What Could Be: Or How I Learned That The Mind Can Go In Many Directions

by BronyWriter

Mortality--No Regrets

Adagio pulled into a parking spot opposite the coffee shop and turned her car off. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Eleven ten. She scanned the tables and chairs outside of the shop, and her stomach clenched when she spotted Sunset Shimmer sitting at one of the tables opposite an empty chair. She'd definitely grown older. Her hair was in a shoulder-length ponytail, and some lines on her face betrayed her age. Despite all of that, she looked happy. She was smiling and bobbing her head to the beat of whatever music the coffee shop was playing.

Nothing else for it now.

Adagio unbuckled herself from her seat and got out of the car. She began the walk toward Sunset, her heart pounding at the thought of the conversation. It wasn't more than a minute before Sunset looked in her direction and spotted her. She grinned and waved at Adagio.

"Hey, you made it!" she said. She motioned to the seat opposite her. "Take a seat. You want any coffee? My treat."

Adagio stopped in her tracks twenty feet from Sunset, and her heart stopped pounding. A feeling of clarity washed over her, and her face hardened in a glare. Sunset's happy smile slowly faded, replaced with a look of confusion.

"Adagio?" She stood up from her seat. "Is everything okay? Come on. Sit down. They have really good coffee here. We can talk about whatever's on your mind."

Adagio raised her leg to take a step back, but froze. Maybe it didn't have to be this way. Her glare faded and she slowly walked up to the table and sat down opposite Sunset. "Okay, yeah. So, good coffee?"

Sunset's smile returned and she nodded. "Definitely great coffee. What can I get for you?"

"Uh, caramel frappuccino, I guess."

"Sounds good! Be right back."

Sunset stood up and went inside to order the coffee, leaving Adagio alone with her thoughts. There was still time to run. She could just forget that she was even here and leave before Sunset could come back.

But that would mean she wasted money on a caramel frappuccino.

It was a weak excuse, but it was an excuse nonetheless.

After a few minutes, Sunset walked out of the coffee shop with a large caramel frappuccino in her hand. She sat back down and slid it over to Adagio.

"One caramel frappuccino for Miss Adagio. Wasn't sure if you like whipped cream or not, so I didn't have them put extra on. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, that's fine," Adagio said, taking the piece of straw paper off the top of her straw and taking a sip. She allowed herself a small smile and nodded in thanks to Sunset.

"Glad you like it. So..." Sunset motioned to Adagio. "What do you want to talk about? What can I help you with?"

Adagio put her coffee down and stared at it, poking the straw back and forth. She didn't speak for a few moments.

"I was just... wondering how you did it."

"Did what?" Sunset asked.

"Get... on track or... I don't know, end up okay? You and your friends are happy, Sonata is married with a son, and I'm just..." Adagio let out a quiet sigh. "I have a job that I hate that at least pays enough to live okay, but I'm not... happy. I haven't been happy in years. It wasn't supposed to go that way. I was supposed to be ruling this world. Now I'm just another average woman with no support, no powers, and no immortality." Her gaze flicked up to Sunset. "No offense on the 'ruling the world' part."

Sunset chuckled and shrugged. "You talked to me because I tried to do it, too. Though I have to say that your plan was a little bit better than mine."

Adagio allowed herself a small smirk, but it faded quickly. She stalled for a bit of time by taking a few more sips of coffee. "So what's your secret?" she asked. "How did you an Sonata do it? I don't know how Aria was dealing with everything, and now that she's gone..."

"I know it may sound crazy, but..." Sunset gave Adagio a kind smile. "It's friends. It's people that you can lean on when the going gets tough. For you, me and Sonata it has to be friends. None of us have parents or other family here, so friends is what we have." Sunset frowned for a moment and tilted her head. "Or is Sonata your sister?"

"Yeah. A little more complicated than that, but for all intents and purposes, yes," Adagio said.

"Well there you go, then!" Sunset said. "You've been doing this on your own for a long time, Adagio. You don't need to. It's been over twenty years. Do you want to be alone anymore?"

Adagio tightened her jaw and poked at the whipped cream in her coffee with her straw. Sonata had said more or less the same thing, and she was doing well. They couldn't both be wrong. She briefly looked up to see Sunset still smiling at her. She lightly scoffed and shook her head.

"You both sound cheesy," she said. "You and your talks of friendships and relationships. Very cheesy."

Sunset chuckled. "Probably, but when's the last time you had a friend? A real friend?"

"I don't know," Adagio muttered. "Other than my sisters... I don't think there was anybody."

"Well..." Sunset reached out and put her hand on one of Adagio's "You have one now."

* * * *

Adagio unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of her car, taking a moment to grab the small box on the passenger seat before shutting the door. She walked past a handful of other cars and for the second time walked up to the brightly painted green door. She could hear the din of several people already inside. She took a deep breath to steady herself, then opened up the door and walked into the house.

There were about a dozen people standing around talking, most of them with plates and drinks in their hands. A few of them glanced in her direction when she came in, but she was otherwise ignored. She began looking around to see if there was a place to place her box, but didn't see one. Before she could get further into the house, her heart stopped when she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, thank you for coming! Can I get you guys anything else to eat or drink? How's your new job?"

Adagio turned in the direction of the voice and saw Sonata weaving her way through the crowd of people. Adagio allowed herself a light chuckle. She'd cut her hair shorter in a pixie cut, and was wearing a plain white sweater and pants that Adagio would describe as "mom jeans." She looked like she was about to drive her son to soccer practice. After only a few seconds, Sonata looked in Adagio's direction. Her eyes widened and she let out a quiet gasp.

"A... Adagio?"

Adagio gave Sonata a weak smile and walked up to her. "Hey, Sonata. Uh, I was thinking that maybe it would be good for your son to have 'Cool Aunt Adagio.' You know. Just to make sure he gets raised right." She motioned to the small box wrapped in green paper with a red bow on top. "I don't know what T.J. already has, so I thought he might like this for his birthday. I have the receipt if--"

Adagio was cut off by the most enthusiastic hug she'd ever received. She almost stumbled back, but she managed to steady herself on a back wall.

"Thank you," Sonata whispered. "I've been wanting this for a long time."

"Yeah, I was doing some thinking and I talked to Sunset and..." She gingerly pried Sonata off of her. "I want things to get better."

"And I think they will," Sonata said. "You talked to Sunset?" Adagio nodded. "Well I'll have to thank her when I see her next." Sonata motioned to the back door. "Which should be in the next few minutes. Her and all the rest of the Rainbooms are in the backyard. Ben is doing some wizardry with the grill." Sonata took the box out of Adagio's hand and began pushing her in the direction of the backyard.

* * * *

Adagio walked in her apartment and placed her bag of groceries on the kitchen counter. All of the food at Sonata's place had reminded her that she hadn't gone shopping in a while. She turned her stereo on and played a song as she began putting her food away. She began absentmindedly singing to herself as she put the food away, but paused when she realized what she was doing.

She was singing. What's more was that it was in tune and didn't sound like she'd just gargled gravel. She quietly gasped to herself, but continued singing along like her gem had never broken. Tears welled up in her eyes as she turned up the song and began singing along with a passion that she had long forgotten. It wasn't more than a few moments before tears streamed down her face, and her sobs nearly interfered with her private performance.

As she sang, the pressure that had consumed her since the moment her gem broke slowly began washing away, and for the first time, she began to realize what Sonata felt every day. The anger and resentment faded, and she lost herself in the return of one of her most precious of her very soul. Somehow Sonata was right. Even through her sobs and tears, she could tell that she was singing better than ever before. And it was... happy. Before she'd sung for power. Before she'd sung for control. Before she'd sung just to eat; to make the hunger pangs of another day go away. Now finally she could sing to enjoy the music and the passion.

Once the song ended, Adagio turned the stereo off and slid down to the floor with her back against the wall. She curled up in a ball hugging her knees and crying in a feeling of joy that she'd never experienced before.

* * * *

"And I think that full house nines and fives takes it." Everyone at the table groaned as Adagio cackled and raked in the small pile of coins. "You're about to go out, Ben."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Ben said as he tossed his cards on the table. "I'll come back."

"You never do, Dad," T.J. said with a roll of his eyes. "You're really bad at poker. I'm seven and keep beating you!"

"Yeah, but I beat you at chess," Ben grumbled.

"And you only play chess with T.J. because you're tired of being whipped by Adagio every time," Sonata said with a giggle.

"She's cheating somehow," Ben said through gritted teeth. "You've still got some of your freaky siren powers left."

"Or I've been playing chess for over a thousand years, and you've been playing it for thirty." Adagio smirked at him. "You're at something of a disadvantage."

"I've actually never known you to lose a game of chess, even when we were a lot younger," Sonata pointed out.

"Hm." Adagio shrugged. "Maybe I'm just great at strategizing. Everything is far more predictable if you just boil it down to its basic components." She turned to Ben and tapped her head. "You overthink things."

"Yeah, Dad, you overthink things," T.J. agreed. "That's why Mom said that you took too long to ask her out, and even longer to ask her to marry you."

Adagio raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? How have I never heard this story?"

"Because Dad doesn't like telling it!" T.J. said.

"It's nothing special, really," Ben insisted. "I just got nervous one too many times."

"And that was before I told him that I used to be an immortal negative emotion eating siren," Sonata chimed in.

"Oh really?" Adagio said. "And how exactly did he take that?"

"Oh can we please drop this?" Ben groaned.

"Well let's see. How did you exactly put it again?" Sonata grinned as Ben groaned again. "Oh that's right. I remember: 'Uh... you're still... really hot and have a good personality and... you're nice?'"

Everyone at the table except for Ben laughed at his misfortune, but he shook his head and waved his hand. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. It's not like I believed her the first, oh, half dozen times she brought it up."

"What made you believe her?" Adagio asked.

Ben snorted. "She found some old high school pictures and newspaper clippings. Believed it after that." Ben smiled and took Sonata's hand. "But that just showed me that she was really special, and --"

"Oh enough of the lovey-dovey nonsense!" Adagio cried, flicking a coin at Ben's head. "Just deal so I can take the rest of your money!"

* * * *

"So when is he coming up?" Adagio groaned, scanning the program in her hand again. "Are we going to have to be here for an hour?"

"Well, since we're going to stay during the entire graduation ceremony so that we can actually be there when it's time to go home, I think we're going to be here for a while anyway," Sonata pointed out.

"And come on, Adagio. He only graduates high school once," Ben chimed in.

Adagio rolled her eyes and resumed scanning the program. "Very well. Did you have to send him to a high school with such a large graduating class?"

Sonata let out an amused scoff and shook her head. "Yes, I think it was a good idea to sent him to a high school five minutes walking distance from our house, yes. Although if you wanted to drive him to a smaller one far away, you should have just said so."

Adagio scoffed. "You could do that. We only live five doors down from each other."

"And yet, I sent him to the one five minutes walking distance from our house anyway," Sonata said.

"Oh, fine," Adagio grumbled. "At lease he's going to an in-state college."

"You're fine to drive him to that as well," Sonata replied.

"Oh for goodness sakes," Adagio grumbled, looking back down at the program.

* * * *

"So, you're going to go to college in the fall. Excited?"

T.J. smiled and nodded. "Oh yeah, definitely! Been waiting to get to college since I was a fucking high school freshman! I've heard the girls in college are bombshells!"

Adagio narrowed her eyes. "Hey, no swearing. Your mom wouldn't like that."

T.J. rolled his eyes. "Yes, Aunt Adagio."

Adagio nodded. "Good. I want you to behave while you're there, too." Before T.J. could respond, she perked up a bit. "But that doesn't mean you can't have a beer while you're parents aren't looking before then!" Adagio reached into her jacket pocket and held out a can. "Just don't tell them."

"Alright!" T.J. said, snatching the beer out of Adagio's hand. "My lips are sealed! Better learn how to do this anyway, right?"

Adagio allowed herself an inward smirk as T.J. opened up the non-alcoholic beer and began chugging it.

* * * *

"Come on! Throw the ball, idiot!"

"Rainbow Dash, calm down," Sonata said, putting her hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "We're up by twenty with three minutes left to go. I think we're good."

"You never know," Rainbow said through gritted teeth. She whirled around to face the people on the couch. "What do you think, Adagio? They could come back, right?"

"I suppose so," Adagio said with a shrug. "Still not sure how you play."

"I... buh... wha...?" Rainbow Dash blinked in shock. "You've been coming to my place to watch the Super Bowl for the last fifteen years and you still don't have an idea of how the game works?!"

"She might be messin' with ya, Rainbow," Applejack said with a grinthat quickly faded into a frown. "Right?"

"Oh, who knows?" Adagio said with a shrug. "Either way, I'm going to go get more food. You didn't eat all of the cupcakes yet, did you, Pinkie?"

Pinkie Pie snorted and picked up her infant granddaughter. "Tried to, but I made a lot."

"That's not even counting the ones she ate before she came over," Pinkie's daughter said, turning away from her conversation with Rarity and Fluttershy's daughters.

"And I would have thought that you would have calmed down a bit at fifty-five with the whole sports thing," Twilight said, bouncing her own granddaughter on her knee.

"Well she didn't calm down about the 'sports thing' at fifty-four, did she?" Rarity said.

"Might happen someday though, right?" Twilight's son said.

"No," Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, Sonata and Adagio all said at the same time. They all giggled a bit before turning back to the TV. Rainbow grinned and fist-pumped.

"Alright! Two minute warning and we have the ball and they have no, no, no timeouts left!"

"I'm still not sure if that's a good or bad thing, Rainbow," Adagio said with a frown. "Does that mean we're about to win or we have a good chance at coming back?"

"I just..." Rainbow growled and facepalmed. "Seriously! You know this!"

"Come on, Rainbow, act your age," Sonata chided. "You wouldn't want to be a bad influence on the grandchildren, right?"

"Eh, that's just how Mom works," Rainbow's pregnant daughter said with a wave of her hand. "One of my first memories is the Super Bowl from the year I was born." She smirked. "And how mad Mom got when her team lost."

"The game was fixed. I know it was," Rainbow grumbled.

Adagio chuckled and stood up to get more food. Given Rainbow's continued passion for sports, this happened every year.

* * * *

Adagio took a sip of her drink and smiled. She could hardly believe that T.J's son was already ten years old. Time had flown by far faster than she realized sometimes.

"You still want some cake?" Sonata said, walking up to Adagio with a pair of plates bearing cake on them. Adagio nodded and took one of the plates.

"You know I do." She took a plastic fork from Sonata and took a bit of cake. She mmmed and nodded in approval to Sonata. "You've gotten better at this."

"That's mostly Ben's lessons," Sonata admitted. "Only took him forty years."

"I've heard that you still can't make an omelette to save your life, though."

Sonata rolled her eyes and swallowed her bite of cake before speaking. "Well, those 'newfangled' cellphones these days still confuse you. There are just things that some people will never figure out." After a few seconds, Sonata's smile fell. "I know that this might not be the best time to talk about it, but I'm worried. When do you get the results back?"

Adagio shrugged. "Doctor said either Wednesday or Thursday. I have an appointment on Friday if they do."

Sonata grimaced and put her cake down on a small table next to them. "Are you worried? You really haven't been doing well lately."

"Not particularly," Adagio said. "Whatever happens happens." Sonata opened her mouth to reply, but Adagio waved her attempt away with her fork. "But I agree: this is a bad time to talk about it. I can't wait for you to see what I got for the birthday boy."

* * * *

Adagio straightened up when the door to the doctor's office opened and a male thirty-something doctor walked in holding a folder in his hand that Adagio assumed was her test results. She smiled at the doctor and extended her hand.

"Doctor. How are you, today?"

"I'm doing fine, thank you," the doctor muttered, taking her hand and weakly shaking it. "I got your test results back."

"That's what your phone call said," Adagio said with an amused eye-roll. "I figured that you weren't just baiting on old woman."

The doctor let out a humorless chuckle and sat down on a metal chair next to the room's counter. He opened up the folder and grimaced, which told Adagio all she needed to know. She quietly sighed and tapped the handle on her cane.

"So what's killing me, then?"

"Cancer, I'm afraid," the doctor said, giving Adagio a sympathetic look. "Skin cancer. Stage three, will be stage four very soon."

"Hm." Adagio bobbed her head and looked down at the hand resting on the cane. It wasn't shaking like she thought it would be at the news that she was dying.

"There are treatment options, of course. We could--"

"No, that's okay, Doctor. Thank you anyway."

The doctor frowned and raised his eyebrow. "What? What are you talking about? You'll die in five years without treatment."

Adagio rolled her eyes and slowly, shakily got to her feet. "Oh, would that be such a terrible thing? I'm an old woman, Doctor." She smirked at him. "I've been an old woman for a very long time. Far longer than you can imagine. Besides, I get another five years! Five more years of being with my family." The doctor opened his mouth to respond, but Adagio just shook her head. "I've had a good life. Best not waste it in a doctor's office listening to you trying to change my mind."

* * * *

"How are you doing?"

Adagio gave Sonata a fake glare and adjusted herself in her hospice bed. "I feel like garbage, but it wouldn't be as bad if you didn't wake me up from my nap!"

Sonata rolled her eyes and filled up a water cup from a nearby pitcher before putting a straw in it and handing it to Adagio. "It was time to take your pills, but I know you haven't been doing that for a few weeks anyway."

"Damn straight. These jackals are tying to keep me alive for too long. I'm over fourteen hundred years old already!" Adagio said, weakly shaking a fist at the door.

"I feel that," Sonata said. "I should have gone gray far sooner than I did, though I can't say that I'm happy about it. Attempting to dye it to match my old hair color was a disaster."

"Well, that's one of the curses of being old, I suppose." Adagio drained half of her water, then reached out to put it on her nightstand. Her hand began shaking enough to spill a few drops of water, so Sonata reached out and took it. "Thanks."

"Scared?" Sonata asked after putting the cup down.

"Not in the slightest. I'm tired. And who knows? Maybe I'll see Aria on the other side and get to chew her out for dying for a stupid purse."

"Maybe," Sonata muttered, looking down at the floor.

"Sometimes I do go back to when we lost to the Rainbooms that day. We were close, weren't we?" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "We've got the music, makes you move it, got the song that makes you move it..."

Sonata chuckled and shook her head. "We say 'jump' you say 'how high?' Put your hands up to the sky."

Adagio let out a happy grunt. "As good as it was that we were defeated, as much as it worked out... those were some good times, weren't they?"

"I guess they were good for us," Sonata said.

"Sonata?" Sonata looked back up at her. "What day when we saw each other again after twenty-two years of me being angry... that's the day I called Sunset to talk."

"Yeah, I remember her telling me about that," Sonata replied.

"Well..." Adagio let out a happy sigh and leaned back in her bed. "I'm glad that I did."

Sonata put her hand on Adagio's and tears began welling up in her eyes. "Me too, Dagi. Me too."

"Good. It would be awkward if you were lying about being glad to see me after all these years."

Sonata snorted, then reached up to wipe tears away with her sleeve. "Any regrets?"

Adagio closed her eyes and smiled. "No."

Later that night, Adagio Dazzle peacefully passed away, Sonata having not left her side.