Adagio Dazzle walked into the bathroom and locked the door, she didn't want her sisters interrupting her. She knew their responses would be less than enjoyable. She turned on the facet and let the tub fill until it spilled over.
She let it run a bit more, letting water run on the tile floor before turning it off. She stripped down and placed her fancy clothes on the counter.
She sighed. She looked in the full length mirror of the body she'd been forced to wear for centuries. She knew by human standards she was alluring and beautiful, and she'd grown accustomed to their customs as they faded and changed through the centuries. She remembered when showing next to no skin was considered fashionable. Humans were such silly apes. She could understand ponies, at least they only used clothing as a fashion statement, not an expectation. Then again, they didn't have a nice natural coat or thick natural scales.
It gave her some assurance that her body was still a thing of perfection, even if social mores prevented her from showing it in public. That was more of an annoyance, she'd never needed such base tricks to brings creatures under her sway. But still...
Adagio shook her head, her massive mane of hair swaying behind her. She turned back towards the bathtube and slowly lowered herself in, causing even more water to spill over. Any water damage or problems weren't an issue, just hand someone an old coin that'd been worth two bits back in the 1800s and is worth hundreds today. What was it with humans and changing currencies then making the OLD ones more valuable?
She cursed their current state. If they were like they used to be back home, these monkeys would be much easier than Equestrians to dazzle. She remembered when they first arrived. They just had to work a little magic, stir up a little chaos...and then point a finger at a 'witch.' The humans did the rest themselves. And never once was Adagio or her sisters suspected. She wondered if modern pop culture meant being the witches would make them MORE popular now.
She felt the miniature wave wash over her skin. She closed her eyes. She remembered sunning herself on the rocks. She remembered swimming through the tides and the rapids. She remember her school, the one she and her sisters had been born in, not school like stupid teenagers thought of when they heard the word.
Adagio breathed in deep and lowered her head beneath the water line.
She remembered the songs, so beautiful, so many of them. All rippling through the depths of the sea. There was so much water could do with sound that air couldn't. Her sisters, all of them, together with their songs. Performing dances and ballet that made the performances by land-ponies look clumsy and childish in comparison when you could swim in every direction for the audience.
And without having to worry about changes in water pressure like land ponies, going deeper or higher. There was so much that could do to help with music. Like having your own personal autotuner to change pitch if you know how to work it.
And not just the music of their people, but the music of the whales. Humans 'discovered' different pods of whales had different dialects. Her people had known that for as long as they could remember. The whales sung BACK to them. And whales weren't the only things that sung, especially back in the seas of Equestria.
Adagio heard these humans complain how they'd barely explored a miniscule part of their world's oceans. That they knew more about distant stars than the bottom of their seas. They didn't know what they were missing.
The dark wonders that existed in the deepest parts of the oceans that no land-pony would dare venture. Beings older than old to behold and learn from. Willing to share such secrets if one was patient enough to listen. Adagio had always been patient. The unrivaled grandeur of Aquastria. The beautiful, infinite ocean in all its splendor.
Adagio didn't feel regrets, regrets were for the weak. And weak was the one thing the sirens had never been. But even she couldn't block out the feeling of ... something or other when she and her sisters had left their ocean home, and had sought greater fame, greater glory, greater power on that oversized island that land-ponies called Equestria.
Her sisters had embraced it without a second thought. And a way to sat their endless hunger that clawed at them from the inside every waking moment. And the thrill of seeing ponies dance like puppets with only the slightest nudge. They tore the land-ponies' so called society to pieces, they were worshipped, loved, unconditionally! Given the adoration she sought, and the negativity her belly now craved. Stupid jealous princesses! Stupid wizard!
Views of stars that no pony would see without one of their contraptions! Seaweed forests that moved with a life all of their own! Canyons that made any on land look like ruts! Taking care of dull witted Sonata. Feeling the ocean itself through her fins, swimming with her tail, and through the sky itself breaking the boundary, breathing in the sweet salty waters of-
She was drowning. Adagio's head sprang from the waters, coughing and gagging, hitting herself in the chest. Water splashed everywhere.
"... Lungs, that could process water as well as air, never having to come up, able to sleep peacefully underneath the waves... " Adagio panted, her throat sore.
"HEY! Adagio! You okay in there?!" She hear Aria shout.
"I'm fine! Don't worry about it!"
"Well save some water for the rest of us!"
"You'll take what you get!"
"Humph! Same as always huh?"
Silence. Adagio breathed in deep the cursed air, the air she'd felt so gleeful breathing for that first time, to fly through for the first time, breaking the barriers that had surrounded her people. She whispered. "Yeah... same as always."
