//------------------------------// // Rainbow's Doubt // Story: The Siren Song: Razzle Dazzle // by Shadowmane PX-41 //------------------------------// Meanwhile, at the soccer field, the Wonderbolts All-Stars were practising for their upcoming game with Seabreeze's team. They were seen slinging soccer balls at the goal in some of the most advanced ways possible, so that it just breezed over the goalie's head, but not so that it went over the bars. Whilst there were some All-Stars working on the pitch itself, there were some who were hanging back on the sidelines. They had towels draped over their shoulders, and were wiping the sweat off of their brows. Not only had they been through a lot, they were also looking back on the other players on the pitch itself. Among those players was Rainbow Dash, who was busy kicking a ball past some cones in a dribbling fashion. Once she finished with the cones segment, she nimbly dodged other teammates as she brought the ball towards the goal. Two other players came at her with slide kicks, so she quickly clamped the ball between her two feet and leapt over the other two teammates before continuing for her goal. "Time for the big finale..." Rainbow Dash said to herself as she quickly kicked the ball through the legs of two more team members before getting it back at her feet. She lightly kicked the ball into the air and kicked it even harder as it came back down. It flew over the rest of the players in her way, and was strong enough to actually knock the goalie back into the goal. When the goalie fell onto her back, Rainbow Dash watched as she quickly dropped the ball onto the ground. "Aw yeah! The Rainbow Meteor strikes again!" Rainbow Dash pumped her fists in triumph as she calmly walked off of the field to get some rest herself. "But it wasn't just me there. You all put up a great game too, guys and gals. Keep working on your defense, and Seabreeze's team is gonna be begging for mercy." "I'm glad to see that you're having fun, Rainbow Dash. But you need to remember that this isn't a competition for a great cash prize and all that," Spitfire showed up, getting Rainbow Dash to turn her attention towards her whlist she draped a towel around her shoulders. "This match we're having tonight will determine whether or not Seabreeze's team qualifies for the global division of Soccer, not just for fame and adoration." "Uh, y-yeah, I knew that. Who's to say I didn't?" Rainbow Dash said as she nervously looked at her captain. "What I meant to say, is that we'll make sure that he gets a good challenge tonight." "That's what I thought." Spitfire said, patting Rainbow Dash's back once she'd finally gotten the point across to her. "I think you've earned yourself a well-earned rest, Rainbow Dash," Fleetfoot said as she too patted Rainbow Dash on the back. "Head to the showers to cool off for a bit, then regain your strength for tonight's big match, K?" "Alright then, see ya later, guys." Rainbow Dash said as she made her way back inside via a special VIP entrance. It was specially decorated for the Wonderbolts All-Stars and had different symbols representing each of the sports in special stars. She made it to the door and walked straight through it. From there, Rainbow Dash made her way towards the shower room, where a few other teammates were just walking out. She waved to them, but got no verbal response. Instead, she went through another set of double doors into the shower room. When she got into the room, she quickly shed her uniform until she was as naked as the day she was born. Satisfied with her naked look, Rainbow Dash turned on one of the showers and jumped in complete surprise when the ice-cold water impacted with her backside. It wasn't long after that that the water began to heat up. Once it did, Rainbow Dash sighed in content and began to ensure that she was as clean as could be. Yet, despite being in her dream job, Rainbow Dash still seemed rather sad and betrayed. "I just can't believe it... The Blasters are Lyrican Sirens..." Rainbow said to herself as she rubbed a decent amount of shampoo into her rainbow hair and lathered until it was nice and frothy. "Not only that, but they've also got Twilight's Equestria friends under their spell. And from the looks of it, I'm glad they weren't the ones who started the Battle Of The Bands..." As Rainbow Dash rubbed herself with a bar of soap, even more thoughts ran through her head. If The Blasters truly were Lyrican Sirens, then why didn't they already hatch their nefarious plan for planet domination? She then also cast her mind back to when The Blasters referred to The Dazzlings as their "little sisters". Truly, something odd was going on, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it before The Blasters did begin their plan... Eventually, Rainbow Dash washed herself enough to the point where she thought she was clean enough. Once she finished using the shower, she grabbed an especially large towel that had the logo of the Wonderbolts All-Stars on it. Rubbing herself dry, she eventually tossed her sweaty uniform in a nearby laundry hamper and got dressed in a completely new one. Rainbow Dash was quickly dressed in what looked like a rather athletic uniform, with a headband and wristbands made of cloth. The shoes she wore had white soles and special Wonderbolts All-Stars marking on them. To top it all off, the new skirt she was wearing had her Cutie Mark emblazoned on the dress part, with a badge sewn onto the right side of her shirt part. She tucked the collar down and made her way back to the team. However, she quickly noticed that the power had diminished from the hallway she'd originally come down from, and that there were three mysterious shadows with red and blue eyes waiting for her at the end of the hallway. She put her hands above her eyelids in an attempt to make out the three figures. But eventually, the light came back on, revealing The Blasters at the end of the hallway. "Hello, Rainbow Dash of the Human World. We've been waiting to talk to you..." Fortissimo said as the three Blasters walked closer and closer to the rainbow-haired girl, their smiles growing as they closed on in her. "Well, I've been wanting to talk to you too as well, fakers!" Rainbow Dash quickly brought on her accusative look as she grew a rather disgruntled look of anger. "I can't believe you'd lie to the Human World like that! I oughta squeeze the three of you into Siren paste!" "Please, Miss Dash, do not bear us any ill will..." Allegro said, raising his hand as if ready to cast a spell at any moment. "We merely came to talk to you about The Rainbooms, or as you call them, Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Miss Shimmer..." "Oh no! You're not even gonna lay so much as a finger on my friends once I'm finished with you!" Rainbow Dash charged forward in an attempt to slug The Blasters, but was caught completely off guard when a mythical Lyrican seal appeared in their hands, knocking her back against the wall with such velocity. "Hmmph... Still as aggressive as your former pony self, Miss Dash. No wonder those ponies all fell out over such a trivial detail..." Allegro continued as Rainbow Dash was suddenly ripped from the wall and brought right back to The Blasters, who could see that Rainbow Dash now had a bad bruise on her back. "You're the short fuse of the group, aren't you?" "What we mean is that you always think the worst of everyone, even when you're supposed to be one of the six Spirits of Harmony..." Orchestral said as The Blasters began to circle Rainbow Dash, in an attempt to frighten and demoralize her. "And here I thought the Spirit of Loyalty was supposed to support her friends... How shocking to see that she's the only one to think the worst of strangers like The Dazzlings and us..." "In truth, I'm sure your friends don't even support you any more, Rainbow Dash..." Fortissimo said, whispering in her ear as he went around her back. "In fact, I can bet you that they're just waiting to backstab you at any moment..." "After all, you did show a massive amount of arrogance and childishness when our little sisters started your trivial affairs in musical warfare..." Allegro pointed out, getting Rainbow Dash to recoil in surprise. "You were one to put yourself ahead of the team, and it sowed the seeds of discord in your hearts. It was not The Rainbooms that doomed CHS, it was YOU, who doomed CHS." "And all because your friends wouldn't acknowledge how 'awesome' you truly wanted to be. Not very friendly friends now, are they?" Orchestral spoke in his dark humour voice. "The truth about being awesome is that you don't have to take crap from anybody. That is how truly awesome one person can become." "Which would you rather have, Miss Dash? Your friends, or your 'awesomeness'?" Fortissimo spoke, holding his hands out like scales. In one hand, showed all of Rainbow Dash's friends, whilst the other showed Rainbow Dash being a reckless jerk and always claiming that it was 'awesome'. "Now then, to truly help you decide, Miss Dash, I want you to understand that you can only choose ONE option, instead of both. Would you rather be as 'Awesome As You Wanna Be?" Or just a big-hearted footballer who cares more for her friends than for herself?" Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words at this point. If she chose her friends, she worried whether or not The Blasters would steal her "Awesome" attitude away from her. But then again, if she chose to be "Awesome", then The Blasters might do something horrible to her friends. She was having a hard time choosing between the two and eventually began sweating in panic as the two options loomed in front of her. "What if you're right? What if they're just pretending to be my friends?" Rainbow Dash asked The Blasters with sympathy starting to show. She'd truly taken The Blasters' words to heart, and was now starting to question why her friends stood by her, even after she was such an arrogant child at the Battle Of The Bands with her ego. "What if they really are trying to overthrow me and leave me to rot?" "Well, that's for you to find out, Miss Dash. We are only here to provide you with a choice between your 'awesomeness' and your best friends," Allegro spoke as Fortissimo retracted the two choices, enabling the three of them to continue their little talk with Rainbow Dash. "What if they really don't think you're awesome, but more just annoying?" "Then everything I've ever done has been making them feel sad and angry with me..." Rainbow Dash said, the colour quickly fading from her hair. She was unsure of what to do at this point. "All my life, I've only known how to be awesome... But if that's all starting to drive me away from my friends, I don't know whether or not I can live that down..." "So do you value your friends over your awesomeness, Miss Dash?" Fortissimo asked, hoping to hear Rainbow Dash cough up an answer. "Well, there's also what you said, Fortissimo..." Rainbow Dash reminded him. "For all we know, my friends could be preparing an ambush in an attempt to have me removed from their group of friends..." "Well, we'd best not keep you waiting any longer, Miss Dash. You've got a game to attend to tonight, and I look forward to seeing what you're capable of," Fortissimo then clapped his hands, transforming the two choices into a gem with two different pressable options. One of them showed Rainbow Dash's friends, whilst the other showed her 'awesomeness'. "We'll leave you with this trinket, so you can think on it..." "But just remember, they could be preparing to strike at any time, Miss Dash. Remain on your guard, and trust none of them..." Allegro spoke in his serious tone, seeing Rainbow Dash looked back at them for one last time. "Not even Fluttershy?" Rainbow wanted to be sure The Blasters were truthful. "Not even Fluttershy, Miss Dash... Any of them could be waiting to strike back at you..." Fortissimo opened up a portal and allowed Allegro and Orchestral to walk through it, with him close behind them. "Make the right decision, then come and find us. Then, we'll release you of your burden..." Rainbow Dash watched as the portal quickly vanished, leaving nothing behind except random little streaks of magic which quickly faded afterwards. Then, she continued her walk back down the hallway, quickly reuniting with her fellow Wonderbolts All-Stars. Rainbow Dash then spent the next few minutes on the nearby bleachers, watching other members of her team perfect their skills for the big game with Seabreeze's team. Eventually, she pulled out her phone and brought up a picture with Twilight, Sunset, The Dazzlings and the rest of her friends on it. She looked at how happy everyone looked and eventually shed a tear. "Maybe everything we've been through, maybe it truly was just a lie..." Rainbow Dash said to herself as doubt began to fester in her mind. She couldn't shake off what Fortissimo had said to her earlier. "If the Magic of Friendship can be so easily manipulated, then are we friends in the first place?" "Maybe I've already doomed us all..." she then remembered that it was her cockiness and blind boasting that got the rest of the Humane 5 to spill the Magic of Friendship back at CHS over ten years ago. "If my awesomeness truly is making a mess of things for my friends, then I see no reason to even have friends at all..." "Don't be so down on yourself, Rainbow Dash," Soarin said as he came over and sat down next to Rainbow Dash, getting her to look up and feel a little better. "So what if your awesomeness is dragging your friends down? No matter what happens, you need to remember that your friends will always stand by you through thick and thin, even through the darkest of times." "Are you sure about that, Soarin? Those guys back there made a rather valid point about how my awesomeness almost doomed the world once..." Rainbow said, showing her doubts once again. "I just don't know whether or not my friends are still my friends anymore, especially with how I kept putting myself ahead of them at the Battle Of The Bands..." "Don't let that one slipup ruin your friendship, Rainbow Dash. I'm sure that they've already apologized for that, and are making sure you won't ever let yourself do something as selfish as that again..." he said, trying to make her feel better again. "I was just like you when I was back in school. I always talked about how awesome I was when I was part of the school's baseball team. Needless to say, my fellow teammates lashed out at me eventually, as I'm sure your bandmates did over ten years ago..." "You were in that same position, Soarin?" Rainbow Dash had heard it, but wanted to make sure whether or not it was true. "Well... Yeah, I was," he began to tell Rainbow Dash a rather hope-lifting story. "I was once the head of the Canterlot High Superiors, the best baseball band made of adolescents you'd ever find. One day, I ended up knocking the ball out of the park, much to my pleasure, and to the pleasure of my team. However, as time went on, I continued to brag and boast about how I was gonna be able to pull that off in every game I ever played. Needless to say, I ended up trying too hard and I lost the penant for the team. Eventually, my fellow teammates lashed out at me and said all kinds of horrible things because I had been boasting. Because I ended up failing myself with my pride, I ended up failing all my friends. I'm telling you, Rainbow Dash, don't stoop to my level. Even though you have much potential, you shouldn't just keep showing off like that. I'm sure your friends forgave you back then, but I'm not so sure that if events were to repeat themselves that they'd forgive you the second time..." "Are you saying that it's alright to not show off all the time?" Rainbow Dash looked up at her teammate with a rather insightful look on her face. She was finally starting to get it now, that it didn't matter how she acted, just as long as she kept remembering her friendship with the rest of the Humane 5. "Exactly. As long as you don't constantly show your ego, then it's cool to show your maximum potential and drive to do well," Soarin said as the two of them finally got back onto their feet again. "Hopefully your friends will understand when they too realize that lesson." "Thanks, Soarin! You're the best!" Rainbow Dash said as she ran back down to the pitch and was ready to aid the rest of the Wonderbolts All-Stars in training once again. But then, she remembered the little trinket that The Blasters had given to her. She still had to make that choice as well, unless she could find some way to destroy the trinket. Before she could get onto the pitch, a loud thunderclap could be heard as the skies turned stormy, yet remained bright blue for all to see. This could have only meant one thing... "All civilians are to immediately find shelter! This is not a drill!" aloud voice spoke through all the intercoms, as if one of the armed guards was addressing all of the practising teammates. "Tentacles of all shapes and sizes have been growing all over the place and are attacking random civilians! Do not let them tou-" "What was that?" Soarin asked as he could hear the man's fading gasps for breath as the intercoms blew up. Surprisingly, none of the other Wonderbolts All-Stars were running in a panic. Then, the earth began to rumble with little force. But the tremor gradually grew into a powerful earthquake that sent cracks all across the stadium's pitch, getting the team to finally run in panic. Yet it seemed like their attempts to run were futile, as they all ended up tripping and falling onto the shaking earth. Some slender blue tentacles with sharp crystal stingers erupted from the ground and stung the Wonderbolts All-Stars in the backs of their necks, getting them to all fall onto their stomachs and gasp out in fear. It wasn't long before their words became nothing more than incoherent slurs of gibberish as their eyes now shone as blue as the clear sky. Euphorians were in the area, and were about to launch a full-scale assault on The Dazzlings. "Hail Obedium..." the Wonderbolts All-Stars said in a rather zombie-like tone as they continued to drool and groan in complete obedience. They eventually walked off out of the stadium and into the city, as if Obedium was talking in their heads, telling them to go somewhere. "Hail Obedium... Hail Obedium..." "Obedium?" Soarin asked, completely dumbfounded by this new occurrence. "He's one of the six Euphorian Deities that are after The Dazzlings..." Rainbow Dash finally remembered what The Dazzlings had told her. "So this one has the power to turn people into mindless zombies for his own personal army..." The two of them looked into the sky and ran out of the way when they saw that a helicopter was about to crash into them. They quickly leapt when the helicopter exploded, before looking back at the wreckage that was once a helicopter driven by two men. "What's going on, Rainbow Dash?!" Soarin asked, seeing that he and her were the only two that Obedium hadn't taken from the Wonderbolts All-Stars. "I don't really know, but I think The Dazzlings are in trouble..." Rainbow Dash began to run off out of the stadium to head follow the zombies towards Obedium and The Dazzlings. "Thanks for the pep talk, Soarin, but I've got somewhere to be!" "H-Hey! Wait up!" Soarin chased after her, trying to ensure that Rainbow Dash didn't have a deathwish.