Adagio stood leaning against the window of Rarity's guest bedroom, her gaze risen to the heavens veiled by a thick grey overcast that well-suited her mood. She inattentively massaged her forearm, where the towering human in gold plating had grabbed her. The siren still felt the leathery coarseness of his palm squeezed against her bare skin, and a chill shivered down her spine at the idea of it pressed against her throat.
Or Aria's.
That hotheaded idiot, Adagio thought. She briefly flitted her gaze across the guest bedroom, where Aria was pacing back and forth, her shoulders hunched, arms folded tight across her chest with fists clenching and unclenching, all without producing a sound save for the soft but urgent thumps of footfalls upon the pale-cream carpeting. She looked just about ready to punch somebody. Preferably not me, Adagio hoped, though she had no disillusions that that was exactly what Aria was thinking about, if the glares she sensed at her back were any indication. Adagio made the subconscious effort not to grant Aria the pleasure of being caught while threatening her leader with her eyes.
Let hot air be blown, if it will get her to cool down faster. Adagio had no longing of a one-sided stand off with the raging siren; her nerves were spent for the day, most of them on this horrid situation, the rest on said Dazzling. The slightest nudge may be enough to send her into a fury the whole house would hear. Although deep in her heart she knew it was inevitable, Adagio sought to avoid confrontation at least until Aria stamped her feet a couple times.
At her right flank, the gentle creek of the bed was the telltale sign that Sonata had sat down, who has yet to utter a sound since the news-bomb was dropped. One would expect her to be chattering nonstop of their predicament, maybe make some inane musing or escape plan that would lull Aria and Adagio into yet another one of their frequent disgruntled exasperations. Adagio repressed the urge to bark out in bitter laughter when she realized, if the warmth slowing her churning heart were any indication, that she would actually enjoy that. Anything that resembled familiarity would lighten their predicament. But Adagio knew better than to distract herself from more important matters at hand, and never lingered on such ignorant hopes.
Yet Sonata is unusually quiet, Aria is so pissed she hasn't even said anything yet, and I'm here just being... here. Adagio frowned, and slowly twisted her face into a silent snarl. One of you idiots, just do something already! Why do I have to be the one to do all the hard work!?
Now may be the time to break that streak, as part of Adagio wished, prayed even, that Sonata would open her blessedly stupid mouth and chirp out whatever pile-of-trash pondering that was racing through her mind.
Someone has to say something eventually, thought Adagio. I have no intention of spending the rest of our lives caught amidst a perpetual silence in the ugly little room of this ugly giant house, with its ugly, ugly people watching us like starved hounds as they wait at the door for the three of us to "talk it out."
But it would seem that for once the gravity of their situation penetrated that hunk of cement Sonata called a skull. Adagio assumed it was the shock of it all that still held her. We've been trying to get her to shut up for a thousand years and the key this whole time was to threaten us with a choice between eternal banishment or prison.
The irony almost gave way to a truly bitter laugh, but a lump in her throat caught it and she choked a little on the inhale. Adagio listlessly coughed into her fist. It was the first sound any of the sirens made, and Adagio could feel both her teammates' stares at her back as she stared out the window, arms folded tight against her slim bust.
The strain between the Dazzlings was palpable, or, as the humans were wont to call it, the "awkwardness." Adagio suspected, no, knew for a fact that her teammates were all waiting for someone to speak first as well, to make the first move that would knock over the first domino and send this fragile silence into an unstoppable collapse.
Then Sunset Shimmer would get what she wanted for certain.
"We'll give you girls time to talk it out," the girl had said, as two Royal Guards from Equestria led Adagio and Aria by their forearms.
'We'll let you talk it out,' psh! Adagio almost snorted aloud at the memory. Like I'm letting them to dictate our right to speak to one another in private. Those snivelling, grovelling…
"It could be worse."
Adagio inhaled silently, and held it. And held it. There was only silence, and then, "...Shut up, Sonata." Aria's voice came low, and threatening. "Just shut the hell up."
And here we go… Adagio kept her back on the two, feeling like she should step in but at the same time weighed by the desire not to do anything else. Her attention remained drawn on the grim-looking sky.
Maybe I just don't care about what happens anymore. A sudden burst of fire in her gut said otherwise. No, wait, I care, she quickly decided. I've just come to accept defeat like a beaten animal. She felt the black rot in her stomach worsen, and the squabbling at her back did it no favors.
"Do you have any idea what this will mean for us?" snarled Aria. "Our whole lives are now shot in the foot because of those stupid Rainblossoms and you don't even realize that! You... you're just the worst, okay? The absolute worst!"
"But I'm serious! Equestria is green and safe, you'd be able to swim in the ocean again, too! And it's not like we're actually gonna be thrown in a dungeon or anything. How can you not see that this could be totes worse?"
Still and silent, but listening, Adagio had no illusions that the ponies would let them anywhere near a body of water no bigger than a bathtub. But neither Sonata nor Aria needed to hear that, especially coming from her. She instead silently grit her teeth together, and lowered her forehead to the cool surface of the window. Its bite was sharp, and cold, but she did not wince, not even a little.
She could practically hear the hot steam pouring out from Aria's ears. "We're going to be theirs for the rest of our lives! Their prisoners, their property! We'll never obtain power again, we won't sing, we won't even be who we are anymore! Those stupid ponies, they think they're the good guys as they point a gun at our foot and tell us to rip our fangs out, making us into... into them." Her contempt was so blatant one might think they disgusted and horrified Aria more than anything in the known world could.
But Adagio knew Aria, even if the other siren would deny it to her grave, and she knew her old friend was feeling nothing short of absolute terror. Like the Yin to Sonata's Yang, Aria let herself be consumed by the things that terrified her the most out of all this: leaving her team, the unknown that lied beyond that portal, whatever the Fates had in store for their little troupe.
When she spoke again after a lingering quiet, her voice was a low snarl. "How could you give a damn about seeing the stupid ocean again with all of that?"
"Because it's our home, and it's pretty!" Sonata cried, even doing a little stamp of her foot. After that, quiet. Adagio could practically hear the simpler siren's face turn red amidst the pressing silence. "Well… Well you wouldn't be needing to be taught friendship if you weren't such a grumpy pants!"
"Hey!" There was a faint smack. "Don't push me, don't even touch me!"
Sonata huffed. "You're so angry and stupid right now, you're like a big purple ape!" She spoke like a child throwing insults at the schoolyard, though Adagio had little doubts about their effect on the already livid-beyond-measure Aria Blaze. "And do you really think Dagi doesn't have a plan right now? She's going to outsmart those girls and get us out of this jam like she always does!"
Adagio closed her eyes, groaning low enough for only herself to hear. Why bring me into this now, Sonata?
Aria scoffed. "Oh, yes, our incredible and crafty leader is going to hatch another amazing plan. Who knows? Maybe by the end of this one we'll get ourselves banished to a dark torture chamber! Can't wait to see how you'll look on the bright side of things as some psychopath runs a knife along your fingertips." Her words hit Adagio like a pillow to a brick wall; she felt absolutely nothing towards their slander, outside of an emptiness that was apparent before the argument even started.
But whatever sadistic amusement Aria likely held after that was whisked away when Sonata countered, "How will there be a bright side in a dark torture chamber?"
The sound of Aria smacking her own face cracked throughout the bedroom. She said nothing, though Adagio could practically hear the blood in her veins boiling.
Sonata, being herself, missed the hint to back off. "Didn't you hear me? I said—"
"Oh my God, just shut up!" Aria snapped, voice like a whip. "I swear, I actually want to go if it means getting away from you!"
"That's the spirit!" Sonata chirped.
"Why don't you just go fuck Twilight and all of her stupid friends if you love them so much?"
Sonata squeaked, but made not another sound. Though she was at her back, Adagio had a clear picture of Sonata with her mouth agape in complete shock as an angry flush scaled her neck. "Why are you so horrible and nasty all of a sudden!?" she cried out.
"Because I'm pissed! Why wouldn't I be, idiot?!" The harshness of Aria's voice actually made Adagio wince, and a sudden throbbing in the back of her head made itself aggravatingly known. "We probably would have won too," Aria took a deep breath, "if you didn't act like such a dense ditz in front of that Sunset girl, made it obvious we were up to something."
There was a tick in which everything stopped, followed up immediately by slow, measured footfalls upon the carpet. When they halted after just a couple, the whole world seemed to have froze with them. For a moment, Adagio only heard the thumping in her own head. Then Sonata purred with sweetened malice, "I'm gonna kill a Rainboom and get you sent to Tartarus."
"Not if I kill you first!"
This has gone on long enough. Adagio Dazzle's palm slammed against the wall loud as a thunderclap. "Both of you, shut up!" She whirled around. "There will be no more of this senseless infighting, do you hear me? We're in too dangerous a place to be bickering amongst ourselves now."
As per usual with scoldings, Sonata's eyes fell, her bare foot twisting into the rug as she tapped two fingers together, ashamed. Aria, however, defiantly folded her arms. "You should have let me rush out of there," she complained.
Adagio's face twisted into a snarl; it must have looked hideous without any makeup on and the gloom shining in around her. "And I told you, no! I knew, I knew that those girls out there wouldn't take any risks with us…!" Adagio stopped herself, to take a moment to breathe deep and calm her weary mind. Aria's an idiot if she thought the ponies were so foolish they didn't think we'd try an escape, Adagio thought, remembering the towers of armored ivory marching in through the front door at Princess Twilight's call, pikes in hand, faces locked in severity.
She returned Aria's gaze with chilly calm and a lifted chin, staring down the length of her nose. "I had my eye on you the whole time, you know. It's a good thing I stopped you, or you may have ended up with a spear in your belly. You should be thanking me." Aria gave thanks with a rude snort. Adagio frowned, her lips pursing. "It's just a shame I wasn't quick enough. You're lucky Princess Twilight's burns weren't grievous, or that she's so forgiving. So help me, if you had made our situation worse with that sad little revolution... "
All at once a scowl exploded across Aria's face as quickly as a flush crawled up her neck. "Oh, bravo! Bravo, our brilliant leader! The Rainbooms treated us like dogs and you treat me like one too. You're perfect for them, you know? You blame your failures on everything but yourself, just like they do!"
Adagio gasped. "You dare?"
"Oh, I dare, sister! I've actually got balls."
Any other day, and I would have beaten you senseless for that. "Well, maybe if you weren't so volatile and stupid, I wouldn't have to babysit you all the time!" Aria simply huffed and angrily glared off to the side, arms folded tight against her chest. The sound of her teeth grinding permeated amidst the quiet. Adagio narrowed her eyes. "They had Royal Guards brought in through the portal, waiting outside the front door!" she cried, exasperated. "Come on, Aria! For once, use your head!"
Aria's cheeks turned scarlet as if she had just been smacked. Verbally, I suppose, Adagio brooded. She was surprised in herself to find that, for whatever reason, she gained no enjoyment out of it.
Aria was quick enough to muster up a comeback with a red tint still evident on her cheeks. "I made a stand to show that we aren't weak," she coolly retorted, though the effort failed and she came off sounding much like she was trying to convince herself.
Adagio, at least in her mind, couldn't be blamed for responding the way she did. "Ah, yes, marvelous rebellion," she sneered. "It shall be known as, 'The Righteous Defiance of Aria Blaze.' They'll be speaking of it for hours to come."
"You should have let me go!" Aria insisted, her voice ringing in the emptiness of the bedroom. "There's no way, no way, that I'm playing buddy-buddy and bending my head to those pathetic little featherweights! Those same ones that got us trapped here in the first place, all because of your manure plans!"
You're really taxing my patience, you little monster. "And you'll continue to follow these 'manure plans' Aria. You are my teammate, my follower, and you will do as I say. You will be going to Equestria and doing whatever is necessary to bring us back home."
Perhaps the lack of insults caught Aria off guard; for a moment she could only stare, chewing on what was just said as if weighing whether or not she should feel insulted.
Then she said, "No." Aria shook her head. "No, there's no way I'm going to get all lovey-lovey with those ponies, Adagio. I just can't. I won't."
Though the defiant "teen rebel" in Aria's tone had faded to one of guarded desperation, Adagio still felt something begin to crawl and scrape its way through her skull the longer this debate went on. "I don't care if you have to marry one and shoot out a foal or two." Sonata winced to that, covering her mouth with both hands. Adagio's brow gave an involuntary twitch. "We are going to play along with the ponies' little games for as long as need be, and then we'll break the chain and strangle them with it when the time is right." Wait it out, like always.
When she focused on Aria, Adagio anticipated her to come to a crotchety understanding, as per usual. But she only looked to Adagio with disbelief, as if what Adagio had just said was utter heresy. "That's it?" She laughed once, bewildered. "This is your 'brilliant plan' that Sonata here thought you had? Stab them in the back? Two, no, three freaking princesses on their own turf? Wow. What is there to say? Did that alicorn fry your brain or something?"
"I could ask you the same thing," she countered with her usual panache, hand on her hip. "You think I'm some kind of super genius that could hatch an intricately detailed plan within a few minutes? I wish I could, but sadly, no, I cannot."
Aria shrugged. "Don't worry about it. I'll just wait to see how spectacularly you fail this time."
Adagio purpled. She fought to restrain the rage in her tone, though failed miserably. "Friendship Magic, Aria. Friendship. Magic. How could anyone possibly account for a whole new school of powerful magic that hasn't been properly invented and honed until just a few months ago?"
A derisive laugh burst from Aria's lips. "No, how about this," she said, hands raised, fingers bent and pointed at Adagio, "instead of ignoring it as I keep bringing it up, how about you actually account for the fact that your blind lust has, once again, irrevocably screwed us over?" Her face erupted into a snarl between breaths. "How about you actually own up to your mistakes for once instead of blaming me like always?!"
Adagio felt all of that heat vent from her stomach and rush up to her face as she stood there, teeth grit so hard they should have cracked. "I," she stammered, tone rising, "I brought us closer to our old power than we ever had in the last thousand years!"
"And now we've fallen farther than Starswirl ever hoped we would, and it's all your fault!"
A crypt silence fell upon the Dazzlings.
Sonata sat on the bed, hugging her knees with eyes that penetrated her leader's steely gaze. They shimmered wetly, as if she finally comprehended the truth of their situation. Adagio wrenched her gaze away, unable to behold the pitiful sight any longer. Her own eyes fell on the dark shadow attached to her own feet, trembling feebly.
Utter silence is impossible to achieve, as the sound of one's heart beating would always intrude if nothing else.
But even that was still as the air in the room. Yet in Adagio's mind, the space normally occupied with plots and schemes and thoughts of the future were smothered by Aria's words playing over and over again, each repetition louder than the last. "It's all your fault!" she sneers with a grin. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Adagio thought of Aria standing in front of her, all smug with her arms crossed...
...because she knows she's right.
Adagio felt her mouth twist. If her throat hadn't closed on itself she would be screaming. You utter moron, Aria! I'm at fault!? You treacherous snake in the grass, our failure is on your head, not mine!
"It's all your fault."
I had the plan, me! You lacked the effort! And Sonata did, too! The both of you, you didn't take this seriously! You never take anything seriously! You never understand when stakes are higher than your delusional fantasies of leading this team. The more Adagio thought, the hotter a burning in her face grew, and the hotter it grew, the greater her rage flared, and it looped again to her quietly screaming at Aria, like one domino toppling over another.
How dare she, a voice seethed in Adagio's ear. Who gave you the gall to speak to me in such a way?
Adagio wanted to grab Aria by the straps of her top and slam an open palm across her cheeks, then do it again, and again and again till they burned hot as her namesake and the girl had tears streaming over them. She wanted to have her by the throat, face brought so close Aria would feel hot breath in her ear. You will do as I say, she wanted to growl through gritted teeth, or you'll fall even further than you have now, you little monster. She wanted to hear the girl whimper pathetically, and in turn feel satisfied and even gaining relief in putting her in her place.
Yet the fantasy playing out in her mind made Adagio feel no better. It, in fact, made her feel marginally terrible, like sludge suddenly emptied into her guts and was left to roil. Yet when she tried moving forward, to make that dream a reality, something petrified Adagio's legs and made them as much a part of the floor as the carpet squeezed between her toes. The cavernous void in her gut expanded in a heartbeat, filling her chest and hollowing it all at once, leaving her feeling more like a plastic doll than a real person; a plastic doll with a blank, stiff face and wide, unblinking eyes.
When she remembered she had to blink, her shadow on the ground was rendered an inky blurr. She blinked again, and finally the sounds of reality came roaring back: the low hum of the heater behind her ankles, the soft breaths of Sonata Dusk, her own heart, hammering faster than an overzealous smithy she had a fling with centuries ago.
Her breast felt devoid of oxygen, and Adagio released a breath in her lungs she had been holding since Aria said…
Since Aria said…
Adagio took a breath, to compress the phantom mass inside that burdened her chest and prevented her from swallowing a bothersome lump in her throat. She took another, and then another after that, then another, each more broken and quiet than the last. Then Adagio realized where she was, who she was with, and why they were there. All of the horrible memories from just two days ago came to surface, beginning at an ethereal alicorn in the clouds with piercing white eyes, and punctuated finally by Aria's words slamming her in the gut:
"This is all YOUR FAULT!"
Then, Adagio felt something tickle the length of her cheeks, slow and deliberately; mockingly in a way, but she didn't have the wits to curse them. Only one thing was on her mind:
"It is." Her voice was barely a whisper, but Adagio knew she heard. "You're absolutely right." She never looked up from the shadow, shame weighing her pathetic face down. "I'm sorry for everything—!" Her lips burst out with an ugly sob that echoed sharply in the room.
Ashamed, Adagio covered her humiliation with a single hand. Another sob came, but was smothered by her palm. She hoped her hair would hide the painfully obvious. For how long she was like this, Adagio couldn't say. But in her world it was just her and this room, and she made sure to count every stupid, weak sob that shot out of her throat.
She counted four when she finally threw her gaze up, where both Aria and Sonata stood a couple feet before her, visibly shocked but the latter much more subdued than the other. Adagio, suddenly realizing that she was crying and her teammates were staring, hastily dragged her palm across her cheeks, brushing away tears before any more fell.
And then the unexpected happened, in which Adagio felt another person collide with her own and squeezed her arms around her. It hurt, but felt comforting and protective all at once: it was a Sonata hug, mighty and full of all the heart that the bubbly siren contained, conveyed in a gesture to make her loved ones feel better. But Adagio was so taken aback by the suddenness of it to process it completely. Her eyes just held open, tears still pooled within them, peering over Sonata's bared shoulder where the strap had partially slid down.
The cold light fixture in the center of the ceiling held Adagio's rapt attention. She felt the occasional pat on the back, the hand pulling aside her unruly hair, the face nuzzling into her neck. More sobs wracked her body, and in response Sonata held her tighter until she couldn't move at all. When a soft voice tried speaking, Adagio only heard what sounded like mumblings stifled by a pair of earplugs.
Then Aria's spoke for the first time, and sounded like it was right beside her. "Dag'…" Her voice was whisper-quiet, almost meek in an un-Aria sort of way. "I'm… It's whatever." Adagio felt a third hand lay across the small of her back and give it a pat. The act felt as forced and stiff as Aria sounded. "C'mon Dag', keep it together. We're fine, we're all okay."
Adagio gently pushed herself away from the girls, just forceful enough to give herself room. Both girls still kept a hand on either shoulder. When Adagio looked up, she was first met with Aria, whose face was somber yet in her eyes there was a glimmer of sympathy.
She rightfully blames me yet finds the compassion not to rub her victory in. And Adagio could tell, by just the way Aria held herself and spoke to her just then, that it took great willpower and even some of that rare maturity she knew her teammate had in her not to.
Sonata offered a weak little smile, and moved in to wrap her arms around Adagio's person once more while pulling Aria in too. She did not push either of them away, nor return the gesture. "It'll be alright," the girl assured, gently chipper. "It's like you said, we'll see each other again soon!"
Adagio began to fan herself, to stop the flood from spilling and disgracing her further.
"No." The word sounded forced out of Adagio's throat. Both Aria and Sonata stepped away. As if missing her friend's embrace, Adagio hugged herself. "No," she echoed, clearer. "It's not... just that. It's... I came expecting an easy victory. I had everyone wrapped tightly around my finger, each and every one of them doing as I bid like trained h-hounds." She forced the word, then paused to sniffle; it was hard to speak while weeping. "I was on both sides of the chessboard. But then I got careless, and now we are shamed and beaten. Centuries of tiptoeing under the radar rendered null in the span of a few short days. Aria's absolutely right; a thousand years and we are prisoners moreso now than we ever were." Her face flashed into one of rage. "I thought we won the damned world! I ask, is this how all of Celestia's enemies feel after a defeat?"
"...Well," Aria folded her arms, "I guess I should be grateful you didn't mess up so badly we got turned to stone, or lost our powers."
Adagio's eyes flared open. "Are you being serious?"
The other girl sputtered, gesturing with her hands out. "What? What did I say? We got lucky, I was being serious!"
"I heard your sarcasm! The way you worded that—"
"Oh, now you're just trying to find reasons to yell at me!"
"Stop it!" Sonata cried. "Stop fighting!" She wrapped her arms tight around Aria and buried her face into her shoulder.
Aria wriggled against it. "Lemme go!"
"No!" Aria struggled a bit more against Sonata's boa-like hold, but eventually her snarls and pants tapered into a quiet, tired breathing. The flush slowly left her face.
The whole display, the show they must be giving the Rainbooms, it tickled Adagio and gave her the chuckles, drawing in odd stares from her two companions. "Is this it?" she asked, palms out. A tired smile was plastered to her face. "Is this what the Rainbooms meant when the two gold-plated humans shoved us in here? Is this what they meant by 'talk it out'? Screaming our heads off until we tire our rage?"
Neither siren spoke a word, but the look they shared said it all. Sonata went back to Adagio with glossy eyes. "I guess so." Her voice was meek.
To her words, Adagio sighed deep, massaging her own forehead as she strode over and took a seat on the disheveled bed. We used to be amazing. What happened to us? she wondered. What happened to me? Adagio had spent a greater part of her life stuck in prison, this world of Humans, with Starswirl as their warden. Then old Starswirl died, Equestria forgot about the Sirens and their ill-fated conquest of the Surface World, and Adagio swore she would find a way back home and restore her power. And now we are going home, through a portal that has been under my nose this entire time, constructed by Starswirl no less. But all's we're doing is just moving to a different cellblock.
Adagio felt bile rise up in her throat. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to laugh at the insanity and irony of it all, like people usually do in the movies when they have a mental breakdown. But no laughter came, nor a sob. Nothing.
"Sonata, I'm fine. I'm okay now." Aria's voice grabbed Adagio's attention. Her face rose to find the two sirens slowly untangling from one another's arms.
Aria turned to Adagio. When their eyes almost met, hers dodged away immediately, narrowing, seemingly bitter. But Adagio looked past that and saw the burn in her friend's eyes, the subtle hints of shame that lingered with the way her lips stiffened. She has every right to be upset, Adagio thought, her heart suddenly very heavy. She is the one suffering the most out of all of us.
Adagio silently forgave Aria for her behavior; no good will come if she keeps chewing out the poor wretch. "So," she spoke suddenly, "what now?" Her companions looked to her, each with uncertainty.
'You don't have a plan?' they're probably thinking. The thought made a sour ache blossom in Adagio's chest. No. No girls, I don't. "I mean, where do we go from here?"
Sonata took a couple steps forward, one hand clutching her arm. "Wha-What do you mean, Dagi?" she asked, all innocent and gentle. "I thought you said we should do whatever the Rainbooms ask."
"I know what I…" Adagio caught herself; she breathed deep. "I know what I said. I guess…" I guess I need someone to tell me that what I'm doing is a good idea.
But there was no way in Hell she would ever utter such pathetic musings out loud. "We're really in it deep now, girls," she said. "I don't think we can sing our way out of this one, or talk, or fuck or fight or flee.
"You want to be a leader so badly, Aria? Here's an important lesson about leadership: never second guess yourself. The moment you do is the moment you've failed as a leader."
"You're... probably right," Aria grumbled, still refusing to look at them. "Those glorified bouncers will probably spear us through the gut if we attack, or try to run. Certainly be doing the ponies a favor that way. Well, if I'm really doing this, might as well make their lives as miserable as possible." The other sirens chuckled dryly at this.
There was silence for a long time. Then Sonata said, "Probably not." All eyes were on her. She shrank a little. "Well, they don't seem to want to kill us. They'll probably just, I dunno, bonk us on the head." As she explained, Sonata made the gesture of her fist bopping an invisible object in front of her.
"They'd 'bonk' us?" Aria spoke as if she'd never heard the term.
"Yeah, I guess. They'd like, I dunno…" she performed the gesture again, "bonk!"
"And we'd fall?" Aria clarified. "Just like that?"
Sonata shrugged. "That's usually how the movies do it."
Adagio couldn't help but smile. "It will be a legend for the ages." Sonata grinned wide, and even Aria permitted herself to let a smirk appear on that damned gloomy face. Adagio stood up, smiling broader, her hands splayed out in front of her. "The Dazzlings!" she announced dramatically. "Feared by Starswirl, thrived in an alien world for hundreds of years, forced the beloved student-turned-princess to her knees… and then felled by an accursed bonk!"
Adagio and Sonata both stumbled into girlish giggling, from either the silliness on display or the sudden dispersal of tension in the air, the disgraced leader could not discern. Even Aria, whom stared at her a moment, could not fight her own mouth breaking into a rueful grin. She was soon laughing too.
As liberating as it felt, the mirth died down quickly as it began. Silence trickled in again amongst them, and with it, Adagio's wits. We must sound completely mad, she mused, picturing the Rainbooms huddled around their door, ears pressed to the wood.
"We needed that," Sonata mumbled, trying to suppress her grin.
Any traces of her prior glee had fled from Aria's face. Her expression was stern once again, and her arms folded across her chest. She looked at Adagio from the corner of her eye. "So, Dag', about this purple princess… whatever this plan of yours is, what do you plan on doing about her? She controls the portal, from what they're telling us."
"They're calling her the 'Princess of Friendship'," Sonata added, leaning in beside her teammate. "I didn't even know 'friendship' was a thing you could rule. Do ya think she executes people who aren't friends and mounts their heads on the gate?"
"It's an amusing thought," said Adagio.
"Probably not though. Too metal. She just traps you in an invisible collar and indoctrinates you into becoming friends," said Aria, possibly joking but with that monotone of her's... it was hard to tell. "It's like prison, but a lot gayer."
Sonata tutted. "That's not very PC, Ari. Maybe the nerdy princess saw this rotten-banana attitude of yours and hopes she can change it! Oh, we're still gonna bust you out before that can happen though, but she doesn't know that!"
Aria snorted. "Good luck to her." She nodded to her leader. "This one's been trying to collar me for centuries. If Princess Sparkle decided she can do better—"
"Please." Adagio rolled her eyes. "I doubt Twilight Sparkle made any independent decision regarding who was picked. She is a sheep with the Princesses' voice, nothing more. She'd call for a mass suicide if Celestia told her to."
Adagio was no fool; she had no doubts that whatever Twilight said to them about their reasons for picking Aria first for "reformation" was nothing more but parroted drivel to cover the hard truth.
That truth of course being, Adagio is the leader. Those in such a position were never taken as wards; a leader kept order amongst his or her remaining peers. Though Adagio did not mistrust the loyalty of her teammates, even Aria, to get her landed in Tartarus, the Two Sisters did not know that. And Sonata, well, Adagio would not be quick to jump to her defense if someone were to say she wasn't as valuable a hostage as Aria.
On top of that, they probably think I won't be able to plan anything big with Sonata. The thought of such a thing knotted up Adagio's insides. She had the overwhelming urge to prove them wrong.
"I suppose that's all there is to talk about." Adagio pushed herself off the bed. She looked to Aria, and Blaze looked back to her. Despite their typical steeliness, Adagio could still see the trace bits of fear in her gaze, the fear they all had of being separated from each other. Adagio could hide it no problem, but it was clear to Aria they were feeling just as... as afraid as her.
Perhaps I am more scared than her, Adagio thought. Her stomach swarmed with hornets. We've never been apart before, not like this.
She approached her sister-siren, eyes never leaving hers. Adagio's hands folded together, rubbing together. She swallowed what must have been cotton in her throat. "Aria," she began, her own voice booming in the silence, "whatever you may think of me right now, know that not an hour will pass when you aren't on our minds."
Aria nodded. Her eyes gleamed. "I… I know."
"Every day will bring us closer to freeing you from these monsters." She spoke quietly. "There are eyes everywhere, we will have to work slow. But it won't be long until you are free of their chains. That is a day that will certainly come, and... " Adagio breathed deep, involuntarily trembling; these next words did not come easy: "...And this is a promise that will not be sat on for another thousand years."
With that, Aria stepped forward in front of Adagio and clasped her firmly by the shoulders. Hesitance was evident on her face: eyes averting Adagio's, lip biting, brows pushed together. But finally, whatever battle was waged inside her head resolved itself, and Aria leaned forward and gently pushed her lips against her friend's nose.
Then she pulled her roughly into a hug. "Can the sap, Dag'," she said. "I knew all that already."
When she pulled away to do the same to Sonata, Adagio permitted herself a gentle little smile. That kiss was a farewell of ocean dwellers, a small gesture worth more than gold promising they would see a each other soon. Even with only her family bearing witness, Aria sacrificed a lot of dignity to perform it. For that, Adagio wanted to beam. She hid it in a smirk.
I pray to any Gods that care to listen, that this plan won't end in another failure. I cannot fail again. She looked to her sisters, Sonata squeezing Aria into a tearful embrace, and her sister-siren actually returning the gesture, one arm around the other girl.
For their sakes, I won't.