Basso Scale

by b00_j3nnn

Chapter I

A small beige pegasus mare with a brown mane groaned as she woke up in her bed, the morning sun creeping through her windows, the tall buildings of Manehattan visible as she opened the curtains. A yawn escaped Killjoy’s mouth as she tried to creep back under her covers. A frustrated ivory unicorn burst into the room, “Kill! This is no time for one of your naps, get up!”

“Urgh, Blast, please… fine…”, the pegasus groaned, which the unicorn still wasn’t fully convinced by. Annoyed, she swivelled a nearby mug with her magic, and poured coffee into it, “Here. I know coffee can give you the jitters and make you do dumb stuff on stage, but you really need it.”

The half-awake mare clumsily downed the cup, a surge of energy coursing through her body, from muzzle to tail. She suddenly shot up in the air, shouting in excitement.

“OH GET READY MANEHATTAN!”

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Later that day, in another neighbourhood of Manehattan, a brown dragon, a wyvern named Ash, was staring into the mirror in his bedroom, getting ready for the Valediction concert; he had been extremely lucky to score tickets before they all sold out. He moved to Equestria a few years ago since there were incentives from Princess Twilight’s government to encourage further species integration to work at a metal refinery, melting the metals with his fire. The neighbourhood he lived in had developed a high dragon population, mirroring the Dragon Town trend that had already been present in Fillydelphia. It was something he had been thankful for, opportunities in the Dragon Lands were… limited, to say the least… even with Dragon Lord Ember’s reforms. Ash had initially been reluctant to leave his homeland for somewhere so far away, especially considering he still had family back home, parents, grandparents, cousins, siblings, but it was something he wanted for himself, plus his sister had encouraged him to pursue a better life.

He was looking a bit dishevelled, his shifts at the refinery had been particularly difficult, working overtime to afford the tickets along with his usual expenses. He buffed his scales with some polish, before dusting off his lighter brown wing membranes, which had gotten quite dusty from work. Polishing up his horns, he spat a bit of fire into his hands, rubbing the fire over his horns to burn off the remaining polish, leaving them sparkling clean. His vanity complete, he left the apartment, locking up and going down the corridor of his apartment block, bumping into his neighbour, a blue unicorn mare, who was with her daughter.

“Hello Ms. Freeze, how are you doing?” he cheerfully greeted her.
The unicorn smiled, “Can’t complain! Just picked up Frostflare from school, looking forward to the weekend. I see you have tickets to the Valediction concert, lucky you!”

The wyvern gleefully smiled, “Yep! Been working my wings off at the refinery to afford this! Thought I was going to run out of fire those last couple extra shifts, but definitely worth it!”

The mare opened up her door and ushered her daughter inside, “Well you have a good time dear, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

Ash nodded and went downstairs, exiting the building and snapping open his wings, flying to the Manehattan concert hall within a matter of minutes, landing at the back of the line, ticket in his claws. Within a couple of hours, he was inside, right near the front too! New songs from Valediction were going to be played at the concert tonight, never heard before.

Ash spoke to no one in particular, “Oh man, can’t wait to hear their newest jams, I’ve been looking forward to this for months!”. Other concertgoers agreed with him, nodding heads and smiling widely.

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As Killjoy finished her vocal warmups and added the last few touches to her makeup, the pegasus pranced around the changing room with excitement bursting at her seams, enhanced by the caffeine from earlier. The clock had struck 6:30, and the band had finished up their pre-show preparations and rituals. The three mares rushed with excitement onto the stage as the crowd screamed their names. Their energy was at an all-time high. Despite Valediction’s last concert being only a few days ago, the band was craving the audience again.

The concert began, and technicolour lights danced with the rhythm of the booming bass lines. Killjoy’s melodic yet piercing voice shot into the bustling crowd below, sending chills down her and her bandmates’ spines. As she finished the opening song, she grabbed the microphone.

“ARE YOU READY FOR MORE MANEHATTAN?!”, and the audience below screamed incoherently. “I SAID, ARE YOU READY?!”, the audience shouted louder, and Killjoy grinned widely, going back to her music.

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In the crowd, Ash was having the time of his life, this was something he’d been looking forward to for months, and he was savouring every millisecond of it. At a particularly cool guitar riff, Ash leaned his head up and shot a jet of fire out of his mouth in his excitement. While this alarmed non-dragons near him, other dragons in the crowd got caught up and started spewing their flames into the air.

“YEAHHHH!!!!” Ash roared out with another jet of flame. His eyes were closed, feeling the extreme sound course through his body, his bones. Absolutely nothing like this took place in the Dragon Lands, other dragons were usually too busy fighting each other to appreciate music the way he did. Really, nothing could be better than this.

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As flames from dragons in the crowd shot up, Killjoy’s pulse accelerated, feeling more and more energy and excitement building up and surging through her. The booming speakers vibrated the entire arena, and as the band played even louder, the audience echoed their bliss. In the midst of such overwhelming energy, Killjoy tossed her bass up, and galloped towards the edge for a stage dive without warning. Rosella and Blast looked shocked but not entirely unsurprised, knowing she had a tendency for impromptu stunts like this. Before they could stop her, she was already at the edge of the stage.

Killjoy’s dive took her right over the front of the crowd, all four legs spread out, a wide grin on her face. Below her was Ash, eyes closed, enjoying the music. Ash opened his eyes to see her only inches away from him, and mid-jump, Killjoy had realised too late that she was heading straight for impact with the wyvern, and before she could open her wings to soften the blow, she barreled straight into him. Ash had reflexively stuck out his wings in an attempt to protect his face, and the entire weight of the mare fell straight on his right hand, which bent backwards forcefully.

"HOLY FUCK-" Though Rosella and Blast's instruments were still booming through the speakers, drowning out the sickening crunch of breaking bones, it didn’t stop either of them from feeling it. They both tumbled to the ground, Ash groaning loudly in pain, smoke leaking from his mouth as the wyvern clutched at his now obviously broken wing.

“OW! MY WING! FUCK!”, he shouted as he struggled not to let out fire, his wrist already starting to swell badly. Killjoy had rolled a short distance after landing on Ash, and rubbed her head, before quickly getting up and running over to her injured fan.

“OH CELESTIA-”, as Killjoy’s hooves covered her gaping mouth in shock, Ash had already blacked out due to the pain. The pegasus’ head frantically swivelled around, desperately looking for help, the pre-show coffee not doing much to help her jittery nerves. Nearby medical ponies on standby pushed through the crowd and loaded the unconscious wyvern onto a stretcher, quickly rushing him to a standby ambulance. Killjoy went with them, unable to think of anything else but the fan she had hurt. Rosella and Blast were still on stage, and the twins turned to each other in confusion and shock that their frontpony had left them mid-show. As Rosella quickly ran over to the closest available microphone to explain the situation, Killjoy was already long gone with the wyvern.