Sticks and Stones
Heart to Heart
Written by TheCrimsonDM
The sunrise cast its brilliant light over Canterlot high revealing the students that had just arrived for a brand new day of learning. Although nobody at the school knew it yet, Sunset Shimmer’s had been standing on the roof for some time now.
Quite often she would come to the school before it opened, make her way to the roof and watch the sun rise. For such a long time she’d used this place as her thinking spot. Whenever life gave her trouble, or she was worried she would come up here to contemplate in silence.
Right then her thoughts drew her back to her human friends, and the lives they lived. It had taken a while, but slowly she realized more and more that she, nor any creatures from Equestria belonged. She could finish school, go to college, find a human mate and raise a family… probably. There was no guarantee that she would could actually breed with a human. Either way it didn’t feel right.
She was a pony, a unicorn to be exact and she knew her place was in Equestria. Memories of all the good times she’d shared with her friends, and reminders of the bad all flooded back. Most of all though, she felt something deep inside. A need to keep them safe.
The portal had proven to be a danger in the past. Siren’s, powerful unrestricted magic, and insane self serving unicorns had come to plague this world. All it would really take to utterly destroy this world of humans was for something strange and powerful to come through. Anything from dragons to Discord could easily ruin this place.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she had slowly come to the realization that she, along with any left overs from her world, would need to leave. There didn’t seem to be a time table for any of it, but the worry was still there. Eventually she would need to try and separate their worlds.
She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth of the sun. She was willing to separate these worlds, if it meant keeping her friends safe. The only thing that really mattered to her in the end was safe guarding those she loved.
Her heart started to race as something new came over her. Heat spread throughout her chest, it burned. Fire danced across her back, centering on her shoulder blades.
Her hair flew up and lit aflame, and fire shot out of her back. She arched her back, fiery hot pain ran through her back. The ground beneath her slipped away as her body began floating into the air. The fire emitting from her back took the shape of two powerful wings, and she opened her eyes to a whole new world.
Sunset felt the power rushing through her. Some new form of magic was coursing through her vein’s something unfamiliar, and with the magic came a powerful voice. The voice echoed loud and clear, though it came from no discernible source.
“You do not belong here guardian. Already you have thrown off the shackles of fate once before, but now you have a chance to make amends. Come back home, and do your part. If you follow your destiny now, you will receive the power to defend those that you love and to help those who need it. Come home guardian.”
Suddenly the magic left her body and she fell onto the roof of the balcony. Her head was now swimming with questions and as she looked at the flaming wings attached to her back she knew that something had changed within her, something of dire importance. It didn’t help that she had a gut feeling that she was about to get herself into trouble, the kind of feeling she always got before something terrible showed up.
Sunset stood carefully and examined the new wings on her back. They were made from fire and although they had hurt at first, and managed to burn her shirt a little she was otherwise fine now. Although she had never had wings before she began to wonder if she could simply leap off of the building and begin flying away, the idea sounded so serene.
A sudden appearance of a familiar character from across the street of the high school caught her attention. Sunset clenched her fist and growled, “Adagio.”
Sunset watched her old enemy retreat into an alley between two stores very sneakily. Whatever the siren was up to, Sunset just knew that it had to be bad. She looked around the courtyard but failed to see any of her friends around and going back into the school to walk down the stairs would take too long. The wings gave her a terrible idea.
Sunset took a running start and leapt off of the forty foot tall building and almost instantly began falling to her doom. On the way down she let out a terribly loud curse attracting the attention of the students below her. The fearful faces of the students quickly approached Sunset as she fell. Just as she was about crash into the ground her new wings caught the air and she began gliding just over the head of several students.
How wings made of fire could support her weight was beyond her understanding, but she didn’t care. She was not dying today and she was able to cut her time down massively as she soared to the front gate of the school before she got too low to the earth and hit the ground rolling. She rolled into an upright running position and ran right past a flabbergasted Rainbow Dash who could only mutter the words, “So awesome,” as she passed by.
Sunset Shimmer ran across the street, she had to dodge an oncoming car before reaching the other side of the street and charging towards the ally that she had seen Adagio disappear into. She slowed her speed and walked quietly into the ally.
The first thing that Sunset heard was the sound of a girl crying, following by the unmistakable voice of Aria who was quite excited.
“I have,” Aria said, quickly followed by the sound a girl grunting in pain.
“Been wanting to,” a yelp of pain came from the unknown girl.
“Do this for a long,” a sharp cry made Sunset cringe.
“Long,” Aria said with a huff. Another loud cry of pain sounded. “Time!”
Sunset fearfully reached the corner and peaked around it much to her horror. Adagio was standing with her back facing Sunset and hands on her hips. Adagio’s orange curly hair carried enough mass to almost but not quite block out the view of Aria who was standing with a wicked grin plastered on her face. Aria was busy kicking a teenage girl who was curled into the fetal position.
“You see, this is what happens when you fail us for the last time,” Adagio said smugly.
Aria stopped kicking the girl and spent a moment adjusting her purple pigtails while saying, “If you only you hadn’t screwed up everything in the last song, we would still have our power.”
“We have had our power for years, years! And you ruined it all by messing up the song when we fought against those Rainbooms. After we’re done here, we are leaving you behind. You can’t be allowed to leach off of us any longer,” Adagio said coldly.
Finally Sunset recognized the girl that they were beating on. The girl with the frazzled blue hair who was desperately trying to keep herself from harm was actually the last of the siren trio; Sonata Dusk.
Aria smiled cruelly and said, “I bet she starves in a week.”
“Now, now, Aria. She won’t starve to death for about three weeks.”
Sunset watched in horror as Sonata raised her face out from behind her knees. Blood was running down her nose, her lip was cracked and her left eye was swollen. Tears streamed down the right eye and she stared at Adagio with begging eyes. “Please forgive me. I know it was my fault, I wasn’t good enough and so you two weren’t able to win. But please forgive me… please don’t leave me alone.”
“We’re not forgiving you this time,” Adagio stated flatly.
Aria quickly kicked Sonata in the face and this caused Sonata to cry out in pain. Sunset had finally had enough of this and stepped out from around the corner. Adagio turned to face Sunset and her eyes suddenly shot wide at the sight of the flaming wings. Aria didn’t look any better.
Sunset took a step forward while saying in a very low tone, “Leave now.” Both Adagio and Aria turned and fled down the alley and disappeared out of sight, but that kind of fear could only be expected from the sight of a pissed off girl with fiery wings.
Sonata reached out with an arm and screamed, “Wait, don’t leave me!” it was too late though, as the other sirens had already fled and from the way they had been treating her, they weren’t coming back.
Sunset took a few quiet steps over to the wounded girl and kneeled down. Sunset looked at all the damage that had been wrecked and cringed at the sight. All the power that Sunset had felt from before left her in an instant and her flaming wings vanished as she stared in silence at the Sonata. Although she wanted nothing more than to beat the ever living crap out of the people who had hurt this poor girl, she needed to stay here and make sure that Sonata would be okay first.
Sonata stared longingly in the direction that the other two had disappeared in while tears ran silently down her face.
“It’s, Sonata, right?” Sunset asked.
“That’s my name…” Sonata said quietly. For a long moment the two of them stayed quiet until Sonata finally asked, “Do you think that they will take me back?”
Sunset wasn’t sure what to think after hearing that. How could Sonata still want to be around those two after they had beaten her viciously like this, this wasn’t healthy. “I don’t think that you should go with them after what they did.”
Sonata closed her eye and rested her head down onto the cold pavement. “But they’re all I have… nobody wants something like me.” Sonata hugged her knees to her chest. “Nobody wants me… nobody.”
It was in times like this when people like Twilight Sparkle would surely know exactly what to do, or what to say. But Sunset didn’t know, she wasn’t a hero, she was just an ex villain, who was lucky enough to have some good friends. Although that was more then what Sonata had.
“Sonata,” Sunset said as gently as she could, “You have me.”
Sonata looked up with her one good eye and looked into Sunset’s kind smile. There was no judgment held in Sunset’s gaze, for she had once been a horrible person as well, but if she could change so could Sonata. Friendship would be the first step to turning a once villainous siren into an ally for good.
“For realzies, you… I have you?” Sonata asked in disbelief.
Sunset reached out with a hand and watched as Sonata flinched away in fear. Sunset gently brushed some of Sonata’s blue hair out of her face. “I won’t leave you behind.”
“You don’t even know me. You don’t know how much of a screw up I am. Why would you want to be my friend?”
Sunset gave the girl a kind smile before saying, “I don’t care if you are a screw up, that doesn’t matter to me. All that matters is that you have a friend to take care of you.”
Sonata reached over and wrapped both of her arms around Sunset’s waist and began sobbing into Sunset’s lap. Sunset just sat there petting the siren’s hair for a long time in silence. Finally Sunset spoke, and with gentle words she said, “Let’s go back to my apartment, I’ll get you patched up.”
With great care Sunset helped raise Sonata up and aided her in walking back to the apartment. Sunset didn’t live to far away from the school so the trip wouldn’t take too long. Other than all the things she had to worry about when it came to taking care of Sonata, there was one other thing that Sunset knew was going to cause her trouble today. She was going to have to miss school… again.
***
With a patched up Sonata sitting quietly on Sunset’s queen sized bed, Sunset was left to wonder about what to do with the lonely siren. Sonata was covered in bruises and bandages, but even though there was a lot of surface damage, she looked like she would heal from this. Much to Sunset’s surprise the siren was smiling at her, after what had happened Sunset figured that Sonata would be utterly broken.
Carefully Sunset put the medical kit away and avoided the siren’s gaze. Sonata however wasn’t content on staying quiet.
“Hey, Sunny, can I ask a question?” Sonata asked, her voice was bubbly as ever.
Sunset gave a sour look to the siren. “You may, but don’t call me that again.”
“Okay Sunny,” Sonata said playfully. Sunset ignored the nickname. Sonata continued with her voice becoming a little less energetic. “How did you do that fire thingy?”
“Hmm, I’m not entirely sure to be honest. I know that sometimes unicorns can cover themselves in the elements and gain increased magic for a short duration of time, but that usually hurts them physically. It’s a technique that was made illegal by the Princess because of its dangers to the user and the highly unstable emotional state it puts the caster in,” Sunset explained calmly. “Though my transformation felt… different. I was calm, in complete command, and it didn’t hurt me at all. Ever since my battle with the sirens, I’ve been doing strange things.”
“You battled the sirens, tell me about that, it sounds awesome!” Sonata said excitedly.
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “But you were there…”
“I know, but it’s probably a better story told from your perspective… from ours it’s just sad,” Sonata explained, she couldn’t meet Sunset’s eyes.
“Tell you what, I’ll tell you some other stories later. Right now I need to know where to take you. Where do you live?” Sunset asked.
Sonata closed her eyes and shivered. “I live with Adagio and Aria in a hotel room. We’ve been there for the past two years that we’ve lived here…”
That raised a few important questions, questions that Sunset had a desire to know. For now she settled on the simple things. “Do you have any friends?”
“After Adagio and Aria… no I don’t-“ Sonata paused, opened her eyes wide and grinned. “I have one other friend. I have you!”
That was what Sunset was afraid of hearing. Sunset took a seat next to Sonata and wrapped an arm gently around the siren’s back. “You know what?” Sunset said. “You do have me, and you can stay with me as long as you like. It’ll be nice not being alone for a change.”
Sonata’s eyes lit up like the light’s on Hearth's Warming Eve and she exclaimed, “Really! That’s so nice of you. I promise that I’ll never sing, or be loud, or move too much, and I’ll sleep on the floor, and-“
Sunset put a finger up to Sonata’s mouth and hushed her. A sad look came into Sunset’s eyes as she stared at Sonata and she asked quietly, “Did the other sirens really make you do all that stuff?”
“Well,” Sonata said shamefully. “I am the child of the group… I’m only eighteen.”
“Well that’s an adult by both human and pony standards, it doesn’t sound like you’re a child to me.”
Sonata looked away and explained, “Sirens live for, like, ever. Seriously, I won’t be a grown up until I’m forty years old.”
“How old are Adagio and Aria?” Sunset asked nervously.
“Adagio is forty four, and Aria is thirty eight. Adagio took us out from our homeland when we were young, so that we could go and play music for ponies. It was cool, but I miss my family a lot.”
“How long do Sirens actually live for, how old do they get before they die,” Sunset asked, her tone becoming serious.
“Um…” Sonata said, “Three hundred or Four hundred years… I think.”
If Starswirl the Bearded was the one who sent the sirens to this world, and if he did this a thousand years ago, considering how long sirens live for… Sonata’s family was most likely all dead. The same could be said for the other two sirens as well. How the sirens ended up a thousand years in the future didn’t make an awful lot of sense, but considering the age difference between Twilight and Sunset… this whole portal thing didn’t make sense.
Looking out the window, Sunset quietly said, “I’ll take care of you, okay… and you are not sleeping on the floor. There is a perfectly good bed in here and I will not have you go sleeping on the ground.”
Sonata leaned in and laid her head down on Sunset’s shoulder. An odd feeling was sent through Sunset’s heart as the siren closed her eyes. It was awkward being so close to somebody after having been alone for so long, and despite how much Sunset wanted to push her away, she didn’t. Sonata was hurt, deeply, and she needed this.
“Thank you so much, Sunny,” Sonata said kindly.
Sunset simply nodded and replied, “Yeah, no problem. I’m going to need to talk to Twilight about this whole situation though; maybe she can help you somehow.”
Sunset waited for a response, but when the snoring started she realized that she wasn’t going to get one. Carefully Sunset laid Sonata down on the bed, and tucked her in. Sonata was smiling in her sleep, and she looked so peaceful. Sunset couldn’t help smiling back at her new friend. Sunset took one look at the journal sitting on her dresser, and frowned.
“Maybe Celestia ditched me, but Twilight hasn’t. I just hope there is something she can do to help Sonata,” Sunset whispered to herself.
She spent the next half hour writing a detailed report in the journal. After that was over, all that was left was to play the waiting game. She found herself alone in her almost quiet apartment for the duration of the day. The only thing breaking the awful silence was the sound of Sonata snoring, and every now and then mumbling something in her sleep. It was hard not to smile while watching the girl sleeping so soundly.
It had never occurred to Sunset that Sonata and the other sirens were people before, and that things may have been far worse under the surface. Tensions had to have been building up over the course of the past two years, and it only took them losing so hard before they would finally break. After what they did to Sonata though, it looked like things were never going to be the same again. It only hurt more knowing that Sonata still thought of those bullies as her friends.
A vibrating sound caught Sunset’s attention and she instinctively reached for her phone, only to remind herself that the cause was most likely her journal. After picking it up off the floor she found her theory to be correct, the book was the cause. Slowly she opened it up and saw the new message from Twilight Sparkle.
“Dear Sunset Shimmers
I’m sorry for the late reply but I needed to take in all the information that you gave me. From your report it sounds like Sonata Dusk was never really evil in the first place, but misguided and bullied into being evil by the other sirens. After doing some research on my end I discovered that Starswirl had wished to turn the sirens good and after being forced to banish them through the portal he regretted it.
I would be proud to be the one to succeed where Starswirl failed, and to reform Sonata Dusk. With that being said I don’t believe that it is my place to do so, in fact I believe that it is up to you to help her recover. I believe in you, my dear friend.
Lastly with regards to your request I’m afraid that I can’t give you an answer just yet. I will be visiting you tomorrow after school, please come and see me. Bring Sonata as well so that I can meet her in person as a friend and not an enemy. I will be able to give you my answer then. Thank you for your understanding, I really can’t blame you for wanting to return home after being gone for so long.
With love and friendship, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
Sunset closed the book and let out a sigh. She had expected something like this to happen. Of course Twilight wouldn’t just accept her request, but she didn’t exactly need Twilight’s permission to return home, she just needed the doorway to be open. With one last look at Sonata, Sunset vowed that no matter what she would get the poor siren back home.
***
Later that night Sunset went through her usual routine of ordering a pizza, pepperoni and sausage were her favorite toppings. Twilight enjoyed them too, although she’d never tell Twilight what those actually were. Only after the pizza arrived and she paid for it, did she set it down and stare intently at the sleeping girl on her bed.
Sonata had been sleeping since this morning, and even though she was roughed up pretty bad it still caused some worry that she wasn’t awake yet. As the delicious smell of hot food filled the room Sonata finally stirred to life. Slowly she opened one of her eyes and saw Sunset staring back at her with a smile.
“Good morning,” Sonata said. “Where’s Adagio?”
That question brought a frown to Sunset’s lips. “I’m afraid she’s gone. But I got some food for us.”
For a moment Sonata looked utterly heartbroken, it was as though her entire world had just been crushed, and Sunset’s heart sunk. But to Sunset’s surprise Sonata changed her expression into a smile pretty fast and she sat up, groaning from the pain. Sonata sniffed a few times and her smile grew.
“Is that pizza?” Sonata asked.
“Yep, you hungry?”
“Are you kidding, I’m always hungry!”
It was easy enough to get Sonata to eat, and seeing the girl smiling while she devoured her dinner gave Sunset hope that maybe things would get better. After they were done eating though, Sunset found herself with still unanswered questions, and growing concerns.
“Hey, Sonata,” Sunset asked carefully, “How are you feeling?”
“I hurt a lot, but the food was like, the bomb. Thanks a lot Sunny,” Sonata replied cheerfully.
Sunset wasn’t going to give up yet. “I meant how are you feeling emotionally? After something like that I bet you're all messed up inside.”
A sad look crossed into Sonata’s eyes, but her smile didn’t waver. “I guess that it was pretty mean of them. I mean, they’ve never done anything like that before… but they’ll come back for me. We’re friends after all.”
Sunset stared at Sonata, and refused to let up. It was clear that Sonata wasn’t admitting to herself how bad the situation was, but she needed to accept things for what they were, or else she wouldn’t have room to heal. With very careful and slow words Sunset said, “They beat you, and abandoned you, Sonata. Real friends don’t do that to each other, I know that I would never do that to you.”
Sonata closed her eyes and began shaking. “My friends will come back for me. I screwed up, and we lost everything that mattered to us. Our whole relationship was built off of those necklaces and, and, and…” Tears began spilling out from under her eyes and running down her face. “They abandoned me, oh Celestia, they don’t want me anymore.” Sonata quickly broke down into a sobbing mess.
Sunset walked over to the bed and wrapped her arms around Sonata. With a sad smile on her lips, Sunset laid the weeping girl down and held her tightly. It sucked, and it hurt, but Sonata needed to let out her feelings and accept her new reality. But even though Sonata was suffering, she didn’t have to suffer alone.
“I will always be there to protect you, from now on you are going to be my bestfriend,” Sunset whispered into Sonata’s ear.
“You,” hic, “Promise?” Sonata barely managed to ask.
“I swear it on my life.”
***
The next day Sunset Shimmer and Sonata Dusk made their way to the old statue which served as the portal to Equestria. The two of them waited around for a few minutes and nothing happened. Still they waited. A half hour passed by and Sonata was attempting to sing to herself, attempting was the key word because every single note was so horribly off that it was almost painful to hear. An hour went by and Sunset was finally at the edge of her rope, and about to tell Sonata to be quiet, that’s when Twilight Sparkle flew out of the statue rolling as she hit the ground.
“Hey, Twilight,” Sunset greeted with a smirk. She offered a helping hand to the princess though.
“Ouch, why does that happen? I thought I had the trajectory down from last time,” Twilight asked took Sunset’s hand and stood up.
“What no Spike this time?”
“No, this time I came alone, although I have Pinkie Pie stationed on the other side. She’s making sure that the machine stays up and running,” Twilight explained.
“You trust her with that?” Sunset asked. Out of all the ponies I could think of trusting that much, Pinkie is on the bottom of that list.
“She’s might be insane, but I fear she might understand my machine better than I do,” Twilight said, with a cringe.
“Well, anyway,” Sunset said. “Here’s Sonata like you asked.”
The two of them looked over and saw Sonata staring wide eyed at Twilight Sparkle, her mouth agape. Twilight shuffled nervously in place and waved. Sunset could understand how seeing a human fly out of a seemingly normal wall could be somewhat traumatizing.
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, it’s nice to meet you… on friendly terms that is,” Twilight Sparkle said with a hand held out.
Sonata reached out with a bandaged hand and Sunset quickly grabbed Twilight’s hand, pulling it away before they could shake. “Sonata, we talked about this, you can’t shake people’s hands right now. You’ll get hurt again.”
“But aren’t you supposed to shake hands to be nice?” Sonata asked.
Still clutching Twilight’s hand, Sunset explained, “You can still be nice without hurting yourself.”
“Um, Sunset,” Twilight asked nervously.
“Twilight, you have to realize that she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed,” Sunset said.
“Adagio said that I’m a hammer.”
“But,” Twilight complained.
“No buts, she needs our help. Just look at what those monsters did to her, she needs friends, but more importantly, she needs to go home. If we could give her a nice safe place to live, we could help her recover and become a truly good person,” Sunset explained, with great enthusiasm.
“Okay, but, Sunset,” Twilight said. “Can I have my hand back?”
Sunset looked down at Twilight’s hand, looked up at Twilight, and quickly let go. As her face began turning a light shade of pink as Sunset said, “Look we need to move her now. I’m afraid that those creeps will be back to-“
“Back to what?” Adagio asked coldly.
Sunset, Twilight, and Sonata all turned to look at the two sirens that were now standing before them. Both Aria and Adagio smiled evilly at the three. Aria stepped forward and said, “Good job, Sonata. You led us straight to the portal.”
Sonata stood up, took a few steps forward and then nearly collapsed. Sunset caught her just in time, and saw the look of pain in her new friend’s eyes. Sonata tried to move again but Sunset didn’t let her go.
“Let me go,” Sonata said. “They came back for me, I told you that they would come back for me.”
Twilight looked worried. “So you tricked me and Sunset?”
“Oh don’t get your expectations up,” Adagio said. “I bet that girl doesn’t even know why where here, or what we’re talking about. Come on, Sonata, tell them why I’m here.”
“You came to get me because we’re friends,” Sonata said happily.
Both Adagio and Aria laughed coldly at Sonata’s statement. A burning rage began building inside of Sunset. Those evil monsters couldn’t have really done this to her, just for this.
“We were only using you to get home,” Adagio explained. “We knew that if goody, goody two shoes here found you like this, that she might find a way for you to get home. If we just kept a close eye on you, than we could hitchhike our way along. Now that we know the secret, you’re going to be hard pressed to keep us from coming home to our own world.”
Twilight Sparkle looked over at Sonata, and frowned. Sonata became instantly heavier in Sunset’s arms. The smile was slowly fading from Sonata’s lips. Slowly Sunset helped Sonata stand upright and watched as the smile hung on by a thread.
“You guys did this to get all three of us home though, right?” Sonata asked, worried.
Adagio smiled and said, “Oh of course. We wouldn’t leave you hanging, after all, we’re all friends.”
“Yeah, we’re like sisters,” Aria added.
Sonata’s smile grew, but Sunset knew that these two were only toying with her.
“Stop it now,” Sunset warned. “If you hurt her feelings again, I swear that I’m going to light you on fire.”
“Okay, we’ll stop pretending to like Sonata now,” Adagio said. “We’ll tell you the truth.”
Damn it, you knew what I meant.
“We are going to leave you here,” Adagio said frigidly. “There is no need for a tone-deaf talentless hack like you in our team. It was you who got us stuck here in the first place.”
The smile vanished completely from Sonata’s face and she looked down at the ground. In a mere whisper she said, “Can you set me down, Sunny?”
Carefully Sunset aided Sonata in sitting down with her back propped against the statue. Sonata quickly hid her face behind her knees. The fiery rage inside of her only burned brighter as she stood to face the two sirens. Twilight looked somewhere between angry, and dumbstruck.
“How exactly are you two going to get into Equestria?” Sunset asked. Her heart was burning. “We could just stand in your way.”
“We thought about that already,” Adagio said. “NOW!”
Both Adagio and Aria charged forward their fist pulled back threateningly. Sunset hadn’t had much experience fighting as a human, and Twilight was even worse as she was currently attempting to hold her non existent hooves up. They both dodged Sunset, and targeted Twilight, shoving her over easily and jumping into the statue. They vanished in an instant.
Oh holy Celestia’s balls of fire.
Quickly Sunset grabbed Twilight by the arm, pulled her to her feet, and flung her into the wall. Twilight vanished. Next Sunset carefully picked up Sonata. For a moment she paused at the sight of tears running down Sonata’s face. I’ll make them pay for hurting you like this.
Sunset walked through the portal and the world as she knew it vanished behind her.
A moment later they were on the other side. The first thing that she noticed was a distinct lack of clothing. The cool air breezed against her fur and for the first time in years she felt, normal again. The next thing that she noticed was that standing on her hind legs was rather difficult in this position, but still doable. The last thing she noticed right off the back was the light blue pony in her hooves.
The earth pony had Sonata’s hair style, and was covered in bandages. She looked at her own body, and then up at Sunset with a little confusion. She wasn’t the only one to be confused, Sunset wasn’t quite sure what to make of this either.
Gently Sunset put the earth pony down on the floor before returning to the much more natural posture of standing on four legs. “So, um… you’re a pony now… I guess.”
Sonata looked at Sunset and smiled softly. “You took me with you.”
“I told you that I’d never abandon you. You’re my friend now,” Sunset said.
A sudden burst of chaotic giggling laughter broke Sunset from her current conversation. A pink pony with a bouncy pink mane was sitting on a chair next to a machine and laughing so hard that she was about to fall off of the chair. Twilight was standing next to her, a look of pure horror was plastered on her face. Twilight quickly removed a book from the machine.
Twilight gave a very serious look at Sunset, and then she looked at the floor behind her. “That’s not what I think it is… is it?”
Sunset turned around and saw her diary on the ground. Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have carried that everywhere I went.
Interestingly enough, none of her clothes, backpack, or other items in her pockets came along for the ride. Only the book which originally belonged in Equestria.
“I guess you got your request. The four of you are stuck in Equestria now,” Twilight said, there was no mistaking the horror in her voice.
Sunset took a few steps forward and asked, “Okay, so what exactly do we do now? Where are the sirens?”
“You mean those ponies that came in before you?” Pinkie Pie asked with a giggle. “They began freaking out about becoming earth ponies. They wobbled out of the room while saying something about using music to rule the world. They ran away after Twilight showed up.”
“Pinkie, those were the sirens, they use dark magic in their songs to make ponies evil,” Twilight said.
“I know, but they looked so funny trying to walk,” Pinkie Pie said. “It was like putting tape on a cat’s paws!”
“Don’t let Fluttershy hear you say that,” Twilight mumbled. “Even if it does look silly.”
Sonata laid down on her side, tears filled the corners of her eyes. It broke Sunset’s heart to see her friend like this, but even more it made her angry that those sirens would so carelessly hurt her. With a righteous anger burning in her chest, Sunset trotted to the door.
“You two are responsible for taking care of my friend. She’s heartbroken and hurt, so you two better treat her well. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Sunset said. “I’ll stop the sirens.”
She heard Twilight’s complaints echo at her as she made her way down the crystal corridor. She ignored them.
This castle was similar but different than the one in the Crystal Empire. She looked out one of the many windows to see the rural town surrounding the castle. It suddenly dawned on her how out of place this castle must have looked, maybe Twilight could change that with some sorcery?
Sunset made her way down a long narrow staircase. The sounds of arguing and hooves echoing up at her let her know she was on the right trail. The further she went down, the closer to the voices she got, and the more she thought about everything they had done to hurt her friend. She vowed to keep Sonata safe, and to be her friend until the end of time.
By the time Sunset reached the bottom floor, all she could think about was keeping her friends safe from the evil magic that these two sirens could unleash upon the world. A fire burned bright and hot inside of her, starting in her chest but spreading out to her back and her horn. Magic, deep and powerful filled her very being. The very same pain she had felt the morning before now drove her to make things right.
Adagio and Aria both sat on the floor of the main entrance hall. They paid no heed to Sunset’s arrival, only focusing instead on their own conversation.
“We’re freaking ponies? What are we supposed to do now? Can we even use magic still?” Aria spat.
“I’m sure we can use magic, or at least we can re learn how to use it. It’s Equestria, I’m sure we can find some way to use magic again. Everypony will love us, and we shall become like gods amongst pony kind,” Aria said.
“You better hope you learn to do that real soon,” Sunset growled. “Because I’m about to whip you good for what you did to Sonata!”
They both faced her, fear clear in their eyes.
“What is wrong with you?” Aria asked. “Why can you do that?”
Sunset frowned. “Do what?” That’s when she noticed it.
Two flaming wings had sprouted from her back, her mane flowed like liquid fire, and a power surged throughout her body. She could feel the power flowing through her, but even more than that she could see the two bitter cold hearts of the sirens before her. There was some good in them, but it was so covered by the black shadows of their selfish and cruel intentions that it would take a miracle to restore the good in them.
Sunset poured magic into her horn, and as the bright warm glow from her horn lit up the room the two sirens stood up and turned tail. Just before they could gallop away, Sunset grabbed them in her telekinetic aura and froze them. She walked around them so that they could see her face to face, and stood proud.
She knew she had the power to kill them, right then and there. She could turn them to ashes if she so choose, but they did still have goodness in their heart. They could be redeemed. Places like Tartarus would have been too mean for them, the despair and loneliness there could only lead to what little good they did have being completely wiped out. Another option appeared to her though, one that she never would have thought possible before.
It wasn’t foolproof, and it had the chance of backfiring horribly. But she could at least give them the chance that they had never been given before.
“I could erase you, I could lock you up forever, and I could do so many other horrible things. But it’s been a thousand years since you were first imprisoned. Equestria has changed, they have forgotten about your sins. So I’m going to give you this one chance. Go out there, find somewhere nice and quiet to live, or become famous and popular, but do it with love and kindness in your heart. Find friendship, find yourselves. But the one stipulation I have is that I don’t ever want to see you hurt Sonata again. If you do that, then I’ll abandon any rules, any laws or any friendships that I have to personally come and end you,” Sunset Shimmer’s said. “ So for now, you are forgiven.”
Of course frozen as they were, all they could do was stare in paralyzed horror. So Sunset let the spell go. They stared at her, looked at each other, and then ran past Sunset and out the front doors.
There was no telling if they would even try to become good ponies, but that wasn’t the point. Sunset had to give them the chance. If they messed it up, she could bring them down, and she was comfortable with that.
She let go of the anger, and relaxed. The power left her, along with the flaming wings. Finally her mane returned to normal and she was a little miffed about the way her mane was singed at the ends. It would take a lot of work to fix that.
“That was amazing!” Twilight said.
Sunset faced the staircase. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Sonata all stood there staring back at her. They were all smiling.
“I don’t know what that was… It’s just some weird power I picked up after we defeated the sirens the first time,” Sunset explained.
“That wasn’t what I was talking about, though that does merit study in its own right. I was referring to how you let them go,” Twilight Sparkle said.
Sunset looked back towards the open doorway. “I could see their hearts, Twilight. Those hearts might have been blackened by their actions, but there was still good inside them. Deep down. If there is even a chance that they can be saved, shouldn’t we take it?”
Twilight nodded.
Sonata limped awkwardly to Sunset and nuzzled her side. There was no helping it, Sunset had to give Sonata a one legged embrace and hold her close. Once upon a time Sonata had been an enemy, but now she was a friend. As she held the siren close to her, she realized that she never wanted to leave her side. The only thing she wanted from this new life in Equestria, what she hoped would become her fresh start, was to always have Sonata with her.
“I’ll never leave your side,” Sunset promised.
Sonata sniffled a little and buried her face into Sunset’s shoulder. “Thank you. You’re a true friend.”
The End
