Mistress (Adagio's Big Comeback)

This was it. Maximum hype! A great, professional looking outdoor stage, which you're happy to have helped put the sound system together, the late day darkening sky, the crowd buzzing with excitement.

The music showcase had turned into a Battle of the Bands, courtesy of a push from The Dazzlings. An elimination tournament, and it was now the finals. Trixie Lulamoon and her group, The Illusions, against the Dazzlings.

The Rainbooms had been eliminated in the semi-final, complete with that weird Twilight Sparkle girl who was once known around school as an oddball who mashed the library computer keyboards with her fists and was seen walking on all fours. Pretty, but weird.

That was beside the point. The goddamn Dazzlings were about to perform! Every time they sang, the sadness was just... gone for a while. Nothing else mattered. The crap at home, the fear of the future, the uncertainty. It was gone.

They strutted onto the stage, surrounded by a green fog, which seemed to be drawn to them as they harmonised and sang together, and you just closed your eyes and listened. It all felt alright again.

“Welcome to the show!

We're here to let you know,

Our time is now!

Your time is running out!”

This was your opiate. Your everything. Just the gentle bliss of submitting to their angelic voices...

“Feel the wave of sound,

As it crashes down!

You can't turn away,

we'll make you wanna stay!

We will be adored,

tell us that you want us!

We won't be ignored,

Time for our reward!

Now you need us,

come and heed us!

Nothing can stop us now!”

Then, from a nearby hill, an invasion. A disruption. The Rainbooms, a five girl band, but now with that Twilight Sparkle girl singing and... her.

Sunset Shimmer. Just her being there, you knew everything was about to go wrong.

Their song fractured that wonderful feeling of being adrift while all the sycophants smile and cheer at their appearance.

Most of your memory is a blur as you came down from the bliss of the Dazzlings spell, but you remember... the Dazzlings singing more, a powerful blast of their voices, light and weird figures in the air, and then silence.

Then Sunset picks up the microphone, begins to sing with the Rainbooms...

And once more the pain returns as reality slaps you back down.

*-**-*

You wake up and squint as sunlight peeks through the window, check your phone and figure it's time you got moving. A lot of the components were due today and you can't miss a single delivery.

You head to a drawer and take out a notepad and a pen Adagio was using last night when she was tallying up the cost of your orders, and you rip off that page to set up a list of objectives. You've always liked lists, because sometimes you tend to get a little too passionate about your projects, and these little lists help keep everything in a nice, predictable order. Who doesn't love a good list?

After you write up the tasks, draw up some schematics from some pictures you took on your phone and collecting a few deliveries for your components, you decide to rummage around the cupboards of Adagio's kitchen for some breakfast. She's got enough ingredients for... barely buttered toast. Plus some orange juice and cheap instant coffee.

It doesn't feel fitting for a girl like Adagio, who deserves the best, but it'll have to do. Literally, in this case. Adagio's spent so much on your components, she doesn't have enough for the rent in two weeks time. Enough for some groceries and maybe a handful of other emergency bits and pieces, but you need to succeed or you'll both be homeless.

But you're confident! You could have these machine built in a few days if you had everything here, and you're sure you'll find a buyer who'll forward you some cash. Flying by the seat of your pants has gotten you this far already. You've gotta do it. For Adagio.

Damn, maybe those guys in the bar were right... you are a bit of a simp, aren't you? But screw it. Even if that is true, you'll soon be a guy with a ton of cash and the admiration of the hottest girl around, and a girl with world bending powers at that. You've got this, Radian Wave.

You prepare some toast, and then hear stirring from Adagio's bedroom, and the door opens.

She stands in the doorway, dressed in an thick pink bathrobe, untied, revealing her black frilly underwear. She's bleary eyed as she stretches her arms up and yawns.

You can't help but stare; the trim figure, the perfect curves, smooth skin. Her long, curly bed-messed hair that falls down below her hips. Even without makeup, she's extremely pretty.

She rubs then opens her deep pink eyes, notices you staring, and glares at you as she ties up her robe. Adagio huffs and says, “shouldn't you be working?”

“I will,” you say, “I'm just waiting for a few final core components, and I'll be able to at least build the inner workings of the handheld device. It will lack the ability to scan and read magic frequencies without a spectrograph, it won't have a proper control unit for ease of use and it won't be protected from interference by any external electromagne-”

“In English, Radian!” Adagio drops heavily on the couch. “Will you be able to build it or not?”

You sigh and put some bread in the toaster, then pour her a glass of juice. “Yes, but it won't be usable in the field, nor anywhere near as strong or focused enough for our purposes. Well, I'm doubtful, at any rate. I suppose we should try anyway, since it will allow me to narrow down the exact siren frequency, thus the highest yield... uh...” You simplify as her brow twitches. “I mean, we can do half the work now, and the rest later once the last of the handheld parts arrive. It will work, but not at full capacity.”

After a couple of minutes the toast pops up, you butter up a couple of slices, then deliver her breakfast to her.

Adagio takes them and gives you a funny look, but begins to eat. You swear for a split second, she smiles, but before you can really study her, nature calls. You had to kinda bottle it up since you can only access the bathroom through her bedroom.

Her room is surprisingly, yet also somehow predictably, girly. Big, pink and purple furnishings, a queen sized bed with frilly pillows and a makeup mirror filled with cosmetics. Heading into the bathroom, it's far less busy, with a shower, toilet and sink in basic porcelain and tiles. You do what you need to in there, freshen up and look at yourself in the mirror.

Yep, there's average ol' Radian Wave, with messy, dark green hair, with thin yellow stripes. Humble brown eyes. Your skin's thankfully cleaned up since your teens, and a little bit of stubble forming on the chin that never seems to progress into any sort of meaningful beard.

Man, you're glad you've got more than your looks to rely upon with Adagio, because you know it; you're not much to look at. All the same, you at least get washed and head back out. It can't hurt your chances, you guess.

Adagio's finished eating and sips her juice, but she's busy staring at her phone. The image shows a picture of herself, with her bandmates, along with a fan in a field taking a group selfie beside a beat-up van; you assume it's the Starswirled festival. You couldn't attend because of work, something you deeply regret.

The four girls are smiling, but you can tell The Dazzlings are forcing their girly smiles. Well, Adagio and Aria are faking it. Sonata's just enjoying herself and the fourth girl looks super glad to meet the starlets. You can relate.

You look at Adagio's expression as she's lost in the image as she sighs, when you feel compelled to ask, “so, what happened to your bandmates?”

Adagio locks her phone and puts it away. “None of your business.”

You shrug. “You realise we're stuck together until we succeed or fail. Would it kill you to be a little nicer?”

She raises a well plucked eyebrow at you. “Someone woke up with a spine today. If I didn't know better, all those glowing words of worship at the bar were a front and now you're trying to pull something with me.” Adagio pulls out her taser and gestures with it at you. “This isn't just a deterrent. It's a motivational tool as well.”

“Noted,” you say and smile, “and I suppose you're not wrong. Sure, I am using you. And you're using me.”

She tilts her head, and her hair bounces and blankets over her shoulder.

You continue, “I sought you out, as I said, because you were my only choice, but I've listened to your music and... fine, I'll admit I had a crush ever since, and especially because of certain individuals you stood against. But we're in this together, Adagio; you need me to give you your powers back, and I need you to make my fortune. We're a team, so would it be so awful if we got along?”

Adagio looks at you for a few moments, then looks at the floor. “I guess not. Human or not, it has been a while since I last really just talked with someone. Street Tough and Bar Spoon weren't exactly thrilling company, let alone the scum that filled my bar. And you're right. We're stuck together until the bitter end.”

The doorbell rings, and you answer the door. Another parcel, and you have the components needed for the handheld device. “So, you wanna watch me put this together?”

She throws her arms wide. “It's not like I've got anything better to do. At least that way I can make sure you're not slacking.”

You fill the kitchen table with your components, all spaced out and categorised just perfectly organised for quick, easy, simplified access. Soon, you take a set of tools, a soldering iron, your schematics and lists, then begin assembly.

Adagio occasionally watches what you're doing and checks her phone. Every so often, she asks you what a component's called. A transistor here, a microformat transceiver array there, and capacitors for days. Equestrian magic is potent as all hell.

She takes a break to go shower and change into one of her familiar purple and dark pink outfits; a black jacket with spikes on the arms and shoulders, a dark purple camisole and shorts over pink tights and heeled boots. No sooner than she approaches you, she asks what you did while she was away. On the one hand, you know she's checking to make sure you weren't slacking, but the way she listens to your answer... you doubt she's just taking you at your word. It's like she actually understands what you did, or is at least picking up enough of what you described that she's satisfied.

Hours pass by as you settle into a meditative flow, plugging and soldering components, screwing down and combining parts, stripping extraneous wires and chips and replacing them with better suited variants.

You sigh as you take a sip of water. “If I didn't know any better, I'd say you're taking an interest in this.”

“My life- um,” Adagio stops, clears her throat, and corrects, “our lives depend on this. Of course I want to know exactly what's going on. I hope you aren't underestimating me! I may be a human now, but I was once a threat to all of Equestria and this world, and not just because of my powers!”

You crick your neck from all the stooping you've been doing. “I never meant to imply anything like that. It's just that most people find this boring.”

Adagio smirks. “You're tapping into Equestrian magic with a pile of standard, non-magical human technology. Even I have to appreciate the ingenuity.”

You scratch the back of your neck and blush a little. “I wish I could say I pioneered it; this world's Twilight Sparkle accidentally built the first device to directly interact with magic, but hopefully mine will involve more control and far less... magical corruption and world fracturing. Now, shall we give this baby a try?”

“Wait, it's done?” Adagio looks at what is admittedly a tangle of wires, soldered boards, coils and switches. “It looks like a mess.”

“It's only missing the case, inner shielding, the spectrograph display and the main control unit, as in exterior buttons and switches. For the moment, it's perfectly capable of receiving ambient equestrian magic and broadcasting it in a refined, intensified format. So, shall we?”

Adagio gives one of her characteristic evil grins, though she soon buries it beneath a demure indifference. “No time like the present.”

You turn a few wire-wrapped screws and plug the device into a wall socket for a few seconds. Once a couple of indicator LEDs light up, you twist a pair of bare cables together and yelp as you get shocked and a tingle shoots up your arm, but ignore it as you unplug the device again.

Adagio laughs. “You're not exactly inspiring a lot of confidence there, Radian.”

“It's fine. It just needed a short charge to engage the ambient magic receiver. It's now like my phone. Infinite power!” You let out a miniature version of your mad science cackle and tape the bare wires together, then put the transceiver array near Adagio. “Alright, do you feel anything?”

“Nope.”

You twist the screw.

Adagio shivers. “I feel cold...”

“Wrong way, then,” you say and make a few more adjustments. “This will be far easier when the case and controls turn up. I'm having to eyeball this at the moment.”

Her eyes pulse red and she bites her lip.

“Anything?” you ask.

“Uh...” Adagio coughs awkwardly, and you up the power. This time, she gasps and stammers, “stop that!”

You cock your eyebrow. “What's wrong?”

“Are you doing this on purpose!? I said cut that out!”

You notice she's flushed and beginning to sweat. “Do you feel hot or something?”

Adagio grabs the screwdriver and turns it, and sighs with relief. She then jabs it at you like a knife. “If you do that again, you can sleep on the floor!”

She hands the screwdriver back to you, and you tweak it back a little, and there's a subtle hum to the air as Adagio stands and staggers backwards.

“Yes! This feeling!” Adagio's eyes glow bright red as she clenches her fists and grins. Her ears shift, pushing up through her hair and take on a horse-like pointed appearance, and ethereal wings spread from her back. Not feathered, like a birds, but... like fins, from a fish, but unlike her ears, they never fully form. “More, Radian, more!”

You pull out your phone and take some readings, then shake your head. “It's maxed out. It's not going to get any stronger until we can shield the components from interference and can focus the signal.” You flick a switch, cutting the emitter into standby.

Adagio grimaces as her transformation cuts out, and she runs her fingers through her hair. “I... Radian?”

You jot down some notes, then look up at her.

She manages to put on small, surprisingly cute smile. “Good work. I had my doubts, but you actually know your stuff.”

You smile back at her. “Thanks. I'm a little surprised myself. It's about thirty two percent more powerful than I anticipated, but I can't be sure if that's taking into account-”

Adagio's expression sinks and she rolls her eyes. “I said 'good work,' not ramble on. Take the win, Radian, and let me know when you're ready with the finished device. I'm going to go get some groceries.”

She collects a bag and steps out without another word.

* * *