The All-Rounders were lounging in Proper’s now-locked house, simply talking amongst themselves.

“Who’re we crashin’ with first?” Hooves asks.

“I don’t know, Trista or something, but they have some parakeets that they say are free to pet.” Chase says.

“Parakeets are so cute!” Hooves squeals.

“Wonderful, but we need a couple more songs to play at out next venue,” Chase states.

“I also think that after this, we should release an album,” Athen chimes in.

“Great idea Athen, but we need to write songs right now,” Proper says.

“Yeah, one thing really want is a drum solo, I’m a good drummer, but I haven’t shown my skills. We have time for one more song, make it quick.”

“Alright, we’ll do that,” Chase and Hooves say, before trotting off with mischievous grins on their faces.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Athen says.

“I don’t think you know what you’ve started,” Proper adds.

A few minutes later, Hooves and Chase come out with a new song.

“Wow, this song’s bassline is so cool!” Proper says. He then launches into a cool bassline.

“That bassline sounds eerily familar,” Athen says before overlooking the music,”so, we’re doing a cover of Another One Bites the Dust by Princess? What is there to gain from covering a famous song?”

“We’ve added a few things, such as a drum solo, Athen, turn the page.”

Athen turns the page,”This drum solo is literally identical to the normal beat. I can’t tell if this is a joke or an insult.”

“It just amuses us, let’s go!” Hooves says.

Proper starts by playing the funky bassline, Athen drums away on his simple four hi-hat beat, and Chase sings.

“Steve trots wearily down the street, brim pulled way down low...”

“Hold on,” Athen says,”what if Princess pulls a copyright on us?”

“Nah, they’re pretty chill, we should be good.” Chase says before restarting the song. They finish the song and Athen heads home.

“I haven’t had a good night’s sleep for a while, same place, same time tomorrow?” Athen asks.

“We’re good on that front.” Chase says.

Tonight, Athen is plagued by another nightmare that seems to imply that The All-Rounders will fail. However, Athen powers through it.

When he awakes, he flies over to Proper’s house and knocks on the door politely, it opens and Athen steps in. The band is there, and they show Athen some interesting songs.

“We felt sorry for giving you the crappy solo in Another One Bites the Dust, so we created a hard rock song that’s drum-centered,” says Chase. “It’s called ‘I am Electric’, I do feel sorry for Hooves though, she doesn’t really play a riveting guitar riff, it’s quite good, but it’s not fun.”

“Anything else?”

“No, just a song in the vain of some of our more popular songs, like We Weren’t Born to Follow, it’s called ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’.”

“Sounds great, we will put these on the album, right?” Athen asks.

“Of course!” Chase says,”Every song of ours will go on the album.”

“Sounds great, let’s play these then!”

The All-Rounders played through I Am Electric and Wanted Dead or Alive. Afterwards, Proper says,”Trista is ready to receive us. Let’s go!”

The All-Rounders walk into Trista’s house and Hooves immediately pets the parakeets.

“Hey! You don’t know where those have been!” Proper says.

“They’re so cute! I just gotta pet the parakeets!” Hooves squeals.

“Talk about a cuteness proximity,” Athen says.

“So,” Trista says while clapping her hooves together,”you’re here to crash, right?”

“Presumably,” Athen says.

“Let me just lead you to our guest room, I only have two beds, so I could roll out some floor mattresses, I mean, if that’s alright.”

“Do you wanna know a secret?” Athen asks,”Do you promise not to tell?”

“Dear Celestia, that song brings back so many memories, memories of my parents playing Beatles albums non-stop!”

“Anyways, my friends out there has a crush on me, I think at most you’d only be allowed to bring out on mattress.”

Trista brings out one mattress, and Hooves comes in. “Those parakeets, I had to! So, we’re staying in here?”

“That’s the plan,” Athen says,”would you go get Proper?”

Hooves leaves the room, and Athen drums on the nightstand for no reason. Playing various metal and hard rock songs in his head, Athen hopes those parakeets were alright to touch.

Hooves comes back in with Proper and Chase,”So we’re sleeping together? How cute!”

Everyone can see it, Chase mouths at Proper, and they prepare to get ready to get comfortable.

Hooves trots up to Athen and whispers,”This is incredibly weird, don’t do it again.”

Athen nods, and he prepares to get comfortable as well.

The next day, Proper thanks Trista for her hospitality as they prepare to retrive their stuff from the living room. They hop on a taxi and head straight to the stage they’re performing at.

“I feel kinda itchy,” Hooves says.

“Same here,” agrees Athen.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine! Besides, we’re at the stage, prepare to play our songs, and then we need to start recording an album.” Chase replies.

The All-Rounders walk up to the stage, and Athen sets up his drumset. The crowd stamps their hooves, and Chase wrestles the mic off the stand.

“Hello everypony! We’re here to perform 3 songs, starting with the first one, a cover of Another One Bites the Dust by Princess.”

With that, Proper starts dancing to the bassline while Chase trots around without a destination in mind. Incredibly bored, Athen decides to add his own fills and Hooves just stands there awkwardly and plays the guitar part.

After the song is finished, Chase says,”Next one is Wanted Dead or Alive, hope you all enjoy!”

Chase puts the microphone back into its place and Athen starts playing the bass drum intro, adding ride cymbal for good measure. Hooves starts playing the arpeggios, and the song goes on without incident.

“I hope you’re ready for this next one!” Says Chase before swaping into super scream mode,”I AM ELECTRIC!”

The crowd stomps their hooves and Chase wrenches the microphone off the stand again, he then kicks the stand into the crowd. Proper picks up his bass in his magical aura and holds it out in front of him. Athen plays a series of bass drum kicks and the song starts.

When the chorus comes Hooves tilts her guitar sideways and plays the chorus chords. Chase drops as low as he can to the ground to sing the song. When the solo starts, everypony goes into dead silence, and Hooves plays the first notes of the solo before everything resumes.

After the song is over, Chase shouts,”Do you want some more?” With the crowd roaring in approval to that staement, The All-Rounders head backstage.

“What song should we play for the encore?” Athen asks.

“We should play Lay Your Hands on Me, everypony remember that song well enough?” Hooves asks.

Everypony nods, and they head back up front.

“We’re playing Lay Your Hands on Me! Athen, take us away.”

Athen starts by playing the tom beats, and the song goes great.

“Thank you for listening everypony!” Chase shouts, and they head backstage.

Chase claps a hoof on Athen’s back,”Man, you did awesome with I Am Electric. Where’re we recording the album?”

“Wherever we can, I guess.”

One successful album recording later, and everypony is getting incredibly itchy.

“Why am I so bucking itchy?” Athen says.

“Me too, let’s just hope we can do just as well with our recording as usual.” Proper says.

“Anypony got an idea for a song or three?” Chase asks.

“I got one!” Proper says,”an electronic song that covers how you shouldn’t be in a rush to grow up. A little somber song that has an acoustic guitar riff and is juxtaposed by an upbeat electric snyth solo.”

The rest of the band blinks at him.

“Proper, you should write some bucking songs!” Hooves says.

“Anyone here know how to mix?” Proper asks.

Everypony shrugs.

“Well, I can overtune my drums, or use the electric set I have,” Athen says.

“I could find a good tuning that would sound electric enough, and we can create the acoustic effects by leaving my guitar unplugged.” Hooves says.

A few minutes of screwing around with the tuning pegs, and Hooves found a tuning that works.

“I wasn’t giving up, shall we start?”

The All-Rounders start, and Hooves plays the acoustic riff. When they hit the snyth solo, she plays a weird guitar lick that sounds fairly good, when they finish, everypony starts thinking of another song.

“I’d really like a drum solo,” Athen says.

“By Celestia, we’ll give you one, and not the one from Another One Bites the Dust either, an actually complex solo.” Chase says.

“Perhaps the song could talk about fighting your inner demons?” Hooves asks.

“That sounds great, let’s throw in a bit of a rock sound, and we should be good.”

With the new song,’Light the Fuse’ done, the band decides they’ll head to their next venue, which the will perform in a couple day.

The All-Rounders crash at another pony’s abode, this one they leave without feeling itchy, so they head onstage. Chase walks up to the mic, and Hooves takes a seat.

“Our first song is called Wake Me Up,” Chase says,”enjoy the electric sound.”

Hooves begins by playing her unplugged electric guitar, with other sorts of amplification, and Chase sings the song. When they hit the solo, Proper uses his magic to plug in Hooves’ guitar, and she plays the song.

After they’re finished, Chase turns to the crowd and says,”Next up is Light The Fuse!”

Hooves begins the song, and it continues on without incident, Athen nails the drum solo, and the band concludes the show.

“That’s all we have, but we’ll be back!” Chase says.

Backstage, the band talks about their performance.

“Man, I’m trying to block it out, but I’m still so itchy!” Athen says.

“Me too! I wonder what could’ve happened.” Hooves says.

The band decides to go on and record a few more songs for their next performance.

“Anypony got a few songs ideas?” Chase asks.

“I got one! It’s a trip-hop sort of thing.” Hooves says.

“So, like the songs off of Demon Days.” Athen says,

“I like those!” Hooves says.

“Never said I didn’t, what’s it going to be like?”

“I want to delve into the lore of Gorillaz as an animated band, so we’ll have a spirit named Del posses the drummer, and he’ll sing the song.”

“Sounds interesting,” says Proper.

“Anyone here know how to play harmonica?” Hooves says.

Chase raises his hoof,”I do.”

“Great, we’re going to need it.”

They record Clint Eastwood, called that as the harmonica parts Chase is playing sounds like a part of a Clint Eastwood movie, and they go on to the next one.

“I got a couple,” says Hooves with a mischievous grin.

“Oh boy,” Athen says.

The room goes dead silent for a while. Eventually, Hooves gets up to write the new songs.

When she comes back, she issues the same statement she said for Lay Your Hands on Me. Athen immediately knows what this is about, so he hopes like hell they aren’t too bad. First song is pretty boring on drums, but the second one is fairly fast. The All-Rounders quickly look over the music, and they agree they will play them at their show tonight.

The All-Rounders hit the venue and frantically start itching themselves again, the venue owner sees this, and hands the band a pair of clippers and bug killer.

“I heard you were crashing with your fans, you been crashing at Trista’s?” She asks.

The band nods.

“Those nasty bastards got the lice, their birds in particular.”

Athen shoots a glare at Hooves, they start to shave their head and kill the lice on their coat.

“This is going to be most unflattering,” Proper says.

“You gotta do what you gotta do.” Chase says.

The band walks up with their new hairstyles, that being none, and Chase steps up to the mic. After the laughter dies down, Chase says,”Yes, yes, we had to shave our head due to some touring issues, but we’re still singing. Our first song here is Ciint Eastwood.”

Athen starts off the crash cymbal beat, and the very repetitive drum part. Chase makes his voice go high to start, followed by immediately going low to sing the opening chorus. When the first first starts, they add some pizzaz. Athen freaks out behind his drum kit, while pressing the hi-hat pedal to keep the beat. Proper then lofts the microphone over to him. His eyes are closed and he starts singing the verse.

The crowd claps, and Chase receives the microphone back. When the second verse starts, Athen does not freak out at the beginning of the verse, but at the end, opening his eyes and returning to his usual fill-oriented drum style.

After the song finally ends, Chase speaks into the microphone again,”I was not expecting Athen to go along with the song that well. Anyways, I don’t know the next song, but Hooves does.”

Hooves steps up to the mic,”Dedicated to Athen, of course, No One Like You! As made famous by Scorpions.”

Hooves starts the song with the two chords, and Chase procedes to awkwardly skew his voice so that it matches the tone requested. Otherwise, there’s not much with this song, and they move onto the next one. Hooves takes apover the mic again.

“Our second-to-last song! Follow You Down!” Hooves then proceeds by murmuring something, who then agrees.

She starts the song, and Athen plays his fast beat. Proper starts there and strums with his hoof. At the end of the song, Hooves takes a third solo. Athen realizes that that was what Hooves was murmuring about. The song finishes without anything insanely special.

“Last song,” Chase shouts,”Dream On everypony! Keep on dreaming.”

They play Dream On. After the show, the band crowds backstage.

“Hey, Hooves,” Athen says.

“Yes?” She replies.

“Thanks.”

“Anyways,” Proper says,”we seem to be getting off the ground, want to travel Equestria and play there?”

“Yes! What about my high-school?” Hooves says.

“I wasn’t aware you were so concerned,” Chase says.

“Whatever, sounds like a great idea! Let’s bucking go!”

Next time, The All-Rounders will travel Equestria, what could possibly go wrong?

Author's Note

I now have an excuse to watch live videos of several bands.

As you can see, some bands exist, but only bands that had an incredible impact on music, except Bon Jovi, whoops.

In case you haven’t caught it, Athen is my ponysona. However, I will not be making him do any incredible feats beyond what Rock Band has laid out for you. Also, I don’t have any love intrest either, so it’s not exact.

I might be taking a little bit of a writing break after this, expect StallionForce next.

Songs mentioned in this chapter:

Surfin’ Bird- The Trashmen (song title)
Another One Bites the Dust- Queen
Wanted Dead or Alive- Bon Jovi
I Am Electric- Heaven’s Basement
Lay Your Hands on Me- Bon Jovi
Wake Me Up- Avicii (My favorite song ever)
Light the Fuse- Slydigs
Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz (Rock Band version because I can’t find the lyrics elsewhere)
No One Like You- Scorpions
Follow You Down- Gin Blossoms
Dream On- Aerosmith

Constructive criticism is allowed and encouraged!