Gerbils proved much easier to work with than dogs, smaller and cuter, too! They were even a little less smelly. Whatever Fluttershy was doing with their cage, Sonata found herself helping the little fuzz-balls into plastic ones to roll around on the floor. She had some fun trying to stop them from smacking into each other, worried they'd get tiny, fuzzy whiplash from too many crashes. Her main method of doing this was to grab a gerbil ball (gerball?) when it was about to smack into another one and turn it another way, the gerbils happily rolling right along as though they really had nowhere in mind to go, just as long as they went somewhere.

The journey beats the destination, huh, little guys? These are some deep gerbils.

An hour or two later, Fluttershy got a text that said she had to head home, and Sonata still figured that sticking around places without friends/possible robbing victims would get her in trouble somehow. Leaving the animal shelter, that stupid parrot called her a thief again, but Fluttershy scolded it for being mean, which made her feel weirdly grateful. They went their separate ways and Sonata found herself wandering the sidewalks, wondering what to do with herself.

The whole rob-'em-blind plan really wasn't going very well. She'd scored an awesome necklace, but that was WAY less than the wheelbarrows of gold and jewels and chocolate she'd envisioned. Maybe she just needed to try something else for a while, do something fun to take her mind off-

She was startled by a hand grabbing her wrist and a familiar voice shouting at her. "HEY!!"

Nearly jumping out of her skin, Sonata whirled around to see Awesome As I Wanna Be girl, whatever her name was, looking all sweaty and out of breath.

"I... been... lookin'... all over for you..."

That was the cue to run, but she was already grabbed by the wrist! Game ov-No, wait! Adagio would talk her way out of a situation like this. I can be just as clever as she can, and now's the time to prove it!

She smiled. "Hey there, Wanna-Be!"

Rainbow blinked twice. "Um. What did you call me?"

The giggle she gave in reply came out 20% more nervous than she'd meant it to, but she pressed on. "Haha, y'know, 'take caution'?"

Letting go of her wrist, Rainbow narrowed her eyes. "'Take caution'? Are you threatening me?"

Ohgawd!! Okay, okay, don't panic, just roll with the punches like Aria!

Putting one foot forward, Sonata did her best impression of the Grump Face, trying to do the same with her voice. "Yea, you got a problem?!"

Ordinarily, Rainbow might have made some kind of show of toughness right back, but Sonata was doing it all wrong if she wanted to look intimidating. As such, Rainbow that guessed she didn't, and snickered. "Heh, not bad, Nata, had me going for a minute there."

Losing the Aria Face entirely, Sonata tilted her head a little. "'Nata'?"

Nodding, Rainbow crossed her arms in a casual pose. "That's what Pinkie said she called you, heard you stopped being a total, eh..." she smiled sheepishly, "well, heard you were okay now, so, I went looking for you." Counting off on her fingers, she looked just a little annoyed. "First thing today, I ran over to Pinkie's place and heard you spent the night at Rarity's, so I ran over there next, but Rarity said you guys went over grab breakfast with Fluttershy before going to the animal shelter and I just went there and that stupid buzzard was all 'dirty thief, dirty thief, I can't forget about one stupid cracker, bwaaaak,' so I texted Fluttershy and she said she had no idea where you were now so I been runnin' around at random!"

Rainbow took a deep breath, then smiled. "So, hi!"

I can see why she and Pinkie Pie are friends. "Yea, uh, hi, I guess! Why were you looking for me?"

"Like I said, I heard you were okay now, so I wanted to see if you'd like to play a game with me, do a little of that breaking-in friendship stuff. Ever played soccer?"

Breaking in?! She's inviting me to go on a robbery with her! Soccer must get a LOT of loot!

Or not.

Soccer had nothing to do with getting rich quick, it turned out. Still, a game where you pretend to be an ostrich or a velociraptor or anything else with weak, puny arms while kicking a ball around still sounded like fun, and fun was just as good as loot right now!

Rainbow (Sonata couldn't remember her real name, so the nickname based on her hair would have to do. Luckily, codename: Rainbow seemed to accept this alias right away) had explained the rules to her when they got to the soccer field, briefly introduced her to her team mates (too many faces to nickname!!), and started the game.

The ball was in the middle of the field, so Sonata sprinted toward it. She was quick enough to get there first, but not quick enough to line up a decent kick before other kicking people started to, so she wildly swung her leg at it. The next thing she knew, she was face-down in the grass, Rainbow helping her up.

"This isn't really an acrobatic sport, but man, that was a heck of a flip!"

Getting to her feet, Sonata glanced around to see the ball was furiously being kicked around near a goal on one side of the field. "Flip?"

Rainbow grinned with what might have been pride. "Yea! The way you charged in -you only beat me there because I started way behind you, by the way- and used your momentum as part of the kick? You missed, but doing a full spin in the air is pretty impressive!"

Roll with the punches, that seems to work with Codename: Rainbow! "Uh, yea, totally what I meant to-

SMACK!!

Sonata was lying on her back this time. Someone might have been shouting 'sorry', but she was more aware of the stingy impact of the ball on her face. "Owie." Rainbow was doing that how-many-fingers-am-I holding up thing, but Sonata got right up, her brain barely rattled at all!

Watching the siren stand up for the second time after being floored, Rainbow gave her a look of admiration. "You're pretty resilient, aren'tcha?"

She thinks I'm pretty! Giggling, Sonata dismissively waved a hand the way Adagio sometimes pretended to. "Aww, stop~!"

They kept playing, Sonata trying not to do the flippy kick again in favor of many attempts at a hit-the-darn-ball kick. Few might have guessed it, but Sonata Dusk was no idiot, at least when it came to games! She could see that more often than not, just rushing in, like half the other players were doing, would only have the ball surrounded by shins, making sure it wouldn't go very far if kicked while everybody was closed in. It'd usually get broken out by the random, uncoordinated flailing of feet would send it up in the air and spinning in a random direction.

This gave Sonata an idea.

She circle-strafed around the crowd the next time it circled ball, watching closely and waiting for her chance. She saw it! The ball started to rise after a lucky series of liberating kicks, it rose over someone's shoulder, Sonata darted forward, jumped on a big guy's back, leapt off, and did a flying drop-kick at the ball!

"WOOPAH!!"

Her foot struck true, sending the ball hurdling toward the goal! Toward it, not straight into it. It smacked hard into side of the goal, then it seemed to get bigger for some rea-

SMACK!!

Thud.

"...Owie."

Rainbow helped her up again. "That looked like it hurt, but again, wow! Can your sisters do that Matrix crap too?"

"Uhh..." The reply came somewhat dizzily as Sonata noticed that this time, more people actually stopped kicking the ball around to see if she was okay. That made her feel warm. "Y'know, I've never really asked-wait, I have sisters?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Sisters, cohorts, whatever, Purple Sourpuss and Puffball Prime? More importantly, are you feeling alright?"

Other than her band-aids, Sonata showed no sign of injury. "Super!"

Worrying about the little voice that said Sonata probably took blows to the head pretty often, Rainbow hoped their newest player could pace herself. "Well... okay." She glanced around to the others. "Let's get back to it!"

Quietly pacing the hall outside Adagio's room, Aria could feel herself going crazy, and for once, she didn't know the exact cause.

Maybe it was the waiting, that the better part of two days had passed now and they still weren't doing anything. Not that the last few weeks were any better, but at least then it felt like they were working towards something, even if it was just some kind of payback, not the total standstill they were at now.

Maybe it was frustration, all the thinking time in the world only leaving Aria with the humbling thought that no, she actually didn't have any great ideas for getting back on top.

I WOULD have, if we still had our magic! Dammit.

Maybe it was worry. Yes, Aria was a big enough girl to admit it to herself, she was worried about what that blue idiot was getting up to, but only because whatever it was might blow back on her! And Adagio, if she ever came out of her room, which led to the last possible source of Aria's growing madness. Looking at the door, she could still hear Adagio quietly crying in there, and every second of the sound was another wire snapping in the piano of Aria's mind. Enough was enough.

She stepped up to the door and pounded on it with a fist. "HEY," she demanded, "will you freakin' suck it up and quit moping already?! We've got stuff to do! I don't know what it is yet, but I know it ain't sittin' around crying rivers!"

As if to slap her in the face, the sound of Adagio's muffled sobbing got a little louder, then dropped in volume again. It sounded like she was crying through a pillow now. Not that Aria would have any idea what that sounded like. Because she didn't, she was too busy almost pulling her hair out with exasperation. Talking to the crybaby was making her feel like a caveman trying to work a supercomputer, so she opted to fall back on her other plan: Walk away and hope it got sorted out before she came back.

Heh, maybe she'll yell at me extra hard for shouting at her while she was having her moment. Her upwards-of-two-days moment. Yea, that'll do it, she hates being disturbed! She'll get so pissed, she'll run out, find Sonata in a blink in that scary way only she can, and we'll be on to the next plan. Everything'll be back to normal soon...

Looking down, Rainbow wore a worried face. "...Sooo, how're ya feeling there, Nata?"

She quickly got to her feet, once again rubbing the stinginess from her face. "I'm okay. Is the ball leaving an imprint?"

"Just a bruise or two..."

"But I don't look like I have a soccer-ball pattern on my face?"

"Not yet."

"Cool! Let's get back to it!"

Despite Rainbow giving her that I'm-worried-about-you look again, Sonata didn't want to quit. Apart from the times she got pegged in the face with the ball, soccer was pretty fun! She hadn't scored a single goal so far, but phooey to actually getting goals, chasing them was the fun part! Well, not actually chasing the goals, those stood perfectly still, but chasing the ball to kick into the-

SMACK!!

Thud.

"Ouch."

While getting to her feet, Sonata could have sworn she heard Rainbow muttering something about something going worse than the time with Sunset and how the others were gonna kill her, but it looked like the other players just kept on keeping on with the game. "Hey, why don't they stop when I get nailed anymore?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Probably just not fazed by it anymore. That was, what, the fifth time? You're sure you're okay?"

She beamed. "SUPER sure!"

For some reason, Rainbow didn't look happy. "Super... Just, try to keep your eye on the ball." Blink. "F-FIGURATIVELY, keep your eye on the ball figuratively!!" Watching Sonata take off after the ball again and making no move to score any goals herself, Rainbow felt strangely helpless.

There was a time (early yesterday) when the idea of one of the sirens being repeatedly hit in the face with a soccer ball would have been comedy gold to her, but this... was only kind of funny. Less so as she realized her friends were probably gonna have her head if Sonata got completely turned off friendship or whatever because Rainbow had to pick soccer, (even deliberately playing with a team mostly comprised of total amateurs so Sonata wouldn't feel overwhelmed) but with how little Sunset had enjoyed dodge-ball (even if she'd won, brutally), she'd just figured soccer would go over better. She had no idea what, if anything, she was going to suggest if the other two ever turned things around.

Well, at least she's not crying or anything...

The game went on, as did Sonata's developing strategy for ball-kickery. Doing what she had been doing, the ball just kinda went all over the place when people crowded around it, so all Sonata had to do was be the first one to the ball when it went long so she could kick it to the goal! She hung back, circle-strafing like a pro as she waited for her chance. It came! She ran! She made it there first! She kicked hard and fast as part of the last step-

SMACK!!

-and sent the ball straight upwards, immediately running into it face-first.

Thud.

She didn't even wait for Rainbow to come over all I-care-about-you-getting-hurt again (though that did make her feel all tingly inside), hopping straight back up and charging after the ball again! Getting smacked in the face hurt, sure, but it was WAY less painful than a bulldog on her butt! If the ball had teeth, though, that would be some nightmare stuff.

Adjusting her strategy again, Sonata did the circle-strafe thing again a little closer to the group, keeping an eye on the ball. Figuratively, of course! Sonata saw her moment, the ball was flying through the air, so that was where she needed to be! She jumped, stretching out a leg and spinning mid-jump to Matrix-kick (I gotta ask Rainbow what that word means later) the ball before it could hit the ground or her face! She nailed it, sending the ball WHOOSHing through the air, past the other ball-kicker people, past the goalie, and into the goal!

"WOO," she cried out while sliding through the grass on her knees, "FREAKIN' SCORE!"

And then everyone went quiet for a second, followed by giggles. Giggling didn't normally follow a freakin' score, so something must have been funny here. Rainbow walked up, smiling and shaking her head in that oh-you-big-dope kind of way Adagio did sometimes.

"Great shot, Nata, you scored a perfect point for the other team."

Sonata grinned. "But I totally scored a goal?" Everyone laughed, but it felt like they were laughing with her for once.

Reigning in her giggles, Rainbow wiped a tear from her eye. "You're a good sport, you know that? Let's keep going."

And so they did!

SMACK!!

Thud.

"Headbutting the ball is allowed, but not really recommended, Nata..."

SMACK!!

Thud.

"That was... creative, but doing a hand-stand doesn't mean you can touch the ball with your hands. Mostly just leaves your head at ball-level, actually."

SMACK!!

Thud.

Rainbow sighed. "Man, I swear your face is some kind of ball magnet." Several other players snickered, Rainbow furrowing her eyebrows in response. "Hey, I'd like to see any of you even touch the ball that often!"

"Yea," agreed Sonata as she again hopped to her feet, the many little welts on her face giving her an almost comical appearance, "I totally get all the balls!"

There were yet more barely-restrained giggles from most of the team, which made Rainbow angrily frown. "What's so funny? What's wrong with being great at catching balls?"

Sonata pumped a fist victoriously! "I practically suck them in! With my face!"

Nearly everyone else was doubled over laughing now, some falling to the floor and clutching their sides. Rainbow shrugged, not seeing where the joke was. "Don't worry about them, Nata, I got an idea..."

Ten minutes later, Sonata stood in front of a goal, the one for her own team, which meant her objective had changed. Now she was to derive fun in preventing a freakin' score, and she would do so with the shiny, new armor she was granted! Rainbow gave her a baseball umpire's helmet, and she wore it with pride! It was a little hard to see through, but that just made Sonata feel like she was training to be a jedi, right down to the part where her enemy was a ball flying through the air. She waited, honing her senses, being ready for-

The ball ricocheted off her helmet, flying harmlessly away from the goal and doing nothing to reintroduce Sonata to the ground! Rainbow called from elsewhere on the field.

"Great block, Nata!"

Ohoho, yes, she thought, when I chased the ball, I was but a learner. Now I am the master.

The ball came at her again, she rapidly stuck out an open palm to stop it!

"WOOPAH!!"

Ball deflected. Perimeter secure.

It cometh again!!

High-kick!

"HUTTAH!!"

The other kids giggled at her and her kung-fu noises, but away sailed their ball, and its will to breach her defenses!

A moment later, her stingy enemy made its return!

VENGEANCE!!

She jumped up in the air, sticking one leg straight out to send it packing!

"HO-AAAAAAAA!!"

She landed in a The Best Around pose, her arms and one leg still up. This actually earned her the rest of the players stopping what they were doing and clapping, Rainbow in particular.

I am a goalie. Like my father before me.

Technically, he was a coral farmer, but details!

The battle raged on, one brave ball-transporter of dark side descent making a direct assault, running closer with the Death Ball at her feet! Master Sonata would show this wayward soul the error of her ways!

Stepping forward, but not out of her defined goalie-zone, Sonata shuffled a foot just under the ball, flicked it upwards, hammered it back down with a fist, and caught it between her feet! This left the teal, gold-eyed sith confused, standing nearly still as she tried to focus her energy on where the ball was at that instant. Sonata grinned under her helmet, quickly kicking the ball straight downwards to bounce it off the floor and send it up, balancing it on the knee of-

Teal Sith frantically swung a foot, landing it straight between Sonata's legs.

Proton torpedo fired into Death Star.

Disturbance in the force.

Many nerves in Sonata's lower body cried out, and then suddenly continued to cry out as she fell over in terrible pain.

Rainbow ran over to find Lyra, nearly in tears as she rapidly apologized for her clumsy kick, kneeling over Sonata. Rainbow, however, was feeling a little less worried as the game had gone on. Maybe Sonata just likes pain? Better call this to a close anyway. "Okay, everybody," she said with a loud clap and a smile, "I think that's enough for today. Thanks for comin' out to play!"

Nodding a little, everyone else kinda dispersed, most of them looking a little tired anyway.

When she looked back, Rainbow found Lyra being hugged and patted on the back by Sonata. Whom she had just... Maybe it was better not to think about it. The two stood, shook hands, and did some kind of weird monk-style bow thing. Lyra walked away smiling, so Rainbow took that as her cue to ask. "Uh... What just happened?"

Popping her helmet off, Sonata was beaming. "I have purged a lost soul of the ways of the dark side!"

...She really IS like Pinkie... "That's... cool. Why don't we head to AJ's for some lunch? If there's one thing they've usually got on a farm, it's plenty to eat."

"Sure!"

Rainbow nodded affirmatively, still not sure how she did in terms of friendship-spreading with the ex-villain this time. It took surprising amounts of willpower to not say anything about how Sonata spent most of the trip to Sweet Apple Acres walking funny.

Author's Notes:

Speaking of interpretation impressions, I hope it's obvious that I don't mean to make Sonata stupid here, just... short-sighted? And maybe lacking in common sense. Also; not having her refer to Adagio as "Dagi," just to see how it fits.

Innocent Rainbow is best Rainbow. It's practically right there in the name. Think about a rainbow reading porn or smoking in a church or running over a schoolgirl. It's not gonna happen.

Also, even if their efforts are doomed to failure, I think it's important that even the antagonist (if anyone was wondering, yes, Sonata is kind of a small-scale villain here, just on break this chapter) get humanizing moments somewhere in the story, even if it's just losing themselves a bit while having some fun.