Chapters Don't Want to be a Canterlot Idiot
Light shock is what you might expect from an outcast. Often staying behind everyone else and would sometimes even act shy around others. He did however play guitar and on weekends worked at a local guitar store. He was on the school Tennis team but often found himself falling behind others on his team. That is until someone came along and gave him a much needed push in the direction he never expected.
Light Shock was standing behind the front counter at Graysons Guitars and today business as on most Sundays was slow. The place was located at one of the worst possible locations. If anyone were to come by the shop they would first have to walk into a nearly abandoned shopping mall minus a few department stores and walk up a flight of stairs into what used to be an arcade back in the 90's. The logo at the front of the mall reminded him it was a place but the inside reminded him it was a ghost town. The place was called Shining Plaza but Ghost Plaza seemed like a fitting name since the place stood practically empty even on Black Friday. A few people would occasionally come by on Saturday but it didn't make up for all the time Light wasted standing lifeless with only a magazine to keep him entertained. His boss would sometimes let him go out front of the shop and play one of the display guitars to attract a few customers.
He made sure to play something anyone could recognise so his boss could only keep his hopes up that someone other than his reflection might walk through the marble floor of the mall and into his little shop. Today he was looking back at the yet again almost dead mall and his boss was off cleaning the display guitars like he did everyday to make them more appealing. He would have Light restring every display guitar he played and would make sure he placed everything in his ideal display case or rack. Since the owner of the mall was losing money to the point he had to cut back to the bare basics no music played through the mall. This added insult to injury as even with music the place still would have felt dead but music only would have created an illusion of a busy shopping mall. Today the shop owner was done polishing his shop from top to bottom and barely anyone had walked into the store today. It was Saturday and although some people would usually come in this was bare even for a Saturday.
His boss gave him the signal that he could start playing as a last ditch effort to bring in some business. This was the first time in the last two months he had played on a Saturday. He was thinking of a song to play when one band popped into his head. He decided he would play something that sounded good and went with urban decay. He decided to play the opening riff to Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He got to about the solo when finally he saw someone come in. He was about to make his way back to his station when he noticed something about this customer. She went to his school and was someone he least expected to be shopping at this lifeless mall. What he also noticed was that she simply didn't pass him up like most customers would and stopped to watch him play.
"Not bad man, but work on playing something a little more challenging." she finally said.
Compared to the little work Light Shock did at the guitar store receiving a compliment was very rare. Light Shock had simply no idea if he was flattered or should shrug it off and return to his little spot behind the counter.
"Names Rainbow Dash why don't we meet up sometime soon since I need someone who can play." Rainbow Dash added.
"Are you sure you can't find someone with maybe a little more experience" exclaimed Light Shock.
Rainbow Dash shrugged this off as Light Shock being too down on himself and before leaving gave him a wadded up piece of paper with a phone number on it. Now all Light Shock had to do was sit back for three more boring and lifeless hours before he could call the number Rainbow Dash gave him. He was hoping it might be Rainbow Dash's personal phone number since Light Shock did think she was kind of cute despite him being a downer even around her. His shift was going by at a snails pace down to the last hour when his boss would go from a feeling of optimism to downright anger over yet again losing money. He had to pay tenant rent to the mall and barely made enough money to break even to the rent. As closing time finally came only one daily challenge still faced Light Shock. When darkness finally struck the mall the owner refused to keep any of the hallway lights on and only the first floor lights to save money. It was so dark Light Shock often brings a flashlight with him for after his shift. His flashlight provided some light to what seemed to be the signature look of urban decay. The place still looked nice deep inside but it still showed age. the place hadn't been renovated since the 90's and navigating was confusing since the place had two floors but barely any stores open.
When Light Shock finally managed to get to his car he had to spend a few minutes to get the heat working properly since he was freezing at this time of January. The time he spent driving home was spent worrying about tests and project due dates and how he was going to catch up in pre calculus with a D in the class. He would pass by Canterlot High with it's great exterior and would try to think of how lucky he might be. It was a nice school and everyone seemed to get along fine with a few exceptions and everyone believed in showing the best of themselves. His mom had already made dinner and Light Shock was able to convince his parents he would handle dinner himself. He stopped by a local pizzeria called Phillips Pizza and waited half and hour. When he finally got in his car to eat he decided it was time to look. He pulled out his phone and while pulling open the pepperoni and sausage pizza he ordered he looked at the number. He saved it under his contacts and labeled it RD. He then decided that he needed to call before he went through another boring day. He was delighted to hear Rainbow Dash's voice after the third ring and had simply one question.
"Rainbow Dash why did you stop to watch me play guitar earlier when you said I needed to play something better?"
"Well I never said you need to play something better and you actually sound quite good, Tell you what meet me at school tomorrow at 6:30 AM before school and bring your guitar" replied Rainbow Dash.
"So what if I don't prefer to show up and waste an hour before school playing guitar with you."
At this point Rainbow Dash was already getting sick of his negative outlook and decided it was time to show even more reality to his face in a final hope that he might wake up. Especially since Light Shock was stuck with even a job that required minimal human contact
"Well if you wish not to come then perhaps you can go back to your dead end life with no saving grace." Replied Rainbow Dash
"Fine but this better not be another stupid before school prank like the one the seniors pulled last year" Said Light Shock as he remembered the time the seniors tricked him into coming to school nearly two hours early and then locking him in as they convinced Principal Celestia to lend them a key".
As the conversation came to a close Light Shock thought about how he always played air guitars to the Beatles when he was little and thought of how cool it would be to be in a band. As cool as it seemed to soon be playing close to Rainbow Dash Light Shock still had matters to take care of and decided to quickly finish his pizza before his parents spammed his phone wondering where he was.
Light Shock came home to find his parents had likely gone off to bed and a house only lit by a lamp in the living room. He scurried to his room to do home work when he came across his dad watching TV near the family room. He glared by to see him watching Star Trek before slowly closing his door and pulling out his Chemistry test review guide. Light Shock spent hours that night studying but would stop to watch a video before going right back to work like a robot. He eventually fell asleep with one hand under the sheets and set his alarm for 5:00 AM. He got out of bed as soon as he heard the first chord to Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin coming from his phones alarm clock and got ready. He made sure he got his guitar and it was tuned. As he drove away in his car he could find his phone still at a 90% battery life and made sure his guitar was in the backseat. He pulled up to the renaissance looking school of Canterlot High and through the grand front walkway until he reached the grand double door leading into the school. He went in with the scenery of the grand hallway looking all the more impressive by early morning in the dark and quickly made his way to the school marching bands practice room where Rainbow Dash told him to go
He had found the music hallway after a nice walk through the freshmen hallway with all those early high school memories flowing through his brain like a bad omen and quickly found the marching band practice room. When he opened the door he found Rainbow Dash sitting in a chair by the front of the room however she wasn't alone.
Don't Want to be a Canterlot Idiot
Light Shock could see a younger woman sitting close to Rainbow Dash and someone else close by with a worn down guitar. Light Shock was wondering if he should either sit down around them or wait until Rainbow Dash told him to hurry up and play.
"Well Light Shock why don't you come over here so we can get going and stop staring at us." said Rainbow Dash as she looked over at Light Shock.
"Oh I'm sorry so what are we playing and who are these other people here." replied Light Shock.
"This is Sunset Shimmer and Scootaloo and right now I'm teaching them a few songs by Nirvana."
Light Shock collected his guitar from his light leather case and pulled out a chair from the bag of the room. He could hear Scootaloo trying to play Lithium while Sunset Shimmer followed close behind. Light Shock took out his guitar and found an amp close by his chair. It looked fairly limited compared to the one Light had at home and he had to carefully plug in his guitar to make sure the amp worked.
"Ok listen up, today me and Sunset Shimmers will work on the intro to Fade to Black, I'll play lead and Scootaloo will play rhythm." said Rainbow Dash as she pulled out her shining darker shaded blue guitar.
"As for Light Shock and Scootaloo you can go and play some Nickelback."
"Why would we play Nickelback" said Light Shock
Rainbow Dash gave back a humourous glare and said "Well it's just a joke I make to anyone who comes in you won't have to play any Nickelback but for now you can work on some Nirvana since Scootaloo here needs to practice."
Light Shock was in relief as he feared that Rainbow Dash might have had them play Nickelback songs. He was trying to remember the chords for the song In Bloom by Nirvana thinking it might make a good song for practice. Scootaloo and Light Shock gathered by the worn down amp and Light Shock was trying to show Scootaloo how to play In Bloom. Things seemed to be going fine and Scootaloo was following along with the music at a consistent pace. Finally after playing the opening and letting Kurt Cobain's vocals flow through the room Scootaloo decided to ask a question.
"Light Shock why does every Nirvana song sound like Kurt Cobain's depressed." asked Scootaloo
"Well thats how grunge always worked and besides for someone who shot himself so early in his career Kurt sure seems to send his message."
Rainbow Dash looked back at Light Shock and decided to join in on talking about Kurt Cobain
"Hey Light Shock for someone who's about as happy as Kurt Cobain off of heroin you sure seem like a ray of sunshine." said Rainbow Dash from across the room while the sounds of James Hetfield in Fade to Black and Kurt Cobain filled the room.
"Well if you want my opinion this music sounds like a ray of sunshine." said Light Shock as he glared back at Rainbow Dash and watched as Rainbow Dash was enjoying these small laughs in between playing. Rainbow Dash decided it was time to take things up a notch and make a move so she could test Light Shocks guitar skills.
"Well for someone who sounded good yesterday why don't we see if you live up to that little compliment."
Rainbow Dash thought for a second as she thought of some songs to play. She would play something fast and brutal, something that would truly take some skill to play flawlessly.
"I got it why don't me and Light Shock go back and play Raining Blood" said Rainbow Dash with a grin
Light Shock grabbed his guitar and quickly grabbed his ipod to turn the song on. He thought that if Rainbow Dash wanted some competition she was about to get some competition she would never forget. He was great at playing Raining Blood and knew that now was the time to compete.
"Ok for this competition I guess we can play the opening and maybe the solo if you can keep up and go without your guitar sounding like a cluttered mess" said Rainbow Dash
The song opened with the signature sound of a thunderstorm and as quickly as lightning their fingers moved around so fast that Scootaloo and Sunset Shimmer looked back with their mouths practically wide open. Kerry Kings voice blared through as if hell itself had infested the room. They went through the song with confidence and not the sound of one wrong note. However when the solo was about to begin they could hear a sound that wasn't part of the song but these were human sounds as well.
"Oh crap teachers nearby hurry turn everything off and run before we get caught" said Rainbow Dash
"Wait get caught?" said Light Shock with a look of confusion.
"Well we don't exactly have a permit to be here and I was going to tell you earlier but I kind of never got to it."
"Well for gods sake how do we get out before we get caught." said Scootaloo
Rainbow Dash looked around the room and saw that there were two doors in the band room. One of them though was an emergency exit.
"Well there goes my clean slate." said Sunset Shimmer
"Well then only one way out and I sure hope it works" said Rainbow Dash
As soon as that everyone ran out with the equipment in hand and everything was going well.
"Well that was a close one." said Scootaloo
"Well school starts soon and we better put this away before anyone thinks we stole it or something since carrying all this equipment at this time in the morning looks shady." added Rainbow Dash.
With that in mind everyone scurried to put the equipment away and grab their bags to blend in with everyone as some kids were already pulling into the school driveway. Now that Light Shock was done with the morning of joy it was back to a boring reality.
Don't Want to be a Canterlot Idiot
Time Stands Still When Your Life is Boring
Light Shock found himself walking through the schools grand hall yet again. He was walking through the grand hall with it's splitting paths and various hallways. He was standing by the junior hallway now. He was hurrying along to his locker since his first period chemistry class was two hallways away and his locker was a mess. It was filled with crunched paper and a couple of posters held only by a piece of tape. He would often have to lean into it to make sure anyone walking by wouldn't see the mess that was his locker.
As he was walking away from his locker he came across Rainbow Dash, however she was not alone. She was walking along with five girls but only a couple could Light Shock recognize. He knew the lead of the group, Twilight Sparkle was in his first period chemistry class and would often help Light Shock. He often had trouble going along with the teachers pace and would sometimes doze off. The first person he would always ask for help was Twilight since she was always on task and knew what she was doing. However she would get occasionally angry at him for not paying attention but was still generally a pleasant person to be around.
As for the second person he knew everyone knew Pinkie Pie. She was very energetic and would sometimes even jump around as a substitution for walking. Of course most people would take this in the direction that she must have ADHD but most people don't mind it since she generally is a very uplifting person to talk to. I tried to wave to Rainbow Dash in hopes she would at least see my presence. By this point I didn't really have anyone to talk to and simply went off to first period.
As I walked along to first period I saw Sunset Shimmer this time. She seemed to be alone and everyone was either ignoring her or giving her weird looks. Light Shock wanted to stop by but had to hurry back over to class.
"Light Shock how the hell did you not understand that"
Twilight was helping Light Shock as he stood by his desk wielding test tubes and experimental chemicals. Light Shock had trouble understanding the periodic table so he looked at some of the chemicals in confusion. Twilight had to practically carry him to finish the experiment as he continued to struggle. He was happy Twilight would help him since everyone in the classroom would have likely told him to go away.
"Look Twilight thanks for your help and all but now that I'm almost done can I tell you something about Rainbow Dash."
"Anything really, Rainbow Dash is a friend and you can tell me whatever you want to tell me about her." replied Twilight as she rushed to wash away the test tubes and store them in the back of the room with the rest.
"Well I was with her this morning and we were playing guitar in the band room and I wanted to ask exactly why she's so good."
"Rainbow Dash was the lead in a band I was part of for a music contest and we still play together, but of course Rainbow Dash likes to do her thing".
Light Shock was now wondering as he packed up to leave first period who else might have played with Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. After the bell rang he found himself wondering just why he had never heard about the competition and their band. He had to hurry along for the rest of the day and make sure he got the chance to talk to Rainbow Dash.
At lunch later that day he was looking for a place to sit. The first thing he saw was Rainbow Dash with her friends. He walked along and noticed Sunset Shimmer was sitting near the back but almost alone. She could see Scootaloo was at the table as well with a couple of friends. Light Shock walked over as he grabbed his sandwich and Mountain Dew he had packed.
"Hey Light Shock what are you doing here the Rockers are to the left." said Sunset Shimmer
"Well I guess I can sit with you and talk about our plans tomorrow for practice"
Scootaloo stopped talking to her friends and veered over to Light Shock to join in on the conversation.
"Hey Light, this is Applebloom and Sweetie Belle." said Scootaloo
"Hey I'm Light Shock as you likely already know but I couldn't find anywhere else to sit but here."
As Light Shock remembered what he wanted to ask about Twilights band he wondered if now was the time. He thought that maybe something had gone on between Sunset and Twilight causing them to split up.
"Hey Sunset what exactly went on between you and Twilight." asked Light Shock.
"Well it wasn't just her and her friends I used to be enemies with but at one point or for a couple of years I should say I was terrorizing the entire school sending them in a state of fear."
"Now I don't see anyone wanting to be my friend but Twilight and her friends showed me forgiveness and after the music competition I showed them that I could play so Rainbow Dash took me in as her apprentice."
Light Shock was intrigued and curious for details on the events and why it was Twilight who ended her reign of terror around the school as Sunset explained how Twilight came out of almost nowhere and denounced her monarch reign.
"Well I myself just transferred here a few months ago and I'm honestly not that amazed that few people talk about these events since they must have been dark times for the school.
"Look Light Shock I'll give you my number I don't want to talk about much more now" replied Sunset
As lunch came to an end Light Shock was now wondering what Sunset Shimmer didn't want to tell him and if there might be more to this than he knows even after the revelations worth of information that came out of Sunset Shimmer.
Light Shock was back at the guitar shop and the owner was becoming impatient again as talks of the mall closing were circulating around.
"Damnt, for such a formerly great location I don't see anyone here, it's like I live in an empty wasteland." ranted Light Shock's boss
Light Shock was behind the desk again looking at some old magazines and a memo from the mall owner about filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. He was the second owner to file for such a title as the mall always seemed to struggle yet stay open since the holding group always seemed to have money to shell out. It was just then when a hint of inspiration his Light Shock. He thought that since the mall was so dim and seemed like a ghost town maybe he could call Sunset Shimmer and convince her to come to the mall to talk. They would talk by the almost empty food court on the first floor of the mall close to the old theater.
Light Shock waited for his shift to end before walking down to the food court to check if anyone was near. The place was pitch black but luckily the lights still worked as he was still able to see all the worn down and abandoned restaurant serving stations. The only place still hanging on was Ben's Grille which was on it's last leg. Luckily Ben was gone and now Light Shock was left with only one task which was convincing Sunset to meet him at the mall so they could talk.
