"Hey Sonata, can I join you?"
The blue-skinned girl looked up up at Sunset, narrowing her eyes menacingly. An effect that was only slightly spoiled by the pizza in her mouth and on her face and shirt.
"Why?"
Sunset grimaced slightly.
"Well, I'm actually keeping tabs on you. After what happened at the Battle of the Bands, Adagio and Aria pretty much vanished, but you've kept coming to class. Even if at lunch you go sit outside and eat by yourself. What are you doing?"
Sonata sighed heavily, then she threw the greasy paper the pizza was wrapped in at a wastebasket, missed, and looked forlornly at it.
"I...I don't know."
Sunset crossed her arms and straightened her back a bit.
"What do you mean you don't know? Didn't you have any plan for what you'd do if you didn't manage to steal Equestrian magic?"
"No," said Sonata, "Adagio was in charge of plans. I'm too stupid for that. All I can think of doing is brainwashing people, stealing some magic, and invading the world! But that didn't work, and I don't have my gem anymore, and if I try it again I'll get hurt!" she whined.
Sunset rolled her eyes and sat down next to the other girl.
"Believe it or not, I understand where you're coming from."
"How? What you did was completely different! You tried to brainwash the students here, then cross to Equestria so you could invade the oh right, it's actually a lot like what we tried to do."
Be patient, you were like her too, even if she's dimmer than a light bulb someone tried to set on fire thought Sunset.
"Look, think about it this way: what is it you wanted to do after you'd gotten all that power? Then maybe you can figure out a way to do it without hurting other people."
Sonata's expression was that of a fish who'd just been asked to solve a quadratic equation in class.
"But why would I not want to hurt other people?"
Sunset's self control was one of her virtues. As part of her studies, she'd honed it over the years: she could stay focused for hours, and withstand the greatest of privations without making a peep. She'd even managed to go through a whole session of day court without screaming at the petitioners. Thus, she managed to reply with civility.
"Because otherwise those other people will get angry. And if they get angry, they'll stop you, like we did."
"Oh. But, it's like, a Siren thing? I don't know if I can really explain it. Jeez, 'Dagie would explain it sooo much better, but, like...we're supposed to always be the best? Sirens are supposed to rule over everything, and so we always have to become stronger. 'Dagie used to go on and on about it.
“It's a thing about...chasing something very very hard to get. Like...you know when the sun goes down, and it's dark? We're supposed to go in the direction where it went, until we go beyond the squiggly line between the sky and the sea. And once we reach it, we'll be the best Sirens we could be!
“At least, that's how 'Dagie would explain it to me.
"I don't really understand how that ended up in us eating sailors. They always gave me gas, too. Phooey."
Sunset's face turned a rather fetching shade of green, and she scooted away.
"Okay. Okay. Also, Dusk? Too much information. And, look, do you really feel the need to keep chasing an abstract ideal to its bitter end? Aren't you happier here, where you don't have to fight all the time, and where you can just enjoy life? You don't have to keep trying and trying to achieve something impossible, you can just live your life!"
Sonata thought about it for a second.
Then she thought about it for another second.
She thought about it for a third second.
Seeing how she was distracted, Sunset took the opportunity to whip out her phone and play a quick round of Angry Pigs.
"Hey, you're right! The food is much better here, and I can go eat hamburgers, and hot-dogs, and chili, and quesadillas, and burritos! I don't need to be sad just because I'm not doing something stupid other people tell me I have to do!"
Sunset smiled at the ditz, who kept rambling about all the food she was going to eat.
"What, no tacos?"
Sonata looked back at her and stuck out her tongue at her.
"Oh, please, they're sooo last week! Everyone knows Tortilla Thursdays are where it's at!"
They took a moment to look at their classmates playing a quick game of soccer.
“Anyway Sonata, there's other stuff involved. For example, not hurting others, so that other people will like you. Not forcing people to do stuff for you, because other people will dislike you.”
Sunset looked at Sonata's rapidly falling expression.
“Don't worry, it's not hard. It just takes a bit getting used to, that's all.”
The girls got up and started walking towards class.
“So what do you have right now?” asked Sunset.
And all the good cheer Sonata had accumulated evaporated.
“I've got ciiviics!! I hate that class! Nothing makes sense and I don't get it!”
Sunset reflected a moment.
“I've got civics too; what do you say we sit close together, so I can explain to you whatever you don't understand? Besides which, the teacher will probably be happy to see me tutor someone.”
Sonata looked at her with eyes full of adoration.
“You...you'd do that? For realzies?”
“Sure. Heck, we can start right now; what's one of the things you don't understand?”
Sonata blushed.
“Uhm...what's an ideal? And why does the teacher talk about them a lot?”
And Sunset patiently reminded herself to be patient. While she wouldn't win any Nobel prizes, Sonata could still be turned into a good person.
“You see, Sonata, it's like what Adagio used to go on about, but in many different directions, plus..”
Sunset's voice faded out of the corridor.
