Dazzling New Life

by AFanaticRabbit

2 - Adagio

Adagio was missing something.

She wasn’t sure what it was. Trying to figure out what was missing when everything felt strange was nearly impossible, but she knew on some level.

Her hooves sunk into the muddy trail she walked, meandering through the trees that hid most of the tower behind her. She caught glimpses of its leaning, crumbling stone through the branches every once in a while, lit by the early morning sun, but the further she travelled, the less she was able to make it out. Only the width of the trail gave her any indication of where she had been and how to get back, marked with old hoofprints and cart tracks.

While Adagio believed she could trust her memory and sense of direction enough that she could easily make her way back, it was best to get familiar with the route.

The trees around Adagio grew more sparse, as did the trail. As the path wore down, it began to fork out in multiple directions, marked by old hoofprints. If she were coming from the other direction, she may have ignored them, thinking of them as nothing more than ever-changing hiking routes for foragers and explorers.

When Adagio reached the edge of the forest, the paths had all but disappeared. Just ahead of her the treeline ended and opened out to a sodden dirt road. Beyond that were fields, some fallow and some full, with barns and farmhouses interspersed between them on the gently rolling hills. Just beyond those was a town, right where Adagio had expected it to be from her glimpses out of the tower.

It was cosy and small, and none of the buildings were particularly tall aside from a few where the structures were densest. They were almost all roofed with thatch, with white painted walls and exposed timber frames. The few that weren’t seemed to be made of stone, as far as Adagio could tell. They were a little too far away to be entirely sure. A river ran through the town, and at a glance seemed to run closer to her side of it.

It sat in what was more or less a giant basin, with mountains circling the town, some close, some far. Adagio had climbed down the shallower base of a pair of them, and opposite her was another set of far taller mountains. Poking out the side of one of them was a series of tall, white and gold spires. It looked important, but it also looked to be at least a few days of walking away.

None of that told her where she was in the world. All she could tell was that she was north of Sunset’s tower, with the sun to her right. Sunset had mentioned they were in a place called ‘Equestria’, and while that did ring familiar to Adagio, it was similarly unhelpful.

Before Adagio stepped out from the cover of the trees and onto the road, she paused and looked down at herself. She lifted a leg and turned it over so she could see underneath her hoof.

Though naturally coloured as far as Ponies were concerned, she was also shiny and smooth. Not the pale pink or brown flesh of a shaven pony, but a bright yellow. That said nothing of the faint ruby glow in her chest, just beneath her snout in her vision.

Looking back to the town, Adagio looked for any route that she could take that would keep her out of sight. Unfortunately, given the width and breadth of the fields, their wooden fences and the meandering roads between them, sticking to the shadows didn’t seem possible.

Not too far away, however, Adagio did see clothes hanging from a line outside of a smaller home. They were dulled in colour, and most likely wouldn’t fit her if Sunset could be considered average-sized, but the large bolt of beige cloth fluttering in the wind could be useful.

Shrugging to herself, Adagio beelined for it.

Every moment she was out on the road and in the field, she felt watched. Yet every building she could see had its window shutters closed, and aside from a few bodies wandering around the roads further away, too far to see her in any real detail

Adagio snatched up the cloth, then tucked herself up beside the cottage as she threw it around herself. It had been left out in the rain, possibly by mistake, as it was heavy and sodden. Water dripped from its edges and it clunk to Adagio’s body tightly.

As much as it pained her to squish down her hair with it, it also helped make her little ‘cloak’ a perfect disguise. A few little tears gave her some strips of fabric to knot together around the throat and chest, and a little further tug on the hood brought it clear over her snout.

From there, Adagio was confident she wouldn’t be given a second look on her way into town. That was until she almost crossed paths with a pony in uniform, and she quickly took a different road that skirted around some of the houses on the outside of town. When she emerged on the street behind them, however, the pony just seemed to be delivering letters and packages, which left Adagio’s ego a little bruised and her paranoia diminished.

The streets weren’t well paved. That made sense for most of the alleys that Adagio skulked along, but even the larger, wider thoroughfares with clearly marked businesses were mostly dirty ruts made muddy by the storm the night before. Where she could, she stuck to the few stones or wooden boards that lined the edges of the roads.

As she neared the centre of town, Adagio found herself beneath an increasingly dense net of cables hanging from houses and poles. In some cases, banners and bunting hung from them, and while they looked similar to the cables back in Sunset’s lab, these weren’t frayed or glowing with energy.

Adagio also noticed she could sort of feel them, even from the ground. She was drawn to them, she wanted to stand near them, get closer and closer, but unless she wanted to draw attention to herself by scaling somepony’s house, she decided against satiating that curious itch.

With her eyes to the sky, Adagio bumped into a wall of fabric. She stepped back and examined what it was and found herself standing beside what looked like a market stall, with colourful fabric making up the walls and top. A glance to her side confirmed there were others, and she smiled to herself.

A market was a place where ponies gathered, which meant a place Adagio could blend in and potentially eavesdrop.

The first stall marked the start of an intersection before a stone bridge, and others sat at the corners of the intersection as well as in the middle. Some were open, filled with vegetables and fruits and tools and crafts, while others were empty. Regardless there were enough ponies around, buying and selling, that there was a small crowd for Adagio to disappear into.

Whatever Adagio was missing, it wasn’t the language. She understood the ponies around her perfectly well, even if the words were strange sounding. It was like all the sounds were just a little bit off from what she expected.

Adagio spotted a pair of mares standing at one corner of the intersection, speaking to one another. One with a fluffy orange mane pulled out crates from a cart and slid them across tables in front of another mud-spattered tent, while one with blue and pink curls watched her.

“That storm was crazy last night,” said the one with the curls. “Kept me up all night. I’m surprised you’re even bothering today.”

The redhead shrugged as she grabbed another crate, overfilled with carrots. They were big and pointy, and it appeared she’d even taken the time to clean them of most of their dirt. “I gotta make ends meet!” She shoved them along, clunking the crate into another. “And that much rain keeps me busy. I have to pull up everything quicker. At least with the festival, it isn’t like I’m going to run out of customers any time soon.”

Adagio stopped and turned, facing one of the stalls she happened to be passing. Thankfully it looked like it was in the middle of being set up, but with its owner absent and various little carvings were something she could admire.

Oh, that one looks like a fish. Cute.

“No rest for the wicked, huh?” The blue-pink one snorted. “I got all my candies ready ages ago. I’m mostly just making extra now so that I can give some of it away. Good advertisin’, you know?”

“Lucky for some,” said the redhead. “Anyway, are you just here to chatter and watch me work, or are you after something?”

“Did you say something about a festival?” Adagio asked. She kept her voice low in pitch and volume, trying to disguise its buzzy undertone. She was looking at the two, keeping her head down and peering more through her hood than under it.

The mares glanced at one another with raised eyebrows.

“Yes?” answered the blue-haired one. “Of course there is. There always is this time of year.”

Adagio put on a sheepish smile and dipped her head down, then added a cough. “I’m not from around here, just passing through. Can I ask what it’s about? Who’s in charge?”

“Are you alright? You don’t sound too good,” asked the redhead.

“I got caught in the storm,” said Adagio, and she waved a hoof at herself. She quickly put it down, hiding it back beneath the cloak. “Stupid, I know.”

“Yeah, it kind of was.” The redhead stared at Adagio for a moment longer, then clambered up onto the bed of her cart. The blue-pink-haired mare smiled, though it seemed more like it was out of politeness.

“Normally the mayor would be in charge of the festival, but I heard that someone from the capital is managing it this year. I don’t know much about her—“ She snapped her focus onto the red-headed pony and pointed at the crate she was dragging off the cart. “Beets! I need sugar beets, that’s what I’m here for.”

“You bought out my last batch the other week! How many of these things do you get through?”

Adagio watched in bemusement as the two ponies set off, talking at a million miles a minute. She tried to get back into the conversation between their bickering and haggling, but she caught herself before she rose her voice. No sense in adding more noise.

Adagio moved on and crossed the bridge before the three of them garnered more attention than she wanted. At the very least she could do a little more wandering and learn what was where assuming she was to stay anywhere near the town for long. Perhaps she could find a social spot, an inn or a temple.

Finding what could be considered a town square wasn’t too hard once Adagio found the main road. It was straight enough that all she had to do was see where it bowed out to its widest, giving space for a water fountain in the middle that some of the passing carts and ponies steered around. It was larger than she would have expected.

She kept to the side of the plaza, where some of the cobblestones gave way to mud again, and focused her attention on the buildings she passed. There was a higher concentration of businesses there, with signs above them. Despite recognising most of the script, Adagio had difficulty reading them. She had to rely on what she could see through the windows; furniture, writing supplies, and a bakery.

Adagio was a little surprised at how much glass there was. It was shockingly easy to see into even pony’s homes, catching glimpses of them working or eating. She paused briefly at one home, surprised to see a pony dressing himself, and he hopped over awkwardly to the window and pulled a set of curtains closed.

It was as Adagio was distracted by some dresses in another shop window that she came to an abrupt stop. Whatever she collided with bounced off her while leaving her unmoved.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” she barked, and so did her obstacle.

A unicorn mare glared at Adagio from the ground. Adagio could tell her side was covered in mud on the side she fell on, having landed close to where the cobblestones transitioned to a dirt road. A smattering clung to her vest and shirt, and her lavender fur. Between the two of them were a pair of books in a similar state, with flecks of brown across their top covers.

Turning her attention to the books, she tutted and rose. “Great, explaining how this got wrecked is going to suck.” With her magic, she flicked one of the books and struck Adagio with a little more mud in the process, most of it landing on her cloak.

Adagio flinched and raised a leg. “Stop that. Seriously.”

“Your cloak is filthy already, a little more mud isn’t going to hurt.” The other book received a shake too, and when both were mostly, if not entirely free of mud, she held them to her chest with one leg. “Isn’t it a little late to be wearing that, anyway? I thought the storm was last… Night…”

She paused, purple eyes staring directly into Adagio’s, and Adagio felt the scrutiny in that gaze. The unicorn’s jaw clenched and she lowered her head, looking up into the hood.

Adagio forced herself to turn and cough, though without any lungs it was more of a very audible, “Ahem.”. When the unicorn didn’t back away, she added, “Stare any closer and you’ll catch what I have.”

“Glowing eyes,” the unicorn muttered. Adagio snapped her head forward just in time to watch the unicorn tug the cloak down at the front. “And that’s more than a fur pattern.”

Adagio shoved the unicorn away and backpedalled. “Hooves off. It’s nothing.” Her chest felt tight, and Adagio wanted to breathe, but her rising shoulders and expanding chest were no better than an illusion. She turned and began trotting away when something gripped one of Adagio’s rear legs. All of a sudden her hooves found no traction on the stone, and she slid back toward the unicorn.

“Stay,” the unicorn said. One of her books snapped open, and the other dropped back to the ground. Somewhere from within the pages she drew a pencil and started scribbling. “Somepony actually did it. Remarkable. Very convincing until closely scrutinised. No fur, odd choice, but expensive…” She paced around Adagio, though when Adagio tried to wriggle and follow her around, the grip on her leg tightened, keeping her rooted in place.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, who said anything about no fur?” A little twist gave her enough reach to put a hoof out in front of the unicorn.

The pencil moved and pressed into Adagio’s leg, and the silicone scrunched up as it squished into it.

“A matte covering of some sort of pliable material. Rubber, I expect. Not sure what type exactly, but it has to be flexible to let you keep full movement.” She lifted the pencil again, scribbling something else onto the paper without looking away from Adagio for a moment. “What sort of joints do you have? Ball, hinge…”

Adagio smiled. The way Sunset spoke about her work made Adagio believe that she and her sisters were unique, and not many ponies knew about them, yet there was a pony in front of her, expertly dissecting her without a knife. She wondered if she should try and maintain the charade of being a normal pony, but it seemed a little moot at that point.

The mare was interesting, and somepony to keep in mind.

“Good ones,” Adagio replied. “What do you know about what I am?”

The unicorn tilted her head. “Enough,” she said. “I need to take you back home.”

Oh, that would be very good to know. “And do what, exactly? I’m certainly not opposed to a little personal time.”

“I want to take you apart to see how you work. You’re a walking, talking marvel, after all.” The book slammed shut, and the grip around Adagio’s leg tightened. “Walk. It’s not far.”

Adagio glared at the unicorn, and any semblance of a smile was gone. “I don’t think that’s happening.”

“Yes, it is. Go. Move. March.” The unicorn gave Adagio a shove in the side, to no avail. All she did was push herself back, sliding across the stones. When she tried again, with an added grunt, she slid again.

“What are you doing?”

“You’re supposed to move when I tell you! Unless—“ She bounced around in front of Adagio. “Unless there’s some sort of enchantment or thaumaturgic lock to keep you under only one pony’s control.”

Shoving the unicorn back, Adagio shook her head. “’Fraid not, dork. I decide what I want to do, and I don’t feel like being pulled apart.”

Very quickly, Adagio left the ground. The unicorn’s horn glowed, and Adagio felt like she was being pinched at the sides. “I’ll put you back together! I’ll just need to make some nicks and cuts in a few places, but you’ll hardly notice. Cosmetic damage at best.”

Adagio couldn’t let herself be taken like that. Without much else she could do, she kicked and thrashed, throwing her legs one way then another in a chaotic spasm. “Put me down, you idiot. I said no!”

The unicorn widened her stance while she clenched her teeth into a broad grimace, while Adagio swung through the air, side to side. With a little twisting, she found she could influence where she was going, even if just a little bit.

It was enough to land a grazing kick to the unicorn’s head, and she fell to the ground with a shriek. Adagio careened off, hit the ground with several heavy thumps, and came to a halt along the dirt road. She quickly stumbled to her hooves, while watching the unicorn do the same at the edge of her vision, holding a hoof to her head and glaring daggers at Adagio.

Not wanting to wait and see what that glare meant, Adagio bolted.

It wasn’t a particularly fast run. Not only did her heavy hooffalls sink into the mud, coming out with a loud, wet, schlop, but her legs also felt like they were constantly held back, while her joints whined through her body.

Adagio needed to get back to the main road, but a glance over her shoulder confirmed that the unicorn was hot on her hooves. Certainly, she was smaller, and probably not the athletic type, but Adagio wasn’t increasing the space between them by very much.

Coming up to an alley, Adagio turned into it and found herself in some shared yard space between several buildings. She didn’t get far into it before she realised she made a mistake and was stopped by a fence.

“Please just stop!” yelled the unicorn, panting and breathless in the archway behind Adagio. She’d stopped entirely, leaning one leg on the wall to hold herself up.

Adagio looked back to the fence and tried to hop over it.

She managed to at least get her front hooves over the top, and with some kicking pushed herself over, though she took the tops of some of the boards with her. Landing in a heap on the other side, she struggled back to her hooves, but when she heard the unintelligible, frustrated shouting behind her, she smiled to herself and continued out through another alley and onto the main road.

Plenty of ponies that were now out and about looked over at her, but Adagio ignored them. Let them look and consider her strange, they’ll forget soon enough.

Figuring the best route for her escape was to stick to the road until she found the forest again, Adagio continued along. The direction was perpendicular to where she had come into town, but it would take her out of it nonetheless. She just had to keep up the pace, which she found was shockingly easy.

As much as running felt laborious, it didn’t get any more tiresome. The shock of her hooves on the stone didn’t hurt, it just buzzed up through her limbs and joints. It was almost pleasant, but without lungs to fill she didn’t truly feel what probably would be an exhilarating run.

Adagio was nearing the edge of the town before it transitioned to farms, and was fast coming up to another bridge. There wasn’t much beyond it but fields, and the forest leading back home. If she could get there, getting away from the unicorn would be a cinch.

Of course, all of that fell apart when the unicorn materialised before her in a flash of pink light.

“What is wrong with you?” she shouted.

Adagio tried to stop herself, but being unused to her new weight—to her new hooves—she skidded across the stones, aided by some of the lingering mud still stuck to her. She did at least manage to swerve herself around and gallop in a different direction, galloping down another street that was also paved.

She wasn’t getting over the bridge that way. Nor was she truly getting away from her pursuer. She was making the unicorn sweat, for sure, but if she could just appear before her, it was only a matter of time before she was caught. She wasn’t sure if she could pull that trick off more than once, but it was best to assume she could.

The street ahead of Adagio narrowed, pulling away from the river to give space to a long, wooden deck. Adagio had spotted a few row boats tied to posts on the edge of the deck, but before she decided to jump onto one, her foot fell through the worn wood with a crash.

She smacked her chin against the floor, and her entire jaw rang. It was enough to rattle her senses, and for a moment her vision twisted, overlapping two differently tilted worlds over one another.

Her cloak was left behind as she clambered out of the hole she made for herself, but as she started running again the unicorn once more appeared in front of her.

“You need to stop right now,” she yelled. Both of her yelled. Adagio’s vision hadn’t recovered, and she shut one of her eyes to shut out the effect.

Sparing a glance over her shoulder, Adagio smiled again. “I don’t want to.” Then she leapt to one of the boats, her hooves already reaching for the oars.

She crashed through it and into the water, where she sank like a rock.

Adagio realised in that instant what was missing.

She didn’t feel cold.

The expected chill of fresh water didn’t hit her like a cart. It didn’t give her goosebumps or make her shiver. She knew she was wet and cooling down but simply did not feel it.

She thumped into the mud and sand at the bottom of the river, surrounded by roots and reeds. The water was murky, but she could see well enough above her to see the unicorn’s silhouette learning over the deck and down at where Adagio lay, framed by the remains of the boat drifting along downstream.

For a moment, she worried the unicorn would simply fish her back out with her telekinesis. Yet as she waited, nothing happened. There was no grip on her legs or waist, no upward tug to speak of. She simply lay there, in the dirt, untouched.

Adagio snickered to herself when the shadow disappeared, coming out as a weird, muffled buzz. She couldn’t hear the surface above her, just the faint rumbling noise of the water flowing around her, but she could imagine the unicorn grumbling as she stomped away.

Deciding it would be wise to stay for at least a little while, Adagio made no rush to stand up. After all, she didn’t need to breathe.

She did at least decide to try and stand up and pull off the riverbed’s detritus from her. In the dim, murky light of the water, it was hard to see it all, make sure every little bit was gone, and she was sure more would get stuck to her the longer she stayed underwater. That wasn’t to mention what a mess her mane and tail probably were by that point, but that was for her to worry about when she was long gone.

Something crossed over Adagio’s vision, splitting it horizontally. Opened her other eye, and she found the weird double-vision was still there, so she just shut the eye being disturbed by what she thought was a hair or some weeds and pawed at her face to try and pull it away.

After waiting what felt like an appropriate amount of time, Adagio attempted to push herself up and swim to the surface. To her dismay, however, when she kicked her legs and tried to push her way through the water, she just sank back down to the bottom. She attempted to swim a few more times, but each time was met with failure.

Okay, maybe she can’t swim. The banks on either side of her were too steep to climb, both being brickwork.

Alrighty. Maybe she could travel along for a little while and find a ladder or some stairs for boats. Maybe somewhere ahead the walls ended, and she could simply climb the bank and walk out.

Another line appeared across her vision, this time almost vertical. She opened both her eyes once more, then tried to pull whatever was stuck over her eye away.

That’s when she noticed she had more of the lines across her vision, and they were spider-webbing their way out where they crossed. No matter how much she tried to wipe those lines and cracks away, they remained.

A tightness spread across Adagio’s chest, and she stumbled along the river bed while rubbing at her face, pushing into the skin and going as far as to touch her eyes directly.

Her vision cracked into three different angles, then four then five.

Adagio needed to breathe. She knew she couldn’t but she needed to get to the surface, to keep pushing through the river. While she struggled to move over the rocks and mounds of dirt underneath her, she shut her eyes to block out the fracturing world in front of her. Between the current and the walls, she could feel where she was headed at the very least.

As she walked, Adagio was convinced she was dragging her legs through the mud, but try as she might to lift them, to pull them clear of the riverbed, she continually found them slowed down, bumping into stones or old posts and garbage. She was pulling herself along as much as she walked.

Eventually Adagio stumbled into something else. She paused for a moment, running her hooves over it to find two corners, one where the structure jutted out, and another where it continued along the river.

She must have found the bridge she tried to cross. She didn’t know what that meant for finding somewhere shallow, but it at least placed her somewhere she knew. Though, perhaps she could lift herself here. She might be spotted, but Adagio also figured she would be better found out than found dead.

Standing on her rear legs, Adagio felt around the stones for something to hold onto, to pull herself up with. She also dared to peek out of one eye and through the confusing, fractured mess she saw the shadow of the bridge over her, confirming what she thought.

She found a few bricks that stuck out underneath, and they were large and sturdy enough she could pull herself up if she could get a good enough grip.

With great effort, Adagio attempted to haul herself up but found that one of her rear legs refused to budge more than a few inches off the riverbed. Figuring it was just especially stuck in the mud, she continued pulling as hard as she could while trying to kick her leg free. The brick cracked, but it held longer than whatever it was that held her down.

At least that’s what she thought until she was surprised by the fact that she could, in fact, feel cold.

It wasn’t a refreshing feeling, enveloping her. It was like somepony took a pick and shoved it deep inside of her hip, and brought with it a sharp, numbing sensation.

She shivered, and in her growing sense of confusion and panic, she threw a hoof up for another ledge, another hold.

While Adagio managed to break the surface, she didn’t find more than a small lip of stone before the bridge arched over her. Maybe it was enough to haul her out, perhaps if she shuffled along to one side she could pull herself up onto the edge of the river.

The sensation in her chest wrapped her up tighter and tighter still, and the cold… the pain in her leg filtered through her, deep inside of her. While she’d managed to get her head above water for a few moments, she struggled to keep it that way, as she fought her weight for every inch that she shuffled along.

There was the corner, rounded but sharp enough to identify. Just a little more.

Then there was the bank, where she tossed up one leg, then the other. She pulled herself up enough her eyes and ears were above the water.

The cold reached her chest where, for a moment, it seemed like it would stop.

Her legs twisted and Adagio lost her grip on land. They kicked and she fell, while one of her back legs smashed itself against the bridge’s supporting stonework. She drifted back into the water and landed on her back while she convulsed and thrash.

None of that hurt. The cold pain had vanished, replaced with intense heat and a strong, overwhelming tingling, but it did not hurt.

After an eternal moment, everything came to an abrupt stop. The heat, the buzzing in her limbs and torso, it all faded away. She didn’t even feel cold in the absence of heat.

She also couldn’t move. Her limbs felt like they just weren’t there, nor was the rest of her body. Even her eyelids refused to obey her, pushed slowly open by the current and letting her see the dimming image of the bridge above her, torn to shreds and blurred by the water.

She laughed to herself, unheard.

Well, that sucks.

Author's Note:

This is an ongoing commissionned work. If you would like to commission me, click here!

Comments

[Oreng Pingvin]

I wonder how long she'll be there

[Anon E Moose]

Oh that's several degrees of not good.

[FillCoulson]

The car has risen from the dead

[Snowdrifter]

Adagio might be..

(Wait for it...:

Over her head!

[hmaf43]

who is that pervert unicorn?

[SigmasonicX]

This chapter went way more intense in the end than I expected given the lighthearted first chapter. Lots of intriguing stuff here, including a certain other unicorn having some idea of what's going on.