Guitar Strings and Dragon Wings

Heavily revised chapter
Metal in Equestria: Chapter Six
It was the weirdest feeling he had ever felt. Packie couldn't believe he was riding a Pegasus and his friends weren't. They are so fucking jealous, he thought. The wind blew through his blond hair and it glistened in the sunlight. Along with the mane of Rainbow Dash, they made an amazing duo.
There was no way to explain how epic it was.
"Hey rainbow pony!" Packie yelled.
Rainbow Dash eyes were watering up, much like Packie's. "Yeah what is it? And the name is Rainbow Dash!"
"Well I was just wondering where we're going?"
"To the town meeting!" She wasn't trying to sound harsh which was hard over the wind blowing so fast. "I'm just taking a shortcut!"
"Oh that's cool! Hey you're pretty cool for a girly pony…well I mean that in a good way y'kno, and I'm sorry… can I call you Blue?" Packie struggled to catch his breath in the wind and was trying to watch his wording so not to offend her.
"Yeah I guess… what should I call you other than human?"
"Oh…Patrick is fine!" He leaned forward closer to Rainbow, which helped with aerodynamics.
Far beneath them…
Wallace took another sip of black coffee from his jug. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were galloping as fast as they could.
"How much farther is it?" asked Jiggs.
"We'll get…huff*… there soon." Twilight was out of breath. She had never run so fast before as she was used to taking her time and walking everywhere.
"Yeah it'll be super duper great and fantastic and the princess might be there!" said Pinkie Pie who did not sound tired in the least. "Man that coffee is great stuff, man on my back, but you need more sugar in it!"
"Yeah I s'pose I do" said Wallace. His brown eyes twitched from the excess caffeine in his system and a few strands of shaggy brown hair dangled in his face. It swayed back and forth from the rhythm of Pinkie Pie's feet hitting the dirt road. "I'm not really used to putting sugar in it though."
"Well after you hang out with me for a little bit I'm sure that'll change." Pinkie Pie said.
The town square came into view and they could see the hundred or so ponies that lived in Ponyville all standing around a large stage. Twilight could hear the crowd was unsettled. Then there was a loud gasp from the audience as though they were stunned.
We're almost there… what's going on? Twilight thought.
Above, a few moments prior…
"Yo Pack! We're goin' in for landing!" Rainbow yelled.
"Kay Blue, I'm scared as shit!" Packie squeaked out.
Rainbow nose-dived over the stage and folded her wings back. Packie grabbed onto the base of each wing and held his legs tight. His eyes were watering profusely now.
The stage was empty except for a podium. Rainbow broke her angle and came in sideways and let her wings glide and take her in slow. Hers legs caught the ground beneath her and she took two strides to canter down to a complete stop.
Packie was a bit shaken, but hopped off and his shoes hit the stage as well. He knew this feeling, the feeling of being watched on stage.
"HOLY FUCK I RODE A FUCKING PEGASUS!" he clenched his fists together and raised them in the air triumphantly, like he had won a fierce boxing match. He came to the realization that he should probably be careful about everything he said and did, especially in front of a crowd that has never seen a human before.
The audience gasped at his presence.
"GASP*!"
"Oh… hi there." Packie looked around at them and gave the audience a nervous wave of his hand. There were so many different colors. Rainbow Dash glanced back and forth at the startled faces. It was something she wasn't used to.
Rainbow stammered, "So… this is a human…umm… don't panic, he's actually harmless."
Packie ran over to the podium and took the microphone that was attached. "Yeah! I'm from Earth and I'm here with my bandmates and I gotta say… it is fucking nice here in… uhh… where are we again?" he asked Rainbow.
"Ponyville." She whispered.
"Yeahyeah… Ponyville, really nice place… with the weather and the abundance of ponies and shit like that." Packie realized he probably shouldn't have said anything.
"RAINBOW DASH!" shouted the mayor. "Just what is this…this…thing doing here?"
"Calm down mayor, I can explain. But first I need to find the princess." Rainbow wasn't used to the harsh language either.
The crowd became restless.
"What is it!"
"Will it eat us?"
"Why does it walk on TWO legs?"
"I emptied your fridge!"
"Quiet, Derpy!"
"It has such lovely blond hair!"
"QUIET PLEASE!" shouted the Mayor mare. "Please explain, Rainbow."
"Why don't I explain?" said Twilight. Pinkie Pie and Twilight had been watching from afar so as not to attract more attention to themselves, but Packie and Rainbow had done that well enough. The crowd opened a hole so to let the humans and ponies reach the stage.
"Hey everyone… I know this is kind of a shock to all of you… but it is to me as well." Twilight attempted to sound extremely calm. The band stood next to each other, trying to look as unthreatening as possible.
Wallace took another sip and handed it to Pinkie Pie. She used one hoof to hold the jug and took a swig before handing it back to Wallace.
"How do you hold things?" Packie said, for the second time that day.
Twilight turned back to the audience. "So… I opened a portal to another dimension and they came through from the theoretical planet Earth, except it wasn't theoretical and they are harmless!" Twilight wasn't exactly the best at public speaking.
Packie walked up with the mic, much like the previous night.
"Howdy folks… I know, I'm terrifying aren't I? Let me explain a little." Packie flipped his hair back. "Alright so I'm from this planet called Earth… and we have oceans, forests, deserts, glaciers, mountains… like I'm sure you do too. Oh… and there are about seven billion other humans like me there… but not all of them are nice I s'pose." He looked back to Jiggs and Wallace. "I play with them on musical instruments…but… it's probably not stuff you guys would like…" His voice trailed off, he wasn't sure what to say anymore.
Rainbow trotted to the front. "Look, there's no need to panic. We just need the Princess' help to send them back."
Wallace giggled and leaned over so Pinkie Pie could hear. She leaned in as well. "Hey is the Rainbow one… y'kno… gay?"
"Of course not silly!" Pinkie said rather loudly.
"You're kidding right?"
"No she has a crush on another Pegasus… but she'd never admit it to you!"
The town square was mostly quiet and the sun was high in the sky. It was still the perfect temperature. The stage was set up in front of town hall where most speeches and awards had been given. The silence was heavy and you could cut the tension with a knife.
Packie broke the silence first. “Oh! I have an idea.” He turned to address the crowd. “How about an ice breaker song? Do you ponies wanna hear some music?!” Every pony in attendance made a jeering noise of approval. “Does anyone in town play a guitar, would they perhaps let me borrow it?”
“Oh I do!” A brown earth pony pushed his way through the crowd and took the guitar case slung around his back, gently giving it up to Patrick. Patrick and the brown pony exchanged a hand/hoofshake. “Honor among musicians friend. She’s in good hands.”
“Oh I’m sure, strange creature. I ain’t one to judge. Show us all what you got.” The stallion took his place among the crowd.
Everyone kind of twiddled their thumbs or at least the equivalent for a pony as Packie opened the case and tuned the guitar. Just a slight change of key. Packie thought. It’s tuned to standard EADGBE so I just got to change a few things.
Packie would pluck a string and check the note, compare it to another string and move on. “Thanks everyone for being quiet while I do this!” he addressed the audience.
Jiggs walked over to him and gave a listen. “So what’s your plan? What song?”
Packie was tuning up the last two strings. “Gonne play some Zeppelin’ of course. I bet these ponies will love some Zeppelin’”
“What song exactly?” Jiggs inquired.
“Well I want to get the crowd involved and the best song for that would be… Bron-y-Aur Stomp. I think?” He finished tuning the last string and gave the guitar a good strum. CFCFAF… perfect! He thought. It sounded lovely. “Do you know the words to that one?”
Jiggs turned to Wallace. “Yeah I think we still remember that one.”
“Good just make sure to stomp and clap too and we’ll all be friends by sundown.” The audience had been patiently waiting for this moment. “I don’t think I’ll use a pick for this one.”
He formed the first chord and started to roll his fingers, plucking the high three strings in a continuous pattern. The pacing was fast and he hoped he would be able to keep it up halfway through the song. Each roll of his fingers produced several notes. The tone was tight, percussive and bell-like. He gradually started to quicken the pace just like Jimmy Page did. Jiggs started the get the rhythm by listening intently, waiting for the opportune moment to start.
After many country rolls he started to alter the melody slightly. Admittedly it would’ve been easier with a pick. Then came the fat chords. Fat walls of sound rose and almost reached a climax and then Packie would start over. This enticed the crowd further and drew them in. Some more plucking and fat chords and then Jiggs started clapping his hands and stomping one foot. Bom*chick*bom*chick*Bom*Chick*
Wallace came over and joined in as well. Packie was wailing away, strumming his heart out while Jiggs and Wallace set the rhythm with their stomping and clapping.
“I…caught you smiling at me… that’s the way it should be! Like a leaf to a tree… so fine!” Jiggs and Wallace didn’t have greatest voices but that was the beauty of this song, you didn’t have to be a great singer to nail it. Bom*chick*bom*chick*bom*chick*
“Ah… all the good times we had, I sang love songs so glad…always smiling, never sad, so fine!”
Twilight couldn’t believe it. They actually sounded good. Then she heard a peculiar sound. It matched the rhythm of the song and she realized every pony in the audience started to stomp and clap their hooves in time with the guitar. “Well would you look at that.” She said to no one in particular.
“It’s AMAZING!!” blurted Pinkie.
“I’ll say.” Added Rainbow.
Everyone looked happy and content, bobbing their heads while stomping and clapping. Packie thrived in this kind of atmosphere. He playing becoming more relaxed and fluid.
“As we walk down the country lanes, I’ll be singing a song, hear me calling your name.”
Clapclapclapclap—clapclap—clapclap*
Clapclapclapclap—clapclap—clapclap*
“Hear the wind within the trees, telling mother nature bout you and me!!”
Clapclapclapclap—clapclap—clapclap*
Clapclapclapclap—clapclap—clapclap*
Even the mayor started to clap her hooves too. The three humans in Equestria demanded attention and boy did they deserve it. In the middle of his playing, Packie caught a glimpse of a yellow pony in the audience, with bright blue eyes and flowing pink hair. She didn’t seem as happy as everyone else but she couldn’t take her eyes off Packie, and honestly Packie couldn’t take away his gaze either. Yet again he forced himself to focus on the song, moving back into his relaxed state of mind.
The rest of the song progressed kind of expectedly. All enjoyed the spectacle and the music and everyone could tell the song was winding down.
“We’ll still go walking down country lanes, I’ll sing the same old songs, hear me callin’ your name!”
It was Packie’s turn to finish as the guys stopped clapping. He played the same ascending chords waiting to finish, over and over, playing wildly while teasing the crowd. Finally after letting it all out he finished with a huge C chord and let it ring forever. After the strings quit vibrating the crowd again went back to being motionless, not quite grasping the awesomeness they just heard.
Disappointed everything didn’t go as planned, Packie turned around and started to pack up the guitar. “Oh well, can’t please em’ all the time.”
Just then the crowd burst into thunderous applause. Bludgeoned by the sound of deafening cheering all three stood and took a bow towards the crowd.
“Thank you, Thank you!” Yes this is what they lived for, applause and appreciation. Packie noticed the yellow pony had perked up and was clapping as well for them.
Twilight didn’t want to get caught up in their attention and turned to the matter at hand, rushing over to the mayor.
Twilight looked around for the princess, but she nowhere to be found.
"Mayor… where is Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked.
"Twilight, you know how busy she is. She had to return to the castle."
"Well what was the meeting about?"
"She fears that a dragon or two might come to Ponyville…well actually… she isn't completely sure. But… she did tell me to ask you to visit her as soon as possible."
"How does she plan on dealing with this?"
"Well she doesn't think that using magic or having Fluttershy stare them down will do anything, at least not this time."
“Then we must leave right away.” Said Twilight. Their entire conversation had gone unnoticed by anyone else.