Her hooves barely lifted from the cobblestones, weighed down by both exhaustion and the bands of glowing light wrapped around them. Her glasses were barely attached to her face, wobbling slightly on her nose due to her lowered head. Each step took another small amount of energy that she didn't have, sending small electric signals of pain to her head, which was throbbing in time with her heart. Behind her she drew a large table with two heavy speakers lain on top of it.
Normally such a burden would have been trouble for a few stallions to pull, much less a mare as exhausted as she was. Fortunately, Vinyl Scratch always thought ahead when it came to partying, bringing along a few cans of pepper spray and other various unwanted-stallion-or-mare repellants. The table was enchanted with a weightlessness spell, making its normally-heavy disposition swing more towards the lighter side. Even with the spell, Vinyl struggled to pull it back home, all the while groaning and grunting with the effort
Note to self: Bring energy drinks to next rave. A particularly painful throb wracked her fatigued brain. Also some painkillers. Oh Celestia my head.. She brought a hoof up to rub at her temple, trying to use her limb's touch to somehow take away the pain. Her head shot up quickly, an action she'd soon regret. Holding a hoof to her now-spinning head, she listened intently to the night. The sound soon broke the silence again. It was a happy pony's voice, filled with sheer joy as they shouted with glee. Is that...laughter? Who'd be up at this hour? Oh wait, I am...well, that's not me is it? Oh I'm too tired for this. With a slow shake of her head, Vinyl continued her journey home, or at least she thought she was.
A few moments later, Vinyl found herself following the sound of laughter, drawn to another potential party despite her tiredness. After all, she did have a reputation to maintain as the number one "Rave Pony in Ponyville." Of course, she really was the only rave pony in Ponyville, but that didn't faze Vinyl in her quest to party with flashing lights. Soon the branches of the Ponyville library drew into focus, looming overhead as Vinyl walked with a determined air towards the door. As if she were in a trance, she pushed open the door with a hoof, slowly at first but then turning around and bucking it open. "HERE'S THE NUMBER ONE PARTY ANIMAL OF THE NIGHT! AWW YEAH IT'S PARTY TIME!"
"Did somepony say party?". A ball of pink leapt from seemingly nowhere, landing lightly on four hooves and bouncing in a circle with unmatchable excitement. "OOOH I love parties! Birthday parties and Surprise Parties and Wedding Parties and-." A purple light formed a sphere over Pinkie's mouth.
"Geez, does anypony knock around here?" A very-disgruntled Twilight Sparkle glared at the two, her eyes sparking with indignation and irritation. "Seriously, I'm just opening a package, an-."
"OOH! Isn't a package like a present? I love presents! Birthday Pre-." The sphere that had somehow been disabled earlier formed yet again over Pinkie Pie's mouth like a bear trap.
"And then two ponies burst into my house! In the middle of the night no less!" The lavender unicorn snorted angrily at the two. "So, would you kindly leave?" When they didn't move, a magical wall of force pushed them bodily away. "Now?"
"Ok ok, Twilight, we're leavin." Vinyl turned away to see Pinkie climb into one of her secret tunnels that were all under Ponyville. I have tunnels stashed all under Ponyville, the little mischievous party pony had confided to Vinyl one day, just in case of a Pinkie-Pie-Not-Being-There emergency. Shaking her head slowly, Vinyl plodded back to her cart and hitched herself to its leads. "All right, no more partying. Straight home." The laugher flowed out from inside the library, tugging at her sense of curiosity. "Oh no, not this time."
Of course, she was peeking in through one of the windows within a matter of seconds, craning her neck to get a better view. Red, blue, and green lights glowed from something in the unicorn's hoof. Aw cmon, show me what you got Twilight. The studious-librarian turned around, holding the object upwards and laughing triumphantly. Black filled her vision as she fell backwards onto the ground, the last vestiges of consciousness sinking away like water sprinkled on dry soil.
The sunlight smacked her in the face, its rays poking in through the window. She shot up from under her covers, flinging them off of her and leaping from the bed. Her sunglasses were enveloped in her blue magic, flying over to her and landing in place over her eyes, shading the whole world with a slight purple. She stomped down the stairs and ignored Octavia's groggy greeting, kicking open the door and marching off in the direction of the Ponyville Library, thoughts of what she could do with something so beautiful filling her mind.
Her hoof, still sore from the night of dancing and walking, connected with the wood of the library’s carved door and produced a hollow thunk. After a few more knocks, she backed up and sat down on the grass, staring directly at the door as if she would be able to burn it down with a stare. After the stories she had heard from some of the stallions who tried to hook up with Fluttershy at a rave (though she honestly could think of no reason as to why the timid pegasus would be at a club in the first place), she could believe something like that to be possible. She remembered how her jaw had dropped after the stallions had sprinted out of the club, screaming as if they had been pepper-sprayed.
There was no answer still, the door remained closed. She impatiently tried to wait a few more moments, but the party-intensive rave pony was hardly a patient mare. She stood up and smacked the door a few more times, turning around and bucking it once with her back legs to make completely sure that she wasn’t getting ignored. The door cracked along its boards as her hooves connected, and she smiled to herself contentedly as she sat once more onto the grass. That aughta’ do it. Sure enough, the sounds of something shifting inside the house seeped out from the cracks in the door. Here comes somepony now! Putting on her most innocent of smiles, Vinyl put on the look of a perfectly calm and patient pony who didn’t just try to buck down the door. Her grin widened mischievously as her ears picked up the faintest of grumbles coming from behind the door, whose doorknob rattled as the pony opened it.
The door slowly swung into the library, revealing a circular room lined with books of all sorts of thickness. Often she had thought about checking out a book on raves and parties, but she didn’t want to be thought of as an egghead. She practically shuddered at the thought of the rave pony reading. It was something that she just didn’t do. However, there was no pony behind the door. There was a purple-and-green, slightly disgruntled dragon.
“What is it Vinyl? You need a book on something? I never tho-.” Her hoof smacked into his mouth and cut off his next words as she hissed into his face.
“Hush! I’m not here for a book! I’m here to talk to Twilight!”
“Hmm? Wmt dm ynm-,” He shoved her hoof away and wiped his mouth. “What do you need Twilight for? A rave partner or something? I remember that she said no parties for me or her anymore.” His voice trailed off, as if he was thinking of some way to get out of the ‘no parties’ rule. “But I’m sure I could be your party partner? Would ya let me?” The childish eagerness was plain on the young dragon’s voice.
She shook her head quickly, holding up a hoof as he made to object. “I’m not here about that, I wanted to talk to Twilight about something!” She looked at him sternly, at least as sternly as you could when you were wearing dark-purple sunglasses. “Do yah know where she’s at?” The dragon huffed angrily and pointed out to the market. “Thanks. I’ll have to get back to you on that ‘party dragon’ idea. Fire sounds pretty fun actually. Dangerous…but fun.” She flashed a smile at the dragon, the dejected and angry look on the purple face changing to return the smile eagerly. “See ya around.” She turned away and galloped towards the market, seeking out any sign of the lavender mare.
