The sun slowly made it's way over the horizon, signaling that morning was arriving. The silence of the night began to evaporate as the village of Ponyville awoke. It was a peaceful morning, nothing too chaotic-
"AHHH!!" Screams of excitement came from Empousa's living room. Make that not too chaotic for some.
Empousa, curled up on a couch sleeping, startled awake. "Wha-what?!" Her eyes drifted over to the group of three huddled in the middle of the room, who all seemed hyped about something.
"Oh, sorry, Empousa." Sportsy Sketch turned around to me with a giggle. "Did we wake you?"
"No, no. It's fine." Empousa replied, getting off the couch. "Were you girls up all night?" She realized that they all looked kind of tired.
Mage Plateau looked up at the clock and the sun rising outside. "Oops, I think we did." she smiled. "But guess what! The mail pony came around and-"
"Dropped off our tickets for Melody Spring's concert tonight!" Blue Note finished, ignoring the angry glare Mage gave her.
"You got tickets?!" she said, almost as enthusiasticly as her friends.
"Sorry for keeping it from you. It was meant to be a surprise." Sportsy admitted.
"Well, I am surprised. I can't wait!" Empousa said happily.
"Oh, and thanks for the fun sleepover!" Blue commented. Empousa smiled as everyone filtered out.
Night time came before anypony knew it. They had rushed over to Melody's regular concert room to find it beautifully decorated. Food was set on tables with lilac tablecloths, a disco ball hung at the ceiling, and even a dance floor.
The stage curtains, which were velvet, opened to reveal Melody Spring, her microphone standing in front of her.
Sportsy took in the scenery, awestruck. But when her eyes fell on Melody, she became a little suspicious. Come on, Sportsy, she thought. Everything's fine. She dismissed the thought.
"Wow, it's so pretty!" Blue exclaimed dreamily. Just then, Melody flicked her tail, and began to sing.
"Come on, guys!" Mage pulled them onto the dance floor. "Let's dance!"
Sportsy was having fun, but she was distracted. Did she just see a radio behind the curtain? That would explain the gesture Melody began with. But why?
She noticed other details nopony would think of, too.
"Uh, girls?" she whispered to the group uneasily. "I don't think that's Melody Spring."
"What do you mean?" Mage asked, not the slightest bit worried. "Who else would she be?"
"I don't know, but don't you see that radio? Behind the curtain?" Sportsy Sketch pointed to it. "She recorded Melody's voice. She's not actually singing!"
"So what? Maybe she lost her voice?"
"But I also realized that her hair isn't in its usual style, plus she isn't wearing her lucky barrett. I don't remember the necklace, either..."
"Calm down, Sport. Just enjoy the fun!"
The purple alicorn relaxed, but made sure she was ready for anything. Maybe she could talk to Melody backstage.
The song ended, and the room erupted with cheers. Maybe Sportsy was worrying over nothing. Everything's fine, and the concert was over. Mage had been right. But just to be sure, she weaved through the crowd to get backstage.
Melody didn't notice anyone come in. Using this as an advantage, Sportsy hid behind the curtain. She gasped when Melody used her magic to shape shift into a blue alicorn with blue hair and dark blue highlights, done up in a ponytail. But her wings didn't look normal.
Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't Melody Spring.
Where You Don't Want To But Have To Go
The alicorn turned around, but Sportsy quickly hurried back to her friends. Mostly everyone had left already.
"Come on, guys. Let's go. I have something to tell you." she dragged them out of the building.
They arrived at Sportsy's house. "What were you doing?" Blue Note asked.
"I was right! That isn't Melody!" Sportsy explained. "I saw her shape shift into a different pony backstage!"
"What?!" Empousa cried and hid behind Blue Note.
"Then where's the real Melody Spring?" Blue asked.
"I'm not sure, but I did notice the alicorn was wearing a necklace with a red gem." Sportsy helped. "Maybe we should follow her?"
The impersonator of Melody was not at the stage anymore. "Now what do we do?" Mage asked sadly.
"Go home?" Empousa guessed.
"No, wait, maybe I can track her...Got it!" Sportsy said and a map appeared in front of her. "Looks like she's right here." She pointed to a spot on the map. "At the top of this mountain."
"Ugh. This'll take forever!" Blue complained.
"...Said the one with wings." Mage Plateau growled.
"Hey, if me and Sportsy were alone, it would take seconds!" Blue Note replied.
"Girls, calm down. It won't take that long." Sportsy said. "We'd better get started or else we'll never make it there."
Mage stuck out her tongue, and Blue responded the same way. And they started off on their journey.
TWO HOURS LATER
"Are we there yet?" Blue asked for the hundredth time. Mage rolled her eyes.
"The last fifty times you asked the answer was no, but this time it's actually yes!" Sportsy looked up the mountain towering over her. She couldn't even see the top. "Make that a no." She corrected herself.
"Oh, come ON!" Mage screamed angrily, her echo bouncing around, then covered her mouth. Darn it. Now she was becoming Blue Note!
"Well, climbing it won't be too hard, right?" Sportsy began climbing up, Mage following and Blue hovering overhead. They noticed Empousa wasn't behind them.
"Empousa, come on. Don't be scared!" Mage called.
"But it's so...big." Empousa whispered.
"Well it is a mountain!" Blue said.
"It's OK, Empousa. I'll be right behind you." Mage winked, and Empousa climbed up, convinced.
The first few minutes were easy, but then got more icy as they got higher. The group stumbled over the frozen stones and dirt, until they were almost at the top...
"Help!!" Mage cried out, about to tumble to her doom. Empousa grabbed onto her, but her grip began to slip. Blue grabbed her, but the weight was too much.
"Sportsy!" Blue exclaimed. Sportsy gasped and came to their rescue, using her magic to carry them all to the top safely before teleporting herself there.
Empousa sighed in relief. "Thank-"
"Shh." Sportsy quieted. She looked around. A building, three glowing red necklaces surrounded by some sort of dome thingy, a-
Wait, glowing red necklaces? Three? Sportsy looked back to them. So there are three of them, she thought. She'd come back for those later.
Sportsy inched towards the building, her friends following. Peeking in, she saw three figures, all of them strange alicorns. One was the pony at the concert, one was yellow with poofy orange hair with a yellow highlight, and the other was light purple with purple hair with green highlights in pigtails.
They were all crowded around...Melody Spring! At least she was safe. Sportsy listened into their conversation.
"Let us record your song!!" the yellow one yelled impatiently.
"No." Melody said sternly.
"Come on, Adagio. Why don't we just put her under our spell already?" the purple one asked.
"Aria, darling, do you realize that if we do that we won't be able to get any answers out of her?" Adagio asked in a fake sweet tone.
"Why don't we just kidnap another famous singer?" wondered the blue one.
"Because everyone goes to her concerts, Sonata. Do you know how good that would be for us?" Adagio's tone was fading. "Let's just try again tomorrow." She walked up the stairs to go to bed, and the other two followed. Perfect, Sportsy thought.