//------------------------------// // Adagio and...Misako and Kyoko? // Story: No Longer Living In A Van Down By The River // by Peni Parker //------------------------------// “Hraaaaaaaaarrhh.” Adagio Dazzle yawned as she trudged down the sidewalk on her way to CHS. “How to normal people do this every week?” This was Adagio’s fourth day of her five day stretch serving as Canterlot High’s motivational speaker, and she was feeling it. Normally she didn’t work more than two days in a row on a given week, but as part of her punishment for the whole Raven incident she had to work five days straight, something she’d never done before. At first she thought working five days straight would be easy but, as she was currently finding out, having to get up early and go to work every day was exhausting. “I swear, there better be some coffee left in the faculty lounge by the time I get there.” She moaned to herself as the school came into view. “Yo, Adagio!” She heard a voice call out to her from near the Wondercolts statue as she approached the front walk. Adagio looked over by the statue to see Spitfire giving her a ‘Good Morning’ wave. Happy to see a friendly face, she waved back and headed over towards her friend. “Hey, Spitfire.” She tiredly greeted back just before feeling another yawn coming on and lifting her hand to her mouth to cover it. “Hraaaaaaaaarrhh.” “Whoa. No offense, but you look half-dead.” Spitfire casually commented. “You stay up all night watching Kaiju movies again.” “I wish.” Adagio replied with a bit more energy as she lowered her hand. “No, I’m just tired from having to get up every morning and come here. Seriously, how do you all do it?” “Just used to it, I guess.” Spitfire answered with a shrug as she and Adagio made their way towards the front entrance. “I’ve actually been meaning to ask you about why Aria and Sonata haven’t been around at all this week. They okay?” “Yeah, they’re fine.” Adagio confirmed, feeling a twinge of joviality that her friend was showing concern for her sisters. “I just promised them I’d handle all the motivational speaking this week.” “Well that was certainly kind of you.” Spitfire praised as she opened the door for her. As Adagio entered the school, her tired expression quickly changed into a despondent one. “It…wasn’t a gesture of kindness.” She dejectedly admitted once Spitfire was inside as well. “I don’t want to go into many details, but, I did something bad to my sisters, something really bad, and they said they’d forgive me on three conditions.” As curious as Spitfire was about what Adagio had done to make her sisters give her conditions in order to earn forgiveness, she didn’t want to pry. This was obviously a story she wasn’t ready to share with anyone yet. “I see.” She simply replied. “And coming here everyday this week was one of those conditions?” “Uh-huh.” Adagio morosely said as memories of the incident involving Raven came flooding into her mind. “The others were that I had to stop lying to and manipulating people and…um…actually, I’d rather not say what the last condition was.” “I understand.” Spitfire sympathetically told her friend just as they arrived at her locker. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.” “Actually, I wouldn’t mind getting a few things off my chest.” Adagio confessed as she leaned against the locker adjacent to Spitfire’s, feeling a tad guilty that she was essentially asking her friend to act as her therapist. “If you don’t mind listening to me ramble on about my problems, that is.” “Hey, that’s what friends are for, right?” Spitfire rhetorically asked, as though the request were no big deal. “I’m all ears.” Adagio couldn’t help but feel a smile form on her face as she wondered what she’d done to deserve such a great friend. “The thing is, I don’t know if I can keep my promise about not lying to and manipulating people.” She solemnly began. “I want to keep it, believe me, after everything that happened last weekend I really want to keep that promise, but I don’t know if I can.” “How come?” Spitfire inquired. “Because I’ve been lying and manipulating my whole life.” Adagio somberly answered. “Ever since I was a little siren back in Equestria, and because of that it feels like I’ll always be a liar and a manipulator, no matter how hard I may try to change.” Spitfire listened intently as Adagio confided in her, feeling a sense of sympathy for her friend. As she listened, she was reminded of when she first met Adagio, back when she was worried about no longer being a soccer player once she left CHS. She knew Adagio’s current woes weren’t quite the same as hers had been, but she could tell Adagio was feeling the same sense of existential dread that she’d felt. “That’s some heavy stuff.” She affirmed as she removed some books from her locker. “Yeah.” Adagio staidly agreed. “It’s times like this that I miss the simpler days of just swimming around the oceans of Equestria.” “Adagio!” A voice suddenly called out to her from just down the hall. Both Adagio and Spitfire turned their attention to the direction the voice came from to see Principal Celestia quickly approaching them, looking surprisingly frazzled. “I’m so glad I found you.” The principal relieving said as she caught her breathe. “I’m sorry to interrupt you’re conversation but I need to your help on an urgent matter, right now.” Adagio’s mind started reeling. She wondered what could possibly have someone like Celestia so worse-for-wear and, more importantly, why she needed her help with it. “Um, alright.” She simply stated, unsure of what else to say. “Oh thank you.” Celestia gratefully said as she turned around and began walking away. “Please follow me to my office.” “Um, I guess I’ll see you later, Spitfire.” Adagio told her friend as she began following Celestia. “Yep. Later, Adagio.” Spitfire called out to her. So much for my coffee. Adagio begrudgingly thought to herself as she proceeded towards Celestia’s office. “My apologizes again for interrupting your conversation with Spitfire.” Celestia said once she and Adagio were inside her office. “But you’re the only person I can count on for this task and I don’t have much time to explain things.” “O-kay.” Adagio replied, doing her best Bull Shannon impression, as her curiosity about what was happening continued to grow. “Basically, we have two new transfer students starting today and I need you to show them around.” Celestia explained as she took a seat behind her desk. “That’s it?” Adagio deadpanned as she took a seat in front of the desk. “That’s the task you can only count on me for? What about Sunset?” Did she just up and quite being the school tour guide after dealing with us? She silently asked. “As much as I trust Sunset, I’m afraid I can’t rely on her for this.” Celestia very sternly stated as she pulled a file out of her top right desk drawer. “Not with these students.” Adagio’s curiosity was once again peaked as Celestia handed her the file. She opened it to see a dossier on either side of the file, complete with pictures. The picture on the left showed a girl with short black hair with a red X-shaped ribbon on one of her bangs, fusion pink eyes, and a very hot-blooded expression, apparently named Misako. The picture on the right showed a girl with salmon colored hair done up in a ponytail with a red bow, blue eyes, and a much bubblier expression, apparently named Kyoko. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think these two were Aria and Sonata’s twins. She thought to herself, noticing more than a few similarities between Misako and Kyoko and her sisters as she read through the file. As she continued perusing through all the information on Misako and Kyoko, Adagio didn’t seem to find anything out of the ordinary. They both appeared to just be normal high school girls, which meant that Celestia knew something that wasn’t in the file. “They seem pretty normal to me.” She commented as she handed the file back, trying to lead Celestia into revealing what she knew. “It may seem that way from the file, yes.” Celestia admitted as she returned the file to the drawer that it’d come from. “But what isn’t in the file, and what’s perhaps the most troubling piece of information, are the circumstances surrounding their transfer here.” “Go on.” Adagio curiously remarked. “You see, they…” Celestia began to say just before a knock was heard on her door. “Sister, the new students are here.” Vice Principal Luna said as she poked her head inside. Celestia gave Adagio a glance before replying to Luna, one that seemed to suggest she was apologizing for something. “Alright, please send them in, Luna.” She answered as she stood up from her seat and walked around to the front of the desk. Adagio followed suit and stood up just as the two girls from the file entered the room. Misako was dressed in a white button shirt with a red necktie, black shorts, green over the knee socks with two white stripes on the top, and pink sneakers. To top it all off, she also wore a pink heart-shaped backpack. Kyoko also wore a white button shirt with a red necktie, but she had a mini skirt as well as a blue and white letterman jacket, white knee high socks with two black stripes at the top, and blue sneakers. She didn’t have a backpack but, strangely enough, she had a single sword-shaped earring on her right ear. “You must be Misako and Kyoko. Welcome to Canterlot High School.” Celestia warmly greeted them. “I’m Principal Celestia and this is Adagio Dazzle, one of our motivational speakers.” Both Misako and Kyoko looked over at Adagio with puzzled expressions as soon as Celestia introduced her. “Motivational speakers?” Kyoko confusingly stated. “I didn’t know schools had those.” “This place is probably too cash-strapped to afford counselors, so they use motivational speakers instead.” Misako nonchalantly remarked in response. Adagio couldn’t help but briefly contemplate Misako’s statement. She’d often wondered herself why CHS was the only school that seemed to employee motivational speakers, and as she thought back to all the faculty and staff meetings she’d attended since being hired she never remembered meeting anyone with the title of ‘Counselor’. “Oh, that makes sense.” Kyoko animadverted. “Yes, well, we’ve very happy to have you both here at CHS.” Celestia chimed in, trying to keep things on track. “I have to head off to a meeting now, but Adagio will give you both a tour of the school and answer any questions you may have.” “Okay.” Misako replied, sounding completely indifferent. “What she said.” Kyoko concurred, but more cheerfully, as she nudged her head in the direction of Misako. “Well then I’ll leave you girls to it.” Celestia replied as she headed out the door, at a faster pace than usual. “And again, welcome to CHS.” As Adagio watched Celestia leave in what could only be described as ‘in a hurry’, she started to get the feeling she had just been thrown to the wolves…wolves named Misako and Kyoko. She gave silent, internal sigh as she prepared herself for whatever was to come. “Welp, we might as well get the tour started.” She plainly stated as she headed for the door. “Follow me.” “Um, Miss Adagio.” Kyoko spoke up before Adagio even reached the threshold. “I have a question.” “Just Adagio is fine.” The Dazzling replied as she stopped and addressed Kyoko. “What is it?” “I was just wondering how come you’re a motivational speaker.” Kyoko inquired. “You look more like a student than a faculty member.” “Yeah, I was kinda wondering that too.” Misako spoke up. “It’s a long story.” Adagio admitted with an enervated sigh. “I’ll tell you while we’re on the tour.” “…and so now my sisters and I take turns serving as motivational speakers at this school.” Adagio concluded as she, Misako, and Kyoko ascended one of the stairwells to the second floor. For the last ten minutes, Adagio had been regaling Misako and Kyoko with the story of how she ended up as a motivational speaker at CHS, everything from the time her and her sisters were banished to this world up until Sunset helped get them their jobs. By the end she’d expected the two new girls to be in awe and shock, what with revealing the existence of magic and all, but much to her surprise they seemed almost entirely unphased. “Damn, that’s a pretty intense backstory you've got there.” Misako commented. “Totes.” Kyoko agreed, though with the slightest hint of hesitation in her voice. “So…are you and those Rainboom girls still magic?” “My sister’s and I aren’t, but the Rainboom are.” Adagio disdainfully answered. “Eep!” Kyoko uttered as she suddenly dawned a thousand yard stare. “I really hope we don’t run into them!” Adagio started to get a little worried about Kyoko, who now looked like she was having a ‘Nam flashback. “Um, is she okay?” She asked Misako. “Yeah, she’s just not big on magic ever since we fought Yamada.” Misako explained. “Who’s Yamada?” Adagio inquired, curious about whether there were other magic-wielders in this world other than the Rainbooms. “Some creep we beat up on a rooftop.” Misako nonchalantly replied. “He tried to use some magic crap on us and Kyoko got a little spooked by it.” “Seriously, I can’t even watch horror movies.” Kyoko timidly chimed in, apparently no longer having her ‘Nam flashback. There were so many questions Adagio wanted to ask after hearing Misako’s explanation that she didn’t even know where to start. Was Yamada’s magic real? Why did they beat him up? Why on a rooftop? “Why did you beat him up?” She decided to ask first. “We thought he kidnapped our boyfriends.” Misako replied. “We beat up a lot of people because of that.” Kyoko added. “Yeah we did.” Misako proudly stated. “We beat up a cosplaying fashionista, a rock star, even a yakuza boss at the end.” “Wait, didn’t we beat up Hasebe and Mami at the end?” Kyoko confusingly asked. “You’re thinking of the secret ending, Kyoko. That doesn’t apply here.” Misako corrected her friend. “Oh, okay.” Kyoko cheerfully declared. At this point, Adagio was completely lost. Even though she now had many, many more questions she wanted to ask, she decided it best not to ask them, lest she wind up with the mother of all headaches. “Let’s just get back to the tour.” She plainly said as she began walking down the hallway, followed closely by Misako and Kyoko. It couldn’t have been more than five seconds later when the bell rang and countless students began flooding the hall. “Oh perfect.” Adagio sarcastically commented as she began weaving her way through the now crowded hallway. “Watch it, perv!” She heard Misako shout from behind her. Adagio turned around and to see Misako staring at a startled Bilk Biceps with what had to be the most pissed off expression she’d ever seen. “W-what?” Bulk anxiously stated, clearly confused as to what was happening. “Don’t play dumb with me, you musclebound meathead!” Misako hollered as she poked Bulk’s chest with her finger. “I felt that big ole hand of yours graze my chest!” “W-w-what?!” Bulk even more anxiously stated as he took a step back. “I-I didn’t touch your chest, honest.” By now most of the students in the hall were watching the scene between Misako and Bulk unfold. Adagio knew she had to do something to defuse the situation, and soon, but she didn’t know what. Actually, she did have a few ideas, but they all ran the risk of Misako’s fury being turned onto herself. “You callin’ my friend a liar?” Kyoko accusingly chimed in, getting too close to Bulk for his comfort. “N-no.” Bulk nervously replied as he felt a cold sweat start to come over him. “I-I just meant that…” “Oh we know exactly what you meant!” Misako interrupted as she palmed her fist. “And now we’re going to show you what we mean!” “Yeah!” Kyoko agreed before she looked at Misako with a confused expression. “What are we doing?” “We’re kicking this creep’s ass!” Misako explained. “Okay that's it!” Adagio very sternly shouted as she quickly grabbed both Misako and Kyoko’s hands and started dragging them behind her down the hall, no longer caring if she became the target of their rage. “You're not kicking anyone's ass!” Despite still really wanting to kick Bulk’s ass, neither Misako nor Kyoko fought back against Adagio’s hold on them. They simply let her drag them away as they continued staring down Bulk. “Touch me again and I’ll slam your thick head through one of these lockers!” Misako shouted back at Bulk just before turning a corner. The conflict now over, most of the students that had been watching went back about their business. Bulk, however, found himself frozen in place as he tried to process what had just happened. Sensing his distress, Derpy Hooves silently came up to him and gently patted him on the back. “What the hell is wrong with you two?!” Adagio heatedly asked Misako and Kyoko once she’d dragged them into her office. “Hey, that creep tried to get fresh with me! He deserved a beat down!” Misako just as heatedly replied. “Totes.” Kyoko more levelheadedly agreed with a disgusted look on her face. “That guy reminded me of Abobo. Eww.” Adagio gave a very audible groan as she took her seat behind her desk, feeling extremely tempted to take out the bottle of whiskey in the desk. “I don’t know who Abobo is, but I can assure you that that ‘creep’ is one of the nicest guys at this school.” She onerously informed Misako and Kyoko, resisting the urge to drown her current woes in alcohol. “And I can assure you that if he touched your chest it was entirely by accident.” Both Misako and Kyoko looked at each other with quizzical expressions. The thought of the whole thing being an accident never even occurred to them. “If it was an accident then why didn’t he just apologize?” Misako inquired, indulging Adagio’s claim but clearly still believing otherwise. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because you THREATENED HIM before he could explain things?!” Adagio ‘theorized’. “We do have a history of beating people up because we jumped to conclusions, Misako.” Kyoko admitted, suggesting that maybe they had been wrong about Bulk. “And we did interrupt him before he could explain things.” Misako contemplated Adagio and Kyoko’s words as she took a seat in front of Adagio’s desk and put her feet up. “Okay, maybe it was just an accident.” She indifferently conceded. “Whatever.” Celestia above, she’s worse than Aria. Adagio thought to herself as she glared at Misako’s feet, not too happy that the girl was using her desk as an ottoman. Just then, a dainty knock was heard on the office door, which was still open, gaining the attention of all three girls. “Oh, um, so sorry to interrupt, darling.” Rarity addressed Adagio from the threshold. “I didn’t realize you were busy, I’ll come back later.” “Rarity, wait!” Adagio shouted as Rarity began walking away, getting up from her seat and rushing over to the door. “Yes, darling?” Rarity inquired, curious as to why Adagio had asked her to wait. “I want you to meet a couple of new students.” The Dazzling explained once she’d reached the door, grabbing a hold of Rarity’s hand and leading her inside. “I think you’ll like them.” Adagio, in fact, didn’t think Rarity would like Misako and Kyoko, but she didn’t care. She just wanted Rarity to distract the two new girls long enough for her to catch her breathe from all the craziness they’d brought on her so far. Some might have viewed what she was doing as manipulating Rarity, which would have meant she was breaking one of her promises to her sisters, but that wasn’t how she saw it. No, she simply saw it as…spreading the magic of friendship. “Oh, well, certainly.” Rarity awkwardly replied as she was more-or-less dragged into the room. “I…always enjoy making new friends.” As Adagio brought Rarity closer to them, Misako and Kyoko looked upon her with curiosity, Kyoko especially so. “Misako, Kyoko, this is Rarity.” Adagio introduced the girl. “Sup.” Misako simply said as she got up from her seat. “Hi.” Kyoko rather plainly, and uncharacteristically, greeted Rarity as she continued to stare intently at her. “Pleased to meet you both.” Rarity warmly stated with a friendly smile as she couldn’t help but take note of Misako and Kyoko’s outfits. “I simply love what you're both wearing, very traditional high school student chique. Where did you get them?” “I found this at a bus stop.” Misako boastfully answered, as if she were proud of that fact. “Oh, that’s…um…nice.” Rarity unadroitly responded, not sure what else she could say. Just then, Kyoko suddenly jumped slightly backwards and pointed an accusing finger right at Rarity, startling both Rarity and Adagio. Misako, on the other hand, seemed completely unphased. “I knew you seemed familiar!” She shouted. “You’re Hibari, aren’t you?!” Adagio just facepalmed as Rarity could only stare at Kyoko with stunned confusion. “Beg your pardon, darling?” She managed to ask. “What are you talking about, Kyoko?” Misako coolly asked to her friend. “She’s clearly not Hibari.” “Oh come on, Misako, she totally is.” Kyoko pleadingly insisted. “Think about it; she has the same pale complexion as Hibari, the same vocal inflections as Hibari, she’s a fashionista like Hibari…” As Misako listened to Kyoko’s argument, she did start to see a few parallels between Rarity and Hibari. Still though, she wasn’t convinced that the girl in front of her actually was Hibari. “…and we never saw what she looked like without all that creepy spider cosplay on.” Kyoko finished by whispering into her ear. And that final little fact was what convinced Misako that the girl in front of her could be Hibari. “Okay, say she is Hibari.” She said to Kyoko. “Why would she be here?” “Revenge?” Kyoko speculated. “We did beat her up after all.” “Do you understand what they’re talking about?” Rarity whispered to Adagio, confused out of her mind. “Who is this Hibari?” “No idea.” Adagio exhaustingly answered as she lowered her hand from her face. “I haven’t understood half of anything they’ve said all day.” Without warning, Misako got right up in Rarity’s face and gave her a hostile stare, causing Rarity to give a small ‘Eep’. “Alright, spill it. This that you, Hibari?” She plainly asked. Rarity desperately tried to say something, anything, that would convince Misako and Kyoko that she wasn’t this Hibari person, but she was too frozen with fear to utter a single word. “She’s not Hibari.” Adagio groaned as she took Misako by the shoulders and guided her away from Rarity’s personal space. “I don’t even know who that is but I can assure you Rarity isn’t her. Rarity’s been a student here for years.” Both Misako and Kyoko still continued to stare at Rarity suspiciously, but decided to take Adagio’s word for it that she wasn’t Hibari. “If you say so.” Kyoko dismissively remarked. “Yeah.” Misako agreed. “Now that I think about it, she seems too tall to be Hibari anyways.” “Um, well, it was nice meeting you both.” Rarity anxiously said as she slowly backed up towards the door. “But I really must be going now.” And with that, Rarity dashed out of the room like a lightning bolt, once again leaving Adagio alone with Misako and Kyoko “So, what’s next on the tour?” Kyoko nonchalantly asked her, as though what had just gone down with Rarity hadn’t happened. Adagio, in response, simply headed for the door. “Lunch.” She impassively answered on her way out. If Adagio had looked half-dead when she’d first arrived at school this morning, than she must have looked fully-dead by now. Having to deal with Misako and Kyoko was pushing her to both her physical and mental limits. Frankly, she thought if she made it through to the end of the day it’d be some kind of miracle. Right now all three of them were peacefully sitting in the cafeteria eating lunch, though Adagio had a feeling that Misako and Kyoko would find some way to cause a commotion soon enough. “This food isn’t that bad.” Kyoko commented as she ate her salad. “Yeah, I just wish they had some meat.” Misako remarked as she just sort of picked at hers. “Yo, Adagio!” A voice called out to them from a few feet away. All three girls looked in the direction the voice came from and saw Spitfire approaching their table with her own lunch in hand. “Oh, hey, Spitfire.” Adagio tiredly greeted her friend. “Damn, you look even worse than you did this morning.” Spitfire observed as she took a seat next to Adagio. “It’s been one of those mornings.” Adagio simply replied, even though she felt that describing her morning as ‘one of those’ was a gross understatement. Spitfire decided not in inquire about her friend’s obviously rough morning, and instead decided to address Misako and Kyoko. “You must be the new girls I’ve heard about. I’m Spitfire, captain of the soccer team.” She introduced herself. “Soccer, huh?” Misako spoke up with a bit more energy in her voice than usual. “I actually used to be the manager of my school’s soccer club…I think.” “Your memory’s pretty bad, huh, Misako?” Kyoko chimed in. “Well I get hit a lot.” Misako explained, the slightest hint of irritation in her voice. “Plus our franchise goes through more reboots and retcons than Halloween.” “True enough on both accounts.” Kyoko casually replied as she took another bite of salad. Spitfire couldn’t help but give a confused expression as she tried to figure out what Misako and Kyoko were talking about. She looked over to Adagio, who was now holding her head up by her hand, and was about to ask her what was going on. “Don’t ask me what they’re talking about, I have no idea.” Adagio deadpanned, clearly know what she was going to ask even before she asked it. “Well, um, if you like soccer you should try out for the team.” Spitfire said as she returned her attention to Misako and Kyoko. “We’re always looking for new players.” “Thanks, but no thanks.” Misako declined the offer. “We’re not sticking around here.” All of a sudden, Adagio’s head sprang up from her hand upon hearing Misako’s remark. “What do you mean you’re ‘not sticking around here’?” She quizzically asked. “Exactly that, we’re not sticking around here.” Misako clarified, more or less. “Yeah, we have to get back to River City to be with Riki and Kunio.” Kyoko added, clarifying things a little better. “But you just transferred here.” Adagio confusingly stated. Misako and Kyoko both looked at each other as they came to realize that Adagio had been left in the dark regarding some important details about their transfer to CHS. “Um, did no one tell you how we ended up here?” Kyoko inquired. Adagio simply shook her head in response. “You want the long version or the short version?” Misako asked her. “Short version.” Adagio answered, figuring she didn’t need all the details of Misako and Kyoko’s story. “Okay.” Misako replied with a shrug as she leaned back in her chair. “The short version is that we got kicked out of River City and this was the only school that would take us.” Had Adagio heard Misako correctly? She and Kyoko had been kicked out of an entire city? “I think I’m going to need the long version.” The Dazzling informed them. “I figured.” Misako smugly said as she prepared to give the long version of her and Kyoko’s story. “So remember when we said we beat up a lot of people because we thought they’d kidnapped our boyfriends?” “Yeah.” Adagio answered. “Well, turns out we caused a lot of property damage while we were doing that.” Misako explained. “About $1.3 million worth of property damage to be exact.” Kyoko interjected. “Right.” Misako continued. “So anyways, were given three choices by the mayor when it was all over; pay for the damages, go to jail, or get kicked out of River City.” Huh? Adagio thought to herself in total disbelief. “Since we didn’t have enough money to pay for the damages and we’re both to cute for jail, we choose getting kick out.” Kyoko concluded the story. Adagio was speechless, absolutely speechless. She couldn’t believe that two high school girls with no magic had managed to cause so much trouble that they got kicked out of a city. Surprisingly though, the one thing she had the most trouble believing was that Celestia had agreed to admit them knowing all this information. “So wait.” Spitfire, who’d just been listening the whole time, chimed in. “If you were kicked out of River City why are you saying you’re going back there?” “Like we said, that’s where Riki and Kunio are.” Kyoko answered. “Yeah, it doesn’t matter that we got kicked out of River City.” Misako added with a fiery passion just before dramatically getting up from her seat. “You can’t silence love!” “Yeah, what she said!” Kyoko exclaimed as she too stood up dramatically, pumping a fist into the air. “Sit. Down.” Adagio quietly, but infuriatedly, told them. “What was that?” Kyoko innocently inquired, not having heard Adagio because of how quietly she’d spoken. “I said, SIT DOWN!!!” Adagio exploded as she violently stood up and slammed her open palms against the table, causing the whole cafeteria to go silent for a few seconds. Misako and Kyoko couldn’t help but flinch at Adagio’s outburst. Despite how tough they were, they somehow felt unnerved by Adagio yelling at them so…intensely. Rather than try and pick a fight, they decided to just do what she said and silently sat back down. “You two are unbelievable.” Adagio sharply started saying through gritted teeth. “You make me put up with your crap all morning and now you say that you’re not even going to be attending this school because you intend to back to the place you were banished from, just to get your boyfriends back?” “Pretty much.” Kyoko spoke up. “Thought we made that clear.” Misako added. Adagio took a few deep, calming breathes before she sat back down. “I’m going to give you two a little piece of advice.” She very sternly informed Misako and Kyoko. “Whether you choose to listen to it or not I don’t give a damn, but I’m going to give it to you all the same.” “Well don’t just drawl on about it.” Misako remarked, sounding a tad annoyed. “Lay it on us already.” “Fine then.” Adagio replied as she took one last deep breathe. “You two need to move on. You need to accept the fact that you don’t have your boyfriends anymore, that you’re not in River City anymore, and, most importantly, that you don’t have to beat people up anymore.” It was clear from the surprised expressions on Misako and Kyoko’s faces that they hadn’t expected Adagio to tell them that. “I know what you’ve both been through.” Adagio continued. “I lost my home too, I lost the magic I cared more about than anything, so believe me when I say that the best thing you can do is just move on. Stop focusing so much on the past and focus on what you want to do with the future and who you want to be in it.” There was a brief moment of silence after Adagio finished. “Gotta admit, that was some good advice.” Misako eventually spoke up. “For realizes.” Kyoko concurred. “You’re really good at your job, Adagio.” “Thank you.” Adagio said as she gave a small sigh of relief, happy that her words seemed to get through to both of them. “Too bad we can’t follow it.” Misako said as she and Kyoko got up from their seats and started walking away. “Wait, where are you two going?” Adagio frantically asked them before they got too far, confused why they apparently couldn’t follow what they themselves admitted was good advice. “Back to River City, duh.” Kyoko answered as she and Misako turned back around. “But…I…you…” Adagio began to ramble, unable to find the words to express her confusion. “Look, we’re the River City girls, not the Canterlot City girls.” Misako began to explain. “And no matter how good your advice was, that ain’t changing. So later.” “Bye.” Kyoko cheerfully said as she and Misako continued towards the exit. Once Misako and Kyoko were gone, Adagio couldn’t help but let her head fall onto the table with a loud thud, brought on by her exhaustion and confusion. The impact hurt a bit, but she didn’t care. “What the hell just happened?” She said into the table. “In terms of those two, no idea.” Spitfire replied. “In terms of you though, you gave some pretty kick ass advice, some you should follow yourself.” “What are you talking about?” Adagio asked her friend, without lifting her head from the table. Before she explained what she meant, Spitfire started patting Adagio on the shoulder in a sign of support for her wary friend. “This morning you were going on about how you’ve always been a liar and a manipulator and how you didn’t think you could change.” She said. “But just now you told Misako and Kyoko to stop focusing on the past and focus on the future and who they want to be in it. If you can do that, I’m sure you can change if you really want to.” Adagio didn’t reply right away, which worried Spitfire a bit. She couldn’t see Adagio’s face through her massive hair so she feared that maybe her friend might’ve passed out or something. “Spitfire.” Adagio eventually said, her head still on the table. “Although I may not be able to fully express it right now, I want you to know that I think that you’re absolutely right and that you’re a really good friend.” “Yeah, I’m awesome like that.” Spitfire humbly replied. “Come on, let’s get out of here.” Adagio said as she finally lifted her head off the table and stood up. “And go where, exactly?” Spitfire inquired as she followed suit and stood up as well. “To my office.” Adagio simply relied. “I need some booze after dealing with Misako and Kyoko all morning.”