"Darling, you have no idea. I worked all weekend on our outfits." Rarity started driving. "Not only will they look divine, but in case we pony up—further in my case—they should still look perfect. How did you feel today?"
Surprised by the question, Sonata pondered it. "I guess better than usual. It's like all the power I ever had as a siren, but nice. Is this what friendship is?"
Rarity had a fair idea that friendship was exactly what Sonata was feeling. She was still a little worried how Sonata would take knowing her gem was feeding again, even if the source was far more benevolent. "Absolutely. Knowing you are secure and knowing you have a future is a powerful feeling. Has anything else happened?"
Sonata's free hand reached up to her neck. "That creep didn't come back, thankfully, but it still worries me I have my gem again. What if I start getting power?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Do you trust me, Sonata?" Rarity turned a corner onto the road her parents' house was on.
Caught with a mouthful of taco, Sonata chewed and swallowed just as Rarity pulled into her home. "I trust you more than I trust myself. So I guess that's a yes?"
And I trust you, Sonata Dusk, Rarity thought. "Come on in, darling. I have a big night planned, and it wouldn't be complete without you."
Discussions of weighty topics that didn't involve fashion had to wait. In no time (but actually about an hour) Sonata and Rarity were dressed up, their makeup was done, and both were in the highest of spirits. Back in the car again, and they were driving to the stadium where the concert was, when Sonata had a strange feeling.
"What if we do transform?" Sonata asked.
Twitching her ears for good effect, Rarity squeezed Sonata's leg—where her hand had been resting almost the whole drive. "Not that I can be anything but a pony, but if we change, we change. No one has shown much inclination to do anything silly about it in the past."
"Except for Twilight. She hid in the shop the other day while some people tried to find her. They thought she was an animal." Sonata put her hand on Rarity's, thankful for the contact.
"Sonata, how big are sirens in Equestria?" Rarity asked.
Distracted by some very nice squeezing, Sonata Dusk raced to think of an answer. "Well, we were about ten times the size of a pony."
"And you think someone will try to capture you as a pet? If anything, I expect you to be my bodyguard. My brave siren lover who keeps me from harm." Pausing a moment and looking around, Rarity let out an indignant sigh. "Drat. I can't really do a dramatic faint while driving."
The situation made Sonata giggle almost uncontrollably. She leaned sideways and rest her head against Rarity's shoulder, trying to avoid smudging her makeup, of course. "Where were you a thousand years ago?"
"I'm here now, and I'll be here tomorrow. That's all I can promise." Rarity turned into some heavy traffic, which it turned out was heading to the concert as well. "Would you have been able to do this a thousand years ago?"
"No. Adagio kept a close eye on us. It took me two hundred years to get out from under her thumb enough to even find a lover she didn't find the need to mind-control. Those weren't happy times." Sonata felt a soft touch on her leg again, and let out a happy sigh. Rarity had made her the shortest of short skirts on the premise that her legs were fantastic, and as much of them as possible should be shown off. Her top was a soft pink shirt to compliment her blue skin. She had cleavage that Rarity had chosen to show off, and that Sonata had been more than happy to let her.
The traffic was slow, but it still got them a park and into the venue before the show started. Wearing a long mauve dress with a light blue shirt, Rarity too showed off her assets—she particularly liked how Sonata's eyes kept being snared by them. They were waiting at a door to get in when she felt a hand tap her shoulder.
Turning, Rarity was looking at just about the biggest man she'd ever seen in her life. Not just tall, he was wide in the shoulders unlike any she knew. "Yes?" Rarity asked.
"Please follow me, ladies," the big man in a Security shirt said.
"What's this about? We were just about to go in." Nonetheless, Rarity followed the apparently untalkative man. Turning to Sonata, she cover her mouth with one hand. "Do you know what's going on?"
"In here," big, wide, and muscled said.
As Rarity stepped into the room, she suddenly relaxed. "Vinyl! Darling!"
"Hey, Rarity. You came to see us?" Vinyl wasn't just nervous, she was about ready to explode. When she'd seen Rarity on a security screen, she'd asked one of the bouncers to fetch her. "Sonata?"
"Of course." Rarity crooked her elbow and was happy when Sonata stepped up beside her and took it. "Don't you have to get ready?"
"Too nervous. Have you seen how many people are out there?" Vinyl jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "It has to be half the city!"
Octavia, already wearing her tight outfit that showed off almost everything, walked up behind Vinyl and put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Vinyl. It will be exactly as we practiced. Please put your outfit on, DJ-Pon-3."
Rarity watched as, behind Vinyl's special glasses, the woman's eyes hardened. "Would you like some help dressing?"
"You're on in fifteen!" someone yelled.
"You probably should get some help." Lemon Zest was already in her outfit, though unlike Octavia she had her hood on. "We are going to pound this audience to pieces!"
Following directions, Vinyl stripped down to her panties and then started stepping into her outfit—DJ-Pon-3's outfit. Hand pulled the tight outfit over her hips, up her torso, and she didn't even blush as glossy black hands cupped her breasts and helped them find the support in the suit. Vinyl looked up at Octavia to see her friend smiling back.
"Are you ready to play, DJ-Pon-3?" Octavia asked.
"Absolutely, Hind." Someone lifted her glasses free and pulled the hood over Vinyl's head, and for a moment there was darkness. When she could see again, it was through the special goggles that covered her eyes. Vinyl Scratch was a repressed and quiet girl who could barely get a word out when music wasn't involved, but DJ-Pon-3 was the leader of a band that was getting more famous by the minute. "Come on, let's—"
"Yo! Canterlot! I know you're all here to see me, but I have the greatest thing ever to warm you up!" Countess Coloratura's voice—amplified—was loud enough to stop all conversation. "They're just about ready, but let me tell you a little story about how I found them."
Vinyl felt excitement burn through her. Getting announced by Coloratura personally was pretty big. She grabbed her black guitar and slung it on. The weight rested well on her shoulder while she plugged in the wireless connection for it.
"First, Coloratura was just a girl with views of bright lights. She wanted to be something, but nothing seemed to fit. Then she heard a Nightmare." Music blasted from the speakers outside the dressing room.
"That's Luna's music," Octavia said.
"She started a fire inside me that still burns!" Coloratura had a roar come back at her from the crowd. "But my Nightmare had to fly her own path. Let me tell you, Canterlot, the Nightmare still lives among you, and she visited me last week with her foals."
"We gotta move!" Lemon shouted.
Together, Vinyl, Octavia, and Lemon rushed down the hall and left Rarity and Sonata behind.
"So I give you a new Nightmare. I give you the Shadowcolts!" Coloratura felt the screams of the crowd pour over her. This was her drug, her reason to be. Without even looking she held a hand out to gesture behind her. "I didn't hear you. How about you welcome the Shadowcolts properly?!"
Looking through her prescription goggles, Vinyl walked up beside Coloratura. She touched just one finger to a string and heard the softest buzz through the huge stacks of speakers—her instrument was live. DJ-Pon-3 was here.
DJ-Pon-3 looked to Coloratura as the thunder of thousands of voices broke over them. When Coloratura nodded, DJ-Pon-3 brought her right hand up and down on the strings. The note should have been pure and untouched, but it fed through the mix desk that Hind was sitting behind.
A shriek of pain lanced through the stadium. Thunder grabbed the mic and brought it to her mask. "This will hurt you a little, but you will enjoy it." Her voice dripped promise. Then they started to play.
"Here. These are yours. I'll escort you out to the front," the Security guy from earlier said.
Rarity and Sonata took VIP passes from the mountain-wearing-a-shirt and followed him out of the dressing room through a different door to Vinyl, Octavia, and Lemon. The music of the Shadowcolts still hit the pair as they stepped out into the crowd.
They were led to the front of the fence that separated the crowd from the stage, and then their escort turned and left them.
The music had harsh undertones that caused Rarity's ears to tuck back—but not down. It was loud and brash, but it also had a rhythm that got into her head and wouldn't quit.
Like a jolt of electricity, magic lanced between the three on stage, and then between Rarity and Sonata. Not slowing their playing in the slightest, the Shadowcolts nonetheless grew pony ears and—as if the magic knew the theme they were going for—manes of cobalt blue that shimmered down their backs.
Rarity felt her feet reshape into hooves, a horn stretch from the top of her forehead, and a tail sprout behind her. To her side, Sonata grew her own pony ears, but that was where the similarities to ponies ended. Shimmering diaphanous wings spread behind Sonata, and her gemstone began to pulse in time to the shifting beat of the music.
Glad to have Rarity close by her side, Sonata felt relaxed despite her change. She was closer to her ancient heritage, but at the same time she had never felt so far from being a siren. Still, she could feel energy pooling around her and pouring into her gem.
Turning when she felt a tug on her arm, Rarity saw a confused look on Sonata's face. She put an arm around the siren and squeezed her in a hug. "You just noticed?!"
Sonata Dusk almost jumped with surprise. "You knew?!" When Rarity nodded, Sonata pulled her hand up and covered her gem—it still throbbed with power. "How can I stop it?!"
Leaning over, Rarity pressed her short snout to Sonata's ear. "You don't. You share it."
Tilting her head at the ticklish touch, Sonata managed to shake her head a little. "I'll stick to not making slaves of the whole audience!"
At the back of the stadium—farthest from the stage—Adagio and Aria each had one arm around Nolan. The young man was in his own little version of bliss. He swayed out of time with the music being played, his mind twisted into knots by the song on his earbuds.
"Got the song that makes you lose it."
Nolan just smiled into space, his mind trapped in a loop of reward for doing what his goddesses want.
"We say 'jump', you say 'how high?'"
"I can feel it here. There's magic." Adagio's hand strayed to her throat where her gem should be. "I thought you said Sonata got her gem back when she went to their concert?" Adagio poked Nolan in the ribs to get his attention, then yanked away one of the earbuds. "Where's my gem, wizeass?"
"Put your hands up to the sky."
"Adagio! He told us everything he knows. You saw him, if there's more, it's not in his head." Aria pulled at Nolan, yanking him away from Adagio. She popped the missing earbud into his ear. "What did you expect, we come here and just magically get all our power back?"
"You didn't know that you fell.'
Angry on top of disappointed, Adagio glared at the pony-eared girls on stage. Even if everyone in the whole stadium had been furious, she still couldn't have drunk a drop of them—she needed her gem. She snarled and reached out to snatch the earbud from Nolan's ear again. "This is all your fault. Go punch one of the guys in black."
"Now that you're under our spell."
"Adagio! You promised!" Trying to restrain Nolan, Aria glared at her sister.
"You didn't know that you fell."
"Why're you so attached to it? You're worse than Sonata sometimes." Adagio glared at Aria a moment longer before she realized if she drove Aria away, she'd be alone in this. "Ugh! Alright! Hey, worm." She grabbed Nolan's jaw and turned him to look at her. "You belong to Aria now, okay? She owns you and has to take care of you."
"Now that you're under our… spell."
Turning to his new and sole mistress, Nolan North tried to drop to his knees only to be held upright by Aria. "What do you want me to do, goddess?" In his ears, the song finished and changed to the next one. A more certain beat, confidence oozed from the music and into his head.
Soft crooning calmed Nolan down, cemented the last command firmly in his head. He wasn't completely brain-dead, he could infer that he was now Aria's pet. It made him happy to know he belonged to a goddess.
"How did Sonata's gem grow back? Remember back to the concert. Was anything different there?" Aria shuddered at the devotion she saw in Nolan's eyes—she hadn't felt its like in over a thousand years. The ancient beast stirred inside her and bulged against the thin veneer of modern civility. She breathed in the freedom Nolan gave to her, and reached a hand up to rub the back of his neck like a dog.
"Welcome to the show."
"There—There was more. Everyone became pony girls and boys. And—And there were others on stage. They had tails, and horns, and huge wings." The words floated from Nolan's memory. He found it easier to think with only one goddess controlling him—one mind to control his.
"We're here to let you know."
"Really? So these three might not be able to do it. We need to get to—" Words died in Aria's throat. She gulped away the bad feeling to the pit of her stomach. "It was the Rainbooms, wasn't it?"
"Our time is now."
"Yes! That's who it was. They made my head tingle, but not like you make it tingle. I had to listen to your songs all day after to feel good again, but I did." Nolan North leaned into Aria Blaze's touch, his mind fogging at the skin-on-skin contact of a goddess.
"Your time is running out."
"Good boy, Nolan. When we get home you're going to do so many things for me." Aria ran her fingers up and down Nolan's neck like she were walking them along a page. "Come on, we're leaving."
Adagio hadn't been paying attention to Area or Nolan, instead she'd been listening to the music. It wouldn't do for siren-song—there wasn't any vocals in it—but it made her foot tap. Then she realized Aria was leading the way back to the exit behind them. "Hey! Where are you going?"
"Feel the wave of sound."
"I got what we needed. Come on, Adagio. While you were ogling the girls on stage, I was getting useful information. This isn't what we're after." Aria leaned in and kissed Nolan on the cheek. "That is, if you want to get your gem back."
"As it crashes down."
Blinking at the apparent shift in power, Adagio bit her lower lip in thought. Leaving her now could mean I get my gem back alone, or she gets hers back alone, Adagio thought, I can't afford to risk that. "Coming!"
"You can't turn away."
Nolan couldn't be happier. His goddess made sure he knew he'd done well, and that made the music even stronger in his head. He could never turn away from her—he wanted to stay with her forever.
"We'll make you wanna stay."