The soup wasn't great by any means, but considering some of the things Adagio had said about her diet in the past, Sunset supposed that maybe the sirens didn't have the most refined sense of taste. Still, it was definitely better than cold pizza that had been sitting out all night. Adagio even let her feed herself this time!
Feeling weird about eating with someone just kind of sitting there watching her, Sunset offered to watch a movie together on her laptop as Adagio retook her seat on the bed. The film in question, 'Frosted,' wasn't a Trixar production, but Adagio had never seen it and there were enough similarities in the style that it seemed worth a shot. The events onscreen led to the topic of family, which drew the question of whether or not Adagio, Aria, and Sonata were sisters. Sunset was most confused by Adagio's answer.
"How can it 'yes' AND 'no'? Blood relation isn't really a 'maybe' kind of thing!"
"I know, and personally, I would say we are, but that's how it was explained when I asked our sire."
"Huh?"
"I was told that while the three of us were born from the same parents, we share little to no blood relation."
Sunset's inner biologist was having a conniption fit. "That. Isn't. Possible."
"Are you familiar with changeling biology?"
"Uhh..." Sunset hated holes in her knowledge. They never didn't make her feel like a complete idiot.
"Long story short? One queen, many short-term fathers, all of whose genes are morphed into those black, porous freaks you may have seen in textbooks."
"Then why aren't you three-"
"Discord."
Processing the word, Sunset's eyes widened. "That thing raised you?" Twilight tells me he's changed from what the history books described, but only in that he isn't a complete asshole anymore.
Adagio raised a single, doubting eyebrow. "...Raised?"
"Uh... y'know, took care of you guys? Looked after you while you were young, taught you how to..." The cold stare she was getting said 'No on all accounts,' drawing a worried frown. "Okay, then... what?"
"The cliff-notes version? The head of a changeling hive made a deal with him; powerful offspring for the cost of the night it took to make them. They, err-" Adagio had to break eye-contact to keep from blushing, "-made us, we came out to be 'duds,' and she threw us into the sea, where Discord was waiting to catch us. He then awoke our power, gave us the run-down of our situation, and threw us into the sky. The last I ever heard of him was his laughter as we stopped screaming when we figured out that we could hover."
Sunset's jaw hung open for a long minute. "...How-"
Adagio held up a hand. "In short: Try to picture the genetics of chaos itself and our existence won't keep you up at night."
"...Okay. But, like, parenting? You make it sound like you were born, thrown out, picked up by Discord, and sent on your way all inside of about five minutes."
"It was closer to an hour, I think." Sunset staring in horror made her wonder if she was doing something wrong again. "...What? We're talking about his genetic material here, information included, so our maturation was complete in under a day, an adult's comprehension pre-packaged." She blinked. Sonata. "Well, you know, give or take."
Sunset couldn't help reeling at the idea of abandoning three newborn children regardless, but resisted the urge to wrap Adagio in a hug and never let go. "So, you three were born and literally just thrown to the winds? You never even had a childhood?"
Shrugging as she crossed her arms, Adagio looked almost defensive. "We had the whole world to explore and the power to make it ours, pretty good as far as abandonment goes."
There was a silence. One in which the orange-haired orphan started to fidget under Sunset's distraught gaze, but to her quiet relief, it was broken when Sunset started coughing.
Escape! Adagio smiled. "Need a glass of water or-"
"No," rasped Sunset as her fit started to subside, "n-no, I'm fine, and not done talking about this."
Damn! The grin vanished as she let out a beleaguered sigh. "What else is there to say? That we weren't brought up with the greatest example of family values? Because we're definitely not the only ones, the way I hear it." Sunset flinched, in a way Adagio recognized from her years of toying with people as something deeply personal having been poked. "Um... S-sorry?"
Sunset shrunk back a little as she contemplated outright retreating back into her blanket-coccoon. Her question came in a whisper. "How did you know about that?"
Gathering her thoughts, Adagio blinked slowly. "Well, I may not go asking people about their situations, but I hear them talk. One parent cheating on the other, sibling with an addiction, absurdly racist grandparents, et cetera." All great topics with which to draw negative energy out of individuals, as it happened.
Then, for perhaps the first time that day, Sunset's brain worked on-time. "...You mean like, in general? That most people don't have the ideal, white-picket-fence family life?"
An eyebrow was raised. "I get the feeling you have me at a disadvantage here, Sunset Shimmer."
Grinning somewhat apologetically, Sunset giggled. "Guess I kinda do, huh? Sorry, I... well..." She shared a little about her past, right? Sunset cleared her throat. "Did you know I was once a protege to a princess?"
Adagio chuckled. "When I said we knew all about you, I only meant in regard to your time in this world."
"Well, long story short, it was considered a high mark of honor, and I wasn't the only one who made sure ponies knew it. My parents were among the wealthiest in the other world's Canterlot Elite when I left, which might have changed by now with how often 'power' fluctuates in that stupid city, but anyway... I was a magical prodigy growing up, which was how I earned the position, but that was all they saw me for."
"I see... Perhaps that changeling did us a favor, hm?"
"W-what?!"
The siren cracked a smile. "What you just described is almost certainly what she had in mind for my pseudo-sisters and I; living tools with which to exert her own power and influence."
"Heh, I guess so." She almost managed to smile back, but the subject was kind of a downer. "It really doesn't bother you at all? Knowing that it was supposed to be different?"
"Considering that the experience and understanding of a healthy, functional family was not included in the information we inherited from Discord?" Adagio winked. "I think the three of us will come to grips with our loss." Then she frowned. "Uh, though, I suppose you might have had a harder time without... whatever it was you feel you've missed, so..." Slowly, gingerly, and with as little eye-contact as possible, Adagio stretched out her arms in what could only be called a Hugging Preparation Pose. "I-if you-"
That was as far as she got before Sunset, in a surprising feat of agility for a sick person, sprung forward and wrapped her in a hug, squeezing tightly and resting her chin on the other girl's shoulder at such an angle as not to be smothered in fluff. She'd have silently pat herself on the back for perfectly replicating what her friends had done for her so many times, but right now, there was only Hug, which Adagio rigidly returned.
Hah, I remember when I was like that. I bet her face is all red again.
They stayed that way for a little while, just long enough to shoo away the heartache, as Fluttershy had put it a few times, before Sunset broke the silence.
"You guys really aren't sisters?"
"Well, legally speaking, perhaps, which is one reason I generally tell people that we are. Does it matter?"
Sunset backed away enough to regain eye-contact, finding that Adagio was only a little rosy. "Well, I guess not, but I kinda thought that was one of the reasons you guys stuck together. Blood is thicker, y'know?"
Chuckling, Adagio shook her head. "As I said, we weren't exactly given the best example of familial affection. That wasn't what kept us together even back then, we just wanted-..." Her eyes widened as she trailed off. "...Oh."
Giving her a sympathetic grin, Sunset spoke softly. "You three wanted to be adored, right? Maybe you did feel like you were missing something, huh?"
"I'd, I'd never even... It hadn't really occurred to me until now..." Staring back at Sunset, Adagio felt lost, and by the look Sunset was giving her, it must have shown on her face. "So, what does this mean? Should I talk to the others about this, is there something we're supposed to-" She was pulled into another hug, this one much gentler than the last, and returned it just a little bit faster.
"I think it means," Sunset offered, "that no matter who your parents were, no matter how you grew up, you three are just like the rest of us deep down."
Adagio didn't contest this submission, instead relishing her new-found understanding of what hugging (also not included in Discord's knowledge base) had to offer. It wasn't exactly a roaring crowd, but she'd definitely take it in restrained doses. To think, the stories always made it sound so much more... carnal.
Another long, quiet moment passed before she whispered to her patient. "So, is there anything else I can do for you today?"
"Umm..." Thinking about it, all Sunset really wanted to do was cuddle into those orange curls a little more, even if they had lost a little of their poofiness since Rarity started regularly working on them.
I-dee-yaa!
...
Nope, that doesn't feel right, not even in my head.
Still. Idea.
Sunset pulled back again, as asking during a hug might have been weird. "I think I'm good, thanks, just need to sleep the rest of this thing off... So, um," if she was lucky, maybe it would only look like she was red from fever as she averted her eyes, "since there's nothing better to do, maybe we could just take a siesta?"
Glancing at the big lump of quilt nearby, Adagio tilted her head a little. "Well, you're already on your bed, so-"
"No- well, yes, but-" Damn, knew this would be tricky, "I mean, i-it's like..." Applejack had once told her: The best way to say it was to just say it. She gulped. "Well, f-feel free to say 'no' to this, it's just kind of a little request, but-" Come on!! "rememberwhatwedidatFatbear's?"
There was a slow blink as Adagio processed the question. "...What we did at-Oh!" Her cheeks colored faintly as she absent-mindedly ran a hand through those long, soft locks. "Siesta... You, want to, like when-"
Sunset was looking squarely at her bed now, only talking a little too fast. "Like I said, you can just walk out now if you want because you've already done more than enough and you probably don't want me getting germs all over your hair or even that sick person smell even if I just had a bath and-"
"Sunset?"
She dared look up. "Yes?"
Even if she looked just slightly uncomfortable, Adagio hadn't moved. "I can't guarantee the effectiveness, but doing, well, enjoyable things, is generally healthy. Happiness helps the immune system, so if it's something you'd really like to do...?"
Lowering her head in bashful fashion, Sunset nodded. "I, if you don't mind...?"
Adagio offered a sympathetic little smile. "Well, I did say I was here to help..." She adjusted herself on the bed to be able to sit back-to-hair-to-back, just like they had that night at the restaurant.
It took Sunset a second to figure out how to crab-walk herself into position, but she soon found herself nestled in warm fluff even softer than her quilt. Still, it wasn't quite the warm, fluffy heaven she remembered, so she tried cuddling closer into the hair, but it almost felt like she was shaking.
Woah, have I been moving around too much? Maybe I couldn't have timed this much better...
Feeling just a bit more of that warm softness she remembered from Fatbear's, Sunset let herself settle into place, hearing Adagio's voice a second later.
"C-comfortable?"
"Very, thanks!" With hair like this, Sunset could hardly imagine why Adagio seemed so nostalgic for her scales. Then again, there were times she missed having magic, which her own hair did nothing to compensate for. Did the others get anything in that field? Aria's hair looked silky-smooth when last Sunset saw her, but it was hardly floofy-warmth material. The shade of Sonata's hair made it a little harder to detect a sheen, so Sunset wasn't sure she even had that much.
Oh, speaking of those two...
"Hey, uh," she quietly asked over her shoulder, "did, do the other two know exactly what happened that night at Fatbear's? That we sat up half the night waiting for killer robots?" A shuffling of the hair-cushion suggested that Adagio had shaken her head.
"All I had to tell them was that things didn't work out and they were content to make fun of me from there, no questions asked." A sudden shift in the pressure against her back told her that Sunset had slumped a little, drawing a tiny smile. "It's lessened considerably since then, thanks in no small part to you."
"But I still suspected the worst when you got here." Just like Twilight did with me. "...So, have I ever said I'm not the least bit mad about anything you guys did anymore? I can't speak for the others, but if that was part of the 'debt,' I'd like to call it even." One last thought sprang from the back of her head like an angry cat. "I mean, as long as you forgive us for breaking your gems."
There was a loud pause.
"It's alright. I have said before that we're better off now, haven't I?"
"Maybe, but, back then, you said it hurt. So, I know it wasn't our best-I mean, I know we had to do it, but, did I ever even say I was sorry it hurt you?"
"...You tried to, once, but I wasn't really listening. I can't imagine it's still necessary, but if you feel like you need to say it, I'm listening now."
Sunset smiled a little. "I'm sorry for any pain the Battle may have caused the three of you, both when our spell hit and anything you had to endure afterward." It felt like Adagio nodded.
"I can't speak for the others either, but I'm sorry we bewitched your school, ganged up on you in that hallway, tried to tear your friends apart, and, even if they were never directly under our control, I'm sorry those other contestants harassed your group during the Battle."
Feeling a little bit warmer and cuddlier all over, Sunset only regretted that she couldn't nestle further into the hair-cushion. "It's okay."
Things were quiet again, but it didn't feel like a tense silence as Sunset started to nod off. The heavy, hazy, sickly, smelly feeling she'd woken up with was all but banished now, the combination of pain meds, warm soup, a warm bath, and warm, cozy fluff just leaving her feeling all pleasantly relaxed. Not bad for a sick day!