• Published 15th Mar 2021
  • 841 Views, 66 Comments

The Spy Who Hugged Me - GaPJaxie



A collection of short stories, based on ten prompts given to me by FiMFiction.

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Band Camp

A request by Sozmioi:

Rarity and AJ can both play the guitar.

Preparations for the Rebuild Ponyville Charity Gala were well underway, that happy day every year when the ponies of Ponyville gathered to sing, play games, square dance, and raise money for all the citizens whose houses had been destroyed by monster attacks.

Applejack and Rarity had been active in the Charity Gala all their lives. As children, their enthusiasm pulled others into the games. As adolescents, they ran booths or volunteered for cleanup. As adults, they were organizers, and even celebrity guests after they acquired the Elements of Harmony. And on this particular year, they were also going to be performers, putting on a two-pony guitar rendition of Smells Like Horse Spirit.

As they each stood on stage, checking the microphones and tuning their guitars, Twilight approached them and said: “How’s it going?”

“Good,” AJ replied, and Rarity added something to much the same effect.

“I just realized,” Twilight continued. “Both of you have lived in Ponyville your whole lives, you’re both really close, and both of you play the guitar. Is there, like, a story there?”

“Yeah,” AJ said, “sure, when we were little—”

“We both went to band camp,” Rarity cut in, raising her voice ever so gently and adding a touch of dramatic breath. “I was in that awkward phase, too old to be a filly, too young to be a mare. I heard that Applejack liked the guitar, and I wanted to impress her. I don’t know what I thought, at the time. That she was cool or hip, that I’d somehow win a friend—”

“Woah, woah,” Applejack cut in, “that is not what—”

“Of course!” Rarity raised her voice higher, unable to keep a grin off her face. “I suspect on some level, I knew that music was the way to a mare’s heart. That I wanted her to look at me the way she—”

“Both our families,” AJ fumed, “sent us to the same music tutor when we were five!”

“Oh, I know.” Rarity let out a long sigh, and fanned herself with a hoof. “You always were the mare next door.”

“Oh, kay,” Twilight said, slowly. “I’m going to let you two work this out on your own. Let me know when you need the sound check.”

“Twilight,” AJ called, as Twilight walked away. “Twilight don’t leave me alone with this mare!”