//------------------------------// // Battle of the Bands // Story: Equestria Girls JT: Rainbow Rocks // by MrBiteo //------------------------------// The next morning, the Humane 7 began their rehearsal on the counter spell at Applejack's farm in the garage. The Rainbooms were all, knowing that Twilight would help them save the day. That was proven to be easier said than done as Twilight was performing rather poorly in the singing department throughout the session. This made the Rainbooms' confidence to feel a little shaken and it was starting to become the same way with Sunset and Spike, who were by the speakers barely able to bear the experience. And people outside the garage agreed as Granny Smith passed by and plugged in two apple cores in her ears so that she wouldn't hear any more of the awful song. However, it seemed like there was going to be payoff after all for their performance, in which it seemed like pony ears were beginning to form on Rainbow Dash just as they reached the end of their song. Rainbow Dash looked at her bandmates to see if their pony ears formed as well, but found only one had formed on her head during the song before it popped like a bubble, much to her annoyance. "Uh, that sounded way better than the...last five times you've played it." Spike said trying to be positive. This was immediately shot down by Big Mac, who walked by carrying a basket of apples replying 'nope'. "I think it's pretty obvious what's going wrong with this counter spell." Rainbow Dash claimed. "You're turning what should be the chorus into a 5-minute guitar solo?" Applejack argued. "I have to pick up the slack somehow!" Rainbow argued back at Applejack, "Are you guys even trying?!" "I'm trying." Fluttershy quietly answered Rainbow, though the latter didn't care. "It's fine. *nervously laughs* It'll be fine." Twilight assured everyone trying to sound rational and calm in this situation, "One more time from the top." Twilight's order was followed by an awkward pause. "Or perhaps we can take a short break..." Rarity then suggested, "...try on some of the wardrobe choices I put together? *pulls rack of clothes to her side* I'm particularly fond of this one." Rarity pushed the clothesrack away, showing her now in a outfit reminiscent of the Beatles, "Or, of course, it could go with something a bit more modern." "We're tryin' to save our school here." Applejack reminded Rarity annoyed of her tendency of giving the band a style of fashion. "UGH! You can never have enough costumes!" Rarity argued back, this time in a gold Daft Punk-style outfit. "She just wants to make things fun." Pinkie then stepped into the argument defending Rarity, "Isn't that what being in a band is supposed to be?" Just as Pinkie said that, she did a rimshot. "You don't have time for any of this." Sunset reminded everyone, "You're supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in 15 minutes." The Rainbooms gasped at the news and in no time, they all scrambled around to gather up their equipment and instruments. "But-But it's not ready yet! If we play the counter spell in the first round and it doesn't work, the Sirens will know what we're up to and make sure we don't get a chance to play it again!" Twilight warned everyone, in which they all stopped after hearing what Twilight just said. They all looked at each other, realizing that they were going in unprepared when Applejack thought of a solution. "Then we'll have to buy ourselves some time, so you can keep working on it." Applejack said to Twilight. "And how do you propose we do that?" Rarity asked Applejack about her idea. "We compete in the Battle of the Bands for real." Rainbow Dash then stated, understanding Applejack's idea, "I take over lead vocals again and we stay alive until the finals. We'll unleash the counter spell then. You'll have it figured out by the finals, right?" "Of course, she will." Spike reassured Rainbow Dash confident that they'll win this thing, "Twilight Sparkle's never met a problem she couldn't solve. Right, Twilight?" "Right." Twilight responded nervously, though the Humane 5 didn't seem to notice her clear state of panic. "Then let's go win us a Battle of the Bands!" Rainbow declared as she and the others gathered up their instruments and equipment and taking them to the back of the truck so that Big Mac can take them all to the competition. Twilight and Spike were the only ones still in the garage with Spike showing confidence while Twilight showed the exact opposite and was rather afraid that things were going to end badly at the competition. And it seemed there wasn't anything she could do about it. As expected, everybody had attended the Battle of the Bands competition in the gym as the stands were filled with students. "Welcome to the first ever Canterlot High School Battle of the Bands." Celestia announced to everyone from on stage along with Luna, "I believe I speak for everyone when I say it is by far the greatest thing we have ever done here at this school." Everyone cheered in response, "We are so glad our three newest students encouraged us to turn this event into something exciting." She referred to the Dazzlings, who were sitting by themselves at one of the stands. "But as this is now a competition, we can only choose one winner." Luna then took the microphone and explained, much to everyone's annoyance, "Who is it going to be?" Already, the students were arguing with one another about who will win the Battle of the Bands with their negative emotions producing the familiar green mist that went into the Sirens' pendants, giving them more power to consume. "You feel that, girls? Our true power is being restored." Adagio declared as Aria and Sonata let out a laugh. Just then, the Humane 7 had arrived at last to the competition, stepping into the gym, "And that's before we've tapped into the strongest magic here." "But the Rainblossoms, or whatever they're called, aren't under our spell." Aria then reminded Adagio before asking, "How exactly are we supposed to get to their magic?" "The Rainbooms are just as capable of falling apart as anyone else." Adagio them pointed out, "They just need a push in the wrong direction. I have a feeling everyone here is going to be lining up to give them a shove." Adagio, Aria and Sonata looked on at the Humane 7 in anticipation for their failure. Some time passed to Snips and Snails' audition, where they were both rappers. However, they were not that good at it at all. Fortunately, it soon ended as Snips and Snails finished their rap number with a double mic drop. The Humane 7 cringed from the loud feedback of the microphones making contact on the floor of the stage. "Please do not drop the microphones." Principal Celestia ordered the two displeased. Snips and Snails merely laugh in response as they stepped off stage. "In your face, Rainbooms." Snips said to the Humane 7 as he and Snails walked past them. "Least we know one group that won't stand in the way of us gettin' to the finals." Applejack remarked about Snips and Snails. "Let's get ready to rock!" Rainbow Dash said. "Wait! Where's Rarity?" Pinkie asked seeing that Rarity was no longer with the group. "Oh! Here! I'm here!" Rarity called out walking back to the group. She was now wearing a hippie inspired outfit that consisted of a two layer purple skirt with lavender trimmings, her regular light blue shirt, a beige jacket that had metal fringes on the sleeves and at the bottom with a matching beige headband around her forehead and beige boots with purple heels and metal fringes on the top. "When did you have time to do this?" Applejack asked Rarity. "Oh, actually, it's from Photo Finish. She said that she just had it lying around and wanted me to have it and of course, I couldn't say no." Rarity explained. The rest of the Humane 7 looked at Rarity in confusion, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack expressed a look that said 'seriously?' at Rarity's idea. "We will be performing in front of an audience. I'm not going to wear something fabulous?" Rarity explained. The Humane 7 basically rolled their eyes in response to Rarity's explanation with Applejack letting out a sigh in irritation. Eventually, the Rainbooms got on stage ready to perform. Everyone in the crowd gave the same cold stare at them as yesterday. "Remember, we have to be good enough to make it through. But not so good we let the Sirens see the magic within us." Twilight reminded her bandmates, whom all agreed, "They could realize we plan to use it against them." "Got it! Be cool enough to win, but not so cool we end up showing off the whole 'ears and tails and rainbows' things." Rainbow Dash said fully grasping Twilight's advice in her own way, "So, about 20% less cool?" "One, two..." Pinkie chanted tapping her drumsticks together. [The Rainbooms] We've just got the day to get ready And there's only so time to lose Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party So, let's think of something fun to do Unbeknownst to the Rainbooms, up above the catwalk were Photo Finish and her assistants, the Snapshots planning to sabotage their performance. We don't know (We don't know) What's gonna happen We just know (We just know) It's gonna feel right The Snapshots pulled out magnets tied to marionettes before slowly descending said magnets down to where Rarity was. All our friends are here And it's time to ignite the lights The magnets reached to Rarity, where the fringes on her jacket were magnetically pulled and instantly attached to them. Not only was Rarity unable to play her keytar, but Photo Finish was now moving her around the stage like a marionette. Shake your tail 'Cause we're here to have a party tonight Applejack noticed Rarity, confused about her moving around and unaware of her being controlled. Shake your tail Shake your tail Photo Finish moved Rarity over to Applejack and moved her arm up to knock Applejack's hat off, making it look like she did it on purpose. Applejack put her hat back on and turned her head to Rarity in irritation, but soon saw the magnets stuck on Rarity's jacket and realized that she was being moved around by someone up on the catwalk above trying to sabotage them. She wasn't able to do anything to help Rarity or report to Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna as the Rainbooms were still in the middle of their audition. Shake your tail 'Cause we're here to have a party tonight Shake your tail Shake your tail Pinkie saw some members of the audience were pretending to sleep through the song and even calling it boring. She then decided to improvise, spinning one of the bottom drums on her set to the position of a cannon and hitting it, revealing to be a makeshift party cannon firing confetti around the stage. [Twilight] So what you didn't get it right the first time [Pinkie] Laugh it off No one said it is a crime [Rarity] Do your thing You know you're an original Despite being controlled, Rarity still tried to sing her part of the song. Photo Finish then moved Rarity against Applejack. Applejack saw this as her opportunity as she helped get the magnets off Rarity by trying to get the jacket off. Unfortunately, Photo dragged Rarity away before Applejack could. [Applejack] Your ideas are so funny that they're criminal [The Rainbooms] Ohhh-ahh Twilight then chocked on a piece of confetti and was then aided by Fluttershy, who slapped Twilight's back, helping her cough the confetti out. In the audience, Twilight saw Flash Sentry giving her the cold shoulder as he and his band walked off, leaving Twilight a bit hurt. We've just got the day to get ready And there's only so time to lose Because tonight, yeah, we're here to party So, let's think of something fun to do Two more guests walked up on the catwalk above. This time, they were Snips and Snails and they directed the spotlight to Fluttershy. Fluttershy immediately paused from stage fright as she saw that the audience was focused directly onto her. She tried moving away from the spotlight, but it just kept following her, resulting in her running away from it throughout the stage We don't know (We don't know) What's gonna happen We just know (We just know) It's gonna feel right Much like Applejack, Rainbow noticed Fluttershy running away from the spotlight and looked up to see that someone was moving the spotlight in an attempt to sabotage their song, though she couldn't see that it was Snips and Snails doing it. 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 Fluttershy managed to outrun the spotlight and hid behind Pinkie Pie as it was the only one safe place to hide. Shake your tail 'Cause we're here to have a party tonight Rarity then tried to regain control of her arms as she pulled them toward her. Shake your tail Shake your tail Shake your tail 'Cause we're here to have a party tonight Rarity struggled with trying to pull the magnets off, but soon the sleeves of the jacket tore off as she landed face down on the floor. She rose her head and saw that her outfit was ruined, leaving her to cry over it as a result. Applejack merely sighed in annoyance over what Rarity was doing. 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 Rainbow Dash started to sweat nervously seeing that the audition was a disaster. Now, they were never going to win. The Rainbooms exited to backstage without even saying a word. Up on the catwalk, Photo Finish, the Snapshots and Snips and Snails were satisfied with their work as they were leaving.