Singing Writer

Starlight led us to the dining room after we finished unpacking our instruments. She seemed very interested in the fact that we were music-minded ponies, but understood that we were not quite the same as everypony else in Equestria. We were happy to know that there were other ponies who liked to perform music as well, like Ponyville's own Octavia and DJ Pon-3. We were hoping that ponies would like our style of music that we played, as it probably sounded different, what with our backgrounds and all.

The table was filled with delicious-looking food, which normally would have drawn suspicions about the motives of the cooks, but we had learned by then that the ponies of Ponyville were to be trusted. The food was more delicious than anything that we had had ever. Everything we ate, if we ate, tasted like tree bark and rocks back home, but here everything had a new taste: spicy, moist, salty, sweet, and everything in between! It was such a shock to our taste buds that we couldn't help but let out loud "MMM"s of happiness from tasting such delicious food. Pinkie seemed very proud of herself for making us so happy with the food.

After we couldn't eat anymore, Guitar asked, "What's that feeling when you can't eat any more but you ACTUALLY want to eat more?"

"That's called 'full'!" Pinkie said enthusiastically. "I'm really glad I got to make you two smile! You probably needed it!"

Spike came into the kitchen, saying, "Singing! Guitar! There you are! Twilight's hoping to see you in the library!"

"What's going on?" I asked the baby dragon.

"She's hoping to take you two and Starlight to the human world to visit her friends," Spike replied, although he didn't really clear up for us what a human was. "She's hoping that you'll learn a thing or two about friendship while you're there!"

"We did just finish eating," Guitar mused, "and we can explore Ponyville with Pinkie later..."

"We'll go," I said for both of us. "Lead the way, Spike!"

He led us back to the library, where a contraption thing was on the crystal mirror in an unnoticed corner of the room. Twilight had put the book that she was reading earlier on a podium on the top. The contraption was running, and a magical light shone from the surface of the mirror.

"Girls! I'm so glad you agreed to come!" Twilight greeted us. "I'm going to warn you, things there are a bit different than this world, but I have a feeling that everything's different for you two, given your background. Follow me through, and I'll show you around and introduce you to a few of my friends!"

She then walked through the mirror, and Starlight followed her through. I took a deep breath, nuzzled noses with Guitar, and walked through the portal with her right by my side.

Guitar Riff

When we emerged on the other side of the mirror, we both took a moment before we realized that we had strange things on the ends of our front legs, our back legs were longer, we no longer had our horns, and we were basically different in all but three ways: our hair color, our skin color, and our matching purple eyes. I looked on what I assumed were our clothes, and I saw that our Cutie Marks were both on our clothes in some way. My black guitar pick was on a pin on my shirt and on my jean pockets, and my sister's crossed eighth note and pencil were in the middle of her shirt. We looked at Starlight (at least, we assumed that she was Starlight by her skin and hair colors) and Twilight and saw that they were recovering quickly and already chatting up with some strange creatures that we looked a lot like at that particular moment in time. One with light orange skin, yellow and red curly hair, and light blue eyes held a strange thing on her front right hoof (?) towards us. We hesitated before putting ours on hers, and she pulled us up so that we were standing on our hind legs.

"Hi, you must be the girls Twilight was talking about," the thing said to us. "My name's Sunset Shimmer. I'm a friend of Twilight's."

"I'm Singing Writer, and this is my twin sister, Guitar Riff," my sister introduced us to the thing.

She had always been the more social of us two, and I'm happy for that. I was always the more gutsy one, while Singing was the more careful. After all, I was the one who had almost no qualms about verbally striking our mother back when she physically struck us. I wondered at that point what was happening to our sister and brothers right at that moment, and I grew worried. Singing gave me a comforting look, the look saying that we were doing all we could to help them.

"It's very nice to meet you, Sunset," I said to Sunset.

I suddenly found two of the other creatures familiar: one who looked like Pinkie Pie, and one who looked like Twilight. Everypony looked like they had just gotten back from a trip, as they all had their bags with them.

"Guys, these are my students: Starlight Glimmer, Singing Writer, and Guitar Riff," Princess Twilight was explaining to the others. She then turned to us and said, "Girls, these are my Canterlot High friends, although you will meet their pony selves back in Equestria. This is Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and my human form, SciTwi. At least, that's what we call her."

She gestured to a girl (it was obvious by that point that the best thing to call them was girls) that looked like Pinkie, a girl with rainbow hair and light blue skin, a girl with yellow hair in a ponytail and orange skin, a girl with curled purple hair and white skin, a girl with light pink flowy hair and light yellow skin, and a girl who looked almost exactly like Princess Twilight. The girls had sleepover bags with them, and there were many other humans (as I assumed that they were from how Twilight had referenced them back in Equestria) milling around the courtyard as a bus drove off.

"We just got back from Camp Everfree," Sunset explained to Twilight as the girls gathered all their things. "There's so much to discuss, Princess."

"I can tell, Sunset," Twilight replied. "We can talk in private later. You said you wanted to do a gig tonight?"

"Yeah, we got a gig from an alumnus of Camp Everfree that happens to live here in town. We have to go to the venue to get ready, and we are hoping that you can sing with us. SciTwi already sings, too, but I think that some extra voices can't hurt. You also said that Guitar and Singing are also musicians?"

"We are!" I blurted out excitedly.

"Let's see you two perform, then!" Rainbow Dash said, handing me her guitar. Sunset handed Singing hers.

It was a small obstacle to figure out how to get the notes right, but Singing and I both quickly got the hang of it and easily began a riff for one of our songs. We began to glow and float, and we sprouted pony ears and tail extensions as we played. After our riffs were over, we landed softly on our feet and our extensions disappeared.

"How did that happen?" Sunset asked in awe. "I thought it was just us!"

"I don't know, but it must have something to do with the Elements of Harmony," Twilight said.

"You mean these pendants?" SciTwi asked while she held out a purple pendant with Twilight's Cutie Mark on it.

Twilight took a good look at it and said, "Yep. That's it. So you guys have Elements of Harmony in this world, too?"

"It seems so, although you only mentioned 6," Sunset replied, "and there are 7 pendants."

"Say wha?" Twilight asked, baffled.

I cleared my throat and said, "This is all very interesting conversation, but shouldn't we be setting up and practicing for the gig?"

"That's right, the gig!" Rainbow gasped as she put on her blue pendant and quickly grabbed everyone's bags and sped out of sight, faster than anypony I had ever met. She sped back after a second, pulling a trailer with a bunch of instruments. "Let's get to it! Everyone on the trailer!"

"Rainbow has super speed?" Twilight asked.

"It seems that the Elements in this world give each of the girls here abilities of their pony versions in Equestria," Starlight offered, making herself known at last to the others.

"It seems so," Twilight replied.

Everyone then got on the trailer, and Rainbow yelled, "Hang on tight, girls!" before taking off at breakneck speed across town. When we finally stopped, Rainbow physically caught those who fell off from inertia, and SciTwi caught some with magic, one including herself.

We had come in front of a stadium, and Applejack explained, "We're the opening act for a popular singing group who is performing here tonight, so let's just do our best, but not so good that we overpower the main act."

"So 20% less cool," Rainbow remarked as she and AJ both unpacked the trailer.

We headed into the stadium and began to set up our instruments. I noticed that everyone who lived in this world all wore their pendants and were using their magic to help set up in some way. Rainbow used her speed, AJ used her apparent super-strength, Fluttershy enlisted the help of some animals, SciTwi used her telekinesis, Sunset and Starlight organized it, Rarity made gems to hold items that the others were too busy to use (mainly the outfits), and Pinkie threw exploding sprinkles to test the pyrotechnics. I thought it strange that Pinkie had exploding sprinkles, but I decided not to question it. It was Pinkie, after all.

***********TIME SKIP**************

That night before the gig, we were getting ready for the performance, and I saw a red gem pendant on a black necklace with a note attached, saying, "Break a leg! Sirenmaker"

I was so confused, but it looked really cool and even matched my skin tone. I put it on, and it seemed to have a glow of its own. I quickly went onstage with the rest of the girls and began playing and singing with them. I noticed that a green mist, which was not part of the show, begin to envelop the audience, and I started freaking out inside and stopped singing. I noticed that the mist had already done its job, so I went back to singing my part, even though I as terrified at the consequences. After a while, near the end of our set, the mist began to seep its way into my pendant, and I felt something filling me inside: power. And it tasted amazing.

At the same time, I was terrified because I was sure that everyone could see the mist and what was happening to me. I stayed by the stage to see the main act, so as to see what their style was, and three girls with pendants that matched mine with color schemes of gold, purple, and blue come onstage. Their voices were beautiful, and the mist also gathered into their pendants. The whole audience seemed to be under their spell, and they seemed to relish every moment of their performance.

After their performance was over, the gold one walked up to me, saying, "I see we have a fan in the wings here, girls." She then noticed my pendant, and added, "Actually, make that one of us. I'm Adagio Dazzle. The purple one's Aria Blaze, and the blue one's Sonata Dusk. Who are you?"

"G-Guitar Riff," I replied, stuttering in fear. These girls obviously had a lot of power, and I was afraid of what they could do to me.

"It's okay, Guitar," Adagio said, putting her hand (I had learned that the things were called "hands" in this world) under my chin to raise my eyes to her own. "You are a siren, like we are. Or at least, a newly-formed one. When did you get that gem?"

"Before the performance," I replied, getting some of my nerve back. "What was that green mist? What is this? What's going on?"

"All in due time, my dear," Adagio assured me, taking the hand from under my chin and put it on my shoulder to reaffirm her assurance. "In the meantime, shouldn't you be getting home?"

I then remembered the Rainbooms, and said, "When will I see you again?"

"You can come back anytime to us, my dear," Adagio said. "You have the portal, do you not?"

"Why can't you come with me?"

"That pony princess brat won't let us see the end of it if we go back right now. She and we had a run-in in the past. It didn't go very well."

"Oh. Can you at least tell me what that green mist was?"

"Of course, sweetie. It is negative energy, the source of our power. You didn't get to see its effects, as this is your first time doing this, but sirens can make anyone do their bidding when they sing. Our gems absorb that energy, and we use its power. In Equestria, we look different, with the gems embedded into our bodies, but you're only a new siren. You'll see as time goes on."

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata all left then, and I hurried back to the dressing rooms, where everyone else was finishing up their packing.

"Where were you?" Singing asked, putting her hands on my shoulders and shaking me hard. "We were worried sick! We were just about to go out and look for you!"

"Chill out, sis!" I said indignantly. "I was just watching the main act. I was in the wings of the stage the entire time."

She calmed down considerably, and warned, "Never do that kind of thing again! I was so worried that somepony did something awful to you. At least you're okay and stayed in one place."

She helped me get ready to go home, and we gave our guitars back to Rainbow and Sunset. Sunset gave hers to Rainbow, saying, "I'm going back to Equestria, at least for a little while. I have some unfinished business that I need to take care of back there right now."

The girls all gave her a big hug, then Rainbow brought us all back to the portal to Equestria. We all hugged the human girls goodbye and walked through the portal to Equestria. I saw that in Equestria, Sunset was a Unicorn, but something seemed different about her (besides the fact that she was a pony, of course). I couldn't figure out how, though.

"Everything's ready, Twilight!" Spike said enthusiastically. "Hi, Sunset! Good to see you again!"

"Hey, Spike," Sunset replied. "It's strange to be on four legs again after living on two for so long. I see you actually are a dragon here like you bragged so much about back in Canterlot High."

"Yeah, I know," Spike reveled in praise.

"Um, Guitar?" Starlight asked me. "What is that gem in your chest?"

I stayed quiet, realizing that the pendant had embedded itself in my chest while I stayed here in Equestria.

What was I becoming?

---

Oh wow, long chapter! Well, next chapter, I will have the summit take place, and I will definitely have Sunset be a surprise guest! Obviously the princesses have much to discuss!

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