In this world, it's apparently a custom on October 31st to ring people's doorbells and ask for candy. Mostly small children, but some older kids too. Even some adults.
None of the kids trick-or-treating stopped at our house to ring the bell. Can't blame them.
"Ari, I'm cold."
I turn to Sonata, sitting in the middle of our 'living room'. She looks so fragile, so sad. Most of the time, she's happy, because she isn't really aware of the world. She's always walking on clouds, talking to the birds and herself. I bring her back down to earth. That's why I think she likes me so much. I keep her grounded when she needs to be.
But girls like her always fall down hard, and Sonata is no exception. She's sitting there in her dirty clothes, wrapped in a blanket but still shivering, looking at me. "Ari."
"Yes, Sonata, I know you're cold. We're all cold." I turn away from her and look out at the city, standing in the open doorway of the abandoned house we claimed for ourselves so we'd have somewhere to rest our heads. Kids are running free, all dressed up in all manner of costumes, carrying bags that look heavy. A few hapless adults are supervising them. Adagio is upstairs, sleeping in the one falling-apart bed. She's been working hard lately. All of us have, but her the most.
I clench my fist. We wouldn't have to live in this awful house if those girls hadn't ruined everything. That girl with the red and yellow hair, she was bad before. Why couldn't she have just stayed that way? It was their fault we were reduced to this. It was their fault my girlfriend was so upset.
I turn back to Sonata. She looks at me, and she looks like she's going to fall apart at any minute, that's how small and scared and alone she looks. I hate it when she looks like that.
I shut the door and walk over to her, resting my hand on her shoulder as I sit down. She barely notices. "Hey, Sonata. We earned about sixty, maybe seventy dollars this week." She doesn't react. "That's seventy dollars closer to a new, actual house." Normally she would have said something like that. Everything is upside down.
Sonata let her head fall against me. I jerked my hand away and watched her rest. She was so numb, so tired. Again, I felt a jolt of anger. I would not let my girl be so sad.
"Sonata." I poked her. She finally looked up at me. "You have to stop being so sad. It's going to get better. You just have to channel your emotions into your work. They tip you more if you're enthusiastic at that restaurant you work at. I know that for a fact."
"But maybe if I just stay really still, and meditate," Sonata said quietly. "then maybe I'll be reborn, back in Equestria. And I can begin again."
That was so her I wanted to cry. "Sonata, that's not going to work."
"But-" She desperately interjected. This was unlike her. I had known her long enough to know that's how she coped - clinging to some fantasy notion that kept her going - but normally she would rebuff me with a nonsense argument. Deep down, she must have known that it wasn't going to work.
"You aren't an idiot, Sonata, even though you act like one sometimes. You know that the only way in this world is to work and earn money. And we're doing that fine."
Sonata got up and walked over to the window, staring out at the kids dressed up as princesses and DJs. "Halloween." She said lifelessly. "A night of nightmares. That's what they call tonight. Relive that night in my shoes. Then they'll know what a nightmare is." This was new. She hadn't talked about the Battle of the Bands since it had happened.
"It's over now, though..." I said uneasily.
"It was awful, Aria." Her fists clenched. "I was trapped in that ray of magic, all my power being drained away from me. There were so many emotions running through my mind. I was scared, sad, angry, and the kind of passionate that eats you up all at once. And I could see you experiencing that same thing, and I wanted nothing more than to help you, to rush over to you and yank you free. But I couldn't, and it was absolutely terrible."
I was silent. Sonata had always been more touchy-feely out of the two of us; did she really go through with that? I just felt a bolt of pain, intense pain. Did she really love me that much? I know the Creator makes mistakes, but dang. I felt a rush of pity for Sonata.
"This might be a night of nightmares." I said slowly. "But it's also a night of fun. Look how happy they are." I gestured toward the window.
Sonata smiled a tiny little smile that brought my heart to the brink of explosion. "They are pretty happy."
"So maybe we can be happy too." I rested my hand on the small of her back, the place she most likes to be touched. "You wanna go to that karaoke bar down the street? It doesn't cost anything to sing, only drinks deplete our funds."
Sonata's smile widened. "Yes, please. Sucks that we lost our voices, though."
"Only time will fix 'em." Even I smiled. "One day, we will begin again, Sonata. I promise."
