Hoofman wanted to finish recording Valley of the Damned, but first, he wanted to get to know PonyHeart better. He knocked on the door of Diccon first.

Diccon opened the door,”Hello Hoofman! Come in, come in!” He limped over to a chair and shuffled himself around until his right hind leg has the least amount of pressure on it.

“Are you sure you don’t have like a tendon problem or something?” Hoofman said.

“Nope! Completely positive!” Diccon replied a bit too quick.

Hoofman made a mental note to take Diccon to a doctor soon.

“So, why did you want to join PonyHeart?” Hoofman started.

“Well, Vadim asked me, I stayed because I think you ponies are awesome.”

“Do you enjoy PonyHeart?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!”

Hoofman liked his excitement, but he really wanted to take Diccon to a doctor.

“Let me get some food!” Diccon shouted and jumped off the couch, nearly collasped, and ran into the kitchen to get some food. He came back with some food.

“Very excitable, huh?” Hoofman stated.

“I’d say so! I love this band!”

“You’ve said that already,” Hoofman said. They talked for a couple more minutes before Hoofman left to see Vadim.

Hoofman arrived at Vadim’s, he walked in, he saw Vadim playing a piano, which gave Hoofman a couple ideas for songs. He said hi.

“Hello Hoofman, I didn’t see you there,” Vadim said, simply.

“Hello, so, I want to get to know you better, so, what compelled you to join PonyHeart?”

“I just wanted an adventure, that’s all,” Vadim said.

“Do you enjoy PonyHeart?”

“I do, probably not as much as someone like ZP or Diccon, but I do enjoy it.”

“Very well, what about leaving it?”

“Not likely, can I do anything else?”

“That piano, can you play it as well as a keyboard?”

“This? I sure can, here I’ll show you.”

Vadim launched into Bohemian Rhapsody, by Queen, playing it perfectly. Hoofman was astonished. “This gives me an idea for a song, I’ll see you later!”

“Have to go already? Well, I’ll see you tomorrow when we record!”

Next stop was ZP’s, who was rocking out to some Bon Jovi and Def Leopard.

“Hello!” Hoofman said.

“Hello Hoofman!” ZP said, then added under his breath,”This is some bucking awesome music.”

“So, I wanted to ask you a couple questions, first, why did you join PonyHeart?”

“Well, it’s because you sent me an ad. Also because playing some metal sounded damn awesome.”

“Do you enjoy being in PonyHeart?” Hoofman asked.

“Of course! His band is bucking awesome!”

“Could you perhaps, swear less, especially bucking, I’m getting tired of bucking.”

“Honestly, I don’t give a shot, A pony can swear if he bucking wants to swear. I’m also not leaving the band on my own merits, so you might just have to deal with it.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, you and Sam sure hired a damn good band.”

Hoofman bade ZP farewell and went to Dider’s house. He was already outside, smoking a cigarette.

“Hey!” Hoofman said.

Dider finished the cigarette, and told Hoofman to enter the house. Hoofman did so, and right in the living room was a black, chrome-lined drumset.

“What inspired you to join PonyHeart?” Hoofman asked.

“I found an ad, and it benefitted me, so I joined.”

“You planning on staying? Do you enjoy being in PonyHeart?”

“Depends,” Dider said cryptically,”I’ll stay in if you people continue to let me work mostly alone.”

Sensing he wasn’t one to talk, Hoofman returned to his house. Sam was writing up a song, Black Winter Night.

“I found out Vadim can play piano as well as keys, so I have a song idea,” Hoofman said. “It’ll start out with a nice piano riff before all hell breaks loose.”

“What’ll it be called?” Sam said.

“I’m thinking, When Dragons Rule.”

“Sounds great, I’ll help you write it.”

So they wrote it, as well as two other songs, Evening Star and Disciples of Canterlot, they packed it up, and figured it would complete the album.

The next day, Hoofman and Sam took the four new songs and laid them out for the band. First, they recorded Black Winter Night.

“This one starts out with me and Sam trading guitar parts, with a double bass part on drums, think you got it Didier?”

Didier nodded, overlooking the music again. They launched into ‘Black Winter Night’ Hoofman and Sam were pleased with the result.

“Next, we have When Dragons Rule, this was inspired by Vadim’s piano skills, but I don’t have a piano on me, so everypony just overlook the music for now.”

They did as they were told, and Hoofman decided to record the other parts beforehand, a few tries later, they got it. With about 30 seconds of space left for piano, Hoofman gave Vadim a recording device. “Try and record this at home, alright?” Hoofman said.

Vadim nodded, and Hoofman got out Evening Star.”This one has a duel guitar and keyboard solo, I advise we start there.” Vadim, as per usual, nailed the solo, but Hoofman and Sam struggled with getting their hooves in the correct spot.

“I’ll help you,” said Vadim, and he did.

“Thanks,” Hoofman and Sam said in unison. They too, went on to hit the solo, next everypony did it together.

The other three, sitting idly as they had nothing to do, finally got something to do when Hoofman ordered to do the whole band to take it from the top. They did, now PonyHeart almost had an album. However, it was getting late, and they had to part for the day, tomorrow they would continue.

The next day, Vadim had recorded the intro to When Dragons Rule and spliced it with the song on a computer. The computer was excruciatingly slow, as it was new technology, so Vadim turned to Hoofman for further instruction.

Hoofman watched everypony get in the studio and said,”Hey everypony! We’re here to record our final song for Valley of the Damned, Disciples of Canterlot. I have an acoustic guitar on me, so we can record it. However, this guitar was 1000 bits, so we need to use it to its full potential.”

“Why not an electric?” Vadim asked.

“I’ll show you ponies the music, and you should understand.”

After overlooking the music, Diccon added,”Yeah! This is gonna sound awesome!” With a leap and another near collapse.

They recorded Disciples of Canterlot, and finally they had a complete album, Sam had to get used to switching between electric and acoustic guitar while Herman provided the rhythm, but the finally got it. The computer was done splicing, and they had 8 songs to use, they recorded a 16-second on-the-fly intro, Invitation of Apocalyptic Evil, and compiled the album. They wrote a letter to Noise Records about Valley of the Damned and they sent another one back agreeing to publish it. Now all PonyHeart could do is wait.

Author's Note

Sorry for a short chapter, 2001 wasn’t a very eventful year for DragonForce.

I’d like to give all credit to the story that inspired me to make this fic, Here.

Also, here’s the links to all the songs mentioned in this chapter, for the curious.
Black Winter Night
When Dragons Rule
Evening Star
Disciples of Canterlot/Babylon