Adagio woke up. After wrestling with her blanket for a few moments, she rolled unceremoniously out of bed and addressed her mirror.
“How do you live with yourself, Adagio Dazzle?” Or perhaps her reflection addressed her. She couldn’t tell this early in the morning.
“I mean, really, I thought you had more pride than this. What are you doing, associating with those lowlifes after all this time? I really thought this was just a phase you were going through.”
Adagio snarled at her reflection. “Don’t you dare refer to Aria and Sonata like that again.”
The reflection smiled, then it grinned, then it broke into laughter. Adagio took a step back, snarl shrinking into uncertain scowl.
“Well, I was actually talking about those other girls. What were their names, Sunset? The Rainbooms? But…” The reflection leaned in, smug grin shoved in Adagio’s face. “…If Aria and Sonata are the first things to come to mind when I mention ‘lowlifes’, then let’s talk about that.”
“Don’t play word games with me.”
“Oh! So ‘lowlife’ is an accurate description of Aria and Sonata. Thanks for clarifying that.”
Adagio turned around and crossed her arms in a huff.
“Oh, don’t be like that now. Do you want your coffee? Go get your coffee. I’ll wait until you come back.”
With one last look at the mirror, Adagio walked out and closed the door behind her.
“You know, you really hurt my feelings when you didn’t come back. I waited for a whole hour after you left. Where did you go?”
Adagio did not dignify her reflection in the window with a response.
"You didn't. You wouldn't."
Sunset needed pipe-cleaners, watermelon, and two wrenches.
"You did!" Her reflection peered over her shoulder, and Adagio shooed her away. "Now, is that any way to treat yourself? Really, I put up with so much from you."
Adagio wouldn't have responded even if she wanted to. She was not in the business of talking to herself in public.
"Well, we still need to have that conversation. Don't think you're getting out of this, young lady."
Adagio crossed the street, and headed into the park.
"You know, if I wasn't you, I'd be offended."
Adagio knew it was a mistake to take a break and sit by the pond.
"I thought the new Adagio was confident about her new life. Wasn't afraid of her past. Can't spare an old friend a small chat?"
"You are not my friend."
"And here I thought you didn't talk to yourself in public." Did she grin that much back then? It was starting to get on her nerves.
"Yes, you did. And you know why you did."
Her reflection climbed out of the pond, and sat next to her on the bench. "Now, you and I know that you're not cut out for friendship. You're Adagio Dazzle, leader and greatest of the Sirens. It has always been your dream to be adored. Not liked. Not respected. Not even loved. Adored."
"Yeah, well, people change. And I changed."
Her reflection chuckled and leaned on her, throwing its arm around her. "Oh, don't give me that. Did Sunny give you that line? Go on, look at yourself." It beckoned at the pond.
Despite herself, Adagio obliged, and bent over the water. Her reflection was waiting for her in the water. "Look at yourself. Look at how dead you are. Where's your flash, your charisma, your dazzle? Is this what friendship does for you? Destroys who you are?"
Adagio blinked at her reflection in the pond, then turned to look at her reflection still sitting on the bench.
"Oh, sure, you can put on quite the show for your so-called friends. But you know what they say - your true self is who you are when you're all alone. And here, all alone? You're pathetic."
Her reflection drew her arm away, its countenance now sneering. "I thought you had more pride than that, Adagio Dazzle."
She sneered right back. "I don't need you anymore."
A snort. "If this is all you want to be, then go right ahead. But isn't it odd. For someone who doesn't need me anymore... you're awfully attached to me."
Another damned grin. "Think about it. If I'm not a part of you anymore, then why are you even having this conversation with me?"
Adagio turned away. "Ohh, I see now. You don't tackle your problems head-on anymore. You just run away once they start winning. That's what this is, after all, isn't it? This group of girls beats you, and instead of getting up and coming back, you just give up? Lower your expectations of life?"
She shut her eyes and scowled. It didn't stop her from feeling its breath down her neck, the tingle run down her spine as it lorded over her. "I'll always be a part of you. And if you want to shrivel up and die trying to keep me down, so be it. It's your loss, not mine."
Adagio stood up and kept walking.
"Did you have a good day with the girls?"
Adagio was getting tired of this dance. She lifted her cup of water and took half of it down in a swig.
Only half of it, alas. "Are you trying to kill me?" Her reflection snickered. "Don't be ridiculous. You know you won't succeed."
Adagio drank down the other half in another gulp. Small blessing it was a plastic cup.
She opened the door to her room and set the empty cup on her dresser. "You're back! I've been waiting for you all day."
The sounds of undressing and throwing clothes off were not enough to drown out its chatter. "So, where were we? Oh, yes, your inability to escape your true nature."
Adagio flicked the light off. Silence reigned in the room. Adagio let out a breath, and reveled in the moment. Crawling into bed, a glint on her desk caught her eye.
In the moonlight, one of the shards of her pendant shone. Slim, tear-shaped, with a fine point at both ends. She stared at it, almost transfixed by it. It was... beautiful. Spellbound, she picked it up.
Held up against the light, it glistened a deep red, the same deep red from when it bore power.
"You know there's still a way."
Adagio Dazzle studied the shard, turning it over and rolling it in her fingers. Memories flashed before her in the facets. Hope at the whiff of Equestian magic. Humiliation as it brought its wrath upon her.
There was still a little water left in the cup. With her free hand, she reached over and picked it up.
"You know what you have to do."
This was who she was. Adagio Dazzle, leader, warrior, conqueror. No amount of cover-up was ever going to bury that.
It was right. She knew what she had to do.
“You know this wasn’t what I was talking about.”
“Maybe not. But you were right. I knew what I had to do.”
“What, exactly, does this accomplish?”
Adagio’s response was the thud of a closed door.
In the kitchen, Aria and Sonata were waiting for her. Their eyes went wide as they saw her.
Aria blinked. “I must be seeing things.”
“Dagi, how did you….?” Sonata looked like she was about to squeal.
Adagio spoke before Sonata deafened all three of them. “Well, something had to be done with that fifty pack of superglue you bought.”
Poor Sonata deflated. “Oh. I thought….”
Aria rolled her eyes. “I should have known. But then what’s the point? It’s just a pendant now. It’s not even smooth – you can see the cracks if you look closely.”
Adagio looked at her reflection in the pendant. There, it too was cracked and jagged. She smiled at it, and it smiled back.
“Because… it reminds me who I am.”
