(Ponyville) Open Air Concert! Free Admission! [Open to all, calling all musician ponies!]

[HighRoller]

The sounds of the tuning of guitars and the adjustment of a drumset in the background carried through the air from the stage to the ponies who were already in attendance at what was to be (to Iron Raibow's knowledge) Ponyville's first ever open air music festival. He'd put up some money himself to make it happen, and even volunteered the use of some of his band's sound equipment. He was going to do anything in his power to assure that it stayed open and free for anypony and everypony to attend.

The charismatic stallion stepped out from behind the big red curtains and onto the stage, approaching the mic. His band went silent. It was time for Iron's mic check.

"Hey, everypony! How're you all doing today?!" he said in that magical tone of his, guaranteed to generate some excitement in a crowd. He then opened his mouth and soulful music poured forth, powerful, smooth, with strong vibrato and a hint of gravelly undertone. He wasn't singing anything in particular; it was almost the vocal equivalent of an improvised guitar riff. "Well, mic's working," he said to himself, although the sound of his speech carried out and over the audience.

"Good afternoon, Ponyville!" he shouted, eliciting a cheer from many of the ponies assembled. "My name is Iron Rainbow, and this is my band, Black Solstice. Let me just tell you all that it is my pleasure and honor to be the opening act for the first Ponyville Open Air! I'm hoping that it will be far from the last. Is everypony ready to rock?!" he shouted. "And don't worry, even if rockin' and rollin' ain't your thing, there'll be plenty of something for everypony today. Just bear with me. I made our guitarist Axe Slinger promise not to melt any faces today."

He looked back at a yellow pony with an axe and a guitar crossed and emblazoned on his flank. The pony gave his guitar a quick strum and waved out at the audience. "Without further ado," Iron Rainbow continued, "we are Black Solstice, and we're going to be bringing you our fan-favorite, Rainboom in the Dark!"

With the introduction over and done with, the aforementioned pony played a riff on his guitar, letting it linger, before another pony behind a keyboard began playing, followed by the rest of the band. Before long, the charismatic, devil-red vocalist was pouring his heart and soul into the mic.

[Snowshoe]

Timbre Swing had seen the ads for the event when he'd made his way to Ponyville from Canterlot for a short trip. He had his instrument with him, the massive contrebasse, and his fedora was set as it always was on his head. He had set it on stage, having already made it clear to the event planners that he wanted to play at some point. That would come later, however.

Right now, he was in the crowd, watching the red unicorn step onto stag. As a scat-singer, he appreciated the attempt at scatting to test the microphone. It wasn't bad, but Timbre Swing knew he was going to wow the crowd when he got on stage. There was a reason there was a lightning bolt on his flank.

He grinned and watched as the band got ready to play. Not bad, but he wasn't a huge fan of this kind of music. Still, he watched, impressed by their skill. He knew it took a lot to play in a band, which was why he played alone: failure depended on him and him alone, not the combined efforts of multiple musicians trying to get everything absolutely perfect at the same time.

The muted green unicorn looked around the crowd, trying to see if he recognized anypony out there. He figured that an open air event like this, on such a gorgeous day like this, would draw out countless musicians.

[Xiee]

Ponyville was a beautiful little town and Penny had wondered why the event organizers would pick a place like this. Perhaps its strategic location near Cloudsdayle and Canterlot would attract more ponies to come? Still she came along as an official representative for her Father's department store (The Penny Arcade), who sponsored the expenses for advertising, food, most of the equipment and the sales of some merchandise.

She was wandering around the grounds as the band began to play. There was quite a crowd. It seemed that this band had a following as she saw a number of mares swooning in the front row. Her eyes rolled and was perplexed at how easily these mares fell for the band. Though she liked musicians herself, they had to be "up to her standards".

The Mayor was kind enough to allow use of the Hedgerow Center after promising to donate funds to have it remodeled and renovated. She invited the Mayor over but politely declined as she mentioned about more work that needed to be done. The venue definitely seated well over a few hundred ponies and it was jam packed today.

Proud of her work, she made her way to one of the food stalls to order a smoothie and relax. Her mind began to wonder as she sipped the straw of her carrot smoothie, picturing Ponyville to be an ideal location for a new golf course.

[HighRoller]

"You're a rainboom in the da-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ark..."

After a few more riffs, the song concluded, and Iron Rainbow took a bow before the cheering crowd.

"Thank you, Ponyville! You're a lovely audience." He gave a playful, flirtatious wink to a mare in the front row, which caused her to scream and fall limp onto her friends for support.

"I'd love to stay up here and rock you all 'til Luna's night, but this is a festival, not a concert, and as such there are quite a few more performers coming your way. Don't worry, everypony, I'll be back. Before anything else, though, everypony be sure that you have plenty to drink and something to eat. Don't want anypony passing out today. Be sure to visit the concessions so graciously furnished by your local businessponies. Go on, get outta here!" he said with a smile, before taking a final bow.

Black Solstice played a short little improvised jam as he made his way theatrically towards the red curtains and then turned around, backing up so that only his head was still poking out from between the massive waves of crimson fabric. He gave another wink at the crowd and then finally disappeared from sight. When he was out of the crowd's view, he heaved a deep sigh and levitated a black handkerchief form the pocket of his purple vest, dabbing at his forehead. "Wow. This is quite a crowd. C'mon, boys," he said, addressing a pair of burly personal earth pony bodyguards. "I'm famished. Let's go get something to eat, shall we?"

The guards said nothing, simply following him, one on each side, as he descended into the crowd and made his way toward the concessions. Their mere presence and their steely gazes was enough to keep most ponies from drawing too close, but the bodyguards did have to keep a few at bay. He spotted a yellow pegasus mare with with a distinctly colored mane by the stands. "I'll be okay from here on out, boys." Iron casually flipped each of them a bit, which they took silently. "Go get somethin' to eat. I'll holler if I need ya." They nodded and went on their way.

The devil-red stallion approached the mare. "Hey...you're the Penny Arcade owner's daughter, right? I just wanted to thank you and your dad for helping me put this little festival together. I would've been willing to sink as many bits into it as I had to, but you made it a lot easier on me and the guys." He gave a courtly bow, giving a flourish with one of his hooves.

[Snowshoe]

Timbre Swing smiled and thundered his hooves against the ground like everypony else in applause as the singer got off of the stage. His band played for a little longer, and the Fancy musician took the time to trot toward the stage, knowing he'd be up soon. Sure enough, an event planner dropped by to inform him just shortly before the band got off and left the stage alone.

He climbed up on stage, tilting his fedora back with a small burst of bright blue magic, and he stopped in front of a huge case that was set in the back corner. With his hooves he flicked open the clasps and used his magic to levitate the massive contrebasse out and up to the microphone.

"Bonjour Ponyville!" he spoke into the microphone, which just served to amplify his already halting grasp on Equestrian. "I am sorry if you cannot uh, understand me. Zee accent gets in zee way, I know. And per'aps I may be able to entertain you all as well as zat last groupe. Zat was amazing." he said. He chuckled and reared back to stand on his back hooves. His left foreleg reached up to the neck of the bass and he curled a fetlock around it. "Je m'appelle Timbre Swing." he said simply with a smile. His other foreleg came around and started to pluck at some bass strings. It started slow, with his right rear hoof tapping at the stage to get him into a rhythm, then he grinned. The bass line started coming faster, and he started his signature style of singing. "Bobo-daba-dee-beh-dobo-dee-bah!" he began, his voice forming a series of just non-sense syllables and words that sounded, despite being his voice, like a rapid trumpet playing a scale. He continued to scat-sing, his hooves playing a rapid, swing jazz bass line, while his voice accompanied himself, creating the rest of the song, in this case, a fair imitation of what a trumpet would play. It was fast paced, and energetic, and it made Timbre himself smile as he tapped his hooves and played.

And, he was pleased to note, ponies in the audience were loving it too. Some people were trying to parse the quick jump from rock to swing jazz, but there were those that right away were tapping their hooves to the rapid-fire jazz. "Boop bee ba ba-deh ba dobo!" Timbre continued, grinning happily.

[A fair approximation of what Timbre is doing is

. At 0:25 is his second bit of scatting, and 0:32 is his first bit. The song style is different though, and more in line with

, for general style.]

[Xiee]

"Hey...you're the Penny Arcade owner's daughter, right? I just wanted to thank you and your dad for helping me put this little festival together. I would've been willing to sink as many bits into it as I had to, but you made it a lot easier on me and the guys."

Penny was surprised to see the lead singer of the band who just performed walk up to her. He looked odd for a Unicorn with that huge bulky messy mane. Normally, the Unicorns that she talked to in her business meetings were all refined, dignified and stuck up. This was a change of pace and scenery for once.

"Why yes Iron Rainbow. That I am." She nodded at his greeting in return. "Please, just call me Penny."

"Bobo-daba-dee-beh-dobo-dee-bah!"

Out of nowhere the next performer started to sing something she hadn't heard before. It sounded so lively that everypony at the stands began to jump in unison. The tune was catchy and everypony was digging it. Not to mention the sweet little thing behind the fedora hat was a fine Stallion. He both had talent and looks. She turned her attention back to the Unicorn.

"Yes, Dad has always made it a point to help everypony. It's just part of his character I guess. And don't worry about a thing. We're doing this not because of the advertising... well it was a bonus... but helping Ponies has always been the mantra of my family's business through the years."

The commotion on the stage became more lively as the crowd started swaying their hands.

"Wow... that Stallion's got class." Penny said as she downed the last of her carrot smoothie.

[Snowshoe]

[should I post or wait on HR?]

[HighRoller]

Iron nodded and looked over at the stage. "You got that right. I've always respected ponies who could improvise that way." He swished his teased and frizzy tail back and forth. He ordered some water for himself and began to chug it. "Man...those spotlights make the heat seem even worse. It's unbearably hot on stage anyway."

The metal pony sat on his haunches, levitating the bottle of water with his unicorn magic. He watched the scat-singing pony on stage intently, not being able to resist tapping one of his hooves to the loose rhythm the performer established.

[Snowshoe]

[Wait on HR it is xD]

Timbre kicked down a hoofstand at the back of his instrument, standing on it with his left rear hoof. This let him move around a little easier with the instrument. His hoof curled around the neck shifted, and he expertly placed more weight on one certain section to hit just the right strings as he plucked out the resounding, deep bass notes. It was good to see folks excited by his music again. He finished off his song, holding a long note and dipping his contrebasse like it was a dancer. He straightened up when he was done, grinning brightly as the audience thundered their hooves on the ground in applause.

"Merci! Merci!" he called out with a smile. His eyes looked over the crowd, and he was amused to see the red pony that had been on stage before him had even been tapping his hoof.

He had one more trick under his hat...he'd been practising a long time for this, working on his singing to try and keep his accent down. Even though his normal Equestrian was peppered with Fancy and a little halting, he'd memorized the words to this song...if all went well, it would be a stellar hit to the end of his set.

"One more from me, and zen I pass zee microphone over to zee next!" he called out. He tapped his hoof against the hoofstand, plucking out a fast rising and falling bass line. He nodded his head a few times as he established his rhythm and started to scat-sing out the trumpet bit, and after a moment stopped to actually sing. There was still his Fancy accent, but it was much more subdued. And of course, the scatting he was famous for didn't end, returning to the trumpets between lines.

" 'e say's 'e's a 'Bolt but 'e ain't in zee Army...gets all 'is cider money from 'is mommy..." the song was just as fast paced and hoof-tappingly catchy as the first.

[Full credit goes to Diomedes for the two lines there. Crazy stallion redid the entire song with pony lyrics.]

[Xiee]

The cool Stallion on stage was starting to get to her. His songs were so upbeat that she momentarily ignored the rocker pony that was trying to strike up a conversation. Soon as she realized that her mouth was open, she blushed and turned her attention back to the rocker pony.

"Oh sorry... Uhm... Ah yes." She said as she composed herself. "So what's next for you after this concert?"

The cool scat pony continued his mesmerizing song. She could tell as a bunch of mares started wooing in the front row. She could tell that the moment he would step out of that stage he was going to be mobbed by his new found crazed fans. The security ponies have already anticipated this as a few of them already started to gather near the stage exit. Why hasn't a recording company scouted this amazing stallion yet? They would be crazy not to. His songs are different and new. The way he swagged it on stage screamed out to the fans. Not to mention his good looks... She snapped out of her thoughts and tried to pay attention to her companion more as she let out a smile.

[HighRoller]

Iron Rainbow smiled at his companion. "Heh..." he laughed softly. "Listen, hon...I can tell you dig the scat singin' pony up there. If you'd like I can accompany you to talk to him once he gets off stage. If I go with you, security is sure to let you pass." He swished his tail idly back and forth. "How 'bout it? Consider it thanks for all you've done."

The devil red metal pony sat on his haunches, levitating his water bottle and taking another sip. "Don't be shy, Penny. I'm sure you'll be a hit." He gave a slight wink.

[Snowshoe]

"Gotta buy a diamond ring, 'cos zat's 'is baby's favourite t'ing! Okay, alright, yeah, yeah!" Timbre continued, nearing the end of his song. He was running on an adrenaline high taller than the highest tower of Canterlot, over there in the distance. He'd never been this excited before...not when he'd done his first show, or when he'd managed to do a duet, in a crowded bar no less, with the great Sapphire Shores. He was in front of his biggest crowd yet, and not only were ponies cheering, tapping their hooves, and in general having a good time, he could see fans straining at the barrier around the stage to see him. Timbre Swing's smile was bright as Celestia's sun as his last song reached the end. His mix of scat-singing and actual singing was a hit...now he just had to learn more songs to sing, or some Fancy swing songs.

"Wanna be Equestrian, wanna be Equestrian, wanna be Equestrian, 'ey!" he finished off with a loud, excited, 'hey!'. The crowd cheered and he wrapped the double bass in a light blue glow to keep it steady while he went to the edge of the stage and took a deep, theatrical bow, complete with a sweep of the fedora from his head. He straightened back up and beamed at the crowd, wheeling the double base back with his magic, setting it in the case off at the back of the stage.

Timbre Swing trotted back to the edge of the stage. "Encore, merci Ponyville!" he shouted with a smile. In his excitement, he accidentally reverted entirely to his native tongue. "Vous êtes tous magnifique...oups! Sorry!" he apologized with a laugh. It didn't seem to faze the audience...heck, one mare in the front swooned against her friend. He spoke much smoother and much easier in Fancy than in Equestrian. "You are all magnifique! A great audience! I'll be back later, no more stage 'ogging from me!" he assured them and trotted away, slipping around the back of the stage to try and avoid the crowds for a moment. He wanted a drink to ease his hoarse throat, and decided the back stage, musicians-only area was probably best. He wanted to get mobbed by his fans, but he wanted to be able to talk first.

[Xiee]

A small smile formed on her faced as Iron suggested to go to him. Not waiting for the rocker pony, she made her way behind the stage. The security ponies recognized her as one of the major sponsors and let her through as she showed her ID. She made a B-line towards the scat singing pony and promptly introduced herself.

"Hi I'm Lucky Penny. One of the major sponsors for this event." She reached out her hoof in the hopes of shaking his. "I loved your style up there. It's something refreshing and new."

Penny possibly wanted to discuss something about maybe securing a recording contract for the unique scat pony singer. She knew a few producers that might be interested in him. This was all just an excuse though, an excuse just to be able to talk to him.

"So, ever thought of signing up for a recording?"

[FlashAndDash]

FlashChord had heard about the concert recently and was already signed up to perform. He had ran late, though, as he had picked up his guitar from the repair place only a brief while before and had just arrived. "What do you mean not on the list!?" He exclaimed annoyedly at a security pony, "How can I not be on the list? I'm a performer in the show... FlashChord!? That's seriously not ringing a bell???" FlashChord had not thought that he had filled out the papers in his original name FlashDash and had yet to say it. Frustrated he began flying in large loops to try to vent his frustration but it didn't seem to have much effect.

[Snowshoe]

Timbre Swing was busy sipping at some water when he heard hoofsteps approaching. He turned to see a rather pretty, yellow pegasus walking over with her hoof extended to shake his. He smiled and did just that, adding a bit extra (granted, maybe a bit much) by kissing just over her hoof rather politely. "Bonjour, Lucky Penny. I'm Timbre Swing, but I am sure you already know zat." he said with a chuckle. He was just on stage after all, and she'd come straight to him. "Ah? Merci! he said to her compliment. It was good to see fans every now and again, especially for such an old style of singing that wasn't used much anymore.

At her bombshell of a question though, he was actually caught off guard. A recording deal? He was so stunned he actually sat back on his haunches for a moment and tilted his fedora back to scratch at his head, just at the base of his horn.

"I...uh...I don't know." he admitted. On one hoof, he liked the independent nature of how he worked...able to go where he pleased, do as he pleased, not have anypony tell him where to play and how to play and what to play, all that. On the other, a recording deal meant bits...lots of bits. It was a tough choice, for the pony who did this because he loved music, not just because he loved bits.

"Do I 'ave time to s'ink it over?"