Sunset grimaced at she stepped away from her friends after their performance during the first round of the Battle of the Bands competition. She didn’t need to be a mind reader to tell that Twilight was struggling with the counterspell and quite frankly she didn’t even know where to start with writing a counterspell herself so she would have been of little use, regardless.

But what can we do? Sunset wondered silently. The Sirens have all the cards and the odds are against us…

“Sunset?” The redhead blinked before searching for the source of the seemingly disembodied voice.

“Down here,” said the voice, almost deadpanned. Sunset looked down to find the purple and green coated puppy that had accompanied Princess Twilight during her previous foray into Canterlot High. He had also been responsible for stopping her from harnessing an ancient magical artifact by simply explaining just why it was a bad idea. The more Sunset reflected on it, the more she realized that it was probably for the best. After all, it had been hard enough to try to change her ways given notoriety for her saboteurish tendencies.

Even though it had been difficult to earn back her classmates’ trust, Sunset was more inclined to believe that her battle would have been far more difficult if she succeeded in harnessing that power.

After all, she was certain her classmates would not appreciate being turned into her personal minions to be used to take on a sovereign nation. And that was to say nothing of the collateral damage that would inevitably follow.

Moving on…

“Spike,” Sunset frowned, staring down at the puppy, “what are you doing here?”

“I saw you leaving and got curious,” Spike shrugged. “The girls looked happy to win the first round even though other people were trying to mess up their performance.”

Sunset grimaced. “I saw them but they were too high up for me to do anything to try to stop them.”

Spike was at a loss for what to say but thankfully was saved from having to come up with any sort of retort when they both heard a trio of voices close to their spot in the corner of the creepy looking hallway that inexplicably had terrible lighting issues. It was a perfect place to segue into something more interesting.

I need to ask Principal Celestia about that once this is all over Sunset mused as she let Spike onto her shoulder and they crept closer to the voices as to hear what they had to say.

“We’d better head back. We're supposed to go on after Trixie,” said Adagio Dazzle to her bandmates: Sonata Dusk and Aria Blaze.They had watched as the Rainbooms’ headed into the classroom, snidely noting that Twilight had shed a few tears after Flash Sentry unknowingly pointed out Twilight’s failings in helping out her friends in winning the Battle of the Bands.

However, unbeknownst to the sirens-turned-teenaged girls, they failed to notice a fiery haired girl with a purple and green dog on her shoulder, arms crossed and eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“You're never gonna get away with this,” Sunset stated, leaning against the wall with Spike at her side, watching the events unfold curiously.

“Why? Because you didn’t?” Adagio smirked. Spike frowned while resting a paw on Sunset’s leg as she grimaced in discomfort at the reminder of who she used to be. The redhead’s eyes narrowed as the three sirens circled her in a show of aggression. Lesser students would have been intimidated by such a tactic but Sunset had long since surpassed the limits of the average students and become something altogether more impressive.

“Oh yes,” Adagio grinned maliciously. “We know all about you, Sunset Shimmer. You've got quite the reputation at Canterlot High.”

So much for keeping the Old Me buried. Sunset sighed. She shook her head. Now was not the time to dwell on her past. Now was the time to stop these sirens from potentially making the mistake she had almost made. Sunset couldn’t imagine how much harder earning back everyone’s trust would be had she actually put on that crown and taken control of her classmates and waged war on Celestia.

“I've changed! I'm in a much better place now!” Sunset replied confidently. That much was true. Her classmates had given her the benefit of the doubt after she apologized and proved her intention to change. Subsequently, her reputation vastly improved in the eyes of her peers and she had found herself back in her place as among the most popular people at Canterlot High.

Spike had been right in that regard.

“Yet for all your changes you wait in the wings while your friends have all the fun?” Aria asked rhetorically. Sunset said nothing while Spike growled quietly. He didn’t bother doing much more as it wouldn’t have been worth the effort.

“Oh, yes, you girls are so tight. And yet... they didn't ask you to be in the band…” Adagio added confidently in what she intended to be finishing blow to crush Sunset’s confidence. Admittedly, Sonata got the last word in.

“Too bad! So sad!” She supplied, not at all sympathetic.

However, the three sirens didn’t expect the fiery haired girl to smirk at them, a glint in her eye as her posture remained confident.

The three sirens stared before inwardly grimacing. So much for crushing her confidence so that they could find the key to unlocking the equestrian magic she and her friends possessed. .

“Hold it!” Adagio pointed at Sunset as the blonde young woman came to a startling realization.. “How are you not under our spell?”

That made both Sunset and Spike exchange a confused look. By all rights, they should have been at least influenced by the sirens magic. After all, it's not like they imbued any Equestrian magic into themselves...

“Magic of friendship?” Spike offered lamely to an equally bewildered Sunset. Sunset shrugged helplessly. She was no princess but she was fairly certain that magic didn’t have to be flashy in order to be effective. She had been lucky to be part of a tightly knit group of friends and perhaps that was the magic of friendship manifesting itself and thanks to the close bonds she shared with her friends, she had been able to passively fight off the sirens’ spell.

Adagio facepalmed but opted not to question it further. They all decided that it was best that they move on.

“And thanks to my friends, I don’t even need to feel adored to be happy,” Sunset quipped.

“Easy for you to say,” Aria grumbled, her typically scowl in place. “At least you don’t need it to survive.” That had caught both Spike and Sunset off guard.

“Here’s what I wanna know,” Spike spoke up for the first time. “How’d you end up here in the first place?”

“That’s actually a really good point,” Sunset pointed out. “How’d you even find out that there was equestrian magic here in the first place?” It wasn’t like there was anything that could have given it away.

“OH! OH! Pick me!” Sonata raised her hand eagerly. “Come on! Pick me!” It was clear that Sonata wanted some metaphorical screen time.

Also, with the way that she was flailing her arms in an attempt to draw attention to herself, Sonata appeared to be quite close to wetting herself. To save the youngest siren from potential humiliation, Sunset offered her consent by way of a nod.

Unfortunately, before Sonata could open her mouth to explain, the intercom came to life. “Will the Dazzlings come up to the stage for the next round of the competition.”

“Mark my words, nothing is going to stop me from telling you! I will get my screen time!” she vowed, her fist raised. Sunset and Spike stared at her oddly while Aria and Adagio facepalmed at Sonata’s silliness.

“Don’t worry,” Adagio said smoothly to a wary Sunset as she ushered Aria and Sonata backed to the gym. “We’ll be around to talk after we’re done so we can talk more later.”

* * *

“Where did they say we were supposed to meet them?” Spike asked, poking his head into yet another empty classroom. Sunset shrugged. The three siren-turned-teenagers made themselves scarce once they had finished their admittedly catchy piece. It was so catchy that they both had taken to quietly humming it while they were searching for the wayward girls although they were careful not to sing them in front of their other friends. Tensions were already high because of the infighting and Twilight’s ongoing struggle with the counterspell didn’t make things any easier. As they continued their search, they felt their own frustrations well up. Why did things have to play out the way they did? It just made life unnecessarily difficult.

While Sunset was stewing in her minor frustrations, she and Spike were dragged into a seemingly nondescript empty classroom.

The next thing they knew, they found Aria locking the door behind them. If the pair didn’t know any better, they would have believed that they just walked into a trap.

Thankfully, Sonata had been far too eager to give up all the wonderful information about how they even discovered equestrian magic in the first place.

As it turned out, it was actually quite underwhelming: the three had just happened to pass by when their pendants started acting strangely and practically drew them toward the portal. From there, they had been a very powerful burst of energy that then surged into their pendants, restoring more of their powers.

“So basically, touching the portal gave us the power to track equestrian magic,” Aria finished, tapping her pendant fondly. “We’ve been trying to look for more of it to get the rest of our powers back.”

“So what’ll you do once you get your powers back?” Sunset asked. She couldn’t imagine them doing them anything worse than what they were already doing. That was a lie; she could imagine their powers reaching a larger audience and subsequently controlling a larger crowd.

“We’re going to make everybody in this world adore us!” Adagio stated. Sunset and Spike exchanged a bewildered look.

“Er… just how does equestrian magic help with that?” Spike asked. “Didn’t you mention earlier that this world is practically a dead zone for magic?”

“That’s true but don’t forget that we do have a magic port that we used to help us track equestrian magic to help sustain ourselves,” Adagio pointed out. “As I’m sure your princess told you, we used to be able to feed on ponies negativity and their petty arguments to keep ourselves alive.”

“Twilight never mentioned that,” Sunset cut in. “She just mentioned that Starswirl the Bearded banished you three a long time ago.”

“That unicorn,” Aria ground out. Adagio and Sonata’s expressions were just as murderous. “As far as I’m concerned, he was in the wrong to banish us in the first place; we were only doing what we had to do to survive. He should have been banished by denying us that basic right to life.”

“Well, that got dark in a hurry,” Spike muttered to a perturbed Sunset who nodded in agreement.

“Wait so how did it come to Starswirl banishing you guys in the first place if all you were doing was trying to survive?”

“Well it kinda started like this…” Adagio began.

* * *

Three sirens had just reached the crossroads having come from Trottingham after feasting on the negativity of its residents. They had briefly debated their next destination before eventually setting their sights on Canterlot. While Sonata and Adagio had fantasized of the potential glory that awaited in Canterlot, Aria had pointed to one glaring hole in their nonexistent plan.

“You sure this is a good idea?” Aria asked dubiously as they reached the city limits. “This place’ll be crawling with guards plus the princesses are here so one wrong move and we’re history.”

“Leave the planning to me,” Adagio reassured. “Before today is over, these ponies will eat out of our hooves.” Adagio had then spotted a flyer for a musical competition in the coltosseum, prompting the sirens to enter to ensure the largest possible audience on which to use their magic.

However, that plan did not play as they had hoped. For one, their music had been so outdated that it failed to even remotely influence a single pony. In fact, they had the exact opposite reaction: instead of seducing their audience with their spell, they had taken several tomatoes to the face as they were harshly cast out of the arena.

“What a bunch of Rubes!”

“I’ve never heard such pitiful music!”

“Try learning some chords you hacks!”

These were the words that stewed in Adagio’s head as she and her fellow sirens lay in their beds in the hotel.

“How dare those--those insects not recognize our brilliance!” she ground out as she paced back and forth in their room. “They should have been eating our of our hooves!”

“They kind of had a point, Adagio,” Aria pointed out dully from her place next to her fellow siren. “We’ve been using the same music for forever.”

“Yes! And it’s always worked!” Adagio countered. “Why change what works?”

“Because Canterlot is more sophisticated than anywhere else we’ve ever been,” Aria pointed out. “If we’re going to dominate this city, we’re going to need modernize our repertoire!”

Upon seeing Sonata’s confused expression, Aria clarified that they would need to come up with new songs if they were going to dominate Canterlot. Meanwhile, Adagio was left to wonder how they were going to come up with new songs since they didn’t use any actual lyrics or instruments for that matter.

Aria had suggested using instruments until Adagio pointed out that it would take too much time and it was better to play to their strengths. This had then led to a conversation of the most popular singing styles and song composition methods.

All the while, Sonata watched on, chewing on her gum.

“We’ll never get popular just copying what’s in style! We need to come up with some new style of music! Something original! Something with pizzazz! Something with--” At that moment, the bubble that Sonata had inflated then popped. Aria had then rounded on Sonata, demanded what she was eating. While Sonata explained the concept of gum to Aria, Adagio was mulling over the song that the gum made when the bubble burst. It was here that she had that life-changing epiphany: the idea of pop music. Her fellow sirens had been dubious but Adagio would make believers out of them before long.

The following day found the three sirens back at the coltosseum in front a skeptical panel of judges who were initially reluctant in allowing them to compete after their disastrous previous attempt. The sirens insisted that their act had drastically improved since their previous performance.

“Fine, fine. Go ahead,” said one of the judges.

Almost immediately, the gems on their chests began to glow as they began their new song. It was immediately obvious that they had enraptured their now captive audience with their new songs. Once they had finished, they’d been met with an eardrum-rupturing applause.
However, as they got they felt their powers expand and the ponies begun to fight with each other about who was the sirens’ biggest fans, one unicorn eyed the situation with equal parts curiosity and suspicion.

Enter Starswirl the Bearded: scholar, mage, and philosopher extraordinaire.

As he puzzled over how to combat the sirens, he postulated that seeing that his normal magic wouldn’t work against them, he would need a different tool: namely music.

Every night, as the sirens sang, Starswirl fought back in an attempt to stop them. Each night was something different: first it was classical string instruments like the lyre which hadn’t turned out well. Just like with the sirens on their first day, he’d been pelted with rotten vegetables, prompting the stallion to change his strategy.

From there they clashed with other, more diverse forms of music from rock to country and back to classical in a seemingly endless struggle that would later be known as the Music Wars. New instruments and genres had been developed as a result and the war continued to rage on which could only serve to bring advancements to the arts which could only help to make Equestria a better place as far as they were concerned. Unfortunately for Starswirl, while he was among the greatest mages in all of Equestria, he simply could not hold a candle to the sirens when it came to music.

So he came to an ultimatum. It wasn't a smart ultimatum but an ultimatum nonetheless.

If this world couldn’t stop them… maybe another world could! Starswirl took a moment to silently revel in his brilliant idea before contemplating which world he ought to send them to... Whatever, he'd figure that part out later.

So one fateful night in Canterlot, he prepared the magic mirror to send the trio to another world with the hopes that they could stop them. After all, the if they couldn't solve their own problems, the obvious solution would be to make someone else solve it for them and subsequently take all the credit.

Just as the sirens were about to perform their latest hit, Starswirl’s horn lit up and forced the sirens through the mirror and to another world.

Needless to say, the audience was not happy about it. In fact, they'd expressed their displeasure by way of pelting the mage with rotten food.

“And that’s pretty much what happened,” Adagio finished with Sunset and Spike exchanging an almost incredulous glance. Their first thought was that they were glad that Twilight wasn’t here. She would no doubt protest against the sirens’ claims against her idol.

“Well that explains how you ended up here,” was all Sunset could say. “But I’ve been wondering about your powers ever since you got here.”

“Really and what would that be?” Adagio asked.

“So when you sing, I know that you feed off the negativity in the audience,” Sunset started, “but when that happens, doesn’t that drain them of that anger?”

“No,” Aria shook her head. “The spell that’s in the songs that we play gets the crowd excited which leads to competition after which they start going after each other and we feed on that.”

“So I still don’t really get how this all works,” Spike spoke up. “You sing, the crowds get excited and then they start arguing over who likes you three the most?”

“It’s not quite that simple,” she pointed to the ruby encrusted on her necklace. “Our magic is stored in these necklaces and it’s the medium we use to sing and perform.”

She paused.

“Plus, it makes us look good,” she added as an afterthought.

“So how do they work?” Sunset asked. “I mean, I noticed that all of the negative energy that you absorbed the first time was sealed into the gem.”

Adagio and Aria exchanged an uncertain expression before turning to Sonata who’d been sitting on the desk, flailing her legs while humming a tune to herself casually, clearly not having paid attention to the conversation. That all changed when she felt four sets of eyes on her. One look at the uncertain expressions on their faces told her everything that she needed to know.

“Okay, I’ll explain!” she whined after several moments of staring, hopping off her perch before pulling out a pair of glasses from her pocket along with several whiteboard markers. As marker met whiteboard, Sonata began to explain.

“In order to understand how the gems work, you’ll need a primer on these gems' material properties at both the macro and nanoscales.”
Sunset and Spike exchanged an incredulous look with each other. Just what had they gotten themselves into...

“...and then that feeds into the heart so that it can provide circulation for the nutrients that we get from music magic,” Sonata finished, drawing an arrow to point from the gem into the siren chest. She turned to the others only to find that Aria had long since given up trying to follow Sonata’s explanation as had Adagio.

After all, they weren’t the ones with Ph.Ds in material science.

This left Spike and Sunset: the former did his best to repeat what Sonata said to Sunset who then scribbled it down as quickly as she could. Spike would later wonder how the page hadn’t caught fire with how fast she was writing.

“Okay well that makes sense… in a roundabout sort of way, I guess…” Sunset smiled awkwardly. Sonata beamed while the others just stared at her before deciding it was best to just to not question it and simply move on.

“See I kinda thought that when you used the spell, you drained the negative energy from people which you used to strengthen your powers and make people adore you,” Spike admitted.

“Oh that’s also true!” Sonata chimed in. “But that bit’s obvious so we didn’t bother including it.”

“So if that’s the case,” Sunset jumped in, “then why not drain the negativity in people as well? Wouldn’t that help attract attention so that you can get bigger audiences.”

“Perhaps,” Adagio nodded, “but unfortunately, it takes time for the word spread about us but we need to keep doing this to sustain our existence and we don’t have time to wait for larger audiences to come to us.”

“And that’s to say nothing of the fact that if we drained all of the negativity out of a person, there would be no more disharmony for us to feed on,” Aria added. Spike pointed out that would be offset by a someone else getting frustrated elsewhere to offset it and that was to say nothing of the daily inconveniences that made fools of everybody.

Sunset then countered by pointing out that social media was a thing and was great for organizing events. She could say that for a fact since she’d used it for her own schemes before she met Twilight and Spike. Actually, she still used albeit for more recreational purposes like where she ought to go for lunch or potential promotions for free stuff and to follow the hot new internet celebrity. You know the one...
She’d even pulled out her cell phone to prove the point while Spike and the sirens crowded around her in fascination as Sunset navigated through the various sites and explaining how they all worked.

Needless to say, the dazzlings were fascinated at this new media readily available at their disposal.

“So now that that’s settled,” Sunset pulled the conversation back on track, “I wanted to ask something.”

“What it is?” Adagio asked curiously as she tore her eyes away from her bandmates who were busy experimenting with this ‘social media’ conundrum that Sunset had introduced them to. It was clear to both Spike and Sunset that they were clearly having the time of their lives. Even Aria, who was infamous for being the grumpiest but arguably the most rational member of the group, had the broadest smile any of them had ever seen on her face as her fingers practically teleported across the small keyboard on her cell phone.

“Do you think it’d be possible to alter your spell so that it sucks up the negativity?” Sunset asked, prompting Adagio to raise an eyebrow in askance. Thankfully, Spike had managed to catch on to what Sunset was trying to get at and proceeded to explain.

“If you can alter your spell so that you suck up the negativity, now only will your voices get stronger, but people will adore you more as opposed to when they start arguing because think about it: they start arguing with each other and then forget about your performance when the crowd starts raging at each other!”

Adagio blinked as Spike and Sunset laid out the idea to her and her bandmates.

“Plus,” Spike added, “it’d be easy to find disharmony. All you’d have to do is just sing on the streets in a large city like Manehatten or Fillydelphia. Just hearing your voices, drew people’s attention so getting a large crowd on the streets wouldn’t be very hard. It might even end up being therapeutic since you three could potentially drain the fuel from the arguments.”

“And that’s to say nothing of how often people around here break into song and dance,” Sunset added wryly. She vaguely recalled Twilight’s experiences in Ponyville where such a thing was commonplace. Add to the fact that she was friends with Pinkie Pie and with all the strange things that girl did with her free time, there was little doubt in Sunset’s mind that they could pull of this convoluted scheme.

“But there’s still a couple of problems with this plan of yours,” Adagio spoke up. “When we sing, we end up causing disharmony and then we feed on that to strengthen our powers. The second is that even if we end up getting a larger audience, how will we be able to sustain ourselves on the people who choose not see us live in favor of watching us from the comfort of their own homes?”

“The first part’s pretty easy,” Sunset started. “Since there will already be disharmony present when you sing, your magic won’t even need to draw it out and start fights, so I don’t see that being an issue. As for the second…” Sunset and Spike exchanged an uncomfortable look.

“We’re not too sure on how to go about doing that, to be honest,” Spike admitted, scratching the back of his head with a paw. “I mean, we don’t know how magic really works in this world so it’s tough to say…”

Sunset tapped her chin in thought before snapping her fingers. “We might not know right now but there’s a way we can find out. Come on, follow me,” she said, stepping toward the door. Spike jumped from his perch on the desk while the sirens exchanged dubious glances but stood from their own perches and proceeded to follow the former bully to her locker where they found her rummaging through seemingly random articles stowed inside.

A moment later, she let out a triumphant noise as she pulled out a camera and a laptop computer. The four exchanged confused expressions as they tried to figure out what Sunset was trying to accomplish with the seemingly random setup.

“We can use this camera to record you singing and then stream it online where we can get a ton of people will watch and so we put our idea to the test and judging the reaction via the comments, we can see if this whole plan will work!” Sunset explained eagerly. This drew applause from the sirens and an awed look from Spike.

They were about to go test it when they heard principal Celestia’s voice on the intercom announcing that the Rainbooms were about to compete in the next round of the contest.

“We gotta go,” Spike said, “since our friends are going to be playing, we can pose the idea to them then and go from there.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Adagio replied as Sunset stuffed the equipment into her bag and snatched Spike up before rushing toward the gym.

“You want to do WHAT!?” Twilight exclaimed as she and her friends listened to Sunset and Spike’s proposition, after winning the second round of the competition.

“I want to help the sirens,” Sunset repeated. Noticing that Twilight was about to open her mouth to refute her, Sunset added, “Think about it Twilight: their powers feed on disharmony. If we can utilize that method as a therapeutic technique, can you imagine how much better people’s lives will be?”

“It’s not so much that it’s a bad idea,” Twilight backpedaled, “but I’m just worried that if your idea backfires, it might leave this world much worse off.”

“That’s why we’re going to conduct a thought experiment,” Sunset stated quickly. She gestured to the curtain, pointing out the unruly crowd after the latest band was boo’ed off the stage and pointed out how they’d started fighting with each other. She’d gone on to explain that if her idea was sound, then the siren’s song would purge the disharmony from them and set things right.

“But what about the spell that they use to keep the audience captive?” Twilight pointed out.

“Er… Twilight, that’s not a spell that they’re using to keep the audience captive,” Spike pointed out. “That happens literally every time someone breaks into a song and dance number. Remember, it happened you guys did that cafeteria song the last time we were here.”

“That much is true,” Rarity pointed out. “Before this whole thing started, we were playing music in the music room and by the time we’d finished, we’d unknowingly drawn a crowd.” She paused before adding, “I didn’t think that it was possible to fit that many people in that room.” Her friends let out a chorus of agreement at both Rarity’s comment as well as to Spike and Sunset’s idea.

Twilight soon found herself as the center of attention before taking a deep breath and calmly exhaling in an attempt to recompose herself.

“As long as this doesn’t escalate out of control, I won’t try to stop you,” Twilight began carefully before eying the journal Fluttershy had loaned to her. “Besides, I’ve been having a lot of trouble using these to write much of anything.” She flailed her hands around for emphasis.
The others chuckled in response before leaving the stage and following the dynamic duo as they found Sonata waving them into one of the music rooms with all the necessary equipment to conduct the test.

Once everything was set up, Sunset gave the signal and the siren trio began to sing while the rest of the girls watched the video stream. So far so good.

Almost instantly, comments upon comments rushed through the site and the same time, the negativity in those comments had traveled through the internet through the wire and into the ruby gems.

Once Sunset called a stop, the first thing she asked was how they were feeling.

“It worked!” Sonata cheered. “I can’t believe it actually worked!”

“I just down get how it worked,” Twilight frowned, her arms crossed thoughtfully.

“I have an theory,” Sunset offered. “Since this world doesn’t have nearly as much magic as Equestria does, humanity invented alternative means of getting things done so over time, technology was developed to facilitate this since they serve the same function, I think the sirens were able to tap into that as a second medium to channel disharmony remotely.”

Twilight stared, wide-eyed before another idea came to her: could sirens feed on electricity directly?

The sirens, despite having never met Princess Twilight, somehow knew that crazed desire to conduct some science and they didn’t want to become lab rats.

“Well since we know that this is a better method than just stirring up trouble,” Adagio smiled genuinely for the first time. “I think that we don’t need to participate in the competition since we’ll have a better time finding an audience through this medium.”

“Plus it’ll be a sustainable audience so you’ll still get that adoration that you wanted,” Spike pointed out. “The possibilities are endless: think about it: you could even be professionals and have your own record label.”

The sirens smiled eagerly at the prospect of the brighter futures in store for them as they stepped out of the room.

“Wait!” Twilight called. “What about the students who were under your control?”

“Since we haven’t sung since the first round, those students aren’t under our control anymore and we don’t really need them to be after all.”

“But seriously, Spike and Sunset, we owe you both big time,” Sonata smiled, hugging the fiery haired girl and the purple dog.

“Yeah,” Aria nodded from behind her. “This way will help us build our own community and after talking with you and Spike, I think we can use it to help make this world better for both us and for people who want to listen to our music.” With that, Aria offered a hand which Sunset grasped and shook firmly.

“Goodbye,” was all Adagio said as she and her bandmates offered a single wave before leaving the school.

Author's Note

This took way longer than it should have...