A full moon shone brightly above the streets of Canterlot. It was a cool December in the bustling city, and as was usually the case, the cold weather had hit the city hard, with the average temperature in the evening being eighteen degrees below freezing. Despite the icy cold weather, the holiday season had resulted in the streets below being jam packed with shoppers, all looking to get gifts for their loved ones. However, amongst all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, there stood a lone blue haired girl on the sidewalk, who had quite a different goal in mind for the holiday season.
“Matches! Get your m-matches here! Does anyone want to buy some matches?” Sonata shouted out to the people walking down the street around her. She knew full well that she was by no means an experienced salesperson, but after her previous escapades at Canterlot High, it didn't really matter one way or the other. Either way, she and her sisters would have to do whatever was necessary to stay alive. And if that meant biting the bullet and selling some of the items they had stockpiled, at least until her sisters had found a way to fix everything, that was what she would do.
"Excuse me, would you be interested in buying some matches?" Sonata asked to a high school student passing her by. The student turned to face her, and immediately seemed to frown upon seeing her.
“No! Go away!” he shouted back to her as he walked past. Sonata tilted her head in confusion, surprised by the rude response. She wasn’t sure if she had ever met him before, but clearly there must’ve been something he didn’t like about her. Perhaps they had met at some point and she had forgotten about him?
“Well g-geez, no need to be a jerk about it.” Sonata said back to the passerby, who only continued walking away, ignoring Sonata’s comment.
Sonata sighed. While it was rude, Sonata knew from experience that things like that were just something that happened from time to time. Ever since she had lost her singing voice, she would sometimes run into people who treated her rudely while she was trying to sell her wares. It was just a part of her way of life, and it was something that she had to learn to get used to. Still, she knew that if she just kept her sales up, she would get through just fine. She knew it wouldn’t be this way forever…
Sonata walked backwards and sat down on a bench behind her. The streets were almost deprived of shoppers at the moment, meaning it was as good a time as any to take a quick break and let her voice rest a little. She reached into the pocket of her sweat pants, and pulled out a small bronze locket. With a quick flick of her thumb, she cracked it open, revealing a picture of herself and her sisters smiling together from about thirty years ago. Sonata smiled as she remembered that day. They'd ended up visiting a carnival that day, and she remembered it being some of the most fun she’d had in this world. She rode plenty of rides, played a few games, and had sung plenty of songs alongside her sisters, which had resulted in one of the most bountiful harvests of negative energy that she’d ever had since they were banished from Equestria. It was one of her happiest memories post banishment, and Sonata was sure that it wouldn’t be her last. While it was true that the loss of her gem and her singing voice meant that she could no longer feed on negative energy, she was sure it wouldn’t be that way forever. All she had to do was wait for her sisters. They were always great at finding solutions to problems she couldn’t even begin to wrap her head around, and they promised her that they would figure out a solution. All she had to do was wait.
Sonata's gaze slowly slipped away to her right. It had been a long, long time since she last saw them, and she had really started to miss the two of them. They had their moments of antagonism sometimes, but at the end of the day, they were still sisters, and she still remembered their time together fondly. She knew why they had to part ways, of course (she knew that it would be a hard and complicated journey, and if they tried to drag her along, her lesser strength and intelligence would no doubt end up slowing them down), but still, she had yet to hear from them since they parted. Sonata sighed as she shifted her gaze back to her locket. She’d tried to keep optimistic, but over the last week, she couldn’t help but wonder. What if something happened to them? What if they never found the solution? What if… they forgot about her?
Sonata shook her head violently and snapped her locket shut. No way. They couldn’t fail, and they couldn’t forget her! After all, Dagi never found a problem she couldn’t solve, and Aria never forgot anything! Besides, they were sisters! They always had each other’s backs when it mattered most! She couldn’t lose faith now. They’d be back, she just knew it.
WHOOSH!
Sonata shivered fiercely as the sudden gust of icy cold wind smacked into her. She quickly covered up her head with her hood. While Adagio had told them once before that the winter evenings in Canterlot could get extremely cold, Sonata had never realized just how bad being out there in the cold could feel. Even the hoodie she was wearing didn’t seem to do much to protect her from the freezing cold weather around her. Regardless, she had to keep at it, at least until she was able to get a sale going. If she didn’t, she could kiss the idea of eating, and by extension surviving, out the window.
“P-please hurry, D-dagi…” she said quietly to herself.
Sonata looked up. Patrons, presumably exiting from the stores around her, had once again started filling the street, meaning it was a good time to return to selling. Sonata got up from the bench, and continued to shout out.
“Matches! M-matches here! Keep yourselves warm with s-some matches!” Sonata screamed. However, despite the number of customers on the street, no one stopped. In fact, her screaming almost seemed to have the opposite effect, as a sizeable number of the people who walked by her seemed to cringe a little and walk past without making eye contact, a couple even covering their ears as they walked past, as if something about the sound of her voice was extremely unpleasant to them. For about ten minutes afterwards, she continued to attempt to sell in vain, before being interrupted by the sudden sounds of her stomach.
*Grumble*
Sonata paused for a moment and put a hand on her stomach. She didn’t understand it. It was freezing cold, and she was offering everyone something that could warm them up, and yet for the last two days, she hadn’t been able to sell a single thing. And no sales meant no money to buy food with… again.
Sonata looked up and sighed. Clearly, if she hadn’t sold anything by now, she wasn’t going to be able to sell anything anywhere in this section of town anytime soon.
“May as well see if I have any better luck in the park…” Sonata said, as she walked away from the shopping strip and towards the center of town…
“M-matchsticks! G-get your matchsticks here!” Sonata said, as her body's shivering became steadily more intense due to the cold. There was little doubt in Sonata's mind; coming to the park at this time was a terrible idea. Not only was there much less cover from the steady breeze that had started to pick up due to the lack of nearby buildings, but the number of people who were in the park at night were far fewer in number then the shopping district. However, she tried her hardest to not let it distract her. Perhaps if her potential customers were further away from someplace warm, they might be more inclined to buy her matchsticks? It was possible, and that was all Sonata needed to convince her to continue trying here. If she just waited, she knew everything would eventually work itself out.
After ten minutes in the park, just as she was about to give up, she finally got her wish.
“K-keep warm with matchsticks! Make yourselves w-warm this h-holiday season!” Sonata yelled.
“Keep myself warm? What about you, missy? Seems to me like you need it more than I do.” a masculine voice answered back.
Sonata jumped backwards, surprised by the sudden response. For most of the day, everyone had seemed content to either yell at her or simply just ignore her, so having someone actually respond with something other than disdain was an unexpected change of pace.
Without wasting a second, Sonata turned towards the sound of the voice, and found it belonged to a young, yellow haired, cyan skinned man, around 22 years of age. He was a fair bit taller than her, and judging by the royal blue and yellow lettermen jacket with the C on it that he was wearing, he was probably an athlete at Canterlot High at some point in his life. He wasn’t alone, however, as he was accompanied by two other tall individuals, all wearing similar jackets, one shorter one with spiky green hair and skin who stood at around the same height as Adagio, and a humongous third individual with grey skin and purple hair who stood head and shoulders above the other two. Sonata turned towards them, and tried her hardest to smile.
“Oh, d-don’t worry about me! I’ll be f-fine, I know i-i-it! E-especially if y-y-you buy some m-matches!” Sonata said, before extending her matchboxes out towards the strangers.
Despite her attempts at being friendly, the group didn’t say anything back at first. Instead, they simply looked over her, as if they were judging her carefully. Sonata wasn’t great at judging facial expressions, but even she could tell that out of the three people in front of her, two of them didn't seem to be the least bit interested in her matchboxes. The only exception to this was the cyan man who had first spoken up, who seemed to have a look of genuine concern on his face. Despite the concerned look, however, Sonata couldn’t help but be intimidated by the trio of large individuals staring her down without speaking. After a couple of moments of silence, the green haired stranger spoke.
“So… you’re offering us a light?” He asked. Sonata tilted her head in confusion.
“Umm… n-no, I’m offering matches.” She replied. For whatever reason, the response only resulted in the group rolling their eyes, which caused Sonata's heart to sink a little. While she wasn’t entirely sure why what she said was so eye roll worthy, she did know that eye rolls were never good for sales, and quickly tried to recover.
“B-but don’t get me wrong, you could use it for l-light too! T-though I don’t know how much a single match would help you s-see…” Sonata said.
The large purple haired man put his hand over his eyes for a moment and sighed, before speaking up.
“No kid, he’s asking if you’re offering us a light for our cigarettes.” he elaborated, before lifting his cigarette in his other hand up towards his head so Sonata could see it. Sonata looked at the other two men, and saw that all three of them were holding cigarettes of their own.
“O-oh.” Sonata said as she looked downwards, suppressing her inner urge to groan. She had never liked smokers; the noxious smell of the smoke they emitted had always felt like it was choking her whenever she had the misfortune of being near them. Still, if dealing with that was what it would take to earn some customers, it was what she’d have to do. She turned her head back towards them, and put on the best smile she could muster.
“W-well, you could light t-them with these!” she said, before extending her hands to show them the boxes she had. The trio looked briefly at one another, before the green haired one opened his mouth to speak.
“Um… thanks for the offer, but we…”
“…Will be glad to buy some lights off of you!” The cyan man said suddenly, cutting his partner off midway through his sentence. Sonata and the other smokers all looked at him in shock.
“Wait, really Dune? Why bother? We already have…” the green haired one began, only to be silenced by Dune putting his hand over the green one’s mouth.
“I know, Grove. Just huddle up, and I’ll explain.” He said to them, before quickly turning back towards Sonata. “You just wait right there for a bit, miss. We’ll get back to you soon, promise.” Dune said. Sonata said nothing, and simply nodded, trying her hardest to suppress the grin that had begun to grow on her face, due to her excitement over the prospect of a potential sale finally happening. Dune nodded back, before turning back towards the group.
For the next several minutes, the trio quietly debated amongst themselves. All throughout the talk, Sonata jittered in place in excitement, nearly besides herself at the prospect of finally getting some money for food at last. The only thing she’d had to eat in the last two days was a small breakfast at a local waffle house from two days ago, a few snowflakes from yesterday, and a single fallen leaf she’d tried eating earlier that day in order to see if she could stomach the taste of leaves (she couldn’t). As such, her stomach’s growling had begun to become a real pain recently, and she was more than eager to get some food to stop it from...
GRROWR!
…growling.
Sonata tightly put a hand on her stomach and looked up towards the trio, only to discover that all three of them were now looking at her in shock. Even Sonata could tell that they were just as shocked by the sudden loud sound coming from her as she was. Sonata blushed in embarrassment and looked down, trying to avoid their gazes. As she looked away though, she noticed that the tall purple haired individual was holding some sort of small silver box in his hand. She focused her eyes on it a little harder, and saw that it was… a lighter? She couldn’t tell for sure, but it certainly looked like one.
“You okay over there, kid?” asked the purple haired one. Sonata shook her head slightly and looked up at the group before nodding.
“D-don’t worry, j-just didn’t have much to eat today! Or yesterday, I g-guess…” Sonata responded, her second sentence a bit quieter the the first. The trio stared at her with concerned expressions for a moment, before returning to their huddle. The second they returned to their huddle, Sonata thought back to the box she had seen the tall one holding. She was fairly sure it was a lighter… but if it was a lighter, then why would they be asking her for a light for their cigarettes in the first place? Why would they bother even considering paying for a light when they already had one for free?
Sonata had no idea. However, she did know one way she might be able to find out more. Slowly, without making a sound, Sonata crept a bit closer to the trio and listened in as hard as she could. However, even then, she could just barely hear bits and pieces from outside the huddle:
“…why would…”
“…just look at her, man! She’s clearly…”
“…but I already…”
“…the holiday season! We can…”
“…she clearly needs…”
Whoosh…
Another frigid breeze suddenly blew through the park, causing Sonata's shivering to intensify again. She quickly wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to conserve her body heat and stepped away from the trio. She didn’t see a reason to continue listening in anyway; of the bits she heard, nothing told her anything she wanted to know about the lighter, and she could probably ask them about it after she sold her stock anyway.
“AND… BREAK!” the trio yelled suddenly, causing Sonata to jump a little, almost dropping one of her matchboxes. She quickly took a look up at the trio, and saw that they were all nodding their heads in agreement as they exited the huddle. Finally, they were ready. Sonata unwrapped her arms around herself and looked up at the trio, trying her hardest to still her chattering teeth.
“S-s-so… you want to buy some m-m-matches?” Sonata asked. The trio all nodded.
“Yeah, we’ll take you up on your offer, miss… um, what’s your name?” Dune asked.
“I-t’s S-sonata. S-sonata D-d-dusk.” Sonata answered, as she did her best to keep her shivers to a minimum. For some reason, the moment Dune heard the name, he immediately put a hand to his chin and tilted his head in thought.
“Sonata Dusk, huh? Hmm… I know I’ve heard that name somewhere before…” he said to himself. Sonata’s eyes widened. She didn’t remember if she had ever met this individual before the incident at the Battle of the Bands, but if he was someone that she had interacted with, then it probably wouldn’t have been an interaction he’d remember fondly. And if that was true, then she knew from past experience that there was every possibility that they wouldn’t buy anything from her anymore. Without wasting a second, she quickly spoke up.
“No, I-i don’t think s-so! I’m p-pretty n-new a-around h-here!” she stammered clumsily. The trio stared at her with confused expressions, before the green haired Grove spoke up.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I mean, why else would you be wearing only one hoodie and one pair of sweats during the Canterlot winter?” he asked, only to immediately receive a smack upside the head from the tall one.
“Ow... what the hell was that for, Contrail?” Grove asked, as he rubbed the back of the head where Contrail had hit him. Contrail simply just rolled his eyes in response.
“Did you already forget what we talked about in the huddle? Try to show some tact, you numbskull.” He responded forcefully, causing Grove’s eyes to widen before he looked to the side ashamedly.
“Oh, right. Sorry, Sonata. I should’ve thought that through.” Grove apologized.
Sonata tilted her head. She didn’t really understand why Grove was apologizing to her, but she didn’t really feel a need to ask about it. After all, she needed to make sure she got a sale in first.
“S-s-so… how m-many b-boxes, g-guys?” Sonata asked.
“I believe two will be enough, thanks.” Contrail answered.
“Alrighty then!” Sonata exclaimed as she reached into the kangaroo pocket on her hoodie and pulled out two matchboxes. As she did, she looked up at Dune, who had remained fairly silent ever since Sonata said her name, and saw that he still seemed to be deep in thought. Sonata quickly pulled out two match boxes and handed them towards the trio with one hand, hoping to get the sale done before he could…
“Oh yeah, I remember that name now!” Dune suddenly exclaimed with a snap of his fingers.
…remember her.
Sonata’s expression quickly became one filled with anxiety as she stared at the cyan individual, worried that she might’ve done something bad to him at some point that she’d forgotten about. The other two looked towards him as well, although they seemed more curious than anything.
“You’re that girl that my cousin at Canterlot High told me about!” Dune exclaimed, which caused Sonata’s heart to sink.
‘Oh no.’ Sonata thought to herself. She knew that with an answer like that, there was no way that this conversation would end well for her. Not without her magic, at least. She quickly closed her eyes, put her hands that were still holding the matchboxes over her head, and gritted her chattering teeth as tightly as she was able, bracing herself for the worst, with the only thought running through her head being, ‘Please don’t be mad, please don’t be mad’ over and over.
“Yeah, I remember her mentioning your name once or twice a while ago!” Dune exclaimed. Sonata turned her head away from him.
‘Please don’t be mad, please don’t be mad, please don’t be mad…’
“Man, to think that this is the girl she was convinced could do all of that!” Dune said jovially, before chuckling to himself. Sonata paused. Did he… find something funny about the situation? She quickly opened up one eye and looked towards him, and was surprised to see the cyan individual smiling warmly.
“Wait, your cousin said something about this girl? What did she end up saying?” Grove asked, his hand on his chin. Dune let out a single chuckle in response.
“Not much of worth. Just something about there being several girls who were pretty good at singing trying to control people’s minds with their music. According to her, there were three of them, one of which was a light blue skinned girl with a ponytail named Sonata Dusk.” Dune explained, before looking over Sonata, who by this point had lowered her arms from around her head, “And from the way she talked, she seemed convinced that you and whatever the other two were named were going to take over the entire world or something!” He said to her, before laughing heartily out loud. Grove spun his head towards Dune, as if he was unable to believe what he’d heard.
“Seriously? ‘Take over the world with singing’?” asked Grove in bewilderment, clearly not convinced by the tale in the slightest, “That’s the craziest thing I’ve heard all day!”
“I must agree. I will admit that I had heard rumors about that a little while back.” Contrail said, before looking to the side, “But honestly, even if they were somehow true, and not completely ridiculous, I don’t think it could’ve been caused by someone like this.”
“Yeah.” Dune said, nodding in agreement, “My cousin is a pretty solid athlete, and she's usually pretty chill and all, but when it comes to the things she tells me about her school, it’s almost like she becomes a completely different person, taking simple little bits of high school drama and turning it into huge conspiracy theories and such. It’s honestly pretty impressive how creative her letters can be. I just wish she would try using those skills for something other than slandering other students.”
Sonata breathed a sigh of relief. It looked like she’d never met these individuals before after all, and none of them seemed to believe what they had heard about her. She had dodged a bullet.
“...Anyway, nonsensical stories aside, are you still willing to sell us those matches? I’d like to get some smoking in soon.” Dune said.
“Huh?” Sonata asked. She blinked twice and looked up at him for a second before the reason they had started talking in the first place suddenly hit her: they were asking to buy her stock off of her.
“Oh… the m-matches! M-my bad, I f-forgot about that for a second!” she said sheepishly, as she held out the two match boxes she’d pulled out earlier, which the trio quickly took from her.
“So how much you asking for?” Grove asked, as he put his cigarette in his mouth.
“I-it’ll be 2.25 a b-b-box!” Sonata exclaimed through chattering teeth. Upon hearing the price, Contrail looked down towards her with his eyebrow raised.
“Wait, 2.25? That’s a bit pricey for a box of matches. You set that price yourself or something?” he asked, before lighting the tip of the cigarette.
“H-huh?” Sonata asked in surprise. She wasn’t sure how much the average store was selling matchboxes for, but she had figured that during the winter, it would be worth about as much as a small meal, given how cold it was around here. Surely warmth would be worth about as much food, right? Dune nodded his head, before taking a puff of his lit cigarette.
“Yeah, that’s a bit pricey kid, ‘specially in an age where lighters are a thing and go for about the same price.” Dune said to her. Sonata looked down towards the ground, embarrassed that she had gotten the pricing so wrong. Suddenly, the reason why the few people who had talked to her about her matchboxes turned her down made perfect sense.
“B-but… I d-didn’t know! I-it’s been s-so long s-since m-my s-sisters and I w-went sh-shopping… I just thought w-warmth w-would be w-worth about as m-much as f-food in w-winter since it’s s-so cold!” Sonata explained, before suddenly being interrupted by another loud growl from her stomach.
GROWGER!
As Sonata gripped her stomach, all three of the smokers above her looked down at her pityingly. They weren’t sure what exactly the circumstances that had led her to this point were, but what she said to them, with both her mouth and her body language, had told them all they needed to hear; for one reason or another, this girl had been left alone on the streets, trying to survive without the knowledge or resources to do so. Clearly, she needed help, even more so then they'd initially thought. The following moments were silent, save for the occasional puff of a cigarette and chattering from Sonata, before Grove finally spoke up.
“Well... I guess I can see how you would come to that conclusion” he said to her, “But next time you’re selling, you might get better sales if you looked at what similar objects are priced and made yours a bit cheaper.” Sonata looked up from her stomach and nodded.
“O-okay.” She responded.
“But don’t worry.” Said Dune after letting out another puff of smoke, “We’ll pay for your price this time. Just… be careful about that in the future, okay?” he said, to which Sonata simply nodded without saying anything. Dune quickly pulled a leather wallet out of his pocket, pulled a ten out of it, and held it out to Sonata, making sure that he kept a grip on the edge so it wouldn’t fly out of his grasp in the breeze, “Here you go, this should cover it.”
Sonata looked up at the ten, before immediately gasping, “W-wait, t-ten whole b-bucks? Isn’t that a little m-more than what I s-said it would c-cost?” Sonata asked in shock. Dune shrugged his shoulders.
“Yeah, it probably is. For this one time only, though, just pretend it isn’t, okay? No change or anything.” He answered nonchalantly.
Sonata stared wide eyed at the amount she was being offered. It would be more than enough to pay for something to eat, and maybe even get something extra to help fend off the winter cold! Sonata was so excited by the prospect that she jumped up with joy, only to be sent back down to earth by another sudden growl from her stomach:
GRROWAGL!
Upon landing, Sonata grasped her stomach, which was now starting to severely hurt due to her lack of food. She quickly grabbed the 10 from Dune’s fingers before looking up at the trio, who were now quietly whispering something to each other. After a moment, Contrail turned towards Sonata and raised his voice.
“So… do you have a place to stay tonight, like a shelter or something?” he asked, taking the cigarette out of his mouth to speak.
Sonata looked up from her stomach at the giant individual. Despite the fact that the three of them were smoking up a storm, she barely even noticed the fumes, and could only detect feelings of concern emitting from the three. It was an emotion she wasn’t particularly used to. Still, she couldn’t deny that it did feel fairly pleasant.
“Y-yeah, I h-have a p-place to s-stay. I-it’s m-me and m-my s-sister’s home.” She answered back. Grove put a hand on his side.
“Sisters, huh? Do they take good care of you?” he asked, shifting his weight to his other foot as he spoke.
Sonata paused for a moment. It wasn’t an easy question to answer so upfront. They had always taken care of her in the past, but nowadays, she couldn’t exactly say that they’d kept in touch. Still, Sonata knew perfectly well that it was because they were busy trying to find a way to restore their magic, and she was confident that once they found a way to do so, they’d be back to get her. Still, even she knew that wasn’t something she could just say to anyone on the streets. After all, she’d done so once before, and the results were anything but flattering.
“Y-yeah they d-do. They’re out b-busy r-right now, b-but o-once they a-aren’t, they’ll come b-back!” Sonata exclaimed enthusiastically. The trio looked at one another all with an eyebrow raised. Despite Sonata’s enthusiasm, all it took was one glance at one another for all three of the smokers to realize they were all thinking the same thing: that there was no way this girl would be in this condition if her sisters took good care of her. Still, none of them were eager to butt into a stranger’s home life just to prove a point. After a moment of staring at one another, Dune spoke up.
“I guess you’ll be heading back there tonight, huh?” Dune asked. Sonata rolled her eyes.
“O-of c-c-course! I w-wanna m-make s-sure I know if they’ve come b-back home!” she exclaimed. The trio looked up at each other. They stared for a moment, before all nodding in unison. They were all staying in Canterlot for a few more days; it wouldn’t hurt them to at least check up on this girl the following day to make sure she’d be okay.
“This may be a bit weird, but would you mind telling us where exactly you and your sisters live? Maybe we could get you some breakfast or something tomorrow if your sisters aren’t back from… whatever they’re doing?” Dune asked.
Sonata looked up at the trio of smokers. She wasn’t entirely sure what to say. On the one hand, she had heard many times in this world that it could be dangerous to trust strangers, even if her magic had meant it was never much of an issue for her in the past. But on the other hand, they had already given her more money than they needed to, which seemed a bit strange for a thief, and if they were thieves, it wouldn’t matter if her sister’s had come back. Not to mention, her house had very little that was worth stealing anymore, so even if they were thieves and her sisters were still missing, she was fairly certain there wouldn’t be much they’d be interested in. After a moment of thought, she finally came to a conclusion.
‘It should be fine,’ she thought, ‘I don’t think they’ll do anything bad.’ And with that reaffirmation, Sonata nodded to herself and looked up at the trio, ready to answer their query.
“O-okay, guys. My s-sister’s and m-mine’s h-house is located at 360 B-b-bondrop Avenue. It doesn’t have t-too m-much stuff n-now, s-so d-don’t think y-you c-can steal from us!” Sonata said, her arms tightly wrapped around herself in an attempt to keep warm. Grove rolled his eyes.
“Believe me, that’s the last thing we were thinking of doing.” Grove muttered under his breath, earning himself another light smack from Contrail. Sonata tilted her head to the side, unsure of what exactly Grove had said, and why exactly it warranted a smack.
“Um… W-w-what did you s…?” Sonata began to ask, before suddenly being interrupted by a heavy gust of wind.
WHOOOSH!!
The sudden gust of the wind blew across her face, almost knocking her off balance. Unlike the other gusts that day, however, this one was unique, as it was not only heavy, but brought along with it what seemed like thousands of snowflakes, causing Sonata’s shivering to intensify dramatically. Even the smokers she was with, who before now had endured the cold with no trouble whatsoever, seemed to be affected by the sudden change in temperature. Contrail pulled his phone out of his pocket, and widened his eyes in surprise.
“No way. It’s 11:15 already??” he said in shock, causing the other two’s jaws to drop as well.
“Already?? But that means...” they said in unison, before being interrupted by Contrail.
“Yep. That means that the storm they predicted is gonna be starting soon. It would probably be best if we got back to Dune’s place before it starts getting bad.” He said, snuffing out his cigarette on a nearby guard rail.
"Agreed." The other two said simultaneously, snuffing out their own cigarettes right next to where Contrail had. Before they left however, Dune turned towards Sonata. She wasn’t even looking at them anymore, no doubt due to the fact that the wind would blow right into her face if she were to look at them. Still, he didn’t feel right leaving the girl alone, and decided to make sure she’d be okay getting to wherever she lived alone.
“You guys head on back. I’ll catch up with you later. I wanna make sure this girl can get home safely.” Dune said. The other two shared a concerned glance, before turning back to him and nodding.
“You really are something else, Dune. Just don’t forget about yourself, K?” Grove said to him.
“Don't worry, I wasn't gonna.” Dune responded, causing Grove and Contrail to nod at him before walking off. Without wasting any time, Dune turned back towards Sonata, and began to speak to her.
“Hey Sonata?” Dune said with a raised voice, in order to make sure the pale blue girl could hear him. Sonata quickly looked up towards him, and was immediately greeted with a face full of flakes, causing her to immediately look to the side again.
“Y-y-yeah?” she yelled back.
“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay getting home on your own?” Dune asked. Although the snow around them and her hood being up partly obscured her face, he could see her nod in response.
“Y-y-yeah. I’ll b-be o-k-kay. I-it’s only ab-bout f-five m-minutes away, and I d-don’t w-want to w-worry Adagio if she c-came b-back.” She said. Dune sighed, still unable to shake the feeling that she was still deluding herself. Still, she and her sister's lives weren't his business.
“Okay. If you want my advice, you should head there right away, because the weather reports have said that this storm is gonna be a big one!” Dune yelled, increasing his voice enough to make himself heard over the wind. Sonata nodded, but couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She was hoping she’d be able to get something to eat with the money she’d earned, but it seemed that the weather had other plans for her.
“C-can I g-get s-some f-food f-first?” Sonata screamed.
“I’m pretty sure everywhere nearby is closed by now thanks to the storm! If you want though, I can get you some breakfast tomorrow after the storm blows over!” Dune yelled back.
Sonata shivered fiercely as the snowflakes that blew through the wind seemed to find their way into her hoodie in every way possible, transferring their iciness directly into her body. Due to the conditions, she didn’t hear much of what Dune had said after the words ‘everywhere nearby is closed’, but she had gotten the basic memo, and the weather was more than cold enough for her to take a hint. Her growling stomach would have to wait; getting out of the storm was more important for now.
“O-okay! B-b-bye!” She yelled, before making her way away from the park, and towards the house where she and her sister’s had once resided.
“Be careful!” he yelled after her, before turning around and walking off towards his own residence. Although he couldn’t help but feel a bit worried about her, given how she was clearly struggling in terms of both survival and knowledge, for now, he had done what he could do for her. Got her a bit of cash, gave her some advice on sales for future reference, and tomorrow he would see if he could get her a meal to help get her back on her feet. While he didn’t know how much farther this would go, if any farther at all, what happened to her during the rest of the night was on her.
“Good luck, kid.” He said to no one in particular, as if he was allowing the wind itself to take his message to its intended recipient.
Time seemed to slow to a standstill for Sonata, as she slowly trudged through the snowstorm that roared fiercely around her, doing everything in her power to keep her body warm and her stuff in her pockets. She couldn’t see where she was going particularly well, but it ultimately didn’t matter much for her. After all, she had taken the path through Canterlot towards their home so many times that getting there by now came as naturally to her as breathing, even with her limited mobility. Within ten minutes, she found herself next to a sign reading BonDrop Avenue.
“G-good. I'm a-almost h-home...” She said to herself, before trudging down the street.
Home… she’d rarely stopped to think about it, but the concept of having a permanent home in one place that you go back to every day was still such a strange concept for her. She had never planned on needing any sort of physical home back when she and her sisters could sing: the only thing they had to do was sing a few notes, and suddenly everyone wanted them to stay the night. Up until the Battle of the Bands, their home was wherever the wind would take them. However, ever since then, they’d been forced to compromise, and stick with whatever the place they had right before the incident was.
After a bit of walking, Sonata stopped in front of the house they last had before the incident. The house was a wide, single story house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and many other miscellaneous objects all over the place. It was by no means extravagant, but it was functional and comfortable…
…Or at least it was at one point. As Sonata opened the door and stepped inside to escape the wind around her, she was only greeted by more icy cold air and the echoing sounds of the storm outside rumbling around in the house. There was no doubt about it in Sonata’s mind; the old place had fallen a long way down from its former glory. While Adagio had promised her that she had made sure that the place would be theirs for as long as they needed to stay there before she and Aria had left, what she hadn’t mentioned was that after she left, things like the heat, cooling, and water would soon leave with her. Sonata still didn’t understand that. The house was comfortable for the first month after they left, and then all of a sudden, as if by magic, showers and sinks stopped working, with lights, heating and cooling following soon after. As a result, being inside the house had rarely been a comfortable ordeal, as it always managed to find a way to make Summer days hotter and Winter days cooler then the outdoor temperatures that they were supposed to defend her from. The only consolation was that it still protected from wind and such, but it was a hollow price when compared to the fact that nothing she had taken for granted before worked any more, and for seemingly no reason that she could comprehend.
Still, it was only temporary, of course. Sonata knew things would get better soon enough. They’d be back soon, she just knew it.
Sonata slammed the door behind her, although thanks to the lack of heat, it did little to help her frigid body. She couldn’t even bring herself to take off her hoodie, and instead just silently removed the items in her pockets and put them on a side table before lying down on a couch, shivering all the while. As her body involuntarily shook like a wet dog, she looked up from the couch at the living room, and for the first time in a while, noticed how barren the place had become since the last time she looked at it. It wasn’t particularly surprising to her, as she knew that she had been selling most of the stuff in there to make ends meet, but it wasn’t something she ever stopped to think about until that moment, as there was always something else to distract her from it. Now that she was stuck inside hiding from a blizzard, she finally had time to notice that almost everything that was small enough to fit through a door frame had vanished. From TV’s to toys to books to appliances, almost everything that once filled the house was nowhere to be found. Sonata couldn’t help but think that without all the stuff filling the place, it just felt… wrong. It barely felt like a home at all really; nowadays, it was more like a barren wasteland with just enough in it to count as a shelter.
The following minutes crept by at a snail's pace. Sonata had nothing to say, and the only thing she felt like doing during the storm was to lie on the couch and attempt to endure the weather. However, despite her entire body shivering like crazy, it never seemed to do any good. It was as if the air itself were somehow injecting all of its iciness into her skin directly, and nothing she could do would change that. Still, what else could she do?
Sonata looked up towards the side table where she put all of her stuff, and carefully looked it over. She saw the 10 she had earned from the smokers, the locket from thirty years back, and…
“The matches…” she said aloud, her eyes widening slightly as she spoke. She lifted herself up as best as her shivering body would allow, and grabbed one pack of matches off of the table. She didn’t light one right away, instead opting to hold the box in her hand as she considered what she was about to do. Would it be okay to light some of her stock? Surely it wouldn’t be a problem to burn just a few, right? Just enough to get herself warmed up a bit, that’s all.
After a moment of staring, she nodded to herself, opened the box, and grabbed a match in her trembling fingertips. Yeah, it would be okay. After all, she couldn’t sell anything at all if she froze to death first. After a couple of attempts, she managed to strike the match on the side of the box just right, causing the match to suddenly ignite. The flame, although small and weak, immediately lit up the area around her as she felt the tiniest bits of warmth radiate from it.
For a moment after, Sonata did nothing but stare at the tiny flame, observing silently as it danced and bounced around on the edge of the match. Despite its small size relative to her, she couldn’t help but feel like everything was going to be okay as she looked into it. Maybe it was the color, maybe it was the shape, maybe it was the way it seemed to somehow insert warmth into a room without any to begin with, but something about the little spark of fire just filled her with overwhelming ease, as she began to feel the tension in her body slowly dissipate.
However, after a few minutes of staring deeper and deeper into the light from the match, she began to notice something odd about the flame. Strangely enough, despite how impossible it seemed, the little flame in front of her seemed to be slowly and steadily growing wider and wider. Within the course of a few seconds, it seemed to become wider than the match she had lit, and only kept on steadily continuing to grow from there until the only thing she could see around her was the bright orange flame danced and morphed all around her, clouding her vision with nothing but fire. Calming, beautiful, and radiant fire that somehow managed to make everything Sonata had worried about before seem like a long forgotten memory. The calming flames that filled her vision caused her entire body to slump over in relaxation, as she felt her mind completely clear of any worries she’d once had. It would’ve surely lulled Sonata to sleep, had she not then heard an all too familiar voice calling out to her...
“Hey Sonata? Is that you?”
Sonata suddenly snapped upwards and looked around her. Almost immediately, she noticed that the flames that had once enclouded her vision were slowly beginning to dissolve. Within the course of about twenty seconds, they had completely dissipated from her vision. To her surprise, however, the scenery around her was noticeably different. She could still recognize the surroundings as her house, but there were a few key differences. One, it seemed to be a nice spring day outside, as the sun radiated through the living room windows without so much as a hint of a snowflake. In addition to that, most of the stuff she had sold in the past had somehow found its way back into the house, turning the barren living room and kitchen area into a comfortable place once more. The lights were on, and she could hear the sound of water running behind her, proving without a doubt that everything was back to the way it was before Adagio and Aria had left. However, of all the differences, none made her more excited then what she saw in the kitchen. When she looked behind her, she saw an all too familiar face looking up at her from behind the kitchen counter. The face was purple with matching lavender eyes, was topped with purple and light green hair, put into pigtails with star shaped hair accessories, and was attached to a body wearing a light green ripped shirt over another long, white sleeveless shirt. Sonata gasped in shock, before jumping up off the couch and running towards her.
“Aria! You’re back!” Sonata exclaimed, before wrapping her arms around Aria in a big, massive hug, squeezing as tightly as she could. While Sonata would’ve preferred Adagio if she was given the choice, after spending such a long amount of time in isolation, she was ecstatic to see anyone she recognized. Sonata heard Aria let out a single chuckle.
“Heh. It’s nice to see you still haven’t learned a thing about personal space, Sonata.” Aria said back coyly. Sonata’s eyes shot open wide, as she realized that in her excitement, she’d forgotten that Aria hated being squeezed, and that it was one of the only things Sonata had ever done that resulted in Aria swinging a fist at her. Sonata quickly jumped away out of arm’s length.
“S-sorry about the squeezing, Aria. It’s just… I was just so excited to see you that I forgot how much you hated that.” She said sheepishly, looking towards the ground as she apologized. To her surprise, Aria began chuckling again.
“Eh, don’t worry about it, Sonata. To be honest with you… I kinda missed it.” Aria said with a smile. Sonata’s eyes shot up towards her sister, widening in shock. She never thought she’d hear the day that Aria missed a hug from her, and yet it was now suddenly happening right in front of her! Sonata could barely resist her urge to jump up and down in glee. Aria rolled her eyes and motioned Sonata towards her with her left finger.
“Go ahead, Sonata. It’s clear you want another hug, and I’m probably never gonna want another one of yours ever again, so let’s make sure this one counts.” Aria said, her arms opened invitingly. Sonata immediately took the hint, and wrapped her arms around Aria once more. Sonata soon felt Aria returning the favor, as she felt a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders. The duo stood there in silence for a moment, quietly enjoying each other’s company, before Sonata opened her mouth to speak.
“Aria?” she asked.
“Yes, Sonata?” Aria replied.
“If you’re back here… does that mean you found a way to fix everything?” Sonata asked inquisitively. Aria let out another chuckle.
“Well… I wouldn’t say we’ve quite found a way to ‘fix everything’ persay, but I can tell you that we are close. We are so close Sonata. I don’t want to big it up too much, but if Adagio’s predictions are correct, I think we might’ve found something even b…” Aria said, before her voice suddenly seemed to trail off.
Sonata tilted her head. Was it just her, or did Aria not finish her sentence?
“Could you repeat that, Aria? I didn’t quite hear that last bit.” Sonata asked.
“I said that I think we might’ve found something ev…” Aria said, before her voice once again started to trail off, even earlier than before. It was only at this point that Sonata began to notice something else that scared her. Despite having her arms wrapped tightly around Aria, it somehow felt like Aria’s body was slowly fading away. Aria was quickly becoming harder and harder to both see and feel, as the torso Sonata had been hugging for the last couple minutes suddenly seemed to disappear into thin air. However, as Sonata looked around, she quickly saw, to her horror, that it wasn’t just Aria’s body that seemed to be vanishing. Instead, it was as if the entire room around her was beginning to distort and shift in bizarre ways that Sonata couldn’t even begin to wrap her head around. It was as if everything was returning to the way it was before she lit the match. Items around her steadily morphed into the ground below, any light in the room seemed to steadily grow dimmer, the temperature felt like it was rapidly decreasing all around her and even the structure of the building around her was distorting in unfathomable ways. Sonata began to panic.
“W-wait, Aria, what’s going on? What’s happening to the room? Why is this happening?” She asked in panic, only to be answered not by any sort of human voice, but by the sound of howling winds from outside a pane, and nothing else. Once she heard that, Sonata figured it out; something was sending her back. In response, Sonata did the only thing she could think of: scream
“No, don’t do this to me! Please don’t! DON…”
Sonata gasped in shock, before looking around her. Sure enough, she was back in the dark, empty house in the snowstorm, and she was still shivering as fiercely as ever before. The only notable difference that Sonata noticed was that it was suddenly a lot harder to breathe then it was before. If she tried to inhale and exhale too quickly, it would only result in her not being able to breathe at all. Fortunately, after a bit of experimentation, she quickly found that if she just breathed really slowly and deeply, she could manage to get the air she needed in and out okay.
After getting her breathing stable, she looked at her hand, and saw that the match she had struck had since burned out, leaving her with nothing but the dark and the howling winds just outside. Sonata opened her fingers a little, allowing the match to fall onto the couch.
“W… w-what j-just h-h-appened?” Sonata asked out loud to herself as she tried to comprehend what she had just experienced. It couldn’t have been some sort of dream; it was all way too real for that. She knew that she had felt Aria just a moment ago, she had felt nothing but warmth, and she had felt like everything was back to normal, if only for a moment. How could all of that be true though? And why would it all distort so suddenly and inexplicably back to how it was now? It didn’t seem like it was remotely possible. After a moment, Sonata looked at her trembling left hand, and noticed that she was still holding the matchbox in it.
“W-wait… d-did th-they…?”
Instead of finishing her query, Sonata instead opened the matchbox again and pulled out a second match. The last thing she remembered before everything reverted to that world was striking a match. As far as Sonata was aware, there wasn’t anything in this world that had the magical capacity to create scenery so vivid. The only thing that she could think of capable of such a feat was Equestrian Magic. But if what she had just saw was Equestrian Magic at play… did that mean that Adagio and Aria were somehow communicating with her that way? Was this a sign from them somehow? It didn’t seem to make any sense to her, but then again, she also knew that both of them were a lot smarter than she was, and they likely knew all sorts of things about magic that she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Who was to say that this couldn’t be a form of communication?
Sonata shook her head. No matter how hard she thought, she had no idea what was happening. However, she was confident that it wouldn’t hurt her to try and do it again. At the very least, doing so made her feel warm for a little while, and that couldn’t possibly be any worse than the never ending shuddering she was currently going through.
She took another match in her fingers, and although her shivering resulted in her missing the sweet spot on the matchbox a few more times than her first attempt, she eventually managed to strike it just right, igniting the 2nd match.
Once again, Sonata found herself staring deeply into the flame, as if she were being hypnotized by its presence, as she once again allowed all of the troubles that had ever built up in her mind to steadily disappear into nothingness, as the flame seemed to slowly and steadily grow and expand all around her, once again filling her vision with nothing but the most peaceful fire she had ever seen. Just as it had before, it almost certainly would’ve lulled Sonata to sleep, if she hadn’t have been interrupted by another familiar voice calling out to her.
“Hey Sonata!”
Sonata’s head shot up, revealing to her that she was no longer on the couch in the living room, but rather lying down on the bed in her room, the sun shining through her bedside window once more. In addition to that, everything within her room before the Battle of the Bands was back in its original spot. Posters of pop stars covered the walls, already worn clothing adorned the floor around her, and a large collection of about forty or so plushies and teddy bears were piled up in an enormous heap to the left of her. As Sonata looked around the now vibrant and messy room, she couldn’t help but smile warmly, as a strong feeling of nostalgia washed over her. She missed the days her room was like this. She was just about to flop back onto her bed, before being lulled back up by the mouth-watering smell of fresh ground beef and spicy chili powder.
“Sonata! Guess what I’ve got over for you!” yelled the same familiar voice from before. Sonata snapped out of her trance, and rushed out of her room into the hall, where both the voice and smell were coming from. Once she got to the kitchen, she was immediately greeted by another welcome sight: Adagio was standing in the kitchen this time, her bright orange hair seeming to shine in the sunlight, as she pulled a fresh batch of tacos out of the oven. Sonata would’ve been ecstatic to see either of these things alone, but to see them together like that was borderline heavenly for her.
“Adagio! You’re finally back! And you brought tacos too!! EEE!!!!” Sonata squealed, before nearly tackling Adagio to the ground in a tight embrace. Even though Adagio didn’t always seem to have the highest opinion of Sonata, it didn’t change the fact that Sonata simply adored her. Whether they had magic or not, there was no other individual that could make Sonata feel as safe and content as she did when she was with Adagio.
“Oh my god, Dagi, I missed you so, so much! I can’t believe you finally made it back!! I’m so happy right now!!!” Sonata said gleefully, with only the slightest of pauses between each word she spoke. She soon felt Adagio’s arms wrap around her, her warm hug making Sonata’s heart soar.
“Okay Sonata, calm down. How about we discuss this over those tacos, okay?” Adagio said back to her, with nary a hint of annoyance or displeasure in her voice. Sonata’s eyes opened up a bit wider as she jumped back from her sister. She had rarely heard Adagio sound so pleased around her before. Not that Sonata minded; anything that put Adagio in a good mood was usually good.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I’d love that!” Sonata exclaimed before grabbing the tray of tacos from the kitchen counter Adagio had set them on and putting them onto the table. Miraculously for a tray that had come from the oven, they didn’t burn her hands at all, and merely warmed them a bit.
Without wasting a second, Sonata rushed the tray onto the kitchen table, grabbing a taco immediately after setting it down. By the time she had sat down in her seat at the table, she had already devoured half of the taco. The warm meatiness of the beef meshed together perfectly with the crispness of the lettuce and bits of tomato in her mouth, and when topped with just enough of a spicy kick from the light topping of chili sauce, it created a taste that Sonata could only describe as magical. It may not have had quite the same impact as Equestrian Magic did, but it was still everything that Sonata could’ve asked for from this world’s nourishment. It had truly been far too long since she had last eaten something so perfect.
“Mmm, thish is shooo good, Daghi!” Sonata said as she stuffed the last bits of the first taco into her mouth. Adagio smiled confidently, as she pulled up a chair opposite to Sonata.
“Glad you like them, Sonata. But don’t talk with your mouth full, ok?” Adagio said, as she reached for a taco of her own. Sonata nodded twice, before quickly swallowing the taco she had in her mouth.
“Got it, Dagi!” Sonata said with a miniature salute, causing Adagio to crack a smile. Sonata took a big bite out of her second taco.
“So… how’s the magic going? Did you find a way to fix our gems?” Sonata asked after swallowing her second bite. Adagio chuckled to herself.
“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, Sonata. Those gems were the only easy way for us to store and harness our magical power, since you and I both know that these bodies on their own could never contain it. It’s not exactly something you can just glue back together and have it work again like new.” Adagio explained.
“Oh…” Sonata said dejectedly, her eyes shooting down towards the floor, “Does that mean that our magic is gone forever?” Adagio shook her head.
“Of course not. All it means is that Aria and I had to get a bit more creative.” Adagio paused for a moment to take another bite of her taco, before continuing, “You see, after we split up, Aria and I eventually discovered that we weren’t the only thing that Starswirl the Braindead has been sending here. Apparently, the old galoot loves nothing more than using this place as his own personal trash can. Any sort of magical threat or artifact that might not be stoppable by straightforward means gets sent here almost every time. And when you’re constantly throwing that much powerful magic into a magic free world...”
Before finishing her sentence, Adagio paused for a moment, put her taco down and stared right at Sonata, a sinister smile spreading across her face.
“Well, then it’s only a matter of time before it starts to have some unforeseen side effects.” She concluded.
Adagio’s grin was contagious, and it wasn’t long before Sonata felt a sinister smile of her own spreading across her face. While she wasn’t entirely sure what Adagio’s plan was yet, she had known her long enough to know that when Adagio smiled like that, it was because she was fully confident that everything was going according to plan. There were few things in the world that Sonata found more comforting than that. Adagio continued to speak.
“I can’t tell you everything quite yet, but I will say this; we’re close Sonata. We’re so close to something incredible, something that might be even more powerful than anything we’ve experienced. And once it’s ours… well, let’s just say that the three of us will never have to worry about anything ever again.” Adagio concluded.
Sonata’s could feel her smile nearly stretch from ear to ear. She had always known how clever Adagio was, but even by Adagio’s standards, this was incredible. No more worries ever again? It almost sounded too good to be true! And yet, Adagio was saying it, so obviously it had to be the truth.
“That’s amazing, Dagi! I knew you’d find a way through!” Sonata said, before taking another large bite out of her second taco. Adagio looked around the room, before looking back at Sonata.
“Thanks Sonata. But to be honest, that’s not what I’m most impressed by.”
Sonata’s eyes widened. There was more?
“What do you mean?” Sonata asked. To Sonata’s surprise, Adagio smiled warmly back at her, for the first time since they’d been banished from Equestria.
“What I mean is that I’m most impressed with you, Sonata.” Adagio said.
Sonata’s eyes shot open. She was so shocked by the admission that she forgot to grip the taco she was holding, causing it to fall back onto her plate.
“Wait, with me? Are you for realsies?” Sonata asked in shock. Adagio nodded once more.
“For realsies. The fact that you’ve managed to survive in a dump of a world like this one without magic and without our help for more than an hour is surprising, but to do it for nearly eight months is nothing short of amazing. You’re clearly a lot smarter and more resourceful then we gave you credit for, Sonata, and I couldn’t be prouder of you for that.” Adagio answered.
Sonata couldn’t bring herself to respond. She had always looked up to Adagio and the way she could come up with a plan even when she seemed cornered, but to hear Adagio praising her, and saying she was impressed by her? It didn’t seem like something that could be real, and yet, here it was. Sonata felt a couple tears begin to build up in her eyes. She turned her head to the side, hoping it would keep Adagio from noticing.
“Adagio… th-thank you… s-so much…” was all that Sonata could manage to say, as she tried her hardest to avoid crying tears of joy. Adagio let out a chuckle once more.
“You earned it Sonata. There’s just one more th…” Adagio began, before her voice suddenly seemed to go silent. After a few silent seconds of waiting for Adagio to finish her sentence, Sonata turned her head back towards her sister, only to be greeted by a sight she’d already experienced once before. Adagio seemed to be steadily vanishing, the room around her seemed to once again be bending and changing before her eyes in ways that didn’t seem physically possible, as the temperature of the air once again started dropping rapidly around her, returning back to how it was in the winter.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Sonata exclaimed, before quickly turning to where Adagio had been sitting just a moment ago.
"Adagio! Please, don’t do this to me again! Please don’t!” Sonata begged, only to be answered this time by the sound of her stomach fiercely growling, as if everything she had just eaten had simply vanished from it without a trace. It was only now that Sonata noticed something new this time, something that she hadn’t experienced the first time with Aria. Even though her mind was panicking just as much as it had the first time, if not more, her breathing didn’t seem to be getting any faster. If anything, it was doing the opposite, with Sonata having to struggle to get every individual breath out. Even talking seemed substantially more challenging.
“S... stop, p-please… s-s…” was all she could manage to say as she struggled for breath amongst the shifting world around her, her eyes closing to avoid watching it.
GRAGOWR!!
Sonata slowly reopened her eyes, awakened by the sudden roaring from her stomach. It was dark all around her, with the only light illuminating the room being a street light from outside the window to her left. Sonata tilted her head in bewilderment.
'Where... where am I?' she thought to herself, as she used the faint light from the street to faintly make out her surroundings. She quickly noticed that she was lying on a couch, with a bunch of miscellaneous junk on the table behind her head, and a burnt match lying on the floor next to the couch, but aside from that, the place seemed completely barren. For whatever reason, this place felt somewhat familiar to her, and yet she couldn’t quite put a finger on why. Perhaps she’d been here before? She wasn’t sure.
Sonata nearly gasped as she attempted to suck in air, as even the mere act of breathing had become a struggle. Her breathing was far slower than it had ever been before, as she nearly had to gasp everytime she wanted to breathe. Whatever this place was, it seemed to be causing her breathing problems. Still, she couldn’t deny that seeing her frosty breath in front of her was rather calming, if somewhat hard to understand. Even though she thought that she probably should’ve been cold, since her body was intensely shaking, she could see her breath in front of her, and she could see a soft snowfall happening outside when she tilted her head… her body didn’t feel even the tiniest little bit cold to her. If anything, it felt like her body was the warmest, most toasty thing in the room, which was making it increasingly hard for Sonata to keep her eyes open.
Just before she allowed her eyes to close, she happened to take a glance down at her right hand, and saw that she was holding a box of matches in it. For whatever reason, these seemed important to Sonata, as she spent a moment or two staring at the box. It was strange. Although her shudders had become violent enough that it caused the few matches remaining in it to go flying between the walls of the box, as if they were trying to break down the sides of the box they resided in, she still held on with a tight grip. Sonata had no idea why. All she knew for sure was that, every time she thought about that matchbox, her mind immediately flashed back to images of two thin, female individuals, one orange one and one purple one. For whatever reason, even though she struggled to remember these individuals’ names, thinking about these two somehow put her mind at ease, while simultaneously making her feel that there was something she needed to do involving them.
After a moment of staring at the box, Sonata tried to reach her right hand into the match box. She wasn’t even sure why she was doing it at this point; surely it would be much easier to just let herself sleep, now that she was starting to become so tired that even remembering something as simple and straightforward as who she was, where she was, or why she was there had become almost impossible, and yet there was still some primal instinct deep within her that was urging her to strike just one more match. Despite her best efforts, however, her shivering body seemed to have other plans, as her hands were shaking so hard that even the simple act of reaching into the box was nearly impossible, let alone grabbing any. Regardless, Sonata’s instincts refused to let her give up, and after nearly a minute of failed attempts, she finally managed to grab a match from the box. All that was left to do… was light it. She slowly moved her shaking hands closer to one another, eventually managed to get the head of the match touching the left end of the rough part of the box, and…
Thunk. Thunk.
Suddenly, without warning, Sonata felt both the match and the box fall out of her hands, onto the floor below. Somehow, she had lost her grip on both.
Without a second of hesitation, Sonata reached down off of the couch and attempted to pick them up again, only to discover that she was no longer able to move her fingers. Every attempt to make her fingers close around either the match or the box only resulted in her fingers staying almost completely still. It was as if the cold weather around her had somehow made her fingers so numb that she could no longer control them, no matter how often she grabbed for them. Sonata continue to grab the matches. She didn’t know why, but every instinct in her body was screaming for her to grab those matches, and yet no matter how hard she tried, her body refused to obey. It didn’t matter if it was possible or not; all she needed to do was to grab those matches! She had to! She…
“Sonata…”
Upon hearing the word, Sonata stopped attempting to move her hand. The word didn’t seem to have come from the world around her, but rather from… inside her mind? She wasn’t sure.
That wasn’t important to her, however. What was important was that there was something about that word that made her feel entirely calm and relaxed once more. She slowly lifted her hands away from the matchbox, before hearing a second word that seemed to come from the same place as the word before it had.
“Relax…” It seemed to say.
Sonata felt her eyes slowly begin to close. Even if she couldn’t explain it, something about listening to the words she was hearing… just felt right. She stopped attempting to move any of her muscles, and just allowed her body to do whatever it wished. As she felt her body slowly drift off, she noticed that even though her eyes were closed, her vision was slowly filling with the color orange. Not just one shade of it, but many different shades steadily encompassed her entire view, dancing and flickering around in her mind like the fire at the end of a matchstick. And just like the fire from the matchsticks she’d already lit had done, the sight of the beautiful bright colors all around her somehow made her feel like everything she’d ever worried about before was nothing more than long lost memories as she felt herself drift off…
“Sonata?”
Upon hearing her name, Sonata’s eyes shot open. At first glance, everything seemed the same as when she had drifted off, as the room was still dark and lacking in items, save for the few matches strewn around her, and there was still snow falling just outside of the window panes. Despite the similarities, however, Sonata knew that this place was different from the world she was familiar with. After all, if she were still in that world, her body would be shivering uncontrollably as she battled the cold inside her, all while she struggled to breathe normally. Instead, in this place, both her body and the outside air that surrounded her felt warm and cozy, without nary so much as a single shiver.
Sonata rolled over onto her stomach on the couch, and looked towards the area where the kitchen was located. It was only then that she immediately noticed the difference. It didn’t seem possible, but in the distance, far beyond where the back wall of the kitchen should’ve been located, there seemed to be several lights shining brightly in the surrounding darkness. It was difficult to tell from her location, but it seemed like the place where the kitchen would’ve normally ended had vanished, being replaced by what seemed to be a long tunnel of empty blackness with some sort of lights at the end.
“That’s new…” Sonata said quietly as she lifted herself up off of the couch. Although there was no real reason for her to investigate this sudden change to her house, it also seemed unlikely that there would be any sort of harm in her doing so. At the very least, she could figure out what exactly the light in the distance was.
After reaching the kitchen, she slowly reached her hand out to feel where the back wall normally stood. To her surprise, however, her hand continued to reach a little farther past where the wall normally was. She took a couple steps closer, until she had walked through where her wall stood, confirming that the entire back wall of the room and everything attached to it was no longer there. Sonata quickly turned to her sides to look at the kitchen’s side walls, at which point she noticed that although she could see that the walls still extended up to the point where the now missing rear of the kitchen was, they seemed to fade completely once they reached past the old wall, leaving nothing to see but the lights ahead in the darkness.
Sonata took one more look behind her, towards the house she was well familiar with. If she wanted to, she could turn tail and try to go back to sleep on the couch, and indeed, part of her couldn’t help but be a bit worried about continuing onwards into the inky black abyss, especially since she had yet to hear any sort of noise around her, save for the sound of her own voice. Despite her worries, however, she felt an extremely powerful urge within her to explore this new location, and find out what exactly the lights at the end of the tunnel were. Sonata took a deep breath, before taking her first step further into the dark unknown.
“Hello?” Sonata called out for the third time on her journey, only to once again be answered with silence from all around her. By this point, she had been walking for several minutes in the darkness, and had gotten so far into the tunnel that the only thing she could see when she looked back towards the living room where she had started her journey was a dull grey speck of light. On the other hand, the light at the end of the tunnel that she was moving towards was growing at an extremely slow rate. Even after several minutes of walking, the only thing she could see now that she couldn’t before was that the light appeared to be coming from several individual sources, all spread within a tight, cone like shape. Even though she could tell she was making progress, she couldn’t help but feel the emptiness of the tunnel really start to weigh down on her head. With each step she took, new questions popped up in her head; questions that she could not answer. Where was she? Why was she going to such lengths just to see some lights better? Would she encounter anyone on this journey, or was she just wasting her time? However, no matter how many questions entered her head, and how many times she thought of just turning back towards the place she was familiar with, something deep inside her continued to push her forward.
“Still…” Sonata said to herself after another minute of walking. By this point, she had started looking downwards towards her sneakers instead of up to the lights, if for no other reason than to give herself something new to look at as she walked, “This place is pretty dark. Maybe I should’ve brought some of the matches with me. That way I could at least see what exactly this place looks like. Maybe I can go back and…”
Sonata suddenly stopped talking, as she noticed that the tips of her shoes were being slightly illuminated by some orange light in the distance.
“...get some…” she slowly finished, before looking up to confirm what she saw. Sure enough, in the time she had spent looking away from the light, she had managed to get close enough to the lights to identify what it was. She saw what appeared to be a large pine tree that towered high above her. It’s branches were decorated from the top to the bottom with what appeared to be thousands of beautifully lit candles, which shone brightly without setting fire to the branches, as well as many gold and silver baubles that shone brightly in the candle’s light’s like jewels. For a moment, Sonata just said nothing, and stood in awe of the tree in front of her. She had heard of the concept of Christmas trees before, of course, but her sisters had never had one in the house before, due to their insistence that it would just be a waste of time to prepare something so temporary that wouldn’t even provide them with any sort of negative energy. Sonata had never been particularly bothered by that before, but now that she had gotten the opportunity to see one so up close and personally, she couldn’t help but feel just how much she had been missing before; it was a truly stunning sight.
“Wow… this is beautiful.” Sonata said out loud. To her surprise, a familiar, feminine voice answered from her left.
“Isn’t it though?” the voice asked. Sonata covered her mouth, in an attempt to hide her sudden gasp. Before she could respond however, another feminine voice, a bit lower than the first one, sounded off from the right.
“Yeah, I gotta admit; it’s certainly nice. Definitely something I’m glad I saw at least once.” The second voice responded. Sonata gasped and took a step backwards, clasping her hands together behind her back as she heard the sound of footsteps from both the left and the right coming towards her. She already knew who the voices belonged to, but she was still surprised to hear both of them at the same time regardless. Her surprise was only accentuated when, instead of them both stepping into her field of view in front of her, Sonata instead felt both of them wrapping one arm around her, as if they were initiating a group hug. For a moment, Sonata didn’t move, too shocked to respond. In all of her life, neither Adagio nor Aria had ever given a hug to anyone unless Sonata hugged them first (and even then it was rarely reciprocated), so to have them hug her first was an experience unlike anything Sonata had ever experienced before.
“Don’t worry, Sonata. We’re back.” Adagio said calmly. Sonata could only shake her head as she wrapped her arms around the two. Part of her couldn’t believe that this was real. It wasn’t something that Adagio or Aria would ever do. At this point in time, though, Sonata couldn’t care less whether or not it was real. Real or not, it was an incredibly pleasant experience, and after the past eight months, Sonata was willing to take everything she could.
After a couple moments of silence, the trio let go of one another and took a step back, allowing Sonata to finally see her older sister’s faces. She wasn’t sure whether it was just the lighting from the candles or what, but both of her sister’s faces almost seemed like they shined out bright and clear despite the darkness around them. For Sonata, there was almost nothing that looked more beautiful.
“Guys… I’m so happy that the three of us are together again…” Sonata said, trying not to choke up as she spoke. Aria chuckled.
“Heh. You always were the emotional one of the bunch.” Aria said with a small grin. Adagio turned her head towards Aria.
“There’s some benefit to a siren who understands emotions, Aria. It makes it far easier to know when to stop and let the lesser being’s anger spill out, after all.” Adagio said, before turning back to Sonata, “You know that, right?” Adagio asked. Sonata simply nodded, before looking up at the tree. It was still a mesmerizing sight for her. Both of her sisters turned to look back at it as well.
“Pretty nice, isn’t it Sonata?” Adagio asked, earning another nod from Sonata. Strangely enough, as Sonata stared at the tree, she felt a strange sense of unease emerge from within her. Despite the fact that this should’ve been an incredible moment for Sonata that she had never experienced before, something about this incident was giving her an odd feeling of déjà vu, as if she had experienced feelings very similar to the ones she was currently experiencing not too long ago. This made sense to Sonata; after all, she had seen both of her sisters before this point. And yet, when she thought back to those past moments, and how similar they felt to this one, she felt an increasing sense of unease build up within her. It was as if there was something that Sonata was forgetting about those previous moments, something which was somehow making her anxious about this moment, even though this should’ve been the happiest one yet. What was making her so uneasy? Sonata wasn’t sure, but she was determined to try to figure it out, as she thought as hard as she could about everything that had happened up to this point.
After a couple of moments of the trio staring at the tree in silence, Aria turned towards Sonata, and upon noticing her uneasy expression, spoke up.
“Hey Sonata?” Aria asked, causing Sonata to turn her head towards the lavender siren.
”You seem pretty distant right now…” Aria began, before pausing for a moment, as if she had just realized she said something odd, “…well, more distant than usual, I guess. Is something up?” Sonata didn’t answer at first, as she wasn’t particularly sure why herself. After a moment of silence, Adagio turned towards the two of them, and rolled her eyes.
“Let me take a wild guess, since it’s pretty clear that Sonata’s not sure herself. Might it have something to do with the fact that every time Sonata saw one of us, it always cut out just as she was starting to get used to the scene around her?” Adagio asked. Suddenly, Sonata’s eyes shot open. That’s right… now she remembered. Every other time she saw the others, they always seemed to disappear around the time Sonata had started to really enjoy the moment. And if that pattern held true this time…
Sonata began to feel tears build up in her eyes, as her breathing come out far quicker, as if she were beginning to hyperventilate. If they vanished again, then she would surely end up going back to starving and freezing all alone once more. Without any sort of other plan, Sonata dropped down to her knees and started begging her sisters.
“No… I don’t want you guys to disappear again! Please don’t leave me! I finally feel so perfectly okay when I’m with you guys! I can’t go back to the cold and hunger again! I can’t I can’t I can’t!!” Sonata said, speaking each word so quickly that there was barely even a pause in each previous word before the next word came out after it. After watching Sonata beg and sniffle for a couple moments, Adagio and Aria glanced at one another before nodding in unison, at which point Aria walked up to Sonata and smacked the youngest siren across the cheek, taking care not to hit her hard enough to hurt her too badly, but hard enough to get her attention, and sure enough, the slap stopped Sonata’s babbling in its tracks.
“A-aria? What was…” Sonata began, before Aria put a finger to her lips, silencing her. At that point, Aria put both of her hands on Sonata’s shoulders.
“Sonata, let me ask you a question” Aria began, with a mild amount of irritation in her voice, “The last two times you saw us, did you see us alone?”
Sonata tilted her head in confusion. Where was Aria going with this?
“Y-yeah, you were both alone.” Sonata replied, wiping her eyes as she spoke.
“And when you saw us, did we or did we not both mention that we were close to finding a breakthrough?” Aria asked. Sonata nodded once more.
“Y-you did say that. But what does…” Sonata began, before being quieted down by Aria’s finger over her mouth.
“So if we were alone, with the other nowhere to be found, then that must’ve meant that the other was probably still working out the kinks, correct?” Aria asked again.
“Um… I guess that makes sense.” Sonata replied. Aria lifted her hands from Sonata’s shoulders and put them on her hips.
“So, based on this train of logic, if both Adagio and I are here right now, that must mean there aren’t any more kinks, right? In other words…” Aria began slowly. Sonata only stared back at Aria in confusion. Sure, they were both here right now, but Sonata wasn’t sure why that made a difference. After several seconds without an answer from Sonata, Aria sighed to herself.
“Oh for the love of…” she muttered to herself, before being interrupted by Adagio.
“She’s saying that we’re ready for you to come with us, hence why we’re both here!” Adagio called out, causing Aria to nod in response.
“Ooooohhhh… I get it.” Sonata said calmly. She looked up at the tree for a second, before her eyes suddenly shot wide open as she realized what that meant.
“Wait… does that mean…?” Sonata began, only to be answered before she could finish by both of her sisters nodding in unison.
“That’s right. It means we’re ready to fulfill our promise.” Aria said, with a warm smile on her face. Sonata said nothing, and instead just sat there in awe. Adagio walked up to Sonata and kneeled down in front of her.
“Come with us, Sonata.” Adagio said, putting a hand on Sonata’s shoulder, “We’ve discovered something amazing, something even more incredible than Equestrian Magic. And there’s nothing we’d want more than for you to come experience it with us.”
Sonata began to feel her eyes tear up again, but this time instead of tears of anxiety, they were tears of joy. Aria walked up besides Adagio and kneeled down next to her.
“Yeah. As much as I’d rather not admit it, it wouldn’t be the same without you. And considering everything you must’ve been through while waiting, I think you’ve more than earned it.” Aria said, in the warmest voice Sonata had ever heard from her. Sonata felt a tear streak down her eye.
“A-adagio... A-aria… i-it was so hard living without you guys… I’d waited for so long to hear you guys say that…” she said, barely able to get out her words without choking up. Adagio nodded.
“I know, Sonata, and I’m sorry we took so long. But you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Come with us, and I promise you’ll never have to be cold, hungry or alone ever again. Doesn’t that sound nice?” Adagio said. Sonata sniffled.
“Thank you guys… there’s nothing I’d rather have more…” Sonata said, before wrapping her arms around the other sirens…
For the first time in months, Sonata’s lips spread out into the largest, most genuine smile she had ever smiled; one so large and so full that it seemed her face could only barely contain it, one so radiant that it almost seemed to light up the night all on its own.
It was the last thing that Sonata Dusk ever did.
