I'm Gonna need another shower
Adagio Dazzle enjoyed a simple life. True, there was the loss of her magic to cope with, but she found that she and her sisters adjusted to normal human life rather well. Day to day activities, while living off the money they'd accumulated over the years with their magical singing, was a relaxing way to exist, and Adagio didn't mind it at all. She wasn't even too sad about the loss of her ability to breathe underwater, to sail through the oceans like she had in Equestria.
Of course, being a human wasn't entirely perfect. There was that annoyance humans referred to as "Aunt Flo," her limbs never seemed to be quite as strong as she hoped they would be, and one other factor.
Her hair.
Having become accustomed to the human standards of beauty (Adagio suspected it had something to do with the magic that transformed the three of them in the first place, thanks Star Swirl), Adagio enjoyed her new, massive hairdo, but that wasn't to say it didn't have its drawbacks.
First of all, it was a pain to shampoo in the shower. Adagio's hair didn't really fall under water pressure, so much as absorb water itself (perhaps a remnant of her previous existence). It became like a large, wet sheep. She ended up having to seize a lock of her hair and yank the rest of it around towards the front of her body, in order to get all of it covered with product. The obnoxious pull on her scalp didn't make it any better.
After getting out of the shower, Adagio was faced with her next impossible task: Brushing her hair. Looking from the tiny brush in one hand to the massive, person-sized poof emerging from her skull, she sighed to herself. She went through this routine every day, and it never got any easier.
Turning her head to the side, Adagio placed the brush against her hair and tried to pull, but the bristles just bounced off the fluff. With a grunt, Adagio dug the brush deep into her hair and pulled harder, managing to actually make a dent this time. She dug deeper, then squeaked as the brush tore a handful of loose hairs out. Another swipe ripped more hairs loose, but at least her curls were evening out a little.
Adagio's thought process was interrupted by a banging on the door.
"Adagio!" Aria yelled. "For Pete's sake, hurry up! This happens every morning!"
Adagio groaned quietly. So much for doing this in a timely fashion.
Sunset Shimmer blinked as Adagio finished recounting her morning experiences. "You go through that nightmare every day?" asked the teenager in disbelief. "How do you manage that?!"
Currently, Sunset and Adagio were spending some time together near the outer rim of Canterlot Park, Adagio having taken Sunset up on her offer of companionship. Sunset had invited the other two Sirens, as well as her own friend group, but everyone else had been busy. So the two had decided to hang out together as a sort of experiment, to see how it would go. Thus far, they seemed to be interacting well, except Adagio kept finding opportunities to flirt with Sunset. The former unicorn didn't hide her annoyance, but decided not to make it a big deal. One thing at a time.
"One thing I've always wondered is why the transformation found the need to give me this much hair in the first place," Adagio continued, running her fingers through her curls. "I mean, our species didn't even have manes. Aria and Sonata's hairstyles at least make a small bit of sense in comparison, being somewhat similar to our old fins."
"Yeah, I haven't figured out how that works either," said Sunset, messing with her own hair. "My mane curls a lot more than this, almost like Rarity's. Though I suppose I should be thankful. I don't have my unicorn magic anymore to levitate a brush or something."
"Lost magic? Gee, I wouldn't know anything about that!" Adagio droned. Sunset started to apologize, until she noticed the smirk on Adagio's face. Sunset's eyes narrowed.
"Is there anything you won't make a joke out of?"
"I have a list somewhere."
Sunset decided to change the subject. "Anyway, you know, if you wanted to, Rarity could probably style it for you, in some way that would be easier to deal with. and she's generous enough to do it for free."
Adagio considered it for a few seconds, casually palpating the massive cloud of hair on her back. Perhaps it would be a nice change of pace, not having to wrangle it every morning. Then again, she had grown accustomed to it, hadn't she? She'd integrated it into her signature look, and to remove it meant starting from scratch in that department.
"I appreciate the offer, Sunset," she finally replied. "But, to be honest, I—"
She didn't get to finish that sentence, as a small rabbit decided to use that moment to rush past her side. Adagio flinched at the suddenness, but her surprise quickly turned to anger, once she noticed that the rabbit had her key ring, which had fallen out of her pocket.
"Hey! Those are mine you little rodent!" she yelled, jumping to her feet and racing after the rabbit, heading for the hilly areas of the park.
"He's not a rod—Hey wait! Adagio!" yelled Sunset, pursuing the siren as fast as she could. "You'll never catch him! Come back!"
Adagio wasn't listening. To her, the former unicorn might as well have been calling from another planet. All she was focused on was getting her hands on that little rabbit and teaching him a lesson: You don't mess with Adagio Dazzle. You just don't.
Adagio pursued the rabbit across the length of the park, Sunset trailing behind her. As the smaller creature cut through a grove of trees, Adagio found herself forced to stop every few feet, as low-hanging branches found their way into her hair, catching the curls and yanking her backwards. Small branches and dead leaves were caught in her hair, sticking out at various angles. She didn't care, though. Her sole aim in life, right now, was to catch the little troublemaker. Eventually, the rabbit came to a large burrow hole, cutting into a hill. Detecting an escape opportunity, the lagomorph made its way towards the entrance and slipped through, disappearing into the darkness.
"Oh no you don't!" yelled Adagio, even angrier now. "You don't get away from me that easy!" The burrow entrance had been widened over time, enough that a slim person could squeeze through, and Adagio was pretty thin. But as she bent down to begin forcing her head through, she'd realized she'd forgotten one tiny detail.
Her hair. Yet again.
Being hair, Adagio's massive poof did compress a bit under the pressure of the burrow roof. Unfortunately, it failed to completely sink down, resulting in Adagio becoming like a cork in a bottle, jammed into the entrance to the rabbit hole, unable to move from that position.
Adagio grumbled to herself. Well this was just dandy. Dirt was seeping into her hair as she remained in her predicament, and Adagio found she could barely move anything below her waist. The small amount of light that was able to seep past her body allowed that rabbit she'd been chasing, standing in front her her, eyes wide open, staring at the trapped girl. The rabbit was trembling, clearly more afraid than intending to taunt her, but Adagio didn't notice.
"Oh, you think this is funny, do you?" Adagio growled, twisting and turning her body, trying to pry herself loose. She reached as far as her arms could go, trying to grab the rabbit by the scruff of its neck and failing miserably. "Just you wait, you little vermin! I'll get out of this and—"
"Adagio, wait!" came an interrupting voice, belonging, naturally, to Sunset Shimmer. "I was trying to tell you...oh my." Adagio then heard several faint snorts coming from behind her. Adagio didn't have to be a genius to tell that Sunset was trying to hold it in, and wasn't doing a very good job.
"Oh, no. Don't you dare start with me, Shimmer!" Adagio shouted, trying once more to squirm out of her predicament. "I swear, if you even think about—"
"I'm sorry, it's just too funny!" Sunset chuckled, followed by several minutes of unyielding laughter. "You look like a giant orange marshmallow with legs, and somebody jammed you into...OH MY GOD!" She kept laughing like a lunatic, while Adagio regretted the fact that she was unable to give Sunset a death glare.
After a few more chortles, Sunset finally managed to calm down. "Anyway, I was trying to tell you, the rabbit dropped your keys a way back there."
Adagio froze where she sat. Sunset had just told her, in essence, that she had trapped herself in the rabbit hole for no reason whatsoever. That would be enough to make anybody shut down for a few seconds. After her brain rebooted, Adagio glared at the rabbit that was still sitting there.
"You sicken me," she growled, low enough that Sunset couldn't hear. "Well, Shimmer? Are you going to help me with this or not?"
"You know there's a magic word for requests like that, right?" asked Sunset. "Come on, you know it."
Adagio groaned quietly. "Please?" she finally added.
"See? That wasn't so hard!"
"Shut up."
Adagio suddenly felt a pair of hands grasp her ankles, lifting her legs off the ground. With a grunt of exertion, Sunset began to pull, slowly but surely breaking Adagio out of the jam in which she found herself. To her credit, Adagio did what she could to help from her end, pushing with her arms against whatever surface she could reach. In a couple of minutes, the two managed to completely pry Adagio out of the rabbit hole, leaving the siren with hair full of dirt, rocks, tree branches, and dead leaves, but free.
"Here," said Sunset, handing Adagio her keys. She looked at the disheveled mess that had once been Adagio's hair. "Sorry about that. Like I said, if you want, Rarity could probably give you a pretty good fix on that. She's done it for others, and they always turn out fine."
Adagio shook her head, having come to a decision before this whole fiasco started. "As I was saying, Sunset, I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to have to decline. After all this time, my hair is a part of me, and in this body, I find myself delighting in its better qualities." A smug grin found its way onto her face. "For instance, it give you a tantalizing glimpse at my backside, leaving you wanting more."
Sunset flushed red, attempting to stutter out some sort of response, before Adagio laughed and walked away, a skip in her step. Sunset groaned.
"That woman is going to be the death of me," she complained.
