My Little Pony Tales: Rule 63 Edition

One evening, Rhapsody was sat down at the kitchen table. He'd been there for a couple of hours, working on his latest song. "How's the new song coming, Rhapsody?" his mother asked curiously.

"I'm stuck, Mom," Rhapsody replied. "I can't think of a word that rhymes with 'orange'."

"Well, there's 'sporange'."

"What's the heck's a sporange?"

"A sporange is the part of a plant where the spores are made."

"Yeah, I'm sure there's plenty of ways you could write that in…" Imagining working that word into the lyrics was making Rhapsody cringe.

Just then, the voice of a small child called from the living room. "Rhapsody! Come quick!"

Rhapsody got up and went to the living room. Maybe his little brothers just wanted him to play with them, but there was always the off chance there was something interesting he should see.

"PTV!" said Bing-A-Ling, the twin with the grey coat and peach mane and a blue bow tie around his neck.

Ring-A-Ling, the twin with the peach coat and grey mane and a red bow tie, pointed at the screen. "Razzle!"

On-screen, the top hat-clad PTV host addressed his viewers. "Don't forget, Thursday night is the big one!" Razzle declared. "PTV is hosting the first annual Battle of the Bands! To all you cool little ponies out there, if you've got a band, come down Thursday night and show us what you can do!"

"Wow, a music contest! And the chance to appear live on PTV…" Rhapsody could barely contain his anticipation. "Mom, can I go? The Rockin' Beats can win, I know we can!"

"Well, don't forget, Thursday is my night to work at the hospital," his mother reminded. "But if you can get a babysitter for the twins…"

"No problem! But right now, I gotta practice. See ya!" And with that, Rhapsody hurried off.

In the garage, Rhapsody listened to his four band members playing their respective instruments, creating a pleasant, relaxing track.

"Wait, wait, wait, hold it," Rhapsody said, prompting everyone to stop playing. "It's too slow."

"Gee, Rhapsody, sounded good to me."

"Yeah, it was good, Half Note, but we need to be great to win the Battle of the Bands," Rhapsody replied to him.

"Rhapsody's right," Suave Notes agreed.

Rhapsody tapped his back hoof on the ground. "A-one, a-two, a-one, two, three…"

The band began playing the music again at a faster tempo than before, and Rhapsody passionately sang along, with the other members sometimes chipping in to provide backing vocals:

Sweet music
Ooh, sweet music
That's what I hear when you appear
Sweet music
Ooh, sweet music
Life is in tune when you are near
When you are gone, the song just isn't there
But then I see your face again
And music fills the air
Fills the air
Sweet music
Ooh, sweet music
I love the sound when you're around
Sweet music
Ooh, sweet music
Beautiful harmonies abound
I know our song will never die
We make sweet music, you and I
We make sweet music, you and I

Rhapsody lowered his microphone as the music stopped. "You guys did great backing vocals," he congratulated them. "Back in here on Wednesday for another rehearsal!"

On Thursday afternoon, Rhapsody admired himself in the mirror with gold rings around his left hoof and an orange scarf around his neck. A pair of oversized orange star-shaped sunglasses adorned his head.

He saw his mother in the mirror behind him. "Hey, mom, you think the French scarf with green bracelets would look better?" he asked.

"You look wonderful, dear!" she complimented. "Oh, if you still need song lyrics, do you want to hear what I came up with?"

She cleared her throat and then read out from a slip of paper. "Our love burns bright like the sun which is orange. Our love multiplies just like spores in a sporange."

Rhapsody held his hooves over his ears, not wanting to hear any more of this blasphemy. "Mooooom, stop! You'll make my ears bleed!"

"Sorry, dear… just trying to help," she replied as he took his hooves away from his ears. "By the way, who did you get to babysit?"

Rhapsody gasped as he realized. "Oh, no! I forgot! We've been so busy practicing!" He paced around in worry. "What if it's too late… what if I can't get anybody?" He looked at his mother pleadingly. "Maybe you could call in sick?"

"I can't do that! Everyone at the hospital depends on me to be there!"

"But the Rockin' Beats are depending on me! I have to go!"

"I'm sorry, Rhapsody…" his mother apologized. "It was your responsibility to find a babysitter for the twins. Unless you do, I'm afraid you'll have to be the babysitter." And with that, she began to leave.

While Bing-A-Ling and Ring-A-Ling ate their food, Rhapsody was on the phone. "Is Patch there? It's Rhapsody."

"I'm sorry, Rhapsody, Patch is at soccer practice," Patch's mother on the other side told him.

Rhapsody put the phone down and dialed Heartling's number.

"Hello?" Heartling said.

"Hey, Heartling, think you could watch my two little brothers for me?" Rhapsody asked. "You've already got three, haven't you?"

"I wish I could help you out, Rhapsody… I really truly do… but I really truly can't," Heartling said. "I'm doing chores."

Next, Rhapsody tried Stargleam.

"Sorry, Rhapsody, I can't do it," Stargleam declined over the sound of a blender. "We've got a lot of orders to fill at the ice cream shop."

Rhapsody called up Sharp Eyes next.

"No, solve your own problems," Sharp Eyes told him unsympathetically. "I'm going to chess club soon."

Rhapsody rolled his eyes. "Well, enjoy it at 'snooty know-it-alls no one likes' club. No amount of calling it 'chess club' is gonna change that."

As Rhapsody put the phone down, he mentally sifted through the list of who he hadn't tried. Trefoil? Rhapsody shook his head. Though Trefoil meant well, Rhapsody didn't feel comfortable leaving the brothers in his care, knowing Trefoil's general clumsiness and lack of wits. Babar was still grounded after playing sick a few days before, as Rhapsody remembered. He considered asking one of the girls, but he didn't trust Tessa not to cause even more problems for him, and Whiz couldn't do it because if Patch was at soccer practice, then so was Whiz. The only one left was Prancer. He dialed her number hopefully.

"Hello, can you put Prancer on?" he asked the butler on the other end of the line.

After a few moments, Prancer spoke. "Hello, who is it?"

"Hey, Prancer, it's Rhapsody."

"Oh, hello, Rhapsody. Can I help you?"

"Do you have any experience with babysitting?"

"I can't say I have."

"Well, you have, like, a bajillion staff working at your mansion. Can any of them look after my twin brothers?"

"They can't, sorry… and besides, mom and dad won't let me have two little kids running around wreaking havoc."

Having exhausted all his options, Rhapsody put the phone down, sighing despondently. "What am I gonna tell the Rockin' Beats…?"

He was interrupted by a spoonful of food that came from the direction of the twins and splattered on his face.

"That's it, you two, you're gonna get it!" he shouted in anger. But when he saw their scared-looking faces, it didn't take long for his rage to subside. "Sorry, guys… I'm just stressed…"

Just then, the doorbell rang. After wiping his face, Rhapsody went to answer it, already knowing who would be standing there. He opened it, and the Rockin' Beats stood there expectantly.

"Let's go, Rhapsody! Time to shine!" Dulcet said.

"I… I can't go," Rhapsody admitted. "I have to babysit my brothers."

"What?!" Half Note exclaimed. "But we need you!"

"I'm really sorry, Half Note, but there's nothing I can do about it now…"

"You should have gotten a babysitter, that's what you should've done," Dulcet snapped.

"Forget it, Dulcet, we're going anyway," Suave Notes said. "We'll do fine without a leader who keeps bailing on us."

Rhapsody watched hopelessly as they walked away. "Good luck," he quietly said, unheard, then closed the door and slowly headed for the living room.

Rhapsody slumped onto the couch and switched the TV on, then flicked to the PTV channel, waiting for the show to start.

'You don't need 'em, Rhapsody,' he told himself. 'Good band members don't treat each other like they did you just because you had other obligations.'

After the end of the current show, then some commercials, the title card for the Battle of the Bands appeared on-screen.

"Okay, gang, here are the rules!" Razzle spoke to the cheering ponies in the audience. "When you cheer for your favorite band, that scoreboard over there will measure the volume! The louder the noise, the higher the score! So shake out those clappers and air out your yappers! Alright, let the Battle of the Bands begin!"

The first band up was called Metalloid. Rhapsody had to admit they were delivering a solid show. Tuning out the sound of Bing-A-Ling and Ring-A-Ling fighting over pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, Rhapsody continued watching Metalloid's performance.

'So what if they're good?' he thought. 'It's not like anyone can top the Rockin' Beats… everyone knows that.'

Once the performance was over, Razzle addressed everybody watching, both those in the studio and those watching from home. "Okay, little ponies, time to pump up the volume! Let's hear it for Metalloid!"

The camera cut to the seated ponies cheering loudly. The noise they made was picked up by the circular scoreboard, and circles lit up one after the other, starting from the middle and progressing outward.

Rhapsody could deny it no longer. He was done lying to himself that he could have a perfectly good evening sat watching the show at home, unable to influence the outcome. "That's it! The Rockin' Beats need me!" He switched the TV off. "We're outta here. Mom didn't say where I had to babysit ya," he told his brothers. Opening the house's front door, he confidently declared, "She'll never know."

Panting and sweating, Rhapsody sauntered into the studio via the fire exit. With Bing-A-Ling and Ring-A-Ling following him, he scanned the area for any sign of his band members, eventually seeing them on a stage, far away from the one another band was currently performing on. Finishing with catching his breath, he approached them. "I'm not too late, am I?"

They all turned around to see their leader. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Rhapsody or his band members, the twins had wandered off backstage.

"Look, I'm sorry I almost blew it, alright?" Rhapsody said. "But I made it. So what do you say we put all that behind us and blow the audience away?"

"Well… okay. Water under the bridge," Suave Notes accepted. "You got here just in time. We're on next!"

While the quintet prepared to appear on stage, the other band finished their performance. The resultant cheering caused the scoreboard to light up yet again, stopping dangerously short of the outermost circle. Dulcet grimaced, knowing they'd have to give it their all if they wanted to stand a chance of winning.

A stagehand approached them. "Okay, Rockin' Beats, it's your turn."

Rhapsody looked around, only to realize there was no sign of his younger brothers. How could he have taken his eyes off them?! "I-I can't! I have to find the twins! I'm responsible for 'em!"

"Rhapsody!" Dulcet yelled as their lead singer left again. He groaned in frustration, with no other option but to go to the stage with the other three band members while Razzle announced that the Rockin' Beats were about to perform.

While Rhapsody was searching around backstage for any sign of Bing-A-Ling and Ring-A-Ling, he listened to the band performing without him. The music was there, but without his voice, resulting in only a few of the words being sung, which would normally serve as the backing vocals if not for the fact that they were the only vocals. He winced, hoping to find the twins as soon as possible so he could rejoin his band. "Bing-A-Ling? Ring-A-Ling?"

He soon caught sight of the duo climbing up some steps to a rather oversized slide, about to reach the top. Rhapsody chased them up, but was too late to stop them from sliding down. He watched in horror as the lip at the bottom of the slide sent them flying into the air. "NO!"

But it appeared fortune was on their side, as the twins didn't splatter onto the ground, but instead landed on a very large prop guitar hanging from the ceiling.

Though Rhapsody was overjoyed that they were still alive, he still had to make sure it stayed that way. He raced over to the area of ground below the guitar as fast as he could, then looked up at the twins. "Jump! I'll catch you!" he told them.

"No way! Afraid!" Bing-A-Ling protested.

"Don't worry, I'll save you! Stay where you are!" Doing his best to contain the fear surging through him at the prospect of his brothers not surviving this evening, Rhapsody hurried back to where the slide was, and jumped down it to maximize the forward thrust. He flew off the lip at the bottom just as the twins had done, and grabbed onto the guitar prop. It swayed yet again from the impact, and launched Rhapsody off, with Bing-A-Ling holding onto Rhapsody's back legs while Ring-A-Ling held his twin brother's back legs. The three of them soared through the air until Rhapsody grabbed a rope, which caused them to descend at a steady pace, conveniently depositing them right in the middle of the stage where the Rockin' Beats were currently performing.

Rhapsody looked around in amazement, but didn't have much time to dwell on it, because the last "fills the air" had just been sung. Time to rescue this performance.

Rhapsody sang his heart out for the last remaining lines of the song, strutting about on stage in an ostentatious fashion. His twin brothers took it upon themselves to provide backing vocals, dancing in sync, in true twin fashion.

Once the song was finished, the crowd exploded with noise as everyone cheered. The scoreboard wasted no time in lighting up to the highest setting, but it hadn't been designed to cope with this level of cheering, and, as a consequence, overheated before exploding, sending shards of glass flying everywhere.

The cheering soon turned to terrified screaming as a few ponies, having failed to dodge the glass, now had more than a few shards of said glass stuck inside them.

"KILL THE CAMERAS!" Razzle shouted, waving his front hooves frantically at the camera ponies.

Stargleam looked flabbergasted at the wall-mounted TV which now only displayed, "SIGNAL LOST". He then turned around to see the ponies at the counter speechless and horrified, while a couple of little kids made traumatized squeaking noises, on the verge of bursting into tears.

"...Erm, who wants a free ice cream?" Stargleam suggested anxiously, hoping to appease them.

While the injured ponies were being taken away, Razzle then spoke to the audience members in the studio. "Erm, this Battle of the Bands is now over! Thank you, move along!"

"Hey, what about our prize? We won!" Dulcet pointed out.

"Oh, erm, yes, yes, of course, coming right up." Razzle left momentarily and returned with a trophy, placing it into Rhapsody's hooves.

"We want a photograph, too," Rhapsody added. "To preserve my—er, I mean our accomplishment."

Razzle sighed, and motioned for a photographer to come over.

After the hectic evening, Rhapsody took great comfort that he as well as his brothers were back in the safety of their home. "I'll make you a deal," he told them as he tucked them into bed. "I won't tell Mom what you did if you don't tell her what I did. Okay?"

"No tell..." Bing-A-Ling uttered, tired out.

"Never…" Ring-A-Ling affirmed.

Rhapsody tussled their manes. "Love you guys."

"Love you too!"

Just then, they heard hoofsteps. It appeared their mother was home. Rhapsody hid his photograph. "Hey, er, Mom!" he greeted as she walked into the room.

Rhapsody's heart sank when he saw her stern expression. That could only mean one thing.

"Rhapsody, your job was to look after the twins!" she scolded him. "How could you be so irresponsible as to take them out after dark to a studio?!"

"Wha… how did you know?"

"I saw you! They had the Battle of the Bands on the TV at the hospital!"

"You didn't say where I had to babysit them," Rhapsody pointed out.

His mother opened her mouth to respond, but then slowly closed it upon realizing that was true. "Okay, so I didn't. You're off the hook this time, but in future, you are to babysit them here unless specifically instructed otherwise. Because if something like this ever happens again—"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm grounded."

"No," his mother said. "I'll make you listen to a song that rhymes 'orange' with 'sporange'."

Rhapsody gulped. "G-g-got it."