//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Dance, Dance, Dance // Story: Equestria Girls 2: Shards of Harmony // by Zurvan //------------------------------// The day of the dance arrives, and unfortunately for Pinkie because of Crystal's snooping she has been unable to get Rainbow to fly up and set up decorations from the rafters like she wanted, but the gymnasium looks great anyway. The friends all munching on some apples Applejack brought in for a snack, "Well Pinkie, I think ya out did yerself this time," Applejack says. Pinkie grins, "Thanks Applejack. I've been trying real hard to get it just right. I even got the party cannon set up so I can randomly launch confetti tonight, so it's gonna be great!" Rarity looks at the party cannon wearily. "Are you sure this thing's safe?" "Of course, Principal Celestia looked over it herself. I installed all kinds of fail-safes, if even one fails then the cannon won't work," Pinkie says, "Make for a bummer party, but I can't risk hurting anyone, because then they won't smile." "Right," Rarity says. "Twilight I'm worried," Fluttershy says quietly. "Why's that Fluttershy?" Twilight asks. "None of the mice I asked to spy on Crystal ever came back." Twilight frowns, "I hope they're okay. I may not like mice much, but they have a right to life too." Fluttershy nods, "At least I got volunteers that didn't have much to lose if they didn't come back, they knew the risks." "Glad you are such good friends with the animals Fluttershy," Twilight says and Fluttershy nods. "Come on everyone, " Rarity says, "to the Boutique, I have your dresses ready." They all head to the Boutique and look at their dresses. "Um, Rarity?" Twilight says as she looks at her dress, "Why is there no back to my dress?" "Oh silly me, I thought you might want to let your wings show tonight. I heard several girls say they were adding wings to their dresses to be Winter Angels, so I thought you 3 might like to do that." Rarity answers. "Seriously?" Rainbow Dash asks as she looks at her dress, "can we Twilight?" Twilight sighs and looks to Fluttershy, "Up to you Fluttershy," Fluttershy nods, "Okay, let's do this," They all change into their dresses, then Rainbow, Twilight and Fluttershy allow the illusion over their wings to fade so they can be seen. Pinkie grins at Fluttershy, then looks at her dress, "Rarity, you don't think..." Rarity rolls her eyes, but walks over to a closet and pulls out a pair of fake pink wings, "Here Pinkie." Pinkie takes the wings and Fluttershy comes over and helps her get them on, "Yeah! I get to have wings like Flutters for a night!" Flutters blushes slightly at the comment. "Come on y'all," Applejack says as she adjusts her hat, “we got a dance to go to.” They arrive at the dance, and the first person to see them is Flash, he comes up to them obviously shocked, "Twi, your wings!" Twilight smiles, "I'm a Winter Angel, look," She motions to the growing crowd, where you can plainly see several other girls wearing wings, all of them different colors. Flash chuckles, "I'm fine with that, just hadn't got to see them in a while." "We're rarely alone Flash," Twilight says. "I know, we'll have to work on that," he kisses her lightly and they all go in. "Rainbow Dash!" A female voice yells out, and she stops to look around as Scootaloo comes up to her. "Hey Scoots," Rainbow Dash says. "Look Rainbow," Scootaloo says as she turns around, showing Rainbow Dash the pair of small orange wings on her back. "I have wings like you do now!" Rainbow Dash smiles remembering taking the time during the last dance to fly Scootaloo around. "That's great Scoots!" "I wore them to our concert the other night and went crowd diving, almost felt like I was flying!" Scootaloo says. Rainbow Dash looks at Scootaloo, and takes in the relatively skimpy dress she's wearing for her age, "You went crowd diving in that?" Scootaloo looks at her outfit, "Ah, no. I always wear jeans in concert, I wore a halter top and attached the wings to it. Only had one or two people put their hands where they shouldn't, most people are careful cause of my age." "That's real cool Scoot, maybe I can take you flying sometime." Scootaloo smiles, "I'd like that, you and me alone in the wild blue." "Yeah, sounds good, huh?" Rainbow Dash asks and Scootaloo nods.. "Attention, attention!" Principal Celestia calls over the microphone, the crowd starts to get quiet, "I'd like to thank you all for coming tonight," crowd cheers then quiets, "It's with great honor that I announce the winner of the Winter Princess competition," she opens up the envelope, "Sunset Shimmer!" "I won?" Sunset goes up and Principal Celestia crowns her with a silver crown, with a sapphire in it. "You ran this race with dignity Sunset, I'm proud of you," Principal Celestia says. "You've all forgiven me?" Sunset asks as she starts to cry. Meanwhile in the school, sitting in her locker the long-forgotten bag of Harmony Shards glows and a shard flies out glowing red. Crystal marches up to the podium. "How can they vote for you, you betrayed them?" "What?" Sunset says shocked. "They should've voted for me!" Crystal states as her voice starts to change,"Of course I am to be their Queen, not their princess," with that her form changes to a older woman in black with bat-like wings and she laughs evilly. "Queen Chrysalis!" Twilight accuses. "Yes, I'm back and ready to defeat you!" Chrysalis yells and her changeling army rushes through the door. The friends instantly let the illusion fade so they're in full pony-hybrid form and start fighting the horde, "We need to get them outside! We don't want the innocents hurt!" Twilight commands and almost instantly the horde of changelings is pushed outside. Rainbow Dash flies up into the sky, and clouds quickly gather and it starts raining. “That should keep them on the ground!” Applejack literally grabs changelings and tosses them at one another, while Pinkie keeps avoiding attacks using her acrobatics. Rarity is hitting changelings with random objects she picks up with her telekinesis. Fluttershy keeps backing away trying to stay out of the fight, when she gets surrounded, and let’s out an ‘eep’ as the changelings attack her, she closes her eyes and prepares for the worse when she hears a roar. She opens her eyes to see a bear standing there with a changeling pin to the ground. “You want to help?” Fluttershy asks and the bear roars again, and several other woodland creatures come out and start distracting changelings. Twilight is in obvious concentration, trying to use the magic of harmony when several changelings move in to attack her. “Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yells as she dives for her friend, she grabs Twilight and pulls up into the air, accidentally causing the Sonic Rainboom to echo through the school yard, once again damaging the school. “What was that?” she asks as she lets Twilight go. Twilight, now flying with Rainbow answers, “That was your signature move, the Sonic Rainboom.” “That was awesome!” “Yes, now I need to land and try and get the Harmony Blast to work, it just feels like there’s something missing.” Twilight states right ebfore Chrysalis tackles her from above, and several changelings flock Rainbow Dash. Chrysalis pins Twilight to the ground. "Now you're mine!" she goes to attack Twilight but is knocked off her by a fireball. "Not so fast!" Sunset Shimmer says as she stands on the steps of the school, orange pony ears on her head, and a red and orange tail on her back. A red and orange sun pendant on her neck, and a fireball in her hand. "You see, I always liked playing with fire," grins at the implications. "Now!" Twilight says, feeling the energy now that there are seven of them, the Harmony Blast forms and smashes Chrysalis, the rainbow swirl enveloping her and an individual ray of rainbow hitting each changeling immobilizing them. When the Harmony Blast dissipates Chrysalis is laying in a crater. “Chrysalis?” Twilight asks warily as she approaches the crater. “Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis calls out from the crater. “What has happened to me? I feel so.. different.” “That’s the magic of the Shards of Harmony, and the friendship that helps empower them.” Twilight says. “I shouldn’t have come here” Chrysalis says in shock, “We changelings don’t belong in this world.” “I wish we could send you back, but the gate is closed” Twilight says “I feel a little bit of my magic returning to me, the power of your friendship, is feeding me and making me a bit stronger, I think with your help I could reopen the gate, just long enough to return me and my changelings to where we belong.” “I think we can arrange that,” Twilight says, “I hope that when you return to Equestria you attempt to make up for past mistakes.” “I will,” Chrysalis says, “I hope to go to Princess Celestia and see if we can work out some way to feed my changelings without hurting her ponies. We do have a right to live, do we not?” “I can’t argue with that,” Twilight says, “gather your changelings and bring them to the horse statue.” Chrysalis flies out of the crater and toward the statue, and all the changelings follow her. Twilight and the rest of the group follow after them, they all arrive at the statue and six of the friends make a circle around the statue with Twilight and Chrysalis in the middle. The others join hands, as Twilight and Chrysalis touch one hand to the statue and the other to each other, those in the circle begin to glow with energy, and then suddenly the energy shoots from them and hits Twilight, and she instantly focuses into the statue. The back of the statue begins to ripple. “Go now,” Twilight orders, “I don’t know how long the gate will hold!” “Thank you for everything Twilight,” Chrysalis says as her changelings quickly file through the gateway, “I’ll never forget what you did here,” With that she goes through the gate, and the energy fades and the gate closes as Twilight slumps to the ground. “I’m exhausted,” Twilight says. “Twi!” Flash calls out as he pushes through the circle of friends, “Are you okay?” Twilight nods numbly, “I just need to rest.” “I’ll get you home,” Flash says and helps her up and they head off.