Cheering ponies, bright lights, and the chanting of his name. His stage name.
"Synth! Synth! Synth!"
He smiled at the crowd. Even though he couldn't hear them through his headphones, he knew what they wanted. Encore.
The clock had passed 1:00 AM. 12:00 was supposed to be closing time. Without taking his headphones off, he grabbed his microphone, and said, "Alright everypony, thank you for being a wonderful audience! Goodnight!"
He stepped out from behind his equipment, and took a bow. The crowd roared.
He gave them another smile. It was a habit of his to smile at them. As he walked backstage, he finally took off his headphones.
"Great show tonight, man!"
"You really nailed that, Synth!"
More and more congratulatory messages from the ponies backstage.
He left out the back, where he knew the crowd was thinnest, and his average size and appearance allowed him to escape towards home undetected.
He looked back at the building he preformed in, then chuckled.
"You did pretty good tonight, buddy. Proud of ya." he said to himself with another chuckle.
He placed his headphones back onto his head and hummed along to the song that played. It wasn't of his own design, but from another artist. In fact, he liked this artist's work more than he liked his own.
Synth was an electronic artist, and he liked electronic songs. He was usually associated with the best of this generation's artists, but he disliked all the fame that came with it.
He loved making music, and loved making everypony happy, but the ponies that liked his music were starting to get very intrusive. Synth was a very solitary pony, and wasn't very good at social interactions. In fact, he was somewhat shy in public.
He felt the tap of a hoof on his flank, but ignored it. It happened again, and he decided to find out what it was.
He took the headphones off, and shut his music off, then turned around.
He let out a small gasp. Even in the darkness, the mare that had tapped on him was still the most beautiful mare he had ever seen.
"Uh... hello." she said nervously.
He took a step back, and was unable to look her in her eyes. "Hi."
"Are you Synth?" she asked him, more confidently.
"I... yeah. Yeah, I'm Synth. Wh-what do you want?"
She smiled ecstatically, and hopped into the air a few times. "Yeah! I knew it! I knew you were him!"
"Hey, hey, hey... Keep it down. Somepony else might notice me."
"Oh, sorry. The headphones really gave it away, though. Anypony who knows you knows that you wear those."
He looked to the headphones he wore around his neck. The normal version of them was known by the name Synth Waves, which he designed himself. His version, however, was an updated model of them. There was no visible difference other than the 'version 2.0' on one of the earcups, but it was practically invisible during the night.
"That right?"
"Yeah. Those things are pretty nice. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I really loved your show tonight."
"Thanks."
"I came all the way here from Ponyville to see it!"
"Oh really? I... I used to live in Ponyville, you know."
"Whoa, what? How long ago was that?"
"Just a few years."
"Man, we could've met before and I wouldn't even have known it! Oh, this is so exciting! I never thought I'd get to meet you."
"Um..."
"Do you think you can have a show in Ponyville next time?"
"M-maybe."
"You know, I'm an artist, too."
"I... You are?"
"Yeah. Maybe you've heard of me. Name's Vinyl Scratch."
His expression went blank. He didn't recognize it.
"Of course, I usually go by my stage name, Dj-Pon3."
This name he knew he had heard before.
"Wait..." he said. He looked at his music player, and scrolled through the artists. "You're Dj-Pon3?"
"You've heard of me?" she asked in disbelief.
He gave her the device, and her eyes opened wide. No less than seven of her songs were listed on it.
"You... you listen to my songs?!" she squealed, "Holy Mother of Celestia! This is unreal!" She was almost shaking with excitement.
"I... listen to a lot of underground stuff. My friend Pinkie Pie said that her friend made my kind of music, I just..." He didn't know what to say at this point. This mare was
completely awestruck. "I... Y-your music is fantastic."
Her voice was higher than normal. "You really think so?"
"Yeah. It's amazing."
Hearing the biggest name in dubstep and electronica say that her music was amazing was... amazing. She let out another overjoyed squeal.
When she got over her fit of happiness, she said, "Th-thank you, Synth."
"Yeah. Look... I gotta get home before anypony else notices me."
"Wait! Before you go... would you... maybe... like to stop by sometime? Maybe you could look over my equipment, or give me some pointers, or something."
"I guess that would be alright."
"Oh man... this is so cool. Uh..." She told him where she lived.
"Alright. I'll... see you. Goodbye..."
"Bye Synth!"
She pranced away with an air of victory. Synth, on the other hoof, was incredibly nervous.
"A mare just invite me over to her house." he said to himself in disbelief, "What do other ponies even do when they go visit their friends? I always eat when I visit Pinkie, but I..."
His nervousness turned into excitement as he realized that he had just met somepony he had respected for years. The first time he had heard het music was stuck in his memory. He was just starting with music making at the time, and it had inspired him to make something even better.
Many ponies would surely say that his was better, but he had always liked hers more.
He walked home, avoiding contact with anypony else. It was a small house that was out of the way, on the outskirts of Canterlot. Barely anypony knew he lived here.
He tossed his stuff onto the floor next to his bed, and collapsed into it.
"The next show's gotta be even better. Dj-Pon3's gonna be listening. She was prettier than I thought she would be." He yawned. "I wonder if Pinkie can give me any advice on asking her out to dinner."
*This was written in an hour, and is a draft. Tell me what you think.