The scene would've baffled anyone else. It was clear the monsters on stage, these creatures of the deep with their scaly hide, fangs, and claws were fully in control of every being in the room. Even the Rainbooms; Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Sunset Shimmer were powerless to act. All were powerless.
All except for the lone girl with the dead eyes and the knowing smile on her face. A stolen face, one that looked exactly like the lead guitarist of the Rainbooms. "You have your sworn enemies at your mercy," said the Candy Mare's puppet with a grin as she spread her arms as if to encompass the entire room, "the student body under your heels, willing to pledge their blood, their very lives for you! And what do you do? You sing to them... paw at them like mares in heat."
"And what would you do 'Rainbow Dash'," asked the transformed Adagio with a bestial growl. "Rip out their hearts? Peel off their skin? Break their bones? There will be plenty of time for that over their long, miserable lives as our unwilling slaves!"
The creature hiding in the form of Rainbow Dash sighed heavily, "As you wish. They're yours to do with as you please. Now that I've delivered on my part of the bargain, I think it's time we discussed the next phase of our plan."
"How about we don't and say we didn't?" asked Aria snidely, her monstrous visage lending an edge of the sinister to her snarky words, but still managing to get a harsh giggle from Sonata by her side.
"Yeah like, you're kind of slow, aren't you?" laughed Sonata, her new form making it an ugly bark.
"You see, we've got what we wanted," explained Adagio as she drug sharp black nails luxuriously down the side of Sunset Shimmers unresistant face, drawing thin bloody lines down her cheek. "We have the power to turn this entire world into our army, or to make them all our boot licking servants from now until the end of time. Why would we grant a single one of our subjects to you?" Adagio's body swelled as she called more dark power from her amulet. Crimson light flowed freely through her bulging veins, flowing to a spot just behind her eyes. Smoldering pinpoints of self assured power and rage burned in the center of her otherwise black as night eyes. Her teeth and claws lengthened, sharpening as they did so, as she loomed tall over the comparatively diminutive 'Rainbow Dash'. "After all, it's obvious you haven't been truthful with us. You're no more that simpering rainbow haired girl on stage than I'm an average teenager. Your 'candy magic' might have helped us secure our prizes, but it was our magic, and our knowledge of how to use these amulets that have won this day! The way We see it, we don't owe you anything."
"There's no reason to try and justify yourself Adagio" chuckled the Candy Mare mirthlessly, "I wish that I could say that I found your betrayal surprising, but it's so very like you... and your kind. So very predictable," she yawned theatrically, showing just the hint of what lay deep in her throat, a mishmash of madness, teeth and claws waiting in the darkness. Adagio didn't seem to notice as she came to stand glowering over her one time partner. "I suppose I can play along though. What exactly do you propose to do with me? How do you plan to keep me from taking what I want?"
"Simple, slave!" roared Adagio, "I'll make you clean out our privies with your tongue from this day forward, and for all eternity!" She began to sing a song that brought pain and weakness to all that heard it. The mirrored disco balls cracked and shattered, raining glass down on the writhing audience below. Balloons popped, as did the blood vessels in some of the audiences eyes and ears. The body that the Candy Mare occupied seemed to visible weaken as her knees shook and her whole body began to quiver.
"Yes...yes mistress," she whimpered through gritted teeth as she raised her arms like a person in a trance. Then she laughed, the musical laughter of a mischievous child, "As if!" From one extended hand burst a massive appendage made of candy and razor sharp teeth. The limb swelled and closed over Adagio's head with a chomp, silencing her instantly.
Her 'song' suddenly cut off, all that could be heard were muffled screams and moans of protest as Adagio scrabbled uselessly at the candied monstrosity with jagged black talons. The leader of the Dazzlings feet were lifted off the floor as her struggling body dangled in the air, hoisted by the much smaller Rainbow Dash. A sudden wet 'pop' and Adagio's body went limp, falling in a crumpled heap onto the gymnasium floor. A pool of black blood spilled swiftly from the headless stump of her neck. As the candy sheath flowed back beneath 'Dash's' skin, all that was left in her bloody hand was Adagio's fleshless skull. The glowing amulet that the siren had drawn power from hung from The Candy Mare's wrist like a piece of tacky costume jewelry.
The Candy Mare turned towards Aria and Sonata on stage. The pair had stood un-moving and speechless throughout the entire affair, but now they both visibly shuddered as the monster in a teenagers body twirled the hollow skull of their former leader like a basketball on the tip of one finger. As she spoke, there were no vestiges of Rainbow Dash's voice anymore. It was in a terrifyingly sweet voice that she asked "How exactly did you girls think I came by these little trinkets of yours? I've killed you more times than I care to count. Older and much more powerful versions of you have served as mere snacks for me. You will be no different!"
"How could you...?" moaned Sonata, crimson tears in her black eyes.
"You... You monster! We'll make you pay!" roared Aria. Both Sirens drew deeply on their amulets, dark power causing them to grow massive, muscles rippling beneath their scaly hide as they leaped from the stage to avenge Adagio.
As the remaining sirens focused their attention on their erstwhile ally, Sunset Shimmer could feel their grip loosening from her mind and body. Slowly the effects of the music died away as the Candy Mare, Sonata, and Aria fought through the crowd. The Siren's new power lent them not only strength, but speed as well, and they fought as much with lightning fast strikes of tooth and claw as their usual sonic screams. Even so, the Candy Mare dodged the pair effortlessly, laughing insanely all the while. It was amazing that their reckless attacks hadn't injured or even killed any of the innocent students in the audience.
"Girls," said Sunset once she had control of her mouth again. "We have to stop this before anyone else gets hurt!"
"But how? The Dazzling's new power is... well, monstrous," replied Rarity with the understatement of the year. "We barely beat them before when they were at half their current strength!"
"And don't forget she's here," said Rainbow Dash darkly. "As strong as the Dazzling's, are she took out Adagio like she was nothing."
"This is our chance guys!" shouted Pinkie Pie, twirling her drumsticks. "It's now or never, while they're busy fighting each other."
"Sunset and Pinkie are right y'all!" exclaimed Applejack taking up her bass guitar, "Sides, it ain't like we got much choice anyways. Whoever wins, we lose... Unless we take the bull by the horns."
"Okay. If you say so," said Fluttershy meekly as she started to tap out a beat with her tambourine.
"Then it's settled. Lets sing it girls," cried Sunset Shimmer as she took up a fallen microphone. "Lets sing them our song! Let's show them what we're made of!"
As they started to play a new song, Applejack started to sing, "Once upon a time... You came into my world and made the stars align!"
Rarity joined in, playing her keytar, "Now I can see the signs! You pick me up when I get down so I can shine!"
"Shine like Rainbows!" As they reached the chorus, a change seized each of the girls. They grew ears and tails, and some even grew wings and horns, as the music moved through them and flowed over the audience. A rainbow colored light swept over the gymnasium, not only breaking the last vestiges of the Siren's control, but wrapping each student in an impenetrable shield of protective energy. The remaining Dazzlings themselves, as well as the Candy Mare, covered their ears with their hands as though both were struck with agony from what they were hearing.
A fresh wave of rainbow energy exploded from the stage as the real Rainbow Dash floated in a mid-air on luminous wings singing, "Friends, you are in my life and you can count on me to be there by your side!" Bolt's of lightning in all the colors of the spectrum leaped from her guitar and danced out over the crowd. Cracks began to form in Sonata and Aria's amulets.
Flames in the same technicolor hues engulfed Sunset Shimmer, licked hungrily over her and danced through her hair. She locked eyes with the fake Rainbow Dash, with the Candy Mare, and let her voice cut through the air, "And when the music comes alive, we sing our songs to lift us up so we can shine!" The flames too washed out over the audience, engulfing the three monsters. Amulets shattering, Sonata and Aria returned to the forms that they held before, but otherwise remained unscathed. Even the stone around the fake Rainbow Dash's wrist exploded into dust. The Candy Mare however, writhed and foamed, pieces of her body burning away as she struggled to keep her hold on her Rainbow Dash.
There was pleading in her eyes as she said, "Please, don't! You don't know what you're doing!" If the whispered voice was the Candy Mare or the girl she controlled it was impossible to tell. Could anyone even hear her cry over the thundering music? Over the power of friendship? Did anyone but Aria and Sonata see the tears in her eyes as the rainbow of light swept over her?
Caught up in their song, the Rainbooms sang as one, "And the sound that we hear in our hearts, makes a crescendo! And the light that ignites in the dark, It makes us all glow! And shine like rainbows! We shine like rainbows!" here and there, voices began to rise from the audience as they joined in. Each voice adding a fresh burst of power, a new wave of energy! "Shine like rainbows! We shine like rainbows! Together we stand, As the rain begins to fall! And holdin' our heads up high, as the sun shines through it all!" As the voices of the student body and the Rainboom's blended in harmony, so did the light that surrounded them, becoming a blinding glare not unlike that of the sun. The light fell heavily upon the Candy Mare, upon her false face, and smote the vessel in which she hid. The monster inside her gave one last roar before it's voice was lost in the tide of music, the wave of light, the sound of pure harmony.
As the light and the music faded, for a moment all was peace. The girls on stage cheered! They'd done it! As the audience realized that they had been spared a fate worse than death, they joined in. The entire gymnasium shook with the laughter and applause of those who had been saved! Aria and Sonata looked around at the happy smiling faces, with hunted looks on their own. They turned to run for the exit, but this time Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna stood in their way. "Not this time girls," spoke Celestia sternly, "There's no running away. No escape."
"For what you tired to do to our students, for what you did do to them, you will be most severely punished," said Luna, eyes blazing, clearly meaning every word. The students cheered even louder as the girls tried to run back towards the stage, only for those closest to them to block their path.
The threat, at last, was over.
"You idiots!" screamed a lone girl sitting on the floor. Rainbow Dash, the one that had so recently been filled with a darker evil than the Dazzlings could ever measure up to, lifted empty eye sockets so that the Rainbooms on stage could see the bloody tears that flowed freely down her face. "You gave her what she wanted! You gave her exactly what she wanted!"
On stage, the girls gasped. Fluttershy's tambourine fell from her grasp as her hands flew to her mouth. A sick look of realization swept over their Rainbow Dash's face as her wings and ears faded back to where ever they'd come from. A look of denial occupied Sunset Shimmer's face as she stared at her microphone in disbelief. Had it not been enough? But the Candy Mare had clearly been wiped out. Had she somehow misjudged the situation?
The crowd carried on cheering regardless of the drama unfolding on stage. Yet there was a new sudden rush of jubilant, exultant laughter. Slowly, the cheering of the crowd seemed to dim and fade, as a little girls laughter rained down on them, no... Whipped through them! One by one members of the student body double over in pain. Even as the laughter grew louder you could hear them one by one croak, "Nightmare Night...what a fright..." A few of the students could barely choke out the words before they started to vomit, hunched in intense pain. Through the agony, and between dry heaves, they moaned as one "Give us something...sweet...to...bite..." With that last growling death rattle from the unfortunate audience members, the lights flickered out, leaving only emergency illumination for what happened next.
Bloody tears pouring from her empty eye sockets, a fresh gush of candy and gore spewed from the Rainbow Dash on the gymnasium floor. She spewed a scarlet pool around her, her body ripping apart at the seams as she exploded in slow motion. A similar fate swept through the student body like wildfire. Intestines rose like writhing serpents from their mouths, or exploded from their stomachs. The pressure of their guts trying to force their way out of their bodies was strong enough to completely rip off one or two students unfortunate heads as their insides gushed into the air like streamers from a party cannon.
Those fortunate enough to be excused from their friends agonizing fates were not spared for long, as candy abominations swarmed in droves from inside of the bodies of the dead and dying. Like the ones that had suffocated the Rainboom's before, they were all claws, tendrils, and teeth, but these fresh abominations were by no means as gentle. The horrible creatures forced themselves down their victims throats or forced themselves through ragged holes torn open in their faces. They bored through eyeballs and teeth like living drills, but in truth any hole would do, as the tiny beasts invaded one body after another. In mere moments they would explode afresh in a shower of fresh gore... their numbers quickly multiplying!
As the gymnasium quickly became a shallow sea of blood and viscera, Principal Celestia's gaze whipped from the dying student body to her sister Luna. The Vice Principal was doubled over in spasms of her own, something massive roiling beneath her sisters skin. In a moist explosion from her broad back, the twisted thing that rose from inside the mere husk that was now all that was left of Luna, appeared to be a thick wad of candy and flesh. It seemed to grin as it flopped wetly on top of the stunned Celestia, crushing her into a pulpy puddle beneath its bulk, and adding her body to the twisted assortment of limbs that bristled from the disgusting blob of meat.
The slimy mass of squirming entrails and teeth turned towards Sonata and Aria and spoke in Luna's voice, "I told you you would be most severely punished, didn't I?" It laughed like a small child as it broke apart and flowed like a wave, a wall of teeth and claws. Sonata clung tightly to Aria as the end came. So tightly in fact that their flesh stripped skeletons still embraced each other in the wake of the foul wave of death. Just more bones added to a steadily growing pile.
What had been a scene of exultation and joy was swiftly transformed into a bedlam of agony and lingering, painful demise. Indeed, the only place that seemed to be free of the nightmare that was sweeping through the student body was where the six girls stood on stage. Tears streamed from their eyes and one or two fell to their knees, vomiting at the sick, twisted things that they beheld. In Sunset Shimmers mind only one thought held sway as she stood stock still, as if she had fallen into a deep trance. We've failed, she thought as the microphone slipped from her hands, We more than failed. We played right into her hands.
Blood and guts were now the primary decorations in the gym, the balloons and streamers splattered with gore. It looked almost as if a bomb had gone off, as pieces of students and teachers twitched and rolled around on the floor, still alive. They rolled, wriggled and clawed, hunks of the dead and the candy abominations that had been inside them, all flowing to a single point in the middle of the gym floor. The flow coalesced into something like a cocoon that was instantly wreathed in dense fog. At this point, even the emergency light flickered and failed.
All at once, everything was plunged into a darkness putrid with the stench of raw meat and the wails of those who were still not quite dead. It only lasted for a moment, for in that darkness the damp sound of flesh slapping against flesh could be heard. The laughter that had been all around them, taunting their slow demise, faded to a hushed whisper. Like the first light of creation, a single candle flame illuminated inside a grinning pumpkin shell. Then another, and another, until the floor was a wildfire of jack-o-lantern grins. A single spotlight shown down upon where the cocoon had been. Had been, it must be said, for a diminutive figure now stood with arms outstretched, standing on tip toe in a pose like a ballerina, "Ta-da!" She cried exuberantly.
Her flesh was irregular, mottled pink, but other stranger shades here and there, veins of a darker hue streaking beneath her unnaturally shiny flesh. Her dress seemed to be made of discarded candy wrappers and cellophane that peeled away from her tiny form. Long red and black hair, slick and slimy hung limp from her fragile looking skull. But her face... In her face was only insanity. Her eyes were lollipop swirls of madness that opened wide over a candy corn grin that was stretched to bursting with impossibly sharp teeth. A black and orange candy striped tongue stuck out playfully from her liquorice red lips as she gave a little twirl, feet splashing playfully through puddles of blood and what was left of spilled brains on the floor.
This was it then. This was her. This was what she had been planning all this time.
This was the Candy Mare in human form.