A collaberation of short stories that relate to the pasts of some of the characters in "Morsidus Grim-Record: The Last Element"
This series is based of my original story "Morsidus Grim-Record: The Last Element". it is a series of short stories of what happened before the characters were introduced. we learn the real names of Morsidus and Elayas and even other characters that have stuff for the future stories.
Rated Teen for strong language and possibly a few suggestive scenes.
Chapter One Real Name: Josh Flaherty Known As: Morsidus Grim-Record Job: Musician/Apple Harvesting Type: Human/Kivuli Draconequus
Josh had woken up from one of the greatest sleeps he has ever known. He didn’t know it yet, but it would be the last for a while. He looked at his alarm clock and noticed that it said 6:34. He decided that it was time to get up.
He rolled out of bed with a grunt and tried to make it to his bathroom without tripping on anything. 20 feet to walk wouldn’t b too hard in the dark, right? The last thing he wanted was to wake up his sister. She always got crabby when she was woken up before 8 in the morning.
He did his normal morning routine. Brushed his teeth, shaved his face, and washed his arms. When he got back to his room, he put on a pair of stonewashed black jeans, and a sleeveless Pink Floyd shirt. He then brushed his long, pitch black hair that went almost down to his armpits.
He loved wearing a sleeveless shirt in the spring. It showed off his tattoo he had on his left shoulder; an old fashioned record on top of the scythe of the reaper. He was known to all as Josh Flaherty, but everyone called him Morsidus Grim-Record. He finished his morning routine with a waffle and walked out of the house with his guitar in its case.
Normally, he wouldn’t be up and gone this early on a Saturday, but today was different. His band was invited to play at a local college’s Music Festival. They were told that it was an extreme honor for non college students to be invited. They were still well known back at their old high school.
As he walked down the street to get to the bus stop, he noticed that His friend Elayas was sleeping up against a tree. ‘Typical Elayas, always here before me and always asleep.’ Josh went and kicked his friends leg to wake him up. “Wake up dip-shit. We gotta get going if you want time to flirt with college girls like I know you want to.”
Elayas woke with a mumble and glared at him. “At least I have the balls to do so. You would only go for one girl and you don’t have the guts to ask her out.”
Josh did have a huge crush on a girl he met back in high school. Her name was Zecora Zapp. Josh decided to he was going to ask her out after they performed later. For now though, he just had to get to the college.
They boarded the bus and paid their fare. After about 30 minutes, the bus pulled up in front of the College of Performing Arts. They got off the bus and heard a familiar voice behind them. “I figured it would be wise, to meet you before sunrise.” They turned around to see Zecora standing up against the wall with the other two girls in their band.
One was a taller girl with strawberry-blonde hair and always wore too much pink and black. She kinda looked like a Satanist trying to show some cuteness. Her name was Elizabeth Johnson. Her type was more of the classical and sophisticated kind. She was known as a player of all stringed instruments.
The other was a little shorter. Had light brown hair that was always in a state of organized chaos. She seemed to wear a lot of white and purple. Her name was Melody ‘Scratch’ Vendetta. Her personality was one of constant partying. She was a DJ at one point but decided to take a break to be a rhythm guitarist for the band.
Together, they were the “Elements of the Shadow Beat”. They came up with that name because they didn’t know anything that they had in common other than the fact that they were into darker type of music, had an affinity for a different element of nature, and loved music.
Josh walked over and lit a cigarette. “Hey girls, we all signed in and the equipment is ready to get set up?” they were to play as one of the few band that had their own stage. They were the Musicians of Honor this year.
Melody was the one to answer his question. “Yah, your amp and Elayas’ drum set is in the van and ready to go as always. Elizabeth has all her instruments behind our stage already. We were just waiting for you dumbasses to get here.”
Elizabeth just sighed and walked away, hoping she could find someone she could talk to. Zecora walked off to the stage to finish setting her stuff up. Josh went with Elayas and Melody to get their equipment. As they started to unload everything, they noticed that Elayas was down the block, talking to a girl with pink hair.
Melody noticed it right away. She just chuckled and unloaded the drums onto the cart. “Hey lover-boy, wanna stop the chit chat and get yer ass over here. I won’t take any responsibility for what happens to your shit.” She yelled. He said goodbye to the girl and almost tripped while running back to the van.
The festival wasn’t much of anything good this year. A lot of old bands that lost their flare and a few bands that couldn’t even play right. One kid broke all his strings on the first strum! It took all day of having to listen to all the bad playing and all the covers before it finally got dark. It was their time to shine.
“WE ARE THE ELEMENTS OF THE SHADOW BEAT!” Josh yelled. “Mr. Silver?” he stated in an asking way to prompt Elayas to start the drum piece for “Rock and Roll All Night” they were going along with a lot of covers and some of their own songs. Halfway during the encore, something went wrong.
One of the bass stacks caught on fire. It then exploded and got the whole stage ablaze. Zecora was knocked unconscious and Josh picked her up. He handed her to Elayas and was about to turn around when he remembered that Elayas had snuck in some whiskey in his drums.
He pushed Elayas and Zecora off the stage just before it exploded entirely. When Josh came to, he was in a hallway he did not recognize. He had a huge migraine and soon realized that he was going to go through hell to get home.
Chapter 2 Name: Shining Armor Job: Captain of the Royal Guard Type: Unicorn
Captain Shining Armor was walking around the Royal Palace after being rudely awaken by his wife, Princess Cadence, accidentally bucking him in her sleep during her nap. He realized that it was around 5 in the afternoon. It was the one day that he could sleep in so late since he had to do night duty. 'What I wanna know is what sort of dream compelled her to kick so hard. Oh well. I'm better off just doing what I usually do in the morning and hope that pink earth pony that Twily knows doesn't find me.' he thought.
Just as he finished the thought, he heard Pinkie Pie giggling and bouncing around the corner. As quick as he could, he dove under the nearest table and hoped that she didn't see him.
She was right past the table when she spoke. "Morning Shiny!" as soon as she said it, he hit his head on the table. He didn't know how she knew he was there. Of course, she would probably say something like 'I read the transcript, silly!'. Shining would have been baffled about this if not for the fact that he knew better.
He came out from under the table and continued his way down the hall. When he arrived at the dining hall, he noticed that the chef was already there with coffee and 'breakfast' for him. It was some daisy salad. Shining hated salads but it was the only thing available since Pinkie apparently raided the kitchen and made a cake.
After enjoying his food and downing several more cups of coffee, he went to his office. He was glad he had his own bathroom. A lot of his soldiers would make jokes when he was forced to shower with them. Mostly about the fact that he was a captain trying to become a regular soldier. A few would, once in a while, joke about how Cadence would choose him and that they had bigger 'friends' she could be introduced to.
He finished with his shower and dried himself off. he figured it would be a pretty slow night. His sister, his wife, the other Elements of Harmony, and The Royal Sisters were having a summit about the safety of Equestria. He made sure to be in charge of the night shift. He was the only one that could keep the soldiers in line in case anything went wrong.
He put on his armor and walked out of his office. He walked through most of the castle before coming to a new recruit trying to play ninja with one of the spears. He quickly used his magic to take the spear away from the now pouting guard.
Next he came across the only other pony in charge of the night guard. It was one of Luna's personal guards and the only one on the night guard that wasn't a bat like looking thing. "Hey SnowFire." he said.
SnowFire turned and nodded. "Doing your rounds before going to the summit, Captain?" he asked. Shining just nodded. "You?"
SnowFire just turned as he spoke. "On my way to it right now. I gotta make sure that Discord doesn't do anything stupid."
With that, he was gone. SnowFire Blitz was part of the Special Elite Guard. They were made up entirely of earth ponies that had abilities that nopony thought possible. SnowFire was no exception, except for the fact that he was part zebra. His armor was enchanted to render him invisible whenever he wanted. His 'unique' ability was that he could make either snow or fire appear out of nowhere. He had a second ability that nopony else but a select few knew of. He had the same shape-shifting abilities as the changelings!
As Shining went around the next corner, he noticed a younger stallion with a grey coat and a red and purple mane. He watched as the other pony kicked a table for no reason. 'And now he is talking to himself'. Shining followed him very quietly until he thought it was time to finally see what was going on.
Elayas was walking around the school, looking for any kids trying to skip class. He still never forgave himself for what happened. It has been a year since the accident that caused Josh's death. No one was over what happened. The band broke up and he was still single.
He went on a few dates with Elizabeth but she dumped him when she found out about the whiskey he had in his drums. No one has seen her since. Zecora disappeared on some sort of soul searching journey. Melody still lives in town but rarely leaves her apartment. The explosion pretty much broke her mind.
Elayas was now in college for Graphic Design classes. During his down time, the school hired him to be a hall monitor. He was paid well and he only worked on days that he was there. He thought it was a fair schedule, otherwise he would be at home with nothing to do but hope that things will get better.
As soon as Elayas turned the corner to go down another hall, he saw a kid holding the fire alarm switch. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." he said as he stopped and stared at the kid. He pulled the switch anyways and ran. Elayas started chasing after him.
After a few minutes and having to avoid tripping on others, he saw the kid run out one of the doors to the greenhouse area. As Elayas stepped through the door, he saw a bright flash of light. When his vision returned, he realized he was in a garden that was nowhere near the school. Upon further pondering, he realized he was tapping his chin with a hoof.
"Oh cool!" he yelled as he looked at his full self, unaware of the guard nearby. When he realized that the guard was there, he froze.
The guard was a typical Night Guard of Luna's Court. He had a spear which was promptly leveled at Elayas' neck. "Under the authority of Princess Luna, I am placing you under arrest for sneaking into the Palace Garden. You will follow me and not try to escape or I am authorized to use lethal force if necessary." he said.
Elayas just had an understanding and blank look on his face, but was definitely scared to death. This guy... pony.... THING just threatened him. He realized that he was sitting and put his front hooves up. "I will comply and follow in front of you if you want so as to keep a better eye on me." He stated calmly.
The guard just nodded and pointed the first direction. After about 20 minutes of walking, they finally made it to the dungeon within the basement of the castle. The guard broke the silence. "You will wait in here until morning when Princess Celestia has a chance to speak to you. The toilet is in the corner behind the curtain. We also have some books if you would like one. Otherwise please remain silent. With how you look though, I would recommend some sleep."
Elayas nodded as the guard walked away. 'For a guy that threatened to kill me if he thought he needed to, he was kinda nice. Now how am I a pony and why is my tattoo on my ass? How did i get here? I wonder if they serve breakfast?' all the questions ran through his mind. the only one that didn't was if there was anyone else in the cell. There was one other, but it was just a drunk stallion who was being detained for being rude during Day Court.
Elayas laid down on the floor away from the booze soaked pony and fell asleep after a little bit.
The next morning, Elayas was woken up by someone shaking him. When he finally managed to get up, he noticed the other pony was right there. Elayas just looked at him all confused like. The stallion spoke to him in a drunk like speech but Elayas still understood him. "The Day Guards are here to bring you to the throne room to speak with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna."
Elayas nodded and walked over to the cell door. He was greeted by a different guard than the one from the night before. They were about halfway there when his stomach growled. "Sorry." he said as the guards looked at him, thinking he was making the noise on purpose. They passed by a red pony with blue hair and black stripes. He apparently heard Elayas' stomach and decided to hand him an apple. "Thank you." he said and the red stallion just nodded before walking the other way.
After a few minutes, they had finally reached the throne room. He saw what appeared to be two ponies that had both wings and horns. One was white and was fully alert and awake. The other was a very dark blue and was obviously sleeping in her throne. He was told to sit and he did so promptly. The white one waived her hoof and all the guards exited the room.
"Greetings, my little pony." The white one had the voice of an angel. He thought she sounded kind of motherly in the way she said those four words. She continued to speak. "I am Princess Celestia, the sleeping one is my younger sister, Princess Luna. I hope you don't mind. She has been up all night and fell asleep right here." Elayas understood and nodded and bowed a bit before replying. "My name is Elayas Dronjak, but everyone at home calls me Elayas Silver-Moon. I understand that I was arrested for sneaking into the royal gardens but to be honest, I don't know how I got there."
Luna was stirring, apparently her sleep was being interrupted by their sleep. Celestia was able to lull her back to sleep. "I can understand that. We had one about a week ago, who stumbled into one of our hallways and said the same thing. So, Where are you from Elayas?"
Elayas went over his tale about where he came from and how he got there. He even told her about the nice stallion that gave him the apple. Celestia nodded as she listened. After about a half hour of listening, she spoke again. "Ah, yes. The zebra stallion is one of Luna's favorite guards. He is always admired for how nice he is. I just have one question. Do you know one that calls himself Morsidus Grim-Record?"
Elayas' eyes went wide as he heard the name. He couldn't speak so he just nodded. "I figured as much. SnowFire, please send a retrieval team to fetch Morsidus and the others at Twilight's Library. Tell them it involves the Fang Wolf-Shadow Case." As she finished the request, the red zebra from earlier was in plain sight not ten feet behind Elayas. He nodded and walked out to relay the message to the guards. He then walked back in and stood back where he was before.
"How is it possible? You said he arrived in this world a week ago, but in my world, he was considered dead for about a year." he said to no one in particular. Luna gave a small yawn that made even Elayas think it was cute. Luna got off her throne and walked towards one of the doors as she spoke. "We had troubles in the distant past of one that could travel between dimensions. We learned from him that time flowed differently between one another. Our time stream just runs at a slower pace than yours."
She left the room and a few minutes later, so did SnowFire. Celestia and Elayas talked about some random stuff about how Equestria worked. At around noon, he heard a familiar voice behind him. "Elayas? Is it really you?"
Elayas just turned and nodded. "Yes Morsidus. I'm really here."
Chapter 4 Name: SnowFire Blitz Job: Captain of the Special Elite Lunar Guard Type:Earth Pony/Changeling
SnowFire Blitz woke up with a rather annoying headache. He put his hoof to his head and wondered why he was seeing black. He realized that his hoof was covered in chitin.
SnowFire Blitz was an Earth Pony that was abducted at birth by a changeling and was experimented on to see if it was possible to fuse pony DNA with changeling DNA. they technically succeeded but also failed. SnowFire would forever be cursed to randomly wake up with chitin on him.
History books showed that anypony that was taken and experimented on would eventually turn into a full changeling. He was different though. He was the only one that was taken at birth, so his body adapted easier. The changeling DNA still lingered and tried to take control. Luckily, he was used to it and just turned his hoof back to normal.
"I better get going. Luna wanted to brief me on my next assignment before she went to bed." He said to himself as he realized his clock said 5:00 in the morning. Usually, he would be going to bed himself around this time for he was always with Luna. He was told to sleep for the night in order to be ready to leave for his next assignment before noon.
He hopped out of his bed and walked to his bathroom. He relieved himself and then took a shower. he was wondering if the new assignment involved looking into the Everfree incident from a few days ago. He had heard about the Draconequus Pony and how he took down several changelings and a unicorn that had the Alicorn Amulet without even breaking a sweat.
He got done with his shower and put on his armor. He walked out of his room and walked down the hall to where Luna was having night court. As he entered, he changed his appearance to that of Luna to mess with the Nobility Folk. When he got to the throne, he mimicked Luna's voice perfectly. "Who be this imposter that sits in my throne. Doth thee have a wish of death upon thyself?"
The one that the real Luna was talking to was none other than Fancy Pants. His eyes were darting back and forth, trying to figure out which was the real Princess of the Night. Luna just giggled. "Very funny SnowFire. It is good to see that you still have your sense of humor when others are around. Now please return to normal so Mr. Fancy's eyes won't pop out of his head."
SnowFire frowned and returned to his normal form. "Ya gotta ruin the fun, don't ya? I came to inform you that I will be waiting with Princess Celestia in the Dining Hall." He then bowed and walked back out.
Luna looked back to the throng of ponies and noticed that a few were trying not to burst from laughter. She raised her hoof as she spoke. "Those who wish to laugh may do so." Everypony was laughing to the point of where it woke Celestia up.
About an hour later, Luna and Celestia were in the dining hall, enjoying their meals. SnowFire sat on the other side of the table, head bobbing while listening to music. He may have been a Captain, but he loved to listen to music. Especially when it was his sister's music.
He Looked up to see that both Luna and Celestia were looking for him. He took his headphones off and turned off his MP3 player. Luna was the first to speak. "As you are already aware of by now, Captain, the traveler known as Morsidus Grim-Record will be in need of a new guard since Captain Shining Armor has returned to the Crystal Empire." SnowFire nodded. he knew it was official since she called him 'Captain'.
Celestia was the next to speak. "I have been informed of your qualifications and have already informed Morsidus as well. You are to meet him at Twilight Sparkle's Library later today. Make sure that none of Fang's Followers get near him. We have deduced that they will more than likely be very powerful ponies. If anything is to go wrong, you are to notify us by Spike-Mail immediately. Understood?" Again, he nods.
The next voice is one that almost scared SnowFire out of his chair. "I also wish for your sister, DJ Melody Blitz to join you. In the case that we will need use of her abilities. You will be staying with us while she may stay with Rarity." SnowFire turned around to see that it was none other than Princess Twilight herself! He did a small bow before turning back to Luna.
"How long until I need to be at my new post?" he asked
Luna thought about it then levitated a few papers from the counter to her. "According to the release papers, Morsidus will be leaving the hospital at 1 in the afternoon. I would say that you should catch the noon train so you have time to scout Ponyville and get a bearing of potential blind spots."
With that, he saluted and walked out of the room, putting his headphones back on in the process. Twilight followed after giving Celestia and Luna a hug. After they were alone, Celestia turned to her younger sister "Are you sure this is wise Luna? He is related to a Follower. He knows what they can do."
Luna just looked down with a saddened look on her face. "I know the possibilities when I decided on him. It was for those reason that I wanted him to go. Drevere Dread-Hoof is the only one of the three that embraces his lineage. I just hope that SnowFire and Melody don't follow in their ancestor's hoofsteps like their brother."
Chapter 5 - Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Philharmonica
Name: Octavia Type: Earth Job: Cellist/Classical Integration DJ
The mare looked out at the crowd that had gathered at the club to listen to her and her marefriend perform. Vinyl was sitting in the musician's booth, spinning her records while Octavia was integrating classical music type wubs into the mix. Together, they were sounding like gods.
They looked up at the VIP section to see none other than Princess Celestia, watching them while bobbing her head to the beat. What threw them for a loop was that she was wearing a lot of glow sticks around her neck.
After the show, they went backstage to relax. After about 20 minutes, they heard a knock at the door. "Come in." Vinyl yelled. When the door opened, they saw Celestia standing there with all the glow sticks still around her head. She walked in with a very noticeable intoxicated alicorn with her.
"THY MUSIC WAS, AS THEY SAY, 'OFF THE HOOK'!!!" Luna yelled, as she swayed to the empty couch nearby. She fell on the floor right in front of it she was out like a light due to all the alcohol she had drank. She would be fine in the morning, but vinyl still couldn't help but laugh.
Celestia just shook her head while she facehooved. "Why?" she stared at her sister for a few more moments before turning to the performers. "I wanted to congratulate you two on another great show." she said. she then returned her gaze to her sleeping sister. "I better get this one home before she wakes up screaming again." with that, she teleported out of the room with her sister in her magic's grasp.
"Ok. Anyway, what do you wanna do?" Octavia asked. Vinyl thought about it before responding with just a shrug. they eventually decided to go home. They walked out into the night and hailed a cab. They were lucky. Most cabs were done for the night and this one was on his way home. Normally, they would ave just walked home, but there have been reports lately about the changelings abducting ponies.
They got off the cab and paid their fee before going into the apartment building/record studio that they called home. They live in the norther business district of Canterlot. they owned the "ScratchHarmonic Record Studio". They never played together but had started making music together about a year ago. They slowly started running out of ides a few weeks ago and were reviewed as 'repetitive'.
The next morning came with knocking on the door. Octavia woke up and answered. She was greeted with the site of a Night Guard Elite standing outside her door. He was a red zebra stallion with a blue and black mane color. "Good morning Miss Octavia. My name is SnowFire Blitz. I don't suppose you would know why Luna woke up with a tattoo of you on her neck would you?"
Octavia just looked at him all confused like. Vinyl could be heard from the bathroom, laughing her butt off. "I'm afraid I don't sir. The last we saw her, she barged into our backstage room after the show last night, drunk beyond all belief, and passed out on the floor." The guard just nodded and left.
The day went by, rather uneventful. They went to the store to get groceries and then returned home to work on a new set for the next show. they weren't up for long, as they went to bed early so they could do their afternoon show.
When she woke up, Vinyl realized that Octavia was gone. She left a note stating that she ran out to get something and would be back soon. Vinyl got out of bed, did her normal morning routine and started to make lunch. As she finished cooking, Octavia came walking through the front door.
"Where did you go?" Vinyl asked. She honestly didn't care, but was still curious. Octavia took a box out of her saddlebag and tossed it to Vinyl. When she opened the box, she noticed that a new pair of goggles were in it. She looked at Octavia and realized that she was wearing a matching pair. "Why? I mean, their awesome but still."
Octavia just gave a small giggle before responding. "I figured we could match during the next show. Besides, your sense of style is starting to rub off on me." she said before dropping her saddlebags on the floor and going to the kitchen to eat the delicious food that was made for them.
Around 3 in the afternoon, they heard a knock on the door. Octavia opened it to see a Day Guard standing there with his armor reflecting the sunlight. "Good afternoon. I have a letter addressed to the owners of 'ScratchHarmonic'." he said. Octavia took the letter and he walked off down the hall.
"What is it?" Vinyl asked. Octavia opened the letter to see that it was from Princess Celestia herself!
My Dearest Octavia and Vinyl,
I have come across a musician that is in a profession of a new emerging type of music and would appreciate if it you would work with him to hopefully get new ideas. His name is Morsidus Grim-Record. You would be moving into a house in Ponyville, Paid for by me, while you work with him. You do not need to respond right away, seeing as you have your show tonight, that I will be attending.
I await your answer.
Sincerely,
Princess Celestia
Vinyl read and re-read the note, seeing if it was some sort of joke. "What do you think Tavi?" she asked. Octavia just sat in her chair for a moment, unable to believe the opportunity that had presented itself. She was planning on talking to Vinyl about a small vacation to hopefully get some creative juices flowing.
After a few more minutes, she finally responded. "Let's do it."