Here for You

Could you call me a pony of many words, or of few? Either way that’s your opinion determining on how this story develops. I’m just like any other unicorn trying to make a life for himself in Equestria.

Everypony has a story to tell about his or her life, and well you so happened to come across mine. I would say “congratulations” but hay you probably picked this old story up in the archives of the Ponyville library or found it after I was six feet under.

Either way you're reading this, so I'll see how long I can keep you interested in this little story of mine.

Oh yes where are my manners, my name is Shad3Z, StealingShad3Z (but my friends call me just Shad3Z); crazy name right? Well actually it’s a stage name, my real name is Stealing Shades. I don’t know where my dad got the idea for such a name, he kept changing the story every time I asked him or he just blew it off; so I just tell my friends that he was a little hyped up on the cider when he came up with it.

Growing up in southern Equestria was not easy; I wasn’t like all the other “redmane” ponies. I didn’t do farm work, or plant seeds for harvests, heck my accent was more Los Pegasus than anything with how much twang it lacked.

But to make matters worse, I was the most socially awkward pony around those parts. I was picked on in school constantly for saying something completely off topic or just plain daydreaming and having a teacher snap me out of “la la land”. Not to mention my talent of being accident prone, seriously I could give Derpy a run for her money.

It was hard to blend in, so I did the only thing I could think to do; I stood out. I embraced who I was and didn’t give a flying buck about what other ponies thought of me.

I began to develop an interest in punk rock music, the sounds of “Hayday Parade” and “A Neigh to Remember” spoke to my soul with their rebellious sound. It made me proud to be who I was, but who I would be I didn’t know yet.

That changed when I picked up my first acoustic guitar and began to write my own punk songs. Of coarse I was little unconfident in myself at first; I didn’t play in public or in front of my friends because that genre of music wasn’t exactly the most popular in that area. And even though I was confident to look the part in public, I was definitely not ready to “play” it.

My cutie mark soon appeared after that, a sky blue logo that looked like two stacked S’s with a diagonal line spearing right down the middle of them. I had no idea what my initials had to do with my special talent, but I hoped to Luna above that I would find out sooner or later.

At age twenty I moved out of my hometown and opened my own little music shop and studio called “Equestrirock Records” (hay it’s the best I could come up with) in Ponyville just at the base of Canterlot.

Ponyville was a goldmine of new artists in many genres of music that I was ready to dig into. I met many ponies of all ages, shapes, and sizes (not kidding, Bulk Biceps recorded some violin once); each one bits in hoof ready to put their talents to work.

My rate for the studio wasn’t expensive; I made plenty of money from the record sales alone. And plus, well, I just couldn’t say no when Sweetie Bell would come in and put her small allowance she received from Rarity on the counter. Call me soft but I couldn’t say no to that cute little face.

But you want to talk about some hardcore talent, well just ask my two best customers, Octavia Melody and Vinyl Scratch. Those two could put on a show every time the record light came on. Mixing cello with dubstep, who knew right?

Well I was still a little shy around everypony in the town. I didn’t attend Pinkie Pies parties due to the fact large crowds of ponies I didn’t know made me nervous. I still kept my hobby of music writing under wraps as well. Well I “did”, until Vinyl barged in.

Apparently I got a little too “into” one of my songs I was playing one day, and when I say “into” I mean “I was so loud Vinyl heard me through her headphones outside" into. Vinyl burst in, grabbed me by the shoulders, looked me dead in the face with those red eyes, and just said these words:

“Why… Didn’t… You… Tell… Us…?!?!?!”

And that is where our story truly starts...

My coat was more of a reddish hue than it’s usual tan for a few days, or even weeks! But whatever color I was, I was forcibly dragged to open mic night on Sweet Apple Acres, a FARM!!!

This was not good; of all the places for a musician of my genre to perform, why in Celestia’s name a FARM!?!? I moved here to get away from that atmosphere.

Octavia and Vinyl literally pushed me on stage following a nice little country tune by the Apple family, which made me more nervous. Not only was it country, it was “old school” country, not like the pop country back home.

I slowly stood on my hind legs, a talent that took me years to get the hang of, and started hearing the whispers caused by my little balancing act. I gulped as I felt sweat begin to lightly drench my coat.

I took a deep breath, looked at the audience, and said what I had to.

“Uh… What’s up everypony, my name is Stealing Shades. This music I’m about to play isn’t, well it’s um, not very common where I’m from, or even here. But I hope you like it.”

I barred the strings, closed my eyes, and began to play. What came next was a simple four-chord song that had a quick beat; I began to sing. My power vocals filled the monitors on stage as I sung a punk ballad about not letting anypony tell you to be mainstream and how you should not be afraid to go against the herd.

I didn’t sing the song as some form of propaganda or preaching, but somehow a message was being delivered. I saw fillies and colts raise there hooves in the air as I heard cheering exit their little mouths.

Next thing I knew I heard light clopping of hooves, stamping along to the beat of my song. Then it grew louder, and louder, until the entire crowd was stamping to my music. I didn’t know why but it felt, good. I could feel this sense of joy rising up and mixing in with the adrenaline I felt as I continued playing. It felt as if everyponys’ enjoyment was fueling my song and providing me with energy.

“These ponies… like it.” I thought to myself.

I felt like my hooves were going to catch fire, but I couldn’t stop now, I was in the zone.

It felt like forever but the song stopped with a sudden heavy donward strum on the guitar. That acoustic guitar, the singular instrument that fueled this crowd alone! It was quiet only for a split second and next thing I knew an uproar louder than the train I came into town on, filled the barnyard as I came back down on all four hooves.

Lyra and Bon Bon were gripping each other jumping up and down screaming at the base of the stage.  Derpy was doing “loopty-loops”, well until she crashed into a tree (something I bet I would do if I were a pegasus). And it was hard to tell due to the sweat in my eyes, but I thought I saw rarity faint into her “emergency fainting”couch (courtesy of Spike). I looked to the side of the stage and saw Octavia nod at me with a smile of approval while Vinyl gave the biggest grin ever and gave me a “hooves up”.

“Okay, okay, settle down everypony,” The voice on the second microphone made me realize that I wasn’t breathing. I looked over towards the source of the voice and it was…

“PRINCESS TWILIGHT!?!?!?” I shouted as my heart began to race. I was so caught up with my performance I forgot I was playing in the resident town of royalty. The princess jumped at the exclamation but then just smiled and pushed my jaw up that I didn’t know was hanging down in the first placed.

“Just Twilight.” she giggled.  My coat turned red again as I nodded, still wide eyed. Twilight returned to the microphone she was levitating. “I just want to say I’ve heard many different kinds of music come out of this town from classical to electronic, so I am happy to say it is an honor to add a ‘rockstar’ to the mix.” The crowd roared once more. Twilight then looked at me and asked one question, covering the mic with her hoof to not embarrassment.

“Shades, why didn’t you tell us you could play and sing like that?” My heart dropped as embarrassment once again took over. But I went out on a limb, levitated my mic from it’s stand, and said the “honest to Luna” truth.

“Well,” I said shaking; I sat on my haunches looking at the stage floor. “I grew up being so different from everypony else because of my social disorders. I grew up in a place where music like this would most likely make ponies tell me it was just noise pollution. So I hid it and kept it to myself. But tonight I felt something I’ve lacked for a long time, 'self-confidence'.

I came up here prepared to be “boo’d” off a stage or to at least stare at a bunch of confused audience members. But instead I experienced a connection that exploded from every last filly and colt in this audience that made me feel like I belonged.

So what I’m saying is if it wasn’t for tonight, I would be stuck inside my studio, scared to meet new ponies, instead of being up here getting to see every last pony supporting me. You are all truly friends to me.”

Only my blue eyes looked up from the ground to the audience with a timid face, I didn’t realize I had tears in my eyes. The sky blue aura disappeared from the mic as I gently put it back up on its stand. The embarrassment was at its peak after that speech. I felt ridiculous, I was performing in front of a barn, not winning a Trottie Award. But either way the crowd cheered again and I suddenly felt Twilights hoof on my shoulder as she looked at me with a compassionate smile.

"Everypony is different here, and each has a story similar to yours that shaped them into who they are. In fact," she chuckled lightly. "I know a certain somepony you could probably relate to."

I didn't know what she was getting at, but I smiled with glee either way as the princess and I trotted off stage with one more quick applause from the crowd. Right then I was greeted with a punch in the leg from Vinyl.

“Ow!” I said rubbing my throbbing appendage. “What was that for?”

“That was for giving such a kick plot performance dude!!!” Vinyl replied. I couldn’t help but smile, laugh, and blush at the same time. “But you need an artist name, let’s seeeeee…” She tapped her horn with her hoof while pondering. “How bout StealingShad3Z?” I looked at her in confusion and wanted to ask if she had been smoking poison joke.

“That’s my actual name though?” I said.

“No, no, no, hear me out. Lose the space between your first and last names, make the last ‘E’ a ‘3’,” DJPon3 suggesting turning ‘E’s into ‘3”s, big surprise. “and then make the ‘S’ at the end a big ol’ capital ‘Z’.” The idea was starting to sound intriguing.

“Yo! Are you listening?” Vinyl tapped “my” horn with her hoof. I realized I got lost in my own little world thinking about the name and was staring at a wall. I facehoofed as my weird personality began to return, but I think nopony cared at the moment.

I walked with Vinyl and Octavia out to the after show party, where everypony could mingle and have sweets and punch from Sugar Cube Corner (if Pinky didn’t eat them all first).  But all of a sudden I heard a voice from above shout out.

“Hey, there’s our little rocker stallion.” I looked up to see a blue pegasus with multicolored hair. Oh yeah no doubt it was Rainbow Dash (I had seen her around but never spoke to her personally). And that little comment of hers was enough to break the dam. A dam that held back a river of mares (and one Big Mac) that circled around me. Giving an autograph to Sweetie Bell and the Cutie Mark Crusaders was easy since everypony was polite enough to let the foals go first; but after they left, all Tartarus broke loose.

“How long have you been playing?”

“Can you write a song about how awesome I am?”

“Can you sign our flanks?”

“Eeyup?” (okay getting weird)

I began to hyperventilate; this was way too overwhelming. I saw an opening in the in the circle and I took it as an escape route. I ran as fast as I could but behind me I heard Octavia shout, “Mr. Shades, where are you going?”

I looked back, “Need to use the gentlecolts room!” I shouted.

“But the loo is that way.” Octavia said in her Trottingham accent.

“Uh yeah, I go in the woods, closer to nature and all that.” (Why sweet Celestia did I say that?!)

“I know those feels bruh.”

“Tree Hugger, that’s disgusting and unladylike.” said Rarity.

“Why do stallions get to talk about the gross stuff, unfair vibes man.”

I managed to hide behind a tree so I could catch my breath. Going from a music storeowner, to a small town celebrity in one night was way too fast. At that moment the only thing I wanted was a paper bag. I began to question in my mind if maybe revealing my talent was a good idea. Sure it was great to have the attention and it helped me feel comfortable around new ponies, but I think "they" were the comfortable ones; a little too comfortable.

“Crap if this is celebrity life, I don’t think i can deal with it.” I said to myself slumping against the tree to the ground; I chuckled to myself. "Never in my life have I had a ton of mares get so 'chummy' let alone one." I tried to not let the female attention go to my head as I leaned my head back and stared

But when I did this I yelped when I saw a pair of bright blue eyes (even brighter than mine) staring out of the leaves in the braches above me. A soft high-pitched squeak of what I guess was also a “yelp” followed.

What happened after that was a flash of yellow, pink, and… butterflies? I was then flat on my stomach stuck under something.