//------------------------------// // Warnings, rhythm and love // Story: Lost in Conflict // by YoshiBrony //------------------------------// Chapter 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Isaac decided to let go of the orange mare before anything went further. Slowly dropping his hoof back to his side, he leaned back and smiled at Applejack, who seemed a little upset at the sudden break in their calming moment. Applejack invited the unicorn to dinner, but Isaac refused. "Sorry Applejack, I have...Plans meeting a friend at the tavern." Isaac stammered, hoping the white lie would be able to convince the mare. Unfortunately for him, the element of honesty is as good at noticing a lie as she is bad at telling them, instantly seeing through Isaac's worried expression, her face turned into a scowl. "Yah know ah don't like liars, Irrie. Tell me what's really goin' on." Applejack said, sternly. Her expression unchanged as the colt now looked straight downwards, chipping the ground with his hoof. Sighing, Isaac looked back up at Applejack. "Alright, I don't want to make you angry anymore, so i'll just come out and say it. I was going to go and see Fluttershy, see if she wanted to come and watch on Friday." "Why would ah be mad if ya asked her......Oh..Ah understand." Applejack immediately became glassy eyed after the sudden realization, she turned away from Isaac and closed her eyes to prevent herself from letting any tears out. "But ah thought...Ah mean...Ah thought ya..." "I'm so sorry Applejack, I didn't mean to lead you on like that." Isaac raised a hoof and placed it on the distraught mares shoulder, he was about to say something if not for the figure moving towards him. "Stay away from mah sister!" Isaac instantly recognized the figure as Big Macintosh, their previous engagement flashed in his mind before he realized the situation he was in. He quickly dashed behind a nearby tree and listened to Applejack's pleas. "Don't hurt him, Bic Mac! It aint his fault!" "He hurt you didn't he? Tell me what he did AJ!" Applejack tried to respond but Bic Mac ran right past her, and right towards the tree Isaac was attempting to hide behind to no avail. With a mighty buck, the huge red colt smashed the apple tree into pieces, splinters showered both ponies as Big Mac turned to face the cowering pony. Isaac let out a sharp yelp as Big Mac grabbed him by a hoof and pinned him up against another large tree, the force of the red colts hoof on his ned causing him too black out temporarily. the unicorn attempted to use his magic, but the pressure of Bic Macintosh's hoof on his neck rendered him unable to concentrate. The grey unicorn felt himself slipping away as he heard the orange mares pleas for her brother to stop. "He didn't do anythin' Bic Mac, stop! It wasn't his fault!" Applejack's screams to her brother turned to a yell as she turned her back to her brother. "Ah said LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Big Mac felt himself thrown to the side as her sister slammed her rear hoofs into his side, the mixed feelings of the air filling his lungs and the fall from the tree trunk was too much for Isaac, who struggled to look up at the teary-eyed mare as she held him in her hoofs. Her quiet sobs turned into cries for help into town as Isaac closed his eyes and lay still, his breathing carried on in sharp gasps for a few seconds before stopping. --------------------------------------------- "Ahhhh...My head, what the hell Big Mac." Isaac's eyes opened as he found himself in the familiar darkness once again. His body was still as a pony but this time, no white light could be found for him to escape into. He rubbed his eyes with his hoofs so his vision would be clearer, in the distance he saw another pony, a vision of himself. Followed by his six new friends, the Berry Punch, and almost everypony he had met in the past few days filled the space around him. Finally, a light shone bringing forth Princess Celestia, and another alicorn, her colors the opposite of Celestia's, her coat a deep blue and her mane and tail just as dark. Isaac was about to ask what was going on, when the blue princess shone her horn and lit up the area around him. "Who are....?" Isaac began to speak up, before an image burned into his mind, "Oh no...Please, please no..." In his mind he saw a burning Ponyville, the townspeople screaming and running from an unknown figure. He the vision turned to show himself facing the other being, Isaac felt a cry of agony as he saw himself collapse, his horn broken and bleeding. And his friends in the background fading away, one by one. Isaac closed his eyes to rid himself of the image, only to be shown another vision of Celestia and the other alicorn. He looked up and Celestia gave him a sad smile as she spoke. "Find strength in your friends, they will guide you for your ascendance." And with Fluttershy's kind eyes gazing on him, he pulled himself out and back into reality. The familiar white light engulfed him as the rest of the vision disappeared, and he found himself recovering from the dream once more as he awoke. He blinked a few times as his vision restored from a blurry image, the white light showed itself once again in the form of a hospital room. The monitor on the side beeping at a steady rate, the hospital bed itched and he tried to remove himself from the tucked sheets. As he moved, however, he felt a huge sense of Déjà vu as he found a sleeping Fluttershy once again with her hoof wrapped around his. Isaac couldn't help but blush just from the mere sight of the pegasus, and after enjoying the moment for a few minutes, he decided to wake her. "Fluttershy? Come on, time to wake up." The mare groaned quietly before regaining consciousness, her eyes still half closed due to the glare of the lights. She suddenly jumped and remembered where she was, and shrieked as she looked at the grinning mare looking down to her. Isaac's smile faded temporarily, worried that he would scare the kind yellow mare away again. Instead he was greeted by a warm embrace, she lightly pecked Isaac on the cheek before turning away, blushing heavily. "I...I'm glad you're ok.." "Nice to see you too, Fluttershy." "When they brought you to the hospital, I was so worried. They um.... Said they didn't know when you'd wake up..." "Didn't know..." A look of surprise came across the colt's face, he glanced around the room, desperate to find how long he was asleep. "How long was I out?" "Oh...Ummm...About 2 days..." "2 days...That means it's Friday..OH CRAP MY PERFORMANCE!" Although reluctant to leave his hold of Fluttershy, Isaac panicked as he fell out of bed, scanning the clean room to find a clock or anything that could tell the time. "It's ok...Your performance doesn't start for a few hours..." Isaac let out a loud sigh of relief as he turned back towards Fluttershy. "Well, at least I still have a bit of practice time...Wait, how do you know i'm in the band?" He saw the blush rise to the yellow mares cheeks as she stammered. "Oh, I umm.... Twilight told me... So I though I might come and watch, if you're OK with that...." Isaac rolled his eyes and smiled to himself. "Of course she did." "I'd love it if you came to see, I actually have a little surprise in store." The pairs matching eyes met for a brief moment, and Isaac decided to make his way out of the room before he was stopped by a White mare with a pink mane that rivaled Fluttershy's. "Well, I see you're up. My name is nurse Redheart, I hope you're alright to perform tonight..Iridescent, was it?" Isaac looked over at Fluttershy, who simply hid her rosy cheeks behind her mane. "Just how many ponies know about this?" Isaac seemed agitated by the number of ponies who knew about his new workplace. "Oh don't worry, only Fluttershy and I have any knowledge. But there will be a lot of ponies to see the new band." the white mare looked curious as the unicorn let out a rather loud groan. "I've never even talked in front of a crowd before. How the hell am I supposed to sing in front of one?!" Isaac's worries were put to rest as a familiar yellow hoof placed itself on his shoulder. "It's ok Irrie, i'm sure you'll do great..." "Thanks Fluttershy, i'm gonna head to the bar early for some practice. I'll see you later?" A blush rose on both ponies cheeks as they parted ways. As Isaac left Fluttershy in thee hospital room, nurse Redheart strolled towards her and gave her a cheeky grin. "Well, he's quite the catch for you Fluttershy." The yellow mares blush only deepened as she looked over the the nurse. Her eyes widened significantly as she gave her response. "No, I...He doesn't....Do you think he?" "Fluttershy, I see situations like this all the time, take my advice. Go for it." The blushing mare let out a squee of joy, and let her wings carry her outside, a giddy smile on her face as she headed back home. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Isaac wasted no time in retrieving his guitar from Twilight's library, he found the place empty which was curious. He slowly grabbed his guitar and left the house, hiding the instrument in a wooden rectangular case, which he made with a quick flash of magic. As he reached the bar, he peeked through the window to check how filled the place was. Funnily enough, the usually vibrant and laughter-filled bar was almost empty, save for Berry Punch and a couple of ponies which Isaac didn't recognize, setting up the large staging area. Isaac quickly made his way inside, smiling at Berry who waved at him from across the room. Isaac's eyes widened slightly as he noticed the piano and electric guitar on the side of the stage, but he slipped out of his trance as Berry made her way towards him. "Hey Irrie, come for some early practice." "You just read my mind, Berry." Isaac glanced over to the two colts, one was tuning a large bass guitar, the other tweaking a symbol on a drumkit. "Who are your friends?" Berry took note of the slight humor in Isaac's voice and playfully responded. "Oh just some guys I picked up a while back, the one on the right is Golden beat. He's one hell of a drummer, just give him something to start with and he'll play along perfectly." Isaac nodded to the focused Bright yellow colt with a white spiky mane, who simply smiled and got back to his work. Isaac noticed the two crossed drumsticks for his cutie mark. "The other is String Soul, he knows every bass technique there is. The guy'll learn a song off by heart in 10 minutes." Isaac took not of the silver pony, his long red hair reaching almost to the floor, and a cutie mark of a golden bass guitar. "Great, because I have a song of my own I want to play." The two colts looked up at the mention of a new song, they both nodded to each other before looking back to the unicorn. String Soul spoke up first, his surprisingly deep voice startled Isaac slightly. "Well, we'd better get started. Always good to learn a new song, we didn't catch your name?" Soul's smile seemed innocent, so Isaac calmly shook his hoof while he answered. "My names' Iridescent Oakleaf. And yes, I have no cutie mark, its...Kind of a long story so i'll explain another time," "Fair enough, we all got secrets. Come on, let's get practicing." Isaac smiled at the two ponies eagerness, he quickly opened his wooden case and pulled out the papers containing the notes for his song, along with the guitar he fashioned himself. Berry left the three ponies to practice for the next few hours. 3 hours later Isaac peeked out the window a few minutes before showtime. Scanning the room, he was astonished at how many ponies had showed up to watch, in the front row he saw Applejack, Fluttershy and their other friends, along with many of the other ponies he had met before. He pulled back from the stage to see the two other band members looking at him. "You ready?" Beat said, eagerly. Fiddling with his drumsticks as he sat at his drumkit, ready to play. "We're about to find out." Isaac said blankly, he picked up his acoustic guitar and stood at the front of the stage. Adjusting his microphone, he saw the room go black. The spotlights ready to shine their light onto them, Isaac took a deep breath before listening to the silent room. He plucked the first notes of his song as the crowd sat silently in anticipation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pAzuNtsc6M "Honey you, are a rock, Upon which, I stand. And I come here, to talk. I hope you understand." The crowd suddenly erupted into cheers as the spotlight slowly shone it's light on Isaac, he heard more than enough wolf whistles and squeals of delight from the mares as soon as he started, the crowd listened in as Isaac continued. "That blue eyes, Yeah the spotlight, Shines upon you..." "And how could, anybody, deny you.." "I came here with a load, And it feels so much lighter, now I met you. And honey you should know, That I could never go on without you..." "Blue eyes...." Instinct told Fluttershy exactly who the song was intended for, she let out a squeal of delight as Isaac looked over to her and smiled. Closing his eyes again, Isaac returned to the song. "Honey you, are the sea... Upon which, I float... And I came here, to talk.. I think you should know..." The spotlights slowly grew larger as they covered Beat and Soul, their queue to join in on the song. More cheers were heard as the song got into full sway, Isaac also spotted Twilight give a glassy eyes Fluttershy a nudge. "Blue eyes, You're the one that I wanted to find! And anyone who, tried to deny you, must be out of their mind!" " 'Cause I came here with a load, And it feels so much lighter since I met you! And honey you should know, That I could never go on without you!" "Blue eyes, Blue eyes... Whoa oh oh oh... Whoa oh oh oh,,," "Honey you, are a rock... Upon which, I stand...." As the final notes left the air, the bar erupted into a series of shouts, cheers and applause. Isaac placed his guitar next to the piano and stepped back to the microphone. "Thankyou very much!!! We're gonna take a short break, then we'll be right back with you." Isaac stepped down from the stage and moved towards his friends, only to find them moving away. Eventually only he and Fluttershy were left alone in the small area, the yellow mare slowly took a hold of his hoof and led him out of the door. They stopped just outside the main entrance, they stared deep into each other's eyes, completely mesmerized. Isaac decided to break the silence, "Umm...Enjoy the show?" "More than you know...." Fluttershy adopted a slightly seductive tone as she brought her mouth slightly closer to his. "I..I guess i'll..Have to play more oft..........." Isaac's words were stopped as he felt himself paralyzed from the yellow pegasus' gorgeous eyes, he paused for a moment before closing his eyes as the pairs lips connected. The world stopped turning as Fluttershy brought her hooves around the colts neck and pulled him into a deep kiss.