Applejack finished swinging her legs off the chest of drawers she was sat on and crossed them as if to further her concentration.
“So if the sirens’ magic hasn’t gone, then where is it now?” she asked.
“The only tangible remains of their presence would be their gem pendants” explored Twilight, “You remember, they were bright red?”
“Oh, such a divine colour” swooned Rarity, “Somewhere between ruby and cherry with a hint of garnet. Ooooh!”
“Enough with the fashion already” interrupted Applejack.
“I shall ignore that comment under the circumstances” retorted Rarity, tossing her head so that her hair cascaded with a well-practiced flourish.
After a theatrical pause, she continued, gushing with renewed enthusiasm, “But they really were so utterly beautiful that I simply couldn’t allow the little pieces to be thrown away. So I kept them ….”
All around the room, mouths dropped open in shock as if she had just kicked a puppy.
“Only for colour matching purposes …” she simpered, the condemnation in the room evident.
“Well done Rarity!” cheered Twilight, breaking the awkward silence, “This could be just what we need!”
Shocked silence turned into an approving murmur as she could see heads nodding in approval. Rarity shot Twilight a silent “thank you” and went on to bask in her unexpected triumph.
“So where are these pieces, Rarity?”
“Back at mine, darling” she gushed.
“OK” said Applejack, “With you so far, but how’re you gonna get what’s in them broken stones into that there crown?”
“Oh I have an idea” chimed in Sunset, “Remember how the counterspell had to be delivered through music? Well, I’d take a guess that these respond to music too.”
“So what do we do” asked Rainbow, “Sing to them?”
“Well, unless there’s any better ideas – yes!” agreed Twilight, “How quickly can you arrange a band session?”
“Gimme an hour tops and we’ll be ready to go” said Rainbow.
“Rarity, how long will it take you to collect the gemstone shards?”
“Well darling, it depends if some handsome young man with a rather attractive black sports car would care to give me a lift across town …” replied Rarity, turning to bat her eyelids seductively at Flash, who immediately went bright red.
“Great idea, if that’s OK with you Flash” agreed Twilight.
By the time the band had arrived at the practice studio just a little over half an hour later, it was already dark.
“Right” said Twilight, “This is going to be a little different from usual. We’re going to be doing a spell casting, so we set everything up in a circle to focus the energy into the centre.”
“We didn’t do that when we totally whooped their sorry butts during the Battle of the Bands!” observed Rainbow.
“That’s because we were all lined up facing the sirens” explained Twilight, “This is different; we’re directing the magical energy onto a few small objects, so we all need to focus our power.”
“You mean we’ll have to play so well that we pony up?” asked Fluttershy, “Oh, I do hope I’m up to it…”
“You will be, Sugarcube” assured the stetson wearing cowgirl, “Now Twilight; you just tell us where you want this stuff.”
Twilight got Pinkie to hold the end of a piece of string in the centre of the room and then walked round, keeping the string taut as she chalked a perfect circle on the floor.
“Well, I’ll be …” observed Applejack wryly, watching Twilight’s improvisation at work.
Once the circle was drawn, Twilight made an assessment of the sun’s angle for the time of day and deduced the position of north, directing that the drumkit be placed there, and then marking off seven positions around the circle for the various band members with the amps in between.
The result was not exactly a layout that any of them had seen before. Even if it looked odd, everyone present had supreme faith in Twilight as she directed ‘a place for everything and everything in its place.’
Once they had completed the sound check, Rainbow slung her guitar strap over her shoulder and turned to Twilight, “So, what song we gonna play?” adding under her breath, “Make it Awesome as I Wanna Be, make it Awesome as I Wanna Be …”
“I think we should do all of them that were performed that day, and do them in order” replied Twilight, “Because that is how the power built up in the gems in the first place.”
She knelt down in the middle of the circle and placed the glistening shards next to her crown, then stood back to doublecheck that everything was in its proper place.
She cast her eyes around her friends, all looking eager with their instruments ready.
“I just want to say thank you” she said, “To all of you. Now let’s rock this joint!”
Pinkie picked up straight away, hitting her sticks together and calling out “one, two!”, cueing the vocalists to start the band off with “Shake Your Tail”.
In no time, all the friends had ponied up and were obviously enjoying themselves immensely for the sheer joy of playing together. No costumes to get sabotaged, no spotlights victimising the tambourine player, and above all, no sirens. They were good. They were tight.
By the time Rainbow got into her shredding guitar solo for “Awesome as I Wanna Be”, Twilight could see that the lustrous red shards had melted and were migrating into her crown. It was working!
She caught Sunset’s eye and nodded to the centre so she could see it too. Sunset smiled broadly and gave a thumbs up sign as they prepared to sing her memorable tour de force “I’ve Got the Music in Me” and belted it out with a passion and belief that she hadn’t felt since the Battle of the Bands.
The last of the little red pools of magic disappeared, absorbed into their new home just before the end of the song, and although all the band members were playing their hearts out, one by one they all gently drifted back to the floor, their ears and tails receding and wings melting away. They all noticed it; the feeling of normalness that they usually transcended when they played together. When the song ended, they looked around at each other, saying nothing. Then Fluttershy threw her hands up to cover her face, dropping her tambourine as she ran off to find somewhere quiet.
“Did you know that was going to happen, Sugarcube?”
Twilight looked down sadly, unable to meet her friend’s gaze.
“The magic that made you pony up came from Equestria, came from this crown. It’s taken back what belongs to it.
“But our beautiful ears and those lavish tails …” whined Rarity, “You mean, we’ll never get to see them again?”
“That magic only came in to your world by accident. If the crown had never come here in the first place you would have never experienced ponying up at all.”
“And those nasty sirens wouldn’t have had any Equestrian magic to make themselves powerful either” chipped in Pinkie.
Twilight sat down on the floor and put her hands to her face, sobbing softly, “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, but it has to be this way. Your world should never have had this magic in the first place …”
“Well, if anyone’s to blame, it’s me” said Sunset, “I stole the crown and brought it here.”
“Yeah” confirmed Rainbow with a glint in her eye, “And it’s been a blast. She-demon, sirens, like how awesome was that! If you hadn’t, can you imagine how boring the last year would have been?”
Sunset was relieved that none of her friends harboured any anger, and even Fluttershy came back to give her a hug.
“Thanks you guys” she smiled as one by one her friends drew together and joined a group hug.
Twilight stayed sat where she was, staring at the crown before her. She now had to find a way of releasing its power to defeat Nightmare Moon; there was little in her mind to celebrate yet.
Applejack looked down at the one band member who wasn’t joining in, but was sat morosely on the floor. Gently, she peeled herself away from her friends and walked over, leaning down and extending a hand. “Now, you know I’m not much of one for reading an’ all, but I remember seeing a quote, went something like this - don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. Sounds like that fits us all right about now. Come on up Twilight, it ain’t a proper hug without you.”