Diamond Journals Issue 2: A Battle of the Bands

Chapters

Chapter 1: The Wrong Mirror and a New World
Chapter 2: The Arrival of the Sirens
Chapter 3: A Dark Pre-Audition
Chapter 4: The Battle Begins
Chapter 5: A Chaotic Semi-Final
Chapter 6: Final Preparations
Chapter 7: A Finale of Nightmares
Prologue: The Return of the Dazzlings

Chapter 1: The Wrong Mirror and a New World

It was due time for Diamond to leave Equestria. However, Twilight had forgot to separate or at least label the two portals. Both of them were next to each other and they looked EXACTLY the same. One Mirror Portal led to Diamond's lab, the other led to the human Equestria and Diamond couldn't tell the difference between the two. He decided to just guess which was which, and evidently ended up picking the wrong mirror. Diamond fell face-first out of the wrong portal exit, finding himself in front of a strange high school, inhabited by human recreations of the Equestrian characters. He looked down at himself, and his alicorn shape had vanished to be replaced by a humanoid form of it. His skin and hair matched that of the alicorn form, he'd been placed in some extremely unfitting clothes, his horn, wings and tail had vanished and he looked overall dumb.

"Uh, Twilight? I've gone through the wrong mirror and now I have NO idea where I am." Diamond said, using that comm link for the first time. "Any ideas?"

"You appear to be in the alternate Equestria." Twilight analysed. "The portal took a huge amount of strain to transport you, so you won't be able to get out of there for a little while. See if there's anypony new around there. Make some new friends, maybe trash an old Equestrian artefact, you know the drill." Diamond shut off his comm and decided to look around, so that people wouldn't think he had voices in his head. He started his Canterlot High experience inside the school, and already he hadn't done brilliantly at making a good first impression. Walking through the halls, everyone who saw his either stared in awe or backed off, probably because of the amount of tech that Diamond had on his body. He was about to pass by the school hall when he heard music being played inside. It sounded like rock, but he couldn't be sure without going in. When he DID walk in, he saw a very odd sight. His six main Equestrian friends were there, along with a brand new face that he had NEVER seen before. The new girl had amber skin, red and yellow hair, a black jacket, pink shirt, orange skirt and appeared to play backup guitar in their band.

"Uh, sorry to interrupt the song, but...do I know you from somewhere else?" Diamond asked. The music stopped abruptly as the seven females turned to face the source of the unknown sound. The other six looked familiar, but they didn't seem like the same person, or pony.

"Why do you ask? Do we look familiar to you?" Rainbow Dash responded.

"Yeah, you definitely do. You look like my friends from another world." Diamond said. "You're Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and...uh..." he identified, pointing at each when he said their names, but slipped when he reached the new face. "I'm sorry, I don't think I know you."

"Sunset Shimmer." the new girl said, introducing herself. "But...how do you know everyone here but me? Am I really that unfamiliar?"

"Never mind that, look at HIM! He looks a little like a robot!" Twilight, more commonly known as Sci-Twi, exclaimed.

"That's probably because I AM a robot. Well, part robot, anyway." Diamond said. "I converted part of my body into robotic parts to stop a terrible infection I caught ten years ago, but it came with benefits and costs. I won't go into that, though."

"Hold up. You were infected? With what?" Applejack asked, but Diamond wasn't able to answer. His genes were reconfiguring themselves, and his genetics were changing back to normal. This took much less time than before, since the main shape was already what he wished it to be. When he was done, his visor began beeping at him to signify danger.

"No time to answer. I'm getting a danger signal coming from nearby. Probably a few robots sent to attack me." Diamond said. "We'll see about that, though! MEGANIZE ME! MEGA ARMOUR, ONLINE!"

[Transformation Scene]

Diamond leapt into the sky and was engulfed in a flash of light. He span through the air as his clothes vanished from his body, replacing it with light blue nano-tech armour.

Blue armoured boots began to form on his feet, created by nano-tech released by his armour. Next, the armoured upper body formed, with a breastplate and backplate appearing from nano-tech, and energy surged through his arms to create his gauntlets.

Finally, an armoured helmet with a knight's crest appeared on his head. He reached his right arm out, forming his Mega Buster, then touched down in a battle stance.

[End Transformation]

No sooner had Diamond's armour formed, a few Badniks burst into the room, led by Metal Sonic.

"Looks like Egg Face has a bit of beef with me today." Diamond remarked. "Stand back everypo-I mean, everybody. This could get ugly."

battle theme

Motobugs and Zingers charged at Diamond, the latter beginning to fire projectiles, but Diamond's Mega Buster pellets were more than enough to take care of them. Metal Sonic, obviously enraged by the fact that Diamond beat them so quickly, began to charge at him with an electric attack. Diamond's visor tracked this movement before it happened, and everyone not fighting dived out of the way. He sprang high into the air, firing down at Metal Sonic with his Mega Buster to little effect.

"Not working. What weapons do I have today, Rosette?" Diamond asked his automated assistant.

-The current weapons you are carrying are Bubble Lead, Metal Blade, Thunder Beam, Atomic Fire, Centaur Flash, Napalm Bomb, Ice Slasher and Quick Boomerang.

"That'll do. Activate Bubble Lead!" Diamond yelled, his armour changing to match that of Bubble Man. Being on land, his agility would be severely decreased, but it was worth it. He shot a few Bubble Lead projectiles at his opponent, and they did enough damage to force Metal Sonic to perform his Overdrive Charge. Metal sped towards Diamond, crackling with electricity. Diamond changed back to his Mega Buster to get his agility back, and ran circles around the room to avoid Metal. He could hear Metal making angry-sounding electronic noises, which Rosette translated to say "Get back here, Diamond! You can't escape me, nor can you escape the Sirens!" He stopped to consider this fact for a second, then Metal rammed into him and went all Super-Saiyan, attacking nonstop. Sunset quickly jumped to Diamond's aid as best she could and threw a nearby tool at Metal Sonic, making him turn his attention to them. Diamond crashed to the ground, but not without noticing the red gem protecting his core. Metal began talking again, and Diamond translated everything.

"What do you think you're doing, worthless scum? You will not stand in the way of me and Diamond." Metal began. He then took a second look, and his eyes began glowing even more red than usual. "You're more scum than I thought, being enemies of my masters, the Sirens. I shall now wipe you off the face of the planet." he finished, charging a blast of electricity.

"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!!" Diamond yelled, firing a well-charged shot directly at Metal Sonic's core. Upon contact, the gem protecting it shattered and Metal crashed to the floor.

end song

"I really didn't expect that a single blast straight in that gem could knock out that robot." Rainbow said. "But I don't think he means to be bad. Think you can fix him?"

"Yeah, I can repair Metal. It's actually quite easy when you have a cybernetic brain." Diamond answered. "Let's do this."

A STRANGELY SHORT REPAIR SESSION LATER...

Metal Sonic activated in near mint condition. He looked around, seeing his opponent and seven figures he couldn't even recognise.

"Where was I the past few minutes?" he asked himself. "Last thing I remember was tracking a huge energy signal and going in to investigate." Diamond's automated assistant, Rosette, translated every word of Metal's last few sentences, and would continue to do so for a while.

"Don't ask, Metal. Just...don't." Diamond said. "I'm sure we wouldn't be able to answer anyway." He picked up one of the shards dropped by the smashed gem, thoroughly examining it. He then used his levitation spell to grab all the shards and piece them back together. Once the gem was reassembled, he switched visors and scanned it.

-Recorded to Logbook.
-Element: Dark Crystal
-A crystal infused with dark magic. Most commonly found as rubies. When inserted into robotics systems, it will corrupt the machine to do it's owner's bidding. If possessed by organic lifeforms or cyborgs, it has powers even I cannot describe yet. Further research is required.
-Bound to: Adagio Dazzle.

Diamond dismissed his notifications and warped the crystal back to his lab, earning a question from Sci-Twi about why he couldn't just it to himself.

"Creating rifts between PLANETS is hard enough, but creating rifts between ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS? Unattainable." Diamond answered. "I can teleport things between dimensions, but I've tested on organic AND positronic lifeforms and they've been stuck in Null Space ever since. You know, a closed off space where NOTHING exists. It's where I put certain stuff before I need it. "

"I may be programmed to destroy you, Diamond, but there is a MAD amount of respect for you on every planet you've been to, including my own. But regardless, Eggman only sent me to investigate the energy surge, so I'll be on my way." Metal said. "We shall DEFINITELY meet again." And with a parting beep and a peace sign, Metal Sonic left the building. Diamond warped the broken Badnik parts into Null Space for later use, then turned to the girls.

"So, I'm gonna be here for a little while. Any idea what we're gonna do for that time?" Diamond asked.

"Well, you could start by applying to the school," a familiar sounding voice said. This came from Principal Celestia. "We can't have any old people just walk in, after that Dazzling incident. So-oh, wait, you're that human from another world, aren't you?"

"That would be me, Principal Celestia," Diamond confirmed. "Hold on, let me just take this armour off. Mega Armour, offline." As he finished his sentence, his armour collapsed on itself and his normal clothing reappeared on his person. Celestia went to say something, but instead just walked away, muttering to herself. "As I was saying, does ANYONE have any ideas?"

"I have a few ideas, but I dunno if you're gonna like them." Sunset said. "Here's my number. Let me know when you're available, or we'll let you know if we have a problem." Diamond scanned the number into his system and added Sunset into his contact list, then they walked out to have a bit of fun.

Outside the school walls, the Dazzlings were watching and waiting for the right time to strike. They were looking for a moment to release their newfound dark power to take over Diamond, but he never seemed to remain alone, and even if he was, he was in armour.

"So, how exactly are we gonna GET Diamond on our side if we can't even reach him?" Aria asked. "I don't see how we can get a crystal on him."

"Just be patient, Aria. Diamond won't ALWAYS be ready for battle, and he'll NEVER suspect we'll have a surprise attack," Adagio said.

"Well, that's if we don't take over his little robot brain with our singing voices first," Sonata pointed out. "Though I guess our voices aren't powerful enough yet."

"We just got them back, Sonata. What do you expect?" Aria asked sarcastically.

"And THIS is why you suck. You give me questions I shouldn't or can't answer," Sonata argued.

"Aria! Sonata! Back off. We won't get anything done with you bickering!" Adagio pointed out. The other two Dazzlings stopped arguing and turned to face her. "Alright gem, what do we do?" she asked her necklace.

"Diamond's a tough one to get to..."

"Luckily, you can create another Battle of the Bands..."

"Of course! The Battle of the Bands plan!" Adagio said. "Diamond probably doesn't have a band, which gives us an opportunity to hit him with a Dark Crystal!" She smirked evilly, before sending a telekinetic message to the crystal Diamond had accidentally placed in Null Space. It was able to take control of Diamond temporarily and have him erase everyone's memories of the Dazzlings, which would only help THEIR cause. Well, everyone's memories but Diamond's and the Humane 7's.

"Let's do this thing." they said in unison, entering the school grounds and heading to the Principal's Office. Their plan was only just beginning.

Chapter 2: The Arrival of the Sirens

Diamond, due to his unexpected system malfunction, had been taken to the nurse's office to recover. He found the Dark Crystal in his Null Space, was able to unbind it from it's owner, then returned it to Null Space in order to store it for later. He repaired his mechanical arm and eventually got out of there at full Power.

"Strange. I could have sworn I sent it to my lab. And even then, you can't send messages through Null Space to activate magic items OR technology." Diamond said to himself. "How did that Siren manage it? To do that requires magic not even I can control!"

"Look, they're pretty bad. But if they just got their powers back, how were they able to break through NULL SPACE?" Twilight asked.

"We'll look into it later. For now, we have a Dazzling problem to attend to." Rainbow said. "If anything, they'll be singing their way back into school."

"I don't think so, guys." Diamond pointed out. "They made me cast a memory spell that has literally erased them from existence. The only reason you're safe is because before I lost full control, I was able to cast a Magic Repel spell on you, which would cause the next spell I cast not to affect you."

"So that's why you still know who we are." Adagio said, appearing out of nowhere. Straight away, Diamond noticed a slight oddity with the gem on her necklace. It looked eerily like a Chaos Emerald, but it really wasn't. Diamond could feel chaos energy from miles away, and those gems had no traces. But he WAS picking up a ton of dark energy.

"You again. I suppose you're wanting another Battle of the Bands?" Rainbow took a sort of fight stance. "'Cause if you are, we're gonna kick your sorry butts again."

"It won't be so easy this time," Adagio warned. "We've been singing our hearts out, and in doing so have powered our voices up enough to put the entire school back under our spell. But it's going to be a lot stronger now, and won't be easily broken. Kind of like our new gems."

"And even if we DO lose, we've still got a backup plan. We're going to-mph!" Adagio and Aria had covered Sonata's mouth to stop her from confessing the backup plan out loud.

"What I think Sonata was trying to say was that we have combat capabilities now." Aria demonstrated by firing off a dark projectile, which took energy from the gem itself. "We won't go down without a fight."

"See you in the first round." Adagio said, smirking. The three members of the Dazzlings walked through, two of them taking care to nudge past Diamond on the way through. He just scratched his head, partially in confusion, but mostly in thinking.

It was later in the day, and it was lunch break for the students. Diamond joined the girls at their table, keeping on edge for the Dazzlings to burst in. He'd already cast a Magic Repel on the girls, and his positronic brain couldn't be corrupted anyway. He was in deep thought. Surely the new crystals couldn't be THAT powerful...right?

"How d'yall think it's gonna go?" Applejack asked. "Surely they can't be that powerful!"

"I dunno...sounds like they REALLY mean business this time," Sunset said. "Any ideas, Diamond?" Diamond failed to respond, so Sunset asked Twilight instead.

"It's a distinct possibility that we can still beat them in the Battle of the Bands. It's much LESS likely, however, that we can beat them in combat." she deduced.

Outside the cafeteria, the Dazzlings were discussing game plan. Well, not so much discussing as they were taking Adagio's orders. Neither Aria or Sonata had noticed her amber hair beginning to turn jet black, as it happened so slowly.

"This is it, girls. It's time to put the school BACK under our spell." Adagio said. "This time, we'll have a bit more power over them."

"So, we're just gonna do what we always used to do? Spread a little trouble and feed off the negative energy to make us even more powerful? Some plan, Adagio." Aria pointed out.

'Stop being so whiny, Aria...' Adagio wished. She never knew that her gem was able to grant her wishes, and as the thoughts processed through her head, the gem around her neck began to glow, projecting a voice in her head only she could hear.

"Your wish is my command, Adagio."

"I will make sure you are satisfied, always..."

The gem continued to glow, projecting a red ring of light only Adagio could see around Aria's head. She quickly thought: 'I wish you were more obedient and less whiny.' The ring began to close in, followed by a few more. In a few seconds, Aria said this:

"Strange. All of a sudden, I feel...less whiny and more obedient. I'm sorry for my actions, Adagio."

She couldn't believe her eyes. Aria was ACTUALLY becoming more how she liked. The gem's powers were greater than she expected. She began to think again, the same red ring forming over Sonata's head as she wished for her to be a little less air-headed. The same process happened, and Sonata felt a little smarter than usual...for a few seconds. It appeared that Sonata was immune to her little wish-control.

"Are you alright, Adagio? You haven't said anything in a little while, and Aria's acting rather differently." Sonata said. Adagio snapped back into reality as she heard those words, and quickly said: "Uh...I'm fine. Let's just do this thing."

The Dazzlings walked in, singing their first song of the day, Battle (Of The Bands). They managed to attract everyone's attention, and nobody even noticed the fact that Adagio's hair was becoming darker, except for Diamond. He brought up his Scan Visor and grabbed a little more data on the gem.

-Recorded to Logbook.
-Artefact: Crystal of the Night.
-A crystal once held by the Obsidian Fury, said to bring eternal night at maximum power. The crystal has been gone for a long time and resembles the Dazzlings' crystals in the past. Possessing it will give the user incredible dark powers, while also corrupting them.

Diamond wanted to intervene, then remembered that nobody would ever listen to him anyway and dismissed the thought and just decided to listen to the song. As he did, though, Adagio made yet another wish from across the room.

'I wish that Diamond's magical and technological abilities were like everyone else's,' she thought. The process began, but was never completed. The reason for this was because Diamond had heard her thoughts with his mind-reading abilities and was prepared for the attack. White mind rings emerging from Diamond's head countered the red ones Adagio created easily. It looked like he was going to take more power to control. She gave up, satisfied that she would still have most of the school under her control and focused on singing.

"So Adagio can make wishes and the Crystal will grant them...interesting," Diamond said. "We need a counter for this, FAST."

Diamond and his friends were trying to make their way through a school filled with negativity. Nobody would even dare to look at them, or each other. He knew the principals would also be under the spell, so that option was out. The only shot they had was to counter the Crystal of the Night with Diamond's own magic. The Crystal of the Day had been lost along with the Crystal of the Night, and Diamond NEEDED that in order to acquire the power he needed to defeat the Dazzlings. To make his job easier, Diamond used his machines. He called in a couple drones and tasked them all to find his Crystal of the Day. There was just one more problem: the upcoming Battle of the Bands. He knew what to expect, but the rest of his band, ElectroGem, was unreachable right now. But this time, Rainbow Dash had the answer. She and Diamond decided to break from the group to talk about it in private.

"Your band's unreachable, huh? Well, why don't you join up with us?" she offered. Diamond didn't quite agree with this option, seeing as they were going to have one too many guitarists if he joined up. Instead, he made a counter-offer.

"Here's my idea. We split our group into two bands, four people in each. I'll lead the ElectroGem group, you can lead the remaining Rainbooms." he said. Rainbow decided to make the deal, on the condition that the three people Diamond borrowed joined back into the Rainbooms when they were ready to combat the Dazzlings, which Diamond accepted.

"So, who am I losing? Hopefully I don't need to waste time on teaching new instruments."

"Let's see...I'll take Sunset, Rarity and Fluttershy. I'll need to teach them new instruments, but I'll erase their memories of learning those instruments when I'm done with them."

"I can live with that, Diamond. Let's go lay down the news." The two walked out of Diamond's locker and went to find the others, who, since school was over for the day, had headed to Applejack's to practice. Diamond pulled out his remote control and pressed a button. Almost instantly, his car appeared in front of them. He snapped his fingers and Rainbow's car was warped home, then they got into Diamond's ride and drove over to AJ's.

Author's Note

The Logbook Data for the Crystal of the Day goes like this:
-Logbook
-Artefact: Crystal of the Day.
-A powerful crystal once held by the Diamond Angel. It stores an INCREDIBLE amount of light magic that only a master of it can control without being corrupted. Possessing the crystal is one of, if not, the ONLY way to defeat it's opposition: the Crystal of the Night.

Chapter 3: A Dark Pre-Audition

The auditioning round of the Battle of the Bands was due to begin in a day and Diamond had to get his temporary band members retrained FAST. MEGA fast. He'd set up a portable home in order to do this, and had put it rather close to the school. He started out by trying to teach Sunset the bass. She had a history with a guitar, so it shouldn't be too difficult, he thought, but he wasn't exactly right. However, she did have an idea that could speed the process up FAST.

"Couldn't you just zap all the information we need into our minds?" she said. "That would save a lot of unneeded hassle."

"OH YEAH! I have magic! Dumb me..." he said to himself. Snapping his fingers, Sunset and Fluttershy acquired all the info they needed. Rarity, who was planning to sing anyway and KNEW how to do it, didn't need a zap considering all the information was IN her brain. Sunset immediately began to play a short riff on the bass, but Fluttershy was a little hesitant. She was picked for the drums, as she had some experience with percussion on the tambourine. Diamond headed over and helped her get a little more confident, just by using a little bit of wish-control. Yes, Diamond is capable of wish-control as well.

"Why do I feel more confident all of a sudden? Oh well, let's do this!" she said, before banging up a solo on Diamond's custom-made drums.

"Well, now that you're all acquainted with your new positions, we need to start learning an audition song. The instruments I've given you have magic-absorbing properties, so we don't release our whole Magic of Friendship thing too early." Diamond said. "The song we're learning for our audition is called: 'The Electro Zap,'" he added, snapping his fingers to make music sheets and stands appear from Null Space. "Only problem is, we don't got a lot of time, and we gotta learn this song MEGA fast. I don't have enough mana to zap any more brains, so we need to do this the hard way. We better get started."

"Then what are we waiting for, darling? Let's start learning this song!" Rarity said, picking up her keytar and stepping up to the mic. Fluttershy began to count them in, and the song started, with Rarity starting on lead vocals for a song she REALLY didn't like.

(I'll save you a song that doesn't exist yet for now.)

Diamond's temporary ElectroGem members quickly got to grips with the song, and were able to play it perfectly without the sheets after the tenth attempt.

"Alright, song's down. I've got my magic back, so let me just cast something to make sure it sticks." Diamond said, casting a Memory Spell with a reverse effect. This specific memory spell preserves memories rather than deletes them and are useful for situations like that. The memories they needed were stuck until the spell was removed, which wasn't going to be for a while.

"So, now that we've got the song down, what do we do next?" Sunset asked.

"Well, we don't have a lot else to do, so why not just check in with the others and see how they're doing?" Diamond suggested, to which he received three nods. He summoned his tour bus, a black and blue van custom-made by Diamond himself, complete with sonic hover-jets, the band logo slapped on both sides and a fully-functioning defence mechanism in the form of a 360 degree laser turret on the top. He hopped into the driver's seat and deactivated the Liphidite core in his dual-core engine, while the others took another seat in the bus. The bus took off at the speed limit from startup without Liphidite to boost it's speed and Diamond drove off to Sweet Apple Acres.

Rainbow Dash and the remaining Rainbooms were struggling to decide which song to play without three of their members, and still hadn't decided when Diamond slammed on the brakes outside. The temporary members of ElectroGem, followed by Diamond, jumped out of the tour bus and walked over to them.

"You guys doing alright in here?" Diamond asked.

"Not really. We still haven't figured out a song to play with only four members," Rainbow Dash replied. "Don't you have robots or something that can replace our missing members temporarily?"

"Not programmed, but built. They're exact replicas of Rarity, Fluttershy and Sunset. I just need to program their memories into the replicas."

"Then where are they, darling?" Rarity asked.

"On my gunship, which connects to an intergalactic space base in the centre of the universe." Diamond answered confidently, which confirmed that Diamond practically lived in space.

"I'd like to see these "replicas." Think you can beam them in?"

"No problem. GemTech Gunship!" Diamond yelled. "Beam in the replicas I'm working on!"

-VOICE IDENTIFIED: DIAMOND.- said an automated message. -REQUEST GRANTED. TELEPORTATION PROCEDURE ACTIVATED.- Almost immediately, an exact copy of Rarity, Sunset and Fluttershy appeared in a green flash of light. There was no flaws: from head to foot, these robots looked EXACTLY the same as the originals, due to Diamond and his machines being MASTERS at replications.

"Now, there's one last thing I need to do: borrow a few brains." He readied his gunship's voice control. "GemTech Gunship! Beam me a few memory transfer cables!" The gunship's automated message was sent and the transfer cables were received, with Diamond connecting one end to the organic brains, setting it to copy, and the other end to the positronic brains on the robots. When the second end was attached, the memory transfer was initiated, with Rarity, Fluttershy and Sunset's memories being copied and transferred into their robotic copies.

-MEMORY TRANSFER COMPLETE. ACTIVATING REPLICA ROBOTS...- They emitted a few sparks, then their eyes slid open. The eyes were the only things that didn't look exactly the same as the originals. They were the same colour, but the pupils looked a little robotic, and were all filled in with the main colour. Their voices, however, were no different. Refined, accented, the only difference was the faintest sound of static for every word. Diamond had borrowed a few voice clips to create these voices, which is why they were near perfection. All he'd had to do was transfer information from the clips and let Rosette do the rest. He'd also programmed them with an experimental AI that makes them capable of human emotion and free will, making them even more alike to the originals.

"Wow. You've done a great job on these! They look exactly like we do!" Sunset said. "Well, almost. You can't exactly be perfect every time."

"You've got that right, me," her robot copy replied. "By the way, my code name is Suns3t_Sh1mm3r, but just call me Robo-Shimmer."

"I'm R4r1ty, but Robo-Rarity will do." R4r1ty introduced.

"And I'm Flutt3rShy, but Robo-Shy works as well." Flutt3rShy said, still a little timidly. Yes, he'd even programmed the same personalities into the copies.

"Alright, you three. You will be joining the Rainbooms temporarily to make their jobs easier," Diamond commanded. "And this goes for both of you, but if anyone asks, reverse your identities. Understand?" The six nodded to say yes, then assumed their roles.

"Well, now that we've got all seven members, what are we gonna play?" Pinkie asked.

"Let's go for Shake Your Tail. It's a classic song, one of our first, and it doesn't have enough of a risk for us to worry about," Rainbow answered. "Come on, you three. Let's start practising." They headed back into AJ's garage and got on with their practice, which the robots grasped near instantly.

"We better get back to our song as well. You guys meet me back at the garage, I have a little detour to make first," Diamond said, summoning his convertible and jumping into the driver's seat. The other temporary ElectroGem members hopped back into the tour bus, this time without a driver. "Tour Bus Autopilot! Voice recognition! Say your names."

"Sunset Shimmer!"

"Rarity!"

"Fluttershy."

-VOICES IDENTIFIED. TOUR BUS AUTOPILOT IS NOW IN CONTROL OF NEW USERS.- the computer said.

"Tour Bus Autopilot, Take us to Diamond's," Sunset commanded.

-VOICE IDENTIFIED: SUNSET SHIMMER.- the autopilot said, starting the bus's engine with a Liphidite core disabled. It sped off at the speed limit, with Diamond starting his own car and driving off for a bit of spying. Specifically, spying on the Sirens.

As Diamond pulled over, he camouflaged his car and entered his Grey Matter form. In this form, he was only recognisable by the occasional grey puff of smoke he emitted from time to time, his agility was highly increased and he also couldn't be physically contacted, but HE could physically contact others, especially with his Grey Matter Ninja weapons. Sneaking in by passing through a window, he saw and heard the Dazzlings rehearsing "Under Our Spell," which was obviously going to be their audition song. He also noticed that Adagio's hair had become even darker, with the usually yellow parts gone grey. Her eyes had become red with darkness, to match that of the gem around her neck and her boots had become armoured and dark, with purple crystal wings in the soles. He listened deep to the song, but was immune to their control due to excelling in light magic, which countered dark magic. Adagio had felt a presence of immense light magic, Diamond jumping to the ceiling to be seen as she turned around.

"Is someone else here, Adagio?" Sonata asked, curious for answer.

"He's somewhere around here. I can feel his magic..." Adagio muttered. "Gem, where is he?"

"I suppose he's...up. On the ceiling."

"Seeing him may be difficult, but I can help with that..."

"You spend way too much time talking to that gem," Aria said, obviously having caught on that something was wrong with Adagio. "Why not listen to US for a change?"

"Are you saying that...I'm being corrupted?" Adagio asked, menacingly.

"Don't listen to them, Adagio..."

"You can't trust anyone, not even your so-called 'friends,' only me."

"Is that so? Well, in that case..." Adagio said, smirking evilly. "It's time to show them what we can really do together." The gems around Aria and Sonata's necks were immediately discharged of corrupted magic, completing the Crystal of the Night. Adagio hovered into the air, black and purple armour forming on her body where her clothes should be. Adagio had become the Goddess of Darkness, Obsidian Dazzle. The other Dazzlings did what they could: run away. FAST.

"Well, there's still one matter to take care of...the spirit of the light." she said, looking up. Diamond IMMEDIATELY snapped his fingers and warped out of the house. "...never mind," she followed, reverting back to her original form. However, she now no longer had any band mates, but she quickly fixed that problem by making shadow copies of Aria and Sonata that she could perform with.

"OK, huge problem. The Crystal is complete and she's unlocked her new hidden form. I need that Crystal of the Day, FAST," he said to himself. As he finished his sentence, however, Aria and Sonata burst out of the door completely out of breath. He immediately freed them from Adagio's dark wish-control before initiating conversation.

"Diamond. Normally, we wouldn't be happy to see you, but we don't exactly have a lot of other choice," Aria panted. "Adagio's become a monster!"

"I've noticed. That crystal around her neck is a dark relic lost from my world, the Crystal of the Night," Diamond said. "I banished it to Equestria to protect my own, due to nopony there knowing how to use it, but I guess Starswirl disagreed and sent it here..."

"I think we figured that out on our own, but there's gotta be a counter, right?" Sonata asked. "Surely a crystal like that isn't invincible."

"It technically is. There's only one thing that can beat that thing: my Crystal of the Day. When the Crystal of the Night was banished, I stored mine for safekeeping, but it disappeared the same time as the other." Diamond replied. "My guess is it's somewhere in this world."

-GEMTECH DRONE #032 REPORTING: THE CRYSTAL OF THE DAY HAS BEEN FOUND!- Diamond's gunship reported with an automated message.

"Sweet! Bring it to me as soon as possible." Diamond commanded. "Well, we've found the crystal. But there's still a problem: it still needs to charge with positive magic, meaning I still need to enter the Battle of the Bands."

"So, what do we do for the time being?" Aria asked.

"Well, you could always become backup singers for my band so you can still sing. I'll just have to explain the situation to the girls." Diamond answered, hitting a button and making his convertible visible again. "Come on, hop into my car!" Aria and Sonata, due to lack of better option, just did as they were told. He started the car, driving off at speed, but not enough speed to get him arrested.

As the car pulled into Diamond's yard, he already heard "The Electro Jam" being played from in the garage. Aria and Sonata waited outside, due to having a slightly bad rep with the Rainbooms, and let Diamond do all the talking.

"Guys, we have a situation," Diamond said. "Adagio's figured out how to unlock the true power of the Crystal of the Night."

"Not good. Do we have your Crystal of the Day back yet, though?" Sunset asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes. It's on it's way here now." Diamond answered. "But I think I found us two new backup singers. Adagio cast these two off, so they're joining us until we can get that crystal off of her." He signalled for Aria and Sonata to walk in. "Their crystals appear to have been discharged of any corrupted magic, but they may still have...that effect on people."

"Now why would they have changed now?" Rarity asked. "Are you sure this isn't some sort of ruse?"

"Positive. I even recorded the whole situation. Want me to play it back for you?" he said, starting to play the recording anyway.

A SHORT RECORDING LATER...

"I see. So you really ARE on the run." Sunset said. "Well, we could use all the help we can get to defeat Adagio."

"Just be careful, though. These ARE her crystals, and she could take control of us at any moment, preferably to her the finale." Aria stated. "But, we're happy to help for now. What's our song again?"

"The Electro Jam. You should grasp it rather quick. Let's do this thing." Diamond said. He grabbed his guitar and began to count them in, Fluttershy beginning the drum roll to start the song. They'd need to get this song down quickly if they'd have any chance, and after several failed attempts it looked like they'd be there all night.

Chapter 4: The Battle Begins

Diamond awoke to the sound of his friends snoring. Had they really been there all night? He checked his watch: it was 8:30 AM, confirming that fact. His batteries had recharged rather quickly, but they were going to be late for school if they didn't get a move on. He immediately began to shred on his guitar, jerking everyone awake instantly.

"Come on, guys! We're supposed to be at school in 15 minutes!" he shouted, sending everyone into a sort of tired panic. "Before we panic, let me just restore a bit of energy." He snapped his fingers, instantly making everyone feel more awake, as if they'd had a full night's sleep, when in reality they'd only had a few hours at best. If they got a move on, they might be able to make it on time. After a frantic scurry to get ready, they hopped into Diamond's tour bus and he banged on the accelerator with his Liphidite engine online. He was going to have to speed, even on slow, but it would definitely be worth it.

ONE ROUGH DAY OF SCHOOL LATER...

Sticking around after school to be able to check into the Battle of the Bands first was worth it. When ElectroGem checked in, Diamond called Rainbow Dash's cell to let her and the rest of the Rainbooms know what was going on.

"Hey, Diamond. What's up?" she said over the line.

"Hey, RD. Good news and bad news. Good news is, we've got the Crystal of the Day and two out of the three Dazzlings on our side. I'll explain later." Diamond answered. "Bad news is, Adagio's figured out how to REALLY use the Crystal of the Night and has access to The Obsidian Fury's spirit."

"Alright, Diamond. We'll be ready to attack if we need to." Rainbow said. "Remember the plan?"

"Say it with me, RD."

"Be cool enough to win, but not cool enough to pony up." they said in unison.

"So...about 20% less cool." Rainbow joked. Diamond cringed HARD at this line before hanging up and heading to the school hall.

The school hall/auditorium was filled with chaos and negativity. The Rainbooms followed shortly after ElectroGem, and almost every friend group was in the room, arguing with each other. It seemed like everyone had the same bands as before, with a lack of new members in any of them. Diamond decided that the best option he was going to have to see what exactly was going on was to take a visit to the Mana Zone. He signalled to his friends that he was going to head in there, and to stall Adagio while he looked around. He then coated himself in magic, disappearing in a flash of light. He had become Living Mana, and was constantly expending mana at the same rate he recovered it.

"Woah. What the heck are these?" he asked as he entered the Mana Zone. He found himself looking at beings of black and red Living Mana floating around everyone's heads. Diamond was automatically Meganized when he entered the Mana Zone, so he brought up his Scan Visor and got as much as he could need on them.

-Recorded to Logbook:
-Morphology: Dark Living Mana
-A dark manifestation of Living Mana created by the Crystal of the Night. These beings only exist in the Mana Zone, but have enough energy to corrupt the real world, at least if they find a human host. As long as the Crystal of the Night is at power, this form of Living Mana cannot be destroyed.

Dismissing the notifications, Diamond left the Mana Zone and was about to de-Meganize when he felt an incredibly dark aura nearby. That dark an aura only meant one thing: Adagio was here. He de-Meganized quickly, then pulled out his phone and sent a message to his friends from Planet Mobius. He had a feeling they were going to need even more assistance in order to begin this. However, it wasn't Adagio who entered the room, it was Obsidian Dazzle. Diamond went to strike, but the Crystal of the Day was nowhere near charged yet. She sent out a red tentacle, catching him midair and putting pressure on his body. She was going to crush him and there was nothing that could be done...was the theory. The principals showed up at just the right moment, and Adagio had no choice but to cease her attack and transform back into her original form.

"Uh...we WERE planning to have our auditions for the Battle of the Bands today, but we'll move it to tomorrow, since one of our students can't seem to keep control of herself." Celestia announced.

"Don't worry, we'll definitely have it first thing tomorrow. You may all go home and practice, except for you, Adagio." Luna said. "Meet me in my office in fifteen minutes. Everyone else: dismissed." A collective amount of groans sounded as everyone shoved their way out of the door.

"You know? MAYBE we'll just take the back door." Diamond said. The Rainbooms and ElectroGem agreed with him, then filed out of the door at the other end of the room. Once outside, Diamond summoned his car, tour bus and a few auto-cabs. Everyone hopped into their respective vehicles and were driven off by the autopilots, except for Diamond. He drove his own car away into the sunset.

(Vice-Principal Luna's Office)
(GemTech Drone #032 Footage)

Adagio reluctantly walked into the office and was seated. Vice-Principal Luna wasn't far behind, and immediately began chewing her out. However, answers were scarce and the ones she did get only proved her guilt was non-existent. The reason for this was that Adagio was trying to lie to get herself out of trouble. It was going well for her until Luna brought out the camera footage. It CLEARLY showed Adagio transforming into Obsidian Dazzle and travelling to the hall by tentacles JUST to kill Diamond. There wasn't any getting out of this one, and she was disqualified from the Battle of the Bands. However, she had to be in there to carry out her plan, and when dismissed, began to talk to Obsidian Dazzle inside the gem.

"Obsidian Dazzle...what do I do? I need to be in that battle to get to full power, but I can't do that now," she said.

"Fear not, Adagio. Just wish what to do, and I'll be able to do it...within reason. I can't do the truly impossible," Obsidian answered. "I can even rewind time. Just wish..." Adagio began to wish, and the gem began to glow impossibly brightly. A flash of white and red light coated the planet, causing time to fold in upon itself and restart the day from 5:59 AM.

(Adagio's House)
(GemTech Drone #112 Footage)

*beep* *beep* *beep*

Adagio banged her alarm for the second time that day. It was 6:00 AM - time to put her plan into action, and this time she wouldn't screw up.

"Thanks, Obsidian. You really got me out of a bad situation," Adagio said. "But...is this day going to fold in on itself infinitely?"

"Not unless that was your wish. Which isn't what I got." The gem began to glow much brighter. "Now, let's see how that Diamond's doing. I especially want to coax Aria and Sonata again."

"We won't be able to do that, you know," Adagio reminded. "But...if we get seen..."

"We will never be seen. We shall watch from the Mana Zone." At that point, Adagio felt her surroundings change. She had vanished from existence...almost. Obsidian Dazzle had transported her to the Mana Zone using her powers, and Adagio had become living Dark Mana.

(Mana Zone - Adagio's House)
(Light Mana Drone #021 Footage)

Materialising in the Mana Zone, a small light emerged from her gem, which began to ensue a physical form. When it was finished, it wasn't Obsidian Dazzle. Instead, it was the Obsidian Fury, an ancient dark being capable of incredible feats even a master mage could hardly DREAM of performing. He wore dark purple plate armour from chest to foot and a red and black cape. In his hands he carried a dark sceptre and a shield almost as tall as him. His eyes were crimson red, his hair, covered by his helmet, was jet black and his skin was grey, like a rock. He beckoned Adagio to follow him using hand signals, then took off through the Mana Zone at a steady pace. She followed him intently.

They arrived at Diamond's moments later. To travel 50 miles in the real world was like running across the street and back in the Mana Zone, meaning you travelled through the Mana Zone way faster than you would in the real world. Obsidian waved his sceptre, showing them the real world. Diamond and his friends could all be seen asleep on the floor, after a hard night of practice.

"Clearly, they've been working hard to beat us," she exclaimed. "But tell me: do you really think it will be enough?"

"No matter what, they will never beat us, especially not once I've regained all my powers," Obsidian replied. "But, I have nowhere near enough power right now. If you can consume enough dark mana, I will help you plunge this world under your control...forever." Adagio's eyes flashed red and she smirked evilly. "And look at you, my child. You're already changing to match me. Your hair, specifically."

"My...hair?" she asked, then fingered some of it. By now, the entire mop of hair had become Obsidian's colours, only a little lighter. Her eyes had gone from their original colour to a blood red, and her clothes were beginning to turn black. She looked awestruck for a second, then smirked again. "I like it, Obby. Mind if I call you Obby in your base form?"

"You keep me supplied with dark mana, you can call me whatever you want," he answered, bringing up a display. He scrolled through a few windows, then realised the time; it was 7:30 AM, and Adagio needed to be at school by 8:00. He returned Adagio to where she standing in the real world, which happened to be in Diamond's house. Hearing everyone else's snoring was one thing, it being in enemy territory was another. She quickly focused her energy and warped out, noiselessly, to avoid grabbing attention from Diamond.

ONE DAY'S RE-RUN LATER...

It was time to audition for the Battle of the Bands. Adagio had turned her two backup singers into astral projections of themselves to avoid grabbing too much attention, and had refrained from transforming. She arrived in the school hall JUST before Celestia had said: "Let the Battle of the Bands begin!"

-Snips and Snails VS. Bulk Biceps-

Snips and Snails had DEFINITELY improved on their rap skills, but were still inevitably crushed by Bulk.

-Flash Drive VS. the Eco Kids-

While the Eco Kids and their acoustics weren't bad, they were still no match for Flash Sentry's guitar solo.

It was time for the Rainbooms to go onstage before long. Using a comm that Diamond had given her beforehand, Rainbow Dash recited the plan to Diamond one more time: "Be cool enough to win, but not cool enough to pony up."

"Exactly. Now get in there! Derpy and her band just went, and I'm not gonna lie, they kinda sucked," Diamond said, before turning off his comm. The curtains rose, and the song began.

Rainbooms:
"We just got the day,
To get ready,
And there's only so much time to lose!
Because tonight,
Yeah, we're here to party, (partAAay,)
So let's think of something fun to do!"

"We don't know, (we don't know,)
What's gonna happen,
We just know, (we just know,)
It's gonna feel right!
All our friends are here,
And it's time to igni-ite,
The LIGH-IGHTS!"

"Shake Your Tail, cause we're here to have a party tonight!
Shake your tail, shake your ta-ail!
Shake Your Tail, cause we're here to have a party tonight!
Shake your tail, shake your ta-ail!

[Sci-Twi]:
"So what, you didn't get it right the first time?"

[Pinkie Pie]:
"Laugh it off, no-one said it is a crime!"

[R4r1ty]:
"Do your thing, you know you're an original,"

[Applejack]:
"Your ideas are so funny that they're criminal!"

"We just got the day,
To get ready,
And there's only so much time to lose!
Because tonight,
Yeah, we're here to party, (partAAay,)
So let's think of something fun to do!"

"We don't know, (we don't know,)
What's gonna happen,
We just know, (we just know,)
It's gonna feel right!
All our friends are here,
And it's time to igni-ite,
The LIGH-IGHTS!"

"Shake Your Tail, cause we're here to have a party tonight!
Shake your tail, shake your ta-ail!
Shake Your Tail, cause we're here to have a party tonight!
Shake your tail, shake your ta-ail!"

"Shake Your Tail, cause we're here to have a party tonight!"

Even while under Adagio's spell, the other students just couldn't help but clap. Then, it was ElectroGem's turn to go up, and their song was ready for action. Fluttershy counted them in, then Rarity began to sing.

[Rarity]:
"Lights, camera, action,
All I see is lightning flashing,
And it's time to get cracking,
Cause the clouds ahead are zapping,"

"Yeah, the spirits on our lawn,
We will fight them all night long,
Cause if we don't take 'em on,
Then we'll never cease the storm!"

*guitar solo*

[Diamond]:
"The lightning's coming in hot!
And I'm sure the ghosts are not,
But we can't take chances,
Put 'em in trances,
Gotta stop this endless storm!"

"You think you got it capped?
Well, we don't got no time for naps,
So come with me,"

[ElectroGem]:
"TO VICTORY!"

[Diamond]:
"It's time to storm The Electro Zap!"

We need to stop the endless storm, now,
OoooooooooooooooOOooOOooooh...
Come and stand between the flames,
The Electro Zap is not coming away!"

[Diamond]:
"Pulling out my vacuum,
Leading these spirits to their doom,
They ain't gonna come over,
Come wit the controller,
Gotta take these guys into my lab room,"

"Yeah, we can discharge 'em,
Send 'em to the dark world,
So come with me,"

[ElectroGem]:
"TO VICTORY!"

[Diamond]:
"The Electro Zap, it's time to take it down, yo.

*epic guitar solo*

[ElectroGem]:
"Lights, camera, ACTION!
All we saw was lightning flashing,
And because we just got cracking,
The storm ahead has stopped zapping!"

Diamond finished with four final G chords, then struck an unbelievable pose. The audience couldn't resist clapping once again, but this time, light mana began to emerge from the others. Adagio, due to being under the Crystal of the Night's influence, couldn't see this mana, but Diamond could without limits, and so could everyone else. They didn't suspect anything of it, though, just a few funny looks all around. Up next was Adagio, and she, along with her astral projections of her bandmates, had the perfect song for the situation: "Under Our Spell." They climbed onstage, the astral projection part clear to everyone else, and the song began from Adagio's crystal.

Oh-whoa-oh,
You didn't know that you fell,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,"

[Adagio Dazzle]:
"Now that you're under our spell...
Blindsided by the beat,
Clapping your hands, stomping your feet,
You didn't know that you fell,"

[Adagio Dazzle]:
"Now you've fallen under our spell..."

The Dazzlings:
"We've got the music,
Makes you move it,
Got the song that makes you lose it,
We say "jump,"
You say, "How high?"
Put your hands up to the sky!"

"We've got the music,
Makes you move it,
Got the song that makes you lose it,
We say "jump,"
You say, "How high?"
Put your hands up to the sky!"

"Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,
You didn't know that you fell,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Now that you're under our spell,"

As the song progressed, Adagio felt it was time to release a bit more power, so she used the Crystal's power to become Obsidian Dazzle and nobody noticed.

Obsidian Dazzle:
"Listen to the sound of my voice..."

Obsidian Dazzle:
"Soon you'll find you don't have a choice..."

Obsidian Dazzle:
"Captured in the web of my song,"

Obsidian Dazzle:
"Soon you'll all be singing along."

Aria/Sonata:
"Oh, whoa, oh!"

The Dazzlings:
"We've got the music,
Makes you move it,
Got the song that makes you lose it,
We say "jump,"
You say, "How high?"
Put your hands up to the sky!"

"We've got the music,
Makes you move it,
Got the song that makes you lose it,
We say "jump,"
You say, "How high?"
Put your hands up to the sky!"

"Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,
You didn't know that you fell,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Now that you're under our spell,"

"Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,
You didn't know that you fell,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Oh-whoa-oh,
Now that you're under our..."

The song finished, Adagio transformed back to normal and everyone, aroused from a far deeper trance Adagio had put them in, applauded graciously. Dark mana piled from everyone's body, powering up the Crystal of the Night ever further. Two more rounds and it would be full, ready for Adagio to create an endless night and plunge both Equestrias under her control.

Chapter 5: A Chaotic Semi-Final

-Adagio's House
-GemTech SpyCam #008 POV

Adagio was furious that she'd failed to get ElectroGem out of the Battle of the Bands in both the audition AND the Quarter-Final. If only she hadn't threatened her band mates...until she remembered that the Crystal of the Night could do anything she wanted it to, and hopefully that included erasing memories. She spoke to the gem again, ready with a command.

"How can I help you tonight, Adagio?" the Obsidian Fury asked from inside the gem.*

"First off, do you have the ability to erase memories?" she responded.

"Like I said before, I can perform any actions you wish. Just tell me what it is you want me to do."

"In that case, official command: I wish for you to erase memories of Obsidian Dazzle from Aria and Sonata."

"It shall be done!" With that, the gem began to glow brightly as the Obsidian Fury waved his sceptre. No sooner had he done this, Aria and Sonata appeared in front of Adagio. Red rings formed around their heads going outwards as Obsidian Dazzle was sucked from their minds. In her place, Obsidian left behind her Siren form and even went an extra mile as to make it look like Aria and Sonata were always on her side. He completely erased them being with ElectroGem from EVERYONE'S memories, replacing them with astral projections of Diamond's Pokemon friends.** In turn, he reconfigured everyone's memories to make it look like the astral projections of the Dazzlings she made were actually real. When the deed was done, the gem's glow went back to normal and the backup singers for the Dazzlings were warped into their respective beds in the next room.

"Thanks, Obby. You've really helped me out, as usual," she said, before letting out a short yawn. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed myself. But beforehand...can you make me look normal again?"

"*sigh* I don't like it, but sure." he replied, waving his sceptre once more. Adagio's body, hair and genetics reverted back to normal within seconds as red light travelled up her body. The gem finally went out, signalling that Obsidian had gone to sleep inside the gem. However, Adagio still had magical abilities. She snapped her fingers, which removed her regular clothes and replaced it with her sleepwear. She then headed to her room.

Diamond didn't have enough beds for everyone in his porta-home, so a lot of the ElectroGem members had to sleep on the floor. It didn't help that Sunset was the one who had been selected to share the bed with him that night. Diamond had trouble falling asleep already, but being with someone who snored made it even worse. While trying to fight back, however, he heard a faint voice from the gem around his neck: the Crystal of the Day.

"Having trouble, are we now?"

Diamond silently freaked out, as he didn't want to disturb anyone. Not that he was going to anyway, as it was near midnight.

"Do not worry, Diamond. It's me, the Diamond Angel."

"I'm always here to help you, and all you have to do is ask."

'I remember how this works. Think you could clog my ears for a start?' Diamond thought. No sooner had this been done, he immediately felt his ears fill with mana, rendering him near deaf. 'Actually, forget clogging my ears,' he said, remembering finally that he had his own powers. He snapped his fingers, creating a soundproof barrier around him, inside AND out. The mana drained from his ears seconds later.

"Alright, so...I see that the Obsidian Fury is now under new management," she said. "Well, think you could come to the Mana Zone, and we'll talk more there?"

"Maybe tomorrow, my fair angel," Diamond replied. "But, I'm gonna keep the soundproof barrier up so I can ACTUALLY get some sleep."

"You flatter me too much, Diamond. Well, see you tomorrow," she said, before the gem went out. Diamond was then finally able to sleep, due to keeping that barrier up.

-THE NEXT DAY...-

Diamond was nudged awake, due to not being able to hear anything. The bad thing was that he was half an hour late, but luckily he rewound time to prevent this ever happening and got himself through one more difficult day. He'd be out of there as soon as the Crystal of the Night was either destroyed or neutralised safely. Right now, though, he had to take out Trixie. The Rainbooms had been eliminated in the quarter finals, meaning ElectroGem was their only hope to beat Adagio. Up first was his opposition: Trixie and the Illusions. As per usual, the song that they'd be playing was Tricks up my Sleeve, which was probably the only song they knew. Diamond was kinda going off of a hunch there, but that was his theory. He knew the hard guitar solo he was gonna perform combined with his impressive rap skills was going to decimate Trixie.

"Alright, semis. Think that 'The Diamond Chronicles' is gonna be a winner?" Diamond asked.

"What do you mean, darling?" Rarity responded. "We've conquered every opponent up until now, why do you have doubts?"

"Not that I have doubts, but this is one of my...how do I put this...less good songs," he said. "I didn't write this well..."

"But we can still pull in a victory. Don't beat yourself up about it, Diamond," Sunset reassured him. "After all, I've been in the same spot as you have."

"You're right, Sunset. I just need to cool my jet boosters. We got this!" he exclaimed. The song came to a halt just then, and the Illusions stepped off.

"Beat that, guys." Trixie said as she walked by. "I doubt you will." Diamond could hardly hold onto his anger any longer, but he kept cool. The band walked on stage, and The Diamond Chronicles started up.

*light guitar*

[Diamond]:
"I see the days go by the way I like it...
But all I seem to be is all alone...
That's why I got my friends right here beside me-e...
And the daily blues will come into an end!
YEAH!"

*guitar intensifies*

[Diamond]:
"Think you got what it takes to brush me?
Then let's see you pull out a victory!
Oh wait, you can't! As it is foretold
As the Diamond here is sweet and bold!"

"You wanna take a fight, well, step to me!
When I'm done, you'll call me 'Your Majesty!'
But as the sun falls down, we don't go far,
And it's time to coat this day in tar."

[Rarity]:
"You think that you know me,
That I'm weak, like I'm glass that needs holding,
Well, we end the delusion today!

[ElectroGem]:
"Come on dude, let's see what you got!
When you suck it up, we'll kick you in the butt!
You're gonna suck my ####, like the chronicles told,
Yeah the Diamond Chronicles don't lie, bro!

*Diamond's epic guitar solo*

In the middle of the solo, a little bit of Equestrian magic began to emerge from his body. Rainbow Dash acted fast, quickly unplugging his amp and the music immediately stopped. In that horrible moment of utter embarrassment, he exploded in fury and charged towards Rainbow Dash, letting loose with a flurry of lightning-fast attacks. You could almost see the blood in his eyes as he beat the living hell out of RD. But he didn't stop there and charged at anyone who got in his sight afterwards. At that point, a small blue anthropomorphic hedgehog sped in and was able to restrain Diamond before he got in any more trouble. A hedgehog of the same height, black and red quills and also a human-like build, closely followed by one of silver appeared moments later to help the newcomer. These were some of Diamond's Mobian friends. The rest would be following shortly.

"Easy there, Diamond! We can't have you like this!" the blue one, Sonic, said. Diamond didn't exactly seem to hear him, and continued trying to fight his way out of the grip of three anthropomorphic hedgehogs, one of them using psychic powers.

"You know, Shadow, you could always use your Chaos powers to do this, instead of using your hands," the silver one said.

"My Chaos powers can't do that, Silver. I'd like to see YOU do it this way," Shadow insulted rashly. "I know you're from the future and all, but..."

"Shut up, Shadow!" Sonic called. With a situation like this unfolding, Adagio could absorb more dark mana into her crystal. Diamond realised this quickly and was able to snap himself back into reality. He then disappeared into the Mana Zone and defeated the three creatures of living mana attempting to corrupt his Mobian friends, which was surprisingly easy since they hadn't had time to manifest. He then popped back into reality, seeing the damage he had caused.

"Oh...uh...ouch. Seriously. Ouch..." Diamond said to himself, noticing how badly everyone had gone. "My cyborg protocol has been violated...I regret any distress I may have caused."

"You got mad, we understand," Celestia said from off-stage. "We can't blame you."

"Never mind THAT, look what he did to Rainbow Dash!" Sunset called. She was in NO condition to play the finals and ElectroGem was getting DQ'd for sure, but Diamond thankfully had one last trump card. He snapped his fingers quickly, erasing the past few minutes from memory of everyone nearby, rewinding time and COMPLETELY fixing the damage he'd done. The only ones he'd spared were the Mane 7 and Team Sonic. He then pulled out his guitar once again, walking onstage. He had something different planned for the next round: something with a bit of feeling to it.

"This song goes out to my robot friend from another world." Diamond said. "My dear Roll, I hope you're listening intently to my every word, and as I strum my guitar..." he began to blush a little. "Uh...n-never mind. Let's just do this thing."

ONE BRILLIANT SONG LATER...

"The band that will be joining the Dazzlings in the finale is..."

Trixie smirked, thinking that Diamond's love song had cost him the game. "ElectroGem!"

"YES!" Diamond yelled at the top of his lungs. Trixie just stood shocked, then tossed a smoke bomb and left in rage.

"Nice one, dude! I guess love really DOES conquer all." Sonic congratulated. "How long's it before the final round?"

"According to my sources, two weeks." Diamond said. "We got JUST enough time to fix some spirits and charge my gem to the fullest."

"Well, let's not waste any time, then." Shadow said, grumpy as always. "What you thinking in the meantime?"

"Well, we got two weeks. We'll use the first to hold a couple concerts across this world, then the second to practice our counter-spell." Diamond planned out. "I got some MAD respect and can get us anything we want. I'll get us the next two weeks off school, then explain that ElectroGem's joining forces with the Rainbooms."

"Sounds good, Diamond." Sunset said. "Let's put our plan into action."

[Adagio's House]
[GemTech SpyCam #008 POV]

"AAARGH!" Adagio yelled. "We just can't beat them and now they're in the finals!"

"Cool your jets, Adagio." Sonata said. "They can't be THAT powerful right now."

"Not ALL of them, but one of them, and he's got enough power to foil this plan for good."

"Well, you've got a lot of power yourself. What say we perform a little bit for the first week and get that gem of yours fully charged?"

"Sounds like a plan, Sonata. Then we have the second week to get back to grips with Welcome to the Show. Sorry if I woke you earlier. People like us need sleep to keep our brains in gear to keep the plan working. I'm headed to bed." She snapped her fingers, changing her into her sleepwear and popped a note on Celestia's desk, which she'd see tomorrow morning. It said they'd need to miss the next two weeks, but be back just in time for the finals. Sonata, already getting tired again, ended up dozing on the spot, with Adagio changing her outfit and warping her to bed. But she didn't head to her room. Instead, she warped outside and lit a cigarette. She smoked that down for a bit, then headed back inside and went to sleep.

Author's Note

*If you didn't read the last chapter, we learned that the Obsidian Fury is the base form of Obsidian Dazzle trapped inside the Crystal of the Night.

**The reason Pokemon isn't mentioned as a series in this journal is because this is one of the only times they're mentioned.

Chapter 6: Final Preparations

Week 1:

ElectroGem, with the Rainbooms at his side, were performing all over the place. Even Crystal Prep got a taste of Diamond's music. He was hitting areas about as fast as his opposition, and everywhere he went got him some REALLY positive vibes, charging his crystal in the process. At this rate, he'd have enough power to take out Adagio within the first couple days. In the middle of one of his shows, however, Diamond's visor detected a bit of danger in the immediate area. He scheduled an intermission period quickly, then was able to attend to it.

"Another opponent. Alright then, no problem here," he said.

"-DIAMOND, YOU HAVE A NEW ARMOUR TO MEGANIZE INTO. SHALL WE GIVE IT A GO?-" his automated assistant stated.

"Let's do it. MEGANIZE ME!" he yelled.

[Transformation Scene]:

Diamond, powered by the Magic of Friendship, jumped up and was coated in rainbow light. He span through the air as his clothes disappeared from his body, to be replaced by nano-armour.

Next, armoured boots and pants appeared, closely followed by a chest and back plate. His armoured gloves appeared, closely followed by a crystallised helmet. He reached out, his right arm turning into a crystallised arm cannon, then readied his battle stance as his eyes became robotic blue.

[End Transformation]:

Diamond, now fully geared up, noticed a couple changes in his armour upon touchdown. It wasn't it's usual sapphire and aquamarine, but rather golden and pearl, and it was all crystallised. The Crystal of the Day was embedded into his chest, and his Mega Buster had once again become the Harmony Buster, due to there being a small hole in the centre where the buttons should be. His backplate had once again grown wings, and in his helmet was a unicorn horn. It was like the Equestrian Crystal Armour mixed with...the Diamond Angel, as the wings were not Equestrian, but angelic.

-Diamond Angel Armour Acquired!
-This armour combines your Crystal Armour with the power of the Crystal of the Day. It has all the same abilities, plus a few extra.
-The armour utilises power from the Crystal of the Day to keep it online. It eats away power from the crystal slowly, but won't consume enough power to completely drain it as a safety protocol.
-If the Crystal of the Day is almost out of power, the armour will deactivate automatically. It's default weapon is the Harmony Buster, and you already know what that does.

Diamond dismissed his notifications, then activated his comm link with his Equestrian friends for the first time. He had to establish a secure connection, which took a few seconds, but once he was connected, Twilight was the first to answer.

"Alright, Diamond. What's the situation on your end?" she asked.

"I've discovered an artefact originally from my world which is now in the hands of evil. I've got it's counter on me now."

"What sort of artefact are we talking about here?"

"It's called the Crystal of the Night. Try Otherworldly Artefacts Vol. 3 for more information. And get the other Elements on the line, if you will." A little bit of thudding could be heard from the other end, followed by pages flicking past. A few seconds after the sounds stopped, the other Elements had initiated their comm links and had joined the active call.

"Found it! Crystal of the Night: An artefact said to hold the spirit of a great sorcerer imprisoned for tens of thousands of years. Whomever wears it will be slowly corrupted, if they weren't already, and gain some incredible dark powers," Twilight read. "It's one and only counter is the Crystal of the Day, which can only be held by one pure of heart."

"I know all of that already. You didn't need to read it," Diamond said. "Anyway, I got you all online because my new armour requires magic from the Crystal to run properly, but I think I can run it from Elements of Harmony."

"DIAMOND, NO!" the Elements yelled in unison.

"Bringing an Element of Harmony into that world would have some INCREDIBLY dangerous consequences!" Twilight said.

"I should know all too well..." Sunset said. "That would be an INCREDIBLY bad idea."

"I remember that. Which is why YOU'RE going to help me!" Diamond explained. "I'm gonna need you nearby to keep them in check. Things'll probably get confusing, but I have a solution for that one as well."

"OOH! Tell me more, Diamond!" Pinkie yelled from her end. Her comm had been turned WAY down so as to not break everyone's ears.

"Well, I know a little magic that can cancel out the properties of this world. Bring me the Elements and yourselves to me, and I'll do the rest. But first, I gotta cut you guys off. I've got a few enemies inbound," he said before tapping off the link, but NOT disconnecting from the call. At that moment, a few of Eggman's robots burst in, captained by the man himself.

"NYAHAHAHAHA! So, you defeated Metal. And-wh-SONIC?!" Eggman started.

"Doesn't take a genius to figure THAT out, genius," Sonic taunted. He jumped into the Egg Mobile a couple times, but a Buzzbomber shot him out of the air during the third jump. Diamond caught him pretty quickly, then fired a few shots from his Buster...well, tried to, anyway.

"Computer, why isn't my Buster firing?" Diamond asked, before needing to double-flip backwards.

"-LOOKS LIKE YOUR HARMONY BUSTER ACTUALLY REQUIRES AN ELEMENT OF HARMONY TO FIRE NOW. WE COULD ALWAYS SWITCH TO ANOTHER WEAPON.-" Rosette stated.

"Alright then. What we got today?" he said.

"-METAL BLADE, ROLLING CUTTER, QUICK BOOMERANG, FLASH STOPPER, OIL SLIDER, CRASH BOMBER, THUNDER BEAM AND FLAME BLAST.-" she explained.

"Engage Flash Stopper!" he yelled, his armour becoming akin to Flash Man's. He released a HUGE flash of light from his right hand [eye protection was required] which completely froze time around him. He then unloaded with an inaccurate, but effective gatling gun from his left arm, which would supposedly cause enough pressure to launch Eggman away as soon as time restarted. When time DID finally restart, though, he only went, like, three feet. "Guess I forgot how ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC this thing is," he said to himself.

"Weapons malfunctioning, huh? Lemme see if I can fix that," a mysterious voice said from above. The gang looked up, seeing a plane soaring through the sky. This plane, the Tornado II, was piloted by a dual-tailed fox, Miles "Tails" Prower. Riding with Tails was a purple cat princess, a pink hedgehog figure carrying a large hammer and a red anthropomorphic echidna with huge knuckles. Flying around it was a small cream-coloured rabbit, accompanied by a cyan creature known as a Chao, a white and tan bat with some...strange getup...and a strange robot carrying a large crate. Tails drove the Tornado over to the fight, firing down a few laser pellets before swooping upwards.

"Take it easy on the ascents, Tails. Don't want anyone falling off," the cat princess told him.

"Trying my best, Blaze!" Tails said. "Omega, drop that crate on our next swoop."

"Drop the crate? Do you realise what's inside that thing, Tails?" the echidna rumbled.

"Knuckles, there's only a human-sized adaptation of Diamond's Mega Armour in there. It'll be fine," Tails assured his friend before swooping again. As directed, the robot aptly named Omega dropped the crate he was carrying, followed by himself. When the crate impacted the ground, only it's contents remained. Diamond slid over to it and touched it, which auto-equipped it. He now wore a set of cyan hedgehog armour, with red stripes down the metal quills. He also acquired a brand-new Buster and a set of weapons unique to this new armour. His belly, muzzle, arms and part of his tail was a navy blue, and his shoes were a mixture of red, yellow, grey and black.

-MOBIAN TACTICAL ARMOUR ACQUIRED!
-The Mobian Tactical Armour, better known as the Chaos Assault Armour, has a staggering, but even, attack/defence ratio and cancels out the effects of Planet Mobius's atmosphere.
-This set of armour runs on Chaos Energy which is supplied by Chaos Emeralds. More Emeralds equates to more attack and defensive power, and will even upgrade the armour for each one.
-If you don't have any Chaos Emeralds assigned to the armour, you can still function, but the experience is similar to not having any armour at all and you slowly lose Power.
-When equipping this armour, all weapons will be offloaded, save for the Chaos Buster. Instead, the Chaos Buster gets upgrades from the Emeralds.

-YOU GOT A NEW WEAPON: Chaos Buster
-The Chaos Buster is the default weapon applied to the Mobian Tactical Armour. It runs on Chaos Energy, like the armour itself, but it acts a little different when it comes to sub weapons.
-In the default stage of the Mobian Tactical Armour, this weapon fires small, ineffective pellets that drain your Power for every shot. For every Chaos Emerald you get, the pellets increase in power, but just one prevents you from losing Power.
-Further information is unavailable until you collect at least 1 Chaos Emerald(s).

Diamond dismissed these notifications, but found he could hardly move. Apparently, there was NO Chaos Energy travelling through it yet, but Sonic tossed Diamond the one and ONLY Chaos Emerald he had in his possession. Diamond grabbed it, then opened the armour's chest to reveal seven slots. These were obviously meant for the Chaos Emeralds, so he inserted it into one of the seven slots and closed the chest. The Emerald remained visible, but Diamond got a decent upgrade. He not only acquired Shadow's Chaos Spear attack, but his buster increased in strength and his armour no longer wore him down or drained Power. He was free to fight, and he took advantage of the new armour set.

"Chaos SPEAR!" Diamond yelled, releasing a few yellow-green spears from god knows where. He aimed these spears at the incoming Badniks, with a single spear destroying each. He then aimed a couple at Eggman, launching him into a portal and back to Mobius. Badniks continued to surround him, however, and Diamond had no area-splash attacks in his Chaos Assault Armour, meaning he was easily stuck. Shadow was about to jump to Diamond's aid, but a formerly-mentioned beat him to the punch. Metal Sonic, who owed Diamond back for saving him a couple weeks ago, was able to wipe the floor with every robot with one electric charge.

"Don't think we're friends, Diamond. But I've repaid the favour, so I'm going to let you live," Metal beeped into Diamond's translator, which read his dialogue back to the squad.

"Anytime, Metal," Diamond replied before the robotic blue hedgehog flew through the same portal Eggman had. This string of dialogue earned Diamond a few dirty looks from his allies, which he replied to: "What? He was being controlled by an external force!"

"Yeah, keep talking, Diamond," Shadow said. "How would someone ever get inside him?"

"By using Dark Crystals, that's how."

"It is true, guys. We were there when it happened," Sunset confirmed. "Ask any of us."

"You guys have a point. Lay off him, guys!" Sonic commanded. Everyone backed off from Diamond on his command, as he picked up another Chaos Emerald that Metal had left behind, inserting it into his armour.

-YOU GOT A NEW WEAPON: Chaos Sword
-This weapon, when used, will create a ring of swords made from Chaos energy around the user to launch upon command.
-A minimum of five swords must be created in order to fire. An initial maximum of 20 can surround you at a time before automatically shooting.
-The more Chaos Emeralds that are collected, the more swords you can summon and the more powerful they get for each Emerald you acquire.

Diamond dismissed his notifications, later noticing that his armour had undergone a couple changes. It had gotten slightly lighter in colour, had more and sharper quills, and had acquired a bit of metallic chest and nose bush.

-Mobian Tactical Armour Upgraded to: LEVEL II
-The Mobian Tactical Armour II grants you temporary flight and increased strength and speed. You now run at 1/8 of Sonic's speed and can be toggled at will.
-You can also summon 5 extra Chaos Spears per use of the attack, which adds to your initial 15.

No sooner had he finished reading this new information, he opened a portal between the two worlds which headed straight to Twilight's castle and flew right through, coming back a few minutes later with the Mane 6 still in their Equine forms. By using another portal, the properties of the human world were cancelled out and the forms of the Mane 6 were unchanged. The Elements of Harmony also showed up in a VERY strong storage container, and Diamond assimilated all of them at once into his Mega Armour. In a flash of light, the Alicorn Battle Armour was created once again, ready for use if it were ever needed.

"Alright, so Elements: check. Now, let's see if I can run my Diamond Angel Armour on these..." he muttered to himself, meganizing into that quickly. The Elements stuck out of this suit, radiating their positive energy to prove that he could indeed power this armour from them. He then switched off his armour entirely, since his radar was no longer picking up any hostiles in the nearby area. "Now, if you guys will excuse me, I have a show to finish."

Week 2:

Week 1 passed like a charm, leaving Week 2 for preparations on song choice and rehearsals for both sides.

The Dazzlings:

Adagio, already knowing what she and the other Sirens were going to sing for the finale and having experience doing so, didn't see much of a reason to rehearse. However, Sonata and Aria were able to talk her into the process, and even let her become Obsidian Dazzle mid-song for the best effect. She gave her commands to the Obsidian Fury inside the gem, but he said to meet her inside as soon as she could. She decided to sneak inside that night, where the Obsidian Fury now had a red aura, pure red eyes and his armour now had spikes pretty much everywhere.

"Pretty sweet, huh?" Obsidian said, showing himself off proudly.

"Pretty AWESOME, I'll say that much," Adagio replied.

"Are you ready to show off your new look?"

"Why, of course. Make me look like you as much as you can." On command, Obsidian concentrated his magic on her, creating a bright flash. When it cleared, Adagio had COMPLETELY changed. She now looked similar to Obsidian, with a few feminine changes. She wore the same armour and had the same eye colour, her hair was black and red, her eyelashes were longer, her bust was a bit bigger and her new cape was amber with a purple stripe down it. The Crystal of the Night was now also embedded into her chest plate. She warped herself out of the Mana Zone, keeping her new appearance, and showed up for her rehearsal wowing Aria and Sonata.

"Didn't expect such a new look, Adagio. I mean, we aren't going to war or anything," Aria stated, addressing the armour. "And...did you get red contacts? Since when?"

"Aria, there's no time to talk about that," Adagio said, her voice slightly deeper and distorted. "Now, let's do this, shall we?"

"Let's do this thing, Adagio!" Sonata called, as air-headed as ever.

"Whatever..." Aria grumbled.

Diamond and the Rainbooms:

The vast majority of their second week was spent trying to figure out a song. Diamond was thinking that ElectroGem could use a song from the Rainbooms, but Rainbow Dash disagreed on that idea.

"Look, RD, it's MY band in the finals, so essentially I'M the one making the decisions," Diamond said.

"So what? It's our song, and you aren't borrowing it!" Rainbow argued. Both sides were being stubborn, up to a point that rivalled even Applejack. But before it could escalate any further, Fluttershy stepped in to try and break them up.

"Now, you two, no reason to argue over this. There's other ways to decide," she said. "How about-"

"No." Diamond said. "But I DO believe you're right. So, what do you say, Rainbow?"

"One-on-one. You choose the sport, whoever wins gets their way." Rainbow challenged.

"HAD to be sports, huh?" Diamond said to himself. "You're on, RD. And I'm up for a round of soccer. First to five points, no technological or magical assistance."

"Done and done. Let's do this thing!"

-A RATHER PAINFUL SOCCER MATCH LATER-

It was a close game, but Diamond was able to beat Rainbow Dash 5-4. As promised, she gave him the right to use one of their songs in the finale.

"Now...which song should we use to counter the enemy?" Diamond asked himself.

"It doesn't exactly matter which song we play, as long as we remember our friendship." Applejack stated.

"In that case, then, let's go for...uh..."

"You know, we could always try the one that I wrote," Fluttershy suggested. "That's what we did last time, and it resulted in the Dazzlings' defeat."

"Well, then the choice is pretty clear," Diamond stated. "So, everyone know how to play this?" he asked, earning a few nods, but most shook their heads.

"Well, we're only here to keep the Elements of Harmony safe, but I don't think that'll be necessary with you around, Diamond," Equine Twilight said.

"Oh, right," Diamond realised. He then opened another portal to Equestria, letting the Equines go home as they weren't needed any longer. He then activated his Diamond Angel Armour so he could practice a bit easier, then Pinkie gave them the introducing beat.

It took a while, but the song was finally back. And wouldn't you know it, they were only ready on the last day they had out of school, meaning they had almost NO time to spare.

"Well, this is it. Tomorrow night, ElectroGem will go down as either the ultimate champion or the ultimate failure," Diamond said. "There's a LOT of pressure on us, and we only get one shot at it."

"Not to burst your bubble, Diamond, but...have you noticed the time recently?" Sunset asked. This caused Diamond to look at his watch, which read 11:46 PM. "If we're going to beat the Dazzlings, we need energy to do it."

"You ain't kidding. Alright everyone, let's hit the sack," Diamond announced, earning some very puzzled looks. "It means we're going to bed."

"I think ya mean "hit the hay," Diamond," Applejack corrected.

"Whatever." he replied, snapping his fingers and disappearing in a flash of light. Everyone else headed through the bedroom door and collapsed on either the bed with Diamond or the floor.

Chapter 7: A Finale of Nightmares

It was time for the finale of the Battle of the Bands at last. Like Diamond had said, this would either be the ultimate victory or the ultimate failure. Sonic and co. had readied their own vehicle and given Diamond the remaining Chaos Emeralds, ready to return home to Mobius. Diamond would open a portal there soon enough, preferably at the end of the day. In the meantime, however, there was another day that Diamond had to get through, which was easy enough.

Meanwhile, the Dazzlings continued plotting their dark plan, and Adagio made one last visit to the Obsidian Fury during her free period. Aria and Sonata knew better than to question her at this point, and just did what they were told. On top of that, they had ONE last trick up their sleeve, which Adagio had Obsidian explain from inside the gem.

Towards the end of their free period, Adagio talked to Trixie, showing her a few lost memories temporarily. These memories showed her and the Illusions sabotaging the Rainbooms and trapping them underneath the stage so that they could perform in the finale instead. Adagio followed by telling Trixie to do exactly what she saw in those memories to the heroes, saying it could give them the chance they so very deserved.

"Well, this is it, girls," Diamond said, setting everything up on the stage. The end of the day had struck, and the Battle of the Bands was due it's finale at 5 PM, so everything had to be ready by then.

"Let's just hope we don't get ambushed again," Sunset replied. "But even if we do, your magic can get us out of a jam."

"Not exactly, since...well, I think I made a critical error," Diamond pointed out. "The stage is held up from inside by a magic-absorbent metal compound I created, meaning my powers are COMPLETELY useless in there."

"Well then why'd you use it?" Rainbow asked.

"It was the strongest thing I COULD use," Diamond answered.

"And it will also be your downfall," Trixie said to herself. She signalled to the Illusions with a thumbs up, and they pulled the lever that activated the ever-so-conveniently placed trapdoor and sending the heroes through.

"OH, COME ON!! Why would this happen NOW?" Rainbow yelled.

"Ah dunno, but without Diamond's magic, we ain't getting outta here," Applejack answered.

"There is ONE thing I can still do, though," Diamond said, taking a stance. He then released a bunch of Whispering Spirits through the Mana Zone, hoping to link with someone unaffected by the Siren's spell, before remembering that he had guns. "Oh wait, my Meganizations. Let's do this! MEGANIZE ME! ALICORN BATTLE ARMOUR, ONLINE!"

[Transformation Scene]

Diamond was lifted off the ground and was surrounded by the Elements of Harmony. Waving his hand, they began to spin around him, coating him in rainbow light.

Crystallised armour began to form up his body, from the legs to the torso and arms and finally the head. Nano armour filled in the gaps, and the chestplate opened to reveal six Element-shaped slots.

As they span, the Elements of Harmony were drawn to their specific slot. After finally stopping in formation, they were locked into their places inside the chestplate, giving Diamond an incredible burst of power as his horn and wings were generated.

Finally, his helmet finished forming, with his eyes becoming robotic blue and a green visor appearing in front of his face. His right arm became the Harmony Buster, and gravity finally took effect as Diamond readied his battle stance.

[End Transformation]

As he touched down, Diamond activated the Element of Magic and fired a powerful burst of lavender-coloured magic, then remembered that this would be a huge failure, and sure enough, the supports absorbed this blast and shot it back, rendering Diamond out of commission for a while. As a safety precaution, Diamond's armour was deactivated moments later to prevent his systems overheating. There was nothing more to do but wait...or try to open the door from that side.

-The Battle of the Bands: Finale Stage
-5:05 PM

[Trixie]
"You better believe, I got
Tricks up my sleeve,
And I captivate,
'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat."

"You better believe, I got
Tricks up my sleeve,
See me dominate,
'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat!"

While Trixie and the Illusions were performing their song, the Rainbooms and Diamond were trying to bust out of the stage. Well, the Rainbooms mainly, Diamond was still nonoperational.

"Ugh, forget it, guys. This door is NOT opening," Rainbow Dash said. "I think we could open it from outside, but in here, we're stumped."

"Don't be such a negative Nancy, Rainbow. There's always a design flaw in this sort of thing," Applejack replied, kicking at the door again. "Just gotta find it..."

"No, AJ, she's right," Diamond stated, his systems finally back online. "There's no design flaw to exploit here, since...well, there's no flaws."

"There's ALWAYS a design flaw, smarty," Applejack retorted.

"No, I'm serious. There's NOTHING. The ONLY way to open that door is with a keypad on the outside," he replied. "Hacking the door from in here's out as well, since I need to connect to the keypad. Unless, of course..."

Diamond flipped a switch on his arm, allowing it to stretch to biologically impossible lengths. He then took advantage of an almost unnoticeable crack in the stage, using the interface in front of him to adjust his arm's size, and was able to type in the code to the door directly from memory. A small ping indicated a correct code, and the door slid open. He flipped the switch again and the extendo-arm retracted back into it's socket, then sprinted through the door just before it shut. He then entered the code again, allowing everyone else through after him, and just as the song finished.

[Trixie]
"...see me dominate!
'Cause I'm powerful and grea-ea-eat!"

She tossed her pick, then the Illusions walked off stage, trying to taunt the Dazzlings and failing rather miserably. Diamond pulled up a camera's interface, seeing the villains smirk evilly, then prepare their walk on-stage.

"Not good. We gotta get moving before they take control of EVERYONE," Diamond said, and ElectroGem's temporary members followed him, only to get nowhere and the music began to play.

[Play Welcome to the Show - The Dazzlings]

*funky-sounding bass and drums*

[The Dazzlings]
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah,"
"Ahh, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah..."
*insert further ah's here*

Diamond and co. finally stopped atop the same hill that the Rainbooms fought the Dazzlings on before. Vinyl Scratch (DJ PON3) wasn't here to support them this time, but Diamond was able to set them up. He pulled up another interface and called his portable stage, which materialised in mere seconds fully set up. His robotic DJ started up the booth, and multiple cables shot into everyone's instruments, starting them up.

Adagio Dazzle
"Welcome to the show... (aaaaaaaah...)
We're here to let you know... (aaaaaaaaaah...)
Our time is now... (aaaaaaah...)
Your time is running out... (aaaaaaaaah...)

Nobody appeared confused, even when Adagio's gem began glowing brighter than it ever had usually. Aria and Sonata, however, noticed JUST as Adagio's appearance began to change into her armoured form and prepared to try and halt her transformation, but all they hit was an incoming bubble of red light. When it crossed, they found that none of their muscles would respond, only able to move their eyes. What's more, Sonata noticed that nobody else was moving at all, entirely greyed out. Adagio had frozen time for everyone other than them, even though they still couldn't move.

[Pause Song]

"So, you finally caught on," Adagio said in something akin to Obsidian's voice. "Look upon the world that your friend helped me create. Now, this night shall reign eternal, and you all shall be my slaves." Aria tried to respond, but her mouth was like her body: stuck in place. Obsidian emerged from the gem at that moment, unaffected by the time freeze, and released the remaining two Sirens. He then tapped them on the shoulder with his sceptre, placing them under a very powerful mind-controlling spell.

"You shall do whatever Adagio and I tell you to do. Now, take your places like nothing ever happened and continue." Obsidian commanded, before restoring the flow of time and retreating into the gem. They had a second, then began singing again.

[Resume Song]

[The Dazzlings]
"Feel the wave of sound,
As it crashes down,
You can't turn away,
We'll make you wanna stay-ay!"

As the chorus kicked in, Adagio's gem began to glow it's brightest, as Adagio began her transformation into Obsidian Dazzle. Her hair became like tentacles, her body engulfed in darkness, and her eyes becoming pure red. Tentacles began bursting out of the ground at her command, and she remained hovering in the air as the remaining Sirens were lifted off the ground and given their combat capabilities back without even denting Adagio's power.

[The Dazzlings]
"WE WILL BE ADORED,
TELL US THAT YOU WANT US,
WE WON'T BE IGNORED,
IT'S TIME FOR OUR REWARD!"

"NOW YOU NEED US,
COME AND HEED US,
NOTHING CAN STOP US NOW!"

Out of beat drums then began sounding, as Diamond and friends began singing their counter, Diamond in his Diamond Angel Armour.

[ElectroGem]
"Oh whoa-oh whoa-oh,
I've got the music in me,
Oh whoa-oh-whoa-oh!"

*guitars shred*

[Sci-Twi]
"Don't need to hear a crowd,
Cheering out my name,
I didn't come here seeking,
Infamy or fame!"

[ElectroGem]
"The one and only thing,
That I am here to bring
Is music, is the music,
Is the music in my soul,

Gonna break out, (out!)
Set myself free~, yeah,
Let it all go, (go!)
Just let it be~, yeah,

Find the music in your heart,
Let the music make you start,
To set, yourself,
Apa~~rt!"

[Bridge]

[Diamond]
"Give it up, Adagio! The power of light ALWAYS triumphs over the dark!"

[Adagio]
"That's what they always say. But I'm ready to make it change!"

[Verse]

[The Dazzlings]
"What we have in store, (ah~,)
All we want and more, (ah~,)
We will break on through, (ah~,)
NOW IT'S TIME TO FINISH YOU!"

As the guitar struck, astral copies of the Sirens in Equestrian form appeared. Obsidian also finally emerged from the gem, now having enough power to escape his prison, and began to empower his allies even further. Diamond took a battle stance and everyone prepared their instruments for the Harmony Beams that were to be launched.

"You really have nothing else?" he asked.

"We can't all have built-in weapons like you, Diamond!" Sunset said.

"SO WHAT? Resistance is hopeless," Adagio called from across the area. "All you're doing is postponing your downfall."

"Not today!" Diamond yelled, powering up his Harmony Buster and firing a few pellets of Loyalty. The Sirens scattered in order to dodge them, but Diamond switched to Magic pellets which homed in on any enemy entity he could lock-on target. As described, the pellets shot forward, then diverted their direction to hit Sonata's Siren, closely followed by Aria's.

"Don't worry about these, Diamond. Go and take down Adagio! We'll take care of these!" Sunset called. "We'll be fine. Trust me," she added, blushing slightly.

"Good plan, Sunset. I'll be back as soon as I can!" Diamond replied, warping himself onto the stage where Adagio, now completely corrupted by the Obsidian Fury and in her Obsidian Dazzle form, awaited eagerly for her opponent.

[End Song]

"So...this is where it finishes. Come at me, Diamond!" Adagio threatened.

"When we're through, the legendary multiversal hero will go down in history as the greatest failure there ever was," Obsidian followed. Diamond responded without words, only powering up the Crystal of the Day. A bright flash engulfed the area, and a strange beat began to play.

[Play The Great Sage's Theme - Miitopia]

[Transformation Scene]

Diamond sprang high into the air, his armour disappearing as he did so. In it's place formed a white tunic coated in a godlike armour.

Gold gauntlets and boots formed on his hands and feet, and a quiver appeared on his back. Inside, projectiles known as Spirit Arrows were created.

Finally, light rose up his body, covering what wasn't already in pearl-coloured bio-armour. Angelic wings appeared from his back, and a golden laurel crown formed on his head.

The Crystal of the Day was embedded into his tunic, as the Diamond Angel inside gave him it's blessing. In his left hand formed a legendary bow said to have been wielded by the Angel herself. He gripped it tightly, then took a battle stance.

[End Transformation]

[End Song]

Diamond touched down, now fully geared up. Obsidian and Adagio looked at him for a couple seconds, then regained game faces and prepared for battle.

[Play Dovahkiin - Skyrim. (You don't need all 10 hours)]

Diamond drew an arrow from his quiver and put it onto his bow. As he drew it back, the tip coated itself in light, and two spirits began to circle it. Adagio shot a red tentacle at him while Obsidian cast a few Projectile spells, but when Diamond released the bow string, everything dark it touched was vaporised. The tentacle disappeared into nothing, while Diamond would never have gotten hit by the projectiles anyway, since Obsidian's aim was kind of off.

The arrow then proceeded to smack Aria right in the side of the face, making her lose concentration on her Siren, causing it to disappear. She then joined the fight by firing bolts of darkness at the lone hero using a burst-fire crossbow made of corrupted energy. Diamond forced Sonata into the fight using another Spirit Arrow, then focused his fire on Adagio.

He warped into the crowd, then jumped upward and fired arrows towards Adagio at the speed of a light machine gun. He took some decent fire himself, however, but he kept his Power up using a Healing spell. He then warped back to the stage and let loose, firing arrows at very close to the speed of light. A few arrows missed, but a lot of them contacted at least ONE of Diamond's targets.

"Wow...he's strong, Adagio. Still think we can beat this guy?" Aria asked.

"We have no choice. We must prevail over the light," Adagio responded. "And it's Obsidian Dazzle, if you will."

"Right, so...what's our plan?" Sonata wondered.

"I have an idea, but it requires your powers," Obsidian responded. "Give me your powers, Sirens, and I will make Adagio more powerful than even the Diamond Angel." Both Sirens agreed, removing their pendants and handing them to Obsidian. He extracted their corrupted power, then Adagio absorbed it.

With newfound powers, Adagio let loose with a flurry of attacks that even Diamond had trouble dodging, eventually ensnaring him in a few of her tentacles. Diamond, not knowing what else to do, let off a few Spirit Arrows upwards, signalling to the Rainbooms that he needed help.

[End Song]

"There's only one thing for it!" Sunset said. Come on DJ!" The robot DJ in the booth began to spin an epic beat, allowing Sunset to drop down the song that ended it all last time.

[Play Welcome to the Show - Sunset's Last Stand]

[Sunset]:
"You're never gonna bring me down,
You're never gonna break this part of me!
My friends are here to bring me round,
Not singing just for popularity!"

[Sunset and Twilight]:
"We're here to let you know,
That we won't let it go,

[Rainbooms]
"Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow!"

[Sunset and Twilight]
"And you can try to fight,
But we have got the light of
Friendship on our side!"

As the chorus kicked in, Diamond felt his power increasing ever further. Powered by the magic of friendship, he freed himself from his opponent's grip and flew high into the air.

[Rainbooms and Diamond]
"Got the music in our hearts!
We're here to blow this thing apart!
And together,
We will never,
Be afraid of the dark!"

"Here to sing our song out loud,
Get you dancing with the crowd!
As the music,
Of our friendship,
Survives!
SURVIVES!"

As Diamond reached his peak height, he began to draw one last arrow. The Rainboom's song produced a HUGE amount of magic, as the sky finally cleared to let everyone see it in all it's red, corrupted glory. Thankfully, nobody ever did, they were too busy fuelling Diamond's Harmony Arrow even further.

[Everyone but the Villains]
"Got the music in our hearts!
We're here to blow this thing apart!
And together,
We will never,
Be afraid of the dark!"

"Here to sing our song out loud,
Get you dancing with the crowd!
As the music,
Of our friendship,
Survives,
Survives,
SURVIVES!"

Rainbow Dash finished up with the most epic guitar solo she'd ever played, right as Diamond let loose with his Harmony Arrow. It crashed down, exploding in a massive Rainboom and freeing Adagio from corruption. The Crystal of the Night was drained of all it's power, and the Obsidian Fury was returned to his pathetic base form.

[End Song]

"Well, well, well," Diamond said as he glided down. "Despite not being a genie, the Obsidian Fury is supposed to grant 3 wishes to the owner of the Crystal of the Day, am I right?"

"I...I will NEVER grant any wish from the likes of you!" Obsidian yelled.

"We'll see..." Diamond responded, grabbing the Crystal of the Night.

-ONE SONIC AND THE SECRET RINGS ENDING CUTSCENE REFERENCE LATER-

With the Obsidian Fury safely re-imprisoned in his gem, which was now securely in Diamond's hand, it was time for Diamond to take his leave.

"Well, I'm gonna miss you guys. It was fun hanging out with you," Diamond said. "But remember, I can come here anytime I wish, so this isn't goodbye; it's just goodbye until next time."

"We'll see you again soon, Diamond. Now that we have that comm-link set up, we can contact you anytime we need to," Sunset replied. "Just give us a call if there's an emergency, or if you just need someone to talk to." And then Twilight cut in from her comm back in Equestria.

"Diamond, I've been thinking. Why don't you keep the Elements of Harmony?" she said.

"Twilight, they're the most important means of defence to Equestria. I can't take this gift," Diamond argued.

"I know. I was joking. We need those back!" she replied. "So before you head home, let's extract those Elements from your armour."

"Well, I guess-" Diamond began, before Pinkie Pie cut into the comm.

"DIAMOND! Emergency in Equestria!" she yelled.

"Right, on my way!" Diamond said, cutting off his comm. "No time for goodbyes, girls. I gotta get moving."

"See ya, Diamond," they said in unison as Diamond dashed through the portal to save an emergency. When he would appear again would be a mystery.

-End Log.

Prologue: The Return of the Dazzlings

-Begin Log. Third-Person Perspective.

It had been a generally normal day at CHS. Well, as normal as it could get, with all the magic students and Equestrian artefacts and stuff. But hiding in the shadows, a renegade singing group known as the Dazzlings were scheming their next plot. But without their dark magic, they couldn't really do much.

"Man, this is getting boring. Without being able to feed, we can't be the Sirens we used to be," a lavender-skinned girl with ridiculously long pigtails said. This was Aria Blaze, one of the backup singers in the band known as 'The Dazzlings.' Her outfit was about as ridiculous as her hair, but nobody ever said anything about it. "I'm tired of running away, Adagio. We need to get back out there and get our magic back!"

"Well, we can't exactly do that, Aria," piped up a light-blue-skinned female with a super-long ponytail. This was Sonata Dusk, the other of the backup singers in 'The Dazzlings.' Unlike Aria, her outfit was a little more bearable, but she was a little air-headed at times. "Those Rainbooms really mean business, and we probably won't get another chance with them around."

"Nobody asked you, Sonata," Aria said, coldly. "How many times have I told you to ONLY SPEAK WHEN SPOKEN TO?"

"Now now, you two. Don't you be bickering again. That's what others are supposed to do," a yellow-skinned girl with a ridiculously long and poofy ponytail. This was Adagio Dazzle, the lead singer. She was bad to the core, and was the leader of the Dazzlings. "Besides, we don't have our amulets. We can't sap magic without them."

"You are weak..."

"But I can give you strength..."

"Wh...who's there?" Adagio asked. All three of them had heard the same message in their heads.

"My name is none of your concern, but I am a part of you..."

"Look around your necks, for I will be there..."

The three Dazzlings did as they were told and found their gems, intact and attached to what was left of their necklaces. Adagio's, however, looked NOTHING alike the others. It was glowing a lot brighter, was more jagged, and appeared to have a small spirit imprisoned inside. They were surprised for a second, then Adagio began to smirk viciously, her eyes flashing slightly red. They had their magic back, and they had a plan. This was going to get ugly for CHS and the entirety of Human Equestria.