That evening, Sonata Dusk was startled by a mysterious sound. She looked up in alarm, glancing from Adagio Dazzle to Aria Blaze, but neither of them seemed to have noticed it. The two of them continued to lay dejectedly where they had fallen, their outfits tattered and bodies bruised from their earlier fight, on the abandoned mattress and slumped against the concrete wall of the underpass. It happened again, and Sonata looked down in alarm.
“You guys,” she said urgently, “I think my stomach is angry at me.”
Adagio didn’t move from her mattress, but she slapped her palm across her face. “That means you’re hungry, Sonata.”
“Which you would know,” cut in Aria, glaring at her from a black eye, “if you weren’t the worst.”
“You are!” snapped the other Siren instinctively. “But, y’know, I don’t feel even a little tingle! We don’t really need that regular food stuff, do we? I mean, it’s good, but…”
This time Adagio did get up, her sigh drowned under the noise of a passing truck, and as she drew herself to her full height she took stock of their surroundings. When they had fled Canterlot High earlier after the Rainbooms’ Equestrian magic had washed over them and destroyed the crystals which contained their own magic, they hadn’t looked back or stopped running until they were clear across town, passing from the well-manicured lawns and music shops to vacant lots and boarded-up windows, where they had disputed the issue until they all collapsed from exhaustion. Flipping her orange hair back, the self-proclaimed leader of their group seemed to reassert her status. “We didn’t. We shouldn’t. But so long as we don’t have our magic, I think we may have to accept certain…difficulties.”
“I don’t think WE have to accept anything,” Aria broke in, angrily standing up, her pigtails out of order. “If we don’t have our magic, then you’re not the strongest, and why should I have to listen to you two worthless losers?”
“US--?! Like you weren’t just as b—nnngh.” Adagio grabbed the girl by the collar. “Forget it. What matters is that we stay together long enough to get some magic back.”
“And how do you suggest we do that? Ask the Rainbrats nicely? We lost our gems, remember?” Aria pushed Adagio away and crossed her arms derisively.
“Think about it, you idiot,” snarled Adagio. “If there was a way for Twilight Sparkle and her magic to get in, there must be a way for us to get it back. Much as I despise this world, we’ll have better luck staying here and biding our time until they least suspect us, when they’re at their weakest. Then we strike—“she punctuated the phrase with a smack of a fist in her palm, “And take back what is rightfully ours!”
“And food, too! Don’t forget about the food!” Sonata added plaintively.
“But we can’t go back there, and we can’t stay here,” huffed Aria, “looking like this.”
“You’re right. We need another fresh start. New clothes. New identities. But without our song, how to get those…those…Sonata, will you stop fidgeting like that?!” Lashing out, Adagio slapped at Sonata’s hand, which had been fussing with something she’d pulled from her pocket. While the blue girl quietly whimpered, several small, sparkling red things fell to the ground.
“Those! Those are necklace fragments,” Adagio practically hissed. “You held onto them? I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Sonata Dusk, you’re a genius!”
“A lot of good those will do us now,” said Aria. “Now that they’re depowered and worthless.”
Slowly, a smile crept over Adagio’s face as she gazed past the pink girl, at a neon sign in the window of a store up the slope from the underpass. A simple diamond symbol glowed electric blue in the night, and the words WE PAY CASH FOR JEWELRY! next to them blinked on and off intermittently.
“I wouldn’t say they’re worthless,” chuckled the siren, a familiar confidence coming back to her. “No, I wouldn’t say that at all.”
* * *
“So…let me get this straight,” Lucky Nickel the pawn shop clerk said, running a hand through his greasy silver hair nervously and staring at the threesome that had just walked into the store. Three teenage girls, battered and generally the beaten up, eagerly shoving some small shards of jewelry at him through the window. “You just happened to get these crystals as a gift from your parents before they died, you’re moving in with your aunt and uncle, and you need the money for train fare?”
“Is there an echo in here?” the pink one said. “Just shut up and give us the money, monkey boy.”
“What she means to say is, we really would appreciate it, we couldn’t ask our family for the trouble, and we just need it right now.” The yellow one made a slashing motion across her throat where she thought Lucky couldn’t see it.
“Right. Well, girls, you see, I can’t just take something on the spot. Thing is, we’ve got some rules and regulations in the business, and it’d be pretty dam—pretty darn irresponsible of me to just fork over some money to underage girls, so…I’m gonna have to phone this one in to the boss.” Lucky turned to reach for the receiver.
“Wait! Yoooouuu…want to give us what we’re asking…you wanna make us shine like stars…”
Prior to this moment, Lucky Nickel had heard but never believed the people who claimed to hear something so awful it made your ears bleed. He had some sympathy for them now, and he clasped his hands to his ears with a grimace. The blue girl was…trying to sing, it seemed. In moments, the pain had been doubled, and he was ready to kick the three of them out of the store before the yellow one with orange hair slapped her hand over the other’s mouth. “Wait,” she said, the apparent leader of her ‘sisters’. “I know what we can do.”
She slipped something under the counter: one of the fragments, glimmering a deep red and unless Lucky missed his guess, a genuine ruby. “Why don’t you hold onto this one? As…insurance? We’ll come back later, and you can give it to us. Or our aunt and uncle. They’ll be by. Whichever.” She practically cooed. Lucky stared at her long and hard. It was a difficult decision to make.
A few minutes later they had left the store with wads of cash in hand, and Lucky stared at the doors swinging slowly closed behind them. Had he really done the right thing? Well…his boss didn’t have to know the exact details. He had the security access codes, and he could call somebody later to check up on them. Maybe he would call the police later, just in case. But really, what was the worst that three teenage girls could possibly do?
* * *
Contentedly, Sonata slurped at her fizzy drink, rocking back and forth on the bench and occasionally kicking Aria in the shins. There was nobody else in sight but a janitor slowly shuffling about his rounds further down the platform, leaving them plenty of time for plotting aloud. “Well, I think it sounds like a great idea,” she sniffed, turning her nose up and accidentally smacking the back of her head into the bench.
“You think everything sounds like a great idea,” grumbled the other, huddling herself against the cold wind. She hugged one of the sweaters Adagio had bought them all closer around her, cursing her decision to stay with the two of them after all.
“Now, now, sisters dear,” chuckled Adagio, in unusually good spirits herself. She’d decided on a plan, and in their experience, when she got an idea fixed in her mind, it couldn’t be shaken out. “We’re going to be a family now, and we stick to the story, remember?” After a chorus of grumbled assents, she turned back to the board. “I’m sure of this. What we need is a new start. We need to lay low for a while, hide in a sea of anonymous primate faces. And I know just the place to do it.”
A low rumble shook the platform, and down the road a brilliant light rounded the corner: a train, coming to spirit the powerless sirens away from their current trouble. Adagio smacked at a point on the map pinned to the wall, a list of their destinations, and a place far to the northwest:
“Manehattan.”
Author's Note
My first attempt at an actual fanfic--please don't hesitate to make suggestions, I will heavily edit if I feel it's merited. But please go a bit easy on me!
Dawn was just breaking as the train rounded a sharp bend in the hills, and the sunlight spilling forth from behind the thin clouds gleamed brilliantly on a forest of glass and chrome thus revealed. Manehattan, a city seeming to rise fully-formed from the sea, was spread out before the passengers in all its glory, bustling with life and energy even at this distance. Tiny specks of people swarmed about the streets restlessly, animating the scene. Gazing out the window of the almost-deserted car, Adagio Dazzle allowed herself a small smile. She’d never been one to put much faith in omens—she preferred to make her own fate—but the sight of a new city filled her with a sense of something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It felt like anticipation, edged with nervousness, and it made Adagio uncomfortable somehow.
At her shoulders, the others stirred in their seats, shifting around in their sleep. It had been a long night, and the sirens had fallen asleep in their seats mere minutes after turning in their tickets and finding the uncomfortable plastic chairs filling the rows. There were few other passengers this far in the back, and for the moment, the other sirens were unusually tolerable by virtue of not opening their mouths. It was not to last, though.
“Dagi?” mumbled Aria, rubbing at her eyes, then wincing when her hand touched the bruise. “What are we doing…oh. Right.” She settled into a sulk, slumping down in her seat and casting a spiteful glance out the window at their prospective new home. “I can’t believe you’re going to drag us into an even bigger pit of them. Ugh, it’s like being at a buffet and not getting to take anything!” She absently wrung her hair with one hand. “This wouldn’t have happened if we’d just stuck with my idea.”
“Oh, you had a plan, did you? Fascinating! It looked to me like your idea was just to criticize my leadership, but maybe that’s just my years of experience talking.” Adagio’s voice was chilly, a warning tone she’d used many times before. One had to keep one’s underlings in their place, after all, particularly ones that were completely useless. Before she could do more than raise a finger to further chastise her grumpy cohort, however, the train’s public address system crackled to life.
“Next stop, Central Terminal, Manehattan,” announced the tinny voice from the front as the train pulled into a particularly sharp curve to arc onto a massive brick bridge. It was also just that moment that Sonata Dusk chose to blink fully awake and sit up in her seat, resulting in her being tossed from her seat onto the train floor, one sneakered foot dangled over the seat.
“Oww! This is hard…and I think I have gum in my hair…and good morning.”
With no baggage, the Dazzlings made their way out of the train in a hurry, but what they saw stepping into the morning sunlight took them rather longer to process. They were standing in a cavernous hall of gleaming marble and wrought iron, and around them colors flashed as hundreds, perhaps even thousands of humans went about their business in brusque, efficient fashion as though they all had somewhere very important to be right now, paying no heed to the three young girls standing hesitantly to one side. After nearly being run over by a luggage porter, the trio wandered into the central part of the station.
“This is…bigger than I expected,” Aria said with a trace of uneasiness. “I mean, it’s not like I’m afraid of them or anything, of course. I just, well, every time we’ve been in a crowd this size before, we just made them argue and took their negative energy. We haven’t been in one this big, either, not since…how long have we been here?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Adagio put her hands on her hips, trying to look more confident than she felt. “Don’t worry, girls. We may not have Equestrian magic anymore, but we’re still leagues ahead of anything this world can throw at us on its own. We just have to get an advantage, and they’ll never see us coming.”
“Oh, wowzers! It’s us!”
The two rounded on Sonata Dusk, before following her wide, excited gaze and finger stabbed towards the entrance. Mounted above the doorway was an enormous marble frieze of an old human man reclining on a wave, surrounded by scantily clad young women, horses, and—there. Beside the horses, half in the background, were a shockingly familiar grouping of equine forms merged with piscine tails, their mouths open wide in excitement.
It took a moment, but Adagio was the first to speak again. “Coincidence. Don’t pay it any mind. Let’s not forget our first priority: finding somewhere to stay and a place to keep watch for any signs of the Rainbuffoons or our extra-special purple friend. Let’s go. There’s bound to be a place for us in a city as big as this one. Let’s go.”
“I’m prettier than that, though,” Sonata decided as they headed to the exit.
* * *
The first thing that hit them when they stepped outside was the noise. Almost a solid wall of sound struck their ears: endless car horns, the babel of the crowds, a dull roar from construction equipment nearby, street vendors and pamphleteers and doomsday prophets all eagerly screaming their appeals to anyone who would listen and many who wouldn’t. The street was a riot of color, as well, people of all hues rushing past each other and past enormous neon signs and electronic billboards that blinked on and off in an urgent appeal for information. The second was the sense that they were being penned in. Looming overhead to all sides were enormous geometric towers with austere facades and glossy black sides. The one nearest them seemed to be held up by nothing more than a few spindly pillars. There had to be a better place to think, and the three moved as if by impulse to get away from their current location.
A flash of yellow and another blaring horn were all the warning they had to jump back before a taxicab painted with bright checkerboard stripes pulled up at the light in front of while they were crossing the street. “Hey!” Aria petulantly gave it a kick before moving on. “I was walking there! Did you not see me? Ugh. People in this world are so obnoxious.” She elbowed her way through the crowd, shoving aside a shabby-looking man in an overcoat holding a sign asking for aid.
Mercifully, they hadn’t gone far before they came to a park, a small patch of green before a public library. Sitting down at some benches, the girls were just considering what to do about their situation, and which if any of the many signs advertising free rooms in cramped-looking buildings to respond to, when Adagio noticed someone approaching out of the corner of her eye. A pale man with hair slicked back, he wore a baseball cap that didn’t quite hide a widow’s peak.
“Morning, girls! Couldn’t help but notice you coming from the train station.” He leaned closer to them, confidentially. “I can improve your stay in Manehattan, you know. Got some real prime tickets, sold out shows, nice and cheap…“
“Oh! I know! Can you give us some magic ne—“
Adagio once again silenced Sonata with a glare, stood, and drew herself up to her full height—which, to her irritation, was a full head shorter than the salesman (of some sort, at least). It was a minor humiliation that they suffered daily, no longer towering above the puny mortal inhabitants, now compounded by…well, she wouldn’t think about that just yet. She glared at him.
“The only thing we want now is a place to stay, and unless you’ve got one under that tacky shirt, I’d suggest you buzz off and bother some more ignorant fool with your sales pitches. You got it?”
Much to her surprise, the man was not at all intimidated, and he chuckled, lightly pushing her away with one hand. “Sure thing, little girl, I getcha. Savvy customer and all that. Come on back when you need to see some shows. But for now, shouldn’t you kids be getting to school? Wouldn’t want the cops to be after ya!” He actually strutted off the way they’d come, making a little pistol gesture and clicking his tongue.
After a moment, Sonata gave a little wave, tilted her head to the side in that way of hers that meant she was thinking, and pondered for a moment. “…Maybe he had a point? I-I mean, somebody at school could tell us where to go.”
“That’s a terrible idea, Sonata,” snapped Aria, rounding on her. “I mean, after what happened last time, why would you ever want to go back to a place like that!?”
“She may be onto something,” admitted Adagio, pulling them up from their tables and sighing. “Besides, much as I don’t relish it, if there’s any way at all we can still feel negative energy, where better than among teenagers? With or without our…our special talents, we’ll still have the whole school eating out of our hand within the week.”
* * *
As it turned out, they didn’t have to go even that far to find negativity. Once they had finally managed to hail a cab, after being ignored, choking on exhaust, and splashed by puddles as the taxis rounded a corner, the Dazzlings had sat in a traffic jam for almost half an hour, listening to the driver argue with someone on the other end of the phone, then fled in a hurry when he began to yell at them once they handed over payment. Maybe there really was something wrong with this world, and they had never noticed it before. It was easy to be confident when you could bend others to your will, but now…well. Their ride had brought them here, to this squat brick building so different from Canterlot High that they had to check the sign again to confirm that yes, this was Faust High School, somewhere in the middle of the city—trying to follow the map had just gotten the sirens confused. Apparently school was just in session, judging by the bell, but rather than the introduction they had gotten at their former school, few of the teenagers paid them any attention other than a quick glance and a few whispers. They clung to their cliques as usual, though: here large guys in jerseys, there a haggard group of intelligent-looking, book-toting youngsters, over there three girls in designer clothes surrounding a short girl with dark skin and red hair. A passing teacher had hustled the sirens to the principal’s office as soon as they stepped inside, much to their surprise—they had expected simply to walk in and begin attending class.
Ms. Moral Model, principal, tapped her fingertips together pensively and stared at the three young girls shifting nervously in their seats in front of her. She eyed their bruises and scratches with alarm she didn’t let show. They were clearly new in town, and their story deserved following up on.
“So. Adagio. You and your sisters are going to be staying here with your aunt and uncle?” The yellow girl nodded. Gently steering away Sonata Dusk’s hand from the clacking ball toy on her desk, the principal made a few notes in her book, and added a memo to herself on her computer. “Well, I know it’s going to be a tough time fitting in a new place like this, and it might be overwhelming, but we’ll do our best to make it easy on you. Where do you think you are academically?”
Adagio had let her mind wander during the principal’s platitudes and dull, clichéd lectures on fitting in. Blah, blah, friendship, why did nobody ever shut up about it in this world or the other? She wasn’t staying with the other sirens out of friendship, it was just…it seemed necessary.
Either way, Aria preempted her by leaning forward and huffing, “A lot smarter than anyone else our age, obviously.” She tossed her head back imperiously.
“Yes. Well.” Ms. Model sighed gently. “I’ll have a couple of volunteers show you around the school, and if you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask them, or me. Okay?” When they nodded obediently if reluctantly, she let them go. Turning to Adagio, Aria muttered, “Here we go again. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Indeed.”
“I just hope they have Taco Tuesday,” sighed Sonata, as they stepped out into what seemed to be their new life.
