In the Dusk

by Swift Swap

Sonata in the dark alley...

A few weeks earlier...

In a small, dark and damp alley of Canterlot City, not too far from the CHS, Sonata Dusk was finally able to stop, lean against the wall and catch her breath.

She had just run away from the horde of angry students who, once freed from their spell, had turned against her and her companions, and had driven them away from the stage where, only a few minutes before, their triumph was taking place, and then, instead, they had been defeated.

Next to her was Aria Blaze, who was also running out of breath, even though, apparently, her great anger was making her quickly forget her breathlessness.

And finally, a little detached from them, there was Adagio Dazzle, who was even more furious, and continued to pull her own hair and kick at anything she found at her feet, in a vain attempt to vent her anger.

"We had succeeded!” she kept repeating, "We had just succeeded! We had finally regained our old powers. And those seven girls ruined everything!"

Sonata watched the Adagio's fury, and Aria's poorly concealed anger. And she felt that she didn’t feel those feelings. Sure, she also felt resentment toward those seven, mysterious girls, those that Adagio had called "special", which had managed, somehow, to unleash the Equestrian magic, a few minutes earlier, before their unbelieving eyes, in that world where the magic virtually didn’t exist. And, through that extraordinary and frightening demonstration of power, not only they had destroyed their spell, but also their Charm Rubies, and, along with them, their beautiful voices, permanently depriving them of their powers.

And now, after all that, after everything they had stolen from them, and after they had reduced them to that state, more weak and helpless than ever, she didn’t feel angry. More than anything, she felt confused, and scared. All of her hopes, prospects and ambitions had been reduced to pieces with her Charm Rubies, and now, she felt lost.

"Um ... Adagio?” Sonata dared to ask," Now ... now that we no longer have our powers, what are we gonna do?"

In response, Adagio glared at her, and yelled," Shut up, stupid! We haven’t lost anything! This was just a mishap. We can’t be without power!"

In front of Adagio’s enraged reaction towards Sonata, Aria grinned and said, "Right, Sonata. Shut up for once!" Then, turning to Adagio, she said," Anyway, we have to face the reality, Adagio. Without our Charm Rubies, we won’t be able to sing like we did before, and you know it!"

"Nonsense!" Adagio replied, "A poor singing performance, accompanied by a ridiculous light show can’t be enough to destroy the power that has supported us in this alien world, for all these centuries!"

"To tell the truth," Sonata dared to say again, advancing a little toward her companions, "for me their song was wonderful, even if it cost us our ..."
Sonata stopped because, even before she finished saying "wonderful ", both of her companions had addressed a dirty look at her, and she knew that it would be better for her to stay silent. So, she leaned against the wall again and said nothing more.

Adagio, at that point, pulled out from a pocket of her dress some red shards, the fragments of her Charm Ruby, which she had picked up from the ground immediately after it was broken. Then, clutching them tightly to her chest, she closed her eyes and began to sing.

I will rule this throng
What you want is me now
I won’t stop my song
It’s time to show I’m strong
Your mind is mine
Say I’m divine
Nothing can stop me now

"It’s useless, Adagio. Give up!" Aria muttered, breaking Adagio’s disastrous attempt to sing, "Don’t you remember? We’ve already tried to sing, just after those seven destroyed our Charm Rubies. But it was useless! And trying endlessly won’t lead to anything!"

"You are just the usual pessimist!" she said, "It’s true, for now our voices are lost, but I’ll find a way to repair my Charm Ruby, and then we’ll take our revenge on those presumptuous fools!"

"Repair it, huh?" retorted Aria, sarcastically, "And with what? Duct tape?"

Adagio, furious, was just about to throw a punch at her insolent companion, when Sonata suddenly said, "Girls, enough! Stop quarreling, please! Why don’t we try to fix Adagio’s ruby for real? We might, for example, go to a jeweler, and ask him if he can-Ouch!”

Without warning, and with infinite violence, Adagio had just grabbed Sonata by her shoulders, and slammed her against the wall, and now was screaming at her, "Now listen carefully, and try to understand everything that I’m gonna tell you, because I won’t repeat it again. This ruby isn’t like those found in this useless world. This is a Charm Ruby, one of the most mysterious and obscure magical amulets existing in Equestria. It’s a powerful magical artifact, that can catalyze the power of persuasion and seduction of the voice of its owner, and that becomes more powerful if it absorbs the negative energy originated by the anger and the disharmony of others. This is, practically, what makes a siren complete, because, without her Charm Ruby, a siren is nothing more than a giant pony with a fish tail! No one of the insignificant inhabitants of this world would be even able to understand the nature of this stone, let alone fix it. You get it now, air-head?"

That said, she released her, and Sonata, after massaging her aching head a little, tried to justify herself by saying "Ok, it's true. Bringing the stone to one of the inhabitants of this world would be useless. However, it’s also true that we need a plan, or we could never sing again, and it would be a shame ... "

"You are so dense!" said Aria, pushing her aside, "It’s not the inability to sing that's the problem! Without the hypnotic powers of our songs, we won’t be able to live as before. I bet that, by now, the owner of the villa where we had established in the recent years has already awakened from our spell, as well as the owner of the restaurant where we always go to eat, and ... "

"Enough!" cried Adagio, so loud and with so much anger, that she frightened, and made fly off, a small flock of pigeons, which before was perched on the roof of a building that overlooked the alley, "You are so stupid, you both! I don’t care if we won’t sing anymore, or if we’ll have to live on the street from now on. It’s the power to make these pathetic beings adore us, that matters. And that is what we must aim for. Because I refuse to live a second longer in this disgusting planet, if I know I'll spend the rest of my life in anonymity. I am a siren! I am a goddess! We are goddesses! And, as such, we need to be worshiped."

As she said those words, Adagio's face was crossed by her typical cruel smile, that Sonata had always found more threatening than a furious expression. And her eyes were distorted by the obsession, as every time she demanded to be worshiped.

This was something that had always confused Sonata Dusk: in all those centuries they had spent on that dimension, they had always faced different problems, and very often because of Adagio’s hunger for adoration.

In the early days, when they had just arrived on that unknown dimension, in a body far less imposing, majestic and beautiful than the previous one, they were desperate, understanding of being trapped in that reality and in that shape.

But then, Adagio had roused them, urging them to recover their sirens pride. In addition, she reassured them by saying that, apparently, in that world no one was able to use magic. Which meant that no one would be able to stop them this time.

So, encouraged by Adagio’s words, she and Aria had regained confidence, and begun to do what they did before: spread anger and discord with their songs and feeding of the negative energy arising from them.

But, unfortunately for them, Star Swirl the Bearded wasn’t a fool to send them there. In fact, in that universe, their spells were much weaker, and they always broke automatically with the passage of days.

The only time, since they were on that planet, what they managed to create a spell nearly as powerful as the ones that they had created in Equestria, it was right there, at the Canterlot High School, because of the strong presence of the Equestrian magic in that place.

Before that, their spell had never lasted more than a few days, and had no effect on many people.

Consequently, something began to happen to them, that never happened before: They began to be hated and feared, rather than loved. Sometimes, they were identified for what they actually were, namely sirens, but much more widely they were accused of being something else, like witches, sorcerers, charmers, or in many other ways that Sonata preferred to not remember.

Very often, they had been captured, imprisoned, interrogated and, sometimes, even tortured. More than once they had been even sentenced to death, but, since no one had managed, at that time, to discover that the source of their powers were their Charm Rubies, they always survived, and, in the end, they were always able to get away from the places where they locked up them.

However all this, in Equestria, never happened to them: for what she remembered, all the ponies who listened to their song even once, worshiped them forever. And besides, their worshippers were always ready to discuss, argue and fight with their own kind, providing them constantly precious negative energy with which increase their power.

Only some of them, like Star Swirl the Bearded, realized that they were dangerous creatures, and between all of them, only he was able to resist their voice and to find a way to stop them, by sending them in that world.

There, not only was the power of their voice infinitely lower, but the inhabitants of that dimension were much more suspicious and distrustful, compared to naive ponies of Equestria.

All these difficulties made often Sonata, and sometimes even Aria, consider the idea to give up the life as a siren, and find a new role, a role more in line with the customs of that world, a role that didn’t forced them, once every two or three days, to escape from a group of angry people, a role enabling them to make a seemingly normal life, for that place.

But not Adagio. For her, the idea to conform herself, to deny her siren nature, to live as those inferior beings who surrounded her, was nothing short of unacceptable! She couldn’t be like other people. She was a siren. She was a goddess. And, as such, she needed to be worshiped.

From what Sonata could remember, every time she faltered, or every time Aria questioned Adagio's orders, their leader would give that speech. She always repeated that talk for all those centuries they spent in that alien world, and even before, in Equestria, when they were still at the peak of their power.

Sometimes she wondered if, remembering her life before the exile, she would understand why Adagio was so obsessed with success and adoration.

In fact, with her great regret, Sonata couldn’t remember very well how she and her companions lived to Equestria. Her memories were very vague and confused. The only clear memories of her life before the exile were the ones in which she and the others were singing. The memories of her time in this new world, however, were a bit more defined.

Once, she had tried to ask Aria what she remembered of her life in Equestria, and she had listlessly replied that she didn’t remember anything.
Then, she had tried to ask Adagio, and she had replied that the three of them were the last of their species, a species that had been decimated, as she put it, by the ponies. And then, she never told her anything else, if not stories with which she boasted of having always been the most beautiful, intelligent and powerful among the sires, or stuff like that.

She never said things that Sonata would have found more interesting, such as whether they had actually lived in the ocean, as the sirens in the legends of that world did, or if also male sirens had existed, or if they had built some great cities under water, or where their kind had found the Charm Rubies...

"I got it!" suddenly exclaimed Sonata, excited. She had just come up with a brilliant idea.

The other two, that had started to quarrel while Sonata was lost in her thought, turned toward her, and Aria shouted "Not now, Sonata. We don’t have time for your silliness now!"

"No, this is serious! I’ve got an idea!" Sonata said, "Listen, if we can’t repair Adagio’s Charm Ruby, why don’t we go take some new ones, instead? Where our kind found them!"

"But yes, of course!" grumbled Adagio, "Let's go get some new Charm Rubies in Equestria. Oh, yes! That’s right! We are no longer in Equestria, because we have been banished!"

"Yes, it’s true that we are exiled," Sonata continued, "However, there must be a way to go there. If not, how could the Equestrian magic arrive in this city, on those seven girls?"

"Enough, I'm sick of your nonsense." shouted Adagio, to silence her companion. However, a moment later, her face lit up, and an evil smile appeared on her mouth. The same smile she had shown that night, when she saw those lights in the sky, the sign that the Equestrian magic had reached that universe.

"I hate to admit it," she said, "but you, Sonata, could be a genius!"

"What?" Aria blurted out, "Are you crazy? Do you really agree with this air-head?"

But Adagio wasn’t listening to her. She was looking at the shards of her Charm Ruby, with her typical malicious expression.

"Listen to me, girls," she said, turning to her companions, "Unfortunately it’s true. Without our Charm Rubies, we are powerless. But, in our native dimension, there are hundreds of these gems that lie on the ocean floor, the last memory of our ancient lineage. And if we can get our hands on three of those rubies, we’ll get our powers back. And moreover, well’ get them back where our spell is more powerful: at Equestria. This means that not only will we leave this cursed dimension, but also, by doing so, we’ll get back our magic."

"But how are we going to do that?" Aria asked, "You know as well as me that we are stuck here!"

"True," agreed Adagio, "but also what Sonata said before is true! The Equestrian magic didn’t come here from nowhere. In fact, I'm almost sure that at least one of those girls who possesses the magic, is actually a pony from Equestria."

At those words, both her companions gasped, and Sonata shouted "For realsies?"

"How is that possible?" Aria asked instead, "How, and why did she come here?"

"I don’t know," replied Adagio, "But anyway, almost everyone at the school claimed that the girl with purple hair with a pink stripe, “Twilight Sparkle” if I recall correctly, was actually a magical being from another dimension, who used her powers to prevent Sunset Shimmer from transforming all the students into an army of zombies. No one knew the details, or where she came from, but the fact that the magic she and her group uses is the same of Equestria, is the proof that she comes from that world. And perhaps, if we can find out how she came here, we might be able to go back to our native dimension, and find some new Charm Rubies."

After that speech, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk smiled again: the first had the typical triumphant smile, the one that someone shows off when he sees victory approaching. The second, however, had a amazed and hopeful smile. The smile of someone who, after wandering around in the darkness, finally sees a glimmer of light.

At that point, Adagio spoke again, "So here's what we are gonna do: We’ll follow those seven girls, the one with purple hair with particular attention, until we’ll discover how she came into this world. Once we find that out, I’ll follow her, and then-"

“Wait a minute! " Aria interrupted her, "Why should you go alone? Why shouldn’t we come too? After all, we want our powers back too!"

"Of course, it’s obvious," Adagio said, "But if we go together, we would attract much more attention. Think about it: Three colossal sirens crossing the plain directed toward the sea. I don’t think that we would pass unnoticed. And this time, also, since we are powerless, we couldn’t even defend ourselves, and we couldn’t prevent them from sending us back here, or doing something worse. If I go alone, instead, I might be able to hide and escape from the ponies, reach the ocean, recover the Charm Rubies we need, and come back to pick you up. Believe me, it’s much safer this way!"

Aria, before answering, thought carefully for a while, and finally said, "Fine. Maybe it's better if you go alone. After all, you need us, to unleash a full powered spell, so I don’t think you would forsake us. And also, in this plan, I have nothing to lose but everything to gain if you make it."

"Then it's settled!" proclaimed Adagio, in a resolute tone, "Tomorrow, we’ll begin to spy on those seven troublemakers, to discover their secret, and then, finally, we’ll be able go home!"

"Yay!" Sonata cried, excitedly, "We are finally going back home, and when we’ll do it, we’ll be able to sing again!"

"Don’t get so excited, you!" silenced her Aria, "It may be true that your strange idea gave Adagio the inspiration to develop this plan, but that doesn’t mean anything! It was just a coincidence. You're still the worst!"

Adagio looked up at the sky, waiting to hear Sonata’s rude reply, that would lead to another argument between the two.
But, unexpectedly, the reply didn’t come.

Adagio and Aria, stupefied, looked at Sonata, who seemed suddenly saddened, as if reliving some painful memories.

It was really strange. Whenever Aria had called Sonata "the worst", she always got offended, and retorted with harsh words. And this happened every time, from the first day when the two of them knew each other.

But not this time.

As if, in Sonata, something was changing ...

---

The next day, they began to spy on those seven girls, and, fortunately, they immediately managed to discover the secret of the girl from Equestria.

In fact, they saw her as she passed, along with her little dog, through one side of the pedestal of the statue in front of the school, after greeting the others. And Adagio knew immediately that she was looking at a portal.

So, as soon as the court was deserted, she immediately tried to cross that portal, but without success. After that overweening girl had crossed it, the wall had returned to be hard, cold and impassable.

After thinking a bit, Adagio realized that, probably, there had to be a system to enable or disable the portal, and their next step would be to find out how to do that.

Thus, in the following days, they continued to spy on the remaining six girls.

The problem was that, of course, they could only keep them under surveillance only when they were out of the school, because, getting into that building, after all the problems they caused, proved to be impossible. Every time one of the students saw one of them, even from a distance, they immediately warned the Principal Celestia or the Vice-Principal Luna, who proceeded to expel them.

As for those girls, they never spoke about the portal out of school. Every once they hinted something about the seventh girl, the one coming from Equestria, but they never said a word about how she could reach back there.

So, they spent the first four days, without any chance for Adagio’s plan to proceed. They were at a standstill, and nervousness reigned supreme.
And their current living conditions didn’t help at all.

In fact, as Aria had predicted, all the other people under the influence of their spell had awakened, and this coincided with a drastic decline of their living standards.

For starters, the owner of the villa where they had established had rudely driven them away, keeping, as a reimbursement, the majority of the precious objects they had accumulated over the centuries. The rest of the objects, they were forced to sell them, to pay for food. Their best clothes were gone along with the trinkets, and now they were dressed in old rags. And that alley, the small, dark and damp alley in which they hid in the evening of their defeat, now was their home.

It was a situation almost unbearable for Adagio, while Sonata didn’t seem very disturbed by that miserable condition.

Indeed, compared to the others, she was the one that made the greatest efforts to allow the group to not succumb.

She was the first, and by far the only one, who looked for a job, in order to maintain her friends, once their savings had expired. Unfortunately, because of her bad reputation and her clumsiness, no one hired her. But, despite everything, she didn’t lose her heart, and kept trying.

Also, when she wasn’t spying the "special" girls or searching for a job, she did everything to make that alley a bit more livable. She spent a whole day, trying to drive away the rats that had made their den in the end of the alley. And, when she finally succeeded, she prepared, with some old mattresses found at who knows where, a bed for the three of them. And the rest of the time she cleaned everywhere and tried in every way to make the alley more like a real home.

Her unwavering optimism, and her willful perseverance, got on the nerves of the other two. They couldn’t see the great benefits that Sonata’s efforts were bringing to both. The only thing they saw was that Sonata had lost all of her siren pride.

But the worst thing was that Sonata sang. She sang all the time, regardless of how much her discordant voice was unsightly, and every time, it reminded to Adagio and Aria of everything they had lost. Every time, after two singing minutes, Sonata understood that her voice didn’t sounded as before, and suddenly fell silent. But then, ten or fifteen minutes later, she began again. She sang without thinking, regardless of how it sounded, and careless about the words. And she sang terribly.

Until, one day, while she was dragging towards the center of the alley a big, heavy box, that she wanted to use as a table, she began to sing distractedly.

And Adagio, sitting on her "bed" next to Aria, couldn’t restrain herself any longer, and shouted, "Sonata, would you stop, please? We are fed up of hearing your ungainly and annoying voice!"

Sonata, confused, turned around, and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. The fact is that, when I think about sad things, and I want to distract myself, I start to sing. It helps me forget my problems ..."

"Your problems? " Adagio interrupted her, "What kind of problems do you have, idiot? You don’t even worry about anything! You always have your head in the clouds, and you never think before doing anything! And anyway, don’t you understand that, by singing, you make us recall our problems! Like the fact that we are stuck in this revolting world, powerless, and that those six, stupid girls are laughing behind us, enjoying their victory?"

Sonata, harassed by those words, seemed to hesitate, but then, almost whispering, she ventured to say, "I’ve never heard them laughing at us. In fact, I think they have already forgotten us... Anyway, I apologize. From now on, I'll try to not sing anymore, if it bothers you so much ..." Then, she sat on the crate that she had just dragged.

She seemed tired, breathless...

---

In the following days, what at first seemed only a slight breathlessness, got worse.

Now Sonata wasn’t able to take care of their "home" anymore, because for her, pushing a crate or moving something, was all it took to feel tired.

And she kept her promise to not sing anymore, not to live up to her word, but because if she sang for for just a minute, she would find herself short of breath. So, she stopped doing that too, along with all the other work she did.

Adagio, in a paradoxical reversal of perspective, now accused her of being a slacker, after which she had criticized her work.

Aria, however, had the good taste not put her finger on the sore spot. Moreover, in a move that angered Adagio a lot, she took charge of the domestic situation of the alley, and, as Sonata did, she began to sing again.

The first time it happened by chance, one afternoon when she was bored. Without even realizing it she began to sing, which aroused the wrath of Adagio, who imposed her to stop. But Aria, in her usual rebellious attitude toward Adagio, continued, and since then every time that she had nothing to do, all of a sudden she began to sing her off-key song.

Adagio was terribly angry, because, in contrast to Sonata, Aria didn’t follow her orders, and so she went away every time she heard Aria's voice intoning, with difficulty and without harmony, the notes of a song.

By now, she was the only one who spied on the six "special" girls. She did that also to stay away from the other two.

However, despite that absence from the alley, she still managed to notice something strange about Sonata.

In fact, when she or Aria scolded her about something, Sonata no longer responded arrogantly, scrambling to defend her indefensible opinion, but, on the contrary, she recognized her error with total, irritating humility. She seemed to have lost all of her rebellious spirit, that thousands and thousands of times made her and Aria argue.

But anyway, as her arrogance diminished, her uneasiness grew instead. After two weeks, it was obvious to everyone that Sonata was sick. By then, after an hour of standing straight, she immediately began to feel tired, and was forced to sit. Her breathing became more and more struggled and labored. Her voice was more and more feeble, and very often, her scrubby speeches were interrupted by a dry and violent cough, which forced her to remain silent.

Her companions were quite worried by that mysterious series of symptoms, especially since Aria was afraid that they were a result of the loss of their Charm Rubies.

"Perhaps, without them, soon we'll get sick too." Aria said to Adagio, one day, in the corner of the alley, "Perhaps, the sirens can’t survive, especially out of the water, without them."

"No. It can’t be! "retorted Adagio, to reassure her companion," If it were like so, we should be ill too right now. After all, we have lost our Charm Rubies at the same time. Evidently Sonata has contracted some disease of this world."

“But how is that possible?” asked the other siren, “In all of these centuries, we never got sick, until now. Aren’t we supposed to be immune to diseases?”

“I don’t know…” Adagio answered, “Maybe, without the rubies, we are just more vulnerable to them than before. That would explain why she got ill and we didn't…”

"Well, in that case," resumed to say Aria, "we have to take her to a doctor immediately! She can’t keep living like this. She can barely speak! We must do something!"

In front of her reaction, Adagio grinned, and murmured, "Apparently you're worrying about the weak link in the chain. You're getting to be such a softie, aren’t you, Aria?"

At that insinuation, Aria blushed, and then added, "Don’t be ridiculous! It's just that we need Sonata. If her voice hadn’t helped us raise negative energy in the last centuries, do you really think we wouldn’t have already ditched her? I would! The only thing she can do was sing. Now that she can’t do that either, she is completely useless. But when we’ll get back our Charm Rubies, she'll be useful again."

"Well, now I recognize you!" Adagio said, "Tomorrow, then, we’ll decide what to do about her. For the moment, we should go back to check those six."

That said, they went away. They left the alley, and Sonata.

Which, in a confused state of half-sleep, heard every word.

The weak link in the chain.

Adagio called her that.

And now, in a sudden flash of self-awareness, Sonata understood that she must actually be the weak link, and to have always been that.

For all those centuries, Adagio had always thought out plans to get back their old powers, always a failure in fact, but she always made sure that they would always have a roof over their head, food to eat, and people from which obtain the negative energy. Although she wasn’t able yet to bring them back home, or make them regain their former glory, she had always been a leader worthy of that name.

As for Aria, although often she had opposed to Adagio’s decisions, and even more often had mocked and humiliated her, she had always managed, in difficult times, to make the group find their grit and pride again. It was her boldness and her determination, which had supported them during that long period in that hostile world.

But she, now that she was thinking about it, hadn’t been very helpful to the group, if not completely useless.

When something went wrong, she had always tried to be optimistic and carefree, in an attempt to raise the girls’ morale. When Adagio couldn’t find a home worthy of them, or they had just been evicted from some village, she first took charge of the situation, rolled up her sleeves and worked hard to make sure that her friends could recover from the humiliation.

But, every attempt only served to worsen the situation, or otherwise offend the sirens pride of Adagio and Aria. And also, many times, she had distractedly revealed some details that could seriously affect their coverage, without thinking too much and not bothering to conceal incriminating details. And this put them in trouble more than once. Sometimes it was even her fault, and not of the end of the spell, if they were discovered and sent away.

And now, at a time when they were most vulnerable and powerless than ever, she complicated the situation even further by getting sick.
Yes, Aria was right. She really was the worst.

And what made Sonata enormously sad. Because, even if they considered her a weak and inept one, and despite all the times that they had humiliated her, she loved them.

For her, since she had ended up in that dimension, her only landmarks were Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze.

They were the last of her kind, and they were her only friends. She didn’t know if they felt the same feelings toward her, but she didn’t cared. And she was very sorry that, because of her ineptitude, their group was now in trouble.

With fatigue, Sonata pulled away the old patched tarp she used as a blanket, and stood up.

She had made a decision. Despite the disease, despite her stupidity, despite her clumsiness, she would be helpful.

She would do her part, and finally make her friend proud of her.

---

In the following days, Sonata did her best to make herself useful, despite her illness.

She managed to get some mild cough suppressant, hoping that it would make her feel better, which unfortunately didn’t happened.

Nevertheless, with stoic determination, she began to do everything as she did it before, except singing.

She even managed to get hired for a whole day in a pub, as a waitress, although she resigned at the end of the day, when she realized that she couldn’t say two words without coughing, and that she was completely exhausted after being on her feet all the time.

When she came out from the pub, it was almost evening. A cold, gray evening of mist...

When she returned to the alley, Adagio welcomed her with an endless series of rude and offensive comments, forcing her to tell what trouble she had caused for getting fired after one day.

"Did you break all of their glasses?" she asked, provocatively, "Or maybe you've drank the drink of a customer, without worrying that he was looking at you, huh? Come on, answer, you idiot!"

Sonata, without the slightest trace of resentment for that provocation, took off her coat, hung it on an improvised hanger that she had built, when she wasn’t sick, and whispered in response, "They didn’t fire me .... "

"What? What did you say?" urged Adagio, straining her ear toward to her, with her typical cruel smile on her face, "I can’t hear you! Raise your voice!"

Sonata, looked up, and saw the provocative expression of her leaders, and, after a short sigh, she said, a bit louder, "They didn’t fire me ... I’m the one who resigned ... "

"Excuse me? I still can’t hear you ... "

"I said that they didn’t fire me!” yelled Sonata, standing up, furious in front of Adagio's insensitivity towards her situation, "I’ve resigned! I was too sick to work, and I was sure that tomorrow I ..."

Sonata was forced to stop, because a long and violent coughing fit interrupted her. An fit so violent that forced her to kneel down, shaken by tremors. Her throat was inflamed, her chest ached as if it were caught in a vise. She felt like she was choking.

For long, long seconds, she did nothing else but violently expel the air from her lungs, without which she could resist. The only thing into her visual field, confused and distorted by the pain and the tremors, were Adagio’s shoes, which stood there the whole time, motionless, watching her as she was almost suffocating.

And eventually, the coughing fit ended.

Sonata, slowly and painfully, got up, embracing her aching chest with her left arm.

She felt something warm dripping out of her mouth, and, confused, looked at her right hand, the one with which she had covered her mouth while coughing.

And, with her tremendous horror, she saw that it was stained with several drops of a dark red liquid.

Her blood.

More frightened than ever, she looked at her friends, the only two members of her species besides her.

Aria, in contrast to the custom, hadn’t the mischievous and satisfied smile that she sported whenever Sonata was somehow suffering.

Indeed, on that occasion, she seemed simply disoriented, confused. Just the same way Sonata was disoriented and confused.

But Adagio, however, had her classical cruel expression, and muttered, "You're dying, aren’t you?"

Those words shocked Sonata, who turned white as a sheet.

Dying.

Die.

Death.

For centuries, she had seen the creatures of that universe die, as well as, probably, she had seen the ponies of Equestria die.

From what Adagio had always told them, the sirens were immortal, as long as they continued to collect negative energy inside their Charm Rubies, that not only allowed them to sing, but also always kept them young and beautiful, in order to have the highest possible influence on people.

But now, without their Charm Rubies, they apparently were vulnerable to time, injuries, and diseases, as any mortal.

She, who had gone through eras of that world, would soon come to the end of her time.

“Help me!" she murmured, moving closer to the others, "Help me, please! I ... I don’t wanna ..."

“Die?" Adagio ended the sentence for her, “Sorry, but we can’t help you. Indeed, we’ve already done too much for you! We've always brought you with us, despite your stupidity and your inability. And you've never given me anything of what I demanded from you. You just followed my orders when I commanded you something, but this, for me, has never been enough. For the rest, you’ve always been an obstacle to the realization of my plans. The only reason why I’ve always carried you with me, it’s because we three are the last of our species, and we had to stay together. But now, now that you’ve been contaminated by the disease of this disgusting world, you have become impure, imperfect. You are no longer worthy of being called siren."

That said, she moved aside, and pointed to the exit of the alley, adding, "Go away, Sonata. We don’t need you anymore. Go to bother someone else with your ineptitude. From what little you have left to live, of course!"

Sonata, incredulous, bewildered, frightened, approached Adagio, stretching her hands to grab hers, with tears in her eyes, whispering, "You ... you aren’t serious , are you? I’ve always did everything you asked of me, no matter how degrading or dangerous. I gave you everything, without asking anything except for a sign of friendship. Because I’ve always considered you my only friends, and... "

"Silence!" shouted Adagio, giving to Sonata a resounding slap, before she was able to grab her hands, "You say that you gave me everything? That you consider me your friend? Don’t be ridiculous! You've never given me anything but troubles. And, as to being your friend, you're wrong. We’ve never been friends. I’ve never felt the slightest affection towards you. In fact, I've never been able to stand you! For decades I was looking for an excuse to send you away, and now, since I don’t need you anymore, I can finally ditch you without regretting it. And now get out of here, before I send you away by kicks!"

Sonata, not believing to her ears, tried again to get close to Adagio.

The one who, along with her and Aria, was among the last sirens existing.

The one from whom she had always sought inspiration and answers.

The one of which she had always admired the strength, the determination and the sagacity.

The one who, a moment later, gave her another slap, strong enough to send her on the ground.

And then, after that last humiliation, after that final, decisive and definitive rejection, Sonata couldn’t restrain herself any longer, and began to cry silently.

A slow, gentle and humble cry, where the dying siren poured all of her pain and despair, grown over time, one humiliation or a poor figure after another, in all those centuries, always hidden by her carelessness, which had been destroyed by that final act, violent and shocking as an earthquake, for her small, fragile heart of innocent creature destined to sow discord.

Slowly, shaken by the tremors of her cry and some, sporadic, but rather violent coughing fits, Sonata stood up, picked up her coat from the improvised hanger and slowly, without saying a word, she walked towards the exit of the alley.

It was over.

She was no longer worthy to be flanked by those two beautiful, majestic and powerful creatures, which were hidden in her two companions, under the small and fragile form that they had taken centuries ago, at the beginning of their exile.

She had always believed that, although they often scolded her, and even more often told her that she was stupid and incapable, underneath Adagio and Aria loved her.

But she was wrong. Adagio had never loved her. No one had ever loved her, if not under the influence of her voice. And now, she would consume the last moments of her centennial existence alone, after discovering that, in fact, she had always been alone for so long.

Before she went, however, she gave a last look at her companions, the last, real sirens.

Adagio seemed satisfied. She looked at her with contempt, but she was smiling. She smiled as if she had defeated an insignificant enemy, but reveled in the suffering and humiliation of the adversary.

Aria, however, wasn’t smiling at all. Her gaze was unusually open and bright, without the usual eyebrows lowered in a hostile expression. And her mouth was slightly open, as if the words were trying by force to find an opening to get out, without success.

All of this expressed sentiments that Sonata had never seen, in all those centuries, on Aria face. First of all, the disbelief. And, secondly, the sadness...

Sonata suddenly felt a strong temptation to ask Aria why she was sad, and especially if the cause of her sadness was her.

But then, another coughing fit, accompanied by a strong pain in the chest, reminded her what was going on. She was no longer a siren. She was now impure, and soon, she would know that unknown, black oblivion that mortals had always feared, but to which she had never thought of.

Soon, she would die.

So, not willing to disturb further the latest representatives of her species with her presence, she squeezed herself in the old coat she just took from the hanger, covered her head with the hood and slowly walked away into the fog ...

---

She was alone.

Abandoned.

And she didn’t know where to go, or what to do.

None of them had never been sick before then. None of them had never been corrupted by that silent and terrible curse that, at times, simply forced a mortal to stay in bed, to rest for a couple of days, and other times, led him toward that much deeper sleep called death.

Death.

She never asked herself what it could mean to die, for mortals, before hearing Adagio pronounce those fateful words.

And yet, she had seen people die very often, especially during those terrible curses that hit entire villages, if not entire nations, and that the inhabitants of that world called epidemics.

Or, during the many, scary, and bloody wars that often seemed destined to lead that world towards destruction.

Despite everything, they always survived. Sure, they could be injured, but nothing before then was able to kill them, nor swords, nor fire, nor those strange contraptions spitting thunders, that the inhabitants of that place called "guns".

And most importantly, none of those strange curses, known as diseases, had ever been able to contaminate them.

For this, for the fact that they were immortal, anywhere, in the past, there was a conflict, or a plague, they were always there.

Because they had learned that the more a person suffered, the more he tended to get angry, and to unload his anger on a fellow. And, everywhere that anger reigned, they were there, to absorb their precious negative energy, basking in the pain and strife of those poor people.

Indeed, Sonata had never even thought about that either, before then.

What she had always done was something terrible, frightening.

Thrive on the suffering of others, feed of their resentment, live on their disharmony.

She didn’t know why, but all of a sudden, what she had done for centuries, without remorse, without the slightest pity, now had become an abominable act.

Now, she was certain about it. She had never been a goddess, but a monster. As a huge, colossal and ruthless monster, she had devoured the lives of thousands and thousands of people, to preserve her immortality and what little power she had left.

Sonata Dusk, at that moment, wished to disappear.

Sonata Dusk, at that moment, wished to die.

So, without even the strength to think, safe for how miserable her life was, and how deplorable was her past, the dying siren walked, staggering for the tremendous effort, for the streets of Canterlot City, aimlessly.

The fog, and her view now rather clouded for the enormous effort of dragging her weak body through the streets, prevented her from seeing where she was going.

But now, she didn’t care anymore. For what it mattered, she could collapse and fall even in the street.

She didn’t understand why she was still walking, or if she was still walking.

In her confused and suffering head, the reality and the nightmare overlapped in a chaotic and incomprehensible cacophony of emotions, regrets and pain.

So, when she finally managed to regain some lucidity, Sonata found herself in a part of town that she had never seen before. Or maybe it was the fog that prevented her from recognizing the houses around her. And, perhaps for the fact that the terrible pain in her chest and her sad thoughts had completely clogged her brain, preventing her from realizing it before, it was dark, and it was very cold.

Temporarily forgetting her previous death wish, Sonata decided to find a shelter, and walked toward the door of the nearest house, painstakingly, and holding an arm around the chest in an attempt to calm the pain and control her breathing.

But, unfortunately, before she could even get close to the door, her legs gave way, without prior notice, and she ruinously fell against the door, banging her head.

And, suddenly, Sonata Dusk’s world became a black, deep, and dark oblivion, who first welcomed her, gently, but then surrounded her on every side, and began to drag her down.

It was like being immersed in a huge lake of pitch.

Sonata, desperate, tried to swim, to rise to the surface, and out of that oppressive darkness, but it was useless. Her legs, her arms, her whole body was motionless, as if paralyzed.

And so, she was forced to let that darkness wrap her, reducing everything to a black, motionless and silent void.

A void, occasionally crossed by some voices, which seemed to whisper very close to her ear, but that she still couldn’t see, or hear clearly. The voices in question, seemed vaguely familiar to Sonata, although she couldn’t understand who they were, because of the very low volume at which they spoke.

“…think…take her…see…help her…way…”

“…right…must feel…collapsed…I don’t…why…came here….she…could…”

There was a brief pause, in those voices, that in that black hole seemed centuries. Then, the voices came back...

“…now…what…do?...siren...dangerous…weeks…might…revenge…we shouldn’t…”

“…I...know…we’d…warn…Twilight…”

Comments

[EchoWing]

Egads. That's not good cough blood.

Live, Sonata. The world loves you.

[Northguard]

Tuberculosis?