The Exile and the DJ

Chapters

Chapter: 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Epilogue

Chapter: 1

Most ponies have some sort of heartfelt story to tell when it comes to the time they fell in love with their significant other. Perhaps they were foalhood sweethearts who, over the years, developed special feelings for each other, or maybe they were adults at the library, and as they reached for the same book, their hands touched, their eyes met, and it was love at first sight. Yeah, there are many stories out there, and no matter what, they’re almost always sweet. Not mine though. Well, not in the traditional sense.

The first time I met the mare who would one day become my wife, I was twenty three years old, living in a borough of Manehatten, in a dump of an apartment above an even more dump of a pub called The Rusty Horseshoe that my uncle, Zera, owned, and where I worked as a bartender. It was very late on a Thursday night, and I was washing the last of the dirty glasses left behind by the old stallions who came in every night, and sat at the far side of the bar from the end of the workday until closing time, silently trying to drown whatever troubles they had in a bottle of scotch. The only sound that met my ears other than the squeaking of the glass as I cleaned it with my rag was the heavy pattering of rain against the windows, and glass front door.

Rain. I hated the rain. Just the sound of it was enough to make the old scars on my back ache with the pains of the past. They were from a life that no longer concerned me, or my otherwise happy existence in Manehatten, but when it rained, everything came rushing back, and I could feel the knife in my back, and the hatred of the one who had given me the old wounds.

As soon as I put the final tumbler on the rack to dry, there came a knock at the locked front door.

“We’re closed,” I called, without even checking to see who it could be at this hour.

A few seconds passed, and I thought whoever it was had left, but sure enough they knocked again. This time I looked up, and in the harsh red light of the neon sign that hung over the door, I saw a slender mare wearing a black tank top, skin tight jeans, high top sneakers, and most surprisingly, a pair of black sunglasses. Not exactly what one would consider appropriate clothing for a stormy night.

“Hey, open the fucking door,” she yelled, pounding on the glass even harder to get my attention, “Come on. It’s raining, and I’m freezing my ass off out here.”

For a moment, I hesitated; I wanted nothing more than to finish cleaning up, before going back up to my apartment, and collapsing on my bed, but I couldn't just leave that mare out in the rain. So I made my way over to the door, and turned the bolt lock just above the handle.

“About fucking time,” she said, as she stepped inside, shook the rain from her short mane of cobalt and cyan blue hair, and walked over to the bar.

“You’re welcome,” I said, trying to sound polite, as I went back to my spot behind the bar. “Look, I was just about to lock up, but if you make it quick, I suppose I could get you someth-”

“Whisky.” She pulled a plastic ID card for the Manehatten College for the Arts out of her back pocket, and shoved it in my face. Vinyl Scratch, it said, with a birthdate that told me she was twenty one years old. "Strongest stuff you've got," she said.

“Shot, or a glass?”

I blushed slightly, as the mare reached a hand down the front of her shirt, and fished out a brown satchel, which had hung from a string around her neck, and tossed it onto the counter.

“Just leave the bottle.”

I stared at Vinyl, perplexed. A whole bottle? I thought.

“Uh miss, don't you think that might be a little much for you? I mean, wouldn’t you rather-”

“I didn’t ask for your fucking opinion, did I?”

Even though she was wearing dark sunglasses that hid her eyes, I could tell that she was giving me some kind of a death glare. Seeing as there wasn’t going to be any dissuading her, I sighed, as I ducked under the counter, grabbed an unopened bottle of Old Mustang Whisky, and placed it on the counter, swapping it for the little bag of bits.

After I counted out the money, and placed the ten bits in the register, I poured the rest into her purse, and gave it back to Vinyl.

“I’ve never seen you in here before,” I said, my bartender’s instinct to make small talk kicking in. “You new in town, or something? You got any troubles you want to talk about?”

Vinyl took a long draw of whisky, then set the bottle down hard.

“What do you want, my fucking life story? Just... Just shut up, and let me drink.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.” I tried not to show it, but I was beginning to feel a bit irritated with this mare. “It’s just that when somepony comes in this late, orders an entire bottle of whisky for herself, and starts downing it like it’s the last ration of water in the desert, she usually has some sort of problem that she’s trying to deal with.”

The only answer I got was a swift flick of her soaking wet tail, which just missed splashing water all over my face.

"Oops, sorry," she said rather dully.

A sudden shiver coursed through the mare’s drenched body. Remembering my manners, I bent down, and grabbed a clean, white dish towel from a shelf under the counter, and held it out to her.

“Here,” I said, “it’s not much, but-”

“Thanks,” she said, as she took it, and began drying herself off as well as she could.

“No problem.”

As she wiped the water from her coat, I risked taking my first good look at Vinyl Scratch; she was a short mare, about a head shorter than me, with a slender build, and small, yet nicely formed breasts that clung to the wet fabric of her shirt.

"See something you like?"

I quickly averted my gaze when I realized that I'd been caught staring.

For the first time since she walked in, Vinyl took off her sunglasses, revealing a pair of beautiful, bright, magenta eyes, that shone through the hazy air of the bar.

"Sorry," I said, feeling rather embarrassed, “we, uh, don’t get a whole lot of mares in this place.”

Vinyl just rolled her eyes at me, and muttered the words "dumb ass" just loud enough for me to hear, before breathing on her lenses, and carefully wiping away the condensation. When she was done, she took a minute to examine them to make sure they were clean, then out of nowhere, she grabbed her sunglasses in both hands, and bent them until they snapped in two.

"Fucking piece of shit," she mumbled, as she threw the pieces on the floor, and proceeded to stomp on them, until there was nothing left but large shattered bits of plastic and tinted glass. For a moment she just stared at the mess she made, huffing with rage, and I saw what I believed to be a tear streak down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away.

"Don’t worry about the mess, I'll pick it up before I go," she said, noticing that I had been watching her curiously.

Before I could say anything, she threw the wet towel at my head, and returned to her bottle. After a few minutes, Vinyl looked me up and down, as if measuring me up.

"What’s your name?" She asked, her words coming out a little slurred.

“It’s, uh…” I hesitated; most ponies laughed at my name because it wasn't exactly a traditional pony one. I’d thought of changing it to something a little more normal when I first moved to Manehatten, but my uncle told me to keep it, saying that it was a reminder of who I was. “My name’s Zander.”

Vinyl sputtered her drink, then broke out in a wild fit of laughter.

“Zander? What a stupid fucking name.”

This mare was growing more irksome by the minute. Granted I didn’t like the name Zander all that much myself, but it was the name that I was given, and I was stuck with it. Who was she to make fun of it?

“Zander.” She suddenly started repeating it over and over, with a thoughtful look in her eyes, as if she was trying to decipher some sort of special meaning behind my name. “Zander. That sounds like a zebra name.”

I was stunned; not many ponies had been able to figure that out so quickly.

“Yeah, how’d you know?”

“I dated a zebra once. Zane. Nice guy. Bit of an idiot jock, but he certainly knew how to please a mare.” She took another sip of whisky. “You don’t exactly look like a zebra, Zander. Last time I checked, zebra’s didn’t have horns, and were a bit more, you know, stripy.”

I touched the horn that protruded from my forehead, suddenly feeling self-conscious of its existence.

“I, uh, I’m a tenth generation zebracorn on my mother’s side. We all have both unicorn horns, and str-” The scars on my back began to flare again. I hated thinking about the past; it brought up way too many painful memories, so I decided to change the subject fast, before I ended up delving further into my own life.

"- Ahem - So what brings you here?" I asked her again.

Vinyl glared at me.

“Don’t change the subject,” she snided.

"Hey, I told you a bit about myself, so the least you could do is return the courtesy."

Vinyl sighed, and stared at her bottle, debating on whether or not she should drink some more.

"Fine, if it’s that fucking important to you, I'm here because I caught my coltfriend - sorry, ex-coltfriend - with his cock buried in another mare’s throat.” She paused for a moment, and looked back at the floor, and brought her foot back down on the broken sunglasses with another heavy crunch. “We were at this club across town that I DJ at to make some extra money for school. When my set was over, I walked all over the dancefloor looking for him, but the fucker wasn’t there. You know where I found him? That son of a bitch was in the back room, leaning against the wall, moaning like a fucking idiot, while some blonde maned hussy was kneeling on the floor, gagging, with her snout pressed against his pelvis.”

She let out a loud groan, and began furiously running her fingers through her thick, blue locks, as if trying to scratch the image from her memory.

“Anyway, after a heated argument which ended with him probably having to wear a cast on his left arm for a couple of months, I decided I should get as far away as possible before I did anything that I was really going to regret.” Vinyl picked up her bottle, raised it to her lips, but set it back down, and started laughing. “You know what the real kicker is? That fuck told me that he didn’t think that we were really in a serious relationship. Can you believe that? He actually thought of me as just some sort of mare that he could call up for a booty call.” This time Vinyl actually drank, only setting the bottle down when there was about half of it left. “I mean, yeah, a couple of years ago I might not have cared; hell, I probably would have already moved on to the next stallion. But now I...I just want…s-something more s-stable...” A huge wave of drunken tears began to stream down her face, and I began to wonder, maybe her ex might not have been her real issue; it was only the apple that overturned her cart. As if to confirm my assumption, she looked at me and said; “Celestia, I just wish my life wasn’t so fucked up.”

“There’s something we have in common,” I muttered, picking up a glass, and pouring myself a little whisky out of Vinyl’s bottle, and downing it quickly. I coughed as the hot liquid made its way to my stomach; I wasn’t that much of a drinker, but this sudden rush of memories that had begun to fill my head the moment the rain had started needed to be dulled somehow. And Vinyl’s complaining wasn’t helping anything.

“Oh yeah?” Vinyl asked, giving me a sarcastic smile. “Did your parents ever threaten to kick you out of the house when you were fifteen because you snuck out of the house for the fifth time to go out with somepony they thought was a bad influence? Do you have a brother who won’t talk to you because, despite your hardest efforts to get along, you always end up doing something to make his life a living hell? Did somepony you thought loved you cheat on you because they thought that you weren’t in a ‘serious relationship?’ Let me tell you something bub, there can’t be anything in your life that is as fucked up as some of the shit that I’ve been through.”

I didn’t answer her. Well, not verbally anyway. Slowly, I turned around, and grabbed the bottom of my shirt, but stopped as I began to lift it up. What the hell do you think you’re doing, I thought to myself, why are you showing this mare? You don’t know her. She doesn’t have any right to see. But something drew my hands upwards, and I pulled my shirt over my head, revealing the several long, sickly pink gashes that covered the grayish, white coat on my back.

“Sweet Celestia,” Vinyl gasped. “What the fuck happened to you?”

“This is what happens when a zebracorn is banished from their family.” I took a deep breath; I’d never shown anypony my scars before, at least not voluntarily. It made me feel naked, like the whole world was looking at what I tried so hard to hide. “I grew up in a small town, just outside of the Everfree Forest with my mother, brother, and father. Now, my mother was a very strict mare. When I was growing up, she would take my little brother, Zia and I into the Everfree Forest to pass the knowledge of our ancestors down to us. She would teach us magic, zebracorn history, different types of plants and herbs, and how they were useful, and how to brew many different potions. When we did well, she would shower us with praise, but if we failed to meet her expectations, she’d punish us.

“My brother, he was a model student, paying close attention to everything mother told us, and obeying her commands without question. I, on the other hand, spent most of my time goofing off, chasing animals through the forest, and playing pranks on my brother. Needless to say I was punished a lot. Everyday actually. My mother didn’t exactly find slipping poison joke into Zia’s tea, tunring his stripes bright blue all that funny.”

Vinyl clearly had more of a sense of humor than my mother because she broke down in laughter when I mentioned my practical joke. I couldn’t help but crack a smile myself.

“Yeah, that was an old favorite of mine. I actually became so adept at using poison joke, that I have it as my cutie mark. My mother, of course, was very disappointed about that.”

“Why?” Vinyl asked. “What’s wrong with a poison joke cutie mark?”

“Serious potion makers would never use poison joke; they don’t think it has any practical uses. So once the blue flower appeared on my flanks, she realized that I was never going to take her place as the head of the family.” I winced, as the memories sent a searing pain through each of my scars. “She didn’t really talk to me much after that, pretty much gave up trying to teach me any more lessons, didn’t show me any form of love of any kind. Not that I remember her really ever showing me any in the first place.”

“Just because you didn’t live up to her expectations?” Vinyl looked appalled. “Fuck, dude, that’s so stupid. What kind of mother would stop caring for her child just because he liked having a little fun?”

“The kind who is also the proud daughter of one of the oldest zebracorn families in Equestria. If her eldest child can’t follow in her footsteps, then it not only reflects badly on her, but on her entire family.”

“I still think it’s fucked up. I mean didn’t your dad ever do anything to try and stop her?”

I shook my head disdainfully.

“Don’t get me wrong, my father was a nice stallion, always telling me and my brother bedtime stories, and laughing at all of my jokes, but he knew his place in our family. He might have been our father, but he was only a unicorn, and since Zia and I were born with stripes, he had no say in how our mother raised us.”

I poured myself more whisky, and downed it in one gulp. Why am I telling Vinyl any of this? After thirteen years of silence, why now? Why this mare?

“On my tenth birthday,” I continued, feeling myself choke up for the first time in many years, “my mother actually started acting nice towards me. Like, actually nice, not just her typical ‘you did a good job today so I won’t punish you’ brand of niceness. She took me into town, bought me some ice cream, and a new toy, just like any mother would do for her colt on his birthday. It was the happiest day of my life. Little did I know that it was also going to be my worst.

“On our way back, it began to rain, so we took each others hands and started running back so we wouldn’t get too wet. When we reached the house, instead of heading inside, my mother took me out back, telling me that there was one more surprise that she had waiting for me. Too overcome with youthful excitement and ignorance to ask what it could be, I ran around the house, and found Zia sitting on the ground next to a large stone slab. Before I could ask my mother what my surprise was, she tore my clothes off, and magically bound me face down on to the stone, so I couldn’t move. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t break free. I strained to look up at her, begged her to let me go, but she only stared at me with cold eyes.

“That was when my brother handed my mother a black cloak, which she put on, and removed the dagger that she used for cutting up herbs from her belt. ‘Zander,’ she told me, ‘you have brought great shame to this family. I have thought long and hard as to how I should deal with you, and have come to the conclusion that you are no longer fit to call yourself a zebracorn.’” I felt myself begin to waver, and for the first time since my first year in Manehatten, I felt tears begin to drip down my face. “That’s when she dug the edge of her blade into my back, and carved the stripes out of my flesh. Each time she removed a chunk of skin, she would cover the exposed area with a healing balm to make sure I didn’t lose too much blood. She didn’t want me to die, but she did want me to suffer for not being the son she always wanted.

"For thirty agonizing minutes I laid there begging her to stop, but my pleas fell on deaf ears. I cried out to my father for help, but he wasn’t there; my mother knew that he would have been foolish enough to interfere with the ritual, so she had sent him on an errand to make sure that he wouldn’t be around. After what felt like an eternity of pain, it was over. My mother untied me, but I couldn’t move; I was in so much pain. ‘Tonight,' she told me, ‘you will board a train for Manehatten, where you will live the rest of your your days with my brother, Zera. From this day on, you are an exile, and are forbidden from ever setting foot here ever again. Have I made myself clear?’ I couldn’t do anything but whimper, as I nodded my understanding.

“Since that day, I’ve been living here with my uncle, working part time at his bar, going to school, trying blend in with the other ponies. It’s been hard, but it’s definitely a lot better than the life that I could have had if I had stayed at home.”

Silence fell over the bar, as I finished my story. I looked at Vinyl; her face was a mixture of sadness, and disgust. That was why I never showed anypony my scars, or brought up my past. No pony but another outcast could understand the pain that I’d endured.

Suddenly, Vinyl grabbed hold of her bottle, and shoved it in my face.

“Here,” she said, “you need this more than I do.”

I chuckled, as I took it from her, and poured myself another drink.

"No offense, but your mother sounds like a total bitch."

I choked on my whisky; for some reason I thought that was the funniest thing I had ever heard.

"Yeah, I guess she was, wasn't she."

Vinyl clinked her bottle against my glasses, and we both smiled before taking a long drink.

For the longest time Vinyl and I didn't say anything; there wasn't anything to say. Both of us had just opened up to a complete stranger about problems that we'd never been able to tell the ponies closest to us, and it was going to be a while before we recovered. I risked looking Vinyl Scratch in the eyes, and was happy to find that she no longer looked upset, although her face still held traces of grief that had been held back for far too long.

"Do you ever wish you could just, you know, take it all back, and make your mother proud?"

I shook my head.

"No," I said. “I mean sure, back when I first moved to Manehatten, I would have given anything to go back home, but my uncle helped me to realize that I'm far better off here. Sure I miss my dad and Zia, but my mother, as you put it, was a total bitch." I took another swift drink to push any thoughts of my mother to the back of my mind. “The pain comes back every now and again, especially when it rains, but other than that I think I turned out alright without her."

Vinyl looked me up and down, and her gloominess morphed into a sort of cunning smile.

"I'd say you turned out more than alright," she said with a bit of a hum.

"What?" I asked, shocked by Vinyl's sudden change of mood.

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that I might be ready to get over my problems as well, if you’d be willing to help me."

She didn't need to say anymore; I'd seen that look enough times from other mares to know what it was that she was thinking. I quickly snatched my shirt off the floor and slid it back on. It wasn't because I was self-conscious of my body or anything (on the contrary, years of lifting kegs and other heavy objects around the pub had put me in excellent shape) I had just grown used to hiding my scars from the world. You just showed them to Vinyl, you idiot, I told myself, covering up won't make much difference now. It was true, Vinyl had already seen my scars, and she didn’t seem to mind them, but when she started getting that hungry look in her eyes, my body moved instinctively to protect its secret.

“You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?” she asked.

"You're drunk."

But that didn't seem to deter Vinyl. I suddenly felt the collar of my shirt snag on something, and I looked down to find it alight with a brilliant magenta aura.

"Vinyl, don't-"

She did.

In a flash, I felt myself yanked forward, and her arms wrapped around my neck tightly, pulling me towards her until our lips met.

I struggled a little at first; it was my first kiss after all. Yet the harder she pressed, the more I began to enjoy the subtle tingle that shot through my body, and before I knew it, I was reciprocating just as ferociously as she was attacking.

It might have just been the whisky affecting my judgement, but there was something that I liked about Vinyl. Sure I had found her annoying beyond belief when she had first walked in, but once she opened up, even though it was just a little, I had found myself actually starting to sympathize with her. I couldn't explain it because I’d never let myself get close to another pony before (at least, not close enough to show them my scars), but just listening to her, hearing the pain in her voice, and seeing the sympathy on her face as I told her my story just made me want to reach over the bar, hug her, and tell her that everything was alright. Kissing? That was even better.

Unfortunately our moment of bliss was over far too fast; just as I was really getting into making out with Vinyl, she suddenly pushed me away. I was about to ask her what was wrong, when her entire body lurched forward, and she quickly covered her mouth with her right hand.

"Oh shit," I said, as I made a dash for the wash bucket I had been using, quickly dumped it's contents into the nearby sink, and passed it to Vinyl just as the first wave of vomit shot out of her mouth.

The alcohol had finally caught up with her. For five minutes Vinyl sat there, hugging the bucket tightly, occasionally heaving the contents of her stomach into it.

"Fucking weak, dude," she groaned. When she was done, she slid the bucket over, and her head slumped on the counter.

"Are you gonna be alright?" I asked, tilting my head so I could look her in the eyes.

Vinyl didn't answer. I gave her shoulder a gentle shake, but all I got was a soft, irritated moan.

Guess that's a no, I thought, as I walked around the counter to the front door and locked it. Then I scooped Vinyl up, and carried her upstairs to my apartment, levitating the puke filled bucket behind me. As I drunkenly fiddled with the key in the lock to my door, Vinyl stirred in my arms, and groggily looked at me.

"Fuck's going on?" She mumbled almost inaudibly.

"You drank too much, Vinyl, so I'm going to let you sleep it off at my place."

Vinyl didn't answer at first, and for a second I'd thought she'd passed out again, but she faintly nodded her head, and her fingers gripped my shirt as hard as they could.

When we were finally in my apartment, I carried Vinyl over to the bedroom, and set her down on my bed as gently as I could, before heading to the bathroom to clean out the bucket just in case she needed it again in the night. My heart began to race, as I walked back into my bedroom; I'd never had a mare in my apartment before, so seeing a beautiful pony like Vinyl Scratch lying on my bed was a bit unnerving. What really had me feeling so anxious though, was that while I was holding Vinyl in my arms, I had quickly become aware that while her coat had been dried, her clothes were still soaked. I knew that if she didn't change into dryer clothes soon, she would catch a cold in her sleep. Of course since she was passed out, she wasn't in any position to change her clothes herself; I had to do it for her.

I dug through my dresser, and came back with a t-shirt, and sweatpants, both of which were going to be far too big for Vinyl, but it was better than her sleeping in what she had on. Slowly I extended an arm, my fingers trembling, as they reached for the bottom of Vinyl's shirt.

Maybe I shouldn't, I thought, as my hand stopped just an inch away from her, what if she wakes up in the morning, finds that she's wearing different clothes than she was when she came in here, gets upset with me for seeing her naked, or worse, what if she thinks that I took advantage of her? For a brief moment I felt like a little colt again, remembering the last time a mare was mad with me. But I shook my head, forcing those thoughts to the back of my mind where they belonged, and hooked my fingers around the straps of Vinyl's tank top, and slid them down her arms. Then I turned my attention to the bottom of her shirt, using my magic to hold her above the bed, while I pulled it up, politely averting my gaze, as I carefully lifted it over her breasts.

When Vinyl's shirt was finally off, I tossed it on the floor, and began trying to remove her jeans. The second my fingers touched the the little button that held her pants closed, I felt a soft hand on mine.

"Better let me take care of those, zebra boy," Vinyl said, as she slowly dragged my hand up the entire length of her firm stomach, placed it on her left breast, and held it there with her magic as if she knew that I would pull it away. "And for Celestia's sake, it's alright to look; you don't need to be so fucking shy."

But I didn't dare turn my head to look at her. Even as she arched her body to take her jeans off, and her chest pressed itself into my hand, I chose to be the gentlecolt, and give her some semblance of privacy. At least that's what I wanted to do, but Vinyl had other plans; as she lowered her rump back onto the bed, and tossed her jeans onto the floor with her shirt, I felt a sharp tug on my ear, forcing me to turn my head towards Vinyl.

"Jeez, what the hell did you do that f-"

Any thought I had of being a perfect gentlecolt vanished from my mind as I marveled in the beauty of Vinyl's naked body basked in the light of the street lamps that shone through my bedroom window. While she was relatively small, her body was well toned, and although she wasn't as developed as most mares her age, she still had subtle curves, the sight of which sent a rush of blood to my stallionhood. What I truly found most lovely about Vinyl’s body though, was that her light, creamy colored coat was not marred by a single pink scar. Up until now, the only pony's body I'd seen (not counting the mares in the magazines stashed under my bed) had been my own, so to me, her unmarked body was pure perfection.

I slid my hand from her breast, down the side of her torso, and behind her back, eager to feel where on my own body was rough, blemished skin. I felt an excited chill rush from my fingertips, and down my spine, as I touched nothing but silky smooth hair.

"That's it," Vinyl sighed, as my hands traveled back to her sides, and began massaging her firm muscles. "I want you to rut me, Zander. I want you to rut me hard."

My hands came to a sudden halt, and I reluctantly retracted them from her body.

"No," I said, looking Vinyl in the eyes; she looked upset.

"Why the fuck not?"

"Well, first off, we just met a couple of hours ago, and secondly, you're too drunk and upset right now; you aren't thinking clearly."

"That hasn't stopped me in the past."

She went to wrap her arms around my neck, but I backed away.

"Look, Vinyl, I like you, and I won't lie, but you are the hottest mare I've ever seen, and I'm not just saying that because you're naked right now. I just... Having sex just doesn't seem like the right thing to do right now, understand?"

But Vinyl didn't answer; she just lay there, silently. There's also the chance that you might pass out again, I thought, as I grabbed the dry clothes, and carefully dressed the now unconscious mare. Then I levitated her a few inches above the bed, pulled the blankets down, before lowering her again, and tucking her under the covers. Finally, I turned her on her side so she wouldn't choke and die if she threw up in the middle of the night.

"Good night, Vinyl Scratch," I said, as I picked up her wet clothes, and laid them out to dry on a chair near the heater, before stumbling towards the bedroom door, finding it hard to open in my slightly drunken state. I looked back one more time to make sure she was alright, then shut the door behind me.

Before flopping on the couch, and passing out myself, I went to my tiny kitchen, ran some cold water from the tap, and splashed it in my face to cool myself off from my unexpected contact with Vinyl Scratch. A lot of stallions would think I was crazy for turning down a hot, drunk mare who was asking for sex, and I had to admit that a part of me wanted to check in on her to see if she would come to again, but I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind, since I didn't want my first time to be a drunken mess with a mare fading in and out of consciousness. It's for the best, I thought, as I went back to the living room, slipped off my jeans, and plopped down on my couch.

The last thing I remembered before falling asleep was how strangely at peace I felt. My scars, they don't hurt, I thought, finding it strange that even though it was still raining just as hard as it had been when Vinyl came in, for some reason I wasn’t burdened with the burning of my old wounds. Then I smiled. Thank you Vinyl, I thought, as I turned over, and let the whisky pull me under into my first peaceful, rainy night sleep I’d had in years.

...

The first thing I noticed the next morning was the splitting head ache, and horrible churning in my stomach that rudely roused me from my slumber. I hated being hung over; it was part of the reason that I didn't drink that much.

"Here, drink this," a voice said from not too far away.

I tried to open my eyes, but had to quickly shut them again, as Celestia's unusually bright sun threatened to set my retinas on fire.

"Here." A hand reached out to mine, and pressed a coffee mug into it.

"What is this?" I asked, sitting up slowly, and taking a whiff of what I had been handed. It smelled putrid.

"Something that will help with that hangover you've got."

I hesitated for a second, but brought the mug to my lips and took a small sip. It tasted just as retched as it smelled; like somepony tried to brew coffee, with vinegar, and sour milk, using a sweaty gym sock, or a dirty diaper as a filter.

"What the fuck is in this?"

"If I told you, you probably wouldn't drink any of it. But don't worry, it's all stuff you had in your fridge, and it will get rid of your hangover; you just gotta drink it all."

I wrinkled my nose as I brought the mug to my lips again.

"Here goes nothing."

Then I upturned the mug, and began chugging the horrible beverage, trying my best not to focus on the taste, or to think what it could possibly be that I was consuming.

“You know, you’re a strange guy,” she said, as I continued to force myself to drink. “Last night you'd had a the perfect excuse to get me naked, and an open invitation to fuck me, but you said no. I mean, any stallion I've ever known wouldn’t have turned down that kind of offer. So why did you?”

I wasn't quite sure, but she almost sounded disappointed.

With one last large gulp, I downed the rest of Vinyl’s hangover cure, and risked opening my eyes again, this time finding the early sunlight much more bearable. I looked over to where my guest was sitting, fully dressed in her own clothes, looking down at me from her perch on the arm of the couch opposite me.

“I’d never take advantage of a drunk mare who just told me she had just broken up with her coltfriend; I’m more of a gentlecolt than that.”

Vinyl thought on my words for a moment, then looked at me and smiled. Not a drunken smile, or a sad, sympathetic smile, but an honest to goodness, cheerful smile. And by Celestia was she beautiful when she smiled.

"I guess you are, aren't you." Vinyl climbed off the arm of the couch, and began making her way towards me, never once breaking eye contact, then when she was lying on top of me, she leaned in, and gave me a quick kiss. Suddenly she pulled away, and her smile faded a little.

"Look, I know you must think I'm some kind of bitchy, party pony, but-"

I silenced her with another tender kiss.

"I don't think that," I said,"at least I don't anymore." Vinyl gave me a hurtful look, but I could see a hint of playfulness in her eyes.

"I'll admit that when you came in last night I thought you were rude and annoying-"

"As do most ponies when they first meet me."

"-but when you started talking about your ex, about the problems in your life-"

"Which were only a few examples."

"-I started to think that you were just like how I used to be when I first came to this city; scared, ashamed, wishing you had somepony who accepted you despite all your faults."

Vinyl sat up and gave me a thoughtful look, then suddenly broke out in a fit of laughter.

"Wow," she said between breaths, “that's one of the cheesiest fucking things I've ever heard."

I rolled my eyes. She must be feeling better, I thought, as I smiled, sat up, and kissed Vinyl. The mare seemed almost surprised, as my arms wrapped around her, and pulled her closer to me, but she had no problem responding to my advances, parting her lips, and forcefully shoving her tongue into my mouth. I hesitated a moment, remembering what she had gone through the night before, but was surprised to find that her mouth tasted very minty. As if reading my mind, Vinyl pulled away quickly.

“I used your toothbrush,” she said rather breathlessly, before attacking my muzzle once more.

I would have told her that it was fine, but Vinyl’s grip on me tightened, and her tongue dove back into my mouth, making it impossible to make any noise other than a pleasant, muffled moan. And I didn’t even care; the rough feeling of her tongue as it pressed firmly against mine, and guided me around every inch of her mouth was the most amazing thing I’d ever felt. Unfortunately, I was nowhere near as experienced as Vinyl when it came to kissing. I thought that my inability to keep up would frustrate her (she did seem like that kind of mare), but it didn’t. In fact, when I started to fall behind, she slowed her lashing about, and allowed me to take the lead.

The harder we kissed, the more aroused I became, and soon I felt my stallionhood reaching full strength, becoming uncomfortably crushed under Vinyl’s weight.

Vinyl quickly pulled away, her face red, and slightly matted with sweat, and she gave me a sly grin.

“I think it’s time to release your beast,” she said, rising up enough so she could bring a hand behind her back, into the fly of my boxers, and slip out my dick.

I let out a sharp gasp at the first touch against my rod; it was exciting to feel somepony other than myself touching me there.

“I know you said you didn’t want to fuck because we’d just met, and somehow I find myself fine with that, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a just a little bit of fun, right?”

Before I could answer, Vinyl used her free hand to push me back onto the couch, and laughed, as she used her magic on a nearby blanket, causing it to bind my hands behind my head; I was completely at her mercy.

“So what are you going to-”

Vinyl placed a finger over my lips to silence me.

“No more talking, zebra boy; we did more than enough of that last night.”

I looked into her eyes, and saw a sort of feral hunger that made me gulp, and nod nervously. What have I gotten myself into, I thought, as Vinyl repositioned herself higher on my torso so she wasn’t sitting on my dick.

“Feels like I’ve got a lot to work with back there,” she said, as her hand made itself familiar with my nether region. “Good, ‘cause I’ve got something that’s going to rock your fucking world.”

As she sat there, looking down at me with her carnal stare, I felt her hand suddenly relinquish its grip on my stallionhood. I lifted my head to see what was going on, and saw Vinyl take her tail in her hand. She then looked me very seriously in the eyes.

“I’ve got classes today, so you’d better not get this dirty, understand?”

I had no idea what she planned to do with her tail, but I nodded nonetheless.

“Good. Now don’t move while I get things set up.”

Vinyl turned around, and once again I felt her hand on my cock. But that wasn’t all; after a few seconds of fiddling around, I felt something unbelievably soft being wrapped around the base of my stallionhood, tightening as she adjusted it. So that’s what she needed her tail for, I thought, as she turned back towards me, the end of her long blue hairs held tightly in her hand.

“There,” she said, giving her tail a strong tug, squeezing my dick, and sending a sudden jolt through my body. “Now where were we? Oh yeah.” Vinyl leaned forward, wrapped her free hand behind my head, and clamped her lips around my neck.

As Vinyl gently kissed, and nibbled at the skin near my shoulder, she began rocking her hips back and forth. I’d never felt anything like it, the way her hair hugged my stallionhood, tightening and loosening at the slightest movement, sending pleasant sensations up my spine, which increased the faster she went. It wasn’t long before the mare had me moaning like I was dying, and enjoying every minute of it. And apparently so was Vinyl; despite the fact that I wasn’t doing anything to try and get her off, every so often she would let out a quiet hum, and say something like “harder, faster,” or “I want you inside me so bad.” I might have been a gentlecolt, but I couldn’t help wishing that as well.

I looked down to where Vinyl was now sucking at the base of my neck, her horn almost poking me in the nose. That’s when I had an idea; readjusting my head, I leaned forward, and placed a kiss on the tip of her horn. Vinyl’s body gave a sudden jolt, almost impaling the roof of my mouth on her horn.

“You - uhnn - little fucker,” she panted, yanking on her tail, making me groan as she attempted to cut off the circulation to my dick.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered back, barely able to speak with my mind muddled with ecstasy. “Do you want me to stop?”

“Did I fucking ask you to stop?”

I guess not, I thought, as I leaned forward again, and began licking the mare’s pointed appendage. At first I found giving Vinyl a hornjob awkward, but I persisted; it was the least I could do after what she was doing for me. I started by just licking it, feeling each ridge that spiraled towards the tapered point, then I grew more adventurous, taking as much of it as I could into my mouth, pressing my tongue firmly against her horn as I slowly bobbed my head up and down. The more I teased Vinyl, the harder she pulled on her tail, and before long, the room was filled with a chorus of our muffled voices as we cried out in unified pleasure.

Suddenly I felt something burning hot in my mouth, and I was forced to let go of Vinyl’s horn just in time for the room to be filled with a flash of brilliant red light. I lay there, feeling the mare’s body shuddering harshly, as she rode out her orgasm, then went limp, as the last waves began to ebb away.

“That was - uhnnn - just - hmmm - what I needed,” she sighed, as she rested her head on my shoulder. “Not - hahhhh - many stallions - mmm - are willing to suck a mare’s horn; something about it creeping them out because it reminds them of a dick or something.”

“Glad I could - gah-” Vinyl tightened the loop around my dick again.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” she said, sitting back up, placing a trembling hand on my chest for leverage. “You’re cumming with me.”

She began to rise and fall, dragging the loop of hair up and down the length of my stallionhood as she went. It felt incredible. I didn’t want it to stop, but the sharp tingling at the base of my dick told me that the end was coming soon. Just as I thought I was about to burst, a loud beeping noise began to fill the entire apartment.

“Oh shit,” Vinyl said, as she came to a sudden stop, let go of her tail, so she could raise her hand to her face and check the time on a black wrist watch. Then without warning, she jumped off the couch, and ran to the bedroom, coming back a second later with her shoes. “Shit shit shit shit shit.”

“What - haaa - what is it?” I panted, feeling uncomfortably pent up.

“I’ve gotta get to class.” She slipped on her shoes, and tied them up as fast as she could. “Thanks for taking care of me, and for letting me crash here last night, and for, well, that.”

“But what about-”

“Oh yeah, that. Sorry to leave you standing at attention, but I’ve already been late to class twice this semester; make it a third time, and it’s bye bye diploma.” She made her way to the door and put one hand on the knob. “Tell you what, I’ll owe you two next time, deal?”

I paused, my frustration at not reaching orgasm momentarily forgotten.

“So there’s going to be a next time?”

Vinyl rolled her eyes at me.

“Of course there’s gonna be a next time, dumb ass. Now I really gotta get out of here." She turned the knob, and had one foot out the door, before stopping once more, and looking back with that same sweet smile she'd shown me when I’d opened my eyes that morning. "Thanks for being a gentlepony; I think it’s just what I need right now." Then without another word, Vinyl stepped into the hall, and closed the door, her footsteps echoing down the stairs, until she was out of the building, but to my delight, not out of my life.

Looks like things are going to start getting interesting, I thought, smiling like an idiot, as I untied myself, climbed off my couch, and started getting ready to start my day. I had a feeling it was going to be a good one.

Chapter 2

It was a little over a month before I saw Vinyl Scratch again. During that time, it had rained twice, and to my surprise, I wasn’t burdened with the usual aching of my scars. Well, there might have been some stinging, but every time an ounce of pain began to form, I’d remember how it had felt to confide in Vinyl, and it would all just melt away. Every night since then, I’d leave the bar unlocked as I went around cleaning up, expecting her to burst through the door, ask for a bottle of booze, and join me for another evening, but she never did, so in the end I’d find myself locking up, going back to my apartment alone, and hoping the next day might be different.

Then one Friday evening, at about nine o’clock, I was reorganizing the back room of the bar, when my uncle came back with a huge grin on his face.

“Zander my boy,” he said, walking over and slapping me hard on the back like he did whenever he was excited about something, “I’ve gotta say I’m proud of you, son.”

I looked at my uncle, and raised an eyebrow, feeling very confused by this sudden burst of jubilation.

“What is it, Uncle Zera?” I asked.

Zera, clasped his hands on my shoulders, and gave me a rather sly smile.

“There’s a mare here to see you. And I gotta say, lad, she’s quite the looker.”

A mare, I thought, feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. I set down the case of whiskey bottles I was carrying, and rushed into the bar to greet my guest, but to my surprise, it wasn’t Vinyl.

The only pony I could see, other than the old stallions near the back, was an Earth pony mare who could not look more out of place. She stood a few feet away from the counter, dressed in a perfectly pressed, white blouse, a little pink bow tie, and a black, knee length skirt. To top it all off, she had a long, dark gray mane, that fell gracefully over her right shoulder, a pair of beautiful mulberry eyes, and a coat that, despite being a light gray, shown with a vibrant glow. She looked like a proper lady. So what was a mare like her doing in a bar like this?

“Uh, can I help you?” I asked, trying to sound polite, despite feeling curious, and a little disappointed that it wasn’t Vinyl Scratch.

“Oh, hello,” the mare said, smiling brightly, as she stepped up to the counter, and held out her hand, which I shook. “You must be Zander.”

“Yeah, that’s me, and you are?”

“I’m Octavia Melody, Vinyl Scratch’s roommate. She told me to meet her here, and also asked if I’d see if you were available this evening.”

My heart started racing.

“Vinyl’s going to be stopping by?” I tried not to sound too eager.

Octavia’s smile widened, and she nodded her head.

“Yup. It’s a bit out of the way, but she insisted that we meet here to see if you’d like to come out with us for the evening.”

“Oh, well then.” I looked back towards the door where I found my uncle standing, furiously nodding his support of my going out for the evening. “I suppose I might be able to get off early tonight.” Suddenly remembering my manners, I grabbed a menu from under the counter, and passed it to Octavia. “Would you care for a drink while you wait? A beer or something?”

“Tea, if you have it.”

Tea? I don’t think anypony’s ever ordered tea here before.

“We don’t have any down here, but I could get you some from my apartment, if that’s alright with you? It's just right upstairs.”

Octavia nodded, and sat down at the bar, while I excused myself, and ran upstairs.

In my apartment, I went to the kitchen, and opened a cupboard near the sink where I pulled out a small canister of tea, an infuser, and a kettle, which I promptly filled with water, and placed on one of the burners of my stove to heat up.

Then I made a dash to my bedroom, quickly stripped out of my clothes, and started digging through my dresser for a fresh black t-shirt, and a pair of jeans. Once I had clean clothes on, I made my way over to the bathroom, and ran a brush through my messy black mane and tail to make myself more presentable.

When I was done, I rushed back to the kitchen, just as the kettle began to whistle. I grabbed my ceramic teapot, and poured the hot water into it, before taking my infuser, scooping out a small amount of tea, and placing it in the water, which turned a soft, bluish shade, as it steeped. It was an herbal blend of my own creation; just one of the few things I had actually picked up from my mother’s lessons.

“There we go,” I said to myself, as I turned off the stove, and grabbed a teacup, before heading back down stairs.

When I reentered the bar, Octavia was in the middle of a conversation with one of our regulars, a scruffy middle aged pegasus stallion, who had a number of gray hairs mixed in with the dark blue of his mane and tail.

“I’d love t’hear ya play sometime, miss,” he said, his gruff, low voice coming out slurred from too much drink. “I’ve always been a fan o’ classical music. Even played the violin back when I was a colt. Course I was ne’er good enough to play at the Manehatten Concert Hall like you do miss.”

Octavia smiled at the aging stallion, before opening the silver clasp of a little black purse, fishing around a bit, and withdrawing a pen, and a small business card, which she wrote something down on.

“Here’s a card for the concert hall ticket office,” she said, handing the card to the stallion. “I usually set aside some tickets for my coltfriend, but he never uses them, so just tell the ponies at the ticket office that Octavia Melody reserved a pair of seats for you, give them this confirmation number, and they’ll hold them for you.”

The old stallion chuckled as he took the card, and slipped it into his left breast pocket.

“Thank you miss; it’ll be nice t’be able t’take the missus out for a night on the town sometime.” With one last smile, the stallion tipped his hat to Octavia, and went to join his friends in the corner.

“Here’s your tea,” I said, walking up to the mare, and pouring her a cup.

Octavia thanked me, before taking the teacup, and blew a thin waft of aromatic steam into the air.

“Wow, this is really good,” she said, taking a sip

“Glad you like it. I make it myself with herbs from the community garden just a couple of blocks away. Just don’t ask me what any of them are; I was never good at remembering plant names. Though I must warn you that there is a hint of poison joke in it.”

Octavia hesitated as she brought the cup up to her lips for a second sip.

“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly harmless. Trust me, I’m a bit of an old pro when it comes to preparing poison joke. See, the petals, when dried properly, don’t have any of the nasty, body altering side effects. Instead it has a very mild euphoric effect, which will make you feel a little giddy for a while. Just make sure you don’t drink it too fast; you might end up going into an uncontrollable laughing fit for a few hours.”

Octavia giggled, as she raised the cup for another sip.

“So it’s true, what Vinyl said about you being part zebra.”

A lump began to form in my throat, and my scars began to flair.

“W-what did she t-tell you?”

“Just that you’re a zebracorn, and that you work in, and live above a bar...and that you’re really kind.”

The pain in my back began to subside. Good, I thought, relaxing again, Vinyl didn’t blurt my secret to her.

After that, a few minutes passed in silence, as my guest sat there, sipping her tea like a young lady, while I began wiping down the the counter, occasionally looking up to see if Vinyl was at the door. Finally Octavia broke the silence

“Thank you,” Octavia said, all of a sudden.

I gave her a smile, and held up the teapot.

“You’re welcome. If you’d like some more, just ask; the poison joke’s already in your system, and having more won’t cause the effects to grow any stronger. Well, you'll be fine as long as you just keep sipping it.”

Octavia returned my smile, and shook her head.

“I don’t mean the tea. I just wanted to thank you for looking after Vinyl. She told me about the night she came here, how you let her in out of the rain, listened to her troubles, and...” Her cheeks suddenly flushed pink, “and how you didn’t take advantage of her while she was drunk.”

I tossed my rag in a bucket, and leaned on the counter across from Octavia.

“I was just doing what any proper gentlecolt would do.”

“I know but, well, I just think it’s wonderful that she’s finally met a nice stallion who-”

“Yo, Tavi, Zander,” a familiar voice called from near the door. We both looked up, and saw Vinyl walking towards us with a big grin on her face.

I felt my heart skip a beat. There she is, I thought, feeling myself blushing as she took a seat beside her friend at the bar. As she sat down next to Octavia, I couldn’t help but look from one to the other, trying to figure out how these two were friends; while Octavia looked like she might be the daughter of a rich family from Canterlot, Vinyl looked more like a she was ready for a night at a club, with her wild, short mane, tight black tank top, too short jean shorts, knee high socks, and high top sneakers.

“Hope you haven’t been telling zebra boy here all of my dirty secrets, Octavia,” she said, wrapping her arm around her friend, “I don’t wanna scare him away before things get...interesting.”

Octavia giggled.

“Oh no, I was just telling Zander everything you told me about him, and thanking him for looking out for you.”

Vinyl blushed.

“Jeez Tavi, why do you have to be so sentimental? I mean for Celestia’s sake, we didn’t even fuck.”

I noticed a couple of stallions turn our way at Vinyl’s words, so I quickly cleared my throat, hoping to change the subject.

“So, uh, how have you been?” I asked.

“Well, I haven’t been having any one-night stands, and I’ve only stumbled back to the dorms, what, twice?”

“Five times,” Octavia corrected.

“Oh. Well, five times in a month is still better than how I used to be." She flashed me her devilish grin. "But I'm not here to talk about what I've been up to, I'm here to give you an opportunity to leave this crumby old bar, and escort two sexy, young mares for a wild night in Manehatten."

Obviously feeling very impatient, Vinyl snagged my collar in her magic, and started leading around the counter.

"Whoa, hold on," I pleaded, canceling out her magic with my own. "Where are we even going?"

Vinyl leaned over the counter, until she was so close that I could smell the sweet scent of her perfume, and then looked at me with flirtatious eyes.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.”

Then she flicked me in the horn, grabbed Octavia by the hand, and made a mad dash towards the door, cackling like a mad mare.

I stood, stunned for a few seconds, but suddenly felt my legs carrying me after them. As I began to pick up speed, I felt a smile spread across my face, and I began to laugh. I didn’t even look back as I left the all too familiar bar behind me; I was feeling too excited for whatever plans Vinyl and Octavia had for the evening.

...

“So what exactly is it that we’re going to be doing tonight?” I asked, as the subway we were on hurdled further towards the heart of Manehatten.

“I told you, we’re getting you out of that stuffy, old bar," Vinyl said, as she stretched out in her seat.

"And again I ask, to do what?"

Vinyl didn't answer, she just winked, and grinned. I looked over at Octavia for some kind of help, but she just sat there humming happily to herself.

Seeing as I wasn’t going to be getting answers from either of the mares, I decided to sit there quietly, and stare out the window at the blurry brick wall of the subway tunnel, as we made our way to some unknown destination.

The rest of the subway ride was silent, except for the sound of the wheels of the vehicle carrying us into the city, and the voices of the other passengers who were sitting around us, talking in a mass of jumbled conversations.

When we finally reached our stop, we climbed out of the car, and made a straight line towards the stairs leading to the surface.

"Holy Luna," I said, as I stared, slack jawed, at the world into which I had just emerged. All around me there were flashing lights, giant buildings that threatened to block out the night sky, large signs telling ponies of the latest musicals that were showing on Bridleway, and millions of ponies, all of whom seemed to be in a big rush to get to wherever it was they needed to go. I'd only ever seen this part of Manehatten from afar, so it was hard for me to believe that it was really all part of the same city where I’d lived most of my life.

“Yeah, Manehatten can be a bit overwhelming your first time,” Vinyl said, slapping my back. “Now quit gawking like a tourist; we’ve got places to be.” Vinyl grabbed me by the hand, and began dragging me into the endless throng. “Lead the way Octavia.”

The two of us followed the gray mare through the bustling streets of Manehatten. I held onto Vinyl’s hand, like a foal clinging to it’s mother, scared that if I let go, we would become separated, and I’d be lost in the sea of ponies. Normally I was fine going out on my own, but I’d never been someplace so...vast. Plus I had no idea where we were going, so all I could do was put my trust in Vinyl and Octavia to guide me through.

Vinyl seemed to sense my trepidation, because she stopped for a second and looked back at me. At first I thought she was going to roll her eyes, or tease me for being so nervous, but she didn’t; instead, she showed me that sweet smile of hers, and gave my hand a gentle squeeze, and began running to keep up with Octavia.

We didn’t stop walking until we turned onto a street that was far less populated than the part of the city that we had ascended into. What we found down there were a string of bars, late night restaurants (the kind with little tables out front so ponies could eat outside in the cool, night air), and a few coffee shops with acoustic music coming out of the open doors. Octavia led us down the street a ways until we came to a bar called The Watering Hole, which looked even more run down than my uncle's Rusty Horseshoe.

"This is it?" I asked, looking up and down at the dirty brick front.

"I know it doesn't look like much on the outside, but trust me it’s-"

"Yeah yeah, it's one of Manehatten's hidden fucking gems," Vinyl said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. "Now if you two are done wondering how sucky this place may or may not be, why don't we go in and get some drinks."

Octavia and I looked at each other, and she gave me a look that said "sorry about Vinyl." I just chuckled, as I grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, holding it for the two mares to enter first.

Octavia was right; while the outside was worn and dirty, the inside was warm and inviting. Along the far wall, there was a long counter with several bar stools, on which many young mares and stallions sat, drinking and talking, there were also a few tables, and a small stage in front of which a small crowd had begun to gather.

"Over here," Octavia said, guiding us towards the crowd.

We made our way through, until we were as close to the front as we could get and saw nothing but a set of instruments, just waiting to be played.

"Looks like we were earlier than I thought," Vinyl said, with a sigh of relief, before turning to me. "Zander, be a good gentlecolt and order as a round of beers."

"A light one for me, thanks," Octavia added.

I huffed, but made my way over to the bar nonetheless, thankful that I had grabbed some money before heading out.

After ordering three bottles of beer, and giving the bartender my bits, I made my way through the jumbled mass of ponies to join Vinyl and Octavia.

"Here you go," I said, passing a beer to each mare.

Instead of simply thanking me for the bottle, Vinyl placed a hand on my shoulder, pulled me down to her level, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I stood there, dumbstruck, finding the sudden display of affection strangely sweet.

“There’s more where that came from if you play your cards right,” Vinyl whispered, giving the tip of my ear a gentle rub.

I nearly choked on my beer. Did she just say what I think she said, I thought, feeling even more discombobulated than I had when she had kissed my cheek. I can’t think like that; I have to remember to be a perfect gentlecoooogaaaahhh...

A sudden pleasant jolt shot up from my crotch, and up my spine. I turned my attention to Vinyl, who was now leaning up against my chest, facing the stage, and drinking her beer. It was hard to see in the dim light of the room, but Vinyl’s horn was emitting a faint, pulsing glow. She’s got me in her magic, I thought, as the ethereal grip around my stallionhood rhythmically tightened and slackened. I closed my eyes, trying desperate to keep myself from getting an erection, but that was a fight that I was quickly losing.

“Uh, Vinyl,” I said, trying not to draw any unwanted attention, “do you think you could let go?”

Vinyl tilted her head back, and looked up at me with a mischievous smile that I found a little irksum.

“Awww, what’s the matter? Don’t think you’ll be able contain your excitement?”

Octavia turned her head our way, took one look at me, squirming uncomfortably, and gave her friend an unimpressed look.

“Oh come on, Vinyl,” she said, “you promised me this morning that you wouldn’t do anything crude.”

To my relief, Vinyl released my stallionhood, and she threw up her hands defensively.

“Alright, alright,” she said. “Geez, I was just trying to have a bit of fun while we waited.”

Then she turned to me, placed a hand on my chest, and gave me her best attempt at an apologetic look.

“It’s ok,” I sighed, “Just...no more surprises. Please?”

Vinyl rolled her eyes.

“Fine, but you’ll have to make it up for me later.”

Then she winked, and slowly dragged her hand teasingly down my stomach, before turning back around, and leaning against me once again.

It wasn't long before the members of the band began to take the stage. First there was a slender, young, Earth pony mare, with a golden mane that was tied up, and hung gently over one shoulder, who stepped onto the small stage, and picked up an accordion, and attached it to the strap that hung around her neck. Following closely behind the mare was a unicorn stallion who was wearing a slim fitting suit that looked to be much older than he was. He walked over to the opposite end of the stage, and grabbed an electric guitar off of its stand, plugged it into an amplifier, and began messing with a set of pedals that were set up on the floor in front of him. The next two band members to take the stage were, to my surprise, a male, and a female griffin, who took up the drums and double bass respectively.

All that's left is the singer, I thought as, I stared at the empty spot at the front and center of the stage.

Suddenly there was a bright flash, and I was forced to look away, as a blinding light filled the emptiness. Before I could turn back to see what had happened, the band had begun to play. It was a style I'd never heard before (not that I was well versed in music to begin with); it sounded like an old folk song, but with the inclusion of an electric guitar. I liked it.

It wasn't long before the singer added his voice to the song, drawing my attention back to the stage. I nearly fell over backwards when I finally laid eyes on the stallion singer; he looked exactly like Vinyl. Sure he was taller, had a more masculine build, a whiter coat, and his mane and tail were cut a little shorter, but there was no denying the obvious resemblance. Vinyl did mention something about having a brother, I thought, recalling the conversation that we had had when we first met. Sure enough, during an accordion solo halfway through the first song, the stallion's eyes landed on us, and Vinyl began waving, and cheering in a frantic attempt to let him know that she was there to show her support. He looked at her, then to me, then jumped back into the song without any other acknowledgment of our existence.

Vinyl's brother kept looking our way throughout the night, though never directly at us; he was looking just a few inches to the right, right at Octavia. Every time he did, the mare would scream her head off to let him know that she was having a good time. I wonder if they're together, I thought, as I watched the two ponies exchange smiles. I tapped Vinyl on the shoulder to get her attention, then pointed from her brother to Octavia. She must have understood what I was asking because she smiled, and nodded her head.

The concert was short, only six of seven songs, two of which Vinyl's brother had dedicated to his marefriend. All in all I had found the whole experience rather enjoyable, despite the fact that every now and again the singer would give Vinyl and me an odd look, almost like he was trying to figure out why we had come.

When it was finally over, after all the instruments, cables, and all the other pieces of equipment had been packed up, Vinyl's brother, came our way.

"Strat!" Octavia exclaimed, as she ran into the stallion's arms. Strat smiled as he hugged his marefriend, and lifted her off the ground.

"I'm so glad you were able to make it," he said, planting a small kiss on her lips before setting her back on the ground.

"Oh come on, you know I'd never miss a show."

"Well thank Celestia for that, otherwise we probably wouldn't have had any fans."

Octavia gave Strat a playful push.

"What are you talking about? Didn’t you see that crowd that was here."

"Of course I didn't; it was impossible for me to see anypony else when I couldn't take my eyes off of you."

"Sweet Luna," Vinyl groaned, as her brother and friend continued their long embrace, "if you two are gonna be so lovey dovey, take it someplace else; the back room of this bar perhaps."

The two ponies turned their attention towards us, and Strat's smile faded a little.

"Vinyl, I’m surprised to see you here" he said, sounding neither happy, nor upset with her presence.

"Hey, I just thought I'd come out and support my bro."

Strat’s face seemed to soften a bit at this, and a slight smile seemed to return.

Seeing her brother's mood improve, Vinyl flashed her own mischievous smirk, as she walked up to her brother, slapped an arm around his shoulders, and squeezed him hard. "I’ve missed you so much, G-string.”

I noticed the obvious twitch in her brother’s face when Vinyl called him G-string, but she didn’t allow him the chance for a retort, because the next moment, she was standing next to me, and had slipped her right hand into my left.

“Zander, meet my twin brother, Stratocaster-”

“Oh, so you do know my name,” Stratocaster interrupted.

Vinyl just rolled her eyes, as she continued with her introductions.

“Strat, this is Zander. He’s my coltfriend.”

I put on my friendliest smile, and extended my free hand.

“It’s nice to meet you,” I said.

Stratocaster looked me up and down, as if he was trying to size me up, before taking my hand and shaking it.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” he said. “Let’s hope you last longer than all of Vinyl’s other coltfriends.” His voice was thick with sarcasm.

Octavia tugged on the stallion’s arm.

“Be nice, Strat,” she whispered.

"No, it's alright," Vinyl said, gripping my hand a little tighter, and grinning wide. "I’m hoping things work out too."

A bit of an awkward silence fell on us as we stood there, the other patrons bustling about us, as they headed to their tables or up to the bar. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, it was more like we were all politely waiting for the next pony to speak up. When no one did, Vinyl took it upon herself to take the lead.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but without my brother playing music, this place is fucking dull as shit," she said. "Why don't we head on over to the Apple Core Lounge, get a few drinks, and see where the night takes us?" Vinyl’s hand suddenly left mine, and quickly found my backside, which she squeezed, causing me to jump. "Who knows, if we play our cards right, we'll all get laid."

...

The Apple Core Lounge, as it turned out, was a nightclub located just a few mile miles away from where Vinyl and Octavia went to school. Originally it was built to cater mostly to the local college students, but now, due to its reputation as a place for good booze and even better music, it was quickly becoming a popular hangout for young socialites from all corners of the city. At least, that's what Vinyl said.

“Do we really have to go in?” Stratocaster groaned, as we passed the long line of ponies (each dressed in clothes that looked to be far more expensive than my entire wardrobe) to the front entrance, where a burly stallion wearing a black t-shirt, dark jeans, and sunglasses stood behind a black, velvet rope, guarding the door.

“Oh come on, Strat, you’ll have fun,” Octavia said, taking her coltfriend by the hand, and kissing him on the cheek.

“But-”

“For Celestia’s sake, G-string" Vinyl added, "it's not like you've never been here before."

Strat's face suddenly flushed red.

"I-I don't-"

"Don't try to fucking deny it; I've seen you in there, pounding down a few drinks, and dancing with Tavi. By the way, you look like you've got bees in your pants when you dance." Vinyl began jerking her body around, kicking her legs, and flailing her arms. Octavia and I broke out in laughter as we watched Vinyl mimicking her brother, who just turned a deeper shade of scarlet. I know I probably shouldn't have laughed, seeing as I was trying to date his sister, but I just couldn't help myself.

"Well now that that's out of the way,” Vinyl said, straightening herself out, “why don't we go on in, and you can show everypony your “awesome moves” yourself."

We made our way towards the front door to the large stallion, who turned and smiled when he saw us approach.

"Well well well, if it isn't DJ Pon-3," he said, in a deep voice that boomed over the music that leaked out of the front door.

Vinyl smirked as she walked up to the stallion and slapped him on the back.

"Hey Black Velvet, how’s The Core looking tonight?”

The bouncer shook his head.

“S’alright. A little dull, but I’d bet all the bits in the bank things’ll start to pick up now that you’re here.”

“Well then I better not keep everypony waiting.”

Black Velvet nodded, and smiled, as he stepped aside, allowing us to enter.

“Give ‘em hell,” he said, slapping Vinyl on the rump as she passed.

I felt my jaw drop; who was he to touch my marefriend like that?

“Don’t read too much into it.”

I looked over, and saw Octavia looking up at me.

“Vinyl and Black Velvet are just friends.”

“Then why-”

“Trust me, she’s not his type.”

“But apparently I am,” Stratocaster said, as he caught up with us, rubbing his own backside.

Octavia giggled. At first I thought Stratocaster would find this annoying (he didn’t really seem to have much of a sense of humor), but to my surprise, he joined in on the laughter. Can’t really judge a pony after spending just a few minutes with them, I reminded myself, as I watched Stratocaster take his marefriend’s hand, and led her down the short entrance hall, and through a set of elegantly carved, wooden double doors, into a dark nightclub.

When we'd first emerged from the subway, I'd found the city lights and sounds a bit overwhelming, but it was nothing compared to how it felt to step into a club for the first time. It was dark, but not so much that I couldn't see anything, thanks to the colored lights that flashed like lightning to the rhythm of the music. The song that was playing was Sapphire Shores’ newest single, remixed with a bass beat so powerful, I could feel it pounding in my chest, causing my heart flutter. It was a little much for a stallion like me, who barely ever left his own apartment.

So this is what a nightclub is like, I thought, as I followed Octavia and Stratocaster through the forest of writhing bodies over to a dimly lit bar, where Vinyl was already standing, leaning against the counter, and chatting with a white maned, minty coated, unicorn stallion.

"First round's on me," she shouted to us over the blaring music, as the stallion turned his back, and began mixing drinks.

I slid up next to Vinyl, and placed a hand on her shoulder for support, as if at any minute I’d be knocked off my feet by the music’s overpowering force. The short mare looked up at me, and gave me a grin.

“Alright there zebra boy?” She asked, pressing her body firmly against mine.

I nodded.

“I’ve never been in a nightclub before,” I said.

“Yeah, no shit. But if you wanna make this relationship work, then you’re gonna have to get used to places like this.”

Before I could come up with some sort of response, the bartender returned with a round tray, with four short tumblers full of some kind of purple colored concoction. I went to pick mine up, but Vinyl slapped my hand away.

“Careful,” she said, “you don’t want to burn yourself.”

I looked from her to the glass feeling very confused until I saw what she was talking about; dancing on the surface of the drink was a faint blue flame.

“You gotta put it out first, see?”

I watched as Vinyl picked up a coaster from the counter, and placed it one after the other over all four glasses, extinguishing the tiny fires instantly.

“Bottoms up,” she said, handing us our drinks, and raising her own glass in celebration.

Tentatively, I brought the glass to my lips, and took a small sip, and then another, longer one. I didn’t know what it was that Vinyl had given me, but it was the best tasting alcoholic beverage I’d ever had. It was very warm, and tasted like some sort of blackberry juice, with hints of vanilla, and cinnamon. I had no idea that you could make drinks like this; the ponies that came to my uncle’s pub only ever ordered their drinks straight, or as a simple cocktail, so this vibrant mixture was foreign to me.

Vinyl watched with amusement as I consumed my beverage.

"Easy there, Zander," she giggled, as she placed a hand on mine, forcing me to lower the glass. "It might taste like juice, but it’s still got plenty of booze in it. We've got a long night ahead of us, and I don't want you on your ass before the fun begins."

I just smiled and nodded, already feeling a little lightheaded. That's what I get for being a lightweight, I thought.

For fifteen minutes the four of us just leaned against the bar, sipping our drinks. Stratocaster and Octavia were standing off to the side, talking, and laughing, lost in their own little world, leaving Vinyl and I to watch the jumbled mass of ponies, gyrating against each other. It wasn't my usual idea of a fun evening, but seeing Vinyl enjoying herself made me feel just as relaxed as I would have been back in my apartment, watching television and sipping tea. In that moment I wished I could have talked with her; not about our personal troubles, but about things we liked, things we hated, or our individual dreams for the future. I didn't care what we said, I just wanted to get to know her better. Of course I knew an intimate conversation would be impossible thanks to the deafening music, so I decided that if the rest of the night went well, then perhaps sitting down to talk would be a good way to wind down.

Just as I was finishing my drink, I felt Vinyl's hand on mine. At first I thought that she just wanted to hold it, but when she began making her way towards the throng of ponies, I realized that she was inviting me to dance.

"What the fuck's wrong?" She huffed when she noticed that I wasn't following her.

I smiled at her, sheepishly.

"I, uh, don't dance." It wasn't a total lie; I liked to move to the music every now and again, but only when I was washing dishes in the back room of the pub where no pony could see me.

“You don’t really have to.” Vinyl pointed towards the nearest couple; the mare was rubbing herself all over the stallion, as if she were desperately trying to feel every inch of his body with every inch of her own. The stallion himself just kind of stood there, occasionally grinding up against the mare to the rhythm of the music. I was thankful that it was dark because I was sure I was blushing profusely. This is dancing? I thought. It looks more like some sort of crazy mating ritual. And I was about to become a part of it.

I followed Vinyl onto the dance floor, stumbling a little thanks to the alcohol.

Vinyl started off slow, facing me, pressing herself firmly against my body, dragging her hand down the length of my torso, and rocking her hips provocatively against my lower body. As the music began to pick up pace, she twirled around, and rubbed her rump against my crotch. And I just stood there, trying hard to keep the erotic images from invading my mind. Of course Vinyl wasn't going to let me remain inactive; without missing a single beat, she sought out my hands with her own, and gave me a guided tour of her incredible, lithe figure.

"C'mon, zebra boy, move those hips," she said moving my right hand to her waist, and my left to her stomach. "Just let go; let the music take over."

"If you wanna make this relationship work, you're gonna have to get used to it," Vinyl had told me. I took a deep breath to cool myself down, then listened to the music, feeling the rhythm with my body. It wasn't long before I started to move; nothing too much, just a subtle rocking of my hips.

"Not bad," Vinyl said, as she removed her hands from mine, allowing me to explore her body on my own. "I mean, it's not great, but I'll give you an A for-"

I couldn't help myself; I placed my hand gently against her throat, and tilted her face towards mine, and kissed her. Maybe it was the alcohol affecting my decision making, but it just felt like the right thing to do. In that moment everything seemed to vanish. There was no more music, no more flashing lights, no more dancing ponies; it was just me and Vinyl.

Eventually a need to catch our breaths forced us to part, and the world around us slowly invaded our revelry. I don't know how long we’d stayed like that, our lips locked, tongues dancing along with our bodies, but it didn't feel long enough. As the world began to reform around us, Vinyl looked up at me, her eyes twinkling like stars in the flickering lights of the club. I thought back to when we first met, and how beautiful I had found those big, magenta eyes, but they were nothing compared to the passion filled orbs that gazed into mine.

"Uh, sorry about that," I said, suddenly aware of all the ponies around us.

Vinyl just laughed.

"What the hell are you apologizing for?" She asked.

"Well, I..." You're overthinking things, Zander, I told myself. "No, never mind," I said, shaking my head. "Would you like to go back and get another drink?"

"Now you're speaking my language."

Vinyl took me by the hand, interlocking her fingers with mine, and led me back to the bar.

"Hey, Peppy, get me a couple Dragon Scale Drop Shots, would you?”

The young unicorn stallion, walked over, a couple of bottles with the names Breath of the Dragon, and Flim & Flam’s Hundred Proof Whisky clutched in his hands.

“Right away, Miss Scratch,” he said, taking the two bottles, and pouring them into a cocktail shaker, measuring them with practiced precision. After giving the simple concoction a quick shake, he grabbed a couple of shot glasses from the rack behind him, and filled them with the reddish, amber liquid.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, picking up my shot, and raising it.

“Whoa, hey, hold up, buddy,” Vinyl said, “there’s a bit more to it than that.”

I looked up, and sure enough, the bartender came back, a mug of beer in each hand.

“Here you are, Miss Scratch,” he said.

“Thank you, Mr. Schnapps.” Vinyl took her shot, and dropped it, glass and all, into her beer. She looked at me, then nodded, indicating that she wanted me to do the same. I did.

“Cheers!” Vinyl said, raising her mug.

I did the same, then took a deep drink. It was strong, much stronger than I was expecting. It had the usual hoppy taste of beer, and the burn of whisky, with an overpowering spiciness that gave the Dragon Scale Drop Shot its name. As I continued to sip it, I looked over and saw that Vinyl nearly had her’s completely upturned, draining her mug faster than it had been filled. Not wanting to look like too much of a weakling in front of my new marefriend, I lowered my mug so I could take a deep breath, said a silent prayer to Princess Luna, counted to three, then chugged my beer, feeling it sting as it went down my esophagus.

I knew I was done, when the shot glass on the bottom slid down, and smacked me in the face.

“Nice going, Zebra boy,” Vinyl chuckled. “Here, let me help you with that.”

Vinyl snatched the collar of my shirt, and yanked me down to her level. Without so much as a warning, the brazen young mare touched my muzzle with her tongue, and licked away at the wet spot where I had been struck by the miniature glass, cleaning up any drops of alcohol that might have been absorbed by my coat. I felt like a manticore cub receiving a tongue bath from its mother. It was very awkward, and yet, sort of tender, in its own weird way. I would never have admitted it to Vinyl, but as she washed my face, I felt a slight shifting in my jeans, as blood began to rush to my stallionhood.

"There," she said, when she was done, "nice and clean."

"What the hell was that?" Asked an alarmed voice.

I looked over to see that Stratocaster had walked up behind us, and was looking at his sister, obviously displeased with what he had just witnessed his do.

Vinyl just shrugged her shoulders.

"It's not polite to waste a good drink," she said. "What's up G-string, need your face cleaned as well?"

Strat gave his sister a sarcastic smile.

"Actually I wanted to know just what you did to-"

"Strat!"

I had to step aside, as a clearly intoxicated Octavia came up to us, wrapped her arms around her coltfriend, and held onto him as if she was trying to keep herself from falling over. Her mane was slightly disheveled, her bow tie was undone, and the top two buttons of her blouse were unbuttoned, revealing a beautiful set of...don't look at those you moron, I thought, quickly averting my gaze, your marefriend is right there.

"Straaaaat, why'd you leave?" She asked with a giggle. "Don't you wanna have a little fun with me?"

"I-in a minute, Tavi," he said. Then he turned to Vinyl, and gave her an accusing look. "Seriously, what they hell did you slip her?"

Vinyl smirked, as she watched Octavia start to try and dance with Strat.

"Hate to break it to you, bro, but this isn't my work. Tavi's probably just really enjoying herself, and from the looks of it, she wants you to enjoy her too."

I looked at Octavia again, squinting my eyes, trying to focus through my alcohol induced double vision. And that's when I spotted it; at the nape of her neck, there was a faint discoloration, the same shape and size as a bit coin.

"How long has she had that?" I asked, pointing to the spot, suddenly feeling a mild sense of dread.

The two siblings looked to the spot that I indicated, and Vinyl began to laugh hysterically.

"So that's how it is?" She said, "All this time I thought you were a major prude, but judging by that hickey, I'm guessing you two were up to more than just "talking" over there in your little secluded corner."

"What? I didn't do that!"

"No, I, uh, I think did," I said, walking over to Octavia to better examine the small spot that had appeared on her coat. "I also I think I know what happened to her. See, while we were waiting for Vinyl at my uncle's bar, I offered her a cup of tea that had dried poison joke petals in it."

Stratocaster's jaw hung open.

"You gave her poison joke?" He asked, grabbing my shirt collar anger.

"No, well, yes, but-"

"Why the hell would you do that? Was it some sick joke that my sister put you up to?"

I removed Strat's hands from my collar, and looked at him calmly.

"Look, when the petals are dried they aren't as potent as they are when they're fresh, and you don't get any of the usual side effects; they just put you in a good mood."

"Well it looks like it put her in too good a mood."

I nodded.

"My guess is, the alcohol in her system must have somehow amplified the poison joke's potency, putting her in a state of pure euphoria."

For a second we all turned to watch Octavia, who was now dancing on her own just a few feet away.

"This is fucking hilarious," Vinyl said, her hands on her knees, preventing her from collapsing with laughter.

"Shut up, Vinyl," Strat said, before turning back to me. "So what are we supposed to do?" He looked looked back at Octavia, and his eyes went wide when he noticed that his marefriend's display was starting to attract some unwanted attention.

"Well, we could go back to my apartment, and I could try to mix up a solution that should cure her. Of course, it would take a while to get there, and I don't even know if I have the right herbs I'd need. The only other thing I can think of is to let her continue to do exactly what she's doing."

"What, just dance it out of her system?" Vinyl asked.

I nodded again.

"Yup. It'll take a little longer to get her back to normal, but physical activity seems to be the best option that we have right now."

Vinyl suddenly grabbed her brother by the shoulders, spun him around, and directed him at Octavia.

"Alright, G-String, time to show your lady friend a good time. Remember, have fun, and if your little colt parts start to tingle, then take her to the back room; I'm sure the two of you will be able to find another way to get the poison joke out of her system."

Stratocaster looked like he was about to make a rebuke, but Vinyl wouldn’t let him; with one swift push, Strat was launched at Octavia, and the two of them became a part of the sea of ponies.

For a moment, Vinyl felt content just watching her brother and friend on the dance floor, laughing every time Strat moved. I couldn't help but chuckle as well; while Vinyl's impression of Stratocaster's dancing wasn't spot on, he still looked silly, especially when compared to most of the other stallions on the dance floor.

After a few minutes of watching Stratocaster dance, Vinyl turned her attention back to me.

"Well now," she said, pressing her stomach against mine, "now that the kids are preoccupied, why don't we find someplace a little more private where we can have a little fun of our own?"

I felt the blood rush to my lower regions; I had a pretty good idea what Vinyl’s idea of fun was.

“Hey, Peppy, get me a couple glasses of Old Mustang, and the key to the private room.”

The stallion behind the counter chuckled, as he grabbed the familiar bottle of whisky from his shelf of booze, and poured it into two tumblers.

“Here you go, Miss Scratch,” he said, as he gave us our drinks, then dug into his pocket, and produced a small, silver key, “and please, try to keep it clean this time.”

Vinyl leaned over the counter, and fluttered her eyelashes.

“Awww, but I can’t help it that I’m such a dirty filly,” she said in an unsettlingly seductive tone.

After sharing a laugh with the bartender, Vinyl picked up the key and the two glasses, and started walking off, along the edge of the dance floor.

“Come on Zebra boy,” she called, flicking her tail back and forth with the sway of her hips.

I looked to her, then back at the bartender.

“Anything I can do for you sir?” he asked, as I stepped up to the bar.

“Yeah, uh, how much for the drinks,” I said, feeling I should be a gentlecolt and take care of this round.

“Two glasses will be eight bits.”

If I had been in the proper mind set, I would have argued over how outrageously overpriced that was (seeing as we sold a bottle back at The Rusty Horseshoe for ten), but my head was so groggy, I didn’t really feel like debating prices. So I pulled out my purse, took out ten of the small gold coins, and gave them to the stallion.

“Keep the change,” I said, before hurrying off in the direction that Vinyl had headed.

Luckily, she’d waited for me just outside of a door right next to a stage.

“Did you get lost or something?” Vinyl asked, handing me my drink, and opening the door.

“No, just...had to be a gentlecolt.”

Vinyl grinned, and grabbed me by the belt.

“Oh yeah? Well why don’t you follow me, and show me some of that gentlecoltliness.” Without allowing me the chance to move on my own, she pulled me through the doorway, down a short hall, to another door, that was painted light purple. She stuck the key into the lock, turned it, opened the door, and led me inside.

Chapter 3

The private room looked like a rather sensible sitting room. It was small, and windowless, roughly the size of the bedroom in my apartment, with dim lighting that played well with the rosy red of the walls. Along the far wall there was a black, comfortable looking couch, with a glass topped coffee table sitting in front of it. Adjacent to that, was an expensive looking recliner (the kind that had one of those built in back massagers), and a mini fridge that also required a special key to unlock. Other than the furniture, some kind of large, abstract painting that hung over the couch, and a TV mounted on the wall across from the recliner, the room was pretty bare.

“Make yourself at home,” Viny said, taking a spot on the couch, and patting the cushion beside her.

As soon as I sat down, Vinyl inched closer to me, then rested her head against my arm.

"That was fucking hilarious," she said with a bit of a cackle. "Did you see my brother squirm? Priceless."

I chuckled nervously.

"I'm really sorry; I didn't mean for that to happen," I said. "Hell, I didn't even know that that could happen; I just don't drink enough to know alcohol's effect on poison joke in a pony's system."

"Could it be dangerous?"

I shook my head.

“I don’t think so.”

"Then there's nothing to worry about. I mean, Octavia's much more understanding than Strat is, so I'm sure she'll just laugh this off when she comes down."

"If she ever wants to laugh again."

The two of us shared a chuckle.

“So, have you been enjoying yourself this evening?” Vinyl asked, after a brief moment of silence. There was something in the way she spoke that caught me off guard; she sounded more calm than she had when we were around the others.

“It’s uh, certainly been a lively evening,” I said. “Not really how I’d usually spend a Friday, going out to bars, and clubs with ponies I don’t really know, but I’ve definitely had more fun with you than I would have on my own.”

Vinyl smiled, as she took a sip of her whisky.

“I’m glad,” she said. For a moment we just sat there quietly, occasionally taking a drink, until Vinyl broke the silence again. “You know, when I’m out of school, I’d like to become a professional DJ, and work at a place like this full time.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s been my dream ever since I was a filly to become a famous DJ, and to use my awesome skills to show ponies a good time.” She sighed happily, and took another sip of her whisky. “I mean, behind the turntable is one of the few places I feel comfortable. Well, behind the turntable, and when I’m with…” she paused, and cleared her throat. I looked down to see what was wrong, and I could see that her face was turning the same color as the walls. “...and when I’m with you.

“Ok, I know this is fucking stupid, but there’s something about you that makes me feel relaxed. You know? Like I can talk to you about anything.”

“Well, everypony feels comfortable opening up to a bartender,” I joked.

Vinyl laughed.

“I’m serious though. Hell, even Octavia has to twist my arm before I tell her about anything that’s bothering me. But you...”

My arm seemed to move on it’s own, as it rose from it’s spot between Vinyl and me, and draped itself across her shoulders. Vinyl didn’t seem to mind, in fact she let out a gentle hum as I held her close.

“Vinyl, before I met you I’d never shown my scars to anypony, well, not to anypony who matters anyway. I can't explain why, but for some strange reason, I felt perfectly fine letting you see them. Who knows, maybe sometimes, without any rhyme or reason, ponies just click.”

Again Vinyl laughed.

“Wow, that’s some real zebra wisdom shit right there,” she scoffed.

She had me there.

“I can’t brew a variety of potions, can't rhyme when I talk, and I'm not very wise,” I said, chuckling along with Vinyl. “Yup, I really don’t have that much zebra bloo-”

Vinyl set her glass down on the coffee table, got up, and climbed on top of me so she was straddling my legs.

"Uh, Vinyl?" I asked. "What are you-"

I was quickly silenced with a finger against my lips.

"Shhhh," Vinyl whispered, as she leaned in so close, I could feel the beating of her heart. "If we keep talking like this, we'll start getting super emotional like we did last time, and I don't want the mood to be ruined just yet."

Then without warning, she dove at me ravenously, like a timber wolf attacking its prey, only with a little less biting. Vinyl didn't even try to start off slow; as soon as her lips were pressed against mine, her tongue forced its way into my mouth and began writhing around with reckless abandon. Unlike our first kiss, I fought back with equal furiousity, eager to please the mare sitting on top of me.

"Mmm," Vinyl hummed, as she suddenly pulled away.

"Yeah, that...was..." A black piece of cloth flashed across my field of vision, temporarily blocking my view of Vinyl, as it flew, and disappeared behind the recliner. Then another, smaller article followed it.

"Much better," she said, stretching her arms above her head in mock relief, obviously trying to draw my attention to her now bare breasts. "Wouldn't you like to get a little more comfortable too?"

I flinched just as I had the first time I had seen Vinyl stare at me with her eyes full of lust.

Vinyl obviously took notice of this because she pulled away ever so slightly, and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Sorry," I said, laughing sheepishly, "I’m not really used to being shirtless around other ponies. You know, because of the scars."

Vinyl's face softened.

"Then I'll just have to help you feel more relaxed," she said, leaning in close and planting a soft kiss on my neck. This was followed by a series of kisses, up and down neck, and the gentlest nibbles of her teeth. Her hand also made its way up the right side of my head, and she began massaging my ear, causing it to flick in excitement at her touch. I was in heaven, and I let Vinyl know it with a series of soft, satisfied moans that I just couldn't contain.

When Vinyl was satisfied that I was nice and relaxed, she took her free hand, and slid it from my chest to my stomach. The minute she reached the bottom, she slipped her hand under my t-shirt, and retraced the path that she had just taken back to my neck, lifting my shirt along with her.

"Oooh, Celestia," I groaned, feeling my stallionhood nearing full hardness.

Before I knew it, Vinyl had my shirt in both hands, and in one fell swoop, pulled the garment over my head, and tossed it away to join her own behind the chair in the corner.

"Feeling better?" Vinyl purred.

I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down, and nodded.

"Good." Vinyl smiled that same beautiful smile, then leaned towards me as far as she could, pressing her tits firmly against my chest. Now, I'd felt her soft breasts once before with my hands, but this was a different sensation altogether, especially when she began to rock her hips back and forth, lightly dragging her nipples up and down my chest as she did.

“Now, if I remember correctly, the last time we found ourselves in this position, I kinda left you feeling a little...unfulfilled.” She punctuated this statement with a kiss on my cheek. “I also think that I promised you I’d make it up to you.”

Before I could protest about doing something lewd in a public place, I felt the familiar warm tingle of magic tugging at my belt, and the waist of my jeans.

“V-Vinyl,” I stuttered, as her lips began to travel slowly from my cheek to my neck, “w-what are y-you-”

Vinyl didn’t answer, she just slid off my lap and onto the floor between my legs, continuing her trail of kisses down my chest, as she pulled my jeans down to my knees. Then she looked up at me with hungry eyes, and a mischievous smirk.

“So,” she said, pulling on one side of the fly of my boxers, allowing my stallionhood to snap out, and wobble, as it threatened to topple under its own weight, “are you gonna go all gentlecoltly on me again and ask me to stop, or are you gonna sit back and enjoy yourself?”

I brought the glass in my hand to my mouth, and downed the last of my whisky in one gulp.

“Whenever you’re ready,” I said, feeling my inhibitions being washed away.

Vinyl let out an uncharacteristically girlish giggle, as she took my stallionhood in both her hands, brought it to her mouth, and gave the first couple of inches a warm, wet lick. I had to grit my teeth and shut my eyes to keep myself from popping my top as she lathered the entire length of my dick with her saliva. My heart raced, and I was gasping for breath; it just felt so good. At one point I risked opening my eyes, and an overwhelmingly pleasant chill raced down my spine when I saw Vinyl lick up a bead of white, viscous fluid that had leaked out of the head of my stallionhood.

“Sweet Luna, that - uhnn - feels amazing,” I moaned, as I watched Vinyl perform her sloppy tongue bath.

I leaned my head back, too light headed to watch Vinyl, when I felt one of her hands leave my member. Curious to see what she was doing, I looked back down at her, and saw that the hand that had been on my stallionhood was tucked down the front of her shorts. It was like something out of one of those dirty magazines that I had under my bed, only this was very, very real.

“Enjoying the view?” She asked, obviously aware that I was watching her play with herself.

Before I could answer, Vinyl dove on my stallionhood, taking as much of me into her waiting mouth as she could in one go. Which turned out to be quite a lot. After the first three or four inches I thought she’d stop, but she just kept going until most of my rod was buried deep in her throat. She held me like that for a few seconds, her throat muscles slackening and constricting, until she started gagging, and was forced to retract her head.

“Fuuuck,” I groaned, as Vinyl removed me from her throat with a cough.

She looked up at me, and wiped away a long string of drool that hung off her chin with the back of her hand.

“You liked that, huh?”

I nodded my head. Of course I liked it, I thought, how could I no - Oh CELESTIA! Vinyl was going back down for seconds. Unlike with her first descent, Vinyl went for a more practical approach, only taking what she could fit into her mouth, while using her free hand to take care of the rest. It was like nothing I’d felt before; I’ll admit that I’ve touched myself down there before (especially that morning after Vinyl had left me to take care of myself), but what Vinyl was doing was something else altogether. The expert way she used her tongue to stroke my stallionhood, and tickled the sensitive nerves on the underside of the head with a delicate brush of her teeth sent strong bursts of pleasure up my spine, that only increased in intensity with every rise and fall of her head. I gripped at the couch cushion, trying to hold back my oncoming orgasm, wanting to enjoy what Vinyl was doing as long as I could.

Suddenly, I noticed a different heat growing somewhere else in my body. I looked away from Vinyl to my right hand, and saw it levitate off the couch in a shimmering red aura, and plant itself on the back of the mare’s head. What is she...wait does she want me to force her down? In my limited experience with Vinyl Scratch, she had always come off as the aggressor, pouncing on me, and taking the lead, so it came as a bit of a shock that she wanted to play submissive. Not certain that that was really what she was asking of me, I gave her head a tentative push towards my groin. Sure enough, Vinyl let out a muffled, and very satisfied moan, which reverberated off my dick, only adding to the ecstasy that was blowing my mind.

With Vinyl’s ok, I began to pick up speed, gripping her blue mane tighter and tighter, as I brought her down with enough force that with each descent I could feel the tip of my stallionhood being sent further, and further down her throat. I just couldn’t help myself; it felt too good. And Vinyl’s cries of pleasure, and rapid flicks of her tongue only spurred me on.

That’s when I felt it; a familiar tingling in my balls.

“Oh shit,” I groaned, “I think I’m gonna-”

Vinyl knocked my hand away, and lifted her head up just enough to take a big gulp of air, then sank back down, only stopping when her muzzle met my pelvis. At the same time, I felt two jolts, one in my stallionhood, the other in my horn, and in a burst of soft, blue light, I came.

“Oooh - unnnfffuuuuck yes,” I moaned, as I bucked my hips, releasing my load straight down the mare’s throat. Vinyl held herself like that for a moment, staring up at me with a surprisingly cute look on her face.

As the last few shots of semen ejected from my urethra, Vinyl began to rise, removing me from throat, until only the head remained in her mouth.

“Mmmm,” Vinyl hummed, as she caught the remaining drops of jizz on her tongue, before releasing my stallionhood, and swallowing. For a second she just sat there, catching her breath after the rough blowjob. As for me, I just reclined, slack jawed on the couch, every muscle in my body weak and tingling, as my muddled mind fought to bring me back to my senses.

Before I had a chance to register what was going on, I felt something slide into my mouth, causing me to gag in surprise. I looked down to see what it was, and my eyes went wide; it was Vinyl’s fingers, or more specifically, the ones that had been in her shorts, didling the area between her legs.

“How does that taste?” Vinyl asked, as she sat up, and leaned forward so that my stallionhood was resting between her b cups.

It was like nothing I’d ever tasted before; the initial flavor was slightly bitter and salty, but with more than a hint of sweetness that made Vinyl’s fluids not at all unpleasant. Of course I couldn’t tell her that with her fingers pressed firmly against the surface of my tongue. All I could do was wrap my lips around the appendages, and lick them clean.

As she watched me, Vinyl bit her lower lip, wrapped her arm across her chest, hugging my dick against her, and began to rise and fall. It was similar to something that I’d seen mares do in those types of magazines, except they all had breasts large enough to nearly envelop the stallion’s cock entirely. Still, sliding up and down between Vinyl’s small tits felt wonderful. A little too wonderful.

Before I could give a word of warning, my stallionhood spasmed, and a thick cord of cum oozed out onto Vinyl’s chest.

“You fucking prick,” she said, glancing down at the white goo that lay just above her breasts.

“I’m sorry,” I panted, my voice sounding unusually quiet, and raspy.

Vinyl wiped away most of my semen with her hand, and licked it away.

“Just be thankful this place doesn’t use black lights; it’d be a pain if I had to go back out there with my tits glowing like an Ursa Minor.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at Vinyl’s analogy.

“So no harm then?”

Vinyl shook her head.

“As long as nopony notices, I should be fine.” Then she gave me that grin, the one that was usually followed by some sort of trouble. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be punished a little.”

She rose off the floor, and dragged the same two fingers that she had stuck inside my mouth along the last glob of jizz on her chest.

“Open wide,” she said, lifting her semen covered fingers up to my mouth.

I clenched my lips tight; I didn’t want taste myself. Thankfully my strength returned just in time to catch Vinyl’s wrist, mere inches away from my face. In order to keep the “essence of me” as far away as possible, I held her arm out with one hand, and used my other to bring her body close to mine.

“Open wide,” I said, as I pressed my lips against hers.

Vinyl struggled a little at first, but she soon melted into my kiss, releasing a soft moan as she drove her tongue into my mouth. And there it was; as my tongue met hers, I instantly became aware of something slimy and salty that coated the organ that was dancing around my maw.

When she finally pulled away, she leaned up to my ear and whispered; “Just so you know, I don’t always swallow.”

I just sat there dumbstruck, still tasting myself on my tongue, until something in my head snapped into place, and I did the last thing I ever thought I’d do. I scraped all of the goo off the walls of my mouth, and swallowed.

“Impressive,” Vinyl said, giving me a pleased smile, and wrapping her arms around my neck, “all of my other coltfriends would have just freaked, and spit it out.”

I froze for a second, then broke down laughing.

“I didn’t realize that was an option.”

Vinyl nodded.

“Of course it was; I may be a bit of a trickster, but I’m not evil.”

With a gentle, salty kiss on the tip of my muzzle, Vinyl jumped up, and dashed to the corner where she had tossed our shirts.

“Come on, time to get dressed.” She bent down behind the chair, and threw me my black t-shirt. “Normally I’d suggest sticking around for a good, hard rutting, but we’ve got company, and I’m sure they’ll start getting suspicious if we’re gone for too much longer.”

I nodded, as I got up, wobbling a little, still feeling light headed from all the alcohol, and my recent orgasm. After slipping my shirt on, I went to pull my pants back up. As I did, Vinyl reached over, and took my stallionhood in her hand again.

“Unf, this is gonna feel so good inside me,” she said, caressing my softening cock. I could feel myself flush, as she slipped me back into my boxers, pulled up my jeans, buttoned and zipped them up, and adjusted my belt. “There you go, all tucked away.”

Before putting her bra and shirt on, Vinyl went after her chest again, making absolutely sure her coat was clean. As I watched her standing there, topless, feeling around her chest, I felt a hint of life return to my stallionhood. While I was more than satisfied with what Vinyl had just done for me, I was beginning to wish that I could have had a chance to handle her body a little, to squeeze her breasts in my hands, to feel the smoothness of her back, to fondle the moist, warm place between her legs. It felt strange to think that way; after all, the last time we were together, I was the one who had held back. But that was before I knew what it was like to be with a mare in a sexual way. After what had just happened between us, I found myself wanting to show Vinyl Scratch that I was more than just a simple gentlecolt who’s also a good listener. Maybe next time, I thought, as Vinyl put her tank top back on, and opened the door, maybe next t-

As we were stepping out the door, a familiar face appeared before us, still looking unusually bubbly, but certainly much better than she had been when we had left her.

“Viiiiiinyl,” Octavia giggled, “they’re calling for you; they want you on… What were you two doing back here?” She said the last part in a taunting, sing-songy voice.

“Tavi,” Vinyl said, with a good humored eye roll, “you and I have been sharing dorm for four years, and you’ve walked in on me with a stallion countless times; I’m pretty sure you know perfectly well what we were doing in here.”

The two ponies broke down in uncontrollable (and slightly uncomfortable) laughter. Finally Vinyl was able to collect herself.

“So why were you looking for me Tavi?”

“Oh, yeah, the crowd’s calling for you to take the stage. Listen.”

We leaned our heads out the door, and listened for a second; sure enough, echoing down the hall was the chanting of “Pon-3! Pon-3! Pon-3!”

“Well aren’t you the luckiest stallion in Equestria,” Vinyl said, slapping me on the back, “you get to see me work my magic twice tonight.”

Chapter 4

“So where did you and Vinyl go?” Stratocaster asked, as I sat down at a small, round table with him and Octavia.

“Oh, uh...” Probably not a good idea to tell him the truth, I thought. “We were dancing.”

Octavia gave me a wink and a nod, but didn’t say anything; she knew her coltfriend wouldn’t like hearing what Vinyl and I had really been doing.

Strat, on the other hand, eyed me suspiciously.

“Dancing, huh? That’s funny, I don't remember seeing you out there.”

“Well, uh, you know, it’s dark, and there are a lot of ponies here; I’m sure you probably just missed us.” I laughed sheepishly, trying to think of anyway that I might change the subject. “So, Octavia, how are you feeling?”

The mare giggled, as she pulled her collar down, and pointed at her neck. I looked at the area that she was indicating, and breathed a sigh of relief; the spot was still there, but just barely. In fact, if I hadn’t known that it had been there before, I probably wouldn’t have seen it.

“I’m still feeling a little loopy, and I can’t seem to stop laughing, but I feel much more relaxed than I was.”

“Thank Celestia for that,” Strat said. “Seriously Tavi, you really wore me out on the dancefloor.”

I bowed to both ponies apologetically.

“Again, I'm really sorry that that happened to you, Octavia; I honestly had no idea that my tea mixed with alcohol could have that sort of effect on a pony.”

To my surprise, Stratocaster was the one who spoke first.

“It’s alright,” he said. What shocked me even more was that he said it with a smile. “You didn’t do it on purpose, and the side effects weren’t permanent, so no harm done.”

Stratocaster stuck out his hand, and I took it, happy to know that he wasn’t upset with me.

“Well then, I don’t know about the rest of you, but all that dancing has made me thirsty. You two want anything?”

Octavia nodded.

“Just water; Celestia knows what’ll happen if I have anymore alcohol.”

The three of us laughed, as Strat got up from the table.

“Hey, Zander, wanna help me with the drinks?”

I quickly nodded, and rose from the table, eager to keep the mood between us positive.

Stratocaster led me around the orgy of dancing ponies (who by now were just moving to prerecorded music while they waited for Vinyl to set up) over to the counter. I thought he was going to wave the bartender over to get our drinks, but instead, he turned to speak to me.

“I’m sorry I got so upset earlier,” he said, looking rather embarrassed, “I tend to be a little sensitive when it comes to pranks, and I thought you or my sister were trying to screw with me, so I snapped.”

I placed a hand on his shoulder to let him know I understood.

“Strat, you had every right to be angry; I know I’d lose it too if someone did that to my marefriend.”

“Yeah, well, knowing your marefriend, she’d probably get some sort of thrill out of it.” Strat waved the bartender over, and ordered three glasses of water. “Speaking of Vinyl, there was something else that I wanted to talk to you about.”

Here it comes, I thought, the “what are your intentions with my sister” speech.

“You should know that Vinyl’s been with more than her fair share of stallions, and most of them have been complete assholes who wanted nothing more than to get into her pants.”

I nodded my understanding, remembering what Vinyl had told me about her ex-coltfriend, and how he thought of her as nothing more than a friend with benefits.

“Now, she and I don’t exactly get along, but I still care for her - she is my twin sister after all - and I need to know that you won’t treat her like the others did.”

Strat looked me dead in the eyes, possibly looking for some sort of hint that I was just like the others, but I just smiled at him reassuringly.

“You don’t have to worry, Stratocaster; I really like Vinyl, and I would never try to take advantage of her like that. I promise you, I’m not that kind of a stallion.”

Strat seemed pleased with my response, because he held out his hand, and we shook again.

A few seconds later, the bartender returned with three glasses of water.

“Here you are lads,” he said, sliding the glasses in front of us. “That’ll be three bits.” I went for my satchel, but Strat was quicker on the draw, and tossed three gold coins the bartender’s way.

“You know, Zander, I really do hope you last longer than Vinyl’s other coltfriends; Celestia knows a stable relationship might actually do her some good.”

“I’ll do my bes-”

The music that had been blasting over the speakers suddenly died, and the lights went out, bathing the club in pitch darkness. At first I thought that something must have happened to the power, but then I heard the chanting start.

“Pon-3! Pon-3! Pon-3! Pon-3!”

A low bass line began to pulse like a heart, with a beautiful melody played on a keyboard, and an electronic drum beat on top of it. It started off rather slow, and quiet, but soon began to swell. When the song reached it’s climax, it suddenly stopped.

“Pon-3! Pon-3! Pon-3!”

“Time to drop the beat!” Came Vinyl’s voice over a loudspeaker. Then there was a sound, like somepony scratching a record, a flash of magenta light, and-

BOOM!

The music picked back up again, but much louder, faster, and with a lot more electronic sounds. Now I don’t know a whole lot about club music, but I could definitely hear a huge difference between what Vinyl was doing, and what had been playing earlier. I couldn’t quite explain it, but there was something more upbeat, something more beautiful, and fun than any of the other songs that I had heard since I entered the Apple Core Lounge, yet there was nice hard edge to it that struck at something in my heart. It was pure Vinyl Scratch.

I looked past the crowd of excitedly dancing and cheering ponies, to the raised stage, where Vinyl was stationed behind a large setup of turntables and mixing boards, and various other pieces of equipment that I couldn’t even begin to guess the names of. She looked so natural up there, so happy, swaying to the music, as she added effects, made minor adjustments to the melody, and pumped her fist in the air. To me, it seemed impossible for one pony to make such amazing music on her own, but she did, and she did it with such ease. Even Strat, who clearly wasn’t into this style of music, looked impressed with what his sister was creating.

Once we snapped out of our trance, and things began to return to normal, Stratocaster and I made our way back to the table, and sat down. Before we even had time to settle down, Octavia snatched the water out of her coltfriend’s hand, took a huge swig of it, then set it on the table.

“Come on,” she said, taking Strat’s hand, and leading him back towards the dance floor.

Stratocaster rolled his eyes, but chuckled, as he put his glass down, and got back up.

“Here we go again,” he said, as they left to join the mass of ponies.

I went to wave them off, but Octavia doubled back, and grabbed my hand.

“You’re coming too, Zander,” she said, tugging me along. “Vinyl will be upset if her coltfriend isn’t out dancing to her music.”

She was right; what kind of coltfriend would I be if I didn’t get up and support my marefriend?

“But I don’t really have anypony to dance with.”

“Just dance with us.”

“Really? But-”

“Dude, it’s alright,” Strat added. “Despite what Vinyl might have taught you, you don’t have to dance like you’re about to start rutting on the dance floor.”

As if to demonstrate, Octavia and Stratocaster went over, and joined group of mares and stallions who were just sort of bouncing along to the music, and pumping their fists in the air. It seemed harmless enough; certainly far less explicit than how Vinyl and I had been dancing earlier. That looks simple enough, I thought, as I went over to them, and began mimicking what they were doing as best as I could.

It was very awkward; no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t find the right moves to fit in with the others. Luckily everypony was either too drunk to notice, or they just didn’t care, because nopony looked at me, or pointed and laughed.

As Vinyl seamlessly went from one song into the next, a buxom, blonde, pegasus mare in a red dress that barely covered her thighs, walked up, and without saying a word began to try and dance with me. Feeling slightly uncomfortable by the situation, I apologized to her, and gave her some bullshit excuse before turning back to Octavia and Stratocaster. Throughout most of Vinyl's set, I continued to find myself in similar scenarios; a mare or two would make their way over, and begin dancing with me. Whenever they did, I would politely excuse myself, and return to my little group; I just didn't feel comfortable dancing with other ponies, especially when my marefriend was right there, probably watching. Eventually the abundance of attention I was receiving had become so overwhelming, that I had to leave the dance floor altogether. Maybe it was out of courtesy to me, or maybe they had just had enough of dancing; whatever the reason, I was soon joined at the table by Octavia and Strat, the former sliding her chair next to her coltfriend's so she could rest her head on his shoulder.

We spent the next half hour just sitting there, and talking. Stratocaster recalled the first time he ever saw Octavia; a sweet story about seeing her at a high school music competition, and for him it was love at first sight. He also told me how by some miracle, a couple of years later Vinyl had become Octavia’s college roommate, and how when Stratocaster and Vinyl were at their cousin’s wedding, who should happen to be there playing cello in a string quartet but Octavia. The two were then formally introduced, and they’d been together ever since. It was a pretty adorable story, made all the more sweet by how the two looked at each other and held hands as they told it.

“So how did you meet Vinyl,” Strat had asked, when they had finished telling their tale.

Not wanting to be rude, I told them about that night, about how Vinyl had come into my uncle’s bar just as I was closing up, hoping to drink away her troubles after she caught her former coltfriend cheating on her. I told them about how she and I bonded over our personal troubles (without telling them anything specific about my past), and how we were both somehow able to find some sort of solace in each other. The only parts I felt were best left out were how I stripped Vinyl out of her wet clothes, how she had come on to me, and pretty much anything about the next morning before she left. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Octavia had been filled in on some of the more sensitive details, but I was sure Stratocaster definitely wouldn’t want to hear any of it.

When Vinyl was finally finished with her set, she thanked the ponies for being “fucking amazing,” then flipped the switch, turning the prerecorded music back on, before packing up, and leaving the stage. On her way over to where we were sitting, she stopped by the bar for a few seconds, then made her way over to our table, carrying a tray with four shot glasses.

“Honestly, Vinyl,” Stratocaster groaned, as his sister sat down, and started passing out drinks, “don’t you think we’ve had enough to drink?”

Vinyl ignored her brother.

“Here's to another successful show,” she said, raising her glass, and then downing it.

Strat and I looked at each other, shrugged, then did our shots as well.

As if she had forgotten her protests from earlier about not wanting any more alcohol, Octavia reached for her glass, and brought it to her lips.

“Whoa, hey,” Strat said, snatching the little glass out of Octavia’s hands. “You might want to play it safe with the alcohol, Tavi, remember? What if the poison joke reacts again?”

He was right; since I had no idea how long poison joke remained in the system after alcohol consumption, and physical activity, I had to agree that it would be best if Octavia refrained from drinking alcohol for the rest of the night.Thankfully, Vinyl saw things the same way, and decided not to push it. Instead, she turned her attention to me.

“I thought you said you didn’t dance, zebra boy,” she said rather teasingly.

I felt myself blush, feeling rather embarrassed.

“Y-yeah, well, your music was really good, and I just couldn’t help myself.”

Vinyl gave me a wide smile, looking rather pleased. Then that happy look quickly turned sly.

“I also saw that you were very popular out there. Did you get to dance with a good piece of tail?”

I shook my head.

“I didn’t think it would be appropriate to dance with another mare.”

“Dancing’s fine, I just don’t want you to take one of them out back so she can suck your cock.”

“Oh come on, Vinyl, that happened one time,” came a voice from behind me.

I turned around and saw that a large pegasus stallion, with a dark gray coat, an even darker mane, a row of silver piercings in one ear, and his left arm in a cast was standing behind me.

“Nightshade,” Vinyl muttered. As she stared at the stallion, a wave of emotions, ranging from sadness, to hatred, seemed to wash over the mare’s face. “What part of ‘stay the fuck away from me do you not understand. Or did you come here because you want me to break your other arm?”

The stallion just chuckled, and gave a confident smile.

“I was just poppin’ in for a drink, maybe see about pickin’ up a hot mare. I heard you performin’ up there; you sounded great.”

“Well thanks, that means a lot.” She gave the stallion a very sarcastic smile, and the middle finger. “Now why don’t you run along, before I find a way to make you literally go fuck yourself.”

Nightshade’s smile faded a little, but that didn’t stop him from leaning in, and placing his hands tenderly on my marefriend’s shoulders. Must. Contain. Desire. To punch this guy, I thought, gripping the sides of my chair to prevent myself from attacking the stallion who was getting a little too friendly with Vinyl.

“Come on, Vinyl why don’t we get outta here, and go back to my place for a little fun?”

Vinyl shuddered with disgust at the sound of Nightshade’s voice so close to her ear.

“Ok, first of all, I am here with my coltfriend,” she pointed at me, and all I could do was glare at the stallion standing behind her in response, “and second, I broke up with you because I found out that you’re nothing but an asshole scumbag, and I want nothing to do with you. So Fuck OFF!”

I’m not really sure who moved first, but the minute we saw the rage in Nightshade’s eyes, and the way his grip on Vinyl’s shoulders tightened, Stratocaster and I jumped out of our seats, and rushed the stallion, pushing him away from Vinyl.

“She said get lost, asshole,” Stratocaster said, getting in between Nightshade and his sister.

Nightshade just chuckled, acting like he hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Relax, Strat, I’m just tryin’ to have a nice friendly conversation with your sis.”

“Didn’t look too friendly to me,” I added, standing next to Strat.

The stallion’s mouth formed a rather creepy grin.

“So you’re the new meat, huh?” Nightshade asked. “Hope she’s not ridin’ you too rough. Vinyl can be quite the dirty filly, but in the best way imaginable. Why, I remember this one time we got hammered after a show, and Vinyl was so fucking horny, so we ducked into the back alley, and fucked like we were trying to repopulate Equest-”

Wham!

I couldn’t listen to him talk about Vinyl anymore. I raised my fist, and charged at Nightshade, landing a blow on his left shoulder, knocking him back a couple of feet.

“Zander, stop, you don’t have to do that,” Vinyl cried from somewhere behind me, but I wasn’t listening; nopony was going to get away with talking about my marefriend like that.

I went in for a second strike, but Nightshade anticipated my move, jumping out of the way, and bringing his elbow down on my back, right on one of my scars. I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back the cry of pain that just wanted to escape my throat.

“Oh my Luna! Zander, are you alright?” Vinyl called.

I wasn’t. In fact, I was in excruciating pain, but I didn’t want anypony to know that, especially not Octavia and Stratocaster who knew nothing of my injuries. So I nodded that I was alright, and straightened back up to face Nightshade. When I turned around to confront that asshole again, I was relieved to find that the burly bouncer had come in from outside, and now had Nightshade in some kind of lock, and was dragging him outside.

“I told you, you wouldn’t be let back in here if you were gonna be starting something,” He said, as he pushed him through the front door. "And I don't want to see you in here, harassing our patrons ever again."

When it was finally all over, Black Velvet came over to check on us.

"Everything alright here?" He asked.

Vinyl nodded.

"Yeah. Thanks for getting that bastard out of here."

"I'm just sorry I let his sorry ass in here in the first place. He said he was just gonna have a few drinks, promised he'd behave himself. I swear I had no idea that he was gonna blow up like that."

"It's alright, I'm just lucky to have had two brave stallions her to look out for me." She wrapped her arms around me and Strat, and squeezed affectionately, the sudden application of pressure on me back making me wince. Vinyl must have noticed, because she called after the bouncer as he was returning to his post.

"Hey Velvet," she said, feigning a yawn, "could you call us a cab. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm about ready to hit the hay."

Stratocaster checked his watch.

"Sweet Luna, it's already one in the morning" Stratocaster groaned, "I gotta get up early and help the band pack up our stuff before we go back to Canterlot tomorrow."

"Sure thing, kids," Black Velvet said, taking a cellphone from his pocket, "I'll have a cab here for you in fifteen minutes."

True to his word, fifteen minutes later, a big, yellow taxi pulled up outside of the Apple Core Lounge, and the four of us clambered in. By this time, the stinging in my back had thankfully subsided. Still, that didn't stop Vinyl from shooting concerned looks my way every five minutes, as the cab hurdled down the still fairly busy streets of Manehatten.

When we finally reached the subway station entrance that we had first emerged from, I got out, and tossed some bits to the driver. To my surprise, Vinyl Scratch climbed out of the cab right after me.

“I’m gonna make sure zebra boy makes it home alright,” she told Octavia and Stratocaster, “he’s new to this part of the city, and he might get on the wrong train or something.”

I blushed at Vinyl’s joke. What’s sad is it’s probably true, I thought.

“Hey, Vinyl,” Strat called, just as Vinyl was closing the door, “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for accusing you earlier for what happened to Octavia.”

Vinyl looked elated.

“Awww, that’s alright, bro; I know I was an obvious suspect, what with all the grief I've given you over the years.”

The two siblings exchanged smiles, and a brief wave.

“Have a goodnight you two,” Octavia said, waving at us.

“Yeah, you too. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Vinyl was about to close the door to the taxi, but leaned back in again. “And when I say that, I mean that I want you to do everything I would do. I mean it Tavi; when I get back to the dorm, I want to find our room looking like a bomb went off, and reeking of sweat and shame.”

“Get out of here Vinyl,” Strat said, pushing his giggling sister out of the cab, and closing the door.

We watched as the cab drove off down the street, then around the corner, and out of sight. Then Vinyl took me by the hand, and smiled her rare, sweet smile, as she led me down the stairs towards the subway, and back home.

Chapter 5

The ride home was very peaceful. Since it was so early in the morning, we were the only ponies in our car, which was a welcome respite from the noisy nightclub that we had just left. It wasn’t much, but having Vinyl sitting next to me made me feel more comfortable than I had all evening, including the time that we spent together in the Apple Core Lounge’s private room.

When the train finally came to a stop, we got out, and began walking the three blocks it took to get back to my apartment.

“Hey, Zander,” Vinyl said, leaning up against me as we walked, “Are you sure you're alright?"

I just smiled at her.

"I am now," I told her. "When Nightshade hit me, his arm landed on one of my scars. I won’t lie to you, it had really, really hurt, but trust me, I'm fine now."

Vinyl stopped walking, and stepped behind me.

"Where did he hit you?" She asked.

"It's fine, Vinyl, honestly."

But she didn't seem to believe me. I sighed, and, after making sure nopony was watching, lifted up the back of my shirt to show her which scar Nightshade had struck. Suddenly I felt something warm press up against the old wound. I looked back to see what it was, and found Vinyl had leaned forward, and planted a little kiss on it.

"I’m sorry about what happened with Nightshade tonight; that shouldn’t have been a battle you had to fight.”

I lowered my shirt, brought Vinyl in close, and draped arm over her shoulders.

“It’s alright,” I said, “you’re my marefriend now, and I won’t let anypony treat you like that.”

Vinyl reached up and squeezed my hand.

“You really are a gentlecolt through and through, aren’t you?”

“I try.”

"Well thank Celestia for that." She went to take a step forward, but stopped, and turned to look at me. "Oh, and if you tell anypony that I have a soft side, I'll rip your little colt parts off, got it?"

She looked me right in the eyes to show me she wasn't joking.

"Uh, yeah, I won't tell a soul."

Then her face softened again, and we continued on our way.

We walked the rest of the way in silence, just enjoying the simplicity of having somepony next to us. When we reached the front door to my apartment building, I turned to face Vinyl, and held her in my arms.

“You know, a proper gentlecolt wouldn’t make his marefriend travel back to her home halfway across the city on her own, especially at this time of night.”

Vinyl looked up at me, and bit her lower lip, as I slipped my hand into my pocket, and withdrew my house keys. I barely had the door unlocked, before Vinyl had her arms around me, her hands sliding down the front of my jeans. Jeez, wait until we get upstairs first, I thought, as I struggled to get inside.

The stairs were very tricky to navigate with Vinyl rubbing my chest with one hand, and fondling my testicles with the other, but we made it somehow. Thankfully Vinyl waited until we were actually in my apartment with the door closed before she undid my belt, and practically ripped my jeans off. Then she walked in front of me, and looked me up and down.

“So, are you gonna pussy out on me like you did last time?” She asked, with a sly smile.

I shook my head.

“After what we did earlier? Not a chance.”

I wrapped my arms around Vinyl, and pulled her in for a kiss, letting the instincts that had driven me back in the private room of the Apple Core Lounge take control, wasting no time in exploring the increasingly familiar cavity with my tongue. As I did, my hands began to do some exploring on their own, starting with her bare shoulders, massaging them, enjoying how soft and warm they felt in my hands. Then they made their way down her sides, doing their best to memorize the contours of her body, until they found the waist of her shorts. It’s only fair, I thought, as I carefully unbuttoned them, and slid them down her legs. I brought my hands back up, placed them firmly on her rump (which was practically bare, thanks to the thong she was wearing), and hoisted her up, so that her head was level to mine. Vinyl was quick to follow suit, wrapping her legs around my waist, and her arms around my neck, not once allowing her lips to leave mine.

With my legs now free, I began to make my way towards the bedroom, stumbling a few times in the darkness. Thankfully my grip on Vinyl didn’t loosen; dropping her would have surely killed the mood right then and there.

At long last we reached the bedroom. Fueled by alcohol, and adrenalin from my confrontation with her ex-coltfriend, I undid Vinyl's grip on me, and tossed her onto the bed, which squeaked in protest, as the mare hit it. Seeing Vinyl lying there, I took no time peeling off my shirt, and pouncing on her, attacking her neck with a series of sloppy kisses.

“Mmmm - I want you to fuck me soooo bad," she moaned, squirming to free herself from her tank top and bra, allowing me access to her breasts.

Now, I wasn’t going to turn down an open invitation, especially with my brain so blinded with a drunken lust, so I directed my attention lower, licking her just above her collarbone, and tasting a familiar salty flavor. Then I went a little lower, and a little lower, and...

I stopped just as I reached the soft mound that was her left breast. Alright, I thought, my face turning red, as my eyes zeroed in on my target, you can do this. Just remember everything you’ve studied, and you should be fine. Of course I knew that that was all bullshit, considering all of my knowledge about sex, and how to please a mare (aside from the very awkward conversation my uncle had had with me when I was fourteen) came from the "Stallions Ask," and "Pro Sex Tips" sections from my collection of Playcolts, and Luna knows how reliable that information was. Still, it was better than going in completely blind.

"You ok down there, big guy," Vinyl asked, after a few seconds had passed since my lips had last made contact with her.

It’s now or never, Zander. I took a deep breath, and dove in, taking Vinyl's already erect nipple between my teeth, and giving it a gentle tug. This was met with a sharp gasp, and a shudder that shot through her entire body. I felt relief wash over me; off to a good start, I thought, as I went in again, this time clamping my lips around her, and flicking at her with my tongue.

While my lips focused on her left breast, my hand took care of her right, massaging it, and pinching her nipple between my middle and ring fingers, giving it a series of gentle squeezes in rhythm to the flicks of my tongue that attacked the other.

"Fuck, that's good;" Vinyl sighed, wrapping her arms tightly around my back, holding me in place, not seeming to mind the unusually fleshy gashes against her hands.

I tried my best not to smile with pride, that even somepony as inexperienced as me could elicit such a reaction from a mare.

As my hand continued feeling up Vinyl's bosom, I felt a sudden familiar, warm tingling envelop the limb, telling me that the mare was using her magic on me again. Without warning, she levitated my hand off her chest, and brought it down the front of her panties, and between her legs.

Holy shit, I thought, as I felt the overwhelming heat emanating from her moist marehood. My hand started to move on its own, the middle finger gliding gently across her slit. At first I thought Vinyl was still casting her spell, but the lack of her warm magic told me that I was doing it on my own. It was odd; I'd never ever done something like this before, but it felt surprisingly nat-

"Ooooh, yeah..." Vinyl moaned, as I accidentally applied too much pressure on my middle finger, and sank into her pussy, parting her lips enough for hot mare juice to trickle past my fingers.

"Mmmm - stir me up inside."

I didn't say anything, but I did as I was told, slowly flexing my finger open and closed, feeling the soft walls of her marehood with the very tip of my finger. But I didn't stop there; as my finger went to work on Vinyl's insides, I bit down lightly on her nipple again, and gave it a tug, only this time I didn't let go right away.

Vinyl was quick to let me know that she was thoroughly enjoying herself; every time I drove my finger into her, or tugged at her nipple, Vinyl would let out a low moan, and her body would spasm, as if she had just received a tiny electric shock. Her legs clamped around my hand, making sure it couldn’t escape. Of course she wasn’t the only one who was excited; just touching Vinyl in such an intimate way had been enough to make my stallionhood reach full strength.

To my surprise, Vinyl decided to join me between her legs, pushing on my ring finger, forcing it to join its neighbor inside her sopping wet pussy.

"Give it - haaaa - give it to me hard," she said, retracting her hand, allowing me to take over.

But I didn't. Instead, I removed my fingers, and sat up, taking in the beautiful sight of Vinyl's small, naked body laying sprawled out in front of me.

"What the fuck are you doing?" She groaned.

I just gave her the same mischievous grin she was quite fond of giving me, then moved my hands to her hips, hooked my fingers around her thong, and pulled it down, past her knees, and over one foot, leaving it to hang off her left ankle. There it was; glistening in the dim light of the streetlight that came in through the gaps in my blind, was Vinyl’s marehood. Alright, I thought, lowering myself back down on top of the mare’s body, time to return the favor. I brought my lips back to Vinyl’s breast, and kissed it; bit it; licked it. Then, with my tongue still out, I dragged it down her body, leaving a thin trail of saliva along the length of her stomach.

When I was mere inches away from her marehood, I stopped, and pulled away; instead of going in for a direct approach, I decided to start with the inside of her right thigh, running my tongue up the limb, until I came to where it met the rest of her body.

“Noooo,” Vinyl cried. “Stop - Oh Luna - stop teasing me, you fffuuuuck.” She tried to reach my head with a trembling hand and force my face into her privates, but I deflected it with a quick spell, knocking it away so that I could continue without further interference.

I continued licking the inside of Vinyl’s leg a few more times, before finally turning my attention to her marehood. Even then, I refused to dive straight into it. Despite Vinyl’s halfhearted protests for me to stop teasing her, I started drawing my tongue along the very outside of her entrance, outlining her lips in saliva.

“Oh - haaaa - come on,” Vinyl panted, wiggling her hips, trying to direct her pussy towards my mouth. “ I neeeeed thisssssss.”

Sounds like she’s had enough, I thought, relieved that the advice from the magazine had actually turned out to be helpful.

At long last, I lined myself up with her marehood, and pressed my tongue against it. The second I applied just a little bit of pressure to her lips, I was met with a sound that was part moan, part sigh of relief, followed by a flood of juices that flowed down my tongue and into my mouth. That’s a lot stronger than the sample she gave me earlier, I thought, going in for another lick. I remembered reading about how some stallions refused to perform oral on their marefriends because they didn’t like the taste. Those stallions are idiots, I thought, enjoying the salty sweetness of my marefriend with every brush of my tongue against her entrance. Just the flavor of her was enough to drive me into a feral state, making me even hungrier for the mare’s body.

One of the magazines had also listed different techniques one could use while going down on a mare, but I opted to keep things simple, using my tongue to trace shapes like triangles and circles across her winking marehood. Occasionally, I would dart in between her lips, tickling her insides in a similar (albeit less effective) way as I had with my finger. And Vinyl was loving it.

“Fuuuuu…” she gasped, as her legs locked around my head, holding me in place, as a fresh wave of her love juices flowed forth.

After lapping away the fluids, I directed my attention to the little nub just above her slit that had made itself prominent during my oral treatment. To start, I gave it an experimental flick of my tongue. Vinyl screamed, and nearly leapt into the air, like somepony had just touched her with a hot poker. That was all it took to encourage me go after her clit again, and again, and again. Finally, I honored Vinyl’s earlier request, and slowly inserted two fingers into her passage, and began to pump them in and out in rhythm with my tongue.

“Fuck,” she cried, using a hand to bury my face deeper into her pelvis. “FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUUUUUUUUCK!”

Vinyl’s legs clamped around my neck so tight, I thought I was going to choke. The sudden crescendo in her voice, the burst of magenta light from her horn, and the fluids that gushed out, drenching the hair around my mouth told me that Vinyl had cum. Since her legs were holding me firmly in place, I could only lie there with my muzzle buried in her soaking marehood, feeling her body writhe under the pressure of her intense orgasm.

After what felt like hours, her grip around me loosened enough for me to slip out of her grasp. While I massaged my sore neck, I watched Vinyl’s lithe, shuddering form, her chest heaving, as she gasped for breath, her eyes not focusing on anything; it was the hottest thing I’d ever seen. Certainly much sexier than anything in Playcolt.

I lay down next to Vinyl, and wrapped an arm around her, holding her close while she rode out the last waves of her orgasm.

“You - hooo - have no - oh Luna - no idea how much I needed that,” Vinyl panted, when she finally came down from her blissful high. She leaned in, and kissed my cheek. “Sorry about the mess; I tend to get a little wet when I cum.”

“A little wet?” I said, touching the damp spot on my face. “It feels like I just got out of the shower.”

Vinyl just rolled her eyes, as she slipped out of my grasp, got off the bed, and on wobbly legs, went over to my dresser, coming back a few seconds later with a small towel. As I lay there, she leaned over me, and wiped my face, getting it as clean as she could.

When Vinyl was done, she tossed the towel aside, and climbed back up beside me. She placed a hand on my chest, making a trail down my body, sending a pleasant chill down my spine, as she went from my pecks, to my belly button, over my boxers, to my very erect stallionhood.

“I see you’re as at attention as a Canterlot guard,” she teased, slowly stroking my rod.

I chuckled, as the attention to my stallionhood began to rekindle the primal instincts that had begun to diminish since Vinyl’s orgasm faded. I kicked off my boxers, and, to the aroused mare’s delight, I turned to her, gave her a sudden push, knocking her onto her back, and climbed on top of her. I leaned in close, so that I could kiss her. Before our lips could meet, Vinyl pressed a finger against my lips.

“Tell me what you want to do to me,” she teased.

I groaned; she knew what I wanted to do, so why did I have to say it?

“I want,” I took a deep breath before forming the words, “to fuck you.”

Vinyl smiled, as she reached behind me, and pulled me close, locking our lips together. Then her legs parted, allowing me to climb in between them.

“Here I go,” I whispered, lowering myself towards her marehood.

My first attempt missed completely, and I ended up hitting the wrong hole.

“Whoa there, big boy,” she said with a startled laugh, “I don’t do anal…not on the second date anyway.”

She used her magic on my stallionhood, redirecting it until I was lined up correctly. With her go ahead, I proceeded forward again, this time hitting my mark.

We both let out a sharp gasp as my stallionhood invaded her marehood. The overwhelming heat and moisture left over from her first orgasm felt amazing against the sensitive nerves of my penis, sending electric jolts of pleasure through my body, as I inched my way in. It was a tight fit, but not uncomfortably so, and it was so wet that I had no problem thrusting into her. Holy shit, I thought. Neither masturbation, nor Vinyl’s blowjob could have prepared me for the sensations that arose, the deeper I sank into the mare’s pussy.

At long last, my journey came to an end when the tip of my stallionhood crashed into Vinyl’s cervix, and our pelvises met. Somepony would have thought the two of us had just run a marathon, the way we were panting, and sweating. Before Vinyl had a chance to catch her breath, I pulled back out until only a few inches remained inside, and then I thrust in again, much faster, and much harder than I had before. It took me a few test tries, but I was able to find a nice rhythm, rocking my hips back and forth, pulling out half way, then pushing forward, using as much force as I could muster to bury myself as deep as I could inside Vinyl's marehood.

Vinyl was very vocal, moaning, and screaming, every time my hips came crashing into hers. Of course she wasn’t the only one being overcome with passion; every time I buried myself in her hot, soft pussy, I’d grunt, and growl like a wild, Everfree beast.

“Oh, Celestia!” She cried. “I was right, you feel so good inside me.” She wrapped her arms around me, and lifted her lower half off the bed to meet me mid thrust.

If I could have, I would have chuckled at her comment, but all of my focus was being split between keeping up a steady pace, and not letting my arousal get the better of me too early. Vinyl looked up at me with half lidded eyes, and a smile on her face, like a little filly who had just eaten the most delicious piece of cake in all of Equestria. She looked so cute in that moment, that I couldn’t help but lean in and kiss her. Not a wild, tongue tangling kiss, but a simple meeting of lips. I was surprised by how much Vinyl enjoyed this little gesture of affection, letting out a quiet hum to let me know that she approved. And that was when I struck.

Just when we were having a nice, tender moment, I pulled back, and then thrust my cock into her as hard as I could, catching her off guard.

Thump!

The force of my movement knocked Vinyl’s head against the headboard of my bed

“- Gaaaahhh - fuck.”

When I realized what had happened, I stopped, worried that my over enthusiasm might have led to Vinyl getting hurt.

“Are - huuh - are you alright?”

To answer my question, Vinyl pressed her lips against mine, and jammed her tongue in my mouth, lashing it about like a mad mare. Then she pulled away, and released me from her clutches.

“Get on your fucking back,” she said, a fire burning in her eyes that told me to do what I was instructed, or else. And I did.

With an audible, wet squelching sound, I slipped out of Vinyl, and rolled off of her, and onto my back. Then she climbed on top and, resting on her knees, straddled me backwards so that her plush rump, and beautiful, flawless back were facing me.

“You might want to hold on to something,” she said, as she rose up, and held herself above my stallionhood. A trickle of her excited juices dripped from her lower lips onto my dick, and then-

Wham!

She brought herself down, burying my cock deep inside her in one go. Both of us moaned at the sudden impact, and my fingers became entangled in my sheets, as if I was trying to hold on for dear life.

I was completely at Vinyl’s mercy now, watching her as she rose and fell, impaling herself on my stallionhood. It wasn’t hard to understand why stallions would like this position; with her tail pulled to the side, I was given a perfect view of my cock disappearing into Vinyl’s vagina. It was pure ecstasy. While I knew it must have been impossible, I could have sworn I had felt myself get even harder, and maybe just a little bit thicker, as it vanished, and reappeared.

My eyes went a little higher to Vinyl’s ass, so perfectly round, and soft enough so that it jiggled every time she came crashing down. It was just begging for me to grab it. So I did. The moment her rump was pressed against me again, my hands shot up from beside me, and held onto it. I began massaging the malleable orbs between my fingers, spreading them apart, squeezing them back together, digging my fingers into them as hard as I could. Vinyl was forced to cease her rhythmic rising and falling, while I fondled her butt, and instead opted to rock back and forth, and side to side, pressing my stallionhood against every possible inch of her insides.

“Sweet, fucking Luna,” I moaned, as the new technique sent blissful sensations up and down my spine. I don’t know what came over me then, but my right hand removed itself from Vinyl’s backside, pulled back until it was a foot away, then came flying down hard, right on her music note cutie mark.

“Ahhhh!” Vinyl cried. She glanced back at me, a shocked look on her face, which transformed into a devious smile. Suddenly she stopped her movements altogether, and ignited her horn.

“Naughty little colt,” she purred. Out of nowhere, something reached up, and wrapped itself around my wrists, pulling them away from Vinyl's body; it was my bedsheets, shimmering in a soft magenta glow. Without climbing off of my stallionhood, Vinyl spun around so we were face to face, then leaned in close so our noses were almost touching. “You like slapping mare’s asses don’t you? Well I’m not going to give you that pleasure.”

My arms, still tied up in my sheets, rose off the bed, and floated up behind my head, where they were bound tightly together so I couldn’t move them.

“Now this - uhn - seems familiar,” I said, remembering the morning after Vinyl had first stayed over, when we had found ourselves in almost the exact same position.

The only answer I got was Vinyl sitting up, placing her hands on my chest, and rocking her hips back and forth.

Out of instinct, I tried to move my arms, wanting to do nothing more than to hold my marefriend as she rode me, but Vinyl wouldn’t allow it; all I could do was lie back and enjoy the view, and the massive waves of pleasure that were shooting through my stallionhood. And I was content to do so. The look of pure lust on her face, the way she bit her lower lip to hold back the cries of passion that threatened to escape, the way her tiny breasts jiggled with her every movement; it was enough to send shivers down my spine, which mixed with the intense tingling sensations that were growing between my legs. If Vinyl kept this up, then I wasn’t going to last much longer.

Vinyl’s fingers dug into my skin as she began to pick up speed, switching from moving her hips to rising her entire body, and lowering herself, driving my stallionhood as deep into her pussy as she could.

“Fuck, zebra boy,” she said, her voice a mix between a raspy squeak, and a whisper, “Zander, you’re - hooo - I think you’re about to get soaked again.”

Vinyl quickly collapsed on top of me, and cradled my head in her hands, pulling me up to meet her lips. When her tongue parted my lips, she released a loud scream into my mouth, and gripped my mane tightly as she came. A flood of juices were building up in her passage, and had started to drip out past my stallionhood, becoming absorbed by my leg hairs.

I don’t know where I found the strength, but I was finally able to slip my arms free of my bonds. Since Vinyl was too busy riding out her own orgasmic storm, I decided to take the initiative; without giving her a warning, I wrapped my arms around the mare, and rolled her over so that we were back in the position that we had started in. Then I attacked her pussy with long, fast thrusts, sending her from one climax to another. With that fresh wave of fluids, and the way the walls of her marehood clamped down on me, I reached my peak.

“Grrrrffffuuuuck,” I growled, as my horn bust with a blue light, and I buried my twitching cock into her, filling her womb with what felt like a never ending supply of semen.

My hands and feet felt numb, my mind was blank, and Vinyl’s face kept swimming in and out of focus; this was far more intense than the orgasm I had experienced back at the nightclub. Even without the use of my senses, I continued to thrust until the last spurts of jizz dribbled out of the head of my dick.

Finally, things began to return to normal, and I rolled off of Vinyl, completely spent. For the longest time, the two of us laid their, saying absolutely nothing, as we tried to catch our breaths. I can’t believe it, I thought, staring blankly at the ceiling, I actually did it. Before meeting Vinyl, I’d nearly given into the idea that I’d never make that special connection with somepony; now there was a mare lying beside me in my bed, coming down from the throes of our love making.

Without looking over, I sought Vinyl’s hand with my own. She flinched when I made contact with it, and almost pulled away, but at the last second, she took my hand in hers.

“That was better than I could have imagined,” Vinyl whispered, as she shifted her body, and leaned up against me.

“Mhmm,” I agreed. “Not bad for my first time, huh?”

Vinyl shot up in bed, and looked down at me.

“That was not your first time.” She said it like it was the most unbelievable thing in all of Equestria.

“Come on, Vinyl, how could I have ever been with a mare before when I couldn’t even take my shirt off in front of one?”

Vinyl thought on that for a moment, then lowered herself back down, resting her head on my shoulder.

“Jeez, Zander, why the hell didn’t you tell me you were a virgin?”

I shrugged.

“Would you have acted any differently if you knew?”

“Well, no. I mean, I might not have been so rough; wouldn’t have used any bondage…”

“But then that wouldn’t have been you, right?”

Vinyl opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it.

“Look, it wasn’t like I was really saving myself or anything; all I really wanted was for my first time to be with somepony that I really care about, and neither of us holding back.”

“Well, you certainly got your wish.”

We laid there for a second, just enjoying the feeling of our warm bodies pressed together. Vinyl was absentmindedly running her fingers up and down my chest, when her horn lit up again. I thought she might be casting another spell on me, possibly hoping to tie me up for a second round of rutting (one which I didn’t think I would be able to muster the strength for), but that wasn’t the case at all. I watched as something black came floating up from the floor, and landed on Vinyl’s lap in a heap. It was my t-shirt. I held out my hand, expecting her to pass it to me, but she didn’t; instead, she slipped it over her head and arms, and pulled it down.

“There,” she said with a bit of a yawn, as she straightened out my shirt, and snuggled back up to me. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”

I couldn’t agree with her more; sleep had been threatening to pull me under ever since I’d climbed off of her. Seeing as Vinyl was more than ready to pass out, I decided to give in to my desire for sleep.

“Goodnight, Vinyl,” I said, giving her one last kiss on the top of her head.

“G’night, zebra boy.” Vinyl’s voice was nothing but a muddled whisper; she was fading faster than I thought.

Together, bathed in the faint, Manehatten glow that seeped in through my blinds, Vinyl Scratch and I closed our eyes, and quickly drifted off to sleep.

...

When I woke up the next morning, I had no idea what time it was. From the amount of bright light shining in through my now uncovered window, it looked like Celestia had raised the sun hours ago. I knew I should have felt alarmed, seeing as how I usually made sure to wake up bright and early every day, but I found that I was surprisingly relaxed. I guess a night like that can do that to a pony, I thought, turning over to look at Vinyl. She wasn’t there.

I sat bolt upright, and looked around the room for a sign of Vinyl. Had she snuck out of my apartment before I'd even woken up? At the foot of the bed, I found Vinyl’s underwear, and hanging off the edge of the left side of the mattress was a tank top and a blue bra that matched the thong she had been wearing. So where’s-

The sound of somepony moving around in the next room caught my attention. I climbed out of bed, and, realizing that I was still completely naked, went to my dresser and grabbed clean boxers, and a pair of sweatpants, then made my way to the door, and went into the living room.

“Vinyl?” I called, when I found the living room empty.

“I’m in here,” came a voice from my kitchen.

I entered the kitchen, and found Vinyl wearing nothing but my t-shirt (which was practically a dress on her), standing over my stove, a spatula in one hand, and the handle of a frying pan in the other.

“I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I’d make some breakfast. After a night like that, I could use a little something to get my strength back.”

That little something turned out to be a steaming stack of pancakes, oatmeal, and the scrambled eggs that she was just finishing up.

“No, please, help yourself.” I opened up a cupboard, and grabbed two plates, and a couple of bowls, and set them on the counter, before going over to the fridge to get some orange juice.

When breakfast was ready, we divided up the food, and sat down at my tiny table, and ate. I hadn’t noticed it when I'd first woken up, but I was starving. I had no idea a night out, and love making could be so taxing, I thought, as I devoured the food in front of me. Never in my life had I gone out drinking, and dancing, nor had I had the pleasure of bringing a mare home for a night of wild (at least in my mind) sex. For a shut in pony such as myself, I had to admit that it was the best night of my life.

“Hey,” I said, looking up from my meal, “I just wanted to say that I had a lot of fun last night.”

Vinyl chuckled, as she swallowed a mouthful of pancake.

“Yeah, I know; I think I’m gonna have a bruise on my ass from all the fun you were having.” She rubbed her right flank where I had slapped it in the heat of the moment when she was riding me.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry about that.” I couldn’t help but laugh, as I replayed the scene in my mind. “Actually, I was talking about the whole night. I experienced more things in the few hours that I spent with you, and Octavia, and your brother, than I ever had since I've lived in Manehatten.”

“Going to a bar, clubbing, getting head in the back room of a nightclub, getting into a fight with your marefriend’s ex, and taking said marefriend home and rutting her brains out? Yeah, I’ll say it was a busy night.”

“Very busy.” I moved my fork around, collecting the last bits of food, and ate them. “So, yeah, thanks for the awesome night.”

Vinyl reached across the table, and placed her hand on mine.

“Stick with me kid, and I guarantee you’ll experience plenty of more exciting things.”

When breakfast was over, Vinyl and I cleared the table, washed our dishes, and put them on the rack to dry. As we made our way from the kitchen to the living room, there was a knock at the door.

“Zander, you in there?” A voice called from the other side. It was my uncle.

I hesitated for a second, before going to the door, and opening it.

“Hey, Uncle Zera,” I said, trying to act casual, “what’s up?”

Zera raised his eyebrows.

“What’s up? It’s almost eleven in the morning. You were supposed be down in the bar helping me with - Oh, hello.”

My uncle’s eye’s went from me, to Vinyl.

“Hi,” Vinyl said, as she came up, smiling, not caring that she was dressed in only a shirt that barely reached her knees. “You must be Zander’s uncle.”

My uncle started to blush, and laughed nervously, probably thinking that he’d just caught us in the middle of an intimate situation.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m Zera. And you are?”

“One lucky filly, is who I am.”

It was my turn to laugh, feeling a little embarrassed.

“Uncle Zera, this is my marefriend, Vinyl Scratch.”

Finding his composure again, Zera held out his hand, and Vinyl shook it.

“It’s nice to meet you Vinyl. I hope my nephew has been treating you well.”

Vinyl nodded her head.

“He’s been a perfect gentlecolt, even in the bedroom when he's-”

“Hey, Zera,” I said, jumping in before Vinyl made the situation a little more uncomfortable, “you said you needed my help with something, right?”

“Huh? Oh, well, I was just going to ask you to help me take care of this morning’s delivery, but I can see you’re busy at the moment.”

“No it’s alright; just let me get dressed, and I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

But my uncle wasn’t going to hear any of it.

“Nonsense. I’ll just call up my buddy Street Sweeper, and get him to help. Tell him I’ll reduce his tab if he does.”

Before I could say anything else, Zera turned, and headed back down the stairs.

“You two young ponies have a fun afternoon. And Zander, I expect to see you behind the bar at seven o’clock sharp tonight.”

And with that, he was gone.

Just as I was closing the door, I felt a pair of hands slide under my arms, and up my chest.

“Well, your uncle seems nice,” Vinyl said, leaning up against my back, and wrapping her arms around me tight.

“He is,” I agreed. “He’s one of the best stallion’s I know.”

I turned around to face Vinyl, and gave her a hug.

“So, I guess I’ve got the morning off. Anything you’d like to do?”

There was that devilish grin again.

“Oh I can think of plenty of things we could do today.” Her hands began to drift lower down my back, and grabbed my rump, right at the base of my tail.

“Really? You want... I-I mean, I’m not saying no, I just didn’t think-”

Vinyl shut me up by leaning up, and pressing her lips firmly against mine. It wasn’t a long kiss, and it certainly wasn’t as aggressive as it could have been, but it was powerful enough to let me know that she meant business.

When our lips parted, she stepped back, dragged her fingers down my torso, and hooked them around the waistband of my pants.

“Come on, zebra boy.” Vinyl’s voice dripped with sweet lust, as she began leading me away from the door.

I gladly followed, but stopped, when I realized that she wasn’t taking me to the bedroom.

“Uh, Vinyl, that’s the bathroom.”

She looked inside the small room, with an exaggerated look of shock on her face.

“Huh, that would explain the sink, and the shower,” she said, very sarcastically, still trying to lead me into it. “After a night like we just had, we could probably stand to clean ourselves up a bit.”

She gave my waistband another sharp tug.

“Now come on; I’m gonna need your help with getting those - unf - hard to reach places.”

I walked behind Vinyl, completely in a daze. I could already feel my stallionhood growing between my legs; it just seemed so unreal, so exciting, doing it in the shower. Hell, she’ll probably want to do it in every room of my apartment, I thought. It made sense, seeing as how Vinyl came off as a very adventurous mare. And I was surprisingly ok with that. After all, I was with the mare that I cared for, so I was willing to try anything (well a few things; a stallion has to set his limits) at least once.

The sound of water coming out of the showerhead startled me back to reality.

“You coming in, Zander,” came Vinyl’s sing-song call from behind the dark blue shower curtain.

“Be right there.” I stripped off my pants and boxers, and with a mischievous grin on my face, shut the bathroom door, and stepped into the shower. This is gonna be a good day, as I submerged myself in a world of steam, and became entangled in Vinyl's naked wet body, this is gonna be a very good day.

Epilogue

A year and a half after that first night in The Rusty Horseshoe, Vinyl and I were married, and living in an apartment twenty minutes from the Cider House, the nightclub where we both worked, making music, and tending bar.

As Vinyl had promised, our time together has certainly led to many great experiences. There was the first time we went out on a dinner date at Café Le Grande (Vinyl was so adorably uncomfortable wearing a real dress, and acting polite in front of other ponies). Then there was the first time I met Vinyl’s parents when they made the trip from Trottingham to visit their daughter. They had been a little wary at first (which was understandable given Vinyl’s track record when it came to relationships), but after having dinner together, and telling them a little about myself, they seemed to warm up to me. Of course I can't forget the greatest experience of all; our wedding. It was a modest, yet beautiful ceremony, with mostly Vinyl's family in attendance (with enough arm twisting, I'd sent an invitation to my parents, but I never heard from them). After exchanging rings, and saying our vows, we drank and danced under Luna's night sky, until Celestia's sun began to rise over the horizon.

Of course the experiences weren't all good ones. Our first fight came about two months after we started dating. Vinyl wanted to go out to the club (again), while I wanted to stay in, cook a romantic dinner, maybe watch a movie, and then see where the night took us. Words were said (in increasingly louder, and angrier voices), and eventually, she just stormed out of the apartment. I half expected her to come stumbling back home early the next morning, wasted, but she ended up only being gone for a half an hour. In the end we both apologized in the best way possible; we both said “I love you” for the first time (followed by a passionate evening of lovemaking). So in a way, that had actually ended up being another happy experience.

So, yeah, most ponies have some sort of heartfelt story to tell when it comes to the time they fell in love with their significant other. Vinyl and I might not have had that kind of classic “falling in love” story, but what we did have worked for us, and we’d never trade what happened that day for a chance to go back to the way things had been before we met each other. Sure it wasn’t “traditional,” but we’re happy now, we’re in love, and that’s all that matters.