After The Song

by BioQuillFiction

Songs End

Ouch! That was the first thing that came to mind while waking up. Both my hands were burning. Did I burn the pendants from the inside out? My suspicion was proven right when I moved my hands and they ached worse than when the tour bus ran them over. (Don’t ask!)

I forced myself to push away the pain and get up. I was in one of the rooms the Asylum had. How did I get here? I pulled myself up and used the wall to walk. I really hope that was the last time I EVER need to do something like this… or similar. Thankfully the door was open and I limp walked out.

To my surprise I was stopped by a nurse. “Good you’re awake, but you shouldn’t be walking around like this.”

“Wha… Where are my friends?”

“In the rooms around yours. You’ve been out cold for almost ten hours.”

Ten hours!? “Are they alright!?”

“They’re fine. We’re more worried about you two though. You have third degree burns on your hands and Adagio has them on her neck.”

“So they did burn from the inside out.”

“Yeah. You’re talking about those pendants, right?”

“How do you know…”

She smiled and walked me back to the bed. “You’re friends informed everyone about what happened. Some took longer to fully understand and accept all that information but after we all checked on the patient's the doubters got second thoughts.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, just about every patient that came here for long term treatment no longer needed their treatments.”

“What?”

“It’s like after that spell thing broke all of their problems disappeared. It's a miracle really."

That makes some sense actually, I think every negative emotion from these people was in there with us. “What about Adagio?”

The nurse looked sad at the mention of her name. “Poor girl, I know she’s the one who was controlling us but when everyone was freed You both were unconscious. Adagio woke up just about two or three hours ago, she didn’t say anything but kept crying, muttering something about her guilt.”

“I heard her say something about guilt before we got out. Can I see her?”

“Later miss, you need rest.”

“I just woke up.”

The nurse laughed at my response. “That maybe the case but still, better safe than sorry.”

After she left I laid down on the bed and kept thinking. What guilt, the events from ten years ago? This whole mess? Something from her past? I closed my eyes and started to drift off. I gotta know.

* * *

When morning broke I was awakened by the familiar sound of my rib cage collapsing. Sonata, Arai, Berry Berry, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie all jumped on me and squeezed out any and all relaxation and air my sleep had given me. Okay I’m gonna go see a doctor after this one.

“YEAY! Aunty Sunset beat the mean lady!” Berry shouted. Aunty? That was quick.

“Yeah… Air… Ribs… AIR!” Was all I could force out while under that group pile hug.

After they got off of me and proper air and blood circulation was established within my body I got down to business. “So… Has Adagio said anything or…?”

“No.” Aria said looking worried beyond belief. “Not even to us, especially us.” She placed a hand on Sonata’s shoulder.

“She won’t even look at us.” Sonata spoke through teary eyes.

“Then let me try.” Everyone gave me an odd look.

“Uhh, Sunset.” Rainbow spoke. “If she won't even talk to her friends then what makes you think she’ll talk to you?”

“Cause I beat her. Like an old saying I once heard “Honer after the battle.”

I walked out and found Adagio’s room. She was just staring out the window. She also had the door unlocked but didn’t seem to bother with running away. When I walked in she turned her eyes to look at me then looked back out the window.

“Adagio.” She turned her head this time and looked at me. “I know you’re not throwing this, this, self loathing cause you lost our battle. Now tell me, what did you mean by guilt? What are you guilty of?”

She gave a heavy sigh and spoke.

“The village Aria, Sonata and I came from was called Hua Village. You ever hear of it?”

“In some history books, yes. The whole place was burned to the ground by dragons from the Everfree.”

“It was a beautiful village. Ponies were kind, crimes were few, and resources were plenty. Some went as far as to say it was almost a small nation in itself. But every slice of heaven has its flaws, and in Hua Village that flaw was that if you didn’t have a cutie mark by the age of sixteen you’d be put into the lesser desired working classes. For mares it was prostitution, for colts it was the exploration team.”

“Exploration team?”

“I’m not sure about nowadays but back then most of Equestria was unexplored and dangerous. Exploration teams went out to do trade with other villages and look for land suitable for settling. Anyway we were fifteen at the time and panicking. Aria’s birthday was two months away, Sonata’s was next month, and mine was just three days away. Three fillies turning sixteen without cutie marks…”

“Aria told me about that part already, and Sonata filled in a few missing details.”

“Ah, they told you what they knew, not the whole truth though.” I saw a tears start to form in Adagio’s eyes. “After two days we figured the pendants were magic, and we saw the slight changes. Taking them off instantly reversed the physical changes so we figured we might be able to sell them for some bits. Then my birthday came.

“I was scared. My mother wasn’t what you’d call sane, her methods were questionable at best. That night after the ‘party’ my friends and some other village ponies threw me my mother confronted me. ‘Looks like you’re starting work tomorrow’ she said. She was a unicorn so being an earth pony I couldn't do anything when she held me down with her magic.

“Once I was restrained two ponies came into the room, one was a mare, the other a stallion.” Adagio was crying now. “I knew them! The mare was ‘co worker’ at the brothel house with my mom! The stallion was a regular there but he was good to me!” Tears now flooded from Adagio’s eyes. “And my mother just said that after the first two hours I’d get used to the feeling! She held me down and let them rape me for six hours!”

To my surprise Adagio threw herself onto me and hugged me. I hugged back. Her own mother held her down while ponies she knew raped her. I felt myself crying with her. “After it was finally over I ran, made up a quick lie to Aria and Sonata and we left Hua Village. After a day outside the village and in goddess knows where Aria and Sonata tried to cheer me up by singing, it was an old lullaby but it sorta helped. That’s when we noticed the animals in the aria acting odd, they started to fall asleep.

“That night when Aria and Sonata were fast asleep I ran back to the village, I walked through town singing that lullaby and any ponies awake in the streets dropped to the ground asleep. After I made sure everypony was asleep I...I...I set the village on fire!” My ears rang. She burned her home town, and everyone in it, alive. Part of me wanted to hold her closer, part of me wanted to push her away and call her a monster, and part of me didn’t know what to think.

Time seemed to have come to a standstill, nothing made a sound. Adagio and I didn’t move but she was still crying, she didn’t ,make any noise but I felt her tears run down onto my shoulder and back. My mind ran through every thought I could think of to try and think of something to say but it just stayed blank. Dammit think of something! Why can’t I think of something!? I started to cry, without making a sound my tears ran down.

“Adagio," I said, finally breaking the silence. "I don't think what you did could ever be fixed or forgotten. I can sorta understand why you did that but I think the pendants are only partly to blame. It was to early when you did that to be under that much of their effects. You were still you when you did that, that's why you feel so guilty about it. You needed the pendants not for their powers but because when they changed you it dulled, maybe even removed that guilty heart ache, right?"

"... Yeah..."

"... Did you cry after it was done?"

"I cried while I was doing it."

"Does Sonata and Aria know?"

"Who do you think started that story about the dragon attack. I spent that whole night crying that I hadn't realized it was morning, Aria and Sonata found me and asked what happened. I told them a dragon was attacking when I got there. We spent the rest of that day burying everypony."

I felt a smile break across my face. She cried while and after it happened, and helped bury them. Added with this endless guilt she's been feeling since then, Adagio's not evil or a monster cause something that's evil or a monster doesn't feel this horrible after the deed's done.

"A person might have done unspeakable, horrible things in their past but that doesn't tell you everything about the person. Your past doesn't define you, the present does. And I think it's time people got to know the real Adagio."

When I pulled her off and looked at her, her face was red with blush, eyes were bloodshot from the crying, and snot was running down her nose but she was smiling, it was a small smile but a smile nonetheless. For some reason that image registered as cute in my brain. The heck brain?

"Do you think I can get over it?"

"No, you know why?" She looked sad again and shook her head. "Because a person never gets over something like that, believe me I have some experience in that area." I never killed anyone... well I guess Psycoshy can count but that was her choice. I sighed. Guess I can add that to my list of bad things I've done, in the end she proved that despite her plans for reality she was kinda a person... kinda.

"Sunset," Adagio said, snapping me out of my thought. "I'm not sure how to..."

"Don't worry, you've still got two lifelong friends waiting for you in this building and a new one right here."

"Make that seven new friends." Adagio and I turned to find Rainbow and everyone else at the doorway.

"How long have...?"

"The whole time." Rainbow said plainly and moved over so Aria and Sonata could walk into the room.

They both had mixed looks.

"Adagio why didn't you tell the truth back then? This whole thing could have been avoided if you just told the truth!" Aria barked.

"... Because you two kept me happy. I was conceived, born and raised in that brothel house and then I was gonna be forced to work there. You two were the only ponies that kept me from ending it. I lied to get you two to run away with me because I knew I'd go mad without you! I just couldn't make it on my own. I was scared."

***

Four days past, every minute of those days had enough tension floating around to cut with a knife. After the concert we took an early break from the rest of our tour and headed home. Before we left Washington though we attended the wedding of Sonic Boom and Rainbow Dash.

Seeing those two at their happiest moment was beyond picture perfect. It was made especially interesting when all of our fans in Washington broke into the courtroom and attempted to photobomb the wedding pictures. Crazy story short after vows were said and the brides kissed we bolted.

There was one photo taken at that wedding, a photo of two newly weds and their adopted daughter.

Sadly that seemed to be the only highlight of those days, Aria, Sonata and Adagio stayed with us till they could get home. None of them spoke, at least not when we were in the room. I couldn't tell if they just weren’t talking or if Arai and Sonata flat up shutout Adagio. I get how bad what she did was and that there’s no real defence for her actions. I caught myself wondering if going after them to restore their friendship was a good idea, cause I think I might have completely destroyed it.

After we dropped Sonata off back in Boston and picked up Silver Dust I received an answer. They were just gonna leave it in the past and burry it. I managed to talk to them when we dropped Sonata off at her home.

“We’ve made it clear we’re not forgiving Adagio for murdering our home town, but all those years of friendship before and after the pendants… they’re worth a blind eye.” Aria told me that when we rested at Sonata’s place.

When we got back to our home and dropped of Aria and Silver it hit me that Adagio doesn’t have a place to live here. Luckily Twilight was staying with Applejack this time so Adagio moved in with me. I didn’t really mind, my place was meant for two and I’ve only ever used that other bedroom for storage. I put out my old inflatable (and dusty as hell) mattress and Adagio went to bed early.

In all honesty it felt weird sleeping in my old bed again, I’ve gotten so used to hotels and the staff R.V. (which I now regret resting in now knowing what Rainbow and Sonic have been doing in there for the last ten years) I just feel… sentimental I guess. This was the first place I called home when I came to this world. Even after I changed this place has only ever had me in it, yeah the girls have spent the nights here before but I’ve always been alone in my home, now Adagio’s living with me and this place feels… Alive is the best way to put it.

I just hope things will get better for her. I wonder, now that her past is staying there, and ‘buried’ from what and how her future treat her. I can only wonder.

Author's Note:

I Put one Anime reference in this and I want to know who can guess what Hua means in English.

I will be adding an extra chapter after the next one that will tell about some things that happened to our characters. (Such as Sonata meeting Red Atom, Rainbow dating Sonic, Sonic's adventures to orphanages and sperm banks, etc)

As an added bonus If you wish PM or comment the name of your OC or if you want just your Fimfiction name and I will try to mention you within the last two chapters.