“I heard he reserved an entire luxury train over twenty cars long to bring them all home!”
“My roommate’s sister is a nurse, and she says that he personally met with each and every one of them to make sure they were okay!”
“You think that’s something? The newsstand where I work got tomorrow’s copy of Rolling Pone in right before we closed up for the night, and in an interview, one of the ponies who’d followed him down there says that he used his magic to create a huge banquet completely out of thin air!”
The snatches of chatter floated through the air as last of the casual customers were ushered out, causing Sonata to smile as she twisted and turned in front of the mirrors set all around her, the manager quietly telling them to take their time before excusing himself. Although it had only been yesterday since Lex had rescued all of those Vanhoover ponies who had been living in the lower part of Las Pegasus, the news had spread like wildfire. The press had gone absolutely wild for the news, but the city’s gossip network had been several steps ahead of them, to the point where the new prince’s abandoning his plans in order to save a group of downtrodden ponies was all anyone seemed to be talking about.
The sole exception, of course, being Lex himself.
Thoughts of her temperamental stallion made Sonata’s smile diminish, unable to help but sigh. Lex had been even more uptight than usual for a while now, and no amount of begging, pleading, or cajoling had been able to get him to tell them what was wrong, let alone lighten up. Even after he’d saved all those ponies, he’d still been weirdly tense, acting like he thought the sky was going to fall at any moment.
That was ridiculous, of course. Sonata had checked with several of the local pegasi, and they’d all assured her that the sky was going to stay exactly where it was. But Lex had barely blinked when she’d told him that, leaving her latest guess about what was bothering him no more helpful than all of the others she’d made since they’d landed in Las Pegasus.
“Lady Dusk?” came the voice of Coat Tail, the Royal Clothing Guy (or whatever his title was). “Is that dress to your liking?”
“Hmm.” Standing up in her hind legs, Sonata spun in place, watching the way the hem of the sundress she was trying on rose and fell with the motion. It was a cute little thing, light blue with a raspberry-colored print, and it went really nicely with the wide-brimmed hat she’d picked out. “Yep!” she decided as she stepped out of the changing room. “I think it’s totes great!”
“I suppose it will be,” murmured Coat Tail as he looked her over, “once I make a few improvements.”
Sonata couldn’t help but smirk at that. The finicky stallion had initially protested her dragging Aria out shopping, insisting that any clothes they bought should be made from scratch just for them. But while Sonata had appreciated that, sitting around and waiting for someone else to make outfits for them was a lot less fun than going out and trying them on! Especially since, now that word had gotten around that they were the new prince’s girls, ponies kept offering them stuff for free.
So in the end, Coat Tail had relented, though only after Sonata had agreed that he’d be allowed to make alterations to whatever they bought so as to “accentuate their inherent pulchritude,” whatever that meant. Even then, he’d insisted on coming along, saying that seeing their choice in purchases would help him keep their tastes in mind when he designed their outfits for Lex’s coronation. That had been fine with Sonata, since having someone to talk to about the different outfits they tried on was part of the fun.
Or at least it was supposed to be.
“Hey Aria,” called Sonata as she looked at the other dressing room, the door still closed. “You done in there? I wanna see that new swimsuit!”
From behind the door came a sigh, and Aria slunk out, dressed in a black one-piece that clung to her body like a second skin. “This is dumb,” she groused half-heartedly. “Everyone in this world goes around naked anyway, so what’s the point of wearing a bathing suit?”
“Style, of course,” replied Coat Tail primly.
“Yeah!” added Sonata, smiling brightly as she looked her sister over. “And I’ve got to say, you’re totes rockin’ that look! For realsies!”
That wasn’t an exaggeration on her part. The swimsuit, though despite being a uniform black in color, had clearly been designed with an eye for the female form. The bottom cut high, leaving Aria's cutie mark entirely on display, which – along with the opening for the tail in the back – meant that when viewed from behind it emphasized far more than it concealed. It reminded Sonata of how, the very first time she’d met Lex, she’d been wearing a swimsuit of her own, although one far less stylish; even so, he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off of her, unlike how he didn’t seem to want to look at her now…
“You really think Lex will care?” snorted Aria, apparently having been thinking the same thing.
The comment made Sonata cringe, not because of how bitter her sister’s tone was, but because it was nowhere near as cutting as usual. Normally Aria was super sarcastic, making biting remarks every time she opened her mouth. Even with how much better their relationship had gotten since they’d both fallen for the same guy, Aria was still in the habit of copping an attitude; it was just that she’d done it in a way where Sonata had been able to hear, for the first time in over a thousand years, genuine warmth underneath the prickly comments, rather than meanness.
But now, the only thing she heard in Aria’s voice was sadness, and it was enough to break Sonata’s heart. For as long as she could remember, Aria had always been tough, staying flippant and aloof no matter what happened. That had been why it had been so awful to see how badly she’d been hurt after the three of them had gone their own way. Seeing her depressed now was just as bad.
No, Sonata decided a moment later, it’s worse. Like, a bajillion times worse.
At least before, when Aria had raged at her about being abandoned, Sonata had known why her sister had been so upset. More than that, she’d been able to do something about it, apologizing and offering to help her fix things with Lex, since the two of them had been fighting at the time. But that wasn’t the case now.
Now, Lex was pushing both of them away, which meant that Sonata not only felt hurt and confused about what was happening, but she had to watch Aria mope on top of it. And it had been going on for, like, a really long time! This was supposed to be their super-fun happy-time getaway, but instead it had been days and days of barely being glanced at, only seeing him for meals and outings, and nothing except quick pecks on the lips at bedtime! It was awful!
All of a sudden, Sonata couldn’t take it anymore. It was one thing for Lex to lose his cool and fly into a rage, or even sulk and pout when something went wrong, and even then he usually couldn’t stop talking about what was bothering him. For him to clam up and ignore them like this was more than she could take, not just because it hurt really bad – more than she’d been willing to admit up until now – but because seeing how it was hurting Aria was a misery all its own.
And she was sick of it.
“You know what? No!” declared Sonata, stomping a hoof. “Just no!”
“I quite agree, Miss Dusk!” chimed in Coat Tail, his voice indignant. “The fabric on that swimsuit is far too coarse, the monotonous coloration is in desperate need of highlighting, and the contrast between the daring cut in the back and the conservative cropping in the front is utterly garbled!”
“Huh?” Momentarily thrown, Sonata shook her head. “No. Well, I mean, I guess, but that’s not what I’m talking about.” Huffing as she tried to get her head of steam back, she turned toward her sister. “I’m mad! Like, super duper mad! And you should be too!”
Aria frowned, but in confusion rather than anger. “Look, this shopping trip was your idea.”
“No, I mean mad at Lex!” clarified Sonata. “He’s been, like, the absolute worst ever since we went on this trip, and I’m totes sick and tired of it! Aren’t you?!”
Aria’s ears folded back as she looked at the ground. “Whatever’s going on with him, he’s made it clear that it’s none of our business,” she muttered.
But Sonata refused to let that slide. “Oh come on! You’re Aria Blaze! Are you really gonna just sit back and let him push you around like this?!” Closing the distance between them in two long strides, Sonata wrapped a hoof around her sister – ignoring the way Aria yelped as the touch made the curse Lex had put on her kick in – and dragged her back into the changing booth, making her face one of the mirrors before releasing her. “You’re baddest bad girl there is! When you growl, big dogs roll over and show you their belly! When you sneeze, everyone’s too afraid to say ‘bless you!’ People walking down the street look both ways before they cross you!”
Stepping up right behind Aria, Sonata looked her reflection in the eye. “You once chewed out a supermarket cashier so bad that he let you open up a second package of hot dogs – for free, right there in the store – so you could take enough to match how many buns you’d bought,” she intoned, her voice dire. “And now you’re just gonna sit here and mope because a guy is giving you the cold elbow?”
A bewildered look had been growing on Aria’s face during Sonata’s speech, and by the end of it she was staring at herself in the mirror as if she didn’t recognize who she saw there. “Y-you’re right,” she whispered, her voice shocked. “What am I doing? This isn’t me! This isn’t me at all!”
Stepping back, Sonata smiled in relief as Aria continued to rant at herself. “I can’t believe I’ve been letting that self-righteous sack of crap treat me this way!” growled the pigtailed Siren, no longer keeping her voice down. “I can’t believe I’ve let it go on this long! And I absolutely can’t believe I needed you to snap me out of it!” That last part came out as Aria turned to face Sonata, a familiar fire in her eyes. “And it’s cold shoulder, doofus! Now are you going to stand there grinning like a moron or are you going to help me give Lex exactly what he deserves?!”
Knowing that was Aria’s way of saying “thank you,” Sonata squealed in delight, rearing up and clapping her hooves together. “Now that’s the Aria I know!”
“You got that right!” Peeling her swimsuit off, Aria glared at Coat Tail. “Is Lex still at the hotel?” she demanded.
Looking distinctly uncomfortable at suddenly being dragged into a personal matter, Coat Tail fidgeted. “Er, I believe so. Tranquila went ahead to confirm that everything was set for his appointment at the water park this evening, but that won’t be for several hours yet.”
“Good!” hissed Aria. “Then I know exactly where to go in order to give him a piece of my mind!” Without waiting for a response, she stalked toward the front of the store. “And I want that swimsuit too!” she added without looking back.
Grinning so hard it made her cheeks hurt, Sonata hurriedly doffed her sundress and hat. “Wait for me! I’m totes gonna read Lex the rampage act too!”
In no time at all they’d made the trip back to their hotel, taken their private elevator straight to the penthouse, and were approaching the outer door, with Aria leading the way. But the path wasn’t clear, with Feather Duster standing in front of the entrance as if to greet them. “My ladies,” she began, a nervous lilt in her voice, “I’m terribly sorry, but Prince Legis said that he’s not to be disturbed.”
“He’s already disturbed,” sneered Aria. “And by the time I get through with him, he’s going to be troubled, distraught, and pained! And so will you if you don’t get out of my way!”
“What she said!” chimed in Sonata.
Feather Duster paled, glancing between the two of them before turning her eyes toward Coat Tail, training behind them. But the balding stallion only answered her helpless look with a shrug, causing her to gulp. “I, um…I understand this might be important, but His Highness was very clear about not being interrupted for any reason. If you could just come back in a little while,” she pleaded.
Growling, Aria stepped forward, putting her nose a half-inch from Feather Duster’s. “You’re not hearing me,” she snarled softly. “Either you move, or I make you move. Your choice.”
For a half-second, Feather Duster wavered. Then she folded her ears back and lowered her gaze, stepping aside.
“Smart girl,” quipped Aria as she stepped by her, snagging the keys from the maid’s belt loop and unlocking the entrance, marching with Sonata right behind her. “Lex!” she bellowed. “Get out here!”
No answer came, and Aria was about to yell for him again when she paused. Sonata didn’t need to ask why, however, having heard the same thing as her sister: the sound of Lex’s voice raised in a series of vocalizations, the exact words muffled as if he were a few rooms away.
Stopping just long enough to determine which direction he was in, Aria stalked toward the sound of his voice, her anger at being ignored visibly growing with each step. Behind her, Sonata frowned, noting something odd about the rhythm of Lex’s voice. There were no pauses between whatever words he was saying, rattling off an unbroken series of utterances with no room for anyone else to chime in. It was less like he was having a conversation than it was like he was making some sort of lengthy speech, reading something out loud, or otherwise reciting something. But she couldn’t imagine what he’d be doing that for, especially since – now that they were getting closer to where he was as they crossed the suite – she could hear that the words weren’t in a language she recognized.
Weird, Sonata thought to herself as she followed her sister. The last time I heard him do that was when he changed Aria into a pony. But that…wait…
Thinking back to what had almost happened then, Sonata’s eyebrows rose. “Um, Aria? Maybe we should hold on a sec.”
“Forget that!” snarled Aria as she walked up the door on the far side of the sitting room, on other side of which was the den…and judging by how much more clearly Lex’s voice could be heard, where he currently was. “I’m going to give him a piece of my mind, and I’m doing it right now! If you want to sit back and just enjoy the fireworks, be my guest, but I’m not waiting!”
Aria threw the door open before Sonata had a chance to respond, revealing Lex standing on the far side of the room, his back to them as he gestured and chanted elaborately, not so much as glancing at the two of them.
Being further ignored only seemed to enrage Aria further, and she stalked toward him, eyes blazing in a way that matched her namesake. “LEX!” she bellowed. “I don’t know what your problem is, and I don’t care! We’re having this out right now!”
Behind her, Sonata furrowed her brow in confusion at how careless Aria was being. Didn’t she know that the last time Lex was casting a ritual – and that’s what this looked like – he’d been majorly stressed about not being interrupted? No, wait, she realized suddenly. She DOESN’T know that! She was asleep the whole time Lex was changing her into a pony! She doesn’t know what’ll happen if she messes things up!
Panicking as she realized that a disaster was about to happen, Sonata ran forward. “Aria, wait!”
But it was too late. Reaching Lex, Aria snarled as she reached out and grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around. “You listen to-”
“YOU IDIOT!” Lex roared, his expression contorting into a mixture of rage and panic.
Then the magic that he’d been gathering collapsed.