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| “ | ♪ Me and you, you and me Why don't we see who is better? We don't have to be one and the same thing Oh, what's so wrong with a little competition? Are you afraid of failing the audition? ♪ |
„ |
| ~ The 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 Rainbow Rocks, and minor antagonists in Sunset's Backstage Pass. They are a musical trio of magical Sirens, consisted of Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk. Adagio, who is Sunset Shimmer's arch-nemesis, is the leader, and Aria and Sonata are her followers.
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 Star Swirl 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. 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.
They 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 intimidate 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. Spike also brought DJ Pon-3 to help the Rainbowbooms, and explains that DJ Pon-3 had been wearing her headphones throughout the film, so she was not affected by the Dazzlings' magic.
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 desperate 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 and outsmarted as Sunset's magic, combined with that of the Six, unleashes a giant rainbow alicorn, gaining the upper hand again and a more powerful magic song with everyone singing the Rainboom's song making it stronger than the Dazzlings song as they get enraged but then scared as they see a giant magic unicorn from the rainbow magic of harmony as a result that destroys their crystal necklaces, resulting in them losing their magical voices forever.
The Dazzlings are finally defeated and completely humiliated as they attempt to sing to fight back but it goes horribly off-key final, and the audience boo at the Dazzlings as they're all out of their spell and they all know the Dazzlings made them into complete jerks towards their good opponents and friends on different teams and they throw vegetables at them, forcing them to flee the stage.
Sometime later, the Dazzlings reappear at the Star Swirl Music Festival, having being turned permanently human, something they resent deeply. Sunset Shimmer accuses them of being behind the time loop, but they are not the ones responsible, something Sunset confirms with her telepathy.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Sirens' magic lies in their enchanted, red-jeweled pendants that they wear, which contain the power of their true forms from Equestria. Their main power comes from their enchanted singing voices, which allows them to manipulate or control others' actions with its compelling tones. They usually use this ability to sow fighting and chaos among their victims, as the three also have the ability to feed on negative emotions to increase their power. The more negative energy they absorb, the more powerful their voice grows. At their apex, they could potentially subjugate an entire world to their will. The Elements of Harmony is the only magic that they cannot absorb directly, or control those who wield them.
When forced into battle, the Sirens can use their necklaces to summon ethereal projections of their true forms. Those apparitions are able to fly and use their voice offensively, unleashing beam projections or powerful shockwaves with their siren wails.
Despite their magical powers to 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 by using the actions of those that they can control.
Their main weakness was the pendants themselves. Once destroyed, the Dazzlings have lost their singing magic forever.
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 villain 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.
- Also befitting their powers revolving around singing, the Dazzlings were heavily inspired by the girl group Destiny's Child.
- They are the second main villains to have a villain song, the first being Queen Chrysalis. Discord was reformed at the time of his song.
- The Dazzlings are similar to the Windigos, 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.
- The Dazzlings are one of the seven main villains not to reform, the other six being Queen Chrysalis, King Sombra, Lord Tirek, Storm King, Cozy Glow and Principal Cinch.
- 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.
The Sirens in a flashback from Shadow Play Part Two.
- The Dazzlings reappear in a flashback in the Season 7 finale Shadow Play, making them the first major villains to be included in both Equestria Girls and Friendship is Magic.
- In Rainbow Rocks, each of the Dazzlings' clothes represents a different genre and decade. Adagio's clothes represent Eighties disco, Aria's represent Nineties grunge, and Sonata's represent 2000s pop.
- In their performance in Sunset's Backstage Pass, they are holding what seems to be their partially repaired crystal pendants in their hands. What the scene exactly means is unknown.
- However, this could possibly mean that they might be regaining their powers.
