Rainbow Dash walked into band practice with bloodshot eyes, a general hung-over slump to her posture, a mug of tea in one hand, and a jar of honey in the other. "Hey guys," she said in a scratchier voice than usual. "Sunset, can you take over on lead everything for me today?"
Sunset Shimmer blinked. "Sure," she said, retuning her guitar and adjusting her knobs as the rest of the girls stared at Rainbow. "What's wrong? Are you coming down with something?"
Rainbow shook her head. "Did this to myself," she croaked. "You know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and it won't go away?" As the others nodded and made noises of agreement, she said, "That was me all weekend. I...I just couldn't stop singing..." She took a sip of tea and added more honey to it, stirring it idly. "Even now, I've...I've got it playing on my phone..." She tugged at her earbud cords. "I totally trashed my voice."
"Yikes." Sunset shook her head. "I know how you feel, though. I've been the same way all weekend. Got a really catchy song stuck in my head Friday, it's still there." She absently strummed a riff. She missed Rainbow's eyes widening.
"Earworms are the worst," Pinkie Pie agreed. "It's like, okay, it's an awesome song and I love awesome fun songs, but after a few days, it's like, make it stoooooop!" She tapped out a rhythm on her drums. Rainbow's head turned to her, her mouth working silently.
"Ah know whutcha mean," Applejack said as she idly picked at her bass. "Apple Bloom an' Big Mac was watchin' somethin' this weekend an' there was this song, an' Ah jes'...Ah can't git it outta mah head!"
By now, Rainbow was shaking her head in disbelief while Fluttershy was staring at her bandmates with a confused frown. Sunset's absent strumming, Applejack's idle picking, and Pinkie's dismissive tapping had somehow converged into a song. The same song. A song they'd never played before.
"Umm...girls?" Fluttershy asked.
Rarity blinked. "Are we doing a new song? Nobody told me we were..." She pursed her lips, concentrating, and began playing along on her keytar. "How odd," she mused. "I...I seem to know this song..."
"What's going on here?" Fluttershy wondered.
"Dude," Rainbow said, staring at the others. "No friggin' way."
Sunset, Pinkie, and Applejack all realized what they were doing at the same time, stopped, and looked around at each other, blinking. "The heck?" Sunset said.
"Freaky-deaky!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Huh. Ain't that somethin'," Applejack grunted.
"That's the same song I've been singing all weekend!" Rainbow said.
Rarity blinked. "Huh. What are the odds of that?"
"Is this an Equestrian magic thing?" Fluttershy wondered.
Sunset snorted. "Honestly? I think it's more like a cable TV thing." She shook her head and went back to playing; Pinkie and Applejack joined in, with Rarity following along while Fluttershy did her best to keep up on tamborine.
The door opened, and Twilight Sparkle walked in. She blinked. "Seriously? You girls too?"
"Hey Twilight," Rainbow rasped. "Whaddya mean 'us too'?"
Twilight shook her head. "I've been hearing this song all over school all day today. It's so weird..."
As Twilight took a seat, Octavia Melody poked her head in, frowning. "Good grief, is there no escape from this song?"
"Wow, even the Rainbooms," Ditzy Doo said as she looked in. "And I thought it was just Flash and his band that were obsessed with this song..."
"Where did this song even come from?" Twilight wondered.
"Some cartoon everybody claims to hate," Sunset Shimmer said as she played through the bridge. "Funny thing, for a show everybody hates, they sure do watch it a lot..."
"Hey," Pinkie said suddenly, "wouldn't it be funny if we all ponied up and the song took us all to that crazy radical world like it does in the cartoon?"
And then that happened.
And it was pretty awesome.