Conflicts of a Fairytale's Friendship

Chapter 1

Iridescent Encounter[

The fallen Siren leader would not accept that the night closing in around her was beautiful, dazzling even. It didn't matter to her that, despite the pollution of artificial light, the stars overhead shown brightly in their masses, unperturbed, or that the illumination from the street lamps made the first signs of dew glitter like little crystals in contrast to the grass that bordered the sidewalk. All she cared about was how the air around her, even after how far she had run to escape her traumatic fall, was still charged with Equestrian magic so potent that, even without her own powers, she could feel it burning her lungs. Or...was that because she was out of breath?

Realizing that, between the struggled sobs of pure despair that she could not allow Aria and Sonata to hear, let alone see and the pounding exertion she'd put on her now very human body, she could no longer coax air into her lungs. Adagio stumbled to a halt, gasping oxygen into her burning chest as she buckled over her middle, resting her tightly clenched fists on her thighs. When, last, had she been so out of breath? In upwards of a thousand years, had her throat ever been sore? Had it ever burned like this or did that have something to do with the streaks of tears straining her blotchy, flushed complexion? Could she even remember crying once in all of her long life?

No. She couldn't. Even when she and the other two were banished to this forsaken world, she'd never shed a single tear. They still had their magic then. They—She still had some sense of control over the situation at hand then and, as their leader—Accepted through petty squabbles, albeit self-appointed--it was her job to recognize their potential and plot a coarse forward. This time, however, they had nothing. Everything had been stripped from them in a single moment. Their pride, their image, their magic, their immortality, all gone in an instant. Adagio Dazzle, with the first tears she had ever cried trickling endlessly from her rose eyes, was feeling helpless, weak, and entirely vulnerable for the first time in her life. It was a weakness that she didn't dare show the other two hence why, as soon as she felt hints of wetness pricking her eyes, she had charge ahead blindly to put distance between them and herself. But did it matter if they saw her broken state? Was she even their leader anymore? Where was there to lead them to in any case? Was there even a reason for them to remain together when their magic had been extinguished?

The sun streaked Dazzling, without wind bombarding her ears with the hiss of retreat, could hear her long time companions calling out for her in the distance. She didn't dare glance over her shoulder to see just how close or how far they were. Unprepared to face them still in her disheveled state but her calves aching too much to run any further in her heavy, heeled boots, she walked on, bringing her fist to furiously dry the excessive flow of salt water from her eyes.

No longer pounding her arms and legs, no longer distracted by the jeer of wind resistance, Adagio realized there were cutting aches in her left hand. With a blank expression that entirely snuffed out the confident, superiority she prided herself for, she lowered that fist from where it had been unkindly scrubbing at her eye. Slowly, she unraveled her pale, yellow fingers, revealing the shattered remains of her pendant and how the jagged edges had pierced and indented her flesh.

Adagio's walk, despite the enclosing voices of the other two, former Sirens, slowed to a halt. She stared at the remnants of the gem, the crimson hue catching the street lights with a splendor that was nothing like it had been maybe 15 minutes ago. Her fist closed tightly around the shards, her knuckles turning white. She didn't care that the jagged pieces further cut her skin as her misery transformed into a delayed rage that ignited her heart. Fueled by a moment of pure anger, she raised her fist above her head in one quick motion, intent on smashing the jewel fragments against the sidewalk as hard as she could muster, praying the impact turned the symbol of all she'd lost to dust.

Just as her hand descended, rapidly, downward, with all her might, the ruined pendant gave a heavy, unnatural pulse and began to radiate heat in her hand. The sensation in her aching palm was startling enough to abruptly stop the ginger. The left over inertia made her stumble forward a few steps. If she had been even a fraction less coordinated, her knees would have met the concrete. When she had recovered her balance, she opened her hand. The rugged edges of the ruby were glowing faintly. It was a dying glow, but a light nonetheless that Adagio did not expect it to ever have again.

“What...?”

Her brow knitted with inquiry. Slowly, her off-red gaze pulled away from the faintly glowing pieces to examine the, at first glance, virtually deserted area for whatever could possibly cause what small sliver of magic the fragments retained to react. When nothing but Aria's and Sonata's quickly approaching forms presented themselves, her eyes flickered to the other side of the street. They skimmed over a park entrance directly across from her only to snap back because the Dazzling thought, thought being the key term, she saw something; The ghostly facade of a Siren. Not of the human variety, but of the Equestrian kind she and her companions were not an hour ago. The image gave Adagio a chill that she would never outright admit to, but when her gaze returned to that spot in the same moment, the haunt was no longer there. In its place was some girl, obscured by the shadow cast by the street lamp directly over her head, violently shredding what appeared to be several sheets of paper into the smallest pieces she could manage with such frenzied hands. The fragments were no longer struggling for life in her palm.

At least we're not the only ones having a terrible night, the once Equestrian thought, bitterly, attempting to dismiss what she had thought she'd seen in the process.

Still, she stared at the park entrance and, subsequently, the girl for a few moments more. She...must have imagined it. The stress, the heart break, the over-exerting run, all these factors must have attributed to the illusion. Adagio tore her eyes from the park, back to the dead shards once more. She had to convince herself that the phantom of a Siren silhouette was some product of her own mind, but the heated pulse she had felt from the broken pieces and their endeavor to glow weighed down on her. There was nothing else in sight that could have been the cause but, just as well, what would have created such a troubling image? Perhaps this was merely the gems last display of magic before being snuffed entirely. Oddly, the orange haired girl found this thought more gut twisting than the Siren specter. The little display, no matter how futile, clicked something back in place; A small glimmer of hope perhaps? Potential? Adagio wasn't sure, but she felt her heart settle back into a steady rhythm.

“Adagio!” Sonata's voice pulled her attention.

Adagio looked over her shoulder at the other two girls. They were jointly experiencing the same exhaustion and need for breath that had kept her from running into the night forever. Sonata, dramatically, had sunk down to her knees to capture air and allow her legs to rest. Aria, ever the 'tough one,' forced herself to remain standing with a straight back as she to struggled to breathe evenly.

“I was starting to think we'd never catch up with you!” Sonata announced after a few moments of refueling her lungs. The bright outlook the blue Dazzling generally retained clearly had not been entirely dissipated by their utter failure, but the light in her eyes had dimmed with the uncertainty of their future and held the wetness of residual tears just waiting to spill over. “What are we gonna to do now?”

“Why are you asking her?” Aria snapped, her uneven temper showing through in the light of adversity.

“Adagio is usually the one with the plans,” Sonata replied, blinking as though the fact was entirely obvious. She wiped away a tear that had been pushed over the brim of her lower lashes.

Aria groaned, rolling her eyes. She jabbed an accusing hand in Adagio's direction. “This is her fault, Sonata! Her grand scheme is why we don't have our voices anymore!”

Sonata looked a tinge confused. “I thought it was the Rainbooms fault.”

This matter-of-fact statement struck a resentful cord in Adagio. She looked back at the dimly lit park, now entirely vacant, then at the fragments in her hand. Her other hand touched the delicate hollow of her throat where the pendant should have been sitting. It had been there for so long that, despite now staring at it's ruins in her palm and being brutally aware of its absence, she still felt the ghost of its weight on her neck. Her fingers closed around the pieces, clasping them carefully, like a fragile lifeline.

“It was their fault; Those stupid Rainbooms,” the Dazzling leader spoke out for the first time since retreating from the stage they had been booed from like a bad circus act. She bit the name with gritted teeth. Her tone was final, sound. It was their fault. All of it. She pushed the remains of her pendant into her dress pocket. “Come on. Let's go.”

Adagio hadn't taken two steps before Aria quipped, sharply, “What makes you think we're just going to follow you this time?”

A smirk that felt so natural on Adagio's lips took form. Confident and assured, she didn't stop or slow down to answer the question. “If you didn't intend to follow me, you wouldn't have run this far.”

The other two watched Adagio's retreating back, then exchanged glances, though there was no silent debate between them. Sonata was the first to fall in line behind their self-imposed leader, pushing herself off the side walk and trotting to catch up. Aria, albeit reluctant in light of her pride, caught up soon after.

“So, what's the plan this time?” Aria asked, sarcastically. “What are we going to do now?”

“Survive, just like we've always done,” Adagio replied, plainly. She let the purple haired girl get away with lashing out at her for their fall with her foul attitude. After the day they had all endured, surely she deserved a chance to be angry and to wallow in such. Besides, Adagio would own up to her 'grand scheme' being the one that landed them in their joint circumstance. She would own up to her fault in judgment where their enemy was concern. She'd admit it; She underestimated them and that, in part, had led to their tremendous loss.

Presently, Adagio didn't have a plan for the trio aside from returning to their home nestled on the far end of the city. What they all needed more than anything was a reprieved from the outside world that was, in a single night, suddenly much more complicated than they had ever known it to be, but the leader was still scheming and covering their options. For now, as she said, survival was their first priority, but revenge and the return of their magic lingered in the back of her mind. Whether the glow in her broken ruby was a trick of the light or otherwise, it had all been enough to harden her heart and move forward.

“Can the first step in our survival plan be tacos?” Sonata piped. “Having a giant winged unicorn blast a rainbow in my face has made me huuuungry!”

“Ugh...” Aria, in irritation, pinched the bridge of her nose. “Seriously, Sonata. You are the absolute worst.”

“No, you're the worst!” Sonata bantered in return, genuinely offended.

Under different circumstances, Adagio would have cut their childish argument to an abrupt end the moment it started but, despite her straight back, swaying hips, and new resolve, she was far too tired and, in truth, the normalcy of the lame repartee was a thin comfort.

Most sentient creatures fell into patterns; Rhythmic habits that made their vacant lives seem more replete. Following their vocal crippling defeat at the Canterlot High battle of the bands a heavy handful of months ago, the Dazzlings found themselves falling into routines that aided in filling what seemed to be an endless amount of time. After mourning their losses in a culmination of anger and mostly private displays of tears, they were forced to figure out what to do with themselves outside the necessary, normalities of the world. It varied between them. Sonata had discovered the glory of television series that she kept up with throughout the week with an avid dedication. Aria had thrown herself head first into the web of online gaming as her outlet for time and lasting bitterness toward their defeat. Adagio had taken over most of the mundane duties that kept up their residence, unable to remain still for more than a short period of time. When she wasn't adjusting their spending budget or keeping up the state of the floors, she would humor Sonata in watching one of her cartoon series or, on the sparse occasions she and Aria weren't butting heads like rabid moose, she'd play a round or two of some melee game the purple haired Dazzling was stuck on. When all else failed, long, brooding walks usually led her to Canterlot City Community Park.

There were a variety of factors that led Adagio to insist that leaving Canterlot at present wouldn't be as profitable for herself and the other two as one might immediately think. The bulk of her argument was the loss of their magic. Not one of the three realized just how for granted they had taken their abilities until they were gone. Not only did it allow them a source of sustenance and empowerment, their aptitude for mind control had allowed them to slipped by just underneath the constructs of this world.  In their time in this world parallel to Equestria, by less-than-orthodox means afforded to them by their magic, the Dazzlings had collected fairly substantial nest-egg of funds to rely on and even a two story, fairly decent house that they had weaseled their way into just before their first day at Canterlot High. It was unrealistic to think that the trio could uproot themselves as they had many times before without a second thought when they no longer had an assured form of income. Eventually, their funds would thin out and, if they were to leave, it wasn't likely that they would manage to come by some unfortunate sap who would give them a house, free of charge with without magical coaching. Paying rent on an apartment or buying a home outright would just deplete their resources faster. As none of them were quite prepared to venture out into the world in search of a fabled 'job' that seemed so beneath them, living frugally on a budget in their proverbial city of broken dreams was all they could do to remain financially comfortable. Without magic to bend them, they were suddenly learning the rules and just how much give those rules had tied to them.

The rationale behind Adagio's insistence and their mutual choice to remain aside, there was potential in staying, the very same potential that made the former Sirens' leader trek to the city park so many times a week, aimlessly.

It was only once a week, give a rare occasion or two, that Sonata and Aria joined Adagio on her strolls. It was an unspoken rule between them that conflicting encounters between themselves and the students of Canterlot High be avoided by all means, so Sundays had been designated for periodically restocking household necessities. Undergoing their often lengthy shopping adventure on the first official day of the week made it easy to avoid anyone who might recognize them from the battle of the bands fiasco. Aside from those who worked on those days, the stores were generally underpopulated, in large part, Aria had once noted, to occult, religious practices that dictated mass gathering and laziness on Sundays. And on those leisure Sundays, without question or diversion, they trudged past Canterlot City Community Park.

Despite the early daylight, the street was just as virtually empty as it had been that night, the night they had lost, the night that...Adagio's pendant glowed faintly one final time. The yellowed skinned girl remember in clarity how the fragments had pulsed with the smallest hint of power. In idle hopes that the shattered pieces would find reason to live once again, Adagio carried the corpse fragments on her person, always. She clung to them like a child would a beloved blanket during a storm, like a safety net, a cliff's edge, a dire promise. She couldn't let go of the ruined remains that had offered her potential no matter how time wore on with no indication that there was even a hint of magic left in them after that horrid night; That keeping the dead pieces would lead to a rise from their human circumstances.

Adagio traced the jagged contours of the largest of her ruby's remains inside her hoodie pocket as the three of them approached the park entrance. Over the past months, in the dead of night, she had tried and failed to make the shards show a glimmer of life, even delving into the ideologies and mythology of this worlds 'magic' to no consequence. Her trips, daily, to the park she had found herself standing across from that night, when they displayed their dying glow, were a product of her desideratum that their Siren existence be returned. Everyday, even that day, she hoped and half-expected the fragments to gain the little bit of life they had that night, but they never did, to her vexation. Her yellow fingers grasp around the constituent of her pendant as though this would encourage the gem to pulse the way her memory served. Nothing, ever still. It was insanity, truly, the way she repeated this process. Agitating insanity.

Every time the gem pieces proved to fail her, the helplessness that followed always made Adagio's insides twist with an anxious nausea that she hated above all else. It was a nagging futility, an absolute lack of control that made her spiral. There was little else Adagio had come to resent more than the imposing impotence that she subjected herself to daily, especially when she passed this accursed park.

Her hand clenched around the gem fragment as they edged closer to the park entrance and her jaw tightened, though her expression remained passive as she pretended to listen to Sonata ramble on about some new happening in the season finale of one of the many shows she kept up with. Adagio didn't know exactly why nor did she feel the need to explain it but, at times like this, when she felt weakness barring down on her, her mentality would retaliate against it with the insistent need to make someone else feel the same, make someone else feel, just for a moment, that terrible nausea of helplessness, and, in turn, she would feel in control. The feeling was no where near what she would have felt if she had the ability to serenade anyone she wished into submission and didn't truly make her feel better more than a few seconds after the exchange, but she still found her raspberry eyes beckoning for an easy target to take out her frustrations on as they surpassed the park's archway with no pulse from the ruined pendant. (Her companions were hardly an option, though she could admit to similar feelings causing her to lash at them.)

Perhaps the Fates were taking pity on her increasingly foul mood or maybe it was truly a welcome coincidence—Adagio didn't really care to ponder which it was.--that her eyes found what appeared to be a more than perfect target for her. Coming at them from the opposite direction was some  shorter girl that struck the former Siren leader with a dismissed nostalgia. The girl just had an impression about her at first glance that begged any predator to view her as an easy kill. Her walk suggested weakness, her shoulders had an edge of uncertainty and violent timidity. Then there were the pastel, braided pigtails. There was just something about cutesy pigtails that made them scream to be pulled.(Assuming you didn't have the perpetual glower Aria could be characterized by.) The fact that they were braided only turned up the volume of the screaming. Best of all, however, was that the voluminous haired girl's sighted prey wasn't even looking where she was going. Her eyes were turned down into the spiral notebook she was inelegantly scribbling in as she walked. It was too perfect. Adagio in the most decent of tempers couldn't have past the chance to play.

The pigtail girl must have had at least a vague sense of her surroundings despite never once looking up from her scrawling, because she edged just enough to the side of the sidewalk upon approaching the Dazzlings trio that she would have passed them by without so much as brushing shoulders with any of them, but there was a bullseye on her back that she couldn't have been aware of. As she passed, Adagio, with expert timing, stuck her foot in the other girl's path. As she tried to take what should have been an easy step, her ankle connected with the purposely placed obstacle. There wasn't even time for the girl to flail in a ineffective attempt to catch the equilibrium that had abandoned her in that moment.

The fall in itself was so much more animated and comical than Adagio could have ever hoped for. With a squealing yelp, the pig tailed girl toppled over, landing unceremoniously flat on her face as her notebook went skidding across the concrete. Her legs all but went over her head. The dollop of sweet cream on the entire scene, however, was that the knitted dress she was wearing—If the over sized sweater could be called such.--had ridden up a problematic amount, revealing the beginnings of personal garments to the almost empty street.

Comically as the scene was and as much as Aria and Sonata would have guffawed along with Adagio, none of the Sirens were laughing. Adagio herself hadn't made it passed a triumphant smile to the laughter she had felt in her chest before the entirely cartoonish display. All three of them were staring at the piteous fall victim who had just sat up on her elbows and was gently rubbing her tender nose with tears pricking her eyes. Just moments after she fell, they all saw them; Breezies, rare little Equestrian creatures, had flown out of the notebook laying a few feet away. There were at least three of them, fretting over the pig tailed girl, chattering in that incomprehensible language of theirs, but each of them faded quickly until they were gone, as though they had never been there, but the short exchange of glances between the former Equestrians proved that none of the three were hallucinating.

The hand inside Adagio's hoodie pocket was suddenly very warm and the gem shards were pulsing, faintly, against her palm.

The pigtail girl had started to push herself into a sitting position. Without much thought and zero regard for the girl's comfort, the Dazzlings' leader put her converse right between the girl's shoulder blades, pinning her down with half her weight.

“H-Hey!” The girl found the beginnings of panic. “Get off of me!”

All three of the once Sirens ignored her plea as though it had never been spoken. Their eyes were jointly trained on the hand that Adagio had just pulled out of her pocket, holding the shattered remains of her pendant, each piece struggling to glow.

“You...still have that?” Aria noted, somewhat distractedly, her eyes darting from the fragments to the girl. “How long have you--”

Sonata butted in then, catching on surprisingly quick. “Does she have--”

“Equestrian magic...” Adagio breathed out, almost inaudibly.

“Do you guys...see it?” Sonata's voice had dropped to  a whisper.

Aria and Adagio both turned eyes to Sonata and followed her gaze to the very specific spot the blue Siren was staring at on the trapped, unlucky girl. Peeking out from the misplaced hem of her dress at her thigh was half of a picture. The design quality and placement of the marking was more than the proof Adagio needed to make an educated assumption; It looked too much like an Equestrian pony's Cutie Mark. She knelt beside the girl, her foot still digging into the upper end of her spine.

“You. What is your name?” When an answer didn't immediately come, Adagio didn't think twice about adding a little extra weight on the foot that kept the girl down. “I'm waiting.”

The girl gave a short, little gasp at the ache rising between her shoulders. “F-F-Fairytale. Fairytale Lyric,” she replied with an edged that hinted she might cry for more reason than a bruised face.

“Fairytale Lyric,” Adagio repeated the name as though she was tasting its syllables and storing their flavors to memory. “You're of high school age correct? What school do you go to?”

“C-Canterlot,” the girl fumbled out. Adagio swore she could feel her heart pounding through her shoe. “Canterlot High! Please get off of me!”

There was not denying that the smirk that broke across the Siren's lips then made it straight into her voice. “Really?” Adagio stood, removing her foot from between her victims shoulders and stood back up. “We'll be in touch.”

The pig tailed girl wasted no time scrambling to her feet. Without even taking a single glance at her short-term tormentors, she scurried off like a frightened little mouse, disappearing into to park, perhaps to seek cover in some small niche in the tree roots.

Adagio looked down at the shards in her hands as the light in them died. She closed her fingers around them, gently and then turned her attention back to the other two with a hand on a jutted hip. She saw in them what she felt deep in the pit of her throat; An itch. It was an itch that, in their own way and on different degrees, each of them had harbored since the battle of the bands, one that they all saw the potential of finally being scratched.

“Well, girls, I think it's about time we went back to school,” Adagio commented, confident humor deepening her voice. “I think Canterlot High is about to get very entertaining.”

“Yay! They have Taco Tuesday!” Sonata decreed.

Aria narrowed her eyes at Adagio, reluctance still living inside her after their last defeat when it came to following their disputable leader. When she, thoughtfully, pulled her eyes away, they landed directly on the now forgotten notebook. She retrieved it from where it laid battered on the ground. Her purple hues scanned the up facing page with a stoic expression. When she had finished, without looking, she tossed the notebook to Adagio.

“I might be in agreement,” she commented, stuffing her hands into her jean pockets.

Adagio caught the notebook with one hand then read the open page herself while Sonata peered curiously over her shoulder. The handwriting was terrible, but she could make out the vague, quick, but recognizable description of the Breezies they had seen, if only for a count of ten seconds.