As long as the clouds indicated good weather, there was a reason to smile, right?
Right?
Adagio had no idea when her and her sisters' job as pizza delivery girls started to fall apart, but if she had to bet on a specific event, she would say it all began with that group of squirrels that wreaked havoc in the kitchen.
Or maybe it was the attack of that raccoon with the funny mask.
Either of those reasons could serve as a valid event for telling herself: 'Come on, act like you should. What? Haven’t you learned anything during all these long years of humanity? Don’t you think enough time has passed for you to be up to the task as the older sister? What’s wrong with you?' But, no matter how much she wanted to see it that way, things simply refused to work.
Her boss, whose facial wrinkles far surpassed those of a century-old tortoise, had already issued more warnings than Adagio could remember. But one thing was clear: at the slightest mistake made by her or her sisters, they would be fired immediately. And to make matters worse, the old man's Italian accent was raspy, a voice faker than the existence of the Piltdown man. The cherry on top was that any mention of this would result in immediate dismissal. What happened to freedom of expression? For reasons like these, they missed the 20th century.
Resting her face in her hands, she began to think for the fifth time about the current state of the pizzeria, which could be summed up in the subtle word: failure. The taste of those pizzas, judging by the few slices the Dazzlings had tried on weekends, was enough to say that it had a nice flavor, but still far from being rated as outstanding. It was precisely this, combined with the gradual lack of customers, that led the pizzeria to launch the promotion: "If your pizza isn’t delivered within an hour, IT’S FREE!"
And while sales rose for a few days, the current state of the business returned in less than two weeks.
In conclusion, something had to be done about it.
"Anything new?" Sonata asked as she approached the table they used to inhabit during long periods of waiting.
"No," Adagio simply replied. "Still no orders."
It was Aria who felt the need to fix the situation, though she had recognized some time ago that the issue was out of her hands.
Even though they never said it out loud, the three had grown somewhat fond of that pizzeria. The workplace incidents often triggered a series of laughs, and under ordinary circumstances, it was fun to secretly mock their boss’s face.
The job of making deliveries was fun at the very least; the constant frenzy and the adrenaline of riding the motorcycle formed a combination worthy of applause. It was impossible for them not to indulge in their selfish side when they remembered that, despite the long distances and obstructive terrains they had to cross, they never failed to deliver the pizza within the sixty-minute period. Another star on the list. The tiny, imaginary list.
"You know what," Aria said after a while, "we should revive our attempts at world domination."
Then, suddenly, three notifications lit up the screens of their phones.
"Finally!" Sonata exclaimed, pulling the device from her pocket and confirming that it was a new delivery.
For her part, Aria couldn’t believe what she was reading: "But..."
"This is..." Adagio stammered, incredulous and paralyzed by the message she was reading. "Incredible!"
The notification indicated an order from an anonymous account that ordered none other than the most expensive pizza in the place. But below the name and profile picture (which was nothing more than absolute darkness), the specifications space had been used to write the following message: 'That promotion looks nice, frankly, it adds some excitement to all this. I propose a bet: if you manage to deliver the pizza to me in less than an hour, I’ll give you a reward of...'
"Fifty thousand dollars!" The words burst from Adagio’s throat with blazing enthusiasm.
They were precious moments of happiness until Aria intervened with a shout that perfectly contradicted her sister’s excitement.
"Damn it! How I hate them!" she bellowed, doing her best to keep her anger from making her rip out and chew on her hair.
"What are you talking about?" Adagio dared to say.
"Uh... Yeah," Sonata said. "Look at the location."
Adagio obeyed immediately, the app loaded, and after waiting for a few eternal seconds, the user’s page was presented. Under his profile, the buyer’s location was marked in the North Pole.
"He’s a freaking troll," Aria muttered, clenching her fists on the wood. "The day I find him, I’ll use his eyes as a nail drawer."
"That’s cruel," Sonata commented just before putting away her phone and resuming her bored posture.
The silence of discouragement lasted much less than they expected. Adagio’s laughter filled the room.
"Look at her, she’s gone crazy," Aria said, not bothering to hide her smile.
Adagio’s hand slammed against the table.
"THIS IS OUR OPPORTUNITY!" she announced.
"What are you talking about?" Sonata inquired, tilting her head.
"That fifty thousand dollars will be ours," Adagio explained. "We’ll teach that prankster that he shouldn’t have messed with us."
"Oh, really? I need you to be more specific," Aria commented, disinterested.
"Come on, imagine his face when he sees us at the door and has to hand over all that money," Adagio said, already succumbing to the tempting desire to hold so many bills in her hands. "We’ll go to the North Pole and beat him at his own game."
"Do you hear yourself? I think I need to explain to you that getting to the North Pole in less than an hour is... I don’t know... Impossible!"
"Uh, we’d need something faster than a motorcycle," Sonata opined, bringing a hand to her chin.
Another laugh from Adagio appeared.
"I have an idea," she finally declared.
When Twilight finished dinner, she supposed the best thing to do was to continue working on her project—a small perpetual motion device. Or perhaps she should take the opportunity to resume her attempts to solve the zero theorem. The idea of visiting her friends was also tempting.
After all, that train of thought was interrupted when someone knocked on the door. Was it just one person? The knocks seemed to come from several limbs at once. As far as she could remember, she wasn’t expecting any visitors nor had she arranged any outings with anyone.
She approached the door with some caution.
“Hello?” she said as she opened the door, sounding more confused than she intended. Three girls she was sure she’d seen somewhere before were standing on the doormat. But noticing the pizza box they had with them, she thought she knew what this was about. “Sorry, I didn’t order any pizza.”
“It’s not about that,” Adagio replied, making an elaborate hand gesture. With a voice as cordial as it was authoritative, she said, “We need to use your teleporter.”
“My what?”
“You heard her,” added Sonata. “Where is it? We don’t want to be rude, but time is running out.”
“So, speak up already,” Aria said as she stepped forward.
Seeing them all together, those hairstyles, those faces... memories began to resurface.
“Oh, I remember you. You’re the girls from the Starswirl Music Festival, aren’t you?”
“Less talking, more teleporting,” said Adagio. “And don’t worry, as a thank you, we can give you an autograph or a photo.”
“Hmm… okay? Can I ask how you know where I live?”
“We know Sunset, and she knows you, it’s not that complicated.”
“Well, that makes sense. Just one more question,” Twilight said. “What makes you think I have a teleporter?”
“Sunset said you were the perfect person for what we’re looking for. She mentioned a lot of those science experiments you did and used a bunch of long words I don’t care to repeat. You wear glasses, so you must be smart, right?”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Take it however you want.”
“Well, yes, Sunset told the truth, but I’m sorry to say I don’t have any teleporter...”
Silence.
“What was that?” Aria demanded.
“What do you mean?”
“You were going to say something else, but you stopped,” she clarified.
“It’s just that…” Twilight murmured, scratching her neck. “About that, I might have something similar,” she declared, folding and extending her fingers in weak attempts to shake off the insecurity in her voice. “It’s not exactly what you’re looking for, but it serves an identical function…”
“WHERE IS IT?!” the three sirens exclaimed in unison.
Twilight had no idea how much time had passed since the last time a guest visited her shed. She had received warnings about the Dazzlings' past and knew the trouble they had caused at Canterlot High, but their behavior suggested they had changed to the point where they could easily pass for a group of ordinary girls. For Twilight, that knowledge was enough.
"So, if I understand correctly, you need to travel to the North Pole to deliver a very expensive pizza to regain your boss’s trust, raise a large sum of money to help the business, and avoid getting fired, right?"
"That's right," Sonata confirmed.
"I don't mean to dampen your enthusiasm, but I'm very sure it's climatically impossible to live at the North Pole."
"In that case, you'll figure out the exact location of that individual, and we’ll set the 'beat-down' plan in motion. You can do that, right?" Adagio commented. "We'll shake hands and share a secret we'll take to the grave."
"I tolerate you being so direct," was all Twilight said.
"How does it work?" Aria asked from a few meters away, pointing at the device that would help them.
"In simple terms, it’s a quantum teleportation machine," Twilight began to explain. "It can move particles from point A to point B almost instantaneously, thanks to entanglement."
"Is that all?" Sonata inquired. "Is it really that easy?"
"Well, I've only used it on inanimate objects, gradually increasing the size to test its limits. Also, I've never tested it at a distance greater than a meter, but since I made the adjustments, it hasn’t shown any flaws," Twilight explained. "You just want to send the pizza, right?"
"Yes," Adagio confirmed, nodding her head.
"Alright."
Adagio placed the pizza box inside the teleportation machine, and along with her sisters, they stepped back until Twilight indicated it was safe.
The machine didn’t look like what any of the three had imagined. If it weren’t for the dozens of inventions filled with cables and shiny metals surrounding them, they might have thought it was a bad joke. The second machine that would serve as the destination for the object was not necessary, as Twilight clarified that in extreme cases like this, she could set geographical coordinates for the dematerialization and regeneration of the particles. The only difference it made was the slight risk that the matter could be affected by a lack of particles, but since the pizza was just food, the change would be negligible.
The teleportation device resembled a cubic cabin with an internal area that could hold the same space as a vertically positioned office desk. A shiny silver box with rounded corners. The cabin door began to close, and the pizza remained visible through the machine’s glass wall.
"Where should I send it?" Twilight asked from the control panel.
"To the North Pole," Sonata said.
"No, I mean the specific location," Twilight continued when no answer came. "The North Pole is a huge place. Where exactly do you want the pizza to appear?"
"It doesn’t matter," Adagio responded with apparent indifference. "Send it to the center of the place. That way, there’s a better chance the buyer will find it, right?"
"Right," Twilight replied. All she wanted was to finish this as soon as possible and go rest.
She entered the coordinates on the panel and activated the electromagnetic charge of the teleportation machine.
"All set. It won’t take more than a minute," she announced, already removing her lab coat. "By the way, if you're hungry, I wouldn’t mind offering you some food. My mom made vegetable stew. Would you like some?"
"Oh, that’s very kind of you," Adagio replied, showing palpable modesty. "But we have other plans."
"Really? Like what?" Twilight asked with false interest. She could already picture herself curled up in bed while correcting her previous practical theories and reviewing relativity theory once more.
That was until she heard, in enthusiastic murmurs, the number three, then two...
And then one.
"NOW!!!" Adagio’s voice commanded, filled with massive leadership as the Dazzlings rushed to the teleportation machine just before it started closing.
It was a moment when Twilight would swear her heart stopped beating.
"What are you doing?!" she yelled, her voice filled with terror. She quickly headed to the control panel, which seemed to have moved a hundred meters away. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
"Sorry," Adagio declared with a sly grin from inside the machine, "but we have no intention of failing this mission."
It’d be a quick and trouble-free trip; a few quick photographs to serve as evidence. That way, who would dare reproach them for giving a beating to a miserable prankster? No one but him would get hurt.
"I didn’t calibrate the machine for humans!" Twilight shouted.
But as she pressed all the buttons installed on the panel, she tried to ignore all the times she had warned herself about the risks of operating a device like this. A glowing, red triangle encircling an exclamation mark appeared on the screen and blinked with such urgency that Twilight considered breaking the machine. Unfortunately, the time it would take to find a hammer was longer than the thirty seconds she had.
Then the machine began to tremble, shaking with a turbulence that darkened the scientist's hopes.
"Hmm, is this supposed to happen?" Sonata asked, noticing the smoke starting to rise outside the glass.
"Do we still have siren genetics?" Aria mumbled, failing to steady her voice and trying to move back despite the limited space. "She said 'humans.' That doesn’t have to include us, right?"
But the more Twilight tried, the less she could ignore the warning she should have considered when offering her help to the Dazzlings. Sweat began to coat her arms, and panic hit her as she looked up and saw her shed being flooded with a large amount of black smoke and blue and orange sparks emanating from the machine.
"I..." Adagio said with a barely audible voice and trembling feet. "I think I’ve changed my mind."
She didn’t hesitate to take a small run-up and use the side of her body to slam into the glass. She had assumed that would be enough, and upon impact realized her mistake. Together, the Dazzlings hit the armored glass with both their arms and legs. Horrifying screams and wails began to be heard. The glass showed no damage.
'Alert. Alert. Alert.'
Twilight couldn’t remember ever typing so quickly before. Her heart rate soared to her throat, and she found herself at the mercy of her own invention. The urgency she felt in those seconds made her fingers tremble.
'Alert. Alert. Alert.'
When the lens of her glasses turned red, she pressed the button to her right and pulled with all her strength the lever that rested beneath the table.
A powerful sound erupted and shook the floor one last time. The lights grew brighter, and the last thing Twilight saw before the teleportation machine disappeared were the terrified and desperate faces of the sirens.
In the background, the darkness began to fade.
It was curious, another testament to the extensive and deteriorated resilience of human consciousness. A flickering spark, seemingly numb from natural dizziness, appeared. But her eyelids still felt heavy.
She assumed it was instinct, a concept she thought she had left behind over a year ago, specifically since the last time she had fainted. Hello? No, her lips still couldn’t move.
Her ears couldn’t inform her of the new sounds.
She made another effort to recover, and after an endless series of attempts, the reality of whether they were real or not, Adagio managed it.
The Dazzlings awoke from their stupor at the same time. The pain in their joints was unbearable.
Gradually, the smoke began to clear.
"Damn it," Aria muttered, holding her head and assuming she had discovered a new type of muscle pain. "Is everyone alive?"
"I need a new pelvis," Sonata mumbled, clutching her hip. "And maybe a new neck."
Adagio merely blinked and tried to clear her vision.
Aria helped Sonata to her feet and signaled Adagio (twice) that she would not follow any more of her ideas.
"Fair enough," Adagio murmured as the smoke finally dissipated and the door began to slide open.
They emerged one by one, slowly, sharing the faint hope that they were still in Twilight’s shed.
Had the sun always been this bright?
The air felt suffocating, as if it carried a pressure that could almost be described as tangible. Gigantic trees with long leaves loomed impressively. The ground was damp, thick, and identical to that of a swamp.
Looking up, the Dazzlings saw a volcano dominating a vast array of flora and thick tree trunks of a new hue.
"Nice job, Adagio," Aria commented. "You sent us to a tropical jungle."
Then, suddenly, the grotesque roar and presence of a Tyrannosaurus Rex shattered what little skepticism they had left. It was as if they had landed in a world; a world that does not cater to wishes. They didn’t dare move, but just looking around made it clear that there were other giant insects and creatures they only remembered seeing as fossils in museums.
"Uh," Sonata murmured, understanding with a nervous laugh, "I think we traveled back a little bit in time."
Forcing herself to accept reality, Adagio swallowed.
"This..." Adagio stammered, mesmerized and terrified by the surroundings filled with countless unknown dangers. "Let's go. We can't waste any more time."
"Finally, we agree on something," Aria said as she stepped back in a series of inconsistent steps.
Surprisingly, the teleporter showed no significant damage, and the only sign of potential risk was the landing area—a land resembling wet sandstone that was similar to mud, adorned in a very unsubtle manner with strange vegetables and thin green plants. As an ineffective source of joy, the pizza box inside the cubicle was also in good condition.
"Does anyone know how to operate this thing?" Sonata asked as the last one to enter the machine.
The interior of the device had an almost entirely silver tone, decorated only by the glass door and a small rectangular button panel on one side. Twenty red buttons that did a poor job of specifying their functionality.
"Wow, that scientist really didn't consider this possibility," Aria muttered, looking disdainfully at the buttons. "I suggest pressing them all one by one."
"What if we accidentally press a self-destruct button?" Sonata asked.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Why do you say that?"
Adagio took advantage of the argument to press the button at the top of the panel. Judging by its location, she assumed it would be the most important one, likely to activate the mechanism and hopefully pinpoint a trip to the present time. But nothing happened, nothing moved, and the only sounds were distant roars and the flapping of large insects they had never seen before.
"Try this one," Sonata suggested, pressing a button at random.
Seeing that the device continued to refuse to cooperate, Aria took it upon herself. Without hesitation, she pressed all the buttons rapidly while cursing every idea that came to mind.
"Why?! Why aren’t you working, you stupid contraption?!"
Feeling more fearful than before, Adagio stepped out of the teleporter and took a few steps to the right, trying to figure out what was causing the stressful uselessness. Batteries? If hypothetical batteries were in bad shape, she might as well start planning her funeral. Maybe some red flowers wouldn’t be a bad idea.
But the sight she encountered as she circled the machine made her blood run cold.
"What’s going on?" Sonata asked, coming out of the machine with Aria.
No words were needed; their eyes gave a clear answer to the situation.
The plug lay in a serpentine shape, static, devoid of hope.
The three of them agreed that they were living through a joke that surpassed the bad taste of internet pranksters.
"Alright, no one panic," Adagio said after a moment, managing to achieve a firmer stance than she had expected and effectively masking the fear seeping into her heartbeat. "This isn’t as bad as it seems."
"Not as bad?" Aria replied, brushing with aggressive disbelief. "We're stranded in the damn Jurassic era with no way to get home, Adagio. Don’t ask me to calm down!"
"No, it’s not like that," Adagio took a deep breath, "but we need to keep a cool head if we want to get out of this."
"I think we're going to die here," Sonata declared after hearing another distant roar that shook the security she was struggling to maintain.
"No, it’s not like that!" Adagio repeated. "Come on, help me move this thing to a safe place."
They positioned themselves so that their arms evenly distributed the weight of the teleporter. Like a heavy battering ram, they held it high while making sure not to be seen by any creature. Their six arms, aching and feeling like they were carrying a fridge full of food, begged for a break they couldn't afford.
They traversed what seemed to be a jungle dominated by long palm-like trees and abundant ferns that caused slight complications in the width of the path.
"I can’t take it anymore..." Sonata gasped with trembling arms, fearing the machine's weight would soon crush her.
"Here, let it go," Adagio muttered, feeling the same pain.
The weight bent them in such a way that Aria could catch a breath, imagining her ribs suffering the consequences. She would need a good massage soon.
The teleporter fell onto some light green grass, rolled a few centimeters, and then came to a complete stop.
They hoped that the area they were in would be good for a while, a few minutes to think of something. The dinosaurs continued to be heard at a distance sufficient to remove those beasts from the list of dangers—for now.
"Alright, what’s next? What’s the plan?" Aria said as she struggled to fill her lungs with air. "Do we have a plan?"
"Let me think of something," Adagio said, almost shouting. "I know we can’t stay here in the open; we’d be found sooner or later. We need to find shelter."
"We could take refuge in a cave. In shows, they always use caves for shelter," Sonata suggested, raising her hand.
"Oh, sure!" Aria rolled her eyes. "Because nothing says 'safety' like a dark cave in the dinosaur era."
"Oh, really? Well, I haven’t heard you suggest anything," Sonata retorted.
Adagio closed her eyes for a moment, immersing herself in her sparkling thoughts with the intention of organizing them. Deep down, she had almost absolute confidence in the cave idea. She would allow herself to plan something better in the near future.
"Listen, we don’t have many options," she declared firmly. "The first thing we’ll do is find a cave, just like Sonata said. We’ll stay there for the night and think about everything else later."
Aria sighed, recognizing that following the logical option was the best path but unable to hide her frustration.
"Fine, let’s find that damn cave," she said, crossing her arms. "But don’t blame me if a dinosaur decides to share it with us."
"By the way," Sonata asked, timidly raising a finger, "what will we do with the machine?"
Adagio glanced at the device before resisting the urge to slap herself in the face.
"We’ll have to carry it again," was her brief command.
Ensuring silence, they walked in the direction opposite the location of a volcano. Frankly, they couldn’t stop imagining the worst-case scenarios, from a simple stumble causing irreparable damage to the machine, to being challenged by a dinosaur twenty times their size.
Under their feet was a muddy terrain covered with thick layers of moss that had become damp from a previous rain. The tree canopies acted as umbrellas, making the heat less unbearable.
Prioritizing the need to be careful with each step, they quickly scanned from side to side for a cave or some natural shelter. A dangerous feeling of being watched (with insects still being the only inevitable presence) had been lurking for longer than they would have liked. Occasional crunches of small, worn-out branches caused them micro-heart attacks, forcing them to freeze, and in the thick underbrush, they encountered multiple dark-legged insects that were unpleasant to see.
“Rest,” Adagio managed to say before her arms gave out.
They set the teleporter down on a patch of green grass.
“Damn it, I can't feel my arms,” Aria muttered, already too weak to speak.
The sentiment was shared.
It had been just over ten minutes since they started walking, and the only shelter they found was a dark, hole-riddled rock that probably belonged to some kind of spider.
“I need... water...” Sonata gasped, sitting down on the ground and breathing heavily.
Feeling as if she had just completed the most intense workout, Adagio collapsed onto the bag, her arms sprawled in random directions. What was she trying to achieve? She wondered, hoping that something would come to her. Waving the white flag could be seen as a logical act rather than cowardice, right? No one could blame her given the current circumstances. No one could say she failed if survival in a time millions of years in the past was the issue. However, it was worth holding onto and appreciating a glimmer of hope that would offer some reward in the future.
“At least things can’t get worse,” she murmured as she slowly got to her feet. “Come on, let’s keep going. I have a feeling we’re not too far. Just a few more meters and—” a horrifying roar shattered the continuity of her voice.
The three, by simple instinct, turned their heads toward the source of the roar and then were met with an even more thunderous sound. Then a clump of bushes was being torn apart by a rigid and heavy body.
The roars continued repeatedly.
“I guess they were overdue,” Sonata said before they all ran to hide behind the nearest tree.
Through the combination of leaves, they could see a fight between two triceratops, their anger reflected in every sound they made. They weren’t very fast, but the force with which they charged, using their head frills, gave the scene more action than they expected. The impact of the blows seemed to crush the air.
The smaller of the two fell to the ground and roared, attacking with its head as the other one ran away and returned to the clearing where the fight was taking place.
“I’m betting on the one with the broken horn,” Aria whispered. “It looks tough.”
Adagio gave her a stern look and a gesture to keep quiet before returning her gaze to the machine. Although she hadn’t said it aloud, she was relieved to see that they were beginning to connect their thoughts: they couldn’t leave the teleporter behind or it would all be over.
“As soon as they finish fighting, we’ll grab the teleporter and head right, understood?”
Aria and Sonata nodded.
The latter watched the battle with noticeable skepticism, the sweat on her hands making it clear. She wiped her palms on her skirt and returned her touch to the trunk, which fortunately was large enough to completely hide the three of them. It seemed that the triceratops had no intention of diverting their attention from the fight.
But then, it happened.
A beastly sight that they had only seen in a humiliating display of bones in the museum appeared, making the grandeur of the trees seem insignificant compared to the T-rex. The roar it let out was so powerful that the Dazzlings had to cover their ears, and even then, they failed to block out the deafening sound. The T-rex advanced and, when it faced the triceratops—creatures that had already lost all their majesty—it opened its gigantic mouth full of sharp, saliva-coated teeth and let out a roar that seemed to enjoy destroying the breeze.
The two triceratops fled in the same direction.
Don't move, was the phrase that kept bouncing in the three girls' heads. Don't make a single sound.
They pressed closer to the trunk and waited; the deafening footsteps of the T-rex were all they had to know that the creature was moving away.
Still with terror clutching their hearts, Adagio waved her hand, and that was enough for the sirens to head towards the teleporter.
Sonata kept her eyes on her self-assigned task: watching the T-rex. The dinosaur was still visible through the leaves, but now the distance made it no larger than a thumb.
They moved the teleporter and resumed their walk.
Accompanied by a series of constant comments (mostly individual questions and scarce solutions regarding their current situation), they tried to take the situation as seriously as it required. If they could trust their memories, they would recall that they couldn’t rely only on what they saw. The era they were in had been admired and analyzed for many years, and the general conclusion from professionals was the palpable danger associated with a hypothetical journey to the prehistoric era. In other words, survival seemed akin to a distant dream where, in most cases, there was no happy ending.
After a few minutes, Adagio suddenly stopped, causing the two girls to almost crash into her.
“There, quickly,” she informed, pointing to an entrance surrounded by trees. A curve surrounded by thick vegetation but opening up enough to conclude their search.
They quickened their pace, forcing themselves to ignore the plea of their exhausted limbs, and managed to enter the cave; a den that was engulfed in darkness.
Without time to observe their surroundings, they left the teleporter at one end and proceeded to collapse, begging for some form of energy drink as a reward.
“You know what’s funny about this?” Sonata gasped, a nervous and weak laugh emerging from her throat as a sign of potential delirium. “If a dinosaur lives here, we’ll die in a very unpleasant way.”
Adagio and Aria jumped up instantly.
A quick and cautious game of rock, paper, scissors decided that Aria would go in front.
In case she encountered a creature, she tried to ponder her immediate reaction. She covered her mouth with one hand, leaving the other hand free as a desperate method of self-defense. Certainly, the cave was deeper than it looked from outside; it wouldn’t be enough to jump with an extended hand to reach the ceiling, and somehow this gave a spark of calm. The interior expanded in a directional manner, resembling a hallway that opened vertically downwards as the meters increased.
Finally, she could breathe easy upon confirming that no fourth member was present. Except for the insects coming and going, of course.
“Alright, this will do for now,” Adagio said, leaning against one of the hard walls. “Anyone have anything to say?”
“If we follow logic, the next step should be to avoid starving to death,” Aria declared, her tone growing serious. “The pizza is still in the machine, right?”
Adagio knew where the conversation was headed.
“Forget about the pizza for now,” she said.
“What?” Aria retorted, almost shouting. “What are you talking about now?”
Struggling to find the right words, Adagio scanned every corner of the cave with her gaze.
“Look,” she began, though her voice betrayed her lack of conviction. “I hate to say this, but the best thing we can do is save the pizza,” she paused, “You know, for a hypothetical end.”
“End?” Sonata murmured.
“Just in case we don’t manage to get back to the present,” she finally explained. “At least that way, we’ll have a treat as our last meal.”
“Oh, Dagi, you don’t have to be so pessimistic,” Sonata said, standing up. “Of course we’ll get back to the present!”
“Oh, really?” Aria murmured, lacking interest.
“Well, I came up with something while resting. Electricity isn’t an invention but a discovery. And even though we don’t know much about this era, we’re still on the same planet. If we’re lucky, we could use a thunderstorm as a power source to turn on the machine.”
Adagio’s and Aria’s eyes widened in surprise, focusing directly on Sonata.
“Did I say something wrong?” she stammered.
“Sonata...” Adagio began, a smile forming on her face. “You’re a genius!” she exclaimed with palpable excitement. “Yes! Yes! That’s what we’ll do!”
“That sounds interesting, but there’s a flaw in the plan,” Aria suddenly explained. “How long will we have to wait... Correction. How long will we have to survive until a thunderstorm occurs?”
“Uh...” Sonata said. “Yes, I admit that’s a minor flaw.”
Adagio shook her head. “N-no, it doesn’t matter. If we stick together, everything will work out.”
“How nice, it’s a pity that hope can’t be eaten,” Aria commented.
“Just one problem at a time,” Adagio said, forcing herself to organize her thoughts. “We’ll go out to look for food in an hour. For now, I ask that we stay here, in silence, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the things. Understood?”
“Understood,” Aria and Sonata said in unison, their voices sounding completely contrasting.
After a short rest, they agreed it would be smart to push the machine further into the cave to prevent any intruders from destroying it.
Outside, the sun shone more intensely.
Determined to overcome the difficulties, the Dazzlings left the cave with the sole goal of returning with full stomachs. And with all their limbs intact.
The dinosaurs, it seemed, had a preference for areas populated with trees and large swampy regions accompanied by fragmented rocks, which was why none of the sirens were showing fear. Their weapons (if that was the right word) were nothing more than long branches, their curves resembling the shape of a small scythe. They also had rocks that could serve as a cheap long-range defense. How did a dinosaur scream? Would a rock be enough to cause it significant damage? They still had doubts about the roars the beasts would make. Could they attract other dinosaurs, or were they selfish beings who felt no empathy for the cries of their own kind? There were too many questions to be answered.
Sonata spotted a bush resembling a clump of shrubs, adorned with circular blue fruits hanging in apparent calm atop a mound of earth a few meters away.
“There’s something over there,” she said, pointing to her target and being careful not to let go of the giant leaf she was holding like an umbrella against the heat.
The Dazzlings approached and got a good view of the panorama; the fruits, about the size of marbles, were not something they remembered seeing, but if they had to bet, they would swear they were just normal blueberries.
“We can’t risk them being poisonous,” Adagio commented after feeling the fruit's skin with a branch.
“But then what will we eat?” Sonata inquired.
That question made Adagio shiver.
“I have an idea,” Aria interjected. “Remember the triceratops that were fighting nearby?”
“Yeah,” Sonata nodded.
Aria merely smiled.
“What?! No! No! No!” Sonata exclaimed as she recognized her sister’s intentions. “I don’t want to eat a dinosaur!”
“Calm down, of course we’re not doing that,” Adagio clarified firmly. “We can go fishing, how does that sound?”
“Raw fish? Sounds much better than being poisoned,” Aria said, cracking her knuckles in preparation to catch any fish she found.
“If there’s no other option...” Sonata commented, still with serious doubts leading her to search for another solution. Would eating insects be less disgusting? “Alright, let’s go fish...”
Her voice faded mid-word, and when the roar sounded closer from the sky, fear gripped each of the sirens.
A pterodactyl swept through the breeze and extended its claws as it brushed the tops of the trees.
“Watch out!” Adagio shouted, ducking and covering her head.
The Dazzlings only managed to separate a few meters when the pterodactyl’s roar shook the environment again. It flapped its wings once more and opened its beak, revealing its sharp teeth stained with bits of plants.
In a moment of pure adrenaline, Aria thought she might throw a rock and perhaps scare the creature away, but a deafening roar made her look up.
“SONATA!” she bellowed, noticing that while she and Adagio had moved to a dry area with rocks, Sonata had dashed to the other end of the path—a vegetative area.
With horrifying speed, the pterodactyl charged through the trees and managed to snag Sonata’s shirt with its claws, who could only emit terrified shrieks in response.
“NO!” Adagio cried out, seeing the creature’s wings lift it off the ground.
The pterodactyl roared again.
Sonata struck at the dinosaur’s skin, summoning courage to hit the thick claws and scream in hopes of freeing herself. But she abandoned those attempts when, in the blink of an eye, she realized the immense height she had reached. She closed her eyes and clung to the pterodactyl. She decided she wouldn’t open her eyes until she touched solid ground, yes, that’s what she would do.
“Sonata...” Adagio whispered with a shattered voice, extending her hand as if she could reach her. And she began to loathe the fact that she couldn’t process everything that had just happened. “Sonata! Aria, quickly, we can’t lose sight of her!” she roared before starting to run.
“Damn it,” Aria muttered, clenching her fists and following her. For the first time, she felt she couldn’t beat her in a race. “Hey! You need to calm down!”
“CALM DOWN?!” Adagio retorted, jumping over a rock and then circling a tree. “That thing just took Sonata! Don’t ask me to calm down!”
Well, Aria admitted she didn’t use the right words.
“We won’t get anywhere if you act like this!” she growled, emphasizing the final part of the sentence. “What do you plan to do against a fifteen-meter flying beast, huh? Tell me!”
“I HAVE TO SAVE HER!”
The height the dinosaur had ascended to made it seem as small as an ant, its wings still battling the air and it was unclear what the destination of the journey was. Adagio and Aria ran on, unwilling to stop; Adagio because of the denial of losing sight of Sonata, and Aria because of the denial of losing sight of Adagio.
Then, the pterodactyl made a slight change in direction, heading towards a hill that seemed to be a brown mountain that Adagio, in her panic, momentarily mistook for a volcano. She swore she had a mini-heart attack at that moment.
There, the pterodactyl’s body covered whatever was going on. The nerves wouldn’t stop growing.
“Follow me,” Adagio ordered quickly, positioning her feet on the hill.
“Wait, don’t tell me you plan to climb up there,” Aria retorted.
“Do you have a better idea?”
Aria grabbed her by the wrist and forced her to turn around. “Look, if this is your plan, fine. I’m worried too, but you won’t achieve anything if you let your nerves take over, understand? We’ll stay down here until that thing leaves. It’s the best we can do.”
“But Sonata…”
“She’ll be fine, she’s stronger than she looks,” Aria said with great calm, managing to make Adagio’s pulse start to calm down. Even she couldn’t believe what she had just said.
Sonata, you better not die, Aria thought.
But Sonata still didn’t have a good view of her location. She had opened her eyes but now her hands were obstructing her vision. The fact that the pterodactyl had let her go didn’t do much to reassure her. She told herself she was doing fine, she knew the dinosaur was still in front of her, watching her, and would probably stay there for a while. This led her to think she would need to stay still. She remembered a similar situation in a TV show.
Not a sound, not a single sound, was the phrase buzzing in her head.
She waited, and when her ears detected a slight movement similar to the sound of the claws when they grabbed her, her conviction faltered. She recognized that the dinosaur had left, and this allowed her breathing to recover while her mind began to investigate what kind of terrain she was on—a rough surface made of various materials she couldn’t identify.
Slowly, very slowly, she began to lower her hands, dragging them down her face with the only instruction being that she had no second chances. Once her vision returned, she saw the pterodactyl in the air, flying away thanks to the relaxed movement of its wings.
Without wasting time, she looked around and noticed the hill she was sitting on. The downside (one more to the list) was that the natural formation extended further down, like a flattened pyramid adorned with dark moss, so she couldn’t see the ground.
She gave herself quick and gentle slaps on the cheeks to regain control. Okay, you just need to get down from this hill. Piece of cake, Sonata, it’s a piece of cake. Just hurry before that dinosaur comes back.
Then she realized her specific location: a nest made of earth, twigs, gravel, and leaves of various colors and sizes. Also, her company consisted of five small eggs…
And one that, by far, was larger than the rest.
Five beige eggs resting in a slight space of the nest. Sonata didn’t need to know more to understand that they were the pterodactyl’s hatchlings.
What really began to return her to that state of terror was the fact that the shell of the other egg, the largest and a different color, had a couple of cracks.
Intrigued, silently, carefully with each of her slow steps, Sonata approached.
“Hello?” she murmured while extending a timid hand toward the shell. Seeing it from this new distance, she realized it wasn’t just cracks. The egg had already been opened.
The top shell flew off, propelled by the animated leap of a small creature. The baby Tyrannosaurus rex emerged from its home.
“Ah! W-what?” Sonata exclaimed, stepping back in fright. “How…? Why…?”
A couple of expressions of confusion appeared on the dinosaur's face, which, despite having a scaly visage and a different skull from the creatures she was used to, seemed to be smiling.
“You…? How did you get here?” Sonata stammered, getting up and regaining her composure despite the lingering surprise. As the seconds passed, a cathartic scene began to unfold; the creature in front of her brought her a calm she hadn’t expected to find. Those bright eyes and tiny arms were as striking as its tail, which kept wagging as if mimicking a puppy’s behavior. By the time she fully composed herself, Sonata noticed the immense smile that had formed on her own face. “Aww, you’re the cutest thing in the world!”
In response, the Tyrannosaurus rex lunged toward her in a gesture of trust and affection.
“Hey, is it normal for you to tickle me even though you don’t have fur?” Sonata said amid her loud laughter. “Yes, I love you too!”
She would have given anything to make that moment last a little longer.
“Oh no!” she exclaimed, standing up as quickly as her legs allowed. “No, no, I can’t waste any more time.”
She left the nest and leaned slightly over the edge of the hill, bracing herself against the nearby rocks, but still failing in her mission to see how far away she was.
“No, no, no,” was the only word that came from her throat.
Behind her, a cute roar from the Tyrannosaurus rex interrupted her new nerves.
Sonata caught sight of the smiling dinosaur.
You.
Ignoring the fact that it shouldn’t be there and that she couldn’t rely on time being an ally, what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t leave the baby dinosaur there, abandon it to its fate. “Once you cross paths with a Dazzling, welcome to the world of bad luck!” was a saying she never liked. And if she wanted to get logical, that pterodactyl must have brought it somehow, with the sole purpose of making it its meal. Weren’t pterodactyls herbivores, or was her memory failing her? In any case, the eyes watching her were so innocent that Sonata didn’t want to reject them.
Without saying a word, she picked up the dinosaur and returned to the edge of the hill, determined not to look back.
“Alright, we’ll do this together, okay?”
Her voice was followed by an enthusiastic roar.
During a period of boredom many years ago, she had seen a live televised competition on alpine skiing. Closing her eyes, she forced herself to imagine that she was going to do the same activity she had watched that autumn afternoon on the screen. The only differences were that she didn’t have skis, no safety gear, she had to ensure that the dinosaur she was carrying wouldn’t get hurt, and unlike the TV contestants, she had to descend a rocky hill instead of a snowy one.
Yes, everything would definitely turn out fine.
She took a deep breath and hoped her feet wouldn’t betray her.
“Here we go!” she said before taking the first step.
It wasn’t long before she started thinking she should have prepared better, that maybe the pterodactyl would come back in an hour and she could have used that time to better assess the terrain instead of relying on her poor reverse climbing skills.
“Careful, careful, careful, careful, careful,” she repeated with each step she managed to take. She didn’t think she was going too fast; for now, she had reason to believe she’d reach the ground safe and sound. The wind hit her body in an enveloping manner.
One step here, making sure not to step on a rock that could make her slip; one step there, ensuring to maintain a reliable balance.
The dinosaur’s tail wagged with an enthusiasm that was hard to control.
“Please, don’t move,” Sonata pleaded, noticing the path was becoming increasingly uneven due to the increasing rocks and thick vegetation centered around moss and bothersome sediment.
But as she descended a certain number of meters, she heard voices that filled her with relief.
“Sonata!” Adagio shouted, being held back by Aria, who kept demanding with closed eyes and a harsh voice that if she tried to climb the hill, she wouldn’t live to tell the tale.
Without taking her eyes off the path, Sonata was more careful than ever. She had already gained a speed that prevented her from blinking, and the Tyrannosaurus rex’s excessive excitement made her stifle screams on the way down.
She was going too fast.
“SONATA, WATCH OUT!” Adagio shouted, more alarmed than ever.
Then, due to the extra weight involved in carrying the dinosaur, the descent became unexpected. The terrain she was about to enter was the most dangerous left, and Sonata feared she would need total control of her limbs.
It was a moment when Sonata let adrenaline take over the situation. Her own body reacted to the frenzy.
“Catch it!” she exclaimed before tossing the dinosaur towards her sisters. With that done, she immediately refocused her attention on the descent and resumed the careful placement of her steps.
“What the—” Aria muttered, seeing a dark figure, cast in shadow by the sun, thrown in her direction. There was no time to process what was happening. She began taking a series of steps backward while raising her arms, but whatever Sonata had thrown made it clear that she wasn’t the best at judging distances.
She quickened her retreat and, as she saw the figure about to fall, made a powerful leap backward, like a rugby player determined to catch the ball.
She didn’t like the jolt she took to her back, but at least she accomplished her goal.
“Aria…” Adagio said as she approached the girl lying on the ground. “Oh my God! What is...?”
Slowly, prioritizing avoiding dizziness, feeling that what she was touching was neither soft like a giant fruit nor static like a fossil, Aria opened her eyes.
The scream she released didn’t make her proud.
“What the heck?!” she expressed her confusion after distancing herself from the oddly smiling creature.
“Wait!” Sonata called from the other side of the area, already having relished touching the ground and running at full speed towards her sisters.
“Sonata, you’re okay!” Adagio said, extending her arms ready for a reunion hug.
Sonata easily ignored her and went to hug the baby dinosaur.
“Please, don’t hurt it,” she pleaded, wrapping the creature in her arms.
“I wasn’t going to hurt it,” Aria clarified, managing to sound serious.
“Oh, well… that’s a relief.”
“What? No, wait, you found a baby Tyrannosaurus rex up there?” Adagio mentioned.
“I don’t know the reason either, when I got there it was already there, apparently refusing to leave its shell.”
“Dinosaurs are dumb,” Aria commented. “If it followed you, we can trust my theory. Let’s conclude that pterodactyl had myopia or something. It must have thought it was an egg from another species, maybe something to snack on.”
“I guess that explains the cracks,” Sonata said, remembering that the grip of the sturdy claws that lifted her to the nest might have broken the egg.
“Yes, yes, a nice story with a happy ending,” Adagio said with a hand on her chest, enjoying the peace in her heartbeat. “But let’s not waste any more time. Aria saw a river near this area, we can go there once we forget how traumatic this was. Sonata, are you okay? Did nothing bad happen to you?”
“I’m better than ever, Dagi,” she replied with a small and honest smile.
“Good, now let’s go to the cave.”
Sonata picked up the Tyrannosaurus rex once more. When she noticed that no one was following her, she stopped dead and turned around; both Adagio and Aria looked puzzled.
“What?”
“That thing,” Aria said, pointing with an accusing finger. “Don’t tell me you’re planning to bring it with us.”
“But of course! We can’t leave it here, alone and without help. Who knows what will happen to it in a place like this,” she said while hugging the Tyrannosaurus rex tighter.
“Sonata, this is its home,” Adagio clarified. “It’s natural for it to be here; we can’t take that away from it.”
“Its natural state would be to be with its mother, but unfortunately, it can’t enjoy that. It was kidnapped by a pterodactyl and almost eaten alive,” Sonata said with a voice tinged with lament. “It hasn’t caused me any trouble since I met it. It’s been as sweet as cotton candy. I’ll take care of it; just let me protect it, please,” she pleaded with a pout forming on her face.
Not wanting to get involved in such an important decision (and mostly wanting to take the path of proper rest), Aria crossed her arms and continued moving towards the cave, leaving Adagio to have the final say.
And the last thing Adagio wanted was to get involved in a verdict of that kind.
Well, Sonata had no reason to lie, she admitted; if she said the dinosaur wasn’t dangerous, she would have to believe exactly that, its small size and friendly smile supported it. Its eyes, though identical to the rest of the menacing creatures ruling the surroundings, were peculiar, distinctive, dark pearls that reflected the sunlight in a sweet and endearing way.
Adagio couldn't bring herself to deny Sonata happiness after what had just happened.
"Fine, you can bring him with us," she finally declared. "But if we notice that he's dangerous, you'll have to let him go."
"YES! THANK YOU SO MUCH, DAGI!" Sonata exclaimed before wrapping Adagio in a hug.
"I... can't... breathe," Adagio said, as the baby T-rex's tail kept slapping her cheek.
"I'm sorry!" Sonata said with excessive politeness, immediately stepping back.
The dinosaur, reflecting its increased joy, let out a high-pitched roar.
All Adagio silently hoped for was that her decision wouldn't turn out to be a mistake.
