//------------------------------//
// The Night (Edited) 
// Story: Navigating the Darkness 
// by CoverArt 
//------------------------------//

	Adagio and Sonata walked through the streets. As far as Sonata knew, they had nowhere to go. It was dark and late. The only reason Sonata actually felt safe was because she had Adagio with her. She never let the group down before, and Sonata knew she wasn’t going to let them down again, but at the same time, she was fully aware of what just happened between the three girls. They had split up. In their over-a-thousand years of life, they have always been together through thick and thin. But now, they were broken up, and that concerned her to no end.
But right now, that wasn’t what she was worried about. She was more worried about Adagio, who was, at this moment, trying to stop herself from crying, though she was failing at it. She wasn’t crying outright, but Sonata heard sniffling, and Adagio constantly put her hand to her face, presumably wiping away a few tears. Sonata wasn’t the smartest person, but she knew when her sister needed her, and this was one of those times, though she didn’t know what to say. So she said the only thing she could think to say.
“It’s not your fault, Dagi.”
Adagio stopped. Without turning, she spoke with a sad yet angry tone, “How is it not my fault?”
“Aria lets her emotions get the better of her. You know that. She’ll get over it. I bet she’s regretting it already.”
Adagio spun around. There were more than just a few tears in her eyes. “But she’s right. I screwed up, and because of that, we lost the only things that could’ve helped us get home!”
“That doesn’t matter, Dagi. As long as we’re together, we’ll survive. We might have to work harder, but who cares?”
“That’s not the point, Sonata.” Adagio looked like she wanted to say more, but she didn’t. She just turned around and started walking away.
Sonata, however, wasn’t going to let her leave it at that. She rushed forward, caught up with Adagio, and turned her around.
“Then what is the point, Adagio? Why beat yourself up over this?”
“The point is that I failed you girls. Even if this wasn’t my fault, I let you girls down by leading us to that disaster of a concert. I don’t deserve to be with you girls. You’d be a lot better off if I just left.”
The next thing she felt was Sonata’s hand on her face as she slapped her. While light, as Sonata was never the strongest, it still stung and was quite a shock to Adagio.
“Don’t say that Adagio. We need you, both of us. What’s more is that we love you. Even if Aria is mad at you, I know for a fact she loves you, and we always will, through thick and thin, even if you screw up.”
“You really mean that?”
“Of course, Dagi.” Sonata went and hugged Adagio, which, to Sonata’s relief, was accepted and returned. As they parted, Sonata was pleased to see Adagio smiling. Adagio motioned with her head to continue walking, which they both started doing. Though, as they began walking, Sonata couldn’t help but wonder where they were going, so she decided to ask.
“Well, you remember The Changelings?” Adagio asked as they walked.
“Yea? We worked with them a while ago, what about them?” Sonata answered.
“We’re going to talk to them. Hopefully, they’ll help, I know they usually have a few members around here.”
Sonata paused a moment. “Wait. Didn’t we get their leader locked up?”
“Damn, that’s right…. This could be a lot more dangerous than I first thought. Okay, when we find them, you’ll hide, just in case. Let me do all the talking, okay?”
“Are you sure, Dagi?”
“No, but it’s the only plan I can come up with.”
“Well, alright. Let's go.”



Adagio strode into dimly-lit alleyway with an air of haughtiness. Of course, she was nervous, but being the siren she was, even if she didn’t have her powers, she had to maintain a certain image. They all had an image. Adagio always had a ‘more important than you’ attitude in public, Aria was constantly cynical, and Sonata was the nice, ditzy one. Together, they were almost guaranteed to get some sort of reaction that they could use to their advantage from whomever they encountered. Of course, she wasn’t with her two sisters. She wasn’t even with one of them, which just made her more on edge.
Ahead of her were two men. They each wore black leather jackets, making them almost look like one of those greasers one would see in an old movie. These men, however, were no greasers. They were members of The Changelings, one of the more infamous gangs in Canterlot. The Dazzlings ran with them a while ago. The gang provided them with protection and a lovely source of hate for them to feed on, and only in exchange for some simple information on where to get money, drugs, and other things of that nature. After refusing to provide any more protection, the Dazzlings gave them some false information, leading to their leader Chrysalis to be arrested. Hopefully they didn’t make the connection and thought it was just a fluke.
“Hello, boys. Lovely night, isn’t it.” She asked as she stopped in front of them. They turned and looked at her. They looked angry, confused, and surprised all at once. They obviously never expected her to show her face to them ever again.
“You have a lot of nerve coming here, Adagio Dazzle,” One of the men said. Just as she feared, they knew she was behind their leader being arrested. But she couldn’t back down now. She had to try.
“I assure you I have no idea wha--“ They cut her off.
“Shut up with that. We know what you girls did.”
“And what is it that you say we did?” She hoped they didn’t hear the fear in her voice.
“You got the Boss arrested. Spent a couple months in jail. Don’t know what happened, but she got out, and she wants you girls dead.”
Adagio took a step back, her eyes widening. “D-dead?” She had to run, had to get out of there. She turned to run, only to slam into the second Changeling. She had no idea how he got behind her, but she didn’t have time to ask. He grabbed her and tossed her to the side. She slammed into a dumpster. She grunted and tried to push herself up but was met with a swift kick to the gut. She fell flat on her stomach again, before trying to shift so she could sit up. Surprisingly, they let her do this, and she soon found out why. She looked up in time to see the thugs pull out handguns from their jackets. Her eyes widened and she tried to get out of the line of fire, but they were too fast.
Two loud booms, in succession, escaped from the alley.



Sonata didn’t think this plan was the best idea. Adagio herself said it was going to be dangerous. But Adagio was the smartest one of them. If anyone could pull this off, it was her. Though, that didn’t mean she was any less nervous. She knew anything could happen and feared that it would. She decided that thinking about it would only make her do something stupid, so she thought of something else, namely how to get them all back together.
She supposed the only real way of getting them back together would be to put them in a room together and talk out their problems. Though, maybe if she went back and talked to Aria herself, she’d be able to talk some sense into her. No that won’t work. She’d only yell at me, She thought to herself. Not to mention that she couldn’t leave Adagio. Though she seemed fine after their talk earlier, she still was in a fragile state.
Two loud booms, in succession, escaped from the alley.
Sonata jumped from the loud sounds. She knew where it came from: the same alley Adagio walked down minutes before. She didn’t even think as she got up from the bench she was sitting at and ran full speed the block and a half the alley was from her. She nearly tripped as she slid to turn into the alley. To her horror, she saw a body leaning against a dumpster about halfway down the alley. She rushed into the alley, her mind racing, begging whoever ruled this universe to let her sister be alive.
“Dagi, please be alive, please.” She fell to her knees once she got to the body. Adagio’s body was getting bloodier by the second, the cause being two holes, one in her gut the other in her upper chest. As she looked over the wounds, she was relieved to see her chest still moving.
“Sonata? Get out of here, now.” She was alive! Barely, but still alive.
“Come on Dagi we have to get you help.”
Adagio coughed up blood. “Get out of here, Sonata. Go back to Aria, now.”
“I’m not leaving you, Adagio. You're coming with me.”
Adagio raised an arm to hug Sonata, who accepted it, hugging back, “Go back to Aria, Sonata. Everything is gonna be okay. I love you.”
“I-I love you to, Dagi.” Sonata felt Adagio’s skin go cold, her life drained away from her. She stood up, not knowing what to do. Her brain was still trying to process everything. The only thing that stood out was Adagio’s final wish to go back to Aria. So that’s what she did.
She ran out of the alley, not wanting to leave her sister but not being able to bring her with her. She nearly collided with a woman who was about to check out what happened. She ran past her, not even hearing the woman call for her to stop.



Ever since Adagio and Sonata left, Aria knew she messed up. Oh, she was still mad at them, of course, though as the night wore on, that anger ebbed away, leading to another sort of anger. She was mad at herself for yelling at them, forcing them to leave. More importantly, she was mad that she blamed Adagio for everything. Maybe it was her fault, maybe it was her own fault. Who cares, as long as they were still sisters? It didn’t help that the past half-hour she had a terrible feeling in her gut, like something bad happened. She guessed it was just guilt.
She kept thinking about how to make things right but realized that unless they came home the next day, she wouldn’t be able to say anything. So she’d have to look for them.
She hated being alone, especially at night. Something about the night always ached her. Everything bad happened at night, and usually to those who were alone. She got up from the kitchen table and went over to the couch. Might as well sleep if there was nothing else to do but wallow in her own self-hatred.
As soon as her body hit the couch, she heard the door slam open. Startled, she jumped up and looked to see who it was.
“Sonata?” She looked disheveled and almost broken, the color drained from her skin. Aria went around the couch to go over to her. Aria began to look at the rest of Sonata’s body, specifically her clothes, which were covered in blood.
“Is that blood, Sonata. Where is Adagio?” She received no answer. Sonata looked like she hadn’t even registered that a question was asked. Aria put her hands on Sonata’s shoulders. This seemed to get a response. Sonata looked up to Aria’s face. Their eyes met.
“Sonata, where is Adagio?”
Instead of answering, Sonata just fell to the floor, sobbing. Aria did the only she could think of to do: She went down and hugged the sobbing Sonata. She didn’t know what happened, but she did know one thing: Adagio wasn’t coming home.