Adagio
There were screams.
Not from the Dazzlings, of course. Adagio would claim they were much too proud to scream, despite their every pore feeling like they were spouting fire. How does one even react to such a pain without dying? Not a minute ago the Dazzlings were screaming, a horrific trilogy of hellish wails that filled the blood-red skies of Canterlot City. The sound of their voices in unison mingled with the deep rumble of a bass, the smashing of drums, the crash of a tambourine and the joining of two equally-powerful voices to make for a melodious and ethereal battle.
A battle of the bands, thought Adagio, just as she felt the short-lived Equestrian Magic in her veins boil and burn away like the bacteria infesting a broiling steak. The pain was pure agony, and yet she refused to acknowledge the primal sound ripping from her throat as a reality.
"So the Rainbooms want to turn this into a real battle of the bands?"
A challenge, a dare for those weak human girls to face off against a trio of juiced-up monsters ripped straight from their mythology books. Adagio, and her fellow sirens, she suspected, hardly saw this as a battle at all, in truth. By their standards it barely qualified as a scuffle. Yet it may as well have been the greatest battle this world has ever seen, considering the powers at play.
Equestrian Magic. The phrase seemed so enticing rolling off Adagio's tongue amidst the weeks of planning after that fateful night in the cafe. Now it was the instrument of their downfall, a maelstrom of color and sound that enveloped and obliterated the sirens' familiars like they were no more than glass, before continuing to hail down from the heavens unabated and consume their masters as well.
Only, the Dazzlings did not have the luxury of shattering from existence. Sonata is screaming, I can hear it. Aria may be as well. But I'm not. I won't. She ignored the raw tenderness blossoming in her beloved throat, her "weapon of war" as it were.
The light around them grew brighter, and it only became whiter and hotter and whiter and hotter until the whole of existence was nothing but. And then suddenly it ended, vanished, swept away and discharged through the air like the cloying victory the Dazzlings tasted not a minute ago. Blackness dusted with silver took over the sky once more.
Now they found themselves on their knees, just barely obtaining support on trembling elbows. From there, the trio's stomachs left them all at once and their dinner came surging back up. The sounds of them retching salads and steaks and mashed potatoes, and that chocolate mousse they shared for dessert with the cocoa shavings and whipped cream were the only ones that permeated throughout the vast outdoor stadium.
None of them, least of all Adagio, heard the triumphant hurrahs the student body were undoubtedly shouting to the Rainbooms as they stepped down the hill and weaved through the crowd, nor could they make out the crude comments and jeers pelted at the girls already beaten to the ground and forced to their hands and knees. Perhaps no words were necessary; they all meant the same in the end.
We bet our entire plan on Sunset Shimmer's insecurity. We failed. It was as simple to comprehend as it could be, but Adagio Dazzle considered herself too proud to even consider admitting that aloud. Sunset should have fallen after what we said to her. When Adagio remembered at that moment, when it was too little, too late, that the sun always rises again, brighter and stronger, her very core seemed to be set ablaze. Moments later, however, she realized it was just a bout of dry heaving, which forced her to topple over on her side, moaning pathetically and clutching her belly.
Oh how the mighty have fallen, she thought venomously.
It took a few moments for Adagio to find her strength again, at least enough to merely crack her eyes open. Her sight of the roaring student body was partially obscured by a pair of black leather boots with violet toes. Immediately she felt a rage swell in her breast, and, fighting against the burn in her stomach, the Dazzling leader unceremoniously leapt to her feet, wobbling back a little from sudden lightheadedness but regaining her footing without embarrassing herself further. She wiped her arm across her mouth. "Get up, girls," she commanded, trying to muster an imposing tone but it came off slurred and feeble.
So very feeble. "Get up, you fools!" she repeated, loudly and, unintentionally, desperate.
Even so, Sonata was done, beaten; she just curled up on the ground, hands moving to cover her ears as that poxy-faced Applejack and thrice-damned Twilight Sparkle knelt over her. Adagio couldn't see beyond the backs of their heads.
Always the fighter, Aria gnashed her teeth together and forced herself to one knee, but collapsed into the same pathetic submission as her cohort. Adagio rolled her eyes. They felt like bowling balls in her skull. Weaklings! she thought sourly.
"I'm not beaten yet," Adagio snarled, shifting her weight to her other foot. She opened her mouth to sing, hand clutching the pendant pulsing at her throat. "Aaaah, aaaah! Aaaah, aaa—"
A fist connected with her jaw, so fiercely it struck that Adagio's head almost twisted around before she fell backwards on her ass. For the longest time she heard only an incessant ringing in her ears, but it cleared up gradually to the sound of those Rainboom girls talking.
"...want to know, was that really necessary?" asked the sumptuous-sounding voice of Rarity, their keytarist.
"Well, she started singing!" Shimmer. She sounded quite defensive. "I didn't know what else to do."
"Well, can't say Ah really blame ya," said a third voice. "Who knows what they're still capable of?"
The sound of footsteps rumbled through the wood at Adagio's ear, and stopped at the back of her head. "I don't think they can do anything for a while." Sparkle... "But we should be careful. Here, can you help me out girls? Rarity, Applejack, grab her by the ankles and under her arms. Rainbow and Pinkie, get the other. Sunset, help me with this one. And try not to drop them! We don't need them hurting anymore than they already are."
Adagio felt a pair of delicate hands grope her under her arms and lift, then another pair wrap firmly around her bared calves. She felt like she was flying again before darkness took her.
She dreamed of a sky drenched in blood and the smells of aged wine and silk and sex. Scores of men and women alike were moaning all around her with as much vigor as one whose mind is so simple. The droning would be occasionally pierced by someone crying out her name, thick with tears and reverence.
"We will be adored," the song echoed in the mind of Adagio Dazzle. We are adored, now. But she looked to her left, then her right. Where is Aria and Sonata? she wondered. Where were her two companions and why weren't they basking in the plunder of their victory?
Adagio blinked her eyes once, and true to that overused saying her vast crimson sky was replaced with a dark wooden one. Instead of people all around filling her world, she only heard two: at her left, the quiet little snores of Sonata Dusk, and her right the slow and measured breaths of Aria Blaze. All at once the events over the past twenty-four hours, from the pomp she boasted upon arriving at Canterlot High, to her losing her dinner before the entire student body, flooded her thoughts, and realization dawned on her:
They had lost their one chance to restore their ancient Equestrian Magic. And worse yet, they've been found out. A thousand years of hiding and Equestria has found them.
Adagio blinked again, this time realizing she was batting away tears as she did. Was I crying just then? Pain gripped her by the heart. I must not let them see, Aria and Sonata. I am their leader, the Magnificent and Powerful Adagio Dazzle. If this is to be our final resting place… no I won't let it be.
When she tried to move, Adagio found her limbs uncooperative. She was slow to register the feeling of two hands laying upon her arm. Nearby she started hearing voices, and she sensed something cold and nourishing put to her lips. Whatever it was tasted like nothing, but it was enough to satisfy an emptiness in her gut she didn't realize she had. Too weak to speak, Adagio allowed her arm to relax and she shut her eyes. The last thing she remembered seeing was red and yellow striped hair accompanied by a smiling orange face. She wondered if that was her mother, and continued to listen to the voices out of her sight prattle on in hushed whispers. After a time her world darkened and it became red once more.
Everything was black when Adagio opened her eyes again. For a moment she began to panic a little, her breath quickening and her hands grabbing at whatever they could find. They only found a velvety softness that was draped over her legs, a blanket perhaps. Is this the Afterlife? she wondered, recalling her hearing about how death is like a warm blanket that engulfs you forever. It was always meant to sound comforting, but Adagio found it to be truly horrifying. She was of the ocean, and she belonged underneath the bed of sand that she and her sisters in all but blood once ruled over.
But after a time her sight returned to her, and slowly the vague outlines of two familiar persons huddled up beside her came into clarity. They were all sharing an actual blanket, violet colored, her favorite, that was large enough to cover the three of them. She drew small comfort in that, being beside her companions and, supposedly, alive and well. But she felt a coldness blossom in her chest at the realization that they were alive and well and in someplace unfamiliar. She scanned the area quickly, the outlines of a simple pair of chestnut bedposts in her sights first. Beyond that, not much else; the drapes, a similar violet as their comforter, were drawn closed, barely shielding the room from completely filling with sunlight, and across the room beside the door was a wooden bureau.
How did we get here? That was a question that irritated Adagio. If there was one thing she couldn't stand, it was not being ahead of her enemies. She tried to remember, to recall everything that happened after that Rainbow girl's fake and self-congratulating performance.
Her memories came in stuttering flashes: their dinner, dolling themselves up for their own coronation, Trixie, "Welcome to the show," the first genuine power they've had in centuries coursing through their veins, "I've got the music in me," Equestrian Magic flowed through them as well, the Rainbooms, it fueled their songs, "Now it's time to finish you," the microphone flying through the air, "You'll never break this part of me," and rolling to a stop at Shimmer's feet, the rainbow that repelled their counterattack, the clouds parting, a pair of angry white eyes in the sky, and then the pain. Oh, Gods, the pain…
I am Adagio. I am Adagio Dazzle, Magnificent and Powerful. I don't cry and I don't scream and I will never let anywhere become my resting place. No one came to help Adagio that time, to put something cold and nourishing to her lips again. No one came to comfort her. No one ever did, she wouldn't allow it. It was Adagio's everything to appear strong and fearless for those who followed her, never the other way around.
And so it was to be that way for as long as she deemed fit. Alone in the dimness, Adagio drifted back into sleep. Her senses remained just long enough to detect an arm wrapping comfortingly around her. She allowed it, too tired and weak and afraid to care.
Adagio dreamed again, this time not of her utopia but of that one Rainboom, Fluttershy was her name, standing over her and gently sliding a spoon past her lips. At least, she assumed that was a dream. Why would their enemies help them? The idea became less likely as other Rainbooms came and went between periods of darkness. They would put more spoons in her mouth, in her teammates' mouths, slide a fresh pillow underneath her head to replace the old one. One time she swore she could see Princess Twilight Sparkle from the corner of her eye, legs folded as she sat on a stool and wrote in a journal of some kind. Sometimes she would hear them talk to one another, the Rainbooms. She could never make out what they said, it was always in a hushed whisper.
From the urgency in their whispers though, it would seem like they were always in constant argument. Presumably about the Dazzlings, since heated discussions always occurred in their presence. They're trying to figure out what to do with us, Adagio decided. It pleased her to at least figure that one out; her critical thinking skills were, however slowly, coming back to her.
This was great, all things considered. Given the situation, they might be all Adagio has left.
She spent her last moments of consciousness wondering why the Rainbooms hadn't tried taking off her pendant, as she fell asleep realizing the cold gemstone clenched in her fist. Maybe they hadn't figured it out yet… she mused. Hoped.
She later woke to something blessedly familiar and torturously aggravating.
"Dagi, you awake? I'm so hungry." Someone was jostling her by the shoulder. "Dagi," the person whined.
"Stop," Adagio croaked. It felt so good to hear herself talk again, scratchy and hoarse as she may be. Immediately her thoughts turned to more pressing matters the first instance her wits allowed it. What was the hour? The curtains closed prevented her from knowing that. For how long was I asleep? The damnable weight of lethargy was still heavy on her fatigued mind and body.
Curse it all, why am I so weak?
The jostling of her shoulder grew slightly more vigorous. "Please don't fall asleep, Dagi," the voice whispered. It sounded urgent.
Another familiar voice joined hers, glum as ever. "Seriously Adagio, I can't sit in this bed any more. I swear I'm just going to stab the next Rainboom that comes in here and break for it, with or without you."
Adagio could not resist the smile that pulled at the corner of her mouth. "Enticing idea," she mumbled. With that, she fought a vicious battle against her drowsiness and pushed herself back, sitting up against the pillow. She knuckled the sleep out of her eyes. A sudden chill struck her as she did, and Adagio realized then she was wearing a deep-purple tank top.
When her sight returned to her, Adagio found Aria and Sonata kneeling in front of her, wearing identical tops and matching sleep-shorts. The first thing Adagio noticed, which was also something she realized as she was being woken up, was how clear and firm their voices were.
"How long have you two been awake?" she asked, voice still containing a bit of a rumble.
Aria jerked a thumb in the direction of her fellow siren. "Sonata's been awake for about an hour. I've been up for a lot longer. I dunno how long, but at least when the sun was still up." Aria then looked over her shoulder, at the door across from them; bright orange fingers were slipping through the crack at the bottom. She leaned in closer, and spoke in a low voice. "I pretend to sleep whenever those Rainbooms come in. Call me paranoid, but I don't want them doing anything to me if they found out I was up, not until you guys were awake too."
Adagio swallowed a grunt. How could she, their leader, still be out cold long after her teammates had roused from their extended rest? "That was surprisingly patient of you, Aria," she had to admit. "I half-expected you to start throwing punches the moment you cracked an eye open." Her approval was met with a dispassionate huff from Aria. "However," she continued, "I would have appreciated it if you roused the two of us immediately."
"I did," she snapped, glowering. "You just kept falling back asleep."
Sonata nodded as she hugged herself tight. "So," she said, looking between the three of them, "what do we do, now that we're all up?"
"I say we pretend we're asleep," suggested Aria. "The next time one of them gets close, we get the jump on her and book it while we have the chance."
Adagio sighed; it was certainly an enticing plan, if one were as thick-skulled and narrow-minded as Aria was. "A masterful escape plan," she said mockingly, drawing a hair-trigger frown from the girl, "but we do not know where we are. Where are we to go if we find ourselves in, say, the dank slums of Canterlot City in just nightwear? And let's assume the Rainbooms are here, every one. We can't take them all on, and for all we know they could have done something to us to make us weak."
Sonata nodded her head vigorously at that. "Yeah, I remember they were feeding me something funny whenever we woke up. It could, oh!" She gasped. "It could be poison!"
Aria scoffed at the idea, but Adagio did not allow herself to take the situation lightly. For all her ramblings, Sonata could be right about this. Better safe than sorry, as the old saying goes.
"What about singing?" Aria proposed. "We crank out a quick little number to get them bickering and slip out." She eyed each of the girls' pendants pulsing a ruddy glow against their busts, and the hint of a smirk appeared on her lips. "We could grab a quick meal as we leave, and jack their stuff too. One of them's bound to have a car."
A phantom pain shot through Adagio's jaw; she recalled the "meal" she had received after trying one last desperate song on the Rainbooms immediately following their defeat, one "knuckle sandwich" to be precise. That aside, Aria my dear you continue to assure me of your incompetence as a leader. "Our spell doesn't work on them, darling," she explained slow and mockingly. Aria put on an irritated scowl; briefly Adagio pondered if it was directed at her, or the realization of her flawed plan. Knowing Aria, definitely the former.
"Besides," she continued, "it wouldn't be the wisest thing, to dive head-first into physical conflict after being bedridden for Gods know how long." Adagio pulled her feet in so she sat crisscross, one hand placed upon each knee. The air she breathed in felt heavy at that moment, knowing her patience and nerves would rue the words about to come out of her mouth:
"The best course of action, girls, would be to buckle down for the time being, and comply with whatever the Rainbooms ask of us."
Aria's reaction was as predictable as the rising of the sun. "Are you kidding me?" Her mouth hung agape, as wide as her eyes snapped open. "Those stupid human girls destroyed our first chance, our only chance, at finally restoring our old magic, and they humiliated us in front of everyone! We're now their prisoners, and you're saying we should just go along with it?" She exhaled all of the rage in her system out through her nose, akin to more of a bull than a teenage girl.
Adagio blinked slowly; this was par for the course with Aria, complaining and trying her damndest to be a little rebel-genius despite never having a single strategic thought in her stupid thick skull.
But what Aria said next was something else entirely. "This is why I should be the leader," she growled. "You always let our enemies walk all over us, King Neptune, Starswirl, the Rainbooms, all of them. And the centuries have only made you softer, Adagio. If we followed my lead back at the school, we'd be queens of this stinking hole of a world by now, and Equestria." She straightened her back, appearing as the tallest of the three. "Maybe I should call the shots from now one, given your track record. What do you say, Sonata?"
Sonata hid her face behind her knees and held her silence; she knew what was coming, as she shifted her eyes towards Adagio. The siren in question breathed in, then out. It was all she could do not to start hollering and scare the daylights out of every soul in the neighborhood. The look on her face betrayed not a single emotion as she leaned forward, a ghost of a smile on her face, and said with poison sweetness, "I would sooner let maggots feast upon my beautiful flesh before I even consider naming you leader of this team."
Aria held her ground, rolling her eyes and trying to play it off with a simple hand wave. "And that lovely image was brought to you by Adagio Dazzle because...why exactly?"
"'Why?'" Adagio accepted long ago that she will never grasp the scope of Aria Blaze's ignorance, yet despite that she still could not help but be baffled. "You're seriously asking 'why', Aria? You, always responding to everything in a violent knee-jerk reaction without grasping the larger picture at hand? And even if you cleaned up your act, you're still ill-tempered and possess too-large an assurance of intelligence you do not have." She allowed her head to drop, to sigh aloud, before collecting herself again.
"There must have been some way that Equestrian Magic got into this world, and word of mouth says that that purple Rainboom isn't a local." She gave a wry laugh. "There'll be a way to get what we want. There always has been. I'm not saying we have to play nice and make friends; we'll just need to lay low and bide our time."
"Like always?" chirped Sonata.
Adagio smirked. "Like always." Her eyes darkened when they returned to Aria. "I will not hear another word about your ill-reasoned and childish fantasies of becoming the leader of this team. Are we clear?" The squeak of underused door hinges came from the other side of the room.
Sonata looked over her shoulder, though Aria continued to glare daggers at her leader. "Crystal." Adagio decided to be generous and give her a month before they'd find themselves having this same conversation again.
With that, she and Aria mimicked their teammate and directed their gazes towards the doorway. Sunset Shimmer of all people stood there, holding a jar of some orange goop in one hand and a metal spoon in the other. She looked like a deer in the headlights, especially with the orange dim of the hallway glowing around her. "Rarity?" she called out, never taking her eyes off the Dazzlings. "Start a coffee pot…"
Next Time: Hot Coffee - The Dazzlings see the truth of their situation.