//------------------------------// // A Runaway Adagio // Story: A Dazzling Mismatch // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// It was a cold and bitter night in the streets of Canterlot City. The kind of days where people would have preferred to say in and curl up by the fire, reading a book, or perhaps watching television as family and friends. With the way that the wind was starting to kick up with its' bitter chill, the clouds that started to gather in an ominous fashion, and with how bleak the world looked on the outside, it was going to be a very harsh trip for anyone still brave enough to wander through the darkened streets. Even as the streetlights turned on and gave some illumination to the city, there wasn't enough to consolidate a cozy walk. Something that Adagio was beginning to understand. She was still completely distraught that her sisters would have ever chosen to side with the Rainbooms and choose peace after all that they had done to the three of them. The very girls responsible for ruining their lives were giving them a change of heart; when her bitterness was still there and refusing to disappear. If anything, this little moment was hardening her heart even more and making her more adamant in the belief that she did not want to change and that she was better off alone. She no longer cared for Aria or Sonata, most likely because she was assimilating the traits of the former and losing all of the compassion and care of the latter. Even as Adagio looked down at the gemstone around her neck; the very thing that gave her all of those negative traits, she still had hope that she had the power she needed to survive; to sway hearts and feast off of the negativity. Adagio did feel like she had a connection with the magic; even though she hadn't tried it out for herself just yet. She had been waiting for the right moment to strike; to let her song reach the public. But, much to her dismay, it didn't seem like there was anyone out there for her song to reach. She cursed herself even more and trudged through the darkness with her back hunched, arms folded, and with a scowl on her face. "Why?" That was the question Adagio asked herself over and over again as the cold winds started to get sharper, lashing against her arms and legs. "Why would my own sisters turn against me and side with those Rainbrats? What have those buffoons ever done for us?" She was trying her very best to try and keep what was left of her psyche intact, but Adagio felt like she was losing more of herself with each passing second. "What good is friendship? What good are those brats? What good is any kind of happiness? All that it does is waste time, effort, money, resources, and emotions. You can't win people over with love and compassion. At least... not for us. All that I know is that only the strong survive. And to be strong, you've gotta get mean. That's how the Dazzlings have worked, that's how we'll continue to work, and I won't have those punks ruin that for us!" As Adagio said that, a perfectly-timed lightning bolt followed, lighting up the sky in a brief, brilliant flash. The following noise rippled through the town; quickly hitting Adagio's ears. And if that wasn't enough, it started to rain, sending buckets upon buckets of rain tumbling down on top of her head. Adagio groaned a long and distraught groan as she felt the rain soak her. Her puffy hair was starting to droop down and hang behind her back like a cloak, her skinny jeans were starting to tighten up with the rain pounding down on them, and her spiked boots were already starting to come into contact with puddles that formed on the sidewalk she was stomping along. "Friendship did nothing for us. It's certainly not gonna help them now." Adagio just grumbled as the rain continued to lather her and her body. "What right do the Rainbooms have to turn Aria and Sonata over to their side? Especially after they so brazenly took away our futures?" Adagio walked further into the city, not even bothering to look back at the world. "They did this. It's all their fault. It'll never stop being their fault. And no matter how much they want to preach about their stupid little friendship ideology, the less I want to do with them and their world!" She started to sprint; hitting every single puddle in her path as she ran; sloshing up water all around her. "Adagio? Where are you?" Pinkie Pie called through the stormy night as she and the other Rainbooms stuck together, looking high and low for any sign of where Adagio could be. Sadly, the rain wasn't doing them any favors and the gloomy atmosphere made it a challenge for the girls to make out any sign of the missing Dazzling. Even Aria and Sonata, who had come along for the journey, couldn't distinguish Adagio. "C'mon, girl! Say something! This rain isn't anything compared to you! You're better than rain! You hear that, rain?! Adagio's much better than you'll ever be!" Pinkie's cries to find Adagio quickly melded into a rant at the stormy skies above as she jabbed a bent finger towards the sky, to which another lightning bolt illuminated it, causing her to jump backward in shock. "Okay, okay! I take it back! You're on the same level as Adagio! I'm sorry!" She comically twisted back at how menacing the lightning was to her. "Oh, this is simply atrocious!" Rarity exclaimed as she and the other girls pushed on through the murky night. "Not only am I getting horribly soaked by this appalling rain, but Adagio's also so adamant in refusing to change! Is there no form of kindness in that heart of hers?" "Now, don't be silly, Rarity. There's always some kind of love deep down in someone. It's just... in Adagio's case, that love's been buried under layers and layers of hatred. Hatred for us, for friendship, and for anything other than the way she likes best." Sunset sighed. She knew all too well who Adagio Dazzle was and how strict she was in her beliefs. "I just wish that there was a way to get through to her, but with the way that she's been acting and how she just abandoned the rest of us, it's gonna take an awful lot for her to change her tune." "Please tell me ya didn't mean that as a pun with the whole 'tune' thing, Sunset." Applejack just let a groan escape her lips as she held her hat close to her chest. "In any case, you might be right, and ya might not. But we ain't gonna learn the truth unless we find Adagio. And just thinkin' about it ain't gonna do much." "Besides, this city's pretty big. We're not gonna find Adagio fast if we just keep on thinking about it. We should just throw caution to the wind and go as fast as possible!" Rainbow Dash said, clutching the geode around her neck, tapping into her powers. She grew her wings, ears, hair extension, and tail. Seconds later, she rushed off as fast as she could, leaving a rainbow contrail in her wake. "She does have the right idea, but... something tells me that words aren't going to be enough when it comes to Adagio." Fluttershy's hands were clamped together as she thought more and more from her history with Adagio. "I know that she's got her anger towards us. And she's got every right to be angry with us. We did end up stripping her of her magic and leaving her and her sisters struggling to survive. It's like abandoning a dog; even when that dog's really aggressive and likes to bite people a lot." She blinked as the other Rainbooms just gave her glances with raised eyebrows. "What? It's true, though. Some dogs get so aggressive that they literally can't be homed, so people would much rather throw them out than give them a chance. It's kind of the same to what we did with the Dazzlings." "Yeah, but in that case, Sonata and Aria decided to have a change of heart. For Adagio, she's still got her heart encased in ice." Rarity laid a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder and walked with her. "Those with frosty hearts won't ever have them thawed unless someone else warms them up themselves. Cruelty doesn't turn into kindness on its' own. It needs a little push in the right direction." "Well said, Rarity." Twilight nodded. "And as long as Adagio's heart's frozen, we just need to do everything we can to unfreeze it. And if that doesn't work, then... I don't know what else to say. We've never actually given up on trying to make a friendship before." "That's why we're not giving up, then." Sunset fist-pumped. "I understand Adagio's anger and she's got every single right in the world to be angry with us, but that doesn't mean she's beyond saving. It just means we've gotta try extra hard to break off that crusty part of her heart and get to the real heart she has deep inside." She looked back to the other girls and felt much calmer from looking at them. "Besides, we've not lost a friendship yet, right? We're just a little late to this one." "Right." The Rainbooms all nodded in unison with another. And just like that, Rainbow Dash reappeared before the girls, breathing heavily as her wings and hair drooped downward. "Okay... I've searched this ENTIRE city three times over and Adagio's still nowhere! Where's this girl hiding?!" She groaned, putting her hands to her temples and rubbing them vigorously. "She's as slippery as an eel..." "Which is ironic, considering that she's been depicted as a hippocampus." Twilight put her fingers to her chin. "A hippo what now?" Applejack cocked a brow. "A hippocampus. A half-horse, half-fish creature that existed in Greek Mythology. It was reported that these fish-horse hybrids were responsible for pulling Poseidon's chariot across the ocean," Twilight explained. "Though, the term also refers to a part of the human brain; specifically in the temporal lobe. It's said to have the ability to aid with the brain's functions of memory of all kinds and—" "WE GET IT, TWILIGHT!" Rainbow Dash slapped Twilight's mouth shut. "Half-fish, half-horse! That's all you needed to say! You don't forget a monster like that any time soon..." "Right, right. Sorry. It's just that when you mentioned the Dazzlings' first encounter with the Rainbooms, I couldn't help but get all excited." Twilight blushed at each cheek. "I mean, an actual hippocampus. Here. Three of them, in fact. It's the product of pure research!" It was then that she noticed Aria and Sonata behind her and that blush got even wider. "N-n-n-not that I'd want to experiment on you two! Just... never mind." Twilight just hung her head in embarrassment. "Get a hold of yerself, girl." Applejack said, helping Twilight stand back up normally. "Look, whatever happened happened. Ain't no point in beatin' yerself over missing out. Besides, we've got bigger fish to fry." It was then that Applejack realized the pun that she herself had made and made a facepalm. "Consarn it..." She shook her head. "Anyways, we're getting off-topic here. We need to find Adagio. And fast." "But this town's super-duper-gigantic! And with how Adagio's been running, it's not like we're gonna find her that easily!" Pinkie flailed her arms around. "I mean, for all we know, she could have ended up running out of the city entirely and gone off to greater pastures, or heck, she could've found the portal back to Equestria!" "That's assuming she knows what it is and where it takes her." Sunset said, pulling Pinkie's arms back down to her side. "Relax, Pinkie. Adagio can't have gone very far. At least, not as far as you think she could've gone." "We just need to redouble our efforts and make sure that we don't lose hope. The easiest way to lose someone who's already lost is to abandon the search." Twilight pushed her glasses closer to her face, and then wiped the raindrops off of them so that she could see better. "In any case, Adagio's still here. I know she is. Now, let's go." And without another word, the Rainbooms continued their search for Adagio, calling out her name as they all wandered through the rainy, horrid night through the town. Aria and Sonata also called out for their sister, as worried as they could have sounded. Together, the ten girls did all that they could and searched every single road and street in the town, calling Adagio's name over and over again in the hopes that they could find her, but to no avail. Adagio, on the other hand, found herself in the middle of the city itself, underneath looming skyscrapers. She looked up to the skies above and watched as the rain came tumbling down on her, like a shower set to the cold side. As she looked towards the clouds, Adagio thought back on everything she had been through. Now that she had cut ties with her sisters and became a lone wolf, she realized that she had nowhere to go. Not a soul in the world was going to look out for her. And as far as she was aware, it was painful to associate herself with anyone, because whenever she opened her heart up to others, they just tore it straight out of her by doing things she didn't like, or she found herself on the brunt of some girls' magical rainbow laser beam powers and was knocked off of her high horse right back to the start. As everything Adagio knew came together, she just put her back against the walls of one of the skyscraper, slumped down, and sat on the soggy pavement, curling herself up as she accepted her fate. For everything that she had done and all the adventures she had been on, Adagio now knew the truth. She was miserable. She knew that misery wasn't something to get hung up on and instead served as the driving force for her and her sisters. To leech off of the negative emotions of the common man and fuel their own desire was a siren's nature, after all. It was something she knew from blood since the moment she was born: She was an instrument of discord; a bringer of hatred and unhappiness. And because of it, she didn't know any true form of happiness outside of the things she did with her sisters. And now, they had left her all alone to be with the same Rainbooms who had ruined their lives. "Guess I deserve this, don't I?" Adagio sullenly told herself as the rain continued to fall all around her. "I was born to give hate. I'll die giving hate. Even now, the Rainbooms still hate me for everything that I did to them. And I still loathe them for how they left us to die." Adagio snorted, bitterly shaking her head. "Friendship is magic? What a phony-baloney piece of saccharine trash. If friendship's so wonderful, then what's it ever done for us? How am I ever supposed to think that friendship will do anything other than bringing me pain and suffering?" She looked to the left, and then to the right. Nobody was there; nobody to see her in such a low position. "All their little friendship talk is just a way to cover up their own ego. They don't really believe in such a thing as being magical. They wouldn't know the first thing about magic if it walked up to their face, slapped the stuffing out of them, choked them, and then threw them to the ground like the pieces of wind-blown trash that they are!" Her pitch raised more and more until she sounded like a woman having a domestic falling out with her metaphysical husband. After which, Adagio just turned her head back to the ground. "Besides. I can't be changed. I took Aria's heart. Aria's heart was the most malicious and non-caring out of all three of us. She essentially got saved by this mind-swap junk. Meanwhile, I'm the one who's been left to rot. Because screw me, am I right? Nobody ever loves Adagio Dazzle honestly and truly. They just see my name, think I'm a music-lover, then my song does the rest. That's always how it's been, that's always how it will be." Adagio, having spent enough time wallowing in her own pity, stood back up amidst the endlessly pouring rain and crashing thunder above her head. After all, if she was to face the future alone, then so be it. At least now, she didn't have anything holding her back. Without her traitorous sisters, Aria and Sonata weighing her down, she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, to whoever she wanted. In short, she had turned the Dazzlings from a band into a solo act. And a rather dangerous solo act at that. Sure enough, she came to a bar that was full of people. Every single table was packed and all of the men and ladies were eating, drinking, and having a good time. There was even a tiny stage for performances from small-name artists and bands. A perfect opportunity arose for her to flex her powers and get back to the life that she once knew. Adagio walked into the bar, shaking off the rain and drying her boots as she walked over towards the performance stage. Once she got on, she came up to the microphone and tapped it gently. "This next song's a little bit new but... I'm sure that you'll all be enraptured by it, as I once was when I was a little girl." Adagio took a deep breath, put her lips close to the microphone and began to sing. And sure enough, like the times before, it was pure gold. She sang a new tune completely alien to her, but still with the same effect that all of the rest of her songs had. And where Adagio sang as if she were mournful of the past, she was still doing it with a smile on her face. Besides, she might have lost her only sisters, but she knew what she was getting now. Sure enough, it started. The song was beginning to get on people's nerves. Instead of directing their anger towards Adagio, they turned on each other like the wolves that they were. All of the joy and peace went out of the window as people started to bicker with others, even going so far as to start a bar fight; sweeping up all of the patrons involved. Every single hostile word that came out of their mouths, every single attack that they landed on the other bargoers, and all of the insinuating chaos was making them leak a dark, foggy, green mist; one that flew into her gemstone and disappeared into. A sight that Adagio loved more than anything. Still, she kept on singing; these people putty in her hands. The negative energy that she collected exhilarated her; relit her fire and gave her a purpose to keep on walking down this path. As the fight continued that night, Adagio kept on singing even as she left the bar. She took the microphone with her and started walking towards the door; her song still echoing on the speakers of the bar. She was a songstress first and a sister to no-one. Adagio Dazzle had been reborn. She was a bringer of hate. She knew it well and all of the time that she had been wasting trying to think otherwise was more meals that she could have been scarfing down. Well, she wasn't going to make that mistake again. As she got to the door, she ate the last drops of negative energy that she could and dropped the microphone at the end of her song, then walked back out; feeling completely revived by her own music and the negativity it spread. "Ah, that feels much better..." Adagio finally smiled as she walked back through the darkened night. "Who needs friendship anyways? I've got all that I could ever want right here on my neck. Would I ever want to give that up for anything? Not a chance." She put her hands together. "Now, I realize where I went wrong; why I lost to the Rainbooms in the first place. I was too merciful and I shared my food with my sisters. What a grave mistake that was. Well, I'm sure that with this mountain of negative energy all to myself, it won't be long before I'm back on my feet." An evil glare crossed her face. "Get ready, Rainbooms. Because Adagio Dazzle is going to be kicking all of your namby-pamby asses in no time..." As she started to laugh like a malicious witch, another lightning bolt accompanied her as she walked through the city; ready to make some more meals out of the populace...