Chapter 1:The Depressing End and the Vibrant Beginning
Chapter 1:The Depressing End and the Vibrant Beginning
‘COME SEE MC W1SH ON JUNE 15-17 ONLY AT CANTERLOT CONCERT HALL!’
Of course this poster was 2 months old. MC W1SH hadn’t performed since those few nights. He wasn’t even MC W1SH anymore; he was just Neon Lights, an MC and DJ unicorn who had it all. That was until somepony had backstabbed him, somepony known as Record Scratch or DJ-HORS3 or something. Neon didn’t really care to remember her name. All he did remember is that she was his fillyfriend once and he had given her the world. All the money she wanted, her own studio, her own bucking record label. All those things given to her couldn’t have changed her original plan. What she really wanted was the fame, and she didn’t care how she got there. She’d mooched off of Neon’s fame and climbed to the top of the charts by taking some of his songs and remixing them. Neon was playing too many shows to notice her simply stealing his songs and moving a note or two around. If only he’d paid attention to what she was doing at the time.
This whole process continued for a few months until she had finally made a platinum album. This was her ticket out of this fake relationship she’d worked herself into. Once news about this platinum album got out tons of record companies urged her to sign with them. She ended up going with Celestial Horse Records, a company started by Celestia but was handed over to one of her close friends, Fleur Dis Lee. Fleur had no idea what to do with it so she ended up letting her husband sell it to whoever wanted it.
Neon didn’t remember where it went after that, but what he did know was that backstabbing filly went there and made millions working with them. Ponies may not have noticed, but she was still just remixing his songs. It seemed to go over everyponies head that she never made an original song. When more of his audience started going to her, Neon’s cash flow slowly started to thin out. Before he knew it he was only making barely 50 bits a day. He hadn’t a clue how to rise up and just gave up his fame.
Neon had blown the rest of his bits on one thing, booze. Every day it was the same process. Wake up, finish off yesterday’s liquor, and then go buy some more for today. He was a drunk, nopony looked at him as MC W1SH anymore. Now they all just looked at him like he was a bum. Neon could care less about what they thought, for Vinyl had already told everypony that he was addicted to almost every drug known in Equestria. Now, Neon knew this wasn’t true, but everypony else thought it was. For all anypony knew, Neon was just another musician fallen to drug addiction.
Neon thought about doing drugs a few times, but always believed it’d ruin his career. Now he had nothing to lose if he did drugs. He constantly thought over and over of what would happen if he got addicted. He wasn’t making anymore bits and didn’t have so much left from buying alcohol every day. He’s sold every last one of his possessions to fund his addiction to alcohol. He’d even sold his mansion just to get another bottle of hard cider in the morning.
Sitting there thinking about how bad his life’s gotten since his fillyfriend left him. His last show barely sold 1,000 seats, nopony bought his records anymore, and he’d become an alcoholic Neon sat in a cold alleyway thinking about his next move. He looked up to read the poster about his last show once more. He stared at how happy he looked in the picture and realized that it might be the last time ponies see him smile. With that he tore down the poster and started to cry.
He was out of bits, out of booze, and had nowhere to go. Neon had taken one last look on his life and though of his next move; either begging somepony to help him or to simply kill himself. He sat and thought for a while reading over his liquor’s label until he made his decision. Neon Lights was going to end it all.
Sugar Beats was just like any unicorn in Equestria, but he acted like almost everypony from Dodge Junction. In an earth pony dominated town Beats was made fun of at times for being a unicorn, but the yellow coated, burgundy maned stallion didn’t seem to mind. He did have one major problem with Dodge Junction however. His parents had forced him to work on the farm and expected him to take it over one day, once he met a filly and had a few foals of course.
Beats didn’t really want to work hard every day, and he certainly didn’t want to take a huge responsibility like that into his hooves. He’s told his parents this multiple times, but they don’t seem to listen to him. But seeing past that, Beats had one major problem with his parents, they kept trying to set him up with the town fillies. Beats was not okay with this on any level. They’d constantly set him up on blind dates with desperate fillies who wanted to marry after the first date to make their parents proud.
Beats wanted learn to love a pony before jumping into marriage just to make his family happy. He didn’t care that he’d have to wait for his family to be happy because if marring some filly makes them happy then they’re going to be unhappy for a long time. Beats didn’t want to marry some filly that his parents set him up with; in fact he didn’t want to marry some filly at all. Beats wanted none other than a stallion to be his companion. Of course Dodge Junction was like any other earth pony town, homophobic. Being a unicorn, Beats was already made fun of for not being an earth pony, but not being straight was a whole new level of wrong in Dodge Junction.
The last coltcuddler to come through Dodge Junction wasn’t just made fun of, but also assaulted. At least ten ponies circled around him and constantly beat him with anything they could get there hooves on. After 15 minutes they left him bleeding and broken in the middle of the street. Beats helped him to the train station and bought him a ticket to the next town over so somepony would help him.
Knowing what happened to the last coltcuddler, Beats kept his sexuality a secret that he would share with no one. He knew that if anypony in Dodge Junction found, he could never come back to visit his parents again. That is if his parents would even want to see him. His parents would have probably kicked him out. They were very conservative when it came to what a pony’s life should be like.
After Beats graduated school he finally wanted to leave Dodge Junction and pursue his dream at becoming a DJ. The whole dream started when he got his cutie mark fairly late for a colt his age. It was simply a pair of white headphones with small black notes coming out of them. Beats thought he was simply banging his hooves on a bucket and levitating a bag of sand and shaking it occasionally. A few ponies had gathered and thought he was making some interesting beats. The next thing he knew he had a cutie mark.
Ever since then Beats had been making music anyway he could by using any object. Although his father was a bit upset that his cutie mark didn’t have something to do with the farm, he did have to admit, Beats made some pretty good music with what he was given. Beats took trains to go into Ponyville where he’d buy some records and come back and try to replicate them.
Some people called him a musician and others called him another annoying teenager, whatever they said Beats was confident he made some stellar beats. He always wanted to record what he did or better yet perform what he did, but he never got the chance. Once he graduated school though he finally got the opportunity.
He’d saved up for years waiting until he graduated so that he could hop on a train to Canterlot and start recording there. Once he got an extremely reluctant agreement from his dad he was off on the train. As he gathered his luggage together he hugged his family goodbye and boarded the train. As he sat with a huge smile on his face he realized he was finally out of that bucking town. Finally he could record his tracks, make money, be himself, and possibly find somepony to call his companion.
Author's Note
Well this is the first of many chapters. Hope you enjoyed! If you notice any grammar mistakes please politely tell me about them in the comments and expect the next chapter sometime in the next two weeks.
Special thanks to smiletface1010 for a (late) edit on some of the few mistakes this had.
Chapter 2: Pros and Cons
Neon drunkenly stumbled through Canterlot wondering how he’d go out. Contemplating whether he should just jump off the side of Canterlot, or just drink until he stops breathing. Neon knew that he might survive drinking an abundance of liquor, and decided that the best way to go was in a huge splat of blood and guts. When he imagined the image of his body falling to the earth and breaking on contact he smiled, faintly, but it did make him smile.
As Neon approached the edge of Canterlot, he looked down and saw the huge fall that he faced. Now realizing how high up he was he gulped and shivered as he realized how high up he was. Neon knew for certain that this fall would kill him, there were no doubts about that, but he took a moment to think about what would happen when he died. He thought about Vinyl making millions by just mooching off his hard work. She’d use his death as a selling point by making a “Memorial to Neon” album which would be a list of his top ten songs. She’d claim the two were always best friends and only talked bad about each other for publicity. She’d lie to everyponies’ face just to get ‘that’ much more attention.
After facing that what he imagined was probably going to happen, he placed his forehooves on the railing and started to pull himself up. Then he remembered that he hadn’t made more than ten albums. Each of the albums he had made only had about thirteen to sixteen songs on it. With this newfound information he saw Vinyl crashing and burning before his eyes. Smiling at the idea of his biggest rival’s and ex-fillyfriend’s career failing, Neon now had a sense of hope.
He knew, given time, she’d run out of songs of his to remix. She’d have not content. Her fame would eventually fall.
Sugar Beats’ train had finally arrived in Canterlot. After a two hour train ride from his small town, Beats was finally able to let the new city sink in. This wasn’t the first time Beats has been to Canterlot, but it was the first time where he took it all in; the atmosphere, the architecture, and the people that lived there. Beats had felt like he was a big shot getting off that train and strolling into the city.
As much as Beats wanted to believe he was a famous, rich pony, he knew he had to start at the bottom of the music industry. He figured he may as well find a small record store and start there. If he wanted to get his name out he needed two things, money and a place to record his songs. The first step was to get money.
As Beats was admiring everything about Canterlot, he realized he had no clue where he was going. Just as he was about to ask somepony for directions, he was shoved aside by a few unicorns. He fell and hit his head on a nearby building. The next thing he saw darkness.
“I think you may have killed him, man.”
“What!? No! I…I couldn’t have killed him just like that!”
“Then call somepony to help and stop trying to help him yourself. We have a show to catch remember?”
“Well I’m sorry that I can’t leave someone who I could have possibly… killed”
Just as the word ‘killed’ was uttered, Beats slowly woke up. He felt pain near his head as he opened his eyes, wincing at the brightness of the sun.
“I think he’s waking up! I told you I didn’t kill him!”
“Whatever, man. Can we just go to the concert now?”
Beats slowly started to remember what had happened before he got knocked out. He lifted his head and looked around, putting the pieces of his memories into place. He didn’t have to ask the two stallions standing in front of him; it was pretty obvious these two were the culprits from what he’d heard.
Staring at the two stallions, that were bickering whether to leave for their concert or not, Beats decided to give them a piece of his mind.
“Who are you and what the hay is you guys’ problem? I just get to town and this is my welcome present?” yelled Beats. He stared at them with burning rage in his eyes, demanding an answer.
The two stallions looked at him in surprise and awkwardly answered his question.
The stallion who looked rather shaken up by the whole situation at hoof spoke out first. “I-I’m Blue Note, and this is my brother Bass Thrill. We’re really sorry about hitting you, it’s just that we’re trying to get to a concert and we’re a bit late.”
“A half an hour late, thanks to you,” added Bass.
“Shut up, Bass! I could have seriously injured this poor guy, but I’m lucky I didn’t.” retorted Blue. Now thinking about what he had just said, he turned his head to Beats and softly asked “You aren’t seriously injured… right?”
Beats touched a hoof to his head and winced at the pain. He spoke in a quiet, calm voice when he told them “It’s a small headache, but I’ll survive.”
As Blue sighed in relief, his brother had smacked him on the back of the head to get his attention. “Can we go now? She probably already played her best songs.”
Blue rubbed the back of his head from his brother’s smack and told him to wait a minute. Bass groaned, knowing his brother would make him miss the whole concert.
“I’m really sorry about all this happening to you on the day of your arrival. To make it up to you, my brother and I have an extra ticket to the concert we’re going to tonight.”
Hear his brother mention the extra ticket, Bass stepped into the conversation. “Whoa there, we were going to sell that ticket so we could buy some...” Bass quickly looked around to see if anypony was near them then leaned in and whispered, “Moon dust.”
Blue showed a sudden face of anger and looked directly at his brother in disgust. “Bass! I told you that I wasn’t going to do drugs with you! If anything, we’re giving this stallion the ticket.”
The two brothers started arguing over what to do with the ticket and Beats watched them. After a few minutes, Beats decided to speak up. “Hey, I’d love to take the ticket. Unless, of course, you guys wanted a police report.” Beats looked at them mischievously.
Bass looked at him with a look of anger and worry. “You wouldn’t dare…”
Beats simply smiled and . “Well I might have a concussion, and you guys had no reason to push me, so it seems like a pretty fair police report.”
Bass looked at him with a distraught face and reluctantly agreed. He took the extra ticket out his saddlebags and handed it to Beats.
“Thank you.” Beats said to the golden unicorn with the brown mane. Beats had turned to Blue and spoke softly. “Don’t worry about that police report. I’m not that type of pony.”
“B-but you… So you just said that to get the ticket?” Blue asked in a shocked tone.
“Hey it worked, didn’t it?” Beats responded.
Bass looked at him with a sly smile, “I like the way you roll. What’s your name, anyway?”
Beats gave him a smile and politely responded to the golden unicorn, “Beats, Sugar Beats. Born and raised in Dodge Junction. I just came to Canterlot today.”
Bass’ younger brother spoke up “Well I apologize for shoving you over. I hope we can be friends somehow.”
Beats responded to the dark blue pony with the silver mane, “Well sure, as long as you promise not to shove my head into a building again.”
“Sure thing!” Blue agreed and began to laugh.
The three ponies broke out into a heap of laughter for the next few minutes until Beats had spoken up.
“So, where is the concert anyway?”
"In the square. It's kind of like a public show, but these tickets let us get closer to the front, and we might even get a chance to meet the DJ herself." Bass politely answered.
Beats nodded and started following the two to the concert. There was a silence between the three of them as they continued to trot towards their destination. Beats spoke up again, “So, who exactly are we going to see today?”
Both brothers looked at him, realizing they hadn’t mentioned who they were going to see. Blue spoke up, “Only the most talented DJ Equestria has to offer!”
Beats knew there were a lot of talented DJs out there and he hoped to a part of that list one day. As he thought of all the DJs he had listened to he couldn’t pinpoint one that had really stuck out as “Equestria’s best”, so to speak. After thinking it over he asked another question.
“…And who would that be?”
Both brothers looked at him and said in unison, “Vinyl Scratch!”
Just as Neon had found a small reason to not jump he began to hear something that completely changed his mind. There was a faintness of music in the distance, but it was too faint to hear the actual song being played. Neon decided that he’d go see who was playing.
After a quick gallop around a few blocks, he realized the music was sounding more familiar. Before he made the final turn towards the source of the sound he had realized what song was playing. It sounded almost identical to his good friend’s song, Trotting Deserts by Rocking Rhythm, just poorly remixed. Neon had stopped dead in his tracks as he began to shudder at the thought of who was playing a horrendous remixed version of Rocking’s song. All his thoughts had come to one conclusion. There was only one pony that would dare remix a song like that, Vinyl.
Neon slowly leaned his head around the corner to find a crowd of ponies swarming around a small stage. Atop that stage sat a turn table and a white unicorn behind it. This wasn’t any white unicorn, but the one he had feared that he’d find.
It’d come to his realization that there were tons of other artists out there that Vinyl could steal from. Neon thought that she only wanted his music, but she doesn’t seem to care who she steals from, she just wants fame.
Neon’s legs gave out as he fell on street as he began to cry. It was over, Vinyl would take any song she could find, remix it and call it her own. He sat there and cried for the longest time. He didn’t know how long he laid there crying but eventually a guard had told him to move along.
Neon grabbed his last few bits and bought all the liquor he could from the nearest store. He sat down in a nearby alleyway crying and drinking. He could hear Vinyl’s stolen songs faintly playing and the sound of ponies cheering. As he sat and drank his liquor, he decided that he would jump off the edge when he finished his last bottle. With that, he just let the reality that his life was over sink in as he sipped and listened to the faint music.
Author's Note
Yay, the next chapter is here. It isn't superbly long, but it only took a few days. Which brings me to ask, would you guys rather frequent updates but only about 2000 or so words. Or rare updates with 6000+ words or so. Either way the story will stay the same. PM me or comment to tell me what you think.
Special thanks to smileyface1010 for editing this chapter for me.
As the day slowly went by, drop and drop of liquor flowed into Neon’s maw. He sat in the alley listening to original artists’ music be slandered by Vinyl Scratches excuse for a remix. After killing the bottle he was holding, he tossed it to the wall in front of him and watched it shatter. What started out as a bottle full of goodness were now jagged pieces of glass waiting to be swept away. Sorta like Neon. He started to sob a bit as he looked over to his final bottle; he slowly popped it open and guzzled it down with tears in his eyes. Know what fate awaited him; he glanced over at the edge of Canterlot and sighed.
“Well, this is it, Neon. Now maybe people will remember who you were.”
He shakily stood up and hobbled over to the edge only to run into three ponies that seemed to be in a hurry. He took a pony’s knee right to his chin and hit the ground afterwards. Seeing blackness close in around him, he faintly heard a pony say, “Celestia, Dammit! Not again.”
A FEW MINUTES EALIER
Sugar Beats and his new found “friends” were chatting it up when Bass suddenly stopped and his ears twitched.
“Guys! She’s playing songs I haven’t even heard before! Come on! We gotta get there pronto!”
Blue looked towards Beats and gave him a ‘you okay with running’ look, to which his answer was a slight nod from the yellow unicorn before they started to rush off. The two brothers lead the pact and seemed to almost be racing each other to see who could get there first. Beats just trotted at a moderate pace behind them knowing he’d catch up eventually. As he started to admire the sights in Canterlot he looked ahead to see a drunk homeless pony sprinting out at Blue and Bass. He quickly shouted at them to be careful and watch out, but the second he did the homeless pony was already unconscious on the street.
“Celestia, Dammit! Not again.”
Bass yelled at the now unconscious stallion, going on a rant about how the world just doesn’t want him to see Vinyl Scratch. Beats on the other hand was more concerned about the condition of this poor pony. He wondered up to him to see if everything was alright. He realized who it was, one of his inspirations, one of the best, the first DJ to sell out Canterlot Theatre. Neon Lights, MC W1SH, whatever. It was him! Beats wanted to meet him his whole life and here he was unconscious on the street in tattered clothing. Wait… This wasn’t right. Last he heard Neon was taking a hiatus for being overstressed and uninspired. Then again, not many celebrity magazines make to Dodge Junction so things could’ve went downhill. As the two brothers argued at each other for a while, Beats told the two to shut up and explain to him what happened to Neon recently. They told him that Neon and Vinyl got into a relationship dispute and Neon went nuts afterwards claiming false accusations against her.
That’s not right, Beats remembered reading how humble and lovable Neon was when he was famous. Beats knew that if he could just wake him up, he could get the answers. Blue and Beats decided to stay put until the washed out artist could wake up. Bass was forced to stay due to him being the one to deliver this blow to Neon’s chin.
20 MINUTES LATER
Neon finally started to show signs of life once again and started to move slowly. He was greeted by a flood of words that went too fast for him to hear. Not like he cared too much about them anyway. He looked at the stallion talking to him and looked over to the edge. Oh right, the edge. After looking around with hazy vision he started to slowly get up on his wobbly hooves. He looked at the three ponies staring at him with concerned faces, and seemed to be mouthing words. Like he cared about what they were saying anyway. Who are these ponies? Oh right, in his way, that’s what they are. Neon started to limp quickly forward and pushed Blue and Bass out of the way and made a hobbled sprint towards the edge.
After getting to the rail he shoved his upper body over only to be left dangling by his hooves off the side of the city. The three ponies from before were keeping him alive by holding his feet, he started to thrash violently to escape with little avail. After struggling with them, he was pulled back up and sat down on a nearby bench. Still unable to hear the three ponies, he decided to try to tell the three of them.
“EYEE CONT HUR U GISE” He blurted out in his drunken, slurred speech.
The three ponies looked at each other and got the gist of what he said. Beats let the two brothers rush off to the concert and was left alone with Neon. He was able to get directions to the nearby clinic to help Neon get some rest and recover a bit from what Beats could see was a very shaky day. Neon was given an IV, a bed, some painkillers, and a spell that would restore his hearing soon. Beats stayed with him for about a half an hour and was asked to leave so Neon could get some rest. Beats figured he’d head out to the concert and meet up with Blue and Bass and see how good this Vinyl Scratch was. He took one last look back at where Neon was staying and prayed he’d be better soon. Sugar Beats walked away, still curious as to what happened to one of his favorite artists of all time. Beats could only wonder as he headed off towards the square with ticket in hoof.
Author's Note
Well, well, well, looky hear. See guys, I'm alive (sorta) and totally am still writing chapters. How long has it been? A year and two months? Well maybe I won't have such a long time between updates, but I'll have to see. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this and thanks for reading.
