Guitar's Hero

by FoxWithAMask

Meeting Royalty

I looked around the black landscape I found myself in, it was all shifting shadows and bubbling darkness. Slowly the shadows around me began morphing into Twilight’s library, but just the floor, the walls, shelves and ceiling were just more darkness.

I frowned and was about to move when Carlos emerged from the shadows with a smile. “So, kiddo, to make a token you first need something that you can say without a single doubt is yours.”

I nodded, “Okay…” I patted through my pockets before pulling out my keys and the bunch of keyrings I had on them, mostly band related stuff, but there were gaming things too. I thought for a second before pulling off a keyring with a guitar pick on in with a stylised ‘GH’ on it.

“Right. Now all you have to do is speak the words, the message you want to send out and it’ll go. Nothing else to it. Just when you’re done, think about how this is your token, no one else’s.”

I hesitated, “So...I can do that at any time?”

He smiled, “Yeah, getting cold feet, huh? I was the same. You don’t have to do it now, but you know how now.”

“Yeah, I...just want to settle first. Sorry.”

“Stop apologising for everything. It’s no problem, it’s probably a good idea.” He shrugged, anyway, I’m off, you need me again, just call. See you, kiddo!” With that he dissolved into shadows and disappeared.

I shook my head as Twilight’s library disappeared. That was last night. Twilight offered me a bed until I got my own place...I went to bed and...I was here. I frowned, “Am I still asleep?”

“Of course you are.” Nightmare’s voice came from nowhere a moment before she materialised in front of me. “And your mind is nothing compared to those I’ve seen before.”

I shrugged, “I’m nothing special.”

She raised an eyebrow, “Indeed? Then any of your species would just let a bodiless spirit inhabit them with absolutely no argument?”

“We-well...no. But I’m not unique or anything, there are better people than me out there!”

“Yet it was you who kept silent, even when we never agreed on this. Not them, but you.” She poked me in the chest.

“Yeah...well...I...I just happened to be there.” I said honestly.

She growled and threw her front hooves up, “Just take the compliment! You are annoyingly nice.”

I winced, “I’m...not nice. I just have more important things to worry about than how to piss people off.”

“Yes. Your brother.” I opened my mouth to correct her, but she cut back in before I could, “He may not be your brother by blood, human, but there are more important things than blood, are there not?”

I frowned, “That sounds familiar.”

She snorted, “As it should. Your father said it all the time.”

That was true, it was as close as he got to a catchphrase. I frowned, “Wait, how do you know that?”

She scoffed, “Pitiful. We’re inside your mind and you still can’t figure it out?”

“Hey! Why don’t you just tell me then?!” I yelled.

She glared at me, “Because if the answers are just given to you then you will never learn for yourself.”

“I thought I’d finished school.” I muttered glumly.

She sneered at me, “Life is a learning experience, either you learn fast or you die. And trust me, if you don’t learn fast you will die.”

“Wait, what?!” I yelped, “Why am I going to die?!”

She sighed and shook her head, “You’ll learn of it when you awake just ask about the other humans. Do not stop pressing.” The world around us shook and shimmered, light leaking in as cracks appeared in the darkness. “I’ll speak to you later.”

---

"Wake up!"

I opened an eye and saw Twilight giving me an annoyed look. "...Later." I yawned and pulled the covers over my head.

The covers suddenly flew off my face, "It's one in the afternoon!" She yelled.

I groaned and rubbed my eyes, "Listen...wake me at three." I pulled the covers back over my face and tried to get to sleep again. I smirked as I heard her let out a scream and walk off. Right as I was reaching that glorious edge of sleep I was suddenly soaking wet and freezing cold. I shot out of bed and saw Twilight with an empty bucket. I locked eyes with her, "Of course, you realise this means war."

She rolled her eyes, "Oh, get over it. You're lucky I let you sleep in. I thought you'd need it after last night."

I blinked, "Sleep in? It's only one! You got me up early!"

She just stared at me. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

I gave a relaxed grin, “Nah, you got the lazy cousin, I’m afraid. You want the action seeking, healthy, amazing guy? Sorry, that’s Tommy, I’m just...lazy, music loving, Joel.”

“You put yourself down a lot, don’t you?”

“Go jerk off your lizard slave.” I shot back without thinking.

Her jaw dropped, “W...what?!”

My brain finally caught up with what I’d just said. “Uhhh...I non understando word good, yes?”

She gave me a deadpan glare, “You told me yesterday that it was strange we spoke the same language!”

I took a deep breath, realised I was naked, stood right in front of her, realised my groin was more or less eye level with her and grinned, “Hey, Twilight.”

“What?!” She snapped.

“Being yelled at is my fetish.”

Her eyes widened and she started looking down before bolting from the room. Dick move? Literally and yes. Did she deserve it? Probably not. Funny? Fuck yes!

As I giggled to myself I got dressed. “Now that was funny.”

‘Indeed. It was well worth all of this just to see that.’ A voice said from nowhere.

I looked around the room Twilight had let me borrow. There was just enough room for the bed and a wardrobe. There was nowhere anyone else could be. But...the voice was familiar. “Nightmare?”

‘So you can learn. Well done. Do you want a cookie for being such a good boy?’ She mocked.

“How are you…? Are you speaking into my mind? Or can anyone hear you?”

‘Finally. You’re asking questions. Yes, I’m speaking into your mind. Keep asking questions and you may yet survive.’

I sighed. “Right. So...you know what my dad used to say. Can you...I don’t know, go through my memories or something?”

She burst out laughing, ‘You figured it out! Granted, it wasn’t exactly difficult.’

I waited for another response but she went quiet. “Perfect.” I groaned, wandering out of the spare room and into the bathroom. After locking the door I eyed the small shower, but it wasn’t big enough to properly use. I raised an arm and sniffed my armpit, eh, I can go another day before I had to resort to a sink and a damp cloth.

I moved over to the sink and stared at my reflection in the mirror that hung above the sink. I pulled my shirt off and looked myself over in the mirror before pinching the...reasonably small roll of fat around my gut.

'You're chubby.'

I let out a small yelp and flailed my arms about until my heart returned to its normal rhythm. "Don't do that!"

The purple mist phased out of my gut and transformed into Nightmare's real form, but she definitely wasn’t physical, she was mostly transparent and the bottoms of her legs were mist. "Get used to it." She grinned. "Why are you so fat? Are you from a rich family? A noble?"

I snorted, "Rich...uh...not really? I mean, it's all relative. But I guess we're rather well off, not too much though. And...noble? Hell no. I just...Okay, so I don't have the healthiest diet, but it's not like I'm obese!"

"Oh?" Her grin turned nasty, "I'm pretty sure you're toeing the line if your memories have anything to say about it."

"Hey!" I yelled, "Okay, it all goes to my gut! I get it! But it's not that obvious! It's not like I'm as bad as those kids you see on the news! I...I just never get around to exercising." I sighed, "Oh, who am I kidding? I'm too damn lazy to do anything!"

“Oh, shut up.” She snapped.

I blinked, “Huh?”

“If you’re that concerned about your weight then just do something about it!”

I scratched the back of my head, “Well...yeah...But it’s not exactly that easy!”

She rolled her eyes, “You are lazy. We’ll have to fix that. You’ll start exercising today, the least we can do is get that belly off you.”

“Hey!” I yelped, “You can’t just decide all this for me!”

She turned to me and snapped her fangs in my face, sending me leaping back with a squeak, “Seeing as you’re being too pathetic to keep yourself healthy then I can and am! I won’t let a host of mine be so out of shape!”

I stared at her, “Host? You mean...you’re some sort of...parasite?”

She glared at me, “Call me a parasite again and I will end you.” As I scampered backwards she just shook her head, “I am no parasite. If I still had a corporeal form I would have bonded with you, as it stands I am simply living inside you, taking your residual energy to heal.” She then added bitterly, “Not that I’ll ever have a physical body again.”

“Uh...I-” I started before she cut me off.

“Don’t even think of apologising!” She turned back to mist, “I’m too...tired to continue this now. We’ll talk later. Remember, ask questions.” She floated back into my body, thankfully not through the mouth this time.

I stood there for a moment before sighing and running a hand through my short hair, “Things are getting more and more strange.” I sighed and pulled my shirt on before heading downstairs to meet Twilight for some late lunch.

Twilight was waiting for me, wearing a frown on her face. “I hope you’re pleased with yourself.” She huffed.

I winced, feeling a little bad. “Er...Sorry. I just...get cranky when I first wake up.”

She shook her head, “Just...don’t do it again.”

I laughed, “I make no promises. I’ll probably insult you if you wake me tomorrow, just try to not take it personally, I don’t mean anything I say when I first wake up.”

“Fine. I won’t say I’m used to it, because that isn’t normal.”

I smirked, “Shows what you know about humans.” I remembered what Nightmare had told me and asked Twilight, “Speaking of, what did you mean yesterday about other humans?”

“Oh. That.” She gave a nervous smile, “I can’t really talk about it. Princess Celestia has forbidden anypony to speak newly arrived humans about it.”

“Who?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Princess Celestia. She raises the sun each day and lowers it each night. She’s been in charge of the country for over a thousand years!”

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah, yeah, You don’t need to sprout propaganda at me. No one raises the sun, haven’t you discovered science yet?”

“But she does! She raises the sun and Princess Luna, her sister, raises the moon!” She shook her head, “But I can’t talk about humans with you, I’m sorry.”

“Well...okay.” I gave her a smile.

‘No, not okay! What did I say?!’ Nightmare screamed.

I jolted upright in shock. Twilight gave me a look, “Are you alright?”

I laughed her off, “Yeah, I just bit my tongue a little.”

‘What did I tell you?! Do not stop pushing! Or are you just a pushover?’ Nightmare snapped.

She was right. At the very least I needed some answers. “Actually, Twilight, it’s not okay. I need answers here. How do you know of humans?”

Her eyes widened, “I told you. I can’t talk about it, Princess Celestia will let us know when she can talk.”

I stood up and stared her down, “I’m afraid that’s not good enough. I don’t want to push this after you’ve let me stay here, but I am not going to wait potentially weeks just for a straight answer! Now, either you give me some answers or I’ll go out and find someone that will tell me!”

“I…” She bit her lip nervously. “I can’t! I promised the princess!”

I closed my eyes and sighed, “I see. I...” I bit the inside of my cheek. I needed information, so sending her on a little guilt trip wouldn’t be...too bad, right? I sniffed and tears welled up in my eyes as I thought back to how I felt when I found my pet cat dead, “Why? Why won’t you help me?!” I sobbed, dropping to my knees, “I just want to know if Tommy’s okay! Why won’t you help me?! You don’t even care!”

“What?! No, no, no!” She panicked and wrapped her hooves around my shoulders. “I do care! Please, don’t cry. I…”

I buried my head into her side, “I just want to know what happened to him!” I bawled, “I just want to know if he’s okay! And you’re...I just want to know what happened!”

She was looking around frantically. “I...oh, how do I…? Okay. I...I’ll tell you a bit. Just...please stop crying.”

I lifted my head and kept my head low to hide the fact I hadn’t been crying as bad as I’d been letting on. I wiped my face and nodded, “O...okay.”

She picked up a book from her bags and opened it up and started reading to me, “Y...you see, it has been recorded that ever since the founding of Equestria, humans have appeared inside its borders approximately every hundred years. The majority of the time they’re alone, occasionally in pairs, and one time in a group of ten, every time they have had powers and abilities beyond understanding and we never know whether they seek to conquer us or to be our saviours. They have plunged us into darkness, released terrible monsters, saved us from certain annihilation and even at one point rescued us from one hundred years of darkness under the rule of the last human that had arrived. But until they show their character we never know what they are truly like, their appearances are deceiving, beautiful heroic looking humans have slaughtered innocents to sate their own bloodlust whilst monstrous looking humans have saved us from doom. But when the Invaders arrive, be they benevolent or cruel, their arrival always warns of coming dangers.”

I blinked, “Holy shit. And you didn’t come after me with flaming torches or pitchforks?”

She rolled her eyes, “We’re not that barbaric.”

I laughed, “Yeah...still, it sucks that you’ve had to deal with that shit.” I scratched my head, “So, uh, is this Celestia coming here? Or are we going to her? Or are we not bothering?”

Twilight frowned, “Princess Celestia. And she’s coming to us tomorrow. That should give us plenty of time to prepare.”

I sighed, “Okay.” It was then I noticed we were missing someone. Where’s Spike?”

“Oh, he’s with Rarity, one of my friends.” She chuckled, “He still thinks the crush he has on her isn’t obvious.”

I smirked, “I know the sort.” I felt like talking to Nightmare. “Anyway, I’m going to go think things through. If you hear me talking to myself, just ignore it.”

She gave me an odd look but didn’t say anything as I headed back upstairs to my borrowed bedroom. As soon as I sat on the bed Nightmare spoke up, ‘We need allies.’

I blinked in surprise, “What?”

‘That Carlos, he mentioned there were others like you out there. Why didn’t you create the token at that point?’

I was quiet for a while before responding, “I was scared. It was a new world, a new set of people...and what if I was summoned by someone who just wants to kill me?”

‘They would die before they swung their blade!’ She spat venomously.

“What?” I was surprised she would even care so much.

‘You are...you are mine! My host shall not be killed by some deranged lunatic! It would look bad on me.’ I couldn’t help but feel like that was an excuse. Who knows.

“So...you think I should?” I asked.

‘It would at least give us some allies, if I am discovered those are things we shall desperately need.’

I frowned, “Why? We could just explain what happened. Besides, it’s not like you’re hurting me.”

She hummed, ‘Remind me to get you a history book later. But they may try and rip me away from you.’

“And so we’d need friends to protect us.” I nodded. I pulled out my inactive token. “Alright, let’s do it.”

‘I thought you were scared?’ She asked curiously.

“I am, but I won’t let my fear lead to you getting hurt.” I said strongly.

‘Idiot.’

I held the token in my hand and tried to remember what Carlos had told me. I took a deep breath and spoke, “I am no warrior, spy or fighter. But music is my domain, rock is my power and all those who try to silence the joy of music are my enemies. Summon me, if you wish for music, to talk, or if you need desperate help. The God of Rock will answer.”

The moment I finished speaking the token was engulfed in darkness and disappeared from my hand. I guess that was it. ‘God of Rock?’ Nightmare questioned with enough mirth that I could hear her smirk.

I shrugged, “I don’t know. The words just...flowed out.”

We were interrupted by a knock on the door, “Joel?” Twilight called. “Princess Celestia’s here. Can you come down?”

I blinked, “Uh, sure. I’ll see you down there.” I thought Twilight said that Celestia was arriving tomorrow? Oh well, I won’t complain if she managed to arrive early.

As I stood up I look out the window and stared, the sun was definitely not where it was a minute ago. Somehow creating a token had taken, at least, three hours. ‘Well now, that’s interesting.’ Nightmare said.

“No shit.” I muttered.

Before I opened the door Nightmare piped up again, ‘I’m going to go into a slumber now. Hopefully that princess won’t sense me. Like I said before, don’t mention me.’

“I know the drill.” I smirked.

I reached the bottom of the stairs in time to hear Twilight confess that she had told me of the other humans. I blinked at the sight of what must have been Princess Celestia. As tall as Nightmare was with wings and a horn, flowing rainbow hair and tail and some tacky looking crown. And a fat arse.

“You should not have told him, Twilight.” She scolded gently.

As she shrunk away, I stepped forwards in front of Twilight and shrugged, “Hey, don’t blame her, Big White, after all,” I let my eyes fill with tears again, “who can ignore a c-c-crying, lost, boy?” I wiped the budding tears away, “You get me?”

The princess looked calm but Twilight...she was livid. “You tricked me?!” She yelled.

“Uh…” I hesitated, “Yes? I needed information, and bleeding heart types like you make getting information too easy.” I shrugged, “But, uh, sorry. I’ll...make it up to you?”

“You were faking all of it?!”

“Well, I am worried about my cousin, but yeah.”

“I believed you and you were just lying!”

I rolled my eyes, if she was just going to repeated the same thing over and over, I was going to have some fun with it. I gave her a sombre look and said grimly,“You got me, detective. Looks like I’m going to liar’s jail.”

Celestia giggled, distracting me from Twilight, “Who are you? Twilight’s letter said that you gained the ability to play songs from your world. Is that really all you received? Every other human in a costume gained more extreme abilities.”

“The name’s Joel.”I shrugged, “It might be because I wasn’t wearing a costume. Who knows?”

“I see.” She seemed to ponder something for a while. “Hmm. In any case, I shall have to ask that you don’t play any music from your world.”

“What?! What’s your problem with music?!” I yelled. If there’s one thing people could never take away from me, it would be my love of music!

She sighed, “I’ve heard more than enough songs from your world. They’re filled with profanity and terrible messages, such as: killing, taking drugs and degrading mares.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, no. That more like rap than rock. Sure, rock has the occasional swear in it, but it’s not like it’s in every line, hell, most of the songs don’t include profanity. Here, let me show you.” Hmm, she seemed like she’d like the more classic stuff, so which song from the games can I choose? I thought for a moment before thinking of a song. Ah, that should do it.

As I played, much better than before, I noticed Celestia nodding her head to the song and smiling, even Twilight seemed to stop being angry to enjoy the song.

After I had finished Celestia approached me with a genuine smile. “What were those clunks during the song? They didn’t sound right.” She asked.

I winced, “That was me messing up, I’m not used to how hard it is to play yet.”

She hesitated. Something was bothering her and it was bugging her.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“There...is something else I have to discuss with you.”

“What is it?”

“I’m sure Twilight explained that a human arrives every hundred years, correct?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“You see…” She hesitated, “The last human that arrived here wasn’t that long ago.” What? “It was only ten years ago.”

“Wait, wait, wait! So…they’re still here?!” I asked excitedly. “Can I...can I talk to them?”

She sighed, “That would be the problem. You see he’s constantly been attacking us, we’ve managed to beat him back, but he just recovers his armies and attacks again.”

The colour drained from my face. “Oh.” I mumbled. “I see.”

“I am sorry. I know it must be hard for you. If you ever need help with anything, just let me know, and I’ll do what I can. Within reason.”

A lightbulb went off in my head, “Actually, there is something.” Seeing as I had her attention I continued, “You can tell I’m kind of...pudgy. I don’t suppose you know someone who can help get me into shape?”

She looked surprised. Did she expect me to ask for a mansion or something? “I may have somepony who can help.” She gave a mischievous grin, “They should be here in a few days.” She gave a nod of her head, “Farewell, Joel. Twilight.” She then left in a flash of light.

‘Show off.’ Nightmare spat.

I hummed to myself, “She was...curious. No hard feeling, eh, Light?” She didn’t respond. “Er, Twilight?” I turned and saw her staring at me. “What?”

“What did you call me?”

“Oh, right. I like to give people I like nicknames. Yours is Light. Just don’t start proclaiming yourself a god and we’ll be good.” I chuckled.

She stared at me like I was insane, “What?” She shook her head and pouted, “I’m still mad at you.”

I grinned widely, “Hi, Still Mad At You. I’m Joel.”

Any semblance of humour disappeared from her face, “No! You are not doing that!”

I raised my hands in surrender, “Alright! Alright! You’re right anyway,” My grin returned, “I’m not Doing That, I’m Joel!” She looked about a second away from slapping me as I gave an impish giggle. “So, what should I be doing?” I scratched the back of my head.

She sighed, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the rest of my friends.”

I slung my guitar around my neck, “And I’ll show them the majesty of rock!”

Author's Note:

Song for this chapter:

Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrn Skynyrd

Comments

[DisplacedWriter]

Holy shit.... What year is this?! *takes out cane* Where've you been?

[NAH223445566]

No. El rock también es machista y de drogas.