Three days.

Three days that had felt like an eternity, three days of elimination rounds with the Battle of the Bands, where the competition had been whittled down slowly in a emotional hellstorm anger and frustration and hostility and upset, as the bulk of the school’s population went at each other with savage ferocity more appropriate in a warzone than in a high school. Three days where the bickering and arguing between her friends was getting worse, as prolonged contact with no breaks or downtime saw them getting under each other’s skin, until it was amazing any of them were still speaking at all, let alone still working together to beat the Sirens. Three days watching Princess Twilight work herself up into a tizzy until she seemed ready to fall apart as she committed to pretending everything was fine, despite everyone else being dimly aware that things were as far from ‘fine’ as they could get. Three days of feeling like her very essence was being picked at by the magic the Sirens wielded—more than once she’d almost collapsed, and only the actions of one of the girls had kept her from kissing a wall or the floor with her skull.

Three days of watching the Equestrian monsters inflict pain on the humans under their control, particularly the staff and administration of the school—Sunset could see it in the principals’ eyes when she was around, the lucid recognition of what was going on and the agonizing despair and raging fury creeping into their gazes. The sadistic emotiphages took particular delight in the sick game, smiling those sharp toothed, slimy smiles as they allowed the control to slip just enough for whichever one was looking Sunset’s way to regain some sense of self and freedom to act…only to be halted a scant handful of heartbeats later by a wave of nauseating, sickening magic that made the unicorn-turned-teen-girl choke and gag around the want to void her stomach of its contents. All the while, the smug, snake eyed stare of Adagio watched her with triumph dancing in her slit-pupiled orbs, lording her victory over Sunset Shimmer with malicious glee.

By Friday evening—the evening she should have been ensconced firmly in her chair at the Sparkle dining room table, sneaking finger touches and a bit of sideways footsie under the table with her girlfriend—she was ragged. Nothing she’d eaten had stayed down once she came to the school, and her sleep had been plagued with alternating rounds of nightmares where her demonic half tore her friends apart before her eyes and steamy, passionate dreams of intimacy and realized lust with her Twilight. Sometimes, in a double whammy, the two overlapped, leaving her choking and sobbing and throwing up in the bathroom of whoever’s house they were staying in for the night’s sleep over.

In a bit of irony, the only one aware of her plight was Spike, and the fact that he was the one who sat with her while she was making offerings to the porcelain bowl would have been awful…if it hadn’t been a situation that actually brought the two to a measure of understanding. The young drake, dog body or not, managed to find ways to help her out, bringing her water, mouthwash, even medicine he got from one cabinet or another. Somewhere in the middle he’d admitted that his Twilight got sick like this sometimes when she overworked herself or had a massive anxiety attack, and that as “her number one assistant” it was his job to help out when she did. Their talks led to a series of sobering revelations and subsequent apologies on both ends, and at the very least, a truce between them in lieu of a bigger problem.

The end of the road was in sight now though. The Rainbooms had managed to survive to the very last round, themselves against Trixie Lulamoon and her friends…calling themselves ‘Trixie and the Illusions.” Winner of this round would go on to face the Dazzlings in the big finale the next day.

“This is it!” Sunset found herself saying, trying to pump up her friends’ morale. Even Pinkie’s spirits had started to flag under the stress, but Sunset was determined to pick up the slack—that was what friends did. “Last round and you’re in the finals!” She turned towards the Princess, looking hopeful. “Unless you think the counterspell is ready to be played now?”

Princess Twilight made a face, looking at her feet. It spoke louder than any words how she felt. Applejack was quick to reassure her. “Don’ worry, Twilight. Finals aren’ ‘til tomorrow.” The farmer pumped her fist in the air. “We’ll get in a little more practice afore we’re supposed ta hit the stage. We won’t let ya down.” That seemed to bolster the girls even more, and they all grinned and threw in their own words of agreement.

Sunset watched the princess hug the notebook, eyes on the floor. “…you won't let me down…” she whispered, sounding broken.

Before she could do anything to help, Fluttershy’s timid query caught her attention. “…um…I was just wondering…We haven’t played any of my songs yet, and…”

Rainbow cut her off, giving her a playful shoulder punch. “It's the semifinals,” she grinned. “We gotta do ‘Awesome As I Wanna Be.’” She seemed oblivious to the way the animal lover wilted, her hopeful smile turning into an angry frown.

“…don’t know why I even asked…” she muttered.

The Rainbooms made their way to the stage as Trixie and her friends exited, and the mediocre stage magician had to stop and brag. “Hmph. You’re never gonna top that performance, Raingoons.” She looked them over, condescension oozing from every pore. “You shouldn’t be allowed to when you have such a big advantage over the rest of us.”

Rainbow flashed a cocky smirk. “My superior guitar playing and off the charts awesome singing voice?” she crowed. Sunset fought the urge to facepalm…or to throw up on Dash’s shoes. Her arrogance was getting out of control, and they were about to go on with the song that basically was Rainbow’s ego personified.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Trixie corrected snidely. “I mean her.” She pointed to Princess Twilight Sparkle, who ducked and hid behind the notebook she was holding. “If you were really all that, Rainbow Dash, you wouldn’t have needed to bring in some magical ringer to have half a chance.” She buffed her nails on her dress. “Everyone’s talking about it.”

Dash laughed. “Puh-lease! I could win this thing as a solo act and everybody knows it!”

Sunset was so tired of hearing Rainbow Dash’s constant boasting—it was worse than a unicorn stallion just into his majority with a pedigree as long as Princess Celestia’s foreleg and half a cask of wine in him. At this point she almost wished something would happen just to shut the athlete up!

—See, this is why you should have shown her up much earlier. You’re a better player than her and you know it, and at least when you sing it doesn't sound like a twelve year old boy who gargled razor blades.—

Trixie scoffed again. “Sure you could.” Then she hurled down one of her smoke pellets, leaving everyone coughing. When they could breathe and the smoke cleared, Trixie was nowhere to be seen.

Pinkie gasped. “She’s gone!” Then she squinted. “Oh, wait. There she is.” They could see Trixie slinking away from behind Pinkie’s drums.

The principal announced the band and the girls trotted for the stage. Spike called after them, “Knock ‘em dead, Rainbooms!”

Sunset waved at them as they went. “I’ll be here!” she called, before her shoulders sagged. “…just…watching…” Deep down, she wished more than anything that she could be up there with them.

The song was…well, it was definitely written by Rainbow about her favorite subject: herself. She was pretty much the only one with any real lines, and the rest of the musical instruments really just provided a back-beat for her guitar. Even the spotlights soon abandoned the rest of the band to focus in on Rainbow, and the rest of the girls looked like they’d rather be…anywhere else. Sunset grimaced the whole time…

And then her magic senses went off, not with the negative dark magic she’d been trying not to feel eating away at her…but the bright, warm feeling of electricity on her skin. Panic filled her—Rainbow had gotten so into the music, she’d forgotten the concept of restraint and a blue glow was starting to surround her, her ears already showing signs of moving up to reform as pony ones.

“Horseapples!” she swore under her breath, looking around for a way to signal them. She could find nothing, and her exhausted, frazzled mind goaded her into acting. She bolted for the stage at a run, leaping to slam into the athlete in a full on, full body tackle. The song ended with a horrific sound as Rainbow and Sunset crashed into the other girls, sending them staggering and Applejack’s bass flying to land neck down in one of Pinkie’s drums. All the lights came on, and Fluttershy ran off with a panicked sound. Sunset looked up at Dash, to find her friend glaring at her as the magic faded away.

Sunset picked herself up, first to all fours, then back to two feet, embarrassed at her own sense of panic. Blue-green eyes turned towards the crowd, falling first on the admins who were serving as ‘judges’ for this fiasco. Both of them scowled at her, awkward, stilted expressions that looked out of place, particularly on Principal Celestia. The entire time, the older woman was writing with sharp, uncomfortable, jerky motions, a clear sign that she was fighting the control with everything she had at that moment. Unable to see the woman’s suffering in her defiance any longer, Sunset let her gaze turn towards the crowd of students, unsure of what she’d find.

Flash Sentry jumped to his feet with a victorious cry. “Now that’s the bad girl we all love to hate!” he yelled, pointing at her. It stung more than she expected, even knowing that it was the Siren’s mental manipulation in full effect and not necessarily the opinions of the person she knew him to be.

Octavia, the school cellist, usually a very reserved young woman, joined in. “I knew she was still trouble!”

“Aw yeah!” laughed another voice. “The real Sunset Shimmer is back!”

The whole room broke into enthusiastic cheering and jeering—it seemed like even under the Sirens’ spell, they could manage to unite. It just required enough concentrated hatred for her.

Her world was spinning, with even her friends casting accusatory looks her way as they trudged off stage. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Blood heated her face, and she babbled what thoughts came to her head. “No, no…It isn’t like that!” She tried desperately to hold on to something, anything that could anchor her in that moment…

She found nothing.

Not even Sparky’s voice came to her mind.

All she could hear was laughter, the loudest of which came from the Sirens themselves, mocking and arrogant, saying without words "We know how to break you, Sunset Shimmer…"

She slunk off the stage, hunched forward and curled around herself, fighting back the tears building at the corners of her eyes. When she reached her friends, she could feel the harsh glares boring into her, anger and accusations roiling around them without even words.

“What was that?!” Rainbow demanded.

She winced, trying desperately to explain. “You…you were showing them your magic,” she said softly. “I…I didn’t know what else to do.”

Rarity scowled. “Close the curtains? Unplug her amp? Give us a chance to deal with the situation?”

She felt crushed. “I’m sorry…I just wanted to help…” Her voice cracked, and the first few tears trailed down her cheeks. She felt hollow, and just wanted to curl up and cry.

“Yeah? Well, you didn’t!” Rainbow bit out nastily.

Applejack jumped in, turning the athlete away from Sunset and towards her. “None o’ this woulda happened if ya weren’ tryin’ ta show off—as usual!”

Trixie sauntered up to them, looking smug. “Good show, Rainbrooms.” She put an arm around Sunset’s shoulders like they were best friends, and drew her in close as she began to paint a mental picture with her words. “I especially liked the part where Sunset Shimmer, in a fit of jealous rage, knocked out Rainbow Dash mid-guitar solo!” Gleeful malice filled the air.

It proved to be the last straw in a very long list of abuses that the redheaded teen had been suffering through from her schoolmates, not just that week, but over the last few months, and something inside Sunset Shimmer broke, some last, final thread of control on her temper falling away as fire and rage and hate boiled up from the darkest recesses of her still healing soul. She jerked away from Trixie’s unwelcome touch, her vision clouded with a red haze as she turned burning eyes on the pompous, egotistical stage magician, baring her teeth like a feral animal in warning with a strangled, savage sound clawing its way up out of her throat. Both hands clenched into white knuckled fists, barely resisting the urge to hurl Trixie into the nearest wall as hard as she could just to hear something break. “It wasn’t a fit of jealous rage!” she snarled, drawing herself to her full height and taking a half step towards Trixie, looming over her threateningly. The girl cowered away from whatever she saw in Sunset’s eyes at that moment, blind terror etched into her features for those brief seconds.

It was that fear that gaze Sunset pause, and she backed off, immediately focusing on her friends. They all looked startled and more than a little worried by the display of temper, something that she hadn’t shown in front of any of them since the infamous night of the Fall Formal…right before she’d initiated that final grab for the Crown and turned into a rampaging demon that almost killed them. Guilt slammed into her like a high speed train, her stomach falling through the floor as she sagged in on herself, heart thundering in her ears and body shaking from the surge of adrenaline that her fury had sent through her system. Her pounding, hammering pulse drowned out Trixie’s response, and any other words thrown her way, and she almost had to sit with her head between her knees or risk vomiting again—something she really didn’t want to do in front of the girls. Dimly, she watched the administrators come onto the stage to announce the finalists, and behind them, the Sirens seemed to materialize out of the crowd, voices already rising in a painful melody.

Needles stabbed into her brain, overstimulated and battered nerve endings finally having had enough. Sunset’s entire world was pain, causing her to sway a fraction, holding herself upright through sheer willpower and defiance, refusing to be brought down now, not after she’d hung on this long through repeated assaults by this same dark magic. With how it felt this time though, she began to wonder if her eardrums had actually ruptured, given how her perception of sound disintegrated into white noise. Her head swam dizzyingly, and she watched through a fog as the principals continued their announcement that would seal their fates, but she could hear nothing at all except the strange ringing, buzzing in her ears as the magic’s torture ended, not the announcement, not her friends arguing, not Trixie Lulamoon’s boasting to cover up her previous moment of fear. Squinting at Principal Celestia, she struggled to read the human woman’s lips and when she coupled the few syllables she could make out with Trixie’s unadulterated rage as she stormed off the stage in a huff, it told her what she was missing with her ears.

Somehow, impossibly, despite all the setbacks and misfortunes and sabotage, the Rainbooms had…won? Was that what the Sirens were doing? Why? It made no sense.

The girls ended up slinking out of the gym to a boo’ing crowd, Sunset tailing them and feeling worse than ever. Before, she could at least count on her friends to provide a bright spot in the midst of the madness, but now, with their spirits so low, they barely had enough to keep their own heads up. In that moment, more than anything in the world, Sunset wanted….needed to hear Sparky, to feel the other girl’s arms around her in one of those wonderful hugs that made everything better…because right now, it couldn’t possibly get much worse…

Coming up on the end of the Rainbow Rocks stuff (2-3 chapters left), and then, I promise, I've got lots and lots of chapters at the ready to start messing with your feelings again. I'm actually really excited for what my editor and I have been working on recently.

We've got more of the Sirens being monsters, but you'll have to wait to find out the full extent of their sadism and its long term effects on CHS as a whole. Bruhahahaha.

Hmm. Sunset's getting angry. Never a good thing.