//------------------------------// // Sonata's Downfall // Story: Sonata Can't Read // by sonicfan05 //------------------------------// It was late Friday afternoon after school hours and almost every student showed up in CHS auditorium. Today is the day that Sonata is going to read the first page of the book that Trixie picked out and she was going to prove herself that she can learn to read. Because of Trixie spreading the word yesterday about Sonata’s upcoming performance, the entire auditorium was overcrowded as a result. Somehow, Sonata’s live reading attracted more people in one place than almost all of the weekend football event games in this school combined. The auditorium was so full, some of the students had to stand from the sidelines because the seats were already taken. Luckily, the Rainbooms and two Dazzlings had already reserved their seats at the front row, but were still shocked nonetheless after they first walked into the room and saw many people in one area. “Wowie Zowie! That’s a lot of people!” Pinkie exclaimed with her awe expression. Rainbow shook her head. “Jeez, I knew that that there’s going to be some people coming here to see Sonata reading today, but I didn’t think everyone is going to be here!” Applejack shrugged. “Well that’s Trixie for ya, when it comes to her, she has a way to bring in a crowd!” “Oh dear, I hope the crowd doesn’t scare Sonata away!” said Fluttershy with her concern expression before looking down. “I would be scared too if I’m in Sonata’s shoes.” “Speaking of which, has anyone seen Sonata?” Sunset asked as she looked around the auditorium. “Here I am guys!” They all turn to the sound of Sonata’s bubbly voice, only for their eyes widened in shock when they saw the outfit of Sonata’s choice. Sonata was wearing her usual outfit, except she also had some kind of long red cape around her neck and shoulders, which looked like it was actually a shower curtain and triangle hat made of newspaper. She was also wearing rounded pink glasses with no glass in them and she had some kind of plastic wooden pipe in her mouth, but it only blow out bubbles. Before Pinkie could ask Sonata if she could try out that bubble pipe, Rarity spoke up. “Goodness! What the heck are you wearing Darling?!” Rarity asked, appalled by Sonata’s outfit. Sonata looked down on herself before giving Rarity her proud grin. “Oh this? This is my reading outfit. I want to be presentable for my presentation, so I made it myself!” Rarity left eye twitched. “But… I could’ve made you one Darling… a far better one mind you! I wouldn’t mind!” Sonata shook her head. “I appreciate it Rarity, but this is something I had to do on my own, including making my own outfit!” Before Rarity could argue further, she was interrupted by a new voice. “Just save it Rarity, or else you’ll be arguing with her about this for hours!” They all turned just in time to see Sonata’s two sisters entering the auditorium and walked up towards them. “Oh! Adagio, Aria!” said Sunset. “You’re here to see Sonata too?” Adagio smirked. “Of course! As insane as this bet was that Sonata dragged herself into, we’ll both give her our most support!” “I’m just here to see how she’s gonna screw this up!” Aria added bluntly. She then noticed from the corner of her eye that Adagio was glaring at her. “What? You’re thinking the same thing too!” Rarity rolled her eyes before facing Sonata. “Okay, Aria’s rude remark aside, we’re here to support you too Darling!” Sonata beamed. “Thanks you guys! You girls are the best!” Sunset frowned. “Are you sure you still want to do this?” “Yeah Siren! Are you still going though with this?” They all turned at the sound of the voice to see Trixie and the Illusions, standing in front of them. Trixie then crossed her arm and gave Sonata her smirk. “You know, it’s not too late to back out now so you can save yourself from humiliation!” Sonata stepped forward towards Trixie and glared at her. “No way I’m backing out now! I’m gonna prove myself once and for all that I can read and you’ll have to get me some tacos!” “And apology?” Applejack interjected. “Yeah, that too!” The former Siren and the young magician were glaring at each other as if they dared one another to make the first move. After a moment of tense silence, Trixie suddenly dropped her glare and then shrugged. “Alright then,” she said calmly as she walked away from the group and headed up the stage. “I’ll see you up on stage.” Everyone stared at Trixie’s departing back for a moment before they all turned and looked at each other with their own confused expressions. Finally, it was Twilight who broke their stunned silence. “That’s strange,” Twilight muttered. “I thought for sure that Trixie is going to give Sonata some insults or discouraging her from reading live. Instead, she seemed… laid back.” “Forget her Twilight!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Once Sonata reads that page, she’ll finally put that blowhard in her place!” “You’re right Rainbow!” said Sonata with her determined expression. “I think it’s time I made my debut to the crowd!” Rainbow grinned. “That’s what I’m talking about!” Rarity gently took the bubble-pipe out of Sonata's mouth. "Lose the pipe Darling. Trust me... it's better that way!" Sonata nodded, despite that she had a pout expression on her face. “Whelp, whenever yer ready, we’ll be by the front row seats, cheerin’ you on,” said Applejack with a tip of her hat. “Aaaaand once this is over. I’ll throw you my “Congratulations on Winning the Bet and Learn How to Read” party as a celebration!” Pinkie added with her over excited expression. As everyone nodded in agreement, Sonata felt her heart all warmed up from the support of her dear friends. “Thank you girls!” she said softly with her appreciative smile. “I see you all shortly!” As Sonata made her way to the stage, everyone was heading to the front seats, except for Sunset. Like Twilight, she also felt that something wasn’t right the way Trixie talked to Sonata like that. The boasting magician’s been insulting Sonata for weeks about being illiterate and insisted that Sonata will lose the bet. But today, Trixie didn’t do any of that. Instead, she just backed off and calmly walked away. Sunset may felt like she’s worrying for nothing, but she had a sinking feeling that Trixie may be up to something. Just as Sonata was halfway up the stairs to the stage, Sunset called out to her. “Sonata!” When Sunset got Sonata’s attention, Sunset was about to speak up about Trixie, but she didn’t. Perhaps she was just overthinking this. Maybe Trixie decided to back off because she knew that she couldn’t mess with Sonata when Sonata got all of her friends with her, unless Trixie was waiting for Sonata to chock on her presentation. Whatever the case, Sunset felt that it was probably for the best to not worry Sonata further before her time on stage. Sunset quickly shook her head and flashed Sonata her encouraging smile. “Good luck!” Sonata smiled back before she continued up the stairs while Sunset heading to the front row to join her friends. Even after Sunset found her seat in the middle section of the front row, everyone was still waiting for the show to start for a long time, to the point that both Rainbow and Aria nearly dozed off out of boredom. Finally, after fifteen minutes of waiting, a huge smoke set off in the middle of the stage, revealing Trixie in her magician outfit, while standing next to the microphone stand. “Come one, come all! Come and witness the opening act of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” Trixie announced proudly as the two Illusionists threw some sparkle dust in the air, further emphasizing Trixie’s presence. Unfortunately for Trixie, the entire crowd wasn’t impressed with her flashy appearance. They all had a mixture of flat and bored expressions on each of their faces. There was a long tense silence from the audience until both Aria and Rainbow Dash loudly cried out from the front row; bluntly stating what was on everyone’s minds. “You suck!” “Get off the stage!” Trixie loudly growled out both in frustration and anger from her rival’s words and lack of response from the audience. “Fine! Then you won’t get to witness Trixie’s magic today!” she latched out, before calming herself somewhat and continued her showmanship. “But… you will get to witness someone, who quite recently, revealed herself to be illiterate, reading the first page of the most classic, yet challenging book, A Tale of Two Cities! She spent weeks of learning just to prove herself to everyone once and for all that she is able to read! …Doubt it! Give it up for our young Siren… Sonata Dusk!” This time, the crowd cheered loudly as Sonata slyly peaked out from the curtain, only to get shoved out by one of the Illusions. Once she got her bearings and slightly composed herself, Sonata made her way to the middle of the stage where Trixie was waiting for her. Sonata gave Trixie her cheery smile. “Nice introduction Bixie!” “…thanks,” Trixie responded flatly before handing the microphone over to Sonata. “Good luck!” As Trixie walked away from Sonata, she softly muttered to herself that Sonata couldn’t hear. “…you’re going to need it!” Once Sonata received her microphone, she turned to face the audience, who were watching her with interest. She gulped nervously as her hands staring to feel clammy as she seen how many people showed up to see her. For a split moment, she thought about running off the stage but the motivation of getting free tacos and seeing her friends giving her their supporting smiles kept her in place. She cleared her throat before giving everyone her awkward smile. “Um… hi everyone! M-my name is Sonata Dusk… well… I-I’m sure you all already knew that,” she weakly chuckled somewhat at her weak humor. When no one laughed along, she cleared her throat again. “Um… t-today… I-I’m going to read to you all the first page of this book: A Tale of Two Cities!” The crowd started cheering again as Pinkie Pie held up her banner that said ‘GO SONATA’ on it. Sonata chuckled at the audience reactions. “Wow! Lively crowd tonight!” Sonata then picked up her book and opened it. “Okay, here goes!” She flipped through a few pages until she found a spotted the page she was looking for. While she wasn’t familiar with any of the words, but she did remember what page number the first page of the story supposed to be. Hoping that she remembered all the words that she practiced with the muffin-loving girl yesterday, she began to “read” the page. “It was the best of times… it was the worse of times.” Everyone from the audience ceased their cheering and then they quietly listened in on Sonata’s reading voice. “It was the age of wisdom… it was the age of foolishness.” The Rainbooms, especially Sunset, smiled proudly at their friend as Sonata continued to read the page from the stage. “It was the season of Light… it was the season of Darkness.” Adagio smiled at Sonata with pride while Aria’s stone expression remained unchanged but her eyes it up in surprise. “It was the spring of hope… it was the winter of despair.” The two Illusions scowled at Sonata from behind the curtain while Trixie just stared on with her unreadable expression. “We had everything before us… we had nothing before us.” Once Sonata concluded her “reading”, the audience stared at Sonata with their awe expressions before they all erupted to their thunderous cheers and applause. The gang got up from their seats and quickly ran up the stage to Sonata. Sunset reached to Sonata first and gave her a big hug. “You did it Sonata!” Sunset praised. “That was amazing!” said Twilight with excitement. “You’re awesome!” Rainbow whooped. “We’re so proud of you!” Fluttershy said happily. “Very professional!” Rarity added with her proud smile. “Yee-haw! You were great!” Applejack cried. “Best… reading… EVER!” Pinkie cheered loudly. Adagio slowly walked over to Sonata and placed her hand on Sonata’s shoulder with her beaming smile. “You did well Sonata.” Everyone then turned to see the only one who hasn’t said anything to Sonata yet, staring at her expectedly. Aria noticed them and looked away with a scoff before muttering in her semi-soft tone. “Alright I’ll admit… you did good Sonata.” Sonata smiled widely while keeping her tears at bay. “Thanks girls.” Their moment was interrupted when they heard loud slow claps behind them. They turned to see that it was Trixie who was slow clapping them while the Illusions were just standing behind her with their arms crossed. “Oh yes… well done Siren!” Trixie said with a smirk. The girls scowled at Trixie while Sonata had a deep frown on her face. “Back off Trixie! Sonata completed your stupid bet! So now you have to do your end of the bargain!” Rainbow exclaimed. “That’s right Bixie!” Sonata added. “And I do believe you owe me some tacos.” Applejack turned to Sonata with her cocked eyebrow. “What about your apology?” Sonata blinked. “Oh… that too, but also tacos!” Trixie chuckled as she stopped clapping and slowly walked towards them. “Oh no. You got it all wrong girls! Trixie’s not insulting the Si— I mean… Sonata at all! In fact, Trixie is genuinely amazed with your performance!” Sonata blinked in surprise while the rest of the girls had skeptic frowns on their faces. “Y-you were?” Sonata asked. “Oh yes,” Trixie replied. She then wrapped her arm around Sonata’s shoulder while putting on her sweet smile. “Well, not as amazing as the great and powerful Trixie, but it was still amazing that you managed to learn how to read in such a short time. You certainly proved Trixie wrong when she said you’re not capable in learning!” While the Rainbooms and the Dazzlings looked at each other in confusion with Trixie’s odd behavior, Sonata had a huge smile on her face. “Wow… that’s the nicest thing you ever said to me Bixie! Thanks!” “Yeah yeah you’re welcome,” Trixie said nonchalantly. “Now can Trixie have her book back now?” “Oh sure!” Sonata chirped as she handed Trixie’s book back to Trixie. With her book back in her possession, Trixie walked away from Sonata and made her way towards the Illusions. “Now hold on there Trixie, you still owe Sonata an apology!” Applejack called out. “You’re right, I should do that right now,” said Trixie with her back towards them as she stood by one of the Illusions. She then suddenly turned around and made her way back to Sonata with her book behind her back. “Actually… before she does so, let Trixie say that you really inspired Trixie!” Sonata’s eyes widened. “Really?” “Really really!” Once she reached over to Sonata, she placed her hand on Sonata’s shoulder with her left hand while keeping her book behind her back with her right hand. “Because you are such a professional reader now, Trixie would like to hear you read that page… one more time!” “Wait!” Twilight exclaimed in confusion. “You want her to read again?” “Absolutely!” Trixie answered. She took the microphone out of Sonata’s hand and then loudly addressed to the crowd. “Does everybody want to hear Sonata read the first page again?” Everyone in the audience cheered loudly in approval. Trixie handed the mic back to Sonata with a smirk. “There you have it Sonata! The people have spoken!” It was at this point, several alarms were ringing in Sunset’s mind. Something was clearly not right with Trixie’s behavior. Trixie can be nice to people when she wanted to, but she’s laying her niceness and complements to Sonata a little too thick. And why would Trixie wanted Sonata to read the first page of the book again when one time was more than enough? Sunset was sensing that there could be some kind of setup against Sonata. “Hang on a second!” Sunset spoke up. “Why are you making Sonata read the same page aga—” “Wow! I didn’t think my reading was that inspiring!” Sonata said happily. “I’ll be happy to read it again Bixie!” Sonata then took the book back from Trixie and faced the crowd, while failing to see Trixie’s sudden sinister smirk. Before Sunset could stop Sonata, Sonata already found the page and began to “read” again. “It was the best of times, it was the worse of—” “A-HA!” Trixie cried suddenly, starling Sonata and everyone else in the process. “Trixie knew it! You can’t read at all!” “Wha— what are you talking about?” Sonata asked both uneasily and frightened tone. Trixie smirked further. “Care to read the title of that book you are holding now?” As Sonata looked at the book cover in confusion, it was Twilight who finally noticed a different title on the book. “Hey is that—” Twilight words were cut off when Fuchsia Blush covered Twilight’s mouth, preventing her from speaking. “Well… duh!” said Sonata, trying to build up some confidence. “This book clearly said: A Tale of Two Cities… right?” The whole auditorium was in silence as everyone except for Trixie and the Illusions stared at Sonata out of shock and confusion. Sonata began to feel uneasy from the way her friends and sisters were staring at her. “W-why is everyone looking at me like that?” “That’s not the book you twit!” Trixie chuckled evilly. She snapped her fingers, causing Lavender Lace to walked over to her. Lavender then handed Trixie over the real A Tale of Two Cities book to Trixie. Trixie then held a book up for everyone to see. “This is!” “…wha?” Sonata looked down at the book she was holding very carefully this time. It was then that she realized that although the color scheme of the book she has was similar to Trixie, the letters of the title of the book looked very different. While Sonata couldn’t read the title of her new book, instead of A Tale of Two Cities, it was actually called War and Peace. Sonata was confused about how she ended up with a different book for a moment, until it finally hit her when she remembered when Trixie’s actions from earlier. After she gave the book to Trixie, Trixie must have switched the book with another one from one of the Illusions and than gave this book to her without her knowing. It was all just a ploy to get her to expose her tricks in front of everyone, including her friends… and she fell for it! “You… you switched the book!” Sonata accused angrily. “You tricked me!” “Tricked you?” Trixie retorted with a scoff. “You did this to yourself Siren! You were acting very suspicious at the cafeteria the other day, so I had one of my girls to follow you to the library. She saw that you had someone else reading the book to you multiple times while you repeating it back to her loudly.” Trixie then pointed accusingly at Sonata. “Trixie had a hunch of what you were doing and this confirmed it! You memorized the first page of this book, didn’t ya, didn’t ya?” Sunset turned to Sonata with a pleading look. “Sonata… is this true?” “I…” Sonata looked at each of her friends and her sisters who were staring at her expectedly, pleading for answers from her. Knowing that she was caught and couldn’t lie to them anymore, she looked down and sighed resignedly. “…yes.” Everyone gasped in horror from Sonata’s revelation. “Sonata… Say it ain’t so!” Pinkie cried while grabbing both of her cheeks with hurt in her eyes. Shaking out of her shocked stated, Sunset asked Sonata with a very hurtful tone. “But… what about all the assignments you’ve done Sonata? I thought you learn how to read by now?” “Funny you should say that Shimmer!” Trixie interjected, while enjoying the reactions from her rivals. “Trixie hopes you don’t mind, but Trixie borrowed your assignments!” Trixie took out Sonata’s written worksheets from her pocket that she stole from Sonata yesterday and held them up for everyone to see. “Hey! Why did you have that?” Sunset demanded, appalled that Trixie stole those sheets from Sonata. Trixie smirked. “So I can compare them with these!” With another snap of her fingers, Fuchsia Blush gave Trixie two more papers that they took from another certain two Sirens from the hallway yesterday much to Sonata’s horror. Once Trixie held them up too, the two elder Sirens recognized them right away. “Hey is that—” “So that’s what happened to my homework! Why you—” “I would watch your tone if I was you!” Trixie injected with narrowed eyes, shutting the two sisters up. “After all… you two played a big role to your sister’s assignments!” As both Adagio and Aria eyes were widened in realization, Trixie’s words angered Sunset further. “What are you talking about Trixie?” “Just take a look for yourself, Shimmer!” Trixie mocked as she handed the papers over to Sunset. With a scoff, Sunset snatched the papers from Trixie and began to look them over. Meanwhile, Sonata was shaking real badly as everything she did secretly was about to be revealed. She was about to stop Sunset, but was blocked by Lavender and Fuchsia with cruel smirks on their faces. Sunset looked the papers between Sonata’s assignments and Adagio's and Aria's homework very carefully for couple of minutes until she felt her heart stop when she finally noticed a very crucial detail that Sunset didn’t noticed all this time. “T-these papers!” Sunset stuttered. “The written scriptures between these papers—” “Matched? Indeed they are!” said Trixie with her head up, feeling proud of herself. “That Siren had her sisters do the work for her and then take all the credit!” Sunset turned to the two sisters in question with a demanding look. “Adagio! Aria! …is this true?” Both the elder Sirens had an uneasy looks before they finally answered. “…she did,” Adagio confirmed. “But she told me that her work was ruined and need help fill them in before school. And uh… she offered to do clothes shopping for me in return.” “And she bribed me a rare video game in exchange to complete all of her stupid worksheets!” Aria said bluntly, only to received glares from the other girls. “Hey, don’t judge me!” Trixie crossed her arms and gave Sunset her arrogant smirk. “Let’s face it Shimmer, that Siren friend of yours is nothing… but a fraud!” The moment Trixie said these words, everyone in the audience were loudly booing at Sonata along with some jeers and insults thrown at her. Feeling cheated by the young Siren, everyone in the audience stood up from their seats and then they walked out the auditorium one at a time, glaring at Sonata the whole way. As everyone was leaving the auditorium, Sunset along with the Rainbooms and two Dazzlings giving Sonata their angry and hurtful looks. “I don’t believe this! You were cheating this whole time!” Sunset shouted angrily in disbelief. Sonata wilted. “Well I—” “All this time,” she growled. “I actually thought that my method worked and was helping you… and you were lying to me this whole time!” “You were just doing this for the tacos, weren’t you!” Twilight added with disapproval. “…I—” “It’s bad enough that you lied, but cheating? That’s just shameful!” Applejack spat. “Yeah! That’s lame even for you Sonata!” Rainbow shouted angrily. “…I—” “Sonata… how could you!?” Fluttershy cried on the verge to tears. “I can’t believe I was putting together a “Congratulations on Winning the Bet and Learn How to Read” party, only to find out that my best friend is a cheater!” Pinkie exclaimed with a mixture of anger and sadness. “…I—” “I hope you’re proud of yourself Sonata! Do you even care about our feelings at all?” Rarity scolded with a deep frown. “Especially that you used me and Aria to do your bidding?” Adagio added with a disappointed look. “Even I don’t do that!” “…I—” As everyone was walking away from Sonata without a second glimpse, Aria stood in front of Sonata with a deep scowl on her face. “Sonata… you really are the worse!” Sonata felt her heart split in two with tears running down her face as Aria abruptly turned and walked away from her and out the side exit door to join the others. While Sonata was deep in her sadness, she didn’t noticed that everyone is the audience was gone, nor she didn’t noticed that Trixie and the Illusions had a gleeful victorious smirks on their faces. As the Illusions were walking out of the auditorium, Trixie walked up to the defeated Siren with a smug look and leaned over to Sonata’s ear. “Looks like Trixie’s job is done!” she whispered. “Enjoy your new title of being the stupidest person in school loser!” And with that, Trixie walked away from Sonata and disappeared out through the side exit door and into the hallway, leaving Sonata alone, sobbing in the middle of the stage in an empty auditorium.