Sonata and Aria are given a perilous price to pay for a little luck.
"Adagio say's that we should never, ever, ever, hurt each other, but Adagio doesn't seem to know anything. She doesn't know about the scars on my chest. She doesn't know what Aria and I get up to in the attic these days.
She might know, but is afraid to tell. I think it happened to Adagio too."
Dagi say's that we should never, ever, ever, hurt each other, but Dagi doesn't seem to know anything. She doesn't know about the scars on my chest. I don't think that she know's what Aria and I get up to in the attic these days.
She might know, but is afraid to tell. I think it happened to Dagi too.
Aria is always waking me up in the middle of the night. We have always been polar opposites, for instance, Aria doesn't sleep very much and I can "Sleep through the end of the world," (that's the way that Dagi put's it). Aria also eats enough for ten grown men, and I eat like a small bird. We're opposites, plain and simple. Sunset Shimmer, a girl at school, says that it happens with twins sometimes. One of them is one way and the other is completely different, and together they make one person.
I love Aria, but I don't love her as my twin sister. It's almost like we were supposed to be "One in the same thing," but we got split up inside of our mother and now we're two different people. It's like one of us shouldn't be alive. Like one of us shouldn't exist.
So in short Aria woke me up in the middle of the night and instead of going out side on the roof to play cards, like we always do, she looked deep into my eyes and spoke, "Someone is here, Sonata. I just know it."
"Someone's where?" I grumbled lazily, all wanted was to go back to sleep.
"In the attic," Aria replied
"How do you know?"
"I just, just, got a feeling that someone or something is up there."
Aria is always getting these feelings. Sometimes I think that her "feelings" are real, and others I think that she is just lying because she gets bored, and this world is dull as dirt.
"How do you know that someone is here Aria?" I asked her again, trying to get a real answer.
"I just know, okay! Why must you be such an idiot!"
"Well I wish I wasn't an idiot!" I retorted, "But everyone say's I am, so shut up!"
After that little argument, we went up stairs to the attic. Dagi keeps some old books up there, about Equestria, geography, and a few other things. Sometimes me and Aria will come up here and read these books. They're really hard for me to read, but I continue anyway. I like to do things that Dagi does, just to impress her. Ever since the Battle of the Bands, Dagi hadn't said very much, and all Aria could say about that is, "Thank Celestia almighty for that, why do you want another chatter box anyway?"
"There's no one up here Aria." I said as I tugged on her arm. I felt so uncomfortable, even though nothing seemed to be out of place. Just a bunch of dust, boxes, old clothes (from other centuries and decades), and Dagi's books. "Why are you always playing tricks on me?"
"This isn't a trick!" Aria growled, she looked like she was about to cry, "I know I heard something, I can feel it."
I knew that Aria probably wouldn't shut up about this until we do something, I sighed and muttered, "Okay, we'll look around." And we did, through all the boxes, dust, old clothes, out the window, on the roof, and even under the loose floor board (where we keep our broken pendents, until we can get them fixed). There was nothing. Nobody.
"I'm going back to bed scaredy-cat." I yawned.
"Wait!" Aria ordered, "There's one place that we haven't looked."
She was standing by a chest full of my old toys, the ones that I'm too big for now. She dug around in it, and pulled out a shinning silver box with letters written on it. I couldn't read them, because they were all worn out and corroded. It almost looked like something that humans keep cookies in. I had never seen anything like it before. It wasn't one of my toys. It must have been heavy, because, Aria dropped it and it hit her toe. "Ow!" she shrieked.
Then we heard it. "What are you brats doing up here? Why did you wake me? Why did you touch me? DON'T EVER TOUCH ME!"
"We should run!" I cried, but we were too scared, so we just stood there staring at the box. It was shaking on the floor, it started to spin, faster and faster, until the lid popped off. It stank at first, but then it smelled pretty good. I didn't know what was coming out of that old box, but it was dark and slimy like tar, but it was smooth and slow like molasses. It looked kinda like a big cat, and kinda not at all. I didn't like it.
"Hello there." It said smiling, I think it was smiling but it was hard to tell because it's face was made of blobs and cracks, "I apologize for yelling, but you startled me."
"Who the heck are you?" Aria growled. I wanted to slap her for being so stupid. We should have been running from the thing, not talking to it, Miss Smarty Pants. And they say I'm the stupid one.
"I have many names." It said calmly, "But I guess you can call me Mr. Luck, because that's what I want to give you."
"Good luck, or bad luck?" I asked it, I didn't want it around if it would have given us bad luck.
It just looked at me and blinked real slow, when it smiled I began to feel sick to my stomach, "Good luck of course." Aria crossed her arms. She thinks that she's so darn smart, she was just trying to be like Dagi.
"How much?" She snapped, "We don't have a lot of money, if that's what you want."
"I have no need for money." Luck assured Aria, "You just have to follow my instructions. They're quite simple really."
"What do you want us to do?" Aria shot back.
Luck blinked at Aria and smacked it's long dripping mouth, "I want you to hurt your sister."
Aria looked at me and then back at Luck, and then back again.
"What?!" I shrieked, "That's loco-in-the-cocoa! Aria, let's get out of here!"
"How much do I have to hurt her?" Aria said with a smirk, "And what will you give me for it?"
Luck thought about it for a moment, "We'll start out small." It decided, "A little hurt, for a little luck."
It only took Aria about ten seconds to decide, "I've got a math test tomorrow, and I haven't studied."
Luck smiled devilishly, "A slap should due for that."
Aria's eyes lit up with greed. "Hang on..." I tried to say, but Aria was quick. She wasted no time running over and slapping me across the face. It hurt, badly. I got really mad and smacked her back so hard that I knocked her to the floor.
"Oh," Luck snickered, "Oh oh oh." It started to shake, it became less slimy and was now more like a hole in the attic, where there should have been more boxes and stuff. Now there was just a dark whole that could be some kind of cat if you squint real hard. "That's good." Luck smirked, "Thank you ladies. Now go to bed and when you wake up tomorrow morning you should feel much better than you did today."
"So will I pass my math test tomorrow?" Aria demanded.
Luck looked deep into Aria's eyes and smiled, "You'll make a perfect score."
"What about Sonata?" She pressed, "She hurt me, so, doesn't that mean that she gets something too?"
"What a cleaver young lady." Luck said before he turned to face me, "What do you want Little Miss Sonata?"
I didn't know what, but something about this just didn't feel right. Aria had a red spot on her cheek, and my cheek is sore from where she had hit it, but I have a math test too, and I need even more help than Aria does.
It's always been like that. Idiot Sonata. Aria the smart one.
"Same here," I said quickly, "Math test. I want a perfect score too."
Luck smiles his mouth dripped a little, "Then you shall have it."
Our teachers didn't believe that both of us got a perfect score on our math tests, especially not me. The thought that we cheated, so they made me do my work on the board in front of every one. It felt so strange, like my hand wasn't my hand, and my brain wasn't my brain, and before you could say "Tacos for dinner" there was perfect algebra problems scribbled across the board. I didn't even have to erase once.
At lunch we showed Sunset and our other enemies-turn-friends our test scores. They were so pleased to hear that we were finally studying like we should, now if we could only get to class faster. We showed them to Dagi when she came and sat down at the table. She just stared at us, worried and confused. Luckily the bell rang just before she could speak. It was like she knew, and I didn't want her to know. I have feeling that she will send Luck away if she found out. I didn't want Luck to leave, I liked having It around.
I liked it even though the nights after Dagi went to bed, me and Aria go up to the attic and pound on each other while Luck watches. Even though it left scars and bruises all over Aria's arms and all over my chest. Even though it hurt so bad that I would almost pass out and Aria would start to cry.
We didn't stop. We would have done anything for Luck. We would go on for hours. Pound, bruise, slam, and cut. It hurt an awful lot, but we didn't stop.
"Very, very good girls." Luck said about three weeks later. It wasn't as scary looking that night. It looked more like a shadow than a blob or hole, and shadows are not very scary at all; they're just places where the light doesn't reach.
Luck ran It's hands (or were they paws) through our hair. It made feel even sicker, like I was actually going to vomit, but I didn't complain. I had an non-varsity volleyball game that Friday, and I wanted to win. Make the team stronger and hit a spike, not sit on the bench the whole time for once. Aria had a volleyball game also, but she had varsity, and she wanted to hit a spike too. Stupid Aria, always wanting to be the same as me. Just because we're twins doesn't mean we have to be the same all the time. I wanted to hurt her again.
"Hurt and ye shall receive." Luck said laughing manically, I guess there was something funny going on, but I just don't know what.
One day Luck got tired of watching us. "I'm bored of you two." He growled, "I want something more."
"We could go into town." Aria suggested through a fit of tears. I think that she was crying because I broke her toe, but, she wouldn't say anything about it and neither would I.
We both won our volleyball games the weekend before, and we both were getting good grades for once. Pinkie Pie, a girl at school, was even kind enough to get me a milkshake at lunch. I felt like everyone was looking at s differently, like we actually meant something. We were no longer Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze, those evil twins who tried to take over C.H.S. with their cousin, no sir. We were Sonata Dusk who gets one hundreds on tests, and Aria Blaze the best volleyball player in the district.
Luck licked his chops, "Town." He seemed happy to here that, as he turned his head and gazed out the window. I've started to call it a guy, because by now it looked more like a man mixed with a cat, you know like a werecat. He was still dark and fuzzy around the edges and his eyelids will still drip like tar when he blinked, but, other than that hes was practicality normal. His fur was black and dark blue, and he was so strong I could see his muscles rippling under his pelt. "I would appreciate it if you girls would take me to town."
Like I said before we would do anything for Luck, so we took him on the long two mile walk to the main center of Canterlot (if that's what the place is even called). As we made our way past C.H.S. Luck pointed to the nearly empty park on the other side of the street and grinned, "Hurt that one." He whispered in our ears. Me and Aria turned our heads to see who on Earth he was talking about. It was the tambourine girl from the Rainbooms, walking her dog and talking to any other animal that crossed her path. I'd seen her before, but I didn't know her name at the time. I would later figure out that this was Fluttershy.
Aria looked at Luck and frowned, "It's the middle of the day. We can't just go up and start beating her, someone will see the whole darned thing and call the cops."
"Not if we wait until she's hidden." Luck suggested.
"I don't like this." I muttered just loud enough to be heard. Luck and Aria looked at me long and hard, it was in that moment when I realized what I said and immediately tried to cover it up, "Oh. Oh no. I didn't mean to." I stammered nervously, "It just came out, you know. Um... Luck don't be mad at me. Please don't be mad. I um... I real didn't mean it."
When I had finished ranting Luck had a more calm look on his face. Aria, however, was fuming with anger, "Don't ruin this for me idiot." She growled, "Don't you DARE make him mad. We need him to survive in this place."
"I'm so sorry." I sobbed as I tried to apologize, "I'll do it. No. We'll do it."
"You better." Luck snarled, "Otherwise, I will go somewhere where my gifts will truly be appreciated and then where will you be?"
"You'll be back in the rotten no go WORST place you came from!" Aria finished Luck's thought for him, and in the worst way possible, "You'll go back to being a stupid bad-grades-on-the-bench idiot Sonata Dusk, living in terrible house, going NOWHERE! Is that really what you want? Is that what you want for us Sonata?"
"Sonata." Luck was also shaming me, "Little Miss Sonata."
I shook my head slowly, because Aria had frightened me with her loud yelling, "No. I... I don't want that... I don't want that at all."
In short we decided to follow Fluttershy through the park all the way to it's end on Trottingham Road, where it was quiet and tall grass was surrounding us on both sides of the street.
"Go get her!" Luck ordered. Me and Aria took of with a bolt, Fluttershy screamed and began to run off, but we just started to run even faster. She ordered her dog to attack us, thank Celestia we were able to dodge it. Instead it ran right into Luck's open arms. I didn't see what happened to the poor creature and I didn't want to either. We were running faster than we've ever run before.
"Isn't this great?" Aria asked me joyfully as she laughed her head off, "We're practically flying! It's like we're Sirens again!" There was nothing Siren going on about it. Luck was right at our heels galloping in a very cat-like manner. I think that he was helping us run as fast as we were, to tell the the truth, and it wasn't a very good fast.
I felt like I was running from something, like a nightmare. I guess that was how poor Fluttershy felt with me and Aria getting closer and closer with every stride. When we were about one and a half feet away, we reached out, grabbed her arms, and pulled hard. It wasn't Fluttershy's fault that she didn't have Luck on her side.
When we got home that evening, no body really noticed us passing by. They were all talking about how something had harmed a poor teenage girl and nobody knew what. The only person to question us was Apple Jack.
Aria answered her question with a smile, "Finally something's happening." I could tell that she was pretending like she had just heard about it, and was doing a really good job. "After all this place is dull as dirt." After saying this, she quickly waved good-bye, grabbed my hand, and we continued back to our house.
At dinner all Adagio did was stare at me and Aria as we ate, from across the table. I didn't like the way that she was looking at me. It was like she knew. It like she saw us hit Fluttershy, it only took one hit for Luck to start trembling and shaking frantically, like he was struck by lightning. When he stood back up, I was able to see him clearly for the first time. He still looked like a werecat, but his head was like a block, and his tail had a hand on the end. I was absolutely, positively terrified of that tail-hand thingy.
Aria stood there nervously looking at her feet. "Dear Celestia, Luck." She grumbled, "We really shouldn't have done that. I feel guilty already. Especially knowing that she's probably going to call the cops and report two criminals."
Luck rose to his paws and looked deep into Aria's eyes. "She didn't see you." He purred as he dusted dirt and gunk off of his pelt, "All she saw was her worst fear." Then he took our hands and lead us home.
And there we were. Eating dinner across the table from a very suspicious Adagio, trying to choke down every morsel with out "letting the cat out of the bag," so to speak.
"This isn't right." I mumbled as I picked at my dinner of mac and cheese. I couldn't fight it off any longer and started screaming, "IT'S NOT RIGHT! IT'S NOT! IT'S JUST NOT-" Aria kicked me from under the table to make me shut up.
"Stupid Sonata." She sneered, "Stupid, idiot, Sonata."
"Shut up!" I shot back at her, "I didn't say anything."
I wasn't stupid idiot Sonata with the smart twin sister anymore. At least not with Luck around. I just didn't understand why I wasn't acting like it though.
I woke up to someone prodding me in the side at about three o'clock that night. At first I thought that it was Aria coming to get me because, as soon as we arrived home the day before Luck smiled as he said, "Girls, I want you to come up and visit me again tonight."
"But we just beat up some girl from school." I said rather stupidly, "Isn't that enough for one day?"
Luck grabbed my arms and squeezed me tight, until I couldn't breathe. "It's never enough." He replied before he let me fall to the ground.
But, it wasn't Aria who was trying to wake me this time. It was Dagi. "Dagi?" I yawned.
"Get up and follow me." Dagi instructed in a hushed voice, "And do hurry!"
"Why?" I grumbled as I slid out of bed, "Where are going?"
Dagi's eyes narrowed, "The attic."
I stopped dead in my tracks, "Why attic Dagi?"
Dagi's stare was now burning into my heart and soul, "Because I know what's going on, and it's going to stop tonight."
"Dagi," I stammered guiltily, "nothing's going o-"
"I'm not an idiot Sonata!" She shot back, "And neither are you!"
"But I am an idiot!" I sobbed, "There's no use in lying about it. I'm not a good liar, Aria's the one who's good at lying!" My tears slowly began to dry as I calmed down, "I need Luck."
"His name's not 'Luck'" Dagi growled, "It's really Ahuizotl" She was carrying the little doggy sculpture from my room over her shoulder like a gun.
"But I'm no good and useless with out him." I stared to cry some more as I said this.
"You've got that all wrong Sonata." Dagi said as she engulfed me in a hug. When she released me, I was able to see her face. She had painted crisscrossed lines all over it, she looked so tired, but for some reason her eyes didn't. "You're a good girl." She smiled slowly.
By now I just noticed that someone was missing. "Where's Aria?"
Dagi blinked slowly, "She's not coming with us."
My eyes widened, "What? But, why?"
"Because, she's... She's just not strong enough." Dagi shook her head with sympathy for my sister, who was also her cousin, "Technically, it's not really her fault. You could have been the weak one just as easily."
"But... But I'm the mistake twin." I cried some more, because that's what idiots like me do, "I shouldn't even exist."
"That's right, you shouldn't!" A blood curling voice echoed through the air it was Ahuizotl. The door to the attic flew opened with a crash, Dagi held the statue in front of us as we made our way into the attic. Something started to scream bloody murder. "You again?!" Ahuizotl screeched, "It's you, it's you! Not this again! Get that thing away from me! GET IT AWAY! PUT IT DOWN!"
"No." Dagi said bluntly as she glared at Ahuizotl, "I don't take orders from you." She grabbed the heave box that Aria had dropped, you know the one that Ahuizotl lived in, it was so heavy that Dagi could barely lift the thing. If she used two hands she probably could have, but she couldn't put the sculpture down, because it was the only thing protecting us from Ahuizotl. "Sonata!" Adagio called out, "Help me get it outside!"
I raced to her side and grabbed the opposite end of the box and began to drag it out of the house. There was so much screaming and so much wind. Books, clothes, and boxes were flying all around the attic. The air was dark and thick, I felt like I was breathing water, but me and Dagi shake off all odds and dragged the box outside.
Ahuizotl followed us, he was cooking up quite a storm,causing dirt to fly into our eyes and the ground to shake under our feet. I could tell that he was only using his magic on us, because around us it was a peaceful spring night. It was a good thing that we didn't stay in the attic, because, I'm sure that all the fuss that Ahuizotl was putting up would have torn down the entire house. I think that's why Dagi wanted to bring the box outside.
"How did you know Dagi?" I called over the howling winds, "How did you know what we had done?"
"It happened to me too!" She had yell it, because, Ahuizotl was calling out nasty words so loud that never want to hear them again.
"When?" I asked. I wanted to know how long it has been since Dagi had found him for herself.
"About five hundred years ago!" She replied, "He found me too!"
"You should have gotten rid of him! So me and Aria wouldn't have found him! We found his box with my old toys!"
"That's just it." Dagi said as she turned to look at me, "I DID get rid of him Sonata."
"SONATA DUSK!" Ahuizotl screamed at the top of his lungs, "WHERE WILL YOU BE WITHOUT ME SONATA?"
"Don't listen to him!" Dagi ordered. By now we had reached the end of our back yard. Dagi had the sculpture in one hand and the box in the other, I could see her trying to bring them together, like a couple of magnets that aren't working. There was sweat on her forehead, I could see how strong see really was like I will never be, I just know it.
"YOU'RE RIGHT SONATA!" Ahuizotl screeched. He didn't look like a cat any more. He looked like that same blob that he was the first time I saw him. He was oozing along the ground like a slug, "YOU'LL NEVER BE AS STRONG AS YOUR COUSIN! YOU'RE NOTHING WITH OUT ME! YOUR SISTER COULD PROBABLY DO IT, SHE'S SMART ENOUGH, SHE'S PRETTY ENOUGH, SHE COULD SURVIVE WITHOUT ME!"
"Don't listen to him!" Dagi cried out, beads of sweat were streaming down her face and she could hardly breathe, "It's nothing but tricks and lies! What he's saying isn't real! His luck isn't real, therefore, it won't last."
"DON'T LISTEN TO HER!" Ahuizotl counter acted, "I NEED YOU, AND YOU NEED ME! WITHOUT ME YOU ARE A NOTHING, NOBODY!"
"Tell him who you really are!" Dagi cried, "A sweet, adorable girl with a natural sense of humor, that doesn't need anything more!"
I closed my eyes tightly and said the first thing that came to my mind, "Ahuizotl, you're wrong. You just need me, I don't need you! Period! I might have a rough life, but guess what?" I looked at what I thought was the his eyes, "I DON'T give a care!"
Ahuizotl screamed as he shrunk into a smoking black piece of coal, flew into the tin, and the lid flew back into the box.
It has been about two weeks since all this happened, and things are going back to normal. Aria was very weak for about five days after Ahuizotl left. I honestly thought that she wouldn't make it, until, the third day after he left, when she started wandering around the house again. I'm just thankful that she's okay and I pray every night that Ahuizotl will never, ever, EVER return.