It was a night like any other. The sky was clear of any and all clouds, revealing both the sparkling stars and the brilliantly bright full moon. The air was cool and quiet, and all throughout the city, there was calm and peace. The one notable exception to this was a small cafe on a street corner. Usually, such a place like this would be fairly quiet, even in spite of how many people were using it. But tonight was different. For within this establishment, all that one could hear was the sound of squabbles and bickering. A young couple, arguing over some sour point in their relationship. A pair of neighbours, whose friendship seemed to have broken down. And many others. Their quarreling and snaps at one another made up the entire atmosphere of this place.
And yet, nestled amongst all the arguments and angry voices, there was another, less-noticeable sound. This was no aggressive banter, but rather a song. It was a chorus of voices, all chanting in unison, their voices all calm and collected compared to the riots going on around them. The singing was strange to hear, ethereal, soothing, even beautiful. And yet, something was very wrong about it. If one were to hear it, they would feel deep down that they should not be listening to it, but would already be so enraptured by it that they could not turn away. The songs were coming from a small and poorly-lit corner table of the cafe, where nobody else was even bothering to look, around which sat three figures.
It was clear that these were all young women, two sitting on one side of the table and one on the other, and they were clad in an almost-uniform attire of sneakers, jeans and hoodies, the hoods of which were pulled up over their heads, obscuring their faces in shadow. But it was around their necks that the true items of interest lay. For each and every one of them was wearing a black necklace, from which hung shining red jewels of some sort. As they gleamed brightly, the girls, who were all still singing, were keeping their hands close to the gems, almost how like a mother would cradle a child. It was clear that these items were precious to them, and it was not hard to see why, given what seemed to be going on around them.
For all over, as the various friends and couples continued their rants at each other, there was an eerie green mist about the place, all of which was being drawn somehow to the girl's amulets. As the girls carried on with their song, the mist was being absorbed by their jewels, and it was not long before this process had reached it's end, with the three of them finally finishing their singing. With that now done, the three all opened their eyes, as two of them lowered their hoods. The first girl had pink skin and long purple hair with blue streaks, which was held as pigtails on either side of her head. The second had a light-blue tone with a sky-blue hair with dark blue highlights held in a single ponytail. The first girl's face was bearing a look of both boredom and great annoyance, as also evidenced by her tone of voice.
"Ugh! That was barely worth the effort, Adagio."
The girl slouched down a little before leaning her head into her hand.
"I'm tired of fast food. I need a meal!"
It was here that the third girl, Adagio, who was sitting opposite the other two, lowered her hood. Her skin had a yellow tone and her quite sizeable orange hair had yellow highlights. Her face, as one might expect after a remark like that from her comrade, was one of irritation, complete with a raised eyebrow.
"The energy here isn't the same as in Equestria."
She looked away from the other two girls, her expression becoming one of clear resentment.
"We can only gain so much power here."
The purple-haired girl, now looking more annoyed than before, folded her arms and slumped backwards into her chair.
"Argh! I wish we'd never been banished to this awful place!"
Adagio looked at her companion and broke out into an obviously fake smile and spoke with an equally-false upbeat tone.
"Really? I love it here!"
Her face quickly reverted to it's more unfriendly expression, her act now dropped. The sarcasm in her statement would have been clear to even the most dim-witted of people. Well, perhaps not the MOST dim-witted, as the third girl of their group finally spoke up in response to Adagio's words.
"For realsies? Because I think this place is the worst!"
Under normal circumstances, a group of people who had known each other as long as these three might have let such a foolish comment as that just slide by. However, tonight seemed to be proving especially frustrating for the three of them as the purple-haired girl, Aria, looked at her blue-haired compatriot with a scornful look on her eyes.
"I think you're the worst, Sonata!"
The girl, Sonata, looked back at her fellow outcast with a look of indignation as she rested one elbow on the table, ready to make her retort.
"Oh yeah? "Well I think you're..."
Unfortunately for Sonata, but thankfully for everyone else, this back and forth between the two of them was interrupted by a grunt of annoyance given off by Adagio. The two girls looked over to her, where she was rubbing her temples, clearly frustrated with their behaviour.
"I'll tell you one thing...being stuck here with you two isn't making this world any more bearable!"
Her last word had been spoke through gritting teeth, and her aggressive expression made it obvious, even to Sonata this time, that she was just in no mood for their bickering. However, before any of them could speak any further, a bright flash of light from outside caught all of their attention. Adagio's head snapped in the direction of the window, where she saw that, out of nowhere, storm clouds had gathered in the skies far away from them, in a region of this world just over the hills from where they were. The bright flash had been from some force that now shot out of the earth and into the skies above. Adagio, her face now bearing a look of utter shock, looked at this and immediately jumped out of her seat, running ahead of the other two and bursting through the doors of the cafe.
Now outside, and with the other two moving much slower behind her, Adagio kept her eyes fixed on the far-away sky, as yet another spectacular event unfolded before her. A powerful force, in the form of a bright rainbow, spiraled up from the ground beyond the hills, before shooting down at something further away from it. There was an almost blinding flash of light, but even so, Adagio did not look away. For what had just occurred before her was unlike she and her followers had ever seen in this world. But she had a feeling, deep down, that she knew what it was. And as the bright flash finally died down, she looked down at her red amulet, where she saw that, perhaps as a reaction to what had just transpired, it began to shimmer of it's own accord.
Adagio let out a gasp as she addressed the other two, still keeping her eyes on the sky.
"Did you feel that?"
It couldn't be, she told herself, but she knew it to be true. Whatever it was that had taken place far away from them was something she was all-too familiar with. Something she thought she would never see again for as long as she lived, and certainly not in this world. As she dwelt on what she now knew, a new feeling began to grow in her. It was as if someone had come along and breathed new life into hopes and ambitions that had long been dead in her during her time in this world. And as those ambitions returned to take root in her, a smile began to grow on her face. But this was no smile of happiness, but one of a person who now had plans for the future, and was more than confident enough to see them through. She finally turned away from the sky, pointed back to where she had been looking and spoke to the other two.
"Do you know what that is?"
As one might assume, Adagio watched her two followers, waiting for them to nod in agreement, to let her know that they were on the same wavelength as her. Unfortunately, what she got was a look of apathy from Aria and confusion from Sonata, as the two of them simply shrugged their shoulders at her. Feeling only slightly let down by this, as well as somewhat annoyed, Adagio stepped forward and grabbed onto the front of Aria's hoodie, pulling her forward as she glared at her.
"It was Equestrian magic!"
As Aria batted Adagio's hands off her clothes, she looked at her leader with a look that gave the distinct impression that the latter had just spoken complete nonsense. It was a sentiment also expressed in her next words to her.
"But this world doesn't have Equestrian magic!"
Adagio was only briefly put off by her ally's attitude towards all of this, as she soon regained her knowing smirk from earlier.
"It does now..."
She turned from the two of them and began taking a few steps forward as she continued to speak.
"...and we're going to use it to make everyone in this pathetic little world adore us!"
And thus, Adagio's plan became very clear to both Aria and Sonata, who both walked up beside her and looked out at the sky where the lights had been, smiling triumphantly to themselves. So, their path was clear. They would find whoever or whatever had caused this magic of Equestria to emerge in this world and they would take it for themselves. And they knew in their hearts that they would be sustained unlike anything they had ever experienced in their time here. Until now, they had only ever survived on scraps. But now, with this new magic in this world, they would have a feast. As bad as this night had been for the three of them, now, they finally had something to look forward to after far too long a time.
However, as they dwelt on this, Adagio gained a rather scornful look on her face as she looked down and pulled at the hem of her hoodie.
"First things first though, if we're going to rule, we'd better look the part. Time to replace these rags for something a little more..."
And like so many times before, a smirk came to Adagio's face.
"...eye-catching."
