Subdivisions
“…et. …unset. Sunset!”
The sound of Pinkie Pie’s voice and uncomfortably hard shoves woke Sunset, her eyes greeting her to her pink-skinned friend as well as Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, each carrying a backpack and holding briefcases of various shapes, colors, and sizes.
“Mmm,” Sunset groaned, sitting up. “Are we almost there?”
“Silly,” Pinkie Pie chirped, “we are there!”
Turning around, and looking up through her window, the intimidating sight of the metropolitan skyscrapers came into her view. Twilight giggled as the train slowly crept on its path, the structures of steel and concrete passing her by.
“Come on!” Pinkie Pie shouted! “We’re not going to get to college any faster with our butts glued to our seats!”
“Oh… right…”
Sunset crawled out to the walkway with her bags in tow as fast as her groggy body could allow. It didn’t take long, and with a heave she stood beside her friends with her bags in hand.
“I still can’t believe we’re already here!” Rainbow Dash happily cried out.
“How can you not believe it?” Pinkie Pie responded. “We just passed the Empire Hay Building!”
“All I know,” Rarity said, “is that once we get settled in, we should all have a night on the town!”
“Sounds pretty good to me,” Sunset stepped in. “That way we can get a chance to know the school all day tomorrow.”
“Is there anything all y’all want to do?” asked Applejack. “I’m all ears.”
“I’d like to go to the Central Park Zoo,” Fluttershy spoke in a hushed tone, “if that’s okay with everyone…”
“Sounds great,” acknowledged Sunset. “I’ve heard Manehattan has some of the best museums in the country.”
“Boring!” Rainbow Dash was quick to denounce. “The Minotaurs's first game is tonight, and I don’t want to miss it!”
“Hold on, Rainbow,” Applejack said. “A football game sounds like a rootin’ good time, but I don’t think it’s fair for ya’ to take three hours of our night. We can probably catch it at wherever we go out to eat tonight.”
“But that’s so late!”
“It’s quite alright, darling,” cooed Rarity. “I heard eating late at night is very chic in the city.”
“Plus,” Sunset added, “I’m sure we’ll get plenty of snacks at the other places we’re going.”
“Ugh, fine…” Rainbow Dash finally huffed with crossed arms.
“Don’t feel too bad, Rainbow Dash,” Pinkie Pie said. “We’re in Manehattan now! That means we get to watch as many Minotaurs games as we want!”
Pondering this Rainbow Dash’s expression changed to mild acceptance, giving a shrug that was happily received by Pinkie Pie. Sunset Shimmer looked out the window once more, watching the urban scenery hide behind a concrete tunnel that carried the train into the station, plunging it into slight darkness.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie opened the door to their dorm room, finding a plain greyish-blue walled space with a bunk bed to the left, as well as a couple of desks and a closet to the front and right. While Rainbow Dash grimaced at the cramped and empty nature of the room, Pinkie Pie reached out from behind the doorway and pulled out a blue cannon with magenta wheels, parking it beside her luggage.
Jamming her suitcases and backpack into the barrel, she slammed a large button on the back, her belongings spraying all over the room from the bags.
However, each of the items set itself in the proper place. A sheet wrapped around the bed’s bottom mattress with a pillow and folded comforter landing atop it. Her computer, notebooks, and an abundance of pens and pencils landed on the leftmost desk and sorted out neatly. A pile of clothes also landed folded at the foot of the closet door.
As Rainbow Dash stood dumbfounded at Pinkie Pie’s efficient unpacking, a pair of grabby pink hands reached for Rainbow’s luggage.
“Go crazy,” Rainbow Dash replied, dropping everything from her hands.
With gusto, she took Rainbow’s backpack, suitcase, and guitar case from her hand and stuffed it into the barrel, with another loud bang, Rainbow’s things went flying, her bedding setting itself on the top bunk and her electronics and school supplies flying onto the right desk. As well, her clothes stacked up beside Pinkie Pie’s and her guitar and stand found itself at the corner of the room besides Rainbow Dash’s desk.
With everything set, the two of them stepped into the center of the room, proudly observing the interior of their new home.
“You know,” Rainbow Dash smugly relented, wrapping her arm over Pinkie Pie’s shoulders, “I think I can get used to this.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Applejack and Sunset Shimmer walked inside their own room, which looked equally barren as Rainbow Dash’s and Pinkie Pie’s. Setting their bags in the center of the room, Applejack let out a loud, audible whoop.
“Looks like we have our work cut out for us,” Applejack said. “So, what bunk do you want?”
“Bottom’s fine with me,” responded Sunset.
“Suit yourself.”
Applejack picked up a green duffle bag from the pile and tossed it up to the top mattress. Sunset picked up her backpack as Applejack quickly ascended the rungs to her bed and bag. Sunset gently slid a laptop and her journal from her bag onto the left desk, a pile of pens and pencils scattering on top of them.
“Hey, Sunset,” called Applejack as she unfolded her sheets from her bag, “you wouldn’t mind puttin’ our guitars over to the side, would you?”
“Of course not.”
Dropping her bag, she grabbed two cases from the luggage and set them down on the floor.
“So,” Applejack continued, “what say you to getting the band together and playing some before classes start?”
“I don’t know,” she answered, flipping a case open and revealing a four-string bass with an orange-sunburst finish. “You guys sound well enough on your own. You and the others can go ahead if you want.”
“Aw shucks, we’d love to have you! I’m sure after the Battle of the Bands, Rainbow would love to add a rhythm guitar to our roster.”
“Yeah,” Sunset groaned, flipping the last case open with a blue six-stringed guitar with a V-shaped body, “rhythm…”
“You go ahead and do what you feel’s best. You’ve got a whole new life to look forward to here. We’ll support you either way.”
With a smile, Sunset grabbed both guitars by the base of their necks and turned towards their desks.
“Thanks,” Sunset managed to let out. “I’ll think about it either way.”
“You do that, but while you’re at it, could you just put my backpack next to my desk?”
“Of course.”
Applejack managed to only finish her bed and had many more bags left to unpack, but Sunset gladly took her friend’s bag to her desk, savoring her time.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
The sun began to quickly set, and the windows, streetlights, and headlights of cars and busses quickly became the city’s form of illumination. The nightlife put Sunset and her friends in eager spirits as they walked briskly on the sidewalk, eyeing signs for nearby restaurants.
Rarity elegantly and proudly strode with several full paper bags of varying bright colors hanging around her arms. Pinkie Pie guzzled down a paper cone filled with candied nuts, and before long, she tore off a piece of the cone and placed it into her mouth. The sight and sound of Pinkie Pie eating only served to make Rainbow Dash’s stomach grumble.
“Come on!” she moaned. “We gotta’ be getting someplace soon! I’m so hungry that I could eat a horse…”
“I’m sure we’d find something by now…” Applejack said, “if Rarity wouldn’t keep running into every boutique she finds.”
“Oh, come now!” she defended. “Manehattan is only the shopping capital of the world! Do forgive me if I want to indulge in such an opportunity!”
As the others continued walking, Sunset stopped upon sighting a small dive with neon lights reading “World-Famous Sliders” and “Sports Here.” Huffing in glee at the sheer coincidence, Sunset began to wave off to her friends as they continued walking.
“Hey, girls!” she called, gaining their attention. “There’s food and the game here!”
“What?” Rainbow Dash shouted, running to the front of the building and seeing the signs. “How did we miss this?”
“I don’t know,” Applejack said. “But if it’s got grub and a game, I’m all in.”
“I don’t know,” whispered Fluttershy. “It looks kind of rough…”
“That’s the best place to watch a game!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, hopping excitedly to the door. “And look!”
She motioned to an elaborate poster made from a single sheet of paper taped to the door, a single large word standing out amongst the other details: Skyline.
“Live band too!” she continued to shout. “No cover either!”
“Well,” Pinkie Pie said, tossing her wadded paper cone into her mouth and swallowing, “looks like we have a winner!”
With a charged skip in her step, Pinkie Pie ran inside with Rainbow Dash holding the door open for the others also approaching the entrance. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all walked inside with Sunset Shimmer at the tale of their line. Holding the door for Rainbow, Sunset allowed her inside before she slipped inside herself.
With all six of them inside, they could all look together and the sparsely populated and almost-broken looking dining room. The walls looked to be made of piled concrete bricks of random sizes poorly painted light blue. A long booth made up most of the the left wall with tables and lazily pushed in beside it. The floors were an unpolished linoleum and the bar at the right looked unmanaged and unclean. The newest looking things in the room were the TVs lining the upper corners of the wall above the bar and the amps and instruments on the small stage in the back.
“This place looks…” Rarity thought out loud.
“Perfect!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “We practically have this place to ourselves!”
Running ahead, she slipped into a booth seat, giving her a perfect view of the bar’s center TV as two trios of fully equipped football players in purple and yellow jerseys stood at the center of the field, awaiting the referee’s coin toss.
“Come on!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “The game’s about to start, and they’re playing the Vanhoover Stampedes!”
With Rainbow Dash’s mind made up, the others looked for their own seats with uncertainty, minus Pinkie Pie, who ran over their table to sit beside Rainbow Dash at the center. Almost as if surprised by the abnormal case of organization, the girls each picked up a disposable paper menu that had been left on the plastic surface and read it over.
“There they are!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pointing at her menu. “Sliders! I don’t know what they are, but they sound fun to eat!”
“I don’t think we should eat too heavily here guys,” Applejack warned, eying the different spots of dirt and crumbs of food she managed to find.
“That is,” Rarity said, “unless you want to spend the rest of the night by the toilet! I suppose we couldn’t go wrong with chips and salsa, but I wouldn’t put it past this place if we still manage to catch a bug.”
“Lighten up, guys!” Rainbow Dash sighed, putting her menu on the table. “These dives are what eating in Manehattan’s all about!”
“I was under the impression that was what five-star restaurants were for.”
“Well, if you want to pay, like, twenty bits for a single bean, then be my guest, but let’s not knock this place until we try it.”
“That’s the spirit!” Pinkie Pie cheered. “I’m sure we couldn’t get sliders at a five-star restaurant!”
“Or the game,” Applejack calmly relented.
“Or a band,” Sunset added. “That ought to be fun.”
Returning to their menus, three men appearing to be in their early-twenties unraveled and plugged cords into amps and outlets on the wall. A greyish-grey-skinned man with short, curly black hair, wearing a royal-blue shirt, faded-black jeans, and a black hooded sweatshirt wrapped around his waist stared at the six girls as a waitress walked up to them with a notepad and pencil ready in her hand.
From around the back of the stage, a woman with hot-pink skin and sandy-blonde hair wearing a sky-blue t-shirt and tight khaki pants approached him.
“Full house,” she said with a sneer. “And such a good looking crowd too.”
“As long as you’re getting paid,” he said, “you have nothing to be complaining about.”
“Right, because who doesn’t want to see the world-famous Eklipse perform in the corner of a five-and-dime burger bar on a Wednesday night?”
Refusing to humor her, the man continued to untangle chords and find its proper end. As the waitress took Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s orders, Sunset Shimmer took frequent glances at the setting of the stage before her.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
A pile of tortilla chip crumbs and small splotches of red salsa water were spread over the table’s surface. Despite her full, bulging stomach, Pinkie Pie reached out for the last miniature veggie burger on a large, blue platter, still managing to put every bit in her mouth. With a gorged swallow, the entire slider crawled its way through her throat until it reached her stomach.
“I still don’t get it,” Pinkie Pie groaned to no one in particular, sliding down the booth. “Why do they call them sliders? Because they slide down your throat? Shouldn’t all food be called a slider, then? Because they slide down your throat too, right?”
“Quiet, Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash hissed. “This is it!”
On the screen, the purple Manehattan team and Yellow Vanhoover team gathered parallel to just feet away from the goal line. Manehattan had thirty-one points to Vanhoover’s thirty-five. Despite the minute-and-and-a-half still on the clock, it was Manehattan’s fourth and final attempt for a game-winning set of points.
With a clash of jerseys and pads, the play began, and a purple-shirted man with green skin held onto the ball, making an impressive leap over the players mounded before the endzone. With a bounce and a roll, the player managed to get into the endzone. Everyone in the bar, was cheering loudly, minus Sunset, who gasped with horror at what had happened.
It didn’t take long for the others to catch on too. The ball bounced onto the endzone and away from green-skinned player. A yellow-shirted athlete scooped the ball up and quickly ran out of the endzone through a small hole in the human blockade before reaching sanctuary out of bounds.
On screen, the yellow shirts dog-piled up on their star player, while in the restaurant, the dozen dejected fans who remained inside sulked into their seats, retreating back into their mugs of cider.
“I don’t believe it!” Rainbow Dash shouted, downing her glass of cola, ice and all. “They had one job! One lousy job, and they couldn’t even hold on to the ball.”
“It’s okay, Rainbow,” cooed Sunset. “It’s just a pre-season game.”
“And how do you think that’s going to make them look in the rest of the season?”
“Well,” reasoned Applejack. “Look on the Brightside. We could have spent a fortune on tickets and overpriced food just to watch them lose.”
“But we still watched them lose…”
Rainbow Dash grumbled and crossed her arms. As Sunset tried to reach out to her, a sight found its way into the corner of her vision. Five people, including the blue-skinned young man and the pink-skinned woman, walked from a table closer to the stage where their instruments were kept. Among them included a yellow guitar, a left-handed black five-string bass, and a deep-red double keyboard, all held on their respective stands. The drum kit appeared to be simple; three toms, four different cymbals, and a single bass drum.
The blue-skinned man sat himself before the kit reaching for a pair of sticks inside the cotton bag latched to the stool. The pink-skinned woman grabbed the guitar and gave it a couple of strums as she tuned the strings. A whitish-grey man with a corn-yellow ponytail do in a simple black shirt and grey pants took center beside a mic-stand, while a maroon-skinned woman with brushed-back dark-brown hair and an unzipped black leather-jacket with a deep-maroon-and-white striped skirt picked up her bass and slung it over her shoulder. Finally a green-skinned young-man in a white collared shirt with brownish-khaki pants stood before his keyboard, fluttering his fingers over the keys from the left up, his turned-off instrument making little sound other than the muted thumps of the keys as they were struck.
The drummer tapped the hi-hat pedal with his left foot, the metallic claps bringing the attentions of the bar’s patrons toward the stage. Moving his foot to the left kick of his double-bass pedals, he gave a quick right-left-right step, feeling the sharp booms pulse out throughout the place. As he moved his foot back to the hi-hat pedal, he twisted his left hand and spun his stick so that he held both in a standard jazz position. The guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist turned their respective instruments on, a sudden low-pitched hum rumbling out of the amps.
“At least we still have the band to look forward to,” Sunset said.
As opposed to the other four girls at the table, who looked mildly optimistic, Rainbow Dash was still in her post-game slump, while Pinkie beamed, glancing at each band member with sheer excitement. Finally, the singer approached the microphone with his lips close by.
“Hey everyone,” he said, “I’m sorry about the game…”
“Pfft,” Rainbow hissed unbeknownst to him, “I’m sure you were…”
“…but we’re still here to end the night on a high note. We’re Eklipse, and we thank you for staying after to hear us play.”
Unable to avoid Pinkie’s ravenously happy stare, he took a sigh of relent as he faced her and her friends.
“I see we have some new faces in the crowd tonight,” he said, pointing the six girls out.
“Eee!” Pinkie Pie squealed. “They noticed us!”
“Hard to imagine how,” Rarity said facetiously.
“So,” the singer continued, “where do you all come from?”
“Canterlot High!” Pinkie shouted. “Well… we’re from Manehattan now!”
“Hahaha… Freshmen in college, I see.”
“My gosh!” she whispered to Applejack and Sunset. “It’s like he’s psychic or something!”
The pink-skinned guitarist rolled her eyes as she rubbed the part of her shoulder her guitar strap gripped.
“Well,” he went on, “we’re all college students ourselves, and as upperclassmen of Manehattan U, we cordially welcome you to our campus.”
As the singer clapped, the other members too led the rest of the bar’s few attendees in applause. Each of the five girls smiled warmly while Rainbow Dash slumped onto her hand supported on the table, still grimacing.
“Well, we hope you all enjoy our music,” he said, “and without further ado…”
The man ran offstage with a rather energetic spring, leaving both Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer both morbidly perplexed. At that moment, the drummer, bassist, and guitarist each began a quick and pounding melody, which was joined moments later with a few scratchy chimes from the keyboard. While Pinkie Pie immediately stood to her feet and began clapping in time, the singer returned, leaping back to front and center with an electric violin already affixed under his chin and plugged to a nearby amp. As he played against the guitarists’ and keyboardist’s melodies, Rainbow Dash’s mouth dropped.
“What the heck is this supposed to be?” she shouted with disgust.
“Shh,” exclaimed Sunset, motioning her to sit down.
At that moment, the drums came right in, keeping a simple 4/4 time on his kit with his snare and hi-hat. Sunset, Applejack, and Rarity were all tapping their feet, easily getting into the band’s jam. Rainbow Dash glanced to her other friends, groaning loudly at the sight of their enjoyment. Suddenly, the guitarist stopped, the bassist, keyboardist, drummer, and singer continuing to play. While the drummer and keyboardist matched each other’s beats and notes, the bassist and singer took over the melody.
“Jeez,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, “can these guys not play a full song?”
“Rainbow,” Sunset whispered harshly, looking visibly irate, “the game’s over, they lost. Just listen to the music and stop ruining it for the rest of us.”
Rainbow Dash pushed her shoulders to her head, baring her teeth to try and hold back her anger. The guitarist glared at her, cracking her knuckles as she prepared to return to the song. The rest of the band continued to play their melody until they broke off into another, the drummer playing a much more complex rhythm, as told by the in-beat shaking of his head and glaring into the skin of his snare and left tom.
The guitarist joined back in, playing alongside the bassist’s melody while the singer played a small solo on the upper strings of his violin. Next up was the keyboardist, going up from the lower half of his instrument while noticeably tweaking the sound with the aid of his pitch wheel. Rainbow Dash clenched her eyes, already beginning to race towards the breaking point.
“Oh, come on!” she finally exploded.
The patrons of the bar, along with her friends, all turned their attention to her, watching as she began to walk towards the stage. Any sense of fun and merriment the girls felt at this point was now shattered and replaced with dread, Applejack futilely reaching out for her.
“You call this music?” she loudly asked, making a beeline for the guitarist. “I’ll show you music!”
The singer kept his eye on Rainbow Dash as she continued her approach, not stopping his own playing. The guitarist shot an angry look at Rainbow Dash, threatening her not to take another step. Rainbow Dash refused to heed her warning, stepping up and reaching for the guitar’s neck. In one quick motion, the guitarist thrust the headstock of her instrument right into Rainbow Dash’s forehead.
Disoriented and feeling herself falling back, Rainbow Dash grabbed the instrument’s neck and pulled the guitarist down with her. The drummer, bassist, and keyboardist each stopped immediately, the drummer throwing his sticks down and running around his kit towards the brawl. With the guitarist on top, she and Rainbow Dash traded blows to each other’s faces while the bassist and violinist set their instruments down, joining the drummer as she attempted to pull the guitarist off Rainbow Dash.
Sunset and her friends arrived shortly after dragging Rainbow Dash away from the stage and surrounding her. Rainbow Dash and the guitarist stared daggers at each other, the latter not even noticing her guitar’s neck broken in two on the floor between them.
“Hey, you!” the baldy, burly bartender shouted, pointing at Rainbow Dash and her other friends. “You’re out of here! You want to start fights, do it outside!”
“Sure!” Rainbow Dash shouted out, trying to fight her way past her friends’ scrum. “Come on, let’s settle this outside!”
“Hold on, there,” Applejack called out as she held her back by her ponytail, “I think we need to leave before you cause any more trouble.”
“And don’t think of coming back in here!” he ordered with heightened severity.
“It’s okay, sir,” Sunset responded with an assuring, waving hand. “We’re leaving.”
She then glanced back to Rainbow Dash with anger and sheer mortification. Applejack and Rarity, joined her in staring, and only at seeing their icy, scolding looks was Rainbow Dash softened enough for the rest of her friends to escort her outside. Sunset Shimmer stayed, looking to the guitarist, drummer, singer, and bassist looking at the destroyed guitar. The guitarist shot her head up and furiously walked out towards the exit, turning to face the humiliated and paralyzed as she made her way out.
“Classy group of friends you have,” she spat.
“Striker!” the drummer called, running after her.
He sped past Sunset, left alone with the singer and bassist, who all gave her disappointed looks. Biting her lip, she too whipped around and quickly exited herself. The singer and bassist each picked up a broken half of the instrument, the latter unplugging the chord connecting it to the amp. The two gave a look of uncertainty to each other in front of the puzzled crowd while the keyboardist, frozen in his position in front of his instrument, looked to the exit door, clenching his fists tight with a fearful glaze in his eyes.
Stats
Page generated in 0.055 seconds
Total duration
1,003 users online
1,452,604 hits today, 2,073,628 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
first day of college hasn't even started an RD gets into a chick fight in a bar already. lol
I have to know before I start reading.
M/F or F/F?
6022398 M/F. I prefer M/M over F/F, oddly enough...
Seems like RD cant handle her Sliders.
Looking forward to where this goes.
I admit, that i don´t have the best concentration right now, but if i noticed it right, then you made it looks like Eclipse would be a bad band, and the main six, or at least Raibow they would be the best band again.
I would like it more, if they would be something like rivals, not that the Rainbooms are the best band from the beginning here, not sure how you wanted to do it in the later chapters.
(can´t find the right word, but with band i meant their music groups.)
6035671 I don't want to go into much detail without explaining everything in the comments, but I'd recommend using the link in the chapter to let you know how the song is supposed to exactly sound.
6035678 either i missed it, or the song wasn´t there anymore, i mean on youtube.
6036187 Nope. Link was always there, and the link always worked.
6036282 not really, the one i found in chapter two, ......well it said "not for Germany"
What i mean is, i can´t watch/ hear it.
6036456 Oh, really?
Then just look up a song called Travel Tunes by Dixie Dregs if you can.