Adagio smiled coyly, one hip thrust in a sassy pose as Sunset became aware of her predicament. The red-haired girl slowly tested the ropes binding her to the chair, nonplussed stare never leaving her captor.
Adagio opened her mouth, but Sunset went first. “Yes, yes, it’s ironic that I can’t claim any moral supremacy from being kidnapped given what happened earlier with us and Twilight. Now I have a history test to study for, so we really need to get this over with.”
Deprived of her gloat, the siren moved forward. “Fine. I–”
“Actually, hang on. My nose itches really bad. Scratch it for me.”
Adagio grunted and folded her arms. “I’m not scratching your nose.”
Sunset twitched. “Have you ever had an itch that you’re completely unable to scratch? It’s hell. I’m rapidly losing the ability to give a calm response, so you really need to scratch my nose before I start screaming.”
Sunset kept twitching, scrunching her nose and eyes in such a way that would have been hilarious if Adagio was in the mood. With a dramatic sigh, the siren reached up and gently clawed at Sunset’s face.
“Better.” The antics ceased, and Sunset took a relaxed pose. “Thank you. Now please tell me what’s up, because my gamut of mental possibilities here ranges from new plot to destroy the world to something weird and anticlimactic.”
“I need money,” Adagio blurted without preamble.
Sunset blinked, then shrugged. “Going with the latter, I see. Are you planning to ransom me? Because that’s so terrible of an idea I’d be willing to leave, say nothing, and call it even.”
“No!” Adagio snapped. “Look, it’s Applejack. I found a blue-ray collection of fifty western movies online. I want to get her that, a player, and a flatscreen, because she doesn’t even have one of those.”
Sunset arched an eyebrow. “Not cheap. And her birthday and Christmas are a long way off. Is this an apology?”
Adagio opened her mouth.
Closed it.
And shook her head. “No.”
“You hesitated there.”
“No I didn’t.”
Sunset gave her a calm, if passive smile. “Adagio, I know we don’t get along, but if you want to talk I can at least promise you confidentiality and honest feedback.”
“The only thing I want honest feedback on is where I can score some weekend work.” Adagio slid a hand behind her hair and tossed the curls. “Word around school says you’re the part-time queen. I need you to hook me up with something to pull in the cash.”
“Okay, but one question.” Sunset shuffled in her restraints. “Actually, hold up. Another nose itch coming on.”
Adagio obligingly scratched the offended area, and Sunset continued. “Sure, fine. I can help there. Above minimum wage, even. But why did you feel the need to tie me up for this?”
“I genuinely enjoy your discomfort.”
Sunset grunted. “You need to work on that.”
“I know. I’m getting better.” Adagio moved around, and began untying Sunset’s bonds. “Can I start this weekend?”
“Part-time queen” though she might be, Sunset hardly had employers at her beck and call. It took two weeks and an exchanged favor to land Adagio at a place that didn’t treat its employees like disposable robots. Adagio followed a texted address to a restaurant with clean floors and a vaguely racist cartoon of an Asian chef posted outside. Three full hairnets in a non-Euclidean arrangement tamed her curls, and she passed two doors to find Sunset in a room with a massive portable freezer and sink.
“Hi, welcome. Grab an apron.” Sunset gave a distracted nod, up to her arms in suds as she washed. A cute, but undeniably cheap yukata dangled on her shoulders. “This is good, actually. We had call-offs today, and the restaurant pays extra when we’re short. I need to get up front and start preparing the lunch rolls. You...”
Hands dried, Sunset waved her over to a smaller room with a cutting board and fridge. “You’ve worked in food service, so wash your hands, blah, blah, blah. I don’t have time to train you on anything major, so grab stuff from the big freezer, chop off the heads and tails, and put the rest on trays in the little fridge here. Report to me when you’re done and we’ll figure out something else for you. I’ll teach you about sushi prep if I can, you’ll bus tables or wash dishes if things get busy. Here, I’ll show you how to set up the cutting board.”
Briskly, Sunset led her ward back to the king-sized freezer. She paused, slinking her eyes over to Adagio. “Normally on a day like this I’d call in Rainbow. I’m taking a chance with you, because it’s just us two here until dinnertime. I really need you to haul ass with me, okay?”
Adagio smirked defiantly. “Yes, mistress.”
The gaze lingered another second, then Sunset turned away. She reached into the freezer, removed two ice-filled bags, and brought them back to the smaller room. “Now watch.”
With the efficiency of practice, Sunset donned plastic gloves and pulled a large fish from one of the bags. Crisp, fast moves set it on the cutting board, sliced off each end, and moved the body onto a refrigerated tray. The severed limbs were balled into a fist and tossed into another, smaller cooler marked, ‘Cat Shelter.’
“Boom. Done.” Sunset removed a fish from the second bag and laid it out on the board. Leaving it for Adagio, she turned and quickly washed up. “Just do enough to fill the fridge. Bathroom’s in the far back.”
And with that, she was gone.
The lunch rush didn’t even half-fill the restaurant, but acting as waitress, cashier, and sushi-chef kept Sunset hopping. She kept eyes to the clock, mentally timing Adagio’s work. The girl could probably wait tables easily enough when she finished cutting, and that would let Sunset stay only marginally behind the game. One apology after another flowed from her lips at the growing delays. Seat customers, get drinks, take orders, prep orders…
The first hour passed, and her eye began twitching. Initial prep of the fish was a ten-minute job, though she sternly reminded herself to give Adagio the benefit of doubt. Perhaps she was doing it more carefully than she should, or was loading two fish per tray instead of one.
The second hour proved a deal more agonizing. Lunch orders had become well and truly backed up, customers were starting to drift away without ordering, and the boss had made an ill-timed and unnecessary call to remind her to make sure enough sushi ingredients were prepped and sliced for dinner. A time-consuming chore she was never going to get to at this rate. Even once the customers left she had to gut the fish, wash dishes, set out dinner menus… a frantic rush for only two workers, utterly impossible for one.
Finally, the last disgruntled lunchtime guest left after informing Sunset just how rude it was that he had to wait fifteen minutes to pay. Sunset took it all with a smile, even waving from the glass door as the slim businessman made his exit.
The moment his car started, the smile flipped in time with Sunset’s hand, moving the door sign to ‘closed.’
“Maybe she’s just slow,” Sunset muttered as she tore to the back rooms. “Maybe she’s incompetent. I’ll take incompetent.”
No Adagio in the first room. Sunset flipped open the large freezer to find stacks of bagged fish still inside, undiminished from the time she left. Fast stomps and hissing breath carried her from there to the cutting room, where Adagio stood.
A little odd – Sunset expected to find her texting, or absent entirely. Instead, the siren stared at the same damn fish Sunset had set out for her. The knife sat unused next to the wooden board, and Adagio’s arms hung limp at her side.
Not odd enough for Sunset. “I can’t believe this.”
Magenta eyes turned blankly to the newcomer as Sunset went off, throwing her arms to the air. “No, never mind, I can believe you would screw me like this. And it’ll all fall on me because ‘Hey boss, can my friend work here? No worries, she’ll be fine!’”
Adagio’s eyes refocused. She pulled off the hairnets and shook out her curls right over the damn fish. “Not my problem.”
“The hell is your deal?” Sunset clenched her fists, voice shifting from half-panic to a low growl. “You wanted this.”
“Changed my mind.” Adagio adopted her utterly infuriating smirk. “I’ll get the money some other way. Thanks, though. I’m out of here.”
“Really?”
Adagio made to step past, and when Sunset didn’t budge she turned sideways and sidled past her.
“Frickin’ really?”
Adagio made it out the door. Sunset wasn’t done. She resisted the urge to just belt the poof-haired traitor, but a yellow hand snapped forward to spin her around for at least a tongue-lashing.
Water.
A memory, at the very top of the siren’s mind. Strong enough to immerse Sunset as she touched the shoulder.
A coral palace at the bottom of the sea, with strange, serpentine life all around. Before the castle swam a creature Sunset only knew from Equestria’s legends – the bloated, wide-mouthed abomination that was Mother Hydra, cruel queen of all that crawled and snapped on the ocean floor. A tiny yellow form writhed before it, screaming in terror.
Wait… no. It was squealing, and as it spun Sunset beheld Adagio Dazzle at age four: a mermaid-like toddler with more curly hair than body mass, grinning and screeching with joy. She twirled in circles, hugging a fish that bore strong resemblance to the one on the cutting board.
“I love him!” Toddler Adagio (who Sunset reluctantly admitted was stinkin’ adorable) screeched. “I’ll name him Mister Blub-Blub, and we’ll be best friends! Thank you, Princess Hydra!”
“You’re welcome,” the demonic Hydra said in a calm voice that uncomfortably resembled Celestia’s. “But he is not just a gift. You are responsible for Mister Blub-Blub, and must see that he is fed and happy. He will teach you a lesson. Do you know what it is?”
Adagio bobbed her head, glowing with childish pride. “I do! He’ll help me love and respect all creatures of the ocean, because fish are friends, not food.”
“Indeed.” Hydra gave what Sunset presumed was a motherly smile of foot-long teeth. “You must only hunt land creatures, and never our friends of the sea. Now come. I believe I saw a birthday cake with a precious little siren’s name on it, although it is too big for you alone. Let’s go find your sisters.”
With a gleeful cheer, Adagio sped into the castle, with Mister Blub-Blub trailing in her wake.
Adagio kept walking, slipping from Sunset’s limp grasp. No pause or glance back, though a tilt of the head showed her painted smirk was gone.
Sunset’s eyes slipped to the cutting board. Not the old pet, of course, but the resemblance was there.
“Adagio.”
She kept walking.
“Hey, wait up.”
Maybe it was the subdued tone, completely different from the fury of ten seconds past. Maybe Adagio just didn’t want Sunset tattling to Applejack. Either way, the siren turned, her smirk back in place.
Still tense with lingering anger, Sunset allowed a growling sigh before she continued. “I have got to be nuts, but… there’s a movie theater on Oak Street where it’s pretty much inevitable janitors take the weekends off. The work sucks and it’s minimum wage, but I’m sure they’ll call me tomorrow.”
Adagio gave a tiny flinch of surprise, almost hidden by the twisting smirk. “Well, aren’t you nice?”
Sympathy warred with anger inside Sunset, producing a grumbled, “Take it or leave it.”
“I’ll take it,” Adagio said, a bit too quickly for the indifferent facade. “Also, I’m not an idiot. You saw my memories.”
Sunset held up one hand as though taking an oath. “Accident. Sorry this didn’t work out, but if you could read my mind you’ll know how close I was to killing you.”
“Best make myself scarce, then.” Adagio turned and resumed her egress, waving one hand.
Sunset let the snarl creep back to her face. All this, and not even a Celestia-damned ‘thank you’ for–
“Thanks.”
Spoken low and quickly, from behind the mound of orange curls. Enough, at least, to mollify Sunset. She turned grimly back to the cutting room and got to work. Two frenzied hours would accomplish much, leaving her only horribly unprepared for the dinner hour. She briskly washed hands and raised the knife above…
...A perfectly ordinary fish. Not Mister Blub-Blub. Not staring mournfully at her in the way she never realized a fish could do.
Guilt and practicality forged a truce, and Sunset upended the fish into the head-and-tail cooler. The shelter cats would love it. Nodding, Sunset retrieved more fish from the freezer and got back to work, humming cheerfully as she lopped off heads and tails.