New World Jams in the Old World Era

by Night Music

The Piper

It had been a long day in the town of Ponyville. The day itself had gone by quite quick, or at least, that's what it felt like. The ponies had done nothing but go about their business and do what they had needed to get done, for it was one of those days. The day where you finish your work early and just sit down and relax and listen to the ambiance that the town had to offer. Birds were more than likely to be said ambiance. But something about the air didn't feel right for most ponies, as if something was happening, most had turned down the feeling as just excitement for work to come to an end.

The town itself was almost deserted. Only seeing a stray pony here and there continuing their busy lives. But where had all of the others gone? Certainly the ponies here now thought it to be odd that the once bustling market square was now a ghost town. No. not a thought about it had passed through any of their minds. But one pony in this town, who had been looking down at the scene was curious to say the least. The purple pony princess named Twilight Sparkle had been the one who was overlooking the market square in her new crystal tree house.

"Where is everypony? This place isn't so dead by now usually." Twilight thought to herself.

She turned away from the window to stop herself from worrying to much, but, her efforts to do so were in vain. She had sat down at her desk and began to read, to see if that would calm her nerves. But, like the previous attempt, it had failed to do so. She shook her head, closed the book, and began to walk away from the desk.

"Spike." She yelled, trying to find the young dragon. But she got no reply. So she exited her room and went to the living room.

"Spike?" She called, again no answer. She stood there in silence.

"Where did Spike go?" She asked before a thought popped into her head.

"Maybe he's helping Rarity, I should probably go and check up on him."

---

Fast Foward to Carousel Boutique

Knock Knock Knock

"Rarity? It's me Twilight... Is Spike with you?" A second passed before movement from inside could be heard. The door was unlocked and swung open. There in the doorway was Rarity, wearing her trademark working glasses.

"Twilight, it's so good to see you darling, what brings you here? Oh, not that I'm not glad you came, it's just a little unexpected is all."

"Well, I was looking over the market and noticed it was empty, and I thought that was weird, long story short, I ended up looking for Spike and figured he would be here helping you."

"Hmm, that is a bit odd, but as for Spike, he is certainly not here, in fact, I haven't seen him all day, that also includes Sweetie Belle..."

"Maybe one of the others know where they are? Apple Bloom might know, they could have all gone crusading...?"

---

Fast Forward after meeting up with most of Main Six except Fluttershy

"Where is everypony?!" Twilight shouted to nopony in particular.

"No idea sugar cube, but we gotta keep looking, just in case we missed a spot."

"What about Fluttershy's place? They could be over there playing with the animals?" Rainbow Dash suggested.

"Why wouldn't they? The animals at Fluttershy's cottage are super-duper adorable! I could just pinch their cheeks." Pinkie Pie exclaimed as he brought her front hooves up to her cheeks. Everypony nodded their heads in agreement.

As they made their way to Fluttershy's cottage, a strange sound began to fill the air, as if somepony were playing a flute. But it was only loud enough to barely make out. But as they got closer and closer, the more of the flute they heard, the more they were drawn to it's source. And it's source seemed to be in the Everfree forest.

The five ponies made their way to Fluttershy's door and Twilight had been the one who knocked. Instead of the door opening, all that was heard on the other side was a meek, "Hello?" from their friend Fluttershy.

"Fluttershy, it's us, can we come in?"

Fluttershy had recognized the voice and proceeded to open the door for her friends.

"Oh, hello girls, what's going on?" She questioned in general surprise to see her friends at such a late hour.

"Fluttershy, do you know here, the crusaders and Spike are by any chance?" Twilight asked with hopeful eyes.

"Oh, I had seen them pass by awhile ago, but they were heading into the Everfree, and when I tried to stop them, they were already gone."

At this, everypony's face changed from one of hope to those of horror.

"Why would they do that?!

Seemed to be what they all thought.

"What about the music? The music coming from the forest?"

"It sounds nice, but a little scary. Music coming from the Everfree doesn't really happen that often."

"What do you mean by, 'that often'? This has happened before?"

"Sometimes, it's music, but other times, it just sounds like really loud sound. It's a bit frightening since all it does is play all night, but it's nice because they play such nice songs sometimes."

"What if Spike and the crusaders are in trouble and need help?! What if they're trapped by some wild animal and they get eaten?! What if-"

At that moment, magic had made it's way to Twilight's muzzle and kept it closed.

"Now now, Twilight, no need for getting the rest of us to start panicking. Where there is music, there is fun, and where there is fun, there is no danger at the moment. So wherever they are, it means they are protected enough to have fun and listen to music." Rarity reassured.

"Yeah, what Rarity said, but fer now all we can do now is wait for them to come back." Apple Jack said as she looked at the forest and up to the sky where there had been lights beaming from said forest. And in the background, all what one could hear was the thumping of music and the flashing of lights.