"Don't worry
about a thing
cause every little thing
is gonna be alright
Don't worry
about a thing
cause every little thing
is gonna be alright
Rise up this morning
Smile with the rising sun
Three little birds
Each by my porch step
Singing sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true
Singing: This is my message to-"
"Yeah right...." said Singer woke up from his night's sleep, and turned off his record player. All four hours he had gotten to sleep that night were spent tossing and turning due to the dream he kept having about the purple stallion, dreams about something happening to Violet or his family and him not being able to do anything about it, dreams about losing the appartment that he now lived in, or losing his job, dreams about basically the worst possible things he could have. That's how it had been for him for the longest while, now.
It had been a year and a few months since his break up with Serenity went down. As he predicted, when she had gotten back to Las Pegasus a couple days after he did, she immediately went to work trashing Singer's good name anyway that she could. She told the media that Singer cheated on her and stole a bunch of things in Manehattan, to get even with him. The bad part was, almost every pony took her side, which was something that Singer didn't see coming.
Singer's breakup with Serenity was probably one of the worst in Equestria history, or at least that's how Singer felt. For the longest time he couldn't walk down the street without getting dirty looks from the other ponies. After all the lies Serenity told, Singer had to be detained by the police for five days until all of the charges had been dropped when they found that Serenity was lying after a few thurough investigations. At least he had the sympathy of the police force now that they knew what a liar she was, he thought to himself on the day he was released.
Singer handled everything okay, he didn't protest the issue any because he knew that he wouldn't get convicted since he didn't do anything wrong. Quite a cheap blow to make, even over a break up, Singer thought to himself.
After a while, Serenity calmed the Singer bashing storm down and went back to focussing on her own life. But Singer was never able to recover after it all. He had to crawl back to where his career began, Slappy's Pool Hall, for a job. Slappy, having nothing against Singer graciously welcomed him with open arms and happily offered him a job. That was one positive thing for Singer to be thankful for. However, the environment of his job and pretty much anything to do with Las Pegasus, was wearing down on him. He wasn't happy anymore, he didn't socialize near as much as he used to. He barely ever sang a single note unless he was in a good mood, or unless he found a song that fit how he was feeling.
This particular morning, Singer had to work the morning shift and his clock showed that he had half an hour to get ready for work and clock in for duty. Sighing and dragging his tired self out of bed, he poored himself a cup of coffee, and went to fix himself up and put on his red collared shirt with Slappy's logo on it. The coffee helped wake him up just enough to stay alert and helped him focus on what he had to do. Begrudgingly, after sticking his mug in the sink, he opened the door(which had zero little birds by it, by the way) and flew off to work.
.................................
On the other side of town, three pegasai, a tall stallion, a small mare and another stallion, tall as well but also fat all wearing trench coats and fedoras, walked into a recording studio where Serenity Sound was recording a song for her next album. The mix master who was overseeing her recording time, stopped the trio from entering the booth upon their entry into the facility but was bribed by the taller stallion to get him to let them in. After recieving the bribe, the mix master obliged them, and moved out of the way.
They listened until she was finished, and then ordered the producer to send her in to talk with them. Not willing to mess with these guys, the mix master again obliged them and exited the room once he'd signaled her to come in. He wasn't going to stick around, those guys looked scary.
Serenity emerged from the sound proof room, into the room with the three pegasai and took a seat in one of the revolving desk chairs that were in the control room. She appeared a bit irritated that she was interrupted, and was even more irritated that her mix master stallion wasn't in there where he was supposed to be.
"Alright, you have my attention. What do you want?" she demanded sternly. "Oh and make this quick! I've got business to attend to."
"As do we, my dear..." the tall stallion spoke up, removing his hat. The stallion was a black furred stallion with a silver mane, with yellow streaks going through his hair, a familiar face to us. "The name is Thunder Clap. I'm kind of a mercinary/theif for a classified client. However, I have come here to you for some help on a personal matter."
"And you think I can help you?" she asked suspiciously, cocking her eyebrow, while drinking the water bottle she had sitting beside her.
"Indeed. It's no secret that you and a certain stallion by the name of Singer Case were together as a couple last year, were you not?"
"We were. Why is that any of your concern?"
"Well, you see... Mr. Case is on my long list of ponies who's screwed me over in life, and it's high time I pay him a visit."
"Look, I hate Singer as much as you do, but I don't want him to die...." she said, but was stopped as Thunder Clap put his hoof up to Serenity's mouth.
"Oh no, of course not! I'm not seeking to kill him, you can be rest assured of that. I just want to pay him a little visit. Knock him around for a bit to kick off a new string of weekly, well deserved beat downs!"
"And you swear, you won't try to "k-word" him?" she inquired. Sure she didn't like Singer any more, but there was nothing inside her that wanted him dead, or to be an accomplice to a murder of anypony. It'd surely ruin her good name. Luckily for her, if there was one part of anything she could trust this guy on, that was one of them.
Despite being a jerk, Thunder Clap wasn't a killer, just a bully. He hadn't outgrown his old ways an inch. He was the same old jerk that he was when he went to school at Cloudsdale with Singer. The same could be said for his two companions, Mocha and Taffy.
"On my honor, my dear! You have my word! I'm not the killing type, you see. Perhaps mercinary wasn't the right word for me to use to describe myself. I'm more like a bounty hunter of sorts."
"I might know where to find him, but I'll need a bit of incentive before I give that information out." Serenity replied deviously.
"Incentive?" The stallion chuckled. "The arrogance of some ponies... Alright, I'll give you some incentive. Tell us what you know and I won't have my side kick beat you to a pulp!"
"You, being stallions, would dare inflict harm upon a mare?"
The smallest of the trio was the second to remove her hat. The mare named Taffy was pink furred with a long pink and white mane, with bangs that covered her eyes, and three wrapped up pieces of taffy as her cutie mark. "I would, sugar pie! Because I'm a mare and I'm not afraid to rearange your face! Te he he he..." she laughed maniacally as she pinned Serenity and her chair to the wall.
Serenity flinched as Taffy continued to pin her against the wall, until her boss interviened.
"Taffy! Get down, now! And I don't remember giving you permission to speak!" snapped Thunder Clap. "Save it for that idiot, Singer!"
"Sorry, boss!" said Taffy as she folded her ears back, and walked backwards back to the left side of the big fat pegasus stallion, named Mocha, who was a big brown stallion with a candy bar as his cutie mark. Mocha sniggered softly to himself, until Taffy swatted at his left front hoof as a way of telling him to stop.
"As I was saying, Serenity. You have two options. Tell us what you know about Singer's whereabouts and MAYBE you'll get a small reward. Or refuse and Taffy here will knock you around a bit. It's your choice!"
"Fine, I'll tell you everything that I know if it will get you to get the hay out of here!"
"Excellent!" chuckled Thunder Clap. "Excellent! We are all ears..."
..........................
Once Singer had gotten to work, he made himself look alive and tried to be as upbeat as he could. He went to work in the kitchen, preparing the food that would be served in the restaurant portion of the establishment. Soup, salad, sadwiches, fries, veggie burgers, Singer could make it all. Making food took his mind back to the days when he would help his mother out in the kitchen. It was one of the skills that he had that he actually had to be taught how to do. He enjoyed every chance he could take to indulge himself in the memories that he had of cooking with his mother, whenever he didn't have to focus his attention on what he was doing.
But that wasn't the only part of his job. He'd alternate from being one of the cooks to being a waiter, the part of his job that he absolutely hated. Some of the ponies who'd come into the joint were either rude, drunk or scary. This overwhelmed the positive side of the pleasant amount of customers that Singer had to deal with because Singer wasn't sure how to deal with those kinds of behaviour without either making a strategic withdrawal or in the case of the rude ponies, act out and cause a scene, thus causing him to be a bit twitchy. Thus far, he had done particularly well with all three, being able to act professional. But the stress from having to deal with that, on top of the adversity he'd faced outside of work over the last year or so was weighing down on him like crazy at this point. He wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to take it.
For the first part of the day, Singer took up his favorite part of the job, cooking. For the first three hours he watched the minutes quickly fly by when he prepared meals. He even began to sing while he was cooking one of the pots soup for the noon hour.
"Well you can tell by the way I cook my soup
I'm a chef stallion, no time to droop!
Music loud, soup is warm
I've been kicked around since I was born
But it's alright
I'm okay
I'll live to see another day
I feel the city shaking
And everypony's breaking
As I'm stayin alive, stayin alive!"
"Come on, every pony sing along!" he exclaimed to the rest of the ponies preparing meals in the kitchen.
The rest of the ponies in the kitchen joined in as Singer led them.
"Ah, ha, ha, ha
Stayin alive, stayin alive!
Ah, ha, ha, ha
Stayin alive, stayin alive!
Ah, ha, ha, ha"
"Stayin ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-" Singer sang by himself, sliding across the kitchen floor as one of the managers walked in, and was standing there as Singer slid into him. "Hiya boss!" said Singer, grimacing sheepishly at brown earth pony looking down on him, scowling at him all the while. The manager pushed up his large round glasses up on his face and stepped back a bit.
The manager was an older stallion and was bald, skinny, wearing a bow tie. This particular stallion was known for his strictness, way more so than the owner and boss of the establishment, Slappy himself. He wasn't very popular among the employees and was responsible for over half of the job terminations at Slappy's.
The snooty manager looked down and Singer with disapproving eyes, straightened his glasses once more before finally speaking.
"Mr. Case if I remember right, you are on duty in the kitchen, are you not?" he asked satrically.
"Yes..." replied the irked pegasus.
"I thought so. This isn't one of your shows that you can just goof around and do whatever you want, Mr. Case. In fact, if I understand right, those days are all but over for you, aren't they?"
'Jerk', thought Singer to himself before he looked down to the floor with embarassment.
"I suggest you remember that if you want to hold on to your job, here at Slappy's! Wouldn't want you to be the fifth termination this month. Oy, it's so hard to get any decent help these days."
"Sorry..." said Singer as calmly as he could. His teeth gritted together, and his eyebrows pointed. He dare not make eye contact with the manager though. Scowling at him would only make things worse. He tried as hard as he could to let it go, but it proved difficult. He tried deep inhales and exhales until he was finally able to calm himself down and get back to work after the manager had left the kitchen, leaving the atmosphere feeling nice and welcome again. Amazing how one snooty attitude could change that.
He continued doing his part in the kitchen for the next two hours, and then he was called by the same manager. The manager tossed him an apron and pointed at the tables, then smirked. Singer knew what it meant. It meant he was now on waiter duty, his least favorite part of his job. Begrudgingly he took the apron and walked over to the nearest table to take the order of the first table.
He could have sworn that he heard his manager chuckle. He better hope that he was just hearing things, thought Singer to himself. He wasn't in the mood, and was certainly not the pony any pony should mess with at that time. Singer was like a ticking time bomb of anger, and it appeared that this manager at Slappy's knew this. At times it seemed like he tried to rub Singer the wrong way, but he'd keep himself calm. He didn't know how he did it, but he was able to hold it in and eventually let it go each time he was heckled by the manager.
"My name is Singer, I'll be your waiter today. How may I help you?" said Singer in the most generic, fake way he could. He didn't really care about doing this waitering job, but he had to act like he did for the sake of keeping it, as he knew he needed it. If he was lucky, he'd get some pleasant customers to serve that would make the job more worth while.
"Uh yeah, I'll have that there number one on the dinner menu." said a stallion with a hick accent. "With a soda and some fries!" He and his friend were having a swell time from the look of it. They had poker game cards out and looked like they were betting their pay checks away with each other.
"And I'll have me a veggie burger with some of them fried taters on the side, mmmm hmmm...." said his friend, shortly before he began to snigger.
"Nice Slingblade reference, Cooter!" said the first stallion, hoofbumping his friend.
"Will that be all... uh.... gentlecolts?"
"Eyup! That'll do it!" said the first stallion.
"No you don't, Mud Sling! I ain't ordered mah sodie pop yet!"
"Soda added to your meal..." Singer said as he noted it down, adding it to the order. "Anything else....?" 'Please say no...'
"That'll git-er." said Mud.
"Yeah, thanks there bud! Heh heh!" laughed Cooter.
Singer shuddered as he walked away from the table. He was so glad that that was over.
.................................
Thunder Clap, Mocha and Taffy continued on down the street that they were on. Thunder Clap was frustrated. They'd tried at another appartment complex where Singer had previously lived before the one he was currently at. No avail. It was old news, as Singer had moved from there since Serenity was last aware of anything to do with Singer.
"I knew it!" said Clap. "That darn mare's information is old and outdated!"
"Too bad the stallion at the other complex couldn't give us the information..." said Taffy dejectedly. "I would really like to pound that Singer's face in right about now!"
"Yeah, me too!" said Mocha.
Thunder Clap reached over and slammed his two sidekicks' heads together, and watched as they both fell down.
"You numb skulls ain't doing anything to Singer! That's going to be my pleasure and fun! You donut holes got that? Now shut up and stop being stupid!"
"Yes sir..." replied Mocha.
"Whatever you say, TC!" said Taffy, shaking along side Moca as they both lie on the ground.
"Now get up! We've got some looking to do!"
.........................
Lunch break had finally arrived for Singer, and it couldn't have come soon enough! After dealing with a bunch of less-than-pleasant ponies, as well as some crazy rock stars, Singer was finally able to sit down and enjoy his peanut butter sandwich and the other good stuff that lie in his lunch sack. Only problem was, he had to sit in the same area as the ponies he had just got through serving. This caused a major problem for him, due to the noise in the area around him. Ponies playing card games, playing pool, and some even smoking cigars around him was enough to disturb what was supposed to be a tranquility time for him.
One table in particular was bothering him pretty badly as one of the ponies, an older brown earth pony stallion with a white beard sat with a bunch of Elvis impersonators, playing a game of black-jack behind him, and all he could do was sing this same song over and over again...
"You've gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When your sittin at the table
There'll be plenty time fer countin
When the dealing's done..."
Singer looked behind him to see who was singing the song. Normally, hearing other ponies sing didn't bother him, but it was something about this song that really set him off. He'd just try to ignore it as he continued to eat his food. He sent a glare the stallion's way, but the stallion wasn't even looking his direction so he turned back around and took another bite of his sandwich.
"You've gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When your sittin at the table
There'll be plenty time fer countin
When the dealing's done..."
Singer, again turned around. This time he called out to the table that the group was at.
"Hey, dude! Could you keep it down? I'm trying to enjoy my meal... thanks in advanced." Singer threw the latter part in at the last second, hoping that it wouldn't give the stallion much of a choice but to shut up. For a few minutes it seemed like it worked, but then...
"You've gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When your sittin at the table
There'll be plenty time fer countin
When the dealing's done..."
Singer slammed his hoof down on the table, turning around and glaring at the group again. No eye contact from the group this time either. Singer mumbled a few times as he turned back around.
"You've gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When your sittin at the table
There'll be plenty time fer countin
When the dealing's done..."
"Will you SHUT UP?!?" yelled Singer furiously.
The older stallion just smirked at Singer and stuck out his tongue at him. This made Singer's face turn redder than rudolph the red nosed reindeer's nose on Hearth's Warming day!
"You've gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em-"
"THAT'S IT!!!!" said Singer as he turned around, stood up on the table he was sitting at, and zoomed after not just the old fart, but his buddies too. And one by one Singer took to tackling all of them. The other guys he tackled most likely because he didn't like Elvis impersonators, and the older guy he tackled for obvious reasons.
It was then Slappy and the manager both quickly emerged from the back room and pulled Singer off of the older stallion. It was when he was being pulled off the stallion that Singer began to feel great remorse for what he'd done.
"Case... go clean yourself off and meet me in my office, please." said Slappy. Singer could tell by his tone that he was disappointed in him. Singer didn't blame him. He was disappointed in himself as well.
"Are you finally going to fire that clown?" laughed the manager.
"Get back to work" snapped Slappy, as he scowelled at the manager.
The manager cleared his throat and went back to the kitchen, but not before adressing the rest of the costomers. "Return to your business! Free ice cream on the house! Uh... with purchases, of course!" he announced while pointing to the ice cream machine in the restaurant. Seconds later a line quickly formed. Each pony eager to get their free ice cream.
Singer stood in the stallion's bathroom, looking at himself in the mirror as he took the paper towels and wiped the food that was on the table of the ponies he attacked off. His mind went back to when he worked at the diner in Cloudsdale, when he got in the fight with the costomer, who happened to be one of his bullies. Only this time was different. Singer really didn't have much of a legitimate reason to attack the older stallion, other than the fact that he was being annoying. Singer felt tears coming from his eyes, and for a few minutes he stood at the sink and sobbed. When he looked up, he was slightly shocked to see his reflection had once again changed to purple furred, red eyed, orange maned version of himself. He gasped and took a few steps back, and then stepped forward again as the reflection grimmaced.
"Well, well, well..." said the reflection. "You really done it this time, didn't you?"
"Y-you... who are you?"
"You will find out someday." chuckled the imaginary figure. "You and everypony around will find out what kind of a monster you are. It's already happening to you right now..."
"YOU'RE LYING!" he yelled.
"Shhh.... don't yell. You're talking to me, but anypony else will just see you talking to yourself in the mirror!" it said as it smirked.
"Go away..." Singer whispered, right before he closed his eyes and re-opened them. He took a few deep breaths as he regained himself. He quickly reminded himself of what he was to soon face. His boss was waiting for him. Better not keep him waiting too long, Singer thought to himself as he started out the bathroom door.
A stallion sitting in one of the stalls, was trembling, wondering what Singer was talking to himslef about. All of the yelling, and gasping was really creeping the guy out. He was relieved when Singer left the room.
"What a weirdo!" said the stall stallion softly, as he returned his attention to the magazine that he'd been reading.
Nervously, Singer made his way to the door of Slappy's office. He felt like there was a frog in his throat due to how nervous and overwhelmed this whole situation had made him. He just wanted to go back in thatt bathroom and cry some more. But he knew that that wasn't the right thing to do. It was the coward thing to do. His mother and in some instances, his father, taught him to do the right thing and to own up to his mistakes. Doing otherwise would've dishonored his family. That was something that Singer wasn't willing to do, regardless of how he felt about one half of his parents. It wasn't important right at this moment. Singer gathered his courage and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" he heard Slappy yell.
Singer, with his head hung low and tail tucked between his back legs, walked in looking like a scared puppy and sat down in the chair in front of Slappy's desk, watching as Slappy looked up.
"Hello, Case..." Slappy said, pausing for about a minute. "I suppose you understand why I called you in here."
"Probably something to do with me attacking customers off the clock." said Singer remoresfully.
"Something like that." said Slappy. "But it's more than just about that, Case. I've noticed something about you, ever since you've worked here. You aren't happy anymore. You're stressed, you're tired, you're grouchy and you have a really bad attitude towards almost every pony."
"I'm sorry, sir. I understand if you want to fire me..." Singer hung his head low, but his eyes wondered back to the authoritive figure sitting behind the desk, who was now lightly smiling. Singer's ears that were once folded back, now pointed upward as he looked up in response to Slappy's expression.
"You've needed an excuse to get the hay out of Las Pegasus for a long time, Case. I truly believe that you do not belong here any longer. I'm not telling you this as your boss, but as a... kind of a... friend. Get out of here! Not just out of my facility, but out of Las Pegasus! Go back home, I dunno! Do something! Anything but wasting your life here! You are better than this! I know that sounds funny coming from an owner of a gambling faciltiy, but still."
Singer looked up quizzically at his employer, cocking his eyebrows. But it hit Singer almost as quickly. Slappy was right. Singer was just asking for misery if he stayed in Las Pegasus. The city had taken from him more than it had done any good for him as of late. It was time for a change. It was time for him to leave Las Pegasus for good.
"You're right, sir." Singer said. "It's time."
"I'll take that as an official resignation, then."
"You mean you're not going to fire me?"
"It'll look better on your resume if you quit. When you and Serenity came here and got noticed, I saw great potential in both of you. But your time here is over. Your rep has been tarnished. Go elsewhere and start a new better life for yourself! You don't deserve to live in this hell hole of a town!" Slappy said in conlusion as he signed the paper work, releasing Singer from his obligations. "I wish you the best of luck, Case.... I mean, Singer. Leave this place and don't look back, for your sake!"
"Thanks Slappy!" said Singer. "Have a good life!"
"You too. And remember what I told you, now!"
"I will."
And with that, Singer was done. He walked out of the office and right by the manager, and waved good bye to him.
"So I see the boss finally canned ya, you clown!" sniggered the manager. "Smell ya later, doofus!"
Singer turned around, walked up to the manager, and the once smug smile that adourned the manager's face disappeared, once he saw the seriousness in Singer's expression. The next thing he knew, Singer's hoof met his face and he was lying on the floor.
"I didn't get fired, I quit you jerk!" Singer laughed. "Now have a nice day!"
Singer made his way out of the building with his now ex-manager laying on the floor, holding his face. the latter now scowling at former the way that he always did.
"Good riddance, loser!"
......................
Singer sat in the Corner Cafe, the same place where he and Serenity had shared their first dinner as friends. He don't know why he ended up there, but he figured that it would be an appropriate place for him to eat before he went home and grabbed what little things he had with him in his appartment and left the city forever.
As he sat there, eating his cheese fries that he ordered, the door opened which caused the bell to ring. Standing there was none other than Serenity Sound herself. Wearing a large feathery coat and a large hat as a disguise, she snuck over to Singer's table and sat down. Singer thought she looked awfully strange wearing the coat in the middle of summer, but he decided to just ignore that.
Singer glared at her with an unwelcoming expression, but didn't bother telling her to leave.
"What do you want?" he said, still giving her the stink eye.
"Don't you take that tone with me..." she snapped, while scowling at him. "I've come with bad news. You've got three goons on your tail. They tried to get me to tell them where your whereabouts were, but I ended up giving them your old adress."
"....why?"
"Because I don't trust them." she said, stealing one of his cheese fries. "And if I were you, I'd leave town."
Singer grabbed his tray of cheese fries and pulled it closer to him. "If I weren't already planning on leaving, I'd slam my hoof down and tell your smug self to get out of here and stop bothering me. But..." he sighed. "I suppose I at least owe you a thank you. At least you cared enough not to let me get killed."
"I don't care. I just don't want blood on my hooves, that's all." she said, followed by a small cough.
"Right..." he replied. "Well, if that's all. I'll be taking the rest of my meal to go. Thanks, I suppose."
"Have a nice life, if you can." said Serenity giving him a smug smirk as she got up and walked out of the diner.
Singer only growled as he picked up his cardboard made tray that contaned his cheese fries and high tailed it out of the diner.
..........................
"HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!" yelled Thunder Clap in frustration. "Another bogus lead! Seriously! Not even the jail where he was at, knows where he is!"
"Maybe he's on the run?" said Taffy.
"How would he be on the run? He don't even know we're following him!" asked Thunder Clap. "Think before you talk, dimwit!"
"S-Sorry, TC!" said Taffy.
"Ugh... no matter, we'll find that little punk and knock him out yet!"
"Sure is a lot of work just for one pegasus..." smarted Mocha.
"I beg your pardon!" yelled Thunder Clap.
"Uuuuuh...."
SMACK! Mocha felt Thunder Clap's backhoof hit him on the back of the head, and his large body tumbled and fell right onto Taffy, who began squirming and groaning upon impact.
"Get off of me you fat lard!" she protested.
"That 'one pegasus' is part of the reason why I do what I do!" Thunder Clap screamed. "Those wasted years in that so-called correctional penitentiary for young colts, all because that ONE had the guts to stand up to me in school! That's not nothing! When I find that pegasus, he's going to wish he'd never been born because I'm going to make his life a living ball pit!"
"Ball pits are fun!" said Taffy, trying to crawl out from under the fazed Mocha.
"A living ball pit of terror, then!" shouted Thunder Clap.
"Sounds fun, boss!" said Taffy as she was finally able to pull herself out from under Mocha, when he decided to get up. She then caught a deadpan from Thunder Clap. "I mean... fun for us, not so much for him!"
Clap only sighed and facehoofed in response to this before shouting out: "Does anypony know where I can find Singer Case?!?"
A random pony pushing a maintainence cart with a mop bucket, mop, broom, dustpan and everything happened to be passing by when he heard Thunder Clap's query.
"Singer Case? You mean that ex-performer stallion?" he inquired in response.
"Yes...." said Thunder Clap. "Not a single pony in this Faust forsaken city seems to know where he lives!"
"He lives in the Carlisle Appartment Complex across town! He's such a nice guy! He recycles!"
"Thanks..." said Thunder Clap. "Mocha, Taffy! Let's ride!" Thunder Clap flapped his wings rapidly and took off, while Mocha and Taffy followed suit, leaving the janitor pony all alone in the street.
"Nopony ever talks to me..." he sighed as he pushed his cart along.
.....................
Once he got into his appartment, Singer began to put his belongings into his saddle bag. This included a picture of he and Violet in their younger days, a few letters that he had saved from their exchanges, some small bags of chips, a few shirts, his small collection of records, a bottle of water, food for Louie the gecko, and Louie himself, though he ended up crawling up Singer's neck into his mane. Singer didn't object to that, though. As long as Louie was with him, he didn't care where he rode. At this point the gecko was his only true friend, though there was one small part of him that was clinging on to the hope that he and Violet would be friends again some day. As he thought about it, a small tear rolled down his face, as he was reminded that he'd lost somepony truly special to him. But... no time to dwell on the past, now. Time to move on as best as he could.
He wrote a note to the landlords, stating his departure and that he wouldn't be coming back. Afterwards, he locked his door and went to the main office to turn in his key and give them his last rent payment. He also gave the receptionist a letter to send to his Uncle, to let him know that he was leaving Las Pegasus. No time for goodbyes, Singer had to flee Las Pegasus quickly before whoever was after him found out where he was.
Singer waved goodbye to the suburbian Carlisle Appartment complexes for the last time and zoomed off into the air. Mere moments later, Thunder Clap, Mocha and Taffy finally arrived after what to Thunder Clap, had seemed like days of searching, he was finally going to kick-start his revenge on Singer. Once he'd found out what appartment Singer lived at, he rushed to the door of the specific appartment and kicked it down, ripping the hinges off, only to find out that there was nopony inside. All that was left was an old record player, a bowl full of milk ;preseumedly remnants of breakfast cereal, and the note that he had written before he'd departed.
Thunder Clap's face began to ignite with anger, as his face turned red. All of that fury was about to be released when Mocha spoke up.
"Looks like somepony tipped him off, huh?" said Mocha, Taffy quickly but not quickly enough, put her hooves over his mouth.
Thunder Clap scowelled at the two furiously, while picking up the dislodged door and chunking it at them. They dodged it, and the door slammed against the wall.
"YA THINK?!?" he yelled as he kicked a table over, splattering the other two with the bowl of milk that Singer had forgotten to put away.
...............................
Singer, with his heavily packed saddle bag, pet gecko sticking his head out of his mane, had finally reached the edge of Las Pegasus, staring at miles of desert. He considered himself lucky that he was a pegasus and that he could just fly away. Buying a train ticket would only make it easier for whoever was following him to catch up to him, as they could trace it. Besides, he didn't know where he was going. He didn't care. He just wanted out of Las Pegasus.
"Adios, and good riddance old life! A new life awaits for me now!" said the heart broken stallion as he hovered behind the 'Welcome to Las Pegasus' sign. "Well, here I go..."
"I don't know where I'm going
But I sure know where I've been
Hanging on the promises and the songs of yesterday
And I know what it means
To walk along the lonely street of dreams
Here I go again on my own
Going down the only road, I've ever known
Like a loner I was born to walk alone
And I've made up my mind
I ain't waisting no more time
So here I go again"
Singer took off as fast as he could, not knowing where he'd end up. He just kept flying! Day after day, just flying aimlessly around Equestria. Taking breaks only when he felt tired or hungry, or if he needed to go do his 'business'. Singer flew over Idahoof, Appleloosa, Troxas, Marexico, and any other town that he'd fly over. It was a neat experinece for him.
"Here I go again on my own
Going down the only road I've ever known
Like a loner I was born to walk alone"
After several days of flying, he eventually met a storm. Normally he'd avoid it, but he pressed on due to not really giving a crap where he'd end up. He flew into the dark clouds, and all he was met with was rain so far, nothing too daunting. However, as the winds picked up he knew that he needed to find higher altitude. Especially because he saw a flash of light, which meant only one thing, lightning.
"And I've made up my mind
I ain't wasting no more time
So here I go again"
The wind picked up quicker than he could fly up, tossing him every which way. He was in deep trouble now. He tried to regain control of himself, but to no avail. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain as lightning struck one of his his wings. The next thing he knew, he was spiralling rapidly down to the ground. He was dead, he just knew it. What a way to die, he thought in his mind. As he tried his best to fly, his wing ached. Charred from the lightning strike, his wing was pretty much injured and useless at this point.
However, fate had a different plan for Singer as he was suddenly turned into the path of a tree on his way down to the ground. The lights from the small down below began to get closer, as Singer quickly made impact with the tree. Singer hit a branch pretty hard, probably snapping it in half. He began to go unconscious before he even hit the ground, which he felt. As he lie on the ground, not able to hear anything, he could see that the tree was a building, and the lights from inside illuminated the ground in front of him, but it wouldn't matter for him as he began to go unconscious. Before everything went black, he saw three figures approaching him. He couldn't make them out quick enough but from what he could tell, one looked like a unicorn stallion, smaller in stature compared to him, and the other a unicorn mare, then a third that looked like a...baby dragon? It didn't matter, by the time they'd approached him, he'd fallen unconscious.
"Quck, get him inside!" said the mare.
The stallion and the dragon pulled Singer inside, then shut the door. What did mess had Singer gotten himself into, this time? Where was he? Would he live? Only time would tell. And who were his saviours?