Weddings and Trials

Bryan and I merrily made our way from the boutique down to Ponyville Marketplace. It was still busy at this time, but dying down as the trading day was coming to a close. Everything seemed a little different from when I was last here as I was having trouble remembering my way around. Every now and again I would see something familiar and I would be reminded of where I was, so I never got lost. After quite a long walk, we arrived at the liquor store and made our way inside.

We were greeted by the elder pony that ran the shop, and we began browsing the shelves for something that took our fancy. I immediately chose a bottle of punch, levitating it to the counter, and picked up Robbie’s Applejack Daniels. Bryan was taking his time browsing beer, deciding whether to go for quality, or quantity. He eventually settled on quality and struggled with a large amount of beers to the counter. Robbie had given us just enough to make all of the purchases and we were soon making our way back to the cottage to get ready for the night.

The bath seemed to take forever to fill up. I impatiently trotted circles in the bathroom, trying to pass the time. Eventually, after becoming impatient with the speed of the water, I just jumped in. It was getting close to when Robbie was supposed to arrive for pre-drinks and I still wasn’t ready, although the farce of Bryan and I trying to cook some dinner hadn’t exactly helped. The kitchen was now a complete state, with the stove caked in pasta sauce, and all of the vegetables were still lying out on the side. I sighed, but decided to leave that until tomorrow to clean up. I liked to work through a hangover, instead of just sitting around feeling awful.

A knock at the door informed me of Robbie’s arrival, so I quickly hopped out of the tub and dried myself off. Making my way downstairs, I could see that Bryan had cracked open his beers, and Robbie was now nursing a glass of whiskey. I joined them, helping myself to one of Bryan’s beers, before being bombarded with objections from the green Pegasus. The night was off to a great start, we were all exchanging light-hearted banter, downing drinks, and just having a great time in general.

The time finally arrived to make our way down to the nightclub and we stepped out into the cool evening air. The walk was brief, but after having a few drinks it felt great to get some fresh air. We arrived at the club, on time, and Robbie greeted one of the bouncers before making his way into the quiet dance hall.

“Right guys, I’m going to get myself set up, but first I’ll open a tab on the bar and you guys just put your drinks on that for the night.” He trotted away leaving Bryan and I standing rather awkwardly among the few ponies who were standing around. Surprisingly, Robbie returned a moment later, laughing to himself.

“Totally forgot guys, follow me.” A little curious, Bryan and I followed Robbie past a large bouncer, up a narrow set of stairs to a raised platform that was above the main dance floor. The floor was made of glass, and there was a bar at one end of the area.

“Welcome to the V.I.P area!” Robbie announced, as we gazed around. This area was filled with ponies, some either very good looking, or just plain rich, “I’ve opened a tab at the bar, and gave a description of your cutie marks, so when you go up to order a drink on the tab just flash your ass at them and it should all be cool.” He added, before trotting off to the backstage area.

With fresh drinks in our hooves we began to notice the main hall downstairs filling up slowly. Before long though, it was packed from wall to wall and background music began to play, although the chatting of the ponies drowned it out slightly. Bryan and I stood at the bar for this time, drinking and chatting about the bachelor party we were planning for Robbie, when the lights suddenly all dimmed until the hall was completely dark and silent. Rather clumsily we made our way closer to where the stage was, and soon enough a bright light at the back of the stage illuminated the entire hall, a rumbling bass note filling the silence. In the centre of the light, was the silhouette of a Pegasus standing, wings fully spread, enticing a large cheer from the crowds. It was then when the bass line started pumping and the lights began to flash as it got faster and faster, until eventually, they all cut off and the room was once again dipped into darkness and silence.

As suddenly as the bass line stopped, it erupted back into the room, accompanied with synth riffs and orchestral breakdowns. The ponies began to go crazy, dancing and jumping. The lights pulsed along with the rhythm of the music and lasers spun and shone into the crowds. It was exciting to say the least, my hooves began to move by themselves, and soon enough I was dancing and cheering with the rest of the crowd. Bryan had also begun to ease into the music, bobbing his head along to the beat and jumping slightly. Robbie was masterfully spinning the records, flawlessly transitioning between songs, and using his wings to assist with scratching the records.

“Alright all you crazy ponies out there!” Robbie blared through his microphone, to excite another cheer from the crowd, “I have a special guest here for tonight, we’ve worked together before and tonight only, we will be mixing our jams together! So please, stomp your hooves for, DJ PON-3!”

The crowd once again erupted in cheering and shouting as the cream unicorn flashed onto stage in a bright puff of smoke.

“Aww yeah, Ponyville! Are you ready?” she asked through the mic, the crowd now bouncing to the beat and cheering wildly, “I didn’t hear you, I said are you ready?” The crowd cheered even louder now and as the beat dropped, the club began to pound and vibrate from the music being blared, and the simultaneous hopping of the crowd. By now I had completely forgotten about drinking, the music had just taken over me and I was now a slave to the beat. I danced until my hooves hurt, and I even began dancing with a cute mare as the set was drawing to a close. Bryan had also danced most of the set away, occasionally finding a partner to dance with, but by the end he was held up at the bar drinking like a madman.

“Alright, that’s it for us tonight Ponyville! Hope to see you again soon!” Robbie announced, finally exiting the stage after playing an encore. I immediately worked my way to the bar, as music once again filled the room. Bryan and I were still full of adrenaline and our hearts were pounding after that awesome set. We excitedly spoke between ourselves, as a slightly tired Pegasus joined us at the bar.

“That was awesome man!” I almost shouted, giving him a hoof bump, and he smiled modestly. Bryan also hoof bumped him and he almost looked bashful.

“Guys, let’ go downstairs. Always good to interact with the fans after a set.” Taking his drink in hoof, we followed him down the stairs and into the crowds of ponies who were beginning to thin after the set had finished. Robbie was immediately set upon by ponies as he entered the room, greeting them all and making his way to a booth at the corner beside the bar. He ordered us a round of shots, and it was apparent that the night was just beginning.

After a while of bantering, and chatting with his fans, Robbie was approached by an earth pony. We couldn’t hear over the music, but it looked like he was arguing with him. Sensing something amiss, Bryan and I stood up and one of us flanked Robbie on either side, in case anything kicked off. Robbie was obviously very agitated, he was almost screaming at this pony, his temper obviously close to snapping. The bouncers had also noticed the exchange of harsh words, and stepped in to prevent anything happening. Robbie quickly whispered something to one of them, who nodded and proceeded to grab the colt and attempt to drag him away. The colt began to put up a struggle then, and broke loose to thump Robbie. His hit landed, and Robbie was knocked to the floor momentarily, before he jumped to his hooves and tried to charge the colt. Bryan and I quickly stepped into action and held him back, dragging him back to the booth and getting him another drink.

“What was all that about?” Bryan asked him while handing him a napkin to wipe his bloody nose on. He simply sighed, and shook his head before answering.

“Well you see, there’s this new thing going around, almost like ecstasy and cocaine, and that guy was trying to get me to take some with him. He also mentioned something about being able to see something within Bryan, and I told him to back off and take his crappy drugs elsewhere.” His voice was slightly muffled now, as he was holding the napkin over his nose, and taking sips of his drink every so often.

“He saw something in me, like what?” Bryan looked very confused across the table, and Robbie was just as clueless as he was.

“No idea, he just said that and I told him to back off, and that’s what started it all off.” He removed the napkin now that the bleeding had stopped and we began drinking again, not letting the night be hindered by that slight bump in the road. We all raised our glasses and toasted to the night ahead.

I awoke in the morning, my head was pumping and my throat felt dry and hoarse. Immediately I reached for the glass of water that was placed beside my bed, with a small note. Curious, I opened it up and found it was from Robbie, saying that he had headed out early to get home and that I would probably need this. I silently thanked him while taking large gulps from the glass, and before long I felt ready to get on with the day. I didn’t feel like having any breakfast, so I skipped the visit to the kitchen and just decided to go for a walk instead.

It was bright out, but chillier than yesterday. I decided that I would go to the park and just relax under a shady tree for a while, so I slowly walked my way to the park and collapsed under the closest tree. The fresh air felt great after being in a stuffy night club and warm bedroom all night. I don’t know how long I lay there for, my eyes were closed, it could have been hours for all I knew. I began to doze after a while, the warmth of the sun and cool breeze seemed to fit perfectly.

I awoke with a start, at a horribly familiar voice calling my name. I sat up in an instant. Standing before me was the purple unicorn I had fallen for, and had my heart broken by. Without waiting for an invite, she sat down beside me and I could feel my heart begin to quicken its pace. All the emotions from the past year flooding back to me, threatening to burst from every pore of my being. She sat silently for a moment, almost as if waiting for me to say something, but I had nothing really to say.

“Matt, you ran away before I could finish what I was saying before, and I know I’ve regretted not chasing you and finishing what I had to say. I know it was hard for you to hear, and it wasn’t exactly how I had planned for it to go.” If there was one thing I didn’t need this morning, this was it. But it didn’t look like I could just run away again, so I gritted my teeth and sat silently.

“If you had stayed around for longer, I was going to ask you if you would have considered moving to Ponyville and staying with me. But you ran away before I could get to that part. Not knowing what you would have said to that tore me apart inside. When I thought of you thinking that I had just ended it like it was nothing, but it wasn’t nothing. We had something special, and it ended so terribly, I just wish I could take it back.” She wasn’t looking at me now; her eyes were fixed on the sky, as if gazing at something very distant. I was trying my hardest to not look at her, all the nights of sleepless pain and torment from the mare that sat beside me. Somehow, though, I didn’t feel any anger towards her. I was secretly happy that she had taken the time to come and explain this to me.

It was clear that she was waiting for me to say something, but in all honesty, I had nothing. My mind was blank. I turned my head slightly, chancing a look at the mare I used to love. Her eyes had a watery look to them, as if she were about to cry, so against my better judgement I put my arm around her to comfort her slightly. This seemed to be the motivation she needed to continue.

“I rushed over to Robbie’s cottage, knowing that’s probably where you would have headed, but when I arrived he said you had already left. All of your clothes and possessions were still there which I thought was slightly odd, and I saw the device.”

My heart froze, eyes widened I stared into the sky. Had Robbie really been so careless as to leave that lying around?

“I asked him about it, and he seemed reluctant to tell me what it was for,” She continued, tears now staining her face, “but I questioned him further and he told me everything, how you’re from a different universe, the kind of lives you led back then, and I was torn. I couldn’t believe it but at the same time it did seem to make sense. You both had really odd names and accents I hadn’t heard before. He swore me to secrecy, and I agreed for Rainbow Dash’s sake.” She broke down this time, sobbing and unable to continue. So I did the only thing I could think of, I hugged her closer to me and rested my head upon hers as she sobbed into my chest.

This was so much to take in, she knew about where we came from, and she knew that I was from such a horrible place, yet she still had no trouble approaching me. Maybe she knew that we weren’t evil or bad, but we were misplaced on that planet. I let out a sigh, silently working all of this new information over in my head. Then she did the unexpected. She leaned up, and planted a firm kiss on my lips. Shocked, I pulled back slightly, but her lips stayed with mine. My whole being was screaming at me to stop, to end the kiss and tell her that I didn’t feel the same way anymore. But I didn’t, I let it happen because the truth was, I wasn’t ready to admit that to myself.

We sat there for some amount of time, talking things over. In my head, all I could think was “What if?” Eventually though it began to draw into the afternoon and we parted ways, leaving me feeling slightly happy but, at the same time, confused.

Did she still love me?