//------------------------------// // Chapter Name Here // Story: New World Jams in the Old World Era // by Night Music //------------------------------// This was awkward, really awkward. Well... The only ones this was awkward for were the five ponies standing in the middle of the dance floor. Their ears bombarded by music. Their bodies, bombarded by the gyrating bodies of other ponies. They all just stood there awkwardly looking on at the scene before them. There were ponies that had been still in school, and there were even ponies that had good paying jobs and families. The only thing different about them now was that they acted no different than the ones that were still in school. Adults and children, throwing their cares away together. Putting their differences aside to have a good time. "Where's Spike?" Twilight asked herself. She looked around the dark cave for a minute before spotting Spike up on stage with the creature, banging their heads to the beat of the music, the creatures hair waving back and forth along with his head, his shades somehow staying on his face. His grin never fading as he continued to do what they were doing. Spike looked as if he was having the time of his life, he stopped bobbing his head and looked at the crowd. As soon as he spotted Twilight, he made his way to her by jumping on the backs of other ponies. Hopping from pony to pony. "Twilight, guys, what are you doing?" Spike said to the five ponies. "What do you mean, 'what are we doing'? What are you doing?" "Uhm, having fun? It's a party! You're supposed to dance, have a couple drinks, snacks, loosen up! If you don't want to do any of that, the exit is right over there." Spike said as he pointed to the snack bar, drinks table, and exit. Twilight looked back towards the exit and it was a quaint door with a handle and neon sign reading 'EXIT' in red glowing letters. "You can give up, but the others can't, not if they want the tattoos removed." The creature said, appearing from nowhere. "If I can give up then what am I doing here in the first place?" Twilight asked. "And why were the tattoos even put on the crusaders in the first place?" "For the first question, insurance, basically only one of you actually has to pass the test. As for the second question, a trip down memory lane is such a simple thing." "Can I go see where I am? I want to know how to get home after this is all over." "By all means, just don't go far, or that means you fail." Twilight made her way through the crowd of ponies and towards the exit. Once she was there, she hoofed open the door and what she saw puzzled her. It was Ponyville, and the door she just exited was the door to her castle. Not only did this make no sense, but there was a line of ponies waiting outside the door also. "What do you mean we can't come in? This is our friends place, and there's a party happening inside, you can't just NOT invite Pinkie to a party!" Pinkie whined to the bouncer. Pinkie looked away from the bouncer pony and looked towards the front door. "Ooh, Twilight come here! Tell this meanie pants that we're friends!" Pinkie waved her front hooves around trying to gain Twilight's already gained attention. Twilight walked over to the rest of her friends Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Fluttershy was calmly waiting in line and Pinkie was eyeing the bouncer. The bouncer looked over to hos left and saw Twilight and asked. "Is this true Miss Sparkle? These ponies are with you?" "Uh yeah." Twilight responded. At this the bouncer shuffled to his right and permitted Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to pass. Pinkie bounced her way inside and cheered while Fluttershy just gave a quiet "Woohoo!" and closed the door behind them. "What is going on?!" Twilight yelled to nopony in particular as she watched her castle literally vibrate with the pulsing of the music. "How is everyone doing Spike?" The DJ asked. "Well, all of the punch is gone, some ponies are kissing in the corner of this place and the challengers are not even close to finishing their test." He snapped his fingers and said. "There, the punch bowl is filled. The love birds have some privacy and I placed some extra incentive to finish their test." "Oh, and speak of the devil and shall appear, to what do I owe the honor Miss Sparkle and friends?" The DJ bowed as he saw the seven ponies walk up the stage stairs. "We want to have a small chat." Rainbow Dash said. "Somewhere nice and private." The DJ shrugged and held out his arm towards a door to his left. The door opened and they all stepped through. He closed the door behind him and asked, "So, how is the test going?" Without turning away from the door. The room was large, the wall that the door was on was just tinted glass, and the floor below them was an aquarium, with all kinds of fish. There were two couches and a coffee table with a clear liquid that might have just been water. "I have some questions for you first." Twilight said as she sat down on one of the couches in the room. "Okay, shoot." "What are you?" "Well, the form I'm in now? Human, you saw my pony form earlier. But I like this a lot more." "Okay...? What is your name?" "Not even I know the answer to that." "How do you not even know your own name?" "A couple years in stone can do some harm. I mean, look at Discord, he wasn't this crazy before they locked him in stone for the first time." "You're friends with Discord?" Fluttershy spoke up and asked. "Oh yeah, me and him go way back, he may have been born a couple thousand years before me, but age is irrelevant when you're immortal." "If both you and Discord are immortal like the princess's, than, what are you?" "I'm the spirit of Music. Bringing harmony and chaos together to make sweet, sweet love." He turned around then pointed to Pinkie. "Just like your friend here, I'm the product of the Tree of Harmony, well, she's not entirely a descendant. It's more like relation through, parents. She wasn't the spirit laughter before the tree chose her, just a possible vessel for such a thing." They all looked towards Pinkie, who just sat there and shrugged as they continued to listen to the human. "While I said I am a descendant of the Tree of Harmony, I have been turned to stone before, and that means I am the descendant of something else also, something disharmonious. I am the product of both the Tree of Harmony and the Roots of Chaos." "Why would the Tree of Harmony make you? With the Roots of Chaos...?" Twilight asked. "I'm merely a means to keep the balance, just like my colleagues who were made at the same time as me. Both chaotic and harmonious. Good and Evil, right and wrong. But that's up to debate with anyone, I mean who are they to say chaos is bad?" Everypony in the room raised their hooves to this. And the humans grin faded to a small frown. "Really now? So, by all of your logic, I'm evil?" He asked. And they nodded at this. "Give me one reason that I gave you all to think that I'm evil...?" "You branded three innocent fillies with the name of my assistant here." Twilight said as she raised a hoof to point at Spike who was standing next to the human. "And I gave you a way to take those things away, and besides, it isn't like they didn't want them." Three of the ponies in the room began to get angry with the creature in front of them. "I'll just be taking those..." He said as he drew a pink mist from the angry ponies in the room. The three ponies had a feeling of emptiness before a feeling of joy washed over them. "Wouldn't want any of you to do anything rash now, would you?" "What did you do to us?" Apple Jack spoke up. "Ah, let me explain. I, am something that you ponies would call a siren. But I'm not a traditional siren, while most sirens feed on positive emotion and leave nothing but negative in it's wake. I feed on the negative and leave you with the positive. I radiate negative energy that get's counteracted by you ponies. So harmonious and the likes." "So you are evil!" Twilight said hoping that she had him cornered. "Yes and no. While I might be radiating negative energy, the harmonious nature of you ponies kills that and makes it positive with all of your singing and dancing that you do monthly. Now I admit that there was a time when, you ponies weren't that friendly with each other, and I might have ended a couple lives with the partying. It was mostly their own faults." "ooh ooh ooh!" Pinkie Pie said whilst raising a hoof and jumping. "Yes Pinkie?" "How come you never take your glasses off? It's got to be pretty dark in here with those things on." "Yes, it is quite dark in here. But the reason I never take them off, is because I'm doomed to wear this things forever. Being the spirit of Music has it's draw backs, and so does eating negative emotion. These shades store all of those emotions and memories that I have consumed to survive." "Well... can, you take them off?" "Yes, would you like me to?" Everypony nodded in response, not sure what would come next. As he began to slowly remove the shades, everypony gasped in air and prepared for what would come next. Almost instantly, everypony noticed the black markings around his eyelids and the design they had made. Almost like circuits to an electronic of some kind. But what scared them the most were the eyes. His eyes looked like they had been glued open with how wide they were. And his pupils were pin pricks behind the golden the golden color. Everypony saw as tears started to form in his eyes, but his grin never faded. "These curse me to watch the memories over and over again, but they stop me from feeling the emotions behind them, the pain. These things contain more dark energy and pain than the tyrant King Sombra. And this is the only thing keeping me sane in this world of lies." Nopony knew what to do next, they all just stood still as they looked up at the human. "For a regular pony, these things would just make you live your worst fear over and over again, but for me? I have to the live in their past. In hopes that I can make their futures just a bit happier." Still, everypony was silent and nopony knew what to say or do, but they all jumped as the one person in the room asked. "NOW, DO YOU ALL STILL THINK I'M THE FUCKING BAD GUY?!"