Later that day, at the party…

“Somepony, anypony, CRANK UP THE MUSIC!” Pinkie Pie howled.

“Already on it!” shouted a voice from behind her. Impact spun around to see a white unicorn with a striped blue mane standing behind a set of turntables, nestled between a pair of massive speakers.

“Alright, everypony! Settle down!” she said into her microphone. “We’re gonna get this party rollin’ with some old-school thunder, so get out on the dance floor and brace for impact!”

She popped on her headphones and dropped her needle. Once metal hit vinyl, everypony in the place was dancing…and that was just the way she liked it. Everypony, including the Princesses, started doing the Sparkle Shuffle; the adorkable new dance craze, currently sweeping across Equestria like wildfire, which Twilight inadvertently spawned during her last birthday party back in Canterlot.

As the tempo and temperature skyrocketed, the bass pulsed harder… better… faster… stronger…and Vinyl Scratch’s head bobbed along to the beat. She didn’t need to hear it. She could feel it. Her emotions were illegible behind her purple shades, but she was smiling as she sighed to herself.

“Ahh...You just can’t beat the classics…”

After several hours of cupcakes, fruit punch, singing, dancing, and a little bit of roughhousing, the party was winding down. More and more ponies trotted out the door, wishing Impact the best of luck and a happy belated birthday. Eventually, only Spike, Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, the Crusaders, the Princesses, and the DJ were partying with her inside the banquet hall.

As the DJ was winding down her setlist, she lifted her shades for a moment to wipe the sweat from her brow…

“V-Scratch!?” Impact called out in surprise. “Is that you?”

“Wait a sec…” the white unicorn muttered. She lifted her purple shades, exposing her red eyes to the room. She scanned for the source of the strange nickname, and when she found it, she jumped down from her musical perch to get a closer look.

“Hammerhead?” she asked in bewilderment as she pulled her headphones off, “Is that you!?”

“Our cool blue manes can feel no pains…” Impact said with a smile.

“Our bright red eyes can tell no lies…” she replied as a beaming grin etched its way across her face like a needle across a record.

The two long-lost friends raced toward one another and leapt into each other’s hooves.

“OH…MY…GOSH!” Pinkie suddenly interjected, squeezing between them, “IMPACT! DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS!? THIS IS DJ PON-3! YOU KNOW DJ PON-3!?!? HOW DO YOU KNOW DJ PON-3!?!?!? TELLMETELLMETELLMETELLMENOWNOWNOWNOWNOW!!!!!”

“She was my one-pony stage crew when I first turned pro.” Vinyl Scratch said confidently, “Best roadie I ever had… Pretty wicked on a six-string too! You still got your Talons?”

Her horn glowed white for a second and her artificial hoof began to transform. The end of her hoof unfolded, revealing four mechanical claws that bent and flexed at will.

“I still have my old ones back at home,” Impact said with a wicked smile, “but I’ve…upgraded.”

Pinkie Pie gasped as if she would never take another breath. Her million-miles-a-minute mind popped a synapse and went into auto-shutdown mode. She froze in her tracks and her eyes rolled into the back over her head.

“TIMBER!” Ditzy Doo called randomly from outside, which turned out to be a much more befitting exclamation than anypony could have expected, as Pinkie keeled over like a falling tree and fainted from excitement.

“Oh great…” Twilight mumbled as she facehoofed herself, “It’s alright, everypony! I’ll take care of this…” She levitated a cupcake from the snack table and started waving it above Pinkie’s face. Pinkie woke up instantaneously and devoured it in one chomp.

“All better!” she squeaked.

"But seriously, Impact was by far one of the best technical ponies a DJ could ask for!"

“Oh, stop it, Vinyl!” Impact blushed, “I wasn’t that good…”

“Thirty-minute setups and thirty-second teardowns on a regular basis, and you think you ‘weren’t that good’?” Vinyl blanched, “Come on! You were the best in the business and we both know it, so why’d you walk away?”

“I didn’t have my Cutie Mark and I didn’t have a clue what I was meant to do with my life, so I experimented with anything and everything! My path just turned in a different direction. I never meant to hurt you when I left, Vinyl Scratch, I swear it.”

“Don’t worry. I understand.” she said, still ecstatic to reacquaint with an old friend, “Everypony goes through that phase. Four years later and still the same old Impact… I can’t even believe you’re still alive!”

“V, you wouldn’t believe how many ponies have told me that. How have you been?”

“Still spinnin’ the good tunes all over Equestria. I got a new place and a new roommate, Octavia Philharmonica.”

“That stuck-up cello pony from Canterlot? I thought you two couldn’t stand each other!”

“Meh. She goes outta her way to drive me flat-out bonkers every now and then, and I can’t say I don’t do the same to her, but I think I’ve loosened her strings a turn or two.”

“B-b-but… you’re electric and she’s acoustic!”

“What can I say? I’m a DJ! I’m a sucker for a good mashup. So…what’ve you been up to?”

“Making friends, fixing stuff, cheating death more times than I can count. Y’know…the usual.”
Both ponies chuckled at the inside joke. “Finally got my own place where my skills can shine.”

“Awesome! Finally got your Mark, I see.”

“Gear equals creativity. Blood equals sacrifice. Long story short, if a pony can dream it, then I can make it real, as long as I walk away limping when the smoke clears. Just like that one Three Neighs Grace song says, ‘I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all.’”

“Great band, great song.” the DJ said with a nod, “I can respect that.”

“Hey, V!” Impact called as she strode onto the dance floor. “Could you spin our ‘special’ song…for old times’ sake?

“‘Special’ or ‘extra-special’?” she asked, leaping back up to her tables.

“‘Forbidden-special.’”

“You don’t mean…” Her eyes widened behind her purple shades.

“Oh, I mean….” Impact said with a seductive smirk.

The DJ pony shuddered as she opened a secret compartment in the back of one of her speakers and pulled out a blank white record sleeve.

The song etched into the plastic disc within could be described in many ways. The first song they composed together. Their mare-on-mare auditory lovechild, conceived sometime during a wild and crazy weekend in Manehattan neither parent could remember to this day. The most beautiful electronic symphony in the history of music. The most powerful mind-control device Equestria didn’t know about. The greatest song ever written ever.

Vinyl and Impact knew it by its true name: the Feeding Frenzy PsychoMix. It’s an seven-minute vortex of heart-hammering, mind-melting, soul-swirling euphoric insanity, blending pop, rock, dubtrot, and techno sounds like a Very Scary Cherry-Berry smoothie from the Juice Caboose down in Coltlumbus. Its rhythms were so powerfully hypnotic that even Princess Celestia wouldn’t be able to resist shaking a flank to these infectious beats.

She could actually count the number of times she’d played this track publically on one hoof. Impact knew what this song was capable of, but she still wanted her to play it. Music-talent ponies were immune, and her sister-in-sound had built up a tolerance over the years, but everypony else? The pink one’s head might actually explode for all she knew. Some songs are just too powerful for virgin ears.

“Are you sure you want to release this beast on everypony?” she asked.

“Absolutely! NOW DROP THAT BASS!”

DJ PON-3 nodded and popped on her headphones. Her horn glowed light blue as she set her forbidden-special record onto her turntable and readily obliged her demands, with everypony watching as the noise took hold of their brains.

Vinyl Scratch liked to watch ponies dance, but she especially loved watching Impact dance. What fascinated her most was the fact that Impact loved mashups almost as much as she did, her completely self-taught style mixing ballet with breakdance. Her flow was seamless, her steps were perfect, and her tricks were absolutely stellar, but she never did the same moves in the same order more than once.

The silver alicorn started off shufflin’ like a deck of cards with OCD, pirouetted like a ballerina, and then collapsed into air flares and windmills. Next she slid into a quicktrot sequence, then a pair of grand jetés, a triple back hoofspring, and landed into the most dangerous B-pony move in existence: spinning on her horn in the aptly-named Discordian Death Drill. The blue-maned DJ has seen so many unicorns damage their horns trying that trick, and one or two even snapped them clean off, but Impact could keep on spinning until she bored a hole in the dance floor. She was indestructible.

After the final song ended, Vinyl started to unplug and dismantle her equipment as she packed up for her long trip home. This was her last gig for the weekend, and she’d been paid in advance for her performance. She was ecstatic about finally getting to spend a full weekend with Octavia. She could already hear the beautiful music they’d make together once Tavi was back in her hooves…

“Hey, V!” Impact called, “Let me help you with that.”

She cast an enchantment with her horn, and everything started to move on its own, floating out the door and lining up neatly and orderly inside Vinyl’s cart.

“The ‘Party-in-a-Box’.” she said with a slight smile, “Some things never change… Anything else you need before I head out?”

“As a matter of fact…” Impact paused as she ran to one of her cabinets and rummaged through it, pulling out her first edition autographed Stephen Coltbert autobiography. She plucked a sheet of parchment from between two pages. “I wrote this poem about a year after we went our separate ways. I thought I could make a song out of it, but all I had were lyrics with no music. Maybe you could take a look at it?” She asked as she passed the parchment to her friend.

“Slaves to the Rhythm? Interesting title…” Vinyl lifted her shades as she read the poem.

Music starts a-pulsing… Bodies start convulsing…
My lyrics so hot, Ensnarin’ your thoughts,
Preparin’ to make your mind rot…

Bucking, screaming, fighting… I’m sensing that you’re frightened…
When pleasure and pain are one and the same,
You’ll finally be enlightened…

Your hoof starts tap-tap-tappin’ to the sound
Guess that means the tran-transformation’s starting now!

So…
Go ahead and scream
But this is far from just a dream
You’re my slaves to the rhythm tonight
As you’re slowly zombified
My voice will bring you back to life
To be my slaves to the rhythm tonight!

Her hoof began tapping as she synced to the flow of the words.

“Wow!” she said as she finished reading. “This is really good! With some more verses and the right mix, this could work! Let me run it through my speakers a couple times and I’ll see where it goes from there.”

“Thanks! I could always count on you to make things happen.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to give the music world another go, Hammerhead?”

“I’ll think I’ll take you up on that someday, V, but until then, I’ll be here if you ever blow a speaker!”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” she admitted.

“Besides…we’ll always have that weekend in Manehattan…” Impact chuckled.

“I thought you couldn’t remember that.”

“I can’t recall most of it…” she whispered seductively as every light in the workshop mysteriously went out, causing a slight panic, “But I'll remember this…”

The silver alicorn leaned in close and planted a firm kiss on her former fillyfriend’s lips, and the white unicorn immediately kissed her back as they entwined themselves in each other’s embrace. Impact’s wings fluttered. Her right wing leapt to attention with a near-noiseless POMF, but her left one shot upright with a more mechanical-sounding POMF. Even under the cover of darkness, she could hear the difference. Great, she thought to herself. Even my wingboners don’t feel like they used to.

“Don’t tell Tavi I did that.” Impact whispered breathlessly as she was sadly forced to break their perfect moment, “Knowing her, she’d probably cut my tail off and make a year’s supply of bowstrings with it.”

Vinyl Scratch lifted her shades one last time, revealing half-lidded eyes and quivering lips.

“Tell who about what?” the white unicorn cooed into her ear with a soft whisper, her melodic voice sending every syllable pulsing like a bass line.

“Good girl.” the alicorn replied, her smile invisible in the absence of light. “I promised you that I’d do that one last time, V, even though we’ve both found somepony else to love.”

“You always did keep your promises.” she whispered back. “Who’s the pony you’re chasing now?”

“Let’s just say her sparkle has become impossible to ignore.” she replied with a sultry smirk.

Now that the party was over, the DJ had left the building, and her dirty little secret was safe, Impact let the lights flicker back on, resulting in sighs of relief.

“Sorry about that everypony! We blew a fuse in the circuit breaker!”

“Not a problem.” Twilight said with a smile.

“Besides, it ain’t a Pinkie Pie party ‘til something explodes!” Applejack cheered.

After the party was over, Impact and friends concluded their celebration back at the fully-christened Broken Wing Workshop.

“Crazy-rockin’ party, girl!” Rainbow Dash shouted amid her laughter.

“Quite a top-notch soiree, indeed.” Rarity chimed in.

“Did anypony else see Lyra and Bon-Bon sneak away into the broom closet?” Spike wondered, eliciting laughter from the entire group.

“Maybe next year, if you’ll let me, I can throw you a party on your actual birthday?” Pinkie Pie asked, casting her pouty eyes and whimpering like a sad puppy.

“Sure, Pinkie,” Impact said with a quick, defeated sigh, cringing at the overload of cuteness as she hugged her bubbly bubblegum friend, “and I promise to never flip out on you over a party ever again. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” She winced slightly as she pressed her hoof into her eyeball.

“Well, Impact, this has been a most wonderful evening, and I’m overjoyed to know that you’ll be staying in the presence of such good friends, but please do visit me in Canterlot every now and then… I’ve missed you so much since you left…” She ended her statement in an endearing pout.

“Don’t worry, Princess.” Impact said with a smile, “I promise to visit at least twice a year, and I’ll be writing to you a lot more often, too. Besides, you came to my birthday party, so I intend to return the favor.”

“I’m holding you to it!” she chuckled as her and Luna prepared to depart for the evening, “Also, I have one last question for you.”

“Fire away!”

“I must know…” she asked, her tone shifting from cheery to slightly sad, “Why made you decide to abandon Canterlot? I could have given you anything you wanted. Why did you leave me?”

“Exactly, Princess,” Impact replied, “You could have given me anything I wanted. Given. Oh, how I LOATHE that word! I left Canterlot because the one thing I wanted more than Equestria itself was the one thing your way of life would never provide… independence. I couldn’t stand being coddled and pampered, everypony waiting on me mane and hoof, doing the most menial of tasks for me when I could have easily done them myself. You treated me like a daughter, but everypony else treated me like a doll…” Her eyes lit up as the last word crossed her lips, “Which reminds me…”

Impact raced away into another room, rummaged around for a while, and returned with a large white box, wrapped in blue and black ribbons and tied with a matching bow, surrounded by her magical aura. She set it down at Celestia’s hooves and nosed it in her direction.

“For me?” she asked with a puzzled look on her face.

She lifted the lid off of the box. The sides fell away to reveal an alicorn filly with a metallic silver coat. Her leg and her wing were wrapped in bandages, and her mane, tail, and cutie mark looked very, very familiar…

“A doll?” the Sun Princess queried with a raised eyebrow.

“PLUSHIE!!!” Pinkie Pie squealed randomly as she tried to race toward it. Impact was forced to chomp down on her tail to keep her from trampling the doll.

“Whoa, Pinkie! Down, girl! Heel! HEEL!” she mumbled as she ran her tongue through the mouthful of fluff. Her eyes widened for an instant as she inadvertently made an alarming realization about Pinkie Pie. Her tail didn’t just look like cotton candy, it tasted like cotton candy. What kind of shampoo did she use?

“OK…OK…” Pinkie said, calming down. “I’m good.”

“A doll?” the Sun Princess repeated, her eyebrow still elevated with confusion.

“This year, Princess Celestia, my birthday present to me is a present for you. Rarity did all the fabric work. I configured the sensors and I provided the sounds.”

“Fabric? Sensors? Sounds?” she wondered. “What are you talking about?”

Impact fired a single spark from her horn and the doll whirred to life, raising its head and opening its eyes.

“Hello?" it asked, greeting its new owner in a younger version of Impact’s voice.

“WHOA!” Spike said with a gasp.

“What the hay?” Applejack and Apple Bloom asked simultaneously.

“OK, now that’s cool!” Scootaloo admitted.

“IT TALKS!?!?” Celestia said incredulously.

“Mm-hmm.” Impact said with a nod. “Go ahead, Princess. Try her out.”

Royal decorum flew out the window with those words. Celestia became instantly fascinated by her new toy. To everypony’s astonishment, she removed her golden shoes, plopped down on the floor and began to play with the doll, trying to locate all the hidden tricks Impact could’ve embedded into it.

She stroked the doll’s back and its eyelids drooped.

“Ohh…that feels nice…” it moaned happily.

She picked it up with her magic, flipped it over, and blew a raspberry into its belly.

“Stop it!” it squealed with a giggle, “That tickles!”

Everypony else couldn’t resist joining in as the doll’s laughter became infectious.

As one last test, she lifted it up and gave it a kiss on the cheek. It smiled back at her with sparkling eyes. “Mmm…so that’s what being kissed by the sun feels like!”

Fluttershy stepped forward, entranced by the doll. Wanting to touch it, she extended her hoof and accidentally brushed against the bandages on its foreleg.

“OUCH! That hurts!” The doll’s face contorted as if in pain.

“Oh my goodness!” the flustered pegasus exclaimed in shock, “I’m so sorry!”

“Why would you do that? You know that’s one of my sore spots!” the doll whimpered. Suddenly, it began to cry. Artificial tears began rolling down its cheeks.

The sight and sounds of the crying doll reawakened something inside Celestia’s head. The lines between reality and fantasy began to blur and she didn’t want the moment to end. Her brain didn’t know that she was holding a toy, and it didn’t care. At that moment, it was ten years ago, and she had drifted back to the day when she first brought Impact home. In the back of her mind, she was clutching the real thing once more, and her maternal instincts responded by kicking into overdrive.

“Oh…don’t cry.” she cooed, cradling the doll in her hooves as she wiped the tears away, “It’s OK. I’m here. I’ve got you.”

“I’m cold.” the doll whispered as it began to vibrate softly, producing a surprisingly realistic illusion of shivering.

“Well, I know somepony who can fix that…”

She gave the doll a powerful squeeze and it released a happy, contented sigh and a grateful “Thank you. You’re so warm.” Suddenly, the doll yawned. “I’m tired.”

“Well, you can go to sleep if you want.” Celestia said, “We’ll be home soon.”

“Will you still be here when I wake up?” it wondered earnestly.

“Yes. Absolutely.” she replied.

“OK, Mama.” the Impact-doll mumbled as it closed its eyes and powered down, “I trust you.”

“Good night.” she whispered as the waves of déjà vu washed over her.

“Well, if that ain’t tha sweetest thang Ah’ve ever seen!” Applejack said with a smile at the sight of such a tender mother-daughter moment. “Just gives ya that warm, fuzzy feelin’, don’t it?”

Everypony nodded in agreement.

“So, do you like it?” Impact asked.

“Her mane... its feels so real…” she sighed blissfully, running her muzzle through it and getting lost in its all-too-familiar aroma.

“That because it is real.” Impact said proudly. She shook her mane and tail, revealing where sections had been cut. Rarity gasped audibly in horror at the sight of the mangled manestyle.

“I don’t know what to say…” the princess replied in disbelief as she picked the doll up once again, “This is over-the-top, even by my standards.”

“I poured my heart and soul into that doll.” she said with a proud smile, “So whenever you’re feeling sad or lonely, just give her a squeeze and think of me.” She leaned in close and kissed Celestia ever-so-gently on the cheek. “Even when we’re miles apart, we’ll always be together.”

The two alicorns became teary-eyed and hugged one another tightly.

“Hey!” Luna chimed in, having crept up behind them, “You can’t hug one Princess without the other!”

“Pinkie Pie smells hugs!” Pinkie cheered, sniffing the air. “PINKIE PIE WANTS.” she growled, fiercely but cutely, staring intently at the three alicorns.

“Hugs?” Fluttershy queried.

“I want in!” Twilight called.

“Me too!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Absolutely!” Rarity chimed in.

“Ain’t no way Ah’m missing this!” Applejack hollered.

“Don’t forget us!” the Crusaders moaned.

“Room for one more?” Spike asked.

The Sun Princess and her adoptive daughter exchanged knowing glances and smiled.

“Oh…GET OVER HERE!” the alicorns called.

Everypony ran together, colliding to create one of the biggest, softest, cuddliest group hugs in the history of Equestria. Somewhere in the center of the throbbing mass of bodies, Impact Hammer wore a satisfied smirk, like a filly who’d successfully managed to sneak one last cookie before bedtime.

She’d finally done it. She’d found a place to start over. She had a bright future ahead of her, faithful friends that cared about her, a loving mother just a letter away, and a cool new toy to play with whenever some villain tried to threaten the peace and tranquility of Equestria.

Things could only get better from here on out.