Adagio and Sonata's Little Aria

by Rahkshi500

First published 12th of January, 2015

After the wonderful experience of being a pony for a day, Sonata Dusk makes a wish for her friend Aria to be one for the whole weekend, much to her friend's expense.

Note: A non-canon sequel/spin-off to "Adagio and Aria's Little Sonata" by Tennis Match Fan.

Some time has passed since Sonata made that wish to become a small pony, but now she receives a visit from Princess Luna again offering her another one. She makes the same wish again, except this time she wishes it on her friend, Aria. Now the abrasive Dazzling has to put up with Sonata and Adagio's antics not for a single day, but for the whole weekend. Can Aria make it through the weekend as just a little pony?

Content: Humor, Drama, Rule 63, Otoko-no-ko.
(Note: Cover Image belongs to SamonFerrari, used with permission.)

Chapter 1: Same Wish, Different Dazzling

Sonata Dusk was sleeping soundly in her bed, her wide smile hinting she was experiencing some very happy dreams; dreams of her being that adorable little pony again. The memories of that night when Princess Luna turned her into a miniature pony for a day were still fresh in her thoughts. Her hiding in Adagio’s hair, being chased through the house, getting messy from cheese puffs and then receiving a bath, getting her hair braided, sitting in a giant taco, playing pirates, wearing make up, and finally being tucked to sleep and being told that she was loved by both of her friends, even when they didn’t always show it.

‘What I would give to go through it all again,’ she thought happily to herself. ‘Or maybe Dagi or Aria can experience it themselves?’

She giggled under her covers. Her memories of that fun-filled day took hold of her dreams, shaping them into a near identical recreation.

-

Sonata ran down the hall at lightning fast speed, hearing both Aria and Adagio following her in pursuit.

“You can’t catch me!” the little filly teased her taller, human companions as she climbed up the banister and sliding down it just like last time. “Wheeee!”

Both Adagio and Aria were already running down the stairs in hot pursuit of their blue-haired pony friend. “Get back here, Sonata!”

“No way!” Sonata dropped off the railings and galloped away into the kitchen, but she came to an immediate stop when she passed around the corner. The entire kitchen was missing-literally!

Sonata gasped at the white void that stood where their kitchen should’ve been, surprised and shocked that such a thing occurred even in her own dreams. “This wasn’t supposed to be here!”

“Sonata…” a voice spoke out to Sonata from the white void. A dark blue wisp appeared before the little dream pony, before materializing itself into a larger, slimmer, and elegant mare. Sonata’s eyes beamed and her mouth spread into a wide smile upon recognizing the familiar figure.

“Princess Luna, you’re back!” Sonata cried happily. Her little body suddenly shook and twitched, and with an audible ‘Pop!’ she was back to her human form, standing on all fours.

Luna smiled at the girl before saying “We meet again, Sonata Dusk. I’d hope that what happened after our last meeting was fruitful.”

“For realzies,” Sonata stood up. “Being a pony was, like, one the best moments of my life. I had such an awesome time, and my friends were having so much-well, actually, I kind of caused them a bit of trouble for them, but it was all in good fun! Ooh, ooh, you should’ve totally seen them going all gushy over me! It was like they were puking out rainbows because of how adorable I was! And-” the girl’s rambling stopped when she felt Luna’s hoof on her shoulder.

“I think I get the point, dear,” Luna smiled while trying to hold back a small giggle.

“So have you come to grant me another wish?” Sonata asked, being peachy as pie.

The alicorn princess was surprised. “How did you know?”

“Isn’t there, like, any other reason you have for visiting me in my dreams? It’s what you did the last time you were here,” Sonata explained, still keeping that dumb grin on her face.

“How clever of you, Sonata Dusk,” Luna replied. “But yes, your good behavior has caught my attention again, that I have come to grant you a new wish as a reward to you,”

“So wait a minute,” Sonata spoke up. “You can grant wishes to people as gifts for good behavior? How would you know if anyone in any world was being good enough?”

“I try to pay as much attention to those who do well,” Luna explained.

“What if someone wants to wish for something amazing, like world peace? People make that wish all the time,”

“I’m not omnipotent, Sonata Dusk. Like with your previous wish, my power extends to a more personal level,” Luna kept her cool, even though she felt that Sonata was just rushing time. “Now then, I have a schedule ahead of me, Sonata Dusk, so please, tell me what your new wish shall be?”

“Okay, okay,” The girl put a hand on her hip and a finger to her chin, thinking of what to wish for. “Ooh, I want the pony wish again!”

“Again,” Luna raised an eyebrow. “Do you really like being a pony that much?”

“Not for me this time,” she spoke up, clearly not finished. “I want it to be one of my friends to turn into a pony!”

“Well, I can surely enter the dreams of one of your friends and make that possible, but why?” asked the alicorn princess.

“Because,” Sonata’s smile quickly turned upside down. “Well, everyone seems to have gone back to their old ways when I turned back into human-me: Adagio has gone back to being aloof, and Aria’s being grumpy again. I miss the good times we had when I was a pony, so maybe we can experience new fun times if one of them is a pony!”

“Very well then, Sonata Dusk,” Luna nodded. “Like before, your wish shall last for one whole day.”

“Does it have to be one day? Can’t you squeeze in a little more time this time? Like… ooh, the whole weekend! Yes, the weekend will be perfect!”

Luna hesitated at such a request. “I don’t know…”

“Pleeeeeease,” Sonata got on her knees in front of the tall mare. “Please, please, please, please! With hugs and kisses and yummy chocolate fondue on top?”

Luna sighed. “Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

“WHOO!” Sonata jumped for joy and gave Princess Luna a big hug, catching the mare off guard. “Thank you, Princess Luna!”

“Don’t mention it…” Luna grunted, the girl’s hug constricting her from the neck up. She had to catch her breath when Sonata released her. “So who do you want to become a pony then?”

“Let’s see,” Sonata thought for a bit, but then beamed with a literal light-bulb floating above her head. “The one I wish to become a pony for the weekend is…”

-

The alarm clock ranged at 5:31 am, a somewhat unusual time to sound off at. Adagio groaned from underneath her sheets before reaching out with her hand to stop the beeping.

The leader of the Dazzlings slowly rose up from her bed, her eyes half-opened and mouth hanging open for a yawn. Her huge bush of hair was a mess, with small single strands sticking out of it from all directions; it was a daily thing that happens to her, so was not really that big a deal.

She turned her legs towards the edge of her bed and down to the floor, sliding into her purple-furred slippers. “Another day, another uneventful moment for me; well, at least it’s the weekend.”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” a loud, high-pitched scream was heard throughout the house, fully waking up Adagio from her tired state. It sounded like it was coming from Aria’s room.

“Aria,” Adagio immediately got to her and rushed out of her room. She ran down the hallway towards Aria’s room, not taking the time to knock first. “Aria, what’s wrong?!”

She saw something rustling underneath Aria’s covers, making grunting and panting sounds as if it were in a state of panic. Adagio felt a strange sense of déjà vu, as if something like this had happened before. She attempt to take a step forward when the thing underneath the covers moved itself furiously until tumbling over the edge of the bed and landing on the floor with a thud.

“Ow!” The thing cried before whipping the covers off itself and revealing itself to the young adult. Adagio and the creature’s eyes both met each other for a brief moment until their minds comprehended the fact they were standing in the same room together.

“Aaaaah,” Adagio screamed in horror.

“Aaaaah,” the creature screamed back.

“Aaaaaah,” Adagio screamed again.

“Aaaaaah,” the creature screamed back again. It was a little pony, standing at roughly 1 and ½ feet tall. Its coat was a pale fuchsia color and its mane and tail were a moderate purple streaked with aqua green. The mane was tied up into a set of twin tails that easily reached down to its knees. On the pony’s flank was a two-toned purple star on top of a forte symbol.

Adagio asked the little panicked pony, “Aria? Is that you?”

“This isn’t happening! This isn’t happening!” Aria cried out, shaking his head frantically while hopping around like a mad rabbit believing that this had to be some kind of sick, twisted dream. He tripped over the blanket and fell on his front. But that didn’t stop him from still panicking. His hind legs kicked into gear and started moving him across the floor, the rest of his body sliding forward and his front legs being dragged underneath.

“Aria,” Adagio spoke again, but was soundly ignored by her companion’s freak out. Aria dragged himself about across the bedroom floor until he unknowingly crashed into a wall with a loud thud, bringing him to a clear stop.

The young woman sighed and walked over to pick the little pony up. “You okay?”

“Ow…” Aria rubbed his forehead with his hoof, and then looked straight at Adagio with a worried face. “This can’t be real, can it?”

“I don’t know; you tell me, Aria,” Adagio replied. “Did Princess Luna visit you in your dreams or something?”

“Oh yeah, like I would do something like this to myself,” retort Aria. Adagio shook her head and giggled. “What’s so funny?”

“Well, look on the bright side,” she said coyly. “You’re cute now.”

“I’m not cute,” Aria scowled, folding his hooves across his chest.

The two heard Sonata coming down the hall, and then turned to face the door as their more air-headed companion entered the room. “Aria, Adagio, is everyone okay? I heard screaming and noises and…” she became silent once her eyes lay on the little pony Adagio was holding in her hands. Aria only blinked at Sonata for a moment before his eyes narrowed at her as rage built up at an alarming rate.

“You!” Aria exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof at Sonata.

The young woman looked around to see if there was anyone in particular Aria’s comment was directed at before pointing her finger up at herself confusingly and asked, “Me?”

“RAWR!” Aria roared as he leapt out of Adagio’s hands and towards Sonata. He crashed into Sonata’s chest with enough force to knock her to the floor with him on top. “You did this, didn’t you?!” he cried as he jumped up and down on the girl’s stomach.

Sonata laughed out loud. “S-Stop that! It tickles!”

“Change me back, Sonata! Change me back now!” Aria cried, continuing his onslaught on Sonata’s abdomen, until he felt Adagio’s hands grabbing him around his sides and lifting him off. “Let go of me, Adagio! I’m not done with her yet!”

“Quit squirming, you,” Adagio ordered the little pony in her hands, and then looked at Sonata. “Sonata, despite Aria’s sudden outburst, you do seem to be responsible for this. You've got some explaining to do.”

“Okay,” Sonata got back up and straightened herself out. “You see, Princess Luna visited me in my dream again and, like, wanted to grant me another wish,”

“And why did you think it was good idea to wish for Aria to become a pony instead of yourself like last time?” Adagio questioned. Aria’s eyes narrowed into a deadly glare at the blue siren.

“Because,” Sonata’s expression quickly turned into a sad frown. “Ever since last time, you two had gone back to being your usual selves again. I know you both said that you love me, but I really wanted to continue making more fond memories of us; it never happened! I can only remember the good times we had when I wished into being a pony for a day, so I made the same wish again, except I wanted one of you to experience what it was like to be a cute little pony like me!”

“And you chose me,” Aria replied sourly.

“Yep!” Sonata chirped, her lips spread into a dumb grin as she held hands behind the back of her head.

“I do have to ask though, why didn’t you wish for both of us to be ponies?” asked Adagio.

“Don’t give her any ideas, Adagio,” Aria snapped.

“I’m only asking because this doesn’t make sense on why she would only do it to you and not me,” Adagio poked Aria’s cheek.

“Well, I think that one little pony running around the house would be enough. Imagine how crazy it is taking care of two little ponies!” Sonata explained with a giggle.

“Yeah,” Adagio agreed. “Would be a nightmare having to leave you in charge of the house.”

Aria sighed in Adagio’s arms. “Well, at least it will only be for a day like last time, right?”

Sonata perked up. “Oh, no, Aria, not this time. Instead, you’re going to be a pony for the whole weekend!” she said happily with her arms up as a bright shiny logo sigh that reads ‘The Whole Weekend!’ appeared behind her.

Aria’s eye twitched. “WHAT?!”

Sonata skipped over to Adagio and took Aria into her hands. “This is going to be the best weekend ever, Aria! We’re going to have so much fun together,” She said cheerfully while spinning around the room, holding Aria up high. “We’re going to play games, and we will dance, and we will have a tea party, and we’ll braid our hairs, just like last time! And… huh?”

“What?” Aria asked suspiciously, not liking the confused look the air-headed girl had on her face.

“Um, Dagi?” Sonata turned her head towards Adagio. “Did Aria always have a, um… thingie?”

Aria’s face went red as he quickly covered his crotch with all four of his hooves.

“Yes, he did,” Adagio walked over next to Sonata. “I’m not surprised it took you this long to find out,”

“So…” Sonata turned back to Aria. “Aria, are you a-”

“No.” Aria answered nonchalantly.

“What about a-”

“No.”

“So you really are a-”

“Yes,” Aria answered. “I’m a guy, both biologically and gender-orientated; I just physically look like a girl.”

Sonata’s faced beamed up, surprising the little pony. “Oh, that is the cutest thing ever!”

“I’m not cute…”

“You think everything’s the cutest thing ever, Sonata,” said Adagio.

Sonata looked back at Adagio with her cheeks puffed up. “Well you think Sunset Glare is the cutest thing ever!”

“I do not!” the Dazzlings’ leader protested.

“Yes, you do! You told me!” Sonata argued back.

Adagio put her index fingers up and retorted with “No, let me clarify: I said Sunset Glare’s kindergarten pictures were the cutest thing ever!”

“Oh,” Sonata nodded in agreement. She turned back to Aria and gave him a tight hug. “This is going to best weekend ever, Aria. You’ll see!”

“Oh, joyous day, callooh callay,” snark the little fuchsia pony, feeling himself pressed up against Sonata’s face and neck as she nuzzled her cheek against his. “You mind putting me down?” Sonata nodded and then set Aria down on top of his bed. “Okay, so I’m going to be stuck like this for the whole weekend then. Fine then, but unlike you, Sonata, I’m not going to be a nuisance to everyone here,”

“We’ll see,” Adagio uttered under her breath. Aria turned and glared at her in response.

“In that case, I’m going to go get breakfast started,” Sonata was about to turn to leave Aria’s bedroom when she felt Adagio’s hand on her shoulder.

“You’re going to make breakfast?”

Sonata nodded. “Yes, I’ve wanted to have the chance to improve my culinary skills! Don’t worry, you two; I’ll make sure it’s something delicious that we can all enjoy together!”

She happily skipped out of the bedroom while humming a little tune. Adagio and Aria looked at each other, both clearly worried of what the girl would be capable of.

“I’ll give her an hour,” said Adagio.

“I’ll give her eleven minutes,” said Aria.

Chapter 2: A Breakfast Behemoth

Aria had been trotting around his room for a while now, listening to nothing but the sound of his own hooves against the carpet floor. Adagio left a while ago to wash up and get dressed while Sonata was busy down stairs working on whatever possible breakfast she has in store for everyone.

“Stupid Sonata, I didn’t ask to be turn into a pony!” He grumbled, still walking around the room with an air of impatience. He didn’t know how much time has passed since his freak out from earlier and already his stomach was gurgling. When will breakfast be ready? “And why her of all people? She can’t even make good fruit punch, let alone breakfast!”

His stomach gurgled again as if it agreed with him. Aria let out a heavy sigh and stopped walking. Plopping his flank on the floor, he raised his front hooves up to inspect them. “How long has it been since I had these?”

Far too long was the conclusion he came to; it was why he was walking around the room for a while. The last time all three of them truly had hooves was back in Equestria, when they were their true siren selves. For a millennia they were stuck in the forms of humans, having to learn to cope with having hands and fingers, learning how to walk instead of swim, and many more of aspects of human life. It had been heavily ingrained in them for so many years that it, for all intense and purposes, became their new lives.

Having hooves, the very kind of feet they were born with, instead of hands again felt incredibly, for lack of a better word, weird.

“What a cruel irony…” the little pony said to himself and clopped his front hooves together. Wait, clop?

Aria’s ears perked up and pressed his hooves again, making that same sound again. It made his brain tingle, calling back millennia ago to nostalgic memories when they were still in Equestria. That all familiar clopping sound their hooves made when they walked on hard solid surfaces, like rocks or pebbled roads; the sounds of their human feet couldn’t dare to match such long forgotten sounds.

The bedroom door opened up and Adagio, now dried up and clothed, walks inside over to Aria and kneels down in front of him. “Hey there, short stuff,”

“What do you want, cheese puff?” Aria snipped.

“Well now,” Adagio frowned. “You can drop the attitude, Aria. Don’t take your beef with Sonata out on me because she turned you into a pony.”

“I didn’t ask for this, Adagio,” he replied, not bothering to hide the frustration in his voice. “Sonata can get away being all cute and stupid with being a pony, but I’m not like that. I can’t believe I have to be stuck like this for two whole days,”

“You’ll survive. If Sonata was able to make it through in one day by being a cute little pony, so can you for two days,”

“Except that she wanted to be a stupid pony; I don’t,” Aria retorted.

Adagio put a hand to her forehead and shrugged. “And you getting worked up over it like this is just proving that she’s better at dealing with things than you are,”

Aria’s eye twitched as he glared at the older Dazzling. “That’s not true. I’m a thousand times better than that idiot,”

She put a finger to Aria’s snout. “Then stop your bellyaching and let’s go downstairs. She’s likely waiting for us to join her for breakfast,” Adagio moved her finger away before Aria could get the chance to bite at it and stood up. She led the way out of Aria’s bedroom with the little pony staying close behind as they entered the hallway.

The clopping of Aria’s hooves was much more audible now. The carpet in his bedroom filtered out most of the sound since it wasn’t a solid, smooth surface, but against the hallway’s wooden floor it was clear as a bell. “Whoa…”

“What’s wrong?” Adagio turned back to look down at Aria.

“It’s been so long, hasn’t it, Adagio,” Aria looked up. “That clopping sound our feet would make back when we all had hooves. It feels very strange to hear it again after so long, especially since we’ve grown so use to being humans,”

“You’re right,” Adagio put a hand to her hip and a finger to her chin. “Those were the good old days.”

Aria walked passed her, prompting her to continue walking. “I wonder why something like this never crossed Sonata’s mind when she was a pony.”

“Maybe because she was having too much fun being a pony,” Adagio chuckled. “That silly filly, acting like she didn’t had a care in the world.”

“Yeah,” Aria agreed softly, thinking back to when they had to fight tooth and nail to avoid falling for Sonata’s cuteness. But now it’s him who is the adorable little pony, but unlike Sonata, he had a feeling he isn’t going to like what his two companions might have in store for him.

The two reached the stairs and Aria took his time with each step. Because of his small size, he had to be careful when moving down to avoid tripping over himself. Adagio was ahead of him, but was considerate enough to wait for him to catch up. A heavenly, sugary aroma reached their noses by the time they were halfway down the stairs, making their faces light up in surprise.

“Something smells good,” Aria spoke up. “Does this mean…”

“Only one way to find out,” Adagio reached down to pick him up and carried him the rest of the way until they were now in the kitchen. They both peeked around the corner to find Sonata with her back facing them, putting something from a flat pan onto a big plate.

“Sonata,” Adagio’s words quickly caught the attention of the toothpaste-haired woman, as she turned around with cheerful smile on her face.

“Hi, you two,” Sonata chirped as she picked up the plate made her way to the table. “You’re just in time. I’ve just got breakfast ready. You’re going to really love it!” she set the plate down on the table and gestured the two with her hands to come join her. Adagio walked over, setting Aria down in his chair before taking her own seat. Aria’s small stature made it difficult for him to properly see his breakfast; just sitting down on his flank only allowed him to rest his chin on the table’s edge. It was only from standing on his hind legs that he was able to see what Sonata was serving for breakfast.

On the plate were three pancakes, massive enough to make both Aria and Adagio’s eyes widened from shock in a futile attempt to replicate their size. They were so big, ranging to about 14 inches wide, that parts of them stuck out over the edges of the larger than usual plate that Sonata put them in. They were a delicious golden-brown color, as if they were made by a professional chef; no burned or overcooked marks can be found on them. They weren’t plain ordinary pancakes either; they were made with blueberries and cut up strawberries in them, implying that Sonata went the common routine of sprinkling them on the batter while they were still on the pan.

Lastly, Sonata had decorated them with a bright red, fairly-thick strawberry syrup, sliced banana pieces, and whip cream sprayed on top in the form of a big smiling face.

“Wow, Sonata,” Adagio spoke up, not taking her eyes off the delicious-looking breakfast before them. “You’ve really impressed me,”

“Indeed. It looks very tasty,” Aria fought back to keep himself from mouth watering. Sonata smiled with joy as she brought three extra plates, forks, and knives to the table.

“Thank you, guys! I really wanna make something spectacular for all of us. I hope you find them tasty,” Sonata sat down in her chair, and using a pizza cutter, she cut the huge pancakes up into hand-held slices, giving some to Adagio, then some to Aria, and last putting some on her own plate. “Let’s dig in!”

The two women easily took their first bites out of the starchy goodness, their mouths exploding with delicious fruitful flavors. Aria, on the other hand, wasn’t having such luck. There’s just no way was he going to be able to pick up a knife or fork with his hooves, and using his mouth to lift them would take too long either. The only option he could see was to eat like a pony does. ‘I just hope that I don’t make a mess out of this.’

He lowered his snout down to his plate until he was sure it right up against the pointed end of the sliced piece. His tongue slid out in attempt to lift the tip of the piece up and into his mouth enough for his teeth to bite down on. It took some time for push his teeth down hard up to cut through the surface before finally breaking a piece off and chewing it.

The taste was delicious, his taste buds flaring up from the perfectly blended mix of starch and fruity goodness. He reached down to take another bite, then another, and another, enjoying the delectable taste. This was going be a fine breakfast morning.

Adagio snickered, drawing Aria’s attention to her. “What’s so funny, Adagio?”

“You, Aria,” Adagio continued laugh as she took another bite out of her pancakes.

“What do you mean?” Aria raised an eyebrow at his companion. Still chewing her food though, Adagio raised a finger to her nose and tapped it, knowing that Aria would get it; he did and looked down at his own snout to find it a different color. He put a hoof to the tip and then moved it so that he could see it, and found it to be strawberry syrup. He felt around his snout some more to discover that all those bites he took left syrup plastered over it. “Oh…”

“Aaaaww,” Aria nearly jumped at the sound of Sonata’s squealing. He turned to see the toothpaste-haired girl making the widest smile she possibly could with her hands folded together; Aria was understandably disturbed by it. “That is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“I’m not cute,” Aria retort, only to be met with a quick flash from Sonata’s phone.

“Our first new happy memory together,” Sonata cheered as she showed both Aria and Adagio the picture she took of the little pony looking at her with strawberry syrup plastered over his snout.

“Whatever,” he grumbled before he felt Sonata trying to wipe the syrup off his snout with a rinsed towel she just got a second ago; girl can sure move fast. “I can clean myself, Sonata,”

“Have you learned how to hold things yet, Aria?” Adagio smirked, clearly enjoying the pony’s expense. “Last I check, you didn’t bother to use a fork or knife.”

Aria was silent; he honestly had no rebuttal to that. “Some syrup isn’t going to bother me,”

“Aw, but you’ll get your coat dirty and sticky, then we’ll have to give you a bath afterwards,” Sonata chirped as she finished cleaning his snout. She was getting way too into this whole ordeal. “Ooh, I know!” she picked up Aria’s knife and fork and easily cut a small piece off and held it towards the little pony. “Here, how about I feed you?”

Aria blushed and backed her head away in surprise. “I-I can feed myself, Sonata,”

“And get dirty again,” Adagio spoke up again. “Come on, you lucky guy. You have a cute girl here offering to feed you breakfast,”

“Adagio…” Aria growled through his clenched teeth.

“In fact,” the poofy-haired woman continued. “It’s as if Sonata is now a caring mother,”

Now this made Aria’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“Really,” Sonata asked with curious cheer. Adagio nodded, her hair bouncing at the same time as she continued.

“Indeed so, Sonata, and Aria here is your adorable little baby~” Adagio insisted, puckering her lips in a teasing fashion, and then took another bite out of her pancakes.

“Stop encouraging her already!” Aria shouted from across the table, which only cracked up the Dazzling leader. Oh, how she enjoyed messing with him like this.

“In that case,” Sonata got up from her seat and went into the living room. Aria felt a sense of nervousness overwhelm him, worried of what his idiot companion was capable of, knowing how bad it was when she was the tiny pony.

She quickly came back within the next minute, still looking happy as pie. “Here, Aria, I found something that will keep you from getting dirty again.” she reached behind her back and pulled out a small piece of cloth. At first Aria didn’t know what it was, but closer inspection soon caused his eyes to widen like saucers. She was holding a little pink baby bib with deep pink highlights with a red heart in the center coupled with a pair angel wings on each side and a halo on top, completed with blue text underneath it that reads ‘Momma’s Little Angel’

Aria Blaze’s jaw hanged wide opened, shock and disgust written all over his face.

Adagio Dazzle just burst out laughing.

“Nah-ah! Forget it! No way in the ten floors of Tartarus am I ever going to wear that,” Aria protested loudly, folding his hooves across his chest and looking away.

“Oh, yes, you are,” Sonata Dusk insisted. “We can’t let you get dirty again. Just hold still and I will put it on,”

“Back off, Sonata,” Aria scooted back in his seat, but the airhead Dazzling moved closer, never losing that sincere smile on her face. “I-I’m serious! Adagio, help! Stop her!”

“No way; I wanna see this,” Adagio grinned as she rested her chin in her hands to watch the event unfold.

Sonata undid the bib and held it out to Aria. “Here we go~!”

Aria panicked and scooted himself against the back of his seat. “Don’t you frickin dare! Don’t you dare!”

He quickly got his feet and attempt to leap out off the chair and run away, but Sonata was too fast for him; she snatched him up in her hands and pinned him down on the seat of his chair with just her arm as she immediately went to work on the bib. Aria was grunting and spewing out indescribable language that only a siren can understand, but Sonata paid no attention to what was being said while Adagio was laughing out loud at her companion’s expense.

“All done!” Sonata chirped and took her seat again. Aria tumbled himself about until he was sitting upright in his chair. He looked down and gasped to find the bib now around his neck. His first action was to tear it off, but Sonata had it tied up nice and tight to where no matter hoof or teeth, the bib stayed on. “Say ‘ah’ now, Aria,”

Aria blushed, clearly embarrassed of being reduced to this state. But he couldn’t deny that he was still hungry, only able to take a few bites from his pancakes before all of this happened. He growled under his breath, but eventually gave in. “Fine,” he grumbled and opened his mouth for Sonata to put the piece in.

He closed his mouth around the fork, taking the piece of pancake inside and silently chewed it. “Good, isn’t it?” Sonata asked as she cut up another piece of him to eat. Aria didn’t reply, but he also didn’t object her feeding him now. She quickly pulled out her phone again and took another picture, wanting to save this fond memory as well. “So cute,” she said as she petted Aria’s head.

“I’m not cute,”

Adagio was enjoying every second of it. “Oh, don’t be such a baby, Aria,” Adagio smirked, and then took another bite.

Aria gave his leader a cold look before saying, “You shut your mouth.”

Things went on smoothly for a while, the three eating their share of pancakes with no problem. Soon enough their plates were empty, Adagio and Aria both quite content with how they turned out.

“That was good, Sonata,” Adagio said while cleaning her lips with a napkin.

“Yeah, thanks,” Aria said softly while tugging at his bib. “Can you take this off now?”

“Mmmmmmm-nope!” Sonata chirped.

Aria raised an eyebrow at her response. “What? But-”

“There’s still a whole plate left,” Sonata said, taking Aria’s plate and then cutting up more of the huge pancakes and putting more slices on his plate.

“What?” Aria asked surprised. “There’s no way I can eat all of that, Sonata!”

“Yes, you can,” Sonata replied, still smiling as she put Aria’s plate back in front of him. “Don’t worry, I’ll be eating it all too.”

“You can eat it all yourself,” Aria protested, trying to push the plate away.

Sonata blinked. “But I made all of this for us,” she insisted, putting a forkful of pancake up towards Aria’s face. “We have to finish it all. Come on, eat,”

“Sonata, really, I’m starting to feel full,”

“But you’re a growing boy; you need to grow big and strong,” Sonata was still pretending to be a mother.

“I said no, Sonata,” Aria snapped.

“Eat, Aria!”

“No!”

*BANG!*

Aria jumped out at the sound of Sonata’s fist slamming against the table. Adagio almost flinched herself, but otherwise kept her composure.

“Sonata…?”

“I… want this to be a wonderful weekend, filled with fun and joy, making fond memories together. I worked hard to make this breakfast special for all of us, and you’re just going to let it all go to waste? I can’t let that happen!” Sonata glared at Aria with a look that caught him completely off guard.

She looked genuinely menacing, her pupils shrunk to mere dots that emitted a soul-piercing gaze. Her mouth bore a wide, cheeky grin, except it invoked a maniacal expression instead of mere joy.

“N-No…” Aria stuttered. He honestly couldn’t recall the last time he felt… frightened.

“Well I guess I’ll leave you two together then,” Adagio snickered as she got up from her chair, surprised and yet amused by Sonata’s sudden outburst and Aria’s fear. “I’m going to go out and get some things done. Play nicely, you tw-”

“SIT BACK DOWN, DAGI!”

Her butt immediately planted back down on her seat again.

“What I just said to Aria goes to you too!” Sonata continued. “I’m not going to let this special breakfast go to waste! It’s still hot, so we’re all going to eat it. They have syrup spread over them, and as we speak, they’re absorbing it right now. You know what happens if you leave pancakes with syrup out for too long? They reach that critical point where the syrup turns the cakes into a gross, uneatable cold paste! Have you ever eaten pancakes before that have been turned into paste via syrup absorption? It’s disgusting!”

She continued rambling when, much to the shock and horror of her two companions, black eyeliner started to slowly trickle down her cheeks from her eyes. When did she start wearing eyeliner? Do they even have eyeliner? “And I can’t just store it away in the fridge for another time. Pancakes never taste as good as the first time! And they have syrup all over them, so they’re going to turn into gross pancake paste that’s never as good as the first time! So we are going to be here until every single ounce of these pancakes are gone! And if any of you two try to leave this kitchen, I’ll hunt you both down through every inch of this house and strap you both down and force you both to eat pancake paste! So are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?!”

Adagio and Aria both slowly shook their heads. Sonata was silent for a moment, until her colors burst back into their former bright shiny hue. “Goody! Now let’s eat!”

The two Dazzlings looked at each other and then shook their head frantically at what they have just witnessed. “Am I seeing things, or-”

“Best not to think about it,” Adagio put a comforting hand to Aria’s head. Sonata happily gave more sliced pancake pieces to her friends. Adagio silently took her knife and fork again and started eating her second serving, while Sonata fed both herself and Aria. The pony Dazzling hesitated whenever Sonata put a forkful towards him; he really did felt full after his first serving. At first he would open his mouth and slowly chew and swallow piece after piece, but eventually he really couldn’t take another bite. Obviously, Sonata wouldn’t have it, and so whenever he hesitated or shook his head, she would pinch his nose, forcing his mouth open and putting bite after bite in, and then hold his snout closed until he swallows them.

-

“Hic!”

Almost a full hour has passed. Sonata had to take the pancakes back and forth to the microwave to keep them warm, but eventually they all managed to finish it all. Aside from a few little flakes of broken batter and syrupy stains, there was nothing left on the main plate.

“Hic!” Aria hiccuped, followed by an exhausting moan.

Sonata made a soft burp and giggled. “Excuse me. That was the best breakfast I’ve ever had in a long time. What about you two?” Sonata’s question was answered with pained groaning from her friends.

“Too much… pancakes,” Aria moaned, laying his chin on the edge of the table. He could barely keep his eyes fully open, for the exhaustion of being fed so much pancakes left him completely drained. Being just a tiny, almost two feet tall pony, his body didn’t have the capacity to hold as much as his companions did, but he still nonetheless ate enough for his stomach to form a noticeable bulge.

Adagio, however, wasn’t so lucky; being a much larger human compared to Aria’s current form, she had much more capacity than he did, and thus, received the brunt of Sonata’s breakfast-behemoth. The leader Dazzling was slumped back in her chair, also exhausted from all of the eating. Her hand was laid softly on her bloated stomach, large and round to look as if she had swallowed a bowling ball; she had to undo her belt earlier just to prevent her girth from being crush and constricted by the growing pressure.

“I think I now have a pancake-baby growing right here,” she groaned, then jerked as she felt a sudden jolt in her front, prompting her to hold her stomach with both hands. “No, not the starch!”

“Nothing like a nice, hearty breakfast to start the day,” Sonata burped, patting her equally swollen stomach before getting up from her seat to undo Aria’s bib. The fuchsia pony didn’t have the energy to make a retort to her comment.

“What time is it?” He lifted his head and looked up at the kitchen clock. “8:24 a.m.? Today is going to be awful!”

Adagio mustered all of her physical strength to stand up from her chair. “I guess I’ll do what I planned to do later today,” she walked out of the kitchen, still holding a hand to her gut as she made her way to the living room’s couch, slowly lowering herself down until she was on her back, and then picked up the remote to turn on the television.

She heard the sound of trotting, moving her head a bit to see Aria coming around the corner of the couch to join her. “What’s up, baby boy?” she was surprised that she even had the energy to tease her companion.

“Shut up,” he uttered while trying to pull himself up onto the couch. “That whole event with the bib wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for you,”

Adagio just shook her head. “You really can’t appreciate some humor in your life, can’t you?”

“You call that humor?” Aria finally managed to pull himself up. “That was humiliation. You know what, Adagio? Next time Princess Luna visits us, I’m going to wish that you were a pony; I will enjoy every moment of it messing with you.”

“Fat chance, Aria,” Adagio retort. “The day that happens is the day I dance on the moon.”

“Heh,” Aria said, before opening his mouth to yawn. “All that eating has drained me,”

“I’ll say,” Adagio agreed while rubbing her stomach. “I feel like I’m going to burst at any moment,”

“So much for a ‘hearty’ breakfast,” Aria continued as he walked over towards Adagio’s side. “Geez, I feel so tired… I think I’ll just rest for a bit,” with one ounce left of strength, he hopped up onto what he expected to be the pillow Adagio was keeping next to her sides. Instead, he felt himself landing on something else entirely; it was soft, warm, and jiggly, as if he was lying on a sack of pudding.

“Aria,” he heard Adagio’s voice.

“What?”

“I’m under you…”

He opened an eye to see Adagio looking at him from several inches away. His eye looked down to discover he had, tired and unknowingly, had hopped onto Adagio and was now lying on her swollen stomach.

“Deal with it,” he retort and then shut his eye and let his head drop down.

“Aria,”

“I’m not listening~”

Adagio sighed and laid her head back on the couch’s arm, using her own hair as a substitute for a pillow. Her eyes looked back at the sleeping pony on her stomach, and then slowly shook her head a bit. She guessed that this is payback for initiating the mother-baby thing earlier.

“Twerp,” she uttered as she raised a finger to scratch the back of her companion's ear. She somehow couldn’t bring herself to be too angry at the fuchsia Dazzling. Annoyed, sure, but not angry.

“I guess I have a weakness for cute little ponies now.”

Chapter 3: A Hairy Situation

-

“Mmm~”

Aria was peacefully asleep, all warm and cozy for some reason. Even though it was still in the middle of winter, he felt warmth all around him as if he was basking in pure sunlight. His snout twitched a bit too, but in a good way; there was also a pleasant aroma filling his nostrils. It smelled a lot like that special shampoo that Adagio used and wouldn’t let anyone else use it. Everything around him felt all fluffy and curly, like he was resting on a floating cloud. This was pure bliss!

Wait… his mind retracted. Warmth everywhere? A pleasant aroma that only came from Adagio’s special shampoo? Fluffy and curly like a cloud?

Aria immediately opened his eyes to be greeted by orange. A lot of orange.

He found himself engulfed in a forest of orange hair, locks and strands brushing against nearly every single inch of his body. Aria froze in horror at the situation he was in. He knows how much Adagio works to keep her hair in perfect condition-he would know, he had to sit through over 20 minutes babysitting Sonata when she was a pony. She is going to snap if she finds him in here, but how did he end up here in the first place?

“Ugh,” he moaned. “No time to figure out. I’ve got to get out of here,” he whispered to himself and tried to slowly move, but it was to avail. Adagio’s locks and curls were easily enwrapped around his hooves and parts of his body. Slow tugs didn’t do anything, so with extra care he tried pulling a little harder; it was no use.

He tried struggling a bit, hoping it would at least allow him to break free and get some more moving space, but again it proved to be no use. There was no doubt about it now; he’s stuck.

“I'm so dead,” he whispered to himself, but he had no other choice. “Adagio?” he called out to his leader, but there was no response. How odd. Was she asleep?

“Adagio?” he spoke louder this time and unfortunately got some of her hair caught in his mouth.

He heard her groaned and felt her moving slightly, but otherwise did not respond. He gave it one more shot and yelled “Adagio!”

“What?!” she replied in a tired, disgruntled tone. Aria felt her shifting a bit until he assumed that she was leaning up a bit. She yawned and smacked her lips. “What is it, Aria?”

“Okay, don’t panic but I need your help. I’m stuck,” he felt her turning over a bit, evident of seeing the forest of hair squishing together and feeling a pressure being pushed onto him. “Stop!”

“Where are you?”

“I’m… in your hair,” Aria squint his eyes and prepared himself for the inevitable outburst.

“What?!” He felt the pressure suddenly lifted off him, quickly followed him feeling being lifted up too. He could only guess that Adagio had just sat upright on the couch. “How in Tartarus did you get in there?”

“I don’t know! I just woke up in here!”

“Aria, get out of my hair! You know how much care I put into it,” Adagio commanded, clearly upset by this.

“I told you that I’m stuck!” Aria retorts and struggled in his hairy binds to demonstrate his point; Adagio felt that one.

“Oh schnap, you’re really in that deep?” Adagio panicked. She threw her hands back behind her head, digging into her hair and searching around for the tiny pony. She brushed aside her locks and curls with care as she felt for Aria. Finally her fingers made contact with what she assumed to be a pair of pointed ears. “I think I found you!”

“Great, now get me out of here,” Aria called back as he felt Adagio’s hands reaching down deeper, feeling his head down to his neck and then his torso. Once she had a good grip on him, Adagio slowly pulled him up only to still be stuck in place. The young woman grunted and tried to untangle the locks and strands around Aria, but found that it much more difficult when she couldn’t even see what was behind her and feeling around would only get her so far in this hairy situation.

“Adagio?”

“Pipe down, Aria,” Adagio grunted as she tried to removed a tangled lock from her companion’s hoof. “This isn’t easy, you know,”

“I know but-gah!” Aria suddenly gagged.

“But what?” Adagio snipped, feeling Aria becoming slightly looser than before, and had managed to pull him up. She could feel a part of him slowly rising out of the orange bush that she called a hairdo; the feeling around with her fingers made it out that it was his head, but also felt locks of hair wrapped around his neck.

“Hair… choking me,” Aria wheezed out loud. Adagio shrugged, but nonetheless stopped.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “There’s no other option left; Sonata, I need you right now!”

“Coming~!” She saw the air-headed Dazzling skipping merrily down the stairs. The sight was enough to make Adagio and Aria cringe. Some time has passed since breakfast, so their stomachs have all shrunken back to normal size now. Her face went all bright and starry-eyed the moment she reached the bottom of the stairs. “Aww! Look at you, Dagi! You have Aria sticking out of your hair!”

“Yeah,” Aria replied sarcastically. “I wonder how I possibly got in here.”

“Yeah, Sonata,” Adagio agreed with a tone of suspicion. “How did Aria get into my hair?”

Sonata gave them both another cringe-inducing smile. “Well, earlier when I came in and saw Aria sleeping on you, Dagi, I couldn’t help but take another picture. But then you started shifting about, so I picked him up and remembered back on how soft and poofy your hair was back when I was a little pony. So when you rolled over on your side, I set him down to rest in your hair, took another picture because it was just so cute, and then decided to leave you two alone in peace.”

“That doesn’t explain how I got tangled up inside of it,” Aria snapped and struggled in vain to break free before Adagio reached up and kept him still.

“Hmm,” Sonata pondered. “I don’t know. Maybe you sunk into it and got stuck?”

“Terrific,” Aria scowled until he felt Sonata’s arm reach around Adagio’s shoulder and pulling them both towards her as she pulled out her phone again.

“I can’t let this one pass up,” Sonata held her phone up enough to where all three were in the camera’s frame. “Okay now, smile~!”

She pressed the button and the phone went ‘click!’

She looked at the results and her face went starry-eyed. “Aww, isn’t this just precious~?” she showed her friends the photo; the picture showed Sonata smiling as wide as she possibly could, while in contrast, both Adagio and Aria had looks of pure grimace.

“Cute…” Adagio said sarcastically. “Now will you do us a favor and help get Aria out of my hair?”

“Okay!” Sonata chirped and followed Adagio to the couch. The poofy-haired Dazzling sat down, her little pony companion in tow, while their ditzy acquaintance got behind her and tried untangling the little one.

“Can you take care of the locks around my neck first,” Aria suggested. “It’s very uncomfortable right now.” He felt Sonata’s fingers carefully pulling and untangling the orange locks around his neck, before feeling relieved to have the pressure be lifted off of him. Sonata wanted to ask if she could use a pair of scissors, but she knew her friends who object to it, with Adagio not wanting her to cut off too much that would ruin her hairdo, and from Aria of not wanting her to accidentally hurt him.

“So much hair, Dagi,” Sonata spoke as she kept working. “Have you ever considered getting a haircut?”

“No,” Adagio answered nonchalantly. “Even if I did, Sonata, it will all just grow back the next day. Remember when you accidentally got part of your ponytail chopped off on that trip to the garbage dump?”

“Oh yeah,” Sonata smiled sheepishly before playfully bopping the side of her head and sticking her tongue back out. “It hurt back then too.”

Suddenly Aria felt himself slowly sinking back into Adagio’s hair, feeling like some kind of unknown force was pulling him in. His eye widened at the possibilities. “Adagio, does your hair like have a mind of its own or something?”

Adagio was surprised by the panicked tone Aria was making. “Uh, no? Why?” she reached up to touch his head when she felt him slowly being pulled away from her touch.

“It’s trying to eat me!” Aria cried and started struggling again, much to Adagio’s expense.

She grabbed hold of her hair in attempt to pry the area around the pony wide open. “Sonata, get him out of there right now!”

“I’m trying!” Sonata panicked as well. She was going as fast as she possibly could, trying to remove the strands and curled locks off of Aria’s body, albeit with a bit more force-enough to make Adagio wince more than once. “There, I think I got him!”

“Finally!” Adagio cried in relief. However, that was short-lived when Sonata lifted Aria up out of her hair; she felt a sudden tug that made her wince again. “Ouch! Is something still stuck?”

Aria looked back down to find a very tight knot formed out of a thick lock of Adagio’s hair and from his own tail. “It’s my tail! It’s caught in a knot!”

“Hey, that rhymed!” said Sonata, making him face… hoof-palm himself. “Okay, okay, I’ve just got to pull you out, that’s all.”

“Pull out?” Adagio asked in a worried tone. “Wait, Sonata, I don’t think that’s-AAH!” she gasped out loud from feeling a sudden hard tug on her hair, flaring up the nerves in her scalp. “Ow! What was that for, Sonata?!”

“Hold on, let me try again,” Sonata exclaimed.

“No, Sonata, you should-AAAH!” Adagio cried again from another hard tug, forcing her to her feet, which pulled Aria and Sonata closer in her direction. “Ow! Stop that!”

“No, I can do this!” Sonata gave another painful pull, yanking her friends closer to her. She back up over the couch, but Adagio resisted.

Aria was not fairing any better. “Sonata, this is not helping!”

“I said I got this!”

Soon all three went tumbling all over the couch and landing hard on the floor. Immediately Sonata was back on her feet and pulling on Aria, which in turn tugged on the knot, which in turn end up causing Adagio pain as the Dazzling leader felt herself being dragged across the floor. All three were grunting, cursing, yelling, screaming, and rambling at each other as they were pulling and dragging each other across the living room. Adagio managed to get back on her feet, but still felt being pulled, only for Sonata to quickly turn in a different direction, leaving the Dazzling leader to bump into the table.

“That’s it!” Adagio yelled painfully and reached back behind her, grabbing hold of the knot and then pulling it back in her direction.

“AAAAAAH!” Aria cried from Adagio’s pulled on his tail, sending the nerves on his backside into a frenzy. “Stop it, you two! I’m gonna-AAAAH!” he was cut off when Sonata pulled back, her hands holding him by just his front hooves now.

“No, I can do this!” Sonata pulled again, which made Adagio come tumbling towards her and together crashed into the shelves behind them.

“Let go this instant, Sonata Dusk!” Adagio yelled as she pulled Aria’s tail and they all tumbled onto the coffee table.

“No, you let go!” Sonata yelled back and pulled Aria forward, by extension, Adagio forward.

“Both of you let go! You’re hurting me!” Aria yelled between the two.

“Let go! Sonata!”

“Dagi!”

“Ow! Ah, stop it!”

“Idiot!”

“Meanie!”

“Toothpaste!”

“Cheese Puff!”

“You’re both gonna rip me in half!”

“LET GO!” all three yelled at the top of their lungs, drowning out a sudden tearing sound that made everything come loose; the knot was torn off and Sonata fell backwards, sending Aria flying across the living room towards the stairs and crashing into the wall.

Sonata sat up, rubbing her bottom, until she turned towards Aria moving slowly, groaning from the impact. She spotted a lock of orange hair wrapped up around his tail. She looked back to Adagio and said, “There, he’s out.”

Adagio, however, was on her knees, tears forming at her tightly shut eyes and her mouth hanging open from all of the pain she felt from their sudden tug-o-war. Her hands felt around the top-back of her hair, digging in to feel the very sore spot on the back where a small spot of hair was missing.

She turned to face Sonata with the most pained and angry look she could muster before letting out a disgruntled “OW!”

“You okay?”

“What is the matter with you?!” Adagio snapped at the ditzy woman.

Sonata held her hands up in response. “I thought you wouldn’t let me use a pair of scissors to cut your hair, so I decided to pull him out,”

“I would’ve made an exception if I knew you were going to do that!”

“Hello, what about me?!” shouted Aria from the stairs. “I’m the one who was stuck in the middle between you two and was thrown across the room and slammed into the frickin wall!”

“Enough!” Adagio snapped before standing up, hand still rubbing the back of her head. “Sonata, go somewhere else and do not cause anymore problems,”

Sonata didn’t say anything, but she did look a little upset, getting up and brushing her skirt off before making her way upstairs. She found Aria already on the second floor, recovered from his impact with the wall earlier. She noticed him freezing up in place, his little body shivering a little.

“What’s wrong, Aria?” she spoke. The little fuchsia pony looked away in attempt to avoid making eye contact with her. “Hey now, don’t look away,” she tried to make him look at her when she noticed his cheeks to flushing red. “What’s wrong?”

“Sonata, I…” Aria hesitated to speak, his face still red. “This… this isn’t, well, easy for me to say, but… I need your help,”

“My help? What do you need my help for?” Sonata asked, surprised by the fact that Aria of all people-er, ponies, would be asking her for help. She noticed Aria lowering his head to where he was looking straight down at the floor, and then muttered something under his breath. “Huh?”

Aria muttered again, a little louder than before, but Sonata still couldn’t hear it well enough. “Aria, you’ll have to speak louder. I, like, can’t hear you at all.”

“I said that I have to use the bathroom!” he burst out, his face becoming redder as a result.

Sonata blinked, silent for a moment, before her face formed a ‘what?’ kind of expression. “Why don’t you just go then?”

Aria sighed and put a hoof to his snout. “Really, you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, Sonata. Think about it? You really think that I, in this body, can possibly go alone, by myself, without assistance, in a bathroom made for humans?”

Sonata thought it through before breaking out into a sheepish smile. “Oh… right,”

“So I need… help with going to the bathroom,” Aria said embarrassingly.

Sonata gritted her teeth at the thought of what that might entail. “Does this mean I’m gonna have to… watch you?”

“N-No!” Aria quickly answered, his face practically steaming now. “I j-just need you to help me prepare myself before I go. Afterwards, just close the door and wait until I’m done.”

“Oh, okay. I can do that!” she sighed in relief and picked her friend up to carry him to the hallway bathroom. After flipping the light switch on and lifting the toilet seat, she waited for Aria’s instructions.

“Okay…” Aria observed the situation, thinking of how to make this work. “Just place me on the edge of the toilet seat, and pull my tail up and around so that I can hold it in my lap,”

“Okie dokie,” Sonata chirped and set her little pony friend on the front edge of the toilet seat, but kept her hands close enough to Aria so that she could catch him if he slips while trying to find his balance. “You got it?”

“I think I do,” Aria replied, managing to find a place to feel the most stable and secure at. “Okay, now hand me some toilet paper.” Sonata tore off a fairly long enough piece and tucked it under Aria’s other hoof. “Okay, I think I got it. Now just close the door and wait outside,”

Sonata nodded and stood up and stepped out of the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Aria sighed, turning to look down at the inside of the toilet’s bowl. He knew that he had to be very careful, for one small mistake and he can easily slide back and fall in. “You can do this, Aria. Just don’t think about it, and do what you need to do.”

He slowed his breathing down, trying to make himself as calm as he possibly could. “Okay, here we go.”

He shut his eyes and did his business.

-

Downstairs, Adagio was busy cleaning up the living room after the ‘hairy’ tussle that just occurred earlier. She was glad that nothing fragile or expensive broke, though it did took her some time to get everything back in order with just one hand. She was using the other to keep a small bag of ice to the back of her head in attempt to cool down the sore, stinging spot where her lock was torn straight off her scalp.

“Sonata, I swear…” she growled to herself. She suspected that her toothpaste-haired companion was taking this whole Aria-is-now-an-adorable-pony business too far, him getting tangled up in her hair being the most evident. She had a feeling that if something is not done soon, she might go too far and someone might get hurt.

“But on the other hand,” Adagio looked up at the living room clock on the wall. “Yeah, I really should be going by now.” she said to herself. No doubt she has important business to attend to today, and she certainly didn’t have the time to baby sit the two idiots.

She took a step back to observe the living room, making sure that everything was back to where it was before. “Yep, good as new. Which means…” she pulled out her phone and searched through her list of numbers and selected a more peculiar one. Pressing the quick-call button and putting it up to her ear, it didn’t take long for her call to be answered.

“Gentry, you there? It’s me, Adagio. Are we still on today?” Adagio asked, and the heard the response from the person on the other end. “Good, good, shall we meet up at Chrissy Changeling’s Pizza Hive? Uh-huh? Yeah, I’m grabbing my coat right now. Okay, I’ll meet you there in about half an hour. Alright then, I’ll see you there, love-bug.”

She pressed the button and put her phone back in pocket. Opening the nearby closet, she took out and put on her fabulous purple winter coat, a pair of matching purple gloves, and a purple snow-cap. She nabbed herself a pen and a piece of paper and began writing down a note for Sonata and Aria to find. With quick breath, she grabbed her purse and set the note down at an easy spot for them to find. “I’m heading out, you two. Don’t burn the house down while I’m gone!”

“Okay!” Sonata called from upstairs.

“I mean it, Sonata,” Adagio warned the ditzy one as she opened the door to step out. She knew she had to get this important stuff done today, but a part of her felt that something was amiss.

'I just hope that I’m worrying over nothing.'

Author's Notes:

Holy cow did this chapter turned out a lot different than I thought it would!
This chapter was originally going to contain multiple scenes, but that hair scene at the beginning went on far too long than it should that it's practically its own chapter now!
Oh well, what's done is done. I guess I can just put the rest into the next chapter.
But what's this here at the end? Is there something ominous on the horizon for the next chapter?
What could it possibly be?

Chapter 4: The Last Straw

‘I’m off doing errands for the day. I’ll be back late this evening, so stay out of trouble, you two: I can’t stress that enough.’

That was what was written in Adagio's note. Aria’s time in the bathroom turned out better than he thought it would, not falling into the toilet and being able to flush it on his own afterwards. He still needed Sonata to close the lid down for him, but at least there was nothing left that would unintentionally gross her out. It wasn’t long until he succumbed to boredom, but on the other hand he wasn’t going to go out of his way looking for excitement either, especially not after this morning and the earlier hair incident.

He set the note aside and got himself comfortable on the couch, the remote control right in front of him. He was glad that he was able to work the thing in-spite of having hooves; just a simple press of a button using the tip of his hoof and the television comes on.

If there was one thing about the human world that continues to baffle Aria, it’s that human channels and television shows are very, very weird. The things the sirens see on TV range everywhere from mind-boggling to plain nonsensical to just being bat-nuts craziness.

‘I swear, humans must have a loose feel when it comes to their quality TV,’ Aria thought to himself as he started flipping through the channels for something interesting enough to watch. ‘It's as if they have an almost improvisational tone.’

*click*

“It’s Saturday Night Live! Starring… a piece of toast! Two guys with handle-bar mustaches, a man painted silver who makes robot noises, Gar-Ma-Nar-Nar, 3… um, eh, I, um, uh-I’ll get back to that one…”

*click*

“Okay, we have soda, OJ, purple stuff, and two kinds of Sunny Z!”

“Two kinds?”

“Alright!”

*click*

“I couldn’t afford a present this year, so I got you this box.”

“Hey, that’s what I got you!”

*click*

“I’m Ants-In-My-Eyes Johnson, here at Ants-In-My-Eyes Johnson’s Electronics! I mean, I have so many ants in my eyes, and so many TVs, microwaves, radios, I think, I can’t-I’m not one hundred percent what we have here, because I can’t see anything! I hope our prices aren’t too low!”

*click*

“Come on and slam, and welcome to the Jam!”

*click*

“Hey, look! They’re going to start making artificial beavers.”

*click*

“Will the Power Ponies escape the Mane-iac?! What dastardly tricks does she have up her sleeves? Find out next time; same pony time, same pony channel!”

*click*

“HI! I’M MR. MEESEEKS! LOOK AT ME!”

*click*

“No! You don’t get it! I reserve the right to eat human flesh!”

*click*

“HEYA, KIDS! THIS IS PINKIE, FROM PINKIE’S TOY-FARM!” yelled a familiar-looking teenage girl in a chicken suit bouncing around frantically in front of a huge store.

Aria always cringed for some reason whenever that commercial came on screen. “I despise that chicken…”

*click*

“Good night, don’t let the bed bugs bite.”

“But mom, they don’t bite. They just want to play with me.”

“What?”

“It’s true!” a tall dark creature with the combined features of a tall pony and a bug appeared in the kid’s bedroom. “We aren’t scary. We just want to have fun!”

“Queen Chrissy?!”

“That’s right! You can fun at my place; Chrissy Changeling’s Pizza Hive! No matter your age, the changelings will be here to have fun and show you that there’s nothing to be afraid of. Just a little love and you’ll be set for adventure!”

“We love you, Queen Chrissy!” all the children cried as they hugged the tall changeling queen.

“And I’ve grown fond of you, kids.” Chrissy replied happily as she looks at the camera with the creepiest smile on her face.

*click*

“Wait, Weegee!” There was a sudden explosion.

*click*

“This… is crack!”

*click*

“My Little Donkey, My Little Donkey, Ahh~Ahh~Ahh~Ahh~”

*click*

“Silly Lagomorph! Rainbow Bits are for kids!”

“You share!”

*click*

“It’s the Champion of Justice and Love: Muscle Cutie Kokoro, here to pump up and save the day!”

*click*

“Super Duper Great Escape X Prime is now here! It’s bigger, badder, and messier! Destroy the other fruit people while you rise to the top to win! Super Duper Great Escape X Prime, because killing things smaller than you gives you power! Aahahahahaha!”

*click*

“Jump the mushroom!”

“I’ll jump the mushroom when it’s mushroom-jumping time!”

*click*

“Hey, are you tired of real doors cluttering up your house, where you open and actually go somewhere, like into another room? Well get on down to Real Fake Doors! That’s us! Fill a whole room up with them. See, watch. Check this out! This one won’t open. That one won’t open. Not this one. And not that one. None of them open! ‘Fake Doors.com’ is our website, so check it out for really good deals on fake dooooooooooooooooors!”

The man on screen suddenly started walking off stage, much to Aria’s surprise; never has he seen human commercials, as ridiculous as they can be, do something like this before. For once, he was mildly curious about what was going on. The camera seemed to be following the man, who was already in his car driving all the way to his house. The man went straight to his kitchen and made himself a sandwich.

“Hey, everybody! So this is my house, just made myself a sandwich-peanut butter and jelly. Still here, still selling fake doors!”

Aria blinked, surprised to realize that the whole thing was still part of the commercial, made clearer when the man walked into the next room, which was filled with fake doors, uncannily resembling the same room he was in a while ago. Is it even the same room?

“We have fake doors like you wouldn’t believe. What are you worried about? Come get fake doors! Call us up and order some fake doors today. Don’t even hesitate, don’t even worry, and don’t even… give it a second thought. That’s our slogan. See it at the bottom of the screen, below our name? Here’s another slogan, right below that one. What are you worried about? Come get fake doors! Get in here quick, get out quicker, with an arm of fake doors in your arms!”

Now Aria was bored again.

*click*

“Will you just pick something and stick with it?” Sonata called from the kitchen, closing the side door behind her.

Aria shook his head while still pressing the button. “I’ll stick with something when I find something good to watch,” he heard the young woman entering the living room and noticed that she was holding some chopped pieces of wood in her arms, carrying them over to the fireplace and putting them in; there was no shred of doubt what she was intending to do. “You really shouldn’t do that, Sonata,”

“Come on, Aria, it is cold outside,” Sonata insisted as she reached for the box of matches that lay on a shelf hanging from the wall above the fireplace.

“We have heaters throughout the house,” Aria told her nonchalantly.

Sonata puffed her cheeks in annoyance. “But I want to make s’mores with you!” she pouted a little as she showed him a box of graham crackers, a bag of marshmallows, and some wrapped up chocolate bars. “You know, your favorite treat, Aria!”

The pony’s ear flicked and drew his attention away from the TV screen and towards Sonata. “S’mores?” he asked. He didn’t deny that they were his favorite snack, but after everything that Sonata put him through today, he really didn’t feel like going along with this. Plus, he still doesn’t trust her with the firewood.

“Not now, Sonata,” Aria turned away back to the TV screen.

“Aria,” Sonata insisted.

“I said no,” Aria growled and tried to focus on channel surfing.

“I want to do this with you,” and still she persists.

Aria shook his head again, now annoyed. “Sonata, I’ve been through enough today after what you’ve done to me and Adagio, and I’m tired. Whatever you wanna do, leave me out of it.”

But Sonata wasn’t having it. She went over and picked her friend up, surprising Aria who then tried struggling. “S-Sonata, put me down!”

“No, Aria,” Sonata spoke more sternly this time. Aria felt a shiver crawl up his spine, remembering this feeling from earlier. She gave him that freaky glare again and told him “Like I said before, this is going to be a great weekend, having nothing but fun and making happy memories again, just like before. Do I make myself clear, Aria?”

Aria gritted his teeth and folded his hooves across his chest again. “Fine! We’ll make some stupid s’mores, just put me down already.”

“Okay!” the air-headed siren bounced back to her normal, happy, go-lucky self. She plopped her bottom down in front of the fireplace, setting Aria down in her lap, and took out the crackers, marshmallows, and chocolate. She stuck some onto metal sticks and held some bars of chocolate on some mini-tongs and held them over the fire. “See? Told you that I can handle the fireplace just fine,”

“Yeah, yeah,” Aria rolled his eyes, then blinked when Sonata had already finished making their first s’mores and handed it down to him. He didn’t say anything and just took a bite out of it. No doubt he enjoyed the delicious, gooey, and crunchy dessert.

“You like it?”

“Yeah,”

“You know, I’ve noticed the times before when you would try to make s’mores, or try to buy s’mores hot-tarts at the grocery store, or order an s’mores shake or sundae at Sugarcube Corner. It’s your favorite snack, right?” Sonata asked as she playfully strokes the side of Aria’s neck. “Just like how I love tacos. Hey, remember the time when Adagio made that big taco that I was in?”

“Don’t remind me,” Aria said dully.

Sonata poked his cheek and giggled. “You were puking rainbows, Aria. Then you held me in your arms, telling me how adorable I was, because no one can resist the power of Sonatabetes!”

Aria shrugged. If it was in any other situation, he either wouldn’t care of just give a nod in acknowledgement. Sonata put a hand to her chin and asked “But with that I mind, I wonder Aria would be like with s’mores?” and then her mind started drifting off, imagining little pony Aria in a blank white space, then suddenly falling down and landing on a giant marshmallow, followed by melted chocolate pouring on his back, and then finally being sandwiched between two huge graham crackers. The image was so amazingly cute and yet so amazingly delicious that Sonata unconsciously took a bite out of the s’mores that she had fed to Aria earlier.

Her eyes widened and her lips spread and parted into a huge opened-mouth smile, her cheeks becoming red, as she put her hands to them and gushed out loud. “Aaaaw! Soooo adorable!” she squeal with most utter delight, surprising the mini-pony in her lap.

“Sonata, you’re scaring m-” Aria was cut off as Sonata immediately squeezed him in her arms. Her hug was incredibly strong that he felt extreme pressure on his small body, much to his dismay.

“I just wanna put you in a giant s’mores sandwich and eat you all up!” Sonata chimed, turning her torso left and right, rocking her little friend in arms. She let out a happy gasp as an idea just popped into her head. “I think I’ve just discovered a new disease!”

Aria’s eyes shot open, remembering long back over that ridiculous name Adagio came up for the diabolical, terrifying, mind-numbing, soul-crushing adorableness that was Sonata as a little pony. And now she has a name for him!

“No, no! Don’t say it! Don’t say it!” and he was suddenly tossed into the air. Sonata’s closed eyes, and with the greatest amount of enthusiasm that she could muster, she cried out loud...

“Ariabetes!”

She caught Aria when he came back down, his face cringing as if saying that… word caused him to feel physical pain. “You’re so cute, Aria!”

“I’m not cute…”

“Come on, don’t be that way,” Sonata ruffled a hand through Aria’s mane.

“Uh, Sonata…?” Aria asked sounding surprisingly worried.

“Yeah?”

Aria tilted his head towards the fireplace. “Marshmallow’s on fire,”

Sonata looked up to see that one of the marshmallows she hanged over the fireplace was now lit and burning. She gasped and grabbed the metal stick by the handle and started shaking the thing in attempt to put it out.

“No, don’t do it like that! Sonata!” Aria yelled, but it was too late; Sonata’s shaking flicked the burning marshmallow right off the stick’s end and into the air. Her shock froze her in place as the marshmallow came falling down, and landed on Aria’s head with an audible ‘Splat!’

It took only a few seconds for Aria to fully comprehend what was happening before he let out a terrified scream. The little pony leaped out of Sonata’s lap and started running across the living room, the still burning marshmallow plastered on top of his head, yelling and screaming “GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!”

Sonata snapped back to her senses and cried. “H-Hang on, I’ll get something!” she jumped to her and ran to the kitchen sink as fast as she could, turning it on and grabbing a large plastic bowl from one of the cabinets.

Aria was in a complete, utter frenzy, throwing himself everywhere, until he dropped down on the floor and started rolling himself around like a mad dog. The marshmallow was burning hot, and he couldn’t tell whether his mane was already on fire or not; either way his head was experiencing a most painful burning sensation and every muscle in his body was working in high gear to make it all stop.

But after seconds or a minute of rolling himself across the floor he finally felt the marshmallow being torn off his head, and now laid on the ground in a stained, charcoal-like mess. “Aria, I’ve got some water! I-WHOA!” Sonata yelled, running back into the living room with a plastic bowl full of water, but immediately slipped on the burnt marshmallow, causing her to accidentally toss the bowl in the air as she fell onto her back. Any sudden pain she felt from her fall was instantly cut out by the coupled mix of Aria’s cry, water splashing over the hard floor, and the plastic bowl landing on top of something.

“Aria?” Sonata slowly got up and crawled towards the upside down bowl, seeing his tail sticking from under it and slowly lifted it up, revealing her little friend, all soaked from the spilt water, with bits of marshmallow now stuck in his mane. She watched her friendly stand up on all fours and then suddenly shook his head from side to side really fast, flicking off water in all directions, even getting some on her clothes. He let out a quick gasp of air, taking in deep breaths through his mouth as his mind tried recovering itself from his rather fiery episode. His muscles burned from exhaustion of tumbling himself everywhere, tired and hurt, but also relieved to still be alive.

“Whoo,” Sonata sighed in relief. “Well, at least your mane hasn’t been burned off.”

Aria slowly turned his head towards the other siren as she reached her hand out in attempt to touch him. With his mind now fully recovered from earlier, his teeth gritted together as his eyes narrowed into a furious glare.

“Get away from me!” he snapped and swung his hoof at her, his voice loud and intense. Sonata was taken back by the sudden display.

“Aria…?”

“That's it! I’ve had enough of this garbage!” Aria yelled, shaking the rest of his body much like a dog trying to get water off his coat. “I don’t want anything else to do with these stupid shenanigans of yours, Sonata!”

“But there’s so much more to do!” Sonata protested in her attempt to calm her little pony friend down.

“Well consider it all canceled, because I refuse to put up with anymore of this!” Aria barked and attempt to walk away, but Sonata blocked his path. “Stand aside, Sonata!”

“No!” Sonata answered, raising her voice as well. “We can still do this, Aria. You haven’t been burned by the fire, so you’re okay now,”

“No, I’m not okay!” Aria shouted. “I’ve been turned into a stupid miniature horse against my will by you, been force-fed pancakes to where I nearly puke by you, have been caught and tangled up in Adagio’s hair because of you, been yanked and pulled across the living room because of you, been thrown into the frickin wall by you, and have just been set on fire because of you!”

“I…” Sonata stuttered, trying to think of a way to argue back. “It was only a mistake, okay?! No big deal!”

“No big deal?” Aria asked, clearly offended. “By Starswirl’s carcass, you never see the ramifications to anything you do! You always have your head in the clouds while you cause me nothing but grief!”

“But you always make fun of me!” Sonata yelled back.

“Because of your own stupidity which causes us grief!”

“I’m not stupid, Aria,” Sonata’s hand balled into fists as she tried to keep her voice from breaking up. “I just want to us to have a nice weekend together with one of as a pony, to make some more happy memories like last time when I was pony! That’s all I ever wanted, Aria!”

“Yeah, that’s all you wanted,” Aria replied bitterly. “I never asked for this, Sonata! I never asked you to turn me into a stupid pony! If you wanted to experience all of this again like last time, how about you turn yourself into a stupid pony again! Leave me out of it!”

Sonata’s attempts to hold back from crying were failing, for she felt a lump forming in her throat and her eyes starting to become watery.

“Why?” she regarded him for a moment. “Why are you always so angry and mean to me, Aria?”

Now Aria was certainly mad. The girl just couldn’t take a hint. “Oh, you want to know why, Sonata? I’ll tell you why: it’s because I hate you! I hate everything about you! You’re stupid, clumsy, always in your little pretend world, never taking anything seriously that should be taken seriously, and like I said before, you cause me nothing but pain and grief! And yet…” Aria slammed his hoof against the floor. “… and yet you have everything, both you and Adagio! You both have gotten what we’ve all been working so hard to get; adoration! Sure, Adagio has her charm and charisma, but you?! You have no redeeming values, and yet you have people adoring you left and right. Tartarus, there are even people who are attracted to your stupidity and clumsiness! I mean, really? How can stupidity be an attractive trait? How can anyone possibly be attracted to those horrendous traits of yours is beyond my comprehension! You cause me grief and ruin things for me while Adagio keeps me in the role of second-bananas while she hogs the glory all for herself whenever I try to stand out on my own! That’s why I’m so angry all the time, Sonata Dusk; you are the absolute worst-no, you’re worse than the worst! You are nothing!”

Sonata was completely silent. Tears had already poured down the sides of her face, her eyes glued onto Aria as if she had just seen a ghost, and her mouth hanging open. “I…”

Aria was breathing heavily, his glare never leaving Sonata’s face. He felt like a heavy burden have been lifted off his shoulders, but at the same time he felt completely drained and his throat burning from all of the yelling. With nothing else to say, he began walking past the young woman, heading for the stairs; nothing would make him feel better than to just go to bed after everything that had transpired today.

But then he heard Sonata shifting behind him and within a heartbeat he suddenly felt a strong force around his throat, as he was pulled and pushed down onto his back forcing him to look back at Sonata. She bore a furious expression on her face, much like he did earlier, tears still pouring down the sides of her face and with murder in her eyes, as she held him down by his neck. “Take it back!”

“S-Sonata…” Aria gasped as he felt the pressure around his neck increasing as she strangled him.

“I’m not nothing! I’m not worthless!” she yelled as she shook him. “Take it back, Aria! Take it back now!”

“I… can’t… breathe…” Aria’s face was slowly becoming pale as his eyes watered, veins forming throughout his sclera and his iris and pupils shrinking into dots.

“ARIA!”

The little pony started squirming, trying to break himself free from the other’s grasp. His hooves batted and kicked against her wrists, trying to scrape against her skin, until a flick and shaking of his head caused her grip to weaken for a brief moment.

Suddenly Sonata let out a very loud cry as she felt a jolt of pain on her left hand, and quickly pulled her hands away from Aria. He quickly jumped back, forming some distance between him and his would-be killer, coughing and wheezing in attempt to fill his lungs with air again.

Sonata held her left hand and looked down at it. On both sides of her hand, on the space between her thumb and index finger was scraped skin, revealing the soft pink flesh underneath that quickly became red with blood, all in an oval shaped formation of what was none other than teeth marks.

Sonata slowly looked back at Aria, shocked over what just happened. “You… bit me?”

Aria didn’t say anything. How could he after that? All that he could think of right now was getting away from her. He turned tail and ran towards the stairs, disappearing from Sonata’s sight. Sonata didn’t have time to say anything either, only to have her hand out beckoning him to come back. She felt as if her whole world was falling apart as she finally broke down and cried.

-

Aria quickly hid himself in the bathroom. He didn’t know what Sonata would possibly do now after her attempted murder, but he knew that if she tried looking for him, she would easily find him if he hid himself in his room, maybe even in her room or in Adagio’s room. The bathroom seemed to at least be one of the last remaining places she would check if she did go looking for him. Either way, he didn’t care as long as he was away from her and every second counts.

A sudden chill was felt in the cramped room, making Aria shiver. He looked around in hopes of finding the source and dealing with it. He found the window on the wall where the shower is hanging open, letting the cold winter air inside. “My gosh, Adagio, you couldn’t even remember to close the bathroom window?” he grumbled under his breath. Granted, he understood the need of wanting to avoid the risk of mildew forming in the bathroom from all of the steam the shower makes, but he also knew the importance of remembering to shut the window after a while to prevent the winter air from coming in and freezing up the house.

Judging from how high the window was, he thought about calling for Sonata to come close it, but then quickly discarded the idea from his thoughts. “No. Not after what happened earlier. I don’t need her for this. I can take care of it myself.”

And so little Aria hopped onto the toilet, and then onto the sink’s counter. He distanced himself as far as he possible could on the edge as he focused himself straight towards the window which lied right ahead of him. With a deep breath, he took off running across the sink’s counter before making a quick leap at the end and towards the window, hoping to land on the edge so that he could pull down the window’s sill. Instead he crashed against the shower wall and slowly slid down with an audible squeak. “Ouch.”

But he wasn’t giving up. He quickly pulled himself together and climbed his way back up to the sink’s counter, analyzing everything set before him. He’ll have to be precise this time, for every movement he makes counts towards either success or plowing himself against the wall again.

“Here we go,” he told himself, and with another deep breath, he took off again, this time making sure he was at the furthest tip of the counter’s edge, putting his hind hooves to them and applying as much force as he could muster, and launching him off towards his target again.

And then it all went wrong.

He successfully made it to the edge next to the window, but it went well in the worst way possible. He landed on the sill with his hind hooves after turning his body upwards during his jump, but the sill was slippery from the shower’s water mixed in with the snow that formed there. He felt himself sliding through the open window itself to the outside. His first thought was to stop himself from sliding any further and quickly rolled around until he was on his stomach, planting his hooves down as hard as he can on the window’s bottom frame.

The freezing air blew against his back as he struggled to pull himself up, but everything was too slippery and his hind hooves couldn’t find anything solid or sturdy enough to press them against.

He gasped as his heart sank, feeling grip weakening on the window’s frame. He tried again to pull himself up, but he just couldn’t muster the strength to do so. He was too exhausted from earlier, but his breathing pace was increasing from sheer terror.

“Adagio? Sonata?” He tried speaking, but his words weren’t loud enough. “Help me?”

His hooves were slipping. He couldn’t hang on anymore.

“Help…”

He gasped, his throat hard as if his heart was caught in it, as everything around felt loose and free, his eyes glued to the bathroom window as it drifted farther away from his reach.

Farther, and farther, and farther away…

Chapter 5: Sheer Cold

Sonata sniffed and hiccupped, her face hot and wet from her tears. She had already finished cleaning up the mess that she caused in the living room and had put her crackers, chocolate, and marshmallows away. Now she was at the kitchen sink running her bitten hand under the running water, shifting the temperature between cold to reduce the swelling, and hot to cancel out the stinging with warm water.

Eventually she had enough rinsing and raised her hand up to inspect it for the third time, but like the previous two, it easily reminded her of what happened earlier, and every time it did, she felt like crying again.

What felt was going to be a happy day filled with fun and fond memories turned into a disaster, and as much as she tried to deny it, the more she thought about what Aria said to her, the more she became convinced that it’s all her fault. She hated it whenever they fought, especially when he was picking on her and being mean to her, and wanted to always believe that she was innocent. But here, as much as she truly hated to admit, she couldn’t help but feel like the “bad guy” this time. He said before how angry he was that she turned him into a pony without his consent, but it was only now where she finally understood it, and it was after their… fight from earlier.

The more she looked at her hand, the more the scene of it gripping tightly around Aria’s throat would appear in her mind; she shut her eyes tight to block it out, biting her lower lip as her hand balled into a fist against her chest. Her eyes became watery again, her core aching with sorrow and remorse. She never meant to hurt him like that; it was just that, out of all the times he ever said mean things to her, this one just made her lose herself.

‘Now Aria hates me more than ever,’ Sonata remorsed. ‘What have I done?’

She turned the lever, shutting off the water from coming through the faucet. The burning seems to have stopped, so she grabbed the nearby towel on the counter to dry her hand off. She popped a painkiller into her mouth for good measure-there was always that risk of a lingering ache if left unattended and walked out of the kitchen with a bottle of water in hand.

Looking around the living room, Sonata felt her perspective had become jaded. Nothing felt the same anymore, as if her life had been turned upside down. Walking up the stairs felt almost like an eternity for the girl, dragging her feet along the way to the top and then down the hallway before stopping just outside of Aria’s bedroom. The door’s crack was visible, but she couldn’t see anything due to the darkness.

“Aria?” she asked out loud through the crack, her hand hesitating to knock on the door. She was met with dead silence, not even a whimper, and yet it ironically confirmed her worst fears; Aria wanted nothing more to do with her.

Sonata slowly stepped away; her head hung low and her hand tightening around her bottle of water, as she fought back the urge to cry again. It was probably the first time in a very long time that out of all of her antics and shenanigans, she had realized the full depth of the consequences of her actions.

‘I’m so sorry, Aria,’

That was what she wanted to say more than anything, but deep down she knew that it would be fruitless. Her tears won out in the end, and poured down her face again, but she otherwise remained silent all the way to her bedroom. After kicking off her shoes, she crawled into bed, setting the bottle on the nearby desk and then pulled the blankets over her. She silently whispered “I’m sorry,” over and over to herself as she cried herself to sleep, wishing to take it all back; wishing that Princess Luna would come to her in her dreams again to undo the wish.

-

Everything was lost.

Everything was numb.

Everything was dark.

Everything was cold-very, very cold.

Senses returning and conscious awaking, the miniature equine’s body was overwhelmed by the harsh, unpleasant feeling of cold and wetness. His eyes shot open, wiping away the darkness to a blurred mix of white and blue. It took seconds, yet it felt like an eternity, before his vision became clear and greeted with the site of snow. It was everywhere, smothering him like a thick blanket, until he slowly raised his head, emerging from the pile that covered him.

Aria Blaze held his head low, fixated on the snow around him, as his mind scoured through his memories to figure out where he was and how he got here.

‘The incident… Sonata!’ he remembered what happened earlier, the anger and fear slowly building up inside him again, but he shook himself to keep a hold of himself. As far he knew, there was no reason to be angry right now. ‘Come on, what else? I was running… the bathroom, and… come on… the window!’ raising his head up upon that last thought, he turned his gaze towards the upper level of the Dazzlings’ house till his eye laid upon the open bathroom window, now remembering himself falling out the window.

“I survived?” as grateful and fortunate he was to still be breathing, the bewildered colt couldn’t nonetheless fathom on how he could miraculously survive such fall in his current state. ‘Surely the snow alone couldn’t have been enough to break my fall.’

But as much he wanted answers, what matter now was getting back on his feet and getting back inside; it’s really cold outside. Aria gathered up his strength and after rolling onto his front, he attempt to raise himself up onto his hooves, which only made him more confused. ‘There’s not a single bone broken in my body! I mean, I’m grateful that I’m still in one piece, but how can I stand up and not feel any pain after just falling out of that window?’

The cold breeze again smacked him senseless, forcing a shiver to tingle through his small body. “R-R-Right, got to stop wondering and get going!” his teeth chattered in his little muzzle as he tried taking his first steps slowly, trying to make sure that he’s a hundred percent okay before he tries anything reckless.

Immediately, he hissed from the encroaching cold wetness as his legs sank into the thick sheet of snow. In fact, his whole body was shivering uncontrollably, and it only took him until now to realize why; his body was still partially wet from the water that Sonata accidentally spilt over him, as he could see from his fur sticking out nearly everywhere in ‘spikes’ of collectively stuck hairs. He shook his head frantically, trying to take his mind off the cold and focusing on getting back inside the house.

He exhaled a visible puff of breath before kicking up his hind legs and taking off down the side yard. Everywhere he was kicking up snow as he pushed his way through the thick blanket of soft frozen water, filling his ears with the crunching sounds of his hooves trampling through it all. He held his tongue, trying his best to resist the biting cold from both the snow and the breezing wind, and much to his luck, he made to the corner of the house with the front porch coming into view.

Aria pushed forward more, breathing heavily till he reached the front porch, galloping his way up the steps till he stood before the front door. “Sonata?” he tapped the door with his hoof and waited for that idiot to show up and let him back in. But to his surprise, there was no response, making him raise an eyebrow. He knocked of the door again with his hoof. “Sonata, open the door!”

His teeth chattered loudly as hid body shivered, the air becoming colder than it was before. The chill was making him lose his patience as he slammed his front hooves against the door. “Open the door, Sonata, right now!” he turned his gaze towards the knob prompting him to jump up to grasp it, but his hooves easily slip off, unable to hold onto. He kept going for a while even though every attempt ended in failure.

“I’m sorry for biting you, alright? Just open the door, I’m freezing!” he yelled, now slamming himself against the door out of frustration and desperation to make as much noise as possible that would catch Sonata’s attention. He tried over and over, but with the cold, the wetness, and self-harm, it was only in a matter of time till he inevitably tired himself out. But above it all, he was frightened and on the end of his rope.

“Sonata,” he asked softly, his voice sore from all of the yelling, as he laid his head against the door. “Please… please open the door. It’s cold,”

Aria rubbed his hooves over his body to warm up, but it was no use. He was still wet, and it’s getting colder by the minute. His breath was visible, his teeth still chattering, and his body won’t stop shivering. Feeling tired and sleepy, his eyelids getting heavy and his legs no longer able to hold him up, Aria saw no other choice but to lie down in front of the door and curl up into a ball.

‘Come on, Adagio, get home already!’

His eyelids beat once, twice, and then three times before fully closing shut.

‘Please come home. I'm so cold…’

-

Adagio let out an annoyed sigh as she drove down the street, front lights on to light her way. For a while everything was going fine on her day out, but it wasn’t until earlier this evening that there was news report of a possible snow storm coming in tonight, and with not wanting to have the car be stuck in snow and leave the two imbeciles at home wondering where she is, she can call off the rest of her date with Gentry and head on home.

Easily looking out the window she could see the snowflakes already coming down to warrant using her windshield wipers. The sky was now shrouded in the darkness of night, the sun fully set over the horizon.

‘Thanks, Old Man Winter. As always, you’ve been such a big help.’

She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone, dialing the house and then putting it up to her ear. It rang for a while, but no one was picking up, prompting another sigh from her mouth. Well, it wasn’t that much of a deal anyway; she was almost around the corner where their house would be. Steering to the right at the intersection, she pulled up onto their home street, being greeted by the lights of the homes of their neighbors, including some who haven’t taken down their holiday decorations yet.

The house was just up ahead, but the closer she came to it, a sense of dread quickly crept over her. All the lights in the house were out.

“Oh no…”

-

All the phones ringing inside the house woke Sonata up from her sleep. Her drowsiness made her too slow to answer them, and there was no voice messages left either. Suddenly her body tensed up from the extreme cold she was feeling throughout her room.

“Why is it so chilly in here?” she asked herself as she got out of bed. Walking into the hallway exposed her to the darkness that surrounded the house. Immediately, she flipped the switch on, relieved to now having light illuminating the second floor. That relief, however, was short-lived when Sonata realized how quiet it was, as if she was in the house all alone.

“Aria?” she asked out loud, opening her fellow siren’s bedroom door, not bothering to ask for permission first. It too was dark, but after switching the light on, she found the place to be empty, no little pony in site. “Aria?” she called again as she looked around the room, checking every corner and place she could think of, but her search was fruitless.

“Aria, where are you?” Sonata was now scared and worried for her little friend. She started checking the entire second floor, flipping all the lights on and searching every nook and cranny she can find, and yet Aria still couldn’t be found; and the less fruitless her search became, the more scared and worried she became.

The entire second floor was searched and she was completely empty handed. “Aria, answer me, please! Aria!” she started to panic, her breathing increasing and her eyes slowly starting to well up as if she could cry at any moment. Her ears caught the sound of a car pulling up into the driveway outside. “Oh no, Adagio is home! How long was I asleep for?”

There was no doubt in Sonata’s mind that she will certainly get in trouble for what happened earlier between her and Aria, but somehow it didn’t matter to her anymore; she needs to find her friend and she needs all the help she can get. Sonata made sure to double-check everything on the second floor before heading downstairs. Flipping the switches on in the living room and kitchen, the girl scoured her eyes throughout the place, hoping with all her might that they would find Aria somewhere. “Aria, where are you! Don’t do this to me! I need you to be okay! Aria!”

Adagio’s footsteps were heard just outside the front door. Swallowing her pride, if she ever had any to boast about, Sonata ran to the door and threw it open. “Adagio, Aria’s gone missing and I can’t find him anywhere! Please, you’ve got to help me! I… I…”

Seeing her leader’s face had left her speechless. Adagio stood still in the doorway, her face pale, eyes widened, and lips slightly parted; it was as if she had just seen a ghost, until Sonata’s eyes noticed that she was holding something in her arms. It was a small creature-no, she knew exactly who it was.

“No,” Sonata gasped, feeling as if the world has gone dark, all of their senses focusing on the small pony in Adagio’s arms. She slowly reached out to touch the familiar fuchsia-colored pony, feeling the cold, soaked fur against her fingers, and then gently pressed them against his little body.

His eyes were shut.

“No,” her head was slowly moving side to side, as if trying to deny the reality before her.

He wasn’t breathing.

“No, no, no…” Sonata’s lips quivered, her teeth gritting, and her head shaking faster and more frantically. Panic was setting in, her voice cracking up, and her eyes couldn’t hold back the tears.

He wasn’t moving.

“ARIA-!”

Author's Notes:

Finally back to this story now.
I'm sorry that this update took so long to make, stuff everywhere was taking up my time, and now I have a cramp in my hand. I'm also sorry that this chapter is shorter than the other ones, due to lack of material to work with.