The Kings of Clopton

"Traz! Traz! What's wrong!?" Bellowed Ulfric, while he would never let on in a million years, he loved Shock and Traz like brothers, and seeing Traz is so much pain brought out his big brother personality. He refused to let anyone besides Shock get within a few feet of Traz without shooing them off. Traz, however, didn't seem to hear. All that he could think about was Lightning, and how it was his fault that she had died. If he had left quicker, he might have been able to save her. Eventually, Traz did manage to calm down, and opened his eyes. Both Shock and Ulfric had seen this look, only once before, the night that Lightning had been killed. While reluctant, Traz shared the story with them when they had been about 2 days into their trip.

"She... She's gone guys... gone... and it's all my fault... if only I was faster..." Traz said, continuously scolding himself for his past failures. What Shock did next surprised both of them, as it was one of the few times Shock was ever serious.

"Traz. It's NOT your fault. I understand why you think so, but would Lightning want you to act like this? Would she want you to be burdened for the rest of your life? You have us, Traz. And we won't be letting go anytime soon." This stunned Traz and he immediately stopped crying, and brought in his two "brothers" for a hug. Deep down he knew Shock was right, he still had his best friends, and it was all going to turn out OK in the end.

"Ttraz? I'm sorry that I surprised you so bad.... I didn't mean too... I'll leave if you want..." Said a voice above the crowd. Turning, the group saw who they knew as Pinkie, with her mane seemingly deflated and with tears flowing out of her eyes. Traz sniffed one last time, and got himself up.

"No, Pinkie, I'm sorry, but for some reason that introduction just brought out some bad... memories, if anypony's to blame, it's me. Can you forgive me?" At this, the pink mare's mane bounced back up, and she rushed at super-sonic speeds towards Traz, effectively glomping him and squeezing the life from him.

"Yay! When I saw you crying I was like oh no, he hates me now and now he won't wanna be my friend but then when you said that you didn't hate me and that you wanted me to forgive you I was so happy and now I'm hugging you and we can be friends!" Pinkie said, so fast that they could barely get word of what she was really saying. But Traz seemed to understand, or at least he did, seeing as his face was beginning to be purple from the lack of air in his lungs.

"Ppinkie... please let go... can't... breath..." Traz choked out, almost blacking out. Pinkie released him from her death-grip, still beaming at him.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you guys!" Pinkie burst out, jumping around like nopony should be able too.

"Well, thanks I guess, got any drinks?" Shock said, already wanting to get hammered after listening to Pinkie for less than a minute.

"Shock! Sorry Pinkie, he has a personality you just gotta get used too." Ulfric said, still glaring at Shock for his outburst.

"Oh! It's no problem! I'm just so happy you all want to stay for the party!" Pinkie continued her bounce around the bakery, seemingly effortless.

"Well, thanks Pinkie, but how are we gonna get this party started? Seems a bit awkward now..." Traz said, looking apologetically towards Pinkie, realizing the awkwardness in the air had been caused by him.

"Oh! I know! Vinyl! Let's get these ponies partying!" Pinkie yelled out to a mare that had an electric blue mane, who was currently stationed at a DJ table. She nodded enthusiastically and immediately began to play ear shattering music through the speakers. The music was good, and the ponies began to party, but they still decided to keep a certain distance from the group, as not only did Traz's outburst left many ponies edging away from them, but Ulfric had been quite forceful in keeping ponies away from Traz while he was sobbing, which made several of them scared of him.

Ulfric got an idea, and smiled towards his two friends. "Ya'll remember when we used to DJ at those clubs before we got replaced by some official DJ?" Catching on to what he was implying, the other two stallions smiled and they made their way to the DJ table. Ulfric whispered something into Vinyl's ear, and she smiled.

"Sure dude! Go for it!" And with that, Vinyl stepped down from the table, allowing the stallions to take their places. They stopped the music, and many ponies angrily looked up to the stage, expecting to see Vinyl screwing up somehow, but instead saw the three stallions readying themselves. Ulfric took a microphone and yelled,

"Ya'll ready for DJ $h4dow?"

At this, Shock managed to configure one of the lights to fire Ulfric's custom logo, with the S being replaced by the Equestrian currency figure, and the a being replaced by a 4. While at first the ponies were hesitant, seeing how quickly they managed to set this display up probably meant they knew what they were doing, and some even starting cheering. Ulfric smiled and turned to Shock and Traz, nodding his head as they went to work uploading their custom song. Surprisingly, they had managed to save the beats on a custom disk they had made, and Ulfric had never forgotten the lyrics. They had invented the song when they were on better times, and were on a visit to Canterlot. During their stay, apparently some evil entity called Discord had caused chaos throughout many Equestrian cities, including Canterlot, and it had inspired them to make this song.

When the music hit, the ponies ear's confirmed their suspicions. They KNEW what they were doing, already the few first seconds of beats had acquired their attention, and it even got better when Ulfric began to sing the lyrics.

I'm not a fan of puppeteers, but I've a nagging fear, someone else is pulling at the strings. Something terrible is going down, through the entire town, wreaking anarchy and all it brings. I can't sit idly, no, I can't move at all, I curse the name, the one behind it all...

Discord, I'm howlin' at the moon. And sleepin' in the middle of a summer afternoon. Discord, whatever did we do, to make you take our world away? Discord, are we your prey alone, or are we just a stepping stone for taking back the throne? Discord, we won't take it anymore. So take your tyranny away!

The ponies began to dance wildly, loving every second of the song, and the songs that came afterwords. Hours into the night, they finally called it a night, allowing Vinyl to retake her position, albeit not without much praise on how good they were from her. They dispersed, some going into the crowd, but Ulfric decided to go to the counter, because that's where drinks were being served. Upon sitting down, he called over to the "Bartender" who really just turned out to be the owner of the establishment from what Ulfric cared upon hearing. He ordered his favorite, a good old-fashioned Whiskey, and chugged it down when it arrived with gusto, ordering another. Before it arrived, however, he noticed a grey coated mare with dark grey mane take a seat next to him. He took in her features, and had to admit, she was quite a mare. Beautiful purple eyes, with a music related cutie mark. She looked a bit too refined to be in a place like this, but Ulfric wasn't one to complain.

"Hmm. You don't seem to be a bit too refined for this place, don'tcha think?" Ulfric asked, bringing his full attention to her. She turned towards him, smiling slightly.

"Maybe, but Vinyl usually gets me to go to these things. I do have to admit though, it was worth it to hear your music, even if it's not my cup of tea, I must admit it was quite excellent." The mare responded, ordering a drink of her own. Ulfric grinned a little at this.

"May I ask your name, Miss?" Ulfric inquired, wanting to learn a bit more about this mare.

"I'm Octavia, and you would be?"

"I'm Ulfric Stronghoof, pleasure to meet you."

"Please, the pleasure is mine. So, new to Ponyville I see. Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Quite, even though recently we have had our ups and downs, including the incident with Traz back there." Ulfric, while slightly saddened by this, didn't allow it to change his expression much. But Octavia was a mare of perfection, and she noticed even the small movement in his face.

"Is there something you want to talk about?" Octavia asked, the concern she had now visibly apparent.

"Why do you even care?" Ulfric snapped at her, and she recoiled properly, hurt now evident in her face.

"Because... Your hurting.. and that's not something anypony should have to bear with." Ulfric actually listened to her this time, but shed a tear. Octavia, thinking she had done something wrong, apologized before being silenced by a hoof.

"No, no, I appreciate the thought. It's just been so long since someone's actually cared about my well-being. You get used to hostilities when you live in Clopton..." Octavia immediately understood, she had heard of how bad Clopton really was.

"But I'm not ready to talk about what we went through, it's pretty personal. Thank you for your concern though Octavia." Ulfric felt something in his chest... what was that feeling again? He finally realized it after some debating, his face going pale. He was becoming actually attracted to this Octavia. He hadn't been in a relationship for years, and they always ended in pain. He only looked around for a good buck once and a while, not a relationship. He never asked for this. When he was about to make up some excuse to leave, but he was stopped when Octavia spoke up again.

"You know, you seem like a decent Stallion..... I've always carried one of these around with me on Hearts and Hooves day..." Octavia began to blush seriously, and pulled out a card of some sorts, and handed it to Ulfric. He opened it, and even gasped when he saw what the card implied.

"Octavia... are you asking me to be.." He was cut off short as a pair of lips found their way to his. He looked at Octavia, and took in the full beauty of the mare he was with. She was an elegant creature, and he laughed internally at how lucky he was to have her. He closed his eyes and returned the kiss with passion, their tongues intertwining and playfully fighting each other for dominance.

"Things are gonna be alright..." Ulfric thought, as he let himself be engulfed by the mare he now knew as Octavia. Right now, there was only them, and they were going to enjoy every second they spent in that kiss.