The clearly joyous Iron Hoof lead singer, in a failed attempt to wipe the overjoyed expression off his face, bent back down to the lyrics sheet. He grabbed the sheet with his mouth and picked it up to save it. I guess I should wait to tell the manager about this after I atleast find out who wrote this. He turned around to put it in his saddlebag, but dropped it on the ground just before it fell in.

He bent back down to pick it up. Just before he could, however, he sees a hoof land right on the sheet. "Don't tell me you're even thinking about hiding something from your boss." The lead singer looks back up, looking into the face of the record company manager. He sets his hoof on the lyrics sheet in an attempt to steal it back from his soon-to-be ex-boss, but the manager slides the sheet closer to him with his hoof, tipping the singer down.

The record company manager removes his hoof from the lyrics sheet, picks it up with his mouth, and places it into his own saddlebag. "I'll go look this over in my office," he began. "If it's anything worth mentioning, i'll call you and the others in tomorrow. Of course, I expect nothing more than a screw-up from you, Masquerade." With that, the manager turned back and left the way he came.

The lead singer--or as his stage name goes, "Flame Masquerade"--follows his own path and slowly trots back home.

Knock, knock.

Flame tossed in his bed.

Knock, knock.

"Okay, this is starting to get annoying."

Knock, knock.

Flame shot up in his bed. "DAMMIT, WHAT DO YOU WANT!?"

....

"You really are a lazy son of a bitch, aren't you? It's two in the afternoon." A unicorn pony opens the door with his magic and lets himself trot into the home.

It takes a while, but soon enough, Flame recognized the stallion in front of him. "I thought-No, didn't you-You said you wouldn't-" His voice began to trail off, as the record company manager felt obliged to help the stunned stallion.

"--come get you if the song wasn't worth mentioning? Doesn't that tell you anything about why I would be here?"

Flames jumped out of his bed, but nearly collapsed. He set himself upright. "Are you serious!?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have the others already waiting at the studio."

Flame suddenly felt a strong tug pulling against his hoof. His boss was dragging him to the studio right then and there--literally.

-----

The manager shut the door behind him with his magic as he set Flame down with the others. "Now, we need to have a serious discussion about this song."

Flame, rubbing his eyes with his right hoof, inquired in a manner that you can hear how agitated he was. "What's there to talk about? It's a song, a good one at that, too. So we can still be in work."

"That's not the problem!" The Iron Hoof manager shot a cold glance at each of the members, then pulled the lyrics sheet from his saddlebag with his magic. "THIS is the problem!"

"So, the song's not the problem, but the song's the problem?"

"YOU'RE the problem, Masquerade! You clearly couldn't have written this. The handwriting's too neat for a sloppy earth pony, and you couldn't have ideas anywhere near this good!"

Offended, Flame tried to calm himself so he could explain. "I didn't want you to find the song until I found out who wrote it. I never said it was mine."

"Well, then actually start looking instead of lounging around!" Their boss had all too clearly started losing his temper with his sub-par band. "By any means possible, we must find this colt! Or..well, perhaps filly, considering the neat handwriting."

He then kicked the band out of the studio by levitating them out the room, one by one.

-----

On the morning trot to the local Filly Dephian school, our pegasus protagonist stops after hitting something with her hoof. She looked down and found a flyer, trying to read what she could see on the top.

"Iron Hoof, 'better than ever' concert. Come mee-" Her hoof was covering the rest. She trotted past the flyer to try to get to school on time, but stopped herself to look back to read the rest.

"-t the band backstage. You could be our lucky colt or filly." Lucky?, she thought. Does that mean I would get a prize? Well, it wouldn't hurt to try. She looked again on the flyer, and it reads that the concert is scheduled to start at five.

Her thoughts are pushed aside from picking up the sound of the school bell, and she starts running to the school.

After the concert, the audience is told to form a line. If you have ever been to a concert, you would know the extreme length of this line.

"Ugh, still nothing." Flame was getting tired of testing the ponies to see who had written the song, and was preparing to give up too quickly. Their manager had been holding up papers for the fans with his magic and asking them to write so he could match their handwriting. None of the sheets went close to matching.

After perhaps a span of three hours, a red-coated pegasus trots into the room. The band was already exhausted, so she didn't bother to ask anything about the prize. The manager holds up her paper in front of her. "Um, what is this?" She inquired.

"This is the entry form." The manager started speaking in a bored tone, since he has been doing this for an estimated over three hours now. "Fill out this form to get a chance of getting the prize."

The filly reached into her saddlebag with her wing on the corresponding side, and pulled out her pen. She wrote on the levitating paper with her wing and not her mouth. Perhaps that's what makes her handwriting so neat. She finished writing and put the pen back in her saddlebag.

The manager boredly gives Flame the sheet to examine it side-by-side with the lyrics sheet. His eyes flew open.

"I-it's you.."

The pegasus met him with a confused expression. "I'm sorry? What's me?"

"This is!" Flame, sounding confident in his analysis, slides the lyrics sheet with his hoof towards the young filly. She looks down at it.

"You, you got my song..?" She looks up, facing the band, overjoyed. "And you, like it?"

"We love it," their manager spoke out, "and we want you to work for Iron Hoof, young mare. That is, if you--"

"Oh, OF COURSE I will accept!"

"Oh," her new boss was stunned at her sudden energy. "Well then. Could you please tell us your name so we could credit you?"

"Oh, my name?" She had a nervous look on her face. She looked around for a bit, trying to come up with a convincing fake name.

"My name is..Melody. Melody Songsmith."

The manager gives the nervous filly a warm smile. "Welcome, Melody."

[Chapter2: END]

Author's Note

Next time:

Chapter 3
Reflections arc
Family