//------------------------------// // The Ones We Build // Story: Bridges // by LateToTheParty //------------------------------// And to think that Wallflower Blush was the only one in school with the ability to disappear. Pinkie had never even noticed that a certain ex-siren had been in her chemistry class until they were paired together for the end of the year science fair project. Not that she’d been looking too hard, but you’d think that someone previously thought of as a villain would be hard to miss. In the wake of the fall formal, Sunset Shimmer certainly would have liked the ability to fade into the distance. It must have been some kind of talent, Pinkie concluded. The curly haired girl whipped around to look at the siren, taking up the seat in the back left corner by the window. Wide eyes with no small hint of fear, Sonata Dusk stared back at her with the opened mouth wonder of a guppy. They locked eyes until Pinkie smiled. The smile was crooked and uncertain, born mostly from habit then a legitimately friendly gesture. Still, Sonata returned it with an equally measured smile of her own. She raised a shaky blue hand in a timid wave. Mr. Discord grinned from the front of the class, showing too many of his oddly shaped teeth. “Well, class, color me excited. I can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with! Feel free to make things explode, implode, and any other variation of something equally loud. Now, get to it. These are due in two weeks.” He concluded. The students immediately began the shuffle of pairing with their assigned buddies, packing their belongings only to unpack in a different location, scratching their desks on the tiled floors as they pushed them together. Pinkie followed suit, swiping her papers off the end of her desk to carelessly fall into her glittery backpack. It gave her enough time to school her face into something more cheerful. Sonata still stared at her approaching form with hesitation. Pinkie pulled a neighboring seat and placed it across from Sonata’s desk. “Hiya.” Pinkie began with a smile. “H-Hey.” She replied timidly, offering a nervous smile. They idly lapsed to a stand still, the chatter of their peers, the only chatter between them. Not that Pinkie allowed it to be too long. “Sooooo…” she began. “Any ideas…” Sonata fiddled with her fingers. “It might be dumb.” Pinkie tilted her head to the side questioningly. “Come on. I bet it’s super duper.” Sonata looked at Pinkie through the fringe of her hair. “You wanna know for realizes?” “For realizes-seizes.” A genuine laugh bubbled out of Sonata’s happy smile, causing Pinkie’s own smile to broaden. “Well okay. What do you think about an exploding volcano cake?” Pinkie’s smile stretched to an unreal degree. She was going to enjoy this. And the science project was probably going to be fun too. “Is this really where you live?” Sonata asked, a healthy layer of incredulity lathered on for good measure. It was an old house, from what Sonata could tell, the walls being a faded mauve color with classy wooden accents. The majority of the furniture looked like antiques, sturdy wooden structures that could have been several hundred pounds. Along the walls were a few family pictures and even more of different framed rock formations. She recognized a few, like the grand canyon and Stonehenge. Actually, there was a very heavy rock theme to a lot of the pictures, accented more by the cobble stone fire place in the living room. Somehow, the house didn’t live up to the expectation that she’d had. The only thing that was even vaguely Pinkie related, was the pink couch that was the brightest piece of furniture in the room. Even that was a little dull compared to Pinkie. Not that it was a bad thing. Pinkie had a nice place, if a bit dissonant from her personality. If Sonata had to guess, her folks were drastically different from their bouncy haired family member. The house also wasn’t the basis for her incredulity. “Yep. Do you like it?” “I thought it would be more…” Sonata scrunched her brows in thought, “…pink.” Pinkie giggled. “Yeah. It’s actually my sister’s place.” Said sister was staring at them, causing Sonata to unconsciously scoot behind Pinkie, trying to evade the blank stare of the older Pie. “This is Maud. Maud, this is my new friend and science partner, Sonata.” “A pleasure.” Maud stated, reminiscent of a cardiac failure flatline. “Maud works at the Canterlot Natural History Museum.” Pinkie announced proudly. Sonata raised a brow. “You do?” “Yes. I show the rock exhibits.” That explained the rock themes. “Would you like to hear a joke about the rocks?” She asked. Sonata’s other eye brow raised to join the other in confusion. “Umm…sure?” Maude blinked in slow motion. “Give me a second while I dig something up.” Pinkie slapped a hand over her mouth as she stifled a giggle. “Good one Maud.” In another show of prolonged action, Maude gave a microscopic smile. “Thank you, Pinkie. I’ll be in my room. Don’t make too much of a mess.” She stated, apparently unable to do anything but state. As she turned, Pinkie pushed Sonata into the kitchen. “Isn’t she great?” Pinkie asked. Sonata’s brows had been knit into a contemplative look, staring at a point in the ground. Pinkie frowned. “Umm…Are you okay?” Sonata was quiet before her eyes lit up and she giggled. “I get it. Maud sure is funny.” Pinkie’s frown instantly dissipated as she giggled with Sonata. Pinkie and Sonata were able to do a huge chunk of their research, which meant that it had taken a huge chunk of time that they hadn’t realized slipped by. It was well past dinner when Maud had insisted that Sonata stay to eat with them. By the time Maud had pulled into the city proper, the moon had moved a fair bit through the sky. As she stepped out, she threw a smile at the older woman. “Thanks for the ride and the food, Maud. It was really fun.” Maude nodded. “My sediments exactly.” Sonata laughed heartily, clenching her gut. “You’re such a riot.” Maude smiled. “You should consider coming back again. I have a lot of jokes you still need to hear.” Sonata stoped for a second, thinking about the last time she’d been invited back without having to control someone else’s mind. Then she realized, this would mark the first time she was invited back without having to control someone else’s mind. She smiled at the growing bubble of warmth in her chest. “If they all rock as much as your other jokes. I’m definitely coming back.” Maud smiled again and nodded, before speeding off, waving a hand in goodbye until her car was safely around the bend. She skipped all the way to the top floor, even humming along to the elevator music in the closest approximation to a dying walrus. Her good mood was instantly put under scrutiny as she waltzed through the condo. “Sonata, where have you been?” Adagio asked, arms crossed with a glare. Aria was sitting on the couch with a mirrored look of disapproval. They were both in their pajamas, Adagio in a long night gown and a silk robe to Aria’s baggy white shirt and sweat pants. They looked a bit frazzled, and more than a bit irritated as they looked at her. Sonata briefly wondered if this was how filleted fish felt. “I was over at a classmates house. We were working on a science project.” Adagio’s glare turned to disbelief. “And you didn’t think to call? Do you know what time it is?” Sonata was about to pull out her phone to check but Adagio had barreled straight through. Apparently, it had been one of those questions that she wasn’t suppose to answer. “Sonata, it’s ten o’clock. You were suppose to be home five hours ago.” Sonata shrugged. “You never told me I had to be home right after school ended.” “Are you f—… are you serious right now? We had no clue if you were kidnapped or beaten up. Doesn’t that occur to you at all?” “Well, it’s never mattered before. I didn’t really think anything about it.” “You didn’t think? Big surprise there.” Adagio snapped to look at Aria. “Would you kindly let me handle this?” Aria scoffed. “Fine. You deal with it. I’m going to bed.” Trudging to the hallway, Aria’s departure was marked by the loud thud of a slamming door. With a shake of her puffy hair, Adagio sighed. “Just, let us know the next time you depart from your usual routine, okay?” Sonata nodded, still unsure of what was going on, but she was use to complying without too many questions. When it was clear that there was nothing else to be had by the conversation, Adagio headed back to the hallway that Aria had left from, softly opening and closing the door to her own room, leaving Sonata to wonder. What had that been about? Two weeks had gone by quickly, and their exploding volcano cake had absolutely delighted Mr. Discord, mostly because he found it hilarious how Principal Celestia’s face had warped from surprised to utter terror when a metric ton of frosting exploded over her. Needless to say, they hadn’t won the fair but their A+ was more than secured. Sonata and Pinkie had exchanged jubilant high fives, to the consternation of the Principal. Mission accomplished. “That was great!” “Yeah, I’ve never seen frosting do that before.” “We should go back to my house after school and celebrate. We still have tons of spare cake we can eat.” Sonata grinned. “Definitely! I’ll call Dagi and Aria right now. They’re probably gonna want to know.” “Okie dokie loki.” Pinkie replied before looking a little sheepish. “I should probably help with the clean up while I’m here. That was a lot of frosting.” “Alrighty. I’ll come help as soon as I’m done.” Pinkie grinned before bouncing off to help in the sugary disaster zone. Sonata grinned back. She really liked Pinkie. They'd gotten to know each other in such a surprisingly short amount of time. Two weeks didn’t feel like two weeks. It felt like a few days. She had so much fun. And yet, it felt like months all at the same time. Already it was so natural to sit at the table of the Pie sisters. And during the times in private, there were many things that Pinkie and Sonata had shared between chemistry notes and baking pans, a lot more than she’d shared at any one time with any one person. There was just something comfortable and safe that Sonata wanted to cling to. Sonata gripped the phone in her hand, one sobering thought in her mind. Their project was done. Pinkie wouldn’t have a need to invite Sonata anymore. She didn’t like that. It wasn’t a pleasant thought to know she would have to go back to the mundane routine of school and home, never mind the fact that she had no problem with it before. What about Aria and Adagio? Somehow, she was worried about what they would say. In the wake of their lost magic, the three of them had been nicer to each other. Something about no longer being embroiled in misery put a few things into perspective, but a thousand years of bad habits had a way of staying with someone. Often times, they would just stare at each other, before going on their ways. Any conversation had been stunted by the habitual snark that was practically ingrained in their tonality. Without the telepathic link, they felt more distant, and she would be the first to admit that it was lonely. Pinkie hadn’t needed the link to feel close. Was it really so wrong if Sonata wanted to keep that? The ex-siren found Adagio’s contact quickly, pressing the phone to her ear before she picked up. Hello? “Hey Dagi. I’m going to be over at Pinkie’s again today.” Okay. Don’t stay out too late. How is the project? “Good! Pinkie and I almost have it figured out.” Good. Don’t be too much trouble okay? “Okie dokie loki” What? “Um, you got it. I’ll see you later.” …Sure. See you later. With a quick click, Sonata was skipping to where her bubbly friend waved her over. She was smiling that grin Sonata couldn't help but return, baby blue eyes, beckoning her forward. Why did they need to know anyway?