It had been a few days since the whole "surprise party" incident. Zephyr had cut all interactions and ties with the five mares that had set it up, refusing to see eye-to-eye with them. At this point in time, Pinkie was the only one he still felt any sort of connection to as a friend because they went through that whole ordeal together.

True to his word to Pinkie, Zephyr managed to get the wind current schedules sent directly to him from Cloud Conduct, though the first one included a letter expressing confusion and concern over the situation. Zephyr didn't bother responding to it. He went back to his original mindset: He was only here for a year to help manage wind currents, nothing more.

He even abandoned the Manehatten VIP ticket Harpsong gave him. While he did feel bad about it, he also didn't want to chance meeting those he had bad blood with. He figured it would be happier in somepony else's hooves.

Pinkie Pie, while still friendly with Zephyr and vice versa, was distraught over his reluctance to forgive her friends. She kept trying to convince him to not give up on the friendships with the others so quickly. If Zephyr had to be honest, the only reason, besides contractual obligations, why Zephyr hadn't left Ponyville yet was because of her.

Jeez, that makes me sound like I'm in love with her...

A couple days later, Zephyr got a letter from Harpsong asking if the birthday party his friends threw was fun. While he was surprised that it was his birthday that day, it still prompted him to write a stern reply, telling her not to write anything more about him to Twilight. Last thing I need is Twilight knowing anything more about me, being connected to the royalty in Canterlot and all.

Zephyr hasn't seen Fluttershy or Rarity since the incident, though he kept telling himself that Fluttershy should be given some leeway since she was the main pony who helped him out of his depression a while back. Plus that whole incident was something she'd never plan. Though I wonder why I'm so confident in that assumption..?

During the whole time, Zephyr realized that part of him actually wanted to forgive and believe that all of them truly had good intentions with the party. That he was overreacting based on a past premise that should have been left behind.

The other part was more vicious about the disdain for them, constantly saying Zephyr let them off the hook far too easy, and that even Pinkie Pie was in on it somehow. It kept getting louder too. There are times when Zephyr just blanks out in the middle of the street, trying to keep himself under control. He usually snaps out of it once he manages to calm down again or--

"Excuse me sir?"

--When somepony talks to him. Zephyr shook his head to clear his thoughts before looking at the pony who talked to him. She was a royal purple mare with a blue muzzle, yellow and black mane styled similarly to the DJ at Zephyr's welcoming party, cyan eyes, and a cutie mark depicting a music note surrounded by electricity. "Are you Zephyr Earthwing?"

Zephyr immediately tensed up in suspicion. It wasn't often something like this happened outside of occasional greetings, plus he was still overly wary about opening himself up again. "Yes, I am..."

The answer got a smile. " I finally found you! Sorry about calling you out like that, I'm Electron Note and I help with volume control in music and the like, though I occasionally dabble in Electronic music."

"A... pleasure, but what do you mean by 'finally finding' me?"

She hesitated, as if she was trying to find the right words. "Have you heard of a band named Three Night's Grace?"

Zephyr pondered the question for a bit. "I think I have. One of their most popular songs is 'Animal I Have Become'."

She squeed in apparent delight. "That's us!" Seeing Zephyr's stunned look she added, "like I said, I use volume control to help make the instruments and vocals sound better. More specifically, I do it for that band."

Somepony from a fairly famous band searching for me? I've never... wait.

Snapping out of his stunned trance, Zephyr look at her with suspicion. "That doesn't explain why you said you 'found' me, though."

"Well our current band leader, Burst Mic, heard you sing at your welcoming party a while back. --"

Not that again...

"-- And he was very impressed by it. The current band leader and lead singer, Clean Octave, is on temporary leave, so Burst Mic thought you would be an excellent substitute."

That got a sigh. "So you want me to essentially become the reserve lead singer? Don't I need to go through auditions or something along those lines in order to apply for something like that?"

Electron smirks at the question. "Burst already got the all-clear from the higher-ups."

Now Zephyr was starting to internally panic. Not only was this inadvertently setting off his stage anxiety, but he didn't want to get roped into a band this early in life. Plus he was still reeling from his latest 'betrayal'. "Surely there are more talented singers out there?"

That prompted Electron to shake her head. "We already went through auditions. You're the only pony he has heard who exceeded expectations."

Way to lay more pressure on me.

Deciding to humor her, Zephyr mulled over it for a bit. "Do you have anything big planned right off the bat?"

She flashes a nervous grin. "We were... going to be one of the bands playing at the Manehatten Concerts. We are to be the last ones singing at the end, but Clean Octave won't be able to show up for it."

"And that's two weeks from now..."

Worst part about all of this is how guilty I will feel turning them down... I really can be a pushover sometimes.

Realizing that he was being easily pressured, Zephyr let out a defeated sigh. "Fine, we'll see how it will play out, but don't be surprised if it doesn't work out. I need to meet the other members before we can start on anything though."

Electron claps her hooves in joy before hugging Zephyr. "Thank you so much! The others will be meeting up here at Sugar Cube Corner tomorrow at lunch. I'll see you then!" She dashes off with a skip in her step.

The action made Zephyr stand there with a shell-shocked look. He knew he wasn't the smoothest stallion, so he wasn't used to hugs from anypony besides his mom. Hugs from mares in particular still make him antsy. Pinkie Pie tries to make it a point to give Zephyr a quick hug every once in a while and a few weeks ago even Rainbow Dash--

Zephyr immediately forced the thought out of his head and quickly dashed back home before he started saying nonsense in public that he would regret. For a split second he passed Twilight, but he didn't hear what she yelled due to him refusing to look at or slow down for her. A familiar feeling akin to water washing down his tail happened, but Zephyr ignored it.

As he slammed the door of the house shut and dashed upstairs, the shouting in Zephyr's head started up again. However, not only was it telling him he wasn't harsh enough to his treacherous ex-friends, but to also get away from getting roped into a band.

Feeling incredibly frustrated at everything going on, he slams a hoof into a wall. "I don't understand! Why am I still so... spineless?"

After a night of fighting himself on his decision, Zephyr ultimately chose to follow through with the band. However, he almost had a run-in with Applejack on the way. She seemed intent on tracking him down, presumably for the unorthodox way of quitting mixed with his avoidance. Even now, Zephyr still don't feel like dealing with her, so after he took a detour around the farmer's range of perception he reached Sugar Cube Corner.

Entering the building, Pinkie popped up in front of Zephyr with a smile. "Good almost-noon, Zephy! Have you tried making--"

"Good morning Pinkie. And no, I still don't feel like talking to the others yet." She visibly drooped at Zephyr's words. "Besides, I'm here on important business."

She 'poofed' back up again. "Oooh, what kind of business? Are you starting to make shady deals with shady ponies of shadiness?" That accusation was so incredulous that Zephyr opened his mouth to make a rebuttal when she gasped. "Or is it because you met with a member of an important band who is interested in making you a replacement singer because of how well you sang at your welcoming party?"

That got Zephyr to quickly look around in a panic before sighing in relief since nopony else was currently, and conveniently, in the bakery, despite it being close to lunch. "Pinkie, can you promise me not to make a big fuss about-- wait how did you know?"

"Lucky guess!" That got a facehoof in response. "Also because some ponies asked me to lead you to them when you arrived."

"Then why didn't you-- never mind." Zephyr followed her as she hops into a less visited part of the bakery and stored the conversation under the newly-created 'Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie' section of his mind. In the corner, he saw a group of five ponies in a quiet discussion.

As Zephyr approached, the red one notices and waves him over. "There's our up-and-coming stallion! How are you doing today, Zephyr?"

He was a Unicorn with a cutie mark of a mic on the backdrop of an explosion. Electron Note was sitting between a large grey Earth Pony, with a piano and a clip board cutie mark, and a yellow Pegasus mare with two sticks crossing over a drum. Beside her was a light-blue Pegasus stallion with a cutie mark of guitar strings. When he saw Zephyr, a narrow look of realization passed over his face for the briefest of moments before smiling.

"I'm... fine I guess." Zephyr took a seat and looked back up at Pinkie, who was waiting to take his order. "A coffee with two sugar, please?" This got a surprised reaction from Pinkie, before nodding happily and bouncing away.

The yellow mare gives Zephyr an odd look. "Pinkie usually never reacts that way, no matter how absurd the order is."

"Probably because she knows me personally and the fact that I don't normally drink coffee caught her off guard." Zephyr shakes his head with a sigh. "Maybe it's because I've been so bitter lately..."

Electron frowned at that. "You did seem a bit out of it when I ran into you yesterday."

Pinkie deposited Zephyr's cup in front of him and bounced away as he sighed again. "I had a... bit of a falling out with my ex-friends, you could say. That's not important though." He takes a sip and scrunched his muzzle at the bitter taste, still getting used to it.

Electron shook her head. "I guess we'll worry about that for another time. For now, introductions are in order!"

After a nod of agreement, she points to the red Unicorn. "This is Burst Mic, our... secondary leader. He's the back-up vocals while also playing the bass."

"Pleased to meet you."

Next was the grey Earth Pony stallion. "This is Iron Keys. He may look massive but he can play a mean piano when he's not managing our band." All he did was nod.

"On the other side of me is Snare Wingstick, our, and I quote, 'fastest drummer on this side of Equestria'."

The yellow Pegasus simply grins at Zephyr. "You really need to be less tense. Otherwise you're already cool in my books."

I got a strange sense of deja vu...

Electron rolls her eyes. "Somepony could make you a subpar flower steak and you'd be their best buddy." Ignoring the scathing glare Snare gave her she continued. "And last but certainly not least; our main guitarist, Yamaha Strings."

The blue stallion nods. "Just call me Strings. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." His accent made him sound like somepony who lived in Canterlot.

Zephyr nods to all of them. "You may already know me from Electron but I'll introduce myself anyways. I'm Zephyr Earthwing and I simply manage the wind here."

Snare snorts in laughter. "You're also Harpsong's colt and the one who saved Ponyville from getting blown over by rogue wind currents." That second item earned deadpan look from Zephyr, not expecting his name to stand out for something like that.

Burst shakes his head in amusement. "Now now, Snare, don't embarrass the newcomer even if he's only a reserve member. Sorry about that by the way, I'm betting you're somewhat disappointing at not being an actual member of the band."

"I'm actually okay with this set-up. I'm still wondering why you chose me of all ponies."

This time it was Strings who spoke up. "It was because of how similar you sounded to Clear Octave. At least that's what Burst says..."

Remembering one thing he could do as part of his talant, Zephyr put a hoof to his chin. "I guess you would want somepony to sound as close to the original singer as equinely possible. I'll confess, I do have a level of control over my singing voice so I can change it to fit the song's 'feel'."

Burst beamed in delight. "That makes you an even better candidate than before. Anyways, now that introductions are out of the way, let's discuss how we're going to do things..."

As Zephyr exits Sugar Cube Corner and heads home, he thought over the plans the band made again. Starting a few days from now, the group needed to practice together for the Manehatten concert. They were to play three songs: One of their old popular songs which is Animal I Have Become, one in the same album as the last song called Pain, and an entirely new song.

This is going to be stressful... not only because we need to perfect a new song entirely, but I also need to learn how to sing the other two songs. Guess it can't be helped since I--

"ZEPHYR! GET YER' TAIL OVER HERE!"

Zephyr groaned in irritation. "For the love of Discord's ambiguated mother, I do NOT want to deal with you right now, Applejack!" He tries to take off fast, only to get his tail grabbed in short order.

"Yer comin with me. Ah' don't care about what happened the other day. Ah' jus' want a proper explanation as to why you quit, especially with the way ya did!" She spoke through a mouth full of tail, but Zephyr understood her perfectly.

"I think you already know why I did that. Now let me go!" The pulling on his tail was, for some reason, getting painful and oddly tiring.

"No. Ahm'. Not."

"Let. Me. Go--" Pain suddenly lanced through his body, causing Zephyr to fell to the ground in pure shock, body and wings convulsing. What appeared to be blood vessels framed his vision as the agony that went through his body caused him to cough up a bit of blood before blacking out.

Applejack released the tail and looked at the now unconscious Zephyr, horrified at what just happened. All she wanted to do was drag him back to the farm and rake him over the coals. Not only for the way he acted before, but for the way he quit.

"Applejack, what happened?" She looked over to see Twilight galloping over with a worried face.

"Ah don't know, Twi. All I wanted was to find out why Zephyr quit working at mah farm the way he did an' this is what happened!" A half truth, since Applejack knew Twilight was still a bit soft on the Pegasus.

Twilight looked at Zephyr with a concerned look. "That's bizarre... no, no time to think. We need to get him to the library." Knowing she couldn't use her magic on him, she flipped Zephyr onto her back and started running.

"Why didn't you use yer magic?" Applejack was running right beside her with a confused look.

"I'll explain when we get there. Besides, he's actually very light to the point of barely being able to tell he's there." The two kept running until they got into the library. After Applejack got in, Twilight tried closing the door with her magic, but she wasn't getting a response from her horn that time either. "Applejack, could you close the door?"

She did so quickly before looking at her Unicorn friend questionably. "Why couldn't you close it yerself?"

Twilight sighed as she beckoned Applejack to follow her downstairs. "I think it has something to do with what happened yesterday and during the day of our... 'fallout'."

"What happened?"

"When I went to pick him up on his birthday and he was being stubborn, I tried to pick him up with my magic, only for it to fail. It was the reason why I was dragging him by the tail. Then yesterday, I tried to grab him so that I could talk to him but once again, when I used my magic to stop him, It felt like I was trying to grip a marble orb slathered in a slick liquid."

Applejack deadpanned. "Wait, yer saying he's resistant to yer magic?"

"More like immune. Even further than that, he seems to be canceling out my ability to use magic in the first place by being in contact with me." Twilight slides the unconscious Pegasus off her back in front of her testing machine before using her magic. "See, now I can use magic again. Anyways, could you fold his wings up for me? There's something I need to check."

Applejack hesitantly did so, very afraid of triggering another convulsion and blood-cough. She was taught by Fluttershy a while ago on how to fold a Pegasus' wing back against their body when they were knocked-out, something that happened to Rainbow Dash a bit too often for her tastes.

Luckily Zephyr didn't react and Twilight was able to get some kind of helmet onto his head. "Before you ask, Applejack, I'm going to measure his body's magic level. I saw what happened and it looked like a Pegasus symptom for extreme magic deficiency."

"Defice-what now?"

Twilight groaned. "It means a sudden lack of magic in the body. It doesn't happen very often in Earth Ponies or Pegasi, since they don't actively use magic as it's more of a passive effect for them, though there have been cases. Unicorns experience it more often BECAUSE of our ability to actively use magic, though symptoms range from tiredness to nausea."

Applejack simply kept silent through the explination, though it wasn't long before she was pacing around anxiously while waiting for results, hoping she didn't inadvertently do permanent damage. She may have hard feelings, but she refuses to act violent when nursing a grudge.

"Here we go!" Twilight held up a detailed chart regarding Zephyr's magic levels. She was curious about a label she's never seen before, but she found what she was looking for. "It appears his magic level dropped fifty percent from what it should be... halfway gone is worrying but still easy to fix."

Applejack let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "If it's an easy fix then ah'm glad I didn't do--" The helmet was suddenly strapped onto her head, replacing her stetson. "What in tarnation?"

"Apologies, but I want to check something quick before letting you go." Seeing her friend's apprehensive look, she chuckled nervously. "I guess I should've asked first, sorry."

" Well... if ya need to..."

The results oddly came back faster than for Zephyr, but Twilight dismissed it. "It seems you have an extra abundance of magic energy in your body."

"Are you telling me ah' absorbed energy from him, like a magic leech?"

"It appears to be the case. Luckily, extra magic reserves don't overly affect a pony other than allowing them to use their talent for a while longer before resetting back to normal parameters."

Applejack sighed while ignoring the science babble. "Yeah, lucky for ME. What about Zephyr? Ah don't wanna leech magic off him every time ah want to shake hooves or what-not." Shooting a scathing glare at the still unconscious Pegasus she added, "although he does kinda deserve it from the way he treated us that day..."

Twilight also sighed as she rubbed her temples. She knew the reason behind his abrasiveness thanks to Pinkie, which is why she was willing to wait patiently for him to come around. She herself didn't really believe in friendship either before the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco so she could, to some extent, sympathize. However, she also understood why Applejack and Rainbow Dash are so upset over it.

Putting her stetson back on, Applejack nodded at her friend. "Well ah got to get back to the farm. Big Mac went with Granny Smith to a relative's place and ah need to pick up the slack." Tipping her hat in respect, she climbed out of the basement.

"Don't over-exhaust yourself again!" Twilight waited a few moments before levitating a bottle containing a purple liquid. A while back, Zecora taught her how to make magic restoration brews in response to her desire to last longer than she usually does when practicing magic. The ingredients could be easily found in Ponyville as well.

"This should restore most of his magic." Since Zephyr's mouth was already open enough, she slowly emptied the bottle's contents into him after drying the blood from it. Once she was satisfied with the amount given, she picked him up and took him outside, flagging down a Pegasus to help her. It happened to be Derpy. "Could you take him back to his house for me? He's... had an incident happen and, while he should be okay with some rest, I can't take him home myself."

Derpy looked more than pleased. "Of course Twilight!" Her skewed eye suddenly corrected itself as she gave the Unicorn a curious look. "What happened to him anyways?"

"He.. uh... had some of his magic inexplicably drained from him, which caused him to black out. I gave him some magic restoratives that should take effect after a few minutes, so he isn't in danger." She gives a nervous smile, hoping the explination was enough.

Derpy stared a bit longer before shrugging and picking up the green stallion. "He's awfully light for somepony his size and physique." With that, she takes off.

Twilight watched the wall-eyed pegasus fly away before going back inside. She wanted to find out what that one label meant.

Author's Note

While this chapter wasn't heavily modified, I did change the band to a reference to Three Day's Grace instead of Dead by April. I feel they would be a more widely listened to band, plus there's a certain song I want to use instead of the one I actually used.