//------------------------------//
// A Trail Of Hatred 
// Story: A Dazzling Mismatch 
// by Shadowmane PX-41 
//------------------------------//

As the rain continued to fall and the wind continued to whip around the Rainbooms, Aria, and Sonata, the girls pushed on. They were going to find Adagio no matter how much it took out of them or whatever kind of hurdles came their way. For they knew that if Adagio could change her tune like the other sirens, then there would be hope that the three of them could finally end the bad blood that they had between Sunset and her friends. But all of that would amount to nothing if they couldn't find Adagio. Even now, Aria and Sonata were worried about what kind of things Adagio was getting up to. Aria especially, since all of her negative, unstable aspects had found themselves in Adagio's body. That kind of bitterness, she knew all too well.

"Adagio!" Sunset called out at the top of her voice over the sounds of the rain and thunder

"Adagio!" Aria and Sonata did the same, concerned about their missing sister from the bottom of their hearts. "Where are you?!"

The other Rainbooms were calling Adagio's name, but however much any of them tried and no matter how many directions they turned their voice and all of the streets that they peered down, Adagio was nowhere to be seen. Not even the slightest trace to show that she had been there existed. There was no calling card, no discarded photos, nothing. It was like she was a ghost.

"Oh, where in the heck is she?" Rainbow Dash groaned as she and the other girls took a break from shouting Adagio's name. "Canterlot City's not even a massive city! It's just a bunch of skyscrapers and mostly houses! Adagio can't have gotten that far! Surely!"

"You must remember, Rainbow Dash. Adagio Dazzle's been tainted by the hate of her sister. All of Aria Blaze's punk-like aspects have burrowed into her brain and now she's embracing it as part of herself." Rarity crossed her arms and turned to Rainbow Dash. "It's highly unlikely that she'll want to come out from our voices alone; moreso to apologise for running away. If any punk behaves like Aria would have, then Adagio will most likely hate our guts, say something hurtful towards us, then run away wishing that she never met any of us; even her own kin."

"That's not like Dagi at all..." Sonata also hung her head in worry, to which Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy wrapped their arms around her shoulders. "Adagio Dazzle used to be such a level-headed, in-control leader. At least... she used to be before we came to your school, girls." Sonata let out a sigh as she looked into the eyes of the Rainbooms. "I should know Adagio better than anybody; and not just because I've got her emotions and her mind, but because I've been with her and Aria for as long as I can remember."

"It's always been the three of us against the world. Never really knew a time other than it, I guess." Aria just nonchalantly splayed her hands and tipped them like they were hanging scales. The kind of hand gesture that someone with Sonata's personality would have. "Still, Dagi's got a lot of problems, but she's not the kind of person to let anger issues drag her down."

"That's what I'm worried about the most, girls." Sunset couldn't help but think about it herself. "You and Adagio did seem like a tightly-knit unit when you were back at our school. Something must've really broken down between the three of you when you had to leave like that. Bonds like that don't just break, y'know; especially if you've only known each other and nobody else."

"Well, basically, Sunset, you should know this by now because Adagio told you about it, but a Siren's only goal in Equestria is to feast off of negative emotions." Sonata walked forward and held Sunset's hands. "Sadness, doubts, and most importantly, anger. Those are all important to a Siren's diet. When we were back in Equestria, it was much more about the emotions than it was the food. Once we were thrown here and got these weird, human bodies, things started to change. But even then, we needed to eat our own stuff; not just the human world's dishes."

"Three of us got to work, singing to sway the people, and the rest is history. We came to your school, we sung, you stood against us, and you know the rest. Heck, you were there." Aria shrugged. "Now that we were cut off of that, Aria became much more restless and Adagio lost control more and more. Whereas Sonata just stayed the same. But now... Well, I don't know, to be honest. Adagio's lost all the control she had and she's got Aria's old anger and fury. That's gonna make her even more deadly than ever."

"And if those gemstones do give her the power to feed off of that anger again, then it's likely that Adagio, overwhelmed with anger, grief, and other negative emotions of her own is singing out of pure rage and despair." Twilight gulped. Though she pieced together the puzzle relatively quickly in her mind, the result was nothing happy for her or for the others. "If what you told me about the Battle of the Bands is true, girls, then Adagio's going to be far more powerful than ever if she's gone back to her old ways. In some cases, she might even be more powerful, since she's taking all that negative energy herself instead of dividing it between Aria and Sonata as well."

"Don't tell me we'd have ta fight that monster of hers again. It was already a challenge havin' ta nail it the first time." Applejack gruffly replied, lowering her hat. "Almost ended up losing it all back then, y'know. Even with the Twilight of Sunset's world, it was still an uphill battle having to sing our hearts out against the Sirens."

"I agree. The way that Adagio and her sisters behaved back then, it was almost like they came from the deepest pits of our nightmares. I was half-tempted to stop playing the tambourine and pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming..." Fluttershy said, pulling some of her drenched hair away from her face. "If Adagio's going solo with that kind of stuff and she's got more bad emotions, then she could gain enough magic to destroy the city. Or even... the entire world if she went that far.

"I wouldn't put it past her to go that far, Fluttershy. After all, Adagio's been ripped from her home, we tore away her powers, she's lost her own emotional state, and she's been left all alone." Sunset grimaced over the thought. "Adagio's lost everything. She's got nothing more to lose, so why would she care about whether or not this planet lives on? Poor girl... I really want to help her, but we also caused her to walk this path." Eventually, after a mental deliberation, Sunset turned towards Aria and Sonata. "What about you, Aria and Sonata? What do you think we should do to try and stop your sister?"

"You want us to come with a way to stop Adagio?" Sonata blinked, her eyes shrinking down slightly at the idea of them standing against Adagio. For all that Sonata and Aria knew, they had never once tried to oppose Adagio's judgement. Even back then, when they had their little spats and disagreements, they still knew their place in the trio. They were nothing more than subservient to Adagio and dependent on her to get things done. Now, what Sunset was asking them was to go back on all of that, to fight back against the very girl who had provided for them both; even if she had gone completely off of the rails.

"I know that it comes as a shock, but Adagio's gonna end up going completely buck wild if you don't help us out here, girls." Sunset offered a hand to both Aria and Sonata, who reluctantly curled away from it and looked down to their own hands. "If you don't want to help, then I can understand. We'll do what we can to fight back on our own, but since she's your own sister, I figured that you two would know how to handle her, or at least try to calm her down."

"It's grateful that you're choosing us, but... truth be told, I don't think there's any real way to stop another Siren." Aria's eyes shifted around and turned towards the sky. "Believe me when I say back in Equestria, we really did try to face off against Adagio more than a few times for the leadership role."

"Yeah. But every single time that we did, Adagio always managed to whup our tushies real good! She's unstoppable both in singing and in fighting!" Sonata added her voice to the conversation, still vividly remembering all of the bruises, bumps, and hits that she took as a Siren back in Equestria and all of the times that she and Aria tried to beat off Adagio. Even now, she was wincing and recoiling with every single attack on her body she could recall. "It didn't stop once we got here either. She was still just as powerful there as she was back home."

"Eventually, we stopped trying at all and learned our place." Aria hung her head. "If only we'd tried a little more; shown Adagio that it's not just her show; that we had every right to lead just as well as she did..."

"Well, I'm sure that you'll get that chance soon, girls." Sunset walked up to both Aria and Sonata and gave them both a comforting hug. "What happened in the past happened. What matters is the here and now. And you won't be alone in fighting your sister if it comes to that."

"Yeah. We're all here for you, girls. So if Adagio even tries to pull anything funny, the Magic of Friendship is totally gonna blast her into next year." Rainbow Dash gave a thumbs-up gesture. "Now, c'mon. Let's get back to our search. The faster that we find Adagio, the better."

"Y-y-you're right." Sonata sniffled, but wiped the tears from her eyes. "We've been moping around like this far too long. Adagio's probably getting more unhinged as we wait. We've gotta find her now." Making fists out of her hands, Sonata lowered her brows and got out of Sunset's hug. "Just you wait, Adagio. This time, we're ALL going to bring you back to your senses; not just the Rainbooms!" With a battle cry, Sonata ran down the streets, leaving the others in the dust.

"Wow... is she always like that?" Pinkie blinked, stunned at Sonata's newfound confidence and vigor.





The Rainbooms found their way into the city and towards a rather chilling sight. The sounds of arguing and discord could be heard from all around, as people voiced their disbelief and shared it physically. Fights had broken out, and there were broken shopfronts, crashed vehicles, and other pieces of destruction and calamity around as the girls went across the streets. And every single one of those humans was oozing with green mist that floated around and drifted off into other parts of the city.

"Whoa... what happened here?!" Rainbow Dash was the first one to comment on the upsetting scene. So much tension and anger had been dredged up to the surface and only one girl was to blame for it all.

"Adagio was here. Definitely." Aria commented as she reached for the green mist. She brought it to her gemstone and it flickered ever so slightly before disappearing. "Anger. Negative emotions. Adagio sang, people listened, and now they're going at it like cats and dogs!"

"Eh, I find that a common misconception. Personally, I think cats and dogs would be great if they just learned how to get along with each other," Pinkie Pie added with a raised finger. "Still, if Adagio's gone super-mean and is making everyone else into super-mean grumbly-argue-fighty-pants, then we've gotta speed this up!" She was flailing her arms in a panic. "I don't wanna fight another flying fish-horse in this life, thank you very much!"

"We can't exactly ask them which way that Adagio went either..." Sunset noticed that the humans were too far gone by Adagio's song to listen to reason. All that came tumbling out of their mouths were slander, arguments, insults, and other obscenities the likes of which would make any girl upset. "She's really gotten under their skin this time."

"Where do you think Adagio would've gone?" Applejack asked. "There's only so many spots in the city, and it ain't like she's got a lot of people to feed off of. And school's closed, so she can't exactly go there and repeat history. So where in tarnation..."

"From the way that the mist seems to be travelling, Adagio must have gone that way." Twilight pointed down one of the roads. For all of the negative emotion magic that Adagio had spurned from her scornful song, she had left herself a trail for the Rainbooms to follow without her even noticing. Now, they had just what they needed to track her down and put an end to this. "C'mon, girls!" Twilight was about to run off, but Sunset grabbed onto Twilight's shoulder.

"Be careful, Twilight. Adagio knows how to get people on their nerves." Sunset informed her, looking into her eyes with a focused gaze. "Back at the Battle of the Bands, she took advantage of the discord between all of my friends and turned that hatred into more power for herself. If we let her do the same thing again, she's gonna be invincible." She looked back to the other Rainbooms. "Got that, girls? If we argue like we did back then, it's game over. Adagio will win and she'll blow this entire world clean off the map. That clear?" The Rainbooms just gave a nod; knowing all too well what Adagio and the sirens were capable of. Sunset nodded back and turned to Twilight again. "Okay. Now we can go. Lead the way, Twilight."

Twilight nodded, then sprinted down the road. The other girls were quick to follow her, running as fast as their legs could carry them. As they raced through the anger-coated city of Canterlot City, they saw all of the rest of Adagio's work in full display. People were ferocious; their inner anger and underline tensions all erupting one after the other. And each one was causing more and more negative energy to sprout out and race down the path; straight towards Adagio. It was harrowing for Twilight to think that one song was causing all of this anger and despair; even more so to think that Adagio was taking all of that negativity and converting it into raw power for her own use. The way that the town had been damaged, the ways that the people were venting all of their anger and frustrations, and the amount of dark energy that they were expelling, it was enough to paint her heart with fear; something that Twilight wasn't used to feeling.

"It looks like all of the negative energy's gathering at one place!" Twilight noticed that other streets of Adagio's new magic were starting to overlap with the one that the girls were all running down. "All we need to do is keep going where the trails intersect and we'll find Adagio in no time!"

"From the way that we're travelling, it looks like she's going to be at the very heart of the city itself; at the top of the Summer Sun Skyscraper!" Sunset exclaimed to the other girls.

"The Summer Sun Skyscraper? What the heck's she plannin' to do there?" Applejack asked, ltrying to make sense of what Adagio was planning. "There ain't anything up on that there roof. She's just boxing herself in!"

"She's a siren, right? So what do you think, Applejack? She's going to sing from that rooftop!" Rarity quickly explained. "And if she does, then her song's going to reach the whole city and the town beyond! It'll all become one giant dystopia! The people could be inclined to riot and tear this whole place down themselves!"

"All while she gets to sit back and watch the world burn; taking everyone's anger for herself. It makes me so mad I could just... I could... I... I don't even know how to vent myself!" Fluttershy was not one for getting angry, but to know that a siren could really do all of that and profit off of it was starting to make her blood boil.

"There it is! Summer Sun Skyscraper at 3 o'clock!" Sonata pointed it out before Fluttershy had the chance to even let a single yell out of her mouth.

"But it's almost 9!" Pinkie pointed to her phone's clock, which read 8:57 PM.

"Not that 9 o'clock, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash told her, putting the phone away. "It means on the right!"

"Oh... right. My bad." Pinkie blushed at each cheek as she let a weak chuckle escape her mouth.

Sure enough, the girls all arrived at the Summer Sun Skyscraper. Negative emotions were travelling up the tower towards the apex, with even more negative emotions coming out of the windows of the skyscraper itself. The people in the office complexes inside must have also been touched by Adagio's song, the girls quickly deduced. Still, wasting no time, they raced into the foyer of the Summer Sun Skyscraper.

The receptionist, who would usually be in charge of making sure that nobody but the authorised personnel got in, was having a row with some of the security guards, who were also shouting and yelling back at her. The three people were insatiably arguing with each other, so determined to get the last word that none of them noticed Sunset, the Rainbooms, Aria, and Sonata leaping over the desk and towards the elevators situated behind her. Once they made it to the elevators, they pushed the button, waited until it came down, and all hurried inside, closing the door behind them once they were all packed inside and the button for the highest floor was pushed.

After a brief ride up the elevator, the girls found themselves in a cubicle farm, where people were already starting to get riotous. Chairs were being thrown, stationary was being hurled, and the people there were so intent on getting their point across that all sense had gone out of the window. They only had one thing on their minds now; anger. They wanted to fight. They wanted to hurt and attack each other, because they knew nothing else other than it. And all the while, not a single one of them noticed the ten teenage girls who had just entered their complex.

"Oh, great." Applejack slapped her forehead. "This ain't even the roof and we've gotta go through that mess?" She jabbed her hand towards the fighting crowds.

"It's our only way, Applejack." Rarity used the geode around her neck and did a Pony-Up. "If we don't stop Adagio right here and now, then we won't ever get a chance to make up with her and get her to see that there's a better way." Sparing no more time, Rarity slung a wave of diamond shields across the chaos, creating a path for the girls to run down that lead directly towards the door. But even now, people were trying to climb and jump over it like a pack of ravenous zombies. "Let us make haste!"

Sparing no time to figure out what Rarity meant, the girls all ran through the ensuing chaos, using Rarity's gate to funnel themselves towards the door leading towards the stairs. Halfway, through, the diamonds were beginning to shatter, and the people were breaking through. Not only angry with themselves but at the Rainbooms for stopping their fights, they began to chase after them too. By the time that Rarity lead the others towards the door, they saw that the cubicle farm workers were all beginning to congregate on them, so they all went through the doors to the staircase and Rarity took the moment to jam the door shut with some more diamond plates spawned from her magic.

"What... a bunch of... ruffians!" Rarity was breathing so heavily from all of the excitement that she transformed back to normal. "They're insatiable!"

"Adagio... What have you done?" Sonata's eyes grew wide and her knees weak. If Adagio had really done all of this, then would she even listen to her and Aria anymore.

"Hey, c'mon. You can worry about the moping for later. Right now, we've gotta stop Adagio before she does whatever she's planning." Rainbow Dash put a hand on Sonata's back and smiled at her.

"Yeah. We can save the apologies for later." Sunset helped Sonata back onto her legs. "Let's go!"

Sonata nodded and felt strength return to her legs. Sunset and Rainbow Dash's words motivated her to keep going, and it wasn't long before all ten of the girls ran all the way up the stairs towards the roof. It was only a couple of flights of stairs, but they made it at last. Bursting out of the doors, they felt the wind and rain were much stronger up here, and it made the place look much more menacing than it usually was.

The girls saw the magic continue to trail towards the center, so they followed after it, jumping and crawling over large pipes and framework, scrambling through the architecture of the roof of the Summer Sun Skyscraper, until at last, they found themselves on a wide, open area, where not a single fence or protective bannister lined the building. And there, at the heart of it all, she stood.

Her feet floating slightly off the ground, her spiky wings on full display, and her body reinvigorated by the negative energy she was gathering, she stood. Adagio Dazzle. The former Dazzling leader; now, a fully committed solo act. She looked towards the Rainbooms and her two former sisters with a dark red glow in her eyes. She licked her lips sadistically like a vampire and said with venom in her voice, "Hello, girls..." And then, another flash of lightning struck down behind her, the shadow that coated her as the blinding flash struck made her look like a monster from the girls' nightmares.