Melodies of a Valorous Vagabondby Smooth TonesChaptersSchool DaysFoalhood TragediesShenanigans in Las Pegasus (Abridged)ReunionPranks and Freakouts and Spirits, Oh My!MatchmakerThe Valorous VagabondsMagic Lessons"Homecoming"IntroductionAn Unexpected MeetingDepartureSpirit RivalriesSchool DaysYeah yeah I know, school’s boring, so I’ll try to keep this part brief. I actually didn’t attend school for very long, just long enough to be literate and not be a complete ignoramus around others. Anyway I went off to some actual school while Berries stayed home due to some “condition.” If you ask me, she was the favorite foal, but I’m not going to go there. Color tagged along for a bit, but became disinterested and went off on his own adventures during the day. This left me stuck in the school essentially alone. The first year or so was basic, not much going on. Come the second year though and that got hectic. Around that age, being a unicorn, ponies started to expect me to at least begin working with magic. I couldn’t. I don’t know why but just doing much was hard for me. I could hardly even levitate something like the quill I’m using to write this story. It was pathetic, and that definitely lead to some name calling. Name calling, that reminds me of something... “Hey you! Dud Horn,” some bully yelled to me. In my head I knew he wasn’t too bright from the get go, but I knew better than to fight with him. “Hm? Are you talking to me?” I asked him, possibly more sarcastically than I wanted to. The bully snorted at me. He too was a unicorn, but towered over me. Another thing he had on me, his cutie mark. This guy wasn’t in a friendly mood and I was his target for the day. “Watch that tone, blank flank,” he retorted. I simply shrugged then asked, “So, what is it you want? I don’t have any bits if that’s it.” “Nope.” he responded, “No need for money, just here to have some fun!” Of course this meant to be verbally and physically abused. I don’t know about you, but that isn’t fun by any means. I would come home battered and bruised every few days or so and I would get the same run down. Concern from my mother, and a roughing up and stern lecture from my father. That man never failed to disappoint as a foal. At this point I want to wrap it up by saying, “The adults stepped in and the situation got better.” Actually no, just the opposite. But I’m done boring you with details. One good thing did come out of this though. I found my way to a guitar. Old one, found it while digging through old stuff in my home one day. Before long I decided to give it a try. It was like... well... magic! That’s how I got my cutie mark. Turns out playing that guitar was my talent. Still use that same guitar to this day. Never let go of that thing. Foalhood TragediesThis is quite possibly my least favorite chapter to write. School was bad, but what happens here is far worse. Well I’ll get on with it then. It was a relatively normal day, coming home from a remotely good day at school. When you come to your house and see it surrounded with ponies in armor, keeping others away from the house you start to get concerned. I ran towards the house and was held back by one of the ponies. “Whoa there. You can’t go in there,” he said to me. Unbelievably confused I said to him, “But I live here. Why can’t I go home?” Then it hit me, something had happened. “Then you’re Smooth Tones...” the stallion let his voice trail. “What’s going on!?” I half asked, half yelled at him. I was only twelve at the time, I didn’t know what to think or do. I’ll admit it, I was afraid. After a couple hours of waiting one of the armored ponies came to speak with me. I had been going over in my head what could have possibly happened. I wanted my mom, heck I would have even settled for Dad at the time, but neither were around. Dad had left almost a week before to go visit family or something in Cloudsdale. The armored stallion explained to me that there had been an accident, and my mother was dead. I was utterly speechless. I can’t even try to cover it up. After the words left his mouth I ran for it. I didn’t know what it would do but I ran. Later that evening, Color and Berries eventually found me curled up behind the school. I wished I could just close my eyes and wake up from this stupid bad dream. I still try it sometimes. Never once has it worked. Anyway, me and Berries now needed a place to stay, and what’s more, somepony to take care of us. Our dad didn’t come back from his little visit to Cloudsdale, so we made the assumption that something happened to him as well. We weren’t going to chance an orphanage because there was no way I was going to be separated from my last bit of family. That’s where Color came in again. Now I always knew Color had some weird quirks, still has a lot of them today as a matter of fact, but this one came as huge news to me at the time. One day Color came to Berries and I with a proposal. At first I was really confused. “Hey, you guys need somepony to take care of you, right?” Color asked us. “Of course we do. You know that,” I replied to him. “Well I has a solution!” Color exclaimed, very excitedly. I was confused. I cocked my head at him for a moment then asked, “What’s your idea?” “I can take care of you two!” He yelled excitedly, flying up into the air. I gave him the most confused and disapproving stare I ever could. I knew that our guardian had to be an adult. At the time, I thought Color was no older than I was. Never had I been so wrong, and I don’t think I’ve been so wrong since then. “Color you know you can’t do that right? You’re our age,” I replied, trying to keep a level head. “That’s the fun part! Time I let you two in on a little secret.” He said to us. He took about an hour to explain it to us. He went through how he was actually a few hundred years old. Along with that he was also half changeling, so he could change his form. Details confused me and my eyes glassed over as I realized how little I had known about my best friend. After some time though, Color had brought both Berries and myself back down to Equestria and had us understanding. Before I knew it, the Color I had grown up with morphed into a much more adult version of himself. And even sooner afterward he became our guardian. We still acted like best friends though. Before long this whole “immortal” deal became a thing of the past. Er... more like something that was better understood. Bottom line it became normal. And for the first time in a LONG time, I was actually happy. Shenanigans in Las Pegasus (Abridged)I write this next section simply to spite Color. He and I commonly refer to the years I was aged 14-18 as the “Dark Years.” Essentially the years most of our bad decisions were made in, but were arguably the most fun. Each event was ended with an agreement: this shall never be spoken of again. Well, sorry Color, I am going to break this agreement just this once! Let’s see... where to start? There were so many fun things we did. For Color’s sake I won’t go into detail because it would mortify him. Which I guess is why I’m talking about Las Pegasus and not Baltimare. But that’s another story... Anyway let’s say there were a few too many ciders drunk, a few too many buildings defaced, and overall we’re just not allowed back in Las Pegasus. ReunionSo after three years, a few other ponies that I were my friends decided to try and help out my... em... condition I believe is the word they used. I don’t know the exact details but what I do know is that they somehow got in touch with Color and arranged to have me go stay with him. It was meant to be a temporary arrangement as simply as way to get my mind back on track, but of course that didn’t turn out to be the case. In my mind at first I thought this was just their last ditch resort of getting rid of me before I did something really stupid that they would need to take care of. So I boarded a train bound for Canterlot, with only the knowledge of a house number and that there was a “surprise” waiting there. Just thought I would give you a heads up that this is where my part in the other story comes in. From here on out I will be retelling the events of the family I’ve come to know over the past... who knows how long it’s been now. If you would like to continue reading, by all means do. There are times in here I’ll be able to reiterate or even explain for the first time. Bottom line is, you may have read some of these things before. Then again you may not have. Anyway... where was I? So after a long train ride from Fillydelphia I arrived in Canterlot. It was my first time in this city and as much as I had traveled before, I was disoriented. It didn’t help either that it was so close to Hearth’s Warming that the ground was covered in a HUGE amount of snow. It was more than I had seen in a really long time. Anyway after about an hour of walking around the city getting my bearings I came up to the house. I took in a deep breath, then rang the doorbell eagerly. The response filled me with uncontrollable levels of joy. “Eh? Who thar?” my old friend Color Burst called from the inside of the house. Completely overwhelmed I simply yelled back to him, “It’s Tones! Just open the bloody door! It’s absolutely freezing out here!” Of course, this is Color Burst that we’re talking about and absolutely nothing he does makes any sort of sense. So rather than opening the door, he decides to just appear outside, just above me so he would drop down onto my back, causing me to fall to the ground. “Ohai!” He yelled in my face, “Long time no smell!” I pushed the unkempt pegasus from my back and got up laughing. I wasn’t even thinking, I was just so happy. “So... are we going to sit out here in the snow or are you going to let me in?” I asked Color as I began to shiver from the cold air. Thinking about it for a moment, Color finally responded, “Makes sense,” and opened up the door. It took me a minute to take it all in. The home was huge, much bigger than anywhere I had stayed before. There were five different levels, plus a basement. The first floor was mostly living space, the kitchen, and a bedroom for a pony I didn’t recognize, or even meet, until later. The second floor was Color’s. This was made obvious by that it was... well... a cloud. And also the random assortment of items contributed to this. The third floor was for bedrooms of three other ponies. I was a little taken back by all of the other ponies that lived in the home, it almost seemed like some crazy bunk house. Anyway, the fourth floor was dedicated to a small library. I wasn’t much of a reader, I’m still not, but I will admit the collection was quite impressive. The last floor had a hot tub in it which I assumed was just for relaxing. I never really used that hot tub much anyway. Anyway, the basement was suited up just for me, awesome recording station should I actually have decided to pick up my guitar and play it again. There were bunk beds over by one of the walls, which I didn’t understand if I was in the basement alone, plus I had plenty of storage. It was nice to have a place to stay to get away from the life of Fillydelphia. And a whole heck of alot better to have a place with my best friend. It didn’t take long to become acquainted with the other ponies living in the home. There was Marshmallow, a uh... what’s the word... normal... unicorn. I stress normal because you will soon see that being “normal” was extremely uncommon. She was very kind and especially tolerant when I first came in. There was Bubblegum, her earth pony sister. Bubble was a DJ, so naturally we got along to at least a musical extent. Next on the list was Color’s significant other at the time, Cherry Treats. I never really saw her on more than two occasions, one of which where she was threatening me with a sword. But that’s for later. And of course, last but not least, Silver Mane. She’s a vampony, which honestly took some adjustment on my part to get used to. I’m not about to lie to you, I was never really on all hooves with vamponies. This whole experience living with Color and friends changed that. But let’s get back to the story. Pranks and Freakouts and Spirits, Oh My!So it didn’t take long for me to set in and get right to what me and Color used to do for fun. I went around and met others, we messed some stuff up around towns, you know usual stuff friends do together. One day Color took me to a town in the far south. It was built on the water and it just completely blew me away. It was called the Jade Archipelago, and to this day I find it to be an incredible sight. I was introduced to the leader at the time, a beautiful unicorn by the name of Copper Crystal, and was eventually set up with my own little home out quite literally on the water. (Oh don’t worry, yes Crystal becomes relevant later I promise.) Anyway, since a grand majority of the town’s supports were built from the trunks of trees, Color and I decided to plant bean plants all around the town. It was a harmless enough prank, and Crystal thought it was hilarious. Silver Mane and Marshmallow, not so much. I can say that I think that was their first strike on me. I had a feeling that three strikes and I was out, and I didn’t want to know what “out” was. It was obvious though that’s where I SHOULD have stopped. But naturally, I was just trying to have some harmless fun and it escalated way too quickly. I eventually felt the need to rig up the basement to defend myself should Silver try to kill me in my sleep. Looking back now, yes I think holy water may have been a bit extreme... okay VERY extreme... but I wasn’t thinking then. I was young, that’s my best excuse. After a stern talking to from Silver after the “trap” almost caught her, I ended up getting the feeling I wasn’t wanted around. I decided after my brief stay I might as well leave. I left a note for Color, packed up my stuff, and got a move on. This is where I kinda freak out. Not just an emotional breakdown, but I literally have no idea what all happened. I left Canterlot and next thing I know I was faced by Silver and Color in Ponyville. The snow was falling all around, I was cold, and I didn’t know what I was even doing there anymore. “Tones... is that you?” Silver asked, moving around as if trying to get a look at my eyes. Shaking my head from the shock I replied, “Yeah it’s me...” Who else would it be? I thought to myself, really confused. Next thing I know she’s hugging me, telling me how sorry she was. I looked over to Color with a confused look and hugged her back awkwardly. I didn’t know why she was apologizing and it wasn’t me, then again I just wanted to know what I was doing out in the snow. I guess it does warrant some explanation as to how I got out there. No it wasn’t amnesia that caused me to forget it, to be perfectly fair -I- never even really made the walk. We soon learned that I, just like many of the other ponies in that Canterlot home, was far from that normal I thought I fell under. Let me give a background for my explaining here. So Color has this Multiple Personality Disorder. One of said personalities was a spirit called Jace. Jace used to be some rage spirit, which warranted a need to get rid of him. So naturally I ended up picking up my own spirit hitchhiker by the name of Deus. Deus was there simply to get rid of other spirits and keep me stable. He was fine at first, but there’s a reason I still hate him to this day. Anyway, Deus decided to take over and talk to Silver to try and straighten things out. I wish this is where the spirits ended, but it only gets worse. MatchmakerDon’t worry I’m not going to bore you with gushy romance or steamy scenes. Honestly, I would just feel weird writing that down anyway. So it’s a win-win situation. Still have to at least give a rundown of what happened and give it the laughs it deserves. Silver still holds this over my head that the only reason I had any sort of a relationship is because she intervened. Anyway, this is how it went down, special thanks to Color as well for getting the ball rolling. One evening a bunch of us friends were sitting around the living area of our home in Canterlot by the fire. We had just been out all day working in the cold and it was nice to have some time to relax by the fire. Color leaned over to Silver and whispered something in her ear before flying upstairs to do who-knows-what. Just as I was trying to figure out what Color had said, Silver called me away to talk to me in the basement, leaving Copper Crystal up in the living room. “So Tones, you’ve been here awhile now,” Silver began saying in a hushed tone, “have you had your eye on anypony?” Quizzically I looked at Silver, “What? You mean like romantically? Had feelings for anypony?” “Yeah exactly like that,” Silver replied, hoping to get an answer out of me. Truth is I did, but I wasn’t exactly sure about telling Silver. “Well... I don’t really know...” I said with a shaky voice, glancing up to the stairs. Just my luck, Silver was able to follow my gaze and make her guess. “Crystal?” She asked me, a small smile forming on her face. I hate how predictable I can be sometimes. I simply nodded to Silver. Silver excitedly half-lead, half-pulled me up the stairs again and all but threw me down onto the couch next to Crystal. After about ten minutes of beating around the bush, awkward starts, stutters, chokes, and so on, I finally asked her out. It was a strange feeling, in part because I hadn’t been romantically involved with anypony for a long time. Long story short is we really hit it off. We found common interests and went from there. Exploring unknown lands became a hobby for us. Jungles, deserts, tundras, nothing we wouldn’t tackle. Became a bit harder later, but I’ll get to that when it comes along. Let’s just say with Crystal, it was one good thing after another. The Valorous VagabondsThe Valorous Vagabonds! That’s the name that our friend Heart Tips gave for Crystal and I. It was funny, mainly due to the fact that it fit. We always seemed to be moving around, going on adventures, braving the terrain, it was fun. Nothing kept us down. Our first date, I suppose you could call it, was exploring a huge jungle in search of an ocelot. We found one, but it wasn’t at all the best part. There was the time spent together while we camped up in trees overlooking the expanse of trees. We went on many dates similar to this, all equally as awesome and the one before. There were deserts, voyages on the high seas, even an endeavor into the Everfree Forest in search of who knows what. And unlike many of the other situations of life, things would get better and better. Things seemed to never die down. There were the adventures, there were parties, there was always being with each other and with our friends, it all was great. We had time where one of us or the other would have to leave on some journey we would have to take on our own, commonly over these spirits that had become such a prominent part of life for us, but we pulled through. And just when things seemed at the peak came more news. We had a child on the way. To this day it’s hard to explain the emotions going through somepony when they hear that kind of news. If you’ve ever been a parent I suppose you understand. Anyhow, before we knew it we had a son. We named him Sunset Dreamer, which showed later to fit him extremely well. He had the same brilliant coat as his mother, reddish mane and tail, and strikingly green eyes much like mine. He grew up in our new home in Ponyville where just about all of us save Color lived now. Sunset became great friends with all the other foals at the home and life continued to look up. Being together as a family helped us forget about all the strange times we all were going through. Magic LessonsIt’s incredible how the smallest ideas can tend to have the largest impact. One day, I went up into the attic of the new Ponyville home and found my guitar. I had left it packed because I simply didn’t have much time to play it. Having found a gap of free time, I decided it may be a good idea. Blowing off the dust, I brought it up to me and Crystal’s room. Sitting up on a bookshelf, I began to strum a few chords. It had been so long but my talent had not faded. In minutes I was playing full on songs and I completely lost myself in the music. At some point, I had closed my eyes, and when I reopened them, Crystal was standing there with a wide grin. At first I was confused, did she like the music? Then I realized that the floor was covered in books. Piles and piles of spell books and recipes that belonged to Crystal, all scattered about. Confused I asked, “How did this happen?” Grin still wide as anything, Crystal responded, “It was you.” I was taken back. I did this? There was no way. I just had played my music. No magic, no nothing. Or was there? “I think I have learned how we can get your to use your magic,” Crystal explained to me. “I’m not sure I follow...” I said, still visibly lost. “Your music,” she replied, “It can be used as a way to channel your magic.” Unsure, I closed my eyes and began to play the chords again, sure enough I opened my eyes and my horn was giving off a magical aura, and I lifted the books up into the air. I spun them around and sent them dipping and diving around before returning them each to their own place on the shelves. I had never smiled so brightly since I was a foal. The feeling was overwhelming. I didn’t know what to make of it, and ended up going more in depth with working with the magic. After many hours of trial and error, we had finally found a way to use my magic. I could start and stop small flames on command, and levitate several objects at a time. As I stated, I hadn’t been more happy in a long time. Next things decided to get a little complicated though. "Homecoming"Despite the title of the chapter, no, there is not an actual homecoming here. In a way, but nopony is actually coming “home.” Not to their true home at least. Okay I’ll just get on with it then. It was a calm day, a rare occasion with our little family. We had had some recent events that had been quite hectic, the main one being Crystal choosing to become a vampony (this has relevance soon and I’m not just mentioning it for the sake of it.) Sunset was playing with Silver’s son Blind Eye, and us as the parents were hanging around the living room. All in all, it had been a good day. I went upstairs to fetch my guitar to play a quick song, something I did not commonly have much time for anymore. I was hardly up the stairs when we heard a hard knock at the front door. I passed it off as nothing and Silver went to answer it. Little did I know that the pony at the door was about to rock the past twenty years of my life. I continued to look around for the guitar as Silver answered it. Suddenly, she called up to me, “Tones, there’s somepony here to see you.” My mind sort of wandered as to whom it may be. The concept of having a guest wasn’t hard to grasp, given we had a lot of friends in the area. I stopped my search and took my time coming to the stairs. “Tones, I would really hurry if I were you,” Silver called again with a sense of urgency in her voice. At this point I knew something was most likely off. Not many things could get Silver rattled, so for her to sound almost uncertain about anything was never a good sign. I raced to the stairs and half ran, half fell down to see who could possibly get Silver so stirred up. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The pony I saw was a large, braun pony with a deep blue coat. His dark brown eyes seemed to stare into me and the large amounts of gray in his mane and tail seemed to set aside the gray in mine. Coming down the stairs I came face to face with none other than: my father. I had heard rumors from my friends back home in Fillydelphia that he may be around again, but I thought of it as a cruel joke to get me back there. I don’t know why, but they had become less relevant to me. What was startling though, was that their stories had rung true. My father spoke up, “Still wearing those ridiculous ties I see?” He never was one for sentiment. Then again, there aren’t many fathers who are. For all I know, Sunset says the same of me, but that’s not for this story. “Twenty years,” I replied, “Twenty bloody years you disappear off the face of Equestria and your first words to me are criticism of my TIE??” “I had my reasons, reasons that you have no right to question me of,” he replied. He may have been my father, but we never were on good terms. He was always disappointed with my lack of being able to master magic, which now with Crystal’s help I was on my way to doing so. “He has every right to!” Silver chimed in. Leave it to Silver to not miss a beat and stand in to help a friend. It costed here though. Without hesitation for a moment, my father let out a forceful smack with the back of his hoof across Silver’s muzzle. She stumbled back in shock, and was supported by Crystal to prevent her from falling, while Blind Eye found his way over to his mother to comfort her. Sunset also ran behind Crystal, unsure of what to do in the commotion. My father turned back to me, ready to question me. “If anypony, I am the one with the right to question.” He started gesturing to Silver and Crystal and more so, their fangs, “Beginning with who are these... -things- and why are you living with -them-?” Gesturing to Silver and Crystal I replied, “These -things- are my friends, father. The one you just hit, her name is Silver Mane. She’s a very good friend of mine, and I’d rather you not hit her.” Looking now at Crystal I added, “And she, is Copper Crystal...” My father raised his hoof to stop me but I would have no part in it. “...the mother of your grandson.” This struck a nerve. Appalled, my father babbled out, “You mean to say that you... and her...” He gave me a disgusted look that only he could give. Lovely stallion he was. “If it makes you feel better, she wasn’t a vampony when Sunset was born.” I shot back, “Not that it should even matter, granted love should know no boundaries.” I was getting riled, so naturally I said something stupid next. “You could really learn a thing or two about love you know, after you left Berries and I in the wake of tragedy! Where the hell have you been for the past ten years that you couldn’t even check in on us ONCE. Color ended up being a better father than you!” It was my turn to be hit now. The cracking of my father’s hoof against my face was almost unbearable, but I gave it little attention. He had gotten me angry, and nothing stands in my way while I am angry. This is when I drew the last straw. The one that broke him as it were. “You didn’t even have the decency to show up to your own daughter’s wedding!” This cut deep. Berries had always been the visible favorite, but I didn’t let it get to me. After father had left, it didn’t even seem to matter. Berries had literally gotten married the day before. She and her new husband were off on some trip now anyway, and my father had just missed her. This destroyed him. “I... I didn’t...” my father tried to reply, but the words wouldn’t come out. He stood speechless for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally he spoke again. “I am deeply sorry, to the lot of you. But mostly to you, son. I cannot say why I was gone for as long as I was, but by no means did I want to leave you and Berries alone. The news of your mother came very much later, almost three years later in fact. I have no reason for you to believe me, I only ask for forgiveness.” I looked to Crystal and to Silver, then to Sunset and to Blind. I wiped the blood from my muzzle with my hoof and looked my father square in the eye for what seemed like forever. “I forgive you father, for the sake of our family. There’s no sense staying bitter.” I said, “But you better believe I will want to talk. There’s a lot you missed.” I went outside of our house to a sitting area we had out back with my father and began telling him the stories. I told him of how Color took me and Berries in, of Color leaving, and me moving back in with him in Canterlot. I told him of when I met Crystal at the Jades Archipelago, and the stories of the “Valorous Vagabonds.” Before long, Sunset had made his way outside and sat with us to listen. I told of the spirits of Deus and Shade, and their conflict and how it had pertained to us ponies. And lastly, I had to explain to him Crystal’s idea for getting my magic to channel, and how it was working. Some hours later, I had my father up to speed on most everything that had happened. I realized that as mad as I was that he had left us, I wouldn’t have it another way. Because if he hadn’t disappeared, never would I have had these adventures and met these incredible friends. IntroductionHuh, well isn't this interesting? I should probably start this off with an introduction. My name is Smooth Tones. I’m a unicorn. Sky blue coat, brown and white mane and tail, super unkempt, I’m a musician, but the description isn’t really important. This is a story about me. I realize how self centered that must sound but to be perfectly honest I never see this to actually be published. It’s another account to be able to keep what I've done in live alive, long after I’m gone. Despite all my friends being immortal and it’s only a matter of time before I pass and they can live on, there’s much even they do not know. You may or may not have read the story about my time with said friends already. If you haven’t, I recommend you start there. It will prevent me from having to explain some of my friends in good detail. Or I suppose you can bear with me and figure it out as you go: your choice. Anyway, this story isn't meant to attract sympathy, or anything of the sort for that matter. So, the next decision is where do I begin. Let’s see how far I can remember back. An Unexpected MeetingLet’s start on a happy note shall we? I was only a foal at me and my sister’s second birthday party. Yeah, we’re twins, but I’ll get back to that. To be honest I don’t know where to start. Most of the other ponies there I’ve forgotten who they were. Great friends right? This is where I begin because this is where I met Color Burst. If you’ve read the other story, you know him pretty well by now. If not here’s a brief description: he has a white coat, deep blue mane and tail, color spectrum cutie mark, a pegasus. The basics. Anyway, back to the story. So we’re sitting there at my house, in the dining room to be specific. We were about to blow out the candles on our cake when -CRASH- in through the ceiling comes Color. He was foal-sized at the time, so he was about the size of the cake. Cake is splattered, everypony else has run to the hills, and I’m just sitting there with this amazed look on my face. It’s not like I hadn’t seen a pegasus before, heck my own father is a pegasus, but it was just his entry and everything. “Heya!” Color finally said to me. Quickly trying to zone back in I responded, “Oh hey...” I don’t know what it was, I still don’t even know to this day, but we really hit it off. We became instant best friends. Everypony else at that party? I rarely have seen them since. Color and I, we were like brothers. Not understanding a lot about him then, I just assumed he had no family, which is true in part I suppose. He came to live with us so that contributed greatly to the whole “like brothers” thing. My parents weren’t fond of him, but they accepted him because he was my friend. Well... let me reiterate, Mom accepted him. With Dad we were lucky to get ANY sort of kindness out of him. My sister absolutely adored him though. It was funny to see how Berries treated him from time to time, it was almost like she really thought he was her brother. That’s changed much over the years, in fact we don’t see much from Berries anymore anyway. But back to Color. In a nutshell, we did everything together. We had, and still have, this unshakable friendship that will never be broken. Not be any circumstances. Kind of why I’m writing this whole story anyway. DepartureSo naturally, good times don’t last forever. Around when I turned nineteen, Color had to go. He was only going to Canterlot, but granted I was old enough to live on my own it’s not like he would come back to check up on me. I had gone to the train station with him, and even sat there for hours after his train had left. He was may only truly good friend, and I didn’t know if I would ever see him again. It was like with my father, he left of a trip, and we still hadn’t seen him for almost seven years. I didn’t know what to think. I was lost for the longest time just trying to readjust. Yes I know I was an adult. Yes I know I shouldn’t have been moping around over this. Fact of the matter is though, I couldn’t help myself. It was like the loss of my mother all over again. Berries hadn’t taken it so hard due to her uncanny ability to go out and actually make friends. I just did what I could to keep up. I tried to work to get my mind off of things but my brain loves to wander. I spent who knows how long thinking about if I would ever see my best friend again, and it got bad. Fast forward a couple years of repetitive nothingness and I was twenty-one. Around this time I had almost given up on ever seeing Color again. I don’t know if you know what that feels like, losing a friend, but it sucks. It became hard over time to even get up out of bed in the mornings. Needless to say, circumstances were going from bad to worse in my head with each passing day. Which is why the next year’s events were so great. Spirit RivalriesJace and Deus were just the tip of the iceberg as the saying goes. There was a much deeper lying evil with these spirits. Color happened to have another one with him by the name of Shade. This stallion was bad, thousands of times worse than Jace ever was. He exploited weakness, faults, guilt, anything and would destroy somepony based on it. Frankly he was good at what he did. He was able to drive wedges between us that to this day I don’t want to move around. Let me put one exceptionally bad situation out there. We had just had a little complication with Marsh and Silver. In short, Silver had turned Marsh into a vampony and everypony was taking it differently. We all tried to be as supportive as we could and Shade took this as his chance. “So... we’ve got a new bitey one out do we?” Shade remarked, sniffing the air around Marsh whilst flying around her. She just sat on top of a hill, staring out over the ocean. Crystal and I approached, seeing Shade’s obvious attempts to torment Marsh, and tried to get him to come at us instead. Eventually he flew down to us and began to berate the two of us. It was fine at first, but when he started to relentlessly shell Crystal, I got angry. No, I got pissed. I hit the spirit as hard as I could with my hoof, astonished that it not only made contact, but seemed to actually wound him. The dark spirit stared at me with his cold empty eyes and said, “So that’s how you want to play then? Okay. I can play that way.” An evil grin crossed his face and he continued to stare into my eyes. I felt like I was being stabbed, but I couldn’t pull away. Little did we know that this stare greatly sped up the aging process and breaking down my “personality.” Essentially the fabric of who I was was being broken down and I didn’t even know for the longest time. It’s what turned parts of my blonde mane and tail to an almost bright white. It was, above all else, killing me. Now obviously we found a way to reverse it, but it wasn’t pretty. We needed to fake the death of Color’s own daughter and that by no means ended well. So there’s a little look into the sick torment that is Shade. And it doesn’t end there. He LOVES to put himself where he’s most diabolic. Deus came with the greater purpose of stopping him. Part of me wants to think is Deus being in my head until the near death situation is what had Shade focused on me. There’s a reason I hate spirits. If this doesn’t make it obvious, I don’t know what will.
School DaysYeah yeah I know, school’s boring, so I’ll try to keep this part brief. I actually didn’t attend school for very long, just long enough to be literate and not be a complete ignoramus around others. Anyway I went off to some actual school while Berries stayed home due to some “condition.” If you ask me, she was the favorite foal, but I’m not going to go there. Color tagged along for a bit, but became disinterested and went off on his own adventures during the day. This left me stuck in the school essentially alone. The first year or so was basic, not much going on. Come the second year though and that got hectic. Around that age, being a unicorn, ponies started to expect me to at least begin working with magic. I couldn’t. I don’t know why but just doing much was hard for me. I could hardly even levitate something like the quill I’m using to write this story. It was pathetic, and that definitely lead to some name calling. Name calling, that reminds me of something... “Hey you! Dud Horn,” some bully yelled to me. In my head I knew he wasn’t too bright from the get go, but I knew better than to fight with him. “Hm? Are you talking to me?” I asked him, possibly more sarcastically than I wanted to. The bully snorted at me. He too was a unicorn, but towered over me. Another thing he had on me, his cutie mark. This guy wasn’t in a friendly mood and I was his target for the day. “Watch that tone, blank flank,” he retorted. I simply shrugged then asked, “So, what is it you want? I don’t have any bits if that’s it.” “Nope.” he responded, “No need for money, just here to have some fun!” Of course this meant to be verbally and physically abused. I don’t know about you, but that isn’t fun by any means. I would come home battered and bruised every few days or so and I would get the same run down. Concern from my mother, and a roughing up and stern lecture from my father. That man never failed to disappoint as a foal. At this point I want to wrap it up by saying, “The adults stepped in and the situation got better.” Actually no, just the opposite. But I’m done boring you with details. One good thing did come out of this though. I found my way to a guitar. Old one, found it while digging through old stuff in my home one day. Before long I decided to give it a try. It was like... well... magic! That’s how I got my cutie mark. Turns out playing that guitar was my talent. Still use that same guitar to this day. Never let go of that thing.
Foalhood TragediesThis is quite possibly my least favorite chapter to write. School was bad, but what happens here is far worse. Well I’ll get on with it then. It was a relatively normal day, coming home from a remotely good day at school. When you come to your house and see it surrounded with ponies in armor, keeping others away from the house you start to get concerned. I ran towards the house and was held back by one of the ponies. “Whoa there. You can’t go in there,” he said to me. Unbelievably confused I said to him, “But I live here. Why can’t I go home?” Then it hit me, something had happened. “Then you’re Smooth Tones...” the stallion let his voice trail. “What’s going on!?” I half asked, half yelled at him. I was only twelve at the time, I didn’t know what to think or do. I’ll admit it, I was afraid. After a couple hours of waiting one of the armored ponies came to speak with me. I had been going over in my head what could have possibly happened. I wanted my mom, heck I would have even settled for Dad at the time, but neither were around. Dad had left almost a week before to go visit family or something in Cloudsdale. The armored stallion explained to me that there had been an accident, and my mother was dead. I was utterly speechless. I can’t even try to cover it up. After the words left his mouth I ran for it. I didn’t know what it would do but I ran. Later that evening, Color and Berries eventually found me curled up behind the school. I wished I could just close my eyes and wake up from this stupid bad dream. I still try it sometimes. Never once has it worked. Anyway, me and Berries now needed a place to stay, and what’s more, somepony to take care of us. Our dad didn’t come back from his little visit to Cloudsdale, so we made the assumption that something happened to him as well. We weren’t going to chance an orphanage because there was no way I was going to be separated from my last bit of family. That’s where Color came in again. Now I always knew Color had some weird quirks, still has a lot of them today as a matter of fact, but this one came as huge news to me at the time. One day Color came to Berries and I with a proposal. At first I was really confused. “Hey, you guys need somepony to take care of you, right?” Color asked us. “Of course we do. You know that,” I replied to him. “Well I has a solution!” Color exclaimed, very excitedly. I was confused. I cocked my head at him for a moment then asked, “What’s your idea?” “I can take care of you two!” He yelled excitedly, flying up into the air. I gave him the most confused and disapproving stare I ever could. I knew that our guardian had to be an adult. At the time, I thought Color was no older than I was. Never had I been so wrong, and I don’t think I’ve been so wrong since then. “Color you know you can’t do that right? You’re our age,” I replied, trying to keep a level head. “That’s the fun part! Time I let you two in on a little secret.” He said to us. He took about an hour to explain it to us. He went through how he was actually a few hundred years old. Along with that he was also half changeling, so he could change his form. Details confused me and my eyes glassed over as I realized how little I had known about my best friend. After some time though, Color had brought both Berries and myself back down to Equestria and had us understanding. Before I knew it, the Color I had grown up with morphed into a much more adult version of himself. And even sooner afterward he became our guardian. We still acted like best friends though. Before long this whole “immortal” deal became a thing of the past. Er... more like something that was better understood. Bottom line it became normal. And for the first time in a LONG time, I was actually happy.
Shenanigans in Las Pegasus (Abridged)I write this next section simply to spite Color. He and I commonly refer to the years I was aged 14-18 as the “Dark Years.” Essentially the years most of our bad decisions were made in, but were arguably the most fun. Each event was ended with an agreement: this shall never be spoken of again. Well, sorry Color, I am going to break this agreement just this once! Let’s see... where to start? There were so many fun things we did. For Color’s sake I won’t go into detail because it would mortify him. Which I guess is why I’m talking about Las Pegasus and not Baltimare. But that’s another story... Anyway let’s say there were a few too many ciders drunk, a few too many buildings defaced, and overall we’re just not allowed back in Las Pegasus.
ReunionSo after three years, a few other ponies that I were my friends decided to try and help out my... em... condition I believe is the word they used. I don’t know the exact details but what I do know is that they somehow got in touch with Color and arranged to have me go stay with him. It was meant to be a temporary arrangement as simply as way to get my mind back on track, but of course that didn’t turn out to be the case. In my mind at first I thought this was just their last ditch resort of getting rid of me before I did something really stupid that they would need to take care of. So I boarded a train bound for Canterlot, with only the knowledge of a house number and that there was a “surprise” waiting there. Just thought I would give you a heads up that this is where my part in the other story comes in. From here on out I will be retelling the events of the family I’ve come to know over the past... who knows how long it’s been now. If you would like to continue reading, by all means do. There are times in here I’ll be able to reiterate or even explain for the first time. Bottom line is, you may have read some of these things before. Then again you may not have. Anyway... where was I? So after a long train ride from Fillydelphia I arrived in Canterlot. It was my first time in this city and as much as I had traveled before, I was disoriented. It didn’t help either that it was so close to Hearth’s Warming that the ground was covered in a HUGE amount of snow. It was more than I had seen in a really long time. Anyway after about an hour of walking around the city getting my bearings I came up to the house. I took in a deep breath, then rang the doorbell eagerly. The response filled me with uncontrollable levels of joy. “Eh? Who thar?” my old friend Color Burst called from the inside of the house. Completely overwhelmed I simply yelled back to him, “It’s Tones! Just open the bloody door! It’s absolutely freezing out here!” Of course, this is Color Burst that we’re talking about and absolutely nothing he does makes any sort of sense. So rather than opening the door, he decides to just appear outside, just above me so he would drop down onto my back, causing me to fall to the ground. “Ohai!” He yelled in my face, “Long time no smell!” I pushed the unkempt pegasus from my back and got up laughing. I wasn’t even thinking, I was just so happy. “So... are we going to sit out here in the snow or are you going to let me in?” I asked Color as I began to shiver from the cold air. Thinking about it for a moment, Color finally responded, “Makes sense,” and opened up the door. It took me a minute to take it all in. The home was huge, much bigger than anywhere I had stayed before. There were five different levels, plus a basement. The first floor was mostly living space, the kitchen, and a bedroom for a pony I didn’t recognize, or even meet, until later. The second floor was Color’s. This was made obvious by that it was... well... a cloud. And also the random assortment of items contributed to this. The third floor was for bedrooms of three other ponies. I was a little taken back by all of the other ponies that lived in the home, it almost seemed like some crazy bunk house. Anyway, the fourth floor was dedicated to a small library. I wasn’t much of a reader, I’m still not, but I will admit the collection was quite impressive. The last floor had a hot tub in it which I assumed was just for relaxing. I never really used that hot tub much anyway. Anyway, the basement was suited up just for me, awesome recording station should I actually have decided to pick up my guitar and play it again. There were bunk beds over by one of the walls, which I didn’t understand if I was in the basement alone, plus I had plenty of storage. It was nice to have a place to stay to get away from the life of Fillydelphia. And a whole heck of alot better to have a place with my best friend. It didn’t take long to become acquainted with the other ponies living in the home. There was Marshmallow, a uh... what’s the word... normal... unicorn. I stress normal because you will soon see that being “normal” was extremely uncommon. She was very kind and especially tolerant when I first came in. There was Bubblegum, her earth pony sister. Bubble was a DJ, so naturally we got along to at least a musical extent. Next on the list was Color’s significant other at the time, Cherry Treats. I never really saw her on more than two occasions, one of which where she was threatening me with a sword. But that’s for later. And of course, last but not least, Silver Mane. She’s a vampony, which honestly took some adjustment on my part to get used to. I’m not about to lie to you, I was never really on all hooves with vamponies. This whole experience living with Color and friends changed that. But let’s get back to the story.
Pranks and Freakouts and Spirits, Oh My!So it didn’t take long for me to set in and get right to what me and Color used to do for fun. I went around and met others, we messed some stuff up around towns, you know usual stuff friends do together. One day Color took me to a town in the far south. It was built on the water and it just completely blew me away. It was called the Jade Archipelago, and to this day I find it to be an incredible sight. I was introduced to the leader at the time, a beautiful unicorn by the name of Copper Crystal, and was eventually set up with my own little home out quite literally on the water. (Oh don’t worry, yes Crystal becomes relevant later I promise.) Anyway, since a grand majority of the town’s supports were built from the trunks of trees, Color and I decided to plant bean plants all around the town. It was a harmless enough prank, and Crystal thought it was hilarious. Silver Mane and Marshmallow, not so much. I can say that I think that was their first strike on me. I had a feeling that three strikes and I was out, and I didn’t want to know what “out” was. It was obvious though that’s where I SHOULD have stopped. But naturally, I was just trying to have some harmless fun and it escalated way too quickly. I eventually felt the need to rig up the basement to defend myself should Silver try to kill me in my sleep. Looking back now, yes I think holy water may have been a bit extreme... okay VERY extreme... but I wasn’t thinking then. I was young, that’s my best excuse. After a stern talking to from Silver after the “trap” almost caught her, I ended up getting the feeling I wasn’t wanted around. I decided after my brief stay I might as well leave. I left a note for Color, packed up my stuff, and got a move on. This is where I kinda freak out. Not just an emotional breakdown, but I literally have no idea what all happened. I left Canterlot and next thing I know I was faced by Silver and Color in Ponyville. The snow was falling all around, I was cold, and I didn’t know what I was even doing there anymore. “Tones... is that you?” Silver asked, moving around as if trying to get a look at my eyes. Shaking my head from the shock I replied, “Yeah it’s me...” Who else would it be? I thought to myself, really confused. Next thing I know she’s hugging me, telling me how sorry she was. I looked over to Color with a confused look and hugged her back awkwardly. I didn’t know why she was apologizing and it wasn’t me, then again I just wanted to know what I was doing out in the snow. I guess it does warrant some explanation as to how I got out there. No it wasn’t amnesia that caused me to forget it, to be perfectly fair -I- never even really made the walk. We soon learned that I, just like many of the other ponies in that Canterlot home, was far from that normal I thought I fell under. Let me give a background for my explaining here. So Color has this Multiple Personality Disorder. One of said personalities was a spirit called Jace. Jace used to be some rage spirit, which warranted a need to get rid of him. So naturally I ended up picking up my own spirit hitchhiker by the name of Deus. Deus was there simply to get rid of other spirits and keep me stable. He was fine at first, but there’s a reason I still hate him to this day. Anyway, Deus decided to take over and talk to Silver to try and straighten things out. I wish this is where the spirits ended, but it only gets worse.
MatchmakerDon’t worry I’m not going to bore you with gushy romance or steamy scenes. Honestly, I would just feel weird writing that down anyway. So it’s a win-win situation. Still have to at least give a rundown of what happened and give it the laughs it deserves. Silver still holds this over my head that the only reason I had any sort of a relationship is because she intervened. Anyway, this is how it went down, special thanks to Color as well for getting the ball rolling. One evening a bunch of us friends were sitting around the living area of our home in Canterlot by the fire. We had just been out all day working in the cold and it was nice to have some time to relax by the fire. Color leaned over to Silver and whispered something in her ear before flying upstairs to do who-knows-what. Just as I was trying to figure out what Color had said, Silver called me away to talk to me in the basement, leaving Copper Crystal up in the living room. “So Tones, you’ve been here awhile now,” Silver began saying in a hushed tone, “have you had your eye on anypony?” Quizzically I looked at Silver, “What? You mean like romantically? Had feelings for anypony?” “Yeah exactly like that,” Silver replied, hoping to get an answer out of me. Truth is I did, but I wasn’t exactly sure about telling Silver. “Well... I don’t really know...” I said with a shaky voice, glancing up to the stairs. Just my luck, Silver was able to follow my gaze and make her guess. “Crystal?” She asked me, a small smile forming on her face. I hate how predictable I can be sometimes. I simply nodded to Silver. Silver excitedly half-lead, half-pulled me up the stairs again and all but threw me down onto the couch next to Crystal. After about ten minutes of beating around the bush, awkward starts, stutters, chokes, and so on, I finally asked her out. It was a strange feeling, in part because I hadn’t been romantically involved with anypony for a long time. Long story short is we really hit it off. We found common interests and went from there. Exploring unknown lands became a hobby for us. Jungles, deserts, tundras, nothing we wouldn’t tackle. Became a bit harder later, but I’ll get to that when it comes along. Let’s just say with Crystal, it was one good thing after another.
The Valorous VagabondsThe Valorous Vagabonds! That’s the name that our friend Heart Tips gave for Crystal and I. It was funny, mainly due to the fact that it fit. We always seemed to be moving around, going on adventures, braving the terrain, it was fun. Nothing kept us down. Our first date, I suppose you could call it, was exploring a huge jungle in search of an ocelot. We found one, but it wasn’t at all the best part. There was the time spent together while we camped up in trees overlooking the expanse of trees. We went on many dates similar to this, all equally as awesome and the one before. There were deserts, voyages on the high seas, even an endeavor into the Everfree Forest in search of who knows what. And unlike many of the other situations of life, things would get better and better. Things seemed to never die down. There were the adventures, there were parties, there was always being with each other and with our friends, it all was great. We had time where one of us or the other would have to leave on some journey we would have to take on our own, commonly over these spirits that had become such a prominent part of life for us, but we pulled through. And just when things seemed at the peak came more news. We had a child on the way. To this day it’s hard to explain the emotions going through somepony when they hear that kind of news. If you’ve ever been a parent I suppose you understand. Anyhow, before we knew it we had a son. We named him Sunset Dreamer, which showed later to fit him extremely well. He had the same brilliant coat as his mother, reddish mane and tail, and strikingly green eyes much like mine. He grew up in our new home in Ponyville where just about all of us save Color lived now. Sunset became great friends with all the other foals at the home and life continued to look up. Being together as a family helped us forget about all the strange times we all were going through.
Magic LessonsIt’s incredible how the smallest ideas can tend to have the largest impact. One day, I went up into the attic of the new Ponyville home and found my guitar. I had left it packed because I simply didn’t have much time to play it. Having found a gap of free time, I decided it may be a good idea. Blowing off the dust, I brought it up to me and Crystal’s room. Sitting up on a bookshelf, I began to strum a few chords. It had been so long but my talent had not faded. In minutes I was playing full on songs and I completely lost myself in the music. At some point, I had closed my eyes, and when I reopened them, Crystal was standing there with a wide grin. At first I was confused, did she like the music? Then I realized that the floor was covered in books. Piles and piles of spell books and recipes that belonged to Crystal, all scattered about. Confused I asked, “How did this happen?” Grin still wide as anything, Crystal responded, “It was you.” I was taken back. I did this? There was no way. I just had played my music. No magic, no nothing. Or was there? “I think I have learned how we can get your to use your magic,” Crystal explained to me. “I’m not sure I follow...” I said, still visibly lost. “Your music,” she replied, “It can be used as a way to channel your magic.” Unsure, I closed my eyes and began to play the chords again, sure enough I opened my eyes and my horn was giving off a magical aura, and I lifted the books up into the air. I spun them around and sent them dipping and diving around before returning them each to their own place on the shelves. I had never smiled so brightly since I was a foal. The feeling was overwhelming. I didn’t know what to make of it, and ended up going more in depth with working with the magic. After many hours of trial and error, we had finally found a way to use my magic. I could start and stop small flames on command, and levitate several objects at a time. As I stated, I hadn’t been more happy in a long time. Next things decided to get a little complicated though.
"Homecoming"Despite the title of the chapter, no, there is not an actual homecoming here. In a way, but nopony is actually coming “home.” Not to their true home at least. Okay I’ll just get on with it then. It was a calm day, a rare occasion with our little family. We had had some recent events that had been quite hectic, the main one being Crystal choosing to become a vampony (this has relevance soon and I’m not just mentioning it for the sake of it.) Sunset was playing with Silver’s son Blind Eye, and us as the parents were hanging around the living room. All in all, it had been a good day. I went upstairs to fetch my guitar to play a quick song, something I did not commonly have much time for anymore. I was hardly up the stairs when we heard a hard knock at the front door. I passed it off as nothing and Silver went to answer it. Little did I know that the pony at the door was about to rock the past twenty years of my life. I continued to look around for the guitar as Silver answered it. Suddenly, she called up to me, “Tones, there’s somepony here to see you.” My mind sort of wandered as to whom it may be. The concept of having a guest wasn’t hard to grasp, given we had a lot of friends in the area. I stopped my search and took my time coming to the stairs. “Tones, I would really hurry if I were you,” Silver called again with a sense of urgency in her voice. At this point I knew something was most likely off. Not many things could get Silver rattled, so for her to sound almost uncertain about anything was never a good sign. I raced to the stairs and half ran, half fell down to see who could possibly get Silver so stirred up. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The pony I saw was a large, braun pony with a deep blue coat. His dark brown eyes seemed to stare into me and the large amounts of gray in his mane and tail seemed to set aside the gray in mine. Coming down the stairs I came face to face with none other than: my father. I had heard rumors from my friends back home in Fillydelphia that he may be around again, but I thought of it as a cruel joke to get me back there. I don’t know why, but they had become less relevant to me. What was startling though, was that their stories had rung true. My father spoke up, “Still wearing those ridiculous ties I see?” He never was one for sentiment. Then again, there aren’t many fathers who are. For all I know, Sunset says the same of me, but that’s not for this story. “Twenty years,” I replied, “Twenty bloody years you disappear off the face of Equestria and your first words to me are criticism of my TIE??” “I had my reasons, reasons that you have no right to question me of,” he replied. He may have been my father, but we never were on good terms. He was always disappointed with my lack of being able to master magic, which now with Crystal’s help I was on my way to doing so. “He has every right to!” Silver chimed in. Leave it to Silver to not miss a beat and stand in to help a friend. It costed here though. Without hesitation for a moment, my father let out a forceful smack with the back of his hoof across Silver’s muzzle. She stumbled back in shock, and was supported by Crystal to prevent her from falling, while Blind Eye found his way over to his mother to comfort her. Sunset also ran behind Crystal, unsure of what to do in the commotion. My father turned back to me, ready to question me. “If anypony, I am the one with the right to question.” He started gesturing to Silver and Crystal and more so, their fangs, “Beginning with who are these... -things- and why are you living with -them-?” Gesturing to Silver and Crystal I replied, “These -things- are my friends, father. The one you just hit, her name is Silver Mane. She’s a very good friend of mine, and I’d rather you not hit her.” Looking now at Crystal I added, “And she, is Copper Crystal...” My father raised his hoof to stop me but I would have no part in it. “...the mother of your grandson.” This struck a nerve. Appalled, my father babbled out, “You mean to say that you... and her...” He gave me a disgusted look that only he could give. Lovely stallion he was. “If it makes you feel better, she wasn’t a vampony when Sunset was born.” I shot back, “Not that it should even matter, granted love should know no boundaries.” I was getting riled, so naturally I said something stupid next. “You could really learn a thing or two about love you know, after you left Berries and I in the wake of tragedy! Where the hell have you been for the past ten years that you couldn’t even check in on us ONCE. Color ended up being a better father than you!” It was my turn to be hit now. The cracking of my father’s hoof against my face was almost unbearable, but I gave it little attention. He had gotten me angry, and nothing stands in my way while I am angry. This is when I drew the last straw. The one that broke him as it were. “You didn’t even have the decency to show up to your own daughter’s wedding!” This cut deep. Berries had always been the visible favorite, but I didn’t let it get to me. After father had left, it didn’t even seem to matter. Berries had literally gotten married the day before. She and her new husband were off on some trip now anyway, and my father had just missed her. This destroyed him. “I... I didn’t...” my father tried to reply, but the words wouldn’t come out. He stood speechless for what seemed to be an eternity. Finally he spoke again. “I am deeply sorry, to the lot of you. But mostly to you, son. I cannot say why I was gone for as long as I was, but by no means did I want to leave you and Berries alone. The news of your mother came very much later, almost three years later in fact. I have no reason for you to believe me, I only ask for forgiveness.” I looked to Crystal and to Silver, then to Sunset and to Blind. I wiped the blood from my muzzle with my hoof and looked my father square in the eye for what seemed like forever. “I forgive you father, for the sake of our family. There’s no sense staying bitter.” I said, “But you better believe I will want to talk. There’s a lot you missed.” I went outside of our house to a sitting area we had out back with my father and began telling him the stories. I told him of how Color took me and Berries in, of Color leaving, and me moving back in with him in Canterlot. I told him of when I met Crystal at the Jades Archipelago, and the stories of the “Valorous Vagabonds.” Before long, Sunset had made his way outside and sat with us to listen. I told of the spirits of Deus and Shade, and their conflict and how it had pertained to us ponies. And lastly, I had to explain to him Crystal’s idea for getting my magic to channel, and how it was working. Some hours later, I had my father up to speed on most everything that had happened. I realized that as mad as I was that he had left us, I wouldn’t have it another way. Because if he hadn’t disappeared, never would I have had these adventures and met these incredible friends.
IntroductionHuh, well isn't this interesting? I should probably start this off with an introduction. My name is Smooth Tones. I’m a unicorn. Sky blue coat, brown and white mane and tail, super unkempt, I’m a musician, but the description isn’t really important. This is a story about me. I realize how self centered that must sound but to be perfectly honest I never see this to actually be published. It’s another account to be able to keep what I've done in live alive, long after I’m gone. Despite all my friends being immortal and it’s only a matter of time before I pass and they can live on, there’s much even they do not know. You may or may not have read the story about my time with said friends already. If you haven’t, I recommend you start there. It will prevent me from having to explain some of my friends in good detail. Or I suppose you can bear with me and figure it out as you go: your choice. Anyway, this story isn't meant to attract sympathy, or anything of the sort for that matter. So, the next decision is where do I begin. Let’s see how far I can remember back.
An Unexpected MeetingLet’s start on a happy note shall we? I was only a foal at me and my sister’s second birthday party. Yeah, we’re twins, but I’ll get back to that. To be honest I don’t know where to start. Most of the other ponies there I’ve forgotten who they were. Great friends right? This is where I begin because this is where I met Color Burst. If you’ve read the other story, you know him pretty well by now. If not here’s a brief description: he has a white coat, deep blue mane and tail, color spectrum cutie mark, a pegasus. The basics. Anyway, back to the story. So we’re sitting there at my house, in the dining room to be specific. We were about to blow out the candles on our cake when -CRASH- in through the ceiling comes Color. He was foal-sized at the time, so he was about the size of the cake. Cake is splattered, everypony else has run to the hills, and I’m just sitting there with this amazed look on my face. It’s not like I hadn’t seen a pegasus before, heck my own father is a pegasus, but it was just his entry and everything. “Heya!” Color finally said to me. Quickly trying to zone back in I responded, “Oh hey...” I don’t know what it was, I still don’t even know to this day, but we really hit it off. We became instant best friends. Everypony else at that party? I rarely have seen them since. Color and I, we were like brothers. Not understanding a lot about him then, I just assumed he had no family, which is true in part I suppose. He came to live with us so that contributed greatly to the whole “like brothers” thing. My parents weren’t fond of him, but they accepted him because he was my friend. Well... let me reiterate, Mom accepted him. With Dad we were lucky to get ANY sort of kindness out of him. My sister absolutely adored him though. It was funny to see how Berries treated him from time to time, it was almost like she really thought he was her brother. That’s changed much over the years, in fact we don’t see much from Berries anymore anyway. But back to Color. In a nutshell, we did everything together. We had, and still have, this unshakable friendship that will never be broken. Not be any circumstances. Kind of why I’m writing this whole story anyway.
DepartureSo naturally, good times don’t last forever. Around when I turned nineteen, Color had to go. He was only going to Canterlot, but granted I was old enough to live on my own it’s not like he would come back to check up on me. I had gone to the train station with him, and even sat there for hours after his train had left. He was may only truly good friend, and I didn’t know if I would ever see him again. It was like with my father, he left of a trip, and we still hadn’t seen him for almost seven years. I didn’t know what to think. I was lost for the longest time just trying to readjust. Yes I know I was an adult. Yes I know I shouldn’t have been moping around over this. Fact of the matter is though, I couldn’t help myself. It was like the loss of my mother all over again. Berries hadn’t taken it so hard due to her uncanny ability to go out and actually make friends. I just did what I could to keep up. I tried to work to get my mind off of things but my brain loves to wander. I spent who knows how long thinking about if I would ever see my best friend again, and it got bad. Fast forward a couple years of repetitive nothingness and I was twenty-one. Around this time I had almost given up on ever seeing Color again. I don’t know if you know what that feels like, losing a friend, but it sucks. It became hard over time to even get up out of bed in the mornings. Needless to say, circumstances were going from bad to worse in my head with each passing day. Which is why the next year’s events were so great.
Spirit RivalriesJace and Deus were just the tip of the iceberg as the saying goes. There was a much deeper lying evil with these spirits. Color happened to have another one with him by the name of Shade. This stallion was bad, thousands of times worse than Jace ever was. He exploited weakness, faults, guilt, anything and would destroy somepony based on it. Frankly he was good at what he did. He was able to drive wedges between us that to this day I don’t want to move around. Let me put one exceptionally bad situation out there. We had just had a little complication with Marsh and Silver. In short, Silver had turned Marsh into a vampony and everypony was taking it differently. We all tried to be as supportive as we could and Shade took this as his chance. “So... we’ve got a new bitey one out do we?” Shade remarked, sniffing the air around Marsh whilst flying around her. She just sat on top of a hill, staring out over the ocean. Crystal and I approached, seeing Shade’s obvious attempts to torment Marsh, and tried to get him to come at us instead. Eventually he flew down to us and began to berate the two of us. It was fine at first, but when he started to relentlessly shell Crystal, I got angry. No, I got pissed. I hit the spirit as hard as I could with my hoof, astonished that it not only made contact, but seemed to actually wound him. The dark spirit stared at me with his cold empty eyes and said, “So that’s how you want to play then? Okay. I can play that way.” An evil grin crossed his face and he continued to stare into my eyes. I felt like I was being stabbed, but I couldn’t pull away. Little did we know that this stare greatly sped up the aging process and breaking down my “personality.” Essentially the fabric of who I was was being broken down and I didn’t even know for the longest time. It’s what turned parts of my blonde mane and tail to an almost bright white. It was, above all else, killing me. Now obviously we found a way to reverse it, but it wasn’t pretty. We needed to fake the death of Color’s own daughter and that by no means ended well. So there’s a little look into the sick torment that is Shade. And it doesn’t end there. He LOVES to put himself where he’s most diabolic. Deus came with the greater purpose of stopping him. Part of me wants to think is Deus being in my head until the near death situation is what had Shade focused on me. There’s a reason I hate spirits. If this doesn’t make it obvious, I don’t know what will.
