Chapter Two - Why Can’t we be Friends?

A familiar smell of eggs cooking caused Adagio to stir. Slowly her eyes opened ,and she realized that she was in a comfortable bed, under a thick blanket, and her clothes were sitting in a pile next to her. She reached over to pick up her shirt only to find it gone. She looked down and noticed that all of her clothes were gone. She blinked and then looked down at the floor. The spot where her clothes had been piled up was bare. She grabbed the blanket, wrapped it around herself, sort of, and stood up.

“Yer awake. I figured that ya’d want yer clothes washed, so I figured I could bring you something ta wear,” Dave said as he brought over a pair of sweatpants and a sweater.

She looked at the clothes, gave him a nod, and let the blanket fall. Once again she saw him blush before he turned around. He walked back over to the range he had cooked on last night and finished up what he was cooking. She had thought she smelled eggs cooking, but apparently they were already cooked. He flipped off a couple of hash browns for them both.

“Ya hungry?” he asked.

She looked the plates over. Eggs, hash browns, toast, and some kind of jam or jelly was on each of them. Unlike last night she wasn’t starving, but she was hungry. She quickly pulled on the clothes he had given her, walked toward him, and took one of the plates.

“Southwestern scrambled eggs, just like my mama used to cook ‘em. I can promise ya that ya won’t find no better tasting eggs anywhere else,” he said.

She took a bite, and like the macaroni and cheese last night there was a certain, zing, a small bite to it. She moaned as she chewed it up, swallowed it, and then took another bite. Dave finished his food, placed the plate in the sink, and walked over to the furnace. She watched as he shoveled in another shovelful of what had to be coal. For a moment, he worked some bellows on it, and then he took and opened up a small lid on the top. She watched him close the door to the furnace, slide down a metal cup into the hole, and then hold a can over it. He dropped it in, and then he grabbed another one. While he was doing this he also turned on something that sounded like a hair dryer. She watched as he worked over the furnace.

For several minutes he did this until he was ready, and then he got a pair of pliers, pulled the cup out, and walked over to something white. She followed him and saw that it looked like the shape of a face. He poured it into the waiting thing, took the cup to a gray block, banged it upside down and made a semi solid piece of misshapen metal fall out.

“What… what are you doing?” she asked.

“Working. I’ve got a specialty order, and I’ve had to make each part independently,” he replied.

She watched as he gave the metal a few moments and then picked it up, and dropped it into a large bucket of water. The water itself began to bubble, steam, and showed all the signs of boiling. she watched as he left it in there for a full minute before pulling it back out. The face was that of a mare, a proud mare, and she could see a place where it looked like a horn was supposed to fit. Watching him she saw him walk toward tarped figure. He uncovered it and she saw wings and a horn. It was an Alicorn, and more to the point there was an image of a sun on its flanks.

“That’s beautiful,” she said.

“Thanks, yeah, it’s certainly something. I’ve been working on it fer a while now,” he replied as he placed the face into place. Then she watched as he grabbed a mask and something else.

“Shield your eyes,” he said.

She looked, for a second, and saw bluish sparks spraying out from where he was. She turned away and waited as he worked.

“Done,” he said.

She looked back to see this shiny metal alicorn in front of her. It was beautiful, and whole. The face looked perfectly fit onto the head, and the mane, while solid, appeared to be ready to move and blow in the wind. She admired the sculpture of the Princess of the sun. She stood in awe as she looked at her. Every line was beautiful, and each curve simply accented that beauty. In truth she felt more than a little envious of Celestia. Even this representation of her had a perfect body.

“I’ll contact the buyer, sell this thing, and git it out. It’ll be nice to git paid,” he said.

She stood looking at it a bit more before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Ya okay?” he asked.

“Wha... yeah, I’m fine. Just admiring your work,” she said.

He looked at the large sculpture. Each piece had been cast, cleaned, and polished. There was still the process of layering the colors. He preferred the clean silvery look of unpainted aluminum. It was clean, beautiful, and typically it allowed the viewer to paint it with their imagination. But regardless the order was to make it as close to looking as lifelike as possible, and that included painting.

She watched as he plugged something in and flipped on a switch. A small electric motor next to a tank began humming to life and he connected a hose to a small gun like object. He then grabbed something from under it and she watched as he began doing a pass on the large sculpture. She watched as it turned white. She walked a little closer and watched as he covered the entire thing. Then he took the jar off, washed it out, cleaned out the gun, and shut down the small motor.

“Okay, I just need to let it get a little tacky before I start on the next coat,” he said.

She watched him as he worked the sculpture over. Each pass, each coat of paint, was bringing it closer, and closer to looking like the mare it was based on. Like she had thought the piece was a nude, and for a moment she wondered exactly how he knew what the Princess of the Sun looked like without any clothes. While in Equestria it was common, exceptionally common, for mares and stallions to walk around in the nude she had noticed that the mares and stallions here, well stallions anyway, seemed to wear clothes all of the time.

She had to assume that Princess Celestia must have assimilated into this culture, if she was here, and if that was the case…

“I received the measurements,” he said.

She looked at him as he finished the last few touches. When he finished he climbed down, admired his work and then he walked toward the wall. There was a pitch black screen and she watched him wave his hand in front of it. A stallion with a bushy mane and facial hair appeared.

“Good morning Dave, are you going to paint a happy little bush today?” the digital stallion asked.

“No Bob, I was sculpting. I need to contact my buyer. He should be the fourth contact in my emails. Let him know that the sculpture is ready fer pickup,” he said.

“You got it, oh, do we have a guest?” Bob asked.

“Bob, this is Adagio Dazzle, she’s our guest and as our guest I want you to give her guest privileges,” he replied.

Bob’s eyes seemed change colors for a moment before his smile brightened.

“That’s wonderful, tell me Adagio, are you an artist?” Bob asked.

“I was, once,” she replied.

Bob looked at her and frown threatened to creep its way onto his face.

“One doesn’t simply stop being an artist. Once you are an artist, you are always an artist. It is an expression of the soul, to show the world the beauty that lives inside. It’s sharing yourself, openingly, willingly, to those open enough to accept it,” he said.

The words Bob said struck a cord with her. She had almost stopped thinking about the fact she was an artist when she was a siren. It was more about feeding than it was performing. The magic she had access to then made her voice perfect, but now, she wasn't sure now. She desperately wanted to sing. She wanted to connect with her music. Not for the power, but instead for the feel of it washing over her.

"Perhaps you are right," she said with a small smile, "Maybe it’s still a part of me."

The memory of losing her power had held her back from trying. Her singing voice would be different, and she knew she’d have to work at it. She looked at the work Dave had done. His sculpture of the Solar Princess was a standing example of his craft. He obviously put years into his craft. Perhaps, she could become good enough that her singing would be able to get her the things she wanted. It seemed reasonable. It would certainly be better than trying to barter with her body.

She then looked at her host. Dave, he was a kind stallion, and he asked for nothing, absolutely nothing, in return for his kindness. She wasn’t used to that. To be shown kindness without using her siren power was… odd, but refreshing. It made her feel warm inside.

“Dave, the buyer has been notified, and he has replied that they will be here to pick it up in two days time. Your account has also had a deposit for the price you set on the sculpture,” Bob said.

“Thanks Bob,” Dave said.

He looked over to Adagio and saw her closing her eyes. She opened her mouth, and he heard the first few notes from her. Her voice sounded beautiful, slightly different from before, but beautiful all the same. He listened and noticed that she was falling into practice scales. Her eyes were still closed her voice sounding amazing, and he found a seat to listen to her.

He listened as she began going from scales to singing an actual song. It was one he knew fairly well. Being a fan of the show itself he knew Winter Wrap-up like the back of his hand, but the way she sung it. It wasn’t the upbeat tune he remembered from the show itself. She had slowed it down, making it more of a thing of beauty to be admired rather than a song of celebration. He listened as she continued, her voice never wavering moved seamlessly through the song. When she finished her eyes opened to see him sitting down, his eyes completely on her.

“I take it that I can still captivate,” she said.

There was the shadow of a smug smirk on her lips. A touch of the arrogance that was part of her personality. She walked toward him, and he could see the confidence in the way she held herself. She was proud, refined, and beautiful. She carried herself the way he’d seen pictures of Royalty carry themselves. In that moment he realized that she wasn’t just one of his favorite characters, she was a woman who seemed to have found something important about herself.

Looking back at the statue he was reminded that he now had a few more funds. It would be a decent idea to get the materials to either build her a room, or create a privacy blind. One or the other, and it would also be good to get her something other to wear than his old hand me downs. The clothes would mean going to town, checking the local clothing shop, Workman’s, but the materials could all be bought online. With the weather being like it was he had absolutely no intention on doing too much traveling until the snow decided to calm itself some.

He stood up and walked toward a small tablet he had on a table. He watched as she she took a seat across from him and she placed her head in her hand.

“Wait, stay just like that,” he said.

She did as she was told, and she heard the sound of something marking on something hard. She sat that way for several minutes. She could hear the scratching, the scribbling, and finally after quite some time he stopped. She looked toward he was setting and he uncovered this strange looking device. He hooked a small black tablet to it and pressed something on the screen. Suddenly the strange looking device started making an interesting sound, a strange noise and she walked toward it. She could see it forming something from a piece of foam. When it was done she was looking at a barely foot tall representation of herself.

“Set the foundry and see what I can do about making a much better one of these,” he said.

He left it there, with her, and she held it like it was the most precious thing she had ever seen.

Author's Note

(And there’s chapter two!!! Again please give some love to the three authors working on this: Ron Jeremy Pony, L0rd0f7hund3r, and MoltenXKid.)