//------------------------------// // Chapter 33 - We will rise again! // Story: The normal life of Nitpick Bittersweet // by Ryusun //------------------------------// ‘Everyone encounters failure in their lives! There are no exceptions! No perfect individuals walk on this world or others! No matter if you were born a genius or a disastrous failure, you can reach fame and glory with your own might if you work your way to it! We three were born prodigious, blessed and charming! We were like a dragon that could destroy everything that opposed us! But beware! Even a beaten mouse can crush the most ferocious of dragons! If you underestimate your rivals, you are doomed to receive a terrible defeat! And this is how my tale starts …The dragon being beaten by the mouse. My sisters and I formed a band group called The Dazzlings! We sang the most beautiful of songs in our days of old! There was no competition against us! No one could match our supremacy! But then, a challenger emerged from nowhere, bringing with him wits and powerful magic! We couldn’t resist the urge to defeat him! The necessity to empower our pride was overwhelming to us! He proved himself to be a powerful opponent but we were able to defeat him… or so we thought! In the last minute, he unleashed a magical song that practically sent us to another world! We weren’t able to come back to our land, but we kept going! Our ambition couldn’t die with ease! So we traveled again, from town to town, from one world to another! Searching how to adapt in our new environments and just surviving with the only thing we had: Our voices!’ ‘SCRATCH’ “AAAAAHHHH!! What was that noise!?” The girl called Gilda said with great annoyance. “Urrghmm! It sounded like if someone horribly scratched a board with his fingers!” Her partner, Nitpick, said with great discomfort. “Oh, forgive me! I’ll put the music once-” “Uh, Adagio!” One of my younger sisters came straight to where we were “The vinyl disc player made PUM!” “WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT MADE ‘PUM’, SONATA!?” “Don’t worry!” My other sister said with a loud voice from the control room “I have it under control!” “Good job, Aria! And you! Stop messing around!” “Sorry!” "Do not stick out your tongue like a stupid dog in front of our clients!" As soon as she left, I got back to attend both of them. The lounge music was back to the audience and our clients were at peace again. “Forgive my sister, she is an idiot!” “I am an older brother too so no hard feelings!” “I forgive you because deep inside you seem to be a good sister.” “Thank you for your kindness in the matter. Now, where was I? Oh yes!” ‘We came to a point where we were tired of small audiences! We were tired of fast food! We wanted to be adored again by everyone! Hearing the thunderous cheers of an enormous audience was what we desired the most! The magic to be able to move the masses at our whim was our drive to keep moving forward! And one fateful night, after what appeared to be an eternity since we faced our first, real foe, emerged! A torrent of light appeared from the ground! The light was calling us to a place where we three knew would find our destinies!’ “Sorry to interrupt but I guess that place is CHS!” Young Nitpick said with a hunch like affirmation. “And you are correct! How did you guess?” “Rarity and your hate towards her, I am right?” “It’s not hate. I just want to destroy her and her friends. I’m getting to that in a minute.” ‘So, after a series of events, we became students of Canterlot High School! And as soon as we made our first step into the building, we knew that it needed a total remodeling! And we three had what it needed: US! There was a petty contest that our new school was about to hold in a few days, but we persuaded our way to make it a big event, a show that would bring back but a taste of what we waited for long: The battle of the bands! No other band had the talent to oppose us! All of them were small fries who couldn’t challenge our bright! But, just like what happened before, new challengers emerged from nowhere to oppose us again: The Rainbooms! They looked united at first sight! But they just needed a little push in the wrong direction and that weak bond of them would crumble to the ground! And we succeeded… at first! The school was at our grasp! Nothing could stop us! And in our moment our triumph, we foolishly let our guard down! A new light rose among our broken opponents and under her lead, she united their lights and shattered our dreams!’ “You look sad…” Nitpick said somewhat regretful. “Sorry for making you remember something awful…” Gilda said with the same tone. “I despise pity, but I don’t feel hypocrisy and falseness in yours so don’t worry! Besides, my sisters and I are here now, so it didn’t end in tragedy! And we brought this upon ourselves, to be honest.” “I am going to assume that the Rainbooms are Rarity and her friends.” “Clever boy, and Sunset Shimmer was the one who gave us the final blow” “Sunset…” “Those eyes! Is she your crush?” “Uh…no point on lying.” “For what you told me about her, I don’t like her! I rather you date Fluttershy than her! She sounds too perfect to be true! If Flutty is the same girl as I remember, I can give you tips!” “Ah… Fluttershy… uh...” “What, Nit?” “Let me guess! You made her mad and she slapped you!?” Oh! I love it when I am right! Your new expression told me everything! “No… way! Tell me that’s a lie, Nit!” “…uh.” My new patron started laughing, resting her face on the surface of the table, her hand hitting the fabric of wood with great strength while the other hand was barely holding her glass! “Hahaha… hu... hahahahahahahaha! You are truly hopeless!” “Your senseless lack of pity is inspiring, Gilda!” Nitpick said with an annoyed tone “Darling! Something tells me that you were at fault!” “WHAT!? How dare you make those accusations! Gily, do you believe I’m guilty!?” “HAhahaha… huu! Fluttershy! hahahaha… huffff... I’m fine. And yes, you are an ass!” “I tried to kill a rat that was pestering the neighborhood! What’s wrong with that!?” “Well, nothing really. Did you tell her about what happened to little Drafter?” “No, I was in shock because of what happened!” “At least I am glad to know that she started to grow a backbone! She was a wimp like me back then and… mmm...” “Privacy is a commodity, so please, don’t tell me.” I said it with respect because they gave me the same treatment. “Thanks…” “Anyway, I hope you killed the vermin! Business suffers when any kind of health problem emerges in any local!” “No, she rescued it.” “Pity… I hate rats!” “Same here. One nearly killed my lil sis with a near fatal disease.” “Is she okay?” “As fine as you and your sisters” “Ohoho! Then allow me to continue my tale.” ‘We were beaten! Our pride crushed! Our voices destroyed! We had nothing! No guardians, no home to go back, no nothing! You could say we spent all of our resources to make this a big event and we lost everything! Except for one thing: Our fierce desire to keep moving forward and make a comeback! It doesn’t mean we didn’t make some emergency plans, but we didn’t expect for things to turn out that bad! We only had our identifications, three phones without charge, some spare cloths and two hundred dollars to expend for food and other necessities! So, as I said! We practically had nothing!’ “You are boring our clients, Adagio! Go to the good part already!” “Shut up, Aria! Go back and clean the kitchen!” “Today is your turn to do it, you slacker!” “Not in front of our clients!” I hissed in anger with the lowest voice I could manage. “You are only telling the story so you could slack off and make Sonata clean the mess for you!” This little punk found out my intentions! “Alright, Adagio! I’ll clean with Sonata the kitchen so tell the story if you wish but tomorrow you will do the dishes and cooking!” Aria said as she left angered. That was the plan! The entire place in the end must take my lead! “Sibling quarrels at its finest!” “This is how real family restaurants should be about, bitching with your family!” These guys are truly something else. “Do you have other friends?” I asked with curiosity. “Yes, they are bastards in their own way like us!” Nitpick said with great pride. “That kind of pride will bite you one day, you know? A mouse can put you in your place in one of these days if you don’t tread carefully!” “We don’t back down that easily!” “I’m talking about him! You seem to be the patience one, Miss Gilda!” “As much as I like to brag about it, he is the patience one! And don’t use ‘Miss’. Gilda is fine.” “Alright, Gilda! And we shall see if that’s true for him…anyway, where was I?” ‘As we wandered through the cold winter searching for any shelter we could find, we found ourselves in a predicament! In what we should spend our remaining money? Food? Clothes? A room for the night? We decided to spend it on food! We were hungrier than ever! Simple chips tasted like glory! We couldn’t spent the money in one go so administrations had to be made! Eventually, we come to a point where we didn’t know what to do with our remaining twelve dollars! We were desperate and for the first time in our lives, we were scared! We were soon found in a position where we thought about getting a small job! We were adults so there would be no problem ... or so we hoped! One day though, before Christmas Eve, we went to a local store to buy our last bag of chips and juices with our remaining twelve dollars! But miracles happen when you make risky gambles and there it was! A new source of hope! A lottery scratches ticket! I thought about buying it and make one last gamble! One of the younger sisters called me crazy and that I should go straight for the food! The youngest one wished we could work together once more! So, after a long and stressful talk, we three came into an agreement that if my bet failed, we would never do something foolish again! And we bought the ticket and as we opened Pandora’s Box... we lost! We were sad, angered and defeated! Tears wouldn’t cease to travel on our cheeks… But the hope contained in the box came in the form of a mysterious girl who simply appeared before us! She looked at us closely, observing the shameful filth we were covered in and finally she bought another ticket, gave it to us and left as fast as she came! Before banishing in the mist of snow before us, she said “Do not do foolish things again”. We were dreaming again for the second time thanks to that girl and as we scratched our second chance... hope became reality!’ “Wow! Really!?” Gilda asked. I took out a picture showing the three of us with the winning ticket while receiving the prize. “Wow, congratulations!” “Eventually, we invested the money during a few weeks, a little convincing here and there, some lucky business with stupid people and here we are today! Doing a family business! I don’t like thanking anyone, too proud for that nonsense! But whoever that girl was, I hope Lady Luck always smiles upon her!” “How nice and lucky of you! ...But I have a question.” “Nitpick, right? What do you want to ask?” “I feel that you lost something more than a simple concert. I won’t go deeper than that so if you had the chance to recover what you lost… would you challenge again the Rainbooms?” “Absolutely, sweetheart! Only those who desire success and chase it to the end are the only ones who have the right to achieve victory, complain and judge other people who don’t fight for their ambitions! But the three of us took the girl’s words at heart! From the moment we started this restaurant, we played really smart all of our moves so we can’t be reckless again! And as I said before, let’s say I have one thousand years of experience to rely upon! And one day, we will have our own world-wide franchise! And everyone will adore it like the second coming of toast bread! All will adore us again!” All will kneel before ‘The Dazzles’ family restaurant franchise! “Wow, too much emotion right there! Take it easy! And well…” They stood up and both of them left a small but generous tip in the table “Thanks for the tale and the drinks! We’ll definitely come back when we have time, money and age to spare!” “Yeah, specially me! I want to drink just once in my life so I can concentrate in being a healthy athlete! And watch Nit drink milk while at it!” “Excellent! Have a nice evening, my new patrons! I know you’ll be back soon!” Really soon!