Equestria Girls JT: Rainbow Rocks

by MrBiteo

Hamstocalypse Now

During school the next day, Rarity noticed that Fluttershy was even quieter than usual. Whenever the girls talked about getting the band together, she seemed to disappear, playing with a lock of her hair or whispering something to one of the beloved pets she always carried in her backpack. Rarity decided that maybe if she spent the afternoon with her by volunteering at the Animal Rescue Center, she could figure out what was the matter. Besides, it would mean that she'd get to cuddle all kinds of cute furry friends there.

"Thanks for coming, Rarity." Fluttershy thanked Rarity as the two removed and placed her backpacks down on the counter. "The Rescue Center needs all the help they can get."

"Oh, but of course, darling. Helping cute little puppies and kittens will never go out of style." Rarity said going over to a puppy and kitten lying on a dog bed. She knelt down on the floor to the pup and kitten where she first scratched the pup's head, then picked up the kitten and affectionately nuzzled it.

'How hard was this for a job?' Rarity thought to herself. 'Maybe I should start coming here with Fluttershy more often.'

Fluttershy nodded, almost said something, and then changed her mind. She had so many animals to pet and greet. This wasn't a good time to tell Rarity what was bothering her. Besides, everyone else was having so much fun getting the band together. She didn't want to disappoint her friends. How could she sing onstage while Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie could with ease? How was she going to tell all her friends she just couldn't do it?

"Today, we have a really special assignment." Fluttershy eagerly informed Rarity.

"Do we?" Rarity asked.

"What we're going to do today is even more special than working with the puppies and kittens. Once a year, a lucky volunteer gets to clean the hamster habitat." Fluttershy informed Rarity opening the door to said hamster habitat. The hamster cages and plastic tubes connecting them were all dirty and filled with hamster...leftovers...with numerous stains covering the inside of some of the cages, as well as the stand holding one of them. Inside the filthy cages were the hamsters just going by their own lives.

Rarity tried to hide her lack of enthusiasm. "We have to clean...that?"

"It's quite an honor." Fluttershy gushed. "I signed up for it months ago to be sure I get it." Fluttershy went over and lifted the edge of one of the plastic tubes and called out to the hamsters inside, "Housecleaning".

Rarity shuddered and begrudgingly stepped inside the habitat. "Uh, Fluttershy, darling. Aren't hamsters, uh...rodents...?"

"They sure are." Fluttershy answered not bothered in the slightest. In fact, she was actually excited compared to Rarity as she watched the hamsters exit out of the tube on the floor and out of their habitat. "But they're cute and cuddly like bunnies."

Rarity wasn't sure she believed her. All the hamsters were emerging from the end of the tube at the bottom of the floor. Before long, a herd of hamsters was swarming Fluttershy's feet, and she was happily patting their little heads, tickling their twitching whiskers, and giving them welcoming kisses.

"Okay, every hamster. Follow Rarity into the next room." Fluttershy instructed the hamsters, whom all crawled over to a repulsed Rarity backing away a bit. "She'll take good care of you while I give your home a nice scrub." Fluttershy then closed the door and left Rarity alone with a swarming herd of hamsters. It was at that moment Rarity started to see what Fluttershy was talking about and gushed over how cute they were.

'Well.' Rarity thought to herself, 'at least I'm not cleaning up after them. How hard could it be to look after a herd of hamsters, anyway?'

Fluttershy spent the next half-hour scrubbing, cleaning and disinfecting every plastic tube and cage in the habitat. Fluttershy hoped Rarity was having a good time with the hamsters while she did so. By the time she was done, the place was much cleaner than it was before as nearly the entire room was spotless. Fluttershy smiled satisfied of her work as she had finally wiped dry the last maze in the habitat. Suddenly, the glass behind her was tapped. It was Rarity, pounding the glass with her hands trying to alert Fluttershy before she backed away while looking down at the floor. Confused, Fluttershy put her cleaning supplies away into the small cabinet and exited the habitat to find that all the hamsters were causing havok throughout the room. It was chaos! Total chaos!

"Rarity! What happened?!" Fluttershy asked Rarity alarmed at what she saw before her widened eyes. Some of the hamsters were now in tiny clothes that fit them perfectly, while others were fighting each other. One of them was even riding on the cat that Rarity interacted with earlier like a bull, complete with a little lasso.

"W-Well, uh, Carl Pettington's coat just begged to be accessorized." Rarity explained picking up the orange hamster she was referring to by the blue coat it was now wearing along with a black tie underneath. "But Emilia Furhart refused to be left out." Rarity then picked up the other hamster she was talking about, which was grey and wearing a blonde wig, seagreen dress and purple heels. Emilia then stuck her tongue out at Carl. "And got Curtis Pawpower to chew right through Carl's little scarf." One the counter was a large, buffed out brown hamster gnarling on a small red scarf in its mouth while other hamsters around it back away in fear. Curtis then got up on his hindlegs and wrapped the scarf around his neck showing off. "And before I knew it, I had a habitat wide feud on my hands!"

Fluttershy looked back at Rarity visibly dumbfounded and confused by her story. Carl Pettington? Curtis Pawpower?

"Also, I named them." Rarity then explained.

"Ladies and gentlehamsters, please!" Fluttershy called out to all the hamsters. At the sound of Fluttershy's voice, all the hamsters became absolutely still and looked up at her. "Now I know you're all upset, but why don't we all head back into the habitat and talk it over?" Rarity then came up to Fluttershy, holding Carl and Emilia in her hands.

Carl Pettington smiled and then puckered his lips, wanting a kiss from Emilia Furhart, who then tore off the tie on Carl's neck. Immediately, the hamsters all set to squabbling again. They chittered! They bickered! They bit!

"Oh! Now, how are we ever going to get them back into their habitat?" Fluttershy asked seeing that they won't be listening to her again.

Rarity found a tiny little hamster-sized dress she had made and held it up. A hamster lifted its head curiously. Slowly, Rarity led the hamster to the door, opened it and started walking toward the habitat. The hamster crawled over to the dress, sniffed it, turned up its nose and ran off to join the other hamsters.

"Well!" Rarity said offended. It wasn't often that someone, even a hamster, turned down one of her stylish creations.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy had carefully created a trail of food pellets across the room. But the hamsters weren't even eating them. They were picking them up and pelting one another with them. It was nuts. They were out of their minds!

Rarity then came up with another plan and went over to the counter to pick up her backpack, dumping out everything in it. She then tried to scoop up the hamsters into her backpack, managing to get Curtis Pawpower in the process. She then tried to scoop up more of the hamsters.

Seeing what Rarity was doing, Fluttershy went and grabbed her back pack and emptied everything out of it. Maybe she could use it as a scoop and catch the hamsters one by one with it. Among the things in Fluttershy's backpack was a tambourine, which rolled off the edge of the counter and rattled as it hit and bounced a few times on the floor.

All the hamsters stopped, mesmerized. But the moment Fluttershy picked up the tambourine off the floor, the hamsters began fighting again. Fluttershy then experimented and shook the tambourine gently. As the first tinkling of the tambourine, the hamsters were rapt, gazing up at her, silent and obedient. She shook it a little more, and they began to walk toward her. As she slowly slapped it against her leg in a steady beat, they started marching. They were hypnotized by the sound of the instrument. Amazed, Fluttershy looked at Rarity.

"Don't stop now, dear." Rarity begged. "You've found your audience."

Fluttershy took Rarity's advice and began to really play the tambourine, shaking and slapping it in a slow, hypnotic rhythm. Delighted by her music's effect, Fluttershy began to spin and dance toward the hamster habitat as she played. The hamsters followed in a straight line behind her.

Then, as if on cue, a tail and pony ears formed on Fluttershy. She had ponied up, just like Rainbow Dash at the Music Center yesterday. And similarly, the tambourine Fluttershy had been changed pink thanks to the magic enveloping her. Though, she was carried away by the beat of the tambourine to notice either. Rarity witnessed Fluttershy's transformation and like with Rainbow Dash, she was astonished by it.

One by one, the hamsters weaved past Fluttershy and quietly crawled back into the habitat. Finally, when the very last hamster was inside the habitat, Fluttershy closed the door.

However, she then realized what she had done earlier. She had played an instrument, all on her own. 'But would they want a tambourine player in the band?' Fluttershy thought to herself, having self doubt.

"That was wonderful!" Rarity exclaimed at Fluttershy's tambourine playing earlier.

"It was?" Fluttershy asked, both confused and surprised.

"Of course!" Rarity confirmed. "Now, why have you not shared this with us before?"

"Oh. Well, I've been worried that I didn't have an instrument to play..."

"But you do now, darling."Rarity reassured.

"But I'll still have to perform in front of the whole school..." Fluttershy confessed.

"You think that's going to be harder than playing for this audience?" Rarity asked Fluttershy pointing at the hamsters in the habitat.

"Maybe you're right." Fluttershy said, seeing Rarity's point and shared a laugh with her afterwards. "If I do get stage fright, I'll probably just imagine everyone as the hamsters."

Rarity looked back at the habitat and saw Carl Pettington through one of the tubes, who had removed his coat. Rarity sighed upon seeing that. "I guess there is such a thing as too fabulous."

"Not for us." Fluttershy said. "I can't wait to see the outfits you'll make for our band." She was so excited about getting to play in the band than she had ever been before.

What a great day it had turned out to be despite the hamster catastrophe.

"You know, I've actually had fashion shows go worse than this." Rarity confided to Fluttershy. "As models go, hamsters are pretty low maintenance."

The two headed out the door of the Animal Rescue Center and began walking home together.

"Still, I never would have guessed that hamsters could be so touchy about fashion." Rarity remarked about the hamsters. From behind, her backpack opened and Curtis Pawpower popped out, snapping his fingers thrice in different directions. But before he went back into the backpack, he spotted a spider bot exiting the Animal Rescue Shelter from the distance, unaware of it having monitored Rarity and Fluttershy the whole time.