Two days later, Twilight, Sun, and the others are at Applejack's place practicing for the Battle of the Bands, and practicing the counterspell, but it's not looking so well. As they practice, Twilight has been singing off key, while the others are trying to keep up. Falling Star and Spike try to help out since they're not performing, but it's not doing well with it. As they play some of them almost transform on the ears, but since their playing is off, it's not ponying up right.
Twilight:
Hey, hey, listen
We've got a message for you
We're not all alike
But our friendship is true
Yeah, we're really different
But we still get along
So hey, hey, listen to our song
You may think you're in control
But we're here to prove you wrong
With our friendship and our music
With the power of our song
Gonna stomp our feet, clap our hands
With the magic of friendship
Gonna stop your evil plan
After Twilight finishes singing and the others stop playing, Rainbow's pony ear just pop away, and she feels disappointed. The others can tell that the counterspell is kind of off, but are kind of worried what to say to Twilight, and she knows magic than they do.
"Well, that was better than the last five or four times, right?" Spike sheepishly replies.
But Big Mac walks by with a crate of apples and remarks, "Nope!"
Falling Star nervously replies, "I guess working on a counterspell is a bit harder than I thought,"
"If you ask me, I think I know what's the problem is with this spell," Rainbow Dash says with a straight face.
"Beside the fact that you added a five minute guitar solo," Applejack answers sounding annoyed.
"Isn't it a bit difficult for you?" Falling Star asks.
Thinking about, Rainbow can see Falling Star's point and says, "Guess you're right."
"Don't worry, we got this, how about we take it again from the top," Twilight says sounding a bit nervous and confused.
However, no one seems to be replying to the idea.
Then Sun suggests, "Maybe we can use a break."
The girls agree to the idea, and think it will be best. Applejack then goes to the fridge and pass each of her friends some drinks. Just then Applejack's horse comes walking into the garage, and is rubbing his head against Sun's head.
Seeing her horse, Applejack shockley exclaims, "Timer, what in the hay are you doing out of your stall?!"
"I think somepony wants to see a certain someone for some snacks," Rarity suspects with a smug on his face.
Timber simply neighs in reply, and starts to rub his head against Sun's some more. Sun laughs during this event, and the others laugh along with her.
Sun pets Timer on the head and says, "Okay boy, I know why you're here."
Sun goes to her backpack and take out an apple. She then comes over to Timer to give it to him. The horse takes the apple and start eating it.
"You sure love apples don't you boy," Sun replies.
"Is that or he likes being around you," Applejack says while giggling.
Timer neighs in reply.
"You're welcome," Sun replies.
Seeing this, Twilight, Spike, and Falling Star are amazed to see Sun talking to the horse, and he is like talking to her back.
"You actually talk to him?" Falling Star replies in a surprised tone.
"Yeah, have been since I started living here," Sun answers.
Amazed, Spike says, "Cool, maybe Twilight and Falling Star can understand him too."
Twilight starts to think about this and says, "I guess because we're ponies from Equestria, we can still understand them. I can understand he's saying."
"Me too," Falling Star replies.
"Sounds cool to me," Rainbow Dash says with a smile on her face.
Then Rarity says, "Well, since we're on a break, I thought it will be a good idea to check out the outfits I'd selected to wear for the band."
Rarity pulls over a rolling clothes line full of the costumes and clothes for her ideas. She then pushes it away and is wearing a magenta jacket with yellow trims, frills, and two shoulder buckles on it, and it sparkles.
"Or perhaps we could go with something a little more modern," Rarity replies.
But Applejack is not taking this very well and says with annoyance, "We're trying to save our school here, enough with the costumes."
"You can never have enough costumes," Rarity says with annoyance, and is wearing a yellow suit and helmet, it makes her sound a bit techy, and the helmet has diamonds on the side.
Sun comes over and takes off the helmet, as she says, "How about one that doesn't make us look or sound like robots?"
"Hmm, I suppose this costume is too 22nd century and we're not even in that century yet," Rarity replies as she think about it.
"Rarity, we'll be long gone by that time or way before it," Falling Star says while rolling her eyes.
"Right," Rarity says while narrowing her eyes.
"She just wanna make it fun, isn't that's what being in a band is supposed to be," Pinkie says then beats on her drum and cymbal.
However, Sun looks at the time on her watch and says, "We have no time for this. We're supposed to be checking at The Battle of the Bands in a hour, and I promised to meet Principal Celestia over there to help her get it ready."
The girls gasps knowing that it's time for them to get things ready to leave for the show. Everyone start to get all the supplies put away and are taking them to the school for the Battle of the Bands.
Twilight says in a panic state, "But the counterspell is not ready yet! If we tried to play it in the first round and it doesn't work, the sirens will know what we're up to and make sure we'll never get a chance to play it again!"
Everyone in the garage stops in their tracks and realize Twilight is right about this. If they do try and play the spell and it doesn't work, the sirens will find out they are planning to use it again them
Then Applejack suggests, "Then we need to buy us some time until you can complete the counterspell."
"How are we going to do that?" Fluttershy asks
Luckily Rainbow Dash has the solution, and says, "We'll compete in the competition for real. Sun and I can take over as leader while you try and work on the counterspell."
The girls agree to the idea right away. Now they need to compete for real and possible play it until the final rounds. Twilight does think it's a good idea, but isn't sure about getting the spell done in time.
But Spike confidently says, "Don't worry, Twilight will make sure the spell is done by then."
"Right," Twilight nervously says .
Sun turns to Applejack with Timer and says, "Applejack, I can take Timer back to his stall while you guys get everything ready to leave for the school."
"You got it," Applejack replies.
With that, everyone in the garage start to pack everything and putting it inside the Rarity's family van, since it's big enough. Sun then takes Timer back to his stall so she can get going with the group. Twilight and Spike are the only ones who are in the doesn't feel that confident about this at all, but know she needs to finish the spell to stop the sirens.
Later on, everyone is in the school gym waiting for the Battle of the bands to begin. Since Sun shows up early, she make sure everything is ready for the show, with her friends help of course. Now all they have to do is compete in the show, get the counter spell finish, and stop the sirens. Right now Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna are on top of the stage and are making an announcement to the students.
Holding the microphone, Principal Celestia announces, "Welcome to the first ever Canterlot High School Battle of the Bands. I believe I speak for everyone when I say it is by far the greatest thing we have done here at this school!"
Everyone in the gym starts to cheer in excitement. They are ready to watch the show, and some are ready to compete in it.
Then Principal Celestia announces, "We are glad that our three newest students encourage us to turn our event into something exciting."
"But, as this is now a competition, we can only have one winner. Who is it going to be?" Vice Principal Luna adds holding the microphone in her hand.
After hearing that, everyone start to arguing with each other again. When that happens, green mist are admitting from their body. The Dazzlings are seeing the energy, they use their pendants to absorb into it, make their power stronger.
Adagio says in a proud tone, "You feel that, girls, our true power is being restored."
With that Aria and Sonata star laughing agreeing to their sister's statement. As everyone continue to argue, the Rainbooms along with Twilight, Falling Star, and Spike enter the gym, even though they've been here earlier. Seeing them, Adagio show the signal to get her sisters to stop laughing to show them that their main targets are here in their presence.
"And that's before we tap into the strongest magic here," Adagio adds with an evil grin.
Aria can see them, but bluntly replies,"But the Rainblossom, or whatever they're called, aren't under our spell, how exactly are we supposed to get to their magic?"
"Especially Sun, for the way she stopped the crowd a few days ago," Sonata adds looking a bit confused.
With a serious look Adagio explains, "The Rainbooms are just as capable as falling apart as anyone else. They just need a little… push in the wrong I direction. I have a feeling that everyone here are going to give them a shove, and as for Sun, I have to come up with a better plan for her."
"And let me guess, we going to wait until we know what that opportunity is, right?" Aria bluntly asks.
"Exactly," Adagio answers.
Sometime later, everyone are watching Snip and Snails with their performance for the competition. They are doing rap music, and they are not very good with it. They are even wearing some strange clothes people use in Rap music videos. Some people in the audience are confused with it, especially with their rhyming.
Snails:
Aw, yeah! Snips and Snails indahouse, yo!
Snips:
They call me MC Snips and that ain't no lie
My favorite food is like pumpkin pie
Snails:
I'm DJ Snazzy Snails, I like whales
When I go to the beach, I always bring my pails
Sun, Twilight, Falling Star are looking at the two with a straight look, and are confused by their playing, but Pinkie is dancing to the beat, and she likes the music.
Snips:
Everybody knows my favorite color is orange
My rhymes are so fly, they're better than... um…
Snails:
Than an orange, yo!
Snips:
Yeah!
Snails:
Yeah!
Snips:
Represent!
Everyone in the audience are confused while are trying not to laugh at the boys their rapping.
Snips:
What do we... What do we do now?
Snails:
Get off the stage, I'd like to leave right now
Even Adagio and Aria are trying their best not to laugh, but Sonata seems to enjoying the rapping as much as Pinkie does.
Snips:
Bam! That just happened!
Snails:
Aw, yeah! We out!
Snips:
Snips and Snails outta here!
When Snips and Snails finish their so called rap music, they both drop the microphones at the same time causing a loud screeching disturbance. It hurts a lot of people ears.
In the judging stand, Principal Celestia firmly says, "Please do not drop the microphones."
Even though they have not done a good job at this, they still think they done good to move on. They leave the stage, and pass the Rainbooms.
As they leave, Snips says, "In your face, Rainbooms!"
However, The Rainbooms are still a bit confused and have a strange feeling about their performance.
With a straight look Sun says with a confused tone, "I don't think I'll ever understand Rap Music?"
"Me either," Falling Star agrees with a confused look
"Well, least we know one group who won't stand in the way of us gettin' to the finals," Applejack remarks.
"Let's get ready to rock!" Rainbow shouts with excitement.
However Pinkie notices someone is missing and replies, "Wait! Where's Rarity?"
Then they hear Rarity calls out, "Oh! Here! I'm here!"
They turn to see Rarity coming their way, but are confused to see her wearing different clothes. She is wearing a white blouse, a long purple skirt, a light peach color coat, with silver like tassels on the side and sparkles all over the jacket, purple heel sandals with the tassle ankle bracelet on each leg, two gold bracelets on her wrists, a gold necklace with two gold tassels on it, and a peach color head band with a strain of it on it. the girls are looking confused, and she looks like someone from the seventies or something.
"Rarity, what in the world are you wearing?" Sun asks looking a bit bizarre at Rarity's outfit.
"We will be performing in front of an audience. I'm not going to wear something fabulous?" Rarity answers showing her outfit, and adds a huff at the end of her sentence.
Applejack gorans a she gives herself a facepalm at her face, while everyone else rolls their eyes.
Falling Star turns to Sun and whispers, "She looks kind of like a chandelier."
Then Rarity firmly says, "I heard that."
The girls and Spike try their best not to laugh, but show chuckling from their mouth and they're behind their hands. After getting themselves ready, they are going to begin their song for the first round. Seeing the gloomy and not friendly look on their faces, is making the girls feel uncomfortable, but remember they have an important job to do.
Twilight covers the microphone with her hand and whispers to her friends, "Remember, we have to be good enough to make it through but not so good we let the sirens see the magic within us. They could realize we plan to use it against them."
"Got it! Be cool enough to win, but not so cool that we end up showing off the whole ears and tails and rainbows thing. Sooo... about twenty percent less cool," Rainbow Dash says, and sounds like she's saying a different version about the plan.
"Sun, what's the backpack for?" Fluttershy asks notices the backpack next to Sun.
"Just wanted to be prepared for whatever happens," Sun answers.
Pinkie taps on her drum sticks and shouts, "One! Two!"
And the girls starts to sing as they play their instruments.
The Rainbooms:
We've just got the day to get ready
And there's only so much time to lose
Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party
So let's think of something fun to do
However as they are preforming, Photo Finish and two of her band mates, Pixel Pizzaz and Violet Blur, are on top of the catwalk of the stage, and they are up to something.
The Rainbooms:
We don't know (we don't know) what's gonna happen
We just know (we just know) it's gonna feel right
Photo Finish and her friend have magnets that are attached to strings, and puppet sticks. They lower the magnets down and Rarity tassels are caught into it.
The Rainbooms:
All our friends are here
And it's time to ignite the lights!
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight
Shake your tail, shake your tail
The next thing Rarity knows, she is being moved around like crazy because Photo Finished;s band are controlling her like a puppet. Applejack and Sun notices Rarity's situation, but Applejack is annoyed by it.
The Rainbooms:
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight
Shake your tail, shake your tail
Sun grabs her backpack and bring out some scissors. She runs to Rarity and cut the strings holding the magnets. She takes the magnets off the tassels and runs back to her spot and put them in her backpack. She's glad one problem is solved, but suspect more might come their way.
Twilight Sparkle:
So what you didn't get it right the first time
Pinkie can see that some of them are not having fun, and wants to do something to lighten the mood. She even hear see that Apple Bloom and her friends, excluding Screwball snoring while the one is cheering for her sister. Apple Bloom even says they're boring.
Pinkie Pie:
Laugh it off, no one said it is a crime
With that, she uses the other drum to laugh confetti from it, and the small colored papers are falling on the stage, but it's not going to turn out good.
Rarity:
Do your thing, you know you're an original
Applejack:
Your ideas are so funny that they're criminal
The Rainbooms:
Ohhh-ahh!
As Twilight continues to sing, she accidentally swallow a confetti paper, and starts to choke on it.
The Rainbooms:
We've just got the day to get ready
And there's only so much time to lose
Fluttershy uses her tambourine to hit Twilight on the back and helps her get it out. she then see Flash and his friends leaving with firm looks on their faces.
The Rainbooms:
Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party
So let's think of something fun to do
Just then Snip and Snails are on the catwalk too. They are able to use one of the stage lights to shine it directly on top of Fluttershy. she then ends up with terrible stage fright and start to run all over the stage to escape the spotlight.
The Rainbooms:
We don't know (we don't know) what's gonna happen
We just know (we just know) it's gonna feel right
Luckily Sun has that prepared too. She is able to stop Fluttershy from running, and gets an umbrella hat from her bag. She puts it on her head, opens it and the ends have butterflies on it. It cheers her up and continues playing. Sun continue to play as well, hopefully no more interference.
The Rainboom:
All our friends are here
And it's time to ignite the lights!
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight
Shake your tail, shake your tail
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight
Shake your tail, shake your tail
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight
Shake your tail, shake your tail
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight
Shake your tail, shake your tail
Shake your tail 'cause we're here to have a party tonight!
After they finish playing, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna are the only ones who are clapping and everyone else are not. They all exist the stage, and are glad this is over for now. Falling Star and Spike walk toward them to see if they're alright.
"You guys alright?" Falling Star asks.
"We're fine," Twilight answers.
"Yeah. That was fast thinking, Sun," Applejack complements.
"Yes, thank you for the assistance, Sun," Rarity replies with appreciations.
"No problem. To be honest, I have a feeling this was going to happen, so I come prepared," Sun says with a smile.
"Smart thinking," Rarity complements.
However Applejack come towards them and angrily says, "Yeah, well, whoever did this couldn't have done this if you didn't insist on dressin' like... like... this! We need to sound good! Is there some reason that concept seems to escape you?"
Sun, Falling Star, and Spike can see things are not going so well with the group, and are arguing.
"And what was with the confetti, Pinkie Pie? How am I supposed to shred if there's paper stuck in my frets?!" Rainbow yells at Pinkie.
"It was pretty distracting…" Fluttershy quietly adds.
But Pinkie protests, "Says the girl who was running from a light the whole time! A light!"
However, before things can continue to boil, Sun comes between them with a calm smile and says, "We still sounded much better than most of the other bands. I'm sure you'll make it to the next round."
"She's right, 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," Falling Star adds, and volunteers to keep an eye on things.
Then Sun suggests, "I can stay with you if you like."
"No. I'll be fine," Falling Star replies, acting like she doesn't need much help.
"If you say so," Sun replies.
With that, Sun, Twilight, and the others leave to go find a place to practice, while Falling Star stays at the gym. Sun can see Photo Finished and her bandmates coming down the catwalk on the ladder. Sun takes the magnets out so she can give it back to them.
When she's in front of the three fashionistas, she hold the magnets up to them and firmly says, "These are your's I believe."
Photo Finish simply takes them and walks pass her. Though, The three girls are kind of surprised Sun hasn't tell on them yet. Then again, Sun is mostly the type to take care of the problem her own way. After that, Sun leaves after her friends so they can find a different place to practice, Derpy and her two friends, Raspberry Fluff and Blueberry Pie and enter the stage. They are playing a musical saw, a cowbell, and a triangle. When they star playing, it sounds like alien music, and they like it.