The door to the little apartment rattled as a key jammed its way into the lock. There was a groan, and a muffled curse from outside. And then, a far less muffled curse as the door opened, and caught itself on the security chain again.
By the way Aria Blaze slammed the door shut again, cutting off yet another curse, her sister Adagio Dazzle could tell she was in something of a mood.
The door slammed open again, once Aria had slipped the chain with – someone else’s – credit card, and the former siren stomped into the room with sodden, squishy stomps.
“It’s raining?” Adagio asked, not moving from her spot on the couch, nor tearing her eyes away from the tv.
Aria slowly began squeezing the water from her pigtails, one at a time.
“No,” she seethed, eyes glaring down at the stack of bills and notices sitting on a nearby entryway table. “Some… jerk hit a mud puddle with his car just as I was walking home.”
Adagio snickered in her best approximation of sympathy. But then she stopped, and her eyes narrowed in thought.
“Wait,” she said, frowning despite still not looking up from her show, “but if you were out walking, what about work?”
A wet, muddy slip of paper, pink to be exact, slapped Adagio right in the face.
“Take a wild guess, sis,” Aria growled, before picking up the stack of bills. “Turns out they can fire you for having ‘a bad attitude’. Whatever that means…”
“A bad attitude?” Adagio flicked the paper off her face, and quickly dried herself with a handful of her voluminous orange hair. “Did they really?”
Aria snorted, and tossed a jury summons directly into the trashbin next to the door. “Eh, there might have been more. Bad attitude, petty theft… sociopathic threats against the management.”
“That they could prove?” Adagio asked, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
“Course not!” Aria laughed.
Then, she wasn’t laughing.
“Speaking of jobs…” she said slowly, staring at her sister. Adagio was sitting on the couch in her purple sweatpants, a bag of cheesy puffs in one hand, and a remote in the other. The tv was playing an old episode of Coltumbo Aria distinctly could remember watching back when it first aired a few decades back.
Adagio growled, but said nothing.
“Dagi…” said Aria, tone darkening.
“Well,” Adagio huffed. “At least they won’t press charges…”
Aria sighed, and pressed down on her temple with her free hand.
“It wasn’t my fault!” Adagio threw her hands up, and pulled her knees to her chest. “They expected me to work with kids. Kids!”
“We can’t keep losing work like this,” Aria sighed. “I know the apartment’s paid for, but eventually someone’s gonna notice the same tenants living here since the flippin’ civil war.”
“Come up with another music gig then!” Adagio shouted, and snatched the remote back up. Before kicking the volume up – just in time for the brilliant detective to bumble his way into another genius deduction – she snarled, “Selling our songs digitally is nice, but what we need is exposure! More shows!”
“Easier said than done, considering how many enemies we still have in this crummy town,” said Aria. She turned away from Adagio and made her way into the kitchen. A sandwich and a cider sounded really good about now.
As she was pulling open the fridge door however, she paused. Something wasn’t entirely right.
It was too quiet.
“Where’s Sonata?” she asked. If Sonata were in the building, it was usually obvious. That girl could not stop making noise if her life depended on it, and this place was only about four rooms big, not counting the tiny garage they somehow crammed the van into.
Adagio’s voice came back from the living room. “It’s the second! She’s off with that stupid Pinkie Pie, or whatever her name was!”
Aria snorted, and opened the fridge.
“Feh,” she laughed, and leaned down to grab some of the peanut butter for her sandwich. “Pinkie Pie. That’s…”
She stopped, her eyes slowly swelling up in sudden shock.
Aria slammed the door, and bolted for the—
She re-opened the door, and let her pigtail go free from where it had gotten caught. Then, she gave her neck a quick massage, to cut down on the sharp pain rolling behind her eyeballs.
And then she bolted for the living room.
“What did you say!?” she cried.
“Shush!” Adagio scolded her. “I’m trying to watch! I forgot how handsome Pewter Foalk was. Sonata should have kept dating hiiiiAAAAAAA!”
The cry ripped from Adagio’s throat just as an iron grip fastened onto her thick mane of hair and pulled her halfway out of her seat over the back of the couch.
And it promptly died in her throat just as quickly, once she got a good look at Aria’s glare.
“What. Day. Is. It?” she said, slowly, the grind of her teeth punctuating every word.
Adagio winced in pain, and maybe a little fear.
“The… second?” she squeaked in reply.
Aria released her sister, and stumbled back in a daze.
No… not the second…
Adagio was back up on her feet, a scowl forming quickly beneath her thick, twisted bangs. “Aria, what the blazes is going on with you!?”
But before Aria could answer, if indeed she even heard her sister’s words, there was a sound.
A couple of sounds, actually.
The door began to knock.
Adagio stared at the door, the wheels in her mind beginning to spin…
“Wait,” she said, turning back around towards Aria. “When was the last time that Autumn…?”
She was alone in the living room. Aria was nowhere to be seen. Though, judging by the sound of the distant door-slam, Adagio knew precisely where she was going.
And it brought a devilish smirk to her lips.
In the garage, Aria was already in the driver’s seat of the van.
“Come on, come on…!” she snarled, and gave the key another hard twist. The engine guttered and sputtered in protest, but it wouldn’t turn over.
“I can’t be here!” she cried again, knuckles whitening as she gripped the steering wheel. “Don’t do this to me!”
She twisted the key again, but all that happened was her own frustrated scream outpaced the engine’s dying groan.
This was about when she finally noticed the small blue sticky note covering one of the AC vents. Aria gave it a glare, knowing she hadn’t seen it the day before, and knowing that in her sisters’ system of organizing their petty and passive-aggressive commentary whenever another one of them was busy, it was Sonata who used the blue sticky notes.
“I swear…”
Ari and Dagi:
There wasn’t enough cash for tacos and gasoline.
I think I made the right choice.
Luv, Sonny!
PS; I’ll get gas money from Pinkie when I see her!
Aria glared at the note, her face reddening as she tried to hold in the primal urge to tear the steering wheel off its column and eat it.
She settled instead for simply punching the van’s radio. Hard.
Several times.
Her anger hadn’t subsided in the slightest by the time the garage door opened, and Adagio strode inside with the most detestable smile on her face… and another woman at her side. A tall woman with off-white skin and a massive, floofy head of orange hair.
Aria paused, and glared some more.
“Look who it is, Aria!” Adagio laughed, and indicated the other woman with an almost stage-worthy hand gesture. “It’s Autumn! Autumn Blaze!”
The woman… no. Autumn. There was no doubt about that now. Autumn Blaze brushed aside her mane, fingers gliding casually over the pattern of darker green that gave her brow a pseudo-crown, and gave Aria such a wide, beaming smile with such open and trusting golden eyes that only a heartless wretch could deny melting in her sight.
Aria huffed.
“Autumn,” she said, simply.
And in response, Autumn laughed, and threw her arms up in an inviting hug.
“Meema!” she cheered. “You look so good!”
Peril Peaks Pizza was relatively quiet, owing to it being the middle of the afternoon on a Wednesday. The pizza parlor had stood on the same corner of the same street for over a century, owned by the same family and using the same recipes as they’d brought over from the old country, wherever that ended up being.
Aria never asked. She really didn’t care. It was the best pizza place she’d ever eaten at, and none of the newer places ever got the sauce right.
Plus, she always got to eat for free here. Not… that she particularly enjoyed coming all that often. It being a family-owned restaurant, that meant there were always the same waitstaff around to remember Aria from the last time she visited. And the last time. And the time before that. And the time before that.
“You left the picture up,” Aria noted with a sigh as she sat down in the booth nearest to the kitchen.
Autumn glanced up at the walls, where family photographs had always hung to advertise their family’s ties to each other and Canterlot. “Which one?”
Her eyes narrowed, until she saw it.
“The one of you and Grandpa?”
Aria buried her head in her arms, and slunk down in her seat.
“I look awful.”
“It’s your wedding photo…”
She narrowed her eyes in focus.
“Is that… spinach in your teeth? How did I not notice that before?”
Aria growled, “Stupid kirinese food.”
She lifted her head up as she heard footsteps approach. A slender, elderly woman with gray hair streaked with a few strands of green glared down at Aria, a notepad gripped in her hands.
“Rain Shine,” said Aria, hardly moving.
“Mother,” Rain Shine replied in an icy tone. She turned towards Autumn, and gave her a gentler smile. “The usual, Autumn?”
Autumn grinned back. “Thanks Mom!”
Rain Shine made a quick note in her pad, before shuffling back to the kitchens. She didn’t spare a second glance towards Aria, which was equally noted by the siren.
Aria’s eyes slid away from the other waiters hanging out near the other side of the restaurant. All of them looked familiar to her, of course, and all of them shared equally unimpressed frowns on their faces.
“Really wish you took me somewhere else,” she sighed.
“My treat, my choice!” Autumn laughed. “And it’s tradition! Dad brought you back here every year, right?”
Aria groaned, but didn’t complain. Without the power to magically convince people to do things for her, or to at least bicker and fight each other while she scarfed down whatever she could of their negativity, she was more or less stuck.
“You know,” said Autumn, looking at the photos again just above Aria’s head, “it’s pretty cool to have you sitting right next to your old photo…”
“I bet.”
Autumn chuckled. “Not a lot of people can say they have lunch with their grandma at my age. And you look good for your age…”
Aria rolled her eyes, and snorted, “Yeah, yeah. Eat right, use lotion, and you too can be a millegenarian.”
“Is that the real word for it?” Autumn mused. “You’d think there wouldn’t be, since no one could normally get that old. Over a thousand! Oh, but I guess language is a beautiful thing, right? You can make up any word you like for anything that doesn’t already have a name for it… oh! Or you can make up new names for things that are already—”
Rain Shine set a steaming plate of pizza down in front of Autumn, which caused the loquacious woman to pause, finally.
“You’re doing it again,” Rain chided, still smiling.
Autumn’s face blushed, and she grinned back. “Oh? Was I? Sorry…”
“Eh,” said Aria, shrugging, “you get that from Springfall.”
Rain snorted, and set down a pair of water bottles, whispering, “My Morningdew Blaze was always a quiet gentleman…”
“Which he got from me.” Aria snapped the top off her bottle, and took a sip. “Believe me, you only want one person in a house to be that yappy. Be glad I don’t bring Sonata to these things…”
“Oh no,” said Rain as she turned and left. “We like Aunt Sonata here.”
Aria grunted. Not much else to say to that. Instead, she looked down at the pizza Autumn was already carving up with wild abandon. Peril Peaks was the only place to get shrimp and chili peppers on a pizza, as far as Aria could tell.
Springfall always did like mixing his ingredients…
She sighed, and picked up a slice. Happily, it still tasted just like it used to, back when she was the one making these things.
“Don’t suppose you miss it?”
Aria glanced up at her granddaughter. Autumn’s face was all her father and grandfather’s, the way a smile could shine from it, even when she was giving Aria a crooked one like that.
“Eh,” said Aria, swallowing and taking another bite. “I guess I miss the free food. And the pay.”
“The… pay?”
Aria nodded. “Mm. Yeah. I mean, we didn’t always make much, but it was pretty consistent.”
Autumn’s smile tightened.
“Nothing else?”
This again.
“I’m not coming back, Autumn,” Aria said, eyes closed. She’d rather focus on the flavor, instead of… this. “It’d be weird.”
“Having an immortal grandmother isn’t weird?” Autumn let out a strained laugh, and sucked down some water.
Aria paused, pizza midway to her mouth.
“You know what I mean,” she said, then bit down. “It’s like that… that book of yours. About the immortal guy. Buck Eternal, or whatever…”
At that, Autumn’s eyebrows rose sharply.
“You… read my book?”
“Saw the play, actually,” Aria admitted with a tilt of her head. “Can’t really read in the van, and Sonata’s usually playing too much music for me to concentrate on it at home. So, yeah. Had to see the stage version.”
Autumn frowned, and shifted in her seat, muttering, “I wish you hadn’t. They really wrecked the third act with that one number.”
“Why didn’t you write the music?” Aria asked. “You know how. It’s kinda in the family, right?”
“I was so busy that year with school!” Autumn blushed. “Do you really think I would have done a jazzy brass musical for a play about leaving…?”
She turned away, lips pursed.
Aria nodded, slowly.
About leaving family, right.
“Anyway…” Autumn sighed, and reached down below her seat for her purse. “… speaking of music, I actually wanted to ask you something.”
“We don’t do birthday parties,” Aria said with a scowl. “Last one ended with a clown in contraction. And little kids don’t seem to like our music.”
Autumn snorted, still grasping for something in her bag.
“It’s not just kids,” she whispered.
“Hey! Respect your elders!”
“Shan’t!”
Finally, Autumn’s eyes widened as she found it. With a flourish, she drew a rolled-up piece of poster paper out of her bag, and held it ceremoniously before her.
Aria crossed her arms, and frowned. “Okay… what’s that?”
“This,” Autumn said, handing the poster across the table, “is something I’ve been working on for a long, long while.”
When Aria opened the poster, she nearly winced. There was just… so much color.
“That’s a lot of neon.”
“You’re one to talk,” Autumn chuckled, quietly. Nervously.
It was, if nothing else, exceptionally Autumn’s thing, Aria could see. The center of the page was simple, just a caricature of a stage and a band in the midst of performing a number, but the simple stick-figures that made that band up were backlit by an explosion of colors. Like if the aurora borealis was in a head-on collision with a fireworks delivery truck.
And all along the edges of this catastrophe of color were tinier explosions, like the little action-word-balloons they used to put in comic books – Aria seriously wished she’d invested back when the first ones were coming out – advertising things which sounded delightful.
Art!
Rides!
A Fun House of Mirrors!
Churros!
“Live musical performances,” Aria read out-loud, ignoring the way Autumn’s seat squeaked with her granddaughter’s excitement.
She frowned.
“Post Crush?”
“I know!” Autumn cheered. “They’re getting back together! And they’ve agreed to start their comeback tour with us!”
Aria hummed. “Huh. Those guys didn’t even need our help to break up in the first place…”
But then, her breath hitched, and a snarl started deep in her chest.
Autumn frowned in return, and tapped her fingertips together. “Uh, Grandma? You okay…?”
Aria’s brows furrowed at the poster, and then up at Autumn.
“The…” She spat. “… Starswirl Music Festival? Really?”
Autumn chuckled, and blushed.
“W-well, Grandpa said you were sent here…”
“Trapped.”
“… by him, so…” Autumn shrugged, and smiled, chagrined. “Guess I always was kinda grateful to the guy, you know?”
Aria allowed herself another moment to groan, before she let out her annoyance in a single huff. She handed back the poster, and took up another slice of pizza. “What’s this all about then?”
“I’m one of the organizers!” said Autumn, smile beaming again. “I know I never really made it in music myself, but it’s such an inspiring art! And the local music scene’s been bouncing recently, since those Rainbooms…!”
Another snarl from across the table caused Autumn to pause, but not completely stop.
“… uh, since, like forever, right?” she laughed, nervously. Then, recovering, she added, “All the local businesses are pooling money to make it happen, and we’ve got a bunch of bands lined up.”
Aria shrugged, and ripped into a bit of crust. “Well. Good for you then. Hope it makes a ton of cash.”
“Ah, well, it’ll probably be a loss overall…”
“Really?” asked Aria. “With Post Crush? They can take a pay cut for a little place like this, can’t they?”
Autumn shrugged back. “Well, it’s not just Post Crush we’re inviting to perform.”
“Yeah?” Aria sipped her water, and smiled. “What other lame has-beens you got lined up for this thing?”
A glint shown in Autumn’s eye as she grinned. “I was actually thinking of asking… the Dazzlings?”
It was embarrassing for someone who used to be a siren, a magical beast of the sea and sky, to choke on water, but Aria was getting used to the feeling.
After a few moments of sputtering and coughing, she stared back at her granddaughter with incredulity.
“Come again?”
“The Dazzlings,” Autumn said, as if it was the simplest thing in the world. Her smile only grew as she added, “I heard they were in town and looking for gigs.”
Aria blinked. She shook her head, and held one hand palm out.
“Thanks, but…”
“What’s wrong?” Autumn asked, leaning forward. “I’m positive you need the gig, right?”
“Yeah,” she sighed. “I mean, we do. But… but…”
Aria squirmed in her seat, eyes glancing up and away from Autumn. Unfortunately, they just kept falling on other things. Other Blazes, casting the occasional disapproving glance her way. Photographs of the times she spent away from Adagio and Sonata, and with another.
That one stupid photo with the spinach in her teeth.
She fell silent, as the words failed to form.
“Aria?”
She turned towards Autumn as she spoke.
Autumn smiled, sadly. “It’s not charity, you know? I actually do like your music.”
Aria couldn’t help herself. She laughed.
“No, you don’t!”
Autumn’s smile went crooked. “Eh, no. No, I guess I don’t. But my kids do!”
“Your… kids?” Aria shrank a little into her seat. “Aren’t they…?”
“Misty’s just turned thirteen,” said Autumn, nodding. “And she’s been asking to meet you, you know?”
Aria grimaced.
“I…”
Again, she couldn’t find the words.
This is exactly what I was trying to avoid…
“I know that’s…” Autumn paused, and sighed. “I know you try and keep distant from the family. For… reasons. Some I can guess. Some I can’t.”
She stood up, and stepped around the table. Aria almost flinched as Autumn laid a soft hand on her shoulder.
Autumn sat down next to Aria, and the hand turned smoothly into a little side-hug.
“But you don’t get to decide that,” she said, laughing softly. “Not entirely. Not with me. Good and bad, I’m here for it. You know, you can’t…”
“… have rainbows unless you let it rain,” Aria finished, sighing. “Yeah, I know.”
Autumn’s eyes sparkled.
“You did listen to my demo album!”
“Nah,” said Aria, one eyebrow raised, “Sonata just listens to music without headphones.”
“They’re called buds now,” Autumn chuckled. “You need to keep up with the times.”
They laughed together another moment. If nothing else, it gave the other Blazes something to glare at, in Aria’s opinion. Which was always a plus.
Sometimes.
“So? What d’ya say?” Autumn asked again, bringing her stupidly wide grin right down into Aria’s face. “Wanna do the show? Make some cash? Get some more fans? Gotta get exposure these days, without magic to make it easy.”
“I, uh,” Aria swallowed, and looked away. “I don’t know what to say. I’m sure Sonata will say yes, and Adagio will complain about everything, but…”
Autumn shrugged. “Well, we also need a first night act to open for Post Crush. They’re still the headliners.”
Aria pursed her lips, and glared at the way Autumn’s trolly little grin came back in full force.
Dangit, she gets that from my side…
“I’ll throw in a portable toaster for your van,” Autumn laughed.
“Pfff,” Aria said, her own smile slightly overpowering her pout. “I would have settled for coupons. You got scammed, kiddo.”
Autumn leaned into the hug again, and said, “Yeah? Seems to run in the family.”
The sun had just begun to set when the two left the pizza parlor. Autumn lived on the opposite end of the city from Aria, and so they almost immediately had to split their separate ways.
“Say,” said Autumn, calling back to Aria as she began to walk away, “you wouldn’t be interested in coming to Hearth’s Warming dinner this year?”
Aria tilted her head up towards the rising field of stars, and sniffed.
“You serving tacos?”
“Uh…” Autumn blinked. “I can…”
“Then Sonata will be there,” Aria said with a firm nod. “And if you’re in the neighborhood, we give out candy on Nightmare Night.”
Autumn laughed. “Really? Real candy? Not just rocks in wrappers?”
“Nah,” Aria laughed, and turned away. “We feed those to Sonata.”
“Goodnight Grammy Blaze!”
“Night, Autumn…”
Author's Note
Written on the last day! Let me know if you want to see more of this odd pairing!
