the movie, but it's WAY too quotable for us to not know about it."

Sonata, with an hopeful sigh, complained with a twinge of sadness in her voice;

"I want to watch it so badly..."

As tempting as it was to offer the sweeter Siren of the three a chance to borrow her personal copy of the movie, Sweetie Belle decided against it as she sat down on her chair with a defeated expression on her face. Scootaloo patted her on the back to consul her, determined to help her friends as best as she could. Apple Bloom, of course, was as driven as ever. She jumped off of her chair and stood before the Sirens with a fire in her eyes that was unique to her and her two best friends. After mentally stepping into her role of choice, she took a breath and began her performance.

---

She walked right up to Adagio and leaned in as close to her as she could without making things awkward for the both of them. She was surprised to see the young lady do this, but she was also intrigued. Apple Bloom pretended to hold a smoke pipe in her mouth, the fire in her eyes replaced with a well-practiced uncaring look. She smoked the imaginary pipe and took it out of her mouth before speaking with low methodical tone that had a unique menace to it that her southern drawl had served to strengthen;

"Do ye' fear death?"

That got a raised eyebrow from all three sirens as she continued her act;

"Do ye' fear that dark abyss?"

She tilted her head to her left side;

"All your deeds laid bare...?"

Her head tilted over to her right side;

"All your sins punished?"

Apple Bloom closed her eyes and exhaled before opening them back up, their fire having returned as a big dopey smile signaled the end of the act. She straightened her back and asked the Sirens while feeling especially proud of herself;

"Care to guess what movie that comes from?"

That pride was strengthened by the round of applause she had earned from Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The Dazzlings, not wanting to be bested by these girls in any way, huddled together to quietly discuss their answer.

"I know I heard those lines before...", noted Adagio as she tried hard to remember their source.

Aria tugged on her hair, clearly annoyed by her own shoddy memory;

"Ugh! I'm sure we watched the movie, but I don't remember the scene or the name!"

Sonata's eyes almost sparkled when she exclaimed with a big smile;

"I know the answer!"

Her older sisters gave her incredulous looks as she proudly declared to the CMCs;

"The Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest!"

Reluctantly, Apple Bloom and her friends nodded their heads to confirm her answer was correct, much to the other two Sirens' amazement. Adagio gave Sonata an approving smirk before noting;

"You've been on a roll lately! Perhaps we should actually try those tacos you love so much when we get home."

Aria had gone from shocked to slightly impressed and, finally, to disgusted;

"Oh no, we are NOT trying that overly thin bread with cruddy meat and veggies!", she shouted at her two siblings. It was amazing she didn't cause herself to cough even a little with that outburst. Sonata's joy over being rewarded for helping out quickly gave way to anger as she stared daggers at Aria and promptly shouted back;

"Don't diss the taco!"

Sensing danger, Adagio went right to work on trying to keep the other Sirens from tearing each other apart, leaving the CMCs to watch the verbal chaos unfold. Apple Bloom was feeling more concerned than anything else as she asked her friends;

"Do we act like this too?"

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo shook their heads vigorously, much to her intense relief. As for Sci-Twi, who was quietly enjoying the show from afar, she decided to step in to help cooler heads prevail. The rest of the day went off without further incident.

---

The next morning came with far less snowfall than before, even though there was still metric ton of snow on the ground. The fog had completely lifted, allowing for the neighborhood at large to be visible again. Adagio was the first to awaken from her slumber on the couch. She took a moment to check in on herself; her body had all but healed up, it seemed! Her breathing was clear along with her nose, her headache was gone, and after testing her throat by saying a few random words, she noticed the lack of a rasp. Feeling a little brazen and hopeful, she checked to make sure was alone and tried to sing. The sounds she had made at that point were akin to razor-sharp claws scratching on a chalkboard at the speed of a turtle. She did this for three seconds before stopping out of internal embarrassment, which was quickly replaced by an old fury that threatened to overtake her as she thought back to that earlier revelation she and her sisters had had;

"Ohhh, if it weren't for that little detail...", she pondered with a sneer. Shoving her rage into its usual spot deep inside of her mind, she took better stock of her situation;

"Well, at least we're recovering nicely.", she declared with some relief in her voice. It was then that she recalled something Apple Bloom had said before;

"... We ain't gonna let ya' or your sisters suffer when we can do somethin' to help."

This roused within her a question that she wanted to ask ever since she and her sisters were taken in. This time, she would not be denied for another day.

"Time to get some answers.", she calmly declared aloud as she got up off of the couch and walked with renewed strength to the kitchen, hoping to grab a quick snack before searching the house for a certain trio of Wondercolts. By complete accident, she had found them.

They were all doing their part to cook up some breakfast. Apple Bloom was flipping flapjacks with the skill and enjoyment of a seasoned cook, Scootaloo was happily and carefully chopping up fruits to make a salad, and Sweetie Belle, grumbling to herself out of clear disappointment, was relegated to cleaning up the messes the other two were making. The head Dazzling also noticed on the corner of her eye something that looked like a black mass that sat on the counter to Apple Bloom's left. She figured it was some trash that Sweetie hadn't gotten to yet. Scootaloo noticed Adagio entering the kitchen and put her cutting on hold to talk with her;

"Hey there! We're just making some breakfast for everyone!"

"Pancakes, salads, and some cold milk!", Apple Bloom declared out of pride before adding;

"It ain't a typical breakfast, but It'll start your day off well enough."

Adagio looked over at each of the girls, fixed her gaze at Sweetie Belle as she cleaned the unused bits of vegetables off of Scootaloo's cutting board, and asked out of curiosity;

"So, why is she not cooking up something too?"

Scootaloo responded by pointing her cutting knife at the black mass on the counter for a moment or two before returning to her cutting without saying a word. Apple Bloom shook her head for a bit before going back to flipping. Sweetie Belle's grumbling became a bit more pronounced as she continued her own work. Adagio inspected the mass more closely, only to realize what it actually was, or rather, what it had meant to be.

"Mental note: don't ever let Sweetie Belle cook for you!", she decided in her head while staring in horror at the charred monstrosity that was best not consumed by anycreature, let alone a Human or a Pony. She promptly decided to wait to get her answers during breakfast as she almost ran back into the living room to wait on the couch, determined to get away from that revolting "attempt" at cooking as quickly as possible.

Author's Note:

It's funny: the ONLY time the Canterlot Movie Club got to be movie buffs on camera was in the short that had their club's name!

Such a missed opportunity, says I!

As for why I used references to actual movies instead of fictional ones: Come on... that would be telling!

Comments

[Darkevony]

Agreed. There was a lot to work around the Movie Club premise. EqG in general could've made great use of more attention.

Very much enjoyed this chapter, it was a lot of fun. Love that they're being drawn together organically if only because of rivalry. It's quite believable. Love Sonata's characterization the most so far.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

"So... I remember something about you three being in a club...", Adagio commented while enjoying a cup of tea. Her stomach, by this point, had improved enough to be able to handle tea and spicy foods, with her sisters not being far off from that point. Their noses were not as stuffed up as before and their throats had all but recovered. Sci-Twi was busy cleaning up her parents' room, so it was just the three sirens and the three girls sitting in the same places as before. Speaking of the girls, they responded to Adagio's comment by looking at each other excitedly before announcing with more joy in their voices than there was snow outside;

club..." Adagio*

"It sounded like a dark incantation from ancient times...", noted an exasperated Adagio, who was just as clueless as Aria over what the correct answer was. Sonata's response held no answers either;

times..." noted*

"That was from 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'!"

That was my guess, lol!

"They were a waste of our money!", Aria argued while glaring at Sonata intensely. But, before the two of them could get into one of their innumerable arguments, Adagio interrupted them by switching the topic;

money!" Aria*

"I know I heard those lines before...", noted Adagio as she tried hard to remember their source.

before..." noted*

"Oh no, we are NOT trying that overly thin bread with cruddy meat and veggies!", she shouted at her two siblings. It was amazing she didn't cause herself to cough even a little with that outburst. Sonata's joy over being rewarded for helping out quickly gave way to anger as she stared daggers at Aria and promptly shouted back;

veggies !" She*

"Ohhh, if it weren't for that little detail..." , she pondered with a sneer. Shoving her rage into its usual spot deep inside of her mind, she took better stock of her situation;

detail..." she*

"Well, at least we're recovering nicely.", she declared with some relief in her voice. It was then that she recalled something Apple Bloom had said before;

nicely," she*

"Time to get some answers.", she calmly declared aloud as she got up off of the couch and walked with renewed strength to the kitchen, hoping to grab a quick snack before searching the house for a certain trio of Wondercolts. By complete accident, she had found them.

answers," she*

"Pancakes, salads, and some cold milk!", Apple Bloom declared out of pride before adding;

milk!" Apple*

"Mental note: don't ever let Sweetie Belle cook for you!" , she decided in her head while staring in horror at the charred monstrosity that was best not consumed by anycreature, let alone a Human or a Pony. She promptly decided to wait to get her answers during breakfast as she almost ran back into the living room to wait on the couch, determined to get away from that revolting "attempt" at cooking as quickly as possible.

you!" She*