Chapter 5: No Filters

Trapped in a white room of nothingness, the girls know there is trouble going on

Twilight groans, "I can't believe we're trapped in Vignette's phone."

"We're no strangers to getting stuck in magical objects," Rainbow says.

"At least Rarity, Applejack, and Shadow are still free. Maybe they can get us out of here," Sunset says.

Fluttershy says, "They have to stop fighting first."

"We can't just sit around hoping to get rescued. If we're in the internet, we can hack our way out! Well, I can. Maybe," Twilight says, sounding confident and unsure.

"Oh, I hope Rarity, Applejack, and Shadow are okay. I wish we knew what's going on out there," Fluttershy says.

"Me too,"

In the building, Vignette has taken a picture of Shadow and Rarity, knowing they will disappear.

"Sorry, Rare, guess you're not so "rare" after all," Vignette says with confidence.

But look surprised to see they both haven't disappear. Rarity look in surprise to see Shadow has created a strange forcefield. The the field disappears.

"Okay, that was your cue to disappear!" Vignette says, and takes another picture.

This time Rarity uses her diamonds to do that, and they disappear in the phone.

"Hmmm. Never underestimate a good accessory!" Rarity says.

Vignette tries again, but Rarity intervenes with her diamonds.

"Stop un-magique-ing my magique thingy!" Vignette says.

Vignette tries again, but Shadow creates a force field to intervene it.

"I can't believe I listened to you over Applejack!" Rarity angrily says.

Rarity uses her diamond to prevent Vignette from taking their picture. Suddenly, Shadow clutches his hand and creates a green energy that is shaped like a spear. He jumps and lands in front of Vignette with the spear to the ground, causing her to move back. Shadow then picks up Rarity and uses his jet shoes to skate away at top speed. Vignette turn her head to see thw two are long gone.

"U-G-H! Whatevs! I don't need you anyway," Vignette says.

She calls out to the employees, "Attention, people who work for me! I am now the lead costume designer because our former lead costume designer is being H.B.W. Herself, but worse! Now pretend I just gave you an inspiring speech and get back to work!"

The employees begin to get to work on the rest of the preparation.

Walking around the park, Applejack is simply looking around the park when she hears a bell ringing. Everyone hears the sound, knowing that the parade is going to start in a little bit.

Applejack knows this too, and panics, "The parade's about to start! Ugh! If only I had done somethin' or said somethin' different! Maybe none of this woulda happened."

Applejack sighs, and sadly adds, "I really screwed things up with Rarity."

Suddenly, she hears a familiar voice calling out, "Applejack!"

Applejack turns around to see Shadow skating over carrying Rarity in his arms.

Applejack gasps, "Rarity! Shadow!"

She runs towards them and they stop together. Shadow puts Rarity down on her feet, and she comes to Applejack

"Don't go!" Rarity begs.

Uh…" Applejack begins to say something.

But Rarity says, "You were right. I got carried away and let this stupid parade become the only thing that mattered to me! And I let Vignette manipulate me with false flattery into forgetting what really matters… my friends."

"Come on, now. Your talent puts you so far beyond the need for flattery," Applejack complements.

Rarity blushes, and screams, "Stop flattering me! I've not finished apologizing!"

Rarity takes a few deep breath, and continues to apologize, "I'm sorry I lost sight of why we applied for jobs here in the first place."

Then Applejack apologizes, "And I'm sorry I got jealous. All this time I thought I was bein' honest with you about not likin' Vignette. I wasn't bein' honest with myself. I felt like I was losin' my best friend."

Rarity walks to Applejack, and says, "You didn't."

Then the two girls hold hands, and both blush a little

"Caramel apple girls to the end?" Rarity asks.

Then the two give each other a hug, and glad their friendship isn't over.

Suddenly, Rarity gasps and remembers, "Our friends! Vignette has them all trapped in the internet! She confessed! Shadow also showed me the videos from your phone! We have to get them out! We have to save them!"

"What?! We've been wastin' all this time chin-waggin' about feelin's?! We need to get crackin' on a rescue plan!" Applejack says.

Suddenly, she hears phone ringing. She picks it up to see who it is.

She asks in surprise, Twilight?" Then quickly answers.

Twilight says on the other line, "It worked! Applejack, we're stuck in Vignette's phone! I found a way to hack her apple popper app to route a VoIP connection to your IP address!

"Uh... Magic. Got it," Applejack replies.

Twilight says, "Listen. We've come up with a plan to set all this right. You'll need to remotely install a virus that creates a backdoor admin account, which you can use to reset all the permissions on her phone and make a proxy backup. That should get us out of here! How much coding do you know?"

"Uh, none. Uh, I can rub two sticks together," Applejack says, sounding a bit skeptic

"Oh, boy. Okay. Get a pencil," Twilight says.

For some reason, Applejack and Shadow can hear Twilight's voice.

"Uh, hang on. I think I can hear you talkin'," Applejack says.

"What?" Twilight asks.

Applejack looks around as she says, "S-Somewhere close."

Applejack turns to a door close by and walks towards it. When she opens it, she can see Sunset and the others inside. Shadow and Rarity look over to see them as well.

"Really, y'all?" Applejack says, dumbfounded.

"So much for being put in a cell phone," Shadow remarks.

"Ohhhhhh. The phone just teleported us into some random white room in the park," Twilight says, feeling sheepish.

"We were just sitting in a white room the whole time?!" Sunset asks in anger.

"Wait, you guys didn't know that?" Pinkie asks, looking confused.

Sunset begins angry as her face is turning red.

Suddenly, someone has digitally appear at them, and it's Micro Chips from the caramel apple stand.

"Micro Chips?!" Twilight explains.

She gasps in realization, "Did Vignette take your picture just now?"

"I was just minding my own business making perfect caramel apples, when suddenly, Vignette saw me and said I wasn't as cool a nerd as she thought. Then she took my picture, and I ended up here, violating all known laws of space and time," Micro explains, still confused about the sudden event.

Knowing what it means, Sunset says in a serious tone, "Guys, this is bad! It means Vignette is on the parade route, and she's using her phone to change whatever she doesn't like!"

"What happens if she decides she doesn't like the crowd?" Fluttershy worriedly asks.

"Everyone in the park is watching that parade! If her phone teleports that many people into this tiny room at the same time...!" Twilight explains.

Pinkie gasp, and exclaims as she squishes Fluttershy and Rainbow Face against with her own, "Squish city!"

"Our friends are in that crowd! Sweetie Belle is in that crowd! We've got to stop her!" Rarity explains in shock.

"You do realize if we stop the parade, no one will see all your hard work," Applejack points out.

Rarity smiles, and says, "Two good friends reminded me that none of that matters without my friends."

Applejack blushes to hear the comment. Shadow turns his head away, but shows a small smile.

Then Sunset says, "We'd better hurry! I'm sure Vignette's getting more corrupted by Equestrian magic every minute!"

"That or is too caught up with her own fantasy," Shadow says.

The girls stare at Shadow.

"Not a very nice comment, but so true," Rarity says.

"You can say that again," Applejack relies.

Many people are lining from different sides of the road to see the parade going by. Everyone cheer for excitement to see the amazing light up floats and when the Rainbooms float come rolling by, everyone begin to stop cheering. Vignette sings her song, and her singing is off key.

Vignette Valencia:

Be yourself, but better

Or don't be yourself at all

Follow Vignette on SnapGab

That's V-I-G-N-E-T-T-EEEEEEE!

Vignette stops singing to see the people not cheering for her. Everyone are not liking this part of the parade at all. They talk about how bad it is, and are covering their ears to the bad music.

Vignette is not pleased at all, and says, "This crowd isn't cheering enough for my taste. Luckily, that can be tweaked with the flick of a finger."

She brings out her enchanted cell phone, and says, "Say 'cheese,' everyone!"

Vignette is about to press the button that will send everyone into her phone, and unaware that will send them to the small room. Suddenly, the float stops and has been lifted into the air. That is done by Applejack and her super strength. Vignette looks to see The Rainbooms and Shadow in front of the float.

"Sorry to rain on your parade!" Rarity remarks.

Applejack puts the float back down, and complements, "Nice one!"

"But I'm afraid this evening is cancelled. Now turn off your phone and hand it over!" Rarity says.

Everyone are becoming confused and are talking the event that is happening.

"Are you honestly asking a social media star to hand over her phone?" Vignette angrily asks.

Everyone gasp in surprise.

Yeah. She is"Applejack sternly says.

But Vignette says to Rarity, "Rarity, this is the version of your friends that will be popular. I have the metrics to back that up."

Rarity and Applejack rolls her eyes in reply.

"Doesn't matter if they're real. It's what you show people online. This is your chance to be everything you've always wanted!" Vignette adds.

But Rarity denies it, "No! It's a chance to look like everything I've always wanted! What I really want has been right in front of me the whole time! My friends!"

With a smile, Rarity and Applejack hold each others hand, and a magic spark appear on their geodes. Twilight and Sunset does the same. Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rainbow follow. Soon all seven of them hold hands and their geodes glow. Then their marks appears on their face. The magic of their friendship cause them to transform into their pony forms and into the same outfits that has appeared in the Memory Stone incident. Vignette gasp in shock to see what she is seeing. Shadow smirks to see this and know what will happen now.

"No amount of online success is worth it without my real life friends to share in it!" Rarity loudly says.

She then smiles to her friends. Soon purple sparks appear on their geodes and travels to Rarity. The purple sparks travels to Rarity making her right arm sparkle blue. She lifts it up, and a whip appears from her hand. She swings it towards Vignette.

Vignette gasp as the electric whip hits her phone, knocking off her hand. She looks down to see her phone is broken and change back to its original form. Then the holograms disappear.

Upset, Vignette shouts, "What have you done?! Now how can things ever be perfect?!"

Rarity and the others float down to Vignette as Shadow walk on the float standing by the girls.

"I love nothing more than someone telling me I made a perfect outfit, but I'd say you got a bit carried away," Rarity says.

"I-I... guess so," Vignette sketicly says.

"You guess so?! You created virtual holograms of our friends and almost sent an entire crowd of people to squish city!" Applejack says, sounding disapproved.

Soon everyone are not very pleased for what they are hearing about Vignette, and are not pleased with her.

"But, B.Y.B.B…" Vignette sadly says.

"It's not a bad thing to want to be better, but not at the expense of other people. And especially not your friends," Rarity says.

"Friends?" Vignette asks.

She sadly sighs, and says, "I have three million followers, but no real friends."

She turns around and sadly adds, "How pathetic is that?"

"Hmmm. You've got one. If you want," Rarity says, reaching her hand out to her.

Vignette turns her head in surprise.

Applejack comes in, and says, "Make that two."

Vignette smiles, and takes Rarity's hand. Suddenly, everyone begin to applaud and cheer, causing the girls and Shadow to be confused.

"Why are they clapping? Do they even know what's going on?" Pinkie asks.

"Eh," Fluttershy answers, shrugging her shoulders.

Rainbow takes out her phone to see the post.

Rainbow surprisingly exclaims, "Whoa! The Rainbooms are trending on SnapGab!"

Pinkie looks at the phone, and happily cheers, "People are saying that rainbow laser thing was the coolest light parade show they've ever seen!"

Soon people are taking pictures and sending them into SnapGab and other sites.

"Hey, maybe the parade ain't ruined after all!" Applejack says.

Sunset says, "We do still have our real instruments up there."

Rainbow asks Fluttershy, "You're not too nervous?"

"I should ask you the same thing," Fluttershy remarks.

Rainbow gives Fluttershy a slight punch on her arm.

Rarity turns to Applejack, and asks, "If you're up for it?"

Applejack quickly nods her head. Soon the girls hook up the instruments and microphones on, and begin to play their music.

Rarity:

A blemish on the surface

Of a perfect happy pic

Just add a fancy filter

And that's an easy fix

But behind that perfect snapshot

Are the people who you love

Don't forget those happy moments

Are because of

Applejack:

Our memories together

Rarity:

They can last forever

Applejack:

We won't let this break us

The Rainbooms:

We'll get through whatever

Side by side on this adventure

Our friendship will never, ever end

Side by side, besties forever

We know that it's more than just a trend

Applejack:

'Cause it's you

Rarity:

And me

The Rainbooms:

This is how it should be

Applejack:

The whole world stands before you

Full of things to see

Pay attention or you'll miss it

Life's best is always free

Don't lose sight of what's important

Give more than you can take

There's so much to strive for

So many friendships you can make

Rarity:

All those likes can't measure

Applejack:

The fun we have together

Rarity and Applejack:

When we're in the moment

The Rainbooms:

Everything is better

Side by side on this adventure

Our friendship will never, ever end

Side by side, besties forever

We know that it's more than just a trend

Rarity and Applejack:

This is how it should be