Huh. This place isn't much of a mansion. Kinda just looks like a normal-ish house.
There was still gonna be loot inside. Right? Right! Sonata marched up to Rarity's door, drew a fist back to knock, and brought it forward in the same instant that the door swung inward and Rarity charged out, clonking the prissiest Rainboob on the forehead.
Rarity fell back, landing on her fat, rich-girl butt. "Ow!!"
Sonata internally screamed with panic, hoping to explain the situation as Rarity looked up at her in a daze. "I, uh, th-that, I, I was just-ubuh-" her arms flailed and gestured as though she were directing invisible air traffic, "I hit, didn't, I, P-Pinkie, phone, and, uh-"
Getting her bearings, Rarity stood up and gave Sonata an appraising look. "Please, Darling, calm down." She took the moment of strained quiet to massage her forehead, using a little pocket mirror to make sure it didn't leave a mark. She smiled a little. No harm done!
"Now," she said in a slightly authoratitive tone, "Pinkie Pie tells me you've turned over a new leaf?"
Blinking once, Sonata scratched her head. "Huh? I don't know about leaves, but I did stop being a bad guy." Apart from randomly punching people in the face. Vengeance felt weird when you got it on accident.
Rarity opened her mouth, then closed it again and giggled. "Of course, dear. I must apologize for my lack of hospitality, but there is a sale to begin soon and I'm afraid I really must go."
Sale! Sale means tons of stuff, tons of stuff I can swipe when she least expects it! Sonata smiled the cutest, friendliest, most sorry-I-smacked-you smile she could manage. "Can I come along?"
It almost felt like Rarity was giving her a pitying look as she stepped past her. "Sorry, Darling, but these scenes can really be rather vicious, and I'm afraid you'd get hurt if-"
She dialed up the Puppy Eyes. "Pleeeease? I'll carry your bags! Just to make up for punching you?"
That gave Rarity pause for thought. I could use a little help if I'm to make the most of this trip... and that blow to the head rather hurt. "Well... I, I suppose if you're certain...?" She took the siren's rapid, happy nodding as a 'yes,' drawing a smile. "Well, let's be off then, and thank you for your help."
No, no, thought Sonata with a devious smirk when Rarity's back was turned, thank you. At this rate, she'd be able to worm her way into Purple Fancy's good graces and probably learn where she kept her valuables at the same time. The others were gonna be sooo jealous when they saw her decked out in jewels and silk and crud!
---
They were at the mall, with not a whole lot of people wandering around at the same time. For some reason, Rarity was just walking around at a brisk pace, one hand thoughtfully on her chin and the other on that arm's elbow as she occasionally glanced into a store.
"Uh, so," tried Sonata, "what kind of sale is this? Is it a window-shopping special?"
Rarity chuckled. "No, no, Darling, the sale hasn't even started yet, this is just the scouting phase."
Sonata had a bad feeling. "Scouting phase?"
"Mhm. It's generally best to know what you want to pick up before the rush starts so as to go straight to it, but things should heat up in another hour or so."
"ANOTHER HOUR?!"
"Yes," confirmed Rarity without breaking her thoughtful walking-around pose, "a unit of time often used to denote specific points in a day, divided into-" She blinked. Stopping to look at Sonata, she giggled and turned pink. "Oh, sorry about that, I was a touch lost in thought. Glad I have you here to keep me focused!"
Sonata's smile was just a little strained, but she kept up the facade. "Y-yea. Yay me..."
---
The sale had been going for maybe twenty minutes by the time Sonata started to get scared. "Eh, R-Rarity?" She couldn't think of a cutesy, endearing nickname for this one. "Are there supposed to be this many people?"
The floor of the mall was packed with bodies, Rarity leading the way by slipping through openings in the horde of shuffling, obtrusive, partly obese mall-goers. "One learns not to see people," she said while nimbly weaving between a pair of pensioners, "so much as the one bulky obstacle between shops. Right this way, stick close to me, the crowds can become restless if spooked."
Sonata tried to go through the same gaps, but people kept moving around, making it hard to follow the meal ticket. "Spooked?"
"Yes, th-"
"ATTENTION, SHOPPERS," came a voice over the intercom, "Desktop lamps are now 77% off!"
As though there had been some kind of call to arms, the crowds shifted and charged in one direction, knocking Sonata to the floor and rolling over her like a tidal wave of frantic consumerism and feet.
"Ah!Ooh!Ow!Ooch!Eek!Ow!Ow!Ah!Ouch!"
When the bulk of them cleared, Rarity paced over, looking down at Sonata and her new collection of shoeprints (which didn't go with her skirt at all) with sympathy. "Dear, oh dear, are you alright?"
Sonata shakily got to her feet, letting out a little laugh. "Y-yea, totally! A-Okay!"
Rarity looked relieved. "I did warn you about the crowds, Darling. Well," she said with confident smile, "not to worry, you're shopping with a veteran! Follow my lead and we'll both be-"
"ATTENTION, SHOPPERS-"
"Alcove, left!!" Rarity actually dodge-rolled out of the path just as another wave descended. Sonata was not as quick on the uptake.
"Ack!Ouch!Owie!Ow!Oof!Ah-ow!Ouch!Ow!"
Rarity helped her up this time. "We'll, eh, just have to work on it..."
---
It had been a good few hours now, so Aria figured she might as well get the train-wreck that was Adagio's series of schemes rolling again. She briefly scouted the house a second time, finding it to be exactly the same as before, give or take a few signs of life, like that someone had taken a shower.
Maybe Sonata really did go out and find someone else to annoy, or at least skipped town and would never bug them again. Maybe she got run over on the way, or fell in a river and drowned, or got eaten by wolves or-
Aria shook her head. It didn't matter what happened to that idiot, she had to get things moving. "Don't walk away from me," she mockingly muttered under her breath while heading for Adagio's room. It was the last thing she'd heard out of the living suffocation hazard before storming off, and it was well-past the time that she'd normally be stringing them back into action. She slammed a fist on the door a few times.
"Hey, wake up!"
Silence.
"Come on, Adagio! You can't just be sulking about a little name-calling, now suck it up and get out here!"
Adagio did no such thing, apparently still pretending not to be home.
"I know you're in there, the hairdryer is still warm!" Overheated, was more like it, but the thing hadn't burst into flames yet.
After a minute of silence, Aria was a little less sure, not so much as being yelled at for the disturbance. She pressed her ear to the door, and after about another minute, she heard what sounded a little like sniffling.
Huh... Does she have a cold?
Well, Aria wasn't in a hurry to catch it, so she walked away. Maybe Adagio would have a plan when she got over her bug.
---
Moving to the next store on her mental list, Rarity smiled over her shoulder. "I must say, you have much greater stamina than I'd have guessed, Miss Dusk."
Sonata was loaded up on both arms with bags. Collectively, they were very heavy bags, the bands painfully digging into her wrists and forearms as she trudged along after Rarity. "Y-yea," she panted through a forced smile, sweat trickling down her face, "dancing, huff, really, huff, keeps ya, WHEEZE, fit!" Except for Adagio's big, fat butt, anyway. She can say it's muscle all she wants, but she's not fooling anybody!
Slowing down in front of a store with very few people around, Rarity approached a bench, sat down, and patted the seat next to her. "This shop should be offering a considerable discount soon, let's rest a bit until it begins."
Sonata made her way to the open seat as though it were the finish line to a marathon, then turned around and all but fell backward onto it. That the wood creaked had less to do with her own weight, more to do with that of the bags, she was sure. Rarity giggled, reminding the siren-turned-roadie that she still needed to rob this girl at some point.
"Goodness, when you offered to carry the bags, I had been worried you would struggle greatly by the third or fourth shop, but you've held together quite well! Does dancing really give you that kind of upper-body strength?"
Once she caught her breath, Sonata shook her head a little. "Nah, but I've got some experience carrying crud." She opted to make conversation until she could determine the right moment to make off with all this sweet loot! And, a plan to get away at more than a snail's pace. Loot was heavy. Being a bank robber was out of her future career prospects.
Rarity nodded, frowning as she looked away. "You know, I had initially planned to persuade a few strapping young men to assist me in this little venture-"
"I would be totally okay with-"
"-but I've had some time to think since our, err, confrontation, and-"
"And getting someone else to do it is a GREAT id-"
"-looking back, remembering how your group manipulated people, no offense-"
"None taken, so can we please-"
"-I can't help feeling that all this time, what I've been doing was wrong."
"No, no, getting help with heavy stuff is totally-"
"As such," Rarity announced, looking at Sonata with a confident grin, "we shall simply have to tough it out ourselves!"
Sonata deflated, her aching arms now stinging with a side of disappointment at their continued burden.
"So," continued Rarity, not noticing her companion's dismay, "where exactly did you acquire this experience you mentioned?"
"Getting groceries last week." Sympathy chance detected! Despite her crying muscles, she managed a cute grin. "Kinda had to now that nobody will do what we say anymore. It's hard to get people to carry your bags when everybody hates you, y'know?"
Suddenly, Rarity had an idea of why trampling Sonata proved so easy for those frantic shoppers earlier. She frowned again, resting a hand on the songless siren's shoulder. "You three have had it rough, haven't you? I haven't forgotten how Sunset Shimmer struggled following her horrifying incident, and I want you to know that we're here for you." She blinked, smiling sheepishly. "Er, p-provided all that, well, uncivility is behind us, of course."
Sonata beamed. "It's Sonata problem!"
Rarity blinked very slowly, then snorted, covering her mouth with one hand to conceal inelegant snickering as Sonata held the expression that said she was quite pleased with herself. Within a minute, she'd given in to the laughter and the two were giggling like maniacs, to the notice of absolutely none of the frantic shoppers around them.
Still smiling as she caught her breath, Rarity shook her head. "Good heavens, that was awful." She glanced around to see how many fellow sale-savvy shoppers like herself were beginning to congregate in the area and stood up. "Wait here, I'll be back shortly."
With more than a hint of relief, Sonata nodded, more than happy to enjoy a continued break while she worked on that robbing plan.
---
A bit later, the announcement of stompy doom had been sounded for the store Rarity was in and Sonata, sitting on the bench, wasn't even stepped on once! She had dearly hoped that the opposite was true for Rarity as people flooded in, but Purple Fancy (Note to self: that's more of a make-fun-of-you nickname) walked out without a single shoeprint on her. Darn it.
Rarity stepped out of the store with a little bag on her arm and a satsified smirk on her face. "Sonata, dear, do you know that more affordable purchases aren't the only treasures to be attained in these sales?"
A little confused, Sonata glanced into the now-crowded store. "They, uh, give it up for free in the back rooms?"
Now Rarity turned red. "N...No. No, Darling." She shook her head to dislodge the thought entirely. "The other treasure is the look on a cashier's face when the considerable discount is sounded just as you reach the counter." Looking back into the store, she giggled coyly. "Couldn't have timed that better."
Despite her plans to rob her and see her trampled to death by rabid fat people, Sonata was starting to like Rarity. She was a terrible person in her own way!
"Here," she said, reaching for the many bags resting beside Sonata on the bench, "let me take those for this last stretch, it's only fair that I should do a little of the heavy lifting too, no?"
Or not. Stupid Rainboobs and their decency! But then she remembered that her arms still hated her for having agreed to this trip, so she happily let Rarity take the bags herself.
"Alllright," grunted Rarity as she was loaded up, grinning almost fiercely, "this is how a real shopper makes these ventures! Ho-ho, yes! Feel a burn and all that!" She managed to move much faster than Sonata had when carrying all that, to the achey-armed siren's slight annoyance. "Come along, Darling, there are a few more stops to make."
Sonata stood up, wondering how long it'd be before Money Bags (Not a good nickname either.) threw in the towel. Or gave up, that was good too. Maybe that would be the time to grab the bags and-
"ATTENTION, SHOPPERS-"
Somehow, Rarity took up some kind of medieval shield-maiden stance with all those bags and braced herself against the human swarm. Sonata was not so lucky.
"Ow!Agh!Eep!Ow!Uff!Ouch!Owie!Ack!Ouch!Ow!"
Rarity looked triumphant. "Oh, I'm having a marvelous-... Oh, dear. Maybe we can make a stop by the nearest shop with a first-aid kit or-"
"ATTENTION, SHOPPERS-"
Bag-shields up, Rarity could only leave Sonata to her fate of feet.
"GYAAAAAAAAGH!!"