Adagio woke with a quiet groan, blinking blearily as she sat up.
"Mornin', Dagi! Or like, afternoon!"
She almost rubbed her eyes before remembering her lack of fingers. "S'nata," she mumbled, "how long was I out?" When she'd managed to get her bearings, her eyes shot open. They were now lying on a bed in a building she didn't know, and from the general far-eastern aesthetic of the place, possibly on the other side of the world. She could only repeat her question. "How long was I out?!"
"Just a couple hours."
"We were sent to another country in a couple of hours?!" Another thought occurred. "They deported us?!"
"No," answered Aria, "they just built a traditional, Japanese-style house in the middle of the park with help from a construction crew employed by the rich family of one of our new brain-slaves." This earned her a hard stare, but she just flicked a fin. "Not being sarcastic, that's really what happened. Lemon was right, you need to relax more." Looked like the spa treatment didn't work all that well.
Considering that her heart-rate was only starting to return to normal levels, Adagio felt a little cornered. She had been a little stressed these last so many weeks, but staying alert was a good thing, dammit! Changing the subject would be admitting defeat, so she instead opted for a subtle compromise. "I'll relax when we're safely in control and Sunset Shimmer is locked in a cage!"
This won no objections, so she got up, finding herself to still be wearing the kimono and that her hair was now neatly tied up in a manner that made it look much, much smaller. She could still feel the same weight of it, however, bound tightly with a pair of chopsticks. She paced out of the little bedroom across a floor of tan rectangles, out to what she guessed to be a living room, and over to what she interpreted to be a door; a big, wooden-frame rectangle thing full of paper squares. Sonata nudged it open for her, allowing her to step out onto the... porch, thing, to see the lush grass of the city park... and most of her waiting army of servants, all of whom greeted her in unison.
"Good afternoon, Master!"
Looking over them, Adagio quickly spotted the one she wanted to talk to. "Lemon Zest!" Her tone must have been perfect, because Lemon immediately stepped forward with an "I'm in trouble, aren't I?" look on her face. Adagio nodded to the house behind her. "Explain."
"Well, me and Rick -third from the left- got to talking during your nap, how a lady like you really needed a snazzy palace. I told him it'd have to be Japan-flavored because'a the thing you've got goin' and one of our new pals has family that runs a construction company, so-
"Alright," sighed Adagio, having confirmed Aria's story, "then... I suppose we live here now? In the middle of the park? Is that legal?"
"Kinda. Royal Pin over there has family in-"
"Forget I asked. I suppose we should go get our-"
"Already sent a few to bring everything here," said Aria, "figured moving would be hard enough even if all three of us had our hands, so..."
After scanning the scene for a long, silent moment, Adagio sounded almost disbelieving. "...You two directed things while I was asleep, and now we have a new (if old-fashioned) house as opposed to our dingy apartment, from which some of our slaves are currently bringing our belongings? And nothing has gone wrong?" Raising Aria and Sonata to where she could look both in the eyes, Adagio started to smile with what might have been pride. "Not bad, not bad at all."
Grinning smugly, Aria opened her mouth to comment, but Sonata was faster. "Aww, it was mostly just Lemon!" Her smile was wiped away when Aria headbutted her. Hard. "Ow! What?!"
"You idiot," Aria snarl-whispered, "she'll never trust us to lead at this rate!"
"Ekhem," came the voice of their host, who could still hear everything they were saying. The two turned to her, Aria with consternation clear in her scaly face, but Adagio's amused grin helped to defuse her anxiety. "Whether it was all your doing or not, we didn't wake up trapped, lost, or in a cell again, and I would call that a job well-done." She bestowed forehead kisses accordingly, though Aria's adorable squirming told her she should probably start waiting until there were no witnesses before doing that in the future. Then, she turned to Lemon with a grin. "And let's not forget our dearest servant..."
Lemon blinked twice. "Huh?" Her heart nearly leapt to her throat as the snake-woman stepped closer, but rather than a kiss, she was rewarded with Aria and Sonata being wrapped around her in a hug. Even if her arms were pinned to her sides by massive serpents, it was a surprisingly soft, snuggly hug!
"Thank you," said Adagio, "for all your help."
They stayed that way for about a minute, Lemon glancing over her shoulder at the rest of the (slightly jealous-looking) minions, but that wasn't what made her blush. "Adagio?"
"Yes, Lemon Zest?"
"Uhm," she giggled, "one of your eels is touching my butt."
Aria and Sonata both immediately pulled back so quickly that Adagio nearly lost balance as they cried "NOT IT!!"
"I know it was you, Sonata," said Aria with a flushed face, "I don't even like girls!!"
"Oh, like you're not bicurious," Sonata barked back, "I've seen you eyeing us up after showers!"
"Because you two refuse to put towels on!!"
"Pfft, likely stor-"
"Alright, alright," giggled Adagio, "whoever did it, please don't fondle people during hugs. Might send the wrong message, you know?" Two blushing snake-arms were not arguments, so she moved things along. "Now, we have a new base of operations underway and a small workforce, but it may not be enough to stop our old enemies when they arrive."
Sonata glanced around nervously. "Th-they're coming already?!"
"Now? Doubtful, but it's only a matter of time until they learn of us one way or another. Until then, we should prepare." She looked at the crowd of servants while using Sonata to indicate a few. "You, go to the nearest applicable store and bring back tea. You two, procure tablewear and means with which to brew tea. You three, wait until they get back, then walk around the park inviting people back here for tea." She grinned in her usual wicked way. "I'll greet them personally..."
The six she'd ordered replied in unison. "At once, Master!"
As the group spread out (bar the three who were ordered to wait), Aria raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna get more servants? I thought that's what you were buggin' out about before?"
"I was not 'bugging out,'" she replied irritably, "I was considering our options, and now I have a plan f-" She stopped at a sudden twinge in her belly, which she knew the others felt too. That alone made her blush. "Uhh... Servants," she said while addressing the remaining mind-slaves, "I require a lone, female assistant."
Lemon raised a hand. "I could-"
"No," Adagio shot back immediately, "you just take a break for now!" It has to be someone I don't have to look in the eye after...
Lemon shrugged and put her headphones back on with a little grin. "'Kay!"
The others were even more receptive to their order, but much less understanding.
"I'll go with you, Master!"
"No, I'll go!"
"Let me help!"
"I live to serve you!"
Feeling another twinge, Adagio grimaced, but to her horror, Sonata spoke first.
"Master needs a potty break, so you-" she pointed at one of the girls with her snout, "-come with us!"
For a split second, time froze in Adagio's head. She had no words, no thoughtful analysis, or even annoyance at Sonata, just stood there in silent dread of the mockery and laughter she was about to be assailed with. To her surprise, however, the only spoken sentiment was one of glee by the girl exclaiming to have been chosen as the 'lavatory assistant' while the others looked at her in envy. Lemon wasn't saying anything or looking at her, but the headphones might have blocked her hearing entirely.
Noting that their new magic really must have had some effect on their victims' heads, Adagio took the girl Sonata volunteered and went in search of the rest room.
---
Fortunately, the traditional decor did not extend to the entire house. Just the same, Adagio shuffled out of the bathroom with her head down even as the other girl remained bright and peppy.
"So," pondered Aria aloud, "was that any better?" Adagio's solid crimson face said it wasn't, but might as well ask, right?
"The shame will never leave me," she muttered, "not for as long as I live."
Sonata frowned. "Is it really that bad for you?"
"Yes," seethed Adagio through clenched teeth as she looked up, "not being able to take care of all three of us anymore was humiliating enough, barely being able to take care of myself is unbearable!" She was in no mood to explain this, but the (adorably) confused looks she was getting said she had to. "Before the Battle, I could get us anything we needed virtually at the drop of a hat under my own power alone, and as the one in command, our collective well-being was my responsibility." She sighed, her irritated expression fading to a remorseful grimace. "Lately, I've practically been yours, and I can't call it anything but a miserable failure on my part."
There was a pause as Aria and Sonata shared a glance. The former let out an indignant scoff. "Like we ever needed you to take care of us?" Adagio blinked at her in surprise, but at least her blush was starting to fade. More circulation for the rest of them. "I mean, we were doing fine even without our old powers, you were the only one that stayed up all night, skipped meals, and got cuts all over your hands and face."
"I was trying to restore our-" Adagio growled back, but stopped short. Anger remained clear in her expression, but her question came in a weak whisper. "...When did I have cuts on my face?"
"Just yesterday," answered Sonata, "when you came out to see the book. Did you go to sleep at your desk again?"
"Collapse on her desk again," corrected Aria, an eyebrow raised.
Adagio shrunk back a little. "I was-"
Not caring that she was arguably in a worse position than ever to be making Adagio angry, Aria cut her off. "You were obsessing so hard that it was driving you nuts. I once walked in to find you just pushing the pieces of the gems around with a fingertip and giggling like a loon, and if you'd just took a break more than a cumulative few hours a day, you might have actually had your marbles together well enough to figure out what to do." Despite the almost tearful look on Adagio's face, it was hard to say from whom exactly the little tug in their chest came.
"I'm sorr-" Adagio was cut off again when Sonata licked her face, drawing a startled, surprised little yelp. She blinked twice while looking back at the smiling serpent.
"Don't worry about it, Dagi! 'Cuz like, even if we never figure out the gems, we'll always have each other, right?"
"Ugh," groaned Aria, "that's gotta be the cheesiest thing you've ever said."
Craning her neck closer to Aria, Sonata smirked. "But it's true, right?"
Aria looked away in the vain effort of hiding a blush, which drew a little giggle from Adagio as Sonata inched closer.
"Riiiiiight?"
If Aria had arms, she'd have crossed them. "Anyway," she said while looking back at Adagio, "my point is, we don't really need you to do the leader thing. Just keep it together and we'll all do fine, y'know?" Sonata supported the statement with a nod and a hopeful smile.
The warm, friendly looks she was getting made Adagio want to nuzzle them again, but for the sake of the moment, she restrained herself to smiling back. "Alright. I, suppose I could stand to step back a little. Just long enough to see if the house burns down or something." The trio giggled together. "For now," she turned to the girl that had helped them in the bathroom, warming up her hypno-magic again, "you, forget everything you saw and heard in the last several minutes."
The girl's eyes flickered red before she nodded numbly, drawing a smirk of satisfaction from the snake-woman. Noticing the odd looks she was getting from her arms, she raised a defensive eyebrow.
"What? I have to preserve our dignity somehow." She might have been willing to let someone else tend to her needs if it were strictly necessary, but there was no reason they had to remember any of it. "Next," she said with a growing smirk while pacing back to Lemon and the remaining servants, "we need to build our forces as much as possible while maintaining a low profile, and I think I know just how to do it..."
You know, while this is mostly being played for laughs with their transformation, I am still incredibly disturbed by the mind control they're doing to everyone. This chapter really showcased some unpleasant implications with their power with the girl Adagio wiped the memories of. Barring removing extremely horrific memories that leave deep scars in the psyche, I find the thought of someone forcefully wiping a memory to be...horrifying.
So, in short I'm just waiting for this entire mind control phase to backfire horribly on them, either with them doing permanent harm to someone else this way with no way of fixing it or by them trying it on the wrong person and that individual being completely unaffected (could be Sunset Shimmer and company, could be some other supernatural creature, doesn't really matter) and then everything going horribly wrong.
This whole scenario isn't helped because I find the thought of going around with full mobility to being a snake arm on someone else to be a horrifying result and I'm continuously puzzled why Aria and Sonata weren't more upset by this development, powers be damned.
Still, for all the frankly disturbing and somewhat horrifying possibilities here, this has been interesting so far and it hasn't gotten too terribly dark, and I sincerely want to see what happens next.
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I can't really answer your questions without spoilers, but I will say that if you're earnestly expecting things to go dark and tragic on a light-hearted, slightly absurd comedy fic, you might be waiting a very long time.
I agree that messing with peoples' will and memories is a bit messed up, though, which is probably why it should be left to the villains. Twilight trying to use the reform spell, Cadence's argument-cancelling magic, and the Elements 'turning Luna back to good' don't count, I guess.
7147155
I'd argue that they do count.... Sort of.
You can argue that making Nightmare Moon sane was a necessary evil or the least terrible of a bunch of bad options and/or that the Elements just 'cured' some kind of mental imbalance, like magic Thorazine. I usually lean on the latter, to avoid thinking of the protagonists as mind rapists.
Cadance's using magic to smooth over arguments still seems like a petty abuse of power, even if she argues that she just caused them to remember their feelings rather than directly controlling them.
There's a decent chance the Twilight one was meant to count, though, given that trying to use magic to fix everything even when it's not the right idea is one of Twilight's established character flaws and so is that too much stress (and what's more stressful than Discord?) can make her stop paying attention to how her plans affect others. It's important to remember that just because the protagonist does something doesn't mean the show considers it right.
7147105
I've been pretty amazed at how relaxed about this Aria and Sonata are, too.
7147155
On the issue of this chapter - I'm glad to see this continue, and I did enjoy the interaction between the sirens. Also, I find it amusing that all of the named servants to date are Crystal Prep students. Given that the lavatory assistant went unnamed, however, I'm going to assume she's a nameless background character rather than someone I like...such as Fleur Dis Lee.
On the issue of mind-altering magic...yeah, I can't justify the good guys doing something like that willy-nilly. Twilight considering something like that against Discord seems like a major last-case scenario, the Ultimate Plan Z - given it was Discord, that might be justified. Can't really say anything about Cadence's magic, but I prefer to think that she's reminding folks of their pre-existing love rather than doing any massive alterations. As for Luna and the Elements...oh, the ambiguities there. Was Nightmare Moon a possessed Luna? Was NMM Luna driven mad by depression and envy? Bit of both? Still justified and done to save her, but still, ambiguity.
Also, if you're taking votes, I'm against you showing the 'Bad End'.
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It might not have come across too well, but I was sort of being sarcastic with it 'not counting,' hence bringing it up at all. I don't consider bad behavior to be suddenly okay when the 'good guys' do it, but I probably could have stated that more clearly.
If Aria and Sonata's behavior doesn't make sense by the end of this story, I'm hoping it will by the end of the trilogy.
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ForSpite pretty much sums up the mind control stuff below, so I won't ramble.
Your vote has been taken into consideration! It's not exactly grim or depressing, but I'm not opposed to skipping the bad ending entirely, as it's just a stray thought of "What would happen if...? Well, pretty much this."
:
Are you talking in relation to snakedagio trilogy or...? I have to say though, I do really wonder what kind of event could conclude this first part of the story as a complete entry - so far it felt like (ridiculously amusing) slice of life dazzlings everyday life in a wacky situation.
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The story following this one is something new, I think, but I'd rather not give any spoilers just yet.
7147155 I suppose I am a little disturbed by the casual slavery as well, but I do agree that mind control magic is run rampant in Equestria (there's no way you'll ever get me to agree Mi Amore "love shield" Cadanza only "reminds couples" who already love each other). Consider mine a vote in favor of showing the bad end, even though I'll probably find it disturbing.
7147757
7147515
A little late to the party, but I wanted to note something about the use of the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon.
Luna said to Twilight
We could see during the flashback in Princess Twilight how Luna tapped into... Something. Now, perhaps you are familiar with Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde.
In the book, Jekyll aims to create a potion that'll free him of his inhibitions. The reasoning behind it is that he'll be able to enjoy all the bad things he can't now because his sense of guilt won't be active. It's a selfish wish, very different to the rather heroic interpretation common today.
So, what if Luna did something similar back then? Tapped into "dark powers" so she'd be able to defeat her sister, and finding herself lost in her very own Superpowered Evil Side? In that sense, the Elements did the equivalent of slapping the gun out of her hand and giving her a wake-up!—dope-slap.