//------------------------------//
// The Next Step 
// Story: The Siren Song: Razzle Dazzle 
// by Shadowmane PX-41 
//------------------------------//

Twilight arrived back at CHS in what looked like the middle of the night. It seemed that she'd really been away from the Human World for that long. She looked up at the starry skies and shed a little tear. She envisioned that her friends were on one of those stars, under The Blasters' spell and acting as their mindless puppets.

She merely put her head against another part of the statue and began to cry. She had every reason to cry at this moment in time. She'd lost her friends, she was all alone and worst of all, she'd have to fight her friends in order to save them from The Blasters' spell. As the tears streamed down her face, she buried her head into her hands.

"Twilight?" a female voice asked for her.

"Who is it?" Twilight asked meekly as she kept her head pressed against the marble statue. She was unaware of the person talking to her, but she could vaguely remember that voice from somewhere...

"What's wrong, Twilight?" a second voice asked, hoping to show Twilight some sympathy for what had just happened to her.

"Wait a minute..." Twilight turned around and saw a very familiar trio of girls. They were all dressed up in coats and scarves due to the cold weather and had a wide variety of journalist equipment with them. "Snapshots?"

"Hello again, Twilight," Photo Finish stepped forward and wiped away some of Twilight's tears, getting her to see the three reporters clearly now. Photo Finish could see that Twilight was in a state of disarray and wanted to know what was going on. "What's ze matter? You look like you've been through hell and back..."

"I've been through a rather traumatic experience tonight, girls..." Twilight said, still a little sad that she'd recalled those memories of The Blasters taking her friends from her. "My friends back in Equestria were separated from me, brain controlled and are now working for The Blasters..."

"I knew it!" Violet said, seeing what the cause of Twilight's problems were almost instantaneously. "So The Blasters ARE evil!"

"So, when you say separated, what do you mean by that?" Pixel Pizazz decided to ask Twilight, seeing as it would help her and the rest of The Snapshots uncover The Blasters for the frauds that they truly were.

"We went to Lyrica to try and find some secrets on Siren lore and where to find their weaknesses," Twilight began, explaining what had happened back in Lyrica. "When we actually got there, we fought against The Blasters' true selves; their Siren forms. However, when they called in a giant Chimera, we were forced to unleash our full power against them..."

"So, doesn't that mean you would have kicked their sorry butts?" Violet asked, raising a hand in question. She knew from experiences here at CHS that whenever Twilight unleashed her full power, things always worked out in the end.

"It wasn't like that this time..." Twilight said, shedding another tear. "Lyrican Sirens have powers beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Their Chimera roared most of the time and rarely attacked us. We'd been baited into a trap, as the moment after it roared, we were all arguing and fighting with one another..."

"So you fell under their spell as well, right?" Violet asked, clearly seeing a contradiction in Twilight's little story. If she knew that Twilight had been arguing as well, then she pondered why The Blasters decided to spare her. "But then why would The Blasters spare you, but take your friends instead?"

"The Blasters know how to get under a person's skin. I can see that now..." Twilight said, envisioning things very well could happen in the future. She could see visions herself down on her knees, her friends laughing maniacally at her defeat. And all the while, The Blasters merely smiled and turned to The Dazzlings, who were now under their control as well. Luckily for her, it was a possible outcome and could very well have been false. "They know that by breaking the key link to our power, then we'll all be as weak as flies. They've shattered my friendships with my pony friends, so they think that I'm now weak and powerless without them..."

"Hold up a second, Twilight. If zey've taken your pony friends, zen you could try and free zem with your human friends!" Photo Finish said, concocting another idea for Twilight to use against The Blasters. "Think about it... If your pony friends find your human world friends, zen zey'll start doubting zeir existence, leaving zem wide open for you to save zem from Ze Blasters control!"

"You know what? That might actually work..." Twilight said, thinking about it logically here. Sure, she might end up disrupting the balance by having her pony friends meet her human friends, but at this point she had nothing more to lose. "If two of the same person meet each other, the paradoxical effects might dampen The Blasters control over my pony friends to some varying degree. By doing this, not only do my pony friends become more vulnerable, but they can also be broken free of The Blasters' insidious mind control."

"It might sound crazy, but it's a risk I'm willing to take at this point..." she added on, making sure that The Snapshots understood what she had been saying to them. "Thanks, girls. You've really helped cheer me up. Now that I know there's a way to save my friends without fighting them, I can relax and study more about The Blasters and their power..."

"Always happy to help, Princess Twilight." Violet said, making a rather lady-like bow to Twilight.

"You know, you don't have to do that, Violet," Twilight said, watching as Violet got back up from her bow so that she was with the rest of The Snapshots. "I might be a princess, but I'm not like Canterlot royalty or anything."

"Even so, we just wanted to make sure whether or not you liked that sort of thing." Pixel said, showing a little bit of a smile once she saw Violet getting back up to her normal stance.

"So, what are you gonna do now, Twilight?" Violet decided to ask once Twilight had shown her own smile at long last.

"I'm going to be staying with Sunset to help her raise The Dazzlings the right way," Twilight began, her confidence now seeming like it couldn't be quelled. "Once The Dazzlings are old enough, we can start training them to battle The Blasters. If we take them back to Lyrica once they start tapping into their potential, we can take them to Composia and have them undergo a trial to give them new, more powerful Furen Pendants."

"Just how powerful do you think those new pendants will be, Twilight?" Pixel decided to ask, pulling her face up from all the information she and the other Snapshots had been writing down. She knew that if Twilight pulled this off, the stories that would be told about her would be wonderful ones indeed.

"I can't say for sure, but I'm gonna take a guess at saying they'd be ten times as powerful as their old pendants," Twilight estimated, wondering whether or not those facts were true as well. "Then, once they have their new pendants, we'd have to force out some little arguments here and there. Not only would we be keeping the Balance of Lyrica even, but we'd be giving The Dazzlings more than enough power to either match that of The Blasters, or completely overwhelm The Blasters."

"So, you'll either be matching The Dazzlings power to that of The Blasters, or you'll end up wiping the floor with them..." Violet said, finally piecing together Twilight's little train of thought. "And that's why you get the role of Princess of Friendship!"

"Yeah. I guess that's true," Twilight blushed upon hearing that last sentence. She always been showered with a good amount of compliments when she rose to Alicorndum, but now she was surprised that she was receiving that amount of goodwill and compliments in the Human World. "But as I've said, I'm not one of those high-class Canterlot snobs."

"Alright zen," Photo Finish finally finished writing down what Twilight had told her for future reference. "Is zere anyzing else we can do to help you?"

"No thanks. I think I'll be fine for now," Twilight said as she started to shake the hands of each of The Snapshots. She gave an equal amount of support to Photo Finish, Pixel Pizazz and Violet Blur, seeing as they'd all helped her out of her little depression. "Thanks anyways, though. I really appreciate it from the three of you..."

"You're welcome, Twilight," Pixel said, allowing Twilight to walk away from the portal and begin her walk back to Sunset's house. Before Twilight left, Pixel had one last thing to say to her. "Oh and, good luck on raising The Dazzlings. Tell them we said hi, alright?"

"I will. Thanks, Pixel." Twilight said, waving goodbye to The Snapshots with a look of happiness on her face. Once she waved goodbye, the four of them went their separate ways for the night.





When she finally moved away from the portal, she began to make her way back to Sunset's house. Getting accustomed to two legs once again, she kept a steady pace as she made her way back to the house of Sunset and The Dazzlings. Since it was night in the Human World, she knew that The Dazzlings were either fast asleep, or about to be put to sleep.

Luckily, she remembered where Sunset lived. But now it was getting darker, so she had to rely on her memory to traverse the sidewalks and find safe places to cross. Some of her efforts were successful, but on other occasions, she had to veer away from cars coming down the road.

She'd avoided a number of encounters with cars and eventually made it back to Party Province, the street where Sunset Shimmer lived. From there, she counted the house numbers upwards until she found 46. She was rather confused why they went up in twos for housing numbers, and even more surprised when she saw that their were houses with all odd numbers on the other side of the road.

"I really need to start asking more questions about this world..." Twilight said as she finally arrived at the door. She still had a lot to learn about the Human World. She'd spent quite some time in it, but most of the time, she was cooped up in the walls of CHS.

She knocked on the door and waited for Sunset Shimmer to answer it. During the time she spent waiting, she ran her fingers through her hair inquisitively. She wondered how Sunset would possibly react to such a situation. The mere fact that The Blasters were involved would have given her a big shock, but Twilight was more than ready to take that risk.

Eventually, the door was opened up and Twilight was instantly greeted by a wonderful sight.

"Auntie Twilight!" The Dazzlings all said, hugging Twilight's legs upon seeing her. Adagio, Aria and Sonata were so happy to see Twilight had returned from Equestria to see them once again. They all smiled as they hugged Twilight's legs with all the compassion they could give her.

"Hello, girls." Twilight said, tussling the hair of each of The Dazzlings with a smile of her own growing on her face once more. The Dazzlings had found their way into Twilight's heart since she first saw them as children. Now whenever she looked at each of their childish faces, she instantly felt blissful and worry free.

"Hey, Twilight." Sunset greeted Twilight once The Dazzlings ran back over to her. She let Twilight have a little room before hearing her reply.

"Hello, Sunset." Twilight smiled and waved back at her. It had been a while since she'd last seen Sunset, so she was happy to see her again.

The two girls started to walk over to the couch with their children right behind them. As Twilight and Sunset sat down, The Dazzlings sat right next to the both of them, curious to know what Twilight and Sunset had to say to each other. Twilight saw that Adagio and Sonata sat at each side of her, before looking over to see Aria was sitting next to Sunset.

"So, how'd it go back in Equestria?" Sunset asked, wanting to know what Twilight had experienced back on her adventure to the Pit of Lyrics and eventually to Lyrica. She could see that Twilight had had quite the adventure back in Equestria and was now waiting to hear all about her travels.

"Not good, I'm afraid..." Twilight said, once more unearthing memories of her time duelling The Blasters back on Lyrica. "We met The Blasters and tried to fend them off, but..."

"But what, Auntie Twilight?" Adagio asked, looking up at Twilight with a sympathetic face showing. She could see now that Twilight had undergone something truly traumatic and wanted to know what was up.

"Well, Adagio... I don't think you'd be able to get it the first time I say it," Twilight said, stroking Adagio's long golden hair tenderly. "Seeing as this is stuff that only me and Mommy would be able to understand."

"Well, alrighty then." she responded, cracking a little bit of a smile. She knew that if it was stuff that Twilight had done, then she saw no reason to try and comprehend what was about to be said.

"What did The Blasters do to you?" Sunset asked, showing her own sign of sympathy for Twilight. Sunset had had her own series of heartbreak and loneliness, but that was nothing compared to what she was about to hear spilling out of Twilight's mouth.

"When The Blasters battled us, they started to bombard us with Siren Magic," Twilight began explaining, letting out a big sigh as soon as she started. "We fought back for quite some time, holding our all as we fended them all off. However, when they summoned a Chimera with the combination of their magic, things started to go downhill rather fast..."

"A Chimera?" Sunset asked, curious at the mere mention of that monstrosity. She knew that Sirens were capable of summoning many mythical creatures to aid them, but she thought that a Chimera was overkill. "How big was it?"

"It was around a hundred and fifty feet tall and had a giant red Furen crystal in its' chest," Twilight furthered her explanation, seeing Sunset's looks of worry as it was all transferred to her. "We tried fighting back, but The Blasters had baited us into a trap by summoning it..."

"How so, Auntie Twilight?" Aria decided to ask now, climbing over Sunset's laps to get a better look at Twilight's distressful look.

"When that beast roared, we started to have an argument. Sunset, think what happened a few years back under the stage, but with the girls actually punching, kicking and firing magic at each other. That's how bad it was," Twilight went on, talking primarily to Sunset this time. "We didn't even notice that The Blasters had assimilated our new power once I was free from their little trap. However, when I regained consciousness, I was back in Equestria and isolated from all of my pony friends..."

"Oh no..." Sunset panicked, immediately seeing where this explanation was going. Her looks of distress seemed undeniable at this moment in time.

"I think The Blasters might have hypnotized my friends, putting them under their spell and making them their brainless puppets," Twilight said, before looking at each of The Dazzlings with a slightly less worried face. "Or, in terms our kids will understand, the bad guys beat us and stole my friends from me."

"Oh no!" said the three Furen children. Now that they'd heard the version of the story that they could understand, they immediately felt sorry for Twilight and wanted to do everything they could in an attempt to help her back onto her feet.

"Don't feel sad for me, girls. I think I have a way to save my friends from The Blasters' evil spell..." Twilight said, reflecting on the words that Photo Finish and The Snapshots had imparted to her.

"What is it, Auntie Twilight?" Sonata asked, stroking her hair rather delicately at that moment.

"It might sound far-fetched, but I have to get all my other friends and your other Aunties to come and help me," Twilight said to Sonata, looking closely at her plum-coloured eyes. "If we can band together, we might stand a chance at defeating the bad guys and saving the world."

"You think so?" Adagio asked, looking up at Twilight with pleading eyes begging her for a good answer.

"I know so, Adagio..." Twilight smiled back. She could see now that her plan was without fail, provided The Blasters didn't go for her Human World friends as well.

"Hey, Twilight? Have you seen the time?" Sunset pointed to the nearby clock and showed her that it was 9:00 PM already. It was time to put The Dazzlings to bed for the night.

"It's nine already?" Twilight said, immediately standing up from her seat on the couch. She knew it in Sunset's eyes that it was time for them to lull The Dazzlings to sleep for the night. "Well, I think that means it's time for Luna to pay some sweet little girls a visit..."

"Aww... Is it bedtime already?" Sonata asked as she saw Sunset and Twilight standing up from the couch, ready to lead The Dazzlings to bed for the night.

"I'm afraid so, girls," Twilight said, putting a hand around Adagio and Aria's shoulders whilst they walked up the stairs with her. The three of them were closely followed by Sunset, who had decided to carry Sonata back up to Musician's Delight. "But look on the bright side, you've got a whole new day of fun ahead of you tomorrow..."

"Yeah, Sonny. Tomorrow, we get to play with our new friends!" Adagio said, reminding Sonata of the bond they'd all made with the Kids of Shadows earlier.

"Oh yeah... I forgot about that," Sonata said, remembering that Topaz and the other Kids of Shadows were very welcoming once she'd finished her initiation. "Thanks for reminding me, Dagi!"

"No problem, Sonny!" she said back, seeing Sonata's beaming face once more.

Once the five girls had made it back to the top of the stairs, they quickly went into Musician's Delight. The room hadn't changed much since Twilight had left. The Dazzlings' beds were quite messy, possibly because they might have been playing in it once they'd gotten back from school.

There was a minor difference in how the beds looked, however. There seemed to be special frames holding up the beds now. Twilight assumed that all of her friends had decorated them whilst The Dazzlings had been out at school. One of the frames had an orange-gold paint job with yellow stripes running down the edges. It also had a distinct mark of a gemstone running through a part of a treble clef. This one belonged to Adagio, as it seemed to match her hair colour.

Another customized bed frame had green stripes running down the edges. The rest of the thing was purple and bore a marking of a star overlapping what seemed like a revolved 'S' with balls at each end. This one was solely made for Aria, seeing as it also bore similarities to her hair.

The third and final bed frame was blue with a slightly darker shade of it running down the edges. Above the pillow, there was a mark which looked like a sour note ran over a heart of some description. Twilight knew from the process of elimination that this last bed was for Sonata.

Once Twilight had finished admiring the new bedframes, she watched Adagio, Aria and Sonata move over to their beds before getting into them. After they'd made it over to the beds, Twilight watched as Sunset went over to the closet to grab some pajamas for The Dazzlings.

Once Sunset had found what she was looking for, she put the folded pajamas into a stack and shut the door with her feet. It was a rather efficient way of working without any hands to use in her opinion, but looked surprised when she looked at Twilight studying her actions. She shrugged this off and handed each of The Dazzlings their clothes for the evening.

"There we go, Adagio. I got you your favourite," Sunset said as she handed the top of the stack to Adagio and watched as she unfolded it with her little hands. Once it was all unfurled, it was seen as a pink top and bottom combination with her Cutie Mark embroidered onto the back of the top. She let Adagio feel it first, seeing her smiling face as she watched her feeling the softness of her night clothes. "Now while you slip into it, I'm gonna hand your sisters their clothes, ok?"

"Okay, Mommy." Adagio smiled and immediately shed the clothes she was already wearing. She did feel a sense of nudity for a few moments, but dressed herself relatively quickly afterwards. The pajamas were easy to slip into and felt snug once Adagio had put them on, as if she was being cuddled by it and was going to feel this cuddly sensation all night.

"There we go, girls," Sunset said as she handed a white pajama combo to Aria and a blue pajama combo to Sonata. Just like before, their pajamas had their Cutie Marks on the back and felt soft to the touch. Just like before, Aria and Sonata quickly shed their clothes and slipped into their pajamas for the evening. "Once you're all done, hop into bed and we'll read you a bedtime story."

There was no more prompting needed for The Dazzlings once Aria and Sonata were all dressed up for the night. They too could feel that they were constantly being cuddled by their pajamas and were going to feel this sensation whilst they slept. Once they were all cosy, The Dazzlings climbed into their own beds, letting Twilight tuck them in whilst seeing Sunset walk over to the nearby bookshelf to pick up a story for them to hear before they slept.

Once Sunset had found a good book, she picked it off of the bookshelf and sat herself down in the middle of it. Once this was all well and done, she saw Twilight putting the covers over The Dazzlings' clothed bodies to keep them warm for the night. After that part was done, Twilight sat down next to her.

"Now then, girls. Tonight, me and Twilight are going to be reading you the story of Rapunzel; a girl with wonderfully long hair, just like yours..." Sunset said as she showed the cover of the book to Adagio, Aria and Sonata. It depicted a girl with otherworldly long, blonde hair, looking down on someone from the top of a tower. Sunset opened the book up and cleared her throat before reading the tail inside. "Once upon a time..."