When Sonata Dusk, Aria Blaze, and Adagio Dazzle's crystal necklaces broke and their voices cracked, they had fled. The students threw some fruit at them, but otherwise nearly all of them were happy to let them go unharmed. All but one.
Unnoticed in the back of the stadium, one student was not happy. The student was a short female in jeans and shirt sleeves. A white flower was embroidered near the bottom of her shirt. All the students knew she had been at the school all year, but had they though about it none of them remembered anything specific she had done prior to a few weeks earlier. She went by different names in different worlds, but to the students of Canterlot High she was Pale Fire. She insisted on either the full name or "Fire", as she was not pale but dark blue.
Fire was angry. She had been mentally violated, used! She clenched her fists and moved quickly after the sirens. She noticed another student who was watching them escape rather than keeping their attention on the stage.
"Hey, you!" she said to him as she approached. "Yeah, red shirt! Come with me!" she said as she passed him. She did not confirm that he had followed, but hoped he had. Three on one were much worse odds than three on two. She could have tried to grab more, but they all seemed to still be a bit out of it, fixated on the people that had broken the siren's spell as they did something on stage. Fire did not really take note of that. She sprinted out of the stadium gate, glancing quickly behind her to see that the boy in the red shirt actually had followed her.
Ahead, the three sirens were moving away at a jog. Their gait was uneven. Good.
"Go right!" Fire shouted to red shirt as she poured on speed. The sirens glanced over their shoulders and their eyes widened. The one on the left, Fire thought her name was Aria, could not react fast enough and went down to Fire's full-body tackle.
"Oof!"
"Uhh... halt, evildoer!!" Red Shirt said. What was that about? Fire had managed to get Aria in a good hold and looked up to see that Red Shirt had basically just bear hugged the blue one. Fire thought her name was Sonata something. This left the third siren, who had some other music-themed name that Fire could not remember. This one had seemed to be their leader. Fire silently cursed her lack of foresight at not taking her out of the equation first. Fire braced for a struggle and hoped the leader valued her subordinates enough not to try anything too extreme.
She need not have worried. The leader only looked from one pair to the other dejectedly. Fire noticed that Aria was making only a half-hearted attempt to struggle, while Sonata did not appear to be trying even that much.
"Ok, you got us," the leader said. Adagio was her name: Fire had just remembered. "But you can see we can't cause trouble anymore." Adagio looked down at her necklace, now sans gem. "So what's the harm in letting us go?"
Adagio sounded very tired, as if she had run a marathon after staying awake for two days straight. Or maybe like an older person who has gotten tired of life. Fire felt a pang of sympathy but she shook her head.
"Sorry, it doesn't work like that here," Fire said, "You've shown that given the ability, you'll cause trouble. Even without magic, there are plenty of ways you could do it. That means you're going to jail."
Adagio sighed. "Well, I guess life here could not get anymore pointless," she said. She held out her hands.
"Well Spades?" she asked, looking at Red Shirt, "We all know you've got some handcuffs or batcuffs or whatever on you."
Fire raised an eyebrow at Red Shirt, who apparently was named Spades. "Er, I didn't have a chance to grab my backback," he said sheepishly, "And I thought it would be a little strange to hang those on my utility belt." He looked at Fire as best he could without letting go. "I have a glue bomb but I don't think that would work. I have a little rope left, but I'm not sure it's enough for all three of them?"
"So you're letting us down, too, Spades?" Sonata said. Was that a joke? Fire wondered.
Spades, Fire noticed, had loosened his grips. She looked directly at him and shook her head. He looked puzzled for a moment but when she looked down at his hands, he hastily switched to holding Sonata's arms behind her back. Fire likewise shifted her hold on Aria, ultimately winding up twisting one of Aria's arms behind her back in a position where it would be easy to break it if anyone tried anything.
"I don't know that I would have said this a few days ago," Spades said, "But do they really have to go to jail? They can't do their singing thing anymore, and they let me go when they didn't have to."
Fire glowered. "So they can show a small amount of sympathy. They magically controlled the thoughts and feelings of dozens, if not hundreds, of people, and that's just what we know of!" Her voice lowered to a growl. "That's far too close to rape for me to just let that go." The look in her eyes was dangerous. Spades had heard the expression 'a clouded face', but he had never seen one that promised a hurricane before.
"Mmph," Fire grunted as a new and unpleasant thought occured to her, "On the other hand, I doubt mind control is a crime anyone bothered to write laws for here. I guess it would be inciting a riot? Might get off light for that. If we could even prove it..."
"I hadn't thought of that. What would Batman do in this situation?" Spades wondered aloud.
Fire rolled her eyes. "Like nah NAH nah NAH nah NAH nah NAH Batman! You have that here?"
"Yes, but that's not my favorite version," Spades said, his grip loosening again as he started to geek out, "I much prefer the Dark Knight." Fire glared at him again and he both stopped talking and loosened his grip.
"Was... that a song?" Adagio asked. She looked puzzled.
"Yeah, for an old Batman TV show," Spades said.
"I think she means..." Aria said slowly, as if working something out, "Was that music?"
"Oh come on!" Fire said indignantly, "I know it was not the best rendition, but it was at least recognizable!"
Sonata tilted her head. "So there were like, notes and everything?"
"Of course there were...! Wait..." Fire narrowed her eyes at Sonata. She then looked to Adagio, then to the one she had a grip on.
"Try this..." Fire began.
She sang the hymn version of the Ode to Joy, but on 'la's so as to not use any words.
"Recognize it?" she asked, watching Adagio closely but also feeling for Aria's reactions as best she could.
"What?" Adagio asked, "That was just a bunch of..." she stopped. "What was that?"
"The Ode to Joy?" Spades said, "Even I know that. It's like the most famous tune in the world!"
Aria was shaking. "We've... heard it," Aria said, "But that was just..."
"N...*sob* noise," Sonata said.
Sonata started crying in earnest. Aria went limp and despite her efforts to suppress her sobs, they were still clear. Fire saw tears running down her cheeks. Adagio, the only one standing on her own power, collapsed to her knees. Fire caught a glint of tears, but unlike the others she did not cry. The look she had was one Fire had seem before. Someone beyond tears, who has given up hope to the point that even the natural urge to cry for catharsis is gone from them. Fire's eyes widened as she realized what this meant. She released her grip in shock. Spades released Sonata and hesitantly put his left hand on her right shoulder. He glanced at Fire questioningly.
Pale Fire stood stock still, staring back with wide eyes. Spades, seeing no help there, patted Sonata's back awkwardly.
"Er, there there," he said, "It'll be alright."
"No... it... won't," Sonata got out between sobs.
"I..." Fire started to say before halting. After a moment, she began again. "Just... just go."
The trio turned to look at her. Sonata's sobs lessened. Fire turned her head, not wanting to look.
"Maybe... maybe there's something that can help you," Spades said, "Somewhere in the world or... maybe those girls with the weird powers can do something?"
At this, Adagio's head snapped around to look at Spades.
"No," she said with an attempt at a growl as she got to her feet. Her voice broke a little so it was not very menacing.
"But... Adagio," Sonata said, "Maybe... maybe they can..."
"I said no!" Adagio said, stronger this time, "Even if they didn't banish or imprison us somewhere else, they won't want to help us! We started this as sisters..."
"And we'll continue as sisters," Aria said with a nod, straightening up.
Adagio looked skeptically at fire, then at Spades. As she looked at him, her expression softened.
"Thanks," Adagio said, though it was not clear who she was addressing. The other two each took one of Sonata's hands, lifted her up off her knees, and the three moved in the opposite direction of the stadium. They started slowly, but soon progressed to a jog.
After watching for a moment, Spades walked over to Fire.
"So, what happened to them?" Spades asked, "Why were they so upset?" He noticed that the strange girl, whose name he still had not gotten, was tearing up. She swiped at her eyes before answering.
"It's... they can't hear music anymore..." she started hesitantly. It was something more easily grasped intuitively than explained. She could tell from Spades' face that he was not getting it.
"Ok, just... imagine if everything you heard, the sweetest music, your lover's voice... errr, or parents' voices," she said as she considered his age and apparent social standing.
"My... parents are dead," he said, looking at the ground.
"Well, hopefully you still remember their voices. But imagine if that, even in memory, were replaced with nails on a chalkboard. Actually, I guess it's more banal... like say the hum of an air conditioner," Fire said.
Spades considered this. "Well, I guess that would be pretty bad, but there are people who are completely deaf."
"Yes, but they don't define themselves by their ability to hear music. Think of it like Beethoven, and he had time to get used to it. Think... think of if you were defined by just one thing, and suddenly you didn't have that thing anymore. That's where they're at now," she said.
Realization dawned on Spades' face. "Ooh. So... I'm gonna sound like a total nerd... and I guess I am... but like when Bane paralyzed Batman? Now, he got better but... Bruce just wasn't himself if he couldn't be Batman."
"I don't think I've read that one, but you seem to have the idea," Fire said dryly. She glanced back towards the stadium. Students were beginning to file out. The Sonic Rainbooms must have finished their encore. She bit her lower lip in thought.
"Errr, so..." Spades began, unsure what to do. Fire nodded and glanced back at the stadium.
"I would love to hear how those Sirens or whatever were on a first name basis with you, Spades," she said, "But right now I have to catch those magical girls or whatever they are before the purple one leaves again."
"That's actually my last name," Spades said when Fire paused, "My name's Jim." He held out a hand uncertainly. Fire looked at it for a moment before she shook it.
"Pale Fire. Look, I gotta go do this. You got a... what's it called... cell phone? Just give me your number and I'll get the story later."
"Uhhh... sure," he said, momentarily thrown by the fact that she apparently was not sure what a cell phone was called, "It's..."
She held up a hand. "Wait... crud no pen," she said, patting her pockets, "...and I left my backpack inside." She looked over at the stadium, then back at him.
"Actually, so did I," Jim said, "So I guess we both gotta go back in anyway?"
"Right, just don't bolt," she said, fixing him with a stern stare and then turning back towards the stadium.