"If we're going to flip a coin," Spike replied "Then I guess we're going to get our little trouble maker here."

"Of course," Diamond Tiara replied "I'll send Spitfire the coordinates to Tartarus. Anyone you want to go with you?"

"Yeah. I'm sure Sunset's ready for this, and I'm going to need you."

"Ah! Knowing I'm a representative of FIST, this should make our deal a lot more easy, is that it?"

"...More or less."

"Good to know. I'll be ready, Commander. And, if you don't mind, we're going to have to take your bits away and add to our payment. Criminals aren't the cheapest to buy, especially if they're from a species that's nearly extinct."

"...Who are we getting, exactly?"

"You'll see."

After a good night's rest with a satisfying meal from Mrs. Cake (who'd figure rubbing cinnamon in roast beef would be so good?), Spitfire placed the Celestia into the docking bay, before she shut her eyes and went to sleep. Spike, Sunset Shimmer, and Diamond Tiara walked into the floating space station that was Tartarus.

Locations:

Tartarus is Equestria's jail for the most dangerous of criminals around the galaxy. The place is ran by an Artificial Intelligence, literally and figuratively, in a giant, three headed dog mech called "Cerberus". While Cerberus controls all the things needed to maintain the ship along with it's inmates, the security around are in charge of making sure Cerberus does it's job right and to provide extra security in case of a breakout. Due to a virus that ran in Cerberus, causing it to run away & have all of security deal with a prison riot, in which the famous Tirek managed to escape as his weakest, Security has increased ten-fold and Cerberus was tweaked with better upgrades & better control of itself. While access to Tartarus is limited, those that can go in can pay for a criminal's service at a hefty cost, but must be aware that if they hold a criminal record on them, Cerberus will tag them into his mainframe and keep a close eye on them, alerting all nearby police stations or guard stations on what's happening.

As they walked to the first security guard at the first checkpoint, both Diamond Tiara and Sunset Shimmer had their own conversation.

"Bring a lot memories, doesn't it?" Diamond asked

"What!?" Sunset replied "Is that suppose to be a joke or something!?"

"I read your file and what you did. Banished for those years in a high school simulation, relearning all stuff you already knew has got to be tough work, doesn't it?"

"No!"

"And how about your rise in the school? I take it you had to do a lot of things, including, well, make a deal with me?"

"...No. You're about as much of a bitch as you were in the simulation."

"...How rude."

"At least you weren't on your phone the majority of the time."

"I... guess that's... alright."

"Welcome to Tartarus, Spike," the fist guardsman spoke, holding his assault rifle & ready for action. "Your package is being prepared and you can claim it shortly. But as this is a high security vessel, you'll need to relinquish your weapons before we proceed."

"I'm sorry," Spike replied "but I can't do such a thing."

"Security! Get ready, we may have-"

"Settle down, everyone!" Another guard appeared, a mage with his helmet off, but with an orange, greaser looking hair style, and looked as if he were in his 40's. Spike remembered this mage back in Fillydelphia when he was just a child.

"Hard Case!?" Spike asked while taking a step back. "You now work here!?"

"Ah! I see you haven't forgotten about me!"

"You two know each other?" Diamond Tiara asked

"I was young," Spike replied "and both Luna and I were there to investigate some burning fires that the people believe it's the local Drakes setting the fires." Spike turned around to Hard Case "And you didn't stop to think it may have been another mage or that fire-snail I found doing it?"

"Don't blame me," Hard case replied "And it's Warden Hard Case now, and you are on my ship! Oh! Hello Sunset Shimmer! Back to prison?" Sunset groaned to herself and face palmed herself

"No," she replied "You already should know: Princess Twilight Sparkle released me for good behavior, remember?"

"I do, but let's see how much of a good behavior you really have when around criminals of your kind." Sunset's hand glowed, almost ready to kill Hard-case. Spike patted her on the back, keeping her calm.

"Calm down," he replied "they do have authority and this is their ship."

"I know." Sunset replied.

"Anyways," Hard Case continued "please, follow standard procedure: your weapons will be returned on the way out."

"It's MY standard procedure to keep my gun, thank you." Spike replied. They stared down at each other for a few seconds.

"...Let them proceed; we're more than secured to handle three armed guests. We're going to bring the siren out of Cyro. As soon as the funds clear, you can be on your way. Please, follow me to the Outprocessing, Commander."

"We will." Hard Case lead the way as Spike, Diamond Tiara, and Sunset Shimmer followed him. They looked outside, seeing hundreds of cells being monitored & taken out of place by giant clamps.

"What you're seeing is Cellblock two."

"Cellblock two?"

"We keep a tight control over the population. Each of these cells are a self contained, modular unit. I've blown a few out of the airlocks as an example. Also, this ship is made of 30 cell blocks identical to this one; we house thousands of criminals. Luckily, we upgraded the place & Cerberus's A.I. after Tirek escaped, and two other criminals, we can put the entire place in lock-down on a moment's notice. Nothing goes wrong here anymore. Any questions?"

"Can you tell us about our Siren?"

"Oh yes, you don't know. Well, we originally had three sirens with us, but two of them escaped, leaving the third as they took the escape pod to somewhere else. We captured her, but now, realizing she's left behind, she's dangerous, crazy, and powerful. You'll see soon enough."

"I'll take my chances. But how did you run this ship?"

"You already saw that I was with the police in Fillydelphia, and it wasn't easy going up here. By-the-book passed away a few months back, and I took his spot, then I was quickly promoted to being Warden at Tartarus. Believe me, it isn't easy, but it's great to see the criminals behind their cell doors."

"So you think this is necessary?"

"These are the worst people alive and the Immortals & other politicians are too soft to make the hard choices. Someone has to make the galaxy safe, especially now that Sombra is around with a goddamn army."

"I know that feel, but maintaining a population this size can't be cheap."

"We cut corners that the government can't, and each criminal brings a fee from their homeworld. They're violent, and their home planet will pay well to keep them here."

"And if they don't?"

"We explain that we can't maintain the prisoner without their help, and we'll let them back onto their planet at an unspecified place and time."

"You bribe these people to pay you or else you'll let their criminal back!?" Sunset asked

"We'd do that if FIST ran Celestia's prisons." Diamond Tiara commented

"You don't have to agree with my methods," Hard Case replied "but don't question my motives! They're despicable and I'm keeping them locked up!"

"Let's get on with this." Spike said. They all began to walk in the hallway

"What happens if a criminal does get out?" Diamond tiara asked

"We're in space and they know it." Hard-Case answered. "Still, we exercise extreme caution; they are still dangerous. We have many ways to control them."

"I can tell." Spike replied

"I hope you can. I'm going to confirm the funds from FIST are cleared. Just head straight down the hallway. Just keep going past the interrogation rooms and the supermax wings. I'll catch up with you, Spike." Hard Case turned around and walked out of the doors they arrived in.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Sunset commented.

"And that's why I have you." The group walked down the hall, seeing the guards in prisoner cells and beating the criminal inside violently, along with prisoners looking at the group with looks of hope in them.

"I'm not sure if I'm lucky or not."

"You are lucky," Diamond Tiara replied "just be glad you had freedom in there and not be pinned down & beaten by someone else."

"At least with this, I feel it for real! In there, I couldn't tell if I was really eating something or if it was my imagination. Plus, none of my natural Mage abilities worked, so I had to act like a human."

"So you got off your lazy ass and did something in a computer simulation that really wasn't real. Oh boo-hoo." Sunset glared at Diamond, but silenced herself and continued onto their path.

They entered a room that lead to outprocessing. The door slowly opened for them, but quickly shut them out.

"What the hell!?!?!?" Diamond yelled

"My apologies, Spike," Hard-Case's voice spoke through the intercom "You're more valuable as a prisoner than a customer! Drop your weapons and proceed into the nearest open cell. Don't worry, you won't be harmed, and I'm certain Princess Twilight Sparkle will pay a heft price for you!"

"...Fuck you!!!" Spike yelled, giving the middle finger to the camera watching them.

"Activate systems!!!" Spike, Sunset, and Diamond pulled out their weapons and took cover behind the desks as the doors opened & security men came in, shooting at them. They returned their firing, taking down the security that was trying to capture Spike and sell him to some criminal or to Twilight Sparkle at a high cost. The security men were dead, and the three ran out to the hallway "Reinforce Outprocessing! Spike is loose!!!" They looked to their left, seeing more security men coming out of a hallway. With a lack of cover, they used the corners and some small doorway. After a few more minutes of battle, they walked inside the room, seeing a cryogenic tube in the room ahead & below with two heavy mechs in front of it, and the controllers for Tartarus's cells.

"Since we don't have a clue on our Siren's tube," Diamond Tiara said "We might as well open every cell block here."

"But what about the security here?" Sunset replied "It's gonna take a lot of bits and work to get this place operating again." Spike took a deep sigh.

"We're doing it." Spike said "Get ready." Spike pressed the overload button. The whole station blared, and they watched as one of the robotic clamps came down to take the Cryogenic tube out. The heavy mechs turned and watched as the Siren was taken out of her tube. Both Sunset Shimmer and Spike gasped.

"SONATA!?!?!?" They asked in unison.

Species:

Sirens were the result of both Banshees and Drakes mating with each other, as the Sirens share the beautiful & controlling voices of Banshees, the dragon-like looks of Drakes, but their own addition in being able to swim & breath in both land & water, unlike the Banshee's immune to freezing temperatures and a Draco's immunity to lava & high temperatures. Sirens have been described to be as beautiful and deadly at the same time, usually drowning their victims while singing to them, or releasing high screeches that have both blown people away and deafen them at the same time. On the contrary to belief, Siren's don't control people with their singing, but they release a green hormone that makes everyone see them as attractive, which continues to expel, even when under water. Sirens have been recorded to be only female; no male sirens have been found, leading scientists to theorize that they attract males to them to sexually reproduce with them, and all children from Sirens are born as Sirens themselves, only adopting traits from their father's psychological profile. As mentioned, Sirens breath in both land and water, as a set of gills are located at their neck area that quickly transforms along with their legs, exposing gills & having a shark-like dorsal fin under water, while having regular lungs & human/mage/angel legs when on land. Sadly, there's only small pockets of Sirens around the galaxy, making many to believe that they'll go extinct like the banshees.

Profiles:

Sonata Dusk is one of the three Sirens that Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and Spike have encountered while in the prison-simulation. She with her sisters, Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle, calling themselves 'The Dazzlings' and were close to taking over the simulation. Despite being related, Sonata is the black sheep of the two, having more of a child-like look at the world, being blissful, and not worrying about what was going to happen next. She's actually not intelligent: she can't plan well, can't tell sarcasm, and doesn't know a lot besides what to do with her sisters (which are mostly singing and getting into group arguments). Now, though she's still not quite intelligent, she will be a strange but helpful asset to the team as they go and save Equestria from Sombra and the Doppelgangers... as long as there's tacos involved.

Sonata woke up from her cryogenic sleep, looking around at her environment quickly, but struggled to get out of her strap in chair. Despite not looking strong, she ripped her chains open and fell to the floor, coughing hard. The heavy mechs activated their machine guns, ready to fire, but Sonata took a deep breath and released a loud shriek that caused not only for Spike & the others to cover their ears, but shattered the glass and the mechs were thrown back, falling into multiple pieces! Sonata ran ahead, escaping from Tartarus. They looked outside, seeing the glass had obscured their vision.

"You both know her?" Diamond Tiara asked

"We know all three of them." Sunset replied. "Adagio was their leader, Aria was like her second in command, and Sonata... well... she was special."

"I kinda liked her." Spike commented, poking at the glass, only for it to break into multiple pieces.

"Liked her!?"

"She was like a child. Yeah, she tried to kill us, but she was really with the wrong crowd, kinda like you, Sunset."

"...I guess you're right there, Commander."

"Come on! We gotta get to her!" They ran down the stairway to Sonata's room, seeing she left a huge hole in the wall and ran through it. They followed her path of destruction.

"All guards!!!" Hard-Case spoke through the intercoms "Restore order! Lethal Force Authorized! Don't kill Sonata! Techs: LOCKDOWN!!! I repeat, Lockdown!!!" They came out of the hole, seeing the place being burned down, as criminals ran around, attacking the security that hastily defended themselves. They fell to the floor, seeing the famous Mech Cerberus firing machine guns from it's back, but hitting both criminals and Security.  

Profiles:

Cerberus wads the famous Mech Celestia and Luna designed themselves to be the ultimate lawbringer across Equestria. But because of employment and lack of resources, Cerberus was placed inside the shuttle of Tartarus, where after years of tinkering, has become the mech that all criminals fear. As the legendary hound from Greek Mythology, Cerberus was designed with three heads: One head was designed to lead the whole body around as a whole, the second head took photographs and updated all files & records of criminals, and the third was responsible for using it's weapons & judgment on criminals, usually mauling guilty criminals, but using it's machine gun on it's back to take down multiple criminals. Surprisingly, the navigation head has an actual brain of a dog built into it, leading people to theorize that this was Celestia and Luna's first pet, but seeing it dying, they stopped it's demise by extracting it's brain and inserted it into the Mech, helping it escape death and serve a role that the sister are proud of.

"What's wrong with it!?" Spike asked

"...Sonata's screech!" Sunset inquired "she must have malfunctioned the sentence head of Cerberus! We can use Cerberus to take down the criminals!"

"But the security will still be after us!" Diamond replied "And I believe these criminals will pay us well in the future."

"We can't assume that! Spike, what are your orders?"

We bring back order!

They're both guilty of crimes!

Let's help them riot!