Sonata and Aria went down the streets holding hands and skipping gaily, with Adagio running to try and keep up with them. Now that the pendants had switched their bodies, their past and present selves were beginning to meld in with each other. Adagio's muscles tensed up at the thought of Sonata leading the group, Aria smiled wider than she had ever done in her life, and Sonata began to take charge of the group and choose what they did while keeping her playful self intact.
Adagio grimaced as both Aria and Sonata giggled and grinned at each other. She watched the two of them dart into the nearby clothes store and sing their chorus briefly before dashing out with matching pink clothes. She did lighten up when she watched the green smoke fly up into their pendants and make them glow, but that brief solace was quickly lost as her sisters gave each other a high-five.
"Whee! These pendants were the best thing that ever happened to us since the Battle of the Bands!" Aria picked hers up and shined it in the light.
"Hear, hear, Aria." Sonata nodded and held her own pendant up in the sunlight, watching red streaks twinkle down onto the path in all directions. "I never thought that we'd be able to bounce back from that, but we did, and now we're back in business! Hopefully for good this time."
"Girls, I appreciate that you're both really happy to get back into the business of leeching off of hatred, but do you think that you could tone down the overly-peppy attitude?" Adagio caught up with the girls and rubbed the sides of her head. "Not to be like Old Aria, but all this energy and pinkness is giving me a bit of a headache."
"Aw, lighten up a bit, Dagi." Sonata patted Adagio in the chest and gave her an innocent smile as she crossed her arms over. "The Dazzlings are back. And this time, we're here to stay."
"Plus, we're getting more and more energy each day! The Rainbooms won't be able to stop us this time!" If Aria had a tail, then she would have been wiggling it at that very moment.
"I don't know about you, girls, but maybe these aren't really all that they're cracked up to be..." Adagio took a brief glance down at her pendant, which lacked the luster that the other ones had and was a slightly darker shade of red. "Maybe I'm not eating that much. But I don't want to have little snacks, y'know? I want four-course meals of anger, violence, pain, and heartbreak."
"Oh, I'm sure that we can find a place where we can do that." Sonata waltzed up to Adagio and wrapped her arm around her body. "We could go to a little league match. I'm sure that we could grab a good bit of food there."
"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea!" Aria waved her arm high in the air. "We could also go get negative energy at the day-care centre! Those cute little babies aren't all sunshine and rainbows. Especially not when we sing them a few lullabies..."
"Both ideas seem good, but I think that I'd still be a grump even then." Adagio crossed her arms and looked down at the ground. "I know that you two are the leader and second-in-command now, but I think that you're being a little bit too happy about this whole thing."
Aria let out a long gasp before walking right up into Adagio's face. "There's no such thing as too happy, Adagio!" She snarled, almost as if some pangs of her past life had come back, but were distorted by her new one. "Wait a sec, what am I—no, that's not right. I can't be a meanie anymore. I've got Sonata's childishness. I couldn't be a jerk even if I tried..."
"These pendants clearly have some kind of fault to them." Adagio looked around as hard as she could for any discrepancies on the jewels. She even tried to take it off of her neck, but neither the collar or the gemstone would budge no matter how much force she applied to them. "But what is it? There's no way that we'd be able to get brainwashed like that. And even if we were, I'm sure that we would have more resistance to that kind of stuff and be able to outdo the puppeteer..."
"Hey, Sonata? What else did you get in that shop?" Aria smiled and leaned in close to her. "Anything cool? Fun? Pink and playful?"
"Well, thanks for asking, Aria." Sonata opened up the bag in her hand and set it down before her and Aria. "Let's see what we got here..." She began to take stuff out of the bag and show it off to the group. "This one's for cooking things. That one's for telling what time it is. These two are for you and me to wear together. And everything else is stuff that I loved the look of but have no idea what do with them."
"Sonata, those last two things are just matching pacifiers." Adagio crossed her hands and looked down at all of the stuff that Sonata had swindled from the people inside the shop. "We don't have any children, so I don't know what you plan to do with those. And besides, you don't even ta—" Adagio took a brief breath of air as she looked through the other stuff in the bag "—Sonata? Are you sure that you're not doing drugs? Because that's the only reason that a teenager in this world would suck on a pacifier, according to those magical steel boxes at Canterlot High."
"No, silly. Those are just for me and Aria." Sonata smiled and blushed at Adagio as she put her hands together and fluttered her eyelids. "Along with all of the other matching pink stuff that I got for me and her, we're going to become the best of twinsies together! After all, we're gonna rule the world through cuteness and siren songs rather than being jerks like we were before."
These pendants are really starting to get through to our minds... Adagio watched as Aria and Sonata picked up everything within the bag that matched and slipped them on or around them. Aria's not really one to show happiness, especially on Sonata levels. And Sonata's still the same, but is about to become a genius... I can already feel my mind beginning to melt into my new body. There's gotta be a way to fix this without the Rainbooms' help.
"Hey, Dagi? Aren't you feeling happy?" Aria asked as she tried to slip a pink jacket over her body. "You have your pendants back and for once, we're getting along like real sisters. Why aren't you smiling?"
"Oh, I don't know, Aria. Perhaps it's the heat from the sun, the tightness of these clothes, or the sunlight getting to me from a long day's work." Adagio sarcastically rolled her eyes as she answered the question. "Oh! I remember now. IT'S THE FACT THAT I'M STUCK IN THE BODY OF A TRASHY GOTH WHO'S NOW TURNING INTO JUST AS YOUNG OF A KID AS SONATA!"
"Adagio? What do you mean?" Sonata pulled her head from the bag, with lots of stuff getting stuck in her hair.
"I'm saying is that ever since I've been wearing this pendant, my life is somehow worse than it is better!" Adagio threw her arms around her. "My elegance is turning into bitterness, my clothes are extremely hard to wear, and now the most childish of sirens that I know are not only becoming friends, but are now leading the charge!" She sighed and hung her head. "I'm grateful that we have our pendants back, but I just wanted everything to go back to the way that it was before the Battle of the Bands..."
"Adagio. I know how you're feeling." Sonata walked up and patted Adagio on the back as gently as she could. "It must be hard to go from being the head honcho of the group to a lowly subordinate. But learn to take things on the bright side. All we wanted after the Battle of the Bands was adoration and power. We can have both of those things again, no matter what happens to the three of us. And if that includes us switching roles, then I don't really mind it."
"Yeah! I feel totally refreshed thanks to these little things." Aria smiled and rubbed her jewel in the palm of her hands. "Back when I was Mean Aria, I was just a grumpy little sad sack who just liked to eat angry thoughts. Now that I've got Sonata's silliness too, I can still be myself but enjoy myself outside of eating too."
"But, see, you two have got all of the best and free-willed parts of each other." Adagio slumped her shoulders and frisked her sisters. "All that I've been left with is the goth parts of Aria and the intelligence of Adagio. If I had what you two had right now, I would be just as ecstatic to get energy, dress up like a fairy tale princess, and eat mexican food as well. But because I'm still me but with extra fury, I feel like I'm the one bitchy tramp in a trio of energetic singers."
"Adagio! Watch the language." Sonata slapped her hand onto Adagio's mouth. "There might be kids here."
"I wish that I could, but I just can't." Adagio turned her back to the other Dazzlings. "I'm blighted with the curses of both logic and despair. I won't be able to enjoy this as much as you two can now that I'm in this situation. But it is the bed that we've made, so we must lie in it."
"Aw, I'm sorry, Adagio." Aria walked up to Adagio and gave her a gentle hug as she brushed her face against her back. "Is there anything that we can do to help you feel better?"
"Would some food at the mexican place help cheer you up a bit?" Sonata asked, pointing down the road. "They serve all the best stuff. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, you name it and they'll do it for you. For free, I might add." She pinched the gem around Adagio's neck and held it up to her face. "Or, if you're not into that kinda food, we could always go out and feed on more negativity like we usually do."
"Maybe, girls. Just give me some time to clear my head." Adagio broke out of Aria and Sonata's holds and walked off ahead of the girls. "It's a nice gesture, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of this."
Aria and Sonata just watched as Adagio walked off into the blazing light of the sunset until she was out of their view, then went back to checking out all of the stuff that they had gathered from the shop. All the while, their minds were merging with each other, but they were far too engrossed in their activity to notice.
Adagio walked with her hands behind her back as she looked at the world around her. Everywhere she went, people were playing with their children, laughing on the bench together, or were simply typing away at their little phones and other devices. She took a few deep breaths and kept to herself, almost hunching herself over as she crossed her arms behind her back.
"My whole world is changing..." Adagio mumbled to herself as she looked down at her fet. "First we get banished from Equestria, next we lose our pendants and powers to a bunch of snot-nosed apes, then we get our pendants back but with a few catches, and now Sonata Dusk is leading the Dazzlings." She looked back up and saw the gold-tinted houses shimmering in the rays of the setting sun. "Everything's been turned upside down. Next thing we know, Canterlot High are going to welcome us back with open arms for the way we treated them."
Adagio turned towards a zebra crossing and went over it towards the nearby row of trees next to another cobblestone path. She walked underneath the branches of the trees, hiding herself from the pounding light that coated the world around her. Most of her breathing was pretty shallow, but she was still managing to keep her head from popping off of her body.
Eventually, Adagio's quiet and isolated walk led her straight into the path of Sunset Shimmer, who was carrying a few groceries of her own. Once the two of them saw eye to eye, they approached each other and stopped a few paces from each other. Despite the bad blood that the two of them had, they were both away from their friends and were able to have a clear conversation without anyone else interrupting them.
"Adagio." Sunset folded her arms in front of her.
"Sunset." Adagio mimicked her in every way.
There was a brief silence between the two girls as they looked deep into each others' eyes and felt the wind rush around their feet and blow through their hairs. The muscles in their hands began to flex as they wiggled their fingers and the ones in their heads arched down as their brows got closer to their eyes.
"We need to talk." They both said in perfect harmony, then widened their eyes and blinked into space as they stared at each other slack-jawed. Soon, they both snapped back to reality and shook their heads briefly, nodding at each other as they knew what they both needed to do.