Aria Blaze was not very good at making friends. This was a fact of life for a very, very long time, a thousand years or more. Aria didn’t like anyone, ever, for any reason at all. She was, for as long as she could remember, an isolated person. All of that changed when she met Sonata Dusk.
The effects weren’t immediate, far from it, actually. It took many centuries for any sort of tangible progress, and even that was marginal at best. The process was as slow as it was unintentional and unnoticed, but it eventually made a difference. Aria slowly morphed from the bitter Siren she was born to be into a slightly less bitter being, one who did care for a select few, no matter how hard she denied it.
After their defeat at the hand of the Rainbooms, Aria felt something inside her change. She didn’t want to admit it to anyone, least of all herself, but she was scared. When the Rainbooms unleashed their magic, and the great big beam of rainbow light came crashing onto the Dazzlings, Aria found herself concerned, not for herself, but for Sonata. It was this realization that enlightened Aria to the idea that she might have had feelings for Sonata.
Aria, having no real experience with love or anything truly resembling it, found herself struggling to accept her feelings and act upon them. She was so used to bottling up her emotions, to the point where she could blow at any moment. She refused to accept any romance between them, and, more to convince herself than anyone else, would tease and hurt Sonata (Rainbow Dash later informed her that she was filling a classic Japanese trope called “tsundere”. Aria still, to this day, has no idea what that means.)
Hurting Sonata’s feelings made Aria feel normal, but not necessarily good about it. In fact, and Aria didn’t realize this until years after the fact, she was just making herself feel all the worse. It wasn’t until she saw with her own eyes just how much she could affect Sonata did she finally consciously decide to make a change.
Her dating Sonata was the first change of many. With Sonata’s guidance and example, Aria was able to gain friends, and grow as a person. It was hard at first, for Aria to start to think about how others felt. It went against everything she knew, but she soon began to understand that there was a need for sacrifice and compromise, and that she was a part of something bigger. There were things more important than herself, the most prominent of which being Sonata.
With each year came ups and downs, good and bad. Aria and Sonata had their fair share of fights and arguments, and sometimes it seemed like their relationship was unfixable. But, after every fight, they came back to each other, their love even stronger than before. They grew closer and closer with each Christmas, birthday, anniversary, trip to the bar, day at the beach, and nights home alone. It seemed like their lives were as perfect as could be.
And yet, for some reason, Aria felt like something was missing. One night, while Adagio and Sonata were asleep, Aria sat in thought on the couch. She looked back over the past six years, when her life started to take that turn. Aria didn’t know what was wrong with her, but there was something eating at her soul. It pained her to say it, and she never would say it out loud, but she wasn’t truly happy. And, after giving a second of thought, it was obvious why. It was also obvious what she had to do. Aria reached into her pocket and withdrew her phone. It was 2 in the morning, but Aria honestly couldn’t care less right then. She just needed to talk to someone. She dialed the number, put her phone to her ear, and waited. The phone rang four times before she picked up.
“Aria? What’s up?” yawned Sunset Shimmer.
“I know it’s really late, and you probably have to be up really early for classes tomorrow,” said Aria. “I’d totally understand if you were to hang up on my right now, but I had to at least try. I need to talk to someone, and you’re the only one who can probably help me with this.”
“You know I’m always here if you need me,” said Sunset. “You’re more important than my Bachelor’s. What’s eating you?”
“Have you ever thought about going home?” asked Aria. “Going to Equestria to visit? Get some closure or something?”
“Well, not really. I don’t think I could face Celestia again,” said Sunset. “I think home would only hurt me at this point. My past is dark, and I plan to leave it behind as I move forward. Why do you ask?”
And then, without warning, Aria spilled her guts out over the phone, sobbing and begging Sunset Shimmer for help.
It took Aria a week after her breakdown over the phone to put all the pieces of her plan in place. She had hardly seen Sonata and Adagio during the time, spending most of it with Sunset Shimmer, Rarity and, when she was available, Princess Twilight. Aria spent a lot of time thinking and spent a lot of money, knowing full well that it was very possibly to be for nothing.
Aria pushed open her front door and slipped quietly into the house. Gripping one of her backpack straps nervously, Aria tiptoed up the stairs, hoping, praying that Sonata wouldn’t see her. She sneaked down the hall and into Adagio’s room, closing the door behind her. Adagio didn’t notice her in any way, shape, or form, as her eyes were glued to her TV screen and her ears were covered by large, noise-cancelling gaming headphones, plugged into her Xbox controller. Aria tiptoed across Adagio’s field of vision, putting a finger to her lips.
“Where’ve you been?” whispered Adagio, removing her headset. “Why are we whispering?”
“I’ve been… I’ve been thinking,” said Aria. She dropped onto the bed next to Adagio. “A lot. And I’ve realized that there’s two things I gotta do. I need your help for one of them.”
“What sort of help?” asked Adagio. Aria inhaled deeply, then exhaled, and began searching through her backpack. She returned a short second later with a small, black velvet ring box. She turned to Adagio and opened it, revealing the simple silver band gemmed with a small diamond.
“Maybe ‘help’ was the wrong word,” said Aria. “I need… I need your permission.”
“I don’t understand,” said Adagio, looking closely at the ring. “You need my permission? For what?”
“I want to, someday, marry Sonata,” said Aria. “I want to ask her to be with me until the end of time. I couldn’t do that in good conscious without asking you first. You’re the closest thing to family she… we have. You’re like a sister to us, and I need your blessing if I’m going to marry her.”
“Why would I ever say no, moron?” asked Adagio with a small grin. “You idiots were made for each other. Who am I to defy fate?” Aria smiled, slightly relaxed.
“Good. Thanks,” she said. “Now’s the hard part. Where is she?”
“In your room, I believe. She’s been keeping quiet ever since you went on your little shopping trip. You really shouldn’t just leave her like that,” scolded Adagio. “You know how she is. You go to the store, she thinks you’re never coming back.”
“Yeah… That’s why this is the hard part,” said Aria. “Come on. You need hear this, too.” Aria snapped the ring box shut, slung her backpack over her shoulder and rose to her feet. Aria led the way from Adagio’s bedroom to her own. Her hand faltered near the door knob, and it took all of her power to refrain from running away.
“Don’t get cold feet on me now,” said Adagio. “Just grit your teeth and get over it.” That somehow made Aria feel a bit steadier, just calm enough to grip the knob and pull the door open.
Sonata seemed to be in a daze for a while. She heard everything Aria was saying, and she understood what each word meant individually, but she couldn’t seem to string it together into a sensible sentence.
“I don’t understand,” said Sonata.
“It’s called a promise ring,” explained Aria. “It’s like… It’s an engagement ring for an engagement ring, if that makes sense. It’s a promise that I’m going to come back and I’m going to propose to you and, if you say yes, I’ll marry you.”
“But… why?” asked Sonata. “Why the promise ring? And what do you mean you’ll come back?”
“Last week, I did a lot of thinking,” said Aria, digging through her backpack and returning with a large purple book. “I realized that I should be happy, but… I’m just not. And that’s not your fault. It’s mine. I did some thinking, talked to Sunny and Twilight, and we all agreed that it’d be a good thing for me if I were to go away for a while.”
“Wha…” said Sonata, trailing off when she started to understand. “You’re… You’re leaving me?”
“No! God, that’s the last thing I want to do,” insisted Aria. “I just need some time to get my head together. I’m gonna go back home for a little while. I don’t know for how long, but I will come back. I promise.”
“Thus, the ring,” said Adagio with a nod. She hadn’t said much, mostly just observing and keeping a look out for Sonata.
“Do you have to go?” asked Sonata. She knew better than to ask to tag along. If Aria was going to go through all this trouble, she must’ve decided from the start that she’d be doing it alone.
“If I want to be on my A-game, for you, then yes,” said Aria. “Don’t worry. I won’t be completely gone. I borrowed this book from Twilight. It’s magic. Whatever you write in there appears in another book that Twilight has. She’s gonna give that book to me, so we can write to each other.”
“Every day?” asked Sonata.
“Well… Not every day,” said Aria. “Twilight has to put a bunch of spells on the book to make it waterproof and resistant to corrosion from the salt or whatever, and I guess that dilutes the original spell… But I will write to you every chance I get. I promise.”
Sonata nodded with tears in her eyes, and reached out her arms. Aria grabbed her up and hugged her, whispering into her ear how she promised to return, and how it was for the best. Sonata nodded and understood, but that didn’t make it any easier. Aria and Sonata held each other for most of the time of Aria’s last day before her departure.
Aria strolled down the street, the statue portal in clear sight. It didn’t take long for her to reach her destination, where a certain pony princess stood with a look of concern on her face. Twilight grabbed Aria’s shoulder gently, the latter practically recoiling out of tension.
“Sorry,” said Aria. “I’m kinda nervous about going home.”
“It’ll be okay, Aria,” promised Twilight. “Are you ready to go?”
“I think so. I left Sony with the book,” said Aria. “And you have mine, right?” Twilight nodded. “Then all I gotta do is put one foot in front of the other.” Aria took a step forward, then stopped herself. The portal was right there, and it was mocking her.
“Something wrong?” asked Twilight.
“Something just occured to me,” said Aria. “Do you have, like, a fish tank or something on the other side? And how am I going to get into the ocean?”
“I have a large tank filled with seawater waiting for you,” said Twilight. “From there, you’ll be flown to the beach by me, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and our friend Derpy. We’ll get you there, and we have a series of measures in place to keep an eye on you and pull you out if anything goes wrong. Which it won’t. But just in case it does, we’re prepared.”
“So, what you’re saying is…” said Aria. “I should stop stalling?”
“In so many words, yes,” agreed Twilight. Aria let out a small sigh, put her fears to the side, and stepped one foot in front of the other until she was passing through the portal, on a ride to the home she thought she’d never want to see again.