Guardiansby VulpiBardChaptersChapter One, p. 1Chapter One, p. 2Chapter One, P. 3Chapter One, p. 1"Hello ... I trust you slept well?" The voice crept steadily into Double Beat's head, starting off soft before growing gradually louder. It got so loud his ears felt they were about to bleed before it got softer again. He could hear the sound blur and distort briefly after the hello and guessed a name was meant to be there. Groaning and sitting up, he felt smooth, cold stone beneath his hooves that turned into a soft, warm and spongy substance. 'Not this again...' He groaned inwardly, this had to make the third time he had this dream in a week. "Of course it was on such short notice that we called you away I guess you'd be a little groggy." D.B. grumbled something unintelligible as he climbed to all fours and looked around the darkness. "What? Where am I?" He heard a second familiar voice start. "I suppose that'll be your choice." "What the he-!" The second began to exclaim as it always did. "It would be appreciated if you ended that with 'hay'," the first interrupted. A single orb of light winked into existence about ten feet away from Double Beat, illuminating an empty world around him. He yawned and quickly looked around; no ground, no walls, no roof, absolute emptiness. "Remain calm..., this is merely a test." There it was again, a blur that was clearly meant to be a name. Double groaned and massaged the back of his head, hoping that the dream would be over quickly this time. "Test?" "Yes, a test. Now picture a room, any room will do." There was a snapping sound and a room began to assemble itself. Walls sprung up and a floor and roof sprouted from them to close everything in. When all was done, Double was standing in the corner of a cement interrogation room, complete with a bright lamp, steel table and painful metal chairs. On the other side of the room, between the giant mirror and the door stood a tall, wiry creature. Double Beat ran his blue eyes over the other, measuring the thing up. Like last time an unsightly and messy long brown mane dropped to his waist, otherwise he was hairless, and an old, ratty and long sleeveless coat covered a fine buttoned white shirt. Well cleaned pants covered large, muddy hard cloth and metal coverings for his feet. This was only the second time Double had seen this creature, last time being a full two moons ago. "Who're you, my personal tormentor?" The second voice sounded behind the pony, but when he turned around there was only a corner. "I prefer the term Deus Ex Machina." "So a book nerd?" The pony sighed at the corner, he had hoped to see the second for once this time. The thing behind the pony smiled warmly. "I guess you could say that, but please pay attention." "Who are you?" "Considering current company we are not obliged to say," Dues winked at the small pony, but soon turned his full attention away and resumed ignoring him. "We?" "Our apologies, I tend to slip in and out of what is viewed as 'normal' speech." As he was talking, Double Beat saw Dues's hair start to take an ethereal form, and a similar tail sprouted between his legs, edges flicking hungrily like a fire, and colors changing to suit it. This was the first time Double had seen that detail. 'I thought only alicorns could have a mane and tail like that.' As he pondered it, Double Beat felt the world slipping away. He must've been waking up, the conversation between Dues and the invisible man seemed to speed up, only letting him catch snippets like 'main races,' 'Pegasi, unicorns and ponies,' and a few other commonly known things about Equestria. Then the pain set in. "Oh my goodness darling, you look absolutely horrid!" Ohcrapohcrapohcrap, who did I hurt?! Doublebeat tried to jump to his hooves in urgency, but before he could push more than a foot off the ground he crumpled back under a heavy and mysterious weight. Cracking open his eyes and wincing at the sun that peaked brightly through the leaves, the brown coated pegasus stared frightfully at the three ponies towering over him. Well two towering, one blue pegasus was standing on top of him while the orange earthpony and white unicorn stood off to the side, the former giving the other an incredulous look. "Calm down there Rares, we need to see if he's okay before we start fussin' about his fashion sense." The orange pony drawled tiredly as the unicorn levitated and inspected his wings. 'Rares,' apparently the unicorn's name, rolled her eyes at the earthponies comment. "Please Applejack, I was not talking about his hair. I merely implied his feathers may be a little... out of place, after that fall." "Ya mean ruffled? Once again, I think we should be more worried about his health than how presentable he is!" The pair kept arguing like that while Doublebeat groaned and rolled out from under the other pegasus, ignoring her indignant cry as she fell down, shaking his head to try and clear the grogginess away as he stood up. He had crashed, again, obviously there were others involved this time. "Ponyfeathers," He growled beneath his breath. Why did he always fall asleep during the day and not the night, when he was meant to? It definitely didn't help that all his flight instructors kept scolding him for sleeping during class. He had shifted flight camps five times before he finally got the hang of the sport. And now as he was warned he was injuring other ponies with his mistakes. "What was that darling?" The unicorn stepped foreword. Beat looked carefully at her for a moment, noting expensive perfume and a purple mane, then something else hit him about who he was laying next to. "Whoa!" Once he recognized just who he was waking up next to, Doublebeat began backing off a couple feet and sat down wide eyed. "Careful partner, we don't know if you hurt your wings or not." This was Applejack, a plain looking earthpony to the casual eye, but anypony who went to Guardian Academy or lived in the nearby town Ponyville knew that she came from the mane family of the Apple Clan And was one of the top ten students in the entire school. "Wh- where am I?" Beat mumbled, trying not to let his awestruck emotions be known, and rubbed his eyes. Last thing he knew he was flying over the Everfree to have lunch after morning classes got out. When he opened his eyes, sure enough he was on the forest floor of the second most dangerous place in the known world. "How long was I out?! I'm gonna miss my classes!" I've got to get back! Doublebeat's voice grew more an more hysterical as he tried to stand until a fast moving hoof from an annoyed pegasus plugged it up. "Ugh, just shut up alright? It's still lunch hour so you don't have to worry about dumb stuff like that." "Rainbow, that ain't no way to treat anypony, 'specially one that just plumb crashed into the ground!" "But it's his fault! He shouldn't have been sleeping and flying!" The orange cowponies eyebrows raised. "Fine," Rainbowdash, fastest pegasus and lead weathermare for the area, rolled her eyes before 'apologizing', "Sorry mister, do you need any help?" Doublebeat quickly pretended to check his wings so he distract himself from one of his idols bearing down on him. "No, no I'm fine, just a little sprain is all!" He stretched his wings out, wincing slightly at a bruise halfway down, but nothing was broken from the crash. "What were you doing up there?" A.J. asked. The shy pegasus began backing away slowly, crashing for anypony was embarrassing, but for somepony with his history it was just tragic. "Is everypony okay? I just saw something come falling from the sky!" A frantic looking unicorn popped up behind a tree and stared at the four in the clearing. Twilight Sparkle, student hand picked and paid for by Celestia herself, top in both academics and magic classes. What am I going to do now?! "We're just fine, but this punk came out of nowhere and messed up my practicing." Rainbowdash explained and Twilight tilted her head curiously. "Really? What's his name?" There was a pause. "What is your name?" A.J. repeated and all heads turned to the pegasus. "Er..." Beat began, They couldn't learn his real name, they'd start laughing. But if he used the name he gave himself for writing stories, it would likely end the same. But then, they might not recognize it- nopony would recognize the name of some half bit author, and if he told them his original name the teasing would start again. There was only two options left. "Hey, Rainbowdash right? Are your wings okay? I could take you to the medical wing if you need help." The prismatic haired pegasus' mouth dropped in confusion, she flexed her wings curiously. "No, I'm all good, why?" Drat. Plan B then. "Wellgreattoseeyou'reallrightIgottagotolunchnowbye!" Double bolted as fast as he ever had through the forest to the enormous group of buildings he knew as the Guardian Academy, hoping against hope that the other four wouldn't bother to follow him. He couldn't let his heroes remember him as a mere clutz. Author's Note "Well, I intended to write more than this, about twice as much (with the other half including the rest of the main characters of this story.) But alas, this chapter took far too long a time to write for such excellent and admirable hobbits. I wrote half of it half as well as I should like, and I know less than half of it half as well as you deserve." "I, uh, I h-have things to do, and I've put them off for far too long. I regret to announce — this is it. I am going to write more now. I bid you all a very fond good-reading." "Goodbye." (Dear goodness, I am doomed.) Chapter One, p. 2Unfortunately as he was running through the forest, Doublebeats thought process was interrupted when he tripped on a root and fell to the ground. Groaning at his own lack of awareness, Doublebeat got up and kept running, never stopping until he made it to the academy. Sneaking carefully and quickly around buildings he slowly made his way closer to the entrance. From there it was just a quick trot back to Ponyville, where he could finally enjoy his midday meal. Sitting down at one of the outside tables to a restaurant, he took a look up at the sign reading "Scarecrows Garden." The paint was peeling slightly but the colors were still vibrant, for oranges and browns at least. Sighing as he waited for the waiter to come around Doublebeat reached for his backpack and supplies but was met with empty air. "Gah! Idiot, I must have left my stuff in the forest!" The stallion facehooved and pushing his mane out of his eyes he blinked in stunned silence at the sudden appearance of a white unicorn in a suit. "Again?" The server rolled his eyes and levitated a pencil and some paper out from his coat pocket, "I guess you'll be wanting this then." Doublebeat grabbed the tools hastily and set them on his table, scrawling a few lines out before looking up again. "Thanks! But how did you-" The unicorn snorted, shook his head, and with a smile he gestured at the diners windows. "Mister Scarecrow saw you fly in without your saddlebags and told me to take them to you, you can thank him." Doublebeat blinked and squinted into the shady building, but couldn't see anything more than a few empty tables. "Can I get you anything else?" "Uh, I guess a Sunflower-burger would be nice," Doublebeat said with a shrug before he dived back into his work, He soon began to get so enthralled with his own writing he didn't notice his order as it was placed next to him, nor the grey earthpony who sat across from him and ordered the same thing. "I see you're still going to the same restaurant," She said. "Octavia!" Doublebeat jumped, hitting his hoof on the table with a yelp, the mare chuckled lightly and waited for him to calm down. "Wh-what are you doing here?" Doublebeat stuttered out. "I had some free time, so I thought I'd check on you," Octavia's eyes darted to the paper Doublebeat had started guarding with one leg, "What are you writing?" Doublebeat pulled his work back from her outstretched hoof. Octavia Sinfonia may have been the quiet pegasus' best friend since he got into the academy. He was never very good at hiding things on his own, instead he relied on his uncanny skill to go unnoticed and ignored by just about everypony else, or unintentionally passing himself off as an extreme clutz. Not that he wasn't, but when situation stuck him with rooming with the analytical cellist it grew harder to keep his secret from her, and eventually she found everything out. Luckily he made her promise to help him out... for a price. She would never stop annoying him about it. "Can I see it?" Octavia asked. Doublebeat considered it for less than a second, keeping his eyes fixed squarely on her hoof. "No," He answered bluntly and pulling back farther. Octavia sighed and reclined back in her seat, thanking the waiter when he delivered her food with a nod. Doublebeat resumed his writing while Octavia ate, and the pair continued like that until she finished. "Are you going to the concert hall tonight?" The blue eyed mare asked. "No." "Are you sure? I hear Storybook Symphony will be performing a solo." Beat rose a brow, "Storybook? I thought he only plays in his own shows." Octavia snorted, slumping back, "One can still hope." Doublebeat stopped writing and pretended to check his work, Three, two, one. "Honestly, why must he waste his talent everyday, playing like a common street busker? A unicorn with his talent could easily get into the royal symphony itself, hay, one could even teach the symphony!" Storybook Symphony, Doublebeat never heard Octavia use strong language for any other subject. Ever since they stumbled across one of his little 'acts' in the town square she had been obsessing over the stallion. Dragging Doublebeat along whenever she heard there was a show going on, or hitting the library to do more research on him. Or she was researching other things, Beat never asked. "I don't see what the big deal is, aren't you two like cousins or something?" Beat thought the fact was one of Octavia's earliest discoveries. "Humph, no; the Sinfonia family branched off of his four generations back, the bulk of our family is in small towns like Ponyville and Appaloosa while the current Symphony family head lives east, in Fetlock." Doublebeat frowned and looked up in confusion, "Octavia, Fetlock is a small town, too." "Yes, but ours are colonial towns, built for fertile land and business, Fetlock has centuries of history behind it! Did you know it was founded similarly to Canterlot? A few ponies trying to survive found a lake and-" Beat sighed and tuned out his friends lecture. He was about to return to his work when he saw a group of ponies behind her walking away on the other side of the street. "Aren't they students?" Octavia twisted around to look at the crowd and the brown pegasus saw her ears flatten. "Yes," She hissed, "But it's Vinyls group." "Vinyl?" Beat searched the group for the pony she must have been referring to, it took him a few seconds but he found her. She was a unicorn with a white coat, unimpressive at first, but that was before you got to her mane and tail. Both were an eye catching electric blue and cut jaggedly in a sort of messy-but-nice fashion. The only two notable features on her face were an enormous pair of sunglasses blocking her eyes, and a confidant smile as she talked and laughed with her friends. "I wouldn't bother following them," Octavia warned when Doublebeat began to stand, "Vinyl is only a trouble maker, she barely shows up to class at all." Beat ignored her and began to trot down after the group, leaving Octavia alone at the table with his uneaten burger. The cellist sighed as he disappeared down the road, fishing around her saddlebags for the proper change she got up to leave, stopping just as she spotted her roommates paper. After a quick glance either way, she grabbed the sheet and left. Author's Note So, with my mouse hovering over the button I contemplated. Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before. In the end I decided to just go along and publish it now. I read over it twice and edited out what parts I could find, I hope you like it. The ending of chapter one. Chapter One, P. 3Vinyl Scratch was aware of the brown stallion following her group ever since they picked him up outside of that burger place. Normally she ignored stuff like that, but after a few minutes of him following, she was getting more than a little curious. Double Beat saw her glance over her shoulder several times, as well as the other members of her party. He knew they saw him, but he was still surprised when the white unicorn began slowing down. Everypony but her and a yellow pegasus kept walking. "Yo dude, why're you sulking back here? Join the party!" Beat froze. He wanted to reply, but his mind was drawing blanks. "You okay?" Vinyl's welcoming smiled slowly vanished into a concerned expression. "I think you broke him." The yellow pegasus with her commented, walking up next to the stallion. Vinyl lowered her purple shades for a better look. "Nah, he's cool. Just poke 'im," She said after a second, replacing her glasses. The other mare tentatively lifted a hoof and after a moment’s hesitation, thrust it into the stallion’s side. "What? Oh! WaAh!" Double fell sideways with the sudden force, landing painfully on his side. "Ow," He dropped himself up with one foreleg and began rubbing his head with the other. "I said poke him, not push him over!" Vinyl laughed, rushing over. "Oh, sorry." The blue and yellow pegasus backed nervously out of the way. Vinyl rolled her eyes underneath her sunglasses, "You okay dude?" "Huh? Yeah..." Double Beat subconsciously took the mare’s outstretched hoof before realizing what he was doing. When he did he hurriedly backed up a couple of paces. "Why'd you leave your friends?" He asked at length. Vinyl chuckled, "Dude, when a guy is following you like Faer Gore, they're either lonely or a serial killer." "That's a pretty big chance then... Wait a minute, you've read Rumors of Cacher?!" Double exclaimed when he recognized the reference. The white unicorn looked puzzled for a second, "Uh, yeah. Everyponies read some book of Beating Legend's" Double Beat kicked at the ground nervously, "Yeah, everypony..." He muttered, then louder; "So what did you think about 'The Awakening'?" They had resumed walking at this point, and Vinyl paused to tap her chin, "Meh, it was alright. I mean that thief Cyde was pretty cool, I don't know why he was so short though. And the main character Felix seemed a bit whiny to me." "I think it gives Cyde something to prove, maybe that's why he act's so arrogant all the time," The yellow mare offered. "Maybe." Vinyl replied, then started walking again, "Oh that's right, this is Raindrops, And my names Vinyl Scratch, you can just call me Vi or Scratch, though, how 'bout you?" She gestured to the three of them in turn. "Double Beat," The brown stallion answered with a nervous chuckle, "So how many books have you read?" "Not many, I just like listening to the guys tunes. I thought it was cool that he was a musician and book writer so I picked up a few novels." "She owns all of them," Raindrops paraphrased in a whisper. Double Beat pulled a peculiar face, "So, uh, where're we going?" "Aw, you didn't know? We're here right now!" Scratch waved a hoof at the large cinder block of a building. It was painted a lot of dark colors with a few electric blues and reds. Just above the double doors hung a sign that read; "Welcome to Dr. Awesome's Raveyard" "Dr. Awesome?" Beat inwardly groaned. Vinyl Scratch misread his expression, "It's not his real name… I think… come on!" She pushed Double-beat through the doors. He could already hear the opening to one of his own songs play past the walls and into the entry hall, then a man’s voice that was much more energetic than it needed to be call out. “I think you all recognize Beating Legend’s ’December.’” Vinyl, with the help of Raindrops, managed to catch Double before he ran off and drag him into the dance hall as the first lines of the remix rang out; “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow… nevermore” Author's Note Okay, okay; so I lied about part two being the last part of chapter one, I also had a hidden hint about this chapter that was almost impossible to get, unless you're the kind who believes nothing is impossible, just impassible. Well, I think it was a passable hint. Oh well, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein I'll get working on that next chapter now.
Chapter One, p. 1"Hello ... I trust you slept well?" The voice crept steadily into Double Beat's head, starting off soft before growing gradually louder. It got so loud his ears felt they were about to bleed before it got softer again. He could hear the sound blur and distort briefly after the hello and guessed a name was meant to be there. Groaning and sitting up, he felt smooth, cold stone beneath his hooves that turned into a soft, warm and spongy substance. 'Not this again...' He groaned inwardly, this had to make the third time he had this dream in a week. "Of course it was on such short notice that we called you away I guess you'd be a little groggy." D.B. grumbled something unintelligible as he climbed to all fours and looked around the darkness. "What? Where am I?" He heard a second familiar voice start. "I suppose that'll be your choice." "What the he-!" The second began to exclaim as it always did. "It would be appreciated if you ended that with 'hay'," the first interrupted. A single orb of light winked into existence about ten feet away from Double Beat, illuminating an empty world around him. He yawned and quickly looked around; no ground, no walls, no roof, absolute emptiness. "Remain calm..., this is merely a test." There it was again, a blur that was clearly meant to be a name. Double groaned and massaged the back of his head, hoping that the dream would be over quickly this time. "Test?" "Yes, a test. Now picture a room, any room will do." There was a snapping sound and a room began to assemble itself. Walls sprung up and a floor and roof sprouted from them to close everything in. When all was done, Double was standing in the corner of a cement interrogation room, complete with a bright lamp, steel table and painful metal chairs. On the other side of the room, between the giant mirror and the door stood a tall, wiry creature. Double Beat ran his blue eyes over the other, measuring the thing up. Like last time an unsightly and messy long brown mane dropped to his waist, otherwise he was hairless, and an old, ratty and long sleeveless coat covered a fine buttoned white shirt. Well cleaned pants covered large, muddy hard cloth and metal coverings for his feet. This was only the second time Double had seen this creature, last time being a full two moons ago. "Who're you, my personal tormentor?" The second voice sounded behind the pony, but when he turned around there was only a corner. "I prefer the term Deus Ex Machina." "So a book nerd?" The pony sighed at the corner, he had hoped to see the second for once this time. The thing behind the pony smiled warmly. "I guess you could say that, but please pay attention." "Who are you?" "Considering current company we are not obliged to say," Dues winked at the small pony, but soon turned his full attention away and resumed ignoring him. "We?" "Our apologies, I tend to slip in and out of what is viewed as 'normal' speech." As he was talking, Double Beat saw Dues's hair start to take an ethereal form, and a similar tail sprouted between his legs, edges flicking hungrily like a fire, and colors changing to suit it. This was the first time Double had seen that detail. 'I thought only alicorns could have a mane and tail like that.' As he pondered it, Double Beat felt the world slipping away. He must've been waking up, the conversation between Dues and the invisible man seemed to speed up, only letting him catch snippets like 'main races,' 'Pegasi, unicorns and ponies,' and a few other commonly known things about Equestria. Then the pain set in. "Oh my goodness darling, you look absolutely horrid!" Ohcrapohcrapohcrap, who did I hurt?! Doublebeat tried to jump to his hooves in urgency, but before he could push more than a foot off the ground he crumpled back under a heavy and mysterious weight. Cracking open his eyes and wincing at the sun that peaked brightly through the leaves, the brown coated pegasus stared frightfully at the three ponies towering over him. Well two towering, one blue pegasus was standing on top of him while the orange earthpony and white unicorn stood off to the side, the former giving the other an incredulous look. "Calm down there Rares, we need to see if he's okay before we start fussin' about his fashion sense." The orange pony drawled tiredly as the unicorn levitated and inspected his wings. 'Rares,' apparently the unicorn's name, rolled her eyes at the earthponies comment. "Please Applejack, I was not talking about his hair. I merely implied his feathers may be a little... out of place, after that fall." "Ya mean ruffled? Once again, I think we should be more worried about his health than how presentable he is!" The pair kept arguing like that while Doublebeat groaned and rolled out from under the other pegasus, ignoring her indignant cry as she fell down, shaking his head to try and clear the grogginess away as he stood up. He had crashed, again, obviously there were others involved this time. "Ponyfeathers," He growled beneath his breath. Why did he always fall asleep during the day and not the night, when he was meant to? It definitely didn't help that all his flight instructors kept scolding him for sleeping during class. He had shifted flight camps five times before he finally got the hang of the sport. And now as he was warned he was injuring other ponies with his mistakes. "What was that darling?" The unicorn stepped foreword. Beat looked carefully at her for a moment, noting expensive perfume and a purple mane, then something else hit him about who he was laying next to. "Whoa!" Once he recognized just who he was waking up next to, Doublebeat began backing off a couple feet and sat down wide eyed. "Careful partner, we don't know if you hurt your wings or not." This was Applejack, a plain looking earthpony to the casual eye, but anypony who went to Guardian Academy or lived in the nearby town Ponyville knew that she came from the mane family of the Apple Clan And was one of the top ten students in the entire school. "Wh- where am I?" Beat mumbled, trying not to let his awestruck emotions be known, and rubbed his eyes. Last thing he knew he was flying over the Everfree to have lunch after morning classes got out. When he opened his eyes, sure enough he was on the forest floor of the second most dangerous place in the known world. "How long was I out?! I'm gonna miss my classes!" I've got to get back! Doublebeat's voice grew more an more hysterical as he tried to stand until a fast moving hoof from an annoyed pegasus plugged it up. "Ugh, just shut up alright? It's still lunch hour so you don't have to worry about dumb stuff like that." "Rainbow, that ain't no way to treat anypony, 'specially one that just plumb crashed into the ground!" "But it's his fault! He shouldn't have been sleeping and flying!" The orange cowponies eyebrows raised. "Fine," Rainbowdash, fastest pegasus and lead weathermare for the area, rolled her eyes before 'apologizing', "Sorry mister, do you need any help?" Doublebeat quickly pretended to check his wings so he distract himself from one of his idols bearing down on him. "No, no I'm fine, just a little sprain is all!" He stretched his wings out, wincing slightly at a bruise halfway down, but nothing was broken from the crash. "What were you doing up there?" A.J. asked. The shy pegasus began backing away slowly, crashing for anypony was embarrassing, but for somepony with his history it was just tragic. "Is everypony okay? I just saw something come falling from the sky!" A frantic looking unicorn popped up behind a tree and stared at the four in the clearing. Twilight Sparkle, student hand picked and paid for by Celestia herself, top in both academics and magic classes. What am I going to do now?! "We're just fine, but this punk came out of nowhere and messed up my practicing." Rainbowdash explained and Twilight tilted her head curiously. "Really? What's his name?" There was a pause. "What is your name?" A.J. repeated and all heads turned to the pegasus. "Er..." Beat began, They couldn't learn his real name, they'd start laughing. But if he used the name he gave himself for writing stories, it would likely end the same. But then, they might not recognize it- nopony would recognize the name of some half bit author, and if he told them his original name the teasing would start again. There was only two options left. "Hey, Rainbowdash right? Are your wings okay? I could take you to the medical wing if you need help." The prismatic haired pegasus' mouth dropped in confusion, she flexed her wings curiously. "No, I'm all good, why?" Drat. Plan B then. "Wellgreattoseeyou'reallrightIgottagotolunchnowbye!" Double bolted as fast as he ever had through the forest to the enormous group of buildings he knew as the Guardian Academy, hoping against hope that the other four wouldn't bother to follow him. He couldn't let his heroes remember him as a mere clutz. Author's Note "Well, I intended to write more than this, about twice as much (with the other half including the rest of the main characters of this story.) But alas, this chapter took far too long a time to write for such excellent and admirable hobbits. I wrote half of it half as well as I should like, and I know less than half of it half as well as you deserve." "I, uh, I h-have things to do, and I've put them off for far too long. I regret to announce — this is it. I am going to write more now. I bid you all a very fond good-reading." "Goodbye." (Dear goodness, I am doomed.)
Chapter One, p. 2Unfortunately as he was running through the forest, Doublebeats thought process was interrupted when he tripped on a root and fell to the ground. Groaning at his own lack of awareness, Doublebeat got up and kept running, never stopping until he made it to the academy. Sneaking carefully and quickly around buildings he slowly made his way closer to the entrance. From there it was just a quick trot back to Ponyville, where he could finally enjoy his midday meal. Sitting down at one of the outside tables to a restaurant, he took a look up at the sign reading "Scarecrows Garden." The paint was peeling slightly but the colors were still vibrant, for oranges and browns at least. Sighing as he waited for the waiter to come around Doublebeat reached for his backpack and supplies but was met with empty air. "Gah! Idiot, I must have left my stuff in the forest!" The stallion facehooved and pushing his mane out of his eyes he blinked in stunned silence at the sudden appearance of a white unicorn in a suit. "Again?" The server rolled his eyes and levitated a pencil and some paper out from his coat pocket, "I guess you'll be wanting this then." Doublebeat grabbed the tools hastily and set them on his table, scrawling a few lines out before looking up again. "Thanks! But how did you-" The unicorn snorted, shook his head, and with a smile he gestured at the diners windows. "Mister Scarecrow saw you fly in without your saddlebags and told me to take them to you, you can thank him." Doublebeat blinked and squinted into the shady building, but couldn't see anything more than a few empty tables. "Can I get you anything else?" "Uh, I guess a Sunflower-burger would be nice," Doublebeat said with a shrug before he dived back into his work, He soon began to get so enthralled with his own writing he didn't notice his order as it was placed next to him, nor the grey earthpony who sat across from him and ordered the same thing. "I see you're still going to the same restaurant," She said. "Octavia!" Doublebeat jumped, hitting his hoof on the table with a yelp, the mare chuckled lightly and waited for him to calm down. "Wh-what are you doing here?" Doublebeat stuttered out. "I had some free time, so I thought I'd check on you," Octavia's eyes darted to the paper Doublebeat had started guarding with one leg, "What are you writing?" Doublebeat pulled his work back from her outstretched hoof. Octavia Sinfonia may have been the quiet pegasus' best friend since he got into the academy. He was never very good at hiding things on his own, instead he relied on his uncanny skill to go unnoticed and ignored by just about everypony else, or unintentionally passing himself off as an extreme clutz. Not that he wasn't, but when situation stuck him with rooming with the analytical cellist it grew harder to keep his secret from her, and eventually she found everything out. Luckily he made her promise to help him out... for a price. She would never stop annoying him about it. "Can I see it?" Octavia asked. Doublebeat considered it for less than a second, keeping his eyes fixed squarely on her hoof. "No," He answered bluntly and pulling back farther. Octavia sighed and reclined back in her seat, thanking the waiter when he delivered her food with a nod. Doublebeat resumed his writing while Octavia ate, and the pair continued like that until she finished. "Are you going to the concert hall tonight?" The blue eyed mare asked. "No." "Are you sure? I hear Storybook Symphony will be performing a solo." Beat rose a brow, "Storybook? I thought he only plays in his own shows." Octavia snorted, slumping back, "One can still hope." Doublebeat stopped writing and pretended to check his work, Three, two, one. "Honestly, why must he waste his talent everyday, playing like a common street busker? A unicorn with his talent could easily get into the royal symphony itself, hay, one could even teach the symphony!" Storybook Symphony, Doublebeat never heard Octavia use strong language for any other subject. Ever since they stumbled across one of his little 'acts' in the town square she had been obsessing over the stallion. Dragging Doublebeat along whenever she heard there was a show going on, or hitting the library to do more research on him. Or she was researching other things, Beat never asked. "I don't see what the big deal is, aren't you two like cousins or something?" Beat thought the fact was one of Octavia's earliest discoveries. "Humph, no; the Sinfonia family branched off of his four generations back, the bulk of our family is in small towns like Ponyville and Appaloosa while the current Symphony family head lives east, in Fetlock." Doublebeat frowned and looked up in confusion, "Octavia, Fetlock is a small town, too." "Yes, but ours are colonial towns, built for fertile land and business, Fetlock has centuries of history behind it! Did you know it was founded similarly to Canterlot? A few ponies trying to survive found a lake and-" Beat sighed and tuned out his friends lecture. He was about to return to his work when he saw a group of ponies behind her walking away on the other side of the street. "Aren't they students?" Octavia twisted around to look at the crowd and the brown pegasus saw her ears flatten. "Yes," She hissed, "But it's Vinyls group." "Vinyl?" Beat searched the group for the pony she must have been referring to, it took him a few seconds but he found her. She was a unicorn with a white coat, unimpressive at first, but that was before you got to her mane and tail. Both were an eye catching electric blue and cut jaggedly in a sort of messy-but-nice fashion. The only two notable features on her face were an enormous pair of sunglasses blocking her eyes, and a confidant smile as she talked and laughed with her friends. "I wouldn't bother following them," Octavia warned when Doublebeat began to stand, "Vinyl is only a trouble maker, she barely shows up to class at all." Beat ignored her and began to trot down after the group, leaving Octavia alone at the table with his uneaten burger. The cellist sighed as he disappeared down the road, fishing around her saddlebags for the proper change she got up to leave, stopping just as she spotted her roommates paper. After a quick glance either way, she grabbed the sheet and left. Author's Note So, with my mouse hovering over the button I contemplated. Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before. In the end I decided to just go along and publish it now. I read over it twice and edited out what parts I could find, I hope you like it. The ending of chapter one.
Chapter One, P. 3Vinyl Scratch was aware of the brown stallion following her group ever since they picked him up outside of that burger place. Normally she ignored stuff like that, but after a few minutes of him following, she was getting more than a little curious. Double Beat saw her glance over her shoulder several times, as well as the other members of her party. He knew they saw him, but he was still surprised when the white unicorn began slowing down. Everypony but her and a yellow pegasus kept walking. "Yo dude, why're you sulking back here? Join the party!" Beat froze. He wanted to reply, but his mind was drawing blanks. "You okay?" Vinyl's welcoming smiled slowly vanished into a concerned expression. "I think you broke him." The yellow pegasus with her commented, walking up next to the stallion. Vinyl lowered her purple shades for a better look. "Nah, he's cool. Just poke 'im," She said after a second, replacing her glasses. The other mare tentatively lifted a hoof and after a moment’s hesitation, thrust it into the stallion’s side. "What? Oh! WaAh!" Double fell sideways with the sudden force, landing painfully on his side. "Ow," He dropped himself up with one foreleg and began rubbing his head with the other. "I said poke him, not push him over!" Vinyl laughed, rushing over. "Oh, sorry." The blue and yellow pegasus backed nervously out of the way. Vinyl rolled her eyes underneath her sunglasses, "You okay dude?" "Huh? Yeah..." Double Beat subconsciously took the mare’s outstretched hoof before realizing what he was doing. When he did he hurriedly backed up a couple of paces. "Why'd you leave your friends?" He asked at length. Vinyl chuckled, "Dude, when a guy is following you like Faer Gore, they're either lonely or a serial killer." "That's a pretty big chance then... Wait a minute, you've read Rumors of Cacher?!" Double exclaimed when he recognized the reference. The white unicorn looked puzzled for a second, "Uh, yeah. Everyponies read some book of Beating Legend's" Double Beat kicked at the ground nervously, "Yeah, everypony..." He muttered, then louder; "So what did you think about 'The Awakening'?" They had resumed walking at this point, and Vinyl paused to tap her chin, "Meh, it was alright. I mean that thief Cyde was pretty cool, I don't know why he was so short though. And the main character Felix seemed a bit whiny to me." "I think it gives Cyde something to prove, maybe that's why he act's so arrogant all the time," The yellow mare offered. "Maybe." Vinyl replied, then started walking again, "Oh that's right, this is Raindrops, And my names Vinyl Scratch, you can just call me Vi or Scratch, though, how 'bout you?" She gestured to the three of them in turn. "Double Beat," The brown stallion answered with a nervous chuckle, "So how many books have you read?" "Not many, I just like listening to the guys tunes. I thought it was cool that he was a musician and book writer so I picked up a few novels." "She owns all of them," Raindrops paraphrased in a whisper. Double Beat pulled a peculiar face, "So, uh, where're we going?" "Aw, you didn't know? We're here right now!" Scratch waved a hoof at the large cinder block of a building. It was painted a lot of dark colors with a few electric blues and reds. Just above the double doors hung a sign that read; "Welcome to Dr. Awesome's Raveyard" "Dr. Awesome?" Beat inwardly groaned. Vinyl Scratch misread his expression, "It's not his real name… I think… come on!" She pushed Double-beat through the doors. He could already hear the opening to one of his own songs play past the walls and into the entry hall, then a man’s voice that was much more energetic than it needed to be call out. “I think you all recognize Beating Legend’s ’December.’” Vinyl, with the help of Raindrops, managed to catch Double before he ran off and drag him into the dance hall as the first lines of the remix rang out; “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From my books surcease of sorrow… nevermore” Author's Note Okay, okay; so I lied about part two being the last part of chapter one, I also had a hidden hint about this chapter that was almost impossible to get, unless you're the kind who believes nothing is impossible, just impassible. Well, I think it was a passable hint. Oh well, “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” ― Albert Einstein I'll get working on that next chapter now.
