The Lives We Tried To Reclaim
Date... 9/24/2014, 8:47 P.M
Things were bad! Things were real bad! They were prepared! They were ready, and they were strong...
But it wasn't enough.
They... They lost. They lost everything.
The sirens had made a hasty retreat after the disaster of a night they had. And considering they had a place here in this accursed city, those nights will continue.
The three of them all vowed to go home, and just... wait and see. Nothing else they could do, just... wait.
On the way, 'home,' in a fit of rage, Aria had slammed her fist against the window of a clothing shop, shattering the window and tripping the alarm instantaneously. They were running faster then they ever knew they could in that moment.
Aria didn't get the time to notice she was bleeding from her knuckles...
Once home, neither of them spoke a word to each other, Adagio and Sonata simply retreated to their rooms.
Adagio: Silent and utterly she'll-shocked.
Sonata: in a mess of tears and cries of anguish.
They left Aria in the living room to cope on her own. Her palms were in her face and she was trying hard not to show any emotion.
It proved difficult as she was now heaving her breaths. Her palms were starting to get wet with something. No doubt in her mind it was a mix of tears and snot. She pulled her hands away and quickly wiped them off on her beautiful dress. Although ,she's not much for saying it aloud.
She took in several deep breaths and stood up. She walked around the living room a few paces, letting it sink in further.
She could feel a stinging sensation coming from her right hand.
She went back to the couch and took a seat. A look of pure apathy now plastered. She accepted all this to be a dream. She'd wake up in the basement surrounded by skeletons and a graphically detailed image of her figure.
Strange how she wants that to become a reality.
She picked up the remote and flicked the TV on. Not even she knows why.
The TV immediately turned to a local news network. They were discussing political crap that Aria honestly couldn't care less about.
But then, it suddenly cut to a picture of-
"GRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"
She suddenly threw the remote with all her might at the television. The screen glass shattering instantly as the remote lodged itself inside. She stared furiously at it; unsure of what she just did. She panted heavily, staring at the now broken television, expecting the shards that didn't fly off to turn back on and continue to mock her and her sisters.
But nothing happened.
It was only then did she realize how much her throat burned from that scream.
She took in a few more deep breaths and calmly walked to the bathroom. She looked in the medicine cabinet and found some bandages to help fix her hand. After dressing her wound, she sat back down on the couch. A feeling of dread hanging over her.
'We... lost.'
She repeated these words in her mind over and over. All to the point where they began to sound like gibberish. They were just... sounds. How did they start to sound so... corrupt?
If she was taking this hard... then the other two must not be faring so well.
She got up, deciding to take it upon herself to check on them.
She trudged up the steps. Her hair hanging low and brushing her face in an unfurled mess. She looked up once she reached the top. At the other end of the hall was Adagio's room. The doorknob was already set to the locked position.
Meaning she wouldn't get anywhere with her.
She looked at Sonata's door, just parallel to her own room.
She walked in front of it and inspected the lock.
Horizontal, she could enter as she pleased.
She pressed an ear against the door, wanting to hear if Sonata was sharing similar results.
Nothing.
She decided to knock, despite the door already being unlocked.
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
"Hey... Sonata? You mind if I come in?" she asked.
...
No response
Aria sighed impatiently. She knocked another few times. "Alright, Nata. I'm respecting your privacy by knocking, but asserting my authority as your older sister, I'm coming in anyway," she warned.
She twisted the knob and stepped inside.
Pitch black.
The blinds were closed and no light seemed to enter from the hall.
She could just barely make out the outline of Sonata's bed, and laying face down on it was Sonata. She was breathing, but her face was being covered up by a pillow.
"Hey..." Aria said awkwardly. "How you doing...?"
No response.
Aria slowly approached her bed. "Uh... yeah..." she said as she sat down beside her. "Hmm... Look.... I know things seem crappy-"
"Hmph!" a muffled voice from the pillow said.
"... Okay, really crappy," Aria corrected. Was she doing a good job? Is this how, 'i]comforting,' works? "But... we've been through worse, right?" she asked, hoping it'd sound rhetoric.
"Ut ack en e ad our agic..." Sonata said; voice muffled by the pillow.
"Yeah... but... uh...?" Aria drew a blank.
'I am really bad at this...'
"But, uh... we-"
"E aht?" Sonata interrupted. Aria heard a sniffle next.
"We always had each other," she answered, there was little confidence in her voice.
Sonata gave a second harrumph.
"Well, it's true!" Aria defended. "We've lived through countless battles from these idiots, remember?"
"ut it oesn't ount ehn e tarted it..." she muttered.
"Yeah... but still," Aria started. "Least those stupid Rainbooms didn't take us away from each other, right?"
"..."
Aria groaned. "Alright, screw it! If that won't cheer you up, I'm just gonna try something else that's stupid."
"Aht?"
"Hey, Sonata?" Aria asked.
"Aht?"
"Why so... anglry?"
"..." Sonata shuffled in her spot slightly. But she still had her face inside the pillow. "Ou're ust saying ad okes?"
"Whale obviously!" Aria continued
"Why?"
"Well you don't gotta be a... brain sturgeon to come up with fish puns...."
"Aria, stop," she seemed to lift herself up a little from the pillow.
"What? Oh, I'm... saury, was that... tunutch for you?"
"Aria, please."
"I can't... kelp it, now can I?"
Sonata was no longer laying flat on her stomach, she was now sitting beside Aria, but looking down at the ground. Leaning down, Aria could see her face was shining a little with tears and that she was fighting back a smile. Any minute now.
"Come on, Sonata! Don't be... orcward, join in, you'll be... fin," Aria continued. She had a certain tone to her face that gave her a more jovial outlook in her voice than her standard demeanor.
"..." Sonata was puffing her cheeks, holding in whatever air she could.
"Got something to say, Nata?" Aria asked, nudging her side. "What's wrong? Catfish got your tongue?"
Sonata was breathing heavily through her nose, trying not to let any air pass through her mouth, knowing they would pass off as a laugh and only force her to laugh more. She shuddered slightly every now and again with a quivering breath.
"Hey, Sonata?" Aria asked, a maniac grin plastered in place. "How does a seahorse get around?"
"H-How?" Sonata heaved holding back her smile, it looked slightly painful.
"They... scallop," Aria finished.
Sonata finally let loose, keeling over and looking down. She began laughing, but... how exactly do you define this form of laughing? She was laughing, but? It also came out as garbled sobs. It was actually disconcerting to Aria's perspective. When Sonata straightened herself back. Aria saw that her knees were wet with tears.
Her breath was still quivering, but she had a smile as she did so.
"Oh the hu-manatee..." Sonata mumbled.
Aria felt slightly concerned, but pushed it aside to try and play along. She was nodding her head with a look of consideration. "Not bad... Cod to better."
"These fish puns are... kraken me up!"
"If you can think of a better one, let... minnow."
"Whale, whale, whale, looks like we got a smart-alek ."
"That was... inkcredible."
The prattling continued like this for some time. The jokes, if you dare call them that, descending in quality and effectiveness.
Eventually the two just found themselves staring forward at the door with a smile on both their faces.
Sonata broke the silence.
"It was my fault... wasn't it?" she asked, her half-smile slowly draining away.
"What?"
"I went too hard on you, didn't I? You got tired from a lack of sleep a-and-"
"Sonata, it wasn't your fault," Aria assured, letting an arm rest on her back. "And besides, we don't need sleep, remember?"
"Oh yeah..."
"And besides; I started the damn thing, remember?"
"Right... but still. I shouldn't have-"
"Will you cut it out with that? If I hadn't started that stupid war, everything would've turned out the exact same, and you'd be finding an entirely different dumb reason to blame yourself," Aria said.
"Yeah, but-"
"Stop with the buts. You're starting to sound like a broken record," Aria said. "It wasn't your fault, and that's that, got it?"
"...Yeah," Sonata glumly agreed.
"Good... now that that's out of the way...uh..." Aria had drawn a second blank.
"We won't... we won't go home now, right?" Sonata asked.
...
The realization hit her like a truck at full force. She seemed stunned for a second, letting the sick fact that this horrible world.
Would also be their tomb.
"I... I guess so..." was all she could say.
She could hear Sonata starting to sniffle again.
"Hey! Don't you go crying again!"
She appeared to be trying to choke back a sob now.
Aria sighed. "Look... I wasn't just saying it... when I said that I was glad we still had each other," Aria said. "I meant every word of that."
Sonata wasn't saying anything, but she just kept holding something back and was staring at the ground. She looked to be shivering.
"You remember a couple years back... how you promised me you wouldn't leave us?" Aria asked.
"Y-Yeah...?"
"Promise me again..."
"W-What?"
"I want you to promise me you won't leave us to ourselves;" Aria clarified.
"W-Why would I d-do that?" Sonata was trying her hardest not to start bawling again, but her breath kept catching in her throat, forcing her to stutter.
"Well... you don't really have a reason to stick with us anymore..." Aria began. "Heck! It's probably for the better if we split up-"
"Y-You're not g-gonna do that, a-are you?" Sonata asked desperately, quickly turning to face her.
"I'm asking you, remember?" Aria mocked halfheartedly.
She was suddenly pushed back as a set of arms wrapped around her and a head started to cry into her shoulder.
"I promise!" a muffled voice shouted, followed shortly by uncontrollable sobbing.
Aria gave a brief look of annoyance at the unexpected and unwanted physical contact. But returned the hug despite it.
"That's... that's good to hear," she said.
Aria went quiet. The only sounds being that of her own breathing, and Sonata's sniveling. She closed her eyes to allow a moment of peace.
"I-I feel like I-I'm being strangled by a b-boa constrictor..."
Aria pulled herself away awkwardly. "Sorry! I didn't know I was hu-"
Sonata was staring at her, appearing to well up again. "Why'd you stop!?"
"Uh!? Sorry?" Aria put her arms back around Sonata.
...
Aria was waiting for a sign on when to let go.
...
Seems like she'd be here a while...
Sonata had quieted down, but she was still awake, otherwise Aria could put her down without resistance. And every time she made a move that even implied she was going to let go of her, Sonata would give off a small, high pitched whine.
She held on for a while longer until she felt another pair of arms wrap around them. Nearly scared the skin off her.
She heard a deep sigh, and then a hoarse and patient voice.
"You two are idiots..." another sigh quickly followed. "But you're my idiots... and I love you."
This was... honestly not what Aria was expecting. She was expecting a bit more screaming and insults with an array of curses thrown in the mix.
Not like she was complaining.
This embrace continued for another second or two before Adagio had to withdraw. She was silent for a moment before speaking again.
"Come on, let's go celebrate," she said.
"Celebrate?"
"C-Celebrate?"
She seemed to realize what she said a tad too late and quickly corrected herself. "Right. Let me put it into words you two can understand," she began. "We're gonna go get drunk off our tits, and forget this night ever happened," she explained. "Join me in the living room when you two are ready..." she walked out and they could hear her descending the steps.
Sonata had stopped crying altogether now. But she still held on to Aria for dear life. Aria let her continue this for another minute before giving a quick signal that they needed to go.
Sonata reluctantly let go, allowing Aria to stand. She gave a quick motion for Sonata to follow her down.
Going down the steps, they entered the living room in silence. They saw Adagio sitting by the dining table with a patient but solemn expression. She gave a brief smile before getting up and walking to the cabinets where they stored the alcohol. Normally they drank on celebratory nights after a good feast, or when they needed a quick pick me up.
Gonna need to empty the whole darn thing...
Adagio wrapped a hand around the top cupboards handle before opening it gently.
She suddenly jumped back giving a pained and soft sounding shriek, followed shortly by a, sadly louder, hiss. A dark black splotch crawled down the shelf and jumped to the floor. It seemed to scurry its way to Sonata before climbing up her leg.
Panting, but seemingly trying to control her breathing, Adagio was glaring daggers at Sonata. "I swear to god, Sonata!" she reproached hoarsely. "When are you going to put that thing down?"
Sonata puffed out her cheeks quickly. "His name is Bom! And he is a part of this family now!" she said assertively... or at least tried too.
"Part of my fur collection is what he'll be if you don't get rid of him..." Adagio seethed.
The two stared at each other for a moment, their brows only furrowing more and more. Aria was honesty worried they'd break into a fight, right now; that was the last thing they needed.
But then Adagio let out a quick snort through her nose and her body language relaxed. She smiled happily and she turned around to the cabinet. She reached a hand inside and pulled out a tall bottle. The glass was crafted in a beautiful leafy pattern that gave it the look of a round, freshwater blue, glass bouquet. On it was a little symbol that only they, and they themselves could read.
This thing would definitely give them the kick they needed. Not only that, but it also had a bit of sentimental value to them.
After all: they brought it from home.
Sitting back on the table, Adagio sat the bottle down and took off the stopper.
"Forgot the glasses..." she muttered before getting up and going back into the kitchen.
Aria and Sonata sat at the table, silent. Bom stared at the bottle with intrigue.
Adagio returned later with three tall glasses. She set them down and slid two of them to her sisters, keeping one for herself. She grabbed the bottle and titled it. Bluish yellow liquid poured into the glass, licking at the sides and slowly rising. It rose to about three fourths of the way before abruptly stopping.
She slid the bottle over to Aria who did the same.
After she was done, she passed the bottle over to Sonata who filled her glass.
Half of the bottle remained.
Adagio clasped her glass in one hand and raised it in a toast.
"To the lives we left behind," she announced.
"And the same we tried to reclaim," Aria and Sonata replied meekly.
"A-freaking-men," Aria mumbled before throwing her head back, allowing the drink to enter her throat. Moment she swallowed however, she started to cough it right back up. She was pounding a fist against her chest to try and cough any back out.
"You all right, lightweight?" Adagio teased. She was about to take a sip until Aria had her little episode.
"When did this stuff get so damn strong!?" she asked. Her throat was tearing from all the coughing.
Adagio seemed to consider this question for a moment. "I think we're gonna experience a, 'fresh body cleanse.'"
"What's that?" Sonata asked.
"We didn't need to eat human food back then, that was more a luxury. I guess without our magic, we're gonna have to eat and drink regular human food," Adagio explained.
"Human food!?" Aria faked a retching noise.
"It's not that bad..." Sonata chimed.
"I suppose this is the first thing we ever drank in... damn... I can't even remember how old we are..." Adagio looked away for a moment. She took a quick sip and lurched forward with the sudden punch. "Oh yeah! That's strong, alright..." she gave a brief chuckle. "Sonata?"
"Hmm?" she still hadn't taken a drink from hers yet.
"You keep track of our birthdays, right? You know how old we are?" Adagio asked.
"Sorry, I forgot them after we came to this world..." she answered sadly.
"That's alright... I guess we just gotta make new ones..."
"Why?"
"Remember what I said? We're gonna get drunk AND forget this night..." she let her words hang in the air for a second.
"I don't... oh..." Sonata looked down before finally taking a sip. Her shivers and a slight gag told the rest.
Aria caught on and simply shook her head slowly. She took a drink, her body rejecting the offensive material, but she managed to force it down.
"We're gonna need an excuse for this night, so I'll suppose today will be my, 'human,' birthday," Adagio said.
The other two just shook their head in disbelief. Didn't stop them from making their own, however.
"I... I want to have... April," Sonata said.
"April what?" Aria asked.
"The seventeenth?" she replied skeptically.
"Alright, sweet, I got Christmas," Aria said with a mocking tone.
"Hey, why do you get Christmas?" Sonata asked, suddenly feeling betrayed.
"Cause you didn't call it," she answered simply.
"Aww."
Adagio chuckles slightly at her sisters's antics.
A forlorn silence overtook the room. Sonata tried to make the best of it by offering Bom some of her drink. He took a quick lap of it and made a sputtering noise before spitting out the liquid. Aria gave an amused chuckle.
They continued to drink from their glasses. And since this is the first thing they'd ever had in their now... human bodies, they knew they'd be in for a hell of a hangover. Too bad they didn't care at this point. They finished their drinks, and soon after, the whole bottle.
They were drunk, they were laughing and guffawing about memories long since gone.
Like how Adagio had fallen for a man named Mighty Pen who only spoke in corny poetry lines such as. "Oh how the night Raven mourns!"
In her defense, she says she was just going through a phase.
Or Sonata's inability to understand sarcasm and modern metaphors.
In her defense, she preferred back when people were more to the point and just brutally honest.
Or how Aria was screaming like a little girl just last...
She had a good excuse...
Their smiles soon faded once they realized something. Out of all the memories they shared, they couldn't remember a single thing about Equestria...
All they had now was an empty bottle and the memories of the dark depths they grew to call home.
Its been too long...
"I guess... I guess there's no beating around the bush with this," Adagio said. She had a fake smile plastered on now. "Come on, let's finish this," she stood up and motioned for the two to follow.
They did so obediently and without any words to share, after all, they knew what was coming next.
####
They stood on top of the roof.
They weren't gonna jump, they may be stubborn, but they're not idiots.
They sat down, their legs dangling over the high drop, staring at the city below. The cars, moving along their merry way. They could see the school, although they chose not to acknowledge it.
"So how's this gonna work?" Aria asked, staring into the distance.
"We just... sing," Adagio replied.
"Wait, but I thought we can't anymore?" Sonata said, looking confused.
"No... we just try, and hope I guess," Adagio explained.
"Hope for what? We just don't explode?" Aria asked with a snarky smile.
"T-That won't happen... right?" Sonata asked with a slight bit of panic.
Adagio just smiled. "Hope we still have even just a... just a fragment of our magic."
"So it's just a shot in the dark?" Aria asked.
"Pretty much," said Adagio.
"Will it hurt?" Sonata asked.
"No... well, yes. But at the same time no," She said. "We'll get to see it all one more time, but... I don't think we'll feel anything," her voice lacked something. Her normal strength and confidence drained, replaced by something else. It sounded docile and meek.
"We'll still remember each other, right?" Sonata asked.
"Yeah, we will... but most of it will be just snippets... we'll remember the important bits, don't worry..." she reached a hand over and patted Sonata's back in a slight act of reassurance.
"We'll relive it all," Aria said.
"We'll laugh again, and we'll cry again," Sonata continued.
"One more time," Adagio finished.
"One more time," said Aria.
"One more time," Sonata said.
After that, all they could hear were the calm winds. It was freezing and they weren't wearing exactly appropriate attire for this kind of weather. But a cold is the least of their worries at the moment.
...
Aria suddenly clapped her hands together. "Alright! Are we gonna do this? Or are we gonna sit on the idea of it?"
"You're right..." Adagio muttered. "I guess... I suppose I'll start like good ol' times," she said. "We all remember how it goes right?" she asked looked at the two of them.
Aria leaned backwards, as well as Sonata. They made brief eye contact before signaling a nod to each other.
After a silent three seconds, the two began a... more than terrible harmonization.
They started to cough violently as their throats protested in response to this. They could definitely feel something tear.
Taking a moment to recollect themselves, they started again. It seemed to hurt more, but it lacked that surprise, so they continued.
Adagio listened for her cue, nothing major, just a slight dip in their tone. Although... maybe it passed already and she just didn't know, she couldn't tell.
She decided to just start and finish this.
From an outside perspective, you'd hear a garbled mess of tearing vocals and awful crescendos. It was as if they were trying an aria da capo with each other and no instruments, it was just downright horrid sounding. Even equatable to three individual cats being tortured, some might say! Whenever one of them would drop out, another took their verse. It was an unending cacophony. But there was a bright side. With every wrong note, a couple hundred years suddenly flashed before them. Something meaningful. It hurt them just singing. Pain wasn't something they had to worry about back then, at least extensively. But now... they'd honestly be surprised if they could ever speak again. And the song was meant to be sung gently. It was passed down to them, and here they were, butchering it.
They combined their voices for one verse, the tearing in their throats becoming unbearable.
The three went silent for a moment; tears were almost flowing down their cheeks like a stream. In those few verses, that had just relived almost their entire existence. All the pain they cause, all the laughs they shared, the sights they'd never see again. It was aching their minds. They were laughing, yet at the same time, crying. They weren't even aware of the metallic grey mist surrounding them and billowing the sides of the building. It appeared to be coming from them, from the very pores in their skin it was leaking out.
Now they just had to finish it.
They combined their voices for what would no doubted be their last time, 'singing.'
"OOOOoOohhh! Buckle down TOnight! You want to get away, forget it, baby! Got you in mY SIghts, they never go, they dON't ever learn! Hell for hEAvens sake! In just a moments time, yOU'll wonder why you'D evER look furTHER morE thaN you'VE goT, Cause, BABY, YOu, you had YOu and meeeeee!"
The mist suddenly stopped its movement as it retreated back to the source it came from, the three sisters. With it came a surge of new memories, artificial ones.
New lives, put together with less that important memories. In order to make room for these ones, it had to wipe away something else, something much closer. The sudden shock of having their past wiped away and being replaced with an entirely new life shot them backwards. they were all laying on their backs, facing the night sky. They were giggling among themselves, laying close in the cold wind, staring up into the night sky as if the stars were telling a real funny joke.
Before the last of their memories were wiped away, they got the feeling that they were the punchline.
Everything went dark.
####
A small light made cracks in her closed vision. It became unbearable. She opened her eyes, half-expecting the sun to be only a couple feet away from her.
Adagio opened her eyes to a cloudy morning with rays of sunlight piercing through.
She was leaning against an air-conditioning unit. Her head felt as if it was splitting open. If you cracked it open with an axe, that'd be a mercy. Her throat was very parched. It felt like sandpaper was rubbed on it through the night and then drenched in salt. Her eyes winced at the light entering her eyes. She averted her eyes from the offensive sun.
She saw that Sonata was sleeping on her lap, and sleeping on her head was Bom. She was sleeping soundlessly; peaceful.
She felt something leaning against her side. Turning her head slightly, she saw it was Aria, her head was leaning on Adagio's shoulder. She was having the same results as her younger sister. Maybe a little less with peaceful, though.
'Damn... what happened last night?' she wondered.
She didn't move, not wanting to disrupt their slumber, if they had what she had, no doubt they would curse her name for waking them up
'Oh yeah... it was my birthday yesterday,' she concluded. 'Heh... hell of a night.'
Her throat was more sore than it had ever been in her life. Wasn't actually sure what felt worse; the hangover, or the strep throat.
Here she was... a now twenty seven year old woman sleeping on the roof with her two younger sisters with the hangover to end all hangovers.
There are definitely worst things that could've happened, right?
Sonata began stirring in her lap, making small mewling noises. A bad dream during a hangover may as well be a kick in the head. That must be what the dream is. Adagio reacted by using her free arm and running it through Sonata's cold blue hair, the physical comfort provided the needed result of Sonata calming down.
"Shhh," Adagio cooed gently in a low voice. "You'll be alright, you can tough it out," she said.
She decided it would probably just be best to try and get some more sleep. Or at the very least as much as her body would permit.
Leaning her head back slightly so it could rest against the cold metal, she closed her eyes.
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Not sure if this is a happy ending or not yet, but at least it's not a miserable one.
Huzzah! My favorite Dazzlings story ain't over yet!
No crossover.
This was a really interesting idea for an ending, and a good compromise between happy and sad. It meant that they didn't have to spend the rest of their days wallowing in defeat, but also that they didn't have to make peace and become friends with those who defeated them. I wonder if physical relocation to a new city would have completed the new life idea, as it's potentially rendering them fairly helpless to be surrounded by those that might bear them grudges but not even be aware of it to watch out for. But I hadn't seen the sirens receiving this ending before, and I thought it worked pretty well.