Chapters “Oh! But Applejack’s huge family reunion isn’t until next week! It’s crazy that we’re fourth cousins twice removed.”
Sonata’s eyes fluttered open. What time was it? What had happened last night? All she could remember was getting kicked out, and trying to sing… then she found she could sing, and she had been so happy… She must have fallen asleep, after singing all night. Sonata stretched and wiggled, feeling (much to her disgust) her snot-and-tear soaked shirt. Sleeping on a bench was not good for your back.
As her vision cleared, she laid eyes on a pink-poofy-haired girl. Wait. Pink poofy hair? Eyes widening, Sonata shot to the far side of the bench, arms flailing in front of her as if they would protect her. Memories of the night her song was stolen flashed before her eyes, memories she had spent all night trying to move past.
She tried to scream some plea to be left alone, but only managed a scratchy whisper. A scratchy whisper that hurt. Singing all night is not good for your throat, she noted.
“What?” Miss Pink Hair was suddenly a lot closer than she was a few seconds ago, leaning in with her ear.
“I said, leave me alone!” Or at least, that’s what Sonata tried to say. It didn’t really come out.
“What!?”
Sonata tried one last cry for personal space, but she had hardly opened her mouth before Pinkums fell over, planting her face into Sonata’s soiled shirt. Sonata sat, frozen in fear. Had she done something wrong? Was she about to be rainbowed? They already took her singing, what was next? Her hair? Oh no, not her hair! She flinched as she watched Pink and Poofy pull her face out of Sonata’s shirt. Despite the muck that covered it, she still wore a broad smile.
“Wow, that shirt is really nasty! Good thing I have my Pinkie Intuition.”
Out of a backpack came not one, but two spare shirts. She wiped her face off with one, and offered the other to Sonata.
This didn’t make sense. This girl had destroyed her, ruined her life! Why was she being so kind to her? Slowly, Sonata took off her shirt, and replaced it with the new one. She looked down at her new attire. It was a white tee-shirt, pink-sleeved, with three balloons on the front. She looked back at… Pinkie? Was that her name?
“Now, how about you tell me what happened to make you so sad?”
She… she wanted to know? Why? By the Old Songs, did she not know who she was talking to?
“Come on! I might not know your name, but I can’t let anyone so sad get away with it!”
Adagio… Aria never asked what was wrong when she was sad… They probably didn’t notice…
“Oh, I get it! It’s a game of charades! So, uhh… you were sitting on a bench…”
Blinking, Sonata realized what was happening. Shaking her head, she scrambled to play along, and started mouthing with her fingers, as if she were wearing two sock puppets. That night… so much shouting…
“You were pretending to be a crab?”
A shake of the head.
“Uhh, you were practicing your flamenco?”
A bewildered look.
“Hmm… You… I got it! You were playing with sock puppets!”
Her hands flew up in exasperation.
“And then you threw a newborn baby into the air! Wait, what? I hope you caught it.”
Sonata buried her face in her hands.
“Oh no! You didn’t? Oh, I’m so sorry.”
Tears started flowing. She had hoped, just maybe, just maybe, she could find a kindred spirit. No, all she got was a mockery of her plight.
“Oh, don’t start crying again! I’m not very good at charades, anyway.“
Sonata was startled out of her shell when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. Slowly, she returned the gesture. Inwardly, Sonata chuckled. Now I get why they always snap at me when I’m being “silly.” Maybe she had found a kindred spirit after all.
“You can just tell me later, okay?”
Sonata gave a small nod with a small smile. Pinkie returned a much bigger smile, which was suddenly replaced with a look of horror.
“Oh my gosh we’ll be late for school come on we have to hurry hurry hurry!” Not having much choice in the matter, seeing as Pinkie had grabbed her wrist and was dragging her along, Sonata rushed to the school she had tried to enthrall not weeks ago.
Alas, today was not Taco Tuesday, but Sonata still grabbed some lunch and stared into the grid of tables in the cafeteria. A thousand kids (probably not, but it sure felt like it) who hated her, across every table. Suddenly the cafeteria seemed a lot bigger than it had been when Adagio, Aria, and she had strut through, singing their siren song. She gazed around for an empty table. She didn’t find one. Perhaps she should eat in the hallway.
She turned to the door and collided with a mass of pink hair. So did her tray, and the contents spilled across the floor. Or they would have, if not for some quick reflexes and broken laws of physics on the part of Pinkie.
“There ya go!” she said as she plopped the tray back into Sonata’s hands. “Can you talk now?”
To her credit, Sonata’s attempt at “Maybe?” was discernable, if still really quiet and scratchy.
“Come on! You can sit with us.”
“You?” Sonata knew she deserved her ditzy reputation, but even she knew sitting with those girls was a bad idea.
“Yeah! Oh, I just know the girls will love you!”
That makes one of us.
Still, it was better than eating in the hallway, so Sonata followed to the far table. Six other girls sat already assembled. Sonata did her best to squeeze in next to Pinkie, even with an open space on the opposite side of the table.
“Why, hello Pinkie, and… oh, my.” The purple-haired girl leaned back ever so slightly as she laid eyes on Sonata. Sonata, in response, shrunk further into table.
“What is she doing here, Pinkie?” Sonata never knew a pointing finger could be so scary. Then again, she hadn’t really met the rainbow-haired one, either.
“Isn’t it great? I made a new friend this morning! Oh, but I need to plan the party for tonight. There’s gotta be balloons, and streamers, and-”
“You befriended her ? She tried to take over the school, and the whole world, y’know! Are you nuts? Well, you are, but that’s not the point!” Did she have to be so brutally honest about it? What happened to love and tolerance?
At least the other pink-haired one was doing a remarkable impression of Sonata’s own tucked-away slouch. Oh, wait, that meant she was scared of her….
“Give her a chance, girls. After all, you gave me a chance.” Sonata perked up just a teensy bit, and cast her eyes in the direction of Miss Bacon Hair.
“I dunno,” said the cowgirl, pulling her hat forward. “I just don’t like it.”
“Aww, but she was so sad when I found her sleeping on the bench and her shirt was so messy I gave her mine and she couldn’t talk so we played charades and- “
“Wait, back up, Pinkie. She was sleeping on a bench? Outside?”
“Yup! Just down the road, in fact.”
“Good heavens, darling! Is that true?”
It took a while for Sonata to realize the question was directed at her. She gave a meek nod of confirmation.
“Oh dear. Whatever for?”
“…Adagio and Aria kicked me out.”
“Oh my… That doesn’t sound very nice.”
The girls glanced about each other. Shrugs, nods, and headshakes were traded.
“Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m not totally sure about this, but Sunset Shimmer is right. If you’ve really had a change of heart, there really is no reason to continue holding a grudge against you.”
“Where is she going to stay?” Rainbow Hair asked. “We can’t let her keep sleeping outside.”
“It’s… it’s fine. I’m sure they’ll let me back in. We… we just had a fight last night.”
“One so bad they made you sleep outside? Sugarcube, we ain’t sending you back to a house like that, at least not tonight.”
“Ooh, ooh, ooh! Slumber party at my place?”
Bacon Hair – Sunset Shimmer sighed and rolled her eyes with a smile. “Yes, Pinkie. Slumber party at your place.”
Smiles appeared on the other girls’ faces. Sonata found herself smiling as well. Maybe, just maybe, she could find a place here.
Author's Note
And so our story begins.
One of the great difficulties of third-person limited is identifying characters whose names are unknown to the character we are following. Thank heavens Sonata's actually going to learn their names in between the chapters.
“Oh, Rarity, Ah love you!”
“Oh, I love you too, darling Applejack!” Hands grasped each other, and longing looks gazed into the other’s eyes.
“Pinkie Pie, I don’t sound a thing like that.” Applejack groaned, earning a snicker out of her impersonator. Sonata had a grin of her own.
Rarity was hardly any more pleased. “And Sonata, really? Applejack?”
Applejack shot Rarity a look. “What’s that supposed to mean, Rarity?”
“Oh, uh, well… What I meant was… you’re not my type?”
Sonata giggled. “Well, if Applejack isn’t your type… I’m sorry Applejack, but my one true love is Rainbow Dash!”
“No, Ah can’t go on without ya, Rarity! Don’t leave me!”
“Good heavens!” Rarity near fumed. “You wouldn’t catch me dead with Rainbow Dash!”
“Hey! I’ll have you know I wouldn’t be caught dead with you either!”
Applejack chuckled. “I only hope that if I ever fall in love with Rarity and she rejects me, that I take it with a bit more dignity then y’all are making me out to have.”
Fluttershy offered a smile. “If it makes you feel any better, I’d go out with you if you fell in love with me.”
Sunset Shimmer raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
Fluttershy’s smile replaced itself with a look of horror. “Oh, uhh, what I meant to say was…”
Applejack, for reasons unknown to Sonata, suddenly started acting up. “Oh, Fluttershy, you know Ah couldn’t date anyone with hair extensions! No, Rarity’s the one for me!”
“But, but Applejack! I… I wear false eyelashes!”
“No, say it ain’t so!” Applejack said, gripping Rarity’s shoulders. With a look of remorse, Rarity dramatically pulled the fake eyelashes away. Seemingly overcome, Applejack recoiled in mock horror.
“Mah whole life is a lie!” She cast about, eventually grabbing onto Sonata. “Hold me, Sonata, hold me!”
Wide-eyed, Sonata slowly moved to pull Applejack closer, eventually patting her with a near motherly touch. “There, there…”
A gasp nearly made her jump. “I can’t believe you, Sonata! I thought we had something special!” Pinkie grabbed Sonata’s face and turned it to face hers.
“Wait, what? But, but this is so sudden and I just met you! Well, not met-met, but got-to-know-you-met.”
Wiping a tear from her eye, Applejack smiled. “She’s just playing, sugarcube.”
“Oh.”
Breaking away from Sonata, Applejack gave a small snort. “Now look what y’all’ve done. You’ve got my nose running.”
The assembled girls shared a good natured laugh as Fluttershy passed a tissue. Sonata couldn’t remember the last time she’d partaken in something like this. Had she ever? Certainly not with her former companions. Sure, she’d been the target of affection and adoration; as a Siren, it was part of the job description and a matter of self-preservation. But this, this was different. They had made fun of each other, even made fun of her inability to read sarcasm and acting, but it hadn’t felt the same way when Adagio or Aria did it. What was this feeling, this sensation Sonata had around these girls?
A ringing doorbell shook her out of her inner thoughts. The girls ran for the dinner table, Sonata amongst them.
“I swear, you guys are worse than my favorite romcoms on TV,” Sunset said before taking another bite of pizza.
Rainbow Dash didn’t bother with waiting to finish chewing. “I don’t know how you watch that stuff, Sunset. It’s so cheesy and mushy.”
“Just like that pizza you’re giving us a wonderful view of, darling?” Rarity offered with a raised eyebrow and cringe of disgust. Turning away, her eyes fell on Sonata. “Well, look at you. Not even a full day we’ve been friends and it’s already like we’ve known you forever.”
“…Friends?”
Sonata suddenly found Rainbow Dash’s arm hung around her neck and shoulder. “Yeah, friends. Y’know, people you hang out with and stuff? Oh, and… sorry about earlier.”
“It’s okay.” Had Sonata ever had a true friend? For the many years she’d been with them, she’d thought her fellow Sirens were her friends, or the closest thing she’d ever have to them. She believed it through the years of shouting, blame, and animosity. But the way these girls treated her, the girls who had forever torn out her soul that night, they were the ones who made her feel this way. Was this… friendship? Sonata decided she liked how this felt. She smiled, and saw each girl smiling back at her.
Suddenly, Pinkie proclaimed, “I feel a song coming on! One, two, three! There was a time we were apart, but that’s behind us now. ”
Catching on, Rainbow Dash joined in. “See how we’ve made a brand new start, and the future’s looking up, oh oh oh oh.... ”
Each of the girls joined in… except Sonata. If only she could join in! But without her voice, Sonata found herself relegated to watching and listening. As they sung, Sonata watched the little pony ears grow in and hair grow out, just like that night.
That night.
Memories flashed once again before her eyes. The same sinking feeling of her lost voice, her lost soul. The high of power, the crash of losing it. For a moment, just a moment, she’d been in touch with her inner old self, and it had been taken from her. The arguing and shouting after they ran off the stage. Had it all been a trick? A trap, set to capture her? Would she lose her hair? No… No! With a shriek, Sonata ran from the table, on the verge of bawling and clutching her shirt collar.
She ran. She didn’t know where she was running. She didn’t care. She just had to get away, away from everything. By luck or dumb fate, she came to the same bench she had slept on the night before.
She sat down. Was this her future, her fate? To be running from people her whole life? As a creature whose birth, whose purpose was born of feeding on hatred and creating affection, the concept of isolation was more than alien to her. But now it was staring her in the face, and she could run no more.
A stray thought entered her hear. She hadn’t stuck around for the whole song, but she had understood the general gist of it. It sung of union, friendship, things she found herself craving after that first tempting taste. It was opening, inviting, but above that, it was genuine. For a creature that had lived her life deceiving and generating false emotions, genuine affection was strange. It didn’t taste the same as the hatred that had sustained her. But she didn’t need that sustenance anymore. Her powers were gone, and with them, the physical need for anger. Oh, she still felt a hunger; her psyche and drive could not change overnight. But this genuine and real affection filled far more than the constructed adoration of the Old Songs.
But she couldn’t sing. This was not a matter of not knowing a song; she was physically impossible of carrying a tune. She could not partake in that song. Was she outside partaking in friendship as well?
No. She could sing. She had done it, that night. But could she do it again?
What had she sung about that night? A little duckling in a taco boat. She wracked her brain to remember that song, the notes she had carried that night. But her memory was fuzzy at best, taken that night by a strange cross of ecstasy and trance. Each note she sang could not match what she had sung that night. But something troubled her deeper. The sense of being possessed she had felt that night was gone. The, dare she say it, magic of her song that night simply wasn’t there.
Was that it, then? Her taste of song that night was a one-time thing, no closer to her reach than a waking dream. Had she been with her fellow sirens, they probably would have written off her experience as just that, a near hallucination not worth considering. But her fellow sirens were not at the front of her mind anymore. No, she had found a new set of people to follow. And even if that sensation was only a lie, in that moment, she decided to believe, to try.
She looked into the starts above and wondered. She was a ditz, a scatterbrain; to ponder was a part of her nature. She was taken to think about the strangest things in the strangest moments and make the strangest connections. Could she ever find that spark again? Sonata found that she thought best out loud. So she verbalized her train of thought. She verbalized it in song.
She had not even found a focal point to start her song. Out of her mouth came the greatest mysteries of the universe and the most inane thoughts of within. It was a train on a dead-set path with no rails at some times, and a train on rails with no set path at others. Why did she crave this newfound feeling? What was to become of her? What does duck taste like? Was she singing right now?
Wait.
Was she singing right now?
A theoretical bated breath later (Had her breath actually been bated, she would have stopped singing, after all.), it dawned on her that, yes, she was singing. And maybe, just maybe, if she could sing, perhaps she could partake in that song of friendship. All she had to do was to follow herself.
Her curiosity sated for the time being, she brought her song to a close, still in a happy state of shock, an open smile resting on her face.
“Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! That was amaze-tacular!”
“I thought you couldn’t sing anymore.” Sonata turned to face Sunset Shimmer, face the assembled girls, with looks of shock and wonder upon their faces as they walked towards her.
“I… didn’t think so either.”
Fluttershy gave a small smile. “Well, it certainly was very nice.”
Rarity was a bit more enthusiastic about the situation. “Darling, that was wonderful!”
Rainbow Dash seemed less enthusiastic. “I hate to be that guy, but doesn’t this mean she might have her powers back?”
Rarity turned with a look of disappointment. “She’s clearly happy about this, can’t you at least give her her moment?”
Applejack put her arm around Rainbow’s shoulder. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, Rainbow.”
Seemingly placated, Rainbow turned back to Sonata. “I have to agree. That was awesome!”
A suddenly far more morose than usual Pinkie pulled close. “Sorry about singing earlier. I… I forgot you couldn’t sing anymore. Friends are supposed to think about how other friends feel.”
Sonata’s eyes widened. “You… you think I’m your friend?”
“Of course, silly!” Pinkie beamed back. “Sure, we might have times where we don’t get along, but that doesn’t mean we stop being friends. Gosh, I sound like I belong on a children’s show, explaining this.” The girls allowed themselves to giggle at the absurdity of the statement.
“You want to come back, sugarcube?” Applejack offered her hand, but really much more than her hand.
“For realzies?”
“For realzies.”
A smile of approval later, the girls found themselves on the way back to Pinkie’s house. And the six, no, seven girls, found they couldn’t help but sing a song.
“Oh yeah, we’re better than ever …. ”
Author's Note
There are no lyrics in this chapter, merely italicized dialogue.
This chapter was rather fun to imagine. I'll confess, as a guy, I have very little idea about what girls talk about when they talk shop, but the scene at the start played out in my head in an amusing fashion, so I turned it to words. A bit more introspection a la Siren Night, but I felt that this was the best way to play out the scene.
An amusing change is how we went from "old songs" to "Old Songs." I blame SkycatcherEQ for that.
There are a few different directions to go from here. Sonata still hasn't managed to bump into Adagio and Aria since the start of this story, so we might look at that, or we might just jump into the Aria-self-discovery arc.
Sonata was innocently walking through the halls of Canterlot High. She still got looks in the hallway, ranging from nervous to contemptuous. But she did her best to let it pass. She had people she could call friends. And that was enough to make her smile.
What did not make her smile, however, was how she was cast tumbling to the ground as she was struck broadside by a heat-seeking shoulder.
…Perhaps she was being a little dramatic.
She had, however, nearly stumbled to the floor after being bumped by someone’s shoulder. Her eyes widened as she recovered and caught who had done the deed.
Adagio. Turning back to face her, she seethed. “Where were you last night?”
“I-I-I… I was…”
Adagio’s voice changed from venomous seething to harsh whispering. “I was wor – where were you?”
Sonata stuttered. She didn’t like being put on the spot like this. What if she told them where she really had been, that she had been with those girls… and they rejected her? They were not related by blood, but the sirens had been the closest thing to a family she ever had… right? Being ejected from the group would be awful… right? Sonata wasn’t sure she liked where these trains of thought were going.
A light shove that turned out to be not so light at all roused her from her thoughts as she hit the lockers behind her.
“I don’t know where you were, but I expect you home right after school. Do you understand?”
“Hey!” Sonata didn’t dare believe that voice. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Sure enough, Sunset Shimmer strode up to Adagio, clearly upset at the turn of events. “She clearly doesn’t want to talk right now. Why don’t you –”
“Oh, look, ever the goody-two-shoes, Miss Raging She-Demon.” The nickname clearly was not helping the situation. “I’m not allowed to show concern when one of my own goes missing for the whole night?”
“You had so much concern that you kicked her out of her own house!”
“Kick her out?” Adagio scoffed. “We did no such thing. She simply can’t handle a bit of criticism.” She sneered, the last few words directed at Sonata, who was rapidly coming to the decision that being anywhere else would probably be better than being here right now. Except maybe a pit of lava, but the case could still be made.
The confrontation devolved into a staring contest of particularly unpleasant proportions. Eventually, something caught Adagio’s attention, and she let out a humph as she walked away. Sonata thought she saw Aria in the distance, but she couldn’t tell. Any attempts to get a closer look were stopped as Sunset pulled Sonata face-to-face.
“Look, if you don’t want to go back there, you don’t have to. I don’t have a huge place, but it’s big enough for two, and –”
“No, I probably should go back. We… just had a bad night, that’s all.”
Sunset didn’t look convinced. “You sure?”
She got a nod in response. She sighed. “Okay, but… you have my address and my number, right? Don’t feel bad if you have to –“
Sonata managed a forced laugh. “Really, it’s nothing. I’ll… I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. If you insist.” The two walked to class, Sonata doing her best to put off thinking about what she was going to do back home.
The walk home was… tense. Sonata found herself longingly looking back at her new friends as she left school, all of them wearing frowns. With a sigh, she set herself looking forward.
All this friendship stuff felt nice, but it was making her heart and head hurt. Sonata decided to let her mind go, to relax. Why was the sky blue? Well, she knew the answer – the most common wavelength of light reflected off the molecules that made up the atmosphere was that of blue light. (Despite everyone’s assertions, Sonata wasn’t as stupid as they thought… or at least, she wasn’t when she remembered she wasn’t.) But why was the sky blue? What great force had ascribed that the molecules of the sky should be blue? Who had decided the laws of light? Where was it written that that visible light reflected? How –
Sonata was pulled – quite literally – from her thoughts as she was pulled – very literally – backwards onto the side walk. Something zoomed past, the wind sharply registering on Sonata’s face.
“Should have let that car hit you,” Aria sneered, her hands still clutching Sonata’s arm and shoulder. “One less stupid person in the world.”
In the past, Sonata might have offered some tangential retort, oblivious to the barb’s hidden meaning. But now, her eyes had been opened, and the blade of the insult now cut deep into Sonata’s exposed heart. Is that… really how she thinks of me? After everything we’ve been through… together?
“What, nothing? Good. Means I don’t have to hear your stupid voice.”
Adagio’s face was hardly less annoyed.
Sonata found it very hard to think about the blue sky for the rest of the trip home.
A paper plate with three slices of pepperoni pizza in hand (Sonata was a rather big eater), Sonata retreated to her room. She had no desire to face her fellow sirens, not after the incident. She supposed she should be thankful they had saved her life, but… it hurt. A lot. Maybe too much.
Despite her best efforts, her mind returned to last night. She’d been hurt that night as well, a distasteful moment had played out. But it had all resolved so much happier that time. The tears were wiped away, replaced by smiles and song. Song. She could sing. It took effort, but she could sing. Did her fellow sirens know it? They couldn’t know it. Right? Should she tell them, show them? How could she hide that she found her soul, her purpose again?
But… had she really found it? Singing brought her great joy, yes, but there was still something missing in her life, ever since that fateful day. And while she hadn’t tested it, she had a hunch her powers in the form of enthrallment had not returned. Would the other sirens really care? Probably not.
What of the other sirens? Despite how much happier she felt with her new friends, she could not let go of the connection thousands of years had forged. They had indeed been through so much together, and to leave them now would be a betrayal Sonata could not stomach. But she had changed, for the better, she dared think, and her fellow sirens had not. Could… could she change them? Bring them even a taste of what she had tasted? Probably not, her mind told her. They wouldn’t appreciate it, her mind told her.
But there was a chance, her heart told her. She let herself see a world where the three sat happily around the dinner table. She saw a world where they stayed up late on movie marathons. She saw a world where they… were friends. That world was not her world, but it was a possible world. And that was more than enough for Sonata. She would go, and be the friend that those girls had been to her.
But not tonight. Tonight was a night of sad reflection and the quiet chewing of pepperoni pizza.
Author's Note
I'm actually now very sad I used the color blue last chapter title. Would have fit very nicely here.
This probably ends Sonata's arc for now. We move into Aria's arc.
In other news, my headcanon now involves Sonata being into physics.
Aria considered herself a measured person. She was the kind of person to weigh options before deciding.
“Come on, Aria! Sit with us!”
Unfortunately, it was a lot harder to weigh her options when someone was bothering her. And if there was one thing Aria could say Sonata did well, it was bother her.
“We have a perfectly functional employee lounge here. I see no reason not to use it.”
In hindsight, perhaps she should have seen this coming when she decided to work at Taco Belle. Somewhere along the line of the sirens’ history, Sonata had acquired a taste for faux-Mexican food (and proper Mexican cuisine).
“But, but – please, Aria?”
Of course, Sonata and her newfound companions had to decide to eat here at the same time as her lunch break. She was professional enough to have been able to serve them and see them on their way during work hours. But alas, fate had decided to saddle her with the bothersome one.
“No.”
“And then I was like ‘Bam!’ and the ball went ‘Woosh!’ and into the goal!”
Aria was not quite sure how this happened. One moment, she clearly said no; the next, she had grabbed her free combo and was eating with Sonata and… them .
“We know, darling. We were there. And you really need to work on chewing with your mouth closed.”
With a grumble, the rainbow-haired one complied. Aria couldn’t believe Sonata had chosen these girls, of all people, to associate with. No, wait; knowing Sonata, she could very well believe it.
“And what is she doing here, anyway?”
Aria didn’t need to look up from her free taco to know who “she” was.
The pink-not-poofy-haired one spoke for the first time. “Now, Rainbow Dash. You said the same thing about Sonata.”
“I know… but at least Sonata was a bit more upbeat about it.”
“She’s right there, sugarcube.” Rainbow-hair let out a huff in defeat. Clearly not one to be deterred, Aria noted, she launched into another tale.
“So I entered this guitar competition last week, right?”
Purple-hair sighed with a hint of a smile. “We know , darling. We were there to root for you, remember?”
A slight blush crept onto… Rainbow Dash, that was it. “Yeah, well, I was still awesome. I won, after all.”
“Speaks more about how bad everyone else was than how good you were.” Aria didn’t bother to look up at the gasps.
“Oh yeah? I bet I can play guitar better than you can.”
“Whether or not I can play guitar has no bearing on how bad you are.” Really, was it so hard to not use logical fallacies? “That said, though I was always more into singing than instruments… I can still play the guitar better than you can.” They didn’t need to know she could sing again.
“Well, I have my quitar right here.” Rainbow hefted a guitar case into sight. “We’ll just have to see who’s better now.”
“Fine. Play your best.”
Rainbow didn’t even pause to think. Guitar plugged into a porta-amp (what was she doing casually carrying around her guitar and amp, anyway?), and she started playing.
“First you see me riding on a sonic boom…. ”
Where had she heard this before? Oh, right, during the semifinals of that. She rolled her eyes. Credit where credit was due, Rainbow Dash was quite the show woman. Guitar behind the head, duckwalking, the hula hoop. With the singing, she had potential in music… not that Aria would have said that. Besides, it reeked of… being showy. Aria was a purist at heart when it came to music, and she would never understand Adagio’s love for dancing and motions while singing.
A final strum and applause shook Aria out of her thoughts.
“Let’s see you top that .” If Aria was the type to stoop to her level, she’d want to wipe that smug grin off her face.
“Naturally. You can’t play well, so you hide it with your gimmicks and singing.”
“Oh yeah? Let’s see you try that.”
“I don’t need to, because I can actually play .”
She wouldn’t have let it show, but Aria was starting to regret her little bet. While she knew she could sing again, that didn’t necessarily mean she could play an instrument again. Come to think of it, she hadn’t tried playing an instrument since the incident. Had the ability ever left her? Had it come back if it had? Well, it was a too late now.
Aria took the guitar, and slung the strap over. She sat down, and let the guitar rest between her legs. Eyes closed. Inhale. Exhale. Yes… that song should do nicely.
Go.
It started slow. Four chords, nothing fancy. No words, no lyrics. Her left hand vibrated with the string. A simple set of harmonious notes in a row. Chords. More notes, a little faster now. She didn’t need her eyes open to see the eyeroll on Rainbow’s face.
“Seriously? That’s it?” A shush from the crowd… if you could call six people a crowd.
Aria ran her thumb across the string, a satisfying squeak behind it. Back to chords and notes. Now softly, she tapped the strings, faintly touched them with her fingers. She picked the strings softly. Now louder, she pat the strings, strummed across the very bottom of them. She tapped the guitar, let the solid thunk loose.
Now she hastened, her tempo increasing. Strum, strum, drum the guitar. Faster, faster, blind to the world. She could still play. So she would. She allowed her movements to become more complex, her fingers more precise. She was ready to face a true audience, to impress a true crowd, but in her mind’s eye saw nothing.
What?
This was her driving motivation, her passion behind her music. Even after her magic was gone, Aria still loved the wave of adoration. It brought her voice back. So where was her dream now?
She didn’t need to think about the music anymore. It was now muscle memory that could carry her, yet she still felt hollow. She knew she could play this song, she was hearing herself play this song, and she was nailing it, and it should have brought her satisfaction. So why didn’t it?
It took her a while to realize her fingers had stopped moving. It took her a while longer to realize the assembled girls were clapping for her. She opened her eyes. If she couldn’t see a crowd in her imagination, as least she could get something out of seeing rainbow-hair dejected over losing.
Except that sight did not greet her. Instead, she got a Rainbow Dash all excited, hands pressed to her cheeks, lips out. It looked like something that belonged on an internet meme.
“That… was… awesome! You have to teach me how to play like that!” That… wasn’t what Aria expected.
“You realize you lost, right?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s not important. You have to teach me!”
Thankfully, salvation came in the form of the end of her lunch break. Before she stepped through the door, she turned back. “You… have something. You might be able to learn.” Something about the smile on Rainbow’s face moved her.
“Oh, and don’t forget girls, we have that party tonight!” She caught Applejack saying as she stepped through.
“Oh, Aria! You should totally join us.” Curses. If only she had closed the door faster. Of course Sonata would say that.
“No.”
A pillow struck her face broadside. Aria stood, surrounded by the laughter and cries of teenage girls engaged in perhaps the most immature pillow fight ever.
How had she let this happen?
Author's Note
It lives!
If you're curious about the song Aria plays, I decided to have her play Sonata for guitar, Op. 47, by Alberto Ginastera .
“So, where’d you learn to play the guitar?” Sunset asked, the clamor of the pillow fight finally at rest, the girls content to lay about the bedroom.
Aria half-scowled at the question, eyebrow raised. “Sonata taught me.” She scoffed as she rolled her eyes. “Really, Sonata is the one who’s good at playing instruments.” She crossed her arms and faced away, clearly loathe to admit the fact.
Sonata giggled. “Aww, I just taught you the basics.” She nudged Aria’s shoulder and winked at her. “Besides, you’re much better at the guitar than I am.”
“How I pity you, you who cannot play one of the many instruments you play better than the one I play.” It’s a fact, much as Aria is loathe to admit it. Still, she can’t seem to stop a smile from creeping onto her face. “Besides, you’re an amazing piano player.”
“Ooh! You play the piano too, Sonata dear?” Rarity, impossibly fast, closed the distance between her and Sonata, and plopped next to her, listening intently.
The blue haired teen looked up to the ceiling and pouted, then shook her head and gave a small smile. “Naaaah. It’s been so long since I’ve played. Our power comes from singing, so I just stopped playing eventually.”
Aria in turn rolled her eyes and smirked as she returned Sonata’s previous nudge with one of her own. “Pah. If I can still play a guitar, I’m sure you can still play the piano. Don’t sell yourself short.”
And as the girls crowd around a now-blushing Sonata, Aria can’t help but feel a pang of pride for her fellow Siren.
Aria had already walked out, but she still caught the clang of clatter crashing about.
“I’m not cleaning that mess up!” Aria turned to see the blonde cowgirl – Applejack, that’s her name – walking out as well, heaving a sigh. “Why did I agree to let them bake a cake in our house? I don’t know what to do with those girls sometimes…” she added under her breath, rubbing her temples as she fell against the wall.
“Getting to you too?” Aria asked as she leaned her back against the wall beside Applejack.
The cowgirl gave a laugh, forceful and humorously sharp. “Pinkie’s a walking disaster, Rainbow’s too big for her britches, and Rarity brings drama wherever she goes! Fluttershy’s critters get everywhere, and while Sunset isn’t a she-demon anymore….” Her eyes and face became downcast, now looking at the ground.
“And you’re friends with them of your own free will?” Aria couldn’t stop one of her eyebrows going up. She got a chuckle in return.
“At this point? I’m not even sure anymore.” Applejack replied in jest, something resembling a smile of amusement on her face. It was replaced with a grimace and a palm against her forehead as another crash came from inside.
“How do you do it?” Now Aria was intrigued. Now she leaned against the barn by her shoulder, facing Applejack.
“Do what?” For a moment, it seemed as if Applejack didn’t understand the question. “Are ya talking about staying friends? It’s not that hard, really.”
“Oh?”
“No, not at all! It’s not like I don’t have my share of silly moments.” A wistful smile crosses her face. “That time I tried to harvest all the apples on the orchard by myself... Hoo-wee, Rainbow Dash still has that scar, doesn’t she?”
“…Scar?”
“It’s not my story to tell.” Applejack leaned back against the barn, eyes now gazing into the distance. “But, I guess, to really answer your question… they just make me happy, I guess. I don’t know, I never really thought about it before.”
“…Happy?”
“If you think we’re giving each other ‘happy endings,’ no, that’s not–“
Whatever the farmer had intended to say was cut short by another set of loud crashes, both girls sent recoiling at the sound. “What in tarnation are those girls doing!?” The commotion clearly too much for her, Applejack stormed back inside.
But Aria can’t go back in yet. She’s become strangely fixed on the word “happy,” a word that she couldn’t use to describe herself for… how many years now? Centuries, perhaps? Amused, sated, proud, but not happy. She’s not the kind of girl to feel “happy” as most people do, but wouldn’t it be nice to be happy, happy like Sonata? For a moment, the image of her acting like Sonata flashed through her brain, and it is enough to make her shudder. No, she’s quite, dare she say it, happy with how she is.
But Sonata seems happier now, doesn’t she? She fits right into their strange group. And it really is strange, now that she thinks about it. What do a cowgirl, a soccer player, a fashion designer, an animal caretaker, a party girl, and a pony have in common? Aria decided to not search for the punchline, especially since she’d then have to throw a siren in as well.
“Aria! You’re gonna miss dinner!”
And then the punchline hits her. There’s no physical blow, but the cruel joke forces the air out of her chest, violently. The door suddenly seems miles away, and it is somewhat miraculous Aria can reach it. Her vision is swimming now; she thinks she opened the door. She’s now at the table, eating. All the while, the punchline echoes through her head.
What do they have in common? It doesn’t matter, since you have nothing at all.
Aria Blaze was awake. This wasn’t necessarily unusual, except it was two in the morning and everyone else was asleep. Aria Blaze was currently in the kitchen. That wasn’t necessarily unusual, except it wasn’t her kitchen and she wasn’t hungry. Aria Blaze was upset. That definitely wasn’t unusual, except she was upset at herself.
That was unusual.
Elbows on table, forehead in hands, eyes closed, Aria scowled. She can’t even tell if she’s more upset at this new revelation in her life, or at the fact she has no idea why she’s upset. She has never, ever aspired to be like Sonata, in any way.
This is not how it is supposed to be. Sonata was always supposed to be the ditz, the fool, the one who was always behind. That hadn’t changed. So why did Aria feel this pit in her gut when the thought about Sonata?
Because Sonata has changed. She’s found something Aria will never touch, never know. And how can Aria keep thinking she’s the better Siren when Sonata knows something she never will?
Of course she can. Aria has never really known the strange machinations that ran through Sonata’s head, and she has never desired to. Why should this be any different? She had no right, no reason to be angry right now. So why wouldn’t her heart settle?
The sound of footsteps drew Aria’s attention, and she saw the cowgirl come through the door. She blinked twice before realizing she didn’t have her hat on.
The cowgirl blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes when their eyes met. “Aria? What are you doing, up at this hour?”
Caught off guard, the Siren blinked a few times herself. “I… had to use the bathroom.”
“That would explain why you’re sitting in the kitchen.” The slightest smug grin was on Applejack’s face, curse her, and Aria found no retort.
“Well, I could ask why you’re up.”
Applejack sighed, shoulders now dropped, her back now hunched over. “Well, someone has to clean this place up.”
“I thought you said you wouldn’t clean this up.”
“I did say that, didn’t I?” A chuckle, the beginnings of a smile. “Made a liar out of me, they did. I hate it when they do that.” Applejack shook her head, then faced Aria once more. “Well, as long as you’re here, mind giving me a hand?”
Trapped, Aria mumbled something in the affirmative, and stood up.
“So tell me. Why are you up?” Aria only gave the floor a scowl in reply as she picked up a fallen pot.
Besides… I’m not sure I could answer anyway. Not that she has to let the cowgirl know that.
But her mind started running against her will, started trying to explain away the growing pit in her stomach. Really, what was the worst that could come out of this whole development? Sonata would just keep hanging out with them more, spending less time with Adagio and her.
Sonata was leaving her. Sonata was walking out of her life.
Aria dropped the lid she was carrying. She never registered the clang as it hit the ground. She stood there, almost tragically comical expression on her face.
Sonata was leaving her. That useless, pathetic, closest thing she had to a little sister was leaving her. That foolish, good-for-nothing, better-than-you’d-think-and-only-I-truly-know companion wasn’t going to be a part of her life anymore.
Eventually, the repeated calls of “Sugarcube?” break her trance.
“I just remembered, I started the laundry before we came. I need to finish it. Adagio gets cranky when she doesn’t have any clean clothes.”
It’s a perfectly legitimate reason to leave. She’s already halfway to the door.
“So you came down here to not eat, not clean up, and now you have to go finish your laundry?” She doesn’t need to look to see the dry disbelief on Applejack’s face.
She had the doorknob half-turned when a voice stopped her.
“Aria… what’s wrong?”
She turned the doorknob, pushed through the door, and walked out.
She is walking home at a brisk pace. She is running.
She is not cold. She is freezing.
She is not crying. She can’t see through the tears.
She is perfectly fine.
…
Why does it hurt so much?
Author's Note
I must give credit to WublessFeat , who helped edit quite a bit of this chapter.