Climbing out of the car, Sonata stretched her arms out and felt the skin around her neck pull at the forming hickeys. She knew she was falling for Rarity fast, perhaps too fast, but Sonata figured Rarity would move things at whatever pace she wanted—she was the dominant of the relationship, after all.

"Rarity?" Sonata walked toward the school with her girlfriend. "You mentioned things were moving a bit fast. I know we missed our date, and I'd like to fix that." As she walked in the back door of the school, Sonata suddenly remembered her promise. "Oh, I have to go let Luna know I'm here."

Rarity nodded, and moved along at Sonata's side. "I'll come with——" Reaching her hand out, Rarity captured Sonata's fingers and gave a light squeeze. As they walked down the hall, Rarity's eyes drifted to Sonata's neck, and she realized how much she had enjoyed leaving the marks. "Do they hurt?"

"Hurt?" Sonata snorted a laugh. "It doesn't hurt. Besides, maybe I want to be hurt a little."

Most of the students of CHS had already left school for the day, but there were a few still hanging around, and most of those just stared at Sonata as she and Rarity walked past. As Rarity turned for the staff hallway, her phone buzzed at her again.

"Is it Rainbow Dash?" Sonata could see Luna's office door just ahead. "If it's them, just go. I'll find my way there."

"It's her alright. She is threatening to kick me from 'her' band. Be good." Rarity leaned up and kissed Sonata's cheek, before she turned and started off in search of her school-friends.

Threading through the school, Rarity didn't even blink at the bathroom door that had been the bane of her morning. She opened the door to the music room and slipped inside.

Rainbow Dash spotted Rarity the moment the door opened. "Finally! What took you so long?"

Blushing only a little, Rarity thought back to what had taken so long. "Oh a little of this, a little of that. I brought a friend over, too. She wanted to listen to us play." Setting her handbag down, Rarity walked over to where her keytar was already out and plugged in.

"Wh-who is coming?" Fluttershy hated the little flutter in her chest at the idea of someone new watching their private practice. The prospect of the concert was still days away. Besides, she had learned that if there was a spotlight on her, she couldn't even see the audience.

"Someone you have all met." Turning on her instrument, Rarity checked the keytar's settings. "Sonata."

Just as everyone turned on Rarity, and asked together, "Sonata?" Pinkie Pie kicked at her bass drum, then dropped into a beat that was familiar to all her friends. Drums, Pinkie had found, were perfect for drowning out meaningless conversations.

All the girls nodded to each other, and as one started on same beat. "We used to fight with each other," they sang.

With their friendship soaring as, with the lyrics of one of their first songs (Rainbow Rocks), the seven friends reaffirmed their ties. Each ponied up, of course, but only ears, wings, and their hair-growth.

When the song died down, the girls broke from their trance to applause. Sonata, her eyes wide, and with tears in her eyes, was clapping for all she was worth.

Twilight Sparkle looked between Sonata Dusk and her friends, then back to Sonata again. "Hi. Sonata, right?"

"That's me!" Sonata felt on such a high after hearing the Rainbooms play, that she was practically bouncing with energy. "You look so much like—"

"Yeah…" Twilight reached up to adjust her glasses. "Just like a princess from another reality, who just happens to be the most amazing with magic and friendship. That's me."

Sonata remembered the power of Princess Twilight Sparkle's voice, and the magic she had helped project with the girls present. "At least your not a monster from another reality, who was hell-bent on mind-controlling everyone in the world."

Giggling at the description, Twilight rolled her eyes. "Or sucked the magic out of everyone around you to power up into a demon that almost ripped two realities apart in her hunger for power."

Both girls stared at each other for a minute, and were about to laugh, but then another voice piped up.

"Or you ran away from your magical land to another reality, inflicted years of mental torture on everyone around you, then sucked a magical princess' magic dry to transform into a raging she-demon." Sunset looked from Twilight to Sonata, and then the tension broke. "Nope, we're just regular people, trying to get by."

Breathing a sigh of relief that she wasn't being told to leave, or being dragged back to Equestria, Sonata looked around the girls. "Thank you for not just running me out yesterday. I was just, like, really worried about—"

"Rarity," Applejack said, raising one eyebrow. "Yeah, we heard." Honesty was her game, and every time she saw Sonata Dusk look at Rarity, she could have sworn there was more devotion than sense in Sonata's gaze.

"Look. It'd be great and all, having a chat and remembering the good old days, when the world almost ended, but we have to practice for this concert on Saturday." Rainbow Dash didn't have the heart to step away from Fluttershy, not with her best friend half-hiding behind one of Rainbow's wings.

Fluttershy looked down her notes, and found the proposed set information. "We—um—should probably try playing the whole set. Shake your tail." She lifted her tambourine and brought it down on the palm of her hand, and at the same time Pinkie Pie joined in—her timing perfect.

Sonata's heart sped up, and her excitement almost exploded from her. She watched—and listened—as the Rainbooms produced the amazing music that had freed her of the chains of fate. What amazed her, was that when they let go and gave themselves to their music, they changed further. Hair turned to pony-like manes, tails sprouted from them, and each had a slightly different look about their face.

When the song dropped away sharply, Sonata jumped to her feet and started clapping enthusiastically. "That was, like, great!" Something was off, though. Everyone was staring back at her as if she had been jeering them. Of the seven, it was Rarity's eyes that scared her the most; Rarity had seen more of Sonata than anyone else, ever. "W-What's wrong?"

Rarity rushed forward, pulling the plug on her keytar and swinging it to the side rather than take the time to remove it. She wrapped her arms around Sonata Dusk, and squeezed her tightly. "Nothing, darling, everything's fine." She made sure she wasn't crushing Sonata's wings, she had had practice doing so with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, after all.

Sunset turned to look at Twilight, and when she saw realization on her friend's face, she turned back to Sonata. Between her own demon, and "Midnight Sparkle," Sunset and Twilight had seen their own darkness, but that was their past, they weren't monsters anymore. She studied the translucent wings spread from Sonata's back, and the ears that seemed just a touch longer than anyone else's, when they ponied up.

The panicked look in Sonata Dusk's eyes drew everyone toward her. She couldn't believe first of all that she had ponied up, or that she had done so into her siren form. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, even Fluttershy had come up to her and wrapped their arms around her in support.

Tears threatened to break loose, but there was one thing Sonata had to check. Her hand jerked upward, and she clutched at her throat. Her collar was there, thick, but doing nothing to hide the line of hickeys—there was no Siren Gem.

"You can't really help that, you know." As she walked up, Sunset couldn't help but admire the delicate-looking wings. "You're not the monster who attacked the school."

"But don't you see? You weren't a monster before, and it was only magic that made you into one. I was born a monster, and I'll always—" Sonata halted her rant at the sight of Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight stood at Sunset's side. "What you were, what you look like, doesn't matter. You get to decide who and what you are. Are you a Dazzling." She had heard the name for Sonata and her sisters' band, and employed it to support her message. "Or are you Sonata Dusk?"

"But I'm still…" Sonata twitched her wings, remembered what it felt like to stand on stage—bathed in the furious magic of a siren—and couldn't help but remember that song. It cut through her self-doubt as readily as it had cut through her ties to Adagio and Aria.

"Prove you're not." Banking on Sonata not being able to affect them alone, anyway, Sunset held out a microphone to Sonata. "Prove you aren't a monster."

Sonata stared down at the offered microphone as if it were a snake. "But what if I do, by mistake?" One by one the Rainbooms pulled back from her, turned, and got back into their places. All except Rarity.

"I believe in you, Sonata." Her eyes fixed upon Sonata's, Rarity didn't pull on her dominant side—Sonata needed a friend more than she needed a mistress right now. "You can be Sonata. Prove that you are."

Sunset was worried Sonata wouldn't take the mic, but the girl finally reached out and closed her fingers around it. "Name your song."

Holding the mic in her left hand, Sonata reached up with her right to rub the tears away from her eyes. It would mess up the basic makeup she had been wearing, but she didn't care. "I don't know the name of it, but it was what defeated me."

The girls all looked at each other, a touch confused.

"It—It started with: 'I've got the music in me.'" Sonata saw dawning comprehension on the girls' faces. "Please?"

Pinkie Pie, her percussion ever the backbone of the Rainbooms, began with a drum-roll.

Sunset, having surrendered her mic (and not needing to play rhythm guitar for this song), stepped closer to Fluttershy.

"Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh. I've got the music in me! Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh."

Seven sets of eyes watched Sonata, and though there were tears in her eyes, she opened her mouth and pitched her voice to match the tune. "Don't need to hear a crowd, cheering out my name. I didn't come here seeking, infamy or fame." There was no magic in her voice, and it made Sonata's heart soar just to be able to sing for the simple release of it.

Together with the Rainbooms backing her, Sonata continued. "The one and only thing, that I am here to bring; is music, is the music, is the music in my soul." The lyrics burned in her throat. Her spirit soared on the music, and Sonata spread her wings as wide as she could. "Gonna break out, set myself free; let it all go, just let it be." She choked on her tears, felt them streaming down her face; this was the moment in the song that had broken the grip her sister had held on her.

The Rainbooms, collectively, watched Sonata Dusk drop to her knees. Fluttershy had been closest, and reached a hand out to Sonata.

Taking the offered hand, looking up the length of the arm attached to it, Sonata saw Fluttershy. Her tears kept flowing as she gazed up at the woman who had saved her.

"Find the music in your heart, let the music make you start—" Fluttershy pulled, drawing Sonata Dusk to her feet. Her friends joined their voices to hers for the finale. "… to set yourself apart."

Sonata's voice wobbled, and she struggled to get words out. "I'm not a monster."

"From what I've heard from Rainbow Dash and Rarity, not since that night. Keep being you, Sonata." Sunset looked from Sonata to Twilight, and caught a big, goofy grin on Twilight's face. "And remember, you have friends here."

"Guys? We have practice to finish." Rainbow Dash hated to do it, but she was determined to pull their band into shape for the concert.

Fluttering her wings a few times, trying to get used to the feeling of having them again, Sonata looked around. "Can I keep listening?"

Rainbow Dash flashed a smile at Sonata, and saw it pay off with a twinkle in the girl's eyes. "Of course you can, but you have to cheer at the end of every song, just so we get used to it for the weekend." She looked around at her friends, her confidence swelling despite the eye-rolling expressions she saw. "Come on! Better Than Ever is next, I love that song!"

Author's Notes:

Trixie: Are you sure you didn't feel anything strange last weekend?

"For Rarity? If you're trying to imply the Straight and Not-at-all-a-lesbian Trixie is not exactly as her title says, you are sorely mistaken." Trixie Lulamoon tilted her nose up a little, and a tiny smile pulled at her mouth. "But Trixie does feel that if she were not as she definitely is, she may have been quite happy to be surrounded by very pretty, naked girls."

---

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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