Epilogue: What Friendship Could Be
An exhaled breath momentarily warmed her hands – cold despite being swathed in knitted gloves – as she rocked back and forth from her heels to her tip-toes and back again, humming softly, glancing one way down the street and then another up it. Hands not sufficiently warmed by her own breath, she folded her arms over her chest, hands tucked beneath either arm, and her rocking came to a stop as it became harder to balance with her arms held thus.
She wasn’t worried, or afraid of being stood up, but boy, was she cold – and boy, did she regret not taking the heavy raspberry coat again, even if it wasn’t technically hers – but then she thought, it would probably be too heavy for her plans today, so maybe it was serendipity that it had been absent to begin with—but it was nice and warm—
At least she’d had the foresight to wear her hair down today.
A few more minutes lapsed and she lowered her arms, allowing the handle of her bag to slip from the crook of her elbow down to her palm, and she turned on her heels and started down the sidewalk in the direction she expected to be met from, wondering if, perhaps, they could meet half way – or along the way – or at the café? It wasn’t a long trip, even affording her some entertainment as she crunched the sparse early winter snow beneath her boots – and it was in such a moment of distraction, eyes turned down toward the lightly dusted sidewalk, that she missed sight of her date, only alerted to her presence by the sound of her voice calling out shrilly:
“Sonaaataaaa Duuuusk!”
Sonata lifted her head and smiled, picking up her pace and stepping between patches of snow only to be caught up in Pinkie Pie’s embrace within seconds.
“Ohmigosh, I’m so sorry I’m late, Sona!” Pinkie exclaimed while still holding her arms tightly around Sonata, only pulling away after she’d given a sufficient enough hug and a greeting kiss. “This order was only supposed to take like an hour, right? So I started it thinking, all right, yeah, I’ve got time before I gotta meet Sonata – but then, I forgot this and I forgot that and before I know it I’m running behind by five minutes, then ten, then fifteen—!”
“I knew you’d show up,” Sonata said, giggling. “I just got a little cold.”
Pinkie slung her bag around her shoulder, pulled Sonata’s arm into her own, and nestled up to her, keeping close as they started down the street again. “Better?”
“Much!”
“Good!” Pinkie nodded with satisfaction. “Soooooo, how’d your lessons with Rarity go?”
“Fiiineee,” Sonata started slowly, lifting a hand to twirl a piece of hair around her finger as she continued, “until Adagio cut them short ‘cause she wanted to go shopping—and Rarity tried speeding through the rest so I told her to just go ahead and go, even though Adagio and Aria got their turns today.”
She let out a hmph and Pinkie frowned— and after a moment, gasped.
“Ohmigosh! That reminds me! The other day I had Sunset over ‘cause I had to have her try this new cupcake recipe, right? Raspberry-Orange-Cream Dream Swirl! Her favourite colours in confectionery form: raspberry and orange! So who better to pilot test it, riiiiight? Anyway, after I adjusted the recipe a third time and made a fourth batch, she told me she had to go ‘cause she had plans with Aria and I was like, ‘Oki-doki-loki, have fun!’” Pinkie paused a moment, then laughed. “Oh, wait. That wasn’t really a problem. Neeeeveeer mind!”
“Well, whatever! That just means more time for us!” Sonata said this with indignation, but smiled anyway; after the months of her once-bandmates doing nothing they didn’t have to be doing outside of their apartment, even following Sonata’s reconciliatory trip to Sugarcube Corner, and some months more of the two of them regarding Pinkie and her friends distrustfully (and justifiably so), Sonata was overjoyed to see them having new friends, and more so at seeing them have some spark of liveliness again.
And she was overjoyed to have her own spark again.
“So you’re not gonna be too cold to go ice skating, are you?”
And to have her girlfriend again, too.
“’Course not! I feel all toasty now.”
Pinkie giggled.
They walked on at a leisurely pace, and Sonata began to hum again in the silence that settled between them, no longer fearing an accidental enchantment, and no longer shaken by the sound of her own voice. She could feel Pinkie turn her head toward her, but she continued on, and Pinkie stayed quiet – until, true to her nature, she couldn’t keep her thoughts to herself any longer.
“Y’know,” she said, interjecting between a few softly hummed bars, “Rarity says you guys are doing great.”
“I dunno,” Sonata said as she stopped humming and shrugged. “We still have a long way to go.”
“But I bet you’ve all come a long way, too.” Pinkie smiled. “I know Adagio’s rule was no one can hear you guys ‘til you all get super better, but . . . I really miss hearing you sing.”
Sonata lifted her hand again, reaching for the silver eighth-note pendant at her neck, and she slid it along the length of the silver chain it hung from. With a slow inhale, she set it back down against her neck – and with the exhale, she began to vocalise, softly and hesitatingly, with a falter and a pause—
—and she closed her eyes and started again, gaining solidity and volume – and though it wasn’t the perfect, sharp, clear composition of a voice she had possessed months before, though she cut short some notes and occasionally couldn’t reach her desired octave and worried that her tone flattened – even though she was learning everything all over again with no magic, just hearing some harmony, some stability, some progress far removed from that disastrous last performance instilled in her a renewed confidence in herself—
—and she pulled away from Pinkie just slightly, untangling their arms but still holding her hand as she pulled her along and danced her down the sidewalk, laughing between verses, and Pinkie began to sing along with her, their voices far from perfect but feeling perfect and harmonious and dazzling as they mingled in the cold November air—
And Sonata began to feel like this could be home, too.
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Wow what an ending, you served us the right amount of romance. Sad to see the story go though. fimfiction-static.net/images/emoticons/raritycry.png
Well, I think I already tossed one of my dumb 'pirate approved' pictures at this story, so have this one instead!
i.imgur.com/BKzLu.gif
Great story, Annuska. I hope there's more where this came from!
Wow, so much stuff must have happened between the end and the last chapter, that this story is just begging to have omakes galore! Maybe even a sequel, but definitely some bonus chapters.
Anyway, good story; I finally feel safe in giving you my upvote... so here you go.
I'M SO PROUUUUUD<3333
YOU DID IT, SIS. YOU CLIMBED THIS WHOLE MOUNTAIN.
I'll stop the spam like talk to say that even though it's only recently that we've been friends, I'm still hella proud of you for writing this adorable fic and for not letting the ship's unpopularity stop you, and with all my friend-love demand you write more cute stories.
A sweet ending. At least they are happy.
Shame this story isn't getting more attention, I think you absolutely nailed the characterizations for Pinkie and Sonata. Overall a sweet little thing.
Absolutely wonderful!
5679884
Thank you! I hope to publish more! (Fifth Element gif has my approval, by the way.)
5679969
There definitely was a lot that took place - the time span between chapter 12 and the epilogue is somewhere around seven months if I'm not miscounting. And I would be lying if I said the thought of a companion story hasn't been in mind for a while...
Thank you!
5679974
AHAHA THANKS! And thank you for all your support, it's meant so much to me.
I DID IT, I MADE IT HAPEN and I dutifully avoided stairs.
5680034
Thank you! Admittedly, it is getting a lot more attention than I dreamed it would
but I wouldn't be opposed to more because the world needs Sonapie.5679862
5680015
5680059
Thank you so much!
A beautiful ending to a beautiful story. I'm sad to see it end, but...at the same time, I couldn't have asked for a better ending.
Sonapie isn't a thing I ever really thought about, but this fic has converted me to shipping them. You did a wonderful job writing them together.
And your writing style is beautiful, too :) I particularly enjoyed Pinkie's metaphors about her mood.
Nice story!
Really happy it had a happy end, great fanfic and because of you I now ship sonapie
5680460 Agreed.
Great story. But the only thing that I didnt like about it was that it became too fast paced close to the end, but I suppose you plan to write a sequel, right?
Well done. I for one cannot wait for your next foray into cuddly pony literature.
OH NO THE CUTENESS INDUCED DIABEETUS AUTHOR YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL
5684125
You misinterpreted the scene, it's not describing the actions of Pinkie, it's describing her normal behaviour.
The scene is not saying ‘This is what happens at the beginning of this story.’ it’s saying ‘This is how Pinkie Pie acts on any given day when she is working.’
The whole opening scene, up until the first dialog, is setting up the character so the readers can understand the way Pinkie thinks and acts.
A lot of this story plays out in the characters’ heads switching between Pinkie and Sonata as needed to tell the story, it is pretty much a first person point of view shared between two characters, and because of the perspective the author uses italics a little differently; where most fan fiction would use italics to show the characters’ thoughts this one’s story is already showing all of the characters’ thoughts so it uses italics instead to emphasize words and ‘lend a voice’ to the characters so the reader can ‘hear’ the way the character sounds.
I’m not saying your advice was bad I’m just saying that this story is not told it the typical way, and most authors do tend to have their own style, much like artists, it’s not ‘the wrong way to tell a story’ it’s just ‘a different way to tell a story’.
You should give it another chance, I personally think it is one of the best written stories I’ve seen, there was like only one typo and it was fixed!
5680072
So now that I’ve gotten all derailed from the review I was trying to write, I still want to say this is one of the best written stories I’ve seen! I imagine you agonized over proofreading this thing a lot and it was worth it, to me anyway, so thanks for the effort!
I might be in the minority here when say I loved this story for its writing, and not just the idea of the pairing like what others are saying. I really enjoyed and appreciated the story-telling here, you wrote the characters’ emotions so well and that is what I liked most.
Being able to make the readers see and feel a character’s emotion in a story is a mark of a great author, and I truly think this is one of the best stories in this fandom, that I’ve seen, to pull that off. Also since it was all happy lovey-dovey romance it was a nice ‘feel-good’ story too; but I feel better than good, this story makes my favorites list and earns a 6 out of 5 star rating from me!
Thank you for the excellent story!
That was a great end to a great story
I think you nailed the characterizations perfectly, and I love Pinkie's party metaphore thinking. 
I glad the Sirens became friends with the main six, seven if you count Twilight from Equestria 
It seems you added a couple of other ships that set sail in that epilogue 
Though Adiago and Twilight would have been cute 
I think I will need to add you to my watcher list well done I hope to see more of this cute AU. 
Is anyone concerned that Sonata is a pedophile?
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Thank you all so much! I'm super glad to have some new shippers on board the RMS Sonapie. (RMS because a bit of trivia: I love steamships, especially the royal mail ones.)
As for the sequel question: it's something I'm toying with! Expect, at the least, some drabbles/one-shots set in the same continuity.
5684125
Thank you for your input. While I do concede that I could have structured the paragraph a little less confusingly, I'm afraid the rest of it lies in the fact that this is simply my style as it's developed over the past decade or so that I've been writing. I understand not everyone will be able to enjoy it, and that's fine! Thanks for giving it a try!
5691978
Thank you so much for your excellent comment! I must have read and re-read it at least four or five times now, goodness me. It's always a huge joy to get a detailed review like this, and I'm incredibly humbled that this story has made it into your 6~5 Star category. I mean, way more than I can explain in words!
It does feel good to see all the work put into the fic pay off and to see others enjoying it, too.
5696155
Yikes. Hmm. Well.
I'm going to go ahead and give the benefit of the doubt here and believe this comment is a legitimate question because not only is tone very difficult to infer over the internet, but it should also go without saying that pedophilia is not a topic to be taken lightly or joked about. It's one I have especially strong feelings about, being both an educator of children and mandated reporter - that is, someone who is required by law (and my own personal ethics play a role here, of course) to report signs of abuse in minors, including sexual, which is largely what pedophilia falls under. Mandated reporters are often educated and trained to recognise these signs of abuse, and there are sharp differences between a healthy relationship between two closely-aged teenagers and an adult preying on a minor.
And there is nothing about pedophilia that isn't preying. Nothing.
That being said, that is not what's taking place here so there should be no concern. If you'd like to be literal then yes, Sonata is very likely well over a thousand (human) years old. For the sake of this fic, it’s stated as fact, whether that’s canonical or not. Pinkie is likely somewhere around 16-17 (human) years old.
Notice how I specified human years.
It's strongly implied that sirens have incredibly long lifespans. This isn't a lifespan that a human would be able to match - and this is something Sonata laments as early as chapter three. In the real world, it's not too different from the lifespan difference between human beings and other animal species. We may have a pet dog who's 15 years old, but we wouldn't refer to said dog as a teenager; rather, said dog would be considered elderly, whereas a human 15-year-old still has a way to go before reaching even the earliest stage of adulthood, depending on one’s culture - let alone elderly years.
And ages in Equestria are not as straight-forward as we understand them to be as humans. Lauren Faust herself once commented on how despite the fact the Mane 6 are similarly aged chronologically, she imagined them to have different mental ages. This isn't exclusive to them, either; if the flashback in Pinkie Pride is anything to go off of, Miss Cheerilee is about the same age (chronologically) as the Mane 6 - yet we perceive her as being much older. In fact, in the human world parallel to Equestria, she is much older. But Twilight Sparkle, going through the mirror, winds up being a teenager similarly aged to the Mane 5 of this world rather than an adult. Sunset Shimmer experienced the same phenomenon, and though we might expect her to be older than Twilight in Equestria by virtue of her having been a student of Celestia's preceding Twilight, it seems that she's the same age as her in the human world. Why?
Equestria is a fantasy genre world that plays by fantasy genre rules. It isn't uncommon in the fantasy genre for various species/races, which may be similar to one another, to have vastly differing lifespans where one species' 10 years may be equal to another's 100 years.
And whatever equalising laws exist governing the portals between Equestria and its parallel human world have to make accomodation for this when giving a non-human traveller a human form (Sunset, Twilight, the Dazzlings).
We don't know anything about the Dazzlings prior to when we first meet them in the opening scene of Rainbow Rocks, save for what Twilight's book tells us about their lives in Equestria - and even then, it's largely a mystery. Did Star Swirl's banishment send them to the middle ages? Did it send them closer to our current time? If the former is the case, how many human years does it take for them to age the equivalent of a non-siren human aging a year? Is it 100? 500? An entire thousand? Have they been teenagers their entire time in the human world?
We don't know.
What we do know is that they're physically and mentally still teenagers, much like the human forms of Twilight and Sunset. The Dazzlings may be well over a thousand years old, but it doesn't mean their ages are equivalent to what would be a thousand years to us. And I theorise that the only thing that kept them from aging at the same rate as a human once entered into this parallel world is the same thing that allowed them to still use magic in a place that, before Sunset Shimmer brought an Element of Harmony into said world, had no magic: their amulets.
And now that those amulets are gone, I also theorise that they're going to age much more quickly.
Say, at the rate of any other human.
And this isn't exclusive to Equestria Girls. To compare with another children's toy line, there's endless presence of this in Monster High. Take, for example, one of the main characters: Draculaura, a 1600-year-old vampire. She's well over a thousand, yet her mental and physical age reflect that of a 16-year-old girl, and she attends a school with like-minded and -aged peers. It all has to do with her race and how relative years are to her, and nothing with the chronological years she’s racked up.
In short, no, Sonata and Pinkie’s relationship is not a case of pedophilia. Sonata is not an adult. She’s a teenager, regardless of her chronological age. She was a teenage siren, and now she’s a teenage human. She may have done some questionable things in an attempt to salvage her and Pinkie’s relationship during the difficult times, but they were not the things an adult preying on a child would do. They were the things someone who’s only known manipulation and deceit to get what they want would do.
And while I did say that pedophilia largely falls under sexual abuse, there are also a vast number of non-sexual/physical indicators. Indicators that are not present in this relationship, because again, this is not a case of an adult with a minor.
Heavy response? Yes, but a heavy topic requires such a response without me just saying "no, because I said so".
If this was a comment made in jest, please understand how severe a topic this is and think a little more thoroughly about it. Child abuse of all kinds leaves psychological scars that affect people well into adulthood, and there is nothing funny about it. Again, I have very strong feelings about this kind of thing and would not present the relationship in a positive light if I believed it was a case of pedophilia. I wouldn’t present it in fanfiction for a children’s series at all, in fact.
On the other hand, if this was a legitimate question, then I hope that gave a satisfactory answer! It certainly was long enough. (My mistake; I get very carried away sometimes, but I have to be able to back myself up, right?)
I want new Sonapie material but this pair is sooooooooo underrated.
I'm glad you wrote this though. Not only is the story amazing, the narrative is so captivating and so sweet with just the best tinge of sour. Like sour belts in a candy store. (I work at a candy store so I would know.)
Oh, you got me doing the candy comparisons now. That was a stroke of genius by the way, having candy/party things for Pinkie and water and ocean for Sonata. Beautiful.
I'm looking forward to whatever you have to dish out next. I await.
Fantastic story! I loved it!
This was a lovely read.
The feels. Buck!
I must admit, you have tickled my curiosity nerve. You have tickled it so hard, I still feel it after like... a week. I am intrigued.
As with the ending if so many stories in my life this one has left me with that all too familiar bittersweet melange of joy and sorrow. This pairing makes me so very happy, and to have the star crossed Capulet and Montague, err Pie and Dusk that is, brought happily into an inferred future makes my heart sing. Yet the joy of reading it anew has left me and thus I am left with the reader's void, but it's a happy void. So much as the old feels have me, I thank you for a wonderful tale. And perhaps a little inspiration for some of my own work later on. Cheers
Ahhhhhh super late replies! My apologies. Better late than never?
5707468 5708311 5716055 5771326 5779829 5920215
Thank you all! I'm glad to have provided some enjoyable material.
5699698
I agree, this ship is severely underrated. It feels more like being on a small canoe than a ship at times. All the time. Ahem.
Thank you for your compliments on the narrative and metaphors! It's especially cool to hear from someone who works in an actual candy shop. (Is it fun? I'd love to work in a bakery/sweets shop . . .)
Anyway, I do have some drabbles I'm collecting to publish, along with a companion piece to this story, so there will be some new content eventually!
5940558
I hope the end of the story reversed some of that dread for you!
5994777
I'm pleased this story could evoke so many emotions for you. That means I've done my job! Thank you so much for reading!
AAAAWWWWWW i love this story so much
i read the majority in one sitting (the sitting i'm typing this) and man do you play with my emotions
I very rarely get the time to read anything more than a one shot but i took some time out and man was it worth it
6108070
I'm so glad you enjoyed it that much! Thank you for taking the time to read!
Pure cuteness to end a story that see-sawed between that and sorrow so well.
okay, admittedly, this whole integration with canon thing had panned out much better than I would've expected. it's not a hashed up retelling, it's not just adding scant details or misrepresenting things that have happened. it's not 2 chapters long (which was a fear of mine - that'd it'd basically skip the whole drama of being pitted against each other)
I do feel a little cheated we never get to see the others find out about the secret relationship (even after the battle) - I kept thinking someone would find out and confront them about it...
great story, ultra cute, thanks for sharing it with us
6310129
Wow, thank you so much for all of your comments as you read through the story! I really enjoyed reading them and they made me smile. This is the kind of stuff that's really rewarding about writing.
I'd really like to write a companion piece to this that does explore how the others find out about the relationship, and the events that led to the Dazzlings and Rainbooms becoming friends, since it sadly seemed a bit too much for this story. I'm still sorting the details, but if that's something you're interested in, I'll definitely let you know when I get to it!
6320110
Glad I could make you smile a little in return.
I'd love to read any companion piece, but remember not to feel pressured into it! I'm following so I'll keep an eye out, but if it doesn't come this is a delightfully complete fic.
A wonderful story. I'm sorry it took me so long to get to reading it, but I'm glad I didn't put it off for too long. Well done!
6396071
Thank you for taking the time to read it at all! I'm very glad you enjoyed it!
6413091 And I'm very glad you wrote it, it made for a sweet story.
Piñata
That is all.
My genius name for the ship aside, I quite enjoyed this story. Your style suits narrating Pinkie and Sonata really well. Write some Sunlight or help Mono write more RariTwi. Or just keep writing Piñata because it's just really damn cute.
Fantastic. Simply fantastic. I took up reading this story because it was highly rated, and for the second time in my time here on this site, I find a story that deserves it so very much. Thanks for the amazing tale!
6504577 And what's the other one?! I must know!
I have to admit, i had a feeling i would enjoy this story going in.
I enjoyed it more then i would have thought. i loved the pairing in itself, but the writing here felt.. correct. a retelling of events through the minds of these two characters who id find difficult to right for in at least a few ways. and i think it was done incredibly. there's things i wish i could have seen, but for the time provided, im more than satisfied from this here.
Well done. I wish i saw this pairing more often in general! and its wonderful to see an after events involving the Dazzlings as well. i wish the series would bring that up...
6943267 Definitely unnecessary spoiler tag, it's a force of habit.
When I noted my interest, (I believe) I was referencing
which seems to imply either that specific plan hadn't been formed yet, or just as likely that she was unaware of the plan at that point.
I'm sure I'll have actual thoughts later but this was so so so worth the read
Great story. I did enjoy it as it was, though I feel I would have better enjoyed the version where Pinkie and Sonata derailed the events of canon Rainbow Rocks in some way. I can't help but feel the magic you have woven with this story fits poorly within the constraints of those events. Alas, it's an easy thing to ask, but more difficult to actually deliver as a writer.
I'd been thinking of a SonataPie story for a while now, and stumbled upon this randomly. Now that I think of it I'm not sure why I never thought to see if someone had forayed into that territory already...
Anyway, I love it. I do agree with some of the criticisms of the time jumps near the end, but hope that you'll flesh them out in side stories or sequels. Otherwise I actually liked how you worked with the canon. I was skeptical about that working out, but you actually managed really well. Thanks for writing this.
A general response to those I haven't replied to: thanks for all your feedback! I always appreciate it a ton, even if I don't get around to replying to individual comments.
8049903
Hey, thanks a bunch! I honestly didn't expect the fic to even be as long as it got, or to get any attention at all, but in retrospect, I definitely agree- I'd love to have fleshed out the time skip stuff more! In fact, I'm very slowly working on a piece that does just that, but life has kept me from writing as much as I'd like to. But in the meanwhile, I've got a collection of small pieces that detail some of the stuff this story didn't cover if you're interested!
8051833
Thank you, and thank you doubly for the heads up about the EQG tags! I've spent the past year mostly just lurking so I had no idea,
Just read this all in one go. Holy shit that was awesome. Loved it. Also itsnow 11:42pm. I need to sleep.
Hey Annuksha,
I hope you don't mind that I did a fanfic reading. I know that I'm pretty inexperiences compared to every single other fanfic audio maker but I'm a big fan of your work. Please stop by the vid and let me know if I could do anything better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=disDWNmeZJo
Or nah, haha. Whatever's convenient for you.
I don't know if you ever visit this website anymore but I just wanted to say this is one of the best fanfics I've ever read. I honestly never thought I'd say this but this story rivals University Days as my all time favorite.
oh god
why is it so great