The light shines through your bedroom window, stirring you back to the land of the living. The alarm clock sitting on your nightstand lets off a dull red seven forty five. You grunt and roll over, not wanting to waste this free Saturday morning waking up this early.
You pat the other side of the bed wondering where Sunset has gone this early. She never passes up a chance to sleep in with you. The question is seemingly answered with a distant sizzle and pop coming from outside your door. You let out a smile at the thought of sharing bacon, eggs, and pancakes with your wife, and the smell of that bacon filling your room slowly persuaded you up to your feet.
As soon as you flip the blanket off you, reality seeps back into your senses. Your wife hasn't cooked in this house in a long time and that can only mean one of three people are downstairs dealing with an open flame, hot grease, and sharp utensils.
You bolt out of your room as fast as your body will allow, leaving your bedding strown all over the floor and your door almost knocked off of its hinges. You barely escape from tripping and tumbling down the stairs in your rush. You slide into the kitchen in your socks, ready to deal with the second round of disaster that could be Aria trying to make her own breakfast... or even worse: Sonata. Your mind races to think if your fire extinguisher is up for the challenge and how fast you could get her to the hospital before you slide around the corner and notice it's actually Adagio standing in front of the stove, poking at the bacon sizzling in the skillet with a spatula. You'd call it cute the way she's standing on a stepstool to reach up to the grill if your heart wasn't beating so fast.
You let out a tense breath and slowly try to relax, knowing you wouldn't have to put out any fires and be making any more trips to the hospital. For now anyway.
Adagio looks up from the pan and gives you a tired smile. The bags under her eyes tell you she must've gotten up pretty early to beat you to the breakfast punch. "Oh, hi, Dad. How are you doing?"
You walk into the kitchen, giving Adagio a confused look before kissing her on top of the head. "I'm alright, sweetheart, but what are you doing?" you say, looking across the spread of bacon, eggs, and pancakes that are already prepared on the counter top beside her.
She raises an eyebrow up at you as you put your hands on her shoulders. "Um... making breakfast? What else would I be doing?" she says with a little amused smile.
"Why? You shouldn't have to--"
"I think I'm old enough to handle the stove, don't you?" she asks, sounding like she was afraid you'd stop her. She looks back down to the bacon sizzling in the pan and gives it a quick poke to look at the other side.
You shrug. You can't see why you wouldn't trust her with this, but you can't imagine why she didn't just ask you to make it instead like you usually did.
"Dad! Are we gonna have panca-- Oh," Aria says as she rounds the corner, an excited smile on her face dropping to slight confusion when she sees Adagio holding the spatula. "Why are you cooking, Adagio?" she asks, probably not even aware of how rude that sounded.
"Well Dad always makes it for us, so I thought it would be nice to give him a break for once."
"Thank you, sweetheart. This is very nice of you," you say, giving Adagio a quick, one-handed hug. You can't complain about someone else making your breakfast, but something about this seems odd to you; Adagio has never wanted to help with the cooking before. She did her chores and did as she was told but never really any more than that. You let the thought go for now, getting out some plates and telling Aria to get her sister up for breakfast.
Once everyone sits down and Adagio passes all the food out, you take the first apprehensive bite. How bad could it really be? Not like she had to do much more than put some water in with the pancake mix. As soon as you bite into it though, you can tell it was her first time. The pancakes are a thick, dark brown on the outside and have a gooey, uncooked batter on the inside. They're still pancakes though, so you drench yours in syrup and don't end up saying anything else.
Aria's face scrunches up on her first bite and you can see Adagio blushing from across the table after hers.
"Dad makes them better..." Aria says, watching two crunchy pieces slide off of her fork while the gooey middle remained. Adagio's mouth twists into a little frown after she takes a bite of her own, being sure to keep her eyes down on her plate and away from you or her sisters.
"Aria, that's not fair. Adagio did her best. You should be thankful that your sister did this for you."
Aria lets out a sigh and starts on the bacon on her plate instead. "I guess so..."
Sonata on the other hand doesn't seem to care at all, as she voraciously tears into her pancakes like she'd been starved for the past couple of days. Once she's done she looks up with syrup covering her face and hands with a bright smile. "Can I have seconds?" she asks, giving you that beaming grin you can't bear to disappoint and take away.
Aria looks over at her sister's empty plate in bewilderment since she's only gotten through half of one of her pancakes. Sonata's request puts a little smile on Adagio's face as you nod to her.
After breakfast is over, Adagio even walks around the table and grabs all the dishes before any of you can say anything about it. "Are you...?" you start, taken somewhat off-guard by someone actually wanting to do the dishes.
"Oh, yeah. I'll clean them. If I cooked I should clean too, right?"
You shrug again as Adagio pulls the stool over to the sink now. "Sonata, could you help me?" she says, giving her sister a hopeful smile.
Sonata gives her sister a soft "Okay" as she eyes the tv Aria is already heading towards to turn on the cartoons. "What am I supposed to do?" she asks as she steps up on the stool next to Adagio.
You just leave them to it as Adagio goes over the basics of using a sponge. You sit down on the couch beside Aria, the spots around you feeling a bit empty without your girls sitting around you. After about an hour you look back towards the kitchen, only to see your daughters missing from the sink.
"Adagio, Sonata?" you ask around the house.
You get a weak, "Up here, Dad!" coming from upstairs. Investigating that you find both of them in the bathroom, rubber gloves on and scrubbing away at the floor... with dish soap.
"What are you doing?"
Adagio wipes the sweat off her forehead before going back to scrubbing the soapy tiles with a sponge she found in the kitchen. "Well, we thought it'd be a good idea to clean the bathroom. It's been awhile since you've done it, hasn't it?"
"The bathroom doesn't really need the tiles, cleaned, honey. Haven't you ever seen me do it?"
Adagio shrugs. Sonata is slipping around on her hands and knees behind you, seeing how far she can slide on the soapy tiles with a much larger sponge beneath her knees. You let out a sigh and go over the basics of bathroom cleaning: cleaning the toilet bowl, making sure all the tiles in the shower were clean, disinfecting all the surfaces, etc.
After almost half an hour of you mostly doing the cleaning yourself with Adagio watching intently and Sonata playing sponge surfer in the background, you wipe your brow.
"Okay... I think I got everything. So where do I start now?" she asks.
"Uh..." You look around the sparkling bathroom you just cleaned pretty much entirely yourself. "Well, it's done, actually."
"What? But I was supposed to clean it!" Adagio says with a cute little frown and her furrowed brows.
"Why did you want to..." you start before Aria yells up to you guys.
"Dad! Rarity's here!" Adagio's frown grows even worse at the sound of Rarity's voice talking to her sister downstairs.
"I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" she asks you with a curious smile as you walk down the stairs, wiping the suds off on your pants.
"Nah, I just got done cleaning the bathroom."
"What are you doing here?" Adagio says in an uncharacteristically snarky tone.
Rarity's taken aback for a moment by the rude remark. "Well..." she says before clearing her throat, "I had some ideas for some dresses for the wedding. I thought it might be better for them not to be a surprise this time." she lifts up her hand, revealing her black-clad sketchbook to you.
"Yeah that'd probably be for the best," you say, giving her a pointed look.
She rolls her eyes at you, letting herself in and putting her pad down on the kitchen table. "Oh, it wasn't that bad."
You catch a glimpse of Adagio giving Rarity an oddly angry look before storming off down the hall towards... your room? You push it out of your mind as a conversation starts up between you and Rarity.
"Dad, can we go play outside?" Aria asks, with Sonata trailing close behind her.
"Sure, honey," you say, waving her off.
"Adagio! Let's go play outside!" Aria shouts, probably wanting some backup in case they get into another fight with the neighborhood girls.
"Can't! Busy!" you hear from upstairs. You raise an eyebrow at that. As reclusive as Adagio could be sometimes, you've never seen her not want to play outside with her sisters before. You shrug your shoulders and her sisters do as well. You almost want to say something to them before they leave since Adagio won't be there to look after them, but you figure Aria's old enough now, so you let them walk out the door together.
You and Rarity flip through her sketchbook looking at various designs, eventually going off the subject of the girls' dresses completely as you look through a lot of her other ideas. Outside of the conversation you can see Adagio passing by up and down the stairs several times, carrying a lot of her clothes for some reason. You ignore it for a while since you and Rarity are talking but once the conversation dies down, you peek up the stairs to see what she's actually up to.
Just as you do you can spot her, or, well, half of her behind a mountain of your clothes in a hamper. The massive pile is way is almost bigger than she is, and she's taking her first step down the stairs. The sight makes your breath catch in your throat as you can already see the massive weight in her arms tipping her forward. Just before she comes tumbling down the stairs in a massive heap she leans back to try to counterbalance herself, only to let out a quick yelp as the fabric monster she's holding overpowers her skinny frame, sending her sprawled out onto the carpet as the beast consumes her in a mountain of cotton and denim. You quickly run up to her, relieved you didn't have to catch her falling forward.
"Adagio, are you okay?" you ask in a worried tone as you look through the mountain of clothes to see some signs of your daughter. The only thing left of her are her feet sticking out of the pile.
Adagio digs herself out of her mess, socks and underwear draping over her and sticking to her poofy hair. "Yeah, I think I'm okay."
"What did you think you were doing? Trying to carry that much down the stairs could've gotten you hurt," you say, brushing a pair of underwear off of her head.
"I was just taking the the dirty clothes to the laundry room," she says as she digs a sock out of her poofy ponytail.
You give her a gentle smile. "I appreciate the help, honey, but how about next time you don't take everything all at once."
"Oh, it wasn't everything. I actually started a load already," Adagio says, proud of her minor accomplishment. Your smile almost immediately drops, though. You've never shown Adagio how to use the washing machine. You leave your daughter in her mess as you hurry down the stairs to look down the hall at the laundry room, only to have your worst fears realized. The open door leading into the room is currently overflowing with bubbles, like a monster out of some cheap horror movie creeping into the rest of the house.
"Is something wro... Oh my..." Rarity says as she follows you into the laundry room.
You catch a glimpse of Adagio's face as she pulls herself up. She looks confused at your sudden change of demeanor.
"Dad, what's wrong?" she says as she rounds the corner at the bottom of the stairs. Out of the corner of your eye you can see her face turn bright red.
With a long sigh of defeat you trudge through the mess of soapy suds to the washing machine. You open the lid to get it to stop as you take in the sea of white bubbles completely filling the room. Adagio had followed you over, her mouth hanging open trying to find something to say as she surveyed the damage.
You honestly don't even know what to do. "...How?" you ask Adagio.
"I-I don't know, I... I just wanted to help," she stammers, looking like she's about to cry. You almost want to laugh at her. Adagio has always been the good girl of the bunch and you can hardly remember the last time she actually got in trouble; now even when she's thirteen she looks like a scared toddler at her screw up. Rarity stands behind her awkwardly, not really sure what to do as she looks between you and Adagio.
"It's okay, honey... but just... how?"
Adagio's breath catches in her throat for a moment before she can talk again. She glances back at Rarity for a moment, like she didn't want to tell you with her there. After a heavy moment of silence she finally speaks up though. "I... I couldn't find what you usually use for it so I just used the dish soap."
You almost want to laugh at her, but now you both have a mess to clean up. "I'm sure it's kind of obvious now, honey, but you shouldn't put anything other than laundry detergent in the washer."
"I'm so sorry," she says as she looks up to you with those adorable sad eyes that were welling up with tears.
You wade through the bubbles and wrap your arms around her before she breaks down completely. "I told you, sweetheart, it's okay."
Rarity steps back for a moment, not wanting to get any bubbles on her shoes. "It really isn't that big of a deal, dear. Sweetie Belle used to do things like this all the time with her friends. We can clean it up before anyone even knows what happened," she says, trying to be as sweet as possible. Adagio just buries her face in your shirt and grabs you even tighter. Before any of you can actually get started with it though, Aria and Sonata barge through the door. "Yeah well I don't like you anymore either!" Aria shouts out to the street.
"Bubbles!" Sonata yells the second she turns her head inside. You can feel Adagio reflexively jerk at the sound of her sister's voice. This isn't going to turn out well.
"Sonata, wait, no!" you say, trying to catch her before she disappears into the flood of bubbles in the laundry room.Rarity takes a panicked step back as Sonata comes barreling into the room, sending a quick puff of bubbles behind her.
Adagio's face turns even redder as Aria walks into the doorway. "Woah," Aria says, walking up on the scene. "What happened? Who released the bubble monster?"
Adagio stood silent, her entire face pretty much beet red at this point. "There was just an accident with the washing machine, alright, girls, nothing to see--" you say, trying to fish Sonata out of the bubbles. Unfortunately the bubbles filling the room are piled up even higher than she is tall, so you try to follow the trail of moving bubbles around the room to no avail as she runs around to her heart's content, giddy laughs emanating out of the abyss of bubbles around you.
"What's wrong with Adagio?" Aria asks, noticing her sister's silence and inability to face the mess she's made, or anyone else in the room, alongside the glaringly obvious blush of embarrassment on her face. "Oh... did you do this, Dagi?" a wide smile grows on Aria's face while you fish around for Sonata. "Miss perfect finally made a mistake? Hahahaha!" Aria says, doubling over and probably quite pleased it isn't her head on the chopping block.
"Aria, that's enough!" you say pointedly, making Aria shoot up straight in fear. Your heart sinks once you see the tear running down Adagio's cheek. She doesn't stick around long before a sob overcomes her and she runs out of the room.
"Darling, wait," Rarity says, trying to catch her. Adagio violently jerks away from Rarity's grasp and running up the stairs.
"Really, Aria?" you say with a low grumble.
"What? Why am I in trouble? Adagio is the one who flooded the laundry room with bubble bath!" she shouts back at you.
"You're in trouble for making your sister cry. This was an accident, Aria. There was no need to make fun of her for it."
"Not my fault she's a crybaby," Aria says under her breath, crossing her arms and looking away from you.
"Now, Aria, that's no way to talk about your sister. How would you feel if she was making fun of you for a mistake you made?" Rarity says to her, doing her best motherly voice. You almost want to laugh as she looks between Aria and the suds encroaching her feet, not wanting to move any closer.
You let out a long sigh before grabbing your little bubble monster's collar as she tries to escape out of the laundry room. "And you, young lady, are going to need a bath."
Sonata looks back up at you, with what you can only guess might be her puppy dog eyes. You can't tell since she's become nothing but a giant mass of bubbles in the shape of your daughter. "Awh, but Daddy! It's not even bedtime yet."
"I just need you to get all these bubbles off of you, alright, sweetie? Then you can keep playing."
You let her out of your grasp and she slouches down for a moment. "Okay..." she says before running off and leaving a trail of bubbles along the floors and up the stairs. With a long sigh you wipe the bubbles off the floor after her, making sure no one was slipping on anything.
"Now, how about we start cleaning up this mess?" Rarity says to Aria.
"What?! But this wasn't even my fault! I shouldn't have to clean this up, Adagio should!" Aria protests.
Rarity looks around the room for a moment, finally deciding her clothes were worth the sacrifice. "So you're saying you don't want to make bubble sculptures?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"Go get a bowl and I'll show you, dear."
Rarity gives you a quick wink as Aria actually goes into the kitchen with a curious smile on her face. "How did you...?" you ask.
"Don't fret too much about it. I think maybe you should check on Adagio instead. I believe I have it covered down here."
"Good idea," you say, glad to not have to be the only one to deal with this mess anymore.
You head upstairs and into Adagio's room, finding completely dark except for the light poking through her window. When you flip the light on you find Adagio on her bed all wrapped up in her covers, silently whimpering away. "Please, just go away," you hear from under her blankets.
You close the door behind you and sit down on the bed beside her. "Adagio, what's going on today?"
"Nothing. I just want to be alone."
You pull the covers off of her head to see her wiping the tears out of her eyes and still not wanting to look up at you.
"Honey, just talk to me. What's going on with you? First you cook breakfast, try to clean the bathroom, and now you're doing the laundry? To top it off you were rude to Rarity earlier when she's been nothing but nice to you your whole life. This isn't you, Dagi."
"I can do it okay! I just need to learn how and you don't have to..." she says, sitting up in her bed and glancing at you for a moment.
"Don't have to what? You know I've been doing those things for years, you don't have to pick up all this slack all at once."
"Don't have to find someone else... If we can handle all the chores you don't need another woman around the house."
Now her being so averse to Rarity finally makes sense. "Adagio... There's a lot more to being a mom than just doing chores."
"Well tell me what to do and I can do it!" she says, finally looking up to you, desperation in her pleading eyes.
You put a hand on her shoulder and give her a soft smile. "That's not a role you need to fill, sweetheart. I want you to enjoy your childhood while it lasts."
Adagio looks down towards her blankets again. "Are you and Rarity going to get married?"
You give her a quick laugh. "Adagio, Rarity and I are just friends right now. You know nobody could ever replace your mother, and you know if I ever did get remarried I would never make you try to replace her with someone else."
"I know... I just... nobody else should be our mom. We already have one, even if she's..."
You move over and wrap Adagio in a tight embrace. "Nobody's ever going to replace her. Not for you, and not for me. No matter what."
The two of you sit there quietly for a moment, just enjoying the hug before you pull her away and look down at her sternly. "Just don't start messing with Rarity like you did with Cheerilee, alright?"
Adagio lets out a little laugh. "I guess that's fair..."
"Now, how about we go downstairs and have a good saturday where we're not stressing about chores?"
Adagio gives you a quick nod and wipes her eyes one last time.
"And you need to apologize to Rarity for being rude to her earlier, alright?"
"I will," Adagio says as she climbs out of bed.
As the two of you make it back down the stairs, you find Rarity with her hair up and her hands covered in suds, surprisingly. The two of them are slowly washing the mess down the sink, but not before making weird, floaty statues on the kitchen table. "Adagio, look! I made a velociraptor!" Aria says with an excited smile before her oddly shaped blob falls apart in front of her.
She lets out a little chuckle at her sister. "It looks great, Aria."
Aria shoots back a quick frown. "I know you're lying."
"Aria, dear. Let's go get some more bubbles and trying again."
"Yeah!" she says, running off to get another bowl full.
Adagio walks up in front of Rarity with a solemn look. "I'm really sorry for what I said earlier. I didn't mean to be rude."
"Oh? It's quite alright, darling," she says with a sweet smile. "Would you like to help us?"
"Well, it is my mess, so I guess I'd better."
Rarity hands her a bowl. "I bet you could make something quite interesting with so much to work with."
Just as you thought the excitement was dying down, Sonata comes out of the bathroom in a new set of clothes, just in time to see Aria carrying a bowl full of bubbles into the kitchen.
"Are we playing with bubbles?!" she asks as she sprints down the stairs to you, looking up to you with an eager expression.
"Yes, Sonata. Just don't--" Before you could even finish the word yes she'd already sprinted towards the laundry room and shoveled up an armful of bubbles, getting it all over her clothes yet again. "make a mess..." you say as you watch her drip suds all over the floor before just plopping her bubble load onto the kitchen table. All of you share a quick laugh over the brand new mess before finally getting into actually making something together.
Sonata gets busy treating the suds like clay, eager to smash and throw them around much to your chastising her. Aria makes a lot of quick, sloppy figures with hers, and Adagio gets out a fork and a butter knife to try to sculpt the perfect dog, though the bubbles never actually stuck together long enough to let her. You and Rarity walk around them, being sure to wash away as much as you could while they were all tricked into bringing more bubbles into the kitchen.
An odd feeling washes over you as you play with all of your girls like this. An unconscious smile spreads over your face watching them and Rarity together acting like kids should be. It was something you haven't felt in a long time.