It took a few minutes for everyone to settle down. Twilight got everyone’s attention by asking, “Sunset, don’t you have something personal you could sing?”
“We are singing personal songs aren’t we,” Sunset said. “Is it okay girls?” she asked the Rainbooms.
“Of course it is, silly. Singing this song is the whole reason you and Twilight set this concert up,” said Pinkie Pie’s voice.
“Not the only reason...” winced Sunset.
“Everypony here likes to sing…” whispered Twilight.
“You got caught girls,” snickered Applejack, “Now let’s hear the song you done brought everypony here to listen too.”
“Okay,” Sunset took a deep breath. “This is the first song I ever wrote to sing with the Rainbooms. Fluttershy helped with the chord progressions, but you can blame me for the words.”
The instrumental music started with a slow plaintive beat. Twilight shivered. To her the music was pleading, for someone, anyone, to listen and understand who Sunset used to be.
Sunset Shimmer began her song:
Power
Was all I desired
But all that grew inside me
Was the darkness I acquired
The next part always made Twilight blush...
When I began to fall
And I lost the path ahead
That's when your friendship found me
And it lifted me instead
Twilight could feel the beat through her body as it slowly changed. She thought Sunset used her music to carve out a piece of ground and state, “this is who I am today.”
Like a phoenix burning bright
In the sky
I'll show there's another side to me
You can't deny
Twilight held her eyes closed. She had a big grin on her face. She felt the song ended in exaltation, as Sunset demanded to be heard, demanded to be believed. Twilight knew she was saying, “this is who I will become.”
I may not know what the future holds
But hear me when I say
That my past does not define me
'Cause my past is not today
Sunset held the final high note, long after it its time had come and gone. “Challenge me on this,” Twilight felt the final note said, “I dare you.”
The song ended.
And everything fell apart.
The high note finally died, then silence fell. There were appreciative noises from Octavia and the Pony Tones, but only a polite shuffling of hooves from Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie. Fluttershy started to speak, but saw the other girls were silent, so she stayed quiet. Octavia and the Pony Tones looked shocked. Silence returned.
“Oh no,” said Sunset Shimmer in a throaty whisper. The Rainbooms whispered back praise and encouragement, to make sure Sunset knew they were there for her.
Twilight looked away from her friends. She felt a lump in her throat, and her eyes were wet. It must be all the lights Vinyl had brought in. “I’ve got to check the mirror.” She walked away from the microphones. Nopony spoke on stage.
“We need to take a break over here,” came Rarity’s voice through the speakers. There were the sounds of instruments being put down, shuffling feet, and indistinct whispers.
Rainbow Dash angled in from circling the hall, and landed by the other girls. “That could have gone better.”
“I thought the chord progressions were super nice,” Pinkie offered. Fluttershy blushed, but wasn’t sure why.
Applejack shuffled her hooves nervously. “It’s real hard to hear Sunset Shimmer talk about how she hurt all those people.”
“Since they sound just like us and it kinda feels like Sunset Shimmer did those things to us,” said Rainbow Dash.
The other girls nodded in agreement.
The awkward silence returned. Vinyl and the rest of the Pony Tones were carefully looking away from the girls at the microphones.
Finally Rarity spoke. “No matter what else happened over there, that girl certainly is smitten.”
“That's when your friendship found me, and it lifted me instead?” Applejack nodded. “Sunset Shimmer has got it bad.”
“Sunset Shimmer?” Rarity looked over at Twilight. “Yes darling, her too.”
“Twilight?’ asked Rainbow Dash.
“They’re connected.” Applejack shook her head. “From what Twi told us, Sunset Shimmer was supposed to have Twilight’s life. The Princess trained Sunset before she trained Twilight. Sunset was supposed to take up the Element of Magic, defeat Nightmare Moon, and be the hero of Equestria.”
“But Sunset Shimmer fell so far that she became a demon,” Rarity looked at her hooves. “In Twilight’s eyes, Sunset’s fall proves that Twilight herself is just one mistake away from darkness.”
“But Twilight’s not dark,” said Pinkie. “I mean, her mane and tail are kinda dark, but she has those pink stripes…”
“Remember Twilight casting ‘Want It, Need It’ and making all of Ponyville go nuts? Or casting dark magic in the Crystal Empire? Or heck, even her semi-regular freak outs?” Applejack sighed. “I love her like a sister, but Twi dabbles in dangerous magic and plays the game a little close to the line sometimes.”
Rarity looked up at her friends. “If Twilight can turn Sunset Shimmer back to the light, I think Twilight believes she herself can be redeemed if she ever falls.”
Fluttershy looked over and saw Twilight with her head hung low, looking away from her friends. “I think that Twilight is very disappointed in us for not supporting somepony she really likes.”
“But, the only time we’ve ever seen Sunset Shimmer, she stole Twilight’s Element!” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Sunset told us who she was: ambitious, power hungry, a gossip, a liar, a thief, even a demon.”
The girls kept talking among themselves. Twilight stood alone and played with the devices connected to the portal mirror.
Fluttershy slipped away and walked over to Vinyl Scratch. From behind her racks of equipment, Vinyl turned and looked at Fluttershy.
“Pardon me,” whispered Fluttershy. “If it’s not too big a bother, could I ask you a question?” Vinyl nodded. “Is it possible to talk to… the other me... without anypony hearing?” Vinyl cocked her head for a moment, then nodded again. She put a headphone/microphone combination on Fluttershy’s head and flipped a switch on her mixing board.
“Hello…” Fluttershy whispered.
“Epp!” Fluttershy’s voice whispered in return.
There was a long silence. Fluttershy whispered again, “I like the music you wrote.”
“I like your singing.”
“Do you really play in a band,” Fluttershy asked, “in front of... everyone?”
“Only because I’m with my friends…” came the reply.
“You are very brave.”
“Not like you, I hear you have to deal with monsters.”
“Mostly I just deal with my animals,” Fluttershy whispered. She blushed.
“I love animals!” came the reply.
“Me too!” Fluttershy smiled.
Another pause.
“Can I ask you about… Sunset Shimmer?”
“Okay…”
“Was she mean to you?”
“Yes…”
“Did she do all the things she said?”
“And more...”
“Doesn’t that make things… hard?”
“Sometimes. But did you ever know someone who had done bad things, and hurt a lot of people, but who really wanted to be good now?”
“Discord,” Fluttershy mouthed. “I know someone like that.”
“The girls and I try to be the friends that Sunset needs. And she tries to be good. But some people at school make it hard for her. They only remember the old mean Sunset. They don’t see that she can be a good friend.”
“And Sunset Shimmer is your friend?” asked Fluttershy.
“We’re all friends,” came the strong reply. “All of us.”
Vinyl tapped Fluttershy and pointed a hoof. Twilight was walking back over toward the girls on stage.
“Thank you for everything. Good luck with your music and your animals.” Fluttershy hoofed the headset to Vinyl, and hurried back to the others.
“Uh, girls,” Twilight said quietly, “I need to go through the portal to sing the next songs with the Rainbooms. I hope you stick around for them, but I understand if you don’t want to stay.”
“Twilight…” whispered Fluttershy.
“I’ve... got to go.” Twilight looked like she wanted to say something else, then shook her head. She turned and walked through the portal mirror. Octavia and the Pony Tones were amazed to see Twilight disappear into the mirror’s swirling depths.
There was a loud “thump” like a sack of potatoes hitting the floor. “Oww, who moved the pillow?” Twilight’s voice complained.
“Sorry,” apologized Rainbow Dash’s voice.
A guitar strummed once to get everyone’s attention. Rainbow Dash’s voice spoke. “We’ve got another song to play over here. Background is, three sirens from Equestria called the Dazzlings got banished to our world. They were attracted to CHS because we Rainbooms had absorbed some Equestrian magic the first time Twilight came here.”
“We-all girls ended up fighting, and those sirens lapped up the negative energy and got right powerful,” came Applejack’s voice. “They were gonna suck the emotions out of the entire school, then go on to bigger and badder things.”
“Sunset was the voice of reason who helped us stop fighting,” Rarity’s voice said. “Then, Twilight figured out the Rainbooms needed to play music together to release our Equestrian magic so we could battle the sirens.”
“Vinyl set up a bunch of big speakers, and Applejack, Fluttershy, Dash, Pinkie, Rarity and I set out to sing and play,” said Twilight. “We started with this song that Fluttershy had written.” The band started up the music,
Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh
I've got the music in me
Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh
Twilight sang a short solo, then the Rainbooms sang together, ending with
Find the music in your heart
Let the music make you start
To set yourself apart
The singing stopped. The only music was the sounds of discordant guitars.
“Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy did their part,” continued Twilight, “they used their music to drive back two of the sirens. But my solo wasn’t strong enough. The lead siren drove me back, and then all the sirens recovered and blew the Rainbooms down.”
The remaining music changed to a lone drum loop from Vinyl’s mixing board.
“Then I realized we’d been defeated because we hadn’t fully embraced the magic of friendship. Friendship means no one gets left out, and no one gets left behind. To my shame, we had left out Sunset Shimmer. But she picked up a mic and brought us all back.”
[Sunset Shimmer]
You're never gonna bring me down
You're never gonna break this part of me
My friends are here to bring me 'round
Not singing just for popularity
[Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle]
We're here to let you know
That we won't let it go
[The Rainbooms]
Our music is a bomb and it's about to blow
[Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle]
And you can try to fight
But we have got the light of
[The Rainbooms]
Friendship on our side!
All seven Rainbooms sang the chorus together the first time. In the reprise, Octavia deepened the music with her cello and everypony on stage joined in. The final reprise thundered in both halls, the singing ending with,
Here to sing our song out loud
Get you dancing with the crowd
As the music of our friendship
Survives, survives, survives!
The singing ended, but an extended guitar riff continued the music.
“Playing together filled all seven of us with Equestrian magic,” said Applejack’s voice.
“Even Sunset 'ponied up' for the first time,” said Pinkie’s voice.
“A great rainbow shot up from us into the clouds,“ said Fluttershy’s voice.
“It turned into a breathtaking white alicorn,” said Rarity’s voice.
“Which shot a rainbow beam that totally kicked the Dazzlings sorry butts!” said Rainbow Dash’s voice.
The guitar finished its final riff and the song was over.
“And that’s how all the Rainbooms together defeated the sirens,” said Sunset’s voice.
Everyone in Twilight’s hall stomped in appreciation. Octavia and the Pony Tones looked at the girls expectantly.
Rarity huddled the girls on stage away from the microphones. “I fear we have made a dreadful mistake.”
All the girls nodded.
“When Twilight came back the last time, she told us Sunset Shimmer had reformed, but because I never saw her myself, it didn’t feel like she had.” Rainbow Dash sighed. “Now it does.”
“And when you make a mistake and hurt somepony, the honest thing to do is to fess up.” Applejack straightened her hat and led the girls back to the microphones. She spoke up so everyone in both halls could hear. “Rainbooms, that was a right good song and story.”
“Sunset Shimmer, we want to apologize. We were rude and insensitive in our response to your song,” Rarity continued. “We’ve only met once, and not under the best of circumstances, but that is no excuse for poor behaviour. I mean if the Tree of Harmony choose you...”
“Horse-apples! No magic tree chooses my friends.” Rainbow Dash stepped up to the mic. “Sunset Shimmer, I wasn’t listening before, but I am now. Twilight says you’re okay. Our namesakes say you’re okay. And you say you’re okay. That’s good enough for me.”
“You need to come to our Ponyville so we can throw you a great big ‘Sunset Shimmer is visiting Equestria’ party.” Pinkie bounced forward. “I’ll use three party cannons to be sure there’s enough balloons and streamers.”
“I knew she had a party cannon,” said the voice of the other Pinkie Pie.
“That invitation goes for all the Rainbooms too.” Applejack smiled. “While it might be a tad confusing to have two ponies here with the same look and voice, we deal with confusing stuff here every week. So come on over any time. You-all are family.”
The Rainbooms all talked excitedly at once. Sunset sighed then spoke up, “Thank you girls. Your invitation means a lot to me. To all of us.”
“We’re all gonna have to think about this,” said Applejack’s voice. “But it’s good to know we have friends who would make us welcome.”
The tension had drained out of the hall.
“I have to go back through the portal,” Twilight said. “But once I’m back, I think we have time for one more song.”
Twilight emerged through the portal on stage. All the girls were waiting for her. No one spoke for a moment until Fluttershy broke the awkward silence. “We’re all really sorry, Twilight,” she whispered.
Twilight smiled, small but genuine. “Thank you for everything you said, it meant a lot to... everyone.” They all stepped up and hugged lightly. It wasn’t joyous, but it was healing.
“I feel like we should write a friendship letter.” Rarity tapped her muzzle in thought. “But I’m not sure who we would send it to.”
“You could write it in the magic book so Sunset could see it,” Twilight suggested quietly.
The girls looked back and forth at each other, then all nodded.
A guitar chord sounded through the speakers. Everypony looked up.
“Let’s end how we started,” said both Pinkies.
“How can we argue with that,” said Sunset. “Take it away girls.”
Drumsticks taped together four times, then all the music started at once. Bass Drum and hoof stomps; guitars, a keytar, and a tambourine; a cello, two sampling boards, and two halls worth of voices in perfect harmony.
We used to fight with each other
That was before we discovered
That when your friendship is real
Yeah, you just say what ya feel
And the music, yeah, the music
Gets us to the top
As we learn how the rainbow...
Rainbow Rocks!