It's been a few days since the whole "surprise birthday party" incident. I was still pretty ticked at the girls about it, considering I don't receive surprise parties very well AND the fact they alienated me right before it. At this point in time, Pinkie was the only one I still felt any sort of connection to as a friend since we went through it together.
I started giving the other mares the silent treatment, Rainbow Dash being the first one to really feel it. Out of the corner of my eye, I could tell from her expressions that it somewhat got to her. I half expected her to get mad at me right away for not "forgiving" her and her friends by now.
I'm pretty sure forgiveness doesn't come right after an apology from the offending party, except in Pinkie's case. Speaking of her, while we are still in good relations, she was distraught over my reluctance to forgive her friends. She kept trying to convince me to not give up on my friendship with my other friends so easily. If I had to be honest, the only reason why I haven't left Ponyville yet was because of her.
Jeez, that makes me sound like I'm in love with her...
Anyways, I wrote a letter of resignation to Sweet Apple Acres since I didn't want to deal with Applejack anymore than I wanted to. Then I wrote a stern letter off to my mother, telling her not to write anything more about me to Twilight. Last thing I need is Twilight knowing anything more about me, being connected to the royalty in Canterlot and all. I haven't seen Fluttershy or Rarity since the incident, though I kept telling myself I would go a bit easier on Fluttershy since she was the main pony who helped me out of my depression a while back.
Thing is, a part of me still wants to forgive and believe that all of them truly had good intentions with the party.
The other part of me... lets just say that I have a nagging part of me practically shouting "Leave those losers! They mean nothing to you."
It keeps getting louder. There are times when I just blank out in the middle of the street, trying to keep myself under control. I usually snap out of it when I've finally calmed down again or--
"Excuse me sir?"
--When somepony talks to me. I shake my head and saw a royal purple mare with a blue muzzle, yellow and black mane styled similarly to the DJ I met when I first came to Ponyville, cyan eyes, and a cutie mark depicting a music note surrounded by electricity. "Are you Zephyr Earthwing?"
I immediately tensed up. It wasn't often something like this happened outside of occasional greetings, plus I was still wary. "Yes, I am..."
She smiles. " I finally found you! Sorry about that, I'm Electron Note and I help create electronic music and the like."
"A... pleasure, but what do you mean by 'finally finding' me?"
She hesitated, as if she was trying to find the right words. "Have you heard of a band named Dead By Sunset?"
I pondered for a bit. "I think I have. Their most popular song is 'Losing You'."
She squeed in apparent delight. "That's us!" Seeing my stunned look she added, "like I said, I help create electronic music and the like. More specifically, I do it for that band."
Somepony from a fairly famous band searching for me? I've never... wait.
Snapping out of my stunned trance, I look at her questioningly "That doesn't explain why you said you 'found' me, though."
Considering the song I just mentioned, it's kind of ironic.
"Well our current band leader, Burst Mic, heard you sing at your welcoming party a while back."--
Not that again...
--"And he was very impressed by it. The current band leader and lead singer, Clean Octave, is on temporary leave, so Burst Mic thought you would be an excellent substitute."
I sigh. "So you want me to essentially become the reserve lead singer? Don't I need to go through auditions or something along those lines in order to apply for something like that?"
She smirks. "Burst already got the all-clear from the higher-ups."
Now I was starting to internally panic. Not only was this inadvertently setting off my stage anxiety, but I didn't want to get roped into a band this early in my life. "Surely there are more talented singers out there."
She shakes her head. "We already went through auditions. You're the only pony he has heard who exceeded expectations."
Way to lay more pressure on me.
I mulled over it for a bit. "Do you have anything big planned right off the bat?"
She flashes a nervous grin. "We were... going to be one of the bands playing at the Manehatten Concerts. We are to be the last ones singing at the end, but Clean Octave won't be able to show up for it."
"And that's two weeks from now..."
Worst part about all of this is how guilty I will feel turning them down... I really can be a pushover sometimes.
I let out a defeated sigh. "Fine, we'll see how it will play out. I need to meet the other members before we can work anything out though."
Electron claps her hooves in joy before hugging me. "Thank you so much! The others will be meeting up here at Sugar Cube Corner tomorrow at lunch. I'll see you then!" She dashes off.
I stood there looking a bit shell-shocked. Being the smooth stallion I am, which is a blatant lie, I used to hardly have anypony much less a mare hug me when I'm not emotionally distressed. Pinkie Pie tries to make it a point to give me a quick hug every once in a while and a few weeks ago even Rainbow Dash--
I immediately forced the thought out of my head and quickly dashed back home before I started saying anything in public that I would regret. For a second I think I passed Twilight, but I didn't hear what she yelled at me. I felt an odd feeling, like there was water washing over my tail, but it didn't seem to slow me down.
As I slammed the door of my house shut and dashed upstairs, the shouting in my head started up again. however, not only was it telling me to ditch my treacherous friends, but to also get away from getting roped into a band.
Feeling incredibly frustrated, I slammed my hoof into a wall.
"I don't understand! Why am I still so... spineless?"
Rainbow has finally gotten fed up with me and refuses to look my way now. I'm still somewhat confused as to why she took so long to do so considering her personality, but I'm fine with it.
Almost ran into Applejack as well. She seemed intent on tracking me down, probably for my unorthodox way of quitting. I still don't feel like dealing with her, so I took a detour in order to reach Sugar Cube Corner.
Entering the building, Pinkie popped up in front of me. "Good almost-noon, Zephy! Have you tried making--"
"Good morning Pinkie. And no, I still don't feel like talking to the others yet." She visibly drooped at my words. "Besides, I'm here on important business."
She 'poofed' back up again. "Oooh, what kind of business? Are you starting to make shady deals with shady ponies of shadiness?" I open my mouth to rebuttal when she gasped. "Or is it because you met with a member of an important band who is interested in making you a replacement singer because of how well you sang at your welcoming party?"
I quickly look around in a panic before sighing in relief since nopony was currently and conveniently in the bakery, despite it being close to lunch. "Pinkie, can you promise me not to make a big fuss about-- wait how did you know?"
"Lucky guess!" I facehoofed at that . "Also because some ponies asked me to lead you to them when you arrived."
"Then why didn't you-- never mind." I follow her as she hops into a less visited part of the bakery and stored the situation under the newly-created 'Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie' section of my mind. In the corner, I saw a group of five ponies in a quiet discussion.
As I approached, the red one notices me and waves me over.
"There's our up-and-coming stallion! How are you doing today, Zephyr?"
He was a unicorn with a cutie mark of a mic on the backdrop of an explosion. Electron Note was sitting between a large grey earth pony with a piano cutie mark and a yellow mare with two sticks crossing over a drum. Beside her was a light-blue pegasus stallion with a cutie mark of guitar strings. When he saw me, I thought I saw a narrow look pass over his face for the briefest of time before smiling.
"I'm... fine I guess." I sit and look back at Pinkie, who was probably waiting to take my order. "A coffee with sugar, please?" This got a surprised reaction from Pinkie, before nodding happily and bouncing away.
The yellow mare gives me an odd look. "Pinkie usually never reacts that way, no matter how absurd the order is."
"Probably because she knows me personally and the fact I don't normally drink coffee." I shake my head. "Maybe it's because I've been so bitter lately..."
Electron frowned. "You did seem a bit out of it when I ran into you yesterday."
Pinkie deposited my cup in front of me as I sighed. "I had a... bit of a falling out with my friends. That's not important though." I take a sip and scrunched my muzzle at the bitter taste.
Electron shook her head. "I guess we'll worry about that for another time. For now, introductions are in order!"
I nod as she points to the red unicorn. "This is Burst Mic, our... secondary leader. He's the unclean vocals while also playing the bass."
"Pleased to meet you."
Next was the grey earth stallion. "This is Iron Keys. He may look massive but he can play a mean piano when he's buckled down and focused." All I get from him is a nod.
"On the other side of me is Snare Wingstick, our and I quote 'fastest drummer on this side of equestria'."
The yellow pegasus simply grins at me. "You really need to be less tense. Otherwise you're already cool in my books."
I got a strange sense of deja vu...
Electron rolls her eyes. "Somepony could make you a subpar flower steak and you'd be their best buddy." Ignoring the scathing glare Snare gave her she continued. "And last but certainly not least; our main guitarist, Yamaha Strings."
The blue stallion nods. "Just call me Strings. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." He sounded like somepony who lived in Canterlot.
I nod to all of them. "You may already know me from Electron but I'll introduce myself anyways. I'm Zephyr Earthwing and I simply manage the wind here."
Snare snorts. "Yeah you're Harpsong's colt, the one who saved Ponyville from getting blown over by rouge wind currents." I deadpan at her, not expecting my name to stand out for something like that.
Burst shakes his head in amusement. "Now now, Snare, don't embarrass the newcomer even if he's only a reserve member. Sorry about that by the way, I'm betting you're somewhat disappointing at not being an actual member of the band."
"I'm actually ok with this set-up. I'm still wondering why you chose me of all ponies."
This time it was Strings who spoke up. "It was because of how similar you sounded to Clear Octave. At least that's what Burst says..."
I put a hoof to my chin. "I guess you would want somepony to sound as close to the original singer as equinely possible."
Burst nodded. "Exactly. Now that introductions are out of the way, let's discuss how we're going to do things..."
As I exit Sugar Cube Corner and headed home, I thought over the plans the band made again. Starting a few days from now, we needed to practice for the Manehatten concert. We were to play three songs: Their old standby which is Losing You, a semi-new song released in their last album known as Last Goodbye, and an entirely new song.
This is going to be stressful... not only because we need to perfect a new song entirely, but I also need to learn how to sing the other two songs. Guess it can't be helped since I--
"ZEPHYR! GET YER' TAIL OVER HERE!"
I groan. "For the love of Discord's ambiguated mother, I do NOT want to deal with you right now, Applejack!" I try and take off, only to have my tail grabbed.
"Yer comin with me. Ah' want a proper explanation as to why you quit, especially with the way ya did!" She spoke through a mouth full of my tail, but I understood her completely.
"I think you already know why I did that. Now let me go!" The pulling on my tail was getting painful and oddly tiring.
"No. Ahm'. Not."
"Let. Me. Go--" Pain lanced through my body and I fell to the ground in a cry of agony, body and wings convulsing. What appeared to be blood vessels framed my view as the shock that went through my body caused me to black out.
Applejack released the tail and looked at the now unconscious Zephyr, horrified at what just happened. All she wanted to do was drag him back to the farm.
"Applejack, what happened?" She looked over to see Twilight galloping over with a worried face.
"Ah don't know, Twi. All I wanted was to find out why Zephyr quit working at mah farm the way he did an' this is what happened!"
Twilight looked at Zephyr. "That's bizarre... no, no time to think. We need to get him to the library." Without realizing she did so, she flipped Zephyr onto her back and started running.
"Why didn't you use yer magic?" Applejack was running right beside her.
"I'll explain when we get there. Besides, he's actually very light to the point of barely being able to tell he's there." The two kept running until they got into the library. After Applejack got in, Twilight tried closing the door with her magic, but she wasn't getting a response from her horn. "Applejack, could you close the door?"
She did so quickly before looking at her unicorn friend questionably. "Why couldn't you close it yerself?"
Twilight sighed as she beckoned Applejack to follow her downstairs. "I think it has something to do with what happened yesterday."
"Yesterday?"
"I tried to speak to Zephyr, but when I used my magic to stop him, It felt like I was trying to grip a marble orb slathered in a slick liquid."
Applejack deadpanned. "Wait, yer saying he's resistant to yer magic?"
"More like immune. Even further than that, he seems to be canceling out my ability to use magic in the first place by being in contact with me." Twilight slides the unconscious pegasus off her back in front of her testing machine before using her magic. "See, now I can use magic again. Anyways, could you fold his wings up for me? There's something I need to check."
Applejack hesitantly did so, afraid of triggering another convulsion. She was taught by Fluttershy a while ago on how to fold a pegasus' wing back against their body when they were knocked-out, something that happened to Rainbow Dash a lot. Luckily Zephyr didn't react and Twilight was able to get some kind of helmet onto his head.
"Before you ask, Applejack, I'm going to measure his body's magic level. I saw what happened and it looked like an extreme pegasus symptom for magic deficiency."
"Defice-what now?"
Twilight groaned. "It means a sudden lack of magic in the body. It doesn't happen very often in earth ponies or pegasi, although there have been cases, since they don't actively use magic as it's more of a passive effect for them. Unicorns experience it more often BECAUSE of our ability to actively use magic, though symptoms range from tiredness to nausea."
Applejack simply kept silent, though it wasn't long before she was pacing around anxiously while waiting for results, hoping she didn't inadvertently do permanent damage.
"Here we go!" Twilight held up a detailed chart regarding Zephyr's magic levels. She was curious about a label she's never seen before, but she found what she was looking for. "It appears his magic level dropped fifty percent from what it should be... halfway gone is worrying but still easy to fix."
Applejack let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "If it's an easy fix then ah'm glad I didn't do--" The helmet was suddenly strapped onto her head, replacing her stetson. "What in tarnation?"
"Sorry, but I want to check something quick before letting you go." Seeing her friends apprehensive look, she chuckled nervously. "I guess I should've asked first."
" Well... if ya need to..."
The results oddly came back faster than for Zephyr, but Twilight dismissed it. "It seems you have an extra abundance of magic energy in your body."
"Are you telling me ah' absorbed energy from him, like a magic leech?"
"It appears to be the case. Luckily, extra magic reserves don't overly affect a pony other than allowing them to use their talent for a while longer before resetting back to normal parameters."
Applejack sighed. "Yeah, lucky for ME. What about Zephyr? Ah don't wanna leech magic off him every time ah want to shake hooves or what-not." Shooting a scathing glare at the still unconscious pegasus she added, "although he does kinda deserve it from the way he's been treatin' us."
Twilight also sighed as she rubbed her temples. She still couldn't figure out why he's been acting so abrasively after his shared birthday party with Pinkie Pie. She bounced back after an oddly depressing conversation involving them not liking her anymore, yet he didn't.
Putting her stetson back on, Applejack nodded at her friend. "Well ah got to get back to the farm. Big Mac went with Granny Smith to a relative's place and ah need to pick up the slack." Tipping her hat in respect, she climbed out of the basement.
"Don't over-exhaust yourself again!" She waited a few moments before levitating a bottle containing a purple liquid. A while back, Zecora taught her how to make magic restoration brews in response to her desire to last longer than she usually does when practicing magic. The ingredients could be found in Ponyville as well.
"This should restore most of his magic." Since Zephyr's mouth was already open enough, she slowly emptied the bottle's contents into him before picking him up and taking him outside. She flagged down a pegasus, who happened to be Derpy.
"Could you take him back to his house for me?"
Derpy looked more than pleased. "Of course Twilight!" Her skewed eye suddenly corrected itself as she gave the unicorn a curious look. "What happened to him anyways?"
"He.. uh... had some of his magic inexplicably drained from him, which caused him to black out. I gave him some magic restoratives that should take effect after a few minutes, so he isn't in danger." She gives a nervous smile.
Derpy stared a bit longer before shrugging and picking up the green stallion. "He's awfully light for somepony his size and physique." with that, she takes off.
Twilight watched the wall-eyed pegasus fly away before going back inside. She wanted to find out what that one label meant.
The first thing I remember waking up to besides my home's roof was a massive headache.
"Did somepony catch the owner of that carriage? I feel flattened..."