Three days had passed since Aria and Adagio had found their sister, Sonata, dead in her bedroom and the situation in their house had been rather tense. Both girls couldn't help but wonder if Sonata's death was just a matter of her suffocating herself in her sleep or if it was a case of suicide. Both girls felt a sense of guilt wondering if perhaps it was their poor treatment of their sister that led to this but Adagio couldn't help but feel that Aria, who always treated Sonata much worse than she did, was responsible for this whether it was suicide or not.
When the two got up the morning of Sonata's funeral, they were rather quiet as they had been. Adagio had a look of sadness and frustration on her face realizing that that day would be their final chance to say goodbye to their sister. As they sat down for breakfast Adagio decided to break the silence, "Well today's the day, it's our last chance to say goodbye to Sonata."
Aria commented, "I know. Even though she's only been gone for three days, it feels like she's been gone forever."
Once again the two went silent and after finishing breakfast, the two went to get ready for the funeral. Rather than dressing like they normally do, both wore all black. As they headed out the door Adagio said, "Well, this is it."
When they arrived at the school, they immediately headed to the gym where the services were going to be held. Up in the front of the room sat Sonata's casket. The two both headed up and stood before it. Adagio said, "I'm sorry Sonata, I'm sorry for how I treated you. I just hope you can forgive me."
For Aria, finding something to say was more difficult. While she didn't want to admit it to anyone, not even Adagio, she knew that she had treated her younger sister horribly. Finally she found something to say, "I'm sorry Sonata, I know I was a bad sister."
Thirty minutes later people began to file into the gym. With the exception of Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna, it was primarily students of the school that were attending and even out of them, not that many were attending. While Sonata was the most well liked out of the three, only a third of the student body bothered to show up, which brought about a great amount of sadness in Adagio and anger in Aria. Aria never did care much for most of the students at CHS and the low turnout for the funeral was proof in Aria's eyes that most of them didn't deserve the roofs over their heads.
Once the clock hit ten the two girls went to their seats in the front row. Given that they didn't understand human religion and certainly weren't religious themselves, it would be Celestia who oversaw the services. For Celestia this was hard, very hard. This was only the second time she had ever had one of her students die and given the history between The Dazzlings and the rest of the school, it was only harder.
Celestia stood at the front of the room and began,
"Students of Canterlot High, we are gathered here for a solemn event, today we join to say our final farewells to one of our fellow schoolmates, Sonata Dusk. While I did not know Sonata all that well, I do remember the day I first met her. I remember that smile of hers and her bubbly personality."
Naturally Celestia did not want to bring up the events that followed as she did not wish to say anything negative about Sonata out of respect for not just her, but her grieving sisters. She had a flustered look on her face and continued, "I would like to call on her oldest sister, Adagio Dazzle, to say a few words."
She motioned for Adagio to head up to the podium. This was hard for Adagio as she had never been good at expressing her emotions. She began,
"As you all know, Sonata was my youngest sister which meant that throughout her life I was normally the one she would look up to for advice. All the way back to when we were very young, she always looked to me for advice whether it was over what to wear or if she needed help with her homework. I'm going to admit, we did go through our rough times and all three of us have had our bad times but Sonata was always the more cheerful one, the one who almost always had a smile on her face and as many of you know, she was the one who really loved her tacos."
Adagio stepped down from the podium with a nervous look on her face but couldn't help but notice that one student, one who had grown closer with her since the battle of the bands, Sunset Shimmer, was giving her a look of approval. After she stepped down, Aria headed up to the podium. Saying something about Sonata in front of so many people actually frightened Aria as she had never really got along with her younger sister,
"Like Adagio said, Sonata was the youngest of us three and while she looked up to my sister for advice on fashion or needed homework, I was the one she looked up to for snappy comebacks when it came to dealing with bullies in school when she was younger. One thing I always wondered was how, despite the deck being stacked against the three of us, she could always keep such a positive personality and hold hope that things would get better. I suppose that is what made her special."
Once Aria began to head down to her seat she glanced at all the empty seats with a scowl on her face. One of the students noticed this and yelled, "I don't know why you bothered saying anything. You didn't even like your baby sister, much less love her."
This brought out an angry response from Aria. She pointed towards the doors and yelled, "You know what? If you're going to be like this just get out!" Her scowl deepened and her voice became angrier, "You know something, you and all the assholes that didn't even show up to Sonata's funeral are the worst!"
The student immediately left and Adagio gave Aria a look of disapproval. While she could understand that the student angered her, she was bothered by her angry outburst. Principal Celestia was shocked but not surprised given Aria's confrontational personality. She headed up to the podium and asked, "Is there anyone else who would like to say anything?"
At first the gym was quiet but then the one student who actually gave The Dazzlings a chance immediately after they were defeated raised her hand. Celestia said, "Ms. Shimmer, the podium is yours."
Sunset walked up to the podium and began,
"Like many others, I noticed how Sonata was always so cheerful and bubbly. I remember back when I was welcoming her and her sisters to the school. I know how many of you felt about her and her sisters when they first arrived but there was always something different about Sonata. While she tried to appear tough sometimes, her sunny and cheerful side always shone through. Even when her sisters would have arguments with other students, she never really carried the same attitude and negativity is something I never really saw from her. Especially after the battle of the bands, Sonata was a cheerful girl. I look at how things are in this school and I honestly believe that if everyone in this school had even a little bit of Sonata in them, that this would be a much better place.
As I look out at all of you and see so many empty seats, it makes me feel like this school parallels this world. While it does have some positive people, it is full of negative people, people who could use a little bit of Sonata in them. While it is obvious that Aria is very angry over all the empty seats, I can only imagine how Sonata would be. She would not look at the empty seats negatively, she would look at the full seats and be happy that some of you cared enough to pay your final respects.
While I didn't know Sonata as well as I would have liked, I did in the end grow closer with her and her sisters than pretty much anyone else at this school and I saw a lot of them in myself. At first they were unpleasant, they were like me when I first came here as they wanted to influence others negatively but in the end, they realized that that was not the way to do things. While I don't expect you to think about this for very long, just know that Sonata would be happy to see you here."
The gym went silent as everyone was shocked that Sunset had said a lot more about Sonata than either one of her sisters did. Once she had finished her speech the services were over and students began to file out, save three. Aria and Adagio again headed up to the casket for one final moment with Sonata but would be joined by Sunset. Sunset put her arms around the two and said, "If there is anything I can do for you two, let me know."
Adagio replied, "All we ask for is someone to talk to if we need it. We don't need anything special, just someone to talk to and listen."
Aria added, "That is all we ask for, is someone who cares."
After an hour of standing in silence, Sonata's casket was taken to the cemetery to be buried. Seeing her casket being covered with dirt was the hardest part for the two. It was at that moment that they knew she truly was gone forever but one thing festered in Adagio's mind was the constant wonder, "Was Sonata's death suicide? Was Aria responsible for this? Was it her constant speculation, bitching and the fact that she killed her boyfriend that caused this to happen?"