"Freedom's Just Another Word...For Nothing Left to Lose"
One evening in Canterlot, a fast food restaurant burned down while the fire department didn't arrive. Canterlot's emergency services just weren't as fast as they used to be, a few years ago.
No matter where in Canterlot you looked, you would find a shortage of teamwork. People were putting more of their effort into squabbling and resentment and anger and hatred, instead.
You might say the entire town's atmosphere had changed.
***
In a parking lot across the street from the burning building, three youthful-looking women (or perhaps inhuman creatures, in the guise of young women) glared at each other, and argued.
Compared to a building fire, three girls bickering wasn't very interesting. No one seemed to notice them.
"I just can't take it anymore!" shouted the youngest looking of the three, who had a cute taco-print dress and a blue ponytail. "Every time I find a place that has good tacos, the two of you think it would be funny to use your gems, and something bad happens."
The oldest and tallest smirked, tossing her fluffy orange hair. "But wasn't it fun to watch those two cooks get so angry they tried to flambe each other?" She took a deep breath, dramatically raising her chest. "It's too bad they had such bad aim. I don't think they did each other any real harm. Just the rest of the restaurant."
The ponytailed girl clenched her fists. "Burning down the place where they work is harm! And it hurts me, too!"
The third, who kept her purple hair in somewhat age-inappropriate pigtails, chuckled throatily. "No taco is truly innocent, Sonata. Haven't you ever heard of original taco sin? From the time it's first created, every taco DESERVES to burn." She licked her lips. "They only got what's coming to them."
"Aria, why are you so mean?"
Aria gently cupped the side of Sonata's head. "Because you're the worst. And you love tacos. What more reason do I need?"
Sonata asked, "Do you two ever think about how much you hurt people?"
The orange-haired woman snorted. "We have to use our magic to encourage anger and hatred, so we can feed on the negative energy. What do you expect us to do?"
"You two could...try not to hurt people so much! Where will you get your hatred, if all the food burns up? People could starve to death. You can't get hate out of a skeleton!"
Aria taunted Sonata, "I think you're looking kind of fat. Maybe you should TRY to be a skeleton, you taco muncher."
"Buck you. What's important is, you're hurting people and hurting all the tacos." Sonata turned towards the orange-haired woman. "What about YOU, Adagio? Shouldn't YOU try to keep us from running out of stuff we need to live, like humans, and Mexicolt style food?"
Adagio snorted. "WE don't need Mexicolt food. YOU seem to love it. But you didn't even appreciate the best part of today's meal. After Aria and I worked so hard to prepare it."
"Burning down the restaurant just to make people angry isn't the best part of a meal!"
"But we're sirens, so it is. Delicious!" Adagio and Aria made a show of rubbing their bellies.
Sonata glared. "You two think you're SO SMART."
Aria showed her teeth in a predatory grin. "We don't have to be SO smart, to be smarter than YOU."
"Well, I think you're STUPID!"
Aria patted Sonata on the head. "You aren't even smart enough to use your gem properly. You're pathetic."
"Well, I COULD use my gem to make people angry, if I wanted to."
Adagio pursed her lips. "Good idea. Show us. Make someone really angry." She looked across the street. "How about that girl over there, wearing a motorcycle jacket. Can you make her angry? Make her attack someone."
Aria called out, "I bet a dollar on motorcycle girl! She looks like she would win ANY fight."
Adagio shook her head. "I won't take that bet." She sneered at Sonata. "Can you do it? Or are you too weak?"
Sonata looked at the girl across the street. "She does look mean."
Aria laughed. "So do it, you stupid. If you CAN."
Sonata took a deep breath. "I'm going to. I just have to...get ready, first."
"Big talk. Actions talk, and bullshit walks. I think I know which one YOU are."
Aria looked around, at some of the other people watching the fire. "Make her hit that little kid over there. I want to watch his head go splat. Don't you think he would sound just like a ripe melon?"
Sonata whimpered softly, "I don't WANT to kill a little kid. I don't want to kill anyone." But her two companions didn't seem to hear her.
Sonata pressed two fingers against each side of her head. She stared at the motorcycle girl across the street. "Nnnggh!" she grunted. "Nnnnnggh!"
The biker kept watching the fire.
"NnnnGRRGHHH!" Sonata shook her head. "I can't do it from here. I'm too far away." She bit her lip. "You're right, Aria. I AM weak, and worthless."
"Hey!" Adagio said, "You're not worthless. If you can't do it from here, you just have to get closer."
Sonata's lower lip stuck out. "Closer? How close do you want me to get?"
Adagio smiled condescendingly. "As close as it takes."
Sonata looked across the street again, watching the biker girl.
"Well?" Aria asked. "Do you want this to work or not? We don't have all night. Go do it! Or instead of you doing it, I'LL make her kill the kid, just to show I'm better than you."
Sonata ran across the street. She walked towards the biker.
"Do you think she can do it?" Aria asked.
"She's one of us. I know she can if she really tries."
Aria huffed. "I'll bet you a dollar she fails."
"No. I believe in her. And I believe a few minutes from now, I'll be taking your dollar."
"You're on!" Aria squinted as the wind changed direction, billowing smoke hiding Sonata and the biker girl. But after a minute or two, the wind changed back. "What is she DOING?"
Adagio laughed. "She's getting CLOSER."
"Closer? She looks like she's trying to fertilize some eggs."
***
Sonata reached out and grasped the biker girl's hand. Sonata's other hand stroked the biker's shoulder. Sonata smiled. "I'll bet lots of people are really scared of you. But I think you're really cute. I mean, scary cute. I wonder, if you and I were all alone, what you might try to do to me?" Sonata's stroking hand tried to pull the girl closer. "Would it be something really, really bad? I mean, the GOOD kind of bad?"
The biker girl smiled, but shook her head. Sonata kept talking, her voice now softer so no one else could overhear.
As Sonata's hand moved across a leather jacket clad torso, the biker girl suddenly inhaled. Sonata stepped closer, and started nuzzling the girl's ear.
(Across the street, Adagio cheered. "She's in!" Meanwhile, Aria grumbled.)
Sonata put both her arms around the biker girl. "I like you so much," she whispered. "You're the hottest, sexiest, baddest girl I've ever seen. I would do ANYTHING for you. Would you do anything for me?"
(Adagio said, "I can feel it from HERE. Can't YOU feel it? Sonata's power just kicked in good! Maybe she NEEDS to rub herself all up against someone, just to get it working. But the way she's going now, I think she really can do it. That biker chick doesn't have a chance.")
(Aria clenched her fists angrily.)
Sonata sang a wordless tune into the other girl's ear. Occasionally she paused for a moment, to lick the girl's neck.
(Adagio and Aria laughed at the neck-licking.)
Finally, Sonata released her arms' grip on the other girl. The biker looked around slowly, seeming half-dazed. She spotted something in the weeds and trash next to a neighboring building, and walked towards it.
When she returned a few minutes later, she carried a metal pipe in one of her leather-gloved hands. Sonata touched her shoulder, and whispered a few more words.
The biker walked to a motorcycle, climbed on, and started the engine. She rode out into the street, narrowly missing a car.
(Aria shouted, "You idiot! You're supposed to make biker girl kill the kid, not make her kill HERSELF! You can't do anything right! You ARE the worst!")
The biker drove down the street. She turned a corner, and was gone.
(Adagio said, "For a minute there, it really felt like Sonata had it. I think if she practices some more--")
("Hmmph. You're as stupid as she is.")
Sonata crossed the street, returning from her mission. When she neared the other two young women, she said, "I tried."
Adagio sighed. "Sonata, Sonata. Whatever are we going to do with you? That girl should have been the easiest puppet in the world. And you failed."
Sonata closed her eyes.
"Sonata, closing your eyes won't make your problems go away. The world is still here."
"Yeah!" Aria joined in. "What do you think you are, an osprey? Like on one of those nature shows you like to watch, burying your head in the sand?"
Keeping her eyes closed, Sonata replied, "Ostrich. And they don't really do that."
"They don't?" Aria laughed. "So you're not as stupid as an osprey, or an ostrich. You're worse than either of them! Or why do you have your eyes closed?"
"I don't want to get any goo in them."
Sonata heard some terrible, gory-sounding noises. After a moment of relative silence, Sonata dared to open her eyes. The other two Sirens lay on the ground, unmoving. Over them stood the biker girl, still holding a metal pipe.
"Huh," Sonata said. "It DID sound like someone thumping melons to death."
"You!" motorcycle girl said.
Sonata replied, "Me?"
"Did you see what just happened?"
Sonata said innocently, "No. My eyes were closed."
"What did I just DO?"
Sonata grabbed the biker girl's hand. "Come on," she said. "We should get out of here. In my experience, when people find a dead body, it saves a lot of trouble to not be standing right over it. Also, you might want to do something with that murder weapon. My--some people I used to know, probably would have put it in one of the victims' hands. To look like maybe they were fighting each other."
"Is this NORMAL for you?"
Guilelessly, Sonata nodded. "It used to be. People used to get killed pretty often, whenever my--those people I used to know were around." Sonata sniffled. "But I guess that's over now. I sure HOPE it's over."
The biker girl stared at the weapon in her own gloved hand.
"Come on! One way or another, we have to get out of here! Don't you trust me?"
The biker girl squatted, laying the pipe next to one of the dead Sirens' hands.
Sonata looked down at the scene. "That's good enough. Let's go!"
***
In a secluded area between some parked cars, a youthful-looking woman lay sprawled across the asphalt. She groaned. She raised one arm, rubbing her head. She felt her chest. "What the buck happened? Why do I--Celestia's armpit!" She screamed, "My musical mind control gem! It's destroyed! Somepony smashed it! Motherbucking horseapple eating..." For a long time, she shouted strange obscenities and profanities.
Next to her, Aria grunted. "I TOLD you she was the worst."
***
About an hour later, in a police station, two women (or two inhuman creatures in the guise of human women) sang a horribly out of tune song. "wE WILL be adORed! You will obey us...(screech)!"
The officer sitting behind the front desk shook her head. "I'm sorry, ladies. I don't have any forms to report assaults against magic gems. If you don't go home, I'll have to put you in the ladies' drunk tank."
Adagio screeched, "I'll GET you for this! Sonata and her little biker friend too! I'll get BOTH of you!"
"Come on," Aria said. "Let's go home. I've been in the drunk tank once before, and there weren't any fish at all. It wasn't even WET. Worst aquarium ever."
***
In a deserted highway rest stop, under the stars, two girls sat side by side atop a picnic table. Sonata had one arm around the biker girl.
The motorcyclist said, "Sure, I've scared people. I've blackmailed people. I've punched people in the face. And that was just what I did every morning to get some lunch money. Because I wasn't used to this world, and I thought that was what I had to do to survive."
Sonata gently squeezed the biker girl. "I understand. I really do. When me and the other sirens were stranded in a world we didn't understand, we did some pretty bad things too."
Sunset sighed. "But I've never killed anyone before. I'll always remember the sounds their chests made tonight in that parking lot, when I caved them in with that pipe."
Sonata blinked. "You hit them in the CHEST? Not in the head?"
"It just...it just felt like a better target. Like that was where...the center of their...I don't know how to explain it."
"Was there a lot of blood?" Sonata asked. "I don't remember if I saw any."
Sunset frowned. "I guess there wasn't. Is that...good?"
Sonata smiled. "No blood? It's BETTER than good. You didn't kill them at all! You just broke their magic chest gems!"
"What does THAT mean?"
"They aren't dead. But they probably WISH they were dead. And they probably wish YOU were dead too! They've probably already sworn eternal vengeance against you!"
"I'm...not sure if that makes me feel a whole lot better."
Sonata looked up at the stars. "I know what'll make you feel better. I can tell you a story! It's the same story my mother used to tell me when I was a little spratling, and she would tuck me into kelp bed for the night. I just hope I can remember it right. But I'll try my best!
"Once upon a time, there was a little girl, who didn't like to kill ponies...I mean, people. She didn't even like to use her magic chest gem to make people hate each other, or make people quarrel until they would get so angry, they would break each others' heads open like ripe melons."
Sonata explained, "That's another way to say killing each other."
Sunset nodded. "I THOUGHT killing each other was what it meant."
Sonata said cheerfully, "You're smart! If you go to a good school, like Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, and you work hard and apply yourself, who knows how far you might go?"
Sunset sighed. "Too far, maybe. But you were telling me a story?"
"I was!" Sonata tried to remember the next part. "But the girl was held prisoner by two nasty old fishwomen. They were evil sirens. They liked to use their magic chest gems to feed on...negative emotions. That's the hate and anger and melon breaking stuff I was talking about a minute ago. You know?"
Sunset nodded again.
"The sirens didn't like to be hungry, so whenever they went to a new place, they would use their gems to send out bad energy. The bad energy would grab onto anyone in that place who was...confused, or insecure, or didn't know what to do to solve their problems. It would press on those people's minds, and push them to become nasty and evil."
"Huh," Sunset said. "They'd grab on to people who were confused, or insecure, or didn't know what to do. Like...anypony who had just come through a magic portal into a strange world they didn't understand, and was stuck there?"
"Yeah! You're really good at this, Sunset!"
Sunset said dryly, "Thank you. So was that the story?"
"There's more! The two evil sirens held the litle girl prisoner in a tall, dark tower, with lots of icky spiders."
"You don't like spiders?"
"I HATE spiders. Every day, the evil fishwomen would try to teach the little girl to use evil magic the same way they did. To make people hate each other, and hurt each other."
"How terrible."
"But the little girl didn't want to do any of that evil stuff. So she pretended she was too stupid to learn anything. For years and years, she didn't learn anything at all. She practiced and she practiced acting stupider and stupider, until she was like a complete moron! Wasn't that a good plan?"
Sunset rubbed her own forehead. "I...can think of a few drawbacks, maybe. But what happened next?"
"One day, the girl looked out of the tower's highest window, and she saw a handsome prince, riding a horse. The girl waved and she waved, but the handsome prince didn't see her! Can you believe it?"
"Maybe the handsome prince was nearsighted?"
"I don't know. My mother never said. So finally, the girl decided, I want that prince to rescue me, but he doesn't even know I'm here! So while the girl's evil captors were taking a nap, the girl cut off all their hair, and she wove it into a long rope. She used the rope to climb down out of the tower, so she could go find the prince, and yell, hey, there's a sweet, innocent girl who's a prisoner in that tower over there, and you're supposed to go rescue her from her evil captors."
"Is THAT how it's supposed to work?"
"Of COURSE it is!" Sonata insisted. "So after the girl explained, she went back to the tower, and she climbed back up the rope, and she waited for the handsome prince to rescue her.
"The next day, the prince used the rope (the girl had left it hanging down from the window, just in case the prince needed it) and climbed up to the top of the tower.
But when the prince climbed into the tower, the two nasty evil sirens heard the noise, so they came into the room. They tried to blast the prince with evil magic. But the prince blocked the evil magic beams with his sword, and the evil magic bounced back, and it hit the evil sirens right in their snoots! So they fell down, and they went all...BLEARG." Sonata made a silly face that was supposed to imitate someone who had just died.
Sunset asked, "And THEN what happened?"
"The girl was saved! The prince helped her down from the tower, and they ran away to live happily ever after together. I guess when they were both old enough, they got married? I don't know. I was usually asleep by that part."
Sunset chuckled. "It's a nice story, Sonata." She thought for a little while. "So the sirens, and their evil magic, spreading through Canterlot...were THEY why for my first three years in this world, I turned so evil? Did they MAKE me the way I am?"
Sonata bit her lower lip. "Probably. If you were in trouble, and you didn't know what to do, and you were living in Canterlot...their evil magic probably got you, I'm pretty sure. Just you and them living in the same town would be enough to do it."
"Wow. And here I used to think, maybe it was all MY fault."
"Oh, SOME of it was probably your fault." Sonata reached up and rubbed Sunset's head. "The magic looks for your weaknesses, so it can attack you there. HOW you go bad is partly you."
Sunset took a deep breath. "So when I hit those two...sirens, you called them? with a steel pipe...maybe if I had been stronger, a better person...maybe I would have just given them a good scolding."
"But at least you didn't kill them! You just broke their gems. It's AMAZING you hit them in just the right spot, to stop them and not kill them. I really thought they would have to die, to keep them from hurting and killing more humans forever." Sonata gazed into Sunset's eyes. "How did you know what to do?"
Sunset growled. "I'd LIKE to think I could feel the magic, even though I'm not a unicorn in this world. But I don't think that was it. Maybe it was because for three whole years now, I'd been practicing."
"Practicing how to stop evil monsters?"
"No. I'd been practicing how to hurt people, to make them do what I wanted them to do. I was really good at finding the place that would hurt them the most. It was becoming...an instinct."
Sunset scooted sideways a few inches, away from Sonata. "I guess for three years, I'd been practicing being evil. I became so good at it. THAT was how I could feel where to hit the sirens to take away their powers. To make them really hurt. You said, the way I hit them, I made them WISH they were dead?"
"You really did," Sonata scooted over to press herself against Sunset again. "You rescued me. And you rescued Canterlot from their evil magic. And just you wait...soon you'll see, without those evil sirens around anymore, you'll be able to find your way back to being good instead of a parking lot mugger. My hero." She hugged Sunset.
Sunset sighed. "I hope you're right." She gently disentangled herself from Sonata's arms, scooted backward just past the center of the table, and lay down on her back. She looked up at the stars.
Sonata lay down next to her. The escapee reached out and held Sunset's hand. "Bit for your thoughts," she said.
"It's kind of silly."
"How do we know it's silly, if you won't tell me what it is?"
"Ok. In your story, about the girl who was held prisoner in a tower...she made a rope, and she climbed down out of the tower. She walked away, and she found a prince, and she stopped right there, to tell the prince to rescue her. And then she went back up into the tower. Why did she do that? Once she was out of the tower, why didn't she just keep on going? Keep on running just as fast as she could?"
"Oh," Sonata said. "She'd already tried that."
"She had?"
Sonata nodded solemnly. "She'd tried that a bunch of times. But every time she did...the evil sirens had powerful magic, you know. Some of it was evil magic the girl wouldn't have wanted to use even if she could. So the sirens used their magic to chase after the girl, and track her down."
"I see. But what if they found the girl, and she refused to go back?"
"It was two against one. The girl could fight and kick and scream and cry, but she couldn't win. They could just drag her back to the tower, and punish the girl until she said she was sorry. And if they wanted to, they could punish anypon--anyone who had helped the girl. Even people who had no idea why they were being punished."
Sunset sighed. "It sounds really bucked up."
Sonata agreed, "It was. It's a really sad part of the story. That's why I don't usually tell that part. It makes it less like a fairy tale, and more like...something else."
Sunset squeezed Sonata's hand. "I'm so sorry, Sonata."
In the darkness, Sonata asked, "Why are you sorry? It wasn't YOUR fault. And the prince came and rescued her! So there was a happy ending! Yay! Hooray! Hoo--" The breath caught in Sonata's throat.
"Sonata? You ok?"
Sonata's other hand reached across her body, so that where the girls had been holding hands, now they were holding hands even more. "I--I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Sonata sniffled. "I'm just great." She pressed her face into Sunset's nearest shoulder. "We won, you know? They can't get me anymore, not how they did before. They lost their magic. And I--I didn't have to."
"Didn't have to what?"
"I don't want to talk about it. But I didn't have to. Just know that I don't even want to talk about it, but I'm so glad I didn't have to."
"Do you mean, you didn't have to kill them? You didn't have to fight them two on one, and maybe you would have lost, just like all the other times? And even if you'd won, maybe you would have had to kill them both, just to get away?"
Sonata said, "I don't want to talk about what I would have had to do! It's over! I don't want to think about it! It isn't part of the story!"
Sunset patted Sonata's arm. "It's ok. You don't have to talk about it. We're here now...and that story is over. It's done with. Now it's just a fairy tale."
Sonata sniffled. "Yes. It's over and done."
Sunset said, "One thing I should tell you, though."
Sonata whined, "What?"
"When I thought I'd killed them, I didn't understand. Some girl had come up to me, and flirted with me, and...I didn't know what happened, but a little while later I found myself beating up two strangers with a pipe. Is that some of the 'magic' you were talking about? The evil magic they did, that they were trying to teach you to do? Making people do things like that for them?"
Sonata said distantly, "It...it might have been." She shook her head. "You know it was."
"So the same thing THEY did to other people...YOU did that to me."
"Yes. To escape from them. And to put an end to what THEY did to people every day. I tried to make you a murderer, Sunset Shimmer. And you found a way not to do it. But I tried. Because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't know what else I could do!"
Sunset sighed. "I think I understand. But let me tell you something. Some people think the phrase 'partners in crime' is...romantic."
"I never heard of that."
"It's just one of the millions of crazy things in this world. But if you ask me?"
"What?"
"I think it's the least romantic thing I've ever heard of."
"I'm sorry, Sunset. Like I said, I didn't see any other choice. But now they can't get me, not like they used to. If you just leave me here...if you never speak to me again...that's ok. I used you. I deserve it."
"I'm not going to leave you at an abandoned rest stop in the middle of the night. No matter what you did. But I have to ask you one thing. You MADE me do something, something I didn't have much choice about. I tried to resist, and all I could do was hit them in the chest instead of breaking their heads open. And even to resist that far, maybe I was just lucky."
"We were both lucky. We were SO lucky."
"Yeah, yeah. But I have to ask you one thing. Are you EVER going to MAKE me do something again, like that? Taking me over like that?"
Sonata took a breath. "I don't want to be an evil siren, not ever. I promise never to do that again."
"Right now, you say you promise. But are you sure you really mean that? Will you ALWAYS mean that?"
"I'll always mean it. I promise you." Sonata's arm reached over Sunset. She raised herself up just far enough to put her chest partway on top of Sunset's, and look her in the eyes. "I promise it a million times. A million times a million times."
"That's good."
"Damn right it's good. Because you know the worst thing about being held prisoner in a tower by two evil sirens? For years and years and years?"
Sunset said, "Um."
"You've ALWAYS got a bucking chaperone. Ever since...before I even knew why a girl would NEED a chaperone."
"Well. Even if no one else is around right now, you know this is a public place, right? Any minute, a car could pull in here, and we would want to be properly dressed."
Sonata said, "I guess we'll both have to keep MOST of our clothes on. Most of the way on? So if we need to, we can finish putting them back on really quick."
"Yes," Sunset said. "Oh. That AH sounds like a PLAN."
Sonata whispered, "Glad you agree."
Author's Note
People have had characters telling stories within stories, to make points the characters themselves choose for their own reasons, since at least "The One Thousand and One Arabian Nights," and Shakespeare's "Hamlet." (“The Play's the Thing, wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King.”)
A recent story of some interest that is sweet and gentle and gives us a very different view of the Dazzlings than this one is first-timer Summer Solstice's "Requiem for Sonata."
