My Little Guitar Heroes Chapter 1

My Little Guitar Heroes: Rhythm is Magic
Chapter 1: Introduction and History
(Author's note: the point of view will change throughout the the story)
Point of View: 1st Person, Twilight Sparkle
My friends and I were on our way to our friend Logan's house. He had invited us over to play these things from his world called "video games." This wouldn't be the first time he had invited us over to play them with him, and even though we all barely knew how to play them, we all had a good time whenever he invited us over.

We got to his house and walked in; he usually leaves the door unlocked when he invites us over. When we walked in, we saw him holding a small, plastic guitar in his hooves with 5 colored buttons on the neck, colored green, red, yellow, blue, and orange. He was holding the neck in his left hoof and holding the body with his right hoof, with a strap over his shoulder. His eyes were closed.

On the TV in front of him, there was a long, wide, vertical bar with 5 circles - in order from left to right: green; red; yellow; blue; and orange - at its base in the center of the screen. On the left side of the screen was a number counter that was currently at zero, on the right side of the screen was small gauge divided into 3 colored sections: red; yellow; and green, with the word "ROCK" written below it. On the gauge was a small needle that was currently in the yellow section. Above the gauge was a horizontal tube that was currently empty. In the background, there appeared to be a band about to perform in front of a small audience. A soft clicking noise could be heard.

Tik, tik, tik-tik-tik-tik
Suddenly, these small things that looked like gumdrops started coming down the vertical bar. As soon as they got to the circles at the bar's base, Logan started pressing the buttons on the neck of his guitar, as evidenced by the clicking sounds coming from it. As he pressed the buttons, the gumdrops on the vertical bar disappeared, the number counter on the left started to climb, the gauge on the right started to climb upward into the green section, and music started coming from the TV.
Ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da, ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da, ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da, ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba-da,
Then, a voice from the TV began to sing, and Logan began to sing along.
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go,
I wanna be sedated,
Nothin' to do and no where to go-oh,
I wanna be sedated,
Just get me to the airport,
Put me on a plane,
Hurry hurry hurry,
Before I go insane,
I can't control my fingers,
I can't control my brain,
Oh no-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Then, the singing stopped for a brief moment before starting up again.
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go,
I wanna be sedated,
Nothin' to do and nowhere to go-oh,
I wanna be sedated,
Just put me in a wheelchair,
Get me on a plane,
Hurry hurry hurry,
Before I go insane,
I can't control my fingers,
I can't control my brain,
Oh no-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Then, the singing stopped again. We all noticed that the tube above the gauge on the right of the vertical bar was now filled with a light blue energy of some sort. Logan then pointed his guitar up into the air. Whereupon, the vertical bar jerked quickly, all the gumdrops turned light blue, like the energy in that tube, which was now depleting, the number counter on the left, which just seconds ago had a multiplier of 4 on it, now had a multiplier of 8, the vertical bar started to sparkle, and the roaring cheers of the crowd on screen intensified.
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go,
I wanna be sedated,
Nothin' to do and no where to go-oh,
I wanna be sedated,
Just put me in a wheelchair,
Get me to the show,
Hurry hurry hurry,
Before I go loco,
I can't control my fingers,
I can't control my toes,
Oh no-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Just then, the tube with the light blue energy emptied, and everything that happened when Logan tilted his guitar upward stopped and returned to normal.
Twenty-twenty-twenty four hours to go,
I wanna be sedated,
Nothin' to do and nowhere to go-oh,
I wanna be sedated,
Just put me in a wheelchair,
Get me to the show,
Hurry hurry hurry,
Before I go loco,
I can't control my fingers,
I can't control my toes,
Oh no-oh-oh-oh-oh,
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba,
I wanna be sedated,
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba,
I wanna be sedated,
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba,
I wanna be sedated,
Ba-ba-bamp-ba ba-ba-ba-bamp-ba,
I wanna be sedated

Then, the gumdrops stopped coming, apparently to signal that the song was over. All the stuff on the screen then disappeared, except for the background, and words appeared on the screen that read, in all capitals, "YOU ROCK!" Then a magazine cover appeared with a summary of Logan's performance. Apparently he had hit 100% of the "notes" on something called "expert."

"Another perfect," Logan said with a smile. He then looked over to me and my friends. "What do you think; did I rock?" I wasn't sure how to answer, as I didn't know exactly what he just did. "Uh… I'm not entirely sure what you were just doing, so I don't know if you did it right or not."
"I don't think ANY of us know, darling," Rarity interjected. Logan replied, "I was playing Guitar Hero." "What's that," I asked?

Point of View: 1st Person, Logan
I realized that they had no idea what Guitar Hero was, since I had yet to introduce them to it. "Well, it's a game where you simulate playing rock music. Basically, you use this guitar-shaped controller," I lifted the guitar around my neck, "to play as many of the notes in the song as possible." "Well, I guess you did good then, because it said you got 100% of the 'notes' at the end." Spike said. "That doesn't surprise me," I said, "I know all the note tracks on every song by heart."

"How can you know every note," Applejack asked? "I've been playing this game for years," I replied. "How many years," Rarity asked? "Well, take a seat on the couch and I'll explain it better," I told them. "OOOOOOH! A STORY!" Pinkie pie was apparently excited to hear a story from me.

All of them, including Spike, took a seat on my large couch as I shut off my PS2 and the TV. I sat down in my velvet recliner with the guitar in my hooves. "Guitar Hero and I have a bit of a history. Sometimes it's been the best friend I could ever hope to have, and sometimes it's bent me over a table and pounded away at my upper thigh region with a 2x4. But I take all of that with good grace, because the promise of simulated rock stardom will always bewitch the rock star fantasists that are gaming's core demographic." I explained.

"Wait, how could it bend you over a table and beat you with a two-by-four? It's an inanimate object." Twilight interjected."It didn't literally do that, it just figuratively did. But more on that later. It began back in 2005, when Guitar Hero first came out. I didn't think very much of it at the time, but my grandma me got a copy of the game for my birthday that year, because she knew that I love music and video games. My friends and I put it in the console and we started playing on 'Easy' mode. Once we reached the point where the game wasn't yelling at us all the time for sucking so much, it was a lot of fun. Its triumph was in following the mentality that, if you plan to make a game that's blatantly designed to humiliate the player, at the very least, you can have some decent music in it. And it certainly did have decent music. Granted, most of the songs were cover versions, i.e. the music was recorded by someone other than the original artist, but that was because many of the original artists were skeptical about putting their own music in the game. I mean, it was a game that no one had anticipated until it was released. But I digress."

"Wait, why would they be skeptical about putting their songs in the game? It sounds like the game would've made their music popular," Rarity asked. "Well, the Guitar Hero series didn't have much popularity itself, because the series didn't have any games in it yet," I answered. "That makes sense," Spike said. "So," I continued, "while my friends and I stood around holding noisy, undersized plastic guitars the way you'd hold a small, yappy dog, we could at least close our eyes and pretend that we were up on stage with Joan Jett... holding a small, yappy dog." We all laughed at the "small, yappy dog" part.

"I don't know who that is, but she sounds like she's really famous," Fluttershy said. "How do you not know... oh, right, I guess celebrities have different names in Equestria. Think you could tell me what her pony name is? Because I only know her human name," I said. Applejack put a hoof to her chin. "Hmmm... Ah know! Joan Pegasus! Ma has all her records; she was ma's favorite she was a filly."

"Cool," I replied. "Anyway, we played Guitar Hero every weekend. When then time came for us to move up to 'Medium' difficulty, it seemed impossible; I had gotten so used to only using the first 3 fret buttons," I pointed to the green, red and yellow buttons with my hoof, "it almost felt like my pinky finger was a twig stuck to my hand with a glue stick. Once again the house rang with the 'PLUNK!'s and 'WAIL!'s of missed notes, but it never stopped being fun, even when I had to tie bags of ice to my arm to stop it from seizing up."

"Then, when Guitar Hero II was released," I continued, "well, it was time to move up to 'Hard' difficulty. Again, it was like madness; actually having to move my hand up and down the neck to hit 5th button felt like a good way to get wrist cramps, but I kept playing and playing until a breakthrough was reached around the time I was shredding my way through 'Sweet Child o' Mine,' and we all had a good time." "SO AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash shouted. I responded, "Sure is. How 'bout I teach you all how to play, so we can rock the night away? It'll be really fun." They all nodded in agreement. Guitar Hero lessons would be soon.