//------------------------------// // 13 - Obscurus Noctis and Eight Track Go For a Leisurely Drive // Story: Embers Fall // by CrimsonWave //------------------------------// Meanwhile in the Tanta-bus, Obscurus and Eight Track's journey to Kimberwicke Falls was approximately 76% complete. The route through Oatergon was a lot more scenic than their foes', unless you find forests and mountain ranges to be less exciting than an open desert and old west towns. Train Spot and Wave Rider had been following them close behind in a different truck and keeping in touch along the way. But there was someone else Obscurus felt the need to keep in touch with, despite being the mare in the driver's seat. "Y'know, Eight Track, do you think it would be a good idea to publicly mention that I'm going to this Gathering thing?" asked Obscurus. "By that I mean on FluffySound, of course." "Depends on how many of your followers have heard of it, and the subset of them that are actually attending." Eight Track acknowledged. "Any promotion is good promotion." "I was thinking of going down the 'cryptic' route." declared Obscurus. "Given how well I know you, I'd say that's a road you've been down a lot." Eight Track observed. "You and your cryptic hints and puzzles. Every new single is practically an ARG with you." "First you gotta tease it. Then you gotta knock everypony's pants off when you finally release it. That's how you do things nowadays." explained Obscurus. "Even if it means that new song is temporarily titled 'ID' on that playlist site for about 5 months or so before the single drops." "Let's not forget about the promo discs too." Eight Track acknowledged. "How everypony reacts to your song at clubs is always a good indicator of whether it's gonna perform well or not." "I get that, but the internet is still very important too nowadays. It's fun to scour Ponyhoof for those 'that new Obscurus Noctis song was awesome, I wonder when it's coming out' posts." Obscurus continued. "It's all about one word; hype. I need hype. We need to build some hype." she concluded. "Yes, ma'am!" announced Eight Track. "Now, obviously, it's a little dangerous, and illegal, to use a phone while driving. Think you could type this in for me, please?" asked Obscurus. "Okay." said Eight Track, as he dug out and began to try operating Obscurus's somewhat old smartphone. "You really need to get a new phone." "You should have seen the computer I was using before Wave Rider built that new one." Obscurus pointed out. "That was even older, to be honest. I'm just waiting for the last day of my contract next month." Eight Track didn't choose to acknowledge the reply. "Okay, so I think I found your Fluffsound app or whatever it was called. I presume that you wanted to 'Post artist announcement', right? "Yeah." confirmed Obscurus. "Okay, on the screen now. What do you want me to type? Should I come up with something, or did you have an idea?" asked Eight Track. "Like I said, I wanted to go cryptic and mysterious. Allude to themes and imagery, but not outright state where we're going." she explained. "Something ominous and epic, like, 'Secrets lie in the sacred sand...'" "Woah, go on...." complimented Eight Track, as he began to type it in. "Our spirit empowers the titans below! Just as the rhythms above. We, feel the euphoria.'" said Obscurus, in an equally ominous and epic tone. Eight Track was trying to keep up with Obscurus, but her phone was rather small and difficult to type on. "Got it, aaaand it's up!" announced Eight Track. "Thank you." replied Obscurus. "Just trying to help." affirmed Eight Track. "Also there was some message saying that Fluffysound was discontinuing this version of their app next week, but it's also telling me that the new version requires a newer version of Ambldroid too." "I know; Wave Rider was telling me that this phone can't 'get upgrades' or something anymore." explained Obscurus. "He was yakking about 'custom' something and 'roots' too but I didn't understand it." "At least I managed to type out your message on that small screen of yours." Eight Track noted. "That phone was considered large about 3 years ago, but nowadays, 4.3 inches is relatively tiny. 5.2-inch screens are the sweet spot nowadays, especially among unicorns." "Last time I checked, my early upgrade fee was only 25 bits. They'll probably be doing back to school sales for all the colts and fillies by the time we get back..." Obscurus admitted. About half an hour later, Obscurus took the Tanta-bus into at a rest stop so Eight Track could take over driving. She snuggled onto the backseat, and decided to check her Fluffysound to see if anyone had already parsed her announcement. "Hmm, yeah this is right. Sacred sand, titans, spirits, euphorius..." she said under her breath. "EUPHORIUS?!" Obscurus screamed in anger. "Hey, don't disturb your driver like that!" an annoyed Eight Track demanded. "I said for you to type Euphoria, not Euphorius." she clarified. "Euphoria as in intense joy. Not Euphorius as in, our confidential scheme." "I remember clearly typing out 'euphoria'. Though that keyboard on the screen was a little small." said Eight Track. "On second thought, It seems like a justifiable typo, though. Or just 'euphoria' and 'glorious' smashed together." explained Obscurus. "Might have accidentally hit an extra button or two while typing that; the U is close to I, and S is right next to A, so you were close. While I could fix it, apparently the edit button for announcements is something they only added in the new version of the Fluffysound app." "And, of course, you can't have nice things on old platforms." noted Eight Track. "Yeah." agreed Obscurus. "While I'm here, I think we're making good progress. By my calculations, we should be reaching Kimberwicke Falls in about 2 hours by my calculations." informed Eight Track. "We'll make it there by sunset, as we had originally planned." "That's good. It's been a long day already." said Obscurus. "Also, I managed to get a surprise gig at a little bar down there tonight; consider it an additional dress rehearsal for what is about to ensue..."