Several hours has passed since the group was trapped underneath the stage, and they could now hear Trixie and the Illusionists playing above them.
There was absolutely no way the group could get out and the only possible exit was a door that led to underneath the stage, but it couldn't be opened from the inside.
At one point, Rainbow Dash asked Sonic If he could break the door down, but the former hedgehog turned it down, saying he didn't want to risk the possibility of him hurting someone who could be on the other side.
Sonic did try to tell the girls that he could simply use chaos control to teleport them out, but every time he tried to everyone, they could interrupt him, and this went on until he gave up trying to tell them and ended up taking a nap and occasionally tossing a chaos emerald into the air before catching it to pass the time.
Right now, Rainbow Dash was ramming into the steel door with her shoulder as hard as she could, but no matter how hard she tried, the door wouldn't budge.
"Just give it up, Rainbow." Applejack said, "You've been at this for the last couple minutes. We're stuck in here."
"You know, I could just-" Sonic tried to say, but was cut off by Twilight.
"It won't even matter." Twilight muttered in an upset tone, "I don't think my counter-spell would have worked anyway..."
"I'm sure it would have worked." Sunset said, trying to cheer Twilight up.
"Well, it would have if a certain band member didn't keep tryin' to hog all the spotlight." Applejack grumbled as she leered at Rainbow Dash.
"Ok, you guys don't need to get all cryptic." Rainbow Dash said, "Just tell Twilight not to get all caught up trying to be the leader of the band."
Everyone (except Twilight) facepalmed at Rainbow Dash's obliviousness.
"I was talking about you, Rainbow Dash." Applejack said.
"Me!?" Rainbow Dash asked angrily, "I'm trying to make my band rock as hard as we can!"
"OUR BAND!" Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity shouted simultaneously.
"This may have been your idea to start a band, but it's not just your band, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack argued.
"I'm the one who writes all the songs!" Rainbow Dash countered.
"I write songs!" Fluttershy yelled, "You just never want us to play them!"
"And I had the perfect outfits for us to wear!" Rarity said.
"Rarity, no one cares about the costumes!" Applejack yelled, "That's how our first round nearly ended in disaster!"
"That wasn't my fault!" Rarity yelled back, "And at least I seem to care about giving some creative contribution!"
"Hey, anybody here remember the fun!?" Pinkie shouted, "I'll give you a hint: IT'S THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE RAINBOOMS!"
As the five girls continued to argue, Sonic and Sunset noticed a blueish-green mist emirate from the girls began it was seemingly sucked upwards through the wooden ceiling.
When Sunset noticed that the Dazzling began their performance, she let out a gasp before exclaiming, "Girls, stop arguing! This is what the Dazzlings wanted all this time! They're already feeding off your magic!"
Hearing this made the five bandmates stop.
"But how?" Applejack asked, "It's the magic of friendship. There's nothin' negative about it."
Sunset looked at Twilight, but she appeared to be upset about her failure to stop the sirens. When she looked at Sonic, the former hedgehog gestured her to continue.
Taking the hint, Sunset said, "Ever since you started this band, you've been letting little things get to you. I never said anything 'cause I didn't feel like it was my place, not when I was so new to this whole "friendship" thing. I still have a lot to learn, but I do know that if you don't work out even the smallest problems right at the start, the magic of friendship can be turned into something else."
Twilight looked at Sunset in surprise. She couldn't believe it, she had been so worked up trying to figure out the counter-spell, she didn't even pay attention to all the arguing the girls were in.
"I can't believe I didn't see any of this." Twilight said, "I was supposed to be the one with all the answers after everything I've been through in the past, but all I've done was let you all down."
"No one has the answers, Twilight." Sonic said as he placed a hand on the former alicorn's shoulder, "You can't expect yourself to come across a problem and always know how to solve it."
"He does have a point, Twilight." Sunset said, "But you can count on your friends to help you find them."
After letting Sonic's and Sunset's words sink in, Twilight smiled before saying, "You're right! C'mon! We need to get out of here!"
With that said, Twilight began to make her way to the door, prompting the others to follow her.
Before she could reach it however, the door suddenly opened, revealing Spike on the other side.
"Spike!" Sonic and Twilight exclaimed as they ran up to the former dragon.
"Sorry I took so long." Spike apologized, "I had to find somebody who wasn't under the sirens' spell to help me get you out."
After Spike said that, he gestured towards Vinyl, who waved at the group.
"Why isn't she under their spell?" Twilight asked.
"Never takes off her headphones." Spike responded simply.
"Come on!" Applejack exclaimed, "Time to prove we've still got the magic of friendship inside us!"
"And there's only one way to do it!" Twilight said making Pinkie gasp in excitement.
"We're getting the band back together?" Pinkie asked happily.
"We're getting our band back together!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"Ooh, which version of the counter-spell are we going to play?" Rarity asked.
"I don't think it matters what song we play, as long as we play it together as friends." Twilight said.
"I know just the song." Rainbow Dash said, getting everyone's attention, "Fluttershy wrote a really great one."
Hearing this made Flutyershy squee in excitement.
"We're about to save the world here, personally, I think we should do it in style." Applejack before turning towards Rarity, "Rarity?"
"I thought you'd never ask!" Rarity said happily before she pulled a mobile hanger she had brought with her earlier that had the outfits she designed for her and the group for the finals.
"You girls go ahead and get ready, I'll check the sirens and see if I can stop them from getting any more energy." Sonic said.
With the rest of the group nodding in understanding, Sonic quickly made his way to the stage.
Barely arriving to the stage, Sonic realized he was too late as he saw the sirens hovering in the air as the pendants they wore were shining bright red, engulfing them as they began to transform.
"Crud, I'm too late!" Sonic said to himself, "I've got to stop them before they get the chance to finish whatever it is they're about to do!"
With that in mind, Sonic shot a chaos spear at each of the sirens, but they were simply absorbed by the red glow surrounding them.
"...That can't be good." Sonic to himself as he took a step back.
The red veil that surrounded suddenly shattered, it revealed that the sirens underwent a transformation similar to one the Twilight and the Rainbooms did when they fought Sunset.
The sirens grew equine ears on top of their heads, their hair grown out longer to form tails, but on their backs were fins in the shape of wings nearly similar to their original forms back in equestria.
The transformed sirens turned towards Sonic with smirks on their faces.
"Thanks for giving more energy, blue boy." Adagio said, "In fact, we'd appreciate it if you have us more."
"In your dreams I will!" Sonic yelled before quickly turning into his super form (gaining his hedgehog ears and tail when he did so).
"How about we make that dream a reality." Adagio said before she, Aria, and Sonata began to sing against, attempting to put Super Sonic under their spell.
Knowing what they were up to, Super Sonic covered his ears, managing to cover them well enough that he couldn't hear the sirens' song.
Not wasting time, Super Sonic attempted to hit the sirens with a spindash, but they managed to move out of the way.
Stopping himself from crashing into the stage, Super Sonic turned to face the sirens when his arms were grabbed by Aria and Sonata, who held him in place.
Super Sonic tried to free himself by pulling away, but the two transformed sirens were stronger than they seemed.
With Super Sonic trapped in their grasp, the sirens began to sing again, causing the super charged former hedgehog to struggle both internally and externally.
'Crud!' Super Sonic exclaimed in his head, 'Come on Sonic, don't let them get to you! Don't... let... them...!'
As the sirens continued their attempt to put Super Sonic under their control, they suddenly heard singing that didn't come from them.
Looking towards a nearby hill, they were surprised to see Sunset and the Rainbooms on what appeared to be a mobile stage, singing much louder than they were.
[The Rainbooms]
Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh!
I've got the music in me!
Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh!
[Twilight]
Don't need to hear a crowd,
Cheering out my name!
I didn't come here seeking
Infamy or fame!
[The Rainbooms]
The one and only thing
That I am here to bring
Is music, is the music
Is the music in my soul!
Gonna break out!
Set myself free, yeah
Let it all go!
Just let it be, yeah
Find the music in your heart!
Let the music make you start
To set yourself apart!
As the girls sang, they began to trigger the magic within themselves that in turn allowed them to take the transformation they took when they fought Sunset.
After the transformation, magic was being released, which began to break the audience from the sirens distracted.
Taking this opportunity, Super Sonic used chaos control to teleport out of the sirens grasp and appeared above the group.
"Thanks for the save, girls." Super Sonic said.
"Don't mention it." Twilight replied happily.
"So the Rainbooms want to turn this into a real battle of the bands, huh?" Adagio said before she, Aria, and Sonata smirked, "Okay then, let's battle!"
With that said, the sirens group together before singing again.
[The Dazzlings]
What we have in store!
All we want and more!
The sirens brought the audience's attention back to them, being that their magic was stronger as they were closer to the unfortunate crowd.
[The Dazzlings]
We will break on through (ah-ah)
Now it's time to finish you!
As the sirens sang, their eyes began to glow red, their pendants glowing brighter as well until they released a bright flash of light. Shooting out from their bodies were apparitions of their true bodies, hovering in the air above the stage as they stared down at the group on the hill.
As sirens' true bodies had hooved forelegs, a long, fish-like tail, a long fin running down their back, and bearing a gem similar to what they wore embedded in their chests. Their scales were colored like the ones from the legend when Star Swirl the Bearded banished them: Adagio with yellow scales, Aria with lavender scales, and Sonata with blue scales.
"Okay... that does NOT look good." Rainbow Dash said.
"You girls focus on playing, I'll do my best to keep them distracted." Super Sonic said to the girls.
"Be careful Sonic, who knows how powerful they are in those forms." Twilight said.
"Don't worry about me Twilight, I know you girls will have my back." Super Sonic assured, "Now then, you girls better continue before the sirens again the upper-hand."
Nodding, the girls continued to rock out as Super Sonic charged at the sirens' astral bodies, who charged at him as well.
Once he was close enough, Super Sonic shot a barrage of chaos spears at the sirens, causing them to scream in pain.
Angered by this, Aria and Sonata charged at Super Sonic and managed to knock him to the ground, where they held him in place. Taking that as an opportunity, Adagio charged towards the girls. Before she could reach them however, Super Sonic activated chaos shield and surrounded the girls, protecting them from any attacks.
Smirking, Super Sonic threw Aria and Sonata off of himself and struck Adagio in the stomach with a spindash, knocking her away from the barrier.
Wanting to keep them away, Super Sonic began to fly around the sirens, occasionally punching them whenever he got close enough.
Having had enough, the sirens suddenly unleashed an incredibly loud shriek, causing Super Sonic to stop and cover his ears in pain.
'Out of everything they could of done to hurt me, why is it they decided to take the route that could potentially make me lose my hearing!?!' Super Sonic mentality yelled as the shriek continued.
With Super Sonic subdued, the sirens rammed him, sending the super charged former hedgehog to the barrier where bounced off and lyed on the group.
'Oww, my ears feel like they're gonna ring non-stop for a week!' Super Sonic thought to himself as he continued to cover his ears in pain, trying to make the ringing go away.
Realizing that they were losing the battle, Twlight turned towards Sunset and said, "Sunset, we need you!"
"Me!?" Sunset asked, having been taken completely off guard, "But, what can I do!? I don't have the power to use the Elements of Harmony, I don't even have any magic in this world."
"Sunset, you're a part of this group as much as any of us." Twilight explained, "We need to show the sirens the magic of friendship, and we need all of our friends, and that includes you.
While Sunset wasn't certain how she could possibly help the group, deep down she knew that Twilight was right and that no matter the situation, friendship would always prevail.
With that in mind, Sunset grabbed a microphone and began to sing.
[Sunset]
You're never gonna bring me down!
You're never gonna break this part of me!
My friends are here to bring me around!
Not singing just for popularity!
[Sunset and Twilight]
We're here to let you know,
that we won't let it go!
[Everyone]
Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow!
[Sunset and Twilight]
And you can try to fight
But we have got the light of
[Everyone]
Friendship on our side!
Deciding that they've heard enough, the sirens charged towards the barrier, in hopes that they could shatter it with their combined might, but stopped when they saw the chaos emeralds appear above Super Sonic. Curiously, they watched the gems easily go through the barrier and with one of them hovering above Sunset the the others.
A rainbow aura then surrounded the chaos emeralds before it began to envelope the group.
[Everyone]
Got the music in our hearts,
We're here to blow this thing apart!
And together, we will never
Be afraid of the dark!
As if the group unleashed a powerful attack, a powerful rainbow shockwave was suddenly released and forced the sirens' astral bodies back to the stage (while simultaneously curing the ringing in Sonic's ears and freeing the audience from the sirens' control).
[Everyone]
Here to sing our song out loud,
Get you dancing with the crowd!
Suddenly, Sunset began glowing as she floated up into the air. The group watched in surprise as magic began to show itself from inside her.
Equine ears appeared on top of Sunset's head, her red and yellow hair growing longer to form a tail, and an orange aura-like horn grew out from her forehead.
Looking at herself, Sunset was shocked, but incredibly happy, about her sudden transform (despite the fact she had no idea how she was able to do so).
[Everyone]
As the music of our friendship,
Survives, survives!
Soon, the crowd had joined in, and, (not wanting to be left out) Super Sonic dismissed the barrier before he and the rest of the band (who also began to float) joined Sunset.
[All sans the sirens[
Got the music in our hearts!
We're here to blow this thing apart!
And together, we will never
be afraid of the dark
As (nearly) everyone song the chaos emeralds shined brightly for a moment before revealing that they were now rainbow colored. The rainbow colored gems then proceeded to make their way towards Super Sonic before they surrounded and began circling around him until they released a flash of light.
When the flash died down, Rainbow Sonic flew high above the ground.
[All sans the sirens]
Here to sing our song out loud
Get you dancing with the crowd!
Looking down at the sirens, Rainbow Sonic smirked before he began to charge up an attack.
[All sans the sirens]
As the music of our friendship
Survives, survives, survives!
After changing enough energy, Rainbow Sonic exclaimed, "RAINBOW BLAST!!!" before unleashing a large rainbow colored beam that enveloped the sirens, erasing all of their magic and, their pendants and forcing them back to their teenage forms.
With that done, the audience cheered as the magic within the group faded away and Rainbow Sonic turned back to his normal self.
Back on stage, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata were blown back when the rainbow blast destroyed their pendants. Looking down at where they stood, the trio gasped in horror as they crawled up to the shattered remains of their pendants.
The gems were completely destroyed, barely leaving any magic left in them. As the trio stood up, they hoped they still had some magic in them as the audience watched them.
[The Dazzlings, off-key]
We will be adored
Tell us that you want us
We won't be ignored
It's time for our reward...
Almost immediately, the audience began to boo at the trio (their singing now being worse than when Snips and Snails rapping), causing the trio to flee off stage with their now useless gems in their hands.
"Guess that explains why these were so special to them." Sunset said once the Dazzlings were out of sight.
Without those pendants and the magic they brought here from Equestria, they're just three harmless teenage girls." Twilight said.
"Rainbooms rule!" Flash exclaimed as ran up to Twilight and gave her a hug, "That was amazing!"
Seeing this caused the rest of the group to chuckle. However, Trixie suddenly popped in between Twilight and Flash with a scowl on her face.
"You might have vanquished the Dazzlings, Rainbooms, but you will never stop the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie exclaimed.
Trixie then threw down a smoke bomb, blinding and suffocating everyone as they coughed heavily. When the smoke cleared she ended up disappearing from where she stood.
"She's gone!" Pinkie gasped in shock.
"No, she's over there." Sonic said, seeing the girl in question hiding behind the stage.
With her cover blown, yet again, Trixie made a run for it up toward the stands and tried to jump over the side, landing on the ground as she underestimated the leap and fell hard.
"Trixie's okay!" Trixie exclaimed.
With Trixie gone, an idea formed in Rainbow Dash's mind.
"You know, Sonic and Twilight is going back to Equestria soon." Rainbow Dash said to Sunset, "The Rainbooms could really use someone to help Fluttershy on backup vocals."
Already knowing her answer, Sunset picked up a guitar and played a riff, "I also play guitar."
Rainbow Dash chuckled before saying, "We'll see."
Early the next morning, we see the group standing in front of the horse statue.
"Sure wish you could stay longer." Applejack said.
"Me too, but we have responsibilities in equestria that I have to get back to." Twilight said.
"But one the good side of things, now we can go through the portal whenever we want." Sonic said, "This isn't goodbye, it's more of a 'goodbye 'til next time.'"
Smiling at Sonic's words, the group hugged each other one last time before separating.
"Are you two ready?" Sonic asked Twilight and Spike asked they stood before the portal.
"Of course we are." Spike said as Twilight nodded in agreement.
With that said, the trio jumped into the portal, wonder what happened while they were gone as they did so.
Meanwhile in a unknown location, a figure is seen looking through the files of a large computer when he heard a door open behind him.
Turning around, the figure saw another figure step inside the room before it asked, "You said you had news?"
The figure at the computer nodded before saying, "I was going through the dimensional coordinates we picked up a couple months ago when the energy readings we picked up reappeared."
"Were you able to pinpoint the exact coordinates this time?" The other figure asked.
"Sadly, no." The figure at the computer said, "I was out when the readings came in. I'd consider myself lucky is the energy were to appear again."
Almost immediately after he said that, the computer let out a beep, causing the figure at the computer to instantly tap a key on his keyboard.
Looking at the computer, the figure read it's contents before suddenly exclaiming, "I've got it!"
"Got what?" The other figure asked.
"The energy had reappeared and I was able to save the dimensional coordinates it went into!" The figure at the computer exclaimed happily.
"That's great." The other figure said, "Now we know where we need to go. With that in mind, how's the dimensional transporter coming along?"
Hearing this made the figure at the computer's ears droop.
"Extremely poorly." The figure at the computer said in an upset tone, "While I have the right amount of energy to power it, I can't for the life of me find out how to make it work without there being any bugs."
"I'm certain you'll eventually figure it out." The other figure said, "As for now, we better report this to the king, I'm certain he'd like to hear about this."
Nodding, the figure at the computer typed a few commands onto the computer before getting up and following the other figure out of the room.
Little did the two figures know, they were being watched by a third figure that was inside a vent in the ceiling.
This figure looked like the figure at the computer, but appeared to be a doll version of him with a red gem on the end of what appeared to be an antenna on it's head.
The figure simply stared at the empty room as it sent information of the conversation it overhead to an unknown location.