Dazzlings

"♪ Battle! You want to win it! Let's have a battle! Battle of the bands! Let's have a battle! We'll go all in it! Let's have a battle! Battle! BATTLE! BATTLE OF THE BANDS! ♪"

- The Dazzlings singing their song to turn everyone in Canterlot High against each-other

The Dazzlings are the main antagonists of My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks. They are a musical group of magical Sirens, consisting of Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk. Adagio is the leader and Aria and Sonata are the comic reliefs.

Background
The three Sirens were once powerful threats to Equestria itself, sowing chaos with their enchanted voices and growing ever more powerful from feasting on negative emotions. Unable to defeat them, the great mage Starswirl the Bearded resorted to banishing them to another dimension, where magic was nonexistent and their power was nullified, or at least reduced to nothing but a pale shadow of what it once had been.

The three sirens are first seen in a city cafe, where they are observed absorbing negative energy from the customers there, complaining about the miserly amounts of power they gain from this. Then they witness the Harmony blast that defeated Sunset Shimmer in the previous movie. They realize that magic has been brought into the Human World (due to Sunset Shimmer's theft of the Element of Magic), and that their own power has returned as a result. Now once again in possession of their magical abilities, they decide to take over the Human World, starting with Canterlot High, the source of the magic.

The arrive in Canterlot High and Sunset Shimmer gives them a tour around the school, but she feels a bad vibe from them and notices that Adagio stops her from touching her crystal necklace. In the cafeteria, they sing a song that ignites the students' competitive spirits, turning a planned friendly singing festival into a Battle of the Bands. They also manipulate Principals Celestia and Luna into bending to their will.

Twilight discovers the true nature of the Dazzlings, but when she and the rest of the human Six attempt to defeat them, they realize that they are not able to unleash the Elements of Harmony at will. Instead, their failed attempt plays right into the Dazzlings' hands. The sirens realize that this group of students were not under their control and deduce that they must have great magic in them - and thus, great power to absorb, though they would have to turn them against each other without the use of their own magic first. This turns the Rainbooms into priority targets for the Dazzlings. In the meantime, they continue gathering energy from the other students.

When they see Sunset Shimmer again, they threateningly play with her emotions and intimidates her, claiming that "no one is going to remember her when they win". Feeling that simply getting the Rainbooms eliminated might not do the trick, the Sirens arrange that they pass to the finals instead despite a lackluster performance. This causes resentment in their opponent Trixie, who refuses to accept this. The Dazzlings then trick Trixie into removing the Rainbooms from the competition altogether by trapping them in a locked basement. However, thanks to Spike, the Rainbooms managed to escape.

Just as they are about to devour the combined energy of the students, the Rainbooms appear to stop them. In turn, the Sirens summon astral projections of their true forms for the battle. The Six overwhelm Aria and Sonata at first, but Adagio's powerful sonic waves throw the girls off-balance, allowing the Dazzlings to gain the upper hand. With the Rainbooms down for the count, Sunset Shimmer steps in to help them out and the students begin to sing along with them. The Dazzlings appear shocked as Sunset's magic, combined with that of the Six, unleashes a giant rainbow alicorn that destroys their crystal necklaces, resulting in them losing their magical voices forever. The students boo at the defeated Dazzlings' horribly off-key final attempt to sing and throw vegetables at them, forcing them to flee the stage, never to be seen again.

Powers and Abilities
The Sirens' magic lies in their enchanted necklaces, which contain the power of their true forms. Their main ability is to subtly manipulate or directly control others via their enchanted compelling voice. As they grow more powerful by feeding on negative emotions, they usually use this ability to sow chaos among their victims. The more negativity they absorb, the more compelling their voice grows, and at the apex of their power they could potentially subjugate an entire world. However, they are not able to subjugate the Elements of Harmony magically.

When forced into direct combat, the Sirens use their necklaces to summon ethereal projections of their true forms. Those apparitions are able to use their voice offensively, unleashing powerful shockwaves with an ethereal wail.

Despite their magical powers that force others to do their bidding, they are (especially Adagio Dazzle) also skilled manipulators of their own right, who can turn those they cannot control against each other with trickery, deceit and the actions of those they can control.

Their main weakness was the pendants themselves. Once they were destroyed, the Dazzlings lose their singing powers and talents.

Trivia

 * Flashbacks and the final battle reveal that their original siren forms in Equestria were those of Hippocampi.
 * A lot of fan art erroneously depicts their alternative forms as mermaids, being the most common form for sirens.
 * They have by far the most villains songs out of any villain in My Little Pony, totaling three: Let's Have A Battle (Of The Bands), Under Our Spell and Welcome To The Show (the latter shared with the Rainbooms).
 * This is fitting because their powers revolve around singing.
 * They are the second main villains with a villain song, first being Queen Chrysalis. Discord was reformed at the time of his song.
 * The Dazzlings are similar to the Windigoes, as both groups are equine entities that feed off of negativity and conflict in order to gain power.
 * The main difference is that the Windigoes have to travel where conflict is already existent while the Dazzlings can create their own conflict.
 * When humans are kept immortal for hundreds of years as the Dazzlings were (being banished over a thousand years ago and presumably kept alive by their pendants), and then lose their source of immortality, typically they age to either a skeleton or dust (examples being Mother Gothel, Edgar Volgud, Dorian Gray, Queen Beryl, or Adam Monroe). This does not immediately happen to the Dazzlings when their pendants are destroyed, as they have time to sing off-key and run off the stage; however, due to their absence from future films, it is possible that their accelerated aging may have been slower and that they eventually perished after running off-screen.
 * According to their Fiendship is Magic comic issue, they arrived into the human world at the present day, meaning that Starswirl (accidentally or intentionally) sent them through time into the future, similarly to King Sombra's curse on the Crystal Empire. However, although they appearing in a modern day-looking city, it is unknown exactly how many years they spent in the human realm. Either way, the comics are sometimes inconsistent with the show.
 * In the comics, it is hinted that the sirens are redeemable. In the show, however, they are one of the five main villains not to reform, the other four being Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek and Principal Cinch. However, in the comics, Sombra reformed, while Nightmare Moon, depicted as a separate entity from Princess Luna, perished in his place.
 * The Dazzlings are the only villains in the Equestria Girls series whose transformations do not come with actual tails, only hair extensions like the Rainbooms' (as opposed to Demon Sunset and Midnight Sparkle, who both gained tails). Their siren forms do not count as transformations because they are astral projections.
 * The wings they gain when transforming are also singular, being somewhat similar to bat wings but more closely resembling fins. This makes sense since the Sirens are aquatic.
 * According to Twilight Sparkle's book, the Sirens were incredibly beautiful. However, the illustrations and the shape of their astral projections seem to contradict this, being monstrous fish-pony hybrids. It is possible that the notoriously vain Sirens simply used their hypnotic voices to make ponies (including the author of the book) perceive them as beautiful.
 * Their defeat is similar to the defeat of Red Claw and Screech & Thud in The Land Before Time episode, "The Hidden Canyon".
 * Adagio represents the 80s disco, Aria represents 90s grunge, and Sonata represents 2000s pop.
 * The Dazzlings reappear in a flashback in the Season 7 finale, Shadow Play, making them the first villains to be included in both Equestria Girls and Friendship is Magic.