Author's Note

~We are back! We are baaaccckkk!~

Same Old Song and Dance

Ponyville

It was another peaceful day in the small town of Ponyville. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and cool, and happiness was all around. Or, at least, it had been going that way.

The peaceful atmosphere was soured with the arrival of a very large airship (no, not that airship) that came down in the center of town, right next to Town Hall. Some ponies ran off and closed their doors; others stayed and watched with curiosity. A landing ramp and out came a motley crew of griffins, diamond dogs and a few ponies as well. Raiders weren’t unheard of in these parts but they usually stuck towards the southern end of Equestria.

“Alright listen up ya worthless gits!” one of the diamond dogs said, presumably the leader since he appeared to be the largest of them all. “We’re going to make this very simple: we’re going to be taking a few loans out of your treasury inside your fancy building. Cause no trouble and we’ll be out of your manes in no time. But if anyone tries to be a hero well…I don’t really have to spell it out do I? Now then, where’s your dear representative of this town?”

Silence hung throughout the square. Suddenly a voice called out, “Which one?”

“Which one? I mean your leader!”

“Uh…you’re gonna have to be a bit more specific,” another pony said.

“Dude, obviously he’s talking about Princess Twilight…”

“No, I’m pretty sure he means Mayor Mare…the princess doesn’t rule this town!”

“Wait a minute, so why is her castle here again?”

“Yeah, I don’t remember the mayor giving her a building permit!”

“Something about planting a seed and then a giant castle just-”

“Enough!” the diamond dog captain yelled. Once everyone went quiet he smiled. “Considering your dear Princess is out of town at the moment, which I am quite aware of, your mayor will have to do since she has keys to the vault. Now where is she?”

“Unfortunately, the mayor can’t be reached right now but I can take her place.” The captain suddenly whirled around and he saw a group of six ponies, one in particular he instantly recognized. “We’re going to make this very simple captain,” Princess Twilight Sparkle said. “We don’t take kindly to raiders in any place, especially Ponyville so we’ll give you a choice. Leave now and never come back, and we’ll be fine. But if you feel like putting up a fight well…do we have to spell it out for you?”

The diamond dog looked as if he were about to faint. He looked to one of his subordinates, an earth pony. “I thought you said today was the day she was leaving!”

“I did sir, honestly!”

The captain growled. “If you think I’ll turn and run with my tail between my legs you’re quite mistaken princess!”

Twilight sighed. “That’s too bad. Honestly, I first thought this was going to turn into a big fight scene where we beat up the bad guys as usual but…honestly Ponyville has been through enough the past couple of years so…Rainbow Dash will see you on your way out.”

“Wait what!?” The captain didn’t have time to react as a rainbow blur suddenly crashed into their ship. In normal circumstances, the pegasus in question would’ve probably just bounced off the side of the ship and probably broken a few bones and probably would have damaged a wing in the process. But Rainbow Dash was no normal pegasus.

It wasn’t her peak speed, but she was going about the speed of sound, which was enough to break right through the ship’s exterior and at exactly the right she caused the ship to explode, launching the crew into the atmosphere and far, far away from Ponyville. “Curse you Twilight Sparkle!” the captain yelled as they disappeared into the distance.

The ponies outside cheered for their princess, even though the credit pretty much went to Rainbow. “Honestly, Ah’m surprised that went as easy as it did,” Applejack said, rubbing her chin.

“Considering what I had to put up with a few weeks ago, I’m still not in the mood for fighting,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes. As soon as Rainbow reappeared, Twilight sighed. “Did you really have to blow up the ship?”

“What? I had to cause a little excitement for the crowd,” Rainbow grinned.

“Well, on the bright side now I won’t have to cancel my two o’clock appointment at the spa,” Rarity said. “I say we all celebrate with some much needed R&R.”

“I do like the sound of that,” Fluttershy said.

“And maybe a party?” Pinkie suggested.

“Ah guess it couldn’t hurt, even though we just had one about three weeks ago with Starswirl and the others.”

“Ha! Yeah, the look on Starswirl’s face was priceless!” Rainbow said. “Aw what the heck, count me in for some quality R&R.”

The girls headed off into town, leaving Twilight behind. “But we didn’t even do anything!” she yelled. No one appeared to hear her as she groaned and followed them. Hopefully things are a bit more peaceful for Starlight…

Canterlot

Things had gone back to normal in Canterlot, or at least as normal as things usually were around here. The girls of Canterlot High were currently in the music room, which thankfully was open even during the summer months, mostly playing songs that they had written recently. Their audience consisted of one Starlight Glimmer at the moment.

“So…how long have you all been in a band?” Starlight asked.

“It’s only been about…two months maybe?” Sunset shrugged. “Technically Twilight and I are the newest members.”

“That’s…pretty impressive,” Starlight stated. “If you could score a record deal with a music studio, imagine the amount of money you could earn!”

“Yes, except with the constant rate of strange occurrences that happen around I doubt we could balance all that out darling,” Rarity stated.

“Plus I don’t think it’s what we really want to do, more just a hobby,” Twilight added. “Especially since senior year is coming up.”

Everyone suddenly got quiet. “Sorry, maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up then,” Starlight apologized.

“Nah, it’s fine, Ah think we all just realized if this stuff keeps happening, how are we supposed to focus on our own futures?” Applejack said.

“Honestly, I never really thought about it,” Sunset sighed. “I guess this all comes back to me coming here in the first place.”

“Come on, this again?” Rainbow asked. “Look, what happened happened and there’s nothing any of us can do about it. Besides, we’re in this together now.”

“I feel like I’m missing something here,” Starlight said.

“Well, after the whole thing with Midnight Sparkle blowing up the statue some of the magic from Equestria has…well let’s just say it’s kind of leaked into this world,” Sunset explained.

“Hence all the weird stuff that’s happened?” Starlight asked.

“Eh…honestly after with what happened at Camp Everfree I’m not really sure what occurred first,” Sunset groaned slightly.

“Okay, real talk, can we stop with the history lessons and get back to jamming?” Rainbow asked.

“Not so fast ladies!” The girls suddenly looked towards the door and saw Trixie standing in the doorway with her guitar accompanied by her band mates. “The Great and Powerful Trixie has come for practice and would kindly like for you all to give her and her fellow band mates some space.”

“Uh…we were here first,” Applejack pointed out simply.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Trixie didn’t realize this room has a first come, first served policy,” Trixie rolled her eyes. “It’s not like you’ve all hogged most of the time available here.”

“We’ve been here for only thirty minutes!” Rarity snapped.

“And how often did you get to play in here during after hours!?” Trixie snapped right back. “That’s right, every day! Just because you’re all saviors doesn’t mean you get to hog everything, including the music room!”

“Okay, let’s just take a deep breath here,” Twilight said. “Maybe we should just let Trixie and her friends play for once. She’s not exactly wrong.”

“The hell with that!” Rainbow yelled.

“Seriously Rainbow, I think Twilight is right on this one,” Sunset said.

“Yeah, and I think Trixie can just find somewhere else to play considering we got here first,” Rainbow rebutted.

“Fine, if you won’t give it up, then we’ll just have to settle this personally,” Trixie said. “Music duel.”

It was quiet for a few moments before Rainbow burst out laughing. “Seriously? We already dueled once Trixie and look how that turned out.”

“Trixie is aware,” Trixie growled. She then smirked. “However, things have changed recently. One moment.” She then set up her guitar to the speaker one of her friends dragged along before doing a quick sound check. “Behold… The Great…and Powerfully Improved Trixie!”

She then thrummed the strings as the girls were hit with a blast of sound and she started to glow. Suddenly, she had pony ears and a long flowing tail matching her hair.

“Did…she just pony up!?” Pinkie asked.

“H-How!?” Sunset and Twilight both said.

“It only happened recently, even Trixie cannot really explain it,” Trixie shrugged. “We were practicing in Trixie’s garage when the event happened and…well needless to say at first I almost had a panic attack. But as you can now see, I’m just like you seven.”

“Oh please,” Rainbow scoffed. “So you got ears and a tail. Congratulations. But I’m still the better guitarist here.”

“Care to put your money where your mouth is?” Trixie taunted.

“…Pinkie give me a beat.”

“Huh?” Pinkie asked.

“We’re doing this right here, right now so give me a beat Pinkie! Also, AJ maybe a little help too?”

“Ah’d love to say no but somehow you’re going to make me do this anyway aren’t ya?” Applejack asked.

“Do we really have to do this?” Fluttershy asked.

“Why not?” The girls looked over towards Starlight. She then shrugged. “I’m still kind of understanding how everything works here so…why not let them battle?”

“I…guess it couldn’t hurt?” Sunset said. “Just don’t blow anything up…especially any speakers.”

“Fine, fine, as long as it gets this stupid competition outta the way…” Applejack grumbled.

Pinkie started up with a beat for a few measures before Applejack entered in on her base. “You know what, I probably don’t even have to pony up for this,” Rainbow said. “I’m still going to beat you Trixie.”

“We’ll see about that,” Trixie replied. “But where are my manners? I should let the expert go first.”

“Fine by me,” Rainbow grinned. She let her ears and fingers do the work as she started strumming chords, mostly to get warmed up but partly to let herself get into the music itself. Once she got a feel for it, she became a little more daring, or perhaps she decided to show off as her hands and fingers started going across her guitar almost on autopilot.

“Hm, not bad for a novice,” Trixie said. “But are you good enough to match up, beat by beat.”

“Try me.”

Trixie grinned as she strung out a long stream of chords, impressive for any guitarist to pull off, but Rainbow wasn’t surprised considering she knew just how good Trixie was. Not wanting to be left out, she responded quickly, matching with Trixie’s tempo. The harmony they produced was impressive to say the least.

It went back and forth between the two girls and while Rainbow had to admit she was impressed, she wasn’t willing to show it outwardly. “Ha, is that all you got Trix?”

“Don’t be silly,” Trixie scoffed. “A showgirl always saves the best for last.”

“Yeah sure thing, now it’s my turn!” Rainbow quickly pressed on the pedal to her amp and suddenly played a more raw melody that echoed throughout the room. Trixie was ready for a counter tune which she pulled off almost too easily. However, Rainbow kept going, hoping to catch Trixie off guard and soon things were turning in her favor.

Now that she knew she had Trixie on the ropes, Rainbow decided now was the time to finish this. “Ya know Trixie, I’ll give you credit: you’ve gotten better since last time. But I’m still going to show you how it’s done.”

She cranked up the volume on her amp and performed her coup de grae. The sound was loud enough to be heard by the entire school, if school were still in session. Trixie looked overwhelmed and not sure how to respond as a couple of strings on her guitar broke. Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie kept going until the final chord which suddenly caused the speakers to explode and the room was filled with purple smoke, something that Sunset could only conclude was Equestrian magic. So much for not destroying the equipment…she thought.

Once the smoke cleared, they saw that Trixie and her band mates were strewn across the wall. Trixie’s hair was strewn all over the place and the look on her face was a mixture of surprise and extreme confusion. Her ears and tail were now gone.

“Well, I guess that settles that,” Rainbow said confidently.

“Are ya happy now?” Applejack glared at her. “Ya just fried one of our speakers and sent three of our classmates into a wall. They’re probably deaf and have a concussion. All cause of yer damn ego.”

“Applejack, I really don’t think you understand the idea of ‘first come, first served’,” Rainbow pointed out.

“I think the better topic to discuss is how the heck did Trixie pony up?” Twilight asked. “I thought only the seven of us could do it because of those geodes we found?”

“Well, the geodes are this world’s Elements of Harmony,” Sunset pointed out. “Well, at least that’s what we think. But maybe we’re not the only ones who can actually pony up.”

“That’s true, we did see Starlight pony up even though she’s not one of the Elements,” Rarity added.

“Well…I’m not bragging but I’m kind of a pretty powerful unicorn,” Starlight chuckled slightly.

“Um…girls?” Fluttershy asked. “I don’t mean to interrupt but…do you think we should make sure those three are okay?”

The girls then looked to Trixie and the others. “Oh…yeah, make sure we didn’t cause any damage,” Sunset said.

“While we’re at it…anyone want to chip in to buy a new speaker?” Rainbow asked sheepishly.