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Don’t stop running. Keep running. Never stop running. Those were the last words he spoke to me before…before… I can’t say it…before they tried to take him and me...
Who is this stallion I’m talking about you ask? Let me start at the beginning then…he always said that these things have a beginning and trying to work from the middle only leads to mess and confusion.
My name is Ikuze, a turquiose unicorn, blue hair and I have Bright purple eyes. I grew up on the streets in a city whose name I can’t even remember now… I wouldn’t be around if it weren’t for the kindness of random ponies who took pity on a foal… I never stayed long though on account of my eyes. I never understood why my eyes were such a problem until he explained it to me. Bright Eyes like me… we’re outlawed from Equestria. Any of us that are noticed are to be sent to prisons no matter our age or lack of a talent.
All because we have the potential to create music.
Anyway I was telling you about how I grew up. Day to day mostly…some days I did my best to avoid other ponies by taking shelter in random alleys, sometimes going hungry for a day or two to keep myself safe. Even back then I knew that I had to stay hidden. The way that the ponies who would help acted around me…didn’t take long for a filly to learn to keep on moving or else she’d be in trouble.
But trouble has a way of finding you in the end… I was heading to an alley to sleep for the day, making sure that there was somewhere in it that I wouldn’t be noticed that easily from the ground or air, when I spotted something odd. It was a set of wires dangling of some nails on a plank of wood. Like the curious filly I was I looked at before running a hoof across the wires. They made an odd sound that made me giggle. About five seconds later a guard appeared behind me.
“Hello there little filly. What are you doing out here all on your own hunh? It’s not safe to wander the streets alone…here, let me help you out.” The guard said as he reached towards me. I stared at him in fright before my legs finally decided to work. And so I ran. I just knew somehow that this guard was NOT a nice pony despite his offer. As I ran I could hear him chuckling and it wasn’t a very nice chuckle either. The guard easily caught up to me and grabbed me by my tail and hoisted me into the air. “Now then Bright Eyes, let’s see if we can’t find you someplace fitting for you, you little rat.” He said sneering at me, his dull brown eyes chuckling at the scared little filly in his hoof.
I closed my eyes and began to cry, the guard simply chuckling as he began to grab a set of cuffs from his pack. I couldn’t see what happened next on account of my eyes being closed and filled with tears but I clearly heard the sound of something solid striking the metal helmet of the guard who groaned and dropped to the ground.
“Oof.” I said as I hit the ground. I quickly opened my eyes, tears still coming out of them as I looked at the unconscious guard and then at the pony behind him. He was a grey Pegasus with a brown mane and tail, both very messy looking, wearing a green jacket, a black shirt and a pair of glasses. His cutie mark looked like a pair of twisting multi-coloured strings of clay. His eyes were a dull green…but they weren’t full of sneering like the guards were… they looked… kind.
“Seriously, you’d think that a grown stallion with a helmet would be able to hold his own a little better against a metal pipe. Honestly must be the armourers these days, faulty craftsmanship. Well, what are you going to do when you outsource it to Diamond Dogs eh?” the Pegasus mused to himself as he tossed aside a long metal pipe that he’d been holding in his hooves. He then looked down at me. “Well then? Come on then before the guard recovers his senses and tries to grab you again.” He said gesturing with a wing to follow him.
“Who…hunh?” I replied still confused. He didn’t seem at all distraught or agitated by my eyes…and he’d just knocked out a guard like it was a normal thing to do.
“I’ll explain when you’re safe from the guards. Unless you want to meet more of them I suggest we get a move on. The patrols will begin to wonder where this stallion is in a few minutes and then they’ll be coming along to check up on him. And then we’ll really be in trouble.” He said with a smile. I slowly nod and rush over to him, before I look back at the wires on the board. He followed my gaze and chuckled. “Here, let me.” He then pulled out the wires from the nails, coiled them up and stuffed them into one of the pockets on his jacket.
“…Thanks.” I replied. He gave me a smile before looking around the corners of the alley, the guard behind us groaning.
“Woops, looks like he’s coming to a little faster than I thought he would. Guess that helmet is thicker than I thought after all. Must remember that. Well? Let’s go then my little pony.” He said as he began to trot off down the street. I looked at him then the slowly waking guard and chased after him.
As we walked down the street I kept my hair in front of my eyes to disguise them as best I could. The Pegasus kept on walking as if nothing had happened a short while ago. He nodded and waved at a few ponies as we past them by on the street, some waving back. After a few minutes we reached a house in the corner of the street. He opened the door and ushered me in making it look like he was simply a Pegasus welcoming a filly into his house and not at all like somepony trying to hide a fugitive.
I stood in the main room and gawped as he closed the door behind us. It was a large circular room with a large podium in the middle upon which stood an incomplete statue. Dotted around the room where little alcoves that either had large lumps of clay in them or a bust of some pony or another. At the end of the room was a flight of stairs leading upwards and a door as well.
“Right then, if you’d like to follow me upstairs my dear I think I have something lying around that should help with your eye problem. Not that your eyes are a problem mind you, I find them quite lovely, but there is the whole thing with the guards to consider along with other ponies.” He said as he started to head for the stairs. I just silently walked behind him looking at the things in this room.
“You…make all these?” I asked as he went up the stairs. He looked behind at me and chuckled at my expression.
“Aye, that I did.” He admitted before stepping into a room at the top of the stairs. It looked like a bedroom, his bedroom to be precise. Nothing fancy just a bed, some drawers, a wardrobe and two bookcases stuffed with books. “Now where did I put them? I had them here on the drawer top just the other day…” he muttered to himself as he rummaged around in the room until he gave a cry. “Aha! There you are you sneaky little…” The Pegasus walked over to me with a small case. He opened it up and inside were a pair of thin strips of brown paper. Or what looked like paper to a filly who had never seen contact lenses before.
“What are those?” I asked looking at the things carefully, still not entirely sure about this stallion who had helped me.
“These my dear are called contact lenses. Normally they’re for correcting your vision, like my glasses do for me. Short sightedness is my problem, reading too many books and all that. But! These are different. They don’t do anything except change the colour of your eyes. Now then, hold still and don’t blink… I’m just gonna put these over your eyes okay? They’re going to hide you from the guards so you don’t wind up in trouble for your eyes.” He said reassuringly as he picked up each lens and proceeded to place them on my eyes. It took a little while to get used to them, but he just smiled and nodded. “There we go. Now then, care to see?”
He pulled out a mirror from a drawer and held it up so I could see my face. My eyes were now the same dull brown as the guard from earlier. I looked up at him.
“Are you wearing these as well?” He sighed and shook his head as he put the mirror away.
“I’m afraid not. My eyes are naturally this dull…although since they’re not brown I do occasionally get the odd inspection round now and then. Oh! In all the excitement I’d forgotten to introduce myself to you! How rude of me. My name is Tempest Storm, and as you can probably guess by my studio downstairs I’m a sculptor. And yourself?”
“Um… I don’t think I have a name…” I mutter rubbing my front legs together in embarrassment.
“Oh that won’t do at all my dear. Now then let’s see…what to call you… let’s see if history can give us a hoof here.” Storm said as he walked over to his bookcase and flipped through a few books. “Let’s see now… no that one won’t do… oh Celestia no not that one blergh… hmm, not bad but it doesn’t seem to fit… That one definitely doesn’t go with her… oooh, this looks like a winner.”
I look at Tempest in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Everything and everypony has a name my dear. A name is more than just a name though. It’s… a reflection of who you are. Of what you’re like as a pony. Of what identity you have. And I think I’ve found one that fits you nicely although I do have some other options if you want to choose your own.” Tempest replied bringing a book over to me so I could take a look. I scrolled down the list on the page and scrunched my face up before looking at him.
“Um…what are all these scribbles?” I asked. Tempest looked back at me in shock and then smacked himself in the face with a hoof.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Dang it that was stupid of me… I thought you could read. Sorry about that… guess that’s something I’m going to have to teach you… right after you pick a name.” he said.
“But I can’t read…how can I pick a name that I can’t even read?”
“Which one looks the best to you? Just look over the names and…whichever one pops out at you.” He said with a shrug.
I grumble to myself at this and look down the pages, occasionally asking him to turn the pages. After a few minutes I saw it. For some reason one line of scribbles seemed to leap out at me. I pointed at it with my horn. “That one.” I said.
He looked at the name then back at me with a curious look on his face, then chuckled and smiled.
“Well then, Ikuze, that’s your new name. I must say that is an interesting choice. The last mare with that name was oh, a few centuries back. And according to the tales she was one heck of a fighter. It’s said that she once led twenty ponies against an army of two hundred dogs and came out victorious with only two casualties.” Tempest chuckled as he put the book back on the shelf.
“Ikuze…” I said giving the name a test on my lips. It felt… right. I had a name… I had a name now. And a legacy to live up to as well if Tempest was being truthful with me. He started to head out of the room and I quickly followed. As we went back down the stairs he started to speak.
“Now then Ikuze dear, we’ll need to establish a few rules whilst you’re here. First and foremost if I ever say the word Wolfgang three times in a conversation with some guards I want you to charge this statue here,” he said tapping a bust in the alcove closest to the front door, “with as much magic as you can and make sure your eyes are closed.”
I looked at the bust carefully. It was of a unicorn with a funny looking mane. It seemed to be set to curls on either side of his head and then streamed down the back of his neck.
“How come?” I asked Tempest as he walked over to the back door next to the bottom of the stairs. We walked into what looked like a kitchen. It had a single table in the centre of the room and a few chairs. Around the room was dotted some cupboards with cups and bowls and other things.
“A little security feature in case something goes wrong. Now then, the second rule takes place in here.” Tempest said as he opened a drawer next to the table and pressed his hoof inside it. A hole started to open up in the back of the kitchen as a secret panel slid open revealing a set of stairs leading downwards. Tempest walked down the stairs and I quickly followed. There weren’t any lights as we went down in a spiral until we nearly reached the bottom where I could see a light coming from under a doorway. Tempest opened the door and stepped through with myself close behind.
The room was as large as the studio upstairs… in fact it looked almost like an exact replica except instead of statues and busts there were books lining the walls along with some strange looking sculptures filled with holes here and there. There were comfortable seats dotted around the place as well along with a table or two.
“The second rule is that if you read a book from here you put it back in here and don’t take it upstairs. These aren’t exactly…encouraged under the laws of the Princesses. Oh and you can practice your music down here as well if you want, the room is completely soundproofed so nopony can hear a thing that goes on in here.” Tempest said with a smile.
“What? Why… hunh?” I asked not understanding what was going on. Tempest looked at me and then nodded over at a pair of couches taking a seat in one.
“Sit down and I guess I’ll explain… the beginning sounds like a good place. If I were to start elsewhere it would just confuse you and be a big old mess.” The Pegasus said adjusting his glasses as I took the other couch. “There is a law passed down by the Royal Princesses Celestia and Luna that all music is banned. Any kind of music is outlawed. Humming, whistling, and even mildly tapping a random beat with your hooves. Nopony is sure why but it’s been like that for a while now. Along with the no music law, there is a law forbidding books like the ones down here. These are stories Ikuze, stories of fantasy and fiction. Oh and the last part of the no music law is that any pony with Bright Eyes like yourself can be handed over to the guards and to be taken into prison. No matter how old they may be, or who their family may be simply because of the suspicion…”
“Why? Why all this because of my eyes?”
“Because those with Bright Eyes are said to hold the spark of creation in their souls. The art and talent of bringing about the forbidden arts of music and sound. And that scares some ponies. Music is said to hold within it the power to affect a pony’s mood, their way of thinking… given the right melody at the right moment a musician could turn the tide of any situation. And that is a dangerous power to have under Celestia’s reign. And so those with Bright Eyes are hunted down and taken into prisons, never to be seen or heard from ever again as they are left to die in there.” Tempest explained to me.
“I.. I could make… anypony do what I want? Just by music?” I asked. Tempest chuckled, and laughed even harder at my pout.
“Not exactly little one. Music simply enhances the feelings that the pony is already feeling, bringing them to the front. I know a pony that goes by the name of Pinkie Pie. Charming and amusing little filly. So full of energy and happiness. Give her a happy beat and tune and she becomes even happier, even more joyful.” Tempest chuckles at some memory or other.
“Music can also reflect the musicians own mood as well. In fact several musicians used music as a means of expressing how they felt for others when they couldn’t find the words. Love songs, songs of grief, songs filled with anger, any emotion you can think of you’ll probably find a melody that goes with it.” He said as he looked over the library down here. Just as I was about to ask him any more questions a small bell went off in the room. Tempest bolted out of his seat and headed straight for the stairs. “Stay down here okay? Don’t come up for whatever reason. I’ll see what it is… it may just be a customer but you never know…” he said as he closed the door behind him, leaving me on my own down in this secret room.
As I waited down below I walked around tantalised by the thought of these stories he’d told me about but frustrated at the same time that I couldn’t read a single word of them. About two hours later according to the clock down here the door opened up. I immediately hid behind the nearest couch as I heard another pony with Tempest.
“Look, I appreciate the offer Quick Step, but I just can’t accept it at the moment. I’ve got a life here and a business. Somepony’s got to keep their ear out for news that you ponies can use.”
“I understand I really do, but think about it some more, won’t ya?” the other pony said as he stepped into view from behind Tempest. He was a white earth pony with a brown mane. His cutie mark looked like a pair of notes on some wavy lines. He was wearing a coat which looked long enough that it would cover his cutie mark if needed, and a grey-striped cap on his head which I thought was kinda odd-looking.
“I’ll think about it Quick, nothing more. Now then which books was it that Twilight and Cherilee were wanting this time? And next time you decide to pay me a visit could you give me some advance warning or something? I thought you were a guard or something.”
The pony that Tempest called Quick Step raised an eyebrow.
“More trouble with the inspections?”
“You could say that… I found a filly about to be taken in by a guard, so I smacked him over the head with a pipe and brought her here to safety. And don’t even ask Quick. She’s still getting used to the whole thing alright? Maybe in a few months I’ll bring her round to the Underground when she’s ready. Right now though…”
“Oi! Don’t talk about me like I’m not even here!” I said walking out from my hiding spot.
“No disrespect Ikuze, but I don’t think you’re ready for the trip there, let alone the Underground itself.” Tempest said as he walked over to a section of his library and started to pull a few books from the shelves and putting them into a satchel.
“Shouldn’t that be my choice? And what is this Underground anyway?”
“Perhaps I can answer that. My name is Quick Step. I’m one of the founders of this place called the Rhythm Underground, a place where musicians and any other Bright Eyes can find a place to be themselves.” Quick Step said with a large smile on his face.
“She’s not ready. Heck I just pulled her flank from the firing line and you want to drag her back into it Quick Step. My house is always under observation by at least one guard. You leave here with her after coming in on your own, and there will be questions and those questions will lead to them trailing you and that will lead Celestia straight to the Underground. No. I won’t risk her or the Underground like that.” Tempest said passing the satchel to Quick Step who gave a nod.
“Wait…if they’re always watching your house…then they saw me coming in anyways!” I realised.
“I was on my way back from the train station Ikuze when I bumped into you and that guard. Perfect alibi for a relative to be travelling and staying with me.” Tempest said reassuringly. I raised an eyebrow and stared at him. Quick Step gave Tempest a look.
“You’re sure about this then?” he asked the Pegasus who simply nodded.
“When things have died down a bit I’ll come pay you a visit at the Underground…has Inert gotten over that whole “must rhyme with absolutely everything” thing of his yet?”
Quick Step chuckles and shakes his head. “Fraid not.”
“Right. Going to make him say orange then next time I see him. He goes livid with that if I remember correctly.” Tempest said with a mischievous grin. Quick Step replied with a short laugh. Tempest rolled his eyes at the pony and pointed at something on the floor. “You have got to sort out that problem Quick Step. Fluttershy isn’t going to be able to save your flank every single time.”
Quick Step quickly picked up the brown lens from the ground and carefully put it back in his eye covering up his bright eye and then scowled at Tempest who simply grinned.
“Thanks for the books, I’m sure everypony will love them. Hope to see you two soon, Tempest, Ikuze.” Quick Step said nodding at the two of us before heading up the stairs.
“Look… I’m grateful you helped me out with the guard, I really am… but I don’t like you making decisions for me just cus I’m a filly.” I said angrily at the Pegasus. Tempest sighed and pulled out the wires from his pocket and placing them on a table in the room.
“Sorry Ikuze. I just don’t want to see you get hurt… I’ve met some of the ponies the Underground has helped get out of the prisons… I don’t want to see you go through that… Now then, let’s see if we can’t get something to eat eh? I must warn you though, I’m not that great a cook.” Tempest said as he went off up the stairs.
I began to protest that I wasn’t hungry but my stomach betrayed me with a very loud and audible growl.
For the next two months living with Tempest… it felt nice. He showed me how to read the books down in his library, and how to write down music notes. I’d spend most of my time down in the secret room absently poking at the wires from that fateful day wondering how to get them to make that sound that made me giggle… then I found an old book on instruments. Over the next week I had Tempest scrounge up some wood from the stores using the excuse that he needed a frame for a project he was working on for a very picky client. I worked on my own project down in the library until finally I’d finished. The book had called it, a guitar. Admittedly it wasn’t that pretty to look at. Storm had offered to help me make it but I wanted to do this on my own… It may not be that good to look at, but it was mine. And it worked! I gave the wires a quick strum and the sound made me giggle in joy. Then I heard an explosion from above the room.
“Urgh, one of Storm’s clay experiments must have backfired again. Better go see if he needs help.” I sigh putting down my guitar and heading upstairs, not noticing the small crack that had formed in the ceiling over the secret room.
If only I’d seen it sooner…then maybe… No, I’m getting ahead of myself in the story…
“Storm!” I called. “What did you break this time?”
There was a large cloud of dust coming from the studio along with Tempest’s coughing.
“Urgh sorry Ikky. (Yes that was his pet name for me. Can we move on please?) I thought that maybe I could get the dang lighting to work this time… I had all the calculations down to a tee. Guess I need to go back to the drawing board on that one.” He said flapping his wings to clear the dust cloud before giving me a weird look and a grin.
“What?” I asked. He simply pointed at my flank. I looked down and gasped. There on my flank was what the books called a guitar pick. It was a deep purple with a lighter purple star in its centre. I’d gotten my cutie mark! I beamed at Tempest and gave him a big hug. He simply smiled down at me and hugged me back. That night we celebrated down in the secret room with me playing my guitar and him flapping his wings. The odd hole filled statues down here were actually his own way of making music despite not having Bright Eyes. As wind blew through the holes, they created a note of sound. So with every statue with the wind flowing through them, there was this beautiful melody carrying on under the sounds of my guitar strings.
Oh how I wished we’d seen that crack in the ceiling…oh if only we hadn’t been so safe and secure in our thoughts that nothing could find us…that nothing could hear us…
The next day… there was a platoon of guards at the door being led by a very official looking pony.
“Mister Storm, we have reason to believe that you are harbouring a Bright Eyed pony and have conducted musical affairs. We have witnesses who state that in the late hours of last night they could hear the sounds of music coming from your house.”
Without waiting for Tempest to protest or convince them otherwise the official nodded their head and the guards all burst into the house knocking over everything in their search. I could hear the noise from inside the secret room and hid behind one of the couches, my guitar strapped to my back. After an hour of searching one of the guards noticed the indentation in the drawer.
“Ma’am! I think I’ve found something.”
The official strode into the kitchen and pressed their hoof into the indentation unlocking the hidden entrance. Tempest tried to bar their path but was grabbed on either side by a pair of Earth Pony guards. A few moments later I was dragged kicking and screaming out of the secret room my guitar floating alongside me as the guard kept it out of my reach.
“This is very serious Mister Storm. Harbouring a fugitive, possession of illegal instruments, and possession of fictional works of literature all within a secretly created chamber under your house? What have you to say for yourself?” the mare asked him as they strode into the studio. Only a few of the busts had survived the search one of them being the bust that Tempest had pointed out to me on my first day here…the day he’d saved me.
“You can burn the land, and boil the sea, but you can’t ever take the skies from me.” Tempest sang before getting a punch to his jaw. He spat out blood and glared at the guards. “That’s an old Pegasus battle chant from the days of Commander Hurricane and beyond. It means that we will never surrender no matter what disasters may happen. There have been ponies that have followed this same ideal throughout history, Wolfgang, Joan of Arc, Clover the Clever and so many more. Some of them were even musicians like Wolfgang from old Germaney. You know why he was one of the most acclaimed of all composers of his day Miss? Why his compositions in those days and even today still carry weight in our little world? Because they touch the souls of those who hear them. But there is a piece of tragedy that goes with his creations as well.”
“And what would that be other than he was a composer of music?” the mare asked raising an eyebrow. Tempest grinned an evil grin and then looked at me out of the corner of his eye before returning his gaze to the mare.
“One of the greatest composers who ever lived, whose symphonies touched the hearts of millions, was deaf. Poor Wolfgang could never hear a thing he created.” Tempest said quickly closing his eyes as I closed my eyes and shot a blast of magic into the Wolfgang bust causing its eyes and horn to glow before it exploded in a flash of light accompanied by a very large ringing making every pony in the room that wasn’t prepared for it cover their ears and eyes in pain. Tempest quickly punched the guard who was holding me and grabbed my guitar before tossing me into the street outside the house my guitar intact.
“RUN!” he yelled at me before turning his attention back to the house. “Head for the forest near Ponyville Ikuze.” He said to me. None of the guards had recovered yet so they couldn’t hear a word that he’d said. I looked up at him imploringly.
“Come with me! Please!”
He shook his head and looked back at the guards. “I need to hold them back Ikuze… I’m not that fast a flyer if I have to carry somepony… no, you need to run. I’ll hold them off of you for as long as I can. Now go. Don’t look back Ikuze… Go!” He said giving me a little shove and looking at me through tear filled eyes. Or maybe it was my own eyes that were filled with tears I don’t remember which anymore… But I ran. “Don’t stop running! Keep on running! Never stop running!” he yelled out behind me.
I looked ahead of me and did as he asked… I ran. I ran as fast as my hooves could carry me. I ran and I ran and I ran. But I did look back once. And what I saw haunts me to this day. The guards had recovered and had unsheathed their spears from their holsters and were attacking Tempest. His wings crackled with lightning as he parried and deflected the spears with his hooves, striking the guards with his wings whenever he got an opening. I stopped and stared in hope that maybe he’d win…the guards were all wearing metal armour after all…
But that hope was soon dashed. There were just too many of them… a few of the guards noticed me standing there and took to the skies to avoid the melee. Tempest roared something at them I couldn’t hear what, but he punched a pair of the guards on the ground and snatched their spears from their hooves throwing them into the wings of my pursuers, causing them to crash into the ground. Tempest gave me one final look and smiled at me before turning back his attention to the guards… it was like he knew what was going to happen…
There were just too many of them… He couldn’t block or deflect every spear or hoof… his body soon became covered in cuts and bruises from the attacks, his jacket and shirt completely ruined, his glasses shattered on the stone below. A pair of the guards stepped forward with a net but Tempest simply charged at them, his wings crackling with lightning as he kept on the attack… the guards realised that this one wasn’t going to be able to brought in…. alive…
There were just too many of them… he was one Pegasus… he was just one pony against a dozen armed and armoured guards… I turned my head and cried as they… as he… But his last words echoed in my mind…
Don’t stop running. Keep on running. Never stop running.
For the next two years I did just that…till the Underground found me and brought me home…
That is my story. I am Ikuze, a unicorn mare of the Rhythm Underground, playing the guitar, and the guards and every other pony out there will never take the skies from me. I may live under the earth, be unable to fly, but the skies will always be there… and so will the music.
