The Dazzlings walked out on stage. Adagio, head of the group, began their song. A low, hypnotizing melody. They hadn’t gotten much magic from that Cavalry, but what they had was good enough. It gave them a much needed boost to their powers.
It would’ve been better if the Rainbooms were the ones with magic. That would have been a nice touch. The magic taken from the Cavalry...it was the best.
The crowd silenced. They stared up at the Dazzlings.
“Welcome to the show. We’re here to let you know our time is now. Your time is running out.” Adagio grinned out at the crowd.
She and the others kept harmonizing, drawing the students further in.
Their magic grew and grew.
==RRFTC==
They’d moved to a nearby hill, behind the amphitheatre. Rarity got them all into new outfits. Colorful, beautiful outfits. Raspberry shouldn’t have been so surprised to be given clothes that looked so good.
For Raspberry, Rarity made a blue and silver dress shirt decorated in smaller versions of her cutiemark, a white belt, blue and purple leggings, and a pair of silver boots. Killjoy wore a black corset with red lacings, red fishnet sleeves, a black mini skirt, pink and green leggings, and red boots. Thorax was given a dark green vest, a green long sleeved undershirt, brown leggings, and green boots. Cicada got a white corset, pink fishnet sleeves, a pink lace flared out skirt, purple and black leggings, and black boots.
The Rainbooms were given their own amazing outfits. But that’s not something there is time to explain. The sirens were getting more powerful by the minute.
“How are we supposed to play over them from up here?” Dash asked.
A car screeched up the hill. Vinyl Scratch came, driving a small white car.
“How come she wasn’t affected?” Applejack asked.
“She wears headphones.” Raspberry supplied.
Vinyl pointed at her pink headphones. She flipped a switch on the car. All at once, the car shifted into a perfectly working sound system.
The Rainbooms cheered.
Raspberry held up a fist. Cicada bumped it.
Thorax held up his fist. Killjoy knocked it aside. Bumblebee leapt at the chance. He pulled his alternate in for a hug. Thorax initially tensed against the hug, but he relaxed. He hugged Bumblebee back.
“Feel the wave of sound as it crashes down. You can’t turn away! We’ll make you wanna sta-a-a-ay!”
The band turned to the stage. The Dazzlings were starting to float in the air. Their eyes and bodies glowing a vicious green. A magical red wave poured out from the sirens. It waved out over the crowd. They became even more entranced.
“We will be adored! Tell us that you want us. We won’t be ignored! It’s time for our reward.” The Dazzlings began to glow a dark red. The magic hardened around them. They broke out of the shells, revealing siren style wings on their backs and pony ears on their heads. The magic of Equestria served them well. “Now you need us. Come and heed us. Nothing can stop us now!”
Dash and Killjoy started off the song.
“Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh. I’ve got the music in me.” The bands sang. “Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh!”
The Dazzlings paused in their song. They turned to the hill. They hissed and glared.
“Don’t need to hear a crowd cheering out my name.” Twilight sang.
The students began to pull out from their trances. Slowly, the students started to turn to the hill. To see the Rainbooms and the Cavalry singing, colored spotlights shining all around them. Vinyl Scratch kept up the audio tracks.
“I didn’t come here seeking infamy or fame.” Raspberry sang.
“The one and only thing that I am here to bring is music, is the music-” The Rainbooms and Cavalry sang. “-is the music in my soul. Gonna break out!”
In a flash, the joined band was taken over by bright magic. One by one, the girls powered up. Pony ears began appearing. Their hair stretched out with colored streams being added, forming ponytails down their backs. Thorax grew antlers. Wings formed on Twilight, Raspberry, Dash, Fluttershy, and Killjoy’s backs. Thorax got his usual insectoid wings, and Cicada got wings of bright blue.
“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!”
The girls began to glow brighter and brighter. The Equestrian magic began to swell within them.
The Dazzlings rose higher in the sky. The students in the crowd shifted back to them. “What we have in store all we want and more. We will break on through. Now it’s time to finish you!”
They sent out another red wave. Another red shell formed around the trio of sirens. Pouring out this time were their true siren forms. Longer, serpentine shapes with pony heads. They growled. The sirens charged at the hill.
The band all stared at the approaching sirens.
Killjoy leapt up. She played a riff.
A large, powerful attack flashed out from her guitar. An attack shaped like her cutiemark, colored dark purple. To anyone who didn’t know her cutiemark, you would just see thousands of purple knives going out towards the purple siren.
Thorax nodded at Pinkie. The two of them, joint on drums, prepared another attack. Blue balloons and honey bees flew out at the blue sirens.
Twilight and Raspberry made an attack of their own. They sang into their microphones. Thousands of purple and pink stars, and blue and silver books attacked Adagio Dazzle.
Adagio hit them with a counter attack.
Raspberry kept her and Twilight on their feet.
Fluttershy and Rarity fired an attack. Pink butterflies and blue diamonds hit the purple siren.
Blue lightning bolts and orange apples lashed out at the blue siren.
The three sirens saw how to improve their attacks. As a trio, they sang.
Red waves attacked the band.
All the girls were knocked to the ground. Their growing magic vanished. Twilight’s mic fell to the ground in a clatter. Raspberry’s flew right into Sunset’s hand. Vinyl Scratch got thrown from her car.
Sunset stared at the mic like it was a ticking bomb. Bumblebee wasted no time, rushing to the car. Sunset continued to stare at the mic in fear.
“Sunset Shimmer, we need you!” Twilight pleaded.
“You can do it!” Raspberry promised.
Sunset squeezed the mic.
Bumblebee started the car back up. He switched up the sounds, letting a beat play from the speakers.
The sirens cackled.
“You’re never gonna bring me down.” Sunset sang. She threw off her jacket. Her hair moved in the breeze.
Sunset held out her hand.
Raspberry grabbed it.
“You’re never gonna break this part of me.” Sunset sang. She smiled at Raspberry. Raspberry helped Twilight up. “My friends are here to bring me ’round. Not singing just for popularity.”
Sunset, Raspberry, and Twilight sang together. And the magic between them had never been brighter. “We’re here to let you know that we won’t let it go.”
The Rainbooms and Cavalry stood up with them. “Our music is a bomb and it’s about to blow!”
“And you can try to fight-” Sunset and Bumblebee began to glow, much to their confusion. As the band watched, Sunset and Bumblebee floated in the air. “-but we have got the light of-”
“Friendship on our side!” They all sang.
The magic exploded from them again. The Rainbooms and the Cavalry floated in the air, glowing with magic. Sunset began to shift and change. Her own hair growing out, colored streaks being added. She looked up at her pony ears- a happy pang going off in her chest. Bumblebee suddenly found himself with a pair of blue wings to match his sister’s.
“Got the music in our hearts! We’re here to blow this thing apart! And together, we will never be afraid of the dark.” They sang. A rainbow of magic branched out from them. It covered the students, forever freeing them from the spell. “Here to sing our song out loud! Get you dancing with the crowd! As the music of our friendship! Survives, survives!”
The sirens growled. They exchanged a glance, narrowing their eyes on the performance.
The students began to sing. They turned to the Rainbooms and the Cavalry.
Got the music in our hearts
We’re here to blow this thing apart
And together, we will never
Be afraid of the dark
Here to sing our song out loud
Get you dancing with the crowd
As the music of our friendship
Survives, survives, survives!
The magic reached a fever pitch. A Sunday night fever pitch, if you will. It grew and grew. The power and unity of twelve singers (instead of the original six) made the magic explode and overflow in excess. It stretched up into the sky.
As the sirens watched in shock, the magic took on a shape. A glowing white serpentine horse, magic sparkling around and inside it. The white horse made the sky glow as if the sun still shone. The horse caught sight of the sirens. With a mighty cry, the magic horse-beam charged at their prey.
The sirens screamed when the horse ran into them.
==RRFTC==
The Dazzlings were gone, by the time Twilight and Raspberry left the stage. All that was left behind were the shattered jewels remains of their necklaces.
Twilight turned to Raspberry. Their bands walked up behind them. “Did we-”
Raspberry knelt down. She picked up the shards. “They’re not dead. The magic has never been deadly.” The shards fell from her hand. “They...ran.”
They ran in the movie as well, Raspberry noted. The Dazzlings ran early. Nobody even heard them sing after. Raspberry considered what it could mean.
“Probably nothing.” Raspberry stood back up.
It could mean something, something deep and rotten and bad, but Raspberry didn’t know for certain. These girls felt more like one-time only villains than a recurring threat.
“Really?” Twilight asked.
Thorax walked up. He put his hand on her back, giving her a supportive rub.
“Really.” Raspberry said with more certainty. “Definitely above 80%.”
“Not 100?” Twilight asked.
Raspberry looked at Sunset. “They could come back but...I think we’ve proven...” She grinned at Twilight.
Instantly, Twilight didn’t like the look in those amber eyes.
“...friendship is magic.” Raspberry told him.
Twilight laughed.
Sunset knelt down, scooping up the broken necklace in her hand. “Why were these so important to them?”
“They powered their magic, made them good at singing.” Raspberry answered. “Can’t mind-control people without a good voice. Those three? They could carry a tune about as well as Killjoy could bake a cake.”
“Hey-”
“-without poisoning it.”
“...true.”
“Guess that explains why these were so special to them.” Sunset mused. “Without those pendants and the magic brought here from Equestria, they’re just three harmless teenage girls.”
Raspberry nodded. Thorax hummed, squeezing her in a proud hug.
“Rainbooms rule!” Someone shouted. The girls cleared a path. Flash Sentry ran up to Twilight, swilling her up into a hug. “That was amazing!”
Her friends giggled at Twilight’s blush. Killjoy grinned, giving Twilight a look that might even be described as proud.
Twilight did get put back on her feet. She giggled, twirling her hair as her blush brightened.
Raspberry looked up at Thorax. She nipped his nose, resting her head on his shoulder. He kissed her forehead, chuckling.
Trixie pushed herself between them. Raspberry might actually kill her this time.
“You may have vanquished the Dazzlings, but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie!” The stage magician dropped a smoke bomb on the floor.
Everyone coughed. Thorax lashed his arm out, grabbing the first thing he touched. He hoped it was Raspberry. As the smoke cleared, he saw his wife in his arms. She glared at the retreating form of Trixie Lulamoon.
“She’s gone!” Pinkie gasped. “Oh, wait. There she is.”
Trixie tried retreating from around the stands. She ended up falling over. “Trixie’s okay!“
Raspberry grunted.
Thorax patted her head. “There, there. No need for that.” Raspberry growled. “Not worth it.” Raspberry conceded that.
“You know, Twilight is going back to Equestria soon.” Dash began. She grinned at Sunset. “The Rainbooms could really use someone to help Fluttershy on backup vocals?”
Sunset beamed. She grabbed a nearby guitar. She played a perfect riff, loud and amazing. “I also play guitar.” She offered.
The Rainbooms smiled, giggling. They turned to Dash’s shocked expression.
“...We’ll see.” Dash offered.
“Hey, uh...is this permanent?”
They all turned to Cicada, and Bumblebee beside her.
They were still very colorful.
Like...colorful colorful.
Raspberry and Thorax gawked. Killjoy cackled, like of course that happened. The Rainbooms looked at the siblings in confusion. Twilight gasped.
“You changed!” Twilight realized.
Because yep. That’s exactly what happened. Bumblebee now looked like Thorax’s double, a near perfect copy down to the long orange hair. Cicada, who used to have gray skin, stood before them with neon orange skin and violet hair.
They changed. As all changelings did before.
==RRFTC==
Raspberry pulled away from Cicada. She lowered the device in her hand.
“What’s that made of, again?” Bumblebee asked.
“Not radiation.” Raspberry assured him. “It’s a smaller version of Twilight’s magic scanning device.”
“It got cumbersome to bring it out every time I needed to scan Raspberry.” Twilight explained. “She made a smaller version.”
Bumblebee still looked worried. He kept pacing in the room. His sister sat in front of Raspberry. Her skin was still orange, short hair was still purple. Worried dark green eyes watched Raspberry, biting her new pale orange lips.
They were at Canterlot High. The room where the Rainbooms practiced stayed empty, since nobody needed to be here. It was a Sunday night, after all. Raspberry and Twilight decided that made it the perfect place to check over the siblings for magic.
Twilight was overjoyed. She loved getting to study the changelings last time. After she stopped worrying about Morgan, obviously. Twilight got to connect with the Changeling people, to introduce them to friendship and their new magic. Queen Thorne was also very nice. Twilight studied and wrote out her learnings for weeks. Now she would get to do it all over again!
Sunset was absent from this. She offered to take the Rainbooms out and about, bonding with them as proper friends. Twilight encouraged it.
Killjoy sat on the other side of the room. She texted on her phone, paying barely any attention.
Thorax stood vigilant at the door. Feeling more secure with Raspberry, he didn’t view his alternate with suspicion or derision. Thorax worried for the kid. And, he watched the human Cicada. The girl looked even younger, and only more afraid.
He wondered if his own sister would ever look like this.
Raspberry showed Twilight the readings. “You see what I see?”
Twilight read the small screen. Her eyes widened. “Wow.”
“I know. It’s incredible, right?”
“It’s impossible! Well, I suppose I can’t say that. Clearly it is possible. It’s happened once and it happened again.” Twilight stared at the screen again. “But that’s weird on its own! What happened last time was such a bizarre occurrence. Now that it’s been repeated here- it’s so incredible!”
“What’s happening to me and my sister?” Bumblebee asked.
“You and Cicada-”
“It’s Starfish-”
“Nobody believes you-” Raspberry replied, dismissive. “You and Cicada went through a magical shift. The changelings in Equestria did the same about seven months ago.”
“Changelings. What are changelings?” Bumblebee asked.
“Shapeshifters.” Thorax answered. He shifted to the feminine form. Bumblebee and Cocada gawked. “We can change our shape to whatever we please. In this place, I’ve only been able to change to human shapes. Back home, I could turn into a bear.”
“He and his people weren’t treated right by their mother.” Raspberry stated. “They were raised in a home without love, starving for it. They used their skills to ‘trick’ love from people. I’m speaking in vague references, because I suspect you two are going through much the same.”
Bumblebee and Cicada shifted, uncomfortable.
“Seven months ago, Thorax and I fought against their mother. A big, awesome fight, worthy of at least a feature length movie.” Raspberry explained.
“Oh no way. It’s a double feature.” Thorax stated.
Raspberry blinked at him. “...because I have a twin, or because you do?”
“...both.” Thorax admitted. Raspberry winked at him.
“Anyway. During the fight, Thorax unleashed a large attack of the magic he’d gained. He shared love. The magic shifted him into, well, that.” Raspberry gestured to all of him.
“He looks like a person.” Cicada pointed out.
“He’s like seven feet tall and that’s not counting the antlers.” Killjoy revealed. Cicada and Bumblebee gawked.
Twilight stepped in. “You two joined in the battle of the bands. Our magic grew and grew, and it started changing you. Giving you old changeling ears and wings. When we attacked the sirens, the magic shifted you at the same time. You were changed just as the changelings were.”
“That doesn’t answer our question.” Bumblebee reminded her. “Can we change back? Did any of you try to turn them back?”
“No.” Thorax stated. He narrowed his purple eyes at Bumblebee’s new matching pair. “We fought for years to get out of the horror Queen Chrysalis trapped us in. Why would any of us go back?”
“Because we can’t be seen like this!” Bumblebee argued. “We had- people recognized us. We have more family than just us! Now we look- we look like different people!”
“Is that so bad?” Cicada asked. Her brother stared, appalled. “Come on. Think about it! Did we even wanna go back?”
“It’s not that bad-”
“We hide in our room most of the time to avoid Mom and Pharynx.” Cicada argued. “Raspberry was right about that much. We can have a new start like this.”
“It’s not our real faces.”
“I’ve worn so many disguises, trying to hide, it doesn’t feel like my real face anymore.” His sister argued. She waved her purple hair. After a close look, they were the same purple as her brother’s eyes. “This feels real. Like- like really real. I wanna be this Cicada, instead of the other one. I like this look.”
“You’re orange.”
“You’re green. What about it?”
Raspberry snorted. “Wow, Cicada, you’re so cool.”
“Cooler than all her brothers.” Killjoy added. Thorax glared at her. Killjoy met the glare, raising a challenging eyebrow.
Thorax agreed that Cicada was cooler, just...Bumblebee was cooler than Pharynx. Why did Killjoy think Pharynx was her brother too? Pharynx would be lucky to get Cicada as a sister. Just like Thorax was lucky. And that-
Oh.
Oh.
Oh right yeah Thorax was Cicada’s brother too.
“You don’t want to change back?” Raspberry asked Cicada. “I’m not judging, I’m only double checking. Is this change alright?”
“It’s amazing.” Cicada cheered. She reached over, holding Raspberry’s hands. “Thank you. Really, thank you.”
“Where will we live?” Bumblebee asked. “They won’t let us come home.”
“We could stay with our aunt!” Cicada said.
“The one mom hates?”
“Mom hates everyone.”
“Yeah but she really hates Aunt Thorne.”
“Thorne is your aunt here?” Thorax asked.
Bumblebee tensed. “You know her?”
Thorax nodded.
“After they defeated Queen Chrysalis, Queen Thorne took the throne.” Twilight explained.
Bumblebee hummed, processing that information.
“We have tea parties.” Raspberry admitted. “Killjoy doesn’t even try to poison her.”
“I respect that lady.” Killjoy confirmed. “She puts up with so much Changeling bullshit. I kill her, who takes her place? None of them. All of them are stupid.”
“See? She’s gotta be nice.” Cicada reasoned. She was still mostly convinced that Killjoy poisoned things as a joke. Cause..cause it can’t be actual murder, yeah? “Let’s go meet Aunt Thorne. Start new with her. Please, Rax?”
Thorax felt his chest tighten. Raspberry reached for him. The Changeling came over. He squeezed her hand, tight enough to cause pain in someone normal. Raspberry took it with a comforting smile.
Bumblebee crumbled. “Yeah. Okay. We could- we could try it.”
Cicada squealed in delight. She threw her arms at her brother, pulling him in for a hug.
==RRFTC==
The Rainbooms returned from their friendship outing. Now, everybody stood at the portal.
The girls hugged Twilight, Raspberry, and Thorax. Killjoy avoided the hug.
Applejack sighed when the hug ended. “Sure wish you could stay longer.”
“Us too.” Twilight replied.
“Liar. I wanna go home.” Killjoy argued. Raspberry thumped her arm. “You do too!”
“Yeah but you don’t say it.”
“Make it a rule then!”
“We have responsibilities in Equestria that we have to get back to.” Twilight spoke up, trying to get moving before the twins started a proper fight. “Its citizens need us- need me. But now we can go through the portal whenever we need to. This isn’t goodbye. It’s just goodbye ’til next time.” She turned to their group. “Ready?”
“Ready!” They all replied.
Killjoy ran in without a word.
Twilight waved her friends goodbye. She and Spike walked in.
“Make good choices!” Thorax told them.
“Or fun ones!” Raspberry winked at Cicada. The orange girl giggled.
Raspberry and Thorax walked in the portal.
“MOM! DAD!”
They found themselves tackled by a large number of children. Raspberry laughed.
“It’s Dad’s birthday!”
“Did we miss it?!”
“We gotta have a new one!”
“I got him a present!”
“We all did!”
“Mine is better!”
“No it’s not!”
Thorax laughed. He stood up, antlers glowing. The children laughed as he put them on his back. “I could go to a party.” He smiled at Raspberry, meaningfully. “Unless you-”
“No. I made up my mind. I’m not changing it back.” She kissed his cheek, nuzzling it for good measure.
Thorax blushed. “You heard Mom, kids. Let’s find Pinkie!”
“Yay!”
==RRFTC==
Dear Princess Morgan, and Princess Twilight,
Missing you already, and I hope you’ll be back soon. Things are definitely looking up for me here at Canterlot High. But I know I still have a lot to learn about friendship. Hope you don’t mind if I write to you for advice when I need it.
==RRFTC==
Pinkie fired the party cannon. As the ponies cheered, Thorax blushed and Raspberry pretended she wasn’t. Pinkie made a banner above their heads.
‘Recently engaged!!’
“But we’re-”
“Rarity insists on another royal wedding.” Raspberry told him. Thorax started to frown. Raspberry nuzzled his cheek. “Which is why Earth invented Vegas.”
Thorax smiled again.
==RRFTC==
The readings came out from the machine. She collected them, pinning them to the board beside the picture of Canterlot High.
Twilight stepped away from the board. “No doubt about it, Spike. There’s definitely something strange going on at that school...”
Her dog barked.
“Should we do something about it?” Her only other friend asked.
Twilight sighed. “I’m starting to think we’ll have to.”