//------------------------------// // Part 1: Unknown Territory // Story: The Dazzlings Get Superpowers // by CGPH //------------------------------// Life had been tough on the Dazzlings ever since the disaster at Canterlot High School caused them to lose their powers. Because they had spent their whole lives using magic to manipulate and cheat their way to the top, they’d never been forced to work hard or learn to provide for themselves. So after the loss, their lives had quickly began to spiral downhill. The spell they had placed over their landlord had worn off and he was now demanding payment for the two years they’d lived there or he’d kick them out. And although Adagio was able to work out an agreement with him – one that allowed the three to continue living there free of charge – that was only one problem solved. None of them knew how to cook or clean, or had worked a day of their lives. Winter was coming, and there was only so long they could survive on stolen food and scraps found in the garbage. They needed money, and fast. Within weeks they turned to crime, and the first thing they tried was carjacking. None of them knew how to hot-wire a car, so instead they let Adagio’s famed cunning lead the way. Sonata played the role of a child and ran out into the road after her ball, and as a car swerved to avoid her she dropped to the ground and pretended she was hit. As the person got out the car, Adagio and Aria jumped in, Sonata ran off and they all met up in a safe location later. Credit to them, the plan had been successful for their first ever robbery, but it had ultimately proved useless. Stealing the car was easy... what they hadn’t planned was what they were going to do with it once they had it. After that they tried a few other things: begging, pick-pocketing, shoplifting, but they only ever made enough to get them by. They needed something bigger. Adagio found connections, and after months of putting away scraps of money, they finally raised enough to buy a gun. They were going to use that gun to rob convenience stores… or that had been the plan, anyway. But three skinny, malnourished girls turning up to buy a single handgun off an illegal arms dealer was more than enough to draw a lot of attention their way. People saw they were desperate for cash, and soon they had groups offering them jobs, some more glamorous than others. Among two offers they received were Film and Flam, pair of dodgy con artists, and a mafia family by the name Diamond Dogs. But Adagio held her ground. As desperate as they were becoming, the sirens were strong. They had been through worse times in their three thousand years, and she was positive eventually something would come along. But day after day, they grew hungrier and hungrier. Their landlord began getting violent, even going as far one night to actually hitting Adagio. That had been the final straw. They fell in with a nameless group, making up numbers on various jobs here and there. Bank robberies, break ins, they were trained to do it all. They didn’t know much about the people they were working for, just that they answered to a tall foreign man called Ahuizotl, and that he answered to a man with the codename ‘president,’ who they had yet to meet. Working for Ahuizotl had been better than they had expected. At the start they had utterly refused to do jobs without each other, which he was very understanding about. They liked to imagine it was because he was actually a nice guy, but they knew it was far more likely that with their lack of skills the three of them working together was the equivalent of one person who actually had a clue what they were doing. They began slowly making money back, enough to make the landlord back off and enough to give them the bare minimum of food they needed to live. But it hadn’t been long before they grew frustrated with simply surviving. They had been treated like queens in the past, they deserved more than this simple existence. They wanted to thrive. So they began splitting up when they did jobs, they worked on ideas to help things run smoother, and physically they became quicker, sleeker and better than the rest. Within the space of two months the trio had become Ahuizotl’s best workers, which had earned them respect. But it wasn’t enough. In their new positions they had only had a tenth of the admiration they used to have, and they’d worked their skin to the bones to get it. They just weren’t cut out for a life of hard work. No matter how much they got it was never enough. Then came hope. It was during one of Ahuizotl’s heists, the three of them had been tasked with breaking into a high-security museum and recovering an Egyptian artifact that was going to be sold on the black market. Sonata always had an annoyingly short attention span, but this time it had done them a favor. Under padlock and chain they discovered an ancient spell book called the Grimoire. This artifact was different from anything else they’d found in the museum, and for one simple reason: it had magic. The Dazzlings might have lost their ability to produce and absorb magic, but they could still feel it. The book almost had a light hum surrounding it, an air of static around it that only magic users could detect. A simple flick through the book had found them exactly the spell they’d needed. It was too bad their detour had cost them their secrecy, and the alarm had been triggered before they could obtain Ahuizotl’s artefact. “Leave it, let’s get out of here!” Adagio had commanded. They didn’t need his artefact now. They didn’t need to work for him ever again. All they needed was a few simple ingredients, and they were set… The only light in the room came from a single candle flickering on the floor. It was a tiny candle, the flame no bigger than the match head that brought it to life. Its weak light barely illuminated the surrounding area and provided no warmth to the trio sat around it. The people in question sat cross-legged in a circle, eyes shut and in deep meditation. A window open in the room allowed chilly winter air to enter. The breeze snaked its way around the girls’ necks and left goose bumps to rise in its wake. Slow hot puffs came from the girls as they breathed in synchronization, those breaths travelling down and causing the tiny flame to wrestle for its life. The three girls sat in silence, simply breathing in sync for hours. They needed everything to be perfect, and it nearly was. Next to the leader of the group was a small wooden bowl. In that bowl were a few artefacts, things that would seem ordinary to normal people. Some twigs, leaves, and a silver knife that even in the low light glistened and shone. But this wasn’t ordinary foliage, these were twigs and leaves that had been painstaking retrieved from a place many believed not to exist. Or at least, not exist as they knew it. The Everfree forest was a place dripping with magic; magic that, despite what others would claim, definitely existed, and was very much alive. Small flecks of that magic remained in these bits of foliage, even after leaving the forest. Anybody sensitive enough could feel the light static hum that surrounded them. As the girls continued to breath in sync, the leader took the wooden bowl into her hands. Gathering the foliage had been an effort in itself, and had involved a lot of suspicious leads and even more dead ends. But that had not been the real trouble. The biggest problem had been obtaining the silver knife. Genuine pure silver had not been produced and sold to the masses since the early 1900s, and no modern day substitute would do. Silver had a very special property in the land of myth. A bullet fashioned out of it being the only weapon to kill a werewolf was the best known, but it had a full plethora of other uses. One of those uses, though a little known one, was it was only a silver knife that was capable of injuring a siren. “Kunda… astratta montose… eargrets gutt nos… veratoos Kanda… amantos… Kanda,” the leader muttered. After first reading those words in the Grimoire, they had been rehearsing in her head ever since, waiting for this time. She placed the wooden bowl down in front of her and picked up the silver blade. Without so much as flinching she placed the blade in her palm, closed her fist around it and yanked it out. A steady stream of blood began dripping into the bowl, getting thinner as she clenched her fist. When the last few drops dripped into the bowl, she placed the knife back down and passed it to the next girl in the circle. The second girl followed suit, slitting open the palm of her hand and allowing the blood to drip freely into the bowl. All the while the synchronized breathing of the group remained unbroken. “Kunda astratta montose… eargrets gutt nos… veratoos Kanda… amantos Kanda,” she repeated. Passing the knife and bowl to the third girl, the second girl clenched her fist to stop the bleeding. The third girl picked up the knife. “Kunda astratta mongoose eargrets-” “Montose,” the first girl corrected. “Montose…” she corrected herself, “eargrets.... gutt nos veratoos Kanda… amantos Kanda.” With a slight flinch the third girl repeated the action, and a small pool of blood had now formed in the wooden bowl, almost completely submerging the twigs and branches. The third girl passed the bowl and knife back to the leader. Holding the bowl above the flame, she spoke louder this time. “Kunda… astratta… montose... Kanda!” she chanted. At her words the flame stopped flickering. It froze completely still, like a wax work. Even the rough winter air didn’t make it budge. A chill shot down the other girls’ spines and they exchanged nervous glances, watching the bowl expectantly. The leader grew a large grin and with a harder tone, chanted; “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” The two girls flinched. But nothing happened. Only when they were sure nothing was going to happen, they opened their eyes. And then something happened. The first thing she felt was a dull, rhythmic beating in her head, like a clamp was attached to her skull and with every pump it got tighter and tighter. She wished it would end, not realizing this beating was the sound of her own heart. “Adagio! Adagio!” Her eyes shot open. It took a second for her vision to focus and the blur of colors to take shape. The room was in ruins. All the furniture had been thrown to the edges of the room, most of it shattering on impact and a few larger pieces denting holes in the walls. In the center of the room was a large roaring fire, which lit the place in a vicious orange glow. At the sight of the flames she tensed up and tried to crawl backwards, only to be met with her limbs screaming in pain at the movement. “Wha ..?” Two arms dropped into view and she was pulled into a tight hug. “Oh thank Neighptune!” the owner of the arms exclaimed. Adagio cranked her head to the side as much she could. “A-Aria?” her voice wheezed from a pain in her chest. “What… happened…?” Aria pulled herself away, and only now did Adagio spot the tears in her sister’s eyes. Before she had chance to question them, Aria choked out a response. “Sonata.” “What..?” she frowned, not understanding. Aria sucked in a deep breath and repeated. “She’s gone, Adagio.” Her meaning clicked in her head and despite the fire raging feet away from them, Adagio suddenly felt a lot colder. “That’s… that’s…” Adagio spluttered, trying to form the words,”…not …what?” Aria’s only response was to wrap her arms back around her older sister. Adagio instantly tightened her hold. She could feel a wet patch forming on her chest as Aria’s gentle sobbing rocked her body. Sonata wasn’t… gone. Sonata couldn’t be gone. Sonata was immortal. They were all immortal. “Kunda astratta mongoose eargrets-” Adagio swallowed. The words echoed in her head. Sonata had got the spell wrong. As the realization dawned on her she let out a gasp. Tears began to well in her eyes. “Where?” she asked. Aria shook her head, “a onwn ow.” Pulling herself from the hug, Adagio asked, “what?” Wiping away her tears with the sleeve of her hoodie, Aria repeated herself. “I don’t know… I woke up and… she was just… gone.” Adagio took a deep breath and pushed herself to her knees. Her body screamed in protest but she couldn’t have cared less at that moment. Wrapping her arms around Aria’s, she pulled her and her sister into a kneeling stance, at the cost of great physical pain. “She can’t be… gone,” Adagio told her. But looking around the room, Aria seemed to be right. Even with the destruction and the flames still dancing, they didn’t live in a large apartment and the doors they closed before the ritual remained exactly that, closed. There was no way Sonata could have been in the room without being in plain sight. “Aria…” Adagio brought her hand up to rest on her sister’s back. “S-she said it w-wrong… the spell… t-the i-idiot…” Adagio shook her head. “It’s… she’s not…” She didn’t know whether to believe the evidence in front of her eyes or try to find some alternate explanation. Sonata wasn’t… gone. She couldn’t be. They’d been together three thousand years. It wasn’t that easy. She couldn’t have just… gone… like that. But her eyes were not deceiving her. Sonata wasn’t here. “S-she can’t be…” she muttered, the tears now beginning to trickle down her face. KRAC-CROOO-OOOM! A white bolt of lightning shot through the room. Adagio and Aria half-stumbled, half got-thrown backwards. They threw their arms out to steady themselves from the brightness that blinded them. As black and white spots dotted in and out of their vision, they turned to where the lighting hit. “HELP ME!” Sonata had appeared before them in hysterical tears. She was as pale as a corpse and her body shook rigidly. Her clothes had been charred away, leaving her in just her underwear, which looked like they were only clinging on by a thread. The air around her was alive with electricity, causing her hair to stand on end. “SONATA!” Aria leaped forward. Sonata instinctively pulled away from Aria, and was almost instantly swallowed up again by the bolt of lightning. This time the lightning shot backwards and collided with the door to the kitchen, which shattered into a thousand pieces. A loud clank and a shriek of pain told them Sonata was now in that room. The two girls rushed in after her, and found the room a mess with Sonata steadying herself against the counter. “She’s alive…” Adagio sighed a breath of relief Small bolts of electricity fizzed and swirled around her, forming a vortex. Occasionally one would hit a metal pan hanging on the wall and cause a bright spark. As the electricity around her spasmed, the light bulb in the room rapidly blinked on and off, but they could still make out Sonata’s body convulsing and contorting hard. Even without her screams of protest, it was obvious she was in a lot of pain. “I’m scared!” she cried. Adagio shook her head in amazement, mouth agape. “I... I don’t…” “Come to me Sonata,” Aria beckoned her towards her like a dog. Sonata shook her head, crying harder. She tightened her grip on the counter. “I-I can’t move.” “You can! Just walk to me, slowly.” Sonata let out another loud cry and slowly lifted her bare foot in Aria’s direction. As it made contact with the floor, the too-bright lightning suddenly returned and over took her. The lightning shot towards Aria, crashing into her and sending her flying into the wall opposite. Sparks shot out from every direction in the room, and a loud bang plunged them into darkness as the main light blew out. “ARIA!” Adagio cried. Aria hit the floor and rolled onto her side, wheezing for breath. CUH-LUNK Aria looked up. The impact caused the knife rack above her to come loose. It broke and emptied out dozens of knives down onto her. She closed her eyes and screamed. The pain never came. “Oh my God,” Adagio’s voice remarked. Aria opened her eyes, only to see the knives floating mid-air above her, enwrapped in a dark purple glow. It was now she realized she had instinctively stuck her arms out to stop them and… A chill went down her spine. She was doing that. Four arms suddenly descended upon Aria and dragged her out from under the blades. As the connection broken the knives clattered to the floor loudly. She was pulled to her feet and into a tight hug. “I’m sorry! I’m so, so sorry!” Sonata cried. Aria held up her hands as though they were some form of evidence. “I… I… I… wha..?” Aria spluttered. Adagio released her, watching her in amazement. “I-I-I did that? I st– ” Aria froze mid-rant, her attention drawn back to the other room. The two sirens followed her line of sight. The fire in the living room had begun growing out of control, now the orange blaze illuminated the entire kitchen and the smoke had begun billowing in above them. Acting like it was second nature to her, Aria held out her hand towards the flames and began to pull a slow fist. As the first grew tighter the flames began to shrink, until eventually nothing but a small puff of white smoke stood in its place. She turned back to her sisters. They worked together anchoring Sonata into place, with Sonata’s arms wrapped around Adagio’s neck and Adagio supporting her with an arm around the waist. They both watched Aria with wide eyes. “I… I… I can…” she tried to find the words. Sonata squealed giddily, any tears or sorrows she’d been feeling instantly evaporating. “We’ve got superpowers!” she cheered. Aria turned to Adagio, as if waiting for a clarification. Adagio swallowed and nodded. “The spell… it must have… I don’t know,” she said genuinely. The spell had been designed to bestow them with the ability to use black magic. That’s why it had required a blood sacrifice. But superpowers? Make no mistake…. she could still absolutely make this work… but… Superpowers!? “This is gonna be so cool,” Aria grinned.