Author's Note: this story will use a special feature that I like to call a soundtrack. It works just like a real one. Now, be warned that the songs used in all chapters do NOT belong to me, and I do NOT own the rights to them. Neither do any of the characters involved in the story. It's all fiction, anyway, so try to at least pretend they do, for coherence's sake, mmkay?

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  "Hell yeah!", exclaimed Rainbow Dash, as she got on her drumset and did a rocking drum solo.

  "Hey there, girls.", said Vinyl Scratch, apparently head of the recording studio.

  "DJ PON-3? Do you work here?", asked Twilight.

  "Well, I'm messing with the mixing tables, and I'm testing out your instruments professionally. Of course I work here. Hey, check this out."

  Vinyl turned one of the mics and messed with some of the table switches.

  "Hello, Twilight!", said Vinyl into the microphone. The sound echoed through the whole studio room.

  "Cool!", said Pinkie Pie. "What else do you have there?"

  "Now, Pinkie...", said Twilight. "... I think we can save this for later. We should be recording now."

  "Your instruments are working just fine.", said Vinyl. "Oh, and I think Lincoln forgot to tell you something..."

  "What is it?"

  "According to your contract, you guys have exactly two months to get your album recorded and produced. Otherwise, you're pretty much doomed as a rock band."

  "Oh boy..."

  "I think it's a fair amount of time.", said Rarity. "We already have a few songs written, right?"

  "Yeah, I guess."

  "We could include them all in the album, and write two or three new songs. We'll get it done in no time at all!"

  "Great idea.", said Vinyl. "Show me one of those songs."

  "Fluttershy, how about that cool song of yours?", suggested Twilight.

  "Okay.", said Fluttershy.

  Please (Intro) [original by Fixed]

  "It's great!", said Vinyl. "Although I'm afraid it doesn't sound anything like pyschedelic polka-rock."

  "Well...", said Pinkie Pie. "... most of our songs sound like that. We'd just like to vary a little, to improve on the variation with the songs that actually sound like that. Get it?"

  "... I think I do... anyway, that sounded great. Let's record it."

  ...

  "Got any more songs up your sleeves?", asked Vinyl.

  "Yeah, we got a few more.", said Pinkie Pie. "Haha! This is gonna be so much fun!"

  "It's just the beginning. Soon, you'll have lots of new songs... hopefully."

  During the next three hours, the Mane 6 had a great recording session, and played everything they had written until then. Vinyl was impressed by the huge amount of variation contained in most of their songs. It definitely sounded psychedelic, and it was cheerful enough to be called polka-rock. You could hear the music style of ten different rock bands contained in only one of their songs. There was Devo, there was The Offspring, there was Rush, and others, all mashed up into one masterpiece. Their performance was great too. Pinkie Pie's bass playing was still a bit clumsy, but the sound of the other instruments made it sound much better. Overall, it was pretty good.

  "That's it?", asked Vinyl, still amazed by their perfect sound.

  "Pretty much.", said Twilight, while drinking a glass of water, after all that intense singing.

  "Girls...", said Applejack. "... ah'd hate to interrupt this great moment, but ah should be goin' home. Lotsa work to do at the farm, y'know."

  "Yeah, I think that's enough for today.", said Vinyl, while the whole band said goodbye and left, except for Twilight. "See you all tomorrow, so we can start producing that album."

  "How complicated is it to record and produce an album?", asked Twilight, always wanting to learn new things.

  "It takes time... but once you get the hang of it, it's not that hard. We just take the songs we want, and then we dissect each one of them, so we can make them sound perfect. That is my job here, when I'm not DJ-ing in some special event."

  "I'm working on a song right now, and I'm wondering if I can bring it here, so you guys can take a look at it."

  "Don't hide any of your music from me. Or the whole band. That counts for all of your bandmates too."

  "Even if it's bad?"

  "Let me tell you something real nice: there is no bad music. There is bad sound engineering, there is bad instrument playing, there is bad instrument choice. But if everything is done right, with the right instruments and the right players, all music can be good... or at least tolerable. The thing is, don't be afraid to show us your songs, no matter how 'bad' you think they are. If the marketing industry doesn't like it, though, we can always keep your song as unreleased. Then we can release it in future compilations, or even hide it as a bonus track."

  "Okay... see you tomorrow then! I still have to get Spike out of the office."

  "Great singing, by the way."

  Twilight blushed a little.

  "Thank you." Next Chapter: Album Production Shenanigans Estimated time remaining: 23 Minutes