Bass Drop

by ElementOfDestiny

She dropped the bass

It was a normal, ordinary morning at the Canterlot High-school. It's been quite some time after the terrible dazzlings were stripped from their evil power and transformed back into normal teenage girls. But today, exciting news spread throughout the school like a plaque. Student's creativity sailed, as they hung up their band posters all around the school. Groups of friends and participants took their turn, using as much and whenever time they could to hold auditions and recitals. Gossip and old rivalry seemed to never die as there was the talk of who was better and who would win tomorrow. Yup, it was that time again, battle of the bands.

In the Canterlot recital room held one particular band. Known for basically saving their school from the terrible sirens and restoring the peace once again. The Rainbooms, who were currently setting everything up for practice. Drumsticks beated on the drums quietly by the over energetic and tireless girl, Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, the shy and timid girl shook her tambourine, testing the little cymbals to make the right, ringing, sound she wanted. From aside was Rarity, who was basically the bands designer. Her fingers played a few key notes on her electric keyboard to make sure it was synced in tune. In front of her was the new official band member, Sunset Shimmer, who was the back up vocalist and second guitarist in which she played mostly for rhythm. Then lastly in the room was the bands leader, Rainbow Dash, the rainbow-colored girl with a unique and overconfident attitude. Where sometimes her cool and awesomeness blinded her from reality.
Her glaring, magenta eyes darted back and forth between the clock and the empty handed, thick stringed instrument. Her foot repeatedly tapped the floor impatiently, then she made a quick glance at the clock before spinning around to face everyone.

"Where the hay is Applejack! Does anyone know where she is?"

The sound of tuning instruments fell to a silence as the band members glanced at one another with a look of uncertainty. "I saw her earlier in the cafeteria, she was bringing in crates of apple cider...At least, I think that's what it was." Sunset Shimmer replied as she looked away in thought.

"Yeah, but that was how long ago, when you last saw her?" the rainbow-colored girl asked, shifting her head towards the clock again.

"...An hour ago"

Rainbow Dash stopped halfway in the midst of looking at the clock and snapped back around. "What!? A hour ago!?" she then let out a frustrated growl and began to slip her arm out from the guitar strap. Sunset Shimmer saw this coming and stepped forward, towards the lead guitarist with a smile. "Don't worry Dash, I'll go find her." She insisted and immediately headed towards the door.

"Fine… be back here in like ten seconds flat!" Rainbow Dash called out and turned her attention towards slipping her arm back through the strap. "Alright I will—" the red, gold striped girl then stopped where she was and saw the metal handle twist to the side, then the door suddenly opened. Loud, obnoxious sounds from the hallway poured into the quiet band room as the missing band member walked in. The door then closed itself and the quietness restored.

"Howdy y'all sorry ah'm a bit' late…" Applejack said stepping closer to the fellow band members.

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Bit late? You've been gone for...like ever!"

Applejack rolled her emerald eyes and with a sigh, she began walking over to her beloved bass guitar. "Only fer' an hour 'Rainbow…" That being said, Applejack reached her hand out and grabbed her instrument by the neck and slipped her other arm through the strap. As she felt the familiar weight on her shoulders, she began to pluck the thick, brass strings and couldn't help the corner of her mouth form a grin hearing the deep, bass beats.
Rainbow Dash quickly got into position and made another glance towards her side and saw Sunset Shimmer nod with a smile. She took one, last, look around the room. Noticing her band members were all ready, she counted off.

"Alright gang, 3...2...1...Rock out!" she shouted with glee and began strumming the guitar.

Upbeat, pop sounding rock flooded the room as they played. Perfectly all in sync with one another. Fluttershy tapped her tambourine in the beat of the drums. Pinkie Pie produced the beat of the song and sometimes would do an 'opening fill' with a rumbling sound from the toms, then end it with a clash of the cymbals. Rarity hammered down on the keyboard creating electronic, synchronizing key notes throughout the song. Sunset Shimmer singed her talented voice into the mic added by some, rhythmic chords. The song was held together by the deep, bass harmony. Which kept everything intact, as Applejack's talented fingers plucked the strings and the other ones danced across the large, fret neck to produce drop-chords.

And lastly, Rainbow Dash who also sung, while her fingers moved rapidly across the neck of her guitar. Producing hammer-ons and pull offs as she was near her solo. But it was all going good, until two minutes passed by. Applejack became irritated as she watched Rainbow Dash continue rocking out with just loud, squealing noise which flooded and ruined the whole song. As of again, the rainbow-colored girl was lost into her own, little, rocking world. Sunset Shimmer turned around and glanced at Applejack with a perplexed look, she didn't know what to do.

The blonde, country girl huffed out another tiring sigh and stopped her playing. It was clearly noticeable when the bassy, harmonic tune cutted out, that the other's began to stop as well. Rainbow Dash finally noticed it was just her playing and her hard-core strumming ceased. She then twirled around with a huge, bright smile. "That was totally awesome!"

Sunset Shimmer glanced between Rainbow Dash and Applejack, she could tell the country girl didn't look so pleased. "Everyone take five, ah've gotta have a word" Applejack announced with a deadpanning voice and began walking over to the lead guitarist. Sunset got the hint and moved towards the back to talk with the other's.

"Okay, how many times do ah have ta say this… How are we s'pose to practice fer' the concert tomorrow when all ya do is, ya know… Yer' five minute solos!"

"Aw, come on Applejack, you should already know this, it's because they're freakin' awesome!"

"Really? They ruin the song Rainbow!"

"Oh, yeah, so does your bass playing!" she countered.

This really struck a nerve in Applejack, she pressed her head forward and got in the lead guitarist's face.

"What the hay does that mean!" she demanded.

This caused Sunset Shimmer to look over her shoulder as she heard the tone of the two voices began to intensify, and she began to worry. She then looked to her new three friends, standing there as they watched the usual Applejack and Rainbow Dash argument. Sunset had to ask as she leaned in towards rarity. "Do they usually argue this bad?" Rarity simply nodded with a smile. "Oh, don't you worry darling, this is our typical Applejack and Rainbow Dash" Sunset quietly nodded. "I see… ". She then looked over to Fluttershy who had a extremely, worried look on her face. "Um, Rarity… I-I don't know… this one, looks pretty bad…" the shy, tambourine girl whispered. And like the timid girl predicted, she was right.

Applejack's blood began to boil, her fingers began to tingle as the rage began to flow through. Upon hearing another counter her friend yelled back, they instantly closed up into a fist. She didn't know how long she could take anymore of the heated argument. Their foreheads pushed into each other even harder, and the heating tension began to significantly rise. This made the others in the back speechless, with a horrified look, someone needed to stop this before it really got out of hand. Pinkie Pie suddenly leaned over and whispered into Sunset Shimmer's ear, "Pssst, my money is on Applejack".

"It's my band Applejack!—"

"Our band!"

"Whatever! Anybody can play the bass Applejack! It's not like I need you or anything!" Rainbow Dash shouted loudly and then added the final, verbal, blow that in time she'll most desperately regret. "I like to rock Applejack! If you can't, then get out!"

*Silence*

The hanging thread of Applejack's patience about snapped. She pictured in her head of taking her bass guitar and swinging it upside Rainbow's thick, stubborn skull. It was a stand-still as the heated tension reached it's peak. Somehow, Applejack miraculously held her anger in. Before it was fully released and ended up knocking her friend out. She decided to play the better part and walk away.

"Fine! Ya say anybody can play the bass rite'? Well then good luck findin' someone that can play the bass like me, because… AH QUIT!" she roared out loudly and walked towards the door with not another word or second look back. There was a deafening, slam of the door that even made Rainbow Dash and everyone else flinch, after that the bassist was gone.

"Whatever" the lead guitarist mumbled and spun around to her frightened and speechless band members. "Who needs her! Sunset, I need you to get an audition ready in the gym, to find our next bass guitarist…" she ordered in a calmly matter. The red, gold striped girl slowly nodded her head but had to say something about what just happened.

"Okay, but… aren't you gonna apologize to Applejack at all?"

Rainbow Dash scoffed, "Me!? Apologize to her? She came at me first!" her voice began to slightly get higher.

"Yeah, but what you said…" Sunset Shimmer then bit her tongue as she felt this wasn't the time nor did she want to upset Rainbow Dash anymore than she was.

"Never-mind, I'll have the audition ready to go soon, I guess meet me there?"

Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. "We will be there, thanks Sunset.

The next hour that went by was truly agonizing for Rainbow Dash. Countless students tried out for the replacing position of Applejack. But, all seemed to fail. The rainbow-colored girl propped her head up with her hand in a boring gesturing way. She yawned and forgot how many times she said "Next".
A teen boy came out from the backstage where the line was and approached the center of the stage. "Hi there, my name is— Rainbow Dash was quick on the draw and abruptly interrupted the boy, "We don't care at the moment and can you play the bass guitar?" she deadpanned. The teen boy smiled, "Show me the video of who I gotta play like, then I'll show you" he requested. Rainbow Dash turned her head towards Sunset Shimmer and gave a nod of approval to roll the video clip of Applejack doing a bass solo. Sunset complied and clicked the play button. There on the screen was their ex-band member playing the bass guitar, the teen boy smiled and giggled quietly with glee as he was a huge fan of Applejack. The video ended and Rainbow Dash waited in anticipation for the teen to do something afterwards.

Her eyebrow rose in suspicion, she began to notice that there wasn't a guitar with him. "Wait, a second, where is your bass guitar! And can you play bass?!" she demanded, her patience growing thin. The teen boy simply smiled, "I'm sorry, I just wanted to see the video of Applejack, I love her! and I'm a really big fan! and— "Next!" she shouted. The helpless teen got off the stage and the band leader began to groan in agony. Then there was a loud thunk, as Rainbow Dash's head fell and hit the table. She repeatedly banged her forehead with each word, "Why" *thunk* "Can't" *thunk* "Anyone" *thunk* "Play" *thunk* "Bass!" and lastly… *thunk*
Rarity looked rather worried at her fellow friend. "Darling you really shouldn't do that it messes up your beautiful, rainbow-colored hair…" Then Fluttershy joined in, "Y-yeah Rainbow you could really hurt… your brain or worse…" Lastly, Pinkie Pie had a say in this, "Aw, what are you girls talking about! I do it all the time! Watch!"

*Thwack*

Sunset Shimmer slowly shook in head in disbelief, she was starting to understand why Applejack got so annoyed with her friends in the last battle of the bands. She wondered also, how that country girl, could put up and deal so well with their problems at times like this. Of course they were awesome and lovable friends, there was no doubt about that. But, it seemed like each and every one of them had their own differences and issues. She was starting to connect the dots and knew she needed to get Applejack back somehow. Not just winning the battle of the bands but most importantly the friendship with Rainbow Dash was at stake.