//------------------------------// // Battle Of The Bands part 2 // Story: My Little Mages: The Sirens' Song // by Foxhelm //------------------------------// Juniper stepped on the stage with the board that had the band logos, she took a red marker and crossed out the logo for the Flash Drives and moved the logo for the Dazzlings to be on of the two bands for the finals, on the other side of the board were the logos for the Rainbooms and Trixie and the Illusionists. Juniper then turned to face the audience, “And the first of the two finalists are the Dazzlings. It was a hard fight, but the Flash Drives were in the wrong division to get to the finals,” Juniper paused as she consulted her notepad, “We will now have a half hour intermission before Trixie and the Illusionists make their case to be in the finals followed by the Rainbooms.” Juniper then exited the stage. Backstage, as the Flash Drives had left for the barracks, Flash was about to bring his guitar down on the stone floor, but it was taken from him in his swing by Valhallen and Brawly. “Easy, bro.” Brawly said, “And people thought I was bad, with the whole ‘Brawler’ fiasco.” he joked. The rest of the Flash Drives turned to face him and gave him slightly annoyed bemused expression, “Too soon?” “How could we lose?!” Flash all but roared as he kicked a lone stone. “Yeah, the crowd was eating out of our hands,” Valhallen added. Everyone else then gave him the same bemused expression as they gave Brawly, “Well, they were, I mean were the band to …” as he noticed that the expressions were unmoved, “Not helping my case?” he asked and everyone nodded in response, save Mystery who was in thought. “What I don’t get,” Mystery started, “why didn’t our song affect the Sirens?” she asked. “Seriously. I think pretty much everyone was moved.” Cherry chuckled, “I can’t speak about everyone,” She turned her focus towards Flash, “but I think Sentry got not only the princess,” she paused with a smirk, “ but the parolee also seemed to have a dance in her pants. Way to go, tiger.” she said as she tabbed Flash on his shoulder. Flash pulled away, “It doesn’t matter, Twilight now has to deal with the sirens alone.” Flash growled as he kicked the wall. Cherry took a step back a concerned frown on her face, concern that was matched by the rest of the band. She coughed to clear her throat as she elected to change the topic. “Well, in other news,” she said as she turned to the band, “who wants to bet that the benchwarmer isn’t going to rub the fact that we lost all over our faces the first chance that she gets?” she asked. Ringo strung a few notes on his base, “That’s a losing bet if I’ve ever seen one.” Flash turned back to his bandmates, “I’m not letting the battle end like this.” Flash’s voice had a lot of resolve in it. “If we can’t show them on stage, let’s take care of those three in a more traditional manner for dealing with monsters.” As he spoke he lowered his head and raised his hand in a wave, not unlike someone encouraging others to answer a question. The bandmates looked at each other and gave a few nervous glances, “Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?” Mystery asked on her part and the rest of the band. Flash nodded with a grin as resolute as iron. Mystery then looked at the band and the grins starting to form on their faces told her they were willing to hear Flash out. She then looked back to Flash, “And how are we going to do that?” Flash thought for a second then gasped as he believed he had a solution, “The finals aren’t until tomorrow night, it’s what ten hours after midday?” he asked and the other responded with nervous and silent nods. Flash’s lips then started to form a fairly large grin. “We challenge them to a fight over by the cliffs.” “Then, we slit their throats and yank out their vocal chords?” Brawly elected to voice his, and likely the rest of the band’s thoughts aloud. Flash gave a nod. Brawly looked to the rest, “I don’t know, brother, that sounds really, really dangerous.” After two seconds of silence, he made his left hand into a fist and punched his right hand with it. “LET’S DO IT!” Brawly declared as he walked up to and took Flash’s right hand with his own. The two bent their arms so that they could reach each other’s back with their left hand, in a brotherly hug. The other four looked at each other. Ringo shrugged his shoulders as he walked up to Flash and Brawly, and fist-bumped both, “Well, I’ve gone this far with this plan, I’m in until the end.” Valhallen gave a laugh as he too walked forward, “Before the week is done, I’ll be drinking mead from their skulls or in my namesake.” He gave Flash a playful punch in the chest. Cherry then proceeded to join her brothers-in-arms without saying a word. However, Mystery took her hand before she got half-way. “Wait,” Mystery requested. “We don’t know what those Sirens are capable of, aside from taking down a minotaur.” This statement didn’t cause any of the others to waiver in their resolve as Cherry pulled her hand out of Mystery’s hold. Mystery then tried a different approach, “Also, we’ve never trained for or fought against anything like them.” No one was convinced to change course. “Going after them could be a total suicide mission.” She tried again. Cherry rolled her eyes as she walked back to Mystery and placed her arm on Mystery’s shoulder, “So, you’re just going to let that benchwarmer keep making laughingstocks out of us?” That was all that was needed to be said. Mystery’s flashed with resolve as the two joined up with the others. Before they could go any farther, they were stopped by the voice of Sunset, “She loves you, you meathead, and I know you love her, too.” She called Flash out. The band turned to see Sunset walking towards them. The band stepped to the side to let her pass as she continued, “Everyone can see it. So why are you getting in her way? More importantly, why are you being so cruel to her?” Flash looked his band, “You guys go on, I’ll catch up.” They nodded and left the area, leaving the hallway empty of all but Flash and Sunset. Flash looked squarely at Sunset, “Getting in her way?” Flash asked not believing Sunset, “Did you not see how the bands were arranged, my band was more likely to go against the Dazzlings.” Flash pointed out as he called back to the bracketing of the bands. Sunset raised her hand to protest, but she realized that she didn’t have a counter-argument as the Rainbooms wouldn’t face the Dazzlings or cast the counter spell unless they got to the finals. “My point exactly,” Flash said as he continued. “And how am I cruel to her? I’m trying to HELP her by taking care of the Dazzlings so she doesn’t have too. And given all the problems the other girls are giving her, and since there is nothing I can do concerning them, so I decided to do something about the only problem I can do something about.” Flash took a breath and looked to the sky, like he was looking for a star that was no longer in the sky and continued, “I am doing this is because I love her, I HAVE to do what I can to fix this for her.” He paused again as he looked Sunset squarely in the eye, “If you have to ask how either of us feel, you should be asking her.” Flash then started to turn. However, a ball of fire thrown to the wall in front of him caused Flash to stop. He turned to see Sunset walk up to him with a fire of red and yellow in her left hand. She then slapped him with the palm of her left hand, as the fire vanished, but the echo of the slap was unmistakable. As Flash rubbed his check, “She doesn’t need you to fix her problems FOR her.” Sunset scolded before she closed her eyes and sighed. “ she needs you to SUPPORT her through them. You’ve always done that for her,” Sunset paused as she looked at the ground, “You were that way for me.” she said in a near whisper. Flash sighed as he too looked at the ground, “I remember.” Flash then raised his head, “But you never let yourself ever get to be in such a state. You could solve your problems with a snap. In fact, I don’t think you ever shared your problems with me.” Sunset gave a nervous laugh, “Well, I viewed you as little more than a means to a few ends. Sadly, only half of them were met.” Flash then had a hearty chuckle, “Oh, Princess Celestia knew about us and why you wanted to be with me. In fact, she ordered me to go as far as we did if I wanted to.” “Didn’t she care? I mean, you were her sentinel.” Sunset pointed out. Flash shrugged his shoulders, “She wanted you to be happy, secure, you are her daughter after all. She also thought that maybe I could be a positive influence.” “Well, at least I wasn’t a negative influence on you.” The two shared a short laugh before they fell quiet. After a few seconds of silence, before it reached a point of awkward silence, Sunset spoke again, “We were doomed to fail, weren’t we?” “Had you been the one to break it off, I’d would have to have agreed,” Flash said after almost no time of thought. As if he had been waiting for this moment and was ready to have this talk. “But I was the one who ended it,” Flash reminded Sunset which got a nervous laugh from her. Before she could reply any more, Flash raised his hand as a single for her to stop and listen as he continued, “And I did it because I thought that maybe, if we could be apart and well you had a chance to self-reflect, maybe we could have tried again.” “We could, but we both know Twilight is one your heart calls for and I’m okay with that, after putting up with a bitch like me, I’d say you should be with a princess. And speaking of which, Twilight just needs your support back.” Flash shook his head with closed eyes, “No, she doesn’t.” his tone heavy and dejected. He then raised his head to look at Sunset, a shadow of defeat in his eyes, “Why would she need me when she’s got you for that?” Sunset took a step back as she partially squinted her left eye before she shook her head in an attempt to collect herself, “Me?” “I saw you leave her room late last night,” Flash answered as a slight frown formed on his lips. However, it faded into a legitimate, if slightly sad smile. Sunset, on the other hand, was utterly shocked at that statement. Before she could reply, Flash raised his hand, “Just to be clear, I don’t care if Twilight wants a relationship with you over me or one with both of us or one with me and one with you. I just want a heads up if you both are together and don’t want me there.” Sunset was utterly flabbergasted at what Flash said and the implications. After a couple of seconds, she groaned, “Good grief!” She shook her head, before she continued, “We were just having some girl talk. Nothing happened between us.” Sunset then paused as for a second her mind flashed an image of Twilight surrounded by the candle’s orange glows, how it seemed to slip ever so slightly through her purple hair like it was sunlight caught within it. Sunset coughed as she blushed slightly, “I mean, yes, I found her attractive, but I wouldn’t dream of getting between the two of you. Why would you even think…?” Sunset trialed as she saw Flash’s irises flash a clear orange, a shade of it that matched Adagio’s focus gem. It was a blink and miss it, but Sunset didn’t blink. She knew something was off. She grabbed Flash’s face. “Hey, didn’t you just say you would dream of getting between Twilight and me?” Flash asked as he tried to take a step back but Sunset only pulled his face closer to her, so that the tips of their noses touched. Sunset was squinting her eyes as she seemed to be looking only into Flash’s eyes. “Okay, seriously, what are you…?” Flash tried to ask only for Sunset to clamp her left hand over his mouth and continued to focus solely on his eyes. After a second, Flash’s pupils constricted as his irises changed from their normal blue to the shade of orange she saw them flash, this time the eyes didn’t change back. Sunset could only gasp at the sight. Flash yanked himself out of Sunset’s hold. He looked at her with a scowl forming, “I have to take care of the sirens.” He declared, his voice so frigid, that Sunset thought for a second the area had reached absolute zero. “Please, don’t touch me like that again.” Flash’s request while with polite words, still cut Sunset with the same bitter cold. Flash turned to leave Sunset and meet up with his band. However, as he looked in front of him, Sunset had teleported herself through a ring of fire and had conjured a firewall behind her. “Don’t do this.” Sunset requested as she tried to block Flash. Flash closed his eyes and took a breath, “Please, get out of my way.” he requested as he tried to remain calm. “You’re not yourself,” Sunset said with a tear forming in the corner of her right eye. “What you’re planning will only end badly for you.” Sunset attempted to reason with Flash, as she thought back to their mutual past, those very words spoken from his lips. The irony was not lost on her. “I said get out of my way,” he said with his voice getting louder, as his sclera flashed orange. “Adagio did something to you!” Sunset all but shouted as her hands started to glow with red and yellow fire. “If you don’t fight whatever it is she did, you’ll be playing right into her hands.” In a moment of panic, she placed her hands on Flash’s chest, as if she was trying to burn away the spell that Adagio hexed Flash with. Flash growled, not unlike an injured lion and stepped back, holding his chest and gritting his teeth in pain. Sunset dismissed the firewall and lowered her guard, believing she broke the spell. However, that moment of joy ended as Flash stood erect and posed to move forward. His eyes had changed again, this time the sclera changed from their normal white to lime-green and the irises took on a blood red hue as the pupils become slits, not unlike a cat’s eye, similar to the eyes of Sombra. Flash huffed and inhaled through his flaring nostrils before he all but roared, “GET OUT OF MY WAY!” and shoved Sunset to the floor out of his way with more force than what was needed. Sunset hit the floor hard and groaned, “Ow.” In that instant, the star on Flash’s sword's pummel flashed for a brief second and Flash felt his head starting to hurt. He called out with an ‘Agh!’ and held his head. The pain so much that he couldn’t even open his eyes, lest he lost any focus because he couldn’t see straight. “Make it stop.” he whimpered, “Make it stop,”. All the while Sunset watched on as she got to her feet, a noticeable bruise and, while superficial, a visible scrape on her arm and leg. She witnessed Flash dropped to his knees before he let out another ‘AGH!’. And with that, the pain subsided. Flash opened his eyes and around him in confusion, as if the last ten minutes never happened and yet here he was. As he looked around, Sunset saw that his eyes were their normal blue again. Flash stopped searching for whatever clue to what happened he might have gotten when he spotted the bruise and scrapes. Slowly he got back to his feet, “Sunset, are you alright?” he asked. “Listen, it’s been nice to catch up, but I got to go,” Sunset said nervously as she started walking backward away from the perplexed Flash. After a few steps, she turned around and started to run, leaving Flash utterly at a loss about what had just happened. Well, not totally. Flash looked at where Sunset was standing before she left and saw a very fine layer of skin, her skin, on the floor as if she was shoved towards the floor and away from someone. Flash then looked around and saw no signs of anyone but Sunset and him there. He then looked at his hands as a terror started to cause the hairs on his arms to stand, a terror that he… “What have I done?” he asked in a frightened whisper. But he knew the answer and the horror of that truth sent a chill down his spine. “Hey, Sentry!” came the voice of Valhallen, “You coming or what?” Flash turned his head to reply, “Yeah. Hold up. I’m coming.” Flash then turned to meet up with his band, his eyes flashed purple. He knew he would have to make amends for what he did to Sunset and to Twilight. But first, he was going to make Adagio pay for the hex she placed on him. One way or another, she was going to foot the bill. Sunset, arrived back in the courtyard, backstage as the intermission was drawing to a close and the audience was starting to trickle back to their seat. She, however, was physically healed of her wounds, ‘Phoenix Fire’ can be quite the spell. She had arrived before the Rainbooms and Trixie’s band. She sat down on one of the backstage chairs and took a breath as she thought back to what she had witnessed and experienced. Adagio had cast some sort of spell on him, but it wasn’t as if she was controlling him, nor was it tearing down his inhibitions. No, it was as if Adagio’s spell on Flash did a little of both and added a dash of amplifying his darker aspects. Sunset was torn about what to do. On one hand, she knew that she had to tell Twilight about Flash. Twilight needed to know, this was Flash after all and Twilight cared about him. Yet on the hand, if Twilight knew, this would likely cause her to freak out more than she would otherwise, with the brewing animosity within the Rainbooms and her attempts to form a counterspell to the Siren’s song. After a few seconds of the internal debate, she elected to keep the information to herself until after the sirens were bested, just as Trixie and her band, and the Rainbooms arrived. As Trixie and the Illusionists went to stage and started to perform, the Rainbooms tuned and tighten their instruments for their final number of the night. Sunset knew she had to inspire some confidence in the team. “Well, it’s the last round and you’re in the finals!” she cheered. She then looked to Twilight with a reassuring smile on her face, “Unless you think the counter-spell is ready to be played now.” Twilight could only groan as she covered her face. “Too soon?” Sunset asked with a slight bit of guilt. Applejack placed her base down and walked up to Twilight and patted Twilight on her shoulder, “Don't worry Twilight. Finals aren't until tomorrow night.” She tried to assure Twilight that not all was lost. “We'll get in a little more practice tomorrow before we're supposed to hit the stage.” Applejack then turned both herself and Twilight to face the rest of the Rainbooms, “We won't let you down!” The others all gave various signs of agreement with Applejack. Applejack then walked away from Twilight to get her bass. Twilight looked down not sure about herself, “Yeah, you won't let me down…” she whispered. Meanwhile, Fluttershy walked up to Rainbow as the elementalist played a few notes on her guitar. Fluttershy cleared her throat to get her oldest friend’s attention. Rainbow turned to face the druid, “Um, I was just wondering. We haven't played any of my songs yet, and…” Fluttershy started. Rainbow shook her head, “Sorry Shy, but it's the semifinals. We gotta do ‘Awesome As I Wanna Be’.” Fluttershy sighed and “Don't know why I even asked…” Fluttershy said to herself as she looked to the ground both angry with Rainbow and sad that yet again the songs she was actually poured her heart and soul into and felt confident to perform. On stage Trixie’s song reached its end, and was followed by cheers from the crowd as her band walked backstage. As Fuchsia Blush and Lavender Lace went to get something to eat and drink, Trixie elected to walk over to the Rainbooms as they were preparing for their last number of the night and the last number of the show before the finals the next night. “You’re never going to top that, Rain-goons.” Trixie declared with a triumphant smirk on her face. She then looked over the group and sent a second longer on Twilight then the rest before she asked, “I don’t even know why Baroness Cinch allowed you to compete with such an obvious advantage.” “Hey, I can’t help being awesome.” Rainbow declared as she stepped forward to challenge Trixie. “I was born this way.” She then shredded on her guitar and thrust her right hand up with her index and middle finger making a ‘V’ for victory once she finished. Trixie rolled her eyes before she turned to face Rainbow, “Not you, dumb-dumb. A monkey with a ukulele can replace you.” Rainbow scowled through gritted teeth and gave a slight growl. Trixie then pointed straight at Twilight, “I was talking about her.” Twilight misstepped backward and almost tripped. Trixie, however, continued as she turned back to face Rainbow Dash, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “You’re band would be nothing but a freak show at a circus if you didn’t have a demigoddess in it. You wouldn’t even be fit to clean the instruments of the Flash Drives.” Dash rolled her own eyes, “Oh please.” She waved Trixie’s critic aside, “Don’t compare my band to those posers. I’ve saved Mystica seven or eight times already,” This earned a few glares from the rest of the Rainbooms as they were part of all of those events. Rainbow, however, remained oblivious to her friends and continued. “and I’m a future Wonderbolt. I can beat you, them, and the Dazzlings all by myself in my sleep if I wanted to.” Trixie rolled her eyes yet again with a groan, “And Great and Powerful Trixie has an ego.” She shook her head then looked at Rainbow as she pointed at the elementalist, “You clearly don’t know how talentless you are, don’t you, Rainbow Dash?” Rainbow growled in response. Trixie brushed it aside and continued, “Well, listen up because the Great and Powerful Trixie is about to lay down the greatness and powerfulness order from the bottom up. And she’s going to do it once and only once, so take notes. It goes you, Lemon-Zap, the rest of the Rainbooms, a dying cat, all the other bands that didn’t make it to the semifinals, the other Shadowbolts, the Flash Drives, the Dazzlings, the Illusionists and finally at the tippy top is The Grrreat and Powerrrful Trrrixie!” Rainbow scowled as she was about to clench her fist, “You want those words with salt or peanut butter?” Trixie chuckled at that remark, “You might need the salt to purify your wounded pride, and your girlfriend might have other plans involving you with the peanut butter.” “I’M NOT GAY!!!” Rainbow shouted. “Also why would I use peanut butter for something that doesn’t involve eating?” Pinkie asked Rainbow turned to Pinkie and all but roared, “NOT HELPING PINKIE!!!” Rainbow then turned back to Trixie, “Listen here, blowhard, I could win this thing as a solo act and everybody knows it!” Trixie scoffed in response, “Sure you could.” Trixie then threw a smoke bomb in front of the Rainbooms and caused them all to cough until the smoke cleared. Once they all could breathe, Pinkie looked at where Trixie was and notice the illusionist's absence. Pinkie jumped in fright, “She's gone!” As she landed she paused as she squinted her eyes as she spotted Trixie, “Oh, wait. There she is.” Everyone then turned to see Trixie need help from to a balcony by her bandmates. Just then Juniper walked backstage. “Hey, what is taking you all so long?” she asked rhetorically, “if you don’t get on stage soon, you’ll be disqualified.” The Rainbooms nervously laughed and headed for the stage. Juniper Next up for the last song of the semi-finale, the Rainbooms.” “Knock 'em dead, girls!” Sunset called to them they started to set up. She then looked down at the floor as her mind replayed her run-in with the Dazzlings. “I'll be here... just... watching.” “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” The Rainbooms all sang to start the song. “Awesome as I wanna be.” Rainbow sang by herself, with a great amount of gusto. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” The Rainbooms sang, however, there was a clear lack of heart and soul not only in their lyrics but also how they played their instruments. It was if they were only going through the motions. “Awesome as I wanna be First, you see me riding on a sonic boom Got my guitar shreddin' up my latest tune There is nothin' you can do to beat me I'm so good that you can't defeat me,” Rainbow took over and continued to be wrapped up in herself and her own ego. This was noticed by several things, the over top way she played her guitar and how she would walk up to her bandmates and give what one could assume was a playful push in the case of Twilight and Fluttershy, made the front of Applejack’s hat covered the paladin’s face, tap on Rarity’s focus gem on her tiara, and hit the symbols of Pinkie’s drum set. “Yeah, I'm awesome, take caution Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be (Yeah!) I'm awesome, take caution Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be,” The rest joined in as Rainbow Dash walked to be at the edge of the stage, not unlike Adagio did during the Dazzlings’ last number. Unlike Adagio Rainbow Dash turned to have her back to the audience and let herself fall into the audience and was held up by the audience as she rode the wave around the audience and back to the stage. The rest of the band scowled at Rainbow's self-centered action. From backstage, Sunset noticed a lime-green mist starting to form. Her eyes shot wide open in horror as she could have sworn she noticed the mist being pulled backstage but to a different section. She turned her head to follow the mist and saw the Sirens with their rubies faintly glowing as the mist began to slowly drift in their direction. “Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!” The Rainbooms sang without Rainbow Dash, with the same lack of heart and soul as before as Rainbow got back on stage. In a panic to disrupt the formation of the mist Sunset, after a running start jumped on stage from stage left and tackled Rainbow Dash, causing some of the instruments to clatter in the process. In the shock of the act, the rest of the song ended abruptly with Fluttershy giving a squeal as she hid behind Applejack. There were laughs and jeers at what just happened on the stage as Sunset and Rainbow got back up, “The real Sunset Shimmer is back!” One of the audience shouted with a clear intent to heckle. Sunset looked out that audience, “No. It isn't like that,” she tried to explain before she was pulled off stage as the Rainbooms exited to the backstage. Once there she saw Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie scowled at her while Rainbow glare at her. Twilight, however, was starting to freak out, while Fluttershy patted her on her shoulder. “What was that?!” Rainbow shouted as she raised her arms up so that her hands here parallel to her ears as she tried to process why Sunset did what she did. “There was this green mist that was forming among you guys. The kind that Bullion described as the Siren’s food. It had to be dissipated before the Sirens could absorb it.” Sunset saw that the Rainbooms, mainly Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow, were not convinced. “I-I didn't know what else to do.” she stuttered at first as she looked down. “You could have dropped the curtains.” Rarity suggested with a bitter tone. “That would have given us a chance to deal with it.” Sunset Shimmer:”I'm sorry,” Sunset said as she looked back up in an attempt to defend herself, “I just wanted to help.” she all but whimpered as the scowls on Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack’s faces told her that she was not believed. “Yeah, well, you didn't,” Rainbow said as she turned her back to Sunset. Applejack all but groaned, “None of this would've happened if you weren't tryin' to show off –” She wanted to shout at Rainbow. She then turned to face away and muttered, “as usual.” Before Rainbow could reply to Applejack’s accusation, “Good show, ‘Rain-brooms’.” came the voice of Trixie as she walked up the group with Fuchsia and Lavender flanking her. All three with triumphant grins on their faces. Trixie walked to be in between Rainbow and Sunset and pulled them to each be under her arm, “I especially liked the part where Sunset Shimmer, in a fit of jealous rage, knocked out Rainbow Dash mid-guitar solo!” Sunset and Rainbow then broke out of Trixie’s hold. While Rainbow was quite, “It wasn't a fit of jealous rage!” Sunset borderline shouted. “If you say so,” Trixie said with a smirk and a shrug of her shoulders not believing Sunset. Trixie then walked to the stage and opened the curtain, and was joined by the Rainbooms, to see that Cinch and Sunny were in a discussion over which band would be going to the finals. The two stopped and talking and turned to Juniper and the two nodded.“Ooh! Looks like they've already decided who'll be moving on to the finals!” Trixie stepped to the side with a triumphant, “I'm guessing it wasn't too difficult a decision.” she continued as she looked at her hand before she rubbed the tips of her fingers along the center of her shirt. The Rainbooms all stepped back and huddled together, “What can we do?” Rarity asked as she was starting to panic like Twilight. “There isn't gonna be another opportunity for us to play.” she continued to compound the point. She then looked up to ceiling, “And I had the most gorgeous outfit for the finals!” she moaned. Applejack rolled her eyes as she stepped back from the huddle, “Yup, 'cause that's the real tragedy here, Rarity – that you won't get to play dress-up!” The huddle then broke with Rarity extremely cross with the paladin, “You know perfectly well that is not what I meant!” she chastised Applejack only for Applejack to once again roll her eyes. As the huddle broke, Rainbow went to look through the curtains to catch the results. “You guys wanna keep it down?” she asked as she saw Juniper walked towards the board with the band logos. “They're about to announce who's moving on.” Rainbow continued as Juniper took out the red mark to cross out the losing band. Fluttershy didn’t bother to look, “Who are you kidding? You know it isn't gonna be us.” Fluttershy as she tried to stop Rainbow from getting her hopes up when all accounts the Rainbooms had... Juniper turned to the audience and began to announce the victor, “And after some careful deliberations, the judges, Baroness Abacus Cinch and her heir apparent Sunny Flare have declared that the band that will be joining the Dazzlings in tomorrow night's finals…” Juniper paused, clearly for dramatic tension. “The Rainbooms!” “What?!” Trixie asked as she, her bandmates, and the Rainbooms all turned to the stage and saw Juniper cross out the logo of Trixie and the Illusionists. No one backstage could believe the result, but there it was, the logo for the Rainbooms was moved to be opposite of the logo of the Dazzlings on the bracket. The Rainbooms were flabbergasted and left speechless, as were Fuchsia and Lavender. Trixie, however, turned to face the Rainbooms and shouted, “This isn't over!” before she, Fuchsia and Lavender started to leave. Juniper’s voice was heard as she continued, “Well ladies and gentlemen, that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow night we will have the finals in the amphitheater. Good night and see you all there.” Juniper then left the stage as the audience began to exit. “Seriously?!” Pinkie wanted to question the result, but with Juniper, Cinch and Sunny exiting with the audience she wasn’t going to be able to. “We didn't even finish our—” Pinkie pointed out before she was cut off as the Dazzlings walked up to the Rainbooms from behind them. “See you at tonight's big show, Rainbooms,” Adagio said as she passed most of the Rainbooms, as well as Aria as Sonata. As they stopped in front of Rainbow Dash, Aria patted Rainbow on her shoulder, “We are really looking forward to it.” “Yeah, well... not as much as we are!” Rainbow challenged the three as they turned away from the Rainbooms. “Doubt it!” Sonata shouted back as the Dazzlings walked away from the Rainbooms. Among the audience, there were many jeers mostly of distant. While many were happy that Trixie and The Illusionists didn’t make it to the final, almost no one could come to an agreement about how the Rainbooms were able to move on. This was not unnoticed by the Dazzlings. However, the Rainbooms moving on was not the only concern they had as they walked away from the Rainbooms. Aria turned to Adagio, “You think Cinch is trying to go back on the deal?” “The Baroness is only doing what she thinks she needs to. She can’t have us think we are running the show, now can she.” “Well, who is, us or her?” Sonata asked. Adagio looked to see Trixie, who was on her knees in utter disbelief of the ruling. Adagio turned back to her sisters with a smile on her face, “If I am right about Trixie, and given my track record it’s a pretty safe bet that I am, we are.” The three then started towards the forlorn illusionist. “This is a travesty! A travesty!” Trixie shouted towards the heavens as tears formed in her eyes, as if she was calling upon some being from on high. She then lowered her head and was about to cry, even with the best efforts of Fuchsia and Lavender to comfort her. Trixie could not help but feel that she was destroyed, as she was bested by Twilight, yet again, but unlike the last two times, Trixie’s ego was not the cause of her defeat nor had she done anything to deserve this. “It really is!” Adagio said as the Dazzlings approach the three. She then offered her hand to Trixie who took and helped her (Trixie) up to her feet. Adagio then hugged Trixie, in what appeared to be an attempt to comfort her. “The Rainbooms don't deserve to be in the finals.” she said softly and full of concern before she ended the hug and took a step back to get a good look at Trixie and the Illusionists, “Not when your band was so much better in the semis.” Aria then spoke as she stood between Fuchsia and Lavender and looked from one to the other and back, “And you girls clearly wanted it so much more, as you put in 100 %, while the Rainbooms thought they could skirt by thinking they were 20% cooler and put in less effort.” Fuchsia and Lavender then looked from Aria as she was walked to be in front of the three, along with Sonata, and joined with Adagio. The two thought about what Aria said, sure their instruments were samplers, but they poured as much blood, sweat, and tears into them as the Rainbooms, the small calluses forming on their fingers gave it away while Applejack’s and Rainbow’s fingers were immaculate and Pinkie’s hands were devoid of any blisters from her drumsticks. They scowled as they looked at each other in silent agreement that they had been wronged. The Dazzlings then turned to leave Trixie and her bandmates. However, before they left Adagio looked towards the sky, “Alas, this is the way it's going to be.” she said as if she wanted something different before she and her sisters looked at the floor with closed eyes and shook their heads, “Dazzlings vs. Rainbooms.” They sighed and proceed. Sonata stopped for a second and placed her index finger on her bottom lip, not unlike a child in thought, “Unless the Rainbooms don't manage to make it to their set or held up for some reason.” she commented innocently before she joined her sisters. Trixie gave an “Hmm…” of contemplation before she turned to Fuchsia and Lavender and gave a sinister chuckle. This was not unheard by the Dazzlings as they too smiled at the turn of events. The following day at the stage that was set up in the amphitheater for the show cast finale, The Rainbooms were doing some last minute preparation for some pre-show practice. However, Twilight was in a panic as she paced back and forth on the stage that was part of the amphitheater, or rather adjoined to one side of it. As Twilight paced frantically. “This is bad. This is really, really bad. None of the songs we've tried have worked on the Sirens.” The rest of the Rainbooms and Sunset could only look on as they were unable to get her to calm down. “Oh, and I spent a good part of last night and the night before trying to get this counterspell done, and it’s still not finished. I have to get this counterspell done by tonight for sure or we're all DOOMED.” She screamed before Fluttershy walked up to her and placed her hand on Twilight’s shoulder and handed her a paper bag. Fluttershy smiled as she tried to offer some comfort to her friend by addressing the fact that they still had a few options, “But we haven't tried everything y--” She then paused as she noticed that Twilight was too busy hyperventilating into the paper bag that she (Fluttershy) had just given to her and was thus unable to pay Fluttershy the proper amount of attention to hear her pitch. Fluttershy looked left and right with her eyes nervously for a second before she changed tactics. “Um, you can do it, Twilight.” she tried to cheer her friend on. “If anyone can come up with a spell that can defeat the Sirens. It's you.” She then gave a weak and nervous smile. Twilight stopped breathing into the bag and spoke, “Gee, thanks, Fluttershy. No pressure. No pressure at all.” Twilight’s tone was both sarcastic and still panicky before she resumed her hyperventilation into the bag. Fluttershy sighed as she stepped to from Twilight and then rejoined the rest of the band. Applejack played a few notes on her bass just to make sure it was tuned. When she thought her bass was good to go, she spoke up to the rest of band, “Girls, Twilight is getting really round up about this counter-spell.” She turned her gaze to the panicking demigod. “She’s so flustered that she’s starting to make Rarity look sensible.” Rarity gave Applejack an annoyed yet blank stare in response to the paladin’s comment. Applejack either didn’t notice or care as she continued “There's got to be something we can do to help her out.” “Maybe we don't need to write a new song?” Fluttershy offered. “What song can we sing that will rock this place?” Rainbow asked Seriously, because ‘Raise this Barn’, ‘Smile Smile Smile’, ‘Art of the Dress’, ‘So Many Wonders, Morning in Magiville’, ‘What My Aura Mark Is Telling Me’, ‘I've Got to Find a Way’, ‘A True, True Friend’, ‘Life in Mystica’, and ‘Let the Rainbow Remind You’ won’t fight here. We have to rock them.” Rainbow pointed as she listed off a slew of the songs they have performed, many of which during the Musical Thursday of Twilight’s ascension into her current demigod state. “And we already tried all the songs I wrote,” Rainbow added, “expect ‘Awesome As I Wanna Be’” Rainbow then turn her eyes towards Sunset as she continues, “because someone decided to cut it short.” “Well, maybe if we tried a song someone else wrote for a change.” Fluttershy challenged. “No way.” Rainbow declared as she walked away from the band. “And why ever not, Dashie?” Rarity questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Because I'm the only one who has written any songs and because all my songs are the best.” she declared with her arms crossed in front of her chest. Everyone, even Twilight, and Sunset gave Rainbow a clear ‘Are you kidding me?’ look. However, Rainbow remained completely oblivious as she walked up to one of the microphones. “I’m sure she’ll be able to come up with something after one of you calms her down.” Rainbow said as she raised the microphone to be where she wanted it to be so that she could sing and still play her guitar, “I’m going to check the sound system.” She then took the microphone, “Check, one, two. Testing, testing... “ Rainbow then tapped the microphone a couple of times. “Testing…!” Rainbow said with her voice echoing followed by feedback from the microphone, which caused her to cringe at first. Everyone shook their head and gave a groan. Fluttershy sighed, “I don’t why I mean try.” she muttered and then she had a thought, “Hey, does it make sense that we made it to the finals. It doesn’t make sense because we didn’t even finish our last song. How did we make it to the finals?” she asked. “Yes very strange, indeed,” came Trixie’s voice. Everyone then turned to see Trixie, Fuchsia, and Lavender also on the stage but close to backstage controls. Rainbow growled, “What are you doing here, Trixie?” she said, not unlike an animal that found another animal of a different species that competed for the same food source. “Pretty sure the losers are supposed to be in the nosebleed section,” she said as she pointed in the general direction of the top row of seats for the amphitheater. Trixie’s eyes narrowed as she pointed at Rainbow, “The Great and Powerful Trixie is the most talented here. It is I who deserves to be in the finals. And I will not…” she pause as she snapped her fingers as Lavender went to a set of levers. Trixie then finished, “...be denied!” as Lavender pulled a lever. And the curtains came down around the Rainbooms and Sunset which cause them to exclaim in frustration. “WRONG LEVER!” Trixie shouted as Lavender gave a nervous laugh and then pulled the other lever which opened the trap door in the center of the stage. The seven screamed as the fell into the area under the stage and the amphitheater’s arena before the door closed above them. “See you after the show. Losers.” Trixie said as the curtains lifted before she and her bandmates laughed as they left to prepare for the newly opened spot. Witnessing this from one of the middle rows of the amphitheater, were the sirens. Sonata was finished eating a box of popcorn as Aria also finished eating a leg of turkey. Adagio, however, was not eating anything but did finish a glass of red wine. With her wine gone, Adagio started to chuckle, as she turned back to her sisters, “Told you someone would give them a shove. And Trixie was just the one.” Sonata discarded her empty box of popcorn and looked at Aria with confusion, “But she didn't shove them. She snapped her fingers to have one of her bandmates pull a lever.” Adagio facepalmed as Aria groaned as she threw the turkey leg, clean of all meat. “Go back to sleep, Sonata.” she wanted to order. Just then an arrow with a note tied to it struck the floor of the row at Adagio’s feet. She reached down and picked it up, “Well, talk about making a point.” Adagio then took the note off and read it. She started to laugh as she read. She handed the note to Aria. Aria showed the note to Sonata, “Are you sure it’s a good idea to accept the challenge?” “Yeah, we’ve already won,” Sonata added. Adagio turned to face them and shook her head, “Not yet. There is still the pay off from my little spell on Flash.” As the sun was getting close to set, the Dazzlings arrived at a cliff. “So where are they?” Aria asked as she looked around. Sonata then pointed ahead of them, “There they are.” she declared as they saw the Flash Drives waiting for them. The Flash Drives did not have with their instruments but were in their armor, and with their arms at the ready. Brawly wore a golden colored tunic over his shirt and a combination of a gauntlet and a bracer on each of his arms with red focus gems in the palms. He clapped his hands together and cause the gems to glow before he slapped the ground with his right hand, which caused a small earth slide. Valhallen wore mail armor that was also colored gold, in his right hand was a long, composite re-curving bow about his size and in his left hand an arrow ready to be knocked. Ringo’s armor was also mail and was armed with a lucerne hammer. Cherry wore a breastplate and bracers of golden color and wielded a double-headed ax with a fairly long shaft. Mystery floated in the sky with ethereal wings that looked much owl’s. She was dressed in golden colored mail armor with a military fork. Flash, however, was not in his golden colored standard issued armor, instead, he wore the guard expedition outfit that was colored in dull browns and greens and was mostly made of hide and leather. “So, you guys decided to take the phrase literally,” Aria said with a slight moan of boredom in her voice. Adagio started to give a hearty chuckle, “Oh this is sweet. You think you can fight us. You’ll be too busy fight each other.” Adagio’s eyes and her focus gem then glowed and bathed the area in orange light. Back in the area under the amphitheater, where the trap door of the stage lead, the Rainbooms, and Sunset had traversed the network of tunnels that were part of the foundation until they arrived at a door out, but it was locked as Rainbow Dash and Applejack continued to slam into the door trying to break it down. By the looks of the two, they have been at this for a while. Applejack stepped to the side as Rainbow continued to go at the door. “That door’s not going to budge.” Applejack declared. Rainbow, however, continued to ram the door a few more times until it was opened from the outside, and she collided with a foot that was sticking out. Rainbow rolled back in pain. The rest then jumped to their feet as the Sirens stood in the doorway, Aria was lowering her right foot. The three then took one step in. Adagio then strutted forward as she looked at the Rainbooms and Sunset, a triumphant grin on her face, “Well, well, well. Look at what we have here.” She looked at Twilight, “Royalty.” She then turned to Sunset “Nobility”, she then shifted her gaze Rarity and then to Rainbow Dash, “The gentry,” she paused as she looked over Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, “Oh, how quaint, even the rabble.” She then started to laugh and was joined by her sisters. She then stopped and then her sisters, “What fools you are. You thought you could stop us.” Aria then took over, “It’s been fun, girls, but play times over.” “Sowwy!” Sonata added with a mocking form of a childish inability to make an 'r' sound and instead made a ‘w’ sound. “Too bad we were just one step ahead of you, from the start.” Adagio all but chuckled before the three started to laugh again. Sunset then stepped forward to be between the Rainbooms and the Dazzling, more so between Twilight and Adagio. Her focus gem and hands started to glow as she prepared to take Adagio on in a fight, “What do you want?” Sunset asked as flames appeared in her hands. Adagio smiled as she walked up to Sunset and hugged her, “Oh, nothing.” she then ended the hug and walked backward to be aligned with her sisters, “We just wanted to thank you.” Sunset lowered her hands in confusion. She was not the only one, as the Rainbooms looked at each other each wondering if the others had a clue to what Adagio was talking about. The sirens smiled as Adagio spoke, “If it wasn’t for you, well, let’s just say that my sisters and I haven’t eaten this well in over a thousand years.” she said as she licked her lips and Aria gave a very throaty ‘mhmm’ as if they just had a very delicious meal. “Yeah, a good thing, too.” Sonata chimed in before she burped. “Excuse me?” She asked with a blush and a nervous laugh. After Aria and Adagio rolled their eyes, Sonata turned back to the Rainbooms, “Sorry, but totally thankies. Wouldn’t want to put on a show on an empty stomach.” “What are you talking about?” Twilight asked the question on the minds of everyone there. Adagio then smirked, with a clearly malicious undertone to her smirk before she took out from within her cleavage a blood-stained rag and tossed it at Twilight. Twilight then looked at it and saw Flash’s aura mark. It was his shirt and it was covered in blood, much like someone used it to wipe their face like it was a napkin. “No,” Twilight whispered as she fell to her knees in as tears started to form in her eyes. As the others walked to Twilight and looked at the blood-stained tattered remains of Flash’s shirt, Aria spoke up as she leaned against the wall and looked at the opposite one, “The Flash Drives challenged us to a rematch.” The Rainbooms turned to her as they noticed that she had a toothpick. After a second of using it, she threw it the ground. “They actually thought they stood a chance against us.” Aria then turned to face the Rainbooms and smiled, and showed her pearly white teeth. The Rainbooms collectively took a step back. The illustration of the sirens’ teeth found in Bullion’s autobiography did not do the teeth the justice they were due. If anything the illustrations were a stick-figure rendering of them. “You should have heard the way they screamed as we ripped their flesh from their bones.” Aria could not help but laugh as she got off of the wall and stood next to Adagio, “It was music to our ears.” Every one of the Rainbooms (and Sunset), Twilight and Rainbow Dash especially, felt sick by what they just heard. Not just what was the Sirens said, but how casually the Sirens spoke about having killed and eaten the Flash Drives. Rainbow, most noticeably of the group, could taste bile in her mouth, and her face turned a greenish-gray color. “And we saved the cinnamon roll with the blue hair and eyes for dessert,” Sonata added with a big grin on her face, not unlike a child that was just given their favorite dessert simply because their parent wanted to let them have it. “Mmm, so good.” Sonata continued as she rubbed her stomach. She then paused and opened her eyes, “I think I still have some of his marrow stuck between my teeth.” She tapped on Aria’s shoulder, “Hey, Aria, can you check for me?” she asked as she opened her mouth to show her pearly white teeth, which matched her sister ’s, point for point. Aria sighed as she looked into Sonata’s mouth and looked at each and every tooth she could see from her angle. “You’re good,” Aria answered with her tone saturated with annoyance with her younger sister. Sonata closed her mouth and jumped into the air once as if she was cheering for herself. None of the Rainbooms found the action amusing, Twilight least of all. She started to breathe through her nose as if to contain her ire. However, that failed as her eyes shot open and were glowing fields of purple, even with tears starting to trickle from the corners. In addition to her eyes, her focus gem, her hands and the stars of her metallic wings, also glowed the same brilliant purple. “MURDERER!” she roared as she rushed Adagio. Adagio smirked as she sidestepped Twilight, grabbed the demigod by the wrist and tossed her (Twilight) back into the Rainbooms with a shocking great amount of force and almost no effort on her part. The impact forced all of them to the ground. Adagio smirked as she looked at the toppled demigod and her fallen friends. “We’d love to stay and chat, but we’ve got THE final number to prepare.” The three then started out, however, Adagio stopped and turned back before she exited. She looked at Twilight straight on. “Oh, and by the way, you were right about there something being wrong with that little boy toy of yours.” Adagio’s focus gem then glowed as did her irises, her irises taking on the same shade of orange as her focus gem. “Me.” Twilight FINALLY saw the color change and realized that she had been seeing the same thing happen to Flash repeatedly for the past two days. She and the rest of the Element Bearers were frozen from the shock. Sunset, however, could only look at the floor, her guilt written all over her face. Adagio noticed the change in Sunset’s demeanor, but she elected to put the information to the side as something she might be able to use later. However, she did laugh and broke the Rainbooms from their frozen state. “You want to know what the funniest part of all this is?” She asked rhetorically and mockingly, “It’s that he died trying to prove himself worthy of you, but all along, the truth was that you weren’t worthy of him.” The words cut Twilight worse than any sword. “If you were, you would have figured all this out sooner.” Adagio cackled evilly as she walked out of the space. “Bye-Bye,” Sonata said as she waved to them as Aria slammed the door shut and locked it. Outside, as Adagio cast a locking spell, Sonata turned to Aria, “Say, can I have the one with cotton candy hair, she looks like she’ll taste super duper sweet.” Aria rolled her eyes, “Sure, you can have the butterfly too as far as I care, as long as I get the paladin and the elementalist. Unlike you, I like to have protein not fat in my meals” Aria then turned to Adagio, “Hey Dagi, any one of them in particular you want?" “I’m not deaf.” Adagio groaned. She then turned back to the locked door and the ones inside, “I’m taking the demigod.” “Okay,” Aria agreed to it, almost apathetically as she shrugged her shoulders. “Why does she get the demigod? It’s not fair.” Sonata pouted with puffed out cheeks. Aria rolled her eyes and sighed, “When you come up with an idea that enables us to trap a demigod or something more powerful you can have that.” Aria turned to Adagio who nodded in agreement, which brought a big closed-eyed toothy grin to Sonata’s face. Adagio and Aria both shook their heads at their sister’s action. Aria then thought about the other two trapped in there. She then addressed Adagio about them, “So are you going to have some bacon with her?” “And some drama.” Adagio said with a chuckle and licked her lips at the thought of her impending meal, “But we got to get ready for our big number.” Adagio then lead the way away as Sonata and Aria laughed as well. Back inside the locked room, Twilight got up and noticed that the guilty look Sunset had. Twilight then looked at the rag and thought back at what Adagio said about Flash being under her influence, “Please tell me that you didn’t know?” Twilight pleaded, hoping that her inference was wrong. Sunset couldn’t face Twilight as she spoke, “I found out yesterday,” Sunset confessed. Twilight dropped to her knees, horrified about what she was told. Sunset continued, “I thought about telling you, but you already had so much on your plate with, well, the counterspell and your friends' bickering. I thought that if I kept you from worrying about it, we could have defeated the sirens in time to break him free before anything bad happened.” “Well, now he’s DEAD, and I’m NEVER going to get to see him or talk to him again, and the LAST thing I’m ever going to remember about him was that he got angry with me ALL BECAUSE OF THAT HARLOT!” Twilight shouted back at Sunset as her anger and sorrow grew as she spoke, however, her sorrow overpowered her anger as she then collapsed to the ground, curled into the fetal position, and wept while she still held Flash’s shirt. Sunset could only look at the ceiling at a lost of what the seven could do.