Broken, but Still Standing

“All right all you mother buckers! Are you READY to PAA-TAAAY?”

As I dropped the light on the switch board, I brought up the beat, bumping and thumping the Clogged Clog to life. The few ponies there were bobbed their heads to the beat, a few of the more out going ones getting on their hooves, making their way to the dance floor and swaying to the music.

As I worked the turn table, warping and scratching the Tartarus out of the shit I played, I just focused on the dance floor. It was part that this was a new club, and part because my name wasn't big yet, but there was only a hoof full of ponies dancing and none coming in from outside. Great. First night here, and things have already gone down the drain.

I eyed the shiny new track names on my list. Since Derpy had moved her cute flank into my pad, I'd thought I'd try to record something different, something that I hadn't even thought about for years. Instead of trying to rap, and try and mix that into my beats or take the generic pop songs they gave me to work with, I came up with something new. When I attended college, for the short time I was...we'll just say graced with, I picked up the violin. I had forgotten that I even had an electric violin, but when I played it, it came to me as if I just put it down yesterday.

I had spent hours playing, letting my soul sing through the strings as the bow grind and kissed them, as if trying to satisfy desperate lovers who just could not have their lust slaked. It was a side of me that I kept from the world. It was my last pearl, and I would not cast it before swine. My eyes flickered up to the crowd, and seeing the disinterest settle in, I gritted my teeth and forced my hoof to hit the song for the next on the play list.

Bringing the track to die, I started up my original song. At first, the ponies were confused, looking around like, 'is that a violin?' I smiled, flipping the switch and letting it out. The stringed synch went up and down, while bouncing off the beats like a filly on a sugar high. As the beat picked up, the ponies started to get into it. The ponies where just lounging around perked up, like 'this is new' and got up, making their way to the dance floor, shaking their flanks flanks and rockin' to the beast I created. I turned it up.

I lost myself in the music, yelling at the crowed, twirkin' that turntable, ruttin' it hard to the mass of sounds I blended so seamlessly, the mother buckers didn't know that I just kept looping the same bucking track! What seemed like a half hour later, my buddy, Bronze Tip, yeah I had fun with his name more than once, sidled up to me and told me to announce last call.

And so ended the first night, and once the ponies were gone, I went to the bar to settle up with Tippy. Aw, com'on. You KNEW I was going to say that.

“How'd we do?” I asked.

He slapped down thirty bits worth of notes. “Care to explain?” Bronze raised an eye. “I was only expecting maybe one fifty worth from the door, considering that it was my first night, my club filler quit on me five minutes before we opened and it was only two bits to get in. How the Tartarus you managed that, I don't know, but those were the sickest drops I'd ever heard!”

I'd lie if I said I was speechless. I just took the money and smiled. “It's what I do Tippy. It's what I do.”

“Well, do it more. And get some more of that music. I don't want you spinning the same three tracks anymore.”

I blushed. “You caught that?”

“Any pro would, but the dancers either didn't know or didn't give a buck. Get more of that, and I'll make it worth your while.”

“Well....Ya see...” He raised an eyebrow. “It's my own original comp.” His eyes bugged out. “Yeah.”

“You PLAY? YOU??”

“Shut your mouth.” I blushed again. “You're attracting flies.”

“How much am I giving you again?”

“I think it was two hundred bits a week?”

He sat back and thought for a moment. “Listen. I can't do it now, because I don't have the cash, but record more like that and play it here, I'll see what I can't do to raise that up to three fifty. Deal?”

I about cracked his hoof with how hard I smacked with mine. “Deal!”

“Buck! Geez! Easy will ya'?” He smiled. “Glad you're on board. Now lets make it rain.”

I practically floated home, the extra thirty would go a looong ways, especially if Derpy could find some cheap goodness to cook with. If I had been paying attention more, I would have noticed the pony following me much earlier, but I was a few blocks away from home that I finally got my head out my plot enough to pay attention to my shadow.

I wasn't quite sure who it was, but I could guess. I made my way to a dead end, where we couldn't be interrupted. As I leaned against the wall of the old building, waiting for my tail to stop in in the shadows, I glanced around just to make sure we were alone.

“Aegis. I told you to keep your plot out of my bucking life.” No answer. “Seriously! That stunt you pulled at the Blue Moon got me fired! I could bucking kill you for that!”

“Who's Aegis?”

That voice. I knew that voice so well it almost pained my heart. She walked out, slender gray legs, a sweeping black mane and such a cheeky smile, she made me blush.

“Well, Vinyl? Who's this Aegis fellow? A stud who broke your heart?”

I laughed. “What heart? Last I checked, you sorta ripped that out of me and put it on your mantle piece.”

She laughed, that laugh I loved as she leaned in and kissed me. It was a soft kiss, but it held a firmness that took me back a few years.

Now, I bet you all have figured out who this mystery pony is and are scratching your heads. I may have lied a little when I said that I wasn't into Octavia Melody. I totally was into her, and she into me, but, well, something happened, and she started changing from the innocent mare that I had fallen for. I never found out, because my father made an appearance and forced me to skip town.

“Octi? What are you doing here?” I asked, after she let me breath. “I thought you were with the symphony.”

“Oh buck that.” I stared at her. “What Vinyl? Haven't heard a lady curse before?”

“Not you. What happened? You're not acting like...Well, you.”

She gave me a disappointed look, as if this surprise reunion wasn't going as she planned, but brushed it off.

“Could we talk over some coffee?” She suggested. “We have some catching up to do and I'd rather be in a warm place for that.”

She linked a leg around my foreleg, forcing me to stand on my hind legs, and led me. Ponies don't usually walk on our hind legs, but we can. As we walked, like a couple, she leaned in and rested her head on my shoulder.

“I missed you.” She purred. “Missed you so much.”

I sighed, hoping Derpy wasn't waiting up for me tonight.