> The Pony Guard: Rainbow Rocks
>  by MXCDarkHorse2020
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Dazzlings come across new magic and new allies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Pony Guard: Rainbow Rocks!


The Dazzlings come across new magic and new allies






The moon shined brightly in the middle of the night at midnight, standing right in the very center at this time. Normally, it’s quiet and peaceful, but unfortunately, tonight was a different story. In a small cafe known as Sugar Cube Cafe, every young teenager inside were arguing with one another. The managers there were left shocked unable to comprehend why this is happening, considering how everyone usually gets along well, like the whole argument came out of nowhere.

Unbeknownst to the angry crowd, the more they argued amongst each other, all while yelling and insulting each other, a green fog surrounded their feet, slowly making its way towards the direction of where a trio of girls are currently sitting They all wore matching jackets with the hoods covering their heads, leaving their faces obscured in the shadows. They all closed their eyes as they harmonized a haunting melody.

Their singing was remarkably beautiful and mesmerizing to the point everyone fell into a trance upon hearing it. As they sang, three red pendants around their necks glowed brightly with the green mist from the teens' negative energy was slowly being absorbed within the gems. Once the singing stopped the mist disappeared from sight, now completely absorbed within their gems, giving away a bright shimmering glow. One of the girls removed her hood, revealing herself to be a teenager with pale, light purple colored skin, purple eyes and moderate purple hair with light brilliant aquamarine streaks. Her hair was styled into two pigtails held with star-shaped hair clips and two strands of hair framing the sides of her face showing a bored and annoyed look.

"That was barely worth the effort, Adagio. I'm tired of fast food. I need a meal."

Said girl sitting next to her also removed her hood revealing her red raspberry colored eyes which were almost cat-like in shape with long thick elegant eyelashes. Her skin was yellowish-orange and her hair was long and curly, held up by a purple headband with spikes on it. Two strands of curly bangs framed the side of her face. Her hair was also colored orange with yellow streaks.

The third girl sitting before them also removed her hood, Her eyes were moderate reddish-pink, and her skin was light bluish white. Her hair was styled into a long ponytail with sharp cut bangs and a similarly colored light arctic blue with moderate blue streaks across. She looked over at her companion with sympathy.

"The energy in this world isn't the same as in Equestria. We can only gain so much power here." She replied bitterly to give away the fact they have very little choice in the matter. She truthfully had lost count on how long it’s been since it all happened. Even though the food they had wasn’t enough to satisfy their needs it was the best to make meet’s end. 

The girl in pigtails groaned as she crossed her arms. "Ugh! I wish we'd never been banished to this awful place!"

"Really? I love it here!" The curly haired girl replied sarcastically though the blue-haired one, being the youngest of the trio didn’t get it.

"For realsies? Because I think this place is the worst."

The pigtailed girl rolled her eyes at her obliviousness to said sarcasm. "I think you're the worst, Sonata."

"Oh, yeah? Well, I think you're—"

Their leader groaned in response, something she has grown used to doing over the years of dealing with her. For them time seemed to move differently here. To them more time has passed from where they were from than here.

"Ergh! I'll tell you one thing, being stuck here with you two isn't making this world any more bearable." She said the last word through clenched teeth.

Just then, Adagio saw something from the window. It looked like a beam of some kind. She quickly ran out of the cafe to witness the event. The wind blew strongly against her hair as she witnessed something incredible in the distance.

Two streams of rainbows rose up from the ground, creating a vivid heavenly glow which then shot a beam from its light, another rainbow, down into the ground creating a shimmering white spear, almost as if it were touching something. Like it was casting a spell. The light increased before the rainbows vanished. But once they did, Adagio noticed her red gem neckless began to shimmer. She felt an incredible wave of energy within herself. An energy she had not felt in a long, long time.

"Did you feel that?" she asked the others…before smiling deviously. "Do you know what that is?"

Her comrades, Sonata and Aria simply shrugged their shoulders, much to their leader Adagio's annoyance for not knowing what it truly is. "It's Equestrian magic!" She stated while grabbing Aria by her jacket collar.

Aria rolled her eyes as she freed herself. "But this world doesn't have Equestrian magic."

"It does now." Adagio's replied as she swayed her hips seductively and smiled. A habit she always did whenever she had something wicked up her sleeve. “And we're going to use it to make everyone in this pathetic little world adore us!"

At the same time they were all approached by a group of five shadowy figures all wearing black hoodies.

“And that we can help you out on...” Their leader spoke as he removed his hood to reveal his face to the surprised trio. A male with tan brown skin, dark red hair combed and slicked back, red eyes, with a pink gash over his right one. “… for we come from a world where another great source of magic has made its way here…”






Opening Theme Song:


“We used to fight with each other

(Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh)

That was before we discovered

(Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh)

That when your friendship is real

(Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh)

Yeah, you just say what you feel

And the music, yeah, the music

Gets us to the top

As we learn how the rainbow...

Rainbow Rocks!

You can pick up the bass

(Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh)

And you can play the guitar

(Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh)

You can bang on the drums

(Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh)

Or you can sing like a star

And the music, yeah, the music

Gets us to the top

As we learn how the rainbow...

Rainbow Rocks!

As we learn how the rainbow...

Rainbow Rocks!”
> Fallen Heroes and Broken Hearts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Fallen Heroes and Broken Hearts






In the same world, where Canterlot High resides, is the current residence of a young girl who a while back ended up becoming her own worst enemy. The sinister and creepy laugh, blood red eyes with fiery flames appearing on her brows, the razor sharp teeth and a long tongue sticking out like a venomous snake. Her large wings flapped as the crown on her head glowed with a black-colored aura. Her eyes locked on her foes on the verge of victory, at least until one shimmer of hope came up to face off against her. Said shimmer of hope came from one brave girl, their leader, one with a horizontal scar on her left eye, stood up tall and bravely locked eyes with her in return. With her eyes narrowed and calm stormy gray clouds surrounding her, she unleashed a mighty and powerful roar empowered by the rainbow magic that winds up serving as her defeat.

Upon waking up, the girl found herself in the comforts of her own bed, thankfully. But was still greatly panicked from the painful memory. Not because she did something wickedly evil back then when she transformed into a demonic monster, but because of how bad she was up until that point. She managed to change her ways but the trauma still lingered in her guilt-filled heart with the painful memories still fresh on everyone’s minds here.

Because of how much of a jerk she was to everyone ever since she first stepped foot in this world, everyone is still holding her in great contempt for her actions, shooting nothing more than strong disdainful looks in her direction.

Hoping to get a breather to calm herself down, she took a walk on over to where the statue that serves as the gateway between her pony home world and her current home world, a gateway that is still two years away from its next three day opening.

She sighed and looked away with deep regret with what she threw away for the sake of power through cruel and dishonest means. And now she has to live with the guilt of what she has caused and nearly did through it all with no good conscience in wanting to go back. Her former mentor Princess Celestia had tried to tell her she’s not ready until she opens her dark heart up to friendship, but despite her efforts she wouldn’t listen and ended their teacher-student relationship on bad terms.

She could only look up at the moon at its near full state with a remorseful look towards the Great Lions of the Past direction for abusing the Gift of the Roar Kion’s crown briefly bestowed upon her in a moment of blind anger. After looking away with mortified tears she exhaled deeply and sharply to the point she released a small lion-sounding growl unintentionally after attempting a small blow from her lips.

She then gasped when that happened wondering how that is possible considering she lost the Roar when she used it against her fellow classmates. She looked up just when strong and calming winds circled around her with a rainbow shimmering glow.

Before her very eyes when she looked up again was the Lions of the Past appearing from the sky through dark clouds. Her eyes bulged open with shock, trying to understand what is truly happening when thunder and lightning appeared from the sky as they roared all together. They all roared judgmentally yet in a gentle like manner.

When their heads disappeared back into the dark clouds, a small and slightly heavy down pour of rain fell upon her body. Unlike the previous rain she’s dealt with, when it made contact with her hair and skin, it caused smoke and steam to emerge from her body that really stung her to the core.

She could only grunt and fall to her knees in pain for a minute as she felt herself forced to absorb all of that rain that was literally burning her. Then suddenly, she felt an internal pain being ripped out of her as a result of the demonic figure that she once was appeared out of her body and ended up vanquishing in a bright golden light with painful shrieks and screams.

As she looked up in time to witness this, she could still feel tears streaming from her eyes as she felt a former part of her getting forcibly ripped out of her even though after that had happened she felt relief that the rains were no longer stinging her body. She couldn’t help it and feel like she deserved painful judgement from the heavens just like her former mentor would if she were here right now.

The only question on her mind from this is what? What could that all truly mean?





In the other world it’s been just recently since Scar was defeated and already things were starting to shape back up to the way things were before he took over.

Just now, Twilight was able to figure out the magical properties to Scar’s magical dome that had trapped everypony inside the Crystal Empire along with keeping everyone who was just kicked out of Diamond Valley out of the kingdom. With this new knowledge she was able to work her magic in undoing the spell Scar had cast on them allowing them all to emerge freely from the stadium.

Though sadly, it was not meant with complete warm gratitude and thanks, since every Pride Lander and Diamond Valley resident (expect the kindest souls in the animal kingdom) returned it in kind. All of them were holding her in contempt for her failed plan in countering Scar’s successful takeover of the Crystal Empire that got them all in this mess in the first place.

Thurston, Big Baboon, Bupu, Cranky Doodle, were amongst the most notable one’s who gave her the hardest time for something she tried her hardest to prevent. Sadly, Scar being much more skilled at the game was better at manipulating the events in his favor and was able to figure out how to turn the tables on her. 

He knew that Twilight would try to help set up the Crystal Empire’s defenses so that he and his army can’t get in from up high and on ground, so while she was busy in keeping the Lion and Pony Guard along with the Royal Family busy during her time as his second-in-command he personally lead the lionesses and changelings in expanding the underground tunnel network beyond Canterlot’s borders so they can sneak under force fields undetected.

Thinking back, she could only mentally berate herself for not foreseeing it considering that’s how they managed to enact the attempted invasion at the wedding in the first place and for that they feel they have every right to deny her gratitude and treat her like an hated Outsider outcast.

But to her it’s quite disheartening considering that she just managed to defeat Scar and restore peace to both worlds and instead see her as the mare who ruined their lives forever by siding with him in the first place all in the name of suffering bad friendship experiences.

After another tough fly through she landed on the ground while leading the way away so she can survey any damages that may have been done ever since she they’ve last been here. Thankfully, after a thorough search and scan, it has been deduced that the place hasn’t changed at all ever since they left. Though it doesn’t take a second glance to get a feel of what the relieved residents returning to their homes are thinking of her now.

To allow herself some breathing room from them, she flew head to the nearby stream of water so she can take a calming drink. While she was sipping it in, her best friend, Kion, the new Prince of Friendship having recently become a half-alicorn much like his granduncle himself, joining by her side as she was looking down at the river’s reflection.

“Feeling okay?” He asked.

“More or less.” She replied somewhat downheartedly. “Nothing new ever since I stepped up to the mantle again.”

“Sorry.” Kion apologized as he walked himself into an obvious answer there. “I mean sorry to hear that things haven’t improved.”

“No kidding.” She still kept her eyes on the river. “It’s bad enough everyone’s mad at me for how everyone got into this mess in the first place, but you’d think that after defeating the lion who nearly took over both worlds that everyone would forgive and forget but I guess not.”

“Well…” Kion struggled on what say next. “…I’m sure they’re just upset and taking a little longer to adjust to the fact you’re not a bad guy anymore…” He sees that his friend is looking on unimpressed. “…I mean you’re not a bad girl anymore…” He was now feeling he dug himself deep and personal with what he just said. “…and that you’ve truly changed for the better and you are not as bad as Scar…” He then quickly added upon her expression having not changed. “…anymore.”

“But for how long?” She asked. “How long until I can expect this whole thing to just all go away like magic?”

Kion again hesitated to give a good response before settling with. “I’m not sure, but soon, very soon.” He then quickly added. “And for what it’s worth at least you no longer have to do community service. That’s good right?”

“Right.” She replied rather deflated than excited that one court ordered obligation has been settled before flapping her wings ready to fly off to take to the skies on patrol.

Kion could on look on feeling pity for her seeing that there is now clear sight of it happening before spreading his wings and trying to fly off after her.

While he is right, the question is when? When will the many Pride Landers and Diamond Valley residents all come to decide that this whole matter is something that can be considered all in the past and water under the bridge?

Maybe a little time to unwind along with a break from all of the ongoing stress is in order, but what?

"What would be the ideal place for a mare with a healing heart to go and unwind?" He thought to himself as he tails her from behind.





At the same time Sunset wakes up in the morning as she dons her attire. As she puts on her black leather jacket and black and purple boots to go with her purple shirt and orange skirt, she heavily sighs knowing what’s in store for her the moment she walks through the doors to Canterlot High and faces every single face she’s faced ever since she became the antagonistic force of nature there…
> Sunset's New Leaf and the Rainbooms and the Lightning Bolts
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sunset's New Leaf and the Rainbooms and the Lightning Bolts






At Canterlot High School, the students were all busy making banners in the auditorium, all happily working side by side.

Compared to last year, the group togethers are more diverse and open-minded rather than everyone having the same interests, something that Sunset had enforced upon everyone before Twilight’s arrival. Back then it was like this, Jocks with jocks, Artists with Artists, Nature lovers with nature lovers. Geeks with Geeks. No one dared to step out of each other's circles. Up until Sunset’s defeat no one ever dared to try to challenge her imposing.

And with the reformed girl turning over a new leaf, no one had any reason to fear her anymore which is both a good and a bad thing considering that everyone doesn’t want to have anything do with her after all’s she done.

When said girl walked inside to meet with her new friends she spotted the Cutie Mark Crusaders all painting a banner together. Wanting to lend a helping hand she moved to kindly and bravely approach them. Upon taking a paintbrush in her hand and smiling sweetly at the girls she asked them.

"Want some help?"

The three girls looked at one another uneasy about the offer with only Apple Bloom brave enough to calmly and politely respond. "Uh, no thanks. We're good." 

Even when she was nice about it, Sunset knew too well why they didn’t want her help as she lowered her shoulders lowered in disappointment.

"Oh. Okay." She returned the paintbrush without another word before she heard a familiar voice calling out to her. A very energetic one along with another equally hyperactive voice. 

“Sunset Shimmer! Over here!"

“Yoo-hoo! Right Sunny Dummy!”

In that direction are the only friends actually giving her a chance in giving her their friendship working on their banner.

A sight that had her smiling as she approached them, but not without more hateful glares and venomous whispering that was clearly audible to the girl’s ears. She could only steel her eyes forward and maintain her composure as she walked forward towards her group.

"I had no idea the whole school would be here." She sadly remarked while gripping her left arm. 

“Neither did any of us.” Beshte apologized sympathetically since this was as big as a surprise to them as well. “I guess this upcoming big event has gotten everyone’s attention this year.” 

Fluttershy placed a comforting and supporting hand on Sunset’s shoulder, which did little to make her feel better. Pinkie and Rarity looked at one another with Beshte and Bunga as they all silently agreed to change the subject. 

“Anyways, check out our poster!” He added as he and the others all proudly demonstrated their own banner for the musical showcase.

"Quite the eye-catching advertisement, if I do say so myself." Rarity proudly said, much like her pony counterpart.

"And it smells like cake!" Pinkie added.

"It does?" Fluttershy innocently asked as she tried to take a whiff to see if it’s really true. Pinkie backed up her claim by shoving the banner at her face along into Fuli’s. Once she removed it, both Fluttershy and Fuli now had frosting and sprinkles on her nose.

"I used frosting instead of paste!"

“Of course you did.” Fuli dryly remarked as she used a single finger to get the icing off of her nose before curiously tasting it. “Strawberry frosting.”

Applejack slightly chuckled at the sight before turning her head to the other frosting victim. "Uh, Fluttershy, you've got a little somethin', uh…"

Fluttershy rubbed her cheek in an attempt to get it only succeeding in removing the sprinkles. "Did I get it?"

"Heh, not exactly." Sunset moved to help her out by taking a hankie from her pocket and used it to wipe off the frosting from her friend's nose. 

Just then the doors to the gym opened with the principal and vice principal sister pair entering the room to make their presence known so they can make an important announcement in regards to this upcoming big event.

With her usual warm smile the elder sister spoke up to get everyone’s attention.  "Good afternoon, students. I just wanted to tell you all how pleased I am that so many of you are going to participate in the first ever Canterlot High School Musical Showcase!” The students all cheered happily likewise very eager for the opportunity to participate together. "This is a wonderful opportunity to raise money for all our after-school programs here at CHS as well as getting to meet with new exchange students hoping to soon join us here this semester. So keep working on those signs and posters. I think it's going to be one of the most exciting events we've had at CHS since the Fall Formal."

The moment that last bit was said had garnered the whole crowd glaring disapprovingly at Sunset all together causing the poor girl to shrink and blush in embarrassment before slumping her back down to the floor in shame. All she could do was bury her hands into her face while the only friends she has in her corner could only stand by her side in her defense.





Later on in the day, the Lion and Pony Guard got together in a room so they can practice together. Since their group was twice as big compared to the other groups, they both split into two groups so that way their respective friends can play the instrument they want to play. The Rainbooms and The Lightning Bolts. All while Sunset sat on the side on a desk watching her friends tune their instruments.

Rainbow was on lead guitar and lead vocals with Fuli doing the same likewise with her band. Applejack played the base with Beshte doing the same for his band. Both Rarity and Bunga played the keytar with the latter also playing drums like  Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy played the tambourine while Ono played the harmonica.

"Ugh! I am never gonna live that down." Sunset said hopelessly at her predicament.

"You were pretty bad at the Fall Formal." Fluttershy said as she grabbed her instrument unable to hold back on the punches in the matter.

"A demon. I turned into a raging she-demon."

Pinkie Pie began making gestures as she explained, "And tried to turn everyone here into teenage zombies for your own personal army!" Pinkie added while making gestures that imitates one of a zombie with matching eyes before returning her expression to her trademark goofy smile.

“Ugh.” Ono groaned grimacing at the memory. “Creepy.” He then realized he said that outloud. “Oh…” He then cleared his throat. “…all that aside, I don’t think we need to repeat what exactly happened back then since that’s all in the past. Point being, you’re not without friends here.”

As Rarity placed the sling of her keytar around her shoulder she moved to speak up with her words of comfort. "Ono’s right, darling, you have us indeed. And we've forgiven you for your past...” 

“Mistakes?” Ono finished.

“I was going to say….ahem... booboos." Rarity said otherwise before focusing on what’s in front of them.

Applejack took her base, ready to practice, "To be honest, I'd say the whole experience brought everyone at Canterlot High closer than ever before!"

Pinkie Pie tapped her drum sticks, "One two three!"

The girls played their respected instruments and started to sing in harmony to which Sunset’s previous worries vanished for the time being as she found herself enlighten with a smile.

“There was a time we were apart

But that's behind us now

See how we've made a brand new start

And the future's lookin' up, ah-oh, ah-oh

And when you walk these halls

You feel it everywhere

Yeah, we're the Wondercolts forever, oh, yeah!

We are all together

(Ah, ah, oh-oh-oh-oh)

Now it's better than ever

(Ah, ah, oh-oh-oh-oh)”

During the sudden rush of adrenaline kicking in, each of the girls grew longer hair extensions, resembling tails, with pony ears growing on their heads while Rainbow and Fluttershy grew feathered wings, all in the same color as their skin. To them this has happened every time they played their music together ever since the Fall Formal.

“You can feel it, we are back

(You... can... feel... it...)

And I'm so glad that we're better

Better than ever

Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Oh yeah, we're better than ever

Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh.”

Sunset tapped her hands to the beat as Rainbow Dash sang solo.

“There was a time we couldn't see

Past the differences.”

Next was Applejack’s turn.

“That separated you and me

And it left us on our own.”

Next up was Pinkie Pie.

“But now you walk these halls

And friends are everywhere.”

Now the Rainbooms sing all together once more.

“Yeah, we're the Wondercolts forever, oh, yeah!

We are all together

(Ah, ah, oh-oh-oh-oh)

Now it's better than ever

(Ah, ah, oh-oh-oh-oh)”

Sunset stood up and bobbed her head while tapping her foot still moving to the beat of their song.

“Now that we are back on track

(Now... that... we... are...)

Yes, I'm so glad that we're better

Better than ever

Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Oh yeah, we're better than ever

Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Oh yeah, we're better than ever

Whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Oh yeah, we're better than ever!”

Sunset Shimmer applauded her friends' performance as the ears, tails and wings all magically disappeared. Thankfully at this point the girls were used to this happening.

Rarity giggled with delight as she lowered down her instrument. "I still can't believe that happens when we play! Ooh! I've got to look into some new accessories! Something that looks good in a longer ponytail. Ooh! Maybe some clip-on earrings for when I get those adorable pony ears."

“I’m sure we’ll find the proper attire in due time.” Ono replied with good faith in her friend. Knowing her, she always does whenever it comes to fashion.

"I just wonder why it happens." Applejack curiously wondered herself as she sat down next to Fluttershy. "Princess Twilight took her crown back to Equestria. Shouldn't that mean she took all the magic back with her?"

“Good question, Applejack.” Fuli agreed. “I wonder if something from the portal had something to do with it?”

Rainbow Dash simply smiled arrogantly brushed aside the matter. "Who cares why it happens? It makes my band totally awesome!"

Rarity was quick to scoff at these arrogant spoken words. "Oh! Your band?"

"Duh! It was my idea to start the Rainbooms so we could be in the showcase. Plus I'm the lead singer and guitarist."

Fuli could only roll her eyes at the girl’s overgrowing ego showing. “You have got to be kidding me?” She then smiled before nodding at her team. “And since I’m lead guitar, now’s it our turn to show you of how we roll.” She turns to Bunga. “Ready?”

He then tapped his drums before performing a rock and roll. “One, Two, Three!”

Teen Titans

I will obey the traffic rules

TEEN TITANS!

I will eat everything without likes or dislikes

TEEN TITANS!

Earthquakes, lightning, fire, Dad

Grammar, Math, Science, Social Studies

There is nothing I am afraid of

TEEN TITANS, GO!

Holler, holler, holler, holler, holler, holler, holler my name!

TEEN TITANS!

Half of your troubles will be gone!

TEEN TITANS!

Papa's schedule control

Mama's weight control

Wishes are endless

Teen Titans, go.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5!!!!

TEEN TITANS!

Good night, Tokyo! 

After their performance ended, there was stunned silence amongst everyone in the room after the magical tails, ears, tail-extensions, and wings all appeared and disappeared just like the Rainbooms performance. While everyone else was quite pleasantly surprised by that magnificent performance. Rainbow Dash was just left jaw-dropped stunned like he had just gotten taken down a peg after seeing something 200% awesome.

“So…” Fuli smugly smiled as she moved to ask for the sports team captain's thoughts. “…how was that? Like 200% awesome?”

To confirm it the girl wearing a pink skirt wound up passing out while mumbling incoherently in response to her question.

Just then there was a knock on the door. When the door opened it was Flash Sentry appearing for a visit. "Uh, heard you outside. You guys are sounding really tight."

"Uh, we're getting there." Rainbow Dash said downplaying the compliment. “Rarity's still coming in a little late on the second verse, and Applejack's bass solo could use a little work. Not to mention the same could be said for both Fuli and Ono but they'll get it together in time for the showcase."

Rarity and Applejack along with Fuli and Ono all showed the same annoyed and irritated glances amongst each other. It has been well known amongst them that Rainbow is the most arrogant of the bunch but her pride and ego has swelling moreso than usually with the rise of their new bands. It was starting to get really on their nerves.

With that aside, Flash nervously tugged his jacket collar before placing his hands in his pockets before asking. “Uh, I don't suppose any of our friends from, uh... out of town might come? Uh, it being a special charity event and all."

The girls and boys all knew exactly who and what he is asking about. The sad truth about it is, that his crush is a distant friend who’s return is very unlikely. 

Applejack being sympathetic and gentle yet firmly honest about moved to break it too him. "Sorry, Flash. I don't think Twilight's gonna be back at Canterlot High any time soon."

Even though he tried to be positive about it along with giving an understanding smile, he was still deeply disappointed as he truly loves her and really wanted to explore a relationship with her. "Oh, yeah. Okay. I just, you know, thought I'd ask. Uh, k-keep on rockin' it." He moved to walk backwards to the door, only to accidentally hit his back against the wall. 

“Watch the door.” Fuli said to Flash who and smiled in embarrassment before leaving. “Charming guy.” She said with a smirk.

Rarity smirked and giggled after he left. "Well. Someone is quite the smitten kitten." Rarity then suddenly realized what she said and turned to Sunset Shimmer, looking very apologetic in her direction. "Oh. Sorry. I always forget you and Flash used to be an item."

Thankfully, Sunset took it in stride without being hurt or offended by it. "It's okay. Flash is a great guy and all, but I never really liked-him liked him. I was just using him to become more popular." After saying that she could only further groan and face palm herself in disgust. "Ugh! The old me really was just awful, wasn't she?" Everyone in the room all nodded and hmm in agreement unable to deny it even if they wanted to. 

Thought Applejack reassuringly smiled as she placed her hand on Sunset's shoulder, who likewise smiled in return. "But the important thing is that you've turned yourself around."

While greatly appreciated, Sunset was still in a somber state in mind with the whole thing. “Thanks, Applejack, but I'm not sure everyone else at CHS feels the same way."

The P.A system beeped and Vice Principal Luna's voice was heard. "Sunset Shimmer, please report to the main foyer."

Knowing exactly why she’s being called, Sunset moved to run out of the room. “Gotta run. I volunteered to show some new students around the school. Thought it'd be good for them to get to know the new me before they heard all the stuff about the old me." 

“Sounds good. Hope it goes well.” Beshte said supportively as Sunset returned one more smile to her friends before leaving. 

After she left, Rainbow Dash turned to the rest, seeking to squeeze another musical number while they’re at it. "We've still got a few minutes before lunch starts. What do you say we do "Awesome As I Wanna Be"?"

"Um, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy spoke up as she held out her green notebook, decorated with butterflies. "I was wondering if we could maybe play the song I wrote?"

Sadly for her, Rainbow Dash brushed it off, "We'll get to it."

Fluttershy lowered her shoulders in disappointment. "Oh. Okay."

Bunga being more open-minded to the idea spoke up in her defense. “Aw, come on Rainbow! You picked out the last three songs. Let’s hear out one of her songs for a change!”

“But…”

“Come on, Rainbow!” Fuli spoke up in agreement feeling it is time for her to play fair with all things considered. “I think it’s the least you could for your teammates for once a while.”

“Ugh.” Rainbow groaned in defeat. “Fine, sure. Let’s hear it, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy smiled very pleased to be able to given a chance thanks to both Bunga and Fuli backing her up even at the expense of Rainbow’s desires.
> The Dazzlings and the Wild Ones join the Battle of the Bands
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Dazzlings and the Wild Ones join the Battle of the Bands






Upon arriving Sunset Shimmer sported the brightest smile she could as she approached the eight new students. "Hi. Are you the girls and boys I'm supposed to show around?"

"We are."

“Oh yes.”

Their leaders spoke on behalf of their groups.

First the three girls stepped forward. 

The girl in the middle who serves as the girl’s leader and the brains of the group had red colored eyes and long curly golden blond hair wearing purple colored outfit consisting of a pair of shorts and pink leggings with purple diamond patterns. She wore ankle long purple boots with golden straps that had with yellow spikes on them. She had a small and puffy short sleeved pink jacket and matching finger-less gloves. She also had a yellow belt that also consists of matching spikes and a diamond shaped buckle.

The second girl wore her hair in pigtails as well as a sleeveless green jacket with and a light green shirt. Her pants were magenta and had a two sashed belt with a star belt buckle and wore dark magenta boots and matching colored arm bands. From the looks of her she seems to serve as the brawn of the group fitting for her personality.

The third one had her sky blue hair with dark blue stripes styled up high ponytail and wore a dark violet jacket rolled up sleeves with the high collar a lighter shade of violet. She wore a light pink skirt and long pink and white knee length boots and pink bracelets with blue spikes on it. No doubt, she is the most feminine of the trio.

Together one thing they had in common with their outfits is that they all each wore red pendants around their necks.

The guys were much more colored coordinated all wearing matching outfits. Black leather jackets with white t-shirts, blue jeans, and black and white colored shoes.  In contrast to the girls, they had all had differing hair color. 

Their leader had slicked back dark red hair, red-orange eyes, along with a scar on his right eye similar to the strange lion from the Pride Lands Past, yet a solid yet slim build. He looked confident, devious, and sly. 

The second one had dark brown hair combed back similar to Scar’s, big brows, orange-yellow eyes, appeared taller than his leader, and looked fast, lean, and mean.

The third one was short compared to the other two, had his black hair styled like a trimmed up hedge, had red eyes, and had an angry expression that makes him look a little short-tempered.

The fourth one had a muscular build, big dark brown hair styled into a combed back pompadour. He had great style in hair but also had white eyebrows in contrast to the black brows the others had, making it clear that he is older than the rest of the crew.

The fifth one also had a powerful build and a large chin, looked pretty smooth and slick.

The sixth one had gold amber eyes, long flowing black hair and a goatee long to the point it reached halfway across his chest. He seemed serious and reserved deep down.

"My name is Sunset Shimmer. What are your names?"

The blond one spoke first, "I'm Adagio Dazzle. This is Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk"

Then the red haired boy spoke next. “And I’m Uovu. They are Kasi, Nguvu, Mwenye Kuona, Kidevu, and Hifadhi.”

Sonata smiled at Sunset while Aria simply shrugged, not even caring. Sunset, none the less, smiled as she began leading the way as the girls and boys followed.

"Well, let me be the first to welcome all of you guys and girls. Canterlot High is a great school. You're really gonna love it."

Adagio smiled as she rubbed her fingers together, "Oh, yes, we really sense there's something... magical about this place."

“Me too.” Uovu stated in agreement sharing the same sinister vibe as his friend.





The tour after some time was progressing nicely and all of the visitors were all pleased with what they were seeing. They didn't show any resentment towards her so to her that’s a start for now. 

She found that Adagio was very impressed with the school, Aria looked on with a stoic and bored expression while Sonata was smiling the whole way. As for the guys, she found that

The guys so far seemed to be liking it as much as the girls are. Uovu was far looking on very observantly, while Kasi was power-walking and Nguvo moved to do the same so he can keep up with the others. Upon seeing this, the speedy power-walker moved to carry the latter on his back and play catch up in an instant. 

While grateful, the short-haired boy Nguvu, still sported his angry face looking like he is going to flip out and tear someone apart in an instant. The guy with the fancy hairdo was too busy flexing his muscles and looking at himself in a mirror to the point he accidentally bumped into his partner as a result.

“Oops…” He chuckled upon kneeling down to pick up the now cracked mirror he dropped. “…sorry.” He said as he turned to face him. “Guess that’s seven years of bad luck for me. Oh well.”

“Oh well? Oh well?! OH WELL!” He angrily moved to confront him. “Look where you’re going you egotistical son of a…” He proceeds to beat the guy up silly.

“Hey come on! Watch the jacket! I just had this shined!”

Uovu turned to both Kidevu and Hifadhi while gesturing his head to the two fighting. “Por favor.”

They both moved to break up the fight with the big-chinned fellow effortlessly lifting the short guy up with one arm while the one with the beard wrapped his arms around the other guy’s torso.

“You two about done fighting?” Hifadhi sternly asked like he is their annoyed father breaking up a childish fight.

The little guy crossed his arms while grumbling in response. “Yes.”

Hifadhi turned the other guy. “And you?”

“Yes, and quite frankly so, since now I have to tidy up my jacket. It’s such fine quality one of a kind leather.”

“Not to worry my friend. For I have a solution…” Kidevu assured while handing him leather cleaner so he can quickly clean up the scuff marks Nguvu left during his fight with Mwenye Kuona.

“Sweet!” He really enjoyed this gift and put it to full effective use all over his clothes.

Sunset having watched all of this turned to Uovu in concern. “Is it normal for him to act like that all of the time?”

“I’m afraid so.” He admitted. “And in case if you’re wondering, we did try to arrange for him to go to anger management class, but he wound killing the teacher and burning down the building for simply being asked to calm down.”

“Whoa.”

“I know…” He understood Sunset’s shock. “…to think that and accidentally spilling coffee on his leather jacket would result in one fiery mess that we had to step in and clean up before the authorities could look into it.”

For a few seconds as they walked she was speechless at how ruthless these guys were. But after looking down at her own black leather jacket, felt it was just better to accept that than risk playing with fire herself like she did one too many times during her reign of terror at the school. She then led everyone on forward with the tour to show everyone of what this place has to offer.

"That's the science lab. Computer lab is in there. Oh!" Sunset excitedly rushed to one of the posters promoting the School's Showcase. "We're having a big musical showcase this weekend! The whole school is pretty much rallying around it."

This sparked both Adagio and Uovu’s interest. "A musical showcase?" By the looks of both Aria and Sonata, they two seemed very interested…but not for the reasons Sunset thinks. And as for the men well, while listening it didn’t seem music is their strongest interest compared to the girls.

"I'm sure since you're new, Principal Celestia would let you sign up if you're interested."

Aria inspected her nails while replying. "We have been known to sing from time to time."

Sonata also spoke up as she replied. "Hello? We sing, like, all the time! It's how we get people to do what we want."

Aria's eyes widened in shock and Adagio clenched her teeth while gesturing a cutting gesture with her hand near her neck, to signal to Sonata to shut up. But she clearly did not get the message.

"Wha-What did I say?"

Despite the little slip of her tongue, Adagio kept her cool. "What you meant to say was that being in a musical showcase sounds like a great way to meet other students."

Sonata upon now realizing played along with it. “Ohhhh, yeah. Th-What she said I meant to say. That's what I meant. To say.”

Aria scoffed in response, "And what you would have said if you weren't the worst."

Sonata frowned in response. "You are!"

Adagio stepped forward, blocking the two from Sunset Shimmer's view, "You'll have to excuse them. They're idiots."

Aria huffed while Sonata just smiled leaving Sunset to suspiciously arch an eyebrow in their direction along with the guys. All of a sudden, she began to get a strange vibe from them. It was almost as if they have sinister intentions of being here along with how the guys looked and dressed together identically. But she couldn’t put her finger on it. But like she said, some looks can be misleading. 

She then noticed the way the girls matching red gems around their necks which seemingly looking sinister to match their vibe. In addition, the guys had matching gold watches and badges with the latter showing matching roaring lion images on them. Upon seeing them it looked very familiar to her like she has seen this before.

"Those are pretty." She said as she reached out to get a closer look at Adagio's pendent, "Where did you—" But suddenly Adagio quickly grabbed Sunset by the wrist rather tightly. Then, Adagio's expression softened and she released Sunset's wrist and regained her composure. Even though she was now free, she could still feel Adagio's powerful hold. "Ah, ha, ha, ha. Sorry. These pendants mean an awful lot to us. We'd just hate for anything to happen to them."

“Along with our watches and badges.” Uovu added while showing off the shining glare they produced. “Amazing how they were nice enough to allow us to keep them ever since we left the force.”

“Are you saying that the seven of you used to be cops?” Sunset asked looking very suspiciously.

“Former, and yes.”

“But how did you get to keep your badges?”

“Long story short, we solved a major ground breaking case before we decided we wanted to pursue other things in life.” Uovu smiled and leaned in close to the curious tour guide. “Someday you’ll understand.”

Uovu lead his team ahead with Adaigo moved to do the same with their followers all trailing after them with the latter having to drag the still smiling Sonota along with her, all while Sunset is looking on very puzzled of what the strange looking leader of the new boy group meant by that. For some reason, all of these new transfers are looking more like bad news with every seconds she spends with them.





Later on at lunchtime in the cafeteria, Sunset rejoined her friends at the table they are currently sitting at, all while still feeling off about what she experienced and witnessed just minutes ago.

"So how was the tour?" The country girl who is currently eating her lunch asked as she moved to sit next to her.

"I don't know. I mean, these girls and boys, they were... There was something off about them." She replied honestly yet unsure of how to describe it.

“Like what?” Fuli asked.

Before Sunset could answer Pinkie Pie jumped the gun with random guesses. "Like, off like this?" She used her hair to make her look like she had a beard, "Or off like this?" She placed two carrot sticks into her mouth to look like fangs and two pieces of lettuce on her eyebrows. "Or… Oh, oh! Like—"

Rainbow Dash moved to interrupt her just when Fuli placed a hand over the pink girl’s mouth. "Maybe we should just let her tell us."

"That's just it." Sunset said. "I can't put my finger on it. They just acted sort of... strange around me." She emphasized her point by waving her hands. She then lowered her head feeling upset. "Maybe someone already talked to them. Told them about what I did. So much for making a good first impression."

Bunga agreed. "Yeah so much for that." He suddenly sees that everyone at the table is all giving him disapproving glares with Fuli elbowing him in the ribs and pointing a finger in Sunset’s direction. Upon seeing the disheartened girl once again he realized his mistake. “Oops, did I say that out loud again?” He chuckled nervously before trying to elbow Sunset in an “I’m just kidding.” manner but it did little in cheering her up. “My bad.” He moved to sit back in his chair before he could do any more damage.

Sunset then looked down in shame while looking at her own skin to see some of her skin is starting to peel off. Question is why? Why is this happening? What exactly did that specific rainstorm do to her?

“Sunset?” Beshte called to her which snapped her out of her gaze. “You okay?” He asked concerned.

Sunset shook her her previously concerned face for a more relaxed one. “Yes, everything’s all good. For now…” She muttered the last part to herself half-truthfully.

At the same time, Adagio smiled with wicked satisfaction as she witnessed the happy atmosphere inside the cafeteria all around her from outside, she along with Uovu couldn't wait to pounce on the opportunity right around them. She then turned to her comrades to tell of them of that. "This is it, girls. The moment we've been waiting for."

"Lunch?!" Sonata asked obliviously.

The short-tempered boy slapped her on the back of the head in response. “No, recess!”

“Really?”

“NO!”

Adagio groaned in annoyance as Uovu moved to explain it better to their team. "The chance to get the girls their Equestrian magic back, and for us our magic from the Pride Lands, the true magic that truly belongs to us."

"Oh. Right."

Aria rolled her eyes in response to her ever-lasting cluelessness. Regardless Adagio turned her wicked eyes back onto the students. "Our voices are just strong enough to make them want something so badly, they'll fight to get it."

“And the more negative energy spread around, the angrier they get.” The handsome maneKidevu chimed in.

“Until they are mad at each other as much as they are as…” Uovu continued.

“Me?!” Nguvo angrily asked.

“No offense, but yes.” Before he could even think of advancing on his team leader he added. “Cool off Nguvo, keep in mind of what our goal is here and what we need to do here. I don’t want you turning this into an international incident.” He crossed his arms rather annoyed by what he said before none of the less obliged to his leader’s wishes.

"So we're just gonna do what we always do?" Aria asked as she pieced it together like it has been done before a number of times. "Stir up some trouble and then feed off the negative energy? Some plan, Adagio." She said the last part sarcastically and boldly, never one to show restraint in whatever comes to mind.

"It won't be the same as the times before!" Adagio assertively stated. "There is Equestrian magic here. Their negative energy will give us the power we need to get this entire world to do our bidding."

“Not to mention…” The guy with a sinister goatee added. “…new transfers here at the school…” He gestured to some of the guys and girls sitting with the Rainbooms band. “…that’ll provide us with even more energy than before.”

"But we can get lunch after though, right?" Sonata asked, smiling at the nearby poster on the wall. "It's Taco Tuesday!"

“With extra seasoning and spices available, no charge.” The guy said while still looking at his mirror to which got Adagio angrily glaring at them. “Oops…” He nearly fumbled with his mirror again. “…big picture here.

"Just follow my lead." Adagio ordered of them.

"Or my lead." Aria remarked boldly, until Adagio grabbed her by the shirt to put her in her place.

"My lead!"

That shut Aria right up as Adagio released her. Even though Aria wasn’t afraid to say what she thinks, she knew better than to speak out of turn in regards to their leader. Sonata snickered in Aria's expense taking some enjoyment out seeing her get a taste of her own medicine.

First Adagio, Aria and Sonata entered the cafeteria leaving the boys to watch from just outside the doors watching them as they opened their mouths as their harmonious singing echoed across the room.

“Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah

Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah.”

As they sang, their medallions glowed and they swayed their hips rather seductively as they walked. While the Dazzlings started off the beat, the guys all joined in all while snapping their fingers repeatedly all while singing something a little similar to the girls.

“Bum, bum

Bum, bum,

Bum, bum, bum.”

All of the students, including Sunset Shimmer and her friends turned their attention to them as they walked in the room. It’s quite surprising yet somehow not quite a positive inspiration to when both Kion and Twilight did when they first set foot in here. Not to mention the lyrics didn’t fit the atmosphere they had back then to match.

”Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah

Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah.

Bum, bum

Bum, bum,

Bum, bum, bum.”

Adagio Dazzle

“We heard you want to get together.”

The girls and guys minus Adiago and Uovu.

“Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah.

Bum, bum

Bum, bum.”

Uovu.

“We heard you want to rock the school.”

The girls and guys minus Adiago and Uovu. 

 “Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah.

Bum, bum

Bum, bum.”

As they sang among the students, Sonata strum on Flash's guitar and slowly gained everyone’s attention. Pretty much every student found the sounds of their voices very entrancing but none of them saw what was coming next during their song.

Adagio

“We thought of something that is better.”

The girls and guys minus Adiago and Uovu. 

“Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah.”

Bum, bum

Bum, bum.

Bum, bum, bum.”

Uovu.

“Something that changes all the rules.”

The girls and guys minus Adiago and Uovu. 

“Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah.”

Adagio;

“Why pretend we're all the same

When some of us shine brighter?”

The girls and guys minus Adiago and Uovu. 

“Shine brighter.”

Uovu.

“Here's a chance to find your flame

Are you a loser or a fighter?”

Adagio, Aria and Sonata all together.

“Me and you, you and me

Why don't we see who is better?

We don't have to be one and the same thing

Oh, what's so wrong with a little competition?

Are you afraid of failing the audition?”

As they sang, some students began looking at each other with pure hatred. 

“This isn’t good.” Sunset mentally thought on her when she witnessed all of this go down.

Adagio Dazzle

“You're a star and you should know it."

Adagio sang to the school's magician, Trixie. Aria and Sonata then assisted their lead singer to stand on a table and walk down it like she were on a runway.

The guys.

“Yeah, you rise above the rest

It doesn't matter who you hurt

If you're just proving you're the best.”

Together.

“Ah, ahh-ahh

Battle!

You wanna win it

Let's have a battle, battle of the bands

Let's have a battle, we'll go all in it

Let's have a battle, battle, battle

Battle of the bands.”

As the music and words sank in, students started getting pretty heated towards each other.

Naomi

"I can beat you!"

Adagio, Aria, Sonata;

“Battle!”

Cherry Crash

"Ha! You wish!"

Uovu, Mkali, Nguvu, Mwenye Kuona, Kidevu, and Hifadhi. 

“Battle!”

Trixie;

"I so want this!"

Adagio, Aria, Sonata;

“Battle!”

Captain Planet;

"Not if I get it first!"

Adagio, Aria, Sonata, Uovu, Mkali, Nguvu, Mwenye Kuona, Kidevu, Hifadhi and most of the students.

“Me and you, you and me

Why don't we see who is better?

We don't have to be one and the same thing

Oh, what's so wrong with a little competition?

I'm going up and winning the audition.”

As the students began glaring and insulting each other, a mysterious green and red mist began to slowly manifest itself around the cafeteria.

“Battle!

We wanna win it

Let's have a battle, battle of the bands.”

As they sang, Sunset and her friends were the only ones who were not going along with everyone else, rather watching on with worry and concern.

Sunsets instincts were further confirmed when these strange vibes were detecting equally strange magic in the works. Dark magic.

“Let's have a battle, we'll go all in it

Let's have a battle, battle, battle

Battle of the bands!”

When the song came to an end, all of the students were now yelling and saying cruel and horrible words and insults to each other.

What was once a friendly event for all, was now an all-out battle. As they argued, the green mist grew larger which began to be absorbed into the red pendants along with seeping outside into the gold badges and watches of the guys watching outside. The guys and girls all smiled.

“And that completes Part One of the plan.”

While everyone was arguing, Sunset and the others at their table looked on very worried with what is happening around them.

“Ohhhh. They're that kind of "off"."

“That’s what you’re talking about.”

Both Pinkie and Bunga commented.

“Yes, congratulations. You two just managed to figure out.” Ono sarcastically remarked while Fuli nodded in agreement.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself.”





After lunch, the boys and girls all walked down the halls, with Pinkie Pie actually hopping while Rainbow Dash was kicking her soccer ball, all wondering what they just witnessed minutes ago.

"Those three are definitely in possession of some kind of dark magic and I think the guys might be in on it too." Sunset analyzed her thoughts to everyone around her. "How else could you explain what happened back there?"

“Not much.” Ono admitted unable to think of anything else himself. “Especially considering after listening to their song they all started arguing with each other like this the American Revolution.”

"Don't worry, y'all." Applejack reassured everyone. "We'll let Principal Celestia know all about this and those girls will be kicked to the curb in no time. Last thing she needs is another CHS event almost ruined by some power-crazed lunatic." She widen her eyes once she realized her mistake. "Er, no offense."

Sunset simply sighed again while making it clear she is not even close to being amused by that memory. "None taken."

"Dark magic? I find that very hard to believe." The principal uncharacteristically dismissed after taking it all in.





The six girls were in Celestia's office, and from the tone of their voices make it clear that they don’t believe them. "Those girls came into my office earlier and were absolutely delightful. And not only that a group of boys accompanying them shared us a stunning new tune for us to enjoy…"

“Like what?” Ono dared to ask.

To back her last statement up, she played a recorded song the guys had performed just recently.

All I Want Is Everything

After the song had finished, the vice principal standing beside agreed with her older sister’ stance before arching an eyebrow at the Guard like they are putting forward mere conjecture. “Ugh! Perhaps Sunset Shimmer is just eager to make someone else out to be a bad element, so that her actions at the Fall Formal will become old news."

Because of how harshly true it was, Sunset Shimmer didn't even bother to deny it as she scratched her neck in embarrassment. "I can see why you might think that, but—"

Rainbow Dash stepped forward in her defense and spoke up to assert otherwise. "That's not what's happening! We saw all of this go down in the cafeteria too!"

Principal Celestia looked at them skeptically and unconvinced. "Yes, but isn't your band supposed to be part of the Musical Showcase?"

Rainbow's eyes shifted around the room in uncertainty before answering, "Yes. But--"

"Perhaps you're all just worried that the Dazzlings will steal your spotlight." Luna added accusingly before she could even properly explain her case.

“No, that’s not true.” Beshte defended.

“We’re just trying to get you to understand a potential threat to the school that you should be handling before it could get out of hand.” Fuli chimed in to back them up.

Applejack looked at them curiously at one particular detail, specifically the group name. "And did you say they’re “The "Dazzlings"?"

"Yes. It's the name of their musical group. And as for the guys, they’re the Wild Ones." Celestia answered. "That's why they came by my office earlier today – to sign up for the Showcase. Even sang a little song to Vice Principal Luna and I."

“Uh-oh.” Fuli whispered under her breath.

"They did?" Applejack asked highly shocked and surprised upon hearing this.

"Yes. And we think having a Battle of the Bands instead is a marvelous idea." As the elder sister said this, both her and Vice Principal Luna's eyes briefly glowed an eerie green color and then a creepy bloody red color. Which could only mean one thing...

Whatever spell these Dazzlings and the Wild Ones had cast, the two Principals were under it as well along with under their thumbs. It is pretty clear that the Lion and Pony Guard are on their own now.





Some time later, the group went outside right next to the large horse statue that serves as the once in a while gateway to Equestria. They were all pondering on what to do now since both Celestia and Luna aren’t going to be of any help.

Pinkie Pie while thinking was laying on her back on top of the pedestal near the stone horse, Rarity sat on the ground painting her nails while Rainbow kicked her soccer ball. Sunset leaned against the pedestal while Applejack was walking in place and Fluttershy allowed a lady bug to climb on her finger.

“This is not good.” Ono commented starting to find the situation getting bleaker by the minute.

"I can't believe they got to Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna too." Fluttershy was the first to comment rather sadly.

"They've gotten to everybody." Rainbow Dash commented next.

Pinkie Pie lowered her head to everyone, still smiling. "Not everybody!"

“Meaning us.” Bunga proudly and smugly remarked while pointing his fingers towards his chest.

“Bunga that’s…” Ono started to say before finding it very accurate for once. “…actually true.”

"Pinkie Pie's right." Applejack agreed. "We were there when the Dazzlings were singin' and we weren't affected. It was like we were protected somehow."

“If that’s true then what?” Fuli wondered while tapping her chin with the tip of her finger.

“Who cares?!” Rainbow remarked while balancing her ball on her head before kicking up from her feet to have it leap up to the palm of her hand. “Let’s take them down! It's not like we haven't tangled with dark magic before and totally whooped its sorry butt!" Again, she came to realize what she just said the mere split second after saying it before turning to Sunset apologetically. "Uh, no offense."

Sunset Shimmer simply sighed again in response. "None taken. Again."

"But that was when Twilight and Kion were here." Fluttershy pointed out as she released the lady bug and watched it fly away. "There may be some kind of magic inside us, but it only comes out when we play music. I sure don't know how to use it to... whoop anybody's butt."

Rarity sighed in agreement as she painted her nails. "If only we could get a message to both Twilight and Kion. Maybe they could tell us how to break the spell the Dazzling’s and Wild Ones have cast on our friends."

"Well, that's not gonna happen." Rainbow shook her head at the idea. "The portal's closed." She threw the ball towards the pedestal and Rarity ducked her head in time when the ball made contact and bounced right back to Rainbow Dash, but not without causing the nail polish to spill on Rarity's arm. Much to her dismay to which she had perfectly clear when she heatedly glared at the rainbow-haired girl.

"And I get the feeling they don't exactly have cell phones where she's from."

“Afraid not.” Beshte shook her head while moving to help clean the spilled nail polish off of her friend’s arm.

Sunset agreed with her friends. Deep down she wished there was a way to get in contact with them, but she truthfully doesn’t know either. Here she doesn’t have her magic and the portal back to Equestria is closed and by the time the portal finally does open, it’ll be too late since there are still over twenty moons left to go. Then she smiled when she remembered something that could prove something.

"I may have an idea how we can get in touch with Princess Twilight and maybe Prince Kion too!"





Sunset rustled through the belongings of her messy locker until she found what she was looking for. 

"When I was Princess Celestia's student back in Equestria, she gave me this."

She revealed to the girls what she was looking for. A brown leather book with the same symbol as the one on her purple shirt on its cover. The symbol that represents her cutie mark back when she was a pony living in Equestria.

"Even after I abandoned my studies, I held onto it. Deep down, I guess I knew I was making a big mistake, and I wanted to still have a way to reach out to her." She removed some of the dust that was on the cover and opened the book, flipping through the pages, written down with letters she had sent to her former mentor. She landed on a few blank pages and caressed them. It had been so long since she opened it.

"Maybe it still works."

"That's a book, darling." Rarity commented rather fascinated at the aged item in question though much like the others, she did not entirely follow the entire concept of magic. "What do you mean, "maybe still works"?"

"It used to be that if I wrote something here, it would appear in the pages of a book back in Princess Celestia's library. I get a message to her, then she could get a message to Princess Twilight."

"So what are you waiting for? Get to writing!" Rainbow Dash urgently dangled a pen in front of Sunset's face. The red-haired girl sighed in response as she took it. It took her a few more seconds before gaining the courage to start writing on the first blank page the journal had to offer.

"Been a long time since I've written these words." She said to herself with anxiety and regret creeping inside of her before she had the pen make contact with the book, she began.

"Dear Princess Celestia..."
> Twilight gets Sunset's message and returns to Canterlot High
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Twilight gets Sunset's message and returns to Canterlot High






Back in Equestria, in Ponyvile , where the remarkable crystal palace stood is where the Lion and Pony Guard have retired to for the remainder of the day after their successful outing in Diamond Valley.  Now they plan to help Twilight with the living arrangements since she now lives there.

Speaking of said pony, she had just slowly made her way inside while wearing the umbrella hat Pinkie give her out of fear of getting repeatedly slapped with trash and pelted with tomatoes upon being seen around town. Mostly from the most crankiest residents.

“Good job, everyone!” Kion complimented everyone in the room, well all but one who is not feeling like celebrating right now.

Once she was inside she quickly placed aside the umbrella hat she had brought with her in case she needed it. Thankfully, it wasn’t the case for today or essentially every day mainly because of her status as a princess. But didn’t make it any less painful than it already has been.

“Phew!” She said to herself before moving to retrieve a drink from the fridge in the kitchen.

“You know…” Kion’s voice spoke to her as he moved to follow after her. “…you don’t have to feel compelled to bring that umbrella hat out every time you go out.”

“Easy for you to say.” She shook her head while sipping her drink. “You’re not the one who turned on everyone here.”

“But that was months ago. You’ve changed since then, Twilight.”

Twilight simply gave her the unconvinced and stoic look as she kept sipping. “Maybe so, but does everyone else see it that way.”

“I don’t see why they shouldn’t.” He said while feeling slightly unsure why otherwise.

“Maybe in case I hadn’t spit it out already…” She literally spit out her drink upon noticing the expiration date on the bottom of the bottle into the sink. “…don’t laugh.” She quickly said before turning back to face him. “…because unlike close friends and family who know me better than anyone else is that to them all they saw was me not being there to save them after an attempt to counter-attack Scar’s plan winds up with them all being captured just when they were starting to warm to me.”

“But it was also because of you that Scar is no longer in power. They should understand why you weren’t there and be thanking you for taking him down.”

“They should. But they aren’t, are they?”

Seeing that the alicorn is still being so negative kept pushing to follow after her as she made her way to a bedroom. “They just need time to fully understand that. They were just scared and traumatized from being locked up inside.”

While listening she continued pressing forward to the bedroom she is heading towards. But with her back still turned, Kion felt offended that his attempts to speak heart-to-heart weren’t being fully heard out, so he mustered up his magical strength from his horn into teleporting right in front of her just before she could open the door. But he suddenly felt an uncontrollable surge and wound up disappearing to outside on the castle roof, then just outside the front door to back beside Twilight.

“Hevi…Kabisa…what…did i…just…do.” He asked while his eyes were literally spinning and was left feeling dizzy from the attempt.

“Teleportation spell…” Twilight gently replied before opening the door and guiding him to the bed inside the room. “…highly advanced spell, but definitely under your capability with the right practice.” She moved to place him on the yellow and red with various lion images on the bed covers, from the Great Lions of the Past, his father, grandfather, along with his Mark of the Guard, cutie mark, all decorated on it. “Someday when we have free time I’ll be more than happy to teach you everything I know.”

“Thanks Twilight…” Kion kindly returned before finally shaking off his previous dizziness. Once he did he finally absorbed his surroundings. The bedroom on the opposite side from Twilight’s side of the room, all decorated to fit his home African kingdom feel. From the pictures of family and friends, to his favorite and most desired scratching tree posted inside the room, it was everything he could have ever wanted in a dream room. “Wow! Thanks!”

“Mmm-hmm.” Twilight smiled. “I knew you would like it! Something for you to feel comfortable in case you don’t feel like sleeping back in the Pride Lands.”

“Well…” He said as he looked and admired his surroundings. “…I have to say, it’s safe to say that I’ll get comfortable to this faster than my own wings and magic.”

Twilight giggled in response knowing full well of what that would be like had she been thrown the bombshell of being an alicorn princess unexpectedly. 

“Understandable, I mean if I hadn’t known I was going to become an alicorn, I probably would have felt the same way. Anyways, shall we rejoin the others in the throne room?”

Kion smiled likewise having mostly recovered from his brief magical episode. “Indeed we shall.” 

With an offered hoof, Kion moved to take before they went downstairs with the alicorn holding him for support in case he stumbled and fell down like a couple preparing for a fancy night out together.

By the time they regrouped with their friends who are all relaxing in the throne room, a deliver pony arrived inside with a wagon loaded with books from the Canterlot Library.

"Excuse me, Princess. Where do you want all these books from Princess Celestia?"

"The library." Twilight replied. "Third door on the left."

"Even this one that's glowin' and vibratin'?"

Everyone's eyes shifted to a book that stood at the very top of the pile, which was indeed glowing bright and vibrating. Twilight levitated the book downwards, which had an image of Celestia's cutie mark on the cover, and began flipping through the pages. She landed on the final page, which was the only last one that had words written on it. Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Cool!” Bunga remarked with curious glee.

"What is it, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.

"It looks like a message to Princess Celestia from my friends at Canterlot High."

“Canterlot High?!” Kion exclaimed in surprise since it’s been a while since they’ve been there and it was under less than ideal circumstances for both himself and Twilight.

Bunga exclaimed with excitement as he tried to get a look at what Sunset wrote to Twilight. “That’s where our double friends are! How are they?!”

Twilight giggled before gently levitating the book away from Bunga before he could accidentally tear it. “Easy, Bunga. I’m just getting to that.” She moved to read the message she sent word for word.

“What did she say?” Kion also curious asked.

“And how did she manage to get in contact with you with that journal?” Ono also asked while eyeing the message itself from behind Twilight’s shoulder.

"I have no idea, but it... sounds like they need help."





Twilight got to work in searching the library for a specific book up until she found what she was looking for located on the top shelf. Upon getting the book, she brought it down onto the table so everyone can take a look at the pages as she flipped through it and explained. "The way Sunset Shimmer described them, I think these new girls sound an awful lot like... the Sirens."

Bunga gasped dramatically and in deep shock with Pinkie waved her arms like she was crazy.  "Not the Sirens!" They both exclaimed in horror. Pinkie Pie then stretched herself closer to Kyoga while Bunga moved to do the same with Ono, whispering loudly. 

"I don't actually know what that is!"

“Yeah, what she said!”

Both Ono and Kyoga shook their heads while rolling their eyes in response but didn’t say anything because this is both Bunga and Pinkie they’re dealing with.

Twilight flipped through the pages with her magic, landing on the picture she was searching and began narrating. "It was many years ago, before you before me, before most of us.” She said while eyeing everyone in the room. “Back when Equestria was still growing in prosperity, three magical creatures were around spreading around their music across the land. Although they may look beautiful  and sound pretty charming they are incredibly dangerous with the powerful ability of their music.“ She said as she showed them the image of them in horse and dragon-like form with the red pendants appearing on their chests and transparent fins on the side of their ears, hooves, tails, and back of their neck. “In order to maintain it, they had to feed on the negativity and distrust of others. The more of this negative energy they consumed, the stronger their voices became, and the farther they could spread their dark magic."

"I don't think I like this story very much." Fluttershy expressed feeling very worrisome to the point she can feel it in her bones.

“Me neither.” Ono agreed to the point he too can feel her sudden anxiousness the more he listens and hears the story.

Twilight said as she continued her narration. "If the sirens had their way, they would have divided and conquered all of Equestria. But a certain Star Swirl the Bearded wasn't having it. Rumor has it he found a way to banish them to another world – one where he believed their magic power would be lost.” 

Upon finishing her narration Fuli then pieced together as she spoke. “So that means that world must have been the one where my Canterlot High friends live."

Hearing this stirred a question in Applejack’s mind. "But Star Swirl must have sent them there ages ago. How come they're just surfacin' now?"

“And what about those boys that were accompanying them?” Kion also brought up. “The group of boys that refer themselves as the Wild Ones?”

Twilight pondered for a bit before answering. “That I think I might have a pretty good idea who they are.”

“Any idea which book that might be?” Ono asked looking on at the many books in the library. “Because I don’t recall there ever being a book about the Pride Land’s past.” He added in a rather rhetorical manner.

“That’s because there isn’t.” Twilight answered much to everyone’s puzzled reaction to hearing this.

“But…how would you have an idea of who these guys are without doing some research?” Beshte asked while looking on confused along with everyone else. “You always do your research on everyone around you.”

“Past and present.” Ono chimed in.

“That’s true I do.” She nodded before moving to explain herself some more. “But I did in a way even I could never expect myself and up until now I never realized that is actually more to the story that meets the eye itself. Specifically learning about that they are actually the first group of Evil Lions from the Pride Lands Past.” Everyone blinked in surprise as the purple alicorn recalled a time when she was sneaking inside the Lair of the Lion Guard during her servitude to Scar during the time he was in control of the Pride Lands. 





“Back when Scar was in power in the Pride Lands, there was a night I couldn’t sleep so I decided to check out the paintings inside the Lair of the Lion Guard.”

While inside she studied the paintings up closely and even managed to show herself of how they played out when she tapped them with her magical horn. While she was eyeing the painting she ended up walking face first into a large boulder.

“Ow!” She moaned in pain while rubbing her now red and bruised nose.

Upon seeing that some of the paintings are partially obscured by the boulder she used her magic along with her upper body strength to push the giant rock out of the way thus revealing a secret cave with even more paintings down the path. Naturally to her, all of these mystic discovery's had her deciding that this required some further investigation so she decided to walk inside the cave of secrets.

Upon nearing the end of the tunnel, she stopped herself before carefully tapping a hoof onto the ground in front of her. Courtesy as her gut feeling suspected, the ground around her crumpled causing her to fly up to avoid falling down the hill.

After seeing the opening lead to a hidden pathway she moved to hop onto it. Because of the steep downhill, she ended up sliding her way down and performed a very sharp turn before she could hit the rocks in front of her. But since she was used to these kinds of maneuvers it was like she was skiing with ease.

Then she came across the next painting featuring a lion’s head over a maze. After tapping her magic to see the playback, she moved to fly in the next tunnel and then flew up to spot the pathway that leads to the other side.

During this she took a moment to think to herself. “I can always fly over this.” It would be easy to do so. “But then again there might be another painting along the way and I really need to look out for those.” Thus factoring in her decision to fly through the maze pathway.

After getting through the maze she came across two separate cliffs and a big opening in between. Upon tapping nearby painting she found that the lion depicted on the painting just walked through thin air. And after inspecting the pathway in between, she could figure out why and moved to walk across it to amuse herself at the idea of walking on thin air when it is really a clear transparent pathway.

Next up she came across another large boulder in the pathway. Upon first glance she gave herself some safe distance from it before sending a flick of magic right at it causing it fall out of place and roll right towards her. Having anticipated this, she gave herself a fiery burst of magic to propel herself up and over the boulder before it could crash right into her.

It ended up crashing into the opening behind her and caused a rock slide that obscured the light being projected into the cave. Good thing she had her magic with her so she could use her horn as a flashlight right into the very core chamber of the cave.

Right there in front of her was a bright blue pool of water along with many paintings showing her everything about the Pride Lands past including the Evil Lions of the Past that look very much like the boys currently in the Canterlot High world. Once she was inside, her eyes sparkled as she prepares to soak it all in, before moving to write it all down in an open blank journal she had brought with her.





“After finding what I was looking for, I discovered that these Evil Lions of the Past who had once tried to take over the Savannah had mysteriously vanished after the original Lion Guard had banished them and that these are definitely the guys Sunset described.” She finished explaining to everyone while showing everyone the black journal she wrote in during her underground cave visit much to their speechless reactions upon hearing this deep and ancient story.

“And it seems that the ruffians must have experienced a surge of magic that transported them on over there if that’s true.” Rarity deduced from her observation of the story.

“How can you be so sure it was them?” Kion asked.

“Because their appearances are exactly like the guys depicted in the paintings.” 

“But what about the strange guy that looks like the strange lion leading them?” Fuli asked.

"I don't know other than it is being the guy’s human counterpart." Twilight replied feeling definitely sure that’s the case. “But if my hunch is right and it is the sirens and the Evil Lions of the Past who have come to Canterlot High, this spell they've cast is just the beginning."

“What are you going to do about it?” Beshte asked.

"My friends need me. I have to get back to them." Twilight answered as she moved towards the mirror portal, which is now currently in her castle. But just as she turned away to do so, Rainbow Dash flew ahead and landed in front of her with Fuli zipping right in front of her to stop her in her tracks.

"I hate to burst your bubble, Twilight, but the connection between their world and Equestria will still be totally cut off for a super long time."

“By then you’ll never be able to help them in time.”

Instantly Pinkie Pie appeared in between them in a zip. "Okay, first of all, if there was bubble-blowing going on, why wasn't I told about it?! And secondly, if the connection is totally cut off, how was Sunset Shimmer able to get a message to Twilight?"

Fuli looked on at her like she is talking nonsense once again. “What?” She asked with a quirked eyebrow.

When Twilight thought about this she instantly gasped and smiled in realization. "Pinkie, you're a genius!" She then ran off ahead when she got an idea.

"Yeah, I get that a lot." Pinkie smiled and thought nothing of it before she turned her attention back to Fuli and Rainbow Dash, grabbing them by the necks. “Now about those bubbles…"

Fuli quickly slipped through Pinkie’s grasp just when Twilight came back a handful of tools and supplies seconds later.

She got to work happily levitating some gadgets and gizmos, long electric cords, before placing them all together around the portal mirror. The others watched on curiously with her progress with no idea of what she is now creating. Once she was done, the mirror was surrounded by wires, and other electronic items hardwired into the mirror.

"…And the interval between the two points is defined as the square root of the sum of the squares of the separation between the points along three spatial dimensions." Twilight said as she took pride in her work and smiled in the other’s direction.

However, the others were completely lost unable to understand when she talks like a scientist.

"Say what now?" Spike was the first to ask clearly confused along with the others.

“Could you translate that please?” 

Just when Ono realized what she just did, Pinkie beat him to the punch. “Duh, She's gonna take the magic in here…" She pointed towards the book where Sunset sent the message. "…and put it in there." She gestured to the mirror. "…That'll make the portal open up so that whenever she wants to, she can go from here to there." She pointed to the book before doing a cartwheel in front of the mirror, and continued going back and forth repeatedly. "There to here. Here to there. Here there! Here there! Here—"

Fuli quickly intercepted her to get her to stop just before she could dart away from the portal again.  "We get the idea!"

Pinkie stopped, still smiling with her point made.

"Now to see if it actually works." Twilight said as she levitated the book and placed it on the very top of the generator and the sun symbol. Upon doing so the machine got powered up, sending violet colored electric charges to the metal antennas which coursed all the way down, through the cords and everywhere before reaching at the very top of the mirror, which then began to glow brightly and a magenta colored swirling vortex appeared within the glass. The portal was now up and running thus giving those who wished to access to enter both worlds whenever to come and go as they wish.

Everyone all gasped with impressed smiles, even Kyoga. "Once again you’ve amazed me, Twilight."

“Like my dad always said, live long enough and you’ll see everything.” Beshte said.

"Don't suppose we could join you this time around?" Applejack hopefully asked.

"Better not." Twilight said with a polite shake of her head. "It could make things pretty confusing if Canterlot High all of a sudden had two of all of you."

Everyone in the Guard all looked at each other before coming to nod and say “Yeah.” in agreement.

"But I still get to go, right?" Spike hopefully asked, "There isn't another one of me at Canterlot High. And you never know if you might need your trusty assistant."

Twilight nodded in response. "Mm-hmm."

Spike jumped up with glee knowing that he gets to experience the fun all over again. "Yes!"

Twilight then turned to Kion who smirked at her. “Don’t think I’m not going with you, especially when Evil Lions of the Past are involved.”

“Wasn’t planning on going there without you...” Twilight said knowing that he wasn’t going to take no for an answer before turning to Bunga. “…or you too.”

“Really?” Bunga’s eyes beamed with joy before raising a fist victoriously. “Yes!”

With the traveling party set, the four all turned to the rest of their friends to say their goodbyes for now. 

"We won't be gone long." Twilight assured everyone before she, Kion, Spike, and Bunga were all surrounded together for a group hug with everyone all wishing them safe travels.

“And don't forget to dress well." Rarity said once they broke apart from the hug leaving Pinkie the only one still hugging onto Twilight. She squeed once she let go allowing her to join the others in lining up in front of the mirror.

"Ready, Spike?” Twilight asked when turning to him.

Spike cracked his knuckles, blew and squeaked his claws before replying. "Ready!"

The four took their stances before they all charged into the portal which glowd brightly when they entered through it.





Back in Canterlot High the girls and boys were all trying to keep themselves patient and busy to pass the time while waiting for both Prince Kion and Princess Twilight to finally show up. 

Rarity was painting Fluttershy's nails, Sunset Shimmer was reading some of her old letters to Celestia while Rainbow continued kicking her soccer ball. Pinkie and Applejack were playing cards on top of the pedestal beside the stone horse, though Pinkie doesn’t seem to be playing the same game as Applejack.

Beshte and Bunga were having a burping contest though it is very close to call between two boys who can really keep each other on their throats in terms of volume. Fuli is currently running laps around the school. Ono is currently working on his homework so that he doesn’t have to worry about it while they focus on dealing with great evil.

They had been waiting for a long time to the point they are started to get tired of hoping that Twilight had responded to Sunset's message. 

Rainbow sighed just about ready to call it. "I'm starting to think she's not coming."

Suddenly, a side of the pedestal began to glow brightly, and four figures came shooting out screaming. Once the four past vistiors landed on the ground in their world everyone stopped what they were doing and all rushed on over to her feeling very excited that they finally arrived. Especially…

"Twilight!"

The now human alicorn princess rubbed her head and smiled at her friends. "I'm back."

Unlike the first time she was here, Twilight didn’t have the darken school girl outfit. Her new outfit consisted of a new purple and pink shirt, blue jeans with a purple belt with a pink star buckle on the center. In addition to keeping the black jacket and boots, she’s also got dark purple sleeveless gloves on her hands.

Looking up she noticed Sunset Shimmer offering her a helping hand to stand up to which she graciously accepted. Being in similar shoes certainly helps give her all the more reason to accept it because Twilight knew Sunset’s reformation is genuine. But as she moved to stand up, Sunset noticed the scar on Twilight’s left eye. Sure she did see it when she was here before but it took her a second to realize that and that this is the once sweet hearted girl who once dressed down to her similar and current attire. Back then she didn’t care of how she got it, but now that it’s on her mind, that’s the first question on her mind.

Before she could ask, Pinkie Pie, Bunga (human world), Applejack, Beshte, Rarity, Fuli, Fluttershy, Ono, and Rainbow Dash all rushed to hug their friends all greatly expressing their happiness that they’re here, while Sunset stood aside with a forced smile still not feeling a part of the group just yet.

“Me! Great to see you again!”

“I know right! So Un-Bunga-veiable!”

The two Bunga’s happily greeted each other.

“It’s great to see all of you again.” Kion equally happily told everyone.

"Me too." Twilight said in the same tone as her best friend before her smile turned into a frown. "And I've got some bad news about those new girls and boys."

The once happy atmosphere turned into a serious matter as they all are open ears on who they’re really dealing with.
> Reunion and New Enemies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Reunion and New Enemies






To catch up, and discuss a plan to stop the Sirens and the Wild Ones, the girls  and boys took Kion, Twilight, Bunga and Spike to the Sweet Shop Cafe to treat themselves to smoothies.

“Mmm-hmm!” Bunga took such big sips with his to the point he got brain freeze again. “Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Yeah! So cold but it’s worth it!”

“You said it!” The other Bunga agreed while doing the same and both being in sync with each other simultaneously.

Beshte couldn’t help but find it amusing along with Pinkie who is moving to hand both Kion and Twilight their smoothies.

“Thanks, Pinkie!” Kion thanked.

“No worries! Anything for our best buds is on me!”

“Well we very appreciate it!” Twilight said gratefully as she sipped her drink.

Now that everyone that wanted drinks got their desired flavor, they all began to get down to business.

"Oh, I do hate that you had to return at a time of crisis." Rarity apologized on behalf of the group. "There's so much catching up to do!"

Applejack smirked as she sat on her chair turned backwards, "For starters Twilight, a certain blue-haired guitar player was just askin' about you."

“Really?” Twilight asked while her ears were perking up in excitement while reining it while sounding stoic about it. “Flash Sentry was asking about me?”

“He sure was.” Fuli replied with a “I know” smirk along with Rairty and Sunset sitting beside her while sitting in between both Rainbow and Sunset.

Even while masking it and managed to avoid blushing about it, everyone could clearly tell that deep down she does have a crush on Flash Sentry.

"What about that girl Rani? What's she been up to?" Kion asked upon recalling his date to the Fall Formal Dance.

"Oh, she's been around...in business school." Ono admitted on behalf of the team. "Sorry Kion, but she wouldn't tell, in fact we've hardly seen her since this whole band competition started up."

"Oh..." Kion understood that she is busy, but still none of the less disappointed that he couldn't get to say Hi and cath up with her much like the rest of his mirror friends.

Upon seeing his downcast expression, the fashionista decided it was best the change the topic for a more upbeat tone. "Perhaps you would give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world?" Rarity asked while taking a sip of her tea. "Besides, Twilight nearly taking over the world, working for a sociopathic demon from the fiery underworld, before working the courage and strength to actually beat him."

“Along with Kion having to fight his best friend, briefly dying in the line of duty, and becoming an alicorn just like Twilight.” Ono added.

"They've got official titles now." Spike said as he sat on Fluttershy's lap and imitated fanfare with a dog biscuit. "The Prince and Princesses of Friendship!"

Sunset Shimmer smiled at this, though she did feel a bit regretful deep down seeing this is another reminder of what she threw away after snapping at her former mentor who told her that attitude is precisely why she wasn’t ready to become a princess.

"Wow, that's really impressive." Sunset said to Twilight. "Guess you really were Princess Celestia's prized pupil."

Twilight simply shrugged as she tried to think not much of it given the dark and checkered path she took along the way.

"They've even got their own castle!" Spike added to which had Rarity and Bunga’s eyes widen in shocked amazement with the latter spitting his drink onto Ono’s face.

“Oops. Sorry.” Ono simply looked at the blue-skinned boy rather annoyed since this isn’t the first time he has done this.

"A castle?! You have your own castle?!?" The usually proper lady exclaimed while grabbing both Kion and Twilight by the shirts. She instantly calmed down and helped clean up the mess she made on her friend's shirt, "Eh…Ooh, uh, lovely."

"Anyways…” Kion said still having a little trouble with Rarity’s overly enthusiastic behavior towards royalty. “…what's new here?"

“…besides your school becoming the target of dangerous magical creatures from Equestria bent on taking over the world?" Twilight added.

To answer their question, Rainbow Dash reached into her bag and extracted her smartphone.

"Yeah, so, that isn't exactly the only strange thing that's happened since you both left." Rainbow showed the two the screen of her phone, which replayed a video of Rainbow herself playing guitar, and as she played, she grew pony ears, wings and extension hair to look like a tail. Once the video ended, the two could were left quite star-struck in awe as Rainbow leaned back, resting her feet on the table.

"Pretty sweet, huh? It happens to all of us when we play."

“Any idea of what this might meant?” Ono asked their friends who both trying to ponder on what they had just been told.

"Hmm.” Kion thought about before speaking of an idea. “Our crowns were returned to Equestria, but some of its magic must have remained here at Canterlot High. Now that we're all back together, we can use that magic on the sirens.” 

“Just like when we were able to use it on Sunset Shimmer when she turned into that horrifyingly awful winged monster!" Twilight added before she caught herself and realized what she just said. "No offense." She apologetically added.

"None taken." Sunset said with a shrug. "Heh. I'm used to it."

Rainbow Dash stood up from her chair, waving her fist into the air. "They'll never even know what hit 'em!" She began doing some karate moves and yells and then threw a punch, which was caught and blocked by Applejack.

"We've got nothin' to worry about now that Twilight's back. And with Kion on our side, those Dazzlings along with those Wild Ones won't stand a chance."

“You’ve said it!” Beshte said in agreement.

“It’ll be like killing two birds with one stone.” Fuli added before waving a hand and shaking her head no towards the animal-lover sitting next to her.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I could find something to worry about." Fluttershy commented before smiling and sounding more upbeat. "But it won't be the Sirens and Wild Ones."

"The sooner we do this, the better." Twilight confidentially said before asking. "Any idea where the Dazzlings and the Wild Ones might be?"

Rarity and Sunset both shrugged and shook their heads in 'no' in response. 

Pinkie Pie tapped in Twilight's shoulder to say something, but first took a few good, long sips of her smoothy before sighing in satisfaction before answering her question. "There's a big party tonight for all the bands who signed up to be in the showcase! That would include the Dazzlings and Wild Ones."

“Then that’s our next move!” Kion stated confidentially. “Time to put an end to this before it can even get started!”

While this was going on, a well-dressed man wearing a black business suit complete with a red shirt and black tie briefly tilted his matching sunglasses was observing them while helping himself to a drink. His face is currently obscured by the paper he is currently reading while he turned to three other men standing right beside him.

“Boss?”

“How do you want to handle this?”

A woman and man of the trio spoke while the third didn’t even say a word.

“I want you three to keep tabs on them, watch their every move…” He said while taking a bite of his pastry. “…see who they’re going up against, what they’re planning?”

“But sir, if the rumors are true, then what purpose does this have?”

“Because it’ll lead me to them, and allow me to finally get what I’ve been looking all this time.” He stressed before pointing to the teens all now leaving the shop.

“We’re on it!” The female lead of the trio stated before leading them after them.

“Subtlety…” He reminded to stop them from getting spotted right away to which they were all quick to do so but without bumping heads and the door along the way much to their leader’s eye-rolling annoyance.





The Lion and Pony Guard all made their way on over to the party that night where they all managed to walk down the halls reaching up to the gymnasium entrance. While walking Twilight noticed some of the many faces that she saw the last time she was here all fondly smiling upon seeing her given with how she managed to save the school from Sunset’s iron fist maintained control and from a zombie apocalypse, along with Sunset again getting the brunt of scorn in this world.

Twilight did for once smile upon seeing that everyone looks up to her and is not treating her to be a hated bad girl while having a place a comforting hand on Sunset’s shoulder to assure her that no harm will come her way. Something that Sunset smiled in return feeling very grateful for said gesture.

Inside the gym, all of the students were arguing with one another with the others ignoring and giving them dirty and disdainful looks.

Kion upon seeing this could not believe and understand what these bad boy and girl bands did to get everyone act like this. From the Cutie Mark Crusaders, to Bulk Biceps, Snips and Snails, Photo Finish, Derpy, and even Trixie were all treating each other very coldly. 

“What is happening?” He thought to himself as he moved to join the others helping themselves to punch and cookies (mostly both Bunga’s and Pinkie Pie).

At one point Snips and Snails were arguing with Flash Sentry who frustratingly took his cup and walked away not about to start a fight that could get themselves kicked out of the competition.

"I'm gonna get more punch!"

But not without glaring back at Snips and it happened that another girl just happened to be going in the opposite direction heading towards him. She too did not look where she was going and ended up bumping into each other.

Said girl that bumped into him was Twilight, who was too mindset on seeing the many fighting faces and unsure whether or not they remember her for who she truly is.

“Ow. At least that wasn’t a rotten tomato.” She said out loud before her eyes went wide when she saw the boy who has a crush on her in this world who instinctively grabber her before she could fall to the ground.

"Twilight?"

Deep down, Twilight was heavily surprised to see him and was left having a rare mix of emotions and at a loss for words of how to react at a time like this. A mixture of surprise, shyness, love, fear, and nervousness all rolled in one minute.

Flash couldn't believe it with what he was seeing before his very eyes. The girl he had a crush on came back. For the first time since getting plagued with the bad guys and girl’s spell, he smiled. Twilight blushed in response and was now nervous she stammered with her next words while grinning like a love-struck idiot.

"Eh, bumped, into, always, doing?"

Flash Sentry, moved to help her stand up straight. "What are you doing here? You came back for the big competition, right?"

"Something like that."

"Huh. Not that there's gonna be any real competition. No one here wants this as bad as my band does!"

“What do you mean by that? And why is everyone all frowning down upon each other like a big scandal went down?”

“Oh, nothing. Everyone’s just all worked up and wanting to be the best band the school has ever put forward. Might have something to do with the magical singing the girls along with the boys sang together.”

“I see.” Twilight said acting like she is just processing this with regained composure. “Did they bait you and the others with some kind of prize to get everyone’s blood boiling?”

“They may have clued us in that the grand prize might involve a summer-long world tour showcasing the band’s best songs.”

“Interesting. I never would have guessed.”

Just then the doors opened and Rainbow Dash saw the Dazzlings and Wild Ones enter the gym. She quickly took a chocolate chip from the cookie Pinkie was eating and threw it at Twilight's head, catching her attention. Rainbow nodded her head to her left and Twilight was able to spot the eight suspicious looking students.

“Well I got to regroup with the others, and thank you Flash.” She quickly moved to do so while Kion got a good look at their main competition himself.

"Nice seeing you again. Later!"

Upon seeing them he sensed the dangerous threat they possessed just by looking at them. Just like Twilight described they were exactly the first group of Evil Lions of the Pride Lands Past.

Rainbow gestured to the others to follow the prince and princess while Pinkie Pie and Bunga shoved a few more cookies into their hair and pockets, along with one cookie still in their mouths before following after them.

Both Adagio and Uovu smiled with wicked delight as they watched the argument continuing on with students raging at each other like never before.

“Boiling tension and flaring tempers, just what I like to see.”

Adiago having fun with this mockingly said while turning to act surprised. “Oh, no! No one's mingling!" She then reverted back to her normal tone of voice. "It's like there's some kind of underlying tension that could bubble to the surface at any minute!"

"It's the fruit punch, isn't it?" Sonata asked as she held a jar of juice, which was really apple. "I knew I used too much grape juice!"

Adagio scoffed in annoyance, "It's not the fruit punch! It's us!"

“What our hair?” Mwenye Kuona asked while checking himself in the mirror again thus angered the short-tempered boy standing next to him again when he accidentally bumped into him again and nearly caused him to stain his jacket again.

“No, our jackets!” He moved to dope-slap the two of them on the back of the heads for their stupidity. “He meant our singing, dumb flanks!” 

"But the punch is awful, too." Aria said, thus further angering both Ngavo and  Sonata.

"What do you two know about good fruit punch?"

"More than you!"

"Do not!" Sonata swatted Aria's face.

"Do too!" Aria swatted Sonata's face also, messing up her bangs in the process.

“Do not!” Ngavo chimed while getting in Sonota’s face.

“Do too!” Sonota retorted back before having the dispute cut short.

“Enough!” Uovu commanded of them to which they were quick to do so.

"This is just the kickoff party, girls." Adagio assured. "Imagine what a tizzy they'll be in by the time the Battle of the Bands starts."

"There isn't going to be a Battle of the Bands!"

The Dazzlings and Wild Ones turned their attention towards Twilight, Fuli, Kion, Applejack, Ono, Rainbow Dash, Beshte, Rarity, Fluttershy, both Bunga’s and Pinkie Pie, who the latter three still had cookies in her mouth while in a karate poses.

"We're gonna make sure of that!"

Sunset smiled proudly as she watched her friends, ready to take on the Sirens and Wild Ones.

"Alright, guys and girls, let's do this!" Twilight took Kion's hand and the rest of the boys and girls held hands with one another, feeling the power of their friendship within them. Though both, Kion and Twilight felt that something was off they were both determined to give it a shot. Then with great pride Twilight exclaimed.

"Friendship is magic!"

……only for nothing magical came out of it.

The Dazzlings simply shrugged, also unsure about what was going on. Sunset was just as surprised while everyone around simply watched in an awkward silence. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, realizing the complete lack of anything magical happening.

"Uh, weren't there rainbows and lasers and stuff last time?"

Twilight was just as confused by this. "I don't understand. We're all together again. Why isn't this working?"

"Clearly there’s something we’re missing." Kion said feeling he was right that something is off as they removed hands upon seeing that everyone was looking on like they are crazy, with the sole expect of the Dazzlings and Wild Ones smugly smiling right at them for their feeble attempt to stop them and finding it rather amusing.

Spike jumped onto Twilight's back to whisper to her. "You, uh... really need to go ahead and do that whole "magic of friendship" thing now."

"We're trying, Spike. I thought all of us standing together against the Sirens and Wild Ones would bring out the magic we needed to defeat them. That's what happened before."

“Well isn’t this just precious…” Uovu chuckled to himself before speaking out loud so everyone can hear them. “…I mean I’ve heard of people coming with big talk but come on guys…” He eyed the group before mocking them. “…did you honestly believe that a mere hand holding and talks of friendship is magic would actually deter anyone from attempting to win this competition?” 

"Talk about throwing down the gauntlet!" Adagio added in agreement. "This group is obviously serious about winning! A little cocky though, aren't they? Claiming there won't really be a battle. Seems they think they already got this thing all locked up."

Once again everyone was fighting amongst themselves with the bad competitive blood boiling over the whole room.

"Not if the Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie has anything to do with it!"

"Whatever, Trixie!" Flash exclaimed angrily. "We're the best band at CHS!"

Apple Bloom stood up as she retorted. "No! The Crusaders are gonna win!"

Now, everyone was amping up the cruelty and volume of their horrible spoken words with more and more green and red mist manifesting around them. The mist was absorbed into the red gems and golden badges and watches around the Dazzling's neck, along with the Wild One’s chests and wrists which gave them even more power.

Kion himself now getting further incensed by all of this needless shouting, decided to take drastic action in an attempt to stop it before it could spiral further out of control…

“ENOUGH!” He shouted off of the top of his lungs to the point his Roar could be heard from outside with thunder and lightning accompanying it.

The huge echoed scream was enough to get everyone’s attention and shut them all up instantly.

“Geez, what has gotten into you all?! Is whatever they’re offering really worth screaming and yelling at each other?!  The friendship that all of you stand for is really worth throwing it all away in favor of getting caught up petty differences with one another?!”

Everyone was left shocked into silence by his loud and harsh scolding tone to the point none of them had a counter-response or even a counter-argument to back themselves up with.

Upon sensing their magic weakened slightly because of the boy getting through to them, both Uovu and Adagio had to act quick to prevent themselves and their team’s from losing control of the situation.

“Ah friendship…such an endearing quality of a young and determined little boy…” Uovu complimented yet came across rather condescending when he said it. “…yet someone with his arrogance showing.”

“I mean don’t get me wrong…” Adiago said as she moved forward alongside her partner. “…it’s quite cute and brave that you’ve got such courage to go up against the most elite music performers here at this school. Really…” Uovu sincerely gave him a look of respect. “…but alas it is very foolish to be jumping into something you have no control over.”

Kion wasn’t about to let their taunts get to him. “I know what you two are doing! I know who all you really are!” He stated while pointing his finger in their faces. “And you’re not getting to me that easily.”

“I never expected you to over mere compliments…” Uovu counter-replied. “…over your valor of being one of the leader singers of a band competition. Even when all I’ve done is perform for everyone some very good music.” He added sounding hurt and innocent. “Harry, how could you?”

“And speaking of harry, if I recall there was a boy who looked and acted exactly like you, only said boy was left bald…” Adiago smugly added while using a razor to shave off his entire head of hair in a matter of seconds before handing him a mirror. “Just like this!”

His friends all gasped in horrified shock upon seeing this cruel and wicked behavior while Adiago and Uovu’s buddies all laughed right in his direction and made the poor boy completely and publicly embarrassed with his face turning burning red from the instant humiliation that was just handed to him.

The teen with the pompadour took the moment to gloat. “Hey, baldy, try leading a cult of peace-loving and weak-willed prayers instead. Oh, wait! They’re all already gone, just like your hair!” He cruelly added while taking a selfie with his phone.

And thanks to the regained control over the students their influence allowed them to join in on the laughter.

“Clearly nobody’s going to support a bald monk with no friends by his side!” Adiago mockingly added to further rub salt into the wound leaving the poor boy in tears leading to both Twilight and Sunset come to his defense.

After nodding to each other while motioning Pinkie and Bunga to supply them with pies behind their backs they both went over and quickly marched on over to them with one hand behind their backs holding back the pies they have been supplied with.

Upon approaching them they both smacked them in the face with the pies and then had them slam into each other’s faces to knock them both out in an instant. Everyone all immediately stopped laughing and gasped at the immediate retaliation they just enacted upon them. But upon seeing the fierce glares they both gave everyone in room they all could not muster the inner strength to call them out on it.

Before things could get worse, the guys and girls decided now was the time to cut and run. With both Beshte covering the poor boy with Rarity and Fluttershy moving him away from the bad guys and girls, they were able to escort him away. But before Twilight and Sunset moved to join them the former pulled out a vial with violet red powder inside it before having this to say as a warning to them... “This is not done yet, boys and girls!”

“And if any of you are thinking to come after us…” Sunset added with locked and burning fire in her eyes and pounded fists. “…think again!”

Just when both the leaders of the Dazzlings and Wild Ones came too, Twilight threw the vial down onto the floor causing a big puff of violet red smoke to engulf the room causing everyone to be blinded and left coughing from it. By the time it all cleared, up the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts have already vanished without even a trance of where they went off too and most of the attendees having little memory of what just went down a minute ago.

Upon coming too and standing up both leaders readopted their evil smiles.

“With all things considered…” Uovu first spoke upon casually dusting and brushing the dust and splattered cream off of his body. “…I’m starting to really like the boy’s girlfriends. They all got spunk!”

"And I think we may have found what we're looking for. Or rather, it found us." Adiago added before getting quickly annoyed when Sonata yet again looked on with no idea what the hay she is talking about. Aria slapped herself in frustration and Adagio yelled, "Magic!! Don't you see?! Everyone else has fallen under our spell. But not these girls and boys. These girls and boys are special. Especially that red-haired boy.“





Outside of the school, at the plate of stair near the entrance, Twilight was pacing back and forth, trying to come up with a new solution to their problem. Good news for Kion, with a simple instant hair growth formula she was able to restore his hair along with his usual hairstyle, but he was still left shaken from what had just transpired back there.

“Regardless with what happened back there…” Sunset spoke up to help comfort the pre-teen. “…that took fierce determination back there to stand up to all of those guys.”

“Thanks.” Kion still looked down feeling very down for letting them get to him like that.

“So were you two.” Beshte complimented. “I don’t think I could manage that all by myself.”

“Neither could I…” Fuli added while looking on at the two girls feeling very impressed. “…even if that was a bit extreme, that was definitely hardcore.”

“…and totally worth it.” Bunga One stated in agreement.

“It was Un-Bunga-veilable!” The other Bunga also stated.

“Eh…” Twilight tried not to think much of it with a shrug. “…I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing about it.”

“And those jerks were asking for it.” Sunset added while cringing when a terrible memory replayed in her mind. Specifically the part where she witnessed Kion get his head shaved till he was bald. “Just what everyone could have done if they were in my shoes.” She added while looking aside with regret that she had spark some of her inner fire from her past self to stand up to one her friends like that. A feeling that Twilight herself also agreed and didn’t like stooping towards once again even if it was for a very good reason.

“But what I don’t understand is why we couldn't create the spark that would help us break the spell completely.” Twilight spoke unable to comprehend the lack of much-needed magic back there. “That's how it worked when I was here."

Ono chimed in by saying, "But to defeat her, you drew magic from the crown she was wearing. The Sirens' and the Wild One’s magic comes from their music." 

Sunset then proposed as she added on to Ono’s thoughts. "So maybe you have to use the same kind of magic to defeat them." Both Kion and Twilight shared the same surprised looks leading to Sunset feeling like she touched a nerve with what she just said. "Or… maybe not."

Kion smiled in response. "No. I think you're onto something."

"Really?" Sunset asked with a gleaming smile.

"It's when you play music that you transform now, right?" Kion asked the others.

Applejack nodded, "Yup. Ears, tails, the whole shebang."

“Everything you can think of, you name it.” Fuli added as she too nodded.

Twilight Sparkle continued on with how they they need to go on about it. "So maybe the way to use that magic to defeat the sirens is by playing a musical counter-spell!"

"You mean like a song?" Fluttershy asked as she brushed the hair covering her left eye aside.

“Uh-huh. And in order to free everyone who's been exposed to the sirens' spell, we'll need them all to hear it.”

“And I think we know just the thing that’ll get everyone’s attention.” Ono said with a bright smile while holding up the poster promoting the competition.

“Of course, the band competition!” The Bunga from Canterlot High excited with pumped up fists.

“Guess the Rainbooms and the Lightning Bolts are the teams to beat.” Applejack noted.

“Guess so.” Fuli couldn’t agree more before turning to red-haired boy. “And I believe you Kion, have just become the Lightning Bolt’s newest member.”

“And the same can be said for you too Twilight.” Rarity added in the Pony Guard leader’s direction

The five out of six girls all happily giggled and cheered for the two, all while Sunset Shimmer simply to the side, once again, feeling left out of the loop.

“Um, actually, girls…” Beshte spoke up upon feeling sympathy for the school outcast. “…Don’t you think we should let Sunset join in on the band. She is one of us.”

Sunset felt touched by his words as the girls looked on apologetically after realizing their accidental mistake.

“Of course, of course, darling…” Rarity apologetically spoke on behalf of their group as she gestured her to come on over to them.

Just as Sunset joined the other girls, Pinkie suddenly appeared right next to Twilight with various instruments she happened to have at her disposal. "So what do you wanna play? Triangle?" She asked while playing a triangle, "Sousaphone?" she blew on the instrument so hard it made both Kion and Twilight's hair bellow in the wind. "Theremin?" she played the instrument's haunting melody. "Soooo magical." She said dreamily.

“I might take a little too long to learn how to play something with these." Twilight politely declined while wiggling her fingers seeing those are her only instrument options. "I'll just stick to singing."

"Her?!" Rainbow asked, sounding surprised by her idea and slightly offended. "Like, as in, lead singer? Cuz that's usually my gig. This being my band and all."

"It's our band!" Applejack stated when her friend’s ego started to get overinflated again. "And, of course, as lead singer. She's the one with the magical know-how to help us pull this thing off.”

Rainbow Dash tried her best to brush it off and accept it. "Okay, yeah, that's cool. I'll just use this as a chance to hone my already insanely good lead guitar skills." she said while playing air guitar.

With Twilight decided, Pinkie turned to Sunset “And what about you Sunset?”

Not wanting to stand out but willing to join she spoke of her decision on the matter. “I think I’ll go for what Fluttershy has and maybe alternate between playing and helping with the technical stuff here and there. And by that I mean another instrument similar to Fluttershy's”

“Are you sure?” Bunga from Equestria asked before vying for the sousaphone. “There’s plenty of options!”

Sunset remained firm on her decision. “I’m sure.”

“Okay…” He accepted with a shrug before grabbing the sousaphone Pinkie supplied him. “…but only if Kion sings with Twilight.”

Kion was surprised at the proposal. “Huh?”

“What?!” Rainbow exclaimed with any shot of singing herself now completely shot down.

“No better singing partner than the one who also leads the Lion Guard.” He added with a nudging shrug as if he is saying “Come on. You can do it.”

“All right.” Kion replied for the sake of the current epidemic at hand and knowing full well that they work together very well.

“It's only temporary." Twilight reassured Rainbow when she started to get a little sour about it. "And we don't have to win the Battle of the Bands. We just have to perform during the first round of the competition."

Never the less, Rainbow Dash decided to be a good sport about it. "Well, okay, whatever. Now, let's get to learning that musical counter-spell!"

Kion looked aside with his eyes shifting around nervously. “Yeah…about that, well…”

He turned to Twilight who confessed as she finished up his response. "That's just it. We don't know any." Hearing this caused the rest of the girls and boys smiles to fade.

"Awww…"

"But I'm sure we could figure out how to write one." She quickly reassured everyone.

Spike walked up to Twilight, tapping her leg with his paw. "Totally! Twilight can write a spell like it's nobody's business. 

Bunga then added in. “And Kion’s sure got the chops of performing himself. That's pretty much how they got to become prince and princess."

"Technically, I helped finish a spell." Twilight corrected, "And there was a little more to it than that, Spike."

"Yeah, and it was only after falling to a fiery death at the paws of Scar along with the other princesses back home resurrecting me that I became an alicorn prince." Kion added while glancing at his friend.  

"Yeah, whatever." They both stated together at the exact same time.

Never the less, Twilight smiled feeling very confident as always. “We've got this." She said before picking Spike up in her arms with Kion headed towards the entrance of the school. 

“Where you going, Kion?" Beshte asked.

"Well, last time we were here, Spike, Twilight, and I spent the night in the library."

“Makes sense to me.” Ono commented while trying to suppress a chuckle that threaten to escape his lips.

Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared and wrapped Twilight and Kion both together in a huge tight hug to the point they almost couldn't breath. "Are you crazy?! We're besties now! Slumber party at my house!"

Judging by the eager smiles on everyone else’s faces, it was clear that a slumber party was a great idea right off the bat…

…all while the three stooges were secretly watching their heads from briefly popping their heads out from the nearby bushes, still monitoring them…





Before the slumber party, Sunset led Kion, Twilight, Equestrian Bunga, and Spike to her place, which happened to be a small apartment room. At least it answered the question of where she has been living since she moved here. It’s admittedly a decent place she’s got here.

“Nice.” Bunga was the first to comment as he got a look at her residence while they pack essentials and pajama’s they’ll need for tonight’s sleepover. “If it was just me I could definitely get used to this.”

“Don’t get too comfortable, Bunga.” Sunset light-heartedly reminded. “It is only for while we pack here.”

“Right, right.” He moved to make sure his backpack is filled with what he needs including, pastries, cakes, doughnuts, and bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.

“Is that…” Sunset asked Kion while pointing in his direction.

“…don’t ask.” He shook his hand while turning back to the similarly colored girl. “Anyways, aside from school troubles, everything else okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” She said as she packed up her belongings. “Nothing out of the ordinary ever since you’ve both last been here aside from a little rainstorm the other night before the Sirens and Wild Ones showed up here.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kion felt interested in wanting to know more about it. 

Sunset looked around before answering to her curious close friends. “The day before the Sirens and Wild Ones came around here there was this brief little rainstorm which was truthfully painful.”

“A painful rainstorm?” Twilight asked sounding surprised to hear that while turning to Kion who is equally surprised to hear it.

“Yeah, it was like the rain was burning an old part of me and then the next thing I know the demon that I once was ripped right out of me and evaporated into thin air.” She explained much to both Twilight and Kion’s growing interest. “After that had happened the rain stopping hurting me.”

“Did anything out of the ordinary occur before this rainstorm started?” Twilight asked.

“Actually yes.” She answered. “The night it happened I gave a small blow which somehow managed a small roar much like your’s and then dark clouds suddenly appeared over me with fully grown lions heads appearing from the skies.”

“The Lions of the Past!” Kion stated upon realizing what she is talking about.

“They were here!” Twilight also stated coming to the same realization.

“If that’s who they are, they were here.” Sunset confirmed as she finished packing her backpack. “I didn’t know of what to make of them until now. And as for how the Roar came out of me, I still don’t know.”

“I thought she lost it back when she was used it for evil.”

“It would seem the Lions of the Past must have come to judge her and decide that she truly isn’t irredeemably evil.”

Both leaders of the Guard analyzed.

“But how?” Kion was left confused of how someone who used the Roar for Evil can possibly be re-gifted its power since Scar himself and the previous Lion Guard leader before him have both lost it before. “How could she possibly still do it?”

“Maybe because they saw something in her and saw that while Sunset deserved some harsh judgement for her past actions she at least deserves a second chance.”

“But Scar had the Roar and lost it under similar circumstances, why would she be treated any different?” Sunset simply hung her head feeling hurt by that statement.

“Because she is not Scar, Kion.” Twilight reminded with a scolding tone due to his choice words while nudging her head in the poor girl’s direction. “When Scar used the Roar for evil he had no remorse for what he did and he knew what he was doing when he killed his Guard with it. Sunset clearly wasn’t using her head completely when she used the Roar against us, and she clearly showed remorse for what she did after regaining her senses.”

“Oh…” Kion now felt regretful for making Sunset feel bad again. “Sorry, Sunset. I didn’t mean to insult you like that.”

But Kion’s words still stung her to the core much like every verbal dagger she was thrown right at her chest and heart only this one really pierced right through her heart.

“Let’s just going.” She said as she led everyone out of her apartment. “We’re going to be late, unless of course, you want to see a very sad or angry Pinkie Pie ready to unleash her wrath on you.”

Everyone all followed after her before Sunset locked her apartment door shut with fully packed backpacks and then led the way on over to Pinkie’s house all while looking downcast with her head still down feeling like she got brutally slapped in the face again.

Before following after her, Twilight shot Kion a calm and disappointed frown in his direction for what he said just earlier.

“Twilight…you know I didn’t mean to make her feel bad.”

“I know. But I’m afraid the damage has already been done. Come on…” She gestured him to keep up since they were starting to lag behind to which Kion was quick to do so without another word.
> The Sleepover and the Midnight Talk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Sleepover and the Midnight Talk






Later that night at Pinkie Pie's house, the girls and boys were all in their pajamas, happily hanging out. Rarity was taking selfies with Ono and Sunset Shimmer while Fluttershy and Beshte played with Spike. Pinkie Pie typed on her laptop while both Bunga’s leaned over her shoulders, while Fuli, Applejack and Rainbow Dash played a video game together. Twilight sat on the bed, attempting to write a counter spell while Kion sat beside her so he can get a look at her progress at least without invading her personal space. 

Twilight wore yellow pants and a long sleeved button shirt with pink hearts. Kion wore a yellow sleeved shirt with orange lions on it and red pants thanks to their host providing them said pajamas. 

Rarity wore a violet nightgown with a fiddled white collar and a blue bow. Sunset wore magenta shirt and long pants with her cutie mark on the shirt. Pinkie Pie wore a long blue sleeveless shirt with yellow balloons and matching shorts. The shirt had purple straps and a pink bow above the chest. Applejack wore blue footsie pajamas with pale blue apple prints. Rainbow had a white shirt with red sleeves with her cutie mark on her blue pants. Fluttershy wore green pajamas with yellow butterflies on it.

As for their Lion Guard friends, Beshte wore a white sleeveless undershirt and gray gym shorts, Bunga wore a sky blue t-shirt with matching boxer shorts, Ono wore a white sleeved shirt with orange pajama pants, and Fuli wore yellow pajamas much like Twilight and Fluttershy’s with brown cheetahs on it.

As Twilight wrote on the pages, or at least tried, Kion could only look aside. Twilight's writing had improved the more she practiced with her hands back home, but the attempt to write counter song isn’t going well given her poor attempts at writing good lyrics and melody. 

“Everything okay, Twilight?” Kion asked upon seeing her looking like she has writer’s block.

“Mmm-hmm.” She replied still focused on her notes, even though it was clear she is lying.

Seeing that now isn’t the time or place to try to inquire on how she truly feels, he decided to leave it be for now. "Okay, just let us know whenever you have it ready.” Even though Kion is no expert in music, he could tell that his friend is really having a tough time trying to make progress here.

Pinkie Pie happily typed on her keyboard. "Status update: "Okie-dokie-lokie.""

“Looks great!” Bunga One stated with a thumbs up in approval.

“Un-Bunga-veilably great!” Bunga Two agreed with the same thumbs up approval.

Rarity got her phone ready and snapped another selfie with her, Ono, Beshte, Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer. However, after she took the photo and checked it out, she noticed a very certain little dog along with a couple of look-alikes had all photo-bombed the shot. Rarity and Ono both glared at them while the others simply laughed in amusement.

Fuli, Applejack, and Rainbow continued to play the game, and by the looks of it, Applejack and Fuli were neck and neck while Rainbow was dragging behind them. Unlike her pony counterpart, the Rainbow Dash here is a definite sore loser when she decided to slam her hand on the console to instantly end the game just before the final outcome could be decided.

“Hey! Rainbow Dash! What the hay was that for?! You shut it off before a winner could be decided!”

"Yeah! I was about to beat you!" 

The two complained while Rainbow spun the controller with one finger like a basketball, smiling smugly and arrogantly.

"I doubt it.” 

Fuli simply glared at her for her poor sportsmanship. “I won’t count on it if I were you because after dinner, we are all going to play the game again and if you try to touch the console again…” She grabbed her wrist and twisted it causing her to grunt and nearly scream in pain. “…you and I are going to have a serious game of twister together. So unless you know how to play it like you did the last time you played it, learn how to act like a true player than a coward. Got it!“

Rainbow having mustered enough strength to avoid screaming outloud nodded in response with a forced smile before Fuli moved to let her go. “So, Twilight, Kion, how is that counter-spell coming?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, good. Great." Twilight lied while making it sound believable. "Thanks for letting me use your notebook, Fluttershy. I really like the song you wrote for the Rainbooms."

Kion too agreed. “Yeah, I never would have guessed you have what to takes it write a good song.”

"Thanks." Fluttershy sighed sadly as she held close Pinkie's stuffed alligator. "Hopefully one day, we'll get a chance to play it." She said sadly and hopelessly. She knew Rainbow Dash would prefer to sing the songs she herself wrote rather than even look at Fluttershy's and it is only her friends backing her up that she even gets one song performed during rehearsal.

Rarity moved to sit beside both the  prince and princesses. "Twilight, Kion, I think I speak for all of us when I say I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come back to help us."

The others nodded and said “Yes.” in agreement unknowingly putting pressuring on the two especially Twilight who has yet to create and put together the perfect counter spell. Thankfully the sound of the doorbell was heard with Pinkie Pie immediately jumping up to her feet upon hearing it.

"Pizza's here!"

In a flash, everyone expect for Twilight and Kion all ran out of the room as fast Fuli on a normal day. 

After everyone else had left Twilight looked down sadly at her notes knowing full well this won’t be of any help at all. If only Kion had more expertise in magic than maybe he could have helped but sadly that wasn’t the case.

“It’ll be okay.” He assured the best he could.

Before Twilight could say a word, Pinkie quickly zipped inside with a slice of pizza in her mouth alongside both Bunga’s.

"Don't you want any pizza?"

“It’s piping hot delicious!”

“And there’s plenty of it!”

Both Twilight and Kion both nodded in response which was enough for Pinkie and both Bunga’s to rejoin the others.

“Come on, maybe your mind will be benefit from a little dinner.”

“Maybe.” Twilight agreed coming to decide she really could use a break to clear her head, before moving to place the book inside the nearby drawer, which was filled with candy and other half-eaten sweets including a doughnut.

“Wow, Pinkie sure knows how to pack away a lot of sweets.”

“She sure does.”

The two shared along with a giggle before moving to have a pizza dinner alongside their friends.





Later on that night, everyone was now asleep after all of that unwinding and relaxing throughout the night…

…well almost everyone expect for Twilight who is now having a bad dream.





Her bad dream is mainly having her mirror friends ever-growing encouragement replay in her mind all while feeling great anxiety and pressure of trying and failing to right a proper counter-spell only to crack under pressure and run away back to the other world.

Once she got there she found much to her horror she is surrounded by an angry mob filled with the entire population of every pony and Pride Lander all rearing their ugly heads towards her.

“There she is! There’s the pony that sold us out!”

“Let’s get her!”

Both Thurston and Big Baboon shouted before everyone all lunged to tackle and attack her.

Acting quick upon being charged at, she teleported her way out of the library and outside of the castle just a fraction of a second to spare, much to her own relief.

Sadly that relief was short-lived when she heard very familiar and a sinister sounding voice laughing from above.

“Life isn’t fair my dear!” Scar mockingly said as he floated from the air with his large black wings. “You see I well I shall never be king, at least not the king my brother Mufusa was. But you shall never see the light of another day. Adieu.”

Before Twilight could do or say anything, she found herself quickly overwhelmed when the evil lion zapped her into unconsciousness with a super-charged blast of dark magic from his fiery green eyes.

When she came to she found herself being held prisoner with a complete beaten up, bruised, and messy appearance over the very big pit of lava inside the Outlands Volcano. All surrounded by eager and malicious Outsiders seeking to see her plummet to her fiery end.

Upon seeing her predicament, her heart was now racing with death right in front of her, but with nothing she can do about it as long as Scar held onto with his magical grasp while floating right in front of her all with a fiery coated appearance much like Celestia and Twilight at their angriest.

“Sweet dreams, princess!”

In an instant, Scar swooped in and delivered an upper cut claw to the face sending her directly down into the pit at great speed.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Before she hit the lava…





…she suddenly jolted up from her sleeping bag all while sweating and heavily gasping. 

To her relief, none of her friends had woken up otherwise they would have immediately started asking questions about her well-being. Upon seeing that she is now not going to be getting any sleep tonight, she carefully tip toed towards the drawer where she last left the notebook, took it and tiptoed her way into the kitchen so she can try to continue working on her counter-spell.

Upon walking inside, she found Kion was also there helping himself to the pizza leftovers along with a can of cola. 

“You know it’s past your bedtime and soft drinks only make you stay awake.” She commented in a jokingly manner and smirk. Kion just looked at her before resuming his midnight snack. “Can’t sleep, either?”

“No.” He shook his head without even looking at her just when she moved to take a seat beside him. “You too?”

“Uh-huh.” She moved to tap the pen on her chin while trying to work her inner magic on the blank pieces of paper.

At the same time, Sunset Shimmer also was having just as much trouble sleeping. The recent events involving the vanquishing of her demon self continued to trouble her was too much for her to be able to sleep peacefully. She moved to walk inside the kitchen where she noticed both Kion and Twilight inside.

"No. That's not gonna work." She muttered as she tossed the pen aside while Kion wisely didn’t comment over her attempted handiwork.

"Hey, guys." Sunset spoke up to get their direction. "You're up late."

Twilight forced a smile as she covered the book to hide her lack of success on ink. "Just looking over the counter-spell. We only get one shot at this. It has to be perfect."

Regardless despite knowing that Twilight is deep down lying, she moved to smile and reassure her while opening the fridge. "We really are lucky you're here."

"That's what everyone keeps saying." Twilight replied truthfully while looking aside feeling downcast.

"Who could possibly need this much whipped cream?" Sunset asked herself when she saw all of the cans in the fridge.

Kion moved to join her in the fridge after finishing up the leftovers. “Possibly because of the many pies she has in there.” He moved to grab a separate can for the pie he is about to help himself. “Then again since its Pinkie we’re dealing with, who’s know why.”

“True, true…” Sunset nodded before her smile faded as she poured some  whipped cream onto her thumb. "…Must be nice to have everyone always looking to you for answers to their problems... instead of waiting for you to cause a problem."

Twilight scoffed in response. “You’d wish.”

Sunset turned her head surprised. “Why do you say that?”

“Because it is quite the opposite of what you think I have back home. I’m sure you have noticed that I wasn’t exactly on the right side of the fence back when we last saw each other.”

“I kind of figured from first glance from your tone and similar dress code that you weren’t after the crowns just because it was the right thing to do.”

“No.” She shook her head much to her confusion again. “I did do it because it was the right thing to do, but not to make friends. I just wanted the crowns back in order to ensure that Scar didn’t ever get invested in the idea of ruling this place too.”

“Who now?”

“Scar.”

“Is that your nickname?”

“No.”

“Then who else’s got a scar?”

“No, no, that’s his name.”

“A guy that has a scar is named Scar?”

“Yes. And trust me when I tell you that you are better off not meeting him.” The young princess pointed towards her scarred eye. “I learned that the hard way.”

“Did he trick you into getting bitten by a snake or scratched by a rhino or something?”

“No. If it was from a rhino I probably be in stitches by now, and if it was a snake well, I’d think it’s safe to say of what wouldn’t have happened.”

“I think I got a pretty good what.” Sunset agreed and cringed at the thought of snake venom being injected into her system. One little dose of venom alone is all it takes to kill someone. “So he gave you the scar himself?”

“Yep.” Twilight nodded as she recalled the memory. “Right in front of me when I least expected it.” Even then she could still feel haunted by Scar’s laughter at that very moment. “Right after the whole mess that ensued that day.” She could not bear to allow the memory of being abandoned at the earlier rehearsal replay in her mind. “But back then we weren’t friends before.”

“Ahh…” Sunset said really understanding of how that played out from there.

“I never wanted to experience that heartbreak all over again. From the day I experienced the worst day of my life in magic kindergarten, to the day I nearly lost my friends, my brother, and my mentor, and to the day I crossed over to the dark side, I never wanted to make new friends again only to get back-stabbed when I least expected it and was just warming up to it, but no matter who I trusted it always happens again and again. And now I got a handful of faces who are still mad at me back home even after saving everyone from a terrible fate. That being said, just because everyone expects something from you doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen."

"Well, that doesn't stop them from expecting it."

"Which only makes things harder because the last thing you want to do is…"

"…let everybody down." The two girls and boy all said together before looking at one another in surprise.

Like Twilight, Sunset could only look on in amazement with how much they have in common with each other before smiling with the latter turning to the red-head. “And you?”

“Me? Well that’s me and my dad when it comes to me leading the Lion Guard back where I’m from. But mostly because I really want to be able to do my part in taking the Dazzlings and Wild Ones down…at least without getting embarrassed…again.”

“Right…” Twilight remembered why. “…what they did to you just earlier today.”

Sunset just looked on very guilty upon having a replay of what had just happened in the gym right in front of her, only that she wasn’t the one with the razor nor was she the one who had the brazen energy to actually commit said deed and sent the poor boy (mirror guy) crying home, never to return. It was like having one of her most wicked deeds happen before her eyes and just having an full realization of how much unnecessary pain and suffering she had caused him since he never showed face around here again, ever.

“More unforgettable memories…” Sunset muttered in shame before speaking. “…and if you heard rumors, then you know how exactly how it went down with the other Kion.”

“Yep, I know.” Twilight said in response while nodding her head before moving to assure her to help keep her upbeat going forward. “It’ll be okay. I mean sure it’ll take some time for him to warm back up to you but he’ll come around eventually.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure!” She then turned to Kion. “And for someone who’s been there before, you’ll be okay as long you as you stick by me. I have your back and so does Sunset.”

The alicorn’s heartfelt words were enough to get a small smile from Kion as he turned to Sunset with some much needed words to say himself. “I know now she will.”

The two smiled at each other knowing that this truly is the beginning of a trusting friendship with one another along with Twilight, when suddenly.

"Aaaahh!"

The three girls screamed upon seeing the sudden appearance human counterpart of Pinkie Pie's sister, Maud Pie.

"Boulder was hungry." She said with the same stoic tone and expression along ‘feeding’ her ‘pet’ rock some crackers. 

"I still can't get over the fact that she's related to Pinkie Pie." Sunset whispered while they all watch her leave.

"You and me both!" Twilight said in agreement.

“Even Kyoga on her moodiest days, never has acted like that.” Kion commented with the trio all giggling and snickering with one another.

“No kidding.” Twilight commented in agreement.

Sunset then yawned. “I better get some sleep.”

Kion also yawned too as he finished up his midnight snack and tossed the empty remains in the nearby trash can. “Same here. Coming Twilight?”

“In just a bit, I really want to try to get this counter spell done right.”

Kion shook his head amusingly. “You know it’s past your bedtime.”

“So is yours.”

Sunset chuckled in response to Twilight’s counter reply. “Just please join us in a few minutes, I’d rather see you rested enough than walking and rambling around like you’re crazy.”

“Fair enough, and I will.”

Kion and Sunset then left Twilight alone to do her work which to her is still nothing but scribbles and scrap after multiple rough drafts she’s written. She really wants to help them, but truthfully doesn’t have all of the answers and she really wishes she does, feeling put high on a pedestal right now. But knowing that she just has got to be able to pull through someway somehow, she still remained confident to prove herself.

"No, I have to be able to do this. I have to."
> The Band Competition
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


The Band Competition






The next day at Applejack's place, the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts were practicing their counter-spell. However, for some odd reason, Twilight's singing was slightly off-key. Kion tried to follow her lead but found it very hard to sing in sync due to her uncharacteristically awful singing. Korra was singing a bit better than her friend, but only managed to sing bits of the words since her currently soften singing was being overshadowed by Twilight's high-pitch singing. 

Sunset and Spike stood beside the amplifier, to which they both ended up quickly regretting it. Sunset being the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts honorary tech-supervisor, tried to properly adjust the sound of Twilight's singing, with little to no success.

“Hey, hey, listen.

We've got a message for you

We're not all alike

But our friendship is true.”

Twilight's voice grew higher and Sunset found herself covering her ears due to the horrid tone increasing with every passing second. Kion too couldn’t help but cringe himself.

“Yeah, we're really different

But we still get along.”

Fluttershy tried to play her tambourine a bit louder to help with Ono doing the same with his harmonica, but Rainbow shook her head against it…

“So hey, hey, listen to our song

…until now.

“You may think you're in control

But we're here to prove you wrong.”

Applejack and Rarity could feel the ears appearing, but only for a fraction of a second when the static of the mic hurt their ears. They turned to Pinkie Pie, who had briefly stopped playing, and had to be given the look for her to keep playing. It was clear that something is really wrong if even she feels that there is nothing she can do to help with this cringe-worthy performance.

From outside, Granny Smith had to cover her ears with apple cores to cancel out the noise. Rainbow Dash played her guitar louder and saw her pony ears beginning to appear… 

“And the friendship in our music

With the power of our song

Gonna stomp our feet, clap our----“

“All right…” Fuli moved to pull the plug on the amp in order to stop this nightmare performance. “…that’s enough.”

“What?”

“Whatever singing you call this…” Fuli replied while tossing the plug aside. “…because this doesn’t even sound close to the singing I heard when you sang in front of everyone at school last time you were here.”

“Oh come on, if you ask me I’d say it sounded…” Spike tried to say in her defense. “…way better than the last... five times you've played it. Heh heh."

Big Mac’s human self happened to be passing by the window carrying a bucket of apples and stoically said in response. "Nnope."

Fuli looked on unimpressed in the little dog’s direction with crossed arms. “Anything more you want to try to add to that?” Spike just lowered his head and ears and looked aside. “I didn’t think so.”

"I think it's pretty obvious what's going wrong with this counter-spell." Rainbow spoke up.

"You're turnin' what should be the chorus into a five-minute guitar solo?" Applejack figured while narrowing her eyes at Rainbow knowing exactly what her ego is thinking.

"I had to pick up the slack somehow! Are you girls even trying?!"

"I'm trying." Fluttershy lightly asserted while Fuli frowned in the arrogant girl’s direction.

Twilight is clearly having a hard time with this but still kept her composure with a small nervous laugh. “It's fine. It'll be fine. One more time from the top!"

“Uh, actually Twilight…” Ono quickly spoke up before they could even start. “…How about we let Kion try for a change.”

Twilight not one to argue given that the last five times were all admittedly horrid performances moved to relent for everyone’s sake. “Sure, sure…why not?”

Kion now felt guilty and bad for Twilight since the pressure is already starting to get to them and at the same time is not feeling confident himself due to yesterday’s trauma.

Upon sensing this, Rarity moved to try preoccupy them with something else. "Or, perhaps we could take a short break, try on some of the wardrobe choices I've put together?" Out of nowhere she managed to pull a clothing rack and took out an outfit, "I'm particularly fond of this one." She pushed the rack aside to reveal a sparkly pink marching band-leader's feminine upper top over her clothes. "Eh, of course we could always go with something a bit more modern."

Applejack face palmed herself and groaned in annoyance. Leave it to Rarity to care more about looks than what was important. "We're tryin' to save our school here. Enough with the costumes!"

"Oh, you could never have enough costumes!" She said while now wearing a futuristic, sparkly yellow jump suit, complete with a helmet with flashing pixel diamonds on it and spoke in a robotic voice from underneath.

Now Canterlot High Bunga was interested in what she had on the rack. “Ooh! Got any more of those robot costumes?”

“I mean…” Bunga spoke up. “… there’s nothing wrong with a little fashion here and there… “He said while inching closer to the clothing rack to get a look at what Rarity had brought with her.

Beshte was quick to kindly talk the two duplicates down. “I know, but there really is a better time and place for this kind of thing.”

"She just wants to make things fun!" Pinkie Pie counter-argued before pouting. "Isn't that what being in a band supposed to be?" She played a rimshot with an upset frown.

"You don't have time for any of this!" Sunset Shimmer said urgently. "You're all supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in fifteen minutes!"

The others gasped in horrified shock. The girls and boys all rushed to gather up their instruments and make it to school on time, scattering all over the place in collecting of what they need.

"What? But it's not ready!" Twilight exclaimed on the verge of losing it herself. "If we play our counter-spell in the first round and it doesn't work, the Sirens and Wild Ones will know what we're up to and make sure we don't get a chance to play it again!"

Upon hearing that they all literally screeched to a halt. What Twilight had just said was true, if they play it now it would derail any chance of stopping them.

So Applejack spoke of a resolution to the matter. “Then we'll have to buy ourselves some time so you can keep workin' on it!"

"But how do you propose we do that?" Rarity asked.

Rainbow Dash spoke up with the perfect solution. "We compete in the Battle of the Bands for real! I take over lead vocals again for the Rainbooms and we stay alive until the finals! We unleash the counter-spell then!" She turned to Twilight and Kion. "You'll have figured it out by finals, right?"

Both the prince and princess looked at each other with uncertainty and nearly speechless when Spike walked over and smiled confidently. "Of course they will. Kion and Twilight Sparkle have never met a problem they couldn't solve. Right, guys?"

"Right." Twilight answered with a forced smile yet having zero confidence deep down.

"Then let's go win us a Battle of the Bands!" Rainbow confidentially said as she lead everyone back on over to the school, leaving Kion, Twilight and Spike alone to work on the counter-spell.

With little time on their hands, Twilight moved to gather her belongings but not without casting a frustrated and disapproving glare at the dog that opened his mouth. Upon seeing the way she was looking at him had him realize that his efforts to help instill confidence in her did the exact opposite.

Kion himself is still feeling like a nervous wreck inside just knowing of the potential embarrassment that’s awaiting them courtesy of the main competition. But at the same time, he could only understand what Twilight’s going through. If nobody hated her here, then she’s going to feel that’s going to happen if all fails to go through.

“Twilight…”

Twilight still had her back turned from her best friend. “I’m sorry, Kion. I don’t know what getting into me. Normally this is something I can handle, expect right now. It rarely happens.”

“You’re cracking under pressure again, that’s what’s happening.” Kion calmly replied with the ashamed girl’s face still facing away from him. He places a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay, Twilight. Maybe we need use this time to our advantage to really think things through and see if there is another solution to all of this.” He then suggested.

Twilight quickly turned around to face him but not the calm and happy response he expected. “How?!”

“I don’t know.” He honestly answered before once more imploring of the distressed girl to at least listen to him. “But please, just try to hear me out and see if there is something that we’re overlooking here.”

Twilight’s anxiousness briefly faded for the moment upon realizing the truth in her friend’s words. She truly wants to get this counter-spell created but in order to do so does really need to keep it together and fully look at the full picture if she really wants this all to work. And together both she and Kion are both yin and yang to each other, like each other’s BBBFF and BSBFF.

“Okay…” She said with a smile and a raised finger to add a condition to these terms. “…as long you as try to help get this spell put together.”

“Deal.”

To cement their deal, they both shook hands on it.





Minutes later, it was now time for the first annual Battle of the Bands competition where everyone is all ready to give their all in this but not without bad blood involved in between them.

"Welcome to the first ever Canterlot High School Battle of the Bands." Principal Celestia announced on the gymnasium stage with her sister standing by her side in front of the whole crowd of students all lined up, ready to compete. All while oblivious to how the students really feel towards one another due to the Dazzling’s and Wild One’s spell. “I believe I speak for everyone when I say it is by far the greatest thing we have ever done here at this school!" The students all cheered in agreement. “We are so glad our nine newest students encouraged us to turn this event into something exciting!"

Adagio, Aria and Sonata smiled arrogantly and waved from the top of the bleachers at their adoring public like the divas they were while Uovu, Kasi, Nguvu, Mwenye Kuona, Kidevu, and Hifadhi all gave small waves not trying to bask on their newfound glory just yet. 

Vice-Principal Luna then took the mic with a few words to say. "But, as this is now a competition, we can only choose one winner. Who is it going to be?"

The students all argued with one another all while unknowing feed the forming green mist into the Dazzling’s red pendants and Wild One’s stars and badges.

Adagio smiled as she spoke to her girls. "You feel that, girls? Our true power is being restored." Aria and Sonata giggled with glee when the doors of the gym opened where the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts made their (un-dramatic but casual) entrance. Adagio silenced the two, "And that's before we've tapped into the strongest magic here." She said as she look down on the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts, all looking nervous…all except for Twilight trying to put on a brave and stoic face alongside the equally brave Fuli and bold and brash Bunga’s. 

She was not about to let her emotions get the better of her and the look she gave the bad guys and girls receiving praise for raising the stakes in what is supposed to be a friendly competition into an all-out battle for blood perfectly clear of what she’s thinking. “You might be able to fool everyone else, but you’re not fooling me. I know who you are. I know what you have done and you’re going down.”

Uovu upon seeing this is clearly impressed as he clearly likes it whenever they is someone posing a good challenge and can actually back it up. Even when it is clear that these two bands pose a threat to their plans, he isn’t intimidated likewise whether it’s her, Kion, or anyone in general.

"But the Rainblossoms, or whatever they're called, aren't under our spell." Aria pointed out. "How exactly are we supposed to get to their magic?"

“Do you want them taken out?” Kasi asked Uovu in a whisper while placing his fingers on a hidden gun inside his jacket.

Uovu placed a gentle grasp on his arm to prevent him from doing so. “No. Not yet.” 

“Right. Too early and we’re in public. I just wasn’t sure.”

“Exactly.” Uovu nodded as Kasi wisely refrained from pulling out his gun. While he’s definitely someone who can keep a cool head and quiet when needed, he’s not afraid to pull punches when needed. “Startling and scaring them off won’t be necessary. They might appear strong on the surface but deep down they’re just as vulnerable as anyone else. They’re all human.”

“The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts are just as capable of falling apart as anyone else.” Adiago chimed in. “They just need a little... push in the wrong direction. I have a feeling everyone here is going to be lining up to give them a shove."

“So that should they get into the finals alongside us, they’ll fall harder than everyone else around them when they start arguing.” Kasi deduced upon being the first to put the pieces together. He then smiled when he got another idea of how to fracture the team’s friendship with one another. “And I think I know what we can do in the meantime.” Uovu smiled at him to commend him for his intelligence before turning his attention towards Twilight. “But in the meantime, what should we do about our fearless girl in the face of danger? She’s definitely sure to pull through and put on us on edge if we’re not careful.”

“Even so, she knows enough that there is nothing that can be done other than competing alongside the others.” Uovu assured before pulling out a confidential file that appears to have Twilight’s name and information on it. “Either way we’ll make sure she won’t be placing too many obstacles in our path…”

Kasi upon giving a sneak peek looked on while nodding and approving of the idea itself. “…I would back off too if I had done all of that.”

Uovu smiled in response before tucking the file away in his jacket for the time being, ready to watch the competition unfold.

First up were Snips and Snails performing together as a hip-hop duo, dressed down to the very T, with hoodies, backwards hats, medallions and glasses with no lenses. 

The two beatboxed, but very, very poorly.

Snails.

“Aw, yeah! Snips and Snails indahouse, yo!

Snips.

“They call me MC Snips and that ain't no lie

My favorite food is like pumpkin pie.”

Snails.

“I'm DJ Snazzy Snails, I like whales

When I go to the beach, I always bring my pails.”

The Lightning Bolts and the Rainbooms all winced as they watched the performance. The only ones truly enjoying this amongst the team are Pinkie Pie along with both Bunga’s dancing in sync with the beat boxers. Everyone else on the contrary just looked on unimpressed with even the Principals disliking the performance. 

Amongst the bad boys and girls of the bunch, Aria and Adagio both snickered alongside Mwenye Kuona and Kidevu, while both Nguvu and Hifadhi look on clearly disgusted with their poor performance, and Kasi just shook his head feeling bad for them already with Sonota being the only one enjoying their performance like Pinkie Pie.

Snips.

“Everybody knows my favorite color is orange

My rhymes are so fly, you better... uh... um...”

Snails.

“Orange, yo!”

Snips.

“Yeah!”

Snails.

“Yeah!”

Snips.

“Represent!”

Snips.

“Bam! That just happened!”

Snails.

“Aw, yeah! We out!”

Snips.

“Snips and Snails outta here!”

They both dropped their microphones, which caused a screeching sound, forcing everyone to cover their ears from the horrible sound it produced. 

Celestia and Luna looked on unfazed. "Please do not drop the microphones."

The two friends were completely unaware of how horrible their act was, but they none the less high five and left the stage, bypassing the Rainbooms with a confident yet cocky attitude and demeanor.

"In your face, Rainbooms!"

“You too, Lightning Bolts!”

Fuli could only shake her head clearly unfazed by that remark. “Oh you sure showed us. Showed us how that you two clearly can’t perform.”

“Clearly.” Applejack agreed. “And least we know one group who won't stand in the way of us gettin' to the finals."

"Let's get ready to rock!" Rainbow Dash stated knowing that it is their turn to perform. But Pinkie Pie then noticed that one of them was missing.

"Wait! Where's Rarity?"

"Here! I'm here!" Rarity came running and panting as the metal fringes on her ankles and jacket shimmered and clang against her outfit. A hippie inspired outfit added with a headband and sandals. She proudly flipped her hair, striking a pose as the fringes jangled all while everyone looks on silently yet wondering if she’s lost her marbles. "We will be performing in front of an audience. I'm not going to wear something fabulous?"

Applejack face palmed herself in response alongside Ono.

“Hapana, Rarity this really isn’t the time or the place for experimenting fashion.” He grumbled while pinching his nose.

“I think it looks lovely.” Twilight commented before turning to everyone before a dispute could occur. “And I think we should all leave it at that.”

“Well said.” Rarity replied feeling greatly appreciated by that compliment before pulling out something from her pocket. “And before I forget…” She pulled out a container of a cream before placing it around her left eye covering the scar on it to mask its appearance. “…this is for your eye.”

“Why?”

“Just a precaution to avoid the contempt and scornful heat from the rest of the competition...” She gently advised while maintain her grip on her friend and managed to make the mark disappear with the cream she had handy. “…not saying that you have that here, but can truly look deceiving and untrustworthy in the eyes of others.”

“Okay, I understand.” Twilight said accepting her help without further question and minimal protest. With all things considered it actually was probably for the best that they don’t judge by her the scar on her face even if they don’t have reason to hate her guts. It could happen at any time for any reason.

Next up are the Rainbooms where they all makes sure their instruments are tuned up and ready for their performance. During which Twilight took the time to give crucial last minute instructions with her hand covering her mic to avoid everyone else hearing it.

"Remember, we have to be good enough to make it through but not so good we let the Sirens and the Wild Ones see the magic within us. They could realize we plan to use it against them."

"Got it!" Rainbow Dash nodded in response. "Be cool enough to win, but not so cool that we end up showing off the whole ears and tails and rainbows thing. Sooo... about twenty percent less cool."

“Right around there.” Twilight nodded while giving her the eye to get her to understand to make good on that.

Pinkie Pie tapped on her drum sticks now that they are all ready to perform. "One! Two!" 

The music played and the girls began singing in unison.

"We've just got the day to get ready

And there's only so much time to lose

Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party

So let's think of something fun to do.”

So far the girls were singing in perfect sync, one the best performances thus far in the competition and truly enjoying themselves out there as they all performed to the beat. 

Though little do they realize, the Wild Ones have sneaky tricks up their sleeves when Kasi ushered Mwenye Kuona and Kidevu to follow him so they can have some fun during their performance.

“We don't know

(we don't know)

What's gonna happen

We just know

(we just know)

It's gonna feel right

All our friends are here

And it's time to ignite the lights!”

As they sang, up above them on the catwalk, Photo Finish and her two band mates lowered down two magnets on the strings towards Rarity jacket. The metal fringes on her jacket were immediately pulled up and Photo Finish began playing with the magnets, causing Rarity to look like a puppet on strings.

“Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail.”

While Photo Finish fooled around with poor Rarity, Applejack arced her eyebrows in her direction thinking that she is doing it on purpose.

Rarity struggled to break free from the magnets hold but it was futile. Kion watching from the side when he looked up, quickly tossed a cylinder right at the girls like a Frisbee up ended up throwing it too high. Luckily and unluckily for him and just then Kasi quickly grabbed it up high and from the shadows and used it to knock them with deep cuts to the heads leaving the boy to look on horrified by what had just happened before slowly stepping away to act like nothing happened sparking Fuli’s attention.

“Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail.”

Twilight Sparkle.

“So what you didn't get it right the first time.”

From the audience, Apple Bloom called out while leaning beside the other Crusaders with the same look of disinterest. "Boring!" 

In an effort to put smiles on their faces, Pinkie shoot confetti from her drums.

Pinkie Pie.

“Laugh it off, no one said it is a crime.”

Once Rarity was now free she moved to sing into her mic.

Rarity.

“Do your thing, you know you're an original."

Applejack.

“Your ideas are so funny that they're criminal."

The Rainbooms;

“Ohhh-ahh!”

One of the confetti pieces flew into Twilight's mouth, causing her to cough. Fluttershy quickly slapped her back to force the paper out of her throat. During the brief moment of recovery she noticed Flash scowling at her much to her dishearten surprise.

“What I did do to deserve that?” She thought before she and everyone sang I unison.

The Rainbooms.

“We've just got the day to get ready

And there's only so much time to lose

Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party

So let's think of something fun to do.”

Fuli upon taking her turn along with Ono both looked up noticed both Snips and Snails attempting to sabotage the act as well. The two laughed mischievously as they moved the spotlight….

Onto Fluttershy.

The shy girl stopped singing and playing her tambourine and moved in vain to avoid having the spotlight on her literally.

“We don't know

(we don't know)

What's gonna happen

We just know

(we just know)

It's gonna feel right

All our friends are here

And it's time to ignite the lights!”

Fuli deciding to take action pulled out a rock from her shorts pockets and chucked it right at the two with it first hitting Snips and then rebounded onto Snails thus causing them to drop to the ground after being knocked out. Fuli simply had her hands in her pockets like nothing had happened even when Mwenye Kuona and Kidevu moved to shove them off of the platform causing them to fall down and land on their necks. 

The whole time, despite the weirdness that was all happening around them, the girls never stopped singing. Fluttershy still traumatized by stage fright hid behind Pinkie Pie's drums.

“Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail”

Rarity initially had some relief that she was able continue performing without further incident only for it to be short-lived when the pompadour boy used the magnets left behind to rip the sleeves right off of her jacket with a smug grin. Seeing this, had her crying with her mascara running down her cheeks.

“Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail.”

Rarity finally managed to pull away from the magnets hold, only to have her fringes and sleeves completely ripped off. Seeing this, she began to cry, her mascara running down her cheeks.

“Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight!”

Once their song had ended, came the only applause courtesy of both Celestia and Luna while everyone else is still under the hate and overly-competitive bad blood from the bad guys and girls spell.

“Wow!” Was all Ono could say in response to the sabotage during their performance.

As the girls returned backstage, the Lightning Bolts minus Kion looked on in complete shock of what they just saw while Rarity was still weeping and wiping the mascara from her eyes.

"Ruined! Absolutely ruined!"

“What happened?” Beshte asked in concern while rushing over to give her some tissues to help wipe the tears and ruined makeup off of her face.

Before Rarity could answer she is quickly confronted by Applejack as she put her base down. "Rarity, were you tryin' to make us lose out there?!"

"Wh- Oh! This was not my fault! This was an act of sabotage!"

“That’s true.” Fuli spoke in her defense. “The other contestants were toying around with you in an act of jealousy.”

“They were literally trying to make you all look bad!” Canterlot Bunga added in agreement.

“But both Kion and Fuli…”

But much like her stubborn pony counterpart Applejack refused to believe it. "Yeah, well, either way, this couldn't have happen if Rarity didn't insist on dressin' like... like…this!" She gestured to Rarity's clothes once more. "We need to sound good! Is there some reason that concept seems to escape you?"

As the two argued, Kion, Sunset and Twilight all shared worried looks.

"And what was with the confetti, Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow Dash argued in her direction while waving a piece of orange confetti in her hand, "How am I supposed to shred if there's paper stuck in my frets?!"

"It was pretty distracting…" Fluttershy said in agreement thus offending her greatly.

"Ugh! Says the girl who was running from a light the whole time! A light!"

Before their frustrations could boil over, Twilight stepped in to stop it. “QUIET!” She shouted. “Arguing solves nothing. We need to keep better control of her emotions.” She stressed with gritted teeth. Everyone immediately stopped and looked aside like she is their stern mother frowning upon them. “It’s okay.” Twilight assured everyone in a now kind and gentle tone. “We still advanced to the next round regardless of the shenanigans that were going on during our performance.”

“Twilight’s right.” Sunset agreed. “You all sounded much better than most of the other bands. I'm sure you'll make it to the next round. But it won't matter if you don't have that counter-spell ready."

At the mention of this, Twilight’s composure cracked once more with Kion knowing full well that’s not great to see. "You all find a place to practice where the sirens can't hear you. I'll keep an eye on things around here and watch over the Lightning Bolts performance."

“Which means we go right after them.” Fuli stated while ushering Kion and the remaining boys to the side of the stage so they can be prepared to perform. “Good luck, girls. You’re going to need it.”

At that moment the next band came out on stage, Derpy’s band. Their instruments consisted of a cowbell, a triangle and…a saw. 

“Judging from the way things look, there might not be much competition to worry about in the next round.” Ono commented in disbelief at their instrument selection. “What’s next? Ding-dongs and doorbells?”

“I’d rather try not to think about it.” Sunset replied while they prepare to watch the band on stage give it all they got performance-wise.





In the meantime the six girls all walked down the halls looking for a good and quiet place to practice. As they walked Twilight, once again, bumped into the human Flash Sentry. He was leaning on the lockers along with his bandmates. 

Twilight smiled nervously as she brushed the dust of her pants and straighten up her vest. “Ha, ha, we really need to stop bumping into each other like this." She said with a smile only to see that Flash Sentry is acting like she isn’t there.

"Uh, you guys hear something?" He asked rather coldly and indifferent much to Twilight’s surprise.

The band-mates shook their heads and muttered no in response. 

"I said, we have to stop—"

"There it is again. So annoying."

"Why are you acting like this?" Twilight asked not understanding what she did to deserve this attitude. "I thought we were friends."

Flash Sentry turned to look at her angrily. "Yeah, and then you decide to come back here just so you can beat me in the Battle of the Bands. I want this, Twilight, and you're trying to take it from me! Some friend."

"That's not why—" Twilight tried to speak in her defense only for Applejack to grab her by the arm to try to drag her away.

"Come on, girls. We've got things to do."

But Twilight wasn’t having it as she moved to confront Flash face to face while shaking off her friend’s grip. “No! That’s not why I’m here. I’m here because there are more important than winning a simple band competition.”

“And just who do you think you are?!…” Flash suddenly finds himself slammed up against the lockers by the now aggressive and agitated girl frightening his band mates in the process. 

“I’m the girl you once fell in love with and even spent days wanting to see me in my absence. You must the other guy who is now treating me like I’m not someone you met once before and acting like you have the right to talk to me like this so don’t you dare tell me that there is a reason for throwing away what you had.” Flash was now left terrified by her and literally had nothing to say in response in the face that when push comes to shove she can throw down as hard as Sunset and is not someone to be trifled with. “I am not trying to take anything away from you…” She said in a calmer tone. “…I’m just a friend who wants to see the Flash I truly know and if you can’t show it, then I guess there is no more for a relationship.”

Flash having snapped back to reality for a second just looks on now feeling regretful upon realizing his attitude but by then it was too late since Twilight had already released his grip on him. “So what you’re breaking up with me?”

Feeling like there was nothing left to discuss feeling he might still be under his spell and use that to verbally attack her again she replied. “Yes, I guess I am.” And she left it at that before turning his back on him and left. “Now we can go.” She said to the other girls without eye contact.

They all followed after her but not without looking on scared and intimidated by her to the point not one of them dared to say a word to her about it while Flash was rendered deadly silent to the point he didn’t even try a mount a hateful comment in her direction and can only look down in shame. All in the name of what was supposed to be a friendly competition turning into a hateful and spiteful blood bath filled with cruel and harsh insults directed at one and another he lost a potential love interest.

Twilight as she walked away didn’t feel much better herself due to having to say that in a desperate and harsh manner just to get through to him with tears coming out of her eyes despite keeping a straight and serious face.

Away from their view, the Dazzlings watched the scene taking great pleasure of what emotional pain they have caused just now.

Adagio chuckled with a sadistic grin. "Tears already? This is only the first round."

Aria and Sonata also laughed at Twilight's expense when Celestia's voice was heard through the intercom. "The next band to take the stage will be Trixie and the Illusions."

Adagio then motioned the other girls to follow her. "Better head back. We're supposed to go on after Trixie." The Dazzlings made their way backstage, only to confront Sunset leaning against the wall, her arms crossed and her face partly covered by a shadow. She stood before them with a stern glare in their direction.

"You're never gonna get away with this."

"Why? Because you didn't?"

Sunset remained silent in response trying to understand where she is getting at she moved to circle around her as she walked. "Oh, we know all about you, Sunset Shimmer. You've got quite the reputation at Canterlot High."

"I've changed! I'm in a much better place now!" Sunset defensively exclaimed as Aria joined in on circling around her.

"Waiting in the wings while your friends have all the fun?"

Adagio smirked as she continued. "Oh, yes, you girls are so tight. And yet... they didn't ask you to be in the band."

Aria then added. "Probably afraid no one will want to see them play if she was in the group."

Sunset was now left with her previous composure cracked as the truth of their words sink in yet didn’t want them to get in her head.

Sonata then chimed in with the mocking. "Too bad! So sad!"

"If it's any consolation, no one is going to remember you at all by the time we're done." Adagio said as she and her sirens walked pass Sunset, but not before she and Sonota bumped hips with Sunset in a taunting manner, leaving the poor girl now downhearted and downcast.

Kion having witnessed from inside the gym went outside to comfort her all while avoiding being seen by the Dazzling’s. “You know they’re wrong and they’re just trying to break you.”

Sunset acknowledged this but still didn’t make eye contact and she was still hurt by their words. “Well its working and they’re also not wrong too. You heard what they said and you’ve seen it all.”

Kion still moved to console her. “Well for what it’s worth you’re not alone there since Twilight is now walking around with a broken heart.”

Sunset looked at him curiously and confused. "What does that mean?"

"Ever since the Canterlot Wedding since the day her brother and future sister-in-law were supposed to get married, she hasn’t been the same. She correctly suspected that the bride was an imposter and nobody believed her to the point she got yelled at big time when she confronted her during the rehearsal.”

“You were there?”

“I was there, me, Beshte, Fuli, Ono, Kyoga, Bunga, and my dad were all there and comforted her when no one else would, but by the time Scar unleashed his attempted invasion during the wedding she had already gotten scarred from the whole ordeal to the point after some convincing and a dark magic infection from Scar she would go on to help him conquer the Pride Lands.”

“Really? So that’s why she’s acted all tough and aggressive since she was last here?”

“Yeah, that really hurt deep down, especially due to feeling betrayed thanks to some mean kids pulling a very cruel prank on her when she was in magic kindergarten that shattered her faith in friendship up until she met me and the other girls back home.”

"The paint, confetti, and stuffed animal prank?"

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I didn’t. It was just a lucky guess between that and shaving a poor kid bald which are considered here the ultimate pranks anyone could ever pull on someone.” Sunset shrugged to emphasize how lucky she was on the mark with her guess. 

“Anyways, I’ve only seen this prank once more back when I was first exploring through this world.” She recalled the memory of her first days here in this world. “You know, back when I was you know all mean and malicious, I came across this school that is known that to have the most academically talented students in the city. Because they only allow students and facility on campus I had to do my research in secret and yes that does mean spying on them unnoticed. It was there I witnessed the meanest girls in school pulling the biggest pranks anyone could ever imagine. Razors, paint balloons, clown props, the art of internet video creations, party props, you name it.” 





While wearing a black spy suit to conceal her full appearance it was all possible for her to witness this from outside the classroom windows.  “Then came one day where I saw it in its full glory where paint came raining down along with confetti and stuffed animals for all eyes to see in the gym. After first everyone was shocked then the whole crowd erupted into laughter. And yet a very few pair of eyes didn’t finding it funny, me included.” She recalled doing just that upon seeing the poor girl run off in tears. “I don’t know why back then but it wasn’t until I saw what happened the other day with you that I came realize why it wasn’t really funny. Rumors had it this girl has just started out her first day here and this has been the reception she’s been getting ever since then.”





“Right…” Kion knew exactly what she is talking about with the memory of his humiliation resurfacing. “…that.”

“And before I forget…” Sunset continued. “…I just want to say I’m sorry for what happened back there and of course back then when you were first here.”

“Me too.”

“For what? You didn’t do anything back then.”

“No.” Kion corrected. “I mean the other night when I accidentally got a little too invested in the Lions of the Past sending rain your way and actually comparing you to Scar. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings, I was just overly-curious at the thought of you still being able to possess the Roar even after what happened back then.”

“I know you didn’t mean it, and it’s all very confusing for me too, if the Lions of the Past judged me by having the inner demon inside of me destroyed and I somehow am able to roar even after using it for evil, what does that mean?”

“Good question. Maybe it was they saw that you aren’t totally evil.” Kion suggested. “Maybe they saw you as someone who deserves a second chance much like the friends you have right now, including me.”

Sunset smiled in response to that heartwarming compliment as Kion returned it in kind. “Thanks. Twilight sure is lucky to have a friend like you in her life and I’m sure to death she knows it.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Kion returned with a grin knowing full well of how true it is more than she probably realizes.





The Dazzlings prepared for their performance as they stood behind the curtain. "Remember, girls. We want to save the good stuff for when our full power has been restored." Adagio she reminded s their red pendents glowed brighter before the curtains opened up and the Dazzlings stepped forward so they can perform. Their hypnotic singing capturing the attention of everyone around the room as they began their performance.

“Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

You didn't know that you fell

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh.”

Adagio;

“Now that you're under our spell

Blindsided by the beat

Clapping your hands, stomping your feet

You didn't know that you fell."

Sonata and Aria;

"Oh-whoa-oh-oh."

Now you've fallen under our spell.”

Sonata and Aria;

“Oh-whoa-oh-oh-oh.”

As they sang, the rest of the bands competed against one another giving everything they have. All while Kion looks on worried watching this all-out war drag on.

The Dazzlings;

“We've got the music, makes you move it

Got the song that makes you lose it

We say "jump", you say "how high?"

Put your hands up to the sky.”

Bulk Biceps played his violin and bested Snips and Snails in the one on one match-up thus eliminating them from the competition.

“We've got the music, makes you move it

Got the song that makes you lose it

We say "jump", you say "how high?"

Put your hands up to the sky.”

Flash Sentry and his band competed against the eco-teens, and managed to best them. Twilight shook her head. Counterpart or no, this was not the Flash Sentry she met when she first came here. But she needed to focus more on the counter-spell. The poor girl was pulling her hair out as she is desperately trying to figure it out.

“Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

You didn't know that you fell

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Now that you're under our spell.”

Adagio Dazzle;

“Listen to the sound of my voice.”

Sonata and Aria;

“Oh-whoa, oh-oh-oh.”

Adagio;

“Soon you'll find you don't have a choice.”

Sonata and Aria;

“Oh-whoa, oh-oh-oh.”

Adagio;

“Captured in the web of my song.”

Sonata and Aria;

“Oh-whoa, oh-oh-oh.”

Adagio;

“Soon you'll all be singing along.”

Sonata and Aria;

“Oh, whoa, oh.”

The Rainbooms then competed against Octavia and her cello, but the Rainbooms managed to best her with hard fought effort.

After the Rainbooms performed, the Lightning Bolts performed taking on the Cutie Mark Crusaders band, to which the Lightning Bolts were able to take on but not without regrets of having to do this to them. Even when they tried to console them and wished it hadn’t come down to this, they all bitterly slapped it away, literally, clearly hurting their feelings in the process. It was getting clear that the Siren’s and Wild One’s spell is increasing in intensity.

“We've got the music, makes you move it

Got the song that makes you lose it.

We say "jump", you say "how high?"

Put your hands up to the sky.”

Lyra Heartstrings and Sweetie Drops performed a piano duet but were bested by Trixie and her band-mates. Trixie was on her way to the semi-finals along with the Rainbooms, Lightning Bolts, Wild Ones, and the Dazzlings.

“We've got the music, makes you move it

Got the song that makes you lose it

We say "jump", you say "how high?"

Put your hands up to the sky.”

In the meantime, Twilight is still struggling on creating the counter spell, all while listening in to everyone minus her friends arguing amongst one another repeatedly. Sunset could only stand by alongside Kion greatly worried by the growing negative energy spreading around the whole school.

“It was like a buffet for the sirens.

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

You didn't know that you fell

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Now that you're under our spell

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

You didn't know that you fell

Oh-whoa-oh, oh-whoa-oh

Now that you're under our…”

Adagio;

“…Spell

Muah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!….”

After most of the events have unfolded in this band competition, Vice-Principal Luna crossed the very last band to be eliminated on the white board as she arranged the four final bands. Trixie's, the Lightning Bolts, Wild Ones, and the Rainbooms. Flash Sentry was left furious upon seeing that he and his band have been eliminated before storming off from the tournament bracket. 

Upon sipping his drink, Kidevu eyes opened up and widen when he noticed something that had him spit his drink accidentally in Nguvo’s face. “Uh-oh! Oops! Sorry!”

“You better have a good reason for spitting right in my face.” The short-tempered boy voiced with a tranquil tone of voice while his anger is still radiated from the look of his expression.

“I do! Look! Over there, at the entrance!” He pointed them there.

“What?” The band member with the pompadour asked before dropping his mirror in shock. “Oh, sugar honey iced tea!”

Uovu is the only one alongside Kasi keeping their cool. “It’s okay. Just quickly act naturally.”

Just then the trio wearing business suits and shades arrived along with their superior as they walked inside to get a glimpse of the best competition heading into the upcoming finals tomorrow. In order to avoid being seen and drawing attention, the four all stood by the doors and acted casually by helping themselves to refreshments and hid their badges from sight. Right now their eyes were briefly focused on the Dazzling’s then the Wild Ones, along with the Lightning Bolts and Rainbooms, specifically Twilight Sparkle when they all went backstage together.

Their leader whose face is still unseen locked eyes with their Wild One’s who all turned their eyes aside to avoid eye contact with him with a narrowed look before turning away to focus on the purple haired girl.

“You think he’s on to us?” Hidafu asked once they weren’t under the radar.

“If he doesn’t have bigger fish to fry, then yes.” Kasi replied before focusing their sights on the stage. “All part of the plan.”

“Correct, Kasi.” Uovu nodded. “As long as his eyes are them they’re not going to go looking for and arresting us on the spot.”

Sunset gathered the others together to let them know of what this means through a little pep talk. "This is it! Last round and you're in the finals! Unless you think the counter-spell is ready to be played now." She asked Twilight hopefully when she turned to her.

Sadly, Twilight held the book tightly as she looked still looked on rather downcast. 

“I’m afraid not.” Kion replied for her.

"Don't worry, Twilight." Applejack reassured, "Finals aren't until tonight. We'll get in a little more practice before we're supposed to hit the stage. We won't let you down!"

“Neither will we!” Fuli confidently stated while giving her an uplifting punch to the shoulder while shrugging off slight pain due to how tough and dense her arms are.

"Yeah!" The others all agreed in unison sharing Applejack’s reassuring smiles and upbeat attitude. 

But Twilight still sadly turned away and muttered under her breath. "You won't let me down…"

Both Kion and Sunset looked at Twilight equally sad for her as Fluttershy spoke up to Rainbow Dash, "Um, I was just wondering. We haven't played any of my songs yet, and…"

"It's the semifinals." Rainbow interrupted clearly not interested in a word she said. "We gotta do "Awesome As I Wanna Be"."

Fluttershy looked down in disappointment, "Don't know why I even asked…"

Beshte having heard that attempted to reason with Rainbow Dash, "Come on Rainbow. At least give her a chance.” He gently but assertively pushed of the cocky girl.

"We'll play her songs latter. Right now, we need a killer song that is sure to get us into the finals."

Now it was Kion who is now looking on clearly annoyed with Rainbow's attitude right now. At least her pony counterpart can take having humble pie gracefully even while refraining from being too girly, girly at times. 

“Any idea how a girl like her can wear a pink skirt and carry out with a ego as big as Jupiter?” He asked Ono’s human counterpart.

“Good question, Kion. I could ask Applejack the same thing minus the ego size as Neptune.”

“What?” Kion looked on clearly confused.

Ono quickly shook his head to clarify. “I meant Applejack wearing a skirt every day alongside everyone else amongst the group.” He then muttered. “Though I truly think Rainbow’s ego is more fitting the size of Uranus.”

Both Bunga’s having heard that both giggled in response.

“Oh my…”

“He said…oh he said…”

“You both think this is funny?!”

“No, no, no, no!”

“It’s just that word you said, made us laugh!”

“What word? Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto…no wait Pluto doesn’t count…Uranus?”

Both Bunga’s laughed uncontrollably.

“He said Uranus!”

“I now right! Hey Ono, Uranus is showing!”

Ono was clearly irritated and fuming. “There’s nothing funny about Uranus.”

Both briefly paused for a few seconds before resuming their fit of uncontrollable laughing with the already tested boy walked off clearly disgusted with their sense of humor.

Trixie and her band were nearly done with their song.

“...I got tricks up my sleeve

See me dominate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat!”

Trixie and her band-mates bowed as the crowed cheered and Celestia and Luna applauded.

"Fantastic!"

Trixie left the stage and met up with the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes at her when the magician herself smiled smugly at her. "Hmph. You're never gonna top that performance, "Rain-goons". You shouldn't be allowed to when you have such a big advantage over the rest of us."

Rainbow Dash smirked as she adjusted her guitar, "My superior guitar playing and off-the-charts awesome singing voice?"

"Oh, don't be ridiculous. I mean her!" Trixie pointed towards Twilight, who returned a glare in her direction for insulting her friends like that. "If you were really all that, Rainbow Dash, you wouldn't have needed to bring in some magical ringer to have half a chance." She further mocked while inspecting her nails, "Everyone's talking about it."

Rainbow Dash laughed, "Ha! Puh-leeze! I could win this thing as a solo act and everybody knows it!"

Hearing that really sparked anger in everyone’s hearts including Pinkie and Fluttershy with Kion looking very angry compared to everyone else. Those arrogant words she just spoke are something that her pony self would not even say even at her worst, a clear sign that she is letting this whole band get to her head.

"Sure you could." Trixie scoffed, before finding Twilight gaining the courage to stand up right in front of hers.

"Trixie, I think it is time for you to go." She said in a demanding tone. 

“But…”

“I said now!”

Trixie complied without another word before tossing down a powder bomb and disappeared in a puff of blue smoke. The Rainbooms all coughed as the smoke diminished.

Pinkie Pie gasped. "She's gone!….Oh, wait. There she is."

Trixie was hiding behind a drum set before zipping away before anything else could happen all while leaving behind a handful of hairpins. 

Celestia's voice was heard on the intercom. "Next up, the Lightning Bolts."

The Lion Guard’s human counterpart’s move to take the stage ready to do their part in hopes they can advance to the finals. For their next performance they performed something that’ll be sure to be worthy to advance with Fuli taking lead on singing.

You Don't Know Me

After the song had ended the crowd cheered for them. Everyone loved their performance for the first time throughout the whole competition. All but one band, the Dazzlings who are now feeling shocked that everyone is no longer under their control.

For the first time during the competition, Adiago is left utterly shocked beyond words. “But how…?! This is impossible…?! They can’t actually be doing this! They’d have to…”

“By spreading the Power of Friendship?” Both Sonota and Aria asked in unison.

“Exactly!”

Uovu who was sitting beside her isn’t too worried about that. He still remained calm and collected. “At least for now…”

After the cheering had died down, Vice Principal Luna spoke through the microphone once more. “And now for our next semifinalist, the Wild Ones.”

Uovu stood up before leading his boys on over to the stage. “And now is the time we start to have some fun with our competition.”

“The part we start laying out some of our cards. Starting with the Lightning Bolts…” Once he was on stage he made a little announcement for the crowd. “And before we begin our next performance, I’ll need volunteers to come up on stage…” He eyes everyone in the crowd before deliberately eyeing the Lightning Bolts. “…how about you five?” Minus Kion they all look confused before realizing why.

“No, no, that’s quite all right, thank you.” Fuli politely declined on behalf of the team.

But both Kasi and Nguvo were quick to whisk her upstage away with the others doing the same for Beshte and the two Bunga’s.

“But we insist that you join us, after all its bad manners to refuse a good musician’s offer.” Kasi said.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t want to disappoint everyone would you?” Nguvo added threateningly.

“Trust me when I tell you that you don’t want to piss him off.” Uovu advised. “Not even anger management is capable of taming his temper. In addition, this performance fits you to the T.”

The Lightning Bolts minus Kion were then left completely unprepared for what happened next during their next musical number with Uovu taking the lead on singing while the others play their band instruments. With Nguvo on drums, Hidafu and Kidevu on trumpets, Mwenye Kuona and Kasi both playing the piano they performed this tune together.

You're Only Second Rate

"I must admit,

Your parlor tricks are amusing."

Uovu using the magic summoned from the growing bad blood from the angry students managed to have Kion appear wearing a magician's outfit with his top hat stuck and covering his eyes leaving the boy struggling to remove it until the former moved to remove it.

"I bet you've got a bunny

Under your hat!"

Said large bunny suddenly appeared over his head causing Kion to collapse to the ground because of it. Just then another puff of red smoke appeared and had said hat have cards appearing from it with Uovu shuffling the deck with his eyes now focused on both Bunga's.

"Now here's your chance

To get the best of me,

Hope your hand is hot!"

He then scatters the cards around while the two appear wearing joker costumes as a result.

"C'mon, clown,

Let's see what you've got!"

Feeling challenged and acting in his friend's defense, Kion moved to try to redirect that magic against them.

"You try to slam me with your hardest stuff

But your double whammy

Isn't up to snuff..."

Uovu shrugged it off like it was nothing before yanking him down to have him appear with sudden and rapid aging to the point he is a senior citizen.

"I'll set the record straight

You're simply out of date

You're only second rate!"

Furious, Fuli briefly appearing in her cheetah form moved to attack in her friend's defense with Kasi taking turn in singing and fending her off in defense.

"You think your cat's a meanine,

But your tiger's tame."

Fuli suddenly appeared as a harmless kitty when she went through the hoop courtesy of Kasi before finding herself up on a rising stool with a chalkboard appearing behind her with the latter now wearing a tutors and graduation hat.

"You've got a lot to learn

About the magic game."

Just when Fuli appeared in her human form and was ready to fight she suddenly found herself falling down the hidden trapdoor on the stage.

"So for your information,

I'll reiterate

You're only second rate!"

Next up was Mwenye Kuona's turn as he showed Ono his fingers all with his faces appearing on each and every digit to intimidate him into falling on his back.

"Men cower at the power

In my pinky

My thumb is number one

On every list."

Next up Hidafu moved to sing where appearing large and in charge in the face of the Lightning Bolt's strongest.

"But if you're not convinced

That I'm invincible,

Put me to the test!

I'd love to lay this rivalry to rest!"

Feeling determined not to let this ongoing humiliation continue, he gave his all in his charge with Kion joining alongside him in his current and young age.

"Go ahead and zap me

With the big surprise

Snap me in a trap,

Cut me down to size..."

Ono briefly looked up and winced at the sight.

"...I'll make a great escape

It's just a piece of cake

You're only second rate!"

Now feeling outmatched and intimidated with Beshte and Kion both getting literally covered in cake, both Bunga's moved to literally make a run for it before finding themselves facing off against Nguvo who takes his turn in singing the song.

"You know, your hocus-pocus

Isn't tough enough

And your mumbo-jumbo

Doesn't measure up."

During the dodging him, they both narrowly dodged a hot magical blast from the short man before splitting apart.

Let me pontificate

Upon your sorry state

You're only second rate!"

Both Bunga's were left running around trying to get away from the Wild Ones when Kidafu appeared all over the stage.

"Zaba-caba-dabra!

Granny's gonna grab ya!"

Appearing and floating over the stage, Uovu took center stage once more before he and his men surrounded them with Mwenye Kuona pantsing them both, having them cover their boxer shorts underneath and sporting embarrassed smiles to the audience.

"Alakazam-da-mus

And this thing's bigger than the both of us!

So spare me your tremendous scare!

You look horrendous in your underwear!

And I can hardly wait

To discombobulate

I'll send ya back and packing

In a shipping crate

You'll make a better living

With a spinning plate

You're only second rate!"

After their performance, the band was all left humiliated as everyone cheered for their performance along with laughed at the Lightning Bolts at their expense.

“Well…looks like it’s all up to you girls now.” Fuli said as she went ahead to fetch towels so they can get all cleaned up. “Since I now get the feeling that the Wild Ones have just cemented themselves as a finalist alongside the Siren’s.”

“Next up…the Rainbooms.” Principal Celestia announced through the microphone thus getting their attention in getting up onto the stage so they can perform a worthy song that’ll get them in the Finals alongside the other three bands already locked in.

At this time the girls were not really excited to go on. All but Rainbow Dash who is the only one excited and ready to perform her favorite song.

Spike wagged his tail as he called after them. "Knock 'em dead, Rainbooms!" he said encouragingly.

Sunset waved after them while wishing them luck too. "I'll be here... just... watching." She then looked downcast as her friends got up on stage just wishing she could be treated as a trustworthy equal alongside them.

Pinkie Pie played on her drums as the spotlight appeared on each of the girls.

The Rainbooms;

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!”

Rainbow Dash;

“Awesome as I wanna be.”

While the girls sang backup, Fluttershy frowned in Rainbow’s direction as she played her heart out with her guitar.

The Rainbooms;

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!”

Rainbow Dash;

“Awesome as I wanna be.”

Rainbow began playing beside her friends, showing off as usual. Fuli couldn't help shake her head in disapproval.

“First you see me riding on a sonic boom

Got my guitar shreddin' up the latest tune

There is nothin' you can do to beat me

I'm so good that you can't defeat me.”

As the Rainbooms sang along with her, they all did so without sharing the energetic passion Rainbow has. They still sounded great but they weren’t feeling very excited knowing this is only boosting their lead singer’s overgrowing ego.

Rainbow and the Rainbooms;

“Yeah, I'm awesome, take caution

Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be

(Yeah!)

I'm awesome, take caution

Watch out for me, I'm awesome as I wanna be.”

Sunset looked on in worry upon seeing Rainbow’s performance. This is clearly going against their plan to keep their magical advantage under wraps.

Sure enough, the spotlight moved to aim solely on Rainbow Dash during her guitar solo, much to the growing annoyance of her other band-mates who made through their singing tone clear of their disapproval.

The Rainbooms;

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!”

As Rainbow gave it her all her ears were starting to magically manifest, the only friends keeping it a secret looked on in horror.

“Oh no!”

“Rainbow!"

“What is she doing?!”

“Hapana! She’s blowing her own cover!”

Sunset’s eyes widen in panic upon seeing Rainbow is about to blow her own cover. So without thinking she was quick to force herself onto the stage and tackled Rainbow Dash during her solo and the two girls landed on the ground, accidentally knocking Twilight, who bumped into Rarity, who tripped and kicked Applejack's base right off of her hand which fell right into one of Pinkie's drums.

The music stopped when it happened.

Once the lights got back on, Fluttershy squealed and ran away in fear, while dropping her tambourine. Rainbow's ears disappeared and she glared angrily at Sunset who stood up, looking at all of the people glaring at her, even the Principals.

"Now that's the bad girl we love to hate!" Flash Sentry shouted amongst the crowd with everyone in the room joining in on the booing at her.

"I knew she was still trouble!"

"The real Sunset Shimmer is back!"

Sunset felt her heart race and her blood boiling due to her anxiety. This was exactly what she didn't want. She clenched her head, trying to drown out their angry cries, but it was futile.

"No. It isn't like that."

But it was all on deaf ears, as everyone started throwing empty soda cans and pencils at her as they continued to shout, jeer, and even cursed. All of their yelling and anger, it was all too much for the poor girl. 

Upon seeing this and seeing flashbacks of her similar past encounters with this kind of jeering, Twilight looked on in shock for a few seconds. She then snapped out of her flashback scene before moving to take a microphone from her stand to speak up.

“EVERYBODY LISTEN TO ME!”

With one loud booming voice everyone immediately shut up as all eyes and ears were now focused on the purple girl who moved to turn to Applejack and Rarity. With a nod, she got the farm girl and fashionista to start playing their instruments. With music starting up she moved to start singing. 

In a slow and somber tone…

“Here I am, once again

Feeling lost but now and then

I breathe it in to let it go…”

Twilight motioned for both girls to up-tempo the music as she start singing in a more upbeat tone as everyone watches curiously, including their antagonistic competition.

“And you don't know where you are now

Or what it would come to, if only somebody could hear

When you figure out how

You're lost in the moment, you disappear…”

Suddenly everyone was all in awe and free from the spell as they listened in to this song as the other girls all joined in on playing their instruments even the reluctant and cross Rainbow Dash. While singing she extended her hand to Sunset to take before pulling her up on her feet so she can have her dance alongside her and the band.

“You don't have to be afraid to put your dream in action

You're never gonna fade, you'll be the main attraction

Not a fantasy, just remember me

When it turns out right

'Cause you know that if you live in your imagination

Tomorrow, you'll be everybody's fascination

In my victory, just remember me

When I make it shine…”

The Dazzlings and Wild Ones all looked on in astonishment as she too is managing to sing the right chords to counteract their influencing spell while watching Twilight and Sunset dance together. During which Rainbow came to join in on the song with a more upbeat attitude while reigning in her over-excited passion.

“Reachin' high, feelin' low

I'm holding on but letting go

I like to shine, I'll shine for you

And it's time to show the world how

It's a little bit closer, as long as I'm ready to go

All we have is right now

As long as you feel it inside, you know…”

While watching the four authority-like figures all watched on looking very impressed even when their leader’s facial expression don’t show it. Clearly, this girl has improvising chops on her hands.

"You don't have to be afraid to put your dream in action

You're never gonna fade, you'll be the main attraction

Not a fantasy, just remember me

When it turns out right

'Cause you know that if you live in your imagination

Tomorrow, you'll be everybody's fascination

In my victory, just remember me

When I make it shine.”

To cap off their performance, with magic smoke bombs and sparkles, there was a dazzling display of magic from the background on the stage. The crowd cheered and applauded for the stunning display. Twilight held both Rainbow and Sunset's hands as she rose them up in victory. Sunset smiled graciously as she whispered. "Thank you."

However, the Dazzling’s looked on unhappily at the sight just knowing that girl is really going to start posing a threat to their plans.

“Easy girls…” Uovu calmly assured as he eyes the four men taking notes and looking and sharing information through their phones. “…This will be taken care of in just a few minutes. Just watch and learn…”

Backstage, the girls sighed in relief. Thanks to Twilight’s quick thinking, not only were they sure to get into the finals, but they managed to convince everyone it was all part of the act. Twilight had to take deep breathes to calm her anxiety before managing to tame it and calm herself down.

"What was that?!" Rainbow angrily demanded with her fury focused on Sunset for shoving her aside like that.

“What was what, Rainbow?” Twilight asked.

“Sunset! You! Pushing me in the middle of my performance like that?!”

"You were showing them your magic! What else was I supposed to do?!" Sunset quickly and innocently defended.

Rarity spoke next siding with Rainbow Dash. "Ugh. Close the curtains? Unplug her amp? Give us a chance to deal with the situation?"

“And risk allowing the Siren’s and Wild One’s see our secret advantage for all eyes and ears to see?!” Twilight fired back. “If she didn’t do what she just did, then they would have found about it and taken action to stop us from foiling their power-hungry ambitions.”

“I just wanted to help." Sunset further pleaded with Rainbow Dash who is still refusing to understand the consequences she nearly caused upon everyone.

"Yeah, well, you didn't." 

Applejack stepped in to defend Sunset Shimmer, and Twilight. "None of this would've happened if you weren't trying to show off – as usual."

The two girls glared at one another when Trixie showed up again, "Good show, "Rain-brooms". I especially liked the part where Sunset Shimmer, in a fit of jealous rage, knocked out Rainbow Dash mid-guitar solo!"

Sunset's cheeks burned red as she turned to yell back at the obnoxious girl., "It wasn't a fit of jealous rage!" Upon realizing her outburst, she backed away, while the others looked on in uncertainty seeing that this is not helping her own case here.

Trixie smirked, "If you say so."

“Trixie…” Twilight sternly voiced to her in an intimidating manner. “…we talked about this. Leave her be.”

Trixie wisely backed off once again but yet still smiled smugly feeling she is going to the Finals. “Very well. But with all things considered, you should try sticking to one song before going up on stage you know…” Twilight’s fierce scowl forced her to shut up while the principals looked over their papers.

Just then the doors opened and Sunset heard vocalizing courtesy of the Dazzlings. They were singing in harmony to the principals to further put them under their trance. Their red pendants glowed as they sang with the two sisters' eyes becoming blank as a result.

"What can we do?" Rarity asked in worry. "There isn't gonna be another opportunity for us to play. And I had the most gorgeous outfit for the finals!"

Applejack rolled her eyes in annoyance yet again. "Yup, 'cause that's the real tragedy, Rarity – that you won't get to play dress-up!"

"You know perfectly well that is not what I meant!" She fiercely shot back.

Rainbow Dash separated the two bickering girls before another fight can erupt again. "You guys wanna keep it down? They're about to announce who's moving on."

"Who are you kidding?" Flutershy said hopelessly, "You know it isn't gonna be us."

Admittedly, considering of how they switched songs mid-performance, it wasn’t hard to see why they won’t be in the finals.

They were right, after the display Korra, Sunset and Twilight did, they were most likely disqualified. But Twilight remained optimistic otherwise as Principal Celestia announced the winners. 

"The band that will be joining the Dazzlings and Wild Ones in tonight's finals…"

Trixie readied herself for what she expected to hear but...

"The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts!"

"What?!"

"Huh?"

"Did they just say, "the Rainbooms"?!" Pinkie Pie asked in disbelief.

Much to Twilight’s relief and everyone else’s surprise, that mid-song swap and blunder didn’t cost them. Though Trixie still snarled, baring her teeth as she stomped away in furious defeat, "This isn't over!"

The two bands all walked onto the stage and stood before the principals who smiled at them. 

"Congratulations, girls and boys. You deserve it."

“Thank you.” Twilight kindly and humbly returned. “It means a lot to hear that from you.”

“We look forward to seeing and hearing you and our bands play tomorrow. It’ll sure be a treat to the audience.” Celestia returned with a smile even though one close inspection could tell Twilight that she is still under the Dazzling and Wild One’s spell.

The Dazzlings and Wild Ones approached their competition upon hearing the announcement. 

"See you at tonight's big show, Rainbooms." Adagio said. "We are really looking forward to it." 

Uovu then turned to Twilight with a smirk and then said. "That was quite a quick recovery, clever girl. Very impressive of being able to think on your feet like that for a smooth return to form. And I gotta say it is nothing like I have ever seen before."

“Uh-huh…” Twilight looked on warily of her. “…thanks.”

“No really it is.” Adiago insisted. “I could not have come up with a better comeback myself. Enjoy the attention while it last’s because after you lose, no will remember you.”

“Maybe so. But when you lose, no one will ever let you forget it.” Twilight confidently retorted leaving the opposing band stunned.

“Oh, wow, that is a good point.” Sonota spoke earning herself a slap on the back of the head from her leader while watching Twilight lead both teams off and away from the stage while everyone cheers for them.

“Touche.” Uovu complimented while seeing her off before his seemingly friendly wave turn into crossed arms combined with a devious smirk as he witnesses the sharp-dressed men follow after them.

These four men pursed the teens into the hallway with fast power walking strides as they caught up to them.

“Excuse me, kids. Hold up for a second.” Their leader spoke causing them to stop in their tracks rather shocked and surprised upon seeing stern and serious faces approaching them.

“Is there something we can help you with?” Sunset worryingly asked if everything’s okay or not.

“And who are you people?” Kion added as he also asked feeling intimidated by these men as the lead man pulled his shades and revealed his face.

“That’s a very good question, young man.” A female voice similar to Shenzi spoke up while removing her shades to reveal her face as she emerged from the shadowed portion of the hallway. “What do you think Banzai?”

“Oh I don’t know, Shenzi…” Banzai spoke feeling rather entertained before turning to the other man standing and walking beside him. “What do you think Ed?” Much like the hyena back in the other world he giggled manically while looking on with his crazed up eyes. “Just what I was thinking, two wonderful groups of musicians and performers…along with one little trouble maker!” He said the last part eyeing the purple haired girl herself.

“Special Agent Askari…” He answered while revealing his slicked back black hair, neon green eyes, and unscarred face, with reddish-orange skin to match his face while he along with the others presented their badges. “…along with my associates, Shenzi, Banzai, and Ed.” No question that this is Scar’s mirror counterpart along with the former henchman back in the other world only they are federal officers in this world. Much like in the other world his eyes were locked on Twilight Sparkle himself and it wasn’t a good look for her. “And in the name of Secret Service, Twilight Sparkle, we’ve come for you and you’re under arrest.”

Twilight was shocked to hear of this as she could be so sure she never even committed a crime here. “Arrest?! For what?!”

“Prime suspect in recent reports of magical disturbances around Canterlot High.” He replied just when Shenzi moved to place the cuffs on Twilight’s hands behind her back.

“Along with another suspect seen when there was word of brief lion appearance and rain shower near your home, Sunset Shimmer.” Banzai added while moving to handcuff the equally surprised girl herself. “And from what I’ve been hearing you been up to quite a lot of no good business recently and that’s just the cherry on the cake.”

Ed chuckled wildly in response while loudly licking his lips as everyone else watches on shock at the sight of their dear friends being handcuffed and arrested.

"But you guys..." Kion desperately protested to them like he is about to crack and break down. "...you got it all wrong, Twilight and Sunset are not criminals, the guys and girls with the pendants and badges are the ones you should be after. They're the ones causing the magical disturbance here at this school not them!"

"And what proof do you have to back that up with..." Askari inquired of the boy who can only remain speechless in response. "...along with reports of students grievously injured with deep cuts to the head behind the stage along with neck trauma linked to your band's performances throughout the competition?" Kion still had no counter-response in the face of the pictures of said incidents committed during the competition unless he wants everyone else to take the heat for his and Fuli's actions when Twilight shook her head against speaking up about that last bit. "...I thought so." He then turned his attention back to the girls he now has in custody. "You both have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law.” The lead agent told them as his associates moved to force the two girls to walk away from their friends with Fluttershy having to hold Spike back from risking getting arrested alongside them.

“Twilight?!”

“Sunset?!”

“It’ll be okay girls…” Twilight calmly assured even with all things considered even with Spike crying his eyes out at the sight of his mother / older sister figure being taken away from her. “…I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding. Just stick to the mission.”

Upon hearing what they needed to hear after hearing the commotion the Siren’s leader turned to Trixie’s attention and seeing her still fuming about her loss. “And here's for where we do our part.” She said while gesturing the girls to follow after her. “Follow my lead girls."

"This is a travesty! A travesty!” She raged just when the Siren’s approached her.

"It really is!" Adagio said in the most fake sincere matter she could do. "The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts don't deserve to be in the finals. Not when your band was so much better in the semis."

"And wanted it so much more." Aria added. "Alas, this is the way it's going to be. Dazzlings and Wild Ones vs. Lightning Bolts and Rainbooms."

Sonata stepped in and added herself. "Unless, of course, neither the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts don't manage to make it to their set or held up for some reason."

And that’s what Trixie’s mind intrigued ready to listen and do what she has to do in order to ensure that happens, the way she wants things to go down.
> Dirty Tricks, Showdown, and Interrogation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dirty Tricks, Showdown, and Interrogation






That afternoon, the girls were rehearsing at the stadium where the contest would be held. While the others were readying their instruments, some were already filled with great worry over both Twilight and Sunset.

“What are we going to do about Twilight?”

“And Sunset? Poor girls must be terrified already in custody?!”

Both Fluttershy and Rarity asked everyone else.

“With who knows what those Secret Service Agents are doing to them right now?!” Ono nervously brought up with the agent leader’s dreaded reputation shivering through his skin.

“I’m sure they’ll be all right.” Fuli assured. “They’re both tough and can handle a few hard-hitting questions no problem.” She thought to herself thinking mostly Twilight could. “I think.”

“Fuli’s right.” Kion agreed. “We just need to focus on preparing for the upcoming show.”

“But we need both Twilight and Sunset if we’re going to perform the counter-spell together!” Bunga pointed out.

“Yeah, how are we supposed to do it without them even here?” Other Bunga added in agreement.

As bizarre as it is hearing it from Bunga of all people, they both did have a point. Without both Twilight and Sunset to back them up, they have no chance of standing against both the Dazzlings and Wild Ones.

After pondering it for a bit, Kion decided with one of the only other options he can think of. “We fight them, the way we did with Sunset Shimmer.”

“Really? Are you sure about that Kion?” Applejack voiced not too keen to agree with the idea itself. “Even after what they did to you the other day?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you didn’t have one too many apple ciders last night?” Rainbow asked as if he is being crazy now.

“No.” Kion looked at her seriously to assert that he is not. “I mean I take four other friends to confront the Wild Ones to keep them from joining forces with the Sirens. That way and hopefully we can buy both Twilight and Sunset time to get here before they join forces with the Sirens.”

“Oh, okay!”

“Thank makes sense!”

Both Bunga’s realized.

“But we are going to fight them anyways are we?”

“Heck ya!”

Sure and true to form, the Lion Guard’s human counterparts were quick to side with Kion on the matter.

“Very well I’m in.” Fuli declared.

“Me too.”

“I suppose somebody’s got keep a sharp eye on you all.”

“But what about us…” Pinkie started to say before realizing. “…Oooooh! Right get ready for the upcoming performance tonight. Got it!” He then saluted to Kion. “We won’t let you down sir, ma’am, sir!”

Kion just chuckled in amusement knowing full well that Twilight would have done the same if she were here before turning to the rest of his friends willing to join him. “All right Lion Guard, let’s go!”

After half of the team set off leaving the Rainbooms behind, Rainbow Dash was the first to start getting adjusted her microphone so she can herself better. Since Sunset wasn’t around to help monitor the speakers and microphones, Pinkie decided to help take care of it. 

"Check, one, two. Testing, testing…" Rainbow tapped her microphone but her voice was barely heard. Not knowing what she is toying with she flipped the switch on one of the controls. "Testing…!"

Now while Rainbow's voice was now heard, it was a bit too loud and her voice echoed by the microphone's feedback, causing the girls to cover their ears. Pinkiie then quickly Sunset fixed the problem by lowering the switch and smiled nervously and apologetically.

“Whoops! My bad!” She giggled while doing so.

Just then all eyes turned when they saw Trixie approach them along with her two bandmates with their leader looking on with malevolent intent written on her face.

"What are you doing here, Trixie?" Rainbow disdainfully asked. "Pretty sure the losers are supposed to be up there in the cheap seats."

"The Great and Powerful Trixie is the most talented girl at Canterlot High. It is I who deserves to be in the finals. And I will not be denied!" With a snap of her fingers, Trixie's lackeys pulled a lever and a stage door opened up from underneath the Rainbooms, causing them all to scream as they fell. Spike jumped out from behind the large speakers, sinking his teeth into a doggy toy, until he witnessed what happened. Trixie laughed evilly as the stage door closed shut, leaving the Rainbooms trapped inside.

"See you never!"

Spike immediately ran from the scene to find help, meanwhile The Dazzlings witnessed the whole thing. 

Adagio chuckled. "Told you someone would give them a shove."

"She didn't shove them. She pulled a lever." Sonota corrected.

Aria groaned. "Go back to sleep, Sonata."

Adagio face palmed herself in response before rubbing her temples. “I surrounded by idiots!” She muttered to herself before speaking up. “Stop! Talking!” She then smiled knowing that their side of the problem has been taken care of. “And now we await for our friend’s success in dealing with their rescue party.”

“On what?”

“The Wild Ones silly!”

“Oooh! That makes sense! They are wild at fighting.”

“They don’t call them the Wild Ones for nothing.”

Both Aria and Sonota traded.

“They sure aren’t.” Adiago agreed while pulling out her phone to make a quick phone call. “Just listen and learn.”





Upon connecting to her desired contact, Uovu picked up his phone once he heard the ringing from the school track and field stadium.

“Are you going to answer it?” Hifadhi asked.

“Yes…” He moved to answer it to her Adiago’s voice. “…the hyenas are all in tunnel?”

“At the very dead end.” She spoke while raising an index finger to keep Sonota from even saying anything.

“Good. Stay connected and don’t hang up because we have yet to have our pre-concert fun.”

“And here it comes now.” Hidadhi reported when he spotted Kion and the Lightning Bolts approaching them. 

"This should be fun." Kidevu remarked with eager glee upon seeing the serious expressions on their faces.

“Kion, Lightning Bolts, welcome…” Uovu greeted like he is talking to a group of friends. “…we figured you’d stop by to wish us luck sooner or later.”

“Then you’ll know that it’s not in our best interests to wish you the best of luck…especially when it means harming our friends.” Kion assertively stated not buying the whole faux friendly act.

“Now, now, Kion…come on. I would never dream of doing anything like drop them dead.”

“You did what?!” Fuli calmly yet angrily asked like he was serious about that statement.

Before she could advance on him, Nguvo quickly came to his defense with fierce anger on par with Fuli’s when he moved in between them. “He meant having them trapped somewhere where you’ll never find them, ever!”

“And I’m supposed to take an angry little boy seriously?” She asked unintimidated by the boy.

“Yes you are!” He proceeds to try to fire a punch right at her face to which she effortlessly catches her fist before it could even hit her. “Huh? Whoa!” He then gets suddenly thrown aside and sent tumbling across the turf. Upon spitting out the turf and grass, he growled angrily in the girl’s direction. “And now you’re going to pay!”

She adopted a fighting stance ready for that fight. “Bring it.”

“So…” Uovu held up his hands in surrender before he and the others got into stances ready to fight as well. “…that is how it’s going to be?”

“That is how it must be.” Kion returned as they all got ready to fight too and in an instant both sides all charged and leaped into action. 

Nguvo made good on his threat when he another charge at Fuli who simply stood her ground and blocked off every attempted he threw at her. She then quickly went on the offense and connected each and every punch back at him before kicking aside and knocking him unconscious.

However she didn’t have time to smirk victoriously when Kasi quick sprinted over, tripped her up, and then kicked her off of her feet in an instant.

“Oof!” She grunted before being grabbed by the throat and pinned down by her attacker. “Let go of me!”

“Not a chance woman!” He moved to aim his hidden gun right at her face ready to put a bullet through her head.

Kion upon witnessing this growled as he quickly turned and charged right at him. “Hey!” He shouted as he tackled the guy before he could pull the trigger on her. While successful, Kasi had already pulled the trigger and the bullet ended up grazing his right arm causing him to remain laying down and grasping his shot arm in pain.

“Kion!” Fuli gasped as she quickly leaped up and kicked the gun out of his hands and performed another punch to the face to force him backwards. Kasi had to hold up his arms in order to block off the furious girl’s attacks on him as the battle continued to rage on.

Ono moved to take on the guy with the fancy hairstyle who is as cocky as ever while throwing punch after punch at him. It is incredibly one-sided that the former was getting punched in the face with his own fists when under the latter’s control.

“Ow!”

“Why are you hitting yourself?”

“Ow!”

“Why are you hitting yourself?”

“Quit it!”

“Oh, I’m not doing it, you’re doing it to yourself!”

Thankfully that moment of arrogance allowed Ono to manage to throw an elbow right in the guy’s gut before landing a backhanded punch to the face to force him to remove his grip. Upon seeing Ono moved to advance on him had him now moving to try to take him down all while forgoing the gloating.

Both Bunga’s moved to deal with both Kidevu and Hifadhi who are trying to give him a hard time but is seemingly blowing by them without much effort. “Ha.” Equestrian Bunga scoffed while doing back flips and repeatedly dodging the former’s hand-to-hand punches.

“Can’t touch us!” The other Bunga further taunted while taking on the latter.

At this point Kidevu was starting to get frustrated and a little winded due to having a good ten years over every other member of the team. For a guy pushing in his fifties, age certainly is starting to catch up to him when his Bunga started landing hits on him from his face, gut, and knees. 

Hifadhi caught attention to this just when the other Bunga managed land a finishing blow on Kidevu causing him to pass out when he landed flat on his back. Seeing this he moved to quickly grab the Bunga he is currently dealing with by the wrist and then used his body to ram the other Bunga on the side causing him to stumble and fall down to the ground.

Even though he felt a little winded by that blindside attack he quickly flipped and used his feet to trap his attacker’s arms before he could take advantage of it. Before he could react the guy wound up getting slammed repeatedly onto the floor from side to side leaving him no time to recover and regain his ground.

And of course the Wild Ones leader is now duking it out with the Lion Guard’s Strongest and it is so far an evenly matched between the two. So far the two have been in a brawler lock for a good couple minutes trying to outwrestle each other. Not one of them had the edge up until Beshte was able to lean his opponent back and forced to stumble backwards allowing him an opportunity to tackle and pin him to the ground. 

Uovu quickly forced Beshte off of him when he managed to punch him in the face twice followed by a spinning kick to get stumbling backwards onto his back. Beshte was quick to tumble to the side so he can stand up without getting pinned to the floor allowing himself to regain his ground before they locked arms again. 

So far so good for Beshte…up until Uovu kicked him square in the gut leaving him little time to recover when he pinned him to the ground and then performed a painful headlock on him that knocked him out cold (while not outright killing him.)

“No!” Kion screamed while standing up to his feet while still clutching his arm in pain. By then the rest of his team were already subdued into submission by the remaining team that hadn’t been beaten yet.

After a struggle Kasi was able to swiftly take down Fuli while Mywene Kuona was able to take down Ono. At the same time Hidafu was able to reverse the body slamming beat-down on both Bunga’s before having both of them slam into each other’s faces to knock them out silly to cap their fight off.

“Zuka…

“…Zuma…”

They each uttered before passing out.

Upon glancing at every single defeated member of his team having taken down, Kion then looked back at the ruthless leader of the Wild Ones with pure rage before charging and tackling the guy to the ground. 

Uovu was able to flip over and reverse pinned the boy to the ground after punching his shot arm. Kion screamed in pain as he finds himself gripped by the neck. Luckily, Kion was able to kick the man off of him causing him to tumble and take a few hard hits to the side as he hit the ground.

Uovu groaned a little before shaking it off and reached out for Kasi’s dropped gun. Kion however was able to quickly snatch the gun away before aiming it right at his face. Even when he is unable to snatch it away without getting shot dead, he still looked on bravely in the face of raging boy about to snap.

“Go ahead, shoot me!” He tauntingly chuckled while his opponent now hesitated to pull the trigger and end this man’s life. “Be a man!” He further laughed in a triumphantly manner before the boy moved to give into his anger and placed the gun right on his neck. With the guy dead to rights, he gave in and pulled the trigger…

…only nothing happened.

“What?!” Kion looked at the gun completely stunned as he looked inside and realized there were no bullets inside of it. 

And to top it off, it was the opening Uovu was looking for as he moved to punch Kion square in the jaw causing him to collapse to his knees, thus leaving him defeated and at his mercy.

“But how…?” Kion could only say as he is hoisted up in the air when the Wild One’s leader hoisted up to his eye level.

“Did you honestly think that I would have one of men carry a fully loaded gun onto the school premises?” He asked like he actually believed that. “While that’s true you would, but unlike other’s I’m not dumb enough to allow a gun full of ammo to fall into the wrong hands. That’s like throwing your life away over a careless mistake towards your enemies.” As he talked Kasi handed him one of the bullets for his gun he kept in his jacket pocket. Once handed the bullet he briefly opened it so he can place the bullet inside it allowing him to have an armed gun in the boy’s face. “Back in the day when we were Secret Service Agents we were trained to be able to take down our enemies with only one bullet.” While cocking the gun ready to shoot him dead if he tried anything on him. “Much like the legend of the famous yet awkwardly entertaining cowboy in the west, it only takes one bullet to do the job whether it’s just you…” He aims the guy while everyone in the group holds up their badges like shields “…or the whole gang.” He aimed his gun right at Hifafdu’s badge which ricocheted off of every one of the gang’s badges before grazing Kion’s hair thus incinerating it and turning him bald again.

All Kion could do was hang his head in defeat just knowing he’s been outwitted and overpowered. And top of that, feeling like a failure due to the fact that he and the others are now at the Wild One’s mercy.

“Are you both okay?” He asked both Nguvo and Kidafu in genuine concern.

“Yes.”

“I’ve been better.”

“Don’t worry. Now that many of our problems have been taken care of, we can now prepare for the big finale of our career. One that will enhance our magic to our fullest potential. By then, no one not Twilight, nor Sunset, and not even Special Agent Askari can stop us.” By then the Dazzlings have arrived on the scene behind him. “All right, not that the Lion Guard here has been dealt with…” He said as he spoke to both teams as the Wild Ones cuffed and gagged each and every one of them. “…we got make sure they are fully secure so they don’t interrupt our concert tonight.” He and Adiago moved to head out together. “…lock them up with the others while we make sure both the principals don’t swing by.”

“Yes, sir.” Kasi replied on behalf of both teams before he and the others moved to carry each and every one on over to the stage where they have the Rainbooms trapped inside.





Meanwhile both Twilight and Sunset were both walking through the hallways of a federal office building while still handcuffed and escorted by the agents who arrested them in secret. Both girls being smart enough to know their rights, didn’t dare say a word as they walked and looked around their surroundings. All they could do right now was just keep whatever they might ask them short and simple, straight to the point hoping whatever punishment they might face is simple light sentence, whatever it is they did.

They were eventually led inside an interrogation room where Askari would lead the girls inside the room while his team went into the room next door before removing the cuffs on both girls. Inside the interrogation room there is a big table where there is plenty of sitting and walking space around it. In front of one side where both Twilight and Sunset are sitting there is glass where they can see the reflection of the whole room around them. What they don’t know is that Askari’s crew can see them and their boss from the other room so they can witness this upcoming interrogation and questionnaire from outside.

“Sit.” Askari ordered of them before pulling out and reading some files he had brought inside so he can go over them. Both girls did as they were told without speaking though still curious and worried over what he is brought them in here for.

“Um, Special Agent Askari…” Twilight said after breaking her silence. “…why are we here, again?”

“Because, I want to ask you two some questions.” He said as he moved to take his seat on the opposite side of the table.

“About…?” Sunset piped up with her tone wanting him to lean on something more specific.

“Like I said, the recent magical disturbances nearby Canterlot High throughout your appearances here.” He open the two files with both girl’s recorded criminal offenses throughout their stay in this world. “And from what I got here, I have heard a great deal about you both.” She then eyes the girl with the red and yellow hair while showing her photos of her being her evil self. “Sunset Shimmer. Treason, Theft, Abuse, Conspiracy, Psychological torment, Torture, Stalking, Slander, Cruel and unusual threats, Blackmail, Property damage, Sabotage, Usurpation, Incrimination, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Attempted destruction, Brainwashing, Attempted murder.” He then turns to Twilight with the similar procedure. “Twilight Sparkle. Arson, Abuse, Conspiracy, High Treason, Abuse of power, Attempted murder, Property damage, Psychological torment, Stalking.”

“But I never did any of those things here.” Twilight pointed out since many of those listed charges are from another world.

“No, but we have you for theft…” Pulls a picture of her pickpocketing money from other people’s wallets. “…along with stalking…” Pulls out another picture of her doing so at school when Kion was first exploring the place. “…and of course the property damage on school grounds.” He added while presenting said photos of her doing so during some of her scuffles in the hallways.

“But how would you know of what or whatever I did in a world you have no jurisdiction over?”

“Because we do our research, that’s why...” He replied. “…Thanks to my men watching your every movement ever since you magically appeared here.”

“But if you knew of what we did then why wait until now to bring us in here and start pressing charges?” Sunset asked feeling confused herself that this is all happening now.

“Because as much as it would be tempting to start filing charges against you both, you girls are not my prime target. These guys are.” He answered before pulling out some more folders containing images of each and every member of the Wild Ones.

“The Wild Ones?!” Both girls asked in unison.

“Correct, girls. Twenty-five years ago back when I first joined the agency, this group of men showed up here after a mysterious source of magic had them appearing here. Given the impressive combat skills they displayed upon when we first met them working on a hit and run case, we scooped them up to join this agency to help take down criminals that threaten the peace of this place. We treated them like equals and allies, and how did they thank us by leaking confidential documents of our battle plans along with taking full credit of our achievements when really they were setting up false flag operations for their heroics in the first place to get themselves into the agency in the first place. We’ve been after them ever since we piled the evidence against them and disappeared before we could file charges against them.”

“Really?”

“They just vanished…” Sunset snapped her fingers. “…just like that.”

“Yes.” Askari nodded as he gathered his files together. “I’ve had this theory that they somehow been drawing magic from another universe maybe two that’s been allowing them to get away with their crimes but I have get concrete evidence to solidify being able to arrest them.”

Upon figuring out where he is heading with this Twilight asked. “And is that why we’re here? To help you get that proof you need to finally catch and incriminate them of their actions?”

“Correct.” He replied as he held up both her and Sunset’s files. “And if you help me do that, I’ll make it worth your while and by that I mean I’ll wave all charges against you and you’ll both be able to go forward with clean slates. As for what else, well depends on how generous I am.” He moved to place both hands over their files ready to rip up them together. “So, will you both help me?”

Both Twilight and Sunset looked at each other briefly before turning back with their answer.

“Of course. I mean they are about to cause a magical catastrophe here and put everyone under their spell.”

“And it’s not like we have another choice. So yeah, we’ll help you out.”

Askari smirked in response to their answer as he pulled out and slid across the table two fully loaded guns on over to the two girls for them to use against their enemies. “A wise decision, my friends. And ultimately the right one if you ask me.”

The three all chuckled together in response as they formed an interesting alliance together in order to take down great and ancient evil lurking and ready to give the performance of their life.
> Ancient Beginnings
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Ancient Beginnings






Many, many years ago back when they were all living in the Pride Lands together, these five lions split apart and traveled across the Pride Lands. They scoped every inch of the kingdom, spotted every animal both big and small, and marked every blade of grass between Pride Rock and the Outlands before getting together just outside of kingdom territory just where the very edge of the rising sun touches the ground.

“Would you look at that…” Kasi spoke to everyone as he looked on in the direction of Pride Rock from the horizon. “…everything the light touches from here…” Eyes where his claws are barely touching the shadows on the ground. “…is this kingdom.”

“I know. It’s surely quite glorious to behold.” Hidafu agreed as they all watched the rising sun shed light over the Pride Lands.

“It sure is.” Mwenye Kuona commented while his eyes were more focused on his reflection and shadow rather that the beautiful sunrise they are all watching.

“Mwenye!” Nguvo snapped while slapping his paw on the back of his hand. “He meant the sunrise! Not your looks!”

“But have you seen me in a mirror lately?”

“Yes! Many times! Too many to count! Too many to want to recall! We get it! You have handsome looks! No need to be all self-absorbed and vain about it!”

“Anyways…” The oldest of the bunch move their conversation forward while voicing his opinion on the matter. “…this kingdom sure is a sight to behold. Plenty of grass to feed many animals, lots of water for everyone to drink, plenty of food to eat. I’m telling you this place is paradise.”

“Yeah…” Kasi agreed before having sinister motives creeping up his mind. “…too good to be left in the old king’s paws, wouldn’t you all agree?”

“Yes, you’re right.” Hidafu agreed first. “I think we need to take matters into our own paws.”

“Like what?” Mwenye curiously asked after snapping out of his self-sighting.

Before Hidafu could elaborate on it, Nguvo quickly jumped the gun with his thoughts. “I think we should take over this place and have the old king kick the bucket. No offense to the old lion himself, but I think it is time for new changes in leadership around here. And I think we are the mightiest and toughest lions for the job.”

Kasi couldn’t agree more with what his short-tempered friend just said. “Indeed we are, my fiery friend…indeed we are.”

“What are you suggesting, Kasi?” Kidafu asked.

“When the sun sets, the king’s time will set along with it and rise with me as the new king…” He said as he and the others moved to drink from the nearby small source of water where they wind up draining it up till there’s nothing left before he continued. “…we cover the king and his boy with a three-sided attack. Nguvo and Kidafu on the left, Mwenye and Hidafu on the right, I’ll cover the middle. If the plan works they will both be gone by morning and we’ll will be in charge of this lush terrain of gold that will be as good as ours for the taking.” He suddenly sees two hyenas who quickly run off ahead and fear of them. He decided to let them go upon seeing that they’ll warn everyone else in the Outlands, before realizing something as he prepares to sprint on over to them. “Hidafu…how many hyenas does it take to send a message?”

Hidafu simply looked on knowing what is about to happen. “One.”

Kasi quickly rushed over to them in record time with only the sounds of yelping heard from afar to his gang as their leader’s message has been made perfectly clear.

Unbeknownst to them, a lion with a sharp sighting for everything around him and afar just happened to be around close enough to witness what is about to happen before deciding to rush off back home to alert his king about this.





Later that night, the gang all split up as they approached Pride Rock. By following Kasi’s plan, all but one approached Pride Rock from the center in the open. The others moved to sneak through the bushes and trees on the side so that their element of surprise isn’t spoiled.

The old king was still sleeping while this is all happening as Kasi looks up and gets a good look at the cave entrance before turning to his Keenest of Sight taking cover giving him a nod in response. That meant it was all clear for him to sneak him so he can ensure that he’ll never wake up again.

With stealth tiptoeing and being very extra careful in taking every full step heading up towards Pride Rock itself he was able to make his way to the entrance. Not a pebble moved, nor a twig snapped, and not even a single claw dragging the ground. He got closer and closer to the target just within a short sprint away. He moved into a pouncing position wanting to be as quiet as possible as he bared his claws ready to pounce on his prey. He then moved to do the fatal pounce when…

POW!

Came from when a large muscular lion appeared out of nowhere and body-slammed him causing him to tumble to the side and waking the king from the commotion.

Kasi was now looking on in shock of what had just happened when he witnesses a band of five heroic looking lions standing before him ready to take him down. Clearly, he wasn't counting on them to be awake at this hour.

“If you’re smart, you’ll stop right now!” The leader firmly stated in a soft tone of voice.

“And if you’re smart…” Kasi returned with a confident expression. “You’ll surrender to me!”

The sharp-minded lion was quick to retort to shoot down that claim. “Not a chance! There are five of us and only one of you!”

Instantly, two of the lions standing were suddenly gasping for air before collapsing in pain while the other two were suddenly tackled and also left gasping for air too.

After pulling their claws out of the lion’s now punctured lungs, the clearly unimpressed Nguvo had this to say. “You were saying?”

“Quite the opposite now.” Kidafu commented as he flicked his claws clean while they all circle the very stunned lion in front of his tired father who can only watch as the four other lions were left taking their last breathes all while surrounded by a growing puddle around them. “Especially since we had to cut into your defensive party quite severely.”

“So what’s it going to be, fearless leader?” Kasi asked. “Stand aside and let us take control of this here kingdom, or die trying because it’s about to get worse if we go that way?”

Without second thought he quickly stated. “I would rather die than let you ruin everything we stand for here!”

“Okay, it’s your funeral.” Kasi accepted it like it’s his loss before rushing over to maul him relentlessly along slashing his claws on his opponent’s face all while tumbling across the stone terrain in a rather one-sided fight. “I can tell you didn’t have too much practice in fighting, huh? Well, guess you should have trained harder in fitting in more time for that!” With one heavy heave the fallen leader winds up having his bashed on the ground.

“No!” The elderly lion tried to leap into the fray only to wind up easily backhanded across the stone floor with Nguvo angrily slaying him while a claw to his heart much to the other defeated lion’s devastated horror.

Kasi upon leaving his sole remaining opponent defenseless moved back so he can leap on over for one final blow to kill him. 

This poor lion really ended up facing with such bad luck but was still desperate and determined not to let these evil lions take this kingdom. So with narrowed eyes and praying to the heavens that he comes out of this alive, prepares to face this decisive attack head on. 

Kasi quickly rushed over at lightning speed just when the defenseless lion gave every last ounce of strength he had into his roar which ended surprisingly sent him flying away. The rest of his team followed suit when they too found themselves forced flying away too.

Once they were all far away, the fierce lion collapsed and succumbed to his injuries with he alone as the sole survivor of his attack. He managed to win, but just barely, and that’s the only thing he could feel. Pain, Misery, Grief, and Relief all rolled in a span of just five minutes and just like that he alone survived to tell the tale of what happened this faithful day.





All of the flying lions had no time to react as they all find themselves hurling towards the sharp rocks in the Outlands, but before they could claim them, the rippled magic from the power of the Roar wound appeared over them thus they ended up falling into it instead, and landing safely albeit hardly on the ground in another dimension.

After groaning in pain along with rubbing their aching joints, their leader stood up before seeing that he along with his companions are now humans upon seeing that they have new bodies, complete while standing on two legs, seeing the new digits on their hands and feet, and new clothes over their skin. Of all of the now former lions of the bunch who are all left utterly speechless and stunned over of what was almost a near victory for them, to a near-death experience, to a now sudden transportation into a new world like a sudden reset button was suddenly hit.

“What the buck just happened?!” Nguvo angrily exclaimed as he stood up and looked at his new fingers. “And what the buck are these?!”

“For starters…” A teenage Uovu spoke up as he approached the gang looking at each and every one them very intrigued upon spotting them. “…those are fingers, part of your hands. In addition what you are now standing on are your legs. They help you stand up so you can move around in these parts of town which I guessing that none of you have ever done before, huh?”

“Um…no.” Kidevu replied while looking on unsure of how to approach this stranger they just met.

Quickly standing in front of his team’s defense, Kasi moved to stand up while raising a protective hand in front of everyone behind him. “And who are you exactly? And why are you so interested in knowing more about us?”

“You’re right, this is all too sudden. And I’ll properly start by answering your questions.” He apologized before moving to introduce himself. “For starters, my name is Uovu…” He presented his recently acquired military ID and badge. “…a now recent junior agent of the Secret Service. Second, I’d like to make it my business to now every person that comes around these parts of town and by that I mean everything.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Every detail about everyone who you are, what you can do, who your friends and enemies are, where you’re from whether it’s from here, another part of town, or more accurately, from another world.” He eyed the suspicious leader of the band who is quick to pick up of what he is getting at. “In other words, this is not an arrest nor is this a way to pick up a date to dinner, but an invitation to my area of expertise. If my partner and boss both like what they see, it could be the beginning of being the newest probationary officers in just a week alone. And in one to two years if you exceed expectations, you’ll be right where I am right now.” 

As he watches and listens he is slowly making sense yet still looking for reason why would they want to join the federal agency until he continued with, “Being able to use the information we are given to use to our advantage and be able to take what we believe is rightfully ours.” He pulled out personal files containing all of the top-secret information anyone could ever get their hands on which got the man’s eyes open and ready to listen to whatever he has to say. 

“Everyone’s got talent and skill capable on tackling great feats on their own, take down anyone, put a whole group with the same skills on par with each other together they can take down the entire world. The way I say it between a smooth operator like myself, a speedy and quick thinker like yourself, along with the brute, the handsome well-groomer, the muscle, and the wisdom, of everyone here, we are looking at an unstoppable team here.” He presents his hand out hoping that Kasi would shake on it. “What do you say?”

Kasi turned to the rest of his team who all are looking on board with the idea before turning back. “I say…” He moved to shake his hand. “…we’re on board with your proposal and you got yourself a deal.”

“A wise decision my friend.” He smiled before spotting the nearby school parking lot. “And here is your first assignment…” He presented everyone gasoline, propane, lighters, matches, and protective shield masks to which every was quick to obtain the supplies as they prepare to carry out this devious and wicked deed to attract attention while he prepares to dial his phone ready to call the fire department.

From there it was the start of a remarkable friendship between them as they spent the following twenty-five years using the information from the federal agency to commit various crimes along with eluding the authorities along the way. All while they await for the perfect opportunity to pounce on them that’ll allow them to uncover and unlock the hidden power from the world where Kasi and the others came from so that they can use it to take control of this world and maybe someday be able to return to the Pride Lands so they can reclaim with their newfound invincibility.

It wasn’t until they’ve heard reports of Sunset Shimmer, along with Twilight Sparkle, Kion, Bunga, and Spike’s sudden appearances into this world that had them personally investigating the school that they were able to make better connections to how can start drawing magic in their new world. It wasn’t until they stumbled across the Dazzling’s hopping on over between fast-food restaurants and grumbling over their banishment from another world to here. did they really start investing in another alliance. It came at a perfect time since they just heard about the Battle for the Bands just before meeting them because otherwise they would have been able to work out a proper negotiation out of it.





In the present day, both teams were now both remembering of what they whenever from the recent days between them along with the recent years the Wild Ones themselves now refer to themselves went through ever since they met. To think they wouldn’t be in a position where they would be able to draw another magical power just days to twenty-five years ago in this world to which in both the Pride Lands and Equestria is now ancient history back then. Now they are all about to tackle the final step of their journey with the upcoming Finals in the band competition coming and with both the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts locked away long enough that by the time Secret Service connects the dots with both Twilight and Sunset it’ll be too late.

It was in the Wild One’s interest to want to be able to kill them on the spot, but of course given that it is school grounds, along with already having Secret Service’s Senior Agent and team leader Askari hunting them down, they couldn’t afford attracting unwanted attention and getting a country-wide manhunt in their direction just before they can enact their grand plan. But with the way things have been going their thus far, they feel they are in the clear to move forward. They have come this far to get the final stretch towards the finish line right in front of them, it’s too late to turn back.

Just then both Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna came over with friendly faces to remind them of something important.

“Almost time for the Finals to begin.”

“So if want to get dressed and ready. Now is the time to do it since the competition begins in an hour.”

“Of course.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Both Uovu and Kasi kindly returned before they went their separate ways from the heads of the school, and headed on over to the nearby dressing room so they can both join their friends in getting ready.

“Dressing room...?” Kidevu spoke sounding surprised to hear that from outside before realizing. “…Uh oh.”

Both Uovu and Kasi having heard of this quickly moved to get some rubber gloves and trash bags so they can properly clean this up before anything else can happen.

Kasi sighed knowing his friend of the bunch. “I told him not have that prune smoothie before the competition.”

“It’ll be okay, as long as we freshen up in there before anyone else notices and by then it’ll be too late. With the competition only an hour away we are just one performance away from our victory dance.”

“And soon all of the power in the universe?”

“Exactly!”

“Wow! Hard to believe that it’s been exactly twenty-five years since we met.”

“I know. Seems only yesterday that was a special agent for Secret Service.”

“Um, that was almost a year ago, and before we had to resign before their top agent Askari could arrest us.”

“My point exactly so, shall we get ready to give everyone outside a performance they’ll never forget?”

“Let’s.”
> Battle of the Bands
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Battle of the Bands






That night, the Finals began with Trixie and her band competing in light of the Rainboom’s and Lightning Bolts absence with Trixie was singing with her band-mates on stage in their place.

“Ya better believe

I got tricks up my sleeve

And I captivate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat.”

The Illusions.

“Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh-oh.”

Trixie.

“Ya better believe

I got tricks up my sleeve

See me dominate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat.”

The Illusions.

“Oh, whoa, oh oh oh oh.”

Just outside of the school, Askari pulled his car out to the front parking lot where he allowed both Twilight and Sunset to exit the car before he and his team emerged to follow after them while many more cars and agents from Secret Service all following suit.

Just as they approached the school they heard the crowd of cheering while hearing Trixie’s band play all nearby.

“The final competition has already started.”

“And both the Sirens and Wild Ones are about to go onstage.”

Both Twilight and Sunset shared with each other.

“Then we need to get to your friends! And fast!” Askari urgently stated as he took the lead in heading on over to the stadium where the huge crowd is standing before the stage.

Just then they heard a voice call out to them. “Twilight!” Spike quickly rushed over to them.

The trio quickly pointed their guns at him.

“Freeze!”

“Federal agents!”

“Gah!” Spike screamed and whimpered with his heart rate spiking upon seeing the guns pointed in his direction.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Sunset quickly pushed their guns down as Twilight quickly rushed over and scooped him up before they could hurt him.

“Hold your fire!” Twilight shouted as she held up a hand to get them to stop where they are. “He’s my friend! He’s on our side!”

The two men and woman unsure whether to pull the trigger or not turned to their leader who looked on seriously and sternly shook his head against pulling the trigger. So they all lowered their guns for the moment.

“Sorry about that.” Twilight said as she moved to calm her most loyal assistant and little brother/son like figure in her arms. “Are you okay?”

“What is this?!” Spike asked still in shock that the federal officers nearly shot him and are on their side. “Weren’t you both just arrested by them?!”

“We were.” She answered. “But then they let us go.”

“Why?!”

“Because it turns out the Wild Ones are the most wanted fugitives in the country and they are their primary concern since they have a deep history with them.”

“Meaning that if we help them take them down, we go forward with clean slates. Everything we have done in the past gets stricken from the record.” Sunset added before asking to which Spike nodded feeling that makes sense and sounds reasonable. “Now where are Kion and the others?”

“Both the Wild Ones and Dazzlings happened! The girls had Trixie trap them inside the stage while the guys took down Kion and the others!” Spike urgently explained. “And up until now did I figure out that these guys are former federal agents.”

“How did you figure that out?”

“When they performed some K.O. trick shot with a gun…with only one bullet!”

“The old Rango shot.” Askari confirmed. “An old wild western trick that had only been executed by only one person many, many years ago, which remained an urban legend up until Uovu and his gang mastered it.” He then looked on towards the crowd where green mist is emerging from everyone seen from afar. “And now that they are drawing magic from the whole restless crowd they are all about to enact their endgame. With enough magic at their disposal they’ve have enough power to force all of the world’s leaders into surrendering themselves to them.”

“Then we better get moving!” Twilight stated.

“Agreed.”

With time running out Askari led everyone into the crowd so they can free the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts in order to have a fighting chance in stopping a now world-wide threat.





Said bands are still trapped inside under the stage. Luckily for the team with bruises, the Rainbooms were able to remove the binds from their wrists thanks to Rarity having a personal lock trick handy but that was about it. By then they had already given up trying to escape their confinement. 

All but one, Rainbow Dash who is continuously slamming herself against the door, in a futile effort to break it down. She ended up grunting and rubbing her sore arm after reaching her pain tolerance.

At this point Applejack spoke up to get her to stop before she hurts herself. "Give it up, Rainbow Dash. You've been tryin' at this for hours. It's not gonna open."

Kion after having his cuffs removed moved to stand up with a struggle due to the beating he took in along with his injured arm. “Ow.” He grunted before speaking his mind. “Maybe it doesn't even matter that we're trapped down here. I don't think the counter-spell would have worked anyway."

Applejack tried to encourage her, "Of course it would have worked, Kion." Her attitude did an immediate 180 in Rainbow’s direction. "Assumin' a certain band member didn't try to hog the spotlight the whole time we were tryin' to play it!"

"Hey! If you wanna tell Kion and Twilight that getting a little too caught up trying to be the new leader of this band, you don't have to be all cryptic about it."

"She was talking about you, Rainbow Dash!" Rarity corrected with her temper rising as she stood up tall with crossing her arms and gritted teeth.

"Me?! I'm just trying to make sure my band rocks as hard as it needs to!"

"OUR BAND!!" the other girls exclaimed in unison, causing Rainbow's hair to straighten out behind her.

Kion stumbled as he collapsed to the ground due to the sudden and very vocal outburst by the girls and ended up falling onto his side.

“Kion!” Fuli exclaimed in worry as she and Beshte quickly rushed over to tend to the poor boy groaning and struggling to get up.

“You okay?” Beshte asked in concern.

“No.” He still hung his head even when helped up to his feet. “I’m not.”

“Why?” Ono asked as he examined the boys injuries with a medical book he had handy with a pair of reading glasses.

“Aside from the injuries, this is all a lost fight. The counter-spell doesn’t have what it takes to break the spell the Wild Ones and Dazzlings have over everyone. Twilight and Sunset are both arrested and facing charges for whatever they did here in the past. And to top it off we wind up getting our butts kicked by a group of highly-trained former federal officers who are now seeking to doom this world alongside those girls.” Kion could only bury his hands into his face unable to even mention his now bald head like he is about to cry for his failures while his Lion Guard mirror counterparts look on in pity.

At the same time the girls continued their arguing, starting with both Applejack and Rainbow Dash.

"It might've been your idea to start a band, but it's not just your band, Rainbow Dash!"

"I'm the one who writes all the songs!"

"I write songs!" Fluttershy interjected angrily. "You just never let us play any of them!"

"I had the most perfect outfits for us to wear!" Rarity chimed in.

"Again with the costumes!" Applejack exclaimed in annoyance. "No one cares what we're wearin'!"

"I care, Applejack! So sorry if I enjoy trying to make a creative contribution to the band!"

Pinkie Pie came in between the two bickering groups, "Hey! Anybody here remember fun?! I'll give you a hint: It's the exact opposite of being in the Rainbooms!"

"I wish I never asked any of you to be in my band!" Rainbow also exclaimed angrily.

Rarity also yelled out, "I wish I'd never agreed to be in it!!!!"

"Me neither!" Fluttershy and Applejack also agreed in unison.

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all continued arguing with one another, when suddenly Kion and Ono noticed something terrible.

“Hapana!”

“Hevi Kabisa!”

The five girls were starting to emit a green colored aura which was rising upwards fading through onto the stage above. The more they argued, the stronger the auras became much like everyone else in school.





Meanwhile the others outside looking for them where following after Askari and his team who forced their way through the crowd.

“Federal agents!”

“Come on! Get out of the way!”

“Move it!”

Three out of four shouted to the exasperated and distracted crowd cheering on Trixie and her band just as they were finishing up their song.

Trixie.

“Ya better believe

I got tricks up my sleeve

See me dominate

'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat!”

Fireworks shot upwards, exploding into a stunning display to which the crows paid more attention then getting shoved aside by the urgent crowd trying to get through.

“Man what is wrong with these people?!” Banzai grumbled. “I know they are under a spell but come on!”

From behind the stage, the Dazzlings and Wild Ones both awaited their turn. Sonata along with Mwenye Kuona enjoyed the show, Adagio, Uovu, Kasi, and Hifadhi were simply smiling contently, while Aria simply looked on bored while Nguvo looked on angrily as always and Kidevu just looked on weary and acting like his age. 

They were all wearing new outfits for the occasion.

Adagio wore a purple knee-length underdress with dark purple triangles on the chest and abdomen. A purple vest with short sleeves, sparkles, and a dark purple collar with gold studs, a matching poofy overskirt held in place with her own signature golden belt with the gem as a belt buckle, her signature dark purple headband with spikes, a golden bracelet and spiked wristband on each wrist. Purple high-heeled boots wrapped in two dark purple belts each with triangle designs on them.

Aria wore a dark purple top with sparkles on the chest, a green skirt that reached a few inches above the knees in the front but ended mid-calves in the back. Two wrist warmers with green and white stripes, Green and white striped stockings that reached mid-calf, Dark purple heels reaching a few inches below the stockings with her whole Cutie Mark on the front.

Sonata's outfit was a purple top with horizontal dark purple stripes and a dark purple tie on the front with sparkles, a dark purple skirt with an artic blue waistline with her whole cutie mark on the right side. Two dark purple wrist warmers with sparkles, and purple futuristic-styled, knee-high boots with dark purple coloring on the soles and the top lining with three artic-blue straps on each one.

The guys all wore tuxedos with various colors to go and fit with their personalites.

Uovu wore a dark red tuxedo with a black bowtie and matching dress shoes, Kasi wore an orange tuxedo with black stripes on the side, along with a matching colored bowtie and dress shoes, Nguvo wore a yellow tuxedo with a black bowtie and matching shoes, Kidefu’s was a white tuxedo with a matching white bowtie and matching shoes with a white sombrero on his head, Hidafu’s tuxedo was black with a red and gold colored bowtie and vest, and Mwyene Kuona’s wore sky blue jacket with black dress pants, a sky blue bowtie, and black dress shoes.

Trixie and her band-mates walked pass them, smiling smugly, "Try to top that!" 

Adagio spoke sarcastically, "Oh, gosh! I don't know if we can!"

“You all looked so powerful and convincing on stage…for arrogant amateurs.” Uovu added rather mockingly as they walked by before noticing the green mist emitting from the stage door where the Rainbooms were being held as prisoners. They both nodded knowing their plan had worked.

By then unnoticed, the others had finally managed to get by the crowd and up towards the front where they all noticed and found where the green mist is coming from this time.

Upon witnessing it Sunset realized exactly what their endgame plan was and what is really happening. “So that’s what they’re after!”

“Which means they have already started!” Askari urgently stated before turning to his men. “You three, find someone not under the Siren’s spell and get us some powerful audio equipment because from the looks of it, we’re in for a powerful musical battle ahead of us!” The three men nodded in response before they set out.

“Wait!” Twilight called after them to get them to stop where they are. “Take Spike too! You’ll need his help!”

“Really?” Banzai spoke up surprised at the idea.

“Yes really.” Twilight replied still looking on seriously. “Trust me when I tell you that this dog’s got more bite than bark and knows every face in this school.”

“Of course, Twilight.” Shenzi replied deciding to respect her wishes when the dog moved to join them.

“And don’t shoot him!” Twilight called after them while she, Sunset, and Askari rushed over to where they friends are currently being trapped inside.

“We won’t!” Shenzi assured before they split up from their leader who went after both Twilight and Sunset.

Just then music started to play with that particular green mist covering the stage, and the Dazzlings and Wild Ones all walked out, their pendants and badges glowing brightly.

The Dazzlings.

“Aaaaahhhh

Ah, ah, aaaaaaaahhhhhhh

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Bum, bum

Bum, bum,

Bum, bum, bum.

Ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah

Ah, ah, ah.

Bum, bum

Bum, bum,

Bum, bum, bum.”

Upon arriving at the door where the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts are located they find that the door is locked on the outside too.

“Stand back!” Askari ordered as he aimed his gun at the door. Given that the crowd is too enhanced and enamored with the loud music the Dazzlings and the Wild Ones have produced over everyone’s ears, the sound of the gunshot was drowned when it blasted the door knob off. And with a swift kick by his powerful foot he was able to break the door down all while startling everyone.

Sunset moved to shout at the girls to get them to stop their bickering before it could continue to rage on. “Stop! You have to stop! This is what they've been after all along! They're feeding off of the magic inside you!"

"How can they be using our magic?" Applejack asked in confusion even with the pegging question about the federal agents accompanying them. "It's the magic of friendship."

Sunset gaining the courage to speak her mind stepped forward to explain.

"Ever since you started this band, you've been letting little things get to you. I never said anything 'cause I didn't feel like it was my place. Not when I'm so new to this whole "friendship" thing. I still have a lot to learn. But I do know that if you don't work out even the smallest problems right at the start, the magic of friendship can be turned into something else."

The girls did not say a word in to assert otherwise because immediately they knew she was right. They had been letting small things get between them, without even talking about it. They could all only feel very guilty and ashamed upon just knowing of how much they played right into their hands from the start.

It was also where Twilight came to a realization. For her efforts in trying to prove herself a redeemed girl, she also had been neglecting her friends, both here and back home. Now she was left feeling ashamed herself considering that this is what Kion had been trying to tell her recently and that she was too into her self-loathing and icy attitude to even see that even while reformed.

"I can't believe all this tension was happening right under my nose and I didn't realize it. I've been so caught up with trying to redeem myself I ended up ignoring how I was feeling because I was scared of turning into someone I briefly became back home. And because of that, all I've done since I got here was let you down. I'm supposed to be the one with all the answers."

And that was when Sunset remembered what her friends had recently said to her before they both got arrested. "I don't think anyone is supposed to have all the answers. But you can count on your friends to help you find them." The rest of the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts all smiled in agreement. "And Twilight, I understand what it's like to be constantly rejected by your peers after a traumatic experience. It can be quite a struggle that you never know how to go on about it until you hear from someone trying to help you after hearing you out.”

Twilight turned to Kion who smiled in return before bringing him in for a tight hug along with placing more of her hair formula on his head as thanks for not giving up on her. And just in an instant, Kion’s hair returned to its previous state.

“How did you…?” Fuli asked as she looked on surprised.

“Ah, Ah, Ah…” Twilight replied while waggling a finger and smirking. “A good magician never reveals her secrets.”

Ono quickly whispered in Fuli’s ear. “Especially considering there are complex compounds involved in that hair formula and it needs to be done just right.”

“Got it.”

Askari looked on the scene with pride at the heartwarming reunion just when Spike arrived on the scene and leaped in on the group hug alongside Equestria Bunga.

“Ahem…” He spoke up to get everyone’s attention. “…now that we are all reunited and got all that is needed to be said out of our systems, shall we get on saving the world and all of that good stuff?”

“I don’t know Scar…I mean Askari…” Kion spoke up unsure of how to answer that given that he had just previously arrested them a day ago and is so used to seeing his Pride Lands counterpart as a dangerous and evil arch-enemy. “…question is are you on our side now?”

“Yes.” He nodded not taking offense to the boy’s response just when his team arrived at the doorway. “And so are they.” He gestured to them along with the human counterpart of Vinyl Scratch. “Who is for the record not under the Siren and Wild One’s spell.”

"Why isn't she under their spell?"

"Never takes off her headphones." Spike answered as Vinyl gave a thumbs up to confirm it.

Kion turned to Twilight and Sunset still unsure of what to make what had just happened while he and the others were trapped inside here who also are trying to comprehend the sudden 180 from their disappearance to reunion.

“It’s okay, we can trust them.”

“And we’ll explain the whole story later after we stop the Sirens and Wild Ones.”

“I couldn’t have agreed more!” Applejack moved to speak up in agreement ready to take action. “Come on, y'all! Time to prove we've still got the magic of friendship inside us!"

"And there's only one way to do it!" Twilight confidently stated.

"We're getting the band back together?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly and hopeful that’s the answer.

"We're getting our band back together!" Rainbow Dash replied, having finally learned a lesson in humility and teamwork.

Pinkie Pie cheered happily, "Whee!"

"Ooh, which version of the counter-spell are we going to play?" Rarity asked.

Twilight Sparkle smiled in response. "I don't think it matters what song we play, as long as we play it together. As friends."

"I know just the song." Rainbow stated, with the others all looking at one another with concern thinking she meant one of her own songs again, at least until she walked over to the other band’s songwriter. "Fluttershy's written a really great one." Hearing this had the delighted girl smiling with glee. 

"We're about to save the world here." Applejack began, "Personally, I think we should do it in style. Rarity?" She asked taking her respect towards the girl’s desire for fashion to heart as much as Rainbow learned her lesson.

Rarity was deeply touched hearing this much like Fluttershy, "I thought you'd never ask!" she immediately pulled out a clothing rank, already with their beautiful multi-colored rainbow themed outfits. "I even have one just for Fuli along with special suits for the guys!"

The Lightning Bolts even Fuli smiled at what she had prepared for them. Much like her Pride Land’s counterpart she does have a sense of girly fashion every now and then.

“How does she…?” Banzai whisper asked his boss.

“Rule 24…” He replied with a raised finger. “…never ever question the wonders of a fashionista.”

“But what about the one where you ask for help?”

“Rule 28.”

“Oh, right.”





On stage, The Dazzlings and Wild Ones continued their vocalizing while the students all watched the performance. This was their time to shine.

“Their time…

To rule.”

Adagio.

“Welcome to the show

We're here to let you know

Our time is now.”

The Dazzlings.

Your time is running out.”

From above a hilltop, overlooking the stage and audience, The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts were already wearing their outfits, the midnight wind bellowing their skirts, suits, and hair.

Twilight wore a dress with a blue sleeveless top, with a high collar, a yellow star on the chest, pink skirt reaching near the knees more so on the back more than the front, and two dark purple belts along the waist. Stockings and heeled shoes were both yellow and blue. The left leg was blue and the right was yellow with stars on the shoes and side of the heels.

Applejack wore a country styled top colored apple-green top with red swirl designs and buttons. A gold-colored skirt with pink apples and blue dreads at the edge of the skirt. A dark brown belt was draped on Applejack's waist with a blue belt buckle with two blue hearts attached. Stocking were both red and green with the left leg is red, right leg is green. In addition she also wore gold heel shoes and a red cowgirl hat.

Fluttershy had a dark-purple top with a green and black butterfly design over the chest, and a green skirt with black stripes with purple butterflies on it. Stockings were both dark purple and bright pink. Left leg was pink, right leg was purple. In addition she wore green sandals with matching straps around the front of the feet and ankles.

Pinkie Pie had a sleeveless dress that consists of a pink sleeveless top with a blue heart in the chest area. A blue skirt with yellow, pink and blue colored balloons decorated on it. Stockings were both dark pink and dark purple. Left leg was purple, right leg was pink. Much like Fluttershy she wore similar sandals that were blue with yellow hearts on the front straps and pink hearts outlined in blue are on the sides of the soles of each boot.

Rarity had on a sleeveless, pink vest with a thin black diamond blue belt around the waist, along with another diamond blue star on her right chest strap. Her skirt was also pink to match her vest that also had blue diamonds and musical notes with heart designs. Her stockings were blue and pink. Left leg was pink, right leg was blue. In addition she also wore high-heeled sandals that were both pink and blue, left and right with blue diamonds on top of the soles at the edge of her shoes.

Rainbow Dash wore a sleeveless, blue vest with a black stripe going around the waist and a yellow lightning bolt on her left shoulder. Her blue skirt has rainbow-colored lightning bolts along with black lightning bolts on it. Stockings were both green and yellow. Left leg was yellow, right leg was green. In addition she wore blue heels, that hady unzipped black zippers, and  yellow lightning bolts on each side of each shoe.

Fuli’s outfit consisted of a yellow sleeveless top with black spots on it, a green belt, and a yellow skirt with black stripes on it, yellow and black stockings, with left being yellow and right being black. In addition yellow heels with black cheetah imprints on the front and sides with a black cheetah shaped diamond on her right shoulder strap.

The guys all wore similar tuxedos similar to the guys on stage.

Kion wore a golden yellow one with a red bow tie and red dress shoes, Equestrian Bunga wore an indigo blue one with black dress shoes and a matching bow tie and top hot, while Canterlot Bunga wore a black tuxedo with an indigo colored bowtie and matching shoes and top hat. Beshte wore a bright blue tuxedo with a matching bowtie and shoes, while Ono wore a white tuxedo with an orange bowtie and matching shoes.

"How are we supposed to play over them from up here?" Rainbow asked just when she heard honking noises and saw Vinyl arrive in her white car, and with the push of a button, it converted into a portable DJ station, complete with speakers.

Fuli smirked in her direction. “Does that answer your question?”

“Yep.”

Down below, the Sirens and Wild One's spell began taking full effect as their badges and pendants glowed brighter than before with every student down below under their strong and enhancing spell with tranced gazes in their direction.

The Wild Ones.

“Feel the wave of sound

As it crashes down

You can't turn away

We'll make you wanna stay.”

The three were lifted up into the air as red sparkling swirls emitted from the gems, surrounded in a magical aura as their hair grew longer, resembling tails and pony ears grew on their head. But, unlike Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, their wings were translucent and shaped in the form of bat wings. Adagio's were purple, Aria's were light green while Sonata's were light pink. They had gained their own warped forms by absorbing the magic from the Rainbooms.

At the same time thanks to the magic they absorbed from their physical fight with the Lightning Bolts, the Wild Ones started to grow razor sharp teeth similar to their lion forms along with razor sharp claws, and their hair forming to shape up like they did when they were lions back in the Pride Lands, all while harnessing the magical power within their blood and hands.

The Wild Ones.

“We will be adored

Tell us that you want us

We won't be ignored

It's time for our reward

Now you need us

Come and heed us

Nothing can stop us now.”

Suddenly, they all stopped singing and winced when drums and music were heard from afar, but loud enough for them to hear. Aria pointed forward and both Uovu and Adagio saw the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts singing loudly and beautifully with Kion and Twilight on lead vocals. In addition Askari and his team were standing by their side ready to arrest them alongside the rest of the force all positioned and surrounding the entire school grounds and in position to advance on them when the time is right.

“This can’t be!” Nguvo angrily exclaimed. “The alicorn princess still around with the cops on their side!”

“That changes nothing!” Uovu looked on still not backing down nor showing fear in the face of his enemies as their opponents started singing.

The Rainbooms.

“Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh

I've got the music in me

Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh.”

Kion.

“Don't need to hear a crowd

Cheering out my name.”

Twilight.

“I didn't come here seeking

Infamy or fame.”

As the boys and girls all sang, the students could feel themselves breaking free from the Sirens and Wild One's hold.

The Lightning Bolts.

“The one and only thing

That I am here to bring

Is music, is the music

Is the music in my soul.”

As their music grew louder, their magic grew stronger. One by one, their outfits gained sparkles and multicolored streaks appeared across their hair and new forms. Applejack's streaks were red, Rarity's were pink and blue, Fluttershy's pink and lime green, and Pinkie's were purple and blue, all the streaks matched their cloths perfectly.

Kion gained bright yellow streaks on his hair and grown longer to represent his father’s mane back in the other world while Twilght had her hair gain pink and light blue streaks. Both of them had red and purple wings appearing from their backs too while they sang.

“Gonna break out

(Out!)

Set myself free, yeah

Let it all go

(Go!)

Just let it be, yeah

Find the music in your heart

Let the music make you start

To set yourself apart.”

Adagio Dazzle smiled wickedly at their attempts to try and beat them at their own game. She found their attempts adorable, but futile in her eyes. Exchanging looks with Uovu and Kasi they all decided to amp up the intensity of their power of their music. 

"So the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts want to turn this into a real Battle of the Bands? Then let's battle!" 

As the Dazzlings and Wild Ones sang again, the students once again fell into their hold.

The Dazzlings.

“What we have in store

All we want and more…”

The Wild Ones.

“We will break on through

Now it's time to finish you!”

The pendants and badges glowed brightly and so did both Uovu and Adagio's eyes, glowing bright blood red. The same happened for the rest of their comrades. Their powers increased and from their gems and badges, they created astral projections of their true siren and lion forms. Adagio's was yellow, Aria's purple and Sonata's was blue. Uovu’s was dark red, Kasi’s was orange, Nguvo’s was yellow, Kidafu’s was green, Mwyene Kuona’s was blue, and Hidafu’s was black.

Neither the Rainbooms nor the Lightning Bolts were expecting this. They all came flying towards them, circling around them like prey waiting to be pounced upon. But neither the Rainbooms nor the Lightning Bolts were not going to go down without a fight. Adagio's siren came hurling down, her mouth open, ready to make the first attack.

Vinyl turned up the volume and Equestrian Bunga along with Pinkie Pie played their drums, with the speakers increasing the volume of the music which repelled both Sonota and Aria away from the incoming fire attack.

Rarity played her keytar alongside Canterlot Bunga, unleashing a diamond-style attack at Aria's siren form while at the same time Fluttershy and Ono unleashed a butterfly-styled attack onto Sonata's siren which both forced the two backwards and away from them.

Twilight and Kion both vocalized with their eyes glowing bright white as they did, their voices creating star and heart shaped symbols aimed at Adagio's siren. But the creature opened its mouth, unleashing a powerful vocal attack, which countered' both Kion and Twilight's. The prince and princess looked up at the creature with pure anger as the former readied himself to use the Roar to counter it.

With his eyes focused and the clouds forming around him, the Lions of the Pride Lands Past roared alongside him as he was able to force the Siren’s away with one strong and mighty push. In addition the Roar was so powerful it forced the girls back and away to the point they slammed their backs against the back of the stage.

Seeing the Sirens have been pushed aside, Uovu decided it was now his time to take matters into his hands and paws.

“Come on men! Let’s show them how it’s done.” Uovu told them before taking lead by flying over the Rainboom and Lightning Bolts heads.

With a strong and dark clouds forming around the skies, black clouds, the former and first bunch of Evil Lions of the Pride Lands Past made their counterattack.

First Nguvo made the first attack by quickly pouncing on Fuli in his lion form and proceeded to unleash the power of his claws on him just when Beshte moved to shove the short-tempered beast away with his strength. While successfully he ended up slumping to the ground in pain due to the force he used to do it.

Extremely angered, Nguvo moved to quickly rush over in a flash and then unleashed a heck of a barrage of claw attacks on him in retaliation.

Quickly coming to his aid, Applejack moved to unleash a powerful blast of magic from her bass to force him away only for Kidevu to suddenly slam into him before slamming and backhanding him into Pinkie’s drum set.

Fuli having recovered tried to come over to help them only for Kasi to quickly pounce on her and placed a paw on her throat to keep her pinned down.

Kion enraged tried to leap onto Kasi only for the latter to kick him away effortlessly with Hidafu swooping up and slamming him down hard on his back along with Ono and Fluttershy who both were too paralyzed with sudden fear to react in time.

With Twilight still standing in her friend’s defense, both Uovu and Kasi looked down with pure malevolent intent as dark black clouds formed the skies allowing him to unleash the dark Roar fueled by the very magic they have summoned throughout their stay here in Canterlot High. 

Said Roar forced everyone backwards and caused everyone to tumble backwards along with cracks created in the fiber tissues of the Earth. In addition the cracks created nearby split the audience apart along with causing craters that lead to some nearby houses in the neighborhood to plummet inside the deep abyss.

And after being forced backwards, Twilight’s microphone flew out of her hands during the impact, rolling down towards Sunset's feet.

The Dazzlings having recovered from the attack stood up just when Uovu laughed triumphantly.

“Even after thirty years here, I still got it! Both on the field and on stage!" Kasi remarked while relishing in his newfound and reawaken powers. 

"You've said it!" Uovu said in agreement and very pleased for his friend.

"And now that my true power has been reawakened, I am now ready to take control of this world.” Adagio's voice spoke thought her siren protection, sounding like a long haunting echo.

Sunset upon picking up the microphone, looked on at the many divided figures in the audience, to the Secret Service agents, along with her friends all struggling to get up.

"Sunset Shimmer, we need you!" Twilight cried out to her.

But she was still hesitant to step up to their aid. All of those faces that have been nothing but looking on with contempt up to this point, she would have no reason to want to step up along with fear of failure and gaining even more contempt.

“You can do this, Sunset!” Kion encouraged.

Sunset turned and looked up at the Sirens and Wild Ones, before looking at both Kion and Twilight and then the Secret Service Agents still having their guns aimed at them. 

“Believe in yourself!” Askari advised with his eyes locked on the targets. “Believe you have what it takes to go up against them!”

Upon hearing all three voices giving her the encouragement as well as seeing that despite their insecurities and fear of going up against opponents when all odds aren’t in their favor, gave Sunset that courage and determination.

“I see…” Uovu remarked upon seeing this from afar. “…wanting to die young and brave in the face of defeat. Let’s finish this shall we…?”

“Let’s!” Everyone all stated in agreement.

The insecurity of her past self haunting her even with her past demons vanquished is no longer in her mindset. She moved to step in front of her friends while preparing to face off against the Sirens and Wild Ones, She removed her jacket as Vinyl turned up the music once again, playing the track of a drum solo. Sunset opened her mouth to sing with all of her heart, confronting both the Sirens and Dazzlings.

Sunset Shimmer;

“You're never gonna bring me down

You're never gonna break this part of me.”

She held Twilight's hand and helped her up, who in return helped Kion up. In return both the prince and princess smiled proudly at their friend for working the courage to come to their aid.

“My friends are here to bring me 'round

Not singing just for popularity.”

The sirens sneered in response feeling that there is still no way they could win. Nevertheless, Kion and Twilight both felt inspired to keep on going, and sang with such power and strength like never before.

Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle and Kion.

“We're here to let you know

That we won't let it go.”

The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts.

“Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow.”

The Sirens and Wild Ones not about to take this lying down, hurled themselves towards the boys and girls, Adagio's siren's mouth was wide open, with a Roar of her own at the ready.

Sunset Shimmer, Twilight Sparkle and Kion.

“And you can try to fight

But we have got the light of friendship on our side!”

Because of Sunset's bravely and selflessness in coming to their aid, she increased the strength in Kion and Twilight's voices, as they sang with all the courage and love within their hearts. With their free hands, Sunset, Korra and Twilight unleashed a combo magical attack, which in return, merged with a rainbow shock-wave that spread across the area, freeing the students and backing the Sirens and Wild Ones away. Everyone’s eyes stopped glowing red as they watched in disbelief what was happening before them.

The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts.

“Got the music in our hearts

We're here to blow this thing apart

And together, we will never

Be afraid of the dark.”

Suddenly, Sunset's body began to glow and rise up. The Magic of Friendship consumed her as a worthy inheritor, with pony ears growing on her head, her hair grew longer, resembling a tail similar to the others, and her cutie mark appeared on her skirt.

The other girls gained beautiful glows around them as they rose up, each of them emitting a colorful light upwards into the sky, Sunset included. The colors all merged together as one and high above their heads as a pair of large sparkly wings emerged from the spear.

“Here to sing our song out loud

Get you dancing with the crowd

As the music of our friendship

Survives

Survives!”

Now, everyone all around was singing to the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts music. Feeling the magic of friendship inside their hearts!

“Got the music in our hearts

We're here to blow this thing apart

And together, we will never

Be afraid of the dark

Here to sing our song out loud

Get you dancing with the crowd

As the music of our friendship

Survives

Survives!!

SURVIVES!!!”

The Dazzlings looked up in fear as the colors created a large majestic silver colored woman who had a long unicorn horn and two feathery wings on her back. Her hair was wavy with colors depicting the Rainbooms' signature colors. She was a human alicorn. She unleashed a powerful ray of pure light onto the siren projections, which were far smaller, and they broke apart, disappearing entirely.

In addition, a golden furred lion with a majestic red mane appeared in the face of the other villainous lion with a darker coat of colors compared to the former’s appeared face-to-face.

Uovu and Kasi on the contrary even while aware that this is a match about to slip from his grasp still didn’t back down with his comrades standing behind up ready to roar alongside them to their last breath. With focused eyes and the clouds forming behind them they proceeded to unleash the combined Roar once again with much stronger force than Uovu’s alone.

Twilight, Kion, and Sunset all expecting that all joined together with focused energy and eyes in return with them each unleashing the power of their Roar right back at them.

Both beams collided with one another and both stood in the middle at a standstill at least until Kion gave the much more ferocious push that and left the Wild Ones completely overwhelmed and overpowered.

At the same time the light hit the Dazzlings as they too were overpowered and defeated. Just when the Alicorn and Lion disappeared both the Wild Ones and Dazzlings no longer had their previous powerful forms. Their wings, tails and ears were now gone and that including their gems.

The pendants were shattered into pieces before them. Adagio quickly grabbed the remaining pieces, she and the others were so hoping there would still be magic within them somewhere. They opened their mouths to sing.

"we will be adooooored..."

"...tell us that you want us'..."

"...we won't be ignored..."

The crowd started booing as the Sirens, now powerless Sirens, sang way off key, even started throwing fruits and vegetables at them. It was then they realized what had really happened, their magic was now gone. The three girls attempted to run off the stage, only to encounter the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts surrounding them alongside the four Secret Service Agents with all of them having their guns loaded and aimed directly at them along with the Wild Ones who are all left severely weaken from the severe blow both bands inflicted upon them with both Twilight and Sunset joining in having their own guns so they can join in on the shooting.

“If I were you girls, I’d surrender while you all still can.” Twilight warned with her gun pointed directly at both bands ready to pull the trigger at the next slightest movement.

“Or else what?!” Adiago sneered just when Uovu slowly moved to stand up merely and calmly adjusted his bow-tie before facing death himself while he and his men groaned in pain. “Uovu?!”

He merely looked on ahead like this is the end for him and his comrades with only this to say before he faces the music in front of him. “Been a pleasure serving you and your comrades, Adiago. It has been an honor.”

"Been fun while at lasted." Kasi calmly added as he moved to stand up to shake both her and Uovu's hands with the former confused with the later returning it as they are both accepting their defeat and fate. "Been nice knowing you both and it's been a pleasure leading you all, my friends." He said with the last part directed at the others who can barely stand and get up from the impact of the blast.

“This.” Twilight stated as she along with Sunset and the rest of the Secret Service Agents all aimed and fired their guns directly at the former Evil Lions of the Past. 

Upon firing their weapons they didn’t stop until they unloaded all of their bullets onto them until they all ran out. After the cease fire, it was over. The once great leaders of the big threat to both worlds was now dropping dead to the ground.

With his gun cocked as Askari places three more bullets in it and aims it directly at them, he gave this final warning before he pulls the trigger. “It only takes three bullets, one for each person.”

“You ain’t got the nerve!” Adiago still refused to surrender even though she and her partner’s hearts are racing and feeling completely fearful deep inside.

Askari didn’t change his expression and stance one bit. “Try me.”

Knowing that this is truly the end, the former Sirens all raised their arms up in surrender, lest they all get killed on the spot like the now deceased Wild Ones.

“Shenzi, Banzai, Ed…cuff them.” He ordered of his men who all each proceeded to do so while the rest of the troops scooped up the now dead bodies off of the stage. “We’ll talk about your punishment once we get to our office downtown.”

As the trio proceeded to take the Dazzlings into custody, Sunset turned her attention back to the now shattered pendants they once had at the same time Askari picked up the badges and guns of the now deceased crew. 

"Guess that explains why these were so special to them."

Twilight also stated, "Without those pendants and badges, along with the Roar and their magic you brought here from Equestria, they're just three harmless teenage girls."

“Along with five still dangerous criminals even without powers.” Askari added as he placed them in a suitcase and then placed an Evidence sticker on it.

Just then they heard a voice call out to the group, Twilight specifically. 

“Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts rule! Flash Sentry, now completely free from the Siren’ and Wild Ones spell shouted, rushed up and embraced Twilight in a warm hug. Taking her by complete surprise. "That was amazing!"

Twilight began to blush before she managed to regain the composure to clear her throat. “Right, and don’t you think you have something else you would like to say to me while you’re at it, about earlier and the way you acted?” She sternly glanced in a prompting manner. Flash upon realizing what he said back then looked down very regretful as the memory is now clear to him.

“Yes I do, and for that I’m really sorry for making you cry back there. You were right, one simple competition is not worth throwing away what I had.”

“You’re right it’s not.” Twilight replied while looking on regretful herself. “And for that I’m sorry that I broke up with you along with nearly losing my temper back there.”

“It’s okay Twilight. With all things considered I truly deserved it.”

The two continued sharing their heartwarming embrace when Sunset, Kion, along with the boys and girls all giggled at the sight, unable to resist poking fun at the girl’s crush. But just before Twilight could say anything else, Trixie came by and intervened, much to the annoyance of the two.

"You may have vanquished the Dazzlings, but you will never have the amazing, show-stopping ability of The Great and Powerful--"

“SHUT UP!” Everyone on the stage all shouted in unison, once again making Trixie flinch in fear.

Upon seeing and hearing the sound of Askari’s gun pointed in her direction, she raised her arms up in surrender. “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about you, because given you being a willing accomplice to the Dazzlings and Wild One’s scheme in trapping the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts under the stage all day today, Trixie Lulamoon. So if I were you I’d get a move on while you still can, while I figure out a reasonable punishment for your behavior.”

Knowing that if she keeps it up it’ll get worse Trixie quickly released another smoke bomb of blue dust so she can escape, causing the others to cough when it spread everywhere.

Pinkie Pie gasped, "She's gone!

Both Bunga’s pointed her up ahead nearby the parking lot.

…Oh, wait. There she is."

They saw Trixie trying to leave the arena, accidentally tripping and falling from the bleachers. "Trixie is okay!"

Kion along with Twilight simply shook their heads in response.

“Oh Trixie.”

“Some things never change.”

Askari quickly dialed his cellphone to get Shenzi’s voice talking to him. “Shenzi, make sure that Trixie is under arrest alongside the girls too. Just cuff her and place them in the car alongside the Dazzlings and take them all to custody.”

“On it, Askari.” She replied before ending the phone call.

"You know, Twilight, Kion, and their Bunga are going back to Equestria soon." Rainbow Dash said to Sunset Shimmer moving to offer her a spot in the band. "The Rainbooms could really use someone to help Fluttershy on backup vocals."

However, Sunset smirked in response when she spotted a nearby aqua colored electric guitar and began playing it like a total rock star, "I also play guitar."

The Rainbooms, Lightning Bolts, and even Flash, all had their mouths hung open wide in shock. Twilight and Kion smiled proudly as Rainbow nodded her head, "We'll see."

Sunset was happily surprised when her friends all embraced her in a group hug, even Spike joined it. It was at that moment that Sunset truly felt like she belonged and is also truly one of them now.

With all said and done, Askari approached Twilight, Kion, and Sunset with a proud smile at the three. “Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Kion, great job today, you all really helped me and my team out big time. And for that you have my thanks.” Picking up the microphone on the floor he moved to turn his attention to everyone in the audience. “That being said, I think it is safe to say of who are the true winners of this band competition, the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts. These students and especially these three, braved through the face of danger in facing off and preventing what could have been a catastrophe fate throughout here in Canterlot up to every last world leader standing here today. Even when all was lost, during our darkest hour, they did not give up, they still pressed forward and moved to vanquish once ancient evil from another world, and that is why all of Canterlot High owes these students, a debt of gratitude.”

The entire stadium burst into applauds and cheers as both Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna both moved to walk up onto the stage to award them the golden trophy, one for each team to which both Rainbow and Fuli grabbed and held with great honor. In addition, Askari gently placed gold badges and medals on each band member’s chest, Spike included, one by one, all while shaking each other their hands, one by one.

After receiving their special awards from both the principals and the Secret Service Agent in Charge, the latter moved to speak to the audience. “There’s your heroes, ladies and gentleman. And now how about an encore performance from both the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts?”

Everyone all cheered in agreement as the winning bands both picked up their instruments with Asakri handing each Twilight, Kion, and Sunset microphones so they can start singing.

With much more confidence, Sunset took the mic deciding to join in on the singing alongside her new best friends while taking center stage in singing a song from her heart.

Pinkie Pie.

"One, two, three!"

Music played and Sunset took center stage singing a song from her heart.

Sunset.

"Power

Was all I desired

But all that grew inside me

Was a darkness I acquired.”

Worried at first, but seeing how everyone was enjoying her singing, Sunset continued. She turned around to Twilight and Kion who now stood beside her, ready to sing along.

“When I began to fall

And I lost the path ahead

That's when your friendship found me

And it lifted me instead.”

Kion, Twilight, Sunset.

“Like the phoenix burning bright

In the sky

I'll show there's another side to me

You can't deny.”

Sunset.

“I may not know what the future holds

But hear me when I say;”

Kion, Twilight, Sunset.

“That my past does not defy me

'Cause my past is not today!”

Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts.

“Oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh, whoa-oh.”

Twilight.

“Ambition

Is what I believed

To be the only way

To set me free.”

Kion.

“But when it disappeared

And I found myself alone.”

Kion, Twilight, Sunset.

“That's when you came and got me

And it felt like I was home!

Woah!”

Flash jumped on stage and began shredding his guitar while Sunset, Twilight and Kion danced while performing a stunning magical display that featured images in the sky where the Lion and Pony Guard are charging into action in their animal forms with Sunset appearing alongside them as a lion with a full mane alongside Kion had a much more firm grip on her new magical abilities, no longer feelings scared of them, but embracing them.

The crowd cheered as the other bands danced and played their instruments. This was exactly what they needed all along. To play music together instead of apart.

Rainbooms.

“Like a phoenix burning bright

In the sky!

We'll show there's another side to us

You can't deny!

We may not know what the future holds

But hear us when we say;

That our past does not defy us

'Cause our past is not

Today!”

Rainbow shredded her guitar and Twilight, Sunset, and Kion all unleashed a stunning magical display up into the sky, which exploded into a stunning firework performance.

This was truly a magical night for everyone…

…well all but the now former singers now sitting in the backseat of a federal cop car being driven away from the school by Askari’s men alongside Trixie.

“This isn’t over, Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, Kion!” She grumbled. “We will get our magic back eventually! And we will get our revenge against you both along with Sunset Shimmer.”

Suddenly, Ed placed a piece of duct tape on her mouth to keep her from talking so that all the Dazzling’s leader could shout out was a muffled. “What is this? Why are you taping my mouth shut?!”

“If I were you young lady, I’d suggest you take advantage of your right to remain silent, because anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law.” Shenzi advised.

“But we will allow you one more say in it before it takes into full effect.” Banzai added just when he nodded with a mean grin at Ed who eagerly ripped the tape off of her mouth.

“What do you mean by tha…YEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWW!”
> We Shine Like Rainbows
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


We Shine Like Rainbows






The next day the Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts were all gathered near the statue of the horse in front of the school. Since Kion and Twilight's mission here is complete, now it was time for them to head home alongside Bunga and Spike.

"Sure wish you guys could stay longer." Applejack said on behalf of the group.

"Me too." Twilight agreed. "As tempting as it is, I have responsibilities in Equestria that I have to get back to."

“And even those who probably don’t deserve it do count on us coming to their aid whenever trouble is occurring.” Kion added while sounding hopeful that he hasn’t struck too deep a chord with Twilight saying that.

“True, true…” She calmly accepted it none of the less. “…even though it is tempting not to go back.”

“I understand completely of what you’re going through.” Sunset sympathetically consoled. “Given that I’ve spent from your last visit up until now being treated as the black sheep of the flock, it sure is quite a struggle to get through. But once you prove yourself even further they’ll get over it eventually. They always do.”

To make his point further cemented Kion also added. “And you also have a friend you can turn to if you walk to talk about it. Whatever it is, I’m here for you, and if you want to talk to Sunset, there’s always the portal, anytime you want.”

“Exactly.” Sunset smiled before turning to Kion. “And thanks. I wouldn’t be in this position if it weren't for you both. Guess it seems that the Lions of the Past have decided based on judgement that I truly deserve a second chance in life."

“They sure have.”

“Not to mention considering that Agent Askari has essentially vouched for you to become a part-time field agent up until you graduate, I’d say you’ve very well earned Sunset. You and everyone else here.” Everyone here proudly showed off their newly earned badges and medals knowing that they have something to fall back on during their free time and whenever trouble arises. “Just remember not to let what happened these last two days go over your head, Rainbow Dash.” She gently yet firmly reminded the rainbow-haired teen.

“No need to worry.” Rainbow tried to play it cool. “I will.” Upon seeing everyone glancing and glaring at her given of how her ego got out of hand during that timeframe she quickly added. “Starting now.”

Equestrian Bunga looked on in disappointment. “Aw man, I really wish I could join.”

“Me too!” Spike agreed.

“Spike, Bunga, it’ll be okay.” Twilight gently assured. “Whenever we come to visit and need to solve a case here.”

“Plus you still get to keep those badges and medals!” Kion reminded with a smile.

“Oh yeah!” They exclaimed as they both realized in unison before laughing it out together causing both Twilight and Kion to roll their eyes in amusement.

“Anyways…” Sunset moved to hug both the two best friends she could ever ask for goodbye. “…good luck with the Lion and Pony Guard back in the Pride Lands and Equestria and I hope it all goes well.”

“I’m sure it will…” Twilight said confidently. “…Like you said, as long as I keep being optimistic, it’ll get better eventually.”

“I’m sure it will.” Kion said before turning to the Bunga that came with him. “Bunga!” Both Bunga’s turned their heads towards him in confusion.

“Yes?”

“Yes?”

Kion blinked liked he is seeing double due to both Bunga’s wearing the exact same clothes. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah!”

Seeing that her friend is clearly confused of who is the real Bunga is, Twilight smiled when she spoke up. “Well have fun, I’ll make sure Muhimu to say hello to her baby for you.”

“Hamu!” The Bunga she is looking for suddenly spoke up before clasping his hands to his mouth. “Oops. I mean…dang it!”

“Ha!” Other Bunga laughed at his expense before watching as he Spike, Twilight, and Kion all got together towards the portal ready to go home.

Twilight turned her head towards Spike and then Kion, "Ready?"

"Ready!"

“Ready?”

“Ready!”

With one final wave, the prince and princes along with the human boy and dog entered through the portal and disappeared as their friends all looked on.

“Wait a minute! Got just one more question!” Bunga quickly popped his head out with one more thing to say directed at both Applejack and Rainbow Dash specifically their skirts. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash, why do you both wear skirts every day?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Just curious since given that you’re both have hobby’s that are more fitting for boys. Figured you’d both be more for shorts.”

Both girls blinked in surprise since no one’s ever asked them that before and upon seeing the smug smirk plastered on Rarity’s face they both moved to answer it.

“Um, long story short we uh…”

“Kinda of got into one of those classic who’s the better girl in sports…”

“And in the midst of it we accidentally pranked Rarity because of it..."

"So as punishment we were forced to join the skirt girls club..."

"...per Rarity's sense of fashion I got this here jean skirt."

"...and I have to wear this pink and overly girly colored skirt."

"Well at least it makes you both look fashionable darlings, and that's what counts." Rarity said with a proud and satisfied smile still standing by her ruling.

Bunga now understood completely. "Oh! Okay! Yeah that totally makes perfect sense! You two sure messed up big time! Anyways see ya!" He quickly put his head back through the portal while leaving for good this time with his curious question now answered.



 

The Pony Guard in Equestria, along with the Pride Lands Lion Guard had just arrived at Twilight's palace and judging from the look of their faces they arrived eager to see if their friends have returned yet and better yet hopeful that not following after them is the right call. Considering of who they were dealing with, it’s hard not to understand why. In fact, outside of morning patrol, they spent every second here praying to Mufusa and Celestia that they’re all right.

“I sure hope they’re back.” Beshte was the first to speak up on behalf of the team.

“Me too!”

“Me three!”

Both Rarity and Fluttershy expressed in agreement while both Applejack and Rainbow Dash thought otherwise.

“I’m sure they’re both all right, considering they have the assist of our mirror selfs over there.”

“If you ask me they’re both waiting until now to show up just so they can make an entrance."

Suddenly, just when they went inside the room where the magic mirror portal they saw something ripple and sparkle. First Twilight, then Kion, along with Spike and Bunga in that order.

“Twilight!”

“Kion!”

“Spike!”

“Little B!”

The prince and princess along with their faithful companions were immediately welcomed with a group hug from their friends.

“You’re all okay!” Ono exclaimed really glad to see them right now.

“Of course we’re okay! Why wouldn’t we be?” Bunga replied like nothing happened.

“Hmm, let em think. Oh yeah, because you four were all dealing with the Sirens not to mention the first group of evil lions of the Pride Lands Past!”

“Easy Ono…” Kion was quick to calm the agitated egret down. “…we’re all okay.”

“But what about…?!”

“Ono!” Twilight firmly stated with a raised hoof. With simple gestures Twilight got Ono to repeat after her while performing the deep breathing technique her former foalsitter taught her. “It’s okay. We took care of them. They’re gone. They’re not coming back.”

“Who’s not coming back?” An unexpected voice came from the doorway.

“Makini!”

Everyone turned their heads in surprise upon hearing and seeing Rafiki’s apprentice suddenly appearing.

“Was it someone bad. Like as bad as Scar?”

Caught off-guard, Twilight moved to truthfully answer none of the less. “Right up with his league.”

“But nothing the Lion and Pony Guard couldn’t handle.” Bunga stated with such confidence that Rainbow Dash’s mirror self would agree on.

“So anyways Makini…” Kion said deciding to just move the subject along for the time being. “…what are doing here?”

“Oh, well as you know most of the Pride Landers are deciding to move back to their homes but it would seem that they all may have jumped at the opportunity a little too soon. And by that I mean really too soon as in…”

Seeing that is see rambling her mouth off again, Twilight moved to cut her off there. “What are you trying to say?” She asked expecting her to get to the point.

“Ma Tembo is having trouble trying to find water for everyone in the Pride Lands. She’s trying really hard. She really is. But she just can’t find it.”

Twilight thought about it for a moment before calmly smiling with a resolution at hoof. “All right. Let’s go!”

Before anyone could ask what she is thinking she suddenly worked her magic in teleporting her and everyone on over there instantly.





When the Lion and Pony Guard opened up their eyes to their new surroundings they are all witnessing the majority of the Pride Landers all ganging up on Ma Tembo in their anxious desires of thirst. It was so restless that Princess Luna herself was there in order to get them to calm down.

“Water, water, water! Water, water, water! Water, water, water! Water, water, water!”

“Ooh! I really hope Ma Tembo finds the water soon.” Laini quietly expressed to Thurston while she and Big Baboon stood on the zebra’s back.

“Yes! I need a drink!”

Already at her the end of her patience Luna flew up in the air and shouted this command with her Royal Canterlot Voice. “EVERYBODY BE QUIET!” Everyone instantly stopped chanting upon seeing the irritated scowl on the princess’s face as she landed on the largest rock nearby. “We understand your need for thirst, but constantly chanting isn’t going to help make this any easier for her, so please stop!”

As Luna moved aside so she can rub a hoof on her sore forehead the Lion and Pony Guard approached them.

“Oh…” Big Baboon growled in the alicorn princess’s direction along with the others. “…not you again!”

“Yeah! Haven’t we suffered enough because of you?!” Thurston needlessly added.

Even in the face of unwelcoming eyes, Twilight still kept her composure and stood strong before every Pride Lander while standing on the same rock Luna is on who floated up to allow the younger princess to have her say. “Yes. And so I have with all things considered. And before any of you say anything, I’m here to help you all with your urgent problem.” She turns to the elephant leader. “And from what I’m hearing and seeing Ma Tembo, is that you’re having trouble finding water.”

“Yes.” She admitted sounding rather exhausted herself from all of the constant complaining. “And now there's more animals than ever expecting me to find the new water! Even with my ears, I'll never hear where it is.”

Twilight turning to Makini with a smile as she got thinking about what she, Ma Tembo, and Luna have all said.

“The hardest part of listening is finding the quiet to hear.” She gasped upon realizing before joining Twilight alongside the rock she is standing on. “Shwari! Everyone! Everyone, shh! Shwari! Ma Tembo needs quiet to find the new water site! Just like I needed when I found my staff.” She said with the last part while looking in her mentor’s direction who is standing on the rock next to her who likewise smiled knowing that both he and she are right.

With complete silence, Ma Tembo was now able to focus her ears for the sound of water dripping for which she was able to detect with her large ears within just seconds upon receiving what she needed in order to concentrate.

“Yes. Yes! Now I hear it!” She quickly ran ahead with the others eagerly following after her. “This is it! I'm certain!”

“Over here, everyone!”

“Right this way!”

Both Ono and Rainbow guided them as Ma Tembo came across a big open dirt patch up ahead.

“Here! Dig everyone!”

All of the elephants all quickly started using their trunks to do so.

“Dig, dig!” Mtoto told everyone to which had the Lion and Pony Guard all joining in too.

"Zuka Zama!"

“Twende Kiboko!"

After a few more seconds once everyone had stopped digging, the much-needed water for the Pride Landers had emerged from the ground.

“Finally! The new water source for the dry season has been found!” Ma Tembo declared to the crowd who are now all happily cheering in celebration knowing that they won’t be dying of dehydration for the remainder of the dry season.

“That was good advice, Makini.” Rafiki complimented. “It seems you have finally learned the importance of silence.”

“I have, Rafiki. I totally have!” Makini then moved to sing of the most valauble lesson she learned thus far.

Makini's Song

Music from 2:13 to the end

After she finished singing she turned around and hugged Twilight. “And I have you to thank for that!”

Twilight wrapped a single hoof around her in return. “Glad I could help.” She then turned her attention to the crowd with a hopeful and expecting look from them. “And you’re all welcome. If I hadn’t come along, then you all would have gotten very thirsty really fast with all of that constant chattering and that would have been bad.”

“Yes of course....” Thurston sheepishly and rather shamefully admitted while trailing off slightly with his tone sounding really regretful now. “It...Sure…would have.”

“Absolutely!” Laini stated being the first to show the alicorn her gratitude. “And thank you for coming here. It really means a lot to us.” 

“Also…” Bupu stepped up and spoke up next. “…about what we all said to you ever since being able to return here. Many of us said because we were just upset from being home for so long and it was getting quite stressful on some of us.”

Followed by Big Baboon stepping forward next. “And we really missed being able to live here that after we were trapped back at where the Equestrian Games were being held to the point that we ended up taking it out on you. And you didn’t really deserve all of that considering you’ve been trying to help us ever since you came back.”

“And we’ll understand if you don’t want to forgive us right now.” Vuruga Vuruga added. “We gave you a hard time and for that we’re sorry.”

To Twilight herself, this is very touching inside considering she really wasn’t expecting this all today. She just came here just to do a good deed and call it a day even when being treated with nothing both contempt and scorn and here she is now getting a huge payoff out of it. And considering her past history of holding a grudge against her family and friends after what happened at the wedding rehearsal she smiled in response in the face of hopeful and somewhat pleading faces all looking in her direction.

“Apology accepted.”

Instantly, Laini along with all of the galogos all leaped up and hugged her.

“Yay!”

“Group hug!”

Twilight could only grin and shake her head in response much to Fuli’s amusement who is clearly thinking. “Better you than me.”

None of the less, everyone else watched on in pride seeing that the trust between them and the alicorn who just helped them out big time today has been restored.

“Nice job, Ma Tembo.” Twilight complimented. “Even though it was frustrating, you never gave up.”

Ma Tembo thought nothing of it. “Well, that's what responsibility is all about. Isn't it?”

“It sure is.” Twilight couldn’t agree more while Kion winked in her direction when she turned towards him.

Like he said, and he was right. And it sure didn’t take too long before being finally welcomed back with open arms for the first time since her coronation back before Scar conquered the Pride Lands.





After returning to their room in the castle, both Twilight and Kion witnessed the journal linked to Sunset’s is glowing and vibrating to indicate that she has just sent a message to them. Wasting no time, they quickly opened it up to the current page from where and what she wrote to them.

"Dear Twilight and Kion,

Missing you already, and I hope you'll be back soon. Things are definitely looking up for me here at Canterlot High. But I know I still have a lot to learn about friendship. Hope you don't mind if I write to you for advice when I need it.

Your friend, Sunset Shimmer."

Upon levitating a pen Twilight started writing back right away.

"Dear Sunset Shimmer,

It won’t be long until then. And you know the funny thing about what you said before we left, it actually happened as soon as I got back home. Can you believe it? And the best part about it is being able to do a good deed that they actually appreciated for the first time in a while.

Anyways, our door, book, and or mirror in this case is always open if you need it and we hope to see you again soon. So until then continue spreading the magic of friendship and keep everyone there safe.

Your friends, Twilight and Kion.

P.S. We’ll definitely see each other sooner than later since Kion is gonna want to teach you more on how to effectively utilize the Roar so you can master it and don’t hurt anyone by accident soon. But hey, at least we’ll see each other sooner or later this way. Anyways, take care of yourself."





Sometime later that week after hearing of how they participated in the Battle of the Bands in order to fight off and defeat ancient evil everyone was all eager and see of how it all played out, so the Lion and Pony Guard arranged a concert to be held at Pride Rock. Much like their mirror counterparts playing and performing for the whole school and Secret Service Agency as part of their encore performance alongside Sunset Shimmer they rocked it out in style.

Bunga and Pinkie both tapped their drum sticks.

"One! Two! Three! Four!"

Music started playing.

Applejack and Beshte.

“Once upon a time

You came into my world and made the stars align.”

Rarity and Fuli.

“Now I can see the signs

You pick me up when I get down so I can shine."

The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts.

Shine like rainbows

Shine like rainbows.”

Back in Canterlot high, Sunset dropped her books, which were caught by Apple Bloom and she, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle joined her in walking to class much to Sunset’s delight.

Next, she was trying to help Fluttershy and Ono in getting Angel Bunny down from a high place out of their reach where Bulk Biceps was quick to happily assist her by lifting her up to help her.

Rainbow Dash and Kion.

“Friends, you are in my life

And you can count on me to be there by your side.”

Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle.

“And when the music comes alive

You sing us songs to lift us up so we can shine.”

The Rainbooms and Lightning Bolts.

“And the sound that we hear in our hearts

Makes our friendship grow

And the light that ignites in the dark

It makes us all glow

And shine like rainbows

We shine like rainbows.”

Kion and Twilight made their way through the Pride Lands where the latter is really getting to talk to the Pride Landers more and more to the point they can discuss of how things here are without any troubling tension.

“Together we stand

As the rain begins to fall

And holdin' our heads up high

As the sun shines through it all

And the sound that we hear in our hearts

Makes our friendship grow

And the light that ignites in the dark

It makes us all glow

And shine like rainbows

We shine like rainbows

Shine like rainbows

We shine like rainbows

We shine like rainbows.”





Somewhere in the human world, a young scientist was doing some research on the strange events going on at Canterlot High. Her dark purple and indigo hair is pulled into a messy bun, held by a number two pencil and is wearing a white lab coat over her attire. She knew she was onto something around that high school, and they had only recently gotten stranger. 

"No doubt about it, Spike. There's definitely something strange going on at that school…" She said to her pet dog who barked in response before the former moved to mix some chemicals together before moving to tend and apply it to a guest who is currently seated in one of the chairs in her basement lab.

Whatever the truth is, the human world’s Twilight Sparkle is deeply determined to uncover this case. But she is not the only one who is up to something...





Back in Tartarus where the imprisoned and fallen conquerors of the Pride Lands are their leader is currently using his charm and words into convincing one of the prisoners into lending him his magic. Upon being able to use it he was able to take a look at what’s going on around him, along with a few new angles and new approach to being able to return back on top before Twilight retook control of the Pride Lands in the name of his nephew.

“No doubt about it Twilight Sparkle, for I am not done with you yet for I’ll see you soon. Once a new opportunity in life comes I’ll be free from this prison, and then I will have my revenge.” He vowed as he locked eyes on his newest angle and target to help him with that. One that looks strangely familiar to the alicorn herself along with a rainbow shimmering glow sparkling and hidden underneath the table inside the very heart of the throne room…