> In the Dusk
>  by Swift Swap
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Sunset in the foggy night...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was as quiet and peaceful evening of fog at Canterlot City.

Everything seemed faded and blurred, as if it was seen through a frosted glass, and a hushed and almost creepy silence reigned on the streets. It was almost as if that thick fog had absorbed all the colors and all the sounds of the city.

That evening, the world appeared grey.

And grey was also the mood of Sunset Shimmer, who, walking in that spectral atmosphere, hushed and faded , couldn't help herself but think.

She, since foalhood, had always had mixed feelings towards that phenomenon. It was so rare in Equestria, since, at least there, it occurred only when some clouds escaped from the control of the pegasi and plummeted to the ground. But, whenever that occurred, it always gave her a sense of isolation, exclusion, loneliness.





The loneliness that, when she was still a filly, she hated, because it reminded her that nobody wanted to play with her, the “little, haughty unicorn prodigy.” In fact, everyone envied her because, at that time, she was the beloved disciple of Princess Celestia, and so they mistook her shyness for arrogance.

And unfortunately, in the end, it happened. Under the protective wing of the Princess, envied and admired by everyone, she began to believe herself to be greater than anybody else. And suddenly, the loneliness that until the day before she hated, to her eyes became a benefit, since, staying away from the “weak and inept” unicorns foals of her age, she could develop all of her power and her ambition.

But, while these things were growing, the trust and the hopes of Princess Celestia towards her dropped drastically. Now she knew it was because, as she had now discovered, only by maturing and strengthening its ties with others, a pony could become wiser and stronger, and reach its full potential.

But at that time, she believed that the Princess had lost the interest to instruct and guide her, and wanted to leave her.

And so, in order to test the interest that Celestia had towards her, she asked the Princess to teach her some of the most powerful spells known by ponies. Spells kept in the most secret sections of the library of the castle, and to which anyone could have access only with the approval of the Princess.

But Celestia, not only because she knew that Sunset wouldn't be able to perform such magic, but also because she realized that her heart had been corrupted by arrogance and anger, refused to teach those spells to her personally, or to give her access to the books where those spells were stored.

Furious, Sunset shouted in her face that she didn't need her. She would find by herself the means to achieve her goals. And, once she had done this, she would be back, to take with force what she wanted, and much more.

That said, she went away. She left Canterlot, and for several weeks she wandered from town to town, looking for all the most gifted magicians, to steal their magical secrets and become more powerful.

But it was all useless. Despite all of her efforts, she couldn't even begin to approach the power of Princess, or at least the power of one of her older students.

As for Celestia, she never ceased to look for Sunset Shimmer. She mobilized almost the entire royal guard to find her, in the whole kingdom, and for weeks, on every street in every city there were dozens of posters with her portrait, and on which it was written to warn the royal guards in the case of her sighting.

And, in the end, she was caught, and brought back to Canterlot.

When she saw again the Princess for the first time, she couldn't hide her contempt. As she saw the whole thing, she had been chasing her, as if she was a thief. As she indeed was. Her former teacher had treated her like a common criminal, confirming everything that she had thought since the day of her escape: for Princess Celestia, she wasn't important anymore.

If only, at that time, she had listened to the loving words of her mentor, telling her how much she had missed her, that she was willing to forget her threatening words, and that she was ready to start over.

But it was too late. In Sunset Shimmer's heart there wasn't room for the love and the friendship that was being offered to her. Only anger and resentment.

And so, she refused the offer of the Princess, saying that, rather than return under her protection, she preferred to remain in prison for life.

Celestia, deeply saddened, declared that she never intended to imprison her, but only to find her and give her a second chance. However, since she had refused, she was now free to go.

And so, Sunset walked away...But not very far. In fact, that same night, she secretly sneaked into the castle. She was planning to steal the books she needed, learn the spells she wanted by herself and then, give a lesson to her former mentor.

But that night, she found something else. Something that changed her life forever.

The Mirror Portal.

It was there, in the throne room, inside a secret compartment in the wall behind the throne. It was usually the throne itself that hid that compartment, but it seemed that whoever had opened the compartment that night, hadn't relocated the throne exactly where it was before, letting out a glimmer of light emitted by the mirror.

And so, when Sunset Shimmer passed in front of the throne room, heading for the library, she saw that light and, intrigued, she came up to it.

Of course, since she had never seen a portal before, she couldn't tell what it was at first sight. The only thing on which she had no doubt, was the fact that the object, whatever it was, was a very powerful magical energy source. And so, whatever it was, it had to be hers.

For this reason, without any hesitation, she went toward the mirror. And she was so absorbed by the vision of that wonderful light, that she didn't notice at all that one of the straps that held down her saddlebag had loosed, and was now lolling near her hoof.

The rest was immediate, and unavoidable. Maybe it was fate itself that wanted the strap loosed, and that, consequently, Sunset trampled on it a second later, stumbling, losing her balance and falling upon the portal, crossing it.





So it was that, the next morning, she woke up in that whole new universe, so bizarre, so strange. But not only the world around her was bizarre. b]She was also bizarre now.

Despite the fact that she had studied a multitude of magical and mystical creatures, none of them approached the strangeness of her brand new body.

First, at least judging by the creatures similar to her she saw around, she was now a bipedal being, able to manipulate objects using the forelimbs, and apparently devoid of any magical skill.

However, the weirdness didn't stop there. To begin with, there was no one, absolutely no one, among them, who was naked, and also many of them had absurd behaviors, such as talking to a small box that they held in their front paw.

It was all very strange, but the strangeness increased when, around the strange building in front of which she had awakened, she began to see some of those beings who had the same, identical voice, of some ponies she had known. Moreover, the color of their coats and manes were similar, and so was their behavior.

At that point, determined to find out what was going on and what had happened to her, she walked, not without difficulty, because of the new, forced upright position, toward that building where everyone was entering. And, after wandering for a while through the hallways, she saw her.

The same aurora coloured mane. The same gentle but authoritarian voice. There was no doubt: it was Princess Celestia.

Convinced that the absurd situation she was in was a bad joke inflicted upon her by her former mentor, Sunset Shimmer advanced, determined, toward her, and hit her with unexpected force, using her front ends in an instinctive motion of violence that the will wouldn't be able to express, in her new form.

At that point she banged Celestia against the wall, and asked her what she had done to her, and what and where the heck they were.

And Celestia, with extraordinary calm and composure, considering the extremely rude way in which Sunset had treated her, claimed that she didn't know her, but anyway, if she wanted to talk to her with so much urgency, it would be enough to call her, and not put her against a wall in such a brutal way. And also she stated that the title of “Princess” was definitely misplaced, and that, if she called her “Principal”, it would be fine.

Sunset, even more angry about the fact that she pretended to not recognize her, although her appearance was different, began to yell at her all the insults that passed through her head, letting her anger flow freely.

Goes without saying that she spent the rest of the morning in detention. Detention she spent thinking. How was Celestia able to cast a spell powerful enough to transform the whole reality that way? Sure, the Princess was powerful, but for what she knew, not even a whole alicorns army would be able to alter reality so radically. And also why, in addition to Celestia, had all the other ponies she had seen and knew already pretended to not recognize her?

While she was pondering about the Princess, she saw her coming in. The "princess" next to her. Then she stated that she had tried to find her name, in a strange thing that she called “National Student Loan Data System ”, and it seemed that she had the same name and was the perfect lookalike of another girl, who lived in another state tens of miles away from Canterlot City. She also said that she had tried to contact the parents of that girl, and they had reported that their daughter was at home that morning, because she had a high fever. And it also seemed that another one of hes namesake didn't exist across the nation. Indeed, it was as if she had popped up from another dimension.

It was precisely those words that hit her like a thunderbolt. Another dimension.

In that moment she remembered to have read by chance, during her studies, some notes about dimensional travels. There had been, in fact, a unicorn who claimed to have identified a particular frequency of the magic waves, able to connect time and space, and able to cross alternate realities. 

And at that point, she remembered the night before, and that strange mirror. And she understood.

And so, before Celestia could stop her, Sunset ran out of the classroom, and after wandering for a while through the corridors of that building, she managed to get out of it.

And she saw it. Right behind the point where she had awakened, there was a huge statue depicting a horse, on a squared pedestal. And, on the side of the pedestal facing the building, there was a reflective surface. She came, and looked closely at that very lucid, almost mirror-like surface. She tried to touch it, but nothing happened. It wasn't like the night before, when she had managed to cross it. She couldn't feel the same disruptive energy coming from the portal.

But then, there on the ground, right at the foot of the pedestal, she saw a strange sort of bag with two straps, of the same kind of those she had seen used by those strange beings. However, on that one, there was drawn her Cutie mark.

Incredulous, she tried to open it. And inside, she found a single object: an ancient book, with her Cutie mark pictured on the cover.

The only thing that had been donated to her by the Princess, and that she had kept after she had abandoned Canterlot.

And, at that point, she understood. What was in front of her was really a portal to another dimension. But now, for some reason, it didn't work anymore, and she was stuck there, in that absurd universe and with no magic at all. And it was all Celestia's fault!

It wasn't she who made her cross the portal. It wasn't she who made her find it either, as she couldn't know that she would be back at night. But still, it was her fault. If she hadn't addressed her with those useless, pathetic and weak entreaties in an attempt to get her back under her protection, and instead gave her the power she wanted, none of that would have happened.

Desperate, in another burst of instinctive anger, she threw a punch at that shiny surface. And then another one. And another one. And she continued to pummel the pedestal until her new and fragile front appendages began to bleed.

Blinded by the pain and furious for her fragility and helplessness, she then shouted to the sky all of her fury. But in vain, of course. Because, as in Equestria, as in that reality, the sky was silent and indifferent to her despair.

It was then that she felt something on her shoulder. Something light and soft, but which also gave her a sense of firmness and safety.

Like when Princess Celestia rested her hoof on her shoulder, and said to her that she had done a good job. Like when things between them were still good.

Sunset turned, and for a moment, she thought to have seen her. The Celestia proud of her, willing to give her everything she wanted, always ready to tell her she was the best...

But then, in her vision, the muzzle shortened dramatically, her lips became more fleshy, her eyes narrowed and her brow smoothed.

And suddenly she found herself in front of her, the “other” Celestia, the Celestia who didn't know her...

Who didn't know her!

It was then, in that moment, that revenge took shape in her mind. Revenge against the one who hadn't done anything against her, but, at the same time, was the embodiment of her nemesis.

Surely she had some form of power, some force that made her superior to the others. And she would do everything, everything necessary to take it away from her. Any form of authority and respect that she had, she would take it away from her.

And, in the end, she would be the most powerful of the two. She would be the Princess.

So when the “other” Celestia asked if she was all right, Sunset, with a smile, than to her must have appeared friendly, but that in reality was the unforgiving grin of the one who plot the end of his opponent, said yes. Everything was about to be the way she liked.





It wasn't easy, and it took a lot of time and effort, but in the end, Sunset was able to fit in into that strange universe.

Somehow she managed to find a place to live, and with the complicity of a couple of scoundrels from the slums, she was able to obtain the documents of that world and a couple of false parents, that for a few dollars signed the documents and went to the meetings when necessary. All things that allowed her to sign up at the Canterlot High School.

Of course, she stole that money. For her stealing wasn't a novelty, although before she had stolen documents and magical treaties, and not cash. But still, stealing gave her that feeling of control and power that it had always given to her. However, to avoid arousing too much suspicion, she never subtracted more than the necessary.

It took a little time to learn to walk and run properly on two legs. More difficult was learning to use those front appendages that those beings called "hands" correctly. But still, when she got used to them, she came to think that they were a thousand times more versatile and useful than the hooves.

But the thing that took longer to make, and that eventually made her feel powerful and realized, was to create that aura of strength and omnipotence that surrounded her in that school. And to be able to create it, since gaining power for her, in that foreign reality, was almost impossible, she did the exact opposite: make others weaker.

Already when she lived there in Equestria, she enjoyed spreading rumors sometimes, for the sake of creating a bit of a stir among her naive peers, or create scandals, and then retire to watch how her foolish victims destroyed their relationship little by little, convinced that the other had offended or betrayed them. In that world, she discovered that not only could what was a simple sadist pastime become a true weapon, but that there it was even easier to do it.

Steal one of those strange, small contraptions full of buttons that they called “phone”, write with it a letter to a friend of the unaware owner, saying horrible things, put the phone back at its place, wait a few minutes and it was done: a friendship had just ended.

With the passage of time, the amount of tricks that she learned in order to discredit other people or to destroy friendships, made Sunset Shimmer the “true” owner of that school.

It was her, who was feared and respected.

It was her, who made all others tremble and fall silent when she passed.

It was her, who could ruin the life of anyone within a day.

It was her, not Celestia.

But, for some strange reason, Celestia was the only one to not know anything of her misdeeds. Maybe because everyone else was too scared to go to the Principal and tell her all the facts.

But in the end, it wasn't so important for Sunset that she was aware of her actions.

After all, now the only thing left of her “kingdom”, was the chair in her office, on which she sat every morning.

The rest, belonged to her.

However, she knew that she was still very far from fulfilling her revenge. Especially because it was directed against the wrong person, the Celestia of that world, who didn't have even a grain of the strength and importance of “her's” Celestia. Equestria's Celestia.

Although by now she hadn't seen Equestria for years, she wanted desperately to go back, an finally get her revenge.





And finally, that fateful evening came.

She didn't even know why she had decided to stick around the school until evening. Perhaps it was destiny to decide, as it had decided to make her go through the mirror the first time.

And in fact, if she hadn't been near that school, an that statue, she would never have seen the shiny side of the pedestal suddenly light up of a blinding light, that a moment later disappeared.

Incredulous, she ran toward the pedestal, and immediately tried to touch it.

And her amazement grew when, without encountering any resistance, her hand crossed the surface of the normally tough stand.

There wasn't any doubt. The portal had opened up again.

Sixty moons, almost five years had passed since she crossed that portal the first time. And now, she was finally about to come back.

Without losing time, she stepped into the iridescent surface, and finally, she was back in Equestria.

Getting accustomed again to the quadruped position wasn't extremely complicated, and her magical abilities responded promptly to her will, as if they were happy to have met her again.

However, she didn't recognize the place where the mirror was now. It was a shining and sparkling palace made entirely of crystals.

And, apparently, it was populated by ponies made of crystals!

For a moment, she thought she had ended up in another, different world, but then, looking out a window, in the midst of all those strange houses made of crystals, she also saw some normal ponies.

So, as soon as she was out of the palace, she began to explore that strange place, and it didn't take long for her to discover that the crystal place where she was now was not anything else than the Crystal Empire, the legendary kingdom disappeared for centuries from the face of Equestria.

But her relief for having understood where she was, soon was supplanted by pure rage when she heard other astonishing rumors.

Princess Celestia was about to come to the Crystal Empire for a royal summit. But she wouldn't come alone! With her would come also the long forgotten Princess of the Night, Princess Luna, returned from exile for a little less than a year, and the brand new Princess of Equestria, the one who once was the favorite pupil of Celestia and had recently recovered and now dominated the once lost Elements of Harmony: Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Sunset nearly exploded in anger at that news. A new Princess? Who once was Celestia's pupil?

She vaguely remembered that name, “Twilight Sparkle”, as the name of a young and not particularly talented (at least from her point of view) unicorn filly who had started attending Canterlot's School for Gifted Unicorns not long after herself. For what Sunset remembered, she was only a small, annoying model schoolfilly, always with her muzzle stuck in a book, and never willing to demonstrate her magical power.

And Celestia had revealed to that egghead, instead of her, the deepest secrets of the magic? And even made her an alicorn Princess? She just couldn't accept this fact that, in her eyes, was a tremendous injustice!

It was then that she decided her next step. She would use the source itself of the power of Celestia's new favorite, this “Twilight Sparkle”, to definitively increase her own power.

She would prove that she was the one worthy of the honor that had been denied to her. And at that point, her revenge would finally be accomplished, and all that had always belonged to the Princess would be hers.





Now, looking back, she didn't know whether to be disappointed or not that her plan had gone awry.

It had been months already since the thirst for revenge and power inside her had died.

She still remembered the first period after she had been defeated, and humiliated by the one who she believed an inept, and that instead, from a desperate and hopeless situation, had managed to pull off that power. The power that she had always considered useless and superfluous: The Magic of Friendship.

The first words she had said, immediately after she had been defeated, were true. She didn't know that there was another way. She didn't know that forge bonds with others was the first step to grow, improve, and mature. In her old view of things, only the weak ones were tied to each other, in order to survive. The strong ones, instead, were better on their own, because the weak ones would only slow them down.

But, remaining together, the weak ones learned from each other, and made each other's strength grow. And so, they became strong too.

This was the message Celestia wanted to convey to her. The power would be useless for her, if her heart was hard and cold.

And she, after her defeat, did everything possible to try to soften and warm her heart.

First of all, she changed district. She managed to find a small studio apartment near the school, at a reasonable price, so to get away from the bad influences and be able to spend more time with the school teens. And this time, to pay the rent, she didn't even remotely think to steal. Fortunately she was able to find a night job, which allowed her to pay by herself the rent and other expenses.

Moreover, with her enormous relief, Principal Celestia decided to turn a blind eye on the whole issue of the false parents, and still allow her to attend the school. Sunset, meanwhile, tried to do everything possible to demonstrate to her schoolmates that she was willing to change.

She did very often the chores in the cafeteria, or in the library, or by cleaning the corridors, further sacrificing her limited free time, already reduced by the study and the work. And with the now very little free time she had left, she tried to help out any of her peers who needed it.

Unfortunately, it was all useless. Although she put heart and soul into her struggle for redemption, no one could see her efforts. Now, every time she passed, everyone began to whisper behind her and throwing dirty looks at her.

And she couldn't blame them. After all, even she couldn't forgive herself. For years she had spread discord and terror in those corridors, and now she knew she couldn't expect a complete forgiveness. She just hoped, however, that they were still willing to give her a chance....

Fortunately, things had slightly improved since the Battle of the Bands. Now everyone looked at her with different eyes, and addressed her directly much more often than before. But, if that progress had been possible, she knew it wasn't only thanks to her efforts, but especially thanks to those five girls that, from the beginning, had decided to forget the past, or at least pretend to forget it, and start over with her, giving her what in her life she never had: friends.





It was then that, while she was still lost in her thought and was tenderly thinking about them, she realized that she had arrived at her destination: a small but elegant villa with white walls, with a small garden, situated between two houses a little more rustic, like a diamond shining while it was still embedded in the stone.

With a smile, Sunset walked through the garden, decorated with some beautiful flowering plants very well cared for, but unfortunately faded in that thick fog. Faded a bit like her mood, after all the bad thoughts she had just had. But fortunately, she knew that, on the other side of that door, there was one of the few girls who, at that moment, could pull her up.

And so, without hesitation, she drew out her best smile and knocked at the door. 

> Rarity in the courtyard...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comfortably sitting in a luxurious armchair, in the middle of an elegant living room heated by a roaring fireplace, Rarity was patiently waiting for her friend Sunset Shimmer, and, in the meantime, trying to kill some time, listlessly flipping through an old fashion magazine, that she had read from cover to cover at least five times, that afternoon.

She would never have believed that, without the company of her not so refined parents, or of her intrusive sister, she might feel so alone! And yet, that morning, when she had heard that they would go together to her uncle’s home, for a fishing weekend, she had inwardly jumped of joy at the thought of having the whole house for herself for two days.

However, after having spent four hours rearranging and organizing her wardrobe, three combining her clothes to create some new outfits, two creating a new embroidered bag and a final hour trying, unsuccessfully, to find the ideal position for the armchair in the living room, at the end she found herself sitting on the same armchair she had laboriously dragged over every inch of that living room, tired, out of ideas, and bored.

She wanted to leave the house, go out and take a walk, watch some nice shop windows, or maybe do some shopping. But she couldn’t. She had promised her parents that she would remain at home. And anyway, it was almost evening, and thus almost all the shops in town were probably by now closed.

At that point, she had put her hand on the phone, and called all of her friends. But, apparently, by a strange coincidence, they all were out of town. To be precise, Applejack was at a family gathering out of town, Fluttershy went with some eco kids friends to a major conference about forests safeguarding, Rainbow Dash was committed to the final game of the high school basketball championship, and Pinkie Pie had offered to help the Cakes for a very important catering that took place that evening. In short, no one could pay her a visit that evening. No one, except for Sunset Shimmer.

At first, when she saw that name on the phonebook, automatically and without wanting to, she remembered some of the most unpleasant incidents that had occurred because of Sunset. First, she remembered her anger and frustration when their group, that group so heterogeneous and yet so united, formed by herself and all of her friends from the first high school year, had been split, because of the enormous tensions that were crawling between them, and then how much she loved to humiliate and subjugate everyone in the school, including her…

It was inevitable. She couldn’t help but remember these things. It happened almost every time she thought of her. 

Very often, it happened that, when Sunset was smiling at her, that friendly smile overlapped, in Rarity’s mind, with the cruel grin that until a few months ago she wore so often.

But it was precisely in those occasions that she shook her head and tried to see only and only what she was now, and not what she had been.

In fact, she had learned that forgiving didn’t mean forgetting the bad actions of someone, but, on the contrary, continuing to remember them. Only in this way you could see how much that person that you had forgiven had grown and had improved.





Once, when she was still small, she had broken a pot which in her view was horrendous, but that, for her father, was a precious memory of his grandfather. She had broken it simply because she didn’t like it. And her father, to punish her, forced her to repair the pot in question. By dint of glue, in the end she succeeded, although the result was even uglier than the original. In any case, he put it back exactly where it was before, saying that now it was even more beautiful.

“You say that it’s beautiful,” she had asked him, “because you liked the way it was before, and now it’s even more…more...”

“Ugly?” he completed the sentence for her, “To be honest, I've always found that pot horrendous too! Surely I'm not sophisticated as you, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t know how to recognize an ugly thing when I see it!”

“Really?” she asked, surprised, “But then, if you really don’t like it, why do you keep it here, in the living room, in plain sight, and why, when I broke it, did you want me to fix it?”

“You see, Rarity,” he started to reply, “we don’t keep some things because we like them, but because they remind us of something important, pleasant or unpleasant. All the experiences we have, from first to last, are important, and make us who we are.”

In front of the confused look of his daughter, he added, “For example, that pot was given to me by my grandfather when I was your age. He gave me that horrible pot as a birthday present, when I, instead, wished for a toy train, or a sling. Furious, I threw it to the ground, reducing it to smithereens. At first, I thought I was the one who had been wronged, receiving a gift so useless for a child like me. But my displeasure and my shame were immense when my grandmother told me that my grandfather had made that pot with his own hands, just for me. When he was young, he was a very talented potter, but then, because of arthritis, he had to stop. However, for my birthday, he had found the strength and patience, despite his stiff and aching hands, to make another pot. His last pot. Only for me!”

Looking at her, he saw a flash of empathy through her deep, blue eyes, and realized that she had understood now. So he continued, “Distraught by shame and guilt, I went to my grandfather, and I apologized. Then, I asked him if it was possible to fix the pot. And you know what he said?”

After a small dramatic pause, that won the full attention and interest of his daughter, he said “He replied ‘Everything can be fixed, from pots to relationships. Because the most powerful glue in the world is forgiveness. And as long as there is the will to apologize and repent, forgiveness will never cease to exist.’ “

At those words, so simple and still so deep, Rarity felt a curious mixture of emotions inside her: comprehension, regret and pathos. Emotions that she saw reflected in the eyes of her father. And at that point, she understood. Understood that he had felt those same emotions, when her great-grandfather had said those words.

And then she smiled. Until then, she had never felt very much like him. She was so attentive to details, and obsessed with cleanliness and perfection. Instead he was a carefree guy, a bit of a simpleton, and with virtually no sense of style. And yet, now she had discovered to be strikingly similar to him, at least from the emotional perspective.

In front of her smile, he smiled back, and then said, “So, together we repaired the pot, which became even uglier. But anyway, I didn’t care anymore. By then, the pot wasn’t ugly anymore at my eyes, because it depicted something beautiful: The bond between me and my grandfather, cracked by an act of blind selfishness, but repaired with the glue of forgiveness. And since then, it has never left its place on that pedestal, because it’s there to remind me of my grandfather, and of that important life lesson that he gave me.”

And then he looked at that horrible pot, on its pedestal, and wrapped his strong arm around his daughter. And she, happy again, returned the embrace and whispered, “You know, perhaps it’s true that it’s not that ugly. After all, I'm sure that, as a modern art statue, it would make a great impression…”





With a smile, she looked up from her magazine, toward that pedestal. It was still there, uglier than ever, but with its burden of sad and sweet memories to accompany it.

Every time she looked at that pot, she inevitably remembered the time spent trying to put together all those tiny pieces, with the glue that flowed freely and clung on her hair and clothes. However, along with those not so cheerful memories, she also remembered that moment when she and her father had felt closer than ever, and all the other moments they spent together, in a harmony renewed and strengthened by that event.

Towards Sunset Shimmer, she felt the same feelings. She remembered all the pain Sunset had caused her, but the pain only served to increase the joy she had felt afterwards, having  her as a companion and a friend.

And she knew that she, Sunset herself, was reminded as well all that pain she had created, when she still believed that friendship was a weakness. She knew from how she, in the early days, was always demoralized every time someone spoke about the Fall Formal.

But in the last days, however, she was finally able to see a new light in Sunset’s eyes. The same light that she had seen reflected in the eyes of her father. And, with her enormous joy, Rarity realized that she, Sunset herself, had finally found the strength to forgive herself. Because, indeed, all the love and friendship with which she and her friends had surrounded her, in the last months, would be useless, if Sunset wasn’t able to turn the page and stop her past from preventing her to live the present the way she wanted. And she could succeed only this way. With forgiveness. Not just from others, but also from herself.





It was at that moment, while making these thoughts, that she heard a knock on the door. Hopeful, she stood up and walked toward the entrance, briskly but with all the grace that distinguished her. Then she arrived at the door, looked through the peephole and saw her friend Sunset Shimmer, quivering a little because of the cold fog hovering out there, but still smiling.

“Sunset, darling!” she said, as she opened the door and invited her friend to come, “You made it! I was beginning to fear that the fog had prevented you from finding the way. After all, you haven't come to my house yet, since we usually meet at Pinkie’s house!”

“Oh, don’t worry, Rarity!” she replied, as she took off her jacket and hung it on a coat rack in the hall, “The directions you gave me were very clear. Besides, a villa like this in a residential area could only be your home!”

“Oh, right!” she agreed, “Actually, you know, some time ago my parents wanted to move into a little more modest house, but since this villa has belonged to my family for five generations, no one had the heart to leave it!”

“Five generations? For real?” Sunset asked, looking around, “And yet, this house doesn’t seem so old. Indeed, it almost seems to have been renovated recently…”

“In fact it is so!” Rarity explained, “You know, after it had been occupied by my grandparents, the house was a little run down, and there was talk about abandoning it. But luckily, my father managed to make a successful deal, and I convinced him to restore the house. He even allowed me to give impressions and recommendations to the renovator!”

“It shows!” she said, looking at a finely embroidered purple curtain, or at a cupboard full of inlays, “Your lovely touch is everywhere!”

“Yes, I do have an eye for these sorts of things. Oh, but where are my manners!” Rarity said, “I haven’t accommodated you yet, and you're here all shivering! Please, come with me: I’ll accompany you right away to the living room, and then I’ll prepare a good tea. I’m sure you’ll fell a lot better!”
That said, she led Sunset into the living room, and invited her to sit on the armchair where, until a minute ago, she was sitting. After that, she left the room, to go and put on the cooker the kettle for the tea.

While Rarity was in the kitchen, Sunset Shimmer began to look around, and saw that also the living room had been decorated in accordance of Rarity’s taste. There were some things that seemed a little out of place, like a strange, ugly pot in full view on a pedestal, but for the rest, everything was as ordered, harmonious and coordinated as her friend liked.

And it was while she was looking around that she saw it. A photo, framed in a stylish silver frame, resting on the top shelf of a bookcase, which depicted her five friends, all together.

A little curious, she came and took the photo from the shelf, and looked more closely at it. Now that it was in her hands, she saw that her friends, in that picture, were much younger. They probably were no more than fourteen years old. Probably the photo dated back to when they had just met, the first year, and when she had just come into that world. Before she had a chance to ruin the life to anyone…

She was already on the verge of being overwhelmed by the sad thoughts that had accompanied her for the whole way, but then she heard the steps of Rarity coming back, and she hastened to dispel those thoughts. Just before she crossed the threshold saying, “I’ve put the kettle on. Soon it will boil, and…”

She stopped when she saw that Sunset was looking at that picture, with a sweet look but with a little bit of pain in it. Then she walked over and murmured, “Yes, that picture is pretty special to me, but not only me. In a certain sense, beyond Twilight, it’s also thanks to that photo if I and the others were able to rebuild our relationship.”

“So is this one,” Sunset whispered, “the famous yearbook photo that reminded you of your great friendship? I remember that Fluttershy spoke often about this episode…”

“Yes…” Rarity agreed, “But I don’t know if she told you the story behind this photo.”

“No, in fact!” Sunset said, “and in fact, I've often wondered how your group, so heterogeneous, was born, back when everyone stood with their own kind.”

"Well, actually,” she answered, “at the beginning it surprised even me, the fact that among all the students, the five of us were the only ones with different interests who remained together. But still, our curious relationship helped us to overcome various difficult situations. And it all began that day, an October morning like any other…”





That morning she was, as always, heading toward the entrance of the school. She was widely ahead of time, as always. In fact, she always tried to arrive in advance, so that she could give a final touch to the makeup in the bathroom before entering the classroom.

At her side, was walking Aqua Blossom, a girl who was her classmate, and who shared her deep passion for fashion.  She was quickly talking about a hairdresser who had just opened, and at which she had already been five times, lastly saying that she thought him a true professional, concerning hair.

Rarity was listening, interested but not too much. Aqua Blossom was the first girl she had befriended there, in that school, but she felt that between them there wasn’t a strong bond. For some reason, only while they were in the classroom, they were able to talk and chat, but out of there, they hadn’t done anything together. Aqua wasn’t interested in saying her impressions, or sharing her feelings, and she never just wanted to take a walk together. It was enough for her to have someone to talk about fashion with while at school.

But for Rarity, that wasn’t enough. Surely Aqua was all right to talk about fashion, but she wanted someone with which she could share some other things…

And it was while Rarity was absently listening to Aqua, that someone stopped her, gently but firmly.

“Careful!” said a voice, mild and sweet, “You should be a little more careful about  where you step. You almost stepped my friend’s tail!”

Taken by surprise, without even looking at who had stopped her, she looked at the ground, and saw a white, tiny baby rabbit, at one inch from the tip of her boot, who squeaked angrily toward her.

“Oh, look at this sweet, little angel!” Rarity said, tenderly, bending down to pet the little bunny, “Sorry if I almost stepped into you. Aw, you truly are adorab-Ouch!”

That cry of pain was caused by the sudden and unexpected bite the rabbit gave her on the finger. Surprised she took a step back, shaking her finger to ease the pain. She shook it because the idea of thumbsucking, besides being indecorous, was also disgusting to her eyes, since that finger had been bitten by an animal.

It was then, as she looked up from that apparently harmless rodent, that she saw the one who, in the future, would become her best friend.

As almost always, when she was trying to classify a stranger, her first look went to her clothing. And, although her clothing was pretty simple, it was still well-coordinated, a sign that, although she certainly wasn’t an expert, she was still a person with a certain aesthetic taste.

Then she looked up, and it was then that the true revelation came.

She couldn’t tell what it was. Perhaps the long, silky and voluminous hair, or perhaps the face, by the stylish and discreet traits, or perhaps her deep eyes, by the firm but also gentle expression, directed at that time toward the rebellious rabbit. She didn’t know what it was, but everything in her face seemed to express an innate and infinite delicacy and elegance.

“Now, Angel,” the unknown girl said, with her slight voice, “Do you remember what I told you many times about biting people? That is not nice! Now, apologize to her, as a good boy!”

At first it seemed that the animal had no intention of apologizing, but a second later, he lowered his ears and put his paw on her boot, which probably was his way to apologize.

“He’s mortified to have bitten you!” said that girl, “I’m sure he won’t do it anymore!”

“Oh, don’t worry darling, I’m fine!” Rarity reassured her, “Instead, who are you? I don’t remember having met you yet.”

“Oh, well…you know…” she began to say, clearly embarrassed, “the fact is that I'm not…very…very comfortable with..ehm…other people. I usually take care of my animal friends and…”

“Excuse us,” Aqua Blossom suddenly interrupted her, wrapping her arm around Rarity, “but we really have to go now. Today we have a new substitute teacher in French, and rumors say that he’s quite nice. So we absolutely can’t go to class without giving a final touch to our look!”

“Ehm, don’t worry, Aqua!” Rarity said, escaping her embrace and pushing her toward the school, “Go on without me! I'll join you in class in a minute!

At the beginning, the fashionista looked at her in a strange way. Rarity had never missed their meeting in the bathroom for the finishing touches until then. And that was even weirder, since there was a chance to meet an handsome professor. However, she decided to not arise too many questions, and walked away, saying, “Alright. See you later!”

And so she went off, and as soon as she was far enough, Rarity said to the girl, “I ask you to forgive her. She’s so obsessed with her appearance that sometimes she can be a little insensitive. However, all in all Aqua is a good girl. Anyways, what you were telling me?”

“Well,” she said, timidly, “I was saying that…normally I’m not very comfortable with people. However, I must admit that with you, even though I know you just by a couple of minutes, I feel a little more at ease than usual. Yes, you look like a really nice girl.”

“Thank you, darling.” Rarity thanked her, “You know, I have to admit that also I have never been completely comfortable with other girls who, like me, are interested in fashion. I don’t know why, but I felt there was something missing in them. Something that instead I feel within you!”

“Really!” the girl exclaimed in surprise, as she bent down to pick up her rabbit, “Well, I…I’m happy about that. No one has made me fell so special until now!”

“If you want my opinion, I think you're very special”, she replied, before adding, “My name is Rarity, and is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Thanks!” she answered, “My name is Fluttershy, and…”

“Watch out!” a male voice suddenly shouted , addressing them.

Immediately, Fluttershy’s face paled visibly, as she looked behind her interlocutor. And so, confused, Rarity turned…and saw a soccer ball that, at great speed, was flying towards her face.

Fortunately, her survival instinct prevailed, and allowed her to crouch down an instant before the ball hit her in the face. Behind her, Fluttershy had already taken cover by a little, and she remained unharmed too.

“Heavens!” Rarity said, shocked, as she stood up, “I almost had a heart attack! It’s possible that this school’s boys only think about shooting balls around, without worrying about who they hit?”

That said, she turned to pick up the ball, which had fallen a few yards away, with the intention of finding out who was the culprit. However, when she saw how dirty that ball was, she thought better of it, and left the ball where it was.

“Hey!” called them at that moment a voice from behind, a female voice this time, “You two there! That’s our ball!”

Rarity and Fluttershy turned together, at that call, and they saw a girl running toward them. A girl with disheveled and messy hair, which had all the colors of the rainbow.  Her expression was hard to define: one could have said that she was determined and embarrassed at the same time. She was wearing a sports uniform, quite worn and dirty, and with a combination of patterns and colors that were, to say the least, horrible. 

“Ah, so you're the one who almost hit me in the face with this ball!” Rarity assaulted her, furious, “Don’t you know that it’s dangerous to play in the schoolyard?  With a shot like that, you could give me a black eye!”

That girl, in response, nervously scratched the back of her head, and, with an embarrassed smile, she replied, “Yeah, sorry about that! We know we shouldn’t play here, but the selections to enter the soccer team takes place today, and me and Heath Burns wanted to practice a little, ad work on some moves. Too bad that his aim isn’t exactly the best…”

At that moment, Rarity noticed that, further back, there was a boy who was wearing a uniform identical to the one of the girl speaking to her. He was looking worried in their direction, as if to make sure everything was all right.

Rarity was instantly sure to have identified the real culprit, and gave him a look of menace, so intense that it could terrorize a killer. And he also must have been terrified, because he quickly gathered up his things and walked hastily toward the school.

“Heath!” the sporty girl called, addressed to the boy on the run, “Heath, come back here! Come on, after all nothing happened!”

“But something almost happened!” Rarity interjected, still quite nervous, “You certainly can’t liquidate problems like this!”

In any case, it was too late. By now he had already crossed the entrance.

The unknown girl, rather disappointed, snorted and then said, “Great! You made my training partner flee! How am I supposed to train, now? What a shame, I hoped to be able to perfect my overhead kick before this afternoon…”

“Overhead kick?” Fluttershy asked, “You’re really able to do it?”

“Sure!” she said, with a confident smile, “Actually, it’s precisely because of that the coach asked me to attend the selections. He saw me perform one during recess, and since then he's always kept an eye on me! He even lent me this old uniform for practice before the selections…”

“Oh, now I understand why it’s reduced in this condition.” Rarity said, turning around her with a critical eye. She seemed to have completely forgot what happened just before, “However I must say that the soccer coach must have a terrible taste in uniforms. I mean, who would ever combine this shade of brown with this shade of grey?”

“Yeah, I know. It’s not that great.” she agreed, “But it’s not that big a deal. When I’ll get into the team, I’ll have a brand new uniform, hopefully a little more brightly colored one!”

After that, she held out her hand towards them and said, “By the way, I’m Rainbow Dash, and I apologize again for earlier.”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter that much.” Rarity said, taking her hand, “And anyway, I should apologize as well! Thinking that you were the culprit, I’ve thoughtlessly accused you with an aggressive and rude tone for no reason, something that a young lady shouldn’t do!”

“Ah, no biggie! These things happens sometimes! If you only knew how many times I've been accused of having smashed a window!”

In response to that sentence, Rarity gave a mischievous smile and whispered, “And, how many times did you actually break the window?”

Rainbow Dash, at that question, blushed violently, scratched her head again and said, “Ehm…Well…Fifty fifty?”

At that answer, all the three of them burst into laughter.

It was strange, but Rarity felt that Rainbow Dash, although she apparently was the direct opposite of the other girl she had met that morning, Fluttershy, had something in common with her. It was the very thing that made Fluttershy special to her eyes. She hadn’t figured out what it was yet, but she felt it was something unique, surprising. Something she had never felt inside anyone, before those two girls.

However, after they stopped laughing, and after Rarity and Fluttershy introduced themselves to Rainbow Dash, the sporty girl picked up the ball with her foot and began to dribble, and soon after proposed, “Well, we still have about ten minutes before the bell sounds, and I’m without a training partner. Wanna try to play with me?”

“I would love to play… whichever game you’re talking about!”

All the three girls, in that moment, looked confused at each other. None of them had pronounced that last sentence. Then, a moment later, they realized that, without any of them noticing, a fourth girl had joined their little group. A girl with pink hair, so voluminous that it seemed made of cotton candy. She was dressed in bright colors, and had a sunny smile which, combined with her bright blue eyes, made her look very likeable.

“Oh, you almost scared me.” Fluttershy said, “We hadn't heard you arrive...”

“Yeah, a lot of people tell me that,” replied the newcomer, “but I can’t help myself! When the words ‘fun’, ‘party’, ‘play, ‘game’ or ‘candy’ reach my ears, I can’t help but ask to be involved! Anyway, who are you? You know, I like to meet new people. I know almost all the students of this school. However, for some strange, mysterious reason, nobody really enjoy staying with me! They say that I'm too exuberant, and even annoying sometimes. But you know what? For me, instead, they are the ones that are too boring!  I mean, since I came here, no one has held a party yet, or a student meeting, to ensure that everyone knows each other!”

During her long speech, the mysterious girl had done nothing but move incessantly, gesticulating strangely. It seemed that her energy and vitality was unlimited. However, the gestures and that incessant movement, seemed the frantic gestures of a madman. Or rather, they could appear as such.

But it wasn’t like so for Rarity. In her enthusiasm, in her smile, even in her seemingly random behavior, she saw only one thing: happiness. Pure happiness. And when she looked up and glanced at her two new acquaintances, she understood, by the light in their eyes, that they thought the exact same thing.

When the mysterious girl finished speaking, she also stopped moving and finally stood still. Then she saw that all the others were looking at her strangely, and said, “Ok, I get it. I'm leaving now…”

“No, wait!” Rarity interjected, taking her hand to prevent her to go away, “The fact is that I’ve never met a girl as exuberant as you! But I mean, exuberant in a good way! You know, it seems that inside you there is so much joy that you aren’t able to hold it!”

“Uh-huh,” Fluttershy added, “You know, I usually don’t like very noisy people, but you seem so nice and full of life…”

“Yeah, you look like a fun girl!” Rainbow Dash intervened, “I’m sure we’re gonna have a blast together!”

Saying this, she threw the ball to the newly arrived girl’s feet, saying, “Anyway, I wanted to play soccer! Do you know how to play?”

The girl, with a strange look, bent down to pick up the ball. But when she got up, she showed a smile even bigger and brighter than the one she had at the beginning.

“Whee! Finally!” she shouted, “I knew it! I knew that around here there would be someone able to appreciate all of my party-energy! It was difficult, but I made it! Girl, we’re gonna have a blast together! For real! First of all, we’re gonna have a slumber party at my place, then we’ll meet every day to chat, play cards, braid each other's hair, eat candies, trade ringtones, hav-”

“Ehm, excuse me if I interrupt you, darling,” Rarity interrupted her, before she could get lost in her speech, “But, after all, the four of us met just this morning. I don’t think that, two minutes after we met, we are already best friends. That's not how it works!”

“But of course, it’s obvious that we aren’t best friends already,” she replied, “but still, we’re friends! Can’t you see this strange chemistry that has arisen between us? I know almost nothing about you all, but I feel that each one of you is special in a unique and rare way. The same way that I feel rare and unique compared to all the others. And yet, no one, before today, had ever accepted this specialty and uniqueness of mine. And I bet that each one of you, before today, had felt the same way I felt! I can read that in your eyes!”

Those words, so unexpectedly deep, struck the heart of the other three girls. And, spontaneously and freely, Rarity thought that, at last, she had understood what mysterious thing was that she had felt since her eyes had crossed Fluttershy’s gaze. It wasn’t something special that Fluttershy, or Rainbow Dash, or that happy and radiant girl of which she still didn’t know the name, had. It was something that they had when they were together. It wasn’t the fact that each of them was extraordinary on her own, but rather their union was extraordinary. That morning, in that school, something revolutionary happened. Something unheard before. Four hearts, different from each other under any perspective, had come together.

In that moment, the course of Rarity thoughts was interrupted when, suddenly, the pink-haired girl pulled her into an energetic group hug, which also involved the other two girls.

“This is the best school day EVER!” shouted her, “I finally have some real friends even at the high school! Oh, by the way, I’m Pinkie Pie, but for friends just Pinkie. Nice to meet you all!”

“The pleasure is ours, Pinkie.” she said, even if that embrace was literally taking away the breath from her, “My name is Rarity.”

The other two presented themselves too, and then, when Pinkie finally released them all from her embrace, they began to chat a little, Rainbow and Pinkie about how to play soccer, Rarity and Fluttershy about  what shampoo they used to make them so bright. But then, suddenly, a small van stopped in front of the driveway leading to the school. 

And from that van came down a girl with long, blond hair, tight towards the end in a rubber band. She was dressed in quite simple clothes and she proudly wore a cowboy hat. And finally her face, dotted with freckles, had an outspoken and resolute expression. All of this gave the impression of a girl more accustomed to the country than the city.

However, the girl, helped by a huge guy, who always remained silent, unloaded from the van several crates of apples, which seemed quite heavy.

And while the four friends watched the country girl work, they saw in her eyes that light. The light of passion. The same light that she, Rarity, saw every morning in her own eyes at the mirror, while trying one outfit after another, for several minutes, until she finally got the desired effect.

Until that day, she hadn’t  seen that light inside anyone else. But then, when Pinkie Pie had made her profound speech about friendship, in her eyes had appeared that same light. But not only in hers.

That light was also inside Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

That's why they were special, and that's why their sudden union was even more special. Each of them was burning with passion, a passion not only for themselves, but also for sharing.

And now, in that morning that, for the first time, she had met three people with such passion, a fourth one jumped out from nowhere. Suddenly, their meeting didn’t seem so accidental anymore. Perhaps, on the contrary, it was destiny to have that meeting.

In the end, the two young country kids ended up unloading the van, and then, as the boy sat on the driver's seat and went to park the van, the girl began to carry the crates, one at a time, towards the entrance.

Looking at the crates left to carry, nine in total, Rarity  got a doubt, and glanced the time on her cellphone. There were only four minutes left before the bell.

Then, she looked at the others, and evidently Fluttershy had the thought she just had, because she said, “She’s never going to make it in time, isn’t she?”

All together, the four girls nodded.

“We can’t sit here and watch with folded hands!” Rainbow exclaimed, “We have to help her!”

Pinkie nodded again, with a determined expression. Fluttershy at the beginning seemed to hesitate, but then proclaimed herself concordant. Rarity didn’t answer. That morning she was wearing some of her most beautiful clothes, and she refused to risk staining or tearing it to help a stranger.

But the others evidently understood what she was thinking, because they addressed to her a look of encouragement, and Pinkie also said, “Come on, Rarity! I know that you think too that she’s special just as we are. We can’t let her get into trouble because we haven’t helped her!”

Rarity recognized within herself that she was right. And, immediately after, she raised her head and looked at her new friends, who with their eyes instilled courage and strength inside her.

Yes, it was true. If she hadn’t helped that girl, she felt that she would never forgive herself for that.

So, she joined the others, and quickly, went to collect a crate for each, and together, they joined the country girl.

“Hey, what are you doin’ ” she said, when she saw those four girls who, at her side, were carrying the crates, “Those are the apples of my family’s orchard, and ah have the duty to bring them up to the kitchen!”

“Oh, so it’s with these apples that they prepare that delicious fruit salad!” Fluttershy said, happily, “In any case, don’t worry. We're just helping  you carry them!”

“Eh, but ah don’t need any help!” she replied, “Ah can do it on my own! After all, ah’ve always done it every week since the start of the school!”

“Girl, the bell is gonna ring in three minutes!” Rainbow Dash said, “At this rate, there’s no way you'll make it on your own!”

“Three minutes!” she exclaimed, obviously taken aback. Then, she looked back toward the remaining crates, and her confidence seemed to falter.

“Ehm, ah guess ah could actually use a little help…” she finally admitted, reluctantly.

“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie exclaimed, “After all, helping friends is fun! And also being helped is fun!”

“Yeah, ah think it’s true that unity is strength.” She replied, “So, thanks for the help! My name’s Applejack, by the way.”

They introduced themselves to her as well, and then, together, they continued to carry those crates. Sure, it was a tough job, but in the end, Rarity began to consider even that work, in some way, fun. She only had to look at Pinkie that, while carrying the box, was telling a joke after another about apples, or Rainbow, who was trying to carry the box holding it in balance on her head, or Fluttershy, who was gently scolding her rabbit, because he had tried to eat an apple. Applejack, meanwhile, was telling of how life was on her  family’s farm, just outside Canterlot City.

It was true. The five of them were completely different. Maybe they had nothing in common. Still, she felt more and more that their meeting wasn’t a coincidence. And, even if it was like so, she felt that, those four girls, whether by chance or by fate, would be very important to her, in the days ahead.





“…And so it has been indeed…” Rarity concluded, putting back the framed picture in its place, at the top of the shelf.

Behind her, Sunset Shimmer was looking at her, deeply moved. Moved, because those same feelings that Rarity had felt, at that first meeting, she was feeling them now. And she felt them every time she had the opportunity to stay close to just one of those girls, so special, and which created a bond that was even more special.

Perhaps, if during her foalhood, she had met someone with that force, and that passion, but especially with that huge, selfless desire to help others and make friends, things for her would have been different.

But perhaps, in fact, she had actually met ponies like that, but, at that time, she was too blind and closed in on herself to see that. Believing herself too strong, and above anyone else of her age, she wasn’t able to find other types of greatness inside others. And so, she was left alone.

“It’s a beautiful story, Rarity…” Sunset said, coming up to her and looking at that photo, “So it’s in this way that your friendship began…”

“Well, that was just the first step.” she answered, “After that day, sometimes we met by chance, and we greeted each other. But then, we started to really feel the need of each other. We needed to experience that bond one more time. To feel united, as an outfit composed by many clothes and accessories different from each other, but which together create an unique beauty. And that was the real moment in which we, our group, was truly born!”

At that very moment, as soon as she finished the sentence, the two girls heard a piercing whistle coming from another room. And Rarity exclaimed, “Goodness! I forgot the kettle on! Be right back!”

And rushing, she left the room to go turn off the stove.

Sunset Shimmer was left alone, in that elegant room... except for that bizarre pot. Wondering why Rarity could have put a so ugly pot in a room just as important as the living room, she came up to try to get a better look. But, as she did, her eyes fell also on the large window of the living room, and on the road out of it, still shrouded in fog.

And it was then that she saw it.

In the driveway that led to Rarity’s house, there was someone!  Because of the fog, she couldn’t see who it was, but, judging by the size, it had to be a boy her age.

But the strangest thing was the odd gait with which the stranger was moving toward the door. He was advancing very slowly, unsteadily and limping, keeping one arm hanging and the other tight across his chest. It almost looked like he was drunk ... or badly injured.

“Ehm, Rarity!” Sunset called, uncertain about how to deal with the situation.

“What is it, darling?” Rarity answered from the kitchen.

“Er…I think…I think someone is coming…someone that might need help!” Sunset said, trying to get a better look from the window, in order to see better the stranger, “But I can’t figure out who it is!”

“Oh, my! It could be a burglar!” Rarity exclaimed, walking into the room, and trying in turn to look out the window. But it was useless. The fog was too thick. And the stranger was almost at the door by then.

“The peephole!” Rarity proposed, “You try to see who it is through the peephole. If it’s a criminal, we’ll call the police immediately!”

Sunset gave a nod, and, together, they headed for the entrance. But they didn’t have the time to approach the door, that they heard a loud thud coming from it.

“Heavens!” Rarity cried, stepping back in terror, “He’s trying to break down the door!”

Her hands had already grabbed the phone, but then, she remained uncertain, and Sunset too, when, instead of other blows coming from the door, they heard total silence, as if the mysterious figure had gave up after only one attempt.

However, it was only after several, interminable seconds, that Sunset found the courage to approach the door, and peek out through the peephole.

She peeked out for a long time, dubious, but in the end she drew back muttering, “There’s no one out there!”

“What!” Rarity exclaimed, “There has to be someone out there!  We didn’t imagine that blow at the d-Whoa!”

While she was speaking, she had approached the door and opened it, as if she wanted to be face to face with the burglar to prove she was right. But when she opened it, someone had fallen face down on the floor of the entrance.

And then, to her horror, Sunset understood. The blow they had heard hadn’t been produced by a kick against the door, but from the body of that poor fellow who, passing out, had fallen against the door. And so, when Rarity had opened the door, the stranger had lost his only support and had fallen to the ground.

However, for a few seconds, both girls stood there in shock, watching the stranger lying on the floor of the entrance. And, at least judging from its physiognomy, it had to be a girl, but still, it wasn’t possible to see much of her appearance, as the unknown was wrapped in a tattered and dirty coat, with a hood that wrapped her head.

In the end, Rarity looked at her friend in the eyes and said, “I think we should take her to the couch, and see if we can help her in some way…”

“That's right.” Sunset  agreed, as she grabbed the girl under the shoulders, to turn her face up and bring her to the living room, “This poor girl must feel terrible if she collapsed suddenly like that. However, I don’t understand why she came here. I mean, if she felt bad, she could…”

She had stopped because, as she tried to lift and turn her, the hood dropped, and now both could clearly see the face of that girl. A face framed by a cascade of blue hair.

In that moment, Sunset and Rarity looked at each other. And each other read in the eyes of the friend the uncertainty about what to do.

Because it was true that the girl who was lying at their feet was obviously in need of help. But it was also true that the last time they had seen that girl, she and her partners had tried to brainwash the entire school, in order to absorb all the power they needed to regain their former strength and, in this way, enslave the entire planet.

Because the girl at their feet was known by the name of Sonata Dusk.

> Sonata in the dark alley...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few weeks earlier...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But not this time.

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

She seemed tired, breathless...





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The weak link in the chain.

Adagio called her that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And eventually, the coughing fit ended.

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

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

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

Her blood.

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

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

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

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

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

Dying.

Die.

Death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was over.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Soon, she would die.

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





She was alone.

Abandoned.

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

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

Death.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What she had always done was something terrible, frightening.

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

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

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

Sonata Dusk, at that moment, wished to disappear.

Sonata Dusk, at that moment, wished to die.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“…think…take her…see…help her…way…”

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

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

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

“…I...know…we’d…warn…Twilight…”