The last bell of the day rang, and Adagio Dazzle breathed a sigh of relief. Today’s service as Mr. Discord’s teaching assistant had been less onerous than average. Still bothersome, but at least he hadn’t used her for any live demonstrations.
Of course, the moment she relaxed, the door to the classroom opened and one of the top seven people Adagio never wanted to see stuck her head in. “Excuse me?”
Adagio had no intention of doing so, but she could at least get the bespectacled Sparkle out of her hair. “I’ll let Mr. Discord know you’re here.”
That didn’t have the desired effect. Sparkle just let herself into the classroom, notebook in hand. “Actually, I was hoping I could ask you some questions.”
“Oh.” Adagio crossed her arms. “Were you now?”
Sparkle nodded, her mind already worlds away from comprehending sarcasm. “Sunset presents an invaluable opportunity as a nonhuman perspective on both Equestria and Earth, but you could provide an incalculable wealth of sophontological data—”
“The answer is no, Sparkle.”
It was like watching a train wreck. Adagio couldn’t look away as the horror smashed into Sparkle’s face, and enjoyed every moment. “Oh. I see.” The girl cleared her throat. “Well, uh, I suppose you do have some baggage with my equine analogue—”
“‘Baggage’? Yes, I suppose ‘baggage’ might describe my feelings towards one of the girls who helped kill me.”
“You were trying to take over the world.”
“And would that have been so bad? I had to watch you apes mismanage yourselves for centuries.” Adagio sneered as some of the more egregious moments came up from the depths of her memory. “I can hardly be blamed for wanting to do a better job. But apparently the ‘Princess of Friendship’ felt she could shatter my most vital organ and let time do the dirty work.” She realized one of her hands was drifting to her throat and stopped herself through sheer force of will. “So no, Sparkle, I won’t have a friendly conversation with a girl who has the face of my murderer.”
Thankfully, that was enough to put something like shame on Sparkle’s face. She put the notebook back into her backpack. “I see,” she said as she made for the door. “My apologies.”
“Stick them up your disgusting mammal sphincter.”
The door closed, and the hairs on Adagio’s neck stood up. She bit back a sigh as she turned around to see Mr. Discord glaring down at her from less than a foot away. She’d never heard him come in, and wasn’t at all surprised.
“What?” she said.
In a literal blink, he moved to a more comfortable distance. “I do agree it was a touch insensitive on Twilight’s part, but there’s such a thing as being overly harsh.”
Adagio ground her teeth, or at least tried to. Much as she appreciated having something resembling proper fangs, they didn’t slide against one another nearly as well. “I’m not apologizing, and I’m definitely not going to humor her. You can throw me out on the street for all I care. I’m not bending on this one.”
That got her a poke to the forehead, along with a sickening crunch. Mr. Discord contemplated his broken finger with mild interest. “You aren’t, are you? And here I thought siren skeletons might be cartilaginous. Well, biology was never my strongest suit.” He fanned out a hand of cards and fanned himself with it, leaning on nothing. “Still, I can’t stand to see the pursuit of knowledge get stymied by petty grudges.”
“Petty?” Adagio’s ear fins splayed out. She still wasn’t used to regaining some her old tells. “She—”
“Made you mortal, yes, yes, we’ve heard. Some of us were prepared to face our ends with a little dignity and grace before we became spirits of chaos.” Mr. Discord straightened the tie on the somber three-piece suit he hadn’t been wearing a moment ago. “In all those centuries of life, what did you actually do with yourself besides feeding your pet goldfish?” He held up a glass bowl with two occupants, blue and purple.
“That’s not the point!”
“No, the point is that now you actually have to care about little things like your health and income and oh wait, I’m taking care of most of your needs, aren’t I?” Mr. Discord polished his nails on his chest, now completely lounging on thin air. “The only real differences between now and before the Battle of the Bands are that you’re doing something constructive with your time and you can get a decent meal without driving up the divorce rate.”
“And this body will just stop working after a while.” Adagio sneered. “Get back to me in a few centuries, see how you feel about facing your end with grace then.”
Mr. Discord nodded. “It’s true that I can’t fully appreciate the immortal perspective given my relatively limited experience therewith. But you still have decades ahead of you. You’re in the prime of your life. Do you really want to spend it stewing in old grudges until you’re as hard and bitter as Abacus? Because I’d really rather not have to get involved in another school-sponsored activity if I can avoid it.” He shuddered at the thought.
“Look, I do plan on getting good use out of the time I have left, but I refuse to waste any of it around a Twilight Sparkle.”
That got a shrug. “I suppose I’ll take what I can get. There are ways for both you and Twilight to get what you want.”
Adagio frowned. She knew she wasn’t going to like this. And if she did, she wasn’t going to like liking it. “Such as?”
Twilight Sparkle’s parents had been incredibly understanding in terms of giving her the bulk of the family garage for lab space after she’d transferred out of Crystal Prep. Night Light had mentioned old plans for Shining’s garage band that had fallen flat when he’d just needed the basement for O&O sessions, and that was enough for her.
Of course, that didn’t mean that they didn’t leave her completely to her own devices. A knock was all the warning Twilight got before her mother opened the door. “Twily! You have a visitor!”
The younger Twilight raised her safety goggles. “I have a what now?”
“Hi there!” Sonata Dusk seemed to pop out from behind Twilight Velvet. “You wanted to know stuff about sirens?”