Saturday, March 5, 2016

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Today's Horoscope (Virgo): Celebrate every battle you win, because in the end, you'll never win the war.

Early Morning

The first thing I do when I wake up is check my horoscope. I frown at it.

There's a knock on my door. Without waiting for me to answer, Fluttershy barges in. "I can't hack the horoscope app anymore," she says.

I hold up my phone and show it to Fluttershy. "Was this you?"

She shakes her head. "She caught me. She's patched the backdoor I was using." She throws up her hands. "Sorry."

I sigh. "Okay, fine. What's she likely to do now?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy says. "Kill us all maybe? It's hard to say."

"I don't think she's going to kill us," I say. "I think she likes watching us suffer too much."

"You could be right," Fluttershy says, nodding thoughtfully. "She's...she's sadistic." She sighs. "Anyway, I just wanted you to know I'm done helping you now. I've done everything I can do."

"No, you're not done yet," I say. "We're having a meeting later about last night. You're coming."

"Oh yeah? And what if I say no?"

I stare at her. "I'll sic Pinkie on you."

Fluttershy laughs. "Oh my god, are you serious? You think that scares me?"

A hand taps Fluttershy on the shoulder. She turns around...

Pinkie's standing behind her, dressed like Batgirl.

Fluttershy doubles over, clutching her stomach and laughing. "God, you losers are sad..."

Sonata walks in. She's dressed in jeans and a hoodie, and she's looking down at Fluttershy with sad, hurt eyes.

I don't understand. I thought you were nice...

Fluttershy stops laughing.

I thought you were my friend...

Fluttershy sighs. "...when are we doing this stupid meeting thing?"

"As soon as everybody's up and dressed," Pinkie says. "We've gotta do it early and fast because I've got tennis today."

Fluttershy nods. "Okay. I'll...I'll be there. We're meeting in Cadance's apartment, right?"

"Yeah."

Fluttershy leaves. I look at Sonata. "How much did they tell you already?"

Sonata shrugs.

Twilight explained some. Pinkie tried to explain a lot more.

"So you're more confused now than you were last night?"

Yeah.

"Hey!"

I shake my head. "Go wait for us in the lounge. We'll be headed over to Cadance's apartment as soon as we're all ready." I glance at Pinkie. "Pinkie, take that off."

Pinkie gives me a sultry, half-lidded smile and starts to strip...

"IN YOUR OWN ROOM!"

"Aww..."

Sonata giggles and leaves.

Pinkie pouts. "You don't like my Batgirl costume?"

I facepalm. "Not really in the mood for this right now, Pinkie. Besides, you need to get ready for tennis."

Pinkie sighs. "Yeah...okay." She trudges out.

I could've been less of a jerk to her just now...I'll make it up to her later.

Morning

Cadance picked up breakfast tacos for everybody. We're all gathered in her living room, including Sonata and Fluttershy.

"Where's Shining Armor?" Twilight asks.

"For once, I didn't have to get rid of him," Cadance says. "He's over at the school with the track team. They're doing their Saturday practice early today because of the tennis and basketball at the school." She smiles at Pinkie. "Good luck today, by the way."

"Thanks."

I look around. "Okay, so...I guess we start with filling Sonata in? And getting ourselves caught up at the same time."

It takes almost an hour to explain everything to Sonata, beginning back in February with Cadance's first encounter with Zodiac, and my own attack in August. During the explanation, Rainbow is frequently hostile to Fluttershy, who seems determined to egg her on.

Once we reach what happened yesterday, Twilight says, "And so...that's all we really know. Unless Fluttershy would like to explain something else? Like, for example, how long she's known about Zodiac?"

Fluttershy shakes her head. "Not doing that."

I glare at Fluttershy. "You said it yourself...Sunset Shimmer knows you're up to something."

Fluttershy looks away. "I don't...want to talk about certain things, alright? Especially not..." She shakes her head. "The less you really know about me, the better."

Nobody quite knows what to say to that.

Hey Fluttershy? How did you make it so I could talk?

Fluttershy shrugs. "That's...pretty hard to explain. And you'd probably freak out if I tried. Just...when you're in Zodiac, you should be able to talk. Leave it at that."

Twilight coughs. "So, Sonata...I'd say it's up to you whether or not you want to join us, but...now that you have a Persona, whenever Zodiac activates, you'll get pulled in. I'm sorry."

Are you kidding? I can't wait to fight monsters! I need to show Adagio and Aria that I don't need them to carry me!

"Okay. Then you'll need that app from Fluttershy."

"Yes, about that app," Rarity says, looking at Fluttershy. "It's ever so handy to have such a thing, but...don't take this the wrong way...I'm not sure how comfortable I am wearing, well...the same outfit as a certain sociopath. No offense."

"Rarity!" Twilight snaps.

Fluttershy blows on her hair. "Yeah, I reskinned it for Flash because I don't think any of us wanted to see him in a skirt, but..." She shrugs. "I can modify it so you can get whatever outfits you want out of it. I wouldn't mess with the weapon parameters if I were you, though. They're tricky. The clothes are just a basic skin, like a game mod. I'll tweak it, add some documentation..." She chews on the inside of her cheek. "Give me three days or so."

So Zodiac is a virtual world?

"No, it's..." Fluttershy frowns. "It's really hard to explain what it is. But once you figure out how to hack it, pretty much the same basic principles."

"Why's it connected to Canterbook?" Rainbow asks.

Fluttershy shrugs. "I honestly don't know. It's just there." She hesitates, then adds, "Sunset Shimmer didn't create it. Neither of us know where it came from." She stands up. "I'll send everybody the upgrade when I'm done." She leaves.

Pinkie stands up. "I gotta go," she says. "I have to be at the practice courts in thirty minutes."

"Good luck," I say.

"Are you coming to watch?" Pinkie asks.

"Of course!"

Pinkie leaves. The rest of us look around at each other.

"So...that Fluttershy," Rainbow says. "Awkward much?"

Twilight sighs. "I just...don't even know what to think anymore."

"Well, for now, we need to rest, relax a bit, then after we get that upgrade from Fluttershy, we can worry about training for the next Shadow."

"About that..." Twilight says. "Fluttershy is an Aries."

We look at each other.

Rainbow shrugs. "So? If she's attacked, she can take care of herself."

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity snaps.

I shake my head. "We can't assume anything at this point. We need to make a list of possible targets and keep our eyes and ears open."

"Would Sunset Shimmer even attack Fluttershy?" Cadance wonders.

"It's possible. Especially if she keeps helping us and...being less of a bitch."

I still can't get over Fluttershy having a nasty side like that. Wow.

"Yeah, we're all learning lots of things we wish we didn't know about people," I say.

Cadance checks her watch. "Well...I've got stuff to do. You kids should...whatever. I'll see you all at the tennis matches later."

We all head off to do our own stuff until time for the tennis matches.

Daytime

We still have some time to kill before leaving for the matches. I decide to check up on Sonata. I find her in her room, playing with Zoe.

"How are you holding up?" I ask.

She smiles wryly, shrugs, and makes a "so-so" motion with her hand.

I sit down on the floor. Zoe runs over to me and climbs up into my lap; I scratch her ears.

What happened last night is an awful lot to process. I'm still not even sure it's all real.

"Yeah, I imagine so."

Sonata looks at Zoe.

Fluttershy confuses me. She's nice one minute, then...

"We're ALL confused by Fluttershy," I say. "I know she's a good person, because she wouldn't do things like give you Twilight Barkle here if she wasn't, but..." I shake my head. "I don't know what's wrong with her, but..." I sigh. "She's hard to trust now that we know what we know, and we still don't know everything." I look up at Sonata. "Changing the subject...what was all that last night, when your Persona awakened?"

Sonata frowns.

I...I don't really know.

She shrugs.

I think...I think I've been carrying around...

She lapses into a long, thoughtful silence, then writes at length.

All my life, my sisters...they bullied me, teased me, and belittled me, but...we also loved each other. A really strange, bitchy kind of love, but we always stuck together. They always had my back, even though they always called me an idiot and an airhead...

She lets out a weak laugh, then writes some more.

I always thought I couldn't stand on my own two feet. But now...now I'm alone. I don't have Adagio and Aria to watch out for me anymore. I...I have to be my own person. I have to figure things out for myself.

She looks down at her feet. Zoe tilts her head and looks up at her.

After a long moment, Sonata fingers the red pendant around her neck.

I miss them, but...I guess...some part of them is still inside me. And...and maybe that's what that was last night. I don't know.

I stand up, picking Zoe up, and put her on the bed next to Sonata. I lay my hands on Sonata's shoulders. "You're never alone. You'll always have friends looking out for you."

Sonata smiles and sniffles.

Thanks.

Her eyes widen.

Crap! We gotta get going if we want good seats!

She's right...

I head back to my room to finish getting ready, then head over to the school with the girls in a group.

The girls make a stunning showing, winning their first match of the season by one point shy of a shutout. After the matches, we all go to Sugar Cube Corner to celebrate, then head back to the dorm.

Evening

I spend the evening cuddling with Twilight and Pinkie in my room. We're all too tired to really do anything.

"We still need to do some more talking tomorrow," Twilight says. "About Fluttershy and about Sunset Shimmer and about Zodiac and..."

"Twilight?" Pinkie interrupts. "The only thing I wanna talk about tomorrow is what we're all gonna do for Spring Break." She looks sad. "Just...let us live like normal teenagers for a little while, without worrying about all this crazy stuff, okay?"

Twilight smiles. "You're right."

Spring Break is at the end of the month...

Can we really relax? Can we enjoy Spring Break, or...

The three of us watch TV and cuddle in silence for the rest of the night, lost in our own thoughts, until we fall asleep.