Though the days had long since passed when Adagio and her sisters inspired fear and caution amongst the students of CHS, there were nevertheless moments when the various girls and boys in the hallways would look upon them with a slight wariness. It was not animosity, as it was in the past, but even so, the knowledge of what they were and what they were once capable of persisted for many a student there. It was especially so when the three of them were all walking together, marching down the halls like they owned the place. Several students gave them a respectably wide berth, though bore no dislike in their movements as they did so. Adagio, naturally, couldn't help but enjoy this feeling of having that kind of influence, even without her old power.
"So glad to know not everything has changed for us," she remarked.
Aria turned to her, bearing a similar smirk to her.
"We may not be in charge anymore, but you wouldn't know to look."
Her older sister gave a chuckle to this, before promptly turning to the youngest of their number.
"Tell me, Sonata, what did Pinkie want us for?"
Sonata turned to her and shrugged her shoulders.
"Dunno. She looked pretty excited though. Like she couldn't stop herself giggling."
Adagio rolled her eyes.
"Yes...that does sound like her. I'm guessing it's a celebration of some sort."
Aria looked to her and raised an eyebrow.
"It's not somebody's birthday, right?"
The question earned her nothing but shaking heads from her two sisters, and so the three of them simply returned to silence as they continued to make their way down the hall. Eventually however, they made it to their destination; the music room. Clearing her throat, Adagio took a moment to make herself look as composed as possible, much to the annoyance of Aria, before then taking hold of the doorknob and turning it. As they entered the room in earnest, they found to their surprise that it was not only Pinkie there to greet them. Sunset, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy were all there too. After glancing to one another, the Sirens finally walked fully into the room, closing the door behind them.
"Okay...what's up now?" Aria asked.
Pinkie, standing behind Applejack, looked exactly as Sonata had described, giggling happily while trying desperately to hold her mouth shut. This earned her looks of irritation from many of her colleagues, with the exception of Sunset, who now took a step forward towards the three sisters.
"The girls and I have been doing some thinking and...well...we've decided to give you three something."
Naturally, a statement like that caught the Sirens' interest immediately, and they all turned to cast unsure glances at one another. In the end, it was Adagio who broke the short-lived silence.
"You...you're giving us a gift?"
Sunset nodded, smiling.
"We are. You three have been our friends for quite a while now and..."
Turning, Sunset gestured to the other girls.
"...we figured it was high time you got something from us."
The former unicorn began to walk towards the others, with Adagio and her sisters close behind her. Once together with the other girls, Sunset gave a nod to Rarity, who promptly smiled back and turned around. The Sirens tried craning their necks to see what the young fashionista was doing, but it didn't take long to see what it was. for when she turned around, she was carrying, in the palms of her hands, three small black boxes. The Sirens watched as she drew closer, stretching out her arms slightly and making a clear offer to them. After only a moment's hesitation, Adagio reached forward herself, taking the boxes and, after regarding them a little, giving two of them to her sisters, who had taken position on either side of her.
"So...what are they?" she asked.
There were smiles all around for the other girls, who were clearly keeping quiet on the matter, with the exception of Applejack, who gave the elder Siren a response.
"That would kinda go against what a surprise is meant ta be, Adagio."
Though a little annoyed at the remark, Adagio, as well as the other two, looked down at the boxes in their hands. There was a moment or two when they simply stared at the things, before, in the end, Adagio placed her one free hand upon her own box and, in a single motion, opened it. Sonata and Aria followed and, from the former at least, there was an audible gasp when they finally saw what it was that lay within. For each box contained what appeared to be a simple black chocker, but it was what was attached to those chokers that caught their absolute attention. Gems. Three of them. bright red and, for the Sirens, very familiar. There was a long and eerie silence from all concerned, but slowly, Aria looked back up to the other girls, a look of confusion upon her face as she spoke.
"You...you made replicas of our old pendants?"
Sunset and the others didn't get the chance to speak, for Adagio, without even looking up from her own gift, gave her sister an answer.
"No...they haven't."
At first, neither Aria nor Sonata knew what their sister had meant by that, but eventually, understanding dawned upon the face of the former. Aria narrowed her eyes, squinting at the red jewel before her, and from this, she saw what her elder sibling had been implying. For there, if one focused really hard, there could be seen tiny and faint fractures and cracks along the gems. It was as if hundreds, if not thousands of individual little pieces had been forced together, seared into place. Realising this, Aria looked back up, seeing the smiles on her former enemies, and clearly had a hard time getting her words out.
"You...you actually...put our pendants back together?!"
There were no words of response, merely nods on the part of all the other girls. While Aria and Sonata looked to one another with disbelief plastered all over their faces, Adagio kept her eyes firmly fixed on her own pendant, speaking up in a tone lower than most would normally expect of her.
"...How?"
Stepping forward, Sunset began to explain.
"After we got all the pieces together, Rarity got in touch with a few jewellers she knows."
Nodding, Rarity took her place beside her Equestrian friend, adding her voice to matters.
"It took some time, but I was eventually able to find someone who had experience in repairing broken jewellery. Although, in fairness, even they had a hard time working with all of this."
Adagio nodded slowly, though still kept her eyes upon her gift. Aria, however, looked to Rarity with an incredulous expression.
"Wait...you actually managed to find all of the gem fragments?"
Rarity nodded, prompting Aria to continue.
"But...you blew those things into a million pieces! Do you honestly expect us to believe that one of you went back to the place where we were beaten, scoured the entire place and picked up every single one of the tiny little..."
Then, as her own words sank in for her, she sighed, letting her shoulder slump slightly.
"...it was Pinkie, wasn't it?"
Here, at last, the party girl finally squealed with joy.
"Yep! Stayed up all night for it!"
All three Sirens looked to her, clearly astounded at the feat the girl had performed.
"Well...I guess that's...kinda cool?" Aria commented, clearly unsure if it was or not.
Pinkie beamed at her three friends, and while Adagio herself now finally managed a small smile, it faded a little when she received a tiny tap upon her shoulder. Turning, she saw that it was Sonata, who was looking to her, then to her pendant, then back to her before speaking in a somewhat meek fashion.
"Um...Dagi? If they actually fixed them, then...does that mean...?"
The youngest Siren did not finish her words, for her sister already knew what it was she wished to say. Looking back to her own pendant, Adagio took it into her hand, removing it from the box and, in a gesture that caused some confusion amongst Sunset and the other girls, held it up close to her face and closed her eyes. There was silence for everybody there for almost a full minute, until Adagio finally opened her eyes once more. Letting out an almost disappointed sigh, she turned to Sonata, shaking her head slightly.
"No, Sonata...the magic is gone. The physical form remains...but whatever power they might have held has long-since vanished from them."
Sonata, at least for a time, seemed disheartened by this news. As for the other girls, they looked to each other nervously, partly out of concern that this might in some way make their gift less well-received, but also because of an unshakeable fear that none of them dared speak. Adagio, however, recognised this immediately, and a brief chuckle on her part caused all eyes to turn to her.
"You needn't concern yourself. As tempting as it might have been...I believe those days are behind us. Even if these gems did retain their ancient power...I honestly think we would find it hard to go back to it."
That, at the very least, caused some sense of relief for Sunset and the others, who gave Adagio a smile over her words. Meanwhile, Sonata, having clearly gotten over her earlier disappointment, got straight to the business of getting her own pendant around her neck, which she did swiftly. Looking down upon the familiar sight, she smiled widely, before looking to Pinkie and leaping forward. Pinkie though was ready for it, and spread her arms wide as she embraced her former foe.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" the youngest Siren exclaimed.
Pinkie giggled as she returned the hug.
"Always happy to help, Nata!"
Chuckling to this, Aria got her own pendant on, then carefully place her hand under her gem, giving a sly smirk as she did so.
"I gotta admit...my neck was feeling pretty naked without this thing the past few months."
Looking to the other girls, it was obvious from looking at her that the words "thank you" was something Aria was struggling with. Nevertheless, she gave a smile and a nod, which was graciously received and returned by many of the others, with Rainbow in particular giving her a thumbs-up over it all. As for Adagio, she continued to stare at her own gift, mulling over everything she'd said and had said to her over the past few minutes. Sunset watched her carefully, taking in every subtle change in her expression, until finally, she saw the elder Siren put the pendant upon herself. There was a silence for a time, but when it ended, Adagio looked right into Sunset's eyes, and smiled.
"...Thank you."
