part 1View OnlineEquestrian battle of the bandspart 1The sun radiated a soft morning light over equestria, the light filled valleys and forest and soon it graced ponyville with it’s presence. It hit the window of sugar cube corner and shined and shimmered through softly brushing pinkie pie’s forehead and opening her eyes. She was only half awake but that was enough for to know where she was and what she had to do. She lifted her trembling fore hooves and pushed her upper body up, then used her rear ones to stand on all fours. She had been looking after the place for a couple of days and it was carrot top’s birthday hence the party and the current situation. She looked around the room to see some ponies had all ready left but her hangover prevented her from thinking which they were, she smiled to herself thinking about last nights party and then headed up stares to the cakes apartment to get a shower and maybe a cup of coffee. She stumbled across the room tripping on legs and wings as she went noticing how unstable her stomach felt. When she reached the bedroom she noticed somepony had already been here the window was open and the low soft buzz of the shower sounded around the room and down the corridor. “Damn.” She thought, she wanted to shower now but hey she could have a coffee, and reminisce on the awesomeness of the previous night, she let out a giggle as she wondered into the kitchen. Whomever was in the shower had left their mark in this room, pinkie thought about how weirdly good that description was as the mark was in fact a cutie mark patterned saddle bag. The cutiemark in question looked strangely familiar, it was a trio of keys from a keyboard on black to white, she decided not to think to long on it as she needed a cup of caffeine, no, coffee? The point was that her levels of energy weren't nearly high enough and no hangover could take away pinkies energy and enthusiasm she would fight the chemically grumpy morning and Celestia be damned she would win! Soon she was sitting on the cakes double bed singing a song quietly to herself and drinking her coffee she was thinking about blowing up some balloons to ease the other ponies into their respective days, but she was interrupted by the sudden stop of shower sound and then the sound of bread being put in the weird wooden toaster that Mr cake owned. “I wonder why it’s made of wood?” pinkie said aloud before deciding to meet the pony who had taken so long in the shower and left open the window. She left her half full cup of coffee on the floor and presided to the kitchen to see somepony’s back. To wings protruded from about the shoulders, and a pitch black mane clung to them drenching the mysterious mare’s back. Her back it’s self was white and she held a towel warped around her lower body. She turned around and a wave of recognition passed over pinkie, it was Monochrome Keys. Her, vinyl and pinkie had been in a band at around the time of their collective gap years, but some how they drifted apart, I mean pinkie and vinyl were still friends they would occasionally swap songs over the net and the fact they both lived in ponyville assured constant contact really, but somehow monochrome was out of the picture. Pinkie galloped across the room to give her old friend a quick hug before either of them even spoke. “Oh my gosh! Mono you remember me, you do remember me right? I remember you, vinyl’s gonna be so exited and she’ll be all like Oh My Gosh!” “I’ve missed you too Pinke.” “So what are you doing here did you come for C-tops birthday? Cus I mean that was yesterday so if you did you missed it but there’s still some left over cake if you want it, also how did you get in here?” Mono gave a one word reply “window.” “Why?” “Somepony decided it would be a good idea to sleep against the door!” “So urm what are you doing here?” Monochrome smiled as if a piece of her plan fell into place and pinkie saying that was a great help to her. She wondered to where she left her saddle bag opened it and pulled out a roll of paper. “three words for you Pinkie. Equestrian, battle...shit. four words Pinkie Equestrian battle of bands...the bands.” Pinkie, a little taken back by Mono’s pour grasp of the English language and her cursing, remembered that Mono never really made a big thing of moderating her language, she then thought about what the implications of this battle were. As pinkie was thinking Mono un-rolled the poster showing that the top prize was a record deal. But... they hadn't played together in years. Still though the idea gave pinkie a spark of her usual enthusiasm and she realised how fun this could be, and so she excepted with a grin. “YES! Oh my gosh think about how much fun this could be! I can’t wait to see what vi-vi thinks!” “Vi-vi?” “yeah!” “Anyway pinkie I gotta go get something to eat and I might check on vinyl, so ur... see you round.” After speaking she rolled the poster back up lazily through it in her saddle bag which she flung over her flank before heading to the window and again departing. It sounded like she forgot she had wings as all pinkie heard was a thud and a loud “BUCKING HELL!” She approached the window to check if mono was aright but by the time she arrived the streets of ponyville were empty. She lay down on the bed with her coffee and her grin, thinking about what the following months might be, she then fell back into a deep sleep. Author's Note So yeah first fic i ever wrote not sure how often i'll be doing these but i'd love any feed back... also see if you can spot the obvious reference to a dj from the fandom
part 2: missing ponyView OnlineEquestrian battle of the bandspart 2: missing ponyThe following day had not been a fun one for pinkie after waking up an hour later than she would have liked she stumbled down the stairs to see that some hung over ponies still didn't have their acts together and would need to be shoed out. She never liked that part of the morning; after all she liked to think of herself as a party pony, hell maybe even the number one party pony in all of Equestria, so why would she ever want to tell ponies to return to the real world? Of course she had to though Mr and Mrs Cake were only gone for the weekend and pinkie really needed to clean the place up if she wanted to keep her job and friendship with the cake family. The rest of day consisted of tedious hovering dusting and so on but by that evening pinkie had another visit from her old friend. She was just sitting down with a cup of tea ready to relax and maybe get some sleep, but her rather vague train of thought was brought to a stop by a loud knock on the door. Her eyes shot open like pistons. She rushed across the room to the door; she opened and lost count of how many hellos she said in her attempt to sound normal. “Um hi.” Replied monochrome “Oh hey Mono! Did you find Vinyl what did she say? Did she say yes? She said yes didn't she?!” “Urm yeah i couldn't actually find her, i think i found her house but no one was in.” “That’s strange even if vinyl wasn't at home Octavia should be?” She wasn't really asking anypony in particular but there was a hint of a question mark in her voice. “Octavia?” That was the moment when pinkie noticed how long it had really been, how could mono not no Octavia, could their days as a band really have been that long ago? “Wow! Urm Octavia is Vinyl’s fillyfriend they met at university; i can’t believe you don’t know her!” “Vinyl has a fillyfriend?” “Yup, maybe we should go back I know where their spare key is so I can get us in.” They left immediately and trekked across an evening ponyville which was shaded with playful oranges and melancholy blues the ground was nothing but a black silhouette at the end of a vast sky. After ten or so minutes both pinkie and mono arrived at vinyl and Tavi's humble abode, it was a nice place. The best way of describing it would probably be as a cottage, it looked warm, cosy, and much like a place you’d want to spend a hearth’s warming day. Pinkie retrieved the key from under a small statue and the door was opened easily pushing light into the room and illuminating an otherwise black space, with a sunset orange. The two friends entered the cottage cautiously. Each step cracked and echoed through the empty space until they reached the kitchen mono got the lights and pinkie spied a sheet of paper on the old mahogany table, she approached and examined it. It read as follows… _______________________________________________________ To any friends who came in te look for us sorry I couldn’t do this in person! Anyway stuff kinda got weird and I don’t know what to do No I know what im doing, anyway basically tavi left me due to some thing about me not going 2 her gigs, but I think shes gonna come back she said she needs time to think things through. I’m living with an old drinking buddy from uni in manehatten right now. If u guys can just give the house like a weekly hover thated be cool also feel 3 to help urself to stufff from the fridge. -vinyl _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Both ponies were lost for words, both ponies stared down at the letter, pinkie’s hair fell flat. Monochrome got up trotted over to the fridge opened it and grabbed a rustlers burger or two, pinkie looked up and was going to be shocked by mono’s behaviour until she offered her one and she noticed how hungry she was Two tense microwave minutes of silence passed, and soon they sat at either end of the table with a burger monochrome was the first to speak out “So what are we gonna do about this?” “I don’t know, I mean. There’s no way I could be prepared for this, they seemed so, set, they were real serious about each other and stuff I, I can’t believe this is happening.” “Yeah, well, I mean I never knew this Tavi but, still kind of a shocker.” “Do you think we should call her?” “I got a better idea. We should get a train up.” “What, just unannounced?” “It worked for you.” “Point.” “Think about it this is just what she needs! It will take her mind off Octavia and she’ll reconnect with old friends!” “Yeah actually that’s not a bad idea; I mean I’ve wanted to re-visit manehatten for a while now!” As she spoke pinkie’s hair puffed back up. “Cool, oh yeah can I crash at your shop tonight?” “It’s not mine but sure I should probably go talk to my friends first, you know tell them the deal.” Rainbow dash had to get up and talk to her friends at a ridiculous hour that evening, pinkie had knocked on her door at 11 pm. 11 pm was Zelda time and everypony knew it so what could be so important that the fate of Hyrule had to be put on hold? “So I suppose you’re wondering why I gathered you all here.” From the general mumble of response it was clear rainbow wasn't the only one with better things to do. “so years ago when I was on my gap year before I went to party pony school me and vinyl had this friend called monochrome keys and the three of us were a band together called viva la wub we did local bars and clubs but that was it anywho mono came down here after carrot tops birthday this morning and said we should do the equestrian battle of the bands so we went to find vinyl but her and Octavia had a brake up and vinyl’s of in manehatten so we’re gonna go get her, any questions?” Even though pinkie’s sprawl of words barely stopped for a second the everypony understood. The first question came from a now excited rainbow dash “can I come? on the tour i mean not to see Vinyl." Pinkie was confused and didn’t expect the question, although soon everypony else joined in with the same question, she hadn’t really thought of her friends as the type of ponies to want to be groupies but it was awesome that they wanted to be . “Sure that would be awesome oh yeah and the other thing can anypony work my shift well I’m gone?” Pinkie finished and gave the awkward (come on guys I need) smile. Author's Note Yeah another chapter, don't really have much to say... I enjoyed making it.... please send constructive criticism my way through the comments.
part 3: a tale of vinyl scratch.View OnlineEquestrian battle of the bandspart 3: a tale of vinyl scratch.Manehatten was an eruption of neon colours against the impossibly dark night sky. it also fought the night with a celestial rhythm from the varying night clubs one such club was supposed to being led by vinyl scratch aa white unicorn with an electric blue mane and tale, although you couldn't tell by the clubs interior. the room was black and filled with a small crowd of mares and stallions who produced a low mumble of questioning voices. if you were to wonder from the dance floor to the toilets a change in noise levels would be clear the low mumble would become lower and eventually disappear whilst a sound of somepony crouched up against a bowl crying would become apparent and then more than apparent inside a cubical within the toilets walls were a murky green the toilet was a murky white and a pony was tear striped white and blue. inside her head were insane thoughts, scary thoughts, thoughts about Octavia and how she left, thoughts about herself and her empty future, thoughts of the end. that last one really struck a heart string and vinyl let out a particularly loud weep, she was a mess a crying heaving shambles of a mess. her attention was drawn to a sound at the door somepony had entered and walked over to her cubical a friend of hers, not that it made a difference vinyl was still crying and still feeling an existential terror. "Vinyl?" said the voice, not that it could be anypony else. Vinyl tried to talk but all that came out were deep inhales. "Look vinyl we can go home, you don't have to deck." "tha." she began but needed to adjust to her new situation she was no longer crying just breathing in an irregular and loud way. "That would be good." another deep inhale. The other mare was called Pen and she opened vinyl's door. "Look Vinyl i know you feel like shit but you can't keep doing this." "I, I wont deck again for..while" pen held onto vinyls front hoof and lifted her up unto her rear legs before using the same leg to support vinyl's back. as they headed for the back door Pen spoke up. "It's not just the deck though, you've got to get your self into a better situation, i don't mean to be insensitive but where are you in life right now." Vinyl dismissed that conversation with her front left hoof, and pen returned a sigh. they were now wondering through the cold neon streets of manehatten towards Pens flat "So you wanna watch a film or somethin' tonight?" Vinyl looked up managed not to cry and even managed a smile before speaking "sure." eventually they reached pen's place and vinyl was instantly reminded that pen was an artist, the room was filled with pieces of paper on the walls unfinished sketches and weird papier mache models of what looked like skinned animals. Her film library seemed to match her artistry all her films seemed to be some combination of classic, gory, sexy, black and white, or foreign. in the end they settled for something called something about seven seals, vinyl really felt like a creature feature... she was disappointed. In the morning vinyl didn't remember a lot, she remembered something pen had said where was she in life?.. The thoughts came back, she had lost the mare of her dreams, she left her friends and none of them had tried to contact her yet... maybe they didn't even notice she was gone and of course there wasn't much to look forward to. "I need to think things through..." was that what Octavia said? no, she was more definite... but not brutal "Goodbye"? whatever she said she was gone and left vinyl with nothing, no job, no friends, no future. ... what would happen if she was dead? would anypony even notice? Vinyl thought long and hard about this, about the value of an empty life. she was pulled back into reality by a loud knock on the door and a cold wet pillow. she was irrationally scared, but at least it was a welcome break from devastatingly melancholy. she rolled off of her sofa, stood up, trotted along to pen's door and opened it. a flurry of emotions, color, ponies and physical actions ended with three old friends in a group hug. How did this happen? "Oh my gosh vinyl i missed you, and worried up, is Octavia okay? have you talked to her? are you okay? how are you? oh and did i mention hi!" "Ur.. I've not... she's not.. how did you get here and... wait monochrome what are you doing here? is this... to do with the band?" Mono stepped in and spoke "do you have a kitchen let's drink and talk it through." as she spoke she lifted a six pack of bucks. Vinyl lead them through to the kitchen before remembering that the table was covered with some kind of animatronic corpse. "Um why don't we drink in the living room?" Once they sat down the sound of three cans opening simulationslie graced the room and the cans were clanged together. mono spoke loudly "a toast, to viva la wub may the wind of fortunes ever be on our back!" Vinyl noticed the dramatic change inside her that occurred within the last ten-ish minutes, she no longer had no friends, she had her best friends or.. old best friends. "So urm what's going on?" "five words: equestrian, battle, of, the, bands!" Mono made an achievement signal with the her right fore hoof. "that woul...whe..wha?.." vinyl was more than a little lost for words, she was reminded of something pen had said last night, something about a "better situation." Mono laughed a little and responded "i know right, it was my idea, basically what we'd do is head down pinkie's have two weeks to practice and urm... look!" What she showed vinyl was the poster specifically the part which explained the reward. "Well!? aren't you excited because I'm excited i don't think I've ever been so excited EEEEEH!" Mono started to roll the poster back up. "I mean, hey it might help you get your mind off of things." she said hopefully AN impossible smile appeared on vinyls face and it felt good she couldn't remember smiling this wide since before the break up, she laughed. "Yeah that would be awesome, i mean i'm kinda rusty, I've not exactly been up for decking lately, but... Let's do this!" "Another toast, to vinyl may the winds of fortune be ever on her back, here's looking at you kid!" Vinyl began to wonder if that was Mono's only toast but soon enough the alcohol killed all thoughts of that variety. the following day was spent drinking in pens small flat, if memory served pen joined at one point, the following evening was spent sobering up and packing inspiration materials, laptops and when there was room fresh bedding. the following night was spent in the friendship express, it was a nice enough carriage warm carpeted and cosy lighting, as if there were a camp fire in with them. Vinyl was the only one awake, she was still smiling and she looked out of the window, the outside world looked beautiful again, but somewhere inside, deep in the vault of her mind, the thoughts lived on. Author's Note i think this is the best chapter so far.... your thoughts?
part 4: sneaky deed'sView OnlineEquestrian battle of the bandspart 4: sneaky deed'sThe friendship express slowed down and came to a stop in the Ponyville station it let a low thick cloud of steam from the tracks which floated towards the onlooking ponies and faded away. the doors opened themselves by some magic or mechanism allowing those inside to leave, of the three band members pinkie was the first to leave, she bounced out in a bubbly fashion towards her friends bring smiles to their faces and hugs to their bodies, although vinyl was the pony on everyponies minds. Particularly rainbow's, she had been through something similar and she could sympathies. after hugs were dished out and a tired vinyl and monochrome left the train rainbow approached Vinyl, she needed her to know she was there for her. "Hey Vinyl, i, urm i heard what happened between you an' Tavi, and i just wanted to say i'd be there for you 'kay?" this was strange yet comforting for vinyl, she never really knew rainbow well, in fact at all, the only reason she knew this one was called rainbow was due to the fact one of pinkie's friend was and she was the one with a rainbow colored mane. she smiled "thanks, i don't mean to sound so disdainful but I've been getting a lot of that lately so.." rainbow put a hoof upon vinyl's shoulder and looked her in the eyes, or rather shades, to say. "i know what you're going through." Vinyl smiled, and it's safe to assume that some point that evening the two traded numbers as i sign of being there for each other, maybe everypony did... the following hours were filled with tedious shifting of instruments and various pieces of tech into pinkie's place, by sun's set the band were to tired to do any actual practice, but not to tired to celebrate with a drink and some tacos. the inside of Sneaky deeds had a very distinct atmosphere, it was warm and brought those who had had been to a university back to that time, it felt like knocking a Friday on the head and heading to a brewery for a piss up. a round of laughter waved around the circular group of eight ending with mono who flipped out a zippo and lit it across the table. It just occurred to Rainbow dash that mono was really bucking cool, like a full 120% of coolness, it also occurred to her that she hadn't smoked in a while and it might be a good way of becoming 360 degrees of awesome, after all she was more careful now, more controlled, more restricted, she wouldn't let herself down that road. "hay can i have one?" she spoke through a grin which came from whatever joke started this scene. "You smoke!" said twilight who was most shocked to say the least. "Yeah?" "Since when?" cut in applejack "Well not often!" fluttershy coyly interrupted. "Urm i think this is a no smoke zone so urm mono if you could urm not give her a cigarette that would be fine." she forgot to add that she should put out her own. "Nah it'll be fine have you seen the staff round here?" although she was technically breaking the law she made a good point the staff would pretty much only come out from behind the bar if a new customer sat down. she placed a cigarette in rainbow's mouth lit it and sat back down. "'scuse me everypony i just need to talk to dash for a moment" Applejack pulled rainbow aside and led her down the hall, they felt nervous, both of them. Applejack felt this way due to rainbow's apparent feelings, she anticipated that something was happening between rainbow dash and mono at least in rainbow's mind, and she knew she had to be there for her. Rainbow on the other hand didn't know why she felt this way, she was scared and weirdly... she felt adrenaline flowing through her. they reached the toilets and entered, applejack's orange hoof first touching the mahogany door before swinging it open. the atmosphere in the toilets was totally different from that of the main establishment, firstly due to the natural atmosphere, the softly buzzing white bar lights on the ceiling, the pen drawn graffiti above the sinks, the smell of over compensating deodorants in the cubicles . then there was the atmosphere both ponies gave off, the hyper real vibes. Applejack opened the conversation. "Look sugar cube, i know what's goin' on out there and you've gotta listen to what i have to say okay?" rainbow dash hadn't the slightest cue what she was talking about but she decided to let her run her course. "...oh-kay?" "good, look..." she was silent for a minute and rainbow could see that she felt a sinking feeling inside, she swallowed and carried on. "i know mono's kinda new here. and i can see you've taken quite the shinning to her, but i don't want that to change your life to much, don't start smoking again just for her. okay?" Rainbow dash felt an ocean of blood pour through hundreds of veins and rteries around her body all directly into her face. she was blushing and scared and confused, but most of all panicked. she rushed in to make sure AJ didn't keep her wrong idea in fear it might not go. "No No NO! you're completely wrong you couldn't be further from.. it's not like..." applejack cut in with a laugh forcing rainbow to pause and reconsider, why was she being so defensive? did it really weather anypony had this idea she had feelings for mono, not that it was true but why did it matter if Aj thought otherwise? "it's okay sugar cube, i ain't angry! we're all friends... you don't have to hide anything from me." as she spoke applejack put a hand on rainbows shoulder releasing electrical pulses through her entire being, and it hit her like a brick, all signs had pointed to it... the weird feeling of adrenalin before she got into the toilets, the defensiveness and now this new feeling from one orange right hoof on her shoulder. she had feelings for applejack, strong ones, were they romantic? were they purely physical? a million questions, seconds to think, what could she say right now, how could she recover from this situation. applejack spoke "come out when you're ready okay? i can see I've given you a lot to think about.." she nodded at the door behind them before leaving. leaving rainbow, leaving her alone, to her own mind, to her thoughts, to the questions, and to these new or maybe simply unknown feelings, with her cigarette, and with pulses still alternating through her body. Author's Note Boom secondary story... hope y'all like
