Party of three

Minutes later the couple found themselves frightfully bored as they sat there waiting to leave. In this time Vinyl had retrieved her drink and was now looking in Octavia's mirror.

"Hmm, I don't know Tavy," Vinyl said as she slides her hoof through her spiky mane. "I'm not sure I can pull off yellow highlights."

"Well, it couldn't hurt," Octavia said optimistically. "I just think adding yellow to your regimen of blue would give you a spectacular stage presence."

"Oh My Gosh, its Vinyl and Octavia.?!!!" a voice called bearing an unrealistically thick Manehatten accent.

"Vinyl tips her shades and leans back trying to pull off the coolest pose she could manage. "Yo Bonny, been a while. How's it going?"

"I'm fine, thanks for asking. Hey, I'm sorry I couldn't make it to you two's wedding. It's just, while I was in the hospital."

Octavia interrupts, "There's no need to apologize. Derpy told us everything. Speaking of which, how is your foal? I trust It's doing well."

"Why yes, Tootsie is doing great. Doctors were a little worried, because magical pregnancies are still pretty new and all. But everything turned out fine." She then sits down in Donuts abandoned chair and cracks a wry smile.

Vinyl flips up her shades and asks, "Hey Bonny why you smiling like that. It's kinda creeping me out."

In a mischievous manner only a seasoned gossip with her accent could pull off Bonbon replied, "Oh nothing...... I was just wondering since we're on the subject. When are you two planning on having foals of your own?"

Somehow, despite not drinking anything. Vinyl manages a rather impressive spit-take as she sat up in shock. "What the hay Bonny. You been hitting that weird booze again?"

Bonbon waves her hoof nonchalantly, "Vinyl, please. I don't do that...... What The!" All of a sudden, a pair of green hooves began tickling her sides savagely.

"HEE HEE, Come on Bonbon. Don't pretend I haven't caught you sneaking shots of the Cooking Absinthe."

Bonbon blushes and gently knocks the offending hooves away, "I told you Lyra. I was tasting it to make sure it was still good for the chocolate Pinky needed for that bachelorette party."

Lyra then kisses bonbon on the forehead, then turns to face her friends, "Riiiigghtt............Anyway. Arrrre, either of you planning on getting knocked up? It would be awesome if Tootsie could have a little friend to play with."

Almost instinctively, Vinyl steals away Octavia's giant beer mug and tries gulping down as much of its dark gold contents as possible.

Octavia pulls the mug away from her and puts it out of hoofs reach, "If you must know. We have been discussing it, unfortunately, Vinyl always gets like this at the mere mention of pregnancy."

Bonbon laughs, "it's not as bad as you think. One night of freaky fun, Then eleven months later you got a little bundle of joy to take care of. It's as Simple as that. I liked it so much I might even do it again someday."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves dear," Lyra protested."

"Ohhh, all right." The cream mare groaned.

"That's all fine for you Bonny," Vinyl says in a panic. "you stand behind a counter half the day. And the other half you're in the kitchen. Besides that, you're already kinda round. nopony even noticed when you got preggers!"

"Hmph, I'm not that big Vinyl!" Bonbon grumps crossing her forehooves angrily.

"Sorry, It's...... Just, I can't right now!" She panics further. "I mean there's the no drinking, And..... Don't you get like really sick all the time, or something? Besides!!!! What will the fans say if I walk up to my mixing table and I can't reach the records because my belly's too big?!!!!!!!" Starts hyperventilating.!!

Octavia pulls her wife in for a hug, "There, there. I told you before love. When it comes time for that, I will be more than happy to carry for us. In fact, I insist upon it."

Vinyl submits to the hug, "Really, you would do that?"

"Course love. Think I would be pretty good at it personally........ However, perhaps we should discuss this later," She says, glaring at the onlookers annoyedly.

Eventually, Lyra takes the hint and ask, "So what are you doing here anyway Vinyl. I thought Berry banned you after you made it big."

Vinyl reluctantly breaks from the hug and responds, "Oh, she did. But I think she's hitting the bottle extra hard tonight. I went up there earlier and she couldn't even tell it was me with clothes on. Too bad that didn't stop her from raving the whole time about how I look like me."

"Yikes... It's that bad," Lyra exclaimed. "I guess she did seem more off than usual, when she booked me earlier."

Octavia gasps, "my goodness. She hired you to play, HERE. And you excepted it."

"Hate to break it to ya Lyra, "Vinyl says concernedly. "Your music's nice and all. But I can just about guarantee, you set one hoof on stage with that harp of yours, and your gonna be knocked out before you can even reach the third bar."

"Yeah, I know," she groaned. "But what can I do? The candy store is gonna be in dry season until October. And I burned a lot of bridges so I could stay home and take care of Bonbon."

Taking the last swig of her beer Octavia places the mug in her purse. "If you're tight on bits, I know a prench place downtown that hires a lot of instrumentalists. It is a tad unsavory, Unfortunately. But I'm certain with my recommendation they would hire you in a second."

"Wait, do You mean the Sur l'eau? Because I actually already work there part-time."

"Oh, you do. Sorry then."

"Wait a minute," Vinyl says raising her hoof. "If you work in that fancy flank place. what the hay are you doing in this sty."

"Like I said its only part-time. Besides, I actually was supposed to play a concert there tonight. Unfortunately, my client had to cancel. Which sucks, because he was offering triple normal price."

Suddenly, a voice came from a point lower than the table. "Hey fillies, Sorry it took so long. The stallions room had this crazy line. Oh hello! Looks like we got some company."

Lyra quickly turns around and responds, "Wow, speaking of Tirek. Hey, what's up Big D. How come you're slumming it in this rat nest? Do you know how long it takes setting up those fancy candles you like."

He then walks up to Lyra and pats her on the shoulder. "Yeah, I know, Sorry about canceling the concert tonight." He then hoofs a bag over to her," here you go no hard feelings. That should cover what I owe ya."

Lyra stood jaw dropped, as she stared at the bit bag. "Well, thank you. This is going to help a lot. But I have to ask. Why are you here? This ain't your scene."

"Well, let's just say, my lovely dates thought that the venue was a little too sleazy."

"Pfftttt What, Wait A minute Wait a minute, hold on. So you are telling me. That you, are on a date with, these two." Bonbon says, pointing an accusing hoof at the adjacent couple, Who didn't look too pleased with the comment, "This is great."

Looking irritated, and Sensing the distress of Vinyl and Octavia, Donut walked up to Bonbon and looked her in the eye. Which
Somehow, despite his short stature, had a strange force about it, that gave Bonbon an uneasy sense of guilt as he approached.

"Miss, I know what your thinking. But let me assure you. Nothing like that has or will happen. I am simply a friend of Vinyl's, and all we're doing is having a friendly night out. That is all."

"I'm....... Sorry, I didn't mean anything by it"

Now talking a lot more sympathetically he says, "You don't need to apologize filly. Just Don't do it again okay? Running the rumor mill is never a good way to keep friends."

Vinyl laughs, "What... Are you Princess Sparkle now?"

"Nah, I just record a lot of PSA'S."

The whole group burst into laughter, but is quickly interrupted by the screech of a sound system blaring to life. Moments later, the drunken Berry punch stumbles onto the stage and taps the mic with her hoof.

"TESTING, TESTING," SCREECH," ONE-TWO-THREE TESTING, CAN ANYPONY HEAR ME?"

A random pony from the audience shouts, "Yes for the love of Celestia. Turn the volume down!"

The mare puts down the mic and yells, "Hey, Don't You Mention That bitch Here. This is Luna country."

When no response came, she picked the mic back up. "HMMMHF, RIGHT. ATTENTION EVERYPONY, JUST A REMINDER. TONIGHTS ENTERTAINMENT. 'LYRA MASTER OF THE TINY GOLDEN HARP,' WILL BE ON IN TEN MINUTES." A distinctive booing roared from the crowd, but was totally ignored by the inebriated mare. "DURING THAT TIME, ALL DRINKS ARE HALF OFF. BUT WILL BE LIMITED TO ONE DRINK PER PONY,"

She begins to walk off stage. But turns around and continues. "OH YEAH, TO THE OWNER OF THE RED AND BLUE BRAMBLY PARKED OUTSIDE. IT'S CURRENTLY BEING STRIPED FOR PARTS, THAT IS ALL."

Donuts eyes widen and he pulls an extendable baton from his pocket. "Oh No, Not Again," He yells as he gallops for the door.

Bonbon puts on a pair of brass hoofplates from her bag and follows him. "Wait up for me. I wanna to show those cart jackers just how we deal with their like in Bronkos."

Lyra sighs, then yell's, "Hey Bonbon, While you're out there, could you grab my lyre please?"

"Wait, she's Still, doing that vigilante thing?" Vinyl asked with more than a little concern."

Yeah, I know," Lyra facehoofed. "I was kinda hopeing, having Tootsie would have settled her down a little. But no such luck. Anyway, I guess I'll see you later. Based on that booing, I'm guessing It'll probably be in the hospital. You girls are right. This crowds going to eat me alive."

Vinyl pulls Lyra in close and nuggies her mane, "Filly, please. Do you really think we're going to leave you hanging?"

"Really, you want to help me?"

Octavia pats Lyra on the back, "Course mate.We would never leave ya in the creek without a paddle."

"Thanks girls. Tell you what, i'll meet you backstage. I just need to grab some liquid courage. You know, just in case."

As they walked away Octavia leans her head close to Vinyl, "Hey, do you know what that was back there. I mean, you know when Donut covered for us. He seemed much more assertive than I pegged him for."

Vinyl magics her glasses up and grimaced, "That's a little hard to explain Tavy. He's not the kind of pony you can just.... Mess with. I know he may not look like much. But trust me. I know first hoof how fucking scary he is if you get on his bad side. That's why I agreed to this."

"My goodness. He didn't threaten you did he?"

Vinyl's head twitches, "Sigh, No, nothing like that, I doubt He would ever hurt us. But, let's just say, he's always planning something. And he has a bad habit of going too far."

Octavia shrugs, "He seems like an alright sort to me, But I suppose I'll note that. However, I am still curious as to what he really wanted out of the night."

"What do you mean?" Vinyl asks with concern.

"It's as you said. He's always planning something, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, when we were at the house earlier, He made it sound like he was doing this to impress his friends. But he just went out of his way to make sure Bonbon didn't gossip about us. Surely that's something he would want if he was trying to get street cred."

Vinyl's head twitches again and a look of uneasy realization spread across the DJ's paler than normal face. "Hey, Tavy. Earlier you said that while I was gone, He taught you some bar games, right?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know what they were?"

Octavia was about to answer but stopped. She briefly looked at the floor as if struggling really hard. Suddenly her head begins twitching violently, "Weird,..... I know I had fun. But for some reason, I can't seem to recall any of it. Perhaps the sauce is finally taking its toll."

Without warning. Vinyl grabs Octavia and pulls her in for a big passionate hug.

"Oh, my. Normally I would say save it for home love, but............. Wait a minute. Is something wrong? Why are you crying?

The misty-eyed unicorn rests her head on Octavia's shoulder and repeated I'm sorry over and over again.

"Vinyl, what's wrong. You're scaring me."

"It's Nothing. Let's just leave, I'm so sorry I brought you here."

"Go now, but we promised we would help Lyra."

"But,........ But."

"A promise is a promise Vinyl," Octavia states authoritatively." I don't know what's come over you, but we gave our word we would help Lyra. Besides that we can't very well leave without Mr. Donut can we?"

****************************************************************
Some more crying, a cooldown session, and several minutes of looking around a dusty stage later.

"Love, are you sure there isn't a cello back here?" Asked Octavia pulling a dented xylophone out of a flyders nest.

"I doubt it," The DJ shrugged. "This place mostly does rock and rap. I don't think Berry would keep something like that around on standby."

"Bugger all, this simply won't do."

"Hey now Tavy, Don't worry about it. We'll think of something. Oh, I know, what about that?" She says pointing to a massive electric guitar strapped to the wall."

"That!!!, I thought that was a prop. It's far too big for anypony."

"No, it's real, I checked. I think it belonged to a dragon that performed here once. Just get yourself a bow and boom, instant cello."

"Alright, if you say so, love. But what about you? I don't see a turntable around,"

"Not a problem. Their's one set up under the stage. I just need to find the lever to raise it"

"Hey fillies, You see a clip mic for my lyre anywhere?" Asked Lyra as she trotted in levitating a cup of coffee.

Octavia replies, "Oh, there you are. Sorry mate, we can't find nothing in this dump."

Suddenly Bonbon gallops in panting.

"Back so soon dear, Not like you to let thieves off easy," Lyra said taking a sip of her coffee.

Panting, "Lyra I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I tried stopping them. But after Donut and me laid the smack down on a few. The rest just hopped in our cart and ran off."

"WHAT, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!!!!!," Lyra Exclaimed. "Oh No, my lyre was in there. What am I gonna do now?"

"Here we go, I found this normal mic," Octavia announced, holding up the item in question.

"What goods that gonna do me now?"

"You can sing right?"

"Well, yeah. But I mostly do ambiance. All the songs I know with lyrics are for foals."

Octavia lifts open the corner of the curtain and looked to the crowd. Every single pony in the front row alone, was wearing a spiky leather jacket, and had no less than two scars on their face.

"Yikes,!!" The cellist said with a look of mild fear. "We must think of something. I certainly don't want to make those ponies angry."

"Yeah its a pretty tough crowd out there," Vinyl says magically spinning a record on the tip of her hoof. "Wubs can only do so much, we need some lyrics."

"Oh, I know!" Bonbon says raising her hoof. "Lyra you can sing that fan song you were writing for that TV show you like."

"I guess that one would work," Lyra shrugged. "Can you two do jazz?"
****************************************************************

Minutes later the lights of the room dim as the ones on the stage illuminate. The curtains roll back and Lyra begins walking down the stage with her eyes closed. Following behind her was Octavia carrying her makeshift cello. She stops halfway down the stage and plants her instrument down in preparation. Vinyl trots out next and slams her hoof into the ground. Immediately a small elevator pushed a turntable up from under the stage. In the front, Lyra had just made it to the end and grabbed the mic.

♫Human beings fascinate me being just the way they are, Tell me little pony, why you pull a cart not drive a car? Lyre is my instrument but humans strum their sweet guitars,♫

♫It's a mystery, ANTHROPOLOGY,♫

♫Fingers, toes, and tiny noses brownish hair and tannish skin.
Would it be too much to ask to see the world they're living in?♫

♫Every'-Body tells me that its old and fake mythology
It's a mystery, ANTHROPOLOGY!♫

♫Aren't you bored of brushing your coat? Styling your mane with your hooves.♫

♫I don't mean to butt in or gloat But ancient history proves.♫

Mic static,"Everypony stop. There's an emergency!!!"

♫Humans don't have wings or magic they don't need it, they don't care.♫

♫All they've got's imagination New inventions everywhere!♫

♫Babies, children, teens, and elders all alike have clothes to wear.♫

"Mic static, "You on stage, shut up!!!"

♫It's so real to me, ANTHROPOLOGY!♫

♫germans.♫

♫irish.♫

♫french and polish.♫

♫Who's to say, that they're all gone?♫

Mic static, "Last warning!"

♫Maybe humans like us too and dress like us at Comic-Con!♫

♫It's so real to me, Anthropology!

♫Yeah, they've had a couple of fights.♫

♫Nobody's perfect, you seeeee!♫

♫Still, I say I'm born with the rights to study whatever I pleeeaaase!♫

♫Anthropology! ♫

Suddenly the music cut out as a loud bang was heard. All attention soon went to a giant earthpony standing over by the bar with a smoking shotgun. "EVERYPONY SHUT UP AND LISTEN!!! THIS IS NOT, A ROBBERY. MY BOSS IS HURT OUTSIDE SO ANYPONY WHO KNOWS MEDICINE NEEDS TO GET THE FUCK OUT THER!!!"

Random noises from the crowd.

He fires again, "DID I STUTTER?! SOMEPONY GET OUT THER AND HELP MY BOSS, NOW!!!!