“Well, this is another fine mess that we've gotten ourselves into,” Adagio said with a sigh. She, Aria, and Sonata had spent the last few minutes after waking up trying to knock on the door trying to get somebody to notice where they were.

So far, all they had managed to achieve was what seemed like several hours of screaming and banging on the doors and walls which didn't achieve much. Nobody seemed to be able to see them or hear them that they knew of. Which only added to the air of frustration that seemed to linger in the room.

“Well, I for one, think this is a such a great change of scenery!” Aria exclaimed, rolling her eyes.

“Aria,” Sonata whispered earnestly. “This is a prison cell.”

“I was being sarcastic! Damn it, Sonata! Get it together!”

“Okay, okay, you're right. So how did we get here?” Sonata asked.

“Well, that's what we're trying to figure out, now isn't it?”

“I remember getting up from the booth at Diner Joe's and then we were here? Have I been drinking your special 'off-limits' juice again, Adagio?”

“No,” Adagio shot back quickly and then paused. She tried to think back as well, but her memories were just as foggy as Sonata's. She couldn't remember anything beyond leaving Diner Joe's behind the guy that kept staring at them through the mirror.

That guy. Adagio vaguely remembered the outline of the man who was staring at the five girls in the diner booth. She tried to remember his face, but it was like trying to look at a shadow; she could only remember the outline of his body, none of his features were coming back to her at the moment. Absolutely nothing of note stood out to her, and she had always been so good at remembering details for future reference. If sirens could have cutie marks, memorizing random details about strangers to use against them would have been hers.

Only if there was an image that described that specific skill, of course.

Otherwise it probably would have just been a music note.

“Were we attacked?” Aria asked, rubbing her head. “I haven't felt this crappy since the freaking Rainbooms attacked us at the Battle of the Bands.”

“No?” Adagio asked, unsure of the answer the answer herself.

Aria flopped down on one of the cots that have been bolted to the ground. The bed creaked and shuttered as she moved, which just served to frustrate her more.

“I'm sick of this place!” She yelled as she punched the cot in frustration. “I'm sick of being treated like we did something wrong. In here, out there, at any school we try to blend in with. It's bullshit! In Equestria all we did was try to survive! How is it our fault that Sirens feed off negativity? We were just born like this and now we're stuck on this stupid magic-less Earth where people keep fucking us over!”

“Calm down, Aria!” Adagio hissed. “Throwing a hissy fit like that isn't going to get us out of here, now is it? We need to put our heads together and try to figure out how to get out of here. Or even how we got here in the first place; maybe if we figure that out, we'll figure out how to leave.”

Adagio paced the room while her companions sat on the cot wallowing in their own frustration. This wasn't the first time the trio had found themselves in a sticky situation, they had never been quite that good, but this event had been the first time in a while that they were taken by surprise.

And first time ever that they weren't quite sure how they would get out of this situation.

Adagio tried to use her surroundings to figure out where they were, but she had spent years combing all of Canterlot. She was sure that she had seen everything, but this was nothing like any of the buildings she had ever seen. The walls were a slate gray and the floor was tile that was painted to match it. It looked like it had been designed specifically to be a prison, but Canterlot did not boast a single jail or prison in it's city limits and she couldn't believe that they had all been out cold long enough for them all to be transported over an hour away from the diner.

Sonata stared at the two girls unblinkingly, finally speaking up after a long stretch of uncomfortable silence while the girls contemplated their current situation. “Do you think that this has anything to do with Starlight Glimmer?”

“Sonata, how are we supposed to know that?” Aria groaned. “We can barely remember what happened before we got here!”

“But... don't you think it makes sense?” Sonata started slowly. “We haven't exactly been hunted down by anybody in this world before. Sure, we've gotten into trouble before, but always for things we could actively remember doing. This reminds me of how it felt when Starswirl the Bearded and his gang hunted us down and when the Rainbooms broke our spell during the Battle of the Bands... I mean, this really only seems to happen to us when there is Equestrian magic involved.”

Adagio perked up. “And after the Battle of the Bands, with our damaged gems, we weren't able to harness any Equestrian magic. That is... until we ran into the Equestrian Starlight Glimmer. You might be on to something, Sonata.”

Sonata grinned.

“Our Starlight Glimmer would never do anything like that to us. She was our friend,” Aria reminded them. “Or at least she was my friend, you two just kind of came along for the ride.”

“It might not be our Starlight Glimmer though,” Adagio reminded her. “Remember, we did just meet the Equestrian version of our Starlight.”

“So do you think this is some sort of prank or something that the other Starlight Glimmer did to us? Lure us into a false sense of security, knock us out, and lock us up? I can understand the Rainbooms not liking us, but we were exiled from Equestria, why would somepony from there come here just to hurt us. It doesn't make sense.” Aria pointed out.

And just like that, Adagio and Sonata's grins faded. Adagio plopped onto the cot next to Aria, looking just as frustrated and confused as before. Sonata instead shot off the cot like a rocket, as if Adagio sitting down forcibly made her stand up. Her friends thought nothing of it as she took that opportunity to explore the room a little more just as Adagio had done before. Except, instead of actively inspecting everything she came in contact with, Sonata wandered around aimlessly, brushing her fingers against every available surface as she walked.

While Sonata walked around, Aria and Adagio contemplated the large variety of possibilities as to why they were just taken without warning.

“Are we sure that it was Starlight Glimmer's doing and not somebody else? Like that one guy at the diner who seemed to be staring at all of us. Maybe Starlight was only tangentially related to this whole thing?” Adagio suggested.

“It doesn't make much sense, but it's probably the only guess we have right now.” Aria shrugged.

“Speaking of the diner, I'm hungry,” Sonata interrupted, practically yelling at the girls from across the room. Sonata and Adagio looked up at her with raised eyebrows.

“Is now really the time, Sonata?” Aria asked.

“I'm just really bored and none of us have come up with any ideas...”

“You... you came up with one idea and then you got bored and started walking around. How is that helping?”

Aria grasped hold of the bottom of the cot and squeezed it tighter and tighter to avoid losing her temper at Sonata. In the past, when Sonata had managed to get on Aria's nerves, they always had plenty of ways to get away from each other until Aria cooled off, but in a small cell like this, that just wasn't possible. So, the cot got the brunt of her anger instead.

“I just wish we could have had a slice of cake from the diner! Or one of those chocolate frosted donuts with the sprinkles on them! Donut Joe makes the best donuts! And the best hot chocolate. Why didn't we stay at the diner longer to try some? Why did we have to follow Tinker?”

“Oh dear Celestia, Sonata!” Aria yelled. She let go of the cot and stood up, fists balled as she stared at her long time friend. “I get that pony names are really annoying and they all sound like some variation of Cutesy Twinkling Lights or whatever, but we were friends with Starlight Glimmer for over a year! How hard is it for you to remember her name?! Why do you never take anything seriously?!”

Adagio's eyes widened and she stood up and placed her hands on Aria's shoulders.

“I think we should hear Sonata out.”

“Why? It's not like she's saying anything useful!”

“I know that you were the closest one to Starlight out of any of us,” Adagio said softly. “I understand why this is probably bothering you more than it's bothering Sonata, but I don't think she's saying what you think she's saying.”

“I don't understand.”

“We know a Tinker.”

“You are going to have to be more specific, Adagio.” Aria rolled her eyes. “We were exiled to this stupid planet over a thousand years ago. We've met more people in this world than I can remember so I'm sorry if I don't remember every single freaking person's name we ever come across.”

“Tinker was Starlight's foster father back in the last foster home she was in,” Adagio said quietly.

“I don't remember him,” Aria huffed.

“I do.”

“So what? This is a small town, it's not like we were never going to run into any of Starlight's former foster parents, she's had a lot of them you know. Personally, I think we met two or three of them, they all just seem to blend together at some point. Not that I can really say anything about that, after all, we had a lot of them too at one point when Social Services thought that we were poor and innocent teenagers who were 'living without adults.'”

“Tinker,” Adagio repeated. “We met him multiple times. Whenever we went to Starlight's house there he was and the way he looked at us...”

Aria shrugged. “So he was a creep? It's not like we have never met creeps before. You remember that we were exiled from Equestria 1053 years ago at this point, right? We weren't just spit up in a world that's the exact opposite of where we came from as well as in the future. No, we've been stuck here for over a thousand years and we've encountered more creeps than I can count. Why should I remember just one of them?”

“Because the way he looked at us always seemed like he knew the one thing about us that we always tried to keep hidden.”

“Ooo was it your 'off-limits' juice recipe?!” Sonata asked. “I wish I knew that recipe right now, maybe it would make me less hungry.”

“No!” Aria and Adagio shouted at once.

The three girls all went silent.

“I think he knew we were sirens,” Adagio muttered, breaking the silence.

“That's impossible,” Sonata replied quickly.

“Yea, it's not like we just tell anybody that, Adagio,” Aria agreed. “And we are always sure we're in a position where nobody can see what we're doing. I'm not sure if you remember this, but we've had a lot of practice over the last thousand years.”

“No, you don't understand,” Adagio said in a low voice. “I don't think he saw us, I think he just knew. I can't explain it. At the time, I had brushed it off, but now I think I understand all the bits and pieces that I couldn't put together before.”

“What are you talking about?” Sonata asked.

“Girls, I think we're in danger.”

“Well, I don't think the three of us being locked in this sketchy room would constitute as a vacation,” Aria responded rolling her eyes.

Adagio grabbed hold of her longtime companion's arms and pulled her close until they were staring each other in the eye.

“You aren't listening to me. We are in serious danger, here. Starlight is in serious danger out there! Anything that crossed through that portal is going to have some major issues if Tinker has anything to say about it. Trust me.”

Author's Note

So, I apologize for being away all of December. After NaPoWriMo I needed to step away from this story for a little bit because I wasn't sure where to go next. I know this isn't a long chapter, but I promise there will be more frequent updates with longer chapters.

Happy Holidays!
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