Hello, fellow readers! Welcome back. Here's your menu. Specials? Well, we have:
Maelaeran: Probably the latter. Thanks, I'm glad that my efforts paid off.
Foxchick1: It was called 'Mystery Food X' for a reason.
TheBeatles211: You shall see.
Good choices! Enjoy!
Chapter 5: Doubting Yourself
"Well, this sucks. That boy ran off with our gems and our power along with it!" Aria complained as the three sat up on the roof with the moonlight shining down upon them.
"I know! You say that like I wasn't there! At least the students are still controlled." Adagio reminded her as she was rubbing her fingers against the sides of her head, trying to soothe the headache she has now.
"But, we can't absorb the negativity." Aria pointed out.
"Really? I thought we just breathe that in." Sonata said offhandedly.
Adagio simply ignored them as she remembers the events that happened earlier. As they ran after the thief, she noticed something that she recognized about him, but couldn't exactly pinpoint it.
"He was really athletic and quite intelligent. However..." She then recalled the conversation they had.
When she was walking towards him, he looked at their gems held in his hand for a moment. Did the thought of giving them back actually crossed his mind?
Her thoughts were interrupted as Sonata yawned, "I'm so sleepy..."
Aria also yawned right after her, which then leads to them laying on the ground asleep. Adagio then started to yawn herself, "Why am I... tired?"
Her eyes then started to grow heavy before she laid on the ground as well, sleeping the night away.
Opening her eyes, she finds herself and the other two in a black void before getting up to her feet. Aria and Sonata also got up to their feet as they took in their surroundings.
"Where are we?" Adagio couldn't help but feel like they were being watched, despite the darkness surrounding them as they stood near each other.
"Who knows? Your dreams... or your future?" A familiar voice responded to her or rather... herself?
Turning towards where the voice came from, she finds herself face to face with themselves. The only difference is that their eye color was an ominous yellow as they looked at them with a blank expression.
"Are you us?" Aria was skeptical at this, which is understandable.
"They copied our look!" Sonata was just being herself.
"Oh please, you copied our look!" The other Sonata was just as dumb, apparently.
"Enough!" The other Adagio silenced the two before speaking, "We are you. Your 'true selves', so to speak."
"To make it short, we are what you hide even from yourselves." Aria added to avoid confusion.
"All right. If you are our 'true selves', why haven't you spoke to us until now?" Adagio was doubting their case.
"Must be the Equestrian magic that this school has. It was used on that Sunset girl, remember?" The other Adagio reminded them.
The three shadows started to walk around the originals as Sonata spoke, "Are we playing a game?"
"Oh! I want to lead!" The other Sonata chimed in.
"No, you idiot. We're not here for games." The other Aria denied.
"Good, I'm not in the mood." Aria said offhandedly.
"We are here to substitute for the power you lost. However, it'll have quite the price." The other Adagio offered as the shadows continued to walk around them.
Adagio thinks about it for a moment, "And that would be...?"
"Oh you know, the usual like-" The other Sonata was cut off as the other Adagio places a hand over her mouth.
"Overusing them will be taxing on you, that's all." The other Aria summarized.
The originals looked at each other as Adagio continues to think. She knows that there are more to the offer, but remembers that they're basically powerless right now due to the gem thief. That angered her to no end, which leads to her making the decision.
"Very well." Her answer took Aria and Sonata a bit by surprise.
"Wait, we don't even know if this will work!" Aria was very irritated since they have no idea what this will entail.
"And you have a better opinion? Oh wait, you don't." Adagio retorted.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Sonata was surprisingly somber as all this was so sudden.
"Look, this is all we got. We pass this up and we're stuck like this permanently." Adagio did bring up a good point.
"...Fine. Just don't cry when it backfires." Aria groaned as Sonata simply nodded in agreement.
Adagio rolled her eyes at her comment, "Whatever."
The three then turned towards the shadows, who's patience started to dwindle a bit as the other Adagio tapped her foot in a rhythm subconsciously, "So, do we have a deal?" She held out her hand, waiting.
Adagio walks towards her after a brief moment of hesitation and shook her hand before feeling a sharp pain in her head. She couldn't keep her eyes open because of it, not seeing her shadow's smile.
Twilight woke up in the middle of the night, looking out towards the moon outside before looking around the room to see her friends sleeping. Yu and Ren slept near the wall with Morgana sleeping next to Ren's head as Twilight got up to her feet, carefully walking across the room to avoid waking the others before reaching the drawer near the bed. Opening the top one to reveal Fluttershy's notebook she was borrowing before taking it out to work on the counter spell, unaware of someone else being awake as she left the room.
Walking into the kitchen, she placed the notebook on the island counter and held the pen in her hand before realizing she can use her mouth instead. Writing down words that were a bit more cohesive, the lyrics for the song were still a bit on the bland side as she moved the pen across the paper.
Only a couple of minutes pass before she let go of the pen, allowing it to hit the counter with a quiet thud as she sighed.
"No, that's not gonna work..." She muttered to herself before rubbing her eyes to wake herself up a bit.
"Hey, Twilight."
Twilight jumped a bit at the sudden voice, looking towards the door frame to see Sunset. "Sunset? I'm sorry if I wake you."
"No, I actually couldn't sleep that much. Still working on the counter spell?" Sunset asked as she walks towards the fridge.
"Yeah. It has to be perfect or it won't work." Twilight sighed a bit as Sunset places her hand on the fridge handle.
"Well, it's nice that we have you guys here." Sunset commented before opening the fridge door, revealing it to be full of cans of whipped cream. "OK, who needs this much whipped cream?"
"We are in Pinkie's house." Twilight chuckled a bit at that, knowing the Pinkie from her world would have the same.
"...Good point." Sunset shrugged at that before taking out one of the cans.
She then sprayed a small dollop on one of her fingers before sucking on it. "Must be nice to have everyone come to you for a solution... rather than waiting for you to make a problem."
Twilight looks down at the notebook to read the pages she recently written on, seeing just more scribbles and mistakes she had. "Well, just because they expect something, it'll only make them disappointed when it doesn't happen."
"You can't just expect them to... not expect something when bad things happen." Sunset places her free hand on her hip as she said this.
"Which only makes things harder, because the last thing you want is-"
"Let everyone down." The two looked at each other after saying that simultaneously.
Sunset was a bit surprised that Twilight had doubts like this too, despite being a princess. She then places the can back inside before closing the fridge, turning back around-
"Wah!" Only to be surprised at Maud standing at the counter next to her, wearing her night clothes which were a white t-shirt and blue short shorts.
It seemed that her yelp attracted someone as Yu appeared at the doorway, looking at the three before speaking. "What happened?"
"Boulder was hungry." Maud kept her monotone voice as she opened a cabinet above her to pull out a box of small crackers.
She slowly poured them into her hand that had Boulder as she left, leaving the kitchen as Sunset whispered to Twilight.
"I still can't believe her and Pinkie are related." She uttered to her.
"Tell me about it." Twilight knows the Maud from her world, remembering when they met her before seeing Yu walk in. "Did we wake you?"
"No, I used the bathroom earlier. I was on my way back before hearing Sunset." Yu answered.
"Sorry, she surprised me." Sunset sheepishly rubbed the back of her head as she said that.
"What are you two doing up?" Yu was curious about that.
"I'm just working on the counter spell." Twilight holds up the notebook to prove it.
"I couldn't sleep." Sunset simply answered.
Yu briefly nodded at that before looking at the notebook, "Mind if I see it?"
"Oh, sure." Twilight was a bit hesitant before handing it to him.
Yu opens it to the most recent page that had writing on it, seeing her handwriting was...
"I'm impressed you're able to read this." Yu was blunt, leaving the two girls taken back a bit.
"Well, I'm not used to having these." Twilight raises her hands to emphasize her point.
"Oh." Yu remembers that Twilight wasn't from this world, let alone another species before handing the notebook back.
"Honestly, I knew it was her handwriting since I wrote like that when I arrived here." Sunset surprised a lot of people with her handwriting back then, "Don't worry, you'll get used to them."
"I hope so." Twilight then closes the notebook before having a question pop in her head, "Yu, you and Ren are leaders of your groups, right?"
"Yeah." Yu listened intently as she continued.
"Do you also... have doubts about your friends looking to you for answers?" Twilight didn't want to beat around the bush with him.
"Of course." Yu had no hesitation in his answer, "I always hope that each decision was the right one. One wrong step could have cost us a lot."
"...Were there anything that they disagreed with you on?" Sunset doubted every decision he made was something the others would just follow.
Yu was silent for a moment before looking away, "Let's just say... I would have done something that I would have regretted if my friends didn't talk me out of it."
Twilight and Sunset were curious, but seeing the look on his face stopped them from asking any further. Yu realizes the silence and tries to break it, "Sorry, didn't mean to bring the mood down."
"No, it's all right. I asked." Sunset shrugs off, mainly to keep the conversation going.
"Why did you ask, anyways?" Yu was curious about the sudden question.
"Just wanted to get a second opinion." Twilight simply answered.
Yu came to the conclusion that they had a conversation earlier about this, "I see. Glad to be of help. Just be sure to remember that in a group, everyone's decisions matters."
Sunset and Twilight processed the advice as Yu then lets out a yawn, "I better get back to bed. See you two in the morning." He said before turning around to head back.
"I guess you're gonna continue working?" Sunset asked Twilight.
"Yeah, still gotta work out some lyrics." Twilight opened the notebook and picked up the pen as Sunset spoke, "OK, just don't stay up too late. We have to rehearse before the showcase. Good luck with the counter spell."
"Thanks." Twilight then stopped for a moment before calling out, "Sunset?"
Sunset stops at the doorway to look at her, "Yeah?"
Twilight then finds herself forgetting what she wanted to say, "Never mind. It's not important."
"You sure?" Sunset knew she wouldn't just say that for no reason.
"Yeah. See you in the morning." Twilight gives her a small smile in response.
"...OK." With that, Sunset headed back to bed.
Twilight looks at the scribbles in the notebook while holding the pen in her hand, "I only hope this will be enough to make a sensible song." She muttered to herself.
And done! This may be a bit shorter, but this is just to get back into the swing of things.
So, that's my idea for the Dazzlings, which shouldn't really be surprising.
As for Twilight and Sunset, I always like this scene as it gives more insight into their thoughts on the current situation as well as past experiences. I added Yu there since A) He has experience with this, B) Ren needs a break from before, and C) I want to give him more screen time.
So, what shall happen now? We shall see next chapter!