The Missing Bard

by Kiniro

Chapter 4: Electrified

The Missing Bard.

Chapter 4: Electrified

Over the many years that I had been a Musician in Midgard, I had never been at the fore front of anything besides developing magic, but now for once I had my chance to be the stepping stone of a musical game changer in my new home. Admittedly the thought made me rather giddy. "I swear my interest in music will someday get the better of me." I thought to myself with a big smile. Suddenly I heard a high pitched sound.

"Did you just... squee?" Twilight asked.

"Squee?" I asked.

"It happens when any pony gets super excited. What's on your mind Kini?" Twilight asked.

"Oh! Right I forgot to ask. Is it alright if Vinyl comes over shortly? She asked a favor of me." I responded.

"Yeah I don't see the problem. What does she need?" She said with a supportive smile.

"She asked me if I could test out one of her inventions and I told her I would."

"Oh... um. Are you sure Kini? Her... luck with inventing is very..." Twilight began to explain.

"I know Twi, her inventions have a tendency to not work as intended, but this one is regarding a new type of guitar! I can't say no to this!" I interrupted.

"Well... are you sure about this? I just don't want you getting hurt... What type of guitar is she working on?"

"I believe its called an Electric Guitar, but she says this one is special because it has a built in 'amplifier.' As opposed to having to use one to give it sound." I tried to explain.

"Well... as long as it isn't her Bass Cannon or her Wub Powered book sorter... Just be careful ok Kini?"

"I promise, you do know who you're talking to?" I said as I nuzzled up to her on the couch.

"Yeah yeah. Just be safe!" Twilight responded.

"Alright I promise." I commented. I heard a slight tap on the door and looked over to the door? "Who is it?"

"Hey Kiniro! Its Vinyl! I brought my prototype!" I heard a voice say from the other side of the door.

"Be right there!" I responded.

"Just remember, be safe! I'm going to go take cover up stairs just in case." Twilight joked and gave me a big smile.

I heard a slightly louder tapping on the door. "I'm coming!" I got up from the couch, slowly made my way over to the door and pushed it open with my hoof. To see Vinyl just outside using her magic to carry the guitar. "Would you like to come in?" I asked. Vinyl slowly made her way inside and began looking around in amazement.

"So you and Twilight live in a Library?" Vinyl asked.

"Yeah, we do. Haven't you lived next to Twilight for a while?" I questioned.

"Well yeah, but I never thought that it was a library in here, I saw the book sign outside, but I just thought Twilight put it out there for decoration, you know because she loves books. And not to mention, I'm usually traveling or out doing gigs."

I chuckled slightly at the notion of Twilight using a book sign outside for just mere decoration. While the notion amused me at the sheer possibility of this being true. "She did have an obsession with books so the sign idea is hilarious! But I'm not one to talk really, I have an obsession with music. So I guess me and Twilight were just different pages of the same book. Oh Celestia now she'd be excited to hear me say that." I thought to myself. "So are how does this thing work?" I asked Vinyl.

"Well ideally the same way your acoustic guitar does. You just have to turn this switch here so it can start to receive power." Vinyl stated as she turned a knob at the base of the guitar. "Its just a safety switch I put in so you can't overload it when its not in use so you don't over charge it with magic."

"What happens if you overload it." I asked.

"I'm not sure, since I can't play it, but I wouldn't want to find out honestly, probably just blow out the amp. Then its bye bye guitar." Vinyl explained.

"I see, so shall we get this going?"

"Yeah alright, here you go Kiniro." She levitated the guitar toward me.

"Oh alright..." I stood up on my hind legs reached out and grabbed the floating guitar with my front hooves and attempted to position it in front of me like I would my normal guitar. "Wow... this thing is a little heavy"

"Well yeah, compared to your wooden guitar, but this is considered lightweight for an electric guitar, most of them weigh a lot bucking more." Vinyl commented.

"Much more? How much more..." I asked curiously.

"About 4 or 5 time the weight."

"You have to be kidding me..."

"Well a unicorn can lift it up with magic as opposed to using brute strength, which is why it usually takes 2 unicorns to play this one instrument, one to actually play it with magic, and another to levitate it to help the other hold it. Be glad this one is light weight. So you'll have to muscle this one mostly, because I can give it the juice but I can't levitate it at the same time. By the way you are holding it wrong."

"Wait how do you hold this?" I asked.

"Just like your acoustic guitar, but you can't just hold the guitar from the neck since it a little heavier, it will strain your muscles, here use this." Vinyl commented and levitated what looked like a strap and she attached it to the head of the guitar and the base. "Now place the strap around you and let it rest around your neck and let your body support the guitar, you'll be less fatigued as you play."

"Oh ok... now lets just... "I said as I put my head through the strap placing me between it and the guitar." Ah there we are." Now feeling the weight distribute itself with the strap this felt like much more manageable.

"It's something I see earth ponies use a lot when playing acoustic guitars, but I'm surprised you haven't."

"Well its something I planned to get sooner or later, but I just got used to muscling my guitar after a while, considering its made out of wood, its not that heavy. Guess I just kept putting it off." I said, considering I had an old strap I used for my guitar when I was a human but it wasn't usable in my new pony body. So I had just removed it, never really thinking of getting it replaced.

"Well in any case time to get this show on the road. You don't have to really play anything fancy, you just have to play anything really, just so we can make sure it works and fix any kinks as they come up."

"Alright..." I commented. "I really need to focus on not letting my magic come out, so I'll play a simple melody to get this going, plus I don't know what effects my magic will have with this new guitar if it all." I thought to myself. "Alright give it some juice!"

"My pleasure!" Vinyl said. I saw her horn on her head glow lightly with a white aura and as looked down at the guitar it glowed the same as well. "Alright, lets here you play some."

"Very well!" I said, I use my left hoof around the neck to put light pressure on the guitar's neck strings to form my chord and began to strum my guitar with my right. "Just have to get the feel of it. The slightly thicker metal strings are a bit weird."

"Yeah, coming from an acoustic your strings are thinner than the electric guitar, so don't worry, its the same concept." Vinyl reassured.

"Ok then... lets try... this." I said as I began to slowly change my left hoof's position to change my chords as I strumed. "Hey this isn't much different than my guitar!"

"See I told you!" Again Vinyl reassured.

As I became more reassured by the guitar's familiarity to my own, I began to slowly form out the melody. Chord after chord, strum after strum. A simple relaxed melody that reminded me of the song The Rift that I had played in the past, but with more of a Jazz feel considering Octavia and myself had recently played, and I loved the style. But I had to make sure I didn't get to over excited playing least I wanted my magic to manifest into this new guitar, especially with a pony who believed I was just a simple earth pony. But with any further to test, I brought the song to a close. "Wow. I'm liking this guitar." I commented.

"That's good! I'm just surprised everything went as planned. The internal amp didn't have any problems either, but then again I only gave it a little juice, just to give it the sound of your old acoustic, but if you wanted it to be louder I could just give it more juice!"

"I'd like to bring it up a notch more, but I promised Twilight I'd be safe, but we proved that the guitar works, even with minimal magic supplied! Energy efficient!"

"Hey you're right, guess I got a little more than I bargained for!"

"All and all Vinyl, I consider this test as success!" I said with a smile.

"Well its a good thing I don't have much to improve on from the prototype! I kept the blue prints of it so now I could just make more and make a killing in Canterlot selling them to some of the bands up there! I'm pretty sure they'd dig this new instrument, especially without the need of amplifiers, specifically when they play small gigs!"

"Sounds like a plan Vinyl! Looks like you have a good future in music industry ahead of you! Not just in wubs! But in sales!" I supported.

"Yep! Oh! And a I promised, keep the guitar, I know you won't be able to play it much without a unicorn to power it, but consider it a token as my appreciation, and for being an awesome pony who loves music! Maybe you and Twilight can form a band! If you get really good! Maybe I could bug you to come open some shows for me in the future!" Vinyl suggested.

"Well I'm not into doing shows often, but maybe once and a while when I get better at handling this thing, and if Twilight is interested! I could at least do that once to repay the favor for you for this awesome guitar." I commented.

"Hey anyway, I appreciate all the help, but I have to head home and face the music with Octi sooner or later, so I might as well. But I think she'll let things slide once she finds out that I've made an invention that hasn't backfired on me I'm pretty sure she'll let it slide." She said as she headed to the door. "Anyway stop by anytime you'd like, I've love to have you over and jam sometime, maybe I could ask you to make a couple sound mixes for me just by playing that guitar!"

"I'd love to and thanks again for the guitar! Just let me know when you need me to make some!" I agreed as Vinyl stepped out and closed the door behind her.

"Hey Kini!" I heard Twilight call from upstairs. "I heard you playing that guitar, sounds pretty awesome." I looked over to the stairs to see Twilight coming down. "Glad to see your helping out your friends with some inventing. I know I usually would, but it takes some guts to help Vinyl with her wacky ideas, but this one seems pretty on the level this time." Twilight explained as she headed for the couch.

"Yeah, well personally I blame my interest in music than guts." I responded with a smile.

"And that's why I love you, we both have passions for what we like. You like music, playing it, perfecting it, studying it, and not just your own, but you love to see music develop as a whole. As where I like books, reading them, learning from them, and studying them. And now we have each other, to learn from, to grow and to love."

I nodded in agreement and gave a big smile. "And each other to study..." I said in a low tone.

"I'm sorry what was that?" Twilight responded and gave me a slightly dazzled look.

"Oh nothing. Nevermind." I quickly retorted.

"You know I heard what you said. Don't try and hide it from me!" Twilight smiled and winked.

"Me and my big mouth..."

End of Chapter 4.