> Dreamer > by midnightsong960 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue “Have you ever wondered what happens after?” “… So you must make sure that you try and make some friends okay Jack?” I heard a voice say. I opened my eyes and turned to the source of the voice. A large white mare was sitting near me with a multicolored flowing mane and tail, with a bright sun cutie mark. She had on golden horseshoes and a golden tiara. I felt a breeze and then realized that we were on a golden chariot being pulled through the sky by two pegasi. We were headed to what looked like a large mountain off in the distance. “Princess Celestia,” I heard one of the guards call out, “We’re nearing the castle.” “Your name will now be known as Midnight Song,” the white mare continued after she acknowledged the armored Pegasus. “And you will live in Canterlot. You are allowed to do as you please, as long as you don’t cause trouble.” Celestia said almost with a chuckle. “But you must remember to wake up.” I drew my head back in surprise, the calm, soothing voice of Celestia had abruptly become loud and almost seem to have a tinge of worry. “Midnight you need to wake up.” I heard the voice again. ******* I awoke from my lucid dream in a small bed being shaken by Mystic Melody yelling something to me about being late for something; I wasn’t awake enough to process what she was saying to me. I blinked my eyes open to see the ticked off yellow bat pony, with long green hair that had slightly covered one of her eyes, on her flank she bore a microphone, who was impatiently tapping her hoof waiting for me to get up. “Come on,” she said as I started to get out of bed, “we need to be ready for our performance in thirty minutes and you haven’t even woken up yet and … and … you were having that dream again weren’t you?” Mystic’s angry face turned to one of worry and sadness and the mention of the dream. “Is it that easy to notice?” I asked as I started to get up and wipe the sleepiness from my eyes. “Not necessarily, I was just asking and you gave me the answer I needed.” She gave a weak smile for a second that almost immediately changed back to its former serious look. “Now enough of that we need to hurry Power Chord is waiting outside for us, and you know how he hates to wait on us.” “Almost too well,” I said as I started for the bathroom to get ready. “I still remember the time he left us in Las Pegasus after our gig and we had to wait an hour until he finally decided to turn the wagon around and get us.” I laughed as I grabbed my brush with my hoof and brushed my two-toned blue hair and tail out of its disarray and into a more organized mess. I looked at myself in the mirror to see if anything else was out of place and then stepped back out of the bathroom. “Did you even do anything?” Mystic asked, as she looked me up and down. The normally happy bat pony in front of me was clearly in distraught which, for the life of me, I couldn’t quite understand. “You forgot didn’t you?” she asked reading my thoughts. “Ugh! This morning is the Summer Sun Celebration and tonight we have the most important gig that The Dark Return will ever play because the big producer is going to be there. You know, Audio Jack?” She said patronizing my memory. “So I just want us to look good.” “Yes,” a green-coated unicorn with short dark blue hair and a simple guitar cutie mark said as he walked into my room. “Let’s have a well dressed rock band. Shall we also have a nice string quartet open up for us? Oh I know, maybe we’ll serve the audience tea and crumpets too.” “Oh come off it Power Chord you know what I mean by looking good.” Mystic said to the unicorn. I lazily waved to him, still half asleep, I yawned and stretched out my wings to get rid of the stiffness. “So are you two ready now or am I going to have to go without you, again?” Power Chord said as he waved back. “Yeah, we’re ready.” Mystic said. “Then let’s get our flanks in gear and set up.” Power Chord said as he began to walk back outside. Mystic Melody and I followed suite as we began our walk to the bar. Outside I could see the full moon and the stars shining bright. There was a gentle breeze blowing in my mane, it was all nice. Something didn’t feel right about it all though, almost as if something bad was about to happen tonight. I shook my head throwing the thought out of my head. What am I thinking? This was going to be a good night, we will play in front of lots of ponies, one being Audio Jack, and are contracted to make records then we will become famous. I caught up with Mystic and continued on walking next to her as Power Chord led the way, mumbling something about us running late. ======================================================= Questions, comments, is your cutie mark telling you to be an editor and you want to fulfill that destiny? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyrighted by Hasbro, Inc. ======================================================= > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1 “Quick, someone please, he needs help!” I was born on the nine hundred eighty second year of the singular rule of Celestia. I am eighteen years old. I earned my cutie mark at the age of six. My mark is a musical note. I was raised in Canterlot by my parents who both passed away about three years ago. My name is Midnight Song; I am the drummer in a rock band called The Dark Return. My friend Power Chord is the guitarist, and Mystic Melody is our vocalist. We don’t have a set piano player because no pony has ever wanted or even been able to stay in the band. Mystic and I are both bat ponies while Power Chord is a unicorn, since they are the only ones who can effectively play a guitar. Tonight we have a gig down at Soda Jerk’s outside bar and grill, where the famous record producer Audio Jack is. It’s been Mystic’s dream to get a record produced by us. ***** “… Testing,” Mystic, said into the microphone in front of her. “Testing, one, two, three. Can you hear me back there Power Chord?” “I can hear you just fine Mystic,” Power Chord said as he started to return to the stage walking over to me. “Have you finished setting up your drums the way you like them?” Soda Jerk’s outside bar and grill was a simple outdoors (duh) bar that was able to hold about fifty ponies at all of the tables. The entire bar was surrounded by a white picketed fence with a gate at the front. “Just about,” I said as I moved one of the drums over a little. “There we go, I’m set.” I picked up my drumsticks with my hooves and tested to see how far away each drum was while I sat down on the stool. “What about you?” “Yep, everything is ready. Hey, um, piano guy are you set up?” The pony that was doing the keyboards looked to Power Chord and nodded. Our keyboardist tonight was a rather quiet stallion with an green stallion pegasus with a nicely kept red mane and tail and a treble cleft, I think his name was something like Ivory Keys or something close to that, but he did his part without complaint so that was enough for me. “Well if everything is ready, then you could start playing because the customers are here.” I heard Soda Jerk say as he walked up to us. Soda Jerk was an orange stallion earth pony with short, rustled blonde mane and tail and a glass mug filled with foaming cider. I looked up and saw several ponies walk in through the gate. “Hello everypony!” Mystic yelled into the microphone. “We are The Dark Return and we are going to play some music for you!” the crowd got to their tables and started to stare at us with anticipation. “One,” I yelled as I raised my drumsticks into the air and started to beat them together in synch with my words. “Two, one, two, three, four.” I brought my drumsticks down on the drums and started to play. Power Chord joined in a beat or two after me and then we began playing. **** I’ll be honest now, I never really pay much attention to what’s going on whenever we play, or I go into another world whenever we play music. Bottom line, I never remember what happens during our concerts or practice sessions. After we finished the performance, however, I do remember the audience all stomping their hooves on the tables and ground in appreciation. As we got off stage for the next group to get on, a red Pegasus mare with a straight black mane and tail who had a record as a cutie mark walked up to us from the crowd. “Hey,” she said with a light voice. “I’m Audio Jack, but you probably already know that, if you don’t mind I would like to have a word with you three.” “A… Audio Jack wants to talk with us?” Mystic said pressing her hooves to her face trying her best at suppressing the unbelievable amount of joy she had. “She wants to talk with us? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!” I jumped over to Mystic and grabbed her as she began to faint. “So I guess that’s a yes then?” Audio said giggling. We nodded our heads. “Then come over here.” We followed Audio Jack over to her table. “I am going to keep this simple; I think that you guys have a lot of talent and could go far. However, I think that you need to get some more help perfecting little problems you have in your music. So what I plan to do is give you a recording contract, if you go to lessons to get better as well.” “So you’ll let us make a record if we go to some music classes?” Power Chord said a little perplexed. “Yes, the classes will be short, not even a week. You will have perfected your abilities and be even better. So what do you say, Do we have a deal?” Audio slid a piece of paper in front of us with a pen with her hoof. I thought that Mystic was going to lose it when she saw the contract she was practically bouncing off the ground. “Let me look over this real quick.” Power Chord used his magic to pick up the contract and started skimming through it for a while, then he set the paper down and picked up the pen with his magic and signed it. He then used his magic to give the paper to Mystic and me and we both signed it as well. Audio Jack then took the paper and put it into a brief case that had been sitting on the ground next to her. “Thank you for your time, show up at my office next week and we’ll talk about your classes and recording.” Audio said. She then picked up the brief case with her teeth and walked off. The second that Audio Jack was out of sight Mystic jumped into the air and soared about screaming with delight. ***** “So what do you want to do now?” I asked Mystic. About an hour had passed since our meeting with Audio Jack and Power Chord said that he had to get home, saying something about it being late. Mystic and I were still at the bar sitting at a table. Mystic was finally starting to calm down from her outburst of joy earlier. “I don’t know,” she said. “I was thinking we could go and see if there was anypony who could tell us about that dream you keep having.” “You know that only Princess Luna is able to go into somepony’s dreams.” I said as I looked up at the moon. The seal on the moon depicted a unicorn mare, reminding us what happened to Luna all those years ago. I had always liked looking at the moon, and had always wondered what it looked like without that seal there. As I stared up at the moon, I happened to notice something. “Hey, were the stars always that close to the moon?” I asked, pointing at the moon with one hoof. “What do you mean?” Mystic Melody replied, tilting her head slightly in confusion. “Those four stars around the moon, it almost looks like they’re getting closer to the moon.” Mystic looked up to the moon and tried to see what I was telling her. “I think you’re just seeing things Midnight.” She looked back at me with a shrug. I continued to watch the moon and it almost did seem like the stars were getting closer. “… Midnight… Equestria to Midnight, hello?” I shook my head and looked back to Mystic. “Sorry, I must have zoned out, what is it?” “Soda is asking if you want anything.” “Oh, no thank you,” I turned to see Soda Jerk standing next to me. “I’m not hungry right now.” “Oh, I insist,” Soda, replied. “It’s on the house, after the show you gave I think that I should repay you at least through a meal.” “… Okay,” I said, “I’ll have a salad then please, with a cider.” Soda Jerk then walked off yelling something to the ponies in the kitchen. ***** “You know what I wish?” I asked Mystic. We had left the bar and gone off to a field of soft grass and were laying down staring up at the stars. “What?” Mystic said not looking away from the sky. “I wish that Princess Luna was back, so then I could find out why I constantly keep having the same dream.” “You know that Luna is Nightmare Moon right now, and if she were to come back then she wouldn’t even care for you. Heck, she’d probably kill you for asking her to do such a stupid thing.” “Maybe, but what if she comes back and gets cured of her sickness, or whatever it is that caused her to do what she did? Then I could probably talk to her.” “I hope so; I mean how long have you been having that dream anyway?” “About…” I started to think how long I had been having that dream. How long was it? It felt like I had been having that dream for forever now, but when I started to think about it I couldn’t remember at all. “… I don’t know how long actually. It just feels like it has been quite a long time.” “Maybe it has something to do with what happened to your parents?” Mystic said hopefully. “No, I don’t think so. If my dream had anything to do with my parents then I think I’d be having them in my dream.” “Yeah, maybe, but you never know it might…” Mystic’s thought was cut off by something. I turned to look at her to try to figure out what was happening. “What is it?” I said after not finding my answer from looking at the yellow mare. She then pointed a hoof up towards the sky. I looked up to see what she was pointing at and had noticed that the seal on the moon had disappeared. I jumped up to my hooves; I had a mixture of both joy and terror. I was excited because I’d finally be able to find out about my dream; the terror was because I knew that wasn’t Luna who was coming back, but Nightmare Moon. “Quick, we need to warn Princess Celestia before it’s too late,” I said as I took to the sky towards the castle. “She’s the only one who can to stop this.” ***** When we finally made it to the castle and past the guards we galloped into the throne room only to find Celestia being magically sent off to who knows where. I looked to see who was doing this to find a tall, black alicorn with a dark swirling mane and tail clad in matching dark armor standing there casting the spell. “Stop!” I heard Mystic Melody shout. “What have you done to the princess?” The dark alicorn turned to look at us, her turquoise eyes filled with hatred. “I did what I should have done one thousand years ago. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an appointment at Ponyville.” She said in a dark voice as she began to walk towards us. I felt a deep hatred boil inside of me. No! How could this be happening? I was not about to let this imposter of the princess of the night walk right past me. Besides, I had to get to Luna in there to find out about my dream and my one shot at saving her was just beamed out to some forsaken land or possibly even killed. Mystic did as the alicorn said, I, however did not move an inch. I crouched into an attack position, growling. The alicorn stopped and began to laugh, “Is he serious?” She asked Mystic who was almost cowering. “Doesn’t he know who I am?” “Midnight,” Mystic whispered to me shakily. “That’s Nightmare Moon, who knows what she’ll do to you, move before she hurts you.” “She’s right you know.” Nightmare Moon said wickedly. “I might just kill you, I don’t care, but since you are a subject of mine I’ll give you a warning first.” “I am not your subject,” I growled at her. “I am a subject to the true ruler of the night, not some pathetic bitch like you.” “Enough!” Nightmare Moon yelled in anger. She then called on her magic, I felt something wrap around me. Nightmare moon then used her magic to lift me up and throw me out of a nearby window. The next thing I knew I was in unbearable pain from the shards of glass sticking in me and I was falling to my death from an unbelievable height and was unable to open my wings, then I passed out. ======================================================= Questions, comments, is your cutie mark telling you to be an editor and you want to fulfill that destiny? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyrighted by Hasbro, Inc. ======================================================= > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2 “He should be fine; he just has to wake up, and who knows how long that will be.” “You’re going to like it here I’m sure.” I heard the same angelic voice I had heard so many times before. I turned to see Celestia sitting next to me on the same golden chariot, destined to my home in Canterlot. “So you must make sure that you try and make some friends okay Jack?” She continued as she always did. “Your name will now be known as Midnight Song. You will be living in Canterlot. You are allowed to do as you please, as long as you don’t cause any trouble.” Queue the chuckle now. “Sadly it seems that you did cause a bit of trouble,” Celestia’s voice began to change to a darker tone. “The other night though, didn’t you, Midnight?” Celestia jumped at me and I narrowly jumped back out of the way to avoid her clutches nearly falling out of the chariot. I looked to see why the beloved princess of the sun decided to turn against me all of a sudden. Granted I was never a huge fan of hers, being the ruler of day and I sleep through that, but even so Celestia was a lover of all ponies, fans or not. When I looked at Celestia, I noticed that her eyes had turned changed to a turquoise color and her pupils were now slit. I watched as the mare’s mane started to crumble and replace itself with a swirling darkness. Her coat began to peel and show a darker coat. I heard her begin to laugh like some crazed pony that needed to be thrown into a padded room. “What’s wrong, my subject?” I heard a dark twisted voice say. “Are you scared of a little nightmare?” I began to move back as much as I could, but it being a chariot we were on there wasn’t much room to move, until I bumped into the guard railing. I tried to jump but to no avail. I began to scream just as the twisted mare pounced on me. ***** I awoke with a start, sitting straight up breathing heavily. It was only a dream, I thought trying to reassure myself, it was only a dream. “Midnight,” I heard, being pulled out of my thoughts, a familiar voice almost yell. “Are you alright?” I looked towards the source of Mystic’s voice and noticed that she was being held back by a pure white mare with a blonde mane and tail and a blue Caduceus as a cutie mark. “Visiting hours are over Miss Melody,” the white pony stammered as she kept trying to push Mystic back outside. It was at this time that I had noticed where I was, I looked around and saw posters with descriptions and pictures of organs and other body parts. I heard the faint beeping of the heart monitor to the side of me. Outside I heard the bustling of ponies. I had somehow ended up in the hospital. I, myself was in a medical bed with my left leg wrapped in bandages and hanging from a rope. My right wing, I noticed, was wrapped up at the hinge. I also started to feel a sharp pain in my back, as though someone had just hit me with a spiked baseball bat. I brought my front hooves to my back thinking that will help stop the pain, but it only made things worse. Suddenly, I felt the same sharp pain in my chest this time. I winced at the pain, giving up on the idea of trying to make it stop. “I don’t care if it’s past visiting hours,” Mystic harshly replied to the white pony, who I was guessing was a nurse. “My friend in there is in pain and I want to see him whether you like it or not!” hearing Mystic like this surprised me, since she’s normally so happily. Was I truly this important to her? “Let her in, Miss Scrubs,” I heard a deep voice say as a brown unicorn colt with a black mane and tail, wearing a doctor’s uniform, walked up behind the girls. “After all, this filly did save his life.” The nurse, dubbed Miss Scrubs, said something under her breath about the schedule as she walked away in frustration. Mystic darted into the room with a huge smile of victory on her face as she embraced me. I winced in pain and Mystic moved back with a look of guilt on her face. "Sorry," Mystic apologized as she took a step back from me. “It’s fine,” I said through a small chuckle, even talking hurt everything. “What happened?” “Well,” Mystic began. “We were in the throne room of the castle…” “I remember that,” I cut Mystic off. “The last thing I remember was falling out the window and then waking up here.” I didn’t want to bring up the nightmare; Mystic already seemed worried enough as it was. “This young filly caught you before you fell to your death,” The colt said. “Then she rushed over here and I started to take care of you. My name is Needle Point by the way.” “How long have I been out?” “For three whole days,” Needle Point said. “You have a broken hoof, wing and some other internal injuries, but nothing that we weren’t able to fix though you won’t be fully healed for another two days.” “Another two nights,” I said annoyed. “But we have to rehearse for the recording later this weekend.” “Oh,” Mystic chirped. “You don’t have to worry about that, Power Chord and I already went to Audio Jack and told her what happened and she seemed to understand so she was able to move us to next weekend.” I looked at mystic in amazement, Audio Jack; the Audio Jack had actually given us another week to get ready because of what happened. "Why would she give us another weekend," I asked, still unable to understand it myself. "Because of your injuries," Mystic replied. "She was going to say no, but she had read the newspaper the other night, so she knew all about what you had done." Great, I thought, now I'm going to have to escape news reporters. "Is there anything else I need to know," I disappointedly asked, I was not able to share in Mystic's joy anymore. I know that by getting a record label, we would soon become famous, but that was as a group and I was able to deal with that because I wasn't the center of attention. Now that I'm in the news, probably as 'the brave pony to stand up to Nightmare Moon,' I'm going to have to deal with constantly being asked to do interviews and such. By now the nightmare, I just had seemed better than having to be in front of other ponies by myself speaking to them. "Yes," Mystic said, pulling me out of my thoughts. "You were only famous for about twenty minutes until the 'Elements of Harmony' as they are calling them defeated Nightmare Moon and returned everything to normal." That's a relief; I was able to sleep through an unwanted fifteen minutes of fame. "I'm sorry to have to interrupt," Needle Point said from another side of the room. "But I have to ask you to leave now Miss Melody, I have to perform some check-ups on Mr. Song." Mystic frowned at the Doctor, nodded, and began to walk out of the room. "See you later Midnight," Mystic said as she exited the room. "Get better soon." "See you," I replied with a small grin. ******** "Well Mr. Song," Needle Point said looking at a clipboard. "It looks like you are ready to leave the hospital, just make sure to try and keep from flying for a bit." I nodded my head, began to get out of bed, and headed out the door. When I got out of the hospital, I saw Mystic and Power Chord standing near the entrance waiting for me. It was a cloudless, cool, night, everything was so calm and there were my friends, Mystic smiling as usual and Power Chord hovering a cup of coffee to keep him awake. "They finally let you out huh," Power Chord said. "Yeah," I responded. "I'm just not allowed to fly for a bit." "You know," Power Chord, joked. "You wouldn't have ended up in there if you flew to begin with." Mystic gave Chord a mean look. "What? It's the truth." "That doesn't make it ok," Mystic said irritated. It always seemed like Chord knew exactly how to annoy Mystic. When I asked him why he would do it, he simply replied with 'because it's funny.' "It's ok, Mystic," I chuckled. "No it's not! I nearly died to keep you alive and Chord is turning it into a joke!" "We are alive though aren't we?" Mystic paused for a moment and then nodded. "So shouldn't we be happy and laugh about what happened?" "Yeah," Mystic said, more sad than angry. "But still, it's too soon to make jokes about it." "Ok, that might be true," I said, trying to comfort Mystic. “But it still doesn’t hurt to laugh at it.” “Now then,” Power Chord said. “If you two lovebirds are done, we have business to… ugh!” Power Chord hit the ground, which also caused him to lose focus of his levitation magic on his coffee, writhing in pain from being hit in his leg by Mystic, whose face was changing from yellow to a bright red. “What did I say about that before,” Mystic yelled. “That you two weren’t in love and that it would never happen,” Power Chord replied in a disinterested monotone voice. “But no matter what you say it’s true, right Midnight?” Chord and Mystic both looking at me, Mystic with a look that, from what it seemed, was that look that said ‘you’d better answer this right’ and Chord just had a sly smile on his mouth. I sheepishly looked at the two ponies in front of me and scratched the back of my head. After being around Mystic all my life, I know when she is the one to side with, but when it came to this question, I never knew what to say. Sure, I liked Mystic, as a friend, but as anything else, I never really thought that much about it. I decided to shrug. Mystic looked away and Chord dropped his smile. “You’re no fun,” Power Chord said disappointedly. “Anyway, we need to go practice a bit before it gets too late for me and Cloud Catcher doesn't get angry for being out too late." I nodded and started to follow Chord, while Mystic just turned her head away from Chord, but followed anyway. ******* We always practice out at my house, right outside of Canterlot, I couldn't even dream to be able to afford. We never went to Chord's house because his wife wanted to be asleep at this time, and Mystic doesn't want to get in trouble with her neighbors. I knew that Chord was able to afford it because of his day job and through the help of his wife, Cloud Catcher, who worked in the weather factory, and Mystic was able to afford it because her parents left a large sum of bits for her when they passed away. It wasn't anything tragic really, they just died of old age and Mystic never really knew them because they were always working. 'They never spent time with me, so to make up for it they saved up a lot of bits for me,' is how she always put it. The house only had four rooms: a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom. I never really decorated my house much, because I never had the money, though Mystic always tried to give me the money to decorate I always declined though. The living room is where we had our stuff set up for rehearsal and, to be honest it was a little crowded with all of the band equipment in a room that just barely fit all of it, but it worked. "Ok just one more time and then I have to leave," Chord groggily said. He had run out of coffee about two hours ago and was starting to fall asleep without the help of his disgusting caffeinated drink. This was nothing new for Power Chord. Many nights Chord decided to just fall asleep on my couch from being so worn out. "No I think you should leave now so then you won't have to spend the night again," I said. "No, no, I'm fine," Chord, said trying to hide a yawn. Mystic and I gave Chord a look of disbelief. "... Fine, I'll go home." Power Chord sorely said and picked up his guitar and left. "You would think that by now he would have learned by now when he's about to pass out," Mystic giggled. "He probably does know," I said. "But he's just too stubborn to admit it." "That doesn't make it ok though." "It's his life though, but anyways, what should we do now?" ==================================================================== Questions, comments, is your cutie mark telling you to be an editor and you want to fulfill that destiny? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com Copyrights don’t belong to me it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, belongs to Hasbro. ==================================================================== > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3 "Why can't things work like that?!" "That'll be eighteen bits," a brown earth pony mare sitting behind the counter said. I silently passed the bits over to the mare and grabbed my bag with my mouth. "Have a nice night." the mare said as I began to leave. I nodded and hesitantly mumbled a 'thanks' and walked out the door of the store. It was the night before we were to go and see Audio Jack and I was by myself. Chord had already gone home and Mystic said that she had some things to get done back at her place before she would meet up with me. I hate it when I'm by myself in the city. Whenever I'm with Mystic and Chord I can deal with it, but when I'm left alone I can't even ask someone for directions without mumbling it under my breath. I lowered my head and ears and let out a long sigh. Why am I cursed with shyness, I thought to myself, no one else seems to have any problems with their lives. So why me, why do I have to have this problem. "Hey Midnight," I heard Mystic yell. I lifted my head to try and find her. By the time I found her I was already on the ground with a bright yellow pony standing on me, smiling. My bag now lay sprawled on the ground, emptied of it's contents. "Whatcha doing," Mystic chirped. "Well," I said, starting to get up. "I was just at the music store getting some drum sticks." I pointed to the mess that was my shopping trip. "... Sorry," Mystic said after processing what happened. "I didn't see you carrying anything. You just looked sad so I decided to try and cheer you up. Why were you sad?" There's always something about everypony that I can't stand, whether it be the way they talk or eat, there is always something that I can't stand about everypony. For Mystic, it was her knack for asking questions that were needed to be asked, but I, or anypony she was talking to, did not want to answer, and she just did it again. “Nothing,” I lied as I picked up my drumsticks. “Don’t worry about it.” Mystic gave me an annoyed look of disbelief. “Fine,” She said. “Be that way. Anyway, I need to get something to wear for this. What are you wearing?” Now it was my turn to give her a look of annoyed disbelief as we began to walk. “I’m going like this,” I said. “You know me.” “Ah yes,” Mystic teased. “The colt who could get confused for a mare.” “My mane isn’t that long,” I said, now brushing my mane out of my face. To tell the truth I was in need of having a mane-cut, over time I just let it get too long. “You are going to cut it aren’t you?” “I don’t know, I only haven’t done it because I’ve been too busy.” “By busy you mean you’re just too lazy,” Mystic laughed. “No… I just…” “Admit it, you are lazy. L-A-Z-Y,” Mystic sang. "If I say I'm lazy will you stop," I asked. Mystic's singing was starting to get the attention of the other ponies that were around. Mystic stopped for a second and put her hoof to her chin and tilted her head slightly to think about it. "Nope," Mystic smiled and began to sing about me being lazy again. I lowered my head in defeat and followed Mystic from a distance. ******** "Tell me again why we came here," I said, inspecting a vase that was on display. What was supposed to be a quick dress shopping trip for Mystic had now become a three hour 'ooh let's look in that store' night. Our journey had taken us over to a home decor shop. In the end, this was better than Mystic singing about me being lazy. "No reason," Mystic bounced. "We're just looking." "I thought you needed a dress or something," I regrettably said. "I know that, but it's more fun this way, besides you need something in your house, it's so boring in there. Ooh, how about this one?" Mystic held up a silver picture frame a few inches from my face. "First off," I said pushing the picture frame away a bit. "I don't need anything in my house, it's perfectly fine the way it is. Second, I have no pictures for that so it would be pointless." "Well fine then," Mystic disappointedly set the picture frame back on the shelf. "You really are being no fun tonight." "I'm sorry," I said as we walked out of the store. "Something's bugging you," Mystic said as she began to stand in front of me. "Tell me what it is, and not just 'it's nothing.'" "... It's just that annoying dream is all," I said, averting from the real problem. "You really think that you could lie to me after the amount of time that we've been friends? You know what, if that's how it is then just don't even talk to me!" Mystic flew away with tears in her eyes before I could say anything. Now I was truly alone. ********* "Well, well," Power Chord said as I walked up to him. "Look who's all by himself, this is new. Usually you're with Mystic... Where is she?" "I don't know," I said. "I thought she'd be here." Tonight The Dark Return was going to get to record at Audiolicious, Audio Jack's famous recording studio. Mystic was still angry at me for what happened last night. "Well she isn't here and that's not good," Chord said. "So what happened that caused you to come here alone?" I explained to Chord what happened. "You chose a bad time to get Mystic upset," Chord said after I finished my explanation. I lowered my ears to my head. Chord had hit the nail on the head, I had messed up big and I just couldn't take it anymore. "I didn't mean to upset Mystic," I cried. "I just didn't want Mystic to worried about me is all, and I screwed up." "Why didn't you just say that in the first place," Chord questioned. "I don't know why," I sobbed. "I just did." "Hi Chord," I heard from behind me. I turned around and saw Mystic walking up to us. She was in some kind of blue dress and her mane and tail had been styled. She walked past me, turning her head away from me with a "hmph." "Hi Mystic," Chord replied. "Shouldn't you be worried about Midnight?" "Why should I," Mystic said sourly. "He'll just say it's nothing, besides, we have more important things to do right now." "Ok," Chord said with an authoritative voice. "You two need to make up or else we are not going in that building." "What do I have to say to him anyway, it's not like he'll talk." "I'm sure he has something to say, don't you Midnight?" Chord turned to look at me. I opened my mouth to say something, but I just couldn't get any words to come out. I lowered my head in shame. "What did I tell you," Mystic jeered. "Nothing to say at all." "I'm sorry," I almost whispered through my tears. "What was that," Mystic said. "I couldn't hear you." "I'm sorry," I repeated a little louder, keeping my head down. "One more time," I felt Mystic move next to me. "I'm sorry," I screamed through my tears, raising my head keeping my eyes shut. "I messed up and am a big jerk for lying to you, will you please forgive me?" I opened my eyes to see the surprised face of Power Chord. Mystic had a hoof to her chin thinking. "...hmmmm," Mystic thought. "Please," I begged, more quietly this time. "Ok," Mystic chirped and began smiling. She then ran up and embraced me. I was taken aback by Mystic's reaction. Sure this was nothing new for her, being bipolar like that, but even after the way she acted. The mare's mind truly was a wonder that no pony could ever decipher. "Oh good," Chord said. "Now that you two lovebirds have..." Chord was thrown to the ground by Mystic. "Maybe it was you that I should've stopped talking to," Mystic irritably said. I began to laugh. "What's so funny?" "It's just nice to see you being yourself again." "It's nice to see you back to normal too. Now come on, we have an album to record." ******** We walked through the sliding glass doors of the recording studio, I was instantaneously blinded by the lights in the lobby. Immediately Mystic began running around, completely ignoring the brightness of the room, gasping at all of the platinum records on the walls of the lobby. "Look at this one," Mystic said, pointing at one of the records. Chord and I walked over to look at the record that Mystic was pointing at. It was a platinum record under the band name The Rising Tides. The one she was pointing at was their first, self-titled album. "This will be us, guys." "I think that you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself," Chord said. "I can dream," Mystic spat. "What do you think Midnight?" "I think that we could," I hesitantly said. "If we really tried." I really didn't know for a fact, but we would eventually get a platinum record, maybe not at first, but maybe our third. "That's the spirit!" Mystic walked away from the records and walked up to the secretary that was at the other side of the room. I hadn't even noticed the green mare behind the desk since I had been so distracted by the number of platinum records hanging on the wall. There must have easily been one hundred records. "How can I help you," The mare said, disinterest evident in her voice. "Hi," Mystic happily replied. "We are here to see Audio Jack." "What's your name?" "We are The Dark Return." The mare brought up a large book and opened it and began looking through. "Ah yes, here you are," She said after a bit of searching. "Audio Jack will be able to see you now." The mare pointed us to a door and we walked over and went in. Thankfully, this room was not as bright as the lobby. "Hi there," Audio said brightly. "Welcome to my office." I looked around the room. Audio's office wasn't very large and her walls were covered with more records, these being bronze and silver. On the other side of the door was a small desk, behind which Audio Jack was sitting, with a mess of papers all over it. "So," Audio said. "Should we just go record now?" "I think that would be good," Chord said through a yawn. "Ok then let's go," Audio giggled and led us to the recording room. We walked back through the bright lobby, causing me to cringe. "Are you alright," Mystic asked. "Yeah," I said rubbing the pain away from my eyes. "It's just really bright." "I guess so," Mystic pondered. "I just ignore it." I shook my head, letting out a small chuckle as we walked into the just as bright recording room. We were in the side with the sound board, where a gray unicorn colt was sitting. He had a black mane and tail and a cutie mark of a vinyl record. "Guys," Audio Jack said. "This is Multimedia and he is going to work the sound board." Multi Media waved at us and we waved back. "Are you all set there?" Audio had asked Multimedia. "Yep," he responded with a light voice, putting on some headphones. "Let's get this recording going." "Ok then," Audio said, turning back to us. "Get in the other room please." Audio walked over to another door right next to the one that we had come through and opened it. The walls of the room were covered with spiked foam and inside there was a drumset, some guitars, a piano, and several microphones. The two rooms were separated by windows so that we could still be able to see what the other group wanted. "Wait," I said, realizing what had been missing. "What about a piano player?' "Oh you don't have to worry about that," Audio responded. "We can add those in later. Right now, all we need is your parts recorded." "Yeah," Mystic taunted. "We just need to have our parts recorded." We walked into the room of instruments and took our places and got ready. Audio Jack closed the door separating us from the soundboard and stood near Multimedia. "Whenever you're ready," Audio Jack said. "We are recording... now." ==================================================================== Questions, comments, is your cutie mark telling you to be an editor and you want to fulfill that destiny? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com Copyrights don’t belong to me it, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, belongs to Hasbro. ==================================================================== > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 4 "How much longer must we wait?" "You're going to like it here," I heard the caring voice of Celestia say. I was dreaming again and could do nothing about it. "So you must make sure that you try and make some friends okay Jack? Your name will now be Midnight Song and you will live in Canterlot. You will be allowed to do as you please, just so long as you do cause trouble," Celestia chuckled. "What about my family," I heard myself ask. "What about Felicia?" ******* I woke up to see the smiling yellow face of Mystic. "Hi," Mystic chirped, bouncing up and down. It had been a month since we had recorded our album and tonight was the midnight release. Ever since we had recorded, Mystic only had the record on her mind. “Hi Mystic,” I unenthusiastically said, getting out of bed and stretching my wings out. “You have to get ready,” Mystic said. “We have to be at the record shop in an hour.” I nodded and began to walk to my bathroom to get ready. My mind was elsewhere, however, I was still wondering about the dream. Who is Felicia, I thought to myself. It doesn’t seem to be a normal pony name, maybe a pet that I once had. I pushed the thought out of my mind as I brushed my hair, trying to get into the mindset of the release. Yes, tonight we get to live Mystic’s dream. I walked back out and Mystic was impatiently tapping her hoof on the ground, but still smiling. “That’s just creepy,” I said and began to head for the door, Mystic following beside me. When we walked out I was greeted by Power Chord, who seemed like he was about to collapse. “Look who finally woke up,” Chord said annoyed. “Looks like somepony needs to get some coffee,” Mystic patronized. “What I need is for releases to happen in the day,” Chord huffed and started walking away. “Either way, we need to hurry on over to the record store.” “Ok,” Mystic replied as we began to follow Chord. “But we are definitely getting you some coffee along the way.” ******* “You have a good night,” Water Loo said to us as Mystic, Chord and I walked out of Vinyl Records. “You too,” Mystic chirped back. Water Loo chuckled and went back into his shop. “I’ll see you two tomorrow,” Chord said. We told him goodbye and he went off to his home. “Come on Midnight,” Mystic said. “We have to go meet up with Splendid Service.” "Who," I questioned as Mystic began dragging me around. “She’s an old friend,” Mystic explained. “Don’t you remember her at all? She was the one who had a huge crush on you.” I had no time to remember, before I knew it, a light purple bat pony with yellow eyes covered in dark purple armor had swooped down in front of us. It was a royal guard of the night, but what did he want with us? “Are you the one they call Midnight Song,” The guard said in a gruff voice, pointing his hoof at me. I took a nervous step back and hesitantly nodded my head. “You have been requested to be seen by the Princess.” The Princess, why in the world would the Princess want to see me? I’m just a normal pony, no different from any other pony on the street. I looked over at Mystic and she was just as dumbfounded as I was about this. "W-what do you want with me," I managed to say. “I-I haven’t done anything wrong.” “I know that,” The guard replied, trying to sound a little less threatening. “I was just told to bring you to the Princess.” "He isn't going anywhere without me,” Mystic announced, stomping her hoof. I felt a slight wave of relief. "Fine," the guard sighed. “Just come with me.” The guard the began to fly back towards the castle, Mystic and I following close behind. ****** “Here is Midnight Song,” the guard said while bowing. In front of him was a tall, blue alicorn mare with a mane that seemed to have the night sky flowing through it. The guard had taken us to the throne room of the castle and sitting at the throne was Princess Luna. "I thank thee Starry Night,” Princess Luna said. “You may now leave us alone with this one.” The guard nodded and left the throne room leaving Mystic, Princess Luna, and me alone. “Hey,” Mystic began. “What’s the deal with bringing us here?” “How dare you speak to us in such an informal manner,” Princess Luna yelled. Mystic and I both jumped back in fear. “I-I’m sorry princess,” Mystic cautiously said. “Enough,” Princess Luna boomed. “Be gone with you, we have no need for you in here.” Mystic and I looked at each other, I noticed tears forming in her eyes, I nodded to her and she slowly walked out of the door. I looked back to where Princess Luna was sitting. “Come closer subject,” the Princess said in a calmer voice. I carefully walked closer to the throne, making sure not to upset her. “That’s good, now do you know as to why we have summoned you here?” I shook my head. "N-no Princess," I shakily said. “Why am I here?” “That is also what we would like to know.” I looked up at the Princess confused. What did she mean she didn’t know why I was here, didn’t she ‘summon’ me? "What do you mean," I asked. "As you may know,” Princess Luna explained. “We are the guardian of the night, and with that role we must protect the night. Whether that is from beasts or even dreams, and you, Midnight Song, have lately been having a strange dream, have you not?” “Yes,” I said shaking my head. “One where I am being brought into Canterlot with Princess Celestia, but what does that have to do with why you brought me here?” "It has everything to do with why you are here,” Princess Luna said, coming off her throne and walking towards me. “You see, you aren’t supposed to even be in Equestria right now.” ======================================================= Questions, comments, is your cutie mark telling you to be an editor and you want to fulfill that destiny? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyrighted by Hasbro, Inc. ======================================================= > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 5 “I think he’s waking up.” I was in a state of shock and confusion. How could Princess Luna say I don’t belong here, I’ve lived here for all of my life. I looked up at Princess Luna, who was now standing in front of me. “What do you mean ‘I’m not supposed to be here,’” I finally asked. “That dream you keep having,” Princess Luna explained. “Is not actually a dream, it is a memory that was supposed to be completely wiped from your mind.” “What,” I said, raising my voice. “Why?” The Princess’ explanation was causing more questions to come than go. “Everyone who comes to this world had originally come from another world. Once those others leave their old world, they come here.” “None of this is making sense,” I said, worry growing in my voice. Was she really about to say what I think she’s going to say? “… You are not actually Midnight Song,” Princess Luna said. “Instead you are Jack Middleton from the human world. You are currently in a coma in a hospital, dying. You have come here before it was your time to; I have summoned you to return you to your world where you will stay until it is your time.” This was too much to take in at once, every memory I have, my family, my childhood, all of it fake. Did that mean that Power Chord and Mystic Melody were fake as well? Everything up until now has felt so real, all the places we played, the stargazing, Mystic. I felt rage begin to flow through me. “No,” I screamed, the rage taking over. “This can’t be real, you’re lying to me!” I ran out of the throne room, tears flowing from my eyes. I ran past the guards and did my best to get out of the castle as fast as I could. I could hear the guards chasing after me, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to get out of here, I wanted to leave, I wanted to wake up from this nightmare. "Midnight," I heard Mystic cry from behind me. ******** The cool, night breeze blew through the air, making the grass dance to its song. The stars in the sky were all shining bright and the moon was full of splendor. The grass on my back had a welcoming softness, but all of it was fake. Everything and everyone here was fake. The thought was sickening and made me lose all the joy in being here. “Hey,” I heard. “There you are I’ve been looking all over for you.” I lifted my head and turned around to see Mystic running up to me. I felt some relief that it was Mystic and not the guards, but she was still the last person I wanted to see right now. Mystic stopped once she reached where I had been lying down. “Hi Mystic,” I said waving a hoof, looking at the stars. “Don’t ‘hi Mystic’ me right now,” Mystic growled. “Do you know how worried I was? I have been looking everywhere for you. What the heck happened back there?” “… Have you ever wondered what happens after,” I asked. "What do you mean ‘after’” Mystic said, confusion taking over the rage. “I mean,” I said getting up with a slight groan. “Have you ever wondered what happens after you die?” Mystic looked at me with a blank stare. "... Well," Mystic finally said. “Yeah, everypony does, but I don’t see what that has to do with what happened.” “That’s just it Mystic,” I said, starting to pace a bit. “Everypony here has already died; they are all from another world. You are, Power Chord is, and so am I. Princess Luna had told me that the dream I’ve been having this whole time has been a memory that was supposed to be wiped from my mind and that I’m not supposed to be here yet.” “This makes no sense,” Mystic said. “How could we all be dead?” “I don’t know either,” I said shaking my head. “According to Luna, I’m actually in a coma right now and that I need to return there until I die.” “But you can’t leave,” Mystic said. “We need you, I need you.” “That’s why I ran, I don’t want to leave, this place is just too real to me, Luna must be making this all up, and this place can’t be fake.” “Maybe this world is real,” Mystic, said putting a hoof over my shoulder. “And maybe the other world where you belong is a real world too. Look, I don’t want you to leave, but Princess Luna is probably right, you need to go back until your time comes.” Maybe the two worlds are real, but maybe they’re fake; what does it matter though? Can’t I choose where to live? I mean Princess Luna had said that I was dying in the other world, so all I’d have to do is wait long enough before that me died, then I could stay here. Though I don’t know how the world is over there, do I have others there who care for me, wouldn’t they be broken if I were to die? I thought this over for several minutes before turning back to Mystic. “I think that you’re right,” I said. “As much as I want to stay here with you, there might be others back in the other world who care deeply for me.” “Just remember that there are ponies here who care deeply for you too,” Mystic said as she hugged me. “Thanks,” I said as I hugged her back. “Now come on, we have to go back to a certain Princess.” ******* I guess that all good things do end, even after all of the fun times that I had in Canterlot, in the end I don’t belong here, not yet at least. Mystic and I entered into the throne room where a not so happy Princess Luna was waiting. “We were wondering when you would return,” Princess Luna said annoyed. “I’m sorry Princess,” I said, my head hanging low. “I just didn’t want to accept that I wasn’t supposed to be here.” “It is fine,” Princess Luna said in a nicer tone. “You came back, and that’s what matters. Now, are you ready to return to your world?” “… Yes,” I said. “But first, may I say my last goodbye?” “Of course you may, take your time.” “Mystic,” I said turning to look at Mystic, but was abruptly stopped when I felt her hoof on my nose. “No,” She said with a smile. “You’re not about to give a long speech about telling me goodbye. Remember this, you will come back, and I will be waiting for you.” I nodded my head. “Ok,” I said, tears beginning to form. “Now promise me that you will come back.” “… I promise,” I said, giving a small smile. Mystic then hugged me once more. “I’m ready Princess,” I said with fake confidence. Princess Luna nodded her head and came down to me. “Please stand still,” Princess Luna said. “If you move too much this will not work.” Mystic stepped out of the way and I saw Princess Luna’s horn begin to glow a dark blue. I began to feel pressure build around me, my body began to hurt and I was thrown to the ground. “See you soon,” was the last thing I heard Mystic say as I blacked out. ******** “… Just please live,” I began to hear to the left of me. “Wake up, please wake up, Jack.” “W-what,” I mumbled as I began to wake up. I began to see and noticed I was back in a hospital. “Oh my gosh,” I heard again to my left. “Guys, come quickly! He’s finally waking up!” ======================================================= Questions, comments, is your cutie mark telling you to be an editor and you want to fulfill that destiny? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyrighted by Hasbro, Inc. ======================================================= > Epilogue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Epilogue “After all this time, he’s back.” “Jack time to get up,” I heard Felicia call from downstairs. “I made some Lunch.” “I will in one second,” I replied. “I just have to fix this drawer… there we go, coming.” I walked down the stairs to see a tall, brown haired woman wearing black pants and a plain green t-shirt standing at the bottom of the stairs, tapping her foot impatiently. One month had passed since I was in a coma and now I was back at my house in the woods with my Sister Felicia. “What,” I asked. “You promised that today you would tell me what happened,” Felicia said, crossing her arms. “I did, and I will,” I said as I walked down the stairs. “Well you should still hurry before the food gets cold,” Felicia said walking to the dining room table. I caught up with her and sat down next to her. On the table there were two plates with something that looked like roast beef and corn. “Don’t tell me that you cooked this,” I teased. “I thought you liked my cooking,” Felicia responded. “I never said that.” “You don’t need to say anything, all I have to do is see your plate after you’re done, either way you’re avoiding the topic.” “I know,” I said as I began to eat. “Where should I start? Oh, I know, I had been driving home after a rather bad day of work, after that I think I got in a wreck, right?” “Yes,” Felicia said. “You apparently ran a red light and hit a semi-truck which caused you to be in a coma for three months.” “After that all I remember is…” I tried to remember what had happened through my coma, but the memories were fading. “Is what,” Felicia asked looking at me. “That’s just it,” I responded. “I don’t remember, I just remember waking up and you were sitting next to me.” “Well that’s no fun,” Felicia said. “We always said that if one of us were to have a near death experience that we would tell the other of what happens after death.” “Believe me, I would tell you, but I just don’t remember anymore.” ******** “Hey Felicia,” I whispered as I lay on a hospital bed. “Remember that time I was in a coma?” “Jack,” Felicia responded. “That was years ago.” twelve years had passed since I had gone into that coma; now I was back in the hospital, dying of some new disease that was spreading. “Well,” I muttered. “I remember what happened.” “What happened,” Felicia asked. “I’ll be meeting her again soon; she said that she’d be waiting for me.” “Who will be waiting for you,” Felicia asked, and that was the last that I had heard of my sister. ****** “Midnight,” I heard a familiar voice chirp. “It’s time to wake up.” ======================================================= Questions, comments? Then email me at midnight.song960@gmail.com My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyrighted by Hasbro, Inc. =======================================================