Later, the Sonic Heroes and the Rainbooms arrived at Canterlot High appearing in the back stage. The Mobians were okay from the teleportation, while the girls all felt a little dizzy and were all having trouble standing up.

"You girls okay?" Sonic asked.

"Peachy," Rainbow groaned as her eyes spun in circles.

"What was that?" Applejack asked.

"Chaos Control," Shadow answered, "I used the Chaos Emerald to transport us here."

"So… we teleported?" Rarity asked holding her stomach.

"Yeah," Sonic answered nervously, "But I don't think you all look okay. Most people get sick from their first times."

"I think we'll be fine," Sunset said, "I might just need a little walk, though."

"If you would like," Shadow said, "I'll come with you."

Sunset was a little surprised, but she smiled and blushed at his kindness, "Okay, Shadow."

Before Shadow and Sunset left, Shadow said to Sonic, "Do you think you can set up the band for me while we're gone?"

Sonic nodded, "No problem. You two go on ahead."

Shadow nodded back as he and Sunset went walking. They went walking around the school for a bit of time. Soon, they came to a bench and they sat down.

"Feeling better?" Shadow asked.

"Yeah," Sunset answered, "Thank you, Shadow. You're a real gentleman."

Shadow smiled and blushed a little, "Hey, it's nothing. I'm just being a friend."

"To me, it's true," Sunset told Shadow as she herself blushed as well, "You're so kind and helpful to me."

Shadow smiled more, then he stood up, "I'll go get you some water."

Sunset was a little confused, but she nodded, "Okay, thanks."

Shadow walked on down the hall and found a vending machine. It had some snacks and bottles of water. He snapped his fingers. One of the water bottles disappeared from inside the vending machine, and it reappeared in his hand. He had a smirk on his face.

Shadow then went walking back to Sunset. That was when he heard someone coming towards him from behind him. He turned around and saw Flash.

"Can I help you?" Shadow asked.

"Hi, I'm Flash Sentry," Flash said, "I just wanted to wish you good luck, not that you'll need it."

Shadow had a slight smile on his face, "Okay then."

Shadow then noticed that there was a small glow of green in Flash's eyes. He stayed cool and didn't say anything about it. So he said, "Uh, sorry. I gotta go."

"Okay, cool," Flash said as he turned around and walked away.

As Flash walked away, that was when Shadow had thought about him, "Hmm, he must be under the Sirens' spell too. But how can we free all of the students?"

Meanwhile, the Sirens were gathered in an empty classroom. Adagio was in a teacher's desk, Aria was leaning against the wall, and Sonata was in a desk playing with her hair.

"So…" Aria began, "Which boys do you each want to have? I want to have Knuckles and Manic."

"I would take Silver and Tails," Sonata said.

"Then that would leave both Sonic and Shadow for me," Adagio smirked evilly, "I like that."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll love it," Darkness's voice said.

The Sirens saw Darkness in a dark area. "Ah, Darkness," Adagio said, "You have news for us?"

"I'm here to tell you, I've brought a little help," Darkness said.

"Which is?" Sonata asked.

Darkness stepped aside, revealing Boulder as he said, "My servant, Boulder, can be real help to capturing Sonic and his friends."

"How so?" Adagio asked curiously.

Boulder held out his hand and formed a large rock floating in the air above his hand. The Sirens were surprised, but then smirked.

"I like your plan," Adagio said.

Later, the students were all in the gym sitting in chairs and benches, waiting for whose band was first. In the backstage, the Rainbooms and the Sonic Heroes were getting themselves set up for the first round.

Celestia and Luna were on the stage in front of all the students.

Celestia announced to everyone, "Welcome to the first ever Canterlot High School Battle of the Bands. I believe I speak for everyone when I say it is by far the greatest thing we have ever done here at this school."

All of the bands and the students cheered excited as Celestia continued, "We are so glad our three newest students encouraged us to turn this into something exciting!"

The Sirens smiled at this while Darkness and Boulder chuckled evilly.

Luna then took a microphone and spoke, "Before we get started, me and my sister have made a decision from yesterday."

Everyone was then quiet, and the Sirens, Darkness, and Boulder seemed a little surprised, but also interested.

Celestia then called out, "Sonic, you and your band come out, please."

The Sonic Heroes came out from behind the curtains. They walked over to the principles. Luna put her hand on Sonic's shoulder as she said, "As we all know, in a competition, we can only choose one winner. For this competition, whichever band is the winner, their band gets to perform a special song with the Sonic Heroes at the end."

Everyone was surprised when they heard Luna announce that. Then that was when everyone cheered in super excitement. They all believed that was a great idea. The Sonic Heroes were surprised, even the Rainbooms. The Sirens loved this idea.

"So, since you all agree about this," Celestia said, "Whose band will be the winner?"

Everyone glared at each other for a moment, and then all began to argue about it all over again. The Sirens smirked at this as they saw green mist coming from everyone else and they were absorbing it.

"You feel that, girls?" Adagio asked, "Our true powered is being restored."

"And soon, you'll be unstoppable," Darkness said.

"But there's still one problem," Aria said, "We can't absorb the magic or energy from the girls or Sonic and his friends. How will we do it?"

"Patience, young Aria Blaze," Boulder said, "All good things to those who wait."

"Oh, Adagio, I know what you originally plan to do," Darkness said, "But why don't we do things my way?"

"What do you mean?" Adagio asked.

"Let the Rainbooms play their song," Darkness said, "I want to see if those girls have the strength to get through, and I shall make a little change in the lyrics without realizing it. But don't worry, I'll use my power to make sure that they don't use their magic on you."

"Very well," Adagio said.

Later, the competition had begun. The first band was Snips and Snails' band. They were trying to box beat, well, if they could call it that. Everyone just didn't know what to make of that, well, except for Pinkie who jamming out of it. As soon as they had finished, they dropped their microphones on the stage, trying to act cool, but the microphones got to close to the speakers, making a very loud feedback noise.

Principle Celestia and Vice-Principle Luna, who were sitting in chairs at the front and were judges of the competition, only gave the boys a blank look. Celestia looked at the scorecards and told them, "Please do not drop the microphones."

Snips and Snails gave each other a high-five, thinking that it was just a compliment. As they walked past the Rainbooms and the Sonic Heroes, they taunted the girls, "In your face, Rainbooms!"

Sonic didn't take that very nicely. He instantly pounded his fists together, cracking his knuckles. That made Snips and Snails yelp in surprise and run away in fear, and that made everyone laugh at them.

Applejack smiled confidently with a chuckle as she said, "Least we won't have one band stand in the way of us getting in the finals. Nice one, Sonic."

Rainbow smiled at her and said, "Let's get ready to rock!"

"Rainbow," Sonic said, making her look at him, "Good luck."

Rainbow smiled, "Thanks, Sonic," she said as she gave Sonic a quick kiss on his cheek.

Pinkie looked around and said, "Wait! Where's Rarity?"

"Oh! Here! I'm here!" Rarity's voice said.

The bands turned and saw that Rarity was wearing a hippie-inspired outfit with metal fringes. They all gave Rarity a little bit of a blank look, all except for Silver. He thought it looked nice.

Rarity said, "We will be performing in front of an audience. I'm not going to wear something fabulous?"

Applejack sighed a little annoyed. The Rainbooms went onto stage. Everyone was so focused on them; no one knew that Strike and Specter were watching them from inside the bleachers.

"Strike," Specter whispered really quietly, "Don't you think we should do something?"

"No, Specter," Strike whispered back, "If we show up, they'll start to ask us questions."

As the Rainbooms stood in front of the audience on the stage, Twilight looked at her friends as she said, "Remember, we have to be good enough to make it through, but not so good we let the Sirens see the magic within us."

The other girls nodded as Twilight also said, "They could realize we plan to sue it against them."

"Got it!" Rainbow said, "Be cool enough to win, but not so cool that we end up showing the whole ears and tails and rainbows things. So… about 20 percent less cool."

Pinkie raised her drumsticks in the air and beat them together, "1 2 3 4!"

The Rainbooms began to play their song.

(Shake your Tail!)

Rainbooms: We just got the day

To get ready

And there's only so much time to lose

Because tonight

Yeah, we're here to party

So let's think of something fun to do

We don't know (We don't know)

What's gonna happen

We just know (We just know)

It's gonna feel right

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

Shake your tail

'Cause we're here to have a party tonight

Shake your tail, shake your tail

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

Applejack: Your ideas are so funny

That they're criminal

Rainbooms: Ohhh-ahh!

So far, the students weren't finding the song really bad, but to Sonic and the Mobians, something didn't feel right.

"That's strange," Sonic thought, "It's like these are the lyrics of the song and the students aren't losing interest. What's going on?"

Rainbooms: We just got the day

To get ready

And there's only so much time to lose

Because tonight

Yeah, we're here to party

So let's think of something fun to do

We don't know (We don't know)

What's gonna happen

We just know (We just know)

It's gonna feel right

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

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!

When the Rainbooms finished, the students gave a small but loud enough round of applause. Celestia and Luna clapped as well. Nothing really seemed to be going wrong, until…

"Hehehehehehehehe…" a very scary demonic voice echoed throughout the whole gym, "Well, what an interesting song that was."

Everyone gasped as they looked around the whole place trying to find out who or what that sound came from.

"Who's there? Show yourself," Sonic called out.

"We meet again at last, Sonic the Hedgehog," the demonic voice said.

The Sonic Heroes, the Rainbooms, and everyone else were all now confused.

"I don't think we've met before," Sonic said.

"You don't, but your Mobian friends do," the voice said.

"What makes you say that?" Shadow asked.

"Allow me to give you a hint," the voice said, "Long ago, on Mobius, your friend Sonic killed you all."

That was when everyone looked at Sonic with a "Huh?"

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked, "I never killed my friends."

"To you, you didn't," the voice said, "Tails, do you remember seeing Sonic look different one time?"

"Umm, yeah," Tails said, "All of us other than Sonic himself did. His eyes were blackened with red irises. And… he… killed us."

"Correct," the voice said, "But I was defeated by an old friend of yours, Kyo the Lion-Hedgehog."

That was the very second that Sonic and his friends all went wide-eyed in shock and gasped. "Remember now?" the voice asked.

"You…" Sonic growled, "You're the one who took over my mind and made me hurt my own friends! You're Sonic EXE!"

"The name is Darkness," the voice said, "And me making you kill your own friends? Hello? Haven't you learned yet that there are villains like me that say, 'I don't care'? How disappointing."

Sonic was now really angry as he yelled out, "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"Here," Darkness's voice said right behind Sonic.

As soon as Sonic instantly turned around and saw his evil doppelganger's demonic, blood red glowing eyes right in front of him, he yelped and jumped backwards and landed on his back in the middle of the Rainbooms. Everyone else gasped when they saw him and he looked just like Sonic.

Darkness appeared right in front of Sonic and threatened him, "Give me the Chaos Emeralds, or die."

"Think again," Sonic growled.

But as soon as Sonic got back up on his feet, he saw Darkness was gone. He and everyone else could hear his voice laughing hysterically, "Where did I go? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Well, someone's certainly got some really dumb sense of humor," Knuckles said.

"What?" Darkness asked, "Can't a villain have his own fun?"

Darkness appeared on the right side of the stage with his arms crossed. The Mobians each got in a fighting stance while Darkness chuckled.

"You won't be fighting me," Darkness said, "Not yet, anyway. Someone else really wants to fight you."

"And who would that be?" Manic asked.

Darkness snapped his fingers, and Boulder walked over to him.

"Seriously?" Knuckles asked.

Boulder slowly raised his hand in the air and formed a large rock. The Mobians and the Rainbooms gasped when they saw him do that.

"I'm gonna enjoy showing you what it's like to be smashed," Boulder said.

"And let me tell you," Darkness said, "Try to attack me, and Twilight's done forever."

Sonic said to Celestia, "Principle Celestia, Vice Principle Luna, get the students out of here, me and my friends will handle this."

Celestia and Luna nodded as they began to take the students out of the gym. But Darkness then held his hand out and formed red energy walls in front of all the doors. Everyone was trapped in.

"Don't worry, kids," Darkness said, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want you to watch your pathetic hero fall."

All the students got into the back corners of the gym to try and have enough save space. Darkness chuckled, "How smart."

Darkness held his hand out and a massive red energy wall appeared protecting the students and principles.

"So," Darkness said turning to Sonic, "Will you fight Boulder or what?"

Sonic felt this wouldn't be easy, but accepted the challenge, "Bring it on!"

"You heard him, Boulder," Darkness chuckled, "Give Sonic what I like to call unimaginable pain."

"With pleasure, high councilor," Boulder said.

Boulder swung his arms forward, making the rock fly right at Sonic really fast. Sonic didn't have enough time to dodge it, and it hit him really hard in his stomach. He yelled in pain from the strong impact.

"SONIC!" Rainbow cried.

"Don't worry, my dear," Darkness said, "He doesn't plan to kill him, and neither do I."

"Guys, get him!" Knuckles said.

The other Mobians rushed right at Boulder, but Boulder held his other hand out at them. He suddenly formed a rock wall, blocking their way. They all accidently hit it, and all fell on their backs. When they all tried to get up, they noticed that rocky chains stuck their hands and feet.

Strike and Specter knew that now would be the right time to do something.

Boulder created a cloudy dust of wind and threw it at the Rainbooms. They flew over to the other Mobians. Boulder then walked over to Sonic who was holding his stomach where the rock had hit him and he groaned in pain.

"How disappointing," Boulder said, "I was hopping to have a little more fun with you. Too bad."

Boulder held his hands in the air forming a large rock. Everyone else was worried, while Rainbow was worried the most. Sonic covered his face. Boulder was about to swing the rock right at him when…

FLASH! Right at the edge of the left side of the stage, a bright cerulean blue vortex appeared. Everyone gasped as they looked at it. Darkness himself was even surprised.

"What is that thing?" Silver asked.

That was when the vortex shook a little. And then… everyone saw two figures jumping right out of it. They both landed on their feet and knees and the vortex disappeared. The figures were Strike and Specter. Strike had bright cerulean blue electricity crackling while Specter's hands had bright red aura. Strike had his bandana over his mouth, his glasses were over his eyes, and his hood was on his head while the zipper was zipped up. Specter had his hood and mask on. There was also some kind of emblem attached to Strike's hoodie on the center of his chest. The emblem was the same symbol in the same color and look as the symbol on his shirt.

Strike and Specter very slowly stood up from their knees as Strike said to Boulder, "We came quite a distance, Boulder."

Boulder was shocked, almost like as if he recognized them, "I thought you two were dead!"

Everyone looked at Strike, Specter, and Boulder all at the same time. Did Strike, Specter, and Boulder know each other? What was going on here?

"Well, you were wrong," Specter said, "Like you always are."

Darkness asked his servant, "You know these boys?"

"Yes, they're heroes from my Earth," Boulder growled, "My enemies that I had tried to crush for so long, but they always sent me to jail!"

"That's right," Strike said, "And this time, we're making sure you won't be busting out of there again."

Boulder growled, "Enough talk. Let's see if you two have gotten any improvements from our last encounter, shall we?"

Boulder kicked Sonic aside and swung the rock at Strike and Specter. When it was right about to hit them, Strike used his speed to dodge it while Specter's opacity became about thirty percent visible and the rock went right through him.

Boulder growled, "Where are you, Strike!?"

"Right behind you," Strike's voice said.

Boulder turned around, but didn't get the chance to do anything else as Strike gave him a really hard electric punch to the face. Boulder was knocked back a little. He formed another rock and threw it at Strike, but Strike did an air-cartwheel dodging it and went towards Boulder. He then instantly did a clockwise windmill and began hitting Boulder with his feet. He managed to get him about five times, and knocked him over with a sixth kick, and Strike was instantly back right onto his feet.

Boulder was about to make a move, when Strike rushed right at him. He gave him a strong high kick, knocking him in the air. He then very quickly jumped and gave Boulder a spinning kick, making him spin sideways. Now Strike managed to easily, and absolutely impossibly do a front flip in the air and kick Boulder again, but this time, right on his head. Boulder was knocked right onto the floor headfirst. Strike did an impossible amount of front flips in the air, and very easily landed on his feet.

Boulder got up and growled, "I'll get you for that!"

"You don't have a ghost of a chance, Boulder," someone said behind him.

Boulder turned right around and got hit right in the face with an energized punch from Specter.

"Your jokes are just plain lame, you know, Specter," Boulder said.

"Okay. YOU ASKED FOR IT!" Specter yelled charging right at Boulder.

Specter created a massive orb of red energy and threw it right at Boulder's face. Boulder didn't have a chance to block it in time. He yelled in pain as he was knocked back.

Boulder was getting angrier by the second, "All right. That's it!"

Boulder then created a rock arm and grabbed Sonic by his neck and held him in the air. The grip was too strong for Sonic to breathe, he chocked, "AHG! Let-GASP! Let go of me!"

"Oh, I enjoy seeing people wine from the pain I give them," Boulder said, tightening his grip.

Rainbow began to feel something inside herself… rage. It was uncontrollable rage and power. She growled at Boulder, "Let go of my boyfriend."

Boulder looked at Rainbow, "Or what?"

Suddenly, there was a bright cyan glow coming from inside Sonic's backpack. The cyan Chaos Emerald suddenly appeared out of nowhere and flew right towards Rainbow. Rainbow caught the Emerald as its glow began to glow brighter. Suddenly, Rainbow instantly let go of the Emerald as it suddenly split into pieces and flew around her.

Sonic was starting to feel worried about his girlfriend. Then suddenly, Rainbow's entire body glowed bright cyan blue. The other Rainbooms, Mobians, Boulder, Darkness, Strike, and Specter shielded their eyes. As soon as the glow disappeared, they all looked and gasped at what they witnessed.

Rainbow was wearing a tight-fitting cyan-blue suit while her hands, head and hair were still visible. She had bright cyan blue crystal armor on her chest, as well as crystal shoulder pads and kneepads that were the same color. She was wearing cyan-blue crystal boots that were in the same look of her original boots. Her hair was the same, but it glowed like as if it was in a crystal form. Around her waist was a belt with several amounts of cyan-blue crystal shurikens, she had crystal cyan-blue wings on her back, and even a cyan-blue crystal sword holster with a saber in it on the side her belt.

"Rainbow, what happened to you?" Sonic asked.

Rainbow was silent for a moment, until she spoke, "Don't worry about me, Sonic. Boulder is mine."

Everyone went wide-eyed in surprise, but Boulder wasn't scared, "Oh, you dare challenge me?"

"Oh, but I do," Rainbow growled, "But I warn you. Attacking me at this stage is not going to be easy."

Boulder only laughed at her, "Ha, you think a silly line like that will scare me?"

Boulder dropped Sonic on the floor. He formed a rock and threw it at Rainbow. Sonic tried to get up, but the pain in his stomach wouldn't let him. Although Strike and Specter would do something, they didn't do anything but watched.

Rainbow only stood where she was and didn't move. The rock was right about to hit her in her face when she suddenly caught it in her hand at the last second and crushed it with no problem. Everyone gasped in surprise, but Boulder was shocked.

"No… that's… That's impossible!" Boulder shouted, "Only Strike can be able to dodge my attacks!"

"You want to see something impossible?" Rainbow asked, "I'll show you one."

Rainbow suddenly threw her hand out at Boulder, throwing several of her shurikens at him. All of them managed to hit him. Boulder yelled in pain and surprise. Darkness was really surprised, but he was also impressed.

"Sorry, Boulder, but I'm afraid I'll have to say this; it's every man for himself," Darkness said as he turned to red energy and disappeared.

"WHAT? HEY! COME BACK!" Boulder yelled.

Boulder growled in anger at Rainbow, "All right then, Rainbow Dash. Let's see if you can handle this. Rock Monsters!"

Boulder held his hands up in the air and created living rock humans with his powers, "Destroy her!"

The rock monsters charged at Rainbow as they created weapons made of pure rock. Rainbow held her right hand out and a cyan-blue crystal gun appeared. She began blasting the rock monsters. The gun was shooting bright cerulean lasers out of it. Then when a pair of the rock monsters was charging at her all at once, she placed her hand on a barrel on her gun.

"Energize!" Rainbow yelled as she spun the barrel and it starting sparking as she pointed the gun at the rock monsters and yelled, "Chaos Morpher Blast!"

The Chaos Morpher shot three lasers at once. Each of them went at the rock monsters and destroyed them. Rainbow could then hear more coming from behind her. She grabbed a pair of her shurikens and yelled, "Chaos Shurikens!"

Rainbow threw her shurikens at all of the rock monsters at once and destroyed them. Boulder growled angrily as he created more.

Applejack really seemed to want to be in the fight. That was then when she could feel chaos energy just like Rainbow did. The green Chaos Emerald appeared right in front of her while the rest of the Rainbooms and the Sonic Heroes gasped. Applejack grabbed the Emerald and it glowed.

Rainbow was now surrounded by a whole bunch of rock monsters. Boulder smirked evilly, "How about you give up, Rainbow?"

The rock monsters were about to attack Rainbow when… BAM! Two of the monsters exploded from some kind of orange energy. Rainbow looked and saw Applejack, but she was now just like her.

Applejack was wearing an emerald green skintight suit while her hands, head, hair and hat were still visible. She had merigold-orange crystal armor on her chest, crystal and shoulder pads and kneepads in the same color. Her hair and hat had turned to crystal. She had crystal merigold-orange boots that were in the look of her old boots. She also had a merigold-orange crystal whip and a dagger-blade on a merigold-orange crystal belt around her waist, and there was even a merigold-orange crystal sword holster with a saber in it on the back of the belt.

One of the rock monsters threw a rock at Applejack, but Applejack jumped right over it at the last second doing three front flips in the air, and landed right next to Rainbow.

"Decided to join the party?" Rainbow asked.

"What?" Applejack asked, "Should I let you have all the fun?"

Boulder was getting ticked off, "Rock monsters, merge! Smash Applejack!"

The rock monsters came together and became one massive rock monster. Applejack turned to Rainbow, "You get Boulder. This guy's mine."

Rainbow nodded. Applejack held her hand and formed a Chaos Morpher of her own, but the crystal color was merigold-orange. "Bring it on, big guy."

Boulder appeared in front of Rainbow, "I'm gonna enjoy this."

Boulder held out his arms and formed a sword made of pure rock. Rainbow slowly got herself in a fighting stance and held a shuriken in both of her hands, "Funny, I was just about to say the same thing."

Another pair of rock monsters surrounded Strike and Specter.

"Ready, Strike?" Specter asked.

"Like you even have to ask," Strike answered.