Safety Chains

by Shadowmane PX-41

Rating: teen
Tags: Sunset Shimmer, Sad, Dazzlings, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other
Length: 11087

Where did the Dazzlings come from? Why did they become who they were? These are questions Sunset wants answers to.

The Dazzlings, broken and powerless, have been reduced to mortal beings. Now, without their jewels, their future is uncertain.

When Sunset asks the three of them about their past and how they got where they are, they do the only thing they could do:

Tell her everything...

Published 2017-10-24 23:00:06 UTC
Last updated 2017-10-24 23:00:06 UTC

Safety Chains

Sunset Shimmer sat at her table in the coffee shop, sipping idly away on a mug full of hot cocoa. The winter season had come quickly to Canterlot and anything that could get her out of the cold was a good thing. She let out a little sigh, her breath freezing over and forming white clouds in front of her.

Wanting to pass the time, she pulled out her phone and opened up the message app. She quickly pounded away texts to Twilight and the rest of the Rainbooms, leaving little smiley faces behind as she sent them off to her friends. She was just about to take another drink when she got her replies straight away, almost instantaneously. She let out a little chuckle and let go of the drink as she went back to the texts.

She was just about to answer one from Fluttershy when she heard the establishment's bell ring. Stepping through the door were three figures that she knew all too well.

The Dazzlings? Sunset lifted a brow as she watched Adagio, Aria, and Sonata walk towards the counter and leave some money for the clerks. What are they doing here? I thought we'd driven them away after the Battle of the Bands... Her eyes were solely focused on the three teenage girls. She could only just make out the girl pouring them the drinks through the corner of her eye. Alright. Just calm down, Sunset. They're normal girls now. No evil magic in sight. Just get back to your drink.

Shifting her attention off of the sirens, Sunset went back to her mug of cocoa. She raised it up to her lips and slowly began to drink once more.

"Hi, Sunset!"

She almost ended up spitting out her drink as the shrill voice pierced her ears. Swallowing hard, Sunset looked over and saw Sonata giving her a giddy little wave. Determined not to pay them any mind, Sunset went back to looking at her phone. She opened up the mail app and began browsing through spam, invitations, and general greetings from her friends.

"What'cha reading?" Sonata asked, sliding up to Sunset's side.

"H-Hey!" Sunset fumbled with her phone and nearly dropped it on the floor, but Sonata was quick to catch it and hand it back to her. She just took the phone back and stayed silent.

"Aw, c'mon, scaredy-pants. What've you gotta worry about?" Sonata asked, leaning in close again. "We're not gonna do all that weird singing for you and totally turn you against your friends or anything like that."

"Sonata!" Aria came up behind Sonata and pulled her away from Sunset. "What're you doing, talking to Sunset like that? Don't you know what she did to the three of us?!"

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Sonata nodded. "That doesn't mean that I can't just give her a friendly non-evil hello, can I?"

"Look, girls, I'm not in the mood for any of this right now." Sunset pivoted herself away from the two and peaked out the window. "I just wanna relax, drink my cocoa, then get going. I'm supposed to meet Rainbow Dash later in the park today for a snowball fight with some of her new friends."

"Yeah, Sonata. She doesn't wanna hear it from you." Aria poked her in the forehead, making her stumble backwards. "We should get our own stuff and buzz off too. Y'know, like NORMAL people." She leaned into Sunset's ears.

"Girls! Stop it!" Adagio just stepped over and grabbed Aria by the ear. "I can't leave you unsupervised for two seconds now, can I?" She looked over to the table and saw Sunset, leaning against the wall. "Oh, hello, Sunset. Long time no see."

"Adagio." Sunset didn't move an inch.

"Oh, come on now, darling. That's no way to treat one of your oldest foes. Giving them the cold shoulder." Adagio stepped over the upholstery and slid her hand across Sunset's shoulders. "I can understand why you'd do the same for my sisters, though. They are a few notes short of a chord if I say so myself."

"Whatever you three want with me, you can just forget it." Sunset turned back to Adagio and reached for her drink. "I'm done with you. No more of this crazy singing stuff. The Battle of the Bands is a long way back now. We've got lives now y'know."

"I know. And I can fully understand your life choices," said Adagio in her sultry voice. "But at least say hello before you throw us like dogs."

"Look, Dazzlings. I want to be fair, but you did try and take over the world with whatever dark magic you had in those crystals." Sunset glared at Aria and Sonata. "I know that I'm supposed to be fair in giving people a second chance, but there's only so far you can go before you cross the line. Plus, you made my friends look like the bad guys, turning everyone in Canterlot High against 'em." She crossed her arms as she looked back into Adagio's eyes. "How do I know that you're worth a second chance?"

"Typical Sunset. Always trying to play the role of the high and mighty." Adagio slid back to her sisters. "But I bet even you must've known what pain was like. Having to suffer at the hands of someone else just because you weren't happy with the hand you were dealt."

"We've seen some crazy shit in our time and been to some places I'd rather not talk about." Aria turned her back. "Both here and back in whatever you ponies call that weird planet."

"You mean Equestria?" Sunset deadpanned.

"No, silly! Equestria's only the capital!" Sonata giggled. "We're talking about places outside of Equestria, filled with dangerous monsters of all different shapes and sizes. What, did you think we came just from a world filled with talking horses that do magic? Get real, sister."

"Outside of Equestria?" Sunset lifted a brow. She had never really been fond of the Dazzlings after their scheme to rule CHS, but she couldn't help but dig into what Sonata meant by that. "Actually, that's gotten me curious, Dazzlings. Where did you come from if not from my home?"

"Well... I could tell you. But I would need to know that you trust us enough." Adagio smirked. "After what you said about us, you really hurt my widdle feelings. Why would I tell a ruthless bully all about our tragic past?"

"Because this tragic bully could call the other Rainbooms right now and rainbow-laser you back to wherever you came from." Sunset held her phone up and opened the messages app right in front of the three former sirens.

"I don't think we're even welcome there anymore," said Sonata.

"Oh c'mon, Sonata. For all we know, that fish-loving fop could be dead by now." Aria smiled slightly at that remark. "We could totally go back." Then, her face fell. "If we wanted to live in a stupid little hell-hole again like before!"

Sunset's eyes widened at Aria's sudden outburst. She blinked a couple of times before taking a deep breath. "Alright. Now, I'm really interested. If one of your friends is mad about home then it's definitely worth talking about."

"I have a name you know! It's Aria." She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Aria Blaze. And I'm not technically friends with these two. I just come along because they're up a creek without me."

"Sunset. I appreciate your interest in our history, but I'm afraid that I simply can't trust you with it." Adagio pouted and shook her head. "After all, how can one trust someone with a secret if they cannot trust them back in return?"

"Adagio, I trust you, but not enough to know that you're up for redemption just yet. There's still a lot of strings I would need to pull to try and reform you and your sisters." Sunset Shimmer took a quick swig of her cooled cocoa and wiped the chocolate off of her face. "Even so, I'll listen to your story."

"Not the kind of response I was looking for, but one I'm happy to take nonetheless." Adagio clicked her fingers, prompting Sonata to pick up an empty chair and place it behind Adagio. She sat down and crossed her legs, giving Sunset another seductive look. "Well, as Sonata quite bluntly put it, we're not really from Equestria. But rather... a few hundred miles south. Give or take a couple dozen."

Far beyond the world you like to call Equestria, there's all sorts of things out there you would not believe. The Caverns of Conundrum, the fearsome Black Skull Island, and the merchant town of Klugetown. All of them have their own... charms in some way or another, but that's not where we came from. Just past the Pinewood Forest and off the shores of the Basalt Basin, lies the majestic Mount Eris. And right at the top, the Hippogriff Kingdom, where we once came from.

"Wait a second. Did you just say hippogriffs?" Sunset's brow lifted into the air. "I've done my research on many creatures and I'm not too sure that I've heard of these kinda things. At least, not to my knowledge of whatever books Celestia has back in her libraries at Canterlot." She slid her finger around the rim of her cup.

"Well, even if Celestia never bothered to tell you, hippogriffs are a noble and proud race. They're very similar to griffons in a way, but they've got more horse-like details, so to speak."

"Does that include—"

"Thank you very much, Aria, but the grown-ups are talking here." Adagio slapped her hand over Aria's mouth. "Don't worry. You'll get your chance to talk once we get there."

Anyways, we weren't always the monsters you know us for today. Sunset Shimmer. We were, in fact, three lone hippogriffs joined together by a common bond: Singing. Together, we had a triple act that wowed the crowd and made everyone happy, even the royal family.

Let me tell you, Sunset Shimmer, being adored is a wonderful feeling. The crowd cheering your name, singing your praises whenever you walk into the light, always following you every step of the way; even if they were to sacrifice themselves to do it. We loved the appreciation and the devotion that our fans had for us. Practically everyone gave us a standing ovation whenever we sang in Mount Eris.

But... It wasn't to last.

One day, our home was attacked by an army the likes of which we'd never even seen before. Beasts that all bore the insignia of two forked horns: Minions of the nefarious Storm King. His troops ransacked the Hippogriff Kingdom and wiped the floor with our militia. Not even the strongest hippogriffs could stand up to the king or his soldiers.

The queen knew full well why the Storm King mounted his assault. He wanted to strip us of a very powerful magic and leave us for dead, but her Majesty wasn't having it. Using a powerful relic, she led her people away from the malefic king and his evil troops.

When we first heard of the order to ran, we were none too happy about it, but we had to follow the queen's orders or perish at the hands of the king. So, we ran after Novo and into the deepest sanctum of our land. We made it to a spring, but there was no other way out and the Storm King's troops were fast approaching. Aria thought that we were going to die for a few seconds, but then something incredible happened.

Using a mystical pearl with otherworldly powers, Novo threw us all into deep waters of the mystic spring. The king's troops wouldn't dare risk swimming down to chase us, so they just gave us our perfect escape route out of the danger. Once under, the pearl began to transform our bodies and change us all into majestic seaponies.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Adagio. Slow down there for a second!" Sunset pushed her hands out in front of her face. "You're just washing me with all these facts but aren't going into any depth about them. I mean, who even is this Storm King guy that tried to take over your land?"

"Well excuse me for trying to please you young people." Adagio put her hands to her hips. "I figured that you wouldn't like a long and drawn out explanation of what friends we had, what we did outside of singing, Sonata's secret crush from years ago."

"Hey! I told to never, EVER bring that up, Dagi!" Sonata stomped her foot.

"Anyways... I have so many questions already and we've not even scratched the surface." Sunset pulled out a pencil and notepad from her bag. "Who is the Storm King? Why did Queen Novo have a magic pearl in the first place? What happened to your kind? Did they—"

"Sssh..." Adagio put her finger on Sunset's lips, silencing her immediately. "Patience, Sunset Shimmer. A true story requires you to tell the non-important parts and show the really big points. I'm simply telling you what happened at Mount Eris because that's not really what made us evil. Trust me. I'll get to that in time."

So. Where was I? Oh yes. Queen Novo's magical pearl transformed us all into water-breathing seaponies. Our wings and back legs had been swapped out for fins and the like. And before you make any of your little comments, Sunset, we didn't become those scaly monsters you saw at the Battle of the Bands straight away. In fact, I assure you that we were majestic both as hippogriffs and as non-monstrous seaponies.

First of all, let me tell you that turning from hippogriffs into hippocampi was not an easy transition. Many of us were confused and frightened about our new bodies—especially given that most of us couldn't swim underwater at all. But time did pass and we eventually got used to it all.

Now that we were safe from the Storm King's army, we needed a place to live. For all we knew, he might've destroyed our home and left nothing but ruins in his wake. That, or he was preparing some special kind of underwater vehicles to flush us out of hiding again. Nevertheless, we couldn't go back home.

So what do you do when you've been driven out of the only home you know and love? You make a new home in whatever new place you wind up in, of course. You did it when you ran away from Canterlot, didn't you? You made this cushy little backwater town into a place you could call home. Likewise, the three of us and the other seaponies quickly jumped on board in making a new kingdom to reside in. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get the place up and running but it was so worth it. Seaquestria was such a wonderful kingdom that it'd make you go blind with its' beauty.

Once the new kingdom was finished, Queen Novo and her daughter, Princess Skystar, were quick to re-accommodate everyone. All of my hippogriff brethren got themselves new houses that dangled from the kingdom's ceiling. The endless ocean beneath us, the twinkling lights above, it truly was a little slice of heaven for the first few years.

"That still doesn't answer any of my questions, Adagio." Sunset pushed her fingers together and lowered her brows. "Why did you think it was alright to just leave your home behind and not go back once the Storm King had left? Surely, his troops must've cleared out after a few years, right?"

"You sure you wanna go through with this, Sunset? It's only gonna get more screwed-up from here." Aria just glared out the front door. "And trust me, you don't wanna believe that Queen Novo can seriously be considered a heroine in this tale. From what we've had to put up with, she's a lying sack of shit that doesn't care about any of the hippogriffs' well-being."

"That just sounds like something you'd say to play the victim card, Aria," said Sunset. "Unless you've got some proof of this, then I can't really see your story making a whole lot of sense."

"I guarantee you that it's one-hundred percent true. For super-duper realsies, Sunset." Sonata nodded. "But..." She began to look away and twiddle her fingers. "You're right that we don't have any proof on that."

"You may not..." Sunset looked down at the geode around her neck. "But I believe that I do." And she pinched it with her fingers, causing a small gleam of light to shine from it.

Adagio just stared at Sunset blankly and blinked for a few seconds before snapping back to reality. "I'm afraid I don't follow, Sunset. How do you possibly have something that'll prove our origins? Your parents probably weren't even BORN when this happened."

"I gotta agree with Dagi here, Sunset. You've really not got a whole lot from our past," said Sonata. "Unless you've got some kinda super-complex machine that can dig into a person's memories or something like that, there's not really a whole lot you can do here."

"I don't know much about a machine, but I do have a way of looking into somebody's past now." Sunset stood up and walked up to Adagio Dazzle. "Look, I know that you might be hesitant to see me using magic after we kicked your butts back at Canterlot High, but I promise you that this won't hurt a bit."

"Those are some big words from a former she-demon," Adagio scoffed.

"Says the evil monster sea-horse leader that nearly tried to overthrow the world through song." Sunset tilted her head and squinted her eyes.

"Touche." Adagio leaned back against her chair. "Alright, Sunset. But let's not keep this too long. I've yet to get to the juicy parts of our little tale."

Sunset leaned in close and placed her hand on Adagio's forehead. Almost immediately, her eyes began to fill with light as she began to probe her memories. Seeing nothing but light and colours all around her, many different memories from the siren leader's viewpoint. It was as if she was watching a videotape being played in reverse. Years upon years of images passed her by until finally she saw the underwater kingdom Adagio was talking about.

"Wh-Where am I?" Sunset's vision re-adjusted as she looked around the beautiful undersea realm. She had seen many things in her time but never once had she laid eyes on such a sight like this. She felt like she needed to channel Twilight and take some notes immediately but had left her notepad and pen back at home. "Is this really Seaquestria?"

Just as she floated a few inches forward, three mermaid/pony hybrids swam through behind her. Luckily, she was just visiting Adagio's memories. She watched the creatures swim up through a large hole in the castle's floor and began to follow after them.

"I still can't believe I'm seeing this." Sunset's eyes drifted around as she followed the seaponies up into the castle. Everywhere she looked, she could see similar creatures of all different colours and sizes. Some were carefree and played with their friends and families, while others were tending to their houses and aquatic pets. "If Rarity were here right now, she would be fangirling over this so much..."

"All I'm saying is that we should just go back up and see if the king's forces have cleared out." Adagio's voice faintly echoed through the water from the castle's inner sanctum. "You can't seriously expect those goons to wait that long!"

"Adagio?" Sunset asked the water and got no response. "I'd better get a closer look."

Sunset hovered up through the hole and into what looked like a massive throne room. Massive pillars stood all around her, with majestic coral and sea-based plantlife surrounding the foot of the room. There was a massive clam-shaped throne right in front of her with a white seapony lounging on it. She had blue antennae on her head with a crimson peacock feather crown on it. Her left and right fins were very translucent, but Sunset could make out a faint shade of purple and red on them.

"Please, your majesty. We can't just stay here forever." Another seapony that bore a striking resemblance to Adagio swam up closer to the throne. "We've seen all the sights and done everything there is to do down here. Now's the perfect time for us to go back up to Mount Eris and resume our lives!"

"And risk my people at the hands of that brute? I don't think so." The queen turned the other cheek and gazed out into the sea around her. "Maybe you just need to calm down, Dazzlings. I'm sure I can provide you another one of those depe-tissue massages."

"Listen, lady. We've had enough massages and pampering down here to last us a lifetime." Aria Blaze's fishy counterpart came up to the queen. "We. Want. To. Go. Home. What part of that escapes your head?"

"This is your home, Aria Blaze. Why are you trying to deny that?" Asked the queen. "No matter where we are or what we are for that matter, we're still the same underneath."

"The last time I checked, I was born a hippoGRIFF. Not a hippoCAMPUS." Adagio put her fins to her hips. "Plus, you yourself must miss the beautiful blue skies and wondrous winds of Mount Eris. C'mon, your majesty. Can't you do this one eensy-weensy little favour for us?"

"I promised to my people that I wouldn't let them get hurt by anything or anyone, Adagio." The queen turned her gaze to a giant jellyfish that hung above the throne. "As long as we stay down here, nothing can hurt us. We're safe, we'll always be safe, and that's just the way we like it down here."

"Funny. Because we don't feel safe." Sonata shook her head.

"Excuse me?" The queen turned to Sonata.

"It's just that, you think that we're all safe down here underwater, Queen Novo, but there's just as many water monsters as there are land-based monsters." Sonata turned around, seeing straight through Sunset's spectral mass. "There's sharks, killer whales, octopuses, and don't even get me started on the anglerfish down at the bottom."

"If you're trying to bluff your way back up the mountain, I'm afraid that it's not gonna happen, Sonata," said Queen Novo. "I know that you girls are all homesick, but we have to make do with what we have. After all, it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Safe? We're in an underwater PRISON, Queen Novo!" Adagio pushed her muzzle against the queen's. "There's NOTHING LEFT down here! All the stuff you've given us has finally began to lose our interest! How long do you want to keep this up before the others decide it's time to go home too?!"

"I've heard enough!" Novo slammed her fin against the back of the throne. "Listen, you three. We. Have. No. Home. Back. On. The. Mountain." She got up in the other Dazzlings' faces and gave them hard glares. "No matter how hard you want to fight it, this is your home now. Go back up there, and you risk the Storm King's wrath. And I swear on my life and the pearl above me, that no-one in Seaquestria is getting left behind."

"Ngh! Fine! We'll just take our leave then!" Adagio turned the other way and began swimming back down the hole. "Aria! Sonata!" The rest of her sisters swam out into the kingdom once more, leaving Adagio at the rim of the ring. She just turned back and stared at Queen Novo through the corner of her eyes. "You've gone soft, your majesty. Sooner or later, you'll have to miss Mount Eris. Don't come crying to me when you do." And with that, Adagio left the throne room behind.

Sunset took one look at Adagio and the others as they dived down towards the bottom of the seafloor. Before she could do anything else, though, a bright flash completely enveloped her and took her to another memory.

Sunset now found herself in a wide underwater cavern that had almost no source of light whatsoever. There were many different crevices and holes in the walls, floor, and ceiling where fish and other water-based life could hide in. The only faint source of light that she could make out was a dim glow on the cavern ahead, where the Dazzlings were swimming towards.

"Where am I now?" Sunset asked and swam through the illusion. "I'd better keep up with the Dazzlings. See where the story takes me."

Sunset followed them through the darkened corridor of stone and water. Nothing was said from either side for most of the swim and Sunset was beginning to feel a little bit uneasy about the whole thing. She felt a strange knot in her stomach begin to form as she approached the seapony sirens.

"It's not fair!" Aria groaned. "We're trapped down here and that stupid queen's far too blind to see it! I don't wanna be a seapony forever! I wanna go back to Mount Eris and have my wings back!"

"Adagio, can't we just go back to Mount Eris ourselves and leave the rest of the seaponies behind?" Sonata gently tugged at Adagio's fins. "I'm sure that if we go back and kindly tell the queen why we're upset, she'd feel a bit sad herself and give us some leeway."

"Sonata, that's a good idea, but Queen Novo's gotten incredibly stubborn over the past few years." Adagio sighed and shook her head. "She's so concerned with protecting her people that she's completely forgotten about the world above. I don't think she's even seen the sky or sun at all since we left."

"So, we just take the pearl ourselves and leave, right?" Aria swam up to her sisters. "I don't really care what we do now, but as long as it gets us out of this dump, then I'll be happy with it."

"If Queen Novo saw us trying to take the pearl, she'd be furious with us. She might lock us up in an actual prison and cut us off from the kingdom itself." Adagio hung her head. "But... I suppose that it wouldn't be a bad idea. We're already trapped down here anyways, so her sealing us behind bars is just another lock on the cage we're in."

"Adagio..." Sunset wanted to reach out and give them all a little petting, but her hand fazed right through their bodies. Oh. That's right. These are all memories. I can't do a thing.

Eventually, Sunset and the Dazzlings arrived at the source of the light and found a sight that made all of their jaws drop wide open. Standing before them all was a radiant crystal web that spanned the entire wall and shone majestically; even without any light from the surface shining down on it. Jewels and gemstones of all different shapes and sizes lit up the wall and glowed ever so softly, providing a rainbow of colour for all four of them. There was some coral around the bottom of the formation, but it had cracked and broken apart, with some of the pieces scattered around the ground.

"How beautiful..." Adagio was very slowly drawn towards the web of gems. As she felt her fins brush against the crystals, a small smile began to form on her face. "That's probably the first wonderful sight we've had since we saw this place as a cell."

"So pretty..." Sonata came up to some of the gems and saw her reflection twinkle in each of the sides. "I don't think I've ever seen something this nice. Well, apart from the castle, that is."

"While her majesty's sitting high and mighty on her throne, she's just forgetting about all of this stuff." Aria Blaze turned her back to the wall and looked out into the darkness of the tunnel they had just come through. "Some utopia Seaquestria is, huh?"

"Girls! Look! Some of the gems came loose!"

Everyone turned their heads and saw Adagio close to a set of red gems that had fallen from the upper parts of the web. They slowly trailed down towards the fractured coral and landed gracefully along the other crystals, still keeping their luster even as they collided with the sand below.

"Those gems. They look familiar." Sunset went closer to the jewels and got a closer look at them. She then pictured them with a black leather strap and almost immediately came to a realization. "This must be where that got those pendants..."

"Hey, uh, girls? Are we sure that we should just take 'em?" Sonata tilted her head when she saw Adagio and Aria reaching down for the gems. "I don't know about you, but it just seems a little bit weird to take some of this stuff away. Kinda like it's got some kind of... magic to it, don't ya think?"

"Sonata, we have practically nothing now thanks to Queen Novo." Aria took the third one out with her tail fin and flung it to her. "Here. Catch."

Sonata very quickly caught it and held it in her fins. "Whoa..." She stared deeply into the colours of the jewel. "It's beautiful up close."

"I know what you are." The gemstone's light got brighter. "And I know what you seek."

"Huh?!" Adagio jumped and swam beside her sisters. "Who's there?! Did the queen ask you to follow us?"

"You bear resentment for Queen Novo, don't you?" The gems got brighter still, until a red aura began to form around them. "It is only natural that you would feel rage for the terrible crimes she had wrought upon you."

"Rage?" Adagio looked down at the gems and cocked a brow. "Well... I wouldn't really call it that. Just a minor irritance is all."

"Do not deny your true feelings, Adagio Dazzle." The gem floated out of her hands and hung before her, with the other ones jumping out of the other Dazzlings' fins as well. "All these years under the water have been taxing on your patience and respect with the queen. Unless that fury is exerted, you will never find peace and happiness." The water around the girls began to turn red with blood, but the web remained the same. "You have found this place and thus you are not like the rest of your kind. You are special indeed."

"Well... thank you, strange floaty-gem-guy." Sonata gave a weak smile. "We tried our best?"

"Your true potential is clear, but as long as Queen Novo restricts you from the outside world, you will never be able to grow and mature your talent," said the gem. "Your audience will never expand unless you break free from the confines of your underwater cage."

"Our audience?" Aria blinked.

"You are good singers, are you not?" asked the crystal. "I can help you mature your talent for music as well as break you out of this world. You could be free from Queen Novo's rules, free to go wherever you want, and free... to make your own paths."

"Our own paths?" The Dazzlings repeated.

"Accept this new power, Dazzlings, and put your full potential on display." The gems shot multiple red tendrils out of each of the points and struck at each of the seaponies' hearts. "Your unbridled rage and your alluring songs shall be your greatest weapons. Use them wisely and they will grant you everything you could ever want and more."

"How do we know we can trust you?" Adagio tried putting her hands in front of the strings of red lightning and tried to push the gem away from her chest. "We don't even know your name!"

There was silence for a brief moment, before the gems finally spoke once more. "My name is unimportant. Besides, you will forget all about it." And they tried once again to dig into the Dazzlings' chests. "But on more pressing manners, you have revenge to take. So do not try and fight this. For unleashing your fury on her majesty is the only way you will find solace."

"Nngh... It's right, Adagio. We've been held back by her for too long!" Aria called out. "It's time that we take our own lives back!"

"Plus, I do kinda wanna see the outside world one more time." Sonata's grip against her crystal began to waiver. "Plus, when are we ever gonna have this chance again?"

Adagio looked at both Aria and Sonata and watched as they gave themselves over to the gems, freeing their grip and letting them drift closer and closer to their chests. Looking back at her own, she parted her fins and opened herself up for the crystal.

"Good." The gemstones pushed into the Dazzlings' stomachs and burned themselves into the flesh. No blood was spilled, despite the immense cries of anguish from Adagio, Aria, and Sonata. "Now. Let your anger take hold. Use it to smite Queen Novo and restore your fragmented life. Fight against the chains of oppression and let your hearts guide you. From this moment on, you three are reborn!"

Just as Sunset tried to fly closer to the gems, a burst of powerful red light knocked her back away from the sirens. She began to feel the vision fading away as her body collided with part of the inner sanctum. She closed her eyes and flopped towards the floor, just as the Dazzlings swam out of the room with their new gems welded into their bodies.

Back in reality, Sunset took her hand off of Adagio's head and looked her square in the eyes. As she drank everything she had seen in and compared the Adagio of the past to the one in the coffee shop with her now, she couldn't help but feel an overwhelming pang of sorrow in the siren leader's heart.

"Adagio..." Sunset reached forward. "I didn't know you were telling the truth about Queen Novo, or of the underwater kingdom."

Adagio just sighed. "It seems like ages since we found that old formation. Don't you agree, girls?"

"It must've been, what, a couple hundred years or so now?" Aria twisted her wrist and looked down at her neck, feeling where her old pendant used to hand. "We were so desperate back then. We did what we had to do to survive. And if that meant taking down Queen Novo, then it had to be done."

"I might be a bit of an air-head, but even I know that Queen Novo's protection didn't benefit us at all." Sonata's hair drooped down over her face as she knelt down towards the floor and brushed it with the back of her hand. "Funny. What seemed to pretty at first turned out to be our worst nightmare. And all because our ruler, someone we trusted until the bitter end, became cold and distant."

"So... what exactly happened after you found those gems?" Sunset tipped her hand. "You mentioned something about taking down Queen Novo, but I don't know what you meant by that. Did you mean to physically fight her or turn the seaponies of Seaquestria against her?"

"A little bit of both." Adagio put her hand on her throat. "At the time, we were completely new to the gems' powers, so we had to do a little bit of a practice run on the way back to the castle. We sang a little on our way back and that whipped the creatures of the deep into a real frenzy. All kinds of sealife—even the most neutral and harmless of fish—were all suddenly incredibly aggressive and violent towards each other. It was unlike anything we had ever seen before.

"Once we made it back to the castle, we took one long look at it. A lot of things ran through our heads as we thought about everything that had been said and done." She lowered her hand to her side and clenched it into a tight fist. "Queen Novo denying us our freedom, the gems' provoking our rage, and our own longing for the outside world one more time, it all bubbled together and drove us to do the unthinkable: We attacked Queen Novo."

"That's some pretty hardcore stuff, girls." Sunset brushed her hair back. "I wasn't really a fan of Celestia's little curriculum when I studied at her school back in Canterlot, but I never tried to fight her. That's something seriously next level and worthy of banishment; from any kingdom."

"Now the pieces are beginning to fall into place for you, aren't they, Sunset?" Adagio looked up into Sunset's turned eyes. "Maybe some more mind-digging should verify that for you."

"Yeah. I suppose that it'd kinda help." Sunset lifted her hand up to Adagio's forehead again. "I don't wanna just go running around believing fantasies when I can use my magic to see the truth." She gently put her hand down onto Adagio and delved through her memories once more.

Sunset Shimmer found herself back in the throne room, right behind the Dazzlings. They were once again face-to-face with Queen Novo, who was still slumped across the clam-shaped throne.

"Your majesty. As much as I appreciate your stubborn game, surely, you must want to return back to Mount Eris for at least one reason." Adagio cocked a brow at Novo. "For example, seafood is really hard to come by here and more often than not, your patrollers barely bring anything back. Can't we just make a few runs back to the surface and fetch some real food for you?"

"Adagio, I appreciate you thinking about every outcome and for the concern of the others, but I still believe that we're safe down here." Queen Novo rolled her eyes. "And besides, we've found other things to eat down here that aren't fish-related."

"Okay. Well... what about expanding the kingdom a little bit?" Sonata smiled. "I mean, we can't just stay down here forever. The others might have kids and they could be wanting a bigger place to run around and play in. You surely don't mean to keep these kids stuck in the kingdom as it is now, right?"

"You'd be surprised with how much the children here value their safety, Sonata." Novo smiled. "Like I said, I appreciate your concerns, but I make all the decisions here and I decide that if we move even an inch, the Storm King will come down hard on us like a cave-in.

"How?! Is he gonna magically gain gills, swim down to the kingdom, and mount an invasion with sea creatures?!" Aria Blaze snarled. "Face the fact, your majesty. We're. Stuck. Down. Here. Either expand the kingdom or let us go back to Mount Eris! Or else."

"Or else what?" Novo's brows lowered. "I am the queen. And you three are just subjects. And, last I recalled, subjects were supposed to obey their rulers!"

A short silence fell, before Adagio ended up cracking a demonic grin. "Not anymore."

Before anyone could say or do anything else, Adagio snapped her neck forward and fired red lasers out of her eyes, knocking Queen Novo back over the side of the throne.

"What?!" Novo burst out of the back of the clam. "You dare to attack me?!"

"Save it, liar!" Aria Blaze added her own volley of red energy to Adagio's. "You didn't protect your people at all! You just led them down here and locked them up in a cage! You don't care because you're too weak to fight! Admit it!"

"Who said I was weak?" Novo's brows lowered and she thrust her fins to the side. "GUARDS! Get these three out of my sight! And smack some sense into them while you do!"

All of a sudden, a group of armoured seaponies charged into the throne room, all armed with spears made out of pointy shells. They dashed towards the Dazzlings, trying to strike them with their weapons.

"Hiding behind your people as always, Novo. This is why you don't want us to be free!" Adagio Dazzle combined her speed with the power of her new red gem to outrun and shoot down the guards pursuing. "Always wanting to stay down here, so you drag your fellow seaponies into this just to hide behind them!"

"Whoa! Easy there, tiger! You don't wanna make me angry." Sonata nimbly dodged a series of close-quarters attacks from a guard, before swimming right over him and giving him a tail fin slap. "Alright. Now I'm pretty steamed! That's a first for me!" And she shot her own eye-lasers out at the guard, smashing him into a pillar.

"You've forgotten what it's like to have freedom, girls!" said Novo from her throne. "To be free, you must be undisturbed!"

"No, your majesty. Freedom isn't isolation. It's about going places, doing things, actually seeing the world for what it is instead of being cooped up in one place for the rest of your life!" Adagio head-butted a guard and rammed him and another one into the floor ring's edges, smacking them both unconscious. "Something you've completely forgotten after you lied to your kind and made them think that this was prosperity, when it turns out, you led them into a web of lies meticulously crafted for them to believe in!"

"Whatever dark thoughts have tainted your body, I intend to rectify them!" Queen Novo flew up from the throne and threw the tentacles of the jellyfish above. "Give up this stupid little game and maybe I might just turn a blind-eye to this nonsense."

"It's FAR too late to bargain with us, Queen Novo!" Aria shot beams of red light up through the tentacles, barely missing Queen Novo as she tried to duck and weave through them. "There's only so much we can take before we snap. This is just the straw that broke our backs!"

"Everyone! Your queen is under attack! I need everyone up to the throne room at once!" Queen Novo cried out to the kingdom. "The Dazzlings! They're trying to overthrow me and ruin everything!"

The seaponies all came charging in from every entrance. The pillars around the throne room soon became overran with the other inhabitants of Seaquestria. Of all different shapes and sizes, they charged in on the Dazzlings, who had their backs against each other.

"Your unbridled rage and your alluring songs shall be your greatest weapons..." Adagio said to herself. Once more, a smile formed on her face. "Girls? What say we give these seaponies one last song before we make our way back to Mount Eris?" And she glanced at the gem, which glinted in the light.

Nodding in agreement, Aria and Sonata took a breath and began to harmonize with Adagio. Together, the three sirens sang a melody that struck the ears of everyone else and stopped them mere inches before they came into contact with the Dazzlings.

There was a red shine in their eyes and the other seaponies turned towards their peers before shouting obscenities, throwing shells, and trading blows with each other. Almost everyone had forgotten about the Dazzlings entirely as they locked themselves into verbal and physical fights, trying their hardest to come out as the victor.

The Dazzlings swam out of the mayhem, followed by a wave of green mist from the angered seaponies. The magic crashed into their gems and made them shine a bright shade of crimson, illuminating the entire kingdom. The three sirens locked their gaze on Queen Novo and stared deep into her eyes.

"Now then. Queen Novo. The so-called protector of Seaquestria." As Adagio began to speak, the gems began to shoot out red veins across the Dazzlings' body across all directions. Within seconds, they were covered from their antennae to tails with red lines. "You have no idea what the three of us are capable of.

"All of this talk about safety and protection, when all you do is neglect your kin and focus solely on your own sense of survival." Adagio pulled Novo up from her chin and pressed her nose to the queen's. "You've forgotten what it's like to be who you were. So worried what the king would do to you, you played on defense for almost a millennium. Well. Maybe a little memory-jogging should show you the truth!"

The Dazzlings' bodies began to morph and bubble as their gems burned light through the ocean. Their tail fins became much longer and the scales got sharper. Their translucent fins curled up and solidified into a pair of horse hooves with a chip at the front. Their regal hairstyles burned away and were replaced with long mohawk-like fins that reached down from their heads to their backs. Their antennae hardened before breaking into a pair of smoothened horns. And finally, their heads began to morph into horse-like heads with sharp pointy teeth in their muzzles.

"Never thought I'd see something like this again after the Battle of the Bands..." Sunset pushed through the fighting crowd and saw the Dazzlings' true forms stood before Novo. As much as she wanted to fight, she couldn't.

"Wh... What happened to you?!" Novo backed up in fright at what the Dazzlings had become. "Just a second ago, you were just like my kind!"

"Well, as times do go on, one particular look does start to wear thin," said Adagio. "We were in dire need of a makeover after so long."

"Plus, this way, I get to fight you with no regrets." Aria bumped her hooves together. "The only way to fight a monster is as a monster, right?"

"The only monster I see here is YOU, Dazzlings." Novo, despite backing up, tried her best to put on a brave face against the sirens. "Even if you manage to defeat me, I'm still not going to give you the pearl. Our safety is of the utmost concern."

"We don't want to be safe, Queen Novo." Adagio launched herself forward and pinned Novo to the wall with her tight new legs. "We want to be free. How long do you think you can keep someone in a prison before they get the idea to break out?"

"Forever." Novo spat in Adagio's face, causing her to throw her head back.

"We've tried being patient with you, Queen Novo, but now our patience is at an end." Adagio's eyes turned pure red as she prepared another magical attack. "Now. Make us return to Mount Eris or else Seaquestria is going to need a new ruler..."

"Yeah! Let us go home, you big meanie!" Sonata threw her new appendages down.

"I won't... let my people... be dominated by anything." Novo tried her best to break out of the sirens' hold. "Not the Storm King, not the other underwater predators, and definitely not YOU!"

Queen Novo wiggled and flailed around, breaking out of Adagio's hold the split second she opened fire on her. With the Dazzlings hot on her trail, she darted through the water towards the jellyfish in her throne room and swiped the pearl out of its' clutches.

"There's only one way to deal with someone as stubborn as you three, girls." Novo frantically swam forward, but the Dazzlings inched ever so closer to her with each passing second. With nothing left to do, she began to rub the pearl while keeping ahead of the sirens. Sighing, she went through the throne room and through the jellyfish's coils. "It pains me to do this, but I can't allow someone as dangerous as you running around my kingdom."

The Dazzlings tried to chase Novo, but the jellyfish's tendrils struck them fast and delivered powerful shocks throughout their bodies, stopping them dead in their tracks. Twisted, the three beasts collapsed onto the throne and stared up at Novo, who caressed the pearl in her hands.

"As the queen of this kingdom, I hereby banish Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk, to the surface above." Magical streams began to fly out of the pearl and wrap themselves around the sirens. "You three shall leave Seaquestria and never return. My magic will make sure of that."

The magical streams from Novo's pearl, now secured around the Dazzlings' chests, pulled them up from the throne and straight into the pearl, where they all turned into clumps of white magic and vanished on the spot. The twinkles drifted up to the roof before fading away.

Sunset once more retracted her hand and returned to the present. Adagio and the other Dazzlings still sat before her, with Aria and Sonata sat on their own chairs as well.

"So. There you have it," Adagio said coldly. "Queen Novo denied us our freedom, so we just had to fight for it. And that ended up with us getting banished from our kingdom, exiled from our kind."

"Well, you did kinda ask for it, going up against a queen with a magical pearl on hand." Sunset deadpanned.

"It was a pyrrhic victory, Sunset." Adagio kicked up her feet. "We were the only ones who wanted to leave the kingdom, so Queen Novo decided to let us leave. Just... not in the way we were expecting."

"Eh. It's not like we'll miss that place anyways." Aria just scoffed. "Nothing but sea-shells and shambles now, probably."

"But I'll still miss that crush I used to have before we all got sick and tired of the place." Sonata put her hand on her chest. "I think I still have his favourite song memorized too. I'd sing it for you, but you know what happened the last time we tried singing to you, Sunset."

"Anyways..." Sunset turned back to Adagio. "So, what happened then?"

"We were cast out of Seaquestria, and washed up on the Basalt Basin, just off of the coast of Mount Eris." Adagio sat upright and draped her fingers down the edge of the table. "We just went back to look at Mount Eris and saw that the Storm King had left it be. His troops were nowhere to be found, but instead, we found the ruins of our old life.

"Cobwebs, unused trinkets, shattered windows, and broken walls. It was like it hadn't been inhabited for centuries. It was a true paradise, and Queen Novo left it to decay, to crumble." She slipped her fingers off and put them down on her laps. "All that beauty, lost to time. We were just even more angry at her for it and that anger drove us to move. Far away from the sea and the mountain as we possibly could."

"Since it was obvious that Queen Novo hated us, we didn't want anything to do with her anymore," Sonata chirped. "So, with our new bodies and magical powers, we just flew as far away from home as possible."

"We went north, passing many sights on the way. Soaring over the forest, through a sea of clouds, and across the desert." Adagio looked back up at Sunset and put her hands back down her sides. "We had plenty of time to practice our powers on the way up and build our powers, so naturally, we took pit stops every now and again."

"I feel like I should read your mind again, Adagio, but you've been telling the truth for quite a while now and I do start to believe in your story a lot more now." Sunset stood up straight. "I'm sorry that I doubted you. I guess that I was still a little bit antsy after the Battle of the Bands and that clouded my judgement on you."

"No worries, Sunset. It happens to the best of people." Adagio leaned back. "Trust me, I know."

"I feel like we're getting closer to the end now." Sunset took some steps back and took a good long look at each of the Dazzlings. "But there's still some things I want to get straight. I hope you don't mind filling me in on the rest of your little tale?"

"Well, I did start this, so I might as well finish it. Especially after you've held out on us for this long." Adagio rubbed the soles of her stilettos against the coffee shop tiles. "After a long trek up north, the three of us eventually found what you now call Equestria, and the many different ponies that inhabited it. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns all at once, living in peace and prosperity."

"And your singing began to divide them. That's what I was told by Twilight and her friends." Sunset brushed her chin.

"All we wanted after being cast out of Seaquestria was a little bit of adoration. But sadly, it just never came." Adagio hung her head. "Whenever we tried to sing, all that we wanted was someone to care for us; to fill the void in our hearts that Queen Novo had left when she threw us away like that. But instead of love for each other, everyone turned against themselves and we fed off of their hatred." Adagio heard the noises of arguments filling her head. "You probably heard us speaking of adoration back at Canterlot High, Sunset. Well, that was when we had the most grip over our powers. Back then, it was just a work in progress."

"I see..." Sunset nodded. "So you never really wanted to tear the kingdom apart?"

"No. We had already lost everything. Destroying a kingdom like Equestria wouldn't have done anything to change our situation." Adagio turned towards the door. "We used to have adoring fans back in our old kingdom, but after being cast out, all we had was ourselves and our new magic. We didn't like being ghosts to the rest of the world, but we had to make do with what we had and keep trying. Again and again we would sing, trying to fork some kind of love out from the ponies of your world. And every time, all we got were more angry ponies trying to rip each other to shreds."

"Twilight told me that someone named Starswirl the Bearded eventually stood up to you and used some kind of magic to bring you here." Sunset sat back in her chair. "Can you say it was true?"

"Yes. And he was accompanied by five others. The names escape us, but they all seemed like very powerful and influential ponies." Adagio drummed her fingers against the table. "He told us that we were not permitted to continue using our songs in Equestria. Naturally, we hated being told no, and so we tried taking him and his friends out for it. But we underestimated the three of them, and they opened up a rift between worlds and threw the three of us through it.

"We ended up in this world and... well, you know the rest by now, Sunset." Adagio stood back up.

"Yeah, you were there at Canterlot High with the rest of the Rainbooms." Aria gruffed. "And now it's because of you and your friends that we have absolutely NOTHING left. No home, no fans, no magic... and no hope."

"We gave up on everything after the Battle of the Bands, you see." Adagio reached down into the pockets of her coat. "A good home, a stable life, any kind of friends or followers, it all went up in flames after you and the other Rainbooms destroyed our pendants."

"Adagio. I'm really sorry to hear about that, but I had to do what I had to do." Sunset stood proudly. "If you and your friends hadn't come to Canterlot High in the first place, you'd still have your gems today and you could've still tried to refine your powers, make everyone respect you, and finally fill the void." She was about to walk out, but she looked back at the girls one last time. "Actually, there is still one more tiny question I need the answer to: Why did you come to Canterlot High?"

"In these new bodies, our magic was a little bit harder to control." Adagio stood up and slid the chair underneath the table. "In fact, a good portion of our power was lost on the trip through Starswirl's portal. Seeing as it hailed from Equestria, we had a little bit of a hard time fine-tuning it to this world's inhabitants. We did a few practice songs and learned some new methods and genes of music and just took it from there.

"At first, we knew that we wouldn't be able to pry love straight away from the human race, as what happened at CHS clearly demonstrated. Even when we sang, everyone just stared at us with blank and lifeless eyes, as if our songs were so mesmerizing that it had vegetated them all!"

"So together, we decided that the only way to be loved was to force everyone into it. And in order to do that, we needed to get some kind of magic that had a REALLY strong kick to it," Sonata chimed in with a little smile. "Y'know, like a taco with some extra-spicy ingredients and sauces in it?"

"Ugh. I thought today would be the one time I wouldn't hear you bring that infernal food brought up, Sonata. But I guess I was wrong." Aria just stared at her.

"When we saw a pillar of rainbow-coloured light in the distance one day, we had our heading and went off. And that leads us straight to Canterlot High and the end of our little tale," said Adagio. "You and the other Rainbooms can fill in the rest from there. We came to your school, tried seeding everyone with our power to get some love, and then you had to go and challenge us to a musical battle that ultimately ended up ruining our lives."

"Wait..." Sunset's entire body began to feel slightly colder. "So, I'm the one who led you to Canterlot High?"

"Huh?" The Dazzlings chorused together.

"That light you saw? That was actually me and Twilight fighting to the death." Sunset shivered as she began reflecting on her own past. "That was when I turned into a horrible monster and tried to conquer Equestria myself. You must've seen Twilight Sparkle and her friends defeating me with the Magic of Friendship and turning me back to normal." At long last, when everything began to stir around in her mind, Sunset hung her head as well. "You're right, girls. It's all my fault that I ruined your life. I didn't know that my defeat would end up bringing you to my school. And if I'd known that all you wanted was a friend or follower, I could've given you a helping hand. But you were pretty out-there when I first met you and I didn't really feel like you were normal girls at all."

"Oh, don't beat yourself up about this, Sunset." Adagio rubbed Sunset's shoulders tenderly. "Queen Novo ruined our life the first time. You and your friends just added salt to that scar."

"I know. And before we do or say anything else, I wanted to say something that I never thought that I would be saying." Sunset took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Dazzlings. I'm so sorry for your losses."

"It's nice of you to feel that way, Sunset. But it is the hand we've been given, and so we must live with it." Adagio walked out of the coffee shop with her sisters in tow. "We might see each other again, we might not. But either way, it was a good talk, Sunset."

Sunset stood frozen to the spot as she heard the doors closing behind her. She went outside and saw the Dazzlings all walking off down the street side-by-side, accompanied by nothing more than the cold wind. The knot in her chest returned and felt even tighter this time. She couldn't just leave them all alone like this. Friendless, alone, scared, and powerless. She had to do something. Something that would put her mind at ease and reassure the three of them that there was still hope, even after they had lost everything else.

"Girls! Wait!" Sunset ran down the street after the Dazzlings and caught up to them fast. "What are you going to do now? Where are you going?"

"We don't know. We've always been travelling, ever since we were exiled from our kingdom." Adagio didn't even turn back. "Wherever the road leads us, we'll follow it. Endlessly. With no-one to look out for but ourselves."

"Living alone is no way to live at all, girls. You'll just find yourself in real danger without someone to give you a helping hand out here." Sunset pulled Adagio by the shoulder and turned her around. "If you just leave now, I have no idea what'll happen to you or your sisters."

"It's fine, Sunset. We've never needed anyone else before and we don't need anyone now." Adagio just turned around again. "We have no-one who appreciates us, and so we just have to disappear off of the face of the planet."

"No-one would miss us, Sunset." Aria walked off.

"That's not true!" Sunset cried. "Your only friend would!"

The Dazzlings all stopped in their tracks and slowly peaked at Sunset through the corners of their eyes.

"What do you mean, Sunset?"

"After all you've said and done, I can't just let you leave like this. It wouldn't be the right thing to do." Sunset approached the sirens and placed her hand on Adagio's cheeks. "You've suffered so much that it's torn you apart. So much so that you refuse to give anyone else a chance and let them into your lives." She watched as a small tear formed in Adagio's eyes. "If anything, you three need a friend the most of all; someone to help pull your life back together and make everything seem better."

"Wh-what do you mean, Sunset?" Adagio tried fighting back her emotions, but her eyes just watered up more. "We don't need anyone anymore. It's obvious that everyone in the world is out to get us, so we should just go away!"

"You're basing the entire world on a series of bad events instead of looking at the finer picture." Sunset watched as Aria and Sonata just looked away, with more tears forming in their eyes too. "Seaquestria, Equestria, Canterlot High, those are all in the past. You're clinging on to your past so much that you're forgetting who you are—just like Queen Novo when she moved her kingdom to the sea."

Adagio let out a loud gasp. "We... are...?"

"If you hold on to the past, it'll just come back to haunt you again and again. But if you work on the present and give friendship a try, then I'm sure that you three will get people to love you in time. Trust me, I've been there." Sunset put her hand on her heart. "I ran away from Celestia when her studies didn't make me feel happy and that left me hanging on to my past for the longest time. It wasn't until Twilight came here and showed me the Magic of Friendship that I was able to change myself." She stretched her hand out towards the Dazzlings'. "Please. Take this chance. Let me prove to you that there's always a rainbow after a storm. Please..."

The Dazzlings looked down at Sunset's hand for a while. Everything that they had said and done in the past all rushed through their heads all at a blinding pace. As every image shone in their heads, their tears got bigger and bigger, and the more that they tried to repress their sorrow, the more and more it began to eat away at their minds. Finally, in the end, all three of the sirens burst into tears and threw themselves against Sunset, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Oh, Sunset! Please help us!" Adagio wailed, tears flooding down her face. "You're right! We're all alone with nobody to love us!"

"Everything we've done... It only made our lives miserable!" Aria was on her knees moaning like a kid who had just broken her favourite toy. "I don't wanna be sad anymore! I wanna be happy!"

"We didn't mean to be evil sirens, honest! We just wanted some friends!" Sonata bawled loudly. "I don't wanna be so alone!"

"It's alright. You don't have to be alone anymore." Sunset smiled and patted each of the Dazzlings' backs as she embraced their hug. "With my help, I'm sure that I can find a way to make you more and more friends than ever before. You'll have an audience that loves you for who you are, not what you were."

"R-really?" Adagio sniffled.

"I'm sure of it." Sunset helped each of the sirens up to their feet again. "We've all had terrible pasts, I agree, but now's the time to let that all go and focus on what's ahead. I can give you all a helping hand, to make sure that I can get you off the ground and give you a better life. Trust me on that."

Adagio couldn't think of anything else to say other than, "Th-thank you, Sunset..." and just continued hugging her, teardrops dripping down onto Sunset's shoulders.

"You're welcome, Adagio." Sunset Shimmer smiled and closed her eyes. "I'm glad that you're willing to accept friendship into your life. Just as I did..."

Author's Note

Wow. First of all, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone reading this story. I know that big one-shots like this are taxing on writers, but I'm glad that all of you decided to stick with this right until the very end.

Now, I know that, straight away, I might be getting some comments saying that it might be feasibly impossible that the Storm King, seaponies, or even the Dazzlings lived for that long, but this is a work of fiction. Some things have to be taken with a grain of salt, after all.

But regardless, If you liked this story, I'm glad that you did. And if you didn't enjoy it, then I'm sorry about it in advance.

See you all again soon!