Truly Outrageous 05
It wasn't the first time Sunset thought this whole Jem thing was growing faster than Synergy's numbers and scenarios predicted; she also thought that this entire media circus was beyond her expectations considering that the three biggest news channels of the country and who knows how many magazines had send photographers to the audition.
Sunset, or better said, Jem, had half a mind of turning back, cancel the whole thing and make sure Jem never appeared again, but Applejack's silent support behind her and Rarity's poise of confidence at her side were enough to make her step outside of the studio building and face the welcoming of the wolves.
And what a welcoming it was, Jem was practically blinded by the amount of flashes and the barrage of questions thrown at them were maddening; thankfully she was capable of calming them down to a point where she could hear the questions.
“Are you going to release a new song soon?”
“As soon as we get a band we will start working on that”
“Is it true that you were seen in one of Canterlot's Night Clubs?
“The only place I have been all week is in my house working the details of this day with my friends”
“Where did you get the clothes that you are wearing?” The one who asked that question was wearing a 'Canterlot Fashion' badge on her very well-tailored dress and Jem could feel Rarity almost vibrating in excitement; looking at herself Jem took closer attention to the black spaghetti strap blouse with a huge six pointed pink star filling most of the front, jacket, short skirt with more belts than she knew or saw reason for and high heeled boots. Technically speaking it was a design from Rarity even though they were created with hard light holograms.
“My friend and fellow member of the Holograms, Rarity Belle is the one that designs all my clothes” Jem said knowing the huge boost for Rarity right there “but if you excuse us, we need to start with the auditions, after we finish them and we assemble the Holograms we will answers all the questions you have” Jem said before the mass of reporters were left behind as the trio entered the recording studio and she finally sighed in relief.
“Well, that wasn't as bad as Ah thought it would be”
“Yes dear, I must say that they even seemed decent this time, and also, thank you for telling her that, I've been dreaming the moment Canterlot Fashion put their attention on my designs” Rarity said practically jumping in happiness.
“No problem Rarity, and thank you all for being here, especially to you Vinyl, thank you for talking with your dad so he could lend us the studio for today” The blue chrome haired girl simply grinned and gave her a thumbs up while she continued to set everything in order on the console “well, seems like we are going to start this thing soon”
“Can Ah ask you something Sunset?” Applejack said once the trio was sitting down on a sofa looking at the recording booth. AJ had used Sunset's real name since Vinyl was also on the secret since she had already a hand on creating Jem; besides, if there was someone they trusted with secrets was Vinyl, she was always making the joke of her being incapable of telling secrets to others.
“Sure AJ”
“Why am Ah here? Ah mean, wouldn't it be better if Rainbow or Shy was doing this? Ah'm not exactly sure what am Ah supposed to be doing here”
“There's two reason why; one, because Rainbow went with her dad to the airport to get her mom, apparently she is returning from Milan, and Fluttershy, well...can you imagine her being capable of sitting here and trying to judge other people and say if they are good enough or not?”
“Point taken, when you put it that way it sounds logic, but what was the second reason?”
“Because I need you here”
“You what? Come on Sunset, why would you even need me here? I'm only in the Rainbooms because Rainbow needed a bassist”
“I’ll tell you why, because even though Rarity and I can judge people's talents, we need you here to see if people are truthful or not; you have always been capable of seeing other people’s intentions. What if they want in to get in just because of fame and money instead of creating music?”
“So you basically want me to be your human lying detector... okay, I can do that” and the trio then got ready to receive audition after audition which ranged from not so bad to completely cringe-worthy, they saw everything from the musically impaired to the gorgeous but after checking with Applejack they always found out a reason why not to accept them.
Finally, after what seemed like hours or centuries, they were almost out of auditions and the four of them were tired.
“I swear, I will never make fun of the judges on American idol ever again, come to think of it, I'm sure we can get their jobs next season after this”
“How is it possible that we don't have even one member of the group? We have seen close to a hundred people playing and we haven't found one single possible member”
“Well, considering how many of them were divas in the making it doesn’t surprise me, just look at that Sunnyside Up girl, backup singer mah ass! Ah swear the bitch grew up watching MTV reality shows and would love to make your band into one”
“As our dear Applejack said, curses none withstanding, we need band members in which we can trust, after all we cannot hide Jem's true identity from them, it would be headache inducing after a few weeks”
“Yeah, you girls are right, so Vinyl, how many audition we still have to hear?” the girl adjusted her indigo sunglasses and checked the list she had before rising two fingers up “well, only two more, I hope we have luck because we need it” and it seemed someone up in the sky heard it because who came walking through the door was someone that was definitely eye catching.
Her dark mahogany skin seemed to gleam under the light and her face was perfect with a set of lips that pouted a little naturally and dark eyes that seemed to twinkle in good humor, she was wearing very light make up unlike the other candidates, but the rest of her made up in outrageous quality.
She was wearing a black mini-dress, black high heels and a zebra printed long coat, but it was her hair which finished the ensemble; the right side of her head was shaven and the left was growing long falling behind her ear but in the middle was the most glorious black and white mohawk any of the girls have ever seen.
Jem was sure that if that woman had a counterpart on the other side of the mirror it could be nothing except a zebra, there was such an aura of exoticness and other-worldliness around her that just screamed zebra to her.
“Okay, I think I talk in the name of everyone present in the office that I'm ready to offer you a spot on the band right now before even listening to you” the woman laughed quietly with deep rich voice, it was definitely not a voice to sing Fluttershy’s songs but if she started to rhyme she was sure she will get into a trance.
“Don't worry about it
I'm not here to sing
Of course I want to be part of the band
So let me play while you sit”
And of course she had to rhyme.
“Zecora?” Applejack was finally capable of finding her voice while she pointed at the dark skinned girl.
“Miss Applejack, it is a pleasure to find you well, I didn't know you were in the band already” the girl stopped rhyming but her smile showed happiness at finding the farm girl in the room.
“Oh no, Ah'm just here as a favor to Rarity”
“Wait, you know each other?” Rarity asked her friend smelling a story.
“Yeah, she used to babysat Apple Bloom; last I heard you were studying to become a botanist”
“Indeed, my studies are progressing well but I wanted to try my hand at music”
“You stopped rhyming” Jem said noticing the change in speech pattern.
“It is something that I learned from my mother, I found out that it makes quite the first impression” and with the way the girls inside the recording studio had acted it was quite obvious how well it worked.
“Well then, why don't you show us what you can do?” and then Zecora smiled white taking a pair of drumsticks from her coat and show them she did. While the only real experience with drummers Jem had was with Pinkie she quickly noticed the differences between the pink menace and Zecora. While the former preferred a wild style using the excess of energy that she had, the later seemed to almost dance while she followed a rhythm, it was practically hypnotic so there was no question about it “welcome to the band Zecora” Jem said happy to find someone that not only played well but seemed to fit in looks with Jem and Rarity, now they only needed to find one last person and this was probably it.
The door opened, the person entered and four of the five people in the studio were frozen after immediately recognizing who walked inside; the girl seemed thinner now, probably due to not eating much food but she still looked cute and almost innocent like but they knew it was only a facade; she still had her blue hair on a high ponytail and seemed to be wearing clothes similar to those she used in the Battle of the Bands.
“YOU?” Jem, Rarity and Applejack screamed at the girl while Sonata seemed to recognize who was screaming at her because she put her hands over her head as if protecting from something.
“Please! Don't hit me with a rainbow again!”