Coloratura felt her head spin, then black out, completely losing sensory-oriented mental imagery. Much later, she found her mind stirring, with little memories of the crazy and unexpected event that had just befallen. Her head felt dazed, painful, and stiff, as if a hundred rocks had just fallen on top of her. Nothing really made sense. Then, without warning, the ground beneath her shook slightly, as if the earth itself was having a tremor. Eager to find out the source of the movement, Coloratura blinked and looked around, only to find the room dark as the night itself.

Reaching out and slowly touching her way around, Coloratura felt a tall desk or raised platform of some sort, a toilet, and… a door? Was that… a handle?

“Yes!” she thought excitedly. A handle meant exit and escape – and a chance to finally figure out where exactly she was and what in Equestria was making that shaking.

The shaking ceased, but it was followed by noise – a lot of noise. A mix of voices could be heard; some talking casually, some shouting, others giving short but firm orders. It was being on the other side of a frenzied office meeting room.

Just as Coloratura was about to begin thinking of a way to open the door, a light flickered on overhead, stinging her eyes. Her eyes adjusted, and more slight ground shake occurred again. Then, a big thud was heard, followed by a sudden movement that jostled her about, though not enough to knock her off balance. Realizing that enough was enough, Coloratura reached up, grasped the door handle in her mouth, and pushed it open, only to be greeted with a group of weird-looking creatures, who all turned their heads and froze in shock at the sight they’d just seen before their very eyes.

“Oh sweet Lord, I’ve gone insane, haven’t I?” one uttered, barely able to break the silence.

Coloratura bit back a gasp, now feeling fearful. These creatures were considerably larger than she was, and if anything, they could easily hurt her if they wanted to. But that was exactly it – did they? There was only one way to find out.

“Hello there, I’m sorry if I scared or interrupted you,” she said, albeit anxiously. “I’ve never seen anything like you all before.”

One of them gave an exasperated sigh. “Can’t blame ya for the way you look, obviously, you’re not from around here. Well, we’re all humans – tall, strong, and upright in the way we walk. We communicate via speech mainly, and also through other means. Stallion to guy, mare to girl. But… how? Why am I talking to a talking pony? Am I still sane?”

Coloratura bit back a giggle “I assure you, everything’s still the same. Where are we, exactly, again?”

“In our luxury van, traveling down the road on planet Earth,” replied another. “Motorized chariot, if you will.” Then he paused. “Did you seriously find yourself in that bathroom?”

“Sure sugar did.”

“Well, I can say I’m glad you’re out,” came a third voice, this one soft and more relaxed than the others. Coloratura spotted him – a dark-skinned guy with a thick quiff and fashionable yet modest-looking clothes, sitting at the very front.

“Come,” he said invitingly. “Come sit with us. We won’t hurt you.”

Feeling more at ease, Coloratura walked over and climbed up onto the soft, couch-like leather seat beside him. Immediately, almost on instinct, he reached out and gently stroked her mane, causing her to pull a blissful and relaxed smile as she sat upright.

“Where are you from?” he kindly asked.

“Equestria, a land of harmony.”

“Sounds like a totally different place. Well, if it is the land of harmony, then I’m positive there is a whole team of friends lookin’ out for ya. For now, you’ll be in the care and comfort of me and my team.”

Coloratura let out a smooth sigh as her previously heightened worries were washed away. This guy was so supporting and caring, yet he still didn’t fully know her.

“What’s your name, actually?” he inquired. “Forgot about introductions, damnit.”

“Ah, no worries. My name’s Coloratura, though my friends call me Rara. And you?”

“Abel Tesfaye, though my fans know me as The Weeknd.” He gestured to a rather young guy with windswept hair, and then to an older guy with glasses, and two other guys. “That’s Peter, my lead guitarist, Alex, my tour coordinator, and Amir and Tony, who are my managers. There are many more, but you’ll get to know them in time.”

As Coloratura settled down for the ride, Abel soon caught notice of a pattern beneath her satin skirt. “What’s that marking on your ass?”

“Oh, yes,” Coloratura replied with a blush. “That’s my cutie mark. It’s a symbol of my destiny – my true path in life of what I’m good at and can be the best at.”

“I would say without a doubt that it’s got to do with making good music,” Peter noted. “If anything, we’ll see if I’ve got free time during our upcoming backstage prep and you and I can jam together.”

Coloratura’s eyes lit up like stars. “Really?!”

Peter nodded firmly. “Really. I know a great musician when I see one.”

“It’s quite the coincidence that I was just starting a concert back in Equestria before…something weird happened and I found myself here, in the back of your van.”

“Can you recall what happened?” Alex inquired.

“Not a thing comes up in my memory.”

“What a sour bit of luck,” Amir added. “But it was probably really traumatic anyways so why bother trying to recall it, right?”

Coloratura nodded in agreement. “So you’re all headed to a concert, huh?”

“We certainly are!” Peter, Alex, Amir, and Tony all said at the same time, causing Abel to giggle at the obviousness. But he continued with questions, eager to discover more about the pony he’d taken into care.

“So, what instruments you play?”

“Mostly just the piano, where I compose and write out my songs.”

“How many albums have you released since you began your musical career?”

“Two so far, one when I got carried away with being under the influence of a manipulative, selfish manager, and the second one when I broke away and struck out solo. Before that, I had a couple singles that I made at summer camp as a kid, and released them for free.”

For a moment, Abel’s face grew slightly somber, but he continued. “Any friends you had there?”

“I had a couple best buddies, but my absolute best friend was a country pony named Applejack. She and I would often perform together – her the guitar or banjo, and me the vocals. My biggest hit out of the few singles that I made at the time was “Equestria: The Land I Love”. Literally every single camper would flock to watch me sing it. Afterwards, I moved to Manehattan to make it big in the music scene – and I nailed it. Success after record-smashing success came, though I was unaware of the wickedly manipulative schemes of my manager. I soon lost touch to my true self and stopped writing to Applejack. That was, until I came to perform at the Helping Hooves Music Festival in Ponyville, and she assisted in bringing me back to whom I was.”

Everyone fell silent as they all reflected for a second on Coloratura’s story. The silence of the atmosphere was so thick you couldn’t even fit it in a burger. But Abel soon broke it with more questions.

“What do you mostly sing about?”

“Well, it varies depending on the influences and changing scenarios. Mostly I sing about the struggles of personal livelihood, heartfelt love, and the world around me that I observe. And you?”

“I mostly talk about love – the deep, intimate love. Not necessarily between those married, but more of crushes and those merely yearning to just ‘do it’. Then they gotta deal with all the crap that comes with screwing around with the wrong girls, you get what I mean?”

“A lot of midnight sex, I presume?”

“Yep. I left home at seventeen with a couple friends, and we lived together in this tiny house, living off what we could of drugs, girls comin’ over to play, and whatnot. It was quite hard, but we got through it. As my fame grew, so did my music.”

“Given that development environment, it’s no wonder deep sex is your primary topic.”

“I’ve actually been branching out a little. Still heavy on the sex talk, but exploring new ways of talking about the same topics with my most recent album, Starboy.”

“Have you ever felt nervous about your musical career?” Coloratura added, just to reverse the interview-like discussion.

“Um…” Abel sighed. “Yes, quite a few times. Back when there wasn’t really much to do except make music, I found myself like an old, crippled guy with crutches, except for me the crippling was the act of constantly rambling through lyrics – sometimes to the point where a single song would be like, seven minutes in length, and the crutches were hard drugs I’d often take.”

“You do have confidence, don’t you?”

Abel leaned back and laughed. “Yes, I do have quite a bit of confidence, though it’s at the least when I’m on stage. That’s when I find myself with only a hair’s width of confidence, and I really have to push myself to simply let all the lyrics of the song flow out smoothly. Sometimes I take a quick shot of alcohol before I step out to assist me.”

“I don’t really see how that could help in the long run,” Coloratura remarked, a hint of concern in her voice. “Sure, it’ll give you a quick urge when at the peak point of that high feel, but after that it’s back to square one again as beforehand. I think deep down inside, you want to freely express yourself as you see fit, but a part of you is fearful of the overwhelming factor of the crowds of people who flock to hear your voice. As much as you do it to entertain and inspire your fans, you also need to do it for yourself. Once you have that… that deep internal confidence of letting your actions and words go freely as you see fit on stage, then everything else will fall into position. I myself had stage fright in the first leg of my career, but it vanished over time once I ‘let it flow’, as you said.”

Abel smiled solemnly. “You’re a smart sweetie. I think I’ve given you a lot less credit than you actually deserve. On the note of drugs, I vape from time to time, but I left those drugs once I’d built myself a solid musical foundation in my career.”

“Sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad.”

“Absolutely. Give me some time, I’ll try to incorporate you into our routine for the concert tonight. It’ll be beyond spectacular.”

Author's Note

Did quite a bit of research on Abel for this chapter. More to come!! Hit that like button if you enjoyed this chapter!