Chapter 1

Serenade Singer was dumb. Serenade, Ceci for short, worked at Manehattan's most prominent bar and performance center, The Heavy Hoof. She had a deep magenta coat that always seemed to hold onto some glossy sheen and a long flowing pearly mane that swirled around her in thick curls. Her eyes were a strange pale blue color and looked out of place on her striking face. Her muzzle was always upturned as if she smelled something, and her lips were always moving. But, none of her beauty could cover up her ditzy obliviousness.

Sweetie Belle couldn't be too mad at her though, no matter how much she hated Ceci. After Coco's death, Sweetie Belle's career had fallen to bits. Until she met Babs Seed again. Babs had been staying around in Manehattan working odd jobs here and there to open up her own shop. So, when she saw Sweetie struggling, she introduced her The Heavy Hoof"s owner, Old Toots, hoping she could get Sweetie to sing again. Old Toots took her in and shoved her into bar maintenance without a single thought. But, one night, Ceci, Old Toots's daughter, heard Sweetie Belle singing to herself and got Old Toots to let her get a gig. Now, only two weeks into her Heavy Hoof career, Sweetie was going to sing again.

"Ya best be gettin' ready hons'! Toots'll want'ya ready far 'fore hand for ya 'formance." Ceci had a highly sultry voice that Sweetie Belle found sickening. She grimaced and nodded at the mare's wide smile of pearls.

Sweetie Belle trotted through a door behind the bar and into a little office room that she got to herself. It had blank walls and beige carpeting that was littered with Sweetie Belle's belongings. When she wasn't being a general bar custodian, she was helping some bar staff coordinate performances or sleeping in her little office. She pulled a deep purple dress off of a hanger on the door and held it up to herself. It was long, silky, and made by her sister a long time ago. Sweetie dug around for her tall black heels and moaned at the sight of them.

As she pulled the dress on, something in the room changed. Sweetie could hear ponies starting to fill up the bar and an alcoholic aroma started flowing around. When she saw her room, she saw flashes of purple and green. She heard noises in her head and her eyes couldn't focus. She felt claustrophobic and generally sick. With great hardship, she pulled herself out of her office and down the grungy hall out the back door.

The air outside was gray. It smelled of alcohol and yesterday's garbage. When she had been with Coco, she had been told to stick to the places in the city where the back streets were friendly. Here, the cement slab of back street was littered with junk, sewage drains stunk up the bricks on the walls of the buildings that caved in around the courtyard. Sweetie's head pounded and she had to force her eyes shut to block out the painful swirling of purple and green.

When she opened them again, it was worse. The spikes had collected to form something strange. It was an adolescent dragon that resembled Rumble, although more muscular and more sly than rude. It looked like Spike from dimension muscle.

"S-S-pike?" Sweetie murmured. As she inched towards the specter, his grin grew about a foot, and Sweetie could feel her heart pounding.

"Ah. So ya do remember me. Good fun, good fun." Specter Spike's voice was deep and moving. It made Sweetie have to shake her head to get thoughts out of it.

"Spike. What happened to you?" Sweetie asked, still wary.

"Ah, Sweets, I'm not really Spike, ya know? I'm more of like some sort of ghost." He said, swirling his claw in the air as if searching for the words.

"I picked up on that." Sweetie Belle muttered, looking up and down his slightly glowing form. "But, why? Why are you here and what the-just, WHY?" Sweetie's voice rose and broke. She saw ghost Spike chuckle and her cheeks burned.

"It's like a psychological Christmas Carol Sweets." He said with a grin that made Sweetie dizzy.

"Get out of MY HEAD!" Sweetie Belle's voice rose and fell again.

"Sorry Sweets." Spike said, standing up from his position of leaning against a mossy brick wall, "I can't. Something in you wants me ta be here, and until ya figure that out, you're stuck with me." Spike waggled his eyebrows. Sweetie gagged.

"So you're some personification of something inside of me?" Sweetie asked, a hoof on her head to prevent it from bubbling over. His presence seemed to be splitting her head into pieces and she couldn't contain her rage.

Why Spike though? In Ponyville, during High School, Spike had a thing for her and she for him. Spike had always been bad news quietly. He had always had a hidden bad boy side, and apparently, Sweetie Belle had brought that out in him. After an almost disaster, Sweetie couldn't stand him anymore. He was another reason why Manehattan called her, she had to get away from him and his freakish bad news side. That was back in Ponyville though. Before Coco and before her death too. Sweetie gulped and turned back to Spike. Without warning, he held up a watch that made her gasp.

"Ain't ya gotta get goin' Sweets?" Spike inquired, leaning in.

Sweetie Belle gasped. Then, she took off to the bar. All the way down the hallway, her head pounded and Spike whispered in her ear. Her brain was about to boil over if Spike told her to play hookie one last time. With a throbbing head, she stumbled onto the stage where Ceci stood. It seemed she had lost Spike. Better savor it.

"There ya are dalin' ah though we was gon have ta cancel on ya fer a minute there Sweets!" Ceci exclaimed happily as the band got redy behind the purple lights.

Ceci announced her, and so the night began.

"I was walkin' along,

The lights flickered in her head and Spike was next to her. "Hey Sweets."

Sweetie gulped for air in between lyrics.

A sultry voice murmured, "where ya hummin' when Coco died?"

Sweetie's voice faltered.

Drinkin' in all the sunshine

Her sunshine was gone.

"She'll never smile again."

Her voice broke again, and her chest heaved.

Flash!

"Came on pretty quick doesn't it?"

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!" Sweetie Belle couldn't bear it. She gulped for air and tried to sing through tears.

SKY!

Sweetie smiled at the crowd of unsuspecting drunks and collapsed down the stairs to Ceci.

"Ya did great hons! Ah can believ ya sang on Bridelway na hons!"

"I was crying though, I was gulping and-" Sweetie broke in, confused.

"Na hons! Where'dya get an idea like that'un?" Ceci trotted off with a laugh.

Sweetie stood there for a minute, confused.

"When are you goin' to learn that it's all in your head Sweets?"

Sweetie Belle wheeled around to give the ghost a hoof to the face, but she found herself onstage. A cold chuckle ran through her and it all began again.