Sonata sat in a corner of the cafeteria and sighed. Getting disempowered sucked, and nothing could change that, not even Taco Tuesday.
Okay, it being Taco Tuesday helped a little, but not much.
At least she didn't mind being alone. Adagio and Aria didn't want anything to do with her, and really, the feeling was mutual. After all, they were predators. This was how they were supposed to work. It was all Adagio's fault for screwing with the natural order, but now Sonata had to pay for it too.
Scraping chairs brought her attention back to the table, where three girls were seated on the other side, all dressed in blue and yellow. Sonata mentally labelled them Blue, Yellow, and Red, going by their hair color from left to right. Yellow was smiling and adjusting her tie, but Blue and Red both looked wary.
"Hi," said Yellow. "I'm Ditzy Doo." A beat, and she nudged Red with an elbow.
That spurred an introduction. "I'm Raspberry Fluff."
"Blue Oyster," said Blue—oh hey, Sonata got that one right—in a very Aria-like tone. Her half-lidded eyes were equally familiar, though the poofy hair was definitely a change.
Sonata moved her tacos closer and put her arms around them. "What do you want?"
Ditzy kept smiling. "We want to be your friends."
"Ditzy wants to be your friend," said Blue. "Razz and I are tagging along to make sure you don't pull something."
Raspberry nodded. "And she said she'd bake us apology muffins if this didn't work."
Ditzy pouted. "Come on, girls! Sunset Shimmer turned into a demon, but after she got took a rainbow to the face, she cleaned up her act. I mean, she even stepped up and took out the next evil mind-controlling magical horses." Her eyes widened, and with an awkward grin, she brought her attention back to Sonata. "Er, no offense."
Sonata just scowled and grabbed a taco with her right hand, keeping her left arm between her food and Blue Oyster.
Raspberry ran a hand through her waist-length hair. "Well, you like tacos," she said, "so you can't be all bad."
Sonata hunched over her food. "Why are you doing this?"
The three looked at one another. Ditzy spoke, a bit more anxious than before. "Like I said, we want to be your friends, to one degree or another. It seemed like you were just going along with the other two more often than not. Now you can be your own person, do what you really want instead of whatever they tell you."
"Oh." Sonata shook her head. "Wow, you really don't get it."
Two of the girls frowned, but Blue Oyster quirked an eyebrow. "Do tell."
"Adagio... she's always been really smart. She's the one who figured out how to combine our powers, and she's the one who could figure out you people. I..." Sonata frowned and squirmed. "I'm trying to find the words, and that's kind of the problem."
Blue nodded. "How so?"
"You know why I like tacos? They remind me of home."
Ditzy brightened up. "Really? How?"
Sonata felt a hint of a smile develop. "A thin skin over yummy meat. Just like sailors." She took a big bite. "Mmm…"
The other three girls glanced at one another. "Sailors?" asked Raspberry.
Sonata nodded. "Find a ship, sing to them, get them fighting, feed off the negative energy, and eat them after they wreck themselves. It was a good life." She scowled. "Then Adagio came, and she promised all I could eat if I joined her, and that worked until it didn't." Cracks sounded from the taco shell as her grip tightened. "And now I'm stuck here in this stupid body and this stupid world where everything's complicated and nothing makes sense and it all sucks."
Something touched her left hand. She flinched back and saw Ditzy looking back, hand outstretched and eyes askew. The blonde cleared her throat and said, "You could see this as an opportunity. We can help you adapt."
"Besides," added Blue, "even if you'd succeeded, what would you have done after you took over the world?"
Sonata blinked. "After?"
"Yeah. World domination sounds all well and good, but then you have to do something with the planet."
Ditzy smirked at her. "You've thought about this."
Blue returned the smirk. "You haven't?"
"Are we just ignoring the part where she ate pe—"
Ditzy shook her head. "Not the time, Razz."
Sonata barely noticed. She was too busy considering the concept of "after." "I… I guess Adagio would've thought of something?" Sonata shrugged. "I was just in it 'cause… well, we're the only three sirens in this world." She sagged. "At least, we were. We needed each other to squeeze a little magic out of you monkeys. Now…" She sighed.
"Now you can have actual friends," said Ditzy.
Sonata rubbed her temples. "I don't get you."
Blue nodded. "Yeah, Ditzy's weird, but that's part of her charm."
Sonata shook her head. "Not just her. I really don't get any of you. I don't get anything about this world. For a while, I could figure stuff out, but now everything changes so fast that by the time I have, it doesn't matter anymore." She folded into herself. The tacos were pale imitations anyway. She could barely remember the taste of minotaur. "Just leave me alone."
"But—"
"Ditzy, let it go." Raspberry Fluff actually sounded sad. Weird.
"If she says she wants to be left alone," said Blue Oyster, "we should respect that."
A sigh. "Okay. Sonata?"
She looked back up. The other two were standing, lunch trays in hand, but Ditzy hadn't gotten up yet. "What?"
"If you ever change your mind, we're here for you." Ditzy gave a sad little smile. "In any case, I hate seeing people being sad. Take this." She set a muffin on Sonata's lunch tray.
Sonata just looked at the pastry for a few seconds. "That's what always gets me. You people are just enough like ponies that I can never figure you out."
"Like I said, we're here for you." And with that, the trio left her alone.
Sonata nibbled at the muffin. It wasn't meat.
Needs moa cowbell!
I can't believe I didn't catch that reference the first time.
Great story though, I liked it.
I want to rewatch that scene with derpy but I can't find it anywhere for free.
Totally agree. They're basically monsters. Sonata's a cute monster, but a monster nonetheless.
Also, Ditzy knows all about magic horses running around loose because she met one once. As I recall, said grey pegasus in disguise made a waspish comment about how the Multiverse was conspiring to make her look like an idiot.
How cool that your first random draw is so relevant to current events.
Also that it picked a card old enough for me to recognize. I think I've got a play deck with one of those in it!
Oh my goodness, someone used Raspberry Fluff!
I am seeing a lot of fics where Sonata breaks free of Aria and Adagio, and I love it!
What is this a crossover of?
5085153
Magic: the Gathering. Not sure it really needs a crossover tag, but it looks like it's going to share a continuity with his other stories which heavily used elements from Magic. If that's the case then it definitely merits the crossover tag, since Ditzy and Pinkie are both Planeswalkers.
5082243
I got a fevah, and the only cua is moa cowbell! (Or Discord, in the next chapter.)
5082423
This one hasn't been taken down as of this posting.
5082716
Yeah, Jordan convinced me on that one. Sonata has the ignorant bliss of someone who has others to do her thinking for her. Without the other sirens, she's trapped in a world that changes too fast for her to even think of keeping up. She only figured out beepers last year!
5082753
I'm actually not sure whether or not this story is EoH-verse canon, though it certainly works. I'm considering how 'walker Ditzy might deal with the sirens, and I don't want it to be just "Wow, those are some nice black mana nexuses around your necks" and a triple Disenchant.
5085038
It's a fine name. However, I had to use Blue Oyster for the cowbell player.
Eh. She'll come around. I make sure they always do. Well-written otherwise.
Sadly, that's not the reason I'm here. I can't let this stay in the EQG group in good conscience if it's going to be a miniscule part of a 30-ish story anythology. Nothing personal, either; this is a new rule in response to a situation that's never come up until now, and not the only story I've applied it to. If you wish to turn the Sonatafic into its own story entry and add it, that's perfectly fine!
Apologies, and best of luck with the rest of your project.
5088937
Oh, no offense taken. After all, I'm not the one who put it in there. Nor any of the other EQG groups people have been sticking the story into. Really, this hasn't been a case of jumping the gun so much as pole-vaulting the Howitzer.
I lost it.
Sweet character interpretation. I like it! (but Sonata's cuteness is so delightful when you ignore the fact that she's a monster. . . . hm. . . .) But seriously, great job with the story. You really portrayed Sonata's frustration toward Adagio and bewilderment at Ditzy's optimism and cluelessness as to what to do next well.
"Was" should be deleted and "Derpy" should be "Ditzy", if you care about typos in these little oneshots.
5089717
Thanks. I knew there would be plenty of stories focusing on what I'll call "the waifu factor." I wanted to offer a counterpoint before people completely forgot that the Dazzlings were literal monsters. Characterizing Ditzy's bandmates was also fun.
And there is no story so short that I won't care about typos. However, I greatly appreciate that your comment wasn't just correction. Thanks for that.
Faving just for this chapter (though I'll get around to reading the others eventually) because dude. Speaking as someone with the Dazzlings as my current icon... I love what you did here. All the Sonata redemption fics out there are all well and good, but it's nice to see someone who recalls that she's also evil. Part of what makes her character so great, in fact; she can really go either way and it would make sense. Good on you for taking her on the other path.
Most of the siren stories so far aren't this well-written. Green-thumbed.
Just noticed something in a screencap gif that validates this: When the Sirens' true forms appear in the movie those are not the teeth of an herbivore.
aaaaaaand headcanon accepted.
Yeah, people keep forgetting that Sonata, while cute and ditzy, is still a malevolent mind-controlling monster. If she seems less nasty than Adagio, it's because she's less clever and adept at manipulating people and events.
Mmm. Tacos.
6504881 6511409
Yeah, this was intended as a salvo against the legions of Taco Waifu. Her apologists were already amassing when I published this, so I felt the other side needed a concrete argument. Plus, when the RNG handed me Seasinger as a prompt card less than a week after Rainbow Rocks aired, the course of action was obvious.
As for a story with people-eating Sonata, I recommend my own Oversaturation.
yesssss it's been a while since I read a good Sonata fic :3
Wow this story is over a year old. Also nice taco head Canon
A toast, to the new headcanon!
Is Blue Oyster involved in a cult of somekind or is she simply a fan of Godzilla who doesn't fear the reaper?
7112268
I'm fairly certain she doesn't belong to a cult... though given the opportunity and without her friends' stabilizing influence, she might organize one. To cowbells. Girl really likes cowbells.
I still think Derpy and Sonata would be great friends. Bonus points best friends with Pinkie Pie in the mix, creating a new trio for Sonata.
Well, I'm favoriting this story for this chapter alone.
6511409
There's nothing wrong with liking evil characters. Where it gets weird and annoying is when people start trying to pretend that they're not actually evil.
How 'evil' the Sirens actually are is a bit up in the air, I don't know that it's canon they ate people for example (just that they made them fight for their own power and amusement), but however evil they are, Sonata is just as much so as the others.
glad I got referred here :) love the concept of shuffling through the cards
but that taco/sailor reference is greatness :D
I used to be evil but then I took a rainbow to the face now I'm supremely pissed off evil seriously who the fuck hits someone with a rainbow now get off you walking pride flag