Equestria Girls: Battle of the Bands

Chapter Ten

The Battle of the Bands was about to come down to the wire as the semi-finals were already underway. Several bands had come far, only to be bested by their opponents, infuriating the losers and giving the Dazzlings more power with the arguing that ensued. 

The sirens clearly made it through the finals, whether by Thea and Luna moving them forward on the brackets on their own or by the spell influencing them, it didn't matter in the long run. On the other side of the brackets to decide the second finalist, the Rainbooms managed to make it to the semi-finals against the Illusionists, thankfully without getting sabotaged this time, though there was still some irritating tension between Applejack, Dash, Rarity, Flutters, and Pinkie.

Twilight was still having trouble with the counter-spell, more and more pressure put on her to figure out how to make it work when all she kept coming up with was terrible lyrics. It didn't help her much when her friends in the band continued arguing with each other. 

She wasn't an expert on music, and she didn't have much rhythm dancing to any songs she liked to hear, so how can she make a spell with a song? All that remained in the pages she wrote in were many scratched out lyrics, her brain unable to focus with the possibility of failing and their bickering friends.

Behind the curtains, they tuned out Trixie's song, even though it was pretty good coming from someone who's ego rivals Dash's. Spike poked his head out to see how everyone else thought of the Illusionists's performance, which was a surprise to see them enjoying Trixie's song.

"We're getting close to the finals, and the Dazzlings are getting stronger and stronger." Spike looked back at his friends, the Rainbooms getting themselves ready for their next performance. Twilight doesn't seem to think her spell is truly ready, which means they're running out of time and need to take the sirens on in the finals, putting an end to their plans.

"So, Twilight, is that counter-spell all ready?" Applejack asked. Twilight winced, clutching Flutters's notebook tightly, unable to give a response. "Ah guess not...Don't worry, Twi. The finals aren't until tonight. We'll get some practice before goin' on stage. We won't let y'all down."

Even though Twilight should be grateful, she felt guilty as she seemed to be failing everyone. "You won't let me down... but I'm going to..."

"Twilight?" She looked up at Spike as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "We still have time. Just breathe and calm down."

"Um, I was kind of wondering something," Flutters said, fidgeting her tambourine around in her hands. "We haven't played any of my songs yet."

"It's the semi-finals," Dash said, ignoring the pleading look on her friend's face. "We're going to do 'Awesome As I Wanna Be'."

Flutters narrowed her eyes in disappointment, "Don't know why I even asked..."

The crowd, surprisingly, cheered for Trixie and the Illusionists as they headed backstage, confronting the Rainbooms with a smug grin. "You're never going to top that performance, 'Rain-goons'. None of you deserve to even compete when you have an advantage over the rest of us."

"You mean with my superior guitar skills and epic singing?" Dash asked.

"No. Trixie is talking about her," Trixie said, pointing a finger at Twilight. "If you were really all that, Dash, you wouldn't have needed some magical ringer to pull all of your weight. Everyone is talking about how lame you are behind your backs with your little crutch."

"Oh yeah!? I could win this whole thing as a solo act!" With Dash feeding into Trixie's taunts and threatening her ego, she really began to tick off Rarity, Applejack, Flutters, and Pinkie. Twilight, Spike, and Sunset knew this was going to end badly if Dash decided to act like the weak link and think she's the most important member of the band when it was about all of their performances, not just hers. "I proved it to you back in the music store over that flashy guitar!"