Scheduling the normal studio for song recording, Hoofman and 4 other members of StallionForce arrived. However, taped on the wall was a note scrawled out in Didier’s hoofwriting.

“What does it say?” Asked Adrian.

“It says, ‘this band has become to cumbersome, I’m leaving.’”

“Anything else?” Adrian asked again.

“That seems to be it,” Hoofman said.

“That’s just great, anypony know a guy for drumming?” Sam said.

“I might know a guy,” Adrian said.

A week later, Adrian arrived in studio with a new drummer, he was a grey earth pony with a black cap on. Along with another long, black mane.

He spoke in a definitive Trottish accent, he then said with a bite to his voice,”I’m Dave Macintosh, I’m not related to the Apple family in any way.”

“Who are the apples?” Hoofman asked.

Dave continued, not appearing to pay any attention to him,”I’m from Trotland, I’m excited to be the drummer for StallionForce.”

“You are aware that we are StallionForce, none of our ponies go halfway, we only want the best of the best,” Sam said.

“I’m sure I can meet your expectations,” Dave replied.

Dave seated himself at Didier’s old drumset, when ZP bust into the studio.

“Sorry I’m late, I got caught up in some shitty traffic when taking the taxi here. Wait we got a new drummer? Bucking awesome!”

“Stop with the damn buckings,” Hoofman muttered under his breath, shit, now he’s gotten me doing it.

“What’d you say?” Asked Adrian.

“Nothing, anyways, Dave, show us your skills.”

Vadim kindly helped Dave tune the drumset to his liking, then Dave started drumming.

His drumming style was similar to Didier’s except for one thing, he added so much bass pedal Hoofman was afraid it was going to snap. At the end of his drum solo (containing plenty of rolls and double bass,) Hoofman was astonished. “We got the best of the best alright,” he said.

“Told you I’d meet your expectations,” Dave said smugly.

“So, with a drummer, we should really start recording our music, Sam, wrote anything?”

Sam simply shook his head.

“For the sake of Celestia! We need music!”

Hoofman watched Sam get visibly astonished, and he apologized, but at that time, Sam was already going to write more music.

“Hope he’ll be back soon,” Hoofman said.

“I hope so too! After all, we just got that damn good drummer!” ZP added.

“I’m sure he will, everypony calm down for now,” Hoofman said.

—————— * * * ——————

Sam was ferociously writing songs. He had in his hoof a quill pen and he was writing with it. He finished his second glass in the hour of hard cider. He was feeling a bit woozy, from overworking himself he presumed, but he almost had the album finished. He thought of backing out but his thoughts stopped him, as they continued to do. I can’t let my bandmates down, he thought repeatedly.

When finally he had the album finished, he got another glass of hard cider, for good measure, and hailed a taxi toward the studio. When he got to the studio, he walked in.

“Hello everypony, I wrote 9 songs for us,” Sam said, sounding much more tired than usual.

“Dear Celestia, Sam you took long enough,” Hoofman said,”where have you been for the last 6 hours?”

“Writing,” Sam said,”I’m spent, let’s return home and clean up the songs a bit.” Everypony agreed.

—————— * * * ——————

Hoofman and Sam returned home to clean up their songs. That’s what they did, and Hoofman woke up the next morning frazzled. Hoofman walked out of his bedroom to find Sam still up, he was continuing to clean up the songs.

“I think they’re alright,” Sam said with a yawn.

“Very well, but first, you need some sleep,” Hoofman retorted.

Hoofman forced Sam to rest, the next day they’d start recording.

The next day, Hoofman and Sam arrived at the studio, as well as the rest of StallionForce. They had the 9 songs with them and were planning to record them.

“Everypony, please take one copy of the sheet music, this will be our album.”

Vadim passed out the sheets, and everypony looked them over. “What’ll we be playing first?” Asked Adrian.

“A song called My Spirit Will Go On,” Hoofman said. “This one’s a bit tricky, there’s a drum break for one.”

“Interesting,” Dave murmured,”interesting.”

“Secondly, the intro’s a bit tricky,” Vadim added.

“That’s true too, alright, you know what you’re doing?” Hoofman said.

“Yeah! I’m ready!” ZP shouted,”1, 2, 3, 4!”

Hoofman and Sam immediately stumbled over the intro.”Sorry, haven’t played this before,” Hoofman apologized.

Vadim, as usual, offered to help, Hoofman accepted, but not before saying,”Vadim, you don’t have to be kind all the damn time.”

“I pride myself on kindness, I’m not going to stop.”

“Alright then, could I have some help with the chord positions?”

Vadim helped Hoofman and Sam, and together they got past the solo. When the drum break arrived, Dave hit it pretty well. Then, the solo popped up, and Hoofman and Sam hit it.

When they were done, they were satisfied with the result. “This is some pretty good music,” Dave said.

“I think it’s fun to play, though I wish I could do a bit more.” Adrian said.

“I think we have a song for that, Sam, what’s the song with the interesting bassline?”

Sam shuffled through his papers before finding it,”Prepare for War!” He announced.

“Let’s have a go at that one,” Hoofman said as he overlooked the papers,”Sam, what do you mean by ‘play all 6 strings like 32nd notes’ in the intro?”

“What do you think it means?” Sam asked.

“I’ll try,” Hoofman said, using his horn for some strings he couldn’t quite get with his hoof. After that was over, they started playing the whole song. Prepare for War also had a slow down, which is where the bass came into play. Suddenly, Adrian was playing more than just the same string at breakneck speeds, he had a pattern to follow.

“This is fun!” He said.

“I’ll write later songs with you in mind,” Sam said,”unfortunately, we have to re-record because this talking is interfering with the track.”

Everypony stopped, they all started Prepare for War from the beginning. Soon, they finished the song.

“Let’s do our next song!” ZP said excitedly.

“Our next song, Sam, what shall we play?”

“This one I call Fury of the Storm, I think this one will be pretty great, we just need to play it.”

Adrian overlooked the sheet music,”Dammit, I’m back to simply playing bass at breakneck speeds, oh well.”

“Don’t feel down,” Vadim said,”according to my sheet music, my keyboard is practically muted.” He adjusted his settings a bit to match.

“Everypony, Fury of the Storm, 1, 2, 3, 4!” Sam said.

They launched into Fury of the Storm, this song would become fairly popular later, unbeknownst to StallionForce, but that’s a later story.

Hoofman had to sightread the bit after the intro, it had a strumming pattern which was super fast, he stumbled on the part in question. Sam restarted the song from the top. Hoofman got a bit closer, finally, on the third try, he finally hit the notes, unfortunately the pattern continued through the first verse. Hoofman barely hit it, and Sam took the guitar duties for the chorus.

When they started transitioning into the solo, Hoofman saw what he had to do, he freaked out a bit internally.

You can do it, you can do it... he thought to himself, and then the solo arrived.

Hoofman proceeded to freak out on the guitar.

His hooves slammed into the neck of the guitar, creating the guitar lick that goes on throughout the solo. He even removed his golden bracelet with his magic and used it to help him tap out the notes.

When Hoofman’s part ended, he was nearly spent, Sam proceeded to play a bit more of the solo, and they continued trading off just like that.

When they finished, they were immensely happy with the result. StallionForce kind of just stared at Hoofman and Sam slack-jawed. Hoofman and Sam said that they were spent and advised that StallionForce continue recording tomorrow. The band agreed.

Sam and Hoofman returned home, Hoofman turned on Metallicolt’s newest album, St. Anger, which frankly was fairly strange in his opinion, and proceeded to bandage up his hooves from his brutal guitar playing.

Sam went toward the kitchen and poured himself a glass of hard cider, he read over a book on guitar techniques. Soon, they went to sleep.

The next day

Hoofman and Sam arrived in the studio, only to see Vadim messing around on the computer, trying to choose the best takes for their music.

“Got here early,” he said,”since I’m the only one who knows how to use this bucking technology, I’m getting the best takes of the three songs.”

Soon, ZP, Adrian, and Dave arrived. Hoofman got out his guitar and everypony prepared. Sam got out their next musical piece.

“Here we have a song by the name of ‘Cry of the Brave’, it’s probably one of the easier songs on the album to be honest.”

Hoofman was glad that Sam could be a leader when he wanted, it helped because he wrote the songs.”Let’s play!” Hoofman said.

They launched into Cry of the Brave, Vadim had a crazy keyboard part right before the first verse started, he played it by simply sliding his hooves across the board as to make a zigzag constantly forward.

“Our swords are made of steel!” ZP shouted, in accordance with Sam’s lyrics.

“Hold up,” Dave started,”why do we have to specify that the swords are made of steel?”

Hoofman and Sam simply shrugged, they didn’t even know that.

“Let’s just get back to the song,” Hoofman said.

So they did, Vadim also had a similar keyboard part, like the part into the first verse, into the second verse. The song also had a slowdown, which was spearheaded by a keyboard solo, Vadim tuned his keyboard accordingly, and played it.

“That was the type of song I lime to hear!” Adrian said.

“That was an ok song, but do we have any more power metal songs?” Dave asked.

“We do, but I’d like to play this song I have called Dawn Over a New World,” Sam replied,”it’s a ballad.”

“Dawn Over a New World? Alright, let me get something.” Hoofman said, and he left the studio.

A few minutes later, Hoofman arrived with an entire piano in his telekinetic grip. He dropped it.”Man, that thing is heavy,” he said, wiping precipitation off his brow.

Vadim knew what he had to do, he took his sheet music and sat down at the piano. He started playing the opening piano part. ZP sang the song, as he was meant to do, and Hoofman provided the guitar solo. When Dawn Over a New World was done, Sam got out the heavy metal Dave wanted.

“Here’s a song I call ‘Once in a Lifetime’ I know this introduction may seem repetitive, but it simply is the easiest way to convey the song.”

Everypony nodded, they understood. They overlooked Once in a Lifetime and started playing.

The first 30 seconds were easy, then the intro turned into something resembling Fury of the Storm, but Hoofman was prepared. He played out the intro well, when he hit the solo he did likewise.

Sam was proud of StallionForce, he got out Fields of Despair. He introduced the song similarly, Vadim liked that he had to do something.

Vadim was proficient at the keys, so he played the song’s key solo well.

Next, Sam got out a song by the name of Above the Winter Moonlight,”This song is exceptionally key-driven, Vadim, so I expect you to do your best.”

Vadim overlooked the sheet music,”5 keyboard solos?” He asked.

“Yes, there’s 5 keyboard solos,” Sam said,”as you can see if you overlook the entire music.”

Vadim played the solos well, including two of those solos that sounded like elevator music.

“Finally, we have the longest by far, Soldiers of the Wastelands!”

Soldiers of the Wastelands was 9 minutes, long and a brutal endurance test, however, Dave, used to playing drums in his free time, could handle it. “I’m glad we can have some time off after Sonic Firestorm is done.” He said.

There was a slow down in Soldiers of the Wastelands, it was played well. Then, the 7 minute mark approached, and with the timestamp it had a duel guitar solo. Sam and Hoofman played it, followed by Vadim joining in. The solo sounded amazing.

When everypony was done, they knocked their hooves together, and Vadim went to the computer to compile the album.

Soon everypony went home. After arriving at home, ZP rocked out to hair metal, even though the hair metal era was well and done by this point. Likewise, when he went home, Vadim practiced his techniques and studied up on guitar techniques to help when Hoofman and Sam tripped up.

When Adrian arrived home, he put in Super Smash Pones Melee, and played through the adventure. When Dave returned home, he practiced drums until he went to sleep.

When StallionForce arrived at the studio the next day, a letter was waiting for them, stating that Noise Records would publish Sonic Firestorm, StallionForce released Fury of the Storm as a single and it received positive praise, StallionForce hoped that this would continue to work in their favor.

“I think I know what we should brand ourselves,” Hoofman added as an anecdote,”thanks to Dave’s extreme drumming, we should be extreme power metal!”

“Sounds good.” Dave said.

Thus, the extreme power metal band StallionForce released their second album, and things were looking up. They hoped that this would continue.

Author's Note

MILESTONE REACHED! I HAVE A CHAPTER OVER 2000 WORDS!

I can see this story becoming very repetitive, so I want to know how to avert that. Anyways...

Sonic Firestorm came out in 2004, events in music that happened in 2004 are:
Johnny Cash had died a year prior, and bands such as Alter Bridge, Anarchy Club, Bring me the Horizon, and Panic! At the Disco are formed.

Lineup now consists of
Guitarist/Rhythm Guitarist Hoofman Li
Guitarist/Rhythm Guitarist Sam Trotman
Drummer Dave Macintosh
Bassist Adrian Lambert
Keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov
And Vocalist ZP Theart

Link to Sonic Firestorm:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6A090D8CE5146C1