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

“Mares and Gentlecolts. The train will be arriving at Manehattan Central Station in five minutes. If this is your stop, please collect your baggage now, so you are adequately prepared to exit the train.” A voice says over the PA system on the train.

This wakes Vinyl up from her nap, moving her head off of my lap, which she was using as a pillow.

“Wait, we’re almost there? I have to get my bags!” Vinyl says, quickly sitting up, which gives her a blood rush, making her a bit dizzy.

“Woah, sorry, Rhythmia!” She says, using her magic to collect all of her bags. I grab my bag, too, and by the time that is all said and done, the train pulls into Manehattan Central Station.

“We have now arrived at Manehattan Central Station. Thank you for riding Equestrian Rails, and have a great day!” The PA said as we both stepped onto the platform, as the train departed behind us.

“Well, we’re here, Rhythmia! What do you think of Manehattan?” Vinyl says, pointing at all the skyscrapers.

To be honest, it reminds me a bit of New York City, and I don’t mean with the name of the city. It’s organized like a grid, there is a good flow of pedestrian traffic, and ponies are going about their lives, just like in any other major metropolis. The two of us walk past the station, and I follow Vinyl since she seems to know where we are going more than me.

“Our hotel is a few more blocks away. I got us the penthouse!” Vinyl says, chuckling with glee. I guess dating a pony celebrity comes with its perks!

“The penthouse?!? Nice!” I say, giving my marefriend a high five. When Vinyl is right, she is right. The hotel was a few blocks away, and we checked in.

“Lucky you, Rhythmia. You don’t need the elevator. Just fly up to the top!” Vinyl says half-jokingly, before realizing that I took what she said literally, and flew to the top of the hotel to drop off my bags.

“Damn it, Rhythmia! I was being sarcastic!” She yells from the bottom. It’s a good thing I have good hearing, or I would have missed that completely. I am like what? 250 feet up? Regardless, I made sure to fly back down to make sure Vinyl wasn’t waiting by herself the whole time.

“I just wanted to drop off my bags so I can help you with yours,” I say, trying to act chivalrous.
“Aww, how cute! It’s a shame that this mare can carry her own stuff!” Vinyl says, using her magic to carry her bags to the elevator, and pressed the button for the penthouse.

“We gotta drop off our clothes and make it to the Princess Luna Amphitheatre posthaste!” Vinyl says, beckoning me to join her in the elevator. I guess pony elevators use some kind of magic since we made it up to the penthouse in less than thirty seconds. The doors opened, and I saw one of the nicest rooms I have ever seen in my life; both on Earth and Equestria. It had every possible amenity imaginable, from food and drink, to the pegasus wind tunnel, and even bottomless cider.

“Don’t you DARE go for the cider before the concert, Rhythmia! It’s 2:45 pm, way too early to drink, man!” Vinyl says with a smile. I wasn’t even going to open the cider until after the concert, but whatever.

“Curtain opens at 9 pm. We have six hours to kill. Want to go sightseeing before we set up?” Vinyl says, making sure that all of her music equipment is properly stored for the concert.

“Yeah. I just need to upload the MIDI data to your workstation, since I assume you will be manning, wait, pony-ing, the DAW.” I say, grabbing my DAW from my suitcase and sending the data to Vinyl’s. “This has all the right equations and stuff for the Bass Booster, so we are gonna be fine!” I say as Vinyl uses her magic to summon a map of Manehattan.
“Well, Manehattan has that pizza joint I told you about, and the Museum of Equestrian History, and bowling!

Bowling? I haven’t gone bowling in ages! Do you think Vinyl would care if we went bowling?

“I haven’t been bowling in years. Sounds like fun, no?” I jest, to which Vinyl nods in agreement. “I was actually thinking the exact same thing. A game of bowling is like what, an hour? We can go there, come back, and then bring all of our stuff to the ampitheatre for the concert!” Vinyl says with enthusiasm. I wonder how exactly ponies bowled without fingers? Time to find out.

“So where is the bowling alley?” I ask Vinyl, who just looks at the map and says “Three and a half blocks east of here. It’s quite easy to see, just look for the bowling ball logo on the building!” Vinyl says, going back to the elevator of the penthouse and going down to the ground floor.

“Ah, screw it, if I don’t fly, I’ll lose it!” I think to myself as I launch myself out the window of the penthouse and glide down majestically to the ground floor, where I spend a minute or two waiting for my marefriend to exit the elevator and the lobby.

“Lead the way, Scratchie!” I say as Vinyl begins to walk in the direction of the bowling alley. I don’t know where anything is, so I blindly follow her along the cobblestone paths of Manehattan. Within five minutes or so, we see a building that says “Manehattan Bowling Alley.” I open the door, and I see dozens of ponies bowling. What’s weird is that the way ponies bowl is identical to how humans bowl on Earth, with ten pins. It must be a coincidence, right?

“Hello, everypony. How many games do you want to play, and what size are your hooves?” The purple earth pony with a bowling ball cutie mark asks us as we enter the alley.

“One game, I’m a mare’s 7” Vinyl says, as the pony behind the counter looks for the appropriate pair of footwear.

What should I say? I am a men’s 8 back on Earth. Does that translate to stallion’s 8? Let’s see!

“Stallion’s 8, please!” I say as she goes and looks for an appropriate pair of footwear.

“Alright, that will be 25 bits!” The bowling pony says as Vinyl takes out a card from her shirt pocket.

“Ah, you're using Platinum Points! Nice!” The mare says, scanning the card and handing it back to Vinyl.

“Premium status pays off!” Vinyl whispers in my ear as we take our shoes and go to the first available lane, that being lane #4.

We see a magical screen above us, with “PLAYER 1” and “PLAYER 2” showing our respective points once we start scoring.

“Mare’s first!” I say, being the stallion that I am. Vinyl puts on her shoes and bowls an 8-2 split!

“Ah, dang it! I hate it when that happens!” Vinyl says, waiting for the cyan ball she picked to come back to her.

“You know, it is possible to get a spare with an 8-2 split, but it is very hard, BUT it’s possible,” I say, trying to reassure Vinyl that it could still happen.

“Yeah, I know, I probably won’t get it, though.” She says on her second turn of the frame. She was correct, getting the right pin.

“Alright, your turn!” Vinyl says, using her magic to hand me a cobalt blue bowling ball. I am honestly not that good at bowling, and I would be surprised if I didn’t send my ball in the gutter.

“Here goes nothing!” I think to myself as I send the ball down the oily lane, and I get eight pins.”

“Hmph, not bad, not bad at all!” Vinyl says as I wait for the ball to return. I am incredibly unlucky since it looks like one pin is left, but there is another pin hiding behind it. I try again, and much to my dismay, I only get one pin, leaving a pin left at the lane, taunting me.

“HAHAHAHAHA! YOU SUCK!” Vinyl says in her typically dry fashion.
The game went on for a while, and Vinyl ended up beating me by three points. 100 to 97.

“Not bad, Rhythmia. I take it you haven’t been bowling that much? It’s okay, neither have I.” She says as we return our shoes to the bowling pony and make our way back to the hotel.

“Now, it’s 4:30, so we need to get our flanks over to the Princess Luna Amphitheatre and set up for the show! Vinyl says with urgency.

“Uhh, where IS this amphitheatre?” I ask, to which Vinyl replies by pointing to the giant statue of Princess Luna in the horizon.

“It’s over there, dingus! I had the bellhop send our equipment over, so we just need to plug everything in, and set up the bass booster just in case things hit the fan, ya know?” Vinyl says.

“Meet you there!” I say, launching myself towards the amphitheatre, making a Sonic Crescendo, playing a very pleasant melody as I fly at breakneck speeds towards our concert hall.

“SHOWOFF!” Vinyl yells as she teleports herself to the amphitheatre. Dang it! She beat me, and she’s waving at me to land.

“Not so fast now, are ya, Rhythmia?” Vinyl says tauntingly, before planting a massive smooch on my lips.

“Hehehe. We need to be serious now. I have to plug stuff in!” I say, flying around, unbuckling all the containers, and making sure all the lights, cables, and equipment are adequately set up for the show. By the time that is all said and done, it is 7:15 pm, and we are both a bit tired.

“How about we order a pizza here and have a light dinner before the show?” Vinyl asks me rhetorically, knowing full well I am always in the mood for pizza.

“Uh, of course, I want pizza!” I say as Vinyl uses whatever kind of magic she needs to place an order with Margarita the Pizza Pegasus.

“It’ll be here in 20 minutes or so. What do you say we practice a bit before the food gets here?” Vinyl says, teleporting me to my drum kit.

“With pleasure, my lady!” I say with a grin, as Vinyl teleports herself to her DJ table, and we begin to practice.

I hope we do well tonight! It’s the real deal!