Dawn was just breaking as the train rounded a sharp bend in the hills, and the sunlight spilling forth from behind the thin clouds gleamed brilliantly on a forest of glass and chrome thus revealed. Manehattan, a city seeming to rise fully-formed from the sea, was spread out before the passengers in all its glory, bustling with life and energy even at this distance. Tiny specks of people swarmed about the streets restlessly, animating the scene. Gazing out the window of the almost-deserted car, Adagio Dazzle allowed herself a small smile. She’d never been one to put much faith in omens—she preferred to make her own fate—but the sight of a new city filled her with a sense of something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It felt like anticipation, edged with nervousness, and it made Adagio uncomfortable somehow.
At her shoulders, the others stirred in their seats, shifting around in their sleep. It had been a long night, and the sirens had fallen asleep in their seats mere minutes after turning in their tickets and finding the uncomfortable plastic chairs filling the rows. There were few other passengers this far in the back, and for the moment, the other sirens were unusually tolerable by virtue of not opening their mouths. It was not to last, though.
“Dagi?” mumbled Aria, rubbing at her eyes, then wincing when her hand touched the bruise. “What are we doing…oh. Right.” She settled into a sulk, slumping down in her seat and casting a spiteful glance out the window at their prospective new home. “I can’t believe you’re going to drag us into an even bigger pit of them. Ugh, it’s like being at a buffet and not getting to take anything!” She absently wrung her hair with one hand. “This wouldn’t have happened if we’d just stuck with my idea.”
“Oh, you had a plan, did you? Fascinating! It looked to me like your idea was just to criticize my leadership, but maybe that’s just my years of experience talking.” Adagio’s voice was chilly, a warning tone she’d used many times before. One had to keep one’s underlings in their place, after all, particularly ones that were completely useless. Before she could do more than raise a finger to further chastise her grumpy cohort, however, the train’s public address system crackled to life.
“Next stop, Central Terminal, Manehattan,” announced the tinny voice from the front as the train pulled into a particularly sharp curve to arc onto a massive brick bridge. It was also just that moment that Sonata Dusk chose to blink fully awake and sit up in her seat, resulting in her being tossed from her seat onto the train floor, one sneakered foot dangled over the seat.
“Oww! This is hard…and I think I have gum in my hair…and good morning.”
With no baggage, the Dazzlings made their way out of the train in a hurry, but what they saw stepping into the morning sunlight took them rather longer to process. They were standing in a cavernous hall of gleaming marble and wrought iron, and around them colors flashed as hundreds, perhaps even thousands of humans went about their business in brusque, efficient fashion as though they all had somewhere very important to be right now, paying no heed to the three young girls standing hesitantly to one side. After nearly being run over by a luggage porter, the trio wandered into the central part of the station.
“This is…bigger than I expected,” Aria said with a trace of uneasiness. “I mean, it’s not like I’m afraid of them or anything, of course. I just, well, every time we’ve been in a crowd this size before, we just made them argue and took their negative energy. We haven’t been in one this big, either, not since…how long have we been here?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Adagio put her hands on her hips, trying to look more confident than she felt. “Don’t worry, girls. We may not have Equestrian magic anymore, but we’re still leagues ahead of anything this world can throw at us on its own. We just have to get an advantage, and they’ll never see us coming.”
“Oh, wowzers! It’s us!”
The two rounded on Sonata Dusk, before following her wide, excited gaze and finger stabbed towards the entrance. Mounted above the doorway was an enormous marble frieze of an old human man reclining on a wave, surrounded by scantily clad young women, horses, and—there. Beside the horses, half in the background, were a shockingly familiar grouping of equine forms merged with piscine tails, their mouths open wide in excitement.
It took a moment, but Adagio was the first to speak again. “Coincidence. Don’t pay it any mind. Let’s not forget our first priority: finding somewhere to stay and a place to keep watch for any signs of the Rainbuffoons or our extra-special purple friend. Let’s go. There’s bound to be a place for us in a city as big as this one. Let’s go.”
“I’m prettier than that, though,” Sonata decided as they headed to the exit.
* * *
The first thing that hit them when they stepped outside was the noise. Almost a solid wall of sound struck their ears: endless car horns, the babel of the crowds, a dull roar from construction equipment nearby, street vendors and pamphleteers and doomsday prophets all eagerly screaming their appeals to anyone who would listen and many who wouldn’t. The street was a riot of color, as well, people of all hues rushing past each other and past enormous neon signs and electronic billboards that blinked on and off in an urgent appeal for information. The second was the sense that they were being penned in. Looming overhead to all sides were enormous geometric towers with austere facades and glossy black sides. The one nearest them seemed to be held up by nothing more than a few spindly pillars. There had to be a better place to think, and the three moved as if by impulse to get away from their current location.
A flash of yellow and another blaring horn were all the warning they had to jump back before a taxicab painted with bright checkerboard stripes pulled up at the light in front of while they were crossing the street. “Hey!” Aria petulantly gave it a kick before moving on. “I was walking there! Did you not see me? Ugh. People in this world are so obnoxious.” She elbowed her way through the crowd, shoving aside a shabby-looking man in an overcoat holding a sign asking for aid.
Mercifully, they hadn’t gone far before they came to a park, a small patch of green before a public library. Sitting down at some benches, the girls were just considering what to do about their situation, and which if any of the many signs advertising free rooms in cramped-looking buildings to respond to, when Adagio noticed someone approaching out of the corner of her eye. A pale man with hair slicked back, he wore a baseball cap that didn’t quite hide a widow’s peak.
“Morning, girls! Couldn’t help but notice you coming from the train station.” He leaned closer to them, confidentially. “I can improve your stay in Manehattan, you know. Got some real prime tickets, sold out shows, nice and cheap…“
“Oh! I know! Can you give us some magic ne—“
Adagio once again silenced Sonata with a glare, stood, and drew herself up to her full height—which, to her irritation, was a full head shorter than the salesman (of some sort, at least). It was a minor humiliation that they suffered daily, no longer towering above the puny mortal inhabitants, now compounded by…well, she wouldn’t think about that just yet. She glared at him.
“The only thing we want now is a place to stay, and unless you’ve got one under that tacky shirt, I’d suggest you buzz off and bother some more ignorant fool with your sales pitches. You got it?”
Much to her surprise, the man was not at all intimidated, and he chuckled, lightly pushing her away with one hand. “Sure thing, little girl, I getcha. Savvy customer and all that. Come on back when you need to see some shows. But for now, shouldn’t you kids be getting to school? Wouldn’t want the cops to be after ya!” He actually strutted off the way they’d come, making a little pistol gesture and clicking his tongue.
After a moment, Sonata gave a little wave, tilted her head to the side in that way of hers that meant she was thinking, and pondered for a moment. “…Maybe he had a point? I-I mean, somebody at school could tell us where to go.”
“That’s a terrible idea, Sonata,” snapped Aria, rounding on her. “I mean, after what happened last time, why would you ever want to go back to a place like that!?”
“She may be onto something,” admitted Adagio, pulling them up from their tables and sighing. “Besides, much as I don’t relish it, if there’s any way at all we can still feel negative energy, where better than among teenagers? With or without our…our special talents, we’ll still have the whole school eating out of our hand within the week.”
* * *
As it turned out, they didn’t have to go even that far to find negativity. Once they had finally managed to hail a cab, after being ignored, choking on exhaust, and splashed by puddles as the taxis rounded a corner, the Dazzlings had sat in a traffic jam for almost half an hour, listening to the driver argue with someone on the other end of the phone, then fled in a hurry when he began to yell at them once they handed over payment. Maybe there really was something wrong with this world, and they had never noticed it before. It was easy to be confident when you could bend others to your will, but now…well. Their ride had brought them here, to this squat brick building so different from Canterlot High that they had to check the sign again to confirm that yes, this was Faust High School, somewhere in the middle of the city—trying to follow the map had just gotten the sirens confused. Apparently school was just in session, judging by the bell, but rather than the introduction they had gotten at their former school, few of the teenagers paid them any attention other than a quick glance and a few whispers. They clung to their cliques as usual, though: here large guys in jerseys, there a haggard group of intelligent-looking, book-toting youngsters, over there three girls in designer clothes surrounding a short girl with dark skin and red hair. A passing teacher had hustled the sirens to the principal’s office as soon as they stepped inside, much to their surprise—they had expected simply to walk in and begin attending class.
Ms. Moral Model, principal, tapped her fingertips together pensively and stared at the three young girls shifting nervously in their seats in front of her. She eyed their bruises and scratches with alarm she didn’t let show. They were clearly new in town, and their story deserved following up on.
“So. Adagio. You and your sisters are going to be staying here with your aunt and uncle?” The yellow girl nodded. Gently steering away Sonata Dusk’s hand from the clacking ball toy on her desk, the principal made a few notes in her book, and added a memo to herself on her computer. “Well, I know it’s going to be a tough time fitting in a new place like this, and it might be overwhelming, but we’ll do our best to make it easy on you. Where do you think you are academically?”
Adagio had let her mind wander during the principal’s platitudes and dull, clichéd lectures on fitting in. Blah, blah, friendship, why did nobody ever shut up about it in this world or the other? She wasn’t staying with the other sirens out of friendship, it was just…it seemed necessary.
Either way, Aria preempted her by leaning forward and huffing, “A lot smarter than anyone else our age, obviously.” She tossed her head back imperiously.
“Yes. Well.” Ms. Model sighed gently. “I’ll have a couple of volunteers show you around the school, and if you need anything, don’t be afraid to ask them, or me. Okay?” When they nodded obediently if reluctantly, she let them go. Turning to Adagio, Aria muttered, “Here we go again. Let’s just get this over with.”
“Indeed.”
“I just hope they have Taco Tuesday,” sighed Sonata, as they stepped out into what seemed to be their new life.