Another day, another successful victory at a taco eating contest for the taco-loving Sonata Dusk, who walked out of the competition with a victorious smile.
"Fifty tacos! Thirty minutes! Several drinks! Five near-death experiences!"
Sonata reached for her back and took out a coupon for a full course taco meal at any local taco restaurant.
To anybody else, this would seem like a rather underwhelming, if not irritating reward for the stuff Sonata had gone through.
For Sonata, only one thing mattered.
"All of that has been worth it for this coupon, which'll allow me and the girls to eat like queens after eating mostly healthy, ordinary food! No more cookies! No more pancakes! No more soda cookies and coffee! We'll finally eat actual food!"
Sonata jumped high and spread her arms.
"Nothing could go wrong right now!"
Everything wrong wrong right then and there.
A single thunder was all the warning everybody got before thunderclouds darkened the sky, followed by a very heavy set of rain that immediately dropped Sonata onto the floor, the girl getting wet as she tried to process what just happened.
"Well, I certainly didn't expect that. But at least the coupon's-"
Sonata looked at the coupon and saw it got all soggy and useless from the rain. Just what she needed.
Sonata stood up, and stared at the now useless coupon for a while until another thunder was heard, prompting Sonata to throw the thing away and scream at the sky.
"After all the effort I put into gaining that dang thing, you think it's funny to come out of nowhere and make it all for naught, right, Princess Cadence!?"
Sonata dropped to her knees and punched the ground.
"Just because you claim to have a sense of humor doesn't mean you have to do it at my expense!"
Sonata clenched her fists and raised them high as she yelled at the sky.
"Curse you Cadence, and your power over weather!"
Just then, an umbrella suddenly appeared above the wet girl, so she turned around to see where exactly it came from, quickly finding someone holding the umbrella.
Flash Sentry, to be exact.
"Are you okay?"
Sonata blinked twice as Flash extended a hand towards her.
"Do you need help to stand up?"
Sonata slowly accepted the help, and stood up with help from the boy, who she recognized once she got a closer look at his face.
"It's you! Your name is Flash Sentry, right?"
"Well, yeah, that's my name," Flash shrugged. "But how do you know that?"
Sonata paused, looked around to see if there were any hidden cameras to prove this was just a joke, then turned back to the boy and pointed at herself.
"I'm... I'm Sonata Dusk. Do you really not remember?"
Flash shook his head.
"This is the first time we've met, as far as I know."
Sonata narrowed her eyes and looked elsewhere as the boy continued.
"Anyway, I saw you being quite upset at the sky for raining all of a sudden. Did something happen?"
"The coupon I was going to use to get me and my roommates something to eat was ruined thanks to the rain," Sonata folded her arms. "Now I have nothing to bring back home for dinner!"
"Well, how about I take you to the restaurant and I help you buy something for dinner?"
Sonata's eyes widened.
"You'd actually do that for me?!"
"If it makes you happy."
Sonata scratched her chin and turned around, giving a little thought to the idea of getting Flash to help her pay for dinner.
Or even better, she could trick Flash into buying her dinner, and maybe also let him stay for it too, so the girls could "Feed" of him, in a sense.
A sly smile formed in her face alongside a malicious look, cementing her decision to do this plan.
Of course, she changd the look and smile for something more cheerful and innocent once she turned back to Flash.
"I'd appreciate that."
Sonata took a step forward, only to slip and land right at Flash's arms.
"How about you grab my arm while we walk together?"
"Y-Yeah, for my sake, that sounds good."
Sonata clung to Flash's arm and watched her step as she and the boy walked to the nearest taco restaurant available, Flash looking forward while Sonata looked at the ground, and glanced at the fool of a guy taking her for dinner every once in a while.
Howveer, something about the boy did catch Sonata's curiosity.
As far as she knew, she couldn't control people without singing, and even if she could do it without doing so, she needed the gem that was destroyed in the battle of the bands to do it.
So, from the looks of it, Flash was helping her of his own free will.
"So, uh, what do you do?" Sonata spoke, trying to strike up a small conversation. "For a living or as a hobby, I mean."
"As a hobby, I like to play guitar with my band every once in a while," Flash answered, focusing solely on the road a head. "For a living, I'm thinking about finding work in a music shop, but for now, I'm focused on studying first."
So he plays guitar and has a band, huh? If we still had our powers, I feel like this guy and his band could be a decent food source. Oh, and maybe a collaborator too.
That's the word, right?
"So, what do you do?"
Sonata flinched and turned back to Flash, who was looking at her with curiosity.
"For a hobby or a living, I mean."
"O-Oh, w-well, my friends and I sometimes go play music at concerts in order to make a living, but besides that, I'm mostly left to check the house: my friends are the ones who actually work. As for a hobby..."
Sonata hummed, then got a funny idea.
"I try to find ways to sow chaos across this world to feed on the negative energy."
Flash, rather than get the hint and finally recognize Sonata, chuckled at the statement.
"Wow, what a story."
Sonata's eyes widened and a gasp almost escaped her mouth.
"That..." Sonata frowned. "That was supposed to remind you who I am."
Flash raised an eyebrow. "It was?"
"Y-Yeah! I mean, who else would say such an outragous thing with a calm look!?" Sonata lowered her eyelids. "Is what I said really not giving you an idea? Not even a hint?"
"Again, as far as I know, this is the first time we've met. Maybe you're confusing me with someone else?"
Sonata lowered her head, starting to give that thought an idea, while also growing a little bit angry at the boy's obliviousness.
Sonata and Flash found themselves sitting at the taco restaurant, Sonata looking through the menu as Flash spoke.
"Pick whatever combo or meal you want, and we'll pay for it together."
Finally, Sonata could take it no more: she put the menu down, took a deep breath, and narrowed her eyes.
"Okay, cut it out."
Flash paused. "What?"
"First you come to me when I'm upset that it began raining, then you walked with me all the way to the restaurant and even humored me while we were talking, and now, you're offering to partially pay for the meal?"
Sonata folded her arms.
"Just what do you need from me?"
Flash blinked twice.
"Can't a guy do something nice for a girl?"
Sonata's eyes widened.
"Just a girl!?"
"Well, yeah," Flash shrugged. "Is there something wrong with that?"
Sonata's eyes twitched before she stood up.
"Do you honestly not remember who I am?! I thought the first time you said it was as a joke, the second time, I thought you were being stubborn, but now this is the third time I find myself asking this to you!"
"I honestly don't remember having met you before!" Flash replied. "Then again, if it doesn't involve a great magical disaster or studying, or my band, I have a hard time remembering stuff."
Sonata slammed her fist on the table.
"I was one of sirens that brought anger-filled chaos to your school!"
Flash paused to process this revelation, and once he did, he snapped his fingers and smiled.
"Oh right, you were one of them, weren't you?"
Sonata sat down and pulled her hair.
"How dense do you have to be to take this long to remember your former tormentor!? And more importantly, why are you being so kind to me!?"
Sonata leaned closer to Flash.
"After Adagio, Aria, and I turned your entire school into hate-filled mongrels, fed off your negativity, and nearly burst your eardrums with how bad we sang after our gems broke, you shouldn't want anything to do with me!"
Sonata pulled herself back and rested on the table, her anger being switched with frustrated confusion.
"And yet here we are, with you offering to pay for the meal. Although, now that you know who I am, you probably won't do it."
Flash pushed the menu towards Sonata as he spoke with a smile.
"There's a saying we got at Canterlot High School: Forgive and Forget.
"How do you forgive, and more infuriatingly forget, the girls that turned you and your entire school into dragons!?"
"Dragons?"
"It's a figure of speech!"
Flash Sentry and Sonata both took a deep breath, the latter calming down enough to explain herself.
"I'm sorry, it's just... we sirens really like to have attention, so if someone forgets us, we can get a bit cranky."
"I see, sorry if I was a little bit offensive just now," Flash Sentry scratched the back of his head. "But really, I just wanted to try and do something nice for someone in them iddle of the rain. And besides, I don't think you have any money or other way
"I could try get another coupon, but that would be fifty more tacos, thirty more minutes, and maybe five or more near-death experiences-"
"Yeah, you probably should accept my generosity just this once."
Sonata grabbed the menu, took another look at it, then got an idea.
"Could you do me one more favor before we make an order?"
Sonata opened the door to the sirens' home, and walked inside with a bag.
"Adagio, Aria, I'm home!"
As if on cue, both sirens bolted from the living room and ran up to Sonata, both sporting preoccupied looks.
"At last you arrived!"
"Where the heck were you!?"
"You had us worried sick!"
Sonata blushed and put a hand on her cheek. "Aw, you guys!"
"We thought we'd have to go out and buy dinner ourselves!"
Sonata frowned. "Oh, you guys..."
Then, she remembered something.
"Oh right, somebody's coming for dinner."
Adagio and Aria looked annoyed at the news, only for said guest, Flash Sentry, to walk into the house a few moments later.
"Heyo!"
"This is Flash Sentry, he saw me being upset and all that out in the rain, so he agreed to buy us dinner-"
Adagio and Aria immediately ran up to Flash and scanned him.
"A guy, huh?"
"Sonata rarely brings people home, let alone guys!"
"Just what happened between you two to convince you to come here?"
Flash opened his mouth.
"Doesn't matter, what does matter is that this is something unusual, and we should celebrate it!"
"Yeah, with dessert!"
Sonata frowned. "Dessert?!"
Adagio and Aria flashed sneaky smiles. "Dessert!"
Flash tilted his head. "Dessert?"
"D-Don't think about it for now, Flash," Sonata raised the bag. "F-For now, how about we set up the table and get eating?"
Adagio and Aria immediately nodded and ran up to do just that, leaving Sonata and Flash alone for a moment.
"Hey, Flash?"
"Yeah, Sonata?"
Sonata flashed a smile at the boy.
"Thanks for the help."
Flash returned the smile.
"No problem."
And so, Flash, Sonata, and the other sirens enjoyed a little taco-filled dinner, the sound of the rain in the background no longer acting as an annoyance for Sonata or anybody else.
And then Flash found he was the dessert.
"Wait, what?!"
The end.