Nearly fifteen minutes passed for the girls, and still they hadn't seen Rarity. Rainbow Dash, wondering if her friend had maybe overdone it with Sonata the previous day, pulled out her phone and called Rarity. Everyone turned their eyes to Rainbow, and she felt the weight of responsibility settle on her shoulders. "She's not answering."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "It's not like her to be late-late. 'Fashionably late,' maybe." She wore a knowing grin for her little joke. "Try calling her—" A rainbow-colored streak of movement shot out the door and was gone before anyone could react. "… again."

Rainbow Dash didn't run as fast as she could, if she had done that she would have caused half the school an injury (and probably plowed through a wall or three), but her shoes did leave marks on the floor as she turned the corners.

Out the front door—narrowly avoiding running down some poor juniors—Rainbow Dash leaned a little further forward, and she felt her tail grow in, ears grow, and mane grow. She ran.

Rarity was deep asleep, her brain fed an extra helping of melatonin to keep her so. Like the rest of her family, she neither heard nor reacted to the frantic knocking, her alarm, or her phone ringing. The parasite in her head was almost done with its host, and was spreading out to begin the first stage of conscious operation, but it had a few hours to go before it was ready for that.

Rainbow Dash tried calling Rarity one more time, and ran around the house while listening for Rarity's phone's ringtone. As she circled around one side of the house, she heard "I Touch Myself" playing, and stopped while groaning. "I can't believe you would set that as my ringtone!"

Tapping on the window, Rainbow Dash tried to look inside, but Rarity's curtains were drawn. "This is useless. I'm so not going to break in just to find her worn out after doing kinky stuff all night."

Circling around the house again, Rainbow Dash looked for any open windows, and checked the doors. "I hate to do this, but I'm not missing my finals because you got your freak on." Turning back, Rainbow Dash aimed herself for the road leading back to school.

Rainbow Dash crouched, looked around herself to get a good feel for her situation, and then pushed forward. Air didn't hit her, it parted and curled around her, only to push on her back. One second. Two seconds. On the third she was slowing down for the fight that was about to take place on the ground out front of Canterlot High School.

Pinkie Pie, Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and Fluttershy all stood to face the danger that had returned to their school. Twilight was a little unsure of herself, given that she hadn't been at the school when last they had faced the mind-bending powers of the sirens, but she wouldn't leave her friends to stand without her.

Power thrummed in the air, each of the school's defenders ponied up and itching for a fight. Before them, Sonata Dusk was showing no aggression. "I said, I don't want to fight!"

Everything happened in slow motion, at least to Rainbow Dash's senses. She heard Sonata's plea whine out over what seemed like minutes. She was slowing down, but she had to time her pace just right to stop dead, right between Sonata and her friends. "Whoa! Okay, time out!"

"Rainbow Dash! Out of the way!" Applejack's attention was still on Sonata, watching the creepy siren to see if she would do anything strange. "Wait, don't tell me she's used her mumbo-jumbo on you?"

Pinkie Pie gasped in shock. "Oh no! Not again!" In a flash of movement that would have gotten a whistle of appreciation from Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie was beside her friend and held one blue ear up to look inside. "I can't see anything in here. Sunset, fetch me a light, fifty feet of rope, and a climbing harness!"

"I haven't mind controlled her! Duh, I don't even have my gem. I just came to see if anyone had seen Rarity?" Sonata drew all eyes when she asked about the girls' missing friend. "Like, anyone?"

Applejack was first to respond, her hot temper flaring. "What'd you do to Rarity?!"

"You really don't want the answer to that, trust me." Rainbow Dash stepped back from Pinkie, putting her practically right in front of Sonata. "You gotta trust me, Sonata isn't evil."

"Look, I know evil." Sunset turned to look at Twilight, gave her a smile of companionship, then looked back at the siren. "And I remember really well what the Dazzlings did to the school. Taking away people's free will is evil." She stepped forward, and was happy to hear Twilight moving at her flank.

"Well, duh." Sonata got the dirtiest look from Rainbow Dash as she blew off the obvious statement. "What? It was evil, of course it was evil. The only reason I went along with it as long as I did was that Adagio promised it would get us home this time."

"You're really not helping, you know that?" Spreading her arms to prevent any of her friends trying to go around her, Rainbow Dash faced down Sunset Shimmer. She almost hated herself for what she had to do—to say—but it might be her only chance to dig Sonata out of the hole that was only getting deeper each time Sonata opened her mouth. "At least give her a chance to speak."

"Duh, they are. If it was Adagio and Aria, I would be a smear on the sidewalk by now." Raising an eyebrow at Sunset, Sonata put a hand on one hip. "I just wanted to find out why Rarity didn't show up for our date yesterday."

Sonata could have said nothing else that would have made everyone go so silent. The words practically echoed through the silence that followed them. Rainbow Dash was the first to reply. She turned around and poked Sonata in the shoulder. "Rarity wasn't out to everyone yet."

With the silence broken, Sunset could finally talk. "I… kinda knew."

"Well it was obvious when she spent so much time checking Sunset's 'fit'." Pinkie giggled, waggling her eyebrows.

Fluttershy wore a tiny smile, the smile of a girl who didn't actually know, but celebrated her friend's choice.

"Okay, Ah can get that she might be gay." Applejack approached everything as if it were as simple a problem as existed on a farm. "But why would she be on a date with Sonata Dusk? One o' our former enemies?"

Sunset had fully recovered her faculties enough to realize the conversation was dipping into rather private territory in public. "Why don't we go back to our music room and talk about this. Does anyone have a final in the first half of the day?"

Applejack let out a grunt. "Yeah, Ah got mine first thing. Pinkie too."

"I'll vouch for Sonata." As she spoke, Rainbow Dash shot Sonata a sharp look. "I've been friends with her for about a week now, and she—she's different now."

The girls all turned to the school building, and as her friends walked off, Rainbow Dash turned to Sonata. "If you want to cut and run, now's your—"

"I'm not going to run. I'm done with taking the easy outs." Taking her first step after the only humans to ever defeat her sisters, Sonata Dusk felt an easing inside. "I kinda need this. I can't go back in time and apologize to everyone I have hurt, but I can to these girls. I might be the stupid sister—"

Rainbow Dash didn't run to catch up, but she did walk a bit faster than normal, and she interrupted Sonata. "You are not stupid. A little odd, but in a good way. Just don't let me catch you being all evil again."

Sonata let herself be led by Rainbow Dash—figuring it was probably better than she actually be led—until the girl turned into a room on the second floor of the school.

As Rainbow Dash turned into the music room, Sunset grabbed her friend's forearm and pushed into her head. Sunset Shimmer was getting more practice with the mind thing, mostly thanks to Pinkie Pie, and it made it much easier for her to focus in on Rainbow Dash's thoughts on Sonata.

Rainbow Dash, Sunset could now see, had complex thoughts on Sonata. She saw trust, companionship, friendship, even mentorship, but it was all underpinned by one thing: Rainbow Dash believed there was good in Sonata.

Then the vision shifted. There was another side of Sonata that Rainbow Dash knew. Sunset yanked her hands away from Rainbow Dash's forearm, and took a step back. The last image she had was of Sonata curled up on Rarity's lap, purring like a cat, and unlike what Pinkie Pie made for Sunset, she was sure this was a memory of a real event.

"Well? Is she bein' mind-walloped by 'em?" Applejack tried to make sense of Sunset's blush and look of shock.

Pinkie Pie recognized, at least in part, Sunset Shimmer's expression. She looked between Rainbow Dash and Sonata Dusk, her eyes widening at the implications. "Ohhhh! So you two are—"

"Me and Rainbow?" Suddenly attacked with a case of the giggles, Sonata took a step into the class and froze; Vice-Principal Luna was staring right at Sonata. "It's the fuzz!"

Luna, still rocking her new image, walked over to Sonata. "Hold it right there. The last time you were here, with your sisters, you did some—"

Sonata knew her moment. She cut in and lowered her head in defeat. "I'm sorry!"

"She is. It was Adagio that pushed her into the attack." Rainbow Dash tried to not look Sunset in the eyes: she knew what her friend had just done. She wanted to have a word with Sunset, but that was for after the current fire was doused. "She's been living in Canterlot since then, doing odd jobs, and even has a stable place to live now. All with no attachment to her sisters."

Simply raising her brow, Luna looked at the penitent girl. "I want the full story of this. Right from the start." Luna paused when she saw Rainbow Dash waving her hands in a pacifying gesture. "Is there something that would make this a bad idea?"

"It will take a while." Sonata shrugged, liking the understatement. "I'll tell you everything, but first I need to know that Rarity's okay." All eyes turned to Rainbow Dash, so Sonata looked at her too. "Well?"

"She's asleep. I figured it was because she had spent all yesterday with you doin'—doin' 'things'." Breathing a sigh of relief that she had covered so well, Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Guess she just messed up her alarm? I wasn't going to break into her house…"

Everyone looked at Luna, and not for the first time that day did she curse being an adult. "If she misses her final it…" The rules were the rules, but the girls had dug the school out of more than one problem. It was time to go to bat for them. "It could be made up. When is her next one?"

"In about two and a half minutes." Pinkie Pie didn't even check her watch. "Which means we should probably be going." She looked at Applejack and saw a panicked expression on her friend's face. "Bye!"

Luna had to stifle a laugh at the youthful exuberance of Pinkie Pie, and Applejack (who had been drawn along in the other girl's vortex. "I'll call Rarity's home, and if that doesn't give me a satisfactory answer, I'll call the police. Will that do, Miss Dusk?" One thing Luna had learned in her time as an adult, and that was when a cool voice and calm demeanor counted for more than her youthful rage.

Sonata almost melted on the spot. She looked up at Vice-Principal Luna and forced out a smile. "I didn't know what else to do. Rarity didn't give me her home address, and her phone kept ringing to its answering machine, and then I asked Spicy if I could have the morning off to find out what happened, and then I couldn't find Rainbow Dash's number and now I haven't even gotten to the end of what I was trying, and I am hyperventilating, and—" She had to stop talking when Luna's hand had pushed her mouth closed. Her chest still heaved, and she realized anew just how much Rarity had meant after just one little session with her. Rarity was more than just the girl who had topped her, or the girl that had had sex with her; Rarity was Sonata's friend.

"You can come and listen in, then you will tell me everything. I am willing to give you a second chance, but I want to know if you are a danger to my students." Luna hadn't intended to put so much force behind some of her words, but there was something about her wild side that was fiercely protective of the school. Turning her head to the remaining Rainbooms, she tried to control her features into neutrality. "If Rarity arrives, please direct her to my office."

Leaving the girls to prepare for any finals they had, Luna left the music room and was pleased that Sonata Dusk was at her side. "I take it you are alone?" Sonata just nodded. "Speak up."

"Aria is delusional. She thinks Adagio can still save her. Adagio is psychotic. I don't want anything to do with them anymore. If I'm going to be stuck as a human, I might as well live like one." Staring at her feet while she walked, Sonata kept up with Luna only by watching the vice-principal's legs. Something struck her—metaphorically speaking. "Those are tall heels for a schoolteacher…"

"Thank you for noticing. My heels and your sisters, that is." Luna smiled when Sonata's head jerked up. "What made up your mind to quit? And when did it happen?" She led the way down the stairs, and towards the administrative area of the school.

"Their song. The Rainbooms, that is. I know it's not the same Twilight Sparkle with them now, but when her voice carried those lyrics, my heart skipped a beat. It was pure, it was from the heart, and,"—Sonata's pitch rose as she realized her screw up—"I totally didn't tell them what it meant to me!" A hand touched her shoulder, but Sonata ignored it—although she did drop her voice. "Music. It was their music that stopped me singing properly. I couldn't fight them after they told me to find the music in my heart. There is music in my heart, and Adagio never understood what it was."

Reaching her office, Luna turned in and closed the door behind Sonata Dusk. "You didn't sing 'properly'?"

"Well duh. If I had held up my side of things no one would have been able to resist. We were going all out, the big flash that was the last of our magic. It had to be perfect, and if we had all sung perfectly the Rainbooms would have been overwhelmed." Sonata flopped in Luna's chair behind the desk. She adjusted her throat, took in a measured breath, and closed her eyes.

"Gonna break out, OUT! Set myself free, yeah.
Let it all go, GO! Just let it be, yeah."

"Find the music in your heart,
Let the music make you start,
To set, yourself, apart!"

Luna froze. She didn't know what to do, like a deer in headlights. Sonata's voice brought back memories of being controlled, being manipulated, but she quickly realized the siren's voice held none of that now. She was able to breathe again. "Well. This is not the story I would have expected. And please don't sing in here."

Sonata didn't want to be brought down, but her eyes slid to the phone. "Can you call Rarity now, please?"

"On one condition." Circling around her desk, Luna stood over Sonata Dusk. "Out of my chair."

Moving fast, Sonata slipped out of the chair and around the desk. "Sorry."

Lifting the top on her laptop, Luna quickly typed in Rarity's name and found the details she needed on the student database. Luna tapped the home phone numbers in, and waited. And waited. "Hrmm…" She hit the receiver, then dialed again. The phone rang all the way out. "No answer."

"No answer?" Sonata couldn't sit down, and started pacing. "Wait! Rainbow Dash said she was asleep. She must have seen Rarity through a window!"

The enthusiasm, Luna thought, was commendable. Luna just wished Sonata had a lower setting—Sonata-lite, as it were. "I'll try her parent's mobiles." It took a few moments to hear both voice messages, and leave a message asking to be called as soon as possible. "I have done what I can there."

But Luna wasn't done completely. She punched an autodial on her phone and was speaking to the duty sergeant at the Canterlot Police Department. "Hello, I an Vice-Principal Luna from Canterlot High?" At a monosyllable of acknowledgment, Luna continued. "I have a student who is missing their finals today. Their home phone is ringing out, and both parents' phones are going to voicemail. I was wondering if an officer could drop by and make sure everything is alright? I would hate to have a student fail because of a faulty alarm clock."

Sonata listened, part of her wanting to tear into Rarity's house with magic and check on her friend. The "bad old days" had a few things going for them, but on the whole she liked things more now. Of course now would be better with Rarity. She waited until Luna was done on the phone. "Well?"

"They will send a car around; it's the best I can do." Watching Sonata Dusk, former villain and mind-bender, pace around in uncertainty was sobering. Luna wanted to know what had happened to the girl to have her so worked up over one student. "Now. Tell me everything."

Author's Notes:

Twilight: Will you ask Rainbow's permission to 'observe' her intimate sessions for your own study?

"What?!" Twilight's eyes widened about as far as they could go, and she nervously adjusted her glasses on her face. "I-I could never do that! We're friends, and that—It wouldn't be scientific. What would it prove that asking her or—or getting a video, wouldn't?" The girl's cheeks were not their customary purple, but a rosy red.

---

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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