Ponies All Day-Writing Challenge

by ThunderTempest

01:30-02:00 "Finding The Magic"

The first time that Thunder Tempest reached out and felt the magic of Equestria respond to his rhythm and melody was in a run-down music shop in Manehatten. He’d been stationed out there to help deal with a particularly vicious storm, and after it had been taken care of, he’d been wandering the city, having been given a week off to recuperate after a lightning strike to one of his wings. There hadn’t been any major damage, but he just needed time for the muscles to loosen up again so he could fly.

The store’s sign had been faded to the point of unreadability, but the single brass eighth note mounted over the door made the shop’s purpose very clear. He had wandered in, just to take a look around, but felt himself gravitating towards the instruments. More specifically, the basses. He picked up a few, tried them out, and liked the deep, rich sound they could give off.

He’d been playing one for about ten minutes when it happened. It had started with green sparks surrounding his hooves at first. Each spark felt empowering to the pegasus, and he felt as if he could run for days on end, or buck clouds almost eternally. Then, the green magic began to gather and pool behind the strings of the instrument, just above the magical pickups. As he hit the final note of the little song he’d been improvising on, the magic released itself. Of course, Thunder did not yet have the control or the potency he would acquire with time and practice, but the resulting blast was still rather impressive for somepony who discovered this by accident.

The green magic tore itself from behind the strings, arcing out in a beam as wide as his hoof, and punching a hole in the wall that he could have shoved half his leg through. And just like that, the second part of his cutie mark, the bass headstock topping the lightning bolt, made perfect sense to the pegasus for the first time in his life. Closer inspection revealed that the bass, a Ponywick Fortress, had the exact same headstock as was displayed so proudly on his flank. Grinning, he picked the bass back up, and took it over to the counter.

“I’ll take this one. And...sorry about the hole in the wall.”

The following weeks, though hectic as the heavy weather expert was shuttled all over Equestria, dealing with problem storms everywhere, he still found time to practice, rediscovering what had happened back in the music shop, and how to control it. It took years, but he finally was getting good, able to call upon the magic at will. That was when the Fillydelphia League of Associated Combat Musicians contacted him. Once he accepted their offer, the real work began. As Thunder quickly discovered, most combat musicians were earth ponies, or Unicorns, as twisting what Thunder now knew to be the innate magic of Equestria itself was taxing enough that it near enough neutralised any and all natural magic within a pony. For pegasi, that meant flight and cloud walking.

But still, he pushed on, and the first time he faced down somepony using his skills as a combat musician and won was perhaps the greatest feeling in the world for the pegasus, as it was fulfilling both parts of his cutie mark. His desire to protect ponies from things like rouge storms, as represented by the lightning bolt, and his innate ties to the music and magic of Equestria shown by the bass headstock.

Author's Note:

Written for Prompt #106: “Every Time’s Just Like the First”
There are three prompt options today. Feel free to incorporate one, two, or all three into your submission. The options are:
(A) “The first date.”
(B) “The first kiss.”
(C) “The first time.”

Comments

[TheDerpyOutcast]

7/15