“Twilight? Twilight?!” I yelled into the halls of the giant castle.“You here?”
A flash and a poping sound came from my left, followed by, “Right here, Rainbow. Nice of you to stop by.”
“Good to see you, too,” I said, turning to Twilight, “How’s your personal palace coming along?”
“It’s not a palace,” she denied in complete denial, “It’s just a simple, small castle.”
“Sure, sure. So how is it?”
She brightened up. “Quite well, actually. I just finished the library section; though, I’ll need to restock it quite a bit. Not much survived the old tree house.”
“Wait, library?”
“That’s right,” she answered, smiling, “Ponyville needed a new library, and I have all this free space, so…”
I chuckled, “You’re such an egghead…”
She rolled her eyes. “What brings you around? Need something?”
“Need something?” I exclaimed dramatically, “What? Can’t I just hang out with my friend without needing something?”
She smiled. “Aw, how thoughtful of you. Just in time to help me plan out the day-to-day, hour-to-hour schedule for the upcoming Winter Wrap Up, too! I’ve already begun organizing each individual role for each individual resident, but I could always use some help.”
I stared at her blankly, my smile slowly dropping into a mortified frown at each word.
“What?” she said, noticing my expression, or lack of it, “Don’t tell me you were just pulling my leg.”
“Uh… no? I mean no! Of course not! I was just thinking of something. I’d… love,” I could barely say it, “…to help out.” Curse the Element of Loyalty!
“Great!” she said, “Follow me. We can get started on assessing who can do what based on reviews of their past performances. Ooh, this is going to be so much fun!”
I followed, my mind half-way to going into shock. First, Rarity, yesterday, now this?!
Why do I have to be such a good friend?
“Rainbow? Rainbow? You there?” a distant voice called out to me. Heh, my fuzzy mind said to me, I said the same thing earlier.
Shaking my head, I groggily focused my blurry vision to see the befuddled face of Twilight staring at me.
“Huh…?” I said drowsily, “What’s…?”
“You were really out of it,” she said, “You were staring off into space. Right as I was getting into step twenty-six, too.”
My eyes shot open. “I went through two-hundred and sixty-two steps?!”
She looked at me, confused for a moment, before realization came to her. “No, just twenty-six. I said too as in ‘in addition to.’ Not the numerical value.”
“I went through twenty-six steps?!”
She looked at me, unamused. “Actually, I went through twenty-six. You just agreed with whatever I said.”
“Huh, I don’t remember any of that.”
She shrugged, “Well anyways, now that you’re… back, so to speak, we can get started again.” She magicked some wordy, picture-less papers in front of me.
“Uh…”
“Now then, I would recommend putting Ditzy Doo on a ground transportation team. She’s not good with… heavier objects.” She shuddered. “What do you think?”
“I… sure?”
“Glad you could see it my way. Next we have-”
“Twilight?” I interrupted, “Remember when you asked if I needed something? Well, I kind of need something.”
She looked at me funny. “Okay…” she drew out, “What is it?”
“I need to know where to get started on a music career.”
Okay, forget her looking at me funny earlier. The look she was giving me now was a really funny look. “Did you say music career?”
“Yeah,” I admitted, a bit sheepish for some reason. It’s not that weird is it? I think her look gave me the answer.
“As in… you having a music career?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to have a music career?”
“More like a side thing but yeah.”
“…Are you feeling alright?”
“What? I’m fine. Almost died of boredom twice the past two days, but I’m fine.”
She stared at me before lighting her horn. In a moment, a purple wave of magic emitted from it and scanned the length of my body.
“Uh, what are you doing?” I asked uncomfortably.
“Checking if you’re a changeling…” Her horn cut its light show. “…And you’re not. Well, I can’t wait to hear this story.”
I shot her a suspicious look but went along with it, telling her of what happened yesterday. Afterwards, she looked at me, surprise and shock crossing her features. “Wow…” she managed, “I just… I’m impressed.”
I smirked. “Yeah, I know. I’m a great athlete and a musical protégé.”
“No, not that,” she said, “You actually got into a dress willingly. That’s simply… amazing!”
I didn’t smirk this time. “Yeah, I know. So can you help me?”
“You’d have to ask Rarity if you want any more dresses.”
“No! Forget the dresses. I’m talking about the music thing.”
“Oh, that,” she said, much less excitedly, “Yeah, I can help you look into that.” She looked at all the paperwork around her. “Though, we still have a lot to do and I know you wanted to help-”
“Actually Twi,” I ceded, “I didn’t really want to do this. At all.” The last bit came out almost pleadingly.
“Eh, I figured as much,” she said, “I’ll just have Spike help me.”
“Darn it, Rainbow!” a baby dragon’s voice echoed from the castle halls.
“…Wait. If you knew I didn’t want to then why did you drag me up here?”
“Because you offered,” she said slyly.
“…”
“Anyways, a music career has different paths depending on what kind of position you want to fill. A composer, a producer, a performer-”
“That one! I want to perform.”
“Alright,” she said, “I figured you would like that one. I’d have to look into it more, but I imagine it’s not unlike what you’ve been doing for the Wonderbolts.”
“What? Do I need to play at high speeds in midair? I’m sure I could pull it off, but I don’t think finding a piano for that would be easy.”
“As interesting as that would be, no. I mean you should start off by performing at smaller venues that will take you then gradually move up as you gain a reputation. You’ve been doing that in your flying career by competing in the Young Flier’s Competition and attending the Academy.”
“Okay, I get it. So where would I start?”
She shrugged. “Anywhere. Perhaps a public area like a café looking for someone to perform live music. It could earn you a few bits along with allowing word of mouth to promote you. You’re already pretty well-known around here so the latter would probably spread fast.”
“Great! Thanks for the help!” I said jumping up. I looked around the room.
“Looking for something?” she asked.
“Yeah… Is there a window nearby?”
She gave me a flat look. “Use the door,” she deadpanned.
“Thanks again!” I called as I flew out the room, accidentally sending her papers flying.
Eh, my bad.
Anyways, time to put step twenty-six, er, two into action. This is going to be awesome!