Diamond Journals Issue 2: A Battle of the Bands

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.