Thunder boomed in the distance, muffled by layers of bricks within the depths of the Royal Palace in Trotgourait. Already it was raining harshly, the hail bashing against the old windows of the tall building.
Sonata raised her head to look at one such window. She saw that the sky had grown darker than minutes prior, killing off the sunlight in that afternoon.
The siren sighed, and allowed her head to droop low. She was hunched up on a flight of stairs, with her lengthy body extending across over a quarter of the total steps. She placed her snout in-between her hooves, with her eyes only half open by this point.
She hated herself for saying and doing what she did earlier. To Zamni. She knew none of what had happened was his fault, that liking Silverstream and Skystar didn't make him an awful person, nor that he should have somehow known better than to befriend them. The young king had already told her, after all, that he was mostly alone back then. The two hippogriffs were probably among his best friends, in a way.
And Sonata had gone out of her way to scold him for it. She had lost her temper and told him that he shouldn't be making friends with certain creatures solely because they were mean to her, that he would have to accomodate for her own wishes.
That's one thing that stung her deep, right in the gut. When she stormed out of his room and slammed the door shut, she realised that what she had said was exactly what others had always told her, in turn. Aria and Adagio... was she becoming like them now?
The young siren shook her head quickly as if to cast off that thought. Nonono, she was not like that. Sure she might have snapped then, but that was... different. Aria and Adagio always told her those things while completely calm and unaffected, so this was nothing. Right?
At that point Sonata wondered why she had even grown angry with him to begin with. She refused to believe it was her friends' influence showing itself through her, so was it really just a thing in the moment? Wasn't Zamni a friend too? If so, surely she shouldn't have said the things she said, right?
The tall creature writhed back and forth, unknowing of her own thoughts anymore. A part of her found it weirdly liberating to decry Skystar and Silverstream, she found. After all, it was they who led the resistance against her and the others - with weapons at the ready and more than enough willpower to use them. Hippogriffs had died because of them, on both sides!
The lone, helpless siren allowed her head to sink even deeper, covering her eyes with her own hooves. She could fell something swelling inside now, but she didn't mind.
All she had ever wanted was to be free and to enjoy that freedom with others. For the longest time now, that materialised through Adagio and Aria, with whom she shared a common bond the likes of which was unparalleled to her knowledge.
But... their differences were clear as day, and although that didn't mean she didn't like them - quite the opposite actually - it did mean that it made truly enjoying time with them a rare occasion. There was always disagreement on something, or a spark from a petty insult, that kind of stuff. Again though, she didn't mind it all that much in the end... but... she wishes they would at least listen to her. Sometimes, at least, just from time to time. Adagio had always been the one pulling and pushing all the buttons and levers in their group, with Aria playing second fiddle begrudgingly. Her? She was basically ruled out entirely, yet still she believed that her ideas could really help others, including those two.
Sigh.
If only they would listen...
Booooom.
The sea monster quietly thanked the heavens for the thunder and rain that was filling the air with noise now, as both began to mix with a quiet sob of hers, a few tears beginning to drop onto her hooves.
Nocreature had ever wanted to just listen to her. She wasn't the smartest, sure, she knew that. Aria was the strategist of the group, always having some deep, complicated plan for everything, whereas Adagio was much more direct, but also cunning and deceitful with how she manipulated others even without their spell's influence, as rare as that might occur.
And she? She was... well... she didn't know what she was. Didn't know what her contribution really was, in the end. She had told herself many times she was jovial and happy, that being outgoing was her part of the trio and that it somehow helped a group of creatures that could bend the world to their desires by mind-controlling them.
Yet... without her happiness, without her carefree attitude and her willingness to 'just try' things and give them a chance, who or what was she? Was she really Sonata the siren, part of their musical trio on a quest to avenge themselves and the others?
Or was she just a background singer at best? Was she perhaps just white noise? A nopony?
"Sonata!"
The teal siren's eyes flashed open as she recoiled in shock and reared her head in an instant. Her vision was fuzzy, what with her still drenched eyes and whatnot, but she could clearly she a metaphorical wall of yellow before her. She could see...
"Sonata, I've been calling your name three times!"
Adagio.
"Did you-"
The lead siren appeared to pause with a mouth agape. It took Sonata a moment, but she traced her opposite's glance right back to her own face.
"I-I-I err..."
Frantically she raised her hooves again and ran them across her eyes, wiping the tears away as best she could. They were still a little red, though, and clearly Adagio had already seen too much.
"Sonata, are you-"
"-Fine!" Sonata quickly interjected. "I'm good, I'm fine! W-Why are you asking?"
Unfortunately for the young siren, she was not a good liar or actor, which became ever so much more obvious now that she shot a wide, faked grin at Adagio.
"Perhaps it has to do with you crying when I came here?"
The teal creature winced.
"I could hardly overhear the sobbing, you know."
She covered her face with her hooves as she attempted to make herself as small as possible.
"But what matters, Sonata," the young siren's world froze for a moment as she felt the touch of another hoof touching down upon her own left hoof, "is that I can't ignore it."
"I... I-I messed up again, didn't I?" the young one asked quietly, her sobs from before slowly bouncing back.
Adagio cocked her head ever so slightly.
"Did you?"
"Well I... I said... I mean I didn't..."
Sonata placed her hands back underneath her hooves like before and sighed deeply. She shook her head, as if trying to deny everything and anything that had happened recently... and then her crying began in earnest.
"I-I didn't mean to say... the things..."
For some time, Sonata was alone again in her mind. Crying, sobbing, shouting incoherently as she wanted everything off her chest. Everything was messed up now, everything was just awful, and the worst part was that now Adagio would make it worse because she knew. She would know Zamni was not under her spell, that she had tried to befriend him and even treated him to a casual board game. She would know that it even caused her to neglect her 'real' duties, in some small part. Once again, Sonata was going to be the failure she had always been in her elder's eyes. Her opinions wouldn't matter, especially not now, and what small trust had been invested in her by the two others was certainly forfeited now.
There was another muffled, roaring thunder from outside as the storm picked up.
"I n-never... meant..." she weakly managed. "I just wanted... ugh..."
The rain continued to whip against the windows nearby as the wind picked up. It was almost enough to cover up the sound of another creature lowering herself down onto the staircase right next to Sonata.
"Sonata."
Adagio waited several seconds for a reaction, and even then, all her younger partner did was slightly lower her protective hooves over her eyes so that she would catch a glimpse of her.
"We need to talk."
"I-I know, I know... I messed everything up like u-usual..." came the response as the whimpering siren covered her eyes once more. "I always do..."
"What happened, Sonata?"
Adagio didn't get the response she was hoping for, and so placed a hoof on the teal one's back, hoping it might spur her into speaking her mind... but it had a little of the opposite effect, causing her to flinch and tighten up even more by the seems.
"Sonata, look, I... I haven't seen you cry since... well, I don't know exactly, but towards the start of our banishment!"
The young siren felt the hoof on her back ease up, moving up and down as it stroked her like so.
"What I mean is..." the lead singer continued with uneasy words. She was not exactly used to comforting another, when usually her eyes were set on doing the exact opposite of that. "I'm worried. About you."
That got Sonata's attention, and although she remained a sobbing, tearful mess, she at least raised her head a little to look back at Adagio. The usually so self-centered creature looked... uncomfortable, in a certain way, as she tried to smile warmly but was having issues doing so convincingly.
"You're just saying that."
"Ugh," Adagio retorted. "Look, I know this is hard to believe but... I mean it."
The two looked at one another during a shared moment of relative confusion, which then turned into awkwardness for Adagio. She didn't blush, but she certainly seemed flushed.
"Can't you just talk, already? I haven't had to do something like this in who knows how long..."
Rather than take it as a blunt insult, Sonata let out a big sob, sniffing before rearing her head, much to the relief of Adagio.
"I... I haven't been telling you things, Adagio..."
"Not been telling me? What did you do?"
Though usually such a question, directed at Sonata, would carry a pervasive and accusing tone with it, this time it seemed calm and genuine.
"You know how the zebras here had a king, right?"
"...Yeees...?" Adagio warily replied.
"I... couldn't bring myself to sing to him..."
The teal creature turned her head away, as if shunning Adagio out of fear.
"That's... not entirely unexpected, I suppose," said Adagio, trying to avoid contempt.
"What?"
"Sonata, I've known you for millenia. Do you really think I didn't foresee that possibility by now? Last time I sent you to deal with captured mortals you did the same thing, remember?"
"Oh." Sonata turned her head back to her companion, but looked a little deflated at the mention of the topic. "Yeah, I remember..."
"Ugh, sorry. I didn't mean to bring up-" Adagio facehoofed and sighed at her own incompetence at this. "What I wanted to say is that I know you well, Sonata. I know you don't do things exactly like I intend, and I know you have this... odd way with mortals, nowadays."
"But it's not odd!" Sonata suddenly gave out aloud, breaking the previously somber and calm mood. Adagio leaned back a little even as the youngling snapped. "You always say that! Always did! But why!? Why is it so bad to make a friend? Or two? Why can't we use our magic to make friends, to be happier, to make everycreature be happy like us!?"
"Sonata, I didn't-"
"And everytime I try making a friend, you and Aria take them away from me! No matter what I tell you, you always throw me aside and ignore everything I say! Because it's always you who gets to dictate what we have to do! Even Aria is sick of it!"
Adagio rested against the stairs as she laid next to Sonata, appearing staunch and calm as she waited for Sonata to finish her part.
"I only ever had you two as friends, and I love you both with all my heart, but sometimes I just... I feel like I don't know myself anymore! Everything I do now is like a coin flip between making me feel right or wrong, and if it's wrong I feel super bad about everything. It's because nopony has ever listened to my concerns, to my suggestions and ideas! And I know some of them are bad, kinda, but you don't even pretend to hear me out anymore, usually!"
Sonata took a deep breath to allow herself to continue. She was starting to simmer down in tone somewhat.
"I wanted to meet some of the mortals under us as an equal. As a friend! Because thralls might give us our magic - and I know we need our magic - but they don't give us joy in life, Adagio! They just do what we want and when we don't need them they go back to argue with one another. I get we're sirens... I get it! But there is another way somewhere where we can make this right, make it better! Some way to be friends, not tyrants."
Adagio nodded slowly as Sonata wiped away new and coming tears in her eyes.
"I thought I could be friends w-with the king and... I... I snapped and I told him... I-I..."
Without another word, the young siren was pulled to her left and into a very loose embrace by Adagio - very loose, in fact, as Adagio didn't seem to know where the threshold between comforting, loving and harmful was. Still, it was such an odd thing to picture for a very dazzled, scattered Sonata. Adagio was comforting her... or trying to in her own sort of way, and she was crying her eyes out in her arms.
"I'm sorry, Adagio... and I'm sorry to Aria, too..."
Sonata didn't resist, resting her head up against her friend's chest as the last of her tears came forth.
"I came here to make you proud... to show you could trust and rely on me and... maybe then you'd listen for once. But now," she sniffed, pausing for a moment, "now I've ruined everything. Again, like I always do."
The two creatures remained locked in place for a few calm seconds as Sonata's sobs gradually began to subside. Adagio looked down at her as she stroked her friend's back, just next to her large dorsal fin.
The thunder roared once again outside, and only a few seconds later, a bright flash through the closest window as lightning struck close by.
"Do you know why I always reprimand you, Sonata?" Adagio asked as the two clung to one another.
"You always told me you wanted to teach me how to be a proper siren... like your parents did for you."
"That's part of the reason, but not all." The lead singer took a deep breath. "It's because I care about you, Sonata. Aria does, too."
Sonata remained quiet.
"We knew we were becoming overbearing eventually, and Aria couldn't stand doing it anymore at some point as you grew up, but I continued. I didn't just want to be some sort of teacher. I wanted to help you find your way, and since it was always just the three of us... that way was with us."
"But there were so many ponies, so many other creatures we could have done things with. Why didn't we?"
"It's... ugh." This time it was Adagio who seemed to not want to talk, but given the situation she felt obliged to, though uncomfortable she was. "It never was that simple, Sonata. To you maybe, but Aria and I agreed to something a long time back. We swore it, actually, and promised to never ever betray that pact. Becoming friends with the mortal races was not an option, and I've tried to teach you that as well... but I know that fell short."
"But... why?"
"I can't tell you. Maybe another time, when we've overcome all this mess in Zebrica by chance, but for now you just have to take my word for it and believe me when I tell you that we never meant to intentionally misguide you. Because to us, right now, there is only this one way. Our way - and that means we have to tread it together."
Sonata's eyes looked down to the ground as she sniffed, then letting out a deep breath.
"You couldn't even let me have a few friends? That's all I ever asked for back then, and even that was too much for you."
Adagio looked another way also, still uncomfortable talking about all this.
"You had grown a lot by that point, and we had come to know that you were not going to follow our lead by example. So Aria suggested we keep you on a... short leash, of sorts. No fraternizing with the mortals at all. We didn't want you to be distracted or get even further deranged by them."
"Deranged? But they're just-"
"Please, Sonata, trust me on this. Just this once."
An eerie silence took hold then. It wasn't awkward unlike before, but Adagio hoped it was for Sonata to give her words a chance.
"I suppose..."
Adagio smiled - not that Sonata saw it.
"Not like it matters. Nocreature is ever gonna be a friend of mine anyway. They'll all run away unless I sing, or they stay and then I mess up and just... yell at them or weird them out somehow." The lonely siren frowned as her head slowly slid down Adagio's belly, until the latter grabbed hold of her tighter to stop her from doing so. "Or they'll just be taken away from me again."
She closed her eyes, perhaps trying to rest after the heart-wrenching hours spent alone, hiding from all her servants and duties. The smile on Adagio's face had faded by now... but she did have an idea in mind regardless.
"Maybe not all of them."
Like on command, Sonata's eyes snapped open, and she flicked around to look at Adagio from below, now essentially resting on her lap - though really it was just the base of her tail.
"W-What? But you just said-"
"Well, yes. I did. It's true that Aria and I made a pact all those many years ago, and that we plan to abide by it, but that doesn't mean we can't make the tiniest, most minimal of oversights."
Life returned to the previously so depressed and deflated siren, the familiar sparkle and life in her eyes coming back to life.
"No way. No way! Is this really you, Adagio!? Hello!?"
Just as Adagio smiled back at her for a job well done - in her humble opinion - the young creature lifted herself up and tried to jump down onto her in an attempt for a tight embrace. It was stopped just in time by her superior, who kept her at bay with her hooves and tail just in time.
"While I'm being very genuine, and I mean this in the best way possible, can we please stop with the affection and hugging and things? It's... not my style."
The yellow singer managed to push off her assailant, who quickly recovered and hovered just above the stairs, with Adagio promptly following and doing the same.
"But wait," Sonata realised, "I... don't have any friends. Well besides you and Aria, anyway. There was Violet Facade back in Hippogriffia but... Aria took her, and then there's King Zamni but... yeah. I kinda messed up with him. A lot."
"Messed up? Sonata, do you know how many times you 'messed up' on us?" Adagio mimicked quotation marks as she spoke. "If we had cast you out for some stupid thing you did or said, you wouldn't be here today. Not by a long shot."
"Well yeah, but we're immortal! The zebras, well. They take a lot more offense."
"Did he actually say he was offended?"
Sonata blinked, and remained quiet.
"Sonata..."
"It was a very stressful situation, in my defence!"
A dull thud sounded as Adagio facehoofed and shook her head.
"Nevermind that. Let's go," said she. "You're going to go for round two."