Talent was a funny thing.

If someone was good at something, it wasn't weird to think that was the only thing they'd be good at, like there was a limit on how great one person could be. It wasn't true, at least, in the sense that some people weren't worthless when they couldn't do what they were known best for. People could do a lot of things, and with practice they could do whatever they set their-

Ugh, I'm starting to feel like I've been listening to these dorks for too long.

Aria Blaze silently shook her head, careful not to let her ponytails dangle over the side of the roof by the side of the school building where either of the Rainbooms on the bench below might see them. Adagio would probably flip if she heard she'd been caught spying on them, after all, with how much had been going wrong lately. Luckily, that wouldn't be a problem, because Aria had a knack for going unnoticed when she wanted to. Wearing her hoodie might have made concealment a little easier, but it was getting too damn hot out.

"Do you ever get homesick, Sunny?"

Sunset Shimmer smiled a little. "Not really, Pinkie, there's nothing for me back home."

Aria felt a familiar weight in the back of her head, like a load of bricks on her patience. Urg, personal lives again!

"Are you sure?" Pinkie asked, "You could pop back any time with the portal open."

Her eyes shot open. Wait, what?!

Sunset shook her head. "I'm happy here, but if there's ever another problem, I guess that would be faster than waiting with the book again."

Pinkie giggled. "I guess I can kinda see why you're not in a big hurry, just sticking my face through the statue out front was weeeeeird!"

Aria dared lean over the edge of the roof just slightly, thankful that the angle of the sun wouldn't be projecting her shadow where they could see.

Sunset smiled a little wider, amused. "If you think that was weird, imagine turning into a creature you've never heard of when you were all the way through." She glanced away, her grin growing rigid as she spoke softly. "Something I've got a bit more experience wi-" She was cut off by Pinkie doing that friendly arm-wrap-around grapple thing humans do, Sunset hesitantly returning it.

As they muttered about apologies and acceptance and letting go or something she really didn't want to hear again, Aria slipped away to the staircase she'd gotten up here with. She finally had something to tell Adagio.

The lead Dazzling didn't look hopeful as she leaned against a pillar under the bleachers out by the football field, their regular spot this last week. "Business as usual, Aria?" Having her spy on the girls that destroyed their gems didn't sound like a great plan to begin with, but right now it was all they had. "Magic of friendship this, joys of being together that, all amid absurd hijinks that nobody bats an eye at?"

For once, she didn't have to complain about overhearing the Rainbooms' stupid, boring banter or not caring about their stupid, boring daily struggles, even if the three of them had gotten a little amusement out of mocking those things. She smiled, even Sonata getting up from drawing circles in the dirt with a fingertip as if she sensed that something important had happened. "They say there's a portal, open all the time."

It was rare to see Adagio really surprised, but something in Aria cherished the wide-eyed shock. "What?"

The twin-tailed siren nodded, putting her hands on her hips. "They said it was in the statue in front of the building. That might even be where Twilight Sparkle came from when she started all this."

Sonata clasped her hands together, starting to smile. "Like, does that mean we can go back? Back to Equestria?"

She shrugged a little. "Where else would it go? I mean-"

They were cut off by the sound of Adagio's slow-building, slightly creepy laughter. As many times as they'd worried about Sonata giving them away, Aria had always thought that laugh was the biggest signal for 'we're definitely bad guys.'

Their occasionally scary leader flashed a familiar, malevolent smile. "We move at night." She sashayed across the floor, looking more pleased than she had in days. "It won't do if someone sees us trying to access the portal, and nobody will know where we've gone by daybreak."

Aria couldn't help raising an eyebrow and crossing her arms, her face doubtful. "Are we really just gonna assume it's true? What if-"

The sinister smirk hadn't dissipated. "What if they knew you were there and felt like toying with us? Are you telling me you're not as good at staying camouflaged as you say?"

She gritted her teeth. "No, I just-"

Adagio stepped closer to touch a finger to her angry back-up singer's lips. "Relax. Even if it isn't true, we have nothing to lose." She glanced to Sonata, who looked like she was struggling to decide whether she was nervous or excited about all this. "Be ready."

10:00 p.m.

The school was closed and everyone had gone home. Now was their chance. The trio furtively approached the statue, caution not entirely related to the possibility of being caught coloring their movements. Adagio stopped in front of the statue, motioning for Aria and Sonata to check the sides while she tried to riddle out how a statue might function as a magical doorway.

Was it always here? Could we really have come back at any time?

Part of her didn't want to believe that, if only because it would mean they'd spent the last several months in this miserable little world looking very foolish. It didn't matter how she worded it in her head, that there was a doorway home here the whole time made her feel like an imbecile, whether she'd had any way of knowing about it or not. Regardless, they'd have their revenge on that wretched pony wizard, but first, the portal!

Do you have to use a spell on it? Is the figure atop the pedestal related somehow? Perhaps there's a mechanism or-

"Hey guys," called Sonata from behind the opposite end, "I can fit my whole head through here! Oh, and there's this place on the other side!"

She resisted the urge to facepalm, instead running around to see Sonata's lower half sticking out of the stone, a thin ring of ethereal light circling her waist. Ordinarily, ordering Aria to pull her back would have been Adagio's first instinct, but part of her feared that if they were to try it, all they'd get of her was the waist-down. Somehow. Just looking at half a person was proving to be somewhat nauseating, so it might have been good fortune that Aria showed her usual degree of patience, delivering a swift kick to Sonata's hindquarters to push her through the portal entirely.

Chuckling, she turned to Adagio. "Always wanted to do that. We goin' or what?"

Replying with a curt nod, she steeled herself as best she could and leapt straight at the flat, stone base of the statue, thankfully not breaking any bones as the world exploded into light. It couldn't have been longer than a fraction of a second, but in that time, there was nothing, and everything at once. The sensations of every sound she'd ever heard were rolled into a deep, bellowing howl assaulting her eardrums until she collided with something soft, something slightly less soft landing directly on top of her.

The area was dark, but it took only a few seconds to realize they were now a Dazzling dogpile, Aria having landed on Adagio, who landed on Sonata, who had been massaging her sore posterior. Not quite as bothered by the weight of the two of them, she turned with an annoyed expression on her face. "Heeey! Which one of you kicked my-..."

Growing wide-eyed, the three of them made the same realization at the same time: They were not great, scaly mer-horses as they once had once been. They were not in their old bodies. They were ponies.

To say this disturbed all three of them would be an understatement as they shared a short moment of screaming panic, Adagio being the first to use words. "Wh-what?! Why?! Why are we-what magic is-?!"

Aria rarely sounded so frightened, rapidly turning her head back and forth to look at her sides. "What are these things?! Get'em off me, get'emoffme!!"

Equally rare was a moment in which Adagio felt compelled to do more than shout one of her underlings into silence, trying to hold Aria still in her hooves (Aaaaagh!) long enough to remove whatever was stuck to her. "Hold still, I'll-" she felt the thing she was holding move on it's own, "oh stars, they're alive!"

"What," she practically shrieked, her legs shaking, "WHAT are alive?!"

Trying to pull them off only elicited pained cries from Aria. "I don't know, it's too dark in here to see!" She at last found a second in which to examine their surroundings, the dim glow of the... mirror? The strange collection of objects connected to what she guessed was this world's answer to the statue-portal was the only source of light in the room, but the way it glinted and glimmered off the outstandingly well-polished floors and walls suggested they may have been in the Crystal Empire. Shining walls or not, though, she couldn't make out what was attached to Aria.

Breathing heavily, terrified tears in the corners of her eyes, Aria managed to hold still long enough to stand at the best angle of light she could find to see what was stuck to her sides. It was then that she was aware that she could acutely feel these things, not unlike the sensation of having fingers had been... She willed them to move. They did. Holding up both, she could see that they were wings.

I'm a pegasus?!

She could see Adagio staring at her in surprise. That expression quickly became annoyance. "Aria. You're an idiot."

The retort came as her face burned red. "Sh-shut up, how was I supposed to know what they were?!"

Irritation and relief blended together into a pleasant apathy as Adagio looked around for Sonata. Luckily, her blue cohort hadn't wandered off, but was sitting in a nearby corner.

Her head down.

Silent.

Alarmed again, Adagio rapidly approached her. "Sonata, what's wrong?!"

Her ponytail (which looked a little weird on a pony, which already had a tail) shook along with her head as she banged it against the wall a few times, still facing away. "There's something stuck to my head!"

She put a hoof (Aaah!) on Sonata's shoulder. "Let me see."

Sonata turned around, her eyes wide and watery, a long spike sticking straight out of her forehead. "I'm a frea-hee-heek!"

Smirking a little, Adagio glanced back at Aria, who didn't seem any less embarrassed than a moment ago, turning away with a huff and an annoyed flap of her wings. "The polite term is 'unicorn'. It's a type of pony."

The blue filly's miserable expression faded immediately. "Oh. That's ok then!"

Quickly checking herself over, Adagio found that she had no abnormal protrusions, and would likely be the most inconspicuous of the three. Apart from her hair, which was about as full and fluffy as it had been on her human form, the bulk of it resting on her back and reaching to her almost-equally large tail. It was then that they heard clicking, clacking noises, like a collection of sharp little objects repeatedly impacting the floor. Getting louder. Closer. The lead siren quickly moved behind the portal's bulky machinery, directing her minions with a loud whisper.

"Someone's coming, hide!!" They followed her example nicely as the clacking noises, claws, she guessed, came to a stop.

"Uugh, Twilight?" The speaker was audibly tired, sounding like a young male. "What're you doin' in here?"

Silence held them by the throat for nearly a minute.

"Huh. Goodnight? I guess?"

The moment they heard what were probably departing foot(claw?)steps again, Adagio and Aria breathed a silent sigh of relief.

At least until Sonata spoke up. "Goodnight!"

Two hearts stopped along with the clacking claws. The young night sentry chuckled, suppressing a yawn. "Not even gonna ask, Pinkie. 'Night." The sound resumed, eventually dissipating.

Gingerly stepping out from behind the portal, Adagio formed a plan. Step one was to make time to berate Sonata later, or have Aria do it for her. "Alright," she said speaking quietly, "we have to get out of here. If the portal was her doing, we're most likely in Twilight Sparkle's fortress, and I don't need to tell you what happens if we're caught in here."

There was a short silence before Sonata tilted her head. "What?"

Adagio face-hoofed, recoiling in surprise to find hooves hurt a little more than hands did when applied quickly to the face. Making a mental note to be gentler with her expressions of frustration from now on, she waved the hoof she'd unintentionally punched herself with. "Let's move."

Keeping quiet and sticking to the shadows as often as possible, they followed Aria's lead in looking for the exit undetected. Luckily, there were signs posted in crude marker, complete with big, red arrows and designations. It was almost as if the residents didn't know their way around their own keep. Despite winding up on the roof somehow in the first twenty minutes, they eventually found what must have been the front door, cool night air flowing over them as they stepped out into the dark.

This, clearly, was not the Crystal Empire. Glancing back and forth between the shimmering, crystalline palace they'd just escaped and the common, thatch-roofed cottages, Aria was sure something was badly out of place here. "I don't get it," she muttered to the others, "where the hell are we?"

"Still too close to Twilight Sparkle's territory," answered Adagio, "we have to get far from here before we can begin rebuilding our power."

Sonata glanced around, uncertain. "Yea, but, where to? And how?"

Gritting her teeth, their brilliant leader had to utter a short collection of words that always made her feel like a failure. "I don't know. Perhaps if-wait!" She looked at Aria, who looked back at her like a deer in headlights. Making the mental note to purge human phrases and mannerisms from her behavior later, she smiled. "Aria, fly up and scan the surrounding area."

Aria gulped. Adagio might not have been aware of it herself, but her smiles almost always looked a little threatening. She wasn't really sure about being high off the ground, either. "Uh, I'm not sure that's the best ide-"

The puffy-maned earth pony raised an eyebrow. "You're a pegasus. In addition to the power of flight being a reasonably useful skill, don't you think it'd be suspicious if we had to tell peop-err, ponies, that you can't fly?"

Clenching her jaw, she had to agree. Good thing she wasn't afraid of heights. Just the painful part at the end of the fall. How hard could flying be, anyway? She flapped her wings once, then a few more times, willing herself to lift off the ground. She did. Wings beating faster, she started to levitate upwards, higher and higher, until the tops of the houses ceased to be the tallest things in her field of vision. (Twilight's stronghold was apparently a tower, she noticed) Looking around, all she could tell was that it was dark, and really hard to see anything. She knew better than to shout down to the others and risk giving their positions away, instead flying a little higher. She caught sight of a set of lights like those they'd seen on trains in the human world; a collection of lit windows with a big one at the front.

Huh. Did they have trains in Equestria...?

They'd only gotten fleeting glimpses of pony society while spreading their songs, but she didn't remember anything like that so many months ago.

Glancing down, she realized she'd flown higher than intended, the ground looking about a mile further away than it should have been.

Eeep!!

Her eyes snapped shut, along with her mouth to prevent an undignified scream, and, regrettably, her wings. She dropped like a rock.

Adagio and Sonata noticed immediately, calling out in unison. "ARIA!!" Both of them moved to catch her, Sonata's horn emitting sparks as their purple friend fell slightly slower, coming to a stop on Adagio's back, and consequently her fluffy mane. Barely grunting with the impact, Adagio turned her head to look at Aria. "What happened?! What did you see?!"

Realizing she was no longer at risk of a horrific splatter-death, she quickly hopped down, straightened her fur with a hoof, and immediately got tackled to the ground by a blue blur.

Sonata standing on top of her might have been a lot more annoying if not for the worried expression on her face. "She got shot down! They know we're here, and Aria got Rat-Tat-Tat'd out of the sky, just like in that movie about the guys in the metal birds!" Her concern turned to a contemplative look as she brushed a hoof against her chin. "What were those called, anyway?"

"I think," Aria deadpanned before steadily raising her voice, "they were called GET OFF ME, SONATA!!"

"Keep it down, you idiots," hissed Adagio, "low profile, remember?" She'd figured being sent to another world would, by itself, carry a risk of permanent psychological damage for all of them, but it looked like the worst they had to deal with was the ways in which Sonata might have been influenced by human entertainment. Acceptable losses. "Now," she said as Aria got to her hooves, "what did you see that made you lose wing control?"

"Uh, well..." Averting her eyes, she brushed the back of her head. "Th-there was a train?"

Adagio again looked considerably surprised. "A train? As in, those rectangular, mechanical transportation circuits they had in the other world? I can see where that would be surprising, but..." She raised an inquisitive eyebrow, silently asking another question, which was answered with an equally silent scowl. Adagio shrugged. "No matter, that should be the quickest means of making distance between us and Twilight's forces. Which way was it?"

The arrangement of the train station was uncanny. It looked just like those of the human world, but with pony passengers and operators, including the conductor; a blue-grey, black-maned stallion checking a gold pocket watch. Ignoring the few tired-looking late-night riders getting on or stepping off the platform, Adagio whispered to her cohorts as they approached the conductor. "Remember, they spoke differently in the other world, and we adapted accordingly," she grinned, feeling a tingle of nostalgia, "but now we return to familiar shores, and mine tongue has not forgotten it's roots."

Aria nodded, re-familiarizing herself with the old speech. "Art thou certain of this, Adagio?" She gestured vaguely in the direction of Twilight's Suspiciously Empty Fortress. "Mine recollection of the equine realm is surely askew, but when last we shadowed these lands, a search for two sights we've held this night would surely have been for naught."

She rolled her eyes. "Prithee, Aria, thinkest the power that tore our own asunder be of any less than the most potent Equestrian sorcery? No other magic but that of our world did we feast on in what was nearly our night of triumph, and by no other have we returned."

Aria shrugged, her uncertain expression suggesting she was just being cautious. The conductor waved to them with more energy than most would have at this hour. "Hey there, folks! Where're y'all headed?"

Blinking twice at the mostly unfamiliar dialect, Adagio shrugged it off. "Hail, operator. We seek to board thy vessel and sail over the horizon upon its steel tread."

He gave them a long stare. "Huh?"

She tried again, gesturing to the train. "Yonder machinery proves most suitable for travel, does it not? Mine followers and I would see it employed to such ends, were it permissible to thee."

He scratched his head with a hoof in a manner suggesting he had no idea what she was saying. "Are you guys like... actresses?"

Mildly confused, she glanced back at Aria and Sonata, who both looked equally unsure. She started to form a plan, smiling back at the conductor. "Ah, of course. We three are thespians of the utmost-"

Sonata raised a hoof. "Um, Dagi? Why are you talking funny? I can hardly understand a thing you're saying!"

Aria face-hoofed, figuring their ditziest member just hadn't been paying attention the last few minutes as Adagio froze. On some level, Adagio knew she should have made sure Sonata wasn't... Sonata, before trying this. She just piecing together how she'd punish Sonata for a plan ruined so soon when the conductor started to laugh.

"Hahaha! She must be the comic relief! That's important, ya'know, I've seen enough plays to know things can get real sour if there's nothing to break up the tension every now and then. You gals need a ride? It's five bits per ticket."

The ability to magically enlist anyone into doing one's bidding with but a held note was a very convenient kind of magic for day-to-day use. However, it meant never having much need for currency. Having been in Equestria again for at most an hour or so, the trio found themselves with neither to help them, as Adagio realized at exactly that moment. "I, er, w-we're, we have, uh, traveled far from our field of renown, and expenditure has proven... costly?" She smiled sheepishly, trying to work out where they could hide on a train as stowaways without anyone noticing.

He frowned. "Oh." Glancing around and seeing a grand total of zero ponies in the immediate area, he spoke quietly, a conspiratorial grin forming on his face. "Tell ya what, I'll let you guys on for free if you can get me a ticket to your next big show! Are you heading to Canterlot? Snazziest theaters in Equestria up that way."

Adagio smiled. "This seems agreeable, good sir. Let us be your patrons this night, and you may later be ours." They would probably need a source of money later, but lying cost nothing at all.

The conductor beamed. "Fantastic! I know it'll take a while before you're on stage, rehearsals and paperwork and set-up and all that, but when you do, just mail an invite to old All Aboard!" He stepped aside, letting them be seated in an otherwise empty train-car.

Finding themselves otherwise alone, the three spread out a little, each lying on different seats as fatigue of the evening's events caught up with them. When the train started to move, Adagio huffed. "What spellwork be at play that Equestria should employ the same speech as that of another plane?"

Aria shrugged. "Mayhap that they prefer a more succinct means to express their thoughts?"

She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. "To such a degree that the whole of their society has adapted it in under a year?"

"Well," came the reply as Aria lowered her head, as though expecting a hostile response, "'Tis something of a cumbrous tongue, Adagio..."

"Blasphemy!!"

Green-streaked twin-tails shook with a purple head. "I'm just saying, it's a lot easier to talk like they did in the other world. The way we used to talk is kinda... flowery, isn't it?"

Yellow cheeks tinted red and puffed out in annoyance. "Bite thy tongue! The words of a siren should hold all the majesty of their songs, not a thought spared for the idle convenience of-"

A blue hoof waved irritably at the two. "Hey! Can you guys keep it down? I'm tryin' to take a nap over here!"

Feeling a little drowsy herself, Aria didn't bother with a retort. Adagio huffed, more annoyed about having to abandon her preferred dialect for the second time than at Sonata's outburst.

I suppose it isn't as if we were born talking like that, it was something picked up from the first sapient lifeforms we encountered. But still!

Apart from the muffled noise of the wheels on the tracks, the train-car was silent for the next several minutes, the three sleepy sirens getting comfortable for the long ride. Adagio spoke quietly. "You two have done well, by the way."

Aria lifted her head, visibly surprised. "Huh?!"

Adagio nodded. "We infiltrated a powerful mage's quarters from within and escaped without so much as raising an alarm, doing the same with the town as a whole. You made use of unfamiliar appendages with no time to practice to spot the train where otherwise we may have wandered for hours in the dark." She smirked a little, looking over at Sonata, who laid facing the window. "Even you were of some use in convincing the conductor to let us ride, and free of charge at that." There was no reply from the unicorn sprawled out on the train seat, apart from a soft snore. The small smile didn't fade even as Adagio rolled her eyes.

Some level of her quiet amusement must have been contagious, as Aria chuckled, settling her head on her forehooves again and yawning. "All things considered, this is going pretty well so far. What's the plan from here?"

"For now? We wait. I'm forming a plan, but we need to know a bit about..." She blinked, glad Aria wasn't looking directly at her as her face tinted red. "Err, where did the conductor say we were going?" A short series of movements that might have been a shrug, might have been Aria getting more comfortable, was all the answer she got out of her newly winged companion, apparently asleep as well.

This was going to bug her now. The name of the place was on the tip of her tongue, an air of familiarity about it as she, too, drifted off to sleep.

Author's Notes:

Please assume any time Adagio grins, it's one of her sinister smirks or slasher smiles unless otherwise noted.