//------------------------------// // Flood Tide // Story: Sonata's Ocean // by RB_ //------------------------------// The necklace bounced comfortingly in Sonata’s pocket as she walked. A breeze blew past, and she pulled the cloth of her hoodie tighter. It had been a long summer, but the air was finally starting to cool down. This would be fine by Sonata, if only for the fact that she walked to work in the mornings. She’d have to start saving for bus fare again, it seemed, if she didn’t want to become a popsicle. She giggled at that. A Sontatacicle. What flavor would she be? Splish. Suddenly, her foot felt a lot colder. She looked down at the sidewalk, and the rapidly spreading puddle that covered it. Well, that wasn’t supposed to be there. It looked like it was coming from further up the street, too, which was weird, because that was the way she was going, and the only building further up this street than her was— A red chess piece drifted past her foot. Sonata looked up. Water was spilling out of the door to the pawn shop, carrying knickknacks and bits of knickknacks out with it. Something had been laid across the doorframe, a two-by four and a towel by the looks of things, in an attempt to stop the flow. It wasn’t doing a very good job. “Ah, Miss Dusk, right on time!” Moustache poked his head out of the door as she walked closer. His normally waxed facial hair looked like it had recently played home to a family of squirrels, and the rest of him looked little better. “What happened?” Sonata asked. “It seems one of our water pipes burst last night,” Moustache said. “The entire shop’s been flooded!” “And all of our stock, too!” Bare Lip said, following his brother out. Sonata peered through the shop’s window. It was a dire scene indeed. “Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked, partially out of obligation, and partially in the hopes it would improve her standing with them. “I’m afraid not,” Bare Lip said. “It’s too far gone. Flam and I are writing it off as a lost cause! We’re just waiting for the plumbers to arrive.” “Good thing we took out those generous insurance packages, eh Flim?” “Good thing indeed, brother-of-mine. But it’s too bad it didn’t go up in flames, instead! We’d have made a fortune!” “Well, it probably would have if the water hadn’t gotten it first!” The two shared a laugh; Sonata was just confused. “So… what do I do?” she asked. “Why, whatever you want, my dear!” Moustache said. “But I’m afraid your services here at Flim and Flam’s Everything Under the Sun Emporium are no longer required, because—as you can see—there is no more emporium!” “So… I’m fired?” “Your position is no longer available,” Bare Lip said. “You will be receiving your last paycheck in the mail, of course.” She wasn’t quite sure what to say, so she settled for “Oh.” Sonata lingered for a little while longer, but when it was clear neither of the brothers had anything more to say to her, she left back the way she’d come. This was a good thing, wasn’t it? No, it wasn’t, she decided. Even if the brothers hadn’t been paying her much, it was still something. Rent wasn’t cheap. And Adagio would be furious she’d lost her job, even if it wasn’t her fault. But, it did mean she had a day off… She turned the corner and stopped. From her pocket, she withdrew the shell necklace. She’d kept it off for fear of her bosses noticing, but that apparently wouldn’t be a problem anymore. She clasped it around her neck. It fit her perfectly. Sonata wasn’t sure where to go. She didn’t want to go back to the apartment, she knew, not yet. Adagio would be there. So, she began walking, not entirely sure of where she’d end up. “This sleepover is going to be the best one ever!” Sunset chuckled. “You say that about every sleepover, Pinkie.” “Yeah, but this one really is going to be the best-est!” Pinkie said, bouncing along beside her. “It’s at your apartment, after all! What could be better than that?” It was lunchtime at CHS, and as the weather was decent (if a little chilly), they’d decided to take theirs out to the school’s front steps. It was a practice the vice principal had long frowned upon, but had yet to actually prohibit so long as students brought their own lunches. Principal Celestia just thought it was a great way to get her students to go outside for once. “Hey now,” Sunset said, sitting down on the topmost step. “Don’t get too excited. It’s nothing special.” “But it’s yours, and you’re cool, and that makes your apartment cool too!” “I have to admit, darling, I’m also curious about your domicile,” Rarity said as she sat down and carefully began unwrapping a sandwich. “In all the time I’ve known you, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen your home, let alone been inside.” “Well, like I said, it’s not much. Just one room and a loft.” “You have a loft!? That’s super neat! Do you have a trampoline under it, or a big pile of cushions that you jump into every morning? ‘Cause that’s what I would do!” “No, I don’t have anything like that.” “Still,” Rarity said, “you’ve been living there a long time. Surely you must have added some personal touches to the place? It can’t just be an empty room, after all, and with your background…” “Ooh, maybe it’s filled with hay!” Sunset snorted. “I can assure you, my apartment is not filled with—hey, is that…?” She set her food down on the step, stood up, and hurried down the stairs, leaving her two friends behind. She weaved her way past the other students sitting on the grass, sitting on the pavement, leaning against the remains of the statue, until she reached the person standing on the sidewalk, watching it all. Or not, as when Sunset said her name, she flinched. “Sonata?” The girl looked at her, and there was no mistaking the face under the hood. “Sunset Shimmer!” Sonata said, taking a step back. “Uh… hi!” “What are you doing here?” “W-what are you doing here?” Sonata shot back. “I go to school here.” “So what? I went to school here, too!” “For like a week, as a ploy to mind control the rest of the students and take over the world!” Sonata swallowed. “What are you up to, Sonata?” Sunset asked, a bit more forcefully. Sonata put her hands up in front of her. “I’m not up to anything, honest! I’m just out for a walk!” “Uh huh,” Sunset said, eyes narrowed. “A walk that just so happens to bring you here. Where’s Adagio? Is she here too?” “Probably at home, sleeping,” she said. “What do you care? It’s none of your business, anyway!” “It is my business if you three are plotting something!” “We’re not!” Sonata said. She took another step back, then tried to make a break for it. Sunset reached out to stop her. “Hey, we aren’t done—” Sunset’s hand contacted Sonata’s shoulder, and the ocean was wide and calm and perfect. “They’ll be begging us to rule them!” someone said. She took one last look at the waters behind her, and then turned away. Two others like her, one golden-scaled, one purple, swam in ahead of her. She resolved not to look back again. She broke her resolution just moments later. A wave of rainbow light impacted her chest. It hurt, but not physically. It hurt in the way a mother’s chastisement hurt, in the way a father’s disapproving stare hurt. A music-summoned alicorn reared up in the sky and cast its judgement upon her, and a piece of her was stripped away forever. The night was cold and the moon was full. “Coast’s clear, let’s go,” Aria said. The three of them ran across the street, towards the statue. She placed her hand onto what should have been solid stone, and was overjoyed when her hand sank into it like water. “It’s open,” Adagio whispered. “They left it open…” She looked to her companions. They seemed hesitant. She didn’t know why. She started to walk through, pushing the rest of her arm through, then her left leg, then the rest— No. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. She was convulsing on a crystal floor. She had scales again, but they were dull. Cold. Wrong. She pushed a leg against her throat. A gaping cavity met her hoof. Cold, just like the rest of her, and now she knew why. Sharp teeth bit into her tailfin and dragged her backwards, back into the mirror and Sonata jerked out of Sunset’s grasp, her hood falling down in the process. “Let go of me!” she shouted. “Just leave us alone!” Sunset, stunned, did nothing to stop her as she ran off. “What was that all about?” Rarity said, coming up behind her. “Was that Sonata?” Pinkie asked. “It kinda looked like Sonata!” “It was Sonata,” Sunset said, frowning. She spared a glance to the ruined statue’s pedestal. She wasn’t sure what she’d just seen, but it worried her. And underlying it all had been an emotion Sunset hadn’t felt in a long time. Then the school’s lawn sprinklers burst into life, drenching everyone present. Rarity’s squeals could be heard across half the city. Going to the portal had been a stupid idea. Sonata had known it was a stupid idea, but she’d gone anyway, hoping no one would recognize her if she wore her hood up. Of course it would be Sunset Shimmer who spotted her. Sonata shivered, even as she ran down the street. The last time she had tangled with Sunset Shimmer, she had lost everything. She had no desire to try her luck again. Once she was far enough from the school, Sonata allowed her gait to slow to a brisk walk. People were giving her odd looks, so she pulled her hood back up and kept moving. Sunset had done something, she’d felt it; her shoulder had prickled at the girl’s touch. But what did it mean? She kept walking. Eventually, she found herself back at the door to the apartment. Adagio would be inside. But Sonata didn’t have anywhere else to go, and the encounter at the school had removed any desire to wander. She was hungry, too. With any luck, Adagio would be asleep. Sonata inserted her key into the lock and tried to open it, but it wouldn’t turn. “Come on...” she whispered. She tried again, harder this time, but all she got for her efforts was a horrible rattling noise. “Come on, you stupid thing…” One more try, and this time the tumblers turned. Sonata smiled as she pushed the door open. The smile disappeared entirely when she spotted Adagio, standing on the other side in a ratty bathrobe. “You’re home early.” “H-hi, Adagi—” “Why are you home early?” Adagio was not sleeping, and she looked it in the way only someone with inconsistently late hours could. Her frizzy hair was matted down to one side of her head, and the other side stuck out at an odd angle. Her glare wore dark shadows. “Why are you home early?” she repeated. Lying wouldn’t help; Sonata knew this from experience. She swallowed before she spoke. “My position is no longer available,” she said in what she hoped was an even voice. Neither of them said anything for a few seconds; Sonata almost thought she could hear the steam building up in Adagio’s head. Then: “You were fired?!” “N-no, not exactly—” “I can’t believe this!” Adagio said, one hand gesturing wildly, the other clenched into a fist at her side. “After all the effort I had to put in just to find you a job, you let yourself get fired!? What did you even do? Break something? How do you get fired from a pawn shop!?” “I didn’t do anything!” Sonata said, holding her arms up defensively. “There was a water pipe—” “I don’t want to hear it!” Adagio said, cutting her off with a knife-like swipe of her hand. Sonata had a sudden vision of her head rolling off a block. Adagio put her forehead in her hand. “I spend my nights slaving away cleaning up other people’s junk for them when they’re too lazy… Aria spends all day doing manual labor until she collapses… And all you had to do was stand there and look pretty! And you couldn’t even do that! How incompetent can you be!?” “H-hey,” Sonata said, but she wasn’t allowed a word. “I mean, you weren’t being paid a lot, but at least it was something! At least you were contributing something! Now you’re just a burden! Aria and I are going to have to work even harder now!” “I can get another job…” “Can you?” Adagio said, leaning in towards her. “Flim and Flam were the only ones who would take you! They were our last resort! Or could your tiny idiot brain not remember that?” Sonata tugged at the neck of her hoodie. She felt like she was suffocating. “I-I—” “Well you know what? I hope you weren’t looking forward to dinner tonight, because you won’t be getting any! You’re not getting anything other than leftovers until you start making the money to pay for more, you understand? Or do I have to use smaller words? And—” Adagio stopped. “What is that?” she asked. Sonata looked down. “What’s what?” she asked, but she knew exactly what Adagio was looking at. “That necklace. Where did you get that?” Sonata brought a hand up to cover the article in question. “I found it.” “You found it,” Adagio repeated. “…Yeah?” “No you didn’t.” Adagio took a step towards Sonata and darted a hand out, knocking Sonata’s aside and grabbing the necklace by the shell, pulling it and Sonata towards her as she examined it. “Hey! Get off!” Sonata yelled. But Adagio wasn’t paying any attention to her. “This is…” “It’s mine!” Adagio’s eyes widened, and her mouth fell open.  “This is—” “Let… go!” The building’s sprinkler system erupted into life, dousing everything in the apartment. The sudden sound and rush of water distracted Adagio enough that she didn’t see Sonata’s fist until it was already buried in her right eye. The punch wasn’t a strong one, but it was enough. Adagio stumbled backwards, letting go of the necklace and covering her face. Sonata looked at her. She hadn’t meant to do that… had she? She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure of anything at the moment. When Adagio’s hands fell away from her face, all that was there was a blank, confused, mouth-slightly-open stare, focused on her. Her brow was split and starting to bleed, but she didn’t seem to have noticed. Sonata was confused. Adagio should have been furious! She should be yelling at her, screaming even! “You… you punched me!” Sonata needed to leave, she needed to go somewhere, figure out what had just happened. Things had stopped making sense here. She fled, leaving Adagio and the apartment far behind.   Cars thundered under the bridge, the rumbles of their engines and the sound of their tires echoing off of the concrete pillars to reach where Sonata was sitting. She didn’t know where she was, exactly, but she knew she was far enough away to be able to think clearly again. Or maybe it was just that she’d had the time to calm down. Whichever it was, she had found herself here, sitting on the side of a bridge with her legs dangling over the road below. She wasn’t crying. She took a deep breath in, let it out slowly. Exhaust fumes filled her lungs, and she coughed as they burned. Her eyes stung, but she wasn’t crying. She’d hit Adagio. Why had she done that? Because she’d needed to, a part of her said. She couldn’t stay scared forever, it said. Adagio had it coming, it said. It was Adagio’s fault she was here. Adagio’s and Starswirl’s and Sunset Shimmer’s and hers, hers too, for being such an idiot… And there it was. Sonata’s thoughts turned once again to the ocean, but it was not one that could be found here, not in this world. An alien ocean, filled with creatures and plants almost unimaginable, where the waters were bluer and the air above was always warm. An ocean she had abandoned long ago, amidst plans and plots and ideas soon to be regretted. From where Sonata was sitting, on that bridge overlooking the highway, that ocean was farther away than it had ever been. …Or maybe it wasn’t. Sonata unclasped the shell necklace and held it in her palms. It throbbed with static power, making her hairs stand on end and her skin prickle. When she held this, when she looked at it… it reminded her of home. Of that ocean, locked behind a mirror. It had power. It had to have power. She stared into the shell, its ivory exterior shimmering in the light of the sun. “You can do that?” she whispered. Silence, save for the cars driving past. “Would you? Please?” More silence. Sonata smiled. “Thank you,” she whispered. She clasped the thing back around her neck, where it belonged. Aria pushed the door to the apartment open. It was unlocked; this was a bad sign. Adagio sitting on the soaked couch with a black eye and a trickle of blood running down her face was also a bad sign. “What happened to you?” Adagio looked up. “Sonata.” Aria raised an eyebrow. “Sonata did that?” The light suddenly dimmed, and Aria glanced to the window. Storm clouds, dark and heavy with rain, had begun to smother the once-blue sky.  “Aria,” Adagio said, drawing her attention back. “What?” Adagio looked at her, her eyes wide and her mouth curled into a smile. “Aria… She had Equestrian magic!”