"Come on Sun! Where's your fire?!" Rainbow complained after another rehearsal. In general things could have gone better, yet Sunset keeps somehow screwing up, either getting out of tact, missing a note or her voice dying down. "You can do better than that!"
Sunset sighed, putting her guitar down. "I guess I'm just not in the mood right now. Mind if we take break?"
"Ah, hayseeds gal!" AJ exclaimed. "Quit beatin' around the bush. We all know it's 'cause of what yer have done in Equestria." The farm girl approached Sunset wit crossed arms. "But ya know Sunset" AJ put a hand on the other girl's shoulder "if ya don't wanna go, ya don't hafta go. We'll jus' tell Twi' what's up and good is."
"But, this is your chance to see Equestria for yourself and even more go to the most important event over there. I don't want to ruin this for you, just because I stay behind or do a bad performance."
"Darling" Rarity came from the other side and put a hand on the other shoulder "we understand that if you're not ready, you're simply not ready. There'll be no hard feelings. And what kind of friends would we be, leaving you behind, while we would be enjoying ourselves at the gala."
"Yeah, it would be like a party where the guest of honor is missing." Pinkie added her two cents, throwing one of the drumsticks into the air and catching it again.
"But..." Fluttershy approached the former unicorn. Before the animal lover could say anything, Sunset gave up on trying to convince the others to go without her. Instead she thought about how much it meant for her friends to go to the gala, what kind of opportunity they would miss, if she was to stay behind and that she at least owed Celestia an apology and a thank you for the pardoning. Plus Twilight went through all the trouble, trying to come up with a new spell in order to get them play as a band. If she was to chicken out, the entire work would have been for nothing.
"All right." Sunset nodded.
"Are you sure?" Fluttershy asked carefully. "We don't want to pressure you into something you don't want to do."
"Thanks Flutters, but I owe you guys this much."
"What ya talkin' 'bout Shimmer? Yer saved us at the Battle of the Bands. Yer don't owe us anythin'." Applejack rejected the comment.
"Yeah, if anything, I think we're pretty even." Rainbow Dash commented.
"Whatever you girls think, it's still no excuse for me moping around and ruining the entire trip for you." she picked up her guitar again. "Now come on. Let's get on with it already." Her stomach growled. "After we grabbed some grub if that is okay with you girls..."
The rest of the girls simply giggled.
While they were eating in AJ's kitchen, Rarity and Sunset were discussing the logistic problems. "I mean, as far as I understood, your kind doesn't have electricity over there." Rarity pointed out. "And sadly, most of our instruments doesn't work without it."
"That one's going to be easy to solve." Sunset took a bite from her apple pie. "Instead of electricity we can use magic. While our instruments aren't really build to handle magic, it isn't really hard to build a converter."
"And how do we transport our instruments to...Canterlot was it?" Rarity asked, tapping her chin with her finger. "As far as I understand, we cannot simply walk into the capital. Not to mention we're going to be a surprise."
"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie appeared between the two, almost causing them to drop their plates. "It can't be a surprise, if everyone has already seen us. That's like showing someone what you're giving them for Christmas, while it's still summer."
"Y-yes. Thank you, Pinkie dear." Rarity replied slowly.
"No problem." Pinkie bounced away, back to the others.
After regaining her composure, Sunset thought about what Rarity and Pinkie Pie pointed out. "Well, we could transport them in crates, put them into a train and unpack them later. Or we could transport them with a carriage. Honestly we have to ask Twilight as to how we're doing this. I can't really give you a straight answer."
The rest of the rehearsal went really smoothly. Sunset had her fire back, as Rainbow Dash liked to put it. Sure it took a few tries, but in the end the Rainbooms were back in action. After a rather successful rehearsal, everyone not living at Sweet Apple Acres left. For Sunset it meant going to Rarity, in order to try out her dress.
Actually, Rarity made two outfits for Sunset. One was a dark purple dress, with glitter on it. In that one Sunset wore some special boots, which were a little darker than her normal boots and also glittering. She also wore stockings, a little belt with her cutie mark in the middle and light purple gloves.
[Artwork done by: TheShadowStone]
The second outfit was Sunset wearing a dress which was pink on top and slowly changed to orange and then to yellow. She also wore a jeans with a flaming design on it, as well as grey sandals, which had red flaming high-heels. How they didn't break down, Sunset didn't know. In this outfit, Rarity decided to change Sunset's hair into a more curled up and slightly poofy style.
[Same girl/guy]
"Not exactly appropriate for a Gala, but I assume real dresses would hinder us while playing with our instruments. It's a true shame. If I had more time and we wouldn't be performing, I would have made something more...extravagant."
"I'm sure they would look great." Sunset smiled. "Hmm, I'm not sure, but I tend towards the black one. Black is more my color, don't you think?"
"Hmm..." Rarity eyed Sunset critically, her hand resting under her chin. "I suppose you're right. It gives you the "I am a bad girl" attire. I might try something like this myself in the future."
"Really?" Sunset smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Did you set your eyes on someone?"
"Maybe?" Rarity played with her hair. Seconds later the two girls erupted into a fit of giggles. Sunset let out a yawn. "Anyways, I think I'm going home for now. Twilight's coming tomorrow. I hope she got an idea as to where to with our instruments."
"Goodnight darling. I'll see you with the rest tomorrow."