Clear Signal was reading a catalog as he worked the register at his store. It had been a quiet day so far and he was expecting his grandson to come in and help him the moment school was done. As if by chance he heard the door open followed by the chime of a bell. He looked up to see his grandson, Distant Approach followed by another familiar face. “Are you sure your Grandpa would have an answer?” the girl asked.

“No but those girls and their actions in the cafeteria looked very familiar. Arguments don’t just start randomly.”

The old man smiled at the two. “Well if it ain't my Grandson bringing a- hey wait have we met before?”

“Yeah I bought a starter set from you,” Sunset replied.

“Oh I remember you now. How’s that train treating you?” Clear asked smiling.

“It's going fine but can we ask you something?” Sunset asked.

Clear Signal sensed the seriousness and his smile dropped. “Oh what about?”

“Grandpa, we saw something familiar at the school. Remember that article you showed me in one of those railroader magazines? The one that involved your first run?” Distant Approach asked.

“You mean the one about the singing incident?” Clear asked with a raised brow.

“That’s the one, can we see it?”

Clear Signal nodded and began typing something on his computer. “Don’t know what got you kids curious but here you go.” He said as he turned the monitor. Sunset Shimmer and Distant Approach leaned in. The article had a vintage photo of a train station platform. The people on the platform were fighting with either fist, canes, or their own luggage. “I remember that incident,” Clear Signal said. “I was just promoted to engineer on the Monon. Everything was going great on my first ever passenger run. But then all of a sudden I got word from my conductor to stop the train at the nearest station because the passengers somehow broke out in a riot in the cars.”

“How did it start?” Sunset asked.

“Don’t know,” Clear Responded. “But the conductor said the last thing he heard before the fight was some beautiful singing. What was more strange was that despite the whole train looking like a bar fight inside, only three passengers managed to escape unscathed. In fact there's a photo of those three in there somewhere.”

The two students looked through the page only to find another photo and their eyes widened. The photo had what looked like the Dazzlings wearing 1970s era clothing and running away from the fighting on the station platform. “They look as young as they look now. How is this possible?” Distant asked.

“What do you mean by young as they look?” Clear asked suspiciously.

“It’s a long story sir,” Sunset asked as her mind went into deep thought. “They must be the same,” she said quietly.

“What is she talking about?” Clear asked his grandson.

“Uh don’t worry about it Grandpa. How about you take a coffee break and I’ll manage the front for a while.”

The old man shrugged and went into the back. “It was so weird,” began Distant. “One moment things are fine and all of a sudden the girls break out a musical number at lunch and everyone is against each other. What's that about?”

“It’s more than that,” Sunset said. “Listen, I need you to print out this article and meet me back at the school.”

“What for?” he asked.

“You’re new here so you might as well learn what everyone at school already knows.”

Later that day Distant was with the six girls near the statue outside Canterlot high. He noticed that Sunset was holding a bag. He recognized the logo from his Grandparent’s store on it. “You got more stuff after all?”

“I thought I needed something to make my set look real. Bought some trees.”

“Do you at least have a table or benchwork for your layout?”

Sunset looked at him confused. “Benchwork? Layout?”

“You have a lot to learn,” he said.

Suddenly there was a strange sound as a girl with purple skin along with a purple and green dog emerged from the mirror on the side of the pedestal. All the girls got up and hugged the girl. “Twilight!”

Distant just stared wide eyed and jaw dropped. “What the- How did you-?”

After calming down the girls introduced Distant Signal to Twilight and later explained everything about magic, Equestria, and the fall formal. “So you’re an alicorn princess and dragon that turn into a human and dog through that mirror thing?”

“Yes,” finished Twilight.

“And she’s a unicorn?” Distant asked, pointing to Sunset.

“Yes.”

“And they can do magic from music?” he asked, pointing to the other girls.

“Yes,” all the girls say.

“So wait, those rumors about you they’re also true?” Sunset nodded, frowning. “A bully and a raging she-demon?” He asked before getting another confirming nod.

“Good gosh. As if my life couldn’t get more bizarre,” he said, placing a hand on his head.

“It’s a lot to take in but it took people a few days to adjust,” Sunset said. “But if you don’t want to be friends-”

“No no no, I was just shocked by all this and I uh…yeah you’re right I just need a day or two to process this.”

Twilight Sparkle nodded “Right, now that introductions are out of the way do you have the information about these girls?”

“Yeah,” Sunset said, showing her the printed copies of the article. “Apparently despite them looking young, they’ve been causing trouble for a long time. It seems their singing causes people to argue and fight.”

“Sirens…” Twilight said as her eyes widened in realization. “I’ve heard stories about how they were three serpent creatures that were banished by Star Swirl the bearded and his friends.”

“Well, how do we combat this?” Fluttershy asked with worry.

“We gotta fire with fire and by that I mean fight music with music.”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Aw yeah time for my band to shine so bright.”

“Our band…” Applejack corrected before getting a annoyed look from Rainbow.

“I’m going to need some time to figure this plan out and work on the spell to properly combat this. Can I spend the night at one of your houses?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie immediately hugged her. “Slumber party at my house!”

The girls cheered and left but Twilight noticed Sunset going the opposite way. “Aren’t you coming?”

“I’d love to but I'm not part of this band plus I got things to do.” She turned to Distant. “Think you can help me with this benchwork you mentioned?”

“Oh I got my homework done early. Sure, I’ll help you out,” Distant said, leading her. All Twilight did was watch the two leave. While she was pleased Sunset had a friend she hoped she would bond more with the friends she’d given her.

“Okay hold it steady,” Distant said as he pulled the trigger on the drill. The screw went into the cross beam securing it in place. “You know if you’re planning on making a huge layout this gauge might be too big for this home.”

“Yeah, I hadn't thought of it. Maybe this can be for a smaller gauge. What would you recommend?” Sunset asked.

“Well HO is popular with fancy technology and realism,” he replied. “Maybe I can find you a smaller table for just your O gauge starter set and next time you’re at the shop we can find an HO set and some extra track.”

“That would be great,” Sunset said as she dusted the sawdust off her. After a trip to the hardware store it was a miracle she managed to get some of this done. Sure there were problems but if Twilight Sparkle could defeat her she can handle this. That thought now made her frown a bit.

Distant Approach noticed it immediately. “What’s wrong now?”

“Can I ask you something?” she asked.

“You just did,” Distant said grinning. That got them both giggling. “No but seriously go ahead.”

“Why are you still being nice to me? You literally just learned I was a monster,” she said. “And not just literally but also metaphorically.”

Distant placed a hand on her shoulder. “I had my fair share of meeting bad people. They were all walking train wrecks,” he said before pointing to Sunset’s 0-8-0 locomotive sitting on a nearby table. “To me, whoever can appreciate simple things like that aren’t monsters. And somehow I can see you’re really trying to be better if those friends of yours we saw early aren’t anything to go by.”

“They were more like past victims assigned to me by that princess,” Sunset deadpanned.

“Oh…well you at least have me. Its nice to meet someone around here at my age that likes trains.”

“Yeah,” Sunset said before picking up her locomotive. “I think I am starting to like it.”

“Model railroading?”

“That and having friends,” Sunset said as she smiled at Distant who returned it.

Author's Note

Another story strikes the feature box? I'm on a roll.