Sonata was sound asleep; something which she had been worried would not occur. She figured she would either be up all night, not able to sleep or plagued by dreams. She hated dreaming. You couldn't really call what she had dreams, more like nightmares of the condemned. Faces, voices, shrieks of pain and hatred, yelling, sinking, drowning, being buried alive, all things she'd rather not experience (especially now after all she had been through and lost). But she had gone straight out.

Now through the comforting grip of unconsciousness a voice tried to pull her back. Sonata it called; soft and sweet like a mother. Her mother?-No, her mother was long since dead. Sonata. There it was again. Feminine, lovely. Mother is that you? Are you here? Am I dead mother? Or are you a spirit to guide me? Her thoughts trickled up from the back of her mind to her slowly awakening front. Sonata, Sonata . . .

". . . it's time to wake up Sonata" Luna said while shaking Sonata awake. The girl had slept on the coach for the night. Luna had a spare bedroom, but no bed in it. She had no need for it. She never had guest that stayed over so she had turned that room into a second library. She did have a spare pillow and blanket for the girl luckily.

Sonata slowly opened her eyes. Just rapid blinks at first. She had no idea where she was at first. A quick jolt of fear caused he to pop her eyes wide open and then she realized that she was on the coach at Luna's house. She looked the human in face for a second (letting the rest of her brain come online) and drowsily spoke, "Morning already?"

"Yes and it's time to get up." Luna's voice was still soft but there was also a sternness added to it.

"Why? It's Saturday isn't it?" Sonata asked confused.

"Yes it is; but, you need to go clothes shopping. You can't exactly where the same outfit all the time. I mean, who does that?"

"True, it would be rather disgusting to where the same clothes everyday," Sonata agreed as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. "So can we have breakfast first? Maybe an egg taco?"

"What?", Luna asked, disgusted. "Tacos are not a breakfast food. They barely count as food period. I have some nice, whole grain cereal if you want. I'll get it for you. Anything above that, you make yourself."

Sonata didn't know what to say. First this human insulted the king of faux Mexican cuisine and then offered her what would have been considered horse feed in another century. But considering she had been a pony in her previous life, she guessed it was apropos. "Sure," was all she could muster.

"Ah, ah, ah. What do we say?" Luna chided.

"We didn't say anything. You asked if I wanted cereal and I said sure." Sonata was confused. Why would she ask what they had said when they never spoke in unison?

"Thank you!"

"You're welcomed but I didn't do anything," Sonata replied even more confused.

Luna face palmed and groaned. This was going to be harder than she thought. "No, you say thank, oh never mind! We'll work on manners later. I'll go get you your cereal." Luna got up and went to the kitchen.

A thousand years, Sonata thought, and I still don't get these creatures.

*********************************************************************************************************************

It was actually a beautiful day out. The weather was warm but not hot, the sun shone bright in the sky with only enough clouds to make it pretty but not to threaten rain, and the sky was the perfect shade of blue. Sonata road in the passenger seat with her window down feeling the rushing air on her face. She loved cars. Well riding in them at least. She had no knowledge of their mechanics nor did she have any desire to learn how to drive one; but compared to the old ways of travel, cars were a godsend.

"So where are we going? Macy's, Boscov's, eww, Tiffany's?" Sonata asked excited finally about getting a new wardrobe.

"On my salary? - No," Luna replied. This girl really had no clue as to what real life was all about. Maybe she had bitten off more than she could chew this time.

"Well, where then?"

"Kmart." Luna simply said.

"KMART!" Sonata shouted. "What, was Goodwill closed today?" Kmart?! What the heck was that? Did this woman seriously expect her to wear Kmart clothes? Even Walmart had a "so bad it's good", red neck appeal to their clothing; but Kmart? Ugh.

"The store is having a sale today. Besides, my money, my choice. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am." Sonata sank back into her seat and sulked the rest of the way.

When they got to the store, Sonata's heart sank even more. The store had the look of a building that at some long ago point had been very nice, but just looked old and run down. The sprawling parking lot which would have been jammed packed on a Saturday morning thirty years ago; was now almost completely empty save for a few cars (most of which belonged to the staff). This wasn't a store but a ruin. Sonata turned her head and glared at Luna.

"I grew up shopping here," Luna said defensively. "If you would have seen it in it's prime, you'd understand."

"Hello, I saw this place back when it was a forest and still controlled by the Indians." Sonata snarked back.

"Oh c'mon!" Luna was really starting to lose her cool now.

Once inside they went straight for the junior misses' section. Luna had not been in this section of the store since she was a junior miss. But she had seen what the girls were wearing to school and seeing those clothes now on racks, she could only frown. "Back in my day; not even the sluts wore clothes like this."

"Actually . . . " Sonata started to speak but was cut off.

"Ok, I get it. You're ancient. You've seen first hand things I've only studied in books. I'm sure you could give me a full dissertation on the history of female dress and sexual norms through the ages. But I am not. I have only my own short lived experience in this world to go by. Alright?"

"All right Miss Luna." Sonata just shrugged.

"I just think it's horrible the way we over sexualize our girls nowadays," Luna sighed with a mixture of sadness and revulsion.

Sonata couldn't help herself. She had to speak up. "Yes, but at least they're not expected to marry or get pregnant. In many parts of the world, even to this day; a girl who is the age I look would be married with a couple children."

"But it's still exploitive. No girl, or woman for that matter, should feel like a collection of body parts on display for the amusement of men."

"True, but no woman should feel she needs to hide her body for the appeasement of others as well. That's the real problem. Your species doesn't allow women to own their own sexuality. All women learn from earlier on that how they chose to or not display their bodies is a matter of public debate."

Luna looked at Sonata in loving disbelief. This girl (although not really a girl) could go from completely naïve to absolutely brilliant in a split second. She had only met one other girl like that in her whole life and that was Pinkie Pie. Oh those two would become best friends once they met.

Luna heard her phone ring. "Probably my sister. We usually meet this time on Saturday to discuss what happened through the week. Go pick out some stuff while I take this." Luna then answered her cell and walked off.

Sonata went about picking some jeans, a couple leggings, a pair of sweat pants, some shorts, skirts, blouses, tees, and tank tops. Enough to give her two weeks of outfits. She then went and picked out a pair of sneakers and a cute pair of heels that Luna would probably disapprove of but she couldn't live without. After that, some underwear and she was ready to go to the fitting room to try everything on.

She got in and started to undress when she saw herself in the mirror. For a thousand years she had seen this face, this body. Never changing, never growing older, always the same. But that was all gone now. She had seen countless humans age through the years so she knew what was coming: her skin would start to wrinkle and sag, her breast would droop, varicose veins would start to appear beneath her skin, her hair would grow white, her bones brittle, her muscles, eye sight, hearing would become weaker, her immune system would become less efficient, and then what?- cancer, Alzheimer's, dementia? And where would she go? Who would take care of her? And then, nothingness. Death. No more her -EVER! And all within a few decades. All the previous centuries she'd lived now seemed like the flickering of a dying candle. It was all to brief, too quick, too horrible. Sonata broke down weeping; tears gushing from her eyes.

Luna heard Sonata crying and rushed and held her. Sonata curled up into her like a baby into her mother's lap. Luna hugged her, stroked her hair, and kept saying it would be ok. But how could it? Sonata was going to decay and die and no one could stop it. Maybe she should have stayed with Adagio and Aria. Maybe this was all a big mistake.

Sonata turned her head up to look at Luna, to tell her she had made a mistake; but she noticed something. Luna was crying as well. No one had cried for Sonata before. But this woman was. This woman cared. She buried her head back into Luna's chest and made a vow; this might all be a huge mistake, but she would try to make it work - for Luna.