//------------------------------// // Shimmering Jem, Sparkling Melody // Story: Music is Magic // by Twilight Nightmare //------------------------------// Twilight sighed as she shared a booth with the pony that she had teamed up with to win the competition. They didn’t really win a lot of money, but the bits thrown at them helped increase the amount. She really didn’t need it though and she had given it to the mare, but she wouldn’t take it unless Twilight let her buy them a drink first out of it. “So, as I said, my name is Sunset Shimmer.” Sunset said, looking around quickly as if paranoid that someone overheard her. It made Twilight wonder if some pony was tracking her or something. Not that Twilight blamed her; they were probably searching for her as well by now. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight said, sighing into her now half empty mug after taking a long drink form it. The eyes of the other mare widened in shock upon hearing Twilight’s name making the darker colored pony worry a little. “I knew you looked familiar.” Sunset said, her eyes narrowing on Twilight making the purple unicorn’s worry grow even more. “What are you doing slumming it here with the rest of us. Shouldn’t you be in your nice cozy quarters, little Miss Princess’s Student?” “I haven’t been her student for awhile, and I doubt she even cares for me except as some pony to do her dirty work.” Twilight huffed out. It was true, she was starting to feel like that was the only reason Celestia even bothered with her was because of the Element of Magic. The Princess saw her as some attack dog after seeing how powerful her magic was because she was stuck leading five untrained ponies into battle with three of the biggest threats to Equestria so far. The third was the only one she wasn’t directly involved in defeating with the elements, but it was enough to make her question her mentor and friends. Especially after the way they treated her at the wedding. “So she chased you away to?” Sunset snorted, throwing her mane back over her head. “Wow I really wish I still had hands.” “Hands?” Twilight asked, cocking her head to the side in confusion as Sunset merely giggled at her. “It’s a long story, though I’m more surprised that you are more curious to what I said about hands than what I said about the Princess.” Sunset said, shaking her head in disbelief. “I didn’t really want to pry.” Twilight said sheepishly, not wanting to admit that she was a little more interested in the new word than she was about gossip about her now former mentor. “Sure you didn’t.” Sunset scoffed while rolling her eyes. “I was her personal student…just…like…you. In fact I was there the same time you were.” “What? But I never saw you before!” Twilight gasped out, not sure if she should believe this new pony. “Oh I was there, Celestia kept me away from you for some bull story or another. She changed the reason often enough. She made me so many promises…promised that she was going to be my mother and…I would be her Princess. A real Princess and would someday rule with her.” Sunset said, her voice becoming softer and filled with pain as she hung her head a little. Twilight reached over and put her hoof on Sunset’s own and smiled as the fire maned pony looked up at her, slowly returning the smile. “She started neglecting me more and more after you came. She didn’t need me…didn’t want me anymore, and even told me to get out of the castle when we had an argument. Tell me, what mother does that to their daughter?” “What about your real parents?” Twilight asked before she could stop herself, the smile Sunset had dropping at the mention of family. “I never had any…the Princess took me in and took care of me until she got bored of me.” Sunset sighed, “I…I ran from the guards who were ordered to escort me out of the castle. I…ran into a magic mirror that opened a portal for three days every three years. My life…really sucked there. For three years…I…sorry, I really don’t want to get into it.” “It’s okay.” Twilight said, stroking Sunset’s own hoof. “I looked up to her as a mother even though I already had parents. There was an emergency recently and still the Princess ignored the threat and pushed for the wedding between Princess Cadence and my older brother forward. I found out that Cadence was an imposter and tried to warn every pony. No pony believed me, they abandoned me and my own brother disowned me over the fake. How could Princess Celestia not realize her own niece was missing and replaced with that…thing?” “Those creatures? The changelings?” Sunset asked, shock filling her voice as she stared at Twilight without any doubts. “Yeah, their queen trapped me in the caves under the castle and I could have died. I found the real Cadence though and we escaped. We barely managed to stop the invasion, but did I get any apologies or words of encouragement? No! I didn’t get anything but an apology from one pony that didn’t even sound halfway sincere. When the Princess told me to prepare for the real wedding and they left me alone…again!...I just walked out. I’ll show her I don’t need her! I don’t need any of them!” “I…don’t really know much about this friendship thing…but how about we work together? We can team up and show the Princess that we can survive without her hypocrisy.” Sunset suggested making Twilight laugh a little as she finished off her mug. “And how do we do that?” Twilight asked softly, though she was a little interested. She wanted to become successful on her own and defy the destiny the Princess tried to force on her and show every pony that she was no puppet. “We did good singing tonight, every pony loved us.” Sunset suggested, “We could always try and be singers. I bet we could make a killing.” “Yeah, and have the Princess breathing down my neck trying to drag me back home. Forget it!” Twilight snorted. There was no way she was going to go back and deal with the Princess and her crap. “Twilight, we are unicorns. And if I’m right, you are very powerful. All we have to do is cast illusions over us while we sing. No pony will recognize us, and we can do something fun while sticking it to the so called Princess.” Sunset said, making Twilight slowly smile. It would be hard, the magic required to hold illusions over them could be a lot, but it could work. There were a few theories of Starswirl that she might be able to refine to make things easier even. If she could get a hold of a couple Celestial Gems and someone very adept as illusion magic, then maybe things could work out better than she thought. The gems were rare though, but they wouldn’t even need a big gem. A small piece combined with a normal gem would be enough to get it to work if she was right. She wasn’t exactly the best at illusion magic, but she was passable enough to keep them over the two of them while performing. She would just need some pony very skilled to help create the matrices inside the gems to create what she was thinking about. “You know…it could work…but singing? It might be fun, but I doubt we could make a living off of it.” Twilight said slowly, liking the idea, but weighing the negatives in as well. “Sure it will be hard at first, but trust me, when we get our names out there then people will be paying us lots to perform for them.” Sunset said making Twilight cock her head to the side again. “People?” Twilight asked slowly making Sunset facehoof. “Never mind, are you in or out?” Sunset asked. “In…I’m in.” Twilight said grinning, Sunset joining in with one of her own. “Good, now all we have to come up with is our performer identities. I can’t let my name get out really. I don’t want the Princess to know I’m back yet.” Sunset said. “I know my name for when we use the illusions.” Twilight grinned in a teasing manner, “I’ll be Shimmering Jem…or Jem for short.” “Okay.” Sunset giggled, catching on to what Twilight was doing. “Call me…Sparkling Melody…or just Melody.” “I can buy an instrument or two, but we will need money for train tickets and a place to sleep.” Twilight said. “I can use the winnings for food, but we might have to rough it with the sleeping arrangements until we start making more money.” Sunset said making Twilight swallow nervously. She would do it, but it was a little scary. “And we should just buy a guitar for now, we can do enough with one until we get going.” “It’s settled then, we will show her that we aren’t puppets.” Twilight said. “Or useless. We will make her regret the day she abandoned us.” Sunset said. XXXXXXX A black unicorn with a pink mane and tail stood on the corner of a village about three hours away from Canterlot by train. Her cutie mark was a pink gem with a few starbursts around it. Next to her was a white unicorn with purple mane and tail with blue musical notes surrounding a guitar. In her magic she held up a guitar, playing it slowly as the black unicorn took a deep breath. “Good evening ladies and gentle colts, my name is Jem and my friend here is named Melody. We’re just going to play a little song for you and we hope you enjoy it.” Jem called out, fighting to keep her nerves calmed down. She wasn’t drunk like she was when she first met her partner, so her nerves were playing havoc with her composure. An encouraging smile from Melody gave her the strength to take a deep breath and begin singing. “It's a hard, hard life, there's no help along the way. It's a hard, hard life, it's a struggle night and day. It's a hard, hard life, and the weak do not survive. It's a hard, hard life, hard to keep your hopes alive.” Jem sung out, a small crowd starting to gather around enjoying the music. As the music continued more and more ponies came to see what was going on and tossed bits into the open guitar case on the ground. Melody, or Sunset in her real form, enjoyed the attention as it made her feel good. It made both of them feel good and she couldn’t help looking at the pony in a new light. She knew what Jem really looked like, knew it was Twilight Sparkle, but she couldn’t help feeling a pull towards the pony. Of course she thought the mare was cute, but listening to her sing seemed to open her eyes…and heart even more. She couldn’t help letting her magic waver a little as she realized that she was feeling attracted to the pony a little. More though than she really should be, especially after just starting their new…life?...together. She didn’t want to mess things up with her, Twilight being the first friend she ever really had. Swallowing the lump forming in her, she pushed the feelings and thoughts out of her mind and just concentrated on the music letting it carry her along. "Ponies stand in your way, but you push past them running for your life. And if luck goes your way, you may outlast them in this hard, hard life!"