The world keeps spinning 'round, but I'm hanging by a moment here with you

**Author’s Note:* Sorry for the really late update, I’ve been really busy lately.  Thanks for being so patient!  Also, considering the slight style change in this chapter, keep an eye out for a rewrite of chapter one!*

After getting my things into the guest room and settling down a bit, I sat down with Trey outside so we could talk more.

“So tell me Kirakuk, what kind of music do you guys play?  Ever since I promised to see one of your shows, I always wondered.” Trey asked.

“We usually play alternative rock, so it’s nothing too heavy,” I replied. Then, I chuckled and said, “I do catch myself manebanging every now and then to our heavier songs, however.  In any case, I think that even Fluttershy wouldn’t mind listening to it.”

“Is that so?” Now it was his turn to laugh.  “Fluttershy doesn’t always like the louder songs that the marching band plays.  She took Anacrusis and Flutterwing to a hoofball game one time, and she was holding Flutterwing so hard she almost choked her.  Then again, considering she doesn’t like crowds to begin with, I guess the loud noises made it even worse.” he said as he laughed.

“Oh don’t worry, most of our stuff is softer than what marching bands play.  I think even your foals would enjoy it too!” I said.  Then a light went off in my head.  “Hey, do you want some extra tickets for your family and any other friends you may want to bring?”  Trey’s eyes seemed to light up.

“That would actually be fantastic!  Now, I’m probably going to ask Flutterheart if she wants to bring anypony, but definitely the kids!”

“Great!  The more the merrier!” I said with excitement. Wow, I thought to myself, this is the first time I’ve ever brought friends to a concert.  I hope I don’t blow it. With that in mind, we trotted into the house so I could give the tickets to Trey.

“Hey, Flutterheart?  Is there anypony you want to bring to the concert tonight?” Trey asked his wife.  I smiled. I had to admit, that was a cute name for her.  She then flew in and started beaming.

“Oh, yes please!  Um…can the girls come?” she asked.

“Let me guess, you need 5 tickets for that?” I said with surprising knowledge.

“Um....Treyngel?  How did he know that?” she squeaked.

“Treyngel?” I started laughing, “I didn’t know she called you tha-Ow!” I said as Trey playfully nudged me on the shoulder.

“We write to each other a lot.  I told him about the girls, right Kirakuk?” he said.

“Yep.”  I rubbed my shoulder, and then started throwing out names, “There’s Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie!”  As I stopped talking, we all heard a loud gasp.  I looked around, but saw nopony around.  I then shrugged and opened up my bag to procure the tickets, but instead of tickets, a bright pink pony jumped out of the bag and starting hopping around the room.

“YAY!!!!! I’M GOING TO THE CONCERT TONIGHT WITH MY FRIENDS!  THIS IS GOING TO BE THE MOST AMAZING, SUPERLY TERRIFIC CONCERT EVER!” At that, she picked up 5 tickets, and then started hopping around again after she looked at them. “OH MY GOSH, THEY’RE FRONT ROW TOO! YAAAAAYYYYY!” she shouted and then dashed out of the house and towards Ponyville.

I stared at the door for about five more seconds when Trey and Fluttershy started laughing.  “What…just happened?” I asked.  I knew Pinkie Pie was happy and bubbly, but she just appeared in my bag.  No pony could possibly fit in there….

“This is actually normal around here.” Trey said.  “Just wait until she throws a party for you and the band.”  I cringed at the thought, as I never really liked attending parties, but I shrugged it off.  I looked at the time, and noticed it was about 3 o’clock.

“Oh gosh, I gotta hurry.  Here are your tickets, the show starts at 7” I said as I shoved four tickets into Trey’s mouth.  “I gotta go set up for the show, see you then!” I shouted as I cantered outside and took flight towards the temporary stage set up just outside Ponyville.

(Later)

As I got there, the rest of the band was just starting to set some things up on the stage, so I wasn’t as late as I feared.  Phew, I thought.  I always hated being late for anything, no matter how important or unimportant the event was.  Fortunately, it was easy to settle my paranoia since I was only a few minutes late.  At that, I started setting up my drum set.

“Hello, my pretty,” I said to my drum set, “You’re in for great show tonight.”

I remember the first time I said that around another band member.  It was at a small gig during college when Jade and I had just started performing.  I said it louder than I thought I did, and looked up to see Jade with a look of concern on his face.

“Dude…..” he said, “You need therapy.”  Only to add to his concern, I then burst into maniacal laughter.

“Jade, I thought you figured it out by now.  I lost my mind years ago.” I said as I was wiping tears from my face.  I had a point though; we did know each other for a few years before we formed the band.  Then I gave him a crazy smile, and he started laughing as well.

As I finished reminiscing, I reminded myself that I had to get ready for the concert.  As I was singing to myself, I started setting up my kit.  Bass drum here, hi-hat there, tom-toms here, snare drum there, and then the various cymbals I owned.  I finally set up my stool, and the drum kit was complete.

As I sat my rump down on my stool, I looked out at the empty, but soon to be filled stands.  To me, this was the scary part.  After years of performing in front of crowds, I still found it scarier to imagine the crowd than to play in front of an actual crowd.  I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind as I did a quick drum solo to make sure everything was in place.  Satisfied, I headed backstage to see if the others needed any help.  However, they were all sitting down in a circle talking about something, and they hushed up as I approached.  Something’s up here, I thought.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late.  Do you need any help setting up?” I asked.

“We will in a moment, but first we want to ask you something.” Jade said.  He sighed.  “Look, K…”

Uh oh, he called me K.  The only time he ever called me that was when there’s something serious going on.  My mind was racing, trying to figure out what was going on, and my heart started to book it.

“We heard you singing one of the songs earlier, while you were setting up your drum kit.”

Wait a second.  That didn’t sound as serious as I expected it to be.  “Uhhh, so?” I asked.

“Dude, you have an amazing voice,” he said, “It’s just as good as mine, and you don’t even sing during any of the songs.”  His comments caught me off guard.  I do enjoy singing from time to time, but never thought my voice was anything special.  Hey, that’s why I chose the drums; it meant I was less likely to sing anything.

“What are you saying, Jade?” I asked.

“You know how we’re doing an acoustic song tonight?” I nodded. “We want you to sing it.”

“Wh…What?” I said.  Singing in front of a crowd?  Oh no….

“Since you don’t need to play drums for that song, it’s a perfect opportunity!” he said.  “We all talked about it, and we agreed that you should give it a shot!”  The twins nodded their heads after he finished.

I thought about it.  I did love to sing, but could I possibly do it in front of a crowd for the first time during a concert?  Dammit, I’m having those thoughts again.  Come on, K, just give it a shot.  Now was the time to be gutsy.

“Alright guys, I’ll try it out.”  Jade, Bench, and Brody all brohoofed me, and we all stood up to get the rest of the stage set up.

(Later that night)

“Alright guys, you’re on in ten!” the stage manager shouted to us.  The Wonderbolts had just finished their show, and I was pumping myself up for our performance.  Of course, as excited as I was, I was also terrified for the inevitable acoustic number I would have to sing.  We had practiced it earlier and it went smoothly, but I still had doubts in my mind.

Am I going to remember the lyrics?  Will I sing loud enough into the microphone?  Am I really as good as the guys say I am?  Noticing my discomfort, Jade trotted over and patted me on the back.

“Take it easy bro.  You’ll be fine.  And don’t worry, it will be over before you know it.” He said.

I chuckled nervously, “I certainly hope so.  How do you handle looking out into the crowd all the time?” I asked.

“It just comes naturally to me, I dunno” he said.  “Just relax and sing.  That’s all I can really say at this point.”

Easier said than done I thought to myself.  One thing’s for sure, this was going to be an interesting concert.

“Fillies and gentlecolts…” It was finally time for us to get on stage, so we trotted onstage together while the mayor was introducing us.  Jade put the acoustic guitar on around his neck while Bench and Brody did the same with their electric guitar and bass, respectively.  We gathered for one last huddle.

“Alright guys, let’s play some music!” I said.  We then all shouted “BREAK” and I flew onto my drum kit stool to begin playing.

Before Jade started the first song, I took a quick look at the crowd.  Ponies of all ages were looking at us with excitement, and I could feel the energy from them seeping into my skin.  I loved the feeling of adrenaline that the cheering crowd gave me.  However, I looked at the front row, and I almost jumped off of my stool with excitement.  Trey, Fluttershy, and their foals were standing front row, waving at me.

I smiled and noticed that Fluttershy had indeed brought her friends along with her.  Standing next to her was a white pony with a stylish purple mane that I could only guess was Rarity.  She seemed to be trying to stand as far away as possible from an orange pony with a Stetson hat that could only be Applejack.  Heh, she must’ve just gotten off work, I thought to myself.  Hovering by Applejack was Rainbow Dash (who else could it be, nopony else has a mane like that), and she probably looked like the most excited pony (besides Pinkie) of the group to be there.  Next to her was Pinkie Pie, who I had met earlier, and was still hopping in place out of excitement.  She never runs out of energy, does she?  I asked myself.  I made a mental note to ask Trey about that later.  I figured that Twilight must be the last one of the group remaining, so I looked next to Pinkie.  What I saw shattered my expectations.

Since Trey had mentioned to me that Twilight was the librarian and labeled an “egghead” by Rainbow, I was expecting a somewhat nerdy appearance.  Instead of a nerd, I saw one of the most beautiful mares that I had ever laid eyes on in my entire life.  Everything from her lavender fur to her dark purple mane with light purple highlights was perfect about her.  But then, I saw her eyes.  Those purple eyes…I had never seen anything like them before.  I could spend all night looking into those eyes.  All the more reason to get to know her, I guess.

My thoughts were interrupted when Jade started playing the guitar.  Well, as much as I want to admire Twilight, I have a show to perform.  His first four chords started the tempo, and I started tapping my hoof.  Eight measures later, I started hitting the bass drum as Jade started singing.

“All night, staring at the ceiling…Counting, for minutes I’m feeling this way, so far away and so alone…”

The crowd let out a cheer of approval as Jade started singing, showing us that they knew the song.  They even started singing with him later on in the verse.  Then, the chorus started with the crash of my cymbals.

“And I’m all in, nothing left to hide I’ve fallen, harder than a landslide I spent, a week away from you last night…”

The crowd grew wild, but it was not loud enough for me to lose my concentration.  I was determined not to mess up in front of such a beautiful mare.  Then again, I was also too lost in playing the music to care.

The song later ended with much applause from the crowd, asking for more.  Fortunately, the concert had just started, and we had more songs to play.  The next few songs went on perfectly, but then my moment had arrived, and Jade was just starting to introduce the next number.

“Alright, we’re going to quiet down for this next song.  How many of you like acoustic numbers?” Jade asked.  The crowd roared, eager for another song.  “Well, we’re going to give you one of those tonight, but I won’t be singing it.  Tonight, you’ll have the pleasure of hearing K sing the song “Take Me Away” tonight!  How’s that sound?”

More cheers.  My stomach felt like it was sinking, but whether it was for excitement or anxiety, I couldn’t tell.  As I strapped the microphone to my head, Jade smiled at me and gave me one last pat on the back.

Alright, here goes nothing, I thought.