Classical and Modern: A Battle of Musics

How It All Begun

Two weeks before the Battle of the Bands

Canterlot High School had another event went into disarray with magic involved yet again. Even after that though, everything went to normal as school life continued on without a sign of trouble. The energy in the school and students was still going strong with conversation and many things keeping them busy for a long time. During the middle of a class break, Sunset and the others joined in the cafeteria to have a little conversation. Rainbow decided to start the conversation off, “Welp, I’m beat… after three crazy events went even crazier with magic being the center of them all. I’m starting to wonder if we can have an event that isn’t crazy for once…”

“Rainbow, you said crazy about three times darling.” Rarity wasn’t so sure why, but she had to point it out. Maybe it as to relieve some boredom but at least she continued the conversation.

The athlete just shrugged as she pondered about many possible events, “I know, but you get the point right?” The fashionista nodded as she went to eat her lunch. All of them wondered if they can have one event that isn’t so… dramatic for lack of a better word by all them.

As they ate their lunch while pondering about it, Pinkie appeared without any one of them noticing her appearance, “Hey there! Did I miss something? Oh I don’t like to miss out on a conversation here! Tell me what I missed!” She exclaimed out loud on a microphone at the last sentence. Many looked at her covering their ears when she said that. They enjoyed her antics but that came rather suddenly. Pinkie putted away her giant megaphone into her pocket somehow and apologized quickly, “Sorry! That was for my friends!” Many just shrugged and went back into eating. Her friends on the other hand, as they were nearby her, were having the worse of the effects as their ears were ringing from the loud volume of her megaphone.

Sunset was walking with Twilight to the cafeteria when the loud sentence was made. They were far enough to not suffer the effects of a ringing ear but they knew well enough who did that come from. When they entered the cafeteria and found their friends trying to recover their hearing, they can tell that they were having a case of said ringing ears.

While Sunset could only chuckle, Twilight wondered how loud Pinkie got to give those five ringing ears. If they heard it from rather far away, it was enough to clue her in that she had to have a megaphone loud enough to probably be heard from halfway across the city, if it can get that loud that is. They walked to their table bored like them, “Hey girls… How goes the day for all of you?”

They all literally said what together when they heard her question. Many picked their ears trying to get rid of the buzzing sound. Fluttershy however was the first to recover from it, “Oh Pinkie, next time, could you keep the megaphone you have on minimal volume please?”

She said that rather quietly but was heard by the energetic human, “Oki doki loki! So does anyone have a way to make this day great? Cause I’m bored…” All six looked at her like they were hearing something they shouldn’t be hearing from her. Her three friends were able to recover from the buzzing slowly, it’s still there for them but it was beginning to fade. Pinkie was looking at each one of them, “What? Just because I’m all hyper and trying to make fun every day, doesn’t mean I’m not immune to being bored…”

They all let out a sigh when she made that sentence, “Eeyup, yer still Pinkie alright…” She let one of her signature smiles and it pretty confirmed that for the apple farmer, “But Ah agrees with one thing, if Pinkie o’ all people is bored, then we need t’ find a way t’ liven up today.”

They all nodded and tried to think of anything that may help at least alleviate the boredom. Six of them managed to come up with a lot of suggestions to have some level of fun but most of them were denied due to reasons given by any of them. In the end, they exhausted all their options and looked towards Fluttershy. She noticed and shrunk back a bit seeing everyone was looking at her, “Um… why are all of you looking at me like that?”

“Well, you are the only one who hasn’t suggested anything in mind darling. We’re just wondering if you have one for all of us…” Fluttershy made a quiet oh sound as she looked at each one of them. They were looking towards her to think of something to alleviate their bored status. She couldn’t but shrink back a bit from all the attention.

They noticed and backed away a bit giving her some space to think, “Thanks but I honestly can’t think of anything to well… make this anymore excitable.” They all sighed not surprised about this. They did not mind though as it was expected from her that she doesn’t have anything relatively exciting in her job description or her quiet life. It only made them smile to know that they would share in each other’s boredom. However, “But…” that word managed to break them out of their reverie as they looked at Fluttershy, “I do have some news in mind… but I think it might put a damper in our thoughts… I didn’t want to change the boredom into melancholy.”

Sunset waved a dismissive hand (though Rarity was about to do that said gesture, she was not pleased at Sunset for beating her to it) towards Fluttershy, “No worries Fluttershy, I think anything that can keep us interested is better than not doing anything right?”

They all nodded in agreement as they looked towards the shy human, “Well alright, if you don’t mind about it then…” She unzipped her bag and was shuffling through it as she was speaking, “Remember that I’m also part doctor?”

They all looked at each other and nodded in agreement as Twilight spoke, “Well, it makes sense otherwise, how else would you tend to the animals’ injuries?” Fluttershy smiled at that. She may be shy like her namesake, but she’s not without her smarts on how to handle animals. The topic returned when Fluttershy found the item she was looking, “But how does that related to what have in mind?”

“It’s simple really; I was heading for the pharmacy that time to get some medicine for the animals when I heard some news being spread out in the streets. It--” She fell silent for a time as she felt some fresh tears welling up, “Was heart-breaking when I asked the people what the news was all about.” She pulled out a picture of a person from her bag and showed it to her friends. They saw her visibly trying to hold back her tears, “I found out that this person… oh goodness.” She hiccupped as she wiped a few tears away, “I found out that this person died in an accident…”

Many almost seemingly gasped upon hearing this revelation. The person in question was a male with tan skin, brown hair and blue eyes. Guessing from his looks, he was young about eighteen or so at least to everyone’s thoughts. They looked towards Fluttershy who looked heart-broken about the news the most.  All six went to comfort their shy friend as she let go of her tears. Rarity was patting her head as she embraced her, “There there darling, I’m sure the community and his parents are all grieving over his loss, right?”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement and although she stopped crying, she was far from over from telling the whole story, “Yes they are, this person, I just found out that his name is Hans… he was well-loved by his family and his friends. He was a piano player; he would join in some music contests and play to his hearts content. Although he won a lot of those contests…”

Rainbow blinked twice just in case she was hearing that wrong, “Wait, he won those music contests just by playing the piano? I hate to be rude Flutters, but I kind of find that hard to believe with an oldie of an instrument like that.” Though this earned a glare from her fellow friends, it did go away with the fact that at least she was being polite about it if somewhat.

Fluttershy on the other hand chuckled from Rainbow’s statement as she wiped a few tears away, “I know Rainbow but even then, he didn’t care that he won those or not. All he cared about was playing the piano for all those he loved. Whether he won or not, it didn’t tamper with his love for playing the piano. I even heard that he once played the piano with a little mix of modern music before.”

Rainbow again blinked twice before smiling a bit from the revelation, “Really? You got his soundtracks or something?”

They all let go of Fluttershy as she went through shuffling her bag, “He did record some of it thank to a few of his friends who played with him. They loved to mix his piano with some of the modern music today for fun.” She picked out a case and opened it to reveal a disk inside it, “These are the songs that combined the piano of his with modern music, I think you might like them Rainbow.”

“Heheh, we’ll see about that!” She pulled her mobile CD player from her bag. She opened up the tray and put the disk inside it, then closed it and hit the play button for everyone else hear it. The disk was turning and for a moment there was only silence. About three seconds in and right as Rainbow was about to say boring, the first song begun to play. The piano started strongly as it played first. Everyone was listening intently and even Rainbow was tapping her leg with her index finger in rhythm to the song. As the song reached a silence, all of looked at Fluttershy, wondering if it ended a bit too quickly. Before long, the piano boomed in volume alongside other sounds that would fit with Vinyl’s DJ booth. It wasn’t long before Rainbow started making an air piano to the song.

Everyone one of them was eagerly smiling at Rainbow who stopped and looked at them, “What? Just because it has an oldie of an instrument playing doesn’t mean it sounds awesome! I have to admit it Fluttershy, this Hans and his friends definitely know how to make the piano rock out hard!” She pressed the stop button and gave the disk back to Fluttershy, “Think you can make a copy of it? You said that he… well you know…” She saw her friend nodded as she took the disk and put it back in the case. She embraced her shy friend, “Thanks so much Flutters!”

“You welcome Rainbow…” Her rainbow haired friend let go of her and she tried to move a bit to get some sense of feeling back. While she put the disk back and made a note to copy some of the songs for Rainbow, she let a sigh as she stopped writing.

Applejack caught on to it and had to ask as to not keep it from overwhelming Fluttershy, “Something else botherin’ ya isn’t there?”

She looked towards the apple farmer then to the fashionista before nodding, “Yes there is something else bothering me and it’s likely only you two would understand… not that the others won’t but only you would for good reasons.”

Both looked at each other somewhat afraid as to why only they would understand what was troubling her. Yet even then, they wanted to know as much as everyone else around her, “Well darling, might tell us then? We won’t be able to know unless you tell us…”

Fluttershy looked at all of them trying to debate with herself on whether to tell them it or not. In the end, it was her friends and they deserved to know, “Alright then, I guess I won’t keep all of you in the dark…” She inhaled once before exhaling as she looked at them, “Remember when I said that he… died of an accident?” They all nodded and waited for her response, “Well, I alongside the community know the cause of his… short-lived life…” Silence dominated their table as other sounds around them were hushed and before long, her answer came forth, “The cause was that of a speeding vehicle but why? It was to save his little sister from that said accident…”

The last sentence echoed towards all of them but its echoes were most present towards Rarity and Applejack. They looked at each other and imagined themselves in that situation. The idea of having to go through that terrified them to the core. Before they could dive any further into their imagination though, Applejack had to ask the one question that bothered them most, “Um… Is Hans’s li’l sis… is she alright?”

Fluttershy looked towards her two friends with little sisters of their own. She can within their eyes that there was a trace of worry despite having not met Hans but the situation shook them. She let a small but sad smile form, “Yes she is, she managed to somewhat avoid her brother’s fate.”

“Somewhat… what do you mean darling?” Both Rarity and Applejack shared each other’s thoughts and wondered what she meant by that.

“She barely managed to avoid it, but… she’s in a coma and recuperating in the hospital. I haven’t seen her personally nor do I have a picture of what she looks like, but I can at least confirm that she suffered a blow to the head.” Fluttershy looked away from the both of them trying to repress her tears again.

While four of her friend came and tried to comfort the shy human, the other two joined much later after thinking about it from their perspective. Again, the idea terrified the both of them but the idea of their younger sibling surviving but them not alive to see their elder siblings again made them feel truly sorry for Hans’s little sister. They then hugged Fluttershy after much thinking in their part. Their shy friend smiled in return as they let go of their embrace, “I’m sorry for ruining a possibly fun time… you all asked and well... I couldn’t deny sharing it with my friends.”

Sunset smiled as she put a hand on her shoulder. Twilight joined in as well as they did not mind, “We all don’t mind, remember, like you said, we asked. There was nothing wrong with telling us about that, right Pinkie?” All turned to their energetic friend who was suspiciously quiet all of a sudden, “Pinkie? Are you alright?”

Twilight stepped forward and poked her a bit trying to get a reaction or something from the party planner. Suddenly, her face was contorting to one of her signature smiles at the last poke. Sunset pulled Twilight away from the shaking human and before long she exploded in a shower of confetti. All six looked at where she originally was before appearing next to Twilight and Sunset screaming, “IDEA!”

“That is my line there Pinkie!” Rarity pouted a bit from someone using her phrase.

“Sorry Rarity, but in this case, the idea is mine!” The fashionista sighed and conceded to Pinkie because she had a point. Pinkie clapped her hands together and somehow made a rainbow above her head with the word imagination etched into it, “Let’s throw another Battle of the Bands only this time without anything from ruining this one because we’re all doing this for fun!”

They all looked at each other wondering whether to accept this before Twilight asked, “Um… what’s a Battle of the Bands?” They all looked at her almost in sync causing her to back up a bit in fear. Pinkie appeared in front of her and put a stack of papers for her to read. She pulled it from her and did with her reading glasses on. She read the whole paper fast enough to continue the conversation, “Oh… that’s the Battle of the Bands? That actually sounds interesting though why in the first place?”

Pinkie continued wearing her signature smile, “Well since everyone has been a bit mopey about Han’s… unfortunate end…” The party human almost lost her vibrant color and her poofy hair before reverting back to her usual giddy self, “I thought, hey, why not do another Battle of the Bands in memory of Hans? Not everyone has to know, just us so we can remember him in kind.”

Everyone looked at each other as they absorbed the knowledge at hand. It wasn’t long before everyone smiled and agreed with the party planner’s idea. Her smile got even bigger hearing everyone’s agreement, “Great, starting whenever you girls are ready, we’ll host it and we can let the fun begin!”

They all raised their hands up high and yelled yes loudly. Applejack was the first to leave but not before saying what she had in mind, “Ah’ll get the food ready for the Battle of the Bands!”

Fluttershy came up second, “I’ll clean up our instruments for the event today!” She left with her bag and left for the music room.

“I’m coming with! I want my instrument to shine today!” Rainbow followed her friend to the music room giddy about the event.

“I shall get our costumes ready! I’ve wanted to spruce them up anyhow in the first place!” She left and almost forgot her bag until she returned and picked it up and then final leave.

Pinkie grabbed both Sunset and Twilight’s hands and looked at them with joy, “And you’ll help me in making posters for this event!” Before they got the chance to argue back, they were whisked away towards wherever she goes to make them. Today was going to be a busy day for all of them.