On the last night of The Battle of the Bands competition, the Dazzlings had been defeated by the Rainbooms. Without any other recourse left, they hastily picked up the pieces of their shattered pendants and ran as the audience threw all kinds of junk at them and booed them out of the stadium. After running several blocks away from the stage they had been performing at, they came to a complete stop.
"I…I think…we can catch our breaths," Sonata said as she leaned against one of the buildings. "It doesn't look…like anyone has followed us." A few minutes passed while they recovered before Aria spoke up.
"What the hell happened back there, we had those Rainbooms right where we wanted them, and we still wound up losing," Aria said.
Adagio glared back at her. "Well, Aria, if you and Sonata over there would have put more effort into the performance this wouldn't have happened." Adagio and Aria then both turned to give Sonata a nasty look.
Sonata wasn't sure what to say at that time, so she responded with, "…Wh-What? I was following your lead."
Aria rolled her eyes. "So much for that, Sonata. You're the worst."
"You are!"
"ENOUGH!" Adagio yelled back at both of them. "I've had enough of your stupidity for today. We're heading back to the apartment, so keep your mouths shut."
Sonata in her surprise kept quiet.
Aria just muttered, "Whatever," before they made the trip back to the apartment complex that they had been staying at for the past month.
About thirty minutes passed before the sirens finally got back and walked up a few flights of stairs to the third floor. Adagio unlocked the door to the apartment to allow them in while Sonata turned on the lights to illuminate the dark living room.
"Aria, Sonata come over here," Adagio commanded while she locked up the door.
Both of them hesitated to get too close to her, on account of the mood she was in. Luckily, Adagio only wanted them to hear what she had to say.
"Thanks to this whole mess that you two have gotten us into, I've got some serious planning to do. So don’t bug me until I’m finished." Sonata was about to say something, but Adagio cut her off with a raised hand and added, "And if either of you get in the way, I promise that you will regret ever having made that mistake." Adagio shoved past Sonata and Aria, which caused both of them to flinch. She went to her room and slammed the door. For a moment, the other two sirens were silent until Aria spoke.
"It's all your fault we're in this mess!" Aria snapped.
"But I did everything that you two did," Sonata offered in her defense as if it could make the situation better.
"Yeah, I bet," Aria said bitterly. "I swear, you're the absolute worst."
After everything that had happened on stage and having most of the blame dumped on her, Sonata was at a loss for words. She just stood there rubbing her arm, with her eyes downcast.
She was so distracted by her melancholy that she didn't even realize that Aria had left her standing in the living room all by herself. She slowly headed to her room and softly closed the door. She changed out of her dirty stage costume, removed her makeup and put on a plain T-shirt and shorts. She crawled into bed, hugged her favorite stuffed animal tightly and began to cry quietly into it. After a while, she finally fell asleep.
The days that followed after that Friday night weren't much better.
Adagio would keep to herself and was usually on her laptop typing up notes and browsing many different sites in an attempt to find something useful to help them out of their current predicament. She was hoping to find some way to replace or repair their amulets. However, she only wound up frustrated when most of what she came across was useless. She even left the apartment a couple of times and wouldn't return until late at night with several books in tow.
Aria would usually stay in her room and try singing, but all that would come out was terrible. Aria would eventually lose her temper and storm out for hours. Other times she'd just go out of her way to make it a living hell for Sonata. Aria figured that if she was miserable, she might as well make someone else feel worse to make herself feel better.
Sonata would preoccupy herself with anything she could think of to try and not bother Adagio, whether it was playing a game on a handheld, watching something on the television, or walking around the neighborhood. Unfortunately, Aria would come around and use her as an emotional punching bag.
Needless to say, things were far from good.
Late Tuesday afternoon
I had been asleep for the past few hours when I felt a hand nudge me awake from the driver's side of the SUV. After a three-day long car trip, dad and I had finally arrived at our destination, Canterlot. More specifically, we were in front of a nice looking apartment complex that we would be calling home from then on out.
The reason why we were now in a new town was that my dad had recently been promoted to lead supervisor in his company. Along with the promotion, they wanted him to oversee a new branch of their business that they had opened up there in Canterlot.
I was just glad that I could stretch my legs out again. When we got to our apartment, most of our things had already been set up thanks to them being shipped out early from our hometown. I was completely fine with that, especially since I was going to be checking into my new school first thing next morning. I suppose it was a good thing that I had gotten most of the transfer information completed before we left our old home.
The next morning would officially be my first day as a student at Canterlot High. And it was as awkward as one could expect. Nothing like being the odd man out.
Everyone that I came across on that Wednesday was very wary of me. I wouldn't have been able to tell you why, though. I mean, it's not like I was an intimidating giant or anything. I was an average guy with a healthy build, dark spiked hair and a decent set of clothes. Regardless of that, everyone seemed to be on high alert for some reason.
It wasn't all bad, though. During class, a few of my classmates would talk to me, albeit in a questioning sort of way. Once they got past our initial meeting, a few of them became more relaxed around me.
Throughout those first few days, I heard people talk about something that happened last Friday. I think they said it was a musical event which had turned into a huge fiasco. I just assumed that maybe it had something to do with a bad production value or something and chalked it all up as a bit of random gossip.
Friday went by normally as well. However, dad had mentioned that he had found a place that he thought would help me feel more at home in the new town. So when school let out, he picked me up and drove towards the downtown area.
During the drive downtown, I wound up bringing up the move. Mainly because I was still a bit bitter about the whole thing
"Dad, don't get me wrong. I'm glad that the company gave you the promotion. But was it necessary to move all the way across the country? I mean it's pretty much guaranteed that I'm not going to be able to see my friends anytime soon."
"Look, I know how you feel, but they needed someone with prior experience to come up and oversee the new employees. Besides, we're going to be able to have a better living here than if we had stayed back in our old town."
"Whatever you say, dad," I said unenthusiastically.
He saw that I was still frustrated and tried to encourage me. "Just give it some time. Eventually, you will get used to it. On the bright side, at least, we were able to find you a new place where you can keep practicing martial arts. Considering how short notice all this was, I'd say we got ourselves quite a deal for you to check out this school." As much as I hated to admit it, at least I would still have that.
We eventually arrived at the address of the training facility. Dad popped the trunk open so I could get my gym bag that he had brought along. He rolled down the window and called me over.
"I need to run back to the office, and I may not be out till eight. When you finish here, just walk back to the apartment. It isn't too far from here. Anyways, I hope it goes well, and I’ll talk to you later," dad said as he raised his window.
"Alright, guess I'll see you later," I answered as he waved goodbye and took off.
When I turned to face the building, the first thing that I noticed was the sign above the entrance which read, ‘Iron Will Dojo.' It was all in red text on a white background above the picture of a black charging bull. I couldn't help but wonder if the school was any good at teaching the art as I went inside and quickly changed into my white uniform.
Now, I won't bore you with all the details of what we did during the class. Just know that it was one of the most grueling workouts that I can remember and was proof enough to me that that place did not give free handouts.
I wasn't one of the worst students there, quite far from it actually. But I wasn't the best one there either. No, that title went to Rainbow Dash. It was almost as if she wasn't even breaking a sweat. I'd seen her at school now and then, and had heard that she was an excellent athlete. After seeing her in action, I could understand why she had such a reputation. I decided to make small talk with her after the class and found that she was pretty nice, even if she did have a bit of an ego. Our little meeting was short-lived, though, since her dad arrived a few minutes after the class concluded.
That same Friday afternoon
After nearly an entire week of taking Arias insults, Sonata decided that she might be better off spending some time further away from the apartment. So she put on her usual street clothes and a sweater and left the apartment. Usually, there wasn't much that got to her. But with the pendants shattering, Arias' constant harassment and Adagios near constant rage; she had to wonder if the whole thing wasn't her fault.
At the very least, they didn't have to worry about money. The Dazzlings had gathered a vast sum of money through their singing before the battle of the bands. That ensured that they wouldn't end up on the street or go hungry anytime soon. But that's asides the point, Sonata thought as she walked for several blocks.
There was an empty soda can on the ground, so she began kicking it along the sidewalk. As she went along, her thoughts drifted to things that Aria would do. She would regularly pass the blame off on her for anything that went wrong, whether or not she had anything to do with it. And if she wasn't blaming her for something, she was always putting her down and making fun of her intelligence. She couldn’t help thinking out loud to herself.
"It’s not fair. I always get blamed for our plans not working. I know that I'm not super smart, but it's not like I try to screw everything up on purpose." She could feel the sting of tears that formed as she continued kicking the can along. "But it's Aria's fault too. She's always trying to steal the spotlight," she said while raising her voice. "I stuck to the plan; she didn't. I'm not the worst; SHE IS!" she yelled and kicked the can as hard as she could and sent it flying.
She felt a little better after letting out her frustration on that soda can. However, she immediately wished she hadn't, as it was now flying towards a group of boys who had rounded the corner. By the time she managed to get out a warning, the can had already clocked one of them in the head.
"Ow!" the boy exclaimed. "Who threw that can?!"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit anyone," Sonata called out to them as she rushed over to apologize. But when she got a closer look at who the can had nailed, she recognized them from the battle of the bands. What were they called? I know their name had something to do with diamonds, She thought trying to remember their band name but to no avail. The boy then caught sight of her and turned to his two friends.
"Hey, isn't that one of those Sirens from the competition last week?" the middle one asked.
"Yeah, but weren't there three of them? Think they're nearby?" the taller teen asked.
"Who knows? But you know what, we would be doing everyone a favor if we roughed her up a bit and ran her out of town. Hell, I’m sure no one would care if we got rid of her," said the shortest one in the group.
The other two agreed with wicked smiles.
She got a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach after she heard the boy's conversation and tried to back away slowly.
"Hey!" one of them said, "Where do you think you're going!" They approached her menacingly.
Sonata's adrenaline had just kicked in, and she took off as fast as her legs could carry her down the way she had come. She was a pretty long ways off from the apartment building, so trying to make it back before they caught her was not an option. She looked over her shoulder to see how far behind they were, which got her heart beating even harder when she saw that they were slowly closing the gap. She decided that her best bet would be to try and lose them and made a sharp turn down one of the busy streets.
There were quite a few pedestrians down that particular road, so she had to weave through as she tried to keep up a sprint. Luckily, those three weren't as agile and wound up crashing into a few people along the way which bought her enough time to catch a crosswalk to the other side of the street. She continued to run ahead and looked over her shoulder once more.
Within that split second, however, Sonata wound up running headlong into some guy who had barely walked out of one of the buildings. The impact was enough to send her bouncing onto her backside.
Since most of the other students had already left or been picked up, I went and changed back into my regular street clothes, got my bag and headed outside. I took a look at the sun as it was slowly setting on the horizon when someone had slammed into my back, sending me sprawling to the ground.
"Holy Hell! What hit me?!" I exclaimed as I righted myself. When I turned around there was a girl with a long light blue ponytail. She had knocked herself onto the floor and at that moment looked disoriented. I was a little concerned that she may have hurt herself, so I quickly walked over to her.
"Are you alright? You aren't hurt are you?" I asked. I then extended my hand to her to help her up. She didn't respond to anything that I had asked, but she did begin to reach out to take my hand. Just then she recoiled it when she turned her attention to a group of teenagers who were noisily sprinting in our direction. She quickly shot up to her feet and took off running past me.
"Sorry! I can't stay here!" she yelled back, before turning down an alley several buildings down. I was about to call after her but was interrupted by the three teens that came barreling through.
"Get out of the way!" one of them yelled as they ran past me and turned down the same alley as that girl. Whatever was going on couldn't have been good, so I chased after them.
As I got closer to the alley that they had all taken, I heard a commotion coming from further within.
"No!" the girl screamed. "Please, let me go!"
"Shut up!" a boy growled back. "You're going to pay for making us look like idiots!"
As I rounded the corner, I could see that the alley was a dead end and that those three guys had her cornered. The biggest one in the group had a piece of rebar, probably from one of the dumpsters, and was raising it to strike the girl. She curled up with her hands over her head as she braced herself for the blow. Without thinking, I threw my bag down and took off like a bullet. Just a few feet away from them, I leaped into a flying sidekick and landed it into the bastards back right before he could bring the rebar down on her. He slammed face first into the brick wall and then fell flat on his back as he grasped at his bleeding nose.
"Oh shit!" the shorter one exclaimed. "Quick, get him!"
The other one threw a punch that I managed to block, and grabbed his arm as I threw him over my shoulder onto a couple of trash cans with a loud crash. He quickly got back up and threw a flurry of wild punches. As I kept my guard up, I bobbed and weaved trying to avoid the onslaught. He slowed down as he got winded. That's when I countered with a jab to the face, then a cross, and finally laid him out with an uppercut to the chin.
The big guy got up once more and charged at me before throwing a front kick. I barely managed to sidestep out of the way and answered back with a roundhouse to his stomach. He bent in half as he tried to keep from hurling. Without skipping a beat, I swept his feet from underneath him and knocked him back onto the floor.
After seeing his buddies get taken down, the short guy was panicking as he pulled out a switchblade and fumbled with it. But before he could even use it, I threw a swift, hard kick right into his crotch. He dropped the blade as he reeled forward in pain, and I delivered one last hard sidekick right into his face that sent him stumbling backward.
"Screw this!" he yelled. "Let's get the hell out of here!" The other two quickly got up to their feet and bolted for the street. One of them yelled, "You better watch your back," and took off out of sight.
"Yeah, you better run!" I yelled back.
With those freaks out of the way, I turned my attention to the girl who was still cowering in the corner. I walked over to her and knelt down in front of her.
"Hey, are you alright?" I asked. "Those three didn't hurt you did they?" From the looks of it, she was physically okay but was shaken up pretty badly. Tears were rolling down her face from her tightly shut eyes. She finally looked up at me slightly confused.
"Wha-What happened to tho-those three?" She asked shakily. "I-I thought that I was g-going to die." She barely managed to keep from breaking down right there, so I quickly tried to put her mind at ease.
"There's no need to worry, I took care of them," I said.
"But why?"
I wasn't sure how to respond to that but did my best to anyways. "Because I don’t like seeing others getting taken advantage of. Now, are you able t-ah…um."
Before I could finish my thought, she threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around me, and completely caught me off guard. She cried softly on my shoulder and said, "Thank you." Still a little stunned, I decided to hug her back.
"It's alright, uh, everything is going to be ok now," I said, trying to comfort her. I stayed there for a few more moments before carefully getting the both of us back up to our feet.
Now standing she realized that she was still hugging me and pulled herself away. She wiped her tears from her face with her hoodie sleeves. "S-sorry," she apologized and gave a shy smile along with a little sniffle. She was definitely cute, that was for sure. I then realized that I was staring and snapped myself back to reality.
"It's okay. So, uh, it's getting late, you should probably get back home," I said. "If you'd like, I can escort you back to wherever you're headed." She was a bit surprised by my offer.
"For realsies?" she asked. "You'd do that?"
"Well, yeah. At least this way if those three came back they'd think twice about messing with you," I said. She thought about this a little and then quickly responded.
"Ok, well let's go, uh… hmm, what's your name?" she asked.
"Oh, right, I haven't even introduced myself," I said a little embarrassed. "My name is Azure Slate. What’s yours?"
"Sonata Dusk, it's nice to meet you," she said with a smile.
"Nice to meet you too," I responded with a chuckle.
With that, we headed to the entrance of the alley where I picked up my bag and walked back past the dojo. As we headed back to the main road, Sonata spoke up.
"I live at an apartment complex on the main street; it's about five blocks away from here to the east," she said.
"Alright, well I'm familiar with that area so it shouldn't take too long to get over there," I offered.
"I hope it isn't too far out of the way from where you have to be."
"It isn't, actually," I said. "But even if it were, after what you've been through, it wouldn't sit well with me to send you off on your own just like that."
Sonata grabbed ahold of my right arm and rested her head against my shoulder with a barely audible sigh. Needless to say, my body went rigid from the sudden display of affection. I'd heard of warming up to someone quickly, but I'm pretty sure we'd skipped ahead a few levels. I wasn't sure if it had to do with everything that had just happened or if she was just this naturally open with others, but I wasn't about to ruin that moment with such a cute girl. I figured if it helped her feel safe after all that, then who was I to stop her. I only hoped that she couldn't hear how fast my heart was beating.
Still, something was bothering me. Why was she in that situation in the first place?
Sheer curiosity led me to say, "Hey, Sonata, can I ask you something."
"What is it?"
"Well, it's about those guys. Why were they after you?" Her expression immediately dropped to a frown.
"Well, I was kicking a can while I was walking earlier today. I had kicked it a bit too hard, and it went flying and knocked one of them in the head. I didn't mean for that to happen."
"And they chased you down to beat you up because of an empty can to the head? That just seems like overkill for a simple accident."
"It's more complicated than that, but I don't want to talk about it," she said. She then brought her hand up to the choker around her neck which seemed to be missing something. Within a few short moments, tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
Oh great, look what you've done now genius, I thought as I mentally kicked myself. She's on the verge of tears, quick change the subject. DO SOMETHING!
"Erm, never mind. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry into your personal business," I said, trying to comfort her. "Listen, for what it's worth, I don't believe that you deserve that kind of treatment, regardless of whatever did happen." She sniffed back a couple of tears and hugged my arm again.
"Thanks, that means a lot to me," she said. She had calmed down a bit, so I relaxed a little as we continued walking.
At that moment, we were two blocks away from our destination. As we continued, a couple of guys who were wearing CHS lettermen jackets were walking in the opposite direction. I noticed that they were giving us strange looks. As we passed side by side with them, I could hear them talking in hushed tones and looking at Sonata. I also noticed that Sonata tightened her grip on my arm and had tried to hide her face from them as we passed by them. It was enough to put me on edge, just in case they tried anything funny. Fortunately, they just continued on their way.
I had the sneaking suspicion that the attack earlier, and the way those guys reacted to seeing Sonata were related. I would have asked but decided against upsetting her further. Honestly, I would have been upset too if I were in her shoes.
It took us a while to get there, but we had finally reached a block lined with several apartment buildings.
"So which building are you headed to?" I asked.
"It's the third one from the street corner," she said with a look of disappointment on her face. It was like she didn't want to part ways. Come to think of it, I felt the same way. But then I realized that the building she mentioned was also where my apartment was.
"Wow, it's weird how this day worked out," I said to her.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Well, turns out that this is the same apartment complex that my family lives in."
"But I've never seen you here before."
"My dad and I barely moved in this past Wednesday, so we've only been here three days as of now. We are on the fifth floor."
"Well I guess that explains why Aria was complaining about a ton of things that were being moved up the stairwell," she said with a smile. Her sad mood had done a one-eighty when she heard that news. "We live on the third floor."
"Cool. Well, let me get the door for you." After we climbed the stairwell to the third floor and walked to her apartment, we stood there for a little while before I spoke up.
"Well, I hope you have a good evening," I said. "By the way, I know it's a bit sudden, but would you like to, I don't know, hang out tomorrow morning? I was going to check out the nearby park."
"I'd love to. What time did you have in mind?"
"I was thinking maybe nine-thirtyish, is that alright with you?" I asked, with a sheepish grin. "We could stop somewhere to get brunch if you'd like."
"Ok, I'll see you tomorrow in front of the building," she said, with a smile. She turned to her apartment door and was about to unlock it until she paused briefly. She then turned back to face me and wrapped her arms around me. She whispered into my ear, "Thank you, Slate," before placing a kiss on my cheek, which I could have sworn stopped my heart for a second, and then opened her apartment. She turned around and waved goodbye to me. I did the same except with a goofy grin plastered on my face, which caused her to let out the cutest giggle that I had ever heard as she closed the door slowly.
That kiss may have affected my brain more than I anticipated. I realized a full ten seconds too late that I had just been standing there, waving at the already closed door before snapping out of my trance. Even though there was nobody around to see how stupid I was acting, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed as I slinked back to the stairwell and up to my apartment.
Even though they had only just met that day, Sonata kept watching Slate through the peephole. She thought that he was kind of cute and giggled quietly at how he was acting. She could feel that a blush had settled in on her face. When Slate had taken off, she turned to head to her room. However, Aria had been standing behind Sonata with her hands on her hips and shaking her head.
"Aww, would you look at that. Our little idiot has found an idiot of her own," said Aria, with a grin.
After a week of constant insults, Sonata had had it with Aria and lashed out.
"Shut up! You're the idiot. Not Slate. He's sweet, caring, and I like him. He even protected me earlier today when those gray guys from school tried to attack me."
"Oh wow, what a big deal," Aria said with a glare.
"Aria, go screw yourself," Sonata said as she used her shoulder to shove past her as hard as she could. That stunned Aria, and for the first time in a while, she could not find anything to say in response.
Sonata went and washed up before going back to her room. She changed into some pajamas and set her cell phones' alarm to wake her up in time for her meeting with Slate and went to sleep.