Important note at the end of the chapter!

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"Funk! Country! Techno! Classical! And worse of all Pop! All these different genres of music do little more than divide us. The pop trolls divided us because they wanted all the strings for themselves, but I will bring the strings together and use their powers to bring "us" together. Under rock!" Barb exclaimed into her mic.

Trollex shielded his eyes against the spotlight beaming down on him. Needing to squint in order to catch a glimpse of Poppy and the other leaders. He turned his attention back to Barb when a fellow rock troll came over and facened a hook to her outfit which then lifted her into the air. The strings attached to her outfit gave off the illusion of wings. Barb played a few strong rock filled notes before giving the guitar a hard strum releasing a blast that struck the leaders of Funk. A cocoon on lava rocks formed around them before cracking open, but the king and queen were changed to rock trolls.

Trollex and the other leaders gasped. Without giving them time to react Barb sent another blast at the Trollzart, Delta Dawn. Also turning them into rock trolls with red eyes and rock inspired outfits. Trollex looked up to see Barb aiming at him next. He had no chance to escape, but just as Barb raised her arm a large book hit her. Barb growled and searched for the source, Trollex looked up, spotting Branch in the hot air balloon with some other fluffy haired trolls and BDB. "I guess guidebooks do come in handy!" Branch grinned.

Poppy was thrilled to see Branch as much as Trollex was relieved to see BDB safe. Branch drifted the balloon closer and leaped out. Latching onto Poppy's cage with his hair and quickly setting her free. They landed on the stage staring proudly at Barb. "It's over Barb, change the leaders back to their own music." Poppy demanded.

Barb grinds her teeth. "I'm not finished yet!" She turned and sent a blast from her guitar which hit Trollex and a lava rock cocoon enclosed around him.

Trollex felt all his thoughts blur and replaced with only rock thoughts. He did his best to fight it, trying to focus on his techno trolls or BDB, but soon the lava rock prison opened and he was completely changed.

"No Trollex!" BDB cried out. He tried to leap from the balloon, but one of the K-Pop trolls grabbed him. "No way little fish, your friend isn't the same fellow fish you knew."

Poppy glared at Barb who had lowered herself to the stage with a wide grin spread across her face. "Oops. My hand must've slipped."

"Barb this isn't right, you can't force trolls to be rock!"

"Pretty sure I just did pipsqueak, you'll see how great it is once you join your friends." Barb quickly sent a blast right at Poppy, but Branch jumped in front and took the hit. Lava rocks forming around him. Poppy banged on the cocoon as if it would stop the process, but this caused her to be distracted and allow Barb to have a clean shot. Poppy let out a cry that was cut off when a cocoon trapped her.

Poppy and Branch emerged as newly born rock trolls. Barb smiled triumphantly. "It worked! I've won!"

In the front row Poppy's father gasped, earning Barb's attention. She grinned and tossed the guitar over to Poppy. "Finish the job."

Poppy gripped the guitar and stalked over to the edge of the stage, aiming the guitar at her friends and family herded in the front row raising her arm but before she dropped it she stopped and moved the aim to Barb. Barb flinched confused till she saw that Poppy's eyes were normal. "What?! Why didn't it work on you?"

Poppy smirked and pulled gumdrops from her ears. "I'm not going to let you use the strings for evil!" And with that Poppy lifted the guitar into the air and smashed it against the stage. Shattering it and sending out a massive blast that sucked all the colour from every troll around her.

When Poppy finally looked up the world around her had turned grey. Every troll had lost all sense of colour like she had long ago when losing hope at the hands of the bergens. The guitar had been destroyed and the strings curled like grass that had just caught fire and burned away. All the trolls hit by the blast had turned to normal. Branch pushed himself up, Poppy dropped the guitar and ran over to help him up. Barb collapsed to her knees and tried to fix the guitar desperately. BDB wiggled out of the K-Pop troll's grasp and swam over to Trollex who was sitting on the platform having lost his hovering ability when the string was destroyed. BDB jumped into his arms, but Trollex was silent. He only looked up when Barb spoke. "Congratulations Poppy, you did it. Your ancestors would be proud to see that you've followed in their footsteps, but taken it to the next level."

Poppy frowned and dropped her head in shame, but then remembered something. Standing up she walked past Barb to the stage edge. "Music doesn't come from a string! It comes from inside of you, inside of your hearts. I've turned grey before, but I found hope inside of me thanks to a friend." Poppy said, glancing at Branch and smiled which he quickly returned. Poppy turned back to face the crowd and started to sing. Growing louder and louder. At first she wasn't sure if anyone would join in, but one by one the leaders joined in. then the whole crowd joined. Before anyone realized it all the trolls started to get their colours back. Trollex threw BDB in the air and caught him when he was able to hover again.

Barb watched, still void of colour. Poppy came over to her. "It's not too late to join in. We don't have to let differences matter."

Barb looked surprised to be given another chance, but was thankful and slowly started to join in and receive her colours back. Branch made his way over to Poppy with all her friends and trapped her in a big group hug. Trollex hovered over to her when they finally broke apart. "Thank you Poppy."

"What are friends for. From now on the trolls can live together in harmony."

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