//------------------------------// // Chapter 11: Post-Underground-Corridor Illumination // Story: Creeping Normality // by Eyeswirl the Weirded //------------------------------// As much as she'd have thought she was getting used to it by now, Aria still hated to admit when she was wrong. As much as she'd have thought she'd have gotten used to it a long time ago, the cause of her annoyance was Sonata, who still hadn't come back even as the sun was going down. If she wanted to make things right with Adagio, it'd probably be easier if she had Sonata there with her, so sighing with irritation, she finally settled on going to look for her. It was while getting dressed and preparing for what could be a long night on the town that she noticed the credit card was missing, making her hunt feel much, much more urgent. %%% Thankfully, tracking Sonata down wasn't hard, because it took less than an hour of searching to happen across a poster with her face on it. Apparently, Sonata fancied herself an overnight pop idol, setting up what was supposed to be her own one-song concert at the same outdoor-theater... place... at which they'd held the Battle of the Bands. The exact same place at which they'd lost their powers, their singing voices, and any hope of reaching their dreams of life-long worship by lesser creatures. That was where Sonata wanted to try her luck. So much for 'bad feng-shui' or whatever, you fucking idiot. Maybe even more surprising was the fact that people had actually shown up, Aria able to see at least a few dozen people out in front of the stage, waiting for the show to start. This, apparently, was what Sonata had wanted the card for, because the set-up of lights, props, and people working various equipment she saw backstage (Sonata having understandably skimped on any kind of security detail) looked a lot more extravagant than the cardboard-level budget either of them could easily afford. Sonata probably blew most of the money Adagio had given them on this, which renewed Aria's feelings of frustration with both in full. This was right about the time she found Sonata, still wearing the stupid, flashy get-up in which she'd left the house, looking back at her like she was the one who stole the last of their money and spent it on something stupid. "What are you doing here?" "Looking for the idiot that swiped my-" She caught herself too late, but still forced a deep breath in an attempt to calm down. "We gotta talk, this-" "Nuh-uh," Sonata said while holding up a hand in a manner suggesting that Aria should make conversation with it, "I'm not doing anything you say, you're an even worse leader than Adagio ever was! I'm gonna make my debut here, and when I get super famous, you're gonna be-" Anger quickly moved in again. "How do you plan to sing without a singing voice, stupid?!" "Pfft," scoffed Sonata, looking at Aria with a pitying smirk, "with the recordings I took of myself way before the Battle!" "What?!" "I've got it all figured out; if I can't sing, I'll just lip-sync to my own voice, which is pretty much the same thing, get a recording of me being awesome, and get my own golden mansion with all the money I make!" "...Okay. One: I thought this contest of yours said it had to be an original song. I know for a fact that you don't know how to write one." Adagio was the big music star the day they met, she and Sonata had just been there to have a good time. "So? I recorded myself singing Adagio's songs way back when, and since nobody else knows about those, I can just say I wrote 'em!" "And when Adagio catches wind of you using her songs illegally?" A proud grin on her face, Sonata crossed her arms. "Uh, big-time super star versus fast food clown, my word against hers. I win." Sonata's newfound arrogance was clearly doing nothing for her reasoning ability, but given that she was sure this wouldn't get far enough for Adagio to have to prove she wrote the songs (however she'd do that, nevermind the massive assumption Sonata was banking on that she'd get bigger and have more clout than Adagio before the latter could do anything), Aria was content to move things along. "Uh-huh. And, why do you have recordings of yourself singing Adagio's songs? Which you never mentioned prior to now?" At this, Sonata turned away with a scowl, an unmistakable bitterness in her voice. "Like I'd tell you." She started walking away. "I've like, got a show to put on, so if you wanna hang around, you can go get ready to throw money and roses with the rest of my fans." Not moving, Aria called after her. "And what are you going to do when you run out of recordings?!" Not turning back or slowing down, Sonata dismissively waved a hand at her. "I'll get my real singing voice back somehow before that happens, duh!" Watching the idiot go (with a vague imitation of Adagio's most swingy, queen-of-the-world walk, the one she hadn't actually seen her doing in several months now), Aria seethed. There was no way this was going to work, no way Sonata would get anywhere by pretending to have talent, no way she would get away with leaving Aria behind even after she always brought Sonata along with her. There was no chance, and being there to see it all crash and burn was the only reason Aria hung around as Sonata started her show. Nobody cheered as Sonata walked out on stage, but she definitely had their undivided attention as the music started and Sonata launched into her dance routine. To her credit, it wasn't as sloppy as Aria had expected it to be, though Sonata was clearly out of practice (and a little out of shape), putting emphasis on thrusting her boobs, butt, and thighs toward the audience as often as possible to make up for her sluggish movements. Oh of course, she's using one of Adagio's 'sexy' songs. Once the first chorus started, the stage crew, a bunch of people in black pants and t-shirts, started pulling ropes and moving stuff, making big, painted, hot-pink hearts and blue, jagged music notes glide around the background of the stage as Sonata "sang." It was all very flashy, but simple in its presentation, which definitely felt like the kind of show Sonata would put on, so that wasn't what surprised Aria about the whole thing. What surprised her was that the audience was getting into it. Looking into the meager crowd from where she stood just offstage, Aria could see a few smiling faces, heads bobbing, and feet tapping. People were actually going for this. It was working. What Aria didn't notice was one member of the audience in a light-blue hoodie drawn up to cover her face. Staying in the back of the crowd, this person watched the spectacle for a minute, determined that while it was weird and confusing to see another of the sirens somehow singing again, she at least didn't see any magic, nobody was acting like zombies, and there was no sign that anyone needed to get up in arms about anything going on here. It was safe. That in mind, she stepped away from the crowd, kept a normal walking pace until she could step out of sight, then sped away, gone in a blink. Still looking at the rest of the audience, Aria's jaw clenched. It wasn't anywhere near the amount of people that were here the night they lost everything, but Adagio's first music video hadn't had a huge crowd either, and more importantly, if people could go for this now, it meant however many people saw this stupid contest might go for it too. Sonata might really take off and leave her behind with this. As if to mock her thoughts, it was at this point that Sonata, aided by some thinly-visible wires, lifted off the ground, floating in the air among her flat hearts and music notes as she got into the fourth stanza, where the beat really picked up. Aria wanted to scream, to throttle Sonata then and there if she could have reached her, or even to just drop to her knees and cry, but she'd never give Sonata the satisfaction. Instead, hands balled into fists and burning eyes tightly shut, she turned and kicked the nearest thing to her. The impact hurt her foot even through her boot, but the sudden, mechanical whirring snapped her back to her senses. On the ground in front of her was some kind of rope-and-pulley thing, now spinning out of control as it rapidly fed a rope to... somewhere. None of the stage crew seemed to notice that she had kicked it and no one was even looking in her direction, the noise from Sonata's song reverberating much louder than anything the pulley was doing. And that was when things started to go wrong. Suddenly, one of the big, floating hearts that had been swinging around the stage lurched off in a direction it wasn't supposed to, banging against a quarter-note that nearly snapped free of its ropes, bending and twirling in the air until it smacked into another heart at the other side of the stage. That heart went off-course too, nearly slamming into Sonata as she stopped "singing" to kick her legs in the air to dodge it, the recorded song still playing all the while. This motion sent her whirling around, the wires holding her up quickly entangling her arms as the stage crew frantically waved instructions at each other, pulling levers and pushing buttons here and there in an attempt to reign in the unfolding chaos. It was difficult to say whether or not this helped or hindered matters, because one of the hearts picked up speed, knocking hard enough against another to send it swinging upwards toward the walkways on which a stage crew member desperately fiddled with controls. The impact against the railing made the crew member jump in fright, inadvertently hitting something that screwed up the sound system. Sonata's recording got stuck on a single syllable, revealing her deceit to the audience in perfect detail. Just in case the fact that her mouth had stopped moving wasn't enough of a hint. Still trying to free herself from the wires as most of the props either broke off their systems or were reigned in enough to stop moving, Sonata arched her back while kicking her legs, narrowly missing a jagged, blue eighth note as the top glided an inch from her spine, snagging her red, slingshot swimsuit as it passed. Sonata's eyes bulged in shock and pain as the eighth note finally came to a stop, leaving her hanging front and center above the stage, suspended by her swimsuit. A silence settled over the crowd as they took in the scene. Then they pointed and laughed. Aria's first instinct was to join them, but she heard some of the stage crew frantically whispering to each other nearby. "What the Hell went wrong?!" "I dunno, something must'a been loose somewhere!" "Well what do we do?!" "Waitwaitwait, I've got an idea... She paid upfront, right?" "Right." "Cool... Bail!" And then they scattered. Stuck hanging with the worst wedgie of her life, a flush-faced Sonata grimaced in both pain and frustration, another ruined plan down the tubes. She was just about to start telling off the jerks laughing at her when she heard Aria's voice. "Okay, okay, that's enough!" Her heart rose when the crowd actually stopped laughing, gratitude and relief flowing in like a cool breeze as her oldest friend came to her rescue! ...Only, when she walked out on stage, Aria was pushing a shabby-looking fruit stand with her, one that smelled like old lemons. It almost looked like their old lemonade stand, just with the 'Lemonade' part of the sign crossed out! "If you really wanna let her have it," Aria announced with an ecstatic grin, "ya gotta do it right! Just two bucks a lemon!" Her smile turned smug and malicious as she glanced up at Sonata, whose jaw had dropped and face paled when she registered what awaited her. However, to her surprise, someone in the audience chose now to develop any kind of empathy. "Hey, that's not cool, making a profit off someone's misery!" There were a few affirmative sounds from the others, to which Aria responded with a raised eyebrow. "But it's fine to sit there laughing at them, adding to that misery? I don't see a single one of you moving to help her down." The first speaker was heard muttering. "W-well, yea, but... um..." He quickly glanced at those nearby. "Charging two bucks a throw is too much, let's get her!" The cheer of "Yea!" was much more unanimous this time, sending a chill up Aria's spine before she tore off running, the angry mob in hot pursuit. As much as Sonata wanted to laugh at her or cheer them on, she was still stuck, arms tied and hanging painfully by her swimsuit. "Is anybody gonna get me down...? Hello...?" %%% Meanwhile, at Rarity's place, the Rainbooms struggled with the conundrum of the Shadowbolts (minus Indigo Zap, apparently) having stolen their act for the Chance to Prance contest, and the idea bucket was running pretty dry. Rainbow waved to the others as she walked in, sighing with some kind of relief as she lowered her hood. "Okay, I scoped it out a little, and... I think we're good." Sunset hesitantly smiled. "That's good to hear. No magic, no mind-control, nothing?" "Nothing," Rainbow confirmed, "just cheap boob-shaking stuff to snag the drooling idiot crowd. Maybe that was how Adagio did it at first too?" She was startled by an angry Fluttershy materializing in front of her, sharply pointing an index finger just under her chin. "Poofy is a very wholesome girl and would never resort to something so base! Her product is cheese, not cheese-cake, because the Eezy-Cheezy is a family restaurant and does not cater to the appetites of that nature, only those seeking delicious, carefully-made meals; everything you could think of with extra cheese!" Her correction delivered, Fluttershy stopped to catch her breath, noticed the whole room staring at her in shock, then turned red, hid in her hair, and quietly slunk off to the corner. Rainbow scratched her head. "So, anyway... Sonata's not a threat either, and if we see posters of Aria all over town next, we probably don't even need to check it out." "Reckon that's good to hear, at least," Applejack thought aloud, "'cuz we don't really have room for another crisis right now." She turned her head to see Rarity, knee-deep in another dramatic episode as rocked back and forth in the fetal position. She didn't know what they were going to do about this contest or the thieving snakes from Crystal Prep, but she hoped something came up soon. %%% Later that night, Sonata sat on the edge of the abandoned stage, her head in her hands as she sighed. All day spent going around and paying people to do stuff for her, all for nothing. There wasn't even enough for a sandwich on the credit card now, because she'd spent every cent she could just in case Aria swiped it back, but now it was like she'd snuck out to steal it in Aria's sleep for nothing! Even her sexy swimsuit was ruined, and that was the only slingshot bikini she had! That was the kind Adagio's hot new friend was wearing in those pictures, so she was sure even Aria would drool over her! Not literally though, because like... yuck! That skimpy thing was technically her underwear, now hanging from the stage in shreds, so she was kinda going commando right now, but even that tiny thrill didn't make her feel any better about being totally screwed. Maybe I can still dress up like a poor, lost orphan and try to get Adagio into pity-taking-me-back, only this time with no stupid Aria to mess that act up. But, I'd need money to get to wherever she lives now, and I don't wanna carry the smelly old hat I'd be keeping the money people gave me in all the way to her place! Oh, and, where does she live now? Ooh, maybe I could go to the Rainbooms, tell them that I was always the good one, accept Rainbows as my savior, pig out on cupcake communion, and get them to rainbow-beam Aria and Adagio to death for me! Then I'll inherit Adagio's fortune and- Footsteps snapped her out of her fantasizing, making her look up with a hint of dread to see a bruised Aria coming toward her in torn clothes. Sonata's first instinct was to yell 'Rape!', but there wasn't any of that strangle-you-with-your-own-kidneys look on her face, just a tired, I'm-too-old-for-this kind of stare as Aria casually came closer, hands in her pockets like she just didn't care about anything. If sexy, stare-at-my-butt-like-it's-the-only-thing-in-the-world hip-swinging was the Adagio Walk, this was the Aria Walk. The Aria Walk turned into the Aria Sit when she stopped next to Sonata on the edge of the stage, sitting with one leg hanging over the side and the other bent to prop up an arm that just kinda hung there like she was supposed to be holding a cigarette. "Hey." Sonata noticed that Aria wasn't looking at her, but maybe it was because of the black eye. "...Hey." "I'm sorry." Uppercut to the feels!! Sonata did not expect that! But then there was more! "We'll be out here all night if I go in order, but like, tonight, and everything that came before? I'm sorry." "...Everything?" "Yea." She winced when Sonata punched her arm. Not because it was done hard enough to really hurt, just, it hit one of her bruises! "Take it back." "Huh?!" She turned to see Sonata with an angry, hurt look on her face. "I don't want it to be everything, take it back!!" When Sonata pulled back a fist, Aria raised her hands in defense. "Okay, okay, not everything!!" At that, most of the malice in her long-time partner vanished, the fist falling to her side. "Sheesh." Sitting in silence for an awkward minute, Sonata felt like she'd been asked to explain herself without anyone actually saying it. "...If it was everything, that'd have to mean the big party, too. I'm not sorry for anything about that, and you shouldn't be either." "'Big party'?" "Yea. Y'know, where we met Adagio?" "Oh, the solstice festival!" "Solstice?" "Or something like that, I know it had to do with seasons or whatever." Then the thought sunk in, drawing a smile. "It'd really bug you if I was sorry for that?" "For inviting me! I had a really good time that day, even before she brought us on stage for her big encore!" "Inviting...? Ohh, yea..." Anyone who could make it there was free to attend and do whatever, but staying in the luxury tents was a ticket-only kind of deal, and Aria had won two in a bet. Not having anyone else to bring along, she gave the extra to the first dork that agreed to carry any prizes she won like a pack whale. This proved to be an easy job for Sonata, because Aria won no prizes, but they had fun anyway. That thought, of course, led Aria right back into her guilt. "You know why I always give you a hard time?" "Because hanging out at a huge, three-day super-party is one thing, but working together is another and between the three of us, there was a Best, Worst, and Not-Worst, and with Adagio all having her act together all that time, that left Worst and Not-Worst, and you didn't wanna be the Worst either?" Aria's jaw dropped, so she smiled and shrugged. "I know I'm not smart, but I feel stuff, and I felt like you felt that way too." It took Aria longer than she wanted to admit to swallow that Sonata already understood her so clearly. But, maybe that meant she already knew this too. "...When we, after the Battle, when Adagio was having her little breakdown, it was easy to finally make her the loser of the group, right?" "Totally," Sonata answered without a hint of mirth, "and like, it felt good. 'I'm the boss now, bitch, so get used to it!' I never said anything like that to her, but that was the feeling; being bigger and stronger than somebody who's normally better than me." "...We still sorta fought over who was 'Best' after, but, even when she took back control, she was still pretty much working for us." At least in the sense that she was doing a job to fund their take-it-easy-until-we-find-work-that-doesn't-suck lifestyles. "With how things had been going, I thought it just felt right." She again winced as Sonata lightly shoved her, agitating another bruise. "You were the one that said it was all her fault, when we got booted here and when the gems broke, and when she started crying, I thought it had to be true." Trying a page from Sonata's book (a sign of desperation if ever there wa-), Aria took a guess. "And her blowing up at us yesterday got you thinking too?" "Uh-huh. When she was in charge, we did what she said, she took care of the hard stuff, and everything that went wrong had to be her fault. That worked great for me, so I went with it, but..." Her eyes misted. "It didn't feel true, and I didn't wanna think about why." "But you did anyway?" Somehow, this won a tiny, if sad smile, Aria responding with one to match. "Hehe, yea. I was making a list, in case she ever wanted to switch things around and make us work while she watched TV, and when I hit 'It's her fault the Rainbooms broke out somehow!', I felt like I bit into a cookie with raisins instead of chocolate. Then I kept finding more raisins, but like, I wanted them to be chocolate, so I just kept chewing and telling myself it tasted like chocolate, but they were still totally raisins! You know what I mean?" "...Somehow, I think I do." Sonata nodded. "It was all her ideas, but every time we had a good thing going because of those ideas, something pretty much came outta nowhere, and if somebody got mad at me for stuff I couldn't have seen coming, I'd just wanna kick 'em in the junk, so..." 99% sure that it was an act of solidarity, Aria put a hand on Sonata's shoulder. "We've gotta make up with her." Sonata looked her in the eye, the question already clear in her wide, regretful eyes. "How?" At least this time, Aria could admit it. "I don't know." Things stayed quiet for a moment. Aria had kind of hoped they'd get an epiphany to fix everything right then, but maybe it was too much to hope for that kind of freebie at this point. She glanced backward at the ruined props. "Seriously though, why did you have recordings of yourself singing stuff Adagio wrote?" Sonata chuckled. "I used to take those so I could listen to them later to pep myself up, to prove to myself that I wasn't totally worthless and my singing sounded great even when I wasn't singing with you guys. Adagio'd have never let me sing with you otherwise, right?" Aria slowly nodded. "...Sorry we made you doubt your worth by being so much better than you." Sonata scowled, reaching out to pinch Aria's backside as hard as she could. "OUUCH!! K-kidding, I was kidding!!" Sonata let go, huffing and turning her head away as Aria winced and rubbed the sore spot. "Dammit, that's gonna be another bruise!" "When Adagio left, I ran to my room to think about stuff, and it wasn't just what she said. I was the one that broke first and tried to throw you under the bus, so I figured you were gonna kick me out the next day, so I had to do something." Glancing at the stage, the shot at stardom that she might have helped destroy, Aria managed to fend off Guilt this time with one of her earlier observations. "Even if this had gone well, do you really think you'd have convinced people that you wrote her songs? Because even if you learned and got good at writing songs fast, I bet the difference in styles would show enough to expose you. And that's if she didn't do something sneaky to end you even sooner." Sonata shrugged. "I was desperate, okay? You try thinking straight after hours of psyching yourself up that you're totally gonna pull off something huge by yourself." She glanced at Aria. "Like taking on forty people on your own." Aria snorted. "Nah, I'm pretty sure most of that mob don't exercise, because only four or five kept up until I was cornered and then it was just a matter of blowing off steam. Totally fun," she said while stretching out an aching arm in a punching motion, "try it some time!" "Heh, I'll pass." She frowned. "Really though, what do we do now? We've got not money, no jobs, no friends in this town, nothing but a messy house and maybe a sob story." Still lacking ideas, Aria looked out over the empty seating area, wondering if the film crew ever bothered to shut off the camera. And then it hit her. "You paid for a recording for your little show, right?" Blushing, Sonata scoffed and folded her arms. "Yea, don't remind me." Aria smiled a little. "Let's see if we can get that footage..." %%% One week later... %%% "Aaaand that's five, hundred, thousand views!!" Sonata was much less excited about what the laptop was showing them, even if the video title was 'Hot Girl Gets Tied Up,' because that hot girl was her! Her face stayed beet red for every second of the video's runtime as her failed, one-song concert fell to pieces onscreen, mostly centered on the wedgie. "You know," she growled through gritted teeth, "you suck." Aria was all smiles. "It ain't gonna last forever, but we're making pretty good income off this ad revenue stuff. Good thing your outfit was just modest enough that we didn't get demonetized, huh? This should keep us afloat until we can both get solid jobs." "Yea, but-" Aria kept her sweet smile, but her tone held a cold edge. "It recently broke even with the amount somebody spent by herself to pay for the video with all of our money, so we're actually turning a profit! Neat, huh?" Grumbling, but knowing it really was her fault that they were flat-broke after her show, Sonata quietly accepted that being an internet laughingstock (at least until something else came along) was the price for nearly dooming them on a stupid flight of fancy. Again. "Hey, at least you didn't have to run home naked this time, right?" Sonata flushed an even brighter shade of red than the stretched swimsuit onscreen as she squawked in indignance. "Gawd, shut up!!"