//------------------------------// // Vulgar Display of Power (Battle of the Bands VI) // Story: The Phantom of Canterlot High // by Lucky Seven //------------------------------// Well, that had certainly gone better than Danny had expected. He was expecting Sunset to yell at him about bringing over a guest, but she had reacted quite the opposite, welcoming Ember into her home just as readily as she’d invited him. Of course, that didn’t mean she had no questions for the two. As the two sat on a couch opposite Sunset, Ember’s feet resting on the coffee table, she began asking some. “So how did you two meet?” Before Danny had a chance to formulate a response, Ember piped up. “He wrecked a concert I was playing, and we got into a fight.” “Ember!” “What? I’m not the type to lie,” came the nonchalant reply, and Danny facepalmed. She was going to be the death of him, he was sure of it. Sunset didn’t seem fazed in the slightest, though. “So you’re in a band?” “Hah, more like I am the band. I play guitar, I sing, and most importantly, I rock.” She wasn’t exactly wrong, her bandmates were just fellow ghosts that she had summoned. That begged the question of whether or not they were even real, like she was, but he could easily ask her that some other time. “I play a little guitar myself,” Sunset smiled. “Yeah, the dipstick here told me you play pop rock, is that right?” Sunset smiled and nodded. “My friends and I are actually competing in a battle of the bands in a few days.” “Well you’ll have a tough time winning if I enter,” Ember chuckled. ‘Okay, she’s doing a good job of being friendly, hopefully she can keep it up for a while,’ Danny mused. While it was true that she was being courteous right now, he knew she could just as easily show her true colors at any moment. “Heh, you sound just like my friend Rainbow Dash,” Sunset giggled. “So are you entering?” “She is, yeah,” Danny answered for her. “We just have to get her a schedule tomorrow and she’ll officially be a student.” “Well, just make sure you don’t get stuck with Ms. Hayworth,” Sunset laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind, thanks,” Ember smirked. Sunset didn’t know it, but if anything, she’d be the one making her teachers’ lives harder during the short time she was here. “So what kind of music do you play?” Danny raised an eyebrow at Sunset’s question. Was it not obvious by Ember’s appearance? “Mostly punk rock. I listened to a lot of Dead Kennedys as a kid, so I guess they rubbed off on me.” “Dead… Kennedys? I’ve never heard of that band before.” A quick jab to the ribs from Danny’s elbow got the message across to Ember that she needed to remember where she was. “I guess they’re just an underground band,” Ember tried to cover up her mistake. Sunset seemed to buy it, but then turned to Danny. “Danny, can I speak with you for a moment? Alone?” “Uh… sure.” He wasn’t sure what she could possibly want, but followed her out of the living room and into her kitchen. For a few moments, Sunset didn’t say anything. Instead, she opened the fridge, grabbing out a few bottles of what looked like soda. She tossed him one, and “So what’s up?” “Does your friend have a place to stay?” She unscrewed her soda as she asked, and took a swig. “Heh, not really, no…” “Well, I’d be happy to let her stay, but I need to ask you something first, Danny.” “Sure, anything.” “I need you to be honest with me. Are you a… you know?” The confused look he gave her said it all. He definitely didn’t know. The look on his face told her that, if she did ask, he certainly wouldn’t try to hide it from her. With that in mind, she decided to simply drop it, looking away from him as she did so. “... Nothing, nevermind.” “Alright, if you’re sure. Now what do you say we get back to Ember? I’m sure she’s dying of boredom by now,” he joked. Sunset chuckled along with him, and led the way. As the two reentered the living room, they saw that his assumption was indeed correct. Lying back on the couch was Ember, her guitar out of its case and in her arms. The song she was absentmindedly plucking out of the strings was one Danny certainly recognized. Sunset, meanwhile, seemed absolutely enraptured by the song. “This song is beautiful, did you write it?” “Yep, a long time ago,” Ember replied, continuing to strum for a couple more seconds When her song concluded, she sat back up and perched her arms on the end of her guitar’s neck. “I was thinking of playing it at the battle.” “You girls would certainly have a tough time beating that,” Danny chuckled, reclaiming his seat next to Ember and opening the soda he’d been given. “Trust me.” “Are you going to be performing with her, Danny?” “I don’t do duets, ‘hun,” Ember interjected. “‘Sides, I don’t need any help to beat those sirens.” “You know about them?” Sunset raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I told her. Figured we could use all the help we could get to beat them,” he reasoned, taking a sip of his drink. The look Sunset gave him showed that she was a bit unsure, but he did his best to assure her that everything would be fine as Ember began looking around the room. Sunset’s home was quaint, a quality she certainly liked. On the stage, she was all about living in the spotlight. At her home in the Ghost Zone, it was just the opposite. She, like Sunset, enjoyed some peace and quiet when she wasn’t rocking out. She could definite get used to crashing here for the time being, but one thought lingered on her mind. She had tuned out the conversation between Danny and Sunset, but it was time to bring it to an end. “So when do I get to meet these sirens?” The two looked at her, dumbfounded. Sunset was the first to put her thought into words. “You want to meet them?” “Heck yeah! I wanna know just whose dreams I’ll be stomping into dust,” she grinned, brimming with confidence. That confidence seemed to rub off on Danny, who simply looked to Sunset as if waiting for her confirmation to go ahead and meet up with the sirens. “I… guess we could go see them right now? They’ve been staying late at the school to watch the other bands practice. We’ll need to be very careful not to let you fall under their influence, though.” “Let’s go,” Ember ignored what Sunset had said, getting up from the couch and stretching her legs. It wasn’t like it would matter since she was essentially immune to all forms of siren magic, being a siren herself. She just wanted to know what kind of challenge she could expect from fellow creatures of the influence. The trip to the school was mostly quiet, aside from the occasional question from Sunset. They ranged from where Ember came from to how she had gotten into playing the guitar. With each answer she gave, it seemed that Sunset had twice as many questions to ask. The seemingly never-ending stream of questions was finally halted when they arrived at the front of the school. The battle of the bands was only two days away, and the parking lot was still brimming with cars belonging to the participants. “So how come you went straight home today?” Danny inquired, pushing the doors to the school open and walking in, Sunset and Ember right behind him. “I’m helping the girls out, but I’m not part of their band,” Sunset shrugged. “Not much point in being here if there’s nothing for me to practice.” “I guess. Still, are you sure the sirens will be here?” “Positive. They’ll be in the gymnasium with the other students.” The walk to said gymnasium remained quiet, so Ember took the chance to look around at what she would soon be calling her school. It was just a matter of signing up for classes, something Danny had let her know was incredibly easy. It didn’t take too long for the trio to reach the main doors leading into the gym. As Danny was about to push them open, he felt Sunset grab his wrist, and she pulled him away. “You go ahead, Ember, I need to talk to Danny for a minute.” “Whatever,” the ghostly siren shrugged. It wouldn’t be too hard for her to spot the sirens, having already had them described to her by Danny. Sunset waited for the gym doors to slam shut before turning back to Danny. “Alright, who is she?” “I told you, she’s a friend,” Danny pulled his wrist out of her grasp. “Do you not trust me?” “I do trust you, but I know you’re not being entirely honest with me.” “Is this about earlier?” “... Yes. I wanted to talk to you about this earlier, but I just couldn’t bring myself to,” Sunset admitted. “I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest with me, alright?” There wasn’t much to lose, so Danny nodded his head in affirmation. “I promise.” “Are you a ghost?” For a moment, Danny remained quiet, but his expression didn’t change. ‘Come on, Danny, you can do this. You promised her you wouldn’t lie…’ “How did you find out?” Sunset smiled, chuckling to herself. She was right about him after all. “The sirens told me. So does that mean you’re… you know? Dead?” “Not, uh, not exactly. Do you want the long version or the short version?” Danny asked, lowering himself to the ground and leaning back against some lockers. Sunset took a place next to him, and her voice took on a hopeful tone. “The short version couldn’t hurt.” “Well, it all started when my parents built a portal to the ghost world,” Danny began regaling her with his tale, leaning his head back to look up at the ceiling. “My friends convinced me to step inside while it was turned off.” “I’m guessing that didn’t go too well, huh?” “Yeah… I kinda turned it on from the inside,” he replied, laughing nervously. Looking back, his clumsiness had actually helped the world in the end. “Next thing I know, I’m a half-ghost.” “Are you able to transform at will?” Deciding to give his new friend a demonstration, he forced his right arm to become incorporeal and reached into the locker behind him. When he pulled it back out, he had what looked like a love letter in his hand. “My dearest Derpy, how I long for your--” “Haha, that’s fine, thanks,” Sunset cut him off, giggling. “How come you didn’t just tell us?” “Well, Twilight almost caught me in the cafeteria a few days ago. Whenever a ghost, or anything supernatural, shows up, my breath turns blue for a second. It’s kind of a--” “Ghost sense?” “Exactly. She saw that, but I guess she forgot about it once the sirens came in.” “Lucky for you,” Sunset smirked. Glancing over to him, she smiled. “I’m glad I can trust you, Danny. The sirens had me thinking that you were just trying to trick us all. I’m glad to see I was wrong.” “Heck, I’m glad you girls were so quick to befriend me. I don’t know what I’d do if I were stuck in this world without any friends.” “Trust me when I say I understand. So I’m guessing Ember is a ghost, too?” “Yeah. She and I have fought a few times, but we have to work together to get back home.” Ember was right. It hadn’t taken long at all to find the sirens. They were seated all the way across from the entrance, right at the bottom of the bleachers. Wading her way through the many bands that were practicing, she eventually found herself right in front of them. “‘Sup.” “Mm, what do we have here?” The one she could only assume to be the leader of the troupe basically cooed out. “I haven’t seen you around.” “Well you’re about to be seeing a lot more of me,” Ember grinned. “And you’re not gonna like what you see, Adagio.” “So you know who we are? Interesting… You’re quite the specimen, aren’t you?” Adagio slowly rose up, moving to inspect Ember. Unfazed by the siren’s advances, she simply let her have her look. “You’re a ghost, are you not?” “And yet I’m still not as dead as your chances of winning this contest,” Ember replied coolly. She heard the purple one, who she knew to be Aria, laugh. Adagio made her way back over to her friends and sat down as Aria spoke up. “Now that I’d love to see. You and that dumb boy don’t know what you’re up against.” “I know full well what I’m up against, Aria, and let me tell you. I’m not impressed by what I see.” “Well then why don’t you pull that guitar out of its case and show us what you’ve got,” Aria goaded her, pointing to the case she’d brought with her. At this point, most of the students in the gym had their gaze set on the confrontation. To her credit, Ember just laughed grimly and took the case off of her back. Opening it up, she lifted out her guitar to a cacophony of oohs and ah’s at its appearance from the students. Once it was in her hands, she locked her eyes with the girl who had dared to challenge her. “Whatever you say, idiot.” Angling herself so that the top of the guitar’s neck was facing the three girls, she began strumming a few notes. They didn’t have much of a set rhythm to start off, but slowly and surely, they began to morph into a very coherent riff. It was a song that she had been practicing in the Ghost Zone to use against her rival for the past few months. She hadn’t gotten the chance, but now would be a great time to show it off. For the next few minutes, she wowed both the students slowly surrounding her, and the sirens. Her guitar playing was out of this world, and even Danny and Sunset had made their way inside to listen to her play. By the time she reached the solo, every single eye in the room was on her, and she basked in the spotlight. “Wow, she's pretty good, huh Aria?” “Shut up, Sonata!” Aria pushed her companion away. Ember laughed, but it didn't affect her playing in the slightest. It wasn’t long before the song had to come to an end, but she was going to go out with a bang. Literally. As she reached the final notes of the song, she quickly turned the tone knob and fired off a green wave of energy at the Dazzlings. With barely any time to react, they were thrown backwards by the power of it and tumbled into a pile at the top of the bleachers. “That’s what I’ve got,” Ember laughed and began walking back to Danny and Sunset as the students around her began to cheer. “See you girls at the battle.”