It was the early evening within a small diner near the mall. Only a few customers were present at this time eating their meals at their own tables, including ten teenaged girls. These teenagers in particular were two known groups from the Canterlot High School, the Rainbooms and the Dazzlings. Normally, these two groups would still have been mortal enemies until they became… more or less friends few months ago. The thought of these two different groups together as friends were not possible, if not for the youngest Siren of the group who accidentally brought them together after the school cafeteria incident from all these months ago.
Speaking of the youngest Siren, Sonata was more into her dinner then her other friends, who was happily moaning while chewing on one of ten of her tacos. The amount of tacos would have buried anyone’s wallets to their grave, but luckily, all of their meals are on a discount thanks to Pinkie who works at this very restaurant. Just as the young teenager was finishing up her taco, another girl with rainbowed hair groaned loudly in annoyance.
“URG! Sonata, will you stop it already!?” Rainbow exclaimed.
Sonata blinked at her friend in confusion. “Stop what?”
“The humming!”
“…humming?”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah! You kept making these weird loud humming noises as you were eating!”
“I wasn’t humming!” Sonata denied.
“Yeah you were! We all heard it! Heck, anyone within five blocks can hear it!” Rainbow argued.
“For realsies?” Sonata asked as she was tapping her chin in thought. “Well, if anyone can hear it but me, then I guess I should have my ears check.”
Before Rainbow could argue further, one of Sonata’s sister, Aria, spoke up.
“Don’t bother Rainbow freak,” said Aria with so much disdain in her voice. “She always eats like that with her loud humming! You would only end up arguing with her for hours and than nothing gets resolved. Believe me, we’ve tried.”
Adagio, who was sitting next Aria and the eldest of the Siren sister, rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I can attest to that! We lost so many hours of sleeping that day.”
“Even as it may, should we be concern about it?” Twilight asked with concern as she adjusted her glasses. “I’ve read that those who hum while eating or any certain behaviors might lead her to—”
“UGH! Shimmer, does your encyclopedia girlfriend come with a mute button?” Aria complained.
Sunset shot Aria a glare before she turned and put her arm around her pouting girlfriend with her warm smile. “Don’t mind them Twi, I always find it cute to listen all the smart things from you.”
Twilight giggled with a blush as she leaned into her girlfriend, much to the Rainbow’s displeasure.
“BLEH! Get a room you two!” said Rainbow with her tongue sticking out.
“Oh come now Rainbow Dash!” Rarity scolded. “While I, for one, thought this was very sweet. I wish I have someone who have eyes on me.”
Applejack cocked her eyebrow. “There were at least fifteen boys and four girls lookin’ yer way this mornin’ Rarity!”
“I meant a special someone!” Rarity clarified while ignoring a deadpanned look from the farmer. “Although it is nice to get attention from other students, but still!”
“Whatever,” Rainbow huffed before facing Sonata. “Yo Sonata, pass the pepper over here would ya?”
Sonata froze from her eating and looked up to see everyone including her sisters, staring at her expectedly. She looked down at the two small shakers in front of her and then looked back up again facing her friends with a gulp.
“U-um… s-sure.”
Sonata quickly grabbed the left shaker and then placed it in front of Rainbow Dash. Everyone was dumbfounded from Sonata actions, which made the young Siren even more nervous. After about a minute of stunned silence, Rainbow spoke up while looking at Sonata strangely.
“Uh… Sonata… that’s salt.”
“Oh… for realsies?” said Sonata with a nervous chuckle as she picked up the correct shaker and then placed it in front of Rainbow. “Oh silly me. I guess I'm too tired for my eyes to see anything straight tonight… ehehehe.”
“…Rrrrrriiiiiiight.” Rainbow Dash said unconvincingly while the two other Dazzlings facepalmed in union.
“Um… are you okay Sonata?” Sunset asked with a worried frown.
“Oh—yeah! Yeah totally!” Sonata quickly answered as she stood up from her seat, leaving her tacos behind. “In fact… I’m going home early today! I… got to finish my homework for school tomorrow!”
Sunset raised her eyebrow. “But tomorrow’s Saturday.”
“All the more reason to start early!” Sonata quickly replied as she was rushing towards the exit. “Anyway I’ll see ya girls later!”
Sonata ran out of the dinner without looking back, leaving her confused friends behind. The Rainbooms stared at the doors were Sonata disappeared through for a while longer before they all turn towards each other with concerned expressions while the two Dazzlings gave each other their knowing looks. While Sonata acting like a goofball was nothing new, but the fact that she’s been acting strange for the past week, including the shakers incident and not bother to eat the rest of her tacos just now, clearly means that something was up with the young Siren. After a long pause, Sunset finally spoke up.
“Okay girls, I think we should address the elephant in the room.”
“Where? I don’t see any elephants in here! And why should we dress it?” asked Pinkie as she was looking around the room.
Rainbow sighed irritability. “It’s a figure of speech Pinkie!”
Pinkie stopped looking and then frowned. “Aww! I would’ve love to meet an elephant in person!”
“Oh me too!” Fluttershy spoke up in her quiet-like voice. “I would love to pet one someday where there are no bars in between.”
Pinkie gasped excitedly. “Yeah, maybe we should break into a Zoo sometime and meet one someday Flutters!”
Before Fluttershy could object to Pinkie’s horrible idea, Sunset interjected.
“GIRLS! FOCUS!” After she received apologetic looks from her two friends and that she was sure that she got the full attention from everyone, Sunset continued the topic about a certain blue haired Siren. “Has anyone noticed that Sonata was acting… weird lately?”
“She was acting weird all the time!” Aria scoffed. “You of all people should know that already!”
Sunset shook her head. “No. I mean… weirder than normal? Sonata kind of normal?”
Everyone then thought back to their own memories of when they were together with Sonata during her “weird” moments.
Pinkie and Sonata were partnered up to bake a cake for their Home Ec class. Pinkie was in charge to mix up the ingredients for the frosting while Sonata was tasked to finish up putting the ingredients for the main cake.
While Pinkie was happily mixing (and tasting) the cake’s frosting, Sonata appeared to be struggling as she was reading the cookbook. She was lagging behind for a long time and worried that her friend will notice. Once she knew Pinkie wasn’t looking, Sonata quickly grabbed all the ingredients she could find and then threw them into the bowl. Next, she grabbed a wooden spoon and mixed all the ingredients together into a huge glop. Once that was done, she quickly went to the oven, threw the entire bowl into the oven and then turned the oven on and set the temperature up to about the highest number as possible in hopes to have the cake cook faster.
As the cake was cooking in the oven, Sonata smiled to herself, thinking she had succeeded in baking the whole cake without a hitch. Her victory was short lived when smoke was suddenly coming out of the oven and it was getting thicker by the second. Sonata tried to use her apron to fan out the smoke, but her efforts were all for naught when the smoked reached the fire detectors and set off the entire room.
The alarm got everyone’s attention, including Pinkie and then they all gasped in horror at the sight of a thick smoke coming from a burning cake from within the oven Sonata was using. Thinking quickly, Pinkie took out her fire extinguisher from her hair (for some reason) and then she opened the oven and used it on their burning cake. Once the fire was out, Pinkie wore her oven mitts, turned off the stove and then took the now ruined cake in the bowl out of the oven.
The “cake” itself had seen better days. The bowl was cracked and blacked, the edges around the cake was charred and the very center of the cake had a ugly black bubbly substance like it came from toxic waste. Appalled and upset about their cake, Pinkie glared at Sonata, which made the siren chuckled nervously.
“Uh… I guess there’s a smudge somewhere on this cookbook that said completely different… ehehehe.”
Applejack just stood there motionless, staring at the aftermath of the Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack assigned Sonata to take a huge bag of topsoil from the barn and spread them all over the orchard for the newly planted apple seeds while Applejack herself gathered up some apples from the other orchard. When she came up to check up on the young Siren after an hour later, Applejack was shocked and horrified after seeing what Sonata had done. While Sonata had indeed completed the job on the apple field, but instead of covering the field with apple seeds, Sonata covered the whole field with a certain type of fertilizer. The stench of the area was so bad, even Big Macintosh’s face was green from the smell, despite that he used a clothespin on his nose.
Applejack slowly turned to face Sonata with her peeved expression while the former siren had a sheepish look.
“Um… I guess all that dirt must of covered a lot of letters since the bags all looked the same… ehehehe.”
Both Twilight and Sonata were assigned as lab partners for chemistry class. They’ve carefully been pouring certain amounts of chemicals with their beakers and test tubes into a big rounded glass flack, which was sitting over the flame. Twilight had Sonata to add one more chemical with whatever the textbook instruct them to while she was writing down the results on their paperwork.
Sonata stared long and hard at the book for with slanted eyes. After a while she picked up an eyedropper and took a little amount from one of the chemicals from a beaker. She carefully hovered the eyedropper over the large flack before pressing the rubber bulb of the dropper. By this point, Twilight looked up from her paperwork and her eyes widen in horror when she saw what chemical Sonata had picked up. Before Twilight could try and stop her, Sonata released one drop of the chemical and landed into the big flack, making the contents inside of it explode.
Once the smoke was cleared, the big flack was gone and both Twilight and Sonata were covered in soot from the explosion. Twilight stared at their ruined assignment in disbelief before shooting Sonata her glare. Sonata for her part, chuckled nervously.
“Uh… I had a hard time seeing through these goggles to read the instructions… ehehehe.”
Rarity needed some extra hands to help her out to work on a big order for her client. So she asked Sonata for help with trimming some cloths to make a nice dress. Rarity let Sonata in the other room with a diagram that contained important instructions and measurements of that peculiar cloth for the dress. Rarity left the room for a half-in-hour to check on other orders she had to fulfill for other clients. When she returned to Sonata, she nearly let out a shriek after witnessing Sonata’s “handiwork.”
The cloth that Sonata used was now made into a dress. However, many different parts of the dress were in different proportions. The left sleeve was about five feet long while the right sleeve was nonexistence, the neckline was too small, the waistline was too big, the hem length was too short and one side of the skirt was outrageously longer than the other side. To make things worst, Sonata just used the wrong color cloth. Instead of sky blue, Sonata used a gold color with sparkles. What’s even worse was that cloth was the most expensive cloth and Rarity needed that cloth for another client.
Rarity slowly turned towards Sonata with her twitching left eye while Sonata nervously backed away with a sheepish look.
“Uh… I figured… you’re client would like this dress better this way? …Ehehehe.”
From within the math class, there was a small party (courtesy of Pinkie Pie) in honor of Mr. Doodle for his upcoming wedding with Matilda. While Mr. Doodle wasn’t into parties, but he appreciate his students for their thoughtfulness as he and his students were eating his cake.
Sonata was in the middle of devouring her own piece of cake when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see her friend Sunset Shimmer with a large card on her hand. Sunset gave the card and pen to Sonata and asked Sonata to write a signature on the inside of the card to congratulate Mr. Doodle for the wedding. Sonata was hesitant for a moment before she picked up the pen and started writing on it. When Sonata was finished, she gave the card and pen back to sunset before she excused herself to get to the next class. Sunset looked down on the card and then had a look of confusion to see scribbly circles on the card instead of Sonata’s signature. When she called out to Sonata about this, Sonata replied with a nervous look before leaving the room.
“Uh… I figured… it’d be a lot better to write scribbles instead of writing my name… ehehehe.”
Things were very hectic at the Animal Shelter lately with new animals keep coming in but only a few staffs available. Which was why Fluttershy asked Sonata a big favor to come down and help her out as a volunteer to care for as many animals as they can. Fluttershy had Sonata to go on feeding duty with a list of certain foods to feed with detailed amounts to each animal, while Fluttershy was cleaning out the entire hamster habitat.
Fluttershy was halfway done cleaning the habitat when she heard distressed animal noises from the other room. Worried for the dogs, Fluttershy left the hamsters room and headed towards the back room of the shelter. When she arrived, she was stunned when she saw many different kind of animals were surrounding her with looks of rage on their faces. Before she could ask Sonata what happened, a white bunny hopped towards her and pointed to all the food dishes to each cages. At first, Fluttershy was confused about the bunny’s gesture, but then she quickly found out what made the animals so angry. Each animal got the wrong type of food; the dogs food in the snakes den, the crickets in the rabbit cages, the cat food in the dog cages, and so on and so forth.
Stunned, Fluttershy turned to her friend for explanation while Sonata continued to back away from the animals with a nervous chuckle.
“Um… I figured they should have a change of diet? … ehehehe.”
There was a big sport sell coming up within the sports store and Rainbow Dash was assigned to set up the ball display for each different kind of sport. Normally, Rainbow Dash could handle it herself, but since it was a big job and low on staff, she asked Sonata for help. When Sonata arrived, Rainbow immediately assigned her with a list of displays she had to do for one side of the store while Rainbow takes care of the other half of the store.
After a half an hour, Rainbow finished her third ball display at the baseball section and decided to check on Sonata at the football section. When Rainbow reached her destination, she was dumbfounded of what she saw. Instead of footballs, Sonata had piled up soccer balls all over the football department. Annoyed, Rainbow tapped on Sonata’s shoulder to get her attention and then she informed her that she used the wrong balls for the display. When Sonata didn’t understand what she means, Rainbow picked up the soccer ball and pointed at it and then the image of a football from one of walls of the store.
Sonata mind finally clicked on her error and then she chuckled with her sheepish expression.
“Oh… that football! I thought you guys meant… England football… ehehehe.”
“Yeah… that’s definitely weirder than normal when it comes to Sonata standards,” Rainbow said finally after their long trip down to memory lane. “Either she really suck at what she’s doing or something’s seriously wrong with her. It took me forever to redo all the sport balls to the right display!”
“I have to reorder all the fabrics that Sonata messed up!” Rarity huffed.
“And feed the animals properly,” Fluttershy added.
“And cleaned the entire farm before using the topsoil this time!” Applejack included.
“And cleaned up the lab after that disaster!” said Twilight.
“And baked a brand new cake in Home Ec after Sonata burned the other cake… I never burn cake!” Pinkie shouted loudly with a look of rage that made everyone backed away slightly from the party girl.
Aria rolled her eyes. “What do you girls expect? Sonata is a walking disaster!”
“Well… yes, but not this much!” Sunset said with a frown. “Something is going on with her and I’m very concern for her.”
Twilight placed her hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder. “We all do too Sunset. Sonata made a lot of mistakes and apologized for it, but every time we asked why, she always comes up with an excuse.”
“Do you think maybe she is still bullied from the other students?” asked Fluttershy with her worried expression.
Rarity shook her head. “I don’t think so Darling. Sonata is as happy as a clam whenever I saw her walking down the hall. She still sometimes received glares by some students, but that was it.”
“Well what could there possibly be?” Applejack said in her semi-frustrated tone. “She won’t tell us what it is!”
As the Rainbooms were trying to think up a reason to Sonata’s strange behavior, Sunset noticed the two older Dazzlings sisters were looking at each other as if they already knew the answer. Sunset loudly cleared her throat to get the two sirens attention.
“Adagio… Aria… is there something that the two of you know about Sonata what we don’t?” Sunset asked.
Rainbow leaned forward with narrowed eyes. “Yeah, spell the beans you two! Both of you looked like you guys were hiding something!”
“What we know is none of your business Rainbow freak!” Aria stated defensively.
“Whatever is going on with our friend IS our business! So fess up!” Rainbow fired back.
Aria scowled. “What makes you so sure that we’ll—”
Adagio raised her hand in front of Aria’s face, signaling her middle sister to stop talking. Once she was sure that Aria calmed down a bit, Adagio then began to explain in her calming voice.
“What my sister was trying to say is that we do know what is going on with our youngest sister but we can’t say it because she made us promise to not to tell everyone about it… especially to you girls.”
The Rainbooms frowned deeply at Adagio’s words, feeling hurt that Sonata’s would not want them to help her.
“Why not?” Pinkie uttered sadly with her hair less poofy. “We’re her friends! Doesn’t she know that she can trust us?”
Applejack crossed her arms with a skeptical frown. “Not to drag yer name through da mud but don’t the two of you usually act like you don’t care about her feelings?”
Adagio glared tensely at the farmer girl. “First of all, while we don’t deny that we teased Sonata all the time and gave her a hard time every now and then, but just because we don’t show it much, that doesn’t mean that we don’t care about her!”
Adagio pounded the table to empathize her point, causing everyone but Aria to flinch away from her. She kept glaring at Applejack for a moment longer until her anger was quickly replaced with a sober expression and let out a melodic sigh.
“Second… Sonata does know that you all are her friends. But it’s not that she doesn’t trust you girls, it’s just… well… this is something you should ask Sonata herself… if you’re lucky to get her to open up.”
Everyone was sad to hear that they couldn’t do anything to help out their dear friend. The fact that even the two other Dazzlings clammed up about the issue worried them even more. Wanting to make sure that Sonata is okay, Sunset asked the oldest Siren with her pleading voice.
“Could you please at least tell me if her problem is serious or not?”
Adagio was hesitant for a moment before she replied to the former unicorn. “I can assure you Sunset, that it’s nothing serious at all. All I can say is that this is something that Sonata has been dealing with ever since when we first arrived here in this world. We tried to solve that problem ourselves once but… it didn’t work out.” Adagio then looked away with a bit a guilt expression. “I guess looking back now… we probably should’ve been more patient with her.”
Aria looked away with a stone-face expression before she nodded in agreement.
Sunset frowned. While her worry for her friend was not completely gone, at least she felt a bit better that there was nothing too serious going on with her friend. Despite that, if only she could get Sonata to open up and let them help her.
Even if the problem was very small.
Some time after dinning out with her friends, everyone except for Sunset went home for the night. Sunset decided to make a quick trip to the supermarket to pick up milk and some snacks for Ray. As Sunset was walking down the streets of Canterlot, she was thinking about Sonata again. Despite Adagio assurance that Sonata’s problem wasn’t very serious, Sunset couldn’t help but wonder what issue Sonata was having since her first arrival to this world and how it related to now. Unfortunately, she couldn’t come up with anything.
Just as Sunset was getting closer to the local supermarket, she heard a familiar feminine voice from close by.
“Come on you stupid door! OPEN!”
Sunset knew that voice from anywhere. She quickly walked right towards the store’s front entrance and sure enough, that person was none other than Sonata. She cocked an eyebrow as she watching Sonata trying to pry open the front entrance, to the point of trying to place one leg on the wall while trying to pull them with both of her arms. What’s even stranger was that those were doors were supposed to open automatically for anyone who is close to that door and the store itself is still open at this hour. After less than a minute of watching this bizarre scene, Sunset decided to get her friend’s attention.
“Uh… Sonata?”
Sonata jumped with a shriek before she quickly turned to face Sunset.
“S-Sunset! W-what are you doing here!” said Sonata as she tried to calm herself down.
“I came here to buy some groceries,” Sunset answered while pointing at the store behind Sonata.
Sonata looked behind her and then faced Sunset again with a nervous smirk. “Oh… um… m-me too! My sisters sent me out here to get some food. Nothing weird about that! Ehehehe…”
“Well… why are you out here? Should you be inside?” Sunset asked.
Sonata let out her indigent huff. “I was trying to, but this door won’t open! I walked through this door all the time and it usually opened for me!”
Curious about the door too, Sunset peered at the door behind Sonata and noticed a huge sign on the window of the door. Once she read it, Sunset felt even more confused about the situation. Stunned, Sunset faced her friend again with her one eyebrow raised.
“Um… didn’t you read the sign?”
Sonata titled her head in confusion. “What sign?”
Wordlessly, Sunset pointed at the sign behind Sonata, which caused the youngest Siren to turn around to stare at it. She then turned back to Sunset with a shrug.
“So? What about it?”
“It said: Automatic door temporary disabled. Please use the side door!” Sunset stated.
“…oh… uh… I knew that!” Sonata uttered uneasily.
“If you knew, then why are you here?” Sunset pressed.
“I was… simply testing you!” Sonata lied. “Y-yeah that’s it! I’m testing you and you pass! Now let’s go to the side.”
As Sonata quickly walked away towards the side of the grocery store, Sunset furrowed her eyebrows in thought, feeling more confused than ever. Why would Sonata claimed that it was all a test even though she was actually struggling to get the door open? Even if this wasn’t a test, how come Sonata never noticed that obvious sign on the door with a clear message? For that matter, why was Sonata acting so panicky after Sunset told her what the sign had said? Sunset thought back to all the incidents Sonata had spent with her friends including herself from the past week and then compared to the situation now. Her eyes then widened in realization. All of Sonata’s mistakes and her behaviors made much more sense now.
With her sudden determination, Sunset quickly went after Sonata as she struggled to get a word to Sonata.
“Sonata—”
“I knew it all the time the door is busted!”
“Sonata—”
“I mean, only a real idiot wouldn’t know those doors are busted!”
“Sonata—”
“I mean it’s not that I had to go into the store to buy some food, only to get block by some stupid door for a half-in-hour!”
“SONATA!”
“WHAT?” Sonata screeched, just as she was about to reach the store’s side entrance.
Unperturbed from Sonata’s shouting, Sunset decided to ask the youngest Siren a very crucial question that had just plagued her mind.
“Sonata… do you know how to read?”
“What!?” Sonata shouted indignantly. “W-what are you talking about? Of course I can read!”
Sunset crossed her arms and her eyes narrowed. “Well if you can read, you wouldn’t still be out here right now!”
Sonata eyes shifted back in forth as she tried to come up with an excuse. “Maybe I didn’t notice it!”
“The sign is practically bigger than your head!”
“Well the words were too small to read!”
“The words were big and bold! I doubt anyone would miss it!”
“Well… um… the sign was not clear enough?”
“Sonata, the sign was perfectly clear what it’s telling us!”
Sonata growled angrily. “Look pal! Just because I don’t understand some dumb words from some dumb sign doesn’t mean that I can’t read!”
So the two teens just stared at each other in a standoff with narrow eyes. Neither one was willing to back down from each other. After what it felt like an eternity, Sunset let out a sigh as she uncrossed her arms.
“Okay then… prove it.”
Sonata’s glare melted into her look of confusion. “What?”
“Prove it,” Sunset repeated. She then pointed at the side door behind Sonata. “I want you to open this door.”
Sonata smirked. “What, that’s it? Pfft! Piece of cake!”
With full of confidence, Sonata reached out to grab the door handle.
“Not so fast!” Sunset spoke up, causing Sonata to freeze in place. “I want you to read the sign and then open the door!”
Sonata eyes widened and her pupils shrunk to the size of pin needles. Her eyes slowly looked up to see another sign that was sitting on the side entrance’s door. She gulped.
“Um… out… loud?”
Sunset crossed her arms. “No. You can read it to yourself… for now!”
With sweat slowly dripping from her forehead, Sonata took a close look at the sign. Her eyes darted all over the sign as if she was trying to decipher the message. Her heart was racing and her vision began to blur. Just as she was about to pass out, she heard Sunset calling out to her again.
“Did you read it?”
“Um… yes?”
“Then open it.”
Sonata wasn’t sure why Sunset didn’t ask her what the sign said but decided not to question it in effort to dodge the issue. Without a moment of hesitation, Sonata grabbed the handle and tried to push through the door.
The door wouldn’t budge.
Sonata took a quick glimpse at Sunset behind her who had an expressionless look on her face.
“H-hold on! I can do it!” said Sonata as she tried to open the door again. “I-I can open it, I swear!” She insisted desperately while pushing against the door as hard as she could. “I-it needs more force!”
Sonata tried to push open the door with every method she could use to the point of slamming herself on the door. But no matter what she did, the door remained shut. Tears leaked out of her eyes in despair with every failed attempt she slammed against the door to get it open.
“C-come on… open!”
SLAM
“Open!”
SLAM
OPEN!
SLAM
“OPEN!”
Before she slammed herself against the door again, she felt Sunset hold her in place by her shoulder. “Sonata… that’s enough!”
Defeated, Sonata slumped herself down onto the ground next to the door with her head facing down. She had never felt so low since the time she and her sisters lost her pendants after their defeat at the Battle of the Bands. She sniffled as more tears were pouring down from her eyes while refusing to face her friend.
“…why can’t I open?” she wept with her broken tone.
Feeling sorry for her friend, Sunset sat down next to Sonata while keeping her hand on Sonata’s shoulder. “You tell me? What does the sign say?”
Sunset was only greeted with silence when Sonata refused to answer.
“What. Does. It. Say?”
“…I don’t know. I don’t know what it said, okay!?” Sonata replied with a bit of a harsh tone.
“It said… pull,” Sunset said with a sigh.
Realizing that she’d been had by Sunset’s trick, Sonata sighed dejectedly while still refusing to face Sunset. “Okay Sunset… you got me. I never learned how to read.”
“…I thought so.”
Sonata finally looked up to her friend with a surprised expression despite her tears still leaking from her eyes. “Y-you do?”
“Yeah, I figured with all the mistakes you made with us for the past week and the way you acted just now confirmed it,” Sunset explained before giving Sonata her apologetic expression with caring eyes. “I’m so sorry I made you go through all of that, but that was the only way for me to find out the truth.”
Sonata wiped her face with her forearm and then formed a somber smile. “It’s alright Sunset. Out of everyone in this world, I’m just glad that it’s you who found out my secret.”
“But why? Why didn’t you tell us about this?” Sunset asked.
Sonata frowned and then looked away with a pained expression. “Because… I’m embarrassed… a-and ashamed at myself for not being able to learn as simple as reading,” She revealed with a sigh. “When we… my sisters and I… first showed up in this world, we were overwhelmed with the things we never seen before… including a different language from the world we came from. What’s even more overwhelming was that there are many different languages then the one we’re used to in Equestria!”
Sonata then chuckled humorlessly. “Did you know that there are about six-thousand, nine-hundred and nine different languages existed in this world alone? It’s difficult to learn one language, let alone six-thousand.” She frowned again. “Despite that, we narrowed it down to only the basic language around this area. My sisters unsurprisingly adapted and learned to read new language in this world very well. Me… I can’t even read the first sentence. Heck, I can’t even read the first word! My sisters tried to teach me to read, with Dagi’s boring but strict teachings and Ari’s… well let’s just say that her method was much more… rough.”
Sonata then shuddered violently from the memory. Once she stopped her shaking, she continued.
“In the end, they just gave up on me. They told me to just follow them and do what they say and we’ll be able to take over the world in no time.”
Sonata paused and then she quickly faced Sunset with an awkward yet nervous look. “Er… that was before we stopped being evil.”
Sunset nodded in understanding, not offended in a slightest.
Feeling somewhat relieved, Sonata continued with her story.
“Anyway, I didn’t let that bother me since I thought I can still do anything without reading, but lately, I felt more and more useless when I’m incapable to read labels or simple instructions from a cookbook or a chemistry book. And before we arrived in CHS, I remembered running into a few random people who asked me to help read a map or directions. When I failed to do it, they would laugh and made fun of me for being a idiot… well I felt a little better when Ari beat them up a little, but still…”
Sonata sighed sadly as she tiled her head downward and closed her eyes. “I know I’m not the brightest crayon in a box, but if other people from our school knew that I’m incapable of reading, then… it would make me feel worse. That’s why I didn’t say anything about it.”
Sunset felt her heart broke for the crestfallen Siren, so she moved a bit closer to her and wrapped Sonata’s into a side hug.
“Sonata… there nothing to be ashamed of for not knowing how to read,” Sunset said softly. “It took me awhile to read a new language in this world too before I got the hang of it. It wasn’t easy, but I did it. I thought it was difficult for me because I’m not from this world, but shortly after I learned to read, I was surprised when I looked up about learning how to read. Do you know how many people in this world who also can’t read?”
Sonata looked up towards Sunset with her curious expression. “How many?”
“A lot!” Sunset answered with a strong emphasis. “So you’re not alone. But just because you couldn’t read now, that doesn’t mean you’re not capable to learn.”
Sonata looked down dejectedly. “But my sisters tried Sunny! They said I’m incapable to learn anything at all!”
Sunset shook her head. “That’s not true. First of all, no offence to your sisters… but they’re not very good teachers.”
Sonata shrugged nonchalantly. “None taken.”
“Second, I think you are a great learner than you realized,” said Sunset with conviction. “When we all go out to camping last summer, who knew how to set up camp and survive the wilderness after learning from Pinkie Pie?”
“…I did,” Sonata answered with some hesitation.
Sunset nodded. “Right! When Soarin was choking on a big chunk of his cherry pie one time at our school cafeteria, who saved his life after learning about the Heimlich maneuver?”
“I did,” Sonata answered again but with a bit more confidence.
“Right again!” Sunset said enthusiastically. “And when Mr. Cranky Doodle assigned a culture project about foods from other countries, who helped me and then got an A plus on our project after learning about the history of Mexican tacos?”
Sonata giggled and smiled widely. “I did!”
Sunset smiled warmly. “So you see, you are capable of learning. If you can learn those things, then I guaranteed that you will learn how to read too!”
Sonata frowned, unsure about Sunset's encouraging words. “Gee I don’t know. It was a real struggle the last time I tried to learn how to read.”
“I’m sure with the help of our friends, we can figure it out what’s the best learning tactic for you,” Sunset encouraged.
Sonata had a look of panic and then quickly stood up as she frantically waved her hands around. “Oh no! No no no no no! We can’t tell them yet!”
Sunset frowned as she stood back up as well. “Why not? They’re our friends! We can trust them.”
“But what if they laugh?” Sonata whimpered.
“They won’t laugh!” Sunset insisted.
Sonata gave Sunset her skeptical look, which made the former unicorn to rubbed her neck awkwardly.
“Well okay… Rainbow Dash might laugh a little, but they’ll understand. I’m sure they all want to help you overcome with your struggle. We helped you during your first few rough weeks at school after the Battle of the Bands fiasco and we will gladly help you again to teach you how to read.”
There was only silence between the two teens with Sonata thinking about what Sunset had said and Sunset secretly hoping for Sonata to allow Sunset and their friends to help. After what it seemed like a minute, Sonata let out a sigh.
“Well… can I say that I’ll consider your offer and let me think about it for a while?”
“Sure thing Sonata,” said Sunset. While Sonata’s request disappointed Sunset a little, but at least that her friend is open to the idea.
“And can we still not tell them yet?” Sonata added. “It’s not that I don’t trust them, it’s just… I want to tell them when I’m most comfortable. I am still new to this friendship thing.”
Sunset nodded. “I understand. I’ll respect your decision and I won’t say a word to our friends.”
“…Promise?” Sonata croaked quietly.
“I pinky promise!” Sunset said reassuringly with a smile. “Just remember, my offer to help you still stands. Okay?”
Sonata smiled and than she brought Sunset into her spine breaking hug. “Oh thank you Sunny!”
“Y-you’re welcome Sonata!” Sunset grunted from the hug but still kept her smile.
Sonata eventually let Sunset go and then she opened the door, this time by pulling it and gestured Sunset to go into the market before her. “Now let’s head inside and get our groceries! And then I’m going to buy us some tacos as thanks for being a good friend!”
Sunset frowned in confusion as she walked through the door and entered the market. “But we just had dinner with the gang two hours ago.”
“Hey, you can’t have too many tacos!~” Sonata singsonged before she entered the store and closed the door behind her.
Unknown to either of them, a figure who was around the corner of the building, was listening to the whole thing from the shadows.
“So… that idiotic siren can’t read at all, eh?” she chuckled with a cruel smile on the figure’s face. “Wait until Trixie tells everyone at the school about this!”