Adagio Dazzle Takes a Bath

by Alex Warlorn

(No) Regrets

Adagio Dazzle walked into the bathroom and locked the door, she didn't want her sisters interrupting her. She knew their responses would be less than enjoyable. She turned on the facet and let the tub fill until it spilled over.

She let it run a bit more, letting water run on the tile floor before turning it off. She stripped down and placed her fancy clothes on the counter.

She sighed. She looked in the full length mirror of the body she'd been forced to wear for centuries. She knew by human standards she was alluring and beautiful, and she'd grown accustomed to their customs as they faded and changed through the centuries. She remembered when showing next to no skin was considered fashionable. Humans were such silly apes. She could understand ponies, at least they only used clothing as a fashion statement, not an expectation. Then again, they didn't have a nice natural coat or thick natural scales.

It gave her some assurance that her body was still a thing of perfection, even if social mores prevented her from showing it in public. That was more of an annoyance, she'd never needed such base tricks to brings creatures under her sway. But still...

Adagio shook her head, her massive mane of hair swaying behind her. She turned back towards the bathtube and slowly lowered herself in, causing even more water to spill over. Any water damage or problems weren't an issue, just hand someone an old coin that'd been worth two bits back in the 1800s and is worth hundreds today. What was it with humans and changing currencies then making the OLD ones more valuable?

She cursed their current state. If they were like they used to be back home, these monkeys would be much easier than Equestrians to dazzle. She remembered when they first arrived. They just had to work a little magic, stir up a little chaos...and then point a finger at a 'witch.' The humans did the rest themselves. And never once was Adagio or her sisters suspected. She wondered if modern pop culture meant being the witches would make them MORE popular now.

She felt the miniature wave wash over her skin. She closed her eyes. She remembered sunning herself on the rocks. She remembered swimming through the tides and the rapids. She remember her school, the one she and her sisters had been born in, not school like stupid teenagers thought of when they heard the word.

Adagio breathed in deep and lowered her head beneath the water line.

She remembered the songs, so beautiful, so many of them. All rippling through the depths of the sea. There was so much water could do with sound that air couldn't. Her sisters, all of them, together with their songs. Performing dances and ballet that made the performances by land-ponies look clumsy and childish in comparison when you could swim in every direction for the audience.

And without having to worry about changes in water pressure like land ponies, going deeper or higher. There was so much that could do to help with music. Like having your own personal autotuner to change pitch if you know how to work it.

And not just the music of their people, but the music of the whales. Humans 'discovered' different pods of whales had different dialects. Her people had known that for as long as they could remember. The whales sung BACK to them. And whales weren't the only things that sung, especially back in the seas of Equestria.

Adagio heard these humans complain how they'd barely explored a miniscule part of their world's oceans. That they knew more about distant stars than the bottom of their seas. They didn't know what they were missing.

The dark wonders that existed in the deepest parts of the oceans that no land-pony would dare venture. Beings older than old to behold and learn from. Willing to share such secrets if one was patient enough to listen. Adagio had always been patient. The unrivaled grandeur of Aquastria. The beautiful, infinite ocean in all its splendor.

Adagio didn't feel regrets, regrets were for the weak. And weak was the one thing the sirens had never been. But even she couldn't block out the feeling of ... something or other when she and her sisters had left their ocean home, and had sought greater fame, greater glory, greater power on that oversized island that land-ponies called Equestria.

Her sisters had embraced it without a second thought. And a way to sat their endless hunger that clawed at them from the inside every waking moment. And the thrill of seeing ponies dance like puppets with only the slightest nudge. They tore the land-ponies' so called society to pieces, they were worshipped, loved, unconditionally! Given the adoration she sought, and the negativity her belly now craved. Stupid jealous princesses! Stupid wizard!

Views of stars that no pony would see without one of their contraptions! Seaweed forests that moved with a life all of their own! Canyons that made any on land look like ruts! Taking care of dull witted Sonata. Feeling the ocean itself through her fins, swimming with her tail, and through the sky itself breaking the boundary, breathing in the sweet salty waters of-

She was drowning. Adagio's head sprang from the waters, coughing and gagging, hitting herself in the chest. Water splashed everywhere.

"... Lungs, that could process water as well as air, never having to come up, able to sleep peacefully underneath the waves... " Adagio panted, her throat sore.

"HEY! Adagio! You okay in there?!" She hear Aria shout.

"I'm fine! Don't worry about it!"

"Well save some water for the rest of us!"

"You'll take what you get!"

"Humph! Same as always huh?"

Silence. Adagio breathed in deep the cursed air, the air she'd felt so gleeful breathing for that first time, to fly through for the first time, breaking the barriers that had surrounded her people. She whispered. "Yeah... same as always."

Comments

[Proper Prose]

Their story is actually a little sadder, according to their FIENDship is Magic issue. A thousand years have passed in Equestria and as far as I am aware, no one has made this fact known to them. In fact I'm surprised that so few people reference it (I know that the issue has its problems, but that bit was fanfic gold!).

Anyway, that's beside the point. This is actually one of the core aspects of the Dazzlings and most other beings in both fiction and real life. A certain longing for home.

Of course, the idea that they have lived out a thousand years in the Equestria Girls world is interesting too. It just been done a bit much.

[Alex Warlorn]

7046015

I consider they Fiendship is Magic issue non-canon.
The writers WANTED to do a story with Discord, but got told at the last minute that no, they couldn't. So the Sirens was a last minute substitution.

Here, the sirens have been on Earth for over a thousand years, helping along wars, persecutions, hate crimes, and surviving off the darker side of humanity.

[Proper Prose]

7046041
Dang, I would have loved a Discord story, and after his cameo in the Tirek issue too! Didn't have to be an origin story either, could have just done when he first came to Equestria and started messing with ponies for kicks.

Anyway, the Dazzlings origins in the comics does have some appeal. Though they were committing a crime and he had tried everything he could think of to stop them, Star Swirl did unilaterally banish them not just from Equestria but to a whole world entirely. No only that, he flung them into the future (WHERE HIS MAGIC IS LAW! Sorry, just felt I had to reference that) and probably most everyone they knew and loved is long dead and most everything else is gone or changed so much that it might as well be. They sheer shock and despair they would feel at this revelation would be astounding!

[TheArquius]

Oh my GOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!

*JonTron intensifies*

[Alex Warlorn]

7046551

:-)

[General Lemarc]

Excellent as always

[Alex Warlorn]

7047508

Thanks.

[Awesomo3000]

Extremely well-detailed and written from her perspective!

[Alex Warlorn]

7050768

Thanks.

[mcfallen]

7046015 Y'know what I'm wondering? Why's it always a thousand years?

[Proper Prose]

7054627
It's actually worse than that. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra and Tirek all escaped their imprisonments (Chrysalis also escaped a thousand year sentence in the comics, but she decided to cut the potential headache and escape before the first year of the sentence was done), implying that they had intended the punishment to last forever (I believe that it was outright said for Discord). Of course, Celestia was counting on Nightmare Moon escaping, so that she could get her sister back.

On that note, Luna and Discord treated their sentences with mild annoyance. Understandable, as Luna is stated to have a long, possibly indefinite life span and Discord outright said that he is eons old. But Sombra and Tirek do not seem to have far so well. Sombra clearly lost much of his ability to reason and plan (acting more as a force of nature than as an antagonist) and it seems time was not so kind to Tirek because, let's face it, he was old. Magic seemed to restore his youth so long as he had it, but otherwise he was old, wrinkly and thin.

[mcfallen]

7054701 What I mean is: with a thousand years, that means that all these villains came at the royal sisters or Celestia in the same time frame. There was Discord, then less than a year later Sombra, then Luna turned into Nightmare Moon. We don't know if Tirek was before or after Nightmare Moon. Neither do we know if the Sirens were before or after Luna's defeat. It was a big fat quadruple whammy right towards Celestia. (The Sirens don't count cause' that was Starswirl.)

[TJHoofer]

This was very well written

She remembered when they first arrived. They just had to work a little magic, stir up a little chaos...and then point a finger at a 'witch.' The humans did the rest themselves. And never once was Adagio or her sisters suspected.

I can actually picture them in colonial attire and doing these things

[Alex Warlorn]

7056255

Thanks!

[jaroslav]

And without having to worry about changes in water pressure like land ponies, going deeper or higher.

Even fish have this problem.

[Alex Warlorn]

7411278

True. But Sirens are a lot tougher in that regard than an earth pony or human would be.

[FanOfMostEverything]

A wonderful moment of Adagio alone with all the regret she doesn't have and the homesickness even she can't deny. And a distinct absence of gills.

Lovely stuff. Just the kick in the pants I needed to get back to work on my own siren story. (Though I do have that contest entry due in a week and a half. So much to do, so little time...)

In any case, thank you for this.

[Alex Warlorn]

8860392
Thank YOU for commenting on my works! It's an incredible honor sir! I love the in-depth emotional remarks you give to the characters' points of view here! Thank you!