//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: What A Weird Banana // Story: Harmonic Gift From The Stars // by DTavs exe //------------------------------// Two weeks after the console explosion, the repairs completed in the Castle of Friendship, the mane six and Spike were hearing about Pinkie’s visit to Cheese Sandwich’s Amusement Factory and how she helped Cheese recover his laugh. “Oh I almost forgot, I got you a little something from my trip, who likes peanut brittle?” A huge explosion of confetti and streamers filled the entire castle, everyone laughed at the prank, a few moments later when they were laughing no more, Twilight had an announcement to make. “Ok, now that that’s done, I wanted to let you know that my new console arrived yesterday, but that’s not all, something good came from the accident we had two weeks ago, it turns out that the music box is powered by the sun,  all this time it’s been barely charged and that’s why we could only listen to one song before it turned itself off again,” many oohs and aahs could be heard among the other ponies, “what I mean is that now that it is fully charged, we are able to listen to more songs, so I ask you, should we keep this reunions weekly or can we do it more often?” Rainbow was the first to talk, “woa woa woa, let me stop you right there, I know you are all excited for your discovery, but we all have other stuff to do, I think it’s better to keep it weekly.” Rarity stepped up clearing her throat, “I must agree with Rainbow, darling, between the school of friendship, my own career and the occasional adventure, we barely have any time left for other endeavors.” “I guess you are right, I also need to do a lot of things and researching this songs might delay my other studies,” Twilight was a bit down but she understood everypony’s feelings “that being said, why don’t we go down now and hear a song or two?” With a jump, Pinkie got on top of the table, “I would love to, I have time right now, how about everypony else?” some yeahs, nods and mhmms between her friends so it was decided, everyone went down to Twilight’s studio to prepare the music box. ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ Everyone surrounded Twilight while she was preparing the music box and her new console, “Twilight, are you using the same spell? What if the song has many languages again?” Starlight said worried at her friend. Twilight cast the spell on her new console, “don’t worry Starlight, I will modify it and add a limiter, it will only translate the first two languages to Equestrian, others will be translated to the closest fit, that way it won’t return enough magic feedback to overheat the console… ok it’s ready, I actually already picked a song when I was testing if the music box was working, so it wouldn’t be fair if I get another turn, so I’ll wait until we all get a turn again, let’s draw straws.” Next to pick a song was Fluttershy, she approached the music box and used her wing to turn it on, a jolly tune started with a group singing. Fluttershy giggled at the lyrics, it was full of fun, she couldn’t help but softly stomp at the song, “Oh my, this song is ever so cute,” In the background a pink pony couldn’t help it and jumped on the table dancing “YAY, this is my jam!” Everyone was startled and Rarity stud up, “Whatever do you mean, darling? This sounds like it was meant for a kid’s show or a circus,” “I know right? It’s amazing, I love bananas, I love weird names, I love bananas with weird names, I LOVE THIS SONG!” Pinkie said jumping and hugging the music box. Twilight almost lost all color when she saw Pinkie leaping to where the music box were, “PINKIE NO!” she calmed when Pinkie softly landed hugging the music box, how on planet Equum can she bend the rules of physics was beyond her knowledge, she still needed to detach Pinkie from the music box, so Twilight grabbed a newspaper, rolled it and softly hit Pinkie on the ribs making her laugh “No, bad Pinkie, bad, let go of the music box.” Pinkie put on her best puppy eyes, “but Twilight, the music box understands me!” this took Twilight for surprise who couldn’t help but think that was really cute. The purple alicorn regained her composure, she coughed once and talked again, “well, I suppose there is no harm on letting you hug the music box, anyway that song was a bit weird,” Rainbow flew barely containing her laughter, “weird? That song was BANANAS! BWAHAHAHA” she dropped on the floor laughing. “I don’t really think that song was meant for anything else but pure enjoyment, it was pretty fun to listen to,” Starlight added while munching from a donut. Applejack on her seat kept giggling covering her face with her hat, “who, in the hay, would make up a song ‘bout bananas anyway, Ah reckon a song ‘bout apples would be great, pears? still good but bananas? Ah don’t think so y’all.” Rarity accommodated Applejack’s hat and said “Oh Applejack, what did we learn about unfairly criticizing other ponies’ tastes?♪~” “Not mess with Strawberry Sunrise o’ she’ll remove my teeth with a wooden spoon?” Applejack answered and Rarity gave her a stern look, “um… sorry, not to generalize my tastes and not hurt other ponies’ feelings,” Rarity nodded approvingly. “Yeah and you don’t wanna Princess Celestia hear that, she loves bananas, in fact she has several banana pillows hidden in her room,” Spike said laughing, “I bet she would’ve loved this song.” ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ In the castle in Canterlot, Princess Celestia was talking with her assistant when she suddenly sneezed, “Princess Celestia, are you feeling unwell?” Celestia summoned a tissue and cleaned her nose, “I’m quite alright Raven, probably just some dust,” Celestia’s assistance was very diligent and something, even as little as a sneeze alarmed her, “Are you sure, your highness? Should I have the room cleaned for you?” “Don’t worry about it, I said I’m alright… but I could use a banana just about now,” Raven gave the order to bring a banana to the Princess. ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ Back in the castle on friendship, everyone was discussing the song they just heard, “that was pretty short don’t you think?” said Starlight. Pinkie let go of the music box “Yeah, too short if you ask me, LET’S PLAY IT AGAIN!” she went to the console but was stopped by Twilight’s magic. “Not yet Pinkie, maybe later I’ll give you a copy of the song if you behave and promise to not let anypony else listen to it, until we all agree is ok, ok?” Pinkie nodded and made the signs for a Pinkie promise, “that settled, yeah it seems too short for a song, sounded like it was just to present something,” Rarity added some sugar to her tea, “as I previously said, it sounded like a kid’s show or a circus song, maybe it’s meant to present those,” she said and then sipped from her cup. Rainbow was up again after her laughing attack, “I just want to know something, what the hay is a highway?” everypony except one pony shrugged not knowing the answer. Starlight swallowed the last of her donut and then cleared her throat “Well, on the minotaur lands, there’s a lack of magic so they usually compensate with machines, they call highways to wide stone roads meant to be used by several machines at the same time as fast as they can,” Twilight rubbed her jaw, “that’s another similarity they have with minotaurs, I’m starting to think this aliens might be related to minotaurs.” “You think minotaurs are aliens Twilight?” Pinkie asked “by the way can you put me down?” Twilight had forgotten to release Pinkie from her magic, “sorry Pinkie, but no, I don’t think they are the aliens, that was just a random thought anyway, that was too short do you guys wanna hear another song?” While Rainbow sipped from her soda she nodded, Applejack did the same, Rarity said “I suppose I could stay for a little bit more,” “Well I live here and finished my chores,” Spike said and Starlight agreed. Finally Pinkie and Fluttershy also agreed to stay, “but who will press the button now, do we draw straws again or let Fluttershy do it?” Rainbow asked. Fluttershy stepped up, “I don’t mind letting somepony else get a turn,” Everyone else nodded, “well I guess is decided then, let’s draw again,” with that everyone, except those who already had a turn, picked the sticks resulting on Starlight’s turn to press it. Surprised Starlight approached the music box, “it feels like I just picked my last song, I hope is something great again, hopefully some metal,” she said rubbing her spiked shocker, she pressed the button and a rambunctious piano started playing. “Wow not metal but this is good,” Starlight said listening to the song. Applejack giggle at the lyrics “WOO-wee, now that’s what Ahm talkin’ bout, let dem babies grow to be cowboys y’all,” Twilight seemed a bit disappointed, “it seems that this is another song for the sake of fun,” “Is there something wrong Twilight?” Fluttershy asked her friend. Twilight snapped and directed her attention to Fluttershy, “don’t worry about it, I was just hopping about a more informative song, and this one just list things that you shouldn’t do,” “I know right? IT’S AMAZING! I wish I could sing along but that would put the author in problems for putting copyrighted lyrics on the story… I mean I don’t know the lyrics.” Pinkie said earning a weird look from everyone else. Rainbow was scratching her head deep in thought, “don’t you guys think that voice sounds familiar?” Everyone else put attention to the song and Spike said, “yeah it does sound familiar, but I can’t put my claw on it.” Meanwhile everyone was trying to find out why they kinda recognize the voice, Pinkie was dancing and humming at the tune of the song, “who cares, this songs speaks to me, it’s like it was made thinking of ME!”   Everyone looked at Pinkie but had to recognize that she was right, the lyrics were meant to follow the exact opposite of what common sense dictates how you should behave and what is more Pinkie than that. When the song ended the music box screen when back to a dark background with the symbol of two vertical lines surrounded by a circle, “I'm pretty sure that symbol means stop,” said Twilight while turned her recording console off. Starlight started levitating the empty dishes putting them on a pile “now that I think about it, that's an inefficient way to reproduce music, having to press play every time you want to listen to a song? seem like a hassle for me,“ ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ Planet Earth, year 20XX A.D. A summer day, the sun shines, the beaches of Veracruz washed by the water of the Gulf of Mexico, full of bikinis and sand castles, a pair of friends enjoyed a vacation day, far from their jobs and their worries, enjoying tequila and some tropical fruit. The man wearing a speedo was listening to Mexico by Dick Dale while picking a mango and peeling it to enjoy its sweetness, “are you sure you don't want a mango, Suzy?“ Walter offered a mango to his good friend Suzanne, both on vacation for the next two weeks, decided to go to Mexico and enjoy a beach day. Suzanne was laying on a towel under a big umbrella, a hat covered her face, you could only see her wearing a flower patterned bikini, she moved the hat to reply to her friend, “No Walter, I don't want one of your mangoes, they are too sweet and too ripe, I don't want to have my face full of juice and be eaten by mosquitoes later,“ she put the hat back on her face. Walter laughed putting the mango away, “come on Suzy, you don't have to be all that grumpy, our vacation just started and I won't let you bring any toxicity to the trip, tell me what's eating you?“ “Nothing,“ “Come on,“ “I said nothing,“ “You know you can't lie to me Suzy, I can read you like a program code,“ “I hate you,“ “I see, I'm sorry it didn't worked out with Armando, but you need to get over it,“ Suzanne removed the hat, directed herself to Walter and held him by the shoulders shaking him, “I WAS REALLY SURE HE WAS THE ONE! All the signals were there and he just dumped me like I was a dirty towel,“ Recovered from the shakedown, Walter fixed Suzanne's glasses, “aww come on, it's not that bad.“ “Not that bad? I haven't been able to keep a boyfriend for more than a month in MY LIFE! I'm going to live the rest of my life alone with twenty cats, screaming at my noisy neighbors, nobody will be there to listen to me, I'll be all alone,“ Suzanne dropped herself on the sand weeping a bit. “Gee, thanks, I didn't know I was invisible“ sarcastically said Walter. “You know what I mean, you will eventually find a girl you like, get married, have a bunch of kids and won't ever have time for me anymore.“ “Gosh Suzy, we've known each other since we are what? five? do you really think I'll abandon you for someone else? Believe me when I tell you that I'll be always here for you.“ Suzanne lifted her face and looked at Walter's eyes, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a bone crushing hug, “thank you, I think that's what I needed to hear, you are the best friend a girl could have,“ Walter wrapped his arms around her too, “Yeah, the best friend ever,“ he said almost whispering, at that moment the song ended, Walter broke the hug, “oh I need to put the next song.“ Suzanne looked annoyed, “what's with you and programming those to play one song at the time? that's stupid, why don’t you program it to just play the next one automatically?“ Walter clicked the remote control, “and let them have the liberty to play the next song? NEVER, the machines will eventually take over the world but I refuse to let them decide if I want to listen to another song or not,“ “You are an idiot, you know?“ “I love you too Suzy.“ Both laughed and enjoyed the rest of their vacation. ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ Planet Equum, year 10XX A.S. With a spell, Twilight wrapped the leftovers and teleported them to the kitchen, “you are right, but I'm sure there is a valid reason for the music box to be designed like that,“ everyone headed to their respective houses to handle their own devices. ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ In her room, Pinkie was telling all her recent adventures to Gummy, “and then two of the most amazing songs I ever heard came from the music box, I danced and everypony was laughing, and then I came here and tell you about my day,“ Gummy licked his eyeballs, “you are right gummy *yawn* I should get to bed right now, I can tell you all about today, tomorrow as well,“ Pinkie jumped landing on her bed, this ejected pajamas from the pillow which she jumped into, landing on her bed just before the bed sheets fell on her, immediately falling asleep snoring. A couple of minutes passed and suddenly Pinkie woke up sitting on her bed, “the song, the second one, the one about daring to be stupid... I forgot to ask Twilight for a copy too,” she once again fell on the bed and slept peacefully for the rest of the night, dreaming about one Pinkie, two Pinkies, three Pinkies, four♫ all daring to be stupid until they can no more♪ To be continued