Beyond the borders

by rooks_fanfiction


Bonus Chapter 1

Teenagers are always hungry, this is a universal constantan, and one Aloysius Joe had intended to take full advantage when he opened Taco Joe’s. While it was up on the third floor, being directly across the street from Canterlot High provided it with a steady flow of customers. Not that his only customers were students of course, the offices on the other floors of the building also provided some customers, and most gratifyingly, there was a small, though steadily growing, list of regular customers whose origins he couldn’t identify.

“Yes,” the satisfied thought drifted through his mind as he scanned his shop. “It’s customers who come because of the quality of the tacos, not just because it’s convenient, who are really going to turn this place into a restaurant that can rival my dear brothers.”

His scanning paused as his gaze fell on the form of a girl with long blue and purple hair sitting at a window table and he smiled. “Yes, loyal customers exactly like her.”


Sonata Dusk stared out the window as she chewed happily on her fish taco. She loved this place, not only did it serve the best tacos in the city, it even gave her a perfect vantage from which to stare at Canterlot High, something she’s felt compelled to do more and more often of late. Things had changed since the battle of the bands, more for the other sirens than for her, but even she’d felt the effects. Not only was she unable to sing now, both Dagi and Aria had also expressly forbidden her from using any other type of magic, and she couldn’t remember the last time they’d been as serious as when they said it. Other than that, however, things did seem to be looking up. Not that it had seemed that way the first few days after their defeat.

During those first days, Aria and Dagi had ranted, swearing that they’d rip the hearts out of all the Rainbooms and eat them in front of their dying eyes. She’d been relieved when they’d given up on that, the last time they’d done that it hadn’t gone well. Big sunny hadn’t even seemed phased by the loss and consumption of her heart. In fact, all it had done was distract them all enough for her to shatter their shields and blast them entirely out of the Everfree valley. Also, she couldn’t help but think that being tracked down and banished by that bearded pony and the scary black mare with the draconic eyes a bare week after that might not have been a coincidence.

But then, starting about a week after their loss to the Rainbooms, she’d noticed her fellow sirens start to change. It hadn’t been a sudden thing, but slowly, gradually, Aria and Dagi had started becoming nicer. It was most pronounced in how they all treated each other, though they’d even started treating humans a little bit better. While watching T.V. she’d once heard the expression you are what you eat, at the time she’d assumed it only applied to humans, but now, with how much cutting negative emotional energy out of their diets had affected them, she was less certain.

She stared out the window, at the grounds of the school. It was deserted this late in the evening, but that hardly mattered to her, she simply stared at it while her mind strolled. It’s all because of Canterlot High and the Battle of the Bands. If we hadn’t-. Her thoughts about how their lives had changed came to a sudden halt as a figure with distinctive red and yellow hair pulled up in front of the school on a motorcycle. Dagi had told Aria and her about Anon-I-Miss, and about how the other students on Mystable had been reacting. Dagi had been utterly unimpressed, and couldn’t believe people were really falling for such an obvious frame. Aria on the other hand had simply laughed and said everybody was always eager to believe the worst of others, and that Dagi had just been spoiled by their time in the court of the Medicis. Sonata couldn’t see how anyone could have gotten spoiled there, she’d been poisoned no less than forty-two time, and in one memorable week six people had ended up poisoning her a total of seven times.

Shaking the memories off, she looked back down at Sunset. The girl was looking around, clearly trying to find anyone who might be watching. Once she’d decided she was alone she began to push her motorcycle towards the portal statue. Stopping in front of it, she put one hand on it then shoved the motorcycle through. Taking one last look around, she followed it through, probably not seeing the little wave Sonata sent her way. Looking at the clock on one wall she sighed and took the last few bites of her taco, the martial arts class Aria’s was teaching would be ending soon and she’d grumble the entire way home if she had to wait for sonata to arrive. Leaving, she wished for the thousandth time that Dagi and Aria would reconsider the “Sonata isn’t allowed to drive anything” rule, these modern cars looked far easier to drive than that Zeppelin had turned out to be, and anyway, if video games were any sort guide it would be as fun to crash them into things as it would be to simply drive them.


“Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!” Twilight barely managed not to hop around the park bench she’d been sitting on in pure joy as the readings on the device in her hand spiked again. She’d been at home when the sensors she kept in her bedroom had spiked the for the first time. While she’d assumed she’d have months before the next spike, that hadn’t stopped her from immediately using the new data to start finetuning her detectors. She almost couldn’t believe her eyes a couple of hours later when there was another spike of the strange energy. She’d spent a scant five minutes using the newest data to tweak her sensors before grabbing the portable sensor she’d cobbled up a couple of weeks ago and dashing to the park. She’d been ready to wait late into the night in the hope of another pulse, but this one had come even more quickly than the second. Standing up, she started to jog, if the reduction in time between the first and second, and second and third held true, she wouldn’t have much time to use the new data for finetuning. Looking down at the sensor still clutched in her hand, a wide grin spread across her face, even if there was no forth pulse she now had readings from two separate locations and, assuming the source was immobile, she should be able to use them to triangulate in on the source of these strange energy pulses.


Sonata hopped out of the car as they pulled up in front of the mansion. Rounding the car, Sonata waited for the moment Aria turned her head slightly as she closed the door, then launched herself into a tackle hug. Undeterred by Aria’s oof of impact, she hugged tightly and was rewarded with a brief moment where Aria’s shocked expression began to turn into a smile. The smile barely had time to form, however, before it morphed into a scowl. Hopping away, she turned and fled for the backyard, she’d been looking forward to a swim in the pond for the entire ride home. Looking over her shoulder for a moment, she smiled, Aria never looked quite as alive as when she was screaming curses and threatening bloody murder.

Rounding the corner of the mansion, she started towards the pond, then changed direction when she saw Dagi was out feeding her pets. Unlike Aria, Dagi had time to see her coming and braced herself, catching her with ease and returning the hug with a distinctly possessive one of her own.

“So, I take it you had a good time?”

“Yep, Taco joes makes the best tacos. Oh, and I saw Sunset Shimmer.”

The arms wrapped around her tightened and at the name and a hard note entered Dagi’s voice. “Oh, and where was this?”

“I saw her from the window of Taco Joes. She had this huge backpack on and the saddlebags of her motorcycle looked like they were stuffed full. She took the motorcycle with her through the portal.”

“I see, now that is interesting.”

Dagi’s voice trailed off, and after a few moments and Sonata started to try to wiggle out of Dagi’s grip, eager to get to the pond. For a few moments Dagi didn’t seem like she was going to let go, then she winced and did let go. As she skipped off towards the pond, she looked back for a moment to see what had distracted the eldest siren. A giggle escaped her when she saw that Dagi’s newest pet, the one who’s mane they’d dyed red and yellow, had a mouthful of her hair and seemed reluctant to release it.


Adagio Dazzle sighed in relief as she finally convinced the pony to open its mouth. Taking care of her ponies always helped her to relax, or at least it did when they didn’t try to eat her hair. An entire herd of ponies, completely reliant on her and desperate for her attention and the treats she might deign hand out. They might not look exactly like the ones from back home, but it was still enough to make her smile.

Sunset Shimmer. That name, and the memory Sonata’s words, threatened to destroy the calm she’d come out here to find. That genocidal barreleye fish is lucky she ran, I may have more important things to do now, but someday, those Rainbooms are going to pay. Her eyes shifted, and she saw a smiling sonata, splashing around in the pond. The sight brought another spike of grief and rage. Six hundred years. Six hundred years, that was how long the magic they still had inside them could sustain them if they couldn’t get any more, and that only if they never used magic again. It meant Aria couldn’t just heal the injuries she seemed to pick on a near daily basis. It meant Sonata couldn’t take on a water breathing form and truly swim, the way she’d always loved to. It meant when Sunset and the rest had broken their gems, they’d effectively killed them, killed the last three sirens in existence.

Adagio felt her jaw clench. No. No, you won’t let that happen Adagio, you won’t let them die. You’ve seen the machines these humans can make, they can pull energy from rivers, from the blowing wind, from sunlight itself. The ambient mana level in this world is abysmally low, but not zero, so it should be possible to make a machine to gather it. You have the fragments of your gem, you have several doctorates in both applied and theoretical magic, now if only you hadn’t always simply paid human specialists and ignored the concepts behind their technology, you might have some idea where to begin.