Tuning It Out

by Ice Star

Drowning In Sound

Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then, she repositioned her left hand on the neck of the acoustic guitar. Like her left, it was bright red with soreness and felt blistered after doing this for hours. Fingers, she decided, were an awful alternative to magic. She hunched deeper into her black jacket, as if being slouched against a wall with the instrument wasn't enough. Her left hand hovered over the strings. She didn't have a pick and wasn't sure how to tune the thing correctly, but it wasn't so bad.

This kept her busy, or at least it would if she learned to play right. Sunset hadn't bothered to 'borrow' any music books from the school. At least she had gotten the guitar for free. She really couldn't understand why somep— one, why someone would want to throw it away.

But how had the other kids made it look so easy? That's what she really didn't understand, or at least what she kept telling herself. This would have to be her new focus, besides the extremely easy schoolwork she didn't have the heart to pay attention to.

Her fingers moved awkwardly across a few strings as she managed to stumble through a few basic chords. It sounded only marginally less terrible compared to the last few times. She really didn't care. Or did she? Yes, she cared. She had to if she wanted to get better, music had looked like such fun. It seemed like the perfect escape.

It had only been a few months since stumbled through the mysterious surface of the mirror and the culture shock was overwhelming at times. She didn't talk to anyone else in Canterlot Jr. High. She didn't want to worry about anything, especially not all the exams coming up before the end of the last year here — and her first in this world — ended and she moved up to Canterlot High.

Sunset's fingers slipped again. The chord was ruined and she bit the inside of her cheek. Why hadn't she just checked out the music books in the school library? Instead, she had hidden hiding between the shelves and attempting to memorize every diagram like she was still some sort of perfect pony pupil...

...Oh.

Maybe next time? That sounded like a good idea. Next time sounds nice.

Once again her hands found their places on the instrument. She exhaled softly and tried to visualize the few chords she knew were perfectly ingrained in her memory. It was only about three or four, but it would have to work. Perhaps it wasn't that bad of a start and it was just her mind that was telling her otherwise.

She stuck her tongue out a little and glanced down a little. Sunset Shimmer swallowed and began to strum.

It sounded okay.

She strummed again.

And again.

Sunset switched the pattern a bit and adjusted the position of her guitar so she could wipe the sweat from her palms on her orange-colored skirt. Hooves never got sweaty.

Now, when she played those for meager chords it sounded a bit clearer, even if her fingers were stiff. Soon the corner of her little room was filled with a few shaky notes. Somehow her fingers didn't get entangled in the strings. Sunset leaned back against the cool wall and kept playing. She improvised a little bit and continued to fill the air with her novice playing, strumming a bit faster. The air was never empty, and always felt laden with everything that had remained unsaid between herself and everypony she left behind. Music helped clear that air, like taking an eraser to a smudgy and scribbled drawing in one of her notebooks. It helped her feel just confident without being cold and cruel, which was how she was towards the other students.

Sunset hadn't quite noticed that her fingers still played until she blinked abruptly and looked down. Even though she was alone she attempted to hide the shock by pausing to tug up her jacket collar. Then she resumed and notes drifted through the air and her mind, which was now distracted. Tomorrow she would get those music books but for now, she was content to get lost in something other than homesickness she would never admit to, or the malicious girl she felt that she could become. Anger towards the princess she had placed her trust in was something she always kept close to her chest, if only because she was no longer in a world where that could be understood.

Words had never come, even in her own mind she wouldn't — no, couldn't — communicate what was going through her head and what she felt every day but only bottled up. Music had become a bottle opener. It never spoke a single syllable but even her amateur and sloppy playing resonated deeply with her. It wasn't quite a kind of happiness so much as it was relief at being understood. For once since arriving from Equestria the secret pariah felt some sense of home.

Sunset Shimmer thoughts turned to those music books with songs represented by neat lines with precisely drawn notes on them. They had lists of chords and all sorts of useful things to help her in her quest for a new kind of knowledge. There was no princess that had to teach her anymore. She was alone in this strange new world with only her knowledge. Sunset's hands were strumming faster now, sure they were still not playing every note perfectly but that would take practice.

She began to hum slightly in an attempt to match her mildly discordant tune.

Sunset Simmer would have lots of studying to do. She would need to learn about the finer points of this culture so she could fit in a bit better, then she would be able to get some kind of power. Sunset would also need to try to learn as much as she possibly could about the mirror-statue portal. Would it open again? If so, when? Did it follow a pattern?

But above all else Sunset Shimmer would be preoccupied with learning music, which was a magic in its own right.

She massaged her knuckles before resuming her playing.

Author's Note:

And a few years later she became a Raging She-Demon. Who can play guitar.

If you liked this be sure to check out my other stories!

[Revised for print on 11/11/2020]

Comments

[Vertigo22]

This was pretty good. Take a like and favorite.

[Ice Star]

7193409

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[reboot-this-pc]

I like this story , not one line of dialog and yet so full of life ... I love it

[Ice Star]

7193980

Aww, thanks!

[NorrisThePony]

Huh, this is a really neat bit of tone and character building. You don't often see a whole lot of Sunset Shimmer fics set before the films nor ones that explore her history with music, and you did a good job with both of those.

(For some reason I imagined this song in my head when she started playing. It's not even an acoustic guitar but whatever)

[Ice Star]

7194770

Thank you! This idea popped into my head about a day or two ago (I don't remember, oops) and wouldn't leave, so I decided to make another flash-fiction one shot. Plus, I really couldn't stop thinking about where she learned how to play guitar since it didn't seem like something she would have learned in Equestria as Celestia's student.

And it's cool that the song isn't guitar, I'm no music expert myself to the point where I probably shouldn't be allowed to even hum. It does sound like it does have some kind of string instrument though.

But I do think Sunset sleeps on a floor somewhere, poor girl.

[Helmet798]

These are some of my favorite types of stories. Just one character doing a simple task, yet in the process we learn a lot about them. As others have stated, it's especially interesting to think of what it was like for Sunset in the human world, prior to the events of the Equestria Girls series.

[Cynewulf]

A pleasant read. I should play a bit more myself. My Martin's been a bit lonesome in the corner.

It's name is Rarity, amusingly.

[Ice Star]

7195983

I love these stories as well. Thank you for reading.

[Ice Star]

7196376

Oh my gosh thank you, Princess Cynewulf!

Senpai noticed me~!

[Sinank]

Wow, that was...amazing. You got my like

[Ice Star]

7240420
Thank you so much!

[Ghostfriendly]

Great read, I'm sure anyone who learned to play the guitar would like to read this too, as it's described well. It's easy to image Sunsert using music to release her emotions.

[Shimmer Shy]

Awe, this was sweet.

[nebulaegalaxy]

I have a lovely shelf with 21 stories on it. You know what's on it? Your stories.

[Ice Star]

7914752 Only 21? :P

[nebulaegalaxy]

7914753 I've had too many interruptions in my quest so far xD

[RainbowSparkle3]

Great story about Grade 8 Sunset!

[LackLustre]

8351082
Thank you for reading! :)

[RainbowSparkle3]

8351112
No problemo!

[Lapzidorus]

This was a nice fic, though I noticed a few small errors that can be patched up easily:

It had only been a few months since stumbled through the mysterious surface of the mirror and the culture shock was overwhelming at times. She didn't talk to anyone else in Canterlot Jr. High. She didn't want to worry about anything, especially not all the exams coming up before the end of the last year here (her first in this world) ended and she moved up to Canterlot High.

You accidentally skipped your noun/pronoun on the first sentence.

Now, when she played those for meager chords it sounded a bit clearer, even if her fingers were stiff. Soon the corner of her little room was filled with a few shaky notes. Somehow her fingers didn't get entangled in the strings.

I might just not be understanding something here, but is it supposed to be "those for meager chords" or "those four meager chords"?

Words had never come, even in her own mind she wouldn't-no couldn't-communicate what was going through her head and what she felt everyday but only bottled up.

You might want to space out the hyphens here; right now it looks more like a fusion of words than an interruption of thought.

[Csquared08]

This was pretty cute. I think a follow-up post-Fall Formal (maybe also after Rainbow Rocks?) would be pretty sweet.

Either way, this was really quite pleasant.

[Ice Star]

9445597
Thanks for reading! This one hasn't gotten any comments in a while, but that always makes it kind nicer. This one was just meant as a little snapshot/headcanon-flexing to have about how a horse girl learned guitar. I don't know if I'll do more with EqG stuff, but I did write Sunny here in one other story (Her Own Sky) and the sirens, if that interests you.

[Csquared08]

9445604
It definitely looks up my alley (admittedly, that isn't particularly challenging when Sunset is involved, but shhhhh)!

[Ice Star]

9445609
Well, Sunny is a good bean. I hope you like 'em if you get around to them!

[MixMassBasher]

Great story. Sunset basically using the guitar to deal with her feelings of abandoning her mentor and being in the human world

[Fillyfoolish]

The symbolism is intense in this one. 🙃

[Ice Star]

9991902
Shim-sham is excellent for symbols and puns. She's the wayward sun bacon gal.

[Fillyfoolish]

9991914
She should put that on her Twitter bio

[Ice Star]

9991915
a b s o l u t e l y

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

This kept her busy, or at least it would if she learned to play right. Sunset hadn't bothered to 'borrow' any music books from the school. At least she had gotten the guitar for free. She really couldn't understand why somep— one , why some one would want to throw it away.

Sometimes people just don't have a use for it anymore or interest for that matter.

[Ice Star]

11117014
True, but it is a perfectly good musical instrument. Might as well donate that shit.

[ScisetShimmerEvan]

11118229
I actually do plan on donating some of my own stuff to a goodwill soon in the future.