Tuned Too Low

by TLC

Rating: teen
Tags: Romance, Comedy, Random
Length: 33763

A tale of how Vinyl and Octavia's little foal adjusts to his Magically born life.

This is the wacky tale of CD Scratch, son of Vinyl Scratch and Octavia Philharmonica. Follow him as he gets into trouble, jams with his band Just a Scratch with his friends Skylark and Red, and falls into one small adventure leading to Octy's Birthday.

*MAY RECEIVE A MAKE OVER*
*This was my first story so it's obviously gonna look crap compared to my newer ones*

-TLC

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-04-11 22:32:09 UTC

Chapter 2: Whereas Learning, Development!*edited*

Chapter 2: Whereas Learning, Development!*edited*

Chapter Two:Whereas Learning, Development!

              "Nothing like trotting through Ponyville while listening to some great tunes." Said C.D. as he traveled towards his school. He recalled all that happened the week before. 'Something about homework maybe?' Of course he could not remember any assignment that was given even if he tried. (Even though he didn't receive one).

It was a pretty peaceful day. The sun was out and was being highlighted by the clouds in the sky. He hoped it would rain. The rain was always so calming at times and it always seemed so peaceful here in Ponyville. These thoughts were only to be cast away as C.D. removed his headphones and approached the school he attended. *sigh*

       The numerous sounds of laughter, distant screams of fillies, and arguments between colts about 'who was better? DJ Pon3 or Lil Mane?' could be heard throughout the yard. The sight was of the children playing games and standing around chatting. Though a happier sight, C.D. ignored that, because in the end..."It's a school."

       "Well of course it is! You acted like this is your first day, Cee." That little remark came from one of C.D.'s closets friends, Red. A crimson colt with a darker red mane and violet eyes. He would pick at C.D. for his dislike of the 'little' things. He also had a passion for music. His father worked at the music shop in town and his mother would have him take lessons. His instrument of choice, much against the parents eardrums, where the drums.

       "Red, you've known me LONG enough to realize that I can't help but feel questioned as to why we have to attend school." He said with a smirk. " I'm sorry I can't jump for joy when I see this building," C.D. pointed his hoof at the school.

       "Wait! Wait. Say 'Questioned' again!" Red said trying to beat down the laughter. C.D. stood with the most offended look on his face. As if he'd been insulted! But, because it would probably put him in somewhat of a happier mood watching his friend 'die' from laughing, he bit the bullet. "Questioned."

       Red began to Laugh uncontrollably! He fell over and began to roll around the ground. C.D. just watched, with the look of 'How could this get worse?' on his face. C.D. Scratch had a bit of a accent from his cellist mother's side of the family. A bit of Scottish mixed with something else. When he first met Red, he teased him about it to no end. So, he learned to control it better, though couldn't get rid of it. Every now and then, especially NOW, some words would be shielded by the accent. As much as it had caused him pain, C.D. seemed to have a belief that *ahem* 'Ponies loved it.'

       Now recovering from his laughing fit 3 minutes in, Red rejoined C.D. as he began to trot away. "Oh come on, Cee! You know it's not that embarrassing." Red assured his friend. "Hey you know what would be worse?"

              "What?" 'Cee' said with a shrug.

               "Living in a library!" The two young colts started snickering which soon became utter laughter. "Yeah, I guess that would be worse. How does Sky even deal with that?" Cee said between giggling fits, though was interrupted by the sudden stopping of Red. Who looked down and kicked at the dirt.

       "Oh! I see! You still have a little 'crush' on Twilight Sparkle." Cee said with the evil grin his DJ mother was known for.

               "Hey not cool, dude!" He said when a pink hue flushed his face.

               "Dude, she's, like, older than you. AND she's Sky's mom." Cee reminded. "Unless you're really talking about Sky-"

       "Shut up! I'm not like that!" He turned away. Just as Red began to rant about how he 'obviously' didn't like Sky, a filly trotted past Cee's field of vision. Her eye's where reflecting the light of the sun, giving the the proper attention they needed to appear as jewels that were placed in her head as a foal. Her mane, which was especial curly today, had bits of it self fall into before mentioned eyes, though looked crisp and freshly cleaned. Her coat was neat and tidy, as if not a piece was out of place. She was perfect. And I believe Rarity would approve.

        She was a bit of a shy and quite one. Her man was a sort of pink, blonde mix, which reminded Cee of pink lemonade. Her coat was a faded red, but wasn't pink. He didn't know how to describe such a color. (And neither did I.)

        But her eyes where what took C.D. by surprise. They were a beautiful mix of purple and red to make almost a violet color. They would make him freeze every time. If she would only talk to him or at least notice him...Though much to his expense, she did. She smiled and waved....As Cee fell over in aw.

       ".....And I'm not against it, or anything. You know. Cee?" Red had turned to see a certain colt, on the ground covering his eyes with his hoofs.

               "PLEASE tell me she didn't see me fall over!" squealed Cee shaking his head with shame.

        Red sat down next to his fallen bud with his hoof on his shoulder. "Don't worry. She did."

Later In Class *sigh*

       Class wasn't as bad as it usually was. Seeing how there was a substitute, whom may I add is sleeping at his desk!

It was CHAOTIC! Just utter chaos! Some ponies talking, standing around, throwing things at before mentioned 'sub. Others simply slept at there desk, wishing they were home. Cee and Red were sitting at they're appropriate seats listening to music from c.d. players. Red was enjoying a healthy dose of Fall Out Colt's album 'From Under The Apple Tree'. C.D., on the other hoof was intensely listening to Ponyhead's new album 'Get Kind'.

       As the school day came to a perfect end, the two colts trotted off the school property with big plans. "So, we practicing tonight?" Asked Red eating the apple from the substitute's desk.

              "Yeah, I just have to grab my guitar from the house. I'll meet you there, alright?" Cee replied. They said there goodbyes for now, and trotted away.

       As C.D. approached his door and unlocked it with his key, he heard sounds of heavy breathing and then a bang against a nearby wall. He opened the door, and looked on in terror...

              ___________________________________________________________________

Authors Note

2/6/12 edited.

-TLC

Chapter 3: A Little Less Sixteen Candles...*edited*

Chapter 3: A Little Less Sixteen Candles...*edited*

Chapter Three: A little Less Sixteen Candles...

       For those who are just tuning in. C.D. had just arrived at his loving home. After a healthy chaotic dose of the public school system, he was just going to drop off his school stuff and pick up his guitar to take to practice at Red's house...Only to be delayed by something no 12 year old EVER wants to see. Involving his parents. Let's watch!

     "OH MY CELESTIA! MY EYES!" Cee screamed as he shut his eyes at this terrifying sight. He had just seen his mothers. Just-a doing it.  Vinyl had just pined Octavia up against the wall, whom guessing by the way she was blushing was enjoying every moment of it. The couple where about to take it to the next step just as Vinyl looked up at him. No longer smiling. In fact, Vinyl AND Octavia looked Terrified.

    Dead silence filled the air. There was not a movement between any of them. 'I. Will not. Open my eyes.' Cee thought(that's probably the best idea.) The two mares, who were STILL in the same position couldn't move. They were frozen in utter embarrassment. Either somepony was gonna talk or it was about to get even more awkward.

  "U-uh, h-hi, dear. How was s-school?" Octavia spoke as Vinyl let her go. C.D. just stood there.

          "Um, hey! Cee! Equestria to Christoffer! Hello!" Vinyl yelled to him with no reply. He wanted to say something. He wanted to show he was okay. But that would require him to open his eyes!

  "Hi, um, M-moms! Uh...Can I open my eyes?" He spoke with a bit of a high pitch.

          "Yes you can, dear." Octavia spoke with a giggle. When he did, all he saw was his moms, though they're manes were a mess and they appeared to be out of breath. Their cheeks were flushed and they had that dreamy, goofy look.

          "Look. What you saw was normal. Nothing to be weird ed out by. R-right, Octy?" Vinyl spoke uneasily. Apparently, this had not been the first time that they had been, uh, 'caught'. But what shook Vinyl up was the fact that they're own son caught them. They had to make some form of excuse something other then...You know.

"Okay, Christoffer," Octavia spoke, "What you saw was not what it looked like."

        "....Yes it was." Vinyl said while looking confusingly at Octavia, who face-hoofed. "What are you ashamed of me now, Octy?" the DJ said with a pout. "I-I thought you loved me..." That comment was met with a hoof to the back of the head. "Ow! You know, you could just say 'stop talking Vinyl'."

  "Please just understand that what we obviously were not doing is a beautiful way two ponies express they're love to each other." Octy spoke with a passionate tone. "Really show how much they care for each other. Right, Vinyl?" Octavia said to her beloved while grabbing her hoof. Vinyl turned her head to hide her blush.

"Yeah, uh...Not to burst you twos' "lover's bubble", but I'm just here for my guitar. So....." Cee didn't bother finishing the sentence and went up to his room. Leaving both mares to themselves.

"What's wrong with you? Do you want to scar him?" Octavia turned to Vinyl whose still blushing.

        "Hey, if it happens, it happens." Vinyl said with a shrug. "Besides, he's 12! He doesn't care. He probably just thought I was attacking you. Or something."

        Octavia stared at her in amazement. "How is THAT better???" She yelled in a whisper.

"Look, Octy. You worry to much. Sure now has that image burned into his skull." Vinyl laughed. At this moment Octavia banged her own head on the wall.

        "You enjoy me trying to make sense of anything that comes out of your mouth, don't you?" She spoke in defeat.

        "Every time." Vinyl said as she hugged on to Octavia. She began kissing her neck passionately.

        "~Uh, Vinyl. Stop~....." Octavia said as she shivered as Vinyl continued up and down her neck. As she tried to look like she didn't enjoy it, she failed miserably. Smiling the whole time.

         "CAN'T YOU JUST WAIT TILL I *LEAVE*????" A annoyed C.D. yelled as he trotted passed them. He shut the with his back legs to make it slam. Leaving both mares just where they were when came in. Vinyl sighed. Which made Octavia confused.

"What's wrong, Vinyl?" She said in a soft tone. Vinyl pouted. "I just wanted to express my ~love." Octavia was now eating her own words. She couldn't believe she was gonna fall for that look. "Oh, come here, you  big foal."

          ____________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note

Yes, I know really short chapter. There was a WHOLE lot more but I cut it because...Well....*blushes* Anyway,

~ keep being 'you'!

-TLC

Chapter 4:Forth Wall To The Heart*tweaked**

Chapter 4:Forth Wall To The Heart*tweaked**

  C.D. trotted towards Red's house, still trying to figure out what his mom was talking about. '....a beautiful way to express they're love-Eh what? Don't they know how old I am? I don't care about all that mushy, gushy cra-' He suddenly stopped in mid-thought when he heard a distant sound. It sounded familiar. Like a violin. He followed the sounds of the beautiful instrument to a stream. By the stream, he saw spot that was a sight to behold. The sunset reflected of the water which made little glares light everywhere highlighting the spot. There were two trees, both apple trees. They where pretty bountiful of both leaves and apples. There was a bench that look positively ancient! It faced the stream that highlighted it's surface. But what caught C.D.'s attention most, was who was sitting on the bench.

  It was that filly. The one that caused him to collapse earlier. And many times before. She had such a hold on him, though he was able to keep that to himself. The filly in question sat on that before mentioned bench so peacefully, if there was a way to do so. She held a violin in her hoofs. Playing a song that softly flowed through out the air...

"....My face against the window pane, a tear for every drop of rain,

I'm living like already I have died, have died

Emptiness of a present past, A silent scream to shatter dust

I have to go, It's time for me to fly~

I am so lonely and so sad, you're the reason that I'm feeling bad

I am so lonely and so sad, living every dream I've never had......"

  Cee...was beyond stunned. He was amazed one how beautifully she sang. Her vocal range should be a crime! But, he was saddened by her also. By the song she sang and by what she sang about. 'Is she lonely? How could she feel alone? Every time I see her, she's surrounded by ponies.' C.D. thought to him self. His stomach began to turn. He did not know if it was the school food or if it was sympathy for this pony. What should he do?

  'It's simple! Just walk away. You have something to do, *REMEMBER*?' C.D.'s brain told him. 'No! Leave him be! He should go talk to her. Comfort her. He wants to.' This voice was coming from his heart. 'You know, I tried to be all nice with you, but it's for you to but out!' His brain yelled to his heart. 'Oh, now you take that back or I'm gonna come up there and kick your a-'

         "H-hello?" Another voice called. This voice was too high to be coming from Cee's mind. Too soft sounding. "Hey, are you alright?" There it was again. C.D. became scared, nervous, and confused all at the same time. He closed his eyes and slumped to the ground facing away from the sunset and buried his face in the grass. Hoping that the voice would go away. "Ahem." Now it was closer and coming from behind him. Gathering all the courage he had at that moment, he turned around....

         "Um, hi." The voice. It came from the filly on the bench, who was now behind him. All the courage it took him to turn around had gone and abandoned him as he gazed in to her hypnotizing eyes of an unknown shade of violet. Here was the pony he had feelings for, now a mere few inches from his face, and he couldn't think to do anything. C.D. felt faint and annoyed at the fact that he can't muster up enough strength to even reply. The filly stood there now looking with concern wondering if she scared him.

         "Oh I'm sorry! Um...I didn't mean to startle you. It's just I heard something and I thought somepony had been watching. Please don't be angry with me." The filly spoke with a shaky voice, but also with a smile. To think, C.D. was spying on her, and she's apologizing. This didn't sit well with him. He needed to assure her she wasn't in the wrong.

         "N-no, no, no! Uh-I mean don't worry about it!" He manage to stammer out. At this time he could no longer control his voice's volume, pitch. Or his accent, much to his dismay. He had felt stupid for even stopping to follow the song instead of heading to Red's. But then a feeling over came C.D. as if that didn't matter anymore.

          After two minutes of an awkward silence, the filly looked at him in as sudden realization hit her. "Oh! I know you! Aren't you in my class?" She said with a sense of excitement in her voice. "Y-yeah. I'm the one who h-hangs out with, uh, uh..." C.D. lost his train of thought as he looked into her mysterious colored eyes. 'Oh, crap! What's his name? Blue? Green? Magenta?' He thought on in confusion.

       "Red?" She reminded him with a giggle. "You don't have to be so nervous. I won't bite."

      'Right, like THAT calms me down...'

______________________________________

       Meanwhile at Red's, two ponies sat in a basement-like part of the house. One, a agitated red colt. The other, a purple colt with a white mane and deep blue eyes. They both had been there for a good half hour patiently awaiting a certain white pony. "Oh. My. Celestia." Red spoke up to break the silence with his boredom. "Where IS he? We've been waiting here forever~!" He moaned and groaned to himself until the other pony sitting on the couch next to him spoke up. "Maybe...He went to...grab some food?" Skylark said while dragging out most of his words. "He could have gotten lost?" He brought up another possible reason. "Uh..."

"Sky. Please...Stop." Red told him with a sense of a annoyance in his voice. Red was never patient with anything, no matter what it was. He just couldn't sit still if something bored him. He didn't mean to be mean when he was, but sometimes he couldn't handle the immensity of the boredom.

"Well what do you think happened to him?" Sky fired back.

         "I mean it shouldn't be hard to get here! Even IF he got some snacks. Sugar Cube Corner is, literally, in between here and his house." Red groaned.

"Do you think Pinkie Pie's keeping him?"

At that moment, Red rose from the couch in the basement, as he thought of that possibility. "You know, that could happen. Cee always seems to get into 'deep' conversations with her. Celestia knows how he can understand her."

"Sometimes, he's just as odd." Sky added with a laugh.

"Yeah." Red laughed. "He's probably talking about absolutely nothing. Making no sense and having the time of his life!"

Right....And I'm Bob Marely...

____________________________________

Meanwhile, C.D. was now sitting on the bench with the filly, but sitting to the farthest spot. To the point of falling off the side.

"You don't have to sit so far away!" The filly giggled, giving Cee reassuring eyes.

         "N-no, that's o-okay. I'm fine." C.D. spoke in a tone that was dropped to a whisper. His eyes were shut and he was shaking as if he had been thrown in to the stream next to him. It was then he felt something warm against his side. He felt calm. Like, nothing bad was gonna happen. He open his eyes to find the filly sitting ever so closer to him. 'Ohcelestiaohcelestiaohcelestiaohcelestia...' He panicked in his head.

"So, why were you hiding behind the bush?" She asked. Now she was looking directly into his eyes as she said this. C.D.'s heart was now beating at the speed of light times two! Fearing of a heart attack, he quickly looked down and answered.

         "W-well... I heard you play." He replied. The filly's face then went from shear comfort, to utter embarrassment.

"Oh! Y-you did? Uh...Wow. I d-didn't, um..." The filly stammered and squirmed in her seat while turning a little red around the top of her muzzle. 'Now she's nervous?' Cee thought as he snapped back to reality. He then began his attempted to calm her down.

   "Hey, don't freak out! You weren't bad. I actually....Sort of...um..." ~And~ His mind diminishes into nothing at the sight of the filly awaiting his answer. "...*sigh* I thought you were amazing. I've never heard someone of your vocal talent in person in all of my life..." Now cringing at the thought of her rebuttal, C.D. shut his eyes tight and looked away. But then felt a tight grip around his waist. He opened his eyes to find the filly hugging him. Making him as red as a tomato.

   'Aww, he's blushing. How cute.' The filly thought to her self. "Thank you so much! I never knew I sounded so good!" She spoke with excitement. C.D. wanted to say it was no problem, bu there was a problem. He couldn't breath.

   "Oh my goodness!" The filly said as she let go. Cee took this time get his breath back. "Sorry. I guess I was...Uh, caught up in the moment." She mumbled with a blush.

    "No, i-it's okay. Hehehe. Heh." C.D. said nervously. "So, um what are you doing out here all by yourself?"

    The filly froze. She, once again, had that look of embarrassment on her face. Just as Cee was about to ask her if something was wrong she quickly looked up at the sunset.

      "Oh! Look at the time." The filly spoke with a quick pace. "We should really talk again next time!." She got up and started walking away. Dazed by her sudden leaving, he quickly spoke up.

              "Wait! I never got your name!" He yelled in hopes of her hearing him.

              She continued walking to the corner of the bush where she found him then turned and said, "Coraline. It's Coraline." The filly then disappeared from his view.

__________________________________________

        C.D. took his time getting up from the bench. He repeated the name over and over and over again in his head. 'Coraline...She's so cool.' Cee swooned in his head as much as a 12 year old should about somepony, but this was different. She was different. C.D., you could say, almost though she was cu-

       "You make me say that word, and I'll reach through your screen and buck you right in the face."

Okay! Shesh. It's *your** thoughts, not mine.*

        "Yeah, but you're writing them!"

Yeah, whatever! Hey don't you have practice?

         ".....Oh crap."

Chapter 5:The Music AND The Misery

      After a run in with the filly of his dreams, C.D. finally his arrives to Red's house, where he was he was greeted accordingly.

   "WHERE THE HAY WERE YOU?" Red shouted from the basement. It's amazing how quick he was to assume it was Cee. "I was, uh...At the bakery?" Cee replied trying to think up a lie rather then tell his friends what really happened. You know, to avoid the bashing of question after question.

    "Ha! I told you!" Sky blurted. But went back to being silent and began blushing due to his certain outburst. "Yea, whatever! Hey, did you bring back anything?"

     "I didn't have time to." C.D. said with a snobbish tone. "Because apparently, I was being rushed!" He went down to the basement to find the two sitting about the room. "Hey, Red. Sup, Sky?" Cee went on to greet his friends then proceeded to set up his instrument. "So, are we gonna practice or are you two gonna sit around and hold hoofs all day?" He joked. Red glared at him as he went to his drum set. Skylark, however, looked away from them. Hiding a blush.

     Since there were guitars in they're band, Cee and Sky both stood on they're two back legs. After about a year of doing this, they got to a point where they could stood for hours. They could even jump and walk around as they played. The instruments were completely customized. Sky had a white/purple 'Music Mare' Stingray bass and had stickers of different verities on it. C.D. had a Friender Spellocaster with a dark deep blue finish and also had stickers. Some of which he custom made. Red's drum set was pretty standard. It had a red shell finish and on the face of the bass drum, he crudely drew the bands symbol. Which was a broken c.d..

     "Okay, so what do you guys wanna play? We could do a cover or practice one of our songs for once." Red said with a bit of annoyance in his voice. "We could play that one song. You know, uh...Crap. I forgot what it's called."

     "You mean 'Constellation Proclamation'?" Sky chimed in after returning from his corner. He was holding his bass ready for whatever song they planned to play.

     "*Grrrr* Do we have to play that? I hate that song!" C.D. groaned. Red and Sky exchanged looks of confusion. Then they both shouted in unison. "You wrote it!" "Yeah, but I have the right to dislike it. That song is so cheesy! I only wrote it for my parents anniversary." He reminded. "And be sides, I forgot how It went."

     The song in question, 'Constellation Proclamation' is a song that will haunt Cee till the day he kicks the bucket. He wrote it for his mothers at they're 13 year anniversary. Much to his dismay, everyone loved it! He hates it because of three simple reasons, to him anyway-

It's a break up song. About stars.

The chords and progression used in it was not original at all.

3.It's also a love song. About STARS.

-sadly, he still plays it and practices it. He sings the song with a bit of a awkwardness to his voice. It has a familiar Pop-Punk sound to it, making it seem less....Sissy-ish. With a steady bass line provided by Skylark and a fast and loud drum beat from Red. Not to mention a okay riff from C.D., the song was okay. It's lyrics weren't offensive or anything, they actually pretty innocent. "Okay, fine. Start the beat, Red." Cee gave up his fight against the song. And then, boom.

      The song begins with a drum beat that sounds fast and could get a party started instantly. The bass comes from out of no where. Slowly, it gets louder and louder. And then, Bang! C.D. comes in with a distortion of chords that almost matched the bass line, while throwing in some octaves. C.D. approached the mic with a sigh and began to sing.

___________________________________________

-Verse 1-

"....All across the sky!.....I can see they're reflection in your eyes! Is this a dream or a sleep

induced coma?....

Luna's moon is drawing near!....It used bring me light in this time of fear, but I think that that

position's been Filled! (Been Filled!)

-Pre-Chorus 1-

No gas! No light! Not a damn thing makes you perfect!....Until I look you in the eyes-

*pause*

-Chorus 1-

I sense my heart melt away, come back, and fall into pieces, I have this blush on my face for ALL

the wrong reasons, can't stop myself from shaking, Is my heart really breaking? Or is it another way to say your not going to stay with me?..."

(Instrumental)

-Verse 2-

"....You can go if want to!....Did you think I was gonna stop you?...What the point not like you would even turn around! Just one last thing before you part!....If you could leave my heart by the door that would be great! Also, make sure it doesn't hit you on the flank on your way out!(out....out.)

-Pre-Chorus 2-

No gas! No light! Not a damn thing makes you perfect!..... But you always light up my view-

-Chorus 2-

I sense my heart melt away, come back, and fall into pieces, I have this blush on my face for ALL the wrong reasons, What is this pain that I feel when you turn away? Is this the part where you say that, 'There's a trillion of them up there, but none of them gets to you like me.'....."

-Bridge-

For the first half of the bridge, there were no vocals. There was, however, a moment of the song speed up. All band members were playing till they were red in the face when Sky and Cee start yelling into the mic...

"....My~ Constellation~! My~ Petty Constellation~! My~ Constellation~! My Petty, petty, petty Constellation~!-

-Chorus 3rd and final-

(2x)  I sense my heart melt away, come back, and fall into pieces, I have this blush on my face for ALL the wrong reasons, What is this pain that I feel when you turn away? Is this the part where you say that, 'There's a trillion of them up there, but none of them gets to you like me.'....."

I sense my heart melt away, come back, and fall into pieces, I have this blush on my face for ALL the wrong reasons, as the daybreak comes~ to wash you away~, I smile at the fact that I know: I'll see you later that day~!..."

________________________________________________

When the song ended, it left a silence. A complete and total silence filled the basement. And as each colt looked to each others faces, a laugh broke out between them.

   "Ha! We could be famous one day!" Red shouted in excitement with a grin stretched from ear to ear on his face.

    "Pssh! We ARE famous!....They just don't know that yet." C.D. added.

    "I think we already are famous. I mean, our friends and family and everybody in Ponyville thinks we're pretty good. And that's about good enough for me. I hate attention." Sky added last with a warmful smile. After a brief silence, Cee and Red looked at each other and laughed uncontrollably. Almost falling to the ground! "Dude! Sky! Come on, really! What was with that heart filled statement?" Red said through hit fit of laughter. "Yea, I know you mean well, but just wow!" Cee added.

     Now red with embarrassment, Sky stared down at the two colts. Looking completely unamused. "Hey, Cee? Uh, where were you anyway?" Sky asked.

     C.D. stopped laughing almost immediately. His heart skipped a beat as the spot light closed in on him. "Well, uh, um....." He stumbled on his words.

Man, how do you get in these situations?

      'I'm telling you, Dude. Don't push it.'

*scoffs*Okay, let's see how get yourself out of this mess.

       *sigh*'.....Crap.'

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Note

Go ahead. Laugh. I know you want to. Fine! I'll admit it. I wrote the song. Yup. I wrote it last night and then thought, "Hmm....Maybe I could use in one of my stories....." And I did. And I hope you liked it. 'Constellation Proclamation' Is the second song I've ever written. Like, EVER. I only have the guitar part though. I was Originally was going to use 'Waiting' By Green Day. Or 'Short, Fast, and Loud' By Fall Out Boy. But oh well. And don't worry. I'll have 'Just A Scratch' Chapter 4 up soon.

~Be in bed by 10.

-TLC

Chapter 6:Coraline

Chapter Six:Coraline

            C.D. began to tell about his encounter to Red and Skylark. He talked in great detail about her singing and voice control. Cee also talked about how weird she acted and how fast she got up to leave. But what he mentioned the most, was her name.

   "So, Coraline, right? She just so happened to be singing by the stream." Red asked.

   "Yeah." Cee answered. "She was in the middle of a song when I showed up. When I was about to get up and leave, I guess she saw me." Cee began to blush slightly while remembering how close Coraline's face was to his.

   "Riiiiiiiight. And she acted weird towards you?" Red asked with a more of a quizzical look.

   "Eeeyup. She would blush when she looked at me to long. Also, she hugged me." Cee said with a dreamy look on his face. Red looked at C.D. then he looked at Sky. Sky shrugged and Red nodded.

           "Well it's official. We don't believe you."

   "What?! Why?" Cee yelled in confusion. "Do you know how badly I didn't want to tell you? I do and now you don't believe me? Harsh, man. Harsh." C.D. then turned to face away from Red.

            "Hey! No need to get all flank hurt!" Red said as he placed a hoof on Cee's shoulder. "We're not saying we don't believe you-"

    "I didn't say anything at all." Sky said interjected. "YOU are the one that doesn't believe him." Red was then fed up with the whole conversation. "You know what? Forget it! Can we continue our practice please?" Red begged.

*sigh* "Alright." C.D. was relieved that the spotlight was no longer shining down on him. He was a little mad at Red, but knew he would get over it.

   "So what are we playing now?" Sky asked holding his bass.

   Red and Cee looked at the side wall, which was covered with pieces of paper with songs on them. Some had X's across if they sucked. Some had stars or A's on them if they were good enough. They looked all over and C.D. pointed one out.

   "Hey, here's one. 'Hate Me (If It Helps You)'....Wow how emo." Cee scoffed.

    "Again, YOU WROTE IT!" Red yelled from behind his drums.

            "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Cee mumbled.

    "Alright!" Red yelled. "1,2! 1,2,3,4!"

     ________________________________________________________________

    Meanwhile, Coraline had just gotten back home from the place by the stream where she meet C.D. 'That colt,' she thought. 'He acted so strange...' She began to daydream about the half hour before. About how she found C.D. hiding behind the bush. And how she actually hugged him. 'He was just adorable! Why do I keep obsessing over him? It's not like I know much about him. But still....'

   Coraline then skipped through her doorway and upstairs to her room. But she went back down stairs to see why it was so quiet. As she entered the living room, Coraline found a note on the couch. It was from her parents.

Dear Coraline,

Me and your father went to a play outside of town and won't be back until Thursday. There's cake on the counter. We got it when we stopped at Sugarcube Corner. There's also more food in the fridge. If you plan to go out with some friends, remember to tell Mrs. Sparkle across the way. She's nice so don't be too shy and she'll be there if you need help.

We love you very much. See you when we get back.

~Mom <3

  Coraline sighed and put the note down. She never liked being alone that much. Her parents always seemed to be going out or working. At first, she didn't mind it. But after a year of this, she didn't like the feeling of never having someone around. At one point she started talking out load, and the only one who would answer was her.

   She went into the kitchen and looked over the food left out on the counter. The cake her parents mentioned was a chocolate cake with blue and green frosting. It had flowers and all sorts of designs drawn on with frosting. The other food items were in the fridge. At first glance, she saw muffins, a salad, an apple pie, and a new bottle bottle of apple juice. She then took a muffin and went up to her room.

  Coraline's room was pretty average, as far as rooms go. Her walls were pink and had flowers painted along the bottom. She had a wardrobe, a bed that could fit a pony bigger then her, a toy chest that she never really used anymore, and among other things, in the corner of her room was a little studio. She used that spot to put her written music or her violin. It was essentially a desk with papers cover with musical notes. She approached the desk and placed her violin next to it.

   '*sigh* I hate this! I'm always alone!' Coraline thought to herself while eating her muffin. 'I wonder if anypony is doing anything. Maybe I should see if Scootaloo or- No, wait. Never again! Last time I hung out with the CMC's, I got covered in glue and glitter!' She laid back in her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She turned her head towards the clock on her wall. It read 7:48. 'I guess I'll go to sleep...*Yawn*...I wonder what that pony's doing.....' She slowly dropped her muffin and drifted off to dreamland.

   __________________________________________________________________

  '.....Force your anger upon me,(If you want to.)

Blame me for everything,(I won't blame you.)

I just don't want to see you sad,(Like you do now.)

So just go on and Hate Me....You Know You Want To.....'

      The song had just ended. Apparently, this song was hard on the band because everypony looked out of breath. Panting, Cee manage to speak in between breaths. "Okay!....I think.....we should call.....it a day!"

     "Same." Red gasped before hitting his head on the drum in front of him.

     "Good....idea!" Sky said with his head against the wall.

    "Okay...So later, Guys!" C.D. yelled as he grabbed his guitar and left the basement, dragging his hooves up the stairs.

      He didn't know how long Sky had stayed at Red's house, and at the moment he didn't care. He just wanted to go home and sleep. 'Because sleep is good!' He thought to himself. After a good 15 minutes, he got to his door, but more carefully. He observed every sound that was made inside the house before he walked in. There wasn't any noise, except for light snoring. He walked in and was greeted by Octavia.

    "Oh! Christoffer! H-how was, uh, practice?" Octavia asked from her spot on the couch. She appeared at the time to be reading a book. While next to her, Vinyl was dead asleep leaning against her shoulder.

            "It was okay. How was your 'love embracing' or whatever night go?" He chuckled.

    "I'll have you know that there was nothing of the sort going on! Even when you were here." She lied.

   "Yeah, cool story, Mom. I'm going to bed." Cee said going towards the back of the house to his room.

   "Okay, dear. Goodnight!" Octavia then returned to her book. Slightly annoyed that Vinyl was now drooling on her.

   Cee opened his door and quickly trotted over to his bed to collapse. He turned over to the clock on his desk. It read 8:10. 'Heh...I wonder....*Yawn*...What Coraline's doing....' With that he fell asleep to dream about her.

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Authors Note

Well everypony, that's another Chapter in the bag. This one took 2 hours of sitting and thinking of what was going to happen. I was originally going to have this whole chapter dedicated to Coraline, but it was too short. And I didn't want to annoy any of you out there with another song, which was in fact not done! So, I cut both of my chapter ideas in half! Hope you liked it. Wonder what's gonna happen next?....

~Stay Tuned....

-TLC

Chapter 7:Equestria's Sweethearts

C.D. was surrounded by darkness. He heard the sound of cheering in the distance and it was getting louder. He felt his guitar around his neck and suddenly a spotlight came on. As he looked around he saw he was on a stage. And surrounded by his friends. The stage lit up and the curtain raised, revealing thousands upon thousands of screaming ponies, one in particular who was in the front row, was Coraline. She stood staring at C.D. like he was everything she ever wanted. Her eyes pierced through his heart and made him freeze in place.

He then heard the drums behind him 'My Armaregeddon' he thought. The song was a fast 'punk rock' song he and Red wrote. The drum beat was fast and loud. And then C.D. and Skylark came in at the same time with distorted chords. The lyrics were pretty meaningless, because the song never had any. C.D. would usually make then up as he went along, but the chorus was the same every time.

"......It look's like! I'm on my! Way to my Armaregeddon! There's no way I'm getting out alive!

She's able to manipulate my every move! And there's no way I'll keep out of her eyes!

*pause*

It's only a matter of time! Before I'm her's and she's mine!

I'm on my way to My Armaregeddon....What a wonderful life!....."

When the song finally ended, epically might C.D. add, Coraline jumped on to the stage. She had her attention fixated on C.D.. She walked closer and closer. C.D. froze at the sight of her, as the sides of his mouth curved up into a happy grin. She get's so close to him, that he starts to back up to the point of being against the wall behind him. She leans in closer as she closes her eyes. C.D. loses control of himself and does the same. They get to about a point where they're muzzles touch when she opens her eyes and whispers "Wake up....wake up...."

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C.D. stirs in his sleep as Vinyl attempts to wake him up with pokes to the muzzle. "Hey, Cee...Hello! Agh!" She turns around to find his guitar, soon an evil grin appears on her face. Vinyl then plugs the guitar into the amplifier next to C.D.'s bed, turns the bass up, pulls one of the strings back, and lets go. Causing a heavy sound to shake the room as if an earthquake was taking place.

         Cee shot up out of bed and fell to the ground. Vinyl was leaning over C.D.'s bed and buried her face in it to silence her laughter. "OW! WHAT?!" Cee yelled rubbing his ears with his hooves.

         "It's Tuesday, and you gotta go to school...." She then walked over to Cee. She saw how he was blushing a little.

         "Hey, What's with the goofy smile?"

         "What goofy smile?" He said trying to get rid of the grin off his face

         "Uh-huh. Well, get up. You have school and I've got 'stuff' to do today." Vinyl said smiling.

"What kind of 'stuff'?" He asked.

"I'll tell you later. But now, you gotta go." Vinyl  was really trying to rush Cee out of the house.

"Okay, okay." He said annoyed that he has to get up so early.

         C.D. got ready for school and left the house. When he looked at the clock on the way out, it read 7:35. He was going to be early, again. *sigh*'I hate being early for school. It's just gonna be me and Red talking about nothing for thirty minutes.' He continued trotting one his usual path to school.

Meanwhile....

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Coraline stood on stage holding her violin in her hooves. She inhaled, then exhaled. She played a simple song on her violin, but how she played it had the crowd's attention locked on her. Her movements with the bow were fast yet appeared slow. The sound was soothing and peaceful.

But soon the spotlight around began to dim. The crowed began to disappear until only her parents seats were left. They were also empty. A single tear went down her cheeks as she slumped to the ground. The tears slowly began to flow out of her violet eyes.

"Alone.....Alone......" A voice whispered. She sat on her hunches crying, feeling a cold breeze hit her as the stage began to fall apart. She sat waiting for it all to end....Until something tightened around her chest. Coraline looked up to see that colt from the night before hugging her. He started whispering in her ear.

"You're not alone....You never were....And you never will be again...." C.D. said as he nuzzled her neck. She felt the stage crumbled under her and shut her eyes.

When she opened them again, she found herself and Cee in a field surrounded by flowers and a stream. They appeared to be on a small grassy island, surrounded by a stream. She was the birds fly above singing a song of joy and happiness. The sky was clear and deep blue and the sun was highlighted by it.

Coraline wiped the tears from her face and stood up. She turned around to find the white colt. standing right behind her, smiling warmly. Behind him stood everypony she knew, which was mostly ponies she hasn't talked to much. The CMC's, Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, Twist, and all the children she has interacted with at school. Twilight Sparkle, Trixie, Spike, and a few others were all standing behind C.D., even his friends and his parents.

"See..." He said. "You're surrounded by ponies who care....They'll never ignore you, and neither will I." She tried to keep back the tears of joy from hearing Cee say those words, but she couldn't. She charged and hugged him. "Thank you. I want this to last forever...."

"I do too.....But you have to wake up..." He said sadly.

"What? I don't understand." Coraline said. And then a sudden realization hit her, causing her pain. "No. No! Please! Don't go!" But it was too late. He vanished. And so did everyone else.

"NO!!" Coraline screamed. She broke down crying until everything went white.

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"Coraline?!" Called Coraline's mother. She ran in and saw her daughter squirming in bed while screaming 'No' over and over again. "Coraline! Please wake up!" She shook her until the screaming stopped. Coraline sat up fast causing a sudden head rush.

"Wha....What....where am I?" She asked as her mother wiped the tears from her eyes. She then quickly grabbed her mother in a big hug and began to sob loudly.

"Oh, Coraline! What happened?" Her mother said as she hugged her back.

"It was awful! I was on stage...And then everyone left! And then it was dark and....and...." She just continued to sob more.

This was not the first time she had this type of dream. She would be somewhere, surrounded by tons of ponies, then they would all just vanish before her eyes, leaving only her.....standing alone. But it was the first time she had a dream that she was saved from loneliness by that colt. At that moment, of remembering about what he had said in her dream, she was no longer sad or crying. She was determined. Today was the day she would find out his name. And hopefully, become friends with him.

After calming down, she got clean and left her home. She started giving herself pep talks about even approaching him. 'Okay, Coraline. You can do this! You just have to keep calm. Relax. I'm sure he's just as nervous about you....' That thought made her remember the night before. 'That's right! He was all shy and was blushing! All I have to do is not become as nervous as him. Okay, just remember deep breaths...'

"H-hey Coraline!" Soon she was a mere two hooves away from the colt. She hadn't seem to notice since she talking to herself.

She stood there smiling warmly at him. When in her mind she was losing her mind. 'What do I do?!' she thought. 'What he thinks I'm ignoring him? Oh...curse my awkwardness....' She didn't know how in merely one night she felt something like that for somepony she didn't really know that much about. She didn't even know his name and yet...

_____________________________________________________________________________________

'Great.' Cee thought. 'Now I'm standing here like an idiot. Maybe she's still tired and didn't hear me, but she's smiling....That smile...ugh, what was I thinking about again...'

They stood there in a not so awkward silence for five minutes, meanwhile, ponies walked by and made their comments by making 'D'aww" sounds or making kissy faces. None of which snapped the two out of their dilemma. They just stood there gazing dreamily into each others eyes. It was only until Coraline soon realized what she was doing and looked away did there eye contact disconnected. C.D. snapped out of it, blushing wildly.

"Y-yeah. So, um, do you wanna.....Uh, h-hang out with me and my friend Red?" C.D. asked awkwardly. "I mean you don't have to! Or I could just, you know, hang out with you...Or... He was shaking slightly at the sight of her. C.D. has never talked to Coraline before last night. He's only been able to admire her from afar. But now he was talking to her and asking her to hang out with him....and Red. 'Crap.' He thought.

  'I would love to.' She thought with a slight blush. "Sure. Red seems nice." She moved in closer. "Um, I'm sorry. I never really got your name."

  "O-oh, It's uh...It's C.D., I think." Great. Now he's forgotten his own name. 'YOU THINK???' He yelled at his mind. 'How bad are you at this?!' He looked down in shame, causing Coraline to giggle slightly. She found confidence knowing he was having a hard time engaging in this conversation, too.

  "Aww, don't be shy." She said comfortably. "I forget stuff, too." Now she was right next to him. He was amazed how close she had actually gotten with out touching him. "So, why don't we walk to school together?" She said warmly, looking C.D. in his orange flame eyes.

  "Uh...Oh! Sure...sure.." He looked away to avoid eye contact. 'This is going smoothly. Now all I have to do is walk quietly until we get to school.' He shivered at the thought of her being this close to him.

  'He's so cute when he's nervous.' She thought happily. 'Too bad I'm more nervous other wise I'd try to calm him down!' She sighed. Now, with both of them freaking out in there minds, they began their journey to school.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

   'Hey, this isn't so bad.' Cee thought as they neared the school. 'Having Coraline around makes me feel better about getting up in the morning, but that dream-' He cut his thoughts off trying not to think about that dream. How closer they were to kissing...'Agh! Why can't I get this out of my head?!"

    Coraline was admire the day's weather until she saw C.D. fidgeting. "Are you okay?" She asked concernedly as she stopped and moved away. "Am I making you uncomfortable?"

    C.D. came back to reality. "No! Uh I mean, I was just thinking about something that bothered me." He said quickly. "It's alright." He stopped and slowly moved back to where she was next to her. Causing her to smile and blush lightly.

    "Whew! I thought I me being this close was bothering you." Coraline said with a giggle. "But clearly, you were enjoying it." They continued walking until they were inside the playground of the school. As they were spotted by the other colts and fillies, they heard 'Ooo's' and 'Aww's' as they walked over to the crimson colt leaning over the water fountain.

     "Hey, Red." C.D. said poking Red in the side causing to spit water out.

     "AH!" He turned to Cee with an angry look until he saw Coraline standing next to him.

     "Oh, Hi. Cee, is this the 'Coraline' you gushing about last night?" He said with an evil smile.

     "You were gushing?" She said nudging him in the shoulder.

     "I wasn't gushing." He quickly defend himself. He turned and glared at Red who was laughing at the scene before him.

     "Dude. You were. SO much to the point that when I said you were lying you prepared to fight to the death about it."

      "I. Was. Not. Gushing." Cee said coldly.

      "That's so sweet!" She said.

      "Oh Celestia! Can we please change the subject?!" He said hiding away his blush.

    "Well, well, well." A snobbish voice came from behind the three. And standing there were the ungrateful two, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. "Silver Spoon, do you see what I see?" Diamond Tiara said. "The loner, the ragged, and the loud mouth." They both broke out into laughter.

      "What do you two want?" Coraline asked sternly.

     "Oh relax, 'Cory'. We just came by to see our old friend." Silver Spoon explained. "We really do miss you. You really fitted in with us....until you decided that we were too....Oh, what was the word?"

      "Snobbish?" Red added.

      "Nice, is more like it." Diamond Tiara shot back.

      "No, I think you two are more like snobby, spoiled rotten, stain on my far, pain in my flank, little fillies." C.D. shot towards the two. "Of course, with all do respect." This made Coraline laugh.

       "Oh, what do you know, Christoffer?" Silver shouted coldly. "We weren't even acknowledging you until you opened your mouth!"

       "Yeah, but I felt left out. I don't like to be the quiet one." He said with a grin. "Anyway, what you have to say to Coraline, you can say in front of Red and I." Red nodded in agreement and Coraline blushed. "Besides, it's probably just another petty insult. Like, you are like the biggest loser in the school!" He said in a snobbish tone similar to Silver Spoon's.

        "Yeah! Unlike us!" Red added with a heavier snobbish tone. At this moment, a crowd of fillies and colts surrounded the group as they continued bickering.

         "Coraline. Deary, why are you hanging out with these...these.?" Diamond couldn't think of a word to describe the two with.

         "Handsome stallions?" Red asked.

         "Statues of Greatness?" Cee added with a pose. The crowd around them were cheering at this.

         "Dorks." Silver Spoon answered. The crowd booed.

"They are not dorks. Just because they don't complain about everything that isn't at their standards." She walked over to Cee and leaned onto him making him turn a deep shade of crimson until he he looked like Red. "They're actual pretty cool." She said smiling warmly at Cee.

"Wow...Uh, hehe.." Cee stammered trying to find something to say. Red shook his head.

"Eh, gross. Let's go, Diamond Tiara." Silver Spoon scoffed as she turned and trotted off.

"Yeah." Diamond Tiara said started after her friend, but stopped and glared at Coraline. "But just remember, 'friend'. This. Whatever you now have with these imbeciles." She glared at C.D. and Red, who glared back. "Won't last. And you'll just end up alone...Just like when you left us." With that, she trotted off after Silver Spoon. The crowd dissipated and faded till it was just the three standing there.

"What was that suppose to mean?" Red asked Cee.

"I know. It sent a chill up my spine. What do you think it meant, Coraline?" C.D. turned to nopony standing there. "Coraline? Where did you go?" He looked around at the playground, but couldn't find her. He began to worry and ran away from Red.

  "Cee! Wait up!" Red yelled after running after C.D.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Authors Excuses For Having The Chapter Up Late.(Among Other Things)

I couldn't find out what to do next! I was a mess. They went to sleep.....And I froze! The two dream sequences, I pulled out of my flank! The walk to school, sweet and adorable, 'I think.' And the school yard bickering was something that happened to me at school once. So, yes. The chapter is a bit of a mess. But The next chapter(Which I hope Will be up tomorrow)is going to be organized and neat. Maybe. Please tell me your opinion. Positive or Negative. But not TOO negative. I have feelings, too you know! BTW, the name of the chapter 'Equestria's Sweethearts' came to me, because I was listening to Fall Out Boy's 'America's Sweethearts' other then the fact it kinda fits in with the chapter itself.

-TLC

Chapter 8: The Surprise! Pt.1*edited*

Chapter 8: The Surprise! Pt.1*edited*

Coraline had abandoned C.D. and Red. She hid in one of the playground structures while nopony was paying attention.

'Alone.' That word haunted Coraline. 'They're right. What it happens again?....No. They wouldn't. He wouldn't.'

"Coraline!" That voice. She leaned her head out through a hole in the playhouse and saw Cee with Red close behind. "Why'd you run? What did they mean when they said 'you'll just end up alone...Just like when you left us.'?" Cee asked with concern. Coraline left the playhouse and approached Cee.

"Do you really want to know?..." she asked in disbelief.

"I do." Cee said with a smile. "But only if, you know, you want to tell me."

"And me!" Red quickly added.

Coraline sighed. "It all started when-" The school bell had rung. Causing everypony in the schoolyard to groan.

"I'll tell you guys later." She got up and headed towards the building, leaving C.D. and Red siting on the grass.

"What do you think, Cee?" Red asked.

"I think...We should skip our class."

Red's jaw dropped. All he did was just look at Cee dumbfounded. "SKIP?!" He was, however quickly silenced by C.D.'s hoof.

"Shh!" He hissed. "I need to know why she's like this! And besides, that substitute won't care." He had a point. "We're just going to go to her class and confront her about it, I'll come up with an excuse for why we're there. Okay?" Red nodded.

"But what if somepony sees us? We'll be dead for sure."

"Red," Cee said mischievously. "What will Twilight Sparkle think if she knew you chickened out of something REALLY important?" Red's went as wide as dinner plates. "...She'll probably think of you as a...coward."

  Red stood up on his hind legs and went into a salute, "As Celestia as my witness, I will NOT let Twilight down!" He stomped back down on his fore legs. "Let's go." He began to walk towards the school.

  'I can't believe that worked!' C.D. thought happily.

_______________________________________________________________________________

  The school was moderately small. There was a single hallway with 5 rooms either side. Cee and Red's class room was the third door on the opposite side of where they were standing. They quickly scanned every door until Red waved Cee over. He looked inside to see a teacher, with her back to the class as she wrote something on the board. There was nopony in the class that they recognized. Except the faded orange filly with lemonade yellow hair in the back of the class.

  "Okay, you ready?" Cee whispered. "You know, you don't have to do this if you don't want to."

  "Oh, please!" Red nudged him. "If I left you hanging, and something happened to you, Sky would never talk to me again... or see me as a hero."

"Wait...What?" Cee said puzzled. "Don't you mean 'Twilight'?"

  "Right." Red then looked at Cee. "What did I say?"

  "Never mind." Cee whispered. "Alright then. Here go's anything!" Cee opened the door and stepped inside.

_______________________________________________________________________________

  Meanwhile, a small way away, Vinyl was pacing in her front yard. She was talking to herself, telling herself to 'calm the buck down'. Then Pinkie Pie trotted up carrying several boxes filled with decorations and supplies on her back. And for some reason, dragging a cannon tied to her tail..

  "Hey, Scratchie! I have the stuff-" She was silenced as Vinyl put her hoof over Pinkie's mouth.

  "Yeah, Pinkie, I'm glad you're here. But were you followed?" Vinyl asked looking around suspiciously.

  "Nope!" She muffled under the hoof.

   Vinyl removed her hoof and signaled Pinkie into the house. The living room had been cleared out to make space for the supplies...and the cannon.

   "This is soooooooooooooo EXCITING!!" Pinkie squealed. "I can't believe you're throwing a surprise birthday party for Octy tonight! This gonna be even bigger than your anniversary! Maybe bigger than the gala. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean!"

    You couldn't tell, with the sunglasses and all, but Vinyl squinted at Pinkie. "Pinkie, it's hard to keep something like this a surprise, when you shout it out like that." Vinyl said with a cold tone, but quickly changed it to a happy and Pinkie-ish one. "But anyway, Hay Yes! This party is gonna be the bomb!" Vinyl jumped in the air, but she suddenly remembered something, and she fell with a thud.

   "What is it, Scratchie?" Pinkie said with a concerned face. Vinyl sat on the floor for a minute thinking and tapping her hoof to her chin, then a light bulb appeared above her head.

    "Pinkie!" She rose from the ground. "I need you to head down to the school! Find C.D. and tell him to get his friends

to set up their band in here!" She then levitated a box off Pinkie's back and ran towards the kitchen. She turned her head with a grin on her face. "By any means necessary."

   "Okie, Dokie, Lokie!" And with that, Pinkie hopped towards the school.

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     Everpony rose their heads from the desks and looked at the colts who just walked in. Cee looked around the room nervously, hoping none of them would recognize him or Red, who hid behind him.

"E-excuse me." The teacher stopped writing and looked towards the door. She smiled.

   "Well, hello there! Who are you?" She asked politely.

   Cee dug deep down into his mind and re-found his accent, giving it a more rough sound. "Yea, Ah'm Mordecai 'und this be meh Brotha, Claude." He nudged Red. "We are foreign exchange students from out of town. We'll only be 'ere for a day! So we will just move to our seats!" He and Red moved nervously to the back row to the empty seats next to Coraline, who still had her head down the whole time.

   "Oh! Well, go ahead sit down." She said. "We were just about to learn about the workings of emotions." She then turned back to the chalk board. Cee shook his head at the thought of a teacher being so clueless.

    Red looked at Cee with a confused expression. "Claude? Mordecai?" He whispered.

    "Oh shut up!" Cee shot back. He then turned attention to Coraline. "Hey, Coraline." He nudged her. "Coraline, it's me! C.D.!" She lifted her head up and looked at Cee. Her annoyed look turned into one of horror.

    "What are you two doing here?" She whispered. "Your going to get in trouble!"

   "Oh don't worry. We came up with a story. I said we were foreign." He said proudly.

  ".....Okay." She said as she tilted her head. "But what are you doing in here?"

"You left in the middle of telling us what Diamond Tiara meant." Red added.

"Agh." She slumped in her seat and looked towards the front of the class. "You skipped class to here a sob story? Why do you wanna know so bad?"

         "You make it seem so not important. You ran off, and...well...." Cee looked down at the desk in front of him. A blush formed on his face.

         "What?" She said looking back at him.

         Cee looked back into her eyes. "Well....You see-"

         "Romeo, over here, got all worried and he wanted to see if you were okay." Red added again, this time getting glared at by Cee. "What? It's true!"

Coraline smiled and leaned her head against Cee's head. "Oh, you are so sweet!"

         "Yeah, uh...I-it's n-nothing! I mean...." His tongue tied itself into a knot.

         She lifted her head and turned her desk towards Cee's and Red's. "Okay...It all began almost a year ago, when I was still friends with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon..."

      ***FLASHBACK NOISES***

It was a cold and rainy day in Ponyville and all the colts and fillies were headed for home, all except Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, and Coraline, who were sitting in Sugar Cube Corner. *'We were talking about things, just stupid filly talk. Silver Spoon was talking about somepony she didn't like. I never understood why all she and Diamond did was complain about stuff. All I wanted to do was hang out with my so-called friends. I was already mad at them for forgetting my birthday a while before and was a bit tired of listening to her talk about nothing...'*

"So I was like, 'You can keep your stupid seat!' and she was like 'Fine!' and I was like 'Good!' can you believe that?"

"Unbelievable! She should be ashamed for taking your seat! Right, Cory?" Diamond looked over to Coraline sitting across from her and Silver Spoon, with her head tilted to the right with her eyes closed. "Cory!"

"Uh...Wha..?" She had dosed off during Silver's little banter. "Sorry. What did you do?"

"Were you, like, just sleeping?" Silver Spoon glared.

"Are you, like, getting bored of us, Cory? You always never find anything we say interesting." Diamond asked smugly.

"No!" She exclaimed. "It's just-*sigh* Nothing, all right?" She looked down at the table, away from the two fillies gazes.

"What's wrong with you lately? First, it was ditching us to go see a boring play-"

Coraline slammed her hoof on the table. "That 'boring' play was for my birthday!" She shot back. "Which you two forgot! And my parents wanted to take me because I never see them!" She shouted, causing ponies sitting around the shop to flinch.

Diamond Tiara snorted. "Whatever. Then, you declined a invitation to MY birthday!" She shouted, causing ponies sitting around the shop to flinch. "What's the excuse there?"

Coraline calmed down and looked out the window, down the road to the library where Twilight, Trixie, and Spike lived. "I was helping some friends around at the library...I owed them something-"

"So! Who cares? It was my BIRTHDAY!" Diamond was livid and was glaring at Coraline.

"Yeah and when we made fun of those Cutie Mark Blank Flankers, you defended them!" Silver Spoon added.

"I defended them because-"

"Because WHAT?" Diamond Tiara shot at Coraline.

"Because there my friends!" She yelled. "You guys aren't my only friends you know! And just because you don't like them doesn't mean I don't!" She stood up from her seat and head towards the door. "If you WERE my friends and cared about me, you wouldn't judge me. You two have issues" And she stormed off into the rain. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon watched as she trotted away to the library.

"She, like totally just ditched us!" Silver Spoon exclaimed. "She just got up and left! Why are we even hanging out with her?"

"We're not." Diamond Tiara said coldly. "And neither are Those blank flanks, or anypony else when we're done."

Silver Spoon looked puzzlingly at Diamond until she was told about the plan that Diamond had thought of. Just to get back at Coraline.

         ***FLASHFOWARDS NOISES***

"What did they do?" Cee asked with concern. Coraline looked down and back up into Cee's eyes.

  She sighed. "They got me back." She added nothing else.

"That's it? You're not gonna tell us?" He asked. "You went to Twilight's, right? Did they spread a rumor? Did they hurt-"

   "This isn't the place, Cee." She cut him off looking away to hide tears, but they soon dried up when she looked towards the front of the class and her eyes widened. "What is she doing here?" Cee looked, too. He swore he heard glass break when his eyes snapped open wide. Pinkie Pie had bounced into the classroom and was talking to the teacher.

   "Have you seen a colt with white fur and a black mane and blue highlights? His name is C.D.!"

   'Crap!' Cee ducked under his desk and prayed to Celestia that the teacher wouldn't remember him.

  "Yes, actually. But he told me he was a foreign exchange student and that his name was 'Mordecai'...Excuse me, you two in the back!" She looked at Red, who was frozen, but she couldn't find Cee.

"Mordecai?" Coraline looked at Cee with a confused look.

"Told you it was stupid." Red whispered.

"Shut up!" Cee hissed. He looked back up at Coraline. She looked scared, maybe it was about getting into trouble just by being associated with him. He felt bad. And he wanted her to feel better.

"Coraline..." Cee spoke dramatically.

"Yes, Cee?" She looked down to him.

         "If anything happens to me..."

         "Yeah?" She looked at his eyes with fear.

"I was gushing a bit last night...." He started blushing. "And I promise that you won't get any slack for this." This made Coraline's eyes glow with happiness. 'He was gushing about me! He cares! (Girly Scream)' She thought. She looked at Red. He was as still as a statue and had fear written all over him.

         "Hey, Cee?" Red said aloud.

        "Yeah, Red?" Cee asked.

        "We are so caught, aren't we?"

         "Oh yeah."

         "Cee!" Pinkie ran to the back of the class and picked him up from under the desk and then hugged him tightly. "You silly willy! Why are you hiding under a desk?"

         "Well..." He began, trying to think of a lie. This was all for not, however. 'Aw, hay. What's the worst that could happen?' He thought as he looked back towards Pinkie. "...because I skipped class to come to this one." He said calmly. Pinkie's face went from excited to shock in 1.25 seconds flat. Beat that, Rainbow Dash.

         "Actually....I was trying to get my friend here," He pointed his hoof at Coraline. "To, uh...Go to a party you were hosting?" He was shocked. And so was Coraline.'He came up with that so fast.' She thought. 'Was he serious?' And to his luck, there was a party brewing. Too bad the rest of the children in class were assuming it as a date and were 'Oooing' and making kiss noises. Kids, right?

         "Well, you came to the right pony! Because Vinyl is planning a surprise party for your mom!" Pinkie said as the smile came back to her face. "Oh, yeah! And she wants you and your band to play!"

         "Really?!" Red and Cee yelled in unison.

         "Now hold on a second!" The teacher interrupted. "These colts are in serious trouble! So, on your way out I think you should drop them of at the off-" Her sentence was cut short by a pie to the face, curtsey of Pinkie Pie. She fell back and flipped over her desk.

         "Bail!" Red yelled as he and Pinkie ran out of the class.

Cee was about to follow but stopped and turned around to grab Coraline by the hoof. "Come on! Before she wakes up!" He pulled her out of her desk and they bolted out the door.

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Authors Notes

Wow. Crazy, right? Well, if it looks like the story is ending, it's not. It's just getting started! (Epic Guitar Solo!) Hope you enjoyed the chapter! 1/9/12 Hey, Bronies and Bronetts! I added a few things here and there! Tell me what you think below!

-TLC

Chapter 10: Spring Flings and Other Stories

This chapter will conclude the three part entry of "The Surprise!" It will then move into a section where the party will take place. This chapter will involve the characters of TTL preparing for the party. Before this chapter is over, a majority of questions will be answered, maybe even a little somethin' somethin'. I apologize for any poor character development, spelling mistakes, or improper language while you have been following this story and I thank you. This story has been changing a lot lately in my head. So, this will put it all in place. Hopefully. This isn't the end either, if this gave you that idea.

So without further a due, Here's Chapter Ten, 'Spring Flings and Other Stories'

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        The sky was bright blue and empty, the hue it gave out could make your eyes hurt if you stared too long, not a single cloud was tempting bad weather. It had been that way for quite the long while, making life as pleasant as the moment at hoof was. Birds chirped in the distance, singing perfectly in harmony to the song they're born to. The grass sat perfectly still, seeing how it was grass, but sparkled as if a traveling pony felt obligated to water them. Their smell traveled through the cooling air brought a sense of summer to this sweet, stimulating spring afternoon. But all that beautiful stuff I just said didn't matter to Coraline.

        She walked with a trot in every step, making her joy known. The sadness that hung over her head recently, about the incident the year before, had dissapeared. She didn't know where it had gone, how long it would be gone, or anything about it in particular, all she cared about was the moment she was sharing with her friend, Cee. trotted along side her, grinning like Pinkie Pie on any other day. After what happened moments before, C.D. and Coraline felt closer, as friends, as ponies, as beings in a land blessed by the kindness everypony shared in that one little town, and hopefully through out all of Equestria.

        They trotted closer together, never really going ahead of each other. Leaning against one another. Cee thought it was nice being so close with Coraline. He had been so nervous around her lately, seeing how they had only really started talking the night before and how he's been drooling over her for sometime. It was then he thought a somewhat worrying thought:Where they moving too fast? Should they really be this close only had just known each other? He glanced over at Coraline and saw her smile, her coat which shined in the sun light, and her gleaming eyes they had their attention on the surroundings heading towards Cee's home. 'Nah. We're doing just fine.' C.D. thought smiling even wider now.

        They soon approached a small house on the side of the road, surrounded by others that looked pretty similar. Coraline quietly giggled at how exactly the house stood out. It's paint was a mixture of the blue that highlighted Cee's mane. It's windows where dark, as if tinted, thought had several streamers sticking to it from the inside. The door was white and had a fancy door knocker, which gleamed bright when the sun touched it. It's design was a Ursa-Major face with a ring hanging from it's mouth. Both Cee and Coraline blinked at the monstrosity. "What is that?" Coraline asked.

        "It's a door knocker." He said pointing at it. "My Mom had bought while touring. She thought it looked so cool and deserved a place here." He laughed. "It was about a month of begging, pleading, and reasoning before Mum finally gave in to her." He reached for it and flicked it with his hoof, causing it to flail up and then down, making a loud bang against the door.

"Seem's a little loud, don't you think?" She said flinching a bit from the sound. Cee nudged her playfully. "Oh, it can be even louder when you have angry neighbors at you door."

"Why would there be 'angry neighbors'?" As Coraline asked that, the door flew open and a blue and white blur appeared at the door. Coraline ran behind Cee. He laughed and turned to her. "THAT'S why we have angry neighbors!" He said pointing at the DJ in the door.

"They're not angry, not when they have me living next door!" Vinyl said proudly. "They listen to the most raddest beats in all of Equestria! And they get to hear me play my own hits....Whether they want to or not." She said with an evil grin.

"Yeah, they just love the personal concerts you perform, Mom. Especially the concert we through when we just got here." Cee said approaching his mother. She responded nuzzling him. "So, is this where the party's taking place?"

  "Yup! And there's more stuff on the way." Vinyl turned her attention to Coraline, who stood aside. She trotted to her and smiled greatly. "And who's this adorable filly?" Vinyl turned and faced Cee. "You never told me you had a 'fillyfriend'." Cee blushed wildly and Coraline giggled to herself. "Oh relax! I won't say anything embarrassing!"  She looked back at Coraline. "Come in! I was just moving some stuff around so Cee and his band could move their instruments in here." She turned and trotted through the door way. Coraline followed but stopped to see C.D. facehoof. "This is gonna be long day." He groaned. Coraline giggled and nuzzled him, turning him deep crimson. "Oh, it won't be so bad...coltfriend." She giggled and trotted away happily, leaving Cee standing there dazed and completely confused. 'Coltfriend?' He thought nearly losing his balance walking through the door.

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  Elsewhere, we find Sky, still wearing the hat, and Red moving several pieces of musical equipment into a cart. They had to be extra careful not to damage anything, that's why Cee wasn't here helping. They really did like him, but he was just too clumsy when it came to this kind of stuff. Sky moved the last piece of Red's drum kit into the cart and moved to the front of it. Red was waiting for him with one leather strap wrapped around him. "So, to Cee's and then to your place, right Sky?" He asked.

  Sky finished wrapping the other strap around his tail. "Yup. We should have enough time to grab something to eat before the party starts." With a nod from Red, they began their journey towards C.D.'s home.

  The two were not paranoid at the fact that it was about 12:30, signaling right away saying that they should be in school. Everypony was minding their business, doing what job they had for today. Sky saw Bon-Bon walking towards Lyra's house and he waved. She waved back.

  They made it past the record store where they used to practice, of course they couldn't that anymore. Apparently some ponies found that 'distracting'. Red sighed deeply. "Stupid dad and his complaints. We weren't that bad were we?" He looked at Sky who looked away really quickly, hiding under the goofy hat. "What's wrong, Sky?" He looked at him with his head tilted. Sky looked back, but not directly. "N-no. Nothing's wrong." He went back to looking at the ground. "You know, you shouldn't really blame yourself. It wasn't your fault." Red scoffed. "Oh really? I had to be responsible for whatever happened. He told me I should've been more mature on dealing with it." He sighed again. Red and the band got banned from practicing at the store by his dad. Due to inviting ponies over during opening hours, Vinyl's last appearance there, and 'that mess they called music.' "I swear!" He shouted. "He really pisses me off sometimes!"

  Sky felt bad. He didn't like how Red's dad reacted to the band, or how he acted at all. He was good in public, and of course an all around good pony, but how he acted or disciplined Red bothered Sky. He was prejudice against any 'filly-fooling' or 'colt-cuddling'. Another pony who saw it as a bad thing or wrong. It was never a big deal around, since he never really expressed it, but when he did, it hurt Sky. It was one of the reasons why he didn't tell Red he was gay to begin with. The only ones who really knew was Cee and Spike. He won't even tell his mothers. Red never really disliked his dad, but his views for things angered him. The music he listened to before was looked down upon by his dad because, 'There's no feeling! It's just distorted guitars and bad drums!' Worst of it all though, when his dad told him that, Red had been listening to his OWN band's mix-tape. Red's mom never really notices the issue. Sky laid a hoof on Red's shoulder causing him to stop. "Really, Red. Stop blaming yourself. It was all of us, and your dad should've acted like an adult about it." Red laughed at that.

  "Yeah. You know, Sky? I've been wondering something..." Red trailed off as he saw Sugar Cube Corners windows. They had put cakes in the window. Sky laughed and nudged Red. "What? Ewww, dude, stop drooling!"

   Red shook his head and wiped his mouth. "Sorry, didn't eat lunch." He looked at Sky. "You never did tell me why you acted so weird a while ago." Sky face contorted into a scared expression. He kept pulling the cart as he looked off into nothing. "You can tell me! Come on, Sky!" He stepped in front of him, causing him to be faced to face the shying colt. They were really close, Sky blushed wildly and stammered. "W-well, uh....I-I guess..." He stopped. Red stared into his grey eyes and grinned. "C-could you b-back up a bit, Red?" Sky said moving back up against the cart. Red looked for a few more seconds and then laughed. "Alright, don't tell me! But know this!" He moved back towards Sky. "I'll find out."

   "O-okay..." Sky stammered before they went back to pulling the cart. 'Oh dear Celestia, you just hate me, don't you?!' Sky thought trying to get rid of the blush on his muzzle. 'He's getting suspicious! This is going to be a long day...What if I just told him?....Would it be so bad?' He glanced at Red who looked forward down the road.

   'What if he feels the same?'

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        Back at the library, Spike had just took a bath and cleaned up the muffins. He thought back on all the stuff he did with 'Just a Scratch', the band he used to share with the three colts. He stopped playing with them because of his work schedule, but always kept in touch. He would even step in to help with song writing. But now that it's been two whole years after he left, he felt like something was missing. He looked around the library and looked at the mess in front of him. 'I really do miss it.' Spike thought putting the dish that held the brownies in the sink. 'I always thought Cee would be good for the band when he joined, and they've gotten to play along with Vinyl on stage, but still...' He jumped up on the counter and formed a heroic pose. 'They need me!' A dramatic background appeared behind him as metal music blasted. He looked around in confusion. 'Where did that come from?'

        He thought back at all the times Cee had showed up at the door with a look of defeat, and asked him to join the band again. He would do so after every song he wrote. ESPECIALLY after 'Constellation Proclamation'. Spike laughed to himself. "That song rocks. I don't what his problem is. He walk into his room and stared. It was covered wall to wall with posters, pictures, and trophies. He had out grown his basket and Twilight gave him a bed. He thanked Celestia because nothing's more awkward then sleeping in the same room while Twilight and Trixie had....relations. He shuddered at the thought.

       The rooms background was filled with posters of bands from Green Hay to his and Cee's favorite, Ponyhead. But what he really cared about, was the picture by his bed. It was a pink frame of him and Scootaloo at The Gala the year before. He remembered how cute she looked in her dress. How her eyes sparkled as he asked her to dance. How her pink mane fell over her eye in Fluttershy fashion. Of course, he loved her. But never really admitted it. He still kicks himself for not doing so.

        He turned his attention to the case on the wall on the left side of his bed. It held a guitar similar to C.D.'s but had shared Spike's colors. It's headstock looked like the tip of a dragons tail and had an inscription written in it:

Spike-

Playing piano, making muffins, and Spittin' rhymes like fire since 995.

-Just a Scratch

      Spike smiled and took the case off the wall. He had earned that inscription from the covers they did of Ponyhead's songs. They also wrote some songs where he would rap, but not like the crap nowadays. He had been taught to play guitar by Cee and Vinyl, as annoying and obnoxious as was learning, it paid off greatly. He play it slowly, remembering everything he learned. After awhile, he went to his closet, took out a guitar case and place the guitar in it. He decided he would would rejoin Just a Scratch, and why not pick tonight to do it?

      After straightening his scales, and brushing his teeth, he left a note for Twilight and Trixie and exited the library to Cee's place, with his guitar under his arm. He walked at a slow pace to enjoy the outside. The fresh air filled his lungs as he breathed in and out as he let out a sigh. How could this day get better? "Hey, Spike!" Oh that's how.

      Spike turned to see Scootaloo heading towards him on her scooter. She skidded to a stop right in front of him. She took off her helmet and shook her hair so it fell into her purple eyes. She blew it out of her way to see Spike, who stared dreamy-like. "Uh, Spike, are you alright?" She giggled. Spike snapped out of it and shook his head. "Y-yeah! I was just heading over to Cee's for that party..." HE stopped and wondered. "Did you get an invite?"

    "Yup!" She pulled a card out of her helmet. "I was just about to meet Sweetie Belle and Applebloom over at Sugar Cube Corner." She looked closer at Spike and grinned. "You wanna co-"

     "Sure! I-I mean, cool. Yeah I come with you." Spike stammered and blushed. Scootaloo smiled. She loved having Spike around. Even if he was like this. 'He's so cute when he blushes.' She thought. They then made their way to Sugar Cube Corner.

        ______________________________________________________________________

       "I can't believe it!" Silver Spoon shouted walking home with Diamond Tiara. "They just left school?! So, like, what? Where did they go?" Diamond shook her head. "I don't know. But Pinkie Pie actually, like, threw a pie at the teacher and she's in the office demanding Pinkie and those dorks be punished." Silver Spoon laughed evilly. "Well good. But where they went is what I-" She was interrupted when the before mentioned pink mare jumped out from a near by bush. "Hey ya, little fillies!" She said. Pinkie had twigs and leafs sticking out of her mane. "You're invited to an super-duper, extra special, fantastic birthday party for Octy, today!" She took two cards out of her mane and handed them to Silver and Diamond. Before they asked about anything Pinkie vanished. "She's, like, weird."

     "I know, but look at card." Diamond said pointing at her's. "It says that the party is going have...Just a Scratch performing." Silver Spoon's face contorted into an angry look as she shredded her card. "I can't stand Christoffer! We have to get into the party and do....do....something!" She was obsessed with her hatred for Cee. Ever since he made fun of her in front of everypony at school. She just couldn't get over it. "Silver, you really need to, like, calm down. We'll go, but as much as you dislike Cory or Christoffer, don't do anything stupid." She put a hoof on Silver's shoulder, which calmed her instantly. "When it comes down to it, we'll think of something."

    "Why are you so calm? When your just as angry as I am?" Silver asked annoyed.

    "Because, I can control my anger. Unlike somepony I know." Diamond shot back.

    "Whatever!" Silver shouted. "Let's just head over already!" And with that, the two walked off into the direction of Cee's home.

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   Meanwhile, above all of this, Octavia laid on a spa table and was being massaged by Aloe. With her was Rarity, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Trixie. "This was a splendid idea, Rarity!" She gasped as her backed was cracked. "Thank you, darling!" Rarity shouted over the wall from the steam bathes.  "I knew this would be the ideal thing for a birthday present for somepony like yourself." Fluttershy sat quietly on the other side of the steam bath, her head have submerged. "Hey, Twilight! How are you and Trixie doing?" Octavia asked while having her face buried in the table. Twilight and Trixie sat side by side in the mud bath with there eyes closed, sleeping while they held each others hooves. "Oh those two." Rarity said to herself.

   Octavia woke up that morning pretty early to meet Rarity at the spa to start her birthday off right. They hadn't left since then. She was relaxed and happy. 'Best birthday ever.' She thought. But then a feeling welled up in the back of her head. Something was missing. Or someponies were missing. She missed Vinyl and Cee. 'Oh...' Octavia thought with a sigh. 'I wonder what they're doing? Probably up to something to surprise me, I wonder-' Her thoughts was interrupted when a scream came from the mud baths. "Pinkie! Get off Trixie's head!" Twilight yelled. "Oopsies! Sorry!" Pinkie hopped from head to head in the spa till she reached Octavia. "Hiya, Octy!" She said grinning wildly. Octavia laid there with an annoyed look. "Hello. Pinkie, what are you doing here?"

    "I came to get you! You have a very special surprise!" Pinkie said, hopping around the massage table making Octavia dizzy. "Pinkie....please...Stop!" Pinkie stopped in mid-air, breaking every law of physics, causing ponies in the spa to question everything they've ever known. "Okay, now what's the surprise?" Octavia said, now standing off the table.

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To Be Continued....

Chapter 11: Adolescent Trust and Head On Collision

Chapter Eleven: Head On Collision and Other Stories

'Adolescent Trust'

                   "So, wait, your mom wears those sunglasses wherever she goes?!"  Coraline asked, laughing hysterically. Cee had just told her a story concerning his DJ mother's signature glasses and how she begged for them back by Octavia.

                   "Yup! Everywhere! Sometimes she wears them to bed." Cee said whispering the last part.

                   We rejoin these two at Cee's home, where Octavia's Birthday will be taking place. C.D. and Coraline are hanging out in his room. Where there talking about, well, stuff. Cee is now attempting to convince Coraline to play guitar. Which, to her distress, he's really pushing for.

                   "Come on, Cory! It's easy! And it's a great way to relax." He said handing his old guitar to her. She grabbed it and looked it over. It was essentially just like his current one, but had barely any stickers and many, many scratches.

                   "You know I play the violin, right? And you did NOT just call me 'Cory'!" She glared at him. He jumped back a little.

                   "Oh! Uh, D-do you not like that?" He said nervously. Coraline laughed.

                   "Oh, chill, Cee. I was just kidding!" She jumped from the bed and hugged him. He turned beet red.

                   "Hehe, I knew that...yeah." He said sheepishly. "So, yeah. The best way to play guitar, is to pretty much mess around with it. Like, just learn three chords, and then wing it!" He grabbed his other guitar and began to play a simple melody. Then, he got more technical. Coraline watched as he play several more notes then finished. She clapped afterwards causing him to blush. "See? Now you try."

                   Coraline picked up the old guitar on the bed and tried to match Cee exactly. She strumed the first note and smiled. "Hey, this is fun!" She strummed a couple more times, then made up her own riff. Cee's jaw dropped. 'How could she learn this fast? It took me and mom six months to teach Spike!' He nodded his along to what Coraline played. It was as if she already knew ho to play. She finished and Cee cheered. She tried to hide her face away from him, but failed.

                   "Have you played before?" He asked still amazed.

                   "Well, no. I just pretended it was a violin, and played it that way." She saw the look in his eyes and looked away. 'He really thought I was good.' Cee hopped off the bed and decide to gather all his notes for the show that night. New songs he and the band practiced, little solos in between songs, and some extra stuff. He had it all in a pile on his bed when he fell back on it.

                   "Are you nervous?" Coraline asked looking down at him. His eyes were closed and he clapped his hooves to together. Just a Scratch didn't have to go on for another...He sat up to find his clock. Another four hours. It was three-o-clock now. He laid back down and looked up at Coraline.

                   "Eh. Yeah, but not as nervous as my mum will get if anything goes wrong."

                   "Mum?" She giggled.

                   "Mum. As in 'my other mom'. Oh!" He sat up and turned to Coraline. Her eyes widened and her mouth hung slightly open. Cee face-hoofed and lifted her jaw. "Okay. Go on. Say what you need to say."

                   Coraline's eyes shrank down when she noticed how Cee looked. His head was down and he was cringing. Like he was prepared for a shot at his heritage. She lifted a hoof to his face and and lifted his head back up.

                   "I'm not going to make fun of you. Why would I? Just because you have two moms?" He looked away and stared at the floor.

                   "Where I used to live, Hayword, I was picked on for it. Being 'magically born' isn't really cool. That's why I live here now." He said in a whisper. Coraline saw the pained look he had and brushed her head against his. Cee turned around to see a comforting face.

                   "What does that have to do with you? Your personality has nothing to do with how you were born, your gender, your looks. It's who you are as a pony that makes you." She said in a assuring tone. Cee's face brighten up. His orange eyes gleamed and his smile grew.

                   "Thanks. You know you're pretty smart...for a filly and all."

                   Coraline playfully nudged him. "Really?! And you're pretty calm and cool for a nervous colt who couldn't talk to me for the longest time! I mean, really." She got off the bed and faced him. "Every time I see you, you're staring off into space. Or you fall over! It's like you're scared off fillies!...Are you?" She went from mocking him to a look of wonder. Cee laughed at her points and question.

                   "No, but I know who is-" He quickly clammed his hooves over his mouth and turned away. Coraline's eyes gleamed and she rush to him.

                   "OHMYGOSH! Who?! Do I know him? Does he go to our school? Tellmetellmetellmetellmetellmetellmetellme-" A hoof covered her mouth. Cee cocked his head to the side with amazement at the sudden burst of energy from this filly.

                   "For the sake of our friendship, I promised I wouldn't tell. Plus, he said the way he'll tell anypony, is when he come's out to my other friend. Which will be, like, whenever he grows a pair." Cee heard how, even with his hoof over her mouth, she continued her barrage of "Tell Me"s. "Stop saying 'Tell Me'! Geeze, are you like this at every new thing?" When he heard her stop, he removed his hoof. She was bemused. "Hey, I wouldn't have to have done that if you did reacted that way."

                   She put on a puppy dog face and placed her hooves over Cee's. Her lip quivered as she spoke. "D-don't you trust me? I thought...I thought we were closer than that..."

                   Cee mentally face-hoofed. He was not going to win this. It was a losing battle between beauty and ignorance, and beauty was winning. He shook his head and gazed away from her display. Only for her to move back into his view.

                   "Please...tell me." She moved closer to his face. A blush form on both of their faces. Mostly Cee's, for as he moved back more, he was almost falling off the bed. But she moved closer and closer still. Her cutie face was not letting up and Cee was about to crack. Gravity had other ideas. Suddenly Cee couldn't feel the bed behind him and dropped to the floor, along with Coraline on top of him.

                   There they laid. Staring into each others eyes as they moved not even an inch. A wave of awkwardness filled the entire room, leaving them frozen in place. Cee notice the gleam in Coraline's eyes. Her muzzle was only centimeters away from his, and she was blushing rapidly. He wanted to sit up, to get air, but other than Coraline, something held him down. Something in him wanted this to last as long as possible. He tried to speak hopefully breaking the silence, only to hear his own voice crack.

                   "U-uh, Coraline...I-"

                   The door busted open to reveal Vinyl holding a chip bag in her mouth and headphones on her head. She didn't appear to notice the two on the floor.

                   "Hey, Cee! I have chips if you want any-" She stopped when she gazed at the foot of the bed. Her jaw dropped, letting go of the chips and leaving a mess of them covering the floor. She lifted a hoof to her sunglasses and lowered them to see better. Her expression hadn't changed. She lowered them back down and slowly backed out of the room with out a word. The door slowly closed and a sound of giggles came from the out side. Cee mentally face-hoofed again. Sometimes, his mother couldn't be just a little bit mature.

                   "Um...Sorry...about that." Coraline said slowly getting off him, still red in the face. Cee got up from the floor and dusted himself off.

                   "...it's okay. I-uh, do you still want to-"

                   "Not if you don't really want to tell me-"

                   "I'll tell you-"

                   "I understand, Cee you haven't known me that long-"

                   "Coraline, I'll tell yo-"

                   "And you may not trust me-"

                   Cee grabbed Coraline and shook her a little. "Coraline! I'll tell you!" She looked a little surprise. Cee let her go and sat on his haunches. She sat in front of him, patiently waiting for him.

                   "*sigh* Do you promise not to say anything?" He said softly.

                   She nodded. "Of course."

                   "Pinkie promise?"

                   "Really, Cee?"

                   "Pinkie promise me."

                   "Fine." She held up her hooves and did the movements as she said the promise. "Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye."

                   "Okay..." He paused for a second. "...It's Sky."

                   Her expression didn't really change. She looked a little confused. "Really? I thought it would have been Red."

                   "Sky hopes."

                   "What?"

                   "Nothing." He answered quickly, realizing he's said too much already. Coraline understood. She held up her hoof, leading Cee on to lean his against her's. He held his hoof up and pressed it up to her's. It was soft and warm. Cee looked into her eyes and saw something, like a bond he doesn't know about.

                   "I'm glad that you could share something so personal with me. I'm happy to be your friend." She said smiling warmly.

                   "I'm happy you're my friend, too." He said, grinning even more than her.

                   "D'awwwwwww!" The two looked towards the door and saw a whit horn. It quickly dissapeared and the door slammed shut. Coraline laughed nervously and Cee scratched the back of his head.

                   "Um..hehe, you can let go of my hoof now." She said. "If you want to." Did he want to? To be honest, no. He didn't want to let go. His hoof shook a little, resisting Cee's urge to keep it there, but was losing. His cheeks were bright red and he wasn't thinking. "You're a little weird, Cee. But that's the best part about you." She said, noticing his body language. He laughed nervously and used his other hoof to drop the one against Coraline's.

                   "It kinda...runs in the family. S-sorry about that."

                   "Don't be! You can hold my hoof when ever you like-I mean! Ugh! I said that out loud!" She buried her face in her hooves. Cee laughed at her shy display.

                   "Now who's weird?"

                   _______________________________________________________________________________

'Head On Collision'

                   "...So, anyway! Pinkie threw the pie into the teacher's face!" Red laughed as the went on about the day's past events to Sky, who only walked beside him and nodded. "It was hilarious!"

                   "Sounds like it was." Sky said quietly and empty of emotion. Red hadn't picked up on it.

                   "It was! I'm telling you, Sky. You should start coming to school with me and Cee. We would get in sooo much trouble!" He said with such excitement. Sky liked seeing Red like this, all full of energy.

                   They had been walking and dragging the cart for about half a mile now. Cee's place was not too far ahead and they stopped by Sugar Cube Corner to grab some sweets for them, Cee, and Coraline. If she was still there. The road between Cee's house and the actual town part of Ponyville was just long row of fences on one side, with several street lamps, and a view of Sweet Apple Acres. You could see the sun bounce off the top of the many apple trees that surrounded the farm. Sky loved this road and wish he lived around here. "Hey. Sky! Yoo-hoo!"

                   "Wha? Huh?" Sky had lost himself in his mind while Red talked about...something.

                   "I WAS talking about what we should do for the show tonight, but you were in la-la land." He lowered his head and sighed. "Sometimes, Sky. Sometimes..."

                   "What?" Sky said looking at Red. "Sometimes what?"

                   "Nothing." Red looked up at Skylark and quickly turned away. "Dude. Seriously. For the fifth time! Take off that stupid hat!"

                   "And for the fifth time, no!" He scoffed and looked off to the side. "You're a stupid hat..."

                  Red face-hoofed. "Why? What could you have possibly done to your mane to make you wear you MOM'S frilly hat? It couldn't be THAT bad. "

                  He had a point there. The hat was a dark lavender hat, made by Rarity for Twilight's wedding dress, and had pink flowers around the rim. Sky was annoyed now.

                   "It's bad enough, Red. It's bad enough."

                  They walked a little while longer before stopping for a snack break. It was getting pretty hot. The sun shot it's rays down upon Sky and Red. They had forgot to pack water, which is a normal thing for a colt to do, but pack huge containers of fresh apple juice. Sky took a cup from the cart and poured in the juice. Red laughed to himself, causing suspicion.

                   "Red. What's so funny?" Sky asked before taking a drink.

                   "Oh, nothing...Just a little something I 'borrowed' from my dad's secret cupboard." He took a small bottle with a label that had writing that was scripted in cursive. "It's a fancy cider...wanna try it?"

                   Sky played with the options in his head. "Why not? It's just cider." Oh-ho-ho, but this wasn't any ordinary cider. No, this was cider...that was aged twenty years. This cider had been made in Applelousa by some old crazy pony, who was famous for his rich beverages. Red poured a small bit of it in with the juice. He walked over to Sky and offered some. Sky nodded and Red poured. After the bottle was put away, the two leaned against the fence. They tipped their glasses to their lips.

                   Sky had trouble swallowing his. He coughed a bit and scraped his tongue against his teeth, hoping to get rid of the taste. He had never thought something could be both really sour and incredibly bitter. He looked over to Red, who downed his in one gulp. Sky's jaw dropped at this display of ignorance.

                   "Red! You're supposed to sip your cider!" Sky hissed, still with that sourly and bitterly taste in his mouth.

                   Red scoffed. "Oh, please! You're one to talk! When we tried cider last year, you chugged it like it was water."

                   Sky blushed. "I was thirsty...Anyway, how are you feeling?"

                   "What?"

                   "I mean about the cider." Sky quickly added. "What did you think?"

                   Red pondered for a few moments. He took note of the taste in his mouth from the cider, observing the sourness and the bitterness as they worked together in the drink, plus the age. "It was okay."

                   "Well that was abrupt."

                   "Oh, what do you know. How was it for you?" Red asked.

                   "It tasted like I licked the rim of a public toilet." Sky said with disgust.

                   "So you enjoyed it?" Red said confusingly.

                   Sky face-hoofed. "Forget it. Like you care about what I have to say anyway."

                   Red's teal eyes grew wide. "Whoa. Geeze, Sky, where did that come from?"

                   Sky soon realized what he said, but he didn't care. "I...I don't know. Look, can we just drop it?"

                   Red stomped his hoof and walked towards Sky, with annoyance in his eyes. "For Celestia's sake! Why are you being so passive, today? It's not the hat, it's not the drink, it's not even about the show later! Something's going on in that head of yours and you're going to tell me!"

                   Sky felt rage build up in his chest and knew he could end it all right here and tell him, but he wouldn't get it. He never gets anything. "What makes you think that it has anything to with you? Huh? Maybe, I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed! Or maybe, I'm a little peeved about my mane! Or maybe, and this is a big one, maybe, my friend, who I've known most of my life, is the most clueless, insensitive, ignorant, ill behaved..." Sky sulked to the ground against the fence.

                    Red looked at his friend. He was no longer angry, he never was. He just wanted to know what's been eating at him. He didn't want what happened a while ago to happen again. Besides Cee and Spike, Skylark was his best friend. They've been friends since they were foals and their mom's went to the same day care center. Red hated seeing him like this and he wanted to help.

                    Sky turned away when he felt Red sit next to him. Red caught a glimpse of his eyes. They were hazy and teary. His cheeks were rosy and he shook a little.

                   "Skylark...Please. Tell me what's wrong."

                   Sky still looked away, but shook his head in response.

                   "Why?"

                   Sky mumbled something incoherent under his breath.

                   "Sky, speak louder."

                   "You wouldn't understand." Sky said in almost a whisper.

                   "Why wouldn't I understand?"

                   "You just wouldn't..."

                   "Come on. Why wouldn't-"

                   "You just wouldn't alright!" Sky snapped. Red jumped back a little, but kept the same expression. he stood to his hooves and dusted himself off. He then reached down and grabbed Skylark, pushing him against the fence. He went faced to face with his friend and went silent. Sky's blue eyes were rimed with tears.

                   "I'm not letting you go. Not until you tell me what's going on." Red said calmly. Sky looked into his eyes and saw that he was telling the truth. He lowered his head on Red's shoulder as he tried to struggle, but to no avail.

                   "Sky! This is stupid!" Red was furious now. "Look what it's doing to you! I'm here. Tell me."

                   Red wasn't letting up, not to mention letting up on his grip. Sky stopped struggling long enough to face the facts. He wasn't going anywhere until Red found out what's bugging him. He only wished it hadn't have to be in this fashion...

                   ________________________________________________________________________________

Author's Notes

Welcome back! It feels so good to be back at directing Cee and his pals. Yes, yes, Drama. One of life's pendulums. Anyway hope the returning Chapter filled that hole in your subconscious that this story hadn't filled in a long time. Me, C.D., Red, Skylark, Coraline, and Spike are all very happy to be back and are excited for wherever this story goes.

~The Colts Are Back In Town!

-TLC

Chapter 12:Untitled

Chapter Twelve:Untitled

             Ponyville's temperature has gone up profusely since school ended. The sun was unforgiving on this day, which was really a good thing in Spike's opinion. He hated it when it was cold and thought it was boring when the weather was plain. But today, it was just the right temp for a party. He and the Cutie Mark Crusaders had just left Sugar Cube Corner and were on their way to the Scratch home for the party. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were arguing about who had the better treat at the bakery while Spike and Scootaloo walked and talked about random things.

             "So, why do you have your guitar?" Scoots said.

             "Well, I was actually thinking about playing with Just a Scratch again." Spike said holding his guitar case.

             "That's awesome! Every time you guys played a show together, the place would be trashed."

             "That's pretty funny." He laughed Seeing how we're a bunch of kids and we make full grown ponies lose their minds." He face-clawed. "I blame Cee for that."

             Scootaloo laughed. "He does know how to get a crowd going."

             "At the Gala, he caused a riot."

             Scootaloo slapped his back with her tail. "It was fun and you know it!"

             "Yeah, I guess..." Spike grew silent, remembering the dance he and Scoots shared.

             "You looked really nice." He said.

             Scoots blushed. "Hehe, thanks. You didn't look bad yourself. Um, Spike?"

             Spike looked over to her. "Yeah?"

             "Um...What if, and this may sound crazy, but what if we, uh..."

             "Went out?" Spike said, immediately regretting saying it out loud. He lowered his head and just kept walking. Scoots, on the other hoof, was smiling.

             "Would that be bad?" She asked hoping for the answer she wanted.

             Spike's head shot up. "No! No, not at all! I mean, if you want..."

             Scootaloo brushed up against him. "That would be great."

             "Ahem!"

             The two turned to see Sweetie and Applebloom staring at them with huge grins.

             "What?" Scootaloo said coldly.

             "So, when's the wedding?" Sweetie teased.

             "Oh, whatever, Sweetie Belle!" Scoots laughed.

             "No really! You two are so cute!" She giggled

             "And it took y'all long enough!" Applebloom added. Spike and Scoots blushed and looked away from them.

             "A-anyway." Spike said. "We should get going. I've got to tell the colts I want to play before Cee get's too lazy to change anything."

             All four of them looked at each other and sighed. Knowing Cee, like they did, that ship has sailed.

                                                                                  ^_^""

             The air was cool and calm. The sun laid over head, beating down it's rays on to the ponies of Ponyville below. Giving the plants and flowers their daily dosage. It was four-twenty, which meant Sky and Red had to be arriving at the party soon to get the equipment set up and practice for the show. But at the moment, things aren't looking so hot.

             Red held Sky up against the fence, keeping a stern look, and waited for Sky to out with it. He was fed up with Sky's weird behavior today and wanted answers. Like, now.

             "Red, seriously! Let me go!" Sky yelled trying to get free.

             "No. You know the only way out of this." Red said, empty of emotion. "Just tell me, then I'll let you go. I'm doing this for your own good, Sky."

             "Ugh! You suck!"

             "Heh. Whatever."

             They went quiet and Sky stopped struggling again. 'Why me?' He thought. 'I could just say it and be done with it...I mean, what's the worst that could happen?' "Fine." Sky gave up.

             "Really?" Red said surprised.

             "Well, admittedly, it's kinda hard to fight while being held against my will. But yeah, I tell you."

             Red lighten his grip, but still kept him there. "Okay, then."

             Sky breathed in and let out a long sigh. "Remember the time I stopped talking to you? When you and Cee had been on the verge of an actual fight?"

             Red nodded.

             "Well...The reason that I had stopped talking to you is...uh..." He looked down at the ground. Red pushed his head back up and saw he was blushing.

             "Sky...Is that drink getting to your head?" Red asked with actual concern.

             "Shut up! It's not. What I'm trying to say is that...Ugh! Are you sure there's no other way-"

             "Sky."

             "Alright, alright." He worked up all the courage he had, plus the drink made this a little more easier. He thought about all the possible things that could happen and through them aside. He had to do it. "Red. I'm...gay."

             Red froze. His eyes grew wide and his jaw fell. He knew something serious was going on, but he didn't know it would be so...this. He let Sky go and they slumped to the ground. Sky dropped his head in shame, knowing Red would probably hate the next part.

             "...and I c-couldn't talk to you, because...I didn't know how to tell you.I've been my best friend almost as long as Spike and I didn't want it to ruin that. Plus, how your dad talks about that kind of stuff started to get to me. So, I avoided you. Cee and Spike were the first ones I told. I'm s-sorry." Sky wiped the tears out of his eyes and looked down the road towards Cee's house.

             "That's it?"

             "Huh?" Sky shot his head up ward at Red's question.

             "That's it? You didn't talk to me for a whole month...because you were scared of how I would react?"

             "Red-" Red held up his hoof.

             "Because you thought I wouldn't except you? Just because of what my dad says?! Really, Sky?!" Red grew upset. He was in Sky's face. "How could think like that?! Why did you think I wouldn't except that? I'm your friend, Sky." He got up and sat beside his friend. "Nothing could change that."

             "Sorry." Sky said.

             "Don't worry about it. Now." Red said standing up. "Let's head over to Cee's. The sun is killing me!"

             Sky nodded and got up. "Yeah...Uh, Red?"

             "Yeah?"

             "Thanks." Sky extend his hoof.

             "No worries." Red extended his to Sky's for a brohoof.

             "Aren't you scared that your dad will find out you randomly stole his twenty year old cider?"

             "Meh. And besides, it'll be worth it when Cee and Spike get a hold of it." Red started walking towards the cart, leaving Sky standing with a huge grin on his face.

             "You're sick, you know that?"

             "So I'm told. Oh and one last thing, come here." Red waved Sky over, which he did. In a split second, Red jumped and snatched the hat off Sky's head. He turned to see what the big deal was about...and went wide eyed. "Dude. Just...dude."

             Sky stayed still with his eyes shut tight. Earlier, he had cut and dyed his mane. What he did was styled it to a mohawk form and dyed it a familiar crimson. His face turned the exact same color when he opened his eyes.

             "I-I can explain! *sigh* No I can't.." Red walked over and laid a hoof on Sky's shoulder. And grinned.

             "You have plenty of time to after the show. And I have to say, Sky. Red suits you."

             "Shut up."

             __________________________________________________________________________

Author's Confessions

Okay! I have a confession to make...This chapter has been sitting here for about a week, and I never published it. *rain of tomatoes* Yes, yes. I'm a dick. It was really Cee's fault, thought. He kept changing it to skip to the part where him and Coraline-

*C.D. walks by and smacks TLC in the back of the head*

Ow! I'm changing you to pink in the next chapter!

But hay, look! It's here! Anyway, I'll have the next one up sooner. Everpony will end up at Cee's and the party will start and blah, blah, blah. *rolls eyes* Alright,

Stay In Tune! ~<3

-TLC

Chapter 13:The Set Up

Chapter Thirteen:The Set Up

    Cee and Coraline moved from his bedroom to the living room. Cee imagined that Red and Sky would be arriving soon and he's sure that they would want his help. Reluctantly, he waited.

    "So, how good are you three?" Coraline asked. Cee turned to her. "I mean, not that I think you're bad. I've never really heard a live band, not unless you count the plays I've been to with my parents."

    "Oh, well we used to suck." Cee laughed. "We would cover that up by playing faster and louder. I would slur the lyrics if I forgot them, Sky tries to jump around on stage to keep the crowd energized, Red throws his sticks INTO the crowd..."

    "Spike told me you write the songs." She said sitting next to him on the floor.

    Cee face hoofed. "Never. Again."

    "Why?" Coraline asked. "Did you try before?"

    "Yup. At my moms' anniversary."

    "Awww, that's so sweet!" Coraline gushed. "What was it about?"

    "STARS!" A voice said from the back of the house. "IN LOVE!!"

    "Shut up, Mom!" He shouted. Coraline laughed. Cee looked over to the front window and saw two figures in the distance.

    "Hey! It's them!" He said, but then he froze. "Uh...wow." Cee walked to the front door and opened it. "SKY! YOUR MANE IS BLEEDING!"

    "SHUT UP!" Sky yelled from the front yard. He walked to the front door with Red and the cart. "I don't wanna talk about it."

    Cee looked to Red, who had a grin that matched Pinkie's. "So...had a nice walk here, I guess?"

    Coraline went to the front door behind Cee. "Hey, colts!"

    "Coraline?" Sky looked at Cee with a sly grin. "You had her in your house...you sly, sly devil."

    "It's not like that!" Cee shot back.

    "My weakness may be my mane at the moment, but as long as she's near you, everything's fair game." Sky said, pointing his muzzle in the air.

    "Whatever." Cee looked at the cart, then the door away. "Here, pass me that..."

    And so it began! The four of them, Coraline offered, moved the equipment into the living room, one by one. They had a problem fitting the bass drum through the door, but Cee found a way to get it through. After a few minutes, a majority of the cart had been unloaded into the open space. Vinyl came in later to plug speaker and amps in. With everything in place, Sky, Cee, Red, and Coraline admired the finished stage.

   "And that's how we do it!" Red bellowed brohoofing Sky and Cee.

   Coraline looked at it all. "So...who plays what?"

   With that, the colts went to their positions. Sky picked up his bass, it had a new addition to it. A red star sat at the left of the dials. Red's drums were the same, but the drawing on the bass drum had been changed from a crudely drawn broken c.d., to a professional drawing of a broken c.d.

   Cee grabbed his guitar and plugged it in to the amp. He played a chord and grinned widely. "Yeah! Listen to that!" He looked to Sky who was tuning his bass.

   "Hey, Cee. Give me a E." He said. Cee plucked the top string of his guitar and it played a low note. Sky nodded and played his bass. "Okay, thanks. So what are we gonna play?"

   "You mean you don't know?" Cee asked nervously.

   "Well, you do usually have the set list." Red said behind his drums. He picked up a bottle and place it behind his bag.

   "I'm going to pretend you just hid cider back there." Cee said with his back to him.

   "Okay."

   "He has cider?" Coraline went wide eyed. "You guys drink?!"

   "Shhh!" Sky went. "We don't. It's just some old stuff Red found in his dad's cupboard that's all. "It taste like crap anyway."

   Coraline shook her head. "Just keep it away from me. Hey, Cee?

   Cee was really into the small riff he was playing. "Yeah?"

   "Can you play a song?"

   Cee's head shot up. "U-Uh, okay." He looked at Sky and Red. "Frenetic Amnesic?"

   The two shrugged.

   Cee pulled a small case from his guitar bag and opened it. He took out a pair of sunglasses similar to his mother's and put them on. Coraline smiled. "You have your own pair?"

   "We have our own, too." Sky said. "But only on stage."

   "Shhh!" Cee hissed and lowered his head. He began to play a distorted riff and nodded his head to it. After a few moments, Sky and Red join in with a mellow bass line and drums. Cee walked up to the mic and sang...

"...A black out they peel him off the floor...

(Frenetic Amnesic)

He's delirious, he thinks he's been here before...

(Frenetic Amnesic)

No recall, not one familiar face...

(Frenetic Amnesic)

The molded pony has been completely erased...

(Frenetic Amnesic)

Everypony's after me,

You could be the enemy,

You seem too happy to reveal yourself,

There's no resentment here..."

   Coraline listened to the lyrics and sung along. Cee played very well and seemed to be use to playing in front of ponies. Sky hops in place, but seems to stop to sing background vocals. Red looks to be completely focused on nothing but the drums in front of him. He had a mic sticking out at him so he can sing with Sky. Coraline loved how well they went together, all moving and swishing side to side with the rhythm. Soon she found her self doing the same while sing along with Cee...

                                                      "...Completely in the dark, trying to pave a way with no chance

                                                                              (Frenetic Amnesic)and no reason...

                                                    Not knowing who you are, trying find the truth it ain't there

(Frenetic Amnesic)you can't believe them..."

   "They've gotten better!" Coraline jumped as Vinyl walked to sit beside her. "Relax! This song is great isn't it? pKy may have written it, but man! Just a Scratch is owning it!"

   Coraline only nodded, trying to follow the lyrics.

   "So you like him, I see?" Vinyl nudged her. Coraline froze and turned beat red.

   "H-H-How-"

   "I didn't. You just told me." Vinyl laughed. Coraline hung her head in shame. "Listen, C.D.'s a good kid. Sure he's brash, not all there some of time and has more hits than I do-"

   "Hits?" Coraline cocked an eyebrow.

   "You can ask the other Mrs. Scratch that later. Anyway, he's charming. And you know..." She leaned into Coraline's ear. "You didn't hear this from me, but he likes you too."

   Coraline could have brightened the whole sky with the smile she had right now. 'Really?!"

   Vinyl shrugged. "I don't know. You didn't hear it from me..." She winked. Coralie nodded. "Wait! This is my favorite part!"

"...What you see is what you get...

(You Get)

Two seconds later I forget...

(Forget)

You seem too happy to reveal yourself,

There's no resentment here..."

   Meanwhile about a quarter mile away, Spike and the CMC's were walking to Cee's house when Spike heard the song.

   "...Frenetic...Amnesic.." He sung under his breath. They walked until they finally reached the front yard. Spike looked over to the side of the house and noticed one of Cee's neighbors shaking his head. "Haha! This is gonna be fun!"

   "I'll say!" Scoots said running past him and headed for the door. The rest of them followed. When they got inside, Vinyl and Coraline were moving to Just a Scratch. Spike walked in and joined them.

   "Spike!" Coraline shouted over the music. "What are you doing here?"

   "OHMYGOSH!" Vinyl yelled. "You're here yo play aren't you? This is going to be the best surprise party ever! Where is Pinkie?..." She walked outside, leaving the new guests to the band who were just finishing the song...

''....No recall, there's no familiar face!

(Frenetic Amnesic)

The molded pony has been completely erased!

(Frenetic Amnesic)...

(Frenetic Amnesic)..."

  Cee and Sky did a simultaneous jump on the last chord. "Yeah! That was great!" Sky shouted. He looked over and saw his brother and the fillies. "Cee, I believe you have guests. Oh, and there's a dragon in your living room."

  He looked over at his front door. "Spike! Wassup!"

   "Yeah...what?" Spike cocked and eyebrow.

   "Coraline!"

   "Scootaloo!" She hugged the filly pegasus. "How are you?"

   "I'm fine! Why weren't you at school today?" Scoots asked. The fillies behind her nodded.

   "Well...Uh..." She pointed at C.D. "He pretty much kidnapped me."

   Cee coughed. "It's hard to kidnap nowadays, so Pinkie helped."

   "Wow," Sweetie laughed. "You're still up to no good." She grinned. "Cool."

   "Hey, cool it, Sweets." Spike said. "He's already spoken for." He teased Coraline.

   "Oh, and I suppose you two aren't an item yet?" She pointed at Scootaloo and Spike. Their muzzles went red and they turned away at the same time. "That's what I thought."

   "Okay. Just forget about me and Sky!" Red bellowed from behind his drums.

   "Yeah, way to make us feel at home, Cee." Sky chimed in.

   Spike, Scoots, Applebloom and Sweetie agreed.

   "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't look at me." C.D. waved his hooves in the air. "I'm just the singer in a band. I have no responsibility over what goes on out side my jurisdiction."

   "Do you even know what you just said?" Red asked now standing next to Sky.

   "Or what 'jurisdiction' means?" Sky chimed in.

   "Don't change the subject." Cee said. Spike laughed out loud. The rest of the group caught it and laughed too. After awhile the laughter died down. "So, Spikey. You here to play?"

   Spike's attention snapped. "Oh, yeah. I was actually wondering...If I could rejoin Just a Scratch."

   Everpony in the group went silent. Cee looked at the rest of the band and raised his glasses. He mouthed something Spike couldn't understand, Sky and Red shrugged at Cee. He turned back to Spike.

   "I don't know." He said finally. "Did you ever really leave? I thought you were just doing chores."

   Spike's eyes went wide.

   "Yeah I didn't know you quit." Sky chimed in.

   Spike looked at the ground. He felt stupid for even thinking of leaving the band. They didn't even know he left. He suddenly heard laughing and looked up. Cee was bent over, giggling.

   "Welcome back, Spike." He said through giggling. "I guess."

   Sky walked over to Spike and laid a hoof on his shoulder. "Smooth. Real smooth." He said. "Next time try not to be so dramatic." Spike laughed.

   "Alright!" They all turned to see C.D. standing on top of the drums. "Now that I have your attention and everypony's here." He took a deep breath. "Tonight. Is my mum's birthday."

   Coraline giggled. "Mum."

   "Ahem." He continued. "She will probably be on her way soon with The Sparkles, Miss Fluttershy, and Pinkie said she'd meet Dash over by Sugar Cube Corner for something big. Real big." He stood straight up, almost falling over. "I've called you all here because you are the best of the best." He pointed to Sky. "Skylark Sparkle, you are the bassiest of all bassists."

   Sky squinted his eyes. "Wha-"

   "Red Bright!" Red stood straight up and saluted. "You...hit drums...really good! And you supply us with the ultimate of background bass!" He pointed at Spike. "You sir, you breath in fire and spit out the loudest, sickest rhymes I've ever heard! We need you to lay the hammer down! Can you do that?"

  Spike grinned and saluted. "Yes, sir."

   Cee pointed at the CMC's. "You three! You're all the best we can hope for! We need look outs, good look outs! Now what do ya say?"

   Sweetie looked at Applebloom, she looked at Scoots and they all grinned. "CUTIE MARK LOOK OUTS! SIR!" They shouted, saluting to Cee.

   "Awesome!" He looked at Coraline. "You...are very pretty from up here, actually. Can you see this, guys?"

   Coraline blushed and drew circles in the floor. The rest of the group looked and smiled.

   "Come on, guys!" Spike yelled. "Let's go before he screws up in front us."

   "He's trying!" Red said.

   "Trying what?" Cee said confusingly. "Look at her! Are you even listening?" They ignored him and walked out to the front yard. He hopped off the drums and approached Coraline, who was not looking up. "Now that they're gone..."

   She looked up to see C.D. take his glasses off and place them on his hatted head. "I kinda want to thank you."

   "For what?"

   Cee felt heat reach his cheeks and lost focus. "For um, you know, not beating me to a pulp for dragging you out of school and pretty much giving you a week's detention."

   Coraline laughed. "Oh, never mind that! We'll probably get suspended."

   "Yeah...are your parents going to be mad?"

   "No, I'm sure they'll be happy that I'm hanging out with such good ponies."

   "Oh I don't think 'good ponies' would describe this little clique."

   "Oh?" She moved closer.

  Cee eyes grew. "Y-yeah! I mean, we definitely wouldn't be called good by some of my neighbors, town ponies, my teacher, your teacher...Uh, Cory?"

   "Yeah..."

   "Our muzzles are...uh touching."

   Coraline had pressed her muzzle to Cee's while he talked. There was practically no space between them. Images shot through Cee's mind, all of them were of what could happen from here. The world around him appeared to be melting, everything; the band equipment, the furniture, the walls, even the world out side his home fell to a small puddle. He could feel Coraline's breath on his. He closed his eyes slightly, she did the same. They drew even closer, their eyes now completely closed...

      ________________________________________________________________________________________

Authors Notes

*evil laugh* I have stolen your ending and left a cliff hanger! *twirls fake mustache* Now how will you sleep at night?...Oh, you will...Well! I never! *gets up and walks away* By the way, that huge space between 'be' and 'melting' in the last paragraph? Yeah I don't know what that is. Try to ignore it...if you possibly can. Also, I apologize for getting this out late. It was the fault of motivation, lack of energy...homework...smoking pot- I'm just kidding! I never do my homework! *evil laugh*

**Stay Tuned...~<3

-TLC

Chapter 14:'Thank You and Goodnight!' The Finale'

Chapter 14:'Thank You and Goodnight!' The Finale

   Midday, Ponyville. 5:30, the sun slowly descending towards the west as stores were closing all around Ponyville, lights were going out and 'Open' signs were flipping to the 'Closed' side. The weather had changed from high temperature to slightly lower. The sky was a mixture of purple, violet and orange. Chatter could be heard all over as almost everpony walked towards the party. One pony, however, had no idea what was going on.

   "Pinkie?" Octavia said nervously. "Why is everpony heading for my house?"

   "Oh! Don't worry, Octy!" Pinkie said hopping beside her. She wore a grin to anypony who didn't know personally would have been scared of, but since Octavia did, she was out right terrified.

   Twilight laid a hoof on Octavia's shoulder. "I'm sure everything's fine, Octavia." Trixie nodded.

   "I don't know, Twilight." Octy shook her head. "What is this even for? Did Vinyl put you up to this?"

   "Um...it's a surprise." Fluttershy whispered.

   This did not calm the grey mare. Possible situations shot through her mind, each one of them involving her son and wife. 'What could they be up to?' She thought, sticking close to the group as they walked into the crowd of ponies.

                                                                               ~*~~*~~*~

  Outside the Scratch home. three members of Just a Scratch hung out and chatted with the CMC's. Spike and Scoots stayed quite through the majority of the conversation before Sky acted on it.

   "So, Spike. You haven't said anything for an hour." He grinned and turned to Scoot. "And neither have you, Scootaloo. Is there something going on?"

   Red looked at Sky and then at Spike. He noticed how the young dragon's muzzle was turning a light pink color. An evil smile formed on his face. "Yeah, Spike. IS there? Like something between you and Scoot?"

   "Nope." Spike answered quickly.

   "Oh come on! Your tails are wrapped together and you've been leaning on each other since you got here."

   Scootaloo looked down to hide her rosy muzzle. She looked back and saw her tail was wrapped around Spike's. She looked up at Red and Sky and sighed. "Alright, alright. You caught us." She leaned on Spike. "We're...kinda a thing now."

   Sky nodded. "It's about time, 'Spikey'." He said, using the nickname Rarity called him at one point.

   "After all this time of going on and on and on about..." Sweetie added.

   Spike wrapped an arm around Scootaloo. "Well, it happened. So let out all the 'I told you so's'." Scoot smiled.

   "Oh it's not us you should really worry about, Spike." Red added. "It's Cee. He was the one who pushed you every time you mentioned Scoot."

   Sky reminded him of a time. "'Why can't I just go ahead and ask her? It shouldn't be so hard!'"

   "'Then just do it! The one time I have to convince you to do something grown up, you should be ashamed!'" Red laughed. That one was more recent. "And now that you finally did it, he's probably gonna give you a medal for growing a pair."

   Spike stared at Red. "Red, you seem pretty cocky for showing up alone."

   A group 'Ohhhhh!' occurred. Red pointed his muzzle in the air. He then nudged Sky.

   "What?" Sky said.

   "Now we discuss your new mane." He said, still facing the sky.

   "What about it?"

   "It's red."

   "Maroon."

   "Maroon is a type of red. And it's a mohawk now."

   "Your point?"

   "You changed your mane. And I know it has something to do with me."

   Sky was about to deny, but caught a glance from Spike. He knew Spike knew why he did it, but wasn't going to spill it now. He crossed his hooves. "I have my reasons..."

   Red laid a hoof on Sky's shoulder and rocked him back and forth. "Oh don't worry about it! It looks better. Now you don't look like your mom did your mane for you!"

   "He's got a point, Sky."  Sweetie added, touching her hoof to it. "It's a pretty shade. Goes great with your fur color."

   Sky shuffled back a little in attempt to leave the conversation. "Whatever." He briefly looked around. "Speaking of stupid conversations..."

   Red looked around and knew what was up. "Yeah. Where's Cee?"

                                                                                    ~*~~*~~*~

   Meanwhile, inside the home, Vinyl checked everything to make sure the party was a go. The decorations covered the walls and hung from the ceiling. The band area took up most of the room, but with all the furniture moved to the backyard there was just enough room for ponies to groove to the music. But just in case there was an alternative. Vinyl walked to the back of the house, grinning wider with every hoof step as she followed the extension cord through the hall way. It lead through her and Octavia's bedroom and out through the sliding glass door there. She walked out onto the deck and gazed about the backyard.

   The backyard was covered with a makeshift dance floor. 'Pinkie out done herself.' Vinyl thought. She really did. Balloons were tied around the tall fences, the same fences that separated her backyard and her neighbor's. Big speakers surrounded the corners of the dance floor and were connected to the bands station in the living room and to a special spot in the back yard. A DJ station under a tall tree that grew close to the house, two seats, two sets of head phones, two wine glasses, one bottle of cider with a pink bow, and a small black box sat behind it. A huge banner stretched across the whole backyard, on it were three words written in grey and pink letters and numbers:

H4PPY B1RTHD4Y, OCT4V1A!!!

   She couldn't contain her excited laughs, she knew very well that she was going to make this a birthday Octy would never forget.

   She cantered around the dance floor, spinning and jumping to a beat in her head. Imagining the soon to be raging that will take place there. 'Octy's going to flip out when she see's this!' Vinyl fell to the ground with a soft thud and stared up at the sky. After a few minutes of silence, she heard noises, sounds of whispers and soft giggles. She poke her head up from the dance floor and looked around the yard. Nothing.

   "That was weird." Vinyl said aloud.

                                                                                    ~*~~*~~*~

   "Are you sure this is safe, Cee?" Coraline said holding onto him for dear life and shutting her eyes tight.

   "I'm positive! I've done this so many times before. Most of time with Red and Sky." Cee said getting comfortable. "And you get a great view."

   Coraline kept her eyes shut, but didn't let go of Cee. He sighed.

   "Cory. Do you trust me?" He asked in pleading voice.

  She leaned her head on him. "Y-yeah."

   "Then open your eyes. I won't let you fall. I've got you, see?" He held onto her. She felt his hooves around her waist and relaxed. Coraline slowly opened her eyes.

   As they opened, they grew wide with amazement. She never been on a roof before, and what she saw made it worth it. The sun was just going down and she had a perfect view of it's departure. She felt her eyes sting at the sight, but mostly from tears. Not bitter ones, but tears of joy. In just two days, she's gone from being pretty much a loner amongst the others, to meeting Cee, to meeting Red and Sky, to being dragged out of class, and now? Now she sat on a roof facing Celestia's sun as it goes down, taking the daylight with it.

   As it vanished from view, she felt something clench on her head. Like a fabric of some sorts. She looked and saw Cee, with out his beanie, and placing it on her.

   "Cee?" She said.

   "My mom got me this hat when I was a foal. Like, when I was two." He adjusted it so it fitted on Coraline's head. He smiled at the sight. "It's been kinda like part of who I am...I thought it would look cooler on you..."

   Coraline felt blood rush to her cheeks. She couldn't control the smile forming on her face, Cee couldn't either. She lunged over him in a big hug. Cee hesitated at first, but returned the gesture. For the first time, he felt...serious. Like this was something big. Coraline was cute, sure. She had a few issue's with loneliness, for good reason. But since earlier that day, as they walked to Cee's house, since the night before by the stream, he felt something with her. He assumed he wouldn't understand it at first and will later. Until then though, he doesn't care. As long as Coraline stays.

   He pulled away to look her in the eyes, those rhinestones, and was immediately surprise when she leaned forward. Planting a kiss on his nose. His mind went in a million directions. If he were Spike, steam would be flowing from his nostrils. The sunglasses he wore fogged up and Coraline disappeared behind them.

   "I'm guessing you like me." He said wiping the condensation off the leans. She didn't say anything. Nothing came to mind, and what was there to say, really? She leaned forward planting an actual kiss on Cee's lips. It was brief, but the effect lasted. Cory looked at him and giggled.

   "U-U-Uh, I-I-I..." Cee stuttered.

   *Whistle*

   They turned to see Vinyl, leaning on her elbow, watching the two in silence. A big grin on her face. Cee and Cory turned bright red and froze.

   "Don't mind me." She laughed. "But the party will be starting soon. So, when you're done playing 'house', come to the front yard." She climbed down from the tree and disappeared from their sight. Cee couldn't believe his mother just pretty much killed such a peaceful moment, but only for a few seconds. Then he remembered who she was. He turned back to Cory, she was looking out to front yard. Cee joined her.

   "So..uh, want to go hang out with them?" He said passively.

   "I don't know." She shrugged. "I kinda like it up here."

   Cee laughed. "And back when I was little I wanted a tree house, when I could've just sat up here."

   Cory joined in the laughter. They laid on their backs and stared up at the approaching night sky. Dimmed and cloudy, stars faded onto it's surface and the moon slid up from it's resting place. Clouds hovered in front of the moon and highlighted, making them look like ghosts. Cee pointed on out that looked like Pinkie Pie' mane.

   "Hey!"

   Cee poked his head up and leaned over the roof's edge. "What? I'm trying to having a moment here!" Cory tried to suppress a laugh.

   "Where have you-" Sweetie stopped for a second. "How did you get on your roof?"

   "It's my house. I think I would know how to get on my roof. Duh."

   Sweetie face hoofed. "Can we come up?"

   Cee was about to answer, but hesitated. He looked back at Cory, she smiled. "I'm still here, Cee."

   He looked back down at the group below. "Sure! Come around back."

                                                                                     ~*~~*~~*~

   "You know what, Cee?" Spike said, laying next to Scootaloo on the roof. Next to him were Sweetie and Applebloom. Sky next to Red and Red next to Cee, who laid next to Cory, of course.

   "What?" Cee said, not moving an inch.

   "Out of all the crap me, Red, and Sky have given you since you moved here two years ago, we're all glad you put up with it." He said sincerely. "I mean, look at all of us. A bunch of ponies and a dragon. Getting in trouble, detention, and getting grounded for silly kid stuff." He poked his head up. "And you did worst than that in the first two months.The gala incident, the time you lit Sugar Cube Corner on fire-"

   "Accidentally lit Sugar Cube Corner on fire." Cee added.

   "The point being, you don't think first. You just go along with it. I don't know what made you move, good or bad, but I can honestly say I'm kinda glad it happened."

   Cee laughed. "The reason I moved was because me and my moms' hated Hayword. I was bullied because of my parents being gay and me being magically born." He grew silent. "But...who cares? I never have to go back. And why would I have to? Everything I would really want, I'm surrounded by it. And on top of all that, today, I got me, Red, and Cory here a break from school fro the next few days." He nudged Cory. "So this roof just became my new home."

   They all D'awww'd, but stopped. Sky poked his head up. "Wait, how?"

   "I pretty much took her out of school, while skipping class. And to top it all off, Pinkie came in to get us for the party."

   Red laughed softly. "And pied the teacher."

   Everpony else lurched up, all expect for Cory, Cee, and Red. "She did what?!" They said in unison.

   Cory nodded. "Knocked her out, too. Pinkie will be lucky if she doesn't get arrested."

   "I'll be lucky if I don't get arrested." Cee added.

   Cory rolled over to face Cee and placed a hoof on his head. "And why would they do that?"

   "Do your parents know where you are?"

   Cory laughed. "They'll be out of town until Thursday."

   "What's today?"

   "Tuesday."

   "So I got you over a course of two days?"

   Cory lifted her hoof and dropped it softly on Cee's head. "One, I let you get me..."

   Spike scoffed. Scootaloo laughed.

   "...Two, plus the months you spent watching me."

   Cee blushed. "That was for a legitimate reason!"

   Cory looked him in the eye, her's turned into lie detectors. Cee was no match.

   "Okay, maybe not."

   "I'm glad to see you're not so down in the dumps anymore, 'Cory'." Scoots teased.

   "You know I don't want to get back on that again." Cory closed her eyes and enjoyed the silence. The feeling of Cee's hoof resting on her's. Everything was peaceful...

   "Hello?!"

   "Horseapples." She whispered. Cory recognized that voice it stung her ears. It haunted her dreams. It brought her back to that dreadful day. "If we don't move or make a sound, they won't know we're here."

   "Oh Hi! Are you some of Cee's friends?" Cory felt Cee cringe.

   "Oh Celestia. No, mom, no-" He said under her breath.

   "Cee!" Vinyl called. "He's on the roof with his other friends. Cee! You have more company!"

   Cee looked around at everypony, they all wore anguish on their faces. He made a desperate attempt at something. But it was risky and he had to be crafty...

   "Uh...Cee isn't here right now! He...uh, died." He called back. "So...please leave a message after the beep!...Beep."

   It may have been possible that Princess Celestia herself heard the sound of multiple face-hooves.

   "Oh, Cee! Get down here!" Vinyl laughed. With a group groan, everypony on the roof made their way to the front yard.

                                                                                    ~*~~*~~*~

   "I'll just leave you all alone." Vinyl said before trotting off into the house. Leaving the poor, poor group of ponies, and Spike, to the snobby two.

   "Well, well, well!" Diamond Tiara started. But Cee immediately lost his cool, taking his sunglasses off.

   "Oh, shut up with that! What do you want, Diamond?" He said, not in the mood for H.S. Diamond just scoffed.

   "What ever do you mean, Christoffer? I'm only here to wish Miss Philharmonica a Happy birthday. I'm sure she deserves one, especially knowing you're here and might muck it up."

   Cory took a surprising step forward. "Listen, snob queen. None of us have the patience to deal with you. Nopony does. Hay, nopony ever has!" She took another step forward.

   Silver Spoon took a step forward. "Come now, Cory. We're still frie-"

   "Don't call me 'Cory'. Ever. Don't you ever say that name to me again." She walked back and stood beside Cee. "So far, he's the only one who can get away with it."

   Diamond laughed. "Like, you're going out with Scratch? How pathetic! What next? This blank flank and the dragon-Eep!" She jumped back when Scootaloo made an attempt to leap at her. Lucky for Diamond, Spike caught her in mid air.

   "Let me go, Spike! Just one hit! Just one!" She struggled in his grasp. He whispered in her ear, saying things to calm her down. Eventually, she did. "Fine." She stopped struggling. But for her sake, and the fact that her fur was soft, Spike held on to her.

   "You should keep her on a leash." Silver said.

   "What are you even doing here?" Sky stepped forward. "As far as I know, you're only here to piss off Cee, Coraline, and Scoots. So, why stay?" He spat. "Do them a favor and buck off."

   Red stifled a laugh. Cee even had trouble keeping a straight face.

   "Tough talk from a colt-cuddler."

   Sky's eyes grew wide. Cee's jaw dropped, and Cory turned back to Sky. The only thing that went through his mind were the words, 'Hoof plus face equals satisfaction'. Before anypony could blink, Red grabbed Sky and pulled him back. Sky made no struggle against him.

   "Don't even go there, Diamond." Red said, holding Sky. His voice held no emotion. He looked down at Sky, his eyes were teary, but no tears fell. "Come on. Let's go." He said. Red grabbed Sky and walked back into the house.

   "That was pretty cute." Silver said sarcastically.

   "That's it!'' Cee snapped. "You have ten seconds to get off my property or...or..-"

   "Or what?" Diamond shot back. "Make fun us in front of all of Ponyville again?" She pouted her lip. "Are you all gonna run to your mommies? If you do which one-" And boom went the dynamite. With speeds that would make Rainbow Dash cringe, Cory stepped towards Diamond gave her one to the cheek. She fell to the grass and held her face in her hooves, Silver rushed to her side. All Spike, Cee, Applebloom, Sweetie and Scootaloo could do was watch. Because after all Diamond put her through, Cory needed that.

   "That was for Scootaloo, Sky, and Cee." Cory hissed. "Now get out of here before I leave more than a welt."

   With that, Sliver and Diamond got to their hooves and made off at break neck speed. Cee stood stunned by all of it.

   "T-That..." He stuttered. "W-was-"

   Cory cover his mouth with a hoof. "That was long over due. And you know it."

   "I'm not arguing." He said. "Not anymore." Cory wrapped her hooves around Cee for a hug and her returned the gesture.

   "This is all turning out quite nicely." Spike added.

                                                                                     ~*~~*~~*~

    Meanwhile, in Cee's bedroom...

   "You sure you're okay?"

   "I'm fine, Red."

   "Don't lie to me, Sky."

   "I said I'm okay!"

   Red sighed. He sat on the bed next to Sky, his head aimed at the floor. "Look...I know how that got to you-"

   "Oh, it didn't get to me at all! I wasn't the only one who wanted to hit her." Sky kept his attention on the wall in front of him while he talked to Red.

   "Are we going to have to do this again?" Red said standing up from the bed. Sky knew where this was going. He fell back on the bed and groaned.

   "What do you want from me?" Sky gave up.

   "I know what you said on the way here wasn't the only thing on your mind." Red explained. "Look, if you tell me, I'll listen. Just...fire away."

   Sky laid there in silence, not knowing what to think or do anymore. His mind and heart were screaming at him, with millions of voices following them. All screaming 'Just do it!' Can he? What's there to lose? Red. He sighed. If all goes down the drain, he couldn't face any of his friends again. He wouldn't leave his room left alone the library. He heart pounded, his head ached. Either the tension in the room was getting to him, or the cider from earlier was. He sat up and went face to face with Red.

   "You want to know? Fine. Yeah, I'm a colt-cuddler, but you already know that." He got up from the bed and walked over to a wall and put his against it. "Ever since we started talking again, something changed. I can't look at you the same way, I can't think of you the same way...if I even stop thinking about you to begin with!"

    Red took a step forward. "Sky?"

    "Let me finish!" Sky snapped. "You were my first friend, my best friend. Spike doesn't count because he's family. You. You are somepony else entirely." He turned to face Red, his muzzle was highlighted pink. "I...I like you, Red. Like, like you. I'm sorry." He slumped back against the wall and lowered his head. "Go ahead. Reject me. Yell at me for being dumb. It won't change how I feel." His voice held no emotion. It was hollow and defeated. Sky kept his attention to the floor in front of him, waiting to hear a response, he didn't care what it was. He just knew he had to get that off his chest before it left a permanent mark on his mind.

    Red stood there, his mind bouncing in every known direction in Equestria. Everything in the room began to blur together. The room itself tilted and spun around him, but the one thing that stayed the same was Sky. He stayed there. Red took one step forward, Sky cringed. He took another step forward, he saw him shake his head.

    "Sky?" Red whispered. Sky looked up. Before he knew it, Red had grabbed him and hugged him, his hooves wrapped around his back. Sky didn't move, he was confused. "Why didn't you say anything about it till now?"

    Sky felt Red hug grow tighter and wrapped his hooves around the red colt. "I was scared." He cried softly. "I didn't want to lose you."

    They fell to the floor in each other's hooves and leaned against the wall. It grew silent in the room, the only sounds were the ones of Red and Sky, sniffling. Red pulled back to look at Sky.

    "Try not to hide anything from me anymore, okay?"

    Sky only nodded and fell against him. This truly was a relief to him, to Red too. After all the fights, arguments, bitterness, and cover ups. They found each other when the smoke cleared. This was the day that both Red and Sky found out who they were. Nothing could change that, not some snobby filly, not Red's father, not anypony, because with out even knowing the meaning of it, Red and Sky may have found love. Turns out, it was not so far from home.

    After a few minutes, the two heard hoof steps at the door and it clicked. The door opened and a light blue and black mane crept through it, revealing C.D. He walked in and shut the door behind him. Nonchalantly, he sat beside his friends, grinning hugely.

    Red wanted to ask why he just barged in without knocking, but realized it was his room he was in. Sky spoke first, his head on Red's shoulder.

    "So..."

    "So?" Cee asked. "I just came up to hang out with my friends. Is that a problem?"

   Sky smiled. "Not really."

    "So, I guess the secrets out, huh Skylark?" Cee asked.

    "Yeah. And it turns out, you and Spike were right."

    Cee scoffed. "Oh Sparkles, I'm always right."

    Red ears perked. "Since when?"

    "Since just because." Cee leaned against the wall. "This party is going to be great. I'm already tired."

    "You've been with Coraline that long and she's already got you tired?" Sky asked.

    "Yeah, right! It's just those two really got me agitated...Oh! You guys missed it!"

    "What?" Red and Sky said in unison.

    "Cory slapped the hay out of Diamond Tiara!" Cee was so excited. "Oh, the sound! How she looked!" He swooned.

    "One, you're a dork." Red added. "Two, that's awesome!"

    Sky nodded. "Where is she?"

    Cee put on a sheepish grin. "She's...uh, getting ice for her hoof."

    Sky and Red were silent, but then busted out laughing. Cee joined them.

                                                                                    ~*~~*~~*~

    It was 7:00 and the road leading to Cee's house was crowded by ponies. A little while back, Octavia and the gang decide to take a small detour. They walked through a small clearing leading to a smaller road to the house. It was pretty dark, Fluttershy stuck close to Rarity.

   "Oh, try to relax, darling." She petted Fluttershy's mane. "The dark is nothing to be scared of."

   Twilight and Trixie looked at each other and nodded. Their horns began to glow and brighten the trail. They all walked for a few more moments before seeing the house in sight. Octavia broke out into the gallop.

   "Wait! Octavia!" Twilight called after her, but it was too late. She watched as Octy ran ahead. She looked around and realized something. "Hey wait. Where did Pinkie go?"

   Octy approached the already opened door, and reached the living room. Her eyes widened. Her furniture, gone. The room was filled with decorations, musical equipment, a-

   "A CANNON?!" Octavia screamed. Her scream echoed throughout the house, Cee and the kids up stairs heard it, Vinyl out in the backyard flinched an ducked.

   "Well, Octy's home!" She groaned, with a cheerful tone.

   Octavia ran through the house and saw Vinyl, her eyes full of both rage and confusion. Vinyl didn't catch on.

   "Octy!" She ran to her wife and wrapped her hooves around her. Octavia's anger simmered and she hugged back, sighing with relief. "I missed you so much! Today's been pretty much a mess, but look at all of this!" She waved a hoof around the backyard. "All of this! This for you, from your lovable me!"

   Octavia wore a confused expression. "A-All this was...was for...Oh, Vinyl!" She leaned into the DJ. "For my birthday?"

   Vinyl grinned. "Yup! And I head help." She looked towards the house, Cee and his friends waited in the doorway. "Those fillies and colts over there!"

   Octavia turned to the door. Her face changed into one of joy, she saw Cee smiling next to all of his friends. He walked over and hugged his mom. "Happy birthday, mum."

   Tears fell from Octavia's eyes, these were from happiness. She hugged him back. "Thank you so much, Christoffer. I love you."

   "Love you too, mum." Cee said in her embrace. He heard a small 'ahem' from behind him. Cee turned and saw Cory, a small coy look on her face. He pulled away from the hug and scratched the back of his head. "Oh! Right...Mum. This is, uh, Coraline."

   Octavia looked at his body movements and smiled warmly. She extended a hoof to the filly. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Coraline." Coraline shook her hoof.

   "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Miss Philharmonica." She smiled. Cee stood aside quietly. "Cee, are you okay?"

   Cee didn't say a word. Spike walked over. "He's just a little worried now that you and his mom now know each other. Oh, and by the way, they're going out." He laughed and patted Cee on the back. "Good luck!" He walked back to the door, leaving Cee with this new disaster.

   "Oh, really?" Octy smiled.

   Cory looked back at Spike with fury in her eyes. She looked back at Octavia. "Well...yes. Yes we are." She turned to Cee and nodded. And expression saying 'Say something! This is uncomfortable!'

   Cee gulped. Soon a loud bang was heard from the front door and the sound of feed back reached the backyard dance floor. He grinned. "Wow! The party's starting already? Time to go play...Something!" He leaned in and kissed his mom on the cheek. "Happy birthday." He moved to Cory and kissed her on the muzzle. "Good luck." And he turned and ran into the house. Octavia watched him leave. She looked down at Cory.

   "Such a nice colt, hmm?" She said, noticing Cory's blush. "He really seems to like you, seeing how you're wearing his hat."

   Cory patted the top of her head and smiled. "Yeah...he really does." She fell into a dreamy state.

                                                                                    ~*~~*~~*~

   Within ten minutes, everpony was gathered through out the house, some in the living room, some in the front yard, and the majority in the backyard, ready to do whatever moves to whatever is about to be played. The majority of the Mane six were out on the dance floor. In the living room, Cee, Sky, Red, and Spike had their instruments in hoof or claw. Cee tapped the mic with his hoof and cleared his throat. Someponies started cheering before anything was said.

    "Wassup, Ponyville!" Cee yelled into the mic. The house shook when everypony answered. "That's good! We are Just a Scratch, back by unpopular demand! We haven't play a show in about seven months or so, so we might be a little rusty! We have Skylark Sparkle on the bass!" The crowd cheered. "Red Bright on the d-d-d-d-drums!" The crowd roared. "For a supposed return, Spike Sparkle on the rhythm guitar!"

    Scootaloo was out on the dance floor with Applebloom, Sweetie and Cory, but Spike could still hear her cheer the loudest, leading the crowd in the chant, 'Spike! Spike! Spike! Spike!' He walked up to his mic and finished the introduction. "And opening for Just a Scratch, son of the infamous DJ-PON3, playing lead, the foul mouthed foal, C.D. Scratch!!"

    The crowd roared for Cee, his ego now going through the roof. Upon hearing his name, Cory screamed with them. Cee heard her and grinned.

    "Opening act, huh?! But you all knew us! This small gathering is for a very special mare!" Cee yelled into the mic. "She plays the cello, she's grey and wears and pink bow tie, upon seeing the party cannon she had a small heart attack, FLEUR DE LIS EAT YOUR HEAR OUT, OCTAVIA PHILHARMONICA!"

    The crowd of ponies throughout the home cheered and song the birthday song, Cee playing along with his guitar. Octy sunk in her seat at the DJ station next to Vinyl. Vinyl placed headphones on Octy's head and hit play. Classical music began to play a soft melody. It was to the harmony of the birthday song. Octavia looked up to her wife. "Oh, Vinyl-"

    The DJ shushed her and turned the volume up. She poured the cider into the glasses that were left on the station. She hoofed on to Octy. "Just sit back and enjoy."

    Octy squinted her eyes. "What?"

    "I said 'sit back and enjoy'."

    "I can't hear over the music! What?!"

    Vinyl sighed. She leaned over and kissed Octavia. 'Never mind.' She thought.

                                                                                       ~*~~*~~*~

    "Now that that's that!" Cee laughed, realizing he said that three times. "This one goes out to a special filly out there! For her, I will not tell you who she-" Sky walked up behind him and yelled into the mic.

    "Coraline!"

    Cee blushed as he heard the ponies around go 'Awww' and 'Ooooo'. "Very grown up, Ponyville. It goes a little something like this!"

    The song started with Spike playing guitar while Cee sung the intro.

Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and,

So alone,

The worst is over,

You can have the Best Of Me,

We got older,

But we're still young,

We'll never grow out this feeling that we won't give...up...

   Cee and Sky jumped in the air and played along with the song. Red and Spike followed them to the the first verse.

Here we lay again,

On two separate beds, riding phone lines,

To meet a familiar voice,

From pictures drawn from memory,

We reflect on miscommunications,

And misunderstandings,

And missing each other too,

Much to have have to let go...

We turn our music down!

And we whisper!

Say what you're thinking right now!

Everypony:

Tell me what you thought about when you were gone and so alone!

The worst is over!

You can have the best of me!

We got older, but we're still young!

We'll never grow out of this feeling that we won't give up!

    Everpony on the dance floor sung with Cee, the energy surged through the air. None of it reached the DJ panel, however, because Vinyl and Octy locked them selves in a tight embrace. Both wearing the headphones, them playing the soft sounds of the birthday symphony, stuck in one another's gaze.

Jumping to conclusions,

Made me fall away from you,

I'm so glad that the truth has brought back together me and you...

We're sitting on the ground!

And we whisper!

"Say what you're thinking out loud!"

Tell me what you thought about when you were gone!

And so alone!

The worst is over!

You can have the best of me!

We got older!

But we're still young!

We never grew out of this feeling that we wont give up!

   Cory danced with the CMC's in the backyard. They were surrounded by ponies jumping to the beat of the song, though she didn't notice them. She was lost in the lyrics Cee sung...

We Turn our music down,

And we whisper,

We're sitting on the ground,

And we whisper,

We turn our music down,

We're sitting on the ground,

The next time I'm in town,

We will kiss girl...

We will kiss girl!...

Tell me what you thought about when you were gone!

And so alone!

The worst is over!

can have the best of me!

We got older!

But we're still young!

We'll never grow out of this feeling that we won't-

Feeling that we can't-

We're not ready to give up!

We got older...

But we're still young...

We'll never grow out of the feeling that we won't give...up...

   The song ended, Just a Scratch were given a standing ovation from the crowd, mostly from a single filly.

   "Thank you! You're to kind!" Cee then whispered into the mic. "hi, coraline!"

   Spike put his guitar down then grabbed the mic. "So, this time we don't have a set list! At most!"

   Cee looked at the stack of papers he left by his guitar case. "Well...we could play another cover. But this time, you're singing first!"

   Spike laughed. "Why not?"

   "Alright! Cee shouted. This is an old one! It's called 'Pressure'!"

   The song started off with Cee strumming a chord twice, then scratching his hoof over the the strings. Making a sharp sound. Then Sky came in with the repeating bass line. Red played drums. Go Figure. Spike nodded his head to the beat, and then sung into the mic, with a weird accent.

Buzzing up with a musical attack,

Rip it up with a boom sound we no lack,

Got the rhythms, the dub plat killa tracks,

Annihilate and destroy them, we do that,

Letting them know that we come to rock and control again,

Ho, Ho, well!

Setting the pace in the place volume up driving them insane,

Oh that right!

Turn your system down...

(You know the weak can't take it!)

Burn it to the ground...

(Watch how we shatter and we break it!!)

Pressure!

Stress, It seems to drive them underground!

(Pressure!)

Can not take the music killa sound!

(Pressure!)

Yeah we turn up and never down....!

(Pressure!)

Stress, It seems to drive them underground!

(Pressure!)

Can not take the music killa sound!

(Pressure!)

Yeah we turn it up and never down...!

   The ponies in the party were losing their minds, and balance, in the song. There were mosh pits starting on the dance floor, not the best place for one in my opinion. Cory, Scoots, Sweetie, and Applebloom managed to make their way out of the mess before things got too hectic. They moved to the front room so they can watch the band in action.

Annoying neighbors are banging on your door,

Saying that they can take your noise no more,

Your bass is right in your face sounds murder raw,

But we ain't turning it off,

So call the law!

Let all them know that the rockers is hard and are here to stay,

Ho, ho, well!

Tell them to move from your step or back off and just go away!

Oh that's right!

Turn your system down...

(You know the weak can't take it!)

Burn it to the ground...

(Watch how we shatter and we break it!!)

Pressure!

Stress, It seems to drive them underground!

(Pressure!)

Can not take the music killa sound!

(Pressure!)

Yeah we turn up and never down....!

(Pressure!)

Stress, It seems to drive them underground!

(Pressure!)

Can not take the music killa sound!

(Pressure!)

Yeah we turn it up and never down...!

  Cory and the CMC's were nodding their heads to the song. She didn't understand a word he was saying, but Scootaloo liked the way Spike sung this one.

Pressure

Temperature rise turn it up the heat feel the pressure,

Hold uno head an feel the pain from the pressure,

Cannot take the noise coz ah we bring the pressure,

No bodder tell we turn the music down hold the pressure,

Uno got to got to got hold the pressure,

Uno got to got to got hold the pressure,

Uno got to got to got hold the pressure,

Uno got to got to got hold it,

Stress it just drive them underground,

Cannot take the music killa sound,

Yeah we will turn it up but never down,

Pressure!

Stress, It seems to drive them underground!

(Pressure!)

Can not take the music killa sound!

(Pressure!)

Yeah we turn up and never down....!

(Pressure!)

Stress, It seems to drive them underground!

(Pressure!)

Can not take the music killa sound!

(Pressure!)

Yeah we turn it up and never down...!

  The song ended when Cee tried to keep playing, but made it sound like his guitar was failing, hitting it with his hooves. He got up and laughed about. "Yeah! Give it up for Spikey!" The house roared. "This is MY last song!"

  Spike went wided eyed. "But we just started!"

  Cee looked over at him. "I said MY last song. You guys can keep playing, buuuuut..." He glanced over to Cory. "I'm suddenly too tired to."

  Spike caught on. "Alright, Pomeo."

  Cee grinned. "Alright, everypony! Listen up! Will everypony try to get my parents attention? Because if I know them like I do, Their probably too lost in each other to hear me!"

  Meanwhile at the DJ station, Vinyl held a sleeping Octavia to her chest, feeling her wife's warm breath on her fur sent chills up her spine. Suddenly, she saw the whole dance floor run towards the booth to get her attention, waking the sleeping mare.

  "Wha...where am I?" Octy said. Vinyl laughed and took off their head phones.

  "You're birthday." She turned to the crowd. "What? Can't you see we were having a moment here?"

  "Yo, mothers'!" Cee shouted over the speakers. "If you know the lyrics sing along, and good night everpony!"

___________________________________________

All across the sky,

I can see their reflections in your eyes,

If I'm asleep,

Don't wake me up...

Luna's moon is drawing near,

Used to bring light in this time of fear,

But I think that's all been taken care of...

No gas, no light, not damn thing makes you perfect so can somepony tell me why-

I feel my heart melt away,

Come back,

And fall into pieces,

I have this blush on my muzzle,

For all the wrong reasons,

I can't stop myself from shaking,

Is the whole world just breaking,

Or,

Is it just my world,

That is falling down on me?

You can go if you want to,

Did you think I was gonna stop you?

What's the point?

It's like trying to tie down a shooting star...

If you're leaving,

Can you do me one last favor?

Just leave my heart right by the door,

Or you can just toss it in the blender!

No gas!

No light!

Not damn makes you perfect,

But you brighten up my sky...

I can feel my heart melt away,

Come back,

And fall into pieces,

I have this blush on my muzzle,

For all the wrong reasons,

I can't see who is calling me,

Is my sky the only one falling,

Or when you shoved me out of your life,

Where we in floating in space?

(Instrumental)

My...Constellation...

My petty...Constellation...

My...Constellation...

My petty, petty, petty Constellation-*pause*

I feel my heart melt away,

Come back,

And fall into pieces,

I have this blush on my muzzle,

For all the wrong reasons,

I can't stop myself from shaking,

Is the whole world just breaking,

Or,

Is it just my world,

That is falling down on me?

I feel my heart melt away,           (My...Constellation...)

Come back,

And fall into pieces,

I have this blush on my muzzle,   (My...Constellation...)

For all the wrong reasons,

I can't stop myself from shaking,  (My...Constellation...)

Is the whole world just breaking,

Or,

Is it just my world,                        (My petty Constellation...)

That is falling down on me?

________________________________________________

Later that night...

  "That song was cool, Cee." Cory said, laying next to him on his roof. The party was still going. After Cee stopped playing, Just a Scratch kept performing for an hour longer then stopped ,too. As far as Cee and Cory knew, everypony was out on the dance floor in the backyard.

  Cee sighed. "I changed some of the lyrics half a month ago, but decided not to use them tonight." He turned to Cory. "Stars are apparently popular."

  Cory laughed. She scooted closer to Cee, putting her head next to his. "Thanks for 'inviting' me to the party." She giggled. "I had fun."

  "Me, too." Cee whispered. They both stared at the moon, it sat in the center of the sky right above them. It's white glow lighting up the roof. "You know, I could get use to this."

  "Oh?" Cory said.

  "Well, I mean you seem to like hanging out with me. And you're pretty cool..." He looked over and had a hoof over his mouth before he continued. Cory smiled.

  "Shhh..." She whispered. "You're ruining the moment." She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Cee smiled and held her close to him. For the rest of the night, the two of them stared up at the night sky, admiring Luna's efforts on such a beautiful night. Cee was glad to spend such a beautiful night, with such a beautiful filly...

  "Vinyl! Hehe, stop!" Octy squealed. Her and Vinyl retreated to their bedroom so they can actually hear themselves talk. Vinyl proceed to take advantage of the situation.

  "Hehe, stop squirming!" Vinyl said. She stopped tickling Octy and used her magic to bring the long before mentioned black box over to her wife.

  "What's this?" Octy asked taking the box.

  "This? This is your birthday present." Vinyl said. Octavia opened the small and place a hoof over her mouth. Her eyes widened and became teary. "You...you.."

  Vinyl took the small present in her magic's grasp and lifted over Octavia's head. It was a pearled necklace. A pink jewel hung from it, but appeared to have a red aura surrounding it. Octavia had tears roll down her cheeks when it was set down around her neck.

  "They call it a blood diamond. This was given to my mother by my father when I was eight." She said. "Before she died, my mom gave it to me. She said to make sure that I give it and only give it to the one I love." She smiled warmly. "And I want you to have it." She stopped to take her glasses off, revealing her ruby red eyes. "I know it's been difficult since C.D.'s been born, and hay, I haven't it much easier at times..." Vinyl eyes brimmed, but she choked down her emotions. "B-But I wanted to let you know...that me and Cee love you. So, so much. Happy Birthday, Octa-"

  Before she could finish, Octavia broke down. She lunged at Vinyl and pressed her lips against her's. After a few seconds she pulled away. "I love you too, Vinyl!" She sobbed. "There's not a thing that could change that. You and Cee are the only two things I care about. In all of Equestria. I love you." She leaned down and kissed Vinyl again, this time more passionate.

  Octy laid in Vinyl's embrace, paying no mind to the ponies in the back yard, or the two  on the roof. She only wanted to sit in this moment. This day was going down as one of the best day's in her life. Earlier today, she was freaking out about what the worst could happened, when it turned out that only good came out of it all. The party, Cee and Cory, the music, the spa. All of it made Octavia's birthday magical. She used to think what would happen if she never married Vinyl, if she never had Cee or moved to Ponyville and just stayed a traveling cellist. She would kick those thoughts right now.

  But, what if...

  "Vinyl?"

  "Yeah?"

  ".....what if we had another foal?"

  "..."

  "Vinyl? Oh!"

                                                                                      Hello.

                      I would like to take this opportunity to thank everypony who tracked or read this story...

with out you, I probably wouldn't have started this or continued Just a Scratch. Tuned Too Low has had a crazy ride and is on it's back resting, now. But don't fret, guys! This part of the story may be over...but we still have yet to see the more crazier times. The crazier tales and stoires of Cee and the gang. But all of that takes place....in Later Days.

                      A special thanks to Lithe Kamitatsy and his or her story "Two's Company, Three's A Crowd" for inspiring me.

                     A thanks to the ponies who tracked(oh boy):   AgentofDiscord

                                                                                        anhero

                                                                                        Ax869

                                                                                        Blueprince

                                                                                        Chill

                                                                                        CHR0M3K1NG

                                                                                        chrisbiby

                                                                                        Endertj

                                                                                        Gabriel LaVedier

                                                                                        Gimli McBrony

                                                                                        Griffin2x

                                                                                        hyourei

                                                                                        mccall12

                                                                                        Meta Knight

                                                                                        Morfonious

                                                                                        neighsmith

                                                                                        Nightcloak

                                                                                        notacamper

                                                                                        Phyysh

                                                                                        PinkaminaTheMad

                                                                                        pinkiepool

                                                                                        ponystorylyh

                                                                                        Roach of Wrath

                                                                                        Shikkhin

                                                                                        SilverSpoon <----(The good one)

                                                                                        SomethingForThePain

                                                                                        SoulBrony

                                                                                        Thebandbrony

                                                                                        ThePhantomWriter

                                                                                        tongen

                                                                                        Venatus

                             And to all of those who've put up with the random crap in the story. So, until next time....

Stay Tuned...

-TLC

Chapter 1 : Schoolsick*edited*

Chapter 1 : Schoolsick*edited*

Chapter One: Schoolsick

How to start the day. With C.D. Scratch

Step 1:

Wake up, yawn, look around. Admire your surroundings, because in a few minutes, you will miss them dearly.

Step 2:

Comb mane. Comb in a way that keeps your standard bed head fashion, but fastens it to a shape that looks like that on purpose. Add water...and presto! Your the daydream of some lucky filly.

Step 3:

Now that you realized what day it was, Monday, you moan and groan about how boring and inefficient school was. In fact, you once should your beloved parents that the word "School" was a carefully organized code.

Six. Crappy. Hours. Of. Our. Lives

As funny, amusing, and right you were, all points were refuted. And you were going to school. Sucks to be you.

Step 4

After about 5 minutes of hard thinking, thinking you should be putting to more important things, you think up a plan. A brilliant plan might you add. You were going to attempt to fake sick. How might you ask? Well...You simply do as follows. Take a thermometer and heat up the end that doesn't go in your mouth. Place a warm, neatly folded wet rag on your forehead. Take some markers and draw dots all over your face, any color works. And boom! Your dying! Isn't that grand? You simply get back in bed and await your morning wake up call...

"Cee~!" That voice is no other then C.D.'s mother, Vinyl Scratch who appears to have had a rough night. Seeing how she was out with her beloved mare, Octavia. Or "Octy" as she called her, and did not return home till late. Those two had quite a history of...C.D. quickly shook all thoughts about his Mothers' love life.*He shudders*

         "Hey, little dude! Get up. It's a school day! Wait...." She observes her foal in terror. She notices the spots and the rag.

  She grabs the thermometer, which was still warm, and gently places it in his muzzle. Her eyes widen, not that you would notice  with her glasses, as the temperature flew up to one hundred degrees.

         "Oh Crap! Octy!" She trots out of the room as Cee snickers under his blanket. He wasn't really surprised that Vinyl took the bait, who he was really concerned about was-

         "Hurry! Before it's too late!"

         "Come down, Vinyl. I'm sure he's not DYING." That slightly accented voice was Octavia Philharmonica,  C.D.'s other mother. She trotted into the room, with Vinyl close behind. She was speaking nonsense, like always.

         "What if he's turning into a monster? Like that one movie? You know the one with the colt who TURNS INTO A MONSTER? Oh, wait. If he did, could we train him? That would be RAD! Having a monster for a son. That would be a killer song! Like with guitar solos and-"

         She was quickly cut off by Octavia, who was now staring in a 'What are you talking about?' or 'What are you ON?' sort of way. C.D. was now on the verge of busting out laughing.

         "Hmm....Somethings a bit odd about this. I mean he was fine yesterday and the moments before we left last night." She said to the DJ pony who's now daydreaming about the night in question. "Vinyl! Seriously, look. Isn't something out of place here?" She looked vigorously around the room. Searching for anything. Vinyl sat on her haunches and looked at Cee. His eyes were slightly open and he was shivering. He was quite the actor. She turned to his night stand and noticed a few markers.

"Hey, Octy." asked Vinyl."What color are his spots?"

         "Red and green." Octavia said, petting her 'sick' son.

         "Oh...Well, uh, aren't these markers here the same color?"

          Cee's eyes shot open and turned to the markers in question. 'Crap.' Busted. Cee knew he was caught. This happens all the time. Either the act didn't work, or when Octy or Vinyl got home, he would act all better. 'How could I have forgotten about those?' He thought. 'Wasn't 'Hide evidence' on the check list?'

Step 5: Nope.

"Christoffer-Dodavah Scratch!" Octavia spoke in a serious voice. "Explain why you almost tricked Vinyl and I into thinking you were deathly ill."

         "Uh...Well..." Cee scrambled to find the right words. "You know, I can't really think of excuse at the moment, and I see that I'm late for school. So, I'LL be the responsible one..." he said with a nervous laugh. "And... You know...hehe-" *runs out of room grabbing his c.d. player and hat*

         Octavia shook her head while smiling at C.D. as he trotted away,"He'll try this again tomorrow won't he?" She turns around to find Vinyl now laughing uncontrollably at what just happened. "...And you'll fall for it again, won't you?"

         "Oh lighten up, Octy! He knew he was gonna have to go. Yeah, he'll probably try this again, but end up the same way..." she said as she nuzzled up against Octavia, nuzzled back. "He'll run away with his tail between his legs at the fear of facing his terrifying mother." She kissed Octavia on the cheek and trotted out of the room.

         "Yeah, maybe you're right...Wait! DID YOU JUST CALL ME TERRIFYING?!" She ran out of the room to catch Vinyl, whose now trotting about while giggling.

         ____________________________________________________________________________

                              Authors Notes

                    2/6/12 Sup, ponies! I edited this a little. So, yeah! Hope you enjoyed it.

                                                                              -TLC

Chapter 9:The Surprise! Pt. 2 The Ballad of Coraline

        Vinyl had just finished putting up the last of the streamers for the party. She was exhausted. And had no idea that Pinkie Pie had SO many decorations! "Where...does....she....keep this stuff?!" She trotter over to the center of the room and looked around. 'Perfect.' She thought. 'I wonder what's taking Pinks and the kids?'

_________________________________________________________________________________

         Well, many things, Vinyl. Like running away from the school hoping they weren't being followed by royal guards. Or an angry teacher covered in pie. I mean, sure Pinkie may be old enough to be allowed to pick up two little ponies from school, but the fact that she pied a teacher in the face and that they had technically pony-napped Coraline....

         Half a mile away from school, Pinkie separated from the group, (something about a cannon), while Red and C.D., with Coraline, ran through the center of town hoping they wouldn't get caught. They came across section of food carts. When the pony at the cider cart walked away, they hid behind it as several other ponies trotted by. "Best not to gather any unneeded attention." C.D. whispered. After the three knew nopony was looking, they darted towards the library, hoping to find Skylark.

         C.D. knocked on the door and then waited beside Coraline, who was shaking with paranoia. "Hey, Coraline. Are you okay?" He asked.

         She quickly turned to him and then looked away. She observed her surroundings, she had never been outside of school when it was a school day. It drove her kinda crazy thinking that if anypony saw them, they would be caught. She was on a full on panic.

         "No! I mean, yes! I mean...Oh I don't know." She gave up. "This is very risky, Cee. What if we get spotted by guards. Or somepony we know?" She looked closer. "What if my PARENTS saw me?"

At this point she was on the ground, curled up in a ball. Cee stared at her like anypony listening to Pinkie Pie would stare. He looked at Red, who instead of laughing, looked at her shaking his head. "You need to relax. We're not gonna get caught." Cee assured her. "If anything, we're gonna be golden later at the party."

Coraline unfurled herself and looked up at Cee. "How are you so sure?"

"Do you think that this is the first time me and Red left school?" He looked at her with a grin. "We ditched school, like, two weeks ago to go pick up a c.d. from his dad's record shop."

"Yeah! We went to go pick up our copies of 'Get Kind!' By Ponyhead." Red added.

Coraline cocked her head at the two and squinted her eyes. " 'Ponyhead'? What's 'Ponyhead'?"

If you have ever been in this situation before, then you know whats gonna happen. Cee looked like he saw a ghost. Red face hoofed and backed away slowly. Cee's favorite band, Besides Buck 182, was Ponyhead. His whole style of guitar playing came from Ponyhead's sound. He looked back at Coraline, who has no idea what's coming for her.

"Y-you...." He stammered. "You. DON'T know who Ponyhead is?"

"N-no. Are you okay?" Coraline got up from the ground and put a hoof on Cee's forehead.

"Oh no, I'm fine..." He trailed off, cursing under his breath. 'She doesn't know who they are?! I worship this band!' He thought. He heard noises on the other side of the door. They all looked on as it opened, reveling a purple baby dragon.

"Hey, Cee. Sup, Red. Hey, Cor-" Spike stopped in mid-sentence surprised to see her here. "Coraline?!" He looked around suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"It's okay, Spike. I'm with them. Sort of." She told him.

  Spike shook his head and laughed. "You know this two trouble makers?"

"You know Spike?" Red asked her.

"Trouble makers?" Cee glared at Spike, then turned to Coraline. "Sort of?"

"Long story." She told Cee, ignoring the 'Sort of' comment. "I met him and Twilight a while ago."

"Anyway." Spike got back to the matter at hand. "What are you three doing here? Isn't it a school day?"

"Eh. Who goes to school anymore?" Cee scoffed, making Spike laugh at the statement.

"Good point. Come on in!" He invited the three ponies into the tree house and shut the door behind them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

  Pinkie Pie bounced along the road to the Scratch home where Vinyl decide to chill on the lawn, blasting music that the neighbors love, whether they like it or not. She noticed Pinkie coming up towards the house. "Hey, Pinkie!" She looked pass her and tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Hey, uh, Pinks?"

"Yes, Scratchie?" Pinkie Pie said, suddenly loading her party cannon, with pies, cupcakes, and confetti (Oh boy.)

"Where's Cee?" Pinkie looked up and turned around. She did a complete three-sixty then looked down. She "Horse Apples!" She then realized she was no longer being followed by three ponies.

__________________________________________________________________________________

  Spike had brought muffins in to the living quarters of the library to the ponies sitting on the couch. He passed them out and sat on the chair across from them with his own muffin. "So, Pinkie threw the pie in her face?" He laughed. "Now, that's comedy."

  Cee was noming on his muffin then looked up. "Yeah. Then when we got far away enough from the school, she dissapeared."

"And then we came here to see if Sky was here." Red added.

"And I was brought into the mix by Cee." Coraline said finishing her muffin. "Apparently, there's a party for his mom and he wanted me to come."

"Yeah, he likes her!" Red snickered under his breath. Suddenly a muffin shot from one side of the room to the other hitting Red in the face. He shook his head and looked towards a glaring Cee. Spike and Coraline laughed at the two.

"ANYWAY." Cee said annoyed. "Is Sky here? We're playing it and we can't without our bassist. You, Twilight and Trixie gonna come?"

"Duh!" Spike finished his muffin and stood up off his chair.  "He's in his room. I'll go get him." He turned and ran to the bottom of the stairs but stopped. He turned back at Cee. "Oh and Cee?"

"Yeah?" Cee asked.

"Two things. Coraline's nice. Don't screw this up." Cee rolled his eyes and Coraline glared at Spike, trying to hide her blush. "What's the second thing?"

"Don't make a mess of the place. You remember last time I was gone for TWO minutes." He laughed and continued up the stairs to Skylarks room. Cee sighed and walked back to the couch, but was stopped when Coraline stepped in his way.

"So....." She said looking him in the eyes.

Cee stared back into her eyes and froze. "S-so....." He stammered.

"HEY!" They both looked at the crimson colt who sat on the couch waving his hooves in the air. "I'm still here, you know!" Cee got a sense of Dejah-vu.

"Anyway," Coraline attempted to changed the subject. "You guys two have a band? What's it called?"

"Just a Scratch." They said in unison.

"Really?" Coraline laughed expecting the real name. Cee and Red slowly turned they're gaze to other parts of the room.  Causing an awkward silence to fill the air.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" She was cut off by they're sudden laughter.

"See, Cee. I told you the name sucked!" Red said between fits of laughing.

"Shut up! It's not that bad!" Cee laughed. He turned to Coraline who looked like she really insulted them and felt bad.

"Hey, relax. You didn't make fun of us! We made up the name, like, such a long time ago!" Ce assureed her. She still looked at the floor. "Hey, Coraline." She looked back up to C.D.

"How about when Sky comes down, When EVER HE COMES DOWN!" Cee shouted up stairs. "You come watch us practice?" Suddenly, he was tackled by a surprise hug from Coraline, causing him to become as red as a rose.

"Really?! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squeezed him. When she let go, she noticed Red giggling in the corner. "Hey, Red. What do you do in the band anyway?"

"He drums and he's the one that complains the most." The voice said from the top of the stairs. Skylark came down holding his bass and a big hat on his head. Note: He never wears one. Red glared at the comment but still managed a smile.

"Sky! Whassup!" Cee shouted as he trotted towards him. "Dude. What up with the hat?"

Sky shook his head then looked at the filly behind Cee. "What up with the chick?"

"The chick has a name, dork." Cee shot back. "No really. The HAT, Sky."

Coraline and Red sat on the couch as the two colts bickered. Spike walked over with more muffins.

"The HAT," Sky began. "That you continue to bring up, is protecting me from embarrassment. I...uh, had a mishap." He then looked at Spike.

"He dyed his mane and tried to make it a Mohawk." Spike giggled.

Cee's eyes widened and looked into Sky's. "DUDE. LET. ME. SEE!" He then tried to take the hat off, but Sky moved away and hid behind Red. "Come on, Cee! Leave it alone!" He begged.

"Alright..." Cee shrugged. "Let's head out!"

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"HOW DID YOU LOSE THEM?!" Vinyl panicked. "Oh this is bad! This is really bad!" She paced back in forth in the living room. Pinkie sat quietly in a chair in the corner. She looked down sadly and her hair was less poofy then usual.

"I'm sorry!" Pinkie blurted,"I should have been more careful! Please don't be mad!" She was sobbing at her mistake. This caused Vinyl to calm down and comfort her. "*sigh* It's not your fault, Pinkie. They probably just ran off when your back was turned." She put a hoof on the pink mare's shoulder. "Now, all we have to do is find them, Alright?" Pinkie's hair poofed up back to normal as she hopped out of her chair and saluted. "You can count on me, Scratchie!" And with that, she was out the door. Vinyl shook her head. 'Oh Celestia, what have I gotten myself into?'

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  All four waved goodbye to Spike and left for the party. Sky went with Red to get his drums and other equipment. While C.D. and Coraline went to the party to prepare.

  Coraline and Cee walked at a slow pace to just enjoy the fact that they weren't in school. Coraline was getting more use to it and stopped worrying. They made eye contact once or twice, but quickly looked away due to nervousness. *sigh*

   Finally! Coraline spoke up. "So, how do you know Spike?" She turned and asked Cee.

  "When I first moved here, I met him, Twilight, Trixie, and even Pinkie Pie all at the same time." He answered. "You know....Since nopony else is around..."

   Coraline looked at him puzzled. "....you could finally tell me what happened between you and the snobby duo."

   She sighed and threw her hooves in the air. "Are you STILL on that? You're really intrusive, you know that?"

   "Yes. Yes I do." He grinned.

   "Okay." She whispered.

   "Okay?"

   "Okay! I'll tell you!" She shouted causing him to jump away a little. "Oops. Sorry...."

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It was three days after the incident at Sugar Cube Corner and everything was quiet.  Instead of hanging out with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Coraline sat by herself. "It happened at school...Everyone was out in the playground and was talking with their friends...I was sitting by the flowers away from everyone...and then there was a scream."

         "AHHHHHHHHHHHH-*Crash*!" Everyone ran towards the scene where the scream occurred. They found Scootaloo's scooter broken apart...and Scootaloo, herself, in a wreckage of wood and dirt. "She crashed into the school's picket fence. She had splinters and broken chunks of wood sticking out of her wings...there was a lot of blood."

"SCOOTS!" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle ran towards their fallen friend with tears in there eyes. She was in bad shape, but it only got worse when they found out what happened. "Excuse us!" A stuck up voice shouted as they made way through the crowd of colts and fillies. "We know what happened." Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stood before the CMC's with a school bag. When Diamond emptied it, they found a screwdriver and a bolt. "And guess whose bag this is!" Silver Spoon shouted turn her gaze over to the flower patch. The crowd of children followed them over to Coraline and confronted her.

"Well, well, well!" Silver said. "You just had to go and hurt one of you 'friends'!"

"What are you talking about, Silver?" Coraline said scornfully. "I wouldn't hurt my friends."

"YOU LIE!" Applebloom ran towards her with angry tears rolling down her cheeks. "We know you did it! Why? WHY?!" She pushed at Coraline, who was now tearing up.

"Applebloom, what are you talking about? I would never-"

"Shut UP!" Sweetie Belle shouted causing everypony to back up. "Coraline....Just...Go. Leave."

"Sweetie...." Coraline sobbed. "No. No, you don't believe-"

"Just go! Please." Sweetie turned and walked with Applebloom back to the now being carted away Scootaloo. The crowd then followed them. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara stood there watching Coraline cry.

"There, there, Cory." Silver said sitting right beside her. "At least you still have us."

Coraline got up and pushed her away causing Silver to fall back. "NO! I don't want you, or Diamond, to be anywhere near me! You two are the most crudest, stuck up, conceited..." She stopped and looked at the ground. Silver Spoon got up into her face. "Who do you think you are?! Don't you know who I-"

"Shut up." Coraline interrupted her. She turned and walked towards the exit of the school playground.  "I HATE you." She turned and ran away.

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"....And for the rest...*sob*...of that year...*sob*...they all ignored me...everypony..." She sat on the ground in front of Cee. "Scootaloo found out what they did and told me....*sob*...that she was okay. She knew that....*sniff*....it was them...But it still hurts." She sat there, in the middle of the road and cried. C.D. watched in anger at hearing the rest of the story. He was mad at himself for bringing it up so much, but he was also mad at Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara for what they did.

         Without a second thought he picked her up and hugged her tightly. They stood for seemed like an eternity before one of them spoke up again. "Cee...." She whispered.

         "Don't...." He said. "You never should have had to go through that...I had to go through terrible kids at my last school." She hugged tighter, crying into his shoulder. "I was bullied there because...my parents were gay...and I got into a fight with one of the bigger kids there..." Coraline pulled away, still holding him and looked at his face. There were tears rolling down his cheeks as well. "I hate seeing other ponies in pain....I especially hate seeing ponies I care about in pain." He smiled.

They smiled and held each other in the middle of the road. They didn't care what happened. They didn't care who saw, all they did care for at that moment was each other.

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Author's Notes

Wow. It's 11:40 PM here and I started this chapter 4 hours ago. Editing, Like A Boss. So yeah, school might get in the way of this and 'Just a Scratch', but don't fret. I'll keep dishing them out. The next chapter will probably come out after Chapter 8 of 'Just a Scratch'

-TLC

?!

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...

...

...

*hoofsteps*

*ahem*

          Hello. My name is Christoffer Dodavah Scratch, or C.D., but you can call me Cee. As most of you may know, or to the ones who are a little 'slow', TLC ended Tuned Too Low back in March. This story was about fourteen chapters of pure mayhem, romance, comedy, and little character development. It surrounded me, Cee, my friends Sky, Red and Spike, and a pretty filly named Coraline as we embark through a small path of music and crushes. After TTL ended, me and the gang were kinda in the air for a short while. We grew up and started going to high school. Then one day, Boom! We're back in Later Days! But out of all that good news and stuff you already know, that's not officially why I'm talking to you now.

          You see, during the chapter Thank You and Goodnight!, some questions seemed left unanswered. Some characters disappeared during the climax, others just hung out in the background. Sure the ending was sweet adorable and build everyone up for the sequel, but TLC started acting weird lately. When I asked him about it, he told me that everything seemed...out of place. He said leaving Tuned Too Low with that ending not only looked unfinished, but it's hard for him to really continue Later Days with so many holes in the boat.

          So we, as in me, Lost and TLC, dug through the old files of earlier TTL and near the end to discover some 'Lost Chapters'. Chapters that answered missing questions. Like, Where did Pinkie and Rainbow go? After Coraline hit her, were did Diamond and Silver Spoon go? What happened during the party? What about the teacher Pinkie pied? And other background issues. We will not cancel or put Later Days on hold. TLC says everything will continue as planned, but he wants this taken care of before he loses track of the whole time line. And I quote a certain blue hedgehog when I say, "That's no good!"

          So sit back, play some rad music, hold your special filly close, and relax as you witness the start of...

~The Untold Stories From The Majorly Annoyed: Tuned Too Low~

Coming Soon...