//------------------------------// // ~ 2 ~ 01 ~ Tuned Out // Story: If I Could Love Again... // by Petalled //------------------------------// It had been a few months since Twilight had to go to another world to retrieve her crown and it had been a few months since she had kissed her crush even though they were married to her brother; her brother didn't mind. Twilight sat in the throne room of the castle she earned after unlocking a six-key lock chest with her friends. It had only been a week since they got the castle. Her eyes were skimming through a book while her friends were doing their own stuff, such as Rarity sewing onto a dress, Rainbow Dash napping on her throne, Pinkie Pie blowing through a balloon, and Spike reading through his Power Ponies comic. Peace filled the air until a huge crate moved into the room as Applejack and Fluttershy helped the mail pony. ''Excuse me, princess,'' he said. ''Where do you want me to put all these books from Princess Celestia?'' ''The library,'' Twilight answered lively as if it was an obvious question. ''Third door to the left.'' ''Even the one up there vibrating?'' he asked, looking up. Twilight put down her book for now and glanced up to see a buzzing book at the very top of the pile. She used her magic to levitate it towards her where her friends came around as she started flipping through pages until she stopped at one when she found out it was the last page with a text. ''It looks like a message to Princess Celestia from my friends at Canterlot High.'' ''How is that even possible?'' Rarity asked. ''I have no idea but,'' Twilight said, looking through it again, ''it sounds like they need my help.'' They got to the library where Twilight picked out a book about three mythical creatures that Sunset had described. She laid it flat out on the table to show everyone and explained its backstory of it. ''That world must be the one where my Canterlot High friends live,'' Twilight concluded as panic got to her face. ''But Starswirl must have sent them there ages ago,'' Applejack pointed out, confusion adding to her expression. ''How come they're just surfacing now?'' ''I don't know, but if my hunch is right, and it is the Sirens who have come to Canterlot High, this spell they've cast is just the beginning.'' She closed the book and walked away. ''My friends need me. I have to get back to them.'' Rainbow spread out her wings and landed in front of Twilight. ''I hate to burst your bubble, Twilight, but the connection between their world and Equestria will still be totally cut off for a super long time.'' Pinkie zoomed in on their faces. ''Okay, first of all, if there was bubble-blowing going on, why wasn't I told about it? And secondly, if the connection is totally cut off, how was Sunset Shimmer able to get a message to Twilight?'' Twilight gasped. ''Pinkie, you're a genius.'' ''Yeah, I get that a lot,'' Pinkie said, pulling Rainbow Dash by the neck. ''Now about those bubbles!'' Twilight walked across the library as she levitated all kinds of objects, her friends looking at her with curiosity. She tried mending her equipment together, eventually, there was a mirror with machines connected to it. When she finished, she began explaining it with scientific terms which got everyone jumbled, however, Pinkie Pie summed it up for all of them. The journal then levitated over and was placed on top of the mirror where all the wirings went through an electrical current, eventually causing the mirror to flash a bright pink which meant open. Everyone was amazed at it, and Applejack asked, ''don't suppose we could join you this time around?'' ''Better not,'' Twilight said, unfortunately. ''It could make things pretty confusing if Canterlot High all of a sudden had two of all of you.'' Everyone looked at each other, then back at Twilight, nodding in understanding. ''But I still get to go, right?'' Spike asked, puffing out his chest. ''There isn't another one of me at Canterlot High and you never know when you might need your trusty assistant.'' Twilight nodded to him which got him excited, then she assured the others that it wouldn't take them long and they all came into a group hug. Eventually, they broke apart and Twilight got in position with Spike to get ready and run through the mirror together. Through another dizzying tube that Twilight and Spike are not sure they will get the hang of, they reached the end of it where they fell to the ground and met all five of their friends' counterparts, then a hand reached out for Twilight where she stared at it and smiled, taking it as she stood up from the ground. Sunset blushed a bit, feeling something buzz between the friction as both their hands met and touched. All of Twilight's friends' counterparts ran up to bring her in a group, long-time hug. ''Hey, girls,'' Twilight greeted back before putting on a serious expression as she explained, ''I have some bad news about those three new girls.'' ''Oh, I do hate that you had to return at a time of crisis,'' Rarity pouted after everyone relocated to a nearby cafe. ''We have so much catching up to do!'' Twilight smiled, rehearing a similar sentence in her head. One of these days we need to get together when the fate of Equestria isn't hanging in the balance. ''For starters,'' Applejack chimed in with a shameless grin, ''a certain blue-haired guitar player was just asking about you.'' ''Isn't that nice,'' Twilight said as she made slurping noises when drinking her milkshake through her straw, trying to sound uninterested because she was. Rarity picked up her teacup, her pinky finger pointing out. ''Perhaps you could give us just the slightest bit of gossip from your world?'' ''She's got an official title now,'' Spike replied, later using his doggy biscuit as a trumpet before announcing: ''The Princess of Friendship!'' Sunset looked surprised. ''That's really impressive.'' Her eyes averted downward. ''Guess you really were Princess Celestia's prized pupil.'' ''She even got her own castle,'' Spike added. ''A castle?!'' Rarity shouted out, pulling Twilight by the shoulders and spilling her (Twilight's) drink in the process. She looked around and cleared her throat at her indignance before wiping Twilight's shirt with a towel. Twilight turned to the others. ''What's new here? I mean besides your school becoming the target of dangerous magical creatures from Equestria.'' Sunset rubbed her arm in offense to that, but Twilight didn't notice this as Rainbow Dash brought out her phone and showed the latter a video of her transforming with pony ears, wings, and tail which surprised her much as the others were. Twilight rubbed her chin and put down her drink as she started talking out her thoughts on why this might be. ''...We can use that magic on the sirens, just like we were able to use it on Sunset Shimmer when she turned into that horrifyingly awful winged monster!'' Twilight finished, lowering her hands as she glanced at Sunset with a cleared throat. ''No offense.'' Sighing, Sunset rolled her eyes. ''None taken. I'm used to it.'' ''Any idea where the Dazzlings might be?'' Twilight asked afterward, getting back to the topic at hand. Pinkie tapped her on the shoulder from behind, getting watched to finish up her milkshake before she could begin. ''There's a big party tonight for all the bands who signed up to be in the showcase. That would include the Dazzlings.'' Twilight turned to the others, then brought a napkin to wipe Pinkie's face. ''Looks like we've got a party to crash,'' she said, which brought a big smile to Pinkie's face. At the school gym, the party was like a silent auction where people would only give others glares occasionally. Flash went ahead to get some punch when all of a sudden he bumped into someone he didn't know he'd meet again despite a promise. He caught her just in time before she could fall, his hand around her waist. ''Twilight?'' he said, surprised. Nervously, Twilight twiddled with words. ''Bumped into always doing...'' ''What are you doing here?'' he asked, bringing her back up as a sense of happiness filled his voice when he saw her again. ''You came back for the big friendly competition, right?'' ''Something like that,'' Twilight said unsurely before getting drowned in his talking about his band winning. It hadn't been long since he confessed to her about his feelings and she felt guilty for toying him on and he already had enough of that with another girl. Thankfully, she was tapped on the shoulder by her friend Rainbow Dash who urged her to look in the direction where the three new girls were. She excused herself as she followed her friends. Alas, in the middle of the Dazzlings' talk, Twilight and her friends excluding Sunset got ready in formation and exclaimed: ''There isn't going to be a Battle of the Bands!'' Twilight looked around her friends with a determined face, all of them holding their hands. ''Friendship... is... magic...!'' Twilight exclaimed as they prepared themselves but they only found themselves to be in a room of silence where people were watching them with dumbfounded looks at this unforeseen act. ''Weren't there rainbows and lasers and stuff last time?'' Rainbow whispered to Twilight after she blinked an eye open to see nothing happening. ''I don't understand,'' Twilight mumbled, glancing around. ''We're all together again. Why isn't this working?'' Spike climbed upon Twilight's shoulder to whisper in her ear: ''You, uh, really need to go ahead and do that whole 'magic of friendship' thing now.'' ''I'm trying, Spike,'' she told him. ''I thought the six of us standing together against the sirens would bring out the magic we needed to defeat them. That's what happened before.'' ''Talk about throwing down the gauntlet,'' Adagio said at the top of her voice to have all eyes lay on her. ''This group is obviously serious about winning. A little cocky though, aren't they? Claiming there won't really be a battle. Seems they think they've already got this thing all locked up.'' ''Not if the Great and Powerful Trixie has anything to do with it!'' Trixie shouted out, which caused conflict between the people, a gust of green seeping out of them unnoticed. The sirens all stood proud and standing tall as they let the green magic seep into their pendants. Adagio took a look at the group of friends, confirming her thoughts as she turned back to her sisters. They looked at her muddled until she exclaimed: ''Magic! Don't you see? Everyone else has fallen under our spell, but not these girls.'' She watched them escape. ''These girls are special.'' Twilight and her friends including Sunset sat on the staircase outside their school as the former started thinking about what all went wrong in there. ''To defeat me—'' Sunset took hold of the contemplation, ''—you drew magic from the crown I was wearing. The sirens' magic comes from their music... so maybe you have to use the same kind of magic to defeat them!'' This got Twilight's attention and she was quite impressed by it. ''Or maybe not.'' She turned to Sunset. ''No, I think you're onto something!'' she protested before analyzing more onto Sunset's point. ''It's when you play music that you transform now, right? So maybe the way to use that magic to defeat the sirens is by playing a musical counterspell.'' Fluttershy brushed her hair away from her eye to gaze at Twilight. ''You mean like a song?'' Twilight nodded. ''And in order to free everyone who's been exposed to the sirens' spell, we'll need them all to hear it.'' Rarity gasped and stood up. ''The band competition! That's the next time we can be certain everyone will be in the same place at the same time.'' ''Guess the Rainbooms are the band to beat,'' Applejack chimed in, placing a hand over Rainbow's shoulder. Rarity frowned at this but brought her smile back when she turned to Twilight. ''And I believe you, Twilight, just became the Rainbooms' newest member.'' Twilight grimaced at this before everyone brought her into a hug, Sunset frowning as she was being left behind which she thought was pretty understandable but still. She looked at Twilight seeing her having friends and everything that she didn't have before. She wasn't jealous of her anymore, no, but merely shook that she was being led on into this friendship path she was taken into but then forgotten. Being taken into a sleepover at Pinkie's for her time spent in this world, Twilight sat on Pinkie's bed wearing pajamas as she was allowed access to Fluttershy's notebook where she could write down her counterspell and at the moment she was writing it down she was failing terribly. ''Thanks for letting me use your notebook, Fluttershy,'' Twilight said to Fluttershy. ''I really like the song you wrote for the Rainbooms.'' ''Thanks.'' Fluttershy smiled before sighing. ''Hopefully one day we get a chance to play it.'' When the doorbell rang, Pinkie immediately knew it was the pizza she ordered for the sleepover and so raced out of the room where everyone followed her, leaving Twilight alone in the room until Pinkie came back with a slice of pizza in her mouth. ''Don't you want any pizza?'' she asked, and Twilight nodded, putting Fluttershy's notebook away in a drawer. After they finished eating pizza, night fell over the horizon where everyone was snoring off to slumber in Pinkie Pie's bedroom except for Twilight who stood up and glanced around to see everyone asleep, then tiptoed gently over to Pinkie's drawer where she put Fluttershy's notebook in where she wrote her counterspell in. She took it with her as she made herself over out of the bedroom and into the kitchen to try and write her counterspell in silence but she was unfocused as she didn't know how to write in her new form and she had no ideas on what to write. Grumbling, she ripped off the paper and scrunched it up into a ball before tossing it out in the trashcan. ''Hey Twilight,'' came Sunset's voice which alerted her, stepping forward. ''You're up late.'' Twilight blushed, covering her work. ''Just looking over the counterspell. We only get one shot at this. It has to be perfect.'' A light blinded her sight as Sunset opened the refrigerator to reveal a whole stack of whipped cream bottles, wondering who would need all of this, but then again this is Pinkie Pie. ''It must be nice to have everyone always looking to you for answers to their problems instead of waiting for you to cause a problem,'' Sunset said absentmindedly as she looked through the whipped cream. ''Just because everyone expects something from you doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen,'' Twilight said quietly, showing her disappointment in herself. ''But that doesn't stop them from expecting it.'' ''...Which only makes things harder because the last thing you want is...'' ''...Let everybody down,'' Twilight and Sunset finished at the same time until they realized this and blushed at each other — looks like they found something in common and a liking too. The latter closed the refrigerator where she scared herself when she caught sight of someone. ''Boulder was hungry,'' said the monotone voice of Pinkie's sister Maud. Sunset backed herself to the dining table where Twilight was standing, the two of them watching Maud taking out a box from the cabinets and pouring it on top of the rock in her hand, leaving a trail behind as she began walking off. ''I still can't get over the fact that she's related to Pinkie Pie,'' Sunset whispered to Twilight. ''You and me both,'' Twilight whispered back. Similar thinking, too. Looks like these two will get off on the right hand. When Sunset turned to leave to go back to sleep, she said some things to Twilight that the latter wasn't able to keep herself in but eventually she became determined to have to do this.