Prologue Part Three: Discordant Tones

"Ok, so there are three main types of ponies: Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies. Pretty self explanatory. There are also four alicorn princesses." Twilight explains as we walk through the streets of Canterlot.

"Wait, you're a princess?" Athena asks

"Yes...although I don't really have a domain, so I'm more involved with the everyday life.

Since the station, Twilight's been trying to gives us the Sparknotes version of Equestria for Dummies. Though its a bit hard to pay attention with all the posh ponies giving us strange looks ans whispering to each other. I try to ignore them by staring around at the the city, with the castle looming overhead.

"So is that where your...um....princess lives?"

"Princesses. Princess Celestia who controls the rising of the sun, and Princess Luna who controls the rising of the moon."

"So, tell us about this rocking band we've heard about. Mr Wright's kept us in the dark about the details." Athena says.

Twilight's expression blanks for a second before she quickly recomposes herself.

"Well, there's Concerto on the violin, of course, then there's Octavia Melody on the cello, Vinyl Scratch's usually mixing tracks and scratching records, Neon Lights's got vocals and guitar, and Frederic Horseshoepin plays piano."

"So are they on a tour or something?"

"Yeah, their manager's holding one last concert in Equestria before they head on tour to other countries"

"Who's the manager?"

"Hmm... I actually haven't gotta clue, but who cares about a manager anyway?

(Even after knowing Twilight for twenty minutes, this seems a bit out of character for her/)

We come upon a giant marble building that has hundreds of columns running around it. Red carpets sit upon the sidewalks leading to the entrance.

"Here we are! This is the Tremelo Concert Hall." Twilight answers.

June 20

Tremelo Concert Hall-Lobby

We enter into the main lobby, which could be called the epitome of opulence. Crystal chandeliers, golden staircases, and ponies dressed in suits and dresses.

"Wow...I wonder how many cases we'd have to take on to even afford a chandelier." Athena says aside to me

(We'd probably work harder than Santa's elves.)

We let the ushers scan our tickets, and we head into the Concert Hall.

June 20

Tremelo Concert Hall-Concert Hall

As expected by the genre of the concert, most of the ponies either don't wear any clothes or are wearing semi-formal attire.

We take our seats, which take up a good portion of the front row.

"Hey Athena, what time is it?"

"It's currently 6:27...we still have thirty minutes until the concert."

"Oh hey! There's Vinyl and Neon!" Twilight says excitedly. "You guys want to meet two of the band members?"

"Sure, might as well do something for thirty minutes."

We walk over to the two unicorns,who look to be involved in a heated discussion.

"...I don't care Vinyl. He's the manager, so what he says goes." Neon says curtly.

"Hey man! He can't think he's just going to come in willy-nilly and start firing people! If I get the chance, I'll make sure he knows that he can kiss my..."

"Ohhh....Hey Twi...uh...sorry about you having to hear that..." Vinyl apologizes, slightly blushing. "You guys must be Mr. Wright's friends! I'm DJ-P0N3, a.k.a. Vinyl Scratch. I was the mixer for the band until a few minutes ago."

"What happened?" Athena asks.

"Ask Nylon Tights over there...the manager relayed his message through him."

"My name's N...."

Suddenly, a cell phone starts to ring.

"Sorry, this will only take a sec..." Neon says.

"Hello?...Actually, its pretty quiet out here. Vinyl's out here two btw...Yeah, kinda............What soun...??.........Yeah, I'll be there in a sec."

"Who was that?" Vinyl asks

"Frederic. Apparently he locked himself in his room accidentally. I'm gonna go unlock the door for him. I'll be right back."

Neon turns and walks into the security station.

"He must think Frederic's more important than our conversation...Don't get me wrong. Neon rocks, but sometimes he's so one-track minded." Vinyl says with a hint of annoyance.

"So what are you going to do now, Vinyl?"

"I'll probably stay for the performance so I can stare at them and make them feel uncomfortable."

"That's not really nice..."

"Yeah, well neither are they. Someone needs to do something about the manager, and the band won't stand up for me. They're afraid of him for some reason..."

"Who's your manager?"

"His name is...."

Suddenly, Neon comes galloping back with a security guard in toe.

"Princess, there's a situation. Our A/V guy's been knocked unconscious and he's bleeding! Come quick!"

June 20

Tremelo Concert Hall-Security Office

We all run after the security guard into the security office. He starts to frantically grab clipboards and starts to hand them to us.

"What's taking so long?!?!" Neon asks

"These people aren't cleared to go backstage...I need their names, hoofprints, date of birth...standard procedure"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle commands you to override the procedure. Somepony's life is at stake!"

Suddenly, the whole office is shrouded in darkness.

"Of all the times to have a blackout! Someone find the fuse box, quick!" the guard shouts.

I start feeling the wall in vain for the switch, with every fleeting moment a greater chance of something terrible happening to the A/V guy.

"Found it!" Vinyl says.

I hear a click and lights come flickering on.

"Ok...manual override....ok! The door's open!" the guard assures.

June 20

Tremelo Concert Hall-Performer's Area

We clamor into the backstage hallway and before us lays a sky blue unicorn stained scarlet by his long main and a small pool of blood.

"Oh Celestia!... Call that ambulance!" Twilight orders,

The guard rushes back into security while Neon starts to feel the unicorn's neck, then waits.

"He's still had a pulse..."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Tavi!!!" Vinyl yells.

She gallops down the hall and we follow. Neon opens the second door on our left, and a tan earth pony walks out.

"What happened?" Frederic asks concernedly

"Frederic, it's Level, he's been hit on the head hard."

"NEON!" Vinyl screams.

We all run down to the end of the hallway, where we see what Vinyl is staring at.

"AHH!" I breath. Even after all this time, I still can't get adjusted to seeing blood."

On the floor of the dressing room in the far corner lies a brown earth stallion with a cocoa mane, practically swimming in a pool of blood from numerous abrasions on his back and one on his head. Beside him lies a pipe, covered in blood. A shivering gray earth mare clutches her cello.

"No...I...I..."

"Coming through!"

We see the guard followed by an EMT entering from a back door along with several more guards. Two more go straight to load Level onto a stretcher.

"Ahh...there's another...". The security guard exclaims, now seeing the limp earth pony. An EMT enters the crime scene. After feeling the victim's neck, he shakes his head.

Two guards come forward.

"Octavia Melody, you are under arrest for the murder of Concerto and the assault of Level Headed." One guard says while placing one handcuff on his hoof and the other on Octavia's

Octavia shakes herself out of her stupor.

"No! I never laid a hoof on him! Please, you have to believe me!" Octavia cries.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law..." The the other guard recites as they lead Octavia out the door.

"No...there's no way Tavi would do that..." Vinyl says softly.