It was raining. She felt like it had been raining a lot more often after the disaster that had been the Battle of the Bands. It had been only a little over a month since she and the other sirens had lost their powers and they were starving.
They had no jobs, because they’d just convince people to give them money. They had no home, because they used to use the money they took from others to pay for rent. But they couldn’t sing anymore. Not even for entertainment. Sure, she could sing very quietly or hum, but if they went any louder than whispering and the only noise that would come out were horrible coughs. It physically hurt to sing. So they couldn’t pay for rent anymore.
And now? Now they’re living on the streets, wearing the same old hoodies and loose pants they used to wear -but those had become incredibly ragged and dirty from living on said streets and digging through trash in the hope that there’d be something good in there. They looked for jobs, but since they had never had any jobs before, had no identification papers and looked like they were dirt-poor -which they were, but that’s besides the point- no company or establishment even considered taking them.
And she hated it. She hated living like this. She hated eating slightly expired or thrown away food. She hated sleeping on the streets. She hated THEM. Those Rainbooms. But most of all, she hated HER. If that Sunset Shimmer hadn’t come along and joined the group the sirens would have won. But she did. And the sirens were utterly and completely defeated. They had lost the only thing they were good at. Their singing. Sure, they had their looks, but there was no way they would even consider selling their bodies.
They would take turns: two of them would beg for food and money while one of them would look for food in any place they could think of. They usually could only think of trash cans and trash containers, because they weren’t going to steal from a restaurant kitchen again. They had gotten caught and it had been a miracle that they managed to get away. At least the cook didn’t call the police.
Tonight? Tonight it was her turn to look for food. Sonata and Aria were begging for food and money. Those two, especially Sonata, always managed to get more from people than she could. It hurt, but she knew why. It was their looks, their voices and their personalities. Sonata was cuter and sounded more child-like and innocent, which meant people pitied her more. She was also the nicest out of them. Aria was the skinniest -always had been- which also meant people pitied her more. She wasn’t the nicest, but at the moment she was the weakest-looking and most tired of them.
Adagio was just too mature. Her looks were too mature, her voice was too sensual and she always sounded like she was planning to do something to you. She also came on too strong too often. All this combined meant that people just didn’t feel as bad for her as others. Part of her was proud that she could still intimidate others despite her current state, but another, stronger part of her felt like she was just dragging them down along with her. They always had less food and money when it was her turn to beg. She also was the weakest of them. Sure, she had the brains, but not the muscles. She couldn’t lift as much, she had less endurance and she got sick more often.
While the person she hated the most was Sunset Shimmer, the thing she hated the most was how weak she was. But it wouldn’t be so bad if the others didn’t share her opinion. They also hated that she was mostly a liability and she wanted to disagree with them. But she couldn’t. Because the truth is the truth, no matter how much you wished it wasn’t. And tonight was even worse. Sonata and Aria didn’t get a lot today.
And Adagio tried, she tried her hardest, but she had barely found anything worthwhile. Nothing else was edible and she wasn’t going to risk eating raw chicken or drinking spoiled milk again. They still hadn’t forgotten about that mistake of hers. They hadn’t forgotten about ANY of her mistakes. So when she arrived at their, “home”, that evening, Aria was anything but happy.
“So,” Adagio’s face sunk at Aria’s tone, but she didn’t interrupt. “We’ve got half a bottle of expired coke, a can with five overcooked sardines,”
“Why’d they cook them anyways?” Sonata interrupted. “Isn’t anything that’s canned already cooked? Why would they do that?”
“Beats me. Anyways, the only other thing you found was...” Aria trailed of, almost glaring at Adagio. “Sorry, I forgot. Could you tell me what you found?” She spoke through clenched teeth.
“Four...” Adagio sighed. “Four half-eaten burgers. One of them without anything on it.” A lump was forming in her throat.
“So that means we don’t have enough food. Again. Lovely.” Aria’s teeth were still clenched and her glare had intensified slightly. “Almost feels like we’re with too many, doesn’t it, Adagio?” As she said this she had leaned forward her face coming very close to Adagio’s, her glare had only gotten worse and her tone had become very, VERY, accusing. The lump in her throat was getting worse and the hunger in her stomach was slowly being replaced by a weird heavy feeling.
“I tried! But just there wasn’t much to find!” She tried to defend herself. “There was just too much food that had started rotting and too much inedible of the food wasn’t rotting was inedible!” But Aria didn’t care.
“Inedible?” Aria got even more into her face. “Like the raw chicken and spoiled milk you brought along?”
“I...” Adagio’s throat hurt. “I’m sorry...” Her shoulders sagged. Why’d Aria have to keep bringing that up?
“Whatever.” Aria got out of her face. “Let’s just eat already.” And so they did.
It was awfully quiet, the only noise being the cars passing by and the buzzing of a broken street lamp. Adagio looked at the others while they were eating, but couldn’t think of anything to say. She didn’t like the looks on their faces. Aria looked even more angry then usual, but Sonata’s face actually scared her. Sonata didn’t look angry. In fact, she couldn’t tell what she was feeling. Sonata always wore her heart on her sleeve, so why not now? Something was wrong. Something they weren’t telling her. And she had a feeling she wasn’t going to like it.
“Adagio.” She flinched at Aria’s sudden exclamation. She looked at Aria and immediately noticed that she didn’t look angry anymore. Instead, she looked... sad?
“We, Sonata and I, have been... thinking.” She didn’t like the sound of that. The weight in her stomach doubled. Her hold on her half-eaten burger became tighter.
“A few days ago, a bar offered us a job as waitresses. They couldn’t get anyone to apply for the job and the owner thought that once we cleaned up a bit we’d look pretty good.” Aria forced out a laugh. “Heck, he even offered us a place to stay.”
“W-well...” Adagio stammered. Her throat really hurt. She knew where this was going, and she didn’t like it at all. “That’s great! Right? W-we’ll finally have a place to...” But her voice trailed of once she saw Sonata’s face. Sonata was crying.
“You see, that’s the thing. He...” Aria swallowed. “He only wants... Us.” The weight in Adagio’s stomach had increased tenfold. Her vision was getting blurry.
“And w-with, “Us”, you m-m-mean...” She was crying. The oldest, proudest, most arrogant of the three of them, was crying. Her burger had been crushed between her hands, dressing dripping down her hands and arms.
“M-me and Sonata.” Sonata was sobbing. Even Aria was crying a little. “Sorry, Adagio, but we can’t live like this anymore.” Aria was talking faster. “We’re always hungry, always thirsty and always tired and and,” Aria was rambling. “And wanna take this chance with both hands and I’m sorry but he just thinks that you-” Adagio cut her off with her hand.
“S-stop.” It hurt. “I-I-I understand. I would j-just scare the customers away, w-wouldn’t I.” It hurt so much.
“A-aren’t you, you know a-angry?” Sonata asked, her voice trembling, her eyes disbelieving.
“No. Not really.” She lied. “Go. Take this chance. I understand. I-I’ve just been dragging you down with me.” She tried to stop herself from crying even more. “You deserve better. Better than what I can offer.”
Everything got quiet after that. She heard them get up, ready to leave her behind, ready to live a better life.
And then they hugged her.
“I’m so s-s-sorry Adagio!” Sonata cried out, tears streaming down her face and down Adagio’s neck, staining her already stained hoodie.
“I’m sorry...” Mumbled Aria, her tears also staining Adagio’s hoodie.
She hugged them back, crying loudly. “I’m sorry I messed everything up!”
After a few minutes of hugging and crying they parted ways. Sonata and Aria were going to live a better live and Adagio left for the train station not long after they had left. Aria and Sonata left her with all the money they had been saving up. It wasn’t much, but more than enough. She walked up to the ticket stand.
“How far can I get with this?” She asked, dropping the bits on the counter, her voice still trembling. The man behind the counter quickly counted the money and then looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
“This late? You sure you don’t want to wait till tomorrow?”
“No. Now please.”
“Okay then.” He shrugged. He turned to the computer screen next to him. “Let’s see... The furthest you’ll be able to go with this is Manehattan. And not even central Manehattan. The suburbs is the farthest you’ll be able to go. And it’s not exactly nice the-”
“I don’t remember asking for your opinion,” she says, interrupting him. “I’ll take a ticket to the Manehattan suburbs.”.
“Fine.” He takes the money and quickly types something and the machine prints out a ticket. He hands it to her. “Here’s your change.” He gives her a few coins. “Have a good night.”
“Thanks.” She takes the change and the ticket and walks to the proper platform. She sits down and waits for her train. She looks down at her ticket and sighs.
“I know you two will hate me for doing this. But if I stay you’ll keep helping me. I’ll still be dragging you down.” Tears were slowly rolling down her dirty cheeks again. She clenched her fist, crumpling the ticket. “And I don’t want that. You deserve better. I don’t. I ruined everything. But no more.”
She heard the sound of her train arriving. After it had stopped she got up and stepped into the train, taking a seat.
As the train left the station she stared out the window, at the city she was leaving behind. She narrowed her eyes, determined.
“When I come back, I’ll show them someone better. Someone they can be proud of. Someone who deserves their love.” And she knew, that from now on, everything was going to be better.
She was wrong.