Second Sunset

by UnlicensedBrony

Rating: teen
Tags: Sonata Dusk, Main 6, Drama, Trixie, Equestria Girls, Adagio Dazzle, Sunset Shimmer
Length: 16631

When an old enemy comes along asking for help, Sunset Shimmer sees a chance to prove that she's changed for the better. But she ends up getting a lot more than she bargained for.

Sunset Shimmer used to be a raging she-demon, and despite her efforts to be a better person now, the students at Canterlot High just aren't cutting her a break.

When an old enemy comes along asking for help, Sunset sees a chance to prove that she's changed for the better. But she ends up getting a lot more than she bargained for.

[Takes place between Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games. Teen for action violence and occasional language. Not romance, but may contain mild traces of Sunset x Rarity shipping]

Published 2015-12-02 16:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-12-21 16:09:36 UTC

1 - Demon No More

My name is Sunset Shimmer, and I used to be a raging she-demon.

When I first came to this world, there was only one thing I cared about. Power. I wanted revenge after being abandoned by my former mentor—Princess Celestia—and to get it, I was willing to do whatever it took. I hurt a lot of people, destroyed friendships, ruined lives. Blackmail, coercion, violence, it didn't matter so long as it got me closer to my goal. After years of work, I finally became strong enough to get what I wanted.

But then I met a girl called Twilight Sparkle. With the magic she wielded, she could've destroyed me outright and left me to burn. But she didn't. Instead, she went out of her way to show me a side of myself that I didn't even know existed. She introduced me to five girls who saw past the darkness and helped me get back on my feet. I didn't deserve their kindness, but they gave it anyway. They changed the way I saw the world. They changed me. And I've come to regard them as my best friends.

Now, fantasies of revenge and world-domination a mostly-forgotten memory, I'm just a normal 'teenage' girl. At least, that's who I'd like to be. Years of blackmail and bullying have come back to bite me, and now everyone in this school is out to make my life absolute misery as payback.

I want to show them that I've changed—that the past is the past, and that I'm a better person now. But it's going to be a lot harder than I thought.

I was already outside when the bell rang for end of third period.

Having already finished my coursework for the year, coming into school was really just a formality. I had to sit an exam here and there, but for the most part, it was a lot of wasted time. For instance, I now had nothing to do until sixth period. It was a flawed system. I could've done it better, if I was in charge.

But I wasn't. Not anymore.

I sighed and started down the stone steps leading down to the school's front courtyard. It was pretty much a big lawn, well-kept and littered with students who clearly, like me, had nothing better to do than lounge around outside. I didn't pay much attention. Students at CHS didn't really like me. And with the way they treated me, the feeling was generally mutual.

I followed the dull, gravel path down to the school's memorial statue—a powerful-looking stone horse, reared up atop a square base with four full-length mirrors set clean into it. Impressive stonework, but then it kind of had to be, considering that the closest mirror was also a two-way portal to another world. If you knew how to use it.

I saw myself reflected in the glass, and stopped to flash myself a half-smile. I'm about five-eight, with pale-green eyes, golden skin and red-and-gold hair that falls down past my shoulders. That day, I wore denim jeans and a purple top emblazoned with a picture of a Sun—red-and-gold like my hair. And hung around my shoulders was my favourite leather jacket, studded around the collar and coming down to my thighs, with a comfortably familiar weight to it.

Is it weird to wear leather when you come from a world where cows can talk, and are sentient? It never really bothered me. That probably said something about me. Gulp.

“Hey, Sunset Shimmer.”

I saw the smile die on my face. I recognised the voice, even before I saw the reflection of the three girls coming down the steps behind me. I closed my eyes, took a steadying breath through my nose and thought non-violent thoughts. When I turned around, there was a 'pleasant' smile on my face. “Oh. Hi, Trixie,” I said.

Trixie stopped just short of me, put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow. She was my height, and we looked similar in age, though we weren't really. She had sparkling violet eyes that you could just about see past her upturned nose, and lush silver hair that fell right the way down to her knees. She wore a blue school hoodie, knee-high boots and a short purple skirt that showed off her legs. And she wore it all with an impressive confidence.

She was also flanked by two other girls, wholly unremarkable, except for the fact that they were always there. I'd never seen them without her, and rarely seen her without them. They never said anything, but they mimicked Trixie's facial expressions to a tee. It was kind of creepy.

Trixie glanced over my shoulder. “Checking yourself out in the mirror? A little narcissistic, don't you think?”

'Coming from the Archbishop of the Church of Trixie,' I thought at her. Something I've come to learn is that if you want to make friends, you don't say stuff like that out loud.

I wanted to avoid a confrontation altogether, so I lied and stood to one side. “Just freshening up after gym class. Want a turn?” I waved a hand at the mirror.

She scoffed. “Please. As if the Great and Powerful Trixie needs to check whether she still looks gorgeous.” She said it even as she checked her hair and adjusted her skirt a little. I don't think she realised she was doing it. “You might need to constantly work to keep that rat's nest on your head from overflowing, but unlike you, Trixie is a natural beauty.”

I grit my teeth. “You do look pretty today,” I not-snarled. Couldn't hurt to try a friendly approach. It might work one of these days.

“...What?” she said, blankly.

“I said you look pretty. Have you done something with your hair?”

Trixie stared at me, pausing to try to figure out my game. I didn't have one, but I guess she had plenty of reason to be suspicious. “Yes,” she said, eventually, and carefully. “I grew it out.”

“I thought so,” I said. “It's a good look. You should stick with it.”

“I-I was planning to anyway!” she snapped. “I don't need fashion advice from you, Shimmer.”

I nodded. “That's true. You obviously know what you're doing. Who's your hairdresser?”

Trixie narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to get inside Trixie's head again?”

I bit back the obvious remark about there being enough room. “I'm just making conversation.”

“Well, don't! Trixie doesn't want to talk to you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Um, then why did you start?”

“Because— I— Shut up.” The fluster showed on her face. Her cronies mimicked the glare, minus the red cheeks. “You with your witty re joiners and mind games. You think you're so smart, don't you?”

'Yes.'

“No.”

Trixie gave me a 'Seriously?' look.

I put my hands out to the sides and shrugged. “I was just complimenting your hair. Sorry if you find that offensive.”

“Oh, please. You can't expect me to believe you're being nice. You're never nice. You're just making fun of Trixie again.”

“I haven't made fun of you since the Fall Formal last year.”

“Yes you have!”

“N—” I hesitated and thought about it. My face heated up a little. “Okay, maybe I have. But not recently!”

Trixie got her smirk back, having turned the tables. “Pretend all you want, Sunset Shimmer. You may have tricked those five friends of yours into believing you, but you're not fooling Trixie. You're still the same rumour-spreading, manipulative, self-serving bully you've always been.”

I lost my cool a little and stomped a foot. “I'm not! I haven't done anything like that in months, I've actually been trying to make up for everything I did. I've been nothing but kind, and I've even put up with your crap until now without so much as a comeback, haven't I?”

“No doubt just planning your next big scheme,” said Trixie. “You've always had some kind of plan to boost yourself up at the expense of everyone else.”

“That was in the past,” I said. “I don't care about that anymore. All I want now is for people to stop treating me like some sort of demon and get on with my life. My friends are letting me do that, why can't you?”

“I can't believe you even have friends,” said Trixie. She ignored the second part of the question. “They probably just feel sorry for you. Either that or they're just stupid.”

I'm not sure whether it was something in her tone or the words themselves, but that flipped a switch somewhere in my head. Any semblance of restraint I'd managed so far disappeared. I straightened up and tilted my head at her, without emotion. “Oh, Trixie,” I said, “what happened to your nose?”

“W-what?” she said, reaching up to touch it. She glanced at one of her cronies, who shrugged. She turned her glare back to me. “What're you talking about? Trixie's nose is as perfect as ever.”

“No, it looks a little out of place,” I said. “Here, let me fix it for you.” I started towards her.

I saw the realisation flash in her eyes, but instead of backing off, she squared up. A year ago, no-one ever would've tried that—they'd be petrified. But like everyone else, she'd either forgotten or just didn't care anymore. Too bad for her.

“Oh, Sunset, there you are!”

I stopped in my tracks and looked past Trixie, up the steps. A girl in a white blouse and long, purple skirt was skipping down the steps two at a time. When I saw her, my fist unclenched almost unconsciously.

There were a lot of attractive people at Canterlot High, and this girl was one of them. She had neatly curled purple locks for hair, dark, curled brows over blue eyes, and a full mouth curled up in a smile that looked good on her. Her name was Rarity, and she was one of my best friends. One of my only friends, actually.

“Excuse me, darling,” she said as she brushed past Trixie. She stopped in front of me and smiled. “Sunset, I've been looking all over for you. I need to speak with you urgently. I'm not interrupting anything, am I?”

I blinked at her, feeling the anger dissolve from my chest. The look she was giving me told me to relax, and it seemed to be working. “No,” I said. “No, Trixie and I were done talking anyway.”

“Marvellous, then come with me.”

With that, Rarity walked out of my line of fire and onto the grass. She waved for me to follow her.

I had a straight shot at Trixie again. She watched Rarity go, then met my eyes again in a silent dare. Part of me still wanted to take her up on it, but it just didn't seem worth the effort anymore, nor the month's worth of detention I'd get from doing something unpleasant. I spared her one last glance before following Rarity.

“I'm watching you, Shimmer!” Trixie called after me.

I ignored her. I felt lighter for doing it.

As I fell into step beside Rarity, she gave me a look. I let out a guilty sigh. “Sorry,” I said, “I didn't mean to lose my temper, I just—”

“You're trying, darling,” Rarity said. “Which is more than can be said for some people. I heard what she said. Honestly, I'm impressed that you managed to restrain yourself as much as you did.”

I looked down at the grass. “Wouldn't have done any good,” I mumbled. Getting drastic might've put Trixie in her place for a while, but it wouldn't do much to show that I was trying to be a better person. It'd just go to prove the things she was saying about me. The things everyone still thought.

“Quite so,” Rarity agreed. “I daresay that Trixie needs to be taken down a notch, but violence is never the answer.”

“I didn't say it was never the answer.”

“That's a somewhat unladylike opinion, but I'm sure you don't really mean it.”

I did, but I didn't feel like arguing. I found a smile though, as I looked across at her. “Thanks for stepping in.”

She smiled back. “Think nothing of it.”

We came to a stop beside one of the few trees in the courtyard. Its branches were bare, since we were coming up to Christmas again, so it didn't offer much shade. I dumped my backpack by the trunk and leant against the bark. “So, did you really have something to talk to me about, or did you just say that to save Trixie a beating?”

Rarity clasped her hands together and pursed her lips, a look that said she was expecting an unfavourable reaction, but was going to speak anyway. “Actually, I... wanted to speak to you about the Christmas Prom.”

I closed my eyes and sighed, folding my arms across my chest. This again. I managed to keep the edge out of my voice when I said, “I already told you five times—I'm not going.”

“But darling, you must go!” she pleaded. “I've made you a dress and everything.”

I looked up at her in disbelief. “Rarity, I told you not to do that!”

“I know, but you know I get carried away. I couldn't help myself! And now it will go to waste if you don't wear it to the dance.”

'Ugh, great, a guilt trip.' I shook my head and looked off to one side. “No, it won't. I'll... wear it to something else, I promise. I just can't go the Prom. I'm sorry.”

Rarity opened her mouth as if to argue, but closed it a second later. She looked away too, and in the corner of my eye, I saw her fold her arms across her chest. She didn't look huffy, so much as she looked cold. And disappointed. I felt bad, but if I rolled over and went to the Prom like she asked, I knew I'd feel ten times worse.

“Darling,” she tried, “I know it hasn't been easy for you lately. But you missed last year's Prom, and both this year's Spring Fling and Fall Formal. You're missing out on so many wonderful memories. I can't stand to see you keep beating yourself up over this.”

“I'm not beating myself up,” I said. It came out a little defensive. “Everyone else is doing that for me. How am I supposed to make new, good memories when people like that are always putting me down?” I waved a hand towards Trixie and her cronies, who were walking to the opposite side of the school yard now.

Rarity frowned at me, sympathetic. “It's a big school, Sunset—we all have people that we don't get along with. You can't let a bothersome few ruin your time here.”

“It's not just a bothersome few though, is it? Trixie might be the only one that's in my face about it, but we both know that ninety-percent of the students here still hate me.” I bit back the, 'and they're right to.' That wasn't a pleasant thought. If I didn't say it, I didn't have to hear Rarity agree with me.

“Darling, I—”

“Would you stop—” I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was getting way too wound up over this. I wasn't going to start snapping at my friend. “Sorry. I'm sorry.”

She was quiet for a disturbingly long time, and though I kept my eyes closed, I started reading into it. I hoped I hadn't upset her. Scratch that, I was pretty sure that I had. She was just trying to help, and none of this was her fault. It was wrong to take it out on her.

I felt a gentle hand touch my arm. It was a little cold, but I relaxed rather than tensing up. I opened my eyes with an guilty frown, and met with a smile that was way more tender than I deserved.

“I realise that you're under a lot of stress with this,” Rarity said, “but you must understand that you hurt a lot of people during the first few years you were in this world.”

I sighed. “I know.”

“I only mean that you can't expect everyone to forgive and forget in such a short time.”

“It's been a whole year,” I mumbled, with a shrug that pretended it was nothing. “And I've spent most of it apologising and trying to make amends for what I did. How much longer do I have to wait for people stop treating me like a demon?”

Rarity rubbed her hand over my shoulder. “We have, haven't we?”

“...Yeah,” I granted. Rarity and my other four friends had. And Twilight, of course.

“And what about that boy who's taken a liking to you? Bulk Biceps, was it?”

I found a smile at that. “Only because he fancies me. It's not saying much.”

“And there's my sister and her friends. Haven't they warmed up to you now, hmm?”

I grunted. The Crusaders were a trio of misfits in their second year at the school. They'd still been freshmen when I stopped my raging she-demon act, so they hadn't been exposed to as much of my bitchery as everyone else. Between that and their sisters being my best friends, it was a lot easier for them to forgive me than it was for those I'd tortured for years.

“Yeah, fair enough,” I said. “That's a grand total of ten people. Call me pessimistic, but knowing that there are only ten people here that don't hate me, in a school of hundreds, isn't much comfort.”

Rarity said, “But it shows that people are beginning to take notice. It may be only few now, but I think you'll find that as time goes on, the rest will become much harder pressed to deny that you've changed.”

“Maybe...” I shook my head again. “I'm just not sure how much longer I can keep this up.”

“Then don't,” said Rarity. She slid her hand down my arm, and took my hand in hers, prompting me to meet her eyes. “Come to Prom with us. We'll show you that it's not half as bad as you think it is. I promise you that you'll enjoy it.”

I stared at her for a long moment, searching. Maybe, deep down, I knew that she and my friends would take care of me, and that I'd probably have a good time if I just tried it. But if I did know that, it was really deep down. Right then, all I felt was a tiny glimmer of hope in a sea of anxiety. It was something, though.

What the hell. I squeezed her hand and gave her an honest smile. “I'll think about it. Okay?”

Her face brightened. “That's all I ask, darling. It's not until Saturday, so don't worry about it just now, hmm.”

“Yeah,” I said, and it felt like a little of the weight lifted from my shoulders. I had the whole week to think about it. And I hadn't committed. There was nothing to stop me from deciding not to go if I couldn't work up the courage. I was glad that she hadn't tried to pressure me into it, as I was pretty sure that wouldn't have helped. But then, I guess that was why we were friends.

I realised I was still staring at her eyes about the same time I realised I was still holding her hand. I glanced down and eased up. She let go. I quickly emoted hitching up my jacket with both hands, so as not to seem totally awkward.

Rarity politely cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair. “Well, I... really ought to be getting to my next class,” she said. “Are you...?”

I hooked a thumb towards my backpack. “Nah, I don't have anything on 'til last period. I was gonna sit out here and kill some time.”

She gave me a knowing smile. “I'll leave you to it, then. See you later.”

I returned the smile. “You too.”

“And do try not to start any more fights, hmm?” she said, as she turned for the school.

“No promises,” I said.

I watched her go with the same smile on my face, then sat down with my back against the tree and looked up at the sky. Even if I still had a dreadfully boring two hour wait before my next class, talking to Rarity had brightened me up a bit. It didn't seem so overbearing anymore.

Feeling inspired, I unzipped my bag and fished around inside. I got out a pencil and a pad of A5 paper, and started sketching. Not many people knew that I drew, because it was a casual hobby and I wasn't great at it. I found that it was a good way to pass the time though, and relaxing when I got into it.

I picked the first thing that caught my eye, and quickly got caught up in the scratching of pencil against paper. I kept glancing at the time for the first twenty minutes, but stopped caring after that.

Somewhere along the line I lost my awareness of what was going on around me, because I almost jumped when a girl said, “That's good,” over my shoulder.

I gave my sketch of the memorial statue an awkward smile. “Thanks,” I said. “It's just a hobby, but it's nice to do sometimes.” I glanced up at the girl who gave the compliment. Then I did a double-take and jumped to my feet in fright.

You wouldn't think much of Sonata Dusk at first glance. She was short, baby-faced, dressed in a generic purple hoodie, blue jeans and purple Converse shoes. She had pale skin, with two shades of blue in her fringe and long ponytail. With her hands in her pockets and the innocent, timid smile on her face, she looked about fifteen or sixteen at most. But she was older. A lot older.

And she definitely wasn't innocent.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I said, facing her fully and planting my feet. My guard had been down, but I was on high-alert now. I didn't like people sneaking up on me, least of all those who weren't actually human.

“Whoa, take it easy!” she said, raising her hands. “I'm not here to cause trouble or anything.”

“I find that hard to believe,” I said, “seeing as you were trying to take over the world with mind control last time I saw you.”

She shuffled her feet and flashed me a weak, guilty smile. “Yeah, sorry 'bout that.”

I mouthed at her, dumbstruck. She said it as if she'd just forgotten to reply to a text or something. Somehow, I got the impression that she was being genuine, too. That she thought so little of world-domination made her either very naïve or absolutely terrifying. Right now, I was inclined to think the former, but the Sirens had duped me before. Taking any of them at face value would be a stupid mistake.

“'Sorry',” I managed, eventually. “Sorry doesn't really cover it.”

'Which is rich, coming from you,' a little voice in my head reminded me. I growled at it.

Her smile wavered, and her shoulders drooped. “I know. But I really didn't come here to fight. I just wanna talk to you.” Her eyes flashed with innocence. “If that's okay.”

I might've imagined the pressure against my ears as she spoke. If there was supposed to be magic in her words, it washed over me like water on a stone. Either way, I was justifiably wary.

“What about? Because I don't really feel like talking shoes and boys with a—”

“I need your help, okay?!” she snapped, expression turning to a glower in an instant.

I blinked at her. A couple of the students closest to us in the courtyard turned to look as well.

It obviously took Sonata a moment to register that she'd raised her voice. When she did, the look vanished as quickly as it'd appeared. She closed her eyes and turned to one side, embarrassed. “I need help...”

I felt myself relax. Which surprised me almost as much as the outburst. It must've been something in her voice or body language, setting off my maternal instincts maybe. I hoped they didn't get me killed.

My voice took on a more gentle tone as I asked, “What do you need my help for? You should be asking your friends.”

“I can't,” she said.

“Why not?”

“Because they're the ones I need help with.”

I tilted my head in question. “Come again?”

“I think they're in trouble,” she said, choking a little on the words. “And I don't know anyone else who might help.”

I felt, with a sudden, weary resignation, that I knew what was coming...

She met my eyes. It was only for a second, but it was long enough to see that, sure enough, there were tears in hers.

“Ohh dear,” I sighed, which about summed up how I felt. Stupid maternal instincts.

I glanced around my 'audience'—about a dozen people looking on now, probably watching and waiting for something to use as ammunition against me. I wasn't planning to give it to them, but I wasn't comfortable trying to deal with this in front of them, either. Besides, Sonata looked like she needed some privacy.

“Fine, I'll bite,” I found myself saying. I shoved the sketch pad into my backpack, slung it over my shoulder and offered Sonata a hand. I had the feeling I was going to regret it. “Come on. We'll talk inside.”

* * *

2 - The Girl Who Got Left Behind

In the old days, I might've been able to ignore the sight of a fifteen year-old girl—even if I knew she wasn't really fifteen—alone and crying as she asked me for help. I might've turned the other way, or even made fun of her for it. But without the self-obsessed, power-hungry darkness there to block it out, I couldn't ignore the overwhelming sense of empathy. It's disturbing how much of a bitch I used to be, and more so that I was actually proud of it.

We sat down at an empty corner table in the school cafeteria, and I pushed her a tray of food, along with a handful of tissues. I frowned as Sonata wiped her eyes and blew her nose. It echoed around the big room.

There were dozens of plain tables and chairs in neat lines down the length of the tiled floor, but since lunch didn't officially start for another half-hour, there were only six or seven other students dotted about, plus the cook behind the food counter. It meant we had a little peace and quiet, for now at least.

“Thanks,” Sonata said with a sniffle.

“No problem,” I said, giving her an awkward half-smile. It was surreal to see her like this, after what I'd seen her do just a few months ago.

Sonata was a Siren. One of three creatures banished here from Equestria, the other world. If you've heard the folklore, you know the gist of it. Their voices are imbued with magic in such a way that their songs can influence or outright control people's emotions, turning people against one another, making them fall in love, and generally spreading chaos. That chaos makes the Sirens' magic stronger, which they then use to create more conflict, and so the cycle continues.

We broke that cycle—my friends and I—when Sonata and her two friends... sisters, whatever... came to Canterlot High to try and suck the Equestrian magic out of us. Twilight led us in a counterspell that destroyed the amulets they used to amplify their power, and without them, the Sirens lost their hold over the students. They ran, and we hadn't seen them since. 'Until now.'

“So, can you tell me what exactly is going on?” I asked, once she'd finished blowing her nose.

She put the tissue on the table, stared at it for a moment, then met my eyes. “Adagio and Aria are missing.”

“Missing,” I repeated. “As in...?”

“I'm not sure,” Sonata said. “Aria said she was going out with friends on Friday night, but she never came back. Adagio told me not to worry about it, but then she left yesterday to go and meet someone, and she didn't come back either.” Sonata's frown deepened. “I've tried calling them, but Adagio's phone is off and Aria isn't picking up. I don't know where they are, or if they're okay, and I'm-- I'm--” She started tearing up again.

“Hey, it's alright,” I said, reaching out to touch her hand. Might as well surrender to the surreality, I figured. Centuries-old or not, she looked like a girl and was acting like a girl—I didn't want to see her crying again. “I'm sure they wouldn't leave you alone on purpose. We'll figure this out, okay?”

'Wow, Sunset, don't make any promises you can't keep...'

She sniffled and nodded, managing to hold back the tears. She asked, “What do you think happened to them?”

I curled my lip and thought about it. It wasn't unheard of for someone to go out on Friday night and turn up in the middle of the next week. I knew I'd gone on a couple of benders in my time. And I could think of at least one likely reason for staying overnight after 'going to meet someone'. For neither of them to be answering their phones was a little weird though.

“Have they done this before?” I asked, taking my hand back.

“No,” she said. “I mean, sometimes Aria goes out and doesn't come back 'til the next morning, but she's never been gone this long. Adagio's never done that though—she always says when she's coming back, and she always does.”

“But not this time.”

Sonata shook her head. Her eyes drooped, and she looked down at the table again.“It's not like her at all. But I guess she's changed a lot since we lost our magic. They both have.”

I twigged on that. “What do you mean?”

“Well, singing was basically our life,” said Sonata, with a shrug. “We've always done it, since we were born. It's how we got people to do what we wanted. Now we can't do that anymore, and it's... well, it's weird. None of us know what we're supposed to do now.”

I found myself nodding along. I'd had to learn to live without my magic when I first came to this world. Losing something I'd had for my entire life, it was like losing a limb—I suddenly had to figure out how to operate my body all over again. I was young though, so 'my entire life' wasn't all that long, and I adapted quickly enough. I guess the Sirens didn't have that luxury. Immortals didn't tend to be all that flexible, especially when something that'd been constant for hundreds of years suddenly changed.

“Aria started drinking,” Sonata went on. “Like, a lot. She says she goes out with friends, but she always comes home real late, drunk. Or hungover, the next day. I've asked her to stop—'cause it's scary, and I never know what she's doing—but she's just getting more and more angry about it. I'm kinda scared to talk to her anymore.”

I licked my lips, not sure I wanted to hear the answer to what I was about to ask. It wasn't obvious, but then, it never was. “She hasn't... done anything, has she?”

Sonata stared at me. “What do you mean?”

I tried to read her. I couldn't. “Nothing. What about Adagio?”

“She hasn't been herself either. Normally, when Aria did stuff like that, Adagio would be the one to tell her off. I mean, that's her job, she's our big sister. But since we lost our magic—” She broke off and bit her lip, hesitating.

I wanted to press, but held off. This wasn't easy for her. I hadn't even begun to think how difficult it was gonna be for me to try and talk her through it. 'One thing at a time, Sunset.' I waited 'til she was ready.

“—she's been... acting weird,” she finished, lamely.

“Weird how?” I asked.

Sonata shook her head. “Like, at first, she seemed okay. She was telling us it'd all be fine, that she'd get our magic back somehow. She started trying everything she could to put her amulet back together.”

I furrowed a brow. “I thought we had all the pieces locked up.”

Sonata flushed. “A-Adagio kinda got a handful of them before we ran off. Like I said, she thought she could fix it.”

I rolled my jaw. That was bad news. If Adagio got her magic back, I had a feeling she wasn't going to live and let live. She had to be pissed. And since, in her eyes, the whole ordeal was my fault, it wasn't hard to guess who she'd be coming after.

“Did she?” I asked, trying to keep the edge out of my voice. “Fix it, I mean.”

“No,” said Sonata. I let out a breath of relief. “She tried for ages. She got all kinds of books and websites on human magic, and spent forever locked in her room, trying to figure out how she could use it to get ours back.”

I grunted. I'd tried that. The only solution I could figure out was to go back to Equestria and steal an artefact that had magic of its own. That worked, but it didn't end well.

“I could understand why she was doing it,” said Sonata. “I really want my magic back too. But she hasn't stopped. She spends every day reading, and all night. I don't think she sleeps. And she doesn't talk about anything else. It's like she doesn't care about anything anymore—she didn't even really care when Aria didn't come back.”

“Sounds obsessed,” I muttered.

Sonata shrugged.

“And what about you?”

She tilted her head at me. “Huh?”

I waved a hand. “You've had your magic for as long as either as them. You have to feel something, right?”

She looked down at the table, and took her time. “I guess, maybe. I'm tired all the time. And hungry. And I cry too much. Aria said so. I wanna talk to them, but they're too busy with their stuff.” She sighed. “Now that you mention it, I feel like poop.”

I let out a long breath through my nose. Denial, obsession, depression. What a mix. I guess everyone deals with loss in their own way. Or fails to deal with it, as was obviously the case. It didn't sound like any of them were coping particularly well. And who was responsible for taking away their magic in the first place? 'Yes, I'd like a side order of guilt with my day, please.'

“I'm sorry, Sonata,” I found myself saying. “I know what it's like to lose something. But it won't be like this forever—it gets better, in time.” My smile flickered as I said it. 'God, that sounds so cliché when I say it out loud.'

She shook her head. “I don't see how. Like I said, singing is our life. Without our magic—”

“Look,” I interrupted. “Not to be blunt, but if you've come here to ask me to give your magic back, I really can't help you. Even if I knew how to do it—which I don't, I barely understand how magic even works in this world—I couldn't just return the power you used to try to take over the world a few months ago.”

Her frown deepened. Her eyes said she understood. They also said she was going to start crying again.

I huffed. “Don't cry. Maybe there's... something else I can do for you.”

She sniffled. “Like what?”

'Yeah, Sunset. Like what?'

“I'm thinking,” I said. I racked my brain, trying to come up with something other than 'comforting words'—Twilight might've been able to pull that off, but I didn't think there was anything I could say that would make it all better. Returning her magic wasn't an option. I couldn't very well just run off and hunt down her sisters. Or rather, I could try, but I wasn't likely to find them. What else could I do?

“Alright, hold on a sec,” I said, getting to my feet. “I'm gonna make a phone call.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

I stepped back from the table and pulled my phone from my jeans' pocket, stopping to look back at her before I dialled. “You should eat something. You look pale.”

She glanced down at the tray of food I'd brought for her and poked at the salad bowl. “I don't really feel like eating.”

“I thought you just said you were hungry all the time?”

She gave it a sluggish thought, then shook her head without saying anything.

“Suit yourself.”

I turned around and took a few steps away, so she wouldn't be able to eavesdrop, then checked the numbers on my speed dial. My friends, a couple of boys I used to date—not sure why I kept their numbers—and the guy who ran the guitar shop in town. I was pretty sure Shred Solo wasn't gonna be much help here. Rarity might've been able to help, but she was in class right now.

I puffed out my cheeks, shrugged, and pressed '4'. The phone on the other side rang once, and I pulled mine back from my ear just in time.

“Hi Sunset how ya doin'?!” the voice yelled, without punctuation.

“Hey, Pinkie,” I said. “You know, you don't have to shout when your mouth is right over the receiver.”

“Yup-a-rooney.”

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. “Have you got a minute to talk? You're not in class, are you?”

“Nope. I'm on a break so I ran home for lunch.”

“But... you live on the other side of—” I shook my head. “Never mind. I've got kind of a problem.”

“Those are the worst kinds,” she said, sagely. “What's up?”

I glanced back over my shoulder. Sonata was poking at her bowl of salad with a plastic fork. “You remember the Sirens?”

“The ones who invaded the school during the musical showcase earlier this year and turned it into a Battle Of The Bands so everyone would fight each other so they could get more power for their magic and take over the world?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah, vaguely. Why?”

“Well, the little one showed up at school this morning...”

I summed up what Sonata had told me. I wasn't as good at it as Pinkie, but it didn't take long.

“Aw, bummer,” she understated. “What are you gonna do?”

I sighed. “I have no idea. Suggestions?”

“Party?”

“I really don't think that's gonna help this time.”

“...Mega-party?”

My hand went to my forehead on its own. I'm not sure what I expected.

“Or maybe you could help her find her sisters,” she said, in a more subdued voice. “I mean, if parties are out, then I'm pooped for ideas. There's probably nothing we could say or do that'll help her. Aria and Adagio've gotta know her better than anyone though—they might be able do something, if you can bring them to long enough to show them that she needs their help.”

The growing headache dulled to a low hum, and I nodded along. “Yeah, I was afraid you'd say that.”

I didn't have the energy to be running all over town looking for a pair of girls who probably didn't even want to be found. Not to mention that they'd probably try to rip my head if I did find them. And it was really none of my business to be getting involved in a glorified domestic in the first place.

Besides, did they even deserve my help? They'd tried to drive a wedge between my friends and I last time we met, and they'd almost succeeded. They'd never done anything for me except cause me hassle. Ninety-percent of the students here went through the same thing with me, and I clearly wasn't worthy of a second chance. Why should the Sirens be any different?

The short-lived glower died on my face. I didn't like that train of thought. Sonata wasn't asking for a second chance—she was asking for my help, because she was lost and confused. If I could ignore that in good conscience, I wouldn't really have changed at all, would I?

I heard the scraping of a chair against the floor, and looked over my shoulder. Sonata had stood up suddenly, with a dazed look on her face. She stumbled and put a hand on the table to steady herself.

“Um, I'll... call you back,” I muttered into the receiver.

“Okie, dokie, lokie!”

I hung up and faced Sonata properly. “Are you alright?” I asked. She looked like she'd been drinking, but she'd been fine a second ago.

She looked at me, swooned, and fainted.

“Holy crap!” I said, bounding forward to try and catch her. I missed.

She knocked over a couple of chairs as she fell, which broke her fall, but she still collapsed to the ground before I could get there.

My whole body switched into full-on panic mode as I knelt down beside her. She lay on her side, with her eyes closed, not moving. There was no blood, thank God, but she was down for the count.

I quickly realised I had no idea what to do, and stopped short of touching her. “H-help?” I tried. “Somebody—”

“What happened?”

A boy knelt down next to me. I glanced at him, and did a double-take. I recognised him—Flash Sentry, my ex-boyfriend. Blue, spiked hair, tan skin, biker's jacket and jeans, a little scrawny but good-looking. He gave me a severe look. I raised my eyebrows and shook off my surprise.

“Sh-she just fell,” I said. “She was fine one minute, and I took a phone call and—” I stopped and forced myself to take a breath, a second to order my thoughts. When I opened my eyes, I took charge. “She fainted. Help me get her to the nurse's office.”

He nodded and didn't question it, moving in to grab her. I made to help, but he put a hand on my arm to stop me. He lifted her front to his, put her arm around his neck, then knelt down and lifted her into a fireman's carry in one motion. I was surprised, and a little impressed.

A few of the other students in the cafeteria half got up as if they wanted to offer help, but I led the way out into the hall without stopping. The nurse's office was literally just around the corner, and since class was in session, we didn't run into anyone in the hall. I pushed the door inwards and held it open for Flash.

It was a big office, just in case, though it wasn't used all that much. Four small, blue-topped beds ran down the right hand side of the room, each with a bedside table and railed curtains. The office was lit by sunlight coming in from the large window opposite, beneath which was a seating area with a couch, plastic chairs and a coffee machine. The nurse's desk was just to the left of the door, with a phone and computer on an uncluttered wooden surface, and an office chair behind it.

The nurse rose from her seat as soon as we entered.

“Set her down on that bed,” she said, straight to business. She may have looked kindly and quiet, but Nurse Redheart took her work very seriously.

Flash lay her out on the nearest bed. Again, with surprising smoothness, like he'd done it before and practised. The nurse flicked a pen-light from her pinny and held open Sonata's eyes, one at a time. “She fainted?”

“Yes,” I said. “Just a minute ago. I-I'm not sure what happened. Is she—”

The nurse smiled at me as she ran a hand behind Sonata's head, presumably checking for wounds. “She'll be alright, dear, she isn't hurt. Well done for bringing her to me.” She turned her smile on Flash, then made a gentle gesture towards the waiting area by the window. “Why don't the two of you sit down? Get yourselves a cup of tea.”

I hesitated. Flash clapped a hand on my shoulder, didn't say anything, and made his way over to the coffee machine. I bit my lip, then followed him.

He got a Styrofoam cup each of tea and coffee from the machine, and passed the tea to me as we sat down on the couch. He remembered how I liked it. Creepy or sweet?

We didn't say anything for a while. I kind of just stared at my cup, waiting for it to cool down. The panic had passed, and I felt myself begin to settle down as I sat there. It was strangely disconcerting to see someone pass out like that, even if it was someone I didn't really know.

'What the heck was that about?' I wondered. It wasn't normal for people to just drop all of a sudden. She had said that she'd been feeling like crap. Maybe that went deeper than just lethargy, it could've been a virus or something. I guessed that Nurse Redheart would know, once she'd had a chance to check her over.

Flash made a sound and leant back against the couch pillows, but didn't say anything. It made me feel awkward though, so I decided to break the silence. “Where'd you learn that?” I asked, looking over at him.

He looked back. “Learn what?”

“That carry,” I said, “and laying her down. You sure looked like you knew what you were doing.”

He smiled, and there was definitely a hint of pride in it. “I joined up with army cadets. They teach you all kinds of stuff. I kinda wish I'd gotten in on it when I was younger.”

I gave him a questioning smile. “The army?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking down at his cup again. “I'm... thinking of joining up with the military once I leave school.”

My eyebrows went up. He'd never even mentioned it before. “Really? I always thought you'd end up following your music.”

He shrugged. “Guess you never really know someone.”

I shut up. I couldn't tell whether he'd meant anything by that, and I tried to pretend that I didn't feel it, but I had to look down at my shoes.

I'd had a lot of boyfriends, both here and back in Equestria. Blackmail and coercion weren't the only things I did—sometimes a little flirting got you just as far, if not further. I mostly used boys until I got what I wanted—connections, popularity, new tech for birthday and Christmas presents—and then hung them out to dry. Same as I treated everyone else. Flash had been no exception.

But he had been... different. It's hard to explain, but it wasn't just a game with him. I didn't get the chance to figure out what that meant, or whether it would've gone anywhere. He dumped me as soon as he realised who I really was. Said it broke his heart. Maybe I believed him. Maybe it hurt me too, and that's why I didn't do anything to get back at him...

It was in the past now. I swallowed on nothing, and decided I didn't want to think about it anymore.

“So, you just happened to be walking by, huh?” I said, after a while.

“Not exactly.” He scratched his neck. “I know it's weird, but I was actually coming over to talk to you about the prom.”

I tried not to scoff. “What about it?”

“I was just wondering whether you knew if Twilight was coming,” he said.

“Oh,” I said. “Right.”

“It's just that I haven't seen her since the Battle of the Bands,” he went on, “and I was kind of a dick to her then. I only got to see her for a second afterwards... I've been hoping for a chance to apologise. Properly, I mean.”

I felt a pang of guilt. Flash had been pretty terrible back then, but it wasn't his fault. The Sirens' magic drove everyone a little crazy. They'd been impressively subtle about it, but once we explained what they were—well, my friends did. Funnily enough, no-one was willing to believe me—everyone accepted that there was mind magic going on, and that it'd made them treat their friends badly.

That didn't mean the tension and guilt it caused just disappeared though.

I could've reminded Flash that he'd been under the influence, so to speak, but telling him something he already knew wouldn't be much comfort. Maybe a spiteful part of me also wanted him to feel a little guilty. Seriously, who talks to their ex about their new crush?

“No, I don't think she's gonna be here,” I said. “She's really busy back in Equestria, with everything that's happened back there. Princess duties and all that.” I flashed him a sympathetic smile. “Sorry.”

He sighed and nodded. “Nah, it's fine. I figured that'd be the case.” He took a sip of coffee and let the subject drop, looking only a little disappointed. After a minute, he said, “My turn.”

“Hmm?”

He gestured towards Sonata. “What's with her? I recognise her. She's one of the, uh, 'Sirens' who sang against you in the finals, right?”—Yes, our battle was a music battle. No, it wasn't a rap battle—“I thought she and her friends had left town. They haven't been in school since.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “But apparently not.”

“They can't cause any more trouble though, right?” he said. “I mean, not since Twilight and the girls took away their magic.”

I grit my teeth. 'Since everyone but me took away their magic and saved the world.' It was a totally unfair assumption that I'd just been tagging along to clear my name, when I actually played an instrumental—ha—part in defeating the Sirens. Sure, I'd only jumped in at the last minute, and sure, I'd made it look like I was trying to screw the rest of the girls over during the competition, but still...

Yeah, okay. I could kind of see where they coming from. It would've been nice to get some recognition for saving them all from becoming mindless zombie-groupies though. Figures.

“No, they can't,” I told him. “Not in a magical sense, anyway.”

“But there's something else going on?” he guessed.

I said, “Maybe. I'm not sure yet.”

He raised his eyebrows at me. I wasn't sure what else I could give him. I didn't even know what was really going on.

“I'll manage,” I said.

He stared for a moment longer, then cracked a smile. “Yeah. I guess you will.”

That got a smile from me, short-lived as it was. I got the impression that he believed that. If nothing else, he'd gotten to know me well enough to know that I could hold my own. It was reassuring to hear.

I knew I was probably pushing my luck, but the impulse had been nagging at the back of my mind, and I couldn't ignore it. “Hey, can I... ask you something?” I said, before I could chicken out.

“Sure.” He gave me an attentive look, but I didn't meet his eyes.

“Do you think I've changed?”

I felt him turn away again. “Do you really want me to answer that?” he said.

I frowned and shook my head. That was answer enough.

“It's a lot to forgive, Sunset.”

“Yeah,” I said, emotionless. I'd heard more evasive answers, but not by much. I got the message, either way. At least he'd been gentle about it. The conversation died there.

“Mmph,” came a moan, making both of us stand up. Sonata had woken up, and was rubbing a hand over her eyes. “What's goin' on?” she asked.

Nurse Redheart had been over at her desk, making a call, but she turned at the noise and went to her bedside. “You're alright, dear,” she said, putting a hand on Sonata's arm. “I'm Nurse Redheart, you're in my office. Can you tell me your name?”

Sonata paused to think about it, but she told her.

“Alright, Sonata. How are you feeling?”

“Woozy,” she said. “What am I doing here? Am I dying?”

“No, dear,” said the nurse, in all seriousness. “You fainted.”

Realisation played across Sonata's face, followed by embarrassment. “Oh.”

I'd set my cup down on the coffee table and started meandering over. I felt a little awkward, and didn't want to get in the way. Flash had put his hands in his pockets and walked a little behind me.

“Has this happened before?” Nurse Redheart asked.

Sonata turned her head to one side. “A couple of times.”

“Have you been eating properly, Sonata?”

Her face had turned red. I had to keep reminding myself that the schoolgirl thing was a façade. She shook her head. “Not really.”

The nurse hummed in that way that school nurses do. “At least you realise it,” she said. “Do you live alone, Sonata?”

“No, I live with my sisters. But they're, um...”

I stepped in. Don't ask me why. “They're out of town,” I said. “I've offered to take care of Sonata until they get back.”

'Wow, Sunset. Way to commit.'

Sonata gave me a quizzical look. By the time the nurse had turned around though, it'd changed into an innocent smile. She nodded sweetly, playing along.

Redheart blinked, but I think she bought it. I guess she had no reason not to. “Oh. Well, that's good of you, Sunset. In that case, may I have a moment?” She gestured towards her desk.

“Sure.” I followed her over to the desk, and Flash nudged me on the shoulder.

“Uh, so, are you good here?” he asked. “I'm here if you want, but I've got band practice in like, five minutes.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I've got it, Flash. Thanks for your help.”

“Don't sweat it.” He made for the door, looking back over his shoulder. “Glad you're alright, uh...”

“Sonata,” she supplied.

“Right, Sonata. Later.” He gave her a double-guns salute, and left. I felt my shoulders loosen up.

I followed the nurse over to her desk, facing away from Sonata. She spoke in a hushed voice. “I tried calling her emergency contact—Adagio Dazzle, is that right?—but there was no answer. Are you able to get in touch with her?”

'Uh, no.'

“I can try,” I not-lied. I was good at that.

Redheart let out a breath that said she wasn't really comfortable with that. “Alright. Can I take your number down in the meantime? I need one on the records, just in case something like this happens again.”

I gave her my number, and I found myself frowning. That she thought this might happen again was a little disconcerting. “Is Sonata gonna be okay?”

“Yes, though she's definitely malnourished,” she said. “And sleep-deprived, by the look of things. I'd like to speak with her sister when you manage to get ahold of her, but in the meantime, try to encourage her to eat. And if there's anything you can do to help her sleep...”

'I am not a responsible adult!'

I said, “I'll do my best.”

Redheart smiled. “Good girl.”

“Out of interest,” I said, “you're not concerned about the whole Siren side of things?”

“She looks like a teenage girl to me,” Redheart said simply.

“...Fair enough,” I granted. I couldn't exactly argue with that, since I'd listened to Sonata for the same reason.

Taking the question in stride, the nurse turned around and went back over to Sonata's bedside. “Alright, Sonata, Sunset's going to take you home for the day.”

Sonata had been staring blankly off to the side, but she snapped back to reality to give me another confused look. “She is?”

'I am?' I wondered. I told my mind to drop the running commentary. It was pretty clear that I had no idea what I was doing.

“I'll let your teachers know not to expect you for any more lectures you have today,” she said. “Both of you. Go home, get some rest and make sure you eat something. Doctor's orders.”

Sonata glanced between the two of us, then nodded at the nurse. “Okay.”

“Alright, then.” With that settled, Redheart gave each of us one last look—as if she thought something might be up, but she had no idea what or why—and then made for the door. “I'll be back in a moment. Stay as long as you want, and feel free to leave whenever you're ready.”

Redheart left. The door closed behind her, and then I was alone in the room with the soul-sucking Siren that I'd just kindly volunteered to babysit. There was a general belief among the other students that I wasn't all there in the head—what, with the world-domination plans and all—and right then, I could understand where they were coming from.

I walked over to her, and she slid her legs up so that I could sit on the edge of the bed. “Well,” I sighed, “looks like I just dropped myself in the deep end.”

“Why'd you lie to her?” said Sonata.

“Haven't you heard? It's what I do,” I said, without a shred of endeavour. Apparently, she didn't get world-weary sarcasm. Whatever. “I don't know. You asked me to help you. I was trying to.”

“I don't understand,” she said.

I huffed and stared out towards the window. I wanted to say, 'Me neither', but I knew why I'd done it. “You came here to talk to me, told me your sisters have disappeared without a word, and then passed out right in front of me. You're either playing me like a violin or in serious need of help.”

“I can't play the violin,” she said. “Aria can. I just sing.”

I dragged my hand down my face. Then I turned to look her in the eye. She looked back.

I know it's a cliché to say it, but you can tell a lot about someone by looking them in the eye. Really looking at them, I mean. After a few seconds, when the look turns into a stare, and you start seeing beyond the colour of the irises and the bags under their eyes. You see the subtle movements that hint at what they're thinking, what they're feeling. It's how detectives can tell when someone's lying, and hypnotists can get inside your head. I couldn't do any of that, but I got a good look at Sonata.

Her violet eyes, wide and attentive like a child, didn't flicker or try to avoid mine. She saw my stare, and she stared back without comment or discomfort. I couldn't see any hint of malice or misintent. Where logic told me there should've been age and wisdom, I only saw innocence—I got the impression that I'd seen things a lot darker than she had.

And there was a quiet fear there. A sense of worry, the kind you imagine when you think of an abandoned puppy, worried that its owner isn't coming back.

I was under no illusions that I was immune to being duped by an age-old immortal. For all I knew, that could've been exactly what was happening. But I didn't know that. I only knew what I saw. And I saw a child in need of my help. I made my decision.

“I'll help you,” I told her.

Her eyes went wider. “Help me how?”

I still had no idea. I had one sick emotion vampire to babysit and another two to find, one of whom was probably drunk in a ditch somewhere, and the other who'd left to meet a stranger and fallen off the grid. In a city like Canterlot, that wasn't going to be easy. On the other side of things, I also had a reputation to try and live down, a pain-in-the-ass rival determined to trip me up the first chance she got, and a totally terrifying social event coming up which I really didn't want to go to. I guess that last one wasn't so bad, by comparison, but it still made for a lot to deal with.

I decided to tackle what was right in front of me, first.

“For starters, we're gonna get you a meal.”

* * *

Author's Note

Hey all! Hope you're all enjoying the story so far :twilightsmile: I'm going to try to keep to a schedule of publishing one chapter per week. I've got quite a few in the backlog, so it shouldn't be too difficult.

As always, suggestions for things to improve on are welcome! I've got most of the story written already, but anything that I can use while editing or for new stories in general would be most appreciated :yay:

3 - Following Breadcrumbs

I took Sonata to a Mexican diner a couple of blocks away from the school, after prying from her that her favourite food was 'tacos'. I had a hard time believing that of all the foods she could've sampled in her extensive lifetime, tacos were top of the list—when cheeseburgers were so blatantly superior. To each her own, I guess.

We sat at a booth beside the long window looking out onto the street, and ate in silence. It was a small place, buzzing faintly with chatter from other patrons and the news show on the TV behind the counter. Nice enough atmosphere. It was a lot quieter than it would've been at school right then—since lunch hour had just come around.

I'd barely finished my meal when I got a text from Pinkie Pie. It read, 'With girls in cafeteria. WRU?' and was signed with a heart. As was necessary with Pinkie, I suspended my disbelief that she'd managed to run all the back to school in time for a second lunch, and tapped in my reply.

'In town. Helping Sonata. Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow. Xx ~Sunset.'

I got another message three seconds later.

'Okie Dokie Lokie. Call if you need help.' And another heart.

I smiled, put the phone down and looked across at Sonata. It'd taken some coaxing to get her to order something, and though at first she'd seemed excited to see it in front of her, she was having trouble getting past a few bites.

“Is there something wrong with it?” I asked her.

She glanced up at me, then shook her head. “No. It tastes okay. It just doesn't feel right.”

“What do you mean?”

“It's tough to explain,” she said. “I guess human food just isn't doing it for me, lately. Sorry, I'm probably just being fussy.”

“It's fine,” I said. “Just try and finish it all? I promised I'd get you to eat something, and I really don't need you passing out while we're looking for your sisters.”

Sonata nodded and made herself take another bite. She chewed for a moment, then spoke around her mouthful. “Where d'you think we should start?”

“That's up to you,” I said. “Do you have any idea where either of them might be?”

She thought about it, then shook her head.

“Alright, then. Can you pass me your phone?”

She did. It was a delicate-looking pink smartphone, with old butterfly stickers on the case. She gave it to me unlocked, so I went straight to her address book and found 'Adagio cell' as the first entry.

'Please let it be this easy,' I wished as I hit the call button and put the phone to my ear. There was a brief connection tone, then it went straight to a generic answer phone message without ringing. I guessed that meant the phone was off.

'Aria cell' was next down the list, so I tried that as well. That one did ring, but there was no answer. After about ten seconds, the answering service kicked in and prompted me to leave a message. I hung up.

'Worth a shot,' I thought, but I wasn't out of ideas. I put my phone next to Sonata's and copied the numbers over. Then I started flicking through the apps on my phone, looking for one I hadn't used in a while.

Sonata gave me a funny look. “What're you doing?”

“I'm going to see if I can track your friend's phone,” I told her.

“You can do that?”

“In theory,” I said. “Give me a second.”

I brought up the 'Find My Phone' app and met with an old but familiar user interface. I'm not a tech wizard, so I couldn't tell you how it worked, but basically the app dialled a given number and used GPS to pinpoint its location—ergo helping you find a lost phone. It'd been publicly available online for all of a day before being taken down for the obvious security implications. The new version required you to go online and register your phone before it would work.

But I used to date the guy who wrote the program, so I got my hands on the original. Perfect example of what a flutter of the eyelashes used to get me. I just hoped that it still worked after all this time.

It did. I typed in Aria's cell number, hit 'Find' and watched a satellite picture of Canterlot appear on the screen. A blinking green dot flashed up in the centre, which represented me in the café. A moment later, a red dot appeared too, marking a spot across town from where I was. I frowned when I recognised the neighbourhood.

“What is it?” said Sonata.

“I found her,” I said. “She's in Downtown. What the heck is she doing there?”

Sonata frowned. “We live there.”

I raised my eyebrows at her.

She shrugged. “Well, it's not like we wanted to. Adagio said we had to downsize after we lost our magic, and apartments there are cheap.”

“Wow, okay,” I said.

Downtown apartments were cheap, and with a name like that, I'm sure you can imagine why. Downtown was the seediest district of Canterlot, bar none. That wasn't to say you'd get your shoes stolen just walking through there, but it wasn't somewhere you wanted to get lost after dark. In any town, no matter how safe and well-policed it was, there were always the nooks and crannies where the creeps and crooks bled down into. In Canterlot, that place was Downtown.

So of course that's where Aria was. Heaven forbid the universe make my doing a good deed easy for me.

“Does it say where she is exactly?” Sonata asked.

I shook my head. “It's an alleyway just a couple of blocks into the district. Which probably means she's inside one of these buildings next to it. It's not a big area though—we should be able to figure it out when we get there.”

Sonata's lips curled into a smile. “So, we can go find her?”

“Yeah,” I said. That was assuming she was still attached to her phone, of course. For all I knew, it could've been lost, stolen and/or pawned. With Downtown, any of those were just as likely as it still being in her pocket.

If she didn't have it, finding her was going to be a lot more difficult. The phone might give us some idea of where to start looking, but Downtown was a big place, and Canterlot much bigger. Not to mention that I wasn't exactly a private investigator—I had no idea what I was doing.

I shook my head, deciding to cross that bridge if I came to it. Trying to think about it now wouldn't get us anywhere, and if we were lucky, it wouldn't even be necessary. If we were lucky.

“What about Adagio?” said Sonata. “Where's she?”

I shook my head. “I can't track her phone until she turns it on,” I told her. The guy who made the app was a tech wizard, but I guess even tech magic had its limits. If I knew how it worked, I might've been able to figure out a way around it. I made a mental note to start taking computer classes.

“Oh.” Sonata's smile flickered. I got a gut feeling that told me she was more interested in finding Adagio than she was Aria, though for what reason, I had no idea. I guessed they were just closer. Either way, she latched back onto the good news a second later. “Okay. Let's go find Aria first.”

“You ready?” I asked. She crammed in the last bite of her food, and nodded emphatically. “Alright then.”

I passed Sonata's phone back to her, put mine in my pocket and climbed up out of the booth. She followed me up, and we left the diner together in search of her wayward sister.

It took us about an hour and a half of bus-hopping to get us to Downtown. It would've been a lot quicker to take a cab, but public transport was free for students. I wasn't strapped for money, but there was no sense in wasting it.

I could tell when our bus entered Downtown, because of the way the city shifted outside the windows. Canterlot is an absolutely beautiful place—there's nowhere else like it—but I watched that beauty wither and die the further we got into Downtown.

The lines of pristine, white buildings either side of the street began to grey and dull, as if they'd had the life sucked out of them. Pedestrian traffic thinned out all but entirely, replaced by a few shady or rough characters, walking with their heads down or under hoods. Bent and broken street lights, boarded up windows, potholes in the road—the whole place was a dump.

We got off at a small bus stop, with two of the shelter's three plastic windows replaced by ply wood boards. We weren't that far into the district, so while the streets were grey and devoid of life, they weren't dark and threatening yet. I knew it'd be a different story when the lights went out, but I hoped we wouldn't be there that long.

The GPS led us down a few different streets, past a man walking a dog, and finally to an alley between two tall buildings. One was a dingy corner shop which looked like it had flats above it, and the other was a full-blown apartment building. The alley itself was about twenty feet across, with a couple of green dumpsters on the corner closest to us, and it ran down a good way between the buildings before ending at a high, brick wall.

“Is this it?” Sonata asked, leaning to the side as if to get a better look. “I don't see her.”

I glanced at the phone. We were practically right on top of the marker now. “This is definitely the spot. I didn't see her in the corner shop window, so she's either in the apartment building or in the dumpster.”

Sonata furrowed her brow. “Why would she hang out in a dumpster?”

I shrugged, and decided to call the cell. I waited for the call to connect, keeping my eyes on the alley and listening for a ringtone. I didn't hear one, but after a second, I saw a faint light flicker on underneath the nearest dumpster. “Huh...”

“What?”

I stepped into the alley, knelt down and looked underneath the dumpster. I found the phone, which vibrated in my hand as I picked it up. It was cheap, black and without decoration, with the words 'unknown caller' flashing on the screen, along with my phone number. There was also a thin matchbook stuck to the back of it with chewing gum. Gross.

Sonata stepped up beside me as I got to my feet. “Yup, that's Aria's. Why's it under a dumpster?”

“Well, she obviously lost it,” I said, redundantly.

“What does that mean?”

My lip twitched in irritation. “Do I look like Sherlock Holmes? I don't know what it means. She just lost it.”

Sonata looked away, at the ground. “Sorry...”

I huffed and looked away, too. I felt bad for snapping at her. From the sounds of it, she was getting enough of that from the girl we were trying to find. I still didn't know what we were going to do when we did find her. It sounded like Aria didn't much care about worrying her sister. Getting her to agree to come home wasn't going to be easy.

I idly peeled off the matchbook that was stuck the phone and looked at it. It was black, with a basic image of a bird printed on the front—yellow with black wings—faded as if it'd been rubbed against the inside of a pocket. I opened it and found five matches still inside, one missing. I also saw the words 'Golden Oriole—Public House' in white print, along with an address and phone number.

“A bar,” I said, out loud. Sonata hummed and looked at me. I showed her the matchbook. “Aria smoke?”

Sonata quirked her head. “She used to, sometimes. I dunno if she still does, 'cause she doesn't do it at home.”

'Helpful,' I thought. I vaguely recognised the name of the bar, but I didn't think I'd been there before. It was a lead though. If Aria had been carrying the matchbook with her, we knew where she'd been, at least, if not where she was.

I blew out a breath, slipped Aria's cell into my pocket and punched the number into my own phone. Sonata put a hand on her upper arm and waited, looking idly off down the street. She looked concerned, and I couldn't blame her. If I'd just found one of my friends' phones under a dumpster on the rough end of town, I'd be worried, too.

The phone clicked, and a pleasant woman's voice answered. “Good afternoon! Golden Oriole, how may I help you?”

I rolled my neck. “Hi there. I'm looking for my friend, Aria—” I glanced at Sonata, and she mouthed a word. “—Aria Blaze. Is she in the bar, by any chance?”

“I'm sorry, there's no-one in the bar at the moment. We're usually pretty quiet on weekdays, at least until the evening.”

“Oh. Well, is there any chance you might've seen her over the weekend?” I asked. “She disappeared on Friday night and I haven't seen her since. I'm getting worried.”

“Oh, goodness, I'm sorry. I'll help if I can. What does she look like?”

I described her from memory. I didn't have a perfect picture, but Sonata didn't jump in to correct me at any point, so I was pretty sure I got it right.

The woman on the other end thought about it for a moment, then hummed. “I don't think I've seen her, but— Hold on.” The receiver went muffled, as if she'd covered it with a hand.

“Well?” said Sonata.

I shook my head.

After a moment, the receiver was unmuted, and a man's voice answered the phone. “Hello. This is Half Pint, landlord,” he said, and I tried not to snicker. “I saw your friend, Friday evening.”

I smiled. It was a start. “Oh, fantastic. What time? Was she with anyone?” Sonata looked up at me, hopefully.

“Yes, a group of young men, barely old enough to be in here. All wearing those awful hoodie things. They all seemed to know each other, I don't think she'd just fallen in with them that night. But they got rowdy around nine o'clock—starting bothering the other patrons—so I had to kick them out.”

My smile left as quickly as it'd arrived. “Is there any chance they mentioned where they might be going?”

“One of them mentioned the Flagon on the way out,” he said, and my face fell. “The Empty Flagon. I'm not sure if that's where they went, but that's what I heard. And, er, not to worry you, but if your friend went missing around the Flagon—”

“Yeah,” I interrupted. “I know.”

“Would you like the number?”

“No thanks, I've got it.” I thanked him for his help and hung up. Then I huffed and walked over to lean against the wall of the apartment building. Sonata followed me. “Breadcrumbs,” I muttered.

Sonata bobbed on her heels as she waited for me to elaborate. When I didn't, she rolled her tongue. “Soo, did they say they'd seen her?”

“Yeah. Apparently she went to a bar called the Empty Flagon on Friday night,” I told her.

I knew the Flagon. It was a little deeper into Downtown, and I used to go there all the time a couple of years back. I don't really remember why I liked it. It wasn't exactly the nicest of places, especially compared to those in Central Canterlot. But then, I wasn't exactly the nicest of people. Maybe I enjoyed the company.

“That's before the weekend,” said Sonata, frowning.

“It's a start.”

“Can we use it to find her?”

“We're about to find out.”

I found the Empty Flagon in my contacts and called it. I recognised the gruff voice of the bartender on the other end. “Yeah?”

“Hey, Stiff Drink,” I greeted. “It's Sunset.”

Stiff grunted. “Long time.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I'm looking for someone.”

“Lotta 'someone's.”

I described Aria. He grunted. He did that a lot. He hadn't changed much.

“Seen her in here the past few nights,” he confirmed. “With a kid called Jet. Cocky prick. Got money though. Got here about half-nine on Friday, half-six on Saturday and Sunday.”

I tilted my head, impressed. I guess his memory and attention to detail hadn't dulled, either. “Remember much about her?”

“Drinks a lot,” he said. “Troubled. Snappy. Grieving, maybe.”

That pretty much confirmed what I'd suspected. She was in denial, and acting out. Falling in with a bad crowd, by the sound of it. I guess even age-old Sirens can act childish sometimes. “Did they mention whether they were coming back tonight?”

“Hell if I know.”

“Call me if they do?”

“Will. Then we're even.” He hung up.

'And we have a solid lead,' I thought. Sonata was starting to look impatient with me, so I told her what he'd told me. She was clearly pleased to hear that we knew where Aria might be tonight. When I mentioned Jet though, she looked confused.

“Aria never mentioned someone like that,” she said. “I didn't know she had a boyfriend.”

I shrugged. “That's something for the two of you to deal with. I'm already involved way more than I'd like to be.”

She frowned at me. “Does that mean you're leaving?”

“No,” I said, annoyed. “It means it's none of my business. But I said I'd help you find your sisters, so that's what I'm gonna do. Besides, I'm not gonna let you go to somewhere like that on your own.”

I saw a flicker of a smile on her lips, but it went back to a lost frown a moment later. “So, what now?” she asked.

“Now we need to wait until he calls us back,” I said. “And if he's going to, it won't be until six or seven.” I looked around, up and down the street. It was empty, except for a man in a hooded raincoat on the opposite side of the road, walking along with his hands in his pockets. A chill wind blew past, and I shivered a little. “I'd rather not be waiting out here for four hours. Or in the Flagon, for that matter.”

“Wanna come back to my place?” said Sonata. After a beat, she added, “Just as friends, I mean. Not in a weird way.”

I raised a brow at her. She pursed her lips and stared at me, waiting. In that moment, she reminded me very much of my friend Pinkie Pie.

I took a moment to weigh the idea of following a Siren back to her lair. Wasn't that how sailors always ran to their deaths in the stories? I didn't think I was being affected by mind control. My friends and I had been all but immune to that last time around, thanks to the Equestrian magic that protected us. Sonata didn't have her amulet anymore either, and she hadn't even tried to sing to me. I was safe on that end.

There was nothing to Sonata physically, either. I could tell just by looking at her that she'd be totally useless in a fight. She'd spent her whole life relying on her voice to carry her into and out of trouble without ever having to lift a finger. I was pretty sure that if push came to shove, I'd be able to overpower her and get out of there. I wouldn't really be able to call myself a badass if I thought otherwise.

“Okay,” I said.

'What's the worst that could happen?'

“Uh, you live here?” I said, looking up at the run-down, five-story apartment block. We were still in Downtown—it'd taken us about fifteen minutes to walk there—and you could really tell. More than half of the street facing windows were patched up with ply wood, and it didn't look like anyone had bothered trying to fix them. The concrete was crumbling off in big chunks. The guttering was hanging loose. The whole thing was one big health and safety field day.

“Like I said, we had to downsize after we lost our magic,” she explained, though she was smiling at the building. “It's not so bad once you get used to it. And it's prettier inside.”

“If you say so.”

“Come on.” She led me up a couple of steps to the security gate over the wooden front door. It was the only thing about the building that looked solid. There was a keypad to the right of the gate, and Sonata's finger hesitated over it. “Um...” She punched in a code. “Three, four, eight, nine,” she said out loud.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering whether she even realised she was doing it.

She seemed pleasantly surprised when the pad buzzed in acknowledgement. The gate opened outwards and she stepped inside, unlocking the front door and holding it open for me. I followed her inside, making a silent prayer to the gods of architecture as I did. 'Please don't fall down on me...'

She'd been lying about the inside being prettier, too. She led me down a dull, grey corridor, past half a dozen wooden doors, a couple of which had red 'x's on them. I assumed that meant that they were empty, or scheduled for repairs. Both, I hoped. There was a grated metal staircase leading up to the higher floors, and Sonata started skipping upwards, making loud clangs with each step. She slowed down to a walk after two turns, apparently thinking better of it, since it was a big climb.

We followed the stairs round, and round, until we reached the top floor. Sonata was out of breath, which was a little odd, since it wasn't that many stairs. I followed her down another narrow corridor, until we came to a door marked with a brass '5' on the left side of the hall. “This is it!” she reported, still panting a little. She presented a key and unlocked the door. “Come on in.”

I stepped inside her apartment.

Now, I'm not sure what I was expecting from an apartment shared by three immortals. Maybe a lot of eccentric carpet and wallpaper, some post-modern paintings on the walls, weird and wonderful artefacts from travels around the world. Classical music playing from a radio. A pristine, widescreen TV which they'd charmed some unlucky salesman into giving them, gratis.

I wasn't expecting a typical, dull, grubby Downtown apartment.

The door opened into a small living room, done in grey and grey. There was a couch-bed directly in front of me, in the couch position, with a too-small coffee table beside it. Empty takeaway boxes were on top of and strewn around it. There was a TV, but instead of a big widescreen number, it was a small, archaic box TV—one of the heavy ones with the clearly unnecessary big backs—balanced on an even smaller wooden stand, with DVDs stacked to one side.

There was kitchenette on the left-hand side, divided from the rest of the room by a waist-high counter, covered in yet more fallout from takeaway night, along with soda cans and a few empty glass bottles. From all the mess, I was surprised that the place didn't stink. There were stains on the carpet, the wallpaper was peeling, and there were still-taped cardboard boxes stacked just to right of the door.

All in all, it looked a temporary student dorm, which no-one had bothered to turn into a home, either because they were too lazy or didn't expect to be staying for long.

“Wow,” I said. “Um...”

“Yeah, sorry it's kinda messy,” said Sonata, stepping over one of the empty takeaway tubs rather than picking it up. “It just... gets like this.”

“Uh huh,” I said, as the door clicked shut behind me.

Sonata skipped over and into the kitchenette to rifle through the fridge. “Wanna soda or something? We've got cherry or normal.”

I questioned the hygiene of taking her up on that, but private investigation was thirsty work, and I was parched. “Cherry, thanks.”

“'Kay.”

I looked around the place, and noted three doors leading off from the main room. One was open, leading into the bathroom. The other two presumably led off into bedrooms.

“Mind if I take a look around?” I asked, as she passed me a soda. I broke the seal and took a sip.

“Um, why?” Sonata said.

“Well, we still don't know where Adagio is,” I said. “Maybe we can get some idea where she went if we look around her room.”

Sonata frowned. “Adagio doesn't like people going in her room. Especially if she's not here.”

“Your call,” I said with a shrug. “But it's going to be pretty hard to find her as it is. I guess we could just wait for her to turn her phone on.”

Sonata looked down at her feet, and thought about it. She obviously wasn't comfortable with invading her sister's privacy, but I guess the worry of having lost her won out. “Fine,” she sighed. “But she'll be mad if she finds out, so don't touch anything, 'kay?”

I make a granting gesture and put the hand that wasn't holding my soda into my pocket.

She led me to the furthest door and inched it open, peering through the gap as she did. When she'd convinced herself that something terrible wasn't going to jump out at her, she stepped inside and flicked on the light. I followed her in, and she stood to one side with her arms folded uncomfortably across her chest.

Adagio's bedroom was... minimalistic. Like the rest of the apartment, it had dull carpet and wallpaper. There was a single bed against one wall, with the small dresser beside it doubling as a bedside table—atop which was a stack of three books and a reading lamp. A cluttered writing desk stood off against another wall. The only other thing in the room was an open duffel bag, stuffed unceremoniously underneath the bed.

'Boring', I thought. It would've been rude to comment on the décor, since I wasn't even supposed to be in there in the first place, but I couldn't help feeling curious. “So, what was it like where you lived before?” I asked, thinking that was sufficiently subtle. “I mean, you said you had to downsize.”

“Yeah. We used to live in proper Canterlot,” she said. “It was prettier, and bigger—we all had our own rooms, and a bunch more stuff—but we couldn't afford it after what happened. Like I said, we couldn't sing to make people let us have stuff for free any more. So now I have to share with Aria.” She made a face.

I started meandering over to the bedside table. “You relied on it that much, huh. I'm guessing none of you work, then?”

Sonata snickered. “Um, no, that's for humans, silly. Adagio says we're better than them, so we shouldn't have to do it.”

“Work?”

“Yeah.”

I waved my eyebrows at the wall. 'Sounds about right. Cocky, snobby, let the mere mortals do all the hard work...'

“Do you think that, too?” I asked, looking back at her. “That you're 'better' than humans?”

She cocked her head at me, then went timid. “Oh, um. I dunno. I mean, Adagio's really smart, and she always takes care of me, so she's gotta know what she's talking about, right?”

“Not exactly what I was asking,” I muttered, but it was answer enough.

I leant down to read the titles of the three volumes on her bedside table. “'Witchcraft and You', 'Super-Naturals' and 'Everything you need to know about Magic',” I said. “You weren't kidding about her, huh.”

“Yeah,” said Sonata. “She's always reading stuff like that, even when she does come out to eat with us.”

'Guess I was right about the obsession,' I thought, as I looked down at the open duffel bag, filled with half-burned candles, packs of incense and empty salt shakers. It looked like she'd been trying out this 'magic' in her efforts to fix her amulet.

I made my way over to the writing desk and looked over the documents. There were tracings of magic circles, notes on what sounded like 'witchy' rituals, photocopies of pages from a spiritual guide book. None of it was real magic, in the sense that I was used to. I doubted any of it actually worked—it was just a lot of symbolism and metaphors. Not that that didn't have power in itself, but not the same kind of power as physical magic. It wouldn't be good for restoring an Equestrian artefact.

A piece of note paper caught my eye, and I lifted it up. It looked like a to-do list, with half a dozen items crossed out at the top. 'Return books to library, get new ones. Call wizard from phone book. Eat. Eat?' That she had to remind herself to eat on a to-do list was a little disturbing.

At the bottom of the list were two items left uncrossed. 'Do grocery shopping' and...

“'Meet White Wind for tests',” I read aloud. 'Well, that's interesting.'

“What kind of tests?” Sonata asked.

“It doesn't say.” I looked across at her. “Who's White Wind?”

“He's Adagio's doctor friend. I only met him once, but he seemed nice.”

I made to sit down on the bed, then caught myself as I remembered I wasn't supposed to be touching anything. “A doctor,” I said. “So he works at the hospital?”

Sonata shook her head. “I think he's still a student. At, uh...”

“...Medical school?” I guessed. “Or university?”

“Yeah. One of those.”

“Which one?”

“I dunno,” she said.

I curled my lip. “Any idea where we could find him then, or get in contact? Phone number?”

She shrugged and grunted.

I huffed and got an impatient edge to my voice. “You know, you're not being very helpful.”

She gave me a grumpy scowl. “Hey, if I had the answers, I wouldn't have needed to ask you for help.” She folded her arms across her chest again, and looked away as she grumbled, “What does she need tests for, anyway?”

I thought about that. I was assuming they were medical tests. 'Why would she go to a student doctor instead of a hospital for that, though?'

'Because she wants to keep the results a secret?' I wondered. 'It'd make sense to go to a friend, rather than somewhere the tests results could be seen by a lot of people.' As to what she might be testing for, or why said tests might keep her away for so long, I hadn't the first idea.

“Curiouser and curiouser,” I said, putting the list back where I found it.

We checked Aria's room too, which she shared with Sonata, and found nothing. The room was just as dull as the rest of the apartment, without any of the witchy nic-nacs to make it more interesting. The only mildly interesting thing was the contrast between the two posters on opposite walls—one was of an album cover for some kind of scream metal band. The other was of a rainbow pony. I bet those two loved sharing a room.

Sonata told me that there was nothing in there, and she was right. Once we'd finished searching, we wound up sitting on the couch and finishing our drinks while I thought.

We still had a good few hours before we could expect a call from Stiff at the Flagon, if we were going to get one at all. And I seriously hoped that we were. If Aria didn't turn up that evening, I was going to have to start asking questions around the Flagon, and that would be clutching at straws. The chances of anyone there having even a rough idea of where Aria and her friends went were slim to none.

“Whatcha thinkin'?” Sonata asked.

“That this is going to be next to impossible unless we get lucky tonight,” I said. Then I sighed. “Wow, that came out wrong.”

“D'you think she'll really turn up?” Sonata said.

'Probably not, knowing my luck,' I thought. It was a long shot. Just because Aria had been at the bar over the weekend didn't mean she'd be back during the week. I didn't want to get Sonata's hopes up, but at the same time, she was worried enough about her sisters as it was.

I figured a little optimism couldn't hurt, so I flashed her a smile and said, “Yeah, hopefully.”

She smiled too, even if it was just a little one. “Cool.”

“And as far as Adagio is concerned, maybe her 'tests' are just taking a little longer than she thought,” I said. “I'm no doctor, but I know things like blood tests can take a while to return results. That could be all there is to it.”

“Yeah, maybe,” she said. “I just don't know why she wouldn't tell me she was going to see a doctor in the first place. I didn't even know she was sick.”

“Well, she's not necessarily sick,” I reasoned. “I'd say it's more likely that this has something to do with her magic research, if that's really all she's been talking about lately.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah,” I said. And, once I thought about it, I actually did. It'd make sense, in the context. Although it didn't explain why Adagio wouldn't have at least texted to say she wouldn't be home. Unless she was so obsessed that the thought that her sister would be worried didn't even occur to her. I didn't know enough about Adagio to say whether that was the case. But again, I had personal experience with obsession, and if hers was as bad as mine was, it wouldn't be a stretch.

Either way, the thought didn't seem to occur to Sonata. She stared down into space for a while, thinking it over. Then she huffed and slumped her shoulders. “Sorry about all this,” she murmured. “It's pretty dumb, huh? Freaking out just 'cause I've been on my own for a day.”

Something in her tone reminded me of myself, a long time ago. I had a good feeling that I knew how she felt.

“Not really,” I said, rolling my empty soda can between my hands. “It's not easy when the things you take for granted suddenly disappear on you. Believe it or not, I know how it feels to wind up alone in a strange new world.” I looked across at her. “It's not dumb to need someone there with you when that happens.”

She turned her eyes away and didn't say anything, but I think the words gave her some small comfort. I wasn't really sure what else to say, or whether to say anything at all. Like I said before, I'm not the best with comforting words. So we sat in silence for a while, and I hoped it'd been enough.

I wasn't exactly fond of the idea of hanging around doing nothing for the rest of the afternoon. I'd been thinking about heading home—at least then I could get a shower and play video games while I waited for Stiff's phone call. But I needed to stay in Downtown so that I could get down to the Flagon quickly if Aria did show up. If my options were 'risk getting bored' or 'risk losing the trail', I guessed it was probably best to stay put and wait.

And seeing Sonata like that, I thought she could do with the company anyway.

“Wanna watch something?” I asked her.

She found a smile. “Sure. Um, the TV only has a few channels, but we've got movies and stuff over there.”

I went over to the stack of DVDs by the TV, knelt down and flicked through their admittedly quite small collection. My eyes latched onto a colourful, cartoon box set almost straight away. I picked it out and looked closer. “Is this what I think it is?”

“Oh, yeah,” Sonata said, face flushing. “That's mine. I don't get to watch it much 'cause Aria and Adagio think it's dumb. There should be cooler stuff in there if you want.”

I grinned, stood up and put in the first disk without a word. Then I settled in on the couch for a very surreal afternoon of watching cartoons in the 'evil Siren's lair'.

The hours drew on. Sonata kept the soda coming. Somewhere along the line, I started sketching while listening to the TV in the background. But I couldn't help stealing glances across at my 'companion'.

Last time we'd met, it hadn't been for all that long, and I'd only ever seen Sonata as one of the bad guys. I never had the opportunity to see who or what was behind that label. I'd never really cared to think of her as anything other than a threat. But the girl I was sitting next to now—smiling and humming along to songs in a cartoon series—was just that. A girl. Either that or she had the best poker face I'd ever seen, but I was still leaning towards the former.

Which, in hindsight, was pretty reckless and stupid of me, but I'm not perfect. I wanted to believe that just because everyone saw a person as the bad guy, that didn't mean that they were a bad person. If I could put aside my preconceptions about Sonata, then just maybe, everyone else could do it for me.

We didn't talk much except to comment on parts of the show.

I got the call from Stiff around seven o'clock. “They're here,” he said, and hung up.

We decided to head straight there. I left my backpack by the couch, since I really didn't want to be seen carrying it where we were going. Sonata put up her hood, I did up my jacket, and we headed out onto the darkening streets.

* * *

Author's Note

White Wind

*cringe* I suck at naming things. Someone please give me a better name for a pony/EQG student doctor!