//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Friendship is Optimal: Friendship ist Krieg // by anima draconis //------------------------------// Aurore was shrieking into the microphone. Her eyes locked on the paper where the lyrics were written that she was holding, and headphones were on her ears, blasting an instrumental made of furious guitars and blast beating drums. Next to her, Lucas was monitoring the recording on a laptop. After several minutes of shrieking -and some clean singing- Aurore stopped singing, removed her headphones and turned to Lucas. "So? How was I?" "Good as always. Maybe a little bit off during the clean vocals, but it's no problem since they'll be backing vocals." "I'll try to improve my voice, but as long as my shrieks are good... Anyway, what's going to happen during that moment I don't sing? It's not a really interesting part I think." A grin appeared on Lucas' face, he pointed at the laptop. "Don't worry, I have friends who can do a solo for us. We just have to choose which instrument will fit the best." "And who are those friends?" "Ponies, you haven't met them yet. There's Blackjazz, she's a saxophonist and a jazzmare, and you know, sax in extreme metal seems to be a sort of trend lately, you've heard Shining and Aenaon right? Then we can go classical, I know some ponies playing in a small orchestra. And also, I can easily go and search for other ponies in Canterlot." "Let's go for the saxophone, even if it is weird for you to follow a trend. And, this Blackjazz, how are going to record her in the game?" "Don't worry about that, I know how to record in game. Do you have your ponypad with you?" "You serious? I left it here yesterday. I didn't came back during night to take it and play at home. Remember, I came here just after waking up so what would be the point?" "I would totally have took it during the night, because the game is awesome" She sighed, and wished she has more than two hands to facepalm. Why was she questioning him? She hadn't questioned him on his motivations to emigrate -even if she already had her idea of why- so why was she trying? Anyway, she went from the microphone to Lucas' couch and sat just in front of the Ponypad, where she left it the day before, after doing her first step in the game. "So let's met that 'jazzmare', I'm curious to see what a pony can do". Aurore waited for her friend to get his own Ponypad, then she pressed the power button. The screen came to life and directly showed her character. Vocal Vortex was laying on a small bed in a white bedroom. The pony had bought a small apartment in the center of Canterlot. And it was a street away from her friend's. Lucas had told her that he lived in Cloudsdale, but he had 'forgotten' that he had moved to Canterlot. More hijinks. "I'm coming to your flat" said Lucas from his desk "and then, we'll go meet Blackjazz at the place she works". Several seconds later, a knock came from the door of Vortex's home. She tiredly got up from her bed and went to open it. Behind was Dunkelheit, a small pegasus mare with a grey coat, a black mane, teal eyes and a white shaky treble key, as if it had been done with a can of spray paint, as a cutie mark. "Here I am" said the man and the mare simultaneously "now let's go find our musician". It was weird to hear Lucas' low voice and Dunkelheit's high pitched one saying the same thing at the same time. Aurore was feeling a little sad that she would only hear Dunkelheit's voice in the future. Pushing this sadness aside, she made her pony follow her friend through the building and then the streets of Canterlot. The neighbourhood was quite colorful and busy, it was around noon and the streets were filled with ponies of every kind. There were a lot of shops taking advantage of the nice weather to put some displays on the streets and every terrace of every restaurant was full. The grey pegasus walked swiftly among the crowd, awkwardly followed by a Vocal Vortex who struggled to avoid bumping into everypony. They walked silently for several minutes to stop in front of what seemed to be a small cafe called 'The Jazzy Blues'. The front was painted in black, the name was written in gold letters and two huge windows from both sides of the door gave a good view of the inside, it looked classy. The terrace wasn't that busy, just a couple of ponies enjoying a drink before or after lunch. Inside, they were greeted by the smell of coffee and the sound of two ponies playing music on a small stage placed at the far end of the room. One was a sandy earth pony stallion playing the contrabass, he was accompanied with another stallion on a piano. There was a dozen of ponies listening to them from the black wooden tables near the stage. Dunkelheit went straight to the massive wooden counter on the side of the room and talked to the barmare without waiting for Vocal to come over. "Is Blackjazz here?" "If you want to listen her play" replied the mare with an amiable tone "she is on stage every night. And if you are a friend of hers, she's actually in her lodge." "We're friends yes. And don't worry, I know the way." She thanked the barmare and motioned Vocal to follow her. The duo went to the back of the room were was a door leading to the backstages. The grey pegasus opened it and quickly took her friends in before closing it even more quickly. "They allow non employees here" explained Dunkelheit "but they prefer to keep this fact not so well known". The duo walked through a small corridor with several doors, all of them had a small sign with a name on it. They stopped in front of one branded 'Blackjazz'. In the real world, Lucas turned to Aurore. "So, this is gonna be your first real interaction in the game with another pony player. Forget about the ones you've been interacting with in the tutorial, it is way different. And don't forget, talk in pony, it will be less weird to really speak like a pony than hearing pony-you speak different words." And with that, he made his character knock on the door. "Come in" came a raspy feminine voice from the other side. Behind the door was a small and cozy room. One wall was a full mirror glass were many pictures and posters were stuck, leaving only a small space of reflective surface. On the other side was a huge dresser filled with stage dress and fashion accessories and the third wall was bare except for a small window showing the small back alley behind the building. A pale yellow unicorn mare with a short black mane and emerald eyes was sitting on a cushion in front of a small table in the center of the dressing room, munching on a small sandwich. She motioned for her two visitors to sit in front of the table before swallowing. "Hey there Dunkel ! Nice to see you. Who is your friend?" "I'm Vocal Vortex" said Aurore through the microphone of the Ponypad. "Nice to meet you then, I guess she talked about what I do then?" "I just said that you're a saxophonist, and a good one. And that you'll be more than happy to record something for our song". The mare nodded and looked at Vortex with a smile. "So you're her bandmate then? I've been curious to meet you since I knew Dunkel had a band. But it's funny since he described you has a 'trve' who doesn't want to have anything to do with us ponies, even if I have no idea what this 'trve' thing is." Aurore turned towards Lucas and whispered. "You've been talking behind my back in an online game? The fuck man? And you know I don't care about the 'trve' bullshit" He just Shrugged and reported his attention back to Blackjazz. "Because you seem to ask Jazz, 'trve' is just acting like what is considered the true black metal way of life, like being a satanist, hating everypony and saying that nothing good was made after the 90s in term of music, and also ‘trve’ is written with a v instead of u, because it makes it looks more ‘black metal’, some also says ‘kvlt’. But honestly, it's more a joke than a real thing, at least for us, we are not really trve, we're more on the passionate and music lover side. One must be stupid to think an anti conformist music genre has jailed itself with codes... oh wait..." Aurore and her avatar rolled their eyes at their friend's irony, even if there was some truth in it. Meanwhile, Blackjazz still had her smile. "I see... Well then, it's a real honour Vocal Vortex. I hope our friendship will be as great as the one I have with Dunkel ! Now if it's no bother, I'll finish my lunch and then we'll get to business." Seeing the mare eat made Aurore realize that she hadn’t had something to eat since she woke up this morning. She took advantage of the lull in the discussion to get up and go over the Lucas' fridge. "I'm getting something to eat, want some?" "Yeah, grab me some cheese and ham, I need a sandwich. And also, a beer." The fridge wasn't that full, but had enough to feed a student for some time. Aurore grabbed the ham, the munster cheese, two Leffe beer and a plate of what was left of the carbonara spaghetti they had made yesterday. She put the plate in the microwave and brought the ham and cheese to Lucas along with the baguette that was on the counter. She went back for the beers and looked quickly at her Ponypad. Her pony was still sitting in front of Blackjazz who had almost finished her sandwich. She popped the caps with a bottle opener, put them on the table near her Ponypad and went to wait for her food to heat in the microwave. "Your beer's behind you Lucas" "Thanks girl. So what do you think of her?" "Right now? I don't know, she seems nice and all. But like any pony I guess." "She's nicer than the average, and she's also a good musician with great tastes, even if she is clearly on the jazz side of the force." The microwave beeped and Aurore quickly took her food back with her to the Ponypad. Blackjazz had finished her lunch and was in the corner of her dressing room, taking a case that was lying against the wall. "I got my sax with me. I'm ready to go." "Well then" Dunkelheit replied "we shall begin our small journey to Tartarus! Let's go honor the music gods and blow some raspberries at the others!"