“It just doesn’t make any sense,” Su-Z said as she frantically paced back-and-forth throughout the living room. “I mean, if a giant spaceship is crashing down near you why would you run in the direction that it’s falling? Why?!”

“Beats me,” Kiwi nonchalantly replied from the couch as she combed through her purse.

“And another thing, how was that those two guys ended up getting lost in the cave near the beginning of the movie?” Su-Z then asked as she continued her distraught parading. “They had all that fancy mapping equipment with them!”

“Uh-huh,” Kiwi somehow even more nonchalantly responded.

“I tell ya, that movie had more things wrong with it than Windows Vista,” The younger of the two PostCrush girls then remarked before reaching into her pocket and withdrawing her phone. “Oh, and speaking of operating systems, you know that software update our phones made us download last week? My phone’s been running slower than molasses ever since it was installed! I swear, every new update for this thing just makes it work worse and worse! What’s up with that?!”

Rather than continue to offhandedly answer Su-Z, Kiwi decided to simply tune-out her best friend’s circuitous chatter as she finished making sure she had everything she needed for their daytrip into the city. However, Sonata, who was sitting on the other end of the couch from Kiwi, found herself unable – or perhaps just unwilling – to divert her attention away from the former popstar’s frantic traipsing and babbling.

“And it’s not just cell phones that are getting worse, it’s computers too,” Su-Z continued right before putting her phone away and then gesturing over to the laptop sitting atop the kitchen table. “The other day I tried to order this really cute skirt online and I couldn’t because that dang laptop wouldn’t load the website! Unbelievable!”

Despite the meandering manner in which Su-Z expressed her frustrations with the household laptop, they were frustrations that Sonata knew all-too-well. Much like her housemate, the Dazzling also enjoyed shopping for cute things online but often had difficulty actually ordering anything due to the laptop’s poor performing. Though unlike her housemate, she attributed this more to the laptop’s old age rather than its general quality. This sympathy she had towards Su-Z’s resentment of the minicomputer, however, paled in comparison to her concern for the girl’s current mental state.

“Hey, is Su-Z okay?” She whispered as she scooched closer to Kiwi. “She’s been rambling on like this for, like, 20 minutes now.”

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Kiwi whispered back. “She just gets like this whenever she’s super nervous about something.”

“Ah,” Sonata understandingly replied.

“And I can’t even use my smartphone to order it either because that website isn’t mobile compatible!” Su-Z then continued. “Just…what website isn’t mobile compatible these days?! Doesn’t the company making that skirt know that roughly three-quarters of people say they buy things online using their smartphone?!”

“She shouldn’t be at this much longer,” Kiwi then said as she zipped up her purse. “So long as she doesn’t start going on about The Smurfs she’ll most likely stop by the time we need to leave.”

“The Smurfs?” The Dazzling asked bewilderedly, though unintentionally loud enough for Su-Z to hear.

“Oh my gosh, The Smurfs,” The younger PostCrush girl addressed her best friend and housemate as she paused her traipsing just behind the couch. “Don’t even get me started on how The Smurfs makes absolutely no sense. I mean, first of all, they live in a medieval farming community with no access to pesticides and only grow a single crop; how the heck did they all not die of starvation a long time ago?! Also, how is it that each Smurf is named after an aspect of their personality? What, do they know what every Smurf’s primary character trait is going to be when they’re born?! Oh, and then there’s -”

As Su-Z continued to prattle on about the well-known small, blue cartoon creatures, Sonata began to realize the full residuum of her oratorical gaffe and turned to give Kiwi a delicate, awkward look that she hoped would silently convey the sense of remorse she now felt. Though unfortunately for the Dazzling her embarrassed expression went unnoticed by the elder PostCrush girl, as almost as soon as Su-Z had begun her Smurf-related diatribe Kiwi had closed her eyes and placed her forehead within her head in what could only be described as a gesture of languorous disinclination.

“All right then,” The former popstar eventually said - with no shortage of reluctance in her voice - as she opened her eyes and removed her forehead from her hand.

Immediately after separating her hand from her forehead, Kiwi unzipped her purse and quickly withdrew her phone from within it. She then got up from her seat and started to tap and scroll through the device as she made her way around to the back of the couch, much to the confusion of Sonata, who couldn’t help but be curious as to what exactly it was her housemate was searching for on her phone.

“ – how are there so many Smurfs if there’s only one girl in their entire village?” The younger PostCrush girl continued to ramble, seemingly without noticing Kiwi’s encroachment. “Guhuhuh. I don’t even want to think about what she has to go throu -”

Just before Su-Z was able to finish her thought Kiwi placed her hand upon her best friend’s shoulder, causing the blathering girl to become abashed and abruptly cease her speaking. And almost as soon as Su-Z did cease her speaking Kiwi gently turned her around until she was standing nearly square to her and looking her straight in the eyes.

“Su-Z,” Kiwi said in a stern yet compassionate manner as she held her phone up to her friend. “Look at this.”

Despite being bewildered by her best friend’s sudden actions and directive, Su-Z did as instructed and looked down at the small device that had been placed in front of her.

“Oh my gosh!” The younger PostCrush girl rather blithely said as she stared at Kiwi’s phone. “This is…I can’t believe you still…”

Once again, Su-Z failed to complete her thought. Though this time the cause wasn’t due to someone else’s interference, but instead because the girl began to break out into almost uncontrollable laughter.

“Ahahahahaha!” She chortled loudly as she closed her eyes, leaned forward ever-so-slightly, and wrapped her arms around her abdomen.

Almost as soon as Su-Z grabbed hold of her midsection Kiwi’s expression changed from that of austere tenderness to demurring embarrassment, causing Sonata to raise a puzzled eyebrow. Not surprisingly, the scene now playing out before the Dazzling had her feeling both quizzical and inquisitive. However, much to her surprise she found herself feeling more inquisitive than quizzical, partly due to Su-Z’s sudden and boisterous change in temperament but mostly due to Kiwi’s noticeable change of expression. What was it that was on the elder PostCrush girl’s phone that had not only caused Su-Z to erupt in cachinnation but also caused Kiwi to become aversely abashed? She had to know.

From her spot on the couch Sonata couldn’t see what was on Kiwi’s phone due to Su-Z blocking her view, so to get a better vantage point she leaned to the side to try and discover what it was that had caused her housemates to become so emotionally-charged. But just as the elder PostCrush girl’s device came into view Kiwi lowered it down and hastily placed it in her pocket, denying the Dazzling of the information she so badly craved. At first, this repudiation peeved her enough that it caused her to visibly pout with disappointment. But when she saw Kiwi regain her composure and place her hands on Su-Z’s shoulders – which caused Su-Z to abruptly stop laughing and once more make eye contact with her bandmate – she soon found her annoyance overshadowed by renewed feelings of curiosity.

“I know you’re nervous about seeing this doctor, but everything’s going to be fine,” Kiwi steadfastly told her best friend.

“Y-Yeah,” Su-Z less-than-confidently replied as she tilted her head to the side and broke eye contact with her best friend. “I mean, it’s not like my life is in danger or anything. At worst all that can happen is I find out there’s nothing that can be done to treat my infer…infertil…”

As Su-Z struggled to fully articulate the word ‘infertility’, small teardrops could be seen forming in the corners of her eyes. Tears that, of course, did not go unnoticed by the girl’s best friend.

“Hey,” Kiwi then said warmly as she gently tilted Su-Z’s head back up. “Even if that fertility specialist does say that there isn’t anything that can be done to treat your infertility, you’re going to be okay.”

The elder PostCrush girl’s words did little to soothe the distraught Su-Z, as evidenced by the growing number of tears within the younger girl’s eyes. However, in an act of unperturbed pursuance Kiwi carefully used her thumb and used it to wipe away a tear from the corner of her friend’s eye just as it was about to fall.

“I get that this is really frightening for you,” The former popstar then said, now sounding a tad choked up. “If it were me in your shoes, I know I’d be frightened too; finding out that something like this is untreatable. But I also know that I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t do everything I could to try and face it, even if that meant possibly hearing what I wouldn’t want to hear. And I think that’s why you’re doing this; because you feel that way too.”

Su-Z gave no verbal response, though she did lightly nod her head to affirm her best friend’s assertion.

“I’m really proud of you for facing your infertility like this,” Kiwi continued. “And I promise you, no matter what we may hear at that doctor’s office today you’re going to be okay. No one here is going to think less of you because of your condition.”

As soon as the elder PostCrush girl finished speaking she very discreetly shifted her gaze over towards Sonata for a moment and gave her a beseeching look. A look that, at first, the Dazzling felt confused by. But after a moment or two of contemplation Sonata understood what is was her housemate was silently trying to plead with her for: support.

“Uh, yeah. Kiwi’s right,” The Dazzling extemporized as she hastily arose from her seat, earning her both of the PostCrush girls’ attention. “My sisters and I definitely won’t think any less of you if it turns out your condition is untreatable. You’ll still be the same awesome person we’ve come to know and love.”

Upon hearing Sonata’s kind and appurtenant words, the tears within the corners of Su-Z’s eyes finally began to fall and roll down the girl’s cheeks. Though they were no longer tears of sadness and worry as they’d been when they’d first formed. Instead, they were now tears of happiness and hope. Ones that the younger PostCrush girl was comfortable shedding.

“You’re incredibly strong for doing this, Su-Z,” Kiwi told her friend just as Su-Z turned back to face her. “And it’s that strength, along with a lot of other things about you, that makes me so proud to be your friend.”

As though Kiwi’s statement of repletion was the last ember on the burning fuse of her emotions, Su-Z’s feelings exploded in the form of a massive, somewhat aggressive hug that she swiftly enveloped Kiwi in. Naturally, the sudden and unexpected embrace caught the elder PostCrush girl off-guard at first, but as soon as she felt the full warmth and love that the circumferential gesture was offering her she was just was swift to reciprocate it. And as Sonata watched as the two best friends held each other close she couldn’t help but feel a tad misty-eyed herself.

“For the last time, Adagio, I can do this by myself,” Aria’s peevish-sounding voice rang out from the hallway just before the middle Dazzling and her older sister emerged from it. “I don’t need you tagging along with me on my job search and watching me like a hawk or something.”

“I beg to differ,” The Adagio rebutted, trying not to sound too critical. “Considering the last time you went out looking for a job you ended up working for Lucy Beel – who it turns out is the literal Devil - I strongly feel that -”

The Dazzling leader cut herself off when she noticed Kiwi and Su-Z hugging one another in a tender and affectionate manner that, by all accounts, had been going on for longer than the standard time for a hug. And as soon as she did, Aria too took note of the two girls embracing.

“Uh, we interrupting something?” The middle Dazzling inquired to no one in particular.

“No, no,” Su-Z gingerly answered as she broke the hug with her best friend and wiped the tears from her face. “We’re just…having a little pre-appointment pep talk is all.”

Although Adagio and Aria were each well aware of Su-Z’s anxiety over going to see the fertility specialist, as they’d both been in the room when the former popstar had first started rambling, neither of them were sure they understood why it was there’d been a need to give the girl a pre-appointment pep talk that’d resulted in a long hug. But regardless of this, both of them were glad to see that their housemate was feeling better about her imminent medical visit.

After only a few seconds of being released by Su-Z, Kiwi’s phone began to chime and vibrate within the elder PostCrush girl’s pocket. Within a flash Kiwi removed the device from its confines and took a look at the screen to see what was causing it to ring and pulsate, only to discover that, much to her surprise, the cause was the reminder that she’d set for when it was time for her and Su-Z to depart for the younger girl’s appointment.

“It’s already this late?” She rhetorically asked.

Immediately upon realizing the time, Kiwi once more moved at breakneck speed as she hurried around to the front of the couch.

“Come on, Su-Z,” She then said as she put her phone back into her purse and grabbed the small bursa from off the coffee table. “We need to get going.”

“Uh, right. Right,” Su-Z hastily replied as she rushed around the diffuse divan to join her best friend. “Don’t want to be late.”

“Okay, we should be back before dinnertime; hopefully,” Kiwi addressed the Dazzlings as she hurried towards the front door. “See you later, girls.”

“Bye, girls,” Su-Z then addressed the three siren sisters just as Kiwi reached into the bowl near the door and retrieved the car keys from it.

All three Dazzlings said their farewells to the departing former popstars simultaneously, though each of them phrased their adieu differently. Adagio reiterated Su-Z’s ‘bye’; Aria said ‘later’; and Sonata wished them blessings with a ‘good luck’. It was unclear as to whether or not Kiwi and/or Su-Z actually heard their housemate’s farewells though, as the sound of the door shutting behind them echoed throughout the room about a nanosecond after they were uttered.

Not long after the door shut, the Dazzlings heard the unmistakable noise of the car starting in the driveway. And as that noise swiftly faded away as the vehicle pulled away from the house they each privately hoped for the best for Su-Z, but at the same time they each couldn’t help but also worry about what could happen to the girl from a psychological standpoint should she receive the news she feared most at her appointment.

“All right, well,” Adagio spoke up as she put her inner concerns aside for the time being. “I guess we should be heading out too, Aria.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aria reluctantly concurred.

“Huh?” Sonata quickly chimed in. “Where you two going?”

For a brief moment both Adagio and Aria looked at their little sister with puzzled expressions, but soon enough they both just looked at each other with unamused disappointment.

“We’re going to get the van fixed up, Sonata,” Adagio told her youngest sibling, in a manner so flat she nearly sounded like Sugarcoat. “Remember? We all agreed that we’d use the money Aria made working for Lucy to repair the van so we’d have more than one working vehicle around here?”

Sonata did, in fact, remember the discussion she, her sisters, and her housemates had had a week or so ago regarding putting all of the money Aria had made working as Lucy Beel’s courier into restoring the van they’d all at one point been living in down by the river. What she hadn’t remembered, however, were some of the more nuanced details of that discussion. Namely that at the end of it they’d agreed to have the van taken in today.

“Oh, yeah, no, I remember,” The youngest Dazzling inelegantly said. “I just, you know, forgot that you were doing that today, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” Adagio replied with a hint of skepticism evident within her voice. “Well I hope you also remembered to order all the farm supplies I told you to yesterday.”

This, Sonata had not remembered.

“U-Um, well, about that. Y-You see…” The pony-tailed girl uttered as she tried to come up with an excuse for her forgetfulness.

Unsurprisingly, Sonata found herself unable to come up with a reason for why she hadn’t remembered to do the task Adagio had requested of her. Or at least, she couldn’t come up with a good reason. The truth of the matter was that when she’d been asked by Adagio to order the various items and foodstuffs for the farm she’d been in the midst of a texting session with Rainbow Dash, one that she had sworn she would end soon and then get right on her assigned task. But of course, she hadn’t ended the back-and-forth messaging with her girlfriend in a timely manner, and by the time she had she’d completely forgotten all about ordering things for the farm.

“I-I meant to, but I…um…I...” She continued to bloviate to her sisters, somehow sounding even more inelegant than she had a moment ago.

Both Adagio and Aria simply dawned nonplussed expressions in response to Sonata’s incoherent utterings, and for the next half-minute or so they each politely listened silently as their younger sister futilely continued to try and explain herself. Eventually though, Aria got tired of being cordial and leaned in closer to Adagio to offer her a somewhat sneering remark.

“Told ya to just let me do it,” The middle Dazzling said to her older sister.

Adagio gave no acknowledgement of her sister’s derisive assertion. Instead, she just raised her left hand a bit towards Sonata in a manner that seemed to indicate she wanted her youngest sibling to cease her nonsensical babbling. Though it quickly became clear that the gesture alone was insufficient to communicate this, as Sonata continued to rant and rave on in spite of it.

“Enough, Sonata,” The Dazzling leader eventually addressed her sister in as unthreatening a manner as possible, causing her to finally stop talking. “Just…get everything ordered before we get back, okay?”

“Y-Yeah. Okay, Dagi,” Sonata sheepishly replied as she remorsefully averted her gaze away from her sisters.

“All right then,” Adagio then said before she headed on over towards the front door. “We should be back before dinnertime too; hopefully. If not you can just throw whatever leftovers we have in the fridge in the microwave.”

“Awww, leftovers?” Sonata whined back. “Can’t I just order a pizza or something?”

“No,” Adagio promptly answered. “Until Aria finds a new job we have to be frugal with what we spend on take-out.”

The Dazzling leader’s remark almost immediately elicited a scowl from Sonata. If there was one type of food the youngest Dazzling absolutely despised it was microwaved leftovers. She found the warmed-over flavor they often had positively disgusting, and Adagio knew this. So for her older sister to practically order her to consume such distasteful cuisine should she and Aria not be back in time for dinner was something she saw as, ironically, distasteful in-and-of-itself.

“And don’t touch any of the flan that’s still in the fridge,” Aria very sternly added before following behind Adagio. “I’m saving it for when Limestone comes over this weekend.”

If Sonata hadn’t already been scowling at Adagio’s remarks she would’ve started doing so at what she found to be Aria’s wholly unnecessary statement. It was only yesterday that her sister had laid claim to the remainder of the custard-based dessert in the fridge for Limestone’s visit in a few days, and the fact that she felt she needed a reminder of that claim so forthwith was something she found to be rather insulting.

“I won’t touch your stupid flan,” She softly pouted aloud.

“What was that?” Aria sharply asked as she turned back around to face her younger sister.

“I said I won’t touch you’re flan, Aria,” Sonata quickly replied, trying her best to sound as blithe as possible so as to not provoke her dyspeptic sibling.

“Good,” Aria replied before turning back around and following Adagio out the door.

As soon as Aria tuned her back to her, Sonata felt a strong urge to shut her eyes and silently stick her tongue out at her sister in an overly exaggerated manner. However, she thankfully managed to resist acting on that urge out of fear that Aria would inexplicably turn back around and catch her display of petty retaliation whilst she was doing it.

“See you later,” Adagio said to her just before walking out the door.

Aria said nothing more to Sonata as she stepped outside behind Adagio and the door closed shut behind her.

Now alone within the house, Sonata once again felt an acute impulse to exact some form of trivial retribution. Though despite no longer fearing the possibility that she’d be caught performing such an act, the youngest Dazzling still did nothing. Instead, she merely gave a small sigh and slowly made her way over towards the kitchen table where the household laptop was sitting to get started on ordering everything Adagio had instructed her to.

“Okay,” She forlornly said to herself as she ventured into the kitchen. “What was it Adagio wanted me to order again?”

Sonata’s question was entirely superfluous as she remembered clearly all of the items she was supposed to order. But for some reason unbeknownst to her, she decided to vocally ask herself what it was Adagio wanted her to order for the farm.

“Why did I just say that?” The Dazzling inquired of herself.

Rather than try to answer her own question and risk diving deeper into her clearly agitated head, Sonata simply shook her noggin vigorously for a couple of seconds in an attempt to disencumber her thoughts before taking a seat at the kitchen table to begin her task.

Once seated, the young Dazzling opened the laptop in front of her, booted it up, and begrudgingly waited approximately six minutes for it to completely load.

“Piece of junk,” She irritably uttered just as the desktop menu appeared on the screen.

As Sonata went to work getting online and ordering the farm supplies, her mind again began to fixate on her sisters and their apparent lack of credence towards her. There had just been something about the way that the two of them had acted and spoken to her before they’d left that rubbed her the wrong way. And while it was true that Adagio and Aria had never held her in the highest regard, even during their most amative of times, the youngest Dazzling couldn’t help but feel that whatever reverence they had towards her was unduly low.

“I didn’t forget about doing this. Or about Aria’s stupid flan,” She told herself whilst she continued her ordering, as though doing so would somehow change her sisters’ misconceptions.

Despite the sluggish performance of the Dazzling household’s laptop Sonata was able to successfully add all the items she needed to order to her online shopping cart in about 45 minutes, much to the pony-tailed girl’s relief. The last time she’d done some online shopping to order a similarly large number of items it had taken her nearly an hour-and-a-half to accumulate everything into the cart, so for this time to only be half as long was greatly welcomed. But just as she was about to finish entering her payment information and checkout a series of three knocks at the door caused her to pause and divert her attention away from her task.

“Hmm?” She uttered before getting up from her seat to answer the door.

As Sonata slowly ventured over to the front door she wondered who it could possibly be that was tapping at her pied-à-terre porte. Adagio, Aria, Kiwi, and Su-Z all had house keys so I couldn’t be any of them, and it was too early in the afternoon on a weekday for it to be any of her friends from CHS. For a moment she thought that it might be Dolly, but she soon remembered from a recent phone call she’d had with her daughter that she was on an oceanographic expedition some 550 miles away at the moment.

With each step closer to the door, the young Dazzling’s curiosity as to who was on the other side of it grew and grew, and by the time she reached the wooded egress she hastily opened it in order to satiate her overactive officiousness.

“Hi…Sonata,” Eclipse greeted her once the door was open, sounding downright dyspneic, as she clutched a small briefcase in her arms.

“Eclipse?” The Dazzling bewilderedly said to Su-Z’s sister. “Um, hi. What are you doing here?”

“I…I’m here to…to…” The young businesswoman tried to answer in-between her heavy breathing, though to little avail.

“Are you okay?” Sonata inquired. “Do you want some water or something?”

“Water…would be great,” Eclipse answered.

“Okay, just a sec,” The pony-tailed girl said just before dashing off towards the kitchen – and realizing that she had yet to invite her guest inside. “Oh, and come on in.”

“Thanks,” Eclipse said back as she entered the Dazzling household.

Within no time, Sonata reached the kitchen as well as the refrigerator to retrieve a bottle of water for her parched visitor. But as the opened the large cold-storage box she laid eye on some things that made her pause before grabbing one of the several phials of cool, refreshing liquid; the leftovers Adagio had mention and Aria’s flan. The instant she saw the things she was filled with renewed discontent for her sisters’ earlier words, but thankfully this feeling vanished as soon as it had manifested and she once more went about hastily getting Eclipse the water she’d promised her.

Almost as soon as Sonata grabbed one of the bottles of water from the fridge, Eclipse took a seat at the kitchen table and placed her briefcase down on the floor. Once seated, the junior Banyan associate’s breathing seemed to noticeably stabilize, though not to the point of being what one would consider normal.

“Here you go,” Sonata said to her as she handed her a bottle of water.

“Thank you,” Eclipse replied before quickly taking the bottle from the Dazzling, opening it, and chugging nearly half the water within it in one go.

“Wow, you really were thirsty,” Sonata remarked in astonishment as she too took a seat at the kitchen table. “Did you run here or something?”

“No, I drove,” Eclipse replied once she felt she’d had enough water for now. “But I did have to climb down about twenty two flights of stairs from my office to my car because all of our building’s elevators are broken.”

“A-Ah,” The young Dazzling uttered, feigning understanding when in reality she didn’t. “So, uh, what’s up? We didn’t have a meeting with you today, did we?”

“Oh, no, no. We didn’t have anything scheduled for today,” Eclipse answered. “Some stuff for you guys just came across my desk is all. It’s nothing urgent or anything, but, well…”

A brief silence filled the room as Eclipse stopped herself mid-sentence.

“I wanted to bring it to you right away because I was hoping to catch Supernova before she left for her appointment,” The young woman somewhat despondently finished her thought. “But I’m guessing since your car is gone she’s already left, huh?”

“Um, yeah,” Sonata awkwardly replied. “She and Kiwi left about a half-hour ago.”

“Heh. Yep, that’s Supernova for ya,” Eclipse then said sentimentally. “She always leaves super early for appointments because she hates being late for them; or for anything at all.”

Sonata couldn’t help but crack a small smile upon hearing Eclipse speak so mawkishly about her sister. After hearing about the years-long animosity between the two of them from Su-Z – and witnessing it firsthand when they’d inadvertently crossed paths – it warmed her heart to see Eclipse feeling so twee towards her formerly-estranged sibling.

“But anyways, getting back to why I’m officially here,” Su-Z’s sister then said as she picked her briefcase up off the floor, placed it on the table, and opened it up. “My bosses at Banyan have been very impressed with what you guys have managed to accomplish in the short amount of time you’ve been with us, and they’re hoping you might be open to engaging in a little bit of synergy with some of the other businesses we partner with.”

Just then, Eclipse quickly looked around the room as though she were searching for something, causing Sonata to similarly begin looking around the room in an attempt to deduce why her guest was doing the same.

“Are Adagio and Aria not here either?” Eclipse inquired of the Dazzling once she ceased her scanning.

“Oh, uh, yeah. They’re not here,” Sonata answered. “Both of them had some stuff to take care of in town today, and they said they probably won’t be back for a few hours.”

“O-Oh, I see,” Eclipse replied tepidly, right before abruptly dawning a more jovial yet slightly awkward disposition. “Seems like I picked a heck of a time to come over, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Sonata concurred in an equally jovial yet awkward manner.

The two girls then shared a few friendly chuckles at their semi-embarrassing idiosyncrasies.

“Well, no big deal,” Eclipse then said as she ceased her light chortling and withdrew about a dozen manila file folders from her briefcase. “So long as you’re here I can go over all of this with you now and you can pass it along to your sisters later.”

A small, barely noticeable blush appeared on Sonata’s face the instant Eclipse finished her sentence. After the earlier events with her sisters, the young Dazzling couldn’t help but feel touched by the faith Eclipse was placing in her to pass along some information to Adagio and Aria. Even if it was a very minute amount of faith.

“Now then,” The Banyan associate said as she opened the top folder, revealing a small stack of papers within it. “This first company is an import-export business called Vangill Incorporated. They specialize in providing various items made from animal byproducts and -”

For the next 45 minutes or so Eclipse went through the numerous folders that she’d brought with Sonata. With each one, the Dazzling was given three pieces of information: the name of the company Banyan thought could potentially synergize with the emu farm, a brief summary of that company and what products or services they provided, and how exactly it was that Banyan thought synergy between them and the company could work. However, Sonata could tell though that each folder contained more than just these three elements based on the thickness of them but wasn’t concerned by what Eclipse wasn’t sharing with her right now. She simply figured that the additional information wasn’t anything she needed to be worried about at the moment.

For the most part, each company that Eclipse went over with Sonata was the same. The majority of them were businesses that specialized in providing exotic, animal-based products to niche markets and wanted to sell things like the emu’s feathers, oils, or even in some cases their meat. A few of them though wanted to make use of their emu for other reasons, the most notable among them being an insurance company that wanted to use some of the large birds as a mascot for a multi-commercial marketing campaign. However, regardless of what each company’s interest in Dazzling Farms was, Sonata took a mental note of how likely her sisters were to agree to synergize with them. And as Eclipse came to her last 2 folders the young Dazzling had surmised that her siblings would be a least slightly open to working with all of them - with the exception of the ones that wanted the emu for their meat.

“All right,” The Banyan associate said as she opened her second-to-last folder. “This next one isn’t actually for you and your sisters. It’s for Supernova and Kiwi.”

“Hmm?” Sonata replied with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

“It’s for a company called Guillemot Publishing,” Eclipse began to explain. “They publish a lot of books about and written by high-profile people; athletes, politicians, celebrities, and so on.”

The instant the young Dazzling heard the word ‘celebrities’ she had a pretty good inkling of what Eclipse was about to say next.

“Anywhoo, recently they’ve been looking to expand their business to include more people who’ve worked within the music industry,” The businesswoman continued. “And since Supernova and Kiwi were in a fairly popular band together and have since, uh…retired…we were hoping they’d be willing to work with them to publish a memoir about their PostCrush years.”

“Ooh! That’d be neat!” Sonata heartily replied. “Su-Z and Kiwi have told us a ton of cool stories from when they were touring, and I’m sure a book filled with those stories would be a bestseller!”

“I’m glad you think so,” Eclipse replied cordially as she closed the folder and placed it atop the growing stack of similar files. “But it is ultimately Supernova and Kiwi’s decision, so you could just let them know about this one I’d appreciate it.”

“For sure!” The Dazzling assured her guest.

Eclipse said nothing in response, but the genial smile she gave Sonata was more than enough to let the former siren know that she was grateful. However, that genial smile didn’t last for long, for as soon as the young Banyan associate grabbed her last remaining folder her expression abruptly shifted from one of felicity to one of near-trepidation.

“N-Now then,” She started to say temperately. “This last one is, well…it’s, um…?”

“Something wrong?” Sonata asked the agitated girl, feeling concerned over her sudden shift in mood.

“No, no,” Eclipse assure the Dazzling. “It’s just that this one’s kind of hard to explain. See, the company in the folder is a foreign-owned sports entertainment business called Escaparate Dominó and they own a small masked-wrestling league south of the border.”

“Masked-wrestling league?” Sonata ingeminated quizzically. “What would a company involved in something like that want with us and our emu?”

“That’s just it, this one doesn’t have anything to do with you or your emu, per se; it has to do with your land,” Eclipse explained. “Escaparate Dominó is looking to bring international attention to their masked-wrestling league by holding a handful of exhibition matches across the country over the next year or so, and they’re mostly looking to host these matches in locations that are rural but located not too far from major cities.”

“Ahhh,” Sonata uttered as she began to understand why it was Banyan wanted her and her sisters to synergize with Escaparate Dominó.

The more the young Dazzling thought about it, the more she could see why it was Eclipse’s bosses included this company in their synergy proposal. All-in-all, Dazzling Farms comprised approximately ten acres of land with only a fraction of it actually being used for emu farming and it was located within a reasonable distance from Canterlot City and its surrounding suburbs, meaning there was a good-sized population of potential patrons nearby. With both of those things taken into consideration, it stood to reason that the emu farm was everything Escaparate Dominó was looking for in an exhibition location.

And as far as Sonata was concerned, synergizing with Escaparate Dominó was the most appealing option that Eclipse had presented to her thus far. Given that all the company wanted from Dazzling Farms was the temporary use of their land it seemed fair to assume that her and her sisters wouldn’t have to do much to accommodate them. At least compared to all the other companies she’d heard about today.

“Now before I go over anything else with you about Escaparate Dominó there’s one thing I need you to know,” The young Banyan associate continued. “Since they’re a small, international company and don’t have much of a business network in this part of the world the majority of the logistics for getting the event set up would fall to the host sight.”

“Wait. So you mean that -” Sonata began to say.

“Yep,” Eclipse interjected with a note of disinclination in her voice. “You guys would more-or-less have to make all of the arrangements for the event yourselves; getting the arena built, designating parking areas, finding food vendors for concessions, etc. You’d of course be reimbursed for all of these expenses, but you’d have virtually no support during the set-up and teardown phases.”

And just like that, Sonata’s belief that working with Escaparate Dominó would be easy disappeared quicker than NSFW content from Tumblr. After hearing what Eclipse had just told her she not only now thought that working with the sports entertainment business would be difficult but also that they would be one of the most difficult companies to synergize with. In fact, she wondered if this proposed arrangement could even be called ‘synergizing’. All of the other companies that had been presented to her at least offered some supporting function to Dazzling Farms, but Escaparate Dominó was expecting them to do practically everything alone. If there really was a joint effort somewhere in this and not just an event venue agreement, she wasn’t seeing it.

“I know I probably shouldn’t say this - given my position as a Banyan associate and whatnot - but in all honesty I don’t think this one would be worth it for you guys,” Eclipse confessed. “Admittedly, the money you’d be making on this is pretty good; much more than most venues see for hosting such events. But given the logistical hell I’m sure you’d have to go through to get that money I doubt it would be worth the trouble.”

Despite having already pretty much come to that conclusion on her own, Sonata appreciated Eclipse’s candid input. Not only because it made her feel that her conclusion was an astute and accurate one but also because the young woman simply gave it. As Eclipse herself said, she was a Banyan associate, and in all likelihood it would’ve been in her best interest to leave as many of the options she brought with her on the table for her and her sisters. Even the ones that wouldn’t be advantageous for them to accept. And while it was entirely possible that the girl was only being so forthright because her twin sister worked on their farm it didn’t change the fact that she was grateful for the glasnost.

“Seriously, if you don’t go with this one please don’t say it was because I discouraged you from choosing it,” Eclipse then said in a half-joking, half-serious manner.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Sonata assured the young business woman.

“Thanks,” Eclipse replied with jovial relief.

Feeling reprieved that she hadn’t just jeopardized her job, the young businesswoman closed Escaparate Dominó’s folder and placed it atop the stack of similar files that she’d brought with her.

“And that’s it. That was the last one,” She then told the Dazzling. “So, any questions?”

Sonata thought for a brief moment about whether there was anything Eclipse had gone over with her that she hadn’t understood or if there was anything she felt she needed more information on. But as quickly as she began to ponder these queries she came to the conclusion that she had no questions for the Banyan associate.

“Nope. Nothing that comes to mind,” She replied.

“Well, if anything does just give me a call,” Eclipse said as she hastily grabbed her briefcase and got up from her seat. “And sorry to just sorta run like this right after we finished, but I really should be getting back to the office. I’m just now realizing that I maybe, definitely forgot to tell anyone that I was coming here before I left.”

“Oh, it’s fine. No worries,” Sonata assured her guest as she too got up from her seat.

“Okay, well, just share everything I gave you with your sisters – and that one with Supernova and Kiwi – and let me know what you all think,” The young businesswoman said as she hurried towards the front door. “Thanks again for the water and for your time, Sonata. Talk to you soon.”

“Yeah! Talk to you soon!” Sonata hollered just as Eclipse rushed out the door.

Within a matter of seconds the young Dazzling heard the sound of Eclipse’s car starting outside and quickly backing down out of the driveway, and it was then that she thought she truly understood why it was the Banyan associate had been so exhausted earlier. If Eclipse had hustled down those twenty two flights of stairs at her office building like she’d just hustled out of the house chances are just about anyone would’ve still be feeling out of breath a half-hour later.

Now finding herself alone once again, Sonata wondered what it was she should do now. She briefly looked down at the pile of folders Eclipse had left on the table and contemplated looking through them again to make sure she’d be able to explain each one to her sisters adequately enough, but that thought went right out of her mind as soon as she saw the still-open laptop out of the corner of her eye.

“Oh, right!” She said aloud as she was struck by a sudden realization. “I need to finish ordering all the stuff Adagio told me to!”

Wanting nothing more in that moment than to finally complete the assignment her older sister had given her, Sonata hurried back over to the laptop on the other end of the table. Before Eclipse had shown up she’d had everything she needed placed in her digital cart and ready for ordering, so all she’d need to do now was finish entering her payment information and hit the Submit Order button and she’d finally be done with her task. However, as the Dazzling once more seated herself in front of the small electronic device she made a harrowing discovery that it’s battery had been depleted and died.

“No,” She despondently said as she frantically pressed the power-on button in a futile attempt to get the laptop to turn on again. “No, no, no, no, no!”

After a few dozen failed tries to turn her notebook computer back on, Sonata reluctantly accepted that she was going to have to get the device’s charger and plug it in. An unfortunate fact, as the defective device had a habit of not only taking an exceptionally long time to load but also not even operating at less than 10% battery power - even when plugged in.

“Friggin’ piece a, can’t believe I gotta,” The Dazzling uttered disgruntledly as she got up to find the laptop’s charger.

Remember that Su-Z had used the charger last Sonata began to make her way towards hers and Kiwi’s room to retrieve it, but before she could even get out of the kitchen she stopped when she heard the sound of Adagio’s ringtone coming from her phone.

“Hey, Dagi,” The youngest siren sister said as she answered the call, trying her best not to sound either frazzled or forlorn. “What’s up?”

“Just wanted to let you know Aria and I definitely won’t be back before dinner,” Adagio replied from the other end of the line. “When we dropped the van off they said it wouldn’t be ready until the very end of the day. Though honestly even if that weren’t the case we’d still probably be late getting home on account of how much trouble Aria’s been having finding a new job.”

Without even really realizing it, Sonata let out a few small chuckles at the news of her surly older sibling struggling to find a legitimate job.

“So, how’s everything at home?” Adagio then asked. “Did you get all the stuff for the farm ordered?”

And just like that, the youngest Dazzling’s minuscule amount of cheer disappeared.

“Um, well, n-not yet, Dagi,” Sonata timidly answered as she tried to figure out how she was going to explain the events of the last hour-and-a-half to her eldest sibling. “See, I was just about to -”

“Oh for crying out loud, Sonata!” Adagio vehemently cut her off.

“H-Hold on, Dagi,” Sonata apprehensively pleaded with her sister. “I can explain why I -”

“Told ya she wouldn’t have it done yet,” Aria’s voice could be heard contemptuously saying in the background, causing Sonata to cut herself off.

“Not now, Aria,” Adagio then said. “Look, Sonata, just get that ordering done already. If we don’t get more emu feed soon we’ll run out and be forced to buy the more expensive kind from town to make sure none of the emu starve. Understand?”

“Y-Yeah. I understand,” Sonata sheepishly answered.

“Good,” Adagio replied. “Listen, I gotta get going. See you later tonight.”

And with that, the Dazzling leader ended the call.

For a few moments after her sister hung up, Sonata stood motionless within the kitchen as she processed the myriad of emotions now swelling up within her. Sadness; anxiety; embarrassment; these were among the heaviest of feelings that the young Dazzling attempted to cope with after her less-than-ideal chat with her older sibling. But one emotion quickly began to outweigh all of them, as well as outweigh her ability to deal with it in a rational manner; anger.

“I was already working on it,” She said softly yet sharply into her phone, as though someone were still on the other end of it.

Just then, Sonata gripped her phone as tightly as she could before angrily throwing it down directly in front of her.

“I WAS ALREADY WORKING ON IT!” She then shouted at her now-repudiated phone. “IF YOU’D HAVE JUST GIVEN ME TEN DAMN SECONDS TO EXPLAIN YOU WOULD’VE KNOWN THAT! UGHHHH!”

Feeling as though she still had some ire that needed to be vented Sonata promptly proceeded to stomp around the room and utter incoherent vulgarities for a while until she became too tired to continue doing so, after which she feebly returned to her seat at the kitchen table.

“Wh…Why?” The young Dazzling asked herself in-between staggered breaths, sounding both angry and sad. “Why do Adagio and...Aria think so little of me?”

As Sonata’s anger began to subside the sadness within her began to grow stronger and before long she felt as though she would soon be on the verge of tears, much to her own confusion. It was no sudden revelation to the pony-tailed girl that her sisters looked down on her, as on countless occasions both Adagio and Aria had made derisive remarks regarding things like her competence, but for some reason that fact weighed especially heavy on her now. Maybe it was because in this particular instance such criticisms were unwarranted on account of her actually having done as asked, or maybe it was simply because this was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel’s back. Whatever the reason, the young Dazzling felt distraught. Distraught and tired of being disregarded by her siblings.

Within a matter of moments Sonata could feel the tears she’d been expecting begin to form in the corners of her eyes, and as she did she realized that right now she had two options laid out before her; she could let the tears flow and wallow in her misery, or she could wipe those tears from her eyes and do something to make her sisters think more highly of her. Unsurprisingly, the Dazzling strongly desired to choose the former rather than the latter. But unfortunately she faced a major roadblock that was preventing her from making that choice. That roadblock being what exactly it was she could do to make her sisters think more highly of her.

Naturally, the first thing Sonata thought that she could do to earn more respect from her sisters was for her to finish ordering the farm supplies she’d been instructed to do. However, she soon realized that finishing her ordering wouldn’t garner her any additional regard due to the fact that both Adagio and Aria were under the perception that she was slacking in that action. No, she needed something else to do. Something that her siblings hadn’t asked her to do. Something that could show she was responsible and capable. But perhaps most of all, she needed something that would be big enough to show that she was responsible.

Despite not having a definite answer to her conundrum, Sonata resolved herself to find some way to gain more respect from her sisters and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. As she did so she continued to try and think of how exactly it was she could go about earning her siblings’ admiration, and for a moment she thought she almost had the perfect idea. But just as soon as this idea was about to come to fruition her mind reminded her of an important issue: she still needed to finish ordering the farm supplies.

“Nyeeeegh,” The young Dazzling groaned in a high-pitched manner as she grappled whether she should focus on finishing her ordering or trying to come up with the perfect idea to win her sisters’ admiration.

As much as Sonata wanted to finish formulating her ideal idea she figured it best to place all of her attention on completing the order for the farm supplies. After all, if she didn’t get her assigned task done then there’d be no way she would garner any more respect from Adagio and Aria - even if she did manage to come up with the perfect way to do so. So with that in mind she promptly turned her attention back towards the laptop - forgetting for a moment that it had no charge. But as her eyes made a passing glance over the stack of folders Eclipse had left her subconscious mind fired off enough neurons to fully forge her perfect plan to gain her sisters’ respect.

“That’s it!” She shouted as she stood up and grabbed the top folder from the stack.

With the speed of a flash of lightning, Sonata opened the folder in her hands and started reading through the information contained within it. She of course absorbed little of what she read due to the quick pace at which she read it, but this was of little consequence. The act was more symbolic than anything.

“If I can put this wrestling match together all by myself then Adagio and Aria will have to treat me with more respect!” The young Dazzling exclaimed chirpily.

The more Sonata contemplated her idea the more it came into view within her mind. The colorful masked-wrestlers squaring off against one another; the large crowd roaring and cheering them on; the various local businesses selling concessions and promoting their brands; it all looked perfect. And should that vision become a reality, she would be the one responsible for it.

There was, of course, one very large concern with all of this though: getting Adagio and Aria to go along with it.

While Sonata was fully willing to take sole responsibility for bringing Escaparate Dominó’s wrestling match to Dazzling Farms she knew she couldn’t leave her sisters out of it completely. The farm belonged to all of them, and at the very least Adagio and Aria deserved to be told about anything happening on it before it actually happened. The question that the young Dazzling then had to grapple with was whether she wanted to risk asking her siblings for permission to host the wrestling match on their property and be denied or whether she wanted to start planning it without their knowledge and then ask for their forgiveness.

Permission, or forgiveness. Sonata quickly deduced that if she wanted to go about planning this wrestling event she’d end up asking her sisters for one of these things. On the surface it was difficult for her to decide which would be the better to ask for, but at the core of the conundrum she knew that the issue wasn’t really which choice would be the better to request. It was which one she was more likely to receive.

“Dagi and Aria will definitely be mad at me if I do this without asking them first,” The Dazzling morosely said to herself. “But there’s no way in hell that they’ll ever give me permission to do it either. Especially not after all this farm-supply-ordering stuff today.”

Realizing full well that asking for permission would be the most futile of futile gestures, Sonata gave a reluctant sigh and came to the conclusion that if she truly wanted to prove herself responsible by organizing Escaparate Dominó’s wrestling match at Dazzling Farms she’d have to do so without prior consent from her sisters.

“All right then,” She then said as she screwed her courage to the sticking place. “Let’s do this!”

With her decision made and her resolve bastioned, Sonata began to examine the folder in her hand for a contact number for Escaparate Dominó – though at a much slower and methodical pace this time. After about a minute or two of searching she found the piece of information she desired, but just as she did she came to a sudden realization…again; she still hadn’t completed her online order for the farm supplies.

“Uuuggghhh!” She moaned loudly as she closed the folder and vehemently placed it back atop the stack of similar folders.

Not wanting to give her sisters any more emotional ammunition to use against her than she was already planning to give them, Sonata once again set out to find the laptop’s charger so that she could complete her task of ordering various items for the farm. And this time, she was going to complete it. No more distractions, no more outbursts, no nothing. From now until the moment she saw a webpage that said ‘Order Confirmed’ on it her focus was going to be laser-set on finishing her assigned task. But in the back of her mind she made one very important mental note; as soon as she was done with that task she was going to place a call to Escaparate Dominó in order to make the wrestling match at the emu farm a reality.

Author's Note

So, so, so sorry for the long wait between the last chapter and this one. My personal life has been all-kinds of crazy these past few months.

And will, in all likelihood, continue to be all-kinds of crazy for the foreseeable future.

Also, please note that the comments and opinions expressed in this chapter regarding The Smurfs do not reflect the views of the author. However, the comments and opinions expressed regarding the movie Prometheus do.

Next chapter - She Does (Not) Love You