//------------------------------// // The Battle for Canterlot // Story: Equestria Girls - Drama on the Rise // by Amethyst-ACE //------------------------------// Queen Chrysalis continued to laugh as more and more of the zombified jocks slumped off the stage and approached the rest of the students. Twilight prepared to confront them, but a familiar voice prompted to do otherwise. “Everyone! Over here! Run!” Sunset Shimmer was standing at the back of the auditorium and waving at her friends. Twilight ran towards her telling everyone else to follow her as she went. “To the Drama Club room! Hurry!” Sunset Shimmer insisted. Right outside the room, Snips and Snails were signaling the way in. Every member of the resistance and a few other students made it in while the rest ran to various parts of the school in a panic. “You can run, but you can't hide!” Chrysalis taunted before pointing to a handful of her newly aquired minions. “You there! Find the principles! Bring them to me!” The jocks nodded in acknowledgment of their orders and headed towards the office. “What are we going to do?” Asked Sunset to Twilight. “I'm not sure...” Twilight admitted. “With the jocks under her control Chrysalis could easily take over the whole school...” “And why exactly does she want to take over the school?” Everyone turned to see Ravewind standing in between Lilly and Chroma Sketch. “What possible motive would she have for taking control of a high school?” Ravewind asked a second time. “Why should we tell you anything?” Snails aggressively asked in response. “Yeah! It's thanks to the Drama Club that we're in this mess in the first place!” Added Snips. Ravewind, Lilly, and Chroma Sketch all looked at one another then looked down, ashamed. “I don't believe that.” Twilight walked over to the three Drama Club leaders and held out her hand to Chroma Sketch who looked at her with disbelief. “When we first met you all seemed sincere. You were really nice to me, and I really did want to be friends with all three of you.” Chroma Sketch nodded and shook Twilight's hand. “The counselor played all of Drama Club.” Chroma explained. “We should have known something was wrong when students were complaining about the tests.” “But now we know the truth,” Lilly added. “And it's time we set our school back to the way it was!” “The first thing we need to do is free everyone from those masks they're wearing. Starting with ACE.” Ravewind suggested. “Does anyone have any ideas as to how we're gonna do that?” “Oh! Oh! We know!” Everyone turned to face Snips and Snails. “What if Snips and I lured Jocks here a couple at a time? Then every time we do you guys ambush them and take the masks off!” Everyone looked at Snails completely dumbfounded. Not only was his suggestion the best on they've heard all day, but it was possibly the best idea the pair had ever had. “Alright then! We'll use go with that plan!” Twilight clenched her fist and held it out as she spoke. “Who's with us?” Everyone else in the room joined in a circle each one holding their fists forward in one massive collective fist pound. All at once, everyone raised their hands to the air and shouted out, “FOR CANTERLOT HIGH!” ~~~~~ A group of jocks burst into the doors of the school auditorium holding Principle Celestia. “What?” Celestia looked around at the army of masked students then looked up on stage at whom she assume was Christina Liss. “What is the meaning of this, Liss?!” Principle Celestia demanded. Chrysalis smirked at the captured principle. “There's really no point in me telling you." She explained as she looked over the nails on her human hand. "You wouldn't understand if I did...” Celestia scoffed, unsatisfied with the counselor's answer. “Are the preparations finished?” Chrysalis asked as she turned behind her. ACE was adjusting the mask on one of the captured students, then slightly adjusted his own. Not only did the jocks capture Principle Celestia, but they were also apprehending any and all of the students in the school. “I finished the final modifications to the gems.” ACE responded. His tone was frozen cold, and almost lifeless. Yet despite this, he seemed to be considerably more sentient than the other students. “Any students who follow you into your world will take the form of one of your minions.” Chrysalis let out a light delighted laugh. Excellent, with my newly acquired army, I should have more than enough soldiers to take back what should have rightfully been mine. “And what is it that should have been yours, Christina?!” Questioned Celestia again. Chrysalis sighed. “Part of me wants to tell you, just to see what your reaction would be...but I really can't be bothered. Keep her secure backstage until the invasion is complete! Also find Vice Principle Luna! I don't want ANY interference this time!” The group holding Principle Celestia saluted their new leader and hauled their captive to the back of the stage. ~~~~~ Snips and Snails positioned themselves behind a vending machine not far from the drama theater. As a couple possessed students walked by, Snips whistled to them and Snails waved his hands frantically. The three students gave out zombie like moans and charged at the two boys who immediately fled to the Drama Club room. Of the three students that were blindly running at Snips and Snails, only one of them was a jock, and he arrived at the Club's front door long before the other two. As he entered the room he was dived upon by all of the students in the room, including Twilight and Sunset. Despite how outnumbered he was the students still had a hard time dealing with the massive hight and weight difference. Eventually though, they got the mask off. The jock sat there, half dazed. “Uh...what happened to me?” He looked around to see a large group of students looking over him, and Snips and Snails in the back who appeared to be hitting his mask over and over with a hammer. “We'll explain in a second,” answered Sunset Shimmer. “For now, some more students are coming. We need your help getting their masks off.” “I can do that,” the jock responded. As the other two students entered the room, the hulking athlete singlehandedly stopped them. He held one student in each hand, then in one quick upward motion, ripped both masks off. The other two students looked around, dazed and confused. “Alright, one group down!” Shoued Twilight triumphantly. “And a whole lot of groups to go...” Muttered Ravewind. “Don't worry, this will get easier the more jocks we free.” Chroma Sketch pointed out. She was right, each jock they picked up made the entire process easier and faster. It wasn't long until they freed every student that was roaming the halls. Once that was done all that was left were the ones in the auditorium. “Now comes the hard part." Twilight explained. “The students in the auditorium aren’t going to want to leave as easily as the others, not to mention, as soon as we try anything we'll no doubt get Chrysalis' attention.” “So if we're gonna do something, it needs to be all or nothing.” Ravewind pointed out. Chroma Sketch looked over to her side to see Lilly with a concerned look on her face. “Whats the matter?” She asked her friend. “We've been at this all day and there's still no sign of ACE anywhere.” Lilly answered. “I'm worried about him...” “ACE is probably in the auditorium with the remaining students Lilly.” Twilight pointed out. “He's probably in there plotting with HER...” One of the students added. Lilly's eyes widened. “ACE wouldn't betray this school! He's under a mask's influence just like everyone else!” “A mask that he's been able to take on and off!” Another student rebutted. “We've seen him walking around the halls before this whole thing started!” “ACE has a love of theatrical masks.” Chroma Sketch defended. “The mask he was wearing probably had nothing to do with this incident.” One of the other Drama Club students entered the argument. “Come to think of it, wasn't it ACE who submitted the design for the play's masks in the first place?” “So what if he did?” Answered Ravewind this time. “He must have known this would happen.” The student continued. “There's no other explanation.” Several students began to whisper and quietly debate with one another. “ACE is our friend,” Ravewind responded. “You all can think what you want, but we refuse to believe that he sold out the school.” Twilight walked over to Lilly, and put an arm on her shoulder. “We're going to save ACE, Lilly. I promise you.” Lilly nodded. She felt a little better, but was still uneasy in the back of her mind. Chrysalis was sitting center stage in the auditorium with the curtains closed behind her. A group of jocks were in front of her, and ACE was to the back. The jocks were wondering around aimlessly and ACE was shuffling a deck of cards. Suddenly ACE stopped, and half of the cards dropped to the stage floor. “What is it, Amethyst?” Inquired Queen Chrysalis to her subordinate. “I no longer sense the gems of the students we sent out. That can only mean they were destroyed.” “Destroyed? Impossible!” Chrysalis clenched her fist and snarled to herself. “It must have been Vice Principle Luna, she must have rallied the rest of the students!” “Not quite Chrysalis!” ACE and Chrysalis turned looked to the rear of the area to see Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, behind them was the army of students they had freed. “I should have known.” Chrysalis shot Twilight an annoyed look. “To think all the work I put into this plan has been whittled away by the very same pony who tried to save Canterlot last time.” “Is she referring to the Canterlot Siege?” Sunset asked Twilight who nodded in response. “Well, whatever.” Chrysalis shrugged and stood up. “My first plan to take over Canterlot may have failed, but it always helps to have a plan B.” Chrysalis snapped her fingers and the curtains behind them opened revealing two hypnotized jocks and a bound Principle Celestia. “Principle!” Sunset called out with the students behind her all letting out a synchronized gasp. “Tell me, Twilight.” Chysalis continued as she slowly approached Celestia. “Did you know that the beings in this world are connected to those from our own?” Twilight said nothing in response to Chysalis, who kept talking anyway. “I'm not surprised. Even I didn't know until I found out for myself. It turns out there's a special link between the two worlds. Which is why I attempted to take all of the students under my control.” “If you had control of them here, you had control of them back in our world!” Sunset pointed out. Chrysalis giggled. “Brava, dearie. The same can be said about losses.” “Losses?” Twilight asked. Chrysalis nodded. “For example, if the good Principle here were to...'disappear' from this world.” “Princess Celestia.” Twilight whispered as her eyes widened. “Ah, the princess finally gets it!” Chyrsalis snapped her fingers again and all of the remaining possessed students lined up in front of her, including the two guarding Celestia. “Twilight!” Sunset shouted. “I know!” Twilight shouted back. Twilight and Sunset both jumped backwards into the crowd of students. “Formation!” Twilight shouted out. At that signal all of the liberated jocks stood in front of the remaining students, forming a wall similar to a football line. “Take them!” Chrysalis shouted. She pointed at the group and the jocks under her control ran at them. “For Canterlot High!” Twilight pointed at Chrysalis and the jocks in front of her all charged. The center one, an overly muscular hulk of a linebacker gave out an overly excited “YEAH!” The jocks collided with one another, both groups attempting to shove one other out of the way. As this happened the remains of the possessed students ran past the jocks in an effort to pin down the remaining students, but they were outnumbered almost 3 to 1. Chrysalis and ACE were both shouting commands from the stage and didn't notice that Celestia was slowly managing to untie herself. Eventually she got herself free, and snuck up behind Chrysalis. She grabbed the queen and threw her backstage into a shelf containing several props. Wooden swords for the knights flew out on stage and Celestia picked one up. “You thought you could sneak into MY school and take over MY students? You are sadly mistaken!” Celestia took a pose holding the sword out. Chrysalis rolled her eyes and stood up, grabbing a sword for herself. She took a pose herself and Celestia continued to talk. “Now that you've so foolishly revealed your true self...” Celestia rose her sword into the air and charged at Chrysalis, who blocked with her own. “I can protect my loyal students. FROM YOU!”