The Little Pony Legend: Rainbow Rocks

by MaggiesHeartLove

Kindred Spirits

That night at Pinkie Pie's house, the girls were all in their pajamas, happily hanging out. Rarity was taking selfies with Sunset Shimmer while Fluttershy played with Spike. Pinkie Pie typed on her laptop and Applejack and Rainbow Dash played a video game. Twilight sat on the bed, attempting to write a counter spell. Korra sat beside her, not even bothering to wear the hat, allowing her pony ears to be bare. Pinkie was kind enough to lend Twilight some pajamas, yellow pong pants and a long sleeved button shirt with pink hearts. Korra wore a pajama from Pinkie's older sister, a white tank top with grey pajama pants. Rarity wore a violet nightgown with a fiddled white collar and a blue bow. Sunset wore magenta shirt and long pants with her cutie mark on the shirt. Pinkie Pie wore a long blue sleeveless shirt with yellow balloons and matching shorts. The shirt had purple straps and a pink bow above the chest. Applejack wore blue footsie pajamas with pale blue apple prints. Rainbow had a white shirt with red sleeves with her cutter mark and blue pants. Fluttershy wore pajamas similar to Twilight, only her's were green with butterflies.
As Twilight wrote on the pages, or at least tried, Korra cringed. Twilight's writing had improved the more she practiced with her hands back home, but the poor thing couldn't write a song to save her life. The rhymes were lame, the melody was off, and the chorus was slower than a snail with a limp. Twilight noticed Korra looking down on her and narrowed her eyes.
"You mind? I can't concentrate with you breathing down my neck."
"Hey, If we're going to be singing this I need to know the words. Which, in all honesty, need some work."
"I'm trying okay." Twilight said grinding her teeth. The poor alicorn suffered from occasional mood swings now and again, as well as a bit of anxiety. "Sorry. I didn't mean to snap."
Korra simply smiled as she wrapped her arm around her, "It's okay. I'm just a little…well, nervous is all."
"You and me both."
The girl spoke in slight whispers so the others didn't hear…all but one. Sunset overhead only some of what they said, and she already knew she could relate.
Pinkie Pie happily typed on her keyboard. "Status update: "Okie-dokie-lokie.""
Rarity got her phone ready and snapped another selfie with her, Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer. However, once she looked again at the photo, she noticed a very certain little dog had photo-bombed the shot. Rarity narrowed her eyes while Flutters and Sunset simply laughed.
A.J and Rainbow continued to play the game, and by the looks of it, Applejack was winning. Unlike the pony Rainbow Dash, the mirror Dash still had a lot to learn about humility and that winning isn't everything. She couldn't lose. She hatted losing. So, she slammed on the console, ending the game.
"Hey! I was about to beat you!" said Applejack and Rainbow spun the controller with one finger like a basketball, smiling arrogantly.
"I doubt it. So, Twilight, Korra, how is that counter-spell coming?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, good. Great." the purple princess said, hoping they would buy her little white lie as she held the notebook tightly. "Thanks for letting me use your notebook, Fluttershy. I really like the song you wrote for the Rainbooms."
Korra agreed, "Yeah, they're really good. I especially love the one on page nine."
"Thanks." Fluttershy sighed sadly as she held close Pinkie's stuffed alligator, Gummy. "Hopefully one day, we'll get a chance to play it." she said rather hopelessly. She knew Rainbow Dash would prefer to sing the songs she herself wrote rather than even look at Fluttershy's.
Rarity sat on the bed, beside the two princesses. "Twilight, Korra, I think I speak for all of us when I say I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come back to help us."
The other girls all nodded in agreement. If Twilight didn't feel the pressure before, she certainly was feeling it now. She couldn't let her friends down, but she just couldn't figure out how to master the counter spell. They heard the sound of the doorbell and Pinkie Pie jumped up to her feet.
"Pizza's here!"
In a flash, the six girls all ran out of the room like a coyote after a road runner. Whatever this pizza stuff was, it must bee pretty delicious if they left the room in such a hurry.
Twilight sat on the corner of the bed, looking down sadly at her poor work. Korra wanted to help, but she too did not know anything about musical counter spells. The Avatar wrapped and arm around Twilight for reassurance when Pinkie Pie zipped on by with a slice of pizza in her mouth.
"Don't you want any pizza?"
The girls smiled and nodded and Pinkie left to join the others. Korra got out of the bed. "Come on. You could use a break. And I could use a snack, I'm starving."
Twilight looked at the notebook one last time and agreed. "You're right." she decided to place the book inside a drawer, which was filled with candy and other half eaten sweets like a donut. The two left the room to get a slice of this pizza.

The girls all looked at Korra and Twilight as if they were watching a bizarre nature documentary. The two princesses were scarfing down the pizza slices like there was no tomorrow. Apparently, they didn't have pizza where hey were from. Korra swallowed the lat bit of pizza before speaking.
"Wow! I've never had anything this good in my life!" she continued eating the second slice of pizza as Twilight did the same with hers.
"Mm-hm, I agree."
The only girl who was eating as enthusiastically as them as Pinkie Pie. But that was to be expected.
"Sooo, Korra" Rarity began, "Do you think perhaps you could show us some of your bending powers? Minus the fire part, if you don't mind."
"Yeah, sure." Korra gently moved her hands in swift motions as she levitated the water from the cups and began forming water shapes in mid air above the girls' heads. They 'ooh' and 'ahhh' at the sight. Korra then took a few ice cubes and spun them around like Aang would do with marbles. Pinkie Pie clapped her hands at this. The girls were all so amazed with Korra's bending that they did not notice Sunset Shimmer looking on with uncertainty. Korra noticed this and knew exactly why Sunset was being so distant.
It reminded her so much of what happened with her after she confronted Zaheer.

While everyone was asleep, Twilight kept tossing and turning in her sleeping bag as visions of Ghazan and Ming-Hua attaching her with their respected bending powers replayed in her mind, followed by a vision of Zaheer nearly suffocating Korra with his airbending. She gasped and woke up from the nightmare. To her relief, none of her friends had woken up, but she also noticed that Korra wasn't there. She probably couldn't sleep either. The princess figured she would never be getting back to sleep now, and so she carefully tip toed towards the drawer, took out the notebook and walked into the kitchen, surprised to find that the light was on. As she suspected, Korra was there eating the pepperoni pieces of the pizza with a tired look on her face.
"Couldn't sleep either?" Twilight asked as she approached her, with the notebook and pencil at hand.
"I was about to ask you the same thing." Korra said rather jokingly as Twilight took a seat next to her on the table.
"Well, since we're both here, might as well keep on working on the counter spell."
Meanwhile, a certain Sunset Shimmer was having just as much trouble sleeping. The image of her monstrous self continued to haunt her dreams and she too woke up with a gasp. She noticed that Korra and Twilight were absent and decided to join them as well and heard Twilight's voice.
"No. That's not gonna work."
She peaked from behind the wall to see Twilight and Korra working on the counter spell.
"No kidding. You rhymed round with around."
"Well, excuse me for not being a song writer!" she said somewhat bitterly. Realizing the way she responded, she sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm just so anxious."
"You're not the only one."
"Hey, guys." the girls were interrupted when they saw Sunset enter the kitchen, "You're up late."
Twilight forced a smile as she looked over the spell, "Just looking over the counter-spell. We only get one shot at this. It has to be perfect."
"I think you're putting a bit too much pressure on yourself." said Korra, "Which I'm pretty sure is the last thing you need right now."
Twilight groaned like an impatient child and face palmed herself. Sunset felt sympathy for her and smiled in reassurance as she opened up the fridge. "Well, for what it's worth, we really are lucky you're here."
"That's what everyone keeps saying." said the younger princess.
"Who could possibly need this much whipped cream?" Sunset asked herself when she saw all of the whip cream cans in the fridge.
"Hey, mind tossing one of those my way?" Korra asked and Sunset happily tossed her the can, for which she grabbed with complete ease, being the athlete that she was.
"Nice catch."
"Thanks." Korra didn't waste any time in spraying the whip cream into her mouth and happily gulped it down. Twilight waved her index finger at her and pointed to her own mouth, silently asking for some. Korra sprayed the white sugary substance into her mouth and Twilight, just like Korra, gulped it down.
"Wow. You guys are like two peas in a pod." said Sunset.
"Well, we've been through a lot together." said Twilight.
"More than we could say." Korra said rather emotionlessly.
"And to top it off, you're both princesses." Sunset said as she poured some of the whipped cream onto her thumb. "Must be nice to have everyone always looking to you for answers to their problems... instead of waiting for you to cause a problem."
Korra laughed, "Ha! You'd wish."
Sunset arched an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
"As the Avatar I had people constantly expecting great things from me and at the same time criticizing everything I did. Whenever I messed up, everyone threw a hissy fit. And when I did something right, not everyone was happy about it. There was no pleasing anybody." as Korra spoke, her voice sounded irritated and annoyed.
"Moral of the story; Just because everyone expects something from you doesn't mean it's guaranteed to happen." said Twilight.
"Well, that doesn't stop them from expecting it." said Sunset.
"Which only makes things harder because the last thing you want to do is…"
"…let everybody down." The three girls finished in union before looking at one another in surprise.
Twilight never realized she could have so much in common with Sunset Shimmer and vice versa. Twilight and Sunset smiled at one another when Korra spoke, "Buck them."
"What?"
Korra stood up, crossing her arms and looking sternly at the two. "Buck them! All my life I've had people telling me I need to be this or that, and for the longest time I believed them. There will always be people who are going to tell you who you are, but at one point you have to break out and say "No, this is who I am!" You made mistakes, learn from them, but don't let the rest of the world choose who you're going to be because they don't choose your destiny."
Sunset was left in awe upon hearing Korra's words. She tried so hard to be nicer to the kids at Canterlot High, but they all still believed she was a monster from the past…or maybe, it was she who still saw herself that way. If she still couldn't accept her own forgiveness, how would she expect others to do so as well? Maybe that was why firebending was so hard for her.
"I'm sorry for shouting like that." Korra apologized.
"No. No one's ever spoken to me like that before." When Sunset closed the fridge door she encountered a grey-skin woman with purple chin-length hair and cyan eyes wearing a white shirt pajama and black shorts.
"Waaah!"
"Aaaahh!"
The three girls screamed in shock at seeing the human counterpart of Pinkie Pie's sister, Maud Pie.
"Boulder was hungry."
Yep, this was Maud alright. She spoke in a monotone voice and held out her 'pet' rock and started 'feeding' it some crackers. All while looking as grim as ever before leaving the kitchen.
"I still can't get over the fact that she's related to Pinkie Pie." Sunset whispered.
"You and me both!" said Twilight.
"If you think that's creepy, you should meet my cousins." Korra mentioned and the three giggled.
"Thanks, Korra."
"For what?"
"Well, for talking some sense into me.."
Korra placed a reassuring hand on Sunset's shoulder, "No problem. Believe me, I know exactly where you're coming from. I've made some pretty dumb mistakes in my past, but while it takes a strong person to admit mistakes, it takes an even stronger person to set them right. As long as you stay on the right path, eventually others will see the real you."
"And if they don't?"
"Then maybe they're the ones who need to change."
"Wow. You're the wisest Avatar I've ever met."
"I'm the only Avatar you've ever met." Korra laughed her head before letting out a yawn, "All of this excitement has made me pretty exhausted."
"Same here." the two girls prepared to head back to the room, "You coming, Twilight?"
"You go ahead, I'm just going to work a little more on the counter spell."
Korra sighed, "Ten minutes. If you're not in bed afterwords, I'll pull you by the ear and drag you."
Twilight saluted, "Message received."
Korra and Sunset left Twilight alone to do her work. Ever since she came here, she had been feeling out of sorts. No matter how hard she tried to make sure the spell was perfect, she just kept getting blocked. Sure she's never written a song before, but magic was her specialty. She'd been feeling so out of tune with herself recently it frightened her. Even casting a simple spell didn't entirely feel the same, like she hadn't cast one in a long time. Levitation was easy, but actual spells felt off. Luna said that this was normal for her given what happened. It would take time for Twilight to get back to her normal routine. But she was determined to prove she was still the same Twilight. Still the same talented spell caster. Still the same old Twilight Sparkle. Nothing had changed. Nothing.
"No, I have to be able to do this. I have to."