//------------------------------// // Introductions. // Story: The Symptoms of Fate // by Brownbear96 //------------------------------// Intro 1: Quiet Storm Quiet Storm walked through the village of Hollow Shades. He passed a few ponies on his way through the town, all familiar with him by now. He stood above most of them, his height above average. Normally whenever Quiet walked out in public he got many looks for his appearance. Most of his coat was an earthy red, and his mane and tail were black, both long and unkempt. His hooves were dark grey, as well as his eyes, and his cutie mark was a yin and yang surrounding a storm cloud. What was different about him was his thicker, grey, buffalo hide on his upper back and two buffalo horns on his head. His unique appearance was the result of his unique heritage. You see, his father was a buffalo, and his mother, an earth pony. When he was born, he was the same race as his mother, but still took some traits from his father. Besides his Parents. he grew up with an older and little brother, though they were both plain earth ponies, they didn't share Quiet’s unique appearance, singling him out from the rest of his family. Quiet Storm grew up in Dodge City for most of his life, attending the schoolhouse there until he graduated at age 14. He was shunned by other kids for his appearance, so the only playmates he had were his brothers. Another unique trait he inherited was his size, he grew much larger than most ponies, while this warded off bullies it also meant that he constantly had to be cautious indoors, so as not to break anything. When Quiet graduated from the schoolhouse, he still hadn't earned his cutie mark and his older brother had left home to travel, leaving large gaps of free time while his younger brother went to school. This led to long periods of reading, so many hours with texts with so much information, Quiet Storm committed all of it to memory leading to his cutie mark for comprehension. Normally Quiet might of been happy, but it was such a broad talent. Comprehension meant he could learn anything but it also meant somepony else would have had to master it first, so what could Quiet master? After pondering for some time, he decided he could devote himself to learning about one of the most difficult subjects in Equestria to grasp; Magic. At first all he could do was hoard books on any kind of magical subject from the local library, until he met a traveling unicorn there who excelled on the subject of inherent magic, or the magic inside of all creatures. Seeing Quiet’s studious nature, the unicorn named Spell Buff invited Quiet as an apprentice to learn more. With a goodbye to his little brother and parents Quiet traveled with the unicorn to the village of Hollow Shades. Without any social skills and his excessively large vocabulary from reading so many books, Quiet made two friends, friends with whom he shared a bond lasting two years in that village.Now, he was 16, and these very friends he was on his way to meet in the woods surrounding the village. Quiet stepped into the clearing where he and his friends met frequently, once again he was first to arrive. Quiet let out an audible sigh. “I wonder how long I’ll have to wait this ti-” “Hey, Quiet!” Quiet chuckled, his out loud thought interrupted by his friend. “Not long, apparently.” Quiet turned to face his normally tardy friend. A pegasus named Dead Bass. Intro 2: Dead Bass Right off the bat, what first stands out about Dead Bass? His name, who gives their kid the name ‘Dead’? I’ll tell you, Dead Bass’ parents. A unicorn stallion named Envious Poetry (Or Envy for short) and a pegasus mare named Thorn Brush. Envy was a writer mostly, specializing in short stories and poetry, and Thorn was a painter. Both Thorn and Envy shared something unique about their arts, their dark tone nature. Envy wrote chilling stories and haunting poetry, often leaving a reader with nightmares, or with no sleep at all. Thorn painted pictures that evoked emotions like sadness, despair, and fear. Naturally the two ponies were a perfect match for each other. They moved into a house in Hollow Shades, a village often under the shadows of the forest surrounding it, and had one child, Dead Bass. Dead Bass was a pegasus with a brown coat, green eyes, and a green and black mane and tail, though as a child his parents fashioned his hair so as to hide as much green as possible. Attending the school house in Hollow Shades, due to his mysterious nature(set by his parents.) other kids thought he was cool, and he developed pretty good social skills, though Dead Bass found the other kids to be boring. Sometimes other foals found him scary, and Dead Bass would often find their reactions of fright amusing, but he didn't revel in it. Dead Bass, due to his upbringing, became totally immune to anything scary or creepy himself, and easily became tired of anything of the such from his parents. As a result he sought to separate himself from them as much as possible. Once he earned his cutie mark, a bass guitar with bat wings, his parents would supply him with music that had a chilling tone. When he was 13 he went to the local library to find new music, a change from the kind his parents gave him, where he met another pony around his age who’d just moved to Hollow Shades. This pony, already well acquainted with the library showed Dead Bass to the music books, and even helped him learn from the books he picked out, though this pony claimed he wasn't a musician himself. This was the same pony Dead Bass was going to meet in the woods today. Now, Dead Bass’ mane was shaped like a buzz saw with green and black spikes, his tail was trimmed short and mostly unkempt, the same colors as his mane. His wings flapped keeping him slightly above ground. He was going to take a nap in the library until he caught a glimpse of the clock, seeing it was time for his rendezvous with his friends. Spotting Quiet, who seemed to be thinking aloud he shouted for him. “Hey, Quiet!” Quiet chuckled and turned toward Dead Bass, “Not long, apparently.” Dead Bass raised an eyebrow. “Say what now?” “Nothing, just thinking out loud.” Dead Bass looks around the clearing “So, where’s Shard?” “Presumably she’ll be here any se-” Quiet Storm was interrupted a loud whistle. Intro 3: Shard The tritagonist of this story and final friend in this trio is Shard. Shard is a Pegasus and out of the three the only female. Her coat was white and the tips of the feathers on her wings were black, her eyes were an amber color, her mane and tail were black with white trims, and her mane was tied in a ponytail. Shard had a more athletic build than Quiet or Dead Bass as she was a dancer, though she rarely talked about it. Shard grew up in Manehattan, with just her parents. She never liked attending school there as all the kids seemed to enjoy bullying her, she just didn't seem have the kind of personality for making friends. She was also late in receiving her cutie mark, as she never wanted to do anything with other ponies, since they were so mean to her. Eventually, her parents signed her up for ballet classes, it was there she earned her cutie mark for dancing (Or the term she preferred; Coordination.) The bullying went on like normal for her, but she grew tired of it, and eventually she proved to be meaner than any bully in her town. She developed an aggressive disposition, and generally became unpleasant to be around. This led to all of her peers being wary of her, and so they often would just dodge if they saw her in public. When she was 16 she’d finally had made enough money to travel on her own, so she did. Using money acquired from her allowance, and odd-jobs she performed around town, she took train out of town. With no particular direction, she ended up in Hollow Shades, choosing a place that differed from Manehattan as much as possible. She was easily able to find jobs around the village as ponies had a number of tasks that needed doing, and not too many ponies to do them. The village also lacked many other ponies her age which Shard decided was a good thing, as she never had a good experience with a peer of hers. She was, however, able to find to colts around her age, though they didn't exactly look like common bullies, she still had a few choice word stored in her mind. So if these ponies proved unpleasant, she'd make sure that she seemed even nastier. It turns out the two were simply preparing for a walk into the forest, and even invited Shard to cone with them. She already made some money in Hollow Shades, and she had free time so, Shard decided to go with them. She ended up actually having fun and getting along with the two, and was even invited to join them the next day. Shard decided she wasn't in a rush, so she stayed in the village with her two new friends, for two years.