//------------------------------//
// Prelude: A New World 
// Story: InFamous: The Unusual Conduits 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Adagio Dazzle stood across the street from Canterlot High School, for what seemed like the hundredth time that week, and simply stared at the ruined Wondercolt statue that housed the portal between this world and the world of Equus, the place where she and her sisters had come from. Adagio had pale apple green colored skin, with vivid orange colored hair that had brilliant yellow streaks, and had brilliant raspberry colored eyes, though she was still wearing the clothing she had worn when she and her sisters enrolled in the High School. Once upon a time she and her sisters had been Sirens, magical creatures that spread disharmony among the ponies that called Equus home with just their songs, but now the three of them had been reduced to mere humans and singing their voices had been broken.

The reason she was staring at the ruined statue, besides the fact that it housed the only portal that could take her, Aria, and Sonata home, was because one of the Rainbooms, a certain Sunset Shimmer, had entered the portal with the purpose of spending time in her home world... and that was a month ago.

Sonata, being the friendliest of the trio, had approached the remaining Rainbooms and spent some time with them, asking them what was wrong as she tried to understand what could have happened to Sunset. From what she was able to learn Sunset was supposed to communicate with her friends via a special book that allowed the writer to communicate with whoever had the one it was linked to. As they understood it the Rainbooms had seen Sunset writing in her book and the message appeared on Princess Twilight Sparkle's book, the Twilight from Equus anyway, and that was how she devised a way to force open the portal so she could help the Rainbooms defeat the three of them.

Now, however, the book was connected to nothing, as every time one of the Rainbooms attempted to write in it they never got a response, meaning they had no idea what had happened to their friend, as it appeared that Sunset Shimmer had simply disappeared from the face of existence.

What surprised Adagio was that Aria came up with a few suggestions that might explain why they suddenly lost contact with Sunset Shimmer; she could have been taken to an entirely different world and was killed upon arrival, she could have been hurled into space, or she could have arrived safe and sound... only to terminate the anchor to this world, cutting off all communication between this world and Equus. Adagio told Aria that the third option didn't make any sense, considering that Sunset would never do something like that to her new friends, while Aria always agreed with that statement... only to suggest that Discord had to be behind it. She wasn't sure what the Spirit of Disharmony would gain from such an act, and she was sure that he might have the power to do something like that, but none of it explained why the portal was still active from their side.

"I'm surprised that you are still wasting your time on staring at that statue," a voice said, to which Adagio turned her gaze away from the ruined statue and glanced to her right, where she noticed Aria heading her way with her usual frown on her face.

Aria Blaze had pale light grayish fuchsia colored skin, with a moderate purple colored hair that had light brilliant aquamarine colored streaks, and had moderate mulberry colored eyes, though at the same time Adagio noticed that she was also wearing the same outfit she wore back when they pretended to be students. Aria also happened to dislike the fact that Adagio was trying to figure out what happened to Sunset Shimmer, as there was no reason for her sudden disappearance, but she was used to the leader of their little group spending her time in such a manner.

"I'm trying to figure out if the portal is dangerous or not," Adagio replied, though that was only part of the truth, because if the portal could take them to different worlds, instead of Equus, she could be putting herself and her sisters in danger, without any way for them to get back to this planet.

"Then why don't we enter the portal and find out?" another voice said, to which both Adagio and Aria glanced down the street and watched as Sonata Dusk, the third former Siren, walked towards them with her usual happy expression on her face, like she didn't have a care in the world.

Sonata had arctic bluish white colored skin, which was vastly different from what Adagio and Aria had, with light arctic blue colored hair that had moderate persian blue colored streaks, and had moderate raspberry colored eyes, and she, just like Adagio and Aria, was also wearing the clothing she had been wearing while they were students. Sonata was the most scatterbrained of all three of them, as she was sometimes easily distracted by what was happening around her, but even Adagio had to admit that there were a few instances where she had a stroke of genius... though sadly this wasn't one of those rare instances.

"That sounds like the most retarded thing I have ever heard," Aria stated, once more indicating that one of Sonata's ideas were stupid and shouldn't be taken seriously, though at the same time Adagio was curious as to why their sister thought that using the portal was a good idea.

"Why would you suggest such a thing?" Adagio asked, because she was curious as to where Sonata was actually trying to impress them by figuring something out, or if she was playing around in an attempt to annoy Aria, though Adagio silently admitted that it didn't take much to set Aria off sometimes.

"Well, Sunset's been on whatever world the portal sent her for the last month," Sonata replied, clearly stating what she knew from everything that the Rainbooms had told her, while at the same time she moved around her sisters until she was staring at the statue's base, "and, from what the Rainbooms learned before the connection was severed, the portal had to be connected to a planet that has some sort of magic. Sunset told the girls that she used to be a unicorn before she came here, a powerful one at that, so if she went to a world where magic existed she would regain her former powers and potentially push herself to new heights... and she's likely cleared the place of any threats as well."

"So you're telling us that the portal is now connected to a world that's filled with magic?" Aria inquired, though at the same time she couldn't help but sigh, which told Adagio that Aria was getting annoyed with Sonata once more and that it might get physical this time around, "I don't buy that one bit. Starswirl designed the portal to send us to a world without magic, where we would have eventually withered away until we were dead, if we had been separated from our gemstones anyway. Besides, there's no way that the portal could have been rewired to suddenly send someone to another world that has magic..."

"You're right Aria, Starswirl designed the original portal to go to a world without magic," Sonata said, surprising both of her sisters by the fact that she admitted that one of them was right, which was generally something that she didn't do, but that only made Adagio and Aria curious about what she was thinking about, "but consider this for a moment, Starswirl isn't around anymore. Someone, or something, has likely taken control over the portal and are using it in whatever way they desire, which means that the rules are either the same as they were when Starswirl was around..."

"...or they have been changed." Adagio finished, as she was starting to see where Sonata was going with this train of thought, while at the same time she was proud that this might actually be one of those rare instances she had thought about earlier, "Let's say Sonata's right, about someone else having control over the portal between this world and Equus, and let's say that she's also correct about it still being connected to the world that Sunset Shimmer was sent to... that just leaves the question as to who would do something like this."

"Well, we can rule out Tirek, since he's likely still locked away in Tartarus," Aria replied, though at the same time she racked her brain for all of the potential foes and villains that might, just might, have the ability to seize control of the magical portal and use it for their own purposes, "and I doubt Ahuizotl could do it, unless he found a specific artifact that was designed for such a thing, so we can rule him out as well. Grogar... well, he's likely still trapped in whatever realm he was banished to, thus allowing us to rule him out, and we can do the same with all of the alicorns we've heard about, as I'm sure that they wouldn't do something like this. That means that we're fresh out of creatures and ponies that would have the necessary power to do anything with the portal between worlds."

"Silly Aria, you missed someone," Sonata said, to which both Adagio and Aria turned towards her again, as Adagio was surprised that Sonata might have a decent idea while Aria was annoyed at being called 'silly' by Sonata, "You forgot to mention Discord."

Adagio hated admitting that Discord might have control over the portal between worlds, as he was the only one that would send Sunset Shimmer to an entirely new world for fun, but at the same time that information worried her, because if they entered the portal they could end up in another entirely different world... or end up separated from each other. Adagio knew that she and her sisters wanted some of their magic back, not enough to do what they had done to the students of Canterlot High School, but enough to feel like their old selves again. The shattering of their pendants, and their powers, had left a void in their very being, one that was hard to replace given how the new magic of this world worked... yet Adagio was certain that, if they took the chance, they might gain some form of magic to fill the void.

It was a gamble that could either grant them what they truly desired or cost them everything, which was why she constantly weighed her options in her head before she said anything to Aria and Sonata... but today she decided that it was time that she made up her mind, even if the others were shocked by her decision.

"So what if Discord is the one in control of the portal?" Adagio asked, causing her sisters to turn towards her, as they were curious as to what she was going to say next, especially since she had been studying the portal since the day Sunset disappeared, "According to what we know the portal is going to be connected to a world with magic, how much we have no idea, but this means that there is a slim possibility that we might be able to head home, especially since there's a new gatekeeper for the portal. All we have to do is slip through the portal and see what awaits us on the other side."

"You're willing to risk heading through that portal, to head to an unknown world I might add, just to leave the world that has been our prison for so many years?" Aria inquired, though even as she spoke she knew that she wanted to leave this world behind, as it was painful to pass by the school where they had lost their magic, even though she kept that thought to herself.

"Well, not exactly," Adagio said, to which she rubbed the back of her head for a moment, as she really didn't like the wording that Aria had used, but before she could actually say what she meant she, as well as Aria, discovered that Sonata was already on the move and was walking towards the ruined statue.

Adagio and Aria rushed towards Sonata, hoping to prevent her from accessing the portal so they could come up with a better plan for using the portal, when they all agreed to it, but before they could reach her Sonata simply smiled at them and walked through the shimmering side of the ruined statue base. The moment Sonata disappeared, and left this world behind, Aria and Adagio considered letting her make the journey alone, so she could understand the consequences of her actions, but then they decided not to do that. Aria growled as she charged into the portal and followed after Sonata, leaving Adagio alone for a few seconds... where she was glad that there was no one around to see them disappear like this, despite the fact that the entirety of Canterlot High School knew about magic at this point in time.

"God dammit Sonata," Adagio said, though that was followed by her steeling herself as she walked through the portal as well, allowing it to take her to whatever world her sisters happened to be traveling to.





When Adagio stepped out of the portal and touched the ground that was in front of her, which meant that she had found whatever would the portal had been connected to, she immediately noticed two things as she looked around her, one that made her annoyed and one that made her a little bit happy. She was happy to find that Aria and Sonata were unharmed, and that they had all been sent to the same world, though she could tell that Sonata was confused while Aria looked pissed off. Adagio could understand that feeling quite well, because the area they happened to be standing in was an alleyway that looked like one they walked by when they were walking towards Canterlot High School, only it looked less colorful than what they were used to.

All of this told Adagio that they had walked through the portal, risked being separated from each other in the process, only to find a world that resembled the one they had just left... only it looked more realistic than what all three of them were actually used to.

"Well this is a fine pickle you've gotten us in Sonata," Aria said, though she was definitely angry with Sonata, if her tone and her voice were anything to go by, while at the same time she waved a hand out towards the area they were in, "We're in a world that looks almost like the one we just left, only this time I barely feel any sort of magic... we've finally come to a place where magic is nonexistent."

"I wouldn't say that," Sonata replied, to which she pointed up at the top of her head for a moment, where Adagio and Aria noticed that her ears had been replaced by pony ears, like what they had when they transformed during the Battle of the Bands, "and it looks like we also get tails to match our hair..."

"...and hooves as well." Aria stated, though while she could see that they all now possessed pony ears, all colored to match their bodies, and possessed pony tails, matching their hair colors and individual styles, she was surprised to find that their feet had been transformed into hooves.

"What are we, pony girls?" Adagio inquired, though at the same time she noticed that their old shoes had been transformed to fit perfectly over their new hooves and legs, but she was surprised to find that the three of them looked like they were a cross breed between a human girl and a pony.

One of the interesting things that Adagio noticed was that there was some sort of magic in the air, something that she couldn't quite put her finger on, but at the same time she remembered that they had passed through a magical portal and turned around so she could stare at it... only to find herself staring at a flat wall that had no portal attached to it, meaning that they were stuck in this world until Discord bothered to save them.

"Great, now we're stuck here for the foreseeable future." Aria complained, as she was already sick of this world and wanted nothing to do with it, though at the same time she growled, as she knew that the three of them needed to figure out a way home before something bad happened to them, "So, any bright ideas on how we're going to force open the portal between worlds and head home?"

"I don't know," Sonata admitted, as she honestly hadn't been expecting this to happen when they walked through the portal, though that was before she spotted that they were standing near a street that had some traffic, but what caught her attention was the young man that happened to be standing in front of a bike and was holding a package, "I wonder what that man is doing with that package..."

Adagio wasn't surprised to find that Sonata wasn't paying attention to what she had done to them, where she silently wished that Sonata could be more serious about things, before she decided that it couldn't hurt to see who had claimed her sister's attention at the moment. The man was wearing a leather jacket with pants, which had a stripe on the right leg that formed a small design on his knee that she had never seen before, along with a sling bag that was resting against his back with a single strap resting on one of his soldiers. The man had a shaved head with a light stubble beard, though Adagio could tell that the man had to be annoyed about something, as at the moment he was talking on his phone and was glancing at the package every now and then.

She watched as the man seemed to calm down, likely because whoever he had been walking to had done something that he liked, before he closed his phone and returned it to the strap that crossed in front of his chest... though that was followed by the package being opened and a bright light emitted from it.

The next thing Adagio knew she was lying on her back, in a large amount of pain no less, and she found it to be incredibly difficult to even move at the moment, but she somehow found the strength to lift her head from where it was resting and forced open her eyes. What she found, however, was that she and her sisters, who were laying on their sides at the moment, also appeared to be in pain and that their clothing was slightly damaged by whatever had just happened, though she was convinced that it was some sort of blast. Sure enough her suspicions were confirmed, as the moment she took in their surroundings she noticed that the three of them were resting on the edge of a large crater, though in the middle of the crater rested a lone pillar... where the man that Sonata was staring at earlier happened to be resting.

One thing that caught Adagio off guard, however, was that everyone that had been in the area around the man, along with their vehicles, had been destroyed in whatever blast that had knocked the three of them onto their backs... though there was no sign of any bodies or charred cars, indicating that they had to have been vaporized.

"S... Sonata," Adagio moaned, though she grunted through the pain her body was in as she picked herself up from where she was resting and carefully walked over to her sister, where she gently shook her and mentally sighed as she noticed that Sonata was still breathing, "Come on... it's time to wake up!"

"Bu... But I don't feel... like it Adagio," Sonata replied, though she also moaned as she forced open her eyes and carefully moved into a sitting position, one that allowed her to stare out at the destruction that rested around them, "Wh... What happened?"

"No idea..." Adagio said, though even as she spoke she looked out at the ruined area and noticed that the building that looked like a parking garage of sorts had a good chunk of it missing, while several of the buildings were ruined in the same manner, leaving her to wonder what had happened as she shuffled over to Aria and repeated the process.

"Why... does it feel... like something ran... me over?" Aria asked, though she also struggled to get back onto her hooves the first time around, as she was feeling the same amount of pain that her sisters were feeling, but in the end she was able to stand like Adagio and Sonata were, even if they were a little hunched over at the moment.

Once again Adagio had no answer for what was going on, though one thing was clear in her mind and that was that they needed to get out of here, which was going to be hard considering that some parts of the crater happened to be on fire and there were other sections that weren't suitable for crossing. As far as she could tell there was only one real path for them to take and that meant getting close to the middle of the crater, which also meant she and the others could save whoever was in the middle of the blast so they could ask him some questions later. Adagio bit back a moan as she pushed herself forward, where she heard the sounds of Aria and Sonata silently following her as the three of them approached the stone pillar the man was resting on.

It took them some time to reach the pillar that they had been heading towards, though when they reached it they carefully helped each other onto the top of it and approached the man, where they carefully shook him awake... where it took him a few seconds to realize that someone was near him before he forced his eyes open and stared up at them.

"Who...?" the man started to ask, though that was before he noticed how much pain his body was in and groaned, to which Adagio mentally sighed as she and Aria carefully knelt beside him so they could help him up.

"I'm Adagio," Adagio replied, answering the man's unspoken question, which had been easy for her to figure out in a few seconds, though when the man nodded she shook her head towards Aria and Sonata, giving the man a few seconds to look at them before naming them, "Aria... and Sonata... my sisters."

"Cole..." the man stated, though he had to cough for a few seconds, to which Adagio and her sisters nodded, as they understood what he was trying to tell them and didn't pester him for more information, especially since all four of them were wounded from that blast, "What... the hell happened?"

"No idea," Adagio answered, though at the same time she honestly wondered how many times she was going to repeat that statement before she and her sisters were safe, because she had said it twice and thought the same thing a third time in the span of a few minutes.

"Oh god..." Cole commented, as he was finally looking passed the sisters and was seeing the destruction for the first time, though his reaction told the trio that this was the first time he had ever seen anything on this scale before.

"There's a group of people down there!" a voice called out in excitement, to which the four of them turned their heads and noticed that there was a helicopter hovering nearby, meaning that someone had taken an interest in the blast and had come to investigate, "Hey, wave up here if you can hear me!"

Since there was little they could do at the moment, and the only other option was to walk out of this place while avoiding the dangers that had been created, the four of them glanced up at the helicopter and waved their hands, while at the same time Adagio hoped that someone would rescue all of them.

"If you can walk, get out of there," the pilot called out to them, to which Adagio's hope for rescue shattered, because now they were back to the plan that she really didn't want to use because of the pain that their bodies were in at the moment, where she sighed and waited for further instructions, "head for the bridge!"

That was immediately followed by the pilot noticing someone in the parking garage, where he called out to them and told them that they should get out of the building since it was in the process of collapsing, though at the same time the pilot flew off and left the group to their own devices. Now that they only had one option available to them at the moment, which was entirely stupid in Adagio's mind, the four of them walked down the path that happened to be in front of the pillar, causing all three sisters to moan because of their wasted energy, and walked as fast as their aching bodies would allow. As they followed the clear path in front of them, which hadn't been charred by the explosion, they had to avoid several pipes that suddenly burst and spewed fire into the air... while at the same time watching bits and pieces of structure's falling as they painstakingly pushed themselves into a soft sprint.

Along the way Cole's phone, which had miraculously survived whatever explosion that had torn this entire place apart, starting ringing, to which Cole groaned as he removed his arm from around Aria's neck and clicked a button, which was the one to accept whatever call was coming in.

"Cole! Cole, man, you there?" a male voice said, which was definitely coming from the phone, to which Adagio wondered who was even calling Cole at a time like this, "C'mon man, pick up!"

"Z... Zeke?" Cole asked in return, which meant that he was shocked to hear whoever was on the other side, though at the same time he carefully removed his hand from Adagio's neck as well, indicating that, while he appreciated their gesture, they would all be better suited by running without carrying someone, "What the hell is going on? I think there was an explosion..."

"No shit there was an explosion!" the man on the other side, Zeke, exclaimed, though something told the sisters that Cole and Zeke were at least friends, though they would have to wait and see if they were right, "TV says terrorists are blowing stuff up all over the city. Meet me at Fremont Bridge. We'll get Trish and find someplace to hunker down."

Cole nodded, despite the fact that Zeke couldn't see what was going on, and hung up, though that was when he noticed that they had come to a gap and that they needed to jump over it, where they would have to land on the top of a charred car that he barely recognized. Cole grunted as he pushed his body, where he ran forward and leaped into the air, though not a few seconds later he safely landed on the top of the car and turned around, no doubt making sure that it was safe for Adagio and the others. Sonata was the first of the sisters to jump over the gap, where she landed beside Cole and moved out of the way so her sisters could land, though all three of them managed to, somehow, jump the gap without hurting themselves more than they already were.

Adagio also noticed that, thanks to the dire situation that they were in, she and her sisters had quickly adapted to using hooves instead of normal feet, though something told her that the three of them would need some practice once they got out of this ruined place.

From there the sisters followed Cole up the patch of cement that had been lifted into the air, forcing them all to climb onto the back of another car so they could enter the dangerous parking garage, but when they walked forward the sisters jumped back as Cole was electrocuted by what appeared to be a busted power source of some kind. What surprised the sisters, and Cole himself, was that when the electricity faded away Cole appeared to be fine, while at the same time he actually seemed a tad bit healthier than he had been moments ago. Even Cole admitted that he should be dead at the moment, due to the sheer amount of electricity that had passed through his body, though he was definitely happy to be alive... to which they moved with all the haste they could muster.

As they walked, however, several sections of the ceiling collapsed and dropped cars down onto the floor, where they exploded upon impact, though that didn't stop Cole from making sure that they knew the way out of the parking garage, even though the walkway he intended on using shattered and fell to the floor beneath them. With the walkway taken out of the picture he climbed onto a large circular column that had fallen and started running across it, where the sisters watched as he jumped the gap and crossed over to the other side of the parking garage. The sisters gulped and took turns running across the column pieces that were in front of them, though they did so carefully since they had never done anything like this before... to which Cole praised them a little when they were all together again.

Cole then led them to a section of the parking garage where a portable generator happened to be resting, though a busted power line sent some power into Cole's body, where it gathered for a few seconds before he released it, destroying the cars in front of him and causing some electrical pieces to explode... while at the same time creating a path for them to walk down to the level below them.

As the four of them carefully walked down the walkway that Cole had created for them, while surprising all of them in the process, they noticed that the helicopter was flying overhead once more and was addressing everyone that it could, saying that everyone that was able to walk should evacuate to the Neon. Adagio and her sisters had no idea what that meant, but since Cole seemed to know what to do the three of them decided to trust their new companion and followed his lead as he walked towards the large metallic bridge that was close to where they were standing. At the same time, however, Adagio realized that the seemingly ordinary person that Sonata had been staring at earlier had developed powers all of a sudden... to which she wondered if it was possible for her and her sisters to do the same thing at some point.

While that thought crossed her mind, however, she noticed that there was some sort of white aura resting around her right hand, though as she looked at her sisters it didn't take her long to find that they had the same thing that she did, making her wonder if they might have actually awoken some of their old powers by stepping through the portal.

Oddly enough their auras only seemed to grow, little by little anyway, as they followed Cole towards the large bridge, where they noticed a police presence that was clearly making sure that the injured civilians were being taken someplace safe so their wounds could be looked at and taken care of before drastic measures had to be taken. When they walked by the ambulance, however, the sisters noticed that the name Empire City was written on the side of the vehicle, which really didn't tell them much at the moment and they figured they could ask someone about it later. Adagio was also pleased to find that no one was even looking at her and her sisters, as she was sure that their new forms would have attracted attention had that explosion not gone off when it did... though, oddly enough, she silently mourned the people that had been killed in the blast, even though she and her sisters had no idea who any of them were to begin with.

When they neared the cops that were standing outside their cars, however, they spotted Cole's friend Zeke, who was a slightly chubby man who was wearing sunglasses over his eyes, calling for Cole and his friends to come with him... though when they walked away from the group of cops more electricity lashed out and empowered Cole, while at the same time the sky seemed to rumble above their heads as Cole struggled with his powers. That was followed by bolts of lightning being called down from the sky, striking everything and everyone that was around Cole, though at the same time the sisters found that their auras had appeared in full force and surrounded each of their bodies. Adagio and her sisters watched as the cops that were around them were blasted away with the force of the lightning that Cole's power was pulling down on them, if his power was even behind this, while finding that their strange auras seemed to be protecting them at the moment.

The moment the lightning started falling, and people went flying through the air, Zeke called for Cole and the sisters to come towards him, while at the same time urging them to get away from the 'terrorists', to which the group headed in the direction that Zeke wanted them to go in... where they watched as the lightning blasted cops, their cars, and even the helicopter as they walked across the ruined bridge. While they quickly made their way across the bridge, however, Adagio and her sisters each felt the power of their auras also working against them, as it was draining whatever power was inside their bodies to fuel the protection from the lightning. Adagio still wasn't sure what sort of power she and her sisters had unlocked, but whatever it was had pretty much saved their lives from being fried by the lightning and she was grateful that the three of them had gotten the power when they did.

When the four of them reached the end of the bridge, where Zeke was standing with a lady that had to be Trish, Cole let a smile appear on his face before he collapsed on the ground in front of them... to which Adagio and her sisters chuckled as their auras disappeared and they joined Cole on the ground, where they allowed their exhaustion to claim them and silently drifted off into whatever dreams awaited them.