Cobalt Masquerade And Star Struck's Tour Of Chaos

by Cobalt Masquerade

A Chance Encounter And The Tour Kickoff

It was a normal day in Canterlot. Well, not so normal. Cobalt Masquerade, a dark blue unicorn pony with red eyes and a red and black streaked mane, and his band, the Equestrian Metal Alliance, were on their way to their first big gig of their tour this year. But in their excitement, they had accidentally ran a little late. They raced through the streets of Canterlot, instruments in tow. On Cobalt’s right, he heard a small “oomph”, and noticed one of his friends knocked down a mare about his age. He quickly trotted over to the mare, put down his guitar and started to help her pick up her things.

"Sorry about that," Cobalt said in a kind, caring voice, " Dumb Bell over there can be a real idiot sometimes.’ he said, pointing a hoof towards a orangish brown Pegasus with a brown mane and a weight for a cutie mark. The pony Dumb Bell had knocked over was a unicorn, with a yellow coat, a two tone light and dark blue mane and tail, freckles under her eyes, and icy blue eyes. “Hey," he said, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

She looked up at him with a confused look on her face, “Oh me? You have probably just seen me around," she said shrugging lightly taking her things in the bag. “Thank you very much."

"No, wait" Cobalt said as she started to walk away, "I'm absolutely sure I know you from somewhere, I haven’t been back to Canterlot in a long time." He then looked the confused mare in the face. You could almost see the lightbulb go off over his head. "Now I remember!" the Cobalt shouted out, "You're Star Struck! We were in Magic Kindergarten all those years ago, but I was pulled out to live with my family in Stalliongrad for a while, and never finished school. It's been years!”

Star Struck smiled at him and replied, “We were? I’m sorry, I have a terrible memory,” she said with a small blush. “What was your name?" she asked tilting her head.

“Cobalt Masquerade. Don’t you recognise me? It must be the hair," he said, pointing to his long black and blue streaked mane, "I started growing it out right after I left. How have you been?"

“Yeah, that must be it,” Star replied with a chuckle and a smile.

“You look great. The years have been good to you," he said, smiling back. "It has been a long time since then, hasn't it? Why don't we catch up soon?” Cobalt asked.

“That sound great, Cobalt,” Star Struck replied. “Where do you want to go? I just have to put these groceries at home, and then we can go.”

“I actually have to catch up with my friends,” Cobalt replied, “We were on our way to a concert. Those guys were actually my band mates, and we're on our way to a gig at the Canterlot Grand Hall. The reason we were in such a rush is because we’re running a little late for setup and sound check.”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Star Struck said, now a little worried for Cobalt, “I hope I’m not making you late!”

“Oh no, it’s fine, anything for an old friend. And about catching up, I have an idea. Here, wait a sec," he said as he reached into his saddlebags, "This is a backstage pass. Just show it to the bouncers at the hall and they'll let you in," he said, holding out a colorful card attached to a black string that said ‘Equestrian Metal Alliance’ with some other illegible words and numbers. "That is, if you want to come."

She took the card and smiled “Oh I’d love to. I love music, especially metal and rock and stuff! You can expect me to be there Cobalt," she said and slid the pass over her neck. She smiled brightly at him and said “It’s good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too. Well, I had better get going. The show starts at 7 tonight. Just show that pass to the guards, and they'll let to right in. I'll see you there," he said as he picked up his guitar and started to gallop away. "See ya later!"

She smiled and waved after him, “ See you there" she said happily. It was nice to see some pony from so long ago. She couldn’t wait for the concert.

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Later that night at the Canterlot Grand Hall:

The concert had gone off pretty much without a hitch. The opening act, Princesses Celestia and Luna’s band called ‘By The Rising Sun And Falling Moon’ was actually really good. Cobalt’s band had done really well as well. They left the whole crowd cheering and wanting more. Cobalt, along with his bandmates, had just come backstage as their concert ended late at night, around 10. With his magic he levitated his guitar, an old school mahogany Flying V. Behind him walked his lead guitarist, Six String, a dark brown unicorn colt with a long black mane with red streaks and had a guitar for a cutie mark. Behind him, Octavia walked in, carrying an old worn Coltenbacher electric bass. Finally, Dumb Bell walked backstage, carrying his drumsticks. And waiting for him backstage was the smiling face of Star Struck. "So," he asked, sweat still rolling down his face as he looked at her and put his guitar away in its case, "Did you enjoy the show?"

She clapped her hooves together excitedly, and said, “Oh yeah! That was bucking awesome! I think you just picked up a new fan tonight, if not a few hundred new fans." she said, setting herself back on all four hooves. “Thank you so much for inviting me!"

"It's totally fine," Cobalt said happily, as Six String came up behind him and slapped him on the back. "Tonight went pretty good, old pal," he said in a dry voice, still a little raspy, even though he had only done a little singing. "You were a little off when we played The Last Fight, but other than that, you were great," he said as he playfully shoved Cobalt a little. "Who's this, by the way," he asked with a sick grin on his face, "You're new marefriend or somepony?"

Star blushed and shook her head, “Me? Oh nonononono we’re just old friends catching up," she said quickly taking a step back.

Cobalt immediately punched his friend in the arm. "Oh will you shut up. You joke around too much. And like she said, we're just friends. We went to Magic Kindergarten together when I was little, before I moved to Stalliongrad where I met you." Six String winced a little at the pain in his foreleg, but shook it off and replied with a pained grin, "Oh come on, I was just joking. Lighten up, Cobalt." As he walked away, Six String had a small but noticeable limp. Cobalt took a little pride in that. "Sorry about him," Cobalt said as he looked back at Star Struck, wiping his forehead with his right hoof. "I swear, this band is full of idiots," he said, with extra emphasis on the last few words. "HEY!" Octavia yelled. "Except for you Octavia," he replied, heavy with sarcasm and a sly grin.

She smiled giggling lightly, “Well you all seem pretty close . It’s really cool to see you guys get along so well. "

"You'd be surprised. I'm lucky Tavi over there agreed to do this. My friend Vinyl Scratch helped me talk her into it. It was hard, but I got her to join when I said it would help her with her technique and playing speed, which it truly does. Though we do get a gripe and grumble every now and then about how 'all we play is noise' blah blah blah," he said with a deep chuckle.

She laughed lightly “Oh well. I’m sure on some level she likes it or else she wouldn’t do it at all."

"That's true," Cobalt replied. "Hear that Tavi? Even Star over here knows you like the music, and she barely even knows you!" he shouted at Octavia. "Whatever Cobalt," she said, picking up her bass and its case, "I'm going to the hotel. I'll see you on the bus in the morning."

" Alright," Cobalt called after her, "Just don't stay up too late. We've got a long way to go to reach Ponyville tomorrow." Cobalt looked at Star, who had a confused look on her face. "She just prefers not to sleep on the bus unless it's necessary, for some reason. I guess it's the beds. Speaking of which, even with Tavi occupying one, there's still a bed or two left on the bus. Say, how would you like to come with us on tour? We really didn’t get to catch up much because the concert carried on so late. There's plenty room for one more."

Star let out a small gasp. Is he really asking me go go with him and his band on tour?!? This is so exciting! "Oh that would be amazing! I’d love to come on tour with you!"

"Great!" Cobalt said. "Here, come with me, I need to introduce you to my bus driver so he'll know it's you and let you on the bus in the morning," he said as he slowly started walking towards a back door entrance, gesturing for Star to follow him.

She smiled and followed him quickly, happy to start a little adventure in such a way.

"Alright, this is our bus," he said, gesturing towards a large bus with the bands name on it. "Be warned, our driver is a little... Chaotic. Let's put it that way”, he said with a grin that Star couldn't place, like he was about to pull a sick joke. Cobalt then walked up to the door and knocked fairly hard, and a cry and a crash was heard from inside. "Who is it? This better be good, you woke me up from my nap."

"It's Cobalt. I’ve got someone for you to meet. She'll be coming on the tour with us."

"SHE?!?," came the voice from inside the bus, along with some banging noises, "Did little Cobalt finally go out and get himself a marefriend?" the voice said teasingly.

"Ugh, here we go," Cobalt said, annoyed, his smile only slightly diminished, "I already explained this to Six. She’s not my marefriend, she’s an old friend of mine I haven’t seen in quite a while and she's coming a lot so we can catch up."

"Fine, fine, so touchy today, Cobalt. Here, let me get the door open and see this friend of yours." There were some sounds of a jiggling handle, and as the door opened, Star Struck stood open-mouthed as her heart stood still.

The God Of Chaos, Discord, stood in the doorframe.

She blinked and stared in disbelief before taking a few steps back and then looking at Cobalt, "Thats discord," She stammered as she pointed at Draconequis. “You’re Discord." She turned back to Cobalt. "Discords your bus driver!?"

"I told you he was chaotic. And it's ok. We're good friends. It's a long story. But the shortened version is I enjoy chaos, so when he tried to take over the world a while back, I kinda enjoyed it. I was actually a little disappointed when he was put back in stone. So I took to the books, studying entrapment and release spells. I also learned power limiting spells. So I released him, limited his power, and made a deal with him. I would release him, and me and him would cause a little chaos wherever we went, but if it got out of hand, I'd shut him back in that stone for another thousand years. I've given him back most of his power now, but he doesn't abuse it. How long has it been since you did something big, Discord?"

Discord shrugged and replied, "It must have been during last year's tour when I switched everypony in the crowds colors to their polar opposites, or when we were in Manehattan 3 years ago and I filled this very concert hall full of spiders in the middle of your concert," he said with a hysterical laugh. Cobalt immediately doubled over in laughter, and said to Star, "You should have seen the look on Six's face! He HATES spiders! But anyway, what you see is the truth, Discord is my bus driver. Surprised?

She nodded quickly. "More than surprised! simply amazed is more like it. You must have one of the most interesting band mates and crew members I have ever seen."

"Why thank you Star," he said with a smile that quickly got bigger as he looked up at Discord. "Hey Discord, why don't we give Star Struck here a little 'getting on board' present?" Discord apparently knew what he meant, and with a small chuckle and a sick smile, he raised his eagle clawed hand.

“Sure, Cobalt, what ever you say.” Star Struck backed up a bit, and slammed her eyes shut as Discord snapped his fingers. After a moment of sheer terror, she slowly opened her eyes, and realized nothing was wrong with her. Then she looked down at her hooves, and there was a glass of chocolate milk.

“What did you think was going to happen?” Cobalt asked. “Its not like we were going to hurt you. Duh. Go ahead and drink up, Discord makes the best chocolate milk in all of Equestria. Its the only milk I ever drink.”

Star just blinked once and then laughed at her own stupid reaction. Of course they weren’t going to hurt me, she thought, Why in Equestria would they want to do that? “Thanks,” she said, picking up the glass at her hooves and taking an experimental sip. After tasting it, her entire face lit up with delight, and she gulped down the rest. “This stuff is amazing! Thanks guys!”

"It's alright," both Cobalt and Discord said at the same time. "Well, its getting late," Cobalt said with a yawn, "And I'm getting tired. I bet you’re tired too. It’s been an exciting day for you. I'll let you get home then. We've got a long trip ahead of us tomorrow. It's like 8 hours to Ponyville in good traffic. The bus leaves at around 10am, so get here around 9:30, that is, if you alright with teasing bandmates and Discord the bus driver over there," he said, nodding his head at the God of Chaos. "I hope you're still game for all of this."

Star could do nothing but smile as she looked between the two and nodded. “I’m more than game. This seems like something I don’t want to miss. I’ll have my stuff ready to go in the morning."

"Sounds good," Cobalt said with a smile.

"Do you want me to send a few of my guards to pick up your things?" Discord asked.

She looked up and said “Guards? Uhhh... Sure I guess that would help. Thanks."

"Anything for a friend of Cobalt. I will send 2 guards and a chariot to pick up you and your belongings at 9 am," Discord said.

She smiled and replied, “Perfect. I’ll be waiting." She then turned to Cobalt. "Goodnight, I’ll cya then. Thanks so much for inviting me," she said trotting away.

"You're welcome, see you then," Cobalt called after her. Discord eyed Cobalt for a moment as Ink disappeared from sight. "You liiiiiiike her," he said in an overly goofy, teasing way.

"Shut up Discord," Cobalt said as he punched Discord in the side and made his way into the bus to go to bed.

“Ouch,” Discord said, holding his side, “That pony can punch. I’ll have to get him back for that,” he said, scratching his chin. “Maybe I’ll turn him orange in the morning,” he said to himself with a chuckle as he walked back into the bus.

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A big thanks to my friend InkHeart for giving me this idea and for saving our conversations so i could make this fic! :)

Many more chapters coming, but not as soon as i would hope. Hopefully I’ll have chapter 2 out in the next few weeks.