Chapter 3: Starting the Battle of the Bands
Twilight, Dusk, Nyx, Spike, Sunset and the human versions of Twilight's friends were at Applejack's house, practicing the counter-spell song in the garage. Although, it was very bad and very off-key. Dusk and Nyx were covering their ears, or at least Dusk was. Nyx thought her ears were still on top of her head. Dusk then pulled Nyx's hands down to cover where her ears were, then covered his own ears back up. Spike was sitting on top of an amplifier, and the off-key music made him fall off, and Sunset adjusted the amplifier. They eventually stopped the song, none of them thought that it was going to work.
Spike then nervously said, "Eh, that sounded... way better than the last... five times you've played it." He then chuckled nervously.
"Nnope," Big Mac said, walking past the window with a bucket of apples. That made Spike bite his lips.
"Wow," Dusk said. "That was really bad."
"I have to agree," Nyx said. "That was not as good as I thought it was going to be."
"I think it's pretty obvious what's going wrong with this counter-spell," Rainbow Dash said.
"You're turnin' what should be the chorus into a five-minute guitar solo?" Applejack said while Rarity was crossing her arms with an angry look.
"I have to pick up the slack somehow!" Rainbow Dash said back. "Are you guys even trying?!"
"I'm trying," Fluttershy said.
"It's fine," Twilight said before giving a nervous laugh. "It's fine." She then raised her hand and said, "One more time from the top!" No one was playing their instruments.
"Or, perhaps we could take a short break, try on some of the wardrobe choices I've put together?" Rarity asked when pulling a rack full of outfits. "I'm particularly fond of this one." She then revealed a sparkly pink outfit with yellow outlines. "Eh, of course we could always go with something a bit more modern."
"We're tryin' to save our school here," Applejack said, angrily. Enough with the costumes!"
Rarity was then shown wearing a daft punk outfit, with what appears to be the Cutie Mark of Rarity from Equestria on the mask. Rarity then said, "Oh, you can never have enough costumes!"
"She just wants to make things fun!" Pinkie said, a little grumpy. "Isn't that what being in a band supposed to be?" She then did a rimshot, angrily.
Dusk then looked at Sunset and asked, "Do we even have time for this?"
Sunset then pulled out her phone and looked at the time. She then went wide eyed and said, "No, we don't! You're supposed to check in at the Battle of the Bands in fifteen minutes!"
The others gasped and said, "Oh, no!" Then they all started getting their stuff and leaving.
"What? But it's not ready!" Twilight said, nervously. "If we play our 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!"
That made everyone stop and look at each other in distress. Applejack then said, "Then we'll have to buy ourselves some time so you can keep workin' on it!"
"But how do you propose we do that?" Rarity asked.
"We compete in the Battle of the Bands for real!" Rainbow Dash said. "I take over lead vocals again and we stay alive until the finals! We unleash the counter-spell then!" She then looked over at Twilight. "You'll have figured it out by finals, right?"
"Of course she will," Spike said. "Twilight Sparkle's never met a problem she couldn't solve. Right, Twilight?" He looked up at Twilight.
"Right," Twilight said, not confident at all.
"Then let's go win us a Battle of the Bands!" Rainbow Dash said as she and the others, except for Twilight, Spike, Dusk and Nyx. Twilight and Spike then looked at each other. Nyx walked up to Twilight.
"You don't think you can do it, do you?" Nyx asked.
Twilight looked down at Nyx and asked, "What gave it away?"
"You're giving that same worried look after switching the cutie marks of your friends," Nyx said.
"Oh, yeah, that's right," Dusk said. "She was that worried then as she is now."
"Twilight?" Spike asked, looking up at Twilight. "Is it true?"
Twilight sighed and said, "Yeah. I am. I can't afford to mess this up." She then looked ahead and said, "Let's go. We got a contest to get to." Then she, Spike, Dusk and Nyx headed out of there.
Well, the first round of the battle of the bands didn't go quite as they expected. Principal Celestia announced that the Battle of the Bands was about to begin. But then the sirens used their magic to make the students argue with one another, which was causing to let the Dazzlings feed on their negativity.
And after the Rainbooms arrived, the competition started with Snips and Snails rapping. I guess we can all say that everyone can rap better than those two. But then, the Rainbooms were up. And, not everything went as they planned.
Later, the Rainbooms headed out of there and Twilight bumped into Flash Sentry. Unfortunately for Twilight, Flash was under the influence of the magic of the Sirens.
Twilight chuckled nervously and said, "We really need to stop bumping into each other like this."
Flash turned his head towards his band mates, tuned his guitar and said, "Uh, you guys hear something?" The others just told him no.
Twilight then tried speaking to Flash again. "I said, we have to stop..."
"There it is again," Flash said. "So annoying." He then turned his back towards Twilight.
"Why are you acting like this?" Twilight asked. "I thought we were friends."
"Yeah, and then you decide to come back here just so you can beat me in the Battle of the Bands," Flash said, turning to look at Twilight with an angry look. "I want this, Twilight, and you're trying to take it from me! Some friend."
"That's not why..." Twilight tried convincing that she wasn't trying to win, but Applejack put her hand on Twilight's left shoulder.
"Come on, Twilight," Applejack said. "We've got things to do."
The Rainbooms walked away from Flash and his band. Flash then called out, "You really think you're gonna help them?! Ha! I bet you have no idea what you're even doing!" Those words then made Twilight cry, the others feeling bad for her.
Dusk and Nyx were waiting outside for the competition to end. It had been days since they arrived there, but so far, nothing has turned up good for them. Then the two of them sighed and leaned against the wall outside of the school gym.
"This is getting old," said Nyx. "We've been here for days."
"We're gonna have to stay here until the Sirens are defeated," said Dusk. "I don't know how long it's going to take, but, at least I'm able to be human again." He then looked at his skin. "Even though, this isn't the natural skin color of the world I'm originally from."
"Really?" Nyx asked, looking at her skin. "How do..." She was interrupted when Sunset Shimmer ran out of there. Dusk and Nyx looked at each other and ran towards her. Sunset then leaned against the statue where the portal to Equestria was.
"Sunset?" Dusk asked. "Are you okay?"
Sunset looked at Dusk and said, "Sorry that I worried you. I'm just... I just embarrassed my friends during their performance just because Rainbow Dash was about to show her magic."
"Rainbow Dash was always a showoff," Dusk said. "But she is reliable."
Sunset then sighed and said, "What I did to get her to stop made everyone remind them of all the bad things I've done. Although, something weird happened."
"What?" Nyx asked. "What happened?"
"Even though the Rainbooms didn't finish the song, they still move onto the finals," Sunset said.
"That is weird," Dusk said.
"Well, we all know it was the Sirens responsible," Nyx said. "After all, the gems around their necks are the source of their powers."
"Wait, what?!" Dusk and Sunset asked in unison.
"When I went to the restroom, the Sirens came in," Nyx said. "I overheard that their gems are what's making them use their magic."
"That's it!" Sunset said, standing up. "They didn't want anyone touching their gems because that's the source of their power. And they were glowing every time they sung their songs."
"So, how do we stop them?" Dusk asked.
"We have to cut them off from their magic," Sunset said. "It's going to be difficult, but it's the only way."
"Well, the Rainbooms are going to get ready for the final round of the battle of the bands tonight, and I have a feeling that something bad is about to happen," Dusk said. "If we find a way to get those gems off of them, then they won't be able to make people argue with each other."
"But how are we going to get them off?" Sunset asked. "We can't even get near them without causing a scene."
"We're going to have to be careful," Dusk said.
"You're right about that, Dusk," Sunset said. "Who knows what those Sirens will be up to?"
"I'm not going to let some scaly creatures take control of this world, or any other world," Dusk said. "But first, I got to take care of some business."
"Bathroom break again?" Nyx asked.
"Yep," Dusk said.
"I gotta go, too," Nyx said. Then the two of them headed into the school to find the bathrooms.
Dusk and Nyx were walking around the area around the school, looking for the Rainbooms. But they couldn't find them anywhere. They tried their best to find them.
"Where could they have gone?" Nyx asked.
"I don't know," Dusk said. "They couldn't have gone too far. All I know of this place are Sugarcube Cafe, Pinkie's Place, Sunset's apartment, Applejack's home, and Rarity's boutique."
"DUSK!! NYX!!" Spike's voice came. The two of them looked over and saw him running towards the two.
"What is it, Spike?" Nyx asked, the two getting on a knee.
"It's Twilight and the girls!" Spike said. "Trixie just dropped them in a trap door that's on stage! They're trapped!"
"What?!" Dusk and Nyx said.
"How are we going to get them out?" Dusk asked. Just then, they saw someone coming towards them. It was the human version of DJ Pon-3. Dusk and Nyx looked at each other and said, "Has she ever given off a negative reaction?"
"Actually, no," Nyx said. "She's always had those headphones on."
"Of course!" Dusk and Spike said. Then the three of them headed towards DJ Pon-3.
"Yo, DJ Pon-3," Dusk said. "We need your help."
"She can't hear you," Nyx said. "She's got her headphones on."
Dusk then sighed and said, "It's gonna be a long day."