The Grounded Musician

by SilasSilversti

The Band

Chapter 9

The streets were quiet, the sky was cloudy and there was slight drizzle. Up and down the main streets of Fillydelphia aside from the few bars and restaurants, there were mostly apartment buildings and motels lined up. Only a few ponies were out on the streets, crime wasn't very high in town, but Filly didn't look very inviting either.

A gray mailmare with a blonde mane was trotting down the street, it was Derpy Hooves. She approached a large apartment building and knocked. After a couple minutes, the door opened. A green stallion with a bandaged horn and a curly blonde mane was standing inside. "Yes?" He said in a tired tone, he didn't look very happy. Derpy did though, she smiled, "I have a letter here! For a......Ja-yke, Jake Crash Cymbal!" He had a puzzled look on his face, "I'm Jake Crash Cymbal, no one ever writes to me, who's it from?" He asked as Derpy gave him the letter, "Its from a good friend of yours, and mine, Black Strat, though you Filly folk probably know him as Silas." She said happily, Jake read the letter.

Dear Jake,

I know this letter is totally overdue, but Its been about a month since my accident. Now I have recovered a lot, I know you and Luca had probably thought I died. Don't worry man, I'm alive and well, maybe not well but I'm still alive. Just to let you guys know, I was struck by lightning on my way to our gig in Manehattan. I broke my left wing and a few locals from the nearby town of Ponyville checked me into the hospital upon finding me. Everyone here is so nice, its nothing like Filly over here, I've met a mare who plays the cello. She is rather classy but we have a steady relationship, Soon I will be going for a job at a local music store. Life down here has been going pretty well for me, I actually have a place to sleep, some bits to my name, and I still got the SRV. We need to reunite soon, I may be coming to visit you in a few days. I've been writing to Aldy as well, hes coming to Ponyville for the weekend. I miss you guys, but you have to meet the ponies here sometime.

P.S. Tell Orange Stride I'll pay off my bar tab as soon as I get my job.

See you Soon

~ Silas "Black" Strat.

Jake's frown turned upside down, Derpy was still smiling and she spoke loudly, "He asked me to deliver it myself! I'm the mailmare in Ponyville!" Jake laughed, "That sounds nice, I wish I actually had a good job." Derpy stared at him puzzled for a couple seconds then smiled again, "Want me to stay so you can write a letter back? I'll deliver it free of charge!" Derpy asked the green unicorn. He stood there for a few seconds thinking then spoke, "You can stay, but I won't be writing back, I think I'm gonna come visit him. Do you think you can bring me to your town, erm..Ponyville?" Derpy jumped up in the air and giggled, "Of course I can! I know exactly how to get there!" Jake smiled in relief, "We just have to make a couple stops first."

***

While Derpy was away some other mare filled in for her delivering mail in Ponyville. She was gone a little longer than expected, but no pony thought much of it. All the ponies were busy in Ponyville today. Applejack and Big Mac were bucking apples non stop. Twilight was studying a lot more than usual, Spike was busy enough grabbing books for her to read. Fluttershy was tending to her animals, Rainbow Dash was clearing the clouds. Rarity was making a couple suits and dresses. Pinkie Pie was busy watching Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake, and Silas was on his way to his new job interview. The music shop in town was called Noteworthy instruments. Of course the owner was Noteworthy, he lived above the shop and was the only person working it.

Silas opened the front door and trotted on in. Noteworthy had everything, from brass to percussion, if it was considered an instrument he had it. Silas approached the desk, where Noteworthy was taking a snooze. He decided not to wake his blue friend, so Silas looked around. They only had a few guitars, but a bunch of amplifiers. They had a Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, and Gretsch. One of each guitar, so they only had four, but about seven amps. Small and large, much to Silas' disapointment they only had one electric bass, it was an Ernie Ball Music Mare.

Silas heard a mumble and turned to the desk, Noteworthy had woke up. He looked up at Silas with sleepy eyes, "Woah, hey there man. Sorry, I erm....didn't get much sleep last night." Silas nodded his head and smirked, "Thats fine, I'm here looking for a job." Noteworthy smiled wide and laughed a little, then he got up and pulled out a sheet of paper. "Alright, so you specialize in guitars right? Well we have a shortage of guitars and basses, in fact we don't have that many stringed instruments. So if you want you can work here." Silas smiled, but then frowned and looked at his blue friend puzzled.

"Wait, what would I do?" Silas asked, Noteworthy was watching the desk and owned the shop, what could Silas do? Noteworthy spoke immediately, "Well you used to live in Filly, there were a few companies down there right? Well, you ought to know someone there who can ship us some stringed instruments. We need some new stock, I think you can be the manager of Noteworthy instruments, we'll switch shifts watching the desk every once and a while. You'll get a lunch break and a smoke break." Noteworthy put the paper down on the desk, "Sign here." He said, and gave Silas a pen. He signed his full name in print, since he didn't know cursive, Silas Black Strat.

***

Silas had now had a job, a place to live, a wonderful marefriend, and he was friends with everypony in town. Not to mention Sweetie Belle started to look up to him as a role model. He had just got off shift when he heard somepony call his name. Silas looked around, then he saw Octavia trotting up to him, "Silas! I heard you got the job, that is wonderful, truly wonderful! I have to ask you something though..." The orange stallion nodded his head knowing it wasn't anything bad. "You're not leaving are you? You said you were going to go back to Filly when your wings healed, are you?" She teared up a bit. Silas hugged her and spoke, "I may have started a life here, but my home is Filly. I've got a job to pay off....my bar tab back home. But I'll still be staying for a few days more. Don't worry, I won't be gone forever."

Tavi was indeed sad but she knew it was the way things had to be. Silas had debt that he owed and his band waiting for him in Filly. There was no way he could stay. Silas and Tavi decided to go for a walk through town, there was a group a ponys gathered around somepony else, but they couldn't see who. Tavi saw Derpy hovering over the crowd, her and Silas approached them. As soon as they entered the crowd and got to the middle, Silas' face perked up. "SILAS!" The small gang of ponys yelled, He ran into them and hugged every one of them. Tavi came up the the group as well feeling shy, Silas stood beside her and introduced everypony.

"Octavia, I would like you to meet the guys, Octavia guys, guys Octavia." Silas laughed. A tall green stallion with a bandaged horn and a curly blonde mane stepped forward. "Nice to meet you, heh heh, I'm Crash Cymbal, Jake "Crash" Cymbal. I play the drums in our band." A short teal stallion with a navy and cyan mane stepped forward, "I'm Copper Strings, but you can call me Luca. I play acoustic guitar." Then a short sky blue stallion stepped forward, "I'm Orange Stride, nice to meet yah, I own Stride's Pub in Filly. Silas still owes me money..." Silas interrupted him by tossing a small sack of bits to him, "That should cover my tab and then some." Stride was silent and he grinned with satisfaction.

All the ponies were from Fillydelphia, these were Silas' old friends, but there were still a few more to be introduced. A yellow pegasus stepped foward and nodded his head, he had a twisted red mane and a goofy look on his face. "Why helllllooo there Ms.Octavia, I'm Aldy, I grew up in Cloudsdale with Silas. Aww yeaah him and I have been best friends ever since we met in flight school detention." Tavi couldn't help but giggle, Aldy was quite the amusing stallion. The last pony stepped forward, he was a red stallion with a messy brown mane and a cowboy hat. He was chewing on some wheat, "Howdy there, I'm Jim, but most of my pals call me Slim, heh heh, I'm Slim Jim. I own a farm outside of Filly." Octavia smiled at Silas' friends, "Its a pleasure to meet you all finally, Silas has always mentioned you a lot."

Silas ended up introducing all six of his friends to all the townsfolk in Ponyville. Jake broke the ice, "So Strat, you staying or not?" Silas just stood silent for a little bit, then words came. "Well, as much as I missed you all back in Filly, face it, that place was a dump." They all nodded their heads in agreement, "My hometown is Cloudsdale, but I've started a new life here in Ponyville, and met a special somepony." He put his hoof around Octavia, Luca interrupted, "But Silas, the band man! What about the band?! You know, we can't perform without you. Where would we go from here?" Luca made a good point, Silas was at a loss for words. "I'm sorry but I don't know. This isn't the end, Filly isn't very far from here, I'll just fly wherever we have a gig, and we can have gigs here in Ponyville too." Luca smiled, Silas did always have good ideas.

Their visit was short, "We only stopped by to see how you were doing. I have to admit, Ponyville is much nicer than Filly, but Filly is our home so we must return to it." Jake said to a crowd of ponies, "Will you ever visit?" Twilight asked, Slim replied, "Of course we all will, we love you ponyfolk down here." Stride interupted him, "Yeeahs, we like it here, so we'll visit every once in a while." On that note everypony started home, Jake was the last to leave, "See you soon man, we have to jam." He and Silas brohoofed, "Yeah dude, real soon. Bye Jake."

Silas and Octavia watched the group slowly fade away in the distance over the hills on the way to Fillydelphia. Silas was sad they couldn't stay but he was glad to have seen them. Twilight and Fluttershy approached the two, "They all seemed nice, you sure do have some good friends over there." Twilight said, Fluttershy looked at Silas then spoke softly, "Um-m Silas seeing Aldy today reminded me of something. Remember back when we were younger, before you had your cutie mark?" Silas looked puzzled, "Yeah, what about it?" Fluttershy started softly, "Well, um, me and you used to hang out, you and Aldy always were trying to make me laugh and you guys always cheered me up when I was sad. You've changed so much, but Aldy hasn't really, thats what reminded me. Just thought I should let you know." She said.

"Me and Aldy always were quite the jokers, I'm kinda sad we don't hang out, after I moved away from Cloudsdale I didn't see him anymore, but we wrote to eachother sometimes. Ah well, at least I have all of you as my friends." Silas said, then looked up at the sky, "I'd like to visit Cloudsdale again, Fluttershy, do you think we could get Rainbow Dash and make the trip?" Fluttershy looked up at the sky with him, "Well I don't see why not." Silas shook hooves with her, "Its settled, we'll set out for Cloudsdale tomorrow afternoon."

Octavia and Silas went back home together and made small talk about their younger lives. Tavi opened the door and the two were surprised to see Vinyl and Baritone passed out on the couch together. Silas threw a blanket over them and trotted up the stairs with Tavi. It was getting real late, so the couple decided to go to bed. They shared a large king sized bed, it was the most comfortable thing Silas ever slept on. Him and Tavi climbed into bed, "Silas, you won't be gone long will you?" She asked, Silas turned and kissed her, "Not long at all, I couldn't bare being away from you." Octavia beamed and the two cuddled with eachother. "Goodnight Tavi." He said to his lover, "Goodnight Silas." She replied, and the couple drifted off into slumber.

Comments

[greyyy]

at the ending, bear*

[SilasSilversti]

713527 Graci....though I haven't edited it yet.

[OrangeStride10]

Ha. Nice Bro. Looking forward for more. The next chapters and other stories.