“So Sunset, I heard you guys are doing Live Aid next year.” said Derpy excitedly. The corridor was packed with students as it always was in the morning, people leaned against the walls waiting for their class to start, while others tended to their lockers, getting out their books and so forth. Sunset Shimmer had been waiting with the rest of the Rainbooms, (minus Rarity) outside Rainbow Dash’s locker when the blonde girl with the crossed eyes had just approached her.
“How did you know?” Sunset hissed.
“I was passing the music room you were practicing in yesterday.” Derpy shrugged, “So anyway, I was asking if I could go as Madonna. I’ve been told I sing ‘Like a Virgin’ really well.”
“Look, we’re not re-staging it Derpy,” said Sunset quickly before Derpy could start performing right there in the middle of the corridor, “it was just a suggestion to do something to commemorate it.”
“Oh.” said Derpy, “You know, the one thing that confused me about Live Aid was, did they actually know it was Christmas time at all? I mean, I don’t really like that song anyway, because it’s just a stupid question. I mean, what is more annoying than being starved to death, and then some famous pop star comes along and you’re excited at the thought of actually getting some food, and all he says to you is, ‘Do you know it’s Christmas time at all?’. That’s not going to help, I think he should have been saying ‘Do you want any food to eat at all?.”
Sunset just stared at Derpy for a second, rubbing her temple before she said “I don’t think you’ve fully understood the meaning of the song, Derpy.”
“Say, has anybody seen Rarity yet?” Applejack asked. Sunset muttered ‘thank you’ and turned back to her friends.
“Not yet.” said Rainbow Dash, taking one of her books out and closing her locker. “I just hope she actually listened to that CD, otherwise I may consider finding another person to play keytar.” The words had just left her mouth, when Rarity walked up. Her expression was mutual as she opened her locker. “Well?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Well what?” Rarity replied, not removing her head from her locker to look at Rainbow Dash.
“Did you listen to the CD?”
“I did.”
“And?”
Rarity closed her locker, looked at Rainbow Dash and said, “Eh.”
“Eh?” said Rainbow Dash, her face dropping like it did the previous day, “Eh?! What do you mean ‘Eh’? You listened to a ‘Queen’ CD, and felt nothing?!
“Like I said Rainbow Dash, I just don’t feel it was my type of music.”
“Yeah, but…” stuttered Rainbow Dash, “it’s Queen! How is it that someone can hear ‘Queen’ and not have some kind of positive reaction? I mean, isn’t that one of the Ten Commandments? ‘Thou shalt not steal’, ‘thou shalt not commit adultery’ and ‘thou shalt listen to ‘Queen’ and be bloweth away by it’!”
“Look, you asked me to listen to some of their songs and I have.” said Rarity, “Nothing was said that I had to actually enjoy it.”
Rainbow Dash tried to think of a counter argument, but is was no use; Rarity was right, she hadn’t said that she had to like. She gave a small grumble and sulked down the hall. Rarity sighed and followed her to History. Applejack, Flutershy, Pinkie Pie and Sunset just watched as they left, until finally, Pinkie said, “I don’t remember that last one being part of the Ten Commandments.”
But Rainbow Dash wasn’t entirely sure whether to believe Rarity or not. She always sat next to her during their history lesson, which was her least favourite subject, and would often find herself gazing out into empty space as the low and often times bored sounding voice of their teacher Mr Dandy (whose nickname amongst the students was ‘Cranky Doodle Dandy’) would go on and on about revolutions and wars that could have been interesting, but mostly it just drove the class to sleep.
However, as Rainbow Dash lowered her head against her desk as Mr Dandy talked about the causes of the First World War, she began to hear humming. She tilted her head to look at Rarity, who was taking notes, and realised it was coming from her; more to the point, it was also sounding familiar. “What’s that?” she whispered as quietly as she could.
“What’s what?” Rarity whispered back, not taking her eyes off her notebook.
“That song you’re humming.”
“It’s nothing.” Rarity hissed.
“It’s not nothing,” Rainbow Dash whispered back, “it’s…”
“Ms Dash!” Mr Dandy’s voice snapped Rainbow Dash to attention, “Since you seem to not need to listen, then you must obviously know what the actual cause of World War One was.”
“Um… Ah…” Rainbow Dash stuttered, “A sandwich?”
Mr Dandy stared at her, before turning back to the board, “So after the assassination attempts of the Archduke had failed…”
Later that day, Rainbow Dash called the rest of the Rainbooms together in the canteen during their free period, while Rarity was having Classical Music Studies. “Are ya sure ya weren’t just thinkin’ too hard into it RD?” said Applejack.
“Look, I’m being serious here!” said Rainbow Dash, “She was humming to the tune of ‘Scandal’! No one just starts humming the tune to a song from a band that they had just said was ‘Eh’, don’t they?
“Well, maybe she just finds that song to be the catchiest.” suggested Sunset Shimmer.
“Really?” asked Rainbow Dash, her eyebrow raised, “Out of all the songs that ‘Queen’ have produced, Rarity finds ‘Scandal’, one of their more obscure songs, to be the catchiest? I mean, I like the song too, but I wouldn’t say it was the all-time great ‘Queen’ song.”
The others said nothing. They all agreed that they would get Rarity’s side of the story when she finished Music Studies. Soon, the bell rang for lunch and students were beginning to pour in and line up at the counter ready to be served. As the Rainbooms got up to join the queue, they scanned the heads of the crowd to try and catch a glimpse of some purple curled hair. There was none. “Where the heck is she?” asked Rainbow Dash.
“She must still be in the music hall.” said Fluttershy, so they jumped out of the queue, walked out of the canteen and headed towards the music hall.
Music lessons took place in the East Block on campus, so it was a long walk from there to the canteen. As Rainbow Dash was starting to grumble about her stomach, they found themselves in a long and empty corridor, where at the end were two double doors that were the entrance to the music hall. As they walked towards it, the closer they got, they started to hear what sounded like a piano being played. Sunset Shimmer put a hand to the handle to push it open, but then Rainbow Dash stopped her at the sound of a bum note being played. “I want to test something.” she whispered as pressed an ear to the door. She then heard Rarity counting to herself and on cue, began to play on the piano and Rainbow Dash, still with her voice low, began to sing:
She keeps her Moet en Chandon in a pretty cabinet,
‘Let them eat cake’ she says, just like Marie Antoinette
Rainbow backed away from the door slowly and looked at the girls, a wicked grin spread across her face. Before anyone could stop her, she kicked the doors open.
Rarity jumped off the stool as the doors flew open and bounced off the wall. She looked to see Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Rainbooms standing in the doorway, a look of, as she could make out, triumphant on Rainbow’s face. “Gotcha, Killer Queen!” Rainbow Dash announced, pointing at Rarity.
“What do you think you’re doing?! Rarity demanded as she closed the lid on the piano and began picking up the music sheets that had fallen when the doors had flown open.
“So you thought Queen was ‘Eh’, huh?” said Rainbow Dash, in a smug tone as she walked slowly towards Rarity, “Not your style of music, huh?”
“Oh, that wasn’t Queen,” said Rarity hastily, “Tha… tha… that was just a… compilation of classic 16th century…”
“Rarity, I was outside listening singing the lyrics, which were matching perfectly,” said Rainbow Dash and she yanked the sheets of paper out of Rarity’s hand, “and oh look, a selection of ‘Queen’ songs for the piano!”
Rarity tried to grab the music sheets, but Rainbow Dash leapt back, holding the sheets above her head. Rarity gave up and slumped back down on the stool, her head in her hands. “Why didn’ ya jus’ say ya liked ‘Queen’, Sugarcube?” asked Applejack, putting a comforting arm around Rarity.
“Because,” said Rarity, trying to think of just what to say, “because I shouldn’t like it!” she burst out, “I mean, I have always adored some of the great composers, the great operas and symphonies that there have ever been, and yet here I am, finding myself not being to stop thinking, about a rock group that goes against my taste! Plus the fact that I can openly say something about a particular ballad or symphony, and no-one here will hold that opinion against me, but I am aware that this group has such a massive following; what if I end up saying something like how I don’t like a particular song, how would someone else react to that?”
“Oh Rarity,” said Fluttershy as she shuffled onto the stool to sit next to Rarity, “you shouldn’t be so scared about that. Everyone has different opinions, it’s true, but it’s really down to your opinion. For example, if I was to say I think that ‘Star Trek Nemesis’ was the worst movie in the franchise, people may disagree, but there will be others who respect my opinion, no matter what.”
Everyone else agreed and nodded their heads, except for Rainbow Dash who said, “Unless you count ‘Star Trek V’.”
“Well, that is your opinion Rainbow Dash, and I do respect that” said Fluttershy, “but regardless, ‘Nemesis’ feels more like an inferior movie to me.”
“In what way?!” Rainbow Dash demanded.
“Ok girls, I think we’re getting slightly off topic here.” said Sunset Shimmer.
“No, no, no,” said Rainbow Dash, ignoring Sunset, “I want to know, how exactly is ‘Nemesis’ worse than ‘Star Trek V’?”
“Well, there’s the fact that the plot was incredibly lazy, the villains’ plans and motivation made no sense, the actors seemed to be bored, killing off a main character in an unceremonious way, the director was so incompetent he couldn’t even get the actors’ name right and of course, the inclusion of a rape scene to try and be more ‘edgy’.” said Fluttershy, standing up and counting down on her fingers.
“Yeah, but ‘Star Trek V’ had a bad writer and director too,” said Rainbow Dash, who was starting to get riled up again, “and his name was William Shatner! That movie was nothing more than Shatner glorifying his own character, while pushing everyone else down to make himself look better. People who aren’t even fans know of how bad it was, and it almost killed the franchise!”
“There’s the key word:” said Fluttershy, and everyone noticed she was starting to sound annoyed, and a little bit angry too as she faced Rainbow Dash, “it ALMOST killed the franchise. ‘Nemesis’ actually did!”
“Well, at least ‘Nemesis’ didn’t have triple-breasted cat dancers!”
“Well, at least ‘Star Trek V’ didn’t have Janeway making a cameo!”
“Alrigh’ then!” said Applejack, pushing her way in-between Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, as she could see the look on Rainbow’s face that she was about to start a serious fight, “Seriously off topic! Look Rarity,” she said turning to Rarity, “If ya wan’ ta like ‘Queen’ then no one is gonna stop or judge ya for it. Everyone likes something ya woundn’ expect them ta, but hey, as long as ya happy. Ya think ya can do that?”
Rarity looked up at her friend and smiled. “I’ll try.” she said finally.
“Alrighty!” said Pinkie Pie, suddenly, “Well come on then! We’ve got half an hour left for lunch, let’s hurry back before there’s nothing left.” Rarity got up from the stool, feeling more confident and followed her friends out of the music hall; Rainbow Dash and Futtershy continued to argue.