//------------------------------//
// Fish Out of Water 
// Story: Story Shuffle 
// by FanOfMostEverything 
//------------------------------//

Sonata sat in a corner of the cafeteria and sighed. Getting disempowered sucked, and nothing could change that, not even Taco Tuesday.

Okay, it being Taco Tuesday helped a little, but not much.

At least she didn't mind being alone. Adagio and Aria didn't want anything to do with her, and really, the feeling was mutual. After all, they were predators. This was how they were supposed to work. It was all Adagio's fault for screwing with the natural order, but now Sonata had to pay for it too.

Scraping chairs brought her attention back to the table, where three girls were seated on the other side, all dressed in blue and yellow. Sonata mentally labelled them Blue, Yellow, and Red, going by their hair color from left to right. Yellow was smiling and adjusting her tie, but Blue and Red both looked wary.

"Hi," said Yellow. "I'm Ditzy Doo." A beat, and she nudged Red with an elbow.

That spurred an introduction. "I'm Raspberry Fluff."

"Blue Oyster," said Blue—oh hey, Sonata got that one right—in a very Aria-like tone. Her half-lidded eyes were equally familiar, though the poofy hair was definitely a change.

Sonata moved her tacos closer and put her arms around them. "What do you want?"

Ditzy kept smiling. "We want to be your friends."

"Ditzy wants to be your friend," said Blue. "Razz and I are tagging along to make sure you don't pull something."

Raspberry nodded. "And she said she'd bake us apology muffins if this didn't work."

Ditzy pouted. "Come on, girls! Sunset Shimmer turned into a demon, but after she got took a rainbow to the face, she cleaned up her act. I mean, she even stepped up and took out the next evil mind-controlling magical horses." Her eyes widened, and with an awkward grin, she brought her attention back to Sonata. "Er, no offense."

Sonata just scowled and grabbed a taco with her right hand, keeping her left arm between her food and Blue Oyster.

Raspberry ran a hand through her waist-length hair. "Well, you like tacos," she said, "so you can't be all bad."

Sonata hunched over her food. "Why are you doing this?"

The three looked at one another. Ditzy spoke, a bit more anxious than before. "Like I said, we want to be your friends, to one degree or another. It seemed like you were just going along with the other two more often than not. Now you can be your own person, do what you really want instead of whatever they tell you."

"Oh." Sonata shook her head. "Wow, you really don't get it."

Two of the girls frowned, but Blue Oyster quirked an eyebrow. "Do tell."

"Adagio... she's always been really smart. She's the one who figured out how to combine our powers, and she's the one who could figure out you people. I..." Sonata frowned and squirmed. "I'm trying to find the words, and that's kind of the problem."

Blue nodded. "How so?"

"You know why I like tacos? They remind me of home."

Ditzy brightened up. "Really? How?"

Sonata felt a hint of a smile develop. "A thin skin over yummy meat. Just like sailors." She took a big bite. "Mmm…"

The other three girls glanced at one another. "Sailors?" asked Raspberry.

Sonata nodded. "Find a ship, sing to them, get them fighting, feed off the negative energy, and eat them after they wreck themselves. It was a good life." She scowled. "Then Adagio came, and she promised all I could eat if I joined her, and that worked until it didn't." Cracks sounded from the taco shell as her grip tightened. "And now I'm stuck here in this stupid body and this stupid world where everything's complicated and nothing makes sense and it all sucks."

Something touched her left hand. She flinched back and saw Ditzy looking back, hand outstretched and eyes askew. The blonde cleared her throat and said, "You could see this as an opportunity. We can help you adapt."

"Besides," added Blue, "even if you'd succeeded, what would you have done after you took over the world?"

Sonata blinked. "After?"

"Yeah. World domination sounds all well and good, but then you have to do something with the planet."

Ditzy smirked at her. "You've thought about this."

Blue returned the smirk. "You haven't?"

"Are we just ignoring the part where she ate pe—"

Ditzy shook her head. "Not the time, Razz."

Sonata barely noticed. She was too busy considering the concept of "after." "I… I guess Adagio would've thought of something?" Sonata shrugged. "I was just in it 'cause… well, we're the only three sirens in this world." She sagged. "At least, we were. We needed each other to squeeze a little magic out of you monkeys. Now…" She sighed.

"Now you can have actual friends," said Ditzy.

Sonata rubbed her temples. "I don't get you."

Blue nodded. "Yeah, Ditzy's weird, but that's part of her charm."

Sonata shook her head. "Not just her. I really don't get any of you. I don't get anything about this world. For a while, I could figure stuff out, but now everything changes so fast that by the time I have, it doesn't matter anymore." She folded into herself. The tacos were pale imitations anyway. She could barely remember the taste of minotaur. "Just leave me alone."

"But—"

"Ditzy, let it go." Raspberry Fluff actually sounded sad. Weird.

"If she says she wants to be left alone," said Blue Oyster, "we should respect that."

A sigh. "Okay. Sonata?"

She looked back up. The other two were standing, lunch trays in hand, but Ditzy hadn't gotten up yet. "What?"

"If you ever change your mind, we're here for you." Ditzy gave a sad little smile. "In any case, I hate seeing people being sad. Take this." She set a muffin on Sonata's lunch tray.

Sonata just looked at the pastry for a few seconds. "That's what always gets me. You people are just enough like ponies that I can never figure you out."

"Like I said, we're here for you." And with that, the trio left her alone.

Sonata nibbled at the muffin. It wasn't meat.