Next morning at breakfast Abbess Vale explained the rules for the Battle of the Bands.
"Competing acts will be divided into pairs. The losers of each round will be eliminated, while the winners move on to compete against another winner the following night. We'll keep doing this until there's only one act left."
Samkim stood up. "I don't think this is a good idea."
The Abbess looked confused. "But Samkim, it was your idea in the first place."
"Yes, but I never wanted it to be a contest. I'm afraid somebeast is going to get their feelings hurt."
"Oh, look who thinks he's better than us all of a sudden!" Faith Spinney shouted. "Well, you don't have to worry about hurting my feelings, because my band is gonna beat yours!"
Samkim was shocked. "What? No! That's not what I meant!"
The Dazzlings smirked.
Rainbow Dash zoomed over to them and pointed at them. "These three girls are bad news. They're trying to turn us against each other."
Adagio put on her most innocent look. "What? How could you say that?"
Joshy agreed with Rainbow Dash. "They must be some kind of evil magicans, wot. I think we should throw 'em out."
Sonata started to pretend to cry. "He's being mean to us!"
"What a terrible thing to say!" Abbess Vale gasped. "These girls are our guests, not some horde of vermin."
"I won't 'ear a word said against them," agreed Thrugg.
"They can stay forever as far as I'm concerned," said Faith.
Mara got up. "I've only been living here a short time, but I know this isn't the proper Redwall Abbey spirit. Redwallers aren't supposed to be fighting and competing against each other. Something is wrong."
But no one except her friends heard her. They were all already arguing about who was going to win again. The three disguised Sirens sat in silence, blissfully absorbing all the negative energy in the room.
"Hurr, whoi won't anybeast listen to us?" Arula lamented.