A Dazzling Mismatch

Chapters

The Charity Shop
New Bodies
New Experiences
The Dazzlings: Revisited
Old War Wounds
Sonaria, Ario, and Adata
The Kids Are In Charge
"We need to talk..."
The Dazzlings' House Tour
Bonding
All Sales Final
Changing for Better or for Worse
Adagio's Plan
The Struggles Of Staying Mature
The Big Moment...
A Runaway Adagio
A Trail Of Hatred
One Last Song
After The Storm

The Charity Shop

"And so when he asked me about how much money I had, I told him I'd work something out," Aria spoke to Adagio and Sonata as the three of them walked down the path through the city of Canterlot. Without their gems, the Dazzlings now had to get everything through hard work, instead of simply singing to get whatever they wanted. "The old man thought he could pull a fast one on me, said that I needed to pay him there and then, but when he saw I didn't have enough money, I tried haggling with him for a better offer. Ended with me getting thrown out of the shop for some reason. Maybe I should have offered something better..."

"Or maybe, you could stop with the grouchy attitude and try being nice for a change, Aria?" Sonata chided.

"Hey! It's not my fault that I'm stone broke and magicless!" Aria shot back. "It's those stupid Rainbooms' fault! So why should we have to be the ones who suffer while they get all the glory?!"

"I dunno. Maybe if you had been a little less of a meanie-pants, then maybe we could've won back then." Sonata shrugged as she put her hands behind her head.

"YOU of all people should be to blame for us losing the Battle of the Bands, Sonata Dusk!" Aria baled her hands into fists and pushed past Adagio just to get to her. "I swear, I'd kick the everloving crap out you right here and now if you weren't a siren like me and Adagio!"

"See, Aria? This is exactly what I mean." Sonata pushed her back. "You're always so grumpy with me!" She stopped in her tracks and planted her feet firmly on the ground. "Oh, Sonata, clean up your room. Sonata, why are your taco wrappers everywhere? Sonata, shut that stupid music up or I'll come in there and shut it up for you!" She did her best impression of Aria, putting her hands on her hips and waving her own hands threateningly.

"That's it!" Aria lunged forward and tackled Sonata, throwing the two of them into a scuffle where they were pulling each others' hairs and slapping each other across the face. "YOU ARE SUCH A BABY, SONATA!"

"YOU'RE ONE TO TALK, YOU BIG BULLY!" Sonata dealt a kick to Aria's chest.

"Girls!" Adagio quickly grabbed both Aria and Sonata by their scruffs, stopping the fight dead in its tracks. "I know we've suffered a major loss at Canterlot High, but bickering like children isn't going to help the situation out at all. As sirens, you should know that we used to feast on anger, not get consumed by it."

"Oh, you're one to talk, Adagio." Aria tried to break free, but all she could do was turn her head towards her. "You were having a massive hissy fit when we got home from the Battle of the Bands over that stupid gem of yours!"

"Hey! So. Were. You." Adagio booped Aria's nose with her middle finger. "I'm still the leader of the Dazzlings, and I can still make all the decisions with or without some little trinket, and as the leader, I order you two to stop fighting and just walk down the street like a normal human would, just for the time being." And she dropped Sonata and Aria back onto the ground. "And no fighting along the way, or I'll have to start restricting what you two do."

"Uggh!" Aria groaned as she marched onward. "I swear, if I was the leader of the Dazzlings, none of this would've ever happened."

"Yeah. If anything, things would've been even worse with you in charge." Adagio huffed.

"Sometimes I wish you could just walk a mile in my shoes, Adagio," Aria's voice had been reduced to nothing more than a low pitched grumble. "If you weren't the leader, you'd see just how much shit I have to go through with you and Sonata on a daily basis..."

"And you think being leader's an easy job, Aria?" Adagio asked. "With all of the tough decisions you have to make, and with two incompetent kids at your side, I think I'd much rather prefer being you instead of me sometimes."

At that remark, Aria fell silent and hunched her arms as she slowly turned back towards Adagio. With her savage smirk on her face, she said, "Is that a challenge, Adagio?"

"Could it be anything else, Aria?" Adagio gave her own wicked smirk as she locked gazes with the purple siren. "It seems like you have a habit of making promises your body can't deliver."

"Oh yeah, Adagio?" Aria stepped forward and crossed her arms. "I think you're just starting to lose confidence in yourself after what happened at Canterlot High. Must be old age or something."

"Excuse me?!" Adagio nearly stumbled backwards at that remark. "I'll have you know that I'm the youngest siren, at just one-thousand, two-hundred and seventy-six years, thank you very much."

"And yet I'm a couple hundred years older than you, so technically, that makes me the eldest, and yet I don't get the position of leader," Aria's tone was very close to hitting deadpan.

"So it's a bet is it?" Adagio got up in Aria's face. "Starting from now, you're the leader of the Dazzlings, and if you can make one good idea before the week's up, you'll get that spot permanently."

"Oh, it is so on, Adagio." Aria glared at her, the two sirens now locking horns with each other. "I bet by the end of this week, you'll be eating out of the palm of my hand with how amazing I am at making decisions."

"Don't I get a say in this?" Sonata raised a finger of her own.

"No, Sonata. This doesn't concern you." Both Adagio and Aria spoke in unison with each other before they stared at each other with wide eyes.

"Alrighty then, Aria. What's your first big and special decision going to be?" Adagio mocked as she took a few steps back and stood next to Sonata.

"We're gonna get back on top, that's how. But we can't do it without some fresh identities, and some clean clothes..." Aria looked down and reviled at the clothes that she had been wearing ever since they came to the human world. They weren't anything special by any means, but they were still hers. "These things? They're nice, but I feel like they've gone out of fashion. So, we've gotta get some new clothes that match us better."

"But Aria, those clothes were the only ones we could find that fit us perfectly," Sonata rubbed down the sides of her skirt. "And besides, the guy who gave us these were kind enough to sew me and Dagi's Cutie Marks onto them too."

"Sonata, you shouldn't call your logo a Cutie Mark. It makes you seem too girly," Aria scoffed.

"But I like being girly..." Sonata hung her head.

"Anyway, we're burning daylight here. We've gotta get moving before the stupid charity shop closes." Aria wasted no time in continuing her root march down the sidewalk, with Adagio and Sonata following closely behind her.

"A charity shop, Aria?" Adagio joked. "I had no idea your first decision was gonna be helping those in need." she stifled a tiny chuckle, putting her hand over her mouth. "Maybe being a leader's not your thing?"

"Hah! In your dreams, Adagio," said Aria. "And besides, where do you expect me to go? The classy shops? Fat chance of that."

"Good point." Adagio stared mainly at Aria's pocket where her wallet just barely hung out of it. She was mainly looking at the little pouch where dollar bills would be kept, and grinned when she saw nothing.

Later, the Dazzlings found themselves in the commercial district of Canterlot City. Shops and restaurants of all different names, shapes, and sizes stretched out into the streets beyond. There wasn't many people, as it was getting later, and a few of the shops were already starting to close after serving their last customers.

"Oh, by the way, girls," Aria started, "buying this stuff isn't gonna be easy, so I'm gonna need you two to help chip in on this."

"Why? Is it because you're the only one who can't afford it?" Adagio had another concealed laugh.

"Shut it, Adagio. You gave me the leader role, and I'll be damned if I'm not gonna use it," Aria didn't even turn her head as she addressed her. "Now, quit with the funny stuff and tell me how much you and Sonata got."

"I have a couple of tens in here," Adagio pulled out her golden wallet and opened it up. "I was gonna use them for something more casual, but since this is such an urgent matter..."

"Are you just gonna keep being sarcastic for the whole week?" Aria raised an eyebrow as she examined Adagio's money.

"Well, what can I say? That's what it feels like to be the second-in-command brat who doesn't want to follow orders."

"Just keep quiet, Adagio. I'm in control now, and I'm not about to waste this opportunity." Aria cracked a smile as Adagio handed her the money. "What about you, Sonata? How much you got?"

"Just a five." She said as she got out her own wallet and revealed her money. She wasted no time in giving it to her new leader. "I spent the rest of it on tacos in case you're wondering."

"Which I wasn't. Seriously, it's always tacos with you, Sonata." Aria grasped the money tight in her hand and slipped it into her own wallet. "But anyway, this is decent. It's not great, but it should get us some new threads before we start our long climb to the top. And who knows? We might just have enough left over to buy a present for the two of you." She then leaned in close to Sonata. "Might."

"So where is this charity shop, Aria?" Adagio asked after passing by a few more closing shops.

"It's been a while since I've seen it, so I can't recognize the name. But I do remember that they always have these cheesy baby toys on display along with some rags." Aria used her fingers to list off each of the different features of the building. "They had green walls, a wooden door, a white interior—"

"And our pendants?" Sonata blurted out.

"And our—wait, what?!" Aria choked on the words and craned her neck towards Sonata, who was simply gazing into a window.

"Look, girls! There they are!" Sonata pointed it out, causing both Adagio and Aria to look in as well.

Every detail was perfect about them. From the smooth curves on each of the five points, to the golden buckle on a leather collar from which they hung, right down to the miniscule circle at the centre of each gem that held it all together. They were perfect replicas of the Dazzlings' old pendants that had been destroyed at Canterlot High.

"No... Freaking... Way..." Aria's mouth dropped when she got a closer look at it. She then pushed herself off the window and charged towards the front door. "Screw the clothes! We're getting those pendants! The Dazzlings are back on top!"

Neither Adagio nor Sonata could contain themselves either. With smiles back on their faces, they followed Aria into the shop and didn't even spend any time looking at any of the other clothes, knick-knacks, or toys that were up for sale inside. They were more focused on the gems, and they quickly took them off of the displays and took them to the counter.

"How much for these?" They all said in perfect sync.

The shopkeeper, a grizzled gray man with black hair, a golden suit, a black top-hat, and a single fang hanging out of his mouth said, "What? These little gems? Well. I'd be happy to part with them. They've been giving me nothing but grief for the past few months." He laid his arms out on the counter and put his hands together. "For such sweet, innocent, and desperate girls like yourselves, I'm only charging twenty five dollars for these little things."

"Sweet! That's totally in our budget!" Aria hastily ripped her wallet out from her pocket again and literally threw Adagio and Sonata's money at the man. "We'll take them!"

"Wonderful!" He quickly took the dollars, ironed out the creases with an actual iron that he had been using to do his own clothes in the room just behind him, and put them into the cash register. "Pleasure doing business with you ladies."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Aria already took the first pendant and slipped it around her neck, clipping the collar up at the back.

"Thank you so much for this, sir." Sonata shook the man's hand as she and Adagio took the other pendants and put them on.

"No, no. Thank you for helping me sell those eyesores." He gracefully returned the gesture. "I was gonna have a nervous breakdown if I didn't sell those gems soon, and you girls just helped me out of a real pickle back there."

"Oh, well in that case, you're welcome, sir," said Sonata in her bubbly voice.

"Much oblidged, ladies. Oh, and please, call me Discord." He took his hat off and did a bow as Adagio, Aria, and Sonata fitted themselves and walked out the door. "Have a good evening, ladies!"

The Dazzlings walked out of the shop with springs in their steps. What they had lost back at Canterlot High was now back where it belonged. They had the power to sing to manipulate others once again, and Aria herself was abundant with energy.

"So, what should we do now?" Adagio adjusted her new pendant until she was happy with the way it rested on her neck.

"Let's try to sing again. Break them in before we start using them for real." Aria squeezed her gem inbetween her middle finger and thumb. "I wanna see if these are actually the real deal, so all of that happiness we had wasn't for nothing, y'know?"

"It would be nice to sing after all that's happened to us..." Sonata sighed as she softly rubbed the front of her new crystal.

The Dazzlings all took a deep breath and tried to sing a note. Much to their dismay, however, their voices were still out of time, out of sync, and even out of tone. They stopped themselves after two notes, noticing that they hadn't changed a bit since putting them on.

"Hmm... Maybe they've gotta warm up a bit?" Sonata tried rubbing the pendant in the palms of her hands.

"Or maybe they're just some cheap knock-offs," Adagio facepalmed as the realization struck her. "Way to go, Aria. You spent all of our money on cheap replicas that don't even work. Flawless leadership right there, let me tell you."

"Hey, shut up, Adagio. It's not my fault that these things don't work yet!" Aria grumbled as she held the gem in one of her hands and repeatedly punched it with the other. "Come on, you worthless piece of ruby! Make us great singers again!"

"That's not gonna work," said Adagio, bluntly.

"Do you have any better ideas, Adagio?" Aria kept on punching it, failing to notice a faint glow emanate from her gem at the start. The glow eventually got brighter and brighter, before it was impossible to conceal. "Oh. Never mind..."

The same radiant light poured from both Adagio and Sonata's pendants as well, getting more and more blinding by the second. It escalated until it consumed all three of the Dazzlings, who all had their smirks back as they let themselves get consumed by the bright flash of light.

However, unbeknownst to them, tiny little lightning bolts shot out of the gems, connecting with the others, like a small web. The energy manifested in all three of the crystals before a powerful surge was sent through each bolt to the neighbouring pendants.

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata had trouble trying to keep their focus as the light now became too bright for them to handle. They tried to close their eyes to get away from the red glow, but even that wasn't enough to stop the radiant shine of their pendants. They struggled to stay awake as they could see nothing but red. It got brighter, and brighter, and brighter, until they could only see white.

And then, all of a sudden, they passed out, quickly being blanketed by darkness as their unconscious bodies crumpled up onto the floor.

New Bodies

Adagio Dazzle was the first to wake up from the explosion. She groaned as she slowly raised her hand to her head to fight off the pounding headache she had been inflicted with. The good news was that she was still alive, as she hadn't moved an inch from the charity shop or that the place hadn't become a war-torn wasteland yet.

"Ohh... Did someone catch the number of that truck?" she asked, then immediately gasped when she had noticed that her voice had changed. Instead of the suave and sophisticated voice that she had grown up with, she was now stuck with the gravelly voice of Aria Blaze. "What's wrong with my voice?" She slowly looked down at her hands, which were now trembling. When her eyes readjusted to the light, her hands, and her skin as a whole had gone from golden to fuchsia. "What the?!"

Looking further down at herself, she had noticed that her clothes were entirely different as well, and that there were a series of wristbands on her arms. She then looked up to see if Sonata or Aria were around, and was met with a disturbing sight. She could see Sonata and her real body, but she wasn't in it. When the realization struck her, she let out the loudest scream she could muster with her new vocal cords.

"This is a nightmare!" Adagio exclaimed, desperately looking at the rest of her new clothes. "I've been turned into a goth!"

"Uggh..." Sonata facepalmed and shook off the rest of her concussion. Her voice remained the same, but her demeanour was entirely different. Instead of being the bubbly girl that she usually was, she had an incredibly mean look on her face. "Chill out. At least you don't look like some kind of walking candy floss..."

"Wait. Sonata would never act that way..." Adagio had time to process what had become of her other two sisters. She knew that Sonata was always the happy one, while Aria was a grump. By the process of elimination, she had already worked out what had happened. "Aria? Why are you in Sonata's body?"

"I think the better question is why are you in my body, Adagio?" Aria asked, finding it hard to sound intimidating with Sonata's voice. She sounded much more like a kid trying to be tough when in reality, they weren't. "And why do you have my voice too? What the heck's going on here?"

"This has gotta be some kind of prank, right?" Adagio tried to deny the reality of the situation. "There's no way that body-swapping is a thing. At least, not in this world, right?"

"What kind of prank would stuff me into the body of a weak baby who's obsessed with tacos and the colour pink?" Aria slammed her blue fist on the ground. "Someone must've drugged us when we put on those gems. Maybe traces of LSD sprinkled into the backs to make us think and feel like this is all real, right?"

"Nuh-uh. It was magic that did this to us." Adagio's body finally spoke up, but instead of being controlled, it felt much more giddy than usual. "The Rainbooms must've done this. They knew we loved those things, so they used their magical friendship powers to make copies that allowed us to switch bodies so that we'd freak out and become unorganized, thereby stopping us from trying to exact our revenge on them. That sounds right to me," she spoke rapidly, then ended with a wide smile on her face.

"Sonata?" Adagio's voice – or whatever she could make of it in Aria's body – felt very shaky, and she could barely get her words out. Sonata Dusk, the child entity of the Dazzlings, was in her body, and could do anything she wanted with it. "Why are you in my body?! Why couldn't you have this body instead?!"

"Whoa... How did you get in Aria's body, Dagi?" Sonata asked as she crawled up to her. "I mean, Aria's the worst of the Dazzlings. She's always so mean to me, but now that I'm you, I can be just as mean to her." She turned to face the siren who had hijacked her real body. "Isn't that right, Aria? You're so upset about being me that you're blue."

"Da ba dee, da be die, bitch," Aria scoffed as she put her hands to her hips and stood up. "But since you found these pendants, do you mind hurrying the hell up and getting back on your feet, instead of just sitting down there like a klutz?"

"But Aria, I'm the klutz, not Dagi," Sonata said, then slapped her face at that remark. "The point is, you've got my body, so techinally, you're me, and I'm Adagio. and since you called me a klutz that techincally means that you're the klutz, Aria. Or should I call you Sonaria?" she chuckled.

"I swear to god, Sonata. I'm gonna beat you up so hard when this is all over, you won't even want to have your own body back!" Aria shouted as Sonata got onto her feet and struggled to maintain her balance.

"Technically, you'll be hurting me and not her, since you'll be punching my body, Aria." Adagio brushed herself off as she too rose to her feet, only for her to wobble and fall back to the ground as she tried to stand up in Aria's pumps. "Whoa!" She yelped as she tumbled down onto her side and impacted the hard ground again. "How the heck do you spend the whole day in these wretched things?" Adagio cursed as she looked down at the high heels.

"With hard work, determination, and a sense of maturity, Adagio," Aria snided as she watched Adagio attempt to stand back up. "Something that as me, you don't seem to have anymore."

"Let's just get back to the house, OK?" Adagio said as she finally managed to stand upright again. "We've got our gems back, and that's all that matters at the moment. How we'll deal with these body swaps is down to you, oh great and powerful leader."

"Trust me, Adagio. After a good night's sleep, I'll have already worked out the answer to our problem," Aria grew a smug smile as she led her sisters back to the house.

The Dazzlings' house was unlike the other houses in Canterlot City. It was three storeys tall, had a small golden gate at the front door, and even a well-tended flower garden that led all the way to the front door, which was gilded with Adagio, Aria, and Sonata's emblems. The stone path that led to the door was also neat, with no gaps inbetween each square tile.

Aria led the way across the path, while Adagio struggled to walk over it without wobbling in her new shoes, while Sonata leisurely skipped on each of the tiles. They all arrived at the door and pushed it open together, feeling the cold handle press against their hands as they walked inside.

The interior of the Dazzlings' house was an entirely different story. It all looked like it a mansion with marble floors and pillars, plain white walls, and a wide range of rooms on each side. There was a red carpet that was rolled out from the front door all the way towards a staircase that led towards the upper floors, and more specifically, the girls' bedrooms.

"Alright. Before we settle in for the night, let's just do a quick voice check to see if those gems of ours work now..." Aria stopped the group midway down the carpet.

"Are you sure that it's going to work this time?" Adagio asked.

"Listen. We were just part of some crazy body-swap prank," Aria deadpanned as she readjusted her pendant. "I'm pretty sure that if our voices aren't back to normal too, then this would be a nightmare."

"C'mon, Aria. Show some happiness for once in your life," Sonata moaned and wiped some sweat of of her golden brow. "You're in my body now, and Sonata Dusk is a happy-go-lucky girl, not some grouch who spends most of her time listening to mean music."

"After this test, I'm gonna ask that you shut up, Sonata," Aria groaned. "Now. One. Two. One, two, three, four..."

The Dazzling all opened their mouths to sing, and the gems started to respond. Ther voices were being molded from the train wrecks from before, into beguiling and alluring singing voices again. They sang a chorus that enveloped the whole room and echoed off the walls, and as the noise reverbated in their ears, the three of them smiled warmly. The magic that had been taken away from them was finally back in their hands, and they now had the power to make anyone do what they wanted once again.

"Well, that gives me some hope in this," Aria sighed in content. "But now there's the issue of getting out of this meat sack and back into my body."

"Hey! My body is not a meat sack, Aria." Sonata chided as she approached her. "It's super cuddly and warm, and you're the complete opposite of that!"

"If I wanted to be a kid again, I wouldn't have grown up, and would've still been in diapers," Aria insulted as she cracked the knuckles of Sonata's body. "But here I am. A fully-capable teenage girl who's over a thousand years old, stuck in some baby pink onesie that won't seem to come off."

"Well, at least I'm the most attractive looking girl now, Aria," Sonata huffed as she felt her new hips. "I mean, look at this stylish body. These beautiful legs, and this sensational voice. If anything, gold fits me better than blue!" She then noticed that Adagio had been in earshot of the whole conversation. "Uhh, no offense, right?"

"None taken, Sonata," Adagio calmly placed her hand on Sonata's shoulders. "You've got my body now, and it's to be expected that you've got all of my good looks, unlike a certain emo freako I've had to deal with..."

"At least I'm the leader of the Dazzlings now!" Aria shot back, then immediately calmed herself down. "Anyway, we've gotta get some rest. It's been a long day, and I'm already weirded out as it is being stuck in Sonata's body."

"Yeah." Sonata stretched her arms up into the air and let out a massive yawn for emphasis. "I'm feeling pretty sleepy too. So we should probably just skip the tacos and go straight to bed."

"I agree. Today's been a long day, but we've got our powers back, and that's all that matters." Adagio began to walk towards the stairs. "We'll jump the hurdle of how we get back into our own bodies tomorrow, when we've got more time to think and plan."

"If you happen to wake up, you do know where my room is, right?" Aria asked.

"She already knows. It's down the left corridor, third door on the right. It's the room with all of the pink flowers on it." Sonata blurted out as she followed Adagio to the rooms.

"No, that's your room, Sonata," said Aria.

"Nuh-uh. It's your room now, Aria!" She threw her arms up.

"Wait, what?!" Aria's face felt like it had been hit with a hammer when the realization struck her. "Oh no. No no no no no no no, there is no way that I'm gonna be sleeping in Sonata's room tonight."

"Aww c'mon, Aria. What's so bad about my room anyway?" Sonata's smile never seemed to fade as Aria joined up with the others. "There's lots of food lying around, a nice comfy bed, and plenty of toys and crayons to keep you entertained if you get bored!"

"But that's baby stuff for you, Sonata. I'm more into heavy metal and grunge, not that kiddy stuff." Aria pouted and crossed her arms as the Dazzlings climbed the stairs.

"I'm not Sonata. I'm Adagio. You're Sonata, Aria," Sonata smirked. "And that means, that as Sonata, you've got my room until this is over, just as I have Dagi's room, and she gets you room."

"Fuck that!" Aria shouted and threw her arms out. "I'm not letting Adagio into my room, and I'm not setting foot into your pink eyesore of a bedroom either!"

"Why are you so angry about this?" Sonata recoiled at Aria's outburst. "It's just a bedroom."

"A bedroom built for babies, not for rockers! I'm not you, Sonata. I may have the body, but that doesn't mean I'm just gonna randomly be a fun-loving kid just because I'm stuck as you for the time being!"

"Aria. I'm not gonna say this again." Sonata's brows lowered and her voice became serious. "You. Are. Sleeping. In. My. Room. Tonight."

"No. I. Am. Not!" Aria yelled the last word at the top of her voice, knocking Sonata back against the wall and causing her to crumple down onto the carpet floor.

"What's the matter, Aria?" Adagio smirked as she found another opportunity to poke fun at her. "I thought you were the leader of the Dazzlings. Surely, you can handle sleeping in Sonata's room for the evening..."

"But it's all pink and girly!" Aria whined like a child as she looked Adagio in the eyes. "I can't be seen sleeping in that baby room! I'll get teased about it for the rest of my life!"

"But technically, it won't be you sleeping in it, Aria." Adagio leaned against the wall and drummed her fingers against it. "Because of this little occurence, you're in Sonata's body, I'm in yours, and Sonata's in mine, right? So that means from the outside perspective, it'll look like Sonata's in her room sleeping soundly."

"But it'll still feel the same deep down, and I'm not about to jeopardize my rep as a punk rocker just because I'm stuck in Sonata's wimpy body." Aria stayed stern as she walked across the mezzanine in a huff to get to her room.

"But you wanna sleep in it!" Sonata spoke up.

"No, I don't," said Aria.

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't!"

"No, you won't."

"Yes, I will!" Aria began walking to Sonata's room, unbeknownst of what she was saying or doing. She was more focused in trying to beat Sonata at the petty argument she was having with her.

"No, you won't." Sonata still spoke arguatively, but she had a smile on her face.

"Yes, I will!"

"No, you won't."

"Yes, I will!"

"No, you won't."

"Yes, I will, and you're not gonna stop me!" Aria put her hand on the door, opened it up, walked through the door, and slammed it on Sonata, locking it once she was inside.

"Okie dokie then. Sleep tight, Aria!" Sonata back to Adagio so that the two of them could sleep in their own bedrooms. "The bathroom's just next to the TV!" She was so far away from the room now that she didn't even hear the groans coming from it when Aria realized what had happened.

When Aria looked back at the room, her eyes went wide as she witnessed what was inside. The room was far more pink than she expected it to be. There were plush animals scattered around the room, a small plastic table with colouring books and crayons dotted around the top, and there was even a doll collection with a tiny runway and a plastic head for playing with make-up. It was geared far much more towards a kid than any other human being, and Aria knew this all too well—even though this was the first time she had ever been in it.

Unable to make words at how stunned she was with the room, she went to brush her teeth in the bathroom, which was the only thing that wasn't as childish as the rest of the bedroom. She quickly brushed, took her clothes off, and went to change into some pajamas for the evening. She pulled out a draw and found nothing but pink ones, both for the top and bottom.

"I can't believe that I'm stuck in this stupid body, having to sleep in this baby's room until I can get back into my own body..." Aria grumbled to herself as she wriggled into the pink pajamas and walked towards the bed. She pulled back the covers only to find a bunch of teddy bears greeting her as she did. "Fucking kill me now..." She facepalmed.

Meanwhile, Adagio reviled at how much of a mess Aria's bedroom was. The cream walls were tarnished with posters of boy bands and punk rock groups, all of which didn't really appeal to her in the slightest. The bed was a mess, with no duvet or covers on the matress, and were instead hanging down each side of the bed.

"How the hell does Aria sleep each night?!" Was all that Adagio could remark as she too went to get changed and brush her teeth before settling down for the night. It didn't take her too long to get prepared for bed, and when she eventually came back, she neatly tucked the duvet underneath the matress and flapped the covers so that they were aligned perfectly with the rest of the bed. "Well, when this is over, I'm gonna have to give her a little lesson in how to properly maintain a bed..."

When Adagio laid down in the bed, she was met with an unpleasant sensation. The matress was rock hard and not acclimated to her level of comfort in the slightest. She started to toss and turn, trying to find the optimum sleeping position in Aria's bed, and having no luck in doing so.

"I just hope Sonata's having a better night than I am..." She groaned as she closed her eyes and tried to bear with the uncomfortable bed.

Sonata giddily skipped around Adagio's room, taking in all of the sights. The walls were very neatly kept, and the shelves held a collection of knick-knacks that Adagio had been collecting during her time in the human world. There was a four-poster bed by one of the walls, and a widescreen TV just on the other side of it. There were also two nightstands. One on each side of the bed. The last thing of notice was a table with a letter writing set, a computer, and a picture of the Dazzlings in front of their house.

"This is awesome!" Sonata exclaimed as she ran a few more laps around the room, jumping over the bed and nearly tripping over because of how far the jump was each time, before she dashed into the bathroom to freshen up.

"Honestly, I don't care if we're stuck like this." Sonata said to herself as she squirted a blob of toothpaste onto the brush and started to apply it to her teeth. "I'm just glad that I can play with Adagio's stuff now, instead of all my boring old toys." She pushed the button, and the electric toothbrush whirred into life. Sonata pressed it against her teeth and began to brush rhythmically as she hummed one of her favourite songs.

Author's Note

Writing a bodyswap fanfic is no easy task. For one thing, you've gotta remember that for one, vocal chords are not in the brain; and for two, you need to address the characters as their real names, and not the bodies they're using. So, whenever Aria speaks, I don't call her Sonata, because Sonata's in Adagio's body, and that can get weird.

But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter for what it was, and be sure to stay tuned, as there will be more chapters being released soon. If you did like it, be sure to leave a comment; and if you like the fanfic as it is now, be sure to give it a favourite and an upvote. The favourites are very well appreciated, but the upvotes will get this story more out there.

Have a good evening!

New Experiences

The next morning, Adagio's eyes were still half-open from trying to get to sleep in Aria's bed. Ever since she and the other Dazzlings had traded rooms, sleeping had become more of a chore than a luxury. With how rock-hard the bed was, how small the covers barely hung over the bed, and how flat the pillow was, it was as if Adagio had spent the worst night of her life.

"Uggh..." she groaned as she sat up, her eyelids still heavily drooping over her head as she rubbed it tenderly. "I think Aria has it all wrong. She's the worst of the Dazzlings." She drove her arm down her neck and sighed in relief when she noticed the gemstone was still there. "Well, at least I've still got that. Now's the problem of trying to get back into my own body..."

Adagio stood up and walked over to the bathroom, washing her face with hot soapy water. As she soaked her face in the water, she was woken up even more by how refreshing the spray was. Her eyes opened up more once she dried her face off and brushed her teeth, and after that process was done, she was ready to begin the day.

Adagio went back into the room and opened a huge wicker bin with all kinds of clothes inside. They ranged from black and white, dark shades of purple, and Aria's usual clothes. As she dug through the fabrics, she eventually let out an exasparated huff and dressed herself in Aria's usual clothes, sticking her tongue out when she looked at herself in the mirror.

When Adagio walked out of the room, the first thing she noticed was Sonata just walking outside of the room. Instead of the big poofy hairstyle that Adagio sported, Sonata had managed to trim it down and re-shape it to her old hairstyle, complete with an orange scrunchie holding the orange and yellow ponytail up. As much as she wanted to let out a scream over the loss of her own body's hair, she had something else on her mind.

"Sonata?" Adagio walked up to her and tapped her shoulder before she could go towards Aria's room. "What's with the hairstyle?"

"Oh, well if you must know, I can't sleep with all your fluffy hair, Adagio." Sonata turned towards Adagio and placed her hands on her hips. "As nice as it is for acting as a second pillow, I just felt really, really, REALLY hot whenever it got in my face."

"Odd, considering that I never had that problem." Adagio put her hand on her chin and drummed her fingers against it. "I guess these new bodies must make us feel different in some of the tiniest ways, not just in our voices, but in the things we like and hate too.

"Well, except for me hating Aria's bed. I will always hate how rock-hard it is, and the fact that the covers are literally just as big as a wrap-around blanket," she grumbled.

"Speaking of which, where is Aria?" Sonata asked, looking around the main hall of the house. "I was going to check her room to see if she hadn't woken up, but considering that she doesn't really like my room, I thought it was a good idea to have a look around the house as a whole to see if she'd already woken up."

"Wow. That... sounds really smart of you, Sonata," Adagio almost struggled to get the words out. She had never noticed such logic coming from her before.

"But from the looks of the house, it doesn't seem like she's up yet." Sonata pointed towards an archway that led towards a table in the nearby kitchen. "Aria's always the first one in the kitchen every morning, so this is quite strange. Maybe she decided to sleep in or something?"

"If Aria's always the first one up, then why is it that today she isn't?" Adagio questioned. "It's not like her to be a heavy sleeper. Heck, I even made her the leader for the week, so I kind of expected her to be much more mature about her new title, and not just someone who isn't even out of her room yet."

"Well, it looks like we've got a mystery on our hands, Dagi." Sonata reached into a pocket and pulled out a magnifying glass. "Aria's gone missing, and we need to combine our brains in order to find her! But not literally. Even I know that's a bad idea."

"H-hey!" Adagio immediately identified the magnifying glass as Sonata brought it close to her eyes. It had a golden grip and ring, and the glass had no stains on it whatsoever."Be careful with that, Sonata! I spent a whole weekend trying to find the perfect one of those things to fit in my room!"

"Don't worry, Dagi. It'll be fine..." Sonata began to walk to Aria's room, examining each and every detail of the banisters, walls, and carpet to find a trace of Aria. She spent a second identifying something before she looked at another object. However, throughout the entire walk, she found the trip to be fruitless when she arrived at Aria's door. "Nothing yet. So we've gotta start with the most obvious place to check. The scene of the crime! Sonata Dusk's bedroom! Well, technically Aria's room now, but you get the idea!"

Adagio was about to touch the handle on the door when she heard a high-pitched laugh coming from the other side and the faintest noise of a spring sound effect. She had a quick look at Sonata and nodded with her before she opened the door quickly and looked inside.

The first thing that both Adagio and Sonata noticed was Aria sitting on the end of the bed wearing a fully pink pajama set. She was cuddling some of the stuffed animals while watching a television cartoon with all kinds of zany antics going on. Every time something silly happened, Aria let out a laugh and almost flopped back onto the bed, kicking her legs as the jokes sunk in.

"Aria? Are you watching..." Adagio tried to suppress a laugh by placing her hand over her mouth. She held her breath before she blurted out, "Cartoons?" clutching her chest as she slapped her knees with her other hand, laughing all the while.

"Wh-what?! N-no!" Aria suddenly scrambled to her feet, dropping the animals as she dived for the remote. It fumbled around in her hands as she tried to reach for the power button. She eventually hit it and watched the life on the screen vanish in an instant before she turned towards Sonata and Adagio. "I was just busy, uh, um..." She stomped her feet on the ground as she tried to make up an excuse. "Laughing at how stupid it was! Yeah. No way would I ever get engrossed in a kid's show like that."

"Oh don't try to hide it, Aria. You were totally watching Shorty and Stretchy!" Sonata let out her own giggle fit as Aria recomposed herself. "I never knew you liked that show."

"No I don't, Sonata! I'm just stuck in your stupid body with nothing to do, and I thought I could get some amusement out of your baby stuff until you two got up. That's all you need to know." Aria quickly returned to being the gruff no-nonsense girl she truly was as she shot back at Sonata. "It's not that I would watch it because I wanted to or anything..."

"Well, now that that little debacle's been sorted out, we'd better get breakfast," said Adagio, letting out a few more tiny chuckles as she walked out of the room and towards the stairs, clearing her throat once the humour had worn off. "You've gotta decide what we do today, since you're the leader and all."

"Yeah, a leader who watches kids shows now," Sonata was still in stitches over Aria watching the kid's show as she followed Adagio to the stairs.

"Shut up!" Aria began to blush as she walked down the stairs with the other Dazzlings.

When the three girls arrived in the kitchen, Aria reached into one of the cupboard and pulled out three bowls while Adagio set the table, leaving Sonata to grab the cereals. Together, the job was done in a couple of minutes, and now the Dazzlings all had their favourite cereals and were sitting down at the table, eating together, their minds buzzing with thoughts on what the new day would bring.

"Alright," said Aria once she finished her first mouthful of cereal. "So, we've got our pendants back, which means we can sing to make people do what we want again. The first thing we need to get back on top is more negative energy, so that we can make ourselves stronger and get revenge at those Rainbooms for beating us back at Canterlot High.

"Now, the city of Canterlot is pretty big, and there's lots of places for people to hang out on days like this." She leisurely stirred her orange juice with a straw. "I might be the leader, but you two know where people like to hang out, so for once as leader, I'm gonna let you decide. Where would you like to go?"

"I don't really mind where we go, Aria," said Adagio. "Just as long as it's far away from your nightmare of a bed."

"Hey! My bed's really comfy once you get to know it," shouted Aria. "You've just gotta be tough like me, instead of being a smooth talker, Adagio."

"Does tough mean liking Shorty and Stretchy?" Sonata raised her finger. "Because if it does, then that means that I'm a super-toughie!"

"Are you just going to keep poking fun at me for watching that baby show, Sonata?" Aria slammed her fist on the table as she glared at her.

"Well, I was going to tell you where to go, but since you seem to be getting very angry towards me, I think I'd much rather keep it a secret." Sonata took one last bite of her cereal, finishing the bowl altogether before she stood up and walked over to the sink. "As Adagio Dazzle, I need to know to be mature sometimes, and now that I'm the girl who founded the Dazzlings in the first place, I don't take very kindly to being insulted by you, Aria Blaze."

Aria's jaw hung wide open as she watched Sonata clear her bowl and glass into the sink, filling it with soapy water and beginning to scrub all of the marks off of the bowl.

"Sheesh. What's up with her?" Aria leaned in close to Adagio and whispered in her ears.

"I don't really know..." Adagio whispered back, her voice so quiet that Sonata couldn't hear. "It's like ever since we got into these new bodies, we've been acting more like the vessels' true selves. In that regard, Sonata's getting my maturity, while you're getting her childish spirit and joy."

"Oh no... No! NO! It's bad enough that I'm stuck in Sonata's body, but now you're saying I'm gonna start acting like that baby too?!" Aria fell to her knees and started to hug Adagio's legs, weeping the whole time. "I don't wanna be in this body anymore! I wanna be me again!"

"Get off me, Aria!" Adagio violently pushed Aria away. "You think you've got a bad time in that body?! I'm stuck in some grubby emo freako's body who apparently likes hardcore shit and prefers to sleep on a horrible bedding, with even worse blankets, a duvet that feels non-existent, and posters ruining the lovely colour of the once-beautiful bedroom!" She yelled, tightening her own hands into fists and shaking them in front of her head. "How do you think I feel?!"

"Whoa..." Aria was in awe at Adagio's outburst. Never before had she seen her get angry. Usually, it was her who had the most violent outbursts of the Dazzlings. "I guess you're kinda right about this whole bodyswap-means-personality-swap theory, Adagio," Aria's frown had turned into a tiny little grin. "Guess you're the hothead of the Dazzlings now."

Adagio wanted to get angrier at Aria for that snide remark, but she eventually realized what she was doing and calmed down, taking deep breaths as her body temperature returned to normal. "I'm sorry, Aria. I'm just a little stressed over how bad my night was. I would never attack one of my fellow sirens—even if they are a pain in the ass to deal with sometimes..."

"Well, I guess we'll just have to get used to it then, huh?" Aria leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. "I mean, I've gotta be Sonata, you've gotta be me, and she gets to be you. I'd say that this could either be a blessing or a curse. Mostly a curse, though."

"The one redeeming thing about this is that we have our pendants back. Everything else is either a bit weird or just downright horrible." Sonata put the clean bowl and glass away as she regrouped with Aria and Adagio. "We just have to make it good for ourselves until we find a way back into our own bodies."

"I agree, Sonata. We're not gonna get anywhere by whining or just by being meanies to each other. We need to get out there and show the world who's boss." Aria patted Sonata's shoulders. "And I think we should start by getting some more negative energy. So now that we've all calmed down a little, where do you think we should go?"

"Well, the mall is a good spot," Sonata said. "I've heard they've got a lot of sales on clothes and other stuff right now. People in this world love their sales, so that'd be a great place to start our harvest."

"Good, but it'd just attract too much attention," Adagio butted in. "Remember, we always took our energy without anyone else noticing, and shopping malls usually have a lot of security cameras lying around. If they catch us singing, the police could find out the cause of the problem and start to question us, and that wouldn't be good for any of us." She looked down at her pendant and clutched it tightly. "They might have to take our gems for evidence. And I'm not about to part with this thing again. One time was good enough, thank you very much."

"The park?" Aria raised her own finger.

"Nah. Too spread out." Sonata tipped her hand. "We want a LOT of negative energy, and since the park is so big, some people far away won't get pulled in by our spell. We need a bunch of people together in one small space so that our song works the best, and therefore, we get the most energy possible."

"That leaves me with one other place to go..." Adagio made a little smirk, flashing a toothy grin at the others. "Somewhere where we know has lots of people each and every day, who all sit in one confined space, and who won't be able to turn away from our song.

"Where?" Aria stood up from the chair. "What kind of place has lots of people in it, in a small space, that always listen to songs?"

"I'll tell you that when we get there, but for now, you'll lead the way, and I'll give the directions." Adagio walked out to the main hall to pick her her hoodie. She put it on and pulled the hood over her head, prompting the others to do the same.

"Since when were you the leader again?" Aria asked as she got cloaked with Sonata and the two of them walked towards the door.

"The church? Are you serious, Adagio?" Aria facepalmed when the three of them arrived at the massive stone structure. There were glass windows above the door with all different colours and pictures, mostly depicting angels and the god of the human world. "Why in the heck would people come here?"

"Haven't you caught up on human world traditions yet, Aria?" Adagio walked towards the door, her stood still over her head. "Every Sunday, people come to church to sit through tedious speeches about their supposed lord and saviour. They just hang on each and every word, clasp their hands together, and pray."

"And?" Sonata asked once Adagio had finished. "What's this gotta do with us singing?"

"The church also has a choir of many different boys and girls, who all sing these songs called hymms," Adagio explained. "Again, weird. But even so, it's still singing. We don't have to make our own little parody of the words to fit the tradtions of battle, hate, and glory all for one person. We just have to sing the hymms perfectly, and the humans will be under our spell, and most likely to have little arguments about who is the best worshipper of this god."

"Oh! I see!" Aria smiled as she bounced into the buliding. "Great thinking, Dagi!" She then slapped her mouth when she realized the nickname she had just used. "I mean, Adagio."

"Let's go." Adagio led the way towards the choir practice room with a vicious grin on her face. "If we're lucky, maybe we can hit the Sunday school on the way out, grab some negative energy from gullible kids as well..."

The Dazzlings: Revisited

Applejack hauled a crate full of her family's cider into the barn and set it down alongside twenty-five identical crates. She brushed away the sweat that had been trickling down her forehead once she was done, cracked open one of the bottles, and began to slowly drink the cold liquid.

She got halfway through the bottle before her phone vibrated in her pocket. She put her drink down and reached into her pocket, opening her phone up and tapping on the buttons to open her digital message box. There was a single message from Pinkie Pie that had been unread, so with one more tap, Applejack was shown the message.

"Applejack! It's an emergency!" the message started. "I was walking down the street with the groceries for the Cakes, when all of a sudden, I saw some people arguing at the church. I went over to see what was happening, and I saw something truly horrifying!"

"Calm down, Pinkie. You're overexaggering." Applejack pounded away at the buttons on her phone to type her response to Pinkie. "Now just slowly tell me what's wrong, and I'll come over in a jiffy."

Applejack pushed the button to send the message, and a few seconds later, there was another response.

"You might need to bring the rest of the girls." the response read. "The Dazzlings are back! And they've got those freaky-deaky gems with them too!"

"What?!" Applejack nearly dropped the phone as she recoiled from the response. She then tapped in another response to Pinkie's messages. "Alright. I'll warn the others. Just don't get too close to them, alright?"

Applejack ran out of the barn, frantically typing messages to the other Rainbooms on her phone. She was moving so fast that it was a miracle she didn't trip over something as she sent the warning to Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Sunset, and Twilight. Once the last message was sent, she put her phone away and sprinted over to the church where Pinkie Pie was.

The Dazzlings simply stood back and watched from outside the church. Inside, all of the people were now arguing and claiming that they were the best follower of god. As each human slung their words back and forth, an ominous green vapour emanated from them. The gases flew away from the humans and were drawn to the pendants, vanishing into and making them glow momentarily.

"Ahh. It feels so good to be back, doesn't it?" Aria smiled as she felt her power growing.

"Amen to that, Aria." Sonata nodded as the group went off to find their next meal.

"You know, Adagio, while I am still technically the leader now, I have to say that that was a great call." Aria looked back at Adagio, who was still her body and sighed. "But it'd be much better if I was back in my proper body..."

"Well, once we get back to Equestria, we can rectify that little problem first." Adagio gave Aria a few pats on the back. "But for now, we need to keep stealing energy. We only just came back from the point of nothing, so we need to get a few more meals in before we can stand any chance of getting home."

"What about the Rainbooms?" Sonata raised an eyebrow. "The last time we got enough power to get home, those meanies came in and ruined the fun for us."

"Don't worry about the Rainbooms, Sonata. They're not going to be much of a problem for us." Aria shrugged. "We got defeated because we were sloppy and didn't plan for everything. This time, we're going to make sure that those dweebs don't get the chance to fight back."

"But the Rainbooms have access to the Magic of Friendship, Aria." Adagio crossed her arms as she thought back to her defeat. "If they get so much as a second to take us out, they will."

"Which is why we've gotta move fast, before we get caught and defeated again." Aria looked back at Adagio before she noticed the Rainbooms gathering on the other side of the road. "And speaking of moving fast, we've gotta run. They're right there!"

Sonata looked back herself and saw the Rainbooms. "Oh crud! You're right!" Her eyes went wide and she stumbled backwards as the sight hit her. "Let's get out of here!"

Sunset Shimmer was the first one to notice the Dazzlings running away. "Hey! Get back here!" She pointed over to the sirens and began to chase them down the streets.

The Rainbooms and Dazzlings were locked into a chase that took them down multiple streets and past the few bunches of people which they swerved past. It was a fairly even chase, but the sirens were eventually able to gain some ground between them and the Rainbooms.

Sunset Shimmer's breath got heavier as she continued to pursue the Dazzlings. After everything that had happened at Canterlot High, she was not going to let them get off the hook so easily for what they did to the other students. She was going to catch them and give them what they deserved. Despite the distance that was being put between them, she was able to pick up speed and get close to the sirens.

The chase then took the two groups through the park, where they were in view of a vast majority of people of all ages. The Dazzlings were fast, but the Rainbooms were gradually closing the gap and were about to catch them, when all of a sudden, Sonata Dusk tripped over a can and landed face-first onto the grass.

Despite being ahead, both Aria and Adagio noticed that their companion had fallen and went back to help her up, which was when the Rainbooms crashed into them at full speed, sending all ten of the teenagers into a heap on the ground, with their arms and legs sprawled out on top of one another.

Everyone groaned, their heads still spinning as they slowly recovered from the impact. Sunset and Adagio were the first to stand up, with the others slowly but surely getting up themselves and dusting away the grass and dirt that they had collected upon their fall.

"Alright, Adagio," Sunset broke the silence as she gazed at Adagio's body. "What are you girls planning this time?"

"I'm not Adagio, silly." Sonata pointed to Aria's body. "She is!"

"Technically, she's me, but since you want to call her Adagio, that's fine by you." Aria Blaze pointed over to Adagio.

"Oh just shut up, you two. This is confusing enough as it is." Adagio shoved her hands in both Aria and Sonata's mouths.

"She was talking to Adagio. Not you." Rarity crossed her arms and glared at the sirens.

"Fucking hell, I AM ADAGIO!" Adagio roared and pushed both Aria and Sonata back onto their butts.

"No, you're not. You're that one mean Dazzling who's super-bored and out of it." Pinkie Pie's voice was devoid of humour as she eyed up Adagio.

"I have a name you know, you walking cartoon character! It's Aria Blaze! Learn it!" She cried out as she stood back on her feet once again.

"And I'm Sonata!" She waved to the Rainbooms, who didn't sway their emotions one bit. She noticed and rubbed the ground with the tip of her shoes. "Guess you're not really up for friendly conversation, especially since we did try to turn all of your classmates against one another."

"And turned us against each other in the process." Rarity harumphed and blushed as she made a face akin to a pouting five-year old girl. "Honestly, that was just not called for."

"Well, if you think that we're coming back to that pathetic little school you cherish so much, think again." Adagio stood proud as she addressed the Rainbooms. "We're doing just fine taking energy from buildings that aren't so cramped like Canterlot High, and are instead focusing our efforts on other places that don't believe in the Magic of Friendship."

"For what purpose?" Sunset's brows lowered. "Because if you dare to threaten our world or Equestria again, so help me, I'll—"

"Turn into a guardian angel again and stop us. Believe me, we know you perfectly by now, Miss Shimmer." Adagio waved her hand to silence Sunset. "Some of these people just can't help but blab things."

"Yeah. A bunch of teenage girls wearing plaid skirts were talking about some sporting event called the Friendship Games and how you turned into a magical creature to stop another magical monster from trying to conquer both worlds." Sonata blurted out at a rapid pace. "We decided that you and your friends are too dangerous to try and steal energy from now, so we're gonna be focusing on just mortals now."

"They aren't really as juicy as the Magic of Friendship, but after what happened at your school, I don't mind going vegan on negative energy." Aria flexed the fingers on her hands. "Anything that restores my power is fine by me."

"Well, we're not gonna let you do that!" Applejack stepped forward to confront the sirens. "After the downright ugly things you did to the Canterlot High students, we're not just gonna let you get off that easily again. We're gonna make sure that those gems are shattered once and for all!"

"Save your breath, Applejack. You'll need it for when you're belting out those repulsive western songs at karaoke." Aria crossed her arms and raised a brow at her. "Honestly. There's also pop, rock, heavy metal, jazz, and yet you choose the most boring, unoriginal, and downright stupid musical genres ever conceived to play and be good at."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with western!" Applejack spat at Aria.

"Well, I guess there wouldn't be for some apple-farming cowgirl, but for the rest of the world, it just comes off as irritating." Adagio tousled Applejack's hair before she shoved the hat straight into her face, causing her to steam up and turn red at the cheek. "I would've suggested that you run right back to your corral, or wherever it is you hicks like to live these days if it weren't for that flimsy bass you played back at the contest."

"Calm down, Applejack. She's just trying to get into your head." Sci-Twi patted Applejack on the shoulders in an attempt to stop her from physically attacking the Dazzlings.

"Well, it's definitely working." Rainbow Dash examined the curved lines on Applejack's forehead, her tightening fists, and her gritted teeth. "I don't think I've seen Applejack this angry since the Battle of the Bands..."

"Well, Adagio Dazzle has been known to mess with people before," Sunset told the group. "I wouldn't be surprised if she's still trying to get us angry now. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, after all."

"Oh, don't think that because we're not going to be targeting you anymore doesn't mean we're done with you, Rainbooms," said Adagio. "We still have an old score to settle, don't we?"

"Yeah! It's because of you stinky-heads that we lost all of our powers and had to start over from scratch!" Sonata chided, gently holding onto her new pendant as tightly as she could. "And I was just having fun with your magic."

"Fun? You call hypnotising innocent people and making them fight fun?" Fluttershy stood up to the Dazzlings, her voice getting louder and louder. "I've seen some real bullies in my time, but you've gotta be the worst girls I've ever seen!" She got right into the faces of all three of the sirens. "You should learn to take other's feelings into consideration before you sing your songs of war and think that any of it is fun! I'm quite shocked and appalled you're still doing that even today, AFTER we beat you at the Battle of the Bands! Have you no—"

"Geez! Does she ever shut up?" Aria shoved one of Sonata's pacifiers that she had taken from her pocket into Fluttershy's mouth.

"Hey! Don't you dare do that to Fluttershy!" Rainbow Dash broke up the four girls and stood in front of Fluttershy, who had spat the pacifier out. "You might be free to run around with your magic again, but we're gonna make sure that you won't have that power for long."

"Spare me your overblown egos, Rainbooms." Adagio turned her back to the girls. "The only thing we have to worry about now is getting back into our original bodies. That's all. We're not scared of you or your prissy pony girly magic to begin with. We were just disappointed that you got the upper hand in the end." She started to walk away. "Trust me. That's a mistake we won't make again..."

"Stop!" Sunset ran in front of Adagio to prevent her from getting away again. "I said you wouldn't be getting away with what you'd done and I intend to make good on our promise!"

"And I already told you that we're not scared of you or your stupid powers." Adagio pushed on Sunset's chest a few times. "You want to throw down with us again? Fine. But we're not going to be resorting to music if you do."

"Ooh... I think I smell a catfight coming on!" Pinkie Pie called out and pulled a boxing bell and her drumsticks out of her hair, proceeding to bang on it a few times. "I'll be the announcer!"

"Well, this should be interesting..." Aria grinned and walked off to the side with Sonata. They both sat down on the grass together and folded their legs. "Hey, Sonata, you got any popcorn?"

"I'm warning you, Adagio. You so much as touch another human in this world, I'll rip you limb from limb!" Sunset and Adagio circled each other, their eyes fixated on their opponent as they prepared for a fight.

"Big deal. Sirens grow their limbs back immediately." Adagio tossed her hair, then noticed that Aria's hairclips were still in it. "Uggh! Aria! You can have these!" She took them off and threw them at Aria, landing beside each of her legs. Adagio then proceeded to let her hair drop down her shoulders and completely coat the back of her clothes.

"Why does she only get to fight one? That doesn't seem fair," Rainbow Dash whispered to Sci-Twi.

"I never stayed around for one myself, but from what I've seen at Crystal Prep, a catfight is usually between two girls over a stupid little detail like make-up or something," Sci-Twi replied. "But, judging from what Sunset and Adagio said to each other, I imagine that they've had some history before."

"We'll tell you about it later, but for now, let's just see how this plays out." Applejack sat down with the rest of the Rainbooms and Sci-Twi. "I haven't seen a catfight in a while, so this should be something interesting..."

Adagio and Sunset made their hands into claws and drove them into each other's arms in an attempt to scratch them. Both of them hit and left white scratch marks on each other's arms that quickly faded as they both tried to punch each other, which proved unsuccessful as they both caught each other's attacks.

Adagio then kicked Sunset in her nether regions, causing her to collapse and clutch at where she had been hit. This gave Adagio the time to pull on Sunset's hair, causing her to yelp in pain.

"Gotta say, Sonata's right. It does look like bacon..." Adagio said as she continued to pull on Sunset's hair. "Wonder if it tastes like that too. Well, only one way to find out, right?!" And with that, she sunk her teeth into Sunset Shimmer's hairstyle and proceeded to try and eat it. She reviled and spat the hair out, letting go and using her hands to try and brush the strands of hair off of her tongue.

Sunset Shimmer found a golden opportunity and pinned Adagio to the ground, sitting on her knees. She dove into Adagio's pockets and found a pencil and a purse with her name written on it. She took the pen, which caused Adagio to grab onto Sunset's arm. The two of them struggled, but eventually, Sunset managed to rub out Adagio's name and write "Asiago."

"NOOOOO! MY NAME'S NOT ASIAGOOOOOOOO!" Adagio cried out to the sky as she rammed into Sunset, causing the two fo them to trade punches and kicks once again.

"This is the best catfight I think I've ever seen." Aria smiled as she watched Adagio and Sunset continue to tear each other apart.

"I don't like you!" Sunset gnashed her teeth as she and Adagio pushed against each other.

"I despise you!" Adagio retorted.

"I never liked you!" Sunset screamed.

"I a thousand times never liked you!" Adagio herself lost all of her maturity as she pushed back against Sunset.

"Chessehead!" Sunset yelled.

"Baconhair!" Adagio responded.

"How long do you think they're gonna go on?" Pinkie Pie asked Sci-Twi.

"I dunno, Pinkie, but if you ask me, this is the weirdest catfight I think I've ever seen..." Sci-Twi watched as Adagio and Sunset violently pushed each other, their foreheads sweating and their feet driving into the ground and leaving deep footprints.

Old War Wounds

"So let me get this straight." Sunset Shimmer paced back and forth through the coffee shop. The Rainbooms were sitting down on one table, with the Dazzlings sitting on the one adjacent to it. "This pawn shop just randomly had copies of your old gems, so you decided to go in and buy them without any rhyme or reason why they were there? And when you put them on, they switched your bodies?"

"Yep. That's pretty much the long and short of it." Sonata nodded and rubbed her legs with her hands.

"This is terrible. Simply utterly dreadful!" Rarity grimaced at the Dazzlings. "The colours on Aria completely clash with her hair! And golden doesn't really go well with Sonata's new look. Oh! And let's not forget the walking mess of fuchsia and grass that covers Adagio's body! This is a disaster of epic proportions!"

"Really, Rarity?" Rainbow Dash face-palmed and shook her head. "The Dazzlings; the very sirens that turned Canterlot High against one another are back, and you're more worried about their FASHION SENSE?!"

"It's not like I had a choice of clothes in the matter, Rainbooms!" Aria lurched forward towards the others. "I'm stuck in Sonata's body because of these gems, and her baby clothes are all that I got." She crossed her arms. Though, now that I'm wearing them, they're much more comfortable than I expected...

"They're not baby clothes!" Sonata chided and stuck her tongue out at Aria. "They're cutesy clothes!"

"Oh, stow it, you two!" Adagio covered both of their mouths with her hands. "We have more important manners to discuss rather than articles of clothing. Right now, we need to focus on finding a way back into our original bodies."

"Honestly, I say we shold just smash those gems one more time and get it over with." Applejack glared at the Dazzlings and shook her fist. "If ah have to see anyone else fight because of you three, ah'm gonna end up punchin' something!"

"Calm down, Applejack. They're probably trying to make you angry." Twilight gently massaged Applejack's shoulders to try and alleviate her emotions. "Crystal Prep taught me that the best way to deal with people who make others angry is to not get involved in any of their affairs. If we just leave the Dazzlings alone, then you won't have to get angry at them."

"Twilight. The Dazzlings are sirens that were banished from Equestria." Fluttershy gently held onto Twilight's arm to get her attention. "Similar to Greek mythology, their songs are so alluring that no-one can resist them. Only instead of making sailors crash into ships, these sirens sing, and then eat the anger that their audience feels afterwards."

"Technically, I think that these humans need to update and fact-check their history books." Adagio Dazzle pulled out a phone and flipped through the different applications that she had installed on it. "Not only is it entirely misleading, but it's also factually inaccurate. Real sirens don't look like grotesque human-fish hybrids."

"If anything, they look more like hippocampuses!" Sonata blurted out. "Well, at least to us. If anything, the only real change that our mortal bodies feel are pairs of wings and longer hair. That's all."

"It just sickens me to know that the sirens of this world are just pretenders." Aria scoffed and turned away. "They do have one thing in common with us, though."

"And what's that?" Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

"They're smoking hot." Aria Blaze flapped her eyebrows and gave Rainbow a coy smile.

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Pinkie Pie gawked at Aria's response and threw her arm out.

"Sometimes, I cannot take you girls seriously." Sunset groaned and turned away from the Dazzlings.

"Admit it, Rainbooms. You're just jealous that we're incredibly hot, and you're nothing more than bragging teenagers yakking away on your phones, deciding who you want to go to the prom with, and saying those annoying three letters." Adagio smirked and flexed her fingers. "There's no shame in being ugly. It's a common trend with all mortals."

"Bragging teenagers? Prom dates? Ripping on O.M.G.?!" Pinkie Pie stomped forward and got up to the Dazzlings' faces. "Now I don't feel bad about not sharing my tacos with you on Taco Tuesday!"

"Honestly, what kind of stereotypes do you take us for?" Rarity got up to her feet and pushed her arms down by her sides. "Do you think that every teenage girl in this country brags? Or overdoses on make-up and prom dates? Or decides to overuse the word 'like' or the saying 'O.M'G.'? As an individual lady, I myself am quite furious with how you think of us!"

"Oh, give it a rest, Rarity. No-one was even going to notice your trampy clothes at the Battle of the Bands." Adagio taunted, flicking her hair back against her shoulders. "You and your friends threw arguments with each other for no reason, and it almost led to your downfall."

"T-trampy?" Rarity froze on the spot as that word echoed in her mind. Her hands went numb, and her pupils dilated. She had never heard that word to describe her clothes before in the past. "I... I..." Tears started to form in her eyes and she fell to her knees, sobbing and wailing like a baby. "She called my clothes trampy!"

"Great. Look what you did. You made Rarity cry!" Rainbow Dash wrapped her arm around Rarity and gnashed her teeth at the Dazzlings. "Are you happy?"

"Yes. I'm very freaking happy!" Aria pushed Rainbow Dash down to the floor and sat down on her chest. "I don't want to ever see you girls happy after the way you ripped us from our gems before! The only reason I'm not beating you to death and writing out your epitaphs is because I have my gem back, and I'm feeling quite merciful today!"

"Ah'm all fer agreeing that Rarity's clothing choice added nothing to the band, but that's absolutely NO excuse to insult her for it!" Applejack walked forward and threw her arms in front of Rarity and Rainbow Dash. "Ah can't even tell if you three are worse back at the Battle of the Bands, or right here and now in yer newfangled bodies!"

"I don't even think you need to choose, AJ. They're always going to be the Dazzlings, and they're never going to change." Rainbow Dash placed her free hand on Applejack's back. "That's why I say we should just destroy their gems again and just get it over with!"

"Yeah! I agree with Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie Pie nodded vigorously. "There's no reason for those big meanies to even be in this town anymore! Let's run them out again!"

"Oh, and don't think that we've forgotten about you, Pinkie Pie." Adagio waltzed up to Pinkie and gently rubbed her neck and shoulders while looking at her seductively. "Poor little Pinkie Pie. Too focused on cakes and cupcakes to think about anything really important. No wonder you weren't performing that well at the Battle of the Bands. I'm surprised that you were even focused during the contest. I thought you would've been like 'ooh! fun! la-di-dah! I'm too stupid to realize that I'm playing in a band rather than saving the world'!" Adagio performed a near-perfect Pinkie Pie impersonation. "That's what you sound like, isn't it?"

"Why... you..." Pinkie Pie spluttered and choked on her own words, making claws out of her hands as she tried to comprehend what Adagio had said. "I've never seen a meaner meanie in my life! And believe me, I've met some pretty big meanies!"

"If anything, the one girl that I can kinda sympathise here with is Fluttershy." Sonata walked up to Fluttershy and gently patted her on the shoulders. "I remember how I always asked Adagio and Aria to sing my songs at the Battle of the Bands, but they never said yes to my songs. I'm right there with ya, sister. I know how it feels to be shut out of the rest of the band."

"Sonata, most of the songs that you wrote are all about candy, chewing gum, and pink fluffy unicorns." Aria broke out of her glaring contest with Rainbow Dash and Applejack to get a brief glimpse of Sonata. "The Dazzlings don't do mushy stuff. We do songs that drive people to fight. We always have and always will."

"Hmmph! You're no fun." Sonata pouted at Aria and turned her back to her.

"Well, maybe we might change it up a little." Sonata gently poked at Aria's ribs. "Besides. Don't forget. She's in you, and you're in me, and me in her makes one, two, three!" she sing-songed, letting a little chuckle slip.

"Forgive Sonata, girls. She was dropped on her head as a baby siren, and she's been acting that way ever since." Adagio walked over Sonata and put her hand over her mouth once more. "I'm surprised that mom allowed her to stay with us after that."

"I was NOT dropped on my head, Adagio!" Sonata shot back, throwing her arms out ot her sides. "I'm just special in my own way. That's all!"

"Can we just get back on track please?" Twilight Sparkle raised a finger at all of the girls, not even noticing the tension between each side. "We were talking about how the Dazzlings got back into power, and then we just devolved into random name-calling, rude teasing, and downright nonsense!"

"I don't really think that there's going to be any reasoning with the other girls." Sunset Shimmer walked over to Twilight and watched the Rainbooms and Dazzlings stare at each other. She saw the sparks fly from their eyes. "They hate the Dazzlings so much that it's gonna take a really long time for them to get over the events of the Battle of the Bands."

"Well they're going to have to do it somewhere else." A woman with blue skin and pink hair that looked akin to that of cake frosting walked up to Sunset and Twilight. "Their foul mood is making the other customers feel really unsettled, and if they can't control themselves, then I'll just have to make them leave."

"Sorry, Mrs. Cake." Sunset Shimmer gave her a nod before walking back to her friends. "We were just going now. We didn't mean to upset your business." She started to push the Rainbooms towards the door, straining and struggling as she tried to make them move.

"Sunset? What in the heck are you doing?!" Rainbow whispered into Sunset's ears.

"If you don't stop fighting, then we're going to get kicked out, Rainbow Dash." Sunset Shimmer continued to push her friends towards the doors. "Hating the Dazzlings is fine, but can we PLEASE do it somewhere else? People are watching us."

"I suppose we've entertained the seven of you long enough." Adagio Dazzle walked towards the door with Aria and Sonata close behind us. "If it's any consolation, it was very nice to share those old war wounds with you again. Maybe next time you could throw real temper tantrums and give us something good to eat, instead of just a weak appetizer."

"Hear hear." Aria Blaze walked out of the doors and down the streets.

"See you soon!" Sonata waved and followed after the other Dazzlings.

Once the Dazzlings left, there was a long silence between everyone inside the coffee shop. Sunset Shimmer slowly stood upright and took in deep breaths as the other Rainbooms took their seats once again. This went on for a while until Sunset finally let out a sigh and looked towards her friends.

"You really need anger management classes, you know that?" Sunset Shimmer eyed up her friends.

"What do you mean anger management? We're fine!" Rainbow slammed her fist down on the table, causing the cutlery to bounce and clash against it.

"No you're not. You almost let yourselves get angry and play right into their hands again." Sunset Shimmer tipped her hand towards the other Rainbooms. "I know that you're all still teenagers, but if you can't learn to keep your anger in check, then you'll just be making them stronger and stronger. The last thing we need is another Dazzlings crisis."

"Well there's certainly no way of stopping them now after you just let them get away like that." Rarity cocked a brow at Sunset Shimmer and leaned in towards her. "Did they hire you to be a pacifist? Is that it?"

"Sunset's telling the truth, girls." Twilight Sparkle raised a finger to grab the attention of the others. "The Dazzlings are nothing more than trolls who just love to poke fun at others and make them angry just to see the reactions."

"Technically, they're sirens, not trolls." Pinkie Pie smiled. "Trolls are all ugly and carry giant clubs. Sirens are beautiful women who charm people with their singing."

"It's still the same thing, Pinkie." Applejack shook her head. "Ah honestly don't see those three as beautiful—especially not after what they did to our school!"

"If you would let me finish..." Twilight gritted her teeth and snarled at the other girls. "Sunset's right. You're all overstimulated teenage girls who let yourselves get angry for no good reason back there. At Crystal Prep, we didn't condone any sense of bullying, teasing, or anger. Cinch molded all of us to be perfect, and I was hoping that her influence could kind of rub off on you in the form of me. I could be your mediators."

"Principal Cinch is an eighty-nine year old hag who should've been put in a retirement home instead of Crystal Prep Academy. Her actions got her thrown in prison. Don't you remember?" Rainbow Dash said.

"I'm not going to let you girls sit idly by and let yourselves get worked up over the silliest of reasons." Twilight deflected the question. "Sunset Shimmer's clearly in the right, and you're all in the wrong, and are letting yourselves fulfill the Dazzlings' wishes. Never feed the trolls."

"They're not trolls!" Pinkie Pie threw her arms into the air.

"I give up!" Twilight quickly stood up from her chair, slamming it back into the table as she marched off to the door. "Just let yourselves be angry then. Make the Dazzlings happy! I don't care anymore! You're not even listening to me!"

Sunset Shimmer followed after Twilight and looked back at the Rainbooms once more. "Girls. I'm not mad at you, but I am disappointed. After all that we've been through together, I would've expected you to have handled the Dazzlings a little more cleanly." She pushed the door open. "I've gotta check on Twilight. In the meantime, you should all go home and relax. There's no point in getting angry over anything. It'll only make things worse." And with that, she walked out of the establishment, leaving the Rainbooms to think on their actions.

Another period of silenced followed when Sunset left the coffee shop. This time, the Rainbooms were quietly looking around, gently sliding the tips of their shoes on the ground as they had time to reflect on what Sunset had said, and how they had confronted the Dazzlings. So many emotions ran through their heads right now. They wanted to make Sunset and Twilight happy, but their long-standing grudge with Adagio, Aria, and Sonata was making it really difficult for them to avoid their own anger.

The more that they thought about the Battle of the Bands and the recent fight, the more conflicted their emotions got. It was getting increasingly difficult for them to choose what they should feel and how they should approach the sirens again. They could think of nothing but hatred when they even thought of the Dazzlings, yet at the same time, they felt merciful towards Twilight and Sunset because of what they had done in the past, and they wanted to set a good example for her.

"I've gotta go." Rainbow Dash stood up and walked towards the door. "I've gotta get back to Anarchy Goddesses. There's a new Raid Boss event starting up, and I don't want to miss out on any of the loot."

"I suppose I should go too." Rarity got up from her seat as well. "Those dresses aren't going to sew themselves, and I do need to recover a bit after Adagio insulted me like that."

"And the animals at the shelter need some more help after that massive epidemic last week..." Fluttershy slowly got up as well. "Do you want to come? I'd love the extra hands."

"Sorry, Fluttershy. The Apple Family need me fer a harvest going on today." Applejack picked her hat off of her head and walked out of the building. "Not one apple's gotta be wasted. Ah hope you understand."

"I understand." Pinkie Pie walked over towards the desk and put on a little apron. "It's time for my shift anyway. It was nice talking to you all, though." She waved them all off as they went out of the building.

The Rainbooms all parted their ways, thinking about what had happened inside the building, and what their next course of action would be. They needed to find a way to stop the Dazzlings again, but their emotions had gotten the better of them, and they needed to be more prepared for any future encounters with them.

Author's Note

Sorry it's taken me so long to update this story, but there was so much other stuff that I had to get done with my life, what with the last couple of weeks at college and my new Yo-kai Watch crossover fic. I barely had any time to gt back to a Dazzling Mismatch.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, then be sure to upvote the story, comment on it, and share it with your friends.

(For some odd and unexplained reason, upvotes are worth more than actual favourites on this website, but I'm not sure how... :rainbowhuh: )

Sonaria, Ario, and Adata

The Dazzlings waltzed through the streets of Canterlot with their pendants gently beating against their clothes as they examined the people around them. They watched children and grown-ups of all ages talking to each other, holding hands, and having a good time in each other's company, devoid of any sense of underline tension or pent-up emotions.

It didn't matter to the Dazzlings, however, as they could only see the peaceful humans as food to feed their dark powers and amplify their powers. Be they strong, weak, old, or young, they couldn't care less about what they feasted on. While being very picky, they would still eat whatever was on their plate, even if the size of their portions varied depending on location and whatever group of people they were manipulating.

"Ugh. Honestly, I don't know why you're always such a drag, Aria." Adagio groaned and turned to her blue-haired temporary leader for the week. "Y'know, we're respectable young ladies, not toddlers too old for their diapers. So, why is it that only now that you lighten up? It doesn't really seem natural."

"Well... why are you just now starting to act more like a grump?" Aria slumped her shoulders towards Adagio and pushed her hair back. "For being a refined lady, you've been more of a bitch now that we've got our gems back. I mean, I'm not complaining about it or anything, but it's just a little weird that you're telling us to be more mature when you're getting less and less like it every day."

"Aria. Don't act like the pompous snob when we know what's going on." Adagio rolled up her sleeves and jabbed her middle finger at Aria's chest, the nail lightly pressing against her clothes. "You're rubbing off on me, and not even in a good way!"

"How am I even rubbing off on you, Adagio?" Aria rolled her eyes and pushed Adagio's finger off of her body. "I'm not even touching you, dummy. If I wanted to rub off on you, I would get right up in your face like this" —as she spoke, her voice became more and more innocent as she acted off everything she was saying— "stand right by your side, brush my face tenderly against your cute purple cheeks and—"

"ARIA! WHAT IN GODDESS'S NAME ARE YOU DOING?!" Adagio pushed Aria away from her body and slammed her into Sonata, knocking the two sirens over. "Don't you know that this is considered weird?!"

"Adagio, I do apologise for Sonaria here." Sonata stood up and brushed herself down, picking up her sister as she aided her in getting back onto her feet. "It seems that whatever kooky magic was tucked away in these things in the first place is starting to mess us up. You feel it too, don't you?"

"I'll have you know that—" Adagio stopped herself when she realised what Sonata had said "—wait, what did you say? Sonaria? What kind of horrible name splice is that?"

"Yeah! If anything, I'm more like an Arata than a Sonaria!" Aria whined and blew a raspberry at Sonata, not even realising what she was presently doing. The realisation hit her like a truck, and she heard the sound of glass shattering in her mind once she looked down at herself. "Wait, no! I'm not a Sonaria or an Arata! I'm Aria Blaze! What in the world am I doing acting like a kid?!"

"It would seem that those gems that the charity shop owner were more than meets the eye..." Adagio looked down at her pendant, holding it tightly in the palm of her hand. She watched it twinkle off in the light as she tried to find any inconsistencies that she could use to identify the problem. A crack, a different texture, something had to have changed her and her sisters into what they were now. Shaking her head, she came back to reality and dropped the gem out of her hand. "Well, whatever the case, we can't just mope, dwell, or babble like infants. We have our powers back and that's all that matters now. Let's just focus on the most important thing: taking revenge on those Rainbrats for tossing everything out the window like the crybabies they are!" She gnashed her teeth and coiled her hand into a fist as a malicious smile appeared on her face.

"Whoa." Aria could only stare at Adagio with wide eyes as she bathed in the sight of watching her leader take on a more sadistic and less sensible pose. "Y'know, maybe this whole bodyswap thing isn't that bad, Adagio. You would make a real nasty bully."

"What are you talking about? I'm not a pig-headed thug." Adagio lifted one of her eyebrows, not moving from her pose an inch. "Why would you even bring that up?"

"Well, if this whole magic where our minds are in the wrong places is for real, it means you're taking all of my mean and grumpy traits, while I'm getting this doofus's klutziness—"

"Hey!" Sonata chided as Aria's finger pressed against her temple.

"Leaving Sonata with all of your smartness and leadership skills." She gave Sonata a gentle nudge on the shoulder and flashed a small grin at Adagio as she finally stood upright once again. "I never thought that I'd ever say this, but now that we're in this position, I think that Sonata should be leader now."

"What?! You would dare put that little baby in charge of the Dazzlings?!" Adagio was taken aback with Aria's snide comments and nearly tripped over a tree root as she stumbled backwards. "She's only two-hundred and seventy-nine years old! She can't handle herself in my role!"

"Technically, I'm two-hundred and seventy-nine years, twenty-five days, three months, six weeks, two days, and forty-three seconds old in case amnesia's settled into your body, Adagio." Sonata puffed out her chest and raised her finger smugly. "Second, that's mean! I'm not a baby! I can take care of myself perfectly fine! And third, if I'm the smart one, doesn't that mean that you two are the babies that I have to sit on now?"

"Sonata, don't try to make this sound any less weird than it needs to be." Aria pushed her arms out towards Sonata, waving her hands left and right.

"No, really, Aria. Think about this. If Adagio was sitting the two of us because I was the stupid one and you were the grumpy stick-in-the-mud, that really makes her the leader." Sonata pointed towards Adagio, taking a few steps back as she examined both of her sisters. "But now that all of Adagio's intelligence and logic is in my pretty little ape body, that technically makes me more of an Adagio Dazzle than Adagio herself, which would also imply that I am now her and she is now Aria. And in a similar manner, that makes Aria Blaze the new Sonata Dusk. So, with that logic, I'm the new leader of the Dazzlings, and you two are the adorable little babies that I need to change, feed, and have to look after as we try to take over the world now, correct?" She gave a wide smile as she waited for the response from her sisters.

There was silence from the three sirens as they let Sonata's words roll around in their minds. No matter how much that they all wanted to deny it, there was no fighting against evidence that glared them straight in the face. The Dazzlings were all mixed up and in the wrong bodies and they needed a smart person to guide and lead them—even if their leader used to be idiotic and carefree, but was always up for the ride.

"Fuck me backwards with a broomstick and ship me off to Canterlot for public execution..." Aria Blaze groaned and facepalmed as she walked up to Sonata. "You're right, Sonata. We need a smart person leading us, and I know that I'm just going to be the worst now that I'm in your pink-things-fetish body. I guess that means that for now, you're the new leader."

"What?! No! NO!" Adagio ran between the two sirens and pushed them apart with her arms. "Aria Blaze, please hold your tongue and reconsider this! Sonata's just going to cock this all up and ruin the Dazzlings for good! You can't trust her with this role, right?!"

"Just as we can't trust a pig-headed, snot filled, heavy-metal loving punk to rule us? Honestly, Adagio, you really need to learn how to lighten up." Aria smiled and wrapped her arm around Sonata's shoulders. "Plus, now that I've had some time to think it over, I feel great acting like a kid who loves cartoons, cute animals, and other such baloney. Or does the blue skin and slightly darker hair not give it away that I'm becoming more like Sonata every second?"

"Yes, yes, we're well aware of your sudden transformation into a kindergartener, but can't you just give this another mome—" Adagio couldn't even finish her sentence as Aria put her hand onto the purple-haired siren's mouth, silencing her almost instantly.

"Nope! Sonata's our new leader and I'm the new Sonata. You're the new Aria Blaze too, so I hope you're ready to lose all of your smarts and become a grouchy old bully!" Aria singsonged the last part as she gave Sonata a wide smile. "So, what should we do first, almighty leader Sonata? Conquer the world? Make the Rainbooms grovel at our feet? Eat enchiladas at that Mexican restaurant down the road?"

"Well, as much as I would like to grab a few tacos from that place myself, I'm more like Adagio now, so I've gotta start acting like it." Sonata gave Aria a gentle pat on the head. "Aw, don't worry, Aria. We can grab some grub on the way back to the house tonight if you behave well enough. But for now, we need to start singing to people again. Make 'em fight, watch them sweat and stink, then eat their body odour and use it to power our magical pendants so we can do the whole cycle aga—actually, now that I think about it, I'm not so sure I find human stench to be so tasty now that I think about it..."

"Really now? We've been doing this job for over two-hundred years now and you just start to get second thoughts on how we eat their negativity?" Adagio deadpanned and rolled her eyes as she tipped her hand as she dropped her shoulders down by her sides. "This group's going to fall apart with you in charge..."

"Nope! In fact, I bet with Sonata in charge, it's gonna be even better!" Aria slipped deeper and deeper into her second mindset, her old and rotten ways almost non-existent as she clapped her hands and fluttered her eyelids. "So, leader Sonata? Shall we get going?"

"Yes, Aria. We should be off. And we can start with that group there by the fountain." Sonata pointed towards the people gathered around the large water feature, sitting on benches and sharing more conversations with each other. "Plus, we need to test whether or not my new leadership skills work."

As Sonata and Aria walked off, Aria turned back and stuck her tongue out at Adagio before turning back around and sliding her arm onto Sonata's back and around her armpits. She pulled the golden-haired siren into a small hug as they walked off together, almost skipping frivolously as they did so.

Rainbooms, if you're out there, please put a stop to us again. The Dazzlings are being led by a couple of babies who don't even know how to say mama or dada... Adagio frowned and followed after Aria and Sonata, unsure on how the two of them would be able to manage to lead the group with how little intelligence they used to have before the incident.

The Dazzlings slid behind a bunch of trees, watching as everyone shared in the good vibrations and pleasantries as they bathed in the afternoon sunlight and its' warming rays of light. Sonata looked at Adagio and Aria and held out her fingers as if she was counting down. Once her little finger counting came to an end, she took a deep breath in and began to sing the notes that they used commonly to start fights. Aria soon joined in once she heard Sonata begin to sing, and Adagio followed after a few moments of silence. Now at last, the three of them were in harmony once again, singing a song that would cause strife and discord between the park-goers.

As the song wafted through the air and danced on the winds throughout the park, the humans' chats fell silent as the music trickled into their ears and planted itself firmly into their minds. As if they had been all struck with a frying pan to their faces, their smiles slowly faded as they turned towards each other and tightened their hands into fists. Out of nowhere, they started to sling insults at each other and say how they were better than them in every way, which caused their others to take offence at those words and spark arguments.

From children bickering over a small ball, to lovers quarrelling over the most tiny and insignificant things, the good atmosphere in the park quickly turned sour once the Dazzlings' music had washed over it. Now, there was only hatred, distrust, betrayal, and anger among the people there. Mist spilled out of their bodies as if they hadn't showered for weeks, drifting over towards the Dazzlings' bodies, curling up around their legs, and slithering into the gemstones, which glowed as they amassed the negativity spawned from the once-peaceful patrons.

The Dazzlings all felt warm inside as the teal and cyan air wafted around their bodies and flew into their pendants. Ever since their defeat at Canterlot High School, they had almost forgotten what it was like to consume the bad vibes that emanated off of mortal beings. With today being a reminder, though, all they could do was smile as they felt their youth sustain for another day as their song came to an end.

"Hmm..." Aria sighed as she walked away from the trees. "That was delicious! Did our food always taste like that back when we were all evil and stuff? Because if it did, I would've definitely been less of a jerk."

"Aria, our food's always tasted like that." Adagio grumbled and followed after her, with Sonata chasing after Aria with a spring in her step. "And now that you mention that, it taste like shit. Maybe that's because we're in these new bodies now, but I dunno. I—I mean you used to hate all this stuff if you didn't get it in bulk. Honestly, I'm surprised with our meals at the Battle of the Bands that we didn't get a little bit fat with how easy it was to toy with those babyish students."

"Hey!" Aria puffed out her cheeks and almost blew out with how much she was holding her breath. "I was a bully, heck, I might still be because I used to be like you are now, but that doesn't mean that I'm not gonna try and change. From now on, it's no more heavy-metal grade-A bleegh like I used enjoy. Now, I'm beginning to see why Sonata has an appeal for all of those cartoons, stuffed toys, and colouring books. It's fun to be different, isn't it?"

"Sonata, once we get back into our real bodies, I'd like to get some counselling therapy for all of us." Adagio walked ahead and held Sonata's hand. "Do you think you can remember that once we're back?"

"Hold on, I'll leave it in my notes." Sonata pulled out her phone and played around with the menu until she found the app that allowed her to keep track of her important notices. Much to none of her sisters' surprises, there was absolutely nothing written down to begin with. But now that Sonata had acquired Adagio's personality, that was all about to change. "Let me jut type that in here, and... Done! Now if you remember, you can just tell me to bring it up again. Easy-peasy."

"Good. Now that everything's been taken care of, we should really focus on how we're going to make those Rainblossoms or whatever pay for what they did to us back at CHS." Adagio put her hand to her chest, feeling her heart pounding against her chest. "Do you have a plan of action now that we have our powers back?"

"Yes, Adagio. Yes I do." Sonata nodded and crossed her arms. "To start, we're going to need to build up more and more energy so that our song is able to counter whatever Magic of Friendship nonsense they try to throw their way."

"Sounds promising." said Adagio, beginning to smile. "But, why do I get the feeling that the—"

"To make sure that we're ready, we're going to eat again. Only this time, we're gonna grab a smorgasbord of stuff at the Mexican place at the end of this road!" Sonata springed up into the air. "That's right, tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, quesadillas, all the stuff you can think of all in one convenient place!"

"And there it is..." Adagio face-palmed again.

"Aw, lighten up, big sis. We were all good today so that means that we all get to eat physically as well as magically." Aria gave Adagio a smile as she tightly held onto Sonata's hand. "Don't wanna feel like we're some weird alien creatures from Equestria, do we? Now c'mon! I've got a hankering for some real good enchiladas!"

"Alright then. Mexican restaurant it is!" She then turned her head to her sister. "Hey, Aria. Bet I can beat you there."

"Oh, it's on, Sonata." Aria gave Sonata a smug grin.

"Girls, wait!" Before Adagio could intervene, both Sonata and Aria were racing off ahead, leaving a cloud of dust and smoke behind them as they raced off towards the establishment. As she merely walked after her fellow sirens, Adagio took another deep breath and screamed into her hands. "Mental note. Next time I see that guy from the charity shop, I'm going to rip all of his bones out and feed them to my equestrian form..."

The Kids Are In Charge

Author's Note

I do apologise if this chapter is a little bit shorter than the others. I just didn't have much of an idea of what to do now that the Dazzlings had switched minds and were beginning to act a lot more different than usual. I do promise that we'll get back to the traditional length in the next chapter, but right now, this is all that I could think of for the time being.

Regardless, I hope that you do enjoy it for what it is and I'll be seeing you all in the next chapter!

The Kids Are In Charge

Sonata and Aria went down the streets holding hands and skipping gaily, with Adagio running to try and keep up with them. Now that the pendants had switched their bodies, their past and present selves were beginning to meld in with each other. Adagio's muscles tensed up at the thought of Sonata leading the group, Aria smiled wider than she had ever done in her life, and Sonata began to take charge of the group and choose what they did while keeping her playful self intact.

Adagio grimaced as both Aria and Sonata giggled and grinned at each other. She watched the two of them dart into the nearby clothes store and sing their chorus briefly before dashing out with matching pink clothes. She did lighten up when she watched the green smoke fly up into their pendants and make them glow, but that brief solace was quickly lost as her sisters gave each other a high-five.

"Whee! These pendants were the best thing that ever happened to us since the Battle of the Bands!" Aria picked hers up and shined it in the light.

"Hear, hear, Aria." Sonata nodded and held her own pendant up in the sunlight, watching red streaks twinkle down onto the path in all directions. "I never thought that we'd be able to bounce back from that, but we did, and now we're back in business! Hopefully for good this time."

"Girls, I appreciate that you're both really happy to get back into the business of leeching off of hatred, but do you think that you could tone down the overly-peppy attitude?" Adagio caught up with the girls and rubbed the sides of her head. "Not to be like Old Aria, but all this energy and pinkness is giving me a bit of a headache."

"Aw, lighten up a bit, Dagi." Sonata patted Adagio in the chest and gave her an innocent smile as she crossed her arms over. "The Dazzlings are back. And this time, we're here to stay."

"Plus, we're getting more and more energy each day! The Rainbooms won't be able to stop us this time!" If Aria had a tail, then she would have been wiggling it at that very moment.

"I don't know about you, girls, but maybe these aren't really all that they're cracked up to be..." Adagio took a brief glance down at her pendant, which lacked the luster that the other ones had and was a slightly darker shade of red. "Maybe I'm not eating that much. But I don't want to have little snacks, y'know? I want four-course meals of anger, violence, pain, and heartbreak."

"Oh, I'm sure that we can find a place where we can do that." Sonata waltzed up to Adagio and wrapped her arm around her body. "We could go to a little league match. I'm sure that we could grab a good bit of food there."

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I have an idea!" Aria waved her arm high in the air. "We could also go get negative energy at the day-care centre! Those cute little babies aren't all sunshine and rainbows. Especially not when we sing them a few lullabies..."

"Both ideas seem good, but I think that I'd still be a grump even then." Adagio crossed her arms and looked down at the ground. "I know that you two are the leader and second-in-command now, but I think that you're being a little bit too happy about this whole thing."

Aria let out a long gasp before walking right up into Adagio's face. "There's no such thing as too happy, Adagio!" She snarled, almost as if some pangs of her past life had come back, but were distorted by her new one. "Wait a sec, what am I—no, that's not right. I can't be a meanie anymore. I've got Sonata's childishness. I couldn't be a jerk even if I tried..."

"These pendants clearly have some kind of fault to them." Adagio looked around as hard as she could for any discrepancies on the jewels. She even tried to take it off of her neck, but neither the collar or the gemstone would budge no matter how much force she applied to them. "But what is it? There's no way that we'd be able to get brainwashed like that. And even if we were, I'm sure that we would have more resistance to that kind of stuff and be able to outdo the puppeteer..."

"Hey, Sonata? What else did you get in that shop?" Aria smiled and leaned in close to her. "Anything cool? Fun? Pink and playful?"

"Well, thanks for asking, Aria." Sonata opened up the bag in her hand and set it down before her and Aria. "Let's see what we got here..." She began to take stuff out of the bag and show it off to the group. "This one's for cooking things. That one's for telling what time it is. These two are for you and me to wear together. And everything else is stuff that I loved the look of but have no idea what do with them."

"Sonata, those last two things are just matching pacifiers." Adagio crossed her hands and looked down at all of the stuff that Sonata had swindled from the people inside the shop. "We don't have any children, so I don't know what you plan to do with those. And besides, you don't even ta—" Adagio took a brief breath of air as she looked through the other stuff in the bag "—Sonata? Are you sure that you're not doing drugs? Because that's the only reason that a teenager in this world would suck on a pacifier, according to those magical steel boxes at Canterlot High."

"No, silly. Those are just for me and Aria." Sonata smiled and blushed at Adagio as she put her hands together and fluttered her eyelids. "Along with all of the other matching pink stuff that I got for me and her, we're going to become the best of twinsies together! After all, we're gonna rule the world through cuteness and siren songs rather than being jerks like we were before."

These pendants are really starting to get through to our minds... Adagio watched as Aria and Sonata picked up everything within the bag that matched and slipped them on or around them. Aria's not really one to show happiness, especially on Sonata levels. And Sonata's still the same, but is about to become a genius... I can already feel my mind beginning to melt into my new body. There's gotta be a way to fix this without the Rainbooms' help.

"Hey, Dagi? Aren't you feeling happy?" Aria asked as she tried to slip a pink jacket over her body. "You have your pendants back and for once, we're getting along like real sisters. Why aren't you smiling?"

"Oh, I don't know, Aria. Perhaps it's the heat from the sun, the tightness of these clothes, or the sunlight getting to me from a long day's work." Adagio sarcastically rolled her eyes as she answered the question. "Oh! I remember now. IT'S THE FACT THAT I'M STUCK IN THE BODY OF A TRASHY GOTH WHO'S NOW TURNING INTO JUST AS YOUNG OF A KID AS SONATA!"

"Adagio? What do you mean?" Sonata pulled her head from the bag, with lots of stuff getting stuck in her hair.

"I'm saying is that ever since I've been wearing this pendant, my life is somehow worse than it is better!" Adagio threw her arms around her. "My elegance is turning into bitterness, my clothes are extremely hard to wear, and now the most childish of sirens that I know are not only becoming friends, but are now leading the charge!" She sighed and hung her head. "I'm grateful that we have our pendants back, but I just wanted everything to go back to the way that it was before the Battle of the Bands..."

"Adagio. I know how you're feeling." Sonata walked up and patted Adagio on the back as gently as she could. "It must be hard to go from being the head honcho of the group to a lowly subordinate. But learn to take things on the bright side. All we wanted after the Battle of the Bands was adoration and power. We can have both of those things again, no matter what happens to the three of us. And if that includes us switching roles, then I don't really mind it."

"Yeah! I feel totally refreshed thanks to these little things." Aria smiled and rubbed her jewel in the palm of her hands. "Back when I was Mean Aria, I was just a grumpy little sad sack who just liked to eat angry thoughts. Now that I've got Sonata's silliness too, I can still be myself but enjoy myself outside of eating too."

"But, see, you two have got all of the best and free-willed parts of each other." Adagio slumped her shoulders and frisked her sisters. "All that I've been left with is the goth parts of Aria and the intelligence of Adagio. If I had what you two had right now, I would be just as ecstatic to get energy, dress up like a fairy tale princess, and eat mexican food as well. But because I'm still me but with extra fury, I feel like I'm the one bitchy tramp in a trio of energetic singers."

"Adagio! Watch the language." Sonata slapped her hand onto Adagio's mouth. "There might be kids here."

"I wish that I could, but I just can't." Adagio turned her back to the other Dazzlings. "I'm blighted with the curses of both logic and despair. I won't be able to enjoy this as much as you two can now that I'm in this situation. But it is the bed that we've made, so we must lie in it."

"Aw, I'm sorry, Adagio." Aria walked up to Adagio and gave her a gentle hug as she brushed her face against her back. "Is there anything that we can do to help you feel better?"

"Would some food at the mexican place help cheer you up a bit?" Sonata asked, pointing down the road. "They serve all the best stuff. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, you name it and they'll do it for you. For free, I might add." She pinched the gem around Adagio's neck and held it up to her face. "Or, if you're not into that kinda food, we could always go out and feed on more negativity like we usually do."

"Maybe, girls. Just give me some time to clear my head." Adagio broke out of Aria and Sonata's holds and walked off ahead of the girls. "It's a nice gesture, but I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of this."

Aria and Sonata just watched as Adagio walked off into the blazing light of the sunset until she was out of their view, then went back to checking out all of the stuff that they had gathered from the shop. All the while, their minds were merging with each other, but they were far too engrossed in their activity to notice.

Adagio walked with her hands behind her back as she looked at the world around her. Everywhere she went, people were playing with their children, laughing on the bench together, or were simply typing away at their little phones and other devices. She took a few deep breaths and kept to herself, almost hunching herself over as she crossed her arms behind her back.

"My whole world is changing..." Adagio mumbled to herself as she looked down at her fet. "First we get banished from Equestria, next we lose our pendants and powers to a bunch of snot-nosed apes, then we get our pendants back but with a few catches, and now Sonata Dusk is leading the Dazzlings." She looked back up and saw the gold-tinted houses shimmering in the rays of the setting sun. "Everything's been turned upside down. Next thing we know, Canterlot High are going to welcome us back with open arms for the way we treated them."

Adagio turned towards a zebra crossing and went over it towards the nearby row of trees next to another cobblestone path. She walked underneath the branches of the trees, hiding herself from the pounding light that coated the world around her. Most of her breathing was pretty shallow, but she was still managing to keep her head from popping off of her body.

Eventually, Adagio's quiet and isolated walk led her straight into the path of Sunset Shimmer, who was carrying a few groceries of her own. Once the two of them saw eye to eye, they approached each other and stopped a few paces from each other. Despite the bad blood that the two of them had, they were both away from their friends and were able to have a clear conversation without anyone else interrupting them.

"Adagio." Sunset folded her arms in front of her.

"Sunset." Adagio mimicked her in every way.

There was a brief silence between the two girls as they looked deep into each others' eyes and felt the wind rush around their feet and blow through their hairs. The muscles in their hands began to flex as they wiggled their fingers and the ones in their heads arched down as their brows got closer to their eyes.

"We need to talk." They both said in perfect harmony, then widened their eyes and blinked into space as they stared at each other slack-jawed. Soon, they both snapped back to reality and shook their heads briefly, nodding at each other as they knew what they both needed to do.

"We need to talk..."

"That bad, huh?" Sunset leaned back against the coffee shop booth's upholstery, slinging her arm over the back, with Adagio sitting on a chair on the other side. The air around them was cold and acrid, and both of them could feel it dancing around them as they tried to get comfortable.

"Yeah." Adagio sighed, sliding her hand across the table. "Don't get me wrong, Aria and Sonata are valuable assets to the team, but they're really starting to lose it. Aria, I can understand because she's got Sonata's genes now, but as for Sonata, she's supposed to be me now. It's like she's just tossing my incredible wit and charm to the street in favor of being more like Pinkie Pie."

"Well, I kinda wish I could help you, but then I keep having memories of the Battle of the Bands, and that really wasn't the best of times for any of us." Sunset made jaws out of her fingers and lowered her eyes to the table. "See, Adagio, I'm a believer that everyone deserves a second chance, but you and the other Dazzlings have been less than willing to change ever since. And now, I get the feeling that trying to reform you ourselves isn't gonna be an option either, given how much the other girls seem to freak out whenever you're around."

"First impressions are a bitch, aren't they?" Adagio puffed air out of her nose.

"Yeah. They kinda are." Sunset Shimmer kicked up her feet and rolled her eyes. "I can relate, Adagio."

"When you first start out as a monster, no-one wants to help you change yourself right when you want to change the most." Adagio watched as a waitress served both her and Sunset hot chocolate. "Thank you, miss."

"Oh, it's no problem, dear," said the waitress before walking off.

"Anyways, as I was saying." Adagio put her fingertips on the mug and made circles around the rim. "I know we've not really been the best of girls and you and the Rainbooms do have every right to be angry at us for it, but right now, we're in some really deep shit here with Aria and Sonata." She sighed and peered into the frothy mixture. "I just want us to be back in our normal bodies so that we can just move on with our lives and get out of your hairs once and for all. But I've got no idea on how to change us back to normal or if we can survive without driving each other crazy. That's why I came to you, Sunset. You're the only one I can trust out of the Rainbooms to help us out."

Sunset let out a weary sigh and took a gulp of her hot chocolate. "Adagio, I appreciate the amount of thought that you're putting into this, but I need to know that you and the other sirens are gonna stay true to your words." She gently put the drink down and wiped away the froth on her upper lips. "I mean, we can't just put you back to normal and let you keep draining negative emotions like this. You're just gonna go back to your old ways if we do."

"I'll admit, you're right about that." Adagio slowly took a drink of her hot chocolate, feeling the tiny marshmallows bounce against her teeth and the whipped cream land on her mouth. Once she was done, she put it down and peaked out the window. "The snake can't be tamed, regardless of the owner. We're always gonna have to live off of conflicts and fury. That's just who we are, Sunset. We've made the bed and we must lie in it."

The girls just sat there in silence, listening to the pattering footsteps of other customers, the reverberations of their conversations echoing across the walls. Sounds from the machines in the back added to the small melody of background noise as Mr. and Mrs. Cake served more and more people.

"How long has it been since we've first met, Sunset?" Adagio put her hands on the table, feeling her hair pressing against her shoulders. "Half a year? Couple of months? Time really does fly."

"Adagio? Out of all the things in this world, why do you and your girls choose to be evil?" Sunset leaned forward. "You could've just as easily used your powers to help make the world a better place; to inspire people to be their best and push them to reaching their goals. But instead, you've taken your singing magic to a darker place, and use it to con people into throwing stupid little hissy fits over the smallest things."

"Sunset. If you know what it was like to live in Equestria, then you know exactly why we turned into evil seahorse creatures." Adagio twisted her wrist.

"I've been looking that up in history class, and the correct term is actually hippocampus," said Sunset Shimmer. "A hybrid of horse and seahorse, these creatures pulled Poseidon's chariot across the seas of—"

"I didn't ask for a fact-checking seminar, Sunset. I asked for help." Adagio grunted and crossed her arms. When she realized her brutish behaviour, she let out another groan and rubbed her forehead. "I'm sorry. This whole body-swap issue is getting to me too. I'm becoming pig-headed, angry, whatever term you wanna use. It's not like me at all to just burst out in fits like this."

"Maybe there's more to this whole thing than meets the eye..." Sunset stroked her chin with the fingers on her left hand, thinking about everything Adagio had said. "Where did you girls get these new pendants in the first place? Doesn't seem like that kind of magic can be replicated unless you go back home."

"Oh! Well, uh..." Adagio had been bogged down with so much stress before that it was a challenge for her to remember where she and the others had found their new gemstones. It took her a long time to find the answer, but once she retraced her steps mentally, she could envision the store she had bought it from. "Oh yeah! Now, I remember. It was that pawn shop down the road from the mexican restaurant."

"You mean Discord's Deviously Delightful Deals?" Sunset tilted her head. "Isn't that owned by the crazy old man who loves to cause mischief?"

"I don't know much about the guy who sold it to us, other than the fact that he had somehow managed to get perfect copies of our jewels without ever coming to CHS or any of our other little power trips." Adagio looked down at her pendant and held it out, letting it gleam in the light of the lamps above. "Actually, now that I think about it, it's very weird... Who was that guy? And why was he so eager to part with these crystals if he knew all about them?"

"Something's not right here." Sunset immediately stood up from the booth and took another drink of the hot chocolate. "Adagio, if we're gonna get to the bottom of this little mess, then we need to go to this little pawn shop and see if that gem's really all it's cracked up to be."

"Sunset, what if this was all some sort of cheap trick?" Adagio stood up as well and took another drink. "For all we know, this old man might've skipped town by now and took all of his junk with him."

"Still, we're not gonna get anywhere else unless we at least try it." Sunset gulped the rest of the drink and laid it down on the counter. "Plus, you wanna change back to normal, right? This is one of the best ways to go about it."

"I suppose it is." Adagio finished off her own drink, leaving behind all of the marshmallows and cream as she laid her mug down. "Come on, Sunset. Let's go find this crazy old coot."

Aria and Sonata both giggled as they skipped down the road, dressed in pink beanies, shirts, scarves, skirts, shoes, and even socks. Both of them had shopping bags hanging off of their arms, chocked to the brim with stuff that they had earned from the shopkeepers. Truly, it seemed like Aria had slipped so far into Sonata's body that she had lost herself once and for all, while Sonata was trying her hardest not to become like Adagio, despite her new form.

"O.M.G. Sonata, this was the greatest thing that ever happened to us!" Aria beamed from ear to ear. "I never thought that being stuck in your body would be so much fun!"

"Aw, I'm glad you're enjoying it, Aria." Sonata smiled and clutched her bags tighter. "I mean, I'm gonna turn into Dagi sooner or later, so we might as well have all the fun we can before I become a tougher girl."

"Speaking of which, where is she?" Aria looked around, but found no traces of her leader. "She kinda blew a gasket and I've got no clue where she is..."

"Oh, I'm sure she'll come back soon," said Sonata. "She's supposed to be our leader, and even though she gave the job to you for the week, then this thing happened and you're becoming me and she's becoming you and I'm becoming her..." She stopped and blinked for a few seconds. "Actually, that's a lot to take in when I put it like that."

"Hey, don't worry, Nata, I got it." Aria gave Sonata another goofy little grin and turned the corner. "Plus, I'm kinda glad that Dagi's getting my bad traits and you're getting her good ones. I bet you'll make a great leader some day."

"Thanks for that, Ari!" Sonata kissed into her hand and blew it to Aria, who leapt up and caught it, almost throwing everything out of the bags as she landed.

"Got it!" Aria giggled.

As both Aria and Sonata walked down the corner, they ended up bumping into the rest of the Rainbooms, who also had a lot of shopping in their own hands. From make-up to pet food and even sports equipment, it was all practically bulging out of the girls' bags.

"Oh, hey, girls." Sonata gave the girls a smile and waved at them. "How's it hangin'?"

"Wait... are you for real, girls?" Rainbow Dash lowered her brows and put her hands on her hip. "Why are you so happy about seeing us?"

"Something's not right, Rainbow." Applejack put her hand on Rainbow's shoulders. "Ah say we stay on guard. Ain't no tellin' what them two can do ta us."

"I dunno, girls. These two look pretty good to me." Pinkie Pie set down her shopping and came up to both Aria and Sonata with a smile of her own. "Lovin' the color co-ordination there, girls. Pink's always good this time of year."

"Pinkie!" Rarity fumed from the sidelines.

"What? I only said it as a compliment, Rares." Pinkie just shrugged at her and pulled out a pink headband from her hair. "Plus, c'mon, you've gotta try this out. It's super-duper snug and fluffy. Almost like wearing a pillow on your head." And with nothing else to say, she strapped a pink headband on Rarity's head.

"Ooh... I'd give Pinkie Pie a piece of my mind if not for the Dazzlings being here..." Rarity took the band off and tossed it to the street.

"Girls. I don't know these girls, so I think it's best that you let me handle this." Twilight pushed through the other Rainbooms and walked up to the two sirens. "I've seen the way you've all been acting and it's not healthy. You need to let this whole thing go. What could be so bad about these two girls?"

"Twilight, didn't we go over this, like, a thousand times already?" Rainbow Dash slapped her hand to her face and vigorously rubbed her forehead. "They. Are. The. Dazzlings. The. Sirens. That. Nearly. Ruined. Our. Friendship. And. Enslaved. Canterlot. HIGH!" She stomped forward and threw her hands down with every word, until she was right in Twilight's face, throwing her arms behind her as she screamed loudly.

"You especially, Rainbow." Twilight didn't move an inch, not even when Rainbow Dash's nose was practically touching her own. She booped Rainbow on the nose and made her stumble backwards before turning to face the two sirens. "I'm sorry about my friends, girls. They're still a bit sour over seeing you again."

"Oh, it's no biggie, Not-Twilight." Sonata chuckled.

"Yeah, Not-Twilight," added Aria. "We were just gonna find Dagi then head back home. No need to worry about us."

"Alright then. It's good to know that we ca—wait. Did you just call me Not-Twilight?" Twilight squinted and jabbed a finger at the two of them.

"Yeah. You're Twilight Sparkle, but you're not the Twilight from Equestria, so, you're Twilight, but at the same time, you're not Twilight, hence, we're gonna call you Not-Twilight." Sonata just held a toothy smile.

"Just because I'm not the same as a horse-me in another world doesn't mean that I'm not Twilight." Twilight put her hands to her hips. "In fact, I very much doubt the other me can work on phase-shifting technology, basic matter transportation, lithium-charged generators, and photo-electricity."

"They're just trying to get under your skin, Twilight." Rarity came up to Twilight and pulled her back. "Just like them. They don't care about anyone and so they just do all this nasty teasing to make you spit up an argument, just so they can profit off of your misery!" She slowly revolved her head to face the sirens and snarled, "What bottom feeders you are..."

Both Aria and Sonata gasped at the insult and dropped their bags on the ground. Everything that Rarity had said was true, but they had never really taken it as an insult until now. Their hands began to tremble.

"Girls! That was just uncalled for!" Twilight shouted, breaking free of Rarity's grab. "You're gonna make them cry!"

"Twilight, how many times do we have to say it?" Applejack punched her hand. "THE. DAZZLINGS. ARE. EVIL!"

"But they dress up pretty good." Pinkie Pie grinned, only to receive a swarm of vicious glares from the rest of the girls. "Oh, you all know it's true, girls!"

"Look, girls, you're all letting first impressions go to your head." Twilight crossed her arms. "I might not know about this whole friendship deal you girls have, but I'm pretty sure that first impressions aren't to be trusted. These two can change, I see it in their smiles. And you're still going out of your way to make it seem like they're worse than Cinch was."

"But—"

"No buts, Applejack!" Twilight stomped the ground. "These two are innocent. And if you keep trying to villify them, I'll have no choice but to call Sunset and have her straighten this whole thing out."

"Twilight, Sunset's gonna take our side of the argument, not yours." Rainbow cocked a brow. "You're not really comin' off strong in this argument, girl."

"But she does have a point." Fluttershy gently tapped Rainbow's back. "I mean, I know that they were pretty awful, but I don't think I've seen these two do or say anything mean to us yet."

"Fluttershy? Are you siding with Twilight? Even after all that we've been through together?" Rarity tilted her head. "Are you sure that you're feeling well, dear?"

"If even Fluttershy can see that there's something good in these two, then I say that we're more than willing to give these girls a chance." Twilight took Fluttershy's hand and slowly walked her up to the sirens. "Now, I know that the rest of you might not be as forgiving as the two of us are, but we're not gonna have this argument any longer. These two sirens are good. End of story. Bye-bye. See ya later." And without saying another word, Twilight turned her back to the girls and walked down the road with Fluttershy and the two sirens, taking the shopping with them.

"Wow..." Sonata's mouth hung wide open. "That was amazing, Not-Twilight!"

"Yeah!" Aria grinned and practically ran on the spot. "Where did you learn to get so assertive like that?"

"Oh, I've had some help." Twilight just gave the two sirens a little smirk as she held their hands. "Now, where did you say you lived again?"

"We've got this great place over by the edge of Canterlot up in the Clearsky area." Sonata held her hand out and painted the sky with her palms. "You've gotta see it. We've got the best stuff ever!"

"I can tell. The Clearsky area's only for the rich people these days. Usually Crystal Prep students and wealthy businessmen," said Fluttershy. "Oh, I'd love to see what one of those houses are like, even if it's for a day."

"Well, wish granted!" said Aria. "C'mon, girls. We've got such a big TV, we've got lots of TV channels,tons of food in the cupboards, and Dagi's not gonna get back for a while so we can do anything!"

"Well, let's go, then! Time's-a-wasting!" Twilight decided to smile as well as she and the others all began to skip together down the road.

Meanwhile, the other Rainbooms just stood there with their mouths open wide. They opened their hands, letting their goods drop and clatter down on the pavement. They had never seen Twilight act like that before, nor did they believe that any of their entourage would ever be able to find a shred of goodwill in the Dazzlings. But still, it had happened, and the whole thing had left them reeling. No-one was able to say anything; not even Rainbow and Applejack could muster up a single word.

"Well. That happened," Pinkie was the one to finally break the silence.

The Dazzlings' House Tour

Twilight and Fluttershy had never been to Clearsky before. Mainly because it was one of those places where, if you weren't one of the residents, you'd stick out like a sore thumb in no time at all. And it showed, with the massive houses lining each street, like a set of miniature skyscrapers. Each one properly kept from the outside with unknown treasures inside that people would normally dream about, with the gardens leading up to them verdant and bustling with life and colour.

Aria and Sonata lead the girls down the path towards one of the bigger mansions in Clearsky, and it showed with how much space it took up, with a titanic hedge wall surrounding the house and a large iron gate sitting in place of the entrance. For them, it was just an average shrub. But for their guests, it was as if they were staring at one of the many walls within a maze.

"So. This is our house, girls," said Aria, turning on the ball of her heel with a grin on her face. "I know. It's a bit stunning from the first look, but that's just what you get with the whole singing magic package. Guess you could say we got ourselves the best bargain you could possibly get, huh?"

"Yeah. You could put it like that..." Twilight nodded as she craned her neck up towards the roof of the Dazzlings' mansion. "I mean, Clearsky's only for the creme de la creme here in Canterlot. "I don't even think some of my old Crystal Prep classmates have any houses here..."

"Well, if they did, they'd be living the high-life. Everyone in Clearsky gets only the best because they are the best. And yes, I'm aware that it does make it seem that we and every neighbour on our street is an egomaniac. But don't worry. We all are." Sonata pressed her fingers together.

"That's awfully reassuring," Fluttershy's hair curled against her eye.

"It is. Especially when you see just what's inside." Aria turned to the gate, reached into her pockets for something, then widened her brows. She dug around in one, found nothing and transitioned to the next one along. "Oh, darn it. I forgot where I put my keycard..."

"Oh, it's fine, Aria. I've got mine right here." Sonata pulled hers out of her jacket, sliding it into the reader on the pillar by the side of the gate. A buzzing noise could be heard, followed by the red light turning green and the noise of the gears inside revolving, so as to activate the mechanisms for the gate. "Open says me. Or however that saying goes..."

The gates slid open, granting passage to the two Dazzlings, with their guests closely behind. It took them a while walking up the path for the same device to close. By the time it had done that, the teenage girls were standing by the front doors of the house, with Aria and Sonata planting their hands on the large, cylindrical handles. One pull from the two of them caused the doors to open, right before Twilight and Fluttershy's eyes.

"Now, if you're a bit overwhelmed by all of this fancy-schmancy stuff, well, let's just say that you're not the first to be blown away by something as cool as this," said Aria, planting the door against the wall of the entryway. "Trust me, girls. We were too."

Fluttershy and Twilight stepped inside to a sight that they thought they would only ever see in fairytales. A grand foyer, coated in tile and carpet, with a clear path leading towards the stairs. Marble bannisters draped around the edges of the mezzanine and stairs, with small furniture pressed against the walls, usually housing plantlife or other strewn about objects. A myriad of doors, all similar in design dotted themselves around the room. Each one led to another corner of the house, with the upper ones a clear indication of being Adagio, Aria, and Sonata's living quarters. Artworks were also hung up on the upper floors. Some being recreations of famous works from artists past, while others depicted the Dazzlings in various different art styles. Presumably, they were made when the three sirens had cast spells on the people within the town.

"Whoa... This is... breathtaking." Twilight adjusted her glasses, almost thinking that what she was seeing was some form of illusion.

"Welcome to our home, girls. Mi Casa is su Casa. Only the best house that magical singing powers can buy." Sonata walked through the door and stood in front of Twilight and Fluttershy. "If you're wondering how we pay for all of this, I wonder a bit as well. Adagio's usually the one that works that part out."

"But she's having what we call an existential crisis right now. She can't handle the fact that she's got my old grumpiness," Aria cut in. "But she should adjust pretty soon. I mean, I did thanks to Sonata's bubbliness. Never been better."

"So, I just want to ask before we go on. You girls aren't evil anymore like the rest of the Rainbooms seem to think?" Twilight lifted a finger, then hastily retracted it, taking the Dazzlings' feelings into account. "N-not that you are evil. I just want to make sure that my friends aren't running some kind of smear campaign against you."

"Oh, the girls are still bitter about what we did at Canterlot. And, well, they have every right to be. We only just broke the friendships that everyone worked so hard to make, moulding good vibes into bad ones so that we could feed off of it and stay alive for another few days. Or weeks." Sonata lifted a finger. "Still, that time's passed. I've got no plans on hurting people anymore. Just as long as I can sing, I'm happy as can be."

"Plus, the Rainbooms are the Rainbooms. They're not exactly the brightest lightbulbs in the pack. I mean, there's a walking western movie stereotype; the fashion diva; Sonata but without powers; the cocky rainbow-haired kid; you but not really you, Twilight; socially awkward Fluttershy; and Sunset Shimmer." Aria twisted her wrist. "Still, I guess you could call it friendship; given how the seven of you make rainbow lasers rain down from the sky and everything."

"I would be offended by all of that, but I'm trying to see you girls from an unbiased point of view. Especially given how the girls wanted to physically hurt you." Twilight just put her hands to her sides, giving the Dazzlings a stare.

"I mean, I've got a lot of things I want to say to you and your boss, but I'm not really in the mood for it right now. I want to give you girls another chance as well. You seem awfully good to be around after the fact that you tried to brainwash CHS," Fluttershy added, meekly nodding to them.

"Guess it's probably because of these new personalities we've got." Aria rubbed the back of her head, catching strands of blue hair as her fingers combed it. "It definitely adds to the whole redemption shtick."

"In any case, I think we should discuss that matter while we show you around. Better to walk and talk than to just sit around and do nothing all day." Sonata jogged to the stairs, laying her arm across the bannister. "Come along, Not-Twilight, Fluttershy. We've got quite a lot to show you."

"Ooh! Ooh! Can we take them to our rooms first?" Aria thrust her arm up and shook it vibrantly. "If we're lucky, we can catch some funny shows too!"

"Sure we can, girl." Sonata pulled Aria in close, gave her a short hug, then let her free so that the two of them could coordinate Twilight and Fluttershy's visit "That's what sisters are for, right?"

"Wait. You're... sisters?" Twilight's pupils slightly shrank. "As in... born in the same family?"

"Yep! Adagio is too. She's the biggest sister out of the three of us. That's why she leads the group." Sonata nodded.

"So, where's Adagio now? Shouldn't she be with you two at all times?" Twilight asked, pointing towards the two personality-swapped sirens.

"Did you girls have a falling out with each other since the last time we saw you?" Fluttershy asked, pulling some hair aside as she strolled up to the two sirens.

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. Adagio would never throw us out like that. We're pretty much all she's got left outside of this house and that new crystal she got." Aria shook her head, crossing her arms. "Plus, she's carrying all of my old anger. I wouldn't be surprised if she's down at the local Hot Topic, trying to find something that'll work for her new look."

"ANYWAYS, we're burning daylight over here." Sonata immediately thrust her arm out, silencing the conversation. "We promised you a house tour, and all we're talking about is about the past and stuff that we'd rather not want to talk about." She returned her hand to her side. "This is our foyer. It's pretty big but totally boring without all of the bells and whistles we've added to it. Dagi was thinking on converting this into some kind of fashion show catwalk, but then we'd have nowhere to go when it came to getting out unless climbing out of the window was an option."

"And from that height, don't even try it. Sonata did before the CHS stuff, she almost ended up breaking whatever bones she got in this new world," Aria looked over to her sister, namely towards the aforementioned legs, giving them a small tap with the side of her boot.

"It took us a few shopping trips to get all of the stuff that we needed to make sure that this place was as good as it could be. Even now, we're still trying to figure out what in the heck we're trying to do with all of this stuff. I swear, if there was a fourth Dazzling, she should've taken up a hobby in decorating..." Sonata rolled her eyes. "But regardless, we're probably gonna change it sooner or later. Maybe even later today if we can remember to do it."

"Oh, I'm sure that we could help you decorate some time, girls." Fluttershy smiled a little bit more as she walked towards the sirens. Admittedly, she had never been a fan of magical things, but to see two former villains change their attitude and show that through their innocence and swapped personalities changed her perspective. "I mean if you want us to help you after what we did to you at the Battle of the Bands."

"Again, it's no biggie. Really. We were able to fix ourselves after that." Sonata idly tipped her hand before dashing up the stairs with Aria. "Now come on, girls. I think it's time to show you around our rooms."

Twilight and Fluttershy followed after Aria and Sonata, many thoughts awash through their minds. For all that the Dazzlings had done, for all that the Rainbooms had done to them in retaliation, were their friends really in the right for constantly throwing insults and claims over the three of them and their past behaviour? Sure, there was some proof in the pudding, but the three former sirens were working to change everyone's perspectives on them. Or at least, two of them were. That had to account for something, didn't it?

"Now, our three rooms are just on the right here, girls." Sonata ran on ahead, opening each of the three doors open wide for the lot of them, taking no heed to the signs on each of them that read out each of their rooms and the warnings on Aria's. "Adagio's is filled with all sorts of clutter. That's just because she wants to know everything about this new world, seeing as how we were thrown into it from Equestria thanks to a bunch of stuffy old folks. Aria's room looks bleak and miserable, but that's just because we've yet to give it a makeover. And my room? Well, let's just say you'll see so many plushies and pink stuff that it'll make anything that your little bubbly friend has seem boring."

It only took one look into each of the Dazzlings rooms to prove Sonata's words correct. Adagio's room was filled with a nimiety of objects. Some that Twilight and Fluttershy knew all too well, while the others were stuff that they had only seen in pictures or for the first time in their lives. As for Aria's, true to Sonata's words, the place had dark wallpaper, a set of skull ornaments, and a bed that was on the verge of collapsing from how tattered the frame and mattress were. Finally, with Sonata's room, the colours instantly clashed for the two Rainbooms, causing them to shield their eyes momentarily, trying to adjust their hues to the overtones of pink.

"So... are you normally this fine sleeping in a fully pink room, Sonata?" Fluttershy asked, trying to make something out in the room that wasn't overly drowned in the colour. "Not even Pinkie Pie has this much in her room, and I've slept in it."

"Sleepover or... other purposes?" Sonata asked, cocking a brow at Fluttershy.

"Sleepover," said Fluttershy, avoiding the assumption that Sonata was making.

"Personally, yeah, it's getting a bit too painful to look at, now that I've got Adagio's level-headedness. I suppose I should make some changes, maybe cut down on some of the stuffed animals." Sonata took a peek into the room herself. "But then I'd have to decide who to throw out, making a moral conflict in my head which would make me hallucinate and make me think all of my toys were alive and were begging me not to let them go and—"

"I'll take them off your hands!" Aria threw her arm up out of nowhere, attracting the gazes of everyone else on the platform. "I mean, I've got Sonata's personality bubbling up in here, so I don't mind having them instead." She blushed, dropping her arm and rubbing it. "That is... well if you want me to, Sonata. I-I don't want to be too much of a bother." Aria blushed, taking a step backwards.

"Oh? Aria?" Sonata was also in a state of shock, due in part to the fact that she had never in all of her years ever witnessed Aria willingly want to take Sonata's plushes not out of anger or spite, but rather because she was having an issue with them. Of course, a fraction of it also diminished thanks to the memory that it was the crystals that were changing them, but still, Sonata couldn't muster up any words for a few moments. "I... I never knew that you had an interest in my toys."

"I... I never did until now! Look at them..." Aria slid in through the doorway, bounding over towards the conglomerate of toys. "Back when I was a big, bad meanie, I never really had the time to appreciate Mr Stuffington, Mr Cuddlebutt, Esquire Huggles the 3rd, Sally the Snuggle Snake, Octavio Squeezybro, all of them! This whole new lease on life's totally changing my perspective, Sonata. As it is for you, and for Dagi." She slapped her hands over her mouth. "I even copied you. You used to call her Dagi all the time too!"

"Okay... Now, I'm pretty sure that all these changes really are starting to show." Sonata just stood, gobsmacked at the sight of Aria, watching as she dived in, scooped up as many plushes as she could and gave them a hug. "Oh well. It's not like they're doing us any harm, right?"

"I'm so goddamn sick and tired of having this stupid fucking anger problem!" Adagio seethed, her hands clawing through the forest that was her puffy, purple hair. "Crystal or no crystal, I need myself back. I just want to be my old orange-haired, level-headed, capable-of-handling-anything Adagio Dazzle self back. But I've no clue how I'm gonna do that without your friends carrying pitchforks and torches against me. Add to the fact that Aria and Sonata are doing who knows what who knows where and I'm screwed six ways from Sundance, Sunset..." Finished with her rant, Adagio's arms limply collapsed as she took a moment to breathe.

"I know that you're mad, Adagio, but raging isn't gonna change a thing. Look. All we need to do is get both sides to stop fighting and make a compromise. I tell the girls not to bully you and your friends anymore, and you stop hounding us for evil magic to feed yourselves." Sunset reached over Adagio, squeezing her shoulder gently.

"Yes, yes. I know. No need to drill it into my brain like some deluded prophet at a church or something..." Adagio spat, shuffling her body away from Sunset. "I stop hurting the people here, your friends never see us again, everyone's happy-go-lucky. Bleh. Y'know, not everything has to be all sunshine and rainbows."

"True, but you don't have to be the catalyst for all of this world's problems, Adagio. You or your sisters." Sunset crossed her arms, staring down upon Adagio. "If you have to feed off of anger to keep yourself alive, then could you at least not cause that anger in the first place?"

"It doesn't work that way, Sunset. Equestrian laws of physics is a real bitch, isn't it?" Adagio countered with her own folded arms. "According to those laws, we have to make them angry in order to eat. Otherwise, we starve. And then we die. And then there's a funeral service. And you feel very guilty for not making us eat. See where I'm going with this?"

"Yeah. And it just makes me glad I left that world behind. Magic really is a bit twisted back there," said Sunset. "Look, Adagio. I won't stop you from trying to eat, just as long as you do it within reason. Can't you just... oh, I don't know, go online and find some kind of corner of the internet where people are always angry?"

"Do I look like a beggar to you, Sunset Shimmer of Canterlot High?" Adagio lifted a brow. "For your information, I tried to do that once I discovered the internet had some people like that. But sadly, our songs only work if there are people physically having a dispute with someone in real life, not over the internet like some sad, pathetic soul who doesn't have anything better to do..."

"In any case, we should be approaching the shop. If my memory is correct..." Sunset just rolled her eyes at Adagio, then continued down her path. She never liked this corner of the town, mostly because of how easy it was for shifty folk to prey on her and any others who weren't prepared. "But be prepared for him to say no refunds to you, Adagio."

"If he does, I hope that he's got a damn good dentist..." Adagio puffed and planted her hands in her pockets. "Or at least knows how to defend himself."

"Man... Aria's bad vibes are really beginning to bury into Adagio's mind. I should get this cleaned up as fast as possible before Adagio decides to turn her newfound rage on me, my friends or everyone else she thinks pisses her off." Sunset whispered to herself as she ran on ahead, trying to see if the shop was still open, or whether or not the shopkeeper himself was even there. "I just hope that the other Dazzlings aren't having a total breakdown like she is."

Bonding

“Race you to the kitchen, Sonata!” Aria leapt from the plushies and ran out of the room, hurrying towards the stairs once more. A giddy grin retained on her face the whole time, accompanied by little giggles that slipped out every so often. She had never felt this carefree since she was a little kid back home, yet lost herself fully within her new personality. Whether she could remember it or not, one thing was clear; she was happy for the change.

“Oh, it’s on, girl!” Sonata gave chase to her changed sister. The initial shock value had worn off and now, all that she thought about was trying to keep Aria under control while also letting her be free to be her new self. A part of her still wanted to keep everything in order, but she still tried her hardest to keep her old self as much as possible. That didn’t stop her from also letting a laugh or two slip out.

“It’s so strange.” Fluttershy walked after the two sirens, hand slithering across the bannister. “The way they’re acting, talking, doing things together, being happy, everything. It’s like they’re completely different people to the ones me and my friends remember...”

“No idea why the girls would want to tarnish these girls’ reputation, then. They haven’t done anything wrong after their visit to CHS.” Twilight scratched her chin as she went with her friend to pursue Aria and Sonata. “I think after we regroup with Sunset, we should give the others a good talking-to.”

“They might not listen, though. The girls were all pretty stubborn about this whole thing. Especially Applejack and Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy turned her neck to face Twilight. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they argue with us until sundown.”

“One thing’s for sure, though. Sunset’s going to be the defining variable to swing the argument,” said Twilight in response. “She knows how to talk down both sides while showing absolutely no bias whatsoever. That’s commendable in and of itself.”

“I suppose so. But still, she’s gotta have an awful lot of patience for this kind of matter. After all, we are talking about the Dazzlings...” Fluttershy put her hands together. “After what they did at Canterlot High with the Battle of the Bands, I wouldn’t expect anyone to forgive them; least of all our friends.

“Sometimes, you just have to tell the argumentum ad populum to go away. Just because everyone says it because it’s true? That’s just the biggest bunch of bad baloney I’ve ever heard in my life.” Twilight rolled her eyes as she finally made it to the stairs, taking each step so lightly that barely any noise emanated from them. “One of the reasons why I didn’t get along at Crystal Prep was because everyone was quick to judge everyone, spiting those that did anything better than them or on their behalf. It got to the point where everyone was out to get everyone. I’m getting that same sense of hostility from your friends As I did back there from this whole Dazzling hate.” She locked gazes with Fluttershy again. “You’re not a Crystal Prepper, are you, Fluttershy?”

“No. Absolutely not. We’re much less crusty as them.” Fluttershy shook her head at that remark.

“Then don’t ever try and think like one. Don’t try and take the path where vilifying anyone for your own benefit is seen as acceptable. My friends are acting an awful lot like that with this whole facade; almost to the point where I’m imagining them in the outfits already...” Twilight, leading Fluttershy with her arm coiled around her friend’s back went into the kitchen. “Next thing you know, they’ll be chanting some mantra about wanting to win at everything...”

The kitchen, much like the rest of the mansion was a sight to behold. A large array of cupboards, tabletops, appliances, even a breakfast bar stood in a ‘U’ shape before Twilight and Fluttershy. The sink nearby was filled with used bowls and plates, sitting in soapy water, while the light jade counters stood mostly clean; albeit with some dried-in stains that had yet to touch. Looking out from the counters, a few steps lead down towards an expansive dining table, huge enough to seat much more than three souls. The titanic oval of a brown oak table—garnished with silverware, wine glasses, candlesticks, and flowers—ran from the steps all the way towards a pair of glass doors looking out onto the nearby pool. Sonata and Aria were standing by the aforementioned door, grinning from ear to ear as they saw Twilight and Fluttershy take the steps down towards the table.

“You ever see those movies where the rich people always eat at these stupidly huge tables?” Sonata asked, drifting her fingers along the polished, glossy woodwork. “If you have, you might as well take this place as a set from one of them.”

“You’d think that we’ve also got someone to make the stuff for us, like a butler or something,” added Aria. “Well, as fun as that would be, having someone do everything for us, let’s just say that Canterlot doesn’t really have a butler school at the moment. The market’s pretty dense on that front.”

“Still, take a look. This is all ours.” Sonata reached over for an apple that laid within a fruit bowl on the table, taking a huge chunk out of it with her teeth. “You don’t see people with these kinds of table every day now, do you?”

“I have to admit that I haven’t,” said Twilight taking another look at the fully laid out table. “The only time I’ve ever seen this kind of stuff was when me and my family went shopping. Even then, the price was an arm and a leg and it was a bit excessive for a family of four.”

“Ah. In any case, you’re welcome to stay for dinner if you want, girls. I’m sure that with Adagio’s smarts, I can cook up something halfway decent. As opposed to the times when I tried making chocolate-shell tacos with fondue.” Sonata twiddled her fingers as she let a small blush form on her face. “That’s the last time I make a mess in here, that’s for sure.”

“Well... I wouldn’t mind having one of your Triple Choco-tastic Tacos, Sonata. I mean, that is if you want to risk messing up the kitchen again.” Aria fluttered her eyelids.

“I never really threw the stuff out, so it’s plausible. But it’s a very complicated snack to make.” She turned to Twilight and Fluttershy again. “What do you think, Fluttershy, Not-Twilight? Do you both wanna have some of my tacos?”

“I think I’ll pass.” Twilight held up a hand. “I’m trying to watch my figure right now. It does sound delicious, don’t get me wrong, but I just don’t want to become fat from eating too much, or from overdosing on chocolate.”

“I wouldn’t mind tasting one.” Fluttershy was the next to ascend her hand; but unlike Twilight, a smile was plastered onto her face. “The dish sounds like something Pinkie Pie would make in all honesty. Maybe you should share it with her someday.”

“Yeah. When she stops being a meanie to me, I’d gladly make my Triple Choco-tastic Tacos with her.” Sonata waltzed over towards the counter, pulled out three of liquid chocolate—one milk, another dark, and the third white—from one of the cupboards along with a base that looked akin to that of a taco’s base. “Honestly, the only real challenge is finding something that looks like it can hold everything in once you start solidifying the chocolate. Then, the rest of it is a cakewalk. You can make it savoury like most of the ones I’ve had before, or you can make it sweet. A risk to your teeth, but still sweet."

Fluttershy walked over to the counter and watched as Sonata filled the base with milk chocolate, then stuffed it in the freezer. It took some time for it to fully solidify, but as soon as the chocolate-filled base froze over to form a solid taco shell. She then repeated the same process with the other two layers, separately making layers for all three of them until the final result was three taco shells frozen onto each other; each with a different type of chocolate for each layer.

"Now that's done, we've gotta choose what we're gonna fill it with." Sonata went over to the other cupboards within the kitchen. She swung them open wide, revealing a stockpile of food and other ingredients, then proceeded to swing the fridge door open as well. "What are you a fan of, Fluttershy? Vegetables? Candy? Whatever you can think of? The extra stuff really down to what you want to fill the taco with."

"You could, if you wanted, have a Triple Choco-tastic Taco filled with cheese, lemons, salsa, curry, even chips if you really wanted to go down that path," Aria spoke from the table. "I mean, not that I've ever seen anyone want all that stuff in a taco, but you never know. There are some people who genuinely like that kinda mish-mash of stuff." She clasped her hands, growing an innocent smile for herself.

Fluttershy's face contorted, her mouth lifted at one corner as her brows lifted and her hands raised themselves as if they were on strings. "I... I wouldn't really say that sounds like a good combination. Especially with what you used for the base, girls."

"Suit yourself. Personally, I think it'd be fun if people experimented more with this human world food. It's way more interesting than the yucky soul-stuff we had to eat whenever we sang. That, and you can physically eat it with your teeth and head."

Sonata popped the finished creation out of the mould that was holding it, then filled it once more with the chocolates, freezing and re-freezing with each new level added to it. "As much fun as I do enjoy the originals, who says that I can't branch out? Just like with this whole magical singing power razzmatazz, I don't just want to have to keep living off of making people angry to be happy with myself." Sonata sighed as she set her product into the freezer one last time. "What's so fun in making people love you when all they do is hate and fight over us?"

Fluttershy let the moment sink in, unable to talk or think about anything other than Sonata's words. To hear that exact statement come out of her mouth; out of one of the mouths of the trio who nearly threw the foundations of CHS's friendship and good vibes into the deepest pits of despair and fury all for their own personal gains spoke volumes. If that was not a sign that Sonata wanted to repent for what she had done, she couldn't fathom what was. Fluttershy's body seemed to tense up, joints feeling like they were turning to stone and breath thinning out as she tried to regain some semblance of control over herself. Could it all be as if she had walked into some alternative world? A crazy dream caused by unconsciousness, perhaps? In any case, she gave herself a pinch to ensure that it wasn't some fantasy playing out in her mind. When nothing around her changed, it solidified the fact that she had indeed heard Sonata Dusk of the Dazzlings willingly and openly admit that the way of siren magic was flawed.

"Then... why did you want to do it in the first place?" Fluttershy asked, finally rebooting herself after the shock to the system she had gone through. "Why did you and your sisters want to try and take over the world?"

"The world? What kind of crazy ideas did you think we had?" Aria spoke up. "Well, I mean, granted, you do have us there with the fact that our singing can make absolutely everyone and everything do what we say, but that's beside the point. Also, we were meanies back then. We did meanie things. Now, we're not meanies anymore so... yeah. Perspective change." She splayed her arms across the table. "We had to eat magic to stay alive. And yours was just what we needed to stay alive for a good while at least."

"Back then, we took all of our orders from Adagio. Her and her big, poofy ball of golden hair. She was like a mother to us, and we were like her two daughters. Which, kinda sounds weird when you consider that we're all biologically sisters, but... take that however you will." Sonata filled her finished taco with lettuce and cheese shavings. She topped it with sour cream and sprinkled in some marshmallows as well. "Without her, we'd be lost up a creek and arguing all the time, seeing as how old Aria was nothing like the new Aria."

"Aww, thanks, Sonata. Kissies!" Aria kissed into her hand and blew it towards Sonata, who reached up and caught it in the midst of her chocolate taco garnishing.

"So, what decided to make you change your minds like that, girls?" Twilight asked, while also trying to fight back a swoon with how adorable the gesture was of Aria sending a kiss to Sonata.

"Guess it's the fact that we've been taken out of those old personalities, for one." Aria, fist-pumping with Sonata's catch a success turned back to Twilight and coiled her fingers from her right hand over the gaps in her left hand. "When we were teenagers with singing powers, we kinda lost ourselves in the thrill of singing to eat bad vibes. But now that I feel super giddy as a kiddy, all that seems to have just gone."

"Giddy as a kiddy? If Rainbow Dash were here, she'd probably have something to say about that." Fluttershy rolled her eyes as she reached over to the vegetables corner of the fridge and filled her own chocolate taco with tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. She took one bite out of the concoction that she made and felt a surge rush across her tastebuds. An anomaly of three different sweetnesses and vegetables, correllating and dancing in her mouth. At first, she wanted to spit it out, but found that she couldn't as she chewed more and more; forming what she could only describe as mud in her mouth if it had at least some form of flavour to it.

"Yeah. The first try can be a bit of a bodyshock, especially when you take into consideration that the thing is three different chocolates for a base," said Sonata, munching away on her own. "But you'll learn to acclimate to it. Besides, if anything, it's an adventure in and of itself to even be trying one of these tacos."

Fluttershy, after many chews of the taco eventually swallowed the gungy mass that she had made for herself, feeling a small shiver as the concoction sped down her throat, landing in her gullet. It was one of the most peculiar things that she had ever eaten in her life, and she had tasted some of Pinkie's chilli-chocolate confections. She was about to call out the culinary faux-pas, but when she saw Sonata enjoying the meal that she had made for herself, Fluttershy couldn't bring herself to say the words. Maybe it was the fact that Sonata wanted to change, or the fact that she was just now receiving independence from the past that she lived, but she could tell that she was on the road to recovery, and didn't want to damper it with a bad critique of her Triple Choco-tastic Tacos.

"You know, girls, I'm actually really glad that you've willing to give us a second chance." Sonata finished eating the taco that she had made, then went to the sink to clean her chocolate-stained hands. "After the Battle of the Bands, I thought that you'd never want to see us again and say that we're horrible people for doing this kind of stuff to you and your friends. But now... you're really beginning to open up to us and that just makes me one of the happiest little sirens in the world."

"Whatever happened in the past happened. We can't let that dictate who we are as people deep down. Sunset never let the past get the better of and take control of her when she moved forward with the Magic of Friendship, and now she's never been happier to have us as friends." Twilight clasped her hands together as well, looking into Aria's eyes as Sonata came over to her side as Fluttershy returned to Twilight's. "If you girls really are sorry and really want to change, me and Fluttershy will do everything that we can to make sure that the two of you get reintegrated into society as people; instead of spending the rest of your lives dehumanised by the rest of the Rainbooms.

"Well... truth be told, we could really use a friend, right now." Sonata widened her eyes as she fluttered her lashes. "Things have been a bit... rough without our powers. Kinda weird for us to say now that we actually have our crystals back, but we could use some friends to help sort our lives out for real this time. No having to sing people down to get our way, but to do it with our own hands and legs.

"I mean, yeah, it's a cool little party trick to have, but it kinda gets old after all this time. I kinda want to live like a human now that we've been shown just how mortal we are." Aria looked down at her hands, wriggling them around on the table. "If we're gonna be stuck here with no way back home, we might as well get used to it. And if humans don't use magic to get their ways, that's a step we're gonna take together."

"I promise, girls. With the two of us fighting your corner, you won't have to worry about the other girls saying mean and nasty things to you anymore." Fluttershy reached out for Sonata and Aria, extending her hand out as a gesture of peace. "Friends?"

Sonata and Aria looked at the hand for a few moments, causing the smile on Fluttershy's face to falter for an instance. Then, Sonata decided to grab Sonata's hand and shake it. "Friends," she said.

"Friends," Aria added, giving Fluttershy her own handshake.

"Guess that settles it then." Twilight pushed her glasses to her eyes once more, walked around the table, and wrapped her arms around the girls. Fluttershy quickly joined her, and soon, the two of them fell into a deep cuddle with Sonata and Aria, closing their eyes as they cocooned their new friends in their adoration; not earned from any twisted songs of any kind.

Aria and Sonata fell into the cuddle, letting all of their worries about the other girls melt like butter. Though they had only now become friends, they could tell that these two girls were going to be some of the best that they and ever had. Magic or no magic, the sirens cracked a smile as they turned around and returned the hug to their generous guests. It was the least that they could do to start the foundations of a new bond between them.

All Sales Final

Adagio and Sunset passed by many different buildings on the road before they finally arrived back at the shop where it all began. The shop where the Dazzlings had purchased their new gems and underwent their new changes. Adagio felt a tranquil fury wash over her as she looked into the shop once again. She had gotten what she wanted, but the burden of it all outweighed the pleasure. All of her maturity, her leadership, stripped away by the man within those concrete walls.

"Sunset, I don't care if we have to drag this guy out kicking and screaming. I'm getting some retribution for this mess." Adagio gruffly glared back at Sunset over her shoulder.

"I never said that I was gonna stop you, Adagio." Sunset lifted her hands defensively.

"Oh, don't give me that. You know you were thinking it." Adagio rebutted. "Even if our powers are a little bit mismatched, you think we're still the same old sirens that we always were, pillaging the weak and feeding off of their hate for things. Well, sometimes, Sunset, if ya think it, it happens."

She's really starting to lose it. This personality swap thing must be tougher than it really is on her. Sunset stayed silent as she saw Adagio barge into the shop. I kinda feel bad for them. After all, they got their powers back, but Adagio's miserable. Heaven knows what the other two must be like...

Adagio didn't even take the time to look around the shop as she bellowed, "Hey, oldie! Your stupid gems got rid of my maturity! I want a refund right now!"

"Yeah... real mature of you, Adagio." Sunset facepalmed as she watched the fiery siren stomp her way up to the counter, where the same vendor from before stood still as calm as ever.

"Ohohoho! Well, if it isn't the siren girl from before." The man behind the counter gave a slimy chuckle. "How are you enjoying your little trinkets? Are they everything that you hoped that they would be?"

"Yeah, right. Thanks to you and your little con trick, I wound up with Aria Blaze's personality! The worst kind of personality that I could ever have!" Adagio bellowed, throwing her arms behind her. "I. Am. Pristine! Mature! Elegant! I'm not some grouchy fight club enthusiast that goes around getting blacklisted from everywhere because of her 'don't give a fuck' attitude and bitchy nature!"

"Or rather, you were." The sly salesman cracked a toothy grin at Adagio. "Think about it, Adagio Dazzle. For all of your high and mighty thoughts, you are nothing more than a queen bee deluded to think that power begets everything, when in reality, all that it leads to is a higher pedestal to fall off of."

"What?" Sunset Shimmer could tell that there was something off about this salesman from his tone of voice, but his jargon and hyperbole were something otherworldly. "Just... who are you?" Instinctively, she tightened her hands into fists, preparing herself for a conflict.

"Who am I? Why, I'm the one who saved the Dazzlings from themselves. Friend or foe hardly even matters to me, so long as I get to revel in my handiwork." Said the salesman, rapping his fingers on the table. "Thing is, those gemstones were not easy to come by. I had to sell an arm and a leg; quite literally, in order to get my hands on them. So don't think I'm going to have them back any time soon, little miss Sunshine. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata made their choices, so now they must live with them."

"Live with th—" Adagio couldn't even think of words anymore as steam shot out of her ears. That was the last straw for her. She lunged at the salesman, trying to flatten him with her force alone, only for him to step out of the way like a gentleman. "Just WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!" She screamed. "THIS IS COMPLETELY OUT OF LINE! IT'S OUR RIGHT TO GET REFUNDS!"

"Not in a no-refunds establishment. I reserve the right to refuse your refunds, miss Dazzle. You'll find that rule can work both ways for selling to and buying from others." He said as she squirmed back onto her feet. "Caveat Emptor, I believe is the saying?"

"Bullshit!" Adagio snarled, leaping for him again, only to fid hard shop floor as her reward.

"Hey. Don't blame me for your shortcomings and lack of insight to a heartstone, miss." He walked back over to Sunset Shimmer, seeing as how he wasn't going to get anymore than physical contact from his buyer. "It's all your fault for purchasing a cursed item from a crooked salesman. I'm not the guy at fault here. It's what you have that is."

"Enough!" Sunset barked. "Who. Are. You? We're not leaving until we get an answer."

"See? She's got more dignity and sense than you do," he chided towards Adagio, stepping out of the way again as she charged like a bull, colliding with a coatstand. Adagio was buried underneath coats as the man brushed himself down and introduced himself. "My name is Discord. And, as the name would imply, wherever I go, chaos is sure to follow. Oh, but this is only a side job, really. I'll be back home before long, tending to my own little world's problems."

"Side job? Own little world?" Sunset instinctively lowered her brows. "Equestria. I knew it. It's every time..."

"Yes. I see you're an avid peruser of the Equestrian arts yourself, miss." Discord chuckled to himself as he looked at Adagio clawing her way back out of the coats. "Yes, yes. I'm well aware of this fine young individual as well. A shame, really. Exiled from her home purely for singing. Surely, that's deemed fascist in some universal law, right?" He lifted his arms up. "Well, whatever the case, I'm sure that there was a reason for her banishment, as was the case with ehr two sisters, Aria and Sonata. I'm happy to give them back their powers, yes. But not in the way that they expect, want, or bother to change. All apart from Adagio here, who got quite wise for her own good." He folded his arms and tutted at her. "Tsk tsk, Adagio Dazzle of the Dazzlings. Did nobody ever tell you that it doesn't take magic to sing?"

"Discord. Look, I don't know what the hell is going on here, and I'm definitely not going to get anywhere with Adagio the way that she is right now." Sunset said, locking her arms around Adagio, pulling her into a bear hug that seemed more like a bear chokehold more than anything. She had to lean her head to avoid it being butted. "Just tell me how we can reverse this and this will all be over."

"There's no reversing this spell, I'm afraid. No way of reversing it at all. I've made extra-triple sure that there's no a single thing on this planet that can cause the spell to be reversed." Discord pushed his fingertips together; still a shrewd, oily, snake-like businessman to the end. "Not unless you all take your pendants off and destroy them. But, I've made a safeguard to prevent that from happening. That being that those gemstones really were, are, and always will be what you and your sisters wanted, miss Dazzle. Equestrian Magic, coiling around your lungs and vocal chords, enabling you to hypnotise and entrance the world with your melodic majesty!" He threw his arms out in jubilation.

He quickly got a punch in the face from Sunset, before being knocked flat out onto his back, with stars and swirls dancing above his head. "Psychopath..." She mumbled to herself, before dragging a stunned Adagio out of the building. "Come on, Adagio. We're not getting any answers from this wacko."

"Sunset... I didn't know that you had it in you," said Adagio. Not with any grouchiness or any of Aria's traits in her voice. At least, not for the most part. She spoke with admiration for the girl. "It's not like you to lose your cool like that and just deck people. I'm impressed."

"Guy's just looking for a reaction. Nothing more, nothing less. Well, I'd say that he got it alright. And he'll be sure to think twice before he pulls anything like that again." Sunset grumbled, her head still throbbing from all of the insanity that had just happened within the shop. "In any case, we know what we have to do to fix you and your friends. We've gotta get those pendants off and break them. No other way that you're gonna turn back to normal."

"Well... It's an awfully difficult choice for us to make." Adagio looked down at the gemstone on her choker. It was nice to have the warm, glowing sensation of Equestrian Magic back in her hands, but she had yet to use it. For all that she knew, it could have been another one of Discord's mischievious tricks. "Truth be told, I kinda just want to sing to make sure that old crook didn't botch that up as well. As for my sisters, they're too much in the land of dollies and fairies right now to want to take theirs off, knowing Aria with Sonata's mind and Sonata with mine."

"Yeah, you're right. Those two did seem inseparable the last time I saw them. As well as unhealthily obsessed with pink stuff. Ugh. That's going to cause eye strain just looking at them. Especially if they decide to redecorate your house."

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! Sonata and Aria do not get to TOUCH my room!" Adagio's temper rose again. "I spent a lot of time getting that place perfect. For them to wreck it with their grubby little hands and overbearing niceness and happiness is just... well... argh!" Adagio fumbled with her own words as she curled her hands around her body. "We've GOT to get them to get rid of the jewelry somehow!"

"Yeah. But how are we gonna be able to get up close and personal to your sisters in order for us to do it?" Sunset asked, tipping her hand.

"Remove their jewelry? Well that, I'm sure that we could get behind."

The two teens turned to see the source of the voice and found none other than the other Rainbooms. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, all standing their triumphantly like a group.

"Sounds like you've finally come to your senses, Adagio." Applejack folded her arms. "Ah'll be honest, I thought you were gonna be as stubborn as a family of mules about this whole pendant nonsense. But, ah guess I was just a bit too hasty in judgin' ya after everything that's happened to ya."

"I agree. I didn't think that you would have the gumption to change, given everything that's happened with you in the past and how much you coveted those gemstones." Rarity wandered over towards the glowing red gem and laid a single finger on it, feeling the energy coursing through it. "Still, if you really are willing to pack away this whole evil siren nonsense and try to make a change, then we'll be willing to give you and Sunset all of the aid that you require."

"So, how do we get started, Adagio?" Rainbow Dash asked. "We tear those gems off your sisters? We get on their good side and slip 'em off without them knowing? Anything that you want in order to fix this, we're down for it."

"First, we need to know just where Aria and Sonata are," said Sunset Shimmer. "Last I saw them, they were going with Twilight and Fluttershy back to their house, but I'm not entirely sure where it is. I mean, you girls really didn't tell me that you even had a house."

"What do you think we are? Homeless bums who thrive off of spare change and singing-magic?" Adagio gruffly and rudely joked. "I'll have you know that before all of that Battle of the Bands stuff, we got ourselves a rather nice house in the Clearsky district. And before any of you say it, yes, it is that impressive."

"I'll say. Clearsky is only where the richest of the rich in Canterlot live. If you can make it there, then you'll be on easy street for a good few decades!" Rarity's eyes glistened as a smile came onto her face. "I must say, I am awfully jealous of you and your sisters, Adagio. Sure, you might have been evil, but you had good taste in where to live."

"Don't mention it. Really. To anyone. The last thing I need is a bunch of peasants running down the gates and coming to pelt us with tomatoes for what happened at Canterlot High." Adagio rolled her eyes. "Now, come on. We're going to Clearsky together." Adagio threw a hand over her shoulder, leading the way down the road.

Once all of the remaining Rainbooms started to follow Adagio, Rarity couldn't help but pull Sunset aside and whisper into her ears. "Are you sure that you and Adagio are making the right choice here, Sunset? I'm all for stripping the Dazzlings of their powers again, I can't help but feel that this is going to be easier said than done."

"I know, Rarity. But we have to make sure that she follows through and that she doesn't decide to go rogue on us." Sunset whispered back, cupping her hand over Rarity's ears so that they wouldn't be disturbed. "Adagio is a very... odd individual. And thanks to that gemstone around her neck playing havoc with her personality, she's even more of a pain to deal with."

"I heard that, you wretch!" Adagio snapped back, severing their conversation. Seeing her Aria side show off, she tried to take another deep breath to recompose herself. "Anyways. I'm not going to betray you, girls. Even if I did want to run off and try to get Equestrian Magic to try and hurt you, I am not in the right state of mind to do it. Aria's a lot more 'jump-the-gun and go for the big kind of stuff' kind of character. I'm a lot more composed; mature; refined."

"Says the girl who tried to physically beat down Discord back there." Sunset deadpanned again.

"That guy was an asshole who had it coming. That's the one exception I'm making under the circumstances." Adagio dusted her knuckles off. "From now on, I will make sure that I am who I am. Someone who can appreciate the finer—" before she could finish, a car drove through a puddle beside her, drenching Adagio in water "—I'VE GOT YOUR LICENSE PLACE, DOUCHEBAG!"

"Real mature, Adagio..." Sunset repeated herself as she watched Adagio looking down at her waterlogged clothes.

"Tch! Whatever. It's done. I'm cool with it. I'm cool." She breathed again. "I will not let Aria Blaze's personality get to me. I am Adagio Dazzle. I an a grown-up! Not a little kid with an obsession for Hot Topic and gothic trash!"

"Oh dear..." Rarity just looked at how much Adagio had changed. She might not have seen the true Adagio, but just watching her own words battle with each other spelt two things out clear as day for her. Either she was a real loonatic who couldn't keep control of her two different emotions, or she had been dealt the worst possible hand by the worst possible people. "We'd better get this done fast. Heaven only knows what will happen if we leave this to fester..."

Changing for Better or for Worse

Meanwhile, back at the Dazzlings' house, Aria and Sonata were all sitting on a large couch watching TV. Or rather, they were watching cartoons. Twilight and Fluttershy could only watch as the two of them were completely lost in the animated world and all of its' dealings. Just how much were those crystals changing them? And was this all a change for the better? Or would it get even worse? Neither of them could tell, except for the merriment that was evident from both Aria and Sonata’s faces.

“Hey, uh, what kind of show is this?” Fluttershy asked, reaching over Twilight’s body to tug on Sonata’s leg. “Must be a pretty good one if you’re enjoying it.”

“Oh, it is, Fluttershy.” Sonata turned to Fluttershy and gave her a nod. “It’s this super-special show about donkeys in a magical world who work together as super-best friends to solve problems and make other creatures around them happy,” she said, pointing her thumb to the screen. “The show’s called My Little Donkey, by the way. In case you wanted to know the name.”

“This episode is called Buckwheat Bonanza. So far, the plot’s pretty solid,” Aria casually twisted her wrist. “It’s all about this boy donkey named Cracker Jack dealing with an issue at his family’s farm. Personally, Cracker Jack’s one of the more... average donkeys of this show. I was always more of a Jenny Jowles kind of girl myself. Girl’s smile could melt your heart.”

“But that’s all debatable. Personally, all of the donkeys have their highs and lows. But there are some nutty fanboys and fangirls online who decide that certain donkeys and characters are the best characters,” Sonata explained it to both Twilight and Fluttershy. “If I had to choose someone as my favourite... ooh, that is hard. Like, it really is.”

Sonata turned her attention to the screen where a certain green donkey with cyan eyes just kicked a tree, and in the process, managed to dislodge it from the ground and have it smash down onto a nearby fence. She couldn’t help but smile/wince at the sight. “Yep, that’s gonna come out of the bill. Oh, Samantha Saddles, I like your participation, but you really need to shake the clumsiness out of your system.”

Twilight was never one for the antics of cartoon characters. She thought that it had little use other than entertainment. After all, it was all just a fantasy; a fraudulent world that didn't exist. So what was the point in showing any major kind of investment in it? But, when she looked at how much the others seemed to enjoy it, could she really fault them for pledging themselves to the show and enjoying it for being what it was? After all, she never knew what everyone really liked and what their deeper, more secretive likes and interests were. And it wasn't in her mind to go snooping around other people's interests.

During one of the scenes of the show, Fluttershy got up from the couch and walked away, tugging on Twilight's shoulder as a motion to come and follow her. Twilight, without a word, wrested her buttocks from the couch and followed Fluttershy away from the TV and out the door to the foyer of the mansion.

"Twilight? Is it wrong to say that I honestly prefer these new Dazzlings to the ones that we had back at Canterlot High?" Fluttershy asked, curling hair around her fingers. "I mean, they're completely docile, and they really seem like they're settling into their new personalities well."

"That is true, Fluttershy, but those pendants also give them the power to sing and siphon hatred again. They might look innocent, but looks don't mean everything." Twilight pushed her glasses closer to her face. "Still..." Her eyes shifted back to that room. "I do have to admit that it is rather pleasant to see that they're kept busy by their little fun and games."

"Mmm. I have to admit, it is rather pleasant." Fluttershy gave a little nod as she clasped her hands together. "Sometimes, people are only really evil when they're doing evil things. But the rest of the time? They could be completely normal, down-to-earth people with a totally different life to live. I mean, look at us, Twilight. We're simple teenage girls at a high school together when the forces of magic aren't ripping this world a new one. The only real time we're heroes is when disaster strikes. What about the rest of it?"

"It's... kinda different when you put the morality of good people into the equation, Fluttershy," Twilight couldn't help but lift her hand at that. "Forgive me for sounding a bit biased on this, but I think the good people shouldn't really be thought too much about at times. If they truly are good and honest, have nothing to hide, no ulterior motives, and are generally too good to even think about committing evil deeds, then we shouldn't really have anything to worry about."

"But not all of us can be good all the time. In fact, a lot of people can start out good, but then turn bad. Or in most of our cases, the opposite." Fluttershy pointed a finger at Twilight's chest. "You came from Crystal Prep along with those five other girls. You were a reclusive scientist who was twisted and moulded by some bad people. But then we came along and you completely changed your tune when all was said and done. So who's to say that the Dazzlings aren't on the straight and narrow? Or at the very least, starting to find out that they're on the right track?"

"Aria and Sonata seem it, but I don't think I can say the same about the third. Adagio, was it?" Twilight turned her back to Fluttershy and locked her gaze on the front door. "The one with the larger hair. She still seems like she's got something to hide, or something about her new personality that's not right. The other two seem to have absorbed most of the other half's traits, but Adagio still seems like she's got some screws loose."

"Well, it's just because she got all of Aria's meanness while keeping all of her..." Fluttershy trailed off there as she tried to remember the rest. "Uh, Twilight?"

"What is it, Fluttershy?" Twilight glimpsed back at her friend.

"Um, actually... never mind." Fluttershy just shook her head. Twilight wasn't there for the Battle of the Bands. Well, she was. But rather, that was the Twilight from Equestria; not the one from this world. "You wouldn't be able to answer that question."

"Still, there's something about these sirens that just intrigues me. Magic fuelled by emotions, with gems that not only store their power, but allow them to unleash it upon others so that they can siphon off of them. A loop of power as it were." Twilight walked over towards the staircase, brushing her hands across the bannisters at the feet of the marble steps. "I sorta wanna take one of those gems off of their necks right now, bring it home, and then see what data I can pull from them. But at the same time, it would feel like I'm ripping out their literal hearts and performing surgery on it, and I don't wanna seem like this mad doctor kind of person. At least... not unless I feel like one."

"I'm sure you'll have a day to find out what the sirens can do, Twilight. But right now, we should just try our best to support Aria and Sonata as best as we can." Fluttershy twiddled her fingers together. "If we can't change all three of them, then the best we can do is try to help most of them out."

"True dat. The majority has more influence than the minority. And if we can't sway Adagio over, then at the very least, we've managed to get Aria and Sonata over to the side of good." Twilight gave a nod. "As time goes on, we can help them start to learn how to be really good people. And, if we can manage to get the other girls to help, that'll help to make the process much smoother and more natural. Now, how do we do it?"

"We've made a good start so far, but I'm not sure how we can handle the rest. Especially given how powerful they really are." Fluttershy started to curl up. She had dealt with people who had been using magic before, but none who still had their magic after the fact. Surely, the other her wouldn't have had this much of an issue, but this was the real her; the human her, who was dealing with two sirens who had magical powers still on hand and that they could unleash at any time. "If the sirens decide that they've had enough of playing the good girl role, they could just turn back. They have those pendants. It's all down to them whether or not they bend people over to their side with those hypnotic songs."

"If, Fluttershy. If. That's the key word there," Twilight interjected. "We can influence them not to take that road again. They invited us. And so far, they've been pretty good to us. We've been good to them back, creating a mutual trust between us. We can use that to our advantage."

"Hey, Twilight? Fluttershy? You wanna stay for dinner?" Sonata called as she poked her head out of the door, causing both Twilight and Fluttershy to jump and nearly fall over each other. "I think you girls could use some pretty good eats. I'm making some of my classic super-duper savoury-flavoury tacos! That's the name of the recipe, not just the way I'm explaining it."

"Uh, sure." Twilight just rolled her thumbs around. "Why don't you get started, Sonata?"

"Okie-dokie-artichokey!" Sonata burst out of the living room and sped into the kitchen. Shortly after, she came back out and locked her gazes with Twilight and Fluttershy again. "Got any dietary requirements? Any of you vegetarians? Or do you both like meat? And most importantly, are any of you allergic?" She pushed her arms out and said. "Just making absolutely sure. I don't wanna be responsible if my tacos end up getting one of you put into the hospital. Nobody deserves death by taco, let me tell you that."

"I don't have anything against meat, but I'm still not a fan of it." Fluttershy sighed. "So, a vegetable taco would be good, Sonata."

"Got it." Sonata pointed at Fluttershy and nodded. "And you, Twilight?"

"I don't need anything taken out." Twilight shook her head. "I'm not allergic to anything, Sonata."

"Right. So one full taco and one veg one. Sounds like a plan. I'll be sure to let you girls know when it's ready." She clicked her fingers and slunk back into the kitchen to start the preparation for her taco-based feast.

Twilight and Fluttershy spent that moment to look into each other's eyes. Not another word needed to be said. They knew pretty well that Sonata was pretty much swayed over. From the way they could tell she had been saying those words, to her willingness to share her creations with them and that she was listening to what they were saying and taking it into account was enough of a foothold for her to start walking down the road to reformation. One down, at least one to go. Now, they just needed to find a way to get to Aria's good side and start working from there.

All of a sudden, the front door opened and Adagio came striding back through it, along with her menagerie of Rainbooms that had all agreed to help her out. Sunset, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie, and Applejack were all there with her. They all took one look at Twilight and Fluttershy, who just gazed back at them blankly.

"Oh! Twilight, Fluttershy. You're here." Sunset took the initiative and rejoined her friends. "So. How have Aria and Sonata been treating you?"

"It's been going good so far, Sunset." Twilight finally managed to shape her face into some form of emotion as she put a semi-smile on it. "They seem perfectly fine now that those crystals are warping their minds and fusing their emotional states."

"In fact, as a gesture of goodwill, Sonata's in the kitchen making us some tacos," Fluttershy added with a raised finger. "She seems like she's really starting to change."

"That doesn't surprise me in the slightest. For all you could have told me, Sonata's finally turned back to normal." Adagio flexed her fingers. "Sonata's always had an affinity for those ghastly meat-stuffed shells. Ever since we got here and before this whole Canterlot High nonsense, we can't seem to get her to shut up unless we stuff those nightmares down her throat. How she lives off of those, I will never understand."

"I take it from the way you're wording it that you're not really changing for the better, Adagio." Twilight had picked up on her cadences and the way that she had been wording it. Not that she was an expert in vocal studies, but she could tell what someone meant by the way they were saying it.

"If anything, this little piece of shit around my neck makes me even worse. Sure, I've got all the powers of a siren, but I'm turning into a mess up there. In the area where I'm SUPPOSED to be refined and mature." Adagio pointed to her head, specifically the part of it where her brain resided. "Instead, I get stuck with all of Aria's thoughts and feelings and I feel that if I stay this way for one more day, I'm gonna end up wanting to shop at Hot Topic. I'm not setting foot in that place even if you paid me all the money and magic I could ever want."

"We've been talking with Adagio and she says that she wants to finally get rid of that little gemstone around her neck. But she can't exactly do it unless her sisters also decide to get rid of theirs," said Sunset. "We can't exactly take the gems off ourselves, as it has to be strictly the wearers who dislodge them."

"We discussed magic along the way, but Dagi also said that was a no-go zone," Pinkie blurted out. "Which is kinda weird when you think about it, since magic is what allows them to use their powers, but magic is also what we use for our powers, so logically, some kind of magic should be able to short out the other magic. It did before, so I'm not crazy when I say this, right?"

"First of all, don't call me Dagi ever again. It's Adagio. A. Da. Gi. O. Are you not aware of the proper music terminology, Pinkie Pie?" Adagio asked, casting a glare into Pinkie's eyes. She just kept that little innocent grin up during the stare, which caused Adagio to let out an exasperated groan and turn away. "Of course. Always too focused on candy, cake, unicorns, and overly pink messes rather than intellectual things. How you're the drummer of their band is beyond me..."

"Anyways. Before we have some kind of major breakdown here, we need to talk about a plan, Sunset." Rainbow Dash pushed her way through Adagio and Pinkie before either of them could say something back to each other. "We need to find out how we can get those pendants off of Aria and Sonata, as well as how to make sure that the magic inside of 'em can't hurt anyone afterwards. Pretty sure that if we leave siren jewels floating around, someone's gonna come along and use them for all kinds of nasty business."

"As much as I do want to take their gems for myself so that I could add them to the collection, I don't think my family's collection covers magically-enhanced gems filled with siren magic. Let alone the kind of magic that makes people hate each other." Rarity idly waved her hand horizontally, slicing the air with her splayed fingers.

"Reckon we should just take 'em and smash em. Not just add 'em to your little pile of jewels, Rarity." Applejack, bemused, lowered her brows.

"Still, it's just not right to destroy antiquated stones; even if they are magical." As Rarity said that, she blinked, having remembered that was the whole point of their skirmish with the Dazzlings the last time. "Okay, that's a bad example and it makes me sound like a hypocrite. What I meant to say is that we can't destroy them again. Who knows what could happen if that magic were to be let loose? Randomly infecting the people of Canterlot City and beyond? It would be rampant chaos, disorder, confusion, and disarray..."

"It was crushed by the Magic of Friendship the last time, but if those gems shatter in a physical kind of way? We've got no clue what could happen," Sunset hijacked Rarity's explanation. "That's why we need to take them off of their necks and just hang onto them until we find out how to properly deal with them."

"But then, there's the problem." Adagio folded her arms and lifted a brow. Then, another loud crash from the living room caused her to lurch in shock. "Two problems, actually. One is that Aria's just made a mess because of her Sonata traits, and the second is Sonata's actually cooking food for you—okay, you know what, three! Just for the sake of it. Three problems." Adagio's arms flailed as she tried to make sense of things, with some of her hair sticking out on end and falling over her faced. "And problem number three is that those crystals react to us and only to us. They're kept in control because of the fact that we wear them. If other people start holding or wearing crystals like that, it's gonna cause trouble."

"And how do you know so much about these crystals, Adagio?" Twilight leaned in towards Adagio; the light from the chandelier in the foyer reflecting off of the lenses.

"I've only been alive for a few thousand years, princess. You think that a few thousand years isn't enough time for me and my sisters to study up on what our powers actually do and the full logistics of what these crystals are?" Adagio leaned to Twilight in kind and leered at her. "You'd be surprised what you can learn after having being alive for thousands of years. Not that humans ever get that privilege. Usually it's around eighty to a hundred, then they drop dead. Not saying that to demoralise you. Saying that because we actually saw it happen. Many times."

"Well... That makes things harder." Twilight looked down at her hands. "We can't take the crystals off the sirens' necks ourselves, and we can't make Aria and Sonata take them off unless they really want to take them off. They might be happy wearing the crystals rather than taking them off like Adagio. We can't keep them for ourselves for study either, as they could start reacting in an odd way. We also can't destroy them, for fear that the magic inside could spread out and cause pandemonium for the world." She had a few moments to process the whole information, then she bent down to her knees and let out a pained yell. The conundrum before her was taxing and all of the possible roads seemed to be blocked. She could tell that the other two sirens were happy to be their new selves, which would completely lock out every other scenario. And even if she did by some miracle find out what say and do to get Aria and Sonata to part with their gemstones, Twilight still couldn't find a way to handle the problem after that step. "Ngah! WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?!" Twilight got down onto her knees and groaned as she brushed her hands through her hair.

Author's Note

I'm back! I decided to make another chapter, due in part to the fact that I now have some ideas in place for how I'm going to progress this story and how I'm gonna be able to convey that in writing. What that progression is, I'm not gonna spoil just yet, because I wanna leave you all guessing, as many writers do.

In the meantime, I am sorry for leaving you for another month or so, but I had gotten onto ArchiveOfOurOwn and started writing Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction and it just decided to stick with me ever since. That being said, I'm back in the saddle again and ready to write with some more mismatched Dazzlings. And if you are excited for more future chapters, then let me know with the comments.

Though, the way I've been updating this, don't be surprised if you end up waiting for another long period of time after this chapter goes live for the next one.

But until next time, I will be seeing you. Until next time, boisengirls, buh-bye!

Adagio's Plan

Adagio Dazzle wasn't exactly the perfect human being. Or rather, she wasn't the perfect fish-horse that had been turned into a human being. But still, she had a plan to make sure that she and the others got rid of those cursed gemstones and got their proper selves back. What happened after the fact was still up in the air to her, but she didn't care about that. She didn't care about potentially losing her siren powers again. Adagio just needed to be herself again. The sooner that she got rid of the grouchy, mindless nature of Aria Blaze, the better.

"Twilight? Sunset? Could I have a few words with you?" She asked, as she noticed that the rest of the Rainbooms were busy humouring her two sisters with their pursuits. Or in short and snappier terms, they were making sure that they didn't do some stupid game that would have ended with the house in shambles.

"Sure thing, Adagio." Sunset nodded, then turned towards Twilight. "Come on, Twilight." She gently tugged at her arm and followed Adagio out of the kitchen and up the stairs leading to the mezzanine. Sunset had to wonder to herself exactly what Adagio was planning to try and fix her and her sisters. She knew that taking the crystals off would have caused them to switch back, but at the cost of their powers. And she knew that the sirens wouldn't have been able to thrive without their magic. In freeing them from their personality switch dilemma, she was re-mortalising them and making them all vulnerable once again. Was it really worth it to leave them high and dry again? Or was the morally right decision to leave them without powers, and hence without the ability to re-hypnotise people and leech off of their anger? Sunset had some time to weigh out the pros and cons of each option as the three of them made their way towards Adagio's room.

Once inside the room, Adagio made absolutely sure that nobody else was following them and closed the door behind her. Then, for added protection, she pulled out a key and shoved it into the lock, turning it to make sure that nobody else could get inside and eavesdrop on her plan. "Alright, girls. I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of having this stupid brat's personality stuck in my head; especially when it's causing me to think more and more like her with each passing second!"

"So, you've made your choice, then?" Sunset lifted a brow. "You're totally fine with going back to having no magic whatsoever?"

"Honestly, I don't really care about the magic anymore. I mean, they sold us on that, but I'm not even sure if it even works..." Adagio rolled her eyes. "I mean, I could try, but I don't want to turn the two of you into raging pig-voice girls; especially since you're completely agreeing with me that these things need to go."

"I know that it can be incredibly touch, Adagio. To go back on everything that you've ever believed in and wanted. Trust me, I was in the same place as you were," said Twilight, remembering well the days that she had spent at Crystal Prep and the dreams that she had once had. "Whatever happens after the fact, remember that we're all here for you and the other Dazzlings. We can be your friends; we can help you get what you want, so long as you let us help you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Despite Adagio's deadpan tone, she had honesty in her voice. She knew that without magic, she and the others would struggle to survive in a world like this. They had spent all of their lives feeding on the negativity of others and sociopathically manipulating them to handing life to them on a silver platter. And when that didn't work, they always relied on force to get the job done. But then, the Rainbooms had come along and changed that in more ways than one. From being humbled at Canterlot High's Battle of the Bands tournament to this dilemma with the swapped personalities that Adagio and the others had come under, it seemed like magic was more of a forlorn dream more than a want for Adagio.

"So, what's your plan, Adagio?" Twilight asked, pushing her glasses closer to her face. "How are you gonna convince Aria and Sonata to give up their gemstones as well?"

"Well, it's simple. First, we'll play along with whatever hair-brained activities they have planned. Then, when they're distracted, I'll go and find something similar to our gems," as she said this, Adagio tried to look around the room for something. She knew that there was going to be something in there for her to use to serve as a bait and switch item, but Sonata had been in this room with her mind. If things weren't in plain sight, then they would have most likely been stuffed into the closet and re-organised by Sonata, so she had no clue where things would have been. She just had to pray that her search wouldn't have been too time-consuming and attract Aria and Sonata towards her. "If I could ever find it, that is..." Adagio waltzed over towards the closet and opened it wide. Even looking at the changes that Sonata had made was enough to make her wince. "Oh, sweet lord, Sonata... See, this is why we should have still kept our rooms even with the personality switches."

Sunset couldn't help but snigger internally at Adagio's dilemma as she tried to make sense of the mess that Sonata had made of the closet. As Adagio tried to fix the changes that Sonata had made, the shelves collapsed; spilling the contents down onto Adagio's body. That was when the sniggering was replaced. A twisted expression of shock found its' way onto Sunset's face. She took a step forward to try and offer her hand to Adagio try and clean up the mess had been made, but Adagio just erupted out of the pile.

"NOT. ONE. WORD," Adagio scowled; with metaphorical fire in her eyes as she climbed out of the pile of closet items. "This is gonna take a while to clean up, girls. So for now, I think you two should go down and help the Rainbooms out with making sure that my sisters are kept in order."

"I... don't think we should just leave you like that, Adagio." Twilight walked forward and started to pull items out of the pile, laying them down on the bed. It gave Adagio some room to get out and brush herself down. During which, Twilight had the time to rapidly assess the objects that had spilled and lay them out in an orderly fashion.

"Not to deny your help, ladies, but this is all my personal collection of human items. The last thing I need is for someone to manhandle my museum," Adagio glared backwards at Sunset and Twilight. "That is a term you use, right? Manhandling? Sounds so weird. So... human." She scoffed, sticking her tongue out as she went back to her work.

"And you're saying there's a problem with humans?" Twilight lifted her own brow. "That's funny, considering you're a human yourself."

"Trust me, Princess Twilight, if this world wasn't so clammy about its' bodies, I would've been myself all the time. So would've Aria and Sonata. But sadly, this world doesn't like magical monsters from another world, so they turn every single one of them into a flabby meatsack like this." Adagio didn't even bother to look back at the others. She simply lifted her leg. "I mean look at this! LOOK AT IT! How is anyone supposed to live like this? Walking on these tree branch things? What I wouldn't give to trade this for my tail, so I could just fly everywhere..."

"Uh, they're called legs, Adagio. And not everything has to have them." Sunset folded her arms. "You come from Equestria, you know. So do I. You leeched off of ponies and they had legs. So what's with the leg discrimination?"

"Because pony legs were much more durable than human legs. Seriously. Compare the leg of an Equestria pony to these... twigs here. And you'll see straight away which is the better option," Adagio chided. "Even if I look like the sexiest woman alive, it doesn't help the fact that my legs and these... arm things are hideous. Just give me my siren tail and my two front hooves any day."

"Okay, okay. Let's not lose our cools over arms and legs. Let's just focus on the plan for now." Sunset put her hand on Adagio's shoulder. It caused her to stall for a second, but she still went on regardless, rummaging around the pile of assorted human items to try and find what she needed. "So, we just have to go down and handle your sisters."

"Yes." Adagio nodded. "You can go ahead and get started whenever you want, ladies. This might take a while." She waved them off with her back turned to them, which prompted Sunset and Twilight to turn towards the door, unlock it, and head out. "Leave the key on the side. I'll lock back up behind you."

Twilight and Sunset had some time to think between themselves as Adagio was left to her own devices in her room. They knew that the sirens had all come from Equestria, and that the customs and fundamentals of the human world a far cry from what they had been used to. How they managed to survive in this world purely on magic and not on anything else was still an enigma to all of them. Even when all this was said and done, would the sirens even fit in the human world? Or would they have been more comfortable back home in Equestria? Regardless of where they were, this would have left them high and dry with no magic to call their own if Adagio followed through with this idea of hers. But at the same time, if the other sirens caught wind of her plan to take away their powers and retrieve their normal minds, then that would have presented an entirely new can of worms for the three of them.

"Hey, Sunset? Are you sure that this is all a good idea?" Twilight finally asked, looking into her friend's eyes. "I mean, just leaving the sirens like this after we get their proper personalities back in the right bodies?"

"What makes you say that, Twilight?" Sunset asked.

"Well, it's just... I've been thinking about the sirens and how exactly they've survived in this world for so long." Twilight furrowed her chin with her fingers. "And what's gonna happen when this is all said and done. Like, when we get rid of their magic again, are they just gonna fall under? Or are we gonna take them back to Equestria, or what?"

"I mean, the very reason that they were exiled from Equestria in the first place was because of their magic being used to rip everyone's bonds apart so they could siphon their negativity to get stronger." Sunset didn't like the idea of leaving people powerless and helpless like this, but the sirens had posed a significant threat to her and her friends before with the Battle of the Bands. "But... I mean, they're struggling with this magic now that it's swapped their personalities. If we decide to take that away from them, it's not like they can start their reign of terror all over again. They won't have the power to take from others anymore."

"Still, Adagio feels really out of place here. So do Aria and Sonata. They're three sirens from your world, who've still got no clue how the human world even works. And if they've really been living off of the privileges of their siren magic, they're going to be a total mess when it comes to living like humans..." Twilight came down the stairs and watched as Aria and Sonata went about their business. Sonata was just finishing up the tacos while Aria was deep in conversation with the other Rainbooms.

"I know, Twilight. But that doesn't mean that we can't do our best to make sure that they have some kind of purpose outside of magic." Sunset pushed her fingertips together. She was no stranger to making friends out of enemies. She had done it many times by this point and turned even the most devoted people to the side of friendships. Sure, the sirens were sociopathic and had used others for their own benefit, but that didn't mean that Sunset was going to give up. But exactly what she would do to turn the sirens to the side of good was still up in the air. She had to make sure that this worked first before thinking about the next step. "Even from the beginning, when this whole magical personality swap happened, I could tell that they weren't exactly the same as before. Guess we'll just have to see what happens when this is all said and done."

Twilight just smiled and gave a subtle nod. "Alright, Sunset. I'll follow your lead after this is all over."

"Thanks, Twilight." Sunset gave a grin back to Twilight as she wandered into the kitchen. She could see Sonata stuffing the tacos that Twilight and Fluttershy had ordered into the oven, setting the time by turning the knob. As soon as she saw her and Twilight, she turned to face them.

"Oh! Twilight! And Sunset too! How are you doing?" Sonata greeted kindly. She wasn't like the other two sirens. Where Adagio was more focused on the duty more than anything and Aria was more of the usual grouch, she was more of an innocent soul dragged through the same road as her. And now that she had inherited Adagio's focused nature, she was able to nullify any claims that she was a ditzy klutz with a passion for a certain cooked shell with meat and other assorted ingredients inside. "Adagio and Aria treating you well? If not, I'm sorry. Dagi's gotten pretty rough recently."

"We're fine, Sonata." Sunset nodded, clasping her hands together. "What are you making?"

"Oh! These are the tacos that Twilight and Fluttershy were asking for when we were showing them around. If you want, I could always get you and your friends some." She took a quick glance back at the already-cooking tacos. "Might take a while, though."

"Oh, no. That's fine. I'm not exactly hungry at the moment. Plus, knowing Pinkie Pie, she probably brought along a bunch of food in her hair." Sunset smirked to herself, then she waltzed up to Sonata. "So, tell me, Sonata. How do you feel?"

"How do I feel? Well, I'm happy to be cooking tacos for my guests, I'm also glad to be able to do so much for myself, I've got a little bit of an excitement rush to be playing with Aria later on, and I'm quite eager to see what you and the other girls like to talk about when we all come together," said Sonata. "That a good answer for you?"

"Y-yeah." Sunset had to blink to take it all in. Sonata was saying the truth. Sunset could tell from the way that Sonata was eager to talk and how much detail her answers had. But was that her own mind talking, or was it the effect of the gemstone that was around her neck, surging Adagio's personality into her head?

"I don't know about you, but personally, I'm happy to be like this." Sonata gently tapped the gem with the tips of her fingers. "Whatever Dagi's complaining about now, that's not my fault or Aria's fault. She's just not used to having a new mind. But me and Aria? Totally different story." She tipped her hand.

"Al...right?" That didn't give Sunset much confidence in Adagio's plan. "And, what about living like a human? Are you finding that easy? Hard? Confusing?"

"Well, I have to admit, it was a little bit of a shock to the system not having to rely on magic, but I think it's safe to say that we're getting by." Sonata nodded. "I mean, yeah, humans are weird beyond belief, but I think they're also pretty grounded as well. I mean, it's not like humans can pull of wacky magical stuff like you and the other Rainbooms can, but that doesn't exactly mean they're boring as well." As she was saying that, she was examining Sunset from head to toe. "I'm still trying to figure out why there are tiny humans and big humans. Or... whatever they're called. I don't know about you, but I've never seen foals, fillies, and colts look so weird. Especially when they're so inconsistent with how they walk. Some of 'em can only crawl while others walk on two legs Don't get it."

Geez, she's still so clueless... Sunset thought to herself. Though, to be honest, she had expected such an answer from the sirens. They were, after all, creatures from Equestria. Much like how she was when she had started out in this human world, everything else was entirely new to them. Nothing would have made sense to begin with, but that was alright. It was perfectly fine to feel taken aback by everything new in a new place. Someday, Sunset would have to sit down with Sonata and teach her and the other sirens about the human world.

Sonata was about to speak again when the dinging sound of the oven took her by surprise. "Oh! That's you and Fluttershy's tacos, Twilight. Hang on." She opened the oven and retrieved the tacos from the oven, laying them down on the side. Already the smell of meat, shells, and cooked vegetables danced in the air. "A vegetable taco for Fluttershy and a regular for you, Twilight."

Twilight could only watch as Sonata laid down the plates on the table, then planted the tacos on top of them. Each on separate plates, but close together so that Twilight and Sunset could still sit together. Then, once it was all set and done, she went off to fetch Fluttershy from the living room. Now that she was alone with Sunset, Twilight shared a glance into her eyes. Sonata was happy to stay like this forever. What would she say about Adagio's plan? How would she feel having no magic and being stuck with her old self again? And what about Aria? She seemed to be happy like this as well, how would she feel if that all went away and she was stuck again with being an easy-to-anger siren with a flair for feisty behaviour? All of a sudden, Adagio's plan didn't sound like a good idea at all...

The Struggles Of Staying Mature

That evening, the sirens all sat around the table with the Rainbooms. Where they were once enemies to each other, now, they found themselves in this situation. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata would have found a way to get under their skin any other time, but this wasn't exactly the time to dredge up old war wounds; especially when none of their heads were in the right place.

The Rainbooms would have reciprotated their advances had they done any, but they too were surprisingly doclie towards the Sirens. Maybe it was because of their displaced personalities, maybe the fact that they really had no way of proving that the Dazzlings' mind-flipping magical crystals were actually powered by singing, or maybe it was something else entirely. But whatever the situation, none of the Rainbooms could find any reason to lock horns with the Dazzlings at that moment in time.

Now, there were plates full of food for each of the girls. Mostly just salads with the occasional taco for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Sonata didn't know much about the Rainbooms outside of the Battle of the Bands, but she could tell that most of them weren't meat-eaters. It was just a lucky coincidence to her that Applejack and Rainbow Dash were up to try some of her tacos.

The Rainbooms had been deep in thought as they ate away at the siren's food. Most of them had been thinking about how they were going to handle the Dazzlings now that they had pendants back; even if it didn't exactly give the same free reign over themselves as the last ones did. But if those jewels behaved anything like the old ones did, then the Dazzlings were still walking threats to the world whether or not they wanted to take revenge on the Rainbooms. The girls had been bracing themselves mentally for the day that the Dazzlings once more rose to the top through singing, but at the moment, not a single lyric had slipped from their mouths since they slipped the pendants on.

But that just raised more and more questions. Why exactly were the Dazzlings holding back on their singing if they had their magical singing powers back again? After all, the very purpose that the Dazzlings served was that they were sociopaths; people who influenced others for their own benefit. Yet with their powers back for the first time since they had been defeated, why exactly were they holding back on their singing if they had the power to sap the negativity of others? Especially when the Rainbooms were sitting right there in front of them? What benefit were they getting from choosing not to sing to them?

"So... how exactly have you been doing since we last saw each other?" Applejack was the first one to ask. She had to admit that small talk wasn't exactly one of her best suits when it came to dealing with former enemies that hadn't been reformed and still had a source of power to use as leverage. "And not since we first saw ya'll with them newfangled jewels. I mean before that? How were you living as... non-magical girls?"

"Oh, it was horrible, Applejack. We had absolutely nothing," said Sonata almost immediately before Applejack finished talking. "Like, you don't know how it feels to have this super-duper helpful magic that gets you everything you could ever want, only to have it taken away from you. And then when it turns out you don't have money—because that's totally a thing that has to exist by law for anyone to have a happy life in this world, let's just say that we did not take it that well."

"We were flat broke, basically. No way to get food, no way to get anything that we wanted. We were gonna die if we didn't find some way to get out of that little jam," Aria added. "Total. Bummer. Like, for realsies, girls. You don't know how hard it is to live like homeless bums. Like, you REALLY don't."

"I can't tell whether that's Old Aria talking or New Aria..." Adagio added as she looked into her sister's eyes. She could tell that they still had some small slivers of their old personalities deep down inside, fighting to get out as they battle with their new personalities. At least it hadn't totally scrambled their minds. "Still, they're not wrong, Rainbooms. Being a monster from Equestria marooned in a world full of these human creatures, needless to say, when the bubble popped, we were left high and dry with nothing to fall back on."

"Oh my... That sounds dreadful." Fluttershy coiled her hair around one of her fingers. She had never really bothered to check on the Dazzlings herself, mostly because she wanted to save herself the memories, but even she knew that they had been treated rather unfairly since the Battle of the Bands. Nothing to survive on but their resources, with no chance of getting a job due to no understanding of the world around them. That wasn't the way for anyone to live, not even sociopathic sirens like the Dazzlings. "And... you never thought about going back to Equestria? Not a bit?"

"Every. Single. Day." Adagio spoke up before any of them could. "Trust me, we fit in Equestria. Mostly because the rest of the people here are all the same. There's no difference, no individuality, no magic, no... anything!" She snarled, her hand grinding across the table. "It's so much easier when you're back in Equestria. When you're a flying fish-horse with magical singing powers. This place is no place for someone like us. It's a total backwater place."

"Backwater? Uh, you might not appreciate it, Adagio, but that backwater is our home. And I don't take kindly to my world being trash-talked." Rainbow Dash just folded her arms and shot a glare at Adagio.

"Sorry, girls. Aria's always got that grumpy, meanie-pants, fiery attitude. But she's really a nice girl when you get to know her better," said Sonata, despite talking about Adagio. "I'm kinda glad that I didn't get stuck with her meanie-geneies. Would've made being with me a total buzzkill."

"Keep talking, Sonata. It'll just make me all the more glad to get rid of this jerk's stuff when the plan comes together..." Adagio whispered under her breath so much that nobody could have made out what she was saying; not even Aria or Sonata.

"What was that, Dagi?" Aria asked, leaning over the table towards her.

Adagio jumped at the shock of her siren sister's inquisition. "U-uh, n-nothing! Absolutely nothing! Nothing at all. Yep, good ol-fashioned nothing on my mind." She lamely chuckled, trying to pass it off, but nobody knew that she was a convincing liar. "L-look. Why don't we just change the subject, alright? How are these tacos, Rainbooms?"

"You... seem awfully suspcious about something, Adagio. You can't exactly hide it from me, y'know." Sonata leaned over as well. "I've got your super-smarts. I've got your Adagio-ness. I can tell when you're lying. And you, my girl, are lying super-hard right about now."

"I'm not lying. If I were, I'd be trying my best to keep it a secret from you, now wouldn't I?" Adagio chided, putting her hips to her side. "Plus, a girl can't just say everything that she wants to everyone around her. She's gotta learn how to control herself. Keep some semblence of maturity." As she said that, she lifted her leg too fast and smashed it against the table. "GYAAHH! FUCK THIS GODDAMN, PIECE OF SHIT TABLE!" She hollered in anguish as she clutched her leg to try and get rid of the pain. "WHO THE FUCK MAKES THESE THINGS, ANYWAYS?! AND WHY DO WE NEED TO SIT AT THEM?!"

"Yep. There's the Aria side of her," Aria chuckled to herself as she sat upright once again. "You'll get used to it, girls. Promise."

"So... how exactly did you even get your powers in the first place?" Rarity decided to steer the talk in another direction in the hopes that it would get the sirens to calm down a tad. "You can't have just been born with them. Like any villain, it should have had a backstory that tugs at the heartstrings, followed by the wincing of pain as we see the villain truly become the bad guy. A grandiose spectacle that truly awakens the true heartlessness from within you, yet also makes you plead for the girls inside to come back!" At the end of her little tirade, she saw that everyone was staring at her. "What? That's how all the villains are made these days. Highly cliched if you ask me."

"Not if you do it right," Sonata winked.

"But no, that's not what you're gonna hear at all. We're hippocampuses. We're just naturally born with these singing powers," said Adagio bluntly. "Nothing special about us. We're just three sirens who are who we are and nothing else. So if we're born to do singing and make a bunch of people pissed off, then it's tough luck for them. But for us, it's just business. It's part of the cycle of life," she went on, recounting the story off by heart—or lack thereof. "A cycle that we had to do no whether we're these fleshy monkeys or our true forms. So, naturally, what you did to us at the Battle of the Bands was considered an act of Equestrian eco-terrorism. Not that I'm one to complain, though, as it was that jerk, Starswirl who threw us all here in the first place."

"Yeah, it's not really considered eco-terrorism, because that requires the two of you to be animals. And as it stands, you're walking, talking people, Dazzlings," Twilight pushed her glasses to her face.

"But we were born as horse-fishes. Hello? Earth to Princess? Anyone in there?" Adagio gruffly replied, then shook her head, scratching her temples hard. "Great, now I'm even insulting people like her! We need to fix this, FAST!"

"Fix this?" Sonata blinked. She had heard it all. "H-how do you mean that, Adagio?" She tilted her head.

"Yeah, Adagio? What is there to fix?" Aria added, cocking a brow up as all eyes turned towards Adagio now.

"Uh-oh..." Pinkie twiddled her fingers together as she slumped back into her chair. "I think the other two sirens know about Adagio's little secret."

"Shit. Now they know it too," Adagio muttered to herself. "Alright, Adagio. You can salvage this. You can play this off." Finally, she gathered herself and addressed Aria and Sonata. "Well, I've actually got some gemstones of my own right here that give us our singing powers, but make them even stronger." Adagio knew that her sisters were gullible enough to take any bait. She did, after all, have a hot head and a teen with a little kid's mind for accomplices. Fishing around her pockets, she finally pulled out her fake jewels. "Ta-da!"

"Oooohhhh..." Both Aria and Sonata chimed together as they watched the gems gleaming in the light of the ceiling light above. The aquamarine, amethyst, and topaz crystals did bear some similarities to the Dazzlings' original gemstones, but they were nowhere near as smooth and perfect as their first ones. Still, they were surprisingly attractive knock-offs. Now, it was all about the girls putting them on their necks and choosing to be rid of the other gems, and that would have been a job done for Adagio.

Come on, you two. Buy it... PLEASE. Let this nightmare finally be over. Adagio tried her best to smile as she laid the gems out in front of the table. "Yes. These gems are actually things that I found the other day while you were off palling around with the Rainbooms. With these, not only do we get our powers back, but we also get them much stronger than ever before! Every snack becomes a meal, every meal an all you can eat buffet! We'll be queens of the world!"

"Queens? For real?" Sonata's eyes were flashing with opportunity. She had always wanted to sing again since the day she had her powers ripped away from her. "I wanna try this out right now, don't you, Aria?"

"Yes I do, Sonata. Let's do it right now!" She and Sonata scooped up the gems and were eager to put them onto their collars when they noticed something.

Adagio was taking her time figuring out how to take the gemstone on her choker off. For all that she knew about her gemstones, she had no clue how to physically get rid of hers. She could have just taken the choker off, but that was all she had, and actually taking off a siren's gemstone that's implanted on the choker was a whole other can of worms in itself. Heck, she hadn't even tried it since she came to this world in the first place, so how she was supposed to change it for this new gemstone was beyond her.

"Hey, uh, Adagio? What's up?" Sonata asked as she watched Adagio fumbling around with her choker. "Aren'y you gonna put it on? You did say this would make us queens of the world, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did. I'm just trying to figure out how to get this damn other gem off. Not like these chokers were designed for multiple gems, you know..." She mumbled as she tried to just brute-force it and pull her gem off in the hopes that it would leave her bare. "Nngh... c'mon! Get off, you stupid piece of—"

"I think I'll go and give her a hand. If it's not too much trouble with you all, that is," said Sunset as she stood up from her seat and walked over to Adagio's side. This would give her the chance to leave with Adagio incognito and nobody would be the wiser.

"Eh, it's fine with me." Sonata shrugged.

"Me too," Aria did the same thing that Sonata did. "Anyone else wanna say no to that?"

The Rainbooms all chattered together a mumbled mix of words and shook their heads. None of them wanted to say anything that would have discouraged Sunset and Adagio's masterplan to get rid of the sirens' powers and—hopefully—fix their mind-swap dilemma.

"I think I'll go as well, just to make sure that Twilight and Adagio don't have too much trouble." Twilight also took the moment to stand up and go with Adagio and Sunset.

Together, the three teenagers—or rather, two teenagers and one Equestrian siren whose age was undetermined and undisclosed—made their way out of the kitchen, leaving their food behind. They all went up the stairs and back into Adagio's room, then Twilight and Sunset let Adagio sit down on the bed as they examined her choker to see if there was any mechanism or latch that could be used to take a siren's gem off.

"Hmm..." Twilight frisked the golden latch that held the gemstone in place. If only she had brought her magnifying glass, she could have easily found the place she needed to push in order to get the stone off. "This is a bit of a tricky one, Adagio. When you came to this new world, they made absolutely sure that your gems couldn't be taken off no matter what happened. These kinds of permanent chokers only really have things come off if the gem actually breaks."

"Great. That's just fucking great. So not only do I get stuck in this barren, forsaken world, but now it turns out that I can't actually take my gems off? Well, that's just gonna blow my plan straight out of the goddamn water now, isn't it?" She growled, slamming her hand into the bed. If it wasn't how Adagio really was, then Adagio would've had people believe that she had tourettes.

"Adagio, just calm down. Please, we're trying to help you out," Sunset pushed the air; a sign to tell people to chill out. "I know that you have Aria's abrasive attitude, but that's no reason to bite the hand that's feeding you. Do you want us to help you or not?"

Adagio let out another sigh, trying her best to take control of her old self. "Look, girls, I do appreciate the help. I really do. Don't ever think for a second that I don't. It's just that these stupid mind switches are taking control of us. We're not ourselves anymore. Sonata, who's usually a ditzy doofus is suddenly the mature, intelligent one out of us. Then there's Aria, who's way too bubbly and happy for her own good, and then you get me. The shafted siren of the three of us. I get nothing but a bad temper and a want to punch everything that I see that I don't like." She flopped onto the back of her bed, looking up at the ceiling. "God, is this how Aria lives her life, every single day? Because if it is, I think we need to find that girl something else to make her happy."

"Man..." Sunset looked at the mess that Adagio had become. Not long ago, she was the confident, headstrong leader of the Dazzlings who turned a musical showcase into an all-out civil war between the students. And now, she had Aria's mindset, meaning all of that was out of the window and replaced with a temper that could be stoked at any minute, with everyone around her suffering the consequences for it.

"Look, I don't know about you, but I actually want this to stay a secret from Aria and Sonata." Adagio finally sat up and looked the two girls in the eye. "They're so focused on being happy-go-lucky now with their new personalities, but I'm the only one that's getting the raw deal here. I get nothing out of this, and they magically get a free pass to start over? That's totally unfair, if you ask me." Adagio crossed her arms. "The way that I see it, we shouldn't have found those gems in the first place if it was gonna cause us this much trouble. We'd have been much better off without them."

"You real think that? After all the hard work you did trying to take everyone's negativity and become all-powerful?" Sunset asked for clarification.

"Of course I do. I might have Aria's mind, but that doesn't mean I'm all just some petty thug who prefers brawn over brain." Adagio slapped Sunset's hand away with the back of her own. "Anyways, yes. I'll remember all of this when it's said and done. As will the other two. And honestly, if this is the trouble of having this kind of magic, then I don't want any part of it. I'd rather just be a mortal; a flabby human monkey. Far better that than me having her mind."

"Wow, Adagio. That's... actually pretty brave of you. To go back on everything that you worked so hard for." Sunset couldn't help but feel somewhat proud of herself. She hadn't even needed to talk about the morality side of it all, but she could see that Adagio was really thinking for herself. Now, all that she needed to do was figure out how to handle the rest of it all and she could potentially reform the Dazzlings without even needing to start a whole friendship campaign with them. "Whatever you need help with, we'll do it, Adagio. For you."

"Both of us. All of us, rather. Together, we'll be able to see this through to the very end." Twilight held out her hand, as did Sunset Shimmer. "So, what do you say, Adagio Dazzle? Do you wanna change for the better?"

"I do, girls." Adagio was just talking about getting rid of that other mind bouncing around in her brain, but there was something else within her that she was feeling subconsciously. Maybe it had been all of the time that she had been working as a power-sapping siren who feeded off of emotions, but she definitely knew that kind of feeling. The kind of bubbly, fuzzy, cutesy kind of feeling that you get when you're a tyrant who sees another way. She took Twilight and Sunset's hands and stood back up proudly. "Now, come on. Let's go get our heads straight." She fist-pumped and walked out of the bedroom, with Twilight and Sunset close behind.

The Big Moment...

The Dazzlings were finally gathered together, and Adagio's plan was about to come to fruition. She was going to watch both Aria and Sonata cast off the gems that gave them their flipped personalities and hopefully fix all three of them, with the Rainbooms standing by as witnesses to make sure that nothing went wrong. All that she had to hope for was that both of her sisters were as thick-headed as they always were and that they'd just blindly accept these new jewels over their current ones.

Sunset Shimmer watched all of the Dazzlings getting ready to change back to normal. Even though she did feel some kind of guilt for forcing it on Aria and Sonata without their consent, she knew that if there was some way to control the Sirens and keep them from abusing their magic for their selfish privileges, then they wouldn't have another incident. But at the same time, Sunset barely even knew the Dazzlings outside of their personality and the warpath that they led against Canterlot High with their mutterings of musical warfare. Those kinds of people couldn't be trusted, at least not at the moment.

"You ready for this, Sonata?" Aria asked as she lifted her new gem, ready to make the change.

"Mmhmm! I'm ready!" Sonata nodded as she picked up her new 'replacement' gem as well.

C'mon... C'mon. Take the bait. Adagio watched in anticipation. This was what she had been waiting for. She just had to say nothing and let everything play out. However, just as the two sisters lifted their hands, they stopped. That was what sent a shiver down Adagio's spine. Had one of them figured out what was going on here?

"Hang on a second," Sonata said as she examined the gem all over. "How do you think it'd look on me? Should we get a mirror and find out?"

"Nah, I can see it already, Sonata." Aria just flashed Sonata a smile. But she was looking at the crystal on Sonata's neck rather than the one that was in her hands. "Whatever you wear, you'll always be a super-duper superstar to me."

"Thanks, Aria." Sonata gave an innocent grin, clasping her hands together. It had been a long time since she and her sisters had bonded over something like this; even if it was just her and Aria. A fuzzy feeling welled in her heart as she looked down at the gem once more. "Y'know, when you put it like that, why do we even need to change gems anyway? I'm really happy as it is."

"Me too. Ever since I put this gem on, I've been feeling the happiest I've been in forever!" Aria threw her arms into the air. "No more having to fight over our food, no more having to deal with the nasty things in my brain, no more discord between us. We're all happy like we are."

Adagio felt her entire body tense up. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Why were her sisters of all people picking now to get wise and sappy? Her hand tightened up into a fist and trembled silently.

"Wait. Are you sure that this is what you want?" Rarity was the first of the Rainbooms to speak to Aria and Sonata. "Don't you want to put these new crystals on and get some new power?"

"New power? Why would we want that? After all, we've got our gems back, don't we?" Aria made a frame around the current gem using her fingers. "We've got these things on, don't we? So why would we want some new ones?"

"Unless... you want us to wear these new crystals WITH the ones we've already got!" Sonata's face flashed bright with glee. "That's a wonderful idea, Rarity! Thanks for that!" And Sonata wasted no time in slipping her new gem on. But unfortunately, she didn't take the one that she was already wearing off; the last key part of the plan that Adagio had envisioned.

"That ain't exactly what she meant, girls..." Applejack watched as Aria put on her new gem with Sonata, but again, did not take off the gem that she was already wearing. Applejack tried as hard as she could to not pull her hat down over her face at the plan going pear-shaped. Now the girls had their powers and didn't want to get rid of them, completely unaware that this was all just a trick being played on them by Adagio.

"Well, now what do we do?" Pinkie whispered to Fluttershy. "The Sirens kept their sing-magic gems and now they won't even wanna get rid of them..."

"I know, Pinkie. I can see it too," Fluttershy replied in a whisper back to Pinkie. "This is bad. We should probably think of something else."

"So, what do you wanna do now, girls?" Sonata asked, looking around the house for something to do. "Do you wanna play some games? I've got a lot of toys and games that we can play with!"

"And I've got some great places where we can hang out too!" Aria added, completely unaware of Adagio, who had been sitting in the corner silently cursing herself. Her entire plan had been scuppered and Aria didn't even notice it.

"Ooh, can we go to that park and throw those balls into the baskets?" Sonata beamed from ear to ear. "I've always been wanting to play that game, and now we can, thanks to the Rainbooms!" She slid over to the other Rainbooms and pulled them into a wide hug, which caused all of the girls' faces to scrunch up in surprise.

"Yeah. We can totally say sorry for all the bad things that we did and have a fresh new start; make some friends, and we can all live happily ever after!" Aria joined in that hug, wrapping her arms around the girls' bodies. "And maybe they can even learn about our magic too since they've got some magic of their own to play with!"

"Y-y-y-know, maybe we've just misjudged the Dazzlings," Twilight was the next to speak up since she had no prior experience with the girls.

"What do you mean, Twilight?" Sunset asked as the hug ended and the girls were freed from Aria and Sonata's clutches.

"Let's say that they did cause some trouble at Canterlot High. This Battle of the Bands thing you keep going on about. And let's say that, for some reason, they did turn into some kind of demon girls with dark magic," Twilight pushed her glasses closer to her face. "But look at them now. They wouldn't hurt a fly, and they don't want to change back to the way that they were. Can we keep up the apprehension?"

"What do you mean?" Sunset lifted a brow.

"The Dazzlings might have done what they did and used their powers for evil. But that's all in the past. Look at them now, Sunset Shimmer," Twilight stretched her arm towards Aria and Sonata. "They don't want to do anything evil anymore. They just want to be who they are with these gems and enjoy life as it comes. Who are we to say no to that?"

"Twilight? I know that you're not really as caught up as the rest of us are, but the Dazzlings did cause a lot of people to get frustrated." Rainbow Dash folded her arms. "I mean, let's put it this way. These three girls play with emotions—"

"Played. Play-ed. They don't play with them now." Twilight quickly retorted with her arms crossed. "You and the other girls are being way too harsh and hard to forgive. Have they ever once caused people to fight because of their singing? And have you ever seen them sucking some kind of magic out of their bodies now that they have these new gems?"

The Rainbooms fell silent. Twilight Sparkle had cut through their prejudice and apprehension with a simple fact. Sure, the Sirens did have the powers, but they had never seen any real arguments or trouble arise in the city as of late; not any that they knew of. And if they did know anything about it, then surely, someone within their group would have noticed and let everyone else know of the situation. None of them had any words to say to counter Twilight's argument.

Adagio was aghast. This was far too sappy for her liking. Seeing her sisters as a lost cause, she just ripped the gemstone off of her neck and tossed it to the ground without anyone else noticing. If they wouldn't want to be rid of them, then at least she would cast off the very thing that had ruined her mind and be free of any burden or involvement. She slipped out of the house without saying goodbye to anyone or making any noise.

"As I figured. The Dazzlings were evil, but thanks to these new gems, they're turning over a new leaf; even if they didn't even know that they were changing their lives for the better," Twilight finally broke the silence between her and her fellow teenagers. "So, whatever prejudice you have towards the three of them, you need to drop it and give them a chance to shine as they are right now."

Again, silence fell between the girls. But this time, it was short-lived as Sonata finally plucked up courage and laid a hand on Twilight. "She's right. I don't want to be the same kind of person you think I am. Whatever happened in the past happened. We can't exactly keep your fires stoked. We've gotta just draw a line, wipe the slate clean, and just try to be friends." She knew that it was the intelligence and maturity of Adagio talking, but Sonata had adopted it as part of her mindset rather than borrow on what her sister would say. "Isn't that right, Aria?"

"Mmhmm." Aria gave a gentle nod. She had been feeling nothing but negative thoughts until that new crystal found her way into her life. Now, with a lot of that bitterness drained from her head, it was like she could finally think, without having to dread anything or judge her sisters. Aria was a changed siren.

"Look, whatever you think of us, we're sorry for what we did. Even if you hate us nonstop, we're not gonna hurt you or anyone else anymore." Sonata bowed in repentance at the Rainbooms. "That's not gonna stop us from trying to change who we are and start over. My only question now is, after all this is said and done, can you please forgive us?"

For the third time that encounter, silence fell between the group. But this time, the Rainbooms were deep in thought. Sonata's words were starting to burrow into their heads. For all that they knew, the Sirens were showing signs of change. Not a single one had been hostile towards them or wanted to try and scheme something against them. And since these gems had found their way onto the necks of the Dazzlings, there was something much different about them. Something... docile. None of them could put a finger on it, but there was something that was keeping them back and stopping them from going over the edge and trying to pick a fight with them.

At last, Pinkie Pie took a few steps forward and held Sonata's hand. "Of course, Sonata." Pinkie finally gave a genuine smile to Sonata. "After all, if we just keep up this whole meanie act towards you, then we're no better than any of the other jerks and jerkettes we've met."

"Jerkettes?" Applejack lifted a brow.

"A girl jerk. Y'know how mean guys are called jerks. It only makes sense to call mean girls jerkettes, right?" Pinkie replied with her usual cheery attitude as she turned back towards Applejack. "Anyway, we're not jerkettes, are we? We can make nice with the Dazzlings this time."

"I... suppose." Fluttershy was the next one to step forward as she deftly coiled her hand around Sonata's hand. "If the Dazzlings have changed, then we should change as well. Give them a second chance."

Rarity just sighed and walked forward. "Oh, what the heck? There's no harm in fighting this whenever Pinkie and Fluttershy feel so strongly about this. Not to mention, Twilight was very insightful." She also joined in with the others. "Now then, does anyone else want to change their tune? Metaphorically speaking, of course?"

"Fine, fine. Guess I'm down as well." Rainbow Dash finally shook her head and came over to the others. "But I'll still be watching you, y' know that?" She gave both Sirens a look, then dropped it shortly afterwards. "Nah, I'm just joking!" Rainbow Dash rubbed her fist against the skulls of both girls playfully. "But seriously, don't try and break your promise if you wanna change."

Applejack just watched as the other girls joined the Dazzlings and caved in as well. Scoffing to herself, she came over and said nothing. The others could tell from her stoic nature that she too was on board with this, but it would take some extra convincing to make her think that Aria and Sonata had changed for the better.

"See? Isn't that much better?" Twilight turned to Sunset, who was still fixated on the sight of the other girls siding with the Dazzlings. "We're managing to bridge the gap between us and we're making some new bonds. Isn't that what we always do, Sunset?"

"Y-yeah..." Sunset was still thinking about the future. For all that she knew, if the girls didn't get their emotions fixed, how long would it be before they were stuck with these new personalities forever? Moreso, Adagio? Adagio had been the most eager to change back, and now that the others were refusing to change back with her, it was breaking the plan that she had made. With all the fiery fury of Aria Blaze's old personality stewing in Adagio's head, it would be very hard for her to listen to reason or sense if this change was permanent. "I'm happy that we're able to bond with them and finally get all the weight off of our shoulders. I am. But..."

"But what?" Twilight tipped her head to the side. "I don't get what you're thinking about, Sunset."

Sunset tried to explain to Twilight, but she would rather not confuse her with those thoughts, especially since the Dazzlings were starting to settle into their new mindsets permanently. "N-never mind."

"Never mind?" Twilight came back over to Sunset's side and laid a hand on her shoulder. "Sunset, you can talk to me about it. If there's anything that you want to say, then just say it. There's nothing wrong with talking about your feelings."

Sunset let out a sigh. "Y-yeah. About that. If the girls do decide to stay like this forever, then what do we do? What're our plans to reintegrate the Sirens into modern society? And what do we do about Adagio? Seeing as how she's got all of Aria's old anger issues."

"Yeah. That could be a problem." Twilight put her hand to her chin and started to dwell on that aspect. She didn't know much of Aria's old personality, but the current Adagio that she knew was brash, hot-headed, and did not care about anything. That kind of mindset was dangerous for someone of her age to have. As she thought more about Adagio, she surveyed the room, only to find that the Siren wasn't even there. "H-hey. Where is Adagio anyway? Did anyone see her leave?"

Those words were enough to draw all of the Rainbooms' attention as well as Aria and Sonata's. They looked all around the room for Adagio, only to find that she was completely absent. Even looking out to the garden turned up no results, with nothing but a field of grass and some flowers growing by the walls.

"Hey, girls?" Aria had noticed something. She walked over to the pendant, squatted down, and snatched it up. "This is... Adagio's gem. But Adagio's nowhere to be seen."

"That's not good," replied Applejack.

"We need to find her! Who knows what kind of trouble she could be in!" Twilight exclaimed, dashing towards the door. "You girls come along as well! We need all the help that we can get!"

And with that, the Rainbooms all went out of the house and down the streets, with Aria and Sonata in tow. The nine teenagers all split up in different directions, all with the same goal in mind; to find Adagio Dazzle and bring her back to the others.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Adagio Dazzle was all alone. Nobody around to help her, no crystal around her neck, and no way to fix the damage that had been done to her. She had just about had enough of this whole mind-swap thing and wanted nothing more to do with it. And now that her sisters had been converted to the side of happy-go-lucky friendship, there was no point in trying to keep going.

"Useless, stupid, no-good..." Adagio muttered those words and many others underneath her breath as she trudged through the streets; feet stomping heavily on the ground with each step that she took. All of the hatred and coldness of Aria's mind was starting to run through her mind and everything else was being burned away. It wouldn't be long before she fully adopted Aria's anger and lost everything that made her who she was. "I should have never found those two in the first place. Well, I won't be making that mistake again. Not with them or with anyone."

Adagio walked off, not caring in the slightest where she went, who she met, or what she did from that point onward. Anything was better than trying to fix the issue that she had been burdened with. Even if it meant throwing away everything and everyone that she had worked so hard for.

"I don't need friends. I don't need any of it. And I certainly don't need any of this bullshit." Adagio scowled. "I don't need anything but myself. From this point on, I'm doing all of this by myself." And with those words, she trudged on, onto wherever the world took her.

A Runaway Adagio

It was a cold and bitter night in the streets of Canterlot City. The kind of days where people would have preferred to say in and curl up by the fire, reading a book, or perhaps watching television as family and friends. With the way that the wind was starting to kick up with its' bitter chill, the clouds that started to gather in an ominous fashion, and with how bleak the world looked on the outside, it was going to be a very harsh trip for anyone still brave enough to wander through the darkened streets. Even as the streetlights turned on and gave some illumination to the city, there wasn't enough to consolidate a cozy walk.

Something that Adagio was beginning to understand. She was still completely distraught that her sisters would have ever chosen to side with the Rainbooms and choose peace after all that they had done to the three of them. The very girls responsible for ruining their lives were giving them a change of heart; when her bitterness was still there and refusing to disappear. If anything, this little moment was hardening her heart even more and making her more adamant in the belief that she did not want to change and that she was better off alone. She no longer cared for Aria or Sonata, most likely because she was assimilating the traits of the former and losing all of the compassion and care of the latter.

Even as Adagio looked down at the gemstone around her neck; the very thing that gave her all of those negative traits, she still had hope that she had the power she needed to survive; to sway hearts and feast off of the negativity. Adagio did feel like she had a connection with the magic; even though she hadn't tried it out for herself just yet. She had been waiting for the right moment to strike; to let her song reach the public. But, much to her dismay, it didn't seem like there was anyone out there for her song to reach. She cursed herself even more and trudged through the darkness with her back hunched, arms folded, and with a scowl on her face.

"Why?" That was the question Adagio asked herself over and over again as the cold winds started to get sharper, lashing against her arms and legs. "Why would my own sisters turn against me and side with those Rainbrats? What have those buffoons ever done for us?" She was trying her very best to try and keep what was left of her psyche intact, but Adagio felt like she was losing more of herself with each passing second. "What good is friendship? What good are those brats? What good is any kind of happiness? All that it does is waste time, effort, money, resources, and emotions. You can't win people over with love and compassion. At least... not for us. All that I know is that only the strong survive. And to be strong, you've gotta get mean. That's how the Dazzlings have worked, that's how we'll continue to work, and I won't have those punks ruin that for us!"

As Adagio said that, a perfectly-timed lightning bolt followed, lighting up the sky in a brief, brilliant flash. The following noise rippled through the town; quickly hitting Adagio's ears. And if that wasn't enough, it started to rain, sending buckets upon buckets of rain tumbling down on top of her head. Adagio groaned a long and distraught groan as she felt the rain soak her. Her puffy hair was starting to droop down and hang behind her back like a cloak, her skinny jeans were starting to tighten up with the rain pounding down on them, and her spiked boots were already starting to come into contact with puddles that formed on the sidewalk she was stomping along.

"Friendship did nothing for us. It's certainly not gonna help them now." Adagio just grumbled as the rain continued to lather her and her body. "What right do the Rainbooms have to turn Aria and Sonata over to their side? Especially after they so brazenly took away our futures?" Adagio walked further into the city, not even bothering to look back at the world. "They did this. It's all their fault. It'll never stop being their fault. And no matter how much they want to preach about their stupid little friendship ideology, the less I want to do with them and their world!" She started to sprint; hitting every single puddle in her path as she ran; sloshing up water all around her.

"Adagio? Where are you?" Pinkie Pie called through the stormy night as she and the other Rainbooms stuck together, looking high and low for any sign of where Adagio could be. Sadly, the rain wasn't doing them any favors and the gloomy atmosphere made it a challenge for the girls to make out any sign of the missing Dazzling. Even Aria and Sonata, who had come along for the journey, couldn't distinguish Adagio. "C'mon, girl! Say something! This rain isn't anything compared to you! You're better than rain! You hear that, rain?! Adagio's much better than you'll ever be!" Pinkie's cries to find Adagio quickly melded into a rant at the stormy skies above as she jabbed a bent finger towards the sky, to which another lightning bolt illuminated it, causing her to jump backward in shock. "Okay, okay! I take it back! You're on the same level as Adagio! I'm sorry!" She comically twisted back at how menacing the lightning was to her.

"Oh, this is simply atrocious!" Rarity exclaimed as she and the other girls pushed on through the murky night. "Not only am I getting horribly soaked by this appalling rain, but Adagio's also so adamant in refusing to change! Is there no form of kindness in that heart of hers?"

"Now, don't be silly, Rarity. There's always some kind of love deep down in someone. It's just... in Adagio's case, that love's been buried under layers and layers of hatred. Hatred for us, for friendship, and for anything other than the way she likes best." Sunset sighed. She knew all too well who Adagio Dazzle was and how strict she was in her beliefs. "I just wish that there was a way to get through to her, but with the way that she's been acting and how she just abandoned the rest of us, it's gonna take an awful lot for her to change her tune."

"Please tell me ya didn't mean that as a pun with the whole 'tune' thing, Sunset." Applejack just let a groan escape her lips as she held her hat close to her chest. "In any case, you might be right, and ya might not. But we ain't gonna learn the truth unless we find Adagio. And just thinkin' about it ain't gonna do much."

"Besides, this city's pretty big. We're not gonna find Adagio fast if we just keep on thinking about it. We should just throw caution to the wind and go as fast as possible!" Rainbow Dash said, clutching the geode around her neck, tapping into her powers. She grew her wings, ears, hair extension, and tail. Seconds later, she rushed off as fast as she could, leaving a rainbow contrail in her wake.

"She does have the right idea, but... something tells me that words aren't going to be enough when it comes to Adagio." Fluttershy's hands were clamped together as she thought more and more from her history with Adagio. "I know that she's got her anger towards us. And she's got every right to be angry with us. We did end up stripping her of her magic and leaving her and her sisters struggling to survive. It's like abandoning a dog; even when that dog's really aggressive and likes to bite people a lot." She blinked as the other Rainbooms just gave her glances with raised eyebrows. "What? It's true, though. Some dogs get so aggressive that they literally can't be homed, so people would much rather throw them out than give them a chance. It's kind of the same to what we did with the Dazzlings."

"Yeah, but in that case, Sonata and Aria decided to have a change of heart. For Adagio, she's still got her heart encased in ice." Rarity laid a hand on Fluttershy's shoulder and walked with her. "Those with frosty hearts won't ever have them thawed unless someone else warms them up themselves. Cruelty doesn't turn into kindness on its' own. It needs a little push in the right direction."

"Well said, Rarity." Twilight nodded. "And as long as Adagio's heart's frozen, we just need to do everything we can to unfreeze it. And if that doesn't work, then... I don't know what else to say. We've never actually given up on trying to make a friendship before."

"That's why we're not giving up, then." Sunset fist-pumped. "I understand Adagio's anger and she's got every single right in the world to be angry with us, but that doesn't mean she's beyond saving. It just means we've gotta try extra hard to break off that crusty part of her heart and get to the real heart she has deep inside." She looked back to the other girls and felt much calmer from looking at them. "Besides, we've not lost a friendship yet, right? We're just a little late to this one."

"Right." The Rainbooms all nodded in unison with another.

And just like that, Rainbow Dash reappeared before the girls, breathing heavily as her wings and hair drooped downward. "Okay... I've searched this ENTIRE city three times over and Adagio's still nowhere! Where's this girl hiding?!" She groaned, putting her hands to her temples and rubbing them vigorously. "She's as slippery as an eel..."

"Which is ironic, considering that she's been depicted as a hippocampus." Twilight put her fingers to her chin.

"A hippo what now?" Applejack cocked a brow.

"A hippocampus. A half-horse, half-fish creature that existed in Greek Mythology. It was reported that these fish-horse hybrids were responsible for pulling Poseidon's chariot across the ocean," Twilight explained. "Though, the term also refers to a part of the human brain; specifically in the temporal lobe. It's said to have the ability to aid with the brain's functions of memory of all kinds and—"

"WE GET IT, TWILIGHT!" Rainbow Dash slapped Twilight's mouth shut. "Half-fish, half-horse! That's all you needed to say! You don't forget a monster like that any time soon..."

"Right, right. Sorry. It's just that when you mentioned the Dazzlings' first encounter with the Rainbooms, I couldn't help but get all excited." Twilight blushed at each cheek. "I mean, an actual hippocampus. Here. Three of them, in fact. It's the product of pure research!" It was then that she noticed Aria and Sonata behind her and that blush got even wider. "N-n-n-not that I'd want to experiment on you two! Just... never mind." Twilight just hung her head in embarrassment.

"Get a hold of yerself, girl." Applejack said, helping Twilight stand back up normally. "Look, whatever happened happened. Ain't no point in beatin' yerself over missing out. Besides, we've got bigger fish to fry." It was then that Applejack realized the pun that she herself had made and made a facepalm. "Consarn it..." She shook her head. "Anyways, we're getting off-topic here. We need to find Adagio. And fast."

"But this town's super-duper-gigantic! And with how Adagio's been running, it's not like we're gonna find her that easily!" Pinkie flailed her arms around. "I mean, for all we know, she could have ended up running out of the city entirely and gone off to greater pastures, or heck, she could've found the portal back to Equestria!"

"That's assuming she knows what it is and where it takes her." Sunset said, pulling Pinkie's arms back down to her side. "Relax, Pinkie. Adagio can't have gone very far. At least, not as far as you think she could've gone."

"We just need to redouble our efforts and make sure that we don't lose hope. The easiest way to lose someone who's already lost is to abandon the search." Twilight pushed her glasses closer to her face, and then wiped the raindrops off of them so that she could see better. "In any case, Adagio's still here. I know she is. Now, let's go."

And without another word, the Rainbooms continued their search for Adagio, calling out her name as they all wandered through the rainy, horrid night through the town. Aria and Sonata also called out for their sister, as worried as they could have sounded. Together, the ten girls did all that they could and searched every single road and street in the town, calling Adagio's name over and over again in the hopes that they could find her, but to no avail.

Adagio, on the other hand, found herself in the middle of the city itself, underneath looming skyscrapers. She looked up to the skies above and watched as the rain came tumbling down on her, like a shower set to the cold side. As she looked towards the clouds, Adagio thought back on everything she had been through. Now that she had cut ties with her sisters and became a lone wolf, she realized that she had nowhere to go. Not a soul in the world was going to look out for her. And as far as she was aware, it was painful to associate herself with anyone, because whenever she opened her heart up to others, they just tore it straight out of her by doing things she didn't like, or she found herself on the brunt of some girls' magical rainbow laser beam powers and was knocked off of her high horse right back to the start.

As everything Adagio knew came together, she just put her back against the walls of one of the skyscraper, slumped down, and sat on the soggy pavement, curling herself up as she accepted her fate. For everything that she had done and all the adventures she had been on, Adagio now knew the truth. She was miserable. She knew that misery wasn't something to get hung up on and instead served as the driving force for her and her sisters. To leech off of the negative emotions of the common man and fuel their own desire was a siren's nature, after all. It was something she knew from blood since the moment she was born: She was an instrument of discord; a bringer of hatred and unhappiness. And because of it, she didn't know any true form of happiness outside of the things she did with her sisters. And now, they had left her all alone to be with the same Rainbooms who had ruined their lives.

"Guess I deserve this, don't I?" Adagio sullenly told herself as the rain continued to fall all around her. "I was born to give hate. I'll die giving hate. Even now, the Rainbooms still hate me for everything that I did to them. And I still loathe them for how they left us to die." Adagio snorted, bitterly shaking her head. "Friendship is magic? What a phony-baloney piece of saccharine trash. If friendship's so wonderful, then what's it ever done for us? How am I ever supposed to think that friendship will do anything other than bringing me pain and suffering?"

She looked to the left, and then to the right. Nobody was there; nobody to see her in such a low position. "All their little friendship talk is just a way to cover up their own ego. They don't really believe in such a thing as being magical. They wouldn't know the first thing about magic if it walked up to their face, slapped the stuffing out of them, choked them, and then threw them to the ground like the pieces of wind-blown trash that they are!" Her pitch raised more and more until she sounded like a woman having a domestic falling out with her metaphysical husband. After which, Adagio just turned her head back to the ground. "Besides. I can't be changed. I took Aria's heart. Aria's heart was the most malicious and non-caring out of all three of us. She essentially got saved by this mind-swap junk. Meanwhile, I'm the one who's been left to rot. Because screw me, am I right? Nobody ever loves Adagio Dazzle honestly and truly. They just see my name, think I'm a music-lover, then my song does the rest. That's always how it's been, that's always how it will be."

Adagio, having spent enough time wallowing in her own pity, stood back up amidst the endlessly pouring rain and crashing thunder above her head. After all, if she was to face the future alone, then so be it. At least now, she didn't have anything holding her back. Without her traitorous sisters, Aria and Sonata weighing her down, she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, to whoever she wanted. In short, she had turned the Dazzlings from a band into a solo act. And a rather dangerous solo act at that.

Sure enough, she came to a bar that was full of people. Every single table was packed and all of the men and ladies were eating, drinking, and having a good time. There was even a tiny stage for performances from small-name artists and bands. A perfect opportunity arose for her to flex her powers and get back to the life that she once knew. Adagio walked into the bar, shaking off the rain and drying her boots as she walked over towards the performance stage. Once she got on, she came up to the microphone and tapped it gently.

"This next song's a little bit new but... I'm sure that you'll all be enraptured by it, as I once was when I was a little girl." Adagio took a deep breath, put her lips close to the microphone and began to sing. And sure enough, like the times before, it was pure gold. She sang a new tune completely alien to her, but still with the same effect that all of the rest of her songs had. And where Adagio sang as if she were mournful of the past, she was still doing it with a smile on her face. Besides, she might have lost her only sisters, but she knew what she was getting now.

Sure enough, it started. The song was beginning to get on people's nerves. Instead of directing their anger towards Adagio, they turned on each other like the wolves that they were. All of the joy and peace went out of the window as people started to bicker with others, even going so far as to start a bar fight; sweeping up all of the patrons involved. Every single hostile word that came out of their mouths, every single attack that they landed on the other bargoers, and all of the insinuating chaos was making them leak a dark, foggy, green mist; one that flew into her gemstone and disappeared into. A sight that Adagio loved more than anything. Still, she kept on singing; these people putty in her hands. The negative energy that she collected exhilarated her; relit her fire and gave her a purpose to keep on walking down this path.

As the fight continued that night, Adagio kept on singing even as she left the bar. She took the microphone with her and started walking towards the door; her song still echoing on the speakers of the bar. She was a songstress first and a sister to no-one. Adagio Dazzle had been reborn. She was a bringer of hate. She knew it well and all of the time that she had been wasting trying to think otherwise was more meals that she could have been scarfing down. Well, she wasn't going to make that mistake again. As she got to the door, she ate the last drops of negative energy that she could and dropped the microphone at the end of her song, then walked back out; feeling completely revived by her own music and the negativity it spread.

"Ah, that feels much better..." Adagio finally smiled as she walked back through the darkened night. "Who needs friendship anyways? I've got all that I could ever want right here on my neck. Would I ever want to give that up for anything? Not a chance." She put her hands together. "Now, I realize where I went wrong; why I lost to the Rainbooms in the first place. I was too merciful and I shared my food with my sisters. What a grave mistake that was. Well, I'm sure that with this mountain of negative energy all to myself, it won't be long before I'm back on my feet." An evil glare crossed her face. "Get ready, Rainbooms. Because Adagio Dazzle is going to be kicking all of your namby-pamby asses in no time..." As she started to laugh like a malicious witch, another lightning bolt accompanied her as she walked through the city; ready to make some more meals out of the populace...

A Trail Of Hatred

As the rain continued to fall and the wind continued to whip around the Rainbooms, Aria, and Sonata, the girls pushed on. They were going to find Adagio no matter how much it took out of them or whatever kind of hurdles came their way. For they knew that if Adagio could change her tune like the other sirens, then there would be hope that the three of them could finally end the bad blood that they had between Sunset and her friends. But all of that would amount to nothing if they couldn't find Adagio. Even now, Aria and Sonata were worried about what kind of things Adagio was getting up to. Aria especially, since all of her negative, unstable aspects had found themselves in Adagio's body. That kind of bitterness, she knew all too well.

"Adagio!" Sunset called out at the top of her voice over the sounds of the rain and thunder

"Adagio!" Aria and Sonata did the same, concerned about their missing sister from the bottom of their hearts. "Where are you?!"

The other Rainbooms were calling Adagio's name, but however much any of them tried and no matter how many directions they turned their voice and all of the streets that they peered down, Adagio was nowhere to be seen. Not even the slightest trace to show that she had been there existed. There was no calling card, no discarded photos, nothing. It was like she was a ghost.

"Oh, where in the heck is she?" Rainbow Dash groaned as she and the other girls took a break from shouting Adagio's name. "Canterlot City's not even a massive city! It's just a bunch of skyscrapers and mostly houses! Adagio can't have gotten that far! Surely!"

"You must remember, Rainbow Dash. Adagio Dazzle's been tainted by the hate of her sister. All of Aria Blaze's punk-like aspects have burrowed into her brain and now she's embracing it as part of herself." Rarity crossed her arms and turned to Rainbow Dash. "It's highly unlikely that she'll want to come out from our voices alone; moreso to apologise for running away. If any punk behaves like Aria would have, then Adagio will most likely hate our guts, say something hurtful towards us, then run away wishing that she never met any of us; even her own kin."

"That's not like Dagi at all..." Sonata also hung her head in worry, to which Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy wrapped their arms around her shoulders. "Adagio Dazzle used to be such a level-headed, in-control leader. At least... she used to be before we came to your school, girls." Sonata let out a sigh as she looked into the eyes of the Rainbooms. "I should know Adagio better than anybody; and not just because I've got her emotions and her mind, but because I've been with her and Aria for as long as I can remember."

"It's always been the three of us against the world. Never really knew a time other than it, I guess." Aria just nonchalantly splayed her hands and tipped them like they were hanging scales. The kind of hand gesture that someone with Sonata's personality would have. "Still, Dagi's got a lot of problems, but she's not the kind of person to let anger issues drag her down."

"That's what I'm worried about the most, girls." Sunset couldn't help but think about it herself. "You and Adagio did seem like a tightly-knit unit when you were back at our school. Something must've really broken down between the three of you when you had to leave like that. Bonds like that don't just break, y'know; especially if you've only known each other and nobody else."

"Well, basically, Sunset, you should know this by now because Adagio told you about it, but a Siren's only goal in Equestria is to feast off of negative emotions." Sonata walked forward and held Sunset's hands. "Sadness, doubts, and most importantly, anger. Those are all important to a Siren's diet. When we were back in Equestria, it was much more about the emotions than it was the food. Once we were thrown here and got these weird, human bodies, things started to change. But even then, we needed to eat our own stuff; not just the human world's dishes."

"Three of us got to work, singing to sway the people, and the rest is history. We came to your school, we sung, you stood against us, and you know the rest. Heck, you were there." Aria shrugged. "Now that we were cut off of that, Aria became much more restless and Adagio lost control more and more. Whereas Sonata just stayed the same. But now... Well, I don't know, to be honest. Adagio's lost all the control she had and she's got Aria's old anger and fury. That's gonna make her even more deadly than ever."

"And if those gemstones do give her the power to feed off of that anger again, then it's likely that Adagio, overwhelmed with anger, grief, and other negative emotions of her own is singing out of pure rage and despair." Twilight gulped. Though she pieced together the puzzle relatively quickly in her mind, the result was nothing happy for her or for the others. "If what you told me about the Battle of the Bands is true, girls, then Adagio's going to be far more powerful than ever if she's gone back to her old ways. In some cases, she might even be more powerful, since she's taking all that negative energy herself instead of dividing it between Aria and Sonata as well."

"Don't tell me we'd have ta fight that monster of hers again. It was already a challenge havin' ta nail it the first time." Applejack gruffly replied, lowering her hat. "Almost ended up losing it all back then, y'know. Even with the Twilight of Sunset's world, it was still an uphill battle having to sing our hearts out against the Sirens."

"I agree. The way that Adagio and her sisters behaved back then, it was almost like they came from the deepest pits of our nightmares. I was half-tempted to stop playing the tambourine and pinch myself to make sure that I wasn't dreaming..." Fluttershy said, pulling some of her drenched hair away from her face. "If Adagio's going solo with that kind of stuff and she's got more bad emotions, then she could gain enough magic to destroy the city. Or even... the entire world if she went that far.

"I wouldn't put it past her to go that far, Fluttershy. After all, Adagio's been ripped from her home, we tore away her powers, she's lost her own emotional state, and she's been left all alone." Sunset grimaced over the thought. "Adagio's lost everything. She's got nothing more to lose, so why would she care about whether or not this planet lives on? Poor girl... I really want to help her, but we also caused her to walk this path." Eventually, after a mental deliberation, Sunset turned towards Aria and Sonata. "What about you, Aria and Sonata? What do you think we should do to try and stop your sister?"

"You want us to come with a way to stop Adagio?" Sonata blinked, her eyes shrinking down slightly at the idea of them standing against Adagio. For all that Sonata and Aria knew, they had never once tried to oppose Adagio's judgement. Even back then, when they had their little spats and disagreements, they still knew their place in the trio. They were nothing more than subservient to Adagio and dependent on her to get things done. Now, what Sunset was asking them was to go back on all of that, to fight back against the very girl who had provided for them both; even if she had gone completely off of the rails.

"I know that it comes as a shock, but Adagio's gonna end up going completely buck wild if you don't help us out here, girls." Sunset offered a hand to both Aria and Sonata, who reluctantly curled away from it and looked down to their own hands. "If you don't want to help, then I can understand. We'll do what we can to fight back on our own, but since she's your own sister, I figured that you two would know how to handle her, or at least try to calm her down."

"It's grateful that you're choosing us, but... truth be told, I don't think there's any real way to stop another Siren." Aria's eyes shifted around and turned towards the sky. "Believe me when I say back in Equestria, we really did try to face off against Adagio more than a few times for the leadership role."

"Yeah. But every single time that we did, Adagio always managed to whup our tushies real good! She's unstoppable both in singing and in fighting!" Sonata added her voice to the conversation, still vividly remembering all of the bruises, bumps, and hits that she took as a Siren back in Equestria and all of the times that she and Aria tried to beat off Adagio. Even now, she was wincing and recoiling with every single attack on her body she could recall. "It didn't stop once we got here either. She was still just as powerful there as she was back home."

"Eventually, we stopped trying at all and learned our place." Aria hung her head. "If only we'd tried a little more; shown Adagio that it's not just her show; that we had every right to lead just as well as she did..."

"Well, I'm sure that you'll get that chance soon, girls." Sunset walked up to both Aria and Sonata and gave them both a comforting hug. "What happened in the past happened. What matters is the here and now. And you won't be alone in fighting your sister if it comes to that."

"Yeah. We're all here for you, girls. So if Adagio even tries to pull anything funny, the Magic of Friendship is totally gonna blast her into next year." Rainbow Dash gave a thumbs-up gesture. "Now, c'mon. Let's get back to our search. The faster that we find Adagio, the better."

"Y-y-you're right." Sonata sniffled, but wiped the tears from her eyes. "We've been moping around like this far too long. Adagio's probably getting more unhinged as we wait. We've gotta find her now." Making fists out of her hands, Sonata lowered her brows and got out of Sunset's hug. "Just you wait, Adagio. This time, we're ALL going to bring you back to your senses; not just the Rainbooms!" With a battle cry, Sonata ran down the streets, leaving the others in the dust.

"Wow... is she always like that?" Pinkie blinked, stunned at Sonata's newfound confidence and vigor.

The Rainbooms found their way into the city and towards a rather chilling sight. The sounds of arguing and discord could be heard from all around, as people voiced their disbelief and shared it physically. Fights had broken out, and there were broken shopfronts, crashed vehicles, and other pieces of destruction and calamity around as the girls went across the streets. And every single one of those humans was oozing with green mist that floated around and drifted off into other parts of the city.

"Whoa... what happened here?!" Rainbow Dash was the first one to comment on the upsetting scene. So much tension and anger had been dredged up to the surface and only one girl was to blame for it all.

"Adagio was here. Definitely." Aria commented as she reached for the green mist. She brought it to her gemstone and it flickered ever so slightly before disappearing. "Anger. Negative emotions. Adagio sang, people listened, and now they're going at it like cats and dogs!"

"Eh, I find that a common misconception. Personally, I think cats and dogs would be great if they just learned how to get along with each other," Pinkie Pie added with a raised finger. "Still, if Adagio's gone super-mean and is making everyone else into super-mean grumbly-argue-fighty-pants, then we've gotta speed this up!" She was flailing her arms in a panic. "I don't wanna fight another flying fish-horse in this life, thank you very much!"

"We can't exactly ask them which way that Adagio went either..." Sunset noticed that the humans were too far gone by Adagio's song to listen to reason. All that came tumbling out of their mouths were slander, arguments, insults, and other obscenities the likes of which would make any girl upset. "She's really gotten under their skin this time."

"Where do you think Adagio would've gone?" Applejack asked. "There's only so many spots in the city, and it ain't like she's got a lot of people to feed off of. And school's closed, so she can't exactly go there and repeat history. So where in tarnation..."

"From the way that the mist seems to be travelling, Adagio must have gone that way." Twilight pointed down one of the roads. For all of the negative emotion magic that Adagio had spurned from her scornful song, she had left herself a trail for the Rainbooms to follow without her even noticing. Now, they had just what they needed to track her down and put an end to this. "C'mon, girls!" Twilight was about to run off, but Sunset grabbed onto Twilight's shoulder.

"Be careful, Twilight. Adagio knows how to get people on their nerves." Sunset informed her, looking into her eyes with a focused gaze. "Back at the Battle of the Bands, she took advantage of the discord between all of my friends and turned that hatred into more power for herself. If we let her do the same thing again, she's gonna be invincible." She looked back to the other Rainbooms. "Got that, girls? If we argue like we did back then, it's game over. Adagio will win and she'll blow this entire world clean off the map. That clear?" The Rainbooms just gave a nod; knowing all too well what Adagio and the sirens were capable of. Sunset nodded back and turned to Twilight again. "Okay. Now we can go. Lead the way, Twilight."

Twilight nodded, then sprinted down the road. The other girls were quick to follow her, running as fast as their legs could carry them. As they raced through the anger-coated city of Canterlot City, they saw all of the rest of Adagio's work in full display. People were ferocious; their inner anger and underline tensions all erupting one after the other. And each one was causing more and more negative energy to sprout out and race down the path; straight towards Adagio. It was harrowing for Twilight to think that one song was causing all of this anger and despair; even more so to think that Adagio was taking all of that negativity and converting it into raw power for her own use. The way that the town had been damaged, the ways that the people were venting all of their anger and frustrations, and the amount of dark energy that they were expelling, it was enough to paint her heart with fear; something that Twilight wasn't used to feeling.

"It looks like all of the negative energy's gathering at one place!" Twilight noticed that other streets of Adagio's new magic were starting to overlap with the one that the girls were all running down. "All we need to do is keep going where the trails intersect and we'll find Adagio in no time!"

"From the way that we're travelling, it looks like she's going to be at the very heart of the city itself; at the top of the Summer Sun Skyscraper!" Sunset exclaimed to the other girls.

"The Summer Sun Skyscraper? What the heck's she plannin' to do there?" Applejack asked, ltrying to make sense of what Adagio was planning. "There ain't anything up on that there roof. She's just boxing herself in!"

"She's a siren, right? So what do you think, Applejack? She's going to sing from that rooftop!" Rarity quickly explained. "And if she does, then her song's going to reach the whole city and the town beyond! It'll all become one giant dystopia! The people could be inclined to riot and tear this whole place down themselves!"

"All while she gets to sit back and watch the world burn; taking everyone's anger for herself. It makes me so mad I could just... I could... I... I don't even know how to vent myself!" Fluttershy was not one for getting angry, but to know that a siren could really do all of that and profit off of it was starting to make her blood boil.

"There it is! Summer Sun Skyscraper at 3 o'clock!" Sonata pointed it out before Fluttershy had the chance to even let a single yell out of her mouth.

"But it's almost 9!" Pinkie pointed to her phone's clock, which read 8:57 PM.

"Not that 9 o'clock, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash told her, putting the phone away. "It means on the right!"

"Oh... right. My bad." Pinkie blushed at each cheek as she let a weak chuckle escape her mouth.

Sure enough, the girls all arrived at the Summer Sun Skyscraper. Negative emotions were travelling up the tower towards the apex, with even more negative emotions coming out of the windows of the skyscraper itself. The people in the office complexes inside must have also been touched by Adagio's song, the girls quickly deduced. Still, wasting no time, they raced into the foyer of the Summer Sun Skyscraper.

The receptionist, who would usually be in charge of making sure that nobody but the authorised personnel got in, was having a row with some of the security guards, who were also shouting and yelling back at her. The three people were insatiably arguing with each other, so determined to get the last word that none of them noticed Sunset, the Rainbooms, Aria, and Sonata leaping over the desk and towards the elevators situated behind her. Once they made it to the elevators, they pushed the button, waited until it came down, and all hurried inside, closing the door behind them once they were all packed inside and the button for the highest floor was pushed.

After a brief ride up the elevator, the girls found themselves in a cubicle farm, where people were already starting to get riotous. Chairs were being thrown, stationary was being hurled, and the people there were so intent on getting their point across that all sense had gone out of the window. They only had one thing on their minds now; anger. They wanted to fight. They wanted to hurt and attack each other, because they knew nothing else other than it. And all the while, not a single one of them noticed the ten teenage girls who had just entered their complex.

"Oh, great." Applejack slapped her forehead. "This ain't even the roof and we've gotta go through that mess?" She jabbed her hand towards the fighting crowds.

"It's our only way, Applejack." Rarity used the geode around her neck and did a Pony-Up. "If we don't stop Adagio right here and now, then we won't ever get a chance to make up with her and get her to see that there's a better way." Sparing no more time, Rarity slung a wave of diamond shields across the chaos, creating a path for the girls to run down that lead directly towards the door. But even now, people were trying to climb and jump over it like a pack of ravenous zombies. "Let us make haste!"

Sparing no time to figure out what Rarity meant, the girls all ran through the ensuing chaos, using Rarity's gate to funnel themselves towards the door leading towards the stairs. Halfway, through, the diamonds were beginning to shatter, and the people were breaking through. Not only angry with themselves but at the Rainbooms for stopping their fights, they began to chase after them too. By the time that Rarity lead the others towards the door, they saw that the cubicle farm workers were all beginning to congregate on them, so they all went through the doors to the staircase and Rarity took the moment to jam the door shut with some more diamond plates spawned from her magic.

"What... a bunch of... ruffians!" Rarity was breathing so heavily from all of the excitement that she transformed back to normal. "They're insatiable!"

"Adagio... What have you done?" Sonata's eyes grew wide and her knees weak. If Adagio had really done all of this, then would she even listen to her and Aria anymore.

"Hey, c'mon. You can worry about the moping for later. Right now, we've gotta stop Adagio before she does whatever she's planning." Rainbow Dash put a hand on Sonata's back and smiled at her.

"Yeah. We can save the apologies for later." Sunset helped Sonata back onto her legs. "Let's go!"

Sonata nodded and felt strength return to her legs. Sunset and Rainbow Dash's words motivated her to keep going, and it wasn't long before all ten of the girls ran all the way up the stairs towards the roof. It was only a couple of flights of stairs, but they made it at last. Bursting out of the doors, they felt the wind and rain were much stronger up here, and it made the place look much more menacing than it usually was.

The girls saw the magic continue to trail towards the center, so they followed after it, jumping and crawling over large pipes and framework, scrambling through the architecture of the roof of the Summer Sun Skyscraper, until at last, they found themselves on a wide, open area, where not a single fence or protective bannister lined the building. And there, at the heart of it all, she stood.

Her feet floating slightly off the ground, her spiky wings on full display, and her body reinvigorated by the negative energy she was gathering, she stood. Adagio Dazzle. The former Dazzling leader; now, a fully committed solo act. She looked towards the Rainbooms and her two former sisters with a dark red glow in her eyes. She licked her lips sadistically like a vampire and said with venom in her voice, "Hello, girls..." And then, another flash of lightning struck down behind her, the shadow that coated her as the blinding flash struck made her look like a monster from the girls' nightmares.

One Last Song

"So, here we are again, Rainbooms." Adagio said, walking forward towards the teenage girls with a fire in her eyes and venom seething from her voice. "It feels like yesterday, doesn't it? When you all callously struck me and my sisters down with your ragtag song. And here you thought that I was just a flash in the pan..." She chuckled briefly. "I think not."

"Adagio..." Sunset calmly stepped forward, looking deep into the rogue siren's eyes. "Of all the things you could've been, why did you have to do this; to revert back to the hatred-stealing Siren you once were? Your sisters turned over a new leaf just fine, didn't they?"

"Sisters? What sisters?" Adagio tossed her hair backwards as the rain lavished it. "They're nothing more than other Sirens. That's it. I don't need any sisters in order to stand at the top now, do I?" She said, caressing her crystal as the green mists of hatred continued to fly into it. "All that I need and all that I've ever needed since the day I was born is to cause anger; so that I can eat it all up and keep growing my own magic. I don't need to believe in some pithy, saccharine, worthless ordeals like friendship in order to feel like I'm on top of the world; contrary to what you believe, Sunset Shimmer." She jabbed a finger out at Sunset. "Aria and Sonata can survive on their own now that they've got you. They don't need me anymore either, don't you, girls?"

"No! That's where you're wrong, Dagi!" Aria barked out; her blue ponytails getting soaked and floppy as she begged Adagio. "Without you, we wouldn't have changed at all!"

"Yeah! You're the one who found those crystals and caused all of this mind-switching stuff!" Sonata clasped her hands together and pleaded for Adagio to return to the way that she once was. "Without you, we'd have nowhere to go! You've been the leader for the longest time that it wouldn't feel right to just say goodbye to you!"

"What a novel concept. A pair of Sirens who've turned over a new leaf despondent on their old leader; when in truth, they don't need anything more than themselves and their new 'friends'." She air-quoted, then gagged at the idea. "You've made yourselves weak, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. Whatever happened to the two hippocampus sisters I knew who pillaged Equestria; ravaged it, and turned it into a harmonious dystopia and an all-you-can-eat buffet of hatred and anger?" Adagio's eyes glowed red once again. "You've grown soft. Too soft for my liking."

"That's enough!" Rainbow Dash boldly stepped forward and threw her arm out to the side; defending Aria and Sonata. "What Aria and Sonata did in the past doesn't matter anymore! They wanna change and be friends and that's all I need to hear! They don't need to be swayed back into evil when they see all the awesome things friendship can bring!"

"I for one completely agree with Rainbow Dash." Rarity said, walking forward like a dainty lady, despite her soggy hair and running make-up. "Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk are far from the ruffians that they once were at the Battle of the Bands. The only one who's still holding onto the past and doesn't want to change is you, Adagio Dazzle."

"Oh, please. What would you Rainbooms know about my sisters? You don't know a thing about them." Adagio folded her arms and turned away from the Rainbooms, showing off her fish-like wings off to them once again. "All that you know about them is that they're my sisters, they were involved in my schemes, and now they want to be your friends. It's actually adorable how little you know about them and how unaware you are of their true natures!"

"NO!" Sunset stomped on the ground as the next bolt of lightning tore through the air. Her hands were coiled into fists and she cast a steel glare at Adagio Dazzle. "Aria and Sonata might have been cruel back then, but the past is the past. Their past doesn't define who they are as people. Believe me, girls. I know." She cast a smile back to Aria and Sonata, who just stared at her in awe. Then, she turned back to face Adagio once again. "If you just hang onto the past, always accept grudges as the iron-clad truth, and refuse change, then you'll get absolutely nowhere! Aria and Sonata see that and now I can see that there's some good in their hearts after all!" Then, she jabbed her own finger back at Adagio. "Adagio! YOU are the one who doesn't understand!"

"SILENCE, SUNSET SHIMMER!" Adagio screamed at the top of her lungs; her entire eyes turning red as the next lightning bolts struck; making her look like a true demon. "I've always HATED your wretched little face from the MOMENT you wanted to save those pitiful teenage BRATS!" As she spoke, a magical aura erupted from her body and took to the skies. It punctured the clouds and turned the skies blood-red. "You think you can just solve EVERYTHING with the Magic of Friendship, but you're wrong! There are just some people out there that REFUSE TO CHANGE!" She snarled, and as she did, a golden hippocampus monster descended to her side; one that she stroked tenderly across the forehead. "Let me be the one to break that insignificant, insipid, INFANTILE FANTASY OF YOURS!"

The hippocampus let out a monstrous roar; casting red rings to symbolise the soundwaves it was emitting. The roar itself was so powerful that the teens all had to fight back against the sheer power; feeling that the noise was starting to push them closer and closer to the edge of the platform. Aria and Sonata were horrified at what Adagio had become and just seeing her utilise her Equestrian Form cut them deep in their souls. To think that they were once like that; as desperate and far-gone as her was enough to send shivers down their spines and leave them stricken with fear and grief. And to have that very same hatred and anger once cast upon the Rainbooms made them truly see just how awful their past lives were.

"C'mon, girls! Let's go!" Pinkie Pie stood stoically and threw her arms out, ready for a fight.

"There really ain't nothin' fer it now." Applejack just lowered her hat at the sight of Adagio's true self. "The only way we're gonna knock some sense into Adagio now is if we knock her down a peg or two."

"Right." Twilight pushed her glasses close to her face. "Everyone! Now!"

The Rainbooms all nodded and went for their geodes. Together, in a bright whirl of light and magic, they donned their Pony-Up selves. Their ears on their heads, the hair extensions and their tails formed, as did their wings and any other appendages that they needed for their new forms. As a unit of super-powered teens, they now stood before the monster known as Adagio Dazzle, ready to put an end to her madness and bring back order and happiness to the world.

"Awww, isn't that sweet? You don't need to play music anymore to fight me. GOOD!" Adagio gnashed her teeth, which made her hippocampus double do the same. Then, throwing her arm forward, she ordered the beast to fly towards the girls like a shark speeding through the oceans. A roar came from the beast, then it lunged at the Rainbooms, making them all jump or fly out of the way as it smashed against the floor of the rooftop, leaving a mark where it struck.

"Try this on for size!" Pinkie Pie said, then procured a jar of sprinkles out from her hair. She popped off the top and took some of the confectionary tidbits out. Charging them up with her magic, she tossed them at the rampaging Adagio Hippocampus and watched as they all exploded on her cheeks and face, making the beast snap its' head back as it tried to withstand the exploding sprinkle barrage.

As the beastly fish-horse tried to get back to the fight, its' tail was then clamped down securely by Applejack. It tried to flail and thrash around, but it couldn't shake itself loose. And once it lurched at Applejack; teeth ready to crush her arms, Applejack just swung the tail around, then leapt into the air and threw the tail down at the ground, which caused the whole thing to collapse in a mangled-up mess. "Yee-haw!" Applejack said, jumping at the monster's tail and delivering a super-strength punch straight to its' gut, making it screech some more.

But that didn't stop it as, after Applejack's punch landed, it slipped out and flew into the air. Hanging above the girls, it roared another supersonic roar and dove down on top of them like a falling meteor; only to collide head-first into a diamond barricade erected by Rarity, who was trying her very best to keep the monster from breaking through, straining and struggling as the fish-horse monstrosity smashed, crashed, and headbutted the diamond shield over and over again; each strike being more vicious than the last. Once it deciphered that Rarity was keeping the shield active, it turned towards her with its' eyes burning with hatred and sped for her, teeth opened wide, ready to devour her.

Only for a super-fast Rainbow Dash to fly in its' way and deliver a backwards kickflip to its' chin, followed by some other lightning-quick strikes to its' body. The attack flurry hitting over and over again, Rainbow could see that Adagio's hippocampus double was struggling to fly straight and instead collided with the pipes; causing them to hiss and expel some of the pent-up steam out; charring the monster's face.

"Oh my... You're such an angry thing, aren't you?" Fluttershy, keeping as brave as she could in these harsh times just walked forward towards the monstrous Adagio. "You need to calm down a bit, don't you?" She clicked her fingers and sure enough, the monster quickly found itself circled by birds hanging above her head. Small birds flew around its' dazed body and birds of prey circled the skies above like vultures ready to make their move if Adagio's monster did react. And sure enough, with another frenzied roar, it burst back into the air, which prompted the eagles, condors, falcons, and other sharp-clawed birds to make a move. Ordered by Fluttershy, the birds of prey struck the ghostly hippocampus with their talons. Each slice caused the monster to spasm out in pain and anguish, letting out more roars.

Sucking up air, Adagio's hippocampus let out a monstrous roar and screamed as loud as it could, pushing the Rainbooms to their butts with the sheer noise and magnitude alone. Then, it sped for Fluttershy, who yelped and put her arms over her face; scared to meet her end at the hands of this ferocious beast from another world. When she opened her eyes again, Fluttershy saw that the spectre was once more halted by magic; this time, from Twilight, who was holding her arms out as if trying to physically hold onto the thing with a purple aura surrounding it. Flicking her arms to the side, she tossed the beast back into Adagio, who just skidded on the balls of her heels straight to the edge of the skyscraper; as another bolt of lightning—one red as the skies themselves this time—tore the skies asunder.

"Looks like you've got some new tricks..." Adagio sneered as she looked over the body of her ghostly animal companion, staring at the Pony-Up empowered Rainbooms. "Honestly, I should be thanking you. Just destroying you without a challenge would've been boring; a real waste of time. Just goes to show you how much FUN you're making this!" She had a twisted grin on her face; one that you would've seen on a demonic clown in a horror movie as she clambered over the body of her downed horse and walked forward with the grace of a runway model.

"Fun? FUN?! You think we're doing this for fun, Adagio?!" Sunset chided, her brows lowered as she trudged through the falling rain towards Adagio. She might have been a patient girl, but when it came to her and her friends' lives, she couldn't abide by what Adagio was doing to all of them. One way or another, it would all end here and now. "We're doing this because there's a better way to live than just relying on your anger like this!"

"Oh, really? And what's that better way you're talking about? Having to work hard and play nice? Feh. I've LONG since outgrown the need for niceness and pleasantries. Especially when it comes to you and your irksome little friends down there!" Adagio cast a finger at the Rainbooms, who were all just staring back into her eyes. "Do you girls honestly care one shred for me? Do you think that there's someone else trapped inside of this body waiting to come out? That the Magic of Friendship can overcome anger and hatred? Oh, how delightfully imprudent of you to think about that..."

"We're doing this because there is a better someone deep inside of you, Adagio. As well as a much better life you could be living here and now!" Sunset continued her march through the bleak, somber atmosphere. "You might think that there's anger in your soul, but I know that you weren't always like this. Something changed. And now that something is gonna rip you apart if you don't get rid of it now!"

Adagio just cackled like a wicked witch from a fairytale. "You're still going on about that? That I'm really just deluding myself and think that I'm not being the Adagio Dazzle everyone wants me to be? This is priceless!" Adagio flew to the skies as another lightning bolt came crashing down behind her. "Friendship... All that it's done is cause me to lose everything. The home where the three of us once lived, the magic that we all held dear and used to our utmost to make ourselves happy, the reputation that we'd established in this world as singers, and now it's taken my sisters away from me!" She snarled once more, making claws out of her hands that the green mists of hatred coiled around like spider threads. "You, Sunset Shimmer, are the VILLAIN of this story. I'm the one who's trying to live my life, and you're striking me down for it!"

"NO!" Sunset spat back at the top of her voice. "I'm not the one who caused the Battle of the Bands! I'm not the one who's causing all of this! And no matter how much you might think that I'm in the wrong, I'm not the one who's got the glowing red eyes, the demonic body, and the giant monster fish horse that's attacking everyone!" Sunset's pitch was as high as it could have gone for someone having a verbal war with someone like Adagio. "ADAGIO DAZZLE! YOU ARE THE REAL VILLAIN!"

"SILENCE, SUNSET SHIMMER!" As Adagio yelled back as high as her pitch would let her scream; almost making her sound like she was screaming at the sight of bloody murder, more lightning struck the skies. "I've had JUST ABOUT ENOUGH OF THIS! I'll silence you AND YOUR INSIGNIFICANT, INSIPID, AND INFANTILE FRIENDS RIGHT HERE AND NOW!" A dark red aura engulfing her, Adagio crackled lightning between her fingers; the very gesture invigorated her beastly double, making it attack and move so much faster, catching the Rainbooms off-guard and swatting them away with deadly force.

"She's going crazy..." Sonata watched as the infuriated Adagio's warpath resumed; her body now working in tandem with her hippocampus doppelganger. The resulting fight started to swing more towards her, with the Rainbooms magic and attacks being blasted into bits or outright refusing to work in time with how aggressive and swift both of the siren's forms were moving and attacking. "What are we supposed to do, Aria?"

"I don't know!" Aria despaired as she too winced and cringed with each hit that Adagio dealt to the Rainbooms. "Everything that Adagio's doing, it's just so... wrong!" But for all that she was saying, it was even worse to know that she couldn't do anything to stop her, not unless she too tapped into the hatred that she was using against the girls.

"C'mon, Sunset Shimmer. Where's that fire you once had?" Adagio sadistically smirked as she barrelled towards Sunset; her claws clamping down hard on Sunset's arms. The way that she was hunched, how she was grabbing the girl, and how she was now determined to send her flying off of the edge with her jerky movements was enough to strike fear in the hearts of anyone. "Aren't you supposed to be the hero of this world? The one who uses that stupid friendship stuff and praises it to the high heavens? Fight me!"

"I'm not going to fight you because I'm angry with you, and you're not gonna make me get mad at you just for the thrill of it, Adagio." Sunset firmly stood her ground and yanked her arms in the opposite direction after Adagio tried one last yank. Freeing herself, Sunset leapt backwards as Adagio lurched forward again. Before she could make another move, another of Rarity's diamond walls stood in the two girls' ways.

"Are you alright, darling?" Rarity asked, her eyes focused on Sunset.

"Yeah! I'm fine, Rarity." Sunset called back, but then she watched as Adagio let out a screech and came flying towards Rarity, claws ready to slice. "Look out!"

"I'm on it!" Rainbow Dash quickly cut in and, using her own wings, she intercepted Adagio; causing the two of them to get into an airborne scuffle with each other. Both of the winged girls fought their hardest, but neither one was managing to overpower the other. In the middle of the fight, she saw that Adagio's ghostly hippocampus was also continuing to the fight, aggressively snapping the air in front of Applejack; as if trying to eat her whole. "Why don't you eat someone your own size, Adagio?" Rainbow taunted, then quickly broke free as Adagio pushed forward. She flew over Adagio and delivered a swift, diving kick to her back like a superheroine would, sending Adagio falling straight into the jaws of her beast as it brought its' teeth down again. It struck Adagio and both she and the beast let out anguished howls as they both fell to the ground, only to get back up again shortly after.

"This thing just doesn't stop!" Pinkie cried as she took another handful of sprinkles; charging them up with her magic. She lobbed the exploding sprinkles at both Adagio and her hippocampus, making both of them shut their eyes in the bursts of light and sprinkle bits. Noticing that she had burnt through all of the munitions in that jar, she tossed it to the side and went for another. "I'm running low, here! Can't we just blast them to bits with our rainbow laser or something?!"

"We're tryin', Pinkie!" Applejack called back, then found herself butting heads with the hippocampus monster again. One bite, another bite, and Applejack tried to lasso the beast up by its' muzzle, only for it to shake and thrash about even more, causing her to start to lose her footing. "This thing's more violent than a bull in a red-china shop!" It was becoming apparent for Applejack that this was gonna be a losing battle, so rather than get thrown off, she lost her grip on the rope as the beast snapped its' body to the side.

"This is Adagio's true power..." Fluttershy tried her best to be brave, but the way that both this monster and the girl controlling it were working in tandem with one another was striking all kinds of horror into her heart. She didn't dare move, lest she get caught up in the chaos as well, but she didn't dare run either to abandon her friends. Locked in place, she just jumped as another lightning bolt painted the skies and made Adagio's silhouettes dance and race for a brief instance. It was a picturesque nightmare given form.

"All of this is coming from her bitterness from the last defeat she had..." Twilight used her magic to levitate some of the nearby pipes off of the hinges, letting the steam be ventilated into the air. She tried to contain Adagio's monstrous form in the pipes by sticking her inside of it, but it wasn't long before she was met with the siren's claws and piercing red eyes. She flapped her wings to get to safety, but that was when the hippocampus made its' move, sped behind Twilight, and swatted her to the floor with its' tail.

The Rainbooms in a beaten-up mess, the hippocampus craned its' head to the skies and let out another blood-curling towards the teenagers. The resulting rings of red-energy that struck the girls made them fall to their knees and put their hands over their ears; as the force from the scream also pushed them towards the edge. The beast kept on roaring until at last, the girls were pushed straight off of the edge.

"Girls!" Aria and Sonata rushed over to the skyscraper's edge and saw Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight having to carry Sunset, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity. Though, it was starting to look like a challenge. Instincts to save their friends kicking in, both of the sirens reached over the edge and offered hands to the winged teens. Once those hands took the hands of the non-winged Rainbooms, Aria and Sonata pulled with all of their might and hoisted the girls back onto the rooftop.

Splayed at the edge of the rooftops, the group of girls could only watch as Adagio advanced with her hippocampus by her side. A monstrous grin on her face as red veins grew across it; almost like a deadly virus eating away at her body. The fish-horse hybrid stood by her side, ready to pounce like a coiled-up cat. Though, the way that she had been brutalising the Rainbooms, it didn't seem likely to make a move while they were like this.

"You see now? You're nothing." Adagio said calmly as more of the dark energy flew into her pendant; making it continue to shine with its' eerie red light. "The Magic of Friendship might have been powerful for you in the past, but this is an entirely different kettle of fish, ladies." She folded her arms and floated off of the ground by inches. "Friendship won't help you survive in this world. In order to survive, you need to take everything that you can from whoever you can. Thinking about others is only going to get you killed."

"Adagio..." Sunset just looked up as the rain continued to fall all around her and the others. Her already-soaking mane might as well have been made of water with how much it had been drenched; same for the other girls.

"Just stop fighting. It's easier if you just accept the truth," Adagio said coldly. "The Magic of Friendship is what got you into this mess, girls. If you had just never bothered to use it and let us get what we needed back then, you wouldn't have been in such a dire situation. Now, the Magic of Friendship; the very thing you believe in, has abandoned you when you truly needed it." She brushed the muzzle of her monstrous deity with the palm of her hand, making it snort gently. "How do you think the three of us lived back in Equestria? Did we get along all gal-pal-style with the ponies of that wretched world? No. They were nothing more than livestock for us. Cows for us to drink from. All the while, our songs tore apart the very fabric of peace and tranquillity as a result.

"You see, Sunset. Where I come from, the Magic of Friendship never existed. Nobody ever challenge me and my sisters with such a gaudy lightshow as you and your friends did. And back then, we thrived without it. All because of one particular thing: Hatred." Adagio drifted down to Sunset's side and picked her head up, looking into her eyes with her seething red ones. "Hatred is what drives me. It invigorates me; gives me power. Every song I sing plants more seeds of hatred in the souls of ponies and humans alike. And every single one that blooms is a morsel for me to snack on. As long as I need hatred in order to survive; to be happy, then I don't need anything else. What will the Magic of Friendship do for my happiness, if hatred was already making me happy in the first place?"

"Please... just give it a chance." Sunset, despite being put in such a hostile and tense situation, with Adagio holding the girls in the palm of her hands. "I know... I know that the Magic of Friendship took everything away from you, but it's got so much more to offer you than this endless cycle of hatred, Adagio. It's changed all of our lives for the better, and it's going to do the same for your sisters too."

"My sisters were happy before this, Sunset Shimmer." Adagio just spat to the ground, looking towards the skies. "All three of us had the same hatred motivating us to keep on singing back in Equestria. I don't just speak for myself, but for all three of the Dazzlings; whether they're my sisters or whether I excommunicate them." She cast a stare at Aria and Sonata, who just shivered at the sight. "A siren can't change their tune, Sunset Shimmer. No matter how hard you and the others try, we'll still keep on crawling back to the same thing that we've always been hungry for; negative energy, spurned from anger, hatred, and rage."

"And what'll that lead to, huh? Didn't you say... back then... that you wanted adoration?" Sunset said, feeling her breath starting to leave her.

"What do you mean?" Adagio cocked a brow.

"You said before, over and over again more than anything that you just wanted to be loved. That you wanted everyone in the school to adore and worship you, didn't you?" Sunset stood back up on her own two feet again, standing before Adagio stoically. "Do you think that, by singing your heart out and spreading this misery and discord, that they'll ever love you at all? All of your mantras and goals of being loved from your visit to Canterlot High. You're tearing them all up before your eyes and you don't even know it." She curled her hands up into fists again. "I can help you, Adagio. We can help you. It's not hard to be loved, you know. All you have to do is—"

"Love?" Adagio just chuckled under her breath, a laugh that got louder and louder until she burst out into hysterics, laughing like a hyena. "All that was just a phase! A way for us to live like queens in this wasteland of a world! That phase DIED the moment you and your Rainbrats cast that little spell on us to break ours. Now, hatred's all I need. Who cares about being loved in a world when you're the only one who's not barking their head off and destroying themselves with arguments and physical conflict? Why would love ever need to exist when I can just continue to eat anger from these wretches down below?" Her laughter then grew weaker and weaker. "No. I know what you're trying to do. You can't win, so you're resorting to wordplay to try and strike down my stance. Just like you, Sunset Shimmer. If you're trying to get a psychology degree, you've got a long way to go before you can read exactly what's on my mind."

"It's true, though!" Sonata spoke up from afar, getting both of the girls to turn towards her. "Adagio! You wanted to be loved more than any of us back then! Even before we can to CHS in the first place!" She threw her arms downward. "Why are you lying to yourself? That's only going to hurt you even more!"

"Sonata... you..." Adagio's eyes returned to normal, moreso because she was so awestruck by her sister's sudden surge in guts.

"I know that hatred gave us ultimate power, but look at what else it's doing to you!" Aria also called out, noticing the marks on Adagio's face. "Those veins on your body are making you look hideous! The people would never want to love a monstrous face like that! It's like something out of a horror movie!" She jabbed a finger at Adagio's face. "Please, sis! Stop this! It's not like you to fly off the handle like that.

"But... I..." Adagio didn't even get to finish her sentence.

"ADAGIO!" Both Sonata and Aria pleaded, getting down on their hands and knees, looking up at their bigger sister with saucer-like eyes.

Adagio couldn't even process what was going on. Even with all of the hatred that she was delivering to the Rainbooms, they were refusing to roll over and accept defeat. And now, even her own sisters were telling her to stop doing this; to stop collecting power and be happy. If there were words to try and get out of her head, she couldn't find them. Now, all that she was doing was looking for a reason to validate her position. But when she couldn't find any, she just brought a hand to her gemstone and gripped the gem as tight as she could, an aura of red magic projecting out of it and covering her body from head to toe.

"What a waste." Adagio muttered at last, making both Aria and Sonata gasp with fright. "You've let those Rainbooms poison your minds, girls. Everything that we've lived for; that we've survived for, you're throwing away like that? You really want to act like Equestria never happened? That we were born like these skinny meatsacks in this desolate void they call a home? We had EVERYTHING! And those horrid... things just took it all away from us! We could've been immortal, but you settled for less." She let go of Sunset and turned towards her sisters. "You. Are. Sirens." She boomed, her eyes turning red once again. "You do not care for the wellbeing of anyone else other than yourself. You feed on hate and only hate. That's why you were made in the first place! Equestria molded you, so now you have to live with what you are. And if you won't see that yourself..."

And with that, Adagio delivered a powerful kick to both of the siren sisters, knocking them towards the edge. Their bodies were very close to tumbling over to the city below. Even with the state both of them were in, Adagio didn't see reason. Instead, she cracked her knuckles and marched towards the two siren sisters. "It's a dog-eat-dog life, girls. Whether it's Equestria or this world, you either take or get taken yourself. And since you didn't take, you're about to pay the price. This is the way of life, girls. A shame you forgot about it..." She delivered another kick to both girls and knocked them over the edge. "Goodbye." She said simply, as the two sirens fell down to the streets.

Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy flew as fast as they could after Aria and Sonata, while the other Rainbooms were locked eye-to-eye with Adagio once again. Once more, Adagio projected a climate of fear. But now, with the magical aura, she was only making herself even more monstrous. Her hair grew like snakes, her teeth became as sharp as a wolf's fangs and her nails became as sharp as bird talons. This magical aura was mutating her body and it was doing the same for her hippocampus too. Now, even the fish-horse monster's eyes glowed red as it grew in size, as spikes burst out of its' body and the tail it had became bladed.

"Sunset Shimmer. I'll show you and your friends how WORTHLESS the Magic of Friendship truly is in a world without friends!" Adagio threw her hands to the sky, creating a giant red pillar of magic that pierced the stormy clouds above. The clouds then started to swirl and ripple like a whirlpool in the skies. The lightning bolts that spat out of the lightning became more and more frequent, until they were coming out in groups.

In the middle of that cloudy vortex, a massive hippocampus head appeared, looking down from above. It too had red eyes. With one, massive roar, soundwaves echoed and rippled across the entire town, stretching out to every single man, woman, and child's ears. Everyone who heard the roar entered a dystopian state, fighting, arguing, and attacking anyone and everyone that they found offensive or angering. With each new conflict that was bred, more and more mist came spewing out of their bodies. Except now, the magic was painted red. Said magic was flying towards Adagio and empowering her from all sides.

"See now, Sunset Shimmer? There is no friendship when a siren's involved. Nobody is going to believe in your stupid little religion of friendship ever again." Adagio gnashed her teeth and leered at Sunset as she and the other Rainbooms regrouped, with Aria and Sonata joining their side. "No amount of singing is going to break this magic. And no amount of friendship you girls can muster is going to put a stop to this madness. This entire world's about to become the most anarchistic, hatred-filled world you've ever seen. It'll be a heaven for me, and hell for everyone else!"

"That's a big siren..." Pinkie pointed up towards the now titanic hippocampus that was staring down at the group of girls. "I don't think my sprinkles are gonna cut it here! Not even with the heavy-artillery stuff!"

"Adagio's really lost herself..." Applejack just grimaced as she looked at the sight of the monstrous beast looking down on the world and its' inhabitants. "All that negative energy's made her mind go cuckoo. And considerin' she didn't really have her own mind to begin with, that's saying somethin'."

"At this rate..." Twilight looked over to the city and watched as more and more negative emotions rose from the mist. The sounds of hatred and fighting grew louder and louder as the smoke engulfed the city; all of which traveled towards Adagio's choker and the gemstone that rested on it. "Forget endless infighting, Adagio could wipe Canterlot City off the map with this power!"

"That's right, princess!" Adagio barked; her voice becoming demonic and double-toned like two separate people were speaking at the same time out of the same head. "This whole city's become an eyesore with how much you girls tainted it with your virulent friendship. It's better off to tear this place down! Then, I can just fly off to whatever other cities and places I can think of, and sap more hatred from them! I'm sure I can do without the magic of this piddly town when there's a whole world of anger to be had. It's a mere after-dinner mint in comparison!"

"After dinner..." Sonata let those words sink into her head. For all that Adagio thought of food, the fact that she now saw this whole place as disposable was putting her on edge. As she stressed out and the muscles in her forehead twitched, she made a fist out of her hand.

"All that these people are to me are just livestock. Cattle. Sheep!" Adagio bit her teeth hard, looking more and more like a venom-filled demon with each word that tumbled out of her mouth. "They're not special. They don't have anything unique about them. All they are are the same, unthinking, endlessly manipulated, emotion-shackled monkeys that I've known since I arrived in this world. Say the right words, get into their heads, and they'll do whatever you want them to do!"

"Whatever... they want..." Aria felt her heartbeat as she thought back to the time before. Was she really that mindlessly cruel towards the people of these worlds; so blinded by hunger that she cared not for the fate of their food? Even now, looking at the Rainbooms and the mess that they found themselves in, Aria felt like she needed to do something; if not to save them then to stop her berserk sister from going even further off of the deep end.

The two sirens looked towards each other and gave a nod. Looking towards the edge of the city, they both took a deep breath and let out one of the loudest musical calls that they could have mustered up. Their voices were as smooth as silk as their notes swept through the city. Though the people were still fighting and their song didn't do them any favors, the two girls still had access to the same kind of darkness that Adagio was tapping into. They clutched their gems as hard as they could as the mists surged into them and closed their eyes as they started to let the ferocious screams and anger-filled voices fill their heads.

"Look at you now, Rainbooms. Even now, your so-called friends are refusing to change." Adagio pointed a finger at Aria and Sonata, who were both trying to contain and control the negative energy that they were taking in. "Your friendship might have burrowed into their heads, but even now, at the end of the world, they see the correct path to take. Hatred is the only thing this world needs. It's the only food that we sirens can properly grow healthy off of. Isn't that right, Aria? Sonata?"

Aria and Sonata took in the hatred and made pained noises as they fell to their knees. This truly was the power that they had been using. It was different to their usual acquired tastes for anger though, something that Adagio had done to these people that was making the anger much more toxic than usual. Both of them let out a little yell as their eyes also turned red and they propagated hippocampi doubles of their own. Aria's was purple, and Sonata's was blue, as usual.

"Girls..." Sunset just looked at the pain that Aria and Sonata were inflicting upon themselves. "What are you doing?!"

"Doing... the right thing!" Aria grit her teeth and put her hands to the ground as she tried to control the hatred and fury that was building up in her gemstone.

"Adagio... Please..." Sonata let out a growl as she looked into her sister's eyes. "Come to your senses!"

Both the Hippocampi for Aria and Sonata let out a ferocious roar and as the girls weakly threw their arms forward, the two beasts flew off. However, instead of hurting the Rainbooms, the two hippocampus doubles instead attacked the one that Adagio was controlling, turning the sky into an airborne scuffle between the three fish-horses; each one letting out a series of groans, roars, and other animal-esque noises.

"What?!" Adagio snapped her head towards the chaos that ensued, seething as she watched Aria and Sonata get back onto their feet and grow their wings and hair extensions. "What are you doing?!" She barked and threw herself towards Aria and Sonata, her wings barely even moving as she careened through the air.

As she reached Aria and Sonata, both of the siren sisters grabbed Adagio and just threw her backwards, making her tumble towards the ground. The two of them stood up with a fire in their eyes and their hands made into fists. The two of them walked forward slowly, rain continuing to pitter down around them as they stood by the Rainbooms.

"Get..." Sonata growled.

"Off..." Aria added.

"Our friends!" Both girls declared together, with Aria throwing her left arm out, and Sonata doing the same to her right arm, moving in sync with each other.

The Rainbooms just watched as Aria and Sonata stood before them; renewed and reinvigorated by this display. One by one, they were all helped back up to their feet by the two siren girls, standing like a true set of heroes against the tumbling rain and crashing lightning.

"You're just shells!" Adagio writhed and stomped back onto her feet. "And you're standing with the very people who sullied your powers! What good will helping them out now bring?!" She spat, swiping her arm like a sword.

"What good is going to send everyone into anarchy bring?!" Aria barked back, with a similar kind of fury. Whether or not it was brought on by the negative energy that she had been taking in with her magic, the Rainbooms had yet to decide on. "You... you're just carelessly using these people for your own benefit! You don't even care if they get hurt and you lose the power that they give, do you?!"

"Do you even know what you're saying or doing, Dagi?! This isn't like you at all!" Sonata also argued with her sister, giving her a ferocious glare back into her own eyes. "You've become so blinded by this petty hate for the Rainbooms that you've never even bothered to consider that there's a better life you can live without this anger-sapping spree! In fact, you've made yourself so ironclad with these rules that you're being consumed by the very hatred you wanna control! You're becoming a monster!"

"Says the girls who just did the same thing." Adagio just crossed her arms. "This is proof-positive that you can't change; that none of us can change! We are who we are and ONLY who we are. So we're always going to spread hate and only hate, eating that very same hate for our own survival!" Flapping her fishy wings, Adagio flew into the air and let out a growl with her own mouth, making her hippocampus double overpower the other two fish-horse ghosts.

"We're not going to use our gathered hate to get rid of these people, Adagio. And we're surely not about to use them to bring pain and misery to everyone around us!" Aria tightened her fists, making her hippocampus beat Adagio's back with more force and stamina.

"We're gonna use it to save everyone!" Sonata punched the air, and as she did, her blue hippocampus drove into Adagio's hippocampus' chest, driving it towards the sky. A roar from the same beast and Adagio's monster was blasted back into the mouth of the larger one. "Sunset... the Rainbooms... they're not as bad as you think. Sure, they took everything from us, but they want to help us get better! They don't want to hurt us!"

"Then why... why do I feel NOTHING BUT PURE, UNBRIDLED HATRED FROM THEM?!" Adagio's red eyes pierced the Rainbooms. "WHY ARE YOU OFFENSIVE TO ME, RAINBOOMS?!"

"Because... Adagio... You're afraid." Sunset Shimmer crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Everything that we've done to you back at CHS, you're afraid that I'll be repeating history again by having me and my friends blast you down with rainbow magic again. You don't want to lose everything that you've worked so hard for. And I can understand that entirely. Who woud ever feel happy if they lost everything that made them who they are?"

"But, Adagio, you have to understand. There's more to life than singing and magic." Rarity also stood firm, her shoes splashing against the waterlogged roof. "There's a myriad of things that you can invest into in this world. Clothes, flowers, spas, poetry, and many more."

"Yeah! Why would you ever wanna be a big, bad, meanie when there's always something that'll make you happy again?" Pinkie asked, as she pulled out another jar of sprinkles, which she could have used as a weapon, but instead swallowed a huge mouthful of them. "Even the food can make ya happy, y'know! And not just that weird misty food you and the other girls liked sucking up."

"Sure is! There's tons 'a' things you can be doin' with yer time." Applejack said, pushing her hands together. "Ain't gotta spend yer whole life suckin' up dark magic just 'cause ya'll need ta eat."

"I mean, if you're angry or ya need to eat anger up, there's plenty of safe places where you can go if you're really in trouble." Rainbow Dash added her own words to the conversation. "Don't go lookin' for food if you're just gonna be a jerk with that food."

"Or, if you want, try and see if you can use that magic to feed on stuff that isn't just anger. Plenty of people can change in ways that they didn't even know were possible." Fluttershy clasped her hands together and peacefully looked into Adagio's vicious countenance. "Even if you don't think it's possible, just give singing for good a chance."

"We might have caused something horrible to you and your sisters, Adagio. But look at Aria and Sonata now!" Twilight stretched her arms to the side. "Aria and Sonata have changed their tune and now they're fighting for the good of everyone! So they can change, even if you think that they can't!"

"What?" Adagio watched as the Rainbooms and the two other sirens held each other's hands as a sign of unity and togetherness; a sight that made Adagio sick to her stomach. But even as she tried to think of hatred as her way out, she couldn't help but shiver and shake. Looking down at her hands, she could see that they were trembling. "What... nonsense... is that? Me... afraid...? No. No, that can't be." Adagio's breathing became heavy and frenzied. "No. No, no, no! You're all trying to deceive me! I don't need to change! I'm happy as I am! I'm not afraid! I'm... not... afraid..." She could hear her own sense of dread and entered a berserk state as she and her hippocampus flew towards the giant head in the skies. "NO! I! AM! NOT! AFRAID!" With one final roar, she, her hippocampus, and the titanic ghostly hippocampus head in the sky roared together, releasing a ferocious, torrential, colossal beam of red energy, crackling as it tore through the sky like a falling meteor.

"Adagio... Please..." Sunset Shimmer spoke as she, her friends, and Aria and Sonata glowed with a bright veil of rainbow-colored light. Magic gathered and shone around them, as a ring of light spawned around them. Aria and Sonata's two hippocampus doubles were loaded up into the magic. "STOP BEING SO SELFISH!" Sunset declared as the other girls said it at the same time as her, and a ferocious torrent of rainbow magic erupted from the teens, with Aria and Sonata's hippocampi copies flying to match Adagio's magic.

The two beams of magic; Adagio's blood red one and the Rainbooms rainbow-colored one collided in the air, lighting up the entire sky in a dazzling display. Adagio grunted and groaned as she willed the magic to keep on fighting back against the Rainbooms, while the Rainbooms, Aria, and Sonata believed in themselves, their bonds, and the belief that people can change for the better. The power struggle went on and on, and at one point, Adagio's magic got the upper hand, pushing the heroines' magic back further and further down.

With one final yell, the Rainbooms stepped forward, with Aria and Sonata doing the same. The rainbow laser grew exponentially, quickly pushing Adagio's blood-red beam of hateful magic back at her. Aria and Sonata's hippocampi fought through the red power, guided by the rainbow light. Until at last, the red beam was shattered, and Adagio was blanketed in endless rainbow light, with the two hippocampi from Aria and Sonata barrelling into Adagio's hippocampus clone, causing all three of them to disappear in a ghostly roar.

As for Adagio herself, she tried her best to resist the rainbow magic, but she couldn't. Groaning, grunting, and standing her ground in the air, she writhed and cried in pain as the magic overwhelmed her. The pendant around her neck was starting to break again; the cracks forming slowly, but all gathering at the center of the jewel again. "No... No, no, no, no, no! NOT AGAIN!" Adagio despaired as she put her hands to the crystal. But as she did this, the light ate away at the rest of her body again. The pain intense, Adagio's arms and legs splayed outward and she let out a blood-curdling scream as the light devoured her whole, and shattered her pendant at last.

A magnificent explosion erupted from the roof of the Summer Sun Skyscraper, sending out a shockwave of rainbow-colored energy across the skies, erasing all of the storm clouds that blotted out the night skies. The wave of light sent twinkles down that washed over the populace, making them quickly put an end to their fighting and bickering. But at the epicentre of the blast, both Aria and Sonata's pendants shattered under the force of the shockwave as well, leaving all three sirens without any power again. When the light show came to an end, the night skies were filled with the colourful streams of aurora borealis. But what became of the Rainbooms and the three sirens on the rooftop of the skyscraper?

After The Storm

As the Rainbooms and sirens all laid with their backs towards the floor, the signs of a fierce struggle were evident. The foundations of the roof had been rocked and cracked from the impact, and the remnants of the sirens' gemstone laid in ruins once again, the last little vapors of magic disappearing back into the aether once more.

Sunset Shimmer felt like she had been thrown through a washing machine. Her head was abuzz with all sorts of sensations and there was a sharp pain running through it. Her vision was blurry as she looked at the sight of the devastation. All of her friends were lying on their bellies or on their backs, conked out from the chaotic explosion, as were the three Dazzlings. More importantly, the Dazzlings' proper colors and clothes had returned; probably an after-effect of the crystals being shattered.

"Adagio?" Sonata was the first of the sirens to come too, looking around for her sister. "Adagio?" She called again, her vision still foggy. Though, she did take a while to stop and stare at the aurora borealis that hung in the sky like a magical curtain of light. "Whoa..." Her eyes reflected the sight back and she found herself entranced by the light. "That's... really pretty, actually?"

"Pretty? What is?" Aria woke up next and looked towards the skies. Sure enough, she too saw the lights that fluttered through the air in streams. "Whoa... Yeah, okay. You got me there. Equestria had nothing like this. That's pretty sick, actually."

Then, when they got back up, they saw it. The sight of their fallen sister. "Adagio!" Both sirens called together and rushed to her side. Adagio, out of the three of them, was the most groggy and encumbered by the shockwave. She had taken in so much magic and had it discharged that she was only barely awake. She too could see the lights above, but everything else was anyone's guess in her eyes. Wasting no time, Aria and Sonata helped Adagio sit back up and keep her stable. Her face was a mess. The veins had been gone, but there were little marks where they had once been; like bruises she had been given from a fierce fight.

"Adagio? Are you okay?" Sonata asked, watching as Adagio struggled to fight between staying conscious and unconscious. "Oh my gosh. Girls! Give her a hand!" Sonata cried to the Rainbooms, quickly bringing them back to reality.

One by one, the colorful Canterlot High girls returned to reality and got back onto their feet. Once they saw the state that Adagio was in, they all ran around the sirens, circling them in like a human fence. All of them looked down on Adagio and how badly she had taken that beating. Sunset was the one looking directly at her, kneeling down to her height.

"S...s...so. Guess this is it, huh?" Adagio spluttered and coughed, wheezing heavily as she felt the shocks from the battle she had just gone through. Her eyes looked into Sunset's, though she lacked the energy or effort to show any kind of leer or glare. "History repeats itself, doesn't it?"

"Adagio. You brought all of this on yourself, you know. We wouldn't have had to destroy those gemstones if you'd just worked hard and tried to make your life a little better without ruining everyone else's." Sunset shook her head and folded her arms in solidarity. "Now, you've got no power once again. And nobody but yourself to blame for you and your sisters' loss of magic."

"So... what are you gonna do to me now?" Adagio asked, spitting at the ground as she looked into Sunset's eyes, thinking only of the worst. "It's been two times now that I've tried to plunge this world into chaos, Sunset Shimmer. Clearly, I'm beyond redemption. Do whatever you want to me. Throw me off of the rooftop, cast me out into another world, or whatever you and your friends think is the proper punishment." Bitterly, she turned her head away from Sunset's, awaiting her fate.

"Oh, Adagio..." Sonata brushed her hand across Adagio's cheek caringly, pulling her into a mini-cuddle for protection. "Sunset?" She turned her gaze to Sunset's, wondering what Sunset had planned for Adagio. "What are you gonna do to her?"

"Yeah, girl. What do you wanna do with her?" Aria asked, showing more courage in the face of such a confrontational moment between Adagio and Sunset. Even now that she had her own self, colours, and mind back, she couldn't lie to herself that this whole experience had been an eye-opener for her and Sonata.

"Adagio." Sunset started, clearing her throat. "If you think that people can only thrive with hatred and nothing but hatred, then you clearly need your eyes opened. Life isn't all sourness and cold-hearted. There's always going to be something out there that'll put a smile back on your face, no matter how tiny it could be or how short or long it would last." She reached an arm out for Adagio, aiming for her own hand. "I know that you're a siren and it's in your nature to sing and collect negative energy, but there's always going to be a way that you can keep on living your life. Even if you don't believe it, I do. I see you and your sisters actually fitting well in this world, but only if you're willing to put in the effort."

"Effort?" Adagio repeated, a brow slowly lifting as she looked at Sunset's gesture. Even now, after everything, she was still being offered mercy. Either this was a wild dream for her or she really had taken such a heavy blow from the Rainbooms in that second fight that she had finally woken up to a different side of herself.

"There's always a better way out of a bad hand, Adagio. People we've met have changed for the better after we've met them—and in some cases, blasted them away with rainbow magic like you." Sunset said, grabbing onto Adagio's hand and helping her get back onto her feet. "I know that you probably don't believe it and these are all just words coming out of my mouth, but this is all true."

"She's right, you know. Just look at me." Twilight spoke up, drawing the attention of all three Dazzlings. "Not long ago, I was a student at Crystal Prep trying to take their magic away for them for research, and in doing so, I became so obsessed and driven by discovery that I became probably just as evil as you were back there, if not worse." Twilight shivered for a moment as she let those memories replay themselves in her head. "But Sunset and her friends managed to change me for the better and now, I've never been happier."

"I mean... those are just words, girl." Adagio looked into Twilight's eyes. "The last time I saw you, it was the other you. The galloping princess from Equestria. She didn't seem like she needed to change much." She just curled herself inward. "Anyone can say anything and get away with it. Wouldn't you agree?"

"No. Nobody can get away with what they did, truly." Twilight looked down at the ground, then held onto Adagio's hand; a gesture that caused the siren's eyes to open slightly more as she tilted her head to the side. "Look. Even now, what I did isn't going to go away. It's a scar on my heart that'll never fade. To truly change for the better, I turned to the dark side. And then Sunset Shimmer and all of her friends rescued me from that darkness. You can do the same, Adagio. Just let Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms help you, and you'll have a much better life to live."

"Well... I've been beaten by them two times now... so clearly, something's wrong with me if I can't even stand my ground against them." Adagio looked back towards Aria and Sonata, thinking about everything that she had been through, not just here, but back home in Equestria. Whenever she had lost, it had been to a creature that wasn't her own. Ponies back then, and humans now. And even now, her own sisters were trying to help her see life in another way. "Look... I know that you think I can change, but I'm gonna warn you right now that it's gonna take a lot in order to get me to change my tune, and there's an awfully high bar I have to clear given what I've done to you and your world..."

"Well, then that's why we're here to help you clear that high bar." Sunset still held her hand out to Adagio. "It doesn't matter how long it'll take to get people to accept you or to change your way, we're going to help you every step of the way, Adagio. Take it from me, the best way to win is to make friends with your foes; to bury the hatchet and move on with a smile."

"Bury the hatchet?" Adagio slowly reached her hand out and took Sunset's hand with it. At the very least, she had nothing to lose and no shame in taking this deal. "Heh. Y'know, why not? I'm not in the mood to fight you or your friends anymore. I know my place."

"I'll take that as a yes." Sunset shook Adagio's hand; forging the bond between herself and the siren. As the others watched the display, they backed off and gave Sunset and Adagio some more room. For they knew that here and now, everything was going to change for the better; both for Adagio, and for her two sisters...

The very next morning, the sun was shining down on Canterlot City once again. The people were out, enjoying their lives and soaking up the sunshine. In fact, not a single one of them seemed to remember or pay attention to the drama of last night. And if they had remembered, then the details of the ordeal were exceedingly scarce to them.

Sunset Shimmer was walking down the sidewalk with a backpack slung around her arms and a black jacket on her back. It was the start of a brand new life for Adagio, Aria, and Sonata, and she wanted to make sure that she made a good first impression on the three of them; especially since what they had all gone through last night.

It wasn't long before Sunset received a phone call and her phone buzzed in her pocket. She quickly opened her pocket up and pushed the green button on the call screen. "Hello?" She put the phone to her head.

"Hey, Sunset? Where are ya?" Rainbow Dash asked on the other end of the line. "I'm already with the Dazzlings right now and the other girls are on their way."

"I'm on my way right now, Rainbow Dash. Keep an eye on them for me, alright?" Sunset replied, a smile on her face as she hung up and put the phone back into her pocket. At least they hadn't jumped straight off of the edge again. Or at the least, Adagio hadn't.

One walk later and Sunset Shimmer arrived in the park. She watched as the other Rainbooms also joined her, coming from different roads and routes around the park. They quickly saw Rainbow Dash in the center of the park, with the three Dazzlings idly waiting around by sitting on the edge of the nearby fountain.

"Alright then." Sunset stood on the spot for a few seconds, taking the last few moments to get the worries out of her system. Some deep breathing followed. One breath, then another, then one last one for good luck. "Let's change some lives, shall we?" She said to herself, then walked up to the sirens and the rest of her friends.

So, here we go at last, I guess... Adagio saw Sunset Shimmer walking up to her and stood up from the edge of the fountain. "Good morning, Sunset. And good morning to the rest of your friends too." Adagio gave them a greeting with a seductive wave of her hand.

"Good morning, Adagio." Sunset calmly replied; trying not to show any signs of weakness or that she was fazed. Even now, looking at Adagio was giving her a little bit of worry, especially since she was so ironclad in her rules of life the day before. Though the marks on her face had disappeared, even looking at Adagio put Sunset on edge.

"Hey, Sunset? You're looking a little bit jittery." Sonata was the first one to notice just how pensive Sunset was looking as she tried to think of the right words to say to Adagio. And Sonata couldn't blame Sunset for thinking this way. After all, the previous day, she and Adagio had been locked into a magical duel to the death with friendship and hatred colliding. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?" She asked, gently putting a hand on Sunset's back and patting it gently.

"Yeah, you're looking a little bit worried." Aria commented, also standing by Sunset's side. "I mean, who could blame ya. Adagio's a real hard piece of work sometimes." It was then that she saw the other Rainbooms coming to join them. "Well, at least, you're not alone in this little adventure."

"Yeah, you're right. Why am I doubting myself? This'll work. I know it'll work." Sunset just watched as the girls all gathered together and stood in a group. "So, I hope you know why we're all here, right?"

"Absolutely. We're here to turn Adagio Dazzle into a happy, friendly member of our society by showing her the ways of friendship and happiness." Rarity quickly nodded and put her hands together.

"By throwing her an awesome party to celebrate her turning from a big, bad meanie into a super-fun, happy, new friend!" Pinkie Pie grinned from ear to ear, pulled out a cannon out of nowhere and yanked on the string, causing a shower of confetti to shoot out and drape all of the girls.

"Well... that and, just... getting to show her that there's more things to be seen and done here in Canterlot City than just syphoning anger." Fluttershy pushed her fingers together.

"And if she tries anything funny..." Rainbow Dash pushed her hands together and rubbed her palms vigorously.

"Not that she'd wanna or can in any sense 'a' the word..." Applejack lowered Rainbow Dash's hands and gave her a mini death-stare.

"Oh, I'm sure that it won't come to that. Especially not with how good you girls are at turning people around for the better." Twilight pushed her glasses close to her face. "Come on, Adagio. Let me be the one to lead the way. As someone who's been in your shoes before, I think it's only fair that I take charge in showing you around the place; to help you get a first-hand look at what you can do even without that hunger for magic sirens have." And, wasting no time, Twilight took Adagio's hand and walked off with her, causing the other girls to follow after the two.

As Adagio walked off with Twilight holding onto her hands, she couldn't help but feel like she was in safe hands with her leading the way. It was so paradoxical for her, especially with everything that she had gone through in this world. Now, she was willing to change and accept help from the very same girls that had eliminated all of her power not once, but twice. What was it about them that she couldn't help but feel in awe about? What was friendship, really? And why was it so intoxicating and alluring for her? Even after being struck down by its' powers twice. Well, whatever the case, Adagio knew for sure that she'd get her answers by sticking with the Rainbooms. And for once, in the presence of these teenage girls, she couldn't help but crack a small smile.

Aria and Sonata saw the smile as well, then felt the arms of the Rainbooms on their backs. Looking between them, then back into each other's eyes, they knew that there was going to be something pleasant coming out of this experience. Even for Aria, who was usually cold, bitter, and stone-hearted whenever it came to dealing with stuff outside of her comfort zone; especially when it came to trusting others. But after everything that the two of them had gone through, Aria and Sonata weren't about to squander this second chance at a happy life. Now, they could only hope that the Rainbooms would be able to work their magic on them in a whole new way...

Meanwhile, on another corner of town, the sly old man who had sold the Dazzlings their replacement pendants in the first place was placing a sign in the shop that he worked in. The sign said "Shop To Rent." One last look into his emporium showed that it was empty. All of his wares had been packed up and were ready to be shipped out to another corner of the world; as evidence by the truck outside.

"Oh well. I'm going to miss this little town." He had a coy smile on his face as he walked out of the building and locked the door up with the keys on his keychain, then stuffed the very same ring back down by his side. "But you know, I can only really take so much excitement before I have to move on." He chuckled and walked over towards the moving truck where his wares were ready to go. "Plus, there's so much more of this world to see and so much more delightful people I could sell to..." Up the stairs of the van he climbed, straight into the passenger's seat of the moving vehicle, where the driver was there, ready to drive him off. "Whenever you're ready, sir." He kicked his feet up on the dashboard as he buckled himself in.

"You got it, boss." The man started the van's ignition and drove off, leading the man down the roads and off towards the edge of the city. Once they got moving, he quickly decided to start up a conversation with the stranger in his van. "So, uh, tell me. What kind of stuff do you sell in your little shop?"

"Oh, a lot of odd bits and bobs. Some old clothes nobody wants anymore, some family heirlooms that people would want to part with..." Then, a glint flashed in his eye as he gave him a toothy grin. "And sometimes... things that I know would cause some delicious chaos."

"Chaos, huh? Well, better outta sight, outta mind, am I right?" The man driving the vehicle just gave a little chuckle.

"Oh, indeed. Out of sight and out of mind indeed." The eccentric stranger lowered his legs at last and leaned closer towards the windshield. "Now... where to next, I wonder? And who should I pawn off my wares to? Oh well, I'm sure that wherever I end up, it certainly won't disappoint..."