Music is Magic

by Twilight Nightmare

Chance Meeting

She wasn’t sure how many Hard Ciders that she managed to put away, but Twilight did know that she was way past a little buzz. Not that she could hold her liquor anyways, but she was able to function when drunk for the part. Well, function may have been exaggerating a little as she still became clumsier. Still, it also helped get rid of any inhibitions that could work against her when it came to being her normal shy self. When drunk, she was anything but shy.

“Look Miss, why don’t you just relax and enjoy the singing?” The barkeep said, wiping out a mug with a cloth while looking down at the purple unicorn with pity.

“I don’t need no stinking pity!” Twilight said, slamming her own mug down with her magic. Thankfully the barkeep gave her wooden mugs instead of glass ones, because it would have shattered from the force.

“I know they aren’t much, its open mic night. There’s actually a prize for the winner.” The barkeep chuckled, “Not that this crowd really deserves it so far.”

“How about a round of applause for Sonic Duet.” The earth pony on stage called out on the microphone. Only one pony even bothered clapping their hooves together as the embarrassed singer trotted off stage. “We have time for one more singer. Anyone else want to give it a shot?”

“I will!” Twilight and another unicorn cried out at the same time, trotting up to the stage. Normally Twilight would have noticed the bad shape the other unicorn was in, her yellow coat dull and dirty with her flame colored mane fairing little better. Her ribs were visible showing just how much she must have had to eat recently. In her drunken state though Twilight didn’t see it, only caring about blowing off steam over what happened earlier.

“Look, I was here first so why don’t you go back to your drinking!” The other unicorn snapped out at Twilight, making the purple unicorn bristle angrily.

“That’s funny, I’m pretty sure I was up here first!” Twilight snapped back, their eyes locking onto one another’s before the small crowd started booing.

“Sing or get off the stage!”

“Get off the stage you drunken nag!”

“Go away you street rat!”

“Fine! I’ll play instruments if you can sing!” The yellow unicorn snorted. “If we win we split the winnings.”

“If we win you can have them, I just need…I need to blow off some steam.” Twilight sighed, hanging her head a little. Despite her arguments of having better stuff to study, she was forced to take some music lessons when living at the castle. She may not have been the best playing instruments, but she understood a lot of the intricacies. “Play a slow ballad in G…and try to keep up with me.”

“You try to keep up with me!” The yellow mare snapped as she took several instruments in her magic, the act seeming almost foreign to her at first. After a few moments the instruments became steadier as the music began.

“Sometimes I feel so alone at loose ends. Sometimes don't know where to turn, or who to call my friends. But I'm okay, I'm okay. I have faith in myself, I'm okay. I'm okay…” Twilight began singing, her voice taking on a melodious quality. It seemed to please the crowd as they started cheering; though the more Twilight got into it the more memories of the recent past began to haunt her.

“You have a lot to think about.” Celestia had told her. Her mentor, her mother figure had turned her back on Twilight along with her friends to go comfort a fake. Even Shining Armor turned his back on her, throwing her out of the wedding and his life. Every single one of those ponies had dozens of reasons to believe Twilight over the fake, yet they didn’t. And the only two who may have had somewhat of an excuse should have known better than that, known that Cadence would never have acted that way.

They all turned their backs on her though, and the only apology she had gotten was one that didn’t even sound sincere from Applejack before they all turned their backs on her once again to usher Cadence out of the hall and away from Twilight. They had left Twilight to clean up the mess and make sure the hall was ready for the real wedding. As much as Twilight loved Cadence, there was no way she was going to do that after everything they all put her through. Instead she walked straight to her room, grabbed her pack and walked straight out of the castle. She hopped the first train out of Canterlot and ended up at the small village a few hours away from the capital city.

They had shown her that she meant so little to them, that they didn’t care how hurt she was so Twilight intended to show them. She would show them she didn’t need them, she didn’t need a bunch of backstabbers for friends. She would have been better off if she never met any of them.

~~~

“I'm gonna make it through today, I'm okay. Sometimes I go through so much in my mind, sometimes the space that I need is no place I can find. But I'm okay, I'm okay. I have faith in myself, I'm okay. I'm okay, I'm gonna make it through the day.” Twilight sung as Sunset concentrated on the music. She had learned some music before running away to that world full of humans. And when there she learned even more about music, the one boy she cared for getting her hooked on it. He only wanted one thing though, and when Sunset continued denying him he finally dumped her. She still had the guitar and keyboard though, and she spent many hours in the condemned house she used as a home playing them. They were what helped her survive, what helped keep her sane.

For nearly three years Sunset had lived in the abandoned place after the first couple months. She was naïve of the world and the jewels and bits she sold were bought from her at extremely low rates and the money wasted as people took advantage of her naivety by over charging her. She had tried getting a job, but didn’t have any papers that were required for some reason to work.

She had quickly picked up on how to use a computer though and managed to break into the school office and study the files of other students. Using them she was able to forge some documents to get her enrolled in Canterlot, hacking into the computer and changing some things to her liking. It was surprisingly easy, but the only easy thing she was able to do. Since she started going to school she managed to score free food, but no friends.

She had tried to blackmail some students, but it was no use. They quickly taught her a lesson in what not to do as the few students whose accounts she hacked ganged up on her. She was probably lucky to be left alive after the beating they gave her, though her reputation was completely gone. Not that she had much of one, but any hopes of climbing the social ladder faded away when those students spread lies and gossip around about Sunset that made almost every student avoid her when they weren’t hitting her.

Over the time that she was trapped in that world, her anger at Celestia had faded away. All she wanted was to sneak back home to Equestria and live out her days in some nice small town. Sure it wouldn’t be the castle, but it would be better than what she had back in the human world. For that reason Sunset had hurried through the portal back home the moment it opened up.

It was simple to sneak out of the castle and to this village. It wasn’t as bad as the human world, but things weren’t going as good as she would have liked. She had been trying to lay low so Celestia didn’t find her, so she couldn’t get many jobs yet. She wanted to make some money doing this open mic thing to buy a ticket out of the town and somewhere far away where she could get a job and settle down. It was far from what her dream was, but her dream was dead.

“Well folks, I think we have ourselves a winner!” The pony from earlier cried out as the music stopped and he came up on stage. The cheers of the crowd were actually a little deafening, but something passed between the two mares as they locked eyes with each other. They couldn’t help smiling a little as the cheers, bits and roses flew their way.

Author's Note:

Thanks to Sunset_Sparkles who helped with fixing a lot of errors in this chapter

This story is dedicated to my GF who kept pushing me to write this. Also, thanks Admiral Q Ponyform for all the input.

This story will be updated slowly until I finish my other two active stories, and almost didn't even get written yet as I was planning on taking a break soon. My GF convinced me to keep writing for now and even got me to write some of this to see what kind of response we would get and see if it would be worthwhile even continuing it.

As for the song that they were singing:

Comments

[draph91]

this is good continue it

[Misago]

Pairing?

[Willfire]

'We have a winner' sounds about right with this.

[Destia Blaze]

Great story, I loved the way it was written, though I kept trying to find some error (Damn my literature and it's great writing, however will I find something to actually poke at? ) But very well writting and I love it so far. Keep it up!

[Ponyninja88]

Well this certainly looks like it will be a very good story, i am very interested in seeing were you will take this, by the way is the parring here "Twilight X Sunset", i ask because of the romance tag, and if so then i know of a group that would be happy to accept this and any other "Sunset X Twilight" fan-fiction that you might of made.

[Ponyninja88]

I have noticed that even though i left a review i never stated why i like this, first off i should note that the way you set of the flow of the chapter is rather nice, i should also note that i genuinely like stories were Twilight and Sunset team up, i don't care if they are parred or just friends either is fine with me really, i also like how your planning to add Vinyl to the mix since she is not the first pony i would think of when i think of teaming up with Sunset and Twilight, then again there is the second movie...

Anyways i also found the reasons for both Twilight and Sunset to be at that bar to be very interesting, i wonder how Twilight leaving Canterlot before the wedding will effect things latter in the story, especially with how those that were close to her will react, as well as how they will meet Vinyl or react to finding out about the other's past as Celestia's student.

Also i would like to note that i like the rather unique way you had them meet, both wanting to get the last slot for the bar's karaoke night and agreeing to work together to win the prize, very nice, it also gave us a chance to find out what event's changed from the original show, overall this seems like a very good start to what i hope will be a great story, and has already made me very interested in seeing were it will go, overall you did a great job.

I wish you luck with this story, i hope it ends up being a great one.

[Twilight Nightmare]

5579574 Thanks, I'm actually working on a new chapter now. I was going to work on Sunrise, but my GF keeps pressuring me to do another chapter of this first lol.

[Twilight Nightmare]

5579683 Twilight and Sunset, yep a pairing.

[Twilight Nightmare]

5580335 Thanks

5584339 Thanks

5590680 Thanks, I'm glad it came out so well. Some chapters will have music in them, and a few won't, so hope that goes well to. Happy that you enjoyed it

[Destia Blaze]

5612060

I look forward to it!

[Twilight Nightmare]

5605982 Thanks, I'm really glad that you think it will be a good story. And yep, Twilight and Sunset pairing for this story. Would be great if it's added to a group.

5610026 Thanks, I'll easily admit story flow is one of my greatest weaknesses lol. I do love Sunset and Twilight stories, pairings or just teaming up, but I do have some plans for the story that I really hope won't turn people off to the story. It will involve how they get their fourth member, though that member won't be paired with anyone and if Vinyl gets paired with anyone, it will likely be Octavia. Not that I am a huge fan of Octavia, but she might make an appearance or two as will a few of my other favorites...and non favorites. There may be a fifth member of the group, but I am kind of leaning towards four being enough.

Thanks, I was trying to make a somewhat more original way of them meeting while at the same time being a little like an episode of the cartoon I am taking inspiration from for this story. (Having to watch it with your GF and have her wanting you to work it into MLP kind of has the effect of the story getting done lol) Chapter two will have the two learning more about each other as they make plans and Vinyl will probably come in Chapter 3 or 4 at the latest.

I really hope that you enjoy where this goes and like the ideas that gets incorporated into the story. Just hope that one of the big important bits of the story is believeable and works out lol.

[Water Lilly]

Ahh! This is my favorite episode of Jem!

[Dragon of Shadows]

i hope this is going to be continued