It was evident that the ponies enjoyed the game by the cheering and applause that Alex and Maddie garnered. But as quickly as they gathered, the crowd began to disperse. The final attack that Alex made knocked Maddie on her back, but knowing the duel was mere fun and nothing more, he extended his hand out to her and helped her up. Twilight, Rarity, Spike, and Orion approached the group as Alex and Maddie were putting their duel disks back in their bags. “So, that was duel monsters? That actually looked like fun,” said Twilight. “I’ll say,” interrupted Spike. “I’d love to learn how to play.” “We can teach you,” said Alex. “I, however, will take no part in this barbaric spectacle,” said Rarity judgmentally. “Oh come on, Rarity,” said Twilight. “You have to admit that the game was entertaining.” “I felt only the slightest modicum of being entertained, but that’s. ALL!” hissed Rarity. “Anyways, I think the theater is ready, right Pinkie Pie?” shouted Twilight to Pinkie Pie. “Mmhmm!” replied Pinkie Pie. The group then made their way towards the theater. Rainbow Dash flew besides Alex and Lucas who were walking together. “Hey guys,” she said. “I know we kind of got off on the wrong hoof back there, but I just wanted to say ‘I’m sorry.’ You guys are actually really cool.” Lucas happily responded, “That’s alright. Apology accepted.” Now she was addressing Alex. “Do you, like maybe, want to hang out sometime? Maybe you can teach me that cool card game you were playing?” Alex responded with, “Sure. That sounds fun.” “Cool then. By the way, my name’s Rainbow Dash. Well, see you inside,” said Rainbow Dash before she darted into the theater. “Wait! Why are you going in there?” yelled Alex as they rushed into the theater to find her. Upon entering, all of the lights flew on. The house was filled with ponies. It seemed the seats were removed to make a large room. The walls were lined with streamers, ribbons, and balloons. There was a large table with various sweets, punch, sliced fruit, and snacks. Over in the left of the house, there were games of pin-the-tail-on-the-pony and bobbing for apples. But the lights flew on and the humans alerted themselves of their presence. “SURPRISE!!” yelled every pony.
The humans were then greeted by the pink pony that Sammy had met about 15 minutes ago. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie. When I heard about your guys’ arrival, I had the best idea to throw a party to welcome you to Equestria. Do you like it? Do you like it? Huhhuhhuh?” “Well, it sure is extravagant,” commented Alex. “Thanks! I got all the decorations taken care of when the others were done fixing this place up. Do you want to play a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-pony?” Alex then looked at the stage and found some instruments that were set up on stands. Then Alex realized that these were his and his friends’ instruments. There was Sammy’s Fender Jaguar 5-string bass guitar with a red to black sunburst finish. There was Scott’s dark purple colored 88 keys Korg Kronos sitting on its stand. Maddie’s large drum set was set up the way she usually likes it. Lucas’s microphone, flute, and black Gretsch Duo-Jet sat together at the front of the stage. There was a new looking violin still in its case next to Lucas' stuff. And lastly there was Alex’s black Rickenbacker 325 guitar. “The renovators unpacked our instruments for us?” asked Alex slightly annoyed. “Nope. I did,” responded Pinkie Pie. Alex frowned. He never liked it when people besides his bandmates touched his instruments. She joyfully continued despite Alex’s disposition. “I saw the instruments in those cases and I unpacked them, because I hoped that you would play for us.” Upon listening in on the conversation, the others finally noticed that their instruments were unpacked and on the stage. “Our instruments are unpacked!” exclaimed Maddie. “That’s what I just said, Silly,” responded Pinkie Pie. “Wow,” said Twilight as she approached from behind. “I didn’t know you guys played instruments.” “Yes,” responded Alex. “We are actually a tribute rock band from where we come from called Lamss, which is the combination of the first letter of our first names; L = Lucas, A = Alex, M = Maddie, and the two S’s = Sammy and Scott. We were actually on a semi-hiatus, which was why we were going to the duel tournament. We only brought the instruments because the tournament was taking place over Halloween, so we were going to play a show for the contestants of the tournament.” “What’s Halloween?” asked Twilight. Sammy decided to answer her. “It’s this really cool holiday where people dress up in costumes, scare people, play games, and get free candy.” Pinkie Pie suddenly got more excited than usual. “OO! OO! OO! That sounds like Nightmare Night!” “What’s Nightmare Night?” asked Sammy who was becoming entertained by Pinkie Pie’s enthusiasm. “It’s this really cool holiday where people dress up in costumes, scare people, play games, and get free candy.” Alex was amused at how similar their customs were with those in Equestria. Scott then started to feel guilty over Pinkie Pie setting up the instruments by herself and felt that he and his band mates owed it to Pinkie by playing a show for her and their unexpected guests. “Guys, I think we should go up there and play.” All the others nodded in agreement except for Alex who just wanted to rest for a bit. “Come on Alex,” goaded Maddie. “I agreed to duel you, and it looks like Pinkie Pie took a lot of work to put the stage together. Plus, you can’t have a party without music.” Alex knew he couldn’t refute the latter point, and so he relented. “Let me get a glass of punch and I’ll be right there.” As soon as he turned, Pinkie Pie was already there with a full glass of punch. She was holding the glass with her mouth, but seemed to be doing a fine job of making sure any drool wasn’t getting in the glass. He graciously said, “Wow. Such prompt service. Thank you,” and he took the glass and downed it. He then rubbed her on the head, which she seemed to enjoy, and followed his band mates off stage, but not before saying, “Just let us set up and we’ll gladly rock your socks off.” As he left, Pinkie Pie stared at her hooves expecting to find a pair of socks, but they were bare. “Oooh. He’s good,” said Pinkie Pie.
The band came out from backstage not wearing their casual t-shirts and jeans/cargos, but the attire they normally played in. Alex still had his black t-shirt on, but he was wearing a pair of khaki pants with a grey blazer. Lucas came out wearing a forest green button-up shirt with a tribal design on the sleeves and on the chest which was unbuttoned a quarter of the way up. He was also wearing a brown pair of cargos. Maddie had a light blue sleeveless t-shirt that looked 1 -2 sizes too large for her, and she had a pair of loose fitting khaki pants. Sammy wore a red tank top with a white tank top with wider straps underneath it with a short purple scarf with multicolored sequins tied around her neck. She also had a pair of darker blue jeans than she had before. Scott was wearing a formal white shirt that was buttoned up except for the last button, a pair of white dress pants, and a pair of white dress shoes. The members picked up their instruments and started tuning and practicing. Orion made his wand stand upright at the very front of the stage and produced a spell that gave each member the electricity needed to play which he also combined with an amplification spell that he just learned to increase the members’ volume. Each band fiddled with their instruments to test and Lucas doing the usual “test, test, 1, 2, 3” test, and everything seemed to be working. The guests started getting excited because they knew Lamss was about to play.
Orion was not only the pilot for the plane that Lamss flew, but he also did the lightingn and sound, all of which he controlled though his wand. Orion made the stage and house dark and the crowd started cheering. Once it got quiet, it was time to begin. The sounds of Scott’s synthesizer slowly filled the hall, starting their impromptu set with Lazy by Deep Purple. Scott’s introductory solo electrified the crowd. Then the band began playing their parts together, and their chemistry was otherworldly, from Maddie’s technical fills on her drums, Sammy’s groovy basslines, Alex’s virtuosity on his guitar, or Lucas’ beautiful singing voice, they were truly a sight to see and a sound to hear. Next, they did an introductory medley to showcase each individual members’ talents. The start of the medley was for Alex, who played Joe Satriani’s Satch Boogie, which led into a series of flute solos by Lucas from his favorite band of all time, Genesis, doing the flute solos of Supper’s Ready and The Cinema Show. This was followed by an Alex and Scott duet to Angels Food by Steve Vai, which was immediately followed by and ended with YYZ by Rush, showing Sammy’s bass prowess and an extensive drum solo from Maddie. Charley even intervened on her violin with covers of Baba O’Reily by The Who and Point of Know Return by Kansas. Other songs covered included Starship Trooper by Yes, American Girl by Tom Petty, and Foreplay/Long Time by Boston, and they closed their set with how they’ve always closed their sets back at home: with Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper by Dream Theater. Needless to say, their performance was well received by the other ponies.
By the time the concert ended, it was late and all of the ponies were heading home. The only ones left were the ponies that the group met on the tour. Applejack walked up to the humans. “Boy, howdy. That was some mighty fine playing you did tonight. And maybe you could teach us that game y’all were playin’ sometime. Well, it’s late and WAY past Apple Bloom’s bedtime. I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” “Good night, Applejack. Good night Apple Bloom,” said the others. “That. Was. AMAZING!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie. She started mimicking the instruments. “I mean Alex was all ‘nyewnyewnyewnyewnyew,’ and Maddie was all ‘dumdumdumdumdumdumdumdum’! Oh, and Scott with the ‘doodoodoodoodoodoodoo,’ Sammy with the ‘bumbumbumbumbumbumbumbum,’ and Lucas was all ‘AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA!’” “Well, I’m glad you enjoyed it,” said Sammy beginning to feel slightly unnerved at Pinkies ceaseless energy. “By the way, there was a gift for you from the princess herself that I put in your room,” said Pinkie Pie. “That was nice of her,” said Sammy. Afterwards, Pinkie Pie quickly said, “Well, gotta go. See ya!” and then darted off. “That was so awesome,” exclaimed Rainbow Dash. “I wish we had rock music that awesome in Equestria. You should totally do that Nightmare Night concert I heard you guys talking about.” “That depends,” said Alex. “When is it?” “It’s actually in a couple of days.” “Well, from the crowd’s reception, I think that may be more that possible,” said Alex. “YES!” yelled Rainbow Dash. “You guys are the best. Well, later.” She flew out of the door. Twilight walked up to them with a sleeping Spike on her back. “We have to get going. Spike is a little tuckered out from the night,” she said. “Looks like someone partied too hardy,” observed Scott. Twilight chuckled and said, “Yes well, you guys were amazing again. I’ll see you later.” “See you, Twilight,” called Orion. Rarity and Fluttershy were the last ponies left in the building. “Personally, I thought there were some bits that were a bit heavy for us, but all in all the music sounded divine,” said Rarity on behalf of herself and Fluttershy. “Thanks,” said Scott. “Especially your part, Charley. I think you play your violin very well,” praised Fluttershy. “Thank you,” said Charley. “Maybe we could all have a little get-together at the spa tomorrow afternoon. My treat,” said Rarity. “Oh, yes. That sounds marvelous,” exclaimed Sammy. “I’ve needed a spa treatment for weeks now.” “Weeks?” asked Rarity. “Fluttershy and I go to the spa on a weekly basis. You should consider that too. Does wonders for your body and state of mind. We’ll all meet there tomorrow at 1. And you should also bring your own robes. Well, I’d love to stay and chit-chat, but it’s late and I don’t want to lose my beauty sleep. Ta-ta!” With that, they left. The band then vacated to their bedrooms which were fashioned from the large dance studio that once existed in the theater. Sammy found a basket on the pillow with a note. It read, “Dear guests, I’m certain the currency that you use in your world won’t be worth anything in ours. Here are 200 gold coins to help cover anything you might need during your time here. Don’t go spending that all in one place. Have a lovely night. Signed Princess Celestia.” “Wow,” exclaimed Sammy. “That WAS nice of her.” Then, they threw on some pajamas, and they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.