Under ordinary circumstances, Trixie Lulamoon would have made a point of pretending she didn't hear Marble's name. Since she owed the woman for relief from recent oppression, she figured she could claim she wasn't feeling herself. "Anyway. You don't want to just storm in there. They started off holding Applejack by threatening to hurt others if she didn't do what they said, but then they managed to get into her head, too."
Rarity came very close to swearing. "Well drat. That's going to make things a mess. I don't suppose she was showing signs of playing along, was she?"
"Last Trixie saw her, she was crouching at Aria's feet with a collar around her throat, letting that monster pet her head."
The sound of the front door opening caused Marble to jump in place. She still felt a little odd after fighting to free Trixie of the siren magic, and talk of more people mind controlled wasn't conductive to her relaxing. When Sunset, Rainbow, and Marble's sister stepped into the room together, she sighed in relief.
"I got your message. Let's get Fluttershy and go get Applejack back!" Rainbow Dash had spent the morning working out. Her shoulders and arms had been the targets of the day, and while she'd spent some time on a heavy bag already, the idea of dealing with Adagio and Aria in the same way appealed to her.
"It's more complicated than that. Trixie said that they've used some kind of mind control on Applejack," Twilight said. "So we don't have to just defeat the evil sirens, we might have to defeat Applejack, too."
"Without hurting her." Rarity felt that part was important. "Which, given how much strength she has, might be a little hard without getting hurt ourselves."
Right then Rarity's phone rang. Seeing the caller was Sonata, she answered immediately. "Darling?"
"Don't go against them alone!"
Covering the mouthpiece, Rarity spoke to her friends who were present. "It's Sonata." Taking her hand away, she brought the phone back to the side of her head. "Hadn't even considered it. Do you need a pickup? I don't suppose you know where Fluttershy is?"
"I'm at the shop, Rarity. Spicy said I can go, but unless I can regrow my wings, I can't exactly get there any faster than a run."
"I'll be there as soon as I can." Rarity hung up the phone and stood up. "I have to pick Sonata up. I'll be back as soon as I can. Text me if you find Fluttershy and she needs a ride as well."
Sunset waited for Rarity to leave before she let out a sigh. "I hate to ask this, but I know it needs to be asked. How much do we trust Sonata?"
"As a friend? She's good." The words came out without hesitation. Rainbow Dash had given Sonata a chance, and it had paid off. "In a fight, I don't know. It's not that she'd go against us, but she just doesn't seem to want to embrace her siren side, ya know?"
"Well I like her. She laughs at my jokes, and she hasn't tried to hurt any of us since that time in high school, and the way she explained it she wasn't even trying then." Nodding her head, Pinkie Pie gave a thumbs up gesture.
"Yeah, I got that vibe too." With a sigh, Sunset leaned sideways into Pinkie's ready embrace. "But I needed to ask, because you all needed to answer it."
Marble raised a hand and cleared her throat. "Excuse me?"
"Marble!" Pinkie raced over and flopped onto the couch beside Marble. "What's up?"
"So you have a bunch of people, and two sirens (I'll get back to that later) that you need to incapacitate? You could just let the parasites loose there. You could even send—uh—Trixie back in with them to plant. Once they're all infected, you can just go in and deal with the sirens." Marble didn't put up a fight when Pinkie pulled her into a hug. "Oh, and what's a siren?"
"We can't." Twilight shook her head in further denial. "If—No. We can't. If any of them get free and infect others, it would be our fault. Wait! How many people are there?"
"Look, it's not the easiest thing to remember—I was a little distracted worshiping the ground they walked on—but Trixie thinks there is probably at least ten they keep there. They have more come from time to time, but that should be all they have at my house." Indignation still burned in Trixie. Not only did they just waltz in and take over her house, but they'd been dismissive of her magic. "I know a way in they don't know about."
"Well? Spill it, Trixie," Rainbow Dash said.
"On one condition! Trixie wants to help!"
Rainbow was about to immediately gainsay Trixie with the argument that she didn't have any magic, when she noticed Trixie's ears. "Uh, when'd you get those?"
"Get what?" Trixie asked.
"Pony ears. You got some magic you can throw down?"
Frozen with shock, the earlier words (that she'd dismissed while working through how she'd take revenge) hadn't sunk in. "I have pony ears?" She'd even dropped her affected speaking manner in all her surprise. Reaching a hand up, Trixie felt one and then the other of her new ears.
"Does this mean Trixie has magic?" Trixie asked.
Flexing her own power, Rainbow watched as the world slowed down even more than normal. She watched as the room stilled almost completely, then let herself reach almost normal time again. "That answers that question. Look, Trixie, it's awesome you got something, but you don't know how to—"
"No! You don't know! Trixie's—my—parents are in there still. I'm coming, and that's that!" Feeling like she needed to say more, Trixie added, "Even if just to punch those stupid sirens in their stupid siren faces."
"I've seen you punch, Trixie. Why don't you let me punch them for you?" Rainbow Dash asked with a cocky grin spreading across her snout.
"Trixie would still like to watch—but that is acceptable."
"We're probably going to have to fight them with music again. If they have their gems back, they'll be just as powerful as last time. We need a killer song." Sunset picked a spot on the couch on the opposite side of Pinkie from Marble and sat down.
"What we need to do is wait for Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sonata to get here." Twilight found her own spot on an armchair. "I don't suppose you'd be able to call Thunderbolt and get him to help?" She looked at Rainbow hopefully.
"Yeah, he'd probably be into that kind of fight, but do we really want the possibility of a brain-whammied dragon coming after us? I saw what happened when he and Spicy got in a fight, and Spicy knew a lot more about dealing with Thunderbolt than I thought he did." Rainbow shook her head. "Besides, if we screw up, he might be our only hope."
All six of them fell quiet at that. Their previous fights hadn't felt life-or-death, but this time—given how much the two sirens had done in just a few days—things felt different. All of them jumped when the front door opened and three sets of feet and something more rushed into the house.
"I found Fluttershy, too. She brought Bridget." Rarity had her arm around Sonata protectively, but in truth she wanted a strong hug herself.
"Are you sure it's Adagio and Aria?" Jumping in before anyone else spoke, Sonata was almost trembling at the description of events Rarity had given her in the car. "Trixie, did they sing to you before they got you, or did the song seem to come after they had you in their control?"
"It's hard to remember…" Trixie stared down at her hands and forced herself to remember the two sirens walking into her home. She'd fallen in love with both almost instantly. "There wasn't any music."
Sonata clenched her fists and scrunched up her face. "Fishbones!"
It was a struggle for Rarity to not laugh at her lover's swear word. "What's wrong with that?"
"Remember at the school? We had to bleed what little magic we had into song. Songs are catchy and sink deep into your mind, so a siren works magic into a song to make it take hold deep inside. If they didn't need to use a song, it means they don't need to use a song. They have all their magic." Sonata's hand crept up and clutched her own gem. "The last time we were at such a peak of power, the greatest heroes Equestria had did their best—which was to banish us to here."
The crash course in siren tactics and history went over about as well as Sonata expected it would, though Trixie kept staring at her. "What?"
Trixie huffed. "How do we know you're not working with them? This could be an attempt to—"
"Trixie!" Rainbow cut in. "Look, I trust Sonata to know and help us all she can. She's not working with the others."
"You said it yourself just before. You don't trust Sonata in a fight!" Pointing a finger at Sonata, Trixie glared at the siren. "Trixie doesn't trust her at all!"
Glaring back at Trixie, Sonata let out a slow breath. "Well, there's only one thing I can do." Taking a step toward the couch, Sonata Dusk reached for Sunset Shimmer's bare skin. "Please look."
All the times she'd been with Sunset since turning over a new leaf, Sonata had avoided touching her. She didn't want someone she felt was a friend to see the bad things she'd done, but this was serious now, and another friend's life depended on her helping.
Sunset felt her magic flare as she tumbled into an ocean. The normal dip into a person's memories wasn't going to happen—Sonata's life was too vast to jump into like a puddle. Sunset wouldn't have stood a chance of staying afloat in that galaxy of history if it wasn't for Pinkie's "training".
First hand, Sunset watched the horror that was the events leading up to Sonata, Aria, and Adagio's fight with Star Swirl and his friends. It went just as Sonata said, and resulted in three sirens stuck in a magic-deficient world.
Years passed, and Sunset felt the changes that humanity wrought in Sonata. She loved, she cared, and she grew a heart. When things crept up to the battle of the bands, Sunset pulled back before she got one last flicker of insight—Sonata's love for Rarity.
As the golden glow left Sunset's eyes, Sonata's worried face came into view. Sunset was struck again by how perfect it seemed that a monster had become what stood before her. "Sonata," Sunset's spirit soared in joy, "You are a beautiful person. Never let anyone tell you different."
There was a difference between thinking you were doing the right thing and being told you are by someone you trust. Sonata broke into the happiest smile of her life as the latter was confirmed by Sunset. "You saw everything we did back—"
Sunset nodded. "You've paid the price for that. Everyone deserves a second chance if they ask for it. I kinda have to believe that."
"I want to help as much as I can, but I don't think I can stand up against them." Sonata breathed out a sigh. The gem at her throat felt heavy with power—power she didn't believe she should have. But if you want any dirt on Adagio and Aria, I can give it to you."
"At the concert they seemed to lose control when they got angry. What makes them angry?" Fluttershy's words were soft, and the moment the others turned to her she felt like she wanted to hide. The presence beside her wouldn't stand for that. Power and confidence surged in Fluttershy as Bridget's raw energy leeched into her. "Well?"
"Anytime a siren loses her focus she'll stop using magic, or at the very least screw up her rhythm," Sonata said. "But that doesn't stop them giving orders."
"Giving bad orders. We don't particularly want them commanding anyone around them to do things we have to take ourselves out of the fight to deal with." Twilight Sparkle was trying to put the events in order that they'd need to beat the sirens. "Do we know anyone who can get tasers?"
"Tasers? Twilight!" Rarity didn't know whether the idea was brilliant or horrible. "They might be good as a backup, but those things can really hurt people."
Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. "Mom makes me keep one. Never used it, but I could run home and get it if you want?"
"Pinkie?" Sunset asked.
"Yep?" Both Pinkie Pies looked at each other as they spoke as one, then giggled.