Lucas Chronicles, the Afterstory Part 2: Monster Behind Mountain Dew Interlude; Of Skillets, Waffles, and Other Things

The concert had ended abruptly after The Last Night. The band packed up and went backstage, just like I had suspected. I hadn't actually noticed how late it had gotten until it was over. I guess I was just rocking out way too hard. Anyway, Fluttershy and I (more like, just me while carrying Fluttershy on my back. She walked very sluggishly after that emotional moment she had. I HAD to know if that band was really who I thought it was, and she was moving WAY too slow) tried our best to cut through the crowd.

We weren't very successful.

After what seemed like an hour, the crowd had finally dispersed enough so that we could reach backstage. To my disappointment, the band had already left. "Aw..." I said as I lowered Fluttershy onto her hooves. I sighed. "It's getting late. We may have to spend one more night at your cottage before our trek to Cantorlot..."

"But... what about meeting the band?" She asked. "I really wanted their autographs..." She sounded just as disappointed as I did, probably not for the same reason though.

I shrugged, "I guess it's not gonna happen. C'mon. I'm tired, and my throat is sore from screaming and such."

So, we returned to Fluttershy's cottage for the night.

So, I woke up the next morning (real shocker there). I got out of the bed, made sure my iPod and headphones were where I had left them (they were), and I turned and called for Fluttershy, "HEY! YOU READY TO-" She was standing right behind me as I turned. I jumped. "GAH!" I yelled. "...You GOTTA stop doin' that..."

She looked down, "I... I'm sorry..."

I shook my head and laughed, "Don't worry, it's fine."

She smiled, "Okay... if you say so..." She paused. "Oh! I almost forgot! We need some supplies before leaving for Cantorlot!"

I raised my eyebrow. "I... kinda don't have money. Any money that I would've had, I would have spent at the concert."

She continued to smile, "It's okay. I'll buy it."

I shrugged. "Okay. If you say so. I was just gonna wing it." Thinking back on that, it probably was an awful idea anyway.

So, we made our way to town. We figured we wouldn't need much, considering Cantorlot was just a train ride away, but... we also figured that I probably wouldn't be very welcome...

We (I really mean 'she') purchased things such as sleeping bags, toothbrushes, snacks, waffles, etc. You know, the mandatory stuff.

We stopped in front of the old Tree Library where Twilight used to live to make sure we had everything. Fluttershy had made a list. Good thing too, because I wouldn't have.

I read down the list. "Alright, do we have sleeping bags?"

"Check!" She smiled.

"Waffles?"

"Check!"

"Doritos?"

"Check!"

"Sleeping bags?"

"Check! Again!"

"Doritos and waffles?"

She frowned slightly, "Now you're just repeating yourself."

I laughed as I continued. "Personal Hygienic things such as toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, etc.?"

"Check, check, check, and check!"

I looked up at her with a sly grin. "...Jesus?"

She giggled. "CHECK AND CHECK!"

"Alright!" I crumpled the up list. "It's looks like we're rea-"

"HEY! It's you!"

I turned to face the voice who had interrupted me. It was a white mare with a long, straight, black mane with two blue streaks, green eyes, black makeup, a black 'glove' (it might have been a horseshoe) on the one foreleg, tattoos on the bottom of the other, and a long black tail much like her mane.  "Can I help-" I started, then realized who I was speaking to. "OMIGOSH! Your the rhythm guitarist from the concert last night! Have to say, I'm a HUGE fan! I'm Lucas by the way!" I thought to myself, This can't actually be her... Not the same one from my world...

She smiled, "Glad to meet you! Gotta say, Lucas, I was shocked when I thought I saw a human in the audience last night. You were so far away, though. I thought I was just going crazy. But when you and your friend here came down to the stage... We knew then you were actually human."

Now, before I left Equestria the first time, my human friends and I were kinda famous (and infamous), so this didn't surprise me. I'm slightly surprised that I hadn't heard more of our renown (Hey, don't judge me! We did a lot of stuff here!). What she said next, though, shocked me. "We need your help..."

"...WHAT." My jaw dropped.

She didn't even explain herself. She just said, "I'll let John explain."

What. She just said 'John'. Not 'Bass-Picker' or 'Shiny Singer' (Hey, don't laugh. Coming up with pony names isn't easy.) or something pony-like. She said 'John'. My mind raced inside my head. She turned and began walking away. She didn't stop, she just called back, "You coming?"

I looked wide-eyed, mouth agape at Fluttershy, then to the mare, then back to Fluttershy, then back to the mare... This happened for quite a while until I finally noticed she had stopped to look back at us. I stared at Fluttershy and said, "NO.... WAY... THIS IS AWESOME!"

I ran to catch up with the mare. As I did, she said, "The name's Korey, by the way." I stopped everything, even breathing. It was actually her. So many questions raced in my mind such as, 'Why is she here?', 'Why is she a pony?' and 'Is this REALLY the same Korey?', but they were all blown away by one thought. I'M TALKING TO KOREY COOPER FROM SKILLET!!!

She looked worried. "Hey kid... You okay?"

I laughed. "Yeah, um, I, uh, I'm just gonna-" And I passed out. Last thing I remember, Fluttershy caught me from behind. Probably a good thing too. Concussions are NOT fun.

____________________________________________________

When I came to, my eyes opened to Fluttershy and Korey standing over me. I tried to play it cool by yawning and saying, "Soooo... how's it goin'?"

"Don't try to play it cool kid." Korey stated, "We all know you fainted."

"Aw..." I frowned slightly. It was then that I noticed that we definitely were not in the middle of Ponyville's streets. Rather, it seemed that we were in some sort of hotel room, and I was laying in a fold-out bed/couch combo. "Wait, where are we? How long was I out?"

"You were only out for a couple of hours." Fluttershy replied.

"Hey!" I heard a colt exclaim from another room as he walked in, "Looks like our little rocker that Korey kidnapped is finally awake!"

He was a grey colt with a brown Fohawk Mane, spiked tail, green eyes like Korey's, a tattoo that ran up to about the midway point of his left foreleg, piercings on his ears and a nose ring. I knew exactly who this was.

And I started freaking out. He spoke again. "The villagers of the town were nice enough to give us a place to crash for the time being. I'm John, by the way." He raised his hoof to me.

I started hyperventilating with a giddy smile as I met his hoof with my fist, "I... I j-just brohoofed John Cooper..."

"Please don't pass out again." Korey pleaded, even though I could tell she was fighting back a smile.

I smiled as I held out one finger to her. I stood up from the bed, walked into the restroom and screamed fangirlishly, "I'M TALKING TO JOHN COOPER OF SKILLET!!! I'M MEETING SKILLET!!! OMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSHOMIGOSH!!! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"

I walked casually back into the room. Both John and Korey looked down and giggled.

I can't say I blame them.

Just then, a tan colt with a lightish-brown Mohawk (the lead guitarist from the concert) rushed in from another room, wielding his guitar like an ax. He shouted, "WHAT'S GOING ON?!? Korey, are you okay? I heard you scream!"

"Um, actually Seth..." She motioned her head at me.

"Oh." He said. Then he realized, "OH..." He gasped slightly.

I laughed, "Don't worry, it's all good. It WAS pretty fangirlish... hehe..." I gulped. "Um... So... yeah. I'm Lucas. Huge fan, by the way." I offered my hand in a handshake.

But being that he didn't have a hand, he lifted his hoof and we stood there awkwardly until I balled my hand (awkwardly of course) into a fist and brohoofed it. He replied, "Seth Morrison."

"What is-" A light-ish brown mare with a fiery red mane and tail yawned and rubbed her bronze eyes as she walked in from another room. She continued with a different accent from the rest of the band, "What's going on?"

My eyes grew wide and I covered my mouth with both my hands. Korey walked over and whispered, "I guess it really is true that you have a crush on Jen."

How did she know that I had a crush on their drummer, Jen Ledger (well, actually, MY world's Jen Ledger. I'm not exactly into bestiality)? "NO- maybe... How did you know?!?"

She laughed, "You mentioned it while you were out cold. That, and something about Walkers tearing your throat out..." She paused and shook her head, "Don't worry. Fluttershy and I are the only ones who heard that part. Your secret's safe with us."

I had to give a slight laugh at this. I took a quick breath to calm my heart rate. Then, I walked over to introduce myself, and, avoiding the same awkwardness that I had with Seth, I offered my fist, "I'm Lucas."

She brohoofed me and yawned. "Jen. Jen Le- Ledger."

My mind reeled. Not only was this Skillet, my favorite band ever, but they have the same names as the ones from my world. I whispered as I ran my fingers through my now-unkempt hair, "No WAY details can be this similar... They're NEVER this similar..."

"So, yeah," Korey interrupted me. "like I was saying before you passed out, we need your help."

I spoke with a confused tone, "Wait, why do you need me? You seem to being doing just fine here. Plus, I kinda need to get back to my world."

John spoke up, "You see, that's the thing. We're trying to do the exact same." I was SO lost at this point. He elaborated. "We don't know how we got here, or even where 'here' is exactly. All we know is that this isn't earth. We don't exactly have talking, multicolored, magical ponies on earth."

My jaw dropped. "But that means..."

"Yep." He nodded, "we're human."

And that is where my jaw hit the ground. It WAS the same Skillet from my world... "B-but... H-how?!? How are you here?!? How are you ponies?!? It's just- PWOOSH! (again, that's the sound of my mind being blown)"

He shook his head. "We dunno. All I remember is that we let Jen drive the tour bus- granted, that was probably pretty dumb, considering none of us can ACTUALLY drive the bus-, then she crashed it."

Jen retorted, "I told you! My hands changed into hooves as I was driving!"

He yelled back, "You drove on the left side of the road for crying out loud!" He sighed as she grumbled, then continued explaining, "Anyway, she drove the bus past this school, we felt a weird wave of... something. Then, she crashed. When we came to, we were ponies. We didn't really know what to do, so we did what we do best: Rocking hard and telling people- or ponies, I guess- about Jesus. Funny story, we had to learn the terminology of this world really quick. We'd go to the store and ask for the person in charge, and they'd stare at us like we had ten heads.

"Then, we saw you at the concert last night. We figured you were from earth, so we thought you could help us."

I started piecing things together, "...And you think I could help you get back?"

Korey spoke, "Well, you're human. So, yeah."

I smiled, "Well, it just so happens that Fluttershy and I here are going to speak with the princess so that I can return myself. I guess having four more travel partners couldn't be so bad. But I can't guarantee that I'll be able to change you back if we actually find a way..."

"Eh," John said, "I'm sure we'll figure something out."

I shrugged. Then, I just thought of an idea. That wave-like thing they felt must have been a portal, which meant their bus was here as well. "We could even take your bus too! I never did trust the train here..."

Korey shook her head, "No can do."

I raised my eyebrow, "Why not?"

"Follow me." She motioned. Everyone followed.

We exited the room and met the noonday sun. I noticed the hotel they stayed in was just behind Sugarcube Corner.

` Huh.

Anyway, we traveled to the other end of town, all the way to the town limit. There, I saw why we couldn't take the bus. It had been overturned in a ditch.

"I see what you mean..." I commented.

"Yeah," Korey replied, "and there's no way we could flip it."

"Good point." I said as we all headed back to town.

"Wait," Fluttershy interrupted. We stopped. "why don't we just get a couple of unicorns to flip-"

KABOOOOOOOOM!!!

We all turned around slowly.

The bus was on fire. "Never mind..." Fluttershy looked down.

The only thing we could do is look on at the burning metal. Seth commented. "Huh. Good thing we weren't actually on that."

John glared at Jen. "NOT MY FAULT!" she shouted.

He was about to shout a retort, but I interrupted, "Oh, hey guys, um, did we tell you that Fluttershy got saved at the concert last night?"

They stopped fighting and smiled at Fluttershy. "Oh, congratulations!" John said. "Trust me, it's the best the decision you'll ever make." She blushed.

"Oh," I added, "she also would like your autographs."

She turned up some dirt with her hoof, "I mean, if that's okay with you..."

"I would also like your autographs..." I added again.

` John looked to her and me repeatedly before finally laughing, "That's a little difficult in our current state, but as soon as we change back, I promise we'll sign something for both of you."

I raised both fists in the air and yelled, "WOO!" as Fluttershy flew up and hugged him, saying, "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!"

"Alright," I finally said, "how's about we start making our way to-"

Seth interrupted me. "Um, John? Your thigh is glowing."

"What? No it's-" John pried the pegasus off and turned to see what Seth meant. "Um... What? Why's my thigh glowing?"

Fluttershy gasped, "You're getting your Cutie Mark! OOH! This is so exciting! I wonder what it's going to be!"

John raised his eyebrow disdainfully at her, "...My what?"

She replied, "Your Cutie Mark! It indicates what your special talent is!"

"Uh-huh..." John said as the glow faded. He looked to see that his Cutie Mark was a skillet. "Hmm." He smiled. "Fitting."

Fluttershy looked confused. "... A frying pan? Are you good at cooking?"

I laughed. "Fluttershy, their band's name is 'Skillet'. His Cutie Mark's a skillet."

"OH!" She smiled.

"Hey!" Korey shouted. "I have a tattoo of a skillet on my thigh now too!"

"I have a drum set." Jen added.

Seth looked at his thigh which had just finished glowing. "I have a guitar with a Mohawk. Huh. Guess I can't ever shave."

We all laughed until I finally stated, "Alright. We gotta head to Cantorlot now. The train is this-a-way." I pointed north and started walking.

"Actually..." Fluttershy interrupted shyly. "it's that way..." She pointed east, towards the center of town.

"The train is that-a-way." I pointed to where she did and walked in that general direction.