Fourth Class: Concert

The upper deck was absolutely packed with ponies and other creatures. Perhaps every being on the airship was in attendance as the red dragon and white unicorn scurried around onstage, making last-minute preparations. Once again, Twilight had lost Rainbow Dash and Applejack in the crowd, but this time, Ginger managed to stay by her side, while Spike rode on her back.

“I hear that a mare by the name of Octavia is going to be playing,” she said, trying to get a conversation moving.

Ginger perked her ears up. “Really? As in, Octavia Philharmonica? She’s coming to this academy as well?”

“What, do you know everypony?” Twilight asked with a giggle.

“No, but Octavia Philharmonica is, oh, just a little bit famous,” Ginger said with a smirk. “She’s been the talk of the classical music scene of Canterlot for seven years now. A real prodigy, that one. Of course, lately, she seems to have been influenced by some... well, less than classic forms of music.”

Twilight’s jaw hung limply. “Huh... how do you know about all that?”

“Being a breath stealer doesn’t exactly facilitate staying in one place for extended lengths of time, so I travel a lot. I’ve been coming and going around the Canterlot area for the past nine years or so, and I always like to keep up with the music scene. My constant travelling is how I met Rainbow Dash and Applejack.”

“Wait a minute,” Spike said. “Nine years? If you’re a first-year at this school, shouldn’t you be the same age as everypony else? Twi’s only fifteen, and you don’t look any older.”

Ginger smiled sweetly. “Oh, I kind of slipped through the cracks of the Foundation’s search team. I’m a bit older than I look. I keep forgetting that I don’t look any older than a teen.”

“Huh. How much older?” Spike asked.

“Sorry, but a filly’s got to keep some secrets,” Ginger said with a wink.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. So, what other places have you been to?”

Ginger thought for a moment. “Well, there’s Stalliongrad... Never going back there. And before you ask, no, you don’t want to know,” she said with a laugh. “Oh, twelve years ago, I visited Atlantis.”

Twilight stared for a few moments. “A-Atlantis,” she stammered. “You mean... it’s real? Scholars and explorers have been speculating about it and searching for it for centuries! How in the name of Celestia did you find it?”

“I have connections,” Ginger stated simply.

Twilight raised a hoof and opened her mouth as if to deliver a retort, but none came to her, so she shut her mouth into a scowl.

“Yeah, unfortunately they didn’t like me very much,” Ginger said with a nervous laugh. “The guard dogs are scary, too. Had to bail pretty quick after I arrived.”

“Really? I would think that after being isolated for so long, they’d be happy to see a new face.”

“You’d think so, yes. I guess they don’t take very kindly to other immortals.”

“I see... Wait, other immortals? You mean to tell me Atlanteans are immortals like you?” Twilight asked.

“Well, not like me. Breath Stealers are a sort of special case in terms of immortality. No, Atlanteans are something entirely different. I think they called themselves... oh, what was that word... Progenitors, that’s it. I guess if you look far enough back in pony history, there are records of individuals living for hundreds or even a thousand years, but only before some unspecified cataclysm. Since then, the only immortals that have been in the public eye are the alicorn monarchy. I guess most alicorns are direct-line descendants of the last of these Progenitors that didn’t end up in Atlantis.”

“Wow,” was all Twilight had to say.

“Hey, at the time, I had nothing better to do than research. Cut me some slack,” Ginger said with a laugh.

“Yo! Can I have your attention?” A loud voice boomed through the impromptu concert hall. “We are officially ready for this most badass of concerts to begin! I, Vinyl Scratch, will be your most humble DJ tonight.” Everyone quieted their conversations and looked up to the stage to see the shades-sporting unicorn behind a microphone. “For today’s performance, we’ve got Demongate Academy’s very own Octavia Philharmonica!” A wave of whispers spread through the crowd. “Yes, yes, it is, in fact, that Octavia Philharmonica. Hold your fangasms, please.” Laughter from the crowd. “Alrighty, then. Come on out, ‘Tavi!”

A grey earth pony mare stepped up to the stage, toting an oversized golden cello, bringing the crowd to a roar of cheers and applause. She stood, adjusted her pink bowtie, took the cello bow in the crux of her hoof, and rested it on the strings. She took one final, stoic look out at the wild audience, which calmed almost immediately. And then she began to play.

===

Once the concert had finished, a voice spoke over the intercom. “Welcome, students of Demongate Academy, both incoming freshmen and returning upperclassmen. I hope you enjoyed the impromptu concert hosted by members of the third-year class. I would like to announce that we will be docking at Demongate Island within half an hour, so please secure any belongings aside from luggage and ready yourselves for departure.”

“Wow, that was a fast flight,” Twilight remarked. “It’s only been about four hours since we boarded. I thought it would be an eight hour flight or more.”

“I think, by all rights, it should have been,” Ginger said, pulling a map of the world out of her saddlebags and allowed Twilight’s telekinesis to hold it open while they walked. “See, we left from the airport in this area.” She pointed a hoof near Canterlot. “And here is where I’ve been told the Academy is located.” She pointed to empty ocean space, over a thousand kilometers from the coasts of Equestria. “Even the fastest conventional airships should have taken at least seven or eight hours to reach this area.”

“But there’s nothing there,” Spike said. “Does airship speed really matter when we’re headed toward a whole lot of nothing?”

“There’s nothing recorded,” Ginger said. “I don’t think the Foundation wanted it on any maps, so my guess is that they did something to prevent normal creatures, those without supernatural powers, from finding it, even if they wanted to.”

“Right, something about supernatural existence is imperceptible by the uninitiated,” Twilight said. “I think the phenomenon is called unseen.”

“So certain supernatural things are invisible to normals?” Spike asked.

“That’s the basic gist of it,” Ginger said. “I took that power from a ghost once. It was pretty useful for a while, but I ran out of it a while back.”

“Anyway,” Twilight interjected, “this airship is probably enchanted to fly faster or something, which is how it’s getting there so quickly.”

“Oh!” Ginger stopped in her tracks. “The PA system said something about securing belongings. I just remembered I left something really important back where I was resting before I went to find you. You guys go on and get ready to disembark, and I’ll catch up with you once we’re on the island,” she said, and turned and ran off in the opposite direction.

“That was… abrupt,” Spike said. “Oh well, at the very least, plus one friend. See, this assignment from the Princess isn’t going to be too hard after all. And it seems you’re well on your way to two more, with Rainbow Dash and Applejack. I guess you’re not too bad at this friend-making thing.”

“Heh, maybe you’re right about that,” Twilight said with a grin. “It does seem easier than I thought it would be. Maybe I can try to make friends with another ESPer, so I have somepony to talk to about my own powers.”

“Hey, that’s a great idea! Can’t you sense other ESPers with your super-senses, too?”

“That I can, Spike. That I can,” Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. She could feel a number of psychic emanations from those around her, but one of them seemed different from the others, more special. She turned to look in the direction of the special emanation.

What met her was a pair of violet eyes, only a slightly lighter shade than her own, mere inches from her face. She fell back on her haunches with a yelp. The light-blue coated unicorn mare in front of Twilight eyed her with guarded curiosity. When she had said nothing for a few moments, Twilight decided to pick herself up and introduce herself. “Hi, sorry about that. I was just--”

“Reaching out with ESP to detect others with psychically based powers,” the mare interrupted.

“How did you--”

“Know what you were going to say? Remember who you were looking for.” The mare’s mouth curled into a sneer.

“Okay, I guess I’m not the only one with--”

“Psychic training, though I’ve been honing mine for about 18 months, while you seem to have just started.”

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “You do know you don’t have to--”

“Finish your sentences?” The mare scowled and locked eyes with Twilight.

The two mares stared at each other for a few seconds with tentative gazes, a number of other passengers slowing their passing-by to see what was going on.

The blue mare snickered quietly, breaking the tension. “Sorry, Trixie just couldn’t help herself. You’re rather--”

“Easy to read?” Twilight interrupted. “My mentor told me that as well, though I had hoped I wouldn’t hear it from somepony who’s supposed to be on the same level as I am.” She flashed a confident smile and chuckled to herself.

“Well, let Trixie see if your mentor was--”

“Any good?” Twilight interrupted again, feeling and resisting a psychic push from the mare. “She was more than good; she was mind-blowing,” she said, sending a psychic push back at Trixie.

Trixie visibly recoiled, her eyes wide, but she quickly recovered. “Trixie sees. Even the meager amount of training you received was enough for you to more than match Trixie’s level. What is your name?”

“Twilight Sparkle. And I presume yours is Trixie, judging from your continued illeism,” Twilight said, her smile turning more sheepish and unsure.

“But of course,” Trixie said with a smug smirk, turning to walk away. “Trixie has a feeling you will be a formidable rival, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight stood there, stunned, still wearing a sheepish smile, for a few moments as the last few ponies streamed past her to prepare for disembarking. “What just happened, Spike?”

Spike opened his mouth and raised a claw as if to say something, but paused. His eyes shifted for a few moments, then he shrugged. “Heck if I know.”

“Well, did I make a friend or not?” she asked, still confused.

“She said ‘rival,’ so I guess you got plus-point-five friends. That makes… three… and a half?” he said, his voice unsure.

“I guess,” Twilight said with a sigh. “It seems everypony else is preparing to get off. We should do the same.” She levitated Spike up onto her back and left the makeshift concert hall empty.

A small green form emerged from a shadowy corner of the auditorium and smirked. “Those two…” Zen Star mused with a chuckle. “Looks like I’ve stumbled on something interesting.”

Author's Note

Exposition, foreshadowing, character development and introduction!
Sorry for the long wait... I tried about five or six different versions of this chapter, introducing different characters, mostly the rest of the Mane 6, but I just couldn't work them in right. So we get friend number 3.5, the rival. The Blue to Twilight's Red, the Silver to her Gold, the Jake to her Ewan. TRIXIE.

Sorry if people's predictions about chaos at the concert were sadly unfulfilled. I just wanted to get this chapter finished and off the back burner. Hopefully with its release I'll be able to get a full head of steam to continue the story.

Cheers!