Twilight Sparkle brought a small measuring tube up to her goggle-covered eyes. As she concluded her statistics, the scientist began her next preparations for chemical safety for her experiment. A gift was on her mind. Her girlfriend may have forgiven her… perturbing behavior from the past few days but Twilight still wanted to do something to make it up to her fiery-haired, empathetic partner.

So, she was engaged in a chemistry investigation. The young genius wanted to conduct something called Dancing Gummy Bears. She was sure, or she hoped, Sunset would love it. All she needed was her test tube, a heat source, and the gummy bears. The school had plenty of those supplies and thanks to her status as a responsible and reliable AP chemistry student, the teacher was lenient with letting her have molten potassium chloride.

Twilight had arrived at the school early to give herself ample time to prepare. Tomorrow was the first battle of the bands and she wanted to make sure her girlfriend was happy before the stress of fighting mythical beings caught up. Her projecting her insecurities wasn’t going to help Sunset do that. Her ears were able to pick up the increasing population of students in the hall. Just as she was about to start cleaning up her lab space and head out into the fray to find her partner, the lab door opened.

“Here you are, darling!” the girl with a posh voice turned to someone behind her, “See? No need to worry. She was an easy find.”

Fluttershy popped out behind Rarity and smiled at the lab-coated adorned girl who had her long dark hair up in a messy, wavy bun and at least two pencils stuck in the large tuff.

The timid girl brushed her green floral printed ankle-length skirt before her dark aqua eyes met Twilight’s violet ones. Fluttershy gave her another friendly smile as she spoke, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Twilight offered back as she pushed her glasses up. “Is there something you need help with?”

She was hoping what they needed wouldn't take too long. She had some testing to conduct before the first class bell rang after she got to greet her partner. She considered telling the girls they would have to wait until later but, whatever the two girls were here for was urgent enough that they had to come looking for her.

Rarity tossed a large ringlet of perfectly teased hair over her shoulder as she sat with perfect posture on the science stool closest to the lab table her target was at, “Actually we’re here to help you, darling. That is if you would be willing.”

Twilight fought against the warmth rushing to her cheeks. Had Sunset told them what she did or how messed up she had been lately? She wouldn't blame her but she was not ready to be cornered and ridiculed by her partner’s friends.

A gentle hand pressed into her back, “Twilight, breathe, you’re okay.”

The airy voice of reassurance broke through her thoughts and Twilight realized just how hard her breathing was. Fluttershy looked at her with concern, “You can talk to us, Twilight. We’re your friends.”

They are?

“You are?” Twilight found herself saying out before she could catch herself. The two girls looked at each other and the bespeckled girl shrunk in further on herself. She wasn't trying to hurt anymore but her feeling of being the outsider was stronger than a pep talk. Sunset still felt like her only genuine friend and the others were just… there. They only interacted with her because she was Sunset’s girlfriend or she looked like the otherworldly princess. Or at least that’s what her brain kept telling her.

“We are,” Rarity smiled at her, “What would make you feel otherwise, darling?”

‘She says, darling a lot. Must be a comforting word for her… or maybe to comfort others,’ Twilight thought instead of answering the fashionista.

Fluttershy’s voice broke her out of her headspace again, “We haven't exactly been very inclusive to you. There’s been a lot going on… I’m sorry that has distracted us from making sure you feel a part of our group.”

“Precisely as Fluttershy said, Darling,” Rarity joined, “You are our friend and it’s important to us that you know that. Despite some heat-of-the-moment words, we hope you would like to be our friend as well.”

One of her hands shot up to wipe the wetness from her cheeks, “Uh, h-how much did Sunset tell you?”

Again the two girls had a silent conversation as their eyes met. From what Twilight could see the girls seemed perplexed.

“Sunset hasn’t shared anything about you with us. We noticed that you're hurting and we wanted to let you know we care about you,” Fluttershy explained.

“Oh,” Twilight sheepishly played with one of her wavy locks of hair hanging down by her face. She should have known her best friend wouldn't go around telling others about her troubles. What was wrong with her? Why did she always assume the worst? Thinking logically, the scientist wasn't used to this. Nobody outside of her parents or Sunset ever told her they cared about her or her feelings. These girls showing opposition to the cycle was… nice and a bit scary.

Ivory-colored hands gently moved the lavender hand tugging on indigo hair, “Darling, your consort with Sunset has nothing to do with our desire to be your friends. We want to know you for you.”

“Really? But what about the princess? She’s better than me,” Twilight mumbled the last sentence.

A scoff sound came from the dress tailor as Fluttershy spoke, “We don't believe that. Just because you and the princess have a lot in common, that doesn't make you worse or less than then her.”

Twilight turned away from them as she began to mess with the beaker and testing tubes she planned on using later, “I want to believe you and I appreciate your words and efforts very much. Trust me, nobody has ever fought to be friends with me… other than Sunset,” she let out a sorry laugh as she thought about the fights she had with Sunset months ago. She had felt so guilty she avoided the girl and dove herself further into her work, “I didn't realize how much I self-isolate until now.”

Rarity plucked the pencils from her hair, “Lucky, for you, darling, we are just like her.”

“Maybe a bit worse,” Fluttershy joked. The girl shared a laugh and the bell rang. A small park of panic ran through Twilight, “Oh! I haven't even gotten my class supplies prepared!” She grabbed her bag and ran to the door before skirting to a stop, “Thank you very much for checking in on me. I’m going to try better at involving myself instead of getting stuck in my head. I.. just may need time.”

The girls nodded as they gathered their things as well, “No need to worry, darling. You aren't alone and we will be there for you.”

Twilight gave them a smile before running off to her locker. She passed by Pinkie Pie who gave her a wide smile and wave, in which she returned. She thought Sunset would be her only friend for, maybe, the rest of her life. She had been content with that, after all, she loved Sunset in a way she thought was only possible in her novels. For the first time, Twilight considered she could have long-lasting, caring friends.

“Alright!” Rainbow Dash bounced from one foot to another, “Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! This is going to be so awesome! We’re gonna rock these other dweebs outta here!”

Sunset Shimmer chuckled with a playful eye roll at her antics, “You’re right, Dash, this is going to be awesome,” she agreed as she tuned her rhythm guitar, “buuut let’s not be too awesome, we don’t want the sirens to know we have magic until we can defeat them.”

Applejack gave a sarcastic laugh, “We ain’t gotta put too much awesome in. Especially after what Snips and Snails just did.

Pinkie Pie giggled as she tapped on the drums, “I thought they were pretty good!”

The farmer rolled her eyes, “Of course ya did.”

“Are you guys ready, you have three minutes left of the break before you go on,” Twilight's voice intercepted. Sunset did nothing to stop the instinctual smile that grew upon her face. Her girlfriend had been a lot more bubbly and outspoken today compared to recently that week. It made her happy to see her partner's true self-starting to reach the surface. Twilight had decided to stay in the mathletes but she had also been acting band manager for the past two days of their practice. Now that they were in the first round of the Battle of the Bands, Sunset had expected Twilight’s anxiety to get the better of her. Instead, the guitarist stood impressed by the other girl’s natural leadership and organization of making sure things were going perfectly for the Rainbooms.

“Where is Rarity?” Twilight asked.

“Ugh,” Applejack rolled her eyes at the question with annoyance. Sunset stood surprised for the second time that day at the farmer's reaction.

“She’s gettin’ all frilly or somethin’. Ah told her we ain't got time for that but she wouldn't listen,” The stetson-adorned girl growled with frustration.

“It’s okay. I'm sure she’ll be here in a minute,” Sunset tried.

“Oh! I’m here, I'm here!” Rarity announced, out of breath, as she flipped her expensive hair and posed in her new outfit. The redhead could best explain it as a cardigan-type thing with metal-type dangling things coming from the sleeves.

“Rares,” Applejack pinched the bridge of her nose, “What in tarnation…”

“What?” The posh girl said almost offendedly, “We are about to put on a show! I’m not going to look fabulous?”

Twilight ushered her up the stage steps, “Do as you must but the curtains open in sixty seconds! Be ready girls.”

“Thanks, Sparkes. You're doing great,” Sunset said.

A blush coated Twilight's cheeks and she cleared her throat, trying to stay professional, “Thank you, and you as well.”

The band manager removed herself quickly from the stage. A bit of awkwardness settled in Sunset’s chest. None of the girls gave their usual chuckles or giggles when watching the couple's antics. Instead, they looked, irritated, nervous, or uncaring. The former unicorn hoped this would go well. The band had started to be more of a new stress and what they needed right now was something fun to get their spirits up. The magic of friendship through music was what they needed to be strong enough to take down the sirens. That couldn't happen if everyone was too stressed to like each other.

The redhead could hear her principal's voice welcoming everyone back to the first elimination rounds. The grumbles of students let Sunset know that nopon- nobody was excited for her band to play.

It almost felt out of pure spite when Pinkie began her drum intro to their song by Rainbow. As Sunset began her strums, she took a side glance at Fluttershy. The animal caretaker did not look pleased to be there and not in the stage fright anxiety that was expected. The withdrawn look in her eyes made Sunset remember a conversation.

~~~~~~~~~

“Rainbow, do you think, maybe, we could try a song I wrote?” Fluttershy’s meek voice asked the Prisma-haired girl.

She waved a dismissive hand at the other girl who had a pink journal in her hands, “We’ll get to it,” Rainbow Dash disregarded.

“Oh, okay…” Fluttershy wilted as she stepped away and dejectedly put her journal back. Sunset couldn’t help but speak up for the girl who always showed her unfiltered kindness.

“Come on, Dash. Let’s do one of her songs- I’ve got a good feeling she has some amazing stuff in there,” the fiery-haired girl defended as she gestured to Fluttershy’s journal. The pastel pink-haired girl smiled gratefully at her.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, “Yeah, but the first tryouts are tomorrow we got to stick to what we are playing now. Like I said, We’ll get to it.”

Sunset mouthed an apology to Fluttershy, who shook her head and mouthed thanks to her.

~~~~~~~~~

That interaction had been only one day after she and Rainbow got into their kerfuffle and it still left a sour taste in Sunset’s mouth. Maybe something deeper was going on with the soccer player. Or, the siren's magic was getting to them, only it was happening slower than everyone else. The former unicorn hoped that wasn't the case. They really would have no chance then.

A gasp of surprise emitted from Sunset when she jumped as her guitar string broke along with her thoughts.

‘What? What the hell?’ She thought as she looked down at the shortened curled string. How did it just randomly break? Sunset was so tedious about making sure her strings were in tip-top shape and she always had backup. Why did this one suddenly just collapse?

Her heart broke when another string sprang free from the instrument's surface. A squee of fear ran past her ear suddenly and her eyes followed as Fluttershy ran from one of the spotlights following her. She then noticed Rarity being fan-dangled like a puppet by the sleeves of her shiny outfit. Sunset’s eyes moved up and noticed all the giggling participants who were sabotaging her band's performance.

Her teeth grit together as anger flared in the pit of her stomach. All she could think at that moment was how lucky the vandalizers were that she didn't enact revenge plots anymore. Sunset tried over and over again to signal what was happening to the watching principles but they showed no care, it was a painful reminder of how they were under an evil spell.

Eventually, the song ended and the girls were left in tears, anger, and a messed up instrument. Sunset stormed off the stage with Rainbow Dash and Applejack trying to meet with her booming stomps. She ripped her bag open and pulled out her backup strings, all of which were cut in half, “Ugh! Those assholes! They’ll be lucky if I don't enact King Sombra onto them!”

“Sunny, what happened?!” Twilight asked from behind her. She opened her mouth to answer but a Southern accent cut her off.

“Somebody,” Applejack directed to Rarity, “was too busy playing with their outfit instead of playing their instrument.”

Rarity brushed at her tears, smudging her mascara on her face, “Me? They were vandalizing our performance!”

“Well, they wouldn't have been able to do that iffin’ ya weren’t wearing,” the farmer gestured to the torn outfit accessory, “that!”

Rarity let out a sob before beginning her retort- only to be interrupted by a high-pitched voice.

“That wouldn't have even mattered if you weren't running from a light the whole time! A LIGHT!” Pinkie Pie yelled at Fluttershy.

Fluttershy had nothing to say back as she hyperventilated. Twilight joined her side, “There’s no reason for us to go blaming and attacking each other. There were multiple groups involved in deliberately damaging us.”

“She’s right guys. Someone even cut up all my guitar strings, which aren't cheap. Let’s calm down and we can come up with a plan to persevere the sirens and stuff like this,” Sunset agreed.

She shoved her broken strings back into her bag and stood, “They are going to announce the next bands to compete soon. For now, we should practice and come up with a plan to avoid being sabotaged again.”

Rarity sniffled and crossed her arms over her chest, “You can’t seriously think we are going to be moving to the next round, darling.”

“Frankly, it doesn't matter,” Sunset admitted, “No matter what we have to take out the sirens. You guys are the ones with the magic, if we don't get to move on, then we’re going to have to do some concert crashing.”

A crooked smile grew on Rainbow Dash’s face, “I almost like the sound of that more.”

“Next up, Trixie and The Illusions and then, The Dazzlings, after a five-minute intermission!” Principal Celestia’s voice spoke with the most emotion Sunset had heard from her in days. Of course, she sounded forcefully dreamy when addressing the siren’s band.

“Alright, you guys get to a music room and figure out practice. I’ll meet you there but first I have something to settle,” Sunset instructed.

“Sunset?” Twilight questioned, “Settle what?”

Sunset placed a kiss on her forehead, “For now don't worry about it. Just help them, yeah?”

Twilight paused and looked into her eyes. After a thorough search of teal, she agreed and guided the cracking group out of the gym doors. Sunset readied herself as she followed her friends out of the gym. After the emotional turmoil that nasty, slimy bottom feeder put her girlfriend through, the protege of the sun had some words to say. It wasn’t a struggle for her to find herself back in an aggressive position again as she leaned against the darkest corner in the dark hallway before the gym.

Aggravation and fury boiled like hot water in her chest as she heard the trio around the corner, laughing at the pain they were causing. As soon as they turned the corner Adagio managed to spot the shadowed girl and stopped her lackeys in their tracks.

“Do not go near Twilight again,” Sunset snarled.

“Who?” Adagio said with feigned ignorance as she placed her hands on her hips.

A growl rose from the back of Sunset’s throat, “You know exactly who. I mean it, stay the hell away from her and my friends.”

“Or what, little sunshine?” Adagio challenged, stepping closer, “Are you going to show me your ‘true form?’”

The redhead’s sneer dropped. Was the siren leader referring to the demon Sunset had become? How… could she possibly know about that?

“Oh, that's right Sunshine, I’ve heard a lot about you. It doesn't take anything to get our peers to talk,” Adagio said with acid dripping from her words as she circled behind the leather jacket-wearing girl, “In fact, they had quite a lot to say about you.”

The girl circling her kept a low hand, which drifted much too closely to Sunset’s backside. She shot away from the tall, curly-haired creature, creating distance, “DON’T touch me.” Adagio took a step forward causing Sunset to take another step back, only to bump against the blue-haired siren.

The other two sirens snickered as Aria joined circling Sunset, “Why do you care so much about these weak little humans? You know just as well as we do how easy they are to control.”

“Control and power are all creatures like us want. Why deny yourself of that little sunshine?” Adagio asked as her fingers brushed by fire resembling hair.

“What’s the point? Your ‘little friends’ treat you like you are an embarrassment. Placing you in the back of the band to strum worthlessly. Your school sure seems to agree based on what we’ve heard.” Aria said with a monotone voice laced with sourness as she looked at her nails.

Sunset bit her lip and pulled on her clawed fingers. Were they right? Is that how everyone saw her? Her parents? Princess Celestia? Her friends? An embarrassment.

“Haha! Too bad, so sad!” Sonata exclaimed, making Sunset flinch from the loud sound in her ear.

A hand grabbed hers suddenly, Adagio was smiling at her with sinister planning in her eyes, “Just think little Sunshine, join us, and nobody in this world or any other will ever think or look down upon you again. After all, that is something you wanted at one point, right?”

‘Yes. Yes, that was something I had wanted.’

Sunset moved her eyes away and swallowed the lump in her throat.

“Join us. Join me, Sunset Shimmer. I know you can be a powerful being. Don’t deprive yourself of that. Gain the potential that you and I know you have,” Adagio lured with a hypnotic voice.

Sunset slammed her eyes shut as her heart rammed against her chest. Her past thoughts and feelings overwhelmed her. Her pain, her wants, her loneliness, and her craving for someone to love her and give her a chance. Purple flashed in front of her eyelids. The purple cleared and her girlfriend's face was in front of her.

Twilight Sparkle gave her everything she wanted and more. Her friends may be reacting to the siren's magic without knowing but they still care about her and each other. They were going to make it and send these overgrown fish back to their clear bowls.

Sunset opened her eyes as a new determination ran through her. She reveled in the taken-aback look on Adagio’s face. A grin stretched her own, “Oh, you should be worried Adagio Dazzle. If I have to do it alone, so be it but your ass will be fried like the fish you are.”

Using the siren leader’s method against her, Sunset shouldered Adagio out of the way as she walked away with fire bubbling her magic under her skin. They were going to win this.

Sunset waited before joining her friend's practice as the last bands planned. The sirens sang a sickly and ironic song about everyone being under their spell. As the song went on the former unicorn felt that same painful cough rise causing her to cover her mouth. Last time only a small splatter of dark liquid came up, that time the blood dripped from her hands and mouth. But she had to wait it out. She had to know. Her determination was strong but she still had doubts after what happened while she and her friends were on stage.

Finally, the music stopped and the redhead watched the principals place the last band logo on the success board and walk away. Quickly students swarmed to get a look. What followed was either cheers, tears, or glares. She was able to spot The Rainboom’s logo on the board.

“Something tells me, we don't have to worry about planning infiltration yet,” Sunset mused. They still had a chance, one they couldn’t mess up.

Author's Note

A hurricane is about to hit but we staying writing

Shout out to Rares and Flutters having observational skills and reaching out to Twilight. Speaking from experience, it sucks when no one reaches out to you.
Sabotage and Adagio being a weirdo. The girls can't catch a break (and won't for a while).

Feel free to share your thoughts and concerns :D