Mistress (Adagio's Big Comeback)

“So let me get this straight,” Adagio says as she massages her temples. “You want to use me as, what, a magical antenna?”

You can't help but picture Adagio with a transceiver stuck in her beautifully thick curly hair and sip your second beer to suppress the smirk. Now that you're not on the verge of panicking, it's not the worst you've had for a brand with which you're not familiar. “That's a radical simplification, but something along those lines.”

She continues, “because of a magic leak caused by the continued abuse of the portal.”

“Like when Twilight Sparkle... uh, our Twilight Sparkle, exacerbated the rifts that formed during the Friendship Games. It's only continued saturate this world since.”

Adagio pinches her brow. “And only those native to Equestria, or have interacted with magic directly, can use or feel it?”

“Correct. I considered asking Twilight or-” you start to say but pause as someone else comes to mind, but no. Just no. Not her. “... A few others who I knew were involved with the initial incidents, but I'm worried they're directly connected to the other world. Allies or friends or something. I assume they'll deny it anyway, or maybe try and stop me. That makes you the perfect candidate, Adagio. You know how magic feels, and its absence since the breaking of your necklace might even improve your ability to detect subtle changes, at least compared to someone in routine contact.”

Adagio glares at you. “How did you even know about our stones? We tried to be subtle, and most of the people in the school were under our spell when we absorbed the energy.”

You tap the side of your head. “Simple logic; you had magic when you wore them, you haven't since they were broken and have demonstrated no such associated supernatural phenomena. Anyway, that's why I think I can give you your magic back; those stones were, I presume, a type of conduit through which especially tuned magic was absorbed into your body. What I'm proposing is a device that can not only collect ambient magic, but refine it and directly focus it into your body without the need of your necklace. We just need the perfect frequency, hence I need you to help me fine tune my proven method. Also once I refine the process, I'll be able to channel it into a vast amount of electricity.”

There's a hint of something to her expression. A little rise of her brow. Genuine curiosity, maybe? “You're going to turn magic into electricity?”

You can't fight off the smug grin. “Yep! Green energy at that, since it's going to be generated from something people mostly don't realise exists and is present all over because of how long it's been flowing through the tears. I'll make a fortune and you get your powers. I know I can do it.” You tap your cell phone. “This is entirely powered by that magic, so it never needs charging. There's just one problem.”

Adagio rolls her eyes and mutters, "oh, here we go.”

Come on, Radian, you've almost got her. You can feel it. “I'm broke, and I can't afford the parts for the more specialised, focused machines. I spent most of my cash building a version of my phone that didn't catch fire... or explode.”

Adagio gives you a deeply sardonic laugh. “Do I look flush with cash? I'll give you a moment, Mr. Scientist, in case the trashy bar doesn't clue you in.”

Hmm. You kind of figured she might have been just frugal in her spending, but nobody lets a place get this destitute, you guess. “Oh. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that.”

“I sank everything I have into this dump. I even had the great idea to turn it into a trendy jazz club or some pretentious cocktail bar to squeeze more cash out of rich idiots, but no. My funds dried up long before I could even start making the necessary changes.” She sighs loudly and slumps over the bar. “Story of my life, one failure after another. Everything I do turns to ruin, and what little I have left is tied to this place.”

A complication, but you try to think around it. “Well, maybe we could-”

Adagio sits up and slaps her hands on the bar. “There is no we, idiot!” Her anger's sparked, but Adagio just deflates even harder a second later. She stands slowly, leaden, then gestures to the door. “Just... get out. I don't care enough to have you thrown out any more. I'm going to go and see if I can balance the books...”

You can't believe she just said that. Not Adagio. Not after all this time, nervous build up and and distant dreams. “Balance the books?” you whisper.

“Yes, Radian, it's a little thing called living life. All this magic nonsense doesn't mean a thing here, not when there's bills and employees to pay and-”

You slam the bar with your fist. She gasps, flinches and takes a step away from you.

This was it? A girl- no, a siren, who had once played with powers beyond the world itself, that inspired your desire to explore magic to begin with, and she's talking about bills and payslips? No goddamn way.

You say, “you know what? I gave up everything to chase up a dream I've had since school. Home life and CHS chewed me up and spat me out. I pushed myself as hard as I could to try and make myself something professionally, only to get ground up as some goddamn nobody, working in a side-lab on bullshit! I've had to give up everything I had just to prove my theories! I've sacrificed everything for this! I'm screwed if we can't work this out.”

Adagio shrugs. “Not my problem.” She goes to walk towards the back room.

You grab her shoulder. The clientele go silent and Street Tough stands from his stool again, and you see Adagio reach for her taser.

To hell with it, you either succeed or get electrocuted. “You just don't know what you are. You've forgotten. You're Adagio Dazzle! A siren! You almost ran Canterlot High and would have run the whole damn world!”

Adagio shakes her head, somewhere between afraid and angry, and says, “you know what I am- what I was, and you still want to help me? Why would you do that? Are you crazy!?”

You throw you arms up in the air and scream, “YES! I'm certifiable! I took my whole life, my engineering PhD, my whole career as a scientist and burned it all for you! You're a goddess, and it's time you remembered that! To hell with 'balancing the books!' You're Adagio fucking Dazzle! It's our time, you just need to believe in me!”

You almost don't hear it as your heart thunders in your ears, but the bar patrons laugh and chuckle amongst themselves. Simp, crackpot, nutjob.

Street Tough grabs you by the scruff again and starts pulling you towards the exit. You've done everything you can and don't resist, except try to watch her reaction.

Adagio stares at you, her mouth open and her eyes roam the floor, as if searching, and the laughing reaches a peak. She then looks at the patrons and her face twists into a hateful scowl, but you're turned around and can't see her any more. Is it over?

Then the sound of shattering glass. You see one of the laughing customers reel as a spray of shards showers over him from one of Adagio's empty long maneland ice teas strikes a table and cuts a couple of the nearby patrons.

Street Tough's grip slackens and you turn towards Adagio. An evil grin. Wide, vibrant, slightly unhinged looking raspberry coloured eyes. Pride. Power! She's back!

Adagio yells, “everyone, get the hell out of my bar!”

One of the patrons storms up to her. “What the hell do you think you're doing, you crazy bit-”

Adagio jams her taser in his neck with a long, sinister laugh and he jolts, stiffens, mumbles and falls to the floor in a heap. She brandishes the weapon at any other challengers. “I said get out!! We're closed! Forever!”

The clients filter out, Street Tough drags the unconscious man out.

All the while, Adagio doesn't even look at you. She just looks at the bar, taking it all in with a lazy smile, and when it's only you, the barman and Street Tough, she says, “you two, liquidise everything. Sell it all, take your severance and get lost.”

“Boss?”

“You heard me! And you, Radian?” She grabs you by the collar and tugs you so close that you're overwhelmed by the alcohol on her breath. “You're getting your chance, Mr. Scientist, so you'd better hope you're as clever as you think you are. The ball's in your court, and if you screw me?”

You wince as she jabs her taser against your crotch.

“I'll fry yours instead. Am I understood?”

You gulp. “Yes ma'am.”

Adagio shoves you back and vanishes into the back room as she starts to type a number on her phone and puts it to her ear as she closes the door. You hear her talking to someone as Street Tough and the barman start gathering the stock and make some calls of their own.

An hour passes when Adagio emerges and sighs, running her fingers through her thick curls. “Let's go. You'll be staying with me where I can keep an eye on what you do with my money.”

You head outside with Adagio and begin an uncomfortable, silent walk. You'd love to strike up a conversation with her, but she's clearly in deep thought and you're more than a little worried she'll tase you if you interrupt. Curiously, despite the straight route, she tugs your arm to cross the street, steering clear of an alleyway, then heads back across after the next street.

It's not far to her apartment. The second floor, room twenty six. Just past the apartment that stinks of urine, but before the one with the rust-colour (almost certainly blood) stained door. Inside, the grand tour consists of a single main room, a busted couch, a basic coffee table near the kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. No TV, just a radio; solid brand but a lower end model.

You ask, “I guess I'm sleeping on the couch?”

“Well, aren't you clever?” She sneers and throws her jacket on the back of the couch, then retrieves a notepad and pen from one of the kitchen drawers. “Now, tell me exactly what you need to order and I'll get it. We've got all night, so anything you say, I'll be checking to make sure you're not being stupid.”

“Fine, but it's a long list,” you say and pull out your phone. You've got the schematics on there for two devices as you begin listing off a whole pile of components. You make them as cheap as you dare, but some parts have to be premium.

Every step of the way, Adagio keeps trying to recommend lower priced, inferior parts. There's a lot you would do for her favour, and even more to make her trust you, but these parts are crucial. One short-circuit, one blown component, and the whole thing could be ruined.

It's late by the time you finish, but you have everything you need ordered, plus a couple of spare parts for redundancies. Adagio also insists on rapid delivery, which surprises you, but you aren't complaining.

Adagio locks her phone and rubs her eyes. “Finally! Ugh! I swear, if we end up with a pile of worthless spare parts, I'm not going to be happy! I'm going to bed. Do not disturb me!” Adagio stands and storms off into her bedroom.

You sigh, kick off your shoes and admit, after a day spent going against your introverted nature and actually being forced to stand up for yourself, you're pretty bushed as well. You use your jacket as a blanket, spend a few minutes trying to get the busted couch into a comfortable position, and settle in for the night.

*-**-*

You're sitting in front of Principal Celestia, back in Canterlot High. She's rambling on about recent events, settling back into school, but you're so numb you can barely hear her. Your parents have divorced, your dad's moved halfway across the country and your mom... you don't even want to think about the state she's in right now. It's not looking good. You were scared the break up was going to happen, but the writing has been on the wall for months. This situation with your mom is grave enough that you needed a distraction. The only thing you could think of is returning to your school.

It's not a long meeting, and you're barely thinking of it for most of it, only focusing on her as she leans forward on her desk. “I really wasn't expecting you back so soon after we heard about what happened, Radian, but I admire your courage. If it gets too overwhelming, or if there's anything Vice Principal Luna or myself can do for you, even if you just want to talk, our door is always open. You might be glad to hear that this weekend we're having the first ever musical showcase? I understand you're quite talented in electronics, and I'm sure the event organisers would love having your assistance in preparing the sound system and lighting.”

That would be a nice distraction, but you're not sure if you can deal with people right now. “I... I guess I'll think about it. Thanks, Principal Celestia.” You leave the office and head through the halls when you suddenly spot the dreaded fiery red and yellow hair of Sunset Shimmer, your long-standing nemesis. You immediately hide upstairs as you see her on the approach, hide behind the guard rail and look down into the foyer.

Sunset Shimmer runs up to a trio of unfamiliar girls at the entrance. “Hi, are you the girls I'm supposed to show around?”

The newcomers step forward and you get a good look at them. The central girl has a spiky hairband tying up her long, thick orange and blond curly hair and wears punkish purple and pink clothes.

She says, in a sexy, smooth voice, “we are,” with broad, toothy grin.

Her two friends (you assume) remain quiet. One's dressed in purple jeans with a green, torn sleeve jacket with twin-tailed, straight purple hair with aqua stripes tied up with star-shaped clips. The more cheerful of the three has a pink skirt and a burgundy top, with a large ponytail of two-toned blue hair. All three are wearing very distinct and identical red gemstone necklaces.

Sunset begins to lead the three around the school, and normally you'd make yourself scarce, but these new girls catch your eye. There's something deeply alluring about them that you can't quite put your finger on.

It also strikes you as odd at how friendly Sunset's being, but you know you heard something happened at school while you had your family crisis and you've been in and our of school so often, it's been difficult to keep track of everything. You know the front of the school building had to be repaired, but most people are keeping quiet, so you can't help but wonder if Sunset caused an incident and is having to buck up her act to not be expelled or something.

You follow as far as you can upstairs but have to head back down to the ground floor as Sunset introduces the science and computer labs, while the three new girls look around like they're plotting.

Sunset suddenly runs ahead to a poster. “Oh, we're having a big musical showcase this weekend! The whole school is pretty much rallying around it!”

The poofy-haired leader of the new girls gasps softly and puts her finger and thumb to her chin, then glances back at the other two with a smirk. “A... musical showcase?” You're close enough to see her dark pink eyes, full of cunning.

Sunset continues, “I'm sure since you're new Principal Celestia will let you sign up, if you're interested.”

Twin-tails checks her nails and says, restrained but smoothly, “we have been known to sing from time to time.” She's got darker, purple eyes. Almost sinister.

Ponytail chirps in, with a bubbly tone, “hello! We sing, like, all the time! It's how we get people to do what we want.” Her big, vibrant pink eyes are pretty as hell, but... not exactly sparking with intellect.

Poofy grunts at ponytail and performs a 'cut it' gesture across her throat.

“What- what did I say?” Ponytail asks and shrugs.

Poofy covers for her and says, “what you meant to say was being in a musical showcase sounds like a great way to meet other students!”

“Oh, yeah!” Ponytail says as they continue talking, but you slink away.

You bite your lip as you look at them out of earshot. Sunset reaches for poof-hair's red stone necklace, only for the girl to grab your bully's arm. You think they might be at odds, which would be a bonus; maybe an enemy of your enemy might make a friend? You mean, it's a long shot, but still.

But more than anything, if you were on the fence about helping with the music showcase before, now you're definitely going to help out.

Anything to get a chance to be near these girls... something to focus on besides the situation back home...

*-**-*

You snort and snap awake for a moment. A fond recollection, nothing more. It's still dark outside, the barest hint of sunlight on the horizon.

It's been years since then, but still, that was the moment you... well, didn't 'meet' the Dazzlings, but that was when you first became interested in them. It both feels so long ago, yet so recent. Reliving it, when you didn't know who they were, all the mystery of who they were and how they seemed at odds with Sunset Shimmer, the main reason you hated school. Obviously you know the trio now; Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. The beautiful and clever leader, the moody, more restrained in-betweener, and the chipper, ditzy and cute respectively.

You sigh, wince as your back pops from the misshapen couch, and settle back into sleep.

* * *