Drummer Out of Time

by MrPip42

15 - Hold it Together, Drummer!

Sugarcube Corner was packed with smiling ponies, surrounded by streamers and balloons. A banner sat above the indoor gathering. A clear message for what this party was meant for. We’ll Miss You, High Rise! Written in colorful, fancy hoof writing, and surrounded by drawings of balloons. As well as a drawing of High Rise himself, cartoonishly smiling on the banner.

High Rise was not smiling when he entered the room.

“No missing out on a party this time! No siree!” Pinkie giggled and turned to High Rise, the current center of attention. “As soon as I heard you were leaving I knew I had to make this party PRONTO! Or else everypony would have missed you!”

It hasn’t been a full twenty four hours since High Rise told Spike that. Pinkie Pie was able to find out that information, gather all the supplies she needed, bake multiple different desserts and snacks for the occasion, and got a whole group of ponies together to celebrate. All for a going away party, for yours truly.

He’d be extremely flattered if he wasn’t panicking like crazy.

TapTapTapTapTapTapTapTap

Fluttershy stepped in behind High Rise, and placed a wing gently over his back. “Pinkie, I was trying to tell you… He isn’t actually leaving yet. His departure got delayed, he learned that today.”

TapTapTapTap…TapTap…TapTapTap
BlinkBlinkBlinkBlink…BlinkBlink…BlinkBlinkBlink

Pinkie Pie’s superpowers also seemed to be able to match her blinking to the beat of High Rise’s erratic tapping. “What?! So you mean-“

“He didn’t need this party, Pinkie Pie, I'm sorry.”

The crowd around them lost the joyful energy it had at the start. Watching High Rise’s slowly growing panic attack and hearing Fluttershy’s words. Ponies gave unsure looks to each other. Whispers were shared, and nopony knew what to do. Especially Pinkie Pie, who deflated the moment she heard the truth. She rushed a party together to make sure she didn’t miss the chance, but now she jumped the gun!

“I-I’ve never thrown an accidental party before!” Pinkie said nervously, which caught High Rise’s attention. “I-I should have double checked before I set this all up. You shouldn’t have been put on the spot like that, Hi-Hi, i-i’m sor-“

“Please don’t apologize, Pinkie.”

High Rise was holding his breath, but forced himself to say those words. He couldn’t fall apart now, not after everything that’s happened. It was a party, a premature party, but a party nonetheless. Pinkie Pie put every ounce of her time and energy into making a party that would send him off with a smile. If there was anything in this world worse than the panic he felt, it was the face of a sad Pinkie Pie who only tried her best.

So he would fight his fears, control his beating heart, and smile. “I’m not leaving yet, no, but I will in the future. So this isn’t entirely wrong, and… who am I to turn down a party?”

Life returned to Pinkie Pie, and her huge grin encompassed the entirety of her face. Pulling High Rise into a tight embrace. High Rise tensed and shut his eyes at the sudden contact, but didn’t stop her. The crowd around them regained some of their own energy, and when Pinkie turned to the crowd, her words sent them back into cheers.

“Let’s party!!”

…Deep Breaths, High Rise, you can do it.

---

Twilight Sparkle was trying to unravel the mystery of High Rise once again, but she was at a loss on what to do. Before the concert, her feelings on it were curiosity and suspicion. There was something about him that confused her. Now, after the concert, her feelings have changed. She wasn’t suspicious of him, she was concerned.

How much did she actually know about him? Twilight knew where he was from, where he grew up, even his relationship with Time Turner. High Rise is a huge fan of the amateur band the Night-Mares, and is a drummer himself. After a Night-Mares concert here in Ponyville that he helped perform. Then he stayed in Ponyville for over two months by staying in his friend Time Turner’s house.

…Why was he staying in Ponyville, anyways? What made him decide to stay here? When Twilight heard from Spike how he was leaving, this was the question that came to her mind. Whatever the reason High Rise was in Ponyville, it was soon coming to an end, and he wasn’t planning to tell anypony about it. Until Spike came and asked him.

That was what Twilight was going to get answered at this party. Before High Rise disappeared from Ponyville, she wanted to know the real reason he stayed here. She was going to get that answer, no matter what!

At least until Twilight saw him start tapping. The crowd had just cheered, Pinkie was starting the party properly after a rocky start. High Rise followed her, but if you paid attention, you could see the nervous tic that made his hoof continue to tap, tap, tap on the ground. It must be taking a lot of willpower for him to hold it back enough to not make any sound. Even so, he couldn’t make it go away.

As the party kicked off and High Rise was taken to the first activity, Twilight approached Fluttershy. Who nervously stood at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner. She watched High Rise as he mixed into the crowd, and then turned to look at Twilight.

“Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” Twilight asked her. Fluttershy nodded in return.

“Yes, but I don’t know what exactly. I think it’s because he was really hoping to go back home.”

The two mares watched him again. A few ponies were chatting with him while Pinkie grabbed him a drink. He politely refused, probably because his constant tapping would stop him from walking and carrying it at the same time. Both of the girls noticed it, and didn’t know what to do. “Did he say where home was for him right now? Canterlot? Trottingham?”

“He didn’t say anything about where, but when he came to visit me today, he was really bad. I have never seen him so sad before.”

“I haven’t either.” Twilight said, “Maybe the party is hitting a sore spot for him?”

“Still, this doesn’t seem like how he would react to a simple train delay… High Rise never said how long he would be delayed for.”

No, he did not. Twilight just needed a moment with him, and with Fluttershy backing her up, it became two friends concerned with their friend’s well being. The buzz of the party made it difficult to approach him, however. From a game of darts, to a surprise conga line, Pinkie Pie was able to keep him busy. One particular moment during the conga line caught the two mare’s attention. High Rise, caught in the middle of the line, tripped and fell out of the mix, his goggles falling off of his head.

“My bad! You alright?” Asked the unicorn who stood behind him in the line. Lyra, a unicorn mare Fluttershy and Twilight both knew. She helped High Rise onto his hooves, and used her levitation to pick up his goggles.

“Thanks, and that wasn’t your fault, I just tripped over mys- Aaagh!” High Rise jumped back from the goggles that levitated in front of him. Fear etched into his eyes. His sudden scream caused Lyra to yelp, and drop the goggles from her magic. The ponies around them came to a stop to watch High Rise quickly snatch the fallen goggles from the floor.

“Sorry! Sorry!” He nervously laughed. “Just surprised, is all.”

Lyra looked positively confused, but didn’t press the issue with him. The goggles were back on his head, and Pinkie came to the rescue. A new game to play and distract the gathering from what just happened. Twilight noted that she could hear his tapping now, and he was tapping to the rhythm of Mare in the Moon by The Night-Mares. She’s had that song stuck in her head for days now, of course she could recognize it.

Unfortunately, any chance to get to High Rise was taken by Pinkie’s favorite party game. Pin the tail on the pony.

“How do we even get to him?” An exasperated Twilight asked.

“I think I have an idea.” Fluttershy muttered, she mustered the courage and spoke up with a louder voice. “Oh, I'm not having a lot of fun at the party today…!”

“Hey Fluttershy!” A pink blur appeared in front of Fluttershy. “Want to go next on pin the tail? Here’s a piece of chocolate cake!”

A slice of cake fell into Fluttershy’s hooves, but before Pinkie Pie could rush away from her, one of her yellow wings wrapped around the party mare. Twilight caught on to Fluttershy’s trick, and moved in front of the caught Pinkie. She was trapped!

“Hey, is this a game?” Pinkie asked, “Am I winning or losing?”

“Pinkie, we just need a moment of your time,” Twilight said, followed by Fluttershy.

“It’s very important.”

“Sure! There’s about twenty two seconds left until Hi-Hi’s done with limbo, whatcha need?”

“Could you give us a moment to talk to High Rise? We have something important to ask him.”

Pinkie Pie shook her head, a jingling sound came from her mane when she did. “No can do! Hi-Hi is really down in the dumps right now. I gotta do everything I can to help him out of that!”

Fluttershy pulled Pinkie closer, and in a low whisper, continued. “We know that, that’s why we want to talk to him. We just want to understand what’s bothering our friend.”

“Oh, nonono!” Pinkie shook her head more emphatically this time. The jingle played faster. “You can’t do that now! Important and emotional conversations can wait until after the Pony stacking game!”

“The what?”

“The pony stacking game! Where we stack ponies until the base falls over, the last team standing wins! We played this at your welcoming party, Twilight!”

It always stung a bit when Twilight was reminded of how she left her own party. She had every right to be focused on the Nightmare Moon situation, but she still ditched her friend’s party for her, even if they weren’t friends yet.

“Oh! Games over, gotta get going. See ya!” Despite Twilight blocking the path and Fluttershy’s wing holding her, Pinkie Pie was gone in a blink of an eye. There was no way to stop the pink blur.

Fluttershy and Twilight were left with no options, once again. The pony stacking game they were told to wait for wasn’t until the end of the party. The two mares watched the rest of the ongoing events from a nearby table.

“Do you think he will tell us the truth? When we do get to talk to him?” Fluttershy asked Twilight, “I’m worried he’ll try and laugh it off…”

“Me too. I have an idea for that.” Twilight brought a book up to her eyes with levitation magic.

“Where did you get that book?”

“Unimportant, but the spell I've been practicing inside is important! A lie detection spell, once placed, anything the pony says will be marked as either a truth or a lie.”

“Doesn’t that seem a bit… much, Twilight?” Fluttershy shifted nervously.

“It is, but High Rise hasn’t been entirely honest with us. If we want to help him, we have to know what’s going on. I’ll only use it for that one question.”

Fluttershy still looked unsure, but she trusted Twilight enough to know she wouldn’t intentionally hurt him. So they waited until the pony stacking game was completed.

---

High Rise’s pony stack was the first to go down. A single pony was put on top of him, and he toppled under their weight. He laughed it off with a wave. It was the expected outcome, and it was fun to watch the other ponies play.

He refused, however, to be stacked. Pinkie had the help of a unicorn to raise the ponies up, and the mere thought of that unicorn magic on him made him think of the worst possible outcome. After he nearly touched magic earlier, he had to take no chances.

Never has High Rise felt uncomfortable in a crowd. He was used to it. As a drummer, he performed on stage to hundreds of ponies before. There couldn’t have been more than forty packed into Sugarcube Corner today… and yet it was the most terrifying crowd he had ever been in. They were all smiling, laughing, and enjoying themselves, but all it took was one wrong move to blow it all to pieces.

Well, he didn’t exactly know what “blow it all to pieces” really meant. What chaos magic actually did when triggered was far beyond his understanding. High Rise hoped he wouldn’t find out today. The final game of the night was winding down, the ponies he had become acquainted with were starting to depart, and soon he could excuse himself as well.

He held it together, now get out of this crowd and run back to somewhere safe.

“High Rise?” Asked Twilight Sparkle as she and Fluttershy approached him. “Could we talk to you?”

Twilight was his friend, High Rise was well aware of that. He wasn’t trying to avoid her for any of the previous excuses he had used. If the circumstances were different, and he didn’t know that he was a chaos bomb, he would happily accept the conversation. But right now Twilight had a very menacing looking horn on her head. It was like being a drum of gasoline next to a matchstick.

“I’m sorry, I really gotta get going.” High Rise said hurriedly. “Doc’s gotta be wondering where I am, I was supposed to help him out tonight, you know how it is.”

High Rise turned from Twilight to see a pair of baby blue eyes staring at him. “Hey, Hi-Hi, before you go, can I talk to you?” Pinkie Pie asked.

Pinkie too?! She wasn’t a unicorn, and probably wouldn’t set it off, but accepting her while denying the other two would look even weirder! High Rise glanced between the three, trapped and without options… There had to be a way out right? One that didn’t make him look like a complete weirdo. Try as he might, he couldn’t think of one, and with three sets of eyes looking at him, he had very little time to choose.

“…Alright, but only for a minute girls, I really need to get back.”

Twilight was about to ask her question first. If only her mouth could move as fast as Pinkie’s. “Well after the party you were looking pretty scared and I was really really worried that I put you in a scary spot after doing your going away party too early so I wanted to see if I could make it up to you…” Pinkie Pie took a moment to breath. “…If there’s something bothering you, or you’re unhappy about something, I’d be happy to talk with you about it if it’d make you feel better!”

“Actually, that is what we wanted to talk about as well.” Twilight finally got her chance to say her piece. “We wanted to know why you were leaving, and see if you needed to talk before you left.”

“Mhm.” Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “We’d feel awful to let you go without making sure you’re okay.”

He tried his best to hold back the nervous tapping that he had just gotten to calm down. Instead, he bumped his hooves together instead of hitting the floor. Unfortunately, they noticed that

“Like that!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, hoof pointing towards High Rise’s hooves. “It’s your scared tappy tappy thing!

“Pinkie, you shouldn’t, um… point it out…”

“But that means he’s scared, Fluttershy! We don’t want to scare you, Hi-Hi!”

High Rise quickly shook his head. “No, nonono, you aren’t scaring me! I-I’m just, I-“

“Are you scared of telling us something?” Twilight Sparkle hit the nail on the head. High Rise’s silence after her words was more of an answer than anything he could say.

---

This was the moment. High Rise had to say something, and Twilight would be able to tell if he’s lying after one simple spell. “High Rise, whatever it is that you’re scared of, you don’t have to worry. We aren’t here to hurt you.”

His eyes shifted between the three mares in front of him. Ears following his eye flicks. He was about to speak, and Twilight Sparkle took the opportunity. Her horn began to glow, and High Rise’s eyes went wide in fear.

“Stop!!” He cried out, shocking the three mares in how quickly he backed away. The ponies left from the party all watched the sudden commotion, and Twilight’s spell fizzled out before it could be formed.

“High Rise!” Fluttershy gasped in surprise, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, Nothing! I-I just-!” High Rise’s eyes never looked away from Twilight, still backing away from her. “I need to get going, thank you for the party, Pinkie. I’ll see you all-!!”

It was inevitable that High Rise would stumble against something while walking backwards. His back hooves caught on the edge of a lopsided tablecloth. The contents on the table spilled off as High Rise lost all grip underneath him. His backwards flip was set to land his head onto the hardwood below. The enamored crowd barely had time to gasp.

Twilight Sparkle was quick to react, her horn flared and a nearby cushion was flung from its place and underneath High Rise’s head. No matter what was happening, she wasn’t about to let her friend get hurt. Pure instinct led her magic to line up the cushion with him. In a few short moments, his head would safely land on it and no dangerous injuries would be suffered.

The moment High Rise’s head connected with the cushion, a crackle of green energy sputtered from their point of contact. In a blink of an eye, Sugarcube Corner was enveloped in a blinding green light.

---

Every part of Twilight Sparkle felt… wrong. The way her fur felt on her skin, the length of her muzzle, how her ears shifted and bent. She had an odd amount of control over her tail that she didn’t have before, and she noticed the considerable absence of a horn on the top of her head.

What probably felt the weirdest was how she was floating in the air. Everypony from the party in Sugarcube Corner was now floating high in the air, with the building itself below them. The top of the bakery was opened like a can, its roof peeled and the main floor was now exposed to the afternoon sky.

The ponies floating above were also… not ponies, Twilight included. Every single pony that was at the party has been changed into either a cat, or a dog. Twilight herself was a lavender tabby cat, nearby her were the dog forms of Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie. The butter yellow fur of a great dane indicated which one was Fluttershy, and the bright pink pug that was scrambling through the air next to her was definitely Pinkie.

“What just happened?!” Twilight surprised herself by speaking with a cat’s mouth, the great dane looked at her in pure fear.

“This is AMAZING!” Pinkie laughed at her tiny floating stature, “but it’s also WEIRD! How do we go back?”

“I-I don’t know! High Rise fell over, then some form of magic shot out… and now this!”

The other ponies, who were now cats and dogs, were starting to recognize their own situation. Some of them started to panic, others cried out to ask what was going on, a few were surprisingly receptive to having their entire body changed into canine/feline forms. Lyra in particular was enjoying the paws.

“Okay, whatever’s going on, we have to make sure everypony’s okay!” Twilight said, and her two friends nodded in return. “Let’s see if we ca-!!”

It was at about that moment that the magic holding them in the air gave up. All of the dogs and cats in the air plummeted straight down towards Sugarcube Corner. Screams of fear and panic echoed across Ponyville as they all fell down. Awaiting a hard stop at the bottom.

Boing! Boing! Boing!

Instead of the grotesque sounds of animals splatting against the hardwood. Each and every cat and dog bounced off the floor like bouncy balls dropped from a great height. Each bounce was unique, and sent all of the not-ponies flying out of the open Sugarcube Corner. Regular ponies dodged out of the way as dogs flew in their directions, then bounced again in a completely different direction.

Each bounce had the unique effect of returning a limb back to normal for them. Cat Twilight Sparkle bounced away from Sugarcube Corner and regained her foreleg, then bounced off of the Vinyl Scratch Music Shop and regained her snout. Again and again she would bounce, until somehow her final bounce brought her back to Sugarcube Corner in her regular pony body. After every piece of her body was back to normal, she no longer bounced, and landed flat on the ground.

The ponies of the party were scattered across Ponyville, and Sugarcube Corner’s opened roof closed itself to cap off this chaotic mess.

“Uuuugh…” Twilight groaned. Her entire body felt numb, and when feeling returned to a muscle, a tiring ache replaced the numbness. The transformation and subsequent bouncing had sapped her of any and all energy she had. Twilight barely had the energy to open her eyes and see High Rise staring back at her. Horrified, and shaking from head to toe.

“High… Rise?” She asked with a weak voice. A voice that made High Rise’s frantic tapping even louder.

“Twilight… I-I-I…” High Rise could barely get a word out. Terrified was the word to describe how he looked… and guity.

“I’m so sorry, Twilight, I have to go.” High Rise didn’t give her the chance to yell “wait!” before he galloped out the door from Sugarcube Corner.

Fatigue would not let her give chase, and she collapsed on the cool wooden floor.

Comments

[fre3000]

MOAR, this is good and I want to keep reading!

[Alaric]

I do hope to read more in the future. This story is underrated.

[Forcalor]

Hey, if you won't continue it, mind share how it was supposed to end? Kudos