The Not-so-magical Dazzlings
The "Dazzlings", as they called their band, left their tour van and took their first steps in Canterlot City. For the first time the sisters got enough savings to get a tour outside their home, even though the tour was just in some neighbouring cities. But every success starts small, so they were still excited.
"So, what do we do first here?" Adagio asked, looking around.
"Just get to our hotel room and get some sleep, " Aria muttered, "The whole drive tired me."
"First, it's only afternoon, second, the trip was only two hours long, and the other cities are way further away, so you better get used to long drivings."
"Maybe we could get something to eat?" Sonata pointed to a diner, which had a big car on top of the roof.
"Of course Sonata suggests something to eat," Aria mumbled.
"Honestly, why not. Maybe we can even convince some locals to come watch our performances."
With these words they entered the diner, ordered and took their seats waiting for their food to be ready.
"Have you noticed how some were looking at us strangely?" Aria asked.
"Maybe it's because they are our fans?" Sonata replied.
"Do you do threatening looks on your idols?" Aria countered. "Besides, this tour here is to make us known."
"I think it's just us being too nervous being in a different city," Adagio guessed. "No need to get anxious."
They got interrupted by a waitress with fizzy pink hair giving their food. Interestingly, she wore roller skates instead of normal shoes.
"Here you go, Dazzlings."
"Thank… Hold on, how do you…" Adagio asked, but the waitress immediately took off. "... know our band name?"
"Oh, it's a fan!" Sonata cheered.
"I can read expressions, Sonata, and that smile was so fake," Aria retorted.
The sisters went on to eat their meals, but they couldn't not notice the stares some teenagers threw at them. It was as if they commonly decided to hate them for no apparent reason.
Next visit was the Canterlot Mall. The two-story building with the multiple stores and kiosks left not an empty impression on the Dazzlings, after all, Canterlot was a bigger city than where they came from. It was just a shopping trip they were doing to pass the time, since they couldn't really buy much with their relatively small budget. Still, some small accessories were still bought, even if they were rather cheap.
At a clothing outlet Adagio caught her sisters arguing with each other, as they usually sadly did.
"What's the problem?"
"Sonata wants to waste our money again," Aria explained angrily.
"It's not a waste! Look how pretty these are!" Sonata argued back.
Adagio watched at the necklaces Sonata pointed, which had for each a different coloured gem embedded. It was indeed pretty, she thought.
"And look at the price! If we're gonna spend all our money on everything we won't be financially able to finish our tour!" Aria spit back.
"But… we can buy three of them! It will be our sister's bracelet!"
Adagio caught herself being drawn to the gems and the sister's bracelet idea. The prices for each were indeed not cheap, but their savings could still bear it.
"I think we should buy them." She grabbed a necklace.
Sonata cheered, took one too and already sprinted towards the register.
"Really?" Aria asked.
"Don't worry about the money, Aria. Besides, a sister's bracelet is something she was begging to do for a long time, and these necklaces are the perfect choices."
"If you say so. They are indeed looking nice, I have to admit."
Aria took one for herself too and went with Adagio to Sonata. At the cash register they noticed how a worker, who was already expecting them, was eyeing them up strangely. They put the three necklaces down for her to scan.
"Really? These?" the worker commented.
"Ehm, yes? Is there something wrong with that?" Adagio responded confused. The locals here were already getting on her nerves.
"Oh, no, darlings, absolutely nothing," it came sarcastically from her.
Aria couldn't prevent herself from grunting. This city was ridiculously judgemental.
"You just can't let the past rest, can you?" The worker put them in small bags.
What was that even supposed to mean?
"Actually, a rest would be nice now," Sonata sighed.
"Ugh, Sonata, that's not what she meant." Aria rolled her eyes.
"First, we can buy whatever we want, second, it's all about a new beginning," Adagio replied in a somehow sensible way, thinking about their band, and grabbed the bag displeased.
"A new beginning you say?" she believed to hear the worker murmur, but she decided to ignore it.
The best thing about summer vacations, at least for the Dazzlings, was the possibility to go to a beach and swim in the water. With Canterlot having it nearby, the sisters decided to go there early in the morning the next day. Their performance was planned to be today in the late evening, as being part of an open concert with several bands performing there too, so they had a lot of time to enjoy.
Usually they don't mind for the temperature not to be too hot, for they even swam in colder days, but today was one of the hottest days in the year and many other residents from the city had the same plan. And for some reason, they gave them the same looks as yesterday again, especially the teenage ones.
"Ugh, I can't take it anymore. Wherever we go, the people walk away!" Aria complained.
"Maybe they fear us because they think we're superstars?" Sonata stroke her chin, thinking aloud.
"What? We're not even that famous in our own home city!"
"Maybe they are just… very cautious with strangers, who knows. I think we should try to talk to them and get them to know us," Adagio suggested. "Let's go to the beach volleyball players, they are uneven, I doubt they would reject us."
They went towards the four people playing, while one was watching them from the side. As soon as they approached them, a girl with rainbow coloured hair stopped playing and walked towards them. She then stood still and crossed her arms, looking threateningly at them.
"Hello, may we play with you? Together we could even out the players." Adagio greeted and put on a friendly smile despite the girl's expression.
"And what exactly makes me allow it?" came from her harshly.
Wow, the locals here were the worst, as Aria would say it.
"Well, as I explained, to even out the players, as one of you just watches. We're visitors of this city and…"
"I know that you're not from here."
"Seriously?" Aria grunted. "What's up with you behaving so rude?"
Somehow, the question made the girl even angrier.
"Me being rude? Who of us is the one 'being rude'? Do you seriously expect me to act like you did nothing? How about first apologizing for what you did!"
"What are you even talking about? We did nothing wrong!" Adagio replied annoyingly.
"Nothing wrong? Oh, of course, the Dazzlings think they did nothing wrong! Only they are unable to see it!"
What was going on? Did they do something unknowingly that was like a crime to the locals? Did they walk to the wrong store? Went to the wrong street?
"Ugh, I'm giving up on them!" Aria muttered and walked away.
"Look, I think we have a big misunderstanding," Adagio said as calmly as she could. "How about you explain what makes you so… resistant towards us and we try to improve it?"
The words were hard for her to come out, but despite the ego she still had she had her band career in mind.
The girl began to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Sonata asked.
"Oh, I think we both are in the clear, Adagio."
How did she know her name?
"Look, we are a forgiving group, I befriended even Sunset despite her actions, but the difference between her and you is that she recognized her mistakes, apologized and tried to improve herself. You however just decide to act like nothing happened."
"But… we only came here yesterday…"
"And now they even lie. Wow. Get lost already!"
Now it was even too much for Adagio, so she grabbed Sonata and stomped away.
The Amphitheater was the Dazzlings next goal, where they would perform today. As they realized they couldn't really be anywhere without making the locals angry at them, they decided to train and do rehearsals and then come a bit earlier to the place of the stage. Apparently some bands decided to do it too, as they saw some hanging out there. One of them decided to walk up to them. Great…
"Well, well, the Dazzlings are really thinking they have a chance against the great and powerful Trrrixie?" she said with an uppish voice.
"Look, we just want to perform and get new followers, nothing more." Adagio sighed, hoping to not anger her.
"Hah, of course, no one ever has a chance of beating Trixie. But Trixie supposes if you want to be in the shadows of her might, she can be gracious towards you."
"But who is Trixie?" Sonata asked.
"You're talking to her yourself," Trixie replied with a grin.
"Ooh…"
"This city is too crazy for me," Aria muttered. "Who talks about themself in the third person?"
"Anyway, I suppose the Dazzlings are looking for a second chance? Didn't you lose your voice when your gems were destroyed?"
The sisters looked dumbfounded at her.
"Of course, Trixie realizes that the gems you wear now are not magical, after all, she had bought similar ones for my magic show (here is her business card if you need one), so she doesn't fear if you attempt to mind control the high school again."
"What are you even talking about? Mind control? Magical gems?" Aria grinded her teeth. This was getting too ridiculous.
"Hm? Did you forget it?"
"Forget what? We arrived here only yesterday!"
Trixie looked at them with a pensive look.
"You really don't remember? This could be perhaps the memory stone."
"Memory stone?" Adagio asked. "What is that even supposed to be?"
"Aren't you real life sirens?"
"What? Look, our band is only inspired by sirens, we trained hard to harmonize our voices and sing in all ranges, from low to high, to sing alto and soprano. Second, how do you know about our interest in sirens?"
"So you don't need the gems to sing well?"
"What?" Aria yelled in despair. "We bought them in a store yesterday!"
"How would that even work? Good singing is hard work and many hours of training," Adagio added.
"Hm. So you appear to not be the Dazzlings that were here before."
"There were what?"
"Dazzlings? You are here?" Suddenly a voice behind them was heard.
When they turned around they saw a boy with blue hair and a red guitar.
"You got your gems back? I have to warn the Rainbooms!"
He turned and was about to run away, but Trixie grabbed him by his hood.
"Relax, Flash, the great and powerful Trrrixie figured out that these Dazzlings are not the Dazzlings from the Battle of the Bands."
"Oh, so they are like Twilight?" Flash asked.
"Twilight Sparkle has a different version of herself?" Trixie asked perplexed.
"Anyway, I'm Flash Sentry, sorry for my assumptions. Canterlot high school had… kind of a long history with magical apocalyptic dangers, one of them being sirens having your name trying to mind control us with their voices to make us fight each other, then using the negative emotions to feed their gems to make their voices stronger."
The Dazzlings stared at him dumbfounded.
"There's not a single word that I believe." Aria crossed her arms.
"It's true though, of course though the great and powerful Trrrixie didn't get mind controlled."
"So you trapped the Rainbooms under the stage on your own will?" Flash responded.
"No… Trixie means… ehm…"
"So you're telling me the reason everyone hates us is because someone with the same name as our band…"
"And look exactly like you," Flash interrupted Adagio.
"And somehow even look like us, made some… evil magic stuff and everyone assumes we're them?"
"That's basically it."
"Wow. Just, wow. Great start to a band tour to get more popular," Aria muttered.
"Is there a way to not have the whole city think we are… trying to 'mind control' them?" Adagio asked.
"I will call Sunset Shimmer, she can arrive with her friends and once she realizes you are not the Siren-Dazzlings, give a word for you."
"Fine by me, as long as we are not getting hated for nothing," Adagio said. "This doesn't mean I believe it happened though."
This couldn't get any worse. The looks of the other bands were looking way too dangerous for her likings.
"Your game is over, Dazzlings!" a familiar voice spoke to them.
It turned out to be the rainbow girl at the beach they met, behind her were six other girls.
"Rainbooms, it's not the sirens. They are like Twilight…"
"Flash, they have already brainwashed you!" a girl with red and yellow hair said.
"No, they didn't sing at all…" Flash tried to stop them, but got interrupted again.
"You thought that we didn't know about the possibility of putting magic into gems, but you made an amateurish mistake by buying the required ones at a store Rarity works in!" the girl with glasses and purple hair told.
"How many have you already brainwashed? Is this your way of revenge?" The bacon girl added.
"Ugh, if this is about the gems then we can just not wear them," Aria groaned.
"No, you have to break them!"
"What? No! They were expensive! At least for us!" Adagio objected.
"You should have thought about that before you tried to do your obvious scheme again!" the glasses girl countered.
"They are not magical! Magic doesn't exist!" Aria yelled.
"The great and powerful Trixie confirms the not-siren Dazzlings. About the first one, not the latter."
"Who was the one who let us fall under the stage?" the rainbow girl talked back. "You are already just as mind controlled as Flash!"
"This will haunt Trixie her whole life…" she muttered.
"Girls, I think just breaking the gems is too late. Who knows who is already mind controlled by them," the bacon girl said. "We need to repeat what we did the last time."
Suddenly Flash stood between the Rainbooms and the Dazzlings.
"Sunset Shimmer, please listen to me. These are not the sirens you think they are."
"Flash, get out of the way," she said threateningly.
"No, if you would just listen to…"
"Flash. Move."
"No! I will not allow you to fight against innocent people!"
Sunset sighed.
"I'm sorry, Flash. You'll thank me later."
Suddenly she lunged out and punched Flash in the face, making him fall to the ground. Sonata and Trixie screamed out of shock, the latter running away in fear.
"Get them!"
The Dazzlings immediately took off to run away too, but suddenly the rainbow girl appeared in their way. How fast was she?
"Oh, no, this time you won't run away!" She smirked.
It didn't take long for the Rainbooms to tackle the Dazzlings down and bound them. Their mouths were even gagged to prevent them from "singing". The siblings got dragged to the front row of the Amphitheater, while many others were just watching the scenery without interfering.
"Fear not, dear citizens, for we have the sirens in our control," the girl with purple hair spoke, who they met at the clothing outlet.
"Can't we just break the gems? Do we really have to do the whole 'singing' stuff?" the girl with a cowboy hat asked.
"No, we need to break the spell on the people who are in control, just breaking the gems won't undo the mind control it has already affected," Sunset explained.
They got on the stage and took their instruments, before they started to sing.
What were they doing? How was singing supposed to "fight" the mind control thing? Although, the Rainbooms thought they were fighting against actual sirens, so they clearly have lost their mind already long ago.
However, the Dazzlings didn't expect at all for what was about to happen. Suddenly each of the Rainbooms started to glow and transform. Their hairs got longer, some got wings and their ears transformed into pony ears.
To make it even weirder, the girls began to float and a rainbow blast shot up into the sky, forming a unicorn with wings. Suddenly, the top of the horn lit up and shot another rainbow blast, this time at the Dazzlings.
The sisters closed their eyes, expecting the inevitable end of their life. Out of everything, the last thing they thought they would die from were girls making a flying unicorn shooting rainbow blasts at them.
"And another evil has been prevented!" The Dazzlings heard one of the girls say.
So they were still alive! A sigh of relief was made.
"And as expected, their gems are now broken too. So much about it being 'not magical'."
The Dazzlings looked at the Rainbooms, who had already transformed back to their normal selves.
"What happened here?" They suddenly heard a familiar voice speaking. Way too familiar…
When the sisters turned, they couldn't believe their eyes. At the entrance of the Amphitheater were standing… the Dazzlings themselves? How was that possible?
Wasn't it for the magical unicorn shooting a rainbow blast at them, this would have been the strangest thing they have ever seen before.
"Oh, you must be the human counterparts?" Sunset asked them. "Don't worry about understanding it now, it's a long story."
"Human counterpart? Oh, yeah, sure…" the other Adagio stuttered.
"You see, these three girls are from an alternative universe, where magic is a common thing." The girl with glasses explained. "These three are actual sirens, who use, or rather had used, their singing to hypnotize other people and cause disharmony and anger to then feed off the negative energy."
"But don't worry, for the Rainbooms have defeated them, twice!" the rainbow girl exclaimed proudly. Clearly she got trixiefied.
The sisters couldn't believe the scenery that was just happening. Was the whole story with sirens actually real? Were the actual sirens now standing there free, being mistaken by the girls for the "human counterpart" one?
Aria noticed a short smirk in the Siren-Adagio's mouth, which she knew from her sister too well to not fear.
"Oh, you don't know how happy we are that you took care of these imposters! You see, these three appeared out of nowhere and took everything from us that we had! We tried to tell the police about it, but no one believed that some 'twins' stole our belongings from us. I can't express how thankful we are to you!"
"Yeah, we were so confused why three of us existed, but now that you explained it, it kind of makes sense," Siren-Aria added.
"I don't understand. I don't recall anything that…" Siren-Sonata said, but got interrupted by an elbow jab from Siren-Aria.
There went the hope of Siren-Sonata messing up.
"We are happy to have helped you! Please, take your belongings back from them," Sunset said.
The Dazzlings tried to get free from the bonds or speak through the gags, but it was all unsuccessful. The sirens slowly approached them and searched through every pocket they had, taking from them their wallets and their keys.
"Nothing personal," Siren-Adagio whispered into their ears.
"Hold on! The Gret and Powerful Trixie calls for an objection!"
Never before had the sisters felt as much hope than now.
"The mind control didn't break off from Trixie? But that's impossible!" the glasses girl said.
"Maybe she didn't hear us sing? Rainbow, please catch her," Sunset ordered.
"On it!" she responded and took off with an unbelievable speed. The next moment Trixie was now also bound and gagged.
If the Dazzlings had just the biggest hope, the letdown that followed was now only stronger. The siren finished taking everything from them and went away, not without thanking the Rainbooms for their incredible help.
Now this couldn't get worse.
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you," Flash said sadly to the Dazzlings, while holding an ice bag on his cheek.
"Trixie apologizes too. She couldn't escape from the bonds, even though she has an escape act!"
"Please don't apologize, you did everything you could," Adagio sighed.
As soon as they had gotten free, the Dazzlings went directly to their hotel to see what the sirens had taken, only to realize in horror that their tour van was nowhere to be seen. With no money, IDs or anything else they had to take the help offer from Flash and called their parents to pick them up. Only later on Trixie joined them, as she was only allowed to go once she was "out of their mind control", and they went to a fast food restaurant to wait for the parents to arrive.
"I just can't believe the real Dazz… I mean sirens got away with this! How could the Rainbooms be so stubborn to not see…" Flash ranted, but got silenced by Aria.
"Please, just… don't talk about it anymore. I just hope that once I fall asleep I wake up and see that it was all just a bad dream."
"I don't think our brains would be able to even make something like this up," Adagio replied.
"Can I at least make it somehow up for you?" Flash asked.
"Maybe you want to see a free performance of the Great and… Inescapable Trixie?"
"No, thanks, you both already paid for our food, thank you for that again."
As to add salt to the wounds, they saw three of the Rainbooms girls enter the restaurant they were in. Great, as if the day wasn't already bad enough…
"... but think about it, if we can use the alicorn to… Hold on, are Flash and Trixie still with the Dazzlings? I thought we freed them?" Rainbow said.
"I'm telling you, they really are desperate. Though I wonder how they did it without the gems," Cowboy girl responded.
"For the last time, we are not the sirens!" Aria yelled at them annoyingly.
"Of course, that's why the gems broke," Sunset replied sarcastically.
"If they are the sirens, why did they call back home to their parents?" Flash countered with a slight fury.
"Well, duh, it's because… because…" Rainbow answered, but failed to come up with something.
The expression of the cowboy girl was first to change.
"How are you sure they really called their parents?" Sunset asked.
"They get picked up in about an hour. We're waiting for them."
"It was a nightmare explaining to them what happened," Adagio muttered.
Sunset was the second one to realize their mistake, as her eyes and mouth opened widely in shock.
"And also, now that the gems are broken, how would they mind control us?" Flash asked.
"Land Sakes! We screwed up big this time!" Cowboy girl exclaimed.
"Hold on, these three are the human counterparts?" Rainbow asked.
"I fear they are…" Sunset gulped.
"Took you long enough." Aria commented annoyingly.
"I'm so sorry for what happened…" Sunset stuttered, but Adagio disrupted her.
"Sorry? Now you're sorry for what you did to us? First you knocked out Flash, then bound and gagged us, then made the whole… unicorn thing and then let our copies take everything from us! Our savings for a month and our tour van got stolen!"
"And you destroyed our sister's bracelet!" Sonata cried, to which Aria groaned.
The three Rainbooms stared in shock and shame at the Dazzlings and couldn't find a word to speak.
"All of this wouldn't have happened if you would have just listened to us, heck, even just at Flash or Trixie!" Adagio added.
"It still hurts…" Flash moaned and rubbed his cheek.
"And Trixie never wants to hear any of your songs again."
"Ehm, look, I will search for the other Dazzlings, ok?" Rainbow ran off, leaving a rainbow trail behind.
"How will she find them if she doesn't know…" Aria muttered, before Rainbow appeared again.
"By the way, what does your tour van look like?"
"It's purple, in front is a yellow diamond, the sides are green, on the right side is also a purple diamond," Adagio explained, after which Rainbow ran away again.
"It's pointless, it's been more than an hour since they have driven away," Aria sighed.
"Our dream of becoming a famous band, our chance to get new fans, all ruined!" Sonata sobbed. "Why did it have to happen to us!"
The other two Rainbooms looked ashamed to the ground.
"Is there something we can do…" Sunset tried to say, but Adagio interrupted her.
"Just go and never show up again." she said as calmly as she could, even though with gritted teeth.
"But…"
"Now!" she yelled.
"Let's go, sugarcube, they don't want to see us right now." the cowboy girl said.
Slowly and hesitantly they left the restaurant.
Some months later, Adagio noticed how Aria's mood was completely down.
"What happened?" she asked her curiously.
"Just… go to Sonata's room and you'll see it yourself."
When she entered, she saw Sonata crying in her bed.
"Hey, sis, what happened? Did you see a sad animal video again?"
Wordlessly she just pointed at the screen of her laptop. When Adagio looked at it, she couldn't believe her eyes.
It was a paused video of the Siren-Dazzlings performing in front of a big audience. Not as big as some superstars, but it was still impressive. So these sirens even took their place and their name and started to perform for them? How dare they!
Out of curiosity she unpaused the video, only to be even angrier. These fakers used an autotune so obviously it hurt her. Countless hours of practice and singing lessons, perfecting their voices to sound as beautifully as sirens, but these "real sirens" just used autotune to fake it! She could have punched the screen if it wasn't Sonata's laptop. All she could feel was the growing rage, the rage against the fakers and especially the Rainbooms.
They were gonna pay for it.
Author's Note
And that concludes this one-shot. I feel honestly bad what I made the human Dazzlings go through, but it had to happen 
Hope you enjoyed reading it 
