Chapter 1

Wave was a rather small colt, not yet having earned his Cutie Mark. He had crimson hair spiked forward, and a single vibrant orange stripe running through it. His coat was white, though not as much as those Ponywood actors. His eyes were a unique, yet strange brown. He spent most of his days alone, with headphones in his ears, whether they were playing anything or not. In the schoolyard he sat under a large apple tree, waiting for the day to be over with, every single day, with nopony else sitting with him. He was constantly picked on, for many reasons, but he didn’t care. Insults like “Dirty White”, “Mud Eyes”, and the ever unoriginal “Blank Flank” just rolled off his shoulder. At least that’s what he told himself. Sure he had ponies to talk to, but they hurled insults just the same as everypony else. He didn’t want to be all alone. He NEEDED somepony to talk to, anypony at all that wouldn’t make fun of him, even jokingly. Anypony that would listen to him, and be there when he needed it. It wasn’t healthy for a young colt like him to be alone. He needed a friend.
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One day, during recess, he was sitting in his usual spot under the apple tree. Other ponies were playing hoofball, very poorly at that. He just happened to look up, right in time to catch a hoofball to the face. The ball slowly rolled around him, coming to a stop at his side. He figured they would just trot over and take it back themselves and totally ignore him, just like they had plenty of other times. This was not the case.

Suddenly a blue unicorn with a black mane was trotting up to him, with a less than friendly look on his face. Wave recognized him as the most popular colt in his class, who always got what he wanted. Wave hated ponies like that. The other pony reached him, and began hurling insults at Wave. Not like Wave could hear any, his headphones blaring. Wave just wanted to let it pass. In less than a second the other pony took his MP3 player, smashed it into pieces, and hurled the pieces in a million different directions across the schoolyard. If it was one thing Wave couldn’t stand, it was the interrupting of his music.
The blue colt began yelling at him, “Think you’re too good to help us out? Think you’re better just because your dad is famous?”
Wave cringed, his father was the famous Mathias Length. Mathias was a master piano player, and for 2 years was even played privately for Princess Celestia herself. Wave didn’t like his father, none the less. He had left him and his mom when he was only a week old, and had never spoken to him. Mathias could have come back at any point, if only to say hi. He never did, leaving Wave and his mother to fend for themselves.
Wave simply replied, “I don’t think I’m better. Honestly it shouldn’t be my responsibility to get the ball, seeing as you’re already over here.”
This made the other colt even angrier, “You’re just too lazy! You probably think spitting is too much work!”
In Wave’s typical smart ass style, he spat in his face. “In hindsight,” Wave thought, “that probably wasn’t a smart idea.”
That was an understatement. The blue colt, now absolutely furious, began pounding wave with his front hooves. Over and over and over, Wave took the brunt of the other colt’s strength. The pounding had drawn a large crowd. Several ponies were cheering “Blue Blast! Blue Blast!”, in favor of the other pony, which only fueled his tirade even more.
Suddenly, after what seemed like an eternity, the pounding stopped. Wave thought another pony had gotten Cherilee, and she had broken up the battering. He was astonished to see a crimson red pegasus with a bright yellow mane was now kicking the hell out of Blue Blast. This was a weird feeling for Wave. Nopony had ever stood up for him before. He watched as the red pony continued pounding Blue Blast, eventually slowing to a stop. Satisfied with the beating he had just given Blue Blast, which would no doubt go down in the school’s history, he trotted over to Wave.
Wave spoke first, “W-Why did you help me? Nopony ever helps me. Especially not like that.”
The crimson pony simply smiled. “I can’t stand that guy. He needed a good beating. Besides, he was just looking for a fight, so I gave him one.” He stuck out a hoof, “the names Verve, nice to meet you.”
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During lunch Wave found himself sitting alone, as usual, with no red pegasus in sight. Wave played around with his food a bit, bored. He was surprised that he wasn’t hungry, especially with the lunch being grilled cheese. He could’ve sworn he heard wing flaps, but pushed it aside as him hearing things. He continued playing around with his food, taking a bite here or there.
With a loud thunk Verve crashed down taking his seat beside a now airborne Wave. Verve looked over expecting to see Wave sitting peacefully, as he had been. Wave was in fact not in his seat, eating his lunch. But rather, stuck with his head in the ceiling, attempting to pull himself free, unsuccessfully. After some pulling and pushing and an overall attempt to escape his position, he just let himself hang there until he got help.
Somewhere he heard laughter, and a familiar voice yelling “Sorry!”. This was followed by an abrupt pulling on his legs, a snap of the roof, and then falling. They would again get a scolding today. This time, for property damage.

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Later on, after a lot of discussion with the principal, Cherilee, and a hollow apology from Blue Blitz, Wave was walking home, as usual, except that he had Verve walking along with him.
“So, your name’s Wave?”
“Yeah.”
“You new around here?”
“Nope.”
“You ever give more than a one word answer?”
“Sometimes.”
“That’s fine with me, I talk enough for the both of us.”
“…..hey, thanks again for today.”
“Eh, it’s no problem, really. You live around here? I haven’t ever seen you walking home.”
“My house is behind Sugarcube Corner, it’s not really noticeable.”
“Really?!? Do you happen to know Pinkie Pie?”
“Well I haven’t talked to her much, but I know who she is. Why?”
“Man, such a shame. She’s cute.”
Immediately Verve stopped in his tracks, and proceeded to facehoof in response to what he just said. Wave managed a small laugh.
“Really now? That’s an interesting fact to know. I may use that later.”
“Hey now, I’ve seen who you look at.”
“and who would that be?”
“Oh I don’t know, a certain gray pony with a knack for playing the cello perhaps?”
Wave was taken aback by the fact that Verve knew. “Was it that obvious? Really?”
“Nah bro, I was just throwing something out there. Apparently I’m a good guesser!”
Verve chuckled, now knowing valuable information about Wave as well.
“NOT cool.”
“Haha, You mad?”
“Bro, I ain’t even mad!”
Wave stopped in his tracks. The gray pony mentioned just moments earlier, was standing, chatting with another filly. Right in front of him. It took Verve a moment to realize what was wrong.
“Dude, you should go talk to her.”
“I don’t even know her name!”
“So? Ask for it. You’ll never make any progress if you don’t talk to her.”
“But-“
“No buts. Now either you go talk to her, and face your nerves, or I will do it for you.”
“-Sigh- Fine…I’ll go.”
“I’ll be standing by, in case you need help. Good luck bro!”
Verve gave Wave a look that said “Go get her!”.
Wave thought to himself, “OK, I’ll go over, talk for a bit, and then Verve will leave me alone.” With a deep breath he continued forward, with each step bringing nerves along with it.
“---and honestly what’s so “awesome” about this Deadhor5 fellow? I’ve seen much better musicians. Lots of them.” The earth pony was apparently having an argument about taste in music with the blue maned unicorn next to her.
“Uh, excuse me.” Wave mentally facehoofed, what a stupid interruption. Quick! Think of something you need!
“Oh, hello. You’re that pony from the fight today, right? Are you OK?”
With this, Wave was saved from the evils of thinking on command.
“Uh, yeah that was me. I’m fine really, I can take a hit or two.”
“That was more than a hit or two!”. The blue maned unicorn had butted in, and was now clearly going to be as much of a part of this conversation as the gray one.
“Well, I’m fine, really.”
“I don’t believe we’ve introduced ourselves. My name is Octavia, and this is my friend, Vinyl.”
“ITS DJ PON-3!”
“Right, Vinyl intends to be a DJ in the future. I see little chance of that ever happening.”
“Thanks for the support, Octy.”
“My name’s Wave.”
“AND MINE’S VERVE!”, a certain red pegasus yelled while crashing into Wave, knocking him about 15 hoofsteps away.
Octavia ran over to check on Wave, while Vinyl was blabbering on about how cool that was to Verve. Both colts were knocked out.
“Vinyl! What are we gonna do!?”
“I don’t know, but that was AMAZING! That guy was like “WHOOSH!” and then Wave was like “AHHHH!” and then they both went like “CRASH!” and now this!”

With both ponies knocked out, Octavia instinctively knew they were hurt. She ran as fast as she could to the nearest house, and banged on the door.
“Excuse me! Anyone home?”
Octavia could hear a faint sound of pounding techno, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. The door opened, and revealed a tall stallion with a red mane.
“Somethin’ I can help you with?”
“There are two young colts passed out over there! Do you know first aid?”
The stallion gave a sigh, and the called for someone within the house, “Maddy! Bring the first aid kit!”
A pink mare soon emerged with a first aid kit. Octavia explained her predicament, and then the pegasus flew on over to them. She checked their pulse, their temperature, and then their reflexes.
“They seem fine, no wings broken, no legs injured. If I give you some medicine, will you give it to them when they wake up?”
“Yes, I could do that. What do we do until then.”
At that moment a small orange pegasus came out of the house. “MOM! My turntables are broken again!”
“Not now. Can’t you see there are passed out ponies?”
“Woah! Didn’t see em’ there.” He looked around to get his bearings. Then looked over, and spoke to Vinyl. “My names Clank. A one name celebrity!”
“I haven’t heard of you.”
“A soon to be one name Celebrity!”
“Clank, get your father, we can let these colt’s stay with us for the night.”
“Where are they gonna sleep?”
“In the basement, with the extra beds. Not a problem, is it?”
Clank saw the look in his mother’s eyes. The look said, “No arguments, do as you’re told”
He did just that.

Wave awoke to the smell of pancakes. He knew the smell anywhere. “Was his mom still home? Why did she make pancakes? She only does that for special occasions.” His memory slowly returned to him, and he turned to his side, to see a pegasus sleeping in the next bed over. He trotted over, and started yelling at him.
“WAKE UP VERVE! YOU’RE SO STUPID! WHY COULDN’T YOU WATCH WHERE YOU WERE GOING?”
“Aw, come on mate, not a good way to wake up the person that lives in this house. Especially after we took you two in.”
Clank rose up, and turned to Wave.
“Oh, eheh, my bad. Mind telling me what’s going on?”
“Well, last night you bumped your head. Actually, speedy over there crashed into your head. Little gray filly came up to our house, asking for help. Mom fixed you guys up, and we brought you in for the night.”
Wave was thinking, about Octavia. She’d cared enough to run and get help?
“Eh, sorry Wave!” announced Verve from across the room. He stretched a bit.”No harm no foul right?”
“You guys were knocked out for hours!”
“OK so, my fault. Well Wave, I best get going. Don’t wanna impose on these guys any more than I have already. Thanks, whatever your name is!”
“It’s Clank.”
“Strange name, but OK!”. He walked up the stairs, and there was a faint “Thanks!” from above.
“So….Clank is it? I haven’t seen you anywhere at school, are you new?”
“I’m homeschooled. Dad doesn’t like the school system, or any system for that matter.”
“I see you have some turntables over there. You a DJ?”
“Nah, I’m not much for being the one to spin it. I make the tracks. I’d show you, but 10:00 is a bit early to blare music.”
“CRAP! It’s 10am?!”
“Uh, yep. Why?”
“Sorry dude, but I gotta go. Like, now.”
“Why in a rush?”
“My mom’s probably home worried sick!” He was halfway up the stairs, ”Thanks again! Hope to see ya around! Thanks Clank’s parents!” He headed out the door, and ran down the block.
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