Chapter 1: Vignette Valencia

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Summertime was almost near, at least for students at any school. Just a few more days and they would finally begin their well deserved break! Plenty of nice sunny skies, warm air, ice cream, turquoise waters, there was tons of stuff to do in the summer. And soon they, along with most of the Canterlot public were about to have a new addition for fun things to do; a brand new, state-of-the-art amusement park. It was going to be open in a few weeks, and it was going through the final preparations, all being run by the head of the park.

“Experience the world like never before! The one, the only, Equestria-land! Wait, stop, cut!”

The parade stand stopped moving, and the people all in the costumes groaned collectively.

The woman who made the announcement scrunched her face and turned around. She was an adult woman in her early 20s, with flawless yummy yellow skin, curly and poofy hair that had dark pink coloring meshed in white, and a headdress with two leaves holding it together. And thanks to the wonderfully warm weather, she only had need to wear a sleeveless and shoulderless shirt, a long hanging coat with no arms, and denim blue short shorts held together with a leaf belt buckle. The only imperfection that could be even be the slightest bit visible was a little mole just off the side of her face. But it wasn't bad, at least for her.

“I'm sorry, I just... okay, now that I actually see the costumes in physical form, I can see why you were against it, why did I insist a change..."

"Because you keep changing your mind on the costumes, Miss Valencia," said the hired fashion designer who was less than happy.

The woman sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just I want this park to be absolutely perfect and in time for the grand opening, and not to mention the little Light Parade as well, but I just want everything tip top perfect!"

"... No one says tip top," the designer said, deadpan.

"I'm struggling for words right now!" Vignette expressed. "But, maybe, if you're still up for it, mishaps you could, you know, go with the original designs you pitched to begin with?"

There was a brief moment of silence between the two, and the designer's expression didn't change. And neither did the deadpan in her voice. “Miss Valencia. I’m sorry. I cannot work under your conditions anymore. I quit.” And just like that, she walked away.

Vignette stood still in cold silence, slowly trying to keep her cool. She was almost about to snap and scream until she remembered; she had an image to maintain, she could not break her reputation like this, no way! A few deep breaths would always calm her down.

“… Ok. Everybody take five, just, go take a break! I need a stress salad!!”

The people on the platform all shrugged and went their own ways to take a break, and Vignette parked herself at a nearby table, scrunching at her hair.

“Ohhh… that’s the fifth one this month! How am I going to find a new costume designer with only two weeks left!?” And her face planted itself straight onto the surprisingly clean table. Raising her head back up and pushing the piece of hair that was right in her eye away she looked down, thinking contently. “I’ve got to get a new designer, fast. Someone smart, someone with fresh ideas, someone who can breathe some life into this Light Parade…”

She tapped her fingers on the table until a lightbulb flickered over her head. “Wait a minute… that’s it! I’ll send out a want ad, maybe then I can find the right one for the job.”

Immediately she began typing on her phone, loading the page she needed. “Wanted… costume designer… want to design for the parade? Show me your works and any experience you’ve had… in… the… field,” Vignette finished. “Perfect! Now all I have to do is wait.”

She sat idly at the table for a few seconds or so, thinking.

“… This may take a while. Perhaps I can make myself useful?”

The rest of the day at Equestria-Land went smoothly. She made sure everything else had been prepared as it should, all rides and equipment were functioning properly, all vendors and mini fair activities had been set up as well. Since she was in charge of managerial relations, she had to make sure everything was ready in two weeks for the opening. Sure there was bound to be some problems, but she could at least make sure they were ready. Some vendors wouldn’t be arriving until next week, along with some small merchandising for the park, but she had patience for that.

After her shift was done, she went home, got a shower (thank the summer heat for that) and got back to her secondary job; making video content, this time continuing the small mini-series of Lets Plays on Hooftube. She had a lot of fans on that website, not just on Snapgab. And apparently making an account on Hooftube proved to be good luck because ever since she got started, she became more and popular, with the inclusion of doing a variety of different content.

“—Anyways everyone, I will end tonight’s episode here, I am glad we are making miraculous progress. This chapter is a definite improvement over the last one, which in my honest opinion kind of dragged for a little bit, but this one did not waste any time, it picked things up, it was snappy, I am very excited for the final chapter. Hope you all enjoyed the video and remember everyone; be true to yourself!”

After the final edits of the video were done, she hit submit, and let the internet do its thing and let the video go public. Now she could finally relax for the rest of the night. … Hopefully.

She got up from her spinning chair and went into her kitchen. It was a small set; a few cupboards, a fridge, a stove, kitchen sink, countertops, an oven, and plenty of floor space with sand orange tiling. Reaching into the fridge she pulled out some leftovers from the night before; should just need some heating up in the microwave.

Opening up the microwave door, she slid the food right inside and closed the door. Her fingers tapped on a few buttons, admittedly cursing herself for setting it for twenty minutes as opposed to two, and reset the timer to the proper settings. As the food began to spin around on the turntable in the microwave, she just stood there, looking at it spin. The only sound that filled her apartment was the microwave doing it’s magic, working on heating her food.

Her eyes went to her cabinets, and then to the outside window, and back to the microwave. Her fingernails tapped on the countertop, making soft clicking noises.

When her food was done, she just placed herself quietly at her small circular dining table, with the only light on from the small fixture above. Sure she had a few placemats set up around the table for company, but the only company that ever came into this apartment was her. Even as she looked across seeing the empty plate and cup across from her, she was still alone. A single hand held her head up as she weakly chewed on her dinner, deep in thought. Out of mild curiosity (and hoping to take her mind off) she checked her phone, looking to see if she had gotten any new emails or notifications.

None.

Okay there were some small dings going off, letting her know that she had just gotten an influx of comments on her newest Hooftube video, but she preferred to check those on her computer.

After one last bite of her food, she stood back up and stared out her massive balcony. It was big and spacious, just enough to host a barbecue. She leaned against the railing, staring outside. It was a warm summer evening, and by now she was only dressed in a tank top and shorts, trying to beat the heat. Her eyes caught sight down below, seeing a few of the homes and buildings below. She could see a teenage girl in one house; laughing, giggling, and it was clear why. She was hanging out with friends, and judging by the party hats and cake, it was clearly a birthday party.

Funny. Over five million followers, and yet I still have no real friends. Is this a blessing, or a curse?

Hoping to try and remove all the pain and depression from the thought, she plopped herself on her couch and turned on the TV. Maybe some binging of her favorite show would change her mind? She flipped through the channels and went straight to one of the streaming services she paid for, throwing her feet up on a coffee table.

“Earth… how underwhelming.”

“The indigenous life is more primitive than I expected it,” the deep voiced character said on the screen.

Nope, she could see where that was going, scary imagery was not what she needed right now. Maybe some good silly comedy was what she needed? Maybe some of her favorite internet people could make her smile.

Just then, she felt the phone in her pocket buzz and vibrate. An email had been sent to her! Getting up and to her computer, she opened up a new tab and opened up her email. Right there it was, sitting in her inbox, unread for her to see. And when she opened it, she read out loud.

“Dear Miss Vignette Valencia, my name is Rarity. I saw your wanted ad for costume designer at the upcoming theme park, Equestria Land, and I was hoping to apply. Within this email, I have provided a resume. I hope to hear from you soon, signed, Rarity La Belle.”

She stopped to think for a moment. Only a few hours had gone by since she posted that ad, and she finally got a response. Maybe this Rarity La Belle was worth looking into. That name did seem a wee bit familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Oh well, she had someone who may had potential! And within the email were a few attached photos of some of her lines. Maybe these were worth the look...

Opening up a few of them, she could not believe her eyes. These designs were... gorgeous! These were unlike anything she had ever seen! These were creative, but beautiful! Interesting, but not over the top! Visually appealing, dazzling, it was everything she was looking for! Now she had to call this girl and have a proper interview at once, this woman could--

Riiinnnnnnng.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her cellphone going off. Recognizing the number, she slid the answer button and held it up to her ear.

"Hello?" Vignette answered. "... Miss Bait, how may I help you? ..." Vignette waited for a moment, sighing in annoyance. "Yes, I know the employees may have weird quirks, but we all have them. ... No I did not know his breath was bad, I'll make sure he has mints on him--listen, Miss Bait. Just do your job the best you can, okay? You wanted this position, didn't you?" Some more silence followed. "Look, part of working in this position is getting along with people. If you cannot do that..." Vignette waited, rolling her eyes. "Okay, listen. Do you still want to help me as my assistant?"

She tapped her fingers on the table.

"Then you need to make a better effort to get along my employees. Understood? ... Okay, goodbye."

She hung up and then rested her head against her chair, spinning for a moment. Facing her calendar, she looked at the date for when Equestria Land would finally open. A smile grew on her face.

"Equestria Land, you are going to make so many men, women, and children happy."

Chapter 2: Summer Break!

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One Week Later

"Summer vacation is here!!!" Sonata squeed at the top of her lungs.

The Dazzlings and friends were finally freed from school, and were ready to begin their much anticipated summer break. Several long months of slogging through stressful work and exams, and now they were finally out and ready to enjoy some free time. And to kick it off, the girls all gathered under a tree for a mini picnic. Sandwiches, chips, and other mini snacks were all around. And Bon Bon brought her trusty grill to cook.

All of them, not surprisingly, were dressed in comfortable summer wear. Adagio finally got her chance to bust out an adorable summer sundress that really showed how smooth her legs were. And best of all? She had an adorable Trixie to cuddle up with under the shade of that tree.

"Thank goodness... finally free from prison," Aria said, laying her back on the ground.

"That was not prison, Aria," Adagio rolled her eyes.

"And what do you call the time we did in St. Louis?"

"Prison."

"Exactly!"

"Hey come on, don't be such a sourpuss, it's summer!" Sonata giggled.

"Anyone want a burger?" Bon Bon asked.

"Pass one down here, Bonnie," Lyra asked.

"Me too," Octavia requested, adjusting the top of her mohawk.

"Say girls, where is Amethyst? I thought she would have joined us."

"Oh she had some stuff to do today, some family's visiting her, so she's not free today," Octavia explained.

"How are things with us back in Equestria? Any word from Princess Trixie?"

"So far nothing, at least from what I've heard. She's been doing okay in Equestria. Though apparently she's opened a school, some School of Friendship or something, it's a long story," Adagio explained.

"Sounds stressful," Trixie stated.

"It can be, if you don't know what you're doing."

Their attention turned to Vinyl and Octavia who kept their eyes going back and forth to their phones, constantly pulling them out and sighing in disappointment, as if they were waiting for something.

"Something wrong girls?"

"Vinyl and I applied for jobs at the new theme park," Octavia explained. "So if you ever stop by near one of the food stalls for snacks, that's where you'll find us."

"Assuming that we'll even get the job," Vinyl said with worry. "I really, really, really need this job. Applejack and Rarity are already applying for positions at the park, hopefully they'll get some line of work there."

"Vinyl, luv, stay calm," Octavia said with pride. "We'll get the jobs, we've got the experience."

Vinyl checked her phone again, no reply.

"Oh, I hope we hear something soon..."

"Maybe they're just running really behind on sending notifications!" Lyra said. "I know that's not helpful, but I'm just trying to cheer you up."

Vinyl softly smiled. "Well I do appreciate it. Maybe I just need to take my mind off it," she said, putting her phone down.

Food began to pass around to everyone, finally allowing them to chow down on a well deserved meal. The smell alone was making their mouths water. The fresh hot meat with hot cheese and tomatoes all meshed together, it made one tasty burger. And the bits of ketchup and mustard for the hotdogs, oh it made the food even more--

Ding.

Vinyl and Octavia's arms went straight down to their phones, pulling them up.

"Is that what I think it is?"

"I think it is."

"We'll open them together. Ready?"

Vinyl gave one nod.

"Three... two... one!"

The both of them opened up their pieces of mail, looking down at their phones. The two of them gasped, and looked at each other with the biggest grins on the planet.

"What, what is it?"

"I got the job!" Octavia and Vinyl said in unison. Simultaneously they gasped and looked at each other. "We got the job! We're working buddies!"

Octavia tackled Vinyl down in an excited hug, giggling with her friend with joy. The rest of their friends giggled as well, happy that Vinyl and Octavia got the jobs they were after.

While the girls were having their lunch, Rarity was already at Equestria Land, beginning her interview. Walking alongside with Vignette Valencia through the park as they talked.

"My name is Vignette Valencia, very pleasant to make your acquaintance Miss Rarity, and to answer your first question; yes, I am that Vignette Valencia," the adult greeted.

"Oh, I am very familiar with your work! But, um, before we begin, Miss Vignette, I-I wanted to apologize, I would have changed my hair into something more professional, but um... most of it is, um--"

"Oh relax," Vignette giggled, booping Rarity's nose. "You are free to wear your hair the way you want. I think the mohawk actually looks rather nice. You're rocking the look, so to speak." Vignette then opened up the folder, opening it up with the printed pages of the resume. "I have a very good feeling about you. Lemme just double-check here; fantastic designs that stand out, already love them. Huh, where is it--oh! Did some design work for the Royal Canterlot Theater, that's good as well."

Rarity was a bit uneasy. She had a lot of perks on her resume, yes, but she was afraid of one particular element that she was hoping Vignette did not know about...

"Obviously, I did look you up for a quick background check, love your photography by the way, although there was one thing I am curious about. I'm not always the best at catching up on local news, but there was a rather horrid report about a bullying incident... that involved you," Vignette finished, cringing a little bit as she turned to look at the fashionista.

Rarity gulped. "O-Oh?"

"Yes. I read that some student apparently had did a number on your head, I hope that didn't cause some serious damage?"

Rarity sighed momentarily, "No, it didn't. Although my hair was left in ruins, I was able to get it all back thanks to my friends," she emphasized, adjusting the back of her growing ponytail.

"Oh, that's fantastic," Vignette smiled. "Now, I don't think I have anything else to really say. Outside of that note, I can already tell have ze magicks!"

Rarity squeaked. "You can?"

"The Light Parade is the most important event in the park, over a hundred cast members, and you Miss Rarity, are going to make them look perfect!" She pointed with a prideful smirk. "Come on, let me show you the main work station," she said, enticing her to follow after.

At the table they walked past, a single phone was sitting on a table, next to a purse. Left alone while the person next to it was eating a quick lunch before having to go back to work. She didn't even see it, but a small stream of light was spinning through the air, glowing with energy. And a small energy ball seeped inside the phone on the table; it's colors turning from nice and friendly blue to an inky dark black with red energy. The person never even noticed it as the hand picked it up and set right down into the purse...

Chapter 3: Opening

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The day was finally here. Equestria Land was now open to the public, and the numbers were steadily growing for visitors and patrons looking for some fun. Many families and friends were already driving there for a day of non-stop fun, and with what the park advertised, they were betting on having a great time.

In two different cars, pulling up into the parking lot were the Dazzlings, Trixie, Lyra, and Bon Bon. One by one, they all got out of their cars, and had the biggest grins on their faces when they saw the park.

"We're finally here. So what are we waiting for? Come on, let's go inside!" Lyra said, yanking Bon Bon with her.

"You girls go on ahead, I just got to take care of my shoes real quick," Aria waved, leaning against the car. Shrugging, Adagio and Sonata just walked inside with Lyra and Bon Bon. After a quick tie up, Aria reached in the back, grabbing some extra sunscreen and applying it to her bare shoulders and exposed legs, no need for a sunburn here. No good it would do if she lost a shoe on a ride.

"Aria?"

Aria turned her head to who was calling, and was greeted with a wonderful surprise. Flash Sentry was here, along with his little sister, Starry. Both of them were dressed for the summer, with the additions of sunglasses and hats.

"Flash, hey!"

"Hey Ari. You here for Equestria Land as well?"

"You bet. I love amusement parks," Aria then looked over to the little girl next to him. "Hey Starry, how are you doing?"

The little girl had the most adorable grin on her face. "I'm doing good."

"That's good," she smiled back. "Say, as long as we're all out here... wanna go together?"

"Please, can she come with us?" Starry asked, innocently.

Flash chuckled. "I was going to say yes either way, Starry. Come on, let's get inside."

Smiling, Aria's hand intertwined with Flash's, and the couple walked together as they went straight for the gate.

Inside the park, guests were already having a splendid time. Plenty of rides, stalls, and things to do around the park. Guests were laughing with joy and excitement, cheers and screams all about, it was everywhere.

"Alright girls, we're inside now. What do you all want to do first?" Adagio asked, clapping her hands together.

"Daybreaker's Void Of Death?" Lyra suggested. "Appleloosa's Wild West Show? Sugarcube Everything? Dragon Lands Drag Racing?"

"Slow down, Lyra. I know you're excited and all--"

"--Of course I am!" Lyra squeed. "There's so much to do!"

"How about we start things off with a little bit of spoooookiness?" Bon Bon emphasized, pointing at the Haunted House attraction.

"Oh, I dunno, I mean can't we just start with something else first?" Trixie asked.

"Come on, Trixie, I'm sure it's not that bad. Besides, it's just make believe, remember that. It's not like some Equestrian magic's on the loose again," Bon Bon said, reassuringly.

Their conversation was interrupted by a crowd of swarming fangirls running right past them, and heading straight to a familiar woman who was standing with her phone, ready to take any photos with the girls.

"Oh my gosh... is that--" Trixie gasped.

"I think it is!" Lyra squeaked with the biggest grin on her face.

"Who? Who is she?" Adagio asked.

Posing with the rest of the girls, Vignette snapped a few photos with them, making sure they were absolutely perfect, they had to be. They wanted to remember these forever.

"You don't know? Have you been living under a rock, it's Vignette Valencia!"

Adagio shrugged, unsure.

"Big social media star?"

"You know I'm not that big into social media, Bon Bon. Besides, I really don't want to relive the great Hoofbook war of '06. What's so special about Vignette anyway?"

"Well like Bon Bon said, she's a big social media star! She's got great hair, flawless skin, she has her own Hooftube channel with a lot of great videos, and..." Trixie stopped talking, looking at Adagio who was smirking at her, "What? Okay, I'll admit, I kinda... admire her a bit."

"Oh do you?" Adagio teased, winking and sticking her tongue out at her.

"She does have a lot great videos, plus she does a lot of work for raising money for charity organizations. And have you seen her photography?"

Adagio shook her head, but looked down at the phone that Bon Bon passed to her, sharing the pictures. Shrugging, she looked down.

"So these are her photos?" Adagio used the arrow button to pass onto the next one with each one she looked at. "Okay, I'll admit, that's a nice shot of Eiffel Tower in Pearis... okay that's a nice desert... okay that's a nice shot of Trotkyo, how many of these does she make?"

"She's a professional photographer," Bon Bon added. "She's been to thousands of famous areas across the world, makes a lot of video content, she's a pretty cool person."

Adagio's eyes then looked back at Vignette, shaking hands, smiling, greeting a few of her fans just before going off on her own business. "... Huh."

Once her photo ops were done, she walked through them continuing to strut along as she examined the surroundings around her. Even though she was gonna stop every once in a while to take pictures with people, she still wanted to make sure everything was going according to plan. Only a few minor hiccups here and there. Reaching for her ear, she pressed a small button on a miniature com device which she kept planted in her ear to listen to security.

"Security, any concerns so far?"

"None so far ma'am. A few children have been missing, but all have been found by their parents."

"Good. Let me know if anything changes," Vignette said, putting her hand away.

And it was that moment she was met with some squeeing fangirls in the form of Lyra, Bon Bon, and Trixie. Still keeping up a good attitude, she giggled and looked at the fans.

"Hey girls!"

"Oh my gosh, you're Vignette! We are some of your biggest fans!"

"Can we, um... take a picture with you?"

"Oh, I do not mind at all," Vignette smiled, giggling.

The internet celebrity stood with the three girls, keeping her phone up so all four could be caught in the frame. And with everyone sharing happy expressions with their pearly whites, she pressed the button and snapped a perfect photo with all of them together.

"Thanks!"

"Oh, it's no problem at all, anything to make my fans happy," Vignette replied.

"Hey! Vignette!"

The manager turned her head seeing her assistant walking towards her way. But when Trixie saw who it was, her face turned from happy to horrified, and then merged into angry.

“Okay boss, I made sure that…" The woman coming up was someone that Adagio knew, and not in a good way. The spiteful glares the two girls exchanged was very mutual. Lyra, Bon Bon, and Trixie all exchanged glances and looked at the arrived girl. This 'assistant' had light blue skin, black hair, and dressed in a fancy jacket that was nothing but clean and smooth, and pants that hugged her skin so close that everyone within walking distance would be staring at her. "... well, well, well then. If it isn’t Adagio Dazzle,” Click snarled.

“Hello Click,” Adagio snarled back.

Vignette was confused. “I’m sorry, do you two know each other?”

“Yes, she was an old classmate in the last school we attended. Until she decided to make our lives miserable and ran us off,” Adagio sneered.

“You did not belong at that school and you should have known to stay out of my turf,” Click snapped, getting up in her face.

“Click.” Vignette said sternly, getting her to back off. She stood in front of Click, glared at her with 100% no joke, full on seriousness. “I do not care what grievances you have with this woman. As an employee of Equestria Land, and as my assistant, I expect you to be on your best behavior, and not antagonize visitors and consumers of the park. Scaring off customers won’t make money, now will it?”

Click growled quietly, but turned her head away.

“Will it?”

“… No ma’am.”

“Now then. I hope you do not act this way with everyone else here at the park. Do not harass them. Okay? If they follow the park’s rules and have fun, you leave them alone. Now then, I suggest you go take a 15-minute break and cool off.”

“… yes ma’am,” she said, indignantly as she stomped away.

Vignette turned around and looked at Adagio and her friends. “I’m very sorry about that, miss. I can promise you she will not be harassing you again, you just let me know. She’s been a pain in my rear for the past few days.”

“Then why keep her on? My personal experience states that she is an absolute nightmare," Adagio folded her arms.

“Because, even in spite of her… obnoxious behavior, she has been doing her job and making sure we stay on time. Now then, I hope you all are having a good time?"

"Absolutely miss, my friends and I are sure to enjoy this lovely park," Adagio said, politely.

"Well, you girls have a good time now, I'll be sure to share those photos on Snapgab!" She winked at her friends. And so she walked away, continuing to do her job. But before she even continued further, she looked back at Adagio and her friends, all sharing happy smiles as they continued to walk.

At first she smiled that they were happy, but it slowly dwindled into a frown. They were so happy, and she should have been happy that they were happy. After all, she herself wanted Equestria Land to be a success, and she was happy that the park seemed to start so far so good. But there was that returning feeling, that feeling that always hurt her stomach. That emptiness inside to see everyone so happy with friends.

Friends. A word she heard many times, but sadly was not something she had really associated herself with. Not with any, and not one herself. Forcing herself to smile again, she walked away to continue to monitor the situation. She'd definitely need to check in with Rarity on the progress as well.

"Um, wait. Girls? Wasn't Sonata with us? Where'd she go?" Lyra asked, looking around.

"Sonata will be fine, I'm sure she just went off to look for tacos or something," Adagio said nonchalantly. "She may be naive, but she can take care of herself. ... Sometimes. ... I'm pretty sure she'll be fine."

"Hopefully," Bon Bon said, admittedly worried for how she would be doing. "Actually, okay, now where did Aria go?"

"Oh I saw her walk the other way, she was with Flash and his little sister," Trixie explained.

"Oh, never mind," Bon Bon shrugged off.

"... Okay, hold on," Adagio stopped, halting the group. She was scrunching her face, clearly upset. "Okay, let's just recap. Aria's with her boyfriend, Vinyl and Octavia are at their jobs, Sonata's wandered off on her own (please, for Luna's sake do not get lost), did I miss anyone?"

The girls looked around for a second.

"Where's Amethyst?"

Outside of the amusement park, a single girl was pacing back in forth in front of Canterlot High which had been closed for the summer. Sporting a pair of tennis shoes, white socks, and a beautiful light teal summer dress, held together at the waist by a belt with a graphic of three diamonds as a buckle. Underneath the dress however, she had a pair of shorts and a tank top, just in case. She had plans to go to Equestria Land but she wanted to be prepared in the case that her dress might have gotten ripped or ruined in some way.

But before she could even do that, she had to stay outside of the Wondercolt statue and wait for someone. You see, Adagio had accidentally left her journal behind in her locker by accident, which Amethyst went to grab just before everyone had left school for the break. What Adagio didn't realize was that she had a message sent to her... from Princess Trixie. The princess had written a letter, saying that she was planning on coming over to the human world to visit. But since she was already gone with the others to Equestria Land by now, there was only one thing for her to do; be a good friend and pick up the Equestrian ambassador when she arrived.

Luckily waiting wasn't so painful. It was a nice day, plenty of shade to be under, and she had a few snacks to nibble on so she wouldn't go hungry. And with the extra addition of channeling her magic through a small boombox, she could get music coming through to dance to.

Soon enough, the portal started to glow, and open up like ripples on open waters. A hand pushed itself out, and a teenage girl's body was seen flopping out, faceplanting into the ground.

"Oof. Ow..."

"Hey Princess! Good to see you!"

"Huh? Oh, Amethyst, hey! Is, is that you?" the Princess asked, looking up to see a familiar face.

"Yep, that's me. Adagio's not here right now, and she accidentally left her journal, so I thought I'd get it for her... and then I saw the message that you were coming through, so I'd thought I'd be here when you get here."

"Oh, uh, thanks! I really appreciate it."

"No problem. Though I gotta say, I wasn't expecting you to come, I thought you would have had more important princess stuff to do."

"Actually, I don't. My friends suggested I take a day off, I've been pretty stressful lately, and I honestly had nothing else to do, so I thought maybe I could take a day and visit this world once again, for real this time," she explained, looking up. "Um... why are you so tall?"

The keytar player blinked. "Do you not remember the last time you came through?"

"No, it's been a while. I don't even... wait a minute."

She moved up a bit, and her eyes shifted down to her hooves... only there was no hooves. She had hands!

"Wha... ah... Aah... AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!"

Out of instinct, Amethyst cupped her ears from the screaming.

"Princess, it's fine!"

"I'm, I'm... I don't even know what I am!" The princess panicked. "The rest of me looks so weird!" Breathing slowly, she threw her arms out to catch herself, now on all fours much like a horse, much to the slight amusement to Amethyst Star. "What..." she began slowly, "What does the rest of me look like!?"

"... Like my best friend? Though, I'm not gonna lie, I love that outfit, you look great!" Amethyst complimented.

"My outfit!?" Looking down, she could see as clear as day she was completely dressed. "I didn't get dressed up before I left!"

"Maybe it's some mirror logic?" Amethyst hypothesized. "Come on, lemme help you up."

She offered a hand, and helped the diplomat get back on her feet nice and easy like. Although the princess's legs were still wobbling and shaking from this new sensation. But standing on two legs was a bit much and she nearly fell, luckily saved by Amy swooping in to catch her.

And after helping her get back up, Amethyst took a second to look at Princess Trixie's outfit. Dark blue heeled boots, skintight leggings underneath a pair of dark blue shorts, held together by a belt buckle with a wand and crescent moon. And to top it off, a white T-shirt underneath a cool jacket with stars all over.

"I gotcha. It's okay."

The princess blushed a little. "So, um," she looked at her hands. "These are--"

"Hands. Those are hands."

Princess Trixie looked down at her feet. "A-And what about the rest of my--"

"Feet! That's your feet. Humans walk on two legs."

The princess was dumbfounded. "So it's not pronounced 'hooman', it's hue... man?"

"Yes."

"Oh. Okay," her legs were still wobbling. "This feels so weird..."

"I believe you. Look, I'll help you out. Since Adagio and the others aren't here... actually, wait, I remembered! They're all heading over to Equestria Land!"

"What!?"

Amethyst giggled. "Not Equestria, Equestria Land. It's a new amusement park that just opened up, everyone's heading over there. Why don't I take you with me, we could have fun!"

The princess squeaked. "That sounds fun! But, wait, what if people recognize me? I mean there is already a me here in this world, what happens if they see both me and the other... me?"

Amethyst tapped her shoe on the ground, hand rubbing her chin. And then she snapped her fingers, "How about this? Since you already look like Trixie, and we don't have a budget to run hundreds of dollars of makeup over you to try and make you look like someone else, what if we just tell people you're her twin sister from out of town? No one will suspect, and your secret is kept safe and secure."

"Great!" She clapped her hands. "... So where is this park?"

"I have the directions. Just follow me, I'll drive us there."

"Okay!"

The princess stretched her legs, ready to follow her human friend... only to start walking on the ground on all fours like a horse.

"Wait wait wait wait, no, no, stop! No! Not that!" Amethyst ran over and helped her back up. "That's gonna get a lot of unnecessary attention, trust me."

"Heh, sorry..." the princess blushed.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it," Amethyst patted. "Come on, I'll drive us there."

Carefully, with one foot after the other, Princess Trixie followed Amethyst to where she parked, just along the curb. A nice spacious station wagon with wood paneling off the side which her father allowed to use for the day.

"Come on, shotgun seat!"

The princess moved to the side, looking down at the handle. Tilting her head, she looked down at her own hands, wondering how she was going to pry it open. But hey, she had fingers. Maybe she just needed to grip it?

Slowly, she reached for the handle, and pulled on it, opening up the car door.

"There you go, you got it! Now just climb in."

One foot after the other, the princess slowly pulled herself into the shotgun seat, finally inside the car. Reaching over, she managed to pull the door back, closing it.

"See there you go! Hands aren't so hard to work with, now are they?" Amethyst smiled. She yanked the seatbelts on, and luckily the Princess was able to find hers just fine. "So, you ready to see one of many forms of entertainment this planet has to offer?"

The princess giggled. "Sure!"

"Alright, let's get going!"

Turning on the engine, she pulled the car off the curb and went back onto the street. Now it was time to go to Equestria Land! With musical accompaniment of course.

Your love
keeps liftin' me higher...

Chapter 4: Sonata's Day Out

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Sonata Dusk was already having a blast at Equestria Land. As predicted, she did wander off on her own, mostly cause she was distracted by everything and everyone around her. Luckily however she was okay, she had cash on her so anything she wanted to buy, whether it'd be food, souvenirs, tickets, and whatnot, she was okay.

With plenty of tickets already purchased, she was eager to begin her day of fun! And she knew just the thing to start her off; a drop tower! After paying via ticket, she was locked into her seat, ready to start. A few other teenagers and adults climbed into the seats as well, ready to have fun. Once everyone was locked into their seats, securely and safely, the ride began to go straight up, taking everyone up top. Sonata was already giddy, ready for the jump. Though the teenagers beside her were bracing for the jump, clearly panicking and quivering.

And without warning, the ride dropped straight down, sending everyone screaming in terror. Sonata however just let her arms go up and she cheered in excitement.

"Whoo-hoo!!!"

And the ride stopped the drop. And it began to rise back up again... and then dropped again. And then back up, and another drop, and a few shakes to throw everyone off until the ride just dropped all the way back down for one final scare and then it slowly settled back down. The handles lifted up and Sonata got off the ride, still feeling excited and ready to have some more adrenaline filled fun.

Although everyone else was still shaking and quivering as they got off, but not Sonata. She was happy as a clam! Now where to go now? Maybe a bit of fun on the Tilt-A-Whirl? Or ooh, there was an arcade nearby, she could have fun with that!

The sounds of cheers on a Tilt-A-Whirl got her attention; that was the ride she was gonna try out--until she caught her eye on a pirate ship ride. Yes, that was going to be the one--

Bam.

Sonata walked backwards, and accidentally bumped into someone who unfortunately fell. And that someone, was Vignette Valencia.

"Ooh, sorry! Are you okay?" Sonata said, helping Vignette back up.

"Oh, it's fine, I didn't watch where I was going anyway," Vignette said, brushing herself off. She looked back at the person she bumped into; a blue skinned girl with a pony-tail, wearing a summer tank top, shorts, and knee high boots.

“I’m Sonata Dusk!” She smiled. “Who are you?”

Vignette blinked. “You… you don’t know me?”

“Nope!”

“… So you know nothing about me at all, nothing whatsoever?”

“Nada!”

Vignette couldn’t believe her ears. Was this true? Was this finally happening? Someone out there did not know her? Little children surely, but this young lady who looked like the happiest person on earth did not know her? This had to be a miracle from God!

“This… this is amazing!”

“It is?” Sonata asked, confused.

“Yes! Everywhere I go, people just see me as this huge celebrity, I mean, I guess I am, but I just—I mean… it’s nice meeting someone new. My name’s Vignette, Vignette Valencia,” she greeted, shaking Sonata’s hand. “I run managerial relations here at this park. Are you a new employee or…”

“Nope! I came here to have fun, silly.”

“Wait, hold on, your name is Sonata Dusk, correct? Lemme just see…”, she said flipping through her phone. Her fingers audibly pressed and tapped against her phone. Somehow during the crowds of people, she was loud enough for Sonata to hear. “No, not that… hmm…. Really need to delete that… why do I still have that tab open… guess I do need to file a complaint later… okay, definitely need to purge that from my browser history… no I do not want to buy a hat…”

Sonata did not react or question what was taking Vignette. She just stood there, happy as a clam, quietly humming.

“Hmm… Do you have a Snapgab account?”

She shook her head.

“Well, what about Hooftube?”

Sonata shook her head again.

“Do you have any account on any social platform and create content for a wide variety of consumers and fans?”

Sonata just stood innocently. “I have no idea what that means!”

Vignette blinked. "... Huh. Seems a bit weird, I would have thought all teenagers browsed the internet."

"I do! Though most of the time I just like looking at cute animals," Sonata squeaked.

So she knows absolutely nothing about me, yet seems to enjoy the internet for more simplistic reasoning? Maybe she's the one I've been looking for.

"Say, I'm a little hungry, do you know where the snack shops are? I think I'm a little lost," Sonata whined.

"Don't you have a brochure or map? They always pass those to patrons at the front gate."

"... They have maps!?"

Vignette playfully rolled her eyes, chuckling. Okay so this girl may not be that bright, but she seemed relatively nice. Maybe she just needed to talk to her a bit more?

"Come on, follow me. I was heading there anyway," Vignette offered.

"Really?"

"Mmmhmm."

Sonata's eyes lit up at the offer and she squeed like a little girl getting ice cream. "Yay! Come on new buddy!"

Vignette was shocked. She barely met this girl and she was already calling her a buddy? Either this girl was just this sweet and nice... or maybe there was some other agenda she had set in mind? Nah, there couldn't have been. She didn't seem like that type. Besides, she was pretty nice, maybe there was a new friend to be had with her!

Genuinely smiling, she walked with Sonata Dusk through the park, on their way to the food stalls.

Elsewhere in the park, Click Bait was busy sitting by herself, trying to snap a perfect selfie on her phone. She had the facial expressions, but she needed that perfect lighting and background. Reflecting back on her phone, she found just the background she needed and snapped that photo.

"And that makes another 10,000 likes on a perfect photo," she grinned. Hitting the upload button and sharing it on social media, she got off the table, ready to get back into the swing of things, back to her job. Raising a small com device, she pressed the button before speaking. "Okay, just doing another check, as Vignette insists I do... any problems so far?"

"Any problems that have happened have been taken care of," the security officer replied.

"Okay. Just, uh... report back, or whatever, or... you know what I mean," she said, cutting off that transmission. She switched it over to another channel, and spoke again. "How's the progress going with Rarity and the materials for the Light Parade?"

"She's making progress. Aside from electricity failures. I swear this woman's close to having a meltdown--"

"I'm not! Who said I'm having a meltdown!? I AM NOT HAVING A MELTDOWN!"

Click legitimately jumped from her screaming.

"... Okay. I'll just... never mind," she said, shutting off the com. Looking back at her phone, she opened up her social media, smirking as she saw the likes starting to smash on her newest photo. But her smirk faded when she went back to the original post made by Vignette; the announcement for Equestria Land which had way more likes than hers.

Still rolling her eyes, she pressed the play button.

"--now the last thing I want to announce, for everyone in the Canterlot area, we are opening up Equestria Land tomorrow, it is a brand new theme park that I am very excited for. With the summer now here and children out of school, I think this could make a fun place for everyone to just have fun, relax, and more! We've got plenty of restaurants, rides, including an arcade, we have everything for the whole family. So if any of you want to come down to start off some summer fun, come down to Equestria Land tomorrow on Saturday. And if you really want to stick around, stay for the Light Parade come later this evening. Hope to see you all real soon, have a good evening, and remember; BTTY, be true to yourself!"

And the video ended. Click still felt the green-eyed monster looking back at her, growling. Click was one of the most popular girls at Cloudsdale, and yet Vignette Valencia had more fame than her? How could that woman have more followers than her? I mean, she did love her work, but she never understood how she acclaimed such a massive following.

But her train of thought derailed when she saw an adult woman panicking to the two security officers nearby.

"... and he's all alone in the park, and I don't know what to do--"

Click's fist hit the table and she groaned in annoyance. "Oh buzz off!"

The woman was appalled at how she acted, and crossed her arms. "My child is MISSING and you're telling me to buzz off? Why I--"

"Okay, that's enough," the security guard said. "Ma'am, I'll help you."

"But, you're not--" she stopped when she saw the regular dressed man pull up a badge and ID, confirming his words. "--Ohhh..."

"I'll put out a report to the search members, what does he look like?" He asked, pulling out a small notepad.

"He's 4.7 feet tall, 8 years old, orange skin, wears denim shorts, red t-shirt with a superhero on the cover, baseball cap with a lightning bolt," she specified.

He finished scribbling the description down while Click just stood by, frustrated as all get out.

"Alright, I'll give word to the security teams, if you'll come with me please? If you see him, I'll let you know."

"Okay, yes sir, thank you sir," she said.

"No problem ma'am, that's our job. Come on."

And so the guard walked with the stressed out mother, leaving Click and the other guard alone. The other one looked at Vignette with a glare, which made her roll her eyes.

"What?"

"You could have done something to help, even if it's on a microscopic level."

"It's not my job to look for lost brats."

It was now the guard's turn to scoff. "Why Vignette hired you, I will never understand..."

"Ugh, I'm taking a break! If Vignette asks where I am, telling her I'm checking on Rarity," she said, stomping away.

The guard raised a brow under the sunglasses. "... But you're not."

"Just tell her, or you're fired!"

"That's not your job."

"AGH!!!"

Getting as far away from the guard as she could, she sat in the shade under the protection of an umbrella covering one of the tables. Angrily chewing on her salad like a hungry animal,"--Can't be mean, can't scare away customers, oh bite me! How does that woman have more followers than me?"

She looked down at her phone, feeling a tad bit spiteful at the moment. Not enough to write an angry post, but still, she wasn't feeling great.

"Over three million followers, just, how? Ugh. If I had all that popularity, maybe people might give me a bit more respect around here. If I only I could put a filter on real life..."

Of course she knew if anyone had heard her, they'd probably say something snarky like 'quite whining' or 'first world problems' or whatnot. She knew she'd be mocked, for sure, and that wasn't something she was going to let people see. She wasn't about to let such an image ruin her.

"Maybe 10,000 likes on a perfect picture will do the trick," she said, feeling a bit better already.

She set the camera ready to snap a photo, making sure her food was in frame. But when she snapped the photo, a bright beam flashed against the salad and zapped it away from existence.

She yelped from shock and nearly dropped her phone, but she didn't start running. "What the... did Bold install a new app on my phone?" She said out loud, looking around. Looking through her photos, she found a few more random pictures of food she took, just looking. Out of curiosity, she pressed on a picture of a plate covered in donuts. And soon a holographic projection appeared right before her eyes, setting itself on the table.

Reaching her hand over, she touched the presumed plate, only to see there was none. Her hand just went right through the holographic projection, even fizzing a bit when she just put one finger. But one way or another, she had an idea. An awful idea... Someone somewhere answered her prayer, and now she had the power right at her fingertips.

"Because I think I'm going to like it..." she slowly grinned.

Adagio, Trixie, Lyra, and Bon Bon wandered for a while now, looking for some fun rides to go on that all four members in their party would enjoy. There was a lot of variety to do, but everyone had their own specific tastes. Luckily their journey didn't go too far, and they found something they could enjoy.

"A rollercoaster?" Adagio asked, her eyes bulging out of her sockets.

"Yeah, why not?" Trixie answered, looking at the people cheering/screaming as they raced up and down on the tracks.

"I don't know..."

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Lyra chirped. "I rode these all the time when I was a kid, these are fun!"

"I got tickets for them, come on," Bon Bon said, moving up to the line. And Lyra was following right behind her.

"Ohhhh...", Adagio whined. She really didn't want to go on it, but her friends were going up on it. And if her girlfriend wanted to? She couldn't make her unhappy, she had to go on it with her.

"Come on, it'll be fun!"

Nervously, she followed after Trixie and got into the cart with her. Once they were inside, the safety bars went down, strapping them into place. And Lyra and Bon Bon sat in the seats in front of them.

"As per the norm, please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times."

"Alright, let her rip!"

Once the ride was active, the tram slowly began to rise up on the track, slowly reaching up into the air. Out of fear, Adagio's hand slowly gripped Trixie's hand, with Trixie interlacing her fingers in between hers.

"You know, I have to admit, this--this isn't so bad," Adagio said, genuinely starting to calm down a little bit. "We're not going too high... wait why are there birds up here? There shouldn't be birds up here--why can I not get off, I cannot move, why am I trapped here!? I should not be unable to move at such a high altitude--OH GOOD LORD, NO, GET ME OFF THIS THIIINNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!"

One Rollercoaster Ride Later

Once the tram was back down to the platform, the safety bars raised up. Trixie was the first to step out, completely giddy with excitement. "Whoohoo! That was fun! What about you?"

Adagio couldn't give her an answer. She had her hands glued to the safety bars, refusing to let go. Shaking, whimpering, it was like she was trapped in a closet overnight and she had extreme claustrophobia.

"Dagi?"

"We just... dropped out of the sky... and I couldn't stop it..."

Trixie yanked Adagio out of the seat (thankfully not needing a crowbar), and she could feel the siren's body shake and wobble like she was about to fall apart.

"Hey, hey, it's okay. We're off now," Trixie comforted, patting her shoulder."

"I remember World War 2...", she whimpered. "The plane just--just dropped, and I couldn't escape..." Finally snapping out of her traumatic flashback, she looked to her girlfriend, still shaking. "Trixie, I... I don't think I want to go on the next rollercoaster...", and without warning she collapses face first onto the ground. "Ow."

"Adagio, you're not going to be launched right off the rollercoaster, that's why the safety bars exist."

She was still shaking. "I've seen things..."

Lyra and Bon Bon walked back to the group concerned.

"Is she--"

"--I think she'll be okay," Trixie said, cringing a little. "I hope. Though next time, let's not take her onto a rollercoaster."

"Got it," the two girls complied.

"Well, what do you want to do now?" Bon Bon asked, while Trixie helped Adagio get back up.

"Well I don't know about you, but I think I could go for a hot dog. I'm getting hungry."

And Adagio had to cup her mouth, trying her best not to think about anything that would make her nauseous.

"... You go ahead, I don't think I'm going to eat for several hours," Adagio whimpered.

Chapter 5: Funtime's Over

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Pulling into the parking lot of Equestria Land was Amethyst Star, slowly parking the station wagon into a spot that gave them plenty of room. No trouble would be had to get back in the car, that's for sure. At least, she hoped for now.

Both doors opened and the girls stepped out of the car, with the additions of wearing aviator shades.

"Thanks for the sunglasses, Amethyst," the princess smiled.

"No problem, Princess," Amethyst replied. "I figured you could use some if you're going to walk out here, you're going to need to be able to see, and I don't think you'll need a hat. Besides, that hair's too fluffy, I wouldn't hide it from anyone."

The princess blushed. "Well it's not like I'm going to be meeting anyone here. But I still need to ask, what if people just think I'm Trixie? I mean, I am Trixie, but... you know what I mean."

"Well, why do you think I've been calling you Princess for most of the time?"

"Um..."

Amethyst chuckled. "Trixie, look. I know you prefer me to just call you by that, but I just think it would save everyone the trouble if we just nicknamed you Princess while you're here. That way, if we do run into your human counterpart at somepoint, and should someone put two and two together, we can explain and pass you off as someone else. Fair enough?"

The princess thought for a moment, but came to an agreeing nod.

"Okay, great! Now come on, let's get inside, Princess," she winked.

Reaching in the back seat of the car, the keytar player strapped a small backpack onto her back, with a small speaker playing some tunes in one of the pockets.

"A little bit of music never hurt," Amethyst grinned. "Come on."

With an open hand, she and the princess interlocked arms together to walk side by side, still happy as ever.

Now whip it! Into shape!
Shape it up! Get straight!
Go forward! Move ahead!
Try to detect it
It's not too late
To whip it
Whip it good

Pulling out the brochure, Amethyst looked at the park map, trying to see where to start. Her eyes sparkled when she saw a particular location, and so, she led the princess down a section of the park, showing her around. On their left and right were several small buildings and stalls; mostly for food, drinks, whatever. Plenty of places to stop at if you just needed a quick snack; and plenty of picnic tables with umbrellas to protect skin against the hot sun. And just up ahead, they could see a few people playing some mini games you would see at carnivals.

"This right here, Princess, is a great representation for fun in America. Fat foods, wild people having fun, rigged games…"

"Huh," the princess said, looking around. But then, the food stands caught her eye. "Oooh."

Amethyst giggled. "You want me to get you some food?"

The Princess stopped for a moment, hearing her stomach growl. "I-uh, heh, I could use a snack, yes please."

"No problem. What do you want?"

"Hmm… do they have salted peanuts?"

"They do. Coming right up." Amethyst walked up to one of the food stalls; the princess right behind her. "Excuse me, miss?"

She got the server's attention, and to her surprise, it was Vinyl Scratch! Hair was still fluffy and full of life like always, but was dressed in a short sleeved shirt with an apron.

"Amethyst, hey! It's so good to see you!"

"Great to see you too! And hey, you got the job, that's amazing! Congrats."

"Both of us did, mate," Octavia smiled, peaking over Vinyl's shoulder.

"Hey, great job Octy! Seriously, that's awesome you two."

"I know," Vinyl squeaked. "Seriously, this job is definitely going to help me."

"Hi girls!" The princess waved.

"Oooh, Trixie, you spicing up your look? I like it!"

Amethyst tittered, "Vinyl, that's not Trixie."

"Yes it is, she's right here!"

"Vinyl. Remember that other Trixie that came through the portal the night Sunset was arrested?"

Vinyl stopped for a moment, trying to refresh her memory back on that night. So many things had happened on that night, they all kind of blurred. But then her mind came back to the last surprise of that evening; when a familiar girl came through the portal and got her crown back...

"Ohhhh! Princess, hey! Welcome back to Earth," Vinyl greeted.

The ambassador giggled. "Thank you, Vinyl."

"So wait, does our Trixie know...?"

"No, no, at least, I don't think so. Boy is she going to surprised," Amethyst snickered.

"I'll say. So, Princess, what can we get you?"

"Do you guys have salted peanuts?"

"You bet we do, coming right up. Oh, you want anything to drink?"

"Well... what do you got?"

"Milk, soda, OJ, purple stuff..."

"Um... I guess milk is fine."

"You want anything Amy?"

"I'll take some popcorn, and make mine a chocolate milk please."

Octavia and Vinyl nodded and got to work on their orders. Luckily it wasn't too long of a line behind them, so no angry or impatient people eager to get their order. And it didn't take too long to get their food/drinks prepped. And soon enough the window was opened some more to pass them their snacks.

"On the house, for the princess."

"Really, it's no trouble, I think I could--"

"Princess," Vinyl stopped. "It's on the house."

"Well, thank you," she said, smiling.

Amethyst grabbed their food, and luckily, the princess grasped the idea of fingers quick enough that she could grab the drink and bag of peanuts with no issue.

"So, okay, I know we're both having snacks, so we should probably wait before trying the heavy amusement park rides," Amethyst said, nibbling on some popcorn. "So as long as we're here, you want to hit the arcade?"

"They have an arcade?"

"They do. You play any games in Equestria?"

"I have. My friend Amethyst, your counterpart, introduced me to a lot of cool games in Equestria."

Amethyst's jaw dropped. "They have arcade machines in Equestria?"

"Mmmhmm!"

"... I need to pay a visit to Equestria, just how technologically advanced is your world? I thought everything relied on magic."

"It does. Well, most, um... I'll explain later. Is this the arcade?"

Amethyst nodded. "Come on, let's play some games!"

Yanking her hand, the two of them vanished in a cloud of smoke right to the arcade. Inside, they could see people trying out many of the arcade machines and other side-games. Some skeeball, spinning wheels, every ticket earning arcade game was here. The two of them looked around, so many choices, so many options. But what to start with?

"So what do you want to start with?"

"I don't know. Any suggestions?"

Amethyst's eyes sparkled, looking at a machine in the corner. "I think I know. Come on, follow me!"

The princess followed Amethyst, walking past a few other people playing some games. And getting really into it, judging by the screaming and cheering. And off near one of the arcade machines was Aria Blaze, Flash Sentry, and little sister Starry.

"Oh boy, I'm in uncharted territory here," Aria admitted.

"Babe, you got this, just remember. You've still got 2 lives left," Flash said.

"You can do this!"

Aria couldn't help but smile at Starry's cute little voice. "Thanks kiddo--and holy, okay, we're getting right into it, no preparation, that's nice!"

Aria's fingers slammed against the console, with Starry and Flash's voices overlapping, trying to direct her and give encouragement. But Aria couldn't hear them, her ears and eyes were focused on the screen. She tried to press the buttons in time, dodging the rapid onslaught of fire heading her way, trying not to die.

"Come on, come on..."

But it was too late. She pressed the wrong button, and just like that her character died. With over the top pixel animation of the avatar slowly falling down and collapsing into pieces. And Aria was not happy.

"Stupid, piece of--argh! Overpriced... errrh!!!" Aria grunted, slapping the machine. "Forcing me to hold in my swearing, I hate you!"

Flash patted her shoulder. "It's okay."

"Yeah, I know... but I hate it when a game cheats you over like that, I hate, hate, hate, hate it!"

"Agreed. Exactly how I felt playing Paranormal Hunters," Flash said.

Aria blinked. "Was that the horror game where--"

"Yeah, yeah, that one. I paid 50 dollars... and I beat it in 2 hours," Flash scoffed, folding his arms.

"Sheesh. If that's not a cash-grab, I don't know what is. But come on, let's play another game," Aria said. Looking over, her eyes locked onto a simple arcade game, at least, simple to her. She remembered playing it a little back in her Equestria visit with Amethyst Star. She remembered having some fun with it; maybe Starry would have some fun with this too?"

"Hey Starry. You wanna know how to play this?"

The little girl nodded with excitement, making Aria smile.

"Okay, it's real simple. All you have to do is attack anything that comes your way, using Tirek here," Aria pointed. "Just make it through the level as best as you can until you make it to the final boss without getting hit."

Starry nodded and she inserted a quarter into the machine, ready to give it a shot. Once the game loaded, she got straight into it. Her eyes focused on the screen, and she moved her avatar with the joystick. A few enemies tried to attack; and instinct kicked in to dodge/attack their moves. She made it past the first few rooms in the game without a single dent of damage.

"Hey, hey, hey, not bad! You got a knack for this. Have you played this game before?"

"Not really. Though I did play a few games at some Salty's Sea Palace at my friend's birthday party," Starry said.

Aria thankfully restrained herself from gagging or groaning out loud just thinking about that place. She hated that place, but she wasn't about to upset her boyfriend's little sister.

For a little bit more, the two stood by and watched, honestly amazed to see how good Starry was at this game. Was there something she knew before hand and just didn't say, or was this just a natural thing with her? Either way, this kid was doing great! And very soon, she was coming straight to the final boss.

"Here we go, the big boy. You can do this Starry, you got this," Aria encouraged.

The battle was on. Starry mashed the buttons, making her attacks on the final boss. The final boss thrashed and attacked with everything he got, but Starry still fought him off. She didn't hesitate or back down from the battle. She could see he was losing the strength from the indicated health bar above. Just needed a few more hits... a few more hits aaaaannndd

Victory!

"Hey, hey, hey, you did it! Nice job kid," Aria smiled.

Starry squeaked, happily. "I did it! Whoo-hoo!"

Flash couldn't help but smile too. To see his little sister openly happy instead of being shy and closed off was a nice change.

Sometime later, the princess and Amethyst came out

"Okay, so what do you want to do now?" the princess asked.

"I had a fun idea for a place we can go to. Let's try out the log flume, that I think can be fun. But before we go, can you stay here for a minute? I'm just going to run to the restroom real quick."

"Of course!"

"... You're not going to go anywhere?" Amethyst asked like a concerned parent.

"I promise, I won't go anywhere."

"Good. Now just... just wait, I'll be out in a few," Amethyst nodded before running off to the bathrooms.

And so the princess just stood idly, humming quietly as she looked at her surroundings, enjoying the sights of all the colorful attractions the park had to offer, and the sight of happy people from all around.

But down the alleyway behind her...

"Alright, so I can apparently make things disappear and make holograms take their place? Well let's see how far we can push the limit," Click mused.

She had several random objects set up, ready to be used for test subjects. To start off, she set a random bowl filled with popcorn on the ground. Walking backwards, she set up her camera, ready to snap. With one press on her screen, the phone flashed a bright light at the bowl, zapping the food away from sight. Putting her camera down, she smirked, seeing the bowl was now gone. What else could she zap?

A few more random items came into the photography session; a random candy bar, a trashcan lid, a garbage bag, a mannequin, a random toolbox, a stool, a whole bunch of random junk. And with every picture she took, it only showed more and more! Unbeknownst to her, someone had spotted her. Seeing the flashes of light, the princess curiously wandered to it. Until she saw the woman in the alleyway, taking random pictures. Now it didn't seem that weird... until she noticed the pictures she was taking was making the objects in front of her completely vanish from reality.

The princess gulped and stepped back, unintentionally bumping into the trashcan. The sound caused some noise, which made Click jolt and turn around, hoping no one had caught her. Unfortunately, someone did. But she didn't freak out in fear. Recognizing who it was, she slowly smirked and composed herself.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Trixie, the loser of girlfriends," Click snapped.

The princess was still speechless. For one, not only seeing what this girl had in her possession, but also she knew her? How? She had zero interactions with this woman!

"You know, I have to admit. Out of all the people coming to this park, I didn't expect you to come. But I suppose everyone has their little secrets... and you probably already know Adagio's by now. So tell me..." She said, leaning against a wall with a smirk. "Why stay with her?"

The princess couldn't come up with an answer. Nor did she know how to respond, frankly she wanted to run away, like now. Something was wrong, and she had no chance of fighting against it.

"What's wrong? Can't speak, or do you refuse? Though I must admit, I am digging your new look. Such a shame though..." She dug into her purse, and pulled out her phone. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to come to this, but you've left me no choice, Trixie. I am done with you and your friends. I've held enough restraint. And besides... Vignette has no real friends, but me. And after all... you punch me, and I punch back. Goodbye, Trixie," she said. She pressed the button to snap a picture, and a bright flash of light hit the princess. Her entire body flashed like a hologram, and she vanished right into Click's phone.

"Sorry Adagio. Your girlfriend may have a nice new look, but I don't think she'll be in a relationship with a beast any longer..."

***

Princess Trixie's eyes opened up to find herself trapped in a white void. No one else was inside but her, and she couldn't hear anything or anyone, outside of her own movements. And she was all alone. No one knew she was gone. "Um... hello? Anyone here?" Princess Trixie called out, her voice echoing in the void. "Hello? Anyone?" Her hands gripped her own arms, shaking in fear. "Oh, I hope Amethyst gets some help..."

***

And no one even saw Click zap the princess away. Walking out of the corridor, she just casually walked by security and other passersby completely unaware of what she had done. And a slow but soft, evil smile grew on her lips. No one had seen her; and now she had finally gotten the punch on Adagio's girlfriend.

But there was much work to do. Vignette had bugged her long enough with her rules, her bossiness, her talk of 'perfection' and 'playing nice', she was done with it. She had a phone, she had a new weapon. And if anyone was going to cross her... well she knew how to resolve that. And right now, she had some scores to settle with a few individuals who were getting on her nerves...

Chapter 6: Hanging Out With Vignette

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Sonata and Vignette walked through the restaurant row, looking at the variety of restaurants that were available to them. Eventually Sonata settled on one on their left, walking inside to a rather fancy looking place. Music played overhead from the speakers, adding to the ambience. Nice red cushioning in the booths, plenty of circular tables and rectangular tables for all of the patrons. Good lighting, a few plants and pretty pictures for decorations, the place looked incredibly lively!

Finding a seat at a booth, Sonata slid herself into the middle of one end, and patted the space across from her with her foot. Vignette was admittedly distracted for a second, checking her phone for messages. Nothing out of the ordinary, or anything to be concerned about, thankfully. But wait, where did Sonata go?

"Vignette, over here!" Sonata called. Vignette turned around and saw where Sonata was sitting. "Come on, sit with me!" Sonata said, patting the seat across from her with her shoe.

"Well... okay. Maybe I should take a break," Vignette nodded, sitting at the table with her. She parked herself in the seat across from her, joining her in the booth.

Soon the waitress came by and passed them the menus, and the two opened them up.

"There should be a variety of food here. What would you like?"

"Hmm... well I really love tacos, that's my absolute favorite. Especially on Taco Tuesday," Sonata giggled. "Hmm... French bread, really love that, it's great. Uhhh... oh there's a kind of Italian spaghetti I like, really love that on Fridays. And pizza, love it!"

Vignette blinked, listening to Sonata ramble on about all of her favorites. She did seem like she would happily eat anything. And besides, this building was up to code. Quality would be delivered for sure!

"... and I really like ramen, though I don't see it on the menu soooooooo... I think I'd just like a side of spaghetti and meatballs, what about you?"

"Hmm... I guess I'll just have a stress salad, I could use one about now," she said, feeling somber.

"But there's nothing on the menu that says stress salad," Sonata said, innocently smiling.

Vignette had to admit, she found that cute.

"It's a special kind of salad I like to have whenever I'm feeling stressed, it always helps me calm down."

"Ohhhh. Have you tried snuggling a cute little kitty or a doggie? Those always calms down my stresses."

"I'm not allowed to have my Corgi in my apartment," Vignette pouted.

"Awww, you have a doggie?" Sonata grinned.

"Yes, I do."

"Eeeeee! I love doggies! They're so fluffy and adorable," Sonata squeaked like a little girl on Christmas Day.

Another thing I can relate to. I think I'm going to like this one.

"But wait, if you're not allowed to have a dog in your apartment, why not move out and go into an apartment that does? there's plenty of places that... wait a minute! You could move into the floor underneath me!" Sonata grinned. "There's an apartment for rent underneath us, and the Jigsaw Plaza is open to pet owners! You could move in there!"

Vignette chuckled. "I suppose I could keep that in mind."

"Plus, you get to keep your doggie with you!"

Eventually the waitress came by and took their drink order, and then walked off to let them sit.

Vignette admittedly was struggling for ideas on what to talk about. Social media star, yet she couldn't think of anything to say to a person out loud.

"You okay?" Sonata asked, tilting her head.

"Oh, y-yes, I'm... I'm fine. Sorry, I guess I'm a bit distracted. Trying to think, what was it... Oh, I remember. I suppose if you're not an employee of the park, where do you work, if you have a job?"

"Hmm... I did have a few jobs before. I kind of bounced around place to place because I was, um. I was constantly moving," Sonata sheepishly said, sinking in her chair.

"Oh. Military family?"

"Um... not really," Sonata said. "It's... kind of hard to explain. I'm not really from around here..."

"How so?" Vignette asked. But then a thought came to her mind. "Wait, are you not an American?"

"No, no, I am! It's just that I'm... uhhh... a foreigner!" Sonata blushed. "From uh... Europe!"

"Really? You don't seem that much of a European type," Vignette tilted her head.

"Well, I uhh, uhh--oh hey, drinks are here!"

Their drinks were set down, and the waitress took their food orders, taking their menus as she went to go make sure it would be ordered. Sonata sat innocently, humming a small tune as she waited, just as unsure as Vignette on how to continue the conversation.

"Okay, I'm curious. What do you do when you're not in school, is there anything you like to do, what do teenagers even do these days?"

"Hmm..." Sonata thought, rubbing her chin to think. "Well I really like video games! I've been hanging out at an arcade with some of my friends, that's always fun. I do love games. Oh just the other day, my friends and I had a picnic, that was fun! Oh and we went dress shopping the other day, really found this cute dress that I was going to wear here, but I realized it didn't have pockets," Sonata giggled.

Vignette smiled. "I always like going shopping. But I can never get an honest opinion about what I wear."

"How come?"

"Because I have so many fans here in Canterlot, most of them just give me 'yes's to everything. I'd like some good honest people sometimes, you know what I mean?"

Sonata nodded. "Mmmhmm. Actually, I'm curious. What's it like to be Internet famous?"

Vignette was about to talk, when she stopped midway to think. That was a legitimate question, but finding an answer was always hard. It had its perks, yes, but all Vignette could think about were its cons...

"Vignette? You okay? You're spacing out. Kind of like me when I was in history class which was sooooo boring," Sonata tilted her head.

"Oh, I'm fine Sonata, really, I'm fine," Vigntette brushed off. "But to answer your question, it's nice. I get to do fun things for the entertainment for others."

"Like what?"

"Well, once in a while I get to play some scary game, which if my comment sections are any indication, people always get a kick out of me screaming at the top of my lungs. Or me getting hurt in those King of the Road games," Vignette answered, taking a sip of her drink.

"I've watched my friends play King of the Road! It's a lot of fun. I don't know why, but it always makes me laugh when I see them bounce into people like they're rubber," Sonata giggled. "It's so silly, it's like a cartoon!"

Vignette tittered. "Yes, yes it is... but still, it can be fun. I do enjoy playing games."

"Well that's good," Sonata smiled. "Games are fun."

"Okay, lemme think here... where do you even go to school?"

"Canterlot High."

"Is that the school with the horse statue out front?"

"Yep!" Sonata piped up.

"I remember that school. I was thinking of suggesting my little cousin to go to that school, until I heard some rumors flying around," Vignette stated.

"What rumors?"

"Bullying rumors, mainly," Vignette replied, twirling her finger around. "But I did hear one particular girl that was the trouble-maker did get arrested. But isn't she only in high school?"

"No, she's in her early 20s. She got held back lot of times," Sonata said, trying to stay as innocent and calm as she could be.

"I.. see," Vignette hesitantly replied, not sure how to really handle that news. "Anyways, I'm curious. Have you ever considered being an internet star?"

"Nope!"

Vignette was a little surprised at how straight-forward she was at that question. "Even though it comes with fame and fortune?"

"Nada!"

"So... you really don't care about being internet famous, do you?"

"Nope!" Sonata said nonchalantly. "Why should I? I have everything I could ever want; I got my friends, I got family, I do fun things every day. I'm happy with who I am."

This girl is oddly chipper for being an everyday woman. I like it.

"Sonata. I'm not sure if I'll have time later today, but if I can work it into my schedule... perhaps we could, um, what's the word... hang?"

Sonata was confused, but she finally got there. "Oh! You want to hang out?"

"Y-Yes. Unless you'd rather not, in which case, that's also fine..."

"Are you kidding? I'd love to! And you're the manager of the park, I need someone to show me around here, this place is fun!"

Vignette felt a small tinge of excitement inside. This girl actually wanted to hang out with her later? This was getting better and better!

"Well, great! What do you say after lunch? Does that work?"

"Perfect!"

And soon enough, the waitress came back and gave them their orders. Now they could finally chow down on lunch.

"Princess? Princess? Where are you!?" Amethyst shouted as she pushed through some people. "Come on, I left you alone for a few minutes, how could I have lost you?"

She ran back to the food booth where Vinyl and Octavia were, thankful they were still there.

"Girls, have you seen Tri-- I mean, Princess?"

"No, we haven't. Why?" Octavia asked.

"Ugh, I lost her! I told her to stay still, and I think she wandered off," Amethyst pouted, looking behind her to see if she came back. "If you see her, just let me know, okay?"

"I'm sure she's alright, Amy. Maybe she got lost trying to find you," Vinyl said, trying to put some hope into the situation.

"I told her to sit, ugh, I'll be back," Amethyst ran off into the crowds again, looking for her once more.

She dashed through some more people, head spinning like crazy. Where could she have gone off to, she couldn't have gone too far now, could she? Running past more people, she brushed past Sonata walking with Vignette Valencia, completely ignoring them. She could meet up with Sonata later, she had a much more important job to do right now.

After the two of them had a delicious meal, they got back out into the main park and started looking at some of the vendors and small stands, looking for small games to play. Most of them were just general stuff you'd find at a park or your average county fair, like throwing darts, rifles, and many, many more.

"We have plenty of games to pick from, plenty of prizes, there is a ton of things you and I can do here," Vignette said, nodding.

"Oooh, how about this one?" Sonata pointed, looking at the stand with the shooting gallery.

"I don't know, I've never really used a gun before," Vignette hesitated.

"You've never shot with a rifle before?"

"No, I haven't. Never been one with real guns. Now you give me a first-person shooter, I will happily barrage through as many foes as I can," Vignette grinned.

Sonata still didn't change her excited face. "... I can shoot targets really well!"

She slapped some tickets down on the counter, and the man behind it, accepted it. Sonata picked up the rifle, inserting the clip and cocked it. She focused her eyes on a target. One eye peeking through, while the other stayed shut. Her finger slid on the trigger and when it was lined up just right...

BAM!

And she pumped the gun again. She moved to another target.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Four more targets in a road were shot down. Vignette was speechless. "Sonata, that's amazing. How did you do that?"

"I've practiced. Besides, I've lived in the Ollllddddd--uhhh-older part of the American West! What used to be the older part of the American West," Sonata said, trying to save her words.

Vignette raised a brow, but she shrugged it off.

"I'm just really good with a gun, that's all," Sonata stammered, setting it back down.

"Hey kid, that's a nice shot," the gentleman said from behind the stand. "Wanna give it another round? You win these next few shots, you could be getting yourself a stuffed animal of your choice."

That sentence made Sonata lit up. "I could win a plushie?"

"Mmmhmm!"

"I want in!" Sonata slapped another set of tickets down and loaded up the gun again. She fired several more targets, knocking them down like it was nothing. Vignette was shocked.

"Sonata, I'm amazed. You really are handy with a gun, aren't you?"

"Yep!" Sonata grinned. "Wanna try it?"

Vignette looked at the targets set up on the gallery. Just a simple shot knocked them over. Shouldn't be that hard, should it?

She accepted as she moved in to pick up a rifle. But Sonata panicked as she saw her hold it just a little bit wrongly...

"Both hands on the gun," Sonata said, moving Vignette's other hand to hold the middle while her other hand moved to the trigger. "Use one eye to look through the barrel, think about where you want to shoot. When you found your target, just pull the trigger."

Vignette leaned her body back as she set the rifle down on the stand, keeping it in position like she was told to do. Her eye focused through the scope, focusing on the target. She pulled the trigger, but alas she didn't hit it.

"That's okay, just try again," Sonata encourged. "Pull that switch up there to reload it."

Vignette tightly gripped the gun and reloaded. Setting back into position, she locked on target and...

BAM!

The target went down.

"Alright, nice shot!"

Vignette looked up, seeing that she finally hit it. "That doesn't seem hard."

"Maybe if the target's standing still. Try shooting something that moves," Sonata giggled, rather darkly.

Vignette was rather disturbed at that implication, but she decided to shrug it off and try another shot. Just a few more seconds to focus in and...

BAM!

Another target went down.

"Congrats, ma'am. You have just won a prize," the man said from behind the counter, giving a plush teddy bear to Sonata who's eyes sparkled.

"You won me a teddy bear! Yay!" Sonata squeaked, hugging Vignette. The social media star was surprised by the hug, but she smiled softly and hugged her back. This new friend she made was honestly, legitimately happy that she did something nice for her? I mean sure she did make entertainment for the internet, but she didn't always feel like she was really doing something nice for anyone. But right now? This was probably the nicest, most sweetest feeling she had felt in a long time.

"Oh! I know what ride we should do next!" Sonata grinned.

Five Minutes Later

"Wheeeeeee!" Sonata cheered as they went down. Vignette just screamed as she held on tight and the two of them were greeted with a splash of water. "Whoo-hoo! That was fun!"

"That was only the first one," Vignette shivered, waiting for it to be over. But even in the cold water, she was able to see how thrilled Sonata was to go down the ride. If she could endure this for one more time, she could. Just for Sonata, just for her.

One more splash as they went down the last hill, and the log finally went down and splashed them both again. Vignette was wet, but she had to admit, she did have fun on that last splash going down.

"Hey, come on, let's go find another ride! It'll be fun!" Sonata squeaked, climbing out of the ride and onto the platform.

Vignette paused again. There was that word, fun. And oddly, she was starting to understand it. This energy, this joy inside that she was experiencing... it was nothing like she had ever felt before! She wanted more of it!

"O-Okay, yes! Let's find another ride! And I know just what to take!"

Elsewhere in the park, Adagio, Lyra, Bon Bon, and Trixie were looking for some fun rides to go on. Something they could all go on together. So much to see, so much to do. But what?

"How about the bumper cars?"

"Maybe later? I just ate, I don't want to throw up my lunch," Trixie asked, hesitantly.

"That's fine, we can try it later. Oh, now this one I want to try! The Haunted Mansion!" Lyra pointed, grinning at the attraction in front of them.

"I don't know... haunted mansions?"

"Come on, Trix. It'll just be in and out, we're going to be walking through it entirely. And we'll be together!" Lyra encouraged.

"Not to mention, maybe this can conquer some of your fears? If you can walk through a haunted house, then you can stand up and perform magic acts again," Bon Bon added.

"Well... okay, I guess," Trixie gulped. "Adagio can you watch my bag?"

"Of course, I'll wait for you three," Adagio said, sitting down on a waiting bench. She watched the girls run through the barely existing lines and up to the front. The three were allowed in (after making sure they were the appropriate age to go through such an attraction) and they went inside.

While the eldest Siren waited for them to come back, she looked around at the various people having fun. Many of them were students from CHS, but she also saw some of those Crystal Prep students that their friends faced against the Friendship Games. A few faces were familiar, like Neon Lights, Jet Set and his girlfriend Upper Crust, Royal Pin, just to name a few.

Adagio sat on the bench, still waiting. And eventually the doors opened up for patrons to exit, and Lyra and Bon Bon were seen screaming in terror as they ran down the steps back to Adagio.

"I don't want to do that again! What even was that!?"

"There was no head! His head was just... agh!" Bon Bon panicked.

"I take it was scary?" Adagio grinned.

"Yes! Too scary! I swear half of that was almost real!"

"Either the effects you saw were real, or that haunted house was designed by very passionate and dedicated individuals," Adagio concluded.

"That's one way to put it," Lyra pouted.

"Now where is Trixie?"

Speak of the devil, Trixie was seen walking down the stairs nice and easy. Like, normally. No fear, no worry, nothing! It was like she didn't walk through a haunted house at all!

"I don't know what they were screaming about, it wasn't that scary," Trixie shrugged.

"H-How!? How are you not terrified, that place was a nightmare!" Bon Bon ranted, flabbergasted.

The magician just shrugged. "I've seen a lot of horror movies. I'm desensitized to stuff like that. Now come on, let's go find the bumper cars!" And the magician happily skipped away to go find the attraction, leaving a grinning girlfriend and two flabbergasted friends behind.

Chapter 7: I Am Not Having A Meltdown!

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Taking her break, Click Bait checked her phone, looking for any messages from her boss or any employees. More junk mail, nothing out of the ordinary. But wait; one text message, and from Vignette? What was it this time...

I'm going to be wandering around the park to make sure we aren't having any issues. Could you please check on Rarity to see how the parade preparations are going?

Click Bait thought for a second, pondering her options. Probably would be best to check on them, after all, this Light Parade was important. But wait a second... an opportunity was here. One that gave her a wonderfully, devious idea... With a semi-evil grin, she texted back to her boss.

Right away, boss. Be there in a jiffy.

She got off her butt and walked through the crowds of people towards the hangar bay sized buildings where the floats were currently being worked on and assembled.

Once inside, she could see all the engineers, costume designers, electricians, technicians, and many others working to get ready. A wide variety of parade floats were getting done, and she had to admit, she was surprised by the amount of progress that had been done. At least three of these floats were done and ready to launch. It was more than enough for what she had planned now...

Walking around the corner, she followed a trail of sudden smoke in the air. Not a lot, but it was a little puff. She saw a man trying to put out any potential flames on an actor's cowboy suit, with lots of lights visible on his outfit. And then her eyes caught sight of the mohawked designer that was hired... ranting in a pile of clothes.

"--WHY DO ALL THE WRETCHED THINGS HAPPEN TO ME!?" Rarity screamed, muffled into the clothing pile.

Click blinked in confusion, but smirked softly. This would be easier than she hoped.

"Miss Rarity?"

"I wasn't having a meltdown! Who said I was having a meltdown!?" Rarity shrieked. And she looked at Click with the most stressed out face. Her eyes were twitching and her teeth were grit, she almost looked like an angry animal who hadn't gotten their breakfast. "I AM NOT HAVING A MELTDOWN!!!"

Click blinked. "... Right. Rarity, I must ask, have you taken any breaks today?"

"No, I have not! I'm on a deadline, and I cannot disappoint!"

"You already are," Click mumbled with some deadpan. "Look, come, you're stressed out, you're overworked, I think you need to take a step back."

Click yanked Rarity by her shoulder, pulling her away from the working people. She waved her hand at them passively, as if to say 'just go back to it' or something of the like. She took Rarity inside the small office and closed the door. And without Rarity's knowledge, her fingers quietly clicked the locks.

"I suppose maybe I should take a break. I can't recall the last time I had something to--"

"--Vignette hired you to design the parade floats, correct?" Click interrupted, getting straight to the point.

"Well, yes--"

"--And what did she tell you, that this was all for the children, this is all for charity, and whatnot?"

"Um, well--"

"I thought so, yeah, whatever, you see... Vignette may not have said anything, but frankly she doesn't need to. She doesn't seem to grasp the idea of showing what really matters here," Click said, rolling her eyes around. "She's one of the most famous internet celebrities in existence, over millions of subscribers and followers... and yet all I get from her is that it's all about the people, it's all about the children and bleh. I don't know how she does it, but I can barely stand five minutes of these people."

The fashionista grew very uncomfortable as she spoke, and slowly tried to go to the door, not wanting to hear anymore. "Heh, heh heh, um... I'm not sure I'm comfortable hearing--"

"--And another thing!" Click said, stepping in front of the door to keep her from leaving. "I don't understand how she expects to draw in the crowds, because all of these designs you're pitching are so... so... eh."

Rarity heard glass shatter. "You, she, bu... bu..."

"Oh and by the way, I don't think your services are needed at this point, you can basically leave now. Or stay if you want to have fun in the park. A hundred dollars though," Click said, smirking at her.

Rarity's eyes were twitching even more. "This is outrageous! Vignette Valencia would have called me if she was upset--"

"--What makes you think she would?" Click asked. "You act like Vignette's one of the most understanding people, but I don't think you really understand the internet. Do you really think Canter Zoom 'directed' the Daring Do movie?"

"W... YES!"

Once again, the obnoxious girl from Cloudsdale rolled her eyes. "You really have lost touch with reality, don't you? Know how people say to never meet your heroes? Well..." She pulled out her phone and her thumb pressed the camera option. She held it up to focus on Rarity with a devious grin, ready to take her picture. "You shouldn't have met her."

Rarity was confused, but she never got her chance to talk. The camera had flashed, and her entire body had vanished into thin air, being absorbed into the world inside her phone.

"Sorry Rarity. But I have better ideas for a parade. One that I know will have the true spirit of Canterlot," Click sneered, walking out of the office like nothing happened. And no one was around to witness Rarity's disappearance.

"Ah, ah... huh?" Rarity questioned, twirling her head all around. All around her was a great white void, with no clue as to where she was, or even if this void was place of existence. "What is this!? What is this dreadful place? WHAT CRUEL GODS HAVE I UPSET TO EARN THISSSSSS????"

She looked around, desperately trying to find something, anything that stood out. This couldn't be some empty void of nothingness, it couldn't have been! She wandered around, but stopped when she smacked her face... into a wall. She felt along the wall, desperately trying to see if there was anything to touch or grab. But when she felt her left side, she felt another wall.

"OH FOR SOLARIS'S SAKE!!! CLICK BAIT HAS TURNED ME INTO A MIMMMMEEEEE!" Rarity wailed, sliding down the wall and onto her behind. She felt like sobbing her eyes out, until she noticed something in front of her eyes. An unfamiliar girl was sitting across from her. Cream-white hair, baby-blue skin tone, but wearing a very fabulous outfit as far as her eyes were concerned.

"Trixie? Darling, is that you?"

The princess lifted her head. "H-How do you know my name?"

Rarity blinked. "... Because, you're Trixie. Ooh, what did you do to your hair, it looks fantastic!" Rarity soon caught herself. "Um, not that it wasn't fantastic before, it just, um."

Princess Trixie forced herself up onto her feet, and Rarity stopped talking. Words had failed her, as she looked in awe and disbelief at the figure in front of her. This stylish, this outfit, it screamed confidence. And this was being worn by Trixie? Trixie Lulamoon? The girl she always knew who just walked around with a dorky vest with pins of her favorite shows, or t-shirts with graphics of her favorite superheroes and stuff. And she was wearing this outfit? And that hair? That fluffy, lively hair, not held in a ponytail like she always had on was another questioning look.

"Wait a minute. Rarity?"

Rarity kept a foot back in a near-fighting stance. "Who are you and what have you done to Trixie?"

"Wh-ju--I am Trixie!"

"I saw Trixie with Adagio not too long ago, and I know that's not you, you imposter!"

The princess was confused, until she finally caught on. "Ohhh... Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't say anything. Rarity, I'm Trixie's counterpart, I'm from an alternate dimension."

Rarity slowly lowered her defenses. "Wait, you..." her hands slapped her sides as she suddenly realized who she was. "You're the princess, aren't you?"

"Yes I am," Trixie nodded.

Rarity sighed. "I'm sorry darling, I thought you were an imposter. How did you even wind up here?"

"... I don't know!" The princess yelped, in a complete 180. "I was just minding my own business! I was waiting for Amethyst to come back, and I saw this bright flashing light in an alleyway, and then this scary girl acted like I'm dating Adagio, but I'm not--Adagio's my friend, I don't like her that way, and then the next thing I know, I get zapped here!"

"I just got zapped here as well," Rarity surmised. "That girl was Click Bait, she's the second-in-command to the head of the park. I don't understand why she would do this to us. I was just doing my job, and then she's acting like I'm not doing it right, and then she sends me here in this void!!! What cruel god have I upset to earn this!? This is... A COMPLETE DISASTER!!!" Rarity slowed herself down, trying not to overreact again. Though she was on the verge of panicking again. "Okay, let's not freak out, not freak out... I SAID LET'S NOT FREAK OUT!"

The dignitary stared at her with wide eyes and fear. "I'm not freaking out."

Rarity blushed harshly, realizing she was the only one screaming. "Sorry. But darling, there has to be someone out there who knows we're gone, shouldn't there?"

"Amethyst does. Ohhhhh... I hope she isn't mad," the princess whimpered.

"Darling, I'm sure it'll be alright, she'll find a way to find us," Rarity said softly, pulling the princess in a hug, rubbing her back. "There there."

"Thanks," the princess frowned, hugging her back.

"She'll find us, I'm sure of it. We won't be stuck in this void forever," Rarity reassured. After a moment of silence, the two of them looked around their void of a containment, and Trixie just laid her back against the wall that was right behind her. She sighed, wondering if Amethyst even was looking for her.

The two of them were silent for a moment, and they sat against the wall, waiting. And waiting. They wouldn't know how long it would be until they got out of here.

Rarity however could smell the strange breath coming from Trixie's mouth when she let out another sigh. "Trixie, your breath smells like peanut butter, what did you eat?"

"... Salted peanuts? ... I was hungry," Princess Trixie blushed, her head sinking.

After some time in the arcades, Flash, Aria, and Starry wandered through the restaurant row looking for a place to eat. There was a variety of choices to pick from, but none of them knew which to go for.

“How about this one?” Flash suggested, pointing to the western themed restaurant with a flaming logo that was shouting ‘Wild Wings!'

"Fine by me. Starry, what do you think?"

The little girl looked at the sign for a second, and gave a resounding nod. She wasn't particularly picky where they'd eat, as long as they'd serve good food.

"Yes please," she asked.

The trio walked to the restaurant, and just like outside, the inside was ablaze with the western theming. Old-timey pictures on the wall, cow skulls mounted on a few corners, old wheels from wagons, barrels, a few makeshift tumbleweeds and bushels to recreate the environment, and even the waitstaff had a bit of that motif, mainly with the hats and the jackets. Luckily it wasn't super hot inside the building so they couldn't be sweltering.

And thankfully this restaurant was not packed to the point where the trio was going to be stuck outside forever. Together, they followed a waitress to their table, a small booth against a wall with a nice warm light above their heads. Flash and Aria sat across from each other, while Starry just slid in next to him. And luckily there was a coloring sheet and crayons to keep Starry occupied while they waited for the waitress to come back around.

"Thanks for the company again," Flash said, graciously.

"Babe, I'm happy to spend time with you. I'm just glad I caught you when I did," Aria reassured. "How have you been doing, I'm sorry, I forgot to ask..." she asked, rather bashfully, rubbing the back of her head.

"I'm doing okay thank you. I did get my grades back, two As and two Bs. How about you?"

"Eh, usual. As and Bs, not shocking anymore. I know Adagio keeps telling me to keep studying, but seriously, I've taken these kind of classes for years, I'm not learning anything new," Aria rolled her eyes. "Though I'll say this; I'm glad the teachers at CHS are more understanding and can take a joke."

"Bad luck with teachers in the past?"

"Lot of them. Most of the teachers we've had usually have sticks up their butts, and can't take a joke."

"Why do people put sticks up their butts?"

That out of nowhere question from Starry was enough to nearly make Aria burst out laughing. Thankfully, she kept it reduced to a heavy snicker and expression that showed she was trying hard not to smile, but failing badly.

"Um, kiddo, that's an expression. No one literally puts a stick up someone's... ehh," Aria tried to explain, without laughing. "It basically means someone who's grouchy or grumpy or not happy... huh, sounds kinda like me," she realized.

"Aria, you're fine," Flash said, trying to reassure his girlfriend.

"Nah, I'm a bit of a grouch sometimes. I dunno, I keep letting little things get to me," Aria answered. "So, um, Starry you and Flash been to a place like this before?"

The little girl shrugged. "Eh, not many. Most of them are too loud."

"Loud noises bother you?"

Starry nodded.

"I get it, kiddo. Believe me, I'm not happy with loud noises either. Well, except when it's your brother playing music," Aria winked.

Eventually their waiter came by and took their orders, allowing them to sit and talk some more. Aria looked around at the decor some more, eyeing some of the western decor. "Hmm."

"Whatcha thinking about?"

"Eh. Admittedly western mood's not my biggest taste, but I'm happier just having it as a theme than to be living in it. Trust me, you would not wanna live in it," Aria pointed. Flash didn't question it, knowing the experiences of living on this planet Aria had. Starry however was curious.

"How come?"

Aria's eyes drooped. On one hand, she didn't want to give her secret away, and she certainly didn't want to scar this little girl. But on the other, she couldn't lie to her, and she couldn't just ignore her question.

"Wellll...." Aria droned. "I don't want to get into too explicit detail because I don't want to scare you, but the Wild West isn't a super grand time to be in like the movies portray them as. Anything that isn't you, basically wanted to hurt you. Outlaws, angry drunk people, hungry animals, diseases, major and minor injuries, the weather... it was honestly really dangerous. You'd have to take your life into your hands just going to the bathroom."

Starry wasn't showing signs of being scared, in fact, she seemed genuinely understanding. So she just gave a small nod, and stopped asking, having all the information she needed to know.

"Sooooo..." Aria tittered, trying to find another way to press a topic of interest.

"Wanna hit the karaoke stage after this?"

"YES."

After their lunch, Vignette and Sonata wandered around the park some more, looking to see what else they could do. Vignette did stop a few times to accept requests to do selfies with others, something Sonata didn't understand the point of, but found it cute anyway.

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Take pictures like that and raise two fingers?"

"Well, I.. haven't you ever taken photos before?"

"Yeah, but I only do that if I'm putting bunny ears behind my sister's head," Sonata giggled. "She always hates that."

I shouldn't be surprised she's innocent in the knowledge of selfies. Heaven knows the amount of disturbing selfies taken on the web.

"Wait, so you've never used a cellular phone like this?" Vignette asked.

"Well... no," Sonata admitted. "Buuuut I know how to use a landline! And a rotary! Though we did have those big white phones with antennas back in the 8--uhhh I mean uh, like the ones from the 80s and 90s," she said quickly catching herself.

Vignette blinked, tilting her head slightly. "Hmm... I see. Well, anyways, these phones aren't as complicated as you may think, they're fairly easy,."

Vignette moved close to Sonata, letting her get a good look at the phone in her hand. "Now, let me just show you the basics." Her finger pressed the center button on the bottom of the device. "This will turn on the screen, let you check the time and any main messages will show up here if you missed them."

Sonata nodded.

"And this switch here," Vignette said, moving it to the side to show her, "If you have it set like this, your phone will be set on vibrate so no noise will bother you if you're busy doing something. But if you have it off, your phone will go off like any normal phone. Just make sure you have your ringtone something appropriate, you do not need to be playing something that is, how do we say... very adult."

Sonata gave her a deadpan expression, "I'm 18! What could be so--"

"--Moving on!"

Vignette entered in a passcode, allowing Sonata to look at all of the various options and apps that were visible on her phone. Sonata of course, was in awe at the sight of so many apps and pretty pictures in front of her.

"Oooh... I didn't know you could squeeze so much in that tiny little phone," Sonata said.

Vignette giggled. "The wonders of technology. Now most of these apps aren't too important, but there are a few important ones here and there," she said, swiping over to the main menu. "You have normal ones like the app store, a newsfeed, television, etc."

"Always did love seeing the unnecessary fearmongering!" Sonata squeaked like a child.

"... buuuuuut, most of the time I like spending my time either checking my mail or photographs."

She pressed the photo button, showing her archive of various pictures to Sonata; mostly ones she had recently been taken, showing the progress of some of the amusement park rides and machines that were being built at the time the picture was taken. Backing out, she swiped down to the phone icon, showing a list of several phone numbers underneath names; presumably family and employees.

"Oooh," Sonata awed, gazing some more.

"This must be your first exposure to this kind of technology. I've never heard of any teenager who wouldn't be into their phones," Vignette admitted, looking back at Sonata.

"Well, uh... my older sister kinda has some rules, mostly to protect us from well... strangers. We've kinda met some nasty people," Sonata admitted, twiddling her fingers.

"Oh dear. I hope nothing too serious?"

"Nowadays, not really. Although I keep wondering why people keep calling us and saying that we owe the Internal Revenue Service money, we've always taken care of that. Or their insistence on us listening to their lord and saviors, it's weird," she said, rubbing the back of her head.

"People can be like that sometimes. But that is a charm with having this kind of phone," she said, showing a list of unanswered numbers. "If it's a number I don't recognize, most of the time I let them go to voicemail, it's typically telemarketing or scammers who aren't even trying."

"... Huh," Sonata said, unsure of what to say to that.

"Just be leery of who calls you. Anyways, is there anyplace you would like to go to?"

"Sure! Come on, I always wanted to try this ride!"

Sonata led Vignette further through the park, keen on going on the next coolest ride she saw.

While everyone was having fun, there was one particular person who wasn't; Amethyst Star. She was running through the park, desperately trying to find Princess Trixie. She only left her for a few minutes, how could she have gotten lost? She didn't seem the type to just not move away when she was lost, where the heck could she have gone?

Amethyst ran by the snack corners, no sign of her. Not even Vinyl and Octavia saw her come back around their area. Amethyst just let out an audible groan and kept on running. She ran by a few of the rides, wondering if she had gone onto any of them. She didn't spot her near any of the rollercoasters, or any of the thrill-rides like the circular carts, or the drop towers. She even stopped by a carousel, wondering if maybe the sheer weirdness of seeing wooden horses mounted in between sticks would be enough to paralyze her in fear and confusion would be the key. But she wasn't around there either.

Amethyst, nearly running out of breath, stopped at a nearby bench to sit. She panted heavily, trying to keep herself together.

"Come on, Princess... what is wrong with you!?" She ranted to herself. "How could you just leave like that, you don't know anything about this world! Agh!" She held her face in her hands, trying to keep herself together. And after taking a second, she looked in front of her, and jumped back on her feet. She paced back and forth, trying to think.

"Okay, just think, if I were the princess of Friendship, where would I go... wait, what am I thinking, I don't even know her that well! Agh! She's not Trixie!" She yelled to herself. "Okay, okay, no, keep it together girl..." She pawed at her face, trying to snap herself back to her senses. "You can find her. She's not that hard to find, she's around here somewhere. You can find her, and keep her in your sight."

And so, she continued to run through the park, making people around her wonder what the heck was up with her.

Elsewhere, Click Bait continued to advise and provide instructions for the rest of the parade floats via Vignette's instructions. It took a lot of convincing for them to listen (provided the fact that Vignette was their boss and they were told to only get orders directly from her) but Click managed to sway them around and get them to listen to her. Construction continued to go underway, and the designers and actors were able to keep up the steady work-flow.

"Come on people, chop chop, we don't have all day."

"Boss, we've got three hours, we're nearly completed, let's take a quick break, I haven't even gotten lunch yet," one of the employees requested.

"Okay, let me ask you this, how much is she paying you for?"

"A lot--"

"--Yeah, I don't care. Finish the float," she threatened nonchalantly. She just casually got close to him and whispered in his ear. "And I'd suggest keeping your shirt tucked you disgusting pig. Fix the stupid stage."

She just patted his back and rather casually walked away, leaving him feeling disgusted and a bit ticked off. He was going to have a few words with Vignette wherever she was, that's for sure.

Click then gazed at her phone, noting the time. It would only be a few hours before the parade would have to start. She thought things over, wondering if and when Vignette would find out about what she had done. No matter. Rarity wasn't necessary anyway. Besides, her boss would love seeing the new designs for the parade floats. And if she didn't, well... one more photo for the archive wouldn't hurt in the mind of Click Bait.

Chapter 8: Everything Falls Apart

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Amethyst still ran around the park, desperate to try and find the Princess. But there was still no sign of her, and she grew more frustrated and angry. She just wanted to have a fun day, hang with her friends, not do anything chaotic, and here she was, trying to look for a foreign dignitary in a huge amusement park with no means of contacting or finding her. Worse, Adagio and the others still had no clue, and she wasn't in any mood to talk to them, too cranky. Besides, she could find her on her own, no point to upset the others.

She threw herself on a bench, groaning some more from her continued failure.

"Why can't I be dizzy from riding a thrill-ride? This is not how I want to spend my day!"

Amethyst's eyes looked at the surrounding vendors behind her, still serving food the patrons nearby. She was getting exhausted, but she had to keep looking for her. What if she was lost and had no idea where to go? Or what if she was taken? Now Canterlot was safe for the most part, but with questionable figures like Sunset Shimmer and entitled rich kids from Cloudsdale, she could never be too sure.

Pushing herself up, and dusting off her dress.

"Okay... I can't stop. I need to find her, I can't sit still. Ugh," she walked further through the park, grumbling to herself. "Take an ambassador to an amusement park, what was I thinking...?"

Vignette walked with Sonata further through the park, exploring more fun places to stop at. More vendor booths, more rigged prizes and stalls for candy, this place had it all. As Vignette continued to walk with her new friend, she couldn't help but think. Here was the most down-to-earth, somehow innocent, and sweetest girl she had ever met. Somehow in a world where everyone had a cellular phone and captured every memory and trend, to display on the world wide web, there was a girl who didn't care about any of those things and was just happy with her life.

She had to contact this girl again when she left the park. But wait, she didn't know what her number was; and it didn't help this girl didn't seem to carry a phone around her. Wait... she had spare phones in her bag for emergencies!

Vignette reached into her bag, stopping during their walk.

"Ooh, why we stopping?" Sonata asked.

"I don't suppose you have a phone on your person?" Vignette asked.

"Uhhh... no," Sonata bashfully shrugged.

"Well I was wondering if maybe, if you were okay with it, perhaps if we get separated in this park, maybe I could call you?"

In Vignette's hand was a nice, teal, cellular phone. Not the most recent model, but it was up to date, and it did it's job.

"F-For me?" Sonata squeaked. "Aww, Vignette, you didn't have to!"

"I insist," Vignette nodded with a soft-spoken tone.

"Well.. okay. Only if you insist," Sonata accepted. "But, wait, I don't know how to open these things."

"I can teach you. Also, it would help if I gave you the password for it," Vignette handed her a small slip of paper with the combination to unlock it.

"Oh, thanks!"

"Anyways, should you ever need to contact me, just look into your list of contacts and--"

Just then, a new notification popped up on her phone. Vignette's eyes squinted at the text, but what she read made her stop talking. Her hand started to shake and she grit her teeth, a soft growl escaping her lips. The notification was from one of her employees, one who had finally got through to Vignette and let her know about the situation regarding tonight's parade. And now, she had just learned of Rarity's termination.

Her pace moved faster as she made her way to one of the hangars where the floats were assembled. Sonata said nothing but just followed suit, worried about the lack of words coming from her.

"Wait outside, I have to have a few words with a soon-to-be-fired employee of mine," Vignette asked before setting inside the building.

"Okay, hope it goes well!" Sonata said, trying to remain hopeful for her friend.

The door slammed open as Vignette speed-walked inside with the most frustrated expression on her face. She charged straight for Click Bait, who looked as if she couldn't given another care in the world.

"Where is Rarity?"

"Boss, I'm--"

"Where. Is. Rarity?" Vignette emphasized, gritting her teeth.

"I let her go,"

Vignette froze in place; everyone's eyes locked onto her, and the PR director was getting dangerously quiet. "... You. Did. What?"

"I let her go, she was annoying. She's way too melodramatic, she's insane with detail to the point where she's overly perfectionist, and she gets upset if you so much as make one teeny mistake. Seriously, why did you even get her?" Click just continued to go off on her phone.

"I... wa... okay. Everyone! Take a break!" Vignette ordered.

Everyone stopped what they were doing, immediately leaving to go take a break per order. Vignette slowly breathed in and out, glaring intensely at Click who clearly did not care what her boss felt. Unbeknownst to her, Vignette had flipped her finger onto her phone, doing something she couldn't see, nor pay attention to.

"Let me see if I got this straight; you just fired the lead fashion designer on the spot, without telling or even going to see me? What did she even do to warrant this?"

"I just told you," Click said passively. "Besides, I can pitch better stuff than her."

"Click... I have tried really hard to be patient with you. But you have pushed me too far," Vignette said, rather low and calm. Dangerously calm. "I'm afraid your services are no longer required. I expect you to clear out your locker by the end of the day."

"Wha.. you can't fire me!" Click protested, slapping her sides.

"I just did," Vignette glared, turning around.

"Oh, well, how about I tell you this then? You know what I did to Rarity when I told her she was let go?"

"Insult her, spite her, harass her?"

"No. Well, yes. But I also did THIS!"

Vignette looked back, only to be met with a bright flash of light before she vanished from the room hangar entirely. Click softly smirked before looking back to her phone. "Sorry boss, I need this job more than you," she said before grabbing a nearby megaphone, "Alright everyone, you can come back now! We've got a parade float to get ready in a few hours, let's get this show on the road! Let's move it move it move it!"

Sonata still continued to wait outside, humming to herself as she idled by. She didn't know how long it was, felt like an eternity, but she didn't mind. Vignette had a big job running this park, she probably had some more responsibilities here. Just then, the door opened up Sonata almost about to squee to see her friend, only to have it all come crashing down. Just another park employee walking out to take a break.

But then the door opened up again, revealing a smug Click Bait walking with intrepidity. Her eyes were locked to her phone, but then looked up to see an annoyed Sonata Dusk.

"Oh. The stupid one," Click deadpanned.

"I am not stupid!" Sonata defended.

"Debatable," Click dryly rolled her eyes. "Look, if you're here for Vignette, you should just run off. She's too busy for morons who don't have any brain-cells upstairs," she made a notion to gesture to her head.

"Vignette said she would be back soon, and I will wait for her because she can trust me!" Sonata folded her arms, turning her back on her.

"Trust you? Now why would she trust you, you are the exact opposite of her," Click paced, putting a hand on her hip. "You're easily distracted, you know nothing about social media, you're not even as pretty as her. Why would she want to hang out with a complete loser from Canterlot High?"

Sonata gave her a harsh glare. "You can insult me all you want, I'm still waiting."

"You cannot be this naive, GO. AWAY!" Click snapped. "She doesn't want you! If she wanted you, why didn't she ask you for help?"

Sonata wanted to reply, but didn't. For once, Click raised a semi-good point.

"If she really liked you, she would have asked you for help. She's a busy woman who doesn't have time for braindead teenagers who clearly don't have any interest in social media of any kind!"

Sonata tried to keep herself strong. Click was a bully, she taunted her before, she wasn't going to let her break her.

"You're a teenager as well you know," Sonata pointed out, trying to stay strong.

"Just get out of here! We've got a job to do, and unlike you, she actually has something important going on!"

Sonata couldn't stand it any longer. She wanted to yell, scream, argue back with this mean bully. But she didn't. All she could think about was the possibility that Vignette didn't want her. She tried desperately to think of any other means or scenarios where this wasn't true, that she was just self-deprecating again. But Vignette hadn't come out of that building in a long time. And she never once stepped out to check on her. She didn't even get any phone calls or texts that she had learned.

Realizing she wasn't going to come out she slowly walked away, leaving a glaring Click Bait behind to watch her leave. Sonata felt like a failure, once again.

Vignette screamed as she dropped out of the hangar and into a large void beyond her comprehension. She looked around, seeing nothing but white blank space around her, no life, no sound, not a sensation to be felt. Vignette kept turning around, hoping she wasn't in complete isolation--

"Vignette?"

The manager turned around to see Rarity standing there in complete shock.

"Rarity! You're okay! Wait, where are... oh no. I died!" Vignette feared. "Are we in the afterlife!? Is this what the afterlife feels like!?

"Vignette, wait--"

"Agh! You died too, Click Bait killed us! Why didn't I listen... I... I didn't..." Vignette's breath started to hyperventilate.

Her back slammed against a wall as she slid down and collapsed to the floor. Her heart started racing and she heard ringing in her ears. Rarity tried to talk to her, but her voice just wound up becoming distorted and muffled, as Vignette's irises shrunk as she stared up at the blank space above her, heart feeling like it was ready to explode. Rarity didn't know what to do or how to talk to her; frankly she wasn't prepared for a situation like this, nor anything for that particular day!

Just then, the princess who had been sitting in quiet for the past few hours walked over to Vignette and moved down to her knees. She carefully pulled Vignette to her and held her in an embracing hug. Vignette's heart was still racing until she finally felt the embrace of another person in the vicinity. She slowly wrapped her arms around Trixie's back, her heart rate slowing down as the panic was slowly subsiding. She slowly rubbed Trixie's back, and she could finally hear herself think again.

After a few minutes of her embracing Trixie, her hyperventilating ceased and she breathed calmly once again, finally getting words out nice and calmly.

"T-Thank you..." Vignette stammered.

The princess could only smile softly before giving her another needed hug. Once Vignette collected herself together she looked at the two girls in the room with her.

"O-Okay... so we're stuck here in this... wherever we are. I can still feel my heart calming down, so we aren't dead," Vignette theorized, trying to rationalize and come up with a plan. "Rarity, I know that's you and you... wait a minute. Didn't I see you with that Adagio girl?"

The Princess was confused. "Eh? ... Oh, wait! Sorry, um, I'm Trixie's twin sister, I uhh... I just came out here to visit for a few days."

"Princess, you can just tell her the truth, she's already been zapped here by Equestrian magic, there's no point in dancing around it," Rarity rolled her eyes.

"See when you say it like that it sounds really crazy," the Princess sassed.

"I don't know what you are talking about," Vignette raised a finger as she stood up. "But okay; zapped here by magic, I can believe that. There's no logical reason otherwise. So how do we get out?"

"That's the other thing," the princess noted. She walked over to another blank wall and pressed her hand against it. For a brief second, Vignette could see part of the wall push down, as if it wasn't entirely solid. "I think I found a door. I tried getting it open, but I think we need all of us to bust it down."

"I'm not sure that's the wisest idea, do you even have any core strength?" Rarity folded her arms.

The princess gave another sassy smirk before moving her hands to the jacket she had on, letting it drop to the ground. Rarity and Vignette were shocked to see the muscle that was present on the princess's arms.

"In the few years I've had in being a princess, I have had to go against a giant gargoyle who manipulated a wizard, convince a former friend to come back to the light after mastering a spell to go back in time, help bring down a pony who turned into a shadow monster, and fight several giant monsters who stormed, invaded, and tried to kill me, my friends, and conquer Equestria and turn it into a perpetual storm nightmare. This? This is a heavily padlocked door, and I know we can break it down, but it needs all of us combined to break it."

"It's risky, but I'm willing to try anything," Vignette agreed. She threw her coat off just to prepare herself. "Let's break it!"

All three girls lined up to do a charging run, focusing on the loose piece of wall in front of them.

"Okay, everyone ready?"

"Ready!"

"Three... two... one!"

All at once the trio charged at the wall and threw themselves against the loose piece, snapping the restraints on the outside of the containment. They backed off from the intense pain of the slam, but they could see their effort was working. Several loud snaps and bolts were breaking from the outside of their containment, until a square piece of the wall was free from the joints and it fell to the ground with an intense slam.

Seeing their chance, the trio stepped out to take a closer look at what surrounded them. The containment was much smaller on the outside when they got a good look, but they hadn't escaped just yet. A massive hangar surrounded by crates made of metal and wood, with buzzing light fixtures hanging above the ceiling.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me... WE WERE STUCK IN A WAREHOUSE THE ENTIRE TIME!?" Rarity shrieked.

The princess walked towards the massive steel door that barricaded the warehouse. She felt the sides, trying to get a feeling of the material. "Hmm. I don't think we can kick the door down, this is solid steel."

"But how do we get out of here?" Rarity whined. "WE CAN'T BE STUCK IN HEREREEREREEEEEEE!!!"

"Girls!" Vignette interrupted. "I still have my phone," she casually remarked.

"... oh," Rarity sighed. "Please tell me it isn't low on battery."

"I have 85% of power. It should be enough to call for help," Vignette typed. "But who do I... wait! Sonata! I gave her a spare phone, she can find us!"

She didn't hesitate to type in the number, and began to hit dial...

As everyone continued to wander around and enjoy the rides and food around, Sonata had parked herself on a curb outside of one of the restaurants, sitting on the ground as opposed to the benches that were available. The ground that she was on was designed to look like land from the 1950s, in a sorta vintage restaurant area of the park. However, revisiting a 50s themed area did not make her feel any better or happy. Nor did the amount of milkshakes that were sitting on the ground help either. Her chin rested on her arms which wrapped around her knees, sitting there in silence while everyone else continued to have fun around her.

“Fourteen milkshakes. Never a good sign, where do you even put those?”

“Hey Amy,” Sonata whimpered.

Amethyst frowned as she sat on the curb with her. “What are you doing here by yourself? The girls didn’t abandon you, did they?”

“No. But my new friend has,” Sonata whimpered. “I thought we were hitting it off and then she just runs away without even telling me!”

Amethyst sighed as she pulled Sonata close to her and held her in a hug. “I know how that feels. I brought an intergalactic ambassador here in this world and in five minutes she went missing. And I still haven’t found her.”

Sonata whimpered and buried her head into Amethyst’s shoulder, catching her by surprise. But Amethyst knew what to do and she wrapped her arms around her.

“What is wrong with me? Am I too dumb? Am I just a stupidhead?”

“No, no, you are not stupid,” Amethyst said, rubbing her back.

“… Is that a new dress?” Sonata muffled into her shoulder. “It looks nice!”

“… It was a new dress. Until I got pelted in ketchup and bird… things,” Amethyst cringed.

Sonata pulled her head out, showing her reddened cheeks and bloodshot eyes. “I’m a stupidhead. Vignette would never want to hang out with someone like me. I don’t know the internet or modern trends, I'm not up to date on everything the teens are into, I’m just… nothing.”

“Sonata, do not say that. You are not a stupidhead, you are the best friend anyone can need. You have more innocence than any of us, which is scary considering everything you’ve told me you and your sisters have gone through, but still! If she left you, then shame on her. She doesn’t know what she’s missing.”

Sonata sniffled a bit, wiping her tears away. She couldn’t help but smile, Amethyst always knew how to make a friend smile whenever they were down. “T-Thank you.”

Amethyst patted her shoulder. “Come on, let’s go do something.”

“Like what?”

“Like help me track down a foreign dignitary in a giant amusement park,” Amethyst said with a straight face, giving a single pat on her shoulder. “Come on!”

Sonata was still confused. “I don’t understand, what… wait. Why am I feeling something buzzing in my pants pocket?”

Amethyst blinked. “Did you take something with you?”

Sonata reached into her pants pocket and her hands felt something hard and metallic. “Wait, the phone! Vignette gave me her phone!” She pulled it out, showing Vignette’s name and picture as the source of the caller. “W-What do I do, should I answer it?”

“If you want to. If she left you for whatever, I wouldn’t say a thing.”

“Now hold on, I want to hear what she has to say,” Sonata said with a determined face. “… How do I answer it?”

“Move your finger down on the screen, swipe it to the green,” Amethyst instructed.

“Hey, that rhymes!” Sonata giggled. She did just that, and she held it up to her ear. “Vignette?”

“Sonata, thank goodness, I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for the past two hours!”

Sonata yanked the phone away from her ear from how loud she was starting to sound. “Two hours, Vignette where are you? And why did you just leave me, am I nothing to you!?”

Amethyst almost jumped at her response. Sonata definitely went in a complete 180, and that honestly scared her. Especially since she couldn’t predict her next move.

“Sonata, listen to me. You are my friend, honestly you are my only friend. What happened was not supposed to be that long, but I… I don’t know how to explain it.”

Sonata didn’t know how to handle this department. Hear her out, listen to her, try to figure out if she was just making excuses or in serious trouble, or completely block her from her life? Well she didn’t know what to really make of it… but she chose to hear her out.

“Explain it then, what happened?”

Vignette sighed on the other line. “Your older sister Adagio said that Click Bait was evil, right?”

“Yeah, she is! She picks on me, she sent some mean girls and boys to pick a fight with Aria, she blackmailed me, she corrupted the school, she—”

“—She’s trapped me in a warehouse!!!”

Sonata pulled the phone away from her ear. “Wait, what? What are you talking about?”

“Slide it to that button,” Amethyst pointed.

Sonata did just that, hitting the loudspeaker button.

“Click Bait trapped me in a warehouse! I don’t understand, I swear I must be losing my mind, because it looked like she used some weird magic to take me from my office straight to this place! I thought I was trapped in some void, until I found out I still had some cell reception… and now I’m stuck in a warehouse that looks like the perfect place to do nefarious deeds!”

Sonata and Amethyst shared scared faces, clearly worried by her words.

Oh no… Amethyst mouthed.

“Vignette, wait, are you alone, is there anyone with you?”

“Yes, I’m not alone!”

“GET US OUT OF HERE!”

“How do we get out of here!?”

Amethyst and Sonata blinked and looked at each other again.

“That sounds like Rarity!”

“And Princess Trixie! Wait a minute… Princess vanished a long time ago earlier today …” Her face drooped to fear when she finally put the pieces together. “Vignette, listen to me. How much energy is left on that phone?”

“I still have plenty of juice left, why?”

“Stay where you are. Sonata and I are going to try and find you,” Amethyst said. “Come on, let’s go!”

Chapter 9: A True Friend

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It took twenty minutes to try and track the source of Vignette's phone; and thankfully by the time they found it, Vignette still had a little bit of battery left in her device. Parking the car outside the warehouse destination, Amethyst and Sonata ran up to the doors of the structure, trying to find a way to get inside. No one had access, so they couldn't rely on the doors. Even then, there weren't any employees or truckers out here, this place looked as if it had been deserted for a while.

"I have an idea!" Sonata gasped. "Vignette! Can you hear me!?"

"Yes, I can hear you!" Vignette yelled through the doors. "We can't get out!"

"Okay, listen to me carefully! I need you to step back away from the doors; we're ramming them down!"

"WAIT WHAT!?"

"Trust me!" Sonata shrieked back. "I need you to listen to me, okay?"

"I... okay, nothing else is working!"

Sonata looked back at Amethyst, giving her a nod. The keytar player quickly moved out of the way, throwing herself behind her car just to brace herself. A bright flash was seen outside the few windows of the warehouse, confusing the girls inside. But they kept themselves far from the doors per Sonata's request. Just then they felt the ground shake with violent steps; as if a giant had stepped towards the warehouse doors.

BAM!!!

A violent thud slammed against the door, making them all shake and cover their ears from how loud the sound was. A massive dent was made in the doors, and it only got bigger and bigger with each thrash.

One final smash was enough to push them off the latches, and so they came slamming down onto the ground, undoing the dents in a cartoonish fashion. The thuds echoed throughout the warehouse, somehow not shaking any of the shelving or leftover pieces of crates inside. When the trio looked back, they expected to see possibly a heavy beam or wrecking ball being the source of the push, maybe some dynamite being the force.

The only sight they got was the adorable Sonata Dusk just walking casually inside, taking in the new sight around her.

"Sonata!!!"

The Siren turned to her right, and her face lit up with a squee. Vignette charged at her and scooped Sonata up with the biggest hug, making her giggle. The 23-year-old held her close, unable to express the sheer joy she was feeling right now. Rarity and Princess Trixie joined in as well, giving her a hug too.

"Aww, no sugar for Amy?" Amethyst pouted.

The Princess broke from the hug and tackled Amethyst to the ground, giving her a warm hug back.

"OW! Worth it!"

Vignette pulled out of the hug to look at Sonata with a sympathetic face. "Sonata, I am so sorry for vanishing like that, I didn't--"

"Ah-dah-bah-dah-dah..." Sonata interrupted, putting her finger on Vignette's lip. "It's okay. I know that wasn't your fault. Come on, we've gotta stop Click before she zaps anyone else with that phone!"

Everyone high-tailed themselves back into the station wagon with quick determination. Once everyone was gathered, Amethyst quickly sputtered the car out of the area and went back onto the main highway, moving as fast as she could. Vignette, Princess Trixie, and Rarity sat in the back, with Sonata in the shotgun, and Amethyst continuing to drive.

"What is wrong with that girl? Who raised her to be such an entitled little... blowhard!" Vignette ranted from the backseat. "I've tried to be patient with her, I've tried giving her several chances, and all she's done is harass my employees, make them sad all the time, and she zapped me, my fashion designer, and your sister's girlfriend--"

"--Not dating, by the way!" Princess interrupted. "Just saying!"

"--Into a warehouse! What could drive her to such insane lengths?"

"Never underestimate the power of greed," Sonata said, almost matter-of-factually. "If you were to pick someone out of a billion people to have the power to bend fire, odds are one of of those billions are greedy, nasty, spiteful, and just pure evil. Not scary axe-murderer evil, but just all around nasty. I've met over three-hundred Clicks in my lifespan, each of them different in their own way."

Vignette was about to ask, but Sonata kept going.

"But she's about to find out what happens when you mess with me," Sonata growled softly. "You can insult me to my face, but no one... no one zaps my friends with Equestrian magic and gets away with it!"

"Equestrian magic...?" Vignette repeated. "That's rather specific..."

"Because it is, and... oh no," Sonata realized. "Okay. Vignette... do you promise me you won't freak out, or leave me if I tell you a secret?"

"What's going on? Sonata, are you in danger?"

"I'm not, but everyone in the entire park could be in danger if Click keeps her phone," Sonata replied. "Okay, um... how do I put this lightly? I'm.... over a thousand years old."

The car went dead silent. Vignette wasn't sure what to really say, or if this was all one big joke. "You're kidding, right?"

Sonata turned her head back. She shook her head casually.

"You... you're not kidding?"

"Nope!"

"Okay, Sonata, this isn't funny--"

"She's not joking," Amethyst interrupted. "The reason she got those warehouse doors down? She got them down using a form of magic that reverts her back to her true form. She's not exactly human."

"You... you're actually.. how, what..."

"It's a long story. But I need you to trust me," the youngest Siren asked with sincerity in her tone. "I promise I will tell you everything soon, but we need to stop Click from zapping anyone else. That Equestrian magic isn't hers, and it shouldn't be in her phone. We need to grab that phone, and smash it before she could hurt anyone else with it."

Vignette was still trying to wrap her head around what Sonata had said, but she reined in her ten million questions to be put aside for later. "Alright. Well, how do we stop her then?"

"Easy. If she's putting those floats out in about... say, half an hour? I say we stop her before she has a chance to butcher the parade," Amethyst asked. "We don't even have to make a scene if you don't want to, we can stop her right there and then."

"I suppose so. But I don't want her to cause any more harm to anyone else; she needs to be reminded that her actions have consequences, and I cannot let what happened today continue elsewhere," Vignette determined.

"Actually... I have an idea," Sonata grinned, almost looking sinister with her fingers twiddling against each other. "A very good idea..."

"We can't kill her," Amethyst deadpanned.

"What? No! That's evil, I wasn't going there!" Sonata protested. "I'm just saying, I have a very fun idea to get her true colors revealed to everyone..."

The parade floats were almost ready to depart, they just needed the hangar bay doors opened and they could begin. Click was working her hardest (not really) to get the crew moving, but they were starting to have a problem. The poor coordination from Click's part was making things very difficult for any cohesive plans or scheduling in. Not to mention, too many people started to ask questions on where Vignette was, which made Click nearly want to zap them with the phone, but she restrained herself in the more public spacing.

Thankfully her distraction was just what Vignette and the others needed. Tapping into their phones, and grabbing Vignette's laptop, they turned on the cameras and focused a few tripods to lock onto Click and anyone else in the room. If they were going to face her down, they wanted everyone to see it. And in a nick of time, the phones of everyone who subscribed to Vignette started to ding, giving them notification of a live-show starting soon. It must have been the parade, it was almost time!

But to everyone's surprise, they were seeing Click Bait just screaming and yelling at the staff.

"Come on, you idiots! How hard is it to get a parade float moving?"

"Very hard, indeed!"

Click's attention was brought to the ground floor, spotting Rarity glaring at her and tapping her foot.

"What!? I made you vanish! How did you get back here!?" Click shrieked.

"I picked up a ride, so if you do that again, I'll just come back!" Rarity warned with a smirk.

"Erggh... get out, Rarity," Click snarled, deciding to try a different tactic this time. "You're not needed, you're fired."

"Since when do you give the orders?"

Click jumped, hearing the voice coming from behind her; Princess Trixie was there, her arms folded and looking very cross.

"W... I zapped you! How did you come back?"

"Hand over your phone, now," Princess Trixie ordered with an open palm.

"Or what? I can just zap you too!"

Click primed her camera and hit the click button, sending a bright zap towards Trixie's direction, but thankfully was intercepted by Rarity who had climbed up as they talked, deflecting the blast towards a random stage light in the ceiling. Click hit the button again, and Rarity's diamond skin deflected it to something else, hitting a random piece of cargo in the hangar.

At first everyone thought this was just a recorded video, maybe some promotional material. But students of Canterlot High and Crystal Prep Academy knew better, gasping at what they were seeing.

But now Click was getting raging mad. Realizing her phone wasn't doing anything, she tried to get closer and tackled Rarity across the float, sending them both falling down and on the ground. Rarity kept her diamond skin up, blocking any physical assault Click tried to do, which now had gotten everyone's full attention. Click tried to punch, but only hurt herself in the process, even so far as to try and grab Rarity by the neck to hold her in a chokehold, but that didn't do anything either.

"HEY!"

A loud sound of synthesized music blaring from a keytar filled the room as Amethyst leapt down to face her.

"How about you stop trying to hurt my friend?"

Click let go of Rarity with a snarl, and immediately turned her wrath towards the newcomer. She almost threw herself at the other girl, in a near-flying tackle, and Amy stumbled back, surprised in spite of herself. The keytar hit the floor with a heavy clatter, as Click Bait - all pretense forgotten, so great was her rage - grappled with Amethyst and tried to wrestle her to the ground.

"Get - off of me!" The purple girl shouted. She kicked her feet, and then managed to knee Click in the gut; the taller girl doubled up for a moment, and Amethyst shoved her hard, pushing her back and out of immediate range. Amethyst Star leapt back, to put more distance between her and Click Bait. The push was just enough that Click Bait had lost her phone, which dropped to the ground with a clatter. Unfortunately with no screen protector, or anything to protect it from damage; the screen cracked. Streams of magic escaped, vanishing into thin air. Click Bait was now unarmed, with no weapon left to fight. Amethyst brought her fists up, bracing for another attack. "Stop it, Click! It's over!" she hollered.

And then another person stepped out; this time, Sonata Dusk who had her arms folded. "Try anything else, and we're calling the police."

“You! You’re ruining this show, I’m going to have to call security especially for—”

“—For what?”

Click’s body froze in place. When she turned around, she felt herself freezing at the sight of her boss. Her boss that she had zapped away, who was standing there with a deathly glare. Everyone who was watching the livestream was suddenly going 'oooh' at the sight; they had no context for their relationship, but they could tell by Vignette's tone she wasn't happy by this new girl. The coworkers inside the hangar bay however lit up, knowing exactly how Vignette acted whenever one of her employees mistreated one another.

“—For sabotaging my employee’s productivity? For insulting patrons who were just having a good time? For yelling at stressed out parents who were trying to get their children back? For using your phone which was infected with supernatural energy, which you had no right to possess, to get what you wanted? For harboring said supernatural energy, to zap me out of the park just so you could get a job that you have no experience or rights to have, all to take petty revenge on some former classmates? For ATTACKING these girls!?”

Lyra and Bon Bon went ‘oooh’ when they saw the signal.

“This is going to be juicy. Should we find them?" Lyra asked.

“No. Let this resolve on its own. I have a feeling Vignette isn’t going to need us,” Adagio said, folding her arms with a smirk as she watched.

Vignette pointed sharply at Click. Her face was practically burning with rage; cheeks flushed, her eyes staring daggers, she even ground her teeth for a moment, trying to find words for just how angry she was right now!

"You... you are one of the most shallow, disgraceful, insensitive, self-absorbed, and infuriating human beings I have met in my life! When your father recommended you to me, I had hopes for you. But you've just made it clear today that hiring you from the start was the biggest mistake I ever made. Not only did you insult my employees, attack my fans and the visitors here at this park, but you also tried to pin everything on my costume designer, and trapped me in a warehouse to take over my job! Do you honestly think this is how I got famous? Do you honestly think that any of the behavior you transpired today would be okay!? How many brain cells had to be destroyed in that walnut sized brain of yours to think that any of this was a good idea!?"

Vignette took a short moment to catch her breath, trying to calm down a notch... for a few seconds, before winding up and screaming again.

"Do you really believe I would ever do any of these things? I became famous because unlike you, I WORKED to get this position! I applied, I studied, I did everything to honestly earn this job here at the park! Oh, and by the way? I know about the false information you put on your resume, because I called your previous employers and learned a few details about your behavior! And I also know about the torment you put my friends through! I have enough evidence to put you in some serious trouble; you have no leg to stand on here!"

"And how do you reckon that?" Click scoffed.

Vignette still shook her head, annoyed by the lack of awareness this girl had.

"But okay; so maybe my methods were a little crazy, come on! I was almost ready, I was doing your job for you, you should be thanking me!" Click protested still.

Vignette's nostrils flared as she growled. Sonata was just as mad, but to a lesser degree. She wanted to step forward but Amethyst put her arm out, blocking her. She shook her head, silently asking Sonata to stand down and to not incriminate herself.

"And why are you even making friends with... her? Do you have any idea how much of a freak she is, she and her sisters!"

Now Vignette was ready to let loose. But she calmed herself down before she spoke any further. She took a few more steps forward, knowing how much danger she was about to be in with her enemy still armed. But she still remained composed. Adagio and her company back outside glared intently at the screen, waiting for Vignette to make her phone.

"You want to know why I made friends with her? Sonata Dusk is the first real friend I have made in a long time. She did things with her life, she served this country. She went into places we all could dream of, things we couldn't have even imagined! She was either naïve enough, or brave enough to even try to go to your school, along a snobby boyfriend, snooty elites… and a certain power-hungry wretch. All she wanted was to enjoy a normal life that didn’t involve running, getting hurt, constantly trying to survive getting away from people who wanted her dead simply for who she is. She is a better woman than you will ever be, you say one more word about her and I will throw you out of the park myself."

The entire park was silent. They had never seen this side of Vignette before; sure she had a few bad episodes at times where she had to take breaks from making a video for her own mental or physical health, but no one had seen her this mad before.

Click had to admit, even she was scared. But just as she was about to speak up—

“Ah, ah, ah! I wouldn’t anger her if I were you. She’s already had a bad enough day, you wouldn’t want to make it worse for yourself!” Sonata said nonchalantly.

Vignette was still seething, but she kept herself as calm as she could. “You know, after everything you’ve done, I could easily call the police and have you arrested on the spot,” Vignette spat.

“No, no, please! I can’t be arrested!”

“Why not? Because you’re ‘innocent’? Because you’re such a ‘valued employee’? Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t call the police right here, right now!”

“You know…” Sonata leaned over and started whispering in her ear. Vignette was quiet, listening to her suggestions.

“Hmm… mmmhmm… ooh,” Vignette said, her interest piqued. “Oh I like the way you think.”

“W-What?”

Vignette turned her head with a smirk. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I won’t have you arrested… but I’m afraid I won’t be able to let go of such an incident as today's. Especially since my audience has witnessed you attacking my friends. And judging by the amount of people who have their phones out, I say I have more than enough witnesses to file some complaints, enough to fill heaven knows how many police forms. You can either leave this place quietly, never setting foot in Equestria Land, staying 500 yards away from me and my friends; my real friends… or I’ll call your father and tell her every little detail that my employees have been compiling about their experience working with you. Be such a shame since your father is such an upstanding citizen…”

Click was appalled. She couldn’t make these demands, she just couldn’t!

“We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. It’s your choice,” Vignette tapped her foot.

Click's fists continued to ball up but for once in the entire day, she didn't react with a temper tantrum or violent outburst. Instead she stayed collected, and looked Vignette in the eyes with a seething tone in her voice.

"I will gather my things and leave Equestria Land for good."

"And I mean it. If I ever find you near us, if I even learn you've been doing so without my knowledge..." Vignette warned. "Now, go."

And without another word, Click Bait walked away. Sour in defeat, angry, wanting to get back so badly, but unable to come up with anything effective for a means of payback. She knew how well this was going to go with her family... and it wasn't going to go well.

"Think she'll learn her lesson?" Amethyst asked to the group.

"Maybe with a little bit of humility, she will," the Princess thought. "But unless she learns real soon... I don't see her living a happy life."

"Whatever she decides is all on her now. Right now, I'm just happy I've got my job back!" Vignette cheered, swinging Sonata around with excitement. "Oh my goodness, thank you so much! All of you, I cannot thank you enough!"

"Heh, happy to help," Amethyst blushed, rubbing her arm. "Anyways, assuming she hasn't damaged the parade floats or the routines... wanna meet up with the others?"

"Actually, if none of you mind..." Vignette interrupted with some twiddling fingers. "I don't suppose maybe I can join you. I-I'd love to have a chance to hang out... i-if it's not too awkward, I don't want to impose."

"Are you kidding me? It wouldn't be imposing at all!" Sonata gave her another adorable hug. "Besides, I think I owe you an explanation as to who exactly I am," the Siren winked.

With the parade back on schedule and the employees able to get the real plans moving, the parade floats were able to move on schedule just in time for the show. The crowds went wild as musicians, dancers, and all the performers came out of the hangar bays. And after getting rid of Click Bait, all of the performers couldn't have been more happier. Rarity especially was glad to see her hard work and designs were being put on public displays for the crowds to enjoy.

And with the management under control, this gave everyone freedom for the rest of the evening. Rarity went off to go hang out with her friends since her shift was done for the day, allowing Princess Trixie to reconvene with Amethyst and join the rest of the company, Sonata and Vignette included. Now they were filling in Vignette Valencia on the truth regarding everything that happened following their story; how they were Sirens from another world, how they lived for over a thousand years, how they fought against Sunset Shimmer and made new friends, and the existence of magic. It took a lot of talking and detail to fill Vignette in on everything, but she got the picture.

“… And that’s everything,” Sonata finished.

Vignette was completely clueless on what to say. What even could she say? She swore if she heard this entire story from anyone else, they would have to be crazy.

“Wow. I… I don’t even know what to say. Does anyone else know about this?”

“All of CHS and CPA,” Trixie explained, taking a sip of a milkshake. “Some family members, but that’s about it. No one else knows.”

“And if anyone did, we can kiss our freedom goodbye,” Octavia said with some loathing, taking a shot of her drink.

“But wait, why are you telling me all of this?”

Sonata softly smiled. “Because you’re my friend. You trusted me to help you when you needed it. You had my back when she attacked us. And I would happily trust you with my life.”

Vignette smiled. “You really do?”

“I do. But, I also want you to know you can't go telling anyone about we who are. I know it'll just sound silly, but there's a lot of evidence of our history we've been trying to keep hidden, and if anyone were to ever find us... we can kiss our friends, and our freedom goodbye. Can you please not tell anyone? Please?”

Vignette gave a genuine, honest nod. “I promise I will not tell anyone your secret. All of you. You have my eternal loyalty and respect.”

The girls all smiled, letting Sonata give her a hug again. “Thanks Vignette!” Sonata adorably leaned on her still. Vignette was a little surprised, but she smiled and hugged Sonata back. “You really are my best friend.”

“Aww…”

“Now that’s adorable,” Vinyl giggled.

The two of them broke from the hug and looked back to the table.

“I just can’t believe I know all of this, I have so many questions!”

“Well, ask away!” Sonata said, welcoming her to ask.

“Okay, okay, um… How long have you girls been in America?”

Sonata’s fingers did some sky-writing as she broke down the math. “Let me see… The years we served with George Washington… Adding the years spent in both World Wars… multiplied by the five times we spent in the Old West and living in suburban life into the fifties… Ummmmm, about 118 years, I think,” Sonata finished.

“Oh my… And you and your sisters are over a thousand years old, correct?”

“Mmmhmm.”

“… How do you two still stay fabulous, you have aged gracefully for being over a thousand years of age,” Vignette complimented, getting some giggles from the table.

“Miracles of immortality. Never age, never change,” Adagio confidently replied, leaning back in her chair.

“And if I remember correctly, Trixie,” Vignette pointed. “You said the girl next to you who looks just like you is not a twin sister, is that right?”

“Exactly. She’s an interdimensional princess,” Trixie nodded, gesturing to the princess next to her.

The princess politely stood up and shook her hand. “Princess Trixie, nice to meet you without the stress of being trapped in a warehouse.”

Vignette giggled. “Yes, yes indeed…”

“Hey, where’s Aria at?” Sonata asked, looking around. “Where did she run off to?”

Aria and Flash had completely missed everything that was happening outside; they were too busy being off in their own world, along with Starry. They were just having a blast hanging out, and hadn't heard from anyone else regarding the crazy stuff regarding Vignette's livestream with Click Bait. For now, they were getting ready to cap off the evening for some dancing, all with their own western-themed attire they managed to acquire.

“Alright everybody. Now this one is a little something that our country friends from the west put together; a little ditty they made in honor for one of the greatest legends of the Old West, one of the toughest outlaw ever existed; Slugslinger.”

Everyone gave a soft round of applause, waiting for the announcer to get off the stage. Musicians began getting on stage, all dressed in their western clothes; plaid button ups, overalls, jeans, boots, you name it. The musicians began playing with guitars, the clap of their own feet, banjos, etc. And on stage were a few members of the Apple Family all together to perform: Blewgrass, Fiddlesticks, and Pitch Perfect.

From the opening beat, a few people were now moving out on the dance floor, adding to the overall beat of the music. Some familiar, some not. The CMCs were there, with their boots clapping on the floor. Including but not limited to; Sandalwood, Thunderlane, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Rumble, Neon Lights, Sunny Flare, Lemon Zest, Indigo Zap, Rainbow Dash, even Twilight Sparkle came to the park for fun. And everyone had their own form of cowboy garb, just to add to the authenticity. And of course, Aria Blaze, Flash Sentry, and Starry Sentry were on the dance floor with the others just to join in.

Beauty Brass took the center, taking the mic and she began to sing.

She flew out west to get out of a rut
A girl with action on her mind

Lookin’ for a homestead, or hut
And slingers are all she's gonna find

She’s fightin’ the law like a one man wrecking crew
This gal’s in for more adventure than she knew

Some folks like to fight for their land
Others like to fight for their friends
Slugslinger lived to fight for both
Fightin' until the very end

Slugslinger! In and out of battle
Slugslinger! The legend will be known
Slugslinger! Fightin' for all!
Fearless to the end, the toughest gal that ever roamed

Flash and Aria took the center of the dance floor, with the rest of the patrons dancing with them, following their steps. Admittedly Flash had never really done this kind of dancing, but with a smile, he just followed after his girlfriend’s steps, and he was already catching up with her.

She had struck gold and now she's on the run
Ready to fight with a sling of her old gun

Went down in the old mine for a flat out chase
On a job to help out her sis

For a moment there and then, it must have seen like the end was near

And walking through the country restaurant was Vignette and the gang, who stood in amusement and mild shock to see the band still playing away, as if she did not cause a scene out in the Life Parade. They just kept dancing away like normal!

“Boy, these guys really know how to throw a party!” Sonata grinned.

But then she found her way, and her memory still stands todaaaay!

Aria and Flash spun around in the middle of the dance floor, keeping in touch with the country music, doing all the dances. And Adagio and Sonata were blanking, but at the same time, impressed with the dancing she was doing in front of them. Aria still knew all the dances of the west; and now she was having a blast with her boyfriend and friends.

Some folks like to fight for their land
Others like to fight for their friends
Slugslinger lived to fight for both
Fightin' until the very end

Slugslinger! In and out of battle
Slugslinger! The legend will be known
Slugslinger! Fightin' for all!
Fearless to the end, the toughest gal that ever roamed
the toughest gal that ever roamed
the toughest gal that ever roamed!

Slugslinger’s the toughest gal we’ve ever known!

Aria made some final taps with her heels and with a proud pose, she tipped her hat and gave a wink to the audience, as everyone in the restaurant applauded for their dancing. Sonata only had one question.

“What did we miss?”

The Shattered Rollercoaster Of Friendship

by FourShadow

Chapter 1: Vignette Valencia

Chapter 2: Summer Break!

Chapter 3: Opening

Chapter 4: Sonata's Day Out

Chapter 5: Funtime's Over

Chapter 6: Hanging Out With Vignette

Chapter 7: I Am Not Having A Meltdown!

Chapter 8: Everything Falls Apart

Chapter 9: A True Friend