Glimmers of Hope
Chapter 1
It was quiet and peaceful day in Fillydelphia, much to the surprise of the city's residents as it seemed to always be bustling around. But there was one house that was quite the opposite to what the residents were enjoying. Instead, it was noisy and filled with arguing and loud music. This house was owned by a band recently formed called "Metallicolt." The youngest of the band awoke by the yelling, he was always use to hearing his friends and band mates blast their favourite albums day and night but could never be able to sleep through the yelling that would sometimes go on through the house. Suddenly through all the noise and confusion he heard a voice come from the other side of his bed.
"Glad to see you're awake Rockin' Stone" the voiced yelled.
It was his brother Rollin' Stone, he was having a pint of cider his mane still matted down and not brushed through yet. He knew his brother probably wouldn't be brushing it at all today. He would be to busy working on the demo tracks the band had been working on.
"What's the time" questioned Rockin' Stone.
"No idea" replied Rollin' Stone, "I woke up maybe 10 minutes ago and the same way too, if you know what I mean. OH FOR CELESTIA'S SAKE CAN YOU TWO QUIET DOWN!?"
The two arguing were Jawbreaker and Metal Meltdown, the drummer and lead guitarist. Jawbreaker was complaining that one of the tracks was too slow and needed to be sped up. Metal Meltdown disagreed and Jawbreaker said the reason he wanted it to stay slow was because he couldn't play the song the speed Jawbreaker wanted. If it was one thing Jawbreaker always complained about, it was the speed on the tracks.
Rockin' Stone got up out of bed and decided to shower, minutes later he got out and dried his dark grey fur and styled his black and yellow mane. He stared into the mirror for a second and looked into his deep, blood red eyes and then headed out of the bathroom.
If it was one thing the brothers didn't have in common it was their looks. Rockin' Stone's older brother had the same colour mane but preferred it short and swept back. He had his mother's white fur and her bright, sky-blue eyes.
Once the arguing calmed down a little the brothers decided to settle the situation. They headed downstairs to see the two talking at the table about various tracks that needed to be worked on.
Jawbreaker had cut his mane once when he was just a colt, his black and green mane now nearly touched the floor and his scarred up ear was sticking out through the massive hair-do. Even though it was late morning and he was indoors he still wore his sunglasses.
Metal Meltdown was a former crystal pony who wasn't really into all the love and harmony that flourished in the crystal empire. Instead, he came to Fillydelphia for the exact same reason the other three of his band mates did, to look for a band to hook up with and achieve his life long dreams.
Rockin' and Rollin' both sat down next to the two stallions to join in on the conversations. Both brothers had some input to share with them that could either go really well, or really bad.
Rockin' started off first, "Listen Jawbreaker I think we should keep the speed of our tracks the same"
"WHY?" replied a frustrated Jawbreaker "I think we could recreate our album if we just boost up the speed! Imagine how awesome we would sound if we did that!"
Rollin' butted in "That's the thing we're all happy with the album! We've on this thing for the past 6 months! We got the foundation set it's just time to spruce up the edges. We can easily just make a faster album once we're done with this one! Are you down for that?"
"Yeah…I'm down for that" replied Jawbreaker who seemed pleasantly satisfied.
"So when we're done with this album how are gonna start off touring?" asked Metal Meltdown.
And then it hit Rockin' Stone, he totally forgot a few weeks ago that he got a call from their manager who had already scheduled the tour. They were supposed to start touring in a week from now.
"Uhhhhhh…about that." Rockin' Stone nervously replied.
"What?" Metal questioned "What's eating you?"
"I got a call from Dusty, our manager. He told me a few weeks ago that we start the tour in a week from now." Rockin' knew he just dropped a bomb and was hoping he would survive it.
"ARE YOU KIDDING ME? YOU JUST DECIDED TO TELL US NOW?" Metal was furious.
"It's not my fault!" Rockin' replied "I just forgot!"
"Yeah, just how you're always forgetting the lyrics!" Jawbreaker laughed, he didn't seem too nervous. In fact, he seemed excited that they were touring sooner than later.
"Cut that out!" yelled Rockin'.
Rollin' stopped everyone with his booming voice "Everyone settle down! You're all acting like children! We just got to think of how we can turn this into a positive!"
Jawbreaker though for a moment "Well we do have around 6 out of 11 polished tracks and maybe the crowd we'll drawn would like some of these raw tracks we've produced!"
"See it ain't so bad!" remarked Rollin' "Just think of the positives! C'mon Metal"
Metal didn't look too confident compared to his friends. "What about the track with no lyrics?" he asked.
"We could just turn that into an instrumental! You could have like….2, no wait! 4 solos with!" Rockin' replied, "And besides, it'll give my voice a break too from all that singing."
"Do you remember where our first show is?" asked Rollin'
"I think it's someplace called Ponyville, and it's in Sugarcube Corner" Rockin' replied.
"Are you serious?" asked Metal "I've never even heard of that place!"
"What did you expect? Canterlot?" asked Jawbreaker.
And so it was settled, the four started packing for the long road ahead, with spirits high and adrenaline flowing through each of the band mate's veins they blasted Motley Herd and got to work. Next stop, Ponyville!
Chapter 2
It had been a week since the band's discussion and Princess Celestia was working some papers when a new reformed friend walked into through the door.
"Why hello there Discord. What can I do for you?" asked the Princess.
"Oh I'm just wandering around the castle looking for your sister Princess Luna" replied Discord "Do you know where she is?
"She's probably up in the bell tower. Why are you looking for her?"
"Just wanted to talk that's all"
Discord then preceded to the bell tower, what Celestia didn't know was that Discord had other plans for Luna. In fact, you could say that his plans were almost Nightmare-ish . Luna was looking up at the sky when Discord confronted her.
"Discord! You scared me what are you doing here?" asked Luna.
"Oh I just wanted to see if you were" Discord sneered at the Princess.
"Why wouldn't I be alright? For once everything is fine in the land of Equestria."
"Even your precious night?"
"Yes." Luna started to feel a little worried.
"But once again even when you come back from the moon the ponies still disrespect you as they sleep all through the night." Discord began to put a trance Luna
"Not at all I feel great that I give ponies the night so they can sleep!"
"But it must be such a hassle to be in everyone's dreams yes?"
"I guess a little" Luna began to feel a little bit of anger in herself
"And the ponies don't even celebrate the night do they? All that Summer Sun celebrating must make you feel a little frustrated right?"
"You know what? It really does!"
Discord knew what to say next "I think the ponies should be in the night forever, maybe they should appreciate what you offer them each and every night, maybe you should become Nightmare Moon!"
"YES! It's about time I get recognition for what I do! It's about time Equestria dealt with what I can do! They shall live in the night, FOREVER!"
Luna then began to take a startling transformation. She had on her armour and her fur became pitch black her eyes looked deadly and her horn looked like it could cut like a knife. She truly had become Nightmare Moon.
"YES! HA HA!" Discord laughed maniacally. "Nightmare is it possible you could do me one favor?"
"What is it Discord?" Nightmare Moon thundered
"Keep the day for now and when you lower the night, just keep it that way and you will truly have your night forever."
"Very well, anything else?"
"Once you have raised the Moon I would like you to make me a special constellation."
"What will I make?"
"Spell the words come to Canterlot Chrysalis; it's time for your revenge."
"Understood, thank you Discord for helping me realize what I truly deserve."
"Not a problem my darling"
Discord walked off and went down the stairs towards the grand hall. There was no time to smile now. His plans had been set into motion and there was much to do. Once The Changlings and Chrysalis were here he would travel to Ponyville to get some revenge.
Chapter 3
Meanwhile in Ponyville Pinkie Pie and her friends were getting everything set up for the concert.
"Hurry Hurry Hurry!" Pinkie was very frantic; she didn't want the band to show up to a half set up stage.
"Calm down Pinkie there's still an hour and a half until the band shows up." Twilight was calm but also uninterested; she wasn't one to listen to music including a band that was supposedly loud.
Rarity was the stage designer who made the fabrics and such. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were putting together the stage in record time. Twilight Sparkle was managing everything so they were on time.
Just as Twilight predicted the band showed in an hour and a half. Tired and exhausted they were greeted by happy and enthusiastic ponies, especially Pinkie Pie.
"Good evening, my name is-" Twilight was cut off due to Pinkie's frantic yelling.
"HI! My name's Pinkie Pie! What's yours? Let me guess! Is it Jerry? No wait, TOM! Ben?"
The band just looked at each other from another world.
Rockin' Stone managed to reply "Uhhhh, my name's Rockin' Stone and this is brother Rollin' Stone. He's bass, the lead guitarist is Metal Meltdown, the drummer is Jawbreaker and well I'm rhythm guitarist and singer."
The band and the Mane 6 greeted each other and continued on with sound-check. By the time the band was ready to perform the sun had already went down and it seemed that almost everypony in town was there to watch them.
"How y'all doin' Ponyville!" Rockin' shouted in the microphone. "You ready to party!?"
The first half of the show was a huge success and the crowd went during Metal's insane guitar solos. Everything was going perfect for them, including Discord. Twilight was reading in her library when she looked up at the stars to see the frightening message. She had to warn the other six ponies, she went to grab the elements of harmony but they were missing. Confused, she ran house to house rounding up her friends. By the time they were met up at Sugarcube corner, it was too late. The concert was in chaos; it suddenly started to rain chocolate milk and in the centre of it all stood Discord.
"Hello girls!" laughed Discord "How are you enjoying my storm of chaos?"
"What have you done with the elements Discord!?" Twilight was fuming.
"Nothing at all!" remarked Discord.
"Liar!" Rainbow Dash went to charge at him but was stopped mid flight by Applejack who grabbed a hold of her tail. "Let me at him! I though you were reformed!"
"What? You thought I was serious? I just wanted all of you to get out of my hair!" replied Discord
Applejack said "You still haven't told us where the elements are!"
"Like I would tell you!" replied Discord "Either way I'm not allowed to touch them, remember the spell your Princess had casted on them? How could I have touched them?"
Twilight thought for a moment, Discord was right. When Fluttershy reformed him he wasn't allowed to touch them just in case he tried to go back being chaotic again.
Twilight turned around to look at her friends, "But if Discord hadn't hid them, who did?"
Discord laughed hysterically at them "Look at the time Twilight it's 7am!"
Twilight then knew what was going on. "What have you done to Princess Celestia!"
"You're asking about the wrong Princess my dear Twilight." Discord sneered
Twilight paused and gasped "How could? How did you? Why?"
"What's the matter Twilight?" Applejack asked.
"Discord turned Princess Luna back into Nightmare Moon!"
Her friends gasped and were frightened. They realized they were in for a real tough journey if they were to ever get back there town ever again.
"It was Nightmare Moon who told Chrysalis to come back wasn't it!?" remarked Discord "You should really head to Canterlot, Princess Celestia and her guards can handle oh so many things."
And on that note the ponies rushed to Canterlot, for the first all six of them felt like there was nothing they could do.
"Wait!" A voice shouted from afar.
Twilight turned to see Rockin' Stone and his friends rushing towards them.
"We wanna come with!" stated Rockin'Stone.
"Please, you'll drag us behind." Replied Rainbow Dash
"What do you know you Rainbow freak!?" Demanded Metal Meltdown
"Wait Rainbow Dash we could use all the help we can get!" Twilight managed to calm everyone down before the situation got out of hand.
"And besides, if what that Snake, Goat, Dragon-like thing said is true then we gotta get there fast! Hop on our carriage and we'll get you there quicker!" Rockin' Stone offered them all a hand.
"He also crashed our concert, wayyyy uncool man." said Jawbreaker
And so the heroic bunch all set off at break-neck speed to save Equestria yet again. What they didn't know was that once they were at Canterlot, they would be in for a rude awakening.
Chapter 4
Meanwhile in Canterlot Chrysalis and her changelings were already there wreaking havoc on the city. Celestia was once again trapped in a cocoon Chrysalis had made herself. The guards were captured and Canterlot was now under Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon's control.
"HA! How do you feel now Princess?" asked the Queen "Your sister has turned back into Nightmare Moon, Discord is turning Equestria into the land of chaos and you're here…talking to the new ruler of Canterlot, capital and hometown of my Changelings!"
Princess Celestia did not respond. Instead, she tilted her head down in shame. She felt like she let her people down. How could she have given Discord so much trust so quickly?
"Not talking? Fine, I'll be outside with my changelings. Nightmare Moon, please keep our guest comfortable." Chrysalis walked outside to bask in her victory over the Princess.
Celestia looked around, there was no one except her and Nightmare Moon, if there was one thing that stood in the way from Nightmare Moon staying her evil self, it was the love and friendship the two sisters' shared with one another.
"Luna I know you're in there, please. We need you to come back to your former self. Twilight and her friends need the Elements of Harmony in order to defeat Chrysalis and Discord once and for all!"
"Your sister is gone Celestia! The Elements of Harmony will always be with me until Twilight and her friends are more!" Nightmare thundered and laughed violently as she waved the Elements of Harmony around Celestia as if they were toys and that she was playing with some sort of pet.
"Please little sister, I love you! You're the only one who can stop this from happening."
Nightmare Moon paused for a moment, and she slowly began to frown. She stopped flying and landed on the ground softly. Suddenly there was bright flash of light and once all of it vanished Princess Luna was lying on the ground. She looked up at her sister and she began to tear up.
"Oh big sister I'm so sorry-"Luna was cut off.
"Shh not another word, It wasn't your fault. Now free me from the cocoon!"
Luna used her magic to break open the cocoon and release her big sister.
"Come big sister!" yelled Luna, "We have work to do!"
Meanwhile the 10 ponies already reached Canterlot; they were fighting off Changlings until the Queen herself came out of the castle to join her subjects.
"Enough!" Ordered Chrysalis, "You feast soon but I need to talk to some long-met friends of mine!"
Chrysalis and her Changlings captured them and put them in cocoons as well.
"Hello Twilight, who are you're new friends?" Asked Chrysalis
Before Twilight could respond Rollin' Stone stepped in front of her "What's it to you Cheese Legs?"
"How dare you talk to your new Queen like there, your defiance shall be punished! But before I begin I think I'll leave ponies stewing around in those cocoons for a while. Go my Changlings, FEAST! Eat to your heart's content!"
As Chrysalis left the ponies sat there in disbelief. All the ponies even Twilight felt like they had finally lost one, all except one.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Applejack
"How could we just get captured like that!?" demanded a frustrated Rainbow Dash
"This cocoon is kinda cozy isn't it Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie didn't seem worried at all.
"Does this mean it's over?" Asked Fluttershy
"Of course not Fluttershy! Twilight always has something up her sleeve right Twilight? Twilight?" Rarity started to feel worried as Twilight couldn't come up with a response to her question.
"I…I don't know…what to do." Twilight felt awful she felt like there was more she could of done to stop Discord's plans to take over Equestria.
"GAME OVER MAN GAME OVER!" Jawbreaker started panicking.
"I knew we shouldn't have helped these ponies." Metal stated.
"How about you Rockin'" asked Rollin' "Do you have any ideas lil' bro?"
Suddenly everypony's attention was situated on Rockin'.
"Listen ponies, I've known some of you guys for as long as I can remember and most of you girls for just a few hours. But if it's one thing these guys don't have it's hope. Because no matter happens if you have friendship, magic and just a little bit of hope we can conquer any challenge life throws in our direction. Am I right!?" Rockin' felt exhilarated by his speech.
The ponies were once again fired up and hopeful that they would get out of this and just as they started working on a plan they noticed Princess Luna and Princess Celestia coming towards their way with the Elements of Harmony.
"Princess Celestia but how?" asked Twilight
"All you need Twilight is some Glimmers of Hope and you can achieve anything." Replied Celestia
"Go Twilight you and your friends have some work to do." Luna handed the elements to Twilight
As Twilight handed out each of the ponies' elements Chrysalis noticed what was going on.
"NO!" Yelled Chrysalis "How could this have happened?"
"With hope!" replied Twilight.
And thus Twilight and her friends formed a ring around Chrysalis and used the elements to banish The Queen and her Changlings back to which they came from. The city folks cheered and were overjoyed to see the Mane 6 once again defeat Chrysalis.
"Time to turn a certain someone back into stone!" Cheered Rainbow Dash
Chapter 5
Discord was lounging about on a cotton candy cloud that was gushing out chocolate milk. He felt uneasy though. Something was gnawing at him. And then he saw the moon went down and the sun came back up and right away he knew that the ponies retook Canterlot.
"It's over Discord!" Rainbow Dash kicked the cloud from underneath him. Discord didn't expect this and landed hard on the ground.
Just like the last time the ponies defeated Discord the ponies' elements chained together and formed a giant rainbow that blasted Discord.
"Nooooo!" Discord screamed as he slowly turned into stone from the feet up.
"SO AWESOME!" Jawbreaker yelled amused by the fantastic lightshow that was going on.
As the embodiment of chaos had once again turned into stone everyone took at deep sigh of relief.
"Thank you guys!" Twilight appreciated the help that was given from the band. "Especially you Rockin' you taught me to never give up and have hope no matter what life throws at you!"
"It's fine Twilight" Rockin' was overwhelmed from the praise he was given.
"I think this calls for party!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
And so the ponies celebrated their biggest victory yet as friends. And to provide music was of course Metallicolt. The party was a sensation and everypony was invited. Metallicolt finally witnessed their dreams as well. The party was hosted at Canterlot and they felt like they finally hit the big time. They knew they would be performing at Canterlot sometime in their career but not this soon! As the sun went down the party came to a steady halt. When each of the ponies said their goodbyes to each other the band stayed behind.
"Twilight? We have a question for you." Said Rollin'
"What is it?" asked Twilight
"Where can we stay?"
"For the night?"
"No, like forever."
"What do you mean?"
"We don't like it in Fillydelphia!" said Jawbreaker "This town's wayyyyy better!"
"I'll see what I can do!" exclaimed Twilight.
"I wonder if we'll be able to find a place here." said Metal Meltdown.
"We will" replied Rockin' Stone
"How do you know that?" asked Rollin'
"Because we have hope." Rockin' and the band smiled and followed Twilight.