//------------------------------// // Just Girls Talking About Song Misuse II // Story: Just Girls Talking // by MythrilMoth //------------------------------// "So you girls remember a while back when we were talkin' about songs that don't mean what we think they mean?" The girls all looked at Rainbow Dash, who seemed unusually exasperated as she sat down on the plinth by the portal, arms crossed and a sour expression on her face. "Yeah, it was when you had that song from The Lego Movie as your ringtone, right?" Sunset asked. "What about it?" Rainbow grimaced. "My dad's latched onto this one song..." * * * * * "Some day, I'll wear...pajamas in the dayTIME!" Bow Hothoof crooned chipperly as he wandered around the house oiling door hinges and tightening loose screws. As he passed by Rainbow's room, she looked up from her tablet with an annoyed groan. "Will ya give it a rest with that song, Dad?" "No can do, hon!" Bow said with a grin. "You know I'm taking early retirement next week! I can't wait! This song is so what I'm gonna do! Well, except for the T.S. Eliot part. I'd rather read the sports page. But just sitting around drinking coffee and reading the paper, not changing out of my jammies all day? Yeah, that sounds like the life for me..." Rainbow gave him a flat stare. "Dad? Have...have you listened to any of the words to that song except the chorus? I mean, really listened?" Bow tilted his head and hummed. "Nah, not really," he said. "I just like that dude's deep voice, and I really dig that chorus! Soooome daaay, I'll have—" Rainbow groaned and slammed her face into her open palm. * * * * * "And it's like, all he cares about is the part that sounds like his ideal retirement, but the rest of the song's just humming noise to him, and it bugs the crap outta me!" Rainbow ranted. The other girls frowned. "Okay," Sunset said, "and what's the song really about? Because I've honestly never heard of it." "I haven't either," Fluttershy said, looking it up on her phone. "Oh wow, no wonder. It's really, really old." Twilight Sparkle frowned. "It's not that old," she said as she searched the song as well. "I mean, sure, none of us were even born yet when it came out, but..." "Oh wow, that's not a happy song at all," Pinkie said, her curls deflating as she took out her earbuds. "I mean, it kind of is? It's like, the singer's not letting it get to him and the song's really upbeat and all? But...wow..." "I...I see why it disturbs you so, Rainbow Dash," said Rarity as she removed her own earbuds. The other girls were now listening to the song as well and frowning thoughtfully. "Yeah," Rainbow said. "I don't like listenin' to my perfectly healthy except for a busted shoulder dad singin' a song about dying of lung cancer all the time." "You know, I've been getting fed up with commercials using songs that just aren't right lately," Fluttershy said. "I mean, like that one car commercial. What's that even supposed—I mean—how's that even work? Are they trying to market their car as being the devil? Or that the devil drives their car? What?" "Huh? What's that?" Applejack asked. "Ah kinda ignore commercials. Course, Ah kinda don't watch that much TV neither." "Oh, well...there's a bunch of commercials for this new car that use the Rolling Stones' 'Sympathy for the Devil'," Fluttershy explained. "Except they only use the very beginning and the chorus. You know, 'Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste'..." "'Pleased to meet you, hope you guess my name,'" Sunset finished. "Maybe the guys who came up with the ad are so young they don't know what that song's about, or hope the audience they're trying to sell the car to is too young to know the song? I mean, it's a pretty old song." "It's a classic song," Rainbow countered. "And yeah, that's...that's just weird." "I had to stop going to my favorite party store because one of their commercials really ticked me off," Pinkie Pie said. "They use the opening of this really, really nasty rap song in a commercial full of little girls and pink balloons and stuff, like...I don't know," she said. "I mean, just because the song's called 'Party Up'..." She gestured expansively. "It's so dumb!" "I don't know that song," Twilight said with a frown. "You don't wanna know that song," Pinkie said. "It's basically about a gangbanger raging out threatening to kill a whole bunch of other gangbangers." The others stared at her. "And...and they use that in a commercial that features children?!" Rarity exclaimed, aghast. "Just the 'safe' part of the song," Pinkie said. "Which is only about like, fifteen seconds of it." "Man, what the heck is wrong with ad people?" Rainbow wondered, shaking her head. "There's dozens of articles online about this kind of thing," Twilight said, looking at her phone. "Apparently, it's pretty common—has been for a while." "Ah know that there ad for them fancy cruises uses a song about shootin' up drugs," Applejack put in. "That one's been around for ages." "How about any use of 'Welcome to the Jungle' EVER?" Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed. "I mean, how many movies, TV shows, and video games have used that song with absolutely no awareness?" "Oooh, yeah, good example!" Pinkie said. "Or using 'Crazy Train' as a sports anthem," Rainbow said. "That bugs the crap outta me. When I got to CHS, the baseball team was usin' it. I put a stop to that shit." Fluttershy stared at her incredulously. "Uh, Rainbow Dash? You replaced it with 'Song 2'. That's...that's not exactly any better." Rainbow blew on her bangs. "Yeah, well the football team uses 'Tubthumping', so..." "Are we getting off subject here?" Twilight wondered. "Were we ever on subject?" Applejack countered. "What even was the subject?" Pinkie wondered. "Wonky songs in ads," Sunset pointed out. "Oh yeah," Pinkie said. "Oh! How about any ad with 'Sister Christian' in it ever?" "Or that one EMF song," Rarity said, lips thinning. "They sell cheese cubes with that song, of all things." She frowned. "But Pinkie Pie's example about the rap song in the party commercial, I think that...that pretty much tops the list. What were they thinking?" * * * * * Lily Pad, wearing a pink, frilly unicorn-themed party dress, stood over the fallen body of a girl in a blue fairy princess dress, a pistol held loosely in her hand as she stared with cold eyes. A black SUV screeched up to the curb next to her. The passenger door flew open. Another nine-year-old girl leaned out from the driver's seat. "We gotta bounce, Li'l P!" Lily Pad nodded and hopped into the SUV, which roared off into the night, veering crazily on the road and bouncing on its suspension as its speakers shook the ground.