A Royal Wedding Band
by: James Van Sluyters
"Really Vinyl, this isn't just some social event. This is a ROYAL WEDDING," Octavia threw her hooves up emphasizing that last part, "Don't you think you should look your best?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Vinyl asked incredulously, sparing the cellist a questioning glance as she snapped the case shut on her turntables and records.
"I mean your mane. It's a mess," the grey pony pointed with her hoof at the DJ's wild cerulean hair that seemed to spike out in every direction.
"What are you talkin’ about Tavi? It looks like it always does," she defended checking her head with both hooves before shrugging. Were it any other pony, she would have told her to buzz off. Not that the party mare extraordinaire was sensitive about her looks, but that didn't mean she appreciated being scolded about it either. Only Octavia, her most special of friends, was allowed to criticize. "I'm already wearing this ridiculous get up you demanded I put on. What more do you want from me?"
Tavi covered her mouth to fight back a giggle as she looked over her clearly uncomfortable friend in the rather elegant gala dress she had picked out for her herself, "Oh don't say that. You look quite fetching, even if you refuse to take off those ever clashing sunglasses."
Scratch put a hoof to her glasses defensively like the classical mare might try to snatch them right off her face, "Hey, you remember the deal. I wear this silly outfit for you but the shades stay. Besides, I've never played a show without them. They're lucky, and if I'm playing a ‘royal wedding’, like you say, I shouldn't risk it. Am I right?"
Octavia sighed and covered her face with a hoof shaking her head, "Very well. You win. I just thought. . ." She trailed off there.
""Thought what?"
"I erm, well, it's just you have very pretty eyes Vinyl. It would be such a shame for them to be hidden on such a wonderful day," Tavi confessed stepping closer.
For once, the great DJ Pon-3 was at a loss for words. Her cheeks flushed a little and she scratched the back of her head looking at the floor, "Well. . ."
Not oblivious to her friend's vulnerable state, Octavia leaned in and wrapped her hooves around the embarrassed pony. They stayed like this for a long moment and then the grey mare pulled back now wearing the embarrassed smile. "W-what was that for?" Vinyl stuttered.
"For good luck."
"Pfft, like I've ever needed that!" the DJ announced putting on her best cocky, confident smirk.
"Well, then for my sake. It's not every day I perform for the Princesses . . . Ack!" The cellist's face suddenly went slack and wide eyed with some realization dawning on her and she turned away heading for the door quickly. "Speaking of which, the ceremony will be starting any minute! I need to go get ready and. . . ."
Cutting her off, "Aren't you forgetting something?" Vinyl asked with a grin and a cocked eyebrow as her Cello started to float up next to her, wrapped in a white magical aura.
Octavia blushed and once more rushed over to her b.f.f. and hugged her tightly rubbing her cheek against her's. "What would I do without you?"
"Heh heh, I don't know," answered the white and blue pony who hugged back and glanced around the empty ballroom with all its decorations ready to go, set up by Pinkie Pie and herself. It was just the two of them alone with no pony else to bother them, and Octavia looking quite stunning in her gala gown with her mane pulled up into a fetching and stylish bun. She almost didn't want to let go as her friend pulled away giving her another smile before taking her cello and heading for the doors on the far end of the room. "Uhh, Octavia?"
"Yes Vinyl?" Tavi gave her a curious glance back from the door.
"Break a leg out there . . . and you look really good tonight."
Tavi, started to smile but it turned into a soft high pitch “Squee” and she blushed bright red and gave the DJ, who was grinning now too with a raised eyebrow, an embarrassed smirk. “Let us pretend that didn’t just happen, shall we?”
“Consider it forgotten,” Vinyl reassured, but in the back of her mind all she could think was, ‘Not a chance!’
The grey mare paused somewhat caught off guard by her friend’s easily bought compliance. "Thanks." She then was gone out the door, hurrying to play her part in today's big event.
Vinyl stared at the door a moment then sighed and shrugged turning back to her equipment. "Well I better get this out of here and set it up before I miss the big show . . . and Tavi's playing." She smirked and her horn sparked up once more as all her gear was engulfed in the white haze and lifted into the air before heading out the opposite doors Octavia left through to the gardens and courtyard.
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"Alright. There we go," Vinyl sighed with relief as she sat back holding her headphones to her ear with one hoof and scratching a record with the other, bobbing her head to a jam only she could hear. "All done." She stopped the track and needles and powered everything down. She plucked her headphones from her head and set them down glancing around the mostly empty courtyard that would later be quite full for the reception party.
She wondered for a moment what the crowd would be like and how it was going to be the biggest show she'd ever played and whether or not these sophisticated ponies would approve of what she played, but then she shook those pesky thoughts away. "What am I saying?" she laughed it off, "Even if this is for Royalty, this is gonna be a Pinkie Pie party. Hay, the princess requested her to plan it, so they must be expecting something wild, right? Relax, everything is gonna be all good." She paused realizing she was talking to herself aloud and glanced around once again thankful she was alone.
At this point the ceremony had to be almost half over and Vinyl decided she needed to get headed over there. Leaving her gear with only one second glance to make sure it was all still there, she hurried off to try and find her way to the palace's main hall.
However, she was stopped dead in her tracks by a loud and thunderous boom emanating from within the palace. "What the hay? Was that an explosion?" she pondered a moment staring at the still closed doors. "That can't be good."
As if she had called some kind of universal bluff, there was a sudden, distinct change in the air and a strange buzzing noise crept up on the wind. It quickly amassed quite the volume, and Vinyl, in seconds, discovered it's origin looking up into the sky.
Hundreds if not thousands of what first were black specks in the cloud line were now descending upon Canterlot and the palace as well. What they were exactly, Vinyl could not make out. This was like nothing she'd ever seen before, but whatever was happening, it didn't bode well for her or anypony else.
"Tavi!" The name snapped her into a state of action as she bucked her legs against the doors, almost tearing them off their hinges, and turned to gallop inside at full speed. "I have to find Tavi!"
________________________
The main hall was in a state of disarray and confusion and panic. There was murmuring amongst some of the guests, others were quivering in a state of catatonic fear, and others had fled the ceremony entirely. An option Octavia was carefully considering at the moment. Not that this was a ceremony anymore.
What was happening here? The princess to be married was revealed to be an imposter. A monster called a changeling? What's more she single handedly sent Princess Celestia, the most powerful being in all of Equestria, to the floor in one frightening show of power. Now, there were more of them outside and coming in through the doors and windows.
'What do I do?' Octavia pondered frantically. The Princess had sent her student, Twilight Sparkle, who was accompanied by a few other ponies she had seen around Ponyville, off to undoubtedly procure some kind of contingency plan for this kind of situation. She doubted there was any way she could assist in that endeavor, nor did she believe she could help either of the now captive Princesses. So what was she left to act on? Survival seemed her only priority at this point, and for a moment she was glad Vinyl had not made it to the ceremony.
'Vinyl!' she thought in alarm. 'Oh, I hope she is alright. Maybe she saw those things in time to get somewhere safe.' The thoughts were eating away at her now, "I have to find Vinyl," she determined with a whisper.
The imposter, the so called Queen of these horrid creatures, was busy directing a few of her underlings to imprison Celestia with in some sort of cocoon. Now was her chance. Octavia, carefully doing her best to make every step more silent than the last, made her way towards the nearest door, luckily still unguarded as of yet.
The moment her first hoof was through the doorway she took off running, eyes darting about down each hall and open door she passed. "Vinyl! Oh, where could you be?"
Then, just as the words escaped her lips, there, down a corridor to her right, was Vinyl. Tavi let out an exasperated sigh of relief and trotted over to the white mare, who seemed oblivious to the situation as she stared into a mirror adorned on the wall.
"Vinyl, there you are! I'm so glad you're alright. Something rather insane has happened to the ceremony, I think we should get as far away from here as we can," she blurted out, "it's not safe and. . .Vinyl?"
Her friend was still staring in the mirror, appearing unaware of her presence at all.
Getting a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach Tavi poked her friend's side, "Vinyl? Are you alright?"
"Oh! Hey. Yeah I'm just fine. Sorry I was a little distracted," Vinyl spoke finally, turning to face Octavia. "Now, what was all that you were saying about the wedding?" She arched an eyebrow lowering her glasses by a hair or two to look her in the eyes curiously.
That hair or two, however, was more than enough to be quite revealing. Octavia felt her heart skip a beat and a sudden horrible chill ride up her spine. Slowly she backed up a pace, and then another. "You. . .You're not," she stammered.
"Hmm? I'm not what? You alright?"
"You're not Vinyl!"
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Several long and twisting smoke trails were seeping out of the bass cannon. It was spent and probably blown. Scratch sighed and patted the top of it with her hoof, "That'll do pig. That'll do." She glanced up and down the hallway filled with still dying echoes. The marble floors were cracked and paint on the walls was peeled away from several heavy bombardments of condensed sound wave.
The actual targets of her fire were mostly sprawled out on the floor now twitching and probably suffering some serious, skull-pounding headaches. Some had retreated though. Well enough, she considered as she had nothing left to throw at them but right and left hooves.
Whatever they were, they were vicious and had plenty in the way of numbers. Thinking back to what she saw descending on Canterlot outside, she was probably lucky to have lasted this long. She shook her head violently and huffed in defiance. This was no time to be thinking like that! She had to find her Octavia and quickly from the look of things.
"If they've touched one hair in her mane, I swear I'll. . ." she was cut off by a voice from behind her.
"Vinyl?" It was Tavi. She seemed unharmed though somewhat frightened. She slowly came trotting up to her.
"Octavia! Oh thank Celestia you're alright!" The DJ rushed over and embraced her friend tightly almost squeezing the life out of her with overwhelming enthusiasm. "I'm not sure what the buck is happening around here, but I'm so happy to see you. We need to get out of here! It's not safe."
"Agreed," Octavia smiled faintly, "I was so scared. I was just sure they had gotten you too." The grey mare put a hoof on Vinyl's cheek trying to look into her eyes through those purple tinted, ever mysterious sunglasses.
"It's okay babe. I won't let anything happen to you Tavi, I swear," the white mare assured her closest friend. She couldn't help but blush a little as Octavia smiled more staring right at her.
"I know, you won't, but. . ."
"But what?"
The grey mare’s caring smile turned into a malicious smirk as she pulled away the DJ's shades. "I might not be the one who needs protection." Suddenly, it wasn't Octavia standing before her any more, but one of those monsters. It pushed her violently to the floor putting the shades on and assuming a new form. Vinyl's form.
"Why you!" Vinyl growled at the imposter, scrambling back to her hooves somewhat bewildered, but not quick enough it seemed. The faker and thief had turned tail and bolted down the hall.
Scratch took off after it. She had to catch it now. One, it had her lucky shades, and no pony except the real Octavia was allowed to touch those. More importantly however was two, there was only one reason to assume her identity. To fool some pony, and there was only one pony a Vinyl disguise would be the key disguise for. "Tavi," she muttered with worry and a growing conviction as it dawned on her where her friend would be, and she picked up speed.
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Tavi stood alone in the dance hall she had shared with Vinyl only a short while ago. It seemed like such a long time now, however. So much panic and anxiety filled her every thought. The seconds felt like minutes, and every one that passed she grew more and more afraid she wouldn't find her best friend, but she had resolved to stay here for the moment. Surely, if Vinyl was searching for her she would come back to this place at some point.
"Why is this happening?" she posed to a room full of shadows and party decorations waiting for a most certainly cancelled party. As she took a seat at one of the lonely tables, a new scarier thought came to mind.
'What if it's not Vinyl who finds me?'
One of those changelings had tried to fool her in the hall before. Then a couple more on her way here. It was frightening how perfectly they acted. 'Like wolves in the wool of sheep' she thought with a shiver. Yet, luckily for her own sake, thus far they hadn't been able to get one all important detail right, and never before had Octavia been so thankful for Scratch's insistence on wearing those purple sunglasses everywhere she went.
Reflected in the super polished and shiny silverware, was not a classy, refined first cellist, but a wreck. Her mane was disheveled and undone, her gown was torn in places and she looked positively worn to the bone. She sighed, "So much for all that constructive criticism I laid on poor Vinyl. I must be one to talk."
Tavi tried to fix her mane with her hooves and restore some grace to her appearance, while her mind wandered back to her days attending Manehattan University. To rooming in the dorms with a crude and obnoxious but also genuine and compassionate mare. With Vinyl Scratch. Her brain finding, in this seemingly rather dire moment, a very precious memory of the very first time she had ever seen behind the purple shades. Those eyes that had captivated and enamored her. The eyes that seemed to put her under a dumbfounding spell every time she locked her own with them.
She was suddenly, much to her dismay, jerked out of that happy place when one set of doors began to open with a loud creaking that echoed through the hall. Octavia sank down off of her seat behind her table, peering over with her violet eyes at the light flooding into the dark room.
A head popped in around the corners of the doorway. It was Vinyl. . .maybe. "Octavia? You in here?" she called out uncertain, slowly stepping in.
"Stop right there! Don't come any closer!" Octavia ordered trying to hide her trepidation.
"There you are! I was so worried!" Vinyl elated seeming to light up and trotted closer.
"I said no further!" she demanded once more.
"What? Why?" the DJ questioned seeming confused and concerned, but at least she had followed the command. "What's wrong Octavia?"
"How do I know it's really you?" Octavia pushed on, refusing to let up on her bold front.
"Just look at me."
"That doesn't mean anything. . ."
"Well, what will?" Vinyl pressed eager to put an end to this.
Octavia pondered a moment. The flash back she'd been pulled away from once again returning to mind she pointed her hoof right at the sunglasses. "Show me your eyes! They don't know what color they really are! Show me!"
Vinyl hesitated but then with her right hoof pulled them from her face and even in what little light there was those ruby red eyes flashed so brightly. Bright and alluring as they ever had. "Satisfied?" Scratch raised a brow with her slightly chastising tone.
"Oh, Vinyl! It really is you!" She gave an exasperated sigh and rushed over to her friend her eyes spell bound to those red gems.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," the white mare stated with a cocky grin.
"I was so worried. I wasn't sure I'd ever see you again. Everything has gone utterly crazy. I'm scared, but more so I'm just so happy to see you!" the cellist embraced her friend tighter than she ever had before, then pulled back taking a long look into her eyes. "We have to lea. . ."
Cutting her off, "Shh, it's okay. Everything is gonna be just fine. I'll protect you, babe," Vinyl assured with a calm and confident grin.
________________________
"She's a changeling! She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them."
One wrong turn had found Vinyl staring done twenty some odd changelings. They had put up quite the chase, but several detours later Vinyl was sure she had lost them.
"Persistent little buggers aren't they?" she rhetorically asked herself. "Now, how lost did I get myself?" Her head turned one way and then another. It wasn't very helpful since most of these halls looked exactly the same to Vinyl. Hold that thought.
Vinyl's attention was drawn to an open pair of door at the far end of the corridor. The room was dark and she wasn't sure what she was looking at at first. Maybe balloons and party decor. She squinted her garnet eyes as she drew closer trying to make out a strange shape in the center of the shadow. Her ears twitched as whispers made their way to her eardrums. Despite all the decibels she pumped out at her shows, the DJ still had very good ears.
"Oh Vinyl, I knew you would find me," came Octavia's voice suddenly discernible.
"Tavi!" Scratch screamed out with both hope and fear rising inside her.
"Of Course," came another voice or rather her own from with in the ballroom.
The DJ growled hearing this and burst into the room. No way was she letting them get their claws (or strangely shaped hooves?) on her best friend. "TAVI!!! Get away from her!" she screamed to the cellist as she came into view.
However, Octavia may has well have been on the moon for all the good it did her. She looked as if in some kind of trance, her eyes locked with the imposter's who was stroking her mane trying to soothe her.
Vinyl felt a pit in her stomach growing. "Tavi, please, that's not me! She's an imposter. Some kind of shape shifting monster! Get away from her!" Her pleading fell on deaf ears however. The changeling spared Vinyl a momentary glance accompanied by a victorious smirk as she pulled Octavia into an embrace.
This sent the white mare through the roof. Her ruby eyes glimmered with some rageful fire from within and she charged the imposter full speed. "Get away from Tavi!!" she roared, but suddenly they weren't alone anymore. Her pursuers from before had apparently found her trail once more or perhaps had been lying in wait this whole time. They sprung from the shadows coming at Vinyl from all angles including dropping from the ceiling. It happened so suddenly, Scratch couldn't even brace herself before she was tackled and dog-piled by the horrible creatures.
"Come Tavi, let's get out of here before any of those things show up," the imposter whispered drawing the grey mare towards the door. Octavia followed without question still under the changeling's spell.
"No! You can't have her!" Vinyl cried trying to reach Tavi with an outstretched hoof from the bottom of the pile. The changelings were holding her down tight chirping like crickets and cicadas above here. She couldn't be sure, but the DJ thought this might be a form of gloating. She could barely breathe under their combined weight, and tears were escaping from her eyes now as she watched the fake Vinyl taking Octavia further and further away from her. "Please, give her back. . ." she choked.
She then shut her eyes tight, drawing deep for any shred of strength left in her body. Her heart and mind were screaming at her, telling her to get up, to save Tavi. She couldn't just watch and let it happen. She couldn't let these bucking monsters take the most important pony in her life. Her special somepony.
She drew in a deep breath, "GIVE HER BACK!!!" Her voice boomed through the hall so loud one might think Princess Luna was making an address in her royal voice. So loud that Octavia and the changeling stopped and turned to look at her in shock.
"Vinyl?" Octavia stuttered.
Seeing she'd managed to get through to Octavia was all the incentive she needed. Vinyl bucked her legs up as hard as she could and sent the changelings flying in all directions. She quickly rose to her feet and brought herself to full charge right for Octavia, a fire burning so bright in her eyes.
The imposter tried to turn Octavia away and hurry her out the door, but she wasn't fast enough. Vinyl crashed into them both sending the faker flying as she tackled the cellist.
Looking up bewildered and befuddled, Octavia stuttered out, "Vinyl? Wh-what's going on?" She felt a wet drops softly bombarding her face. Vinyl's eyes were overflowing with them. She'd never seen her friend so distraught so intensely emotional.
Vinyl smiled and tripped over her words as well, "It's me, Tavi. . .You- you're mine and I won't let anyone take you away from m-me. Got that? I'll always protect you no matter what."
"Oh, Vinyl." Octavia smiled back and wrapped her hooves around Vinyl.
"Touching," came an angry voice from behind them. When they looked the imposter was standing once more glaring. Having thrown aside the shades they could clearly see her eyes were no longer right. They were a strange insect like blue. Then the rest of her wasn't right either, and a strange black bug like pony with rotting holes in it's body stood before them.
"Back off!" ordered Vinyl putting herself between the changeling and Tavi. "We beat you and your dirty tricks. You've lost!"
"Do you really believe that?" it hissed at them. The two ponies soon became very aware that there were more of these fearsome creatures all around them, closing in for the kill. The sound of buzzing wings quickly filled the room amplified by the acoustics of the architecture. Checkmate.
Vinyl swallowed back hard, and turned to her special somepony, "Tavi, I love. . ."
Octavia silenced her with a passionate kiss and tight hug, which the DJ desperately returned. The kiss was so intense between the two mares that they drown out the world around them and couldn't even hear as the roar of the changelings baring down on them. All that mattered was eachother. They would be together til the bitter end.
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The end, however, never came. After what seemed like an eternity and a half the ponies pulled away from their powerful kiss and opened their eyes looking around. The changelings were nowhere to be found. As if they had simply vanished. As if they were only a bad dream.
"Not that I'm complaining, but what just happened?" Vinyl asked scratching her head.
"I'm not entirely sure myself," Octavia answered as she rose to her feet.
The hall was empty once more. Much like it had been before the ceremony had started. The room was dark and quiet. The tables sat waiting with balloons and decorations for a reception still.
"Maybe they realised how awesomely dangerous I am and turned tail," Vinyl boasted cracking a smirk and puffing up her chest.
Octavia giggled at this, "Perhaps. Or maybe they were just shocked to death by our intense make out session." She blushed poking Vinyl in the side.
"It was rather legendary, even for us," the DJ replied turning to her cellist. She paused as everything went dark for a moment, "whoa," but then grinned as Tavi adjusted the shades for her. "Thank you." She leaned in and rested her head on her friend's grey mane.
"I'll never ever speak ill of those sunglasses again, I swear."
"I love you, Tavi."
"I know. I love you too, Vinyl."
________________________
It wasn't until a couple days later when the two ponies would learn what really happened. How the real Princess Cadenza had reunited with her groom to be, Shining Armor, and with the power of love had cast a powerful spell that had cast all the changelings out of Canterlot. They both shared a giggle at the 'power of love' part.
Then it was back to business. The wedding had been rescheduled and had gone off without a hitch this time. Octavia had played her cello as part of the ceremony, but it was unlikely anyone had even noticed. She knew it wasn't her day though so she was quite alright with that.
Now, Vinyl was watching the crowd come out into the courtyard the lucky couple leading them followed by Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and her friends. There was deafening cheers and and stomping from the guests. It was so loud Vinyl didn't even hear Pinkie Pie sneak up to her.
"Hey, Equestria to DJ Pon-3!!" Pinkie sang inches from the DJ's ear waving her pink hooves in front of her face, startling her plenty.
"Oh, geez, hey Pinkie," Vinyl answered finally. "We ready?"
"You bet your horn we are!" the party extraordinaire answered. She popped up over the side of the turntables yelling to the crowd, "Alright everypony let's get this party started!!!" Pinkie pulled Vinyl up along side her who gave the crowd a modest grin before kicking the music on.
The first track was picked out by Pinkie and the best mare, and seconds after it started Pinkie tossed the mic to Twilight, who was more than ready to sing.
"Love is in bloom,
A beautiful bride
A handsome groom
Two hearts becoming one
A bond that cannot be undone
Because
Love is in bloom,
A beautiful bride
A handsome groom
Love is in bloom
You're starting a life and making room
For us!"
Vinyl kept spinning the records and doing what she did best, even after Pinkie had run off to attack the cake. She had to admit, she was enjoying herself a lot more than she thought she would and the crowd was responding well too. Most importantly the new couple seemed to be having a good time and that helped DJ Pon-3 relax more. She'd even adjusted her glasses over her horn and let folks see her eyes for the first time during a gig ever.
She felt a poke on her shoulder and she turned to find Octavia looking rather elated. "Hey, Tavi. Some party huh?"
"Indeed. You look splendid by the way," she smiled warmly touching Vinyl's cheek staring into her eyes. "I'm glad you see what a shame it is to hide them from everypony."
Vinyl blushed and pulled Octavia close kissing her deeply as the music pumped and the sounds of ponies having a great time roared up into the starry night's sky that was exploding with a brilliant display of fireworks over Canterlot.
"Love is in Bloom"
The End.
