Metal in Equestria: Chapter 1

It was about one in the morning at an unnamed night club in Chicago, near the heart of the city. It was still lit brilliantly even into the early morning hours. Backstage the band was waiting to go on next, and they were mostly drunk. "…and then she tells me 'oh Napoleon Dynamite was the greatest fucking movie ever!' Then I told her 'look, it's not like it cured cancer or some shit like that! It ain't that great!'" yelled Jiggs. The air in the backstage lounge was dense with cigarette smoke and the paint was peeling off the walls.

There were two couches placed opposite to each other against the walls. Jiggs had to stand up and move around the room as the alcohol started to work its way through his system. With not too much longer till show time he knew he would have to get the feeling back in his legs.

On one sofa sat Packie, the guitarist. His blonde hair matted over his left eye to perturb anyone from seeing his facial expression. His slight but athletic frame took little space on the couch which he stretched his body across. Opposing him on the other couch was Wallace, the drummer, who was half-drunk and more asleep. His coconut colored brown hair came down to his shoulders and covered both of his equally brown eyes. Wallace scratched his five o clock shadow underneath his chin as he heard Packie make the next comment.

"Ya man, I hate it when my little brother says some stupid-ass shit like that. I'm glad I don't have to deal with that little turd anymore." Packie said. He had since moved out of his home to live with his new bandmates, who gladly let him live in their apartment after they heard his technical prowess on guitar.

Wallace sat up, his blue jeans looked somewhat moist. He flicked his head to move his hair out of his line of sight. "Cool story bro." Wallace said rather nonchalantly. "Shut the hell up Wally!" Packie yelled in retaliation. They rarely got along when they were partially drunk. Only the phase in between sobriety and being hammered was unpleasant. "Well when does this show start? My fingers are twitching" Wallace said. "Like in 10 minutes or something… I figured we'd have been out there by now." Packie replied "Hey Jiggs, quit smoking that shit, it smells like your mom's scrotum in here." Jiggs was pretty pissed now. "Well I bet her scrotum was bigger than yours, blondie!"

Packie put his hand on his head and ran down the length of his hair. "I'm not really sure how to respond to that." He chuckled. "Of course you don't, because what I said was perfect." Jiggs defended himself. He pitched the last of his cigarette in the ash tray and plopped back down on the couch next to Wallace.

Packie started to reach for his guitar case to get in some last minute practice when an olive-skinned woman with sleek, black hair walked in. The bandmates could tell she was part of the club's staff by the microphone headpiece hanging over her head. She held her finger to the button on the side of her ear. "You guys are on in five, and the crowd is a bit… rowdy tonight. We have the PA ready and you guys should have no problems, as far as theatrics go. You guys are ready to go on, aren't you?" She paused for a moment to let them speak.

The bandmates all nodded their heads silently in agreement. Wallace flicked his hair to the side again. "Honey, you have no idea."

As the crew was about to perform their show, unbeknownst to them, a parallel universe had its own events unfolding.

Twilight Sparkle was reading one of the many books in her library. This was nothing out of the ordinary for her as she hadn't had any adventures with her other friends recently. She looked gloomily at the book, reading rather slowly. Her tree house library was rather quiet and she thought that Fluttershy must have taken the birds out somewhere, for there were no singing birds today outside her window.

"Hey Twilight!" called Spike.

The purple dragon stood but a foot in stature, and Twilight barely noticed him standing right next to her. "Yes, Spike? I've almost got that spell." she said somewhat irritated. Spike looked up at her slightly afraid he broke her concentration. "…well, I thought you might want to see what I found." he said. "Sure!" she exclaimed, "Hit me with it."

Spike started "So, I found this in one of the upper levels, it was kinda torn up, but I know we've had pretty good luck with those kinds of books before…" he kept on "… but this particular one is dated almost 2,500 years ago." She looked at him astonished. That was the oldest book she had ever seen, and it was in fairly good condition considering its age. She also made the realization that this book was written before the time of Princess Celestia. "What's the title?" was all she could say.

"I'm not sure…" he said "…the letters are faded… and…" he had difficulty coming up with the right words. "I just don't know, can you take a look?" He scanned the outside of the book, flipping it over in his claws. She levitated the book out of his grip in front of her. She could hardly make out the letters of the title, worn by centuries of age. DI M N SIO AL- S EL S. "Hmm..." She looked perplexed at Spike, piecing together the missing letters in her head. "If I'm not mistaken, this is a book to traverse other dimensions."

Spike replied quickly, "Which means… what exactly?" Twilight walked across the room. She knew quite well the seriousness of the power which she possessed and also the spells which the book might hold. Pacing back and forth around the room she contemplated even opening the book, but then it struck her that the Princess herself probably didn't even know about this. It was tantalizing the idea of knowing something the princess did not. She couldn't help herself any longer and threw open the book quickly and started reading. She skimmed pages at first, rapidly. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" said Spike. "Not really, but it's a book of magic and there aren't too many of those left in the library. Plus I've never seen a book quite like this one in Canterlot."

"Do you think the princess would like to know? I mean… that book's older than she is after all. She probably has never seen something like that." Spike chimed in.

"I know, but…I've never seen it before either, and why would it be sitting in Ponyville's library? I'll tell her after I read some of it for myself." said Twilight, unwilling to relinquish this newfound knowledge. Spike ran up to her and closed the book with a loud CLAP! She looked at him angrily. "I think you should tell her. It's only polite and she could help you possibly." He said defensively. "I know, I know… but I saw a spell in the book about Earth." She mentioned this because up until that point in history, Earth was considered only a scientific theory. Possibly it was Equestria in another dimension or universe as some pony scientists speculated. But then again, what point was there to science in a world where magic existed. Science in Equestria was a dying profession, since every pony was perfectly happy there using only magic.

Spike walked around the room and shook his head. "There's no way that's possible. Some ponies said that a long time ago and everypony laughed at them. I don't want to see that happen to you." Twilight started "well from what I've studied, Earth is entirely plausible. The science was there and there is no other explanation for all of the non-magical ponies. They could've come here maybe using one of these spells from Earth. It's been speculated even that there are ponies there if it exists." Spike stopped and looked in disbelief. He got wide-eyed and a distrustful smirk came across his face. "Yeah but there is barely any proof to support that."

"I know…" she said "… but doesn't it sound like it's worth a try? We could maybe find a dragon for you, though…" she thought for a moment, searching her memory, "…I haven't heard of any existing there." Spike liked the idea, but reality set in for him. "And how do you know that? There probably isn't even an Earth." Twilight looked out her window. "We won't know till we try."

Back on Earth, In Chicago's underbelly, the city was a buzz and lively.

Jiggs and Packie were setting up equipment on stage. There were blue curtains that hung from the ceiling separating them from the crowd. Wallace brought out the instrument cases, black and white stickers covering them. The drumset had been assembled a while ago so now all he had to do was help his bandmates get ready with their equipment. His black shirt had the two letters "SK" emblazoned on it and they were coated with molten lava as the band's custom graphic design. It was Packie's idea for the design and the other guys weren't feeling too creative on that particular day.

"Hey asshole, where's the amps?" Packie yelled. The crowd was becoming restless and loud. The band just finished setting up their pedal boards with their various effects. A few loose wires here and there were quickly connected and now all they needed to do was plug in.

"They're under those blankets" Jiggs said. He was essentially the team captain, but only because he could afford the good stuff. Wallace took off the blankets, revealing two, five foot high amp half stacks. "No full stacks?" complained Packie. "You won't need em my friend." Said Jiggs, "There's enough wattage to blow the roof off the place. You got yourself a Peavey right there."

It wasn't what Packie was used to, but it would certainly do. "Oh hell yeah!" He plugged in the Peavey to a nearby outlet and flipped the primary switch to get the tubes heated up, then adjusted a few knobs to suit his taste. "Yeah they set me back about 3 g's each, but if this show plays good we'll make that back tonight!"

Jiggs walked over to Wallace and his bass amp. His thick black hair reached to his shoulders on each side, long and straight with a part down the center. He took out a comb tucked underneath his head amp and went over each side of his scalp once. He had a bit of a beer belly and almost always had a cigarette in hand. He wore a black shirt with the words "And they walked" on it. These were the lyrics for one of their songs they would play later, a crowd favorite. "What's a Yorkville?" asked Wallace. "The only amp I'll ever play." Jiggs quickly responded. "Your drum kit's ready right?"

Wallace scratched the side of his face and looked over at his empty seat. "Yeah should be ready to go, I think some dick took my cowbell." Jiggs shooed away the thought. "Don't worry about it, I'll get it replaced. Just give it a good show."

Packie finished setting up the microphone and connecting it to the PA. Even though Jiggs had the money and brains to run the group, it was Packie who had the talent. Four years of relentless practicing and learning the secrets of master guitarists had turned him into a youthful protégé. He walked over to his guitar case. Hand written in red spray paint on the side of it said "If man saw all colors at once, then he could relinquish his prejudices." It sounded deep and thoughtful or something like that according to Packie. The case also had a large black sticker with yellow letters reading "LET IT FLY."

He opened the case and took out his ESP-1000 LTD guitar. He spent a year trying to pay it off monthly. Admittedly it was his backup guitar, as his primary was a yellow Gibson SG. He kept his SG in a secret place where no one would steal it. The ESP was jet black and he wouldn't have it any other way. While it wasn't his favorite guitar, he still loved all of them like children. He started running his hand down the neck, sort of losing himself in the moment. He could barely hear anything over the crowd anyway.

"Hey dream boy!" Packie snapped out of it, staring blankly at his guitar. Wallace continued "… dude wake up! We're on in like 2 minutes or something!" He was setting up his last cymbal in a hurry, "SABIAN" was written on the side. He adjusted his seat and sat down, feet on the bass pedals. His legs were going to hurt in the morning.

Jiggs shut his case, half-holding his custom made Gibson Grabber II bass guitar. At the same time both Packie and Jiggs jacked into their amps and started playing a few notes and running scales. The two turned around and faced the direction of the crowd, though the curtain was still between them.

"You fuckers ready?" shouted the club owner." You guys are the last act so make it glorious, you get me?" he said louder. He was standing just off stage and the guys could just barely hear him. Wallace looked at the backs of Jiggs and Pack, both wearing black shirts. 'We need more color' he thought to himself. Packie raised the height of the microphone for himself, he was the only vocalist. "Yeah yeah, we know, we'll sound like heaven opened up or something!" Jiggs said, catching his breath. "It'll be good, get me?"

The curtains started to pull to the side. Packie's blond hair shimmered in the bright light. The stage was open and Packie moved closer to the mic. He put one hand on it and kept one on his guitar's neck. The crowd got quiet and he spoke into it "so… we… are a band…" He stopped for a second.

The sound of wine glasses made tinkling noises as they hit tables, the crowd's interest on Packie. He kept going "…and we are here… to make sure you all enjoy yourselves."

He stopped again and looked back. Wallace gave him a nod. Jiggs looked to Packie and said "Let it fly, fucker."

Packie moved in close to the stand. He spoke calmly at first and then became more guttural in tone, "I play guitar, he plays bass, and he plays drums…" his voice gradually became grittier "If you came here expecting Frank Sinatra prepare to be disappointed because we are gonna play some songs and if you don't like em then FUCK YOU! WE ARE SUPERKILL!" He put both hands on his guitar to form the first chord and Jiggs did the same. Wallace brought up his sticks and clacked them together. "ONE,TWO,THREE!" Wallace shouted angrily. The club flooded with sound.

….To be continued