//------------------------------// // Dividing Rifts // Story: A Small Drop // by Glitch Hooves //------------------------------// The main doors to Canterlot high burst open as the final bell rung out. A large mass of students broke out, and poured down the steps and into the courtyard. From their they filled the sidewalks and made their treks to each of their own homes to plan for the weekend. They waited five whole days for this and now they can spend it relaxing or having fun with friends. Once the main courtyard was devoid of any life, and the sidewalk began to clear up, details could be made out of any individual. Rather than the giant thriving mass that was once a large number of high school students. One certain student was walking with a little more enthusiasm than the rest. Walking as if listening to a song in her head, she continued down the sidewalk, no destination currently in mind. After making a quick stop to grab her favorite snack she once again found herself on the sidewalk, a taco wrap in her left hand. She was Sonata Dusk, part siren, and part regular school girl as of late. Her sisters, Aria Blaze, and Adagio Dazzle had decided to leave while she stayed for the long run at the school, new opportunities were in her head when she made the mind set. She will admit though that coming back was... tricky, to say the least. At first she was greeted with hate filled eyes and jeering students. No respite, seemed like this would go on for quite some time. Thankfully, after a few weeks the school learned to welcome her, or rather tolerate her being there in reality. She preferred to think the first option, it made her less gloomy. She even managed to make friends with the same girls that defeated her and her sisters after a rather awkward encounter. She shook her head awake, clearing her mind from the rather unpleasant memories, and only focused on what lay ahead of her. Which currently looked like a never ending sidewalk. Suddenly, a large clanging sound came from the nearby alley she was walking by, nearly making her jump out of her own skin. Fun fact about Sonata: you straight up scare her like that, she'll go into a fake jujitsu stance. Or she'll lift her arms high above her head, her fingers looking like claws ready to gauge your eyes out, one leg raised up as if ready to kick. But she keeps it down considering she doesn't exactly have the greatest balance. After falling forward and landing straight on her face, near breaking her nose in the process, she picked herself back up hastily and looked to the source of the noise which came from inside the alley. She waited a few seconds, thinking on whether to check it out or not. She heard of the saying 'curiosity killed the cat' but she decided to make an exception, just this once. Very cautiously she took a step forward, eying the ground making sure she doesn't trip over anything like a stray can, or something ridiculous like that. She saw an overturned garbage bin, its contents, not normal among regular garbage cans. Or however regular trash can get. These items included a few scattered bottles, but not empty ones, each one was a different shape with different colored liquids inside. She saw some other items she couldn't make heads or tails out of in the dark alley. Something was squirming within the mess of trash. Whatever it was, it slowly became upright, a faint outline was all she saw. too big to be a rat, but too small to be a dog, or at least a big dog. It moved into the light where more details could be made out. It looked to be in the shape of an C, but only if the top half of that C was a black head with two huge blue eyes, and orange spots running along its forehead and back with a blue tail. It had little fins on what she could only assume was the outline of the head. She stared at the creature with new found interest, no fear, just curiosity. The creature, giving her the same treatment. The creature looked to be floating a few inches above the air, standing up to sonata's thighs. Neither of them moved, simply staring at each other, pondering. Very slowly, Sonata raised her free hand and opened her palm, waving it slightly. She felt a connection with the creature, as if she knew everything about it just by looking into its eyes, and she felt that the creature understood her. "Hi," she whispered with a happy smile. The creature's eyes suddenly shot open in surprise and it turned round, running, or flying? Deeper into the alley, bobbing up and down as it did so. "No wait! Come back!" Sonata cried out, giving chase to the creature. The creature made a turn once it reached a small turn. In doing so, it crashed right into a fence, the fence rattled in protest at the weight that was just pressed against it. The blue skinned siren made the same turn and saw the creature. It was trying to jump over the fence, but it couldn't reach high enough so it slowly floated back to the ground. Sonata slowly moved closer to the creature, cautious to not make a noise. It turned around and laid eyes on her, the creature began to press itself against the fence, shaking wildly. Staring with wide, terrified eyes. Sonata saw the fear in its eyes and tried a different approach. Very slowly she got on all fours so now she was at head level with the creature, and spoke to it in a soothing manner. "It's okay, it's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you... whatever you are." She was now on her stomach, her arms were crossed under her chin, looking at the creature. She slowly extended her left hand; unwrapped the taco from its plastic cage, and pushed it towards the creature with a soft nudge. "See? Taco. Yummy yum tum," she whispered, watching as the creature began to relax and eyed the taco with curiosity. Once it realized that neither the taco, nor the strange girl in front of the taco was a threat, it began to nudge it with its head and slowly push it back onto Sonata's outstretched hand. "Awwww, thank you," she cooed. The creature gave a small low pitched whistle before spinning in a small three sixty. It gave what Sonata could only believe were happy eyes. The only thing on its head were those eyes and orange spots, so it was easy to tell what emotions it would convey. But this brought another question. Where was its mouth? Sonata slowly outstretched her other hand and put it on top of the creatures head to pet it. It didn't flinch as she placed her hand on its head. Its skin felt greasy and moist, it also felt very tight against its body. Like a balloon that's stretched to its limits. "My name's Sonata, what about you?" she asked. A small squelching noise was its only response. She smiled and nodded as if understanding it. "I think you and I are going to be good friends," taking her hand off the creature. She slowly stood up, the creature, watching with those blue oceans it called eyes as she did so. She bent over and picked it up like you would a baby. She pulled it closer to her body, the head of the thing facing in whatever direction she was. She was holding the thing like it was a doll. "I bet the girls will just love you!" Sonata said, spinning around and heading back out the alley and towards the apartment she shared with her sisters, leaving the taco inside the alley. #### After the obvious initial shock of seeing a foreign creature with absolutely no idea of its origins, Sonata asked if she could keep said foreign creature. The answer was exactly what a sane person would expect. "No!" "Please?" "I said no, Sonata!" Adagio replied, stern gaze locked on the youngest siren. "Pleeeeeeeeaaaassse?" Sonata begged, her eyes wide and pleading. "For the last time, no!" she replied sternly. "Give me one reason why I can't keep him," Sonata demanded, stomping her foot on the ground and puffing her cheeks. "I can give you ten," Adagio replied, giving Sonata an unamused stare. "Jeez Louis, I only asked for one," Sonata said, a surprised look on her face. "Okay, I'll give you three, how's that?" Adagio corrected, crossing her arms, gaze; unchanging. "Okay," Sonata replied, determined smile on her face, ready prove her worth. "One: We dont even know what it is," she said. "It hasn't tried to eat me yet, and I can find out, I promise," Sonata reasoned. The little fella was still being pressed against her body. Adagio sighed, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere past 'its not lethal' she decided to press on."Two: me and Aria still haven't forgiven you after that whole turtle incident." "How was I supposed to know turtles could hold personal vendettas?" Adagio's glare wavered slightly. "Okay I'll give you that one. And three: I bet you don't even know what it eats." "I can find out right now!" Sonata suggested, a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "Okay then, let's play a little game," Adagio proposed. "Oh, I like games!" Sonata said, her head perking up slightly at the word. "If you can find out what it eats, you'll keep it, but!" she raised a finger for emphasis. "If you can't, you have to put it back where you found it and leave it there. Got it?" "Yes! Don't worry Adagio, I'll be the superdest duperdest pet owner, ever!" still holding the creature with one arm, Sonata raised her fist to the sky. "This I swear!" Adagio only sighed and returned to her spot on the couch, watching Sonata run to the kitchen to no doubt turn the fridge inside out. She had no idea what it was she found, but one look told her everything she needed to know. For starters it definitely wasn't from Earth, or Equestria for that matter, then again that was pretty obvious. But if it was something she didn't understand, she didn't want to risk taking it in. For her and her sisters sake, they may have lost their magic, but that doesn't mean she can't still be a leader. Secondly: animals grow, given enough time it'll probably take up more space in the small apartment. Thirdly: since it didn't have an apparent mouth, Adagio could only assume it fed on microorganisms through those spots on its head, meaning it wasn't going to eat anything Sonata gave it that wasn't smaller than plankton. It was cruel, she knew it, but you can't stop biology in this world, and it was probably better for the creatures own well being. She shuddered at the memories. She could hear Sonata in the kitchen, naming the different food items she was currently showing the thing. Every time, ending in her huffing in frustration when it no doubted refused whatever she was offering. After a few more minutes of clattering and frustrated sighs, Adagio decided to get up and see how the fruitless endeavor was going. She entered the kitchen; eyes widening at the scene that lay before her. The entire kitchen was a mess, food was scattered everywhere, either on the floor or the counter, counters were outstretched, and cabinets were wide open and empty. She felt her left eye twitch when she laid eyes on the culprit. The blue haired ditz wore a scowl on her face and was currently offering the thing frozen lasagna. The creature was sitting on a high chair wearing a heart shaped bib. 'Wait? When did Sonata get a high chair?' The creature shook its head in a stubborn manner at the frozen dish before turning its head to face Adagio. Sonata saw this action and turned as well, her eyes, quickly changing from annoyance to worry "Dagi! hold on, please, I can find out, I promise, just give me a little more time, please," she begged, dropping to her knees, putting her hands together in a praying manor. A few tears began to well in her eyes. She hated seeing her sister like this, but she had to learn one way or another that not everything can go your way, after all, they did just lose everything once after not too long ago. "I'm sorry Sonata, but you know the drill, now what I want you to do is clean up the kitchen and...!" Adagio focused her attention on the now empty high chair. "S-Sonata?" "*sniff* Yes Dagi?" Sonata asked, her mascara beginning to run down her face. "Where is it?" Adagio asked, pointing towards the high chair. Sonata furrowed her brow and gave a forceful mad face, she put her hands on her hips. "It's a he, you know." "I DON'T CARE IF IT'S A HE, SHE, IT, OR TRANSSEXUAL, WHERE IS IT?!" Adagio snapped, having been fed up with the situation. Sonata looked around the kitchen which looked like one that had been ransacked during the apocalypse. She simply shrugged her shoulders, "I dunno?" was her only response. A sly grin was plastered on her face, obviously amused with the fact she had just gotten more time to plan her victory. Adagio was visibly steaming now, her teeth were bared, she looked like her head was slowly filling with a red liquid, like a thermometer. "Find it right now, Sonata! Or I swear I'm gonna-" she was interrupted by the sound of rattling coming from the other room. Adagio hastily made head way to the living room and saw a blue tail sticking out from her purse, waggling back and forth. With sudden vigor, she threw herself in its direction and clasped her hands around the tail, pulling with all her might. "You get out of my bag right this instant you mangy, little bas-" She suddenly found herself losing balance and falling on her back as her momentum forced her and the creature unto the floor. She looked at the creature in her hands, hanging upside down as she held it by the tail. Its face was adorned with coins ranging from pennys, dimes, and nickels stuck to its face, kinda like stickers. "HA! Got you, you-" before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted for a third time when the unbelievable happened. The coins dissapeared. No warning, no hesitation, they were just gone. But she saw where they wen alright, right underneath the creature's skin. The thing had absorbed the coins through its skin! Her frame of reality shattered like glass, scattering to the floor. In slow motion she saw the creature being lifted from her grasp and being pulled to Sonata as she embraced the thing in a tight hug, Shrieking wildly with pure joy. Adagio didn't hear what she was crying out, all she could hear was a numb droning noise in the back of her head. She heard footsteps coming from down the hall when a new voice was heard. "Will you guys shut up! I'm trying to nap here!" Aria entered the room, rubbing one eye with her hand, all she saw was Sonata dancing with what she could assume was another stuffed animal, and Adagio sitting on the floor with dazed eyes, her purse laying next to her in a total mess. "What happened this time?" Aria asked in a frustrated tone, her hand meeting her face. There were small bags under her eyes, having just awokened. "I-I-It just a-ate the coins," Adagio stammered, her face looking like it had seen the darkest corners of the universe. "What are you yammering on about this time?" Sonata was suddenly at Aria's side. Shoving the stuffed animal in front of her face, it definitely looked like a stuffed animal Sonata wou- it just blinked... "Dagi and I made a deal, and I won!" She screamed, pure joy in her voice. "Say hello to your new sister, little guy," she babbled to the creature, pressing the thing on Aria's cheek. "What is tha- you know what? I'm not even gonna ask," Aria said, pushing away the strange animal before retreating to her personal cave down the hall. "Why not?" Sonata asked, tilting her head to the side. "Because if I ask, it'll become my problem." Aria replied before slamming the door. To recap, Sonata stood in the center of the living room, Aria was now napping in her room, the kitchen was still in complete disarray, and Adagio looked like she was staring at a higher plane of existence. She brought the creature to head level and looked it in the eyes with a playful smile. "What do you think I should name you?" she asked no one in particular.