After suffering defeat by the hands of the Rainbooms, Adagio, Sonata, and Aria need to get back on their feet.
Having been defeated by the Rainbooms, losing their dark powers, and even their ability to sing, the Dazzlings are all but happy with how Adagio's plan went. But, as they did when defeated before, they will brush themselves off and keep moving forward.. Now they have to continue living in this world, without their powers this time. As they go on, however, they will start to notice some changes amongst themselves, and realize just how this tragedy affected each of them.
- - - - Street Corner blocks away from Canterlot High - - - -
“Well, I certainly didn’t expect that to happen.” Aria muttered as she removed a splattered banana from her dress. She looked at the peel in disgust before tossing it to the ground. She saw Sonata Dusk, her outfit was stained with a multitude of colors from various fruits, and she was bent over, licking what looked like tomato off of her skirt. Aria rolled her eyes, turned away from her ditzy companion, back to the sad excuse of (what used to be) their confident leader, Adagio, sitting on the street corner.
“So, Adagio, you did think of what to do if we failed, right?” She held herself back from spitting, furious at the moment. The magic of the Rainbooms managed to overpower their spell, and shattered their gems, thus leaving them powerless. This should have normally been avoided with one of Adagio’s backup plans, but the lack of one left her spiteful.
Out of the three Sirens, Adagio was the smartest, and the other two knew that. They would leave the plan making to the leader, and follow whatever she decided, because the three of them had no power on their own. That, and Aria would never trust Sonata to come up with a plan.
Adagio just sat quietly on the sidewalk, holding her shattered pendant preciously, as if afraid to break it even more. Her eyes were glued to the shards, and she constantly examined them, trying to find some trace of the power that had already dissipated long ago.
“Adagio, it’s broken now. I don’t think it can still work.” Sonata walked over, having cleaned herself off from the food tossed at them as they fled Canterlot High. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with Adagio, and she probably wouldn’t figure it out, but she still worried.
“It has to work.” Adagio replied quietly. “What are we going to do without our powers?” She stood up quickly and gripped Sonata’s dress by the collar. “What is the point of going on if we don’t have our magic?!”
Aria got between them, pushing Adagio back. “We may not have our magic anymore, but that doesn’t mean we just give up, Adagio.” Sonata Dusk hid herself, gripping her shoulders and wide-eyed.
“Oh?” Adagio laughed suddenly. “Well, of course you would say something like that, Aria! After all of these years of me telling you idiots not to give up, dragging you through this meaningless life for our one chance, you are the one telling me to keep going after we blew it!”
“I’m not that stupid! I understand we don’t have powers anymore.” Aria huffed and crossed her arms, looking away down the street. “But you’re Adagio Dazzle. No matter what happened, you always had a backup. That’s why I can’t believe you are throwing in the towel.”
Adagio pointed a finger accusingly at Aria. “We had regained our power we lost after being banished from Equestria, maybe even more than we had before, and we still lost to theirs. I didn’t need a backup plan, we should have won that duel.” She clenched her fist, glaring now. “In fact, the more I think about it, the only reason we could have lost is if one of us didn’t give our all.”
Aria threw her arms down and stared Adagio in the eye, stepping closer. “What are you saying, then?”
A grin began to creep past her frown, and she placed a finger under Aria’s chin. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? You brought us all down because you were overconfident! You didn’t give your all because you thought we would win. That’s exactly why we were bested by that old fart of a Unicorn-” *Smack*
She was cut off by Aria smacking the side of her face.
The sound echoed down the road, and both girls were still for a long time. Adagio, stunned, brought a hand to her cheek. She couldn’t recall a time she had been stricken like that, let alone by one of those two. Standing straight, Adagio fell silent, lowering her head.
“Ah, oh, uh, Aria! You hit her!” Sonata took a step back, in shock, and put her hands over her mouth.
Ignoring Sonata’s reaction, Aria turned away and began walking down the sidewalk. “Come on, Sonata. We’re gonna give Adagio some time.” Nodding, she began trailing behind.
Brushing one of her pigtails away, she yelled back “See you at home when you calm down!”
Sonata Dusk looked back, hoping that Adagio would be following, but she just stood there, with her hand against her cheek. She pouted, looking back forward, and hung her head as she followed Aria. Sonata rubbed her eyes as they began to water, sniffling softly.
“Why didn’t it work?” Sonata muttered quietly.
- - - - Home - - - -
Aria Blaze kicked open the door to the apartment hard, making an angry slam against the wall. Sonata Dusk turned on the lights, and made a comment about how that hurts the wall, like she always did, but there was no retort insulting her this time.
The living room failed to provide the usual warm welcome, even with it’s vibrant color design, bright lighting, and smooth wood floors. Aria threw herself on the big red couch in the center, giving an angry huff, and pulled a hooded sweatshirt from the floor to drape over her. She had been holding together surprisingly well, but that feeling of dread was now creeping over her. They had been born Sirens with those powers, and had never thought they could be taken from her. In Equestria, their gems were a centerpiece to their bodies, part of them. But in this world, they came out to be a separate object, thus leaving them vulnerable, she mused.
Aria curled her legs up under the sweatshirt, wrapping her arms around them. Part of her was angry at Adagio (and at Sonata, but that wasn’t new), wishing she could just blame her for getting them into this. She was beginning to shake in uncertainty, knowing that wouldn’t fix anything. Seeing Adagio like that didn’t help her feel any better, being the leader of the Sirens, turning on them like that. Sure, they irritated each other all the time, but long ago they realized that they couldn’t survive without each other. They were tied together by fate, and needed the support of each other, whether singing or just getting by
The couch shifted suddenly, Sonata sitting herself next to Aria. She didn’t curl up in self-pity, and she stopped crying a while ago. So now, she was just sitting, hands on her knees, tapping her foot restlessly. Aria sometimes felt jealous of Sonata’s oblivious nature, unable to really dwell on mistakes for very long. That could have been one of the reasons she hated her, but she was still the worst.
“Aria, do you wanna play a game?” Sonata asked her suddenly, picking up a gaming controller. Aria realized she was still glaring at her, and shifted her eyes away.
“Sonata, after a night like this: Getting blasted by a giant rainbow of energy, losing our siren powers and getting yelled at by Adagio, you still want to play your stupid fighting games?” She let out a loud groan. “And you wonder why I think you’re the worst.” Aria turned into the couch, rolling into the crease between the cushions, hoping they would hide her from the world.
She felt a quick jab of a finger in her stomach, sending a jolt through her body. “C’mon! You know the first step is to try to ignore it for now.” Sonata let out a chuckle. “Besides, I’ll let you be Player 1.”
The first thing to do was ignore this tragedy and not let it ruin us. That’s what Aria had told Adagio and Sonata back on the first day of being banished. Even back then, she knew they would figure something out if they gave it some time to think about it.
“You’re the worst, you know that?” She sat up slowly, and grabbed a controller on the coffee table nearby. This wasn’t going to solve the problem, but it was better than dwelling on it until Adagio came back.
Sonata chuckled in response. “You are!”
- - - - Street corner blocks away from Canterlot High - - - -
The lights in the stores had all gone off by this time of night, and the street lights provided only a small break in the dark. The moon had been covered by the clouds, and a cold breeze whisked it’s way through the city. Adagio clung to her arms as the wind whisked past her back, chilling her suddenly. After recoiling, she looked over herself for the first time since the performance. Her beautiful, custom stage outfit was now stained in a large assortment of food, ranging from fruit to soda.
It was ruined, without any chance of recovering from this tragedy. Not just her dress, but her plan, her power. Adagio couldn’t take in everything that had occurred tonight. She planned everything perfectly: They started the conflict to feed from, got the Rainbooms to fight, feeding their magic to them, and fully regained their former power. Even that old Unicorn that defeated them before didn’t overpower them, he just managed to trick them, and banish them to this world. This time, they were utterly crushed, and their power paid the toll this time.
She could have handled another banishment, even just losing the magic they gained from Canterlot High. But this was an outcome Adagio could never predict. The three sisters, Adagio, Aria, Sonata, were an unstoppable force with their voices, blessed at birth to be unchallenged as long as they were together.
“Arrrgh!” Adagio let out all of her anger in a loud yell that echoed down the empty street, feeling her voice crack from the strain, which almost made her want to yell again. Her voice had always been beautiful, but now she was unable to hold a tune, she even sounded abrasive and just plain hideous.
“Ahh Ah ahh, Haa ahh.” her voice was weak, cracked, and nowhere near on tune. It was their favorite tune, the one they used for years to absorb the negativity they uprooted from people to feed themselves, and now she couldn’t even manage that. Adagio knew it wasn’t her, she had always been beyond talented with her voice, but now...
Clenching the gem shards tightly in a fist, Adagio growled again. They couldn’t be beat when they were together, so why were they? She wasn’t about to concede that the Rainbooms were stronger than them, than her. There was something wrong during that fight, and she knew that whatever it was, it cursed them to a true banishment, banished from their former selves.
A part of Adagio felt there was no longer a reason to keep going, there was no world that would adore her now, with no voice and spells broken. Still, she managed to suppress this thought of surrender with reason, and she forced herself to walk down the sidewalk, rubbing her arms from the cold. She would come up with a plan.
- - - - Home - - - -
“K.O.!”
“YES!” Sonata stood up, arms raised up high. “I win! My win! In your face, Aria!” She turned to give her a raspberry, pulling on one of her eyelids.
“Ugh! When did you get so much better than me?” Aria set her controller back on the table, crossed her legs and folded her arms. That was the fifth time in a row she had lost, and she was actually surprised. Aria spent most of her free time playing games, and seeing Sonata overtake her was a little hard to believe.. She supposed that since all Sonata plays is fighting games, being the least complex for her brain, it was only a matter of time until she got better.
A smile sneaked it’s way on Aria’s face, but only for a moment. “Sonata, I’m gonna go to bed. It’s way past when Adagio should have been back.”
Sonata looked confused for a moment, before turning to the clock on the wall. The hands read past midnight, and she jumped when she saw the time. “Oh no! Adagio is gonna yell at me for staying up so late!” Dropping her controller, she bolted for the hallway and disappeared into her room.
Aria blinked a few times in surprise. Surprised that Sonata was more worried about a rule Adagio set decades ago, than what she was going to do tomorrow having no magic powers. She picked up the remote and turned off the television, shut off the system, and laid flat against the couch to relax. Aria undid the bands holding her pigtails up, letting her long hair flow down the side of the couch, and curled her arms behind her head.
Despite what had just occurred a few hours ago, Aria was able to enjoy herself just now. She didn’t win, so she wasn’t going to let Sonata know that, it would encourage her to ask more often.
While Aria was staring at the ceiling, she heard the front door click open, followed by a close, and footsteps after. “Twelve thirty is a little late to stay out by yourself, Adagio.”
“I’m not in the mood to argue with you, Aria. Let’s just end the night in a truce, and not get on eachother’s nerves any more than we are.” The footsteps continued into the kitchen, and she heard a sound like glass being spilled onto the table.
“Sonata’s already over it, you know.”
A chuckle came in response. “Of course she is. That dunce could get hit by a truck, and she would brush it off like she tripped.” Her voice was soft, not crisp and harsh like she normally sounded when commenting on Sonata.
The two were silent for a while, both wanting to yell at the other, but maturely adhering to the truce. This kind of silence was new to them.
“So, by you coming home, I’m guessing you have an idea of our next move?” She asked with a shred of hope. Aria knew that if Adagio was thinking, she never came home until she finished. It was weird, but when she walked in the door, she always had them listen to her plans.
“Ha, I guess that’s what usually happens, doesn’t it?” Adagio was quiet again. “I’m going to bed.” Footsteps started leading toward the hall.
That response meant no, then.
“We can talk about all this in the morning. That’s what I’ve decided.” As she passed the couch, Adagio pushed Aria’s feet off of the couch. “Just because I’m not going to fight with you tonight, doesn’t mean you can put your shoes on the couch.”
Aria groaned loudly. “Why do you still care?”
“Because a dirty couch is the last thing I want to wake up to see in the morning.” With that, she slipped into her room at the end of the hall, and closed her door.
Glaring at the bedroom door, Aria stuck out her tongue at Adagio’s room. She kicked her high-heel boots off, and placed her feet back up, curling into a more comfortable position to sleep. She didn’t feel like going back to her room, and the couch felt like the most comfortable place in the world, at the moment. Giving a small yawn, Aria closed her eyes, and rolled onto her side.
A pair of loud chimes woke Aria Blaze from her sleep. It was just the door bell, but it sounded like the loudest gong in the city just rang on the other side of their front door. She sat up quickly, causing her head to swim and making her dizzy. Falling back onto the couch, she yelled out to whoever ruined her morning. “Coming!”
After a few moments of rubbing her eyes to get the haze away, Aria dragged herself unceremoniously to the door. The light coming in through the window indicated morning had come, and late morning at that. She just felt so tired after last night, Aria was surprised she wasn’t just ignoring the doorbell to keep sleeping. She opened the door, eyes barely open.
“Can I help you?” She grumbled to the stranger.
“Well, hello there, Aria Blaze! It looks like you had quite the night.” Standing at the door was an older man of dark skin and brown hair, wrinkled heavily on his face, and he was dressed in a nice brown suit. He gave Aria a look from head to toe. It was Filthy Rich, the landlord of the studio complex they lived in. He also owned a lot of other buildings, but Aria never really cared.
“Yeah, you could say that, Mr. Rich. Did you need something? Or is this just a friendly visit?”
“Oh, yes. I guess I should get straight to the point.” He straightened himself, pulling on his tie. “Well, you see. It’s about your rent situation. Now, I have been real nice to you girls for a long time, but I think we need to reestablish the living conditions.”
Aria let out a sigh, putting a hand to her face. A long time ago, the three of them had charmed Filthy into letting them stay here for free. So, having lost their powers, of course he would wake up and come barging in on them. “So, you would like us to start paying rent like everyone else?”
He nodded. “Yes ma’am. And that is at a rate of $1200 a month.” He held up a hand after Aria dropped her jaw. “Now, I know this is a sudden change for you ladies, so I am going to let you three go through this month no charge.”
“Couldn’t we work out a better deal? I mean, twelve hundred is a little high for us at the moment.”
“I’m sorry, dear, but that’s as low as I can go before I lose money on this space. That’s already lower than I charge the other residents, seeing as you ladies have been a lovely addition for so long. I’m sure if you cut back on the partying a little, you could make that rent no problem.” He made a gesture to Aria’s stained outfit, which she ended up sleeping in last night.
She closed the door slightly to cover herself. “Fine. I’ll let Adagio and Sonata know.”
“Sorry to bug you so sudden, but I hope you ladies understand.” Filthy Rich nodded, and smiled at her again. “Have a nice day, Aria.” He turned away as Aria closed the door.
After the door shut, Aria turned to put her back against it, and slid down to the floor. “Aagh! Why does everything have to suck at the same time!?” Their living condition hadn’t been on their minds in years, and just like that, it came to bite them in the butt. Aria didn’t like consequences, and she also didn’t like being told what to do by someone lower than her.
“Well, you really showed him, Aria.” She looked up to see Adagio, leaning against the wall opposite her, dressed in an oversize white t-shirt.
“Oh shove it Adagio. We can’t influence his mind anymore, so there wasn’t anything I could do.”
“You could have tried using your natural feminine charm. He’s still a male.” Adagio picked at one of her nails, her tone very matter-of-factly.
Aria huffed in response. “Looks like you’re back to your smarter-than-everyone self.”
She rolled her eyes. “And I’m so happy to see you back to hating everything. Looks like you weren’t too traumatized after all.”
“I don’t hate everything, Adagio, just you.”
“Oh, why do I still bother with you? We have no reason to be together anymore, but that doesn’t mean you should give me incentive to leave.”
“Where are you going, Adagio?” Sonata asked, suddenly right beside her. She was dressed in pink pony pajamas, and had her hair down, looking like she had a great night’s sleep.
Adagio pushed away from the wall, walking towards their kitchen. “Oh, you know. Thought I’d go and hang out with some friends.”
Sonata put a finger to her chin, confused. “But I thought we were your only friends. You always say how much you hate humans.”
“She doesn’t even think of you as a friend, Sonata.” Aria chimed in from the floor.
“She does too!” Sonata pouted in denial. “Why else does she go with me whenever I go to the pet store?”
“Because if I didn’t, you would get yourself kicked out for endangering the animals.” Adagio answered as she looked inside the refrigerator.
Sonata whined, remembering the last time she got “removed from the premises” for jumping into the puppy pen.
The trio were silent for a bit, and a tension built in the air. Aria stood up to head toward her room, pulling off her gloves. Sonata leaned against the wall, running her hands through her hair, trying to think of something to say that would stop the silence. Adagio was getting lost in thought as she stared at their nearly empty fridge.
Finally, Sonata Dusk took a deep breath. “Girls, I’m sorry.” Aria froze just outside her room, surprised Sonata apologized so randomly. Adagio’s train of thought derailed, and she slowly turned to look at Sonata, who looked to be afraid of something.
“Sorry for being so dumb?” Aria replied.
“No, not that. Just, last night.”
Adagio felt her hand clench into a fist, but told herself to keep calm until she finished what she had to say. After all, it was Sonata who she was listening to. Acting like she was guilty of something was unlike her, so this would probably lead into some stupid comment about food.
Taking a quick breath, she smiled. “What about last night? What could you have done?”
“Well, it’s about what you said to Aria. How one of us got overconfident ...” Her voice trailed off.
“You aren’t serious, are you Sonata? Adagio was just taking her anger out last night, you shouldn’t take it to heart.”
Sonata shook her head, sliding down to the floor. “No, Adagio was right. It’s my fault. Her plan was perfect, and she seemed so confident about it. After seeing her so convinced, I didn’t think we could lose either.”
Adagio wasn’t sure what to think for a moment. Thinking back to her rage and distress last night, what she just heard sounded just as good as a confession, good enough reason for her to take her vengeance on the trembling Sonata Dusk before her, though the logical side of her knew that it wasn’t that simple. She didn’t exactly know what caused their downfall, but she didn’t really believe one of those two actually did it. Still, this opened Adagio’s eyes a little, seeing how badly that affected her little sister.
“Ha, Sister.” Adagio laughed to herself. “I haven’t used that word to describe her in quite a while.”
After this spectacle, she decided she couldn’t just yell at her again, that energy would be needed later, no doubt. Adagio walked over to Sonata, kneeling and putting a hand on her head, getting a look of surprise from her.. “She’s right, Sonata. I didn’t mean it. But I’m glad that you told me that.”
Sonata tried to smile, but ended up crying. “You’re so nice, Adagio!” She shoved her head into Adagio’s chest, giving her a hug.
Adagio waited a second before hugging back, rolling her eyes and laughing quietly. Sonata was always odd and unpredictable, so she never really questioned what she did anymore.
Aria, however, felt very uncomfortable by this scene, and slid into her room quietly. Seeing Adagio like that came way out of left field. Not only did she not see it coming, but it felt just plain creepy. Sure, they just went through a traumatic time last night, but Aria had never seen Adagio be that calm with Sonata before. What was more likely to happen was Sonata to end up covered in whatever liquid happened to be in the fridge for saying she ruined Adagio’s life
Closing her door, Aria decided to change into some more comfortable clothes, as her current wear was beginning to stick to her uncomfortably.
Thirty minutes had passed, the girls had all gotten dressed for the day, wearing some of their regular clothes seeing as they didn’t plan on doing anything special today. Adagio had cooked some pancakes, much to the pleasure of Sonata, and leading Aria to complain that it wasn’t eggs. After the short banter with Sonata, she explained the new situation with Filthy Rich, and that their spells would have ended on a lot of people they have encountered throughout the years. Aria was lightly picking at her food, managing to go a while without instigating some argument, before Sonata started drowning her pancakes in syrup.
“You want some pancake with that syrup?”
“But I already have 3.”
“She means don’t use too much syrup.”
“But I like my syrup this way. Can you hand me the sugar?”
“You want MORE sweet stuff on them? Save something for the rest of us.”
“There’s still half a bag.”
“And it’ll be half a bag less when you’re done.”
“You two will be going hungry if you don’t quit the bickering.” Adagio interrupted. She held her fork pointed at Aria. “You hand her the sugar.” Then to Sonata. “You, only a little.”
The two complied, Aria rolling her eyes, and Sonata giving a joyful glee.
“Idiots.” Adagio muttered under her breath. Finishing her plate, she slid it to the side of her and folded her hands together, placing elbows on the table. “We need a plan.” The other two stopped with their food, looking at Adagio with full interest now. “Before, we were simply trapped in the human world. Now, we are trapped in the human world with no more Siren magic, thus making us no different than regular human girls.”
“Yeah, how are we going to get by without our spells and singing?” Aria asked, curious for the answer herself.
“Thinking over what we have learned about humans over the years, we all know that money is their necessity. A bane, if you would. Money is needed for everything we need: living, food, clothing, and at a steadily increasing rate as time goes on. We have managed to sneak past their flawed system with the help of our magic, but now that will not be an option.”
Adagio turned towards Aria. “Can you check what our balance is, currently?”
Aria paused for a moment, then pulled out her phone. She typed and flipped through her applications until she loaded their bank account. “We still have fifty thousand.”
Placing a hand to her chin, Adagio pondered that for a moment. “That’s a good cushion. I had always forgotten to pay attention to our funds, seeing as we earned most of our living through manipulating people. But it won’t last forever. We should find a more reliable strategy.”
Over the years, the Sirens had slowly acquired money from various sources, and ended up piling them in a bank account, since they rarely had need for it. Adagio said it was for a time when their magic failed them, and her planning ahead had indeed come in handy once again.
“Fwo mut sho-” Sonata swallowed her mouthful of pancake. “So, what should we do?”
Adagio sighed. “Well, it would be a long shot, but I suggest we work on finding a way to reclaim our magic. It's been a part of us for so long, there is no way it was completely destroyed. If we can find any clues, that would be the first step. Until then, we need to find some sort of short-term employment."
Sonata let out a squee of joy. “Oh! I’ve always wanted a job! But you always said it would be “Hard on my brain,” or whatever you always said to things like that.”
Aria smacked a hand to her forehead. “But a job is like, the worst. Why can’t we just pull one of those scams where we need money for school?”
“That’s not out of the question, we do look the part. But the requirements are currently having some form of education, and the only school close enough wouldn’t be too fond of us going back anytime soon.”
“I kinda liked it there. The kids were real nice, you know, when they weren’t totally under our spell and fighting with each other.” Sonata snorted and ran her hand through her hair.
“So, we can make our next plan getting a job, or Aria’s suggestion of getting a support payment every month. Do you have any ideas, Sonata?” She could already tell that any ideas to come from Sonata wouldn’t work, but anything helps at this point.
She put her hands together, a big smile on her face. “Well, I think we could try to find someone else we can charm into letting us live with them for free.”
“You mean, with our Siren powers?” Aria noted.
“Oh, yeah, right.” Sonata fell silent, with a look of disappointment.
“Though finding someone to live off of through other means is not a bad idea in itself, it’s very unlikely, so the answer is no. Aria, how is the Internet after last night?”
She puffed in surprise. “Believe it or not, but our little “scene” last night is all over the web. But because the audience was under our influence, no one managed to get any video of it, so that works in our favor.”
“And with no evidence, our names will fade away with time. Again...”
The three were silent for a while.
“Sonata, I have something I need you to do for us today.” Adagio suddenly said, pulling out a wallet from her back pocket.
Her eyes widened as Adagio revealed a $100 bill of money. She rarely got to handle that much money at one time, so she took it gently as if it were made of soft tissue.
“Collect our outfits from last night and get them dry-cleaned at the usual store. We had to spend a fortune ordering those, and I do NOT want them rotting away.”
“I’m on it, boss!” She stood up quickly, gave a salute, and proceeded to speed down the hallway. In just a few moments, Sonata was carrying a bundle of clothes and had donned her hooded sweatshirt and a pink skirt. The two just watched from the kitchen table as she zoomed out the door.
Aria turned back to Adagio, “Why do you care about the clothes? It’s not like we are gonna be performing again anytime ever.”
“You never know what could happen, Aria.” She smiled a bit, happy with herself. “Besides, it was meant as something for her to do, rather than something that needed to be done.”
- - - - A short while later, at Steam Press’s Dry Cleaners - - - -
Sonata Dusk felt so very bored. She gave them her clothes forever ago, and they still weren’t done. She wondered if they forgot about her clothes, or maybe she was supposed to talk to them to get them back. Steam Press said it would be a while, and maybe her “while” is longer than most people. Every time the clock ticked in the main room, it felt like it would take longer to tick again. She started to wonder why Adagio made her do something that was so boring, and by herself.
Sonata groaned involuntarily out of boredom, rocking back and forth in her chair.
“Sonata, dear. We go through this every time” A voice called out from the back room. A woman walked out, pale blue skin and white hair. “The fastest we can do these are an hour at a time, so the three dresses are going to be three hours.”
“Whaa? You never told me that!” She put her hands on her head. “How long have I been here?”
“Ten minutes.”
Groaning louder this time, she slumped forward in her chair, arms hanging down near her feet. Waiting was unbelievably boring, but Adagio entrusted her to doing this task, so she was going to complete it.
“Sonata, you always wait here. I’ve told you before that you can pick them up anytime as long as you-” *Ding-ding* The door to the shop opened, causing a little bell to ring. “Oh, hello Rarity! Good to see you again.”
Sonata didn’t pay attention to the new person walking in, too absorbed in how absolutely bored she was. “Good morning, Miss Press! I have quite an order today, we just had a big performance last night and- wa ha HA!”
The sudden shouting caused her to look up in surprise. In the doorway stood a white girl with a fancy hairstyle, dragging a rack of outfits with her. Sonata felt something familiar about her, but couldn’t put her finger on it.
“What are YOU doing here?”
“Uh oh.” Sonata remembered just who this girl was.
“What are YOU doing here?!” The girl shouted at Sonata, very surprised to see her, apparently.
“Is there a problem?” Steam Press held out her hands in worry, hoping that the two didn’t have some issue between them.
“Uh oh.” Was all Sonata said. She grabbed her sweatshirt and folded it on itself over her chest. “You’re the girl I took this sweatshirt from, aren’t you?” She remembered what Aria had said about people they had charmed breaking from their spells.
The purple-haired girl paused, confused at what Sonata asked her, and stood silent for a second. “What? No, I don’t even own one like that.”
“Oh good, ‘Cause I thought you were here to take it back.” Sonata smiled, leaning back in her chair in relief.
“Do you really not know...” She shook her head. “Whatever! What are you doing here?”
“Uh, hellooo? Getting my clothes cleaned? That’s what you do at a dry cleaners.” She shrugged, not sure what this girl wasn’t getting.
“Rarity, I’m sorry but she is a customer of mine. If you have a problem with Sonata, could you please leave it outside of my store? Let’s just get these handled first.” Steam Press motioned towards the dresses on the rolling clothes rack.
The girl named Rarity puffed her cheeks in frustration, and rolled her rack over to the counter, giving Sonata the strangest glare. As she finished placing her order, Sonata stopped watching her, seeing as she was just doing the exact same thing she had done (apparently only) ten minutes ago, and decided to go back to her staring.
Suddenly, Sonata saw someone sit next to her. She turned with intrigue to see Rarity sitting down, arms crossed and turned away from Sonata. She gave a humph, and appeared to be ignoring her. Not wanting to take this silent treatment, she mimicked the girl next to her, crossing her arms and giving a humph.
“What are you “humphing” about?” Rarity said, still facing away.
“I just don’t like being humphed at.”
“You have every right to be humphed at, after what happened.” She said in a very righteous fashion.
“Well, sorry for taking your sweatshirt.” Sonata apologized, almost sounding sarcastic. “I didn’t realize it made you that mad.” She was convinced that this was the same girl, and it was the only reason that some random person would be mad at her.
Rarity opened her mouth to retort, but stopped herself, realizing that this argument was starting to sound wrong. This was in fact the same Sonata Dusk, one of the trio of Sirens she and her friends had defeated last night. Yet she believed Rarity to be some other girl who’s sweatshirt she stole, even though Rarity already said otherwise. Her reaction left her feeling rather confused, with this blue-haired girl having no recollection of Rarity, and she wasn’t sure if she should be rightfully mad at her anymore.
“I’m sorry, but do you not remember me from last night?” Rarity looked at Sonata, and politely faced her.
Sonata poked one of her eyes open, and gave a shrug. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m Rarity. Rarity from the Rainbooms? We had a battle last night? You tried to take over the school with your singing? Is none of this ringing a bell?”
Sonata snapped her fingers, finally figuring it out. “Oh! You were the ones who destroyed our Siren magic!” She gave a smile, proud to remember that on her own, then realized that the girl sitting next to her was part of the reason Adagio and Aria were so upset last night, and gave a glare to Rarity. “Oh. You destroyed our Siren magic.”
Rarity suddenly felt like she was put on the defensive, and stuttered before replying. “Only because you planned on using the students as your personal slaves!”
“Well, yeah! That’s how we survive! We Sirens need conflict in order to feed our powers. All we wanted was for everyone to adore us unconditionally.” She shrugged again, knowing that this girl was not going to understand even that simple explanation.
Rarity groaned in anger, and turned away again. She couldn’t believe that this was the same power-hungry villain from last night.
“So, what are you waiting here for?” Sonata asked suddenly. She placed her hands under her bottom, and started kicking her legs into the air.
Taking a second to realize that she had been asked a question, Rarity straightened herself. “Well... I’m just getting our outfits from last night cleaned, and picking up an order I left a while ago.”
“Hey! I’m doing that too! You’d be surprised how many food stains were on Aria’s outfit.” She snickered, remembering that Aria had slept in that last night.
“Uh, I can imagine.” Rarity remembered the sight of them last night, powerless and singing one last time before getting jeered off the stage, food being tossed at them. Could this really have been the same girl?
“Hey!” A thought had just occurred to Sonata. “Adagio said I shouldn’t be talking to strangers, but since you’re my biggest enemy, does that make you a stranger?” She placed a hand on her chin, deeply contemplating this query. “I suppose not, since we know each other. Sweet! I didn’t want to get in trouble again.”
“Do you normally get in trouble for that?” Rarity suddenly felt an interest in Sonata. She told herself she shouldn’t be giving her the time of day, but she didn’t look like she was doing anything wrong.
“Oh yeah. Adagio always punishes me whenever I go and say something stupid to regular people, like how we are magical creatures from Equestria.” She waved her hands in front of her to mimic having claws, before putting them over her mouth, realizing that she just said something she could get in trouble for.
Rarity could feel herself conflicting on her insides. After the show last night, she was rather proud of herself, and her friends, but now a part of her felt terrible. At the time, she didn’t give it any thought, that they were just villains that needed to be defeated, so seeing Sonata walking around like nothing happened was leaving a bad taste in her mouth.
“Rarity! I have your dresses ready!” Steam Press came out with an armful of dresses wrapped in the plastic coverings, each different than the ones she just turned in to get cleaned. “I’ll see you next week then?” She asked politely.
“As always.” Rarity replied, and went to leave before looking back at Sonata, who now looked like she was scolding herself. “Is she going to be alright?” Rarity whispered quietly.
“Oh, I think so.” She whispered back, with a quiet chuckle. “She always waits here like this.”
“Always waits here? As in, she has done this for a while?”
“That’s right. She and her sisters have been regulars for around three years now. I think that’s longer than you.” She raised an eyebrow to Rarity, who turned away sheepishly.
“Sisters?” Rarity muttered quietly, thinking to herself. She nodded to Steam Press. “Well, thank you again!” With that, Rarity turned and hurried out the door, making the bell ring again.
Steam Press looked back at Sonata, who was currently knocking herself on the head with her knuckle, saying some sort of curse under her breath. She laughed to herself, and returned to the room behind the counter.
- - - - Home - - - -
“Listen to the sound of my voice. Soon you’ll find you don’t have a choice!”
Her voice dried out on the last word. It was no use. Adagio pounded a fist against her wall, frustrated how her voice refused to hit any notes. If it was a separate entity, she would be strangling its neck by now. She couldn’t understand why this had happened, they had always been talented at singing, it was their purpose, for crying out loud. Was their magic really the only thing that made them special? After the other two left, Adagio had started practicing singing, something she hadn’t done in countless years. At first, she started horribly off key, and dry of any passion.
“I miss it already.” She said to no one. Adagio missed her voice. Her beautiful, smooth, relaxing singing voice had been replaced with a dry piece of sandpaper that hurt every time she tried to stretch it. Feeling weighed down by this dread, she sat back down on her bed, curling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them.
She started to wonder why she kept going. Her reason for living, as she believed, was gone now, and she was the only one in the world who seemed to care. Sonata was so stupid, of course she didn’t realize how bad this was. Aria seemed just as unfazed, though with her it was just a matter of time before she approached her with her own problems.
Adagio couldn’t be like that. Singing was her passion, she thrived on people listening to her voice. Even if she was just hypnotizing them, they wholeheartedly loved listening to her during those times. Aria could distract herself with the human video games, and Sonata just forgot about her problems, usually leaving Adagio alone with her’s.
One more time, she thought to herself.
- - - - Supermarket - - - -
“Ugh, why do I have to get stuck with grocery duty?” Aria grumbled as she shuffled through the aisles of the store. “Adagio knows I hate going out on my own. Ugh, this is the worst.”
Adagio had decided that they were going to spend some time closed in, so they needed to gather some supplies to make it for the next few days without leaving the house. Sonata left to clean their outfits, and Adagio charged Aria to gather food She stuck her nose back into the list of things Adagio made her get. It looked like she got just about everything, except for the last item: pine nuts. She had paced through the nut section multiple times, with no sign of them anywhere.
“Why are these so hard to find?!” She shouted, not realizing that she stood in the middle of a market, causing a few people to stop and stare at her, their looks feeling judgmental. Aria set her basket down and started to pull her hood back up.
“Can I help you find something?” A voice came from behind her.
Aria whirled around quickly, turning to see a young man standing there. He had pale skin, with light brown hair, wearing glasses and had a bit of facial acne that he didn’t seem to notice. He was dressed in a red shirt, black pants, and had a button on his shirt that indicated he worked at the market, seemingly ready to help.
Recollecting herself, Aria just waved him off. “No, I’m fine.”
“I don’t want to be rude, Miss, but if you need help to find what you need, it is my job to assist.”
Aria started turning away, but the fact that she still didn’t even know where that last item was returned to her. She couldn’t just wander around for hours and never find it. Well, she could, but that sounded like the worst plan she could come up with. She groaned, and held up her list up to him.
“I need to find these.” The man took the list from her hand, and Aria removed her hood, allowing her pigtails to fall back down again.
“Ah, I see. Those are a little hard to find. Sometimes, they drive people nutty.” He laughed a little, handing her back the list. She didn’t appear to be amused, so he just pointed to the far end of the store. “They are actually over in the end aisle. I’ll show you there.”
The man waved to her and proceeded to make his way down the store. Aria decided to follow, even though she didn’t want his help. Picking up her basket, she knew she had little choice if she wanted to finish this stupid little field trip quickly.
As they passed the aisles, Aria started to actually look around, take notice of just how many shelves there were, and how many lights suspended above them to light the whole store so bright. Thinking about it, she couldn’t remember the last time she went into a grocery store by herself. Either Adagio would go alone, or the three of them would go together, but Sonata and herself had never done this alone before. It was a little unsettling, being in the cold building surrounded by so many strangers who she no longer had power over.
Before she knew it, the store worker had led her to an aisle that read “Pasta/sauce”. He skimmed over some cabinet shelves for a moment, before pulling one of the jars out, one that was between two different types of pasta sauce.
“Why are they way over here?” She muttered quietly, making a note to bring this up with Adagio when she got home.
“Here you are, Miss.” He handed her the jar, giving her a polite nod. “I know the placement is a bit weird, but this is where we usually keep them.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Aria rolled her eyes and started making her way towards the check out station.
The times they went to the market were the few exceptions to when they literally couldn’t sing their way out the door. It was quite a few years ago when grocery stores started using alarms at their doors to detect if someone hadn’t paid for their items, and that grew old fast for the Sirens. So, Adagio concluded that stores were an exception to when they would not try to sway the employees into letting them walk out. She made her way to a lane to pay for her groceries, and quickly retreated to the warm outside.
Having carefully navigated the roads to get here, the reverse now had to be done, but this time with far more people walking along the sidewalk. Giving another groan, Aria merged into the traffic of bodies, holding her bags in front of her, so that they weren’t bashed by a passerby.
It was hard to imagine that this is what regular humans do, all day every day. She had walked around plenty of times, sure, but it was always better to do your business early in the morning or late in evening. The afternoon of Saturday is one of the busiest times of day in the city.
After making her way down a few blocks, Aria started to feel a bit less lost in the crowd, matching the pace of her group as to not run into anyone. She had a look of worry on her face, unlike her typical scowl or irritable frown, and kept her eyes to the ground if she didn’t need to make a turn or cross a street.
They only lived a short ways away, which was a relief that she only had to walk a few minutes before she reached the staircase leading to their studio complex. She started up the stairs, and hurried her way up to the third floor, almost happy to see the front door. She kicked open the door, banging it against the wall.
“About time.” Aria groaned as she dragged her bags into the kitchen and dropped them on the table. The cans and bags spilled across the table top, making a loud crashing noise.
Aria didn’t mind a crowd if they were admiring her, but how humans move in herds like that on a regular basis, that was just unnerving. She would have preferred to make that expedition with Adagio, but she said she was doing her own preparations for their refuge.
“It sounds like a car crashed through here. I’m going to guess you are home, Aria?!” Adagio’s voice rang out from down the hallway.
“I’m home!” Aria replied snidely, trying to organize their groceries. Adagio always wanted them to greet each other when they got home, and she made them do it every time one of them went out on their own. She could never understand what Adagio got out of it, but it was an annoying habit they had done for years now. Aria heard Adagio come up from behind.
“See, now that wasn’t that bad, was it?”
“If you don’t count running around for ten minutes, trying to find some rare nuts bad, then sure. I had a great time.” She didn’t bother holding back on the sarcasm.
Adagio came over to help her sort and put away their things. “Oh, don’t be such a baby, Aria. We needed to prepare, and it’s better if we split up, than do one thing at a time.”
“it’s not that I hated shopping, Adagio.” She paused, as if thinking of what to say. “It’s just that ... people do that all the time. They aren’t afraid that they lack power over everyone else, and just keep going like cogs in a machine ...” Aria trailed off, staring intently at the can she was holding.
“Well, that’s how civilizations work, you know. The smaller creatures need to work together to build up their lives as a whole.” Adagio gently took the can from Aria’s hand to put it away in the pantry.
“But, after all this time, is that what we have to resort to?” Aria put her hands on the table, leaning forward. “I mean, we were born with a destiny to rule over Equestria, and have every creature adore us forever. You kept saying: “When we get back, we’ll take what’s ours.” as if there was a way to go back to our old lives.” She clenched her hands and began to shake slightly.
Adagio watched her intently, realizing that this was the moment she was waiting for from her. She let out a sigh and walked over to Aria, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“But, every year we spent banished here, I wondered more and more if we even could go back. I felt my dream of being loved be crushed more as time went on, but you kept saying “when” instead of “if”, and I believed there was a way. That’s why this is so hard right now.” She closed her eyes, not wanting to shed any tears. Aria hated crying, least of all in front of Adagio. She did her best to close herself off most of the time, but this was her breaking point.
“I had always believed there was a way, and that’s why I said that. I believed, and wanted you two as well. I couldn’t do it on my own.” Adagio looked at the door briefly. “You might want to get this out now before Sonata gets home.”
The two hugged, Adagio patting her sister’s head. Aria cried a little, quietly, and was angry at herself for doing so, but glad that Adagio would show her the same sympathies she showed Sonata this morning.
“You know. When my time comes, I’m counting on you two to give me the same treatment.” Adagio chuckled a little. “It’s no fair if I don’t have a shoulder to cry on.”
- - - - A short time later - - - -
Sonata emerged victorious into the apartment, carrying three dresses. She stood dramatically in the doorway for a few moments, a proud grin on her face.
“Do you wanna shut the door already?” Aria interrupted her moment of pride. Sonata looked around, noticing Aria sitting in her corner chair, leaning against the armrest and playing on her phone, and Adagio holding the television remote, in the middle of switching the channel. The two of them stared at her expectantly.
“I’m home!”
“We got that part, Sonata. Now just shut the door, and put those clothes back in our closet.” Adagio went back to the television.
Sonata shut the door with less energy than she opened it, seeing that her sisters were not as excited to see her, as she was them, and made her way slowly to the hall closet. It was almost as large as another room, but was filled up with three racks to hold clothing. Sonata hooked their newly cleaned outfits on their respective racks: One on Adagio’s, one for Aria, and the last on her rack. She smiled as she finished, happy of their placement, and returned to the living room.
Adagio and Aria were sitting in silence as Sonata skipped in, kicked off her shoes against the side of the couch, and planted herself right next to Adagio.
“So the people at the dry cleaners took forever to finish the clothes. They made me wait-”
“3 hours?” Aria chipped in.
“Uh, yeah! How did you know that, Aria?”
“Because dry cleaners take longer for your orders, Sonata.”
“Why just me?”
“Because you’re the worst.” She looked at Sonata with disappointment.
“Well, you’re purple!” Sonata stuck her tongue out in response.
“That’s not even an insult, stupid.” Aria turned her phone off so she could sit up to argue.
“Quiet down you two!” Adagio cut in finally. “I can barely hear the television anymore. I don’t know how I could handle you two before this, you’re practically children!”
“Well, Aria starts it! It isn’t my fault she hates everything.”
“You cause it, Sonata! If you weren’t the worst, I wouldn’t have a problem with you!”
“Girls!” Adagio stood up, shutting off her show. “I’ve put up with your constant little bickering for years, and it’s seriously driving me insane.” The girls turned away from each other.
“Aria! Sonata got home just two minutes ago, and you already had to pick a fight with her about how long she was waiting. I don’t care what’s going through your mind with her, but could you seriously lay off hassling her for just a few days?After we are done hiding ourselves away, you can go back to your arguments.”
Sonata started to giggle at Aria for being scolded, when Adagio’s finger pointed towards her.
“And you, Sonata! I don’t want you to argue with Aria either. It doesn’t matter what she says, don’t do it.”
“Okay... I’m sorry Adagio.” Sonata turned to the floor, with a pitiful expression on her face. She knew that she was in serious trouble from Adagio’s tone.
“Now, what do you say, Aria?” She turned to face Aria, who was back to laying on the armrest of her chair, crossing her arms.
“Whatever, sorry!” With a humph, she turned in towards the cushion.
Letting out a sigh, Adagio let herself be calmed. Sure, she wanted the three of them to go back to a more normal way of living, but anything but this kind of normal. The bickering of those two made her feel like she was their adopted mother instead of a sister sometimes. Adagio could never figure out what Aria had against Sonata, but it was a conflict almost as old as they were, which said something.
“Good, now that’s settled. We start our little retreat today girls, hoping that keeping our faces off the streets for a few days will help keep the rumors down. If we’re lucky, we won’t have to skip town again.” She walked over to their big window that overlooked the city, pulling down the blinds to close them off from the outside world.
Adagio couldn’t actually sleep tonight, deep in thought over everything going on lately. She was kept awake by her mind racing over all of her various worries, so she decided to go out into the living room to watch late night shows. In the dark room, lit only by the TV screen, she sat in her usual sleep attire of a large shirt, which felt four times her size. Like all of those shirts of hers, she can’t remember exactly where she got them, but had owned them for years, and they were the most comfortable apparel for late night anyway
Though she always hated humans, being naturally lesser beings than her, Adagio had to admit that the wacky things they come up with for entertainment was enough to soften the blows that life threw at her occasionally. Especially late at night, their drama series helped distract herself from anything she didn’t want to be mad at. She usually never spent much time on the television , thinking if she had time to waste, she would rather be feasting on negativity to feed her power.
Now Adagio could no longer do that, and she remembered how pitiful she felt, a creeping of dread making it’s way through her mind. Taking a deep breath to relax, she had to remember what Aria had proposed about ignoring the problem for now, and returned her attention the the show, where the main character was about to expose his wife of cheating on him.
She laughed internally at how cheesy these shows were. After watching them for decades, Adagio could predict every plot twist at this point, which confused her sisters as to why she even still watched them. She had explained, well, tried to explain to Sonata, that watching them do such foolish things was the entertainment value for her. Something about creatures being in conflict always comforted her, even if she couldn’t steal it through the television.
A soft scuttling came from the hallway, making Adagio turn away to see one of her sisters standing there. After adjusting from the brightness, she could make out Sonata in her brightly colored pajamas, rubbing her eyes, and holding one of her bear animals.
“Adagio,” Sonata yawned. “I had a bad dream.”
Adagio rolled her eyes, having forgotten why she didn’t like coming out here late at night. For some reason, whenever she did, Sonata usually came out because of some childish reason. She was over one thousand years old, so it was a little annoying how she still had nightmares and silly things like that.
Still, Adagio responded as she always did in these situations. “What was it about, Sonata?” She patted the couch seat next to her, inviting her over.
Sonata walked over to the couch, plopping onto it next to her sister. “Well, I was being chased by a giant robot. It had these big red eyes and giant pinchers for hands.” She held out her hands and clamped them like a crab to give an example.
That identified the low-budget horror movie Sonata insisted on watching earlier that night, despite the warnings from her and Aria. Adagio leaned back on the couch, putting her arms on the back cushion. “I told you not to watch that movie. Those scary movies always freak you out.”
“I know...” Sonata started leaning over until she fell against Adagio’s side, snuggling against the couch and curling up.
Adagio was about to protest to being leaned on before giving in. There was no real harm in it, it just annoyed her. Despite how irritating Sonata could be at times, her naive attitude being a healthy balance from Aria’s vexation. Her childish nature gave Adagio some comfort, so she overlooked some of the stupid things she did on a regular basis.
“Can I stay out here with you Adagio?” Sonata looked up, and put on a pitiful expression, hoping her sister wouldn’t say no to that.
Groaning, Adagio rolled her eyes and reluctantly agreed. “But if you start snoring again, you’ll end up on the ground.” She poked a finger menacingly against Sonata’s nose.
Sonata agreed to that term, confident that she wouldn’t snore this time, and closed her eyes to go back to sleep, feeling much more safe than closed off in her room.
Turning back to her TV show, Adagio let herself go back to the mindless state where she ignored everything except what she was watching.
“I’m sorry, Debra, but I can’t stay with you knowing that you love my twin brother!”
“Jonathan!”
Terrible writing, honestly. Adagio saw through the twin brother scam, knowing that would lead to a climactic episode ever since he was introduced. Still, the overly exaggerated expression and emphasis on dialogue left it entertaining. She continued to watch the scene play out, waiting for the inevitable twist that resolved the whole conflict.
A loud sound suddenly came to her attention, something that sounded like someone gurgling golf balls. Her eyes opened wide as she looked around to find that weird bubbling sound. She looked down to Sonata, who had slid down to rest her head on Adagio’s lap, snoring away.
It had only been maybe five minutes, and she was already breaking her end of the deal of sleeping out here. She was tempted on actually following through with her threat, but decided she was too tired, and merely scowled at her sister.
Looking to the clock now, Adagio saw that it was almost four in the morning. She was surprised how quickly time went whenever she lounged about like this, and thought of going to bed for real ... After finishing this episode.
The main character was confronting his brother finally when Adagio passed out.
- - - Adagio jerked awake when she heard the sound of a camera shutter. She jumped a little, bouncing the head of Sonata, still asleep, then looked up to see Aria, taking a picture with her phone before putting it back in her pocket.
“Looks like you two had a real bonding moment last night,” Aria jested, giving Adagio a suspicious grin. “Can’t wait to show Sonata how much you loved her company.” She laughed, and kept laughing while Adagio tried to organize herself.
“Aria, It’s not like I haven’t caught you in any questionable situations,” Adagio said as she slowly freed herself from under Sonata. “Tell her about this one, and I’ll tell her about one of yours.” She gave a sneer and raised an eyebrow, waiting for a retort.
Aria just rolled her eyes, smile still on her face, and brushed a hand through her hair, which she still had flowing down her back. “Yeah yeah, whatever. Hope she didn’t drive you crazy.”
“You mean, with her horrific snoring?”
“I was gonna say atrocious.”
“Any synonym works for this, really.” The sisters laughed together for a short while, the room falling silent when they were done.
From the way the sun leaking light through the curtains, it appeared to be early morning, the sun having just risen, bringing a soft light into the room that made it feel rather peaceful. Adagio looked back at Sonata, who was still on the couch, and saw that she was now on her back, one arm and a leg hanging over the edge, and her mouth wide open, causing her snoring to worsen.
That was all that was needed to ruin the mood for Adagio, so she made her way to her room. “I’m going back to bed. I feel like I slept on a rock last night.”
Aria just shrugged, and went to make herself something to eat, ignoring the monstrous noises coming from Sonata.
- - - - The Next Day - - - -
Staying hidden away for a week wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Aria had wondered what she would do the whole time, until she got on the internet again, seeing so many different web comics and video series had updated dozens of times each. She usually only spent a small amount of time each day to view her various things, so she was never caught up with their current releases, and this time allowed her to get herself up to speed. Aria wouldn’t say that she liked humans as a whole, but the content that individual people made was entertaining enough to get her past the boredom.
With all the free time, she was also able to watch various media networks and keep up with any news about them, which was a downside to the humans since she could use their information services to avoid them. She always found herself praising the Creator of the World Wide Web, for allowing them such easy access to information that was unreachable for nearly a thousand years of being stuck in this stupid world.
Pulling away from her screen, Aria decided to look around her room again, stretching her arms and taking a big yawn. The walls were painted in a dark shade of purple, and she usually kept the curtains closed to keep the light out. She never felt much need to clean her room, so random bits of everything was scattered along her floor, shelves, and even a little on her bed. Adagio occasionally complained about it, but she didn’t ever need to come in, so Aria didn’t care.
Along the walls were a multitude of posters from different bands and musical groups. Over the years, the three had found a band or a singer who’s musical ability was actually worth noting. They were never able to compare to their talent, but even their voices couldn’t keep them satisfied all the time.
Thinking back to her voice, Aria held a hand over her throat, massaging it gently. She had never actually tried singing again, even though she knew it would be awful. Maybe the dread of hearing a horrible sound kept her from trying, but Aria never bothered to test it. Sonata had tried singing some horrible radio tune last night, before her voice almost broke their eardrums.
“That tone-deaf idiot,” Aria muttered to no one.
She swiveled her chair back to the desk, returning to the world that was the Wide Web. Everything she could possibly need could be found on here, and she didn’t have to leave the comfort of home. Adagio never really understood, or cared, about the magic that was the Internet, and Sonata never understood anything, so Aria was the sole user of it in the house, allowing the computer to be in her room.
She clicked onto one of the many links that helped her navigate through her collection of websites before her concentration was temporarily disturbed by a loud crash from the room next door.
- - - “Oh no! The castle gate has been breached,” Sonata shouted as her gate crumpled under the force of the battering ram.
Sonata’s room was a massive mess of figurines and structures. All along the floor, there were large groups of figurine soldiers laying down, having been defeated, and many broken buildings in a path to her bed. Platforms had been set up alongside the bed to allow the models to scale up to the bed top, where a large castle structure, about two feet tall, stood, surrounded by more solder figures.
Sonata Dusk was currently acting commander of the Kingdom troops, who were being assaulted by the Clan of Shadows. The Crystal Kingdom had their Castle established atop Bed Hill, and the incline had kept their enemies at bay for hours now, but the Clan had come prepared, and slowly made inched their way up the pass.
Their King, Sombra, had thrown every defense the Kingdom had at it’s disposal: Giant bunnies, fluffy bears, and even their renowned Crystal soldiers, adorned in crystal armor, but the Clan of Shadow’s forces were those alike apparitions, and merely turned into smoke when they died, only to reappear. The Shadows were after the great artifact that the royal family held sacred for generations: The Crystal Heart.
Sonata quickly replaced her military hat for a crown, and turned backwards. “What should we do, Commander? The Clan will descend upon the Treasury in a matter of minutes.” She lowered her tone, speaking as King Sombra.
Pivoting back, putting her commander hat back on, she spat in anger. “We mustn’t let the fiends take possession of the Crystal Heart! What about the Sealing Ritual?”
He paused briefly. “It would work, but the Sealing Ritual ... It would banish the entire Kingdom. I can’t bring this upon the people.”
“My Lord! The creatures have invaded our very keep! There is no sacrifice that would bring our Kingdom lower than it is now,” Commander Sonata pleaded with the King.
Sombra finally conceded. “Very well. We cannot allow evil to take control of it’s power.”
She reached into the castle, carefully grabbing the king figure, and moved it one floor down, to the chamber where the Crystal Heart lay dormant.
Standing back straight, she let out a sigh, hesitant to place her hand on the gemstone floating before her.. After a few moments, she reached down, and grabbed three shadow figures, and placed them next to the door that led to the chamber. Banging noises came from behind the door, a sign that the Shadows would soon be upon him. Sombra had no more time for hesitation, knowing that the Crystal Heart had to be kept out of evil’s grasp.
Placing his hand upon the gem, he began chanting an incantation.
- - - Adagio felt miserable. She thought that taking a nap would help with the painfully slow day, but she had slept in an awkward position, and that ended up with a painfully sore back. The irritation from being in pain caused a headache, making her swear to never nap again as she exited her room into the hallway.
She decided that she needed to get some medicine, and she might as well make some lunch, being too early to start dinner. Adagio wondered what the girls were up to, deciding to open the door to Sonata’s room to check on her.
Adagio was welcomed by the sight of a room in total disarray, figures scattered about on every surface, stuffed animals tossed about in random directions, and of Sonata, wearing a crown and cape, holding a large castle replica over her head, looking at Adagio in shock.
The two stood, frozen for a few moments, both unsure of what to say first. Sonata appeared to be in mid-swing of tossing the castle, but she couldn’t tell. Finally, it came back to her, exactly what Sonata was doing. Adagio put a hand to her head, feeling it throb again. “The battle for the Crystal Heart, right?”
Sonata gasped in delight. “Yeah!”
“And King Sombra just sealed the Crystal Kingdom away?” She pointed to the castle above Sonata’s head.
She nodded to confirm Adagio was correct. “Yep! I’m so glad you remember, Adagio.”
“No, I’m surprised YOU remember that battle so clearly. That was almost a thousand years ago, when we first arrived.” Adagio made a hand motion to put the castle down, and Sonata gently complied.
“It’s just so much fun to replay it again! I mean, we were in this one, after all.” Sonata proudly pointed to three figures on her bookshelf, all having a startling similarity to them in appearance.
Adagio decided to just let this slide. She had known her for countless years, and still had trouble figuring her out at times. Trying to fully understand Sonata just wasn’t worth the effort. “Well, I guess you’re keeping yourself busy. I’m making lunch, so come let me know if you want some when you’re done here.”
“Alrighty, Adagio!” Sonata picked up her castle again as Adagio shut the door.
Making her way back down the hallway, she thought of knocking on Aria’s door, but that usually upset her for some reason. Adagio was already upset, so bickering with Aria was one of the least exciting things she could do today. She just decided it would be best to make lunch for three, and she could have some later.
Adagio had made probably four steps down the hall when the house was filled with a loud crashing sound, which jarred the floor. Sonata probably scared the residents below them, but she had been doing this for years, so they better be used to it by now.
Aria quickly emerged from her seclusion, much to the surprise of Adagio. She had a look of terror in her eyes, mixed with some anger. “Can you tell Sonata to stop?”
“Why? She’s almost finished, and it’s keeping her out of your room.” Adagio shooed Aria with one hand. “Besides, if it’s bugging you so much, tell her yourself”
Aria just crossed her arms, and walked towards the kitchen. “I was coming to get some food first.”
Chuckling, Adagio just shook her head. She knew Aria wouldn’t do anything about it. “I’m making a late lunch, if you want something too.”
“Whatever,” Aria replied.
The two quietly made their way into the kitchen, Adagio getting to work on the food while Aria just leaned against the wall in the corner.
- - - - Two Days Pass - - - -
Adagio never actually thought about what she would do during this time of solitude. All she could really think of doing was watch television, but that got old yesterday.
Sonata ran in front of her, holding a toy airplane and making poor engine noises.
She was currently just sitting on the couch, an arm resting against her leg to support a hand against her chin staring forward at the entertainment center ahead of her. Adagio looked over the multiple shelves on either side of the television, at their various players, racks for CD’s, and speakers. It was a very nice setup, with their fairly new TV in the center.
Sonata lapped around her again, now starting to make gunfire noises.
She prided herself in making sure their home was clean and fresh whenever they came home, always making Sonata and Aria dust their cabinets or clean the floor. Adagio would take care of the random clutter that gathered on the coffee table or in the kitchen. Normally, it was always spotless. The past few days, though, she felt abnormally lazy, and didn’t keep the girls up on the cleaning, so the living room was scattered with bits of food, some clothing, and almost all of Sonata’s stuffed animals.
Sonata ran past again, this time holding a second plane, and pretending them to be in a dogfight.
“Oh. My gosh. Sonata!” Aria interrupted the (mostly) quiet atmosphere from her chair in the corner. “Do you seriously have to play with your toys out here?”
“Well, there’s not as much space in my room,” Sonata replied without a pause in her aerial battle.
“I get it, I really do, but you’ve been running in circles for over twenty minutes!” Aria put both of her hands against her face, nearing the end of her patience.
“Well, i already played with everything else in my room. Why don’t you just go to your room to play on your phone?”
Adagio tuned them out, going back to focusing on her own boredom. Whenever this happened, she would have the three of them go out, cause up a stir to feed from, and watch the people tear each other apart. Now she lacked that joy in her life, and she tried thinking of ways to replace that as a regular human now. She could go out, and watch people still, but that wouldn’t be for another few days, and it certainly wouldn’t be the same, unless she watched a riot. Adagio started to wonder if that was actually still possible, causing chaos among the humans, without her magic. She did take pride in her speaking skills, but couldn’t remember the last time she tried to get someone to do her bidding without magic involved.
At this point, Adagio wasn’t sure if five days was even necessary anymore. She was worried that they would start getting hungry soon, anyways, seeing as it had been four days since they filled on the energy from Canterlot High. Thinking about that more, now, Adagio wondered why they weren’t hungry already. They had all of their magic they stole relieved from them, so nothing was sustaining them anymore.
“A thought just occurred to me,” Adagio said abruptly, interrupting Aria, who was standing up now, holding Sonata around the neck with one arm and angrily drilling her knuckles into her forehead.
“What’s up, Adagio?” Both of them asked in unison, freezing in place.
“Have either of you been hungry lately?” She held up a hand when Sonata opened her mouth. “And not food hungry, magic hungry?”
The two of them looked at each other, confused, and gave a shrug. “Well, not really. But it’s not surprising, seeing as we lost the power we kept sustaining. Without that, we wouldn’t feel the need to feed it,” Aria suggested.
“It’s just so different, isn’t it? Humans never have to worry about that, only their stomachs. It’s so normal, that it’s weird,” she chuckled.
“Well, how can it be normal if it’s weird too?” Sonata asked, looking more confused now.
“It’s kinda like how you can be so annoying, yet we still keep you around.” Aria returned to rubbing her knuckles into Sonata.
“Ow! Cut it out, Aria!”
It was clearly going to be a major transition from their previous lives if they wanted to keep up with the constantly changing human society, now in the river of life as opposed to floating on top in their boat of siren magic.
Adagio stood up, and looked at her sisters wrestling with each other before she smacked them on the back of their idiot heads.
After hiding away for a suitable amount of time, Adagio thought that any dust that was lifted from their actions should have settled by now, especially since there was no media coverage of the Battle. The girls spent the next few days in an all too familiar setting: walking from diner to diner, spending an hour or so sitting and talking before moving on. The only difference from before is that they no longer could use this time to feed from negativity to power their Siren magic.
Adagio had reasoned this was familiar to them, and they should do that to occupy their time while she thought of her next step. Sonata didn’t care either way, but Aria had made a couple of remarks opposed to the idea of just going back to their old strategy. Today especially, Aria felt completely agitated.
“So this is your great plan, Adagio?” Aria huffed, leaning an elbow onto the table. “Because sitting around lame diners doesn’t really say ‘I have a plan.’”
“Well Aria, all you have been doing this week is complain about my great plan,” Adagio pointed out. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m still trying to figure out what we should do without magic. It’s a little hard to grasp when you have someone constantly badgering you,” she spat, lowering her eyes in frustration.
The three sisters had found a quiet diner to sit down, and were doing as they had been since hiding away: Sitting and waiting. Those same diner stops were now a lot less entertaining than they used to be, or useful, but Adagio insisted that they continue to do so, lest they rot away at home.
When they arrived, as they always did, they told the waiter that they would take a while before ordering, giving them some space. Aria and Adagio sat across from each other, starting to argue again, like they seemed to do every day. Sonata, however, asked for the coloring booklet that they offered kids, and was currently kept entertained and oblivious to the debate going on beside her.
“Excuse me, Miss ‘Follow my lead,’ but if you’re not able to come up with anything, you might as well let us come up with something.”
“Alright, and what kind of idea would you come up with, Aria?”
“Something that has the best interests of all of us, not just yourself.”
Adagio raised an eyebrow, and sat up straight. “I hope you know that’s what I always think about, Aria.”
“Yeah? Because right now it feels like we’re doing the same things you always wanted us to do, except without any real purpose. What’s the point of going out anymore if we aren’t going to feed?”
“Oh, I bet you would rather be cramped up in your room for another week instead,” Adagio huffed in frustration. Aria always gave her some sort of attitude whenever it came to her making plans. She periodically would attempt to assert some sort of dominance over them, and tried to make her own suggestions or ideas from time to time. Adagio was always thinking about the three of them, and had to remind her sister of that when her plans were simple and selfish, typical of a Siren.
“No. If I did that, I would have to put up with Sonata’s annoying rampage through the house.” Aria looked at Adagio with a look of annoyance, as if growing tired of her. “What I’m bringing up, Adagio, is that everything you come up with ends bad eventually. Remember back when we conquered Equestria? Or how about when we tried to get our Equestrian magic back?”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Aria had complained before, but bringing up her leadership skills was a low blow. Adagio didn’t like being challenged by either of her sisters, and just thinking about it boiled her inside. Still, she wasn’t going to let her temper burst over a simple antagonizing comment. “Well Aria, it sounds like you have a plan. Did you find a way to repair our magic after all?” She crossed her arms, waiting for an answer.
Aria just glared for a moment, and opened her mouth to reply, but lacked a real answer. She closed it again, looking away without saying a word.
“I hope you didn't forget that's what I've been trying to do out here. We can't gather any clues if we don't go outside." Adagio groaned a little under her breath, irritated at how ticked off she suddenly was. “That’s what made the other Sirens weak, you know. We’re stronger because we work together instead of being selfish and greedy.”
There was no response from Aria, now restlessly tapping her fingers against the table. She wasn’t happy with Adagio’s whole alpha attitude, acting like she was better than her. Maybe she was smarter, but they were (were) all equally powerful, so having her big sister consider herself the leader irked her.
Adagio looked over at Sonata, who had just finished her coloring packet. “Well, Sonata, do you have any great ideas?”
The gears in her head turned as Sonata realized that she was being talked to, finally. She perked up, blinking a few times. “What?” was all she said.
Gently putting a hand to her face, Adagio continued. “It’s obvious that Aria is unhappy with what we are doing, do you have any suggestions on what we should do?”
Immediately, the answer was obvious to her. Sonata confidently put a hand on the table, causing it to shake a bit. “We get lunch.” She stared forward, a small grin on her face.
“Well, if we still had our magic, we would eat here. I’m not paying for food from here.” Adagio lifted up one of the menus from the edge of the table, waving it a bit before setting it back down. “Now that money is worth something to us, I don’t like the idea of eighteen dollars for a meal.”
“Oh no, Adagio. I don’t mean lunch here.” Sonata’s small grin grew as the thought lingered. “We should go to the mall!” she nearly shouted, causing a couple of eyes to turn their way from the diner patrons.
Aria turned to scoff at Sonata. “You would want to go to the mall.”
Adagio gave a warning look to Aria before returning to Sonata. “Alright, and why should we go?”
“Well, the mall is the best place to be. They have a bunch of stores, food, movies, and a ton of people go there every day. We could just people watch if we are just gonna sit around,” she suggested to Aria, who had turned away now.
So, the plan was to do what they were already doing, but in a more populated place. That would certainly make it a lot less boring, but they risked a higher chance of being recognized in a public setting such as a food court. Still, Sonata’s plan made sense, which was weird.
Aria immediately brushed the idea away, waving a hand around. “You know, Sonata, when she said a plan, she meant something that wasn’t the worst.”
Sonata felt hurt, opening her mouth to retort before Adagio interrupted her. “Actually, I think that would be a good idea, Sonata.” They both turned look at her, confused and wide eyed. “Well, I said I still need time to decide what to do next, so until then anything sounds nice. You don’t have any ideas,” she gestured to Aria, “so going to the mall is better than doing nothing.”
With no arguments, Adagio gestured them to stand up, and the three of them made their way out of the diner. The cloudy skies had darkened more, and the wind began to pick up. Many of the people walking along the streets began to pull out their umbrellas, or quicken their pace to get to their destination. The Dazzlings tucked their hair into their jacket hoods as the rain began to trickle down.
Adagio always found a certain peace with rain. It brought back memories of living in the ocean, and the cold from it was refreshing at times. As long as she wasn’t getting soaked, she enjoyed being out when the rain came down.
Looking around, she was kind of surprised at how normal this felt. With the high school situation only happening a few weeks ago, they were already back to doing the same things they had done for hundreds of years, and felt like nothing had changed, save for the loss of their magic power. She sighed after making that realization, hoping that feeling of hopelessness would fade over time.
They made a turn a few blocks down to face the large collection of buildings that was Canterlot Mall. The mall had a much larger lot than the other buildings nearby, and made the compressed city feel like it opened up for just a brief moment.
After making their way through the crowded sidewalk and parking lot, the three sisters finally entered through the large double doors into the mall courtyard. The atmosphere changed suddenly from dark, cold, and wet, to brightly lit, open, and loud. The sound of rainfall was replaced with hundreds of voices, people all chatting to one another, almost mindlessly wandering about the marble flooring as they went from store to store.
They stood at the entrance for a few moments, taking all of the scene in. “It’s been a while since we went somewhere like this,” Adagio muttered.
Aria removed her hood, allowing her pigtails to fall down her sides once again. “Well, we always avoided a crowd that was too big for us to enchant, remember? You always said to avoid this place because of how many people there are.” She gave an uneasy look at Adagio, arms crossed. “Do you still want us to be here?”
“Of course we want to be here!” Sonata exclaimed, excited now. “Now we can go where all the other normal people go. We are normal, after all.” She smiled confidently, patting Aria on the back.
“Yeah, don’t remind me,” Aria said, bothered by that last comment.
“For the first time in a long time, Sonata’s right,” Adagio admitted. “I was just thinking about doing what we did as Sirens. Now I suppose doing what normal humans do is the first step to figuring out where to go next.”
“Adagio, you can’t be serious. I know how much you hate these creatures, so what’s up with this sudden change of attitude?”
“Well, Aria, if you want me to point out the obvious, you are also one of those creatures, we all are.” Adagio fluffed her hair as she removed her own hood. “And this decision of mine has nothing to do with me liking them, it just makes the most sense, something I expected from you, not Sonata.”
Aria ground her teeth together, looking away again. She was getting tired of Adagio arguing with everything she said today.
“Girls!” Sonata bopped her sisters lightly on their noses, getting their attention. “You don’t need to fight right now. We should be having fun! That’s what you’re supposed to do at a mall. At least, I think so.” She put a hand to her chin, pondering if that was true or not.
The two glared at each other, daggers in their eyes, before agreeing. There was no real point in upsetting each other right now. They had agreed to Sonata’s idea, even if they didn’t all like it, so they were going to at least try to get along until they got home.
“Well Sonata, this is your idea, so you lead the way.” Adagio gestured to her, unsure if this was really wise. This was Sonata after all.
She gave a sharp nod, smiling, and ran over to a large map of the building that read “Directory,” before calling them over to start their expedition.
The girls had not been in a shopping center in years, almost a decade, so the sight of rows after rows of stores, restaurants, and other minor places almost daunted them, with all of the people around. Sonata was more excited than unnerved, so she led the way, almost having to pull her sisters to keep up with her.
They first visited a large clothing store that was so large, it needed to expand itself up two more floors, connected by automated stairways. Sonata suggested there to try on different styles of clothes, their wardrobe not having been updated in a while.
Sonata led them over to the changing rooms, and told Adagio to try on clothes, ones that she would run to find, and practically threw them on her sister, urging her to wear them right away. Adagio then had to come out and show off, and she started to hate this idea from Aria's taunting expressions. Sonata seemed excited, but Aria laid herself across a bench as if watching a show.
After being fed many outfits by Sonata, Adagio picked out a decent set of clothes. A long sleeve shirt with a deep shade of purple, and a pair of crimson jeans seemed to fit her nicely, with black heeled boots to compliment them. Sonata was trying to have fun with this, but she still managed to pick out decent clothes. She was the one who came up with the designs for their outfits, after all. Even with a dull brain like hers, she had her upsides. Having changed back to her other pants and donning her sweatshirt again, she pointed to Aria. “Your turn.”
Aria fought against the idea of trying on clothes, but she gave in after being forced inside the changing room. She had to come out wearing embarrassing dresses, Adagio had chosen them as payback for her earlier taunts, before Sonata found something she thought would look good for her. A gray undershirt with a navy vest layered over top. The vest had short arms, which she preferred. The pants matched the undershirt, a navy belt stitched into it, her outfit also complimented by sturdy black shoes, and they actually felt pretty comfortable. Aria was convinced they were just going to use this time to make fun of her, but Sonata had better intentions, it seemed.
This time a little less concerned of being judged, she walked out and asked her sisters what they thought. Adagio was surprised how nice she pulled it off, and Sonata hugged her, proud that Aria liked her choice of clothes. Aria changed back as well, her clothes folded nicely in her arms, and Sonata grabbed a nearby set she had at the ready, and quickly shut herself inside the room.
Aria sat over next to Adagio, and the two sat quietly as they waited for Sonata to emerge again. Though neither said it out loud, they were enjoying themselves. They looked over at each other, and smiled slightly before Sonata flung the curtain open.
“What do you girls think?” Sonata crossed her arms behind her back, tapping the toe of her boot against the ground. She was confident it looked nice, but was nervous to see if her sisters approved.
Sonata’s blouse had a dark blue color with a paler tone for the sleeves, which she folded up just over her elbows. The jeans were fairly simple, but went well with matching the new shoes in color. Her boots came up to her shin, and she had long white socks reach up to her knees.
Aria and Adagio took a moment to admire her wardrobe. The outfit really matched her, complementing her blue skin tone, while not looking over the top. The two looked at each other again, raising their eyebrows to see if they had the same thought. Nodding, Aria stood up, walking over to Sonata. “Oh come on Sonata, you think anything blue looks good on you.”
She puffed her cheeks in irritation. “I do think it looks good, Aria! I didn’t make fun of your clothes.” Sonata crossed her arms and looked down.
“And what’s up with these? Are you planning on running in this?” She pulled on one of the socks sticking above her boots. Sonata was about to protest before Adagio walked over and rubbed a hand on her head, messing her hair a little.
“Don’t worry Sonata,” she assured her. “She’s just giving you a hard time again. You always have an eye for clothes.” Adagio pat a hand on Sonata’s forehead.
She was greatly relieved that Aria wasn’t serious. Sonata tried really hard whenever she looked for good clothes, and she didn’t like getting picked on for her choice of fashion. Adagio suggested that they go buy these now that they had their fun. The two agreed, and made their way to the checkout so they could continue exploring the mall.
Adagio made a note to remember how much they spent today. They could get away with a lot, but if they didn’t pay attention, their large supply of money would fade in a matter of moments. Sonata told her not to worry about that today. Today was supposed to be a day they had fun, something they hadn’t done in a long time, usually spending their time sulking or feeding, reminding Aria that she needed to have fun as well.
They made their way over to the game store, being pointed out by Aria. Adagio felt rather out of place in the store, standing over to the wall while her sisters looked around. Sonata challenged Aria to a demo of a new fighting game on display near the counter, to which Aria declined, not wanting her time wasted by someone who couldn’t compare to her. After being reminded of the outcome of their previous game, she accepted the duel, quickly losing due to what she explained as “new controls.”
Adagio looked over a large Directory map while they were inside, and led them to a fancy nick knack shop on the second floor. This time, Aria and Sonata sat bored while Adagio investigated dozens of different desk ornaments. She never let anyone in her room, but that didn’t stop her from adorning it in many interesting artworks and figures that she found unique over the years.
Their time in the shop was short, Adagio finding nothing of real interest. Sonata started complaining about being hungry, seeing as they still had no lunch, leaving the diner to come here, so Adagio decided it would be best to visit the Food Court.
Aria made a comment about how the food court made the worst food, which Adagio agreed to. They only sold fast food, and that was a dish the two of them didn’t particularly enjoy. Sonata was the only one of the three who loved eating out, usually requesting some form of hamburger or Mexican fast food.
Still, the sisters could deal with the uncomfortable feeling in their stomachs as long as it replaced their hunger. They agreed to a pizza to split between them, and found an empty table near the corner of the court.
The Food Court in Canterlot Mall was a lot more open, compared to the rest of the mall. It was a large, dome shaped segment of the building, with all kinds of vendors lined up against the outer ring, and the eating area dug a few feet lower than the vendors, taking up the majority of the center. The ceiling was a large skylight that revealed the cloudy skies above, which made it feel a little more natural than the rest of the complex.
As the sisters enjoyed their lunch, they panned around the floor, noticing that a lot of people here seemed to be students. Fortunately, none of the students recognized them, or just didn’t give any indication of knowing them, so they could eat without worry.
“I hate to say this, Sonata, but this was actually a good idea,” Aria said suddenly, causing the two to turn towards her. “It sure beats Adagio’s idea of just sitting around forever,” she sneered at Adagio, making her gasp.
“Well excuse me for playing it safe, Aria! I was still uncertain if the kids from Canterlot High were on the lookout for us, and didn’t want us falling into something we can’t dig ourselves out of. We’re a lot more vulnerable without magic.” The two glared at each other again, before Sonata disturbed them with a loud burp.
She put her hand over her mouth, embarrassed by her sudden outburst. Adagio and Aria looked at her in disgust, making her shrink in her seat from further embarrassment.
They were quiet for a moment, before Adagio continued off of Aria’s statement. “But, yes, this was fun Sonata.” She smiled, feeling content. This was the first time in a while she felt happy to be around these two.
Sonata hummed to herself, pondering something in her head. “Something is missing, though.”
Aria thought for a moment. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I know we can’t sing anymore, but wouldn’t this day just be perfect if everyone started fighting?”
“Well, we can’t do that without our magic, remember?”
“Yeah, but still...”
“Hold on,” Adagio interjected, “Don’t you remember what I said about the girls at the school? She paused for a moment, before realizing Sonata probably forgot everything by now. “We didn’t need our magic to make them fall apart, we just needed the right catalyst. The same is true for any person.”
“I’m not saying I wouldn’t totally be down for a brawl, but what are we supposed to look for?” Aria asked.
Adagio started to look around the food court, looking at each person carefully. She needed to find something that would escalate into a large-scale argument. A lot of the kids here seemed like the cookie cutter, goodie two-shoes types. Then, a group of gold and blue uniforms caught her attention. “There.”
The other two looked to see a large group of boys, dressed in jerseys. They were rather large, and two of them were passing a rugby ball across the table they sat at. By the color scheme, it matched the Canterlot Wondercolt’s Rugby team, and they looked like they were enjoying a nice lunch.
“A bunch of muscle monkeys? What do you plan on doing with them?” Aria asked, unsure what Adagio was planning.
Adagio scanned to the other side of the food court, where, almost on cue, she caught another group of boys in different colored jerseys. They were black and purple with golden trims, and the initials read “EHS.” If she remembered right, that stood for Everfree High School, which was a long-time rival of CHS. They had spent a decent amount of time studying the school before they made their move, and now she was glad she had this extra knowledge. “I think it’s a great time to bring up an old rivalry.”
Sonata scratched her head. “But we haven’t had rivals in years. What were they called, 'Jenny and her Pussycats?'” she pondered aloud, trying to recall their names.
Adagio slumped her head down a little, sighing from Sonata’s stupidity. Turning back to face her, she gently placed a hand on the table. “They are rivals. The blue jerseys and the black,” she said softly, clearly holding back.
“Oh,” was all Sonata said, eyes opened wide in awareness.
“You’re such a dimwit, Sonata,” Aria murmured.
“Now, to do this without magic,” Adagio mused.
This was a situation she was unused to. Normally, they could connect their minds using the pendants, allowing them to transfer their ideas instantly, and without any sign, appearing as flawless improvisation. Sonata would be completely useless without it, being unable to think on the spot without her or Aria.
Still, it was possible. These were jocks, and sports types have a weak point in their pride. They didn’t need the right words, more along the line of a right subject, something hyper sensitive to one player to spark a flame. She needed more information.
“Aria, look up the history of these two, their games,” Adagio ordered. Aria pulled her phone out and began typing away. She then turned to Sonata, who was tapping her fingers together nervously, waiting for her instructions. “Sonata, I want you to go over to the Wondercolts, and ask them about their game tomorrow.”
Sonata nodded, slightly excited about her job. Adagio comforted her, saying she just needed to ask that, and not come up with any fancy words. She got up to casually walk towards their table, trying to remember that confidence she always got when she linked with her sisters.
She had to squeeze between a lot of chairs that were shoved into the walkway, apologizing when she bumped into people, and nearly tripping every ten feet. Her false confidence was diminishing as she reached the Wondercolt table, and her heart nearly dropped as eight pairs of eyes turned towards her. Sonata simply stood there for a few moments, with all of the boys silent, looking at her expectantly. She suddenly felt like she wanted to hide in a corner.
“Hey, what’s up girl?” One of the boys called out to her, he smiled and looked like he was friendly.
“Oh! Uh, well...” She trailed off, pulling her ponytail in front of her to hold on to. Talking to a bunch of boys had always been easy before, even though she was always with her sisters, so she was a little confused why she felt so nervous. Sonata was starting to wonder why she was even over here anymore.
One of them stood up, his skin was a dark black with ice blue hair, and put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump a bit. “I know, she came to wish us luck on our big game tomorrow!” The eight boys cheered, all raising their hands.
That was it! “Uh, yeah! Good luck! That’s what I wanted. To say.” She looked away from the table, embarrassed she wasn’t able to remember that for a few seconds.
“Tomorrow’s our big rivalry game against the Shadowbolts, so we need all the cheering on our side if we’re gonna win,” said one of the other boys. “Make sure you’re there to cheer us on.” He gave her a thumbs up.
Feeling like she accomplished her task, Sonata waved briefly, before clumsily running away, hearing a group of thanks from the boys behind her. She felt her heart racing as fast as she was as she crash landed into her chair, burying her face into her arms to block the heat she felt on her cheeks.
“That looked like it went rather well,” Aria jested. “Don’t tell me, one of them swooned you already?”
“It isn’t like that, Aria!” Sonata shouted through the sleeves of her sweatshirt. She wasn’t sure what she was feeling, but she knew that it wasn’t healthy. She got dizzy, hot, and it interfered with what Adagio wanted her to do, so it made her upset.
“Well, I don’t care who you fall for, as long as you managed to get the answer to my question.” Adagio pushed Sonata’s shoulder, making her sit up. Her pale blue face was slightly tinted with a bit of red, and she looked more confused than normal. “Are they playing the Shadowbolts tomorrow night?”
“Uh huh,” she responded, going back to hiding in her arms.
“Perfect. I couldn’t have picked a more opportune moment.” She gestured to Aria again. “As you were saying?”
Looking back to her phone, Aria scrolled down a school blog website, which had news of all the high school sports activities. “Two months ago, the Shadowbolts beat the Wondercolts by four points. It says that the Wondercolts would have won, but their Wing, Thunderlane, was tackled in the last three seconds of the game, two meters from the goal. The player Silver Sky from the Shadowbolts won them the game because of that.” She put away her phone, confident that was a good enough start for the plan. “With a record like his, I can only imagine how cocky that Silver Sky is.”
“So, we have a bait. Now we just need one of them to go for it,” Adagio thought out loud, hoping that would help finish her thought.
“Getting under people’s skin is my thing, Dagi,” Aria explained. “But I think it would be easier to stoke a flame from both sides, don’t you agree?” She raised an eyebrow at Adagio, waiting for her to catch on.
She smiled slowly as it came to her. “Very well, Aria. I’ll follow your lead. This time.”
The two got up, leaving Sonata to recover, and headed their separate ways. Adagio made her way over to the Shadowbolt table, while Aria headed to the opposite side. She ran a couple of instigating comments through her head, not sure which approach would be best. This was the first time she was completely improvising on her own, so it was sort of daunting, but exciting at the same time. As she approached, none of the guys seemed to notice her, until she placed a hand on the table.
“So, Wondercolts, I hope you’re ready for the game tomorrow?” She made a mischievous smile, letting them know her intent was not to cheer them on.
A couple of players looked at each other, unsure of what Aria was up to. “Wondercolts are always ready!” One of them shouted, causing a consensus of agreement among the group. “The Shadowbolts won’t win this time.”
“Well, I don’t doubt you’ll give it you’re all, but our defense has been pretty good this year, as you well know, Thunderlane.” She looked at the boy who’s jersey read Thunderlane, the real target in her plan.
He seemed disgusted by that remark, and turned his chair around to face her straight. “If all you did was come to trash talk, I would prefer if you left now.”
She put up her hands in defense, backing up slightly. “Hey, I’m not coming over here just because. Silver Sky just wanted me to remind you to not trip over yourself tomorrow.”
Thunderlane said nothing, but she could tell that was still a sensitive spot for him.
“Oh yeah, he’s been nonstop all week,” she continued, “Saying things like, he hopes the WunderDolts can get past him at least once.”
The group seemed agitated by that, murmuring among themselves. Clearly they had heard something similar already, and they didn’t enjoy to hear it again. Another Wonderbolt stood up, pointing a finger at her. “Well, you tell Silver he better not cry when we trample over him.”
Aria scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Why don’t you just tell him yourself? He’s sitting right over there.” She pointed a thumb over her shoulder, in the direction of where the Shadowbolts were eating. The boys looked like they would do just that, so Aria waved, excusing herself from the group.
Adagio looked from across the room, seeing Aria heading back to the table. They made eye contact, and she got a wink from her, before she went back to her conversation. “Oh yes, I was really impressed last week. I don’t remember the last time we won without the other team scoring.” She turned back to Silver Sky, who was leaning against the table, trying to make himself look cool. The other six seemed to be looking at her rather oddly, obviously for dirty reasons, but she ignored their stares, focusing on her goal.
Aria was right, this boy was absolutely full of himself. Then again, most of the team seemed to have the same attitude, but always agreed to Silver’s compliments to himself. Either he was the leader of the group, or the most skilled player. Whatever it was, she could read them like an open book.
“Ponyville was never know to be as competitive as the other schools around here, so it wasn’t really a challenge,” Silver said very blatantly.
“Oh, but I’ve heard some rumors about CHS recently. They say the team has been specially preparing for this game tomorrow,” Adagio warned, her tone worried. She knew his response would be arrogant, and more importantly, loud.
Silver Sky let out a laugh from that. “Well, we’re not too worried. Especially if they still have that player, 'Blunderlane.'” The group laughed together, some of them repeating the name, remembering the end of their last game against Canterlot.
“You sure talk big for the smallest player on the team, Silver Sky!” A voice came from behind them, causing all the heads to turn and face the Canterlot Wondercolts, looking menacingly down on them.
The Shadowbolts jumped a bit in surprise, before standing up to face their rivals. Seven Shadowbolts stood facing eight Wondercolts, all tall boys with broad shoulders. Around the food court, tables had cleared around them, people starting to give them space, knowing something could go down soon. Adagio took her leave, knowing her job was done.
“Well well,” Silver sneered, “If it isn’t Canterlot High. Come to wish a good victory tomorrow?” He held out a hand and smiled.
Thunderlane pushed it aside. “Oh shove it, Sky. If anything, you guys plan to cheat like last time.”
“Are you still going on about that, Thunder?” Silver looked at him with a look of pity. “It’s not my fault you didn’t tie your sneakers.”
“You fouled me, and you know it. You better not pull anything like that tomorrow.”
“Or what, you’ll trip on me again?”
Both sides lined up on either side of the arguing boys, tensing as the argument continued.
“Don’t make me ruin your pretty face!” Thunderlane stuck a threatening fist out.
“What’s stopping you? I’m only two meters away!” Silver Sky smacked his chest, then held his arms up in challenge.
That was the spark needed for Thunderlane to lunge forward. He and Silver Sky locked together, grabbing each other by the shoulders, and trying to throw the other to the ground. Their team mates were on each other in seconds, shoving and grappling, and yelling at each other. A crowd had now gathered nearby, starting to cheer on the brawl as the pushing escalated to blows.
Adagio made her way out of the indent of the food court, climbing a few steps to the outer ring. She noticed Aria wave her over from a ways down, leaning on the railing that ran around the dining area. Her and Sonata were enjoying the scene as Adagio joined them.
They were quiet for a few moments, long enough to fully appreciate the fruits of their efforts. Two groups of brutish boys clashing together in an eatery was a throwback to the good old days. Although they had lost their magic, Adagio could have sworn she could still see the green mist radiating from them as they tossed each other about, and that seemed to comfort her a bit, even though she could no longer absorb it.
“Man, I already forgot how good this feels!” Sonata exclaimed, pushing her hands against her cheeks, puffing her lips out.
“You forget everything, Sonata,” Aria replied, sighing, but still smiling. “But this does feel good.”
“Who knows, girls,” Adagio started, “With a little work, we could still enjoy ourselves, cause a little mayhem from time to time. Our power may be gone, but not our skill.” She grinned maliciously, finding a joy she thought lost to her.
“Not unless we have to take that too!” A girl’s voice called from behind them.
They looked at each other in confusion for a moment, before turning around. Standing behind them, were three very familiar girls: Rainbow Dash, lead guitarist of the Rainbooms, Pinkie Pie, the drummer, and Sunset Shimmer, the girl who ruined everything. They stood in a defensive pose, giving them a wary look.
Adagio put a hand on her hips, her moment of happiness shrinking away after just obtaining it, just like last time. Aria crossed her arms, not wanting to deal with this kill joy when she could be watching the fight behind her. Sonata looked at her sisters curiously, not sure who these girls were, or what they wanted. She wanted to get a hint from her sisters before she jumped to conclusions, though.
“What a surprise, Rainbooms,” Adagio called out, her frown unchanging, despite her tone. “I had almost forgotten you live here. Guess it makes sense you would go to the same mall as us.”
Rainbow Dash lunged forward, her rainbow hair flapping about as she moved aggressively, coming halfway between the groups. “What are you Sirens up to? I thought we got rid of your magic powers. We didn’t miss something, did we?” she asked as if hiding a threat with her question.
Adagio wanted to hit this girl for speaking to her in such a way, but she instead flipped her hair dramatically. “Oh you girls are really a laugh. You beat us, remember? We have no magic, and most importantly, no voices to sing with. Shouldn’t that be enough for you to leave us alone?”
“Or, maybe their style is kicking their enemies while they’re down,” Aria added. “Kind of a low blow, for the so called heroes,” She scoffed, looking to Sonata, who was still processing what was being said. Aria just rolled her eyes, going back to ignoring her sister.
Sunset Shimmer stepped forward now, putting a hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, signaling her to calm down. She complied, but still gave the Sirens a dubious look. “That’s not why we’re here, Dazzlings. But we saw what you did back there,” she gestured to the brawl still raging on in the dining area behind them. “Care to explain before we have to do anything drastic?” She raised an eyebrow to them, waiting for an answer.
Adagio smiled innocently before walking forward, chuckling a bit. “Come now, Sunset, you don’t really believe we forced these kids against their better judgment, do you? You know we only work on what people really want.” She clenched a fist in front of her to emphasize her statement.
“So those boys back there are fighting just for fun, with no instigation?”
“That’s just boys being boys,” Aria answered. “You know how those sports types are, just can’t keep control of their temper.” That comment made Rainbow Dash puff her cheeks in anger.
“Okay, if you’re just going to avoid the question, at least answer me this,” Sunset said, trying to keep herself controlled. “Did you use any kind of magic to do this?” She looked at Adagio, staring her in the eye.
“Like I already told you, we have no magic, and no-”
“Just answer the question!” She cut her off, not wanting to put up with any more dodging. Her friends looked at her in surprise, not expecting the outburst.
Blinking a few times, Adagio sighed. “No. We didn’t use magic,” she replied dryly. Clearly she didn’t have much of a sense of humor, so toying with her was no longer fun.
Sunset Shimmer sighed, looking relieved to hear that. “Then why are you still doing this?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Adagio shrugged, shaking her head. “We enjoy doing this, it’s what we do. Just because we don’t have magic, it doesn’t mean we are not allowed fun.” Aria nodded in confirmation, standing next to her now.
Sunset was about to speak again, before she felt a tug on her jacket sleeve. She looked back to see her Pinkie Pie, who was tilting her head to the side to signal she needed to follow her. Sunset Shimmer was reluctant at first, before turning back to the Dazzlings. “We need to talk real fast. Just, stay here for a few minutes please.”
The girls watched them walk off and form a huddle, obviously discussing what to do with them next. Aria ground her teeth, and tried walking forward after them, but was stopped by Adagio. “Let’s just wait, Aria. We can’t do anything if they have another spell to use on us.” She turned around, going back to the railing, where Sonata was still standing, puzzled.
They went back to watching what remained of the fight, seeing as Mall Security had arrived, and started breaking the boys apart. It was a perfect setup, never mind the shaky execution, and they missed almost all of the show. Adagio’s happy demeanor was gone, and she felt herself go back to her pessimism.
“So we just sit here while the good guys decide what to do with us?” Aria groaned, rubbing a hand against her forehead. “This is so irritating! We’re nothing more than animals to them.”
“Well, Aria, if they tried to take over your home, enslave all of your friends, and turn you against me and Sonata, you would resent them a little, wouldn’t you?” Adagio looked at Aria with a smirk, causing her to turn away.
“Hey Adagio,” Sonata called out, getting her attention, “who are those girls?”
Turning back to the food court, Adagio ignored Sonata’s question. “The point is, they have every right to be suspicious of us, and we have no power over them, which puts us at their mercy.” She grit her teeth, hating to admit defeat so easily. If only they could have retained their magic, even a little. She wasn’t sure why she just stood there, instead of making a run for it, but Adagio felt some kind of hope. Hope that something might come out of this situation yet.
“Adagio?” She heard Sunset Shimmer call out behind her. Sighing, she turned around, Aria and Sonata following her. The girls stood before them, looking much less menacing than their original introduction.
“Have you decided our punishment for our misdeeds? Perhaps this time you should take our ability to talk, so we can’t toy with humans anymore,” Adagio suggested, placing her hand against her chest.
Clearly appalled by that idea, Sunset Shimmer put her hands together. “No, not at all. We aren’t going to punish you for anything else.” She hesitated for a moment, looking to her friends. “We just... We want to talk.” They all nodded in agreement.
“Talk,” Aria scoffed. “As in the kind where we gather around a table and drink tea?”
“Tea sounds like a great idea,” Sonata chipped in.
“Don’t forget some tea cakes!” Pinkie Pie shouted, jumping out from behind Sunset Shimmer, temporarily disrupting the tension in the area. Everyone, save for Sonata, who’s eyes opened wide from the mention of tea cakes, seemed to ignore her outburst.
“Yes, we just want to talk,” Sunset said confidently now, looking Adagio in the eye.
It took her a moment to realize Sunset was serious. There wasn’t anything harmful in accepting an offer to talk, usually, but Adagio felt there was something behind this. “What if we refuse?”
The girls looked at each other, not really sure of an answer for that question. Sunset Shimmer just shrugged. “Then we let you go,” she answered.
Adagio raised a brow from curiosity, not expecting such a calm answer. She crossed her arms, looking back to Aria, who also seemed curious, giving her a look that asked for her opinion. Aria gave a shrug, indicating she didn’t know what to answer, then looked to Sonata, who perked up from being looked at. They stared at each other for a while, Adagio’s glare lowering the longer she waited for her to get the hint. Sonata finally looked away, thinking, before finally shaking her head, confused. Adagio felt that she didn't really need Sonata's answer, anyway.
Turning back to the Rainbooms, the Dazzlings stood straight, putting a hand on each of their hips. Adagio smiled, finding humor in this situation. “Okay, we’ll play your game, Sunset Shimmer. We have never been ones to skip invitations. We do hope you girls would mind your manners, though,” she taunted.
Sunset Shimmer nodded, smiling herself. “Fair enough. And, If we upset you,” she waved a hand, correcting herself, “any more than we have, then we promise to leave you alone.” She let out a sigh of relief, appearing glad she was not turned down. She was still new to speaking to people in a non-aggressive manner, and was happy she didn’t need to raise her voice.
“Well, if we plan on talking, we should do it somewhere else,” Rainbow Dash jumped in, pointing a finger to the food court. “It looks like it might be a while before they clean that up.”
The six of them turned to see the now destroyed dining area. Before Security could fully stop the brawl, the two rugby teams had made quite a mess of the tables and chairs, turning them sideways, and tossing them far from their original placement. Food had scattered across the marble floor, and plenty of people were still arguing with each other.
The sisters looked to each other, pleased of what their handiwork had accomplished, and giggled to themselves, before turning back to the Rainbooms. They looked as if they were shaming the Dazzlings, which only made the situation even more funny. “What can we say girls?” Adagio asked, not hiding her smile, and simply shrugged. “It’s in our nature.”
Adagio had agreed to talking. Talking was completely fine by her standards, and she was ready for anything the Rainbooms would throw at her: Accusations, questions, but not the uncomfortable silence the two groups were currently sitting in.
They had found a much quieter place than the mall, a small sweets shop named “Sugar Cube Corner.” It was only a few blocks away, so the awkward walk over wasn’t unbearable.
The girls were tucked in the back corner of Sugar Cube Corner, the Sirens seated on the couch against the wall, and the Rainbooms had pulled chairs over to seat opposite them.
Nearly ten minutes had passed, with the girls looking awkwardly between each other, while Adagio looked at each of them expectantly. They appeared to be nervous, save for Pinkie Pie, who was currently guzzling her milkshake as fast as humanely possible.
She wasn’t sure if she should be the first to speak, or to wait for Sunset Shimmer, the organizer of this event, who was currently playing with her thumbs, eyes darting left to right. Obviously, she was thinking, but what, Adagio couldn’t tell.
Suddenly, the sound of a cup slamming on the table caught everyone’s attention, to see Pinkie Pie placing her glass down just a second before Sonata, who had also been downing her drink swiftly. “Ha! I knew I’d win,” Pinkie exclaimed triumphantly.
Sonata was about to make a comment, but she froze stiff for a moment, her eyes shot wide open, and she gripped her head with both hands. “Brainfreeze!"
Pinkie Pie snorted, before showing a similar set of symptoms as Sonata, crying out in pain. The two whined for a moment, until the unsettling feeling disappeared, then shared a laugh before looking back to their friends.
Both sides looked at them, dumbfounded, before Adagio spoke up.
“Look, we have already spent most of our day sitting in silence. If you wanted to talk, Sunset Shimmer, we’re here,” she said bluntly, wanting to get this little event over and done.
Taking a moment to breathe, Sunset sat up straight. “Well, I thought by the time we got here, the talking would start right away. So... How are you?”
She chose small talk. “Good,” Adagio replied.
“That’s good.”
“Indeed.”
It was quiet again for a few moments, before Sunset continued. “I hope you girls have been doing alright.”
Adagio raised a brow and crossed her arms. “We’ve been here for over a thousand years. We know how to take care of ourselves.”
“That’s not what I mean by ‘alright,’” she sighed.
“Oh, you mean, how are we doing after being blasted with your big rainbow of friendship,” Aria cut in, folding her arms to match Adagio.
Sunset rolled her eyes softly. “Yes, that’s right. How are you girls, after the Battle?”
“Well, losing our power is a concept that is rather hard to grasp, Sunset Shimmer,” Adagio stated. “We’re immortal creatures blessed with a power that symbolizes what we are. Having lost what makes you special can really turn life on it’s head for you.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I could understand that feeling,” Sunset admitted. “I guess it would be like being a blank flank all over again.” She laughed a little to herself.
“A what-what, now?” Rainbow Dash inquired, confused. Sunset just assured her it was something from Equestria.
“Hey, Sunset Shimmer?” Sonata piped up, “Why did you really want to talk with us?”
Everyone looked at her, and then at Sunset in sudden awareness. She stuttered a bit, realizing the attention was back on her. “What do you mean?"
“Well, we’re your enemies,” she stated nonchalantly. “We tried to take over your school, tore the students apart, made your friends mad at each other, trashed talked you in the hallway, and even hip bumped you for dramatic effect. There has to be some underlying reason for you to want to see us after everything we did.” Her tone and expression were unusually calm, and she stared at Sunset with a gentle curiosity.
“And for those reasons, we would like to know why,” Adagio finished, her tone matching Sonata’s, to make it sound as if she was continuing her statement.
“Well, when you’re that determined...” She took a moment to collect herself. “I don’t really know, to be honest. A part of me just wants to, for lack of better words, reach out to you? Seeing you in the mall didn’t make me think: ‘Oh, they are still horrible monsters.’ It was more like worry.”
“Worry,” Aria said, doubtful. “What would a girl like you have to worry about girls like us?”
“I can tell you girls are in pain. I’ve been there, and you know all about that. When I saw you three, standing over the food court, I was afraid you still had magic. When you said otherwise, though, I realized that you might just be...lost.” She nearly whispered the last word.
Adagio took in a shaky breath, her eyes wide for a moment after hearing Sunset say that. Lost. Her morale crumpled suddenly, and the retort she was going to give escaped her, leaving her speechless for a few seconds.
Noticing her sister pause, Aria decided to speak up for her. “We aren’t ‘lost,’ Sunset. You’d be surprised how hard it is to come up with a plan of action after what we went through.” She leaned back, crossing a leg over her lap.
“I get that, I do. That’s what I really want to talk about. We,” she paused, correcting herself, “I want you girls to hang out with us. The rest of my friends may have disagreements, but I sincerely think we can help you figure out a path for yourselves to follow.”
Sonata hummed, putting a hand on her chin. “So, when you were defeated and stripped of your magic, you were accepted into the group and shown how great friendship is. Now that you know the power of friendship, you feel that anyone deserves the chance, especially since you got one, and want to extend it to us, because we were beaten.”
“Hey, I was gonna say that!” Pinkie Pie complained, standing up and stomping away in frustration. Everyone took a moment to watch her.
“Well, yeah!” Sunset replied, cheerily. “I mean, if I didn’t offer you guys an opportunity, then I didn’t deserve one myself.”
“That idea sounds like it came from a child’s cartoon show,” Aria dryly stated.
“Don’t dis on cartoon shows,” Pinkie Pie warned, standing suddenly behind Aria, holding a second milkshake. “You might learn some magical lessons from one someday.” She jumped forward, doing a front flip over the table, and turned around to land neatly back in her seat. Sonata applauded in amusement.
“And Sunset has a point,” Rainbow Dash chimed in, after being quiet for a while. “I mean, we probably would not have even done that for her if Princess Twilight didn’t ask us to.” Her expression switched immediately to one of panic, as if saying something wrong. Dash turned quickly to Sunset, and opened her mouth before Sunset Shimmer waved to her.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. No offense,” she sighed. This was clearly not the first time this talk came up.
Adagio, having lost herself for a moment, snapped back to reality, and tried to comprehend everything that was just said. Sunset wanted them to be friends? After everything they had done to her, she was just willing to let it all go and be friends.
She felt a pain deep in her chest, telling her that actually sounded like a good idea. The thought of having others around to be there was tempting, and they had not had any companions in this world for years.
But, these were the Rainbooms. These were the girls who ruined them forever, putting them in this situation that left her so uncomfortable. She couldn’t do that, her pride wouldn’t allow her.
That aside, what would her sisters think about her if she went crawling for help? She heard them say it many times over the years: “We need you, Adagio.” They held such high respect for her, even though they have had their disputes. Adagio didn’t want to imagine their reaction if they found out she was as clueless and scared as she was.
This was her burden, and her problem to solve.
She inhaled softly before raising her head again, putting on her face of confidence, and smiling lightly. “Well, Sunset, coming from you, that offer is really generous. I do appreciate the help, but being friends is a big leap from where we currently stand. As for our situation, though, we are fine as we are. We don’t need ‘friends’ to help us,” Adagio finished with a gentle humph.
“Are you sure?” Pinkie Pie queried, leaning over the table with her head at a 90* angle. “We have tons of fun all the time! And I’m certain the only person you’d have to convince is Rainbow Dash.” She turned to wink at her friend. “The others will understand.”
“Eh, let it go, Pinkie,” Rainbow said, standing up to stretch. “We don’t have to force ‘em to do anything they don’t want to do.” Looking at Adagio, she continued. “It’s just an offer, and we’ll get over it if you say no,” she assured.
Nodding, Adagio turned to Aria and Sonata, gesturing them to stand. Sunset Shimmer looked like she wanted to stop them, but grit her teeth, unsure of what to say. “Well, Rainbooms, it was great catching up with you. Maybe we’ll see you around, someday,” she said with distaste.
As they walked away, Sunset slumped in her chair, letting out a sigh. “So much for my big plan.”
The three then donned their sweatshirts again, grabbing their bags before leaving the store. The downpour had only worsened, it seemed, and the sun had gone past the horizon, leaving the city lit up by street signs and car headlights.
Tucking their hair masterfully into their hoods, the Sirens made their way back home. Half a block later, Aria spoke up.
“Alright, ‘Dag, what’s up?” she asked, curious.
“What do you mean, Aria?” Adagio replied, aware what she was referring to.
“That whole little moment you had there? You just shut down randomly, and stopped talking.”
“Yeah,” Sonata agreed, “I was having fun, and thought we were getting along. Then you got all quiet, and stared like this.” She made an odd expression, with a thousand yard stare and slightly open mouth.
“If you girls hadn’t noticed, I’ve been a little stressed out as of late,” she snapped, not wanting to have this conversation.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t explain-” Aria tried to press.
“Wait up!” A voice called out from behind them, making them all stop abruptly. They looked to each other in confusion before looking back to see Sunset Shimmer, under a bright yellow umbrella, running towards them.
“What do you want, Sunset Shimmer?” Adagio asked, irritated. “I think I made it clear that we don’t need help to get ourselves back on our feet.”
She scratched the back of her head, embarrassed, and chuckled a little. “That’s how I sounded, didn’t I? You’re right, and it was rude of me to assume that you did, just because I did. Friendship is a big thing to accept so suddenly. So I thought, how about we start off on a level a bit less intimate?”
The Sirens looked between each other curiously, unsure of what she was speaking of. “What do you mean?”
“Instead of trying to be friends, how about we just start out as allies? We help you out when you need it.” She held a hand out to them, trying to seem gentle. “We don’t have to hang out all the time, or tell each other secrets, just be there for you when you call.”
An ally. Someone to call on when needed, but you wouldn’t need to worry about being around them until then. That was a possibility, she mused. Accepting that offer was a lot less risky than her previous one, and could be understood by her sisters. Adagio wouldn’t allow herself to be friends, but allies were useful, even if you didn’t like each other.
Seeing her pause, Sunset waved a hand to get her attention again. “Look, I know that’s still asking a lot from you girls, after what we have done to you, so you don’t need to answer now.” She reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out a folded slip of paper, and handed it to them. “We figured you would decide on your own time, so that’s a list of all of our numbers in case you come around.”
The girls leaned close to Adagio as she unfolded it, showing a list of hastily written phone numbers, with the corresponding names written beside. They looked at each other, all wondering the same thing. “But, why, Sunset Shimmer?” Adagio asked, speaking for the three of them. She still couldn’t fully understand her motives.
Sunset thought for a moment, before shrugging. “My first thought was what to do with you, and I was reminded of when Princess Twilight stood over me, after defeating me. She spoke first with scorn, talking down on my actions, but then showed me compassion, and left me in the care of her friends. Princess Twilight gave me a second chance, even after knowing all the horrible things I had done. I guess since even I was given that chance, anyone deserves it,” she finished with a big smile.
Adagio looked curiously now at the paper, then tucked it into her pocket so it would not get ruined by the rain.
“Well, I’ll let you girls get home now,” said Sunset, waving her hand in farewell. Sonata gave a wave back as she turned away, walking back to the Sugar Cube Corner.
Assuming that was all, Adagio turned, signaling to her sisters to follow behind. They began making their way back home a little faster than they originally planned, the rain starting to pour a little harder than earlier. Adagio hoped that they would walk in silence this time, now that she was pondering what Sunset Shimmer was actually offering her.
Sadly, Sonata spoiled the quiet moment in the rain by jumping in front of Adagio and Aria, a look of excitement on her face. “So, what are you gonna do, Adagio?” she asked, eager to hear the answer.
She scoffed, turning her eyes away from Sonata. “What do mean, what am I going to do? Sunset Shimmer has already confirmed she is going to leave us alone.”
“Yeah? But she totally gave you her number,” she whispered mischievously, an evil grin on her face. Aria involuntarily snorted from her comment, trying to hide a smile by putting a hand over her face.
Adagio rolled her eyes, and could feel her face burn a little from Sonata’s suggestion. “That’s not what this means, Sonata,” she replied sternly.
“Aw, come on, Adagio,” Aria added playfully. “We won’t judge your taste in girls.” She and Sonata started giggling together.
“Look,” she snapped, stopping the teasing for a moment, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with this yet,” referring to Sunset’s offer. Adagio couldn’t believe how far off the rails this topic had gone. She could feel her cheeks turning red, and she forced her anger to overtake the embarrassment.
“You, not knowing? I don’t hear you say that, often.”
“Believe me,” she thought to herself, “I wish I could say it more.”
At last reaching home, the girls each dropped their bags by the front door. Adagio walked over to their artificial fireplace, flipping a switch on the wall before hanging her sweatshirt on a rack nearby. The fake fire ignited instantly, lighting the room slightly before Aria turned on the lights.
The other girls hung their clothes near the fire, glad to be out of the soaked jackets. Aria and Sonata sat on the couch, having agreed to play a few matches of video games before dinner.
Adagio stayed quiet, for the most part, her mind elsewhere. She instinctively made her way through the kitchen, pulling out ingredients to start cooking. As she lit the stove, and began frying the food, she found herself stuck back at Sugar Cube Corner, hearing Sunset’s words echo in her mind.
“I can tell you girls are in pain”
“I realized you might be... Lost.”
Those words repeated themselves over and over, and she couldn't get rid of them, despite trying to think of something else.
Adagio wondered why this was affecting her so much. She had already come to terms with it, acknowledging the loss of her power. She knew she was lost, not knowing where to go from here, and that upset her greatly already. How was it that she, of all Sirens, could not know? She didn’t need Sunset telling her this.
“But why does it still hurt?” she asked herself quietly.
She felt her breathing slowly grow more difficult, and the back of her eyes began to feel sore. Adagio sighed, knowing what was coming. No matter how hard she tried to contain herself, emotions always had a way of forming to the surface.
Adagio scooped two bowls of stir fry, and set them on the table. She called the girls over to eat, and explained that she wasn’t hungry, making her way to her bedroom while they continued arguing about some stats on their game.
She closed the door behind her, and found herself looking to her nightstand, where a small jar of red jewels sat alone. Adagio walked over to the desk, picking up the jar, and stared at it intently, feeling her heart drop the longer she did.
The remains of her former life rested in that jar; the fragments of her Siren jewel. Just a short while ago, she had tasted true power, admiration, and held the will of hundreds in her hands. Those shards glimmered with the radiant shine of their former lives, that which was no longer able to be achieved. A broken gem meant the loss of a Siren’s strength, and, under normal circumstances, their death.
With the gemstone separate from her human body, there was no fear of dying without it, but there was no difference. Adagio had asked herself this question before: Why go on? She knew that there wasn’t any more hope in this world of retrieving what was stolen from her, of becoming the adored goddess she was promised to become.
The longer she looked at the jar, the more the realization sank in. In a fit of panic, she felt she could no longer hold on to it, and threw it away from herself as hard as she could. She shut her eyes as the sound of crashing glass filled the quiet room, and clenched her hands against her head.
When she finally looked to where she threw the jar, Adagio saw the gem shards scattered on the floor, broken glass surrounding them. She looked up from them to see her full-length mirror now covered in cracks, some shards of glass having fallen from the frame.
Inside the mirror stood an Adagio that she couldn’t recognize. Her body was shaking, eyes filled with terror, and the cracks of the mirror running through her body. This was her reflection, of what she had become: A shell of her former self.
Adagio couldn’t bear to look at the reflection any longer. She walked away from the mirror, until she backed into her wall. She held her head in her hands as she slid against the wall to fall to the floor.
Her thoughts now extended past her to Aria and Sonata. She was the older sister, and it was her responsibility to take care of them. If she was unable to look upon herself now, how was she expected to be able to lead them?
But what would she say to her sisters about this? She was afraid? She was giving up? Adagio believed it was their faith in her that continued to give them hope. She didn’t want to imagine what they would do if she told them she just gave up. That was the reason for putting on a bold face every day. To say: “I’m thinking, don’t worry,” to put their minds at ease. Aria liked to argue about her saying that so often, but it was clearly working on her.
Adagio had thought of ideas, possible solutions to their problem, but each one was crippled by doubt and the fear that she would just fail them again, like every time before. A new plan, if she could think of one, would probably only lead to another disaster that left them in an even worse predicament than previous. That seemed to be a trend with her plans, she recalled.
After all, she decided to go to the surface, which got them banished here. It was her who led them to try and conquer the humans multiple times, which almost got them executed or burned at the stake with each attempt. After all of those years, barely scraping off of the scraps of human disharmony to sustain their power, and finally got a glimpse and taste of Equestrian magic again, she formed the plan to get their power restored. But in the end, her ambition and overconfidence blinded her to the possibility of failure, and she failed them again.
After saying how much better they were than the other Sirens, Adagio found herself starting to look no different than them.
She felt herself unable to hold back from crying, and buried her face in her hands.
As she wept, her mind reminded her of all of her failures: The things she could have prevented, the plans she didn’t think all of the way through, all came back to her. Adagio noticed not how much time had passed, only focusing on how far she had fallen.
Ever since the Battle of the Bands, she had been lying to herself, saying it was going to be alright. But for the first time in her long memory, she didn’t know what to do.
Sealed away in her room, Aria sat at her desk, typing furiously away and clicking forcefully on her mouse as she scoured the internet for something to distract her from her frustrations.
“Stupid video games. Stupid Sonata. Stupid Adagio,” were some of the complaints she mumbled as she tried fruitlessly to calm her mood.
Aria herself wasn’t completely sure why she was angry at some of the things she listed, but she was. Ever since they ran into the Rainbooms earlier that day, she just felt short tempered, Adagio was acting distant, like as if she was scared of something, and Sonata was just pretending to be excited and playful so she would distract her from arguing anything with Adagio. Aria could easily tell when Sonata was like that; it was the only reason she wouldn’t stop talking to her tonight.
And speaking of Adagio, she was really upset that she locked herself in her room right after dinner. Aria wanted to confront her about what had happened at the cafe, but it was obvious Adagio didn’t want her only sisters to know if anything was wrong. She clearly wasn’t hiding anything, and it’s not like Adagio ever has any problems anyway, so it shouldn’t be a big deal to her.
But it was.
Adagio was known for scheming, that was how they accomplished everything in the past, but this kind of scheming just didn’t set right with Aria. It was as if she didn’t trust them anymore, now that they lost their magic.
Does she really believe that it was me or Sonata that led us here, she asked herself, almost getting more upset for needing to ask the question. She knows that neither of us would do anything to hurt each other. We’re not like that. At least, she hesitated for a moment, me and Sonata aren’t like that.
She felt her temper drop finally, striking a thought she didn’t like. “Stop thinking like that, Aria,” she spoke to herself aloud. “You have enough worries right now as it is.” She turned back to focus on her computer monitor, letting the subject drop.
Her mind was already occupied with trying to understand the concept of being normal. After centuries of living as an immortal, magic hungry Siren, switching to the average life of a human was too large of an adjustment to make in what was but a passing moment in comparison. She didn’t like it, and not understanding only made it worse.
Worrying about things like this was usually Adagio’s job, and that’s what Adagio had been telling them anyway. She would always go off on how she was working on a new lead, or still thinking another plan through, only to tell them she scrapped the idea because it didn’t work. Aria and Sonata never got a chance to say what they wanted to do, and the first time she even mentioned it, Adagio turned it on her to make Aria look like she didn’t care about them at all.
Then what would frustrate her is that Sonata would just go along with whatever Adagio said, just because she was the big sister. She never had a backbone of her own, always just going with whatever the plan was so she didn’t cause any animosity between them; that was always her plan, Aria realized not too long after being banished. Sonata would try to keep tension low whenever a conflict would come up, by directing the anger on her with a well timed stupid thought.
Aria hated that about her.
She asked herself many times over the years why she still stayed with these two, instead of trying something different. Adagio was a control freak, needing to do everything according to master plan, and Sonata was by far the most idiotic person that has existed through history. How one can manage that after so many years of exposure to the world was beyond her.
The unmoving computer screen in front of her finally snapped her out of her train of thought. Aria had subconsciously been navigating the web, not really sure what she was looking at half of the time, but she realized that she was clicking the same spot on a page over and over.
She shook her head as she let out a sigh. “I was getting bored anyway,” she mumbled to herself as she shut her computer down. Aria leaned back in her chair, spinning it around so her feet were resting on the bed nearby.
It was too late for her to be thinking about this still; she had been brooding since dinner was over. Aria didn’t even bother with getting into bed; she closed her eyes and went to sleep, finally feeling how tired she was.
Sonata loved the feeling of the wind past her face. She was merrily skipping her way through town, humming a familiar tune to herself, even though she couldn’t remember what the words to the song were.
That never bothered her, though. She would just ask Adagio what the song was when she got home. If she forgot by the time she got home, it obviously wasn’t important. She always made sure to remember the important things. If she couldn’t remember, Sonata would always reassure herself that she didn’t need to remember right away. She was immortal, she had time to think about things later.
For now, though, she was on a mission. She carried a bag in her hand as she pranced through the crowded sidewalk, gracefully passing each person as though she was water running through a stream. In her bag, a big, tasty cake, custom made for her by the nice people from Sugar Cube Corner.
After going there last night, Sonata found out that they make a bunch of sweets other than just milkshakes, and decided she needed to visit right away. So, first thing in the morning, she gathered her pocket money and arrived just as they opened to get a tasty treat.
She knew Adagio liked the strawberry, but Aria liked chocolate more. Sonata didn’t mind either flavor, so she got one mixed with both for all of them to enjoy. They hadn’t had cake in a long time, so she caught herself licking her lips in anticipation as she continued to think about how good it was going to taste.
Her merry skipping was halted suddenly by a song coming from a nearby TV. She turned sharply to stare at an electronics store, with a couple of monitors all broadcasting a repeat of a show from last night: “So you think you can Sing?”
She never got the chance to watch what she wanted very often, but that was always a show she loved to keep up with, much to the disgust of her sisters after recent events. Sonata guessed the name of the show was a little bit offensive to them at this point.
“Yes! Show Stopper made it!” She exclaimed after seeing the results, causing all nearby people to turn at her, bewildered. Oblivious to the looks, she giggled to herself before resuming her skipping.
Sonata took a moment to congratulate the singer in her head, then that made her think about her singing voice. She pouted at the thought again, but remembered that Adagio said she had a plan, and that everything was going to be okay, making her smile again. As long as her sister was going to be confident about it, she was going to as well. They need to be strong for each other now.
Without realizing, she began to hum the song Show Stopper had sung on the TV, matching her steps to the beat.
Now she imagined walking home, revealing the cake to a surprised Adagio and Aria:
“Ta-da! I got us a cake!” She saw herself throwing her arms in the air.
“Wow, Sonata!” Aria would say, excited, putting her hands against her cheeks.
“This is the best gift, ever!” Adagio would gasp, giving her a warm hug.
Then the three of them would eat it quickly, laughing and smiling all the while.
The picture was an exciting thought, and her anticipation only grew with every skip down the street.
As she reached the door at the third floor of their condo complex, Sonata took a deep breath to prepare herself. She opened the door to her home, putting a big smile on her face, and walked in calmly as she announced “I’m home!”
She saw Aria and Adagio in the kitchen, each making themselves some form of breakfast. They were still in their sleep attire, and looking at her with disdain. “Where were you so early in the morning?” Adagio asked grumpily, sounding as she had just woken up.
“Oh, I just went out,” Sonata replied slyly, holding her bag behind her back as if trying to hide it.
“What’s in the bag?” Aria asked, not sounding as interested as Sonata would like.
“It’s just a little treat for all of us,” she said in the same tone. The girls looked emotionless as she placed the bag on the table, pulling it down to reveal the marvelous perfection that was her cake.
“Ta-da! I got us a cake!” Sonata exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air and grinning wide, just like she imagined earlier.
Her sisters stared at her, eyebrows raised for a few moments, before Adagio returned to pouring her coffee, and Aria munching on a toaster pastry.
“Do you girls love it?” she asked, not sure why they weren’t jumping all over it, like she pictured.
“Sonata, why did you get a cake?” Adagio asked, her tone a bit more irritated. “It’s 8 in the morning. Who would want to eat cake at 8 in the morning?”
--Meanwhile, at Pinkie Pie’s house---
An alarm rang suddenly, causing Pinkie to reach over and smack it off when her hand. Excitedly, she sat up from bed, and opened the drawer next to her bed.
“Oh boy, 8am!” She reached in, and pulled out a full cake. Carefully setting it on her bed, Pinkie then planted her face directly into the center, sending frosting everywhere.
“Well, I hoped that you girls would like getting a surprise... You know, after all that’s happened lately,” she muttered, her voice losing enthusiasm as she went on. She decided it was a terrible idea, after all. Hanging her head in defeat, she started to wrap the bag back over the cake.
Aria’s hand suddenly placed itself on top of the container. “We never said we don’t like it, it’s just way too early to eat sweets, you idiot.” She looked up to see her sister smirking.
“You’re the idiot, idiot,” she replied, laughing a little. Sonata never realized that. Then again, she did find it strange how it was still dark outside when she arrived at the bakery.
She supposed she was a little excited this morning, and Adagio had her put the dessert in the refrigerator, so they would eat it later. They enjoyed the sentiment, though, which made it just as good for Sonata.
Now that they seemed a little less grumpy than their usual morning selves, Sonata felt confident enough to ask them to do something with her.
“Hey Aria, wanna play Super Brawler-”
“I’m working on a project right now,” she interrupted, hurrying past to her room. As she shut the door, Sonata turned, looking at Adagio with a slight smile.
“Do you wanna play a few rounds, Dagi’?”
“Sonata, I need to drink my coffee, and take a shower, then start the laundry,” she counted on her fingers, continuing on with a list of things that needed to be done.
As Adagio listed more chores, Sonata’s hope diminished more and more, to the point where she hung her head again, feeling rejected.
Her chin was pulled back up by Adagio’s hand, making her look her sister in the eye. She was smiling, and looked to be holding back a laugh. “But, if you help me do all that, yes. I don’t need you moping around the house all day like a neglected puppy.”
Yes! Sonata beamed with excitement, and did a victory jump. She scooted past her to start her own breakfast while she waited for Adagio to start her chores.
“Operation: Cheer up Sisters is underway,” she thought to herself, making a smirk in secret.
‘Finally, a moment to relax,’ Adagio thought to herself.
She had set herself on the couch, with a bit of food to snack on. Watching some soap opera, Adagio wanted a bit of a wind down before she went to bed. It was still early in the night, and her sisters had retreated to their rooms, so she saw no reason not to. After everything that had happened as of late, she felt like she deserved it. Running into the Rainbooms as the mall the other day really shook her up, but she was holding together rather well afterwards. Adagio actually felt a little better after crying it all out, and thought maybe all she needed was a bit of stress relief.
Soon after, Adagio looked to find that they had spent over $4000 in that last month, counting rent. Their lax hold on their funds from their previous lifestyle was now a major threat to their future. Even though Adagio was being more strict on their expenditures, it was apparent that was still insufficient, and required a bit of mending to form a budget. She told her sisters to cut back on all of their purchases until she worked something out.
She then had them start looking for jobs, because a budget can not work without a source of income, at the least. Sonata seemed to be having luck with three interviews already, but all of them apparently turned her down. Adagio could only imagine why, but her sister never said the reason.
Aria, on the other hand, never managed to get past a phone call. With her attitude and comments she left on her resume, it was no wonder that employers were less than delighted in meeting her in real life.
Adagio knew that she would probably be the most likely candidate for getting a job, what with her way with words and level head. Still, they wouldn’t last very long if she was puling all the weight. After dozens of phone calls and e-mails over the past week, she finally set up an appointment to meet the owner of a bar, the Wild Turkey. Pubs weren’t usually her favorite place, but when times are hard...
“Oh, Debra, promise me you’ll never leave me again!”
“You’re the only true man for me, John.”
‘Oh, she forgave him after all,’ she mused to herself. ‘The series' ending would have had a bigger impact if they strayed away from the “Happily Ever After.” Those don’t happen in real life.’
Adagio was about to stand up, aiming the remote at the TV, when she heard a familiar scuttle sound. Sighing, she closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable.
“Hey, Adagio.” It was Sonata, in her pajamas.
“Did you want to sleep out here again?” she asked bluntly.
“Well, kinda, but I see you’re going to bed, so...” She trailed off, holding her arms behind her back in a nervous fashion.
Adagio didn’t want to sleep out here again, her back would be ruined tomorrow, but Sonata’s little guilt trips made it hard for her to say no at times. Still, she was going to persevere. “Alright. Goodnight, Sonata.”
As she stood up, the screen shutting off, Sonata seemed to pout a little, but then smile. “So, I have another interview tomorrow,” she said cheerily.
“Another one?” Adagio asked. “That makes what, four now? How in the world are you getting so much attention?”
“I dunno,” she replied nonchalantly. “I’m just following Pinkie’s advice.”
She felt her eye twitch, not sure if she heard right. “Say again?”
Sonata paused for a moment, before slowly putting her hands in front of her mouth, clearly saying something she shouldn’t have.
“Sonata,” she pressed, placing a firm hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Say that name again.”
Not wanting to disobey her sister, Sonata gulped loudly. “P-Pinkie Pie?” She visibly recoiled, as if expecting Adagio to strike her, shutting her eyes.
“What did I tell you about talking to them?” she scolded, her voice starting to increase in volume.
“Well, we aren’t talking,” she explained. “It’s texting. And we’re only texting about silly stuff, nothing serious.”
“Bring me your phone,” she said, quiet, but with authority, and held out her hand.
Sonata tried to stammer a defense, but failed. She quickly grabbed her cell phone from her room before placing it in Adagio’s waiting hand.
“I just want to see what kinds of things you are sending her,” she assured. Sonata nodded, but looked at the phone in fear, as if it was hiding some dark secret.
Navigating the screen menus to find her message box, Adagio opened a conversation titled “P.P.” It was obvious who this was, but the abbreviation made her roll her eyes. The messages were rather basic, and some were just plain ridiculous. She skimmed through them quickly until she found her most recent ones.
“Hey Sonata, any luck with the dentist office position? :D”
“No. Turns out they won't let you work there if you set their sinks on fire. -_-”
“Oh, I have an idea! How about asking the Cakes at Sugar Cube Corner?!!! They said I can start working there after summer starts, maybe they will let you too!!”
“That would be awesome! I didn’t even think about that :O”
Turning the screen off, Adagio handed it back to Sonata, who grabbed it quickly with both hands, and flinched again, as if expecting some backlash. She wanted to lash out, after being disobeyed like that, but her messages were merely small talk. Knowing Sonata, having someone to talk to would be nice for her, especially since it would probably cure a bit of her boredom. There was nothing in there that Adagio could reasonably be upset about, but she wasn’t going to be soft on Sonata this time.
“You know that I told you not to talk to them,” she reminded her sister again. “So because you went against what I said, you have to do the dishes for the next week.”
“What!?” Sonata nearly shouted, getting a slicing motion from Adagio to be quiet. “But I hate dishes so much!”
“Well I hate when you do things behind my back," she argued. "Now, apologize. I don;t want to hear any more excuses."
Sonata didn’t seem to have a response for that. She instead pouted, looked down with a small glare, and walked back to her room. “Sorry,” she mumbled, before closing herself off again.
Adagio made a quiet groan. She knew she upset Sonata, but ignoring her orders was something she couldn’t just brush aside. Adagio needed to maintain a form of authority over those two, and she liked to think it was fair for the most part. but there were times she needed to put her foot down.
Sonata always made her work for her conviction, though, with her puppy dog eyes and innocent demeanor. Adagio wasn’t swayed by it very often, but it always left a feeling of guilt.
It was late, and Adagio decided that she had brooded enough for the night.
~~~
Adagio stretched herself along the beach, feeling the warm sand against her body. Taking a deep breath, the salty air helped her relax a bit more. All that could be heard around her was the sound of the seagulls screaming, and the waves as they crashed along the beach front. She periodically felt the water rise up against her, and the sudden chill would surprise, but was not uncomfortable.
Opening her eyes, she looked to the sky, taking a moment to enjoy the beauty of the light blue, and the clouds that were laid out in patches along it. After stretching her hooves in front of her, she decided to roll over, allowing her belly to lay on the beach so she could look farther inland.
She saw nothing but the short cliff that cut off the beach from the grassland. The sand stretched on as far as she could see in either direction to her sides, and it helped solidify her feeling of isolation.
She was alone, if only for a few precious moments.
No doubt her sisters would soon find where she had snuck off to, and come to ruin her peace. Adagio liked her sisters, but there were many times where she could barely tolerate them, and wondered how they even tolerated each other, with their constant bickering.
Until then, though: peace.
Adagio rolled about a bit in the sand some more, feeling as giddy as a child, until something caught her eye. She leaned forward, looking to the ocean, where she could have sworn she saw a gleam of light.
After scanning a bit, she saw it again, a light green glimmer on the ocean surface. It looked familiar, but she couldn’t tell what it was from here. She grunted a bit, pulling around to drag herself into the water. Adagio could have flown, but she was going to be in the water soon, anyway. She submerged herself, embracing the sudden change to cold water, and began swishing her tail and fins to propel herself forward at high speed.
As she swam closer, she noticed that the gleaming was coming from the bottom of the sea floor, stopping when an unsettling current brushed her. Staring at the red light, she began to see a whirlpool forming from it, stretching all the way to the surface. She was not being pulled in to it, but stared at it in awe. Adagio had not seen a whirlpool of this size before, and the light at the base must have signified something.
‘Adagio,’ a smooth voice called out to her. It was faint, but she heard it clearly calling to her.
‘ADAGIO,' it called again, now shaking the water near her with it’s booming voice.
~~~
“ADAGIO!!!”
A scream woke her from her slumber, along with the feeling of being violently shaken.
Returning a scream of shock, Adagio stirred from her sleep to backhand her assailant. She didn’t connect, but tried to physically prepare in case she needed to defend herself again. Squinting from the lack of light in her room, she made out a figure standing beside her bed, and after thinking for a few seconds, Adagio realized that it was just her sister.
“Um Gottes willen, Sonata,” she whined. “You’ll wake the whole building. What do you want?”
“Oh, sorry. I just wanted to let you know I was leaving, since you said to let you know from now on.”
She looked over at her clock, which read 6:18. She turned to the window, seeing it was still dark outside. “Where are you going so early?”
“To see the bakers at the Sugar Cube Corner, remember?” She giggled a bit, continuing. “Pink-, I mean, that girl got me a chance to see if I can work there part time. Maybe if I’m good, they’ll keep me!”
“Well,” Adagio grumbled, “just don’t burn down the shop.” She snuggled herself back into the covers of her bed, ready to go back to sleep.
“Okay,” she whispered, noticing her sister was sleeping again. “Bye,” she added, and proceeded to tiptoe away.
For the next few seconds, Adagio would hear silence, followed by a slight creak, then silence, and creak. Sonata was cautiously leaving her room, and the slow creaking was starting to drive her insane.
One more creak, and she suddenly sprang up from her covers, and shouted at her. “Just go, already!”
Speeding away, Sonata closed the door behind her and was gone in a moment. Satisfied, Adagio flopped back onto her bed like a fish.
Now that her mind was moving a bit more, she took a moment to reflect on her dream. What did it all mean? She hadn’t dreamed of being in her old body in quite a while, and none of those involved whirlpools.
“Ugh, too tired right now,” she said aloud, and resumed her sleep.
Later in the afternoon, Adagio had made her way out into town to find the Wild Turkey. Sonata still hadn’t come home, so she assumed that the trial was going well for her. Aria had barely come out of her room, as usual lately, so she didn’t have to worry about her getting into trouble.
She had dressed herself warm, for the cold wind that blew through the city, and carried a small map that led to her destination.
Adagio stood outside of a brown building mixed in with the blue and white wall of shops that lined the city streets. It was not dirty, but was certainly aged. The “Wild Turkey” was a bar that had stood in Canterlot for quite a few years, and had the reputation for making the now famous style of bourbon. Nowadays, it was treated just like any old pub. It was a place to get hammered, maybe start some fights, and do the same thing tomorrow.
She once liked these places, being such easy targets for two reasons: One, they were full of people ready to turn on each other, making a great after-dinner show. Two, there was free alcohol involved. Adagio didn’t drink often, but when she did, she prefer it be free.
Adagio looked at the advertisement on the window, listing the same information the newspaper ad showed. “It looks like this is the place,” she muttered to no one in particular.
Looking down the street, she noticed that there were only a minute amount of people walking, nothing compared to the traffic of downtown. She started to wonder the security of this place, but decided to walk in.
The Wild Turkey had an older theme to it than most bars Adagio had visited recently. The style reflected that of what she remembered back from the “Wild West” era, and the wood surfaces looked to be rather well kept for their age.
She noted a few bar patrons who had arrived early for the night, already starting on a drink or two, but scanned around until she saw the bartender. He was a big man, well built and toned for his age. Adagio could tell this man was in his later years, around 60, by the wrinkles on his face and the white of his hair.
He had been rubbing a glass with a towel, the stereotypical barkeep pose, and chatting with another customer until he noticed her approach. His expression shifted from curious, to interest, raising an eyebrow and smiling slightly. She resisted rolling her eyes, knowing that he was clearly observing her. Adagio was not unaware of how she looked, but she didn’t like the idea of some mortal gawking over her unless she permitted it.
“Well, howdy miss,” he greeted politely, his voice a little gravely. “What can I do to help a fine lady like yourself?”
Remembering she needed to act politely, Adagio leaned her arms on the counter between them, smiling softly. “Well, I heard you had an opening for an entertainer,” she spoke with a subtle suggestion.
His smile turned to a small grin for a moment, before he corrected himself. “Ah, so you're the girl who called yesterday. I wasn’t expecting someone as nice as you to take up my ad. What was your name again?” He set his cup down to listen intently.
She brushed a hand through her hair. “Adagio Dazzle is my full name.”
“What’s your story?”
“I’ve come down with a bit of hard times, and need to make a little extra cash.”
“Living alone?”
“No, I live with my sisters.”
He hummed at that, putting a finger to his chin. “That’s pretty nice. You supporting them well?”
“I do my best to keep the place in order,” she jested. Adagio was unsure why he was asking such questions, but figured she would roll with it. She had not ever applied for a job before, after all.
He laughed a little at that comment. “I feel ya there, sister.” He made a gesture to the rest of the bar. “Late at night, it doesn’t take much for this place to fall into chaos.”
She nodded, easily picturing a familiar scene of a dozen drunken men piling on top of each other. “So, what exactly do you need from me as an ... entertainer?” she asked, bringing the subject back on course. Adagio was still unsure what her job was going to be, though she assumed the worst, seeing as the ad was not very specific.
The man blinked a couple of times, as if unsure what she meant, then his eyes went wide. “Oh! Right, the job.” He waved her over to follow him to the back wall of the pub.
He introduced himself as High Rye, the owner. Apparently, his grandfather, Wild Turkey, had opened the bar, and it was a family business since. He made sure to keep his history lesson short, finishing by the time they reached a small stage with a grand piano on it.
“You want me to play music?” Adagio asked, walking over and running a hand along the sleek black piano.
That made High Rye laugh again. “Well, yeah! What did you think I meant by ‘entertainment’? You thought I’d make you hop around for these drunk bozos like some kinda exotic dancer?”
‘Well, that was one thought,’ she thought to herself. Relieved of that possibility, she let out a sigh. “The advertisement wasn’t very specific, so I wasn’t exactly sure what you needed.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I guess that would confuse you,” he pondered aloud, rubbing a hand against his chin. “But anyway, the last guy I had moved on a few days ago, got himself a studio job. He always played the piano, and the boys loved that, so I’m looking for someone to fill that spot.” He turned to raise an eyebrow at her. “Think you can play well enough to keep the bar lively?”
Adagio smiled, feeling a bit excited from being challenged. “It’s been a while, but I think I can pick up my old skills.”
High Rye asked her to get a feel for it, warm up a bit. If she played to his satisfaction, he’d give her the job. It was simple enough, but she hadn’t actually touched the piano in years. Adagio had lately leaned onto her voice for her musical practice, but remembered that she had played a piano for hundreds of years before. It was certainly a wonder of human creation, and made beautiful music, as well as an inconspicuous intro to their hypnotic spells.
She thought back to her practice scales, playing lightly at first to keep the volume down, and stretching her fingers. Finishing those, she broke out into one of her favorite pieces, one that required her to flutter her right hand along the keys, while holding the long chords on her left. Adagio felt herself melding into the music as she kept playing, finding a bit of peace in the notes. As she continued on, she was able to bring the song to it's original speed, which was much faster than she had started playing, and closed her eyes so she could feel the music.
She finished her song, finding herself smiling, proud that her muscle memory still did not fail her. Pulling the cover over the keys, she looked back up to see High Rye, as well as another dozen men who weren’t in the bar before, staring at her in awe.
Fluffing her hair as a bit of show, she gave a confident grin. “I hope that was satisfactory.”
High Rye, collecting himself faster than the others, just chuckled a bit. “I like it. When can you start?”
It was nearly two in the morning by the time Adagio trudged her way through the front door. The lights were still on, which irked her. If the girls were going to bed, they knew better than to leave the lights on.
High Rye was so impressed with her playing earlier that day, that he let her start working right away. So, despite still being new, she was playing her piano just a few hours later, and did so until around 1AM, when he closed it down. He gave her her earnings for the night, in cash, as well as nearly $50 in what he called “tips” that the patrons gave her.
Apparently, by being entertaining enough, people give you extra money, that you get to keep outside of the payroll. If she made the amount of money she did tonight, every night, four nights a week, Adagio alone could cover the rent. Despite the uncomfortable atmosphere with all of the drunk men and women, Adagio mused she could enjoy herself.
Going into the kitchen to turn off the lights, she saw there was someone slumped over the kitchen table, snoring away. Sonata had her head resting on the table, arms draped and hanging down the side, and a puddle of drool was near her mouth. Ignoring the gross mess, she looked to the center of the table to see a box labeled “For Aria and Adagio”.
Curious, Adagio opened the top of the box to reveal a... She thought it was a pastry, but couldn’t tell.
It was certainly covered in frosting, but the shape was jagged, uneven, and wasn’t very big. After close inspection, she assumed it was a cake, seeing the inside from a missing piece Aria must have taken.
‘Must be her first attempt at real cooking,’ she guessed, trying to hold back a laugh. She found herself smiling, and closed the box back up before turning back to Sonata. With how she was sleeping, she was going to be freezing in the morning. Adagio walked over to the couch to remove a blanket she had stretched along the top, and brought it over to lay on her sister.
“I’m not in the mood, Aria,” Sonata muttered in her sleep, flinching from the feeling of the blanket on her.
She couldn’t resist after that. Adagio snorted, smacking a hand over her mouth to stop herself from further outbursts. She could only imagine what was going on in her head, but any thought that came to mind was humorous.
Leaving the kitchen, she turned the lights off in the living room and made her way to her room to retire. As she walked through the dark hallway though, a voice caught her ears. She froze outside Aria’s room, and realized it was Aria who she heard. Adagio pressed her ear gently against the door, hoping to catch what she just heard again.
She waited until Aria spoke, and it took a moment for Adagio to realize that she was singing. Gasping, she cupped a hand over her ear, hoping to hear better. It wasn’t her old voice, not nearly as beautiful, but Aria was definitely singing. Adagio listened in earnest as her sister tried to keep in tune, but gave up after a few lines.
“Still doesn’t work,” she heard Aria grumble. “I don’t know why I keep trying.”
Pulling back from the door, Adagio found herself a little shocked. She had assumed that Aria gave up her singing weeks ago, but here she was, still trying. This must have been a pattern for her for a while now. Adagio had done the same thing, finding times to practice her voice in secret, and nearly every day. She could understand why Aria would be secretive about this.
The door suddenly opened, causing Adagio to jump back a bit, but she quickly shrugged it off, and acted like she was just now walking down the hall as Aria stepped outside. Her hair was down, she had a green sweatshirt with sweatpants, and she looked like she was pretty tired.
Aria’s eyes widened a bit after seeing Adagio, akin to how she would react after getting caught with her hand in a cookie jar. “Hey Adagio,” she said casually. “Where were you all day?”
Not wanting to bring up an awkward conversation just yet, Adagio just smiled. “I got myself a job, and they keep me a little late.” She continued walking past her, acting casual.
Aria huffed. “I didn’t picture you getting along with someone trying to tell you what to do.”
“I get a lenient position, so I’m bearing with it.”
“Did you...” She paused, about to say something, but then shifted her tone. “see the cake Sonata made?”
Adagio looked back. “Yeah. How did her job go?”
“Well, she said they liked her enthusiasm, but she ended up trashing their kitchen, and spent half the time she was there cleaning it.”
“That sounds like Sonata, all right,” she groaned. “Hopefully she can stick to something long enough to make money.”
Both were quiet for a few moments, before Adagio slipped her coat off. “Well, I had a long night, so I’m going to bed.”
Aria moved her eyes around, scrunching her face for a moment. “Kay. Night.”
“Hopefully I’ll see you sometime tomorrow?” Adagio asked, getting a curious expression from Aria. “I haven’t seen much of you for almost a week now. You aren’t upset at me, are you?”
Scoffing, Aria crossed her arms. “No, I’ve just been in my room a little more often lately. That’s not a problem, I hope?”
“No,” she assured. “But I do remember you going out a lot more often than sitting in your room. Just remember you can talk to me if something’s bugging you.” Adagio turned to open her door. Aria didn’t give an answer, just an eye roll, her typical expression of “Yeah, whatever.”
She found it hard to believe she was already getting back in her bed. The day had passed by much more quickly than the last few, and that was a bit of relief for her. Hopefully her sleep wouldn’t be interrupted so rudely this time.
Before resting her head against the pillow, Adagio found her eyes scanning to her night stand, which only held a small lamp, and a clear box containing the shattered remains of her amulet. She was the only one who still had her shards, the other two leaving them on that stage back at Canterlot High, and she held those as the most sacred things in her possession.
Adagio sometimes got emotional just by staring at them, and a part of her longed to see the jewel restored again. She knew it was beyond repair though, and nothing would return her magic to her. Having already cried out all of her worries, Adagio now felt a surge of resolve whenever she looked at them, and promised to not let that dread take her. She had the responsibility to get Aria and Sonata somewhere better, and swore on the fragments of her red gemstone to do so.
"Bye," Sonata whispered quietly to her sister, who was now tucking herself back in bed. She tried as hard as she could to sneak quietly away, but every step she took seemed to make an unbearably loud creak as she put her foot down. Persevering, she continued to make her escape without disturbing her.
“JUST GO ALREADY!” Adagio’s voice suddenly boomed behind her.
Jumping a bit, Sonata shot out of the room as fast as she could run, lest she incur the wrath of sleepy Adagio. She slammed the door shut behind her, and fell back against the wall of the hallway, her heart now racing. If any bit of her was still tired, it was clearly awake now, and for the better, she guessed. She needed to head out soon, and the more alert she was, the more prepared she was for the day. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Sonata pushed herself from the wall, and walked over to Aria’s room. She didn’t need to wake her, but she felt it necessary to see her before she left.
Opening the door quietly, as she had done for Adagio, Sonata pushed her head into the opening to peer inside the dark room. It was only lit by Aria’s computer, which was displaying a wallpaper slide show. Aria was presently reclining in her computer chair, arms folded behind her, and legs resting on her bed. Sonata wondered sometimes why she didn’t just get in bed, but it was her room, so she could do what she wanted.
She looked at her sister, who was quietly snoring, nowhere near as loud as she snored, and couldn’t help but smile. Aria looked so much better with her hair all down like that. Seeing her sleeping like nothing was wrong, it made Sonata feel content inside. Closing the door, she made her way out to the living room.
She already had three interviews since they began the hunt, and all of the people she met seemed like they really liked her, and wanted to hire her. When she did a little bit of practice for the job, however, she found that she just wasn’t any good at it, and it normally ended in disaster for the employer. No matter what it was, Sonata seemed to screw it up somehow: setting a computer on fire, or setting the cash register on fire, or the freezer...
But jobs were like that. You just needed to find the right job for you, something you’re a natural at.
At least, that’s what Pinkie said.
“Doh,” Sonata whispered, hitting herself on the head. She wasn’t supposed to talk to her, or apparently text her either, so she decided she should refrain from thinking about her as well, at least for now. She didn’t want to upset Adagio more than she already had.
Still, Sonata wondered why she didn’t try to reason with her sister about that. Just because she was talking to “That Girl” to kill a little bit of time, it didn’t make it a bad thing to do. Adagio normally knew what was best, and that’s why she listened to all of the rules, to the best of her ability, that she set. The “not-talking-to-any-of-those-girls-in-any-way-shape-or-form” rule, however, seemed like overkill. Adagio would probably come around eventually, so she just had to put up with it until then.
Until she figures everything out...
Her head perked up, pulling herself away from going down that road. She always caught herself trying to brood about things, but it wouldn’t help her with her job. Speaking of, Sonata had started walking to Sugar Cube Corner while lost in her mind, and she finally noticed it just down the street. She tilted her head in curiosity, but figured it was better not to remember a boring walk over, and giddily made her way to the front of the store.
She knocked politely on the glass, knowing they weren’t open yet, and stuck her hands in her sweatshirt pockets, rocking back and forth on her feet as she waited for the door to open. Sonata started to realize how cold it was outside, just as the double door opened, revealing a woman with pink hair and a light blue skin tone, similar to hers.
“Oh, hello deary!” she greeted warmly, holding the door wide. “You must be Sonata Dusk. Come in! Come in!” The woman waved in to the shop.
She gladly complied, wanting to be inside again. “So, uh, I’m here for the job!” Sonata exclaimed confidently, unsure of what she should be saying.
The baker just chuckled a bit. “Well, i would hope so. Otherwise, I might have mixed you up for the other Sonata.”
“Wait, there’s another Sonata?” she asked, surprised by that statement. She wasn’t sure if that was possible, for there to be another her. There couldn’t be, could there?
That made the woman laugh loud this time. “Oh, you’re such a delight!” She beckoned Sonata to follow her into the back. “I’m Mrs. Cake, but you can call me Cup Cake if you want. My husband, Carrot, is in the back already waiting for you.”
She felt touched. “You guys were waiting for me? Nobody ever waits for me.” She couldn’t help but let a smile make it’s way on her face.
They entered the kitchen, where an orange haired man was laying out a ton of cooking supplies; this was a bakery, after all. As they walked in, his attention turned to them, and he perked up a bit, smiling to Sonata. “Well, hey there,” he called out. “Glad you were able to show up on such short notice. Sorry about the early meeting, but it’s the only real time we can talk before business starts.”
Sonata just shrugged, starting to feel a bit nervous. “Oh, it’s no big deal. I get up early all the time anyway.” She didn’t really, unless she needed to, but she hoped it would make a better impression.
“Now I hear you’re a friend of Pinkie’s, is that right?” Mrs. Cake asked, walking over to her husband and hugging his arm gently.
“Friend? Uh, well, not really,” Sonata tried to explain. They weren’t friends, “That Girl" just suggested a couple of job ideas to her. “We’re more like, enemies.”
They both looked at each other in confusion, then back to her. “What do you mean, deary?”
“We had a big battle at the High School a while ago, and she and her friends beat us. So that kinda makes her my enemy instead of a friend.”
Mr. Cake nodded, seeming to understand. “Ah, the Band Battle the girls won. That’s more of a rival then, eh?”
Sonata paused for a moment, unsure what he meant. She hadn’t considered any of those girls rivals before. It was certainly a step above enemy.
Getting on with the pleasantries, the Cakes explained to Sonata what it was they needed of her. Apparently, baking cakes and stuff took a lot of hard work, so they needed to do it early in the morning to be ready for the whole day. They wanted her to assist them in the kitchen, passing ingredients, stirring bowls, that sort of thing. Just whatever they asked her to do, until she got the hang of it.
She found herself focusing hard at first, making sure not to make them wait any longer than a few seconds. The Cakes had trays of dough all across the counter, and Sonata needed to make sure to move them into the oven when they were ready. When she wasn’t doing that, they always seemed to be needing some ingredients that were placed on the opposite side of the room. Sonata wondered why they didn’t just work where the food items were, but it wasn’t her place to judge.
After running around for what seemed like forever, Mrs. Cake told her they were going to open the store for the day, and she wanted Sonata to start working on the dough and batter from now on. She showed her how to start, and told her Mr. Cake would help if she needed it.
Sonata took this moment to relax. She couldn’t remember the last time she worked so hard before, and it was so much fun. All of the other jobs would have made her sit around all day, but being a baker required a lot of moving around. That was way better than being bored. Besides, while she was cooking, she got free samples!
She quickly ran a finger down the apron they provided her to scoop off some chocolate dough, and placed her finger in her mouth to pluck the batter off. Having had her treat, she licked her lips and went back to mixing even more.
As her heart stopped racing, though, she found herself no longer distracted by orders and tasks. She began to slow down her pace, and Sonata’s mind trailed off to the place she always went whenever she wasn’t preoccupied: Thinking about her sisters, and how hard it must be on them. Thinking about herself, and how hard she was trying to not let them see her being anything but loopy, or happy. It was getting harder, with Aria’s thinning patience, and Adagio not as energetic as she used to be.
Aria used to banter with her a lot, always calling her “the worst” or some derogatory insult, but that was just her way. More often than not, though, she just seemed to get bored of arguing, and would just stop sometimes.
Adagio, being the leader that she was, always used to plan out their days. She would say “Alright, today we’re gonna terrorize this retirement home,” or “The plan is raiding that charity event later today.” But now, she just left her and Aria to their own plans, still ordering them about home chores, but that wasn’t the same.
She wished they could just go back to what they used to do. The old life they had before was way better than what they were doing to each other now. Both of her sisters were putting up their brave faces, not wanting to show them that they were hurt, but Sonata could tell. It was obvious to her, with both of them starting to act so hidden and reclusive. Sonata wanted to be open about her being upset, but knew that would just makes things worse, so she needed to act like she wasn't upset either. It was for them, more than for her.
Her thought process was broken momentarily by Mr. Cake calling out to her. “Sonata? Have you finished mixing that batch yet?”
Oh crap! She had managed to subconsciously mix up a couple of bowls of cookie dough, but her daydreaming slowed down her pace significantly. Her eyes darted around, looking for the last ingredient she needed to add. Glancing over a bottle of brown liquid, she hurriedly grabbed it, not wanting to get in more trouble for taking too long, and dumped the contents in the dough.
“No, not that!” Mr. Cake tried to call out, but it was too late.
As the bottle poured into the dough, it immediately began to foam up and over the edge of the bowl. The liquid carbonated as it expanded across the counter, and Sonata's scream raised with the foamy mass as it kept getting taller.
There were a series of shouts, screams, and pans falling about before Mrs. Cake could finally break away from her customer at front counter to see what in the blazes was going on back there. She entered to find her kitchen, clean and organized only half of an hour ago, now in complete disarray. She saw Sonata and her husband, both with eyes as wide as dinner plates, and seeming to be holding something in the sink.
Mrs. Cake panned around one more time to see the full devastation. There was the foamy brown mush that was covering her entire right side of the kitchen, spilling from the counters onto the floor. A few wet pans were either on the counter or the floor, looking to have been removed from the sink. There were two baking sheets, with finished treats on them, flipped upside down on the floor, their contents now scattered onto the ground near the oven. Her look shifted to irritation as she glared at the two across from her. “Sonata, please get to cleaning this mess,” she ordered. Sonata immediately complied, scrambling to find towels to absorb the big mess of bubbly water.
“And Carrot, dear,” she called next, in a polite tone that sounded opposite to her expression. “I need to speak with you.” Her husband cringed, then hung his head as he followed her outside of the kitchen.
She was then left by herself, left to clean up a giant mess that she created. This was a familiar setting for her by now: She started her job, then screwed it up, just like she always seemed to do anyways. This was her chance, to show Adagio and Aria that she was able to support herself on her own. She wanted to prove that, even though she wasn’t as smart, or as talented, or as good they were at anything, she could still do something to help.
Sonata felt herself choking as tears formed in her eyes. She kept cleaning, but couldn’t hold back her quiet sobs as she felt the weight of guilt and pity pile on top of her. The only thing she had a use for until now was perfecting the trio of Sirens, allowing them to be unstoppable. Other than that, there wasn’t much good she did for her sisters. Sonata wanted to change that, but the foaming cookie dough in the sink was just another example of what happened when she tried.
Getting the water off of the counter, she quickly found a mop and bucket to soak up the mess on the floor. She grabbed all of the pans, and dropped pastries, and sorted them out in the sink before leaning against the counter, having finished cleaning.
She gave a heavy sigh, knowing now that she just had to wait for the Cakes to come back and give her the same speech the other places gave her. “Well, we really like you, Sonata,” she said in a voice mimicking Mrs. Cake, “but we think that we want to go another direction.” Another direction, meaning they don’t want her. She held her arms close to her, angry and upset with the inevitable outcome.
The door swung open, and Sonata perked her head up to see Carrot and Cup Cake walking in, just finishing up a conversation. They looked in and stopped, eyes darting around the room. The two looked surprised, but by what, Sonata couldn’t tell.
“S-Sonata, dear?” Mrs. Cake started, “Did you really clean all this?”
She looked around, saw the clear counters, stacked dishes, and dry floor before answering. “Yeah,” Sonata croaked nervously, expecting a different reaction from them.
Carrot stepped forward, looking around intently. “Wow, that’s incredible! I would have been cleaning that mess up forever!”
Sonata couldn’t help but be confused. “Yeah, but I made the mess. You want to punish me, don’t you? You don’t want to hire me because I’m clumsy.”
Cup Cake smiled, looking a bit nervous. "Well, we had thought of doing so, but now it's like the mess never even happened."
She paused, looking around. “What do you mean?”
“Sonata,” Mr. Cake chuckled, “me and the Mrs. weren’t even talking for five minutes, and you had this place picked up as if it was brand new!” He seemed really excited. “You have no idea how much of a relief that is to me.”
Before she could figure out what they were saying, Mrs. Cake walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her recoil a bit. "Deary, we weren't aware you didn't know how to cook," she said, referring to her needing to be shown how to mix dough. "Pinkie Pie just told us you would be a perfect candidate for the job, and we assumed that you would be fine on your own."
Sonata shook her head slightly, not understanding. "But, I messed up! I can't help you two at all. I'm just going to keep screwing up if I stay here," she trailed off, hanging her head and tucking it close between her shoulders.
Mrs. Cake smiled sympathetically, rubbing the shoulder she still held. "Now now, what's done is done. But we still have a whole day ahead of us. We can't just send you off if we still need you."
Sonata finally met eyes with her, and they explained that they wanted her to try to make it through the day. Instead of cooking, they would have her take care of the kitchen cleanliness, as well as the tables in the dining room. Starting slowly, and eventually they would let her work in the kitchen again. Sonata nearly cried when she was told she could still work, giving the Cakes a giant hug. Glad to not be “let go,” she gladly accepted her new job responsibilities.
As the day carried on, she excitedly ran between dining room and kitchen, making sure all of her counters and tables were spotless, and bringing orders to the tables of customers that were eating in. Some customers that came by were surprised to see someone like a waitress in Sugar Cube Corner, and kept watching her in interest. The attention just made her want to work harder, not wanting to disappoint anyone.
It was around 4pm when Sonata was told she could go home. She took a moment to realize what that meant, forgetting that she was working at a job. Instead of taking off immediately though, she asked for permission to make something of her own, with supervision of course. She had never baked before, and Mrs. Cake led her through the steps, but let her do it herself. After a couple of awkward adjustments to make up for messing up the recipe, Sonata placed her creation in the over to let it cook.
When it was finished, Mrs. Cake took it out carefully, and gave it an odd look. The thing was very uneven, despite being made in a mold, and it wasn’t very big. Sonata didn’t seem to notice the flaws, though, being too proud of her first creation. She would be a master baker in no time.
Boxing it up, she made her way home quickly. Sonata always loved getting treats for the three of them to share, and this one was hand made! Her mood was leagues higher than it had been this morning, and she still had the entire rest of the night to keep it going. Skipping her way through town, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride in her work.
Reaching home just as the sky turned dark, Sonata let herself in, shouting her traditional “I’m home!” No one responded, but that was fine. They could have gone out, or maybe they were just hiding, but that made the surprise all the more surprising.
Her heart still racing from anticipation, she set the box on the center of the table, and sat down in a chair facing the door. She decided that she was going to wait until one of her sisters walked in, and show off her awesome bakery skills. Maybe they would compliment her, or something else equally good.
Time passed, a long time. She wasn't even sure how long it could have been, with the sky black, and the entire condo silent. After all of this time waiting, she began to feel sleepy. Sonata was running around all day, and had been up since early morning, but she kept telling herself she needed to stay up until they came home. After all, what was the point of making a surprise treat if she wasn’t awake to surprise them with treats?
She looked down at the sleeve of her sweatshirt, staring at her elbow. Sonata didn’t want to sleep yet, but that comfy spot in her elbow pit looked like the most comfortable thing in the room to put her heavy head on. After a long and powerful mental debate, her arm proved to have a much more compelling argument, convincing her to lean against it, and she passed out immediately.
Aria took a long time panning around the room from the counter. She noted all of the empty granite tables, and their dark red chairs that sat tucked in near them. Her eyes skimmed across the light brown tiles that ran along the floor, noticing how very clean and smooth they all were. Even the counter she was leaning on was near perfect in appearance, save for the few fingerprints she left where her hand was resting.
She had a moment to absorb it all, taking in a deep breath of the peace, before she could no longer avoid what she was feeling right then. “Ugh, I’m so bored!” she nearly shouted as she leaned an elbow against the counter, tapping her fingers against it impatiently.
The girls had managed to do pretty well for the past month. After Adagio and Sonata getting their jobs, it looked like Adagio would stop freaking out about their money now that they got a decent amount of income.
Sonata somehow got a job at the sweet shop downtown, and had managed to not burn it down yet, despite many close calls. From what Aria could pick up, she was working as a waitress, with only limited kitchen work. Trying to picture Sonata actually paying attention long enough to work was surprising at first, but Aria eventually stopped caring after the first week.
Adagio, on the other hand, managed to get a job as a piano player. She played for a bar four nights a week, and managed to get a good pay from there. Aria noticed that she came home with a bottle of wine on some nights, it being a gift from her boss. They never finished the bottles before getting a new one, so they were starting to get a collection in one of their, so far, unused cabinets. She was actually a little jealous that Adagio got a job involving music; it was a lot better than the short straw she managed to pull.
Aria herself had hardly looked for a job until after the other two got theirs. She didn’t want to have a boss, someone standing over her, since she already had to deal with Adagio. Her big sister, though, wouldn’t have any of her attitude. Every day, Adagio would start badgering Aria that she needed to get a job, because she and Sonata were supporting Aria now.
Having enough of the constant pestering, she finally caved. Looking for jobs again, she hoped to get it over with so Adagio would get off her back. It took a little while, but Aria finally managed to get one. She didn’t care what it was, just as long as it got her money. Though now she wish she had looked a little harder.
A little bell dinged, indicating someone finally walked in through the double doors to her left, after the room being empty for what seemed like hours. “Welcome to the Hayburger,” Aria chimed with a false enthusiasm. “What can we get for you today?” she asked, forcing a half smile on her face. Pretending to act nice made her even more irritated than when she was bored. She didn’t really enjoy being “happy.”
Seeming to ignore her greeting, the man walked up in front of her, looking only at the menu that was placed above her. “Yeah, I want the number four. Large. To go,” he said very quickly, well rehearsed, before reaching to grab his wallet.
Rolling her eyes, Aria looked down to her register, typing in his order. “That’s $6.42.”
He handed her his money, she gave him his receipt, and he walked away to the side without another word. Aria glared at him through the corner of her eye, very upset at his attitude. She wasn’t having a fun time here to begin with, and being ignored didn’t help much.
After a few minutes, the man got his food, and left, leaving her back to her boredom. She had a couple of people working with her today, but they were usually hiding away in the kitchen, and she didn’t like them anyway. Aria quickly forgot about the man entirely, as she took a long sigh from being so bored. Who knew standing at a register all day could have been so terribly aggravating?
“Hey Aria,” a voice called out from the back; it sounded like her manager. “I’ll have Short Change take over for you in about ten minutes, then you can get out of here.”
“Thank goodness,” Aria groaned, slamming her head against the top of her cash register. She closed her eyes, gritting her teeth from the collision. A part of her hoped that she could just sleep away those last few minutes, but a little bell sounding told her that wasn’t going to happen. She sighed, and waited for the new customer to get closer to the counter.
“Welcome to the Hayburger, what can I get for you today?” she groaned, not bothering to lift her head.
“Oh! I, um, I’m sorry,” a quiet, timid voice replied.
Aria opened her eyes, slightly curious who was standing there, and not just shouting an order. Pulling her head up, she raised an eyebrow in surprise, and the customer gasped.
It was one of the girls from Canterlot High: Shutterfly, or whatever her name was. She was just standing there, eyes wide, with the rest of her face hidden behind her pink hair. The girl was shaking, and looked to be almost terrified of seeing Aria. She couldn’t be blamed, though, with the vicious glare she was now receiving.
Aria rolled her eyes, scoffing. “What do you want?”
Shutterfly finally gathered herself, holding her hands behind her back, and tapping a foot on the ground. “Well, I was coming to get some lunch, but I can see you’re busy. I can just go, it’s fine.” She started shuffling her way towards the door, looking at Aria with uncertainty.
She wanted to glare the girl out the door, but Aria knew she would get heat from her manager. She decided to suck it up for the moment. There was only ten minutes left, after all. “Look, it’s fine. Just order something.”
“Uh, well okay.” Shutterfly slowly shuffled her way back to the counter, seeming to shrink in size as she did.
Starting again, Aria readied herself at the register. “What do you want?” she asked bluntly, no smiles or happy tone. She heard a strange cluster of murmurs and whines, but couldn’t make out whatever the girl said. “Speak sentences!” Aria snapped suddenly, causing a yelp from her.
“I’ll just have a veggie wrap,” she whispered. Shutterfly reached into her bag to grab her money, trying not to make eye contact with Aria.
“Any fries or drinks?” she rehearsed, not bothering to hide her disinterest.
“Uh, no.”
They didn’t say another word until Aria gave her the receipt, and Shutterfly made her way to the waiting counter, tucking herself near the wall.
Aria could not stand the thought of someone like her being the cause of her downfall, and it irritated her far more than she thought it would. She was drumming her fingers angrily against the counter before a short boy walked up beside her. He had dark red hair, and was wearing the same stupid black hat, shirt and pants that she was.
“About time you got here, Short Change,” she greeted in her normal, grumpy manner.
He put a hand to his chest. “Why, Miss Aria, an employee arrives precisely when he means to.”
“Just take this drawer so I can go.” She signed off from the computer terminal, relieving it to Short Change, and walked her way toward the back.
“It’s nice to see you too!” He called after Aria, giving a huff of irritation, but she didn’t care.
In a swift motion, Aria snatched her time card to clock out, already opening her locker to grab her purse and make her hasty retreat. Aria stopped in front of the mirror by the locker area to look over herself again.
She was wearing a plain black polo shirt that was tucked in to her solid black slacks. The hat on her head was black as well, save for the logo for the Hayburger on the front, and the purple hair that stuck out of the back. The dress policy required her to wear her hair through the back of the hat, which gave her a ponytail similar to Sonata’s. Aria didn’t enjoy that.
She pulled her shirt out from her pants, and took the hat off quickly, causing her hair to flow back. Aria grabbed her star-shaped hairpins from her purse to get her hair back in her twin tails. She hated her hair looking the same as Adagio or Sonata’s, so she couldn’t wear it down, and, under normal circumstances, would never be caught in a ponytail.
Feeling fit to be seen in public again, she exited the employee area, and walked out the door into town. She was fortunate to be let off early today, getting out and home before any of the evening traffic clogged the sidewalks again. Aria just hated walking in crowds.
~~~
Climbing up the stairs to their studio apartment, she entered with a gentle kick on the door, which slammed it open against the wall, and noticed Adagio sitting on their couch. “I’m home, Dag’,” she grumbled, just so she didn’t have to have that argument.
Adagio turned around, and gave her a nod of acknowledgment, her face screaming an expression of boredom, before facing forward again, typing away.
She got a small notebook computer a few weeks ago, one she could carry with her wherever needed. Adagio was working on some kind of paperwork for a while, and needed to use the internet a lot, so she figured having her own device was finally a necessity. After a few awkward days of her trying to use the keyboard correctly, she was rarely seen without it open.
Aria took that bored face as a sign to leave her alone for now. She didn’t mind much, it was better than trying to figure out what to talk about anyway. Making her way to the hall, she threw her purse across the living room to land on her corner chair, and started to take her clothes off to get out of the work smell.
Her shirt halfway up, she walked in to her room to see Sonata sitting in her chair, clicking away on her computer and humming a tune like she was supposed to be there. She covered herself back up before fuming. “Sonata! What the heck are you doing on my computer?!”
Wheeling around in surprise, Sonata looked up at her in shock for a moment, then smiled. “Welcome home, Aria! I was just using your computer like you said I could.”
She paused for a second, unsure how to respond. “What do you mean: ‘Like I said you could?’” she asked in a mocking tone.
Sonata stood up, and took a short breath. “Hey Aria, do you mind if I use your computer while you’re at work today?” She appeared to be quoting herself from earlier. Switching to a hunched position, crossing her arms, she continued. “Psh, sure Sonata. Use my computer as much as you want,” she replied, imitating the sarcastic tone Aria liked to use.
"I was being sarcastic, Sonata,” Aria snapped, groaning and going back to getting herself dressed. She couldn’t argue without getting comfortable first.
Sonata let out a similar groan. “Then why don’t you just say that? I’ve been on here for like, three hours now, thinking you were totally okay with it!” She sat back down, resuming what she was doing. “You and Adagio always talk like that.”
“Well, maybe if you weren’t the worst, you’d be able to understand us half the time.”
“Well, I think you’re the worst, because Adagio at least explains herself to me,” Sonata humphed.
"Because she knows you're such a dip."
"You're a dip!" was the clever comeback.
Rolling her eyes, she changed her topic. “Why do you even need the computer anyway? We decided a long time ago that I was the only one who ever used it. You agreed to moving it in here!"
“Yeah, well it doesn’t mean that we can’t use it if we-” she spun back around, and cut herself off when she looked at the door.
Aria blinked twice before following suit, turning to see Adagio, with a look of death on her face. “Shut up, or at least close the door,” she hissed under her breath before slamming the door shut.
They were quiet for a few seconds, before Aria shook her head. “What’s got her hair in knots, today?” she asked, her tone nitpicking that this wasn’t the first time Adagio had been so snappy.
“I think she’s still working on all of those papers,” Sonata replied, her anger and surprise both removed from her posture. “You know, whatever she’s been doing for the past three weeks.”
“Right.” Adagio had been a bit secretive about whatever she was doing lately. It’s not like she was trying to hide it, but just wouldn’t explain to them. “It’s business,” Aria mocked, repeating what Adagio told them whenever the subject came up.
“So, I’m gonna finish up real fast, then let you have the computer back, kay?” Sonata smiled brightly before wheeling back around to resume typing.
“What are you even doing, anyway?” she asked, still not given a clear answer.
“Oh!” she yelled in surprise, clicking frantically for a few seconds, before moving the chair aside to give Aria a clear view of the monitor. “I’m designing some new clothes for us!”
Aria leaned forward, now in more comfortable attire, to see the project she was working on. On the page were three sketches, each of a faceless mannequin wearing some sort of elaborate clothing. They were, well, sketches. Aria wasn’t really one to go into details about how good something was if she wasn’t interested. After taking a second glance over them, she noticed that they were pretty fancy to be regular clothes, more high tier like they would use while performing.
Sonata always had a knack for drawing, but she only used it when she was sketching clothes. After years of fishing through countless clothing stores to find less than satisfying outfits, Sonata learned that some tailors accepted special orders, custom made. She was dumbfounded when she first found out, and had done it for almost a decade now.
While impressive, which she wouldn’t admit, Aria had to ask: “But what are they for? We don’t sing anymore, and I doubt we can just walk in on any big events or whatever.”
She just chuckled a little in response, turning her head to the side. “I dunno. It just feels really good to make stuff. We haven’t got any clothes in almost three months, not counting those outfits from the mall, so I thought I’d spoil us!” Sonata made a big grin before she clicked one more time on the mouse. “And sent! You can have the computer back, now.”
With that, she skipped out of the room, humming to herself as she closed the door again. The room was quiet finally, which was how it should always be, but Aria felt like she just couldn’t sit down and web surf. Well, she could, but lately she had been getting rather bored of just staring at her computer.
She contemplated going back to the living room, and sitting in her corner. It had been a while since she had sat out there, and the atmosphere would be a little lighter, not to mention warmer. Facing away from the sun, her room window didn’t let it much light, even when she did open the curtains, and it was usually cooler than the rest of the house. Still, Adagio was out there doing who knows what on her notebook, and looked to be super irritated about it. Aria didn’t like the idea of getting hissed at by her sister by walking out to the living room. Besides, what if Sonata was out there?
She thought for a moment, considering the horrible outcomes of leaving the room, before grabbing her phone from her pants, and proceeding outside.
Adagio didn’t seem to acknowledge her as she sat down in her chair, but it didn’t matter. Being in the same room with someone other than her monitor was what she needed after a day like today. The business at work was terribly slow, and having to talk with that Flutter girl made her upset.
Aria messed around on her phone, playing a few games while she sat bored. Periodically, she glanced over to catch Adagio looking at her, or at least around her direction, before going back to her computer. “So, it’s the awkward treatment again?” she asked herself, sighing inside.
She wasn’t sure what it was, but Adagio had been much less outgoing when it came to talking to her for these past few weeks. Adagio seemed to be fine when talking to Sonata, making fun of her and everything, but could never act normal around her. By Aria’s perception of normal, it was usually her bragging about her accomplishment of the day, or pointing out a flaw of Aria’s for good fun.
It was after she got her job when she started acting like that. Adagio would bug her, asking her when she planned on getting one, seeing Sonata get one before her. She would say the same things every time: “It isn’t fair to support you if you aren’t contributing, Aria.” “You know, even Sonata’s working hard, Aria.” She seriously got tired of it real fast, and had a couple of heated arguments with her. After she got her own job though, Adagio stopped. The nagging, the arguing, they just disappeared the moment she told her. Adagio was obviously happy, but had been very quiet since.
"How was work?" Adagio asked suddenly, breaking the eerie silence.
Aria paused so she wouldn't instinctively say anything snide. "It was boring, pretty much the same."
Adagio nodded, not looking up still. "Well, I'm just glad you didn't have any incidents."
"Did Sonata get in trouble again?"
Rolling her eyes, she nodded again. "Carrot Cake called me to let me know that she made a disaster of their soda machine. She's trying her hardest, but I'm just not sure how she will handle small jobs." Adagio let out a sigh, closing her eyes.
Aria just shrugged. "Eh, that's Sonata for you. Not really much we can do about it."
"I already talked to her about it, but if this keeps up, she might have to look elsewhere." She paused for a moment. "You know, I think it would be a great idea if she applied for the Hayburger-"
"Don't even joke about that," Aria snapped, sitting upright. She looked at Adagio, who was holding back a smirk. "It's bad enough with the strangers I have to put up with, I don't need family there too."
Adagio smiled, raising a brow. "You know, your buttons are easier to push than Sonata's sometimes."
Aria just huffed, looking around the room to distract herself. "I'm surprised that you still want to do that, seeing how distant you've been lately."
She hesitated for a short moment, feeling herself crumple a bit. "You know how stressed I've been since... Well, you know when." Adagio looked away, her face losing the smile.
"Yeah, yeah I get it. I've been really edgy too. But you acting so awkward isn't really making this any better." Her sister didn't respond for a moment, which made Aria curious. She perked up, looking across the room to see Adagio hanging her head, her computer closed. Aria felt a pang of guilt, and felt the need to get up. "Hey, Adagio, don't get like that." She made her way to the couch, sitting down next to Adagio. Aria crossed her arms, not sure if she should hug or pat her shoulder, or just give her space, but she felt like she needed to be next to her sister.
Adagio took a couple of breaths before straightening her posture. "I'm fine," she assured Aria. "It's just all of this going on. I never imagined being normal would be so difficult. We really should have practiced this sooner."
"Don't worry too much, Adagio," Aria said, leaning back now. "I mean, we're still looking for a way to get our magic back, whenever we can. We won't have to put up with this much longer."
"You are?" she asked, looking up in surprise.
"Well, yeah," Aria answered, feeling confused herself. "I mean, you kept telling us that was the plan. Sonata may not have as many good sources, but she's still trying. We don't want you doing all the work for that."
Adagio just nodded, looking back down. "I'm going to take a shower," she said suddenly as she got up, placing her notebook gently on the coffee table.
"Don't worry, Dag'," she repeated. "You know we'll figure this out."
Her sister turned around, and saw Aria giving her a small smile, something she knew was difficult for her to do. Adagio smiled back, awkwardly, before going back down the hall. "That's what I'm afraid of," she muttered quietly.
Adagio spent the last two hours tossing back and forth on her bed, unable to get to sleep. She couldn’t get what Aria had said out of her mind.
'We’re still looking for a way to get our magic back. Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out.'
“But there’s nothing to look for” she groaned, turning her head into her pillow. “I’ve already looked. There is nothing we could use to replace our magic in this world.”
Having been in this world for hundreds of years, Adagio had already spent time investigating the pitiful excuse for magic the humans used, while they still used it. It was mostly used by court wizards to perform mundane tasks or basic fire spells; nothing in comparison to what was wielded by the Sirens at their full potential.
After enough time had passed, as technology grew and different forms of machines became prevalent, humans eventually discarded all of their teachings of magic, and wizards ceased to exist entirely. Even at the peak of human’s potential, they lacked anything strong enough to restore their magic; looking for artifacts or hidden scrolls would be a waste of their time.
And Adagio had wasted that time already, when they still tried to find a portal back to Equestria. There had been multiple events where she and her sisters discovered a trinket with some magical ability, but all they could do was make you lighter, or open any locked door; nothing of any use to getting home.
It wasn’t until centuries later, where Adagio realized that they were not going to be able to go home after all; not with any magical device made by humans, anyway. That wasn’t a problem, though, not when they had eternity to think and wait for another chance, when something else would pass through from Equestria. Given enough time, it was bound to happen one day.
She never told them that it was pointless to keep looking, though. Just because she gave up, it didn’t mean she ever told them that. She couldn’t even remember exactly when it happened, but there was just a point in time when she stopped telling them these depressing truths.
But now she wondered what would happen if she just came out with the truth after all these years. 'How would they react? Would they forgive me for lying to them? Would they still trust me?' She had never had these thoughts before, and she never before doubted her decisions and reasoning for deceiving people. Adagio had been doing it for their own benefit to begin with, so there shouldn’t have been any doubt in her mind.
Letting out another groan, Adagio rolled over to look at her nightstand, where a new jar sat containing her jewel shards. She stared at them momentarily before gazing down at her cell phone. Her eyes locked on to it, and she immediately thought about Sunset Shimmer and the other Rainbooms.
We could start as allies. We’ll help you out, if you ever need it. Sunset’s words echoed in her mind.
It wasn’t that Adagio needed help. Maybe just another perspective; someone else to hear her out and help her organize her thoughts. Organizing everything herself was difficult, and it was starting to affect her.
Adagio stared long and hard at her cell phone, fighting the urge to just give in. Eventually, her resolve crumbled, and she grabbed her phone, calling the number Sunset left her.
As the dial tone repeated itself, Adagio grew more nervous, tempted to just hang up with each ring, before the other line picked up.
“Uh, hello?” a groggy voice answered.
“Sunset Shimmer,” Adagio started, hesitating for a bit. “It’s me, Adagio.”
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end, followed by a loud sniffing noise. “Adagio? What’s up? It’s really late.”
“I know. It’s just...” She took a breath before finishing. “I need to talk.”
It was around 9pm on one of her Saturday shifts when the crowd began to flow into the Wild Turkey Bar. The patrons always liked to wait until the late evening to drown away their problems or sorrows of the day. Adagio Dazzle never did mind the late night traffic, in comparison to playing for an audience of one, but the company of so many people who regularly complain about their problems left her irritated at times. Each night, Dazzle, as she was known by the bar patrons, played her piano, she was first bombarded with attention of how well she made it sound, then ignored as night went on and the drinks began to take effect on them.
Adagio was actually surprised that she had managed to stay here for a couple of weeks now. In truth, playing the piano was boring, since she had done so since the instrument was still in its infancy. Yet, the charm of the humble bar kept her more relaxed at work than at home. Besides, if she didn’t feel like playing, High Rye would let her work behind the counter, so she didn’t have to force herself.
She picked up the glass left for her on a little stand nearby to take a quick sip between her next song. Alcohol always stung on its way down, but it made the night easier as it went along. She never drank so much she became inebriated, but a little bit never hurt anyone.
As she set her glass down, one of the patrons stood up, calling out to her. “Yo, Dazzle! Ya gonna sing tonight?” His question was followed by the whole room murmuring agreement to the idea, trying to encourage her more.
Adagio tried her best to put on a sweet smile, leaning forward to a microphone that was placed nearby. “Come on now, Anchor. You know I don’t sing.”
The crowd unanimously moaned in disappointment, returning to their conversations.
She felt her smile slowly slide back to a frown as she looked away. Just the idea of singing was tempting, but she knew that it would mean exposing her horrible voice. It would be downright embarrassing, even in front of a drunk audience, and she wouldn’t like to put herself through that. Strumming her fingers along the keys to get herself back in the mood, Adagio picked a more modern song to play, to counter how long she had been thinking in the past. She normally preferred playing songs now described as “classical,”, but High Rye told her that folks are more into the modern music, and suggested a couple of songs to pick from to add to her collection.
As she made her way through the first half, she noticed something bright red make its way into the bar. Sneaking a peak without turning her head, Adagio tried to catch what stood so colorful in the brown and sulky scene of the Wild Turkey. It was a girl, and it was her hair that caught her attention. Bright red with yellow stripes; it was impossible to mistake that hairstyle.
Sunset Shimmer made her way to the bar counter, seating herself up like she belonged here. She saw High Rye approach her, and pulled out her I.D. card from her wallet. He seemed content with it, and proceed to get her a glass of whatever she ordered. After getting a drink, Sunset turned around in her chair to face the main seating room and stage. Her eyes glanced about, watching the different patrons before her eyes caught Adagio’s. Sunset gave her an awkward wave, before looking away.
Adagio shook her head, trying to keep her attention to her fingers until she finished up the song. She was supposed to be here.
Finishing, Adagio stood, getting a couple of whines from the crowd. She promised she’d be back in a few minutes, and they seemed pleased for now. Idiots, she thought to herself.
She made her way across the bar, casually sitting down next to the girl in the leather jacket. Sunset appeared to not notice her at first, so she cleared her throat to make herself known. Spinning around in surprise, she smiled gently. “Oh, hey Adagio,” she said cheerily. “I didn’t know that you worked here.” Sunset took a small sip of her drink
Adagio just raised an eye at her, looking to the cup. “Do you mind telling me what you’re doing?”
She laughed, holding up her glass. “Getting a drink, obviously.”
“Obviously,” she repeated. “But aren’t you a bit young to be drinking?”
“Not with a fake I.D. I’m not,” she joked, waving her card. “You know I’m originally from Equestria, and I was drinking age back then. There’s no way I’m missing out when I need a pick me up once in a while.”
“I didn’t take you for a rule-breaker anymore,” Adagio purred, finding her reasoning interesting.
“Well, when you spend an entire day with Pinkie Pie, you need something to help you unwind.” She quickly downed the rest of the glass, her face turning more serious. “Anyway, you said you wanted to talk?”
Adagio sighed. “Yeah, it’s... Complicated.” She turned her head up to look behind the bar, and called out to High Rye. “High Rye! I’m taking a break outside!” He just nodded in response, waving her to go.
The two got up from the counter, and Adagio led Sunset out through the back alley door. The loud noises of chatter and banging nearly vanished entirely when the door shut behind them, leaving them in the dark alleyway. Adagio stared at the opposite wall for a moment, running everything through her head again; she wanted to know where to start. Sunset Shimmer just shifted awkwardly, trying to find something back here to keep her attention until Adagio started talking.
“I need you to hear me out, Sunset Shimmer,” Adagio spoke finally, not taking her gaze from the wall.
Sunset nodded, stepping a little closer to Adagio.
“You’re-” she started to say, then cut herself off with a short laugh, followed by a fit of giggling. Sunset was tempted to ask if she was alright before she finally stopped, Adagio waving a hand in front of her. “Sorry. It’s just really hard for me to imagine this is actually happening.”
She took a few deep breaths, calming herself until she was satisfied. “You’re the only person I can think of to come to this with, and I hope you’ll not hold our...” she paused, holding her breath as she looked for a way to finish. “Past against me.”
Sunset Shimmer shook her head quickly, her expression attentive and serious. “Adagio, that’s nonsense. If you need my help, I’ll do whatever I can.”
Adagio just smiled. “It has to do with Aria and Sonata,” she started solemnly. Looking up to continue, she saw a look of worry grow on Sunset’s face. “No, it’s not like that!” she quickly added. “They’re fine. Nothing happened to them.”
“Oh, thank Celestia,” Sunset burst out, taking a sigh of relief. “I don’t know if I was prepared for something like that.”
“Anyway,” she continued. “It’s about what’s happened since we last saw each other. I haven’t really been holding together as well as I thought I was.”
“Are you having a hard time with your money?” Sunset asked, getting more curious.
“No. We all have jobs, so money is not a problem,” she stated bluntly. “And our identification is almost renewed, so the government won’t be barging in on us. It’s just them.”
Sunset paused to see if she would continue. “What about Aria and Sonata?”
Adagio debated briefly on how to say what she was thinking. “I’m lying to them, Sunset.”
“Lying?” she asked, not quite understanding how she meant. “What are you lying to them about?”
“Everything!” she snapped suddenly, turning to face a startled Sunset. Adagio’s eyes widened, realizing her outburst, and she brought a hand to her forehead. “I’m sorry, I just don’t know what I’m trying to say right now.”
After collecting herself, Sunset Shimmer waved her hands in front of her. “No, no, it’s okay. Take your time.”
She took another pause before continuing. “It’s just throughout all of these years, I’ve been lying to them; About small stuff, as well as important things. I lied to them about the surface, and why we left the ocean; I lied to them about our banishment here, saying we would find a way home; I even lied about a way to restore our magic after you destroyed our pendants.” She clasped her hands together, over where her gemstone normally rested
Sunset just nodded, staying quiet.
“Sure,” she continued, “it was for their benefit, so that they wouldn’t worry. But it’s still the same thing. I don’t want them giving up, and that’s why I always act so brave in front of them.” Adagio lowered her gaze to the ground, still holding her hands near her neck.
“I’m their big sister; that’s what I have to do; I have to be there for them, and let them know everything will be okay. But they would hate me if they thought that I wasn’t doing this for their best interest. If I tell them now, they would understand, but would they forgive me?” She shook her head, looking back up at Sunset. “I don’t know. I’ve never not known so much before, and that’s what’s making this so hard.” Taking a deep breath, she held back a few tears she felt building up to appear more calm.
Sunset looked like she was holding back a smirk, making Adagio suspicious briefly, before clearing her throat. “Well, I can’t say I’ve ever had that problem before. When I used to lie to people, I would purposefully do it to drive people apart, not keep them together.” She put a finger to her chin, pondering for a moment. “You know, this could be a side effect caused by the Magic of Friendship,” Sunset thought aloud.
“A... Side effect,” Adagio repeated, confused at the meaning.
Sunset Shimmer just nodded in return. “The Magic of Friendship we used to destroy your pendants may have also had an underlying effect on you three, just as it did when Princess Twilight used it against me.”
She thought it over in her head for a moment. “I don’t think I understand.”
“When Princess Twilight blasted me with the Magic of Friendship, I was scared; scared of what the magic was doing to me, what would happen after, even of myself at that moment.” Sunset let out a sigh, her face reflecting a feeling of pain. “That magic removed everything inside of me that I had come to think of as second nature: Ambition, power, deception. The weight of my own sins was bearing on me so greatly that I could hardly stand. Quite literally, at that.
“Whatever the Magic of Friendship does, it’s supposed to set right whatever is wrong in the heart of those exposed to it,” she said solemnly, closing her eyes. “That’s what I believe happened with me. Maybe it did something similar to you three, and you just haven’t noticed yet.”
Adagio contemplated what she was getting at, then gave a short laugh. “So you’re saying your magic gave me a conscience? That’s really funny, Sunset Shimmer, but I don’t see what kind of proof you have to support that.”
Sunset just chuckled, raising an eyebrow. “Well, it would explain how telling the truth is so difficult for you,” she bluntly retorted.
“You’d be surprised,” she sighed, her smile fading. “When you’ve been lying for so long, you start to deceive yourself.”
“At least it isn’t something that can’t be solved. I was worried at first you had a real problem.”
Adagio suddenly felt like someone knocked the wind out of her chest. “What?” she whispered in disbelief.
Sunset hesitated as she finally interpreted what she just said. “I didn’t mean it like that,” she said after stuttering for a moment.
“No,” Adagio cut her off, her voice very neutral. “I should have realized that you wouldn’t be able to take this seriously.”
“It isn’t like that, Adagio-”
“You’re just so overjoyed inside, seeing me like this.” Adagio started raising her voice as disbelief filled her head. “After all, I tore your best friends apart right before your eyes. Why wouldn’t you hold a grudge, no matter how hard you try to deny it?”
“Adagio, that’s not what’s going on,” Sunset explained, trying to keep a calm tone. “I just wasn’t aware that was the issue.”
“And what did you think it was?” she nearly shouted, clenching a fist in front of her. “That without our magic we were dying? That I came crawling to you to save us?” Adagio felt her temper rising. She had assumed she would be able to trust Sunset, and that she could help her find a solution. But after listening to everything she said, Sunset still thought it was a trivial problem; she believed it was something that shouldn’t have been a problem.
She lowered her fist, pursing her lips. “I knew it was a mistake calling you here,” she spoke quietly. Adagio barely finished her sentence before turning to head back inside the bar.
“Adagio, wa-” Sunset’s voice was cut off from the door slamming behind her.
Adagio leaned against the door, shaking her head back and forth. She sat there, trying to comprehend everything. It all happened so fast, it felt like it almost didn’t happen at all. The truth was, it did, and Adagio felt betrayed. She couldn’t believe that Sunset would let her down like that, not after she had reached out like she did.
Her brooding was cut short by a firm hand on her shoulder. Adagio jumped in surprise as she opened her eyes to see High Rye, staring at her with worry. He just stared at her for a few moments, before gripping her shoulder a little tighter. “I don’t know what your friend needed to tell you. Whatever happened out there, I’m sorry.” He gave her a soft smile.
She stood there, confused for a moment, before brushing his hand away. “It’s no big deal. I’ll get over it,” she stated casually, starting to walk past him.
High Rye followed beside her as they walked back out into the bar. “Y’know Adagio, I think you should take an early night.”
“I said that I’m fine,” she insisted.
“And I’m old enough to know when someone’s trying to ignore a problem,” he retorted, his voice turning much more serious. They both stopped just beside the counter to face each other. “I knew enough about Crescendo to know that he couldn’t play at his best if something was bugging him. I can assume you would have a similar problem if I let you go back on stage right now.” His face sank a bit. “I hired you to perform in my bar, true, but I know your quality will drop if you aren’t yourself.” He let his words hang for a moment.
Adagio said nothing for a while, eventually turning her gaze away from High Rye. “I think I want a drink first.”
He gave a deep sigh, walking behind the counter. Adagio just stood there, staring at the floor while still trying to cope with everything happening at once. She was brought out of her thoughts from a mug being slammed down in front of her. “I don’t condone drinking away your problems, so I’m only giving you one. It should be strong enough for you, though.” High Rye poured a glass of alcohol for her, sliding it to the edge of the counter.
She stared at it for a moment, hesitant to grab the cup. Adagio knew what she was doing, but didn’t care enough to stop herself. Where she was right now, she reasoned that she needed this. She grabbed the glass and swallowed the drink in one go. This was stronger than what High Rye normally gave her while on stage; this stung the moment it hit her tongue, and burned like coals down to her stomach. Without saying anything else, Adagio made her way out of the bar, with the feeling of a rock in her gut.
The whole way home, Adagio could feel her thoughts getting more and more foggy. Whatever High Rye gave her was enough to put someone of her size down; it slowly became clear why he would only give her one. As she progressed, though, she gradually became less and less flustered about the situation with Sunset Shimmer. She was feeling better, but still thought it wasn’t enough.
Adagio quietly opened the door to her studio apartment, only to be greeted by a loud shout of “Surprise!”
She yelped and jumped a step back in shock, but her balance couldn’t keep up with her, and she planted her butt onto the cement walkway outside the door. Before she could collect herself, she found her arms being pulled, bringing her back to her feet. In front of her stood Aria and Sonata; Sonata had a big grin on her face, and Aria wore a half-cocked smile. “Girls, what are you doing?” she managed to ask, despite her now swimming head.
Sonata giggled in response. “Well, me and Aria were thinking about how you’ve been so upset and stressed lately,” she cheerily began. “So, we-”
“You,” Aria interjected.
“-decided that the best thing we could was throw you a party! So me and Aria-”
“Just you,” she interrupted again.
“-wanted to stay up until you got home!” Sonata finished with another big grin.
“Sonata wouldn’t let me go to bed, otherwise,” Aria commented, giving an eye roll. “I already got the cake and booze out, so there’s no room to say no,” she added with a smirk.
Adagio was touched. The two of them were worried about her, and they stayed up so late just for her. Though she wanted to oblige them, her mind was still back in the Wild Turkey; the picture of Sunset smirking still fresh on her mind. Tonight should have been the end to her problems, and instead made more.
No, she thought to herself. I need this. Besides, I would be wasting their effort if I said no, she reasoned. If she ever needed a time to unwind, tonight was it. “Alright, fine. You win.”
