Shadowbolts Adventures: Music To Our Ears

by DragonShadow

Music To Our Ears

Music To Our Ears

The pounding bass, the driving beat echoing from a pair of expensive headphones, was the entire world to Lemon Zest as she made her way down the sidewalk. Her legs twitched and tapped a bit harder on the cement than she intended to, but the sway of her arms back and forth, and the snapping of her fingers in time to the strong beat, was all her. She smoothly slid around some older folks standing beside the road, giving a quick heel spin around them before picking right back up where she left off.

Ahead of her she saw another figure approaching, with blue hair striped in different shades, and a pair of ruby red shades perched on her nose. Lemon Zest recognized her from her time at Canterlot High during the Friendship Games... Vinyl Scratch, she remembered. They were supposed to be mortal enemies, but something about the way her head was bobbing, and her arms flowed forward through the air gave her pause. The headphones latched onto her ears were practically vibrating with energy and, strangely, Vinyl's movements matched the beat of her song.

Lemon's eyes narrowed as she approached Vinyl Scratch, and both girls began to slow. Their eyes met, but their bodies didn't stop moving. Slowly they marched around each other, each step in time with the beat blaring from Lemon's headphones. They finished a full circuit around each other, then came to a stop, but their heads continued to bob in unison. Their standoff ended after several more beats when Vinyl's left heel began tapping on the cement.

Lemon watched her knee bend with the beat for a moment before, almost unconsciously, her own heel began to tap in rhythm. The bobbing of their heads grew more pronounced with every step, and soon they were bobbing and tapping together. The grin that spread across Vinyl's lips caught her by surprise, as did the sudden jerking of her hand forward to snap Lemon's hand away from her side, yanking her closer.

Lemon slipped around Vinyl's back with their hands clenched between them, spinning around behind her. An almost helpless grin lit up her own face as her foot came down in front of Vinyl, and they began to move their bodies in unison, marching down the sidewalk together. Lemon's hand pulled at Vinyl's, and they began tugging each other back and forth as they moved. With one swift tug Lemon brought Vinyl close to her side, dipping her just past the curb as they passed an elderly couple on the sidewalk, then tugging her back, bringing her close before spinning her to the inside of the sidewalk again.

Their hands unclasped and they broke into a more energetic jog, their feet pounding the cement still in time with the beating in their headphones as they wound their way through the city. Lemon Zest had no idea where they were going now, but she quickly found that she didn't really care. Her heart was racing, and she was in no hurry to get where she was going.

Vinyl Scratch jumped over one of the benches on the sidewalk surrounding the small community park in the center of the city, slapping her hands on her knees in the air and landing in a crouch on the grass behind it. Lemon Zest grinned and clapped her hands in a fast half-beat, to which Vinyl bowed. Lemon then ran at the bench, kicking off the seat to spring off of its back with one foot, backflipping forward to the grass, where she stood with her hands snapping in time to the beat once more.

Vinyl's arms shot up, giving her the rock horns in appreciation. Moments later the two of them were taking off into the park proper, jumping the cement pathways on their way across the grass toward the stone fountain in its center.

They leapt up onto the fountain's edge and turned toward each other, their heels clicking on the stone in unison as their bodies bobbed and swayed together. Vinyl pumped her arms in front of her, lifting them over her head and bending her back over the water before letting them down, giving Lemon another grin.

Lemon Zest kicked her leg in front of her and stepped toward Vinyl aggressively, her fingers picking at the air quickly as she stepped over to her. Vinyl stepped back along the narrow fountain edge, but Lemon's steps were wider, closing the distance between them despite their rhythm remaining in perfect sync.

Lemon's hand snapped forward once she was close enough, and Vinyl raised her own hands as if to block. Their fingers intertwined between them, palm-to-palm, with their arms holding them apart. they swayed back and forth in a faux contest of strength, before suddenly Vinyl jerked their arms apart, yanking them chest-to-chest and grinning right in her face. Their legs swept back and forth across the fountain in a quick and wild dance. their hands broke their grip on each other, Vinyl's hands moving to her waist while Lemon's moved to Vinyl's shoulders.

Using each other for balance, they glided around the entire length of the fountain edge. Even when she felt her body flinging toward the water Lemon barely paid it any mind, she knew she wasn't about to get wet, and neither was Vinyl when it was her turn to spin out over the water, her hair whipping out from her head around her firmly planted headphones.

They had made several laps around the fountain when suddenly Vinyl Scratch brought them to a stop and leaned to one side, wrapping her arm around Lemon to hold her horizontal to the ground with her head dangling over the water in a low dipping motion, as Lemon's arms sprang over her head. It was there that the music finally ended, leaving Lemon Zest lying in Vinyl's arm, her chest heaving with her gasps for air, but her heart pounding in exhilaration.

Lemon looked up at Vinyl's eyes through her ruby sunglasses, seeing her lips curled into an excitable, energetic grin, and her eyes filled with energy. Lemon's hand moved up towards Vinyl's headphones, pulling one side off of her ear long enough to say one word.

"Lunch?"

Vinyl's free hand flashed a thumbs up. Lemon placed the earpiece back where it belonged, and Vinyl slung her up to her feet again, letting them both jump down from the edge of the fountain and make their way toward the sidewalk again.

Lemon Zest had to admit, though she had never met a CHS student she liked... there was a first time for everything.

Comments

[Metool Bard]

...

This needs to be an animation. Honestly, I don't think mere text can do this justice.

Part of the reason I say this is because, well, you chose to tell the story solely through the actions of the characters. There's very little introspection and practically no dialogue. It's perfectly fine to tell a story that way, but through text? I dunno, it just doesn't have the same impact.

That's not to say the story is bad by any means. It's nice that you made a connection between Vinyl and Lemon Zest through their love of blaring music on their headphones. I just think an animation would've conveyed the story better.

[DragonShadow]

6478706

Believe me, I agree, but lacking animation software or talent, this is really my only creative outlet.

[ToonLexi]

Awesome, you should do more of these

[seventeen]

"Her legs twitched and tapped a bit harder on the cement than she intended to" this has a strange rhythm to it (I mentally rearrange it to say 'tapped a bit harder than she intended to on the cement') and I honestly can't tell you why.
"blue hair striped in different shades, and a pair of ruby red shades" the two different uses of 'shades' here struck me as funny ^__^

Vinyl initiating their closeness is a sweet touch - something so expected of a Wondercolt.
there's a certain pulsating energy about the brand of repetition at work here, Lemon Zest and Vinyl Scratch do a lot of the same motions using the same words (or conjugations of those words), but because of the nature of their interaction, it didn't become redundant.

the sparing use of facial expressions and dialogue truly brought out the frenetic enthusiasm palpable from both characters in their motions. (I really liked Lemon's surprise at Vinyl's grin; it made me believe her own grin later would've caught her off-guard if she thought about it).

I would love to see someone animate this story, but I honestly found it enchanting on its own

[jhosmer1]

Nice! I went looking for this pairing after I noticed Lemon Zest and Vinyl apparently talking together in the background after the climax of the film, somewhere around where SciTwi decides to go to CHS. Can't find a screenshot, but you can see it.

[MrAskAPirate]

s6.postimg.org/dd47s96ap/Pirate_Approved.jpg

[Hidden Scorpius XI]

This was interesting. I've been looking for a story with any of CPA's Shadobolts, and this was an enjoyable read. Specially since there was next to no dialogue, everything was said through actions. Certainly a mark of a good writer.

I look forward to reading more "Shadowbolts Adventures"

[Imperator Knoedel]

6501694 I'm afraid that was in the deleted alternate ending.

[DragonShadow]

6521480

It was more prominent there, but they could still be seen in the background of one shot in the final version. I actually did not know that when I wrote this story, but hey, it already exists.

[Imperator Knoedel]

6521511 Hm, interesting. To be fair, I didn't see the movie more than once as a whole yet because I am still waiting to get my hands on an uncut high quality version.

[Evowizard25]

This certainly was a nice little story and I'm glad I've finally found the time to read more of this series. However, i would agree with 'Metool Bard' on how sometimes, some things are better in animation and don't have the same impact when written down. This isn't to say you did it in a bad way. Quite the contrary, I thought this was really cute how they started to dance together, but since this isn't animation, we can't 'see' them doing this.

A part of me thinks that this could have used some more 'inner workings' and feelings, somethings that wouldn't be stated in an animation and implied there, can be worked on and built here. Overall, this was a cute little dabble and I'm glad you're continuing this series.

[sgtnolisten]

Thank you. Now i ship it. Hard.

[Jakomi of the Rose]

Vinyl is shown to talk to Lemon so a mutual friendship isn't far from this.

[Kintatsu]

Gods help me, my first thought as I read this was "lesbian courtship ritual," and then my terrible, wonderful brain turned it into this odd scenario where someone follows them with a camera as they dance and narrates it like a nature documentary.

[DragonShadow]

7104148

All things considered, neither interpretation is entirely wrong.

[Golem Stone]

Has anyone TRIED to animate this? Cause if not, i might just give it a go

[Hero-Shepherd]

This was one deep rabbit hole of " This story is a sequel to" I didn't think it was ending.

[Legioner8]

Finds The Shadowbolts Adventures.
"Oh, it's a sequel, and it's a sequel as well! Good, I like long series!"
A few minutes later.
"Damn, you were busy..."

[Legioner8]

8237008
So, how's it going?

[Golem Stone]

8262727
*shrugs* its going, thought id brush up on my art skills a little first though

[DualKitsune]

Hmm, the mating dance of this species is quite intricate.

[GearShift77]

The series could use the Shadowbolts (EGq) tag, if you so desire.

[DeadbeatFred]

Beautiful... I was actually expecting them to kiss at the end due to the way they were dancing. I mean it got real intimate at the end there.

[Noctis Prism]

Huh, cool bonding here.

[Iamsorry]

I finally found the beginning!
Jeeze all these stories XD

[DragonxFlutter]

Finally gotten around to this one. And HOLY CRAP that was awesome!

Now I ship it!