Chapter 4

Apple Cider Celebration (Take 2)

After a few days in Canterlot; Allyn had written down a good twenty songs in a few different genres, Alchemic Reaction had practiced the notes for each song, and they were on their way to Ponyville with Twilight and her friends. The eleven hopped off the train and headed for Sweet Apple Acres. After the four hour walk to the apple orchard, Allyn said hello to everyone and the CMC asked him about what he had done last week when he saved them from the steel from the stage. Mac corralled them and told them to go help Granny Smith in the kitchen with the cider for tomorrow. Allyn showed Octi, Vinyl, and Rim to the stage and Alchemic Reaction set up for a practice session and sound check before their debut at the Cider Celebration.

Vinyl stood back stage as Allyn, Rim Shot, and Octavia played Demons, one of the songs he had chosen for the concert, as a test. After the three finished, Vinyl confirmed that the audio and lighting was good. The four spent the next four hours practicing for the last time before they played live. For those hours, everyone on the orchard was given a private pre-show of what Alchemic Reaction had planned.

It was well into night before they were finished practicing, at which time everyone put their instruments away and went to grab a bite at Sugar Cube Corner. The four spent another hour at the bakery before it closed.

"Well where do we sleep," Rim asked.

"Well I left my stuff for when it was just me for the Cider Celebration at Fluttershy's," Allyn replied, "Out near Everfree. We could all bunk in the same room and get ready in the morning."

"Sounds awesome to me," Vinyl said, "Plus it'd make having an orgy easier." Octavia slapped Vinyl upside the head and the four headed towards the cabin near the woods.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ishneel kept an eye on the human, but he knew he could keep a better eye on him with a spy. He decided to call on an old ally of his; one he knew had grown to the human's level of strength in the past, if only to be beaten not twenty minutes later, but she was equally as strong as he is. Ishneel flew over the Everfree forest until he came to a dark part of the forest and landed.

As soon as he landed, he was surrounded by hundreds of starving Changelings. While just the sight of Changelings in this number would have frightened anypony else; but even if they had been well fed with love for a hundred years, he could take out all of them in one swoop.

"I have no time for your games," Ishneel decreed, "Where is Chrysalis?"

"Changelings," a familiar voice called from the darkness of the treeline, "At ease."

The Changelings did as they were told and sheathed their daggers. From the darkness, the lustful queen of the Changelings showed herself to the Dragon-hybrid, her insect-like eyes and wings and ink-black skin, showing her skeleton from starvation because she fed her people with whatever love she could find in this damned forest, indeed proving the point that these vile worms were hideous beyond imagination.

"You must be Ishneel," Chrysalis said with a smile on her face, revealing her fanged teeth, "My ancestors told me stories about you."

"What if I could offer your people limitless love to feed on," Ishneel offered, "Without the interruption of Celestia or her student and her friends and family?"

"Depends," she replied, moving her holed hair out of her face, "What would it require me and my people to do?"

"It would first require you to be my spy for a special unicorn currently taking residence just outside of this forest," He said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Everypony woke up at 5:20 am when Rainbow Dash flew in the front door to violently wake up Fluttershy for the Apple's Cider Celebration. Of coarse Allyn tried to reminder her that the event didn't even start for another almost five hours, but Dash argued about how there was already a line three miles long.

"How can there already be enough ponies for a line three miles long at 5:30 in the morning," Rim said holding a pillow over his face.

"Have either of you ever had the Apple family's cider," Vinyl asked Rim and Allyn from the bed.

"Oui," Octavia said still asleep and nuzzling up to Vinyl, "Son goût fantastique."

By around 6am, Rainbow had already gotten everypony in Fluttershy's hut up and dressed and took them to Sweet Apple Acres. Before the six were even four miles from the farm, they ran into a line of people that stretched well over the next hill.

"I wasn't kidding," Rainbow said with a smirk.

"I never said I didn't believe you," Allyn looked at her, "I just said that we didn't have to get up at 5:30 for an event that didn't start until ten."

Allyn brought Octavia, Shot, and Vinyl off to the side and asked Vinyl if she knew how to work the teleportation spell so they didn't have to wait to get through the line to get to the stage. Vinyl said yes and quickly teleported them behind the stage, but in each others clothing. They took turns changing back into their proper clothes and then Allyn led them thru the list again before AJ found them back stage.

"Y'all ready," she ask, "We're expectin' a lot of ponies to show up."

"Hell yeah," Vinyl said enthusiastically, "We're going to rock their faces off."

"Please forgive Vinyl," Octavia said pinching the bridge of her nose, "She can easily become over excited."

Big Mac walked up and reminded AJ that they had to move the barrels of cider back to the front of the barn. And with that, she was gone.

"I can't believe I'm going to play rock music to the Royal Sisters," Octavia said like a giddy school filly.

Vinyl laughed and look at Octi, "Yeah, I can get easily over excited."

Just before the First Annual Apple Family Cider Celebration began, the air sounded off with the blare of two horns announcing the arrival of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna by chariot. The chariot landed right in front of the stage and the two sisters stepped out and waved to the crowd behind the gate.

Allyn and everypony else saw the arrival through the curtains on the stage.

"Okay everypony," Allyn's inner leader called out, "Come on. The show started in a few minutes, get to your stations."

"Aye captain," the others said and ran to their respective instruments.

After ten minutes of waiting anxiously, they finally heard AJ and Twilight's voices from the other side of the curtain.

"Welcome everypony," Twilight said, "To the first annual Cider Celebration. With out further a due, my friend and hostess of this event; Applejack."

"This here's the first time m'ah family's done anything like this," AJ took over, "And Ah just wanna thank all y'all for commin' out ta celebrate with me and m'ah friends and family. And a special thanks to Princess Celestia and Luna for showin' up to this, give 'em a hand everypony."

"Get ready," Allyn whispered as everyone was cheering for the Princesses.

"Now to kick off this shindig," she continued, "Give a big howdy to a new group that formed just for this party; Fillies and Gentlecolts, Alchemic Reaction!"

With that, the curtains rose and revealed just how many ponies they would be playing for. There easily had to be over four hundred people, including; the mane seven, the CMC, the Cake Family, the Apples, the Princesses, and... Derpy? Yes sure enough the gray pegasus was sitting in the stadium near the front row with a small child, Allyn guessed Dinky, and was waving at Allyn.

"LET ME HEAR YA," Allyn called out to the crowd, which returned a roaring cheer, "My name's Flynt Alchemist. I'm here with; Octavia Melody on cello and female vocals, Vinyl Scratch on keyboard, and my brotha-from-anotha-motha Rim Shot on the drums. We are Alchemic Reaction and to start y'all off we dedicate this to the heroes of Equestria, you know 'em, you love 'em, the defeaters of Discord, The embodiments of the Elements of HARMONY!"

With another roaring cheer, Allyn strummed the first few notes silencing the crowd. Rim, Tavi, and Vinyl joined in causing a sweet harmony of sound. His deep Country voice rang out through the orchard as he started singing over the screaming of a hundred ladies. He looked over to the Apples and Rarity and Sweetie Belle when he started the chorus, which is when the other members joined in and caused a small Chaos storm to ensue at the front of the stage.

"This next part's about the former holders themselves," Allyn said between lyrics and then pointed to the "Hippie" Fluttershy, the "Gypsy" Rainbow Dash, the "Freak" Pinkie, the "Geek" Twilight, the "High class woman" Rarity, and "Daisy Duke denim" AJ with Rim backing him up from time to time before they started the next chorus.

Everyone in the band managed to hit every note and key in the song as they finished the first one of ten with huge smiles on their faces. After a moment to cool off, they started the second song. This time, Allyn used his high Alto with Octavia in a duet. They swung their torsos to the rhythm of Rhythm of Love, with the crowd clapped along to Rim's beat. Allyn kept his eyes on Luna the whole time after the first chorus, making her blush after she finally noticed after the second chorus.

A second song over, a second roar from the crowd. But Allyn noticed a whistling coming from high in the V.I.P. section and couldn't help himself from smiling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After forty-five minutes of constant music playing, which paused only for a moment or two for the group to regain their breath before the next song, Allyn and his band took a break and he said that the second half wasn't appropriate for small fouls and that they could enjoy the activities that the Apple Family had outside the stadium. Luna was curious and walked backstage to see Allyn. She walked to where the four pony group was resting and the ponies bowed when they saw her, whilst Allyn merely gave a half-salute and a "Hey" as he changed shirts to a darker color.

"Hello everypony," Luna said, trying to sound professional, "Hello Allyn Flynt. Do not mind us, we merely wish to tell thee that you are all doing well in this rock concert."

"What until we start the next ten songs princess," Vinyl said wiping the sweat off her forehead.

"Hard Rock," Rim Shot said stretching his wing, "Pardon my phrasing, but that shit's sick."

"Oh," Luna said, "Well tell mister Rock we wish him to get better soon."

Allyn had a moment of confusing looks before informing the princess that Hard Rock was a type of music that sounded rather intense, not a pony who was actually unhealthy. And with that Octavia said that their twenty minutes were up and they had to get back on stage. The other ponies ran back on stage, but Allyn stopped for a second and thought about something.

"What is it," Luna asked as the piano started playing on stage.

"Look for this when you're back at your seat," Allyn said holding his index finger up with his thumb to the side, "And one more thing..."

Allyn ran back to the Princess and quickly kissed her on the mouth. Before she could think of a response, he ran back to the stage yelling "For good luck!"

Luna stood in the open area behind the stage, her face a bright red. While she wanted to punish him for pulling such a trick and running off, she also slightly enjoyed the kiss. She shook her head when she heard Allyn's voice speaking at four words per second.

She was back at her seat with Celestia by the time Allyn had made it to the first chorus. Celestia looked at her and smiled. Luna asked what her sister was smiling about.

"Your face is as red as an apple," Celestia said with a chuckle. Luna was embarrassed, had she been blushing the entire time back to her seat? Curse that Allyn Flynt, after this concert she will personally throw him in the Canterlot Dungeon. But for the next hour, she slowly fell out the want to throw him off a cliff and enjoyed his voice in either Rap music or this "Hard Rock" as she believed.

But near the end, she began to feel a pattern in the songs. Ones talking about Demons or Monsters but the one talking about "sleeping a thousand years" caught both her and Celestia's attentions. They kept listening to the lyrics of both that song and the one after to make sure that there wasn't a hidden message he was trying to give to somepony in the crowd or to her.

But, though she was rather relieved to figure this out, there wasn't any sign of subliminal messaging happening.

"I will try to find my place," Allyn sang the end of the last song of the concert, "In the diary of LUNA." He held up his index finger, his thumb out to the side. THAT BASTARD! He had tricked her with false attempts to distract her so as to humiliate her at the end of the concert!

Allyn walked off stage after the last few cords and the rest of his cohorts followed after a few seconds. Luna turned to the guards to follow her as she walked backstage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"DO YOU HAVE A FUCKING DEATH WISH," Rim yelled at Allyn after the concert, who just took a nonchalant swig of cider.

"I can see what everybody's talking about now," Allyn said.

"Oh really," Vinyl said, equally freaking out as much as Rim was, "NOW you see why we're flipping?"

"Yeah," Allyn held the cider up, "This is some damn good cider."

Octavia yelled something in French that Allyn guessed went like; "The fuck were you thinking?! Why would you do that?! How can you be talking about cider at this moment?!"

Suddenly six guards surrounded the four and held their weapons at them, then Luna and Celestia revealed themselves to the future inmates.

"Thou are under arrest," Luna declared, drawing a sword at Allyn, "For unauthorized public intimidation."

"Take us away," Allyn said throwing his hands up with a smile on his face.

"YOU MOTHERFUCKER, YOU PLANNED THIS," Rim yelled at Allyn, jumping at him and strangling him.

The guards pulled the three ponies off Allyn and dragged all four away.

"'Unauthorized public intimidation'?" Celestia asked, "That's the best you could come up with?"

"Until I can find something to actually arrest him on," Luna said, sheathing her sword, "That's all I need."

"You know they call what he did today courting by current standard," Celestia said walking away with a chuckle, causing Luna to rapidly become flustered at both her sister and that Allyn Flynt.

Author's Note

for those of you wondering the list of songs they played;
Me and My Gang, Rascal Flatts.
Rhythm of Love, Plane White T's.
Mountain Sound, Of Monsters and Men.
Secrets, OneRepublic.
Banjo (With Big Mac playing the banjo), Rascal Flatts.
If I Die Young (Octavia gave a tear jerking cover), The Band Perry.
Castle of Glass, Linkin Park.
Little Wonders, Rob Thomas.
Odds Are, Barenaked Ladies.
Alien(Cleaner version), YFM.

Can't Hold Us, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
Moves Like Jagger, Maroon 5.
Kiss A Girl, Keith Urban.
I Burn, Cassy Williams and Lamar Hall.
Monster, Eminem ft. Rhianna.
The Phoenix, Fall Out Boy.
One More Night (Allyn and Rim switched between lyrics every once in a while), Maroon 5.
Demons, Imagine Dragons.
Bring Me To Life, Evanescence.
Diary of Jane, Breaking Benjamin.