• Published 8th Nov 2014
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Tell Us That You Want Us - Summer Knight



The sirens' hearts, the gems that housed their magic, were shattered. Powerless and starving, the Dazzlings turn to the Rainbooms for help.

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Casualties of Battle

The first thing Sunset Shimmer noticed as she walked up the path toward the school was a certain tension in the air. Students were whispering to each other, pointing, and either hurrying away from or toward whatever they were pointing at. The hushed whispers reminded her uncomfortably of those that were often about her, but today it seemed that she was not the target.

The second thing she noticed was someone standing under the Wondercolt statue in front of the school. The person was wearing a hoodie with the hood up, but her figure was definitely feminine. She had her hands in her pockets and was swiveling her head from side to side as if looking for something. As Sunset watched, the person was joined by two others who were similarly hooded. It was hard to tell from this distance, but they looked all too familiar.

Oh no.

Sunset dropped her bag and raced past a group of startled students. As she got closer, she knew that she was right. She skidded to a stop in front of the three girls and pointed a finger at them.

“What are you doing here, Dazzlings?”

One of the three lowered her hood, revealing an enormously puffy orange hairdo that was much too big to have been contained in there. “Sunset Shimmer,” Adagio Dazzle said smugly. “I was hoping we’d run into you.”

“You know we’re not actually called 'The Dazzlings,' right?” Aria added from under her hood. “That was just our band name.”

“I’m not afraid of you,” Sunset answered Adagio. “We beat you once already.”

“So you did,” Adagio replied with a smirk. “Of course, you had Twilight Sparkle with you then. Where is she, anyway?” The siren made a show of looking for her.

“Adagio, this isn’t why we’re here.” Sonata lowered her hood. The normally bubbly girl looked drawn and pale, and strangely scared. “Please, Miss Shimmer, we need your help!”

Aria sighed. “Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d say: Sonata’s right. We didn’t come here to pick a fight.”

“Um.” Sunset wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting them to say, but this sure as hay wasn’t it.

“Look,” Adagio spoke over them, “you broke our hearts, Sunset Shimmer.”

“I did what?” Sunset exclaimed.

“Ugh.” Adagio rolled her eyes. “Those red gems we all had!”

“Oh.”

“We haven’t eaten in weeks,” Sonata whined from behind her.

“Uh, well, I’m sure Ms. Smith in the cafeteria would give you something—”

“Are you trying to be dense?” Aria cut her off.

“Argh!” Sunset put her head in her hands and took a deep breath. “Alright, start from the beginning. Tell me why you’re here, what you need, and why I shouldn’t just kick you to the curb.”

Sonata stepped forward. “Those gems we all used to wear, our hearts? Those are the source of our magic, and they’re how we feed. We lasted this long because of how much negative energy we absorbed right before, but you guys broke them, and now we’re… we’re…” she sniffled and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie.

“We’re starving,” Aria finished for her. “Literally.”

“Oh my gosh,” Sunset gasped, “I’m so, so sorry.” She shook her head. “Wait, why am I apologizing to you three? You attacked the school and turned everyone against each other. You’re monsters!”

“Yes, well, you would know about monsters, wouldn’t you?” Adagio purred.

Sunset looked away and gripped one of her elbows.

“You’re familiar with Equestria, right?” Adagio continued. “Let’s say you’ve got a terrible monster attacking Canterlot. You capture it and find out it’s a unicorn. As punishment for what it did, you cut off the unicorn’s horn and muzzle so it can’t ever use magic or eat food, and you leave it to die.”

Sunset, having once been a unicorn herself, grew pale as Adagio spoke. “We would never do that!”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Adagio answered. “It’s beyond cruel. But that’s just what you Rainbooms did to us.”

“Alright, stop! Please stop. I get it.”

“That’s why we came back.” Sonata chimed in.

“So why come to me? Do you know of some way to fix them?” Fix them? What am I saying? I can’t unleash the sirens on the world again!

“No,” Aria answered flatly.

“What Aria meant to say,” Adagio said, “is that we don’t know how, but we think it can be done with magic. Equestrian magic.”

“Wow." Sunset massaged her temples. "Alright, hold on, this is just a lot to take in. So, you attacked the school and we beat you, but because of what we did, you’re…”

“Dying?” Adagio supplied helpfully.

Sunset winced. “Right. So you came back to the people you attacked to ask for their help?”

“That’s about it, yeah,” Aria said.

“And why would we even want to help you? Why should we?”

Adagio took a swaggering step forward. “Because,” she said, right in Sunset’s face, “you couldn’t live with yourself if you didn’t. You’re such good girls, you and the Rainbooms. You’d never turn your backs on someone in need, even a former enemy.”

“They wouldn’t,” Sunset answered flatly, “but don’t be too sure about me. You know what I’ve done in the past.”

“Yes, and how you’ve spent every waking moment since then trying to make up for it,” Adagio smirked. “Your tough-girl act doesn’t fool me, Sunset Shimmer.”

What does all this mean? What am I supposed to do?!

Aria, who had been strangely quiet throughout all of this, abruptly swayed where she was standing and leaned back heavily against the Wondercolt statue. For the first time since her arrival, Sunset took the time to really look at the three sirens. Sonata, as she’d noticed before, seemed pale, sad, and scared. Aria could barely stand on her own feet, and was now using the statue to hold herself up. Adagio was putting on a strong front, but her hands were shaking and she looked much too thin, as if she were sick. They were obviously in desperate need.

I’m actually thinking about this, Sunset realized with considerable surprise. I'm considering helping the sirens, giving them back their powers. I can’t just leave them like this, but…

“Please,” Sonata sobbed. “Miss Shimmer, please help us.”

Sunset took another deep breath and looked Adagio in the eye. “Let’s go find the others. If I so much as think that you’re up to something, you three are out on your flanks, got it?”

Great, Sunset thought as the other students in the hall stared at her and the Dazzlings, I can’t wait to see what kinds of rumors come out of this.

“We were all supposed to meet for band practice before school,” Sunset told the sirens as they walked, “I couldn’t make it because I was finishing a project, but the others are probably still in the practice room.”

The sirens didn’t respond. Sunset cleared her throat uncomfortably and led the rest of the way in silence. They arrived at their destination within a few minutes, and Sunset reached for the door.

“Let me talk to them first,” she advised. “It might be a bit of a shock if you three just walked in.”

They still didn’t talk to her, but at least Sonata nodded with a smile. That was something, Sunset supposed.

Sunset stepped into the practice room. “Hi everyone. Sorry I couldn’t make practice.”

“Hey Sunset. It’s cool,” Rainbow answered, “we'll just make you play 'Awesome as I Wanna Be' twice as much at the next one.”

“Haha, yeah. So, listen, I need to talk to all of you.”

“What’s the matter, Sunseaaaaaaaaaaaah!” Pinkie shrieked.

“The Dazzlings!” Rarity gasped. “And they’ve got Sunset Shimmer!” She picked up her keytar with a determined glare at whatever was behind Sunset. Sunset thought she had a pretty good idea of what—or rather, who—it was.

“Formation, girls!” Rainbow shouted. “We need Rainbow Power!” In a flurry of improbable acrobatics, Rainbow and Pinkie leapt across the room to their respective instruments.

“Ah told ya, we ain’t callin’ it ‘Rainbow Power,’ Rainbow Dash,” Applejack said as she slung her bass around herself.

“What else would we call it? It literally shoots rainbows!” Rainbow Dash argued.

“I think the issue of what we call it can wait until after we save our friend,” Rarity snapped.

The others nodded and set themselves to fight, instruments and magic at the ready. Finally prepared for battle, the Rainbooms stared down the Dazzlings. The Dazzlings gazed back with bemused expressions. Awkward silence filled the practice room. Adagio raised an eyebrow. Someone coughed. Sunset facepalmed.

“Look, they aren’t here to fight,” Sunset said to her friends. “And I told you three to wait in the hall!” she snapped at the sirens.

“And miss this?” Aria snickered. “Not a chance.”

“Hi, Pinkie!” Sonata called out, waving to the drummer.

“Hi, Sonata!” Pinkie happily waved back, then returned to glaring at all three of the Dazzlings.

“Um,” Fluttershy spoke up for the first time, “so, if they aren’t here to cause trouble, then why are they here?”

“They came to ask us for help,” Sunset answered her. “You remember those red jewels they had? The ones that we broke during the Battle? They need magic to fix them, and we’re the only ones who have it.”

“Oooookay,” Rainbow said slowly. “Hey, Sunset, are you feeling alright? You do know that these are The Dazzlings, right? The evil, magical monsters who turned the whole school against itself?”

“You know, there’s someone else in this room who fits that description,” Adagio said slyly.

“Oh. Uh, no offense, Sunset.”

“None taken,” Sunset grumbled around another facepalm. “She does have a point, though. If I could turn out to be one of the good guys, then why not these three? And they really are suffering without those jewels.” She decided to spare them the gruesome details, and hoped desperately that the sirens would as well.

“Uh. You sure about this?” Applejack asked.

“Honestly? No. But I do know that we hurt these girls a lot more than we meant to or needed to, and if we can somehow make things right then we should do it. Believe me, I know a lot about making amends.”

“Well,” Rarity said, “if Sunset Shimmer is willing to vouch for them, then that’s good enough for me. Everyone deserves a second chance, I say.”

"That's mighty generous of ya, Rarity, but how do we know that these three aren't gonna turn around and try their same old tricks again as soon as we fix the jewels? If we even can, that is."

"We don't," Sunset sighed. "All we can do is believe in them, the same way you all believed in me."

"Sunset?" Pinkie leaned forward over her drums. "Are you okay?"

The truth was, she wasn't. The Dazzlings and their situation was reminding her all too much of herself during the time following the Fall Formal, and thinking about that always got her emotional. She fought back her feelings and tried to present her case clinically.

"After what I did at the Fall Formal," she began, "everyone was more than ready to just leave me behind. I was evil, and that was that. Everyone thought it would be best to just turn away from me. The only exception was you girls. You and Princess Twilight believed in me. When I said I was sorry, you were the only ones who listened to me. When I tried to make things right, you were the only ones who thought my efforts were genuine.

"If it weren't for you girls, the others would have been totally right. I would have done whatever it took to get back into everyone's good graces, and I'd have gone right back to my old tricks. I'd have manipulated and hurt everyone, beaten everyone down until I was on top of the heap again, because I would have had nothing else to strive for. You changed all of that. Thanks to you, I learned what friendship really is. I learned what was really important. If we don't give that same chance to the sirens... well, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if we didn't."

"Hmph," Aria cut in with a sigh. "That's very touching and all, but we're not talking about friendship here. We're talking about food."

"Here's what it boils down to, Rainbooms," Adagio said. "I'll try to keep this simple for you. Either you help us and we have a chance, or you don't, and we slowly and painfully starve to death."

“I must say, you three certainly have a strange way of asking for help,” Rarity scolded. “Still, I stand by what I said before. If Sunset Shimmer is vouching for you, I shall do what I can.”

“I agree,” Fluttershy said. “They’ve done some awful things, but we can’t just leave them to suffer.”

Applejack leaned her bass against the wall. “Ah’m with ya, I suppose. Though heck if I know how to fix magical doodads like those things.”

“Gee,” Pinkie said thoughtfully, “I don’t know if my parents would let me invite magical monsters to a slumber party.”

“I say you’re all nuts!” Rainbow shouted. Everyone stopped and stared at her. “We don’t owe these three anything, and the world would be a better place without them.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Rarity gasped. “What a terrible thing to say!”

“Well, it’s true! No way am I helping the Dazzlings get their magic back.”

“Rainbow Dash, please,” Fluttershy begged. “They need us, and we already said we’d help.”

“Really? I sure don’t remember saying that.” Rainbow looked around, finally noticing that everyone else in the room was glaring at her. “Whatever. You guys do what you want, I’m out.” She set down her guitar and left the room, making sure to slam the door behind her.

“Oh dear.” Fluttershy whispered.