The life and times of an Everfree mystery

"Good morning, Bon Bon." I greeted her happily, "Yeah, I love Blueberries," I said as I took one of the muffins she was holding.

"I thought so. By the way, you're gonna be late for work," she informed.

"Son of a bitch!" I blurted out as I rushed out the door.

I ran all the way to the music shop I owned and operated. I didn't know why at the time, but I felt like today was going to be long, but good.

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

About the same time I got up, John began to stir. Everything was surreal to him; I suppose it would be if you woke up to a bunch of intelligent animals that had never heard of a human before, let alone seen one. He put on his clothes; sadly his T-shirt was torched when he jumped through the flames of that dragon, but he was provided with a new one. It was white as snow, which looked good with the rest of his outfit, which came any color he wanted, as long as it was black. The shirt was made of a thick material, but it breathed and it hugged his torso, but didn't feel like it choked him. He was extremely grateful to whoever made this shirt.

He read a note that was left for him: 'Sir Cloud, I am ever grateful to you for your assistance. Please take this money as a reward, it should be more than enough to live in the finest hotel in all of Equestria, plus food and other luxuries. Please consider making your home here in Ponyville, and don't be afraid to get in touch with me. Princess Luna, goddess of the night.’

    "A couple of days in a forest, and suddenly I'm friends with a royal goddess. Did someone slip some shrooms into my food?" he mumbled to himself.

He grabbed the pouch that was left on his bed and put it in his satchel. He draped the bag over his shoulder, and made his way out the building.

He got a few odd looks from the inhabitants of the town, but nothing hostile, just curious. He was charmed by the atmosphere of the town, but one thing was bugging him. The damn roofs, they were thatch! He just came out of a hospital that out preformed any hospital on earth. It had state of the art equipment, and everything in there seemed modern, if not downright futuristic. But as soon he gets outside, the surrounding houses have thatch roofs. He knew it must only be a style thing, and that there was indeed modern roofing under the thatch, but it still bugged him.

A few minutes later, something caught the corner of his eye: a large vinyl disc on top of a building. He was well out of the suburban area of Ponyville, and the surrounding buildings no longer looked like a recreation of Dark Age homes. He was drawn toward the store, one, for his love of music, and two, to see what kinda instruments ponies used.

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

I had just gotten set up behind the counter when I heard the bell ring, meaning a potential customer had come in. I walked out and froze as I saw the creature that had come in. I watched as it looked over a couple instruments, and then it turned to me. I was nervous and slightly scared, but then he opened his mouth. "Do you have any guitars?" he asked casually.

I snapped out of my trance. I had never seen a creature like that one, but it sounded like any other pony. "Uh...Yeah, follow me," I said. It was odd for somepony, or in this case, something to ask for such a complicated instrument unless the pony asking was a unicorn.

I walked to the back of the store. Lining the wall to the left was row after row of guitars. "Did you have a specific type in mind?" I asked, still a little nervous.

"No, what is the highest quality guitar you have in stock?" it asked casually.

"Well, we have a special guitar in stock, but it cost 100,000 bits," I informed.

"What makes it so expensive?" the creature asked.

"It uses magic to bring out the emotions and memories of the player. It consumes the magic of the player, and depending on how much Mana the player has, the guitar could make any sound in the world, and put it all together into one giant symphony. It could even modify the voice of the player when he sings, turning him into a one pony band!" I said, getting really excited as I described the instrument.

"Sounds too good to be true," said the creature.

"You can try it," I informed, "Here's the thing though, you'll be put into a sort of trance when you play, so you won't be able to stop from finishing the song."

"I'm up for it, which guitar is it?" the creature asked with a look of pure excitement plastered on his face.

"You'll have to come to the back room with me... You don't mind if I record what you play, do you? I've had other ponies try their hand at the instrument and what they play sometimes is really good, other times it's a little... off, but it's all in good fun," I asked as I walked through the door that led to a recording studio in the back of the store.

"It'll be fine," it informed.

I gave the creature an ornate pick, which was actually the instrument itself, and motioned for him to get into the booth. It put its hands out as if holding a guitar and a lime green electric guitar formed out of thin air. The creature plucked a string and an entire band of instruments formed around him, with phantoms of himself ready to play them; then heStarted to play.

After it was over I found myself speechless; no one had ever played something so complete as that before.

After a second he came out of his trance. "What just happened?" he asked.

"Uh... you were awesome," I said, barely above a whisper. "I get off work at one, do ya want to get a coffee with me?" I asked, then promptly covered my mouth with my hoof and turned so he wouldn't see me blush, 'What the hay, why did I say that out loud?' I wondered.

"Uh...Sure," he answered.