The Bridge: Hocus Smo'cus

“No.”

Sonata Dusk could practically feel her vision crack and her eye twitched. She gulped and shook her head, mentally rebooting and going back to her sale’s pitch.

“Soooo I was thinking if we wanted a good audience and get into the spirit of things, be a good chance to head out tonight. And! We can wear these!”

Adagio groaned and rubbed at her temple, “Sonata, the humans here make dozens of holidays, what makes this one worth getting worked up about? Some of them are already getting geared up for that winter one two months away before this one even started! I’m still trying figure out the one where they launch dozens of explosive bombs at the air to make the place sound like a war zone.”

“And the one with the chimney jumping burglar that kept us up all night that first winter,” Aria noted as she laid on the couch tapping at her phone. They could all distinctly remember standing guard at the chimney all night with bats and a fire poker at the ready for the "Santy Claws" to come bursting in.

“Duly noted,” Adagio nodded before turning her focus back to her little sister, “And I think we’ve had our fill of monsters and scares this year after all is said and done.”

“Well unless it’s X,” Sonata muttered with a teasing smirk, earning a grunt from a now red tinged, blushing Aria.

The purple siren started to leer at Sonata, “Rrrrreeepeaat thaaaat?”

Sonata clenched a grin and giggled awkwardly as she waved her cousin off, “Nothing nothing! Though, just noting we’re technically monsters too."

"So what, you want us to go prancing about town as ourselves to raid more sweets for you?"

"Noooooo, but that’s not what this Hallow’s Eve is all about everysiren! IIIiiiiiii checked!”

Adagio and Aria glanced at each other with a raised eyebrow before looking back to Sonata.

“Something you know ‘Nata?”

“Mmmmmmhm!”, the youngest siren chirped while clicking her heels.

“What do humans do on Hallow’s Eve? … Or Halloween… I admit I’m still getting the name thing in a twist, b-but nevermind! Not the main point of the tradition! Guess!”

“Douse each other in fake blood?”, Adagio deadpanned

Aria counted on her fingers, “Pretend to be animate dead bodies?”

“Butcher fruit and carve faces into it?”

“Terrify younglings as clowns?”

“Make excuses to seem horrible?”

“Color everything orange?”

“NotthatI'mopposed to thatbut- Have a death fetish?”

Aria cringed at the black cat statue nearby, “Scare us half to death with all the damn cats?”

Adagio groaned and put her forehead to her palm, “Or share our aversion felines in general?”

“Only we seem to know the truth,” Sonata muttered to the agreeance of the other two, their mermare ancestry showing. Unfettered, her cousin and sister rattled on for a good minute.

“And charge extra admission at theme parks so they’re open at night,” Adagio grunted.

By now Aria had run out of fingers on her count and was rubbing at her temple to nurse a headache. Truly, this holiday, in particular, seemed overly complicated for so many oddities.

Adagio shrugged, “So… that was a long list of insanity.”

Aria groaned, “I swear if I see another cat I’m going to flip…”

Sonata sighed and rolled her eyes, “Aaaaaand you're completely missing the point!”

She stepped up to the department store window and threw back the spider web drapes. She motioned to the passerby outside. Children and accompanying teens or adults going up and down the streets, all clad in a menagerie of costumes that made it look like the town had been invaded by a cornucopia of often pint-sized superheroes, beasts, and monster.

“Watch ‘em!... No, for realsies, watch ‘em.”

Aria and Adagio shrugged but obliged. Sonata especially gestured to a trio of younger teens escorting a pack of even younger children. Sweetie Belle, a vampiress, helped walk Chibi Moon, a pink-hued witch, up to the front door of a store. The music store owners, twin zombie brothers who emerged from the fog machine to a chorus of thriller music, pranced up to the posse of children and dumped out candy to great applause.

“... They're extorting folks with dubious fire safety for sweets?”, Aria grunted.

“Nyoooo silly! See what the kiddies do with what they got? They eat it! The parents actually trust folks to feed their kids!”, Sonata piped while pointing to one child eagerly gobbling down a candy bar.

“People are always protective of their kids. How often you see tots that young out on their own, let alone with strangers at other times of the year?”

Adagio was about to retort but the statement died the moment she opened her mouth and held up a finger. She paused, closing her lips and tapping at her chin.

“Yooou… have a point, parents are usually paranoid,” she sighed in a moment of shared silence between the three. Even for those who didn’t get much chance with a paranoid parent, they knew how protective they were of their progeny. Was one of the few things they agreed on with ponies and humans before a change in methods.

Sonata gulped to push the bad thoughts aside, “Well, on Hallow’s Eve… Parents trust their children to go around, surrounded by strangers, to go to more stranger’s house, and ask for things to eat. And the strangers oblige them without any reason to. Might be a few bad eggs here or there, but look at all this?”

Sonata motioned to the crowds of trick-or-treaters, “Where or when else are you gonna find a more public display of love and trust? If we're dropping the whole 'spreading discourse for our gains' gig and going straight, what other holiday is there that goes right up that alley and meshes with our expertise? Sooo when better for us to have some fun with Auntie Hymnia's tune in the spirit of things?”

She held her breath and bit her lip after making her pitch, tapping her knuckles together in eager anticipation.

Adagio, still rapping on her chin, glanced at Aria as the latter did the same.

“She has a point, already got an audience right there for the taking.”

Aria glanced at what Sonata had picked out from the costume aisle, “Would be a shame for it to go to waste with no one wearing it.”

Sonata’s smile started to spread into a toothy grin and she squealed, “I call dibs on the purple cloak one!”

Aria picked up the red-cloaked set and muttered with her usual aloofness half masking a smirk, “Alright, but I’m not wearing the cone hair.”

Adagio picked up the last set, with a green dress and cloak, “Sheesh and they called us witches? Mom or Auntie wouldn’t be caught dead in this.”

Sonata flinched, “... Are you-”

Adagio rolled her eyes and playfully whapped her sister over the head with the prop broom, “For one night only. If these humans want to give this spreading love or good a try and doing it on a witching day, be just plain hypocritical for us not to show these fools how it's done!”

Sonata squealed and pulled herself free of the oversized brush, pulling her cousin and sibling into a bear hug and bouncing in place.

“Oooooh! I can’t wait for our new song number!”

Now it was time for Aria and Adagio to double take and look at the cause.

“New number?”

Sonata rolled her eyes, “Heellooo! We're song slinging sea witches, remember? Didn't you think I’d miss a chance like this? Found the perfect movie for the season to for us to borrow from, we can run Auntie Hymnia's tune through it for a big boost! Now come’on sirens! Let’s blow these ghosts and goblin’s sock off!”

=====================

The lights surrounding the mall’s show stage dimmed as the fog rolled in, drawing the attention of all passerby trick-or-treating or participating in the mall Halloween party. A violin cord stuck as the stage’s beams flicked on and off. As the music built a chorus of three voices hummed up a hymn as their sources took to the stage front. A trio of glowing red gems pierced through the haze. The light beamed, illuminating a trio of three young women clad in a famous set of cinematic witch outfits. Adagio Dazzle might have opted out of the costume’s buckteeth for sake of her dignity and singing ability, but she always was a stickler for theatrics as she threw back her green cloak in dramatic flair.

But much to her sister’s surprise, Adagio grabbed Sonata and spun about; switching their places and putting her center stage. Sonata was dumbstruck and felt a pit in her stomach, centerstage and on the lead cord for the first time. She took in the sight of the gathered audience watching on with intrigue and confusion, then a glance to her flanks to see a smirk from Adagio and wink from Aria. Her gem pulsed, sensing the love and kindness in the air. She gulped and held her breath as she felt it.

It overcame her anxiety and a grin stretched across her lips.

If Halloween was about neighborly generosity, spreading what’s good with a witching flair; would be just dull to not live up to it. And the Dazzlings were anything but dull!

She took the microphone and waved her hand as if casting a spell, “Iiiii put a spell on yooooooooou!~”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLY0gZ…