Flash Sentry was incredibly thrilled as he arrived at English class immediately following lunch. He knocked the members of the black metal band Bronycorpse dead playing "Freezing Moon" along with them - especially with how much more face-melting his guitar solo was than the original - and was, for the first time in his life, now a lead guitarist in a band. Most certainly not the type of band that he had always envisioned himself playing in, but still a kickass bunch nonetheless, and certainly quite a thrill to play for; a thrill that Flash was greatly anticipating for a long, long time.
Shortly after Flash took his seat in class, Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer took their seats near him, simultaneously asking "So, how'd it go?" Wary as he was of the fact that the both of them could start fighting over him at any moment, Flash just said, "Uh, great. I, uh, got in the band!"
"Ooh, yay! Congrats!" Sunset and Twilight both squeed as they hugged Flash on both sides.
"Hey, I hugged him first!" Sunset snapped at Twilight.
"No, I did!" Twilight snapped back. "And besides, you blew it with him before, so-"
"Girls! Flash suddenly butted in. The teacher's here!" Surely enough, the teacher had returned from the lounge with his signature intimidating demeanor and hypnotic stare, which were more than enough to shut Twilight and Sunset up, and to – albeit only temporarily – delay their quarrel over which one should claim Flash as her girlfriend…
So English class went uneventful as ever, as did gym class. But then came the final class of the day, and Flash's personal favorite; band. Not only did he get to play on his guitar, but he also got a temporary break from the girls fighting over him. The band in question was a typical school jazz band, with five saxophones, five trumpets, four trombones, two drums, a piano, a double bass and his electric guitar – not something your average American teenager would fawn over. Flash, though more of a rocker-type, still had (albeit to varying extents) respect for all music with guitar in it, including jazz – if, for no other reason, the fact that a number of rock and metal artists had drawn influence from jazz and blues and classical and the like. So that was how he spent the last portion of his day, playing numerous old jazz tunes from the 20's, adding some rock and metal-influenced licks into the mix, and thus earning applause from the rest of the groups and the instructor. And then finally, the day was done, so Flash packed his stuff, left the building and boarded the bus for the ride home…
After dealing with relentless flirting from Twilight Sparkle and Sunset Shimmer, as well as their quarreling, Flash finally arrived at his house, where he staggered in, relieved to be away from the girls for a day. Nearby was Flash's mother in the living room, watching TV. "Hi Flash, how'd it go?"
"Well," Flash answered, "it turned out that there was a band in the school that were holding auditions for a lead guitarist, and-"
"Oh my God, you're in a band now?!" Flash's mother exclaimed as she hopped up from the couch excitedly.
"Uhhh… yeah. How'd you know?"
"I just knew my big man would make it in someday, that's all," his mom winked as he walked up to hug him. "Oh, congratulations, honey!" she said as she added a kiss to the cheek.
"Uh, thanks, Mom."
"So, what's the deal with this band, anyway? What's going on with them?"
"Well, I do have my rehearsal with them tomorrow… actually, Mom, I do have some homework that I would like to get done before then."
"Oh yes, absolutely! That always comes first!" So Flash went into his room, did his homework, and spent the rest of the day playing guitar and video games; that was how he killed time before retiring for bed. He almost couldn't sleep that night, what with the excitement of his first rehearsal with Bronycorpse tomorrow, but he managed…
The next day, Flash woke up early – though it was a Saturday, he had always been an early bird anyway – showered, dressed, had breakfast with his parents (Flash's mom told his dad that he'd gotten in the band, and he too was very pleased), and when the time came, walked out of his house with his guitar in hand, and walked straight to the address on the card that Satanik Pervertor, rhythm guitarist for Bronycorpse, had given him earlier. Luckily, it wasn't not much of a walk – only about four blocks – to a dilapidated old house that had been legally abandoned, but kept afloat by the members of Bronycorpse; being in high school still, they of course lived with their parents, but for them, the abandoned house was a perfect rehearsal space, mainly because there'd be no one else there to yell at them if they played too loud…
So Flash Sentry walked in through the door that led to the garage; and what a garage it was! It was decorated from ceiling to floor with skulls, pentagrams and inverted crosses. At the back of the garage where the bands amps and PA system stood was an altar with an inverted cross on the front, a skull on the table itself and a pentagram on the wall overhead. Also on this altar were candles, a chalice and a sword. On the floor in front of the altar was a giant black rug with a red pentagram on it; each member of Bronycorpse was to stand at one of the five points on the pentagram. As Flash entered the garage, his bandmates – vocalist Hest Endetarm, rhythm guitarist Satanik Pervertor, bassist Tartarus, and drummer Discordia – were already there in position, waiting patiently for him.
"Our demons froms Hell haths arrived!" Hest announced as he bumped fists with Flash.
"Aw, come on, I'm no demon," Flash blushed awkwardly.
"On that guitar, you are," Tartarus smirked.
"Yeah, man, I could never hope to play that "Freezing Moon" solo like you did yesterday," Pervertor chipped in.
"Anyway," Discordia cut in, "your amp is right here, just as we said it would be." And there it was; right next to Tartarus's Hartke bass amp was the Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier half-stack that Flash Sentry would use when playing Bronycorpse – the loudest amp in the world was now in his hands, ready to do some major collateral damage.
"Well, I'm rarin' to go!" Flash proclaimed as he took his guitar out of its case. Without delay, he hooked it right up to the Mesa Boogie amp and turned it on, and also turned on the DigiTech Death Metal distortion pedal that would provide that black metal snarl. "So, what do we do first?" he asked as he took out his Dunlop guitar pick.
"Well, first things first," Pervertor said as he went and got a music stand for Flash. "Here you'll find the guitar tablatures for all of our original songs. Now here's what we're gonna do; we're gonna play a part of the song, and you play along following the tabs to the best of your ability. But knowing you, you'll probably get 'em down pat pretty quickly.
"How abouts we starts with 'Torns by the shafts of Lords Tireks?'" Hest suggested.
"No, that's too fast," Tartarus butted in. "We should start with 'Elements of Discord.' That's a good mid-paced song to start with." Everyone nodded their approval, and Flash flipped through the tablature to find the one marked "Elements of Discord."
"Everybody ready?" And with everyone in agreeance, Discordia tapped 1-2-3-4 on the hi-hat to jump the band into the song, "Elements of Discord."
For a black metal song, it was more mid-paced as opposed to the blasting speeds that the genre was known for. But even so, it packed more than enough punch to send an entire village running for cover (especially with Hest's possessed screaming). Even more so with Flash Sentry on guitar; with an extra guitar on board, run through an amp even louder than the one they already had, the sky was pretty much the limit for the level of blackness their music could obtain. Flash had no trouble; he very quickly, almost instantaneously, picked up on the tablature, all of its notes, slides, string bends, etc. And by the time the song was over, he still hadn't missed a note. And it was only his first go at the song.
"Holy crap, you are a demon on that guitar!" Discordia mused. "Deny it all you want, but you know it's true."
"OK, fine, I'm a demon," Flash grinned. "So what's next?"
"Well how's about we step it up with 'Nightmare Moon.'" Pervertor suggested. "It has some good, fast thrash metal-type beats to challenge our new guitarist here."
"Uh, well OK, let's do it," Flash beamed.
Once more, Discordia tapped 1-2-3-4 on the hi-hat to lead the band into "Nightmare Moon;" a song much noticeably faster, being made up in large part of 2/4 drum beats well over 200 beats per minute – similar to what you'd hear in polka, only much, much heavier and more powerful. But even with its brutal drumming and Hest's demonic snarls, for Flash, the guitar parts were a walk in the park.
"You nailed it again!" Pervertor beamed. "You're, like, a natural on that axe! You don't know how long it took me to learn the parts of our own songs, man."
"Man," Flash marveled, "guess sometimes I amaze even myself. Alright, what song's next?"
"Let's do 'Celestia Overthrown.'"
And so that was how Bronycorpse killed time the rest of that morning. Each song was a bigger challenge than the one before it, but Flash got all of his riffs, licks, leads and solos down perfectly in each song, including "Celestia Overthrown," Downfall of the Crystal Empire," "Raped by the Chimeras," "The Four Horsemen of Hate," "Demon's Chrysalis," "Blood Sparkles in the Eternal Twilight…"
…and finally, "Torn by the Shaft of Lord Tirek," the song that Hest initially pitched at the start of rehearsal. It was blazingly fast; Discordia looked like he was having a seizure as he hyper-blasted on the drums, Hest's vocals were so gnarly that he sounded about ready to pass a kidney stone, and the guitar and bass parts sounded like they'd be near-impossible for Tartarus, Pervertor and Flash. But they all nailed their parts with ease; even Flash got his solo, with all of the hammer-ons, pull-offs, two-hand tapping and whammy bar, down pat.
When the song was over, everybody was left panting, having gave 110% through the whole thing in all its brutality. "How… did… I… do?" Flash asked.
"Thats… was… phenomenals!" Hest panted.
"I think you're ready for our upcoming show," Pervertor said praisingly.
"Upcoming show?"
"Yeah, yeah, we've booked a gig at school Friday next week," Tartarus affirmed.
"For awhile, we were afraid that we wouldn't be able to do our own material any justice," Pervertor said. "Then you came along," he added with a wink.
"Oh... wow, a gig after only one week?" Flash mused. "Okay, now I'm excited!" But just as he said that, a distinct grumbling filled the confines of the garage - not from any of the band's instruments, but from their stomachs.
"Hey, what time is it, anyway?"
"Uh, ways past lunchtimes."
"Well, assuming we're gonna break for lunch, I'm gonna go back home and eat," said Flash. "When do we meet back?"
"I do nots think we should meets heres until tomorrows," Hest said. "That felts like enough practice for one days."
"Yeah, I'm gonna grab some lunch and crash," Pervertor shrugged. "See you guys tomorrow." And with that, the band all unplugged their instruments and turned off their amps; Flash packed up his guitar, high-fived his bandmates and left for home.
That there was how Flash Sentry's first practice session with Bronycorpse turned out. Every song was a blast for him to play, and he nailed every song, not missing a single note or chord. But now, he was never before looking more towards Friday; Bronycorpse had booked a gig at the school that day, and for Flash, this would be his first official concert as a performer, and not a spectator. Of course, since he first saw the want ad in the paper that led him to the band, he had known that they would be playing very extreme music; thus far, that had been a greater thrill than he initially expected. He did not, however, have any idea how extreme their live shows were, but as he would find out next Friday, the brutality of their concerts matched, if not dwarfed, that of their music...