Metal in Equestria: Chapter 2

Packie strummed heavily, there was much distortion coming from the speakers. Beads of sweat ran from his the top of his forehead down his cheeks, some dripped from the tips of his hair. The bright yellow light shined down on the band like a faint sun. Wallace sounded the motor of the double bass drum, his feet rolling quickly on the pedals as Jiggs strummed his bass in unison. It was a low rumble. {Juhjuh'…jih'…juh'…juhjuh'…jihjih'…juh'} Packie started his slow ascending arpeggio, then descended back down, a depressing tone.

Packie sang in a style reminiscent of Kurt Cobain, one of his idols. His voice emanated a harsh enthusiasm for his art. "They left society… outcast, such a hell… taken in by only one man… a man named Mr. Neverwell…" As he kept going he played a descending solo in a sad minor key, F harmonic minor to be exact, but Packie was only going by muscle memory. {Juhjuh'…jih…juh…} Packie felt the rumble of Wallace and Jiggs behind him. The drums broke down {tiss…tisstiss…bom..bom} Jiggs ascended quickly, speeding up the pace. Packie sang "with lethargy and no desire… the wise man had no inner fire… they followed him ever so blindly… the only one to treat them kindly…" He soloed {dohdoh'…dih' diheeyah'…dohdoh'…deeyoh'}

They played in the heat of the stage which was unbearably hot. The light continued its barrage down on them.

By the end of their second song, Wallace felt the intense pain shooting through his legs. He was a little out of shape but tried to stay healthy by lifting weights on a regular basis. Jogging definitely wasn't his forte. Jiggs' black shirt was soaked, he felt 10 pounds lighter from sweating so much. If the band didn't drink water between every song they would've most likely passed out. Packie also looked like he had taken a swim in a pool with his clothes still on. They finished their second song on a heavy clash of the drums and guitar. {juhjuh… JIH…JUH!}

The crowd was excited at this point, cheering and clapping. It was a formal club however and everyone was sitting at tables with wine glasses. It was the only club in the city where there were formal shows for rising metal bands.

A week earlier the band had a demonstration for the club owner, who was mildly impressed. "Alright, I guess I'll put you guys last. That'll be like one in the morning or somthin'."

"But why?" Wallace complained. "Because asshole, that's the best spot and frankly I think you guys deserve it. Do you want it or not?" said the owner. Jiggs jumped in nervously "Of course we do sir! We'll take it, haha…" He scowled at Wallace "… and we appreciate it very much. We've always dreamed of performing here!" The owner started "yea,yea whatever… just uhh… get the fuck out of here and show up at one o'clock, get me?" "yessir, absolutely." chimed in both Packie and Jiggs. Wallace wanted to sleep in the next morning and was disappointed, he always got tired after shows and he knew it would be hot that night.

Back at the show Packie spoke into the mic slowly "…you guys like that?" The crowded replied "YEAH!" and then got quiet. "Well that's all good and dandy…" He stepped back and looked back to Wallace. He was leaning back against his chair, enjoying what little time he had to relax before the last song. Jiggs looked at him too with a look of approval. "Good shit so far, man" was all he said to Wallace. Jiggs turned his head slightly to Packie. "We doing ATW about now?" "Yeah but I need a drink," Packie said as he strolled over to his bottled water. It was half empty. He leaned down and picked it up and took a swig. On the other side of the stage Jiggs did the same. Wallace had a green gallon jug filled with Starbucks coffee which was special ordered. He didn't think water had ever done anything for his thirst and his body strained. He reached for the jug sitting behind him. "Sweet nectar, my body aches for thee." He said. Wallace thought of himself as a bit of a poet and used archaic language to liven the mood occasionally. He took a swig of the lukewarm black fluid and set it back down, it was always black coffee.

Packie walked back up to the mic about center stage. "…thanks for that. We needed a drink. It's hotter than the fucking sun up here." He caught his breath. "we're not going to keep you any longer, this is gonna be the last one…"

Wallace yelled "ONE..TWO..THREE..FOUR!" as he clacked his sticks.

In a parallel universe, on a world that occupied the same space as Earth…

Twilight strained her eyes. She gazed upon the book with mind-numbing concentration. "Why won't it work?" she asked herself. Spike stood beside her and wasn't sure if she was really putting much effort into this. "Are you sure you're on your A-game today? I still think we should tell the Princess."

"Yeah I'm giving it all I got. But I'm not even sure I'm following this correctly. It says to 'visualize the edge of the universe in my head.' But… what does that even mean?" Twilight scoffed.

"Maybe just… I don't know…" Spike wasn't reassuring at all. He had no idea of even the basic workings of magic.

Twilight and Spike stood near the outskirts of town by the water fountain. This was the place where she had warned everypony of the dragon's smoke being cast over Equestria. She knew everyone would be there that day because it was a particularly bright and sunny outside and no one had yet noticed the smoke. Today, this park was empty, and Twilight sat the book down in front of the fountain to conjure the "Earth Portal."

Twilight had nearly given up hope. "I can't visualize something I don't even understand really. This is probably a waste of time." Spike's once defensive demeanor became one of strong belief and trust. "No! You can do this Twilight. Just try again."

"But I can't even think of what the universe looks like from the ground of Equestria. This is hopeless." She said gloomily. Twilight thought of the sky and the stars at night, even mental images in her head she gathered from books. Nothing worked and she had just about given up hope.

"I think you need my help." A raspy, feminine voice made itself known.

Twilight turned and nearly jumped at her voice. It was Rainbow Dash, hovering just about 10 feet over the ground. She came and plopped her hoofs onto the ground coming to eye level with Twilight.

"So… the edge of the universe, huh? And what exactly would you need to know that for anyway? That's a tough one, but I think I might know." Twilight frowned skeptically. "And… how would you know that?" Dash looked to the sky, her bright magenta eyes twinkled in the sun. "It's easy actually, the lightning."

"What do you mean?" Twilight looked puzzled. "Lightning, seriously?"

Dash brought her eyes down to meet Twilight. "Oh ye of little faith. I've been struck by lightning so many times, that's the only reason I can even use the Buccaneer Blaze. I've seen the light flash before my eyes so many times. If I had to guess… I'd say that is what the edge looks like, pure white."

Twilight had a pessimistic smirk. Once again she had little trust in one of her friend's ideas. "So… pure white light? That's the edge? That sounds ridiculous." She let out a long sigh of disappointment.

Rainbow became aggravated. "Will you at least try? I'm only trying to help."

Twilight looked down at the flopped open book. "Fine… I'll give it another shot." Spike and Rainbow stood several paces behind Twilight as the book started to levitate off the ground. The book rose and floated gently two feet in front of Twilight's face. Her eyes were closed and clenched tightly at that.

Then there came a great crash of lightning and dark patches of clouds started to roll in overhead. A great white hole about ten feet in diameter opened up in front of her. There was light far brighter than the sun emanating from inside. A "wind" seemed to be blowing outward like a giant fan, not caused by the weather.

"I…can…see it… now…" her face contorted in concentration. Then she started to raise her eyelids. Purple light shown from her pupilless eyes. She had not experienced this surge of power since the day she earned her cutie mark. She started to levitate herself without even realizing what was happening.

Rainbow was horrified. There were sparks flying from the white portal in front of them and a purple field started to shroud Twilight. "I… can… *grunt* … no… I can't…" There was huge power flowing from her body, it would've startled even Celestia herself. "It won't be open… much… longer…" her words were strained and her breathing was erratic. The white portal flared, contracted and expanded.

Lightning blasted from the edges of the portal and struck the earth around them, making loud claps of percussive noise. Rainbow could feel the air ripping apart as the vibrations buzzed passed her. She could feel each blow in her chest, like dynamite exploding at a distance.

"Twilight! JUST LET IT GO! FORGET ABOUT IT!" Rainbow yelled at the top of her lungs. Her mane fell down in front of her face, distorting her view.

Spike wasn't so distracted. "NO TWILIGHT… JUST A FEW MORE… SECONDS! I CAN SEE SOMETHING ON THE OTHER SIDE!" It was amazing how quickly his attitude had changed, but he wanted to put his faith in Twilight.

No this wasn't a good idea, she thought. Twilight could sense that the portal was shutting. Her eyes started to close as well, her power was fading. Her hooves touched the ground once more and her concentration started to slip.

Just then a massive vehicle came through, followed by loud incessant beeping of a blaring horn.