Prologue: Strike Up The Band
Far beneath the castle in the heart of Equestria, lay the old laboratories of Starswirl the Bearded, the inventor of dangerous magic and practitioner of arcane arts.
He was, in many ways, a conflicted character, concerned with keeping Equestria safe, but being quite willing to conduct experiments with unforeseeable consequences. One of the most prominent of these practices was the exploration of other, alien worlds.
And in the depths beneath Canterlot Castle, his old magics and his old laboratory remains, untouched.
… Mostly.
—
“There’s nothing here,” the black-chitined creature grunted as he descended the stairs. He was known as Fifty Seven, or Venn for short.
“Orders are orders,” another, One Hundred And Three, or Oano, said, dispassionately.
“I hate orders,” Venn commented.
“Let’s get it over with so we can go back up and get a taste of princess love then,” a third one, Four Hundred And Eighty Two, or Teetoo, said. “I’m hungry.”
“So am I,” the fourth, Nine Hundred and Seventeen, or simply Nine, and final stated.
“You’re always hungry,” Oanot said.
They rounded a corner in the dark caves and found themselves facing an enormous door made entirely of brass, standing ajar.
The changeling drones looked at the gigantic structure, a little offended at not having been able to predict this development in a cave, their natural habitat.
“Call me crazy,” the Venn said, “but I think there might be something here after all.”
They approached in silence, and slowly entered through the enormous portal.
On the other side was tables and shelves overflowing with rolls or paper, boards with diagrams and scripture, crystal balls, ornate mirrors, cauldrons with their content long since dried up, and a plethora of magical and special looking implements strewn about.
They walked slowly and cautiously through the darkness and stillness, looking around constantly, and thinking two things. The first was asking themselves what any of this were, and the second was what do they tell their queen, who was notorious for demanding results and punishing anybuggy wasting her time.
“What is any of this?” Oano said.
“No idea,” Venn said. “And I’m not sure I want to touch any of this.
“Why?” Nine asked.
“It might be dangerous.”
As soon as he had said this, an arch of rusty iron next to them lit up, and formed a sort of filmy layer of mist in the middle.
“Whagh!” they all shouted, and jumped into each other, forming a huddled mass as they stared at the device.
After a few seconds, it became clear that they had not and was not about to be hurt by the phenomenon, and they slowly tore their gazes away from the device, and looked at each other, realization on their faces.
“Man, get off me!” Oano grunted, as everyone pushed away from each other.
“So what is this?” Teeto said, staring at the still ongoing phenomena.
“I dunno,” Oano shrugged. “What does it look like?”
“Uhm… I think it looks like adoring ponies,” Venn said.
“I think it looks like mountains,” Nine said.
“A… a sea of tiny flames,” was Teeto’s contribution.
Oano stared at the images, his eyes narrowing from both suspicion and fascination. “... I think–”
He was cut off from his musings by a loud rumble.
The entire cavern shook, and dust fell from the cavern roof in the distance.
“What the…?” Nine managed to say, before a giant wall of pink flowed through the cavern ceiling, and barreled towards the four changelings with crushing speed.
“Whaagh!” they all shouted, as they were hit by the pink wave…
… And was thrust into the ghostly image, all of them immediately passing out, but not because of the crushing shockwave.
—
Sometime later, far away, Chrysalis, queen of the changelings, dug herself out of a sandbank, her mind absolutely numb from seething rage and humiliation.
She slowly lifted a hoof to strike at the sand underneath her, and just barely managed to stop herself from stressing her aching body. She slowly set the hoof down, and let out a long sigh.
“I… will… never… be denied again,” she said between angry huffs through her teeth, and lit up her horn to call the entire hive to her.
The changelings currently available and willing to answer did so with long, pained grunts, and Chrysalis decided to give her previous pledge a miss until her hive had recovered at least a little.
She did notice that a few of her swarm seemed to be far away, also unconscious. No matter, they’d know her wishes when they were awake, and would be reporting for duty as soon as they could if they knew what was best for them.
—
The merriment of the royal wedding was in full swing, and the love in the air was reaching the intended ones this time, with no thieving changelings near to ruin the momentous occasion.
Although with such a concentration of joy and happiness in the air, it permeated the air around Canterlot, reaching even into the deep dungeons underneath the castle, where four changelings were slumbering in haphazard positions.
Venn shot up into a sitting position from the heavy concentration of sustenance in the air. “Hammers and anvils!” he shouted, not knowing why.
The snore of Oano was interrupted as he too sat up and looked around. “What!?”
Teeto and Nine stirred in their sleep, and slowly started waking up.
Venn and Oano looked at each other, before turning their heads to the now-inactive arch they had been flung through.
On the floor, on the other side of the portal, was a pile of lacquered wood and gleaming metal. The four changelings looked at it, and then at the portal.
“Do you… do you feel it?” Oano said, almost in a whisper, and stood up.
The others slowly rose up, and looked at Oano as he walked up to the arch and gently placed his hoof on it.
“It feels like…” he said, trying to find the words.
“Like… like…” Venn said, scrunching up his face in concentration.
“Defiance,” Oano said.
“Yeah.”
“Like freedom,” Nine agreed.
“Like we can hear the backbeat of the universe, still echoing from when the hammer of creation struck the anvil of time,” Teeto finished.
“... Yeah,” the others agreed.
“Are they gods?” Oano said. “The ones who did this?”
“They… whatever they are, they’ve given us power,” Venn said, and shook his head. “I… can’t go back.”
“Me neither,” Nine added.
Oano turned back to the others, a look of conviction on his face. “We’re not. I don’t know what’s happened to us, but following orders, listening, obeying, I can’t do it. I’d rather die.”
“What are we going to do then?” Venn asked. “If the ponies find out… not to mention what the queen would do if she caught us.”
“Queen,” Oano scoffed. “She is no queen. If she is a queen, I am a king. We’re all kings.”
“Kings over ourselves,” Nine said, almost reverently, gaze raising up into the ceiling.
“So what do we do? We start a new hive?” Teetoo asked.
“No, not a hive,” Oano said. “Some other kind of group.”
“A gang,” Nine suggested.
“A band,” Venn said, and walked over to the pile that had appeared by the portal
It was a pile of instruments, gleaming despite the low lights, sleek and confident. They looked at it in reverence for a moment, before Venn grabbed a guitar, holding it up in a triumphant gesture, acknowledging whatever had given him his new purpose in life.
It felt like something was missing, like he should light some sort of small fire and slowly wave it in tribute, but no matter, he’d do that later. Actually, not only that, he’d get others, ponies, to do it as well.
The others joined him, Oano grabbed another guitar, while Teetoo took the bass, and Nine grabbed a set of collapsible drums.
They all held up their instruments, or drumsticks in Nine’s case
“... We need to try it out,” Teetoo said, after a while.
“Should we use this power too freely?” Venn asked.
“Teetoo has a point,” Oano said. “I can feel it wanting to be used.”
They looked at each other, and as if they had done it a thousand times already, they took positions, and nodded at each other.
“One,” Nine said.
“Two,” Venn continued.
“One two three four!” Oano shouted, and together all strummed strings and hit drums in perfect unison.
There was a sound as if the heavens and the earth joined in with the music. It was a primal force, yet highly sophisticated in its values. It was wild, it was free, and it was life. It was a battle cry for the joys of life. It was music that commandeered trains and robbed banks, and looked good doing it.
The four changelings immediately pressed down on the strings of their instruments, as worrying amounts of dust started falling from the ceiling, and looked at each other in absolute terror, before they started laughing nervously.
“That… was weird,” Teetoo said.
“But it was… good,” Venn continued.
“It felt exciting,” said Nine.
“It was sexy, and with all those things,” Venn said, “you guys thinking what I’m thinking?”
“We play. We play for ponies,” Venn said.
“You mean becoming musicians?” Teetoo asked. “Play music and feed? We’re going to have both the royal guard and the hive on our tails.”
“We got each other, and that’s a lot for love,” Oano said, with conviction. “Are you all in?”
The other three looked at each other, then nodded at Oano. “We’re in.”
“What do well call ourselves?” Nine asked.
Venn looked at the dust still slowly raining down around them, and the ceiling that looked close to cracking.
“We are Sonic Överload.”
