Sunset Shimmer gripped the collar of her coat a little tighter and quickened her pace as she was buffeted by a particularly stiff gust of wind. She’d only gotten off the bus a block or so back, but she already couldn’t wait to get indoors. The thick, dark red overcoat Rarity had loaned her when the weather first started turning cold was wonderful, but even the fashionista’s finest work seemed inadequate against the biting chill of a Canterlot winter.
She came to an intersection and looked up for street signs as she fished a piece of paper from her pocket. Unfolding the note with fingers that had already gone numb despite her gloves, her breath frosted in the air as her eyes traced over the flowing script within.
Coffee shop
27th St and Evans Ave
10am Sunday
~Adagio
She had discovered it in her mailbox a little over an hour ago, and it was a lucky thing that she hadn’t checked for mail the day before or else she might not have seen it in time. It was completely out of the blue; the Rainbooms hadn’t seen or heard from the Dazzlings since they were booed off stage at the Battle of the Bands, but despite the nervous trepidation that filled her now, she knew ignoring it was something she just couldn’t do in good conscience.
Sunset bit her lip and looked back up at the signs, then at the surrounding buildings. Not far from the intersection on the other side of the street she spotted a faded sign that featured a coffee cup and space for a name that had worn away long ago, with a slightly newer sign that read ‘breakfast all day’ hanging underneath. She quickly stuffed the note back into her pocket and hurried across the road while she had the chance, stopping only briefly at the door where she drew a single, fortifying breath before pushing it open.
An old-fashioned bell dinged above her as she stepped into the welcome warmth, accompanied by the thick, unmistakable aroma of freshly-ground coffee beans. The inside of the shop was narrow, but fairly deep. The bright mid-morning Sun streaming through the dingy windows on either side of the door provided more than enough light, at least in the front half of the room. Everything from the checkered tile floor to the rows of patterned vinyl dining booths against both side walls, to the well-worn counter top and accompanying stools that cut part way across the back told her that this place had been around for a long time. Sunset couldn’t help but feel like she had just entered into a small piece of Canterlot’s history, gathering dust in the corners but otherwise preserved amid the steady forward flow of progress.
“I’ll be out in a second; sit any place you like!” an older woman’s voice called from the kitchen beyond the counter. Sunset slipped off her gloves and started unwinding her scarf as she glanced around. There weren’t that many customers that she could see; an old man at one of the booths closest to the door reading a newspaper, a couple with a preteen child just a few seats farther back, a large man in workman’s dungarees seated at the counter...
A sudden, rasping cough drew her attention to the other side of the room where she spotted a woman in a dark purple coat sitting with her back to the door. As Sunset moved closer she spotted a few strands of telltale orange hair peeking out from under the woman’s mauve knit hat and silently wondered how the massive frizzy mess she remembered fit into that tiny piece of headwear. She stepped up to the side of the table and cleared her throat politely.
“Uh… hi.”
Adagio Dazzle lifted her head and regarded Sunset for only an instant before turning back to the cup of coffee on the table. “Hey.”
Sunset stared at the siren. She looked thinner than she remembered, if that were possible. Her cheekbones were more pronounced, and her hands shook a little as she stirred a packet of sugar into her beverage with a spoon, but the thing that drew Sunset’s attention were the dark bags under Adagio’s eyes. The last time she’d seen someone looking that tired was when Rainbow Dash had challenged Applejack to see who could stay awake the longest, only for Pinkie Pie to outlast them both.
“Are you planning on sitting down?”
Adagio’s voice startled Sunset out of her musing. “Right. Thanks.” She slid into the booth across from Adagio, setting her scarf and gloves on the seat next to her as an older woman approached and pulled a pen and pad of paper from her apron.
“What can I getcha, honey?” she gestured to a laminated menu on the table that featured an assortment of breakfast items.
“Oh, just coffee, thanks.”
The waitress nodded once and headed back to the counter. Sunset looked to Adagio, but the other girl’s eyes were still downcast.
“I, um… I got your note,” she offered.
“Obviously,” Adagio said. Sunset frowned and feigned interest in the rest of the diner. A moment later the waitress returned with a saucer, cup, and a steaming pot of joe.
“This is a cozy place you have,” Sunset said.
“Thanks,” the waitress smiled as she poured. “Been here going on forty years now, me and the husband. Mom and Pop ran it before that. Keep thinking about retirement but just can’t seem to make good on it.” Sunset nodded appreciatively and picked up her spoon as the waitress moved off, stirring the steaming liquid to help it cool. Uncomfortable silence languished over the table.
“So,” she turned her attention back to the girl across from her, “how have you been?” Adagio finally looked up from her drink, only to fix Sunset with a no-nonsense stare. Sunset winced. “Right… sorry.”
“Sorry for what? That my life is a train wreck, or that you were the one who made it that way?”
A glower took over Sunset’s face as a twinge of anger tightened up her stomach. “Look, I’m not going to apologize for what happened. You hypnotized the entire school. You tried to hurt my friends, and I’m sure you were planning to move on to Equestria once you were done here, right?”
“Why, is that what you were planning up until the Fall Formal?” Adagio pouted, condescending sweetness dripping from every word.
Sunset’s eyes widened before falling to her own coffee cup, momentarily unable to meet Adagio’s gaze.
“I suppose it does come across a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black when I say it, but there’s one major difference.” She matched stares with Adagio once again, her eyes as determined as they had been the night she first sang alongside the Rainbooms. “My friends stopped me from making a terrible mistake, and I’m eternally grateful for that. You obviously couldn’t care less.”
“Of course not, don’t be stupid,” Adagio said as she raised her drink. “I’m a siren. There was no mistake; causing conflict is simply part of what I am.”
“Oh, and is enjoying every minute of it just ‘part of who you are’ too? That doesn’t make it right.”
“Doesn’t it?” Adagio cocked her head to the side. “Let me ask you something. Back in Equestria, did you eat meat?”
“No!” Sunset gagged a little at the mere thought. “Of course not, and I don’t do it here either.”
“These humans do,” she gestured around the room, and as if to accentuate her point Sunset noted that both the man at the counter and the small family had plates that held at least one form of cooked flesh. Adagio leaned in conspiratorially. “Your friends do. Don’t you find that offensive? A little disgusting, even?”
“A little bit, maybe,” Sunset winced, wringing her hands together on her lap, “but it’s part of their biology, like griffons back in Equestria. You can’t really blame them for…” she trailed off.
Adagio smirked. “For what? Go on.”
“… For being true to their nature,” Sunset finished with a slight frown.
“Exactly,” Adagio sat back with a triumphant, haughty smile. “We might not kill our prey, but you might want to keep in mind that sirens are still predators, and you know what? We’re good at it. If everything goes according to plan no one even knows we’re there. In some cases we’ll even go to extreme lengths to protect the lives of the people around us. How many other predator species do you know will actually defend their prey from danger?”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Sunset shook her head. “Are you actually sitting there trying to convince me that it would’ve been a good thing if you had won? That you would’ve become this world’s… I dunno, what? Some kind of twisted guardians?” She crossed her arms. “You make people suffer, and more importantly you take away free will. To a lot of people, me included, that’s a fate worse than death.”
The siren’s sullen expression suddenly became one of bubbling excitement.
“Oh, hi Pot! I’m Kettle, do you remember me? Or were you too busy turning the students of Canterlot High into your personal zombie army again?”
Sunset’s face reddened as she bit back a response, instead taking a tentative sip of her coffee. Adagio huffed.
“Anyway, you’re missing the point. You might as well be angry at the wolf who kills sheep to survive.”
“You want the sheep to just roll over and die when the wolf comes around, is that it?” Sunset shot back.
Adagio coughed a little and offered a shrug. “Fair enough, although most prey avoids danger by hiding or running,” her gaze became hard and her voice bitter, “not by turning around and ripping out the predator’s teeth so it’ll starve.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes at the siren. “What's that supposed to mean?”
Adagio stared, her eyes searching Sunset’s own for a moment before she let out a deep sigh and returned her attention to her coffee.
“We’re dying.”
Sunset furrowed her brow. “I’m sorry; what?”
“I said we’re dying, you idiot,” Adagio spat. “Sonata, Aria, and I. All three of us are going to die.”
“I don’t under-” Sunset froze mid-sentence, her breath seizing up in her throat as the pieces quickly clicked into place in her mind. “No…”
“Oh, yes,” Adagio looked her straight in the eye, sending chills down her spine. “You broke our pendants and took away our voices, and now we’re starving to death. You and your friends ripped out our teeth, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset slumped back in her seat, speechless and nearly senseless. The pit of her stomach churned even as it filled with ice. Her breathing became short and she could practically feel her heartbeat in her ears. For a moment she thought she was going to be sick.
Through it all, Adagio simply watched, her face a perfect mask of indifference. After nearly a full minute, Sunset reached out with a trembling hand and took a long drink followed by a deep, slow breath.
“You okay now?”
“Yeah,” Sunset nodded. “Yeah, I think so. Wow.” She took another large breath for good measure. “This is kind of a lot to take in.”
“You’re telling me,” Adagio deadpanned, but Sunset already had a question on her lips.
“It’s been months since the Battle of the Bands, how are you…?”
“‘A little goes a long way’, or so they say.” Adagio reasoned. “It’s different for us than it is for ponies and humans; you’re all constantly stuffing your faces in order to keep breathing. Ugh.” She gave a tiny shudder. “A siren can go weeks, even months without absorbing magic... and before you ask, no, we can’t just eat regular food. Stuff like this,” she held up her coffee cup, “might taste good, but our physiology is vastly different to normal humans on a genetic level. We aren’t capable of absorbing nutrients unless we have magic saturating our cells to help act as a catalyst.” She realized that Sunset was giving her a somewhat slack-jawed stare. “What?”
“I just… wasn’t expecting such a detailed answer.”
Adagio smirked and cocked an eyebrow. “We’ve been trapped here for over a millennium. Did you think we just sat around doing nothing that whole t-time?” She coughed again, the hacking coming from deep in her chest. Sunset shook her head and crossed her arms.
“Well no, but… Genetics?”
“Tch,” Adagio rolled her eyes again. “They still called it ‘heredity’ until about a century and a half ago. When we were first banished, we knew absolutely nothing about this world. Despite still having the smallest fraction of our powers, we knew that if we wanted to survive here we needed to learn, more than anything we needed to understand the changes to our bodies.” She paused to take a drink, shifting in her seat so that she could lean her elbows on the table. “So, I studied them. Anatomy, Biology, Histology, Physiology… anything I could get my hands on, really. Genetics is just the most recent--aaand you look confused again.” She sighed. “I didn’t think I’d have to worry about using too many big words around you like I do with Sonata.”
Sunset shook her head. “No, it’s not that,” she put a finger to her chin and rested her elbow in her other hand. “I’m pretty sure Twilight and I became ordinary humans when we entered this world, why wouldn’t the same happen to you three?”
“How the hell should I know?” Adagio shrugged and scrunched up her face. “The unicorn wizard who banished us here cast some sort of spell that opened a huge, swirling vortex in the sky. Sucked the three of us up and spat us out here, with these,” she gestured to herself with her hands, “things instead of our real forms.”
Sunset nodded slowly. “Maybe the spell wasn’t complete,” she thought out loud. “Maybe the mirror came later, once Starswirl had perfected it… or maybe it was only designed to work on ponies and couldn’t quite figure out siren physiology.”
“Not that it matters any now,” Adagio sighed. “Even if we could get back to Equestria I doubt it would help.”
“There must be something that we can do,” Sunset insisted. “Maybe if the Rainbooms played and you were nearby you could try to absorb some of our residual magic?”
“What do you think we are, magic sponges?” Adagio frowned. “Without our gems we’d have no way to collect it.”
“Well, where do the gems come from?” Sunset asked. “I can get a message to Princess Twilight; maybe she can find some, or fashion some replacements?”
“It won’t make any difference,” Adagio said, swirling the last of her coffee before downing it. Sunset looked at her incredulously.
"You can’t just give up! I'm sure there must be-"
"What do you think I've been doing for the past few months, hm?" Adagio rounded on her. "You might not've realized this yet, but the technology and science these humans have developed can be just as powerful and effective as any magic from Equestria; maybe even moreso. Pharmaceuticals, chemical treatments, gene therapy... hell, I even had one private lab working on a retrovirus capable of selectively altering DNA. I spent a small fortune trying to find a solution, and nothing worked. I even tried to catalyze what little remained of our gems using my own blood, and let me tell you, that was an excruciatingly painful failure."
Sunset shook her head. "It’s not too late to-"
“You're not listening," Adagio growled, "I'm telling you it is too late!"
She reached up and jerked the hat from her head.
Sunset’s eyes widened, her hands falling absentmindedly to her lap.
Adagio’s once gigantic, frizzy head of hair was a mere shadow of its former self. Still orange for the most part, a good portion of it had turned a sickly grey-white, but more disturbing was that there was far less of it than Sunset remembered. What once had been an incredibly thick, poofy morass was now so thin and so flat that in some places Sunset could see right down to Adagio’s scalp.
“Y-your hair…”
“Back in Equestria, when a siren is about to die her dorsal fin withers.” Adagio gave a mirthless smile. “My best guess is that this is my human body’s way of telling me my time is up.”
Sunset gasped as her hand shot up to cover her mouth. The bags under her eyes, her apparent weight loss, the coughing fits, the state of her hair… the full force of what was happening to Adagio punched Sunset in the gut and brought tears to the corners of her eyes.
“Oh, Adagio…” Sunset said in a hoarse whisper. “I’m so sor-”
“Don’t,” the siren cut her off abruptly with an intense glare. “Don’t you dare; I don’t need or want your pity.”
“Then why the hell did you bring me here?” Sunset’s voice broke as the first tears ran down her cheeks. “What do you... do you just want to rub it in my face, is that it? Are you trying to make me feel terrible and ashamed of what I’ve done, because it’s working, but I’ve gotta say you’re a little late to the party!” Her sudden outburst took the siren by surprise.
“N-no, that isn’t what I-”
“Then why?” Sunset cried. “What’s the point of all this, Adagio?!”
“I DON’T KNOW!” The attention of the rest of the coffee house’s occupants swung to the pair instantly. Adagio glanced around as they stared, her face flushing with heat as she did her best to ignore them and lowered her voice. “I… I don’t know, okay?”
The cafe patrons slowly went back to their own business, and Sunset dried her tears with a napkin while Adagio gingerly slipped her hat back on. The waitress came by and refilled her cup without saying a word, and the two girls sat in self-conscious silence for long minutes before Adagio cleared her throat.
“Ugh, I wasn’t even planning on telling you any of this, it just sort of…” she trailed off with a weak shake of her head. “I haven’t talked to Aria or Sonata in weeks.”
“Where did they go?”
“Nowhere, we just... aren’t talking,” the siren admitted. “It’s never been like this before. Our entire lives we’ve always had each other, and now…” she hesitated again, biting her lip anxiously. She shook her head briskly and started mixing her coffee, grabbing a pair of sugar packets from the container on the table. “It was just driving me crazy, I needed to talk to someone, and you were the only person I thought might understand.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow. “You walked all the way downtown to stuff a note in my mailbox because you were lonely?”
“Shut up,” Adagio scoffed, focusing on the spoon as she stirred. “You make it sound stupid when you say it like that.”
Sunset tried to suppress her smile, but Adagio caught sight of it from the corner of her eye. A grin crept onto her own features as Sunset lost control and started laughing quietly, joined shortly by the siren herself.
“All right, sure, I was lonely,” Adagio finished chuckling. “Isn’t that ridiculous, though? Who do I turn to when I’m miserable but the person who’s directly responsible for it all.” Sunset opened her mouth to protest but Adagio waved her off and reached for a coffee creamer. “It’s fine, it’s fine. The truth is... I’m not even really angry at you. Or the Rainbooms. It’s like you said, you were just trying to protect yourselves, and I seriously doubt that you ever thought things would turn out like this.”
“That’s… odd,” Sunset furrowed her brow. “Come to think of it, I wasn’t mad at Twilight or the others after the Fall Formal either. I wonder if the Magic of Friendship had something to do with it.”
“Oh no, I was was seven different shades of pissed off at first. Pun intended,” Adagio assured her with an pointing finger. “I've just spent a lot of time thinking the past couple of weeks, that’s all.” She grimaced, picking up her coffee and staring down into its depths. “It’s hard not to second-guess yourself when the only two people in the world who’ve ever really known you suddenly start hating your guts.”
Sunset gawked at the girl in front of her, watching as she gently blew on the steaming beverage in her hands. Seeing her like this--so pensive, so uncertain and unusually reserved--it was hard to imagine that she was the same Adagio Dazzle who had taken over Canterlot High in a matter of hours, who oozed confidence and magnetism from every pore, and who had come within an eighth note of conquering the entire world.
Then again, she wasn’t the same Sunset Shimmer anymore, either.
“I think I’d like to.”
Adagio’s head snapped up, her mouth hanging open and one eyebrow arched for maximum incredulousness. “Excuse me?”
“T-to get to know you! Not hate your guts!” Sunset stammered. “I… I think I understand why you came to me. I know what it feels like when it’s you against the world and everyone hates you... even the people you thought really trusted you. I also know what it’s like to be different and not be able to talk to anyone about it, although I didn’t realize how important that was until I started writing to Twilight.” She smiled warmly as she thought of her interdimensional penpal; her worst enemy turned closest friend. “It was liberating to be able to talk to someone about me. The real me.”
She refocused on Adagio, shaking her head.
“It must be so much worse for you. You must’ve seen so many places and done so many things in your lifetime… amazing things that most people can only dream about experiencing.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Adagio frowned, returning her gaze to the table.
“I... I’d like to hear about them, if you’re feeling up for it,” Sunset prompted after a moment. Adagio looked up at her again, eyes wide with different kind of surprise before they narrowed in suspicion. Sunset offered her the warmest, most sincere smile she could manage.
“No offense, but unless you’re secretly much older than you let on I doubt you can appreciate the perspective that comes with a thousand-year lifespan.”
“Try me,” Sunset laughed. “I was a student to Princess Celestia herself before I left Equestria. Besides, you’re the one who said you needed someone to talk to, and I’ve got all day.” She slipped her coat from her shoulders and let it fall between the seat and the small of her back before leaning forward onto the table with her elbows. “Tell me about the real Adagio Dazzle.”
The siren shook her head, but smiled nonetheless.
“You asked for it.”
The Sun was just starting to set over Canterlot, casting long, thin shadows across the snowcapped city. The coffee shop on Evans Avenue had seen a few more patrons that day, but they had all since moved on, save for two young women.
Rather, one young woman and another woman who only appeared to be so.
“… And no sooner had she shut her mouth then all of the sudden, bam!” Adagio slammed her palm on the table. “Iceberg out of freaking nowhere! That was, as you can imagine, the last time we ever let Sonata near the helm of a ship again.”
Sunset, holding a fork loaded with syrupy pancake that was frozen partway between her plate and mouth, shook her head in astonishment.
“I can’t believe Sonata’s terrible luck was responsible for sinking the Shiretanic,” she said, only to receive a questioning look from Adagio. “Okay yeah, nevermind, I can believe it.”
Adagio grinned and scooped up another mouthful of scrambled eggs, barely lifting them off the plate before plopping the utensil back down. “Oh, almost forgot the best part! We’re all sitting in the life raft watching the ship go under, and-”
“Wait, didn’t a lot of people drown because there weren’t enough lifeboats?” Sunset asked as she chewed, giving the other girl a half-serious frown. “Did you sing yourselves to safety again?”
“Pfft! I would have, but the Captain kept shouting ‘Women and children first!’ We barely had time to open our mouths before some smelly sailors grabbed us and tossed us into a leaky boat!” Sunset pressed her lips together as her shoulders shook with laughter, resulting in a very unladylike snort. “Anyway, the ship is going down, taking everything we own with it except for the ballroom gowns we were wearing--which were now getting soaked, mind you. Aria and I turn and glare at Sonata, and she looks back at us with that doofy, innocent grin and says…?” Adagio trailed off and gave a leading smirk. Sunset’s eyes widened.
“It’s Sonata my fault!” they exclaimed in tandem.
Sunset completely lost it, clapping her hand over her mouth and rocking back in her seat as high-pitched peals of laughter squeaked out. Her face was nearly as red as her hair by the time she managed to swallow her food and gasp for breath. “Oh, oh my Celestia! She was still using that joke after two hundred years?!”
“It was closer to two hundred and fifty. She didn’t stop until the nineteen seventies when she realized she could do the same thing with Aria. ‘Aria hungry?’ ‘Aria tired yet?’ ‘Aria gonna eat that?’” Adagio rolled her eyes. “God, she sounded like a pirate with a speech impediment!”
Sunset threw her head back and clutched at her midsection as a full-throated belly laugh shook her from head to toe.
“Oh! Oh, ow, my stomach!” she wiped tears from her eyes with the back of her hand. “Oh, I can’t remember the last time I laughed this hard. It might not even have been in this body; I might’ve still been a pony.” Adagio laughed and finally got that bite of eggs, washing it down with the last of her orange juice before twisting around and looking toward the cafe’s darkening windows.
“Ugh, it’s getting late,” she grumbled.
“Is there somewhere you need to be?”
Adagio shook her head slowly. “No, but… I think it’s all these stories about Sonata and Aria. I’m starting to miss them.”
Sunset found herself smiling warmly. “Despite how you three are always fighting, you really love them, huh?”
“Oh of course I do!” Adagio admitted forcefully. “They’re my sisters. Even if they despise me now, nothing will ever change that. Not even death.” Her sullen look returned, and Sunset took a moment to drink and clear her throat.
“Is that why the three of you aren’t talking?”
Adagio nodded almost imperceptibly. “When we realized what was happening we got into a huge shouting match like we always do--y’know, to get everything off our chests and de-stress, but this time it was… different.” She paused, playing with the last of her eggs. “I don’t know, I guess it was just too much. It was too big for us to just shout our frustrations away.”
“Screaming at each other makes you feel better?” Sunset arched a brow. "Is that a siren thing?"
“No, it's a sibling thing,” Adagio looked up at her with a knowing smirk. "You an only child?" Sunset nodded. “Just trust me on this one, then. Anyway, Aria is still furious, she won’t even look at me, but Sonata… Sonata is so much worse,” Adagio grimaced, her voice growing quieter as her eyes lost their focus on the here and now. “When I’m around she pretends that everything is okay. She doesn’t say anything; she just smiles and goes about whatever she’s doing like nothing’s wrong, but...” she paused and bit her lip. “Lately I’ve heard her crying herself to sleep. I’ve seen her when she thinks I’m not looking and… and I…” her breath shuddered in her lungs as she choked back a sob. “S-she’s terrified and I can’t even…”
Adagio turned away and squeezed her eyes shut. Even as the first tears forced their way down the siren’s cheeks Sunset was already moving, leaving her side of the booth behind for a spot next to Adagio. She put her arms around the crying girl and faced little resistance when she pulled her close. Her head resting on Sunset’s shoulder, Adagio’s body trembled as all of the pent up frustration she never allowed anyone else to see came bursting to the surface.
“It’s all my fault!” she cried, her words muffled in Sunset’s embrace. “They’re my little sisters, and I’m supposed to protect them! They look up to me and I let them down and now they’re going to die, scared and alone, and there’s… there’s nothing I can do!”
Blinking back the tears forming at the corners of her own eyes, Sunset said nothing. She held Adagio as she wept, gently rubbing the girl’s upper back and shoulder. In the back of her mind she noted the warmth of Adagio’s sorrow soaking into her shirt.
Minutes continued to tick by. Sunset caught a glimpse of the waitress, but she thankfully vanished into the back again after only a quick glance at the huddled pair. Slowly, the tremors wracking Adagio subsided, transforming into shallow breaths and allowing her tensed muscles to relax. Soon even her breathing returned to normal, permeated only by the occasional sniff.
Sunset reached across the table to her jacket, struggling to fish a small packet of tissues out of the breast pocket before holding them down where she thought Adagio could see them. The siren gave one last long sniff and pulled away from her comforter, taking the tissues and wasting no time putting them to good use. The wet portion of her shirt near her shoulder quickly grew clammy and stuck to her skin without Adagio’s continued warmth, but she ignored it, repositioning herself and leaning over a little so that she was shoulder-to-shoulder with the siren. With only a moment’s hesitation, Adagio leaned right back into her as she finished drying her eyes.
“Sorry."
“It's fine," Sunset shook her head. Another brief moment of silence fell between them. "So what now?"
Adagio shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."
Sunset turned to face her, their heads now only a few inches apart. “Go talk to them. I know it’ll be hard, but I have a feeling they need you right now just as much as you need them.”
Sunset could feel Adagio tense up again, and her lips pressed into a tight line.
"What if... what if they don't?" she breathed. "What if they really don't care about me anymore?"
"You still care about them," Sunset smiled. "That's all that really matters."
“Yeah,” Adagio nodded solemnly. “Yeah, you're right." She took a steadying breath. "In that case I should probably get going. No way to tell how long any of us have.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
The siren tilted her head to look Sunset in the eye. A half-dozen emotions danced across her face all at once, but in the end she merely shook her head.
“No. I think I’d better do this on my own,” she said, and Sunset nodded in acceptance. Adagio took a deep breath. “Listen, just so we’re clear on things. I’m not about to apologize for anything that we did, and I don’t expect you to either. We were all just doing what we felt we had to do, and I can’t be angry at you for that, I just… I just wish it didn’t have to end this way.”
“For what it’s worth Adagio, so do I.”
The siren laughed. “What, you wish you had lost now? That we’d taken over the school, and the world? Equestria?”
“If it meant that the three of you could keep on living…” Sunset trailed off, shaking her head. “I dunno. Maybe.” She turned back to find Adagio’s eyes searching her as if she was seeing the former unicorn for the first time.
“You’re really something else, Sunset Shimmer.”
Sunset smirked and lightly elbowed her in the ribs. “Coming from the woman who history remembers as Roan of Arc and played muse to Fillyam Shankspur, that means a lot.”
“Hmph,” was Adagio’s only response apart from returning the grin before Sunset levered herself out of the booth. They both stood and stretched, a sharp wince crossing Adagio’s face as a few muscles in her back twinged in protest. She reached back into the booth for her coat, having discarded it much earlier in the day, and as she slipped it on she pulled a few crumpled bills from the pocket.
“Let me get it,” Sunset waved her money away. “My treat.”
“Lunch and dinner for two, plus a half a dozen cups of coffee?” Adagio gave her a sly wink. “Why Sunset, if I’d known you were such a generous date I’d have asked you out months ago.”
Sunset stuck out her tongue, the grin never leaving her face. “Just think of it as a thank-you for the stories.”
“I suppose it’s not so bad as far as last meals go,” Adagio shrugged.
Sunset’s smile quickly crumbled into a frown. “Don’t say that.”
Adagio smiled bitterly and pulled a pair of mittens from her pocket. “You know what the weirdest part is?” she asked, and Sunset shook her head. “I spent over a thousand years trying to make the entire world adore me. Now I’m about to die, and only a handful of people even know I exist,” she furrowed her brow and shook her head, “and for some reason I’m fine with that.” She pursed her lips and sighed. “I dunno, maybe after all this time I’d rather not be remembered at all than be remembered as a monster.”
A lump formed in Sunset’s throat as a nearly imperceptible gasp escaped her lips. For a moment she couldn’t tell if Adagio had spoken those words, or if they had been her own.
“Hey,” she squeaked out, “do you have a phone?”
“Not anymore,” Adagio shook her head. “Didn’t really see the point.”
Sunset turned back to the booth and dug into her coat’s inside pocket, bringing out a plain black smartphone and handing it to Adagio. “If you need anything, or if you just want to talk. If you text my number I’ll get the message in my email.”
“You’re giving me your phone?” Adagio asked as she stared down at the device. “Just like that? Not worried that I’m going to run up your bill by calling someone in Germaneigh, or that I’ll send nasty texts to everyone you know?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened, believe me,” Sunset rolled her eyes, “but yeah, I’m giving you my phone. I trust you.”
Adagio bit her lip and stared, her trembling eyes boring into Sunset. For a moment it seemed like she might start crying again, but in an unexpected move the siren stepped forward and wrapped Sunset in another tight hug, one that she happily reciprocated.
“Thank you,” Adagio whispered quietly into Sunset’s hair. “I mean it... thank you for everything.” After a moment more Adagio pulled away and sniffed, dabbing the corners of her eyes with her mittens before slipping them onto her hands and taking a deep breath. She met Sunset’s gaze and put on that same bittersweet smile. “I’ll see you around.”
“Yeah… see you around.” Sunset nodded as Adagio turned, giving her one last lingering glance before stepping out into the cold Canterlot night. She stood there a few seconds longer, her gaze fixed on nothing, before a slow frown replaced the smile she’d given her departing former foe. She plopped back into the booth with her legs sticking into the aisle and her head bowed.
No one witnessed the silent, sorrowful tears that followed.
Sunset sighed as she pulled open her locker and set her Chemistry books in their place, thankful that she had only one more class before the school day ended. Unfortunately that class was P.E., and while Sunset didn’t have any particular dislike for it, she had been inexplicably exhausted all week. As she hung her bookbag inside the locker her eyes fell on the small velcro pouch on the side where she normally kept her phone.
Well, perhaps her exhaustion wasn’t exactly inexplicable.
A sharp rapping on her locker door snapped her to attention.
“Earth to Sunset! You in there?”
“Hm? Hey Rainbow,” she said, shutting the locker and turning to offer her friend a weak smile. “What’s up?”
“Your head that’s in the clouds, for one thing,” Rainbow crossed her arms. “I said your name, like, four times just now; what gives?”
“Oh, sorry,” Sunset brushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind, that’s all.” Rainbow leaned in close dropped her voice to a whisper.
“Is it because of, y’know… them?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “Rainbow, you don’t have to talk about the sirens like they’re some big secret… but yes,” she admitted. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what Adagio said to me. It’s been three days and I haven’t heard anything from her, I’m starting to get worried. I tried calling my phone too, but I think Adagio must have turned it off.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Probably dead by now.”
“Rainbow!” Sunset rounded on the athlete, her eyes wide with shock. “That’s terrible! How could you say something like that?”
“What? Unless you gave her a charger along with your phone the battery probably died days ago.” Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “What’d you think I was talking about?”
“Oh, n-nothing, nevermind. Ugh, I’m such an idiot!” Sunset facepalmed. “I need to find some way to contact them.”
Rainbow scrutinized her for a moment before shaking her head. “Well, I got nothing, but the girls are all meeting for hot chocolate at Sugarcube Corner after school. Maybe one of them will have an idea.”
“Yeah,” Sunset nodded just as the next bell rang. “Shoot! Thanks for your help Rainbow, I’ll see you later!”
She turned, catching the last look of suspicion that Dash threw her way, and started taking hurried strides toward the gym. She had told her friends about the surprise meeting with Adagio, but she had chosen to omit some of the more shocking details. They would find out eventually, she would make sure of that, but she just didn’t feel right burdening them with the emotions that weighed so heavily on her now. She hadn’t even worked up the stomach to tell Princess Twilight yet.
She slowed to a stop in the hall.
“Princess… Principal Celestia!” she grinned, spun on her heel and practically sprinted to the administrator’s office, her P.E. class entirely forgotten.
A short time later, Sunset counted under her frosty breath as she walked down a row of dilapidated and often unlabeled houses in the gritty, southern district of Canterlot. It hadn’t been easy convincing Principal Celestia to give her the address that the sirens had used when they registered at Canterlot High all those months ago, and she could only hope that they hadn’t moved someplace else in the meantime. She was a little concerned that it was in a section of the city that had fallen into severe disrepair and had a reputation for being a rough neighborhood, but that only strengthened her resolve to find Adagio and make sure she was okay.
Sunset finally found the correct house, a small, surprisingly well-kept, vinyl-sided one story building with an aging roof and a railed-in front porch. She climbed the short steps, double-checking that she had the right address before ringing the doorbell. She shivered a little as she waited. And waited.
The sound of a deadbolt scraping open startled her just before the door swung in to reveal Sonata Dusk. Upon seeing Sunset the diminutive siren’s eyes widened and she pulled back into the house a little, hiding partially behind the door.
“W-what do you want?” she asked weakly.
Sunset cringed, for like Adagio, Sonata’s hair had begun to grey and dark circles dominated the skin around her eyes, which themselves were exhausted and irritated. Sunset put on what she hoped was the most disarming smile she could muster.
“Hi Sonata, I hope you don’t mind me just dropping in like this. I hadn’t heard from Adagio and I was starting to get worried. Is she here?”
Sonata gasped at the mention of Adagio’s name, her one hand covering her mouth as fresh tears spilled forth. Before Sunset could react Sonata had thrown her arms around her and was sobbing into her chest, her tiny frame shaking so hard Sunset nearly lost her balance. She glanced down at the crying girl in confusion, but looked back up as Aria Blaze came into view just inside the house, her piercing, normally spiteful glare softened with sorrow and her jaw trembling.
Sunset froze. She couldn’t breath. Her heart went cold and the entire world ground to a shuddering halt as the tidal wave of understanding crashed down on her.
“No…”
“Thank you for giving us a ride, Rarity,” Sunset said as she bent down and reached into the car’s open window, “and thank you for the clothes on such short notice. I’ll swing by your place tomorrow to return them, if that’s okay.”
Rarity smiled warmly and clasped Sunset’s gloved hand in her own, giving it a comforting squeeze. “Think nothing of it, dear.” She looked past the other girl briefly to the two sirens who were already heading up the steps and into their house. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come in as well?”
“No, that’s okay,” Sunset shook her head, “Aria barely tolerates having me around. I’m kind of surprised she kept it together this morning with all of us there.”
“I was asking more for your sake,” the fashionista admitted with a weak smile, which Sunset returned.
“I’ll be okay. Really.”
“All right. Remember to call if you need anything.”
“I will. Thanks again.” With that Sunset stepped back from the curb and headed into the house as Rarity drove off. She closed and locked the door behind her and hung her winter gear in the nearby coat closet, doing her best to smooth the simple black dress that had been rumpled underneath it before heading into the living room.
Sonata was on the couch in her usual place, her hands in her lap clutching at the soft, matte black fabric of her borrowed skirt and her head bowed. Her eyes were half-lidded and she wasn’t crying at the moment, but Sunset couldn’t be sure if that was because she was calm or if she’d simply run dry of tears.
In contrast, Aria stood facing the room’s only window, garbed in black slacks and a matching top with her arms crossed over her chest as she stared out at the slow, steady snowfall that had thankfully held off until after the ceremony. Sunset had to admit that she was jealous of the girl’s self-control; aside from the first day she had shown up at their door, she had yet to see the purple-haired siren shed even a single tear. Even Rainbow couldn’t claim the same after today.
“Um,” she broke the silence tentatively, “Why don’t you girls get changed into something more comfortable? If you’re feeling up for it we could watch a movie? Maybe order a pizza?”
“Tch. Not that we’d actually get anything out of eating it,” Aria spat under her breath. Sunset’s shoulders slumped a little.
“I… I’d like that.”
Sunset looked up and found Sonata giving her a weak smile, but Aria spun around to face them both.
“Why? What’s the point?!” she spread her arms wide. “Why would you even bother stuffing your face with that garbage when you know it isn’t going to do a damn thing?”
“Because it makes me feel better, Aria!” Sonata shouted right back.
“Well good for you; you can feel better while you just sit around and wait to die!”
“It’s better than sitting around being grumpy and mean!”
Aria shook her head in disgust. “You’re such an idiot.”
“Am not!” Sonata rose to her feet abruptly. “You always say that, but you’re the one who’s too dumb to… to...”
Aria put her hands on her hips and sneered. “Moron.”
“Oh, shut up!”
“Make me!” Aria took a step towards her sister.
“Girls, please!” Sunset moved between them, extending a cautionary hand to each. “You shouldn’t be fighting like this. Do you think this is what Adagio would want?”
Sonata frowned and looked down at her feet, but Aria’s eyes flashed.
“Don’t you dare talk about her. Don’t even say her name!” she threatened, pushing Sunset’s arm out of the way and stepping even closer. “Who the hell do you think you are, just waltzing in here and trying to take her place? You don’t know the first thing about her, or us!”
“I’m not trying to take her place,” Sunset pleaded, “I just wanted to-”
“Bullshit!” Aria shouted in her face. “You move in here as soon as she’s gone, you start making all these decisions about her funeral and ordering us around just like she used to! What would you call it?!”
Sunset floundered. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for it to come off that way.”
“She’s just trying to help, Aria,” Sonata frowned, but the other siren just scoffed.
“Why, because she feels guilty? This is all her fault, or did you forget that too?”
“‘Dagi told us not to be mad at her for that!”
“ADAGIO IS DEAD!” Aria’s voice left their ears ringing and brought Sonata to tears once again. The words hung in the air for a moment before Aria wheeled away from them with a guttural growl and resumed staring out the window. Sonata fell back onto the couch and pulled a handful of tissues from the box on the nearby endtable, her soft sniffling the only sound in the room.
Sunset stood rooted in place, her head tilted down and her hair hanging forward enough to obscure most of her face.
“You’re right.”
“What?” Aria asked sharply without bothering to turn around.
“You’re right,” Sunset continued weakly, “part of the reason I’m here right now is because of guilt. Regardless of how or why it happened I had a hand in ending Adagio’s life--all of your lives, and… and I’m going to have to learn to live with that.” She paused to take a shaky breath. “You’re also right to say that I didn’t really know her compared to the way you two do, but there’s one thing I’m sure of.” She looked up at Aria, or more specifically Aria’s back. “In the whole time we spent talking she never once complained about what was happening to her. The only two things on her mind were you and Sonata. You two were her entire world; you meant everything to her.”
“You think I don’t know that?!” Aria shouted, her voice cracking.
“Of course you do,” Sunset shook her head softly. “You feel the same way, don’t you?”
Aria choked out a single sob, but her lack of any other response was answer enough. Sunset turned to Sonata, who nodded vigorously even as the tissues in her hands soaked through.
“Adagio’s biggest fear was that her sisters would die alone,” Sunset continued as she felt her own emotional dam breaking. “I can never replace her, but at least I can… I want to be the friend to you two that I couldn’t be for her.”
Sunset almost fell over as Sonata hugged her from behind, squeezing her tightly and snuggling against her back. Sunset smiled and put her hands on top of Sonata’s before turning her attention forward again. “Aria?”
“Ugh,” she responded with a large sniff and a grunt, reigning her emotions back in. “Fine; whatever.” She didn’t look their way or otherwise move from her place at the window, but Sunset still smiled.
It was a start.
She let out a deep sigh, clutching Sonata’s hands a little tighter and finding solace in the warmth of her embrace. After a long moment of relative peace, Sunset opened her eyes.
“There’s one last thing I’d like to do for Adagio.”
Dear Princess Twilight,
I’m writing to inform you of the recent passing of Adagio Dazzle. I’m afraid that her fellow sirens, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk, are also not long for this world. I’ll write to you again soon with more details, as I’m sure you have plenty of questions, but for now I’d like to ask a favor.
I talked to Adagio not long before her death. She seemed to be reaching out; searching for someone willing to offer her the hand of Friendship the same way I did after the Fall Formal.
I wish I’d been able to offer it to her sooner.
One thing she said to me struck a very personal chord. She said that she was glad so few people would remember her because she would rather not be remembered at all than be remembered for her past actions and cruelty. This is something I understand completely, as you can imagine.
But while I might understand, I find that I can’t agree.
In the past few days, both from my time with her and from the time I’ve spent with her sisters, I’ve learned that there was far, far more to Adagio Dazzle than I could’ve imagined. She was a singer and a dancer, an actor and a songwriter. A warrior and a poet, a fearless leader and an inspiration to those closest to her. She loved the Sun and the sea, the night sky, and the smell of leaves in autumn. She was brilliant and beautiful and knew passion and the fire of creativity like few others ever will. She was ripped from the world she knew and thrust into one that was completely alien to her, but she never gave up hope. She had the very thing that made her special forcibly stripped away, but her pride as a siren never faltered even for an instant. She lived for over a thousand years, and reveled in each day that life gave her, even to the very end.
She loved and was loved by her sisters, and I’m told she passed away peacefully in their arms with a smile on her face.
I could never just allow her to be forgotten. Not ever.
At your earliest convenience, I’d like to make use of the statue at Canterlot High to send a package to you. The package contains a manuscript entitled ‘Song of the Sirens’, written by Aria Blaze, Sonata Dusk, and myself, and dedicated to the memory of Adagio Dazzle. This work is a first-hand account of the sirens’ lives, both in Equestria and here on Earth, spanning over a thousand years of history. More importantly, it’s a chance for everyone to see a side of the sirens that would otherwise be lost once they’re gone.
It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to publish this work here as anything other than a work of fiction, but I’d like to ask that it be published in Equestria as a historical autobiography, so that the names of these amazing sisters are remembered not just in the accounts of those who vilified them, but also in their own words. Nothing can erase the terrible things they did; I know that... Adagio knew it too… but history demands that the world know both sides of their incredible tale, and I’d be eternally grateful if you would help me make it so.
Thank you in advance for considering my request. I look forward to your reply, and to seeing you again the next time you visit.
Your Friend,
Sunset Shimmer
Author's Note
