A Week After

In the morning Sonata woke up to the assault from the light streaming from the window into her bedroom.

The first thing she noticed was the warmth. It was very comforting. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking several times because of the burning.

It flooded over the room, sending warmth radiating throughout her body. Her head ached, like a sore muscle would after a long day of hard labor. She lay there for a few minutes, staring at the ceiling as her memories returned one by one.

When the last one arrived, she jolted up in the bed.

Sonata felt a sudden burst of pain in her face and flinched at it, there was a wide bruise from the bottom of her cheek to the beginning of her forehead.She was none , but she knew it would have to be bandaged to stop, if not already further infection.

She walked out of her room with a limp, and into their shared bathroom.

She turned to the mirror cabinet to get some peroxide when she noticed her reflection. Her hair was a mess, her left eye was bruised and her bottom lip was split. She got out some peroxide put it on a cotton ball and rubbed the cut on her lip and dabbed the bruise. The bruise was deep and she knew it.

Sonata got her clothes out of the laundry room and wandered into the kitchen knowing Aria and Adagio would be on their run they do each Saturday morning, Aria with Saturday school and Adagio with her part time job as waitress.

She dragged herself to the couch where Sonata found a note Adagio left for her.

Sonata, breakfast is on the kitchen table, you are not to leave this house. Aria will be back at 3pm and I will be with you shortly.
-Adagio

She saw her reflection sitting in front of her in the T.V screen, she looked down at the whiles on her thigh. She watched as a drop of blood from her lip fell into on her arm, sliding down it, leaving a red trail.

She whimpered slightly as she felt her eyes burn, tears poured from them. Sonata tried to wipe them away, but she flinched at the tenderness of the bruise from her face. She turned back to the T.V and saw the red droplets on her chin, drifting silently down her neck. Though she could still hear her own quiet sobs, Sonata continued to stare at her reflection.

A tear fell.

Then another.

Then she starts to sob uncontrollably. Hot tears fall down Sonata's face while she thinks of everything that has happened. Her mother, her father, getting jumped, and Adagio slapping her the night before.

Sonata sat there remembering every little detail of her life, every bad thing that has ever happened, and some of the good.

She thought back to when she was younger. Her mom was never there when she needed her. She never had had anyone to talk about the guys she liked, or shared her feelings if she was upset. Sonata’s mother, a nurse. Who worked in palace for the princesses for numerous years, a great nurse, and had many dear friends.

One picture. That's the closest thing she has to seeing her mother. Their mother died giving birth to her. Sonata killed her mother. But instead of support, the six foot five, three hundred pound body builder, that she called father had bought fear into her life. For doing the most innocent things like crying at night, the baby was thrown in the closet without feeding.

One day he couldn't take her anymore and thew the baby out.

Ever since her mother died, her father had gone through serious emotional issues, which he would take out on the small child. But Adagio would always show great interest in Sonata, that day when she found her in the woods. Often playing with her, Adagio stole her snacks shops. Even though Adagio never had toys as a child, when Sonata was two Adagio had sewed her up a brown little doll.

The doll was small about the size of her small hoof, with black button eyes, black wool for a mane and tail, and it's white dress was made from a cloth napkin. The two year old cherished the gift as if it was gold.

Adagio was always there for Sonata and Aria. She was the mother figure they both relied on once they lost theirs. And even though Adagio didn't go to school, always made sure that Aria and Sonata all ways had their mane and coat kept nicely and were making good grades in school.

This lead to all three of them growing up fast and not having a good childhood. Sonata grew up blaming herself for her mother's death, while her sisters had problems of their own. They never had a normal life like other colts and fillies.

Now here she was a eighteen thousand years later staring her own reflectiion.

The door opened.

Sonata shivered with fear. Adagio never looked at Sonata, and Sonata never looked up. That was when Adago stopped walking, sitting down on the couch next to Sonata. Sonata teansed up, eyeing the floor warily.

“Look at me.” Adagio turned to face her. Despite her apparent fear, Sonata complied. She looked up, meeting Adagio's stern gaze.

“Tell me what happened yesterday. Tell me everything, tell me the truth.”

Sonata nodded, her eyes watering. She did what she was told and began to relay the day’s events with a quavering voice, fighting back sobs as she did.

“Okay, okay. I will.” She wiped her eyes, pulling herself together.

“W-When you left last night… I went to around town looking for you. And then Aria texted me that she found you, so I went to a bakery to get some snacks while I-I was out then…”

She paused, just before the climax of the story.

“What?” Adagio questioned.

Sonata swallowed hard. “…and then some girl tried to steal them from me, so I pushed her away and she punched me in my jaw then I punched her back in the eye and ran off.” she concluded.

Adagio drank in all of the information Sonata had relayed to her, deep in thought. She scaned the room with her eyes and humed softly in thought.

“So, there’s nothing else you want to tell me?” she asked, her tone betraying her doubts. Sonata shook her head, looking away from her eidest sister. Adagio, however, was not convinced.

“Look at me. Right now.”

Sonata clenched her glistening eyes shut for a moment, and then did what her eldest sister said. Adagio’s eyes burned into hers.

“Look at me, and tell me that you told me the truth. Now."

“I…” Sonata began, "I told you… I told you… I-I-I…”

She broke. Looking away with shame, she blurted out, “I lied!”

“What haven’t you told me?” Her voice was soft yet hard, almost a whisper. Tears flowed freely down Sonata's cheeks. She told the rest of the story between her sobs.

“A-After - hic! - You ran aw-way, - I got some snacks from the b-bakery - hic - and then...” She took another deep breath to stop herself from sobbing. “...I was coming home, and…”

"And..."

"I was jumped!" She broke down completely, covering her eyes and cheeks with her hands in shame.

"They punched in my j-jaw me and kept hitting me with a switch!" Sonata sobbed refering to the marks on her thighs.

Adagio was no longer glaring at her youngest sister. She turned her head away from Sonata as her own eyes began to water.

Before Sonata could even lift up her head, a strong pair of arms wrapped themselves around her middle. Adagio lifted her up from the floor, pulling her quaking body into hers in a loving embrace. She clasped her arms around her younger sibling, letting her cry on her shoulder. Sonata may not have known it, but she was not the only one with tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Shhh, shh, it’s alright.” Adagio rubbed Sonata’s back up and down, her skin with her sister’s tears and a few of her own.

“I'm s-sorry! A-Adagio! I’m so sorry,” she stammered between gasps of air. “I'm sorry…”

Adagio squeezed her even tighter. “Shh, it’s okay, Nata.”

The two sisters stayed there for what seemed like an eternity. Adagio whispered soothing words into Sonata's ear, continuing to caress her back and hair until her cries eventually died down.

Hush now
Quiet now
Time to lay
Your sleepy head.

“STOP!”

Knowing that they caught, the two mares did the first thing that came to thier minds. And galloped away immediately, taking the stolen food with them. The uniformed earth pony gave chase. Having caught them both red-hooved, he was determined to catch them.

Turning down a particularly crowded street, the older mare put on a burst of speed. She could hear her companion's hoover clopping on the street behind her, but she could also tell that she was having difficulty keeping up with her because of how packed the ponies were on the street they had strategically choosen. She cut left into an alley, jumped up on a couple crates, and leapt over a fence into the woods.

In the woods, a golden mare dressed ina brown hood and cloak, and bearing the basket of stolen goods upon her back, was running. Pulling the hood tightly over her head with her magic, Adagio darted from out of the narrow passage, immediately hit by the relentless fall of rain. The unicorn ran forth, with determination to accomplish her mission. The sound of hooves mushing against the forest mud, and splashing through a few puddles, though were drowned out by the storm.

Now and then looking back over her shoulder, to check that her food, the basket upon her back, was still there. Adagio's mane and coat were soaked wet from the down pouring rain. Her hooves were stomping aginst the mushy forest floor as she galloped. Her beathing was ragged and hard, but she didn't care. Adagio tripped over a tree stump that was in her path sending the mare tumbling into the wet ground, panting heavily only know she noticed how exhausted she was, her vision was abit blurry and she shut her eyes in order to keep the dizzyness away.

Soon she turned head her towards the wet sounds of hooves mashing the wet froest floor. A purple blur rushed ahead of her, remiding her what she was here to do.

A slight breeze blew, sending a slight shiver along the mare's spine, but quickly did she brush it off, got up and ran. She came towards the darkness of a cave. A purple unicorn was inside, laying down and panting heavily. The older mare came inside their shared shelter. Taking a quick look around to make sure the gurds weren't till after them, the mare knelt down on the ground and unfastened the straps to the basket on her back, as they both hit the cave floor.

"Do...you t-think their till-till after us." Aria Blaze huffed next to her, laying her head on the ground.

To tired to speak Adagio nodded her head.

Unsatisfied with that anser, Aria opened her mouth to say somethig back when she heard somthing.

"Did you hear that?" Aria said as Adagio's ears perked up in awereness.

"Because I-" Adagio cut Aria off with a wave of her hoof.

She did hear something, something that stood out from the sounds of the terrible storm raging outside. Cracking her eyes open, she barely made out the sound of crying coming from somewhere. Her ears flicked every which way, trying to pick up the sound against the howling wind.

“Hey!” Adagio yelled as hard as she could, her voice all but lost under the storm. She lifted a hoof to walk, but paused. The storm was still raging on and it was going to get worse. This kind of weather was dangerous to the strong and even deadly to those outside.She knew what she had to do. Bracing herself for the storm, she tried to find the pony from inside but the storm had swallowed her up her sight.

"Aria I want you to stay here." Without wasting another second, she leapt out of the cave.

She foced herself through the fury of the storm, her head darting all over the place as she desperately looked for the sorce of the crying. Just as the storm was starting to become more than she could bear, she heard a faint whimper in frount of her, she squinted her eyes and shield them with she hoof from the rain as she looked down.

Her heart stopped when she noticed the basket laid at her hooves, her eyes showing surprise, which turned to a look of shock when she noticed something moving underneath the covers. Pulling back the blanket, the older mare gasped as her eyes fell upon the crying filly within. The little filly stirred, and turning over onto its back, it opened its eyes, revealing a pair of teary, bright pink orbs.

She stared at Adagio for a few seconds, the light blue filly's face screwed up, she looked as if she were going to cry.

"Oh dear," She said, heer words drifting out of her mouth in a soft tone. Adagio took the child with her magic, and rushed back to her cave.

Aria gasped is surprise and shock when she saw her sister rush back inside thier cave with the last thing she had expected. In her magic was a tiny unicorned foal. She had had a few dealings with foals before, and she knew that they didn't just pop out of no were or fall from the skys.

Adagio ran to the cave with a wailing infant in her magic. She bent over tiredly as she gently laid down the child on the cave floor. She sighed deeply as the baby began to cry. Adagio flopped down onto the cave floor, spreading her body onto the ground. She had never felt this much exhaustion in her life. Adagio’s barrel rose and fell with every rapid breath she took. Happy that the baby filly was safe from the harsh storm, she did her best to calm down the baby.

Hush now
Quiet now
Time to lay
Your sleepy head

She while singing, wondered why anypony would want to hurt such a gentle filly. As she watched the child relax to her song, something suddenly broke inside her, and she couldn’t help but let a tear slip out of her eye as she felt the baby snuggle even closer to her. Struggling to keep her composure, she quickly wiped the tear from her muzzle before Aria saw. She flicked her tail so that it fell around the filly and pulled the sheets back up around them with a hoof, taking care not to disturb her.

"Sonata Dusk."

Adagio's head snapped forward.

"The scroll says Sonata Dusk." Aria said once more.

"May she root in the depts of h-hell." Even Aria couldnt read that last one with a strait tone.

The mare looked back at the sleeping filly. Taking another look at Aria, the mare turned her head away.

"Sonata Dusk", the Adagio said with a warm smile. "We'll take care of you."