"Do you ever have that thing happen where you really love a song and you're listening to it, usually in the morning, and you want to show it to someone else and communicate how important it is to you, but even if they listen to it or watch the video or whatever, and even if they like the song, you can tell there's no way they connected with it as much as you did?" Baudy asked.

The dark-green unicorn lying beside her on the bed shrugged.

"No, not really."

"It happens to me all the time," Baudy said. She sat up at the head of the bed, then picked up her laptop and placed it on her lap. Go figure. "Can I show you what I'm talking about? There's this one song with this one video that I feel like is special, just perfect or spiritual or something... will you watch it with me?"

"I'm not really in the mood to get up, to be totally honest—"

"Aw, come on! I let you cum in my ass twice, the least you could do is watch a video—"

"I paid for both times, actually, so right now I think I'm just gonna lie here and relax until I'm hard again, then we can go one more round (which I also paid for, if I recall), and I'll take off. How about that?"

Baudy frowned. The lights on her modem were flickering a mix of orange and red. Yes, just like that one movie with that guy from space who has a light-bulb on his head that lights up when he's angry. It's a useful narrative device to—

Okay, sorry.

"Alright, fine. How about I bring the video over to you, and I'll give you half-off the next time you wanna do it raw in my ass?"

"Three-quarters," the pony said, rolling his head lazily onto his outstretched hoof.

"Sixty-forty?"

"Deal."

Baudy dragged the laptop to the other end of the bed and curled up behind the green pony, who had picked up and lit a cigarette and was taking the first drag. Baudy eyed him with an eyebrow raised.

"My chassis doesn't like smoke," she said, frowning. "It leaves stains."

"I'll be sure not to blow any smoke directly on your pussy then."

"It's a modem, not a pussy," Baudy said huffily.

"Are you gonna play the video?"

Baudy sighed. Today she was not in very good control of her sim-self. She'd been making poor decisions all day, and her happiness meter was at an all time low.

Maybe the video would help.

"The first thing is that the band is called Lightning Colt. Lightning Colt. Can you believe it?"

"What's so hard to believe about that?" The unicorn blew out a puff of smoke towards the ceiling, but half of it branched off and floated over Baudy's face.

She squinted into the cloud and wafted it away with a hoof, nose wrinkled.

"It's a pun," she said glumly. "And it's just... a 'Lightning Bolt' and 'Lightning Bolt Elemental' were cards in a game I played when I was really little. It's like... they're the embodiment of that energy. Just listen."

"I thought I had to watch too?"

"That's what I meant. Sorry."

Baudy pressed play on the video.

"Okay," she said, before even a second had passed on the play bar. "Before it even starts... they're playing in a church. How funny is that?"

"What's a church?"

"It's like a place where ponies go to talk about Princess Celestia. And sing about her. And worship her, I guess. Maybe."

"So why is that funny?"

Baudy sighed again.

"Nevermind. I'll try to remember to talk less."

She pressed play again.

"The pony on the drums is named Chippy," she said. "Well, his real name is 'Chipped Hoof', and the other pony's name is 'Golden Hoof', so I call that one 'Chippy' and that one 'Goldy'." Baudy smiled for the first time since bringing up the subject of the video. She also remembered to try and talk less.

"Look how he drops his stick right at the beginning," she said.

The pony playing drums in the video did, indeed, drop his stick. Just one. And he kept playing.

"Look how he's reaching out his hoof. He doesn't have a horn. So he can't magic it back up. But he's doing it anyway," Baudy said. She pointed to the screen, even though she was describing just what was happening plain-as-day on the video in front of her. The angle was a bit cramped, admittedly, but it felt a little like narrating a play where the actors are already giving monologues explaining their motivations and weaknesses. A bit like real life in Equestria, then.

"And then that little unicorn colt behind him helps him pick it up," she said quietly, almost just to herself. "And he looks at his friend after a few seconds like, 'What? Did that just actually happen?' Oh my gosh I bet he was so excited then. I bet his freaking head almost exploded."

The green unicorn yawned between drags of his cigarette.

"Is this a long video?" he asked.

"About seven minutes," Baudy said, glancing at the timer.

"You'd better be really enthusiastic next time," he said. "And available soon. I had to wait three weeks to get an appointment with you."

"What can I say? My schedule just filled up all of a sudden."

Baudy was quiet and watched the video for a bit.

Still mostly mute, under her breath, she sang along to the song without words.

She tensed in the moment of silence at about a minute.

"Oh," she said. She clutched to the green unicorn from behind and propped her head up, resting her chin on his shoulder. "This is my favorite part, maybe. Listen."

"I'm listening."

Baudy waited.

'This is good,' she repeated to herself, in sync with the video.

'YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—'

Baudy shivered.

"It gives me chills," she said, wrapping her hind-legs around the unicorn's stomach.

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't know."

The music exploded out of the tinny laptop speakers uninterrupted for a while. Describing it was like trying to put a moving painting of a thunderstorm in a bottle. Telling you what it sounded like would be giving gum to a blind person to explain colours. Look with your face. Experience with your experience-machine.

"I have that band tee," Baudy whispered.

"Wanna wear it next time we fuck?"

"No thanks. I'd rather not get it dirty."

"Alright, fine."

Camera shaking conveys motion. You can feel the audience head-bang as the video bobs up and down. Or you just get disoriented and wonder what the hell kind of sonic disturbance you've accidentally allowed to possess your computer for a duration.

'It looks like something special,' Baudy thought. 'Maybe that's what the word 'religious' is supposed to mean?'

The song is called 'Dracula Mountain'. It might mean something, or it might just be some funny words next to each other.

Take yourself to a place. Put yourself in a destination and sit there. Observe what is around you, write it down, and then show it to someone else.

Congratulations. You have been alive for at least this long.

The way he changes the cymbal chokes makes me a little wet, Baudy said in her head. Greeny over here didn't deserve the full dialogue.

"Is this almost over? I've got a half-chub and if you can work your mouth, I'm pretty sure we can finish up business in about ten minutes or so. Then I've gotta get back to work. I'm technically on the clock for another three hours."

"I guess nopony missed you so far," Baudy said, her voice low and bitter.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing," she said sweetly. She batted her eyelashes and snuggled against the unicorn, which seemed to melt away the hint of suspicion.

"Almost over," Baudy said to him. The timer on the video was indeed creeping towards its predestined conclusion. Don't go getting existential about video timers on us here, old bean.

I've never seen somepony explode like that before.

You can do a lot with your body.

Why are we lying here doing anything other than making music?

Because making music costs a lot of money. And you're poor. And horny.

I'm only a little horny.

Get those bitties. Dolla dolla bits, y'all. Bits rule everything around me, B.R.E.A.M.—

Alright. I'm stopping you before you butcher that one any further.

"Let's go," Baudy said, jumping up on the bed and tucking her laptop shut. "You said ten minutes?" She wiggled her butt, the lights of her modem dancing in a suggestive pattern. "I bet I can do it in five."

Turned out she was quite generously over-estimating in this case.

Author's Note

sorry for how self-indulgent this chapter is. but then again, isn't the whole story more or less that?

lightning bolt rules