Wicked Beats quickly led Song Serenade to the second bench, which happened to be on the other side of the fountain from the other pair of ponies. She folded her wing's shut, unused to the weird appendages. "How do pegasi do this all the time?" she asked out loud, unaware of her tone. Song stared at her with an awkward glance. Wicked looked away from Song to avoid her piercing stare. It was pure luck that a grey-toned pegasus happened to be merrily walking towards the bench, swaying her head from side to side and randomly flapping her wings. "Of all times, why do you have to choose now?" the former unicorn asked herself out loud.
Song stretched her neck to see what Wicked was talking about. A walleyed pegasus was merrily trotting towards the bench. "I don't see whats wrong?" Song asked.
Wicked shook her head. "Never mind." she told Song. The pegasus finally was close enough to chat with Wicked.
"Hey Vinyl!" She said, one eye focusing on the pegasus in front of her.
Wicked Beat's wings flared out in anger and worry. "Don't call me that." she said under her breath.
The blond mare didn't seem to hear what Wicked said and eyed her wings. "Scratchie! You have wings! Are you magic?"
Wicked Beats facehooved and turned to face Song. "Serenade, do you mind leaving us alone for a while, I need to chat."
Song Serenade nodded, as she always obeyed others, or maybe that was just a fact of her circuit boards back at Aperture. Whichever it was, she trotted off into the park, letting the older friends talk.
Wicked Beats grabbed the other pegasus's mane and dragged her in whispering distance. "Derpy, if I asked you to hold the biggest promise in the world, I know you would understand. Now is the time to."
'Derpy looked up, one eye randomly falling down. "Yes Scratchie" she said as she saluted.
"Wicked. Not 'Scratch' " The neon-maned pegasus scowled at her wall-eyed friend.
"Ooh, is this a game? Can I play too?" the second mare asked, starting to ascend into the air, slowly switching directions and flying upside down. Before Wicked could face-hoof, the mare corrected her. "Ditzt. Not 'Derpy'"
Wicked pulled Ditzy closer to her then gave in. "I'm Wicked Beats, not Vinyl. Vinyl is out of town. Understand?"
Ditzy nodded quickly. "Yes Wicked Beats!"
"Good then you can go now." Wicked told her friend.
Ditzy started to head away from Wicked, when she stopped and seamlessly pulled out a muffin from thin air then took to the sky.
Wicked wandered away from the bench to find Song once again, who probably didn't stray so far away.
"See Bonnie, I wasn't crazy." The mint green unicorn told her partner, pointing at what she thought was the local DJ. Bonbon rolled her eyes and looked up, knowing it would shut her minty friend up. What she saw, she wasn't prepared for.
It's like an exact replica of her but a pegasus. That can't be the same Vinyl. She would never allow her mane to flow like that Bonbon's mind overfilled with thoughts. She shook her head, for it wasn't the weirdest thing she had seen. She lived through Nightmare Moon, Discord and even the worst storms the local mailmare, Ditzy Doo kicked up. Maybe, just maybe she would tell Daisy, one of both her best friends and best customers about the coincidence. She nodded her head; to shut Lyra up then went back to reading the Daily Ponyville newspaper.
Lyra was finally satisfied, and sat down in an awkward way for a pony; her usual stance.
Song Serenade happened to be near a small flower garden, a short distance away from the fountain. She eyed the flowers in awe, for they were authentic flowers, and not the robotic counterpart Aperture offered. Since she wasn't with the weird pegasus, she had time to look over the smaller details to the weird town inhabited by pastel horses. The smell of the flowers was so sweet. She really never smelled anything before, for the case that hosted her before this fragile body, didn't have room for any scent sensors. I wonder why GLaDOS kept this treasure from us... Song thought, as she touched an orange flower gently with her hoof. The flowers started to bend over; as if there was some source of wind.
Wind.
The only thing the now-sentient being could relate the feeling of wind to was the pre-alpha Pneumatic Diversity Vents that never got on the shelves; something all robots feared. This wind felt calming, soothing; different. It didn't give Song that feeling of hopelessness.
"Yo. Dude? Are you okay?" A voice interrupted Song's thoughts. Wicked Beats was beating her wings, waiting impatiently for Song to leave the boring flower garden. I hope she's not one of those flower weirdos Wicked thought to herself. All Ponyville needs is more of those freaks.
Song turned around, snapping out of her trance and stared at Wicked Beats, her eyes dilating. Something in her simple mind wanted to utter one of the phrases she had been programmed to remember in her old body. She fought the urge to freak out her possibly new friend. "Yes, where are we going?" She asked, quickly changing subjects.
Wicked Beats turned around, staring into the distance of Ponyville. She needed Flight lessons, quick, but the importance of a possible friend, or at least someone who didn't dislike her was also very important. Wicked Beats looked up. "Oh my Celestia, it's getting late and I promised somepony that I would" She paused for a minute "Go to the movies with them!" She started to trot off. "We can chill again tomorrow" she yelled back.
Song nodded in agreement then waited for Wicked to leave. She looked up at the sky when she was gone. How in God's name do they tell time? she thought, looking at the perfectly centered sun in the sky. She jerked her head back after direct contact with the sun's rays. I guess this body doesn't tolerate sunlight very well either. she noted, remembering the horrible buzz of the 'Thermal Discouragement Beam'. Although she never made contact with the horrible invention, she had witness countless of her kind getting into situations with them. It wasn't pretty one bit. Song decided to return to the marketplace, before heading back to the smaller house near the outskirts of town.
'Wicked Beats' took a direct path back into the town, she ducked into another alleyway to count her ways of getting a possible flight teacher. She came up with what she thought as uncool solutions. If she were to go straight home, Octavia would give her a long talk about what she did, as well as many possible restrictions. There was already the "Best Young Flier" who had a house overhead of Ponyville. If she were to approach said pony, she would probably get found out as quick as Pinkie Pie could set up a party for a newcomer. There was Derpy, but that would take forever.
The last solution she came up with was one of the hardest, but the most successful in her mind. It was to break her wings in a flying 'accident', get in a hospital and pretend to forget how to fly. Wicked didn't know if she should have and decided she had some more time to decide.
She disappeared into the alleyway, her temporary home; for now.
Song Serenade made her way back to what she thought was a market. She must have made a wrong turn, for the building she was approaching was a two story shop. Song thought back to the words she was programmed with in Aperture, to try and describe the weird shop. C...Caravan?... Carnival?... Carousel. Carousel! That's the word. Her eyes scanned the building. She decided to go around the building and follow the long street, to try and find the marketplace once more. What she didn't notice was a white unicorn with a curled purple mane was staring out the window.
The door opened when Song was almost halfway around the building, the unicorn frantically calling over to the mare as if something caught on fire. "Darling. Darling come here!" the accented voice seemed to scream at Song. Song quickly turned around; her eyes slightly glowing a shade of red before she galloped as fast as her legs could, towards the building.
"Quick Darling, get inside." the unicorn ordered, closing the door with her blue aura. The unicorn shut all the windows in the room. "No one must see it." she said sternly, levitating the saddlebags off of Song. "It's truly horrible." she exclaimed. A DISGRACE TO DESIGNERS EVERYWHERE. she yelled, manically as she dumped out the bags contents, a few bits.
Song stepped back, afraid of the mare. She wondered if the mare would take her bits and hold her up. If this is what a Test Subject feels like, then I feel sorry for them. she thought to herself.
"Darling, that is a cheap knock-off saddlebag, made of cheap fabric." the mare said, levitating the bag close to Song Serenade's face to show her. "The stitches are already falling apart." she complained, tossing the bag into a nearby trashcan that rattled upon the new addition.
A squeaky voice uttered a few words. "Rarity, not again." from upstairs.
"Oh shush Sweetie, you don't know bad fashion if it were to kick your flank in broad daylight." Rarity retorted, grabbing a white fabric with her aura. She looked up at Song Serenade, then down at her fabric, then nodded. "White suits you" she muttered under her breath, cutting a measured amount of the fabric, then quickly grabbing some thread from a nearby shelf. An empty spool and a sketch of a design both flew off the shelf and dropped onto an unsuspecting cat below.
The cat quickly yowled and started to scratch anything in the small radius, completely ruining the sketch.
"Opal!" Rarity screamed. "Sweetie, take care of Opal. I have a fashion emergency to work on!" She commanded, as she got back to cutting and sewing the white material with precision.
A short, white unicorn came tumbling downstairs. She knew there was no way to get her sister away from her sewing. She headed towards Opal and with a weak, green aura, she started to pull the cat upstairs by it's tail.
Rarity had finished the base of the saddlebags, sparing a few seconds to wipe her face with a fancy cloth. She stopped for a second then looked up at Song Serenade, who was amazed by her quick, but efficient skills. "Any design you want on the clasp, darling?" She asked Song. "It can be anything, at all; Really"
Song looked up at Rarity. "B..but, I don't have enough money.' she said, worried about being in-debt.
Rarity shook her head. "It's okay darling, I got this covered. Now; the design."
Song thought for a while. She could be generic and go with her cutie mark, but that wouldn't show off the full logo it was supposed to be. "Do you have paper?" She asked Rarity.
"Of course Darling, what would a designer be without paper around her shop?" She pulled a piece of graph paper off a table and laid it down in front of Song, as well as a pencil.
Song struggled with holding items in her hooves, so she decided to go with her mouth. She picked up the pencil with her teeth and tried to make a circle. The 'circle' looked more like an oval. She then drew another circle inside of it. She added multiple lines to it, and dropped the pencil. It looked like something a toddler would draw, but it was good enough for Song Serenade.
Rarity looked at the drawing as if it were some alien technology. She rotated the piece then remembered what it looked like. "Camera?" she asked Song. She wasn't a camera-fanatic but knew some parts of it, as she had to use one to take a few pictures of her dresses for an advertisement. "Is that an aperture?" She asked pointing at the design.
Song nodded at Rarity, surprised the pony knew what an aperture was, for she hadn't seen any form of technology in the area so far.
"Well it may take me mo--" Rarity started, but was quickly cut off by another shriek from Opal followed by "Dumb cat." upstairs. Rarity rolled her eyes. "Darling, can you check on them?" Rarity asked Song, as she continued to work on the saddlebags.