//------------------------------//
// Epilogue 
// Story: A Clean Slate for a Former Siren 
// by AlchemicBlaze21 
//------------------------------//

Another school day had come to a close and as far as anyone could tell it was just an ordinary day. Sonata and I met up outside her last class before going to the entrance. 

“Man, the weekend couldn’t have gotten here sooner,” I said to Sonata as we walked out towards the front of the school. 

“Yeah, those exams were pretty tough,” Sonata said with a sigh. “At least we have the weekend to ourselves,” she added with a smile. 

“Yeah, I wouldn’t want it any other way.” 

As we made our way near the statue out front, a few of our friends were hanging out around it and making plans for the weekend. Pinkie Pie noticed us and called us over, so we obliged and decided to shoot the breeze with them. They had definitely been a huge help after that incident with Adagio and Aria about a month ago. 

 



 
 

 Dads’ arrival from his Business Trip 

“Hey, Slate, I'm home. How have things been while I was away?" Dad called out from the living room while setting aside his luggage. 

“Oh, hey dad,” I called from the hallway as I went to meet him, “It was alright. I mean the place isn’t burnt down or anything. How was the trip?” 

He sighed and replied, “Well, it took a lot longer thanks to a few bumblers who screwed around with the original designs, but things should be back on track.” 

When he turned to look at me, he noticed my bandaged hand and asked, "Slate, what happened to your hand?" 

I quickly looked down at it and then back to him before I realized that I should have slid it into my pocket when I went out to meet dad. "Oh, I accidentally sliced my hand while I was washing the dishes yesterday," I offered, hoping that was enough to keep him from questioning further. 

“Well, are you alright?” he asked in concern. 

“I’m pretty sure that I am,” I said while raising my hand for him to see while I opened and closed it. 

“Hmm, well, be more careful next time.” 

“Yeah, alright,” I agreed. 

Dad then changed the subject over to something more pressing. “Hey, so I saw Sonata on the way back up here. She said hi and all that but she seemed, I don’t know, depressed maybe. Do you know anything about that?” 

"Um, yeah. Sonata's sisters got upset with her and well, let’s just say that she isn’t really welcome back at her place.” 

"Well, what exactly did she do?” 

“She didn’t do anything per se. She did tell them something that they didn’t agree with, however. One thing led to another, and they decided to kick her out. That’s why I needed to ask you if she could possibly stay with us for a few days. At least until this blows over.” 

Dad crossed his arms as he thought about the situation. “Slate, is there any way that they can talk this out without having to go to such drastic lengths?” 

You have no idea how much I wish it were that simple, I thought starting to sense dad’s apprehension. "Dad, she already tried that. But they aren't willing to budge on the whole thing. I seriously think that they just need some time to cool down. But until then Sonata doesn't have anywhere else to go."   

“Slate, look, the thing is that I don’t know Sonata or her sisters well enough to allow her to stay here. I don't know what exactly happened and honestly, it sounds a little fishy to me." 

It felt like everything was trying to prevent me from helping out Sonata. "Dad, you need to reconsider this. She has no one else around that can give her a place to stay, and you’re turning her away.” 

That was enough to get him to react, "Alright, fine. But only for tonight." 

I was about to start arguing with him but stopped when I considered that my request was very sudden, and instead just gave him a begrudging “Thank you. May I go let Sonata know?” 

“Go ahead.” 

Without another word, I left the apartment to find Sonata. At most, she had to have been waiting for about forty minutes while dad got in from his trip. I wound up finding her sitting at the entrance of our apartment building. 

“Hey Sonata, I have some news for you.” 

She looked at me with hopeful eyes and asked, “What happened? What did he say?” 

After seeing her get her hopes up, it made what I had to say even harder to just tell her. "Well, dad said that you could stay at our place, but only for tonight." 

Watching her face drop from that smile to a look of despair hurt almost like a punch to the gut. "What? But… but where am I supposed to go after that?"  

Without skipping a beat I offered, “I’m looking into it right now. Just give me a little bit of time.” 

As my mind ran a million miles an hour to try and come up with something it occurred to me to go ahead and ask the others for help. I pulled out my phone and called Rainbow Dash. 

After a few seconds of the dialing tone had played, Rainbow picked up. "Hello, Slate. What's up, is everything alright?" 

“Hi Rainbow Dash, um, that kind of depends on whether you can help me out.” 

“Why, what is it?” 

“Well, at the moment Sonata has been kicked out of her apartment and is staying with me. The problem is, after tonight my dad wants her back at her place, and Adagio and Aria have not changed their minds on keeping her out. I don't know how long they are planning on keeping this up, but that means she has nowhere to go.” 

There was a slight pause before Rainbow got back to me. “Oh, hmm, alright. Listen, give me till tomorrow afternoon. I want you and Sonata to meet me at Sugar Cube Corner at twelve. Okay?” 

Without much of an option, I replied, “Alright.” 

“Then I’ll see you two tomorrow. Later.” 

“Later.” 

We were half expecting more of the same, but she managed to rally the rest of our friends and got them to help out. They all agreed to take turns having Sonata stay with each one of them after school throughout the following week. Rarity was even kind enough to volunteer first to let her spend the night. 

 



 
 

I was pulled back out of thought when Adagio and Aria walked on up to us. One might have expected them to start haranguing Sonata for socializing with the Rainbooms, but they instead greeted all of us and joined in on the conversation. It was definitely a breath of fresh air that they were taking steps away from their standoffish demeanor not only with us but everyone else as well. Admittedly though, it had been a month-long process of helping them to adjust to their status of being normal. That first week after they had been thwarted for the second time was especially rough. 

 



 
 

The Monday after the Fight 

With the school week starting again I mentally prepared myself for whatever it could throw at us. After dad had dropped me off at school, I walked to my first class and found Sonata waiting nearby and in a set of different clothes.  

“Hi, Slate,” she greeted me with a hug. “How’d you sleep?” 

“Hey, Sonata. I guess I slept alright.” I replied a bit thrown off by her new outfit. “Um, how about you?” 

“Pretty good, actually,” she replied, still very chipper. 

“I see. Hey, Sonata. Where’d you get those clothes from?” 

She took a moment to look down at herself before looking up at me with a smile. “Oh, Rarity said that she felt bad that I was stuck wearing the same clothes so she gave me a couple of her own outfits so I could change out.” 

“Huh, that was nice of her. I guess that explains why it reminded me of something that she would wear. Still, I think it looks better on you.” 

She began to blush before she cleared her throat. “Ahem. Thank you, Slate."  

Minutes later Mr. Donkey showed up to unlock the door. "Hello, you two. Mr. Slate, I hope you are feeling better,” he mentioned incredulously. 

“Huh, oh, yeah. Yes, I’m doing much better actually.” I offered a bit unsure. 

“Good to hear. Well go ahead and take your seats.” 

“Yes sir,” we answered as we went to our usual spots. 

I turned to Sonata and quietly whispered to her, “Sonata, on your way into the school did you see your sisters at all?” 

“No, did you?” she whispered back. 

“No, but I’m pretty sure that they will show up. Right?" 

She placed her balled up hand up to her mouth and pressed it against her lips as she thought about it. All the while she was slowly becoming more anxious. She then turned to me and said, "The last time that we lost, we up and ditched for a whole week. This time they might just leave altogether." As soon as she spoke those words out loud, it was like a realization had sunken in for her. “They might leave me.” 

Seeing that Sonata was on the brink of an emotional crisis, I tried to calm her. “Sonata, it will be alright. I promise that everything will be okay. They will be here I know it.” As far as my reassurances were concerned, they weren’t doing much to keep her from panicking. I grabbed hold of her hand in a firm grip and got her full attention. "Sonata, I promise that your sisters have not left. They will be here. You'll see." I did my best to keep an air of confidence, which seemed to help her to relax and not completely break down there in the class as other students were starting to file in. But in reality, I was sweating bullets on the inside. Would they just abandoned her like that? 

We would soon find out. Once lunch rolled around, we quickly got our food and sat with the rest of the group and staked out the cafeteria trying to see where they could be. 

About halfway through lunch Adagio and Aria finally showed up. I believe that was the first time that I was happy to see someone who probably hated my guts, if only for the fact that Sonata wouldn’t have to worry about them being gone. By the time that they had gotten there, however, most of the seats were taken. But instead of trying to find a place all to themselves they just sat at a mostly occupied table, much to the bewilderment of everyone seated there. 

No sooner had they done that, had the other students all gathered their things and left as fast as humanly possible. They did this while throwing dirty glances and saying things under their breath at the two girls. The strange thing about all that though was their reaction, or rather, their lack of response. They didn't even pay them as much as a glance.  

I was about to ask the obvious question, but Rainbow beat me to it. "Does anyone else think that Adagio and Aria are acting a bit strange?" 

All of our friends took a few looks at them and started talking amongst themselves. On a second glance, I noticed that they weren't eating so much as they were just pushing around the food on their trays. They didn’t even talk with each other, granted they weren’t all that big on chatting, but they were stone silent. 

I turned back to the group and said, “I’ll be right back,” before sliding out of my chair. 

AJ then asked, “Where are you going?” 

With a quick reply, I said, "I wanted to go talk to them that's all." 

Sunset then spoke up. “Slate, maybe you should wait on that. We still don’t know how they will react.” 

"Well, maybe so. But I mean look at them. That is far from normal for them." 

“And I agree with you, but perhaps you and Sonata should hang back from this. At least till they have had some time to let off some steam.” Sunset then added, “Don’t worry, we will be doing as much as we can to help the both of them.” 

“It’s probably for the best that we let them handle it for now. Remember how upset they got last time?” Sonata said glumly. 

“Alright, it probably is for the best. I guess we’ll let you guys talk it over with them.” I agreed. 

By then lunch had finished, and we moved on to our other classes. 

As Sunset had said, they did indeed do what they could to offer Adagio and Aria some sort of help. Although that’s as far as they were able to get since both Adagio and Aria kept on turning down whatever help the Rainbooms were trying to offer. This went on for the whole week, nothing that they tried made any headway. They just didn’t want anything to do with them. 

During that entire time, Sonata and I hadn't gone near them, but we could see that our friends really weren’t able to get through to them. So we figured that it couldn’t hurt our chances to talk to them directly. 

That Friday afternoon Sonata asked me to wait with her after school so we could talk directly with her sisters. She was apparently anxious about the whole affair because she couldn’t stop from fidgeting as the clock ticked down to the time that Adagio and Aria would get out of detention. 

When their hour was up they came out the front doors, still showing little emotion just as before. However, that changed as soon as Sonata called out to them.  

“Adagio, Aria. Hold on, please,” Sonata called to them. 

Their uncaring faces showed just the slightest twinge of anger at seeing the both of us. Adagio was the first to acknowledge us in response. “You two. What do you want?” 

“I… I just wanted to talk with you,” Sonata offered. 

“We’ve got nothing to say to you two, or any of those friends of yours,” Aria retorted a bit agitated. “Just leave us alone.” 

“Listen, I know it’s been rough. But things don't have to be so, um, us against them," Sonata said with some difficulty to describe their situation.  

Adagio furrowed her brow and replied a bit more noticeably irritated, “There wouldn’t be an ‘us against them’ thing if you hadn’t turned on us in the first place.” 

“Yeah, we would have taken over this place,” Aria added. She then turned to Adagio and said, “We should have just left after Friday.” 

Adagio coldly replied, “Probably,” as they walked past the both of us. 

Seeing Sonata so hurt because of that remark made me speak up before they got too far. 

“Then why didn’t you two?” I asked, the both of them stopping in their tracks. They both turned to give me scornful expressions before replying. 

“Excuse me?! Who do you think you are to ask that?” Adagio snarled at me. 

"You've got something to say, Slate?” Aria asked as she got in my face. 

 “Yeah, I do,” I replied while crossing my arms. “You two have nothing tying you down to this place. There’s no power to be gained here, nothing to turn back all those events. You obviously hate it here, and yet you two stayed. Unless you two are masochists, which I doubt, it doesn’t make any sense why you guys would stay. So I ask again. Why didn’t you two leave, especially knowing full well that you could have?” 

While Aria looked about ready to slap me, Adagio was finding it hard to look me in the eyes. 

“What exactly is it that you two are trying to do by staying?” I pushed my questioning further. 

Aria was pulling back her hand to smack me across the face until Adagio in her frustration said, “I don’t know!” She shot a look over to Aria without saying anything but nonetheless got her to back off. 

“I don’t know what we are doing,” Adagio said begrudgingly. “Everything we were trying to do was riding on getting back our powers, but thanks to the both of you everyone still hates us. Now we’ve got nothing. ” 

“Hmm, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’ve both got your health. You’ve also got a roof over your heads and aren’t on the streets.” I offered matter-of-factly. “Secondly, I think hate might be a bit overdramatic. Now distrust, that is probably closer to what they feel. But you guys acting the way that you have been for the past month or so isn’t doing either of you any favors.” 

"What do you know?!" Aria asked accusingly, still pretty upset over the whole conversation. "As far as you are concerned you haven't had to deal with any of this crap!" 

“That isn’t even close to true," Sonata interjected. "Like you said a while back, just because he was hanging out with me, everyone treated him the same way that they treated me. It wasn't fun for any of us, but we at least tried to make things better. That's why they started to back off.” 

The both of them stood there silently in thought over Sonatas remark as they tried to find the right words to respond with. 

I then added, “You know, the Rainbooms have actually been trying to give you that chance as well. All this entire week actually, but you two kept on shutting them down.” 

Adagio in one last attempt to try and have the high ground said, “Well, you still stabbed us in the back last Friday, Sonata. Right when you threw away our pendants.” 

“Wow, you two didn’t hear anything that Sonata said to Twilight right after that, did you?” I shot back. “She had to beg Twilight to not have you guys dragged back to that other world and locked up. I’m not even sure how that qualifies as backstabbing. If anything, she was sticking her neck out for you two.” 

Neither Adagio nor Aria had anything in response to that. It took them a while to compose themselves before Adagio finally broke that bit of silence. “We didn’t ask for any of your help,” she said coldly. Her tone changed however with what she said next. “But thank you.” 

Sonata then stepped forward and asked “Adagio, can I please go back with you guys. I promise that I’ll do everything to help us bounce back from this.” 

Adagio sighed before giving her answer. “Fine, I guess.” 

Aria then decided to give her say. "Man, right when I was getting used to only having to deal with one person back at home." 

Both Sonata and Adagio glared at her to which she sort of shrunk away. 

“Whatever, I wasn’t saying that I didn’t agree with that.” 

Adagio and Aria began walking out of the school yard when Sonata came up to me and said, “Thank you, Slate.” She then gave me a hug before Aria called back to her. 

“C’mon, let’s go.” 

“Alright, coming,” Sonata replied before turning back to me. “See you tomorrow?” 

I nodded, “Yeah. See you then.” 

The following week, we were even able to help them get into that program that Celestia had been offering. Little by little, they were opening up to the other students, and in return, they began to give them a chance. 

 



 
 

When we had finished talking and said goodbye to everyone, the Rainbooms headed their own ways while Adagio and Aria headed downtown. Sonata and I headed over to the park, chatting all along the way. With it being Friday and all, I didn’t really need to worry too much about getting back too early. 

There was hardly anyone around that afternoon, so we took that opportunity to walk all around the park before stopping at the empty playground. Sonata jumped onto an empty swing and called me over. 

"Come on, Slate," she said patting the swing next to her. It had definitely been a while since I'd been anywhere near a swing set but just went along with it. 

"Alright," I replied before taking that seat. Sonata smiled back at me as soon as I did and began swinging without a care in the world. I followed her lead, all the while I couldn’t help smiling at her enjoying the wind whipping by her as we passed each other. 

Gradually though, she slowed her pace down to the point of barely even swaying before getting my attention. "Hey, Slate." 

I came to a complete halt and turned to her, “Yeah, what’s up?” 

“Can I ask you something… important?" 

“Go ahead.” 

“I was thinking about that night that we stopped Adagio and Aria. When I put on the necklace and was able to use my magic again, I liked it. Is that wrong of me?” 

I rubbed my chin while I thought on that for a second before I told her anything. “I wouldn’t be able to say. But I guess it depends on what exactly about that made you happy.” 

She kicked at the sand in front of her and made a small pile as she pondered what I had said. "Well, I guess after a whole month of just being cut off from my powers it was kind of a relief to be able to do what I had always been able to." She paused as if to try to gather her thoughts before continuing. In all honesty ever since that night, she would do everything to try and steer conversations away from it or try to play it off like she wasn't bothered by it. I felt a bit concerned for her and what she had just told me. She then looked at me and continued. "But the thing that I was most happy about was the fact that I could sing again. Like, I mean really sing and not sound like a wounded animal. That's what I missed the most." 

After hearing that any concern that I had was replaced instead with sympathy. "Hmm, well I don't think that there is anything wrong with that. And I know how that feels." 

"How so?" she asked gripping onto the swing's chain. 

“Because, when I was a bit younger I was forced to give up martial arts for a while because of an injury. I was miserable while I waited to completely recover. On top of that, when I was able to go back to training I found it difficult to do a lot of the things that I could before the injury.” 

The expression on her face told me that my story only served to dampen her mood. “That was depressing. But I guess you do understand.” 

"Yeah it was, but that wasn't the whole story. After that realization that I was pretty much back to square one as far as my training went, the only thing I could do was move forward with it all. It took some time but eventually with hard work and practice I was able to do everything again and even learned new things during that period." 

With a sigh, Sonata replied, "Well that may have worked for you, but there's no way for me or my sisters to ‘relearn' what we have lost." 

I scratched the back of my head and exhaled before continuing. "Okay, maybe not the whole magic bit, but if you really wanted to, you and the others could practice and learn to sing again. You know without having to rely on anything other than yourself. And given everything I'm pretty sure our friends could give a few pointers on the whole matter. That is if you really want that." 

She knitted her brows in thought before answering. "I don't know about that, they’ve already done a lot for my sisters and me." 

"Well if not them, I could always try to help you with that. Although I've never really been all that great at singing myself. In which case we'd be learning together." 

She smiled briefly and said, "Hmm. Now I want to know how you sound." 

“Heh, um, let’s just say my singing definitely leaves a lot to be desired,” I said feeling a bit embarrassed. 

"Even so, it's not like I'd be any better at it." She offered. 

"We could always do karaoke if all else fails. Pretty sure it's a law or something to sound as bad as possible whenever taking the mic. It's the perfect way to practice." I said jokingly. 

“I guess that would be a good start then,” she said, giggling at that prospect. 

Without much else going on, we spent another hour hanging out around the park. Eventually, we made our way back to the apartment building. As usual, we stopped at her door to say goodbye. 

As she was messing with the door I stopped her. “Hey, before I go, there was something that I wanted to give you,” I said before reaching into my backpack to pull out a small box. "I would have done this earlier at the park, but I was kind of wondering if maybe I should have gotten something different. You know, because of our conversation. Either way, uh, I hope that you like it none the less.” 

Sonata looked at the box and then back to me before taking it in her hands. She then asked, "Why, what is it?" She removed the white lid and stopped once she got a good look at the gift. Without saying anything, she held up a necklace with two distinct charms hanging from it. A jagged silver eighth note and a yin and yang symbol. 

She took a moment to examine them further, but her silence only gave me the impression that it might have brought back bad memories for her. I was about to apologize to her until she gave me a hug and said, "I love it." 

"Phew... I'm glad to hear it." 

She took ahold of the charms and looked at them once more before asking, “So how’d you know to get a musical note like this?” 

“I had seen it before on a few of your clothes.” 

“Oh. And what about the other one?” 

“Well, they were offering to customize the necklace, so I requested that they add in something personal. Here, take a look at the back.” I then turned the yin yang symbol to show our names carved into it. Hers on the white half and mine on the black half. 

                She hugged me and said, “Thank you, Slate.” 

                “Don’t mention it.” 

She then beamed at me and hung it around her neck. "How does it look?" 

With a smile, I replied, "It looks great on you." 

She came in close to me and wrapped her arms around me before we shared a deep kiss. 

I don't think that I will ever be able to tell whether or not those moments that managed to shake up my life were just a coincidence, but strangely enough, I was content in knowing that they ultimately brought us together.