After failing to get any wanted answers from Trixie or Twilight Sparkle, the human six decided it was their final option to ask the creators of the curse themselves; the Dazzlings. It may not end in all of them hugging and becoming best friends, but the girls could certainly kill two birds with one stone: Find out how they can get rid of the curse, and hopefully befriend the Dazzlings.
There was only one problem, however. During the time the Dazzlings were present, they were still a great threat; an average conversation with them didn't ever occur. None of them had a clue on their information. Where they lived; how old they were; if they were even friends with one another outside of school? The thought of asking any of those questions were off the table at the time.
Since the girls were still at school and by the statue, Sunset came up with a decent theory. “We should head back in the school and find a directory.” Sunset suggested. “Though they left school, they’re probably still in there.”
The six walked back inside the main hall of Canterlot High School and found a directory at the main office. Sunset proceeded to open it at the beginning, because it went by first name, and Adagio’s name was early in the alphabet.
Sunset Shimmer looked sown at the page, hoping that on one of the two sides lied a siren’s name, “They enrolled in the beginning of the school year, so Adagio should be… A—Ab—Ac—here. Adagio Dazzle.” The girls were somewhat happy they found her name, but it just reassured them what they were about to do.
“Hmm,"Pinkie mumbled, "looks like a room number. They must live in an apartment on this street.” she diagnosed, pointing to the address listed on the page.
Sunset Shimmer then checked Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. It confirmed that they all do in fact live in the same apartment.
“Well,” Rarity said, “I guess we should get going. We can take my car.”
Sunset placed the directory back where she had picked it up, and thanked the main office lady, which was followed by a simple "psshh" from the lady. The girls left the building and walked into the CHS parking lot. They compacted into one car and drove it to where the Dazzlings address was.
Along the way Rarity told Sunset Shimmer what had happened while she was in Equestria. “Unfortunately, there had been a misunderstanding with our teachers, and we have all apparently cut every single class since the musical.”
“Oh, well that doesn’t really surprise me,” Sunset responded. “So you didn’t get to talk with Trixie, I assume.”
“No, we still did!” Pinkie said, excited to share their experiences. “We were sent out of the principals office and Celestia was like ‘you have to spend your entire day in the library tomorrow.' So we left and, wouldn't you know it, Trixie was still at school and she was like ‘fine, I admit it,’ and ‘You got the wrong curse’. She didn’t say much else, and then threw smoke at the ground, yet again. I surprised she can do that without tripping the smoke alarm. I guess it’s magic, but it doesn’t make any sense because the smoke bombs aren’t from Eque–”
“I think Sunset Shimmer gets it now, Pinkie.” Rarity said, placing one hand over Pinkie Pie’s restless mouth, while keeping the wheel straight with the other. Rarity and Pinkie were the only two up front, so she endured most of Pinkie’s noise. Still Pinkie attempted to talk through Rarity’s hand, but all that sounded were mumbles.
In the middle were Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer. Fluttershy seemed to be in her own reality; she was humming one of the Rainboom’s tunes while staring out of the car every time she saw an animal pass by, or when the dark forest became visible. Sunset had told the girls how the forest looked exactly like the Everfree forest back in Equestria, but they had no comparison the relate to Sunset’s comment.
With the four girls in front, this left Applejack stuck with Rainbow Dash in the back. Applejack clearly didn’t enjoy sitting next to Rainbow, because she was constantly tossing a fist-sized ball against the back windows of the car, and every time she threw it too hard, the ball would bounce back and hit Applejack.
The ride didn’t take too long, but it wasn’t as close as they thought. The Dazzlings home were over the hills; across the city. A few circles around some blocks later, led them to the apartment complex. It wasn’t a shabby complex but it wasn’t really in the best neighborhood either.
“Well, I guess you can’t expect to get too rich from singing everyone to do your bidding.” Rarity said as she looked around the neighborhood.
“Really? They could have lived the best lives ever with their powers. They pretty much had mind control.” Pinkie Pie stated in confusion.
“Stop poking holes, Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow Dash said.
The six walked up to an empty front desk at the base of the apartment building. The room was small, and didn’t have an essence of the classic hotel smell; instead the air was a little musty. The room was dimly lit, and it didn’t help that all the blinds looked like they wouldn’t even open if you wanted them. There was a waiting couch, but it looked like it came from the last century. The whole room appeared to have stopped in time, but that wasn’t the worry. There was still no one at the front desk, even after they waited a bit.
“It’s 5:10 in the afternoon, how can no one be at the front desk?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Hello? Is anybody here?” Applejack asked.
“It’s closed!” Came a yell from the room behind the front desk.
“Now look, we know apartment manager offices don’t simply, well… close.” Rarity yelled back. A nicely dressed man with a red bowtie and fine shoes came from the other dimly lit room.
“Look, I hate to bother ya kiddos, but you’re bothering me.”
“How are we bothering you?” Rainbow Dash asked, but was ignored, because one of his residents entered the building.
“Why hello there Mrs. Megloclin. Anything you need from me today? The manager asked.
“Yes, I was able to get into my apartment, but the key seem to have gotten jammed and I can’t get it out.” Mrs. Megloclin stated.
“I’ll check on that right away Mrs. Megloclin.” The manager replied.
“Hey wait, we just wanted to ask you something.” Rainbow Dash said as she stood in the manager’s way from the door.
“Excuse me princess, but I have an actual client to help here.” The manager replied. ‘Princess?’ Rainbow thought. The only one who was a princess was Twilight, and she wasn’t with them.
“Look sir, we just need to ask you one question and well be off your back.” Sunset Shimmer said.
“Fine, what is it that’s so important for you girls.” The manager said.
“Were looking for three girls, called the Dazzlings: One with orange poofy hair, another with blue, and the last with purple. Do they live here?”
“Oh, those three.” Said the manager. “Their rent came up and they couldn’t pay it. It’s a shame I had to kick them out of their apartment. They were so great.” It seemed Sunset’s theory was correct; the manager whom they had never met was rude to them, but then says the Dazzlings were great. The Dazzlings had gotten their popularity.
“Only, when I came to do so, the blue haired one was the only girl who still lived there.” he finished.
‘Only Sonata?’ Sunset thought. ‘Where would the other two have gone?’
“Thank you, sir.” Sunset said.
“Now get out of here,” the manager said, “you six are crowding my lobby.”
The six left the lobby and entered the car with little hope left. They tried everything they could but there was never any progress. At least not the progress they wanted. They first tried messaging Princess Twilight, but she wouldn’t respond. Then Sunset Shimmer tried visiting Twilight, but Twilight was too repelled, due to the curse on Sunset Shimmer. They tried confronting Trixie herself, but she wouldn’t give any answers. Trixie didn’t want to, nor knew how to release the curse.
Their last hope was to ask the Dazzlings for help, since they would know the most about their own curse, but they had no idea where they were. They were too late, the Dazzlings left the apartment. Without their singing powers, they couldn’t afford to continue living in an apartment.
“Where could the Dazzling’s possibly be now?” Rarity asked.
“I know they were our enemy and all, but I’m actually worried about their safety.” Fluttershy stated.
“Well if we can’t find them then were doomed,” Rarity stated. She may have been giving up, but so were the rest. They didn’t have any options left, at least any which could still preserve the safety of their world. The car pulled up to a curb next to Canterlot High School. It was now 6:00 and everyone needed to get home for dinner.
“I’ll see you girls tomorrow in the library.” Sunset said before leaving. The rest followed, all heading off in their respective directions to their houses. Rainbow Dash took one last look at the portal. She was trying to get rid of her mischievous thoughts about going through the portal, but she knew she could hold out a little longer. She too, eventually went home.
The next day, the six girls followed the request of Principal Celestia: Spend the day in the library to catch up in school. The girls knew it was more of a nice term for detention. The rules certainly made it seem so: They can’t leave the library, unless for the bathroom, lunch, or emergencies. All six had to work in separate areas. They weren’t allowed to talk, listen to music, or even check their email.
Since the truth of the matter was they actually did go to class for the whole week, none of them had any work to do. Sunset, however, took advantage of this time to continue on her reading about Enmity Swap. She didn’t really learn anything she didn’t already suspect: The curse lasts until death, unless removed; the curse was created by the Dazzlings themselves; everyone affected by the curse won’t put any hatred on others affected.
‘Well, that’s all really obvious,’ Sunset thought. ‘Come on, like I haven’t noticed that already.' Sunset reached the point of boredom to where she just commented in her head anything obvious on the page.
‘Enmity Swap is a curse,’ she read in her head. “Oh really? Very interesting.”
‘At first, the ponies would notice receive slight neglect from others,’ “Wow, I never knew that,” she spoke sarcastically.
‘Even if curse is casted by another pony, the sirens can still remove it,’ Sunset read, “Oh wow—hey, wait a minute!” Sunset had not known that before. ‘The Dazzling can remove the curse?’
“What are you mumbling about?” Ms. Cheerlie asked Sunset. This caught Sunset by surprise. She nearly jumped out of her seat from Ms. Cheerlie startling her. Sunset quickly shoved the book under the table and turned around to face the librarian.
“Nothing!” Sunset quickly responded. “Just, figured out how to do this math problem.” Sunset pointed to her already finished math homework. It was there as a back up, incase any thing like this happened.
Sunset wasn’t worried that she would be caught reading a book from Equestria, because the whole school pretty much knew it existed, but she was worried the librarian would take it. Ms. Cheerlie was told to make sure the girls were doing, on task work.
After that close call, Sunset made sure to keep a look out for Ms. Cheerlie. It was a hassle for her to constantly hide the book, and pretend she was doing schoolwork every time Ms. Cheerlie walked by, but it was necessary.
After endless hours of boredom, the girls were free for the time being. The clock struck noon, which meant it was time for lunch. As the girls all saw each other emerge from their different corners of the library, they couldn't help but smile. Only a few hours passed by, but it felt like days for them. When they entered the halls, something had changed. Rather than glancing away, and ignoring the girls, everyone were giving them harsh looks. The next stage of the curse was starting, and it didn’t look to welcoming.
The six got into the lunch line and grabbed their trays. After sitting around for hours being bored out of their minds, they were glad they could finally converse with each other.
“Any update on our problem, Sunset?” Fluttershy asked.
“Yes, but it won’t matter if we can’t locate the Dazzlings,” Sunset responded.
“It’s alright sugar cube,” Applejack said, “We’ll find them.” Applejack’s line of motivation didn’t seem to help Sunset. ‘I’m not sure how though.’ She thought to herself.
Rainbow Dash was the last in line, until Flash Sentry came up behind her. He was looking straight ahead, not even batting an eye at the girls. Normally he would talk to the girls, mostly asking about Twilight of course. However, not even his interest in Twilight was enough to associate him with the girls.
As Rainbow Dash was grabbing a sandwich, she noticed something strange in the back of the kitchen. It was someone new working in the kitchen; she couldn’t get a good enough look though, and the sight of the person was lost as fast as it emerged. Looking past the doorway leading to the kitchen was awkward for Rainbow Dash, because her angle only allowed a tiny slit of vision past the doorway to reach her eyes.
She needed to get a better look. Impulse and curiosity got the better of her as she turned toward the opposite way the line was moving. Still looking into the kitchen, Rainbow crashed right into Flash Sentry; both their trays colliding into one another. Both of them wobbled a bit until they regained their bearing. Flash wasn’t looking at her before, but this made him stare right into Rainbow’s eyes.
“What is your problem!?” Flash yelled. Rainbow was out of words, she tried to speak, but all that came out were short–cutoff words.
“I—sorry—um, I just—er” Flash wasn’t so attentive to her, as he was suddenly relieved none of his food got on his shirt. But when he looked down at his food, he stared down at a light blue hair in his salad. Awkwardly, he pulled it out, holding it in front of his face.
“Is this your hair, Rainbow Dash?” Flash asked in a mean tone. Rainbow was also looking at it, but it certainly wasn’t hers.
“No way, that is too light to be my hair! It must be yours.”
“It’s way too long to be my hair, also, I have darker blue than this too!” Flash yelled back.
Rainbow Dash wasn’t in the mood for an argument. She looked at her friends surprised faces, who didn’t know what to say. Rainbow wanted to get out of the line; she can spare a little food for an argument. “I’ll be at the table,” Rainbow said to her friends as she rushed out of line and started toward one of the empty tables.
“Just gonna leave?” Flash yelled behind her.
As Rainbow neared an empty table, Lyra stuck her foot out. Rainbow Dash tripped over her purposely-extended foot, causing her, to tumble down onto the floor. The first of her that hit the ground were her elbows; soon after her tray and all its contents tumbled onto the floor. It did hurt, but Rainbow was used to taking blows due to sports.
Lyra laughed at Rainbow, and soon after, all the others at her table were laughing at Rainbow too. “Nice job, Rainbow Crash!” Bon Bon yelled for everyone to hear.
“Hey, what’s your deal Lyra?” Rainbow asked as she was getting up. Everyone was looking at her now. She didn’t care if this was the effect of the curse. How could anyone have any reason to trip her out of nowhere?
“What’s wrong, Rainbow Crash? Can’t keep your balance?” Lyra said, taunting Rainbow. It was no use; they weren’t going to acknowledge her question.
“You better clean up the mess you made,” Lyra continued.
“Shut up!” Rainbow yelled. Rainbow Dash wasn’t messing around anymore. She had her fist held up, ready to shut Lyra up for her.
“You aren’t really going to punch me, are you?” Lyra said, having confidence in her voice. “I have this whole table, ready to fight back.”
“Rainbow Dash!” Sunset yelled from across the cafeteria. Sunset proceeded to run over there. “Hey, why don’t we just get out of here?” Sunset asked Rainbow Dash, her hand on Rainbow’s shoulder. “Fighting isn’t going to make anything better.”
Rainbow Dash lowered her fist to Sunset’s request. She was right; they were already in trouble with Principal Celestia. A fight was only going to make things worse. Sunset walked Rainbow Dash to the rest of the girls.
“I could have totally won that fight.” Rainbow Dash said as she met up with the others. All eyes were still trained on her. They figured it wasn’t the optimal thing to get another tray for her.
“Come on,” Sunset said, “we should probably eat somewhere else.”
“I’ll give you some of my food, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity said.
“Yeah, we all will.” Applejack followed. The six walked out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. They didn’t care if they weren’t allowed to bring food outside the cafeteria. Things were getting too hostile, and it all had to do with the curse.
The girls walked as far as going outside the school. They all sat on a couple benches near the front of Canterlot High school. As Rarity promised, she gave Rainbow Dash her sandwich. The other girls handed them some of their food too, until Rainbow had the amount of a full meal.
“Thanks,” Rainbow said, “this curse is really getting out of hand.” Rainbow wasn’t in the best of moods. She was upset on many levels; how was she supposed to be captain of the soccer team, if everyone was just going to trip her like Lyra did?
“Is this how things are going to go from now on?” Fluttershy asked.
“NO!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “I will not stand here and–”
“Your sitting,” Applejack interrupted.
“I will not sit here and let my friends and I have to eat lunch out here, while Trixie gets to enjoy watching us suffer!” Pinkie exclaimed.
“Sorry Pinkie,” Rarity said, “but we can’t stop her.”
“Oh yes we can!” Sunset claimed, “We just need the Dazzling’s help.”
“But they’re gone. We have no other option,” Applejack stated.
“Um,” Rainbow started, “there is–”
“I swear, if this is about Equestria!” Applejack yelled.
“Well come up with an idea that won’t fail, and then I’ll shut up!” Rainbow retorted.
Their argument was short lasted, for out from the front doors of CHS came Trixie herself! The girls noticed she was running; she had a worried look on her face. Trixie was heading straight towards the girls, which made them have a bad feeling. Trixie stopped right in front of the girls, eying them with horror.
“I didn’t know, I didn’t know!” Trixie yelled.
Rainbow spoke first, “Whoa—whoa—whoa, what–”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”
“What didn’t you know?” Rainbow yelled, trying to calm Trixie down.
“*Inhale*, they… they–”
“What is it, Trixie?” Pinkie asked.
“Lyra got a riot starting in the cafeteria!” Trixie yelled. “It’s only a matter of time until they’re all out here!”
This surprised the girls a great deal. They knew the curse was exponential, but not that quick. Was everyone really starting a riot, or was Trixie just playing her games again?
“Ah don’t trust you, Trixie,” Applejack stated, “Why would you out of all people warn us?
“I’m sorry about the curse,” Trixie admitted, “I didn’t realize its true power; no book I ever read said it would get this bad.”
Sunset knew what Trixie was talking about. As she had read in Curses of the Ancient, the sirens always used the curse on large groups of people; this was done so the magnitude of the curse’s effect was minimal. Trixie didn’t know this, and casted the curse on only the six of them, thus dealing a stronger effect, which nopony has ever endured before.\
"What books?" Rainbow suspiciously asked.
“Look,” Trixie started, “I realize how I did wrong. I should have never cursed you in jealousy, in the first place, but you have to listen to me: I was in the cafeteria when out of nowhere, Lyra started yelling about how we should all team up against the Rainbooms. People listened; people followed, and they’re looking for you girls right now!”
Before they could ask Trixie any questions about whether she knew where the Dazzlings were, the doors from CHS flew open as everyone from the cafeteria rushed out. They were all carrying food in their hands from lunch too. The girls watched as everyone they knew flooded out and crowded around the front entrance.
“Alright everyone!” Lyra yelled. “It’s all of us, against the Rainbooms: FOODFIGHT!”
This wasn’t exactly what the girls had expected, but it still was a reason to run. As the first hunk of mash potatoes were thrown, the girls dispersed in all directions, trying to get away from the catastrophe, which was about to occur.
“After them!” Bon Bon yelled, as everyone at CHS split up and chased each of the Rainboom members. Some of the slower girls like Rarity and Fluttershy, struggled to avoid getting hit at least once. Rainbow Dash however, was out of there in no time; no one could catch up to her, so she was in the clear.
After two minutes of nonstop running, Rainbow decided to take a break; no one was even chasing her by that point anyway. This finally gave her time to reflect.
‘Why can’t I go to Equestria, after all this?’ she thought. It’s unfair: “The portal is right in Ponyville,” Rainbow mocked. “That’s where all your pony versions dwell. We don’t want it publicly known that this world exists.” She couldn’t help but feel Sunset was hiding something.
“What really happens if two of us meet?” Rainbow spoke to herself. “Is it really that bad? But it’s soooo tempting.” Rainbow was caught in a personal dilemma. She didn’t want to visit Equestria for curiosity, but also for getting help.
“No, I promised Sunset Shimmer I won’t.” At that moment an angel and devil version of Rainbow Dash appeared on her shoulders.
“Rainbow Dash,” the devil spoke, “listen to your friends. Don’t go though the portal.”
“Hey now,” said the angel, “that portal has all your desires.”
“Wait, shouldn’t you two be switching rolls?” Rainbow asked.
“Oh yeah,” said the deviled dash, “huh. I feel stupid now. Rainbow Dash, just take a peak. You’ll be back before any of your friends find out.”
“You will lose your loyalty and your friendship if they find out. Is that what you really need right now?”
“Yeah, I guess they are all I have right now, I can’t throw that away.” Rainbow agreed.
“Very good argument angel, but have you ever thought that Rainbow here can save the day by getting somepony from Equestria to fix this? She would be a hero. If she doesn’t go, they’re stuck like this.”
“You’re right!” Rainbow yelled. “I’m not doing this for temptation, I’m doing this to save my friends and I.”
“They are getting chased by an angry mob of student right now. Do you really want to ditch them at a time like this?”
“Now hold on,” the devil said, “what else are you going to do by this point?”
“Sorry angel, devil does bring up a good point.”
Rainbow Dash sprinted back to the CHS, which she hoped was absent of any students. Passing each and every house she can see the statue getting closer and closer. She didn’t notice anyone near the front. ‘I guess they didn’t just chase us out of Canterlot High,’ she thought.
Dash arrived at the front lawn of Canterlot High School. There was food all around the lawn and on the statue. Luckily there were no people around, but she did feel bad that it would be a hard day for the janitor.
She stared directly at where she knew the portal was. As far as she knew, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer were the only two who went across the portal. She was about to be the third to venture across the unknown world.
Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and started walking towards the portal when suddenly she noticed someone in the corner of her eyes. She quickly turned around as if she wasn’t walking into the statue base. She didn’t want anyone witness her walking straight through a wall. When she turned around and looked at whom it was walking out of Canterlot High School, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She was a female, wearing dark blue jeans, but a white apron over her. A dark blue cap which possibly had the word 'Wondercolt' on it was slightly blocking her face. Rainbow recognized the hair, however: Light blue with medium blue streaks running out back down the ponytail. It was Sonata Dusk!