The Rainbooms began to slowly descend to the ground as their magical powers dissipated, their pony ears retreated back into their heads, their pony attributes vanished, and their hair shortened. Sunset also returned to her regular hair long hair and normal clothing just as she reached the ground. Before they could react, the Rainbooms were met by their relatives, who were overjoyed and relieved that they were safe, sound, and that they defeated the Dazzlings.
"Twilight," Spike said happily, before pulling Twilight, his surrogate sister, into a hug. Twilight returned the hug, while also bending down to pat the dragon-turned-dog-turned human on his green hair.
Rainbow did the same with Scootaloo, pulling her crying half-sister into a happy hug.
"Oh my pride and joy," Zephyr declared bombastically while seemingly staring at Rainbow. The athletic girl rolled her eyes, expecting Zephyr Breeze to flirt with her again, only to run past her and pull her older sister into a hug, much to the track runner's shock. But the shock turned to...admiration as Zephyr kept telling Fluttershy how proud he was, with relieved tears running down his eyes. For all his faults, Zephyr was at least a good brother when the chips were down. That, Rainbow decided, earned him a point.
Applejack was nearly tackled by Apple Bloom and Big Mac, who also held her with joy and relief.
Pinkie Pie immediately pulled her three sisters into a hug, much to their annoyance. But still, they reluctantly melted into it. Maud and Marble overcame their stoic and shy natures to give Pinkie a warm smile. "Pinkie," Limestone said at last, the same stern gaze on her face.
"Yes Limey-Wimey?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"Good job for not dying." Pinkie Pie weeped tears of joy. "That's the nicest, kindest, most wonderful thing you ever said to me!" She continued to weep tears of joy, even dripping them on her sisters.
Watching Rarity pull Sweetie into a hug, reminded Sunset she needed to find her charge and give back a certain object that belonged to his fairies.
Timmy wept and wept as he hugged the fishbowl to his body. He has never felt so relieved in his life. Cosmo and Wanda were safely in his arms. All he wanted to do was hug them and never let them go.
"You guys are my best friends," Timmy said as the last of his tears faded.
"We love you too," Wanda said with a happy expression.
Cosmo also smiled. "You're our favorite-,"
"Man, those fish must really mean something to you." Timmy jolted, seeing Flash look at him with keen eyes and an odd smile. Timmy and fairies-turned-fish chuckled nervously. "You think the fish are talking," Timmy said sheepishly.
"Yeah," Cosmo added obliviously. "That's impossible." Cosmo
Flash looked at them with a mixture of confusion and amusement. "I don't know what you guys are getting defensive about. We know how it works."
Timmy felt cold sweat rundown his forehead. "You do?"
"Yeah," Flash said. "You used the stone to give your fish the power of speech," the blue haired boy said, as if he was saying that grass was green. "We've seen it before."
Timmy's fear was replaced with confusion. "The stone?" Then his eyes widened. "Oh yeah," Timmy said with a sheepish smile. "The stone, yeah, I wished they could talk."
"Yes," Wanda said, immediately catching on as she addressed Flash directly. "That's what we are. Fish who have granted the magical ability to talk and think."
"Yeah," Cosmo added, "we're certainly not-," Wanda immediately covered Cosmo's mouth to prevent the nitwit from spilling the secret by mistake. Flash chucked at this.
"Oh can I hold them?" Immediately, Sweetie Belle picked up the fishbowl out of eagerness. "Hi I'm Sweetie Belle."
Timmy watched this with confusion. "Wow, you're all taking this rather well," he said to Flash with an odd lilt to his voice.
"Taking what."
"You know, the whole magic thing," Timmy stressed in a curious tone.
"We'll since Sunset graced us with her presence," Flash said with an odd smile, "we've gotten used to a lot of weird stuff." The blue-haired teenager gestured to some green-haired boy who looked to be about his age. "What if I told you he's actually a dragon who used to transform into a dog."
"Hi, I'm Spike," the boy greeted happily.
"Yeah," Timmy said, noticing the sharp teeth and serpentile eyes, "I believe it." Timmy paused as he noticed a familiar face walking toward him.
Sunset Shimmer strode toward him, one of the wand heads in her hand. Immediately Timmy ran over to Sunset and pulled her into a hug, thanking her for saving him and his fairies. Sunset bent down and returned the hug while patting Timmy on the head.
A short distance away, several teens were conversing and cooing over Cosmo and Wanda.
"Aww, you're so cute!" Apple Bloom said to Cosmo, cooing over him, much to his joy.
"What about me," Wanda asked. Apple Bloom looked a little horrified. "Well...to be honest, you're kind off..."
"Tubby?" Sweetie Belle offered.
"As big as Jupiter?" Scootaloo offered.
"I was gonna say a little fat," Apple Bloom said with a shrug, much to Wanda's shock.
"See Wanda," Cosmo gloated with a smile, "I told you to lay off the chocolate."
"I'm not fat!" Wanda protested. Suddenly, Cosmo and Wanda's bowl was picked up by Thunderlane, who looked at the Crusaders with no small amount of the disappoinment.
"I'm ashamed off you three," the jock said with a frown, "for calling her fat."
"Thank you," Wanda said to Thunderlane.
"This poor fish is suffering from a lack of self control born from deep seated psychological issues," Thunderlane said. Wanda's smile was replaced with an annoyed frown. "You three shouldn't be mocking her over it."
Wanda growled at Thunderlane. "Come inside this bowl!" She yelled while holding up her fins like fists. "And I'll show you a lack of self control!"
"See, you even have all this naggy energy due to a lack of physical activity," Thunderlane surmised with a pitying expression." Cosmo again looked at Wanda with a mockng smile.
"I am not naggy!" Wanda protested. "And straighten out your pants!" Wanda nagged to Thunderlane. "You look messy.
"Has anyone seen the other wand-uh, other piece of the stone," Sunset said, holding up the wand head.
"Here is it." Sunset turned and saw Bon Bon holding it with a petulant Lyra standng next to her. Sunset took the wand head from Bon Bon, then handed both of them to Timmy.
"Thanks," Timmy said to Bon Bon, "where did you-," Timmy paused, noting weird marks on one of them. "And why are their teeth marks on them?"
"Lyra thought it was a piece of candy," Bon Bon said dourly, glaring at her kooky girlfriend.
Lyra crossed her arms and pouted. "I was hungry," the white-haired girl protested.
Timmy wretched, but was happy to have gotten these back. He ran over to Thunderlane, took back the fishbowl, and ran away.
"Where are going?" Thunderlane asked Timmy.
"I've got to," Timmy's eyes darted back and forth, "fix the...stone!" He then darted behind a tree where no one could see him.
"Why's he being so secretive?" Flash asked the Rainbooms. But before they could respond, they saw some students marching somewhere angrily as the light cleared. The Rainbooms saw where they were marching too and frowned when they saw who was still here."
The Dazzlings slowly came too. They jumped up from the ground when they came to a horrific realization.
"Our magic!" Adagio exclaimed in sorrow. "I can't feel it anymore!"
"Our gems are ruined!" Aria exclaimed, mournfully holding her rebroken gem, cradling it like a baby, almost on the verge of tears.
"I'm out of tacos!" Sonata shrieked.
"Oh, how can this get any worse!" Adagio exclaimed, head in her hands.
Sonata looked around and gulped. "Uh Adagio, Aria?" The pony-tailed siren muttered fearfully.
"What?!" Aria uttered, but her bravado trailed off as she heard several footsteps crunching the grass lawn. The three sisters looked around and saw a scary sight. A crowd of high school students who were marching toward them with furious glares. The same students they had spent the night tormenting and planning to enslave. And she and her sisters had no magic to defend themselves with.
The three siren sisters pulled themselves up and chuckled sheepishly at the gathered students. "I guess we'll be going now," Adagio said nervously to the crowd as her sisters turned heel to run away.
Only to be blocked by another crowd of waspish high school students approaching them. Adagio felt her blood turn cold as she saw at the head of this new crowd were the Rainbooms, none of them looking at her with a disposition that could be considered joyful. Even the normally kind and cheerful Fluttershy and Pinkie glared at them with incredibly foul expressions.
The angry high school students formed a circle that prevented any kind of escape.
"Don't mind us," Adagio said nervously, "we'll just be...out of your hair..."
"Did you really think we would let you just walk away?" The Sirens turned back and saw Limestone Pie glaring at them with an unimpressed expression and crossed arms. "You attacked my sister," the eldest Pie sister said in a voice that was unusually cold for someone so tempermental.
"You trashed our school!" Flash exclaimed angrily.
"You tried to make us your slaves!" Sandalwood shouted furiously.
"You nearly made me miss the Kissy Kissy Goo Goo marathon," Lyra shrieked.
Bon Bon looked at her girlfriend with annoyance. "You know.. you can watch that stuff on demand..."
"IT'S THE PRINCIPLE THAT COUNTS!" The lyre-player bellowed.
"I seem to remember promising I'd make you pay if you three showed your faces here again," Gilda Griffon said as she came to the front of the crowd to stand next to Limestone, her posse just behind her.. "And I'd just...hate to break that promise." The sirens swallowed in terror, seeing how much trouble they were in.
"What happened here?!" A female voice bellowed. Everyone, both the CHS students and the sirens, turned around and saw that the faculty had emerged from wherever they had been hiding.
"Where were you guys?" Flash asked the faculty with curiousity.
"Excellent question, Mr. Sentry," Principal Celestia said with eyes that darted back and forth, but before she could answer, someone interrupted.
"Principal Celestia, my favorite principal of all time!" Adagio gushed with a fake, sycophantic smile that her younger sisters emulated. "You're students are going to attack us over a few...mistakes. I think you ought to teach the children that violence is never the answer!"
"Yeah, I agree. You should be teaching them that...right now!" Aria said with a nervous, sweaty expression.
Vice Principal Luna looked at the students. "Who did all this?" The blue-haired woman said, gesturing to all the damage. Several students pointed to the Dazzlings. The Principal sisters and the other faculty started surveying the devastation. The whole cool wasn't just damaged. It was demolished. They also looked at their students, sympathetically seeing how exhausted and angry they were.
"She's right," Principal Celestia said in a stern voice. "If we see violence, we're required to punish it." The sirens smiled smugly while the students frowned bitterly. The two prinicipal sisters started at each other, silently coming to a point, before looking back to where their students were.
"Sister," Luna said at last, while giving the Dazzlings a cold gaze that the rest of the faculty did, "I think we ought to talk to the insurance company."
"I agree," Celestia in a seemingly professional voice. "In fact, all of us should go talk to the insurance company." The Canterlot High Principal turned to glare directly at the elder siren. "While we're gone I think we'll leave you, our loving and oh so forgiving students, in charge of them while we'll be in a place where we can't see you." The vaguely hopeful expressions of the sirens faded to panic, especially as the staff soon began walking away, all of them giving a mocking glare at the sirens. Granny Smith was the last to leave, looking at the seaponies with a nasty sneer.
"See ya, wouldn't want to be ya," the lunchlady hissed before walking away. With the staff gone, the physical signs of the students wrath became more pronounced as they prepared to pounce on the monsters who tormented them.
Adagio looked at the children assembled, shaking with fear. "Surely, you don't want to see a bad example for the young ones," the Siren Princess said with an even more fearful and nervous tone. "I've always believed sweet and wonderful children should be spared violence."
"I think we can handle it," Scootaloo said with a frown.
"Ah think we'll be OK," Apple Bloom growled.
"It might be hard, but we'll get through it," Sweetie Belle said.
"Don't worry," Spike said, his normally human eyes becoming almost draconic with anger as he glared at the fiends who hurt Twilight.
"In fact," Zephyr Breeze began, striding toward the Dazzlings before stopping a good five feet from them, "I feel...I need to give you a-," Zephyr paused to take a deep breath in an attempt to force his anger down,"-a good trim," the blond boy pulled out scissors, "as a way to thank you for how you treated my sister." Zephyr was so angry, he was shaking. In his convulsing hands, his hair-cutting tool looked almost like a dagger.
"You want to make them bald, Bun Boy?!" Limestone said with an excited grin.
"As bald as a baby!" Zephyr Breeze glared. The aspiring hair stylist was known for either being annoying or dopey, but he could never be described as scary. But his shark like eyes, malicious smile, and the scissors bared in his hands, he looked more intimidating than someone with a bun in his head ought to be.
"Eep!" Sonata squeaked.
Adagio tried to grasp at another straw. "You're attacking us...but S-Sunset also brainwashed you and turned you against-,"
"SHE CHANGED!" Moondancer bellowed.
"She's our friend now!" Flash declared.
"She protected us from you!" Thunderlane declared.
For a brief moment, Sunset's angry expression was replaced with happy pride, reveling in the fact that the kids who once hated her were now defending her.
After a moment that felt like an eternity, Adagio cleared her throat and forced a fake smile. "You know what? We've seen the light!" Adagio said dramatically as she looking directly at the Rainbooms, hoping to appeal to their better nature. "We realize that...we've had this all wrong. We realize that love and friendship and all that junk is the way to go," she said insincerely, "and that all we need is some kindness and generosity."
"Yeah," Aria added with faux-enthusiasm while sweating bullets, "we're just....lost souls needing a second chance. None of this is our fault. It's the fault of society for making us this way. So why don't we go celebrate our new friendship. Gang!" Aria added insincerely.
Sonata forced one of her trademark smiles to her face. "Yeah....let's have a party to celebrate us becoming besties!"
No one was impressed with the sirens' pleading for forgiveness, since it was obvious that the only thing they were sorry about was the fact that they were in trouble.
"It's amazing how you can sound entitled, even when you're trying to apologize," Bon Bon said with angry sarcasm in her breath.
Yet the crowd still didn't attack, yet. They looked expectantly at the Rainbooms, the final authority on what to do with magical evil, for what would be the prosper response. The Rainbooms got into a huddle, talking quietly amongst themselves for a few minutes. Princess Twilight eventually stepped forward, carrying herself with a solemn regalness one would expect of a princess.
"Adagio," Princess Twilight said in a seemingly casual tone. "Normally, I am quite...forgiving. I try to see the good in others. When my friends back home tell me not to obsess over the littlest things, I try, I really try, to cool down before I do something rash. I really try to keep control and be nice and calm." Princess Twilight strode in front of the sirens. Despite having no magical power at the moment, the three sirens shook like the seemingly-passive princess was some monster coming to eat them. "But when I see these...precious humans being attacked, and my friends bullied and treated like trash, and that poor boy who my friends love crying on the ground because of savagary of your idiotic moment...."
Princess Twilight's illusion of calm faded, replaced by a moment of unhinged anger.
"I JUST GO BERSERK!"
Adagio forced a smile to her face. "Water under the-"
POW!
The punch echoed across the lawn as everyone watched with stunned silence. It was not the strength of the punch that shocked the CHS students. What shocked others was the one doing the punching. One reached a low point when the loving and generous Princess of Friendship decided you needed to be taught a lesson with a fist to the face.
Adagio clutched her nose in pain while Princess Twilight looked triumphant.
Or at least she would be if she wasn't clutching her throbbing fist and moaning in pain."OW! OW!" Princess Twilight hissed. "I'm not used to using...these," the Princess said gesturing to her swollen knuckles."
"Don't worry Princess," Sunset said with an evil smile. "I'll show you how to do right!" She yanked Adagio by her hair and spun her around. "Like THIS!"
Adagio was horrifed. "No wai-," Sunset's punch slammed into Adagio's nose and knocked the eldest siren to the ground.
"That's how its done, Princess!" Sunset gloated. With that, everyone immediately started grabbing the sirens, and starting brutally beating on them.
"STOP!" Adagio wailed miserably.
"TIMMY TURNER HAS FAIR-," Aria began as a crowd of students started wailing on her, only to be silenced as a brick was shoved into her mouth, keeping her from spilling the beans.
"Well, that was fun!" Rainbow said with an all too satisfied smile.
"OK I'll admit throwing bricks is OK in some situations," Sunset said with a deeply euphoric expression.
Several students began immediately began beating the two eldest sirens to a pulp.
"You can't hurt me!" Sonata wailed as she was held down. "I'm the cute, adorable one!"
"Well so am I!" Pinkie hovered over Sonata with a nastily cheerful grin, menacingly carrying an adorable looking baseball bat with a smiley face. "This is my friend, Mr. Happy Bat. He can teach a really good lesson in a cute and adorable way!"
Sonata looked up in terror as the bat came toward her.
The pained screams of the sirens, the sound of pummeling, the tearing of fabric, and the snipping of hair echoed throughout the courtyard.
Hidden behind a tree, Cosmo and Wanda tested out their wand heads, hoping they still worked despite being seperated from the head. To their relief, they were still working reasonably well.
"OK I think we're good!" Wanda said happily, holding her wand head.
"They still work, but we still need to get to repairs," Cosmo said.
"OK," Timmy began, only to hear someone approaching.
"Timmy."
The brown-haired boy urged his fairies to hide, and they went back to their goldfish-in-a-bowl modes. Timmy came out from the tree, goldfish bowl in hand, and saw Gilda and Thunderlane approaching him with very wide smiles.
"What are you doing here with your talking fish?" The tall black-haired guy asked him cheerfully.
"Uh...fixing the....stone?"
"C'mon," Gilda said an enthusiastic tone, "you're missing all the fun! We got a real surprise for you and the little fishies!"
The two athletes led Timmy back to the lawn. He saw the students gathered around something. As soon as he approached, they all looked at him with warm and happy expressions, like he the most popular kid at the party. Before he, Cosmo, or Wanda could ask what was going, something pink was shoved in his vision. "My hat!" Timmy said happily. He looked up and saw Lyra giving the hat back to him with a warm smile. "Thank you! Where did you-,"
"We plucked it off of them!" Bon Bon said with a vicious smile.
"Who's the-," Cosmo began, only for the students to form a berth revealing-
It was the Dazzlings. To say they were in...bad shape...was putting in mildly. They had horrible bruises all over their faces, their eyes were black and swollen, their clothing was ripped up, and they'd been shaven bald. They had also been gagged, possibly so they couldn't tell everyone that he had fairies. The gags were a little red and he could hear them moaning a bit, meaning they probably had some of their teeth beaten out of them. They were tied up with rope, with one long coil around their bodies, and their hands also tied up behind their backs,and around their ankles so they were forced to sit on their knees.
Lightning Dust and Rolling Thunder stood over them and held them in place with sinister smiles on their face.
Timmy looked at them. He didn't feel pity. But he didn't anger. Timmy started whimpering as he remembered...remembered
Timmy felt himself being choked out by Aria, the siren glaring at him with a murderous expression.
Even with the Dazzlings tied up, Timmy started fidgeting in fear at their presence. Everyone's satisfied expressions were replaced with concern for the boy.
"Don't worry Timmy," Cosmo said, concern for her godchild plain her voice.
"We'll protect you," Wanda added.
"So will we," A voice added. Timmy felt someone pat him on the shoulder. It was Flash Sentry. Timmy knew him to be Rush's older brother, yet Flash seemed to be treating him like his younger brother, based off the kind expression in his eyes. "We're not gonna let them hurt you."
Timmy calmed down a bit, believing Flash.
"There's a reason I want Timmy here," Sunset said aloud, staring at the Dazzlings with sharp eyes. "After all, I want everyone hear to know all about the wonderful things the Dazzlings did to Timmy. Go ahead Timmy, tell everyone about all the fun thing these witches did." To Sunset's concern, Timmy didn't say anything. He instead looked down sadly at Cosmo and Wanda, too traumatized to even speak. Still, his silence was enough to have everyone glaring at the Dazzlings, knowing they had put him through something horrible.
"Ok," Sunset said in a soft voice. "I'll do it. As all of you know, Timmy found a stone that gave him incredible magic. And as it turns out, the Dazzlings were eager to get some of their magic back. So they manipulated the little guy into being their minion, stole his magic, and then left him to rot." Sunset's smiled very angrily to reign in her temper. "But as it turns out, there's more." Everyone looked to Sunset out of morbid curiousity. "As some of you also know, some crazy woman tried to kidnap Timmy to get the stone herself. So the Dazzlings came up with the bright idea to break a psychotic criminal out of prison and used her to track down Timmy. They even let freak skin an innocent jaguar alive."
Everyone gasped at that.
"Then the Dazzlings discovered they couldn't use the stone without Timmy's help and so they tried to manipulate him into making wishes for them, even offering to let him rule Dimmsdale as their prince. And when Timmy rejected their incredibly generous offer, they beat him to a pulp."
Everyone gasped again.
"And then let's talk about what they did to Trixie-
"THEY DID SOMETHING TO TRIXIE!" Everyone turned and saw a certain stage magician made herself public. "They dared to lay a finger on the Great and Powerful Trixie, and prevent her mastery of the arcane arts from being passed down from generation to-,"
"Trixie we weren't talking about you," Princess Twilight said patiently. "We were talking about another Trixie."
The white-haired magician let out a gasp. "Are you saying the Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't deserve to have her greatness preserved for all time?!"
Princess Twilight was sheepish. "Well-,"
The magic lover looked deeply offended. "You all are not worthy of the prowess and might of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" The white-haired magician pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it. When the smoke clear, she was no longer present.
"Huh!" Timmy declared dramatically. "She's gone-," TImmy paused. "No wait," the brown-haired boy said in annoyance. "She's over there." The stage magician was sneaking away from everyone else. When everyone noticed her, she immediately ran for the hills.
"A stage magician," Wanda said with contempt. "Poser!"
"Wannabe!" Cosmo muttered.
"As I was saying," Sunset said, remembering the source of her anger,"there is this girl named Trixie Tang who Timmy fancied. So the Dazzlings thought they could Timmy over by brainwashing the girl into being his girlfriend. But when Timmy rejected their other generous offer," she paused and grit her teerh, trying not to scream,"they tossed the girl over the roof to punish the boy for being so ungrateful, and was only saved from being splattered because Rainbow Dash was quick."
Everyone was so shocked at that, they drifted into a very palpable silence thick enough to cut with a knife. The Dazzlings, in fear, tried to deny it, but they were gagged. Not that anyone cared what they had to say anymore.
"And then the Dazzlings dropped a giant metal ball that would've killed me if it wasn't for the rules," Sunset added sternly, "and then they banished my friends to the worst fate imaginable."
"They sent me to a pear farm," Applejack said, hugging herself, only to be pulled into a hug by her family, who assured her pears didn't exist, and we're a myth, like the boogeyman, or the King of Denmark.
"They sent me to the fat camp!" Pinkie shrieked with terror.
"They sent him to a home for the colorblind!" Rarity yelled with horror. "Everyone was so," the fashion lover shuddered, "mismatched with their fashion. It was a horrible sight!"
"I got sent to a slaughterhouse!" Fluttershy squeaked.
"They sent me to peaceful cult with no competition!" Rainbow shuddered.
"They sent me to a cult where they," Princess Twilight hyperventiliated, "banned literacy."
"And then they ate Timmy's fair-fish in front of him," Sunset amended, "said they were gonna torture his friends, burn Dimmsdale to the ground, blame him for everything, and lock him in a cage for the rest off his life, all because he refused to do what they wanted." Sunset clenched her fists, trying to keep calm. Still, Sunset was shaking with fury.
Everyone silently stared at the Dazzlings in a mixture of quiet horror and fury as they struggled to comprehend someone doing something so horrible to a kid. The silence was broken by some brown-haired boy who couldn't hold back his feelings.
"They-they," he whimpered. "They even gave me a wet willy!" Timmy finally lost all composure and broke down and cried over that, everyone looked toward Timmy with utter sympathy and sadness. Suddenly, Bulk Biceps picked up Timmy and pulled him into a hug. Sunset took the fishbowl from Timmy's hands.
"There, there," the dimwitted bodybuilder said, as he patted the upset Timmy on the back. "Isn't that better?!"
Timmy didn't feel better per se. Being squeezed in Bulk's incredible grip, he felt his oxygen supply run out. "Too tight!" He choked out.
"What's that, you want me to hug you some more?" Bulk asked, squeezing Timmy some more, much to his annoyance. "Everyone, let's give Timmy a big hug!"
"Me first!" Scootaloo suddenly shouted. She blushed when she realized some people, including her two best friends, were staring at her. "I mean, I want to help Timmy fell better," she added sheepishly. The Rainbooms, the Crusaders, and dozens of other students starting giving Timmy a huge hug. Timmy found himself in an oasis of love and protection.
Outside of it were a group of students who glared with a newfound hatred of the Dazzlings at their savage cruelty. One girl immediately began stomping over to the Dazzlings with no small amount of malice. The Dazzlings saw Gilda and some of her posse coming toward them with an utterly hateful expression. They started shaking and quivering, but there was no pity given to them
"Get the net," Gilda said to Hoops and Dumbbell in a very controlled voice without looking at them, instead glaring daggers at the siren sisters while Lightning Dust and Rolling Thunder kept them still. The two guys returned quickly with one. Lightning Dust and Rolling Thunder, sensing what Gilda was planning, immediaely picked the struggling sirens up off the ground.
"You want to send them flying?" Lightning Dust asked the white-girl with a sadistic smile.
"High in the sky," the white-haired military brat said in an unusually conversational tone. "They might survive being slammed into the ground, but I doubt it," she finished with a happy tone.
"NOOOOO!" Adagio shrieked through her gag. Her sisters also pleaded for mercy, but there was none of it in Gilda's yellow eyes. Hoops and Dumbell menacingly held the net up. Lightning Dust dragged the siren princess to the net, while Gilda began pulling back-
"STOP!" Gilda and her posse ceased as they saw the Princess of Friendship approaching them with a disappointed frown. "You're not going to kill them." She said.
Gilda finally lost all composure. "You're really gonna give us the 'we're better then that' speech?!" She asked Twilight incredulously. "We're giving them what they deserve!"
"Yeah," Hoops said angrily. "Look what they did to us! To you! To little Tim and his adorable green-eyed fish and that fat pink-eye fish." The other students who were staring across the room also looked angrily at the Princess, showing they were not altogether opposed to Gilda's plan.
"They are going to Tartarus," Princess Twilight said sternly. "They'll be living there for a long, long, long time." Adagio looked to the Princess with an odd form of hope, but the Princess made it plain by her cold expression she wasn't protecting them out of kindness. Gilda tired to ignore the Princess and carry on with her plan, only for Twilight to get into Gilda's face with a thunderous expression. "They're going to Tartarus! That. Is. An. Order."
The angry eyes of someone who lived a hard knock life in the streets met the stern eyes of someone who was worthy of power and a throne. A silent staring contest ensued over who would win out. The battle ended when Gilda was the one to cave first, looking away reluctantly with a growl. "Fine," Gilda said bitterly, "you can take out trash." Very reluctantly, Lightning Dust dropped Adagio on the ground, who let out a grunt of pain, while Rolling Thunder roughly dropped the other two. Princess Twilight than looked at everyone with a stern look. "There are going to Tartarus, where they'll be in a cage and under heavy guard," Princess Twilight proclaimed in a way that made it clear she was not making a suggestion. "That is final." Everyone looked dismayed over the witches a worse punishment, but they accepted that Princess Twilight had the final say. A weird smile formed on the Princess' face. "Unless Timmy has a better idea," Princess Twilight said with a smirk.
The people who were hugging Timmy finally put him down and turned to stare at Timmy, wondering what he choice was. He felt nervous, both from the attention, and from the Dazzlings starting at them, until he felt someone patting him on the head."Don't worry little guy," Flash whispered softly into his ear. "They're not gonna hurt you or you little fish again." Flash bent down to look Timmy directly in the eye. "We won't them."
The words and the gesture helped Timmy relax a lot. He eventually looked up and saw Sunset holding Cosmo and Wanda in their bowl. The sight of Sunset and Cosmo and Wanda looking at him with a combination of love and strength helped drain away at his anxiety. He graciously took Cosmo and Wanda back and, seeing everyone else looking at him with kindness, his fears vanished entirely. He knew they would never let anything bad happen to him.
His happy smile faded as soon as he glanced at the Dazzlings. Beaten, tied up, gagged, and powerless, he had no reason to be afraid of them anymore. With Cosmo and Wanda tightly held in his arms, both out of comfort and so no one would see them granting wishes, he approaching the helpless trio with a smile that could would scare a shark.
"I have a confession to make," Timmy said very loudly as he glared daggers as the Dazzlings. Cosmo and Wanda looked up at him with concern when he said 'confession'. "I've had the...stone before I came to Canterlot". Everyone perked up at that. "And I've done some pretty crazy things with it," Timmy said, his smile getting wider and nastier. "I once made it rain hail the size of minivans."
"Minivans?" Sunset asked him aloud.
"Fully loaded minivans!" Cosmo chriped.
"I also brought an alien invasion to Dimmsdale, turned everyone I knew into a grey blob, and helped cockroaches become smart enough take over the planet." Everyone was now staring at Timmy in confusion and shock, not sure if they could believe him or not, but not sure they could dismiss his claims. Timmy smiled even wider as he prepared to make his point. "But those were all accidents!" He turned to stare right into Adagio's eyes. "Now what do you think I'll do to someone when I'm really, really mad at them?!"
The sirens whimpering, crying, and twitching grew even more. Everyone also started in shock at Timmy, realizing that even with rules, he could still inflict a lot of havoc and harm on someone.
"Send them to the moon!" Spike suddenly yelled.
Timmy looked confused. "That was more of a rhetorical-,"
"They should be frozen in carbonite!" Micro Chips screamed.
"They can never have muffins again!" Derpy requested.
"They should juggle rubber chickens while riding a unicycle for the rest of their lives!" Lyra yelled.
"A falcon should eat their liver!"
Many students also started shouting their demands for the Dazzlings' punishment, some more nonsensical than others.
"They should be forced into wearing summer clothes in the winter!" Rarity suddenly shrieked. "I can think of nothing more dreadful than that."
"OH!OH!OH!" Pinkie asked like a kid wanting to ask a question in class, complete with waving her arm up and down. "Are you gonna turn them into worms like you thought we were a bunch of meanies who wanted to destroy you and achieve world domination?"
The debate ended once a certain pony princess offered her two cents. "I think turning them into worms is a great idea!" Princess Twilight said with an unnaturally wide smile that shocked Flash. "They've behaved like little, cowardly, pathetic, little worms. So worms should be there fate!" Twilight said with a merciless tone that didn't seem to belong to someone calling herself the Princess of Friendship. "So go ahead, Timmy: make them into slimy, little worms they really are inside."
Soon, someone started chanting worms, and the entire crowd was chanting "worms" over and over, eager to see the Dazzlings brutally punished. Except for Flash, who was horrified. Not at the idea of the Dazzlings becoming worms. He didn't have any sympathy for them, but that his on-and-off girlfriend could suggest such a cruel fate. "Twilight?" The blue-haired guitarist asked the pony princess, "what are you-," The Princess silently pointed toward Timmy. Flash noticed that while everyone else was looking at the Dazzlings with vindictive glee, Twilight's eyes were on the stone-wielding boy.
"I could do that," Timmy said as the chant for "worms" died down, taking a step closer toward the bound Dazzlings. "I would do that. I should do that." Each time each spoke, his anger grew until he was shaking with rage, and he took a step closer until he was eye level with the siren princess, who was now quivering and shaking with fear, her pleas for mercy audible enough through her gag. Her sisters also shook, not just because of Timmy's pitiless gaze. Cosmo and Wanda, inside their fishbowl, just silently stared at the Dazzlings. They weren't giving Timmy suggestions, but nor were they objecting to the Dazzlings being turned into slimy beings. "But...I won't," Timmy said at last after taking a deep breath, reaching into his pants, pulling out his pink hat, and putting it proudly on his head. "Because that's what you would do." His anger and shaking faded, and soon he looked at the Dazzlings like they were trash and thus beneath his notice. "You losers aren't worth it!"
"Then what are you going to do?" Twilight asked Timmy.
Timmy began whispering to Cosmo and Wanda, but to the other students not in the know, he seemed to just be making a wish to the stone. When he was finished, he just stared at the Dazzlings with an evil smile. Adagio said something inaudbile, but which sounded like "What did you wish for?" Timmy just kept smiling, raising the suspense for both the sirens and the students watching. Soon, there was a massive POOF, and a whole lot of pink smoke. When it was clear, the Dazzlings were gone, much to the horror of CHS.
"OH MY GOSH!" Limestone Pie shrieked, "he vaporized them." She then raised her fist into the air and smiled. "Great idea, Timmy! That was hardcore!"
"No they're over there!" Someone shouted. Everyone looked and saw, to their confusion, the Dazzlings had been teleported to the other side of the destroyed lawn. Even more amazingly, their injuries were healed, their hair had grown back, and they were no longer tied up. They still had massive gags over their mouths, and for some inexplicable reason, their attire had been changed to overalls, and they were suddenly surrounded by gardening implements, like rakes, shovels, and bags of mulch.
"Hey, the school's fixed!" The students looked back, and to their surprise, the entire school was completely undamaged. It look like it was freshly built, with no sign of the battle that had just taken place.
"Oh yeah I wished for the school to be all better!" Timmy said with a smile.
"You did?" Sunset asked happily. Everyone else looked at Timmy with a grateful smile. "But why is the lawn still a-,"
"The next part of my wish is that the Dazzlings would be all better, so that they could fix the lawn themselves," Timmy said, his mercilessness in his voice returning, as he marched over to the trio. "They made this mess, they're gonna clean up!" Applejack looked at the boy with a proud smile, as did the other Rainbooms. Timmy marched over to the Dazzlings. "You three are gonna work all night long to fix the lawn, and then your gonna go with Twilight to that Tatar Sauce place." The Dazzlings looked at him in confusion, much to his annoyance. "Or maybe you do want to be turned into worms?!" Timmy said with cheerful menace. WIth that the Dazzlings started picking up the shovels and rakes and went to work out of fear and terror of the little boy.
Suddenly, Gilda and her posse showed up behind the boy. "And just remember," Gilda added, "he may have rules, but if we decide to kill you," Gilda said in completely calm tone of voice, "we don't have any rules stopping you." The Dazzlings started working even faster.
Everyone started jeering at the Dazzlngs, except for Moondancer who started looking at Timmy with a remorseful expression.
"Was that some kind of princess worthiness of power test?" Flash asked Twilight.
"He did turn my friends into worms," Twilight replied with a serious smile. "I wanted to see if he learned from that mistake, or he would stoop to their level. If he didn't, I would've made another rune." Princess Twilight admitted remorselessly.
"Did he pass the test?"
"Yep," Princess Twilight said proudly. "But I had another reason."
"What-" Flash began, only for Princess Twilight to silently gesture at the crowd. Those who weren't jeering at the Dazzlings were looking with admiration at the boy supervising them. Timmy had already earned their love and respect by helping to beat the Dazzlings and being an adorable little kid. But now they were looking at him with a level of respect that only Princess Twilight and the Rainbooms achieved.
Timmy hadn't forgiven the Dazzlings. Not that Flash could blame him. But like Princess Twilight had done, he was showing a defeated foe mercy they didn't deserve. Now everyone was looking at him the way they looked at Princess Twilight: like someone who could be counted on to do the right thing, like someone who would always be there help someone in need, like someone you could go to for help.
They were looking at the boy like a hero. And to Flash, that's what the boy was.
Sunset and the other Rainbooms were broken from their own admiration for Timmy when someone approached them.
"Sunset," Moondancer said. The Rainbooms turned to look at the girl. She looked very contrite, and almost on the verge of tears. "Sunset, I'm so sorry-,"
"Moondancer, stop," Sunset said in a kind, patient, and understanding tone. "You don't have to say sorry. You don't have anything to be sorry for." Moondancer looked at the fire-haired girl with confusion. "You didn't know any of this was gonna happen. You thought you were getting revenge on me," Sunset said on the verge of tears of herselff, "and we-I did deserve this. You just wanted a friend, and all I did was hurt you over a stupid grudge and never bothered to make it up to you."
"But I shouldn't have taken revenge," Moondancer said, suddenly looking Timmy with tears rolling down her eyes. "Looking at Timmy, that's how I should've been. I should've seen you changed for the better-"
"It's not like we gave y'all a reason to be nice and forgivin'," Applejack said remorsefully. The other Rainbooms also looked upset over how they treated her.
"We ditched you and didn't help you," Rainbow said, her lips quivering. "That was a crummy thing to do to a friend."
"But we promise," Pinkie said in a soft, serious voice. "If you come back to school with us, we'll be the bestest, estest friends you ever had."
"But I don't-,"
"Don't say you don't deserve it," Twilight said with a warm, strong smile that made her look like the Princess of Friendship. "You may have been consumed by a grudge, but when you saw what was at stake, you put it aside and put your own life on the line to help save Timmy and everyone else. If that isn't what a hero does, I don't know what is." Moondancer lost all control and started crying. The Rainbooms all pulled her into a large, warm, group hug to assure the red and purple haired girl that all was forgiven, some of them also crying too.
Timmy turned his eyes away from the Dazzlings, watching this happily. Suddenly he found himself approached by the tall Principal and the other staff, who were looking at him with proud smiles.
"Good job Mr. Turner," Principal Celestia said in a very please voice. "We're all so proud of you-,"
"For learning that vengeance is not the answer," Timmy replied happily.
"Actually, we were gonna thank you for saving us another awkward conversation with the insurance company," Vice Principal Luna said with an opportunistic gaze.
"Oh," Timmy said with some disappointment.
"But learning your lesson was good too," Principal Celestia added abruptly. Suddenly the staff picked up Timmy and started tossing him into the air in gratitude, much to his annoyance.
"Hip hip hooray!" The staff cheered, lauching Timmy into the air several times. "Hip hip, hooray!" But on the fifth time that Timmy was launched into the air, he disappeared with a poof, along with his fish, much to the confusion of everyone else.
But the confusion grew when suddenly, the Rainbooms disappeared, as did the Dazzlings. A stunned and worried silence fell over everyone as they wondered where their heroes and defeated foes had gone.
The Rainbooms, Timmy, Cosmo, Wanda, and the Dazzlings suddenly appeared in the middle of some barren desert. "Where are we?" Sunset asked in exhaustion as she pulled herself off the ground.
"The Mojave Desert," Pinkie Pie said excitedly. "One of the most barren and isolated parts of America."
Princess Twilight was confused. "How did you know?"
"I didn't!" Pinkie chirped. "It was in the brochure." Pinkie gestured to a box with brochures.
Sunset looked and saw the Dazzlings lying on the ground in a heap. Their gags were gone, and they still laid on the ground with utterly defeated expressions. Not interested in their welfare, she turned away with a snorth, and saw Timmy, Cosmo, and Wanda, the latter two out of fish mode, pulling themselves up.
"Timmy," Sunset asked. "Why did you bring us-,"
"I didn't," Timmy said, also very confused.
Sunset narrowed her eyes. "Then who-," A massive explosion echoed in the distance. The blast was so powerful, it blew everyone back several feet, and a massive mushroom cloud bloomed from the sandy ground. When everyone pulled themselves up, a being had formed at the center of the mushroom cloud.
If the being could be described in one word, it could be tough: as tall as house, incredibly muscular and well-built, dressed in combat boots and military fatigues, grey hair made into a buzz cut, sharp blue eyes that looked like they could melt steal, and a lantern jaw. The silly crown on his head did little to detract from the image of toughness.
This guy wasn't just built like a tank, he looked like he could eat them for breakfast.
"Who are you?" Sunset asked, a chill going down her spine as the tall man gazed at her friends coldly.
"Jorgen von Strangle," Cosmo said fearfully.
"Enforcer of the rules," Wanda added, also shaking.
"Toughest Fairy in the Universe!" Timmy squeaked.
"Flattery will get you nowhere Turneh!" The fairy shouted in a commanding tone and a Teutonic accent. "We have...many things to discuss." He added ominously.