It was a complete disaster. The Dazzlings had finally returned to Equestria, only to be reduced to lower life forms once more. As Adagio had seen with the mirror that she had traveled through, she and the Dazzlings had transformed into ponies instead of their true siren forms.
After taking off the hood on her sweater, Adagio realized why she felt any magic at all. On her head was the one thing that allowed ponies to use magic: A unicorn horn. Sonata took off her sweater entirely to find the growth she felt, which turned out to have been a pair of pegasus wings, something that immediately amused her. Aria then took off her sweater to take a good look at herself, but was upset to find herself as an earth pony, meaning she couldn't use magic or fly.
As soon as Sonata noticed, she took advantage of it to mock Aria. "Well, I think we've established the necking order."
Ignore Sonata's stupidity. IGNORE IT! Adagio thought in a panic. "Okay girls, just...just shut up and calm down!"
Despite Adagio's orders, Aria didn't want to follow them. "Calm down? CALM DOWN!? WE'RE PONIES!!!"
With Aria's scream echoing throughout the Twilight's castle, it wouldn't make sense if it went unheard, especially since two others had went through the portal to Equestria right before the Dazzlings did. In fact, after Aria raised her voice, all three knew that they were in trouble.
"What was that?" Twilight's voiced ask from nearby.
"Your portal room, maybe?" Sunset suggested.
Responding to the noise quickly, Twilight and Sunset ran back into the room where the Dazzlings were. They quickly put their hoodies back up to keep their faces hidden, as the only way their situation could get any worse is if the enemy knew that they were back in Equestria. Even worse, the simple fact that Twilight was an alicorn meant that they were completely overpowered.
"What are you doing here, and what are you doing in my castle?" Twilight asked.
Sonata let out an excited gasp. "We're in a castle?"
"Sonata, please shut up for just ONE minute!" Aria ordered. "This is just great. We're here for sixty seconds, and we're already about to get banished again. Great idea, Adagio. Again!"
"Alright, like I said before, just try and calm down." Adagio said, though she was barely able to stay calm herself. A lot had happened in just a few moments and she was given a lot to think about in only a few moments. "I think I have a plan. Think you can follow my lead, Dumb and Dumber?"
With no other alternatives, neither Aria or Sonata argued with Adagio and nodded their heads in agreement.
Alright. Now let's see if I can actually pull this off.
As the Dazzlings stayed huddled, Twilight and Sunset began to approach them to get a better look at them. When the two got close, Adagio made her move. Even though she only had a horn for a few minutes, she started to cast magic with it. She waited until she felt that it was fully charged, and when it was...
"Take this!"
Open firing at Twilight and Sunset, Adagio fired a beam of orange magic directly at them, creating a small explosion. As a reflex, the two summoned a wall of magic to block the attack, but flinched regardless.
After the magic disappeared and the smoke cleared, Twilight and Sunset were glad to find that neither of were hurt. However, when it became clear, they found that the Dazzlings had disappeared. Their attackers had escaped.
"They must've jumped into the mirror!" Sunset said, worried about where they ran off to.
"We can't let them escape until we know who they are. let's go!"
In hot pursuit, the two ran back into the mirror to return to the human world, hoping that they would be able to find the mysterious three. Sadly, their chase would go in vein.
After Adagio attacked Twilight and Sunset, she had grabbed Aria and Sonata and hid behind the mirror and the equipment that was behind it, making it seem like they had escaped, when in truth. Adagio did not ever want to return to that world, so that was never an option for her. Fortunately, her decision was the smart choice.
"Wow, those two are stupid." Sonata ironically said. "Now we have a castle all to ourselves!"
With regret, Adagio had to disagree with Sonata. "For once, I like your way of thinking. But those two won't be fooled for long. We need to get out of here as quickly as possible."
"I say that we can take them. It's three against two." Aria argued.
"Good idea. We'll defeat them with the magic horn that you don't have." Adagio sarcastically said, which added insult to Aria's injury. "Now come on! We're just wasting time now."
With no time to lose, Aria and Sonata followed Adagio as she lead them out of the room, and eventually the castle. It wasn't exactly an easy feat. They had to avoid several other familiar ponies who were walking around, they got lost on more than one occasion, and at one point, they even found themselves back at the portal room. It was clear that they were having a terrible day already.
After some trial, error, and even more errors, progress was finally made. The three former sirens had finally left the castle. Right off the bat, they knew that Equestria had changed after taking a look at the castle they walked out of.
"Ugh. How ugly." Aria noted. "It looks like something those crystal ponies would make."
Right when I finally repressed my memories of those peaceful monsters. I'm glad that shadow guy got rid of them. Adagio thought angrily.
As they were given one more reason not to return to the castle, let alone the portal, the Dazzlings got themselves as far from the castle as possible in hopes that the three wouldn't be found and captured. Lucky for them, there was a nearby town for the three to hide in. For obvious reasons, the three only had one option of where they would go next.
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The Dazzlings recalled the last time that they were in Equestria. It was easy to cause chaos and hatred without even using magic. Pegasi were aggressive to those who lived on the land, unicorns were uptight to the less powerful, and earth ponies resented both for making them share their food, and this was all AFTER Celestia and Luna rose to power. In a way, Equestria was still very young.
That said, the Dazzlings almost thought they weren't even in Equestria. Not only were all race of ponies living with each other, but they all appeared very happy. Earth ponies gladly traded away their food, pegasi used their flight to help others, and unicorns treated others equally. It was sickening to Adagio. On top of all that, there was even a crystal pony walking around.
"We've been gone longer than I thought." Adagio said, who couldn't comprehend the fact that so much had changed.
"Really? I'm pretty sure we were only gone for a year or so." Sonata responded.
While Sonata's claim was accurate, it did trigger a thought in Aria's head. It concerned her so much, that she went and did something that made her feel like Sonata for a moment.
"Excuse me, sir?" Aria asked a nearby stallion. "I know this is a dumb question, but what year is it?"
"The year? 1005." The stallion answered.
"B.C, or A.D?"
"What are...uhh..AL, ma'am."
After giving a weird answer to a weird question, the stallion walked away while trying not to look back at Aria. It was probably for the best, because all three of them had shocked looks on their faces.
"Oh my gosh!" Sonata said in fear. "We went back in time!"
So close, Sonata. So close. Adagio thought. "Girls, the last time we were here, it had been a couple of years since Princess Luna was banished. So, if the year is 1005, if AL means After Luna, then..."
Aria then spoke up to finish Adagio's thought. "We're in the future. A thousand years in the future."
The world of Equestria had changed far more then they originally imagined. Since so much time had gone by, there would be nothing in the world that they'd be familiar with and any followers that they managed to gather would've been long gone. They had returned to a world where they had nothing left.
"Hey guys! Look at this!" Sonata called out.
As Sonata requested, the concerned Adagio and Aria walked over to see what Sonata found. In less than a second, the worried looks on their faces became annoyed ones. The only reason Sonata called them over was because she found a fast food restaurant, one that served her favourite food.
"Equestria has Taco Tuesdays too! I think we're in the future!"
Ugh...sweet mother of Hydia, why must her stomach be bigger than her brain?
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Since they were already at a place to get food, and the three had gotten hungry after their escape from Twilight's castle, they decided that they may as well try sit down and finally comprehend the new world with filled up stomachs. The idea of their first act back in Equestria is to eat was a bit of a embarrassment, but it did give them a chance to sit down and talk about their next plan of action.
On the other hand, the idea of arguing about the food was something Aria and Sonata found more interesting.
Sonata shivered with delight. "Human tacos or pony tacos, both are yummy for my tummy."
Aria, however, wasn't a fan of the hay burger she was eating. "Ew. If I knew I was never going to eat meat again, I would've had a real burger before coming here first."
"I'm just glad you stopped eating babies after we got banished. Those things were really bad for you."
Much to Adagio's disdain, she was the one who had to sit in between to and have both ears hear the pointless food-based conversation. "Okay, shut up you two! I think I've wrapped my head around everything, so pay attention!"
Curious to know what Adagio had to say, as well as getting bored of the talk they were having before, Aria and Sonata stopped talking and got their listening ears on.
"So as we already know, we somehow got sent to the future in addition to that alternate world. That must've been the work of that old wizard guy, because we certainly didn't notice that a thousand years past for us."
"Maybe it did and we're just stupid." Sonata suggested, prompting Aria to reach around and slap her in the back of the head. Sonata retaliated by stretching out her newly acquired wing and slapped Aria back.
"But...ow...but that doesn't explain why we're ponies and not sirens."
"That must've been the work of Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer." Adagio theorized. "That giant pony god thing must've done more than just break our pendants. It made us normal teenage girls there, and now we're normal mares here. It's like they thought two steps ahead to stop us."
Then, Sonata asked her first good question. "So how will this affect us now."
Adagio had to think about that. She thought carefully about how the three of them got into the situation they were in, but now that she was actually back in Equestria, she wasn't sure what to do next.
Let me think. I know I now have my singing voice back, and since I'm now a unicorn, I can use magic. At least this means I'm still the most powerful of us three. The problem though is that we can't control people...or ponies anymore. Surely there's still some way to do what I want them to do. Maybe I can overpower them, or...
"Excuse me."
"AAAHH!!!" Adagio screamed, startled by the waitress who interrupted her thinking process. "Oh, Sorry. What is it?"
"Is there anything else you girls want?"
"Uhh...no thank you. Just the bill."
As requested, the waitress passed the bill to Adagio, then walked away to give her a moment. She still wasn't sure what the next step in her goal of world domination was, but for the time being, her next action had to be to pay the restaurant bill.
"Oh, wow. All that only costs eight...bits? What the heck is a bit?"
Sonata laughed at Adagio for asking that question. "And you two call me the dumb one. Bits are the money ponies use." She explained before finishing off her taco.
After Sonata's brief explanation, a worried look appeared on Adagio and Aria's face while Sonata obliviously ate her taco. In a sense of cruel irony, the Dazzlings had faced the exact same problem they had in the other world. They wanted the lack of actual power to be worth worrying about, but once again, it was finances that they were worrying about.
"Just another reason why this was a bad idea." Aria said. "Okay, I think I have an idea on how to get out of this."
"I have a better idea." Adagio claimed, even though she didn't give Aria a chance to explain herself. "Just follow my lead."
It took a lot of cunning, sneakiness, and some rather controversial methods, but with the best of their abilities, they managed to get out of the restaurant without having to worry about anything after words. With their stomachs filled up on food and had eased minds in their heads as they understood their position, they were ready to start their new lives in Equestria.
"Did I come through with you girls, or what?" Adagio asked.
Aria did not give her the answer she wanted. "Come through for us? All we did was dine and dash."
"Not me. I dine and flew!" Sonata said as she began to practice her flying. "Wait, does this mean I can't get tacos there anymore?"
Adagio shook her head, not caring about how the others felt. "Nevertheless, a minor setback is now out of our way. Unless of course you know of any other trivial matters we should deal with."
Acting as Mrs. Obvious, Aria flat-out stated what their next concern was. "A place to live?"
After finally becoming calm and composed, Aria took that away from Adagio in a heartbeat. Adagio may of had magic to use, two minions, and even lunch to give her energy, but without any shelter, all she really was was a homeless little pony. The apartment they used to live was still in the human world, but no such place was waiting for them in Equestria.
Once again, her dream of becoming a world conqueror was placed on the back burner, as they to start finding a place to sleep for the night..
"I hate you, Aria."