Say Goodnight.

Chapter 4: Hate, Music, And Faith.

“Bon Bon? Lyra?” I hear a female new female voice call from outside.

“Another there?” another unrecognized voice appears.

My eyes shift vaguely to the entrance.

“Come on in,” Bon Bon says, hopping off the couch. As Bon Bon approaches the entrance, the soft blue glow of Lyra's magic engulfs the zipper, pulling it up slowly to prevent the plastic fabrication from ripping. Cold air blasts threw, creating a high-pitched howling whistle.

Two sentient slowly make their way in, nodding to Bon Bon, who now stands next to the gaping hole, ready to close it at moments notice – and Lyra, who stands patiently awaiting for what they have to say. The pony on the right is obviously a unicorn while the other is a – what Bon Bon calls – an Earth pony. The Unicorn's suit is different. Instead of the standard jet black suit that everyone else had, hers is white, with a double eighth note cutie mark. The Earth Ponie's suit is the standard black with a treble cleft cutie mark. Being a musician myself, I want to know more about the two.

“What do you need?” Bon Bon asks, closing the wind tunnel behind them.

The unicorn speaks first, glancing at me then to Bon Bon. “We're wondering if you have a spare generator for us too use. Ours short circuited.”

“Lemme guess, playing with your equipment again?” Bon Bon asks coyly.

The Earth Pony takes her turn to speak as she raises her hoof to theb ack of her head, rubbing the back of her helmet as if her head were exposed.

“Well, you know. . .” she says. I can imagine her blushing beneath those goggles of hers.

Bon Bon smiles then nods to Lyra. A metal box with multiple gauges is levitated out from under the desk and placed in front of the unicorn.

“Before you go,” Bon Bon says, “meet Sun. He's new here to Ponyville and doesn't have a place to stay, considering we only have one couch here. Would you two happen to have extra space?”

My eyes shoot side to side in awkwardness. I hope the ponies don't assume I asked Bon Bon to try and badger them into taking me in. I swear I can feel them debating within their minds whether to take me in or not, which makes me anxious.

“Sure,” says the unicorn.

“Good, good. Sun, I'd like you to officially meet Vinyl Scratch and Octavia,” Bon Bon says to me with her hoof aimed towards them.

“Hi there,” says the unicorn who I assume to Vinyl.

“Hello,” says the Earth Pony in her formal voice. I'm guessing she's Octavia.

“Uh, hi. Thanks for letting me stay with you. I'll try not to be a bother,” I whisper shyly.

“Don't worry about it,” says Vinyl with a smile.

“We should get going,” Octavia interrupts.

Vinyl glares at Octavia and Octavia glares back at her, then they both look at me.

“Get your suit on Sun,” Vinyl says before turning away.

“We'll see you two later, Bon Bon, Lyra,” Octavia announces.

“I'm glad you came by. Take care,” Bon Bon says. Vinyl and Octavia step out after Lyra opens the tent.

Quickly I set myself up in my suit. On Bon offers to help but I assure Iher I can handle it. Once I'm set, I exit the tent and follow Vinyl and Octavia. Wind howls and whistles into my ears. Vinyl illuminates the area with a spell, causing the snow that's falling around us to shine like sprites dancing in the air, only to group together on the ground.

They book look back at me, making sure I'm still here; then nod. I nod back as a gesture that I'm ready. They turn to the right, Vinyl goes first, then Octavia, then me. Vinyl leads the way while I focus on following Octavia. Vinyl and Octavia occasionally look back to body count. We have been walking for 5 minutes and already my body is shivering uncontrollably.

We slowly come across a small ring of huddled tents, none of which are lit. The still ness and emptiness radiates an eerie feel. Once we reach the middle, the beat and crunch of hooves impacting snow come from every direction. Pitch black figures emerge from and behind every tent slowly.

“Halt!” one yells. All three of us stop mid-stride. The figures around us stand around us in a complete circle, huffing together all at once.

“What do we have here?” a male pony steps forward, circling us, then stopping next to me. His voice is deep, deeper than any other I've heard.

“We don't want any trouble,” Octavia says. The light illuminating from Vinyl did nothing to show the features of any of them, but it was apparent that none of their suits had cutie marks.

“It looks like we have a pegasus among us,” the leader says, looking around to his followers. He looks at me and whispers with anger in his voice. “What,s your name, colt?”

“Don't answer him,” Vinyl interrupts.

“Shut up, Vinyl,” he screaches at her, “I said, what's your name, colt?”

“I-It's Sim. Sun Shower,” I answer.

He laughs obnoxiously at me, probably my name.

“Sun? That's it?” he laughs again and waves his hoof to his followers, at which they begin to laugh as well. I nervously laugh to myself when suddenly; he stops, turns to me, leans in and whispers, “Why don't you fly back up to Cloudsale? You are not wanted here in Ponyville.”

“I can't fly. . .” I say, regretting that I did. He scoffs and so does everyone else. Before I speak again, I see Octavia pushing the leader back away from me.

“Leave him alone. He's with us. Just let us be on our way,” she demands of him.

“Why are you defending him?” he asks as he looks past her and points at me.

“Just let us be on our way,” Vinyl chimes in.

“Fine,” he says, “but if we ever see him again. . .” His voice fades out as he raises his hoof to his neck and motions a clean cut.

“Okay guys, let 'em through,” he turns to the direction we plan on going. The ponies break the circle, creating a narrow opening.

“Thank you, Macintosh,” Octavia thanks him, then follows Vinyl. I closely follow Octavia. I can feel them glaring at me with a burning passion of hate just for me.

“How do you know him?” I whisper to Octavia.

“I'll explain later,” she says without looking back.

My heart sins at the though of being hated, especially for something I didn't have a choice in. I loop up to the sky, hoping that I'd at least see one peaceful cloud, though I know there isn't. If the sun ever returns and the sky clears, I'll be the first to fly, even though I've never done it before.

The two ponies we must pass stand close together, narrowing the path even more. When I pass, one should bumps me into the other, who pushes me into Octavia, If there weren't so many of them back there, I'd be throwing down with those punks.

Bon Bon's tent can't compare to Octavia's. If Bon Bon's tent was twice the size, it still wouldn't be as large, though; neither are as large as the triage. Dj equipment and stringed instruments of all kinds filled their tent, leaving little room for three beds, but somehow it worked. This place I could really get used to. Vinyl and Octavia had set up the generator when we arrived and now light and warmth fill the rom. I take off my suit slowly, still in awe.

“Like it?” Vinyl asks as she takes off her helmet and goggles. I guess she's the Dj, her spiked hair reminds me of techno junkies in an odd way, not to mention her punk goggles.

“I sure do,” I almost squee in joy.

“Do you play anything?” Octavia asks. Her formal voice and hairstyle lead me to believe she's the orchestra type.

“I played Cello awhile back, but not for long. Now I play guitar, acoustic and electric.”

“I think we have an acoustic somewhere,” Vinyl says, turning away from me and placing her hoof on her chin. “There it is.” With her magic, she levitates a classical guitar from the back of the tent, hiding among other instruments. It looks like my old brown fender at home, except this guitar was made by Coltson.I try to hold it and play it but one thing prevents me from doing so, my hooves. How can Octavia play these things with hooves?

“I can't pla like this,” I say, setting the guitar down.

“I understand, you're hooves must be freezing,” Vinyl says, placing the guitar back. Octavia picks up the closest instrument - a viola - and beings to play it. It surprises me how well she can play with hooves so majestically.

“What song was that?” I ask Octavia.

“It's not a song. I just improvised,” she tells me.

Wow.

“That's impressive. I've been playing for four years and I could never come up with something on the spot. Could you give me some advice possibly?”

“Well. . .” She places the viola down gently and holds her hooves up. “The best advice I can give you is to believe in yourself and your ability's. Believe that the next note you play will be the right one and the results will surprise you.

Well that wasn't helpful. “Ah, okay.”

Vinyl fades his from the background with clapping hooves. “Beautfil.”

Silence fills the room for a moment, then a question pops into my head.

“So. . . why did you two let me stay? I mean, to just let a stranger into your home?” I ask. Vinyl steps up next to me with her head tilted in my direction.

“Good question. I don't know why, but you seem like somepony we can trust.”

“Yeah, but don't you think that's a but unsafe?”

“Sometime, but on rare occasions; if you trust in somepony or something and they come through for you, it was worth it.”

“Does that mean you trust me?”

“Well you haven't done anything wrong, so yes. Unless you plan on stealing from us.”

“I-I would never do that!”

Vinyl giggles and then Octavia joins in.

“I was kidding, Sun,” Vinyl says.

My cheeks turn a light pink. “I knew that.”