//------------------------------// // Recruiting The Best // Story: Luna Forms a Metal Band // by RF and AG //------------------------------// 2 Days Later         “This is what has kept you in your room?” Celestia asked, with raised eyebrows. “This, is why you have not left your room in two days and have had the maids bring you your food?”         “Yes!” Luna replied with a chipper tone, her eagerness was starting to seep into her tone now.         “I’m surprised it took you two days to create this.” Celestia said, still looking at what Luna brought her.         “Well it wasn’t exactly two days, it just took longer to get it published than anticipated. If the newspaper wasn’t so slow, you would have read about it yesterday!” Luna said, all the while hoping from hoof to hoof. “I see,” Celestia murmured before reading over it once more. “I think you are losing your touch, Lulu. You used to make comets in mere hours, not days.” “Comets!?” Luna gasped, rushing towards where Celestia sat. Her magic reached out for the paper that she had brought her sister. She had even opened up the page to where she had placed her ad. How could Celestia miss it? “Yes, right here,” Celestia said, pointing to the article about a comet that passed through Equus’ outer atmosphere last night. She had assumed that was what Luna wanted to show her, though she didn’t understand why. Her sister had rarely taken that much joy out of one of her creations even if the comet was called “beautiful beyond mortal words.” Whoever wrote that must have been a Lunatic! While Celestia stifled a giggle at the horrible pun, Luna scanned over the page of the paper. On one side of it, the comet story along with some smaller pieces stood out since the pictures were in colour. On the other side of the paper laid the Classifieds, including a rather sizeable article that Luna had secretly purchased. She obviously wouldn’t do it under her own name, so instead she used the name of, Night Wish. The name had come to her in a moment of inspiration when she was crafting her night sky. It was the perfect stage name and it could easily apply to a unicorn. Why a unicorn? Well, Luna had decided to not perform on a stage, if they ever got there, with her normal name and appearance. Thus, Night Wish was born. “Argh! No, that isn’t what I wanted to show you,” Luna explained, throwing her head back, so that her snout was held high in the air, her pupils contracted to pinpricks, as she growled her frustration, and trotting back and forth before her sister. Once she calmed down enough, she returned to her sister’s side, and looked back down at the paper her sister was currently reading.  in the air, eyes open and snarl on her lips, before looking back down. For the oddest of reasons she was over emphasizing her movements lately, especially those that reflected her emotions. She hardly noticed it, yet her sister had definitely picked up on her change in how she carried herself. Luna jabbed her hoof at the spot in the paper that she had expected Celestia to read originally. The paper almost fully gave way to her insistent prodding, the crackling almost turning into a full ripping sound as stress marks appeared with each hoof prod. Her sister glanced from Luna to the spot that Luna was pointing at, eyes narrowing briefly before contracting beyond their normal size. Celestia was a smart pony, living for a thousand years gave a pony an extreme amount of wisdom, so she could easily connect the dots with this ad and why Luna was so giddy. Still, despite her ability to reason things out in seconds, she could hardly believe that her sister was actually going through with that idea. “You are going to form a band?” Celestia’s voice was expressive with bewilderment. “Yes!” “As in a music band?” “Yes!” “And you’re recruiting via a newspaper ad …” “Well, actually it is only one of the many ads I have purchased,” Luna said, her large grin never leaving her face. “I purchased a spot in every newspaper in Equestria.” Celestia just shook her head at that statement, there was little that she could even think of saying. Her sister had a knack for being a little eccentric, but this was taking it too far. Not only had she seriously gone through with the idea of forming a band, but she had also created a stage persona to use in the band. Celestia was very close to slamming her face into the table in front of her, she could only take so much when her sister was like that.  Though admittedly she didn’t mind it, since it brought her back to the time before she had to banish her sister. It was a much fonder time, a time when they could act completely like sisters, but such a time was over. Luna’s banishment had changed her and Celestia knew this, they could never go back to the way it was. “I’ve already got twenty two applications!” Slam Face meet table, table meet face. That had been final straw to break Celestia’s willpower to not introduce her face and the table. Maybe it was a good thing though, for they seemed to be getting along splendidly. Perhaps they would be best of friends, knowing what Luna was planning on doing, it was quite possible that they would be spending a fair amount of time together. “Oh don’t give me that ‘Tia! You were the one who suggested it, so don’t be so melodramatic,” Luna said, rolling her eyes and huffing loudly at her older sister’s reaction. Celestia didn’t respond, instead opting to let her face and the table continue their first meeting, allowing them the time to get acquainted properly. Luna on the other hoof just giggled lightly, before trotting out of the dining room. She halted her progress though briefly, turning back to poke her head in through the open doors. “I’m off to find a place to interview them! Do try to make Mr. Table feel comfortable, we all know how displeasing your face is!” Luna quickly said before scrambling away just in case her sister would actually react to that retort. It had been the perfect place to interview those that had applied, as well as it helped Luna with any questions that could possibly lead to them finding out about her true identity. It was so perfect that Luna couldn’t help but give off a little evil laugh. It was almost second nature, the laugh, for she had used it countlessly when she had been Nightmare Moon. “Sometimes it is so difficult being the cleverer sister,” Luna said to herself, before slapping her right forehoof over her head and feigning as though she was falling backwards. A grin broke out on her face swiftly though, ruining the pose. There stood Luna, about ten meters away from her new base of operations outside of Ponyville. Well, not technically Luna, no she was in her Night Wish form. A dark purple furred unicorn, blue and white mane that hung loosely around her shoulders. The blue and white zig-zagged through her mane in no specific pattern, but Luna didn’t care for all that mattered was that it was long enough to head bang with. The house itself was nothing special in its design and that was where the ingenuity lie. A two story house that had two bathrooms, four bedrooms, a kitchen, and a main area. All of that not including the garage.  It looked almost identical to the rest of the houses in Ponyville, not a soul would suspect that it was actually the staging area for my takeover of Eques- Luna shook her head violently to clear her head of such a thought. “I seriously need to see a psychiatrist.” So there Night Wish stood, in front of her recently bought two story house, with a garage add on. Why the garage? Well all good bands had started out as a garage band before moving onto being signed by record labels. It wasn’t uncommon to see garages, since some ponies did own carts and carriages. Of course that wasn’t the only place that the band could practice in. She had the basement redesigned into a full on recording booth, large enough to fit at least half of the Royal Canterlot Symphony. It was the perfect place, and not a soul would notice the tens of thousands of bits that went missing from the Royal Treasury. Especially since this was on the outskirts of Ponyville, the perfect place to play as loud as possible and not break any noise violations … not that Luna cared. Aside from those that worked under Princess Twilight, not a soul in Canterlot cared about Ponyville. That had upset Luna briefly, but she then realized that it was a boon for the city since it meant that the nobles and the bureaucrats gave no attention to them. This house was the main reason as to why Celestia hadn’t seen her in two days. Sure she had lied to her sister but that was necessary since she would have been yelled at probably … nah, ‘Tia’s face would have just gotten another date with Mr. Table. This elicited a rather loud giggle from Luna, such a thought had her almost on her back in laughter. Her mind wouldn’t stop though as she continued to picture more and more scenes from various dates that her sister would take Mr. Table out to. Luna had spoken with the Mayor of Ponyville, as Night Wish, and purchased the land and building rights. The house had taken hardly a full day to build, it was truly remarkable how ingenuitive her Night Guard was. She didn’t realize how many of them had cutie marks in construction; what amazed her more was the amount that cutie marks in decorative furnishing. It wasn’t a large number but still enough to make her eyes bug out when she found out.  “Now to get in contact with all of the applicants …” Luna muttered out loud. Twilight had found a way to make dragonfire portable a few years ago and in large enough numbers, allowing most ponies to send mail a long distance away in a flash. Many ponies had been worried that it would remove the job of mail mares and mail stallions but that had been hardly the case. Apparently Twilight had seen that coming and made sure the dragonfire would only send to postal offices in the city. In the end, a few jobs had been lost but mail was moving more efficiently. Luna of course didn’t need such a thing for she could literally just send the mail straight to the applicants. This was too important to her to not send the mail straight to them. She needed to get the news out without a moment of hesitation. A flurry of scrolls appeared next to her, oh how she loved being able to teleport things to her. Just as quick as they appeared, she sorted them out into their respective groups before they disappeared just as quickly. Now all she had to do was play the waiting game, or do something creative for the time being. She walked from her spot outside of the house, through the front door and into the kitchen, which she had fully stocked the kitchen shortly after it had been built. There were all the necessities in there, everything a band needed. Dinnerware, enough food to last them a few weeks at least, eating utensils, and booze. Oh there was enough alcohol in that kitchen to make bars feel envious, of course it was well hidden, just in case any pony tried to take some from them. On the right side after entering the kitchen stood an almost blank wall, aside from the obvious plaster and a single portrait. Yet if you looked close enough, there was a little bump on the wall. That little bump was a hidden button that would flip the wall around and reveal the motherload of all alcohol stashes.  Luna checked the clock hanging above the cupboards, One thirty. She shrugged her withers, screw waiting, it’s five o’clock in the minotaur lands and they know how to drink. She walked over to the hidden compartment, stopping right in front of the secret button. Just as she was about to push it, a ringing came from the front door. “Oh come on!” Luna shouted as she lowered her hoof and spun to head to the front door. She was prepared to berate whoever it was for interrupting her chance to start early on her drinking. She knew she couldn’t get drunk, tipsy yes, but not even close to being drunk. She mainly just loved the burning sensation from the hard alcohol.         Still in her Night Wish form, her magic wrapped around the door knob. With a quick flick, she twisted it and pulled the door open revealing her visitor. To say that mare standing in front of her shocked her was an understatement. “Sweetie Belle?” Luna asked with a little bit of shock sinking into her words. She knew this mare when she was a filly, having helped her get past multiple fears. It was tough for Luna to forget a name and face, so even after all of those years she knew this was Sweetie Belle. Well, at least at her very core. This mare was definitely not how she remembered Sweetie. The mare’s mane was the same, but that was pretty much where it stopped. She stood at about the same height as her sister now, having finally gone through puberty. Just like her sister, Sweetie wore clothes for no particular reason except to make a statement. This one was that she obviously loved metal. Her hoofs were adorned by black boots with multiple belt buckles spaced evenly apart on them. She wore a black shirt that bore designs of lighting crashing behind a guitar. Finally her tail was held at the base by a black studded collar of sorts. All of this was topped off by the by the jet black Jackson Warrior WRXTMG on her back. The guitar's body glistened from the ebony gloss paint, the maple neck sporting pearl colored inlays against the treated wood of the fretboard. On the lower right fin of the guitar were two control knobs, one located near the junction, where the two fins joined together, and the other was 2 inches from the end of the fin. Equidistant between the two gleaming chrome knobs, a chrome switch glistened between them. A chrome strap button protruded about an inch down from the end of the upper left fin, while the other strap button was located in the same position, so that they'd form a parallel line to the line of the main body, but on the lower left fin of the guitar. The silver strings gleamed as they lay across the bridge, frets and nut. The upper two pickups were a charcoal grey and about an inch in width, while the third, bottommost pickup was about 1/4 inch in width. 'Jackson' was painted in stylized cursive lettering, diagonally, parallel to the tuning pegs on the headstock. Just from looking at the guitar, Luna could tell it was a well cared for and maintained. Luna knew this guitar well, for it was another one she had studied before finally choosing Ibanez. A guitar aficionado, Luna knew that Sweetie had made a fine choice with that guitar of hers. “That, or Metal Belle works. Wait, do I know you? I haven’t see you around before and Pinkie hasn’t thrown you a party, yet …” Sweetie finally spoke, breaking Luna from her trance. “Umm …” Luna mumbled, truly at a loss for words at that point. “I’ll … explain inside. I take it you are here for auditions?” “Yep!” Sweetie said, her voice still had that same bubbly tone that she had when she was a filly. Of course it was less now, but it still carried through. Luna kept the door open as Sweetie made her way through, trotting straight to the couch that sat in the initial room of the house. Luna closed the door slowly, still shocked by who had already shown up. It’s going to get crazier, isn’t it?