Neon drunkenly stumbled through Canterlot wondering how he’d go out. Contemplating whether he should just jump off the side of Canterlot, or just drink until he stops breathing. Neon knew that he might survive drinking an abundance of liquor, and decided that the best way to go was in a huge splat of blood and guts. When he imagined the image of his body falling to the earth and breaking on contact he smiled, faintly, but it did make him smile.
As Neon approached the edge of Canterlot, he looked down and saw the huge fall that he faced. Now realizing how high up he was he gulped and shivered as he realized how high up he was. Neon knew for certain that this fall would kill him, there were no doubts about that, but he took a moment to think about what would happen when he died. He thought about Vinyl making millions by just mooching off his hard work. She’d use his death as a selling point by making a “Memorial to Neon” album which would be a list of his top ten songs. She’d claim the two were always best friends and only talked bad about each other for publicity. She’d lie to everyponies’ face just to get ‘that’ much more attention.
After facing that what he imagined was probably going to happen, he placed his forehooves on the railing and started to pull himself up. Then he remembered that he hadn’t made more than ten albums. Each of the albums he had made only had about thirteen to sixteen songs on it. With this newfound information he saw Vinyl crashing and burning before his eyes. Smiling at the idea of his biggest rival’s and ex-fillyfriend’s career failing, Neon now had a sense of hope.
He knew, given time, she’d run out of songs of his to remix. She’d have not content. Her fame would eventually fall.
Sugar Beats’ train had finally arrived in Canterlot. After a two hour train ride from his small town, Beats was finally able to let the new city sink in. This wasn’t the first time Beats has been to Canterlot, but it was the first time where he took it all in; the atmosphere, the architecture, and the people that lived there. Beats had felt like he was a big shot getting off that train and strolling into the city.
As much as Beats wanted to believe he was a famous, rich pony, he knew he had to start at the bottom of the music industry. He figured he may as well find a small record store and start there. If he wanted to get his name out he needed two things, money and a place to record his songs. The first step was to get money.
As Beats was admiring everything about Canterlot, he realized he had no clue where he was going. Just as he was about to ask somepony for directions, he was shoved aside by a few unicorns. He fell and hit his head on a nearby building. The next thing he saw darkness.
“I think you may have killed him, man.”
“What!? No! I…I couldn’t have killed him just like that!”
“Then call somepony to help and stop trying to help him yourself. We have a show to catch remember?”
“Well I’m sorry that I can’t leave someone who I could have possibly… killed”
Just as the word ‘killed’ was uttered, Beats slowly woke up. He felt pain near his head as he opened his eyes, wincing at the brightness of the sun.
“I think he’s waking up! I told you I didn’t kill him!”
“Whatever, man. Can we just go to the concert now?”
Beats slowly started to remember what had happened before he got knocked out. He lifted his head and looked around, putting the pieces of his memories into place. He didn’t have to ask the two stallions standing in front of him; it was pretty obvious these two were the culprits from what he’d heard.
Staring at the two stallions, that were bickering whether to leave for their concert or not, Beats decided to give them a piece of his mind.
“Who are you and what the hay is you guys’ problem? I just get to town and this is my welcome present?” yelled Beats. He stared at them with burning rage in his eyes, demanding an answer.
The two stallions looked at him in surprise and awkwardly answered his question.
The stallion who looked rather shaken up by the whole situation at hoof spoke out first. “I-I’m Blue Note, and this is my brother Bass Thrill. We’re really sorry about hitting you, it’s just that we’re trying to get to a concert and we’re a bit late.”
“A half an hour late, thanks to you,” added Bass.
“Shut up, Bass! I could have seriously injured this poor guy, but I’m lucky I didn’t.” retorted Blue. Now thinking about what he had just said, he turned his head to Beats and softly asked “You aren’t seriously injured… right?”
Beats touched a hoof to his head and winced at the pain. He spoke in a quiet, calm voice when he told them “It’s a small headache, but I’ll survive.”
As Blue sighed in relief, his brother had smacked him on the back of the head to get his attention. “Can we go now? She probably already played her best songs.”
Blue rubbed the back of his head from his brother’s smack and told him to wait a minute. Bass groaned, knowing his brother would make him miss the whole concert.
“I’m really sorry about all this happening to you on the day of your arrival. To make it up to you, my brother and I have an extra ticket to the concert we’re going to tonight.”
Hear his brother mention the extra ticket, Bass stepped into the conversation. “Whoa there, we were going to sell that ticket so we could buy some...” Bass quickly looked around to see if anypony was near them then leaned in and whispered, “Moon dust.”
Blue showed a sudden face of anger and looked directly at his brother in disgust. “Bass! I told you that I wasn’t going to do drugs with you! If anything, we’re giving this stallion the ticket.”
The two brothers started arguing over what to do with the ticket and Beats watched them. After a few minutes, Beats decided to speak up. “Hey, I’d love to take the ticket. Unless, of course, you guys wanted a police report.” Beats looked at them mischievously.
Bass looked at him with a look of anger and worry. “You wouldn’t dare…”
Beats simply smiled and . “Well I might have a concussion, and you guys had no reason to push me, so it seems like a pretty fair police report.”
Bass looked at him with a distraught face and reluctantly agreed. He took the extra ticket out his saddlebags and handed it to Beats.
“Thank you.” Beats said to the golden unicorn with the brown mane. Beats had turned to Blue and spoke softly. “Don’t worry about that police report. I’m not that type of pony.”
“B-but you… So you just said that to get the ticket?” Blue asked in a shocked tone.
“Hey it worked, didn’t it?” Beats responded.
Bass looked at him with a sly smile, “I like the way you roll. What’s your name, anyway?”
Beats gave him a smile and politely responded to the golden unicorn, “Beats, Sugar Beats. Born and raised in Dodge Junction. I just came to Canterlot today.”
Bass’ younger brother spoke up “Well I apologize for shoving you over. I hope we can be friends somehow.”
Beats responded to the dark blue pony with the silver mane, “Well sure, as long as you promise not to shove my head into a building again.”
“Sure thing!” Blue agreed and began to laugh.
The three ponies broke out into a heap of laughter for the next few minutes until Beats had spoken up.
“So, where is the concert anyway?”
"In the square. It's kind of like a public show, but these tickets let us get closer to the front, and we might even get a chance to meet the DJ herself." Bass politely answered.
Beats nodded and started following the two to the concert. There was a silence between the three of them as they continued to trot towards their destination. Beats spoke up again, “So, who exactly are we going to see today?”
Both brothers looked at him, realizing they hadn’t mentioned who they were going to see. Blue spoke up, “Only the most talented DJ Equestria has to offer!”
Beats knew there were a lot of talented DJs out there and he hoped to a part of that list one day. As he thought of all the DJs he had listened to he couldn’t pinpoint one that had really stuck out as “Equestria’s best”, so to speak. After thinking it over he asked another question.
“…And who would that be?”
Both brothers looked at him and said in unison, “Vinyl Scratch!”
Just as Neon had found a small reason to not jump he began to hear something that completely changed his mind. There was a faintness of music in the distance, but it was too faint to hear the actual song being played. Neon decided that he’d go see who was playing.
After a quick gallop around a few blocks, he realized the music was sounding more familiar. Before he made the final turn towards the source of the sound he had realized what song was playing. It sounded almost identical to his good friend’s song, Trotting Deserts by Rocking Rhythm, just poorly remixed. Neon had stopped dead in his tracks as he began to shudder at the thought of who was playing a horrendous remixed version of Rocking’s song. All his thoughts had come to one conclusion. There was only one pony that would dare remix a song like that, Vinyl.
Neon slowly leaned his head around the corner to find a crowd of ponies swarming around a small stage. Atop that stage sat a turn table and a white unicorn behind it. This wasn’t any white unicorn, but the one he had feared that he’d find.
It’d come to his realization that there were tons of other artists out there that Vinyl could steal from. Neon thought that she only wanted his music, but she doesn’t seem to care who she steals from, she just wants fame.
Neon’s legs gave out as he fell on street as he began to cry. It was over, Vinyl would take any song she could find, remix it and call it her own. He sat there and cried for the longest time. He didn’t know how long he laid there crying but eventually a guard had told him to move along.
Neon grabbed his last few bits and bought all the liquor he could from the nearest store. He sat down in a nearby alleyway crying and drinking. He could hear Vinyl’s stolen songs faintly playing and the sound of ponies cheering. As he sat and drank his liquor, he decided that he would jump off the edge when he finished his last bottle. With that, he just let the reality that his life was over sink in as he sipped and listened to the faint music.