I felt so bad for Sonata in this chapter .
The three followed the little foal closely, wondering where it was he was taking them. Sonata noticed that Aria was lagging behind, so she walked a bit slower until Aria caught up to her. Now that they were in the back, they had an opportunity to talk a bit more privately. She was a bit hesitant to speak up because the look on Aria's face pretty much screamed 'leave me alone' as she trudged along. But this was only proof that she needed to be talked to.
"Uh...Aria?" She began meekly.
"What?" Aria said in a somewhat harsh tone, not even looking at Sonata. Sonata's ears drooped.
"Um...are you okay?" Aria snorted.
"Yeah, I'm just dandy..." She growled sarcastically. Sonata sighed.
"Aria, look...I think...I think you should apologize to Adagio..." Aria almost stopped in her tracks at hearing this.
"What?! Me?! She should apologize! Sonata, she dragged us into that mess!"
"No, Aria. She offered for us to go, and we agreed. We didn't have to go if we didn't want to. And then you two got into that fight for no reason, so I think you should apologize..." Aria stared at Sonata in disbelief, and the blue pony saw her eyes become glossy.
"Oh, so that's it, huh? She's right and I'm wrong?! I shoulda known. That's how it always is!"
"No, Ari, that's not it. It's just that...look, I think you were just frustrated, and you were a little to hard on Adagio, but-"
"No, just stop right there. Sonata...you know and Adagio and I have always butted heads, but I can live with that. But...Sonata..." Arias clenched her eyes shut, a couple tears sliding down her cheek. "...I just can't handle it if you're against me, too...not you..." Sonata let out a shaky sigh, and she could feel her own eyes starting to well up.
"Aria...I'm not against you. I'll never be against you. I love you, Ari. I really do. But...you can take things a little far sometimes...I-"
"Get away from me."
"Wha?"
"I said get the hell away from me! If you can't be there for me, then you can just leave me alone, 'cause I can't take it anymore!"
"But I just wanted to help..."
"GET FUCKED, SONATA!" Aria yelled. "Just leave me alone!" Sonata let out a fearful whimper as Aria nipped angrily at her, and she rushed forward, joining up with Adagio again. From the expression on the leader's face, it was obvious she'd heard nearly everything.
"I'm sorry..." Adagio muttered sympathetically, looking over at her. Sonata just whimpered again and hung her head as she walked. She peeked at Aria in the corner of her eye, who was walking even slower than before with her head slightly hung as well.
~o~
The journey was quiet. Adagio kept stealing glances at Sonata, who looked fully downtrodden. She sighed and looked at her surroundings, paying attention to them for the first time since they started walking. Wait a second... Everything looked surprisingly familiar. Too familiar. She then blinked in surprise and confusion as she realized where they were going. They were heading...back to the ocean? Adagio trotted up to where the little foal was walking.
"Child, why are we heading back to the ocean? The food there is dead." The colt laughed.
"No, no, no. Not in the ocean. You see, there are a series of cave systems surrounding the ocean in some places." Adagio blinked.
"And...how do you know this?" Suddenly, she saw a flash of panic in his eyes, but it quickly went away when he smiled a bit and answered after a second's hesitation.
"Oh, I...uh...like to explore...a lot."
"Is that so? Well, you must really like to explore, because Ponyville is quite a distance from the ocean, child." She said, a hint of suspicion in her voice. The colt gulped.
"Uh...y-yeah. Yeah, I do." Adagio narrowed her eyes at him, but said nothing else as she continued to follow him.
~o~
After a while, the four finally came to a rocky area that lead to the mouth of a large cave. The small colt walked up to it and entered immediately. Adagio followed, but she heard a snort from behind her. She looked behind her and saw Sonata standing there. She looked hesitant to enter.
"Sonata?" The blue pony let out another snort as she backed up a couple steps, her ears pressed tightly against her head.
"D-dagi, I...I don't like how this place feels..." Adagio took a step towards Sonata, but before she could go to her, Aria came from behind and shoved her hard from behind. Sonata stumbled forward and fell to the ground.
"Just move it!" Aria growled. As she lied on the ground, Sonata watched fearfully as Aria stormed past her. She whimpered and curled her legs under her as a way of hugging herself. Adagio shook her head and sighed, going over to Sonata. The blue pony looked up at her leader, her eyes tearing up. Adagio leaned down and nuzzled her.
"Come on, Sonata. It'll be okay..." She whispered soothingly. Sonata looked down before nodding, shakily standing up on all fours. She let out another whimper as she felt a pain in her left foreleg. She looked and saw a large gash caused by the rocky ground when she'd fallen. Adagio closed her eyes and exhaled, turning around.
"I swear, I've almost had enough of her bullshit..." She grumbled. She then looked back at Sonata sympathetically. "Hey..." she said softly. "...come on..." Sonata nodded before following behind Adagio as she started to walk. As Adagio moved, she looked around warily. She couldn't see anything, but it felt like a million eyes were on her. Watching her. She shivered, trying to push the thought away. Aria walked a bit ahead, looking defiant as ever. Adagio rolled her eyes before trotting ahead, going in front of the purple pony, much to the latter's dislike. Even though she hated Aria's guts at the moment, her protective instinct was still dominant over her hate, and she was still willing to risk herself before either of her companions if they just so happened to run into anything in these enormous caves.
They walked until they came to what looked like a main cave, which was even bigger than the last ones. It was much like the other ones, though, except for a curious formation in the middle of it, and a rather...welcoming scent that made the ponies' mouths water. They walked in, and the colt stood proudly.
"I've brought them, m'lady!" He stated loudly. A distant buzzing sound echoed through the caves, making it sound like it could've been coming from anywhere. The three siren-ponies looked around suspiciously. Then, a voice was heard from the back of the cave, but it was too dark to see who it belonged to.
"Excellent..." An elderly-sounding, feminine voice said. Suddenly, a small light glimmered in the darkness, and it was joined by many other small lights, illuminating the once pitch black cave. These lights came from curiously glowing gemstones embedded in the walls. Then, they looked ahead, and before them stood a figure that held the likeness of a pony, but they couldn't really tell because it was shrouded in a cloak. Adagio and Sonata heard Aria gasp.
"Hey! You're that thing I saw on the beach! That cloaked figure! Have you been following us?!" She yelled. A darkish chuckle was heard from the figure, and it spoke again.
"Quiet now, child." It spoke calmly. "You mustn't loose your temper with me. Indeed, it was I whom you saw on the beach, and it is I who saw fit to bring you here." She then turned her attention to the foal. "Thank you...err...Juniper." The small colt dipped his head respectfully before trotting off to an unknown cave. The three then turned their heads at the sound of hoofsteps, and their eyes widened at seeing a line of random ponies blocking off the way they'd come in. Aria looked back at the figure and narrowed her eyes.
"Hey, I thought we were just here to get food! What's the big idea?" The figure chuckled again.
"Your temper amuses me, Aria."
"H-how do you know my name?!"
"That's not important now. Come closer. You will indeed get your food, but the main reason I have brought you here is to strike a deal." This is where Adagio stepped in, and she walked closer to the figure, followed by the other two.
"What kind of deal?"
"Oh, don't worry about that this second. You must be starving." She said. Then, as if on cue, ponies came from the different caves connected to the main one, each one pulling a large cart holding nothing but...fish! And they weren't dead, either. They flipped about, fighting desperately to breath. Some fell from the carts in their attempts to seek out water. Adagio might've even felt bad for them if she wasn't completely starving at the moment. The orange pony looked to the side, and she saw her companions trying desperately not to transform into sirens and jump at the squirming morsels. But their bodies were strangely slowly shifting already, as they were still ponies, but some siren parts were beginning to show themselves, such as the spines on the back, and the fangs. The figure chuckled again as the cart-ridden ponies dumped their heaps onto the ground in one large pile and left.
"Go ahead and eat. No one will stop you." She said. Common sense would've probably told them not to trust the free meal, but the thought of such a meal only heightened the sirens' feral instinct to feed, and their minds now were fully primal as they wasted no time in transforming and tearing at the pile.
I think it's pretty obvious what Juniper really is, now.
