Mistress (Adagio's Big Comeback)

You're full of purpose. You're freshly washed, shaved and you're wearing your brand new clothes. You have the adoration of the girl of your dreams, the friendship of one of her sisters and the... begrudging acceptance of the other?

Close enough. It really is a whole new Dazzlings and a whole new day.

It's a bit past lunchtime and everything's coming together for your trip to Equestria. Everyone's had to shrink down for today, complete with a copy of the sustaining music on their phones. The special order sizes they've had to order for Aria's brawn, Sonata's curves and Adagio's bit-of-both on top of her towering true height.

Sonata's out getting the tour van (bus, she still insists) road-ready and Adagio's showing off how much she's learned by carefully dismantling the handheld casing and putting it back together over and over, then running some tests to ensure she's got it down perfectly, just in case you're unable to do it.

Adagio's's even managed to compact down some of the cables without compromising the device, making space for two other siren stones. Obviously she'll only have hooves and teeth to manipulate the device, but the more confident she is now, the better your odds overall. That and she can always use a stick held in her teeth to push the buttons or undo the screws.

On your side, you've worked out most of the kinks with the main device; clean installs of only the most necessary software, no extra programs. The rest are purely flaws with the parts; for something put together for a few thousand bucks, it's great, but you'd need tens of thousands to make the full-fat version. All the same, it's good enough for now; once you demonstrate how much energy it can make from what everyone else knows as 'nothing,' you'll be set.

You're now showing Aria how it all works. She's not dumb, far from it. She's just no Adagio; too self-confident to really put her mind to the task, too proud to deign to your instruction. You've refined the process of engaging the various functions, added a few more shortcuts, and you explain it to Aria.

“So you set the receiving frequency,” she says, unsure but also bored, “then type in the broadcast amplitude, then hertz and turn it on?”

“Not quite,” you say, “hertz is the frequency, I just tried to separate the terms to make it easier to remember what's the receiving and distributing wavelengths.”

Aria groans. “This is complicated. I need a break.” She picks up her guitar, switches on the amp and begins jamming to herself.

“Sorry, Ari, I need to get you primed and ready with this before I start breaking it down into smaller parts to reconstruct in the van, so we need to get this done as soon as possible.”

She glares at you. “I don't take orders from humans, and don't call me Ari! I still don't see why you're so damn important.”

“Aria, I thought we went over this,” Adagio snaps over her shoulder. “Ray's the reason any of this is even possible. The devices alone were instrumental, let alone his constant work and support.”

“For fuck's sake, Dagi, I get you've got a thing for him, but let's not kid ourselves; once we get our powers, you'll soon drop him like a bad habit. You can even pick someone worth more cash if that's what this is all about! We have his devices, you know how to use them, we'll work something else out. He's a weak link. You said it best yourself back before you lost your edge; they're scum.”

Adagio slams the table with her palms, stands and gives Aria a fiery scowl. She's almost as mad as she was with Sunset during the mind-reading incident.

Aria even looks like she's regretting it, but puts on a brave face, puts her guitar down again and says, “what? It's true! He's just a human. Besides using him, what's the big deal? We used to use humans and toss them away all the time!”

“You're right. He's just a human,” Adagio says and taps a few buttons on the handheld, then places it so the emitter's bathing her and Aria in energy. Both sisters subtly gasp, shiver and slowly grow, and they both begin to take off their clothes before they get damaged.

“What're you doing?” Aria complains and, distracted pulling her shirt over her head, notices Adagio snatch up Metal-Mane. “Hey, leave her alone!”

Adagio bears a menacing grin. “What? It's just a guitar?” she says with so much venom, it makes you start sweating.

Aria goes to grab it, but Adagio raises it over her head, ready to hammer it on the foor.

There's a stand-off as both sisters continue to creep upward, but where Aria hits her newly enhanced six foot size quickly, Adagio keeps on growing. If the situation wasn't so tense, you'd be getting an eyeful of their naked bodies, but you're terrified a super-human cat-fight's about to kick off.

“See, I've been making a great deal of effort to learn from my mistakes,” Adagio says. “To learn where I went wrong. An outside perspective was instrumental to that. Ray gave that to me, dragged me from a downward spiral and set me on this path. I owe him so much. You fucking owe him too, Ari!”

“I said let my guitar go!” Aria snarls, but her brow switches from anger to worry.

“Are you sure you don't need a lesson in consequences?” Adagio grips the neck and body of the guitar and flexes her arms. There's a horrific screechy noise as the strings get stretched and strained as Adagio reaches her full height, naked and terrifying all at once.

Aria breaks, finally crying out, “alright, you've made your point! I'm sorry!”

Adagio gives up the guitar without any more fuss and shakes her head. “We can't keep up acting like this, Aria. We were beasts once, you know that? We may be human now, but I can still see it and feel it. And I can see it in you the most.”

Aria looks at her, confused, as she cradles Metal-Mane and makes sure it isn't damaged.

“Even after these years as humans without out powers, we're still falling for our old instincts. Because apparently we're so much better than everyone and anyone, right? Well, because of mere humans, we lost our fucking powers!” Adagio sighs and looks over to you, and smiles before returning a stern eye to her sister. “By falling as low as I have, it's shown me just how foolish we were by relying on that old pride. Sonata's foibles were actually to her benefit long before this, since it's let her empathise with humans and understand them and now look at her! She's crushing living life, but even she still has moments of the old ways. If we're to win, we need to be better and smarter than that.”

Aria asks, “what do you mean?”

Adagio sighs and folds her arms. “When we were bested by the Rainbooms, I kept driving us harder, trying to keep us focused and on track, but I should have stopped and taken stock of what went wrong. But no, I had too much self-assurance that we would succeed, because of how great we once were. But ever since we split up, I've had a revelation about us as sirens, and that's that we become obsessed with what we perceive as the thing that defeated us, with the thing that outshone us. We seek to imitate, then overcome that ideal, to master and conquer these aspects.”

She pauses and looks at you, her serious expression turning sweet and soft. “Ray, would you be a sweetheart and shrink us, please?”

“Sure thing, Addy.” You use the main device to bombard them both with the shrink procedure, and they get dressed even as they suffer under the awful anti-signal.

Once dressed again, Adagio continues, “I noticed Sonata's obsession with her Guardians of Gale Glade cartoon and couldn't help but wonder about why that is. A show about different animals, with differing personalities, banding together to overcome more powerful foes? It seems to me that Sonata recognised that friendship, as a concept, defeated us.”

“That's... pretty deep,” you say.

Adagio chuckles, “right? I don't even think she understands half of what goes on around her, but I dare say there's more to Sonata than we ever gave her credit for. It's even more evident after she nipped our fight in the bud by threatening us, something even you understood, Aria. She's actually willing to fight to bring us together again. Hell, she turned up at the crack of dawn to reconcile as soon as I said I wanted to see her because of how much she wanted us to be a family again. She knows we're stronger together, and is willing to do whatever it takes to keep it that way.”

Adagio then gently squeezes Aria's muscular shoulder, even admires her figure. “You, Ari, recognised that the de-facto leader of the Rainbooms, Rainbow Dash, was the one who defeated us. Her guitar playing and her athleticism, not to mention she's an able leader in her own right, if a bit too much of a jock. And what have you done in response? Learned the guitar, worked out to grow stronger and you've only built on your desire to lead, to better rival her. I bet you want to kick her ass some day, right? Or crush her in a guitar duel? Make it a contest, as she likes to?”

Aria's eyes narrow as she realises the truth, and she nods.

“And that's driven you to try and take charge. And it's admirable. Again, I appreciate that you're now going to keep a fire under my ass to make sure I don't fuck things up. If I do, the Dazzlings are yours. I promise, I'll tow the line. Whether you want to turn us into the Blazes or something, I don't care; I'll have proven you right twice, and that will be the end of it.”

“Really? Just like that?” Aria says and cocks an eyebrow.

“Just like that,” Adagio says with an honest smirk. “Because I want to stay together, no matter what. If I have to take the fall, then so be it. If you still hate Ray after all that... well, maybe I'll just keep in contact, because like you're driven to master the guitar, become stronger in body and mind and take charge? I'm not giving Ray up for similar reasons.”

Touching as that is, and as much as it makes you feel all fuzzy, Adagio's skirting around the issue again, so you say, “so we get that Sonata focused on friendship and Aria focused on Rainbow Dash's methods, but I remember you said you focused on Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, right? I'm not seeing the relation between me and them.”

Adagio laughs softly but it's not... quite right. It sounds sad. “Yeah, it's complicated. Something slammed me down to earth one last time, and I felt that I couldn't escape that, but someone,” she says and gives you a loving look, “showed me what I could truly be. Suddenly, it isn't Twilight or Sunset that I'm trying to emulate, but something a bit difficult to explain.”

She hesitates and looks awkwardly at the ground, then huffs and throws her arms up in a grand shrug. “It doesn't matter for now, but what does matter is this: if my hubris can help you, and Aria, and Sonata be spared from what I went through, then it truly was fate. This is a path I must follow to its conclusion.”

“You've got to tell me what happened to you, Addy,” you say and step towards her, “I know something happened to you. Please, you can trust us. We're your family, right?”

Adagio turns away. “I'll tell you someday, Ray. I swear I will. But my point is, Aria,” she says and faces her again, “we're not above anything or anyone, and to think that we are will ruin us all over again. We were damn well bested by a band of teenage girls who were only barely understanding their powers. They weren't even that good!” Adagio huffs. “One of them even defeated us with a tambourine! A fucking tambourine!!”

You can't help but snicker, which earns you an increasingly rare scowl from Adagio and a very common one from Aria.

Adagio composes herself. “That's not the point... what they used and how well they played is immaterial. It was everything: their clear and obvious bond of friendship that transcends their personalities, the bravado of Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer's drive to redeem herself, Twilight Sparkle's power and desire to protect her friends. Conversely, we must use every opportunity and every advantage, with every disadvantage and weakness bested, deconstructed and covered! Our siren instinct? We suppress the pride but keep that obsession to overcome the things that defeated us! Do you get it now?”

Aria grumbles, but she says, “yeah... I get it.”

“Even when we get our powers back, we must fight smarter, and harder, always expecting something to snatch victory from us! We are not beasts! Not any more.” She pounds her fist into her palm, full of righteous rage and fire! It's inspiring to see as she yells, “we are flesh, and blood, with hearts and souls! Souls that'll burn so damn bright not even their sun-bitch princess will be able to stop us!! We will make our comeback, but we will do it on our terms, not any base, ridiculous instinct! We're sirens! And we will be heard again!! Equestria will bow to our songs, the lands will echo to the sounds of our voices, and we will be adored by our own fucking merits!!”

Adagio catches her breath and calms down.

Okay, that was hot. You'd missed that rage in her from when you barely knew one another, because now you know she's wielding it with her heart and her mind. When they get their powers back, it's going to glorious.

And you'll be right there beside them.

Aria looks at you awkwardly and says, “sorry, Ray.”

“It's fine,” you respond, “so, shall we continue?”

Aria nods and complies.

* *

Adagio's phone beeps, and once she looks at it, she announces, “it's time. Let's do this.”

You feel like there should be some sort of anthem playing as you stride out of Adagio's apartment. She slams the door behind her as you power walk, shoulder to shoulder, down the hallway.

Hopefully, if all goes well, for what could be the last time. This place still sucks and the only reason you tolerate it is your new family.

You're even dressed in a similar aesthetic to the Dazzlings. Their purple, pink and burgundy colours matched with your dark blue bomber jacket. Strapped around your shoulder is your holstered emitter, contained in an old modified camcorder case back when phones weren't exactly up to snuff. The strap even has little concealed pockets and pouches for your future misdeeds.

The emitter isn't as accurate as it once was, thanks to the concealed stones inside the casings, but you've applied as much signal squelch as you can and it's still not up to your usual lofty standards. Hopefully you can do without super accurate readings for a while.

“Oh, there you are,” a male voice calls from behind.

Your group turns to the smug grin of Crafty Crate.

“Who's this asshole?” Aria says and looks at Adagio.

“Just the loser who lives next door to me,” Adagio says. “Don't pay him any mind; he's pathetic.”

You casually take your emitter out and type in a pegasi anti-signal, just in case.

“I've been having words with the landlord,” he says, still grinning. “Seems he might be getting the police involved after whatever the fuck you dosed me with the other night.”

Adagio shrugs. “The only thing you were dosed with, Mr. Crate, is a serious slice of humble pie, because you're a weak little man who can't take getting his ass handed to him by a girl half his size.”

“We'll see who's laughing when the fuzz tears your place apart. Failing that, I'll still get you evicted; half the floor can't stand you.”

Sonata scowls at him. “Is he always this mean?”

“No, he's usually a snivelling little bitch,” Adagio says with a sneer. “Hah, you know what? That's why he's whining about the noise so much; the guy clearly isn't getting any. He may look big, but I bet what he's got going on down there is less 'crate' and more 'pack of cigarettes.'”

Crafty gets up in Adagio's face and yells “You say that again! I fucking dare you!”

You remember getting in Adagio's face before, back when first finding Sunset and losing your temper, and she stepped back and was intimidated (however briefly), but now? Against this bigger guy? She barely bats an eye.

Aria steps between the two and snarls, “try it, dickweed, and I'll wipe the fucking floor with you!”

Sonata quietly moves up so the three are boxing him in, but he seems unfazed.

You activate the signal and Mr. Crate looks woozy and unbalanced. Adagio smirks as she notices and simply knees the man in the crotch. Following her lead, Aria shoves him aawy and Sonata hooks a foot behind Crafty's leg. He trips, crashes into the wall and goes down hard.

He moans in pain as Adagio steps on his chest, then struggles from under Adagio's heeled, spiky boot. He tries to push her off, but is too weakened by combination of bashed testes and the anti-signal.

Adagio says, calm yet sinister, “like I said, you're pathetic. And don't you worry, I'm planning to move out of here real soon, but here's something to consider; I'm gonna be coming back for my stuff, and then you'll never have to see me again.” She presses her foot on him harder so she can lean down to him, and Mr. Crate starts struggling to breathe. “But if the police do turn up, you're gonna tell them you made it up, because if I find one thing out of place? One single possession of mine damaged or missing? We'll be seeing you again, and it won't end well for you.”

Adagio lets him go and heads towards the stairs. “Let's roll. We haven't got time for this trash.”

You give Mr. Crate a mocking wave, Aria flips him a pair of birds and Sonata gestures for him to kiss her ass as you all follow Adagio out the apartment complex. It's safe to say the Dazzlings are one team again, plus you of course. It also gives you a firm idea that Adagio may be nicer overall, but she's still got bite.

You head outside into the midday sun and climb into the Dazzlings tour bus, and Sonata begins the journey to where all this technically began. Your path towards harnessing magic. Adagio losing her powers. Even where the magic first appeared.

Canterlot High School.

Aria folds her arms and stares out the tinted back windows, resting her foot on the reconstructed energy converter device that now dominates the back of the bus. “This still feels surreal. I'd given up any sort of hope of even seeing magic again, let alone getting a shot at recovering our powers. Hell, I still can't believe it's been hundreds of years since we were banished.”

Adagio nods. “Whatever that Starswirl the Bearded asshole cast on us was clearly designed to stop us being a problem in more ways than one. I doubt we've been in this world that long, but we've definitely aged slower than any human. Too bad for him we're back, and he should be dead and buried. It sounds like he fell foul of some shadow monster not long after our defeat.”

You say, “I guess you must have been a more grave threat than anyone could have known. Banished, your memories stripped from you, de-powered for a time. Once we get you girls back on your feet, and I get my inventions sold, I'm gonna make sure you have every advantage I can afford you.”

Adagio winks at you, while Aria just gives you a neutral glance, but Sonata says, “us sisters back together, a new pet human bestie... we're, like, gonna kick some serious butt!”

With a pat on Sonata's shoulder, Adagio says, “we certainly will, yet I'm still nervous... Equestria's still so ancient to us, and no doubt it's changed a great deal. We know Celestia's still in charge, but it sounds like they've been grooming Twilight to take over at some point.”

Aria grins. “Could be a good way to topple the balance of power.”

Adagio smiles, but it's one of her unconvincing ones. She glances at you and it sinks even more. “It will be an uphill battle no matter what we do. Remember, they're living in halcyon days in Equestria now. We're the underdogs, and not the least because of our lack of magic. If we do try to conquer Equestria, it will be a long play.”

“I guess the good guys won, but nothing lasts forever,” Aria replies.

“Hmph. Speaking of good guys,” Sonata says as Canterlot High School comes into view. It's lunch period and a lot of students are buzzing around, but you suspect they're due to head inside any moment.

You spot Sunset Shimmer, who's lingering on the other side of the street, and the old tension buds in your heart again.

Sonata pulls up, Aria ducks behind the machine just to play it safe, while you and Adagio climb out.

Sunset gives a little smile, “Adagio. Radian. You both ready?”

Adagio takes a deep breath. “First, I know I said it over the phone, but I'm sorry about the last time we met... what you saw is still raw in my mind, and it's not something I like thinking about. I overreacted.”

“It's fine,” Sunset replies. “I'm sorry I pulled that on you, but you have to know I'm just being cautious.” Sunset's turquoise eyes flick between Adagio and you. “Have you told him?”

“No,” Adagio says and waves her hand, “it's ancient history at this point. I'm in a better place than I've been since, well,” Adagio mulls it over, then finishes, “ever, if I'm honest.”

“I'm really glad to hear that. Anyway, let's double check we're all ready. Do you have Sonata's stone?”

You nod and hand her a small tissue-padded pouch.

Sunset opens it and carefully takes out the gemstone, removed from its old locket, and Sunset gasps softly. “Just that you're handing this to me... I know what these mean to you, Adagio. I'm grateful for your trust.”

“And yours, Sunset,” Adagio says. “Our lives are now officially in your hands.”

The school bell goes, and the students hurry in. Being here, near Sunset, you can't help but remember...

No, screw it. You're here now. You're with someone. You're not that loser any more. Sunset's just a means to an end, and if you succeed you can get her out of your life forever, move somewhere else, and forget she ever existed.

“Let's go,” Sunset says and gestures towards the school statue. “Equestria awaits.”

You cross the street and can't help but take out your emitter, scanning the area. You knew this was a hot-spot of magic activity anyway, but the fact that you're here when the portal's active and waiting, it's sending signals across the spectrum. Not just the three pony types, but even smaller ones in between. You log the numbers as Sunset glances at your device.

“You've gotta show me that thing sometime.”

You force a smile. “Maybe when we're done here. I don't want to waste too much time that could be spent repairing Sonata's stone and giving my new family a chance to live a new life.”

“You do realise that our devices don't work properly over there, right? Any time I've brought something like a phone with me, it runs out of power in an hour or two. I've never understood why.”

You smirk. “That won't be a problem, trust me. This baby's powered by magic.”

She shrugs. “Then after you!” Sunset nods to the statue platform, specifically the wall facing the school doors.

Adagio eyes the flat, white stone. “We just step through?”

Sunset nods and stands aside as you and Adagio glance at one another. You then holster your emitter, hold her hand, and walk through.

Spinning.

A swirl of gravity.

Stretching.

White noise.

You faintly hear your emitter beep wildly as the vast amount of magic surrounds you.

Then you land on your back. Shit, that hurt. You can't feel your fingers or toes, and in a panic you bring your arms up, only to smack yourself in the chin way sooner than it should have...

Uhh... you have a muzzle.

Oh shit, it's happening. You can see more of your nose than the vague blur at the bottom of your gaze; you can actually focus on a dark blue muzzle! You have hooves and you can see your horn poking out of your forehead! You feel for it, only to clash your hoof on it again. Your whole head stings from how sensitive the it is.

“Ah, I was wondering when you would get here,” says a somewhat familiar female voice. “Sorry, I should have warned you ahead of time; that first step is an inter-dimensionally diverse, gravitationally atypical doozy until you realise you just have to keep walking! You'll get it next time.”

A face appears above you. Lavender fur (a coat, your mind seems to pluck from nowhere), with straight, long, deep indigo hair (mane, you also correct) and tail, with a subtly different, redder shade stripe, accompanied by a pinker one. She looks at you with big, vibrant purple eyes on a face that's both distinctly equine, if also refined, very feminine and expressive as she smiles warmly down at you.

“You must be Radian Wave. I'm Twilight Sparkle. Welcome to Equestria!”

End of Act 2.

* * *