Sweetie Belle pulled herself out of bed on Saturday morning. She shivered as her hooves touched the wooden floor beneath her bed. The house was quiet. Good, that meant her parents hadn’t woken quite yet. With any luck, she could leave without them noticing.

Light streamed in to her little room through the blinds. The room looked the same as it had the previous night, though minus the burn marks. Twilight Sparkle had been gracious enough to remove the magic residue as a favor to Sweetie Belle’s sister. Of course, she didn’t without giving the filly a lecture and forcing her to promise not to practice such heavy magic in her house again.

The ivory filly scrambled over to her dresser. She picked up a comb and ran it through her mane in quick, brutal strokes that left her head sore. Still, it would do. She decided to take the scarf that Rarity had given her for her new school. The green silk with the school logo’s embroidered in white wrapped easily around her neck. It was close to November now and winter was coming, so the chill would be biting today.

Her keytar rested against the bed where she had left it after her day exploring the outlying areas of Ponyville with her friends. She slipped it into the flimsy case Octavia had given her and zipped it closed. The strap bit into her shoulder when she put it on, but with a little adjusting it was bearable. Sweetie Belle looked at herself in the mirror. There were bags under her eyes.

Am I really doing this?

After a moment, she walked out of her room and downstairs for breakfast.

Sweetie Belle’s parents had made sure to leave food out for their daugher, lest she try to cook some on her own. A couple of bagels and butter weren’t much, but it was enough to settle the rumble in the filly’s stomach. A glass of orange juice turned into a bad idea, however, as the taste mingled with the odd flavor of rust left in her mouth from sleeping. It made her want to gag.

Sweetie Belle wiped up her mess from the kitchen table, deposited her plate in the sink, and made her way outside. She pulled the door shut behind her with a soft click. An icy wind was there to meet her on the other side, and Sweetie Belle shivered. The scarf helped, but not much. For a second, Sweetie Belle wondered why ponies didn’t wear clothes all the time. Her sister would be overjoyed if that were true, at least.

She looked up at the clock tower just to the right of her parents’ house. It was just around nine, and on a weekend no less. Sweetie Belle yawned. There was something just wrong about waking up this early on a Saturday.

The clock struck the hour, snapping the teenager out of her thoughts. Right on time, a yellow cab cut through the morning air above Ponyville. It swooped over the lake in front of her house, sending waves splashing on the shore.

A team of two pegasi brought the metal cab to a halt just in front of Sweetie Belle. The driver worked the back door open and she climbed in, pulling her keytar in after her.

The driver turn in his seat. “You ready, ma’am?” he asked.

Sweetie Belle perked up at hearing herself being called “ma’am”. She nodded. “I’m great,” she said. “Though, how much is this ride going to be?”

“The school’s already paid,” the driver explained. “Just relax and enjoy the ride.”

The cab lurched up as the pegasi took flight. The carpet seat met Sweetie Belle’s back like a cloud and the filly settled in. She smiled a little. This school definitely had some perks.

Canterlot was only just waking up when the cab glided past it. Shops were starting to open and ponies of the capital had begun to shuffle themselves out of bed, but the streets were empty for the most part. Sweetie Belle supposed that Princess Celestia was up as well, but she didn’t really count, did she?

The taxi flew past the city and down to the school. Here, the school looked dead from the lack of activity. The windows stared out like empty eye sockets and the banners flapped like grave markers. Maybe it was the architecture, but the building gave Sweetie Belle the willies just looking at it. There was always something just wrong about a school on the weekend.

She was let out on the cobblestone landing platform, like a normal morning. Except for the lack of other inbound cabs or pegasi, it didn’t look much different from usual.

Sweetie Belle thanked the driver and the taxi took off again with the driver promising to be back around three like they had been told. The wind that whipped in its wake blew across Sweetie Belle and she shivered again.

She walked up the front steps and found the front doors unlocked, much to her surprise. She pushed them open and stepped into the warm lobby of the school. The lights were on and the machines running. For all intents and purposes, it was like a normal day.

The illusion was aided by the inclusion of Diamond Tiara, leaning against one wall with her violin case at her feet. She looked up when Sweetie Belle came in. There were dark circles under her eyes and her mane had begun to come undone.

“Where have you been?” she huffed.

“I just flew here,” Sweetie Belle said. “What, was I supposed to get here earlier?”

“I’ve been here for an hour!”

“Well sor-ry, I didn’t know there was a time. You kind of left pretty quick yesterday.” Sweetie Belle sighed. “Is Pipsqueak here, at least?”

Diamond Tiara nodded. “He’s back in the music room getting everything set up. He told me to wait out here for you. Now that you’re here, I guess we might as well go tell him we’re ready.”

Sweetie Belle let the haughty pink filly lead her down one hallway, past the classrooms and teacher’s lounge. The hall sloped downward until it ended in a set of metal double doors. They were plain and had no signs on them. Opening them, however, took them to a whole new world.

The music room was less of a room and more like an auditorium with carpet floors. It spread out and away for dozens of feet. Top to bottom it was filled with instruments of every sort, and the amplifiers to go with them. At the far end of the room, where Pipsqueak was, were more machines that Sweetie Belle had never seen before.

Diamond Tiara led her through a row of guitars, and Sweetie Belle had to watch her step so her keytar case wouldn’t knock any of the shiny instruments off their racks.

They found Pipsqueak bent over some machine in the middle of a cleared, circular area that had a bunch of flashing lights around it. Sweetie Belle noticed that his mane was longer than she had last seen him, and he had grown taller too. Looking at Diamond Tiara, she could tell she wasn’t the only one.

Diamond Tiara coughed and Pipsqueak looked up with a start. “Oh, there you two are,” he greeted them. He patted the machine. “Well, what do you think?”

“It’s . . . big,” Diamond Tiara said.

Sweetie Belle tilted her head. “I really like its lights?”

Pipsqueak placed a hoof on his forehead. “Right, you two are not only new, but first-years.” He tapped the machine and it squawked in return. “This here’s a machine that the older students get to use to measure magical wavelength.”

Sweetie Belle’s eyes lit up. “You mean like it could tell us if we’re doing it right or not?”

“Precisely.”

“Does it hurt?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Pipsqueak chuckled. “Maybe the way some of the students used it, but it’s never been bad for me. Heck, using this is so easy it might even qualify as cheating on this assignment of yours. Then again, since you two are so new, I don’t think Professor Note will care.”

He raised an eyebrow.  “Why, are you two scared?”

The two fillies looked at eachother, then shook their heads. “No, of course not!” Diamond Tiara said.

“Right, who would be scared of a little machine?” Sweetie Belle added.

“Then get on the metal pads and ready your instruments,” Pipsqueak told them.

Sweetie Belle gulped and dragged her keytar over to a raised metal circle that branched out from the central machine. It had a bunch of blinking lights and wires all over it. In the middle of the platform, under a pane of glass, was a glowing pink crystal.

The keytar slid out of its case and Sweetie Belle hooked it around her neck. She tapped a few chords with her magic to test it out. To her surprise, the sound reverberated across the platform so loud that it sounded like a boom in her ears.

“Sorry about that!” Sweetie Belle yelled over the noise.

Diamond Tiara raised an eyebrow. “Sorry about what?”

“The noise!”

“What noise?”

Pipsqueak laughed. “The platforms are each built to be like a small recording studio. You’ll hear your own music like it’s at full blast, but nopony else will hear anything but a little music. It’s pretty cool.”

Sweetie Belle felt her face start to flush, so she just nodded and went back to testing out her keytar. The thing seemed to be working, as far as she could tell. She was still getting used to it, though, so she made sure to be careful with the pink thing.

Meanwhile, she watched Diamond Tiara climb onto the platform opposite of the machine from her. She adjusted the tiara on her head before pulling out her violin. The pink filly rose on her hind legs and wobbled a bit before righting herself and placing the violin on her top shoulder.

Sweetie Belle, after a moment’s hesitation, did the same, though kept her keytar slung around her middle. She looked at Pipsqueak. “So what now?” she asked.

“Oh, right.” He trotted over to the central machine and flicked some switches. Sweetie Belle felt a tingling underhoof as the machine warmed up.

“You’ll each have to play a little to sync up with the machine,” Pipsqueak explained. “After that, you’ll need to play together to test your resonance.” He nodded to Sweetie Belle. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Sweetie Belle took a deep breath and began to play the funky tune she had tested out yesterday. It featured a lot of sliding around on the keys, but she liked the sound so was willing to learn it. The music beat rose and swirled around her and she found herself swaying her hips to the beat.

A short time later, a green light lit up on the machine and it went ding! Below it, a small screen glowed with a green check mark. Sweetie Belle grinned and pumped her hoof.

“Not bad,” Pipsqueak said. “Almost as good a time as mine.”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. “Sure.”

The colt turned to Diamond Tiara. “Your turn,” he said.

She nodded and raised her bow to the strings to play and the machine blinked back to its ready mode. Diamond Tiara began to glide her bow across the delicate strings and the music whispered out.

Sweetie Belle couldn’t hear all of it, but from Diamond Tiara’s expression what was coming out wasn’t what she had imagined. The filly continued to play even as the indicator light on the machine remained red. Sweetie Belle could see her grit her teeth and try to play faster. The bow flew across the strings even as the machine kept steadfast.

Just when Sweetie Belle thought Diamond Tiara might quit, the light finally switched to green.

“Sync complete,” Pipsqueak said. “You two can now hear each other and link your music through the machine.”

“What do we play?” Diamond Tiara asked.

Sweetie Belle shrugged her shoulders, then realized that the other filly probably wasn’t looking. “I don’t know,” she said. “You have a song in mind?”

“One, but do you think you can follow my lead?”

“Duh.”

Diamond Tiara snorted. “Well try to keep up, then.”

She set the bow again and started to play. Sweetie Belle fumbled for her keytar as the violin music filled her ears. It was a much faster tempo than yesterday, and she was slow to catch up.*

When she did, though, Sweetie Belle’s magic flew across the ivory keys as she matched her tune to Diamond Tiara’s. Instead of try to follow note for note, she experimented with backing up the violin’s chords with a beat of her own that wasn’t quite the same but together the song sounded . . . fuller.*

Sweetie Belle found herself, to her surprise, having a bit of fun. So much fun, in fact, she didn’t notice when her own pace began to outshine Diamond Tiara’s own, who was wobbling as she tried to keep up.

The pink magic returned, flowing around Sweetie Belle’s feet in small little waves. It picked itself up and crept up her hooves until it had gathered around the keytar. With a little flourish on the keys, her shield roared to life.

Across from her, Diamond Tiara’s magic was struggling to come to life. It still congealed only as a loose mist that gathered around her midsection and refused to budge. When Sweetie Belle’s shield began dispersing through the machine to join the partner’s in the center, the mist only half-complied.

Sweetie Belle was able to watch as the two met, but instead of forming together the mist just kind of fizzled against the shield and disappeared. The green lights on the machine glowed red and tinny alarm bell came to life.

Both of them quit playing and clutched at their ears while Pipsqueak ran to shut the machine off. It died with a hum, taking the alarm with it.

Pipsqueak sighed. “Synchronization lost,” he said. “The machine couldn’t keep up.”

“What happened?” Sweetie Belle asked.

Diamond Tiara stomped off of her platform and tossed her very old and undoubtedly expensive violin on the ground. It landed with a thud but didn’t seem to be broken.

“It’s because of me,” she growled, stomping at the ground.

“What are you talking about?” Sweetie Belle said.

“Don’t you see?” Diamond Tiara snapped. “You can play just fine because you are Miss Perfect here! Your magic works just fine, but oh, I can’t do anything with mine!” The filly’s eyes had started to glisten as she talked, though nothing came out . . . yet.

“I’m not perfect,” Sweetie Belle said, fighting the urge to laugh. “I mean, we both passed the test to come here and all that so we’re pretty much the same

“But I didn’t pass it!”

Pipsqueak stepped forward. “Say what?” he asked.

Diamond Tiara sighed and kicked at the ground. “I didn’t pass it, okay? My dad wanted me to go here so here so he paid off the committee to let me in.” She glared at the violin. “Same with the instrument . . . I don’t even like the violin!”

“Then what instrument do you like?”

“I don’t know, okay?!” Diamond Tiara slammed a hoof against the ground, then seemed to wilt in on herself. “I don’t have any musical talent . . . I’m not like the two of you. I wasn’t meant to be a musician.”

She began to stomp off toward the other end of the store, toward the drums and the recording equipment.

“Diamond Tiara, wait!” Pipsqueak called, holding out a hoof. When she didn’t turned around, however, he sighed and lowered it.

The colt in the red bandana turned back to Sweetie Belle. She had watched the whole thing still on her platform, unsure of what to do or say. Her stomach felt like it was tied in knots.

“Since when did she get like this?” Pipsqueak asked. “The Diamond Tiara I remember was . . . different.”

“I don’t know; she’s been testy about this whole thing since she left yesterday,” Sweetie Belle said. “She’s not usually like this.”

She got off the platform and slung the keytar over her shoulder. She looked at the machine. It looked almost sinister when it was turned off. Just a big machine waiting to judge you. She shivered.

“What do you think we should tell her?” Pipsqueak asked. “To calm her down, I mean.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “It’s not like you have to do anything. She’s my partner, after all.” She sighed. “I guess this means we won’t be getting a very good score on the project.”

Pipsqueak stepped forward. “I still think we should go talk to her.”

“She’s Diamond Tiara,” Sweetie Belle protested. “Since when does she need anypony’s help?”

“I’m guessing right about now,” Pipsqueak said. With that, he began walking over toward where Diamond Tiara had last been seen.

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and trotted after him to catch up.

They found Diamond Tiara seated on a drum stool, her head stooped low and hooves hanging by her side. The drum set she sat in front of looked unused though still in good condition. It was a simple set with the basic drums and cymbals, though lacking anything such as double pedals or a crash cymbal.

Diamond Tiara didn’t look up until they were right next to her. When she did, her expression didn’t change much. “Go away,” she told them.

“We just want to help,” Pipsqueak said.

“I don’t need your help,” Diamond Tiara snapped. “I’m just fine on my own. You two can go back and do your music stuff and just leave the rest of us alone.”

Sweetie Belle looked at Pipsqueak, but he just shook his head. She took a deep breath and approached her partner. “You’re still just as much as a musician as I am, Diamond Tiara,” she said.

The pink filly snorted. “Right, sure, keep telling me that.”

“You learned how to play that violin, didn’t you?”

“That’s different!” Diamond Tiara sighed. “Yeah, I can play a little bit, but the magic just isn’t there. I can teach myself a hundred instruments but I won’t have the magic you two have.”

“You had that mist thing-y,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Just a fluke.”

Pipsqueak stepped forward. “But what if it wasn’t?” he asked.

“What are you talking about?” Diamond Tiara asked.

He shrugged. “Well, I mean, that magic had to come from somewhere,” he said. “And you said that you were forced to use the violin, right?”

“Yeah, but I’ve been playing for years,” Diamond Tiara said. “I didn’t just start playing my instrument just this week like somepony else here.”

Sweetie Belle’s face reddened a little. Pipsqueak shook his head. “That isn’t what I said, though,” he continued. “Professor Note explained it to our class last year, sort of. Like, when you get an instrument, it isn’t really random.”

He picked up a guitar hanging on a nearby rack and brought it back over to them. “It’s hard to explain,” he said. “It’s like, ponies have different souls with music. You can practice one instrument all of your life, but if you’re meant for another one then you’ll never reach your full potential.” The colt strummed a few strings on the guitar and it almost seemed to come to life. “Like with me and the guitar, it’s what I was supposed to do.”

“Oh, that’s just great,” Diamond Tiara said. “So you’re saying the instrument my dad made me take lessons over for years is useless to me?”

“That’s not what I—”

“Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” Sweetie Belle said, stepping forward. “But that’s a good thing, isn’t it? You were forced to play it by your dad, but now’s your chance to start over and do whatever you want!” She smiled. “Come on, I know we’ve had our differences, but haven’t you wanted to rebel against your dad? Be different?”

Diamond Tiara hesitated to answer, then shook her head. “Sure, I guess,” she said. “But what exactly would I play?”

Pipsqueak laughed. “You came over to the drums, didn’t you? Why not try a little?”

Diamond Tiara looked at the drums and began to raise a hoof toward them, but then pulled it back. “No, I really shouldn’t . . .”

“Why not?”

“I just . . .”

Pipsqueak looked her in the eyes and smiled. “Come on, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Just don’t expect me to play anything good,” she said at last. Diamond Tiara took a deep breath and turned around in the chair to look at the unfamiliar instrument. She tapped one of the drums and kicked at the pedal. She looked back at Pipsqueak, but he smiled and edged her on.

She took one of her hooves and tapped it against several of the drums in quick succession. Then did it again a few times, alternating the order between them. When she found a sequence she liked, she played it a few times in a faster tempo.

Sweetie Belle watched as Pipsqueak’s ears perked up. “That right there,” he asked Diamond Tiara. “Did you just make that up?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Why?”

He took out his guitar and strummed it a bit. Even without the chords, the thing somehow sounded like it was plugged into an amp. “Play that again to start,” Pipsqueak instructed, “then try to follow me, okay?”

“I just did this at random . . .”

Pipsqueak smiled at her again and she quieted down. “It’ll be fun,” he assured.

“Well, uh, alright.”

“Now, Sweetie Belle,” Pipsqueak said, “take your keytar out and follow along with us.”

She complied and for a moment they all stood there, instruments at the ready and eyes shut to prepare for the coming song. Then Pipsqueak counted, “1, 2, 3, 4 . . .” and they began.*

Diamond Tiara hit the drums in the same beat and Pipsqueak followed her in with his guitar. Sweetie Belle came in last and before she knew it, they were playing a song. What surprised her more was when Pipsqueak began to sing. He did it as he locked eyes with Diamond Tiara and together they kept the beat.

Woo-hoo!

I got my head checked,

By a jumbo jet.

It wasn't easy,

But nothing i-is.

No!

He leaned across to Diamond Tiara and led her through the song as they went, her steadying against him the whole way. Sweetie Belle, meanwhile, just struggled to keep up with her keytar alone, though she could already start to feel the now-familiar tingling in her hooves.

Woo-hoo!

When I feel heavy-metal,

And I'm pins and I'm needles!

Well I lie and I'm easy,

All the time but I am never sure,

Why I need you.

Pleased to meet you!

Between the chorus and the verse a funny thing happened. A purple sort of magic came to life around Diamond Tiara, but like none she or anypony else had seen before. Instead of a loose mist, it was a solid ring of magic that pulsed and thumped along to the song. Sweetie Belle’s shield followed it and Pipsqueak’s pillars come into their own. Soon, three magics mixed and amplified their song.

I got my head down,

When I was young.

It's not my problem,

It's not my prob-lem!

With that, the three magics condensed in a fiery mix in the middle of them, flashing light and sparkling against the instruments. Sweetie Belle’s shield rolled into a ball that was ringed by Pipsqueak’s pillar and tied together by Diamond Tiara’s ring. The contraption roared and sparked like an angry storm and the three could feel power emanating from it.

Then, just as they laid into the next chorus, something else joined it. Something else no one saw but Sweetie Belle. A little black spark that snuck its way into the shield from out of the filly herself. Even that little spark was enough to make the combination triple in size and engulf the three players in a fury of energy and magic. For the rest of the song, their power was amplified, and though they did not see it, sent waves of the magic crashing through the room, out the door, and into the wide world around them to parts unknown.

Yeah, yeah,

Yeah, yeah!

Yeah, yeah,

Oh . . . yeah!

The three of them faded out and the magic finally dissipated, leaving three tired, sweaty, and smiling teenagers in its wake.

“I think I could get used to this,” Diamond Tiara said.

They made plans to meet the following day and practice more songs that Sweetie Belle and Diamond Tiara could actually play together without Pipsqueak. Even then, though, the colt seemed fine with playing a little more with them if they so choose. Most of his attention was kept on Diamond Tiara, though.

It was just as well. While the two of them chatted it up, Sweetie Belle looked at her hooves. She could swear that she could almost see the black sparks moving inside. What had that been? She had seen some of the magic waves that had pulsed out from them, and the black had been there too.

What was going on?