Chapter 5
Once the crowd thinned out, the girls approached with looks of contrition on their faces, Sunset leading the way, having been the one who had put forth the most protest when they had first met. Sunset said, “That was wonderful. I mean, I know that had to be famous music, but it has to be old enough that I didn’t really recognize most of the songs.”
They all thanked Sunset, and sunset jumped in and said, “And, again, I’m sorry for the misunderstanding earlier.”
“Think nothing of it,” said Adagio, graciously, “I’ve already let it go.”
The other two girls nodded in agreement, to which Jack said, “As to the songs, well, we discovered that we all have a love for music from my great uncle’s era and from the early/mid 80’s. Kinda a good thing, considering I’m not all that good at writing songs.”
Rarity had to ask, “But, your uncle wrote so many hits. You don’t have your own?”
He rolled his eyes and said, “Songwriting is not a genetic trait,” with a bit of a grumble, to which Rarity blushed, now realizing how silly her statement had been. She gave a contrite, “Sorry,” and Jack said, “Relax, you haven’t been the first to make assumptions.”
Pinkie, however, wanted to get this party invite out and was getting antsy. She finally blurted out, “So, we want to say, ‘Sorry,’ by throwing you a welcome to our town party. We can dance, sing, play music; it will be fun!”
“A party?” asked Sonata, excitedly, “And you want us to play for it?”
“No, silly!” giggled Pinkie, “We play as well.”
Dash jumped in and said, “Yeah, we have a band: the Rainbooms!”
“Wild name,” answered Aria, “Been playing long?”
“A little over a year,” added Dash, “But we gelled well. It helps being friends.”
Adagio smiled in agreement, and Fluttershy asked quietly, as if she had not the right to ask, “And, um, do you have a name?”
“We haven’t decided yet,” answered Jack, “We’ve only been playing for a short time, considering we only met less than a week ago. We still have to learn songs, and I still have to learn what they know and blend in.”
“It would be a good chance to get that together in a jam session,” Starlight interjected logically.
“Ah have m’barn we can use. It’s warm right now, and we can do a sleepover in there, and it’s a good place t’do the jam session. It’s far enough outa town t’where it won’t bother nobody.”
“Well, if you all can meet our families, we’ll see about doing this,” responded Adagio, “It just might be fun.”
The other two and Jack all nodded and mumbled in agreement.
“Awesome,” said Sunset, “Tell you what: let’s get together at the music shop tomorrow afternoon and we can all go to your places.”
With that, they all exchanged numbers and agreed to meet the next day.
However, the next day would be the start of something else that was not so good.
On the other side of town, where the Dazzlings were now living, the three were awoken by a pounding at the door. A bleary eyed Adagio stumbled clumsily towards the door to open it to an angry looking electric company field agent. “You’re three months past due. Either pay up one month or we switch off the power.”
“Do you take checks?” asked an aggravated Adagio, hoping to get this guy gone.
“Record says you have bounced a check with us before, so we can’t take a check,” he grumbled, “Either cash or money order.”
“Um…give me a minute,” she said, closing the door almost all the way while she went back in. She awoke the other two, with much protest, and despite the grousing, she said, “Quit the grumbling, get up, and put on the broaches. We’ve got to find out what these things do.”
“Now?” whined Sonata, “What’s so important?”
“You want the power shut off?” asked Adagio, “Then we try this.”
They made it to the door just before the man decided Adagio was stalling and went to shut off the power. He was just starting to turn when Adagio said, “Now.”
The three started to sing a simple chord with variance. At that, the man suddenly stood stiff, staring off into nowhere. He then began to start swaying a bit, and suddenly the three began to feel a rush of energy to their voice boxes, and they began to sing stronger. The man started to smile and then stared at them lovingly. “That’s…creepy…” muttered Sonata, but Adagio said, “Keep singing.”
He now looked at them lovingly, and Adagio then signaled a stop. She then said, “Hello, sir.”
“Oh, my beloved goddesses,” he gushed, “What is your bidding?”
Adagio smirked and said, “Pay off the whole of our bill.”
“Oh, yes!” he said, reaching for his wallet. He opened it and pulled out a wad of money. He looked sad and said, “Oh, but there is only one month here.”
“Then, go to an ATM and get the rest,” she said, “Write the receipt for us and take care of it.”
“Yes, my goddesses, yes!” he answered worshipfully, wrote the receipt, and went his way. The three looked stunned, but then they all smiled wickedly, knowing that things were going to get interesting. They did not know what gave the energy, but they would figure it out in time. For now, they would have to experiment, but one thing was for sure, and that was that they were back!
The girls made their rounds with all the parents, and it was quite pleasant. Adagio’s mom was very elegant and regal, Aria’s mom was down to earth and welcoming, and Sonata’s mom was bubbly and friendly. Jack’s folks were definitely New York. Moreover, they were all glad that the newcomers to the mane girls were able to make friends so quickly. They were thus overjoyed that the mane girls wanted to throw a party for then and had no hesitation in saying yes to the get together. With that, arrangements were made between Jack and Big Mac to get all their instruments to AJ’s farm, and a time was set.
Then came the day for the party. Pinkie was there well in advance to set things up, and she went hog wild! She had all the concessions ready, arranged the haystacks for a band area, sleeping, sitting spots, and so forth. She was going to make sure this was a time to remember. Bit by bit, everyone was coming in, setting up, and starting to set things up. As they did, they were talking, getting to know one another better, sharing stories, and so forth. In the process, Starlight was gaining a world of knowledge of friends and their interactions, very pleased that these really didn’t differ from those in the pony world. Twilight even brought Spike, but warned him not to speak, considering that the four newcomers were not going to understand a talking dog. However, Spike quickly hooked up with Wynona and Angel, who then went out and started to play the chase game, Angel being the target and putting the skills of the dogs to the test, but all in play.
Before long they began to talk, and it was not long before talking came to music. However, before that happened, Mac and Apple Bloom came in with her two friends holding dinner and laid it out. Yet, the four newcomers didn’t leave. AJ saw Mac and the youngsters take a seat and join them and asked, “Mac, are y’all stayin’?”
“Yyyyep.”
“And the girls, too?”
“Yyyyep.”
AJ wondered why they would even care, and then AJ asked, “Granny don’t trust us?”
“Nnnnnope.”
“Because we’re a bunch a girls and we’ve got one boy here?”
“Yyyyep.”
“Because Jack might feel outa place, or she don’t trust us with him?”
Mac just stuck his and out and gave the, “Comme ci, comme ca,” sign. AJ just rolled her eyes and said, “Really, I can’t believe Granny is thinkin’ like this.”
Mac just smirked and took another sandwich. However, Sweetie Belle looked at the new girls and said, “Those are some…interesting dresses.”
Rarity, to make sure it did not sound like an insult, jumped in and said, “Well, your frocks definitely speak to me of independence and elegance.”
“Indeed, you have quite the eye,” responded Adagio, “You are right on both counts. In fact, the whole point of this is to go counter to modern views on fashion; that beauty must be something revealing. You do not need to do that to display beauty. You can be showy without showing it off, and that good manners and elegance can actually be more attractive than what some fashion today can display.”
Rarity then looked them over and said, “You know, I bet I could make you some dresses that builds off that, but still adds a bit of a modern touch; something that fits inside your tastes and yet makes an even greater statement.”
“Oh, that would be neat!” exclaimed Sonata, “And I bet all of you would look good in that as well.”
Jack just rolled his eyes as the youngsters came up to join the girls while Jack and Mac were having their own conversation, not being into tings like that. Yet, music did end up being the subject, and Jack soon joined in. Fluttershy then showed them some of her songs, and Jack said, “I only wish I had the knack for that.”
Fluttershy blushed from the praise, but then added, “Oh, it’s really not that hard. All you have to do is speak what’s on your heart.”
“Well, I can do that, but it’s the rhyming part that gets to me,” he answered.
Fluttershy pondered it, and then, very quietly and with some hesitance, offered, “Well, um, if it’s okay, and you don’t mind, maybe I, uh, could, you know, look at something you wrote, and, um maybe see if I could make it rhyme.”
“You mean co-write something with me?” he asked.
“Oh, well, if you didn’t mind,” she asked, quieter, thinking he may not like the idea.
“Hey, I think that’d be neat,” he answered, “Maybe I can be a good songwriter like my great uncle.”
“Indeed,” added Aria, “Having some original tunes would be neat, as long as it meets our band’s theme.”
The mane girls, Mac, and the youngsters, looked at Aria, and she said, “That’s actually Jack’s idea.”
They then all looked at him and he said, “Well, there was a group that formed in the late 60’s and performed at Woodstock named “Sha-Na-Na.” They emulated the songs form the 1950’s and early 60’s. We’re looking to do the same thing, except we would do it from the 70’s and early 80’s, since that seems to match our musical tastes.”
Dash just rolled her eyes and said, “Ugh, you’d really do disco?”
“Ah…not really,” answered Jack, “Unless it’s really that good a song, we’re going to avoid that as much as possible. Trust me, there’s enough good pop and rock from that era to work with to where we would not need to go the disco route.”
“What are y’all gonna call yerselves?” asked Apple Bloom.
“We haven’t worked that one out yet,” answered Adagio.
“Well, perhaps we might have something by the end of all this,” offered Twilight, “We just have to see how we all play and what comes out.”
“Speaking of which,” interjected Dash, picking up her axe, “Enough talking. Let’s get playing!”
A cheer went up and they all went to their instruments.
The Rainbooms got started playing some of their songs, but Sunset gave hints to tone things down a bit that they didn’t pony up before the newcomers. They had no idea how they would react. Once they got done, the others jumped in on things like “Heart of Glass”, and “One”, a few of his great uncle’s songs, and such like. The Rainbooms listened, realizing they had heard these songs, but they had no idea who had played them. Jack then said, “We’ve only got as far as Blondie, Three Dog Night, and my great uncle. We have so many more we could choose from, but it’s going to take some time to learn them.”
“But that was awesome!” exclaimed Scootaloo, but then said, “Not to say that you did bad, Rainbow Dash.”
“Hey, I love how you love my…our music,” said Dash, “But that’s not to say you can’t like others.”
Adagio and the others laughed a bit, but she then said, “Do you three sing?”
The youngsters perked up and said as one, “We sure do!”
At that, they started singing one of the songs that Sweetie Belle wrote, and it was clear who, among the three, who was carrying them, namely Sweetie Belle. The others cringed a bit, but Adagio said, “And I think you three have time to really improve, being so young.”
“How did you three become so tight?” Asked Sweetie Belle.
“We…had a lot of time together,” responded Adagio, to which Aria jumped in and was willing to be more straightforward, “We didn’t have a lot of playmates, so we just gelled.”
“We spent hours drilling and learning chords,” Sonata added gleefully, “We even went as far as to even go forehead to forehead, looking at each other’s mouths and practicing getting into sync. We even recorded ourselves, and then sang harmonies to those harmonies.”
Now the Rainbooms, the boys, and the youngsters were stunned, seeing how dedicated to their craft they had been. “Um…well…” said Dash, lost a bit on how to answer, and now had to admit that they needed to be better themselves and to put some more work into their music, as hard as that was for her to say, saying, “I…guess we could practice more too.”
Twilight saw the tension and then said, “Say, can you teach us one of those 80’s songs?”
Sonata then chirped, “I know a group that fits you: The Go-Go’s.”
“Our Lips Are Sealed?” asked Adagio.
The other two girls and Jack all nodded, and the all groups together as the Rainbooms began to learn the chords and rhythm. The youngsters listened closely, learning what they could about this level of music. Starlight and Mac then were just sitting together, lost on what was happening, and Starlight sighed, feeling out of place, and said, “I now feel as out of place as an Elysian hero in the pits of Tartarus.”
Mac was not sure just what he heard, but he figured it had to do something with not being able to follow what was happening, and just gave a reluctant, “Yep.”
It took them about a half hour to put it together, but they really did not notice the time pass as they were so into what they were doing, though Starlight and Mac had both drifted off. “Okay,” said Adagio, “We’ll play along with you, and we’ll just see how it comes out. Twilight, you take the lead.”
She had looked up the lyrics on line and had her phone out to sing from it, and Pinkie counted them off as they started. They had a couple of crash and burns, but instead of becoming frustrated, they just laughed at their fails and started again. Suddenly, it all came together, and both Starlight and Mac woke right up when they stared in and were now nailing it. After the first verse, Sonata joined in, and then the other girls started to blend as well. At the bridge, Fluttershy quietly added the vocal at that part, but because of her shy nature, it was the perfect effect. When they finished, the youngsters, Starlight, and Mac were all applauding. They wanted to get closer, and this was indeed working!
Adagio then said, “Hey, let’s try a few Bangel’s numbers.”
For some reason, they all came up with the same song: “WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN!”
The process began again, but this time, they were so energetic in what they were doing that now Mac and Starlight were getting into it. Once again, another half hour passed by, along with a few false starts, and they kicked into the song with relish. This time, Adagio, then Aria, and then Sonata all took a verse. Yet, as they got deeper into the song, Sunset and Starlight began to feel the familiar sense of Equestrian magic and Sunset was about to try to stop it, but it was too late. They all ponied up. However, Adagio et al didn’t seem to notice, possibly because they were into what they were doing. Yet, the magic began to spread, and now the effect was hitting the others. Out of the backs came the bat-like wings, seeming to do their own versions of ponying up. Jack, on the other hand stopped playing, now stunned on what he was seeing, as was Mac, not having seen this himself before. They then began to improv and extend the ending as they went. When they finished, they all cheered, laughed, and as they calmed, the trio suddenly were coming to the realization as to what had happened. They pointed, speechless, but trying to say something, and then began to look at themselves, and began to point at one another, all saying together, “What happened to you? What happened to me? What’s happening…EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
The Rainbooms then all groaned, worried about their freak out, now not sure what to say, but also knowing that they had much to explain, and not sure how they would do that.