“Listen, Sonata, I’m not saying this is a bad idea or anything…”
“Darn right! If anyone knows what to do about my awful sister and my two-timing boyfriend, it’ll be Kara!”
“From what you’ve told me about her, I’m sure you’re right about that. And you know I’m willing to help out however I can…”
“I know, and I totes appreciate it.”
“Yeah, but the thing is…should we really be doing this here, of all places?”
Nosey punctuated her question with a nervous glance around. Although nopony had seen so much as a single ghoul since the climactic battle a few days ago, being in Vanhoover still made her nervous. If not for the fact that Sonata had used her calming spell on her a little while back, she was sure she would have been shaking. Although the sun was shining down on them, making the plaza they were in brightly illuminated, the nearby buildings still cast heavy shadows that left the alleys between them darker than she would have liked.
Sonata, however, didn’t seem to be concerned in the slightest. “It’ll be fine. This way we can make that spell without anyone getting all up in our business.”
Nosey bit her lip. “I…guess that’s a good point.” Sonata hadn’t been paying too much attention to their surroundings during their walk toward Vanhoover, but Nosey hadn’t missed the sight of Princess Celestia among the camp ponies. While a small crowd had gathered around her, Nosey had gotten a glimpse of the pair of ponies she was talking to, and had felt a shudder go down her spine when she’d recognized them as Spit Polish – the pony that Lex had cursed for trying to murder him in his sleep – and his friend Peachy Keen. Given that Nosey had gone out of her way not to mention Lex cursing anyone when she’d spoken to Princess Luna last night, and knowing that Sonata and River had done the same with Princess Celestia, she really wasn't eager to be asked why they’d withheld that bit of information.
They’d also passed by those foals that had saved them last night. They’d been gathered around Severance and, for some reason, had a small zoo’s worth of animals with them. Feathercap, the unicorn colt who’d insisted on accompanying her when she’d spoken to Princess Luna last night, had spotted them, waving and starting towards them. But his friends had called him back; whatever they were doing, they were apparently quite caught up in it.
It’s just as well, Nosey had decided at the time. It’d be more than a little awkward if they started asking about those rewards I said Lex would want to give them. She’d said that because she’d wanted to raise their spirits, since everypony hadn’t seemed to recognize how heroic those foals been. Now it was just one more uncomfortable conversation that needed to be had regarding the camp’s unsociable leader. Which is why we’re out here in the first place.
“I mean, normally I like an audience,” continued Sonata, drawing Nosey back to the present. “But it’s not like I wanna wash my dirty dishes in front of them.”
Despite herself, Nosey couldn’t help but smile at little. “It’s ‘air my dirty laundry,’ Sonata.”
“Right! That too!”
Rolling her eyes, Nosey nevertheless felt her tension ease thanks to Sonata’s antics, though it didn’t vanish entirely. “I just worry that if we have an audience here, it might not be other ponies.” Seeing the blank look Sonata gave her in response to that, Nosey gave her a pointed one in reply. “Not living ponies, I mean.”
“What? You’re worried about more ghouls? Oh please.” Scoffing, Sonata waved a hoof. “We, like, totes took care of all of them. And besides, even if there are some left, I’ll just blow ‘em away.” She paused for a second before adding. “Actually, the way I feel right now kicking some butt would feel kinda nice.” Turning around, she directed her attention to the nearest dark alley. “Heeere ghoulie ghoulie ghoulie ghoulie ghoulie ghoulies! Aunty Sonata’s got a nice surprise for you!”
“Sonata!” Worried that her friend would find what she was looking for, Nosey quickly ran over and interposed herself between Sonata and the entrance to the alley. “We should, um, probably get started! I mean, if we want to get back before that noon meeting and all.”
“I’m not going back until I get in touch with Kara,” huffed Sonata. “We’ll skip lunch if we have to!”
Nosey’s eyes widened, and not at the prospect of missing a meal. She had little doubt that Lex speaking to Celestia and Luna without anyone there to soften his words would quickly turn into a disaster, especially now that Celestia knew he’d been cursing ponies. Despite how horrible Lex had been to Aria, Nosey wasn’t anywhere near ready to abandon him to his fate like that. “Then let’s get to work,” she repeated, a little too quickly. “I definitely don’t want to miss that.”
“Right! It’s spell-making time!” Her declaration made, Sonata reared up onto her hind legs…and began doing a series of stretches.
Nosey could only blink, completely nonplussed. But as the seconds went by and Sonata continued her unexpected exercise routine, Nosey somehow managed to find her voice. “Sonata…what are you doing?”
“Warming up, duh!” answered Sonata easily, giving Nosey a look that suggested that was a really dumb question. “You might wanna loosen up too. We’re gonna give this, like, a hundred and ten percent!”
“R-right…” Not at all sure what was going on, Nosey decided to just go with it. She’s a sorceress, so she must have done this before. I’ll just follow her lead and do what I can to pitch in. Letting out a breath, she copies Sonata’s motions, standing on her back legs and twisting her torso.
Several minutes passed as they worked out, both girls grunting and panting as they worked the kinks out of their bodies. Finally, Sonata sat back down, breathing a little heavily. “Whew! Okay! That felt good, right?”
“I think I pulled my tail,” groaned Nosey.
“C’mon! We gotta get fired up!” cheered Sonata. “One more time: that felt good, right?”
“R-right!”
“Now, are we gonna give it our all?”
“Yes!”
“Are we gonna do our very best?”
“Uh-huh!”
“And are we gonna win?”
“Yeah!”
“Alright!” Punching the air, Sonata gave Nosey a grin of pure confidence. “So, how do we actually make a spell?”
“Oka-, wait, wait, what?!” If she hadn’t already been sitting down, Nosey would have fallen over. As it was, her jaw dropped and her eyes bugged out, staring at Sonata in complete and utter bafflement. “You’re asking me?!”
Now it was Sonata’s turn to blink. “Well, yeah. I mean, when you offered to help me do this right out of the blue like that, I figured it was because you must have done this before.”
Nosey winced at that, thinking back to last night. Right after Lex had started his ritual to turn Aria into a pony, Sonata had been weighing her guilt over how much her sister had suffered against her exasperation at Aria’s repeated romantic overtures toward Lex. That had been when she’d declared her intention to make a spell to contact Kara, wanting to complain to the love goddess about how awful Aria was for horning in on her territory.
Looking back, it had been considerate of Sonata to then assure Nosey that she wasn’t going to complain to Kara about her as well, since after all Nosey was only sticking close to Lex due to her anguish over what Xiriel had done to her. But for Nosey, who wasn’t quite so sure of her own feelings anymore, her friend’s sympathy had filled her with guilt and a sudden desire to change the subject. That had been when she’d blurted out that she’d help Sonata make her spell to contact Kara. She’d known as soon as she’d said it that it was an ill-considered idea, but it wasn’t like she could take it back once she’d made the offer. Even so, she’d thought that Sonata would just want her to act like her assistant or something; someone to bounce ideas off of or provide basic support. That she’d apparently thought she’d actually invented spells before was completely beyond Nosey’s expectations.
And now there was nothing for her to do but admit that she was in over her head. “Sonata…no, I’ve never made a spell in my life.”
Sonata’s eyebrows went up. “For realsies? But you’re a unicorn! I thought you could all, like, shoot death rays and pull hats out of rabbits and stuff!”
But Nosey was already shaking her head. “Sonata, most unicorns aren’t wizards. That’s why you didn’t see anypony fighting with magic when we fought all those sea monsters on the docks. We can do little things like use telekinesis or make a light or something, and some of us might even learn a self-defense spell or two, but that’s it except for the magic in our cutie marks.” Turning, she pointed to the image of a magnifying glass over a newspaper on her flank. “And mine is for being a newsmare, not spellcasting.” Knowing what question she’d be asked next, Nosey kept going, her ears folding back. “I know I said I’d help, and I want to, I just…I’m not sure how.”
But rather than seeming disappointed or upset, Sonata just waved a hoof. “Aw, that’s okay. We’ll just do it my way then.”
Relieved at how easily Sonata had accepted everything she’d just said, Nosey found herself perking up, leaning forward. “Okay. What’s that?”
“We’ll sing a song!”
For an instant Nosey wasn’t sure what to make of that, before the obvious answer came to her. “Oh right, because you sing to cast your spells! Okay, so, how does that work?”
“I have no idea!” smiled Sonata brightly. “I just know that if I sing a certain way it does certain stuff.” She paused for a moment, brow furrowing a little. “Come to think of it, I’m not even sure how I know that.” Another long pause followed. “I think I remember Lex talking about this, back on Everglow. Something about how some people didn’t have to study to do magic, they were just born with it somehow and figured it out as they went along.”
Not sure what to make of that, Nosey nevertheless tried to think through what she’d just been told. “Alright, well…if you can make magic by singing, maybe you just need to come up with the right kind of song to get in touch with Kara?”
“Hmm.” With visible effort, Sonata thought about that. “That sounds like it might work.” Brightening up, she smiled at Nosey. “See? You’re really helpful after all! Now, go ahead and sing something!”
Caught off-guard, Nosey couldn’t help but feel confused. “You want me to sing?”
“Just to help me out. You know, for perspiration?”
“Perspir-…you mean inspiration? I…suppose that makes sense.” Shifting in place, Nosey suddenly felt self-conscious despite them being alone. “So, um, what should I sing?”
Sonata shrugged. “I dunno. Something about Kara, I guess.”
“But I don’t know anything about her,” protested Nosey, rubbing the back of her neck. “I mean, I know what you’ve told me, but that’s it.”
Completely unfazed by her friend’s hesitation, Sonata walked over to her and put a foreleg around her shoulders. “Look, I’m not expecting you to just belt out a hit like it’s no problem. Honestly, it’d be pretty weird if anyone could just start singing a whole song out of nowhere, you know?” Withdrawing her hoof, she chuckled at the thought, backing away from Nosey again. “You’re just trying to give me some ideas, so don’t try so hard and go with whatever you can think of.”
Letting out a sigh, Nosey nodded. “Okay. Whatever I can think of…”
“Exactly! I won’t laugh or giggle or anything, so just cut loose!”
Sitting silently for a few moments, Nosey licked her lips nervously. “Alright, here goes…” Not giving herself time to feel embarrassed, she began to slowly, hesitantly sing the first thing she thought of. “Kara Kara bo bara. Banana fana fo fara. Me mi mo mara.” An awkward pause ensued, before she finally finished. “Kara.”
A pained look crossed Sonata’s face. “Okay, good first effort. Maybe step your game up a little more next time, though? Something like…I don’t know…Kara Kara Kara Kara Kara chameleon? Because she’s goddess of changing shape, you see?”
“What? You mean like the changelings?” Nosey shook her head as if to clear it. “I thought you said she was the goddess of love?”
“That too. Oh hey! Maybe we should try singing songs about those!” Sonata clapped her fore-hooves together. “I bet that’ll do it! Quick, do you know any songs about shapechanging or love?”
“I do about love,” admitted Nosey. “Not so much for the whole ‘shapechanging’ thing.”
“Great!” squealed Sonata. “Let’s try those! I’ll go first, and if nothing happens, then you try one, okay?” Not waiting for an answer, Sonata took a deep breath before starting to sing…
“Sonata, this isn’t working.”
“Aw, c’mon! There’s a lot more love songs we haven’t tried yet!”
Nosey shook her head, rubbing her neck gingerly. “We’ve been at this for I don’t know how long – at least an hour now? – and nothing’s happened except my throat aches. We need to change what we’re doing.” Or go back, she added silently, glancing at the shadows the buildings were casting. From how much smaller they’d grown, the sun hadn’t reached its zenith yet, but it was getting close. Lex is going to meet with the princesses soon!
Slumping down, Sonata’s discouragement was written all over her face. “I don’t get it. Kara doesn’t show up for songs. She doesn’t show up for pie. She won’t come into my dreams anymore since those weird alicorns appeared that last time. What’s the deal with her? Does she just not want to help me out anymore?”
Hating to see her friend so down, Nosey trotted over and gave her a quick hug. “I don’t believe that. Maybe…I don’t know, maybe we’re doing this all wrong?”
Sonata gave her a skeptical look. “What do you mean? We’re trying to invent a spell that’ll let us talk to her. How is that all wrong?”
Moving so she was in front of Sonata rather than alongside her, Nosey let herself think out loud. “Well, you said before that she would show up in your dreams when you and Lex were having a problem and you needed her help. So maybe the trick isn’t to make a spell at all. Maybe it’s that you just have to do something that’ll catch her attention the way you did before.”
“Maybe,” admitted Sonata. “But Lex and I are already having a relationship problem now! So what else can we do?”
“I don’t know,” frowned Nosey. “But if she’s a love goddess, I bet it’s something to do with love.” Or shapeshifters, she added silently. But there was no point in mentioning that part.
“Something to do with love,” echoed Sonata, before giving an angry snort. “I should go enchant some guys and be all lovey-dovey with them right in front of Lex, so he can know what it feels like. I bet that’d get Kara’s attention.”
Nosey grimaced, before forcing herself to smile. “Let’s not go with that one just yet, okay?”
“I know,” grumbled Sonata. “I wasn’t being serious. But I bet it would get her attention.”
Not wanting her friend to get fixated on an idea that would only make things worse, Nosey tried to ease her away from that thought. “Well, let’s think along those lines, but maybe a little more focused on, you know, actual love instead of jealousy.”
Groaning, Sonata laid down on her back, spreading her forelegs. “Fine. Like that, but with actual love. Except the guy I would be all lovey with is a cheating jerk. So that really cuts down on…on…” Her eyes suddenly widened. “Wait a sec…wait, that’s it! I’ve got it!” Springing to her hooves, she rounded on Nosey with an excited grin. “I know what to do to get Kara’s attention!”
Nosey smiled, the enthusiasm in her friend’s voice being contagious. “What?”
Beaming, Sonata pointed a hoof at her. “You and I should totes make out!”