> My Roommate, the Evil Siren > by Mirai-chan > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Moving Out > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aria Blaze was in a bad situation. There was no denying it. The former Siren stormed down the street with a face like thunder, glaring at every passer-by, who regarded her nervously. The truth was, Aria didn't feel that angry. She felt... empty. Aria had never really considered Sonata and Adagio her friends, Sonata was annoying and Adagio was bossy, but they were her companions. They looked out for each other, to an extent. But now, she was alone. Cast out by her "companions". "Stupid little..." Aria mumbled insults as she walked. Recalling the events of earlier was making her admittedly angrier now. "I'm sorry Ari, but you just can't live here anymore." "She's kidding. Tell me she's kidding Adagio!" "I'm afraid she's not. Come on Aria, you don't have a job, you don't do any housework or helping out. Hell, you don't even speak to us unless you have to. "I'll get a job! You can't just do this! Since it's my house, I'm afraid I can. Aria could certainly think of a lot of words to describe Adagio Dazzle. Now Aria had walked quite a way from the house and the streets were getting less crowded, she was starting to gather her thoughts. Another feeling had pushed its way to the front of her scrambled mess of emotions. Fear. What was she going to do? Aria turned the corner and ended up in a deserted street. She was considerably more tired now, and made straight for a bench sitting beside a dilapidated looking row of conjoined houses that clearly showed what side of town she was in. Aria let out a deep sigh as she collapsed on the bench and cast her eyes upwards. She was rewarded with a drop of water in her eye. "Gah!" Aria jumped and straightened up again. Another drop hit her arm. "Oh. Rain." Aria sighed again. "Just my luck." As she huddled on the bench, as if making herself smaller would help her protect from the rain, she realised her feelings of anger were fading away. With her increasing discomfort from the rain, coupled with the growing realisation of how dire her situation was, she could feel a lump in her throat and stinging behind her eyes. Aria Blaze was beginning to cry. No longer was she a formidable figure, a force to be reckoned with. She was a lost and homeless teenage girl. "Stop it." Aria told herself firmly. "Stop it! You're pathetic." Despite her own words, Aria couldn't stop it. She sniffed furiously and glared at the ground, cursing herself for being so weak. "Oh my goodness!" The sudden sound made Aria jump. She jerked upwards and stared at the source of the voice. A girl who she instantly recognised as a member of the Rainbooms. A timid girl with pink hair, dressed in green and clutching several shopping bags as well as smaller slung over her shoulder. Aria couldn't quite recall her name. Butterfly, or something stupid like that. Aria sniffled and glared at her. "What do you want?!" She snapped at the girl, who seemed taken aback by her sudden aggression. "Uh, nothing! I um..." The butterfly girl stuttered, eyes wide. "Then scram!" Butterfly girl took a step backwards. Aria glared at her, then cast her eyes downwards, feeling sorry for herself again. After a couple of minutes, Aria realised the girl was still there. "Why are you still standing there?" Aria looked up at the Rainboom, who was still staring at her. The expression on her face had changed slightly. Sort of softened a little. She no longer looked so terrified. Aria continued to stare back at her but had to glance down again when she felt her eyes well up. Aria could've sworn that in that moment she actually heard the girl swallow. "A-are you okay?" Butterfly girl asked cautiously. The question was so unexpected Aria felt some kind of jolt in her stomach. She didn't let the girl's sudden concern breach her feelings however. "What kind of question is that? Why do you care?" Aria did her best to maintain an angry tone. To her annoyance, Butterfly girl didn't answer. Aria glared at her. "Why are you still here? It's raining." Aria gestured somewhat unnecessarily towards the the sky. The girl's eyes widened. "Oh! I have an umbrella" She reached into her bag. Aria snorted. "Good for you. Now go." Aria's voice wavered at the end of her sentence and she averted her eyes. There was another pause. Aria was seriously thinking about leaving herself, when something fell into her lap. After a short moment her eyes focused on it. An umbrella. Aria stared at it, then at the drenched girl in front of her, who offered a small smile. That was what did it. Aria Blaze, former Siren and world-dominator, dissolved into uncontrollable sobs. It went on for a while. All thoughts of dignity were cast aside as Aria completely surrendered to despair. After several moments of this, she became aware of someone sitting next to her. Then a tentative arm went around her. Aria tried to pull away at first, but gave up and let the other girl comfort her. Finally, she was able to stop. "There there. It's okay, it's all okay." The butterfly girl's comforting voice whispered to her as her tears stopped flowing. Aria heard a kind of wet flapping sound that caused her to look up in confusion. The girl had opened the umbrella over both of them. She smiled at Aria. "Feeling any better?" Aria had recovered slightly and now felt embarrassed, so she merely nodded. The two sat in silence for a moment. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" Butterfly ventured. Aria shook her head. The other girl sighed. "Um... I don't know your name." She tried again. Heh. Aria thought. Something we have in common She turned to her comforter and awkwardly held out her hand. "It's Aria. Aria Blaze." Aria muttered gruffly. The girl took her her hand. "Fluttershy" A slightly awkward pause. "Um, it's just Fluttershy." Aria nodded and Fluttershy smiled tentatively. "Uh..." Fluttershy spoke again. Aria looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably. "Do you want to... You know..." Aria widened her eyes expectantly. Fluttershy averted her eyes. "Sorry, I don't know. Care to explain?" Aria managed to regain some of her normal tone. Fluttershy raised her head. "Come back to my house." Aria's eyebrows practically disappeared in her hair. "Why would I want to do that?" Fluttershy shrank slightly. "Well, I thought that you seemed upset-" Aria cut her off. "Sure. You just want to lure me somewhere so your rainbow friendies can punish me." "No! No I don't want to do that!" Fluttershy acted as if Aria had accused her of something. "Why not? I'm evil, remember?" Aria folded her arms. "You're not that evil. You're just..." Fluttershy thought for a moment. "Power-hungry" Aria snorted. To her surprise, Fluttershy giggled along with her. "Okay, maybe you were a bit evil. But you're different now, right?" Fluttershy smiled. Aria frowned. "What makes you think that I've changed?" "Sunset Shimmer changed" Fluttershy stated simply. Aria looked away. "I'm not Sunset Shimmer." Aria pointed out, depression at her situation starting to weigh her down again. "That's true, but don't you think she proves that anyone can change?" Fluttershy said quietly. Aria didn't answer this time. She stared at the ground, weighing her options. She could stay here alone in the pouring rain, or she could go back to a warm house and be looked after for a bit. Aria sighed. The latter option was far too tempting. "Okay, listen up butterfly girl." Fluttershy blinked at her. "I'll come to your house." Fluttershy smiled at her and opened her mouth to say something. "But!" Aria continued. "Don't tell Adagio. Or your rainbow friends. Or anyone actually. And-" Aria paused and thought for a moment "I'll repay you. Somehow. Deal?" Aria reached her hand for the second time. Fluttershy reached out and they shook again. "Deal." > Moving In > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aria stepped over the threshold to Fluttershy's house and stared. It wasn't quite what she'd expected. The hallway was quite dark, lit only by one ceiling lamp further along. The walls were covered with striped wallpaper, pale pink and dark purple. The combination was not pleasant. Paintings of flowers in different shades of pink lined the corridor. Huh. Aria thought I've never seen anything so insipid. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Fluttershy squeezing a considerable amount of water out of her skirt. She proceeded to step into the corridor, remove her shoes and place them on a rack by the wall. Aria cautiously followed suit, casting another contemptuous look at the decor. Fluttershy seemed to have caught her look. "It's my mom's taste" Fluttershy said quickly. "She's not in right now." Aria nodded and glanced round, taking in the different doorways as her curiosity heightened slightly. Fluttershy coughed. "Maybe we should go into the kitchen?" She suggested. "It's less pink." Aria offered a brief smile. "Please." Fluttershy led her down the corridor and through a door on the left. The kitchen wasn't pink, but it was the cleanest room Aria had seen in a long time, resembling more a furniture display than an actual room used for cooking. Aria crossed to the scrubbed white table, putting her bag on one chair and sitting down on another. Fluttershy reached up and opened a cupboard, beginning to rifle through it. "Um, so, would you like a drink?" "Sure." Aria said bluntly. "Okay, what would you like? Tea? Hot chocolate?" "Uh, coffee. Please. Black." Aria surveyed the room again, taking in the seeming lack of windows. A second or two later, she noticed a high up one with flowery curtains drawn in front of it. The two were silent for a moment as the water boiled, and Fluttershy prepared Aria's coffee and her own much milkier one. She sat down across from Aria and slid the coffee over to her. "Thanks." They were quiet again for a while, sipping their drinks and not making eye contact. Fluttershy was the first to speak again. "Um, Aria?" "Hm?" "I'm going to get changed now. Uh, I could lend you something to wear if you like." Fluttershy smiled tentatively. Aria shook her head. "I'll pass." She hesitated. "Though I'd really like to take a shower or something." "Oh! Okay, that's fine. I'll show you where it is." Fluttershy got out her seat. Aria drained the last of her drink and followed the pink-haired girl through the door, then through another one and up a staircase. The walls by the stairs were covered with yet more flower pictures, and several stiff family portraits. Fluttershy pointed Aria to a door along the upstairs corridor. "The bathroom's through there." Fluttershy headed towards another door presumably leading to her bedroom. Aria surveyed at the door for a moment before grasping the doorknob and entering. The bathroom was admittedly less pink than the rest of the house, though it still managed to be as tasteless. Somehow. Pulling that off was quite a feat. Aria sat down on the edge of the the bath. She had to seriously think about what she was going to do. She knew that if Fluttershy found out her situation, then she was likely to help her out, despite what she had done in the past. At the moment, the best option she had was not one she particularly liked. "Dammit." Aria said out loud. "I don't have a choice. She's all I have now." Twenty minutes later, Aria emerged from the bathroom feeling quite a bit better. Slightly unsure of what to do next, she decided to tell Fluttershy straight away, before she had a chance to get rid of the former siren. Finding Fluttershy's room was not a difficult task. One of the doors along the corridor was slightly ajar, and from came quite a bit of noise. Aria walked up to this door, pondering knocking. She decided against this idea and pushed the door open. "Uh..." Fluttershy's room was starkly different from the rest of the house. The walls were painted a soft, leafy green, the carpet pale yellow and the bed covered with a simple white blanket. What was most noticeable about it was the animals. They were everywhere. Various sizes of animal beds lined all the walls, bird cages hanging from the ceiling and on shelves. It was easy to glean the source of the noise from this place. "Oh! Hello Aria, I didn't hear you come in." Fluttershy stood in the middle of the room. She was wearing a white T-shirt and green trousers, her pink hair held in a ponytail. She clutched a bag of some kind of animal food in her hands. "That's not surprising." Aria stepped over one of the cats. "Hey. Butterfly girl." Fluttershy tilted her head slightly. "We need to talk." "We do?" Aria mentally facepalmed. "Yeah. We do." She waved a hand in the air. "Care to shut your little friends up?" "Oh. Um, sure." Fluttershy set the bag of food down and turned to address the room. "Quiet please everyone!" Aria raised an eyebrow. Seriously? Like that's going to- The room fell silent. Fluttershy smiled and turned to sit down on her bed. Quickly recovering from her surprise, Aria pulled Fluttershy's desk chair over and sat down. "So." Aria surveyed Fluttershy's innocent expression. "Remember when your magical friendship horse blasted my powers to pieces?" Fluttershy stared at her for a moment, before nodding slowly. "Well. After that happened we were in a pretty bad position. We didn't know what to do, other than get our powers back. So that's what we tried to do. Well-" Aria paused "-that's what me and Adagio tried to do. But soon it became pretty apparent that it just wasn't possible. See, what happened when we got hit by the rainbow thing wasn't just our pendants being destroyed and the magic released- which was what we originally thought. What actually happened was your power neutralised ours. Y'know, like acid and ally." Fluttershy blinked. "Um. Do you mean acid and alkali?" She whispered. "Whatever." Aria waved her hand dismissively. "Anyway, when we found that out, Adagio gave up. I think Sonata gave up quite a while ago. They gave up, but I didn't. They were happy to accept human lives, I wasn't. I carried on searching for the answer. Even when I knew there was no way I could succeed. Eventually, Sonata and Adagio got tired of me. They had jobs, earning money. Enough so we could have a house." Aria grimaced. "Their house. You can probably guess how this turns out." "Oh..." Fluttershy looked down. Aria laughed mirthlessly. "Yeah. They turfed me out. Today. So I could run into butterfly girl, make a fool of myself, and end up here." Fluttershy looked legitimately upset. "You've got nowhere else to go." "No." They were silent for a moment. Aria could practically hear the cogs in Fluttershy's brain working. Eventually she sighed. "You've got nowhere else... So you should stay here." Fluttershy looked down. "I can't think of anything else that doesn't make me feel bad." Aria grinned. She stood up suddenly, making Fluttershy jump. "Sure. I'll stay here." Aria began to turn around but stopped. "Oh. I guess I should do something for you too." Fluttershy sighed again. "I guess so." She brightened slightly. "There are a couple of things I need doing." Looks like I'll be spending quite a bit of time around animals. "Right." Aria said. "I'll, uh, do those things then." Her tone was clearly false, but Fluttershy seemed to buy it. Aria turned for the second time. "Oh, the guest room's third door on the right. You can go in there." Aria didn't respond to this. "Aria?" "Yeah, I heard you." "No, it's not that. It's um..." Fluttershy shrank slightly where she was sitting. Aria glanced at her. "What?" "Um, well, are we sort of... friends now?" Fluttershy hid behind her hair. "What? No! Of course not! I'm not buying into your magical friendship thing like Sunset Shimmer did." Aria folded her arms. Fluttershy visibly wilted. "Then what are we?" Fluttershy looked up at the older girl with wide eyes. Aria thought for a moment. "We're acquaintances. Companions. Something like that. Just-" She rolled her eyes "-not friends" Fluttershy seemed to be think about this for a moment. "Okay..." She said slowly. "Companions then." "Yep. Mind if I leave now?" Aria turned for the third time. "Huh?" "The room." "Oh. Right." Aria pulled Fluttershy's door open and paused for a second. "Hey butterfly girl?" "Hm?" "Thanks." > My Friends and my Not-Friend > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fluttershy had a house-mate. This wasn't something she'd foreseen. At all. Especially since the person in question was Aria Blaze. Aria Blaze. The mind controlling siren who had attempted to take over the world. Fluttershy sighed to herself. This was a bad idea, and she knew it. But every time she thought about telling her new house-mate to leave, she felt too bad about it. Darn kindness! Always getting the better of her. Fluttershy had been so lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice a certain pink-haired girl leaving the nearby bakery. "Fluttershy! Over heeeeere!" Fluttershy jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice and looked around for a moment before spotting her excitable friend waving madly at her. Pinkie Pie bounced over to her and fell into step with her. "Oh, good morning Pinkie." Fluttershy smiled at the younger girl, who seemed almost more excited than usual. "I don't often see you around here." "Oh! I was helping out at the bakery again!" Pinkie beamed at her. "You were? This early in the morning?" Fluttershy knew Pinkie went above and beyond to help people sometimes, but this was a little odd. "Yes yes yes! And guess what? The Cakes were so happy about me helping them, they offered me a job there!" Pinkie skipped a little as she finished her sentence. "That's great! You must be happy about it." Fluttershy's smile widened at Pinkie's infectious joy. "Yup! I love helping out there, it's a great place to hold parties." They had reached the high school now. "Ooh! There's Rainbow. Rainbow Dassshhhh!" "I'm super-duper happy! I can't believe they would let me work for them!" "That's great Pinkie, but you have told us that like fifteen times already." "We're very happy for you darling, but-" Both Rainbow Dash and Rarity were cut off by Pinkie's voice yet again. "But I still can't believe it! They've employed me! Pinkie!" "Yes, we know-" Pinkie Pie didn't stop talking. The others sighed. "Just leave her." Applejack said tiredly. "There's no point arguin' with that girl." "You're right AJ." Rainbow flopped down. "She'll stop eventually." Fluttershy hadn't really been listening to this exchange. She had spent most of the morning worrying about what she was going to do. She still didn't know how to tell her friends what had happened, so she couldn't get their help either. "Fluttershy? Something wrong?" Sunset Shimmer had noticed her worried expression. Fluttershy looked up. The source of the voice had a concerned look on her face. "I'm fine." Sunset raised an eyebrow sceptically. "You sure? You look a little, y'know, terrified." The older girl offered a smile. "You can tell me." Fluttershy smiled slightly back at Sunset. "I'm okay. Really. Y-you don't need to worry about me." The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Fluttershy bid her friends goodbye at the school doors, and hurried home, worrying all the way. What if something bad had happened? Someone may have gotten hurt. What about her animals? She arrived at her house out of breath. "Aria? Hello? Are you there?" Fluttershy could hear a faint sound coming from upstairs. She rushed up them, dreading what may have happened. "I've had just about enough of you, you stupid freaking rabbit!" Fluttershy opened her bedroom door and surveyed the scene before her. Most of her animals were cowering in corners of her room, food spilled around the place. They all stared to the centre of the room. Aria was holding Angel by the ears up against the wall and glaring at him with a ferocity that could rival Fluttershy's stare. "You may be able to get away with this under her watch, but I'm in charge now, and you. Answer. To. Me!" Fluttershy blinked. "Um..." Aria glanced up. "Thank God. I can't deal with these bratty little things any more. Take it from here." She dropped Angel and strode to the door. Fluttershy stared after her. "H-huh..." Fluttershy decided not to make any food that evening, and ordered a takeaway instead. This was another action her mother would deeply disapprove of, especially since it was "foreign" Aria poked at the food suspiciously. "What is this stuff?" She frowned at Fluttershy, who was already eating. Fluttershy swallowed. "Chinese. You've never had it?" "Nope." Aria scooped up some rice. "Looks weird." Fluttershy giggled. "It's nice. You should try some. That's rice." She pointed at the food on Aria's fork. Aria examined it and shrugged. She popped it in her mouth and her eyes widened. Fluttershy stifled another laugh. "Nice?" Aria visibly tried to maintain a neutral expression. "It's okay." Fluttershy was about to respond when the doorbell rang, startling her. "Who could that be?" Fluttershy hurried to the door and opened it cautiously. "Hi Fluttershy." Sunset Shimmer smiled at her. "Hello Sunset. Um, what are you doing here?" Fluttershy opened the door wider. "I came to see if you were okay. And Pinkie wanted you to have this." She handed over a box with the Sugarcube Corner logo on it. "We went to the bakery today. Rainbow called your cell, but she said you didn't answer." Sunset tilted her head, looking at Fluttershy expectantly. "I was busy. W-with the animals and stuff. Sorry." Fluttershy fiddled with the cake box. "Oh. That's fine. I just wanted to make sure nothing was-" "Hey! Fluttershy!" Aria wandered into the hall. "You want this? Cause I can't sit across from it without eatin-" She stopped. She looked at Sunset. Sunset stared at her. Fluttershy shrank back. Oh no.