Luna Forms a Metal Bandby RF and AGChaptersThe IdeaRecruiting The BestFirst Contestant!The Idea “No, no, no! That doesn’t sound right!” A loud thud followed the harshly yelled words. Luna sat upon the only movable object in her room; her ‘spinny’ chair. Her eyes were nearly glowing with rage because of her current task at hand, focused entirely set upon the paper that was now strewn on her desk. There was a pile in the top right corner that was stacked neatly, rather important documents that pertained to some law or another; Luna had dismissed them to future Luna’s problems. The rest though were nothing but music sheets, sorted in a way that Luna called ‘organized chaos’ even though Discord would disagree to such a concept. Notes lined the sides of each measure, making points of certain sections or even just humours thoughts that came to mind. That wasn’t all of the paper though, for beside her desk was a small garbage bin that was beyond a little full, and yet the maids emptied it every night. The Night Princess let out a strained sigh, sitting back a little before spinning around in a quick circle on her spinning chair. Such a marvellous chair it was, the seat made of a faux leather, covering a hoof stitched cushion of tempered cloud, that only the minotaurs utilized. Each leg and non-leathered piece was made of carved wood, a beautiful birch that was coated in a black paint. The only part not made from pure natural materials was the plastic wheels that allowed one to roll around the room, much to Luna’s delight. She had been sitting at that desk for what seemed like forever, trying to force herself to move past her current obstacle. Alas, she was beyond stumped; her mind constantly racking itself over and over in order to find a way to make it work. Luna gently picked up her LS (Lunar Special) pencil in her magic, bringing it closer to her eyes. It was a fine pencil, evenly balanced and made with only the best graphite that the pencil company could produce. The normal yellow colour had been swapped out with a light blue, almost navy if one wanted to get technical. The eraser was just the right size to allow for the perfect precision when removing those offending mistakes, while the tip had just the right sharpness to it. Yes, it was such an immaculate pencil, one that would be cherished by all that would have been graced with the ability to use it. Such a thing seemed to be the work of- Snap Just like that, the pencil’s geometric symmetry was brought to an end before falling into the garbage bin beside the desk. Luna stared, blankly, at the bin for a moment before getting up and making her way over to a closet on the other side of the room. The walk was quick, short, and just as boring as everything else had been. This was the entire reason why Luna was currently cooped up in her room and not out about in the castle. While most ponies thought that she was entirely nocturnal, what with her being the raiser of the moon and all, the truth was that she was just bored out of her mind. Alicorn’s didn’t need to sleep, and Luna was pretty sure they didn’t need to breathe either, since she did spend a thousand years on the moon. That of course gave them a lot of free time to do what was needed, such as raise and lower the celestial bodies, or have some tea with ambassadors, or plot a way to get revenge on one’s own sib- I’m not going down that road again, Luna shook her head as she stopped in front of her closet. Now this closet wasn’t her clothes closet, no matter how much her sister tried to say otherwise; that was what dressers were for. No, this closet held two of the most important things to Luna. Two items that she utilized the most and kept her busy when the castle was all too quiet. She pulled the door handles open with a quick flourish of her magic, revealing the two most important items in her life. Her Ibanez RDG7UC guitar. It sported an opaque navy blue lacquer coating, over the solid maple wood which comprised the body of the guitar. On the body stood a switch selector gleaming its chrome near the scoop cut of the guitar. About halfway down, on the same side of the switch selector, was a volume knob, also gleaming its shiny chrome coat. At the very bottom, an amp port lay recessed into the body of the guitar. It was a masterpiece in her eyes, hoof carved by the original founders of Ibanez. That music company knew how to make guitars and this one was their greatest creation - in her eyes at least. The fretboard shimmered with a metallic black colour, only off set by the white markings on the dials and the silver screws. Her hoof roamed over the neck of the guitar, feeling each inch of the varnished maple. The wood itself was only the best, she knew because the castle had many pieces of furniture made from that same tree. She traced each portion of the scooped cut guitar, making her shiver slightly at the feel. Each trace felt like she was rekindling with a long lost part of her, bent on finding her no matter what the circumstances. Even though she had just put it back before supper with ‘Tia. Finally her hoof reached the headstock before continuing to trace every inch of it. No matter how many times she gazed on it, she still loved the looked of the lefty flipped headstock that mounted her own cutie mark in the middle. Her magic flared a little before encompassing the entire guitar and removing it from its resting place on a hoof carved guitar stand; once more made from the same maple tree. The closet was custom made for the sole purpose of storing that guitar. The inside was completely padded with an almost velvety material. Woven into the wood was seals that kept the thing airtight, making it physically impossible for dust to even touch her guitar. The guitar felt incredibly light in her grasp, even despite the electronics inside and the density of the maple. Maybe it was something that the masters at Ibanez had put in, possibly some sort of carving technique that allowed the wood to be dense yet light as a feather. Though it was probably due to Luna having the magic strength to move the moon. Maybe. Luna was about to close the closet door, once her guitar was clear, when she remembered that she had come to the closet for another reason. One that was more important than pulling her guitar out. A reason that required her to go after the second item in the sacred closet. She ripped open another packet of LS pencils with her magic, pulling the whole box out before closing the door. The box was placed on her desk well before Luna even got close to her sitting spot. Maybe if she played the section a few times, the notes would strike her like a bolt of lightning. Of course, they would be less painful … unless her amp fizzed out again. She should see if Pinkie could get her in touch with that white unicorn DJ. Perhaps that DJ mare had some tips and tricks on dealing with such situations. It certainly would not hurt to pick the experienced mare’s brain, for any wisdom and knowledge she might be able to offer. Once Luna was seated on her Spinning Chair of Infinite Knowledge, her mind began to refocus on the task at hoof. She had been stuck on this one chord progression for some time, trying to figure out how to transition into the breakdown. She had written out everything past that and everything preceding it, but this one section had her stumped. So stumped in fact that she had barely even noticed that somepony had slipped into her room. An assassin! Well, I know what to do with those … an almost sadistic grin crept over her face as she cast a little protective spell on her guitar. Of course her telekinesis masked the fact she had cast that spell and it would be her intruder’s downfall. It took all of her might to not swivel her ears around to focus better on the pony in her room, but it was needed. If she moved them towards the sound of the approaching pony, she would give herself away, much like her soon-to-be attacker had. Whoever they were, they must have thought that their hoof steps were quiet and unable to be picked up by anypony. Unfortunately for them, Luna was the Princess of the Night and stealth was part of her namesake. Just a few more steps, Luna waited, nearly stock still as the intruder neared her. She mentally counted down the meagre seconds before they would be in attacking range. It felt longer than a few seconds, but when it came time, Luna reacted without hesitation. “Hyyyyaaaaahhh!” Luna yelled as she spun around, with her eyes closed, on her Spinning Chair of Infinite Knowledge, while swinging her guitar around so that the neck of the guitar was in her grasp. The body of the guitar was slicing through the air, aiming straight for what she assumed was where the pony’s head was. The body connected with the side of … Celestia’s head. “Not the usual welcome, sister, but one I can appreciate nevertheless.” The sly grin on ‘Tia’s face could almost be heard through her words. Luna frowned slightly before slowly setting her guitar down on her bed. She hopped off the chair, unintentionally stretching her legs out of a force of habit. “Not the harshest way I’ve greeted you, though.” “That is true, remember the desk incident?” Celestia said with a grin on her face. “I was referring to the Nightmare Moon incident, but that works too,” Luna said with a chuckle behind her voice. “So what brings you here ‘Tia? “Can’t I check on my sister without having an ulterior motive?” Celestia says as her cheeks puff out. It was obvious that Celestia was trying to hold back laughter at that comment. Even Luna was giggling at that, because both of the sisters knew that something was always up when they visited each other. Whether it be something of importance to the country or one of them needed advice, the sisters always visited when something came up. No words needed to be said as both of the Royal Sisters burst out laughing at Celestia’s statement. They both broke into fits as though they were school fillies hearing some sort of hilarious joke about a teacher. It took them a few moments, but they both eventually regained their regal composure once more. A few quick movements with their telekinesis and they looked just as impeccable as they had appeared, prior to their ensuing moment of comedy. “Phew, I needed that, ‘Tia,” Luna said, wiping her brow with a hoof. “So … what do you need?” “Well, I’ve been thinking about something, Lulu,” Celestia, ignoring the mocked gasp of shock that came from Luna, “and this is something that I should have said a few weeks ago, but I think you need to get out more often.” Luna dead-panned that statement, for it was a completely silly statement. Celestia had been preaching the same thing to Luna for a few weeks at that point, if not more, and it was driving Luna up the wall. Sure, she did need to get out more often, but that didn’t mean that Celestia had to keep nosing in on it. “Now hear me out, sis. I know I have said it before, but it is true. You spend all of your time cooped up in the castle. All you have been doing is your duties and then straight to your room. Why don’t you do something more creative?” “More creative?” Luna asked, brows raised in displeasure at such a statement. “So, the songs we have been writing are not creative enough, or is our night sky lacking, sister?” Celestia rolled her eyes at Luna’s resentment, “you know what I mean, Lulu. I just want you to get out more and experience the modern world more. You were doing so good on the last ten years, but then you withdrew into yourself again. Besides, you have yet to even play for me so how am I supposed to know what your songs are like? Maybe you should make a band!” Luna’s ears perked tremendously at that statement, maybe her sister was indeed onto something. Celestia continued on, but Luna didn’t hear her, her focus was on that one single idea as it could be the solution to all of her woes. If she could form the band, then that would not only satisfy her sister, but it would also allow ponies to hear her music without praising it just because she was a princess. Luna’s grin would have grown three times greater, in that moment, though such a feat was impossible, unless one was a certain pink Ponyville party pony. “Mother of Faust!” And with that statement, Luna dashed out of the room. She had taken nothing with her and had left Celestia standing there, almost dumbfounded. Celestia looked around slightly, standing exactly where she stood when Luna dashed out of the room. At first, the Sun Princess was a little bewildered by what had just transpired. She knew Luna tuned her out shortly after she suggested that Luna make a band, but she didn’t expect Luna to take it to heart that much. Nor did she expect Luna to just dash out of the room without more than an incomplete sentence. Celestia shrugged her shoulders before turning leave her sister’s room. It wasn’t polite to stand in one’s bedroom when they had just left, even though they used to share the same bedroom a long time ago. “At least she found something to do. I mean, what’s the worst that could happened?” Celestia wondered out loud, not hearing the very universe cackle at the saying. Recruiting The Best2 Days Later “This is what has kept you in your room?” Celestia asked, with raised eyebrows. “This, is why you have not left your room in two days and have had the maids bring you your food?” “Yes!” Luna replied with a chipper tone, her eagerness was starting to seep into her tone now. “I’m surprised it took you two days to create this.” Celestia said, still looking at what Luna brought her. “Well it wasn’t exactly two days, it just took longer to get it published than anticipated. If the newspaper wasn’t so slow, you would have read about it yesterday!” Luna said, all the while hoping from hoof to hoof. “I see,” Celestia murmured before reading over it once more. “I think you are losing your touch, Lulu. You used to make comets in mere hours, not days.” “Comets!?” Luna gasped, rushing towards where Celestia sat. Her magic reached out for the paper that she had brought her sister. She had even opened up the page to where she had placed her ad. How could Celestia miss it? “Yes, right here,” Celestia said, pointing to the article about a comet that passed through Equus’ outer atmosphere last night. She had assumed that was what Luna wanted to show her, though she didn’t understand why. Her sister had rarely taken that much joy out of one of her creations even if the comet was called “beautiful beyond mortal words.” Whoever wrote that must have been a Lunatic! While Celestia stifled a giggle at the horrible pun, Luna scanned over the page of the paper. On one side of it, the comet story along with some smaller pieces stood out since the pictures were in colour. On the other side of the paper laid the Classifieds, including a rather sizeable article that Luna had secretly purchased. She obviously wouldn’t do it under her own name, so instead she used the name of, Night Wish. The name had come to her in a moment of inspiration when she was crafting her night sky. It was the perfect stage name and it could easily apply to a unicorn. Why a unicorn? Well, Luna had decided to not perform on a stage, if they ever got there, with her normal name and appearance. Thus, Night Wish was born. “Argh! No, that isn’t what I wanted to show you,” Luna explained, throwing her head back, so that her snout was held high in the air, her pupils contracted to pinpricks, as she growled her frustration, and trotting back and forth before her sister. Once she calmed down enough, she returned to her sister’s side, and looked back down at the paper her sister was currently reading. in the air, eyes open and snarl on her lips, before looking back down. For the oddest of reasons she was over emphasizing her movements lately, especially those that reflected her emotions. She hardly noticed it, yet her sister had definitely picked up on her change in how she carried herself. Luna jabbed her hoof at the spot in the paper that she had expected Celestia to read originally. The paper almost fully gave way to her insistent prodding, the crackling almost turning into a full ripping sound as stress marks appeared with each hoof prod. Her sister glanced from Luna to the spot that Luna was pointing at, eyes narrowing briefly before contracting beyond their normal size. Celestia was a smart pony, living for a thousand years gave a pony an extreme amount of wisdom, so she could easily connect the dots with this ad and why Luna was so giddy. Still, despite her ability to reason things out in seconds, she could hardly believe that her sister was actually going through with that idea. “You are going to form a band?” Celestia’s voice was expressive with bewilderment. “Yes!” “As in a music band?” “Yes!” “And you’re recruiting via a newspaper ad …” “Well, actually it is only one of the many ads I have purchased,” Luna said, her large grin never leaving her face. “I purchased a spot in every newspaper in Equestria.” Celestia just shook her head at that statement, there was little that she could even think of saying. Her sister had a knack for being a little eccentric, but this was taking it too far. Not only had she seriously gone through with the idea of forming a band, but she had also created a stage persona to use in the band. Celestia was very close to slamming her face into the table in front of her, she could only take so much when her sister was like that. Though admittedly she didn’t mind it, since it brought her back to the time before she had to banish her sister. It was a much fonder time, a time when they could act completely like sisters, but such a time was over. Luna’s banishment had changed her and Celestia knew this, they could never go back to the way it was. “I’ve already got twenty two applications!” Slam Face meet table, table meet face. That had been final straw to break Celestia’s willpower to not introduce her face and the table. Maybe it was a good thing though, for they seemed to be getting along splendidly. Perhaps they would be best of friends, knowing what Luna was planning on doing, it was quite possible that they would be spending a fair amount of time together. “Oh don’t give me that ‘Tia! You were the one who suggested it, so don’t be so melodramatic,” Luna said, rolling her eyes and huffing loudly at her older sister’s reaction. Celestia didn’t respond, instead opting to let her face and the table continue their first meeting, allowing them the time to get acquainted properly. Luna on the other hoof just giggled lightly, before trotting out of the dining room. She halted her progress though briefly, turning back to poke her head in through the open doors. “I’m off to find a place to interview them! Do try to make Mr. Table feel comfortable, we all know how displeasing your face is!” Luna quickly said before scrambling away just in case her sister would actually react to that retort. It had been the perfect place to interview those that had applied, as well as it helped Luna with any questions that could possibly lead to them finding out about her true identity. It was so perfect that Luna couldn’t help but give off a little evil laugh. It was almost second nature, the laugh, for she had used it countlessly when she had been Nightmare Moon. “Sometimes it is so difficult being the cleverer sister,” Luna said to herself, before slapping her right forehoof over her head and feigning as though she was falling backwards. A grin broke out on her face swiftly though, ruining the pose. There stood Luna, about ten meters away from her new base of operations outside of Ponyville. Well, not technically Luna, no she was in her Night Wish form. A dark purple furred unicorn, blue and white mane that hung loosely around her shoulders. The blue and white zig-zagged through her mane in no specific pattern, but Luna didn’t care for all that mattered was that it was long enough to head bang with. The house itself was nothing special in its design and that was where the ingenuity lie. A two story house that had two bathrooms, four bedrooms, a kitchen, and a main area. All of that not including the garage. It looked almost identical to the rest of the houses in Ponyville, not a soul would suspect that it was actually the staging area for my takeover of Eques- Luna shook her head violently to clear her head of such a thought. “I seriously need to see a psychiatrist.” So there Night Wish stood, in front of her recently bought two story house, with a garage add on. Why the garage? Well all good bands had started out as a garage band before moving onto being signed by record labels. It wasn’t uncommon to see garages, since some ponies did own carts and carriages. Of course that wasn’t the only place that the band could practice in. She had the basement redesigned into a full on recording booth, large enough to fit at least half of the Royal Canterlot Symphony. It was the perfect place, and not a soul would notice the tens of thousands of bits that went missing from the Royal Treasury. Especially since this was on the outskirts of Ponyville, the perfect place to play as loud as possible and not break any noise violations … not that Luna cared. Aside from those that worked under Princess Twilight, not a soul in Canterlot cared about Ponyville. That had upset Luna briefly, but she then realized that it was a boon for the city since it meant that the nobles and the bureaucrats gave no attention to them. This house was the main reason as to why Celestia hadn’t seen her in two days. Sure she had lied to her sister but that was necessary since she would have been yelled at probably … nah, ‘Tia’s face would have just gotten another date with Mr. Table. This elicited a rather loud giggle from Luna, such a thought had her almost on her back in laughter. Her mind wouldn’t stop though as she continued to picture more and more scenes from various dates that her sister would take Mr. Table out to. Luna had spoken with the Mayor of Ponyville, as Night Wish, and purchased the land and building rights. The house had taken hardly a full day to build, it was truly remarkable how ingenuitive her Night Guard was. She didn’t realize how many of them had cutie marks in construction; what amazed her more was the amount that cutie marks in decorative furnishing. It wasn’t a large number but still enough to make her eyes bug out when she found out. “Now to get in contact with all of the applicants …” Luna muttered out loud. Twilight had found a way to make dragonfire portable a few years ago and in large enough numbers, allowing most ponies to send mail a long distance away in a flash. Many ponies had been worried that it would remove the job of mail mares and mail stallions but that had been hardly the case. Apparently Twilight had seen that coming and made sure the dragonfire would only send to postal offices in the city. In the end, a few jobs had been lost but mail was moving more efficiently. Luna of course didn’t need such a thing for she could literally just send the mail straight to the applicants. This was too important to her to not send the mail straight to them. She needed to get the news out without a moment of hesitation. A flurry of scrolls appeared next to her, oh how she loved being able to teleport things to her. Just as quick as they appeared, she sorted them out into their respective groups before they disappeared just as quickly. Now all she had to do was play the waiting game, or do something creative for the time being. She walked from her spot outside of the house, through the front door and into the kitchen, which she had fully stocked the kitchen shortly after it had been built. There were all the necessities in there, everything a band needed. Dinnerware, enough food to last them a few weeks at least, eating utensils, and booze. Oh there was enough alcohol in that kitchen to make bars feel envious, of course it was well hidden, just in case any pony tried to take some from them. On the right side after entering the kitchen stood an almost blank wall, aside from the obvious plaster and a single portrait. Yet if you looked close enough, there was a little bump on the wall. That little bump was a hidden button that would flip the wall around and reveal the motherload of all alcohol stashes. Luna checked the clock hanging above the cupboards, One thirty. She shrugged her withers, screw waiting, it’s five o’clock in the minotaur lands and they know how to drink. She walked over to the hidden compartment, stopping right in front of the secret button. Just as she was about to push it, a ringing came from the front door. “Oh come on!” Luna shouted as she lowered her hoof and spun to head to the front door. She was prepared to berate whoever it was for interrupting her chance to start early on her drinking. She knew she couldn’t get drunk, tipsy yes, but not even close to being drunk. She mainly just loved the burning sensation from the hard alcohol. Still in her Night Wish form, her magic wrapped around the door knob. With a quick flick, she twisted it and pulled the door open revealing her visitor. To say that mare standing in front of her shocked her was an understatement. “Sweetie Belle?” Luna asked with a little bit of shock sinking into her words. She knew this mare when she was a filly, having helped her get past multiple fears. It was tough for Luna to forget a name and face, so even after all of those years she knew this was Sweetie Belle. Well, at least at her very core. This mare was definitely not how she remembered Sweetie. The mare’s mane was the same, but that was pretty much where it stopped. She stood at about the same height as her sister now, having finally gone through puberty. Just like her sister, Sweetie wore clothes for no particular reason except to make a statement. This one was that she obviously loved metal. Her hoofs were adorned by black boots with multiple belt buckles spaced evenly apart on them. She wore a black shirt that bore designs of lighting crashing behind a guitar. Finally her tail was held at the base by a black studded collar of sorts. All of this was topped off by the by the jet black Jackson Warrior WRXTMG on her back. The guitar's body glistened from the ebony gloss paint, the maple neck sporting pearl colored inlays against the treated wood of the fretboard. On the lower right fin of the guitar were two control knobs, one located near the junction, where the two fins joined together, and the other was 2 inches from the end of the fin. Equidistant between the two gleaming chrome knobs, a chrome switch glistened between them. A chrome strap button protruded about an inch down from the end of the upper left fin, while the other strap button was located in the same position, so that they'd form a parallel line to the line of the main body, but on the lower left fin of the guitar. The silver strings gleamed as they lay across the bridge, frets and nut. The upper two pickups were a charcoal grey and about an inch in width, while the third, bottommost pickup was about 1/4 inch in width. 'Jackson' was painted in stylized cursive lettering, diagonally, parallel to the tuning pegs on the headstock. Just from looking at the guitar, Luna could tell it was a well cared for and maintained. Luna knew this guitar well, for it was another one she had studied before finally choosing Ibanez. A guitar aficionado, Luna knew that Sweetie had made a fine choice with that guitar of hers. “That, or Metal Belle works. Wait, do I know you? I haven’t see you around before and Pinkie hasn’t thrown you a party, yet …” Sweetie finally spoke, breaking Luna from her trance. “Umm …” Luna mumbled, truly at a loss for words at that point. “I’ll … explain inside. I take it you are here for auditions?” “Yep!” Sweetie said, her voice still had that same bubbly tone that she had when she was a filly. Of course it was less now, but it still carried through. Luna kept the door open as Sweetie made her way through, trotting straight to the couch that sat in the initial room of the house. Luna closed the door slowly, still shocked by who had already shown up. It’s going to get crazier, isn’t it? First Contestant! The ticking of the clock on the wall was louder than anything else in the room. All it did was constantly utter the two same sounds, tick tock. Eternity existed between the two sounds, as time repeated endlessly, the monotonous repetition affecting any who should pay attention to the timekeeping device.Over and over again it ticked, slowly becoming the only sound that was ringing in her ears. Slowly hammering into her brain, ingraining the sounds so deep that she would hear them for the rest of her natural life. Her left eye twitched briefly before her hooves shot up to her ears. “I can’t take it anymore!” she shouted, luckily not reaching Royal Canterlot Voice volumes. “Can’t take what?” Sweetie asked, sitting on the other side of the table from Luna. She was happily sipping some tea until Luna snapped. “That. Celestia. Damned,” her voice rose, horn igniting swiftly. “Clock!” With a swift flick of her magic, the clock flew from its resting place up on the wall and straight into the adjacent wall. Repeatedly. As in the amount of times the clock hit the wall was a number greater than twenty. Luna had lost count after the first few slams, her mind constantly trying to force the ticking out of her head. “Umm … Night Wish? Are you okay?” Sweetie’s voice halted Luna’s progress on banishing the clock to another realm via the wall. As she stopped she realised something; she was destroying a clock because it made the sounds it was supposed to. Am I truly this neurotic? Luna shook her head furiously, trying to right her thoughts and once again focus on what she had been thinking about, before the clock had gotten to her. She mentally facehooved as her original train of thought started back up again. She had been questioning what was Sweetie doing. “Right. Sorry about that, I… umm … I just switched to decaf!” Luna said before once again mentally facehoofing. Decaf? Really? Why would I ever switch to that stuff? “Oh, that’s alright. My sister went through the same thing,” Sweetie said before pausing slightly at the end as if she was considering her next words. “You’re new here right? You probably don’t even know who I am talking about! My sister, Rarity, is a fashion designer here!” “Yes, I’ve heard of her before …” Luna said, cutting off whatever Sweetie Belle was going to say next. “In fact, we’ve met before.” “Really?! When was that?” Sweetie’s gasped, eyes lighted up in what Luna assumed was wonder. Am I really going to just drop the disguise this quickly? Such an idea was absurd to Luna but at the same time she knew that it would get rather confusing later on, especially if she made the band … This time, Luna actually facehooved. “I’ll tell you after, first there is tryouts!” Luna exclaimed, hoping to grab Sweetie’s attention from the previous line of conversation. “If you’ll follow me, we can get started in the garage.” Sweetie simply nodded before hopping off her chair and proceeding to follow Luna through the rest of the house and into the garage. As to why she even had a garage in the first place was a mystery to Sweetie for there was no carriage of any sort on the property, at least from what she could tell. In the garage sat a table that was in front of five chairs. Maybe for the rest of the band to judge new members? Sweetie simply shrugged at the idea and instead looked at the rest of the … rather empty garage. Aside from a few shelves, a couch, that table, and a handful of amps, there was absolutely nothing in the garage. it did make a little sense though, since Night Wish had just moved here. “Alright, just plug into one of the amps and show me what you’ve got,” Night Wish said before sitting down on the center chair. “Umm, can I see what kind of skill level you want me to attain?” Luna blanked briefly, trying to decipher the request. To her it felt like a few minutes but in actuality she had just stared at Sweetie for a few seconds. Her mind had pieced together the puzzle pieces and came out with the answer. “Sure, just let me grab my guitar.” With a quick flux of magic, Luna disappeared from the room for hardly half a minute before suddenly reappearing. Sweetie was surprised to say the least, it wasn’t common for unicorns to know a teleportation spell. Only the upper tier of unicorns could draw on such a spell. A cough drew Sweetie’s attention back to Luna, who was feeling a little odd at having the unicorn stare so deeply at her. Sweetie barely held back a blush at being caught staring in awe. Luna didn’t say a word about it as she instead grabbed a single amp jack with her magic, sliding it into the guitar plug in. “Is that an RGD?” Sweetie asked, her eyes bulging with curiosity, literally. “It is! She is my baby, fully customized, and tuned to just how I like her,” Luna said as her eyes filled with pride. She pulled her guitar closer to her, opting to snuggle it briefly before letting it relax in her magical grip. “I see you have a Jackson Warrior! I almost bought a Jackson but I couldn’t give up Ibanez. Though, that design is pretty interesting.” “I know, I love how they made it. I couldn’t help but buy it, since I saw Behemareth’s guitarist using it!” Behemareth? That confused Luna a little, only because it made a little sense why Sweetie was dressed in those boots. Behemareth was the only metal band that hailed from Equestria and Luna wasn’t exactly a fan. Their genre of extreme metal just wasn’t for her, never had been. That was one of the reasons Luna had started to write songs, she wanted to make a metal band that wasn’t as … extreme. She wanted to aim more towards new genres, that she would of course create as she went along. “Right … how about I play a lick, hmm?” Luna asked, trying to get them back on topic. “Oh, right! I can’t wait to see!” Luna furrowed her brow for a second, thinking up what she could do to impress Sweetie. For a scant few seconds she couldn’t think of anything until a small bit of inspiration hit her. “Alright, now bear with me, I’m playing this off the top of my head.” Without hesitation, Luna swept her pick into action with one portion of her magic, the other working seamlessly over the frets. It was true that all of it was off the top of her head. She hadn’t expected Sweetie to ask her about what she could play. So, Luna decided to do a quick series of string skipping arpeggios. It wasn’t much but she hoped it would satisfy Sweetie’s curiosity. Even as she swept her magic over the neck, hitting each note with flawless precision, Luna knew that she was better than that little bit. Her mastery was in songwriting, though her solos seemed to lack something. As she finished her quick demonstration, Luna heard the sounds of hoofs coming together repeatedly. Sweetie was clapping for her? Really? “That was awesome Night Wish! Sure it was quick, but still awesome!” “Thank you, Sweetie,” Luna said with a blush. “I think it’s your turn now though.” The white mare grinned, almost devilishly, before trotting over so that she would be in front of the table. Luna meanwhile moved to her judging seat. She decided not to name it, it didn’t have the right impression yet. Sweetie’s magic glowed faintly as another jack floated towards the plug in on her guitar. The guitar’s strap was secured around her neck and withers yet her magic also kept it up, it just felt natural for her. She coughed into her hoof slightly, making sure that she had Luna’s attention. “Now, I didn’t know what type of music you would’ve liked me to play, Night Wish, but with that awesome demonstration, I now know!” Sweetie said, reading her pick in her magic. “I created this yesterday!” Sweetie ran her pick a few times over the muted strings before quickly strumming out a few simplistic chords. She proceeded to quickly pick a couple of notes, her magic flowing rather smoothly for a unicorn that used to have trouble with it. She ended the extremely quick set with a simple strum, taking a quick moment to look up at Luna. At first Luna thought that she was finished, going straight to figuring out how to break the news to Sweetie that she wasn’t the right material. Of course that was shattered quickly as Sweetie’s magic quickly flared on both the neck and the pick that she held. Without any further hesitation, she picked a couple more notes, letting each ring out. She held the last note for the faintest of seconds before her magic delved into quick picking and fret work. half of her magic worked its way across the frets, hammering and pulling off on the right notes while the other half plucked each string with precision that left Luna a little flustered. She enticed Luna on by playing a descending chord all the way along her guitar before pulling off to let an open string resound. She didn’t stop there though for her magic quickly swept back down the frets until all the while hitting notes in quick succession. She only sped up her note playing as she continued to show off to Luna. She didn’t pay attention though, her eyes glued firmly on what she was doing. She had to make it all work perfectly and she had to finish with style. Luna’s mind was made up at that point, Sweetie was definitely a contender. Of course, Sweetie wanted to be more than that and she was out to prove that she deserved to be in the band. her grip on the pick changed until it was tucked slightly back into the magical grip, in no position to strum or pick. Instead the white mare opted to ‘magic tap’ the strings, using a tendril tap style that Behemareth had come to patent. As she neared the end of her small set, Sweetie slowed down slightly, finishing off her little session with some more simplistic notes. Her eyes were closed for the little bit, only using her sense of touch to tell where the notes were. She always did that for the simpler parts to help her learn how to play without looking at the frets. As the last note rang out in the garage, Sweetie opened her eyes looking up to Luna. Now, Sweetie had the expression of pure joy that she always felt when she could play for someone. Luna on the other hoof had a look of shock and amazement. Her mouth was hanging completely open, wide enough to catch a bird if she saw fit to try. All muscles in her were nearly slack, only a small semblance of balance keeping her on the chair. She had never expected this young mare, whom she had helped back in the day, to grow up and play the guitar like a pro. “So, how was that Night Wish?” Sweetie asked, genuinely curious even though Luna’s open jaw would probably provide her enough answers. Luna said nothing for a minute, her brain slowly catching up to what had just happened. It wasn’t the fact that she had witnessed an extremely good guitar player perform; no, she had been expecting such a thing. Her stunned silence was entirely due to who played it; not to be sexist but Luna had noticed that all metal bands formed outside of Equestria and even the one from Equestria were comprised entirely of males. As Luna’s brain started to return to normal function, she had but one thing to say. “How old are you again?”
The Idea “No, no, no! That doesn’t sound right!” A loud thud followed the harshly yelled words. Luna sat upon the only movable object in her room; her ‘spinny’ chair. Her eyes were nearly glowing with rage because of her current task at hand, focused entirely set upon the paper that was now strewn on her desk. There was a pile in the top right corner that was stacked neatly, rather important documents that pertained to some law or another; Luna had dismissed them to future Luna’s problems. The rest though were nothing but music sheets, sorted in a way that Luna called ‘organized chaos’ even though Discord would disagree to such a concept. Notes lined the sides of each measure, making points of certain sections or even just humours thoughts that came to mind. That wasn’t all of the paper though, for beside her desk was a small garbage bin that was beyond a little full, and yet the maids emptied it every night. The Night Princess let out a strained sigh, sitting back a little before spinning around in a quick circle on her spinning chair. Such a marvellous chair it was, the seat made of a faux leather, covering a hoof stitched cushion of tempered cloud, that only the minotaurs utilized. Each leg and non-leathered piece was made of carved wood, a beautiful birch that was coated in a black paint. The only part not made from pure natural materials was the plastic wheels that allowed one to roll around the room, much to Luna’s delight. She had been sitting at that desk for what seemed like forever, trying to force herself to move past her current obstacle. Alas, she was beyond stumped; her mind constantly racking itself over and over in order to find a way to make it work. Luna gently picked up her LS (Lunar Special) pencil in her magic, bringing it closer to her eyes. It was a fine pencil, evenly balanced and made with only the best graphite that the pencil company could produce. The normal yellow colour had been swapped out with a light blue, almost navy if one wanted to get technical. The eraser was just the right size to allow for the perfect precision when removing those offending mistakes, while the tip had just the right sharpness to it. Yes, it was such an immaculate pencil, one that would be cherished by all that would have been graced with the ability to use it. Such a thing seemed to be the work of- Snap Just like that, the pencil’s geometric symmetry was brought to an end before falling into the garbage bin beside the desk. Luna stared, blankly, at the bin for a moment before getting up and making her way over to a closet on the other side of the room. The walk was quick, short, and just as boring as everything else had been. This was the entire reason why Luna was currently cooped up in her room and not out about in the castle. While most ponies thought that she was entirely nocturnal, what with her being the raiser of the moon and all, the truth was that she was just bored out of her mind. Alicorn’s didn’t need to sleep, and Luna was pretty sure they didn’t need to breathe either, since she did spend a thousand years on the moon. That of course gave them a lot of free time to do what was needed, such as raise and lower the celestial bodies, or have some tea with ambassadors, or plot a way to get revenge on one’s own sib- I’m not going down that road again, Luna shook her head as she stopped in front of her closet. Now this closet wasn’t her clothes closet, no matter how much her sister tried to say otherwise; that was what dressers were for. No, this closet held two of the most important things to Luna. Two items that she utilized the most and kept her busy when the castle was all too quiet. She pulled the door handles open with a quick flourish of her magic, revealing the two most important items in her life. Her Ibanez RDG7UC guitar. It sported an opaque navy blue lacquer coating, over the solid maple wood which comprised the body of the guitar. On the body stood a switch selector gleaming its chrome near the scoop cut of the guitar. About halfway down, on the same side of the switch selector, was a volume knob, also gleaming its shiny chrome coat. At the very bottom, an amp port lay recessed into the body of the guitar. It was a masterpiece in her eyes, hoof carved by the original founders of Ibanez. That music company knew how to make guitars and this one was their greatest creation - in her eyes at least. The fretboard shimmered with a metallic black colour, only off set by the white markings on the dials and the silver screws. Her hoof roamed over the neck of the guitar, feeling each inch of the varnished maple. The wood itself was only the best, she knew because the castle had many pieces of furniture made from that same tree. She traced each portion of the scooped cut guitar, making her shiver slightly at the feel. Each trace felt like she was rekindling with a long lost part of her, bent on finding her no matter what the circumstances. Even though she had just put it back before supper with ‘Tia. Finally her hoof reached the headstock before continuing to trace every inch of it. No matter how many times she gazed on it, she still loved the looked of the lefty flipped headstock that mounted her own cutie mark in the middle. Her magic flared a little before encompassing the entire guitar and removing it from its resting place on a hoof carved guitar stand; once more made from the same maple tree. The closet was custom made for the sole purpose of storing that guitar. The inside was completely padded with an almost velvety material. Woven into the wood was seals that kept the thing airtight, making it physically impossible for dust to even touch her guitar. The guitar felt incredibly light in her grasp, even despite the electronics inside and the density of the maple. Maybe it was something that the masters at Ibanez had put in, possibly some sort of carving technique that allowed the wood to be dense yet light as a feather. Though it was probably due to Luna having the magic strength to move the moon. Maybe. Luna was about to close the closet door, once her guitar was clear, when she remembered that she had come to the closet for another reason. One that was more important than pulling her guitar out. A reason that required her to go after the second item in the sacred closet. She ripped open another packet of LS pencils with her magic, pulling the whole box out before closing the door. The box was placed on her desk well before Luna even got close to her sitting spot. Maybe if she played the section a few times, the notes would strike her like a bolt of lightning. Of course, they would be less painful … unless her amp fizzed out again. She should see if Pinkie could get her in touch with that white unicorn DJ. Perhaps that DJ mare had some tips and tricks on dealing with such situations. It certainly would not hurt to pick the experienced mare’s brain, for any wisdom and knowledge she might be able to offer. Once Luna was seated on her Spinning Chair of Infinite Knowledge, her mind began to refocus on the task at hoof. She had been stuck on this one chord progression for some time, trying to figure out how to transition into the breakdown. She had written out everything past that and everything preceding it, but this one section had her stumped. So stumped in fact that she had barely even noticed that somepony had slipped into her room. An assassin! Well, I know what to do with those … an almost sadistic grin crept over her face as she cast a little protective spell on her guitar. Of course her telekinesis masked the fact she had cast that spell and it would be her intruder’s downfall. It took all of her might to not swivel her ears around to focus better on the pony in her room, but it was needed. If she moved them towards the sound of the approaching pony, she would give herself away, much like her soon-to-be attacker had. Whoever they were, they must have thought that their hoof steps were quiet and unable to be picked up by anypony. Unfortunately for them, Luna was the Princess of the Night and stealth was part of her namesake. Just a few more steps, Luna waited, nearly stock still as the intruder neared her. She mentally counted down the meagre seconds before they would be in attacking range. It felt longer than a few seconds, but when it came time, Luna reacted without hesitation. “Hyyyyaaaaahhh!” Luna yelled as she spun around, with her eyes closed, on her Spinning Chair of Infinite Knowledge, while swinging her guitar around so that the neck of the guitar was in her grasp. The body of the guitar was slicing through the air, aiming straight for what she assumed was where the pony’s head was. The body connected with the side of … Celestia’s head. “Not the usual welcome, sister, but one I can appreciate nevertheless.” The sly grin on ‘Tia’s face could almost be heard through her words. Luna frowned slightly before slowly setting her guitar down on her bed. She hopped off the chair, unintentionally stretching her legs out of a force of habit. “Not the harshest way I’ve greeted you, though.” “That is true, remember the desk incident?” Celestia said with a grin on her face. “I was referring to the Nightmare Moon incident, but that works too,” Luna said with a chuckle behind her voice. “So what brings you here ‘Tia? “Can’t I check on my sister without having an ulterior motive?” Celestia says as her cheeks puff out. It was obvious that Celestia was trying to hold back laughter at that comment. Even Luna was giggling at that, because both of the sisters knew that something was always up when they visited each other. Whether it be something of importance to the country or one of them needed advice, the sisters always visited when something came up. No words needed to be said as both of the Royal Sisters burst out laughing at Celestia’s statement. They both broke into fits as though they were school fillies hearing some sort of hilarious joke about a teacher. It took them a few moments, but they both eventually regained their regal composure once more. A few quick movements with their telekinesis and they looked just as impeccable as they had appeared, prior to their ensuing moment of comedy. “Phew, I needed that, ‘Tia,” Luna said, wiping her brow with a hoof. “So … what do you need?” “Well, I’ve been thinking about something, Lulu,” Celestia, ignoring the mocked gasp of shock that came from Luna, “and this is something that I should have said a few weeks ago, but I think you need to get out more often.” Luna dead-panned that statement, for it was a completely silly statement. Celestia had been preaching the same thing to Luna for a few weeks at that point, if not more, and it was driving Luna up the wall. Sure, she did need to get out more often, but that didn’t mean that Celestia had to keep nosing in on it. “Now hear me out, sis. I know I have said it before, but it is true. You spend all of your time cooped up in the castle. All you have been doing is your duties and then straight to your room. Why don’t you do something more creative?” “More creative?” Luna asked, brows raised in displeasure at such a statement. “So, the songs we have been writing are not creative enough, or is our night sky lacking, sister?” Celestia rolled her eyes at Luna’s resentment, “you know what I mean, Lulu. I just want you to get out more and experience the modern world more. You were doing so good on the last ten years, but then you withdrew into yourself again. Besides, you have yet to even play for me so how am I supposed to know what your songs are like? Maybe you should make a band!” Luna’s ears perked tremendously at that statement, maybe her sister was indeed onto something. Celestia continued on, but Luna didn’t hear her, her focus was on that one single idea as it could be the solution to all of her woes. If she could form the band, then that would not only satisfy her sister, but it would also allow ponies to hear her music without praising it just because she was a princess. Luna’s grin would have grown three times greater, in that moment, though such a feat was impossible, unless one was a certain pink Ponyville party pony. “Mother of Faust!” And with that statement, Luna dashed out of the room. She had taken nothing with her and had left Celestia standing there, almost dumbfounded. Celestia looked around slightly, standing exactly where she stood when Luna dashed out of the room. At first, the Sun Princess was a little bewildered by what had just transpired. She knew Luna tuned her out shortly after she suggested that Luna make a band, but she didn’t expect Luna to take it to heart that much. Nor did she expect Luna to just dash out of the room without more than an incomplete sentence. Celestia shrugged her shoulders before turning leave her sister’s room. It wasn’t polite to stand in one’s bedroom when they had just left, even though they used to share the same bedroom a long time ago. “At least she found something to do. I mean, what’s the worst that could happened?” Celestia wondered out loud, not hearing the very universe cackle at the saying.
Recruiting The Best2 Days Later “This is what has kept you in your room?” Celestia asked, with raised eyebrows. “This, is why you have not left your room in two days and have had the maids bring you your food?” “Yes!” Luna replied with a chipper tone, her eagerness was starting to seep into her tone now. “I’m surprised it took you two days to create this.” Celestia said, still looking at what Luna brought her. “Well it wasn’t exactly two days, it just took longer to get it published than anticipated. If the newspaper wasn’t so slow, you would have read about it yesterday!” Luna said, all the while hoping from hoof to hoof. “I see,” Celestia murmured before reading over it once more. “I think you are losing your touch, Lulu. You used to make comets in mere hours, not days.” “Comets!?” Luna gasped, rushing towards where Celestia sat. Her magic reached out for the paper that she had brought her sister. She had even opened up the page to where she had placed her ad. How could Celestia miss it? “Yes, right here,” Celestia said, pointing to the article about a comet that passed through Equus’ outer atmosphere last night. She had assumed that was what Luna wanted to show her, though she didn’t understand why. Her sister had rarely taken that much joy out of one of her creations even if the comet was called “beautiful beyond mortal words.” Whoever wrote that must have been a Lunatic! While Celestia stifled a giggle at the horrible pun, Luna scanned over the page of the paper. On one side of it, the comet story along with some smaller pieces stood out since the pictures were in colour. On the other side of the paper laid the Classifieds, including a rather sizeable article that Luna had secretly purchased. She obviously wouldn’t do it under her own name, so instead she used the name of, Night Wish. The name had come to her in a moment of inspiration when she was crafting her night sky. It was the perfect stage name and it could easily apply to a unicorn. Why a unicorn? Well, Luna had decided to not perform on a stage, if they ever got there, with her normal name and appearance. Thus, Night Wish was born. “Argh! No, that isn’t what I wanted to show you,” Luna explained, throwing her head back, so that her snout was held high in the air, her pupils contracted to pinpricks, as she growled her frustration, and trotting back and forth before her sister. Once she calmed down enough, she returned to her sister’s side, and looked back down at the paper her sister was currently reading. in the air, eyes open and snarl on her lips, before looking back down. For the oddest of reasons she was over emphasizing her movements lately, especially those that reflected her emotions. She hardly noticed it, yet her sister had definitely picked up on her change in how she carried herself. Luna jabbed her hoof at the spot in the paper that she had expected Celestia to read originally. The paper almost fully gave way to her insistent prodding, the crackling almost turning into a full ripping sound as stress marks appeared with each hoof prod. Her sister glanced from Luna to the spot that Luna was pointing at, eyes narrowing briefly before contracting beyond their normal size. Celestia was a smart pony, living for a thousand years gave a pony an extreme amount of wisdom, so she could easily connect the dots with this ad and why Luna was so giddy. Still, despite her ability to reason things out in seconds, she could hardly believe that her sister was actually going through with that idea. “You are going to form a band?” Celestia’s voice was expressive with bewilderment. “Yes!” “As in a music band?” “Yes!” “And you’re recruiting via a newspaper ad …” “Well, actually it is only one of the many ads I have purchased,” Luna said, her large grin never leaving her face. “I purchased a spot in every newspaper in Equestria.” Celestia just shook her head at that statement, there was little that she could even think of saying. Her sister had a knack for being a little eccentric, but this was taking it too far. Not only had she seriously gone through with the idea of forming a band, but she had also created a stage persona to use in the band. Celestia was very close to slamming her face into the table in front of her, she could only take so much when her sister was like that. Though admittedly she didn’t mind it, since it brought her back to the time before she had to banish her sister. It was a much fonder time, a time when they could act completely like sisters, but such a time was over. Luna’s banishment had changed her and Celestia knew this, they could never go back to the way it was. “I’ve already got twenty two applications!” Slam Face meet table, table meet face. That had been final straw to break Celestia’s willpower to not introduce her face and the table. Maybe it was a good thing though, for they seemed to be getting along splendidly. Perhaps they would be best of friends, knowing what Luna was planning on doing, it was quite possible that they would be spending a fair amount of time together. “Oh don’t give me that ‘Tia! You were the one who suggested it, so don’t be so melodramatic,” Luna said, rolling her eyes and huffing loudly at her older sister’s reaction. Celestia didn’t respond, instead opting to let her face and the table continue their first meeting, allowing them the time to get acquainted properly. Luna on the other hoof just giggled lightly, before trotting out of the dining room. She halted her progress though briefly, turning back to poke her head in through the open doors. “I’m off to find a place to interview them! Do try to make Mr. Table feel comfortable, we all know how displeasing your face is!” Luna quickly said before scrambling away just in case her sister would actually react to that retort. It had been the perfect place to interview those that had applied, as well as it helped Luna with any questions that could possibly lead to them finding out about her true identity. It was so perfect that Luna couldn’t help but give off a little evil laugh. It was almost second nature, the laugh, for she had used it countlessly when she had been Nightmare Moon. “Sometimes it is so difficult being the cleverer sister,” Luna said to herself, before slapping her right forehoof over her head and feigning as though she was falling backwards. A grin broke out on her face swiftly though, ruining the pose. There stood Luna, about ten meters away from her new base of operations outside of Ponyville. Well, not technically Luna, no she was in her Night Wish form. A dark purple furred unicorn, blue and white mane that hung loosely around her shoulders. The blue and white zig-zagged through her mane in no specific pattern, but Luna didn’t care for all that mattered was that it was long enough to head bang with. The house itself was nothing special in its design and that was where the ingenuity lie. A two story house that had two bathrooms, four bedrooms, a kitchen, and a main area. All of that not including the garage. It looked almost identical to the rest of the houses in Ponyville, not a soul would suspect that it was actually the staging area for my takeover of Eques- Luna shook her head violently to clear her head of such a thought. “I seriously need to see a psychiatrist.” So there Night Wish stood, in front of her recently bought two story house, with a garage add on. Why the garage? Well all good bands had started out as a garage band before moving onto being signed by record labels. It wasn’t uncommon to see garages, since some ponies did own carts and carriages. Of course that wasn’t the only place that the band could practice in. She had the basement redesigned into a full on recording booth, large enough to fit at least half of the Royal Canterlot Symphony. It was the perfect place, and not a soul would notice the tens of thousands of bits that went missing from the Royal Treasury. Especially since this was on the outskirts of Ponyville, the perfect place to play as loud as possible and not break any noise violations … not that Luna cared. Aside from those that worked under Princess Twilight, not a soul in Canterlot cared about Ponyville. That had upset Luna briefly, but she then realized that it was a boon for the city since it meant that the nobles and the bureaucrats gave no attention to them. This house was the main reason as to why Celestia hadn’t seen her in two days. Sure she had lied to her sister but that was necessary since she would have been yelled at probably … nah, ‘Tia’s face would have just gotten another date with Mr. Table. This elicited a rather loud giggle from Luna, such a thought had her almost on her back in laughter. Her mind wouldn’t stop though as she continued to picture more and more scenes from various dates that her sister would take Mr. Table out to. Luna had spoken with the Mayor of Ponyville, as Night Wish, and purchased the land and building rights. The house had taken hardly a full day to build, it was truly remarkable how ingenuitive her Night Guard was. She didn’t realize how many of them had cutie marks in construction; what amazed her more was the amount that cutie marks in decorative furnishing. It wasn’t a large number but still enough to make her eyes bug out when she found out. “Now to get in contact with all of the applicants …” Luna muttered out loud. Twilight had found a way to make dragonfire portable a few years ago and in large enough numbers, allowing most ponies to send mail a long distance away in a flash. Many ponies had been worried that it would remove the job of mail mares and mail stallions but that had been hardly the case. Apparently Twilight had seen that coming and made sure the dragonfire would only send to postal offices in the city. In the end, a few jobs had been lost but mail was moving more efficiently. Luna of course didn’t need such a thing for she could literally just send the mail straight to the applicants. This was too important to her to not send the mail straight to them. She needed to get the news out without a moment of hesitation. A flurry of scrolls appeared next to her, oh how she loved being able to teleport things to her. Just as quick as they appeared, she sorted them out into their respective groups before they disappeared just as quickly. Now all she had to do was play the waiting game, or do something creative for the time being. She walked from her spot outside of the house, through the front door and into the kitchen, which she had fully stocked the kitchen shortly after it had been built. There were all the necessities in there, everything a band needed. Dinnerware, enough food to last them a few weeks at least, eating utensils, and booze. Oh there was enough alcohol in that kitchen to make bars feel envious, of course it was well hidden, just in case any pony tried to take some from them. On the right side after entering the kitchen stood an almost blank wall, aside from the obvious plaster and a single portrait. Yet if you looked close enough, there was a little bump on the wall. That little bump was a hidden button that would flip the wall around and reveal the motherload of all alcohol stashes. Luna checked the clock hanging above the cupboards, One thirty. She shrugged her withers, screw waiting, it’s five o’clock in the minotaur lands and they know how to drink. She walked over to the hidden compartment, stopping right in front of the secret button. Just as she was about to push it, a ringing came from the front door. “Oh come on!” Luna shouted as she lowered her hoof and spun to head to the front door. She was prepared to berate whoever it was for interrupting her chance to start early on her drinking. She knew she couldn’t get drunk, tipsy yes, but not even close to being drunk. She mainly just loved the burning sensation from the hard alcohol. Still in her Night Wish form, her magic wrapped around the door knob. With a quick flick, she twisted it and pulled the door open revealing her visitor. To say that mare standing in front of her shocked her was an understatement. “Sweetie Belle?” Luna asked with a little bit of shock sinking into her words. She knew this mare when she was a filly, having helped her get past multiple fears. It was tough for Luna to forget a name and face, so even after all of those years she knew this was Sweetie Belle. Well, at least at her very core. This mare was definitely not how she remembered Sweetie. The mare’s mane was the same, but that was pretty much where it stopped. She stood at about the same height as her sister now, having finally gone through puberty. Just like her sister, Sweetie wore clothes for no particular reason except to make a statement. This one was that she obviously loved metal. Her hoofs were adorned by black boots with multiple belt buckles spaced evenly apart on them. She wore a black shirt that bore designs of lighting crashing behind a guitar. Finally her tail was held at the base by a black studded collar of sorts. All of this was topped off by the by the jet black Jackson Warrior WRXTMG on her back. The guitar's body glistened from the ebony gloss paint, the maple neck sporting pearl colored inlays against the treated wood of the fretboard. On the lower right fin of the guitar were two control knobs, one located near the junction, where the two fins joined together, and the other was 2 inches from the end of the fin. Equidistant between the two gleaming chrome knobs, a chrome switch glistened between them. A chrome strap button protruded about an inch down from the end of the upper left fin, while the other strap button was located in the same position, so that they'd form a parallel line to the line of the main body, but on the lower left fin of the guitar. The silver strings gleamed as they lay across the bridge, frets and nut. The upper two pickups were a charcoal grey and about an inch in width, while the third, bottommost pickup was about 1/4 inch in width. 'Jackson' was painted in stylized cursive lettering, diagonally, parallel to the tuning pegs on the headstock. Just from looking at the guitar, Luna could tell it was a well cared for and maintained. Luna knew this guitar well, for it was another one she had studied before finally choosing Ibanez. A guitar aficionado, Luna knew that Sweetie had made a fine choice with that guitar of hers. “That, or Metal Belle works. Wait, do I know you? I haven’t see you around before and Pinkie hasn’t thrown you a party, yet …” Sweetie finally spoke, breaking Luna from her trance. “Umm …” Luna mumbled, truly at a loss for words at that point. “I’ll … explain inside. I take it you are here for auditions?” “Yep!” Sweetie said, her voice still had that same bubbly tone that she had when she was a filly. Of course it was less now, but it still carried through. Luna kept the door open as Sweetie made her way through, trotting straight to the couch that sat in the initial room of the house. Luna closed the door slowly, still shocked by who had already shown up. It’s going to get crazier, isn’t it?
First Contestant! The ticking of the clock on the wall was louder than anything else in the room. All it did was constantly utter the two same sounds, tick tock. Eternity existed between the two sounds, as time repeated endlessly, the monotonous repetition affecting any who should pay attention to the timekeeping device.Over and over again it ticked, slowly becoming the only sound that was ringing in her ears. Slowly hammering into her brain, ingraining the sounds so deep that she would hear them for the rest of her natural life. Her left eye twitched briefly before her hooves shot up to her ears. “I can’t take it anymore!” she shouted, luckily not reaching Royal Canterlot Voice volumes. “Can’t take what?” Sweetie asked, sitting on the other side of the table from Luna. She was happily sipping some tea until Luna snapped. “That. Celestia. Damned,” her voice rose, horn igniting swiftly. “Clock!” With a swift flick of her magic, the clock flew from its resting place up on the wall and straight into the adjacent wall. Repeatedly. As in the amount of times the clock hit the wall was a number greater than twenty. Luna had lost count after the first few slams, her mind constantly trying to force the ticking out of her head. “Umm … Night Wish? Are you okay?” Sweetie’s voice halted Luna’s progress on banishing the clock to another realm via the wall. As she stopped she realised something; she was destroying a clock because it made the sounds it was supposed to. Am I truly this neurotic? Luna shook her head furiously, trying to right her thoughts and once again focus on what she had been thinking about, before the clock had gotten to her. She mentally facehooved as her original train of thought started back up again. She had been questioning what was Sweetie doing. “Right. Sorry about that, I… umm … I just switched to decaf!” Luna said before once again mentally facehoofing. Decaf? Really? Why would I ever switch to that stuff? “Oh, that’s alright. My sister went through the same thing,” Sweetie said before pausing slightly at the end as if she was considering her next words. “You’re new here right? You probably don’t even know who I am talking about! My sister, Rarity, is a fashion designer here!” “Yes, I’ve heard of her before …” Luna said, cutting off whatever Sweetie Belle was going to say next. “In fact, we’ve met before.” “Really?! When was that?” Sweetie’s gasped, eyes lighted up in what Luna assumed was wonder. Am I really going to just drop the disguise this quickly? Such an idea was absurd to Luna but at the same time she knew that it would get rather confusing later on, especially if she made the band … This time, Luna actually facehooved. “I’ll tell you after, first there is tryouts!” Luna exclaimed, hoping to grab Sweetie’s attention from the previous line of conversation. “If you’ll follow me, we can get started in the garage.” Sweetie simply nodded before hopping off her chair and proceeding to follow Luna through the rest of the house and into the garage. As to why she even had a garage in the first place was a mystery to Sweetie for there was no carriage of any sort on the property, at least from what she could tell. In the garage sat a table that was in front of five chairs. Maybe for the rest of the band to judge new members? Sweetie simply shrugged at the idea and instead looked at the rest of the … rather empty garage. Aside from a few shelves, a couch, that table, and a handful of amps, there was absolutely nothing in the garage. it did make a little sense though, since Night Wish had just moved here. “Alright, just plug into one of the amps and show me what you’ve got,” Night Wish said before sitting down on the center chair. “Umm, can I see what kind of skill level you want me to attain?” Luna blanked briefly, trying to decipher the request. To her it felt like a few minutes but in actuality she had just stared at Sweetie for a few seconds. Her mind had pieced together the puzzle pieces and came out with the answer. “Sure, just let me grab my guitar.” With a quick flux of magic, Luna disappeared from the room for hardly half a minute before suddenly reappearing. Sweetie was surprised to say the least, it wasn’t common for unicorns to know a teleportation spell. Only the upper tier of unicorns could draw on such a spell. A cough drew Sweetie’s attention back to Luna, who was feeling a little odd at having the unicorn stare so deeply at her. Sweetie barely held back a blush at being caught staring in awe. Luna didn’t say a word about it as she instead grabbed a single amp jack with her magic, sliding it into the guitar plug in. “Is that an RGD?” Sweetie asked, her eyes bulging with curiosity, literally. “It is! She is my baby, fully customized, and tuned to just how I like her,” Luna said as her eyes filled with pride. She pulled her guitar closer to her, opting to snuggle it briefly before letting it relax in her magical grip. “I see you have a Jackson Warrior! I almost bought a Jackson but I couldn’t give up Ibanez. Though, that design is pretty interesting.” “I know, I love how they made it. I couldn’t help but buy it, since I saw Behemareth’s guitarist using it!” Behemareth? That confused Luna a little, only because it made a little sense why Sweetie was dressed in those boots. Behemareth was the only metal band that hailed from Equestria and Luna wasn’t exactly a fan. Their genre of extreme metal just wasn’t for her, never had been. That was one of the reasons Luna had started to write songs, she wanted to make a metal band that wasn’t as … extreme. She wanted to aim more towards new genres, that she would of course create as she went along. “Right … how about I play a lick, hmm?” Luna asked, trying to get them back on topic. “Oh, right! I can’t wait to see!” Luna furrowed her brow for a second, thinking up what she could do to impress Sweetie. For a scant few seconds she couldn’t think of anything until a small bit of inspiration hit her. “Alright, now bear with me, I’m playing this off the top of my head.” Without hesitation, Luna swept her pick into action with one portion of her magic, the other working seamlessly over the frets. It was true that all of it was off the top of her head. She hadn’t expected Sweetie to ask her about what she could play. So, Luna decided to do a quick series of string skipping arpeggios. It wasn’t much but she hoped it would satisfy Sweetie’s curiosity. Even as she swept her magic over the neck, hitting each note with flawless precision, Luna knew that she was better than that little bit. Her mastery was in songwriting, though her solos seemed to lack something. As she finished her quick demonstration, Luna heard the sounds of hoofs coming together repeatedly. Sweetie was clapping for her? Really? “That was awesome Night Wish! Sure it was quick, but still awesome!” “Thank you, Sweetie,” Luna said with a blush. “I think it’s your turn now though.” The white mare grinned, almost devilishly, before trotting over so that she would be in front of the table. Luna meanwhile moved to her judging seat. She decided not to name it, it didn’t have the right impression yet. Sweetie’s magic glowed faintly as another jack floated towards the plug in on her guitar. The guitar’s strap was secured around her neck and withers yet her magic also kept it up, it just felt natural for her. She coughed into her hoof slightly, making sure that she had Luna’s attention. “Now, I didn’t know what type of music you would’ve liked me to play, Night Wish, but with that awesome demonstration, I now know!” Sweetie said, reading her pick in her magic. “I created this yesterday!” Sweetie ran her pick a few times over the muted strings before quickly strumming out a few simplistic chords. She proceeded to quickly pick a couple of notes, her magic flowing rather smoothly for a unicorn that used to have trouble with it. She ended the extremely quick set with a simple strum, taking a quick moment to look up at Luna. At first Luna thought that she was finished, going straight to figuring out how to break the news to Sweetie that she wasn’t the right material. Of course that was shattered quickly as Sweetie’s magic quickly flared on both the neck and the pick that she held. Without any further hesitation, she picked a couple more notes, letting each ring out. She held the last note for the faintest of seconds before her magic delved into quick picking and fret work. half of her magic worked its way across the frets, hammering and pulling off on the right notes while the other half plucked each string with precision that left Luna a little flustered. She enticed Luna on by playing a descending chord all the way along her guitar before pulling off to let an open string resound. She didn’t stop there though for her magic quickly swept back down the frets until all the while hitting notes in quick succession. She only sped up her note playing as she continued to show off to Luna. She didn’t pay attention though, her eyes glued firmly on what she was doing. She had to make it all work perfectly and she had to finish with style. Luna’s mind was made up at that point, Sweetie was definitely a contender. Of course, Sweetie wanted to be more than that and she was out to prove that she deserved to be in the band. her grip on the pick changed until it was tucked slightly back into the magical grip, in no position to strum or pick. Instead the white mare opted to ‘magic tap’ the strings, using a tendril tap style that Behemareth had come to patent. As she neared the end of her small set, Sweetie slowed down slightly, finishing off her little session with some more simplistic notes. Her eyes were closed for the little bit, only using her sense of touch to tell where the notes were. She always did that for the simpler parts to help her learn how to play without looking at the frets. As the last note rang out in the garage, Sweetie opened her eyes looking up to Luna. Now, Sweetie had the expression of pure joy that she always felt when she could play for someone. Luna on the other hoof had a look of shock and amazement. Her mouth was hanging completely open, wide enough to catch a bird if she saw fit to try. All muscles in her were nearly slack, only a small semblance of balance keeping her on the chair. She had never expected this young mare, whom she had helped back in the day, to grow up and play the guitar like a pro. “So, how was that Night Wish?” Sweetie asked, genuinely curious even though Luna’s open jaw would probably provide her enough answers. Luna said nothing for a minute, her brain slowly catching up to what had just happened. It wasn’t the fact that she had witnessed an extremely good guitar player perform; no, she had been expecting such a thing. Her stunned silence was entirely due to who played it; not to be sexist but Luna had noticed that all metal bands formed outside of Equestria and even the one from Equestria were comprised entirely of males. As Luna’s brain started to return to normal function, she had but one thing to say. “How old are you again?”
