//------------------------------// // The Struggles Of Staying Mature // Story: A Dazzling Mismatch // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// That evening, the sirens all sat around the table with the Rainbooms. Where they were once enemies to each other, now, they found themselves in this situation. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata would have found a way to get under their skin any other time, but this wasn't exactly the time to dredge up old war wounds; especially when none of their heads were in the right place. The Rainbooms would have reciprotated their advances had they done any, but they too were surprisingly doclie towards the Sirens. Maybe it was because of their displaced personalities, maybe the fact that they really had no way of proving that the Dazzlings' mind-flipping magical crystals were actually powered by singing, or maybe it was something else entirely. But whatever the situation, none of the Rainbooms could find any reason to lock horns with the Dazzlings at that moment in time. Now, there were plates full of food for each of the girls. Mostly just salads with the occasional taco for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Sonata didn't know much about the Rainbooms outside of the Battle of the Bands, but she could tell that most of them weren't meat-eaters. It was just a lucky coincidence to her that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were up to try some of her tacos. The Rainbooms had been deep in thought as they ate away at the siren's food. Most of them had been thinking about how they were going to handle the Dazzlings now that they had pendants back; even if it didn't exactly give the same free reign over themselves as the last ones did. But if those jewels behaved anything like the old ones did, then the Dazzlings were still walking threats to the world whether or not they wanted to take revenge on the Rainbooms. The girls had been bracing themselves mentally for the day that the Dazzlings once more rose to the top through singing, but at the moment, not a single lyric had slipped from their mouths since they slipped the pendants on. But that just raised more and more questions. Why exactly were the Dazzlings holding back on their singing if they had their magical singing powers back again? After all, the very purpose that the Dazzlings served was that they were sociopaths; people who influenced others for their own benefit. Yet with their powers back for the first time since they had been defeated, why exactly were they holding back on their singing if they had the power to sap the negativity of others? Especially when the Rainbooms were sitting right there in front of them? What benefit were they getting from choosing not to sing to them? "So... how exactly have you been doing since we last saw each other?" Applejack was the first one to ask. She had to admit that small talk wasn't exactly one of her best suits when it came to dealing with former enemies that hadn't been reformed and still had a source of power to use as leverage. "And not since we first saw ya'll with them newfangled jewels. I mean before that? How were you living as... non-magical girls?" "Oh, it was horrible, Applejack. We had absolutely nothing," said Sonata almost immediately before Applejack finished talking. "Like, you don't know how it feels to have this super-duper helpful magic that gets you everything you could ever want, only to have it taken away from you. And then when it turns out you don't have money—because that's totally a thing that has to exist by law for anyone to have a happy life in this world, let's just say that we did not take it that well." "We were flat broke, basically. No way to get food, no way to get anything that we wanted. We were gonna die if we didn't find some way to get out of that little jam," Aria added. "Total. Bummer. Like, for realsies, girls. You don't know how hard it is to live like homeless bums. Like, you REALLY don't." "I can't tell whether that's Old Aria talking or New Aria..." Adagio added as she looked into her sister's eyes. She could tell that they still had some small slivers of their old personalities deep down inside, fighting to get out as they battle with their new personalities. At least it hadn't totally scrambled their minds. "Still, they're not wrong, Rainbooms. Being a monster from Equestria marooned in a world full of these human creatures, needless to say, when the bubble popped, we were left high and dry with nothing to fall back on." "Oh my... That sounds dreadful." Fluttershy coiled her hair around one of her fingers. She had never really bothered to check on the Dazzlings herself, mostly because she wanted to save herself the memories, but even she knew that they had been treated rather unfairly since the Battle of the Bands. Nothing to survive on but their resources, with no chance of getting a job due to no understanding of the world around them. That wasn't the way for anyone to live, not even sociopathic sirens like the Dazzlings. "And... you never thought about going back to Equestria? Not a bit?" "Every. Single. Day." Adagio spoke up before any of them could. "Trust me, we fit in Equestria. Mostly because the rest of the people here are all the same. There's no difference, no individuality, no magic, no... anything!" She snarled, her hand grinding across the table. "It's so much easier when you're back in Equestria. When you're a flying fish-horse with magical singing powers. This place is no place for someone like us. It's a total backwater place." "Backwater? Uh, you might not appreciate it, Adagio, but that backwater is our home. And I don't take kindly to my world being trash-talked." Rainbow Dash just folded her arms and shot a glare at Adagio. "Sorry, girls. Aria's always got that grumpy, meanie-pants, fiery attitude. But she's really a nice girl when you get to know her better," said Sonata, despite talking about Adagio. "I'm kinda glad that I didn't get stuck with her meanie-geneies. Would've made being with me a total buzzkill." "Keep talking, Sonata. It'll just make me all the more glad to get rid of this jerk's stuff when the plan comes together..." Adagio whispered under her breath so much that nobody could have made out what she was saying; not even Aria or Sonata. "What was that, Dagi?" Aria asked, leaning over the table towards her. Adagio jumped at the shock of her siren sister's inquisition. "U-uh, n-nothing! Absolutely nothing! Nothing at all. Yep, good ol-fashioned nothing on my mind." She lamely chuckled, trying to pass it off, but nobody knew that she was a convincing liar. "L-look. Why don't we just change the subject, alright? How are these tacos, Rainbooms?" "You... seem awfully suspcious about something, Adagio. You can't exactly hide it from me, y'know." Sonata leaned over as well. "I've got your super-smarts. I've got your Adagio-ness. I can tell when you're lying. And you, my girl, are lying super-hard right about now." "I'm not lying. If I were, I'd be trying my best to keep it a secret from you, now wouldn't I?" Adagio chided, putting her hips to her side. "Plus, a girl can't just say everything that she wants to everyone around her. She's gotta learn how to control herself. Keep some semblence of maturity." As she said that, she lifted her leg too fast and smashed it against the table. "GYAAHH! FUCK THIS GODDAMN, PIECE OF SHIT TABLE!" She hollered in anguish as she clutched her leg to try and get rid of the pain. "WHO THE FUCK MAKES THESE THINGS, ANYWAYS?! AND WHY DO WE NEED TO SIT AT THEM?!" "Yep. There's the Aria side of her," Aria chuckled to herself as she sat upright once again. "You'll get used to it, girls. Promise." "So... how exactly did you even get your powers in the first place?" Rarity decided to steer the talk in another direction in the hopes that it would get the sirens to calm down a tad. "You can't have just been born with them. Like any villain, it should have had a backstory that tugs at the heartstrings, followed by the wincing of pain as we see the villain truly become the bad guy. A grandiose spectacle that truly awakens the true heartlessness from within you, yet also makes you plead for the girls inside to come back!" At the end of her little tirade, she saw that everyone was staring at her. "What? That's how all the villains are made these days. Highly cliched if you ask me." "Not if you do it right," Sonata winked. "But no, that's not what you're gonna hear at all. We're hippocampuses. We're just naturally born with these singing powers," said Adagio bluntly. "Nothing special about us. We're just three sirens who are who we are and nothing else. So if we're born to do singing and make a bunch of people pissed off, then it's tough luck for them. But for us, it's just business. It's part of the cycle of life," she went on, recounting the story off by heart—or lack thereof. "A cycle that we had to do no whether we're these fleshy monkeys or our true forms. So, naturally, what you did to us at the Battle of the Bands was considered an act of Equestrian eco-terrorism. Not that I'm one to complain, though, as it was that jerk, Starswirl who threw us all here in the first place." "Yeah, it's not really considered eco-terrorism, because that requires the two of you to be animals. And as it stands, you're walking, talking people, Dazzlings," Twilight pushed her glasses to her face. "But we were born as horse-fishes. Hello? Earth to Princess? Anyone in there?" Adagio gruffly replied, then shook her head, scratching her temples hard. "Great, now I'm even insulting people like her! We need to fix this, FAST!" "Fix this?" Sonata blinked. She had heard it all. "H-how do you mean that, Adagio?" She tilted her head. "Yeah, Adagio? What is there to fix?" Aria added, cocking a brow up as all eyes turned towards Adagio now. "Uh-oh..." Pinkie twiddled her fingers together as she slumped back into her chair. "I think the other two sirens know about Adagio's little secret." "Shit. Now they know it too," Adagio muttered to herself. "Alright, Adagio. You can salvage this. You can play this off." Finally, she gathered herself and addressed Aria and Sonata. "Well, I've actually got some gemstones of my own right here that give us our singing powers, but make them even stronger." Adagio knew that her sisters were gullible enough to take any bait. She did, after all, have a hot head and a teen with a little kid's mind for accomplices. Fishing around her pockets, she finally pulled out her fake jewels. "Ta-da!" "Oooohhhh..." Both Aria and Sonata chimed together as they watched the gems gleaming in the light of the ceiling light above. The aquamarine, amethyst, and topaz crystals did bear some similarities to the Dazzlings' original gemstones, but they were nowhere near as smooth and perfect as their first ones. Still, they were surprisingly attractive knock-offs. Now, it was all about the girls putting them on their necks and choosing to be rid of the other gems, and that would have been a job done for Adagio. Come on, you two. Buy it... PLEASE. Let this nightmare finally be over. Adagio tried her best to smile as she laid the gems out in front of the table. "Yes. These gems are actually things that I found the other day while you were off palling around with the Rainbooms. With these, not only do we get our powers back, but we also get them much stronger than ever before! Every snack becomes a meal, every meal an all you can eat buffet! We'll be queens of the world!" "Queens? For real?" Sonata's eyes were flashing with opportunity. She had always wanted to sing again since the day she had her powers ripped away from her. "I wanna try this out right now, don't you, Aria?" "Yes I do, Sonata. Let's do it right now!" She and Sonata scooped up the gems and were eager to put them onto their collars when they noticed something. Adagio was taking her time figuring out how to take the gemstone on her choker off. For all that she knew about her gemstones, she had no clue how to physically get rid of hers. She could have just taken the choker off, but that was all she had, and actually taking off a siren's gemstone that's implanted on the choker was a whole other can of worms in itself. Heck, she hadn't even tried it since she came to this world in the first place, so how she was supposed to change it for this new gemstone was beyond her. "Hey, uh, Adagio? What's up?" Sonata asked as she watched Adagio fumbling around with her choker. "Aren'y you gonna put it on? You did say this would make us queens of the world, didn't you?" "Yeah, I did. I'm just trying to figure out how to get this damn other gem off. Not like these chokers were designed for multiple gems, you know..." She mumbled as she tried to just brute-force it and pull her gem off in the hopes that it would leave her bare. "Nngh... c'mon! Get off, you stupid piece of—" "I think I'll go and give her a hand. If it's not too much trouble with you all, that is," said Sunset as she stood up from her seat and walked over to Adagio's side. This would give her the chance to leave with Adagio incognito and nobody would be the wiser. "Eh, it's fine with me." Sonata shrugged. "Me too," Aria did the same thing that Sonata did. "Anyone else wanna say no to that?" The Rainbooms all chattered together a mumbled mix of words and shook their heads. None of them wanted to say anything that would have discouraged Sunset and Adagio's masterplan to get rid of the sirens' powers and—hopefully—fix their mind-swap dilemma. "I think I'll go as well, just to make sure that Twilight and Adagio don't have too much trouble." Twilight also took the moment to stand up and go with Adagio and Sunset. Together, the three teenagers—or rather, two teenagers and one Equestrian siren whose age was undetermined and undisclosed—made their way out of the kitchen, leaving their food behind. They all went up the stairs and back into Adagio's room, then Twilight and Sunset let Adagio sit down on the bed as they examined her choker to see if there was any mechanism or latch that could be used to take a siren's gem off. "Hmm..." Twilight frisked the golden latch that held the gemstone in place. If only she had brought her magnifying glass, she could have easily found the place she needed to push in order to get the stone off. "This is a bit of a tricky one, Adagio. When you came to this new world, they made absolutely sure that your gems couldn't be taken off no matter what happened. These kinds of permanent chokers only really have things come off if the gem actually breaks." "Great. That's just fucking great. So not only do I get stuck in this barren, forsaken world, but now it turns out that I can't actually take my gems off? Well, that's just gonna blow my plan straight out of the goddamn water now, isn't it?" She growled, slamming her hand into the bed. If it wasn't how Adagio really was, then Adagio would've had people believe that she had tourettes. "Adagio, just calm down. Please, we're trying to help you out," Sunset pushed the air; a sign to tell people to chill out. "I know that you have Aria's abrasive attitude, but that's no reason to bite the hand that's feeding you. Do you want us to help you or not?" Adagio let out another sigh, trying her best to take control of her old self. "Look, girls, I do appreciate the help. I really do. Don't ever think for a second that I don't. It's just that these stupid mind switches are taking control of us. We're not ourselves anymore. Sonata, who's usually a ditzy doofus is suddenly the mature, intelligent one out of us. Then there's Aria, who's way too bubbly and happy for her own good, and then you get me. The shafted siren of the three of us. I get nothing but a bad temper and a want to punch everything that I see that I don't like." She flopped onto the back of her bed, looking up at the ceiling. "God, is this how Aria lives her life, every single day? Because if it is, I think we need to find that girl something else to make her happy." "Man..." Sunset looked at the mess that Adagio had become. Not long ago, she was the confident, headstrong leader of the Dazzlings who turned a musical showcase into an all-out civil war between the students. And now, she had Aria's mindset, meaning all of that was out of the window and replaced with a temper that could be stoked at any minute, with everyone around her suffering the consequences for it. "Look, I don't know about you, but I actually want this to stay a secret from Aria and Sonata." Adagio finally sat up and looked the two girls in the eye. "They're so focused on being happy-go-lucky now with their new personalities, but I'm the only one that's getting the raw deal here. I get nothing out of this, and they magically get a free pass to start over? That's totally unfair, if you ask me." Adagio crossed her arms. "The way that I see it, we shouldn't have found those gems in the first place if it was gonna cause us this much trouble. We'd have been much better off without them." "You real think that? After all the hard work you did trying to take everyone's negativity and become all-powerful?" Sunset asked for clarification. "Of course I do. I might have Aria's mind, but that doesn't mean I'm all just some petty thug who prefers brawn over brain." Adagio slapped Sunset's hand away with the back of her own. "Anyways, yes. I'll remember all of this when it's said and done. As will the other two. And honestly, if this is the trouble of having this kind of magic, then I don't want any part of it. I'd rather just be a mortal; a flabby human monkey. Far better that than me having her mind." "Wow, Adagio. That's... actually pretty brave of you. To go back on everything that you worked so hard for." Sunset couldn't help but feel somewhat proud of herself. She hadn't even needed to talk about the morality side of it all, but she could see that Adagio was really thinking for herself. Now, all that she needed to do was figure out how to handle the rest of it all and she could potentially reform the Dazzlings without even needing to start a whole friendship campaign with them. "Whatever you need help with, we'll do it, Adagio. For you." "Both of us. All of us, rather. Together, we'll be able to see this through to the very end." Twilight held out her hand, as did Sunset Shimmer. "So, what do you say, Adagio Dazzle? Do you wanna change for the better?" "I do, girls." Adagio was just talking about getting rid of that other mind bouncing around in her brain, but there was something else within her that she was feeling subconsciously. Maybe it had been all of the time that she had been working as a power-sapping siren who feeded off of emotions, but she definitely knew that kind of feeling. The kind of bubbly, fuzzy, cutesy kind of feeling that you get when you're a tyrant who sees another way. She took Twilight and Sunset's hands and stood back up proudly. "Now, come on. Let's go get our heads straight." She fist-pumped and walked out of the bedroom, with Twilight and Sunset close behind.