She still missed them.
It didn't take another minute to determine that; their good times together, even a few from this world, still stuck in her mind. If it were possible, she knew she'd have loved to have them with her again, the three of them making use of their talents to make a name for themselves, build a lasting impression in the hearts and minds of a few million fans, and enjoy all the perks that entailed for as long as they lived, precisely as she'd envisioned when extending her invitation the first time.
She had to roll over onto her back to be able to see her phone, scrolling through messages Aria had sent her since she left Canterlot.
I suppose not just blocking their numbers was proof enough that I don't want to shut them out forever. I could make excuses that they'd just call me from different phones or start sending letters or something, but all it would take was pressing a few buttons.
Looking through her Sent messages, she found that she had called or texted Aria and/or Sonata over a dozen times over the course of the tour, and the few times she got a response, it was in the form of anger and bile. They were upset with her, acted as though she was the one doing something wrong, even as they plotted against her, while living in the house that she owned.
The thought of it made her consider seeing if she could have them evicted, maybe whip up a scheme of her own to get them locked away for life, but despite the two having hurt her more than anything the Rainbooms ever could have done, this feeling lingered. Thumbing over Aria's contact information and pressing Call, she conceded that the Rainbooms must have been right about something.
Beeeeep...
Beeeeep...
Be-
"...Adagio?"
"..."
"Hello?"
A quiet panic built as Adagio struggled for a reply, for once not having thought of what she wanted to say before calling. She heard Aria sigh on the other end.
"I swear, if the last thing we ever hear from you is a bum-dial, I-"
"I gave you both a chance to come with me and have it easy," she hissed in a far colder tone than intended, "and you refused. Why?"
"...Uh... Like, back before your trip started?"
"You two complained that I was 'eating turkeys every night' while you were 'scraping by,' even though I invited you along more than once." Ignoring that she left them with plenty of money if they didn't spend frivolously. Which they did. Idiots. "If that bothered you so much, if you wanted to join in, why didn't you?"
She knew Aria might just lie to her again anyway, but at the moment, she didn't have much to force the truth out of her. Maybe she could call Sonata in a few weeks, ask the same question, and see if her story matched Aria's, because it wasn't likely that she'd remember a lie she'd been told to share by then.
Aria, despite instinct screaming at her to sell Adagio a story and wheedle her way back into her good graces, without Sonata this time, answered honestly. If the past few weeks of complete radio silence meant anything, this might be the last time she ever spoke to Adagio, and she didn't want to carry that memory the same way she did their previous phone-call. "Well... y'know how you'd been in charge for a really long time and how that changed after the battle? Even when you took it back?" She took the silence on the other end to mean 'yes.' "...I didn't wanna go back to that."
More silence. It struck Aria that Adagio would probably be ten times more intimidating with a mask on, because not being able to see her face at a moment like this was tortuous. Only because it might be less painful than waiting for a response to that, she decided to elaborate. "Part of it was like, 'if we got away with the crap we pulled back then, what'll she do to us when she actually has power again?' Because I know if I got treated like a free ride everybody made fun of and had the chance to pay 'em back, I wouldn't hesitate to-" She was rapidly making this worse for herself, she realized. "-um, do that."
Adagio's tone hadn't gotten one iota warmer. "Is that why you two used me the way you did? You thought I wasn't giving you enough? Treating you like-"
"No, no, it wasn't- I know you let us in on everything you got, and- well, maybe Sonata doesn't, but I'll get to her, -and it's not like you were pulling the 'boss perks' thing to get more for yourself, but..." Feeling a lump building in her throat, Aria took a deep breath. She wanted to stop feeling like scum, and anything less than honesty at this point was scummy. "I wanted more. When they broke our gems, I knew I wouldn't be getting any of what we were after when we had 'em, knew we'd be living with a lot less power, and I dealt with it by taking it out on you. When Sonata joined in, I pushed harder, figuring that having no magic and being in charge had to be better than just having no magic. You probably remember how that turned out."
"You stayed so you could be 'in charge' without me around? To enact a bunch of doomed, ill-planned, get-rich-quick schemes? It wasn't that you just didn't trust me not to pull something once we'd set out?"
Aria scowled, but didn't let it carry into her voice. "Well I didn't think they were doomed. But, no, after finally getting a taste of what it was like to be the boss, I guess I was just too proud and scared to go back to how things were after all that'd happened. I mean, even when you got fed up with my ideas, it never felt like we had to do what you said, at least until things picked up at your job."
"...Then, you preferred to come to power through your own machinations this time, rather than take the easy road by joining me again?"
She winced, desperately wishing that had been her actual reason. "Nnnnno, not exactly...?"
Adagio sounded earnestly perplexed. "Then why?"
"I was dumb, okay? I thought for sure my first plan would work, that it wouldn't be all that hard and leave me with way more to gain than if we just stuck to you the whole time, and I pressured Sonata into staying with me so I wouldn't have to go it alone." She felt a chill when it sounded like Adagio was clenching her jaw.
"'Pressured'?"
"...Sh-she probably would have gone with you, always wants the biggest p-piece of the pie she can get and all that, but it was me that got her to stay home in the first place. I wouldn't be surprised if she just doesn't remember that part, which is probably why she blamed you so easily. And before you hang up-"
That part caught Adagio off-guard, because she was probably seconds away from doing just that.
"-I'm sorry. For everything." She remembered her talk with Sonata. "Er, everything but the day we met, I mean, at least the festival and saving-you stuff, I'm not sorry for that! But, the rest, especially since the battle? I really am sorry, and I think Sonata is too."
Again waiting in silence, Aria at least managed not to make any noise as she tried to rub the tears off her face.
...So, Adagio recounted, I was right; they had absolutely no good intentions for me, it was pure selfishness and stupidity from both of them.
Well, no, there's one other thing in there.
Oh, questioned the part of her that wanted to do things no one would ever adore her for, and what was that?
Regret.
And for a moment, she felt nothing. The lingering doubts, the boiling rage, the crushing heartache, the dancing nostalgia, all merged together to give way to a quiet emptiness in her being. If they never cared about her, if it was all about what they stood to gain from-
Maybe she only regrets that she didn't get a better deal than this.
But her remorse had sounded real, and she knew Aria; she wasn't a good enough actor to feign that kind of feeling.
As I found out the first time I asked her to play the part of a wounded girl to lure a gaggle of griffons into a camp of yaks.
It was on the same day that she learned that Sonata was the one with a penchant for crocodile tears. Which was most likely what she was trying to do that night in Canterlot when she broke down and started blaming Aria for everything.
If she wanted to sway me, wouldn't Aria have just handed Sonata the phone, told her to say she wasn't home and had her play up her act?
Maybe Sonata wasn't near her at the time, but regardless, it felt to her as though there was some part of Aria, and likely Sonata as well, that missed their time together too.
"I'll-..." She didn't know. "I'll talk to you later."
Beep!
To Aria's great, secret pride, she did not cry.
At least not until later that night. Then she cried. She cried a lot.
---
Early the next morning, Felt Feather was alarmed not to find Adagio in her bed, and though she briefly struggled with indecision as to whether or not to make it (she ended up doing so), she soon set off in search of her employer.
The search ended with the very first room she checked.
"Morning, Felt!"
Sitting at her desk in the paperwork room, Felt came closer to find Adagio looking... not, cheerful, but perkier than she had been in recent weeks as she busily penned what appeared to be a letter.
"Good morning, Madam. You are up early."
"I had something I forgot to take care of," she said while pointing to a thin stack of papers with her free hand, "do you think you can drop a few things off at the post office for me today? I'll be meeting with the Frenchmen for that article until late this afternoon."
"Of course."
Briefly scanning the top-most paper, Felt found that it had something to do with... home ownership?
---
Responsibility was kind of a mixed bag, if you asked Aria.
Yea, sure, the benefits of getting stuff done and all that were great, but it only took one day of sorting magazines for some book shop to remember why she'd been content to sit back for days on end and let Adagio take care of all that pesky 'working for a living' business. That wasn't an option anymore, but even if it was, she liked to think she'd matured enough to keep showing up to work every day, staying there the whole time, and actually doing what she was getting paid to. She and Sonata both had to keep at it, because the money from that video was already drying up and they were reminded a few days ago that any employment they found wouldn't necessarily be permanent. Granted, Sonata getting fired from that sweets shop for helping herself by the handful during her shift was her own fault.
Idiot could have at least waited until no one was watching, then lined her pockets.
But still, Aria was earning her own good money for the first time in at least half a year, not counting that lemonade stand they only bothered with for half a day, and that felt pretty good! Working together to pay their bills (in the sense that they were pooling money, at least) had her and Sonata even closer than when they were plotting to overthrow Adagio together, too, so that was kind of nice!
That in mind, she felt she'd earned some time to kick back in the big, cushy chair in their living room, get comfortable, rela-
The front door flew open with a bang, making her jump before Sonata charged in with the mail in hand and a panicked look on her face as she held up a paper she'd already ripped out of its envelope.
"It's from Adagio!!"
Begrudgingly kissing her comfortable slouching position goodbye, Aria sat up, taking the paper and skimming through it herself. It'd been a few days since that talk on the phone (Sonata briefly expressed dismay that Aria hadn't gotten Adagio to send more money or anything, but she let it go pretty easily), so she'd wondered how/when they'd hear from her again.
Dear residents,
Kinda cold, Adagio.
In light of changes to my career and lifestyle, I have long ceased to inhabit a building in my ownership. As such, I have opted to sell the property-
Crap!!
-to the first applicant meeting the required sum-
Double crap!!
-for the house. However, in my last visit to my abode, it came to my attention that considerable damages had been inflicted on the building itself, lowering property value considerably. Rather than pursuing legal action,-
A chill ran up Aria's spine just thinking about it.
-I have opted to simply reduce the original price for the building to... Oh, I don't know, $32?
That should be fair for the condition you idiots left it in.
~Owner,
Adagio Dazzle
Slowly, cautiously connecting the dots, as though afraid that some insidious trap would spring out at her, Aria began to smile.
"That. Freakin'. Bitch."
Truth be told, the house was still kind of a mess, but they'd cleaned up most of the clutter, taped over some cracks, nailed a bit of plywood over some holes, and made the place feel just a little bit more livable again. There were no broken windows or bug infestations or anything, it was just a kind of looked like there'd been some sort of epic fight scene in the house. One that didn't smash any windows. Still, she recognized what was happening here, turning to Sonata with a little grin.
"You know what this means?"
"We're gonna be homeless," wailed Sonata, "somebody's gonna buy the place in no time because that's super cheap even for a total garbage shack and the new owners are probably gonna make us their slaves and dress us like gnomes to stand out on the lawn to scare off door-to-door salesmen and-"
She was silenced with a hand over her mouth, Aria still smiling all soft and peaceful (which was freaky for her, if one asked Sonata).
"No, you dope, it means she's being merciful. We're the first applicants, she's giving us a chance to buy the house from her cheap so we'll have somewhere to live that's totally ours."
There was a quiet moment as Sonata's brain spun around chasing its tail. "...Oh." She held up a few folded legal documents from the same envelope. "I guess that explains these other papers."
Still smiling, Aria shook her head. "You got a pen?"
Despite the cleaning they'd already done, it took twenty minutes to track down a writing implement.
%%%
One week later...
%%%
With a hint of trepidation, Aria picked up the phone. "Adagio?"
"I got your mail."
She smiled a little. "And?"
"Everything looks to be in order. Congratulations, you're now the proud owner of the house you've been living in for the past few years."
Given the lack of enthusiasm in Adagio's tone, she feared that something was missing. "And...?"
A long, worrying moment of quiet passed, but Adagio replied with an audible smile.
"...How did you find them again?"
Aria allowed herself one triumphant fist-pump before answering. "Easy; lucky for me, nobody'd bought them yet." Her smile receded. "Jerk at the pawn shop charged me one and a half times what he paid for them, though, said they had been 'taking up valuable shelf space' when I pointed out that they had just been sitting there since I sold them to him." It came back when she heard Adagio giggle.
"Diplomacy never was your strong suit. And, thank you."
As much as she wanted to reap the Good Girl points presented, Aria again defied instinct as she sighed and shook her head. "Don't thank me for that, if it wasn't for me, you'd have been able to pick 'em up when you came home." Adagio didn't respond, which she took to mean agreement. "...So, I've been doing some thinking, and the amount you charged us for the house- which, I mean, thanks, seriously, there's no way in Hell we'd have found a better deal elsewhere, but anyway -was thirty-two bucks. The exact same amount I told you we made selling lemonade. Knowing you, I don't think that was a coincidence, so like... what does it mean?"
Adagio sounded a little disappointed. "I thought you said you'd been thinking."
Aria made a face. "Yea, but that doesn't mean I got it, and I wanna be sure about this!"
The reply was much gentler this time, a faint ring of amusement carrying over the line. "I see. Humor me with your best guess?"
This part was easy too, because she had only made one guess. "Well... Even though you had given us some money yourself and knowing that we'd already torn the place apart looking for your stashes, you only asked for the amount I mentioned that didn't involve any of that. Was it because it's the money we earned, not what we got from you or anyone else?"
There was a hint of pride in her voice now. "Precisely."
Unfortunately, Aria had hit the end of her rope with that. "...So, I'm just gonna ask; what would it take for you to forgive us?"
Silence.
"Adagio?"
"Oh, sorry, I, er... I'll admit, I was hoping you'd work that out too, but what is speech for, hm?" She cleared her throat. "What I would like to see from the two of you is only what I myself demonstrated: dedication under duress." Her voice hardened little by little as she went on. "I spent months working at the first Eezy-Cheezy while you two-... Well, you remember. I want to hear sterling reviews from your employers and from whatever customers your workplaces have, for the two of you to put wherever you're working on the map, to work like you alone are working to support three people. I know I didn't have it exactly that way, but given that I won't be around to beleaguer you two on a daily basis, I think raising the bar a little is fair, because unlike me, you'll at least have respite at home."
Seeing that the wounds were still tender, Aria winced a little as a knot of guilt tightened in her gut. Of course, she knew that if Adagio weren't still mad at them, she'd be inviting them back already. "Okay."
"...Good luck."
Surprised, Aria snorted in amusement. "Yea, thanks. I guess I'll talk to you lat-"
"Wait! There's one last thing!"
Though internally afraid and annoyed at the prospect of one more hurdle on top of the rest, Aria wasn't in any position to argue. "Uh... yea?"
"If you want your singing voices back, just find someone to sing for and do it to enjoy the performance. That was how I regained mine; I remembered what it was like before the gems, how I loved to play for an audience, and I suspect something similar may work for you. Maybe it's singing for its own sake, maybe it's just having that kind of attention while you do, but find whatever first made singing important to you and aim for that."
This time it was Adagio who waited in silence.
"Aria? Did you get all that?"
Stunned, Aria could barely slap herself awake enough to force a response. "...Why are you telling me this?" That not having come out at all the way she meant it, she bit her lip when Adagio sighed.
"Now that, I insist that you figure out on your own."
That startled a laugh out of her. "S-seriously?" She could almost hear Adagio taking up a haughty pose.
"I'm a Hollywood diva now; whimsical requests are one of the perks."
Still coming to grips with the prospect of getting her singing voice back, and of breaking the news to Sonata, she chuckled. "Sounds like a sweet gig."
"...Maybe you'll find out some day. Keep in touch?"
"Yea," she answered with a genuine grin, "talk to you later. And, call Sonata some time too, okay? I think she'd like to at least hear from you herself."
"I'll keep that in mind. Take care, Aria."
Beep!
Taking a steadying breath as she hung up, Adagio idly wondered which of the two would be able to tell her why she'd share the information about their voices first. The reason, of course, was that she didn't want the possibility of regaining their voices to be even part of why they would go through the trouble of proving they understood what she'd been through with the two of them, didn't want to one day welcome them to her home only to find that they still didn't care about her. She still didn't believe they'd earned it, but this meant more to her.
Even now, it was still possible that they'd only strive to prove themselves to her for a shot at fame and fortune, but if the day came that she'd welcome them back, that they'd sing together again, she wanted to have as little doubt as possible. She was paranoid and untrusting by default, she would always look for ulterior motives in others' actions and what they stood to gain, she'd accepted that about herself by now, but if she couldn't slay that beast, she could do her best to leave it weak and starving.
As long as she did that, maybe there'd be room for something else?
%%%
Meanwhile, in a theater room of Canterlot Cinema, the first local showing of the Daring Do movie was finally ready to be played on the big screen. Seven girls in particular were excited for the parts they'd gotten to play in that very film, bit-parts though they were, with one being secretly pleased for what might not have been the best reason. So what if Sunset said that having specifically asked to be included in the movie wasn't great form and her 'unprofessional, fangirlish, and downright irritating' behavior on the set meant their chances of being invited to star in any other movies were slim to none? They all had a pretty good time of it anyway, and now they'd get to enjoy the results!
For like thirty seconds out of the whole movie, but still.
As a fun little bonus, they'd be getting something even a certain mascot character wouldn't; their faces shown in movie theaters across the nation!
Then shock, horror, and denial set in. While the seats around them were still being filled in and the rest waited for the movie to start, a commercial for the Eezy-Cheezy chain played, Poofy's face and voice serenading the room with a catchy little jingle about some cheesy, pocket-friendly product being offered in the lobby. One voice was heard throughout the building.
"Oh, come the fuck on!!"