The Striped Apples

"Why would you keep it out here, Mac?!", Rockstar asked his cousin, appalled by the place where he stored the his old instrument.  Termites, dry rot, and Rainbow Dash's crash were all factors that did not equate to the well being of the guitar in Rockstar's mind.

"Takes up too much room inside,"  Big Mac answered tersely.  He pushed open the barn door and walked inside, inspecting the damage caused by the falling pegasus before sighing and shaking his head. Surprisingly, the damage wasn't all that bad, or at least compared to the damage that Rockstar had seen bands cause at their concerts. The damage consisted of the hole in the roof and a roughly pegasus shaped hole in the floorboards, which was just a few feet short of missing the piles of hay in front of it.

"Hey Mac, need any help fixin' your barn later?", Rockstar asked.

"Nope,"  Mac answered as he rummaged through a small closet in the corner of the barn.  "Easy fix.".  Mac pulled a small  dusty wagon out of the closet that had a slightly battered guitar and an amp covered in stickers sitting in it.

Rockstar walked over and looked inside the small closet, then the wagon.  "How did that fit in there?", he asked his silent cousin, head still tuning to look from the wagon to the closet.

"Bigger on the inside,"  Big Mac answered as he took the wagon's handle in his mouth and closed the closet's blue door.

'Note to Self: Investigate blue closet later,'  Rockstar thought as he followed Mac and his wagon full of musical equipment back to the house.

Mac plugged the guitar up to the amp and listened to the familiar idle humming that it made. He sat down in one of the living room chairs and strummed the strings and tuned them for a moment, smiling as old memories came flooding back.  Rockstar smiled too, some of the same memories coming back to his mind too.  He was surprised that the crystal power core that powered the amp still worked, but he never understood unicorn magic all too well.

"Play me somethin', Mac,"  Rockstar said, growing more and more inpatient with an old childlike excitement as he waited to here his cousin play again.  Mac closed his eyes and began to play a rock tune.  Rockstar quickly identified it as the Red Hot Filly Pepper's song Snow and smiled as he leaned back to enjoy one of his favorite songs.

After Big Mac finished playing, Rockstar sat up and clapped his hooves.  "Still sing?", Mac asked simply.

"Hay yeah I still sing, it's how I got by in Manehattan,"  Rockstar answered eagerly.  "What song you got in mind?"

"Remember you kept singin' when you moved here?", Mac asked.

"Oh no, not that one,"  Rockstar said as he sat upright and crossed his front legs in refusal. Big Mac knew his cousin enough to know that all he had to do was start playing the song and the Apple pegasus would soon start singing, no matter how much he refused at first. Rockstar saw Mac close his eyes and begin strumming the strings as a gentle melody floated out of the amp. 'No, I am definitely not singing this song,' Rockstar thought as he tried to follow his own orders.  Mac continued to play and Rockstar continued to resist the urge to not come in and sing.  Rockstar's mental fortitude collapsed.  'Ok, just one verse.'

"Hey there, Cloud Dancer

What's it like in that Cloudsdale city?

I'm a thousand miles away

But, filly, tonight you look so pretty

Yes, you do

Celestia's sun can't shine as bright as you

I swear it's true."

'No memories, no. Get out of here!!', Rockstar balanced his singing and blocking out of any unwanted memories brought forth by the old song.

"Hey there, Lightning Twister

Don't you worry about the distance

I'm right there if you get lonely

Give this song another listen

Close your eyes

Listen to my voice, it's my disguise

I'm by your side."

Big Mac ended the song and smiled. He had forgotten how good of a singer Rockstar was.  He was surprised that Rockstar hadn't gotten famous with a voice like that.  Rockstar was equally impressed with his cousin.  He was exceptionally talented with a guitar for an Earth pony.  Rockstar gave it a moment to wonder if Big Mac were secretly a unicorn.  Stranger things had happened in his family, he was a half pony half zebra preasus, for Luna's sake.  "I never finished that song, did I?"

"Nope,"  Big Mac answered.

"Well that's for the better, I suppose," Rockstar said.  "You know any other songs?"

Before Big Mac could answer, Applejack came into the house.  "Hey Rockstar, c'mon or else you'll miss the party Pinkie went and threw for ya."

"She actually threw me a party?", Rockstar asked in mild disbelief, surprised that somepony he just met would go through all the trouble to throw him a party.

"Yep, I sure did!", Pinkie answered as she poked her head out from in between the couch cushions, making Rockstar jump in surprize .  "There's gonna be cake and games and music and all sorts of other fun things!  You're invited too, Mac,"  the strange pink mare added before her head disappeared back into the couch.  Big Mac got up and walked to the door with his sister while Rockstar removed the cushions and questioned yet again how Pinkie's appearance was possible.

"You comin', Rockstar?", Applejack asked from the doorway.

"Huh, oh yeah, comin'," Rockstar said as he put the cushions back on the couch.  He figured that he might as well try to make a few friends while he was in town.  'And that Rainbow Dash mare might be there, too...'.