Spellbound

Tonight had been a rather hectic night for The Rainbooms. They'd been thrown down a trapdoor, had a little feud between themselves and were now facing off against three Sirens with dark magic beyond compare at this moment. And on top of all that, they were now fighting their own magic; the Magic of Friendship.

The Dazzlings merely floated there, their bodies completely motionless, besides bobbing a little as they let their Hippocampi halves deal what would seem like the final blow to The Rainbooms. They were met with some resistance from Twilight and her friends, but it wasn't enough to stop them now.

Adagio merely batted Twilight's note away with her own ear-splitting screech, shattering the laser of magic and dealing Twilight some pain to her ears. She looked up at Adagio's monstrous form now and looked a quite shocked that such a beast could have resisted her undying power.

The Dazzlings' human sides lurched forward now, their sadistic smiles never fading as their Hippocampi closed in for the killing blow. The three fish-horses combined their screeches into one big, powerful screech with pounded down on all The Rainbooms. This soundwave got all six of the girls to kneel in pain, thinking that it was now cowardice to continue fighting The Dazzlings.

"Sunset Shimmer, we need you!" Twilight said as she reached out a hand to her former enemy, begging for her to join the band and unite their voices for a final counterattack. She knew that with Sunset's added voice, that would be enough to end this debacle once and for all.

Sunset was about to take a step forward until The Dazzlings had their Hippocampi fly downwards, so they were now the same elevation as Twilight and her friends. They let out another ear-splitting symphony of screeches, with voices so powerful that they now threw the Rainbooms and Vinyl Scratch off the hill and leaving all their instruments in a complete wreck.

Once the girls were all out of sight, The Dazzlings' Hippocampi forms took to the skies once more, spiralling each other like majestic dragons. They raised their heads up high and let out one last roar of victory, before returning to the red pendants from whence they had came. After they had disappeared, The Dazzlings' eyes returned to their normal states, meaning they had regained consciousness.

Sunset saw the mess that was the Rainbooms after that last attack. They all had bruises on their arms from the impact of all those broken instruments, no doubt. She saw that all the instruments that the girls had played were now broken in half, snapped in the centre and torn apart.

Vinyl's car, on the other hand was the biggest wreck of all. The impact of all that metal had crushed the innocent DJ in its' wake, leaving nothing more than broken headphones and a trail of blood pouring out of the wreckage. The fires that had spawned from the destroyed fuel tank were also visible, blazing like a fire that signalled their plans to defeat The Dazzlings had literally gone up in flames.

"Oh god..." Sunset said as she could never un-look that image, no matter how many times she blinked or how hard she rubbed her eyes, she knew that this was as true as the sky was blue. The Magic of Friendship had finally been defeated. "No..."

"What a sight..." said a rather sly voice from behind Sunset, causing her to turn around and see her victorious opponents. Adagio, Aria and Sonata were now in front of Sunset, casting her their wicked gaze. "Why do you feel remorse for these weak and feeble ponies, Princess Sunset Shimmer?"

"You..." Sunset said as her fear evaporated quickly into a cesspool of seething rage. She'd never be able to forgive The Dazzlings now, not after all the death and destruction they had now brought. Her angry-looking face now stared the three of them in the eyes with no sign of fading away.

"Don't you finally realize it now?" Aria asked Sunset as she flew over and whispered in her ears "These ponies had been corrupting you all along, making you believe that friendship can overcome everything. Tonight, rather than being angry at all of us, you should be thanking us for releasing you from the shackles of the curse these witches cast upon you!"

"Lies!" Sunset said as she threw herself away form Aria's sinister lips and looked her in the eyes, still surprised that they still had their wings, ears and hair extensions with them. "Twilight and her friends saved me from myself!"

"And we're here to save you from them saving you from yourself," Sonata said, before turning to Adagio to get some validation on whether what she'd just said had made sense or not. "Did I say it right, Adagio?"

"Yes you did, my dear sweet Sonata," Adagio said as the three of them regrouped and watched Sunset standing there, lost for words at this moment. "These ponies made you shed your true self, Sunset Shimmer. We're here to revive that old self of yours and bring you back to pure adoration, as if the Fall Formal never even happened..."

"I don't get it..." Sunset said, starting to show a number of doubts at this moment. She looked over at the weak and lifeless Rainbooms, wondering if their friendship and her reformation had been nothing but a big lie to her. "What do you mean by 'as if it never happened?'."

"With you by our side, it'll be like you still own this pathetic little high school," Adagio said, continuing to try and break through to Sunset's inner darkness. "Sure you'll have some lackeys like before, but we've been proven to be much more competent lackeys than whatever grease monkeys you associated yourself with in the past..."

Sunset contemplated that for a while. She remembered a time of pure serenity, when she could merely look humans in the eyes and watch them submit to her. She remembered all the times she won the Fall Formal crown in the past and she seemed frightened by these memories. The most frightening memory of all though, was what had just transpired. The Dazzlings harming Twilight and her friends, and killing their innocent DJ who played no other part in this battle other than giving the girls a feeble last resort. She suddenly showed all her anger once again once she stopped to look at The Dazzlings once again.

"Never!" She said, her face of anger returning once again.

"Don't get so riled up about this, Sunset," Aria said, trying to show some shred of sympathy for the unicorn-turned-human. "We're only trying to help you..."

"And in doing so, you'll only profit from it!" Sunset said, piecing together their game already happening before they even got the chance to say it themselves. "That's all you've been doing ever since you came to this place, isn't it?! Just sitting back and profiting, whilst others began to fall deeper and deeper down a spiral of self-destruction with this petty Battle of The Bands you talk so much about!"

"Yes, Sunset. That's it... More..." Adagio said, smiling sinisterly as Sunset now became enthralled with nothing but pure rage and hatred. She knew what was going to happen and held her pendant towards her, ready to receive a massive boost of power from her. "Let your whole heart blacken with your hatred for us!"

Sunset didn't even respond verbally to that. She was panting heavily with so much fury boiling inside of her. She hated The Dazzlings with a burning passion and now saw no point in trying to hide it. She could feel nothing but hatred, hatred for Adagio, hatred for Aria, hatred for Sonata and hatred for everyone who had kicked them around during the auditions and the tournament itself. With all these hates growing, Sunset bent her front knee forward, curled her head and arms into fury and threw them in a matter of different directions, letting out a scream of pure fury once her hands were tightly clenched into fists.

A pillar of darkness erupted beneath her feet in perfect sync with her screams of hatred. She despised The Dazzlings now and wanted to end their lives right now on the very spot she stood on. She watched all of the black pillar of darkness become absorbed by The Dazzlings' red pendants and at this point, she didn't even care that they were getting stronger.

Twilight finally got up from her defeated position and saw a rather horrifying sight. She saw the exact same pillar of darkness from the Fall Formal a while back and worried about Sunset. This particular darkness made her into a demon back then and she'd now heard all the scorn that she'd said to The Dazzlings.

She feared now what would happen to her and the rest of the group. Springing to her feet, Twilight ran up to the top of the hill once more and watched as Sunset vented out all of her fury towards The Dazzlings, whilst they just sat back and smiled as all of that darkness flew into their pendants as a violent torrent of pure hatred.

"Sunset! Calm down!" Twilight said, trying to break through to her friend with no avail. The roar of the darkness flying out of Sunset and landing in The Dazzlings' pendants completely cancelled out all other noise, whether it be verbal or from the background. "You're only making things worse!"

That last sentence was enough to get Sunset to stop her hate and show a sudden look of realization as to what had just happened. She'd fallen prey to The Dazzlings' spell as well and had just given them the most delicious meal of fury possible. All of that seething hatred and fury had made them even stronger now.

The Dazzlings smiled as they relished in their undeniable victory. They came to CHS, caused all-out musical warfare and had profited from all of that seething hatred that everyone had vented out over the past couple of days. Their pendants made them sigh in content as they felt Sunset's seething hatred for them make them reach new levels of power, far beyond anything they could have ever hoped to have amassed from anyone else at CHS.

"What have I done?" Sunset said as she now looked at The Dazzlings with nothing more than regret as she finally realized what they'd done to her. They'd pushed her over the tipping point and now they had even more power now, far more powerful than that of the Magic of Friendship.

"I'll tell you what you've done, Sunset Shimmer..." Adagio said as she used all this new magic to create a swirl of black magic, which made a perfect copy of her pendant, right down to the golden strip behind the red gem. "You've just allowed us to create an entire army!"

"Thanks, Sunset!" Sonata said, gloating as the three of them flew back to the stage with a menacing cackle which struck fear in the hearts of both Twilight and Sunset. Once they'd had their laugh, they landed back on the stage to address their loving audience, who cheered once they'd returned to them.

"Students of Canterlot High School! For too long have we waited to strike back at that hellhole known as Equestria!" Adagio said as she now used her voice to brainwash the students even further. "We came to this place to start an all-out battle and now this is the reward we've earned!"

"But don't think that just because we won a Battle of The Bands, that doesn't mean you have to stop loving us!" Aria said, casting a smile as she looked at her two sisters, who readied the duplication spell once again. "We now have the power to allow you to join us, so you too can share in the feeling of being adored by all!"

"We beseech you, wonderful humans of CHS! Take these pendants we now offer you, so you can realize your FULL potential!" Sonata said as the three Sirens made copies of the red gem for every boy and girl standing in the audience looking at them with smiles of their own. "Join The Dazzlings, and become Sirens yourselves!!!"

"Yeah! I'm sick and tired of people pushing us all around!" Flash Sentry said, still enthralled with the spell of the three Sirens as he took his pendant from the air.

"I've always wanted to bend others to my will..." Silver Spoon said as she shed her pearl necklace in exchange for the generous gift offered by The Dazzlings.

"For our glorious leaders!" Trixie and her band members said, securing the pendants around their necks so that everyone could see them clearly.

"Hail The Dazzlings!" Photo Finish and her band said as they all put on their pendants as well, watching them shine once it was comfortably fastened around their nekcs.

"HAIL THE DAZZLINGS!" The rest of the crowd roared out as they all put their pendants on together, their loyalty to the Sirens seeing undying now as they felt their adoration flowing towards them all.

"Now that you're one of us," Adagio said as all the pendants glowed a rather soothing wave of red in front of her and the rest of her fellow Dazzlings. She raised her hand sinisterly with her sisters, signalling a massive change for all the children of CHS. "You're going to BECOME one of us!"

The wave of red lights now became a massive explosion of red energy as all of the humans were cocooned in Siren Magic themselves, transforming into all-powerful Sirens like their new idols, The Dazzlings. They all grew hair extensions and pony ears in the midst of this cavalcade of energy and all emerged from the cocoons with majestic Siren wings, coloured in a variety of different colours.

Twilight's friends and Spike now climbed up the hill as well, watching the disastrous chain of events happening in front of their eyes. They saw all of the students becoming wrapped in the energy of the Sirens and emerging with pony ears, hair extensions and Siren wings.

They saw what their former friends had become, monstrous incarnations of their true selves. They could no longer see their fellow students as friends any more. They only saw them as hundreds upon thousands of backup singers for The Dazzlings, with red pendants draped around their necks.

"Why does this place get absolutely no peace?" Rainbow Dash said as she now cowered at all of the Sirens that used to be the students of Canterlot High School. She saw all of her former sports team members as beasts, all their audience as monsters and nothing else. "What did we ever do to it?

"Well, we did have a little bit of an argument in that cellar back there." Pinkie said, pointing out precisely where The Dazzlings now stood, leading their brand new army.

"So all this is-" Rainbow Dash said before being stopped by Rarity.

"Our fault, Rainbow Dash." She said, letting out a somber look of defeat as they now watched The Dazzlings' new army try out their new wings, hovering off the ground with little effort.

"We all got a little frustrated with all that inner discord back there..." Applejack said, adding on her guilt as well as Rarity's, making the rest of the group feel nothing but hopelessness now. "With all of our petty arguin', we caused this nightmare ta happen right in front of our eyes..."

"It's all our fault, Rainbow Dash. Not yours," Fluttershy said, still remaining surprisingly calm in the wake of such a devastating defeat. "We let our hatred for you get out of hand and now we no longer have the ability to use our musical counter-spell against the Sirens."

"It is all our fault..." Pinkie said as her usual poofy hair deflated, making it seem rather straight and joyless. Rainbow Dash had never seen her friends like this before and now felt undeniable levels of guilt start to show as Pinkie said her last somber words. "We were blindsighted by our rage and it made us fight against what we truly are, friends until the end..."

"Which looks like right now..." Sunset said as she watched all of the Sirens flying up into the night sky, receiving their own brand of limitless power from The Dazzlings' pendants. She watched as they shared Sunset's hate with all of the students of CHS, making their new pendants glow brightly before the former students unfurled their hands in bliss. "I can't believe that this is how the Battle of The Bands is ending..."

Twilight merely looked up at this army, picked up Spike and ran away towards the portal. She had one last plan up her sleeve and she was now running back to Equestria, to ready a Plan B to defeat The Dazzlings and their newfound army of Sirens.

"Twilight?" Sunset now noticed Twilight running towards the portal and decided to follow suit, with her friends close behind her. She could see that Twilight was rather fast and wanted to get away from all this as fast as possible. Sunset thought that she was abandoning her and the rest of her human worlds friends as she finally arrived at the glass tint of the portal.

"Where are you going, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash said as the rest of the group arrived with Twilight at the portal. She wondered what could possibly be running through Twilight's mind at this moment. "You can't just be abandoning us like that?!"

"Girls... I'm sorry, but there's no way we can possibly defeat The Dazzlings now. Not with the state our counter-spell is in..." Twilight said as she put her hand through the portal before pulling it back out again. "You need to get out of here, run and hide from this evil. This world has been lost to us and there's only one thing that can save us now."

"And what's that, Twilight?" Applejack decided to ask, a little relieved with the news that Twilight had a plan but also a bit concerned with the fact that Twilight had to get back to Equestria to put this plan to good use.

"We have to go to war with these demons..." Twilight said, her old tone turning into one of battle. Her face now turned into a more serious one as she threw Spike through the portal, out of harm's way. "I know it's a shock, but it's the only way we can strike back now..."

"Are you crazy, Twilight?!" Sunset said, flabbergasted that Twilight had this idea of war as a back-up plan. "You saw first-hand how powerful those Sirens really are. The next time you see them, you'll be facing down an entire army. For any army anywhere in any world, this is considered suicide!"

"Goodbye, girls..." Twilight said as she walked through the portal relatively quickly, leaving none of them any time to react with their words.

"Twilight!" The Rainbooms all cried out together as they tried to run after her but were met with nothing more that solid glass. The portal had been sealed off once again and Twilight wouldn't be able to come back to fight the Siren army. Their expressions of fear returned once again as they heard a chorus of beating wings right behind them...

"So... That's where my little princess has been hiding," the Siren Flash Sentry said as he pushed the Rainbooms out of the way and gently felt the glass pane of the sealed portal. "Queen Adagio, we've found the portal. The only problem is, it's been sealed off by that arrogant Alicorn."

"Do not worry yourself with this little matter, Flash," She said as she felt her pendant vibrate rather heavily as she felt the portal's power still remaining, even after it had been closed off. "Our combined power is enough to force this door open with little effort."

"What are you going to do with us?" Sunset said as she tried to feebly make another stand against the entire species. She then showed concern once she looked at the portal a second time. "More importantly, what are you going to do with Twilight?"

"We overheard every word that that insipid little brat said. Quite clearly," Aria said, grinning as she could feel a massive amount of Equestrian Magic on the other side of the glass gateway that led to Equestria. "And if it's a war Princess Twilight wants, then it's a war that Princess Twilight will get..."

The Dazzlings sung their chorus once more, getting all of the students to add their voices as well.

To Sunset and the Rainbooms, it sounded like a choir of impending doom had arrived for them all as they saw red entrails travel out of everyone's pendants and onto the portal, making a red vortex to Equestria for The Dazzlings and their army to walk in and out of as they pleased.

"The time has come, my wonderful subjects!" Adagio said as she addressed all her fellow Sirens with a warmonger's voice. "Now we can finally take our revenge and send Equestria on a one-way spiral of ruin!"

Her words were met with all the Sirens throwing their fists up in victory, cheering for their almighty rulers with undying affection and adoration. They wanted to follow them all to the ends of the earth and back, serving them with every fibre of their being.

"To all of Equestria, we impart you with one last message..." Adagio said as she spoke through the portal, presuming that all of the Equestrian cities were listening well to her words. "After all these years of exile, the Sirens are returning. And this time, we'll take your miserable little mudball by force!"

"At arms, my warriors!" Adagio said as the students gained their evil red eyes, similar to what Adagio, Aria and Sonata had had during their song earlier. "Take stances! And... ATTACK!!!"

With that, all of the Sirens charged through the portal, knocking Sunset and the Rainbooms to the wall of CHS with sheer force. They then vanished into the red vortex, which would land them right in the heart of Princess Twilight's new castle. Adagio, Aria and Sonata merely high-fived each other in grand victory as they too disappeared into the portal with their new brethren...

Sunset and the Rainbooms got up from that impact, only to see that all the Sirens had vanished and the red vortex which led to Equestria had gone with them. They all shared looks of worry and fear as they knew that Equestria was going to perish at the hands of The Dazzlings. They all looked up to the sky, feeling sorry for what they had done earlier. All they could do now was wait, wait for all of Equestria to perish, under the new rule of The Dazzlings...