Mistress (Adagio's Big Comeback)

“Later, boss,” Street Tough says.

I don't answer and let him leave. The asshole's just trying to suck up to me for a raise, like any damn human it's all about money. I just wait for him to walk away for a while before locking the bar's front door, then test it to make sure it hasn't broken again, because this place is pretty much just falling apart at this point. I don't know why I care. I swear I'll die here, so I might as well let it just fall even further into disrepair.

“Where did it go so wrong?” I whisper to myself.

I see myself in the stained, grimy glass windows and brush back my bangs. Little traces of wear and tear show as once more, life has to slap me in the fucking face that I have no power. If I had an easier life like I damn well deserved, maybe I could fight it off, but sleepless nights from my noisy asshole neighbours and late finishes keeping an eye on the bar just slowly sap my will to even try.

I check my phone and put the keys on their string around my neck and into my collar and rest between my tits, out of view and... normal touching space. This stage musical audition this weekend for 'My Mare Lady' is it. My ticket out of this hellhole. I've been practising my singing with that silly, self-pitying song, My Lullaby, but it's incomplete; it lacks a good bridge to the emotional ending, but I just... can't summon those feelings. It's yet another bit of proof that, without my powers and having to rely on my sluggish human brain and fallible voice, everything's hard work now.

Fucking Sunset Shimmer! Fucking Twilight Sparkle! And Aria, and Sonata!!

The little surge of anger feels good, but it just fades. The fight is gone in me. The thing that made me a siren, proud and powerful, truly is gone.

I sigh, shake my head and start walking home. The streetlights flicker and hum behind my back, the buildings seem a little closer than normal, the lights in the windows less signs of life than mocking eyes.

Just my breathing, the sound of my boots on the sidewalk. I'm just glad it's not a long walk.

I reach the alley when my phone buzzes. I look at it as I pass the alley; just Pinkie spamming everyone with party invitations. I have no idea why I agreed to keep her contact number.

… Maybe I should attend one.

Nah, fuck that.

Footsteps?

Someone grabs my shoulder and shoves me into the alley.

“Gimme your phone!”

I cry out, “get off me!”

I half expect it to be Street Tough messing with me, but I turn and see some guy I don't recognise, smell the stink of body odour and liquor. Then the world spins as he punches me in the face. Pain, dizziness, the shock and blurring.

I fall, my head scrapes against the brick wall and the phone falls from my hand, then clatters off somewhere. The man kicks me in the side and I slump onto a trash bag filled with something hard and jagged, coughing as I moan from the pain.

He snarls, “shit, where is it!?” The mugger scrambles about for a while, but can't find it. He grabs me again and I don't have the strength to fight him off as he brings me face to face and shakes me. For the first time since Twilight and Sunset were about to crush me, their magic made manifest as a towering alicorn avatar of their insipid friendship in the battle of the bands, I feel fear.

The man screams in my face, “where's the fucking phone!?”

A police siren blares up nearby, and releases me to flee. I slump to the floor as the siren moves away again.

My eye swells shut. I can feel blood trickle from a cut on my cheek. I should be furious. Terrified. Resolute. Something.

Nothing. Just hollow. I sit there in silence, back against the cold brick wall. The smell of garbage and refuse all over. No pride, no power, no self esteem. Just... nothing.

Minutes pass, my gaze fixed on the opposite wall. Eventually, I hear the buzz of my phone, the light of the screen glowing underneath a dumpster. Pinkie Pie sending more info about the party she's planning. I scoot over and pick it up and just stare for a while. Finally, after ignoring the message, I use the wall to stand. I'm dizzy, but force myself on.

I just carry on towards home. Most of the way back, I look to the side and see a freeway overpass. I'm drawn to it. Being high up always makes me feel some strange comfort. Damn, I miss flying.

The fence has been damaged since I moved here, but some stupid human kids pulled the opening even wider. It's a good twenty five foot drop into fast traffic. Cars charge by, their lights obscuring the makes, models, registration numbers. Just faceless.

Just like me. Who the fuck even am I any more? Would anyone even remember me if I threw myself off here? Besides the asshole who hit me first after landing on the road.

Probably Pinkie Pie. I laugh, harsh and sarcastically. She has a soft spot for everyone. I could even get help if I called her, she'd no doubt get her saccharine friends to stage an intervention or some bullshit. And that would no doubt involve Sunset.

I couldn't hate the other Rainbooms. It was all Sunset, and that Twilight bitch from Equestria. Yet I couldn't hate them either. They threw down the gauntlet. I took the challenge. They shone brighter. I lost. I fucked up.

But that wasn't all, was it? I kept going. I still had fight in me, even if I resigned myself to life as a human. Tried to get my sisters together, but the traitors just fucking left me when the going got tough and some asshole offered a better solution. But now? humanity itself bested me, but I couldn't hate them any more either. Not even the asshole who just tried to mug me. We're all just worthless here. Living life. This is all it is.

I laugh as I head home. I pass a couple, who give me a weird look as I just keep laughing, all the way until I get into my apartment. I lock the door. I hook the door chain. I feel the panic rise as the lingering adrenaline fully fades.

Then I just cry for hours.

Where did it all go so wrong?

*-**-*

You reel from Sunset's touch and realise you must have started crying as well. Adagio's sorrow was as real as any you'd felt. You wipe your eyes with your foreleg, and stumble to the floor again as Sunset looks sadly down at you, her own eyes glistening.

“I should have warned you that experiencing someone else's memories can be traumatic, but you had to see that. I fully believe she wants to change, but me and Twilight are worried! It's why we agreed to repair Sonata's stone. I read her memories, and we know she doesn't hate humanity the way the Dazzlings used to. She looks down on them a little, but she gets along, so we feel sure that if she's the only one with her old powers, it'll be alright.”

You struggle to your hooves, but say nothing.

Sunset continues, “I don't know what you and Adagio are trying to do, because Adagio's memories were staggered and blurry from where my reading was interrupted, but please, you have to believe me when I tell you that we want to help. Just remember that a siren's power comes from negative emotions, what will happen if she recovers her powers when she has that sorrow still trapped inside of her? She almost gave up!”

Adagio didn't give up. She came close, sure, but she never did. And you gave her help! You gave her a reason to believe in herself! You feel your anger begin to boil. “What you showed me changes nothing! Adagio's better now, and I helped her! Her sisters helped her! You're just meddling, and I feel dirty having fell for it! I shouldn't have looked... damn it!”

Sunset reels from the words, regretful and her ears fold back, but scowls in return. “You can believe that, or you can believe that in this world, emotions can have power. And trauma like that doesn't just vanish! If you're trying to give her back her powers, what happens if she can't control that grief? What if she betrays herself and turns against you? This is why I'm worried. You have to understand that I want to help, but we need to take our time and play it safe!”

You take a deep breath to stop yourself yelling at Sunset. You hiss, “I'll ask again. Knowing all that, why did you agree to let us come here?”

“Because Twilight believes you and Adagio. I want to! I honestly do! This isn't even about making it right between us, but it's all I can think of. To fight for you.” She approaches and puts a hoof on your shoulder. “Please, talk with Adagio. Ask her to come clean about whatever she's doing, so we can truly begin to help her! She needs time to heal inside, and I don't know if you can do it alone. We would be glad to let you stay here, so we can look after you both for a while, or just repair Sonata's stone and call it quits. We're on your side, Radian. No matter how much you try to push me away, I feel obligated to help.”

You almost tell her to get lost, but can't. Maybe it's this world, making you more agreeable, or some kernel of truth to what she said, but you just nod. You hope it's just to get her to leave you alone.

Sunset opens a nearby door, and lets you go.

You enter and close the door behind you. You need a distraction, and explore the room.

It's like nothing you've seen before. A huge bed, high ceilings, thick red drapes blocking a window as big as a room which let a sliver of moonlight through. It really is night time here. You've officially been transported through time and space. It's kind of awesome.

Back to the room, it's otherwise decorated with cabinets, a table, an en-suite bathroom with an actual bath! It's so luxurious! And all made of blue, purple and pink tinged crystal. You spend some time exploring the drawers and fixings; all sorts of brushes, towels, writing supplies, soaps, running hot and cold water. The lights seem to be powered by magic, having simple construction yet illuminate the room quite nicely, and turn themselves off when you move away from them.

There's even a bookshelf with a whole swath of various topics on Equestrian geography, history and more. You suspect this might be where an ambassador would stay so they could brush up on the topic. You'd love to read them when you get a chance; not only for the information, but you haven't owned books in ages. You had a few left over from... happier days, but they were left behind in your apartment when you were evicted. You couldn't justify keeping them on you.

You have a job to do, though, and true to what you've been told, there's an open book on the table. It's time to learn magic!

'Recovering horn function: Back to basics.' says the page. It's a well detailed account on engaging the magic that resides in a unicorns horn. How it's not too dissimilar to flexing a muscle, if a non-physical one: it can fall out of practice, lose function from damage (outside of a full break, which can't be recovered) and both situations need recovery time can atrophy a unicorns ability to cast spells. The problem is it's largely assuming the user is familiar with magic to some extent already.

Ah, but you are familiar, you think to yourself. You've literally harnessed it before you even had your current devices! You took crude readings from the initial burst, back when Sunset was a bully and Equestria's Twilight appeared.

Those early days of learning. The calculations! Crappy radio parts and an old antenna! You made it work! The signals, their frequencies... yes. It almost broke your damn mind, trying over and over and over again until you figured out how to 'clean' the magic signal, but you harnessed it!

The power of your world's sun interfering with the the weaker signal of magic as it passed between worlds. The way magic responds to astrological phenomena and fundamental forces like gravity, nuclear weak and strong force... all of these things were a struggle to compensate, to clear up the magical field. And as the dimensional tears worsened and spread, it's only become easier. IF you know that root conversion theory.

You suddenly hear the door open, and Adagio walks inside, then pushes the door shut with a back hoof. She still looks a bit off; tired, dazed and unfocused. She seems to come around as she looks at you.

“How's life as a pony, Ray? I may not have had much of an opinion on the human form, but you certainly look handsome now.”

“Not as breathtaking as you,” you say and smile at her. “But are you okay? You've looked a bit lost since you arrived.”

Adagio drops heavily on her rump, and blinks a few times. She sways a little, then widens her forelegs to help keep stable. “I don't know. I feel giddy, like I'm drunk, but I haven't touched a drop since that night before Sonata returned.”

“Twilight didn't cast anything on you, did she? Or did Sunset?”

She shakes her head. “They haven't done anything to me. Twilight just went over what was gonna happen, how you're gonna help repair the stone and I'm going to be watched by Twilight's friends, and how to walk. No, I've been feeling this ever since coming out of the portal. Like this hiss in my head... and this tingle. Like everything's moving.”

You reach for your emitter, but can't quite get to it with your hooves. Instead, you lift the holster strap with your leg, bite and pull it off, and carefully place the device on the table. “Maybe if I can scan you, I can work out what's going on.”

You pull the emitter free, and even get it in a position where you can access the panels, but the buttons are tiny compared to your chunky hooves. “Shit. This isn't going to work. Let me find a pen or something to push the buttons.”

“It's okay, Ray, it can wait,” Adagio says and wearily stands. “I'm going to get some sleep... I know it's midday back home, but I'm really wiped out.” She stops and blinks. “Home...?”

“Addy?”

“Uh, nothing! Don't worry about me, just talking to myself.” Adagio shakes her head again and clumsily climbs onto the bed, then uses her teeth to pull the cover over herself.

For a moment, you go to ask about what you saw from Sunset, but the last thing you want to do now is disturb Adagio when she's obviously not feeling great. Besides, until you've actually learned the method of repairing Sonata's stone, you've done nothing wrong, and you're still behaving as Twilight and Sunset expect of you. No sense causing a panic now.

Sighing, you return to the book and recover your thoughts about your original harnessing of Equestrian magic. You go over the material over and over and try to find some common ground with the signal. Those numbers. Over and over in your head. Sun signal, resonance, moon signal, resonance, local celestial signatures... no, you're overthinking this. Your sun and moon must barely register here. Just focus here and now.

The pages turn orange.

“Huh?”

The book moves.

“The hell?” you gasp as the book drops and returns to normal.

You here Adagio stir. “Ray?”

“Sorry, it's nothing,” you say.

“Okay.” She turns away, pauses, then rolls back over. “Um, actually...”

“What's wrong, Addy?”

She looks at you with bleary eyes. “I... I hate to bother you when you're working, you know I wouldn't normally do that, but I could really use some comfort right now.”

You chuckle. “You're hot even as a pony, Addy, make no mistake, but I don't know if I can... uh, 'perform' in this body. I'm still getting used to everything.”

“Huh? Oh!” Adagio giggles. “No, no! Nothing like that. Just... cuddling?”

Unexpected, but how could you say no to that? “Okay, sure.”

You climb into the other side of the bed. Adagio even lifts the covers so you can settle in, and you snuggle up to her. She smiles and wraps her legs around you, and holds you tight.

Unusual bodies, hard hooves and your coat bristling slightly against hers besides, the bed's the most comfortable thing you've ever rested on. You're not exactly tired, but you guess you didn't get great sleep because of the nerves going into today. You manage to get comfortable enough to begin to drift off.

“... never leave me...”

“You say something?” you whisper.

Adagio's sleeping soundly, and smiles softly, bathed in the gentle moonlight through the window.

* *

You wake up and it's still dark, and you suppose it was really more of a nap. Either way, your mind is buzzing with ideas and thoughts, most of them about learning magic.

You carefully pull yourself free from Adagio's powerful legs and roll off the bed. She grimaces a little, but continues to sleep, and you head back over to the book.

Once more those numbers roll through your head, you focus, and the pages turn orange. Luminous, enough that the table around it grows brighter with an amber light.

You're lifting the book off the stand with magic! You, Radian Wave, are casting magic!!

Years of hardship. That one spark of hope that you felt back in school, when you detected and recorded the Equestrian magic signal. Nobody believed in you, except mom.

Enduring the worst years of your life, overcoming all of it, meeting Adagio Dazzle, as well as her sisters, with your crude repurposing of magic through technology. Every single day where you doubted yourself yet struggled on, and every day you believed that, some day, you'd understand this force yet hit dead end after dead end.

And now you're here. You're in Equestria. And using magic!

“Mom... I made it.” you whisper as you smile upward at the window. “All my dreams. I followed them and never gave up, like you always said I should. Thank you.”

You continue to grin as you flip through the pages with your mind. Not to read them, you're far too excited right now. You remember what Adagio said about magic, with unicorns that can cast all sorts of spells. If you didn't have a purpose here already and a time limit, you'd love nothing more than to just study and master whatever you could.

You keep using your new power on all the objects, and it's strange. There's a tactile sensation to it, so you know you're handling something. You can squeeze and manipulate things in ways that you simply never can with hands. A loose piece of paper on the desk? You pick it up, fold it over and over until it struggles to fold any more, then you unravel it, tear it in precise, ninety-degree cuts. It's amazing! You even 'brush' your magic across the books like you would run your finger along the spines of such a thing back home.

But another thought comes to you; spells specific to a unicorn's personal gifts. A cutie mark, was it? You were so shocked at your own appearance, you didn't really have a chance to see if you had one, and you never really looked at Twilight, or Sunset's either because of how unusual it is to see these ponies as a whole, let alone... well, look at their asses, you guess.

Ah, so that was why you saw Adagio's cutie mark but not the others.

You're not a creep! She's your girlfriend, damn it, you're allowed to check her out.

There's a mirror in the bathroom, so you head in there and take a look at your flank. Sure enough, there's a symbol on each side of you.

It's a right pointing triangle. There's a horizontal line out of the left edge and out of the opposing point, with the left line leading to a small white star, and the right line to a bigger star.

You recognise the symbol from your old electrical studies. It's the symbol for an electric amplifier, and this one's amplifying what you can only perceive as magic.

Could it be? You pick up the book again and look it over. Sections about horn anatomy, afflictions that can cause magic mishaps. Finally, a section about spells when recovering. Exhaustion is expected from a long period of unused and so forth. Ah, here we go; spells pertaining to one's own cutie mark may be the best second step after recovering telekinesis due to them being both more familiar and, generally, easier for the unicorn in question.

That's... not terribly helpful, but informative, you suppose.

You look over the bookshelves for any helpful tomes, but nothing stands out. Then again, when you first tapped into your telekinesis, you did it by focusing on what you understood about magic. Specific frequencies and such. Surely, if your cutie mark depicts you as an amplifier, then the same holds true in terms of what you've been doing all this time; numbers for the frequencies.

Okay, positive unicorn signal, just imagine it. Let the numbers flow. It was a general feel-good sensation when you used the emitter on yourself.

Your fur stands on end, your mane sticks up, your horn crackles with power and you feel alive!! You cackle into a mad scientists... mad wizards laugh? You laugh, at any rate, but stop when you realise you might disturb Adagio.

Holy shit, so much energy! You go to take a book off the shelf, and pull it.

Only it launches across the room in the blink of an eye and explodes in a cloud of loose pages and string binding, as well as cracking the wall.

“Gah!” Adagio sits up, and you swear there's a slight whinny at the back of her voice. “What was that?”

“Uh... nothing, Addy, go back to sleep.”

She settles back down and you try to gather the pages with your magic, but trying to grab more than one page is... difficult. The book mentioned telekinesis can grab a large number of objects, but obviously that's a whole advanced level of use. It takes a while to collect them all, and you quietly stack the destroyed book on the table.

Okay, so you can literally boost your own magic! You really are an amplifier, and you suppose being in a land of magic, it's a far stronger reaction than using the unicorn signal on yourself back home with the emitter. No doubt you could do the same for the other pony types.

What about an anti-signal? It's a bit more complicated, with the fluctuating frequency, but it should be possible. Your horn once more glows, and you project a field of disruptive energy.

And promptly collapse.

* * *