Broken Strings and Bucked Apples

Chapter 2: Deeply Offended

You stomp on the ground with intense force as you strike the final note of the song, cracking part of the wooden floor below you and sending a literally visible wave of sound from amplifier. Your eyes had been shut most of the time, so you couldn't see the expression on Applejack's face, but you were hoping it was a good one. Over the past two weeks, the orange apple-bucker had been coming to each of your band's practices. Slowly enjoying it more and more as she heard all of your songs. You nervously peek one eye open and look to the mare sitting on the couch across from your practice space. To your surprise, a wide grin is plastered across her face.

"Well ah'll be. It's like your songs are gettin' better by the second." she says, her grin still holding.

You must not have screwed it up too bad, because Basswave and Trap-set weren't giving you a death stare, like the one you'd gotten from the yellow pegasus outside of town. You still have never fully recovered from the mental damage that stare gave you.

"Well thanks, and to think, a few days ago, you wanted to kill us!" Basswave says, resting his bass against the amplifier.

"What's to say ah still don't?" Applejack replies, her grin turning more sinister.

"Well... OK then..." Basswave says nervously, inching across the living room in the direction of the bathroom.

"I've got to take a piss that could drown a foal... keep the demon mare under control?" The blue unicorn says jokingly as he strides across the carpet.

You roll your eyes and levitate the guitar from your shoulder, and rest it against your amp as well. Applejack huffs jokingly.

"Ah'll show you a demon mare..." She retorts under her breath.

You chuckle at her statement and take a seat next to her on the couch. To your surprise, she doesn't scoot away awkwardly like all the times before. Maybe she doesn't want to kill you after all.

"So, you liked it?" you ask, hopeful that she'll give you as good of feedback as she has for the last few days.

She tilts her head to the side for a moment and places a hoof under her chin.

"Maybe you could... slow it down a bit?" She suggests.

You raise an eyebrow.

"S-Slower...?" you ask awkwardly.

"Well yeah." She replies.

You simply stare at her, curious why anypony would suggest such heresy. Applejack sighs and sinks into the couch slightly.

"Think about it. If you were to slow that down, it might make it sound a bit better."

Something must be really off with her today.

"Think." She says, grabbing your face jokingly. "Ponies will hear more if you slow it down." She continues, as if she's trying to nail the words into your skull.

You ponder the idea for a moment. You've heard about slower music, but it's always been something classical. Nothing near the amount of distortion and volume you use. You simply shrug and pry her hooves off of your face.

"I'll try it, just please never do that again." you reply, causing the orange mare to roll her eyes.

"Whatever floats your boat bucko." She replies, shaking her head.

Well then, she didn't-

"Ah did like it though." She says. "Kinda catchy."

You smile warmly as she says this, a small flutter in your stomach as the words enter your ears. Surely people have said they like your sound before, but something was different about this time.

"Well, thanks." you say awkwardly, a light blush across your cheeks.

Moments later, Basswave emerges from the bathroom and trots over to the couch. You quickly notice something is off about him. His demeanor seems a bit more nervous than usual, and a small amount of sweat is pooling just under his mane-line. The blue unicorn shoots a glance to Trap-set, who is examining the pieces on his drum set. It takes a moment, but he notices Bass's stare and jumps up from the stool behind his set.

"Oh! Right." He says, emerging from behind the instrument.

Now you're worried. The only time these two are in on something is if they know it will be bad, or have the capacity to be bad.

"What's going on?" you finally ask as Trap-set nears the couch opposite of yours' and AJ's.

Basswave and Trap-set sit down on the couch in sync and look at you for a moment.

"So... we've got some news." Trap-set says hesitantly.

"No shit. What is it?" You ask, anxious to find out what is going on with your friends.

Applejack simply raises an eyebrow and glances between the three of you.

"Should ah go?" She asks hesitantly.

"No, it's fine." Trap-set replies, looking to her.

He quickly glances back to you again and sighs.

"We... are... making an addition... to the... thing... that just happens to be... a thing.. and-" He says.

"We're adding a new guitarist to the band." Basswave says with a sigh.

"Yeah." Trap-set says after Bass.

"I..." You say, dumbfounded by their news.

For the longest time, it's just been you three, and things have been going fine. Why would they want to add a new member now?!

"I..." You say again, searching for the words.

"What's wrong, man?" Trap asks, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm deeply offended." You reply.

Basswave sighs.

"C'mon. It'll be fine, my uncle knows this mare that-"

"It's not that! We've been brothers in this for a while, and now you're just adding another member?!" You ask, a slight anger coming to your voice at the sudden outburst.

"We're doing this for you, man." Trap-set says, a sympathetic tone entering his voice.

"For me? How does this benefit me?" You ask.

"If we have another guitar, you can focus more on the singing, and the stage-presence." Basswave says.

"So my singing sucks?!" You ask angrily.

You are so deeply offended, it's not even funny.

"No! I didn't say that!"

"You implied it." you retort.

"It doesn't suck... it could just be better." Trap says weakly.

"Better? OK. Yep. Deeply offended." You reply.

"Would we really do something if it didn't benefit the band?" Basswave asks.

You know they honestly wouldn't. You've all worked too hard to fuck something up now.

"Do it for the band." Basswave says.

Low blow...

"But I-" You try to say.

"For the band?"

"But-"

"For the band?!"

"Bu-"

"For the band?!"

"FINE!" You reply.

You'd rather rip your own horn off than listen to that all night.

"Who is it?" You say reluctantly.

Basswave sighs and attempts to tell you again.

"My uncle knows a mare, he's in her string section, 1st lyre." he says.

"A lyre?! You're adding a freakin' lyre to the band?!" you ask.

"Well... she's learning guitar..." Basswave says.

"Learning guitar... Can we at least get somepony with experience? Call it off. I'm deeply offended." You say, clearly stating the fact that you are deeply offended.

"Well I can't... she's gonna be here in like-"

Almost as if on cue, there is a light knock on the door that cuts Basswave off. An angry look quickly assembles itself on your face as you glare at your friend.

"I think... that's... her..." He says awkwardly, getting up from the couch.

Sure enough, as Basswave opens the door, an aquamarine colored unicorn on the other side smiles brightly. The two exchange words inaudible to you for a moment and soon come back to the living room.

"Everypony, this is Lyra Heartstrings. The mare I told you all about?" He says, staring directly at you, as if to say don't fuck this up.

You nod in silence to Basswave, as if to say Alright, bitch. I'll play your game.

"Hello! It's really nice to meet you all! Oh, hey Applejack!" She says in a cheery tone.

Applejack nods and tips her hat to the mare. Seems as though they know eachother.

Great, they got some uppity, happy face mare to take your spot.

"Nice to meet you Lyra." Trap-set says, putting on his best smile.

"Likewise..." You say, trying to hide the tone of annoyance in your voice.

You admit to yourself though that this mare is kind of cute. Her color is a vibrant and beautiful shade of green, and her eyes are an orangish-gold, carrying the look of a carefree and happy mare. If she wasn't trying to steal your thunder, you might actually see yourself wanting to talk to her. You notice the guitar case strapped over her back and point a hoof to it.

"What do you have?" You ask.

She pauses and levitates the guitar case off of her back nervously and flips it open, revealing an excellently crafted acoustic guitar. The wooden finish is literally shinning from the light being posed against it, only adding to the beautifully crafted instrument. You have to hold your mouth shut to keep your jaw from dropping.

"I... don't know the name, unfortunately. My best friend got it for me." She says sheepishly.

"That's fine... wow that is just..." You say, dumbfounded and almost forgetting about the fact that you hate her.

Oh, hey, by the way, you hate her.

She smiles in response to your complement and shuts the case. To your surprise however, Basswave levitates it back open and smiles at her.

"Well go on. My uncle said you were great. Show us what you've got!" He says, trying to make his voice sound as friendly as possible.

Lyra blushes slightly and levitates the guitar to her hooves.

"Well... I can try. I only really play my lyre." She says nervously.

"That's fine sugarcube, everypony has to start somewhere." Applejack says in a warming tone.

Again with the flutter. Maybe you should get that checked out.

Lyra smiles again, the blush on her cheeks stronger and easy to see due to the color of her coat. She shifts to the side and takes a seat lightly on the couch, positioning the guitar in her hooves.

Great. Time to watch some amateur guitarist attempt to play six strings and fail terribly at it. You've seen it a hundred times before. Tons of random kids who think they know how to play guitar and just end up playing the most cliche song ever written. It irritates you beyond relief.

You roll your eyes as she begins the song. A few basic chords and harmonics, nothing special. You'll admit it does sound beautiful but just basic. You emit a small sigh as the song continues, but stop dead as she begins scaling the neck with extreme speed. Your eyes go wide as her hoof dances across the fret board gracefully, filling the room with the elegant sound of classical guitar. Still keeping the notes going, she places a second hoof on the fret board, filling the room with more notes than you thought possible. Both hooves are a blur at this point, moving at speeds high enough to set the guitar ablaze. You give up on holding it, and simply let your jaw drop at the marvel before you. How the hell did she learn to play like that?! That is faster than anything you've ever seen or heard in your life.

The song is only made better by the sight of Lyra. Eyes closed, with as much concentration as she can muster. She is barely even straining to produce the extreme amount of notes pouring out of the guitar, and you swear you see her horn glow at one point. How could you have ever hated this mare? You can just barely feel the flutter in your chest again as you watch the beautiful mare before you perform this unbelievable feat. That flutter... maybe it's something wrong? High blood pressure from rocking too damn hard? You simply shake the thought from your mind as Lyra finishes the song.

She looks up after a moment, her cheeks as red as equinely possible. She shuffles in her seat slightly and glances nervously between you and everypony in the room.

"S-so... if you didn't like it-" She tries to say, as quiet as she can.

She is quickly cut off by Trap-set, Basswave, and Applejack cheering loudly.

"That was amazing!" Basswave says.

"Seriously, how the hell did you just do that?!" Trap-set remarks.

"What do you think?" Applejack says motioning to you.

You simply stare at Lyra, dumbfounded by the skills she has just shown. You stumble over your words for a moment and manage only to say;

"W-Welcome to the band..."