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I Can Smile

by Eyeswirl the Weirded

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Too Much Sugar!

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Sonata Dusk had a plan.

Walking down the street, she had just finished patting herself on the back for telling off her the other two. That little talk probably wouldn't air on any kids' shows any time soon, but it was still great watching Adagio turn red with rage and even getting mad enough to swear, along with Aria, being Aria, not doing anything but standing there and shouting at her. Nuts to both of them, Sonata was on her own now, and she knew just what to do!

It was a pretty simple thing; she'd walk up to the Rainbooms, their old enemies from a few weeks ago, pour on the charm, get into their good graces, and ride the Friendship Express all the way to easy street!

Not like Sunset Shimmer had, Sonata was smarter than that. No, no, she was just gonna get on their good sides, rob them blind, and book a first-class train to the next town to find someone else to do that with again. She'd do that until she was living the high life in a top-floor penthouse or something, laughing and drinking caviar while Aria and Adagio were eating out of the trash. Her trash.

Yes, eat my trash, you losers! Big, bossy know-it-all and big, mean know-it-nothing!

She shook her head, there'd be time for that fantasy later! For now; Pinkie Pie's house. Silly Adagio, leaving her map of enemies' houses out in plain sight where anybody could swipe it! She knocked on the door, ready to do what the others couldn't, at least not like she could.

I might not be as smart as Adagio or as strong as Aria, but I can do something they can't.

She grinned wickedly.

I can smile!

That grin quickly shifted to a bright, affable one as she heard someone coming to answer the door.

Pinkie Pie stood there with a bright, cheery grin for the first half-second. "Hi-eeee there..." It quickly became a somewhat nervous expression. "Eh, uh, haha, hi! How are you after the whole... thing where you guys lost your singing voices and people threw stuff at you?"

Her wide, happy, grin unchanged by the bitter reminder, Sonata giggled. "I'm okay, thanks for asking!" She folded one arm over the other, bending just slightly forward and shifting her grin toward cute, adding just the right blend of sheepishness and sorryness. "Well, y'know, except my group all hating each other now and the others kicking me out with nowhere to go, but other than that, I'm super!"

That might not have been completely true, but it did what she'd wanted it to as Pinkie stared at her in silence, mouth just slightly open.

Sonata turned on a heel and started walking away, her tone every bit as bright and unfettered as when she began. "Welp, just thought I'd drop by, seeya around! Come visit my cardboard box some time! Sure hope I don't freeze to death by then."

"W-wait!!"

Facing away from Pinkie, Sonata let herself smirk evilly for just a second before turning back, looking happy and oblivious. "Yea?"

There was an almost strained grin. "Uh, I, w-would you like to come inside? I was just getting started on some cupcakes."

She could see the pity in Pinkie's face, poking through the holes in the drummer's increasingly forced smile. Unlike Aria and Adagio, Sonata had nooooo problem letting people pity her, because it just meant they'd let their guard down all the sooner. Internally, Sonata was laughing with maniacal glee, but her face only showed the same cute smile she'd started with. "Sure!"

---

Infiltration was going great!

"Bowl," ordered Pinkie.

"Bowl," confirmed Sonata, passing the baking equipment.

"Flour."

"Flour."

"Something sweet."

"Something sweet."

"A bit of salt."

"A bit of salt?"

"Just a pinch!"

After adding a teaspoon of vanilla, Pinkie started stirring the bowl with a big ol' mix-y tool that looked like it could seriously mess up somebody's face. It was something Sonata would keep in mind. Pinkie grinned. "Thanks for helping me out here, Nata! I cook stuff up all the time, but it's always a little lonely by myself!"

Sonata grinned back. "Sure thing, I-" Blink. "Wait, 'Nata'?"

Pinkie shrugged a little. "I thought it sounded a little friendlier than 'Sonata,' not that your name isn't friendly, just that friends tend to call each other more friendly names than their own names, and if we're friends then I'd like to be friendly friends and not just friends like people who add you as friends on MyStable and then you never talk to them again, because that's not very friendly at all!"

Knowing that feel, Sonata found herself beaming in earnest. "Right?! I can't even add Aria and Adagio because they won't make accounts!"

Pinkie gasped. "We should totally fix that!"

They popped the cupcake-goo into the oven after pouring it into a funky tray and set off for the laptop in Pinkie's room. Pinkie was actually kind of fun to be around, so robbing her blind was probably going to suck a little.

---

"What should we put for Aria's interests?"

Sonata beamed. "Snuggly bunnies, hairless goats, naked old people, sour milk, fairies, balloons, tight pants, and tighter undies!"

Pinkie giggled. "And Adagio?"

"SUPER snuggly bunnies, tons of sand, slow elevators, squeaky doors, ugly hats, unicorns, hairy spiders, and her own big, fat butt!"

Cracking up, Pinkie typed it all in, wiping away a tear as she clicked 'Enter'. "Wow, they're into some weird stuff. I hope they can make plenty of friends this way."

Sonata just kept smiling. Oh, I'm sure they will. She scarfed down another cupcake, which had finished cooking and since been topped with icing while they were assembling the pointless, but funny MyStable profiles. Something about food being free made it extra tasty! Like, three times as much in this case.

Pinkie stopped grinning, instead looking a little worried. "Uh... Nata? How many of those have you eaten?"

"Only like eight." Munchmunchmunch. "Nine."

Looking at the empty tray, Pinkie got a nervous look on her face. "I wondered why it looked like they were going faster than usual..."

Time for sympathy! "Sorry," Sonata said while putting on a pitiful expression, "It's only been like two days since I last ate, but I'm really, really hungry."

"It's not that," replied Pinkie, "it's-well, I probably should have asked if you were normal-hungry first and not just snack-hungry, because there's a big, big, stomach-rumbly difference! Because if you try to fill normal-hungrydom with a lot of snacks, you can get kind of... barfy?"

Sonata paled. "Barfy?"

Pinkie shrugged, starting to smile again. "Well, I don't think that'll happen to you, I mean, even if these were covered in ultra-rich super-sugary frosting that Rarity won't even inhale when it's in the same room, you'd probably only get sick if you ate a lot of it on a full stoma-"

Pinkie jumped with a start as her bedroom door flew open, followed by the bathroom door and immediate sounds of retching.

---

Sitting in her room, Aria Blaze took out her earphones a few seconds before the very end of the last song and looked around as though expecting someone to be standing there glaring at her. She was alone. Which was great, but that was how it had been for the last hour or two now, which was also great, but unusual. Unexpected. Not that she was worried or anything.

She stood up, opened her door, and opened her mouth with the word already on her tongue, but there was no one to shout it at. Looking through the hall, nobody was around. Which was fine, because Aria didn't care if she saw Orange Bossy or Blue Stupid for the rest of her life. Still, the normal thing after a big, three-way argument, if she remembered right, was that they all storm off, do their own thing for a bit, then Adagio kicks open a door and goes all You-Will-Obey-Me at them. Possibly with a chance of going out for milkshakes, depending on who had been the biggest tool.

Might as well get it over with.

Slowly pacing the house, it was almost eerily quiet. Did Sonata really run off to make new friends or whatever she'd been blabbering about? Aria's best hope was that it was a tribe of cannibals or something, but that still left their 'leader,' whose plans only ever led them from bad to worse.

I totally would have had us on top of the world by now, if they'd ever listen to me.

Not that she had any ideas right now, with their magic gone, but still. That was Adagio's only real job, after all, that and the occasional mind-screw song, which they wouldn't need anymore. Aria was more of a doer than a thinker anyway, so she didn't waste any time in searching the house for any sign of the others. Sonata wasn't in her room, so she dared think that the whole house might all be hers now before knocking on Adagio's bedroom door to find out for sure.

"Hey, Shower-Clog, you awake?"

There was no reply. She knocked harder, getting only more of the same.

Huh. Guess she's out, either wrangling the idiot or doing something shady.

Not willing to jinx things by redecorating the whole house to suit her own tastes just yet, Aria shrugged, turned, and walked away. Adagio would have probably tried to force an apology out of her anyway, even though she said some nasty stuff herself, and Aria wasn't about to take back what she said about her being a useless, stuck-up, flat-chested narcissist.

Actually, she thought with a little smirk, that was maybe one of the nicer things I called her.

---

Pinkie sat outside the bathroom with a little container of tummy-ache tablets. Frowning, she called through the door. "I'm really, really sorry, Nata." The only immediate reply was a stomach being upended.

Kneeling before the porcelain altar and hacking up her own guts as a chunky sacrifice, Sonata coughed a few times. "D-don't worry 'bout it, Pinks!" My vengeance will be BRUTAL.

Still waiting out in the hall, Pinkie brightened up a little. "Maybe I could make it up to you? It shouldn't be too hard to find a cake aro-"

"HU-UUUURK!!"

"Oh. Right. Sorry!"

---

When Sonata finally staggered out of the bathroom, feeling a few pounds lighter, Pinkie immediately appeared with a little tablet in one hand, a glass of water in the other, and an apologetic smile. "Here, these should help, and don't worry, the tablet is chewable."

Blinking twice, Sonata smiled too. Maybe my vengeance doesn't have to include fish hooks and a beartrap... She took the offered stomach-calming implements, feeling just a little better after.

Then Pinkie started toward the front door. "I've gotta run now, got a party to set up in town, but I'll text my friends and let everybody know you're okay, okay?"

Infiltration succeeded!! Beaming, Sonata nodded and moved to follow her out. It would look WAY suspicious if she just hung around an empty house that wasn't hers before stuff went missing. "Okay! Is there anyone I can go visit right now?" She followed Pinkie down the sidewalk for a minute while waiting for a verdict from the land of text messages.

"I think Rarity might be free right now!"

"Great!" She's the rich girl, right? She kinda has that vibe, so I shouldn't have to rob Pinkie at all! Win-win! "I'll head there now, buh-bye Pinks!"

Pinkie waved at her. "Catch ya around, Nata!"

Wow, she thought as Sonata sped off in the right direction, good thing she already knows where we all live!

Author's Notes:

Yes, yet another Sonata-on-her-own fic, so you may very reasonably be wondering "Why should I read this? There's too many of these darn things already and adding more makes me want to whack you with a Twi-cane!"

And I would answer "Because this time, there's a subtle twist! And a less-than-subtle twist. And possibly some other twists that I didn't necessarily intend. The first one, however, probably won't be obvious until the ending, hence my waiting until I've got pretty much the whole story ironed out before publishing." Only took a month or two!

It's kind of a context thing, I guess. I'd have written this as one big chapter to give the whole picture at once, but that would make the story a tad indigestible. I should have the rest of the chapters up within a few days. Hope you enjoy!

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: Too Many Feet! Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
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