I'm Down

It was after the show, and the boys had been exhausted when they returned to the hotel. At some prompting by the manager, they did a hoof of their fan letters.

But there was a letter that special out of the bunch.

It had been one of Rich Star's, and when he had opened it, the letter's gift fell out.

All the boys had looked at it. It was a strange blue flower, and it had jingled when it had hit the floor.

"What an odd flower," Hymn Hummer finally spoke. He tapped at it with his hoof. The flower gave a jingle, like sleigh bells, in response.

"Its a pretty one, that's for sure," said Rich, who promptly examined the letter.

"We can't just leave it on the floor," spoke Hare Rocker, as he bent down, and picked up the strange flower in his teeth.

Gritt Artist, who was laying on one of the beds and trying for a nap, opened an eye to look at the flower. He mumbled something, turned over and waited for sleep to take him.

Hare put the flower in a small vase of water, nearby one of he windows. It left a funny taste in his mouth.

A while longer with fanmail, then the boys turned in for the night. Hare and Hymn shared with one bed, while Gritt and Rich share the other.

Normally, Gritt liked to sleep in. But in the early hours of morning, he awoke with a rush.

One of his band mates had screamed.

Switchblade was patrolling the streets outside of the hotel in the early hours of the morning, he didn't mind patrolling at this time, as everypony was either sleeping or too drowsy to do anything.

Switchblade was leaning against the wall of the hotel when he heard the scream, swiftly and carefully, he made his way up the stairs, flashing his guards pass at any hotel security who tried to stop him. Judging by the yell and current hotel occupants, he made his way to the V.I.P. suite where he burst through the doors, flashing his guard permit at the nearest pony "Ponyville guard, what's happening here?"

Gritt fell out of bed with a thunk, as another surprise burst through the door. This was not going to be a good day.

He hadn't been the only one, Hare had shot up in bed. Blankets strewn to the side, and the young stallion stood on the mattress. With his usual startle meant, his wings had locked to his sides. He spoke.... No, he sounded. Hare's voice had been replaced with some sort of instrument tune, some sort of string sound and completely unnatural to Pony biology. The pegasus touched his throat, cried out in the sound again, and looked horrified.

Rich, who had been covered from head to hoof, unjumbled himself from blankets. And he glowed. His coat now shown everything from polka dots to strips to paint splatter patterns, each a different color, and each shown brightly like lights from a disco ball. He was terrified, "Sweet Sun kisses!"

But the source of the scream was running out of the room's bathroom. Hymn was now the size of an infant colt, chubby and wings hardly developed. He was screaming in a high pitch colt's voice, "I've been returned to the bloody egg!"

And Gritt, his normal self, was stunned in the middle of this chaos.

Switchblade glanced round the room and saw what he was looking for, he wandered through the room to the blue flower in a vase, he sighed "Tourists." he quickly levitated the flower with his magic and sealed it in a jar. He turned around "Let me guess, all of you touched the flower except that guy." he gestured at Gritt.

Hare gave the guard a sarcastic glance.

"Yeah." Rich wrapped the blanket around him. He had a look of embarrassment and shame on his face.

"That flower caused this?" Hymn gestured to the new effects. Hymn kept fidgeting, unlike the others, he had gone through a different kind of change. Everything felt wrong to him, he was now too small, too under developed.

Gritt regained his senses. He gave a large grin, "We aught to use this in the next show, improve the act."

"Well, you're lucky that I was nearby." Switchblade said, walking over to the bathroom area and taking a few vials out of his armor's side compartment, he then set about mixing the contents carefully, he spoke while working "That plant is called poison joke, although the effects of it are ... unpleasant to say the least, it is very easily cured once you know the right recipe, and luckily for you, I do know the recipe. So what you guys here for? I don't think there's any big events going on."

"We were invited to play parts in a play," said Gritt, who watched the mixing with curiosity, "A break from our usual gig, we're a band you see."

"Hope you don't mind me asking, but what're you mixing?" asked Rich, coming up from behind Gritt.

"This" Switchblade said "Is an concentrated elixir that cancels out the effect of poison joke, you just mix all the ingredients together, then pour it in a bath and get in the bath and it cures you, easy, I'm making four batches right now so that you all don't have to bathe together." he said casually.

"So you guys are a band normally, that'll explain why I didn't know you, I don't get enough time to go see things like bands or plays, my day job is that I'm this town's cogsmith, you see, anything any of the inventors can dream up, I can make it in my workshop."

"Oh?" Gritt grinned devilishly, "Make a box that makes images. Or a thing that can make our records and spread them for miles without us being there."

"I'm afraid we've been rude," said Hymn, who rested at Gritt's front hooves, "I'm Hymn Hummer, my friend here is Gritt Artist. Rich Star is the one in the blanket, and Hare Rocker is the other pegasus. We're the Beat-Bugs."

Switchblade smiled "The name's Switchblade, and in response to Mr Artist's request, have you ever heard of a projector or a vinyl disk?" Switchblade finished adding the ingredients to the last elixir and used an advanced heating spell on it to finish the process "First elixir is finished" he said, starting on the next.

"You're lack of imagination is disturbing mister Switchblade," Gritt spoke the latter's name in a squeaky child like voice.

Hare gave a low string sound.

"I think I recognize that instrument," said Hymn, "Its a sitar, if I remember right."

Hare snorted.

Switchblade turned around "That's definately a sitar, an old stallion in my regiment when I was in the military used to play one, he wasn't the best, but it was a reasonable way to spend an evening." Switchblade said slowly. "Tell you what, though, I do not think that I have ever heard of the Beat Bugs, are you a new band or have I been living under a rock?"

"Sad to say son you've been living under a mountain," said Gritt, "Only a blind pony wouldn't see the large group of lovely mares that chase us every time they see us."

"Or break in our homes and rooms," suggested Hymn, "Almost like what you did, busting in and all."

"Or try to steal our things," said Rich, "or our hair. Or our heads."

Hare made a sound.

"That's right, the constant screaming too," translated Hymn.

"Hey hey hey!" Switchblade said "First off, its my duty as a guard to protect citizens in need, no matter how I access where they are, and second, I sure hope you were joking about that, Mr Star. And most importantly, how do you know what Mr Rocker said?" he stopped to take a deep breath in, he then quickly looked down at his holster, then over at the door and sighed, he walked over to the door and picked his scimitar up and put it back in it's sheath and buckled it in.

"Oh sorry to offend," Gritt grinned, giving a fairly descent impression of an old mare's voice, shaking and shrill, "Such a nice young colt protecting our lives and all...

...You Swine," Gritt switched to normal voice, giving a smirk.

"I wasn't joking. Some literally will have our heads if they caught us, half of those aren't even fans," explained Rich, "Ever since that comment..."

A silence fell to the group.

"Bloody Equestrians, can't even take a joke," Gritt muttered.

"Say no more." Switchblade said "I know exactly what that feels like, the reason I left the main military force was because of the sheer amount of ponies in places like Manehatten that had acquired a death wish against me." Switchblade turned around "Now for the boring administrative stuff, I need to see the original letter so I can file a case report." Switchblade explained, he kept mixing the next elixir even while looking away from it.

Rich fetched it. It was a simple envelope, the letter still inside.

It had read: "Onto the Wittiest ~ A Fan". There hadn't even been an address or even a postage stamp. Rich indicated that Gritt take it.

Gritt managed to take the envelop in a thin vale of magic. He examined it, opened it carefully and taken the letter out. What looked like dried petal pieces few every where from the envelop. Hymn scrambled out of the way, Rich covered himself further with the blanket, and Hare reacted with instinct, flying.

The sudden wind blew the pieces onto the only two ponies who hadn't touched the flower. Gritt had to shake the pieces off of his fur.

"That's not good," he said, "That's not good at all."