Playing With My Heart: How I Fell in Love With DJ PON 3

Am I going insane? Did my crush, Vinyl Scratch, just ask me if she wants to go out to dinner? I was literally moments away from asking her the same question. I honestly don’t know if she wants to eat out as a “date”, or professionally.

“Uh, Rhythmia. You awake or somethin’? I want to go on a date with you. I think you are cool! Besides, I am not a stupid mare, I know when a stallion looks at me in a certain way. It’s fine. I know you think I am cute.” Vinyl says, using her magic to fluff up her mane a bit.

“Well, this makes me feel stupid. I was literally about to ask you the exact same question. Besides, I think the 8 weeks we have known each other is enough grounds to ask someone out, no?” I ask, trying to cover all my bases.

Vinyl starts to laugh. “Are you serious? You were just gonna ask me the same question. Damn! I guess I am braver than you. Hah!” Vinyl says, trying to rub it in a bit more.

“Well, as you know, I am new here, and I don’t really know where the cool restaurants are in Ponyville. I mean, Cloudsdale has an awesome fish n’ chips joint, but you can’t fly…” I say, thinking about the yummy salmon that they have there.

“Yeah, I know, it sucks. I know that there is a pub in Ponyville where I got started. I am almost 100% sure we can get free grub there. They LOVE me. I mean, I did my first gig there in high school 5 years ago.” Vinyl says, handing me a card with the restaurant’s address.

“The joint is called the Hay Burger. I think you will like it!” Vinyl says, with a chuckle.

“See you at 6:30 tonight, Rhythmia. If you want, that is?” Vinyl says, putting her sunglasses on, trying to look cool.

“Yeah, yeah! I will definitely see you there. I just gotta get a few things done at home first, okay?” I ask, being honest with her. I mean, I have to do my workout and get some nice clothes. Rainbow Dash came over to my place a few days ago and installed a wind tunnel to help me with flying. Apparently, it is Cloudsdale protocol to have one, in case they ever reinstate the draft.

“Yeah, no problem, mate. I mean, I can just close up shop now. It’s 5 pm. Go do your things and meet me back at the restaurant. See you then!” Vinyl says, gathering her key office items from the shop and teleporting away, presumably to her house.

Fuck, was I really at Twilight’s office for 5 hours? Guess I spent too much time worrying. I totally lost track of time. I need to do better with that.

“Well well well, looks like you might’ve left a good impression, Rhythmia,” Octavia says, clapping slowly.

“Hey, you heard that whole thing? Not cool!” I say, getting a bit flustered.

“Well, I AM her best friend, so she would have told me anyway. Better to hear it from me than from her!” Octavia says, chuckling softly to herself. “Good luck on your date, Mr. Nice Guy!” Octavia says as we both walk out the door. I take off quickly (much better this time, wind tunnel works!) and fly towards my house in Cloudsdale.

“Holy shit! I actually got a date with Vinyl!” I think to myself. I don’t remember the last time I was this happy or excited about something. I did take a scenic route, just to make sure my flying is still up to par. Obviously, I am not a Wonderbolt tier flyer, but I want to be better than average. My dark brown mane is fluttering in the wind as I think about how exactly I am going to handle this date.

As you probably know by now, autism makes social situations rather difficult. I don’t know if ponies have the same condition, but I know for a fact that it didn’t magically disappear when I got quantum fluxed into Equestria. Do I act nice? Do I be myself? Some combination of the two? I don’t know, but anyway, as I finally make it to Cloudsdale, I am over-excited at this dating prospect. I land in front of my house and unlock the door. I don’t think my current “casual drummer” outfit will suffice for this date. I mean, I don’t know Vinyl’s tastes. I don’t think this joint is formal, but I don’t want to look like a slob! I want to look proper, but comfortable. Before I do anything, I take a quick shower. Showering as a pegasus is a bit weird since I have to clean my wings now. You’d be surprised at how much dirt and debris get caught in there while flying! Anyways, the cool water helps take my mind off the excitement. When I finish my shower, I try to look for something nice to wear. Over the two months or so that I have lived here, I have made a fair amount of money (the “quantum citizen grant” from Celestia certainly helped!). I was quite surprised that ponies made polo shirts! I quickly put one on and put on a nice pair of jeans to go with it. I quickly checked what time it was. 5:45. I have an hour and change to be at the HayBurger. I mean, I could fly to Ponyville in a good two to three minutes, and I was actually going to, had I not heard a knock on my door. I quickly ran down the stairs from my bedroom to open the door. I was a bit surprised at who was there. It was Celestia!

“Hello, Rhythmia. I never got the chance to formally meet you after your quantum event. I always try to make sure all of my citizens are at least acquainted with me once.” Celestia says, inviting herself in. “Princess Twilight wrote to me, letting me know you have been adjusting to our reality rather nicely. I am so pleased. I also hear you have a date tonight?” Celestia says, chuckling.

“Hey! Who told you that!” I say a bit defensively.

“It’s okay, Rhythmia. Twilight told me in confidence. She tells me everything. I promise not to tell anyone. I am glad to hear you might be falling in love!” Celestia says, looking around my house.

“I see you set up your place quite nicely. Lots of music paraphernalia!” Celestia says, looking at my 9 piece drum kit and DAW setup.

“Yeah, it’s my thing. I mean, I AM going out with Vinyl Scratch in like an hour, so I have to get going, no offense, of course!” I say, trying my best to be respectful.

“No, I get it. I came here to introduce myself, and to give you another welcome stipend. I have 10,000 bits here for you, as an apology for any of the experiments my people have done causing the string event at CERN. I think that is enough for 6 months, and besides, I hear you have a job now. You should be covered. I must be going. Bye!” Celestia says, using her magic to write a check for 10,000 bits, and taping it on my door. No one would even think about stealing it, since it has Celestia’s royal seal. She quickly flies away, presumably to Canterlot.

Well, that was weird, to say the least. I check my watch. It is 6:00 pm. I have half an hour to be at the HayBurger. I made sure that I grabbed my key in the house, and locked all my doors. I take a deep breath, and take off, hovering over my house for a minute, making sure I actually didn’t forget anything. I didn’t so I zoom off to the HayBurger. I have this feeling that I have never flown faster in my life, and the other pegasi flying in my area were quite impressed.

“Shit, is that guy gonna break the sound barrier?” One pegasus says to her friend.

When I heard that, I saw that there was an aircone forming around my body. Should I try breaching Mach 1, or not? I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself in Ponyville. I slowed down a bit, descending in altitude, trying to remember where exactly this restaurant was. I finally noticed it, and circled around, making sure that I wasn’t late or anything. I land in front of the restaurant and take a minute to catch my breath.

“It’s 6:20. I have 10 minutes. I hope she wasn’t messing with me when she asked to go out.” I think to myself, worried sick that I was being messed with. Thankfully, this remained nothing but baseless anxiety, as I saw Vinyl approach the pub. She looks beautiful! She even left her headphones at home this time! She is wearing this amazing violet dress which matches her cyan blue mane perfectly!

“Like what you see, Rhythmia? Rarity made it custom!” Vinyl says, opening the door of the restaurant. I quickly follow her inside and notice that the entire place quickly went silent when noticing my date.

“Woah! Is that DJ-PON-3?” I hear someone say, nudging his friend, who quickly turns around.

“Eyup! That’s her.” The stallion says. Is that Big Mac? Enough time for questioning. I follow Vinyl to a booth and sit down.

“If I was you, Rhythmia, I would order the house special with a cider. It is amazing!” Vinyl says, doodling on a napkin while she is waiting for a waiter to come to take our order.

Finally, someone did come. “Alright, everyone. What would you like to eat?” The waitress says.

“I would like the house special with a side of fries and a cider!” I say as the waitress writes down my order.

“I’ll have what he’s having!” Vinyl says.

“Is that all?” The waitress says. We both nod, and she walks away to place our order.

“So. Have you gotten used to using StableBand?” Vinyl asks me. Smart move on her part, keeping everything professional.

“Yeah. It is quite similar to the DAW I used back home. The best part is, it has a MIDI in-out, so I can record what I want and digitally transcribe it to the software. It’s great!” I say.

“Yeah, I know. It’s even cooler when you do remixes with it, but then again, I am biased. I could teach you one time.” Vinyl says, excited.

Woah, that was fast! Our food came really quickly! I eat my meal slowly, trying not to snarf down my food. Vinyl, on the other hand, is eating really quickly, gobbling down her meal with little to no hesitancy.

“I wonder if this cider is any good?” I ask Vinyl, who at least uses a napkin to clean up after.

“Yeah! It’s great. 25% v/v. Don’t drink too much quickly! Vinyl says, using her magic to open the cap of the bottle. It takes me a bit longer to open the bottle, since I have no telekinesis or anything, and my fine motor skills aren’t that great.

“Cheers, Rhythmia!” Vinyl says, clicking her bottle with mine. We both drink our ciders. I find it to be refreshing, but I wasn’t anticipating the fizz.

“Ack! I wasn’t expecting the carbonation!” I say, coughing a bit. I don’t have an issue with carbonated drinks, but I didn’t see the fizz when I opened the bottle, so my taste buds didn’t expect it.

“Don’t be such a baby!” Vinyl says, stealing one of my fries with a smile.

She’s right. Now that I know what to expect, I can finish the cider without any weird stuff happening. She was also right that the alcohol hits rather quickly.

“Is it safe to fly after one cider?” I say my speech is a bit garbled.

“A lightweight, I see? How cute!” Vinyl says. “I hope you can at least pay when you are drunk!” She says giggling, pointing to the bill that just arrived at our table.

I quickly dole out the proper amount of bits, and the waiter comes back.

“Thank you for your patronage!” The waiter says, taking our bill and the money.

“You know what. Crash at my place until you are sober enough to fly home.” Vinyl says, also a bit drunk. We both get up from the booth and make our way to the exit.

“I hope your rhythm is as good in bed as it is on the drums,” Vinyl says, winking at me.

OOH BOY! I didn’t expect that comment from her. I start to laugh a bit.

“What, I am not trying to be funny or anything. Don’t be so literal!” Vinyl says, giving me a kiss on my cheek.

Best night of my life!