> The Story of Gigi > by SteelChords > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Syx String > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I walked out of the Everfree Radio studio headquarters one Tuesday night. It was another successful show that night. We'd had about 40 to 45 viewers tune in, so our viewership was starting to climb week to week. I was feeling good about myself. I'd helped a lesser known musical artist gain a bit of a larger fan base than they'd had the day before, and all the other hosts seemed to really enjoy the song I chose to feature. I even made the other hosts laugh pretty hard a few times. Granted, Slyph seemed a bit peeved that I had made a bad pun out of his name again, but he knew it was all in good fun. Overall, it was a pretty successful night. So, with that in mind, I decided to go to the local ice cream parlor and reward myself with a double scoop cone. I walked down the street, glancing around for a sign of anypony else that might be out this late. Unfortunately, it was surprisingly quiet that night. As opposed to most nights, everypony seemed to be inside either sleeping or doing whatever ponies do in their homes at night. I kept walking, hoping I might see someone walking home that might want to join me for ice cream. There was not much going on at the time. Luna had made another incredible night sky that night. The stars were just visible to where it almost looked like the moon was a comet shooting across the sky. Luna had definitely outdone herself. As I kept walking I couldn't help but feel like I was being watched. On numerous occasions I stopped and looked around expecting to find a pair of eyes looking back at me, but each time I was let down. Yet as I continued walking, I could swear I felt a pair of eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. With this thought in mind, I continued to hurry to the parlor. Soon enough, I was standing outside the front door. I looked up at the sign above the door: "Frosty Cream's Ice Cream". "Ahh, good times." I said to myself before walking in. "Hey, Syx! Nice to see ya! How'd the show go tonight?" Frosty greeted me as I walked to the counter. "Hey, Frosty! The show went great! Had a ton of fun, and I think we got some new weekly viewers!" I replied. She always liked to hear about the show, since she was always asked to work when we would be on the air. "Well, that's always good! I'm guessing you're here to celebrate then?" she asked with a smile. "Yep, can I get a double scoop of Rocky Road?" I asked. "You got it! One double scoop of Rocky Road cooooming up." she replied cheerfully. I decided to sit down for a second while I was waiting. I noticed a table over by the window and decided to take a seat. It wasn't long after I sat down that I noticed a familiar, white coated, clay-color maned, pegasus walking down the sidewalk towards the parlor. The bell rang as the front door swung open. "Hey Syx! What's up!" called my co-host Starlight. I was surprised he wasn't at the bar. He always went there after Tuesday night shows. "Hey Starlight! What are you doing here? I thought you'd be at the bar." I replied. "Normally, I would be, but apparently there was a massive fight that broke out over there while we were doing the show tonight, and the owner closed down early to clean up the mess." Starlight said, disappointed. "... and I didn't really feel like going home just yet, so I figured I'd come here." "Ok, well, I'm just getting a double scoop cone to celebrate a good show tonight. You wanna join me?" I asked. "Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun." he said. While doing so, he decided to order a desert for himself as well. Pretty soon, both of our orders were ready, and all three of us sat down at a table to talk about how the show went. We all laughed while we ate, and I nearly made Starlight choke on his dessert with one joke, and Frosty fell out of her chair a few times. I was glad that we were the only ones in the parlor at the time, because there would've definitely been ponies looking at us like we were crazy if we weren't. "Ha ha ha. Oh yeah, and that pun you made out of Slyph's name! Oh man, that was priceless!" Starlight said, laughing loudly. "Wait, wait, what pun?" Frosty asked, gasping for breath. "Ok, ok" I said, catching my breath for a second. "So, during preshow, we started randomly mixing band names together, and I came up with, if you combined Rush and Slyphstorm, you'd get Slushstorm." I said, and we all busted out laughing again. Frosty fell on the floor and started rolling on her back, and Starlight put his face down on the table and started hitting the tabletop. "Oh man, he must not have been too pleased with that" Frosty said between laughs. "What? Naw, it's Slyph. He's a good sport. He was laughing along with us." I reassured her. "I don't know. He did seem like he was a bit peeved at that pun at first." Starlight said. "Naw, come on guys. It's Slyph. He knows I didn't mean anything by it. I was just messing with him." I said, hoping that I had reassured them. They both shrugged and kept laughing as the clock chimed 2am behind them. "Woah. Completely lost track of time. I should've closed up by now. Sorry guys, looks like we're gonna have to continue this conversation some other time." Frosty said. "Yeah, I should probably get home too. I gotta get up for school tomorrow anyway." I agreed. "Aww, come on guys. You're killing my buzz." Starlight replied, clearly sober. "I've got nowhere to be tomorrow, why can't one of you stay up with me?" "Sorry man" I said, trying to sound apologetic "If it were a Friday or a weekend, maybe, but not tonight." I made my way to the door before suddenly remembering, "And by the way, don't forget to bring the tacos for the show next week. We can't just skip Taco Tuesday again because you forgot them." "Ok ok! Trust me. I'll remember them next week!" Starlight replied, jokingly annoyed. "Ok then. G'night guys. I'll see you later." I said, waving as I walked out the door, and back out to the empty streets. It wasn't until I was a block or so away from the parlor that it hit me how long I was in there. The moon was just starting it's descent from the center of the night sky. My eyes and legs were starting to feel heavy, and my vision started slipping in and out of consciousness. Geez, I was not a night owl. "Ugh, hopefully I can make it back home before somepony looks at me and thinks I'm drunk." I muttered under my breath. The good thing was that I didn't live far from the ice cream parlor. The bad thing was that I practically collapsed as soon as I made it to my front door. Since Equestria has typically had an almost non-existent crime rate for the last few centuries or so, I used to just leave my door unlocked all day and night. It definitely came in handy that night, because I was too tired to check myself for a key that I'd likely left inside. I stumbled through the doorway and climbed the stairs to my room. I threw myself down on my bed before realizing that I still needed to brush my teeth. I wouldn't be able to defend myself if I were to run into Colgate tomorrow if I didn't brush. Groggily and half awake, I trudged over to the bathroom to get my personal hygiene over with. In my barely conscious state, I thought I heard a noise come from downstairs while I was brushing, but since I was too tired to care, I told myself it was just the wind. I mean, why would there be anypony downstairs anyway? I lived alone, and I tell my friends that I don't like late night surprise parties. Can't tell you how long it took to engrave that into Pinkie Pie's head. Anyway, I finished up brushing my teeth, returned to my bedroom, and proceeded to "trust fall" onto my bed. Soon enough, the soothing feel of the warm sheets persuaded me to give in to the exhaustion, and I became a sleeping rock. The sun shined through my window as the sound of the birds chirping outside finally forced me back to consciousness. I knew the sun was shining right through my window on my face, so I didn't open my eyes just yet. I slowly sat up in bed, before realizing I had a bit of a headache. I rested against my headboard while I rubbed my head, but something wasn't quite right. Ignoring it, I proceeded to stretch out my legs a bit, groaning a bit while I did so. Slightly alarmed, I froze mid-stretch. "Wait a second... why is my voice so high pitched...?" A little cautious now, I climbed from my bed, and felt my way over to the bathroom. Something still wasn't right though. My legs didn't feel as bulky as they usually did, and my flank felt bigger for some reason. What was going on? I finally made my way to the bathroom and walked over to the sink. As I continued to turn on the faucet and rinse my face out with water, I noticed my face felt different than usual. I was starting to get freaked out at this point. Instantly, I jerked my head up and my eyes shot open. I had to find a mirror. Looking over at the wall to my left I saw myself clearly for the first time. I had a blue bow in my mane, which had grown considerably longer than it had been the night before, and was wrapping around my neck. I had eyelashes that batted themselves every time I blinked. My muzzle was much smaller than usual, like that of a... "Oh no..." I started craning my neck to try to look at the rest of me, which in turn made me start turning in circles. Everything was different than it was before. Then it hit me. "Is It still there?" I thought. I checked myself again. I was disappointed to find It missing. At this discovery, I began to hyperventilate. Sweat started pouring down my face, and my knees felt weak and wobbly, as if I was a newborn giraffe. "No... NO... NOOOOOO!!!!" I screamed as the realization hit me. "I'M... I'M... A MARE?!" I then proceeded to scream in a very dramatic way that kind of looked like this: > G-String > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was a loud knock on the door and a voice called from outside, which brought me, very abruptly, back to reality. In the deepest voice I could muster at the time I called back downstairs, "Who is it?" The voice called back, "Syx, it's Bashscript! Are you alright? I heard a scream." "Oh Celestia, why?" I thought to myself as I put my face in my hooves. "This can't be happening. None of the guys can know about this. They'll ridicule me forever." "Don't worry! I'm fine! Please pay no attention to the pony screaming in the bathroom." I called back, hoping he would be reassured and go on with his business. It didn't work. "Syx, I know there's something going on in there. You can trust me! Just tell me what's wrong." Bash called back. I sighed, knowing that I would have to at least leave the bathroom to get him to go away. Reluctantly, I picked myself up and walked downstairs to the front door. I looked through the peephole to see a stallion with a blue mane and fair-colored coat sitting outside on my porch, looking expectantly at the door over his glasses. I had no idea how I was going to get him to leave. Bash wasn't like the other guys. He wouldn't get fooled by just any story. I put my ear to the door. "Ok, no offense or anything, I know you're just being a good friend, but what do I have to say to get you to go away?" I asked a little panicky. "I told you, just tell me the truth about what's going on." Bash replied through the door. "The thing is, if I told you the truth, you'd never believe me. You'd think I was just losing my mind." I said back. "Oh come on. What happened? Did you get turned into a mare or something?" Silence. "Uhhh... uh... ummmm..." I stuttered, my eyes wide and mouth agape. My mind was racing with questions. "Was it just a lucky guess? Does he actually know what happened? Was that clock always 5 minutes ahead?" I needed to figure out what to do, but Bash wasn't stupid. By now he had to be a little suspicious of his "lucky guess". "Uhhh... Syx...?" Bash called through the door again. By this point it was clear he wasn't going to leave so I made up my mind. "Ok. I'll tell you what's wrong, but I have two conditions. One: I'm not going outside to tell you. You're coming in here. Two: You are not to tell another living or undead soul about this or I swear to Celestia, you will regret it. Comprende? There was a moment of awkward silence before he replied, "Ok, I'll abide by your conditions. So, could you open the door? Mayhaps?" I took a deep breath as I reached my hoof up to the doorknob and turned. As I slowly opened the door, I backed up behind it so that I was almost hiding behind it. As Bash walked in, I closed the door behind him and came out from behind it. When the door clicked into the frame again, Bash turned around and looked at me, with a rather confused look on his face. "Oh, sorry... I didn't know Syx had a sister. I could've sworn I just heard him. Do you know where he is?" Bash asked, rather seriously. It took all of my strength not to facehoof just then. I sighed, and in my higher pitched voice, I tried to explain, "No, Bash. It's me. It's Syx String. I don't know how to explain this without sounding insane, but long story short, I went to bed a stallion, and woke up a mare." I gestured to my body to emphasize my point and looked back at him with a stupid grin on my face that, hopefully, said, "I know it's got to be the weirdest thing you've ever heard, but it's true." Bash took a second to look me up and down with a really confused look on his face. I could understand how this would be a lot for him to process, but I had to believe that he would trust me. I really had no other options. "Ok, so, let me get this straight. You went to bed a stallion, woke up as a mare, and I'm guessing you don't want anypony to know about this, because this is actually pretty hilarious..." he said with a giggle. "Focus!" I snapped. "Ok, ok." he continued, "So, you find this to be embarrassing. Are you planning to go outside at all, or are you just going to stay in your house until it goes away. I mean, it's not like this is the common cold here, you have to do something about this." As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. "But what am I supposed to do if somepony recognizes me and starts asking questions? I can't face the rest of the guys like this." I reminded him. "Well, I thought you were Syx's sister at first, so just use that as a cover until you figure out how to reverse this. It might just work" Bash suggested. It actually wasn't a half bad idea, but I was never a very good liar, or actor for that matter. "Alright fine, but I'm gonna need you to help me out today. I can't handle questions right now, and if people see me they're going to be asking a lot of them." I bargained. "Ok, fine, I'll just abandon whatever plans I had today to help you with your problem." he said sarcastically. "Great, thanks. I really appreciate it." I said pouncing on the opportunity. He gave me this look like, "You owe me." as I started laughing at how much of a turd I was being. Well, at least my personality hadn't changed at all. With all of that figured out, we decided to take a walk outside, just to see how many ponies would actually stop and ask about me. Turns out, nopony seemed all that phased by a new face in the crowd. I didn't gather much attention, and only a couple of colts crashed their scooters staring at me. Everything was going rather smoothly until I felt a tap on my shoulder. "Hi! My name's Pinkie Pie. I could tell you're new here, because I've never seen you before, and I know everypony in Ponyville. So when I saw you were new here, I figured you must not have a whole lot of friends, and if you don't have a whole lot of friends you must be lonely, and if you're lonely I figured I'd introduce myself and become you're new BEST FRIEND EVEEEEEEEEER!!" I didn't even have time to blink in the time it took her to say all of that. "Actually..." I tried to say before Bash cut in. "Actually, Pinkie. She's not really new here. This is Syx String's sister. Syx got called out of town for business reasons and he asked his sister here to look after his house while he was gone. She's been here before, but she hasn't really left Syx's house much." Bash said. Pinkie looked like she was buying it at first. "Wait, I thought Syx was still in school." Bash and I started sweating a bit. "Yeah, that's what I meant. He's out of town on a school functioned field trip." Bash said, trying to cover our flanks. "Hmm... Okie dokie lokie. Sounds good to me. Although, that still doesn't explain how I don't even know your name yet." My heart jumped into my throat and I started sweating even more. My cover name! How could we have forgotten to discuss that! My secret was out now. "My name...? Uhh... my name." My breathing started getting a bit heavier. "Y-y-you want to know what my name is. Umm... uhh... my... my name..." "G-STRING!! HER NAME IS G-STRING!!!" Bash blurted out. Pinkie tilted her head to one side and looked at us like we were aliens. Of all the names he could've chosen... I took a huge sigh as I caught my breath. "But I go by Gigi!" I said quickly, then proceeded to give Bash a subtle death stare. Fortunately Pinkie didn't seem to notice. "Wow, that's a funny name. Hahaha. Well, whether you're new here or not, I've never seen you here before, so that means you've never been to one of my parties!" Oh Celestia... this is all I needed. "I'm sorry, Pinkie, that sounds like fun, but we kind of have urgen-" "Oh, come on! My treat! Don't worry, you'll have the best time of your life!" Pinkie reassured me. And without hesitation, she grabbed both mine and Bash's front hooves and dragged us towards Sugarcube Corner. > SlyphStorm > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once again exhausted, and full of frosting and cupcakes, I trudged up my front porch steps. Turns out that Pinkie could throw a wild and crazy party without any prior planning, and still manage to get a good 40-50 ponies to show up. If that wasn't surprising enough, none of them looked at me like they had any idea who I was. Apparently, if nopony questions it, it becomes canon. Anyway, the sun had just set and the moon was peeking out over the horizon, as well as a few stars. A few other ponies from the party were still walking home. At that moment, I really wanted nothing more than to head upstairs and collapse on my bed. As I opened the door and walked in, I noticed that some things had been moved around. Nothing was broken, (thank Celestia) but some things weren't where I had left them. I left my guitar on the wall hanger when I left, but now it was propped against the kitchen table. Obviously somepony had been inside my house while I was gone, but why had they not broken anything. Heck, why had they not taken anything? The door closed slowly behind me, revealing the answer to at least one of my questions. "Slyph...?" my mind said, confirming what my eyes saw. "Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked cautiously. "I was looking for Syx, but I can see he's not here." Slyph said looking me dead in the eyes while inching closer. "What? No, he's not here right now. I thought you knew... He's on a school functioned field trip" I said, backing up a bit. "Really? Because he didn't mention anything like that last week. I would think that something that important would take some planning beforehoof, and I'm sure Syx would have to let his co-hosts know about his having to leave for a field trip." he said, still with his eyes locked on mine and still inching closer. "Umm... well... I... uhh... I'm sure he just forgot to mention..." "No, Syx wouldn't forget something like that." he said forcefully. "You know your little cover stories can't fool me. I know it's you." A cold sweat started dripping down my face. How could Slyph possibly know. I was so sure that I had covered my flank with the story. Everypony else in town believed it. Nopony else questioned it. Why couldn't I convince Slyph? "I have no idea what you're talking about, and you're making me a little uncomfortable." I said, attempting to play dumb. "Oh, you must've been having to deal with 'uncomfortable' all day. It's not often that somepony gets genderbent." he said, turning away, chuckling as if he knew something I didn't know. "Don't worry, though. Nopony will ever know." "What was he talking about? How does he know my secret?!" I desperately tried to figure out. Then it hit me. "You..." I said, stunned. "Hmm... so you really aren't just a walking sense of humor. Yes, I changed you into a mare. I mean, I'm surprised you weren't able to figure it out before now. For pete's sake, unicorns are OP." Slyph replied. "What the hay, dude?! Why would you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?" I shouted, relatively furious. "What did you ever do to me?!" Slyph turned to face me again, a very deadly look in his eyes. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE CRAP YOU GUYS PUT ME THROUGH EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT?! Week in and week out, all I hear are horrible puns with my name! And last night's pun was THE WORST ONE YET!!!" I know I should've been scared, and this was probably where my survival instincts were a little flawed, but all I could thing to say at that moment was, "Geez... you mad bro?" Now, that was a mistake. "REALLY? Do you think this is a game?! Believe me, I'm not afraid to poof some socks on you right now! Don't try me!" Slyph threatened, as I backed into a corner. "You better learn to enjoy yourself like this. I'm the only one who knows how to turn you back to normal, and I'm not doing it!" he said, turning to leave. And of course, like the classic cliche goes, "You know you'll never get away with this Slyph! I'll figure out a way to reverse this!" I shouted to him as he reached the front door. "Is that so? Because if I remember correctly, you would much rather nopony else know about this." "I'll tell Bash, and he'll help me! He can tell Princess Twilight and she'll have you arrested!" I said confidently. "Are you sure? I think I recall you telling Bash that if he told another 'living or undead soul' about this then you 'swear to Celestia' he'd regret it." Slyph said with a cocky grin. My heart sank. He was right. I had practically liquidated all of my escape routes for this. "You see? You don't have anywhere to go, and nopony will believe you anyway." Slyph chuckled maniacally as he walked out the door, closing it as he left. I sat there in the dark and quiet for what seemed like forever. Suddenly feeling very depressed and alone, I sulked upstairs to my bedroom. I would've taken a shower, because I reeked of sweat, but there was nothing that could happen that would make me care about my hygiene at that very moment. I crawled up onto my bed, wriggled over to the pillow and curled up into the fetal position. "I need to believe someone can help me. I have to..." I mumbled. Yawning, I laid my head down on the pillow and waited to catch a stream of unconsciousness. > Zeta Prime & Snowblitz > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I turned the doorknob and walked out into the sunlight. It was still fairly early in the morning, so there was still dew settling on the tops of everyone's lawns. Maybe Rainbow Dash had actually gotten up early for once to get to work. Not likely, but I probably wouldn't have been able to predict that I would be a mare if you'd asked me a week ago either. Weirder things had happened, so I wasn't going to eliminate the possibility. The town seemed to be just waking up. There were a few fillies and colts walking to school and a few mothers waving from their doorsteps, but other than that, it was still quiet as if it were still the middle of the night. I wanted to try to temporarily forget about all that had happened last night. It was rather depressing to think about, and I just needed to relax and regroup as best as I could. If I was going to find a way to fix this, I couldn't let all that get into my head. So I decided to take a walk down to Ponyville's main square. Hopefully I could just head to a local donut shop and grab some coffey or something. Hopefully there would be someplace that was just opening. Not a whole lot of places typically opened this early, but it was a relatively long walk to the square. A few minutes into my walk the sun started coming out a bit higher over the horizon, and some of the dew started to evaporate off of the grass. A few ponies started poking their heads out their windows, but nopony came outside yet. No wonder, it was still pretty early. Finally, I made it to the main square. I noticed quite a few stores that hadn't taken down their "CLOSED" signs yet, but thankfully, the one store that I was looking for was open. I made my way to the front door as the stallion sweeping the floor made his way behind the front desk. The bell rang as I pushed the door open and walked to the front desk. I ordered some breakfast and went to find a place to sit down and eat. I turned around and noticed in a familiar pair of ponies sitting at a table in the back corner of the building, playing some sort of card game. One was a black zebra with white stripes, and the other was a light blue pegasus with a silver mane. "Not again! COME ON!" shouted Snowblitz, as Zeta Prime practically fell out of his chair laughing. "No way! Rematch!" "Alright, fine, if you wanna lose again, I won't stop you." Zeta replied with a smirk. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to ask, or if I even wanted to be talking to them this early, but before I could decide... "Hey, Gigi!!" Zeta called, waving for me to join them at the table. I let out a long sigh, and then turned to their table. "Sup, G-String." Snowblitz greeted. I could not have given a harsher death stare. Leave it to Snowblitz to poke fun with the wrong material. "Hey guys. What are you doing up so early?" I asked. "Well, I'm always up this early..." Zeta answered, "...and I was called in to work early this morning. I'm responsible for the dew on the grass." Snowblitz replied. "Ahh, ok. So what are you playing?" I asked, changing the subject. "Oh, it's this cool card game my cousin, Zecora, sent me. It's like Secret Shipfic Folder but the cards are bewitched. It's really fun. Wanna play?" Zeta answered, excitedly. My first reaction to this was that I was about to get made fun of so much. A part of me wanted to say, "No, I'm not all that interested", but after he said "...the cards are bewitched...", that would've been a lie. "Ok, you've got me curious. I'll play a round." I said taking a seat. "Awesome!" Zeta exclaimed, passing the cards to Snowblitz to be shuffled. "So, in what way exactly are the cards 'bewitched'?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, from what we saw in the last game we played, the cards will occasionally have the players on them, as well as some things that you would never expect to be on them, such as beds and caffeinated soda." Zeta replied. "It's really weird, but it definitely makes the game interesting." Snowblitz added. "Oh boy..." I mumbled, trying desperately not to sound sarcastic. Knowing those two, if I got shipped with anything mildly humerous, I was never going to hear the end of it. "Well, I already signed up for this one. Might as well see it through. After all, what real harm could come from just one game?" I really hated to admit it to myself, but I was actually having a lot of fun. I got to play Snowblitz shipped to a soundbox, and he got so ticked off that he actually started flying around the table, ranting about how there was nothing wrong with carrying a soundbox around everywhere. I was laughing so hard my sides were hurting. Everything was going great, until he got the right cards to get me back. It was my turn... "So, I would have to say that Applejack has a strange attraction to bass players." I said, placing down my cards in that order. "Whadaya think about that?" "That sounds a little far fetched, but for some reason, makes complete sense..." Zeta managed. "By the way, if either of you tell her I played that ship, you're dead." I promised. "Whatever, Gigi. Anyway, since it's my turn now, I think I'll play the card I've been waiting all game to play." Snowblitz said, mischievously. "I would say that you, Gigi, have a secret attraction to the bass players as well." he said, smirking as he placed down the cards. It took all the strength I had in my adorable mare body to hold myself back from strangling Snowblitz right there. There was nothing in Equestria that I found more useless than a bass player. And of course, Snowblitz would be the one to have the gall to ship me with them. I then suddenly felt a very strong indifference to Zeta, since if it weren't for his stupid 'bewitched' cards, Snow could never have gotten a card with me on it. "I hate bass players! Do you realize how much I hate bass players?! You have no idea..." my vision was starting to get blurry and I was starting to lose track of what I was actually saying. My eye started twitching and I'm sure there were veins popping out of my forehead. The only thing I could make out was a startlingly horrified look in Zeta's eyes, and a rather puzzled look on Snowblitz's face. "Umm... Gigi..." squeaked Zeta, "... remember, it's just a game." "Yeah, why are you freaking out so much over this? It's just a game." Snowblitz agreed. That little hypocrite. Realizing that I was letting my emotions get out of control, I quickly relaxed and tried to look innocent again. "Oh... yeah... right... it's just a game..." I said. "Geez, I've only seen Syx get that worked up over bass players before. I know you're related and all, but I didn't think you were that alike." Zeta inquired. "Yeah, I was starting to think you were going to start turning green and growing unrealistically large muscles." Snow added. "Besides, I wasn't done with my turn yet." "Say what?" I asked, less enraged now. "You only had an attraction to the bass players for a short time, until you discovered the ever useful minifridge." Snowblitz exclaimed, placing the card. In that moment the world stopped as I stared at the beautiful being on that card that was a minifridge. My heart started beating faster, and all the blood in my body rushed to my forehead. As I stared at that card, my entire life flashed before my eyes. I was going to the department store to find the perfect minifridge to take home. I was on vacation at the beach lying under an umbrella with my minifridge on a beach towel next to me, sunbathing. It opened it's door slightly, and I reached in and got a can of soda. I was waiting at the altar as my minifridge was carted down the aisle towards me. I was sitting in my relaxing chair next to my minifridge as I watched our beautiful hybrid children run around the house. I was sitting in a rocking chair on my rickety old porch next to my dear minifridge. I was sitting in front of a tombstone that read "Minifridge Senpai" as a tear trickled down my cheek. I heard a small voice... "Gigi? Gigi." It was starting to get louder, pulling me out of my daydream. I snapped back to reality and looked up to see both Zeta and Snowblitz looking at me like I was a ghost. "Are you alright...?" Zeta asked, that confused and stunned look still plastered on his face. "Oh... of course I am... why wouldn't I be...?" I replied, rubbing the back of my neck with my front hoof. "Well, for one, you've been staring at that card for almost 5 minutes..." Snowblitz answered, with the same look still on his face. "For another, you were blushing and whispering 'Senpai' the whole time..." I'm sure my face was beet red at that moment. "Uhhh... hehehe... was I really...?" I stammered, sweating buckets. "Anyway, going back to the game, with the placing of that card, I believe that means Snowblitz wins." Zeta said. "Aww yeah!!" Snowblitz cheered. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I would have to remember that if Zeta ever asked me for a favor again. "And on that note, I have to get back to Zecora's place. She wanted me back at the hut about 10 minutes ago." Zeta remarked, restacking the cards and putting them back in a box. "Yeah, and I'm going back to my place to take a nap. I've got some downtime before I need to be back at work, and they already took about an hour of sleep away from me." Snowblitz said. "Ok, well, this was fun, guys. I'm glad I decided to play." I said as we all made for the front door. "Yeah, glad you came by. We were thinking it'd be a bit boring if it was just us playing the whole time." Snowblitz replied. The bell rang as Zeta pushed open the front door, and we all made our way back to the outside world. "Yeah, thanks for coming by when you did." Zeta said, chuckling. "Anyway, I should really be getting back to the hut. I'll talk to you guys later." Zeta said, before trotting out towards the Everfree Forest. "Yeah, I'm heading home. I'll see ya around, Gigi." Snowblitz said as he flew off into the open sky. With that, I trotted home again, unsure of what to do next. It was getting close to mid-morning, and I didn't really have much to do today. I decided as I walked up to my front door that I'd just try to fiddle around with my guitar until an idea came to me. I checked behind the door as I walked in. Thankfully there was nopony there. I walked up the stairs to my room and picked up my guitar off my bed. I played a few familiar chord progressions and played a simple runthrough of Cliffs of Dover. "Yeah, I've still got it..." I thought to myself, smiling. Suddenly an idea hit me. I rushed around the house gathering materials and bringing them back to my room to put together. It took almost an hour, but eventually, I sat back down on my bed and started fiddling around with my guitar again, as the candles from my freshly constructed Minifridge Shrine glistened behind me. > Parchment Scroll & Infinite > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Light shined in through my window as the sun rose over the treetops, blinding me momentarily. I really needed to close my blinds at night. I would've continued lying in bed, seeing as I was exhausted from the day before, but the sight of my new Minifridge Shrine distracted me. As I turned my head towards it, I couldn't help but smile. It was a beautiful sight. I pushed the covers off of me, stretching a bit as I climbed out of bed and walked to the bathroom. I jumped back from the mirror in a moment of startlement, before remembering the situation. I had to get Slyph back for that at some point. I couldn't stay like this forever. After brushing my teeth, I realized I had to pee. Instinctively I walked over to the toilet and lifted the seat, only to realize that wouldn't work anymore. I sighed. "Oh yeah... Day 3 of not being able to pee standing up..." Still not used to the concept, I did my business and headed downstairs to have some breakfast. Walking into the kitchen, I knew what I wanted to have. I walked over to the counter and looked up, stretching my front hoof up to the cupboard, trying to reach the cereal box on the top shelf. "Gah, I know I could reach that thing a couple of days ago." Giving up, temporarily, I pulled a chair over from the dining room to stand on. I grabbed the box of my favorite cereal and pulled out a bowl. As I shook the box out over the bowl, all that came out were a few crumbs and some grains of sugar. "Oh come on..." I exclaimed to the empty room. With nothing else available to eat, I pulled out the box of Bran Flakes that had migrated to the back of the cupboard, and poured some into the bowl. Figuring they'd probably taste bearable with some milk, I grabbed the carton from the fridge and poured some in as well. Finally satisfied, I sat down to eat. They tasted like cardboard and basically fell apart in my mouth. I spat them back out into the bowl, making an urgent mental note to buy more of my favorite cereal, and to never buy Bran Flakes again. Suddenly, there was a knock at my door. It startled me for a second, because I hadn't expected anyone to be coming over today. I recovered from my momentary shock, and went to the door. "Hello? Who's there?" I called through the door. "It's Parchy and Infinite" a deep voice called back. "We were gonna go hang out and were wondering if you wanted to come." I looked through the peephole to see a dark green colored pegasus with a brown, spiked mane and black sunglasses standing behind a straw-colored unicorn with a brown mane draped over his face, with a red streak down the center. Yep, that was Infinite and Parchy. "Ok, just give me a minute. I'll be right out." I called back. I went upstairs to put away my guitar that I'd left out last night, and make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. Content with how everything looked, I descended down the staircase and back to the door. I turned the knob and swung the door towards me to see both Parchy and Infinite sitting on the front steps playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors". As an earth pony, I'll never understand how they did that. As they heard the door swing open, they both turned around. Both looked a little surprised before appearing to remember the situation. Parchy just went back to wanting to play, but Infinite held the gaze a little longer. Even through his sunglasses, I could tell he was staring at me with a certain desire in his heart. "Oh great..." I thought to myself. "Well, hello there." Infinite said, looking over his sunglasses. "Hey. So, what did you guys want to do?" I asked, ignoring Infinite as best I could. "Well, we were just thinking, since Infinite and I both have the day off from work, we figured we could find some other friends that had nothing better to do today. We didn't really have a 'plan', so to say." Parchy replied. "Although," Infinite chimed in, floating up the porch to my left side. "I certainly would love to make plans with you." he smiled, trying to put his wing over my shoulder. "Infinite, you're fired." I replied, giving him a glare. "Alright, alright. Calm down, guys. Infinite, put it back in. Come on." Parchy reasoned. "Why don't we just go into town and see if there's anything going on. Maybe we can find something fun to do there." "Ok, let's go." I said walking down to the sidewalk. "Wait! Do you think I could use your bathroom first? I had to call the plumber earlier because a pipe burst." Parchy asked, grinning like a dork. "Ugh, fine. Go ahead, but don't mess with anything." I responded, opening the door to let him in. "The bathroom's up the stairs and to the right." Parchy dashed up the stairs as soon as I opened the door. Out of paranoia, I decided to wait at the top of the stairs for him. I didn't need him getting curious. I heard the door slam as he went in the bathroom, and subsequently heard the toilet flush when he was done. The door opened again, and a much more relaxed Parchy came out. He looked around the room a bit, and his eyes fell on the Minifridge Shrine that was set up next to my bed. He stared for a moment as my heart attempted to beat out of my chest and my knees started shaking. "Oh Celestia...! He sees it...!" I thought. Parchy studied the shrine for a moment, a rather puzzled look on his face. Then that look changed as if a lightbulb just turned on in his head. He turned around with a slight smirk on his face. "So... you like... minifridges, eh?" Parchy asked, that smirk still on his face. "Yeah, they're ok, I guess." I tried to put on my best poker face, but it didn't seem like Parchy was buying it. "So... just for the sake of asking... what's your take on... bass players?" he asked. I could swear there was hair on my head that had caught fire, I was so mad. Just the thought of a bass player infuriated me. Yet, at the same time that I was enraged that he would ask such a question, I began to get worried. Parchy was starting to put the pieces together. "...unicorns are OP..." Slyph had said. Parchy was a unicorn too. Was it possible he'd figured out I'd been turned into a girl? Was it possible he knew the spell that had turned me this way? "I don't really care for them, honestly." I said, finally answering his question. I tried to put on my best 'distasteful' face, but Parchy just held that same smirk. "Yeah, I'm sure you don't." he said, walking past me and back down the stairs. "Oh whatever." I muttered under my breath, following him back to the door. I walked back outside to see Infinite leaning against the doorframe, smiling at me. "You know, you remind me of a Star Trek phaser. You're just stunning." Infinite said. I just looked at him for a moment, desperately trying to send him a message with my eyes. "Not even on your death bed." I tried to say to him. Apparently it didn't work. "Larscis would disapprove." I said crossly. "Come on, let's go." I said, motioning to Parchy as I speed-walked to the sidewalk. Infinite paced down the porchway to walk next to Parchy, who proceeded to smack him in the back of the head. "Knock it off, will ya." Parchy scolded. "She's not your type." "Oh Parchy. Of course she's my type. She's breathing, isn't she?" Infinite replied, trotting to keep up. Rolling his eyes, Parchy trotted behind Infinite as he tried to catch back up to me. As we made our way into the town, I noticed a cute gray stallion with a blue mane, black and white baseball cap and large framed glasses sitting at a table eating break- "NO!" "What?" "No, we are not making this one of those crappy 'ship-your-OC-to-the-main-character' fanfics." the author's left brain said. "Aww, come on. She's so cute though." the author's right brain pleaded. "And everyone wants the ship to happen anyway." "No!" Left Brain snapped, proceeding to smack Right Brain across the frontal lobe. "We're not putting our OC in this fanfic! Change that line now!" "Ugh... you frustrate me so much. Why didn't I separate from you already?" Right Brain said. "Because you're emotionally unstable. Now change it!!" Left Brain ordered. Suddenly the gray stallion was struck by a meteor. Nopony seemed to pay any attention to this sudden occurrence, or even acknowledge it's existance. [Author deletes Steel Chords from this fic.] As I walked into town, I began looking around at a few of the signs overhead. Some were pretty funny, like the Oat-fil-a sign with the fake cows on the front. And then there were some that were obviously geared towards the stallions, sporting pictures of barely dressed mares with the bedroom eyes, looking straight at the camera. Then, I noticed another sign that was advertising a movie that I'd been wanting to go see for a while. I turned around to face the guys. "Hey guys, what would you say about going to see a movie?" I asked pointing to the sign. They both looked at each other for a moment, and shrugged. "Awesome!" I exclaimed trotting off into the town. Noticing they weren't following me, I turned back. "Come on slow pokes! We've gotta hurry if we're gonna make it in time!" > The Whole Gang > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The front doors of the movie theater flew open. I trotted through the double doors back into the dim, evening sunlight as carefree as ever. And why wouldn't I have been? The movie was just as epic as I was anticipating! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and had completely finished my popcorn about 5 minutes into the movie! Although, some ponies didn't really see it the same way I did... "Hey, come on you two!" I called back. "I'm leaving you in the dust here!" Parchy and Infinite trudged forward to the double doors with their eyes bugged out and their jaws dragging on the floor. I couldn't help but giggle as the fading light caught them in the face and they returned to "normal". They both instinctively covered their eyes from the light and regathered themselves. "Ok, I don't know what I was expecting to be seeing, but... THAT definitely wasn't it..." Parchy remarked. "Oh come on, Parchy, it wasn't that bad." I said teasingly. "No, my reaction isn't towards the movie itself. It's more to the fact that you were the one who wanted to see it..." "Oh, Parchy," Infinite chimed in, walking over to put his front hoof around my shoulder. "I could totally see Gigi enjoying a movie like that." "Yeah, sure. I definitely got that message from you when you tapped me on the shoulder 20 minutes in, shaking like a foal." Parchy joked. Infinite's arm went slack, and he backed off a little bit, stammering. "Uhh... haha... yeah, you have no proof of that." Parchy raised an eyebrow at him. Infinite started blushing as he desperately looked for a way to change the subject. "Oh, hey, would you look at that! Is that Starlight and Zeta going to the Karaoke pub? I'm gonna go see if it is real quick. Bye!" he said making a beeline for town. Parchy and I couldn't help but laugh. Nothing quite like making the "smooth" guy get flustered. "Yeah, but seriously, I know you're "Syx's sister" and everything, but I wasn't expecting you to like a movie like that." he said as we started walking after Infinite. I couldn't tell if he emphasized the words, "Syx's sister", on purpose or not. Parchy seemed to have more suspicions than he was letting on. I felt a bead of sweat trickle down my muzzle. "You kidding me? I love those types of movies! They're awesome!" I exclaimed, realizing too late that I had sounded a bit too enthusiastic. Parchy gave me an odd look. "Uhh, I mean... yeah, they're alright I guess..." Parchy chuckled, as I looked away, falling behind as we kept walking down the street. Sweet Celestia I was not a good actor. It started to get dark as we trotted past the Karaoke pub that Infinite had gone into. Parchy glanced over as we walked by, and apparently saw something inside, because he stopped and went back to get a better look. "Oh yeah, I forgot. It's karaoke night." he remarked. "What?" I asked. "It's karaoke night. Once every few weeks or so, everyone on the show staff gets together for-" "Oh yeah, that's right. Syx mentioned that to me before..." "Yeah, Draft came up with the idea. It's mostly just to help us learn to tolerate each other, but it's usually pretty entertaining whether you decide to do a song or not." Parchy said. "Yeah, believe me, I know." I thought, chuckling to myself. "Yeah, it looks like everyone's already inside. C'mon." Parchy said, trotting towards the door. Figuring I needed something to take my mind off of everything that had happened as of late, I shrugged and followed Parchy in. Sure enough, like he said, everyone was already at a table. Starlight appeared to have already had a few drinks judging by the 5 or 6 empty shot glasses sitting on the table beside him. Zeta and Snowblitz were sitting off to his right just kinda derping around with some cards or something. To their right Bash was looking over a menu, while Infinite chugged down whatever he had been drinking. Parchy took the seat next to him and I sat down next to Parchy. I needed at least one pony between me and Infinite. There was another pair of empty seats next to me, which I could only guess were supposed to belong to Forest and Slyph, but Forest never really came to karaoke night and Slyph was probably "busy" with other stuff. I looked around the table again, greeting everypony as a familiar deep voice came over the intercom. "Alright, we'll be taking a quick 15 minute break. In the meantime, we have plenty of refreshments for you, so just turn on the light in the middle of your tables when you're ready to order. My goldfish and I appreciate you coming out tonight and we hope you have a great time." "Oh yeah, Larscis works here." I remarked. "Yeah, he gives us 50% off everything. Why else would we come here?" Starlight replied drunkenly. "Yeah, and it's always fun to beat Zeta's flank at something every once in a while." Snowblitz added as Zeta rolled his eyes. "Alright, well if you guys wanna eat, you better order sometime tonight." Bash teased. "We've got some time before the break is over and we start sacrificing you guys to the mic stand." Collectively groaning and mumbling, everyone picked up the menus laid out in front of them and started looking them over. Finally, when everyone was ready to order, Bash reached out and turned on the light in the center of the table. As if he had been standing there waiting the whole time, Larscis appeared behind me just as the light flicked on. "Poni?" he asked. Out of complete startlement, I literally jumped out of my seat and into the seat next to me. Thankfully that seat was unoccupied. "Ahh, I see we're getting an early start at musical chairs. You may want to wait for the music to start though" Larscis teased... I think... I don't know, sometimes I can't tell if Larscis is being serious or if he's joking. "Anyway, I'm guessing you guys are ready to order?" he said. So, we all told Larscis what we wanted, and he went to the back where I could assume the kitchen was, and after about 15 minutes, he came back out with our food. I had to say, for a place that's main attraction wasn't it's food, it was still pretty good. The Oatburger and Hay Fries that I ordered were among the best that I've ever had, and the drink was okay. After Larscis gave us our food, he made his way back up to the stand and put his headphones back on. "Alright everypony, thanks for being patient. We are back and ready for more music!" Larscis shouted, pausing momentarily as the crowd cheered. "We are now taking volunteers for the next performers, so if you're interested come up to the stand and sign up!" Collectively, half of the ponies at my table got up at once and headed over to the stand (or in Starlight's case, stumbled over to the stand). After putting their names on the list, Zeta, Snowblitz and Starlight came back to sit down. "Alright now, has everypony signed up that wanted to sign up?" Larscis asked, holding up the list. Nopony else decided to head up to the stand. "Alright then, let's get started. First up is the Sound Box Stallion himself... SNOOOOOOOOOOOOWBLIIIIIIIIITZ!!!" Snow got up and started waving his front legs trying to pump up the crowd as he made his way to the mic stand. "Now, what will you be performing tonight?" Larscis asked. Snowblitz leaned into the mic, looking over at Larscis with this look of "It's about to get real." "Equestrian Idiot." Snow said into the mic, as a mixture of cheers and hushed murmurs came from the crowd. "Alright! Equestrian Idiot! Here we go, starting the track in 3... 2... 1..." Larscis counted down as a very familiar and entertaining guitar riff signaled the start of the song. I expected Snow to go with a punk rock song, and he actually did pretty well. It was a good song choice for him. Anyway, after Snow got done with his song, a couple of other ponies went up and did their songs, and then it was Starlight's turn. Still drunk as ever, Starlight got up there and started singing a song called "Fat Bottom Mares". Now, I've heard that song, and I kinda like it, but I had a bit of an issue with his performance. Throughout the whole song, I could swear he was watching me, almost as if he was... singing to me... "Oh Luna, not him too..." I thought as his song started to wind down to a close and he failed at performing a stage dive. As Bash and Parchy got up, picked him up off the ground and brought him back to the table, the next performer came to the stage. This guy I feel like I should've known. He seemed familiar enough. He was a grey-ish colored unicorn with a green mane and tail and a pair of glasses. Why did that sound familiar? "Next to perform, we have the DICEMAAAAAN!!!" Larscis announced. I swear I knew that name. "So, what song are you going to be performing?" Dice looked over at Larscis and said, "Tweet It." Now why did that feel ironic...? "Ahh, forget it" I muttered to myself. After Dice got done, it was Zeta's turn. "I just want to ask, Zeta. I'm curious. Both of the zebras that I know have a name that starts with Z. Now is that on purpose or by coincedence?" Larscis playfully asked him as he walked up to the mic stand. He rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Just play the track, will ya?" he said, still chuckling. I didn't really hear Zeta tell Larscis what song to play, but when the instrumental for "Wake Me Up" started playing, I just about lost it. It took everything I had not to bust out laughing right there. It didn't make it much easier considering Zeta's not exactly known for his voice. To his credit though, what he lacked in vocal ability, he made up for in showmanship. I don't think I've seen somepony get so into a song. Soon, Zeta's song ended and he came back to the table. "Alright, that's all the names on the sign up list. Now, we've still got time for one more song before our next break, so are there any volunteers for somepony to do one more song?" Larscis called out to the crowd. I looked around for a moment. There were no hooves shooting up into the air. I looked around the table and I caught the eyes of Parchy. He was giving me a very mischievous look, like he knew I was going to hate him for what he was about to do. And then to my horror, I heard his voice call out... "Gigi wants to do a song!!" My eyes widened, and every muscle in my body tensed up. Like heck I was gonna do a song. I looked around quickly and noticed Snowblitz and Zeta looking at each other, and they seemed to like the idea. "Yeah, Gigi should do a song!" they both said. Pretty soon, everypony at my table had agreed that this was a good idea, and I started to panic. "You're kidding me." kept running through my mind at that moment. Then it got worse. Parchy started up a chant. "Gi-gi. Gi-gi." he chanted looking around the table for support. Soon enough, everypony at the table was chanting, "Gi-gi! Gi-gi!" As if that wasn't bad enough, I started hearing the chant pick up at other tables. Everypony else was getting into it. It wasn't much time later that the entire club was chanting, "GI-GI! GI-GI!! GI-GI!!!" In a final attempt to spare my dignity, I latched on to the chair I was sitting in, and clung to the frame for dear life. Noticing the obvious discomfort I was in, like good friends would do, everypony at my table got together and lifted my chair off the ground and carried me towards the stage. "I see we have a crowd favorite." Larscis said jokingly. Of course... He was among my group of friends. Why should I have expected him to help at that moment. Eventually, they set my chair down right behind the mic, and all backed away to the foot of the stage, as if trying to prevent me from running. At this point, there was nothing I could do. Whether I liked it or not, I was gonna perform a song. "So, Gigi" Larscis said, "What song are you going to be performing?" Fine, if my friends weren't gonna let me leave with my dignity intact, I might as well go all out. I stood up and walked to the mic, looked over at Larscis with the most dead serious look I could have given and said... "Radioactive." Once the track started, everypony turned around from the stage and headed back to the table. Once everypony was back in their seats... "Hey thanks for the help there guys. I needed Gigi occupied for a bit." I said. They exchanged a few confused looks. "What for, Parchy?" Bash asked. "I need to talk to you guys about Gigi. I've got some suspicions about her, and I wanted to see if you agreed." Everypony exchanged a few more confused looks. "Whadaya mean, suspicions...?" Infinite asked. "Well, for starters, do any of you find it a little weird that Syx was here Tuesday night, but the very next morning, he's gone, and he never mentioned anything about going out of town." Starlight burped from the other side of the table, and raised a hoof. "Yeah, and Syx didn't get home until late Tuesday night. We were at the Ice Cream parlor together until about 2am." he sputtered. I gestured my front hoof at Starlight. "Doesn't anypony else find that weird?" "Ok, so Syx had to leave really early in the morning, and Gigi was probably there already when he got back home. It's no big deal, Parchy." Infinite concluded. "I'm not done there. Gigi and Syx have a lot of the same interests. They're both into the same types of movies, the same types of music, they both worship Minifridges. Like, literally worship. She had a freaking minifridge shrine in her room." "Ya know, she did stare at that one card for a while when we were playing Secret Shipfic Folder the other day. The minifridge card." Zeta added. "Ok, but I still don't think that's a big deal. She can like what she wants." Bash said shakily. Why did he seem nervous about something...? "Alright, on top of that, tell me this: How many Brother/Sister pairs have you seen that looked exactly alike? I mean, right down to the cutie mark. Seems kinda odd if you think about it, don't you think?" I asked. "Okay, okay, what are you getting at Parchy?" Infinite asked impatiently. "Ok, call me crazy, but I think Gigi is Syx." I suggested. The entire table busted out laughing. Everypony started nudging each other and saying stuff like "What? No..." and "That's rediculous..." At that moment, the song Gigi was singing got to the second chorus, and she went for it. All at once, everypony at the table turned around to look at Gigi, all with a look on their faces like the pieces were finally coming together. Slowly, they all tilted their heads to the left and kept watching as the chorus finished and went into the bridge. Infinite and Starlight had looks of utter mortification plastered on their faces, as everypony else began looking back and forth as if checking to see if the whole club was seeing the same thing. Snowblitz turned around and looked me in the eye. "Okay, you may be on to something, Parchy."