Chapter 11
Back in their neighborhood, (which, by this point, they completely controlled,) the Dazzlings were talking…well, more like Adagio scolding while the other two listened. “How could you two be so incompetent! Do you realize how much harder it is going to be to get close to them now?”
“But, so much happened so quick,” whined Sonata.
“Hey, being so close to them, they thought me my double,” protested Aria, “That Rainbow Dash had me wrapped into things before I could blink!”
“Shut…UP!” screamed Adagio, “I can’t trust you two. I’m going to have to do this myself. Just stay here and try not to hurt yourselves! Wait… On second thought, stay with me. You might just blow up the building while I’m gone.”
With that, they reluctantly followed Adagio, not sure what to say.
As the day went, Midsummer’s Dream discussed how to try to keep it from being just another cover band. “Well, we do know how to dance,” pondered Cabaletta, “We can add some dance numbers and singing to some prerecorded music.”
“And it has to be done by us,” added Jack, “It has to be our show, not who we emulate.”
“And we also have to be characters of one sort or another,” Andante realized, “It worked that way for Sha-Na-Na, so we have to be the same. We can add some comedy links between songs.”
Cantata thought and said, “Hey, can you set your guitars so you can dance while you sing?”
“Wait,” Starlight jumped in, “I’m no dancer. You three…well just what do you do?”
“Ballet,” the three said, and Andante added, “We also do modern as well.”
“That’s way out of my league,” sighed Starlight, and Jack said, “That counts me out as well.”
“We can teach you,” interjected Andante, “but how willing are you to learn?”
The two just shrugged, not comfortable to where this was going. Andante then said, “That other group did it. And if we put our guitars up on our chests where they are supposed to be, we can keep them tight and turn some dance steps as well.”
“Sounds to me like this is going to be a lot of work,” sighed Jack.
“We have a couple of weeks,” answered Sonata, “Andante has a room in her house that she uses to practice dance. We can get together and teach you. Let’s say we learn the numbers we want for the shows in the morning, dance in the afternoon, and then see how we can link the numbers with funny things depending on the song after dinner. We can do that at the Sip & Sing when we meet up with the others. Who knows? Maybe they could give us ideas.”
The trio was all a twitter now on what to do, but the other two just looked at each other with much doubt, wondering if this dancing thing was going to go well for them.
The Rainbooms, however, were practicing their songs for the festival, doing their songs, and even deciding on a cover or two as well, being inspired by their new friends. But, Sunset was worried. The Dazzlings were afoot and plotted something. In fact, as they practiced, her pondering this caused them to have to stop and get Sunset back on track. “Hey, what’s going on?” protested Dash, “Get your head in this.”
“Sorry,” groaned Sunset, “I can’t stop thinking about the Dazzlings and their interest in the other…well, Dazzlings; I don’t know what to call them. Anyway, they have to be plotting something.”
“Honestly, darling,” interjected Rarity, “You are putting far too much worry into this. They had their power taken. What could they do now?”
“Yeah,” added AJ, “Ah mean, all they could do is be an annoyance.”
“It has to be more than that,” protested Sunset, “Otherwise, they wouldn’t dare show their faces around here. They were pretty humiliated after the battle of the bands.”
“Do you think they could have gotten their power back?” asked Twilight, “I mean, look what happened to us?”
Sunset pondered that, and then said, “It’s possible; anything is possible since Equestrian magic has been springing up randomly now, and with no idea how.”
“Let’s hope not,” groaned Sunset, having to agree, “It’s bad enough as it is, and would be worse if that is the case.”
After a pause, “Nonetheless, we can’t do anything about it this second, so, I’ll try to stay focused, and let’s get to work.”
They all nodded and went back to playing, Sunset trying to put the situation out of her mind.
That afternoon, Midsummer’s dream all headed to Andante’s house to start teaching them dancing. Her dance room was in the basement of the house with a couple of small windows to let in some sunlight but was also well lit for their purposes. However, they were being watched. Outside of one of those small windows, bellies on the ground and bunched together were the Dazzlings, listening as best they could through the glass. Adagio was taking mental notes and reminding the other two to watch their counterparts closely. At the same time, at the very least, they had to agree that they were getting a show. The trio was teaching the basics to Jack and Starlight, the two of them looking as out of place as an actual human in Equestria. Things were fine as they learned the five basic positions, but then looked like a couple of stumbling orangutans trying to imitate human dancers as they started on actual dance steps. The two of them looked lost and miserable as things went on, and Andante had a look on her face that seemed to say, “Oh goodness, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”
The two then looked as if they were protesting, not sure this would work, but Andante looked very consoling, Cabaletta acting like Dash when she did come coaching, and Cantata being encouraging with some effervescence and energy. Adagio was taking this all in, hoping the other two were paying attention. However, she was sadly disappointed as Aria was napping and Sonata was messing with her phone. She smacked the two in the head and growled, “Pay attention! We have to learn all we can.”
“And I’m just curious as to what it is you want to learn?” asked a stern voice from behind them. The three jumped up in a start and started to fall over one another as if the Three Stooges as they saw the cop that had spotted them all bunched in on the window. He then said, “You three had better have a good explanation.”
At first, they tried, but then they remembered their new power and started to sing a bit of music and suddenly stood the cop still. The cop then grinned and said, “And just how can I help you, ladies?”
“Um, why don’t you just go and patrol, officer,” said Adagio slyly, a smirk on her face, “We have to keep the neighborhood safe, don’t we?”
“Of course, my mistresses,” he said contentedly, and went back to patrolling. She then looked at the other two and said, “Come on, I have enough. Let’s lay low and start to put it together for what we do next.”
However, before they could go, they heard the group come outside to talk, and they quickly dove into the bushes. They then overheard them talking about the upcoming festival, and once Adagio heard this, the wheels in her head started turning. Once they went back in, the three took off as Adagio said, “I think we know what we can do, and that boy might be the key.”
They then sauntered off, Adagio rubbing her hands and giggling evilly.
Two weeks passed, and the two had started to learn some dance steps, and better than what they figured they could do. It appeared that the two were more naturals at that than they had thought. At this moment, however, they came to the high school gym to perform for Celestia and Luna to see if they were good enough to play for the festival. The Rainbooms also came, and the two principals were looking at them, and Celestia said, “Well, Miss Dash, I certainly think you girls are good enough to get in. I mean, we’ve already seen and heard you play plenty of times.”
They blushed lightly, but Fluttershy quietly interjected, “Um, well…if you don’t mind my saying, um, we, ah, it would only be fair to anyone else trying out.”
Luna then said, “Well said, Fluttershy. Besides, it would be nice to hear you play in any case.”
Celestia then noticed the others and noticed the costumes reflecting different genres of the eras they played: the 70s hippy, punk, glam, pop, and classic rock. “Well, that’s an interesting look,” said Celestia, “And you are?”
“Midsummer’s dream,” said Andante, “We’re the Sha-Na-Na of the 70s and 80s.”
“Interesting,” said Luna, “This ought to be interesting. Would you like to go first?”
“You can let the others go first,” said Andante, “We just want to go over things one more time, if that’s okay.”
“Sound’s alright,” answered Celestia, “Ladies?” and then she gestured to the stage so they could set up. Once having set up, the six had decided to take a page out of Midsummer’s Dream book and learned, “We’ve Got the Beat.”
They played it masterfully and with a lot of energy, enjoying every minute. Once done, Luna and Celestia then said, “Excellent, ladies! That’s just what we would expect from you. We can have you take the first two sets of the festival days.”
The girls cheered, happy to see that they still had their edge and they were looking forward to it. With that, Midsummer’s Dream set up, but they did not look as confident. They had rehearsed like crazy, but this would be the first time they had played before an audience, even though it was just an audience of two.
While they set up, the Dazzlings had come to see just what those, well, who they considered impostors, were going to do. If they were going to put their plan into place, they were going to have to catch their styles of music and imitate the singing. They had to be the perfect doppelgangers.
Luna and Celestia, however, saw their styles, and their minds went back to their own youths, the music that the girls were playing being that which they heard in school. Their minds started to remember some of the pop, the ballads, the fun rock and roll, and they were expecting something pleasant. But, in the next moment, they both looked like someone had snapped them both in the fanny with a wet towel as Cantata started to rip into the drums, followed by Sunset kicking in with a loud and hard rhythm guitar, taking up a good blues progression. They started with the song “Rock and Roll” as sung by Cabaletta. Without missing a beat, they jumped right into the song called “Sheer Heart Attack,” which had a much faster pace. For this one, Jack left behind the keyboard and took the frontman spot. At the bridge, Jack started doing what looked like a native American dance up and down the stage, and then finished the song abruptly, just as the original had done. Luna and Celestia sat there, mouths agape, eyes wide. The band now looked at one another, wondering if they had messed this thing all up. “Well, um, that was…” Celestia started to stutter out, and then continued, “Unexpected, but, I cannot say that it was bad at all.”
“To be honest,” added Luna, “We really were expected something softer.”
“Oh, we can do almost all the styles of those decades,” assured Andante, “We will be ready.”
The two began to quietly discuss the matter, and they then said, “We’ll give you the afternoon and twilight sets. We have a special guest for the evening.”
“Oh, so much fun!” exclaimed Pinkie, “Who is it going to be?”
“That’s a surprise!” said Celestia, “You’ll have to wait.”
“Oh poo,” muttered Pinkie, “I hate to wait.”
The Dazzlings, watching from their hiding place, was now in a quandary. Sonata said, “Um, I really don’t think that’s our style.”
Adagio rolled her eyes and said, “Of course not, you dolt! That just means we’ve got some work to do. We’re going to have to expand our repertoire. We have two weeks. We’d better get back to our place and start looking up music. If we’re going to get this done, we have to be like them in every aspect we possibly can.”
Later, at the Sip & Sing, the two groups were celebrating the victory of the day. They even chuckled how Trixie had hammed it up at the tryouts and yet got to do the lunchtime set with her magic act. Pinkie then piped up and said, “So, do you think the Dazzlings liked what we did?”
They all stopped as if they had been shocked with a livewire as Sunset said, “Wait, you knew they were there and didn’t say anything. Why didn’t you tell us?”
“You never asked,” she said cheerfully but matter-of-fact as she took a sip of her coffee.
“But, they’re such meanies,” whined Fluttershy all concerned, “They keep showing up. They’re up to something.”
“But, didn’t you say that they have no more power?” asked Starlight in response, “What do we have to fear?”
Sunset sighed and had to concede, “Yeah, you’re right. They can be pests, but they can’t hurt anyone.”
“I bet they’re just curious about you three,” said Twilight, pointing to their doppelgangers, “I bet they don’t understand about the parallel universe thing or know about doubles.”
Rarity raised her cup and said, “Let us just worry about our upcoming shows and not think anything about it. They can only annoy us. What harm can they do?”
Back at the Dazzlings’ apartment, (which, by this point, was decked out in the manner of a mansion with all the best things money could by, all because of their new gifts), a knock came to the door. Adagio got up and answered, signed for it, and men came in with crates. Sonata was lost on what was going on as Adagio got the men to bust them open for them and haul away the packing. In the crates were instruments: there were a drum kit, a bass, and a guitar. Aria rolled her eyes, and she said, “We don’t know how to play these. I mean, we never learned because we never needed to learn. Why learn now?”
Adagio growled and said, “Because, if we’re going to put our plan into the action, we have to be able to fool everyone into thinking we are those three imposters.”
“Yeah, right!” sighed Aria with some angst, “As if we’re going to play like that in a couple of weeks.”
Adagio just stood quiet and tapped her toe in the ground in frustration. She said plainly, “With what we can do now with our powers, we can play like garbage and make them think we’re ELO!”
Sonata thought about this and then said, “We’re going to make them think we’re the Elephant Lover’s Organization?”
Adagio then said through her teeth, “You know, you have an IQ number of a two, and it takes an IQ of three to be able to scream in pain.”
“So, what do we do now?” asked Aria, interjecting before things get ugly.
“We start to learn the music they’re into and try to imitate it as best we can,” answered Adagio as she pulled out instruction manuals and a computer program that turns playing music into a game, “This thing will speed us up some, and it will help us be passable enough to get things done.”
“So, what’s this big plan you keep talking about?” asked Sonata.
“We’re going to seduce that boy with them and get rid of the others,” responded Adagio, “That Starlight girl, well, we’ll just have to string her along until we get things set.”
She then got a smirk on her face as Sonata then asked, “And then what?”
“Then we take this lousy world, and then we go back and get revenge on Starswirl, or if not him, if he’s not around, then his little nasty fangirl!”
She started to rub her hands and seemed to be resisting something. She then stopped and said, “Ah, what the hey,” and started to let off an evil cackle. Sonata began to join in as Aria watched and then said, “Ah well, it’s corny, but why not,” and joined in. Soon, the world would know the wrath of the sirens when they had vengeance on their minds.