> New World Jams in the Old World Era > by Night Music > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Piper > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It had been a long day in the town of Ponyville. The day itself had gone by quite quick, or at least, that's what it felt like. The ponies had done nothing but go about their business and do what they had needed to get done, for it was one of those days. The day where you finish your work early and just sit down and relax and listen to the ambiance that the town had to offer. Birds were more than likely to be said ambiance. But something about the air didn't feel right for most ponies, as if something was happening, most had turned down the feeling as just excitement for work to come to an end. The town itself was almost deserted. Only seeing a stray pony here and there continuing their busy lives. But where had all of the others gone? Certainly the ponies here now thought it to be odd that the once bustling market square was now a ghost town. No. not a thought about it had passed through any of their minds. But one pony in this town, who had been looking down at the scene was curious to say the least. The purple pony princess named Twilight Sparkle had been the one who was overlooking the market square in her new crystal tree house. "Where is everypony? This place isn't so dead by now usually." Twilight thought to herself. She turned away from the window to stop herself from worrying to much, but, her efforts to do so were in vain. She had sat down at her desk and began to read, to see if that would calm her nerves. But, like the previous attempt, it had failed to do so. She shook her head, closed the book, and began to walk away from the desk. "Spike." She yelled, trying to find the young dragon. But she got no reply. So she exited her room and went to the living room. "Spike?" She called, again no answer. She stood there in silence. "Where did Spike go?" She asked before a thought popped into her head. "Maybe he's helping Rarity, I should probably go and check up on him." Fast Foward to Carousel Boutique Knock Knock Knock "Rarity? It's me Twilight... Is Spike with you?" A second passed before movement from inside could be heard. The door was unlocked and swung open. There in the doorway was Rarity, wearing her trademark working glasses. "Twilight, it's so good to see you darling, what brings you here? Oh, not that I'm not glad you came, it's just a little unexpected is all." "Well, I was looking over the market and noticed it was empty, and I thought that was weird, long story short, I ended up looking for Spike and figured he would be here helping you." "Hmm, that is a bit odd, but as for Spike, he is certainly not here, in fact, I haven't seen him all day, that also includes Sweetie Belle..." "Maybe one of the others know where they are? Apple Bloom might know, they could have all gone crusading...?" Fast Forward after meeting up with most of Main Six except Fluttershy "Where is everypony?!" Twilight shouted to nopony in particular. "No idea sugar cube, but we gotta keep looking, just in case we missed a spot." "What about Fluttershy's place? They could be over there playing with the animals?" Rainbow Dash suggested. "Why wouldn't they? The animals at Fluttershy's cottage are super-duper adorable! I could just pinch their cheeks." Pinkie Pie exclaimed as he brought her front hooves up to her cheeks. Everypony nodded their heads in agreement. As they made their way to Fluttershy's cottage, a strange sound began to fill the air, as if somepony were playing a flute. But it was only loud enough to barely make out. But as they got closer and closer, the more of the flute they heard, the more they were drawn to it's source. And it's source seemed to be in the Everfree forest. The five ponies made their way to Fluttershy's door and Twilight had been the one who knocked. Instead of the door opening, all that was heard on the other side was a meek, "Hello?" from their friend Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, it's us, can we come in?" Fluttershy had recognized the voice and proceeded to open the door for her friends. "Oh, hello girls, what's going on?" She questioned in general surprise to see her friends at such a late hour. "Fluttershy, do you know here, the crusaders and Spike are by any chance?" Twilight asked with hopeful eyes. "Oh, I had seen them pass by awhile ago, but they were heading into the Everfree, and when I tried to stop them, they were already gone." At this, everypony's face changed from one of hope to those of horror. "Why would they do that?! Seemed to be what they all thought. "What about the music? The music coming from the forest?" "It sounds nice, but a little scary. Music coming from the Everfree doesn't really happen that often." "What do you mean by, 'that often'? This has happened before?" "Sometimes, it's music, but other times, it just sounds like really loud sound. It's a bit frightening since all it does is play all night, but it's nice because they play such nice songs sometimes." "What if Spike and the crusaders are in trouble and need help?! What if they're trapped by some wild animal and they get eaten?! What if-" At that moment, magic had made it's way to Twilight's muzzle and kept it closed. "Now now, Twilight, no need for getting the rest of us to start panicking. Where there is music, there is fun, and where there is fun, there is no danger at the moment. So wherever they are, it means they are protected enough to have fun and listen to music." Rarity reassured. "Yeah, what Rarity said, but fer now all we can do now is wait for them to come back." Apple Jack said as she looked at the forest and up to the sky where there had been lights beaming from said forest. And in the background, all what one could hear was the thumping of music and the flashing of lights. > Party! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was another normal day in Ponyville, except, it wasn't so normal. Ponies disappearing into the night and Everfree forest were anything but normal for this small town. Especially not for the residents of said town. One of those residents was taking it quite hard as he awoke from his slumber in his bed. "What happened last night?" He asked nopony in particular as he clutched his head in pain. Something was obscuring his vision, he reached up to his face and took off what felt to be a pair of glasses. They were an odd thing to behold, while they held the same style as glasses. Instead of being for ponies with near or far sight, they seemed to just have a number of bars of plastic where the actual glass should be. He rolled over in his bed and held them up to the ceiling as he tried to inspect them. "Where in the hay did I get these things?" Suddenly, a flash of what seemed to be a memory shot through his head. It was a dark area, what had been moonlight was blocked by vines that had made up the ceiling and walls, and what little light that had escaped through the vines did little to help anypony's vision. But what they could see was the strangest part. There had been strategically placed speakers. and and some kind of creature, and that creature was some kind of hairless chimp? What ever it was, it just sat their on some kind of stage, tinkering with an odd machine. The creature in question had long flat black hair on top of his head, and he wore jet black and blue shades on his face. The rest of what he wore seemed to be a simple white shirt and white baggy pants. "What is this place?" Spike asked aloud as he looked at his surroundings. And he wasn't the only one, a number of the teen population of Ponyville seemed to be there. Wondering the same thing. Having heard Spike, the creature looked up from his machine and looked upon the group of children. His face that had been emotionless a moment ago, was now sporting a wide grin. Spike doubled over in pain as his headache had gotten worse as he thought. He proceeded to make his way from his room, to the bathroom. He opened the door to the bathroom and mad his way to the medical cupboard. He withdrew and opened a bottle of pills that had been for headaches like his own. He dropped a couple of pills into his claws and threw back his head as he downed them. Spike closed the bottle and put it back into the cupboard along with the other bottles and containers. When he had closed the cupboard something caught his eye in his own reflection. And what he saw had horrified him. His scales, which had been purple and green, were now black with green flames designed into them. the fires themselves had been tipped with a purple hue, along with his spines. And on his tail, had been words that read 'Party Dragon' written in a way that seemed to make it look like a tattoo. And it was written on both sides of his tail, in purple ink. Spike was shocked beyond belief, he couldn't even recognize himself anymore. He ran from the bathroom and made his way to Twilights room. "Twilight!" He called out, trying to find his beloved sister and to see if she knew anything. "Oh, Apple Jacks gonna kill me!" Apple Bloom paced in her room, trying to find a remedy to her situation. Not a second later a knock was heard at her door. "Apple Bloom, ya in there? Where have you been all night sugar cube?" "A-Apple Jack! Don't come in! I'm- uh - not decent!" Apple Bloom said trying to bide herself some time. "What do ya mean 'not decent'? Apple Bloom, you've been gone all night, and when ya got back, you went straight to your room so we didn't have the chance to see ya." "I'm sorry, just please, please, please, don't come in." "What's got ya not wanting us to come in? Did you make a mess of your room when you got home?" "It's not that, it's something worse." "Worse? Alright Apple Bloom, We're comin in, I don't care what ya say, we have to help our little sister." Before Apple Bloom could do or say anything, the door swung open and in the doorway was Apple Jack and behind her was Big Macintosh. The moment their eyes connected with Apple Bloom, everything went dead silent. Both of the older siblings eye's widened. What they had seen, was much worse than any dirty room. On Apple Bloom's flank had been something of interest, mainly, the purple writing and green flames that spelled out the name of Ponyville's resident dragon. Both of the older siblings were like deer in a set of headlights before Apple Jack, had been to break the silence and stupor. "SPI~KE!" "Sweetie, is everything okay?" Rarity asked from behind her sisters door. All she could hear was soft whimpering coming from who she thought was her sister. "Sweetie Belle, I'm coming in okay? I need to see my sister after what happened last night." Rarity slowly opened the door to her sisters room and peeked inside. She had seen her sister sitting in the middle of her room on the floor, with her eyes covered by her hooves. "Oh Sweetie, are you okay?" Rarity asked as she made her place known next to her sister. Sweetie replied with a soft nod. "But why are you crying then? Is something bothering you?" Sweetie answered with another nod and took one of her hooves and pointed to where a cutie mark should be. There, on her flank, was Spikes name written in purple ink and stylized with green flames. It took a moment for Rarity to grasp the situation, but when she did. "SPI~KE!" Scootaloo had been jumping with joy in her room. "I have to show Rainbow Dash! She'll be so happy for me, now that I finally got my cutie mark." Scootaloo opened the cloud door and made her way down to the living room of the cloud home. "Hey squirt. what's with all the commotion?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at her bouncing sister. "I finally got my cutie mark!" Scootaloo proclaimed. "Nice! What's it look like?" Scootaloo had stopped bouncing in place and presented her new cutie mark. A moment later, the front of the cloud home exploded outward as a sonic rainboom had been achieved withing the walls of the home. One could say they heard the rainbow streak scream out one thing and one thing only. "SPI~KE!" > Well That Happened... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was awkward in the crystal tree house today, really awkward. Spike had five ponies that were fairly angry at him for reasons that he could not recall at the moment. But angry did not even come close to how the ponies were feeling. No, not even close. As they all sat in the living room of the tree, all of them waited in silence until one of them spoke. "Now... Now I know what you all are thinking but whatever it was, it wasn't my fault." Spike said in a nervous tone. Again, the awkwardness prevailed. It wasn't really awkward, the only one this was awkward for was Spike. "So, before anybody tries to kill Spike, let's try to ask him what happened last night..." Twilight said before she sighed and inhaled a large amount of air. "So, Spike, care to tell us what happened last night, preferably the reason why Apple Bloom, Sweetie belle, and Scootaloo, have your name tattooed where their cutie marks should be...?" Spike looked at the ponies around him, and what he saw made him wish yesterday had been just a normal day. Apple Jack had a look like she was going to kill him. Rarity had the look on her face that made him think that she was going to put him in her next dress. Rainbow Dash seemed ready just to beat the scales off of him and. Big Macintosh, he had his trademark face on him, emotionless, but full of thought. And Twilight? Twilight had a face of worry, worry that he wasn't so innocent. "Uhm-" Spike scratched the back of his head. "Funny story that one, I uh, can't... remember?" Apple Jack slammed her hoof down on the ground at this. "What do you mean ya can't remember!? You can't remember the moment you branded my little sister!?" Apple Jack screamed only being held back by the foreleg of her bigger brother. "Branded?! Apple Jack listen to yourself, why in pony hell would I have your sister branded?! Or get a tattoo of my name for that matter. That just makes no sense!" "Oh I'll show you something that makes no sense, come here you little-" Apple Jack struggled to get past her brothers foreleg the only thing making past him was her legs as they tried to reach for Spike. With all of the commotion, nopony seemed to notice the pony in the background just watching. But something that had make them all jolt upward in fear was the voice, not one they were hearing, but thinking. "All this hate isn't good for my vibes, why can't we all just kiss and make up?" "What in the name of Celestia was that?" Twilight asked as she looked towards her friends. "It was him, he's the one from Everfree forest." Spike said as he pointed a shaky claw towards the one pony in the room that shouldn't have been there. "Apple Bloom said the on makin' the music in the Everfree was some funny lookin' monkey thing. Not a regular pony..." Apple Jack said as she continued to glare at Spike. "Excuse me. Sir? Could you leave? We're trying to have a polite conversation with our friend here." Rarity suggested with a hoof towards Spike. The stallion did nothing but mutter, he didn't even acknowledge their presence. Instead, he continued to make his way to them. Once he stopped muttering all he did was grin and trot to them. To see if she could get him to speak, Twilight decided to stop him. "Sir? Is there anything you need? If not then could you kindly make your way to the exit?" As he got closer and closer, Twilight noticed things about him. He had a pair of Jet black and blue shades on his face obscuring his eyes. A long black mane and tail. And his flank was void of any cutie mark. His entire body was the same color as his shades, the blue was harder to notice since all it encompassed was the spiral of his horn. This time he muttered he was right next to them, but they could just barely make out what he had said. "You want the tattoos gone?" Nopony said anything, they just all sat there in confusion at what the stallion had said. "What? You know about the tattoos?" Twilight asked wanting to hear what ever he had to say. "Pass this test, and all of your worries will be put to rest." Twilight's ears had perked up at this. "Test? What kind of test?" "Accept this offer and you shall see, a test for all of you, there shall be." The stallion said and resumed smiling. "So yer saying that if we pass this test of yours than the girls tattoos will be gone?" This time, the stallion said nothing, all he did was smile and nod. All of the ponies looked at each other and shrugged. "Okay, we accept this test now, what are we supposed to do?" Rarity said. "THANK YOU! You have no idea how hard it is to rhyme and think of how to answer. I don't wanna know how Zecora feels..." The stallion said. This made the ponies look at him like he was crazy. "Anyways, what you have to do is show your true self for the night and say your deepest secret. Basically, be true to yourself, blah blah blah, something about self discovery and acceptance." The stallion read from a script he pulled from... somewhere. "And don't worry, there's going to be no hiding for tonight." At this the whole world felt odd. Twilight looked at a clock that had been hanging on the wall and it was already midnight. "What did you-" Twilight tried to ask before something she heard stopped her. In fact, what she heard wasn't even the smallest problem. They weren't even in the castle anymore, it seemed like a dank cave, and the clock she had looked not a second ago was gone. And they weren't even the only ponies there. Again it seems the teen populace of Ponyville had shown up. "So, Spike..." The stallion said. Twilight looked over to the stallion and what she saw had frightened her, instead of the stallion she saw earlier, had been the ape creature Apple Jack heard Apple Bloom describe. Tall, black hair, shades, white clothing. pale skin and like a dragons, but more blunt. And his grin was different, instead of his pony teeth, there had been a set of canines which most predators bare. "You ready to be my number one assistant?" He said as he poked Spike on the forehead. Spike visibly changed after that. His colors seemed to radiate off of him like neon lights and he now bore the same shades as yesterday. The fires on his person, now moved as if they were real fires. Spike looked down at himself and leaped in the air, pumping a fist and shouting. "Let's show these ponies how it's done!" "Right on my dragon buddy..." They had stepped through a doorway and appeared up on what seemed like a stage. As they reached a table on stage, Spike reached forward and grabbed a microphone that had been hanging from the ceiling and pulled it close to his new friend. The creature tapped it with his claws and spoke into it afterwards. "Oka~y Ponyville! We have some guests here for tonight, I want you all to meet, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Apple Jack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Big Macintosh. It seems they have accepted a challenge and are here to do said challenge." Everypony cheered at this and stomped their hooves. After a minute of cheering he raised a clenched fist and the room went silent. He fiddled with the table and music began to build up until it was clearly heard throughout the cave. "Why don't we all just have a good time, and..." The creature paused for the lyrics to start playing. Both Spike and the creature began maniacally laughing as the faces of the five newcomers went red as the lyrics began playing. "AND SHAKE WHAT YOUR MAMA'S GAVE YOU!" > Chapter Name Here > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was awkward, really awkward. Well... The only ones this was awkward for were the five ponies standing in the middle of the dance floor. Their ears bombarded by music. Their bodies, bombarded by the gyrating bodies of other ponies. They all just stood there awkwardly looking on at the scene before them. There were ponies that had been still in school, and there were even ponies that had good paying jobs and families. The only thing different about them now was that they acted no different than the ones that were still in school. Adults and children, throwing their cares away together. Putting their differences aside to have a good time. "Where's Spike?" Twilight asked herself. She looked around the dark cave for a minute before spotting Spike up on stage with the creature, banging their heads to the beat of the music, the creatures hair waving back and forth along with his head, his shades somehow staying on his face. His grin never fading as he continued to do what they were doing. Spike looked as if he was having the time of his life, he stopped bobbing his head and looked at the crowd. As soon as he spotted Twilight, he made his way to her by jumping on the backs of other ponies. Hopping from pony to pony. "Twilight, guys, what are you doing?" Spike said to the five ponies. "What do you mean, 'what are we doing'? What are you doing?" "Uhm, having fun? It's a party! You're supposed to dance, have a couple drinks, snacks, loosen up! If you don't want to do any of that, the exit is right over there." Spike said as he pointed to the snack bar, drinks table, and exit. Twilight looked back towards the exit and it was a quaint door with a handle and neon sign reading 'EXIT' in red glowing letters. "You can give up, but the others can't, not if they want the tattoos removed." The creature said, appearing from nowhere. "If I can give up then what am I doing here in the first place?" Twilight asked. "And why were the tattoos even put on the crusaders in the first place?" "For the first question, insurance, basically only one of you actually has to pass the test. As for the second question, a trip down memory lane is such a simple thing." "Can I go see where I am? I want to know how to get home after this is all over." "By all means, just don't go far, or that means you fail." Twilight made her way through the crowd of ponies and towards the exit. Once she was there, she hoofed open the door and what she saw puzzled her. It was Ponyville, and the door she just exited was the door to her castle. Not only did this make no sense, but there was a line of ponies waiting outside the door also. "What do you mean we can't come in? This is our friends place, and there's a party happening inside, you can't just NOT invite Pinkie to a party!" Pinkie whined to the bouncer. Pinkie looked away from the bouncer pony and looked towards the front door. "Ooh, Twilight come here! Tell this meanie pants that we're friends!" Pinkie waved her front hooves around trying to gain Twilight's already gained attention. Twilight walked over to the rest of her friends Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy. Fluttershy was calmly waiting in line and Pinkie was eyeing the bouncer. The bouncer looked over to hos left and saw Twilight and asked. "Is this true Miss Sparkle? These ponies are with you?" "Uh yeah." Twilight responded. At this the bouncer shuffled to his right and permitted Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy to pass. Pinkie bounced her way inside and cheered while Fluttershy just gave a quiet "Woohoo!" and closed the door behind them. "What is going on?!" Twilight yelled to nopony in particular as she watched her castle literally vibrate with the pulsing of the music. "How is everyone doing Spike?" The DJ asked. "Well, all of the punch is gone, some ponies are kissing in the corner of this place and the challengers are not even close to finishing their test." He snapped his fingers and said. "There, the punch bowl is filled. The love birds have some privacy and I placed some extra incentive to finish their test." "Oh, and speak of the devil and shall appear, to what do I owe the honor Miss Sparkle and friends?" The DJ bowed as he saw the seven ponies walk up the stage stairs. "We want to have a small chat." Rainbow Dash said. "Somewhere nice and private." The DJ shrugged and held out his arm towards a door to his left. The door opened and they all stepped through. He closed the door behind him and asked, "So, how is the test going?" Without turning away from the door. The room was large, the wall that the door was on was just tinted glass, and the floor below them was an aquarium, with all kinds of fish. There were two couches and a coffee table with a clear liquid that might have just been water. "I have some questions for you first." Twilight said as she sat down on one of the couches in the room. "Okay, shoot." "What are you?" "Well, the form I'm in now? Human, you saw my pony form earlier. But I like this a lot more." "Okay...? What is your name?" "Not even I know the answer to that." "How do you not even know your own name?" "A couple years in stone can do some harm. I mean, look at Discord, he wasn't this crazy before they locked him in stone for the first time." "You're friends with Discord?" Fluttershy spoke up and asked. "Oh yeah, me and him go way back, he may have been born a couple thousand years before me, but age is irrelevant when you're immortal." "If both you and Discord are immortal like the princess's, than, what are you?" "I'm the spirit of Music. Bringing harmony and chaos together to make sweet, sweet love." He turned around then pointed to Pinkie. "Just like your friend here, I'm the product of the Tree of Harmony, well, she's not entirely a descendant. It's more like relation through, parents. She wasn't the spirit laughter before the tree chose her, just a possible vessel for such a thing." They all looked towards Pinkie, who just sat there and shrugged as they continued to listen to the human. "While I said I am a descendant of the Tree of Harmony, I have been turned to stone before, and that means I am the descendant of something else also, something disharmonious. I am the product of both the Tree of Harmony and the Roots of Chaos." "Why would the Tree of Harmony make you? With the Roots of Chaos...?" Twilight asked. "I'm merely a means to keep the balance, just like my colleagues who were made at the same time as me. Both chaotic and harmonious. Good and Evil, right and wrong. But that's up to debate with anyone, I mean who are they to say chaos is bad?" Everypony in the room raised their hooves to this. And the humans grin faded to a small frown. "Really now? So, by all of your logic, I'm evil?" He asked. And they nodded at this. "Give me one reason that I gave you all to think that I'm evil...?" "You branded three innocent fillies with the name of my assistant here." Twilight said as she raised a hoof to point at Spike who was standing next to the human. "And I gave you a way to take those things away, and besides, it isn't like they didn't want them." Three of the ponies in the room began to get angry with the creature in front of them. "I'll just be taking those..." He said as he drew a pink mist from the angry ponies in the room. The three ponies had a feeling of emptiness before a feeling of joy washed over them. "Wouldn't want any of you to do anything rash now, would you?" "What did you do to us?" Apple Jack spoke up. "Ah, let me explain. I, am something that you ponies would call a siren. But I'm not a traditional siren, while most sirens feed on positive emotion and leave nothing but negative in it's wake. I feed on the negative and leave you with the positive. I radiate negative energy that get's counteracted by you ponies. So harmonious and the likes." "So you are evil!" Twilight said hoping that she had him cornered. "Yes and no. While I might be radiating negative energy, the harmonious nature of you ponies kills that and makes it positive with all of your singing and dancing that you do monthly. Now I admit that there was a time when, you ponies weren't that friendly with each other, and I might have ended a couple lives with the partying. It was mostly their own faults." "ooh ooh ooh!" Pinkie Pie said whilst raising a hoof and jumping. "Yes Pinkie?" "How come you never take your glasses off? It's got to be pretty dark in here with those things on." "Yes, it is quite dark in here. But the reason I never take them off, is because I'm doomed to wear this things forever. Being the spirit of Music has it's draw backs, and so does eating negative emotion. These shades store all of those emotions and memories that I have consumed to survive." "Well... can, you take them off?" "Yes, would you like me to?" Everypony nodded in response, not sure what would come next. As he began to slowly remove the shades, everypony gasped in air and prepared for what would come next. Almost instantly, everypony noticed the black markings around his eyelids and the design they had made. Almost like circuits to an electronic of some kind. But what scared them the most were the eyes. His eyes looked like they had been glued open with how wide they were. And his pupils were pin pricks behind the golden the golden color. Everypony saw as tears started to form in his eyes, but his grin never faded. "These curse me to watch the memories over and over again, but they stop me from feeling the emotions behind them, the pain. These things contain more dark energy and pain than the tyrant King Sombra. And this is the only thing keeping me sane in this world of lies." Nopony knew what to do next, they all just stood still as they looked up at the human. "For a regular pony, these things would just make you live your worst fear over and over again, but for me? I have to the live in their past. In hopes that I can make their futures just a bit happier." Still, everypony was silent and nopony knew what to say or do, but they all jumped as the one person in the room asked. "NOW, DO YOU ALL STILL THINK I'M THE FUCKING BAD GUY?!"