Chapters 1999, The Forming of StallionForce
The year was 1999, Mareoon 5 had recently formed, and contrary to their name, weren’t completely made up of mares. Cheese Sandwich had released his popular album, Bad Mane Day , three years prior. In all these acts though, there was a guitarist, who went by Hoofman Li, he wanted to form a heavy metal band to rock the ages. He called up his friend, Sam Trotman.
“So, you know I’ve had visions of creating a heavy metal band right?” Hoofman said.
“How could I forget,” replied Sam,”even after I joined that band, Demoniac, you still said you’d call me up and ask for a recruit if you did create one.”
“I got an idea, my place, 6:00 PM sharp.”
“You’re aware that I live in New Poneland, and you in Hong Trot right?”
“Alright,” Hoofman sighed,”6:00 PM two days from now.”
Meanwhile, Sam ordered a plane ticket for Hong Trot to take off two days from now. He told Demoniac that he was likely leaving, and to have a good one. He packed up and flew toward Hong Trot.
Two days later
Hoofman was kicking back, watching Metallicolt play live on TV. He loved the band, but he wished Ullrich was a little more creative. When he heard a knock on the door. Hoofman opened it, and there stood Sam, he sheepishly waved. Hoofman bade him to come in. Sam took a seat on the couch and flipped off the Television. Sam didn’t look like anything special, he had a long mane and was wearing a beanie. His coat was red, his mane black.
“I don’t get how you’re going to form this band, we have no lead singer, drummer, or bassist, and you know very well that me and you both only play the guitar.”
“I’ll be able to find us a crew, trust me,” Hoofman said,”but, that’s not the point— crap, I forgot to tell you to bring your guitar.”
To this, Sam simply stated,”What are we waiting for! Let’s find me one, I’m not going back to New Poneland. I’m already thinking of buying a house.”
Hoofman hopped down from his seat and told Sam,”We’ll find you one.”
A few minutes later, Hoofman and Sam arrived at a guitar store. They were browsing the shelves, when Hoofman got lost in the sleek guitar designs. A little while later, he heard the unmistakable riff for Metallicolt’s super popular song, Enter Sandpony. He turned and found Sam, fully equipped with an amp and a golden bracelet around his hoof, strumming it out on a deep, rich, blue guitar.
“I really like this one!” He shouted, starting up Sun on the Water.
Hoofman walked over and told the guitar clerk,”We’ll take this one!”
Hoofman and Sam, guitars in hand, were playing some heavy metal tunes on their guitars, when in between songs, Sam stated,”We still need a name, a vocalist, drummer, and bassist.”
“The name is simple, I’ve decided on PonyHeart. About the band, I’ll get right on that.”
At this point, I should just describe what Hoofman looked like, he had squinty eyes and a long mane. He had a cream colored coat, brown mane, and he was a unicorn, contrary to Sam Trotman being an earth pony. Anyway, back to the story.
Hoofman walked over to his writing desk, he lifted up a quill in his magical aura. He wrote out a newspaper ad for a lead vocalist and showed it to Sam.
“Heavy Metal band PonyHeart looking for a vocalist with general skills, one who can sing high.” Sam read,”I like it! Let’s publish this right away!”
Hoofman sent the ad to the newspaper company and turned to Sam,”I have a good feeling about this band,” he said. “Hey, Sam, feel free to crash at my place until further notice.”
One week later, their cry was answered, a South African pony by the name of ZP Theart,”Yes,” he clarified over the phone,”my name is literally ZP, those aren’t initials, where do I join this PonyHeart?”
“Hong Trot 6:00 PM, Cafe Grey Deluxe, in two days. Can you make it?”
“Sure,” ZP said.
Hoofman hung up,”I told you we’d get one,” he said to Sam.
“I can’t believe his name is literally ZP,” Sam deadpanned.
Two days later
Hoofman and Sam were laughing over some cider when they heard the clock strike 5:00 PM. “We’ve gotta meet ZP at Cafe Grey Deluxe,” Hoofman said.
“You don’t say,” Sam said.
“Stop your sarcasm for 2 seconds, let’s go.” Hoofman said, completely serious.
They met up at the Cafe Grey Deluxe, Hoofman told the waitress to get a table for three. Hoofman and Sam were talking amongst themselves when they heard the bell ring. They turned and saw a grey unicorn with another long, brown, mane. He asked the waitress for a table with Hoofman Li and Sam Trotman. The waitress pointed him to the correct table and he took a seat.
“Why else would you be here?” Sam snarked.
“Please ignore him,” Hoofman said,”he has a tongue of needles, yes, you’re in the right place. This is going to be the best Metal band ever! Let’s get you signed up.”
Therefore, ZP joined the band, he said that he was perfectly fine staying in a hotel, and didn’t need to crash at Hoofman’s. Hoofman and Sam returned to Hoofman’s house. “We still need a drummer and bassist,” Hoofman pointed out,”could you find one?”
“I definitely will,” Sam said,”I know some guys.”
Sam called up Demoniac,”Could I have my old drummer, Matej Setinc,” enunciating each syllable carefully.
“Sure,” the other line said.
Next, Sam called up a friend he had met online, Steve Trott, who agreed to join the band too.
“I got the bassist and drummer,” Sam later relied to Hoofman.
“Very well done, but I was thinking about PonyHeart’s sound a bit, I think for maximum effect, we need a keyboardist, but I don’t know anyone.”
“Let’s see if we can come up with a solution.”
“Let’s go see if we can catch Bon Jovi live, we might find someone.”
On the way to the concert, Sam received a call from Steve and Matej, they said they’d be in Hong Trot tomorrow. “We better find a bucking keyboardist,” Hoofman cursed.
However, Hoofman and Sam were in luck, Bon Jovi’s normal keyboardist was out sick, they had a touring one for the time being. Hoofman and Sam were impressed by what they saw, the keyboardist never lost time, and he even added a few fancy riffs of his own. Their seats were crappy, so they never got a good look at him. After the show, Hoofman and Sam fought to see the keyboardist.
“What’s your name?” Hoofman asked.
“I’m Steve Williams,” he said.
“So, Steve, would you like to join our band PonyForce?”
“Why not?” He said.
Hoofman then said,”Alright, you’re in, just meet us at the main musical studio in Hong Trot, OK?”
Hoofman and Sam retired for the night. They woke up the next morning. They had given explicit instructions for everyone to meet up at the main musical studio. Sam packed some sheets of paper into a bag, and they rented the studio for today. They then arrived.
“So,” Hoofman said to the newly-assembled PonyHeart,”we’re here to rock! This studio is slated for us today. Now let’s introduce ourselves, I’m Hoofman Li.”
“Sam Trotman,” said Sam.
“ZP Theart,” said ZP, his voice energetic.
“Matej Setinc,” said a yellow earth pony with a long, brown mane and sunglasses, shyly.
“Steve Trott,” said a light blue unicorn with a long, black mane.
“Finally, I’m Steve Williams,” said a coal-black pegasus with another long, brown mane.
“That being done, Sam here has some music, I assume, for us to play.” Hoofman said.
“Let’s do this!” ZP shouted.
“Well, this seems difficult,” Steve Trott said,”how am I supposed to play this fast with hooves!”
“Use your horn,” said Steve Williams, cooly.
“Stop bickering,” Hoofman said,”Trott, I’m gonna call you that alright? That’s the beauty of the music we play, Sam has created a smorgasbord metal genre, mainly based on power metal, to create the heaviest metal there is. Mine and Sam’s guitar parts aren’t a cakewalk either. Nor is Matej’s drum parts, or Williams’ keyboard parts.”
A few months later
PonyHeart was getting their first Demo done, when Matej called up Hoofman and Sam, who oddly still hadn’t gotten his own place, and said he was swamped down by studies. He regretfully informed Hoofman that he was leaving PonyHeart.
Author's Note
They’re PonyHeart now, they’ll be StallionForce later.
Link to Heart of a Dragon: https://youtu.be/pT-qo68EOp4
If you dislike the story, I’d like constructive criticism, there’s no point in improving a piece of writing that you don’t know how to improve in the first place.
2000, Valley of the Damned Demo
Hoofman wrote up a new ad, looking for a new drummer. Matej made it clear he wasn’t likely to return. PonyHeart was recording their first demo, and they weren’t about to back out. Hoofman made it clear to the rest of the band that they weren’t recording the Valley of the Damned demos until a new drummer arrived. Finally, their call was replied to. A Prench drummer by the name of Didier Almouzni said he’d be at the main music studio in Hong Trot.
Hoofman and Sam arrived at the music studio at the scheduled time. In the corner, they spotted a coal black pegasus lighting a cigarette. He had another long, black mane. A golden watch was wrapped around one of his forelegs.
“Why do the ponies we hire always have long manes?” Sam mumbled under his breath.
“I’d presume you’re Didier,” Hoofman said.
“Maybe, sometimes I am, sometimes I’m not,” he replied cryptically.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
“I’m here to join PonyHeart.”
“You’re in the right place, the rest of the band should be arriving.”
As if on cue, the rest of the band stepped in, Hoofman introduced them one at a time. Suddenly, Williams spoke up, addressing Didier,”I like you,”
“We should record,” Hoofman said. He counted off the song, but when he hit the end of the countdown, only Sam and him started playing. They stopped quickly and looked over to where the rest of the band were having conversation amongst themselves. Williams and Trott were bickering together, like usual.
“I said, we should record!” Hoofman shouted, and everypony stopped talking. Hoofman counted out the song again, and everypony started playing. A couple times PonyHeart screwed up, but they just took the song from the top. Finally they recorded the title track Valley of the Damned.
In this session, Williams announced that he was going to take a break from PonyHeart for a while, he made it clear that he would be back. Everypony returned to their house.
Hoofman and Sam sat at their dinner table and wrote a song together. Williams went back to his hotel, and retired for the night. Trott also took to his hotel. An interesting case was ZP, he was running low on funds, and the hotel sure wasn’t going to keep a pony for free. He had to make it known next practice.
Next practice, ZP was looking troubled,”What’s wrong?” Trott asked.
“I might have to leave Hong Trot,” ZP said,”my funds are running low.”
“We’ll be here to help,” said Hoofman,”now, me and Sam wrote a song last night, we call it Starfire, I’d like for it to be on the demo.”
“We need our keyboardist!” Sam said.
“I’m with Sam over there,” Trott butted in,”what good is a snyth-driven Metal band without synth?”
“I’d prefer we have him,” Didier replied.
“Alright, no recording until Williams comes in,” Hoofman sighed, this band might get somewhere one day.
Hoofman and Sam had finished writing the last song for the demo, which they wanted to be about 4 songs. The song was called Black Fire. Unfortunately, PonyHeart couldn’t record it, as Williams was gone. They really had nothing to do until said keyboardist arrived, so they waited.
ZP was kicked out of his hotel for lacking the funds, everypony else had gotten part-time night jobs except for him. He wrote out a letter to Hoofman and Sam.
Hoofman got the letter, he wrote back to ZP that they’re trying as hard as they can, and he’d see what he could do. He called up Williams and pestered him to join again.
It took two months, but Williams finally caved. He said he’d join the band again. The next day, Hoofman found Williams talking with Didier. He sat his stuff up, and Sam came in. He took out his blue guitar.
“Your guitar is bucking awesome!” ZP said.
“Why else would I have it?” Sam said.
“Alright everypony!” Hoofman said,”Me and Sam wrote a song called Black Fire, I want you all to perform in it.” After a few tries, everypony finally finished the song. “Great job, now we should throw these tapes together and create the demo!”
With that, the Valley of the Damned demo was done, Hoofman sent out a few copies to several publishers. He awaited approval. Finally, a company called Noise Vinyls said they’d publish PonyHeart’s work. There was much rejoicing. Everyone was super happy, and then Hoofman said,”I have an idea! Let’s tour around the world to promote this demo! Let’s get two other bands too, because there’s only 4 songs, how about Alicorn and Stratovarius?”
“Bucking awesome!” ZP said.
“I don’t like this idea...” Trott said.
“Got any better ideas?” Sam snarked to Trott.
Didier said nothing, as was typical.
The very next day, Hoofman and Sam gathered the band together for touring plans when Trott stood up.”Look, I’m not wild about this idea,” he started,”this PonyHeart thing isn’t working out for me, I’m leaving the band.”
Hoofman was about to bade him farewell when Williams spoke up,”For once, I agree with Trott, I’m leaving PonyHeart.”
“Go on your way,” Hoofman said. But inside he was secretly freaking out, now they needed a keyboardist and a bassist. For now, they’d use touring members.
“I see a problem,” Didier said with a gravelly voice, to this day, Hoofman still was put off a bit by him.”We have no money,” he said.
“We all have jobs don’t we?” Hoofman said,”Let’s pool our money.”
After doing so, Hoofman and Sam saw they had enough money for one tour only, the jobs didn’t pay much. “I hope to Celestia this works,” he said.
PonyHeart as a whole purchased train tickets. While standing in line for said tickets, ZP spotted a band playing just outside the boarding platform. The entire band was great, and PonyHeart headbanged along. After purchasing the tickets, they laid in front of the band, they were a synth-driven metal band, like PonyHeart. The keyboardist was amazing, which was great for a synth-driven metal band. They were asking for donations. PonyHeart listened to the end of the song, donated, and heard the keyboardist say,”That’s all for today folks!” As he hopped down from the stage.
PonyHeart was astonished,”Got any engagements?” He asked the keyboardist.
“Yes, I’m part of a band.” He said.
Hoofman got a good look at him, he was a light blue pegasus with a backwards cap on. His electric keyboard was slung across his body. “If you don’t mind,” Hoofman said,”would you like to tour with ours? Our keyboardist and bassist just left and we’re going on tour in — how long Didier?”
“One hour,” he said, glancing at his watch.
“Yeah, we really need a keyboardist and bassist.”
“Why didn’t you say so! Diccon, get down here! Name’s Vadim by the way, Vadim Pruzhanov.”
A cream unicorn with a dirty blonde long mane lept from the stage and landed with a audible wince, as his right hind leg collapsed, he quickly righted himself. “What, Vadim?” He asked.
“These folks are looking for a keyboardist and bassist, wanna join?”
“Sure!” Diccon called, limping up to PonyHeart,”Name’s Diccon Lyre, nice to meet you!”
“You can just leave a band like that?” Hoofman asked,”You’re crazy!”
“It was more of a for-fun band, we should go with a serious one.”
“Let’s go!” Sam called,”The train can leave without us!”
Everypony high-tailed it after that, making the train right before it left.
“Tickets please,” the stallion on the loading dock said. Hoofman gave him the tickets, luckily, Diccon and Vadim were planning on going somewhere, so they weren’t short. They hopped on the train.
“We’re going to be in here for a while, Hoofman said, getting a seat. “Diccon, I notice that you’re limping, anything wrong?”
“Nope, nothing,” he said quickly.
Hoofman realized that he wasn’t going to get any information. So he looked over the next stop, Prance. “Let’s hope this tour goes well,” Hoofman said, and everypony agreed.
***
“Are we there yet?” Diccon asked skittishly.
“Like the last twelve times you asked that, no!” Sam yelled.
“He’s just like this, it’s something you learn to live with,” Vadim said.
A few minutes later, the train stopped and PonyHeart got off. They went through security and got a hotel. Everypony retired to their rooms, it was going to be a long day tomorrow.
Hoofman woke up to an alarm, or more specifically, Sam flipping on and off the light in the room. “Wake up!” Hoofman obliged. He brushed his mane, a side effect of it being so long, and trotted down to the lobby, where the rest of the band was waiting.
“Let’s go!” Vadim shouted. They had to leave early for reaching the venue on time. Vadim had called up a taxi, a pony-drawn carriage, and asked for the destination. “La Zénith!” Vadim said, and the ‘driver’ happily obliged.
They arrived at La Zénith in time for the concert, Vadim tipped the ‘driver’ generously. They unloaded their instruments, Didier used a venue-supplied drumset, as drums were hard to pack and grumbled about it the whole time.” I asked for a black drumset! This is not black, this is grey!” He said while trotting toward the stage.
“Just shut up,” Hoofman said. Soon, they arrived on stage, waiting for their cue.
“Fillies and gentlecolts! I introduce the power metal band of the ages! PonyHeart!”
“That’s our cue,” Hoofman said. PonyHeart walked on stage, the crowd wasn’t super thick, but they had one.
“Get ready for some bucking shit everypony!” ZP shouted at the top of his lungs. “I present to you PonyHeart, and our new demo, Valley of the Damned!”
They launched into their first song, everypony trying as best they could, unfortunately, the music was complicated. So they didn’t do perfect, but they did a pretty damn good job. The crowd cheering, ZP coaxed them into their next song with these words:”I’d like to thank everypony for coming tonight, we’re here to promote our Valley of the Damned demo. Now get ready for our next song, Heart of a Dragon!”
This continued on for three songs, at the fourth, ZP said,”Unfortunately, that’s all we have, thank you for listening! I’m ZP Theart, we have Hoofman Li and Sam Trotman on guitar, Diccon Lyre on bass, Vadim Pruzhanov on keyboards, and Didier Almouzni on drums! We are PonyHeart, and this has been a damn good night! Enjoy Starfire everypony! Alicorn and Stratovarius too!”
They concluded the PonyHeart part of the concert, the band went backstage. “You’re a great crowd-starter!” Hoofman exclaimed.
“Thank you,” ZP said,”my voice is bucking shot though. I don’t think I could go on much longer.”
“Alright, let’s just enjoy that this tour is mildly successful,” Vadim said.
“I’m so excited that we might become something big one day!” Diccon said.
“Me too,” Hoofman said.
“So, now shall we just go?” Didier put in, lighting another cigarette.
“No, the band needs to stay until the show’s over.”
So, they did just that, when the concert ended, PonyHeart came out from backstage and bowed before the audience.
The rest of the tour went as planned, with no unexpected surprises. The returned to Hong Trot, Hoofman and Sam split the money and gave everyone a place to live. Sam insisted on staying at Hoofman’s house,”We can write more songs together!” he said. Hoofman agreed hesitantly, but he really had no choice. The year soon came to a close.
Author's Note
I got dislikes and no constructive criticism. 😐
But, I did try to clean up what I thought most people would hate, I made the story easier to follow and gave the characters some personalities, which I’ll continue next chapter through visits to each band member by Hoofman.
Also, you see why I changed the rating of this to teen, there’s profanity, and I’m planning on adding more, because ZP’s pretty infamous for being profane.
Enjoy the chapter everypony, and contructive criticism’s encouraged.
2001, Valley of the Damned recordings
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
2002, Valley of the Damned
Hoofman was sitting alone at his house, watching Metallicolt again, their most recent albums were not the greatest, but still good. When Sam ran in and turned off the TV. “What was that for?” Hoofman said.
“You know Noise Records?” Sam said enthusiastically,”They’re releasing the album soon!”
Hoofman was excited,”We need to tell the others about this!”
They booked the normal studio. They requested everypony be there. When the day arrived Hoofman and Sam got there first, they sat and waited.
Soon, Dider trotted in, followed by an enthusiastic ZP, Vadim, and finally, Diccon limped in, appearing to be in more pain than ever. Hoofman reminded himself to take Diccon to a doctor.
“What’s the news?” ZP said.
“Yeah! What is it!?” Diccon shouted.
Vadim and Didier listened.
“Noise Records has agreed to publish Valley of the Damned !” Hoofman said.
“Damn awesome!” ZP said.
“Also, Diccon, we’re taking you to a doctor,” Hoofman said.
Diccon went pale, he hated doctors.
“Come on, Sam, you keep PonyHeart in control,” Hoofman said.
Hoofman called a taxi, and ordered it to take Diccon and himself to a hospital. When they arrived, Hoofman checked Diccon in, and they laid, Diccon getting paler by the minute. When Diccon’s name was finally called, Hoofman escorted him up, as he seemed like he wouldn’t move himself, and laid down again.
An hour later, and Hoofman was getting anxious, when finally, the nurse called him back.
“He seems to have a tendon problem with his right hind leg,”
“Figures,” Hoofman mumbled.
“That’s not all, we’re going to have to fix the problem, after the fact, he won’t be able to stand for too long for 6 months.”
Now Hoofman grew pale, they’d need a new bassist now.
“Feel free to replace me, after all, I won’t be much use when you promote Valley of the Damned with a tour.”
Hoofman agreed, and the nurse told him to leave, as Diccon would be staying at the hospital for a while.
Hoofman finally went back to the studio, he found PonyHeart sitting amongst themselves, playing some games of chess.
“Checkmate,” Didier said to Sam, smugly.
“I’ve won the last few games, be less smug,” Sam retorted.
“Everypony,” Hoofman said, jumping onto an amp,”Diccon has a tendon problem, we need a new bassist.”
“We’re not going on tour, in like 4 months right?” Sam said.
“Depends how quick we find a bassist,” Hoofman said.
“I’ve just gotten a message from Noise Records,” Vadim said, fiddling with the computer,”they are unable to publish Valley of the Damned .”
Hoofman sank to the floor, head in his hooves,”We’ll get somewhere someday!”
Vadim got up and comforted him,”First off, let’s find why.”
“Very well, hey, where’d ZP go?”
“Back home, evidently, Chess is not good enough for him,” Sam snarked.
While Hoofman and the rest went back home, Vadim agreed to figure out why Noise Records couldn’t publish the album. Hoofman sulked around his house, how would PonyHeart get known without an album to get known from? He was feeling down when he got a letter from Vadim.
“Hoofman, I found out why, after precisely 7 minutes of looking up bands, because there’s nothing wrong with Valley of the Damned inherently, I found out that another band already has the name PonyHeart, so I think to publish the album, we need a name change.”
“Great news!” Hoofman said, he began brainstorming names.When he got an idea.”I got an idea!” He shouted, Sam walked in the room due to this commotion.
“What?” He stated.
“We’ll call the band StallionForce instead!”
Hoofman sent a letter to Noise Records, it stated that they were changing their name to StallionForce to avoid copyright infringement. Noise Records agreed.
A month later, the band now called StallionForce got their album published, there was much rejoicing. They had an album.
“We need a tour!” Hoofman said.
“Hate to burst your bubble,” Vadim said,”we don’t have a bassist.”
Hoofman sent an ad out, requesting a new bassist, they got one, a pony by the name of Adrian Lambert answered their call. He arrived in Hong Trot and brohoofed with everypony there. He was an earth pony, his coat was dark blue and he had a long dirty-blonde mane, as well as a goatee. He had on his back a black bass. He mentioned that he was from England and was willing to play. StallionForce now could go on tour.
Author's Note
Woohoo! Shortest chapter ever! And it took a week to upload!
Sorry, I had a massive school project followed by writer’s block, so that’s why it took so long to upload.
So, Valley of the Damned is now released, I’ll be giving this fic a pony boost soon. Also, the reason Diccon had to leave in the fic is actually real, he had to leave because of a tendon problem.
The lineup now consists of
And after every album’s released I’ll give a timeframe for, in 2002 we have these major events in music:
At this point, my author’s note is almost as long as the chapter, so I’ll cut it here. Enjoy everypony!
((BTW, the Metallicolt albums Hoofman Li thought were unlike the band but still liked are Load and ReLoad.))
2003, Valley of the Damned Tour
Hoofman was prepared for StallionForce’s tour. He had a list of tour stops, and what better place to start than in Hong Trot? Hoofman consulted the others.
“We’e going to be launching our tour very soon, I have a list of all the places we’re going to stop.”
“We’re bringing my black drumset,” Didier stated.
“So, could we practice my basslines?” Adrian said.
“Very well, we’ll give you a minute to look over the music,” Hoofman said.
“This tour is going to be bucking awesome!” ZP said, though he generally said that for everything.
Adrian trotted off to practice his basslines. Hoofman used his telekinesis to load everything into their storage while he waited for the taxi. When Adrian stopped practicing, he did it just in time, as the taxi had arrived.
“I’m ready!” He said. With that, StallionForce hopped into the taxi and went to their touring venue.
StallionForce arrived at the Hong Trot Coliseum and Hoofman took all of their instruments out from their storage, a secondary taxi. They stood backstage while ZP went out to rile up the crowd. They could hear him from backstage.
“Who’s ready to rock!” ZP coaxed, the entire crowd went wild,”Because we are going to bucking rock! Get ready for some shit everypony! We are StallionForce, here for Valley of the Damned !”
“That’s our cue,” Hoofman said.
“You don’t say,” Sam said under his breath.
Hoofman, Vadim, Adrian, Didier, and Sam stepped onto the stage, Hoofman gave instruments to all of them and they waited for the cue.
“Our first song we’re performing tonight is Black Winter Night!” ZP said.
The crowd went wild, so this is what it feels like, Hoofman thought, being in the spotlight. StallionForce launched into the song.
The crowd wasn’t particularly impressive, only about a fourth of the seats were filled, but nevertheless, it was a crowd, and they were going to listen. Hoofman’s hooves were flying across his strings, trading off riffs and solos with Sam. Vadim had tuned his keyboard just right, his hooves slid over the keys as he soared above the stage. ZP’s melodic vocals, backed by the rest of the band were soaring, Adrian was strumming up and down ferociously on his black bass. All this while Didier went nuts on his kit, hitting the cymbals so fast that Hoofman was surprised they didn’t break.
Needless to say, StallionForce put on a great show. When the ending of Black Winter Night arose, Hoofman strummed the final chord and ZP said,”We’ll be back in a couple minutes, we’re going to bucking rock!”
Hoofman toggled the lights of the stage off, plunging the coliseum into darkness. He murmured,”Vadim, we need a piano for When Dragons Rule, and acoustic guitars for Disciples of Canterlot, could you get them?”
Vadim nodded and took them from backstage, Hoofman carefully placed the piano in the right spot, and carried the acoustic guitars still.”We went over this,” Hoofman said,”Vadim, When Dragons Rule is next, you’re singing the intro alright?”
Vadim nodded again, and Hoofman took the guitars, as well as the rest of StallionForce, backstage. He flicked the spotlight on and focused on Vadim, alone on the piano.
“Our next song will be When Dragons Rule,” with none of the excitement that ZP riled up the crowd with. The ponies in the crowd were not comprehending this, where was the unicorn they knew so well? Then, Vadim started playing his piano.
He was playing a slower version of the Heart of a Dragon’s intro, and singing the lyrics. The crowd was entranced by this song, a bit in, a guitar chord rang out across the coliseum, and StallionForce leaped on the stage, instruments in hand, Hoofman again, gave everypony their instruments.
“In a land where dragons rule!” The entire band sang, and the song launched into a normal StallionForce song. When the song ended, ZP again addressed the crowd with his usual excitement.
“That is a damn good show so far! While on the topic of dragons, we’ll start up out next song! Get ready for our regularly scheduled damn heavy metal, we’re moving on to Heart of a Dragon!”
StallionForce went into Heart of a Dragon. Afterwards, ZP said,”That was Heart of a Dragon! Next up, Disciples of bucking Canterlot!”
Hoofman pulled the acoustic guitars on stage and started playing with Sam, his electric guitar, not the acoustics yet.
Once the band hit the acoustic guitar solo, Adrian slid his hoof down the bass and Hoofman once again used his magical prowess to turn the lights off. A spotlight settled on Sam and Hoofman, sitting down strangely, not on all fours, but on their back legs, while their front hooves held their guitars. Sam started strumming on his acoustic guitar and Hoofman whipped out his electric and provided the rhythm. Afterwards, Hoofman flicked the lights on again.
When Disciples of Canterlot was finished, ZP decided to give the crowd one more song.
“Do you want some more?” ZP said, the crowd shouted in agreement.”Great, now our final song! Evening Star! We have Hoofman Li on guitar, Sam Trotman also on guitar, Vadim Pruzhanov on keyboards, Adrian Lambert on bass, and Didier Almouzni on drums, I am ZP Theart, and this has been a bucking good night!”
They played Evening Star, when the solo arose with Hoofman, Sam, and Vadim all playing separate parts. The spotlight centered on those ponies, and they played their hearts out. Finally, the concert was over.
“I really liked how that turned out!” Hoofman said,”Next up, we’re going to Equestria, we’e holding a show in Ponyville.”
StallionForce managed to get a blimp, this was for traveling over oceans. Soon, they arrived in Ponyville.
“We’re going to perform here,” Hoofman said.
“Thank you Captain Obvious,” Sam said.
“Anyways,” Hoofman continued, shooting a look at Sam, followed, by him pointing his hoof at a place on the map,”we’re going to perform on this stage.”
So they did, and played similar songs. They only had 8 for Celestia’s sake. However, what surprised them was the aftermath of the concert. A cyan pegasus mare with a rainbow mane almost literally crashed into StallionForce.
“That was awesome!” She said,”Twilight Sparkle told me about this band, she’s always reading up on new faces, so I came to this show!”
“Who are you?” Sam said,”Also, watch where your bucking going next time.”
“You haven’t heard of me? I’m Rainbow Dash,” she said with confidence, “Wonderbolt? World-saver? Element of loyalty?”
“I’m afraid not,” Vadim put in,”We’e from far away, nice meeting you.”
“Can I have an autograph?” Rainbow Dash said.
“I suppose so,” Didier said.
Hoofman got out a pen and held it in his telekinesis,”Where do you want us to sign?” He asked.
“On this paper,” Rainbow replied, getting out a piece of paper.
Hoofman and the rest of StallionForce signed. Rainbow Dash them flew off.
“That was something else,” Hoofman said.
“At least we have a fan, right?” Adrian said.
StallionForce shrugged, they had to continue the tour anyway.
The rest of the tour went similarly, nothing surprising happened. They ended the tour in Japone.
“Alright everypony!” ZP said,”We’re here to play some - StallionForce for you! Starting with our title track Valley of the Damned!”
While StallionForce was tired out from the tour, they prevailed. The show in Japone was just as high-octane as the first one in Hong Trot. ZP’s vocals were high energy as well as everypony else’s musicianship.
“You are a great bucking crowd Japone! Next up, Disciples of Canterlot!”
Vadim played his elevator music-esque solos super well, and the acoustic work was perhaps even better than the first live show.
The rest of the concert went exactly the same with different songs. After they had finished, StallionForce lounged backstage.
“Time to go back,” Hoofman said.
“This tour was so fun!” Adrian added,”I’m joining StallionForce permanently!”
“Welcome!” Said Vadim, jumping and accosting Adrian.
So, StallionForce went back to Hong Trot, but, the visions of a new album were just beginning.
Author's Note
Wrote this all in one sitting, I have to say the Hong Trot tour was super fun to write, I’m glad I’m going to write about more tours like that.
Also, Rainbow Dash is in this chapter, did I write her in character? Please tell me, if you don’t mind.
Enjoy everypony!
Tour’s so short because I don’t know where they stopped. Also, I took Equestria as North America, specifically the USA.
((I thought this would be shorter, I’m glad I was wrong.))
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:
Lineup now consists of
Link to Sonic Firestorm :https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6A090D8CE5146C1
2005, Sonic Firestorm Tours
Hoofman, Sam, Vadim, Adrian, Dave, and ZP were talking amongst one another for the upcoming Sonic Firestorm tour.
“We should get some other bands to tour with us!” Adrian requested.
“I think, that perhaps instead of touring right off the bat, we should perhaps give lessons?” Vadim said.
“I’m so - excited!” ZP exclaimed, adding nothing to the conversation.
“Everypony, quiet down,” Hoofman ordered finally,”I’ll try to get the bands, I don’t see how lessons are going to help other ponies, seems like it’d give them arthritis pretty easily, seeing how we play.”
“Bad idea.” Dave added from the background.
“I wonder how giving lessons could be such a bad idea,” Sam said, an obvious bite to his voice.
“Anyways, I’ve got a few bands that I’d be willing to ask, I wonder if they’d accept, I’ll send out a few letters, see you all in a week!” Hoofman said, then promptly got up and left the studio.
—————— * * * ——————
Hoofman called up two bands, L.U.N.A. and Iron Mareden, who also wasn’t comprised of entirely mares, to his amazement they agreed.
Hoofman arrived in the studio and said,”Tour’s on everypony! First stop, Japone!”
“I’m so bucking excited!” ZP said.
“I’m excited too, just not that excited,” Adrian said,
“So, let’s go on tour!” Hoofman said.
“What else would we be doing, exactly?” Sam asked.
Ignoring him, Hoofman got the blimp to go to Japone.
When they arrived, they saw that the stadium was half-full, a few just coming to see Iron Mareden.
“Great crowd isn’t it?” A voice from beside Hoofman said.
“My gosh, I did not see you there Bruce Dickinson!” Hoofman said.
“Hello to you too, I’m excited to play with the new up-and-coming power metal band.”
“Alright, who’s going first, I assume the rest of Iron Mareden’s here?”
“Yep, all of us, L.U.N.A.’s here too, I think they should go up.”
Hoofman agreed, he rejoined StallionForce in the back and told them all the plan, they’d be going second, Iron Mareden last.
When L.U.N.A. was finished. Hoofman telekinetically flipped all the lights out and turned toward StallionForce,”Dawn Over a New World as an opener everypony, Vadim, you’ll be singing all that.”
“Happy to help,” Vadim said.
Hoofman got everything ready, a piano for Vadim, guitars for himself and Sam and gave a countdown,”3, 2, 1, we’re live.”
Hoofman flipped all the lights on to reveal Vadim sitting at a piano all by himself. He started playing an acoustic version of Dawn Over a New World and singing along. Hoofman thought Vadim was doing really well. Then, before the solo arrived, Hoofman had a plan for this, he grabbed his guitar and casted a shadow spell so his shadow would pop up. He hooked up his guitar to an amplifier and cranked it up to 11. He played the solo with the spell casting his shadow toward the audience. After he was done, he was more mentally spent from the excruciating spell-casting than the solo.
Everypony stepped onto the stage and took their places. ZP trotted up toward the microphone.
“Hello everypony! I hope L.U.N.A. was ok because this is the real -. StallionForce live in Japone, Sonic Firestorm ! Vadim, playing Dawn Over a New World - good as always, next we’ll continue with the awesome track, Fury of the Storm!”
Hoofman and Sam laid their hooves on their guitars, and started playing them. Hoofman played the intro while Sam provided the rhythm. The crowd was going crazy, and even more so when they hit the solo. There were so many notes in the solo that Hoofman missed some, nopony seemed to mind though.
“For victory we ride! Fury of the Storm!” Sang Hoofman, Vadim, who now had his electric keyboard on hoof, Sam, and ZP together, standing in a line. Directly afterwards, Hoofman played the 4-note outro.
“Alright! This is what I’m bucking talking about! We’ll play one song which you all seemed to want to hear! Disciples of bucking Canterlot!” ZP yelled into the mic.
StallionForce did so, and it was enjoyed immensely by everypony, they only played this song on occasion, however it was still a great tune. Vadim also got a lot of fun things to do in this one.
“Last song, I hate to disappoint you, as you’re all so - cool, but there may be a surprise after we’re done! Let’s end it with a - bang shall we, Soldiers of the Wastelands! I’m ZP Theart, they are Hoofman Li, Sam Trotman, Adrian Lambert, Dave Macintosh, and Vadim Pruzhanov! We are StallionForce!”
They blazed through Soldiers of the Wastelands, afterwards, ZP thanked the crowd again and Iron Mareden walked on stage. After they were done, Hoofman told the others to pack up, as next they were stopping in Manehatten.
—————— * * * ——————
When StallionForce arrived in Manehatten, they took a place near the traditional music stage. They had a moderate crowd, not a huge one. Luckily, there was a backstage. StallionForce ducked behind there and sent L.U.N.A. out first. When they were finished, ZP walked on stage.
“Hello everypony!” He yelled, cringing from the massive amount of mic feedback. We’re StallionForce, we have a few songs for you today!”
StallionForce walked on stage, and Hoofman signaled to ZP to keep on going.
“First off! We’re playing a StallionForce classic! This one is what you think it is, Valley of the Damned! Who’s singing along?”
StallionForce only liked playing this song if the audience sang along, it got boring after too long. The audience did sing along, so it was a great crowd-starter.
“Next up, off of our new album Sonic Firestorm ! We have Above The Winter Moonlight! Vadim’s the real star of this one!”
StallionForce played Above the Winter Moonlight, when the first keyboard solo arrived, Hoofman didn’t see Vadim in his usual spot. He looked up, Vadim was sitting on the roof of the stage! He was playing his keyboard as he needed, and Hoofman trained the spotlight on him.
Every time Vadim had a keyboard solo, he’d fly up and play the solo. When Above the Winter Moonlight ended, the crowd gave a round of applause.
“Next up! We have bucking Fields of Despair! I hope everypony enjoys this one!”
Fields of Despair started up, this also had a keys solo, while Vadim didn’ fly up this time, he had the spotlight trained on him the entire keys solo.
“Finally, I know this is really damn disappointing, but we have Dawn Over a New World!”
Hoofman plunged the stadium into darkness, and dropped a piano onstage, he turned on the spotlight and pointed it at Vadim. Hoofman used the same method to play his solo, and the concert ended, or so the audience thought, because when Hoofman flipped the switches back on, Iron Mareden was in place of StallionForce.
After the concert actually ended, Sam suggested they get a drink for their next stop, they found a bar nearby.
“This bar is closed,” the bartender said as they entered.
“We’re musicians, we just ended a show here.” Sam replied.
“Not just some wannabes, you look a lot like StallionForce.”
“We are StallionForce,” Sam said.
The bartender scoffed,”Prove it.”
“Alright,” Sam got out his blue guitar,”this should be all the proof you need.”
“Anypony could go to a store and pick up a blue guitar. More proof please.”
“Alright, since you asked so bucking nicely,” Sam picked up his guitar and played the intro to Fury of the Storm.
“Fine, but only you, Sam Trotman, I believe it is, your friends can’t come in.”
“No, if they aren’t allowed, I’m leaving with them.”
Disappointed by them visiting after closing time, but happy for new business, the bartender said,”Fine.”
Sam and the rest of StallionForce sat down and ordered a lot of drinks. Sam drank the most. Soon, they left, drunk, and got on the blimp.
“We should be expecting an overnight flight to Ponyville.” The pilot said as he stepped into StallionForce’s area.
“Let’s party!” ZP said, under the influence.
—————— * * * ——————
Hoofman woke up to a splitting headache and their pilot ringing a bell in everypony’s ears. He was lying in the middle of the floor, his guitar was destroyed, Sam’s was still good though.
“What just happened?” Hoofman asked.
“No time! Hurry up, you’re late as it is, we’ve arrived in Ponyville,” the pilot said.
Dave got up with him and held his head, he then proceed to scream Chop Suey! incredibly loud, that got everypony up, and did not remedy Hoofman’s headache.
Everypony got up, looking a bit worse for wear, Vadim had a cut across his face, no telling how that got there. Dave’s cap was torn to shreds, as well of having a pair of snapped drumsticks at his hooves. ZP was less jocular than usual, having fallen victim to the hangover as well. Adrian was slumped across an amplifier and muttering to himself,”Body breakdown, body breakdown,” for some reason.
The only one who seemed to not mind was Sam, he got up and took his blue guitar with him.
“Everypony, we need to find a place to stay while we wait for night,” Hoofman said.
“Yeah, resting, I could do with resting before a show.” ZP muttered.
Adrian just pulled himself off the amplifier, grabbed his bass and walked out.
Hoofman and Vadim walked outside, and Hoofman got StallionForce in line.”So, whatever happened last night happened, but, we need to find a place to rest so that...” his speech was cut off by a migrane,”...we can recover,” he eventually said with a obvious amount of stress.
StallionForce checked into a hotel and went to their room, they prepared as well they could, as the concert was that night. Adrian got a letter from the bellhop and he read it over.
“Let’s see, London, need to return, hold up, this says,’Adrian, you have a filly born recently and you should probably return to London’.”
Everypony was excited. However, Hoofman wasn’t excited because they needed a bassist before tonight. Adrian proceeded to leave the hotel.
He ran down to the check-in desk. “We... need... another, bassist,” he said, worn out.
“Let’s see,” the front desk attendant said,”we actually have one staying here! This is his room, you should see him if you’re looking for one.”
Hoofman thanked her and ran to the room that was listed, he knocked on the door. He was answered by a grey unicorn with a long mane, though not as long as the rest of the band, and a full beard. His hair was black and he was standing next to a white bass with a flame decal on it.
“Cool bass, I’d presume you’re Fredrick Leclerq?” Hoofman commented, pronouncing Frèdèric Leclercq’s name wrong.
“¿Que?” Frèdèric asked.
“Hold on, do you speak English?”
“Ich spreche Englisch, aber ich mache das nur deshalb,” the bassist said.
“I have no clue what you’re saying,” Hoofman replied.
“Je parle aussi prançais,” he said.
“English, not Prench or German or whatever you’re doing.”
“Yeah, I do speak English, I just thought it would be funny if I spoke other languages. Hope I didn’t piss you off.”
“Whatever that means, I have a proposal, we’re StallionForce, and in desperate need of a bassist.”
“Je joue de la basse” Fredrick said,”Also, it’s pronounced Frèdèric Leclar.”
“I assume you just said, ‘I play bass’, also fine, please, speak English when we’e interacting.”
“Fine, I’ll give you a listen to my playing.”
Hoofman listened to Frèdèric play the bass so effortlessly, he was very impressed.
“Would you like to be part of StallionForce?” Hoofman asked.
“Marci, thank you very much,” Frèdèric replied.
“Let’s go!”
Hoofman arrived at the room where StallionForce was waiting for him. “We got one!” He said,”His name is Frèdèric Leclercq, and he’s happy to join our band. He also speaks three languages, so be aware of that.”
Frèdèric said hi to everypony in the room, and they welcomed him into StallionForce. While Frèdèric looked over his basslines, StallionForce knew that now they were prepared for tonight’s show.
—————— * * * ——————
“Hello everypony!” ZP said,”We’e StallionForce, and we’re here to perform! We got a new bassist, so while I hope he’s just as bucking good, if not better, be aware! We’ll open with Fields of Despair!”
They nailed the first song.
“Next up, we have Heart of a Dragon! I hope you’re all singing along. 3, 2, 1!”
After that was over, they played 3 more songs, closing with ZP saying,”I hope you all enjoyed tonight’s StallionForce show! However, we have a surprise, and it’s a pretty damn good one. So everypony stay tuned!”
When Iron Mareden hit the stage everypony went wild. StallionForce lounged backstage.
“Frèdèric, I’m just going to call you Fred, as it does wear on the tongue after a while. So, Fred, care to tour with us?”
“Not at all, I’d love to join the band.”
“You’re in!” Hoofman said.
The rest of the tour went without incident. Soon, Hoofman and Sam were sitting at their house, talking over what the next album would be, and what the songs were.
They continued talking as they went to their room. As Hoofman got up, he took a paper that said Inpony Rampage with him.
Author's Note
Used Google Translate for Fred’s foreign lines, they might be a tab off because of that.
Also, another longer one, sorry if the last bit is a massive decrease in quality, I’m not super happy right now.
Lineup now consists of
Also, I’ve been staying fairly true to DragonForce’s history, but that might change in a few chapters.
Finally, I’m trying as hard as I can to incorporate a certain something for each of the characters, I wonder if you can notice.
Enjoy everypony!
Hoofman woke up, he blinked the sleep out of his eyes and walked to the kitchen. Sam was there writing songs and drinking cider.
“More hard cider?” Hoofman inquired,”I told you to stop it!”
Sam blinked and looked behind him, stumbled forwards and stood up straight.”What? I’m completely fine,” he said, he was obviously not.
“What that bucking hay is wrong Sam? You are obviously not fine.”
“What are you talking about? I’m completely fine,” he said before stumbling over and haphazardly sitting down. He took the quill out of his hoof. “Besides, I’ve got a new song.”
Hoofman glanced over the paper,”Through the Fire and Flames, you realize how repetitive that is? Besides, these lyrics make no sense, nopony’s gonna listen to this!”
“Mark my words, this song’s a bucking masterpiece.” Sam said, with a slur.
“You’re obviously drunk, I’ll record it to see what happens, but this is probably just going to be filler.”
“I’m completely fine!” Sam yelled, “Leave me alone!”
Hoofman listened to Sam and left him to do whatever he wanted. He walked off mumbling to himself,”Through the Fire and Flames? How stupid.”
—————— * * * ——————
Hoofman walked into the normal studio.”We’ve got a song everypony, although it is imitably shit. I’m taking no credit for this.”
“What’s it called?” Dave asked.
“Though the Fire and Flames,” Hoofman replied.
“That sounds like one of my bad jokes,” Fred said,”like, where’s the worst place to plant a garden? Through the Fire and Flames.”
“I’ll give Sam credit though, he tried.” Vadim said to help Sam feel a bit better.
“I, for one think this song is a bucking masterpiece!” ZP said.
“Somepony gets me,” Sam said.
“Sam, you seem a bit more reserved today,” Dave said.
“Splitting headache.”
“I’m the one who told you to stop drinking hard cider, anyways, we should probably record,” a sigh,”Through the Fire and Flames, Sam, we need our Disciples of Canterlot acoustics.”
Hoofman started playing the intro, followed by playing the second intro. At least it didn’t sound bad.
ZP sang his lines, and Fred played bass, miffed that he had nothing to do, so he threw in his own little bass riffs. This pissed Sam off a bit, but he never told him to stop.
Then StallionForce got to the breakdown with Vadim’s keyboard slide in place. Then Hoofman and Sam launched into their own separate solos, followed by a rhythm/lead riff they played together, punctuated by Hoofman scratching his whammy bar across his hoof.
“That sounded quite cool, actually,” he mumbled.
When Through the Fire and Flames ended, Hoofman said he’d lead the album with it.
“Only because you want to Sam, I’m not completely fed up with you yet. Nopony’s gonna think that song makes any sense.”
“I mean, I like it,” ZP put in,”word salad lyrics are all the rage, ever heard Chop Suey!?”
Hoofman sighed,”We’ll record more songs tomorrow, today, everypony’s dismissed.”
Hoofman and Sam went back home, and Hoofman excused himself to the room, he slapped his guitar down and sighed. He decided to get some sleep for now, however, he didn’t know it wouldn’t last.
Hoofman was woken up by a loud crash coming from the living room,”What the hay was that?” He asked aloud, before going to check.
Hoofman ran out to the living room, he saw Sam collapsed in a pile of broken cupboards.
“Sam, what the buck are you doing?” Hoofman asked.
“Oh, nothing, nothing at all.”
“You’re collapsed in a pile of wood, from our cupboards no less, covered in cuts from head to toe, and nothing is wrong?”
Sam got up and hugged Hoofman,”I knew you’d get it.”
“Sam! Get off me!” Hoofman shouted, and then pushed him off,”Where’s the snarky, loyal friend I hired to join PonyHeart 7 years ago?”
But Sam wasn’t listening, he’d passed out.
Hoofman sighed and slept in the living room, as to keep Sam from consuming more cider when he woke up.
—————— * * * ——————
When Hoofman woke up, he realized one thing, he didn’t have any songs for StallionForce to record today! He shook Sam awake.
“What? Oh, hi Hoofman, couldn’t let me sleep in for 5 more minutes?”
Hoofman laughed a bit, at least a bit of the old Sam had returned.
“Tell StallionForce I’m gonna be late, I’ve got a song to write.”
“Fine, I’m staying with you, to oversee the song.”
“No, I have a feeling,” You won’t like it, ”this song is better written alone.” Hoofman said, wincing at the lie.
“If you really say so,” Sam said.
Hoofman got out a quill and paper and started thinking, what should the song be? He thought, and then he thought back to Sam’s binge-drinking, Fred’s desire to play more bass, and the words that Adrian Lambert murmured on the plane last year.
Body breakdown, body breakdown...
“I’ve got it!” Hoofman shouted, and he began to write. Including a wicked bass solo and difficult bass riff,”This song’s gonna be great.”
—————— * * * ——————
“I hate it,” Sam said.
Hoofman was crestfallen,”At least include it on the bucking album! I included Through the Fire and Flames at your - insistence.”
“I love the song,” Fred said.
“I don’t, I mean, why so much emphasis on bass, nopony likes the bassist! Even one as good as Fred, the ponies want to hear Hoofman and Sam playing guitar in sync, and this opening lyric! ‘Silent dreams and broken screams of what we lost at seventeen , Hoofman, ponies are going to misunderstand that!”
“That’s the point!” Hoofman screamed.
“Let’s stop fighting, we’re gonna get nowhere, we might even break up before the album’s released, let’s at least release the album, perhaps this turmoil will be worth it.” Vadim said.
Hoofman and Sam put aside their differences for now and moved on toward recording Body Breakdown. Fred even added some bass on top of what was already written! When they were finished, StallionForce listened to the song.
“I do like how that song sounds though,” Sam said.
“Just like me and Through the Fire and Flames?” Hoofman asked.
“Told you that song would be big someday.” Sam added.
“Still don’t think that, that song is stupid.”
“Hoofman, Sam!” Dave said,”For Celestia’s sake! Stop it!”
Hoofman and Sam stopped it, for now.
—————— * * * ——————
Later that same day, Sam was getting hammered again, and Hoofman was exasperated. He walked out into the living room and confronted Sam.
“Sam!” Hoofman shouted,”I have a proposition, I’ll write some of the remaining songs and you’ll write the rest, alright?”
“Sure,” Sam said, and passed out again.
Hoofman sighed.
The next day, Hoofman woke up and started writing, Sam was still asleep, but as Hoofman wrote a couple new songs ‘Trail of Broken Hearts’, ‘Cry for Eternity’, and,’Flame of Youth’
Meanwhile, Sam took a seat next to him and wrote ‘Operation Ground and Pound’ and ‘Storming the Burning Fields’.
Hoofman looked over,”Storming the Burning Fields, what kind of a bucking name is that?”
“It just arrived,” Sam said.
“Well, it’s really bucking stupid.”
“It’s still going on the album!” Sam said, adamant.
“I never said it wasn’t!”
Hoofman and Sam gave each other the death glare, and went to the studio.
“StallionForce, we’ve got some more songs,” Hoofman said through gritted teeth.
“May I point out, if I may, that you two are the only two ponies fighting?” Fred said.
“I’m afraid you are,” Dave said, in agreement.
Hoofman sighed,”I bucking live with him, the rest of you don’t.”
“Yeah, and it’s the same with me and Hoofman, he’s such a fun roommate.” Sam said, dryly.
“I’m just so bucking excited for a new album!” ZP said.
“Here’s the songs,” Hoofman said.
“Let’s start with Operation Ground and Pound, it’s the longest.” Dave said.
So, StallionForce got out Operation Ground and Pound, and started, Dave had some tom fills on drums to start out the song. It had a distinctly Chinese feel to it, a feel which Hoofman actually liked. After that was finished, Hoofman argued with Sam a bit more.
“I say we play one of my songs next!”
“Mine!”
“Mine!”
In the back, Fred and ZP looked at each other and sighed. Finally, they decided on recording ‘Trail of Broken Hearts’, a ballad, Hoofman levitated a piano into the room.
“Time for Trail of Broken Hearts!” He said, as Vadim took a seat at the piano.
Vadim started playing, and the rest of the band joined in, Hoofman delivered on his solo and soon the song was done, although they had to take a few tries because Dave was tearing up at the lyrics.
“So, sad...” he said.
Now it was Hoofman’s turn to look at Sam and sigh.
“Well, we have to play one of my songs next,” Hoofman said, to which Sam actually agreed. Hoofman got out ‘Cry for Eternity’.
After they played that one, finally, Sam went, he got out ‘Storming the Burning Fields.’
“I present to you,” Hoofman stated,”the shittiest name ever.”
“Watch your bucking language,” Fred said jokingly.
“I like this song, and we’re playing it!” Sam said.
Hoofman put his hooves in the air,”Never said we weren’t, just thought the name was stupid.”
Soon, Storming the Burning Fields was finished, they finished with ‘Flame of Youth.’
“I think we should cut the album here,” Hoofman said,”to avoid fighting and such.”
Vadim nodded, and went to the computer to put all the songs on it.
Noise agreed to publish Inpony Rampage , they didn’t leave StallionForce without a letter,”We noticed a massive discrepancy between certain songs, could I have an explanation please?” it said.
Hoofman decided not to answer, hoping everything would solve itself. He was very wrong.
—————— * * * ——————
Sam was getting hammered again, Hiofman walked out and saw him. “Dear Celestia! What is it this time?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Sam said quickly, Hoofman had a feeling he was right.
“I got this letter that you might be interested in,” Hoofman said.
“Lovely, what does it say?”
“Activision wants our permission.”
“For what?”
“To use ‘Through the Fire and Flames’ on their popular video game series Guitar Hero . I don’t know why they chose that one instead of ‘Trail of Broken Hearts’ or ‘Body Breakdown’, I like those much more.”
Sam jumped off the couch and went to hug Hoofman, when he was pushed away,”I’m saying yes,” he said before leaving the room.
What StallionForce didn’t know is that this is where they got their big break.
Author's Note
Woohoo! Unnecessary drama! I needed a push for my writing.
So yeah, I will note, Frèdèric Leclercq does not play bass on Inhuman Rampage , Adrian does, and this is not how it happened, almost certainly.
I also forgot a song.
Anyways, bands formed this year: Doughtry, Deathklok, Lady Atebellium, and Vampire Weekend (sorry if I misspelled anything.)
Constructive criticism is allowed and encouraged
