Chapters New World Jams in the Old World Era
It had been a long day in the town of Ponyville. The day itself had gone by quite quick, or at least, that's what it felt like. The ponies had done nothing but go about their business and do what they had needed to get done, for it was one of those days. The day where you finish your work early and just sit down and relax and listen to the ambiance that the town had to offer. Birds were more than likely to be said ambiance. But something about the air didn't feel right for most ponies, as if something was happening, most had turned down the feeling as just excitement for work to come to an end.
The town itself was almost deserted. Only seeing a stray pony here and there continuing their busy lives. But where had all of the others gone? Certainly the ponies here now thought it to be odd that the once bustling market square was now a ghost town. No. not a thought about it had passed through any of their minds. But one pony in this town, who had been looking down at the scene was curious to say the least. The purple pony princess named Twilight Sparkle had been the one who was overlooking the market square in her new crystal tree house.
"Where is everypony? This place isn't so dead by now usually." Twilight thought to herself.
She turned away from the window to stop herself from worrying to much, but, her efforts to do so were in vain. She had sat down at her desk and began to read, to see if that would calm her nerves. But, like the previous attempt, it had failed to do so. She shook her head, closed the book, and began to walk away from the desk.
"Spike." She yelled, trying to find the young dragon. But she got no reply. So she exited her room and went to the living room.
"Spike?" She called, again no answer. She stood there in silence.
"Where did Spike go?" She asked before a thought popped into her head.
"Maybe he's helping Rarity, I should probably go and check up on him."
Fast Foward to Carousel Boutique
Knock Knock Knock
"Rarity? It's me Twilight... Is Spike with you?" A second passed before movement from inside could be heard. The door was unlocked and swung open. There in the doorway was Rarity, wearing her trademark working glasses.
"Twilight, it's so good to see you darling, what brings you here? Oh, not that I'm not glad you came, it's just a little unexpected is all."
"Well, I was looking over the market and noticed it was empty, and I thought that was weird, long story short, I ended up looking for Spike and figured he would be here helping you."
"Hmm, that is a bit odd, but as for Spike, he is certainly not here, in fact, I haven't seen him all day, that also includes Sweetie Belle..."
"Maybe one of the others know where they are? Apple Bloom might know, they could have all gone crusading...?"
Fast Forward after meeting up with most of Main Six except Fluttershy
"Where is everypony?!" Twilight shouted to nopony in particular.
"No idea sugar cube, but we gotta keep looking, just in case we missed a spot."
"What about Fluttershy's place? They could be over there playing with the animals?" Rainbow Dash suggested.
"Why wouldn't they? The animals at Fluttershy's cottage are super-duper adorable! I could just pinch their cheeks." Pinkie Pie exclaimed as he brought her front hooves up to her cheeks. Everypony nodded their heads in agreement.
As they made their way to Fluttershy's cottage, a strange sound began to fill the air, as if somepony were playing a flute. But it was only loud enough to barely make out. But as they got closer and closer, the more of the flute they heard, the more they were drawn to it's source. And it's source seemed to be in the Everfree forest.
The five ponies made their way to Fluttershy's door and Twilight had been the one who knocked. Instead of the door opening, all that was heard on the other side was a meek, "Hello?" from their friend Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy, it's us, can we come in?"
Fluttershy had recognized the voice and proceeded to open the door for her friends.
"Oh, hello girls, what's going on?" She questioned in general surprise to see her friends at such a late hour.
"Fluttershy, do you know here, the crusaders and Spike are by any chance?" Twilight asked with hopeful eyes.
"Oh, I had seen them pass by awhile ago, but they were heading into the Everfree, and when I tried to stop them, they were already gone."
At this, everypony's face changed from one of hope to those of horror.
"Why would they do that?!
Seemed to be what they all thought.
"What about the music? The music coming from the forest?"
"It sounds nice, but a little scary. Music coming from the Everfree doesn't really happen that often."
"What do you mean by, 'that often'? This has happened before?"
"Sometimes, it's music, but other times, it just sounds like really loud sound. It's a bit frightening since all it does is play all night, but it's nice because they play such nice songs sometimes."
"What if Spike and the crusaders are in trouble and need help?! What if they're trapped by some wild animal and they get eaten?! What if-"
At that moment, magic had made it's way to Twilight's muzzle and kept it closed.
"Now now, Twilight, no need for getting the rest of us to start panicking. Where there is music, there is fun, and where there is fun, there is no danger at the moment. So wherever they are, it means they are protected enough to have fun and listen to music." Rarity reassured.
"Yeah, what Rarity said, but fer now all we can do now is wait for them to come back." Apple Jack said as she looked at the forest and up to the sky where there had been lights beaming from said forest. And in the background, all what one could hear was the thumping of music and the flashing of lights.
New World Jams in the Old World Era
Author's Note
Pay attention to this when I say it, I do not condone any actions that may be thought of happening in this chapter or any later chapter. Spike is 18 and I imagine the crusaders to be only a year younger than him. That does not mean I think it is okay to do as they did, nor does this note mean I think it is wrong, what you do is what you do. I have no say in what you do, and vice versa.
Leave criticism in the comments for me to read and leave love if you want to. I hope you all enjoy, I certainly did.
Party!
It was another normal day in Ponyville, except, it wasn't so normal. Ponies disappearing into the night and Everfree forest were anything but normal for this small town. Especially not for the residents of said town. One of those residents was taking it quite hard as he awoke from his slumber in his bed.
"What happened last night?" He asked nopony in particular as he clutched his head in pain. Something was obscuring his vision, he reached up to his face and took off what felt to be a pair of glasses. They were an odd thing to behold, while they held the same style as glasses. Instead of being for ponies with near or far sight, they seemed to just have a number of bars of plastic where the actual glass should be. He rolled over in his bed and held them up to the ceiling as he tried to inspect them.
"Where in the hay did I get these things?" Suddenly, a flash of what seemed to be a memory shot through his head.
It was a dark area, what had been moonlight was blocked by vines that had made up the ceiling and walls, and what little light that had escaped through the vines did little to help anypony's vision. But what they could see was the strangest part. There had been strategically placed speakers. and and some kind of creature, and that creature was some kind of hairless chimp? What ever it was, it just sat their on some kind of stage, tinkering with an odd machine. The creature in question had long flat black hair on top of his head, and he wore jet black and blue shades on his face. The rest of what he wore seemed to be a simple white shirt and white baggy pants.
"What is this place?" Spike asked aloud as he looked at his surroundings. And he wasn't the only one, a number of the teen population of Ponyville seemed to be there. Wondering the same thing. Having heard Spike, the creature looked up from his machine and looked upon the group of children. His face that had been emotionless a moment ago, was now sporting a wide grin.
Spike doubled over in pain as his headache had gotten worse as he thought. He proceeded to make his way from his room, to the bathroom. He opened the door to the bathroom and mad his way to the medical cupboard. He withdrew and opened a bottle of pills that had been for headaches like his own.
He dropped a couple of pills into his claws and threw back his head as he downed them. Spike closed the bottle and put it back into the cupboard along with the other bottles and containers. When he had closed the cupboard something caught his eye in his own reflection. And what he saw had horrified him. His scales, which had been purple and green, were now black with green flames designed into them. the fires themselves had been tipped with a purple hue, along with his spines. And on his tail, had been words that read 'Party Dragon' written in a way that seemed to make it look like a tattoo. And it was written on both sides of his tail, in purple ink.
Spike was shocked beyond belief, he couldn't even recognize himself anymore. He ran from the bathroom and made his way to Twilights room.
"Twilight!" He called out, trying to find his beloved sister and to see if she knew anything.
"Oh, Apple Jacks gonna kill me!" Apple Bloom paced in her room, trying to find a remedy to her situation. Not a second later a knock was heard at her door.
"Apple Bloom, ya in there? Where have you been all night sugar cube?"
"A-Apple Jack! Don't come in! I'm- uh - not decent!" Apple Bloom said trying to bide herself some time.
"What do ya mean 'not decent'? Apple Bloom, you've been gone all night, and when ya got back, you went straight to your room so we didn't have the chance to see ya."
"I'm sorry, just please, please, please , don't come in."
"What's got ya not wanting us to come in? Did you make a mess of your room when you got home?"
"It's not that, it's something worse."
"Worse? Alright Apple Bloom, We're comin in, I don't care what ya say, we have to help our little sister."
Before Apple Bloom could do or say anything, the door swung open and in the doorway was Apple Jack and behind her was Big Macintosh. The moment their eyes connected with Apple Bloom, everything went dead silent. Both of the older siblings eye's widened. What they had seen, was much worse than any dirty room. On Apple Bloom's flank had been something of interest, mainly, the purple writing and green flames that spelled out the name of Ponyville's resident dragon.
Both of the older siblings were like deer in a set of headlights before Apple Jack, had been to break the silence and stupor.
"SPI~KE!"
"Sweetie, is everything okay?" Rarity asked from behind her sisters door. All she could hear was soft whimpering coming from who she thought was her sister.
"Sweetie Belle, I'm coming in okay? I need to see my sister after what happened last night."
Rarity slowly opened the door to her sisters room and peeked inside. She had seen her sister sitting in the middle of her room on the floor, with her eyes covered by her hooves.
"Oh Sweetie, are you okay?" Rarity asked as she made her place known next to her sister. Sweetie replied with a soft nod.
"But why are you crying then? Is something bothering you?" Sweetie answered with another nod and took one of her hooves and pointed to where a cutie mark should be. There, on her flank, was Spikes name written in purple ink and stylized with green flames. It took a moment for Rarity to grasp the situation, but when she did.
"SPI~KE!"
Scootaloo had been jumping with joy in her room.
"I have to show Rainbow Dash! She'll be so happy for me, now that I finally got my cutie mark." Scootaloo opened the cloud door and made her way down to the living room of the cloud home.
"Hey squirt. what's with all the commotion?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at her bouncing sister.
"I finally got my cutie mark!" Scootaloo proclaimed.
"Nice! What's it look like?"
Scootaloo had stopped bouncing in place and presented her new cutie mark. A moment later, the front of the cloud home exploded outward as a sonic rainboom had been achieved withing the walls of the home. One could say they heard the rainbow streak scream out one thing and one thing only.
"SPI~KE!"
New World Jams in the Old World Era
It was awkward in the crystal tree house today, really awkward. Spike had five ponies that were fairly angry at him for reasons that he could not recall at the moment. But angry did not even come close to how the ponies were feeling. No, not even close. As they all sat in the living room of the tree, all of them waited in silence until one of them spoke.
"Now... Now I know what you all are thinking but whatever it was, it wasn't my fault." Spike said in a nervous tone.
Again, the awkwardness prevailed. It wasn't really awkward, the only one this was awkward for was Spike.
"So, before anybody tries to kill Spike, let's try to ask him what happened last night..." Twilight said before she sighed and inhaled a large amount of air.
"So, Spike, care to tell us what happened last night, preferably the reason why Apple Bloom, Sweetie belle, and Scootaloo, have your name tattooed where their cutie marks should be...?"
Spike looked at the ponies around him, and what he saw made him wish yesterday had been just a normal day. Apple Jack had a look like she was going to kill him. Rarity had the look on her face that made him think that she was going to put him in her next dress. Rainbow Dash seemed ready just to beat the scales off of him and. Big Macintosh, he had his trademark face on him, emotionless, but full of thought. And Twilight? Twilight had a face of worry, worry that he wasn't so innocent.
"Uhm-" Spike scratched the back of his head. "Funny story that one, I uh, can't... remember?"
Apple Jack slammed her hoof down on the ground at this.
"What do you mean ya can't remember!? You can't remember the moment you branded my little sister!?" Apple Jack screamed only being held back by the foreleg of her bigger brother.
"Branded?! Apple Jack listen to yourself, why in pony hell would I have your sister branded?! Or get a tattoo of my name for that matter. That just makes no sense!"
"Oh I'll show you something that makes no sense, come here you little-" Apple Jack struggled to get past her brothers foreleg the only thing making past him was her legs as they tried to reach for Spike. With all of the commotion, nopony seemed to notice the pony in the background just watching. But something that had make them all jolt upward in fear was the voice, not one they were hearing, but thinking.
"All this hate isn't good for my vibes, why can't we all just kiss and make up?"
"What in the name of Celestia was that?" Twilight asked as she looked towards her friends.
"It was him, he's the one from Everfree forest." Spike said as he pointed a shaky claw towards the one pony in the room that shouldn't have been there.
"Apple Bloom said the on makin' the music in the Everfree was some funny lookin' monkey thing. Not a regular pony..." Apple Jack said as she continued to glare at Spike.
"Excuse me. Sir? Could you leave? We're trying to have a polite conversation with our friend here." Rarity suggested with a hoof towards Spike.
The stallion did nothing but mutter, he didn't even acknowledge their presence. Instead, he continued to make his way to them. Once he stopped muttering all he did was grin and trot to them. To see if she could get him to speak, Twilight decided to stop him.
"Sir? Is there anything you need? If not then could you kindly make your way to the exit?"
As he got closer and closer, Twilight noticed things about him. He had a pair of Jet black and blue shades on his face obscuring his eyes. A long black mane and tail. And his flank was void of any cutie mark. His entire body was the same color as his shades, the blue was harder to notice since all it encompassed was the spiral of his horn.
This time he muttered he was right next to them, but they could just barely make out what he had said.
"You want the tattoos gone?"
Nopony said anything, they just all sat there in confusion at what the stallion had said.
"What? You know about the tattoos?" Twilight asked wanting to hear what ever he had to say.
"Pass this test, and all of your worries will be put to rest."
Twilight's ears had perked up at this.
"Test? What kind of test?"
"Accept this offer and you shall see, a test for all of you, there shall be." The stallion said and resumed smiling.
"So yer saying that if we pass this test of yours than the girls tattoos will be gone?"
This time, the stallion said nothing, all he did was smile and nod. All of the ponies looked at each other and shrugged.
"Okay, we accept this test now, what are we supposed to do?" Rarity said.
"THANK YOU! You have no idea how hard it is to rhyme and think of how to answer. I don't wanna know how Zecora feels..." The stallion said. This made the ponies look at him like he was crazy.
"Anyways, what you have to do is show your true self for the night and say your deepest secret. Basically, be true to yourself, blah blah blah, something about self discovery and acceptance." The stallion read from a script he pulled from... somewhere.
"And don't worry, there's going to be no hiding for tonight." At this the whole world felt odd. Twilight looked at a clock that had been hanging on the wall and it was already midnight.
"What did you-" Twilight tried to ask before something she heard stopped her. In fact, what she heard wasn't even the smallest problem. They weren't even in the castle anymore, it seemed like a dank cave, and the clock she had looked not a second ago was gone. And they weren't even the only ponies there. Again it seems the teen populace of Ponyville had shown up.
"So, Spike..." The stallion said.
Twilight looked over to the stallion and what she saw had frightened her, instead of the stallion she saw earlier, had been the ape creature Apple Jack heard Apple Bloom describe. Tall, black hair, shades, white clothing. pale skin and like a dragons, but more blunt. And his grin was different, instead of his pony teeth, there had been a set of canines which most predators bare.
"You ready to be my number one assistant?" He said as he poked Spike on the forehead.
Spike visibly changed after that. His colors seemed to radiate off of him like neon lights and he now bore the same shades as yesterday. The fires on his person, now moved as if they were real fires. Spike looked down at himself and leaped in the air, pumping a fist and shouting.
"Let's show these ponies how it's done!"
"Right on my dragon buddy..."
They had stepped through a doorway and appeared up on what seemed like a stage. As they reached a table on stage, Spike reached forward and grabbed a microphone that had been hanging from the ceiling and pulled it close to his new friend. The creature tapped it with his claws and spoke into it afterwards.
"Oka~y Ponyville! We have some guests here for tonight, I want you all to meet, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Apple Jack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Big Macintosh. It seems they have accepted a challenge and are here to do said challenge." Everypony cheered at this and stomped their hooves. After a minute of cheering he raised a clenched fist and the room went silent.
He fiddled with the table and music began to build up until it was clearly heard throughout the cave.
"Why don't we all just have a good time, and..." The creature paused for the lyrics to start playing.
Both Spike and the creature began maniacally laughing as the faces of the five newcomers went red as the lyrics began playing.
"AND SHAKE WHAT YOUR MAMA'S GAVE YOU!"
Author's Note
New World Jams in the Old World Era
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. 