Welcome

The three sisters sat in the waiting room, all wearing different expressions. After crying Aria had a permanent scowl on her face as she held Sonata's head close to her chest. Adagio wrapped her arms around them and occasionally gave one of the two a squeeze when it felt needed. She looked slightly guilty, worried that Aria was mad at her for leaving them alone. She continued to maintain a mask of neutrality while pacifying her sisters.

In reality, Aria was mad at herself. After Aria had a couple minutes to calm down, she realized her eldest sister was probably just as worried as she was; Her eldest sister that she just yelled at. Gritting her teeth, Aria tried her hardest to remain calm and support her sisters. She didn't know if she was helping Adagio at all, but she hoped that simple close contact was doing something.

Sonata was inconsolable, she clung onto her sisters as if letting go would mean never seeing them again. The very thought of her grandfather dying destroyed her heart, and every time she thought she couldn't feel worse, another memory of him would pop into her head and break her into little pieces all over again. Running on emotion alone, Sonata did the first thing she always did whenever she felt completely helpless.

She began to quietly sing.

In a scared, shaky tone, Sonata whimpered out a slow melody, one of desperation, seeking love. The two responded instantly, closting their eyes and adding their low hum to hers; Adagio and Aria's both scared, but full of warmth and love. Sonata's voice filled with warmth too, responding to her sisters. The three basked in each others love.

For five minutes, the three gently hummed a melody of fear and love, trying their hardest to calm each other down. Adagio, regaining her bravado, opened her eyes and saw most of the medical staff staring at them. Noticing Adagio stopped, the other two took notice of what was happening and all three proceeded to act like deers in headlights.

"Oh, um!" The nurse nearby cleared her throat. "Would all three of you be relatives of Starswirl?"

"Yes, we are his granddaughters." Adagio coolly said.

"Please follow me."

Aria and Sonata jumped to their feet, and then looked sheepish as they saw Adagio calmly get up. They followed the nurse into a empty room with two seats and a bed. The three looked around nervously, disappointed that they weren't taken to their grandfather.

"Please take a seat, I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news."

Sonata moaned in fear and Adagio wrapped her arms around her. Motioning for Aria to take a seat, Adagio sat down next to her and put Sonata in her lap.

"Please continue, nurse." Adagio said calmly.

"Yes, well... We examined your grandfather,  he has tuberculosis. "

The three of them froze at the word. None of them were familiar with diseases. With the mood they were in though, they felt that the nurse just told them their grandfather had minutes to live.

"I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with the term. May I have an explanation for what is please?" Adagio forced herself to say calmly.

"Tuberculosis, to put simply, is a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs, but can strike anywhere in the body. If not treated it can be fatal."

All three of the girls froze in shock.

"F- fatal?" Adagio wheezed.

The nurse gave a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, that's only if it's not treated. People rarely ever die from tuberculosis when they have treatment. Your grandfather has been given his first dose just now and we're keeping him overnight just in case anything goes wrong."

Adagio let out a sigh in relief and regained her composure. The other two were not as relieved.

"Can we see him?!?" Sonata begged.

"I'm sorry, Tuberculosis is highly contagious. There is a high chance that any of you three might have caught it. I'm afraid we're going to have to examine you three."

"P- please... I- I want to see..." Sonata whimpered. Adagio squeezed her tightly and held her hand.

"Thank you very much, miss..." Adagio made a hand gesture.

"Miss Redheart." The nurse replied, "Can we examine you right now?"

"May I have a minute with my sisters?."

"I understand." She said, nodded and walked out, quietly closing the door behind her.

"Girls, listen closely." Adagio said softly, but with authority. "Grandpa is going to be fine. We're going to get examined, and go home."

"We can't just go home and, and!.."

"Aria, calm down," Adagio ordered, putting Sonata down and pulling both her sisters in close. "I don't want to leave Grandpa here too, but all we will do is cause the staff trouble. We all will get up early in the morning, and head back here before school, alright? I promised everything was going to be okay, and I mean it. Whatever is wrong with Grandpa, we'll handle it, I swear."

Aria opened her mouth to yell again, then closed it. She looked at Adagio with tired eyes, no longer wishing to fight. "Okay..." she said meekly.

"Sonata?" Adagio nudged her gently.

"Y- yes?.." She sniffed.

"Are you going to be able to walk home okay?"

She wiped her tears away and looked Adagio in the eyes. "Yeah..."

"Alright, let's thank the nurse for helping us, get ourselves checked, and go home."

Luckily, all three of them checked out fine. Adagio spent the next twenty minutes with the doctor trying to work who Grandpa had contact with over the last month to see who he might have gotten it from, or worse, given it to. For being old, Starswirl was surprisingly mobile and social. The man seemed to love connecting with others and while Adagio had nothing but respect for him, this was the one time she wished her grandfather was a bit more reclusive.

The walk home was painfully silent. Adagio thought that they were quiet before, but this was on a completely different level. She never notice the little noises her sisters made while moving. The way Sonata would occasionally hum or gently giggle to herself.  How Aria would quietly scoff at a thought she had. It made Adagio wonder what sort of noises she made that no one really thinks about.

No one ate dinner that night. Usually, the girls would spend an half an hour in front of the radio listening to music before going to sleep, but all three of them headed to bed immediately. Adagio stared at the ceiling of her room for a couple minutes before realizing she was still in her casual wear. Sighing, she slowly went about the task of getting in her pajamas and flopped back into bed.

Adagio couldn't understand how tired her mind and body could be yet how wide awake she was. Flipping her pillow over to the cool side multiple times, she tried counting sheep, imagining songs, staying perfectly still, emptying her mind... Nothing, nothing worked. She was about slam her head into her pillow out of frustration when she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." Adagio called out.

Sonata crept in slowly, closing the door behind her. She quietly made her way to Adagio's bed hiding the lower half of her face behind a pillow.

"Adagio... Can you read me a bedtime story?"

"What?"

"Whenever I can't sleep or I'm really sad, Grandpa would read me a bedtime story." Sonata murmured.

"Grandpa reads you bedtime stories." Adagio said in mild disbelief.

Sonata shyly nodded her head.

"Does he still read you bedtime stories?"

"Y- yeah, why?"

"...It's nothing. You want me to read to you?"

"Yeah, please Adagio? I c- can't stop thinking about Grandpa..." Sonata started to cry.

Adagio quietly rose out of bed and walked over to her youngest sister. Wrapping her in a hug, she massaged her shoulder with one hand until Sonata stopped shaking.

"Let's get grab a book." Adagio said in a soothing tone.

"Thanks..." Sonata sniffed.

The two quietly walked down the hall to Sonata's room, not wanting to wake Aria. Upon entering Sonata's room, Adagio gave the bookshelf near her bed a closer look. Sonata never seemed like the type that liked to read, but she had collected over 40 books over the last 15 years, penny pinching here and there. Adagio herself only questioned her once when they were younger, and Sonata seemed to be embarrassed over the matter. A lot of things clicked in her head at once; Sonata didn't really seem like the type who liked to read, but she definitely came off as someone who liked being read to. Adagio imagined that more often than not, Grandpa probably read a chapter to her before she would go to sleep.

Grandpa...

Adagio mentally berated herself. Grandpa needed help tomorrow, Sonata needed help now.

"This story is my favorite!" Sonata proudly presented her a colorful book.

Adagio took the book and read the cover, "...Starswirl the Bearded and the Wicked Sirens?"

"Uh huh!" Sonata beamed. "Grandpa made this for me!"

Adagio didn't know Grandpa wrote books, the cover looked really nice too, on it was a cartoon unicorn with rainbow hair and a silly wizard hat. He was throwing a smug grin towards the reader as he jumped over a chasm. Adagio gave a lighthearted scoff, it fit her Grandfather perfectly to make a silly looking children's book like this. Still, this explains how Sonata was able to get so many books. Her family couldn't really afford much, instead choosing to wisely saving money for when winter got rough. If Grandpa made somewhere between one third to half of her books...

"Alright, come here." Adagio motioned.

Adagio gently climbed into Sonata's bed, raising the covers for Sonata to join her. Adagio pulled back in fear when Sonata jumped onto the bed and practically tackled her. Getting glomped, Adagio tried to regain her sense of composure and Sonata tightened her grip.

"Thanks Adagio, I really appreciate this..." Sonata nuzzled her chest.

"No problem..." Adagio weakly said. Clearing her throat, she cracked open the book and-

"You forgot the title!" Sonata pouted.

"What?"

"You have to read the title out loud first before you open the book!"

Rolling her eyes, Adagio closed the book and held the front of it up close as she squinted...

Starswirl the Bearded and the Wicked Sirens.

Into the palace the handsome unicorn trotted.

Wondering what his princess plotted.

"Never fear, your majesty, I am here!" Said the dark gray blue colt.

"It is because your here, that I have fear!" The alicorn teased the dolt.

"What great evil, shall I vanquish this time?!?"

"Sirens have come, committing a great crime!"

"Say nothing more!" The unicorn cheered, "For nopony could possibly defeat Starswirl!"

"It's an eyesore!" The alicorn jeered, "That somepony could possibly make me hurl!"

"I'll defeat those sirens in ten seconds flat!"

"Then I hope you pull extra time out of that hat."

"Tell me now, why do you say that?"

"Because it's already been, ten seconds flat!"

So the gentlecolt left, in a hurry.

"But not once, did he worry.

"For he was Loving Frost's student, the prodigy unicorn!

"And with his powerful magic, surrounded his horn.

"With all his skill, and all his talent.

"The unicorn struck a pose, looking so gallant.

With a bright flash,

He landed with a splash!

The village he went to save, the innocent townponies he sought,

Was sinking under the waves, the ponies mindlessly fought!

"A cute little pony, joins our play..."

"Astute little pony, won't you stay?.."

The sirens sang, their voices so lovely.

Racking his brain, hitting so roughly.

Starswirl grit his teeth, he wasn't a knave!

He refused to succumb to a watery grave!

"Here I am, the righteous and the willing!"

"Here I stop, the wicked and the killing!"

And with a snap, crackle pop,

Lightning struck the Siren's top.

Lashing and smashing, bashing and gashing!

He was stunning and cunning, they were succumbing and running.

Soon the town was no longer flooded and the ponies were safe.

The siren's could not overcome Starswirl's good faith.

But among the puddles, he heard a wail.

In fear, his face went pale!

Adagio gasped as she read the next couple lines, "...Adagio," she murmured, looking at the book, "Hey Sona-"

Adagio stopped when she saw that Sonata had fallen asleep. But how did... "I didn't read this to dwell upon the past." Sonata had fallen asleep, and she should sleep too. Resolving to get some rest tonight, Adagio snuggled in close to her sister.

"Goodnight Sonata, I love you..."

She kissed her sister on the forehead, and closed her eyes. She wasn't alone anymore, and she planned to keep it that way, no matter what. She wasn't going to leave grandpa behind.