Sonata Dusk hid herself under the covers of her bed, crying softly into her pillow. It had happened again. Another of her classmates was dead. It was Roseluck. Sonata hadn't known Roseluck well, but she had talked to her and hung out with her on occasion. She was a very nice person.
Was.
Sonata whimpered on that thought. The haunting past-tense she now had to use when talking about someone who could have become one of her best friends, in time. But that time was cut short.
After what felt like a few hours, Sonata pulled he blankets off, away from her face. The air of her bedroom felt cool against her tear-stained face in contrast to the warm muggy atmosphere under her blanket. She wiped still wet tears off her face with a sleeve and sat up.
She sat on the edge of her bed, facing the mirror on the wall. She stared at herself blankly as she thought about the second murder, only a week after the first. She died the same way as Orange Slice. Safe part of town, throat neatly slashed. One moment alive and well, the next dead on the ground, in a pool of her own blood.
Sonata shuddered at the thought of the nice girl she knew lifeless, drowning in her own blood. It was a horrible thought, and Sonata's image in the mirror blurred as tears came to her once again. She rubbed them away and glared at herself in the mirror.
She couldn't cry forever. She needed to go to school. There were no classes today, they had been cancelled due to the tragic event, but the Botany Club had extended an invitation to the whole school to participate in planting a garden in front of the school in memory of Roseluck, who was the club's founder, and Orange Slice. She intended to do her part in the tribute.
The shrill ringing of her phone made Sonata jump, and she removed her cell from her pocket and checked the caller ID. Twilight Sparkle. The two of them had become fast friends since the afternoon after Slice's funeral. Twilight and her friends cheered her up by inviting her to their lunch table to listen to Pinkie Pie tell funny jokes and stories to lighten the mood. Of course, Adagio and Aria were also invited, but they were less interested in the Rainbooms than Sonata was.
"Hello?" Sonata answered her phone, wincing at the raspiness of her voice. She coughed to clear her throat.
"Hi Sonata, it's Twilight." A pause. "I was... about to head to the school. I was thinking if you hadn't gone yet, maybe you'd like to come with me?"
There was silence.
"Sonata? Are you there?"
"Yeah." Sonata answered, shaking her head. "Sorry about that. I'd like that, Twilight."
The two girls walked down the street in the direction of the school. Sonata had her hands buried in the pockets of her sweater, her head hung low. She would have worn something a little more formal, but she felt as if she didn't possess the energy to do so much as change. In fact, she probably wouldn't have left her house if not for Twilight.
"How are you feeling today, Sonata?" Twilight asked after a bought of silence, concern tainting the tone of her voice.
"Good, thanks." Sonata answered. "How are you?"
Twilight paused for a moment. "Are you really 'good,' because you don't seem like it." She settled on saying.
It was Sonata's turn to think. "Oh. I... guess I'm not good. Guess it's just the default response, you know? You get so used to just saying "I'm fine" whenever anyone asks because that's what they want to hear."
"So... how are you feeling?" Twilight asked hesitantly.
"I... guess the best way to describe it is that I'm... feeling disoriented?" Sonata asked, shrugging.
"How do you mean?" Twilight asked, curious.
"Well," Sonata replied, pulling her hands from her pockets to nervously wring them. "I guess I'm just in shock and a bit freaked out by the... the deaths. I feel like there's just been... holes in my life. Like I'll look at the clock one moment and it'll be seven pm, and five minutes later it'll be two in the morning, and I'm not sure where the time has gone or what I've done with it."
"Like, lapse in memory?" Twilight asked with curiosity. "Or more like time passing quickly while you're deep in thought?"
"I'm not sure." Sonata said. "Sometimes it happens when I go out for a walk. I'll be walking just to clear my head and suddenly I'm on the other side of town and it's dark already. Or sometimes it just happens when I'm laying in bed staring at the wall. I used to think that I just fell asleep, but that doesn't explain the walks."
"It's not uncommon for people to zone out and completely lose track of time." Twilight reassured. "Especially in times of stress. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Although... if this is bothering you too much, I really think you should go see one of the counsellors. It can't hurt."
"Yeah, thanks Twilight. I might do that." There was a silence for a while. "Hey Twilight?" Sonata asked. "How come I haven't seen you around your friends so much lately?"
Twilight looked at her, mildly surprised. "What do you mean?"
"Well, at the funeral... you weren't sitting with them, and you came and hung out with me and my friends at the reception... And you're here with me again now..."
"Well, to be honest..." Twilight hugged herself. "Well, I'm not as close to them as they are to each other. I'm still pretty new to them, and them to me. And sometimes I get the feeling that it makes a difference. I find myself getting forgotten here and there, and sometimes I feel like I'm just extra to their group. Like they adopted the cool 'new kid' because it's fun to make friends with new faces, but then they started to find out the new kid doesn't really fit in with them. But they don't want to be rude and say anything."
Sonata paused before responding. "Well, I don't think that they want you gone if that's what you're thinking. I think that they're just a large group, and that makes it hard to give everyone all the attention they might get in a small group of friends."
"Maybe." Twilight said, unconvinced. "Maybe that's why I've been trying to hang out with you, Adagio, and Aria more. Smaller group." She winced. "I don't think the other two like me all that much though."
"Well, I like you, Twilight." Sonata said. "I think you're a great friend."
Twilight smiled. "Thanks."
The two looked ahead of them and saw the entrance to school grounds. The time for conversation was over. They entered the school grounds and made their way towards a brand new flowerbed site, where members of the botany club were situated around a table, boxes of bulbs stacked on and under it. In the fresh patch of dirt, there were rows marked with string on stakes, and there were already tons of little spots where the dirt had been gently packed down over a bulb.
"Hi girls." Carrot Top greeted as the two approached. Her eyes were red, and she looked tired despite it being the early afternoon. "Would you like to plant a bulb for Rose's garden?"
"We would." Twilight answered. "What kind of flowers are they?"
"Tulips mostly." She replied. "In every colour of the rainbow, and then some. They're all mixed up, so we won't know which colour each one will be or what the garden will look like until they bloom. We thought Rose would like that. She appreciated the aesthetic of a wild meadow more than perfect organized rows." She handed each of them a bulb from the open box on the table and gave them instructions on where and how to plant them.
"Do you think Roseluck will like the garden?" Sonata asked as the two left school property.
"I think so." Twilight answered.
"I hope that we don't have to make any more memorials."
"I hope so too."