When she returned to the castle, Sunset Shimmer asked the concierge where the music room was for practice. She was directed to a medium sized room on the second floor, with smaller individual practice rooms, which were all lined with acoustic foam padding. It reminded her of Canterlot High's band room, except surprisingly more organized than she almost always saw the school's.
She spotted a small, 20-watt amp that looked like it wasn't being used, and picked it up, taking it over to the practice room all the way on the right. She set the amp down, plugged it in, and then gently set her guitar case on the floor, and unlatched it, taking out the sunburst Flying V guitar. She went into a sitting position, and put the strap around her shoulder, cradling the neck in her left hoof.
This was something she hadn't just been thinking about the past few days; she remembered writing to Twilight earlier on in her senior year about what would be okay to bring back with her, and how she would approach playing guitar as a unicorn, and the princess had suggested a few ideas.
Well, when your Friendship Games over there ripped open the portals all over, Lyra, a friend of mine, got a pretty good look at the bipedal forms over there, and became immediately fascinated with hands. I'm no guitar player, but if you think it would take too long to re-learn as a unicorn, maybe you could talk to her, I hear she's working on a conjuration spell that gives her magic hands.
Talking to Lyra Heartstrings now was quite impossible, obviously, but with all the experiences she had with hands, some conjured digits couldn't be that hard to put together.
There were three forms of spellcasting that she had learned about while in Celestia's school; verbal, motion, and mental. All spells used at least one, and some used two or all three, all depending on the nature of the magic and its use. Almost all conjuration spells were verbal and mental, as you had to clearly picture what you wanted to create out of thin air.
Getting as relaxed as she could in her sitting position, Sunset took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to concentrate and clear her mind.
"Creo," she whispered as energy began to course through her horn. She thought back to her bipedal form, sitting up in her room, getting ready to practice, reaching for the neck of her guitar...
She felt the weight on the guitar strap shift slightly, and she opened her eyes, and didn't let her mild surprise break her concentration, as she saw two transparent, disembodied hands; the left holding the guitar neck and the right one resting by her hoof by the pickups. Taking another breath, she 'reached' down into her case, with the right hand floating down and coming back up with her carbon fiber guitar pick that Flash had given her.
Having a third pair of limbs that were ethereal and floating was quite surreal, almost like being in both forms at once. Over the next several seconds, she began to recall all the frets, fingerings, and chords for all the songs she played with her friends...
Pipp stepped off of the elevator out onto the second floor. After knocking on the guest suite that Sunset was staying in and not receiving any answer, she checked with the castle concierge, and informed her that their guest was directed to the music room. She walked up to the double doors and pushed them open, and immediately heard the faint electrical chords coming from the practice room in the back corner, and saw the back of Sunset's mane through the window. The unicorn was grooving to the music, and her horn was glowing with her orange aura of magic. Crossing the room, she stood by the window, and saw Sunset with her instrument, but it didn't look like she was doing anything with her hooves.
Pipp tapped gently on the window to announce her presence, and the unicorn turned her head to see her visitor. With a smile, Pipp opened the door and stepped halfway inside. Sunset turned to her completely, and Pipp's eyes widened.
Sunset's expression was entirely elated, and her instrument hung by a strap around her neck and shoulder, with glowing... Claws, holding the long wooden neck and holding a small thin plectrum down in front of the strings on the body.
"That's... New," Pipp said, and Sunset saw that the pegasus was unable to pull her eyes away from her conjured digits.
"Right, some explanation probably. These are hands. The world I was in was filled with bipedal creatures that had these. I thought I would have to spend months relearning how to play with telekinetic magic, but this is so much better!"
"I see," Pipp replied, trying to wrap her head around it. "Your music sounds full of energy. I'd love to hear more of it soon. I'm actually rehearsing most of tomorrow for a concert. Would you... Be interested in maybe joining us?" Pipp asked.
The 'hand' holding the plectrum floated down to the open instrument case and deposited it in a small compartment, and then both dissipated, and the glow around her horn faded momentarily before she took the entire instrument in her magic, and slowly levitated it off of herself, and set it down gently into the case, before closing the lid and latching it closed.
"Well, it's more than just me, I played in a band. And I only have a six-string, not a bass, and that's generally required, although you could probably substitute in a keyboard for the bass part, and I've seen some of those around here... When I get back to my suite, I'll dig out some of the sheet music, and you can take a look at it."
The princess smiled, and gave the unicorn a nod.
"Sounds great, now I'm famished, let's go get something to eat!"