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// Incident Two: Calm Before the Storm 
// Story: Ponyville Adjusts To Starlight 
// by The REAL Mister Pkmn 
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Starlight was still seeing red. However, Thunder tried to broach the subject. “Hey, at least he’s kept in touch, Star. He could’ve just ignored us outright. Just be glad he bothered to set aside time to send a letter at all.”

While Starlight reasoned that she had a point, she was still a bit mad. She needed something to take out this anger with. After all, bottling it up was probably unhealthy. She considered her options until she got an idea… and smirked widely. “I know how to get this venom out of my system…” She lit her horn, and tapped a button on one of the finished walls. She was glad that she insisted that this room be finished first. The wall separated into sections, and started to look like one of those carnival shooting galleries. The aesthetic was finished when cardboard targets popped up. She grinned as the glow of her horn intensified. “This ought to be good…”

She shot a few spells at the targets in quick succession, making sure to not fire anything that would damage the walls. Her friends were watching as she kept on attacking, noticing that her mood was starting to improve. After hitting all 20 of the targets, she let out a content sigh. “I do feel better after that. I’ll probably use it many times in the future, but whatever works, am I right?” She turned to her friends, feeling much better about herself. “So! What should we do today?”

They were still a bit stunned by how she dealt with her anger at the situation- though they weren’t against it, per se. It was a bit unconventional, but if it helped, it was worth it. Berry recovered the quickest from the shock, and suggested something to do while Starlight’s new house was being finished. “I know! My place has this fun-looking new invention from Neighpon called a ‘karaoke machine’. We should totally test it out!”

The others whispered amongst themselves, unsure what it was she was talking about. Crescendo decided to be the one to question what it was. “So, what is this… Karaoke machine, anyway?”

Berry only grinned wider. “Oh, I’m sure that you’ll like it the most, Crescendo.” She then started to lead them to her place, and the group followed along. “After all, aside from Maestro, you are the most musically inclined of us.”

At that, Crescendo hurried the group along to Berry’s house. “Now I just gotta see this thing!”

Once there, they entered to the lobby of the business portion of her home. In the back left corner there was a stage, and on it was a strange contraption. It looked like some sort of box with a screen on it, and it had a microphone attached to each side. Berry went onto the stage, and turned to the others. “Alright girls, allow me to demonstrate! First, there are a few buttons on the front. The arrows scroll through the songs on the machine. The Green button is for playing the selected song, and the red one is to stop it. The lyrics will appear on screen, and the words will light up when they’re supposed to be sung into the microphones. Each song is either intended to be a solo or a duet, and it will be listed as such.”

They seemed to get it, and most of them were a bit excited about it. Starlight was not, however. She didn’t like singing in front of others, it was embarrassing! Luckily for her, berry decided to be the one to go first, giving Starlight opportunity to peruse the bar. The song began, and Berry sung along to the tune- a pop piece that Starlight was indifferent to, thank goodness. However, Berry missed a few notes, getting a bit of a chuckle out of the girls- but Berry didn’t mind one bit. This perplexed Starlight a bit. Why would she be so comfortable with others laughing at her singing?

After Berry finished the song and got off the stage, Thunder and Serenity went onstage together. They picked a song they were unfamiliar with, one that Starlight could only guess at the genre of. The two made more mistakes than Berry had, but they were having fun with it. They didn’t mind messing up in front of everyone, and this puzzled Starlight greatly. They were missing a lot of notes, and yet they didn’t mind.

The two got off the stage, and Crescendo and Cherry went on stage together. They chose a song, and sung rather well- Crescendo didn’t miss a note, but Cherry did a few times. Despite this, the two worked well together in the song. Frankly, Starlight was surprised at this. Maybe they were okay being slightly off in front of their friends? This seemed like the only explanation that Starlight could think of.

As those two got off, attention turned to Starlight. At first, she was a bit oblivious to it. That was, until Berry went up to her. “Hey, you should go up there too!”

At this, Starlight choked a little on her drink. After a bit of a coughing fit, she responded. “Me? Oh, no. I’d rather not, really. I’m content with watching you guys do it.”

Thunder snorted in amusement. “Hey, you can’t be any worse than Serenity and me. We screwed up so hard!” At that, the group had a good-natured chuckle.

Starlight considered it for a moment, but again refused. “Really, that’s alright. I don’t like singing in front of others. It’s… embarrassing.”

Even so, they wouldn’t give up on it. Crescendo spoke up. “Come on, Star. Just this once, alright? We won’t bother you about it again if you do. So please, won’t you sing for us?”

Starlight felt awkward as they chanted “Just this once!” over and over. Surly it wouldn’t be so bad in front of a small group, right? After a bit of inner deliberation, she relented. “Alright! I’ll do it!” They cheered, and she went on stage. As she scrolled through the songs, she spoke. “Just… don’t laugh.” The girls nodded fervently, and Starlight finally settled on a song she recognized. Taking a deep breath, she pressed play on the machine, and went with it. She felt good. She toned it perfectly, and didn’t even miss a word. She didn’t even feel self-conscious about others watching her. As she looked on their stunned faces, she smiled a bit. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all. She finished the song, and the girls cheered at her performance. They wanted an encore, but she refused. She was tired, and it was getting late. So, the girls went home after saying good night. Starlight looked up to her finished ceiling of her bedroom for a while as she lay in bed. She had never quite had such an experience before. She smiled. Maybe doing things she was uncomfortable with weren’t so bad as long as he had some friends to help her. Smiling at the thought, she drifted off to sleep.