It sounded worse than a collection of yowling alley-cats….even after the Rainbooms (plus Princess Twilight) had run through the counterspell song dozens of times in the last few hours. Sunset, sitting with Spike and operating the sound equipment for them, had to fight to keep from cringing. Even Granny Smith could tell it was bad, and Sunset was fairly sure she hadn’t bothered with her hearing aids that day.

On the positive end, it seemed the princess must’ve given her four legged companion some kind of talking to, as he’d been surprisingly polite and non-confrontational with Sunset all morning. That was pretty much the extent of the good news.

Spike uncovered his ears, gave the redhead an uncertain look as the caterwauling came to an end, and offered hesitantly, “…that sounded…way better than the last…five times you’ve played it…” He laughed nervously.

Big Macintosh walked by the barn window, overhearing the canine. “…Nnnnope,” he drawled.

Spike let out a whine, and Sunset looked over at the girls, frowning. All of them looked uncomfortable, tired, and frustrated—they’d been at this since bright and early that morning, and had yet to undergo their equine transformations at all. Even Rainbow Dash hadn’t managed to manifest hers, and she was usually the first one to start “Ponying-Up,” as the girls had dubbed it. The combination of factors was starting to cause some friction, and that worried Sunset.

“I think its pretty obvious what’s going wrong with this counterspell,” Rainbow complained, half rolling her eyes as she nodded her head slightly at the rest of the group. The cocky, arrogant tone of her voice made it obvious where she felt the problem was.

Applejack and Rarity both glared at the brightly colored athlete. “Yer turnin’ what should be the chorus inta a five minute guitar solo?” the blonde bit out accusingly.

Dash gave them both an affronted look. “I have to pick up the slack somehow. Are you guys even trying?”

Fluttershy leaned forward, her voice as passive as ever, but with an undercurrent of bitter frustration. “I’m trying,” she offered unhelpfully. Rainbow Dash turned an annoyed face in her direction.

Sunset’s brows furrowed. The stress seemed to be getting to all of them, causing the normally relaxed group of girls to snipe at each other; it was only a matter of time before it escalated into a full blown argument between two or more of her friends. “It’s fine,” a nervous voice managed, and she turned her head in puzzlement. Princess Twilight looked like she was on the verge of another panic attack, hunching in on herself, a wild look in her eyes. “It’ll be fine…One more time from the top!” she asserted, only to get no response from the group.

Rarity took a breath, stepping forward. “Or…” she suggested, smiling for the first time in at least an hour. “Perhaps we could take a short break? Try on some of the wardrobe choices I’ve put together?” She retrieved a rack with a bunch of outfit bags on hangers, and looked through them before holding up one in front of herself. “I’m particularly fond of this one.” She frowned, studying it for a moment. “Of course, we could go with something a bit more modern.”

An exasperated expression formed on Applejack’s face, and she spoke with barely restrained annoyance. “We’re tryin’ ta save our school here,” she pointed out, waving a hand towards Rarity. “Enough with the costumes!”

Rarity had put on a curious, digitized helmet to test out its affects, and her voice came out with a robotic, tinny undertone that still managed to pack all of her offended sensibilities and annoyance into a single scoffing noise. “You can never have enough costumes!”

Pinkie Pie joined in with Rarity’s rising argument with Applejack. “Yeah! She just wants to make things fun! Isn’t that what being in a band is supposed to be?” She flicked a drumstick against her kit to give her pouted words their own sitcom sound effect.

Sunset’s worry rose as she looked around the barn at her friends. Discord’s teeth, this was getting bad!

—Deep breaths, horn-head, like you’re always telling Sparky to take.— With an internal groan, the redhead took a minute to do exactly that. —Have you considered stepping up and taking charge? They’re really in it, near up to their necks, and their glorious leader looks like she’s about half a second away from being catatonic in a corner—they need an adult mind that’s holding it together, and let’s face it, not a one of them knows how to be a good leader.—

She stopped herself from shaking her head in a negative, but only just. Her being leader was a terrible idea, and she didn’t want anything to do with that kind of power anyways, not anymore. On the other hand, she could step in with a support role to help manage the little things, so they could focus on the real problem. A glance at her phone’s clock, and she moved more into the center of the area, getting their attention. “You don’t have time for any of this!” she reminded them, agitation in her voice. “You’re supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in fifteen minutes!” Granted, they had a few more than fifteen minutes, but with the way they were acting, she needed to light a fire under them to get them moving in time to actually get to the school.

The girls let out a collective squawk of dismay, and began immediately breaking down their instruments to put in the Apple family Truck. The princess, however, looked about ready to scream. “What? But it's not ready!” Her voice rose in volume and pitch. “If we play our counterspell in the first round and it doesn’t work, then the Sirens will know what we’re up to and make sure we don’t get the chance to play it again!”

Everyone froze for a moment, then looked around at each other, trying to come up with a solution. Applejack finally voiced the solution, trying to sound more confident than she looked like she felt. “Then we’ll hafta buy ourselves some time so ya kin keep workin’ on it.”

“And how do you propose we do that?” Rarity asked in confusion.

It was Rainbow who answered. “By competing in the Battle of the Bands for real! I take over lead vocals again, and we stay alive until the finals!” That savage, cocky grin was back on her face. “We unleash the counterspell then!” Then she tilted her head at Princess Twilight. “You’ll have it figured out by the finals, right?”

Sunset watched the emotions play over her face, but before she could offer an answer, it was Spike who spoke up. “Of course she will! Twilight Sparkle’s never met a problem she couldn’t solve!” He grinned up at his companion. “Right, Twilight?”

“….R-right…” came the strained response.

“Then let’s go win us a Battle of the Bands!”

They made it with minutes to spare before their sign in deadline, gaining a long and unimpressed look from Miss Harshwhinny. “Cutting it close, aren’t you, girls?” she commented dryly. “Try not to be late for your time-slot. It will not be extended—we have a lot of groups to go through and a limited window to do it.” She sniffed, then turned to the next student, dismissing them.

“…It’ll be nice to see everyone back to normal after this,” the princess noted.

“….That was normal for Harshwhinny. I had her last year….she has all the personality of a dead tree,” Sunset commented.

Rainbow Dash added, “Plus, I think she’s allergic to fun.”

Nobody laughed—there was too much tension in the air as they entered the gym. Sunset could already feel the gut churning sensation of dark magic, forcing her to swallow repeatedly to avoid gagging and throwing up. Nasty looks were cast their way, open hostility like steel wool on her very being. She gripped her other arm to steady herself…but that only lasted a short time before she snuck a peek at her phone to send a text for a pick-me-up from Sparky.

The girls made their way to the line up on the other side of the gym, and were forced to listen to Snips and Snails perform a freestyle ‘Rap Battle’ that Sunset thought might’ve actually been more painful than the Sirens’ singing….especially when they made a show of throwing down the microphones at the end, creating agonizing feedback.

The admins at the judge’s table flinched from the sound, and for a few seconds, Celestia’s eyes met Sunset’s, clear and her own for the first time since before the Sirens had showed up. Her mouth opened to say something, but Adagio’s head snapped towards her sharply, and the hazy, glassy eyed look returned. The principal turned her attention to Snips and Snails robotically. “Please. Do not drop the microphones,” she deadpanned.

Sunset’s former lackeys giggle-snorted their way off the stage, throwing mocking comments their way as they left. Applejack rolled her eyes. “Least we know one group that won’t stand in our way o’ gettin’ ta the finals.”

“Let’s get ready to rock!” Dash cried.

Pinkie Pie looked around. “Wait!” she called. “Where’s Rarity?”

Sunset was taken aback. Rarity had been here just a minute ago. Blue-green eyes began to rove the darkened gym, searching for the designer. She spotted her, heading their way, huffing and slightly out of breath…and wearing one of her myriad of costumes, this one with some form of weird metallic fringe that jingled like wind chimes.

“Oh! Here! I’m here!” she halted before them, panting and chiming. She saw their displeased expressions. “We will be performing before an audience,” she pointed out primly. “I’m not going to wear something fabulous?” It was a clearly rhetorical query, and Applejack scowled, letting out a frustrated sigh.

The group headed up to the stage, setting up quickly, and getting ready to play. The students in the gym were self absorbed, ignoring or jeering at any group not their own, and it looked like the Rainbooms would be no different from anyone else in their eyes. Sunset lingered on the sidelines with the cases for their equipment and Spike, cheering them on in silence and doing her best to avoid the way the magic was making her feel. The song started out well—it was one of the ones the girls had been practicing over the last few weeks, so they had the timing and the coordination down—but things quickly began to spiral out of control. Sunset caught movement up in the catwalk of the stage, and watched in disgust as several girls used some large magnets on wire to jerk Rarity around like a puppet, dragging her away from her mic and into Applejack, who pushed her partner away angrily so she didn’t drop out of the song herself. They were already down Rarity’s keytar, and with only the bass and the drums accompanying a single guitar, the music was sounding pretty lacking.

This was compounded when confetti courtesy of Pinkie’s…hidden…drum cannon? almost choked the princess, and when Snips and Snails, also in the catwalk, chased Fluttershy around stage with a spotlight, triggering the girl’s stage fright. Sunset cringed, and she could see Princess Twilight starting to waver, her hands curling up in front of her chest, fisted hands bent like mock hooves, as if she wanted nothing more than to rear in fright and then gallop off. The song finished with a horrific tearing sound from Rarity’s top, which ended with her on her knees, crying and the detached sleeves dangling from the two magnets. Applejack gave the designer a hard stare as if she couldn’t quite believe the melodrama over…sleeves. Over an outfit.

Sunset picked up Spike to keep him from being trampled as Rarity sobbed her way off the stage, moaning, “Ruined! Absolutely ruined!”

Applejack stormed after her, setting the bass down so she could light into her partner. “Rarity! Were ya tryin’ ta make us lose out there?!” she demanded, trembling with barely restrained anger.

There was offended fire in blue eyes that turned on the farmer. “Wh—OH! This was not my fault!” she yelled back. “This was an act of sabotage!” She raised a fist, getting right into the blonde’s personal space bubble like she had every right to be there.

“Yeah, well,” Applejack countered, “whoever did this couldn’ have done it if you didn’ insist on dressin’ like…” Words failed her. “…like…this!” she finally indicated the pale skinned girl’s entire ensemble like another person might a pile of dog droppings on the kitchen floor. The two of them were almost nose to nose now. “We need ta sound good! Is there some reason that concept seems ta escape you!?” The two of them were practically screaming at each other now.

Then Rainbow Dash decided to get in on the complaining. “And what was with the confetti, Pinkie Pie? How am I supposed to shred if there’s paper stuck in my frets?”

Sunset looked at Spike, and they both grimaced. This was getting ugly fast.
Fluttershy coughed and spoke up timidly. “It…was pretty distracting…”

Pinkie whipped around towards her. “Says the girl who was running from a light the whole time! A light!”

—Oh for—Shimmer! You need to stop balking like a terrified foal seeing snow for the first time and take charge of this fiasco, or this whole thing is headed straight to the darkest part of Tartarus faster than a Zebra would blend in with prison stripes. Give them something to follow, and get them away from those obnoxious shrieking sea-demons!—

The former unicorn stepped forward to deescalate the situation before it got worse—things felt like they were starting to fall apart, and she would do anything in her power to hold it together for the group. She had to. “You still sounded much better than most of the other bands. I’m sure you’ll make it to the next round,” she encouraged them, before looking to the princess, her tone becoming firm. “But it won’t matter if you don’t have that counterspell ready. You all find a place to practice where the Sirens can’t hear you. I’ll keep an eye on things around here.”

It took some more encouragement, but the six girls left the gym to do as she suggested, leaving Sunset to watch the parade of increasingly awful ‘bands’ perform on the stage, the magic driving people to compete who never would have even considered it otherwise. Most of them had little to no talent, skill, training, or experience with the instruments they were attempting to play, some of them clearly couldn’t read music, and more than a small number of the ones attempting to sing were utterly tone-deaf, their voices wailing and warbling like fighting alley-cats.

That would have been bad enough, but unlike the humans in the room subjected to the noise, the former unicorn was fully aware of the magic there, feeling it bombard her senses worse than before now that her friends and their ability to negate the dark, warped energy were no longer providing a buffer for her. Sunset could feel it, see the energy as it rubbed against her, leaving behind a raw sensation as if it was stripping away layers of her very being, starting with her skin. Her bones burned so badly it was like they were melting, and her body shook because somewhere along the line the feeling of being on fire had transitioned into icy numbness. Her stomach roiled with every breath—it didn’t matter if she breathed through mouth or nose, the nasty magic tried to find a way to get to her, and she could taste it, this sickening, cloying scent-taste that clung to her throat and tongue, one that conjured up memories of Gilda’s offal prank, and had Sunset swallowing more than once to keep the contents of her stomach inside her body, gripping her own elbows as she trembled and hugged herself against the bleachers in a dark shadow. Her nails dug into the leather of her coat, and the whole thing had her so agitated that she almost thought she could feel the claws from her demonic transformation ripping through the skin of her fingertips again.

At last, she found herself fleeing the room as the sense of bile rising in her throat overwhelmed her ability to hold back. The redhead burst into the closest bathroom as she lost the battle with her innards, and she heaved violently into a trashcan, unable to even make it all the way to a stall. Over and over her body shook with the retching spasms, long after her stomach had emptied itself of its contents, leaving her abdomen one giant cramp deep inside, as if she’d bruised something. Even after it stopped, she braced herself on the plastic trashcan, feeling like she wanted to die, her legs like overdone noodles.

Shuddering, Sunset dragged herself over to the sink to wash the taste out of her mouth, only to recoil in stark terror with a scream from the mirror and what it contained: her reflection, whose glowing blue-green irises cast light on her cheeks from within a pitch black sclera darker than the deepest void of space on a moonless night, the skin around the orbs reddened as if she was sunburned. Over her reflection’s shoulders, half translucent bat wings flared, making the figure loom larger than life. The teen staggered back from the horrific visage until she hit the stall behind her, her eyes clenching shut as she gripped the sides of her own head and sank to her knees. She wasn’t that monster anymore! She didn’t want to be that thing again—she’d worked so hard to change!

—Clearly you’re not that way anymore, because that version of you would’ve already solved this mess instead of cowering on the floor of a filthy public restroom like a terrified filly. Get up and stop acting like this!— that inner voice barked at her in anger. —This is your school, your world, your friends, and you’re so hung up on trying to avoid doing anything that you would have done before that you’re unwilling to actually fix the issue, even though you have the power to stop this! You’re better than this, why won’t you fight back!?—

Her head snapped up, eyes glaring at the air before her, even as she still huddled on the bathroom floor. “Because,” she hissed, stinging from the words her own psyche was using against her and trying to reaffirm her reality with herself. “I’m trying to be better than that, better than a savage who uses threats and violence to solve problems!”

—There’s a difference between being like those creeps that attacked Sparky and being willing to stand up for what is right!— the voice argued. —Are you going to hold to this stupid fear of yours until it costs you the world? Costs you Sparky? Because if your friends fail, that’s what’s going to happen! You’re going to lose everything, and that includes that cute little nerd that you’re so attached to!—

Sunset was on her feet, fists clenched tight, before she even realized it, anger rising in her at the thought of her girlfriend with the same vacant eyed stare as Celestia and Luna. The fury gave her strength to overcome the swaying and trembling in her limbs as she argued with that little voice, "I am standing up for what is right!” she snarled. “You know how hard it’s been for me to do this, with all the constant she-demon jokes and the princess acting like I’m going to turn on them at any minute…and let’s not start on the fact that I’m now arguing with myself in a bathroom, terrified that all this dark magic in the air is turning me back into the same raging she-demon that almost killed my friends!”

She advanced on the mirror and her reflection—which, while reflecting her anger, seemed completely normal again, though she only half noticed. Right now, it served as a focal point to rail against the darker parts of her own mind. “And I get it! Sometimes it feels like I’m failing! I feel like I’m barely holding on, but it’s only failure if I give up—I’m not giving up, not now, not ever! I don’t care if I’m just here to carry instruments and hand out water so the girls and the princess can fight them, I will do my part, and we will beat these smarmy, arrogant, sadistic, magic sucking, changeling rutting, swamp nags!”

The redhead was shaking now with raw, searing hot rage instead of distress, hands clutching the edge of the sink. “More than that, I will do this in a way that lets me live with myself afterward! Your way, sure, I’d save the school, save the girls, the principals, everyone…but at what cost?” Tears formed at the corners of her eyes, harsh voice dropping to a whisper. “I would just be destroying everything I’ve worked so hard to do—I would be destroying everything that Sparky is proud of me for, everything that made Principal Celestia and Miss Luna look at me with respect…I’d be throwing away everything I’ve worked so hard to learn…I’d be ignoring everything the girls have taught me about friendship…I’d be letting everyone down in the worst way, and that includes myself.”

Stupid Little Voice fell quiet as she vented, and remained so for a minute or two after she stopped—for an instant, Sunset thought she might’ve gotten rid of the obnoxious voice that her subconscious seemed to have adopted. —Fine,— it replied at last, still seething. —You say you are fighting, horn-head, then stand up to them! Stop letting them walk all over you, cringing whenever they look your way! Do something instead! So far, all you’ve done is hide in the shadows while your friends stand up to them!—

“I am not hiding—the girls need me to be where I am, supporting them, doing the things they don’t have time to do because they need to be working on that spell!” Sunset shook her head, turning towards the door. “Not only that,” she offered as a reminder, “but I’m still restricted in what I’m allowed to do because of the formal, and while the principals are not enforcing anything right now, I still know, and it matters to me.” She offered one last parting grumble as she pushed open the bathroom door. “I can’t stand here all afternoon arguing with myself. I have to get back and keep an eye on things for the girls and the princess.”

Her feet carried her back towards the magic she could still feel scraping painfully along her senses, trying to fight against both the anger still throbbing in her chest and the renewed churning in her guts. One hand was inches from pushing the door to the auditorium open when she heard nasty laughter coming up behind her.

“Did you see their faces? So much pain and agony, and not a thing they could do to stop it.” Adagio inhaled loudly, a smug, self-satisfied sound. “That power is as good as ours already…”

“I have to admit,” came the voice of Aria, as flat and sarcastic as ever. “I missed being able to control these stupid apes like this…I’d forgotten how good the impotent rage and frustration made a meal taste.” There was a pause, before she added begrudgingly, “…this was a good plan, Adagio.”

“Of course it was!” the frizzy haired leader snapped. “Maybe next time you’ll listen to me when I say we need to take our time! You two idiots almost blew it when we first arrived! Once we have the magic we need to spread our influence, I don’t care how many of these mouth-breathing primates you make maim each other, but keep your urges in check until then! We don’t want a repeat of what happened fifteen years ago!”

The third Siren piped up in a chipper voice, “…Dagi’s right…I don’t want that to happen again—you almost died, and even if you’re the worst, no one gets to kill you but me!”

A scoff, even as Sunset grimaced at the casual threat between people who were supposed to be…allies? Sisters? Friends? “You? Kill me? Not even on your best day. You’re barely any better than these monkeys.” She cackled nastily. “…Wanna see if we can make the one with the tacky, pastel hair burst a blood vessel trying to fight our orders? She’s got a temper.”

“Oooo!” squealed Sonata. “…I like that one—anger like that tastes just like spicy tacos…and we missed Taco Tuesday…”

Something in Sunset snapped as they rounded the corner, her nerves already frayed and thin, and the accusations of the stupid voice in the back of her head whispering repeatedly to her when she was exhausted. She could feel the old mask slipping back into place, the one of cold judgment and superiority that had served her for years to conceal her real feelings from observers. Her arms folded across her chest as she leaned against the wall in the shadows, glaring at the three invaders to her school, and she put as much challenge and confidence into her voice as she could muster. “You’re never going to get away with this,” she told them icily.

“Why?” Adagio smirked at her, her pupils decidedly reptilian as she met the redhead’s challenging glare with her easy, unconcerned gaze. “Because you didn’t?” The saccharine tone was laden with knowing, as if the Siren found it a delicious secret she had discovered. “Because your attempt blew up in your face in such a spectacular fashion that Equestria paddled your flank with the Rainbow of Light before shutting the door behind you?”

The mask slipped—how could it not, with a revelation like that, one that only raised a million questions, starting with how the Sirens knew so much when they’d only appeared the other day, especially when so few people knew the full story of what had happened at the dance. Sunset wracked her brain trying to find an answer.

Adagio sauntered forward, shark-grin widening as she closed in on the former unicorn. “Oh, we know all about you, Sunset Shimmer,” she mocked in a condescending tone. “You’ve got quite the reputation at Canterlot High…everyone’s been talking about you for months now…they have so much to say about the former tyrant-queen of the school who lost so spectacularly that she is led around like a dog on a leash by the same apes who decimated her plans…” One brow arched, as she looked Sunset over, lingering on parts of her in a way that made her feel exposed and more than a little violated. “…Such a shame, too…”

Sunset did her best to repair her mask, but she could feel it falling apart as the words punched home and confusion rose. There was no way that they could know all of that, unless…

—Unless they’ve been here for a lot longer than a few days, horn-head! They planned this! This isn’t an accident, or an attack of opportunity! They’ve been watching!— Stupid Little Voice let out a furious hiss, her limbs and skull flooded with pounding fury again. —Let’s see if her fancy mind magic will hold up to getting her arm broken in three places or her nose smeared across that piss colored face of hers!—

“I’ve changed!” she bit back, hands curling into fists out of instinct from both her pony nature and her human hind-brain. “Those girls are my friends, and they mean the world to me—because of them, I’m in a much better place than I’ve ever been!” Sunset was now fighting a war on multiple fronts, trying to keep up a strong face to the Sirens before her and the darkest parts of her own mind which was now throwing up savage and violent ideas on how to physically hurt the enchantresses before her…all on top of the sickening sensation of the magic on the other side of the door at her back.

Aria snorted. “So much better, clearly. Now, instead of getting your face crushed into the dirt, you’re waiting in the wings while your friends have all the fun, do all the work? Oh yeah, you’ve changed alright,” she pointed out with a mocking sneer. “Do they keep a halter on you too, or do you just follow like well trained, good little pony?” She followed Adagio into Sunset’s space bubble, Sonata close on her heels, and the trio circled her like hungry sharks who had found blood in the water.

Adagio picked up the train of thought, eyes glowing in the dark, cold and alien and reflecting of the slightest suggestion of iridescent scales on her cheeks. “Oh, yes, you girls are soooo tight, you lot just do everything together…they’ve risked every bit of reputation and good faith the school has in them to protect their new pet pony…and yet…even after everything, they didn’t ask you to be in the band…”

“Probably afraid no one would want to see them play if she was in the group,” Aria added in that cutting deadpan. “After all, everyone here hates Sunset Shimmer, since she’s the worst.”

Sunset curled in on herself a fraction, trying to tune out the words, the truth in them that cut her to the bone, even if it wasn’t the girls who’d had that reasoning but Sunset herself. She knew that with how things stood it was true—no one would ever want to hear her play, especially not at CHS, and she wasn’t going to ruin her friends’ fun by proving it beyond a shadow of a doubt. She struggled, reaching for the words that gave her confidence, strength…

She found it in the memory of sitting on her bed with her girlfriend, playing something on her acoustic for the first time for her. The other girl had watched, fascinated, the entire time, and whispered praise and approval when the music had ended. “Your playing is wonderful…” Sparky smiled in her mind’s eye, easing the pain.

“Too bad! So sad!” Sonata taunted.

Adagio brushed past her, hip checking her savagely. The touch between them burned, as if she had come into contact with white hot metal and not another being of flesh and bone. “If it’s any consolation,” she told Sunset, voice dripping with insincerity, “no one is going to remember you at all, by the time we’re done…” Cackling, the Sirens entered the gym and left her standing in the hall, feeling like she’d just been summarily beaten. The feeling, coupled with the painful burning, made her half expect to see bruises or blistered welts on her skin, despite how irrational such a thing would be.

Arguments over rationality fled her mind a minute later as pain exploded across her senses, carried by an eerie melody floating from the gym. Sunset collapsed on the floor, writhing in agony as the magic assaulted her soul, ice cold talons tearing and shredding through the very essence of her being while she wept, sobbed, and thrashed on the filthy linoleum floor of the school. It felt like dying by inches, and not even the stupid voice in the back of her mind was exempt from the pain, wailing and gnashing proverbial fangs as her existence was nothing but suffering for what felt like an eternity.

When it finally ended, she huddled in the corner, shaking violently and gripping the sides of her head so hard that her fingers cramped up, the former unicorn desperately trying to get herself under some semblance of control before her friends came back. Sunset clenched her jaw so hard it hurt, drawing in ragged breaths through her nose. She had to make it through the next few days—she would be there to support her friends, to help them see this through to the end. She wasn’t about to let Starswirl’s garbage get the best of her or the girls, even if it meant putting up with the wailing until her ears bled.

She wasn’t going to fail her friends. It had taken too much to gain them in the first place.

RIght. So this was one of the chapters in the Rainbow Rocks portion I've been looking forward to posting.

Sunset's not doing well with all this dark magic around, is she? Poor girl needs a break. Maybe she'll get a good one after all this Battle of the Bands nonsense is over with? ;)

The Sirens here are a lot more savage and "inhuman" than the canon versions--we're talking about immortal emotiphages that feed on misery, strife, and pain. Thats...a pretty fucked up thing when you stop to consider it, and I try to reflect that. They dont care about the humans--humans, ponies, those things are food to them, and just like the average person never stops to think about their cheeseburger's feelings, neither do the Sirens view their food as anything more than that--food. So yeah, they are meant to come off as...sadistic, cruel, and otherwise nasty.

I also decided to address one of the RR plot holes--the "prologue" bit with the Sirens happens during the end of the first movie, when Sunset eats a rainbow....but according to canon, the actual meat of the movie takes places months later. So the question becomes "what were the Sirens doing for several months?" Hence, here, the answer is "this whole thing was orchestrated from the start. They've been here for months, manipulating things behind the scenes, gathering intel, and making plans.

...Now, for something completely different...

My lovely, wonderful, amazing beta-reader/editor/should really just give her authorial credit at this point got inspired during some of my later chapters that we've been working on...and did a little fun piece of soft and cuddly fanart for the story. Its nothing much, and doesn't really take place during any particular scene, but...I thought I'd share this picture of Sunset and Twilight having early morning cuddles in pjs, so I popped a copy up on my DA (since she doesnt have any place to put it up herself.)

ART!