//------------------------------// // Cosmos // Story: Hikarus Freedom // by 20percentcooler //------------------------------// Iris stared at the sandwich in front of her as she thought about what was happening. She had known Storm to be unfair at times, but it seemed that he was going to an all new level. His anger was greater, his mood was always stern and serious for the most part, but for the last few days, things had just gotten worse. What would drive him into this? 'He probably cares about money too much.' She thought to herself. 'When the economy is in the state it is in now, everypony is feeling stressed. But to fire those who contributed the most to your business? Thats going to hurt your business in the long run...' Iris sighed and checked the time. "Well that was some break, I gotta head back already." She packed the sandwich away and brought it with her back to the hotel. --------- Hikaru and Sky got in the elevator to get to the first floor of the apartment. They would have just taken the stairs down but a portion of the stairs collapsed a few minutes prior due to some young college colts who lived on the second floor trying to jump down as many flights as they could without getting seriously hurt. The colt who fell was fine luckily, but he would have to pay for the damages to repair the stairs. 'Surprised they don't just use some duct tape to try to fix it.' Hikaru laughed at the thought. The elevator groaned and creaked to a stop on the first floor before opening the thin and creaky metal door with a loud crunch. "This place concerns me." Stated Hikaru with a glum look on his face. "Its different...." Replied Sky with a forced smile. Hikaru gave Sky a sarcastic unamused look. "Ok....yeah...its...not the best." Sky Admitted with a sigh. "But, Zen and Flash have been living here for years, and they are two of the happiest ponies I have ever met in my life. It probably just takes time to get used to." "Yeah..." Sighed Hikaru. The two arrived at apartment 107 and knocked on the door. The door opened, and a dark grey colt with a blue and black streaked mane stood there with a smile. "Hey what's up you two?" He said loudly. "Hey Flash!" Said Sky giving him a quick hug. "Long time no see!" "Well no see long time!" Laughed Flash. "Great to see you again. And you must be Hikaru! Whats up." "Hay yeah." Replied Hikaru feeling comfortable around this new pony. "I guess you heard of me a bit." "Yeah a bit, but not much. Hence me planning our outing tonight! Thought it would be good for all four of us to catch up and connect." "So..." Interrupted Sky. "Where exactly are we going tonight?" "Its a surprise!" Said Flash in a loud whisper. "But I know you guys are gonna like the place. I may not know much about you Hikaru, but enough to know that this place is gonna be your kind of thing. Yeah...its gonna be awesome. So hey, come on in both of you. Zen is still washing up for some reason. But once she's ready we can start heading over." The two walked in joined Flash on the couch. Hikaru noticed that the condition of this apartment wasn't much different that their own. Old, run down, falling apart, and duct tape. Lots, of duct tape. "So!" Began Flash suddenly. "You two excited about nocturnal oasis yeah?" "Definitely." Remarked Sky. "Its been something the both of us have been looking forward too for quite a while." "We just gotta figure out how to get back into Ponyville without being caught. I don't know if you heard about all the crazy stuff going on with me..." "Sky mentioned some stuff in the letter she sent." Said Flash kicking aside a chunk of wood that had fallen from the ceiling. "Sounds pretty crazy. But no worries, Zen and I will make sure that you are safe and out of the eye of possible police. You're safe with us bro, no worries! Oh wow Zen, its about time!" Zen walked out from the bathroom with her mane looking different than the messy look she had before. It was now straightened and neat, but with some interesting bright orange highlights. "That took a while, But I like the result!" She said happily. "You look awesome..." Said Flash with a smile. "As always of course." "Aw...I love you." "Love you too." Zen sat down and nuzzled up against Flash. "So! Um....." Started Hikaru feeling a bit awkward. "I guess we should be going yeah?" "Oh yeah!" Said Zen getting up. "We should go before the place gets too crowded." "Alright, Ill lock up, you guys meet me out front." Said Flash as he too got up from the couch. ------------ The 4 left the apartment and headed down to this "place" that Zen and Flash kept referring to. "I wish you would just tell us what this place is...." Said Sky with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Well, you're about to find out!" Flash led them around a corner and up to a small building with a bright sign outside that simply read "Cosmos". "Woah, this looks like some sort of bar or something." Said Hikaru looking over the small and shady building before him. "Oh no way bro!" Said Flash with a laugh. "This is NO bar!" He opened the door and quickly rushed them inside. Immediately, Hikaru found himself in a very active atmosphere. The place seemed quite a bit bigger inside then it appeared on the outside. The sounds of heavy bass and the sight of flashing strobe and laser lights mobbed his senses in a way he had never experienced before. There were many ponies out on a large dance floor of some kind, and others sitting around at tables that surrounded the center area. Further to their right, there was what appeared to be a bar with a grill and many other ponies were mingling about this area. "What's all this?" "This is where Zen and I like to hang out on the weekends." Flash answered with a smile. "This place hasn't been opened for long, but it quickly got pretty popular over the last few months. There's other places like this around. But this place has food thats actually decent!" Zen led them over to the bar and grill where he ordered four orders of some strange fried vegetable dish. It was apparently called "temper-ah" or something like that. Whatever it was, it tasted very good. "I don't get what they do to these..." Said Sky between large bites of the dish. "But, this is amazing!" "We figured you all would like it." Zen said as she also munched away. "One of our favorite dishes here." Hikaru looked out over the crows of ponies around the dance floor. He looked past the crowd and noticed a full DJ set-up on a small stage. There was no DJ, but there was a music player plugged into the sound system playing a playlist of some progressive trance tracks. "So...." Began Hikaru. "Do they ever have any live DJ's here?" "Oh you bet!" Replied Zen. "In fact..." interrupted Flash. "Another big reason we brought you and Sky here tonight, is because there is a particular mare who produces some pretty epic tracks and mixes. Ever heard of Neighlita?" Hikaru choked. "NEIGHLITA?" "Not so loud bro..." "Sorry, but-wow! I have a couple songs from Neighlita, are you serious? She is gonna be here tonight?" "Hay yeah!" Answered Flash loudly. "Its gonna be awesome!" Hikaru was overjoyed. This would be the first time that he would ever get to see one of his favorite trance artist doing a live set. He couldn't believe his good fortune. "Neighlita...isn't she the one who did Coldest Heaven?" Asked Sky, as she tried to recall the artist. "Yep, thats the one." Said Sky. "She also did one of my favorite tracks ever! Lonesome Road, that song is pure heaven." "Yeah I love that one." Said Flash recalling the song to mind. "Hey Zen, want a drink?" "Oh yeah! Um...just get me a Pink Elephants. I haven't had one of those in a long time." 'Thats a weird name for a drink' Thought Hikaru. "How about you two?" Asked Flash. "Im buying." "Oh nothing for me." Hikaru quickly replied. Hikaru didn't like the idea of drinking alcoholic beverages as he saw what it could do to certain ponies. He didn't want to take the risk. "Do they have any soda?" Asked Sky. "Yeah of course!" Said Flash. "Haha, you two are funny, can't take the alcohol yeah? No worries. More for Zen and I! Haha!" Flash headed over the bar area to get their drinks while Hikaru looked out over the crowd. Everypony seemed so happy and free. The entire atmosphere of this place just radiated this feeling of freedom and fun. Hikaru couldn't help but smile. Flash was right. This was his kind of place. "So when is Neighlita going to be going up?" Asked Sky. "Supposedly...." Sky said while glancing at the time on the wall clock. "In about 15 minutes." "Oh cool! I can't wait to see this." Flash returned in a minute with the drinks. "I can't believe you only want a soda, Sky...." He said with a sarcastically downcast look. "You're missing out on some really good drinks here. You too Hikaru." "I don't drink..." Said Hikaru softly. "Me either honestly." Sky said in the same way in response." "Missing out....." Laughed Flash. "Oh well, if you feel like you want to be bold and try something out, just let me know!" "Haha, sure..." Replied Hikaru looking away. The 4 chatted for the next few minutes about many random topics. Hikaru was fascinated by the story of how Zen and Flash had met and ran off together. It was 2 years prior that Zen had decided to run away from home after growing quite tired of her alcoholic father who would treat her like trash. She ran away to Fillydelphia originally where she stayed with a small group of runaways she had run across in her travels. Flash was on of the ones in the group. He had been a rebellious young one, and caused lots of trouble at school to the point that he got kicked out at a very young age. He ended up being arrested one night for trying to break into a store, and his parents disowned him after that night. He ran away, found the group of other runaways, and shaped up his act. Both Zen and Flash found that they gained quite the liking to the other and it was only a short while until they were together. Through lots of work and some hardships, they managed to work with the other runaways to buy the run down apartment building which they used as low rent housing for other runaways that they happened to find. They both had a big heart and compassion for those in their same situation for sure. Hikaru could have listened to their story for hours, but the sound of ponies cheering interrupted the story. Hikaru looked over to the direction of the DJ set-up and saw that an orange pegasus mare with a black mane and a turntable cutie mark had gone up on stage, and everypony was cheering quite loudly for her. "There she is!" Sky yelled joining in with the cheering crowd. The orange pegasus grabbed a microphone and spoke loudly into the audience. "What's up ponies of Manehattan!" The crowd erupted into a loud cheer that almost hurt Hikaru's ears. "Okay okay!" She yelled, also seeming overwhelmed by the loudness of the crowd. "So check it out, I flew in today, and I gotta tell you all. I almost didn't make it! Why? Ill tell you why, cause some police thought that my sound equipment might have been explosives!" The crowd laughed at the hearing of this. "Yeah, pretty stupid. They locked me up in some stupid cage room for 2 hours while they went through EVERYTHING I own. And you know, they even confiscated some of my good stylus's cause they said it seemed too dangerous to bring into the city from somepony of my kind. Im sorry, but...My kind? I mean REALLY?" The crowd yelled in annoyance in response. "So yeah guys. Crazy day, I love you all here in Manehattan but....buck your police." The crowd cheered loudly at her last statement, including Flash and Zen very loudly. "So anyways, Im gonna get this started up, are you all ready?" More cheering. "ARE YOU READY!" Louder cheering. Hikaru could have sworn that the room shook. "Alright! Here we go!" Immediately, Neighlita got to work on the turntables and the sound of heavy bass and a steady beat resonated throughout the building. "Oh wow this is awesome!" Commented Hikaru as the sound seemed to envelop him with its beat. Hikaru looked over to Sky, who had her eyes closed and head rocking to the beat. She was obviously enjoying this just as much as He was. He looked over to where Flash and Zen were sitting and noticed that they were gone. He scanned the crowd looking for them and finally noticed the two standing right up front in the mass of other ponies who were jumping and cheering with the music. 'Figures.' He thought to himself. They were the kind of ponies he would expect to go crazy and get as involved as possible. The track Neighlita was playing continued on for many minutes of a heavy bass mixed with soft synth and quick beats. Suddenly, with a progressing snare roll, the song entered into a soft, calm and peaceful synth section that Hikaru could only describe as "heavenly". Life..... Has a way.... Of changing your direction... Reshaping expectation.... 'Oh...I remember hearing this before...' Thought Hikaru trying to remember where it was that he did. "I have this song!" Shouted Sky over the noise. "Remember this? I have a mix of this that I played for you a while back!" "Oh yeah....thats where I heard this from." Replied Hikaru, letting the memory return to him. "Thats so awesome." When the chance comes you gotta take it you gotta run with the wind and take it yeah when love comes you gotta make it bittersweet you gotta taste it so get ready make a stand and jump..... yeah, just jump...... The song entered into another soft synth section with the lyrics repeating very softly in the background. The ponies on the dance floor cheered and stomped there hooves in response. But the song was not over yet. Another progressing snare roll got louder and louder as well as a more aggressive synth, getting louder and louder. Flashing strobe lights and laser lights flashed wildly around the room matching the sounds of the song as it got louder. Suddenly, with a loud blast, the song entered into an incredible mix of heavenly synth, heavy bass, perfect beat and effects, all working in perfect harmony to create one of the most glorious sounds Hikaru had ever heard. The crowd surrounding the stage was madly jumping, dancing, and cheering. Hikaru looked for Flash and Sky but couldn't find them among the crazed ponies. 'Ah they're probably somewhere in there having fun.' Thought Hikaru knowing better than to be concerned for the two. Hikaru sat back and absorbed the experience around him. Everything was so...perfect. Here he was. Listening to his favorite kind of music, LIVE! Surrounded by the most amazing light show he had ever seen. Next to him, was his absolute best friend in all of Equestria, and for once in his life. He felt....free. He wasn't stressed, wasn't alone, wasn't worried. This was what he always wanted, and it was here. Now. This was the freedom he always longed for. This was it. ---