DJ Valkyri-3

Chapters

Prologue: Wild night out
Chapter 1
Chapter 2: Reason #42
Chapter 3
Chapter 5: Reason #1
Chapter 6
Chapter 7: Reason #2
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Intermission 1:
Chapter 10: The beginning of the end
Chapter 4

Prologue: Wild night out

Everyone knows the moniker of DJ Pon-3, how could they not? Pinkie Pie may hold the title as the number one party animal, but then again the DJ isn’t much of a party mare. She does shows sometimes and DJs for events yeah, but where she really shines are her gigs at nightclubs- and especially the ‘Night Owl’ club in lower Canterlot. She actually owns that one and has regular shows.

The Unicorn’s life changed when a particular group of mares entered her nightclub on free friday, though she wouldn’t realize it until much later. Her mix table was set to a particular playlist so she decided she’d go and have a chat with the Elements of Harmony. She even told the bartender to put their tabs on her for the first round.

“Yo, Scratch! I was wondering where you were!” Rainbow Dash yelled out over the music when the Unicorn finally plopped down at their tables with a drink of her own in her light cyan magic.

“What up!” Vinyl replied, raising her glass. Dash, and most of the others, raised their drinks in their own magic/hooves/wings.

“I was wondering why Dash specifically wanted us to come to this club.” Twilight said, taking a sip of her drink after the cheers. The young Alicorn was drinking applejack daniels, as was the similarly named farm mare. Dash and Pinkie were drinking a Black and White russian respectively. Rarity had a scotch of all things and Fluttershy even was drinking hard iced tea. Vinyl herself was drinking a mixed drink of fireball whiskey and spiced apple cider to combat the cold of winter outside. At least that’s what she would say.

“What’s the occasion?” The DJ started. “You guys don’t normally drop by nightclubs, even to drink. I hear the Princesses keep a gnarly stash up in the palace.” She grinned.

“I officially resigned from my position as a Princess of Equestria, too much drama and too much time away from home.” Twilight replied, the music dying down a bit to some of the softer wind-down tracks so they no longer had to yell. Vinyl leaned out of her seat and, seeing that the wind-down was well received, she changed the playlist up a bit from there with her magic to keep it going rather than transitioning back into the heavy techno and bass rhythm.

“That doesn’t sound like a reason to celebrate.” Vinyl hummed as she sipped her drink.

“We’re not celebrating that, silly! We’re celebrating getting our best friend back!” Pinkie practically yelled. Vinyl shrugged.

“Fair enough. So what, decided to come to a club and get trashed before heading back to Ponyville?” The DJ asked. The group nodded.

“Not exactly trashed mind you, well at least not all of us…” Applejack started, nudging Dash with a foreleg as the pegasus was already on her second drink. The Speedster grinned. “... but we haven’t had the chance to sit down and have a drink as a group in ages.” The country mare continued, sipping her family’s signature alcoholic drink.

“I also thought we might get someone to catch Twilight’s eye.” Dash said, the Alicorn next to her swatted her face with a wing playfully.

“No, YOU want someone to catch my eye. Playing matchmaker doesn’t work too well when everyone’s too intimidated by your social status to even say hello.” The Alicorn said with a bit of a playful smile. The comment was offhand, but Vinyl caught the emotion behind it.

“Oh I see, another reason you gave up the crown huh? Well then, Twilight, your drinks are on me tonight. The mosh pit’s dying down and the rest of the night is wind down, so get shitfaced and find some lucky colt and make the first move.” The DJ said, downing the half of her drink that was left before hopping over to the bar to get it refilled before turning to her mix tables.

She left it on the wind down playlist, but she wasn’t idle. She was tweaking and mixing things so that they still had enough energy for the remaining clubbers to still be able to populate the dance floor, but it wasn’t the wild dubstep or heavy techno like previously. Besides, her own drinks were starting to get to her.

Within two hours there weren’t many ponies left in the club. There was Vinyl, who was at the bar now since the bartender had called it a night, Dash and Pinkie had passed out at their table, Rarity and Fluttershy had gone home, Applejack was trying to rouse her drunk friends to get them home, a few other ponies either getting ready to leave or rousing their drunk friends, and lastly Twilight. She had apparently taken Vinyl’s advice to heart as she had ordered many more drinks after their talk. While she wasn’t nearly as shitfaced as Vinyl was hoping she’d get, it was still more than enough to remove the inhibitions she was feeling.

She was the only one on the dance floor. If anyone remembered the night well enough to tell a reporter it would probably be on the news as ‘ex princess in a drunken stupor on the dance floor!’ or something like that. Vinyl knew the alicorn was notorious for being a terrible dancer, but in her intoxicated state she was dancing rather elegantly to the remixed orchestral piece that was currently playing.

She would expertly use her wings to balance or propel a twirl, her tail and forelegs for balance, and just seemed like she should be in a ballroom. At least until the remix kicked in. Fluently, she transitioned from a twirl into an almost erratic dance that barely maintained the old rhythm. It was like her movements themselves were tied to the remix. Vinyl hadn’t realized that she had gone out and joined the Alicorn in the dance, or that they were now the only conscious ponies left in the place. Their movements were synchronized, almost perfectly, despite their significant levels of intoxication.

The music finally crescendoed and fell silent, and the two had stopped perfectly in time. While they hadn’t been specifically dancing with each other, the way they ended had them both on their hind legs, twisted slightly around each other. One of Twilight’s wings were stabilizing the DJ while the other one was helping her keep the both of them balanced. Their horns weren’t touching, but they were close enough for the ambient magic around them to give them a hint of feedback. Normally Vinyl would have shrunken back from the sheer power that Twilight’s horn was pinging her own with, but in their intoxicated state it was rather soothing.

“You know, Vinyl, I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without those shades of yours on. Your eyes are really pretty.” Twilight suddenly said. Vinyl didn’t feel the blush, but she still grinned. The movement caused their horns to touch, causing both to shudder. Horns touching wasn’t exactly an uncommon thing among unicorns, especially ones who drank far too much. This was different, though. Normally it was like a warm embrace, except with magical energies. This was something else entirely that neither of them could properly describe.

Vinyl didn’t know why she did it, but she leaned forward and kissed Twilight. She almost immediately pulled back wondering what the actual hell she was doing, but Twilight’s expression almost made her laugh. She had that almost cross-eyed look, her lips frozen half-puckered in shock as she tried to process what just happened. After a second or two they they turned to a lopsided grin. Twilight’s drink floated over, she downed it in one go, and then she kissed Vinyl back. Now it was Vinyl’s turn to be surprised.

“And you’ve got a purdy face.” Vinyl said in a somewhat teasing tone. Neither kiss was particularly long or passionate, but it was certainly not just sloppily sucking on each other’s faces in an intoxicated stupor. Twilight snorted and laughed as they fell back down to their hooves and she leaned into the DJ.

“Mind if I crash with you tonight? I hadn’t meant to get this drunk, and I’d rather not go back to the palace and wake everyone up stumbling through the halls.” Twilight asked, though her tone was fluctuating and her words ever so slightly slurred. That last drink put her over the line from drunk to wasted. She definitely wouldn’t trust the mare to get home alone, even if she was an Alicorn.

“Sure thing, new best friend. Hopefully I remember where that is.” Vinyl snorted. Twilight rolled her eyes but was probably starting to regret that last drink as she couldn’t stand on her hooves properly without swaying. Vinyl didn’t mind supporting the larger mare, however. The cold winter air caused both of them to shiver slightly before, even in their drunken state, they instinctively channeled a bit of magic to keep themselves warm. Vinyl was stunned as she realized someone was waiting outside for them. Twilight didn’t notice until she spoke, though.

“Ah, I was beginning to grow worried she had drank far too much to return home.” The familiar, at least to Twilight, Alicorn of the Night said.

“Princess Luna? What’re you doing outside of my club at four in the morning?” Vinyl asked, though immediately kicked herself internally for talking to a Princess like that. If there was any offense, Luna took in in stride though as she looked the two of them over.

“Merely checking up on young Twilight. She hadn’t returned, I asked one of the elements and they told me where she was. Judging by most of their states I had feared she was left alone in there.” The Princess said. Twilight finally spoke.

“I miiiight have. You don’t gotta worry ‘bout me though, Scratchy here is a very adequate host.” The Alicorn giggled with half-lidded eyes. Luna couldn’t help but smile at her.

“Far more drink than you intended I assume, Twilight? It seems like you had fun at least, a rare occurrence outside of the libraries.” The Princess mused. Twilight let out a combination of a giggle and a hum before leaning heavily into Vinyl again. Vinyl was now supporting most of the larger mare’s weight as the ex-princess nuzzled into her neck. Luna raised an eyebrow.

“It seems she’s unable to return on her own. I can take her off of your hooves if you’d like.” Luna offered with a warm smile. Vinyl looked at the mare, seeing that she was so far gone at this point it would take a miracle to get her anywhere. She remembered their kiss, though, and smiled.

“Nah, I’ll take care of it Princess. She can crash at my place, she asked since she didn’t want to wake everyone at the palace up. Much shorter of a walk too. If you don’t think you can trust me then I’d understand, but Dash and Pinkie are good friends of mine. They can vouch for me if you can wake them up.” The DJ replied. Luna raised a hoof.

“I can see you are trustworthy enough for now, I bid you good morning and good luck then Vinyl Scratch. I will understand if she is late returning tomorrow, but please have her back by night.” She said, almost like a mother sending their daughter off to prom. Vinyl was about to say something witty back, but Luna winked and took to the sky again. She stood there for a moment before Twilight mumbled incoherently and almost knocked her over as she leaned further onto the unicorn.

“Damn Twi, I’d say that flank of yours was too heavy if the rest of you wasn’t that big.” Vinyl groaned. She tried to nudge Twilight to her feet a few times before nudging her face with her own. Twilight didn’t open her eyes or do anything more than mumble incoherently again, but she at least began supporting her own weight again, so Vinyl guided her along. Vinyl’s apartment wasn’t that far away, the three flights of stairs were a problem though. She got plenty of stares by the time she finally got into her door. With a flick of magic she locked her door up again and tossed the now fully unconscious mare into her bed. She yelped as she was dragged down with her, but didn’t complain as she was wrapped in forelegs and wings. She smiled as she let herself fall asleep wrapped up in Twilight, it was the comfiest she’d been in a long time.

Author's Note

so this just farted out into words before work today. Who knows if it'll go anywhere. And it's not humanized for once.

Chapter 1

Vinyl woke up fairly early. It was around noon, but considering how much alcohol was present last night noon was damn early. She had a bit of a headache but she was used to it by now. What she wasn’t used to was waking up tangled up in another pony. It was a bit of effort to untangle herself without knocking the young Alicorn off the bed, but she finally managed it.

She shook away her drowsiness as she moved to her small kitchen, preparing a glass of water with a couple seltzers enhanced with medicinal magic to deal with hangovers in it. She always kept at least a 50 pack of these things at her place at all times. This one wasn’t for her, though. She knew Twilight well enough to know she wasn’t a big drinker, so getting shitfaced like that meant she was in for a rough morning.

She levitated a bucket over to where Twilight’s head was nearly hanging off of the side after rolling over at the loss of her cuddle buddy. Vinyl noticed the subtle twitches and mentally counted down from 10. She was a few counts off, but the mare did finally slowly open her eyes. There was an audible grumble from the mare, and then one from her insides, before her eyes shot open and her body lurched uncomfortably as she couldn’t stop from vomiting. Vinyl was ready for it, though, and angled the bucket in her magic.

“Interesting to see that even the mighty Alicorns can get hungover.” Vinyl said when the bucket was nearly full and Twilight’s stomach seemed to finally be empty. There was a bit of a mess, the bucket couldn’t catch it all, and Twilight’s mane had gotten in the way a few times. Twilight weakly looked over to Vinyl and she blinked a few times, confused.

“Uh… V-Vinyl?... Where…? Oh, right…” She mumbled out, her head obviously splitting and her body still sore from expelling her stomach. Vinyl just lightly hummed to herself as Twilight tried to remember more of last night. The glass with infused seltzer was levitated in front of her and Twilight took it with a wing, not trusting her magic at the moment. She mumbled an incoherent thanks before downing it. The effects were almost instantaneous, Vinyl gave her a double. Her eyes widened and she flushed up in embarrassment.

“Oh, damn it all. I’m so sorry Vinyl, I knew I shouldn’t have drank that much… I threw up all over your floor and… and…” Twilight started after shaking the cloudiness from her head, but fell short as Vinyl continued humming to herself as she left the room with the bucket, the mess was already cleaned up. Vinyl had done so with her magic while the Alicorn was recovering. Twilight tentatively followed. Vinyl’s apartment wasn’t massive, but it was big enough to where she didn’t have to squeeze through doorways or duck to not dash her horn against the top of the frames. The Princesses would probably have a harder time of it though.

Vinyl continued humming the tune that was stuck in her head as she dumped the bucket of bile down the toilet, was scrubbing it clean with magic, was purifying the stench from the air with another spell, and lastly was getting the shower started. Twilight poked her head in and Vinyl finally stopped humming to speak.

“Go ahead and take a shower, you need it girl. I’ll throw something together for breakfast.” She said, finishing up in the bathroom and smoothly sliding around the Alicorn in the doorway to move back over to the kitchen. Batter was already mixing, eggs were beating, oranges were juicing themselves, and the two pans were heating up evenly. Twilight was actually stunned by the unicorn’s ability to multitask with magic. Vinyl noticed her staring. “What?”

“While doing multiple things with magic isn't rare, it’s very difficult to do multiple DIFFERENT things with magic, it takes a lot of practice and a lot more focus. It seems like you’re hardly even paying attention to what you’re doing, though.” Twilight said after a moment. Vinyl grinned wide.

“Well duh, how do you think I manage my mix table? Let alone the lighting, the atmospheric equipment, my drink, all of that. Years of practice and practical implementation. Go take a shower girl, before that shit dries.” The Unicorn said, motioning with her head towards the Alicorn. Twilight looked down at herself again and paled. She had forgotten she threw up on herself a bit too. She quickly nodded and disappeared. Vinyl just chuckled as she cooked.

“Perfect timing, eat up. A night of drink mixed with emptying your stomach should have left you hungry.” She said ten minutes later when Twilight came out of the bathroom, drying herself with a spell.

“I used some of your conditioner, I hope that’s ok.” She said as she sat down and happily took the first bite, but then kinda froze.

“Yeah no problem, it’s just the cheap shit… what’s wrong? I didn’t leave a shell in there did I?” The Unicorn replied. Twilight just quickly swallowed her bite as she shook her head and let her fork rest on the plate again.

“I‘m so used to spending the night with friends and we do this stuff for each other all the time… but, while we’ve been acquainted for years… I don’t even really KNOW you… I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done, but I have to know... why?” The Alicorn asked after a moment of figuring out how she wanted to word it. Vinyl laughed.

“I thought we got a little more than acquainted last night.” Vinyl snickered, but she noticed Twilight looked a little confused about that. “Oh I see, kiss me after a damn good dance and can’t even remember it? We need to get you drunk more often, you can’t even remember the night. Pff.” She said offhandedly. She couldn’t help but feel just a little bit hurt, though, and she didn’t really know why. She brushed the feeling aside as Twilight looked even more confused.

“I helped you out because you’re cool, and I’d like to KNOW you better. You brought up a good point, we’ve been acquainted for years, yet Pinkie and Dash are damn good friends. The rest of your friends aren’t really my crowd, and I thought you weren’t either, but after last night I’ve decided against that. And I also knew how much of a wreck you’d be in the morning, you aren’t the first pony I’ve taken care of after getting completely shitfaced, and I have to take care of myself like that at least once or twice a month.” The Unicorn explained.

“Waaaaait, I kissed you?” The Alicorn said after a moment, her cheeks flushing up a bit as her wings rustled in embarrassment. Vinyl snorted as she took a bite of her breakfast.

“Yeah, surprised the hell out of me. I kinda kissed you first though, then you downed your drink and kissed me back. It was kindof awesome, especially after that dance.” The Unicorn answered, rubbing the back of her head. She couldn’t help but flush up a bit herself, she hadn’t felt like that in ages. The memory was sweet in her mind. They stayed silent for a while, Vinyl eating her food as Twilight fidgeted and looked deep in thought. Or concentration.

“Oh damn it all!” Twilight finally snipped to no one in particular. She gave Vinyl an uncertain look. “I seriously can’t remember it… I remember the dance though, and being confused… Do you… do you mind if I look at your memories to see it? It should be easy to limit it to that.” The Alicorn continued. Vinyl seemed a little surprised by the request but shrugged, using a bit of magic to shield her mind and letting the memories of the night out fo the shield.

“Go for it, just don’t pick at the barriers. I’m not the best at shielding magic and I have some things floating around in there that even I don’t want to remember.” Vinyl warned. Twilight nodded and concentrated on the psionic magic to read thoughts. The two of them were thrust into a mental mindscape, Twilight knew some pretty fancy magic to do that. Normally you’d just look through memories and you’re lucky if you felt it. Psionic mages were kinda scary like that.

“I figured having you here with me to stop things if needed, or to explain things, would be a good idea. You ready?” Twilight asked.

“Sweet, go for it.” Vinyl replied. Twilight nodded and the night started playing out for them. Vinyl and Twilight let some of it play out, though they skipped around most of it. Twilight mused and even laughed lightly at the antics her drunk friends got into, as well as expressed concern for her own speed of alcohol intake. She was finally surprised at seeing her dance, especially from someone else’s perspective. She had been taking dance lessons for years, but she’d never gotten to more than a passable canter. This was beautiful, though, and she couldn’t help but smile as she saw Vinyl join in from her own eyes.

“It really was incredible… I haven’t seen anything like that even in the theatre halls.” Vinyl said softly. Their horns touched, then, and Vinyl felt the embarrassment fill her again. Twilight seemed like she was going to say something then, but watched as Vinyl kissed her, and then snorted as she kissed the unicorn back.

“Well that explains why I don’t remember kissing you, but I didn’t remember you kissing me, or our horns touching. I remember that feeling, Vinyl, and feeling it through your memory...Do you know what that was?” Twilight asked. Her tone was a little tinted with embarrassment, as were her cheeks, but her expression was very serious as they faded back to reality.

“I mean, touching horns is usually for super good friends and stuff.. But that didn’t feel normal. Did something happen?” Vinyl asked. Twilight slowly nodded her head and walked closer. Vinyl instinctively wanted to turn away when Twilight made to touch their horns together again, too many stallions had tried that with her when they got drunk. She resisted the urge though, and shuddered as their horns touched again.

“That… was something called Arcane Resonance... “ Twilight started, shuddering as well. Vinyl suddenly felt the urge to kiss her again, especially after seeing last night to clearly again, but refrained from that urge as well. “It usually doesn’t happen when there’s no magic being channeled together, but it’s something that closely bonded mages do… be they Unicorn or otherwise. It’s almost like the idea of soulmates, though I’ve seen it in siblings and friends. The Princesses have a particularly strong resonance.” Twilight continued. Vinyl’s heart kinda sank at that, though she wasn’t entirely sure why, but it apparently showed on her face.

“Something wrong? You’re not super bored of magical things like Dash is are you?” Twilight asked. Vinyl snorted.

“Nah, I love it sometimes. I’m not averse to learning but…” She started, touching her front hooves together in nervousness before shaking it away and looking back up with a bit of a smirk. “What if I told you I really wanted to kiss you again? That resonance thing has that effect on me I guess.” She continued. Twilight repeated the nervous motion, though her face flushed up before getting up and walking over.

“It kinda has that effect on me too…” She said, giving a timid smile before quickly pecking the unicorn on the lips. Vinyl snorted.

“Aw hell naw girl, you gotta give it a little more fire than that!” Vinyl said in response. Twilight was certainly not ready for the return kiss, and honestly neither was Vinyl. In the end, Twilight was practically in Vinyl’s lap and they were so close together the heat was almost unpleasant.

Almost.

“Whoa there girl, we should ah… call it there for now, you’d have to buy me dinner first.” Vinyl said, forcing herself not to stutter as her embarrassment skyrocketed at the thought of that particular course of action. A tiny part of her hoped Twilight would be totally cool with them going further, but experience and realism kicked in and she threw that thought from her mind. For now.

“Y-Yeah… u-um… right… S-Sorry…” The alicorn stuttered out, her own embarrassment much more prominent than the DJ’s. Vinyl gave her a lopsided smirk and levitated Twilight’s fork back up to her face.

“Eat, if you waste my food I’ll make you buy me more.” She said, her confidence returning. “And don’t you dare apologize for that, that was fuckin’ great.” She said, her smirk turning to a grin. Twilight gave her that timid smile again before returning to her breakfast. Her rustling wings were almost amusing to Vinyl if they didn’t betray her inner conflict. Vinyl waited until she finished before bringing it up.

“Alright, what’s on your mind? Last time Dash’s wings acted like that she was freaking out with nerves about her wonderbolts audition.” She finally asked while she absentmindedly levitated the dishes over to the sink to wash themselves. Twilight’s wings rustled again and her conflict showed on her face for a moment before she sighed and looked up at Vinyl again.

“Is this just a fling, or something? And this whole Resonance thing, I could be mistaking it for something else… I’ve never felt anything like it before, or these feelings flinging around inside my head.” She said, her look almost pleading Vinyl to have an answer. The Unicorn shrugged.

“I wouldn’t call it a fling, not yet. If that’s all you want out of this then that’s on you, but I don’t know what I want out of this until I get to know you better. I know the basics and all that, but we need at least one more night drinking together and another few meals before I’ve got you properly pegged. That resonance thing, though, that’s some strong stuff. I’ve touched horns with my sister and it always gave me this cozy little feeling that made me know she loved me. You though? It’s like an adrenaline shot that’s also saying ‘you better kiss the hell out of her right now, just look at that face. You want to kiss it. Do it.’ and I just can’t say no without getting sad.” Vinyl replied at length, trying to inject a bit of humor to maintain her confidence. Twilight thought about the answer for a bit before speaking again.

“Well then, I’m honestly not that much of a drinker but I’d love to go out for a beer or two and just talk. Not tonight though, definitely not tonight… But, I’d like to pay you back for all of this so I can probably talk the palace chefs into dinner on me. I’m not due back in ponyville for a week and since you don’t live there anymore I’d like to sneak in as much ‘getting to know each other’ time in there as possible.” The Alicorn suggested.

“Whoa seriously? Dinner at the palace? If I didn’t know better I’d think you were trying to be romantic.” Vinyl said, dramatically fluttering her eyes. Twilight snickered with a giggle at that.

“Please, I know about as much as romance as Pinkie does about poorly baked pastries. I wonder if either of the princesses would join us, we could ask them more about the resonance.” The Alicorn mused. Vinyl scrunched her face up at that.

“What? Naw, if we’re gonna be getting to know each other we can’t have a third wheel there. It’s gotta be like a legit date. Besides, especially if it’s Celestia it’d be like your mom coming with you on prom night. That shit don’t fly girl.” She retorted. Twilight shrugged.

“I suppose I don’t have to have every meal with them. We can’t do it in the private dining room then, I suppose we could just go to the usual dining hall like everybody else.” The Alicorn offered. Vinyl grinned.

“Sounds more like it, miss ‘I always dine with the most important ponies in the world’.” The Unicorn teased. Twilight just smirked and stood.

“You’re damn right I do. Anyways, I should head back. It’s already past one and I don’t even want to think about the shitstorm of paperwork I have to get back to... “ Twilight said and started grumbling incoherently about paperwork and that’s the real reason why she was resigning her crown.

“Yeaaaaaah good luck with that champ. What time should I head over? I went to the dining hall once for some noble’s sweet sixteen so I know where it is.” Vinyl asked.

“We’ll shoot for six. Just be prepared to deal with press. They’re already everywhere, but they’ll be looking for me specifically to get stuff on my resignation. If you want I can disguise myself, otherwise you’d be on tabloids with some stupid headline.” Twilight replied. Vinyl shrugged.

“I dunno, ‘Lonely ex-princess banging cute DJ’ sounds like a good headline to me.” The Unicorn said, moving a hoof across the air dramatically. Twilight laughed as she rolled her eyes before stepping to the door.

“See you at six.” She said. Vinyl waved in response and the Alicorn left. She felt herself slump slightly, already missing the mare’s presence. She shook herself again before pulling over her event book to see if she could reschedule a few things. If she only had a week with Twilight in Canterlot then she was going to make the most of it.

Author's Note

So this is a thing.
This is a thing that is happening.
Happening at 3 am. God I need to sleep.
Enjoy.

Chapter 2: Reason #42

Vinyl had only ever been to the palace dining hall once, and even then never to meet someone specific. The event was catered so she never even got to order directly from the palace staff. When she got there, there was a doorman. He seemed to recognize her, or at least her Moniker.

“I didn’t know there was an event today. Then again, I always loose track of what the nobility does with the place.” The stallion said. Vinyl rolled her eyes behind her shades.

“Actually I’m meeting someone. No event today, at least from me, or you wouldn’t be able to hear yourself think.” She said with a snarky grin as she made to move past him.

“Well then, name for your reservation?” The stallion asked, looking at his list. Vinyl froze. Shit. Reservations.

“Uh, Vinyl Scratch?” She said with uncertainty. The stallion just looked at her.

“You forgot to reserve your date, huh? You wouldn’t be the first. Unfortunately there’s a three day waiting list, so you’ll have to reschedule.” He said, though he at least wasn’t a dick about it. His tone actually seemed apologetic.

“Can you at least look? She might have had more foresight than I do.” Vinyl asked. The man quirked an eyebrow but looked. She noticed his surprise, one of the first names was indeed hers.

“Ah, it seems you’re a lucky mare. Go right in, I’ll assume you can find her. Whoever she is.” He said with a bit of a snicker.

“You don’t know the half of it, pal.” Vinyl replied, letting out a sigh of relief. The Stallion watched after her for a moment as she apparently saw who she was meeting as she waved and quickly left his line of sight. He thought for a moment and balked a bit, that was the direction to the balcony seats and there was only one mare seated out there. He made a mental note to go have a peek on his break, but for now another couple had turned up.

Vinyl grinned at Twilight as the purple wing waved her over. She was talking happily to Princess Luna, who was standing next to her. They both looked at the newcomer and smiled.

“There you are! I was hoping the doorman wouldn’t turn you away so I made sure to get your name on the reservations list.” Twilight said.

“Yeah, I almost had a panic attack when he asked about reservations!” Vinyl said, chuckling awkwardly as she rubbed a hoof on the back of her head.

“It is good to see Twilight well after such a night, from what I hear you took great care of her.” Luna said with a knowing smile. Vinyl froze as she remembered that the Princess was here.

“U-Uh, yeah… I guess you did see how bad she was. It’s fine, though. I have to take care of myself like that all the time, taking care of someone else was a nice change of pace. Those seltzers work wonders when combined with a clear of mind spell.” Vinyl said, not really wanting to step much closer. Last night was awkward enough, but she had no idea how to act around Princess Luna. The two picked up on it.

“Don’t worry, Vinyl, she’s not staying long.” Twilight said and motioned for the unicorn to sit. Luna nodded and stifled a yawn.

“I was just on my ‘morning’ fly and I noticed Twilight sitting alone and thought to say hello. I won’t interrupt this friendly meeting, though. You’re both in good hooves and I have night court to prepare for. Come visit before you head back, Twilight, we would like to say our goodbyes in the flesh.” Luna explained, ending with a small smile and extending her wings.

“Sure thing, I wouldn’t dream of it.” The younger Alicorn said happily. Luna quickly leaned into Twilight for a quick hug with their wings before she lazily took to the sky again. Twilight looked back to Vinyl, who was still standing in the doorway to the balcony area, and rolled her eyes as she motioned for her to sit again. She wasn’t the only one, however. A few other couples on the balcony had refrained from entering the open air tables until Luna had taken her leave.

“You may be used to it since you practically live with them, but two meetings with one of the Princesses in the span of 24 hours is NOT a normal occurance for me. Not even that one time she stopped into a club I was working for a pick me up. She just ordered her drink, paid, and left.” Vinyl said as she finally took her seat across from Twilight. Twilight seemed surprised by that.

“Luna came into a club for a pick me up? When was this?” She asked. Vinyl snickered.

“No, Celestia did. And it wasn’t that long ago, here in Canterlot. I was offered a gig for some schmuck's 21st birthday party in the lower city. She was all disguised and stuff, but she kept her mane the same. I almost dropped her drink when I noticed it. She gave me the bits, winked, downed the entire thing and was out of there.” She explained.

“What did she order?” Twilight asked. Vinyl looked into the air in thought for a moment.

“It was something straight, either Applejack Daniels or some top shelf brandy. I can’t remember.” Twilight just rolled her eyes at that.

“Yeah sounds like her after an overtime day court.” She said, almost like someone talking about a naughty sibling. Vinyl snickered at that.

“Man, I wish I could be so buddy buddy with royalty like that. Half the time I wouldn’t think they even notice me at all, but I know Celestia is all about her little ponies.” Vinyl said, leaning back in her chair as a server came by with menus. Vinyl somehow managed to pale at the prices on the menu.

“Well, I’m technically royalty. Well, was, and I sure as hay noticed you. And order what you want, this one’s on me. I owe you that much for this morning.” The Alicorn said with a smile as she didn’t pick her menu up.

“I’m not usually that into richie rich food, so you go ahead and order for me. If it’s food I’ll eat it. If it’s good food, I’ll eat it quickly.” Vinyl replied. Twilight smiled and nodded. Just as the server left with the orders and drinks were brought to them, though, they were interrupted by a sharp gust of wind as a particularly colorful pegasus was suddenly standing next to their table.

“Yo Twilight, where you been?” Dash practically screamed. She got a few looks but she wasn’t paying attention to them. Twilight seemed unphased by the mare’s sudden entrance, but though Vinyl was used to it she still nearly fell out of her chair. The Pegasus and the Alicorn raised their wings in a high-feather.

“It’s a long story, I crashed with Vinyl. She made sure I didn’t vomit all over myself too much.” Twilight said with a bit of a frown before returning to a smile. “Then I had to go back and do more of my paperwork…” She practically groaned. Dash seemed to just notice Vinyl there and grinned, stepping forward and hoof-bumping the unicorn.

“Then you were in good hooves then. What’re you doin’ here together then? Don’t tell me you guys are secretly dating or something.” The Pegasus remarked. The two laughed a bit.

“No! At least not yet. I owe her for this morning and last night.” Twilight said, glancing at Vinyl quickly when she said not yet. Vinyl grinned. She was implying that she was thinking about it, and she wanted to see if Dash would pick up on it.

“Oh, well yeah I guess that makes sense. You better come back to the palace common room before everyone goes to bed tonight, though. Applejack said she was super worried when she was lugging our flanks out of there, you were pretty drunk.” The Speedster said a little seriously.

“Don’t worry, I’ll probably be there after we finish up here.” Twilight said, waving a wing to dismiss their worry. “And I wasn’t THAT drunk. Not until the very end.” She continued. Dash shrugged and flicked her wings a bit in preparation for takeoff.

“Alright, whatever. See you later then.” She said and was just about to take off when she froze and gaped at the two when they shared a look.

“WAAAAAAaaait wait wait, not yet?” The Pegasus balked. She was about to question further but was flung off the edge of the balcony by a lavender puff of magic. She shot back up a bit, sticking her tongue out at Twilight, before she shot off in some random direction.

“I am never going to hear the end of that, but worth it.” Twilight said with a satisfied smirk. Vinyl just snorted.

“You know, I was going to ask the same thing.” The Unicorn said with a lopsided grin. She finally took her shades off then and was giving Twilight a bit of questioning look.

“After I left, I felt like going back and just sitting with you again. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, not until you showed up. And even now, I was kinda hoping you’d sit next to me so I could wrap my wing around you.” The Alicorn explained, ending with a bit of a shy smile. Vinyl grinned at that.

“Well, I never like sitting next to someone at dinner. usually, at least, because that makes it awkward to try and hold a conversation. Plus you look like a couple of goofs to everyone else in the room. And while I don’t care about looking like a goof, I do that for myself quite smashingly I should think, I want to hold an actual conversation with you for a while.” The Unicorn retorted. Twilight giggled a bit, but further conversation was interrupted by their meal arriving.

“Oh MAN this looks good! I was worried that this place had crap proportions like every other rich place.” Vinyl said, looking at her dinner of sauteed vegetables in some kind of sauce she didn’t know with a large side of grilled carrots and broccoli with garlic cloves and a garlic drizzle.

“They usually are, but I asked the chefs to do double the proportions. I am an Alicorn afterall, and I figured if you didn’t finish yours you’d have leftovers.” Twilight replied. Vinyl just gave her a look and dug in. The conversation apparently had to wait until dessert.

They talked for two hours, took a walk around the city for another hour, and finally Twilight walked Vinyl home. Twilight could only ignore the press she noticed every now and then watching her talk and giggle with her newest friend, but she she didn’t particularly care. She decided to give them a real headline and, when Vinyl was about to turn into the apartment building, she snatched a kiss from her. Vinyl wasn’t going to complain and just gave her a shit eating grin before they departed. They were going to meet up again with the rest of the Elements for a wonderbolts audition the next day. Twilight had gotten her hooves on VIP tickets since Dash was one of the ones auditioning.

Celestia couldn’t suppress her giggle the next morning as she had breakfast with Twilight. She was reading a morning paper and, as Twilight walked in, made sure to keep the front page facing her at all times. She giggled another few times, almost getting bored of trying to make her student notice right away, but finally the clanking of silverware back onto the plate signalled her choice of newspaper had finally been noticed. She inched the paper down to peek over the edge, seeing Twilight’s wide eyes and open mouth. In feigned confusion, she bent the page over to look at the front page she had known was there all along.

‘EX-PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA HAS A NEW FLING, AND A THING FOR CLUBBING’

“Oh this? I hadn’t even noticed.” Celestia said, feigning interest in the headline in the most innocent tone she could muster. Her face betrayed her, though, even if Twilight hadn’t known her well enough to know exactly what she was doing. The picture on the front page was a photo snapped of her goodbye kiss with Vinyl the previous night.

“When Luna told me of your night, and previous evening with the mare, we had our hunches. I can’t help but wonder why a DJ of all things would interest you, but then again I haven’t exactly had the most run of the mill suitors in the past.” The Princess chuckled as she turned to the appropriate page.

“‘Ex-Princess of Equestria Twilight Sparkle was seen yesterday evening dining with a well known DJ for a local nightclub. They spent the rest of daylight together and the Princess kissed the DJ goodnight. Could this be the true reason Twilight Sparkle resigned her crown?’. Oh that’s poppycock and they know it. I’ll never hear the end of this in court if this is what the good paper is saying.” The Princess continued. Twilight shrank in her chair, though. Celestia actually had to lay her paper down to see the younger alicorn.

“They make it sound so dirty, and everyone knows that’s not why I resigned!” Twilight pouted. Celestia chuckled and continued her breakfast.

“It’ll pass over before long. Once it becomes old news the tabloids will latch onto something else in a week’s time at the latest.” She said. Twilight grumbled in agreement before returning to their own meal. The silence was a little stale, though.

“Twilight, do you actually care about this mare?” Celestia suddenly asked. Twilight seemed startled by the question, but nodded as she swallowed her bite.

“I do. I mean, I care about all of my friends. I think Vinyl and I finally became full on friends last night, we were just acquaintances before. She kinda kissed me the night before last, though, and I kissed her back. I like her and all, but that’s not all there is to it…” Twilight started, shifting uncomfortably in her chair.

“Twilight, if you don’t want to talk about it right now you know I’ll always be here when you need me.” Celestia said warmly. Twilight sighed and thought about her words.

“We… resonated.” Twilight said slowly, almost like she was admitting to sneaking a cookie out of the cookie jar. Celestia was confused for a moment. Just a moment though.

“Resonated? What do you mean resonat….ed….” She started, before realizing what Twilight just said. It was rare that Celestia was shocked into silence, but she recovered quickly with a sly smirk.

“Well then, if you resonated while that drunk I’m surprised a kiss is as far as you went.” She said, gauging Twilight’s reaction. The younger Alicorn flushed up, which slightly concerned Celestia.

“I mean, it didn’t! B-But… she joked about it, and the thought definitely crossed my mind. She wants to make sure we get to know each other better first, though, which is why I invited her to dinner! We’re going to see Dash audition with the others tomorrow too so she can make friends with the other Elements.” Twilight softly started before quickly changing the subject. Celestia’s resting smirk didn’t do Twilight any favors, but she didn’t say anything else on the prior manner. For now.

“Well then, you may have found yourself a keeper. She’s got a good head on her by the sounds of it, I’d love to meet her personally. Take your time with that, though. Even the other elements are wary of my sister and I, they haven’t spent their life with us as you have. Vinyl especially, I wouldn’t want her time with you tained by nerves until you become more comfortable together.” The Princess said.

“Well… aren't you coming to the auditions too? We’ve got the VIP box. You can chat with her there, not during some formal event or a private meeting. Worst case scenario we can put a few drinks in her to settle her nerves, the box has an open bar.” Twilight suggested with a lopsided smirk. Celestia chuckled a bit.

“I suppose I was planning on going, I should definitely do so now.” She said and stood after finishing her meal. “I have my duties to attend to. I’m proud of you, Twilight. You’re really growing into your own mare.” She said, stopping at the door and looking back. Twilight smiled and quickly rushed over to hug the Princess.

“Thank you, Princess. You were right, I’m a lot happier now.” The Lavender Alicorn said. They enjoyed the embrace for a moment or two longer before separating. They bid each other goodbye and Celestia left while Twilight returned to her breakfast. Her smile fell as she looked at the paper still on the table.

Reason number forty-two why she retired her crown: The Press.

Author's Note

Not every chapter will have a name, I gave up on naming every single chapter a long time ago. Hope everyone enjoyed, it's fun writing a more lighthearted SoL style story for once. Certainly refreshing my writer's block.

Chapter 3

Vinyl happily trotted to the Wonderbolts Stadium just outside of the city, where there were already massive lines forming. She had to admit, having Twilight take care of the tedious things for her was starting to get pretty nice. Especially since she always forgot to do them anyways. She flashed her VIP pass at the entrance and was directed to a side staircase. It was a lot more crowded than she thought a VIP box would be, but then again it was only closed off during the performance. Friends with less advantageous seats or things like that would hang out in there until it was about time to start.

Vinyl froze at the door and suddenly felt the desire to back away slowly and pretend she was never here. Twilight was there, as well as the Elements, but they were all in various seats surrounding a larger seat where Princess Celestia herself sat. She almost went through with her plan before Twilight noticed her and waved her over. She hesitated, and that got a look from the young Alicorn that was clearly a pleading ‘plleeeeeaaaaaaaaase?’ face. She couldn’t resist that face, that face that she wanted to kiss as she walked up. She refrained from doing so, though, due to present company.

“I’m sorry, Vinyl. I know you’re not used to hanging out with the Princesses like I am, but this isn’t an official visit or anything. She’s just here to watch the show, same as us!” Twilight practically pleaded. Vinyl still hadn’t taken her seat, and she could have sworn she saw what looked like a hint of sadness in the Princess’ expression before she spoke.

“Don’t worry, miss Vinyl. I don’t bite.” She said, almost playfully. “She might, though.” She continued, nudging Twilight with a wing. The look the younger Alicorn gave her mentor probably would have caused at least ten years of war if it was a foreign dignitary, but the Princess just snorted rather un-princess-like and nudged her again.

“Princess!” Twilight just whined before digging her hooves into the Princess’ side, causing the older Alicorn to snicker and giggle as it apparently tickled her.

“Oh Twilight sto-o-o-p!” Celestia practically whined back, trying not to break into a fit of boisterous laughter. Judging by how the other elements seemed mostly unphased by the interaction, though, this wasn’t exactly out of the norm for the two. A lot of the others in the VIP box were staring in disbelief or awe, or something similar, and Vinyl was one of them.

“Princess Celestia, Darling, if you two keep up with that then you’re going to cause a scene, and that childish hooting is very unlady-like.” Rarity scolded the two, though she was trying not to snicker herself. Celestia gave Twilight a knowing look, Twilight rolled her eyes, and they settled back down properly. They both looked at Vinyl then, who was still standing a few feet away.

“Please, I won’t disrupt the event any further. This is a chance to get to know everyone better, just pretend I’m Twilight’s older sister or something, I certainly do.” Celestia said warmly to Vinyl. That finally snapped her out of it, and she grinned wide as she took her shades off.

“You know, when I walked up and saw Princess Celestia, THE Princess Celestia, I thought I’d have to do the whole regal thing and I know I’d flop hardcore. But after… that? That makes me feel good about coming here. You totally aren’t as regal and perfect as everyone thinks and I love that.” Vinyl said as she trotted over, although she took her seat rather hesitantly since she was very close to the Princess. It was just Twilight between them. The younger Alicorn quickly wrapped a wing around her, gaining looks from most of the Elements and a good deal of the other spectators in the box. Some of them even seemed like they were going to yell at her for saying their princess isn’t perfect, though.

Celestia just laughed.

She laughed pretty hard, actually. Enough to end it with a cute snort.

“Eloquently put, miss Vinyl. While I am performing my duties as a Princess I do have a certain air of regality and power I must maintain, I’m here as a friend today. SO I’ll be damned if I act like anything but.” The Princess said. The other nobles in the box looked almost appalled. Some Unicorn just walked in and insulted the princess after she almost had a tickle fight with her student in public, and the Princess accepted it like a compliment? And even CURSED? Celestia knew she was never going to hear the end of it from her advisors and from other nobles in court, especially if it gets into the paper, but she subtly hoped the fact that Twilight had her wing wrapped around the Unicorn she was kissing in the paper would be a flashier headline.

“Alright I gotta fly girls, see you after the show!” Dash said, speeding out of the room before anyone could even give her a goodbye. The noble with a frazzled mane that just walked in didn’t look to happy about it, but he is at a wonderbolts show.

“Thanks for showing up, I was worried you were going to be late.” Twilight said softly to Vinyl, pecking her on the cheek when most of the attention was put to the stadium as an announcer started calling out. Vinyl stuck her tongue out and leaned against the Alicorn in response.

“Well sorry, I actually took the time to wash my mane properly instead of using prestidigitation when I go out. I was still pretty early, Miss Perfect Scheduling.” The Unicorn retorted. Twilight’s only response was to stick her tongue out back and shift to get more comfortable with Vinyl leaning on her. Celestia was watching them closely out of the corner of her eye and she was practically beaming.

After about half an hour in, Vinyl had a question as the latest batch of hopefuls finished their routine of stunts and formation flying.

“Say, Twilight, how come Dash is still auditioning? I thought she aced the hell out of the last one?” She asked.

“Well, she got into the Wonderbolts yeah, but the auditions take place over multiple events. In Dash’s own words ‘Yeah anyone can be awesome once, but to be consistently awesome is a talent. They want that talent’. I think this is the last one she has to do.” Twilight explained. Vinyl started to nod, but Celestia hummed a bit.

“Was that incorrect, Princess?” Twilight asked, apparently she knew what that hum meant.

“Technically no, but I specifically remember approving Rainbow Dash’s induction into the Wonderbolts over a month ago. She impressed the commanders enough to where they waived her third audition completely, this one is just her showing off. Although, Spitfire has come to me about taking on an apprentice. Perhaps young Rainbow Dash heard wind of it too?” The Princess replied.

“Well, knowing Rainbow, I think she just found her new apprentice.” Applejack said with a smirk as the speedster’s name was announced.

There was silence at first, this was a solo routine. She had already proven herself in formation flying, both as a squaddie and as the leader. This was to test if she could steal the show all by herself. Murmurs and yells came over the crowd as a single speck appeared in the distance, way high up. It dropped from the clouds to gain gliding speed before shooting towards the stadium. At its current speed it would take probably around ten minutes for the speck to reach the stadium. But it wasn’t maintaining a speed, it was speeding up. Extremely quickly at that.

As the speck got closer they saw that it was Rainbow Dash, her mane and tail were starting to leave a chromatic haze behind her as her speed kept going up and up. Just as she reached the center of the arena, she miraculously managed to bounce off of the ground and shoot into the sky. The impact on the ground from where her back hooves left craters in the ground, and the entire stadium shook as a blast of chromatic force diffused into the ground. The force cracked even the stone floor of the stadium, throwing up a massive pillar of dust. Dash was way ahead of it, the cacophonous boom of a sonic rainboom propelling her so fast the clouds were torn away from her ascent.

The rainbow blur behind her remained, though the visible chromatic force from breaking the sound barrier dissipated as she spiraled downwards around the pillar of dust, carving away at it with her wings to send it spiraling around almost like a dust tornado. She hit the ground again at the center, the force of air from her sudden landing completely dispersing the cloud again to reveal her panting and dusty form standing tall and strong. It took only a moment for the crowd to recover from the ringing in their ears to give an uproarious round of applause. Even the nobles in the VIP box joined the group of friends near the Princess in their cheers.

“Whoa! When did she learn how to do THAT?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“I have no idea but holy high hell that was AWESOME!” Vinyl let out, her forelegs squeezing Twilight in excitement.

“I can’t believe she managed to break the sound barrier reliably, let alone on a rebound. I don’t think talent quite describes her.” Celestia said, even she was a little amazed.

“That was the first test, and oh man did it work!” Dash’s raspy voice came from the doorway. Everyone looked towards it and watched as she cantered over to the group and proceeded to unceremoniously flop onto the ground. “But GEEZ that took a lot out of me. Wake me up after the recess.” She said, already half asleep before succumbing to it in full. A medic trailed in after her and looked at her hind legs for a moment before scratching her head and turned to yell something back out, but was startled to find the Princess had stood behind her.

“Is something wrong with her legs?” Celestia asked, a bit of worry tinting her tone. Everyone was silent after that.

“N-No no! There’s nothing wrong with them, at all. That’s what confused me… An impact like that should have at least rattled the joints, if not break and shatter bones.” The medic explained. They were all startled again as a new voice spoke.

“Her timing and precision was so perfect in the rebound, it perfectly transferred the dangerous energies and momentum into the ground, which propelled her further.” A pegasus in a Wonderbolts uniform said as she entered, flanked by two more. It was Spitfire and her lieutenants. Vinyl was just kindof in shock. She was in the presence of so many famous and awesome ponies she was worried she might start squealing. Twilight must have sensed it, though, as she pulled her just a little closer with her wing. It definitely calmed her down, at least.

“Well, Commander, I think we’ve found your new apprentice.” Celestia said with a smile. Spitfire nodded and walked over to the sleeping mare before carefully picking her up and draping her across her back.

“We’re gonna go double check on her. Her legs may be fine, but after such rigorous maneuvering she might have pulled something.” The Wonderbolt said. Celestia nodded. The other Elements stood as well.

“Mind if we join you? We want to make sure she’s alright.” Applejack asked for them. The Wonderbolt nodded and turned to leave, the other elements in tow. Twilight had shifted, but never actually stood.

“I’m sorry girls, can you let me know how she is? I don’t think having me in there would be the best idea. Four spectators is bad enough, let alone one as big as I am.” The young Alicorn said, there was deep conflict in her voice.

“Don’ worry about it, Twi. Dash would understand.” Applejack said with a wink as they left. Vinyl felt a little uneasy then. She pushed away from Twilight, just slightly enough to look at her proper.

“Twilight, you don’t have to worry about leaving me. We’ll have plenty of time to spend together later. Go make sure your friend is ok.” The unicorn said very seriously. She did NOT want to come between Twilight and her friends, especially the other elements. And ESPECIALLY not the element of loyalty. That’s just wrong. Twilight gave her an uncertain hum, looking between her and the door.

“Go on, Twilight, I’ll keep her company.” Celestia said. Twilight may have caught the mischief in her tone if she wasn’t so conflicted. With a final sigh she quickly nuzzled Vinyl and sped out after the group. The Unicorn smiled after her, but quickly lost all of the comfort she had garnered in the situation. She was practically alone with the princess. They sat and watched the next audition before Celestia broke the silence.

“Do you care for her, Miss Vinyl?” She asked with a warm smile, finally turning towards the Unicorn. Vinyl was startled by the sudden break in silence, but quickly recovered. She rubbed the back of her head and glanced sideways at the princess.

“Of course I do, I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.” She replied with a bit of indignation. Was it not obvious?

“Oh you know what I mean. Beyond friendship. Every little hunch and feeling I get from you is positive, but I have to hear it. Is this just a fling? I would not hold it against you if it was, but I’d like to be prepared for when things end. She gets rather attached to her friends, especially when she has a crush.” The Alicorn explained. Vinyl actually gave the princess an agitated look. Celestia was actually happy to see it, not that her expression changed from her warm smile.

“The whole reason I wanted to hang out with her more is so that I could figure that out myself. I’ve had quite a few bad boyfriends, and even a bad girlfriend or two. Even with that arcane resonance or whatever the hell it is, I wasn’t going to just rush into this. I still won’t, we still have one more night drinking and at least two more meals before I can give you a solid answer since I’d rather not lie to a princess of all things. For now, though, I’m having the time of my life with her.” The unicorn answered.It was a little heated at first but it quickly calmed to a happy smirk by the end. Celestia was beaming at that.

Vinyl was surprised by the pristine white wing that brushed up against her. It wasn’t anything like the wing-hugs she did with Twilight, it was more like a forehoof on the shoulder albeit with a little more reach. She froze up again at that, remembering just how she was talking to the Princess.

“You are quite an extraordinary pony, Vinyl. I may have to invite you to the palace to share a drink every now and then on my own. Between you and me, Luna’s too much of a lightweight to keep up with me.” The Princess started, the last part in almost a whisper as she leaned in close. That caused Vinyl to relax a bit, and even snicker at the comment before the Alicorn straightened up again to continue.

“I have no doubt that you’ll have your fair share of hardships, but I can’t imagine you two apart now. If not romantically, then at least as close friends. I can promise you that you’ve garnered her love, I just hope you covet it like she covets yours.” Celestia continued as she turned her attention back to the performance.

Vinyl slowly rubbed her side, the side that had previously been against Twilight. It was still cold. She heard voices outside of the box and saw that the others were returning without Rainbow Dash and smiled. Twilight’s worry had gone and they locked eyes for a second as the group entered the box. Twilight gave her a shy smile and Vinyl returned it with a shit eating grin.

“Princess, you have no idea.”

Author's Note

I finally got around to writing this one up. I'm basically bouncing around the trio of stories, depending on what's on my mind. Unfortunately I don't always have time to write it when it is on my mind so delays happen.
But either way, enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 5: Reason #1

Vinyl was NOT an early bird, and even though they had gone to bed at the relatively early hour of eleven she was like walking death as they trudged to the Night Owl at seven in the morning. She had an extra large cup of coffee floating in front of her while Twilight had a small list she was reading off of.

“Alright, the last thing we need to do before heading to the train station is take care of your place. Don’t worry the train ride is two hours so you can nap in there.” The Alicorn assured the Unicorn, who just incoherently grumbled and took a large sip of coffee in response. Vinyl pushed open the door, which was unlocked, and grumbled at the cleaning crew doing their jobs.

“You’re here awful early, boss lady.” The Unicorn behind the counter grumbled, he seemed almost as tired as she was.

“Oh stuff it Frank, the place is yours for a week. I need to head to Ponyville with Twilight or I’ll die, and we both know I need a vacation.” Vinyl retorted. He was about to roll his eyes, but he saw the concern on Twilight’s face that she still wasn’t able to get out.

“Something serious happen then? I won’t press into your affairs boss lady, just make sure you come back. You sign my checks afterall.” The Stallion said as he continued counting the stock.

“Yeah I’ll be fine, don’t you worry none. Let the server girls know for me, and if I find out you’re shaving the bar tips into their jars for dates again I’ll put you in one of their uniforms and make you do their job for a week.” Vinyl said. The way that his coat seemed to pale and nod told Twilight that it wasn’t the first time.

“Yeah, you got it boss lady. Take care of her, Twilight. Though I don’t think I even need to say that once.” The Stallion finally said. The two smiled.

“Of course, Frank was it? I’m glad Vinyl has some good people to look after her business.” Twilight said. The bartender and the cleaning crew all flashed them a grin before returning to their work. Vinyl walked over to her tables and frowned.

“Yo Frank, who’s been touching my shit? You know they’re supposed to set it back to my height!” She called out.

“Nobody’s touched your shit, Vinyl. Check it yourself!” The stallion called back. Vinyl just rolled her eyes and looked. The way she kinda froze there under the table concerned Twilight, and the look on her face when Twilight walked up and she stood back up proper didn’t help.

“This is real creepy, you said that magic shit was all over right?” She asked. Twilight nodded slowly and Vinyl cautiously lifted the table up a few notches to where it would be just at her barrel again.

“Either I’m six inches taller than I was last night, or someone managed to change my arcane mark when the only pony who knows about it is Frank.” The Unicorn continued softly. Twilight conjured up a measuring tape and took a measurement. She was, indeed, six inches taller than was listed on her charts at the hospital.

“Let’s… not worry about it right now. I’ll send a message o the Princess and kindly ask her exactly what the hell is happening and you take a nap on the train.” Twilight said, using every ounce of self control she had to not start freaking out. It showed in her eyes, though, and her mane as a few hairs seemed to ping out of place. Vinyl just shook herself out of it and took a deep breath before letting it out. Frank was giving her an odd look.

“Alright, I’m outta here. Just remember, you touch my stash without replacing it and you die.” Vinyl called out and proceeded to speed out of the place. Twilight was behind her, sharing in the need to get going already. She penned the letter as they walked but didn’t receive a reply until they were already on the train and Vinyl was asleep against her. She refrained from waking the mare up to read it to her, since there was a middle aged couple in the train car with them napping softly as well, but it put her at ease.

‘Twilight,
This is something that has only ever happened four other times in my memory, and each time it has led Equestria far into happiness and prosperity. You have nothing to worry about, but if I just told you what was happening then you wouldn’t have the joy of figuring it out on your own.
One day within the next week, she will not wake up from her sleep for a full day. You must stay close enough to maintain the connection between your arcane pools or she may be harmed during it. When she does wake up, your lives will probably change forever. I cannot assist you in figuring out what that means, but I’m so proud of both of you.

Celestia’

The part about Vinyl possibly getting hurt concerned her of course, but if this new development was bad then the Princess wouldn’t have turned to her usual ‘educate with experience’ philosophy with things.

“We saw you in the paper, but I never actually expected a DJ would catch your eye, miss Twilight Sparkle…” The earth pony mare across from them said, apparently having woken up from her nap. Twilight studied the tone and the expression and found both to be more curious than anything.

“Neither did I, but things kinda happen.” Twilight replied with a smile, looking at the Unicorn dozing on her shoulder. The Mare across from her chuckled a bit.

“Fair enough. You deserve some happiness.” She said, almost like it was a widely known fact. Twilight just smiled as the mare settled down to resume her nap. She decided to take her own, nuzzling into Vinyl in the process. The rattling of the train around them soothed her into her light sleep.

“Gosh Darnit Twi, wake up before the train gets a movin’ again!” She was shaken out of her ‘light’ sleep by a familiar southern accent. She opened her eyes slowly and found Applejack giving her a smirk. She yawned wide and waved her off, nudging the Unicorn still dead asleep next to her. When she didn’t wake up she rolled her eyes and slid off the seat, Vinyl hitting the cushion with a thud and shooting right back up, eyes cracked and confused.

“Huzzawhazit?” The bleary Unicorn said quickly, looking around shiftily. She finally realized where she was and groaned before getting to her hooves. “Hot damn Twi, you’re comfy.” She continued. Twilight rolled her eyes and turned to Applejack.

“Thanks AJ, I guess I was more tired than I thought.” Twilight said to her friend.

“Well duh, when the conductor poked his head out the front askin’ us to see if we could wake you up before he left what was I supposed to do?” The farm mare replied with a smirk. Twilight pawed the floor slightly, but Vinyl snorted.

“So you guys were waiting for us?” She asked, changing the subject as they started walking.

“Of course we were, after Twi sent us that letter sayin’ she’d be late, and then another one sayin’ she’ll actually be on time but with you got us a might worried, plus we always greet Twi back at the station if she doesn’t fly here herself.” Applejack explained. Vinyl nodded as they left the train and it quickly went on its way. Most of the passengers and greeters had left by now, so Twilight was right in the open for the veritable dogpile that inevitably announced her returned to Ponyville.

“Alright, Alright, girls I’d like to breathe!” The Alicorn wheezed out from the pile, levitating them all off of her.

“And We’d like to see our best friend more often.” Dash replied snarkily. Twilight replied by dropping her from where she was floating a dozen feet in the air, the pegasus snorted as she landed on her hooves.

“She has a point darling, didn’t you give up your crown so that you didn’t have to spend so much time away from home?” Rarity asked. Twilight tsked.

“That was one of fifty-three reasons, to be precise, but you know me coming home this late was so that I could get all of my paperwork done. I still have some that I’ll need to send back in my saddlebags.” The Alicorn practically groaned.

“Yeah, because you were too busy getting dirty with your new girlfriend.” Dash snickered. The two rolled their eyes, ever since they started actually dating Dash had been teasing them like that. Most of the others rolled their eyes too, save for Fluttershy and Pinkie.

“I’m so happy for you two! I knew it was only a matter of time before Twilight found someone nice to bring home.” Fluttershy said with a rare, if slight, teasing tone.

“Now girls, we don’t want to be late for the ‘WELCOME BACK TWILIGHT AND VINYL’ Party!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing out of Twilight’s magic on her own as the others were set down.

“Man, it’s been awhile since I’ve been back here. Anyone know if Octavia’s in town? She’s usually a lot earlier back than I am.” Vinyl asked.

“She just got here today actually, I even invited her to the party!” Pinkie replied.

“Pinkie, darling, you invited everyone to the party.” Rarity retorted.

“I mean yeah, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t invite her silly!” The pink mare replied. Rarity just facehooved.

“Alright, let’s get to this party already.” Twilight said, draping a wing over Vinyl as they started walking towards the Library. Vinyl could feel Twilight almost physically elate as the old tree library came into view, and definitely noticed the pace pick up ever so slightly. She definitely missed her Ponyville home.

Contrary to what Vinyl, and everyone for that matter, was expecting there was not an explosion of confetti and a yell of ‘SURPRISE’. The door creaked open and a young purple dragon with green spikes looked up from the table. His grin betrayed the surprise, though, as he slid off of the seat. He was a little bigger than a baby, now, almost like a large dog. His wings still hadn’t grown in yet, but then again Vinyl didn’t know when that would happen.

“Surprise.” He said. Before she could question, though, everyone in the doorway except for Pinkie was startled by a massive crowd of ponies repeating after the dragon, though much louder. Dash was practically on the ceiling, Fluttershy WAS on the ceiling, and Vinyl had practically hid behind Twilight by instinct. They all turned to see probably the entire town standing outside of the library. Twilight was startled again as a particularly scaley individual hopped onto her back, and she turned just in time to giggle as Spike latched onto her neck in a hug. She immediately moved her other wing in an awkward hug before he sat down properly.

“It’s so good seeing you all again, I’m glad to be back.” Twilight beamed at the horde of ponies around her. The replies were varied and mixed together, but she got the gist of it. A great big ‘Ditto’. A lot of them dispersed, but a dozen or some came in closer.

“Awesome! Now that the super duper awesome ponyville hello happened, we can get the real party started!” Pinkie exclaimed form inside the library. They turned to, somewhat unsurprisingly, see the place now turned into a party den of decorations.

“Good ol’ party cannon!” Vinyl exclaimed, eyeing the punch bowl. She did a quick look at the ponies coming in to see if there were any foals. There weren’t, that punch was 100% spiked.

“Come on in everyone, I hope you’ve taken good care of it while I was gone Spike?” Twilight asked, turning with Vinyl to enter themselves.

“Duh! I just hope someone will stay behind and help us clean up afterwards. The Party Cannon is famous for making a party, but infamous for never cleaning up after itself.” The young dragon said.

“Please, there isn’t enough trash that can fit in this room that I can’t clean up in like three seconds.” Vinyl said, reluctantly parting from Twilight’s warm wing to drift over to the punch bowl. Twilight rolled her eyes at her girlfriend’s behavior and turned to the other ponies in the room. She vaguely recognized them all, enough for names at least, but the dozen extras that entered she admitted she didn’t personally know them. All but three.

“Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, good to see you guys.” She said happily, giving them all a quick hug as they entered. They returned the greeting and they chatted for awhile until Vinyl casually slid back under the wing that fanned out slightly for that very purpose, passing a cup of punch to Twilight and the other three.

“Yo Octy, how’s Manehattan treating you?” The Unicorn asked.

“Not terribly well, but that’s Manehattan for you. I’m actually moving back to Trottingham with my family, only for a year or two until my contract is renewed. Then I’ll be off to Canterlot for Celestia knows how long that one pans out.” The musician replied.

“Your contract ended? When was that?” Lyra asked.

“Oh I quit it, I couldn’t stand Manehattan any longer. The ponies there rub me the wrong way and it’s so far away from Ponyville I never get to see you guys. A contract is a contract and I do NOT want to pay those fines for entering a new one or changing things up again. Enough about me, though, I only saw it in the papers on the way over but when did this happen?” The Musician replied, ending by nodding towards Vinyl and Twilight. They looked at each other and looked back with matching smirks.

“Long story, but like a week ago. You wouldn’t beLIEVE how adorable she is when she’s hungover.” Vinyl said, earning a playful nudge from Twilight.

“Alright, not in public you two.” Lyra teased. Octavia and BonBon snickered a bit and the two rolled their eyes.

“We’re still good to head through Trottingham together the week before hearth’s warming, right Vinyl?” Octavia asked, a bit of apprehension in her tone.

“Of course, as long as you don’t mind Twilight coming along. She has to meet the folks too.” The Unicorn replied. Octavia’s expression seemed satisfied, but it was like she was expecting that answer.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hog your friend the entire time. I know you’ve been friends for longer than I’ve known her.” Twilight said warmly. Octavia smiled at that and inclined her head. Vinyl looked between the two of them and grinned.

“Yeah, Octy. Twi’s not the jealous type.” She said. Twilight giggled.

“No, Vinyl, I am the jealous type. I just trust both of you.” She said, earning a laugh from the group. The rest of the day devolved into chatting with everyone, every so often new ponies would file in and others would leave. Twilight made it a point to stop Vinyl from drinking too much, finally mixing the drinks she inevitably acquired with her mana water to make sure it was at least slightly diluted.

Before long the only ponies left were the elements and Vinyl. The punch hadn’t been spiked with that much alcohol so nobody needed to be carried home, but Dash sure as hell tried. Spike was starting to clean up after even the elements finally left after promises of breakfast together, but Vinyl stopped him.

“Nah, don’t worry about it Spike. I told you I can do this in like three seconds.” Vinyl said and concentrated. She made sure to drink her mana water today so her reserves were nearly overflowing, even with the drain still there. She made sure not to drag from Twilight's pool, though. She focused for about ten seconds, channeling magic, before the room exploded into motion. Trash disintegrated if it was of material like paper or went in appropriate bins otherwise, messes were cleaned, spills cleansed, the room looked like the party cannon hadn't even gone off in…

“Seven seconds, but I’ll let you have that one.” Twilight said with a smile, pecking the Unicorn on the cheek. Vinyl rolled her eyes and yawned, leaning into Twilight. She had only used about half of her reserves for the admittedly impressive display of magic, but it had taken a bit out of her.

“I’ll make dinner! Since you’ve been gone I went and took lessons with the cakes on cooking!” Spike said, happily moving to the kitchen. He was certainly glad he didn’t have to clean up that mess.

“By the way, when you fell asleep with me… was the reason it was harder to wake you up because I’m draining your magic constantly?” Vinyl asked when he was fully out of the room. Twilight walked them over to one of the couches and sat down, lighting the fireplace with a flash of her horn.

“Yes, but you don’t have to worry about me. Constant channeling just has a bit of fatigue to come with it, but at this rate all it means is that I’ll sleep a little more. An hour or two at the most.” Twilight replied. Vinyl looked almost guilty so Twilight rolled her eyes. “Vinyl, look at the link. Look at my reserves. I’m fine.” She continued. Vinyl did so and her eyes widened. Vinyl didn’t really have that massive of a reserve of magic, but it replenished quickly like most other Unicorns. Twilight’s was… well. If Vinyl’s reserve was a lake, Twilight’s was an ocean. She didn’t even see the drain, at all.

“Ok, point taken.. Geez girl, how did you get so much?” Vinyl asked. Twilight deadpanned at her. She flicked her wings a bit.

“Element of magic, Alicorn of magic? Ring any bells?” The Alicorn asked snarkily. Vinyl facehooved.

“I’m tired, bite me…” Vinyl grumbled. She was startled when Twilight actually did nip her on the ear. She flushed up and Twilight gave her a mischievous grin.

“Hey, wait until I go to bed before you start that up.” Spike’s voice snapped them out of it, walking over carrying two plates of food. “I already ate, it was too good to bring it out first.” He said, happily patting his belly after setting them down on the reading table. Twilight pulled Spike in to hug him close.

“Thank you Spike, I really appreciate it. Tomorrow we’ll head over to Pinkie’s and have her order that special rock candy you love so much.” She said, kissing the top of his head. He tried to wriggle out of her grasp but he giggled at the kiss.

“I’m gonna go to bed now, love you Twilight. Goodnight Vinyl.” he said happily, squeezing in one last hug. “I missed you…” He said. She snuggled him close, and Vinyl felt like she wanted to hug him too.

“Goodnight Spike.” Vinyl said, patting his head sweetly. He grinned at that.

“I Missed you too Spike, I love you too.” She said, letting him rush over to his basket behind the counter to sleep. They both watched him for a while until Vinyl felt herself nearly falling asleep again. Twilight nudged her and pulled her to her hooves.

“Oh no you don’t, it’s been a month since I’ve slept in my bed and I refuse to let you sleep on the couch. I need my snuggle buddy.” Twilight said. Vinyl replied with her tired shit eating grin and let Twilight lead her up the stairs and into the bedroom.

“I love you Twilight.” Vinyl said tiredly as she nuzzled into Twilight’s embrace. Twilight wasn’t going to hesitate giving her the same reply, but she realized something. That was the first time she’d said that. She just smiled warmly and looked down at Vinyl, who had looked up when she didn’t get the response. The actual response was a sweet kiss, eliciting another grin form the mare.

“Yeah, I think I love you too.” Twilight said, both of them giggling before snuggling in for the night.

Reason # 1 why she gave up her crown, she missed home.

Author's Note

Hopefully this one isn't too scattered or too bad with mistakes, I was writing while playing DnD. Hope everyone enjoys!

Chapter 6

Twilight woke up first and smiled happily at the Mare cuddled up to her. She expected the stupid grin she always had on her face as she slept, but her smile quickly turned into a frown of concern. Vinyl’s expression was scrunched, almost like she was in pain.

“Vinyl? Vinyl wake up, are you having a nightmare?” She asked, gently shaking the mare. She even resorted to touching their horns together to actively resonate, which usually made the mare wake right up. Not even a flinch, and the resonation felt odd. It was muted, but the power behind it was much greater. She gasped in horror and noticed that Vinyl’s arcane pool was almost completely empty so she opened up her trickle to a large flow. It only slowly started filling up again, whatever was happening was consuming far more energy than before.

“What…” She started to say as she started up a scanning spell. She was almost blinded by the energy that used to be the magic tumors having an overwhelming light it almost hurt to look at it. She quickly cut it off and switched to her eyes to scan the mare. She was taller again, much taller. Nearly a foot more, and she froze when she looked at the mare’s back. The spots where the rumors first formed, right around her shoulders, had little white nubs sticking out of them. She recoiled slightly as they shifted. They were growing. Realization dawned on her then.

Four times in Celestia’s memory, Vinyl’s height increasing, their resonance becoming more powerful. Vinyl was now as large as she was, and those little white nubs. Those somewhat grotesque things that were growing were growing into wing frames. Vinyl was becoming an Alicorn.

“WHAT?!” half of Ponyville probably heard in the early morning. She hyperventilated for a few seconds before calming down. This was… this was ok. This was not ok, but she told herself it was ok. No, it definitely wasn’t ok. But it WOULD be ok. Yes, that did the tricks. She huddled down to let insanity take her for a few minutes, reveling in the fact that things were going to be ok AFTER she had a little nervous breakdown. A knock on her door finally roused her from her sorry state.

“Twilight? Was that you who yelled so loudly? What happened, did Vinyl said she was seeing someone else behind your… back?” Spike started calling through the door, but was stunned into silence as Twilight opened it and the wing frames, that were now extending about a foot from Vinyl’s backs, were slowly breaking off into the wing spines.

“What?!” The little dragon yelped, though not nearly as loud.

“I know, that’s what I said!” Twilight replied, deciding that now was the time it was supposed to be ok. Or at least telling herself that and refusing to be dissuaded again by herself. Spike recognized the signs of one of her breakdowns so he gulped and trotted in to hop up on the bed to look closely.

“Twi, is she…?” He started. Twilight nodded.

“Turning into an Alicorn. Yes, at least I hope she is. Any other result and I think I might actually go insane.” She said, her tone betraying her screaming thoughts.

“Does-” Spike started.

“Yes, Celestia knows. Judging by her cryptic wording and knowledge of it all, I think she knew exactly what was happening and wanted me to figure it out on my own.” She cut him off, slowly calming down.

“Well, what is she the Alicorn of? The Princesses are the sun and the moon, Cadence is love, and you’re magic. What is Vinyl?” Spike asked. Twilight didn’t actually have an answer to that.

“Well… I don’t know, that’s a good question. I need to ask Celestia, or we’ll just have to figure it out on our own if I know her. And I know her. I wonder why the transformation is so slow though… Especially the wings part…” She replied, trailing off as she saw the bones forming fully. The horn started growing next, matching Twilight’s horn’s length. When the sinew and muscle started crawling out of her back Spike immediately turned around and hopped off of the bed.

“That’s CREEPY!” He exclaimed. Twilight was fascinated by it. She thought and focused much harder, trying to feel out everything that was happening with both her physical and magical senses. Then she remembered how Vinyl’s pool of magic was relatively small, at least compared to the other Alicorns and advanced unicorns like her brother. It hit her, then.

“Wait! It’s because she doesn’t have nearly enough energy to fuel the transformation in one quick go like mine! My reserves increased significantly after my transformation, though, and Celestia once told me that it increases exponentially as you go. What if Celestia and Luna, and even Cadence went through what Vinyl is going through right now and I’m the special case?” She pieced together. Spike had turned back around now, his curiosity getting the better of him. Now that she figured that out, she let it take on her reserves in full, unregulated. She gasped as it sapped almost all of it, but it was still plenty. For normal activity.

With an almost cliche sound of feathers unfurling, the wings immediately formed and sprouted magnificent white feathers. Vinyl’s coloration wasn’t nearly as pristine as Celestia’s, the DJ was a pale white compared to Celestia’s marbled white, but Twilight couldn’t help but admire how the new appendages looked.

“God damn girl, I didn’t drink last night did I?” Vinyl’s raspy voice asked. She seemed confused when she finally opened her eyes to look at them. Twilight just shook her head, a hint of concern on her face. “What? Did that tumor thing do someth-...” She started, but froze completely as she made to stretch and felt herself being propped up by something. That something was clearly part of her, though, as she felt the sheets and her weight on them. She put a hoof to the bed and turned to look at what it was and caught a flash of white as the wings followed her back. That caused her to start freaking out before Twilight grabbed her face in her hooves and looked her dead in the eyes.

“Vinyl, I need to you calm down… If you start freaking out then I’m going to start freaking out, again, and then neither of us will be functional ponies for hours.” She said a little shakily. Vinyl just slowly nodded. Twilight let go and reeled back a bit. She fanned her wings out and put them forward, as if to look at them. Vinyl very slowly followed her lead, seeing the action being done helping her brain unconsciously work the alien appendages. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped when she saw pretty white feathers. Her pretty white feathers. She tentatively poked at them with her hooves and was startled when a tiny prick of pain went through her other wing. She looked to see a white feather in Twilight’s mouth, it was bent and broken.

“All that shaking around messed up some of your feathers.” She started around the feather before playfully blowing it into Vinyl’s face. “They need to be bent back into shape or plucked if they're too weak or it’ll affect your lift generation and stability.” She continued. Vinyl didn’t know how to react, so she just let Twilight work on that wing. Carefully, she looked at her other wing. She did notice a few things. How was she supposed to know if the feathers were too weak? She’d never taken care of wings before!

It was far easier than she imagined. She didn’t have much of a problem getting used to things, it was like her body already knew what it was doing. She even figured out how to fold them and move them around a bit, even enough to lift things. By the time noon rolled in, however, they realized there was a BIG problem.

“Wait, what does this mean for Equestria? I am NOT being a princess, YOU didn’t even want to be a princess.” Vinyl said, her anxiety returning. Twilight took a deep breath at that, careful not to trigger her own.

“I had told Celestia about it, and she said to wait here. That was two hours ago, so the best thing we can do is wait. Spike should be back any minute now with the girls.” The lavender alicorn replied, though her tone didn’t exactly do Vinyl any favors. They sat in silence for about two minutes before Vinyl groaned.

“Twi, I don’t know if you went through the same thing but right now I REALLY want to try and fly. It’s like, an itch that I can’t scratch.” The DJ practically whined. Twilight smiled and nuzzled closer to the mare in her grip.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get to that. I just don’t want to freak out the town until we’re ready to deal with it. I don’t know about you, but if I get bombarded with a million questions about it I think I might actually explode. Probably take a few blocks with me too.” Twilight retorted. Vinyl thought she was joking at first, but the tone was very serious and she wasn’t smiling. Yikes. Spike opening the door and the voices of the other elements were enough to distract them for now, though as they both stood and turned to the group. The overwhelming response was just awe. The only one who wasn’t standing there in complete shock and awe was Pinkie, who was bouncing higher and higher.

“OH MY GOSH WE HAVE TO CELEBRATE THIS!” She exclaimed loudly, snapping the others out of it.

“Hang on there sugarcube, first we need to know WHAT this is that we’re celebrating.” Applejack said, turning to Pinkie for a second.

“I wanna know what the hell’s going on too, guys. Princess Celestia knows something about it, though, so we’re waiting for her to reply.” Vinyl said. As if on que, a familiar pristine white head poked through the door.

“Actually, I thought it best to come personally. This is a momentous occasion afterall.” The Diarch said casually, startling most of them. All gazes went to her as she stepped in and closed the door, leaving her guard outside to dissuade anyone asking about the Princess showing up for now.

“Princess, what happened to me?” Vinyl finally broke the silence that formed. Celestia smiled.

“You know what happened, what you want to know is Why though.” The Princess replied. They all nodded at that. The Princess trotted over to the large couch and casually plopped down on it, letting her wings rest after the swift flight. Twilight immediately sat down at her side, and Vinyl behind her with a bit of hesitation. Celestia motioned for them all to sit when they still stood and she even levitated the various chairs and beanbags over in a semicircle in front of the couch.

“When you two resonated for the first time, it sparked what was already within the both of you for a long time. I don’t know exactly why this potential was within you, Vinyl, without carefully examining every facet of your life and every memory you have. That’s something the two of you will have to figure out on your own. My guess would be your personality and your magical prowess reacted positively with Twilight’s signature, since all ponies technically have the potential within them. It’s so rare for it to come out in full, though, instead blossoming as something else entirely.

“Your Brother, for example, had a similar potential a long time ago. Cadence brought it out of him, though rather than ascending it manifested in his incredible prowess with shielding magic and protecting others in general. All of you have actually awakened your potentials, some of you before we even met. Rainbow Dash is fiercely loyal, and that Sonic Rainboom isn’t something even I could replicate. Applejack, you can reap a full harvest even in the worst of conditions and the land cares for you as you do it. Fluttershy, the ability to commune with animals and nature itself is not an ability very known outside of druids and dryads, and your ability to quell the fury of even the mighty dragon with your kindness is unparalleled. Pinkie Pie could make Nightmare Moon herself laugh if she wanted to, and Rarity’s ability to make anything beautiful, especially others. These are your special talents, yes, but they are so much more than that.” Celestia explained.

“Wait, you’re saying our special talents and our cutie marks are tied to this… potential? Then why did I get mine and not suddenly turn into an Alicorn?” Vinyl asked. Celestia smiled, Vinyl wasn’t just stunned into silence like the rest of them.

“The same reason Twilight didn’t. The two of you were able to coerce even more of your potential out. Alicorns ascend due to their link with something truly incredible. They become an Avatar of what it is they represent. Twilight is an avatar of magic as Luna and I are the moon and the sun. Cadence is an avatar of love. I can’t know for certain, but I believe that you piggybacked off of Twilight’s link to magic due to your prowess, but your true power lies in your music.” The Princess continued. They were all silent for a while.

“Waaaait wait wait…” Vinyl started, being the only one to break the silence again. “I can’t be the alicorn of music. I don’t even like a lot of music.” The new alicorn said, confused.

“No… Vinyl, I think she has a point… When you’re on the stage, you have this power over everyone. Sometimes when you’re not even behind the table. You read the room, set the volume perfectly, form a playlist on the spot, and even mix it live to what the crowd needs. That dance on that first night, I was just feeling the music and letting it do what it wanted me to do… Celestia knows I can’t dance…” Twilight said, though the last remark brought a little giggle from the Princess in question. It amused her when her name was used in reverence like that right in front of her, as much as she disliked the practice.

“So it may not be music itself, probably your delivery of it… or something. Only you’ll be able to figure that out.” The Princess added. Vinyl just groaned. “Anyways, I have quite a few announcements to make. I’d prepare yourselves for a lot of publicity and press. I’ll speak to the mayor here and address the issue on my own, I won’t bother you. Just be sure to be back in Canterlot after hearth’s warming eve for your coronation.” She continued, the last part a bit mischievously. Twilight rolled her eyes, but her expression softened as she saw Vinyl’s look of horror.

“Don’t worry Vinyl, that part was a joke.” She assured her partner. Vinyl didn’t looked convinced until Celestia giggled and stood.

“The Coronation part, I’d like you to give a public address and express your desire to not become a princess since the masses still overwhelmingly believe that all alicorns should be princesses. Take as much time for yourselves as you can before then, though. You’ve both earned a hefty vacation and I daresay things will be hectic for a while.” The Princess said as she turned towards the door and opened it.

“In the meantime, I’m not returning to Canterlot until I have at least one of your incredible cakes Pinkie Pie.” She said with a little smirk, looking back at the mares assembled in the room. It was like it was Pinkie’s birthday.

“OF COURSE PRINCESS BYE TWILIGHT BYE VINYL I’LL SEE YOU LATER I HAVE A HUNGRY PRINCESS TO FEED!” Pinkie practically screamed in glee as she shot out of the door past the princess.

“And I sure as hay can’t let ya leave without a fresh basket of our finest apples.” Applejack said, quickly hugging Twilight and patting Vinyl on the shoulder goodbye before trotting off as well.

“Heavens, I need to get some of these ideas down before I faint! Vinyl Darling you absolutely MUST stop by later to give me new measurements, do you like ballroom dresses or do you prefer the club culture styles? Wait, I know the answer to that one of course.” Rarity said, hugging both of them before heading for the door.

“If there’s a new alicorn in town, Princess of otherwise, there HAS to be a Wonderbolts event to celebrate it. I’ll see what I can do with my squad!” Dash said, giving them a salute and zooming out of the library in a chromatic streak.

“Oh! Um… I… I don’t know what I can do for you… um…” Fluttershy stuttered and seemed almost guilty.

“Fluttershy, dear, why don’t you come with me? I’ve been meaning to order a floral arrangement from you for some time now, to go right next to my throne.” Celestia said ,still standing at the door. Vinyl seemed confused.

“Order a Floral Arrangement? I didn’t know you did that kind of stuff, Flutters.” She asked. Fluttershy perked up at the suggestion and smiled at the two, quickly hugging them.

“It’s not a business or anything, but one time Princess Luna asked me if I could throw something together for her once and now I do custom floral arrangements for friends or some nobles that pay me much too much…” The shy pegasus explained, even seeming guilty at the idea of accepting pay for it. “I um… I should go now, I’ll see you two later!” She quickly said and left as well.

“Princess, thank you.” Twilight finally said when the only ponies in the room were the three and Spike.

“Whatever for, Twilight?” The Princess replied with a smile. Twilight smiled and was already at her side to hug her mentor.

“Oh, just everything… For coming here to help explain things, letting me resign my crown, sending me to ponyville in the first place…” She said, sniffling slightly. Celestia’s expression softened even further as she hugged her student back.

“I can’t pretend I always know what’s best for you, Twilight, but I certainly do my damnedest.” She said, earning a snort from Vinyl.

“You know, until like two weeks ago I never thought I’d ever be important enough to make friends with an alicorn, or even really talk to one. Even Twilight seemed like she was out of reach even though we had mutual friends. Now, though, I know I’m nowhere near your equal… but I feel like I don’t have to grovel at your hooves.” Vinyl explained, stepping up. Celestia waved a dismissive hoof to her.

“Please, we’ve always been equals outside of my duties. Nobody ever seems to remember that. For now, though, I’d be happy to call you my friend. Or, judging by your tactics with Twilight, I’d be happy to have a few drinks to earn that spot.” The princess replied, the last part a little teasingly. Twilight flushed up but Vinyl laughed.

“Hell yeah! If I’m supposed to be the avatar or music or whatever, then I gotta start planning renovations on my club. Maybe I’ll buy out the places around it and make it a huge building, with like three stories! Either way, your drinks are always on me Princess. If you ever wanna swing by disguised again I’ll give my bartenders a code word or something.” Vinyl exclaimed, looking deep in thought for a bit until finishing with a grin at the princess. Celestia couldn’t help but grin at the thought of free drinks.

“Princess, isn’t Fluttershy waiting for you?” Twilight asked, her cheeks a little flushed from the teasing. Celestia just giggled and let Twilight go. She turned to where Fluttershy was trying to look like she was chatting with the guards and not listening, and squeaked when the princess turned.

“I suppose you’re right, Twilight. I’m proud of you, both of you.” She said and finally left the library. The door softly clicked closed and they just stared at it for a while.

“So please tell me you got a stash in here, because if I don’t get something hard in me right now I think I might lose my shit.” Vinyl broke the silence, eliciting a giggle from Twilight. She was startled as she felt Twilight bite her ear again and turned quickly.

“Ow! Hey girl, you know what that’d st… start… oh… OHHHHHHH HELL YEAH.” Vinyl started and had a shit eating grin as she saw Twilight’s expression. There was a bottle of applejack daniels in her magical grasp and Twilight was giving her the most obvious bedroom eyes she’d ever seen.

Needless to say, Spike suddenly decided it was at about that time he’d go and ask Rarity if he could spend the night.

Author's Note

Chapters are getting a little shorter, or spread out between multiple days. This train is slowing down, but it won't stop until it's at the station.
Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 7: Reason #2

Vinyl was nervous. REALLY nervous. Octavia and Twilight were idly chatting about their childhoods and comparing the Canterlot nobility to the Trottingham rich population and Vinyl couldn’t help but dread the coming days. She was going back home, but she wasn’t going back home. She was an alicorn now, but not only was she an alicorn coming home to a UNICORN family, but she was bringing a MARE home with her! But, not only is she an alicorn now and bringing a mare home with her, that mare was the EX PRINCESS OF EQUESTRIA TWILIGHT SPARKLE.

“Vinyl, please, for the love of Celestia calm down. Even I can feel it from here.” Octavia said softly, nudging her friend. Vinyl looked around the train car at her and Twilight and sighed heavily. Twilight had been glancing over every few seconds and now her face just showed worry. Of course, Twilight knew exactly what this was about. They had had the conversation at least thirteen times in the two weeks before their trip to Trottingham.

“Octy, you KNOW my dad. If he doesn’t freak out about me being an alicorn, he’s going to freak out about me bringing home a mare and not a proper nobleman. And if he doesn’t freak out about all of that, I don’t know, he’ll probably find something else to freak out about. I just hope he’s too busy to show his face like last year.” Vinyl replied. Octavia was silent for a moment, but Twilight spoke up.

“At least that’ll be all you have to deal with. You DID send the letter telling them we’ll be arriving in disguise right?” The Ex-Princess asked. Vinyl rubbed her face and nodded.

“I mean yeah, but I addressed it to mom. Dad probably doesn’t even know anything that’s been happening with me. He’s so obsessed with his riches that he barely even comes home anymore from what mom and Emerald wrote. She knows everything, at least. Well, not everything. But she won’t be surprised by any of it…” The new alicorn explained.

“Then we’ll just have to hope he isn’t there. Worst comes to pass we can always pull the ‘don’t act like an ass in the presence of an ex-princess of Equestria’ card.” Octavia sighed. The car was silent for a little while longer.

“You really think he hasn’t looked at a newspaper in over a month?” Twilight asked. Vinyl nodded.

“He doesn’t believe in the news. He has a butler bring him the stocks and anything they think is appropriate for him and that’s it. I mean, I don’t read the paper either, but mom told me that the staff left out everything about me since they didn’t want him going crazy when I wasn’t there to defend myself.” The DJ answered.

“Why is she still with that cretin anyways? The only thing he hasn’t done is strike them.” Octavia asked, a bit of poison in her tone. She did NOT like him. Vinyl snorted.

“He tried that once. When I left, he smacked me right across the face. I was fifteen, and we couldn’t really believe it. He apologized, actually, he didn’t mean to actually do it. I still kicked him in the gut and stormed out though, the only reason I even come back is because he apologized. Mom told me in her last letter that he almost struck her though, and she said the only reason she hasn’t left him is because she’s between contracts and is trying to save enough to put Emerald through university without him.” Vinyl explained, proud of the memory apparently.

“That’s horrid! What did she do to him in return? Record Scratch was not one to be subdued like that.” Octavia exclaimed. Vinyl grinned a very dark grin. The other two knew that grin, it usually happened when she was personally kicking some asshole out of her club. This was far worse, though.

“Dad was never great with magic. He actually flunked out of university because of it. Mom, however, was almost as gifted as I am with it. He almost struck her because he physically couldn’t. She stopped his hoof, turned him upside down, and had nearly the entire house’s furniture gang up on him to freak him out. He spent way more time at work since then, the tables have finally turned in his mind, but they were never on his side in the first place.” Vinyl replied. Octavia smiled at that. Twilight had a thoughtful frown on her face, she’d been keeping it the entire time Vinyl talked about her father. Vinyl had noticed, but only now decided to bring it up.

“You alright,Twi? We can always kick him out if he’s there and he’s nasty to you.” The new alicorn asked, putting a wing on Twilight’s shoulder. That seemed to bring her out of her thoughts as she unconsciously leaned into the wing.

“Oh? Oh, it’s not that I’m worried about. Canterlot nobles get heinous and nasty in court every day… I was just thinking about something…” Twilight replied.

“We’ll talk about it later, then, I’m done talking about this downer shit. I can’t wait to see your folks, Octy! How are they holding up?” Vinyl changed the subject and the conversation lightened up considerably at that. The rest of the train ride went by swiftly and before they knew it the trio were standing in front of a large mansion.

Vinyl and Twilight had taken illusional unicorn disguises. Vinyl had a grey coat and an alternating black and neon green mane and tail that was nearly as long as Twilight’s usually was. Twilight had a white coat and simple brown mane and tail, her mane carefully cut and short like a librarian’s. Twilight was, however, staring in awe at the carriage in front of the door. It held the sparkle family crest on it.

“Ah, Octavia there you are!” A butler at the door said when the trio walked up. He trotted over and inclined his head respectfully to her. “The Scratch family is here as usual, but after seeing all the news the madam of the house decided to invite the Sparkle family as well. All of them.” The stallion sai, putting extra emphasis on the ‘all of them’ part. Vinyl and Octavia seemed a little confused at that part, but Twilight’s eyes lit up.

“Shining and Cadence are here?!” She exclaimed. The stallion nodded slowly and turned back to Octavia.

“Miss Octavia, who are your friends? I wasn’t aware you were bringing any other guests. SPeaking of that, where is miss Vinyl and miss Twilight?” He asked. Octavia facehooved.

“Sergei, you got the message right? About disguises?” the musician blanched. The butler nodded slowly before realizing just what she was saying.

“Oh! Yes of course, my apologies. Those are very well crafted disguises, I had almost forgotten about it…” The stallion said, taking a step back in embarrassment. “Right this way, madams! Miss Vinyl, I will warn you that your father has decided to grace us with his… presence… tonight.” The butler continued. The mood immediately fell.

“Ah hell, guess it’s better to deal with this now rather than later.” She grumbled. As they entered the little room before actually entering the house, knocking snow off of their hooves and such, Vinyl dropped her disguise. Sergei was a little surprised at the drastic change in size and the addition of wings, but it was only for a second. Twilight, however, was standing there frozen still. The inner door was open, and she saw a certain unicorn and his wife standing there, staring back.

“Uh, can I help you?” Shining asked cautiously, not having noticed the others. There was a flash of movement before he was surprised by the unfamiliar mare crashing into him with a hug. She was a LOT heavier than she looked. “H-Hey! What are…” He started, though when he looked to Cadence she was giggling.

“I thought you’d be better at seeing through simple illusions, love.” The alicorn of love giggled. He looked back at the mare, who was now looking up with embarrassment.

“Oh! Sorry! I forgot!” She exclaimed. His face immediately went from confusion to joy as the young mare that had now stepped back quickly turned back to the lavender alicorn he knew.

“Twily! I should have known you’d come in disguise! Ah, and there’s the lucky mare I’ve heard so much about. Vinyl, right?” Shining asked as Vinyl stepped in as the two hugged again.

“Yo, big brother right? Nice to meet you.” She said, holding out a hoof and giving him a good shake.

“I am. Normally I’d be grilling you like I did last time someone tried to date her, but judging by everything that’s happened so far I really don’t need to. You’ve got a good head on you, don’t prove me wrong though. I may not be head of the Canterlot royal guard anymore, but I can pull so many strings you’d be drowning in yarn.” The Stallion said, the last part just a tiny bit threatening. Vinyl snorted.

“You don’t have to threaten me. Even without all of this freaky shit going on I don’t think I have it in me to prove you wrong. Even when I’m drunk. Which, if my father is here, I’m going to be VERY by the end of.” She replied. Twilight gave her a bit of a concerned look.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be perfectly civil or I’ll toss him out myself. Miss Record has already informed me I am allowed to do so.” A new voice said as another well dressed stallion entered.

“Vincent, how’s it been?!” Vinyl exclaimed, bumping hooves with the butler.

“Much better now that your mother finally decided to go ahead with the divorce. We’ll be moving, since the house is 100% his, but we don’t know where. He doesn’t know about it yet. Do you have any suggestions?” The stallion asked.

“Canterlot or Ponyville for sure. Edinspur if they really want to keep up with the whole richy-rich thing. Manehattan if they want to have the thrill of getting mugged every month.” Vinyl replied quickly. He chuckled softly.

“Alright, let’s get in there. Mom and Dad are inside already.” Shining said. They all nodded and entered as a large unit. The large foyer had a massive fireplace that was lit and more than enough furniture to seat everyone in attendance comfortably. The conversation screeched to a halt at the sight of not one, not two, but THREE alicorns entering the room. Cadence and Shining quickly rushed over to Dawn and Dusk Sparkle, a mare and a stallion quickly rushed over to them to speak with Octavia, and a mare and a young filly rushed over to Vinyl.

“Veronica, I’m glad you could make it! And you must be the lovely Twilight Sparkle. Heavens knows nobody would have thought I’d be joining TWO princesses for dinner.” Vinyl quickly hugged her and her little sister before Record Scratch quickly hugged Twilight ,surprising the mare.

“O-Oh, um, I’m not a princess anymore. That’s what started this whole thing, really…” Twilight said, looking at Vinyl with a warm smile.

“Used to be a princess, either way, it’s an incredible experience! And my little Veronica isn’t so little anymore! She told me much through letters, but I can’t wait to hear the story!” Record said happily.

“Veronica, you’re so much taller than me now! I can’t even jump onto your back anymore!” Emerald said happily. The little filly was about the CMC’s age, and she was indeed hopping up for effect. Vinyl rolled her eyes and swept the filly up in her wings, placing her unceremoniously on her back. “Weeee!” the filly squealed.

“Veronica? Is that your actual name? I knew you said you changed it ,but you never said what it was.” Twilight said with a little smirk.

“Veronica Ramona Scratch is her name, and I won’t have her called anything else.” A slightly annoyed stallion said, having now joined the group. Vinyl’s father did not look like a kind stallion and the mood immediately fell as his voice carried around the room.

“We’re not having this argument again. For now, will you please behave. I don’t want to have a shouting match in front of my girlfriend and her family.” Vinyl said, rubbing her face and looking down at the stallion. She smirked at that. Now it was his turn to be looked down upon. His look hardened as he got a good look at her, and her new stature.

“Behave? You’re the one acting like a child. Drop this foolish disguise, I won’t be talked down to by my own daughter.” The stallion said. Vinyl gave him a confused look.

“Actually, she’s a fully fledged alicorn. W-” Twilight started, but the stallion put his hoof up and gave her a dirty look. She was actually taken aback by it.

“I wasn’t speaking to you. If memory serves, you gave up your crown. What an idiotic thing to do, to give up something like that. You might be even more of a failure than my daughter if you can’t even handle a crown.” The stallion said. Everyone just stared at him in shock. There was a dead silence until someone started laughing. Vinyl let out a little chuckle, everyone staring at her.

“Oh man, you really don’t know what you’re doing? And SHE’S the idiot? Let’s take stock of your situation, dad. You insulted my girlfriend and I. So that’s two ponies here who want to kick your ass. But, my girlfriend’s entire family is here, one of which is the Princess of the crystal empire and the other one literally used to be in charge of the ENTIRE royal guard. Four more, so that’s a total of six. All six of us can wipe the floor with you, both physically and magically, on our own. And my girlfriend just so happens to be the LITERAL avatar of MAGIC. You’re lucky she hasn’t turned you into a plant or something already.” Vinyl challenged him. He seemed unimpressed.

“The Sparkle family are here as guests, and Shining Armor is no longer the head of the royal guard. He has no authority over them.” The stallion retorted. Vinyl was about to retort when SHining himself stepped up.

“I’m going to let all of this slide because yes, we are guests. And you’re right, I’m not in that position anymore. Which means I no longer have political obligations not to crack you in the jaw with all I’ve got for that. You’ve insulted not only ex-equestrian royalty, but you’ve insulted Crystal Empire royalty, twice now. By Equestria’s standards that’s at least a year in jail for the insult alone, let alone the political repercussions on you and your house.” Shining explained almost monotonously, using his old tone he used to give drunks and rioters when they needed spooking. Cadence stepped up then.

“And not to mention everyone you’ve insulted are personal friends, and even the personal student of Princess Celestia, you could kiss every ounce of wealth and prestige you have goodbye.” The alicorn said as she, for once, didn’t have a single ounce of love in her tone. The stallion finally took a step back and looked at everyone.

“You and I are going to talk about this later… For now, though, I sincerely apologize for my insult.” The stallion said, though neither his tone or expression were genuine, and the hissed words were more than what Vinyl needed to snort.

“Like hell we are. I’ll be happy to have a civilized conversation with you, dad, but so help me if it’s anything but and you’ll be wishing we threw you out now. Vincent, do me a favor and get him newspaper clippings from the past month, let him catch up on what’s going on. I don’t want to have to explain anything to him if I can help it.” Vinyl said, pushing past him and motioning for everyone else to follow back into the foyer proper. The butler in question did a salute and trotted off with Sergei.

Taught Strings was silent for most of the discussion, only speaking when addressed directly, he mostly stared at Vinyl and Twilight between reading various newspapers on the side. When dinner was ready, they moved to the large dining hall. Everyone sat together, even Strings, he chose a seat next to his wife across from Vinyl and Twilight. He had finished reading and finally spoke again halfway through the meal.

“So, Veronica, what are your plans with all of this? You got into the inner circles with this… relationship… I must say, I’m rather proud of what you’ve done. The abandoned crown is now yours for the taking, is it not?” The stallion asked. The table went silent. Twilight looked insulted, and Vinyl looked like she was going to throw something. She took a deep breath, though, and took a rather large drink from her wine before speaking.

“Like hell I’m taking any kind of crown. I’m expanding my club, probably opening a branch in ponyville so I can be with Twilight there, maybe even buy a house there and move. The last thing I want to do is be a damned princess.” She replied. His eyes narrowed.

“So, nothing I’ve taught you has stuck in your thick skull I see. Too afraid you’ll fail like you have every single other one of my expectations? What use is a noble partner, especially another mare, when she’s already given up her title.” Strings practically spat. The table went silent again until Vinyl broke the silence once more.

“Yep, you guessed it. Not the failing part, the expectations part. I’ve made it my goal in life to ignore every single one of your expectations, because I know if I did that then I’d actually be a half decent pony. And you better watch what you say. You can talk hot shit about me and everything I do, but if you say another goddamn word about Twilight then you’re going to find out just how powerful an alicorn really is when they want to kick your ass.” Vinyl slowly explained, her tone filled with hate.

Cadence was very slowly inching the now scared little filly beside Record Scratch to her. She could sense what was going to happen, and she was thankful the filly didn’t protest when she picked the little unicorn up and started softly whispering happy thoughts into her ear while she cut off sound to the filly from any other source with a spell. Record noticed and gave her an appreciative look before Strings finally opened up his mouth again.

“You wouldn’t dare lay a hoof on me, you’re a failure to the family. You and that damned girlfriend of yours are little more than street rats to me now, apparently not even the regal blood of an alicorn can fix how terribly you’ve destroyed your image. Both of you, get out of my sight. I can’t stand to look at you anymore.” Strings practically growled. There was a particular look of amusement on the faces of Vinyl’s parents, he was talking like this was his home. There was the sound of a chair pushing out, someone standing up, and then a resolute smack as Record smacked her husband so hard it nearly threw him off the chair. He looked dumbfounded for a moment.

“How dare you…” he said softly in shock. It quickly turned to fury as he lifted his hoof.

“HOW DARE YOU!” He screamed and made to strike her back. She barely even flinched, but was surprised when no strike came. She looked and noticed not only a light blue barrier had appeared around her, the same color as Shining Armor’s magic, but an amalgamate of the magic from the three alicorns in the room were holding the hoof in place. When he realized what happened he seemed to almost panic before glaring at the alicorns.

“I don’t need this. Let me go, I’m going home. None of you are welcome in my home ever again.” He spat out. Twilight and Cadence seemed satisfied with that, but when he tried to drop back down to the floor he found that Vinyl’s teal magic still covered his foreleg.

“Hey dad, remember that one time you hit me? I thought you apologized because you didn’t mean it. I realized now that you apologized to maintain your perfect image.” She started. The stallion’s eyes widened slightly in horror as he felt pressure on his foreleg increase. “You’ve tried to break me, you’ve tried to break mom, and you’ve even tried to break Emerald. She’s a fucking FILLY. And you SCREAM at her when she does anything you don’t tell her to do. It’s my turn now.” Vinyl said, going from a cool tone to one of fury. There was a very distinct crunch before he crumpled to the ground, the bones in his front right foreleg probably resembling dust at this point.

“Fine, you animal! Vincent, help me get out of here!” The stallion practically howled as he tried to stand.

“I’m terribly sorry sir, but miss Record Scratch is the name of my employer. Afterall, you haven't signed my checks even once.” The butler replied. He glared at everyone in the room.

“Here, let me help you.” Cadence said, once again not a single drop of love in the room. She did pick him up in her magic rather gently, she didn’t particularly want to hurt him any more. She levitated him, kicking and screaming, right out of the new open doors and slammed them shut. She then quickly looked down at the filly in her lap, who was looking up at her with wide eyes after her sweet whispers had stopped.

“Is… is Daddy finally gone?” She asked in a whimper.

“Daddy’s gone, dear, and we never have to see him again.” Record said with a deep breath, retaking her seat and graciously taking the filly back in her magic to place on her own lap.

“Yay!” The filly yelled excitedly, burying her face in her mother’s coat. The mood elated after that.

“While I don’t exactly condone something like that, miss Veronica… I’m finding myself surprised you didn’t do more.” Cadence said. Vinyl snorted.

“A month ago he’d be in the hospital if he tried that shit… But you guys, you all helping out and sticking out for mom… I almost wanted to show him mercy after he realized just how far up shit creek he was without a paddle. You guys are alright.” Vinyl replied.

“I don’t know how scum like that even gets so far in life…” Shining grumbled.

“It’s all money. I married him because he was quite the charmer in his youth, but after my record business took off he basically did a hostile takeover with it and tried to turn it into a corporation. He really turned nasty when I refused to sell to him, but he did steal just about everything but the name.” Record explained. Vinyl looked shocked at that.

“Wait, I thought you sold to him already. Couldn’t you have left him with the money that would have brought you?” Vinyl asked.

“Of course not, we were married by then. Do you think he would have let me keep all that money? I would have done it too, especially after you left and it was difficult to find a good sitter for Emerald when the Philharmonics were out of town, but he never let me have the one demand I had.” Record answered.

“What was the demand?” Octavia asked when nobody else did.

“He wanted to boycott the DJ PON-3 section, in every store. My demand was to keep it as it was.” She replied, looking at Vinyl. The young alicorn looked stunned at that, confusion marring her face.

“Wait, I thought you didn’t approve of my stuff?” The alicorn asked. Record chuckled.

“I don’t particularly like some of it, but a lot of it I’ve found to enjoy when your father was out of the house. Especially the joint records you and miss Octavia worked on. And regardless of my personal tastes, it was something you loved. I may not have wanted you to become a DJ and make techno music, but it was your passion. You’ve grown into a fine mare, regardless of what your father thinks, and so it was my pride that I would not let him abolish.” The older mare replied. The table was once again silent, though that was quickly broken and the sound of teleportation whisked Vinyl next to her mother to practically knock her out of her chair with a hug.

“I love you, mom.” She said softly, a little sniffle escaping as well. The scene was quite heartwarming already, but then little Emerald jumped onto Vinyl’s face to share the embrace.

“I love you Veronica!” The filly exclaimed.

“Of COURSE I love you too, Emerald. All of you here, too. I was worried sick about this… but now, I don’t think it could have gone any better.” Vinyl said, quickly hugging her mother and sister again before walking around and hugging everyone in attendance as she passed, thanking them for their support and/or friendship. When she finally got to Twilight, the alicorn of magic took the initiative and pecked her on the lips before pulling her into her recently vacated seat.

“Alright, now that all of the family issues are dealt with the kitchen staff worked very hard on dessert and I don’t want to be the one to tell them it’s not needed.” Sergei said.

“Way to ruin the moment, Sergei.” Octavia called with a laugh.

“OH, I WANT DESSERT!” Emerald exclaimed, Record placing her in her seat so she could happily bounce her hooves on the table. The mood remained happy and loving for the rest of the night, especially after the Philharmonics brought out the brandy after putting Emerald to bed.

Vinyl was sitting in front of the fireplace, swirling around the last little bit of brandy left in her bottle. Twilight and most of the others had returned home or retired for the night, Twilight going to Vinyl’s usual room at the Philharmonic estate on their insistence. She was startled out of her thoughts when Dusk, Twilight’s father, sat down opposite her with a glass of wine in his grasp.

“I’d say you’ve quite the tolerance, but I do suppose you own a Nightclub.” He said with a smile. She grinned back, shaking the bottle in her magic before sipping it.

“I’m glad Twi’s got a dad that isn’t an asshat at least.” Vinyl said with a little smirk. It fell when she saw his face drop, though. He looked almost… guilty. Uh-oh. This probably wasn’t going to be good.

“Has Twilight ever explained why she gave up her crown?” He asked. Vinyl shrugged.

“It’s like a forty-three reason list, right? Number one is that she missed home, her friends and everything. SHe didn’t want to be bogged down by duties and formalities like Celestia always is.” She replied. Dusk nodded.

“How about reason number 2?” He asked. She shook her head. She knew maybe twenty of the reasons at this point, but number 2 was not one of them. “Simply put, number 2 is me.” He said, taking a sip from his glass and staring at the fire. Vinyl was confused, but waiting for the stallion to elaborate. She didn’t have to wait long.

“From a very young age, she was gifted. Her mother and I pushed her to get better, and she seemed to enjoy learning quite well. She was accepted into Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns a year early, and graduated three years early. She completed her university courses in months, on top of the education Celestia was giving her. She didn’t want all of that, though. She didn’t want to go in early, graduate early.

“She had gotten used to it, though… and before long we had successfully beaten into her head that her education and learning were the single most important things in her life, because she was gifted. Well, I say we… after she graduated from Celestia’s school and became her protege her mother relented, satisfied… but I was not. I continued to push her, until I pushed her so hard she started pushing herself.” The stallion explained. He took a deep breath and finished his glass.

“She would have been a lonely mare in a tower, obsessed with nothing but the pursuit of knowledge and earning greater titles. It wasn’t until Celestia sent her to Ponyville did she get a taste of anything else… She’s my greatest pride, but also my greatest regret…” He continued. Vinyl listened to him speak intently, but in the end she smiled and she leaned over to pat him on the shoulder.

“I don’t think she sees you like that. She loves you, loves all of you. You only wanted what you thought was best for her. And, while it may not have been the healthiest way to go about it, I think she’s become a damn fine mare in the process. And I still don’t see what that has to do with the whole giving up the crown thing, she earned that all by herself. Not being pushed by you.” Vinyl retorted. He smiled and put a hoof over hers for a second before she retracted it and he sighed again. The smile fell.

“Thank you. When she wrote us of her friends and exploits, that’s when I finally realized what a horrible thing I did. I kept her from that life for so long… But her second reason for giving up the crown may not be me precisely, but it was indeed my previous influence. She feels that if she stays a princess, she’ll only be meeting my expectations. What I wanted from her. We both know that isn’t the case any longer, but her entire childhood was spent with me pushing her… and it’s scarred her. She’s long forgiven me, and I’ve even let myself be forgiven… but I can never forget.” The stallion explained. Vinyl sat back in her chair for a moment before leaning forward, standing up, walking over, and hugging him again for the second time that night.

“Don’t worry, I know exactly what that’s like.” She said. He looked at her then before smiling and chuckling softly as Vinyl pulled away.

“Yes, I suppose you would. Thank you for listening to me, Vinyl… or is it Veronica?” He asked. Vinyl snorted.

“Only family calls me Veronica, so that’s up to you step-dad.” She started with a wink before finishing her own bottle. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have the comfiest pillow in the world to snuggle up to.” The alicorn replied. Dusk smiled warmly at that and stood to return to his own guest room.

Author's Note

So I somehow got ten and a half pages out of this one. This part went so many different ways in my mind, I'm glad I got it all down in one go or it may have been a scattered wreck- if it isn't already. I'm terrible at naming ponies so sorry I didn't have any for Octy's parents, and yes I know that Twilight's parents have canonical names. I just don't really care, this is what they're called in my headcannon so deal with it.
Hope you enjoyed!

Chapter 8

“Come on, it’s not like it’s all day. Octy and I just have to go take care of something real quick. Besides, Mom and Emerald want to spend some time with you.” Vinyl said as she prepared to leave Octavia’s home with her. Twilight grumbled.

“I did promise I wouldn’t keep you two from hanging out… Fine, but if you’re not back by nightfall I’ll go out looking for you. Knowing you you’d probably be passed out in a bar somewhere.” Twilight replied, though the last part was obviously more teasing than anything. Vinyl laughed at it and pecked her on the lips before turning quickly, her disguise of the black and green haired unicorn returning.

“Don’t worry, we’re not even going out to drink. Don’t be jealous, I know I’m hot as hell but Octy isn’t THAT desperate.” The now disguised alicorn said. Both of the other mares rolled their eyes.

“You know I’m not jealous. I just prefer you being next to me. For, like, ever.” Twilight retorted, mimicking Vinyl’s tone for the last part. That earned a snicker from Octavia and and giggle from Vinyl. She pecked Twilight on the nose and turned, again.

“Don’t worry, you may hate to see me leave but you sure as hay love to watch me go.” She said, flicking her tail for effect and effectively ‘strutting her stuff’. Twilight just laughed at that as the door closed and she turned to be surprised by a grinning Record with an equally smiley filly on her back.

“Auntie Twilight, wanna play?” The filly asked. Twilight couldn’t help but have a little ‘aww’ moment.

“Yes, Auntie Twilight, why don’t you join us?” Record giggled. Twilight just nodded enthusiastically and follow the two back into the foyer. Harmonia and Chorus, who Twilight now knew were the names of Octavia’s parents, had graciously let Racord and Emerald stay with them until the divorce and they were ready to move. Their families had been friends for years.

“Vincent, if you would.” Record said when they were at the center of the room. The Butler, who was standing at the ready, nodded and turned on an old record player. The tune was a soft orchestral piece, probably by one of the three Philharmonic musicians that owned it, and Record was dancing with her daughter in her magical grasp. Twilight smiled and watched for a moment until the filly exclaimed happily as she was sent flying through the air towards her.

In an almost practiced motion, Twilight twirled with the music as she caught the filly in her own, her wings splayed out to keep balance, and started ballroom dancing as if the filly was a suitor. She even did a dramatic swoon when the filly did her own twirl in her magical grasp.

“Thanks for not dropping her.” Record said when they swirled around each other, though just as the filly was passed back into her mother’s care the alicorn nearly ended up on the floor. There were those four left hooves she was (in)famous for.

“A-ah, well, it was instinct I guess. What is this game you’re playing, Emerald?” Twilight asked.

“It’s called dance with mommy! It’s my favorite game!” The filly exclaimed happily, earning another coo from Twilight as well as the mommy in question.

“A very nice game, I should think. Unfortunately I’m not that good at dancing.” Twilight said, resorting to just simple swaying and occasional twirls and wing flutters to the orchestral piece.

“That’s not what I heard from Veronica, isn’t that how you met?” Record asked. Twilight blushed and nearly tripped over herself again in the middle of a little spin, earning a giggle from the other mare.

“I mean ,I took lessons for years. I used to be so bad the party would STOP, but now I’m just clumsy. Apparently it’s a whole other story when I’ve had far too much to drink. My friends and your daughter insisted on getting me trashed that night, and since she said drinks were on her I decided why not? Turns out it was the best mistake of my life.” The alicorn replied. Record laughed and shook her head.

“Of course, nobody would catch her eye unless you’re both drunk. Figures. I’m going to have to agree with you, though… I always knew she was going to bring home a mare SOME day, but I never expected it to be one as perfect as yourself.” Record said, smiling and giggling as she used her magic to assist Emerald in dipping her before twirling again, the giggling filly loving every second of it. At that point, the filly was again handed off to Twilight. She was a little nervous of tripping with her, but the pure happiness the filly was giving off was more than enough to convince her it would be fine.

“Please, I’m not perfect. I’ve made plenty of mistakes, and I’ll continue to do so. I don’t know everything, you should have seen how much I freaked out during Vinyl’s transformation. And even now, though she’s only been gone for ten minutes, I miss her at my side. Healthy couples usually aren’t that clingy, at least after a little while. I’m worried I’m too clingy.” Twilight retorted. Record laughed at that.

“Celestia, nobody is perfect. Not even the Princess herself is, though don’t tell her I said that. It’s the imperfections,and the fact that you recognize them, that make you who you are. No, I meant perfect for her. There are a lot of defining points in her life that she’s done to spite her father. Moving out, opening the night club, changing her name even. I knew one day she’d bring home some punk mare practically off the streets because he always wanted her to marry into Canterlot nobility. Instead she walks in with Twilight Sparkle, and it’s not something built from spite I can tell that much. You genuinely fell for each other, and that’s why you’re perfect.” Record explained. Twilight froze at the explanation, and she even felt her eyes watering slightly as she flushed up in embarrassment.

“Auntie Twilight? Why are you crying?” Emerald asked, gently putting a hoof on Twilight’s cheek as a tear did indeed break free from its place and roll down the cheek. Twilight just smiled warmly and nuzzled the Filly, eliciting a giggle from the unicorn, before walking over and hugging Record.

“Thank you. That was… touching. And hey, maybe one day she will marry into Canterlot nobility? I wouldn’t mind joining the family legally.” Twilight said. Record laughed at that as she gently stroked Twilight’s mane. Lord, she had forgotten that Twilight wasn’t even older than Vinyl.

“Of course, Twilight. You may not be married, but Emerald has already decided you’re part of the family. Right, Emerald?” Record said, Twilight allowing the filly to be taken in Record’s magic again. The filly nodded furiously and, as Record let her go, she latched onto Twilight’s neck.

“Auntie Twilight IS part of the family, and not even Daddy can take her away from us!” Emerald exclaimed triumphantly. Record’s smile dropped significantly at that, but it returned in full when Twilight pulled out of the hug to smile at her.

“Well then, as part of your family, I’m that my family will accept you with open arms if you ever go to visit them. The Crystal Empire is a bit of a journey, but if you ever need a Foalsitter I can attest to Cadence’s competence. She can’t travel around as much anymore though so you could always bring Emerald to Canterlot with my parents. I secretly suspect they’re going to have some empty nest syndrome after meeting her.” The alicorn said. Record laughed softly and looked down at Emerald.

“How about it, Emmy? Wanna go alllllll the way to the Crystal Empire to see Auntie Cadence?” Record asked. Any reply was cut off by the alicorn in question.

“You don’t have to go that far, I’m not gone just yet.” Cadence said happily as she and Shining entered the foyer. Emerald immediately gasped and, after being set down on the floor, sprinted up to Cadence to hug her foreleg.

“My, such an impression you’ve all made on her. I can’t thank you enough for what you did last night, Princess Cadence, I’d trust you with her any time you’d like.” Record said. Cadence giggled and picked up Emerald with a wing to place her on her back and nuzzle her before turning back to Record.

“She is incredible with foals, and all kinds of children.” Shining said with a smile, leaning against his wife.

“And no need to use titles here, the only time it’s ever necessary is if we’re in public at my empire or I’m here on official business. And even then, I don’t accept formalities with family.” Cadence said. Record nodded happily and moved towards them with Twilight beside her.

“Have you had any more trouble with Taut Strings?” Shining asked, his tone a little serious. Cadence immediately moved back to the center of the room and asked Emerald to teach her the game she was playing with Record and Twilight.

“Luckily no. Vincent and Sergei went over this morning to gather our things. They knocked on his study door and they had to speak to him through it. He warned them that if anything that wasn’t mine or Emerald’s was gone he’d call the police and have us arrested, so I made sure to have them go back for the wine cellar. Let him try to arrest me, I’ll take more than that from him in the courtroom.” Record replied, ending with a bit of a frustrated tone.

“Way to go step-mom.” Twilight said nudging her. Shining smiled, but his tone didn’t get any brighter.

“Are you sure he can’t have you arrested? It is basically stealing from him…” He asked, though by his tone he was more making sure she would be alright rather than actually caring about it.

“Of course not. The only thing truly in his name in that house is the house itself. His private savings are his own, everything else comes from my accounts since I still hold the business titles- in name at least. And that’s all the court cares about. He was just riding on his family’s fortune before I came along.” Record explained.

“What a terrible stallion…” Twilight muttered. Shining nodded.

“That’s actually great, it means I don’t have to call in any of my favors. I could probably help you get away with razing the entire house, explain it away as him going into a fit of rage and going crazy or something.” He said, a dark little smirk on his face at the last part. Twilight gave him a stern look, though, to which he rolled his eyes.

“In any case, I’m glad he’s not giving you any more trouble. Did he at least see a doctor about that foreleg? Vin-Veronica wasn’t exactly gentle.” He continued. Record sighed and nodded, rubbing a hoof across the bridge of her nose.

“I sent for the private physician, they saw to him this morning while Sergei and Vincent were collecting things. Is it wrong of me to hope he recovers quickly? He was terrible to us, yes, but I admit I still care for him… even now.” The older mare replied, ending with another hefty sigh.

“Not at all. He wasn’t all bad I guess, he somehow managed to sire two incredible Daughters.” Twilight said, earning a chuckle from the other two. “And while I wanted to do just what Vinyl did, I kind’ve wish she hadn’t… though on the bright side she’s learning to control herself. That’s all she did after all, break a leg. I was expecting having to break out the blood cleansing spell on a massive scale in there.” She continued. The other two nodded and were momentarily distracted by giggles as Cadence sent Emerald flying through the air like a plane, carefully dodging any possible obstacles.

They all smiled, none of them wanting to return to the topic, so Twilight broke it without words. She lightly hit Shining on the shoulder.

“Ow!, hey! You know that actually hurts now that you’ve got some muscle on you.” He said with a smirk.

“Some muscle? I’ll hit you again Shiny. You wouldn’t believe how much of a workout saving Equestria a dozen times over is.” Twilight retorted with a smirk, Shining rolling his eyes. “So, have you and Cadence decided yet?” She continued, her frown returning to the little smile from before.

“Hm? Oh, Oh! That decision. I mean, of course she has. We decided to wait for a little while, but after last night we had another talk about it. The wait is prooobably just going to be until we’re no longer staying as a guest somewhere, or until we get impatient and go rent a hotel. Wouldn’t want to be doing that with literally the entire family a few doors down.” The unicorn replied. Record seemed confused for the first half but quickly caught on.

“You’ll have to keep me posted on that matter then, Emerald would love a little cousin.” She said, looking back at where Cadence was now trotting back with Emerald looking sleepy on her back. “Oh don’t tell me you’re pooped already Emerald? It usually takes two hours to tire you out.” She continued to the filly. Emerald hopped off of Cadence’s back and made herself comfortable on a chair and yawned.

“Auntie Cadence does WAY cooler stuff!” She exclaimed, earning chuckles all around as she quickly dozed off.

“Well, Twilight, Veronica and Octavia will be gone most of the day so would you mind helping with lunch? I always preferred cooking meals myself most days, only having the staff cook if I had more than a guest or two over.” Record asked. Twilight nodded happily.

“Oh! Can I come too? It’s been months since I’ve cooked, my staff refuses to let me cook my own meals when I’m home.” Cadence asked excitedly.

“Of course! The more hooves the better. Shining, dear, would you mind keeping an eye on Emerald for a while?” Record asked. Shining smiled and nodded.

“Sure, on the condition that you bring me a nice mug of coffee.” He replied.

“I’ll get it, love. I know the way you like it. Black with a pinch of cinnamon and healthy dose of love.” Cadence said, pecking him on the cheek before trotting off towards the kitchen with the other two mares in tow.

“You know Emerald? Maybe I’ll have to give you a little cousin sooner rather than later.” Shining said to the sleeping filly with a chuckle.

Author's Note

It may only be half the size of the last one, but hey it's two in one sitting. Also I decided to split it here because what's happening next is the perfect place to start a new chapter.
Hope you enjoyed!
Also, I'll fix it when I go through it all again, Taut Strings' name got autocorrected in the last chapter and I forgot to fix it.

Chapter 9

A week had passed in Trottingham, the trio’s trip coming to an end as the elegant city was doing its own winter wrap-up. Vinyl had to go back to Canterlot tomorrow evening, Octavia was moving back home to Trottingham and would be staying, and Twilight would need to head home to Ponyville in the morning to get re-situated there.

Twilight was honestly a little frustrated with Vinyl right now, though. They were parting ways tomorrow and she’d been off with Octavia all day today. After breakfast they were both off, but Vinyl had given her a place and a time. She was to meet them at Trottingham’s best concert hall at 8.

The Philharmonic concert hall was certainly magnificent, and her meeting Vinyl and Octavia there gave her a few good guesses at what this was all about. The posters advertising a once in a lifetime Philharmonic symphony performance got her curious ,as did the flood of ponies entering. She got in easily enough, but one of the door greeters directed her up a separate flight of stairs labelled ‘VIP balcony’. She was stopped by another greeter as she reached the door, though.

“I’m sorry, Miss Twilight, the VIP balcony is not ready to receive you yet. We should definitely have it ready by the time the performance is scheduled to begin of course.” The well dressed stallion said. Twilight just grumbled and was glad there was a small waiting area up here so she could at least sit down. She was mildly surprised when Harmonia and Chorus stepped up, with Record and Emerald in tow, and got the same message from the greeter. They chatted idly for around 10 minutes when Twilight was surprised to see Cadence and Shining stepping up and getting still the same spiel.

“Cadence? Shining? I thought you had let already?” She asked, having said her goodbyes to them that morning.

“We were invited to come here and I got the OK from my court by messenger that I could stay another day or two.” Cadence replied, squeezing into the now somewhat crowded waiting area. They all hoped the balcony was bigger than this room.

“When the last two guests arrive, the VIP box will be ready to receive all of you.” The greeter informed them before entering the door and swiftly closing it behind him. It sounded like the orchestra was doing some rehearsals or something as the audience filed in early.

“I wonder who the other guests are?” Emerald asked, happy to see the whole ‘family’ here. Dusk and Dawn Sparkle were missing, they had left before Hearth’s warming eve had started as they had obligations back in Canterlot.

“Wouldn’t it be something if Mom and Dad showed up? It’d be like a family event!” Shining said happily. There was a small knowing tone in his statement, though. Twilight gave him a look. Before she could question him on it, though, a voice behind her came first.

“Not quite, but I hope I’m good enough.” The voice said with a little chuckle at the end. There was only one voice that regal, and Twilight was immediately out of her seat and zipping over to hug Princess Celestia.

“Princess! I didn’t know you were coming, how’d you make the time?” Twilight asked. Luna stepped around her sister and spoke for her as the elder Princess hugged the young alicorn back.

“We told them we were going and that was final. Even politics can’t keep us from taking time for ourselves once in awhile afterall.” Lune said.

“And they agreed that we probably needed a vacation after the holidays.” Celestia finished. Everyone else was standing, though everyone but Emerald seemed utterly shocked to see Princess Celestia there, even Cadence and Shining.

“Whoa! Princess Celestia! I get to meet Princess Celestia now!” The little filly exclaimed, leaping off of her mother’s chair and bounding up to them. “Auntie Twilight can you introduce me?” She asked, at least showing a tiny bit of respect in her excitement. Twilight giggled and lifted Emerald onto her back.

“Princess, this is Emerald. Vinyl’s little sister. She insists on calling me Auntie and I don’t have the heart to ask her to stop.” She said, laughing as the filly clambered to her neck to get closer to the Princess. Celestia giggled and put her hoof out to shake. The filly, only now showing a bit of hesitation, shook it slowly before grinning and hopping back down off of Twilight’s back.

“Mommy! Mommy! I shook the Princess’ hoof!” She exclaimed, Record quickly picking her up as the rest of them trotted over. Record replied by patting Emerald on the head and kissing her on the cheek.

“I must say, I never thought I’d ever share a balcony with the Princesses of Equestria at one of my daughter’s performances.” Chorus said, the grey stallion giving the princesses a small but respectful bow. His wife soon followed.

“That would make you miss Octavia’s parents then?” Celestia asked. The two nodded. Celestia inclined her head respectfully and turned to Record, filly on her back. “And one Miss Record Scratch?” She continued. Record gave a bit of a bow as well, which was returned with a respectful incline again. “Very well, I think it’s time for the performance to start. Shall we?” She finished, turning towards the door. The group quickly filed into the, thankfully, large balcony and situated themselves as the conductor and the orchestra was doing their final tunings.

“Well then, I think that’s good enough. Let’s get this started, shall we? We have very special guests tonight, let’s not keep them waiting.” The conductor said and the Orchestra readied to play. It wasn’t until the third song that Twilight remembered that she was supposed to meet Octavia and Vinyl here. Octavia was obviously playing her cello on the stage, but Vinyl was nowhere to be seen. After half an hour of performance the Orchestra started moving around. It was like they were preparing for an entirely different group and the conductor took to the microphone again.

“We’re doing something special tonight, and for that we’ll need a randomly selected audience member. When the time comes, the spotlights will find you and you can come up to the stage. We’re experimenting with interactive performance, here’s hoping it doesn’t crumble.” He explained. Twilight liked the guy, he wasn’t pompous or overly professional. She had the distinct feeling the words he meant to say were something along the lines of ‘let’s hope this doesn’t go to shit’. Soft murmurs shot through the audience, and the VIP box, when the curtains went down to hide what the orchestra was doing. They were all surprised, or at least looked surprised in the case of a certain pair of princesses, as Octavia was standing there with her cello ready next to Vinyl. She had a Violin of all things.

They started playing, a wonderful duet. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the orchestra’s usual content, though, even if it was a DJ on the violin. They quickly realized it wasn’t as it seemed, though, as in preparation for the next section there were now two more bows being held in Vinyl’s magic. The Orchestra chimed in then, too, and it turned out they were playing an almost broken song. But it wasn’t broken. It was remixed. Twilight’s eyes widened and she felt her heart speed up as she realized what this was.

“This is… that song…” She stammered in awe as Vinyl let the violin continue playing itself as she practically leaped over to a mixing table that had been left in the corner. The electronic base and altered chorus kicked in then as well, now it was exactly that song. Being remixed live, and the music being remixed was also being played live. Once in a lifetime sounded pretty accurate right about now. Her reaction didn’t go unnoticed, but none of them really knew what it was so they stayed silent and watched.

And that was when the spotlights turned on and immediately focused on Twilight. She seemed almost horrified by that, but immediately narrowed her eyes at the stage. Vinyl was working her violin and the mix tables with her magic, now she was standing on her back legs with her wings splayed out to help balance. She was holding her hoof out in Twilight’s general direction.

“That clever little mare. She’s going to make me embarrass myself and I can’t help but love her for it.” She said as the music continued. This was at about the spot where she had started dancing at the club that night, and as she glided down on her wings to the stage they both started the dance like all those weeks ago.

“I told you we weren’t doing anything behind your back. We were perfecting this.” Vinyl said, just loud enough for Twilight to hear her over the music. Twilight rolled her eyes as they touched their horns together. They didn’t quite care about the murmuring in the crowd as their resonance peaked from the contact. They looked at each other, Vinyl gave Twilight a shit eating grin, and then they danced.

The audience was stunned into silence, the scandal of touching their horns on stage forgotten at the display. They danced together, perfectly in synch. It was even easier than last time, since they were both sober and they both had wings to stabilize their erratic movements. The song picked up again, and as such their movements became more elegant and warped.

Again, they went on until the crescendo, twisting around each other while their wings stabilized the both of them together. Twilight gave her that same stupid grin as that night, and Twilight couldn’t help but lean in and kiss her. She didn’t care that there were at least four thousand ponies in the room, especially when they all erupted in applause.

“Almost makes up for leaving me alone all week.” Twilight said quietly, flushing up slightly as the applause finally registered and then untangled themselves. Twilight laughed as the Conductor and Octavia stepped in line with them and motioned for them to bow.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ve got twenty year old whiskey and a fresh bottle of spiced applejack daniels for later. No way in hell I’m letting you leave without another wild night.” Vinyl replied as the entire orchestra bowed with them, this time Octavia snickering at overhearing. Twilight rolled her eyes as stood back up. The conductor took to the microphone again and Twilight couldn’t help but stare at him as he spoke.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been my honor to conduct this event- even if it wasn’t my idea- as it is the first event in the history of Equestria that has had all five alicorns present. The Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra thanks Princess Celestia and Princess Luna for making time to attend this not so humble performance, Princess Cadence and her husband Shining Armor for delaying their trip home, and for Twilight Sparkle and Veronica Scratch for giving us such a splendid finale.For the first time, and probably the last, this theater has seen a remixed piece that was not horrid.” The conductor announced, the last part jabbing an Elbow in Vinyl’s direction. She stuck her tongue out and the orchestra started packing their things up.

“Twilight, Vinyl, that was incredible! I knew you said the dance was spectacular, but I never thought you’d be able to replicate it!” Octavia said happily as they walked out of the hall ten minutes later, Octavia’s cello strapped to her back.

“Well I didn’t know I could do it either.” Twilight said, lightly slapping Vinyl’s head with a wing. Vinyl snorted in return.

“I had every confidence that it would have been awesome. It wasn’t the same though. It was better. I’m just glad the Princesses were able to make it.” The DJ said as they finally got out of the concert hall to see their families and the princesses chatting as they waited for them.

“You know, I was really wondering how a dance could start all of this. Now I’m wondering how you weren’t inseparable from day one.” Shining said.

“Did you not hear of it? They were. The press had a field day about it.” Luna said as they started walking, the snow crunching underhoof as it wasn’t scheduled to be cleared until the morning.

“Wait that was day one? I thought that was at least a week in. Twilight, I didn’t know you were such a flirt.” Cadence said, giggling slightly at Twilight unamused reaction.

“Nah, I’m the flirt. I was just surprised it was reciprocated.” Vinyl said, earning another winged slap from her partner.

“Well Veronica, I need to run back. Emerald fell asleep waiting and house hunting has exhausted me this week.” Record said, quickly hugging her daughter and saying her goodbyes to everyone else.

“We ought to head back too, it’s getting late. Don’t be too long Octavia, you know what your mother’s like when you wake her up at midnight.” Chorus said, Harmonia rolling her eyes and lightly hitting his shoulder. They too left after bowing to the princesses.

“We’ve got an early train to catch, and I’d rather not wake our hosts up either. Especially after they graciously let us stay another day.” Shining said, Cadence hugging everyone while he hoof bumped Vinyl and hugged Twilight. They inclined their heads to the princesses and left.

“I’ve got a date with the orchestra, we always go out for a drink as a group.” Octavia said, hugging her friends and bowing to the princesses and heading away where other orchestra members were walking

“I don’t know about you three, but it’s been entirely too long since I’ve sat down and had a proper mixed drink.” Celestia said, her horn flashing as she turned to a smaller unicorn with a pink mane and tail.

“Literally always a good idea.” Vinyl said, her horn flashing to take her usual disguise. Twilight took her own, rolling her eyes, and Luna took the form of a pegasus with a dark grey coat and a midnight blue mane and tail.

“It’s not like we do this twice a month.” Luna said as they started walking.

“Oh I don’t mean sneaking off for a quick bottle and bringing it back, I meant getting properly smashed.” Celestia said, her regal tone completely disappearing with the disguise. Vinyl and Twilight looked at each other.

“Didn’t you say you got a couple of good things, love?” Twilight asked. A few bottles appeared around Vinyl’s head, covered in her magic.

“Oh, you spoil me, girls.” Celestia giggled, the sound almost too sweet with her disguised voice. Especially considering they were about to get hammered.

“Let’s do this the right way then. We do an old fashioned late night pub crawl to get tipsy as hell, rent a hotel room for the night and finish with the good stuff. That way we’re not waking our folks up. OH, and we have to set up a camera just in case we don’t remember any of it. We can just destroy it afterwards if some real crazy shit happens but we can’t let ourselves forget a night like this.” Vinyl explained lowly, like they were planning a heist. Celestia grinned and Luna shared a ‘why are we doing this again?” look with Twilight. It was returned with a ‘Because we need a break’ look. Luna rolled her eyes as they reached the first pub and they all headed inside. It was going to be a long night.

Author's Note

Alternate title for the chapter: Symphonic Resonance.
So I think we're starting to get to the end here. I find myself thinking of other things more and more, namely an entirely new story. I've become absolutely smitten with Fallout Equestria, I finally decided to start it, so I may be writing my own FoE story sometime soon. I also want to run a FoE tabletop game, but none of my circles care much about fallout in general, fewer still with ponies.
Anyways, rambling aside, hope you enjoy!

Intermission 1:

“So, burn the camera and never talk about this again?” Twilight offered as the video recording finished.

“Agreed.” The other three alicorns replied in unison. They were back at the Philharmonic estate and were reviewing the previous night’s antics. The only reason they weren’t all a wreck was because Vinyl made sure to bring her anti hangover seltzers. Luna shook her head and grumbled something about weird dreams while Celestia just giggled.

“Well, I admit I had a feeling something like that was going to happen… I think it’s safe to say it wasn’t an intentional outcome.” The elder princess said. Vinyl never thought she’d hear embarrassment from Princess Celestia, but here it is.

“Is it wrong that I wish I could remember it at least?” Twilight eeped, earning a fierce snicker from Vinyl.

“I remember it all, you can watch it later if you want. I for one think it was the second best night of my life.” The newest alicorn said happily. The other three gave her looks with varying amounts of amusement.

“Yeah well you didn’t just spend the night with your elder sister and someone who’s like your younger sister.” Luna grumbled.

“Well, we aren’t technically blood sisters, but I share that particular sentiment. Except Twilight is like my daughter at this point.” Celestia added. Twilight just sank further into her chair. Vinyl caught on to it.

“It was still a great night, though, right? Even if you can’t remember all of it, still felt like a good night? No regrets?” She asked. Luna’s grimace finally broke into a soft smile at that before returning as she paced the room.

“Of course not. We knew what we were getting into.” The princess of the night said with an almost amused tone.

“And it’s not like this is the first time something like this has happened. Maybe not for many years, but still.” Celestia chuckled. Luna shot her a look that Vinyl couldn’t read.

“Alright, what part of never talk about this again don’t you guys understand?” Twilight groaned. Celestia and Vinyl shared amused expressions.

“You two are perfect for each other…” Luna snarked at the two. Vinyl just gave her standard shit eating grin while Celestia just giggled and wrapped a wing around Vinyl on one side and the other around Luna on the other.

“I don’t know, you seemed pretty into it last night.” The elder princess snarked back. Twilight stood up then, three separate books floating up to each of them and three separate thuds as they were knocked on the head with the thick tomes.

“Never. Talk about. Again.” Twilight said sternly, like a teaching scolding a troublemaker. Vinyl was holding her head with puppy eyes, Luna just seemed amused, Celestia actually burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry Twilight, it’s been so long since I’ve had the chance to go have fun… even if it has left things slightly uncomfortable. Give it a few years, you’ll think back on it fondly. We should be heading back to Canterlot anyways. Where are the two of you heading?” The princess asked.

“Well I need to head back to Canterlot to take care of some business. Literally. I think Twi was heading back to Ponyville?” Vinyl replied, giving Twilight a questioning look.

“Don’t remind me… I wish we could just always have to go to the same place. My train leaves in an hour so I should actually get ready.” Twilight grumbled.

“I’ll go and get our own arrangements settled, care to join us in a royal carriage miss Vinyl?” Celestia said as she stood, moving to follow Twilight out.

“I don’t see why not. It’ll be cool to chat anyways.” Vinyl said as she made to follow. She was surprised by Luna putting a hoof on her shoulder, stopping her, and closing the door behind her sister.

“You are something else, Vinyl Scratch.” She said, almost incredulously. Vinyl gave her a questioning look. “You’ve intertwined yourself with Twilight entirely, in such a short time. I’ve known her long enough to know that is one miracle. The next miracle is that Celestia finds it so easy to shed her composure around you, not to mention last night. Even I find myself able to speak with you now so easily. And the third miracle is that you really are an Alicorn, truly, just like Twilight. Just like Celestia and I. Just like Cadence.

“But, unlike us, you haven’t been instilled with a sense of duty that the ascension has always come with. You were not groomed for ascension, or even nobility. You were, and I believe still are, just a normal pony who was in the right place at the right time. And I respect that immensely, because you do what you feel is right. Not once has the thought of taking power for yourself come up, I can tell. You don’t want a kingdom, you don’t even want a title. Even Twilight takes pride in her social status when it doesn’t harm her, she loves that she is so close to us and is widely recognized as the one to go to for magical knowledge.” Luna explained. Vinyl was almost stunned to silence, almost.

“Hold up there, girl. Don’t get all sappy on me. Even though I’m an alicorn now, I’m just Vinyl Scratch. I admit that I’m loving the fact that I can be casual with the princesses of equestria and all that, but I’m here both for and because of Twilight. I’m not like you lot, like you said I have no grand intentions. My goal has always been to spread music and cool tunes across the world, that hasn’t changed. Now I guess it’s more than a business model though…” The young alicorn said. Luna smiled at that, and even gave Vinyl a quick nuzzle. That shocked Vinyl, Luna wasn’t even known for displays of affection with her sister. At least in public. Even after last night, though, being this close to the princess was… strange.

“Well, I may be wrong, but I think I’ve figured out what you embody. It might be dreadfully cliche, but you might just be the alicorn of friendship. Which would make sense considering what your other half is. Friendship is magic after all.” The princess of the night said. Vinyl snorted.

“Friendship? Naw, bringing people together is just a bonus on top of spreading the music.” The newest alicorn retorted, though her tone seemed unsure.

“Well, we’ll never truly know for sure. Well, not for a while. Cadence figured it out eventually, though I suppose not everyone has such blatantly obvious concepts to embody as the rest of us.” Luna said as she stepped to the door. “Regardless, I’m glad you entered our lives. You’ve given not only Twilight a new happiness, but even ‘Tia and I find ourselves looking forward to meeting with you.” The princess continued. She stopped just at the door as Vinyl fell into step with her and they looked at each other.

“Yeah, I’m sure as hell enjoying being friends with you guys. Before you go, though, something I’ve been meaning to say for a while. That whole Nightmare Moon thing was because you thought everyone shunned the night right?” Vinyl started.

“I… well… That was a big part of it yes, but I know that isn’t the case.” Luna said, a little confused by the sudden change in topic. Vinyl nodded, though she was getting better at reading Luna at least. Old wounds still hurt, and there was definitely a little bit of spite for how everyone slept during the night still there. Spite probably wasn’t the word for it, though. It wasn’t nearly that intense. Vinyl just smiled and draped a wing over Luna’s shoulder.

“Well Luna, if you ever feel otherwise just stop by my club. Whether I’m there or not, drinks will always be on me. And you’ll see just how many people love the night. It’s called the ‘Night Owl’ for a reason, I sometimes go days without sleeping to enjoy the night. Hell, that’s probably why Twi and I work so well. We’re both complete insomniacs it doesn’t bother the other. I think I’m rambling now, so back to the point. Plenty of people love you, Luna. Even if it doesn’t seem like it. I sure as hell do, like the big sister I never had. Not like an actual sister though, otherwise last night wouldn’t have been so awesome, but you get the idea.” Vinyl explained. Luna kinda stared at her for a moment before chuckling softly and leaning into the feathered embrace.

“Vinyl… I’ve heard things like that from so many people… but, for some reason, you’re the only one that’s made me truly believe it.” The princess said softly. Vinyl grinned as she pulled the door open with her magic.

“Hey, we’re all one big family now that sometimes gets drunk and has wild nights together. We’ve gotta look out for each other.” The DJ replied before ridiculously kissing Luna on the cheek, patted the side of her head with a hoof, squeezed the princess one last time, and trotted off. Luna just snorted, having recovered most of her composure, and trotted off after her sister.

“Tia, I think I know what to do with her.” The princess said to herself as she walked off.

Author's Note

So I'm losing some steam, I think I'll wrap this up in the next two chapters. I don't know when that'll be, this time of year is chaos for retail work, but I will finish this story before it dies. That's my promise to you guys who've been following it.

Chapter 10: The beginning of the end

“So… remind me again why we’re going all the way out to the griffonlands?” Vinyl asked, clearly bored out of her mind, in the flying chariot pulled by four royal guards.

“Because the princesses asked us to come help with the negotiations. I may not be a princess anymore, and you aren’t one either, but the Griffons apparently don’t see that as any reason to exclude us and have demanded our presence. The only reason Cadence is off the hook is because she has her own empire to run.” Twilight grumbled in reply, also bored.

“We’re almost there, get ready for descent!” One of the guards pulling the carriage called back. The alicorns sat up and kept themselves steady as in another minute they swooped down and landed in a courtyard. They stepped out to see the strange architecture of the griffons. The land was rocky and full of caves, though there were plenty of buildings that looked like they were built into the trees. The carriage was currently touched down in the middle of the city, Celestia and Luna were waiting there for them as were dozens of Griffons.

“Thank you for coming, our presence is needed in the council tower.” Celestia said with a smile. Vinyl knew that smile, something shenanigans-y was going to happen. Twilight was too professional to notice as they walked. Vinyl shared a glance with Luna, who also had a similar smirk on her face.

“So, I didn’t know there were negotiations going on with the Griffons. I mean, I don’t really keep up with politics or anything, but aren’t we already total allies?” Vinyl asked.

“Occasionally things pop up, even among allies. In this case, the Griffons are a strong people that value strength over words. Usually at least. They always love a good show, and apparently Equestria hasn’t had one for them yet.” Celestia explained, her smirk widening. Vinyl couldn’t help but give her signature grin at that.

“What kind of show? I hope it isn’t a show of combat…” Twilight grumbled. Vinyl snorted, she totally didn’t get it. Vinyl shared smirks with the princesses, oh yeah this was going to be great. Vinyl could already tell what was going on.

There was almost nobody in the streets, and those who were out and about were usually heading towards their destination. The massive council tower of the Griffon Capital could house the entire city at full capacity, and it wasn’t too far off from that capacity as they entered. At the head of the room, on a massive podium, lounged a dozen Griffons with different tribal markings and plumage. The one in the middle, one with black feathers and red markings, stood as they entered.

“So, the four alicorns of Equestria have finally decided to put on a show for us. Let’s see if this is a waste of time or not.” He said, clicking his Talons in a snap as the tarp over the massive center of the hollow spire was unfurled. A small stage was dropped in, speakers were quickly arranged around the spire, and a very familiar set of mix tables and audio engineering equipment was placed into the center. Banners unfurled, revealing Vinyl’s new advertisement. It was still her usual simplistic outline with her mane colors and shades accentuated,but now they were joined by brilliant wings made of what looked like energy pouring out of the speakers.

“Aw hell yeah! DJ Valkyri-3 makes her debut!” Vinyl exclaimed, a flash of her horn finishing the setup. The lighting was muted, a lightshow accompanying the now rumbling speakers as they pumped a simple track. Vinyl was already at the table working her magic and before long the entire spire was cheering and dancing. Griffons could party!

“What… What about the negotiations…” Twilight asked, surprised, earning a laugh from the two princesses.

“Oh those came and went, they were allowed trade permits with our port cities to trade for fish and they’ve granted us a defended trail through most of the country for trade. Black Talon himself heard of our latest ascension and wanted to meet both of you, and when he heard of her status as a performer he practically demanded we prepare a show to celebrate the trade. Sorry for the deception, but your reaction was totally worth it.” Celestia replied, ending with a giggle and bumping Twilight. The lavender alicorn just snorted and flew into the fray, meeting her partner in the middle and joining in the dancing.

“I hope you get around to talking to Vinyl about it soon, lest she grow suspicious. Her next show has already been confirmed in Draconis, and she doesn’t even know about it.” Luna said to her sister as they watched the light shows and the dancing griffons.

“Oh don’t worry about that, it was your idea though. Maybe I should make you do it.” Celestia snorted.

“Me? I’m terrible with breaking news to people. What am I supposed to say? ‘I know you don’t want any royal responsibilities or anything but we’re sending you to all of our allies to put on shows as a show of peace and friendship’? You’re much better with wording things Tia.” Luna replied. Celestia rolled her eyes.

“Oh come now, I think that’s the perfect amount of blunt for her. If I try to dance around it then she’ll probably think we’re using her.” The older princess retorted.

“But we are using her. Well, making use of her talents. She brings joy wherever she goes, with ehr music, I suppose if you really want me to do it I will. It can’t be too hard to explain we just want to make everyone happy.” Luna said. “If you need me, I’ll be around the refreshments area. I may not have acquired the taste for meat as you have, but Griffon Liquor is almost as good as dragon.” She said, her wings unfurling as she glided over to the massive table full of various bottles and pitchers. Celestia just shook her head and smiled to her other side as a ruffling of black feathers proceeded the arrival of Black Talon at her side.

“That one has great power, I’ve never seen my people so caught up in festivities. Especially that of foreigners.” The dark griffon said with a smile, a kebab of roasted chunks of meat and vegetables in a talon.

“You should see what happens when you put her in a room with the element of Laughter. Last time that happened the party lasted for a week straight. Manehattan was never the same.” Celestia mused.

“I’ve heard wind that she’s supposed to go around all of the other races, even those less friendly to us, and put on shows. What are you playing at, Celestia?” The griffon asked with a smirk. Celestia just gave him an even smile back.

“I’m playing at a game of peace. There is no war, at least open war, but many races do not see us as allies yet. The Changelings especially, but even the Zebras are wary of us and vice versa. I simply want the lands united in peace, where offending a political leader would lead to a scolding match instead of a war. I want to see members of every race in my cities, and my people in theirs, happily living and visiting together. We’ve even started open talks with the Timberwolves in the Everfree so that zap apple season isn’t so dangerous.” Celestia explained.

“For one as old as you, it still baffles me how ready you are to vie for peace. It is commendable, but the longer there is peace the more warriors grow restless and generals grow bored. Our people are too reliant on each other to spark open war, but I know there are small tribes that still eat ponies.” Talon said. Celestia nodded and, when he offered the kebob, happily munched on a roasted pepper.

“And, as the past has shown, we are more than capable of defending ourselves. And our allies. I despise pulling the whole ‘I control the sun’ card, but it works when a show of power is necessary. I want peace because I am sick of fighting. I’m not sick of fighting because we’re bad at it, rather the other way around. My people are tough to keep down, and we’ve faced incredible foes recently. I just want a year or two where nothing dangerous happens. Hopefully decades, but I know my luck.” Celestia replied fluidly. The last part came out sourly, though, and Talon laughed.

“I suppose you are right. With your new Alicorns to make peace, though, I think you may actually succeed in at least a couple years of peace. I’d say you’ve gone soft, but then again my great grandfather never let our family forget just how strong you ponies really are. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go join your sister before she gets all the good stuff.” The griffon finally said after a few moments of silence. Celestia nodded to him respectfully and he glided down to the refreshments table to chat with Luna.

Celestia looked back at Vinyl and Twilight and smiled as they danced an entirely new dance, stumbling every now and then, but still achieving the desired effect. The room couldn’t have been more happy.

Author's Note

So there were a lot of things that I wanted to do with this story, and I only got to about half of them, but then again this was just a little short idea that came from a picture. This ending may be disappointing to a lot of you, I know it kinda was to me, but anything different and it'd just never end. I've been trying to come up with how I wanted to do this for two weeks now and finally I just sat down and wrote. it's not perfect, but it's an ending. I may come back to it later, but for now this is it. Hope you all enjoyed!

Chapter 4

It was friday night at the Night Owl again, though the sun had just set. The place was relatively empty except for Vinyl and Twilight again, and they were dancing together to the remixed orchestral music. It wasn’t the same dance as before, though. This was more of a slow dance, them just leaning against each other and shifting around a bit to the beat. They had joined one another for a meal at least once a day that week and gone out for drinks twice. Vinyl was damn sure she wanted to stick with Twilight as long as she could.

Unfortunately, Twilight had to return to Ponyville tomorrow, which is why Vinyl closed up her club for the night so they could have it all to themselves. She could afford a hit to profit like that for this and she assured her workers would get a normal payday for it as well since their tip jars would be fairly empty at the end of the week for it.

“Ponyville isn’t that far away, I can even fly here and back in the middle of the night if I have to.” Twilight broke their silence. Talk like this had been going on for a while now.

“Girl I said don’t worry about it, hearth’s warming eve is around the corner and I always spend a week before it in Ponyville before hitting up Trottingham for hearth’s warming dinner. Octavia and I always do a Ponyville event, and now I have another friend to go see.” Vinyl replied, nuzzling into Twilight’s neck. Twilight grumbled. Things were silent for a while, but something was wrong. Vinyl didn’t feel so hot all of a sudden, but she tried to ignore it as she unwittingly leaned heavier into Twilight’s side. The Alicorn seemed to notice.

“Are you alright Vinyl? I can crash with you tonight if you’re so tired, though I admit I’m a little surprised you’re already sleepy at ten o’clock.” Twilight asked with a smile before looking down at the Mare leaning into her side. The smile fell to a frown of concern when she aw Vinyl. She still had a bit of a smirk on her face, but her eyes looked heavy and she seemed a little shaky on her legs. “Vinyl?” She asked, concern heavy in her voice.

“D-Don’t worry, and I’d like that…” Vinyl stuttered out, pushing off Twilight a bit to try and slide around. “I-I’m just f-fee-e-eling a little u-under the wea….” She started and couldn’t really finish. It seemed like she was leaning in to kiss the Alicorn, but had lost her footing and slumped to the ground. Her breathing was heavy she she barely looked conscious even. Twilight was immediately overcome with worry.

“Vinyl?! Vinyl what’s wrong?!” She started frantically and tried to help the Unicorn to her hooves. Vinyl was unresponsive and she couldn’t really stand on her own, so Twilight picked her up with her magic and gently laid her on her back. If something was wrong with Vinyl then she couldn’t risk a teleport, it might exacerbate whatever was happening and make it worse. So she flew.

It was a slow and grueling flight, especially since a minor snowstorm had just rolled in, ut Twilight was focusing on a small shield around herself and her charge so the wind and couldn’t wouldn’t touch them. She was suddenly very thankful that the Club was near the best hospital in the city, at least by air. The only thing keeping her from freaking out and bursting into tears at this point was her determination to get Vinyl to the hospital and the fact that she still felt the mare’s breathing against her back.

“Twilight SParkle? What’s the matter, did something happen?” The nurse at the front desk of the hospital asked. Twilight just nodded and carefully slipped Vinyl off of her back. She couldn’t help but let tears fall as she saw Vinyl, her expression was now pained and her breathing even more labored, she was slightly curled around herself as if the pain was in her heart or near there. The Nurse’s expression went from minor confusion to worry immediately as she paged a doctor.

“Tell me what happened.” The Nurse said with a serious tone as she led Twilight to a gurney to put the Unicorn on.

“I-I don’t know, she just suddenly got r-really tired and just passed out. It’s almost like she has the f-flu or something, but I checked for that and nothing. It just happened so quickly…” Twilight explained, fighting back the urge to sob. The Doctor met them at the gurney and nodded to them as they briskly walked down a few halls until he entered a room with a gurney and the Nurse stood in the doorway.

“The Doctor is going to do some tests and run a few scans, we’ll put you in one of the waiting rooms nearby. He’ll come right to you with the results.” The Nurse explained. Twilight wanted nothing more than to barge in there and demand she stay with Vinyl, but she knew better than that. She nodded and trudged over to the waiting room. She wasn’t idle, though. She concentrated to set up a temporary dragonfire network with Celestia and with each of her friends. The other elements wouldn’t be able to reply, but Celestia would be able to.

To her friends she apologized that she may be a day or so late due to something coming up, she didn’t want to say much about what happened until she knew what was happening. To Celestia, she explained the entire situation, as well apologizing for waking her up. The reply she was hoping for never came, though, but after about five minutes she discovered why. The Princess entered the small waiting room herself. Twilight was immediately clinging to her side, fighting back sobs. They sat like that in the middle of the room for a few minutes before Twilight finally calmed down.

“I..I just have this… sinking feeling that something terrible is going to happen. Our resonance… flickered, like it was changing… I don’t want to lose her, Celestia…” Twilight finally said. Celestia quirked an eyebrow at that.

“Well, I poked my head in and the good doctor assured me that whatever it was it wasn’t terminal in any way. I’ve never heard of a resonance as strong as yours changing, though. And this flicker, what did it feel like?” The Princess asked. Twilight let out a heavy sigh of relief at the news, but quickly thought on what she felt.

When they were in the air, she felt their resonance almost like their horns were touching. But when they were coming in for a landing it felt.. Different. It felt like Vinyl’s arcane signature was shifting, warping even. And it wasn’t subtle, she felt it as strongly as she felt the resonance itself, but she still felt them resonating. It was quieter, though, and that terrified her. Celestia donned a very serious expression.

“Twilight, you aren’t going to like what I’m about to tell you. The last time I heard of such a significant shift in an arcane signature that was resonating, it was when Luna succumbed to her Nightmare… Now, I highly doubt anything nearly like that will come of this, especially since you continued to resonate, but be prepared for anything.” Celestia explained. Twilight balked at her. The fact that there wasn’t going to be a DJ M00n or something did calm her slightly, but the fact that something bad could come it if caused it to flood back in. Celestia noticed this and continued.

“As far as the resonance going quieter, though, that’s actually a good sign.” She started. Twilight gave her a questioning look. “If a resonance becomes louder and more pronounced as time goes on, it will only be a matter of time before the signatures desynchronize and harmony is broken. The fact that your resonance is getting softer means the melody you two have between you has grown more coherent and strong. I don’t think you’ll be losing her any time soon.” She reassured the younger Alicorn. Twilight finally seemed to calm down at that though. She still had the fear of what was to come, but she could reassure herself that she was never going to lose Vinyl, and that was enough.

It was half an hour, in which the Princess has requested an entire pot of black coffee to sip as they waited, before the Doctor poked his head in.

“Ah, there you are. There is something you must see.” He said, motioning for the two to follow. They did so and Twilight felt her heart sink a little as there was an oxygen mask over Vinyl’s face. She was tucked into a hospital bed, though, and she seemed far less pained. They moved over to what looked like X-Rays and the Doctor pointed out what looked like two large masses of something on her spine, just below the shoulders.

“What does this look like to you?” He asked. Both of their looks darkened.

“Those… look like tumors… on the spine…” Twilight said, choking on the last couple words. The doctor quickly changed to a nearly identical X-ray, without the apparent tumors though.

“This is the X-Ray we took. The first image was an arcane scan that uses the X-Ray as a template. Those ‘tumors’ aren’t corporeal. They don’t show up on the X-Rays or anything, and they definitely aren’t cancerous. Frankly we can’t make heads or tails of it.” The Doctor continued. Their worry vanished into confusion, though after a moment of looking Celestia’s eyes widened and she practically gaped at Vinyl.

“Princess?” Twilight asked, noticing this. She looked back to Twilight, her expression almost incredulous before she shook it off to a warm smile.

“She’ll be fine, that much I can be sure of. Make sure she drinks a LOT of mana water, her fatigue and dangerous levels of exhaustion are due to her magic reserves being drained. She’ll be fine to return home, though I must implore you to keep her close for the time being Twilight. She’ll need you.” Celestia explained as she turned towards the door.

“Wait, what? Princess what are you talking about?” Twilight asked. Celestia gave her a wink before leaving. Twilight was about to freak out but a voice kept her from doing it.

“God DAMN I feel like SHIT.” A particularly exhausted sounding unicorn groaned out. The Doctor and Twilight rushed over to the bed. She looked very confused about where she was and her present company. “Twi, I didn’t drink THAT much, you didn’t need to take me to the hospital.” She said weakly with an equally weak smile.

“I shall do as the Princess asked, we’ll get her a mana infusion by IV and I’ll bring her some mana water to drink.” The Doctor said. Twilight nodded in thanks and left the two alone. Vinyl seemed more confused about that.

“Soooo, let me guess. I didn’t have ANY alcohol and I suddenly blacked out for some reason?” The Unicorn asked. Twilight just leaned in and rested her head against Vinyl’s.

“I mean, you had enough to put me off balance, but you weren’t even feeling it of course. I still have no idea what exactly is happening, I’ll have to nag it out of Celestia later, but for now I’m just glad you’re alive. Arcane exhaustion on this level is incredibly dangerous.” The Alicorn said. Vinyl relished the contact and intentionally brushed her horn against Twilight’s. They both shivered. The resonance was VERY different this time. They both had the urge to kiss, which they proceeded to do without hesitation, but there was far more to it than that.

It was almost like the resonance had become perfect, the harmony of their signatures blending without any skips or hitches. The physical contact just felt right, and currently it felt like it just wasn’t enough. The kiss stopped as Vinyl weakly pushed Twilight away, they both let out heated breaths.

“Whoa there girly, let’s resume that when I’m not apparently recovering from arcane exhaustion and we have a bit of privacy. I do have SOME decency you know.” Vinyl said. Twilight just smirked and pecked her on the nose before straightening back out again. They shuddered again, the feeling of their resonance hadn’t gone away. Twilight became worried again when Vinyl started showing the signs she showed earlier and did a quick scanning spell.

Her eyes widened in horror as she realized the arcane ‘tumors’ were drawing in more energy again, and they were growing slightly larger.

“N-No, not again!” Twilight exclaimed and concentrated. It was difficult for one pony to directly share their magical reserves with another, their arcane signatures would clash and it sometimes even caused terrible things to happen. Usually, to circle cast for example, a mage would channel their energy into raw mana for the primary caster to collect and convert into their own with concentration, or they’d infuse it into something like candy or water for consumption. Since they shared an arcane resonance, however, it was almost trivial to open her reserves to the Unicorn.

Vinyl gasped in pain as the magic flooded into her and the tumors swelled and spread out, covering more of her spine and even spider webbing out to some of her ribs and other bones. Twilight immediately closed her connection and gently prodded Vinyl with a hoof, the mare had fallen unconscious in her exhaustion and pain apparently. The spreading stopped, though, and in her unconscious state the tumors kept draining her energy. She could feel Vinyl’s reserves, they were so low it scared her again, if it went any lower then it would start eating away at her life force and it could kill her slowly.

“Vinyl… Vinyl I’m sorry… I’m… I’m trying to help you!” Twilight said, trying to stop her tears and sobs from returning as she was trying to think of what to do. She tried covering the tumors in a barrier, they simply absorbed the magic. She tried opening her reserves to Vinyl again, but the sheer power caused the growths to spread even more and the pained signals from Vinyl made her stop. Finally she opened her reserves again, but this time she stifled the flow to be so insignificant she barely noticed it. Vinyl had a surprisingly large reserve, though. That this rate it would normally take a few minutes of this minute flow to fill her back to full, but for now it only barely overmatched what the tumors were taking. Slowly but surely, Vinyl’s energy returned to her. Before it was back up to healthy levels again, though, the door opened and she barely caught a tray of food and mana infused water from hitting the ground.

The Doctor from before had entered and noticed the chart next to her had changed to show the arcane tumors spreading at an alarming rate, though they were currently stopped. They now completely covered her spine, her ribs, most of her skeleton really.

“What in Celestia’s name happened?!” He asked, quickly rushing over to do more scans. He felt the tumors siphoning the magic, then, and mild understanding washed over him.

“When she woke up, they started draining her again. She was about to pass out so I started sharing my energy with her, and it just made it start growing so quickly… I finally figured out the flow to keep it healthy, though…” Twilight explained, almost in a whisper, as she levitated the tray of food onto the little sliding table on the bed and put the water up to Vinyl’s face. The Mare was starting to stir again.

“Ok, there’s some freaky shit going on… Please tell me you know what’s up with me, Twi?” The Unicorn barely rasped out. She greedily tore the glass of water from Twilight’s magical grasp, though that would normally be impossible. Twilight hadn’t even transfered it over to Vinyl’s control, it was almost like she hijacked her magic. She smiled, though, it wasn’t a hijacking of it. Their resonance was strong and so her signature immediately recognized it as its other half.

“Damn that hit the spot. I’m gonna need like twelve more glasses of that shit.” Vinyl said, her voice much stronger now.

“Doctor, how long does recovery from Arcane Exhaustion take?” Twilight asked. The doctor took a moment to respond, but he shook himself out of his confusion to answer.

“That depends on the pony. As soon as their reserves are at a healthy level again they’re usually good to go, though I’d like to keep her here for more tests…” He started, but tapered off as Twilight helped Vinyl with her food and finally help the mare to get out of the bed. She tested her legs a bit and tested her magic a few times.

“I dunno about you, but I think I’m pretty good now. I feel better than I have in a while to be honest.” The Mare in question said with a snarky grin.

“Don’t worry, Doctor… If Celestia said she should come home then I’m not going to ignore the advice. She knows something about this, so whatever it is it can’t be that bad. I’ll take good care of her.” Twilight said with a soft smile. Vinyl blinked at her, the Princess was here to check her out? The Doctor looked very conflicted. Technically he had authority over her as a medical professional since she wasn’t a princess anymore, but she did have a point. It was technically Celestia’s authority she wielded, and the only one that had more than that on this subject was her private physician. He was certainly not her.

“Very well, just don’t hesitate to bring her back, and document any changes and findings. If this happens to someone else I’d like to know how to treat it.” He finally resigned. Twilight gave him a respectful nod and motioned for Vinyl to lead the way out. She signed a few things at the front desk and they trotted out into the snow that had since fallen.

“So… why are our magic pools linked again?” Vinyl asked as they walked. Twilight’s smile fell. She slowly explained what was going on. Vinyl froze and just stared at Twilight a moment when she told her how far is spread. She then looked down at a forehoof.

“So… whatever the hell is happening to me… it’s spreading?” Vinyl asked. Twilight sighed and started walking again, Vinyl quickly following.

“Spread, the only thing it hasn’t hit yet are your hooves. Celestia seemed like she wasn’t concerned about it, though, which is the only reason I’m taking you home now instead of forcing that doctor to hook you up to every machine they have.” Twilight replied, her voice wavering slightly at the end. Vinyl responded by walking closer, close enough for the Alicorn to quickly throw a wing around her without their steps faltering.

“Fair. I suppose I’ll have to go with you to Ponyville tomorrow since we gotta stick close or I’ll start draining again. We’ll just have to stop by the club in the morning and let them all know, Stiff Drink can hold down the fort forever if he wanted to.” The Unicorn said after a moment of reveling in the warmth of the other mare. Twilight didn’t respond, instead she just held Vinyl a little closer as they reached the apartment building.

She led Vinyl to the bed to get some rest while she fished out a few bottles of water and juice from the fridge to infuse with some arcane energy for later. The process took a good ten minutes so she was a little disappointed to see Vinyl wide awake, staring at the doorway.

“What? Girl you know I’m not going to be able to sleep with all of this going on without you to calm my mind. I already got enough crazy shit going on in my head, I don’t need nightmares to add to it.” Vinyl said. Concern adorned Twilight’s face as she walked up.

“What kind of crazy shit? And if you’re having trouble with nightmares I can ask Luna to watch over your dreams for you.” The Alicorn asked. Vinyl snickered.

“I have an overactive imagination, and all the stress and confusion adds up. But I won’t NEED Luna to watch over my dreams if you get that fine flank over here. I’m the patient, and I request the finest cuddle buddy in Equestria.” The Unicorn retorted. Twilight snorted indignantly, but the blush betrayed her. Vinyl stuck her tongue out, which Twilight replied to with a roll of the eyes before crawling into the bed beside her.

“See? Right as rain.” The Unicorn said with a grin before quickly kissing Twilight as they wrapped themselves with each other. This was the first time they’d shared a bed since that first night ,and it was certainly the first time they’ve done it sober. Twilight had to agree though, she felt all of her fears and concerns and even most of her stress melt away. That last one was a major point, since when she gets going she gets incredibly high strung. Recent events hadn’t helped either, Celestia’s actions were the only thing that kept her from having a complete breakdown. Maybe even a meltdown.

“Stop, you’re thinking about stressful things again. I can feel it in your signature. Just relax, it’s easy. Just find a comfortable spot to nuzzle in…” Vinyl started, doing so as she said it. “... take in a big whiff of your scent, and let the soothing warm do its thing.” She continued. Twilight hummed softly before kissing the Unicorn on the head before finding a comfortable position to rest in. She took in a deep breath and found Vinyl’s unique scent pleasant and soothing. They both still felt their resonance, but now it was a soothing hum. Like the beat of a gently rolling song- like a remixed lullabye. They both let sleep take them quickly, lulled by the harmony between them.

Author's Note

I'm on a roll today, got this one out in one go. Hope you enjoy, my friends.