When Sunset Shimmer recorded a pop song due to a dare, she never realized what this would mean and the way people would react, now she and her friends will bring Jem to life in this musical adventure.
Sunset Shimmer and the rest of the Humane Six are about to start their life on Canterlot University, but Rarity still has a surprise for all of them. Seems that one song that Sunset recorded in a game of truth and dare had found its way to the internet and has become a huge success.
With this news and deciding to maintain Sunset's anonymity in the human world, Rarity put 'Jem' as the official singer and the world unanimously want more of Jem, there is just one problem, she doesn't exist... or does she?
Originally part of The Many Destinies of Sunset Shimmer, here you will find the story of Sunset Shimmer's double life as pop rock sensation and manager of Jem and the Holograms and all the adventures and crazy antics that this decision will bring to her and her friends.
“Does this situation look familiar to anybody?” the voice of Rainbow Dash took Sunset’s attention away from the tuning of her guitar, right now she had been seating on her favorite spot, the one she had been using for years now in Canterlot High, the place where she used to sit down to listen to the Rainbooms before she became an official member.
“What, you mean Rarity being late for band practice, in which case Applejack would say that she was preparing to make a grand entrance and then Rarity would do exactly that?” the words were fired quickly by Sunset going back to the tuning not paying attention to Rainbow’s frown “nope, is in no way familiar, it has never happened before,” she finally zinged Rainbow much to the pleasure of the other members of the group, even getting a high five form Pinkie at the joke.
“Well, I don’t know about Miss Smartass over here, but I do believe this is old by now, I mean, aren’t we graduating soon?” Applejack’s southern twang was now so ingrained in the brains of the Rainbooms that they would miss to hear it daily, although considering that the six of them had been accepted by Canterlot University they would still continue seeing each other, just not that regularly.
“Maybe she wanted to do it for old time sake; I mean, I did set off a couple of party cannons this week, professor Cranky started crying, maybe he will miss me more than I thought” all the others simply shook their heads at Pinkie’s antics, and at that precise moment Rarity appeared through the doors, thankfully this time without a grand piano, just her with her white laptop.
“Sorry everyone, I do know how late I am but I bring great and exciting news!” She said looking extremely happy for some reason and that usually meant more shenanigans.
“So, what do you have there Rares?” Applejack asked getting closer to the screen, it was simply showing a sound file, probably an old recording of them? The blonde bassist had no idea.
“Well, do you recall that small reunion we had a couple of weeks ago?”
“You mean the one that we had at Fluttershy’s cottage?” the rainbow haired guitarist asked remembering how fun that afternoon was and all the games they played.
"Technically it is my family's cottage."
"Same thing."
“That one precisely; does all of you also remember when we played truth or dare that same night?”
“The one where you were finally capable of getting Applejack in a fancy dress and the whole nine yards? Sure” Sunset answered her remembering that crazy night of dares and embarrassing information being given.
“Please, don’t ever talk about that thing, I think it took me 3 make up remover bottles just to get all that gunk outta my face” Applejack said remembering that humiliation, specially the embarrassing moment when her family saw her and the way they reacted, thankfully her mom had enough makeup remover and helped her get rid of it… taking enough photos of her to fill an album “Rares, if you tell me that you uploaded those photos I will…”
“Do not fear my dear, I did no such thing, no matter that it could open the doors to modeling for you and how much of an impact you would create on a runway. This is something related to a dare specifically thrown at Sunset” she said pointing a dainty finger to the jacket wearing girl.
“Me? Wait, is this about that song I had to sing?” the bacon haired pony/human girl asked remembering the dare from Rainbow “I still cannot believe she dared me to sing a pop song” she said, although the experience hadn’t been humiliating or traumatizing, in fact, it had been kind of fun.
“Never thought you could go that high with your voice” Rainbow said remembering that fun moment.
“One of the things that have been found is that there is no such thing as a deaf tone pony, besides, I have always been a prodigy in everything I try”
“Leave the bragging to Rainbow Dash” Applejack said while Rainbow nodded to her words.
“That’s right… hey!” Rainbow finally caught on, recognizing the zing at her while the two had a mock fight.
“Leaving those hooligans aside I was about to say that the song you sang that night, all courtesy of our dear Fluttershy here, have to admit, those are gorgeous lyrics” the words were enough to make the less shy member but still easily flustered girl blush pretty at the words “and I was, shall we say, intrigued by your vocal capabilities Sunset, so I went to a mutual friend and started working on the song, after all that was just a capella version”
“Wait, you went to Vinyl?”
“How did you know it was her?”
“Pretty damn simple, who else in here would be capable of mixing a tune for the song?”
“Touché Sunset, but anyway, I digress; so I went to Vinyl and we started working on a ‘tune’ as you said and we created something pretty nice if I say so myself”
“So you are here to tell us the result of what you did which will either be a great song or it will be too much of dubstep and only select few fans of electronic will like it as if it were a cover song or a remix from a cartoon series?” even Applejack and Rainbow Dash stopped to look at the hyperactive girl.
“Pinkie, what have we been telling you about going into 4-chan?”
“To never do it because it would destroy any semblance of rationality and will corrupt and deteriorate my brain”
“Well, before I was interrupted in such a rude fashion, yes, I am here to show you the fruits of our work… just, not in the way you think” Rarity said trying not to look directly at Sunset.
“Rares, what did you do?” Sunset knew what it meant when Rarity didn’t want to look at her, she have done something by impulse.
“Well, I might have been overly excited about Vinyl’s work and I… may have uploaded the track to MyStable” she said as she started playing with the ends of her hair.
“It doesn’t sound so bad, so what did they say?” Sunset asked Rarity with most of the nerves that had assaulted her vanishing.
“The response was very positive, I mean, there were tons of comments about the track, there was just one little thing; it seems that one of my followers put the song on… uhm… YouTube, of course giving all credits to me and Vinyl”
“And?” the five other teenagers were practically hanging on Rarity’s words and what it meant.
“Well, that happened yesterday… the song has gone viral since then” Rarity said not knowing if to show embarrassment or a huge grin.
“HOW viral?” Sunset was an expert by this point of things going viral on social media after the life she had led.
“It… hit 5 million views two hours ago” the fashionista finally let out making every single member of the band start hyperventilating, get surprised and many other variants of those reactions.
“Wait, you mean the song has reached 5 million views? What the hell did you do?” Sunset was so surprised that she couldn’t even scream; on the other hand Rainbow was practically jumping up and down at that piece of news.
“Who the hell cares, I mean, is 5 million, this is so awesome!”
“Rainbow, do you really want people to connect you with a pop song?” Applejack’s reality check was enough for Rainbow Dash dread that information.
“Oh crap, now we are pop sensations… THIS IS HORRIBLE!”
“What a Drama Queen… why are you all looking me like that? But anyway, do not be afraid my dear, I know how much you detest pop so I didn’t put the name of the Rainbooms on it and since I know Sunset enjoys her little piece of anonymity I didn’t put her as the singer on the credits either”
“Wait, what? Then who the hell did you put as the singer? Yourself?” This had been quite the roller coaster in emotions for Rainbow.
“I do have an ego Rainbow Dash, but it would never reach yours, I put a pseudonym, sadly the one I wanted was already taken so I had to change a letter but I have to admit it is so fitting for a reason; now, ladies, I present you, Jem!” Rarity said hitting play and the synth-pop song reverberated through the room, the six girls smiling without realizing they were doing it while enjoying the highly catchy tune and the harmonious voice of Sunset… well, Jem according to the internet.
“Well, call me a biscuit and put butter on me, you two did magic on that, no wonder it reached those numbers” Applejack said looking at the huge number of votes up and comments saying how much they enjoyed the song, asking who was Jem and if she was going to release more singles or even a CD.
“That was such a cool song! I mean, it made me happy and I’m usually happy but it put me in a happier mood which Limestone says is impossible but if it got me even happier imagine what it did to people that were not happy I mean it probably made sad people into happy people!”
“So everybody is now asking about Jem? So what are we gonna do? I mean, there is no Jem” Fluttershy said still extremely happy that her lyrics had reached such a huge number of views. For her part, Sunset Shimmer simply couldn’t believe it, the recording was only something that she had done due to a dare, but now Rarity was telling them that it had become a sensation in a single day? But then a spark lead to an idea, an idea to a plan and Sunset knew what to do.
“What if… what if Jem came to life? What if Jem was real? I mean, what if she could appear and sing more songs?”
“Sunset, what do you mean?” Rarity said now turning off her laptop now that she had shown them the video.
“Twilight and I… we've been working on something this last year, I mean, before she went to MIT” Sunset said still missing her science partner, but she knew she was having the time of her life surrounded by all that technology “I think I know how we can bring Jem to life!” She said starting to run out of the room, the rest of the Rainbooms following her.
Neither of them knew at the moment, but the birth of one of the most iconic and successful bands in the history of that Earth was about to get born, all thanks to a duo of intelligent girls and a game of truth or dare, it was the moment where Jem and the Holograms was born.
The houses passed by while the two cars drove on under a perfect afternoon sun with few clouds on top, although the perfect weather was practically wasted for six girls that were divided between a rather non-descriptive sedan owned by Igneous Rock right now being used by Pinkie Pie and a classic yellow Volkswagen beetle owned by Fluttershy, it was so well taken care off that it looked the same as the day it came out of the assembly line.
Five out of the six had many questions and they all had to do with their destination and why Sunset Shimmer was taking them to her apartment block; it had all started with the surprising news of Rarity going the whole nine yards with the dare record and now becoming a hit on internet, but how was Sunset going to bring Jem to life?
She had gone mute on them and refused to talk, although that was probably because she was busy thinking about it and making plans, after all, what she wanted to show her friends was technically an ongoing project and there were still many doubts in her mind.
It had started as a spark of inspiration, just a little something that had to do with the whole ‘Jem’ thing, she still didn’t know why she wanted to bring her to life, to make her real, and it was illogical. Was it because it meant fame? Not really, she answered quickly to herself; Sunset was done with the whole power and fame thing after the whole fall Formal debacle, so why?
Maybe because people found joy on the song and she wanted to bring more joy to them? Probably; it sounded like a plausible excuse but it still didn’t hit the nail on the head, there was still something fluttering inside her after hearing her own voice singing ‘Truly Outrageous’; mind you, she had to modify her voice a little and make it higher, just a little trick that she had picked along the way as Celestia’s student, now that same voice had brought a whole persona to become some kind of ‘Social Media Celebrity’, maybe Sunset thought that Jem deserved to exist because of that?
Whatever the reasons she could have all of them quickly reached her apartment block, and after parking the cars in the parking lot they all followed Sunset inside. None of them had spent much time at her place since they all became friends; usually they did their reunions at Applejack’s house in the country or Pinkie Pie’s house so this was definitely a special occasion, ‘Jem’ non-withstanding.
“So, how many people live in here too?” Applejack asked watching around the main hall noticing the new coat of painting in the wall and the rustic but nice looking furniture around it.
“Nobody, I own the building” Sunset said walking to the elevator and the rest of the girls were both surprised about the ample metal box and the whole ‘Sunset owns a whole building’
“Care to repeat that darling?” Rarity asked not believing her ears.
“It… was my idea; Princess Twilight has been giving me a stipend since I was reinstated as a Baroness; between that and me playing the market a little, well… I decided to buy the whole apartment block and renovate it, I was the only one living here after all” She said shrugging her shoulders still focusing on her plan for Jem.
“That is nice and good Sunset, but I think what we wanted to know is… why?” Rainbow was confused about why somebody would buy a whole building just like that.
“I… because there are already five apartments ready for each one of you when we start studying at Canterlot University later this year” Sunset answered deciding to tell them her plan.
“Wait... what?” Even Pinkie was confused about that.
“Look… Canterlot U’s campus is four blocks south of here and I thought that it would be a good idea to start this next step with a new perspective, I mean, this way we won’t have to worry about having to keep on living everywhere and I already talked with your parents and they all thought that it would be a nice life experience if we could all stay in the same building and we wouldn’t have to worry about expenses since there is a bank account taking care of that and now I’m just rambling!” Sunset said quickly closing her mouth while being worried about the reaction of her friends.
Whatever worries she had were destroyed when she felt five pair of arms encircling her in a warm group hug.
“Sunset, thank you so much for this, this is one of the greatest gifts that you have given us, hell, is so big that I’m ready to offer you a whole year of free fizzy cider just due to this” Applejack told her while the rest of Sunset’s friends nodded or smiled at her, all of them overjoyed with the idea of all of them living close to each other.
“You know what this calls for?” it was obvious who said that.
“Ah, shouldn’t we go back to why we were all here in the first place?… I mean, if you want to that is”
“Fluttershy is right, so, let’s go on with surprise number two” Sunset said when the elevator stopped at the basement floor “Synergy, access to the brain room please” Sunset said aloud making the rest of the girls look at each other in confusion before the elevator began to move again, this time instead of moving up or down it was rotating horizontally taking them by surprise.
“What in tarnation?” that and many other expressions were said aloud before the elevator stopped and the doors opened up, none of them knowing what to think about the strange secret room they were in, it seemed something taken out of The Matrix. It was a white circular room with a massive pillar of cables, circuits and crystal parts in the middle.
“Welcome everyone to the brain room or as I like to call it, ‘Synergy’s house’” Their host said extending her arms.
“I must say, it looks like something out of one of Rainbow Dash’s comic, but somehow has a nice atmosphere, quite beautiful on itself, this is marvelous”
“Thank you” a voice that none of them had ever heard before reverberated around the room making everyone look around finally finding the source of the voice at their side “I also like your hair” the small child said pointing at Rarity’s coiffure while they all stood there gaping at the kid.
She was wearing what seemed like purple and pink leotard that seemed taken right from the 80’s, she was also shoeless and had the most spectacular, long, flowing and gravity defying hair style that they had even seen before.
“Well… thank you, I also love your hair” Rarity could be in the greatest danger or in the weirdest situations but fashion and fabulosity always came first in her book “if you don’t mind me asking darling, who are you and what are you doing here?”
“My name is Synergy and this is my brain, well, not really, is complicated, Pops can explain it better than me” the small child said before starting to float around the room making Fluttershy almost faint in surprise.
“Yeah… she IS Synergy, or at least the form she likes to take; what you see before you is the most advanced AI ever created on both universes. Twilight and I have been working for a couple of years on her “
“Wow… just wow, I knew you and Twilight were hardcore eggheads, but an AI? Damn, am I happy that you two are on the good side because if you ever go mad scientist the world is doomed” the rainbow haired girl said following Synergy with her eyes while this one continued floating around as if playing.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence Rainbow… anyway, this project was possible by mixing both Equestrian crystal technology and silicon based human electronics which resulted in… a fully rational cognitive intelligence, for all purposes she is alive” Sunset said before Synergy’s avatar landed at her side grinning like crazy at the Rainbooms.
“So… have any other surprises that you want to spring on us Sunset? Maybe a shrinking ray that would make Sweet Apple Acres fit on the palm of my hand?”
“No, that is still in process”
“You realize that I was joking”
“So was I” Sunset answered with her bad girl smirk in position finally making everyone in the room laugh and release the tension they have been bottling up since they arrived at the apartment block “but yes, there are a couple of surprises and part of my master plan for Jem”
“Wait, you mean that Jem song in YouTube?”
“You know about that one Synergy?”
“Are you crazy Pops? I’ve been hearing it nonstop all day!” Synergy could still be an AI but sometimes it reminded Sunset of a preteen girl, sometimes she wondered if it was that hectic for the Princess when she was that age.
“Why does she call you Pops?” asked a now calm Fluttershy, besides, such a cute kid was in front of her and she wanted to hug her but she contained herself due to not knowing if it was a real body or just a hologram, it wouldn’t surprise her after watching so much advanced technology in the room.
“Apparently she considers me and Twilight her parents”
“Yep, she is Pops and Momma is all the way east on Bostrot but I can talk with her on Skype all the time, I’m not permitted to materialize on her lab”
“If you ever do that there’s going to be uproar on the world”
“Geez Pops, I get it, I like to be alive and complete, thank you very much”
“Let’s go back on track here, Synergy is not only an AI but she has many functions, some of them she has barely found about them, why don’t you show them your favorite?” Sunset said talking to her computer kid while this one grinned and suddenly, there were digital crystals appearing at one side of Sunset and a perfect replica of the sun haired girl appeared “hard light holograms thanks to laser technology and crystals directly from the Crystal Empire castle, I also believe there are traces of a powerful artifact’s signature energy called Crystal Heart on it… you can touch it, it is solid”
“Not only that but I am capable of remote controlling it so it can mimic anyone” the double Sunset said making everyone blink at the impressive show, all except for one pink haired girl who was jumping up and down in excitement.
“Oh! Oh! Oh! Do me! Do me! Do me!” she kept on saying making Synergy look at Pinkie Pie.
“I can do something better, I can make everyone you!” she said before every single Rainbooms member except for Sunset became the exact image of Pinkie Pie.
“Oh... my!”
“My goodness!”
“This is so AWESOME!”
“I think I had a nightmare like this one once”
“Ah… I’m confused now; would the real Pinkie Pie please stand up?” Sunset didn’t know if to be proud of what Synergy was capable of doing or terrified at the pink horde in front of her “Synergy, I think one Pinkie is sometimes too much Pinkie, can you turn them back?” and soon all of them went back to their normal form.
“That was too much poofiness, thank you for returning me to my usual fabulosity”
“So let me get this straight, this girl that looks Apple Bloom’s age can create light clones of anyone and make you look like anyone?”
“That and several other things, but THIS is the ability that could bring Jem to life” Sunset said taking a star shaped earring from the main central console.
“Isn’t that Princess Twilight’s symbol?” Applejack continued talking with Sunset being the one that had recovered faster than the others.
“Yep, these are special projectors that are linked with Synergy’s main console so no matter where one is she can use her mimic abilities… this way Jem can be alive and we can bring her music to everyone, is SHOWTIME!” Sunset said touching the earring and her figure changed.
Instead of the usual red and yellow hair, this time it was bright pink and reaching down to her knees, her combination of thighs, blouse and skirt was changed for a pink mini dress with thigh boots with heels, the dress having long sleeve for the right arm while the left was off shoulder and with no sleeve at all; Sunset’s skin had also changed with fair skin, beautiful face features, soft blue eyes and pink eye shadow forming a star.
Somewhere, it doesn’t matter in which place, there was a television turned on in which news were being presented by people in suits talking about important stuff and several things that could probably fly over the head of many people. It was at that moment that the news that truly mattered for us readers was about to be presented.
“Thank you Hard Hit for the weather forecast; now, let’s go with Spot Light with some news concerning our own city Canterlot and the future of entertainment” the man with the dark suit said sitting behind the desk while the camera then focused on a beautiful woman in a black dress with a monitor behind her.
“Thank you Flash News; so what’s been happening these last few days? Well, unless you decided to stop login in to any Social Media page or receive any news you probably won’t know about the latest craze on internet.
It all started 2 days ago when a simple MyStable post caused the site to crash due to the traffic it produced, later on it was found that the reason for the crash had been a song uploaded by a Canterlot High student; that same day a follower of the girl put the song on YouTube where in less than 24 hours later reached five million views.
The song, ‘Truly Outrageous’, quickly became the trending topic on Twitter and the singer, Jem, the most searched word on Goggle that same day; so who is this Jem? The answer was that nobody knew and there was no information about her. No label or recording studio raised their hands to say that this new singer worked for them or was working on a project, so who is this Jem and why did she become so popular this quickly?
Both Countess Coloratura and Sapphire Shores were interviewed by E entertainment about Jem and why her song was received so well. Both of them had similar answers which boiled down to sincerity and going back to the basics of music, using a sound that was both familiar and at the same time a fresh breeze in a genre of music that had become stale.
Both singers know all about it since Coloratura’s last album, right after dropping both her manager and the royalty title, reached platinum being a country album while Sapphire Shores is having huge success in her latest tour with R&B songs that take people back to the 90s.
So what does this mean for the industry in general? Not much beyond having some success as a one-hit wonder, but that all changed three days after the original video was uploaded. This time there was an official Jem channel created on YouTube, followed by a Twitter, Facebook and Instagram account, all of them followed by this video” she said turning around to the screen behind her to watch a video filmed by a mobile phone due to the quality. The one who was holding the phone ended up being a young woman with pink long hair and 80s style pink makeup.
“Hello denizens of the internet, Jem is my name and I want to thank everyone for all your support and nice comments; I’m doing this video because a friend of mine, Rarity Belle, who was also the one who uploaded the song, convinced me to finally make an appearance” she said while walking around what seemed an apartment complex, the camera then moved to show a girl with indigo hair and a white dress busy drawing something on a sketch board, the girl noticed the camera recording and send a half lidded look at Jem.
“Yeah, sorry, she is right now a little busy with a project of hers; anyway, I wanted to do this video to tell you all what’s going on; so, first of all, the original writer of ‘Truly Outrageous’ is working alongside my new manager and friend in more songs” she said refocusing the camera on a pair of girls sitting down on a sofa with several sheets of paper, pencils and color markers, one with pink hair of a less variant than Jem and the other one with deep red and yellow hair wearing a jacket with chevrons at the sides; both girls were busy checking and writing what seemed to be new lyrics.
“Did you told them about the plans for a band?” the red haired girl said still paying attention to the pages in front of her and Jem seemed to be quite surprised about that.
“I was about to Sunset… I have never understood how she could do that” Jem said shrugging her shoulders completely bewildered by Sunset’s antics “so, like my good manager reminded me of is that I am in the middle of creating a band and if any of you are interested of being a part of it you can send your applications to the link at the description of the video, hopefully if everything goes right and Sunset works her magic we will have a chance, so don’t go anywhere because the next few weeks will be truly outrageous! Jem out!”
The screen then changed and Spot Light was the focus for the camera as she turned around to finish her report on what had been happening.
“Well, as you can see the young woman has dropped a bomb on the music industry; if she does indeed creates her band and starts working on material and the chance to get a contract you can bet your money that there will be a huge war among labels to get Jem to sign for them; so far the official webpage for Jem’s band project had received several thousand applications and one has to wonder how many there will be before Jem starts making new songs for all of us. This has been Spot Light, thank you for listening” and like that the television was turned off as six girls that had been watching the news turned to watch each other with huge grins.
“That! Was! Epic!” the party girl among them screamed jumping up and down while the rest of the girls celebrated their success and first appearance of Jem on national television, for some reason the Jem project truly seemed to come to life after the coverage they had received.
“I cannot believe it worked, I mean, this still feels completely surreal” Applejack said aloud still not believing everything that happened the last few days.
“Yeah, that part with you as Jem and a hologram of yourself in the same shot was definitely mind boggling, since, you know, we know Jem and Sunset are the same person” Rarity said checking her cell phone and the amount of new followers that the Twitter account for Jem seemed to have amassed.
“I know, but by putting both Sunset and Jem at the same time everybody will take us as two separate entities and I can work on all the details of job applications and label contracts that are being sent to us”
“Good luck with that, the applications are still coming, hell, we even got an email from Sapphire Shores asking Jem if she would like to appear as a feature on a future single” Rainbow said with eyes glued to Rarity’s laptop and the mountain of emails that were being filtered thanks to Synergy.
“Well, seems like I have my job cut out for me” Sunset said laughing aloud at the current events “still not wanting to be part of the band Rainbow?”
“Oh hell no, I would love to get some popularity and appear on TV but not with this kind of music, besides I won’t have much time with trials for the Canterlot U soccer team” Rainbow said knowing well that her true passion would always be sports.
“Don’t worry Sunset, I’m sure we will find good band members” Rarity said putting a hand over Sunset’s shoulders, they knew that from now on they would be under the lights of the media and fans and things would get even more hectic.
“So that will be our immediate future then? A road full of glamour and glitter?” Sunset said joking making everyone giggle around the room.
“Don’t forget the passion and fame apparently” Applejack joked back as they all were prepared for the future of Jem and the most ironic name for a band. Seriously, Jem and the Holograms? Sunset didn’t know if the name was weirdly fitting or if it had came out of a cartoon show.
It was a Saturday morning and everything was silent, which for a few seconds made Rarity Belle freak out since she have become used to hectic mornings in which her father didn’t work, her mother cooked them breakfast (with varied results) and her sister was already up and either watching her morning shows and cartoons or singing with the radio.
So you could imagine how weird it felt for her to not only wake up with a pleasant quietness and calm that allowed her to relax for a few extra second, and then a couple seconds of quiet freak out due to not recognizing the room she had been sleeping in. Thankfully she quickly calmed down remembering how tired all of them were yesterday after getting together in Sunset’s apartment block (none of them were quite comfortable calling the building home yet) and decided to use their own apartments.
Mind you, the apartments were clean and spacious but only had the basics like beds with clean linens, some furniture and bathroom with daily necessities like shampoo; sadly the kitchens were completely bare and they would need to go and buy stuff if any of them decided to stay more than a morning.
Rarity knew that if she ever decided to go all the way with her dreams of becoming a designer she needed a space of her own and a store of her own, not just working half-time in a boutique as she did already. With that going through her mind Rarity quickly took her shower and descended the building to the lobby.
Leaving the elevator she found another resident already at the main table and Rarity simply smiled at what she was looking at. Sunset Shimmer, her head using her arms as pillows, her laptop and a multitude of papers were around her, an empty mug sitting precariously at the end of the table and a small girl with purple hair was using Sunset’s shoulder as a pillow too.
Walking on their direction Sunset seemed to wake up and blinked several times while she stretched.
“My dear, don’t tell me you spend the whole night down here working,” the fashionista said taking a seat in front of Sunset while this one put the papers in order.
“Yeah, well, Synergy and I continued to filter through the applications we got yesterday and I just… felt asleep,” she said shrugging while the mentioned Synergy continued to slumber, this time with her head on Sunset’s lap, it looked incredibly adorable in Rarity’s opinion "not to mention that since we put the video online there has been a lot of other things that I had to think about and the mountain of emails we got reminded me of them,” she said before opening her laptop checking the battery on it; once she was sure there was still enough battery for a couple of hours she began the arduous job of checking the mail.
“So, what’s the total number?” Rarity asked now curious about the amount of job they all will have for the next couple of days.
“Check out for yourself,” Sunset said before rotating the laptop so Rarity could see the screen, then the fashionista’s eyes widened up at the sheer number of emails Jem had got.
“700 emails?!”
“Yeah, among them, more applications, fan letters, interview petitions, label contracts, questions of apparently Jem fans. I think there is even an email among them asking if they could make an official Jem fan club,” Sunset said not quite believing what was going on now.
“All of this because of a song?”
“Your guess is as good as mine. I feel like this got out of control before we even started,” Sunset said feeling quite lost with the situation.
“Well, if we fought and defeated power hungry demons, sirens and even the destruction of both universes I’m sure we will be able to get through this.”
“I’m not sure, this gets bigger and bigger and we haven’t even started yet… I don’t even understand why I decided to bring Jem to life,” Sunset said massaging the side of her head as if to battle a headache.
“Then why do it at all?” Rarity said in a calm tone of voice, one that Sunset knew well. In the last year, Sunset and Rarity had spent time together talking and getting to know each other better, after all, being in a group didn’t always let you know everything about someone and they had found out they more similarities between them, like their need to have control of a situation but not to the point of micromanaging their whole day; they also loved to work with their hands, one with fabric and the other with circuits but most importantly, they had someone that they could talk about who won’t make fun of the other or simply agree to everything they said.
“I… I guess because Jem made people happy, it brought them joy, but mostly for myself I guess,” Sunset said not quite sure of herself about that subject.
“Does this have to do with Twilight leaving for MIT?”
No, yes, maybe? Is just that… everyone here already has their path, Applejack taking control of the Sweet Apple Acres brand and her plans of expansion, Pinkie getting into pastries and confectionary and probably one day even opening her own shop that makes parties of all kind,” both friends could imagine the kind of chaos the store would bring to the world.
“Now that would be a quite the place to visit, just not to stay for a long period of time,” they both giggled at the idea “I suppose you also see Fluttershy going fully ahead with her dreams of being a veterinarian.”
“And you probably getting a scholarship to an European fashion school.”
“Well, wouldn’t that be the dream, but what about Rainbow? I mean, neither of you talked about Rainbow being on the Holograms.”
“Do you wanna know something? Rainbow and I spend three hours talking about that at her house two days ago.”
“When were you going to tell us?”
“Probably never? I mean, it was a private talk between us; basically Rainbow didn’t want to play second fiddle to Jem, not that she wouldn’t help mind you, but, you know how Rainbow is,” she said while Rarity had to agree with her friend.
“That girl definitely needs some help with her self-esteem, mantaining all that bravado is not healthy for her."
“Well, I think she has some ideas to make The Rainbooms way more awesome, her words, not mine,” she said before placing a hand on top of Synergy’s head. For some reason, Sunset Shimmer always found the action of moving her fingers through the small child-like avatar of Synergy incredibly calming "but I think it is for the best, Rainbow is amazing and I want to see where she will go with her own ideas."
“What’s with her?” Rarity said having a deep frown on her face; it was obvious how confused about Sunset’s actions she was.
“Oh, well, Synergy's avatar is a hard light hologram like I said back then, Twilight and I hypothesized that the energy readings belonging to the Crystal Heart infused both feelings and a deep level sentience to it. Probably due to the crystal ponies always infusing the Crystal Heart with positive feelings,” Sunset explained while Synergy softly snored; for her part, Rarity was glad that Fluttershy was still asleep, the sight of the hologram would have broken her restraints and would have hugged Synergy to the point of breaking her.
“Well… that was… informative, but I was referring to Synergy being asleep at all, I mean, I thought she was a computer program,” Rarity answered back while Sunset blushed a bit realizing her faux-pas.
“Oh… well… she went into sleeping mode,” both Rarity and Sunset stood looking at each other but little by little they lost control and started to laugh at something that maybe it wasn’t that funny but it was good enough to break any kind of serious mood they had.
“My goodness, I wasn’t expecting that kind of answer.”
“I don’t care, I think I needed that.”
“Anyway, do you need some help? I might not be as fast or talented in this as Synergy but I’m sure I can help out.”
“Is okay, I got things under control for now, we finally decided on the people that will do a live audition and Fluttershy and I finally finished the new song so with some luck everything will go fine, but do you know what I want right now?”
“What?”
“I want breakfast! I need a breakfast biscuit right now, and knowing AJ and Rainbow, those two will be ready to eat the table if we don’t get them something to eat.”
“Too true there, oh, I almost forgot; I thought about this for some time and I finally reached a decision, here,” Rarity said reaching for the pocket of her jeans and extracting a folded page before giving it to Sunset.
“Wait, this is… a formal application to the Holograms? Rarity, what…”
“You aren’t the only one that got called by the whole Jem thing… sure, it was basically my fault that all this started but… I also want to see how far this could get, if you are alright with it of course.”
“Rarity… I would be honored to have you in the Holograms.”
It wasn't the first time Sunset thought this whole Jem thing was growing faster than Synergy's numbers and scenarios predicted; she also thought that this entire media circus was beyond her expectations considering that the three biggest news channels of the country and who knows how many magazines had send photographers to the audition.
Sunset, or better said, Jem, had half a mind of turning back, cancel the whole thing and make sure Jem never appeared again, but Applejack's silent support behind her and Rarity's poise of confidence at her side were enough to make her step outside of the studio building and face the welcoming of the wolves.
And what a welcoming it was, Jem was practically blinded by the amount of flashes and the barrage of questions thrown at them were maddening; thankfully she was capable of calming them down to a point where she could hear the questions.
“Are you going to release a new song soon?”
“As soon as we get a band we will start working on that”
“Is it true that you were seen in one of Canterlot's Night Clubs?
“The only place I have been all week is in my house working the details of this day with my friends”
“Where did you get the clothes that you are wearing?” The one who asked that question was wearing a 'Canterlot Fashion' badge on her very well-tailored dress and Jem could feel Rarity almost vibrating in excitement; looking at herself Jem took closer attention to the black spaghetti strap blouse with a huge six pointed pink star filling most of the front, jacket, short skirt with more belts than she knew or saw reason for and high heeled boots. Technically speaking it was a design from Rarity even though they were created with hard light holograms.
“My friend and fellow member of the Holograms, Rarity Belle is the one that designs all my clothes” Jem said knowing the huge boost for Rarity right there “but if you excuse us, we need to start with the auditions, after we finish them and we assemble the Holograms we will answers all the questions you have” Jem said before the mass of reporters were left behind as the trio entered the recording studio and she finally sighed in relief.
“Well, that wasn't as bad as Ah thought it would be”
“Yes dear, I must say that they even seemed decent this time, and also, thank you for telling her that, I've been dreaming the moment Canterlot Fashion put their attention on my designs” Rarity said practically jumping in happiness.
“No problem Rarity, and thank you all for being here, especially to you Vinyl, thank you for talking with your dad so he could lend us the studio for today” The blue chrome haired girl simply grinned and gave her a thumbs up while she continued to set everything in order on the console “well, seems like we are going to start this thing soon”
“Can Ah ask you something Sunset?” Applejack said once the trio was sitting down on a sofa looking at the recording booth. AJ had used Sunset's real name since Vinyl was also on the secret since she had already a hand on creating Jem; besides, if there was someone they trusted with secrets was Vinyl, she was always making the joke of her being incapable of telling secrets to others.
“Sure AJ”
“Why am Ah here? Ah mean, wouldn't it be better if Rainbow or Shy was doing this? Ah'm not exactly sure what am Ah supposed to be doing here”
“There's two reason why; one, because Rainbow went with her dad to the airport to get her mom, apparently she is returning from Milan, and Fluttershy, well...can you imagine her being capable of sitting here and trying to judge other people and say if they are good enough or not?”
“Point taken, when you put it that way it sounds logic, but what was the second reason?”
“Because I need you here”
“You what? Come on Sunset, why would you even need me here? I'm only in the Rainbooms because Rainbow needed a bassist”
“I’ll tell you why, because even though Rarity and I can judge people's talents, we need you here to see if people are truthful or not; you have always been capable of seeing other people’s intentions. What if they want in to get in just because of fame and money instead of creating music?”
“So you basically want me to be your human lying detector... okay, I can do that” and the trio then got ready to receive audition after audition which ranged from not so bad to completely cringe-worthy, they saw everything from the musically impaired to the gorgeous but after checking with Applejack they always found out a reason why not to accept them.
Finally, after what seemed like hours or centuries, they were almost out of auditions and the four of them were tired.
“I swear, I will never make fun of the judges on American idol ever again, come to think of it, I'm sure we can get their jobs next season after this”
“How is it possible that we don't have even one member of the group? We have seen close to a hundred people playing and we haven't found one single possible member”
“Well, considering how many of them were divas in the making it doesn’t surprise me, just look at that Sunnyside Up girl, backup singer mah ass! Ah swear the bitch grew up watching MTV reality shows and would love to make your band into one”
“As our dear Applejack said, curses none withstanding, we need band members in which we can trust, after all we cannot hide Jem's true identity from them, it would be headache inducing after a few weeks”
“Yeah, you girls are right, so Vinyl, how many audition we still have to hear?” the girl adjusted her indigo sunglasses and checked the list she had before rising two fingers up “well, only two more, I hope we have luck because we need it” and it seemed someone up in the sky heard it because who came walking through the door was someone that was definitely eye catching.
Her dark mahogany skin seemed to gleam under the light and her face was perfect with a set of lips that pouted a little naturally and dark eyes that seemed to twinkle in good humor, she was wearing very light make up unlike the other candidates, but the rest of her made up in outrageous quality.
She was wearing a black mini-dress, black high heels and a zebra printed long coat, but it was her hair which finished the ensemble; the right side of her head was shaven and the left was growing long falling behind her ear but in the middle was the most glorious black and white mohawk any of the girls have ever seen.
Jem was sure that if that woman had a counterpart on the other side of the mirror it could be nothing except a zebra, there was such an aura of exoticness and other-worldliness around her that just screamed zebra to her.
“Okay, I think I talk in the name of everyone present in the office that I'm ready to offer you a spot on the band right now before even listening to you” the woman laughed quietly with deep rich voice, it was definitely not a voice to sing Fluttershy’s songs but if she started to rhyme she was sure she will get into a trance.
“Don't worry about it I'm not here to sing Of course I want to be part of the band So let me play while you sit”
And of course she had to rhyme.
“Zecora?” Applejack was finally capable of finding her voice while she pointed at the dark skinned girl.
“Miss Applejack, it is a pleasure to find you well, I didn't know you were in the band already” the girl stopped rhyming but her smile showed happiness at finding the farm girl in the room.
“Oh no, Ah'm just here as a favor to Rarity”
“Wait, you know each other?” Rarity asked her friend smelling a story.
“Yeah, she used to babysat Apple Bloom; last I heard you were studying to become a botanist”
“Indeed, my studies are progressing well but I wanted to try my hand at music”
“You stopped rhyming” Jem said noticing the change in speech pattern.
“It is something that I learned from my mother, I found out that it makes quite the first impression” and with the way the girls inside the recording studio had acted it was quite obvious how well it worked.
“Well then, why don't you show us what you can do?” and then Zecora smiled white taking a pair of drumsticks from her coat and show them she did. While the only real experience with drummers Jem had was with Pinkie she quickly noticed the differences between the pink menace and Zecora. While the former preferred a wild style using the excess of energy that she had, the later seemed to almost dance while she followed a rhythm, it was practically hypnotic so there was no question about it “welcome to the band Zecora” Jem said happy to find someone that not only played well but seemed to fit in looks with Jem and Rarity, now they only needed to find one last person and this was probably it.
The door opened, the person entered and four of the five people in the studio were frozen after immediately recognizing who walked inside; the girl seemed thinner now, probably due to not eating much food but she still looked cute and almost innocent like but they knew it was only a facade; she still had her blue hair on a high ponytail and seemed to be wearing clothes similar to those she used in the Battle of the Bands.
“YOU?” Jem, Rarity and Applejack screamed at the girl while Sonata seemed to recognize who was screaming at her because she put her hands over her head as if protecting from something.
It took several seconds for everyone on the studio to recover their wits; one of them to realize that she was not going to be hit by the literal rainbow and the rest to understand that yes, one member of the trio that wanted to take over the world was in front of them for a casting.
Jem was already used to surprises, she even considered herself the queen when it came time to accept changes or surprises, and it had started the moment she jumped through the portal and continued to the realization that Synergy was truly alive so this could be considered small in comparison.
Taking a deep breath to keep her emotions on reign for now she got closer to the kneeling siren and extended a hand to help her get up to the incredulous looks of the other members of the band, minus Zecora who simply stood watching with a blank face. She already knew what had happened with the blue haired girl, she have been present that day for the battle of the bands and after having everything explained to her by the crusader trio she took the information of real magic being… well, real, fairly well; her grandmother would have been incredibly excited for those news so the only thing she could do was continue her journals on information about it. With that in mind Zecora decided to see how her new boss would act in the face of a girl that threatened the world once.
“You came here to try out for the band right?” Jem said trying to emulate the way Fluttershy talked with small children and animals, it may seem ridiculous or stupid but she wanted to know why the girl was in there; if the princess was right then the three sirens had lost their powers and have become teenagers so for now Jem would treat her like any other girl that had come to audition.
“Y-yeah… um… are you okay with it?” the way her voice was cracking and the big eyes filled with tears almost made Jem put a hand over her heart, she was sure that it would either cause a heart attack or diabetes, it was too damn adorable!
“Don’t worry, everyone had the chance to be here to show what they could do; so, my band mates have told me a little bit about you, yes, including you and your friends trying to conquer the world in a Battle of the Bands” she said mentioning that situation to show there was no need to hide any information… beyond the obvious of course.
“Well, that was mostly because we were hungry and there was no other way for us to get any kind of energy, I mean, I was fine eating human food, is so yummy! I really like how they invented that corn shell and made it crunchy and when they put stuff inside is awesome… wait… you know about magic?”
“With this bunch I call my band? I’m sure not even Disney could come up with stranger things than those that happen to us almost daily… neither Mattel now that I think about it” Jem said smiling remembering all the crazy stuff in their lives, and they were barely out of High School.
“Alright then, my name is Sonata Dusk and… well… I wanted to try out since I lost my voice, we all did in fact” Sonata said wincing at the memory of Aria and Adagio trying to sing at their apartment, they have been almost evicted when the owner thought they were trying to kill a cat “I suppose I just… wanted to keep on doing music, but I don’t know if I am good enough for that”
“We won’t know if you don’t try, what do you want to do?”
“I wanted to see if I would be good enough to play guitar for your band” she said showing the guitar case at her feet which she had let go once she entered the room.
“One last thing before I let you show us what you can do; what made you want to try out for this band in particular?” Jem said being convinced by now that the girl had no malicious intent for now, she seemed like a normal teenager, well, a normal teenager up to the Canterlot standards.
“Aria was checking YouTube and she found out the song you guys put and… well, she had some things that I really don’t want to say aloud” Sonata said remembering the expletives of the everlasting bitter girl, Sonata herself wasn’t exactly that young by that point but even she avoided cursing until it was necessary to express herself “but I just found the song so amazing! It was happiness, it was a message! When I saw that you were looking for members to your new band I felt like I could finally do something beyond trying to conquer the world and feed eternally on dark feelings, maybe try something new now that we three are flesh and bone” the usually peppy girl said with her shoulders down; all the girls in the room quickly decided that, just like with Pinkie Pie, a sad look did not belong on Sonata’s face.
“Well, nothing like right now to start trying to change yourself, so go ahead and show us what you can do” Jem said pointing to the studio and the microphone noticing that the almost depressed look in Sonata evaporated showing a grin so big that her head could break in two.
Sitting down at the sofa between Applejack and Rarity the pink haired girl turned to look at her fashionista friend trying to gauge her reaction at what she had done. Instead of finding a furrowed brow she found out that Rarity was giving her a pleased smile as if she had done something great, not that Jem thought it was really impressive what she had done, she simply tried to follow what Princess Twilight had taught her about friendship.
Applejack meanwhile simply nodded at Jem, with that small gesture she let her know that the ex-siren had said the whole truth about what her life and her motives making the two other girls breathe easier knowing that for now at least there were no problems happening.
A couple of minutes later they all saw what Sonata Dusk was capable of; in no way it was incredible, Jem and Rarity had seen and heard much more impressive guitarists with better technique or with better looks but what Jem was looking for went beyond that and Sonata was showing exactly what she needed: feeling.
The way she played, her fingers traveling through the long neck and her easy going smile let everybody know how much she enjoyed playing; it even made them happy just looking at her and that was something that they all appreciated.
Without the need to check on the other band members Jem stood up and walked to the center of the room and looked at the other 5 girls while Vinyl gave her a thumbs up signaling that she was a hundred percent behind her decision (sometimes it was so easy to understand Vinyl).
“Well, seems like the world is finally ready to meet Jem and the Holograms” the pink haired girl said making Sonata scream in happiness quickly hugging the band leader; Zecora calmly smiled while the other two girls gave each other a high five.
For her part, Jem could only imagine what kind of crazy antics were coming her way, but something told her it would be an adventure she would not to miss for all the power in the world.
If there was one thing that people could trust Vinyl with would be with a mixing table. For anyone else not in the music business the huge amount of levers and dials would be like something out of a sci-fi movie and their imaginary ships. Every dial did something and Vinyl knew the usage of every single one.
Around the local music community she may have been known for her usage of heavy bass and dubstep but that was not all the mute girl wanted to hear. She knew that music in general was important, no matter the genre and no matter the artists… well, with several obvious exceptions.
Her parents did all they could to reassure Vinyl that her physical limitations were not important and she believed in them. No one in Canterlot High even made mention of that, no one laughed or bullied her due to it, hell, not even Sunset at her worst did anything to Vinyl. The blue haired girl had found home, friends and inspiration in those school halls and she had done her best to help defend them.
But beyond her vocal cord problems she had found another way to communicate, one that allowed so many people to truly hear her. Music was not a hobby for her, it was who she was; be it from the stage or behind it just like she did at the battle of the bands. So when Rarity appeared one day at the recording studio with a voice recording she was all for it to check it out.
Many students just took for granted the way the school was always surrounded by music and singing from the others students, but Vinyl knew and understood that whatever magic Sunset had brought into their world was surely affecting in some way. It was possibly the greatest gift to the world Sunset could have given her and she was grateful. Sunset had a voice that sometimes even surprised Vinyl and she had been on the business since she could reach the mixing table.
The first time she had truly heard Sunset was at the battle of the bands, when she had turned the tables on the sirens and for all purposes saved the world. Since then she had met with the girls and heard the way Sunset could sing. She had perfect control on her voice, a vocal range that could make R&B singers green with envy and she could change her pitch to mimic others. The first time she had heard her sing in the voice of Princess Twilight she had been beyond surprised. She used the same voice, true, but the way she could also mimic the cadence and feeling of Princess Twilight almost knocked Vinyl out.
So when Rarity brought the recording Vinyl knew there was something special in the voice. The fashionista probably had an idea of what she had in her hands, or probably it was just a hunch of hers. The two began working on a tune that could bring the energy and the feeling in Sunset’s voice to the max and after a couple of days of working Vinyl was sure she had found the answer and the internet seemed to agree. Watching the numbers of a song you worked on go up and up without stopping, just gaining speed, made Vinyl jump up and down alongside her father who also caught on to what Vinyl had done and the opportunity they had in their hands.
Finding new artists was a job her father relished upon and this was something up his alley. They knew that Jem –only Vinyl knew who was the real singer- would be swamped by artists and record studios, but Lightshow Records, the company of Vinyl’s dad had the upper hand with Vinyl being a friend and helper of the girls. And the gamble had paid off in spades now that Jem had her new band ready and already jamming.
Vinyl was grinning from ear to ear at the way the band was playing and singing in unison, as if they had been doing this from the very beginning. Moving dials and changing small parts of the recording she found the sweet spot and let the music dominate the studio. Sonata’s guitar was crisp and precise, maybe she didn’t have the technique of more experienced players but the way she was rocking alongside her band mates showed the way she felt the music, as if it was alive and she was simply moving alongside the music.
Zecora was also to the point, guiding the rest of the girls and adding a flair on it that seemed directly from any fashion catwalk. It was as if Zecora was building a road where the rest could walk on. She was sensual, elegant and radiant, the perfect combination of black and white just like her zebra style of dressing.
Rarity was good, she had no doubt about it by this point, but more than that she had quick fingers and an eye to detail that fit perfectly in the quartet. The fashionista had agile fingers that seemed to move through the keys at a flashing speed but it was her presence that made her look almost ethereal and it was not just because of the pony magic.
And Jem… well, what could Vinyl say about the Sunset Shimmer that was singing her heart out alongside her new and old friends. This Sunset was free of her doubts, no more self-confidence problems for the girl now that she had found her center. She was shimmering just like her name. Her voice smooth and almost sexual in its tone, it was truly a voice that could take you on a trip.
She also had to give credits to Fluttershy and Sunset on writing lyrics. Ignition, Space, Love was a great song that worked perfect with what Sunset was planning for the beginning of the Holograms. This was the beginning of their travel through the cosmos and they were taking their fans alongside them. Jumping into the unknown but clearly enjoying every moment and every experience.
That the four girls felt this confident after just practicing the song for fifteen minutes left Vinyl astounded. That they could already play the song and were already making small changes to it to adjust it to the way Zecora and Sonata played was enough to make Vinyl believe that the girls were going to take the stage by a storm.
Look out world, Jem and the Holograms were ready for war. And Vinyl would be 100% behind them.
As the last note from Rarity’s keytar resonated through the room, Vinyl gave the signal of the recording stopping. The song wasn’t yet complete since Vinyl alongside her dad had to check on everything besides making several copies and backup but for now, the first true single from Jem and The Holograms was ready.
‘Ignition, Space, Love’ was a fantastic song to play and sing, it truly showed how fast Fluttershy was growing as a lyricist and maybe -if things went right- Sunset could talk with her friend about getting a full time job alongside the band. The young animal lover was still looking for new ways to shine and show her true emotions without having to be all the time in the stage so it could work perfectly, even though Sunset knew the pale-pink haired girl still wanted to follow her child dream of being a veterinarian.
Still, even if Fluttershy would not become a full time lyricist she could trust her friend on help her to continue this adventure that was –quite honestly- just barely beginning. The young woman smiled watching the rest of the band take a breather while placing every instrument on its place.
“So Vinyl, how was it?” The still hollographycally transformed woman said through the microphone to the mute girl, who by all answer just gave her a thumbs up signaling the OK, and by the way she was grinning Sunset knew that she was very happy about the recording. Whatever could happen to the song now was out of her hands and Sunset knew that very well, now it was the job of Vinyl and her father to put the final touches before introducing the world to the new single.
Taking a look around she saw her close friend Rarity disconnecting her own custom keytar while Sonata put her guitar back on its case, which seemed as old as her electric guitar, there was definitely some story on that one. Meanwhile, Zecora simply put her two drumsticks once again inside her zebra printed handbag and Sunset briefly wondered if every single article that Zecora owned had something to do with zebras. She wouldn’t be surprised if that was true, although now that she thought about it, it would be good idea to write Princess Twilight and see if she knew any Zecora back at Ponyville. For some reason Sunset seemed to attract every single double from the quaint village.
Now that she really thought about it, it would be good idea to write Princess Twilight in general. Thinking back, Sunset couldn’t quite remember when was the last time she had talked with her friend back in Equestria. The last few weeks had been so hectic that the redhead -well, now pinkette thanks to hologram fashion- didn’t have a chance to grab her journal and tell Princess Twilight everything that had happened.
As the four members of the Holograms stood ready to face the world as a complete unit for the first time, Sunset turned around to watch the three other members -and unofficial one in the case of Vinyl- and she prepared for what could be the last time outside of the limelight for two of them.
“Alright, before we go any further I just want to tell you that I’m extremely happy with what we just did today.” Jem said to the rest of the band. She definitely tried to avoid referring to the Holograms as HER band as a certain rainbow haired girl used to say some time ago “it was fun, it was exhilarating and if Vinyl can work her magic -which I know she can- then everyone will be able to hear it too.” She said noticing how big Sonata’s grin had become and she wondered if it was possible for her and Pinkie to be related “Once the single is ready to be shown to the public we will talk about contracts and every single thing that comes with the job.” Sunset tried to maintain a calm demeanor while talking about the deal. So far she had spent more than a day talking with Rarity and Synergy about what should be good about the band and they all decided that telling the complete truth to the future band mates was the best thing.
Sunset -or Jem- watched the reactions of both new members and had to be impressed by how different the two were in both looks and behavior. While they still looked as outrageous in a sense, the two had different reactions to everything since Zecora seemed as cool and collected as when she arrived at the trial. Meanwhile, Sonata was grinning up a storm and Sunset had to have a serious talk with Pinkie and see if the human version of Sonata had been born on Pinkie’s family because the way she grinned and seemed to vibrate on place due to too much excitement was endearing and maddening at the same time. Sunset wondered if the other two sirens were ready to tear their hair out due to how she behaved, and considering how much hair those two had it was comical to imagine it.
“Do you truly believe it was good? I mean, I know I’m not that good but wow, it was so cool!” Watching how happy Sonata had become by just playing with them Sunset had to remind herself that this girl one day had tried to conquer the whole world. It was so bizarre to think that two beings arriving from Equestria could change so much and now were working together to bring good music to the world.
“I know my dear; the way we all played was fabulous!” Rarity said with her usual flair for drama “I can only imagine how it will sound once Vinyl works her magic.”
“Oh wow! Does she also have magic?!” If Sunset hadn’t met the blue haired girl before she could have taken the way she acted as an act, but sadly she knew she was that naïve and childish.
“Rarity meant that Vinyl was going to work hard on the track, so far as I know she doesn’t have any magic.” She quickly explained while Sonata’s grin never left her face.
“I knew that.” How could it be that a girl their age could be that adorable? Sunset almost put her hand over her heart to check if it was still beating after such display of adorableness. It seems that Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy had serious competition for most adorable girl in Canterlot.
“Sure you did, anyway, let’s go and face the dangers that are the press, shall we?”
“When you say it like that it truly makes me shiver in anticipation,” Rarity said in her usual dry posh comment making the other girls giggle in response “although I do feel a little jealous of Applejack and the way she could escape the hyenas that are the media.”
“Never doubt backdoors my good friend.” Sunset simply said stepping outside of the room before she crashed against someone. A second later she saw a face she remembered very well.
“Well, Flash, what a coincidence that we found you here.” Rarity said with her usual aplomb but with some tightness signaling she didn’t quite forgive him yet for what happened a year ago. For his part Flash blushed slightly at what was now his usual luck when meeting new people, basically crash into hello. He haven't change that much, still having his peculiar blue hair and maybe he looked a little thinner but beyond that, he was the same Flash Sunset remembered, a guy she had grown to call her friend, even after the Princess and him finally broke things up.
“Yeah, ah, sorry about that,” He said scratching the back of his head “I wasn’t looking where I was going, my name is Flash Sentry.”
“You two know each other?” Sunset asked quickly going into her role of Jem, after all the pink haired girl haven’t met Flash yet and obviously had no idea of who he was.
“Oh yes, we used to go to the same High School, last I’ve heard you finally got that internship at Canterlot Daily.” the fashionista quickly said even surprising Sunset who didn’t know that about Flash. When did he try for something like that? Last thing she knew he was still dreaming about becoming a rock star of some kind and save the whales.
“Yeah, that’s why I’m here. Apparently my boss wanted more information about another group that was also releasing their album. I saw them a couple of days ago and they are… unique.” He said rolling his eyes making all four members of the Holograms look at each other. Considering what happened in Canterlot on a daily basis, how could another band be considered unique?
“What do you mean by that my dear Flash?”
“Is just that… they are really good, but their attitude just, well, they clash so much I don’t know how they can stay together. But their music, well, it is worthy, I don’t know if it is as worthy as yours but they could become as big a success as you girls did.”
“So are you saying we should be worried?” Sonata asked making Flash do a double take at who he was talking with. If every Canterlot alumni would react that way then it would be hilarious.
“Well… I guess that’s what my boss wants, a confrontation between The Holograms and The Changelings.”
Although many people believed Coco to be a woman -well, more like young adult- of high standards and refined tastes, the truth was another. Sure, she was a wiz at everything fashion and played a mean bass, but beyond that there was nothing out of the ordinary from her. She loved Saturday morning cartoons since she was eight years old; she still watched them in her pajamas every weekend. The simple thought of a McColt’s Wonder Burger -with classic sauce of course- made her stomach growl in hunger; and last, but not least, even when everyone believed that Coco Pommel was the epitome of vogue and vanguard and would never drink any coffee except the overpriced and overhyped ones sold at the hipster machine that was Starbucks, the truth was that the coffee she always drank came from a bag. Yes, her daily cappuccino was an instant brew that it only had to be poured into a cup of water.
Taking a large sip of the beverage and feeling the way it warmed her up and made her brain work at all cylinders, Coco Pommel arrived at the new headquarters of her new endeavor and prepared herself for the kind of pandemonium and chaos that usually followed each and every one of their meetings.
The amount of chaos and rage that could be unleashed on the innocent civilians outside of the building never failed to bring a smile to Coco’s face. As a woman born and raised in Manehattan she was more than used to screaming, sour moods and people ready to drop everything and fight in the middle of the street, that was probably the one reason why she never really found anything bizarre in the way her band mates behave every single time she saw them.
Of course, that she was used to something like that did not mean that she was immune to a chair being thrown into the air in her direction once she opened the door to the meeting room/record studio. With something that sounded like it came from a scared mouse, Coco ducked under the posh wooden chair being careful not to throw or spill her beverage on the linoleum floor.
Once Coco checked that no more furniture will fly right at her, the girl put attention to everyone present. On a couch, looking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened was a girl with a golden hair that seemed to have light blue highlights on it; the highlights were new since Coco didn’t remember seeing them two days ago. Lighting Dust was lounging in the sofa with her now classic bomber jacket on her and her iPod on one hand, obviously watching a video and zoning out the rest of the world.
Another girl was and about and her hair looked like a cat that was ready to defend itself. For some reason Gilda always reminded Coco of a cat; that or a bird of prey considering the talons she had for nails. The amount of make-up that the taller girl always had made it seem as if she had markings around her eyes and those same eyes were looking at their ‘glorious’ leader with a glare so caustic it could melt steel.
The so called leader was now panting in an effort to recover her breath after one of her usual epic tirades. Her long green -natural of course- hair reached to her ankles and was right now straight, although considering the amount of times The Changelings changed hairstyles it wouldn’t remain like that for long. Chrysalis was probably the palest woman Coco had ever met, and the way her elongated fangs made her look when she was mad was enough to send less brave people running for the hills. Thankfully Coco knew that Chrysalis would never hurt another person -not that she wanted to test her theory- and she had very little to fear from the one woman that called the shots on the band.
Once Chrysalis realized who she was about to hit with the chair the rest of her anger vanished and something that could misinterpreted as guilt appeared for a second on her face before the annoyed look returned to the pale girl.
“You are late!”
“I didn’t know we had a meeting this morning,” Coco answered back with all the patience she could muster after dealing with Chrysalis first time in the morning. The green haired girl simply snorted knowing that there was no way she could win against Coco and her damn stupid way in which she made Chrysalis calm down. She didn’t want to calm down, she wanted to scream at someone until that same someone fixed the stupid problems they had every day.
“No we don’t, but that doesn’t mean everything is peachy,” Chrysalis said throwing a magazine on top of the small coffee table. Coco looked at the cover and found a woman with long pink hair and great tight mini-dress and thigh high boots looking at the camera with a smile that radiated confidence and even a little bit of sexiness. It was really well taken considering the lighting only made her shine even more.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?” Chrysalis’ glare only worsened as she pointed at the lower corner of the magazine. Coco then saw why the leader of the band was so mad. Right there in the corner, as if the person in charge of the cover had forgotten about the topic for a second and hastily put the topic there. It was the logo of their band and it was dwarfed by Jem and the message of having more information about them in the centerfold of the magazine, “oh.”
“Yes, oh!”
“Come on Chrys, I don’t know why you have your knickers in a twist; who cares about a magazine?”
Gilda said clearly not understand why the leader of the band acted that way. It was clear too that it was the wrong thing to say at the moment considering how pissed Chrysalis became.
“We should care because that stupid Jem stole our thunder! We were the ones that won the right to a label contract; we were the ones that everyone would be talking about! But no! Oh, look at me, I have a popular video in YouTube and suddenly I am the biggest star,” Chrysalis said obviously mocking Jem and the Holograms, not that Coco couldn’t understand why. The Changelings had won the rights to have an album in the last War of the Bands done by the record label, “fuck that woman for thinking that she could steal our thunder! I am going to find that bitch and I am going to break her in half!” It was always an epic moment to see Chrysalis that mad and directing her anger at someone else, she had made it look like art by now.
As Chrysalis tried to calm down the three girls quickly heard something that was quickly making Chrysalis mad once more. All the eyes in the room turned to look at the so far quiet member of The Changelings. As if sensing the looks, Lightning Dust turned her head and found the terrifying look of Chrysalis. The worst part of that glare was that it was not directed to Lightning, but on the screen of the iPod.
“Is that… is that a Jem video?!”
“Ah… whoops?” was the only thing Lightning could say. Outside in the street, one unlucky person was hit in the head by an iPod that had been thrown through a window on a third floor.
From day to night, from the sunrise to the… sunset, everything was beginning to turn into numbers and equations for the young girl. Imaginary, integrals, theories and more, they were all being swallowed by the prodigious mind of one student named Twilight Sparkle. A young girl that had arrived at what could be the college of her dreams after years of study and work on her back, the one she dreamed since she was a young girl and had watched “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” with her dad. She had dazzled all the teachers; she was focusing her whole mind on the study of electronics. It was a dream come true… one that felt sour to the young girl.
Being at MIT should feel like a dream come true, like the pinnacle of her studies, but felt empty. No matter how much she tried to immerse on a new article or something new to program, something always pulled her. That thing was ghosts, not of people, but of memories. Sometimes she smelled something sweet that another student had brought to classroom and Twilight half expected Pinkie Pie to tackle her like back on Canterlot High. Sometimes she got up from what she was working because she finally remembered that she had to feed Spike, just to remember that her companion was back on Canterlot.
That melancholy affected every part of Twilight and no matter how many students she met, there was a hole that couldn’t quite be filled. It even affected the romantic part of her life, not that there was much to rescue from that front. Studying at two different colleges, on opposite coasts even, did no favors to her relationship with Timber. She still sometimes felt giddy whenever he send a message, but even she could recognize that things between her and her boyfriend had become… stagnated, forced in some way. Twilight wondered if she was chaining Timber down, maybe he could meet a nice girl at his college, what if he already had met one? Twilight shook her head before her mind could bring images to her brain.
In conclusion, she felt isolated and foolish for not getting in contact with her dear friends. She knew she could make friends at college, after all, they were all studying and living together on campus, but for some reasons it was not the same. Not even the parties were the same, not that Twilight went to many of them, after all, she had promised her big brother and dad that she'll be careful of the strange and sometimes crazy parties at college, totally not related to the crazy parties of Pinkie Pie. She was no wallflower like back on high school, but that still didn’t mean that she was ready to become a party animal, she left that to the one and only girl that could simply hand wave physics as if it were a giant joke. Just the image of Pinkie Pie organizing a campus-wide party made her giggle. She knew that the pink haired hyperactive girl would find a way to create it and still keep it PG someway. And just like that, her good humor vanished as fast as it came.
Twilight knew that to be able to get out of her funk she needed to be truthful with herself, something that she had learned all the way back on Everfree camp, a lesson that Sunset had taught her just when she needed it the most. She was homesick, plain and simple; she missed her home, her family and her friends. It was ironic in a way; after all, this was the second time that she decided to go for advance courses. First was her attempt at going to Everton, which was thankfully frustrated by the greatest group of friends she could ask for. The second attempt had been successful… moderately at least, since she was on geek heaven as Sunset had coined it, but still found not the joy that she had been expecting. Yes, she was enjoying her classes a bit, but not to the degree her younger version would have, at least the one that didn’t know how great friendship was.
Twilight knew that if she had ever gone to Everton, she would have been over the moon, but she would still have that nagging pain and it would have only gotten worst. Not to mention that she would have done something incredibly stupid and would have destroyed the world with a malfunctioning machine. She had finally learned the virtue of patience and careful experimentation and by Newton she missed her favorite lab partner.
Checking the data being compiled on the screen she also confessed to herself that most of the work she was doing on college was light years behind anything the two friends were capable of back home, right at the perfect lab where everything was cozy and beautiful. She knew that pride was a sin, or at least according to her grandparents, but what the two had been able to create was worthy of pride. They had created life, one that had its own mind and ideas, with dreams and tastes, and one that she missed too much right now. Speaking of which.
“Hey mom!” The voice coming out of the speakers of the computer alerted Twilight and almost made her jump from her seat. Right there, floating on the screen of the computer was the one girl that saw Twilight and Sunset as her parents. Something inside the bespectacled girl warmed up at hearing those words and it was as fantastic and weird as always.
“Synergy, what are you doing?!”
“Chill out mom, I already checked and no one is even close to your lab, besides, if someone is watching they will think you are on twitch while the code is compiling; by the way, there’s some error on the code,” Twilight’s eyes went all into science mode now and was all ears to her daughter, who although looked like a young girl was instead an incredibly sophisticated AI powered by the magic of harmony.
“Really? Can you tell me where?”
“Sure, lines 3, 7, 19, 34, 35 and 50,” Synergy said as her eyes turned white as she interacted directly with Twilight’s computer.
“Well, at least that’s good.”
“Oh no, those are the errors that won’t let your program run, there are more minor bugs and small things,” at those words Twilight’s head hit the desk while she sighed.
“Where’s Sunset when I need her!” Twilight grumbled and basically whined as Synergy slightly winced at seeing similar scenes back when her parents used to live together, or as close as two teenagers teaching an AI about morals and values could. While mom was a certified genius with machines, her pops was more than handy when it came to compiling and writing code “Synergy, would you be a dear and call your… dad?” Twilight still felt weird referring to Sunset like that, but who was she to deny some familiarity to the young program?
“Sorry mom, pops is rather busy with her new band.”
“Excuse me; I think I heard you say Sunset has a new band, what happened with the Rainbooms?”
“Well, funny story, Miss Rarity found a nice singer and she kinda became an internet success, so now pops is helping her become a huge star with a band,” Synergy said placing some pictures of the band The Holograms on the screen. Those were showing a tall fit girl with huge flowing pink hair high fiving Sunset as these two showed the new song to the public. The two seemed very chummy and close by the looks of their smiles and eyes full of trust on each other. Next thing Twilight heard was the sound of the pencil she had on her hands snap.
Sonata Dusk may be a happy go lucky girl at first sight and for the most part that was true. She was a girl that didn’t need much to be happy and very few times even put the effort to be even better or try to get more things. She didn’t have many possessions and she was happy like that, even when she had been something beyond mere human what she wanted was to lounge around have some fun. That the kind of fun the trio of sirens known as Aria, Adagio and Sonata liked was not good for the rest of Equestria.
Now, things had calmed down enough for Sonata to truly appreciate the world she had been stranded on, mainly the people and the customs. Before, she had been content to play the part of the ditzy villain, a role that was like second nature, but the rainbow had changed everything and the Dazzlings had been stripped once more of their magic, this time permanently. Before, they still felt the remnants of the siren magic in their pendants and the dark calling from them to sow chaos and hate around, just so they could feed themselves and take control of everyone around. Then they were defeated.
With the destruction of the pendants, Sonata had felt herself change and it was something that also happened to her sisters. All Dazzlings had felt the effects of the powerful harmony infused avatar back at the Battle of the Bands. It was slowly at first, but she felt the change, like fog relinquishing the harbor it had hostage after years. Now, Sonata still was a little ditzy and airheaded, but she finally found herself wanting to live, to experiment and learn. She found new love for life and she threw herself head-on on this new adventure.
Sonata Dusk found out that, while she had lost all of her abilities to sing -which apparently had been just part of the pendant’s magic- she had also lost that annoying voice inside her head that was constantly pushing her to use her magic to make others fight. She wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box, but even she knew that something dark had been inside the pendants, dark enough to be destroyed by harmony.
Since then, Sonata had begun to try more things, like cooking or painting. She was great at the first and horrible at the second, but thankfully things had worked out when it came to music. Sure, her voice could still break windows and ear-drums, but playing was another thing and she not only practiced, but in the time since their fall, Sonata had learned how to play good enough to be part of a band. And what a band! Sonata still had goosebumps even after finishing the recording session.
Now came the hardest part and that had to do with something important about Sonata Dusk. She didn’t fear many things, just normal everyday things like huge spiders or roaches (she despised those), but one thing she was the most afraid of was the opinion of her sisters. Many times they had simply push her aside, due to being the runt of the trio and because she had always been the ‘dumb’ one according to Aria. Now, after being turned into one hundred percent human beings, things had been a little all over the place. Without a lifelong plan of taking control of every single being in the world, they had been left stranded, right in the middle of the sea and their sails had lost all wind. Worse than that, they were drifting aimless in the sea, well, not all of them.
Adagio was still the leader of the trio, but besides giving them some house rules -as if Aria and Sonata had been some rambunctious kids- she left every day to work, leaving the other two girls completely clueless about what to do, but no more, things will change for them now that Sonata had been given an opportunity. She got ready to open the door and get back into her home, not without looking up as if asking any being up in the sky for help.
With that done she finally entered their apartment and felt herself become calm, as if the stress of the outside world couldn’t reach her here. It was true that their accommodations were rather mundane, with the living room a little too cramped with the sofa and chair combo that they got from the thrift shop three streets down. A small television was plugged in but very few times they used it, mostly only Aria and Adagio in the morning to get the news. Most of the time it was spend on the laptop Adagio had bought on discount; thank the sea that Adagio’s job had allowed them to get internet or things would have been messy in the house without it.
It was simple, it was a little cramped, but it was home and Sonata loved the apartment because of that. For so long she had been drifting from place to place, but now that had changed and no matter how grumpy Aria had been because of their location, Sonata enjoyed the relaxing effects of a daily routine.
As Sonata entered the apartment, the other two sirens watched the door surprised at Sonata carrying her guitar case. It was rare the day Sonata went out into the city by herself. They tended to think of her as the baby of the group, always having to be monitored so she wouldn’t get hurt or get lost. It was maddening in a way.
“So, were you in the streets playing or something?” Came the acrid voice of Aria, it was basically her welcome home and Sonata understood that. She was not the most open with affections and this wasn’t the time when she will start. That was okay, she knew that’s how things were for Aria.
“Or something,” was the only thing Sonata could speak as a response. She was a little concerned of how Aria will react to the news, considering her chosen words at Jem when they heard the song and news. The twintailed girl had never been much of a fan of pop, being forced to sing like a pop star just so they could feed on dark emotions, but beyond that she never really found much love for the divas in the music industry. No, the one who she was afraid of was Adagio, not that the elegant girl would be disappointed in the decisions; at least she hoped she wasn’t. It was because with one word she could decide if Sonata continued this road or she could kiss goodbye her new dreams.
It was true that the destruction of the pendants was like a blessing in disguise, but even if Adagio had become less terrifying and had all but stopped any thoughts on conquering and revenge, the girl was still a mystery in how she could react to unexpected things.
“Somehow I doubt that, anyway, what’s the guitar? At least I hope there is a guitar inside.”
“Yeah, as if something like that could happen, this is not a mafia movie,” as fun as it could be to watch the two bicker, she had more important things to tell them.
“No, I was out… on an audition,” she said before Aria raised an eyebrow at that.
“For what? A Garage Band or something? Now are you going to be playing in abandoned cafes and dinky bars?” Adagio simply rolled her eyes.
“I don’t see Sonata going so low as to do that, so what’s this audition then? Because the only big one in the city was the-“ and then a light bulb went off inside Adagio’s hair, probably somewhere in between the mountain of orange curls, thought Sonata making a joke in her head just to keep herself calm “wait… you went to that Jem band’s audition?”
“The what on what? You mean that sugar pop girl was having an audition today? So, how much did they laugh at you?” Aria said with a smirk, but Sonata had been prepared for that; thankfully Adagio had been as quick as ever.
“Yes, I was there… I’m in the band,” Sonata gave the news to her sisters with one of her brightest smiles leaving the other two completely dumbfounded, so much that Aria’s mouth had to be closed by one of Adagio’s hands.
“Well, that is certainly something, congratulations I suppose, just remember to tell us when you guys will play and record, I also need to meet them to see if you will be alright,” was all that came out of Adagio’s mouth leaving Aria even more confused.
“Wait, that’s it? That’s all you are going to say to her? I mean, she is in a freaking pop rock band of all things!”
“What do you want me to tell her? She went outside and not only had the guts to stay in front of other people to be judged, but nailed the audition… you nailed the audition right?” At Sonata’s rapid fire nods, Adagio went back to her conversation with Aria “besides the choice of music -and I still don’t get why you hate it so much- there is nothing that I could make fun of, so congratulations are in order Sonata.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me! She is going to be a freaking pop star now!”
“Yeah, one with a job? Do I have to remind you that she now has a job that will pay? Just like me for example, so that means not only Sonata had the guts to go outside and look for a job, but got one on the first try, so, when are you going to do the same my dear?” Adagio’s grin was the classic predatory one that she hadn’t seen in such a long time. Knowing that her family accepted her decisions dispersed any fear that Sonata may have had. The noogie that she got from laughing at Aria’s face was worth it.
For a girl leaving her High School days behind and getting ready to live every single day to the max in the new world called College, the idea of being without a set of wheels was unthinkable, unless of course your life was not a cliché movie or an over-blown television ad. If there was one thing that made Sunset scratch her head was the way every single person close her (physical) age always reacted to the idea of having a car.
The redhead had never been a big fan of that invention, even though she admired the scientist and engineers that created those amazing machines. In the end, the idea of having a car was not that appealing. Sure, she would love to know how to work on those things and to truly understand the way they worked; after all, they were pieces of technological wizardry that no pony would be able to replicate easily. The redhead’s ability to understand the human magic-like creations always made her feel proud.
Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer were two amazingly gifted ponies that understood and used magic in ways Sunset was not used to anymore, but when it came to machines, technology and basically sci-fi gadgets, well, she and the local Twilight were the supreme masters over the other duo. It was a little wrong to thing that of her good friends in Equestria, but even Sparky was not above showboating a bit whenever Princess Twilight crossed over.
Unlike her friends, Sunset was not too interested in cars so she was patient with both Rainbow Dash and Rarity whenever the two would start bemoaning the fact that neither had one. Thankfully Rainbow will soon have her own car after betting with her parents that she’ll be able to not only graduate, but be accepted at Canterlot U without the need of a sports’ scholarship and thanks to Sunset and Twilight’s help she was able to show her parents what she could do. Not that the two were bad parents; Sunset was sure that if they weren’t related, the two older humans would have become Rainbow’s stalkers.
While that happened with Rainbow, Sunset was sure that Rarity was saving money in hopes of getting her own lot and start building the boutique of her dreams. It was the reason why she never had any chance of getting a car since she already had enough money to get at least a small coupé, but thanks to working at home or the small unused room back at Canterlot High she was closer and closer to that dream. Now, thanks to their recording and hopes of a future contract, Rarity won’t have to save anymore.
It may seem weird, but Sunset was more comfortable using public transportation than getting her set of wheels, be it four or two wheels. For some reason, many students back at CH had thought that Sunset owned a motorcycle. Just because she knew how to use one at the last Friendship Games did not mean that she had a collection of them; or that she owned a chopper and was secretly working on a bike shop. Neither was true the rumor that she was part of a dangerous bike gang that destroyed everything everywhere they went. Sometimes she wondered about the imagination of the people she met back at school.
No, she was content with that and had no desire of buying a car, although she was quick to admit that she had been thinking about buying a nice motorcycle she had seen on a store. But no, she was right now okay; the only thing she was worried right now was to cinch the contract that will make Jem and the Holograms a reality. So far it seemed in the bag, thanks to the great efforts of every member -official and unofficial ones- and it made Sunset feel alive and confident about the future of the band.
The redhead will be the first one to admit that the whole idea of a band was still rough drafted and half thought at best, but to see something you have created be recognized by others as good or bad was empowering. Yes, there were some in the internet that wanted to create fights or simply hatemongers; sadly for them, Synergy hated those kinds of bullies and trouble makers. Safe to say that none of them bothered the community ever again. And it was becoming a community now thanks to the efforts of people around the globe, all thanks to the internet. There were several fan clubs already, groups that were being birthed in MyStable and many others that simply wanted to speak about the newest song and how it will be. Will it be a success as Truly Outrageous or will mark them as a One-Hit Wonder forever?
Remembering the looks of the band when Vinyl showed them the final product of ‘Ignition, Space, Love’ they all knew that the previous song was only an appetizer, a teaser of what the future could bring. That’s why she was right now riding a bus in route to destiny.
Getting down from the metal and carbon fiber titan, Sunset took a look at the building and felt once more welcomed. It was a bizarre thing to feel when in the presence of a building like Treble Days Record’s headquarters, but considering everything that had been riding on their recording and the work done by Vinyl and her dad, well, maybe it was like a third or maybe fourth home considering the way she had been living.
Walking through the threshold, Sunset was welcomed by the cold breeze emanating from the air conditioner; after spending some time in the summer heat outside it was perfect. Also, she only nodded to the woman currently stationed at the front reception. The people working here already knew her as a member of Jem and the Holograms, just that not at vocals but as agent/manager to the band.
Walking through several corridors and riding a quick elevator, Sunset finally arrived at the door of Soundwave, the man in charge of the company and father of Vinyl Scratch. Knocking on the oak door, Sunset was surprised to hear Soundwave so excited; usually the man was, if not stoic, at least as silent and composed as his daughter, so this must be good.
Opening the door and walking inside, Sunset realized why he was like this. The woman sitting down in front of Soundwave was one that Sunset recognized instantly. With cream skin that had no blemish and with much more toned down attire -unlike every single concert that woman did- was none other than Sapphire Shores herself.
“Sunset, thank you for coming so quickly, I think you already know our guest is.”
“Oh, so you are the one who is helping our young prodigy in this business? I must say your band is simply amazing! Soundwave here just let me hear your newest single and it is SEN-SA-TIONAL!” To hear that phrase live, just a couple of inches away would have been enough to send Rarity into a coma due to fangirling to the extreme “so I was thinking, I NEED you all in my newest album darling and I will not accept a no for answer,” Sunset was nervous before? Oh boy, she sure felt the pressure now.
Rarity had been known at High School as the number one fashionista and drama queen; it was completely true and she had gained that moniker due to her excellent dramatic moments and according to several classmates, she was an excellent whiner, capable of doing epic demonstrations of her ability at the drop of a hat, sometimes because of that. It was a talent in terms of emotion control that let Rarity always show a perfect and elegant profile at all times, except whenever she was with the rest of her friends because then the lady left and she was more than ready to party like the best of them. It was because she was so good at being the drama queen that she was completely surprised at how Sunset Shimmer had returned from Sound Wave’s meeting.
Usually Sunset was animated or maybe a little overwhelmed liked in recent days. All that work making Jem and the Holograms truly shine had caused some stress for Sunset, but apparently she was used; even more, she welcomed the stress as an expert showing her perfectionist side of hers.
The Sunset that had returned was not the exuberant and happy Sunset she was expecting; in fact, the Sunset that returned was mumbling something. The redhead did not look happy, more like her world had been shattered and the shock was so big that left her brain in auto-pilot. There was no other explanation of how Sunset had arrived at the apartment building.
Eh, Sunset my dear, is everything alright?” There was definitely something wrong since Sunset kept on mumbling something so low that she couldn’t hear “hello? Are you okay? Because you don’t look okay and I don’t want to be forced to slap you to make you concentrate,” the fashionista said not ready to go to that extreme.
“Well, it is usually that or a kiss,” the rainbow haired girl known by her friends as Rainbow Dash said popping her head from the living room. From that room, the happy music of Mario Kart could be heard and it was a testament of how many times she had heard the tune that Rarity could recognize it. It was clear that the girls were already comfortable in their new living space, so much that it was quite shocking to Rarity, but after all, they have become experts on adaptation considering their lives.
“And pray tell, were did you learn of something like that,” asked the fashionista back making Rainbow blink in surprise and some color appear on her cheeks.
“We used to watch romance movies before an action one every so often when we were younger,” Fluttershy’s voice could be heard from the kitchen somewhere in the back; she alongside Pinkie were getting dinner ready and Rarity was grateful of that. She could do many things, but cooking was not one of her fortes, but considering their new living space, maybe it would be a good idea to start paying attention on that. Rainbow meanwhile, turned a deeper shade of red.
“I won’t say a word darling, but I truly need help with Sunset, she has been like this for several minutes and I don’t know why she is like this,” she said before she was surprised by a mass of pink hair that appeared from out of nowhere; it was only the familiarity with Pinkie’s eccentricities that didn’t make Rarity jump in fright at the actions of Pinkie Pie.
“Well, why didn’t you say so? Marble usually had some really bad shock moments when we were younger, but there was a surefire way to get her out of them,” and like that, pinkie put a hand inside her hair and as if by magic, she took a balloon from the inexhaustible storage that was her hair. She took a second to inflate it and with a needle in her hand, the balloon popped with enough force to make Fluttershy squeak in surprise all the way on the kitchen. It was strong enough also to make Sunset jump in fright.
The redhead took a couple of seconds to reorient herself and after a couple of blinks she was back on Earth; Applejack also decided that the lobby was more interesting than the videogame and like that , all six friends were together in one room.
“Thank you Pinkie, I needed the shock.”
“You’re welcome,” Pinkie answered back and took another balloon, quickly inflating it and starting to bend it in the shape of a little dog. Sunset took a second to get her bearing before grabbing Rarity by the shoulders.
“Girls, I have important news; Rarity, I need you to pack your things and tell your parents you will be leaving the city for the weekend,” Sunset said, well, more like ordered Rarity leaving the rest of her friends surprised about her words.
“Sunset, pray tell where did that come from and why should I do that?”
“Because I couldn’t find a way to tell Sapphire Shores no to record a song with her and appear on a music video in Bostrot,” Just as she had said that, Rarity’s eyes began to widen to pony-of-Equestria levels and was accompanied by a supersonic squeak of epic proportions.
“Wait, she invited you?” Rainbow was more than a little surprised of that; sure, they received an e-mail from Sapphire’s agent about talking about a feature proposal, but to get THE pop star to suddenly spring that? Well, that was freaking awesome.
“Reading between the lines, it was more like an order; sure, Jem is popular, but she is the current queen of pop, so what she wants she gets I suppose,” Sunset was finally getting things under control.
“So, that means y’all gonna go on a trip? What about us?”
“Hey, we haven’t done the traditional end of High School trip?”
“Ah, Rainbow, I don’t think there is that kind of tradition.”
“Come on Flutters, work with me on that,” At those words, something clicked on Sunset; sure, they were going to stay together, but if this was any indication, their lives will become rather hectic once they started their lives on college and work.
“You know what Rainbow? That’s not a bad idea; Synergy, cold you-”
“Tickets for Bostrot for 8, first class of course, I even got a nice discount,” oh, the benefits of having a super computer as a daughter with access to a big account. Still, somewhere in the back of Sunset’s mind, she felt as if she was forgetting something.
Back in Equestria, the number one bookworm and also one of the regents of Equestria was right now relaxing with a book in front of her. She knew that soon she will be able to forget all the weight from the crown on her head and simply relax in the company with her friends living in the Human world. This next weekend would be a fun and relaxing affair.
The monitor was beeping, keeping track of the heart of the man on the bed and its beep echoed across the hall; the reason of why the man, or better said, young boy, was in the bed was all due to a car, at least that’s what they thought, but Dr. Hope wasn’t quite sure. Over and over again she took a look at the resonance images and was perplexed; there were no broken bones, no internal bleeding, the boy didn’t even need any respiratory assistance, he was just healing by himself; outside of the external injuries there was no way to explain why the boy was on a coma.
As she kept looking at the studies, a man of pale skin entered the room in silence and quietly hugged her from behind.
“You do realize that this kid is not your only patient, right Hope? You have already seen others like this, you need to rest, just give it time,” at these words, Hope turned around and looked at him with tired eyes; the man could see the disappointment in those dark and beautiful eyes of her, but it was disappointment in herself.
“I know Sombra, I know, is just… this kid shouldn’t even be alive, now, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that he survived, but seriously, being run down by a trailer and he just receives minor injuries? This doesn’t add up,” she got up and walked to the window of the room, she then once more looked at the file, thinking about the other thing that was so perplexing about the patient; the kid was a ghost. He had no name, his fingerprints were useless since they couldn’t be found in the database, and with no id and no license in his pockets the boy was a ghost. Without anything under his name or even a name, the system could just very well shrug its shoulders and Hope wasn’t sure what could happen to the boy.
“I suppose we can only wait, have some patience.”
“Don’t you have a class to teach back at High School Sombra?”
“Why do you always have to bring me down woman?” If anyone would see them or the way they interacted with each other they wouldn’t think that they were together, hell, they would have thought they were old friends. Their relationship was a strange one, but it worked for them.
With a small smile on her face, largely due to her teasing, Hope went back to the young boy’s bed and put a hand on top of his head and at that moment, her smile grew even bigger as an idea crossed her mind and just by looking at that smile, it made Sombra get worried.
“I know that look Hope, what exactly are you planning?”
“Don’t you think he looks a little bit like you?”
“What, do you think he is my long lost son Hope?”
“Don’t be so dramatic, is just that it would be a shame if he falls through the system,” at those words, Sombra rolled his eyes knowing exactly what was going on with Hope; she always had such a big heart, always being worried about every single person that she saw in the hospital; she had the kid on her sight and she was not going to let him be abandoned and she was not going to rest until the kid was whole again and with a family. Sombra knew that he was not going to make her change her mind so he just kissed the top of her head and turned around to leave the room.
“Guess I’ll have to make some calls if we are going to have extra rooms in the house, isn’t it?” Hope was surprised and it was clear on her face that she wasn’t expecting that answer “I know you well my dear and there is no way I’m going to make you change your mind, but you need to promise me one thing, take a rest, you are working too hard, you need to take care of yourself.”
Hope was an amazing doctor, but she always worked way too hard, but Sombra was right, no matter how much she wanted to help everyone all the time; she looked at her body and had to be sincere and acknowledge the fact that she had lost weight due to how much time she had spent being stressed or working.
“Alright, I’ll go back home after the night shift and I’ll finally take a vacation, since I believe I’ve saved enough for several months.”
So it was with these thoughts that as she was working on her desk, looking at some files when one of the nurses working the night shift too appeared at her door.
“Dr. Hope, the patient woke up!” it was all that she needed to hear as she went up and began to run in the direction of the young man’s room; knowing that the next few moments would be important for the patient and indeed, he could act disoriented or confused, maybe even a little shocked, but instead of that they found the boy sitting up on his bed, inspecting his hands with a look that could haunt her night. It was filled with rage and confusion, it was like looking at a pool filled with nightmares and she was paralyzed by the spectacle; the boy then turned his head took at them and it was as if the room had disappeared and the only thing remaining was darkness and rage. Then, he talked and everything went back to normal.
“Where am I?” she blinked and the sensation of nightmares was vanished; she took a long look at him and was confused, weren’t his eyes green before? Now they were grey so there was something strange in all of this.
“You are right now in the hospital after being hit by a truck, do you remember the accident?”
“What’s a truck? Wait, that huge thing is called a truck?” well, things were definitely worse than she thought at first; he was either showing signs of amnesia or he just didn’t know modern vehicles “it doesn’t matter, I need to go back to Everfree, my friends were there, I need to check if everything is alright?”
“You mean Camp Everfree? That’s pretty far away from here.”
“Wait, Camp Everfree?” he showed confusion on his eyes and as interesting the talk was, Hope knew there were more important stuff to talk about, like the fact the kid still was a ghost on the system.
“Now, I know you must feel confused, but tell me, do you remember your name?”
“Yes, is Midnight Shade, who are you?”
“I am Doctor Radiant Hope, I’ve been taking care of you since your accident,” the kid was grateful about it at least and after taking his vitals, which only made him look even more confused due to the strange items she was using -which only made her believe more in the fact that he had lost most of his memories- she decided to left him rest while she did a quick investigation on his name.
Sadly, after introducing his name in the database there was nothing, no records, no family, no nothing; the only thing she could find was a small link in the internet referring to the name after she avoided the fairy tales or trash. It was a link to an old reference, a registry about a so called mage that had studied alchemy and magic; feeling intrigued she clicked on the link to an old portrait and couldn’t quite believe how similar the crazy magician was to the young boy on the hospital bed; the same dark look and hair, just a little bit older. Besides the looks, the name matched completely, Midnight Shade, alchemist of the fourteen hundreds, executed after presumably destroying a whole castle. Nothing was explained except for his last words.
“I had to find a way to kill him, but nothing can stop Noche,” it was probably a wrong translation and didn’t have much sense, who was Noche after all? It didn’t have much sense, so it was with these word sin her head that she went back home. Next morning there was a social worker in the hospital and even Radiant Hope was surprised in how fast they worked.
As she saw the woman she could only thing of one thing; that the kid was going to be separated from her, taken away by the system like many kids before him; he would soon disappear in the system of adoptive houses and temporal families and the kid needed help with his memory loss. Still, she was a doctor first in the hospital so she walked in her direction and shook hands with her.
“Dr. Hope, it is a pleasure to meet you, my name is Cherry Mystic and I am here to ask you a couple of things about your patient,” the woman seemed pleasant enough, with short black hair and very chic glasses; with a beauty mark on her left cheek close to her lips, beautiful smile and the modest, but very flattering suit, Cherry was enchanting and Radiant needed a second to get her mind working at full power again, after all, she looked almost inhuman in a way, but radiant couldn’t put her finger exactly on why.
“What I can tell you is that he has not fully recovered.”
“I still cannot allow you to take him into the system like that,” at those words, Cherry smiled in a way that made Radiant stay rooted to the place she was standing; it felt as if she was in front of a very dangerous predator and the shark was starting to circle around her.
“I heard some people talking this morning, something about you finally taking a very well deserved vacation, is that right? Well, since you are going to take some time for yourself, why don’t you also keep an eye on the kid? I mean, the boy has just woken from such a horrible accident, he probably needs people that could take care of him at this point in his life.”
“I haven’t told the hospital about me taking my vacation, who-”
“You know how rumor works, don’t worry, besides, I’ll have the kid’s documents ready this afternoon,” the woman said with that same mysterious smile of hers that just made Radiant be worried, very, very worried. Radiant still had the feeling that there was something about that woman, this Cherry Mystic that just made her feel fascinated and scared of the woman; it was not the way she looked, it was just something on her head that told her there was something strange on Cherry.
“But the kid is still a ghost; he has no id or any kind of documentation.”
“Now, don’t worry about that, finding all that is my job, you keep taking care of him and soon everything will be alright,” and with that, the woman turned around and walked away, with Radiant feeling as if she had dealt with a natural force instead of a person and the woman truly did it. Just several hours later, Cherry Mystic came back as Radiant visited Midnight once more; she was surprised about the way in which the boy absorbed information.
Cherry came back and with a full folder, with information of Midnight, like his birthday, his mother’s information, which was Moonlight by the way, but his birth place was unknown, the same as his father. Besides all this, with the information and with social worker on her side, that meant that Midnight left the hospital and moved with Sombra and Radiant Hope.
Just as she thought, the two of them quickly became friends, talking for hours and becoming something like a family, but there was still something dark growing inside Midnight, a part of him that made him part of the darkest race in all of Equestria’s history, the Umbrum.
Even in this new world, he felt the dark power in him calling him; make him remember his father and all that he represented. As he had been thrown into another universe, then that meant that his father, Noche, was still out there, somewhere else, but how to find him? How to make true on his promise to him? That he will be the one that will destroy him?
As he started to plan, Radiant came with some news to him, the fact that he will be attending school, not too far away from their house, a school named Crystal Prep. And like that, the wheels of destiny turns, sometimes with help of some very powerful entities that make sure the pieces are in place.
Back then, when Midnight was still on a bed at the hospital, the social worker left the building and with nobody around, her clothes began to shift, then transform; instead of a rather modest suit, it became a rather impressive silver armor, her glasses became a masquerade and like that, Cherry Mystic had vanished and Madeleine was already making plans.
The first piece on the war against Noche and the survival of the multiverse was in place, now, they'll see what Midnight will do and if he will be like his father or he will embrace the powers of the Elements and help them soon, if not, well, her new spear was ready, she could see if it worked against Umbrum, or at least, Umbrum turned human.
