Destruction, chaos and utter confusion. The scene that had unfolded that fateful day was unprecedented, and most unwelcome. Amidst the busted walls of what once was 'Golden Record Entertainment, Incorporated', the empire ran by Manehattan's Great Star, Golden Record himself, were dozens of scared employees and the ponies responsible for the attack.
Golden Record was a tall white Pegasus stallion who had a golden colored well kept mane and a moderate length tail with a cutie mark resembling a microphone with a Golden star behind it. He was famous in Manehattan, not only for his music career, but also his business as the owner of his own record label and other various ventures he oversaw his his tower of business.
He looked in horror as the cronies responsible for the attack on his establishment bore down upon him. Why were they doing this? He had a deal with their boss! No pony was to be harmed. Unless... no! They couldn't have known... something that he had kept hidden. They'd finally figured out that he'd had it in his possession.
Golden pondered what he'd do. This was a weapon that even he wasn't allowed to mess with, but was trusted to guard by the pony he knew as a father. He looked down at the weapon in question that he held in his hooves, it was a sword that had a retractable blade so he was holding the handle of it, trying desperately to keep them from losing it. But there was one thing that he held priority over this. And that was the safety of his own son.
Just then, as he hid behind his broken desk in his half destroyed office while struggling to keep his composure, he entered. His son, Singer Case had arrived. Though he didn't come to fight, merely to make sure his father was alright, he had little choice.
"Record!" he called out to him. "F-Father!" He'd shouted out again with a hint of hesitation in calling him as such, as he'd only recently gotten to know him over the course of the last year or so, but the fear of danger had brought it out of him. "Are you okay?"
Record turned to see Singer looming at the entrance to his battered office. This was not good. He weighed every option, as one of his adversaries, a black Pegasus stallion who had a white muzzle, yellow streaks in a white mane and tale, and a cloud with a lightning strike as a cutie mark, who was wielding a metal rod with two large taser-like attachments on each end was lunging toward him.
"Singer! Get out of here! Take this and run!"
He threw the retracted handle of the sword to his son and climbed up on his desk to block the aggressor's charge by catching him during his lunge and pushing back with much resistance, killing the momentum the dark Pegasus had gained in his charge. But it wasn't enough. The other Pegasus quickly regained himself and forced Record back, making him fall to the ground. It appeared to be the end as the dark Pegasus raised his rod in preparation to strike Record. He flinched and screwed his face in preparation for a painful end...
But something happened! Something that he hadn't expected. The rod was blocked. Not feeling the impact of the rod on his body, he looked up to see that his son, slightly smaller than he was, but seemingly strong was holding his own against the black Pegasus stallion as their weapons maintained their locked positions for but a moment.
"Leave my father alone!" Singer shouted angrily. The blue Pegasus stallion with a red mane and tail, bearing a cutie mark much like his father's, only it was a microphone with a cut-short cord.
"Thunder Clap doesn't take orders from little silver-spoon fed brats like yourself!" The aggressor had finally revealed his name. He growled in an attempt to scare off his new challenger. But the scared yet determined Singer growled back in defiance, only further angering Clap.
"Clap, leave him!" Record pleaded. "I'm the one that you want!"
Clap just chuckled and turned and looked at his partner before turning back to look in Singer and Record's direction. "We're not here for you... we're here for the sword, and any other little knickknacks you've been hiding in your vault! We know you have them! And Baron Barber gets what he wants!"
"I don't know who that is and I don't-CARE!" Singer said shoving back with his full weight against the sword. What he didn't expect was the blade of the sword began to glow yellow with a measure of heat emitting from it. Singer's burst of energy powered the sword and the resulting blast from it sent Clap careening out the already broken window.
Singer was shocked, but quickly regained his composure and didn't dwell on it. Normally he would have started celebrating, but his foe was far from done as he angrily flew back up to face him, pointing his hoof at him furiously.
"Big mistake!" Clap screamed.
Singer, forgetting himself in the moment, felt an adrenaline rush and proceeded to charge at Clap with the sword and the two began an intense battle in the air as Singer lunged out the window and the two locked weapons with each other once more.
"Singer! Stop! You're in over your head!" The injured Pegasus pleaded for his son, but was interrupted by the dark grey unicorn who had joined Clap. A blast to his right shoulder had stopped him in his tracks. He now had some pony to worry about. He grabbed his now aching shoulder with his left hoof and glared angrily at the unicorn. "You son of a-Aaaaaaaargh!"
The unicorn hit him again, this time in the face. This caused him to wince in pain. He tried to open his eyes. "Sh-Shaw... what is the meaning of this?"
Shaw, the dark grey unicorn, who was wearing a black trench coat, had a black slicked back long mane and medium length tail, as well as a moderately shaven goatee, stood over Record and chuckled quietly.
"It's like Clap said... what Baron Barber wants, Baron Barber gets..." he lit his aura of his horn and began to set fire to the office, and looked down at Record. "And what he needs is you off the streets!"
Record pushed himself back in order to try and get away from Shaw, but he knew it was futile. All he saw, as he was backed up against the wall, was the unicorn looking right at him with a smug smirk with his horn ablaze, and was then hit by his beam of magic. It knocked him out cold.
"What an unfortunate turn of events..." Shaw said to himself with a half grin on his face. Almost as if he got a little bit of joy in what he was about to do. "My father will not be pleased. The sword has chosen its wielder. An unfortunate loss...for now."
Singer and Clap hovered in the air, staring each other down. Singer had no idea what he was doing, but this Clap guy made it personal by attacking Record and destroying everything that he'd worked for. He wasn't about to let him take the weapon that his father had protected, even if he had no idea why he was in possession of such a thing.
Clap made the next move by swinging his rod at Singer's head, which he had blocked with the blade. It was one of the things he'd known from taking martial arts training as a colt. He'd never dreamed he'd have to use this again, but here he was. He was faced with a skilled adversary. The advantage, however, wasn't all with Clap. Singer quickly realized that his weapon was superior to Clap's lightning rod, so he used all of his might in every swing. He found himself playing defense for quite a while, which was fine. It gave him a chance to size up his opponent and look for a weakness.
However in his analysis, he let his guard down and the lightning rod struck him and he fell down but was safe as he had landed on a conveniently placed mattress. Opening his eyes, he saw Clap was bearing down upon him again. This time, he was ready.
Singer spread his wings and launched himself upward before Clap could make contact, and ended up slamming into the mattress, sending him bouncing up and forward into an open sewer manhole lid being held up by an unsuspecting construction worker pony.
His quick thinking paid off. He watched as Clap slid down into the manhole, his rod falling down with him, and to add insult to injury, the manhole shut back after a splash could be heard.
Thinking he had won, Singer began to walk away, but the manhole cover quickly shot back up behind him. He turned around quickly to face his rival once again as Clap angrily shot out of the sewer, with his weapon, now disengaged (fortunately for him, otherwise he would have been electrocuted when he fell down there) but his rod was now wet and wouldn't work.
"Alright, Brat-"
"My name is Singer!" he shot back.
"I don't give a crap apple what your name is..." Clap screamed. "I'm kicking your flank!"
Clap lunged at him again with another full frontal attack and in full force. Singer was taken aback, and quickly tried to dodge but Clap was able to knick him on his right side before he could successfully avoid him.
He fell to the ground, and grabbed his now red and bruising side. He'd be ready next time. Singer got back up and darted up into the air with his wings, as he saw Clap coming again. He was able to miss him this time. Okay, Singer thought, just remember what his friend Violet (who's father was a martial arts instructor) had taught him.
While still hovering in the air, he got in a stance and kept his eye on his enemy's movements. What he noticed was that his attack was very unguarded. He was clearly confident enough in himself that he'd actually finish the job. Singer would use that against him. He dodged a couple more advances before turning around and facing Clap again. This time, he was in for it.
Singer waited for him to come back again, and got into position. Drawing ever closer, Singer knew he had to time this right. He lifted his right leg and BAM! Perfect hit! Singer had successfully landed the blow and kicked Clap in the face. Albeit harder than he intended. Clap hit the wall of a nearby alleyway and fell into a dumpster. Way to take out the trash, Singer thought to himself.
Having given the ponies below quite a show, they cheered loudly and excitedly for him. Singer's career had been relatively short up to this point, but he had began to make a name for himself in the entertainment business. But maybe he also had a future in the fighting ring. He pondered the possibility for a second before feeling a throbbing pain in his back hoof... maybe not professionally, he conceded.
He hovered in the air and dutifully bowed to the crowd. He had the sheath that the sword was in around his body, and he placed the sword back inside it to hopefully not garner too much attention towards it.
Any elation he'd had vanished in an instant when he heard an explosion coming from his father's building. He turned around in that direction to see that even more of the building had been damaged and had been engulfed with flames.
"NO!" Singer screamed in terror as he flew into the direction of the broken building. "No! Record!"
As he got closer, he was stopped by some Manehattan police officers and firefighters.
One of them, the Police Chief Blue Streak, a large built dark grey earth pony, had some of the pegasus officers stop him and bring him down to safety. He whistled at Singer with his horn as he saw him trying to fight to get loose of their grips.
"Listen boy, stop! You can't go in there!" he warned. "It's not safe!"
"You don't understand, Record is in trouble!" Singer protested in desperation. "My father needs me!"
Blue Streak's expression grew somber. With a forlorn demeanor, he looked Singer in the eye and broke him the news.
"I'm afraid that Golden Record has been lost. He was in the part of the building where the explosion happened and we have yet to find any remains... I'm sorry, son..."
Singer's heart felt like it dropped. It couldn't be! No, it couldn't happen this way! Tears had began to form. Singer fell defeated on his knees... "I didn't even get to tell him..." His eyes welled up even more in tears, and he buried his face into his left foreleg and just sat there. The officers allowed him to remain there and uncomfortably continued on with their jobs.
His aforementioned friend, Violet had arrived on the scene and came to comfort him. She was a light purple pegasus mare, with a medium length, well kept mane and tail, violet in color, hence the name. Around her neck was a gold necklace with a heart shaped compartment on it, that Singer had given her for her birthday recently. She hugged him when she reached him.
"Hey, its okay" she comforted. "I'm here."
He returned her hug and held her tight, muttering the words softly to her, "I love you..."
Those words rang in her ears, but not out of horror. But relief... she'd felt a certain way about him for many years, and she was almost brought to tears by this. Perhaps this was the opening she'd been waiting for. But it would have to wait, this was no time for that. He needed just for her to be there.
"I love you, too" she whispered. "Don't worry, whatever happens out of this, we will face it together."
They weren't there for very long before another figure had joined them. A welcome and unexpected presence.
Followed by a few armored royal guards, the appearance of the benevolent ruler of Equestria herself appeared.
"Princess Celestia?" Singer said with his puffy red eyes, as both he and Violet simultaneously remembered to bow.
"Hello my little ponies" she addressed them. "That was quite a display. And that sword, I haven't seen that sword in a long time." She paused, but quickly continued. "I have a proposal for you, if you would be inclined to consider it."
Singer stood at attention, and nodded dutifully. He had no idea why Celestia had been in town, but she had fortunately been there to witness everything, and she had seen what she needed to. What she proposed was about to change Singer's and Violet's lives forever.
Clap, defeated, trudged slowly down the street as he waited for his strength to come back to him so he could fly. He caught some strange looks from passers by, but he paid them no mind at all. All he cared about was getting the buck out of there.
He chuckled lightly. Looking up into the sky as rain clouds began to form above.
"One day, Singer... you're going to regret ever crossing me."