Adagio screamed internally as the bright flashing lights faded from her vision. She rubbed her aching head with a hand, and opened her eyes. She instantly knew something was terribly wrong, as she saw the broken remains of her ruby gem lying at her feet. In her peripheral vision, she could see Aria and Sonata having similar reactions. All three of the quickly picked up the shattered remains of their gems, holding them close to where they used to hang on their necklace.
The three began to sing, but Adagio was horrified to not hear her beautiful voice, but a horrible noise forming words. She looked at her sisters in horror, and they looked back with shock and fear. The audience started booing, and they flinched as food was pelted at them. They ran off of the stage, still dodging the attack from the angry teenagers. Adagio looked back, to see that the Rainbooms had come onto the stage. She glared at them when they noticed her, and she quickly followed her sisters back to their house.
They sprinted away the amphitheater, stopping to catch their breath at a small park away from the whole scene.
Through her ragged breathing, Aria managed to say, "Well... Adagio, I-I thi *huff* think your plan... went *huff* PERFECTLY." She collapsed onto the bench that Adagio was leaning on for support. Adagio looked around for Sonata, finding her a few paces away, staring at the shattered remnants of her ruby.
"Sonata!"
Sonata jumped slightly at the sound of her name being called. She hurried over to Adagio and Aria, and sat down heavily on the bench, still clutching the remnants close to herself.
Aria stared slightly at the blue Siren. "What's wrong with you?"
"What do you mean," Sonata asked as she looked up at Aria.
"You're usually so frickin' talkative. What's with the silence?"
Sonata did not answer, as she opted to lightly stroke the golden clasp that used to hold her ruby. Aria scoffed and rolled her eyes, and looked to Adagio. The orange Siren had regained her composure, and was lightly dusting herself off. She looked up, and met Aria questioning gaze.
"What?"
"What do you mean, 'what?!' What's the plan, now?"
"Just what are you talking about?" Adagio's tone was innocent, but her narrowed eyes betrayed her.
"Arrrrrgggghhhhh! What do we do now?!"
Adagio did not answer. She unclenched her right hand to examine the fragments of her ruby jewel. She flinched slightly as she saw that the sharp edges had cut into her palm, leaving drops of blood the same color as the shards. Aria opened her own palm to see that she too had been cut. In their haste to leave the Battle of the Bands, they had not noticed the pain. Sonata, surprisingly, did not have any cuts. She had slipped the shards of her ruby into a pocket of her shirt, and she had made sure that they did not fall out during their run from the amphitheater.
Adagio was silent for a moment before she seemed to come to a conclusion.
"We need to go back."
Aria stared at Adagio in shock. Sonata had also been shocked out of her stupor, and she joined Aria in staring at Adagio. The two were silent.
"Yeah," Aria finally managed. "Yeah, that's a great idea! Going back into enemy territory right after they defeated us? That's the greatest plan I've ever heard!"
"Are you cuh-razy?!" Sonata broke in, now staring at Aria instead. "That's the dumbest plan EVER!"
Aria groaned. "It's called sarcasm!"
"Well, you could've told me that before--"
"SILENCE!!!"
Adagio stepped in between the two. She inhaled before saying, "We left some items in those locker that this we brought with us to Canterlot High. If we can sneak into the school undetected, we'll grab them and go back home. Any objections?" Her eyes rolled upwards as Sonata's hand went up in the air.
"How are we gonna do this?"
"Just follow my lead," Adagio said wearily. She shot a look at Aria as the purple Siren began to open her mouth. "My lead."
////\\
Minutes later, the Dazzlings found themselves hiding in some shrubbery on the property of Canterlot High School. There were a few students lingering around the statue, who would see them if they tried to make a break for the front doors unless they were blind. There were other ways into the school, but taking into consideration how close the amphitheater was to the back and side doors of the school, the front was the safest option.
"Can we go yet," Sonata whined softly. Aria quickly shoved a hand over Sonata's mouth, glaring at her. Sonata gulped, and shut up. The three waited for a while, until the coast was clear.
"Okay, now we run!" Adagio quickly slid out of the bushes with the agility and swiftness of a master criminal. Aria and Sonata followed with the similar ease, although Sonata did almost trip over a root. The three girls made a break for the front doors, but soon realized that they were locked out. Adagio looked around quickly for an open or unlocked window. She was relieved to find an open one into the building near them.
They made a mad dash for the open window, but nearly froze in their tracks as they heard people coming towards the front of the building! Sonata and Aria quickly leapt into the room beyond the window. Adagio just made it in as well as she heard the steps of the teenagers entering the area around the statue and front doors. She looked around her surroundings, only finding cleaning supplies scattered everywhere in a small room, probably a janitor's closet. Aria and Sonata were nowhere to be seen, but they had probably gone through the door.
Adagio quickly went out through the door, and found her two sisters standing in the hallway in front of her. She motioned for them to follow her, and she took off running. She was wondering why it was so easy for her to run, when she realized that her outfit had been ripped and teared in several places. Their mad run from the stage, their hiding in he bushes, and jumping through a window had done quite the damage upon their beautiful dresses. Adagio gritted her teeth as she thought of how long it had taken Aria to design and create them, but she put that thought away for some other time.
At the rate they were running, the Sirens soon found themselves in the hallway where their lockers were. They dashed for the three lockers, which were side by side, upon request. Adagio's was in the middle, of course. She quickly undid the combination on hers, and grabbed her backpack and the items she had stored in the locker. She placed them inside of her violet backpack, and swiftly closed and locked the locker. She looked on either side of her, and saw that her sisters were ready to go as well.
Taking a risk, Adagio decided to check out the back doors of the school. Luckily, there was nobody in sight. Everyone had either left the school grounds, or had moved to the front of the school. Since the back door was locked too, they unlocked and opened a window as their escape route. The three Sirens climbed out, and rushed back to the park where they had run to earlier.
Sonata collapsed onto a bench, hugging her navy blue backpack close to her. Aria sat down to catch her breath as well, placing her dark green bag next to her on the bench. Adagio, meanwhile, quickly unzipped her bag to make sure that none of her items had been damaged. She picked up a small bundle of green bills, and counted them. Good. It still amounted to $200. She placed them back in, and picked up a small plastic bag of Equestrian bits, and counted those as well. 15 of them. It was not much, but she had only brought them in case they somehow got back to Equestria befre they were ready. She placed them back in, and continued her inventory.
A small ruby. In Equestria, where gems were common, it was worth more than some gems, but here, where gems were rare, it was worth a lot of money. Adagio brought one with her everywhere, just in case she needed to make a quick bribe or payment.
An old newspaper article about the peculiar events that had happened at CHS. It was of no value, now, but the three had read it before they had come there.
A baggie with a taco inside of it, that had EMERGENCY TACO FOR SONATA written on it in Adagio's handwriting. Often, Sonata would get upset in some way, and the only way that Adagio and Aria could sedate her was with a taco. Each girl kept at least one emergency taco with them at all times, and Sonata had a few of her own.
FInally, a picture of Adagio, Aria, and Sonata. Adagio was in the middle, with Sonata at her right and Aria on her left. They all had their arms around each other. Sonata was smiling her stupid smile, Adagio was smirking at the camera, and Aria's attempt to look unhappy was ruined by the small smile on her face. Adagio smiled slightly, and carefully put it back into the secret pocket of her backpack. Even though Sonata and Aria could drive her insane sometimes, the girls were still sisters, and they genuinely cared for each other.
Adagio closed her back up, and stood up. She looked over to her sisters, who were also taking an inventory. Sonata was nibbling at an emergency taco, while looking through the pages of songs that Adagio had made her write for their stay at CHS. She also had another emergency taco in there, and a picture she had drawn of the three of them. Aria had an emergency taco, a book she had been interested in, some makeup, and a small box with a small needle, some thread, buttons, and a few zipper chains. They both closed their bags, and stood up to face Adagio.
"We should get going before someone sees or recognizes us," Adagio said. Sonata and Aria nodded. The three of them turned towards the direction of their house, and started walking.