Guitar Strings and Dragon Wings

Metal in Equestria: Chapter 7
The Wise
The town meeting ended rather abruptly as the ponies took to their daily activities. Some treated the humans like celebrities, some kept their distance, while others simply were too busy to care at the moment. However the band had put on a decent five minute show and everyone in town was nonetheless impressed. Word of Equestria’s new arrivals would spread quickly over the coming days.
After much negotiation the band was convinced to come to Canterlot to meet the princess. A royal chariot was brought to Ponyville at the request of Twilight before she briefly introduced the band to the rest of her friends. Packie was shocked to learn the yellow Pegasus he couldn’t take his eyes off of was actually one of Twilight’s close friends, Fluttershy.
The chariot came swiftly to take them to Canterlot, as Celestia was perplexed by the circumstances of the humans' arrival. The band was accompanied by Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy, while Rarity and Applejack voted to stay behind.
BELCH!* Wallace burped openly.
They were high over Equestria, with less than five minutes till arrival in Canterlot.
Pinkie Pie started to giggle at his behavior. "Hey can I have some more coffee, Wally? You got me hooked on this stuff!"
"Its great stuff, ain't it?" Wallace said.
"Oh yeah, I love it but I only drink it if someone does it with me." Pinkie admitted. She took a large sip from his gallon jug and handed it back to him.
"So is this Princess… nice?" asked Jiggs. He ran his hands through his black hair. It had been over 5 hours since his last cigarette. That was too long for him.
Twilight turned her body to face him. "Yes Anthony, she is. But I only hope she'll forgive me for bringing you guys here."
Rainbow frowned. "Well Twilight, this might look bad, but the princess has seen worse I'm sure."
BELCH!* Pinkie giggled.
"They just probably aren't the best influence." Said Rainbow.
Twilight started rubbing her head with anxiety.
Packie kind of sat quietly and kept to himself the whole ride. He barely managed to say two words to Fluttershy. Why am I so nervous right now? He thought to himself. He knew he had to take his mind off the subject.
"Hey dude," Packie tapped Jiggs on the shoulder, "you know how there's no police here, right? So can we like, get high?"
"Not now, man." Jiggs shook his head. "Maybe later."
"Uh oh!" Jiggs and Packie looked to Wallace. "What if the princess wants a demonstration?" He asked, then took another sip.
"Fuck I hadn't thought of that." Said Jiggs.
"Don't worry about it." Rainbow said reassuringly. "It's okay if you didn't bring instruments or anything."
"Oh, I haven't sent the Princess a letter in a while either. I know she'll be upset." Twilight sighed unevenly.
“Oh Twilight,” said Pinkie,” we’ve been over this before. The princess doesn’t care if you send a letter every week. She’ll be absolutely totally fine with it you silly.” Twilight was a bit taken aback by Pinkie’s comforting words, but her other friends nodded in agreement.
The castle gardens came into sight and the carriage began to descend somewhat like a helicopter. The hooves of the royal guards and the carriage dropped onto the brick pathway. The sound was similar to two stones grinding against each other. Packie was the first to hop out. As he hit the brick road he took a full breath of the air. He still didn't fully believe that he was on another world.
His friends and the other ponies hopped out of the flying chariot as well.
"Hey guys stay close to us!" Twilight yelled out.
Jiggs contemplated having a cigarette, but didn't think this was a good place. "Fine, I'll wait." He mumbled.
The group was led by the royal guards up to the massive doors of the front wall.
Twilight's horn flared to life. A small spark started from the tip, but the purple electricity enveloped her horn completely.
The huge doors flew open as if they were weightless. There was another grinding noise made from the friction of the doors opening. The doors were no doubt very old.
"Impressive." One of the guards remarked.
The other guard looked at the other shocked ponies and humans. "They can only be moved with magic, even dragons can't budge these doors."
"HA! You make it sound as though any unicorn can move these doors! But in truth there are only six ponies in all of Equestria who can move them. Only two of them are non-royal." The guard finished giving his lesson. "You are the private student of Celestia, are you not?"
"Why yes I am." Said Twilight.
"Ha, it all makes sense then. If you were not, you couldn't possibly move these doors, much less bring humans to Equestria." The guard seemed to know more than he let on.
"You know of humans?" Twilight asked.
The guard narrowed his eyes. "I'm shocked she's kept things from you."
The ponies and humans were led by the guards into the grand foyer. There was a large staircase that split in two directions halfway up.
"Nice place," Packie said. "Though I think it needs some redecoration. It's too… fluffy."
"Twilight!" a female voice said. "Hey Twilight, over here!" From one side of the split staircase came a bluish purple pony, with a distinctive crescent moon cutie mark. “Twilight, my sister will be down in a second!" She gracefully hovered down the stairs to meet the group and was unsettled at the sight of the humans, although she wasn't frightened by them.
"Hello Princess Luna," Twilight greeted her with a smile. "You may be wondering what these beings are, but I can explain."
"Wow, humans have drastically changed appearances after a thousand years." Luna said.
Twilight was dumbstruck. "B-b-but how? How did you know?"
"I guess big sis didn't tell you about them, typical…" Luna walked up to them and admired their complexion. She was enticed by Packie's blond hair.
Packie was somewhat uncomfortable from the attention. Wallace made an obvious statement. "Holy fuck, that one's got wings and a horn."
"Yeah I can see that." Said Packie. Luna was still close, inspecting him cautiously. She gave his hair a quick brush with her hoof.
"Hmm… your blond hair is a rarity among humans, is it not?" Luna asked him, taking a few steps back.
"Kind of," Packie said scratching his head, "but you can dye it any color you want. However this is my real color, pretty sweet right?"
"Indeed…" Luna said, not sure what he meant by that, "pretty sweet." She mumbled.
Fluttershy was watching Luna with great intent, perhaps even jealousy. But why? Why was she jealous? She couldn’t come up with a good answer.
Princess Luna took another step back and faced Wallace and Jiggs. "You have strange clothing as well. It is not like previous encounters."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
"Humans have been here before, Twilight." A new voice said.
A white orb flashed to life above them. The light was blinding, much like the portal that Twilight had opened. It descended to the center of the vast hall. The light began to decrease in intensity, very slowly.
Suddenly the light stopped to reveal a marble orb. Its shell pulled back to reveal Celestia and the rest of it faded away. Celestia's hooves touched the floor.
"So, Luna… I thought you said Twilight couldn't muster that energy." Celestia smiled in delight. She did not seem upset in the least.
"Here's where shit gets complicated." Wallace said. He took a swig from his jug.
Luna didn't want to admit it, but she had thought Twilight wasn't capable of using trans-dimensional spells. "Well I suppose I was wrong." She smirked at Celestia.
Rainbow Dash walked forward to match Twilight. "Will someone please explain?" Rainbow asked politely.
"Princess," Twilight thought carefully, "I found a book in the library…well Spike did, but that's beside the point. I was curious and used a spell that… opened a portal to another world?" Twilight wasn't quite sure of what level of magic she had accomplished, but she knew it would have been better if she hadn't. "and… these humans came from the other side."
"Say no more, Twilight. I'm actually very glad." Celestia said whole-heartedly.
"WHAT?" all the ponies yelled in astonishment, except for Luna.
"Anyone mind if I smoke?" Jiggs spoke up. "Like I know it's a palace and shit's expensive…but I really need one now."
Celestia focused her gaze and a box flashed into existence in front of Jiggs. "Here." Celestia said. The box opened to reveal what looked like five hand rolled cigarettes.
"No fuckin' way." Jiggs said. He picked one up and inspected it. The cigarette was rather long and colored white. In gold lettering it said "CELESTIA" on the side.
"I don't smoke." Said Celestia. "But I received them as a gift from a friend who passed away millennia ago. He was regarded as the finest agriculturalist in Equestria, even to this day. Also, I've enchanted them, so there won't be any excess in your lungs afterwards."
"Did I die and go to fucking heaven?" Jiggs asked. He took one and his lighter out of his pocket. The flame burned one end. He toked it a few times. "Yeah that's really good." he said enthusiastically. ”Err… I mean… exceptional.”
"Good," said Celestia. She turned her attention to Twilight. "Hello Twilight, it's been awhile. I enjoy reading your letters and… from time to time… I visit you without you knowing. Only to check up on you, however." Luna calmly walked over to Celestia's side.
"I have to explain something Twilight." Luna said. "We knew that book was in your library, the one that can conjure portals. We decided not to tell you because we thought you wouldn't try to actually use it."
"I understand. I'm sorry." Twilight said. She lowered her head in disappointment as she thought she was going to receive punishment.
"HA! Twilight Sparkle! My greatest student, don’t be ashamed!" Celestia yelled happily.
"Huh?" Twilight barely whispered.
"Luna doubted you, but I had faith in my protégé." Celestia lowered her voice to calm the tension. "We left the book at the Ponyville library because it can only be used under two circumstances. The first, it can only be used by one with a large capacity for magical understanding. The second, it can only be used at the time it needs to be used."
"We designed it that way." Luna said.
"So… you wrote the book?" Twilight put the pieces together. "…and I was supposed to bring the humans here?"
"Exactly!" said Celestia. "You were the only one who could've used that spell. Not even I would have been able to use it."
"Princess?" Rainbow confidently butted in, "Could you possibly give us a history lesson about the humans?" she said.
"Of course miss Dash." Celestia said.
"This should be good." Said Packie.
"Wally!WALLY!" Pinkie yelled, "Gimme some of that stuff!"
"Sure whatever." Wallace handed her the green jug of life. She took another swig.
"Okay story time!" Pinkie yelled.