Cross the Rubicon: Choices
Chapter 31: Interlude VII: Dazzle Me
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Early October
Not far from Canterlot City
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It was late and a little chilly, with just enough of a breeze that anyone wandering the sidewalk would be eager to get indoors as quick as possible. For the time of night, not many businesses were still open, but a corner diner sat brightly lit and full of customers. From the street, one could easily hear the noise of conversation, of tired wait staff close to the end of their shift talking pleasantly with their customers, or the laughter of groups of college students from a nearby university, all with the background of clanking glasses and scrape of silverware on plates.
Conversation that was turning dark with anger and frustration, hostility fanning to life in mere moments. It started small: a spilled drink met with a shout of anger, or an offhand and playful remark that generated not laughter, but hostility, responses far disproportionate to the incidents that caused them. It degenerated rapidly, sparks fanned into flame. Patrons were arguing with each other, almost screaming, waving hands and silverware and cups threateningly. None of them seemed aware of the soft, eerie, and sinister harmony being produced by three hoodie wearing figures in the far corner, slim hands resting against blood colored stones hanging from their necks.
Adagio inhaled deeply as their Song faded, drawing the tingling energy of hostility into her soul, her waning power brightening fractionally, easing the hollow feeling in her core. It tasted so good that when she exhaled, it came out as a shuddering, borderline moan; the bitterness and frustration around her flavoring the anger in a way that was rich and delicious, even if it wasn't the most filling. A human might’ve likened it to potato chips, or greasy french fries—something one enjoyed and delighted in, something that tasted wonderful, especially to someone who was practically starving, but didn’t really fill the stomach or provide a good healthy diet.
She missed the days when humans lurked in paranoia and fear, when the rules of society had a much shorter reach and they could incite much more filling responses in their prey…but that just wasn’t possible for them anymore. Between the advent of modern weaponry and warfare and globalization with the affect of mass media, it was no longer safe for them to gorge on the more filling forms of conflict and strife—they’d learned that during the second World War the hard way. That left them wandering from town to town, city to city, feeding off the minor trouble and arguments they could stir up with their drastically weakened powers. Living in the human world amidst a bunch of hairless, smelly, violent primates was a punishment worse than death—the ancient female missed Equestria, where the energy they fed on was touched by magic as well as emotions. If she ever found a way back, she would glut herself until she couldn't move, to Tartarus with the consequences.
Her musing was broken by Aria pushing her hood back with a disgusted scoff. “Ugh,” the other female sneered. “That was barely worth the effort, Adagio. I'm tired of fast food. I need a meal.” Aria’s complaints dropped to a low mutter Adagio almost missed. “We could have pushed them into a proper riot, maybe had some of these stupid monkeys shank each other...Make them give us a meal instead of scraps."
Adagio sighed, this time in exasperation while she and Sonata both lowered their own hoods, before speaking like she might’ve to one of her own pups, not to someone who was more akin to a sister than anything. “The energy in this world isn't the same as in Equestria,” she repeated in a terse tone for what felt like the millionth time—she felt like one of those human parents trapped on a road trip that never ended with a human pup asking ‘Are we there yet?’ every five minutes—just like in those stupid movies Sonata was fond of watching. “We can only gain so much power here.”
Another sneer, and Aria sank back into the booth with her arms crossed petulantly. “Argh! I wish we’d never been banished to this awful place,” she complained.
Aria Blaze. Thousands of years old, with all the maturity of an disenfranchised human adolescent with a chip on her shoulder the size of a barrier reef. Sometimes, Adagio wondered what she had done to deserve getting saddled with these two as her permanent company and hunting partners. Human males were less obnoxious than this pair some days! She let sarcasm drip from her response—it sated the urge to reach across the table and strangle the female with her hair in purple pigtails. “Really? I love it here!” She gave Aria a dirty look and an eyeroll to add to her point.
That was when their third member spoke up, and Adagio really did have to exert considerable willpower to not murder them both on the spot, counting to ten not just once but several times in multiple languages. “For realsies?” Sonata asked, eyes wide and trusting. “Because I think this place is the worst!”
“I think you’re the worst, Sonata,” Aria deadpanned.
“Oh yeah? Well I think you’re—”
The two degraded into petty insults and childish bickering, much to her annoyance, acting like the adolescent monkeys they resembled instead of the ancient magical beings they were. Focus, Adagio, she told herself. You need them alive. You’re not strong enough to feed alone anymore. It really was like being stuck with two permanent pups, both of them brain-damaged by falling coral at birth.
She put her head in her hand and growled nastily, cutting off both other females. As dumb as they were, they at least knew when their leader-sister had reached her threshold for their antics. “I’ll tell you one thing,” she told them through clenched teeth. “Being stuck here with you two isn't making this world any more bearable.” By the end of the sentence, she was practically chewing on the words, seriously considering going it on her own, or maybe just pushing the other two off the next cliff she found simply to find out if they would bounce when they hit the bottom. Her eyes, pupils half slitted and narrow like a cat’s, pinned them in place, the rage touched by her magic radiating off of her enough to cow them entirely—being in the wrong body in the wrong world didn’t change instincts that screamed at them when the eldest among them was furious.
And then the world Changed.
For years, her senses had felt dull, packed in cotton and weak as magic that had once existed in this world ebbed away, and their food had become increasingly lean and unsatisfying, leaving them in a perpetual state of near starvation, almost all of their energy going to sustaining their lives and triggering enough negativity to have their next meal. All at once, she felt power, power that felt like the home she had almost forgotten, pass through her, making Adagio Dazzle feel more alive than she had in centuries. Her head turned towards the window, staring at the dark night sky, at the narrow sliver of the moon peaking out behind dark clouds, and strained, trying to feel more.
She was not disappointed, as far away, almost too far to see, light pierced the heavens, and the energy that rippled through the faint lines in the ground and air became overrun with pure and unadulterated hatred. The creature-turned-human was on her feet and rushing out the door at a run, drinking in the waves of distant power carried on natural currents that had been unused for decades. She could hear her sisters following her, and all three came to a stop outside the diner. Still she stared at that distant, unknown spot, feeling…tasting…subsequent waves of hatred, fear, anger, and frustration, each one hungrily devoured, filling the hungry pit in her core that never seemed to be sated. More distant brilliance against the night sky, and her eyes widened with legends come to life in the wrong world, for even her kind knew of the Rainbow of Light, the mythical magical force more powerful than any god or monster.
The waves of anger became a flood of sour despair, and then a nauseating mess of triumph and joy that made her guts churn unpleasantly, and she was blinded briefly by a flash of light and color as the Rainbow’s power rushed across the land, flooding long dormant leylines beneath her feet with magic more potent than she’d ever felt. The gem at her throat warmed, and she touched it with an intake of breath, almost stunned. “Did you feel that?” she managed, half disbelieving what she thought she’d seen and felt. “Do you know what that is?” she demanded of them as she turned, a dark smile starting to cross her face.
Both females shrugged at her, frowning. She grabbed Aria’s shirt front and pulled her up close. “It’s Equestrian magic!” she hissed, her limbs trembling from the mix of anger and excitement.
Aria scoffed. “But this world doesn’t have Equestrian magic,” she pointed out, like she was informing a simpleton that water was wet. “You keep telling me that.”
“It does now…” she purred, releasing her sister and turning to saunter towards the curb, the wheels in her head turning as she analyzed how her powers felt, how she felt. She was stronger than she’d been since before the Crusades, and that was with just a bare taste of the magic. What she could do if she had more…She had to have it. They had to find it. With all three of them and that much power…The malicious smile growing, she spoke her thoughts aloud for the other two to hear, her eyes gleaming with remembered power, and a wild, soul deep hunger. “Think about it, you two! Equestrian magic, here....all that power and no one with the skills in it to stop us...we get this magic, and we can turn everyone in this world into our slaves...make every human in this pathetic world adore us....”
Aria’s eyes flickered with something other than general disdain and apathy when Adagio turned back to her and Sonata. “With that kind of magic, we could make these stupid, slavering apes fight each other for the privilege of feeding us. We would be queens!”