You and the rest of the band were sitting in the hall of the Canterlot Musical Society listening to a little trio play what was the heaviest song you’d heard all night, and even that was giving you cavities. Looking around you see Sombra yawning in his seat and Eris nibbling on French fries, the crowd beyond them was responsive…sort of, but you had the nagging feeling that a lot more could be coaxed out of them.
“This is gonna be a bloodbath…”
”Don’t write us a check just yet.”
You turn your head the other way. “Why’s that, Chrys?”
She twirls her hair in her finger. “The rules say no magic in the first set, meaning if the crowd is “less than receiving” we won’t be able to use our crutch.”
You sip your drink. “So cynical.”
”I am not losing to a band called “The Dazzlings”, Anon.”
Fair enough.
”I’ve one idea.” Artemis says past her.
Chrysalis turns her head quizzically.
”The dress song.” he says.
Chrysalis now rolls her eyes.
”Sex sells, you know it better than anyone.”
”Anything to get me on a pole again, dear Arty?”
“Wait, again?”
”Don’t ask.” She says.
"But I want to."
Artemis chuckles.
An aide comes to your table. “Uh…Mystik Spiral?”
“That’s us.” you say.
You had to change that…
”You’re up next.” He says.
All eyes turn to Chrysalis. ”Well Chryssy? Are you down?” Artemis asks.
The Changeling Queen sighs and grabs a napkin and pen from her pocket. “We’ll be ready.” She tells the aide.
He walks off and Chrysalis beckons you all closer. “Come on, come on. Let us try and teach you this song before we go on stage and make asses of ourselves.”
She begins writing down notes on the napkin and inwardly you thank yourself you learned to read sheet music.
The minute the Dazzlings exit stage left, you’re hurried in through stage right. You all quickly take your positions and sound check, emanating a low feedback hum through the hall and earning you some preemptive cheers.
“Hello hello, we are Mystik Spiral but uh…we’re probably gonna change that name. Keep an ear out for us next time you’re at a show and you just mi-“
”Anonymous shut the hell up, these people didn’t come to hear you flap your gums.” Terror says.
You look offended, this was important. Good band banter could carry an audience through a song they might not like, and it also would give anyone moments to rest in between songs if anyone was flagging.
You cover your mouth with your hand to imitate Terror’s echo of his helmet. “You’d prefer instead they came here to hear your life story, Night Terror? Tell me, was getting trapped in the moon part of your plan?”
”Are you two going to go down on each other here or are you going to play for these people.”
You and Terror look at each other, he gives you the signal.
”Fuck you.” You both say in unison
”I can do better~” Chrysalis says, winking at the audience.
Some guy in the back catcalls up to her.
Terror turns his volume up. “Fine, you want songs, we’ll give you songs. Do something else with your ass besides get it spanked and keep up. Sombra, get ready to hit it.”
Sombra’s face lights up and he SLAMS out a four-count, ready to raise hell.
“Not that hard, big guy.”
Sombra rolls his eyes and starts a much lighter four-count.
Sombra chirps away on the high-hat while you, Terror, and Eris start a steady and quick rhythm. Chrysalis presents her side to the audience and begins gyrating her body back and forth like a snake. Suddenly every guy in the audience and about five percent of the women were eyes front in rapt attention.
Chrysalis truly was a renaissance woman. Singing, playing, writing lyrics, and shaking her voluptuous ass. You bang your head as you play and Sombra slams out on the drums behind you as the song picks up and Terror sings.
”I met her in the chaos in the horde of the bizarre…immaculate and lucid in a smoky crowded bar…”
Chrysalis hops off the stage and strides along the dividers, caressing her hands along the faces of some of the dancers and fans near the front and getting them further into the palm of her hand. You head away from the front of the stage and continue jamming out the riffs Terror helped you learn not twenty minutes ago in the company of Eris and Sombra. This was clearly Chrysalis and less-so Terror’s show, best to let them have front stage.
”Through the seas of lights and glimmer, she’s a savage, she’s a shark.” Terror continues as Chrysalis climbs back up on stage and sheds her denim jacket for the noticeably thinner t-shirt underneath. She hangs the jacket over her shoulder while she prances around Terror, tracing her finger across his torso.
Chrysalis pecks Terror on the cheek and from here you can almost see Terror stumble, instead you just catch him smiling and chuckling under his helmet.
Chrysalis balls up and tosses her jacket into the crowd during the momentary breakdown of the song, hopping off the fence and then hopping the dividers at just the right time to- Terror ends the breakdown with a retching scream, thus begins the final heavy chorus.
Chrysalis clears the dividers and drags two onlookers away and begins dancing. From there it’s only seconds before everyone surrounding her is, then over half the floor.
You’d seen a DJ make a club explode like this, but this was certainly a new turnout for one of your shows.
The song ends on a high note, your reverb filling the hall as Terror takes to the mic to speak over the applause. “Thank you, thank you. And thanks to our good friend Chryssy for displaying her only talent she can show in public for us, round of applause.”
Chrysalis casually flips off Terror before taking his offered hand and getting back onto the stage. She grabs the mic.
”Anything for the fans, Terrance.”
“She means that, too, you guys.” you say.
Eris and Sombra chuckle behind you.
Stage left, you see the manager tapping his watch. You nudge Terror and make sure he sees it too.
”Set your watches, we’ll be back before you know it.” he says.
You lead the band offstage, Chrysalis going off last as she blows kisses to her adoring public.
You watched the Dazzling’s second performance from backstage and the one thing that came to your mind was-
”Those bitches stole our shtick!” Chrysalis cries.
Well, that too.
“Yeah…” you agree. “But listen to it, it’s not exactly awesome.”
”It’s the principle of the matter, Anon.”
“When do you stand on principle?”
”When something gets stolen from me five minutes after I show I have it.”
You lean back and look Chrysalis over.
“Anyone with eyes can see you “have it” Chrys.”
”Shut up.”
One of the Dazzlings, the one with the orange hair, sits down on the front of the stage near the dividers and plays her guitar, singing serenades to the lucky few in the front. The fans eat it up and practically fall over the dividers reaching for her.
”Bloody sirens.” You hear Artemis say behind you.
“We need something to break the crowd out of that and we need it fast.”
”I got a song.” The four of you turn around, Eris is standing behind you all with her hands behind her back.
“You wrote a song?”
”Yeah, a while ago.” She looks to Chrysalis. “I need you to help me do vocals.”
Eris digs into her pockets and produces two crumpled pieces of paper, one she hands to you, Artemis, and Sombra and the other she hands to Chrysalis.
The tree of you look it over and scratch your heads. The beat was…unorthodox.
Chrysalis was faring no better. “Eris, dear…what language is this?”
”Chaos.”
The five of you shuffle onto the stage and take positions at your instruments ten minutes after The Dazzlings were pulled off, hopefully enough time to lessen the effects of their wiles.
Eris walks up to the center mic and taps it twice. The tapping and whining of the mic gets the crowd’s attention and makes them silent.
”Uh, hey. I’m Eris…lotta you probably knew that already, whatever.” Eris plucks her low string a few times and points to her right to the other mic. ”This little piece I know y’all remember, she’s gonna help me sing this song I wrote a while ago by hitting the notes I can’t.”
Chrysalis snaps her fingers and two illusions form over the heads of blocky, simple, rudimentary humans. One orange, the other purple.
”Don’t listen to this song…just –feel- it.” Eris says.
”Hit it, Somby.”
Sombra hits off a four count.
Chrysalis and Eris begin a duet of…some sort of nonsense you can’t understand over your short choppy chords. The illusions spring to life as well, the orange one pointing at the purple one and issuing a challenge. The tailed purple humanoid crosses its arms and throws its head back laughing, accepting it. The pace of the song picks up and both illusions hunker down, glowing like the sun in powerful auras and growing in size.
The break comes and you and Terror drop your heads and spin your hair around windmill style. The illusions fly through the air and charge at one another, throwing incorporeal punches and kicks at mind-boggling speed. The figures break away from each other and fly around the room, throwing balls of light at one another which explode into tiny fireworks. Chrysalis and Eris sing in a lighter, calmer harmony while you and Terror pluck along some held notes.
Quickly the tempo changes back to a low and pounding beat and the purple illusion gets behind the orange one, chasing it and throwing firework bombs at it which it just barely dodges. Eris supports her bass on her knee and slaps out a beat, singing the chorus with Chrysalis as the orange man flies around.
The temp becomes heavier and the purple man throws his head back and screams, flashing read and growing in size. The orange figure looks back, Chrysalis lowers her head and lets her hair hang over her face as she sings in a screeching falsetto.
Then came the chorus, you’d never sung about a freezer or whatever it was before.
You were happy the song included a solo, as the lead guitarist you always needed more of those. You kneel down on the stage and bust out some sick-nasty licks while Eris keeps playing, Chrysalis runs over and holds her mic to your guitar.
Above you, the two figures continue to fly around and exchange exploding blows which would shake the roof were they real. Chrysalis screams into her mic as the song ends and Eris picks up after her, standing in a shaft of light from the lamp above in a power stance.
Wow…she looked…wow.
You jump to your feet as the final chorus begins.
Terror heads to the far right Mic and Chrysalis holds hers up to the both of you. She smelled nice. The four of you screaming into them Sombra wailing behind you, the cacophony of fury you were pounding out shattered the glamor’s of the Dazzlings.
Meaning there was a sick-ass mosh pit in front of the stage.
The song winds down the same way it started, with Chrysalis and Eris parroting back nonsensical words to one other. Eris finishes the song by proper her bass up high and slapping out the final notes and making the two fighters explode.
And the crowd goes wild.
Hoots, hollers, and applause emanate up from the masses, along with the two fingered Sign of Tirek they flash in respect.
Four of you wave and toss spare picks and drumsticks to the fans while meanwhile Eris stands on an amp blowing exaggerated kisses to all of them. ”Awww, you like me! You really like me!”
You head over and look up at her, silently tapping your watch and nodding your head backstage.
Eris scoffs and throws up The Horns on both hands before jumping off the amp over the crowd. ”Door! Door! Get me to the door!”
The crowd pushes Eris on her back towards the door, she calls back towards you as you grab her bass. “See you guys at the pancake house!”
You throw your head back and laugh as you head backstage to go rub it in the faces of the other band.
Just wanted to let you know two of the links go to vids that are no longer viewable.
6560707
GOD DAMN MOTHER FUCKING BITCH-ASS YOUTUBE.
Thank you. It's fixed now.
That's the first time I ever see that reference used as a gag in a story.
7621660
It's a reference?
I pulled it from my ass.
7621662
It's a common truism in statistics that about 5% of all people everywhere are gay.
So yeah, you basically just made a math joke. You fucking nerd.
Hah, didn't see that second song coming.
'the crowed beyon' - crowd
'much light four-count' - lighter
'as your play' - you
Rats the songs are no longer viewable, damn youtube copyright
11893105
Hey, cheers for the heads up. I fixed both links so they should work now.
If this happens in the future on any other chapters, feel free to let me know, I have a list of all the songs just in case.