More lights suddenly flared up, nearly blinding Cross. They were bright and circled the pony in the center of the room; they began to pulsate slowly as a low frequency bass note steadily climbed, getting louder and higher in pitch with each passing second. The colt was still trying to make out who it was standing in his house when a loud, familiar drop hit: Immigrants by The Mare Machine. Just as the song began, more lights turned on throughout the room, revealing that his home will filled with other ponies. It seemed as if all of Ponyville was there.

“Why are you all in my house?!” Cross shouted, but the music was too loud for anypony to hear. However, his question was answered anyway when the pink mare from earlier zipped over to his side.

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! We didn’t really get to meet earlier. It’s just- I saw you and got excited because I love making new friends and I just had to throw you a party!”

“W-what?” The pegasus sat still for a moment, attempting to piece everything together. Pinkie running off, that hot mare- Rainbow Dash- whispering something to Twilight (which he’d forgotten about until now), and then coming home instead of visiting The Omni. “Ohh... Okay. Now it makes sense... Kinda.” He trotted inside, looking around. “Wait, where’s all my stuff? I wasn’t done unpacking.”

Pinkie looked over to him with a smile, “Oh, Fluttershy was kind enough to finish unpacking for you so we could party!” Cross’ ears dipped, he didn’t like the idea of anypony going through his stuff. He especially hoped that she didn’t come across his Hoofbeat collection, that’d be extremely embarrassing. “Hey! You should come meet everypony! There’s Applejack, and Fluttershy, and Rarity, and Lyra, and BonBon, and Colgate, and Ditzy, and-” Cross wasn’t interested in meeting anypony other than Vinyl Scratch at the moment. He still needed to talk to her, so as Pinkie was rambling off other ponies’ names he slipped away to find Twilight (who had already run off).

“Hey, Twi,” Cross was one of those ponies that gave everypony nicknames, “that DJ up there, that’s Vinyl Scratch, right?”

Twilight looked over to him, she’d been skimming through his bookcase. Nothing she’d read was in there but he had more books than the mare would have thought. “Her? Yeah. That’s her. Want me to introduce you?” That same smile from earlier grew on her face.

“Uh, no thanks. I think I can handle it myself this time.”

“Hm... Alrighty then.” The unicorn turned her attention back toward the bookcase.

The colt trotted over to the DJ’s station. Vinyl was standing behind her turntables on what seemed like a pedestal of lights, bobbing her head in unison with the music. The sliders and buttons were occasionally enveloped in a sparkling blue light, indicating that the DJ was a unicorn. Handy for her line of work. Mare Ghosts N’ Stuff by deadpon3 was playing; not something he’d use to follow Immigrants but it somehow worked. Being a DJ himself gave Cross common ground with the mare, making conversation starters easy. But where to begin? The colt thought it over for a moment, then came to a conclusion.

Cross stepped up behind the mare at work, “Y’know, if you throw a high-pass filter onto that track you can lay down some samples and cross over to some Fillex, to really get the crowd pumped.”

Vinyl looked back, “A fellow bass head! Alright!”

“I’m more than that, I’m a DJ.” The cobalt pony turned to show his flank, at which point the mare in front of him turned completely around, giving him a good look at her. It was hard to tell with the lights, but she was white, an almost alabaster color, with a spiky electric blue and white mane. ‘Hello, good-lookin’.’ She wore shades like he did, but they weren’t shutter shades. Just purple glasses, dark enough to hide her eyes.

“So you spin, huh? Show me whatcha got!” Vinyl stepped aside, giving way to the turntables. Cross saw this as an opportunity to show his skill, so as to improve his chances at getting a gig at The Omni. He walked up to the turntables and placed his hooves on the controls; not the records, however. Having hooves made the small controls difficult enough. He couldn’t manage scratching and then operating switches and knobs in quick succession. On the few occasions he did use the records, it was typically with his wings, which was less than comfortable. The two songs on deck were Mare Ghosts N’ Stuff and Immigrants. Vinyl hadn’t switched Immigrants for the next transition yet. Cross flipped the Immigrants record up off of the platter and found a Fillex record in the unicorn’s stack. His remix of Levels. As Mare Ghosts N’ Stuff approached its drop, Cross slowly put a high-pass on the track and played a sample of the laughing from the beginning of it. He placed a stutter effect on it and then cut it just as he played the drop from Levels. It wasn’t his best transition but it was all he could manage in the short time given. The crowd didn’t seem to care, however. In fact, they liked it. Suddenly the records on either side of the colt began to glow and he looked back to see Vinyl was jumping in to do the scratching for him. She quickly picked up on what Cross was doing and where he was going with each mix, following him appropriately. ‘She’s slick on those records.’ the colt thought. Then he did a mental face-hoof, ‘Of course she is. Her name's Vinyl Scratch.’

Together, the two ponies stood at the station, hooves and magic seeming to dance across the controls and records. They were in perfect unison. More importantly, they were enjoying themselves. Cross had never experienced DJing like that before and he loved it. His thoughts about getting a gig at The Omni slipped from his mind, as if he needed to worry by that point anyway. The duo were so in tune with one another that it almost seemed natural; why wouldn’t she have him work with her on stage? Each bass hit and every synth chord left them tingling, the sensation was phenomenal. Each drop was met with every ounce of anticipation they had within them and more.

Vinyl looked over to her partner, “Hey! Check this out!” Her horn began to glow and the speakers were enveloped in blue light. Suddenly, they burst out a magical discharge and the music seemed to materialize. They could literally feel it coursing through their veins. The whole crowd nearly buckled in unison, as did Cross. Nopony was expecting the sudden sensation they were feeling. “Yeah!!” The mare hoof-pumped, celebrating her success. “I’ve been workin’ on that spell for a while! It makes you feel the music! Isn’t it badass?!” As if on command, the crowd all looked up to the DJs and started hoof-pumping and dancing wildly. Cross was dumbfounded, what he was feeling was unbelievable. “I can literally manipulate the crowd with the music!” The song that was playing was Blood Sugar by Pendulum. Everypony felt unstoppable. It was... amazing.

The rest of the night continued this way, Vinyl’s insane magic combined with her and Cross’ DJing made the party one worth remembering. The pair played an hour and a half long setlist. Cross decided to leave his new friend to her work so he could meet everypony. Applejack introduced herself to him first, and then apologized for her brother’s absence, saying that he “wasn’t much for a hoedown.” The colt also got to meet the pony who sat upright, Lyra, and her marefriend, BonBon. He found Fluttershy huddled in the corner of the room. She informed him that she’d placed his... ‘magazines’ in the closet of his bedroom. She blushed hard and could barely say the words. ‘Cute.’ Cross thought. Next he met Rarity. She was like a Canterlot pony, prim and proper.

“Parties aren’t usually my forte but I can never resist one of Pinkie’s swarays!” She wasn’t as uptight as the stiffs back home, but close nonetheless.

It wasn’t long until Cross had met everypony in attendance, they seemed pretty social for the most part. Ditzy, he noted, was there with somepony. Somepony familiar, though he couldn’t quite remember. The stallion in question had a Trottingham accent and that’s really what got him. The pegasus just wasn’t sure though. Oh well, could just be one of those ponies.

It was only ten o'clock when the party came to an end, but everypony had to go home for the night. It was Tuesday so they all had work the following morning. Who parties on a Tuesday anyway?

“Hey,” Cross turned around, he’d been at the door, saying goodbye and thanking ponies as they left. Vinyl approached him with a smile, “nice moves out there, fly-boy. You got some real skill to use your hooves like that.”

“Not too bad yourself. I’ve never seen scratching like that before. You’re the only DJ in town, right?”

Vinyl turned to show her cutie mark, “A DJ, sure. But not the only one in Ponyville. At least, not anymore.” Her cutie mark was a black double eighth note. She had a nice plot too. The cobalt pony trailed his gaze down her legs and back up again. Nice. “You’re looking at my cutie mark, right?” Cross realized that he’d been too obvious, a rookie mistake. Vinyl flicked her tail at him and put on a sultry expression. But, instead of flirting, as he normally would, the pegasus became flustered and tried to recover.

“Uh- erm- yeah. Of course I was. What else would I be looking at? Nothing else worth looking at besides your cutie mark. Yup.”

Vinyl’s expression quickly faded, there almost looked to be a frown in its place. “Right. Yeah. Sorry. I should just go pack up my equipment.” With that, the mare slowly walked back to her station.

Cross face-hoofed hard. ‘The hell was that? She was totally flirting with you, man! Why did you get so choked up?!’ He was sort of mentally scolding himself. ‘And of all the things you could’ve said, “nothing worth looking at?” What’s wrong with you?!’ The pegasus shook it off, ‘You can still recover. Go get her.’ He started towards Vinyl, “Hey, need some help?” Suddenly, the colt stopped. Her equipment was enveloped in magic. “Oh... Right. Unicorn. Duh. Hehe...” The laugh was forced, and pretty obvious.

Vinyl looked at him, no sign of the frown from before, but no smile either. “Yeah... I’m gonna get going. See ya around.” He heard the mare muttering something as she walked past. The door opened for her and she left, not looking back.

Cross’ ears dipped and he trudged into his bedroom, eyeing the floor the whole way. ‘Well there went that.’ The pegasus was disappointed, getting with one of the locals on his first night in Ponyville would’ve been awesome. Especially if it’d been her. Yet, he found himself feeling a little differently than he normally would. He didn’t want to get with Vinyl, the colt wanted something different. Sure, he’d scored with lots of ponies back in Canterlot, even stiffs got a little wasted from time to time. But scoring didn’t seem right either. Cross racked his brain, painting her image in his mind. She had a nice, sexy figure. Curves in all the right places. She was a DJ, so that was a plus, and a great one no less. Vinyl was amazing when working her records, her technique was flawless. Her beautiful alabaster fur paired with that spiky, electric blue mane and tail. She was, in a word, perfect. Cross was falling for her, after only knowing her for a night. A few hours. He hadn’t realized it at the party because he was enjoying himself so much. Or perhaps that was just it, he’d never had so much fun with another pony before. The pegasus sighed, feeling that way about somepony was completely uncharacteristic of him. All of the ponies he hooked up with in Canterlot didn’t mean a thing. It was all just for fun. Some nice words and a few drinks would get him on his way home with a mare. Of course, he could never have real feelings for anypony back home anyway, they weren’t his type. At all. So this was a new feeling for him, something he’d never experienced before. The cobalt pony decided to just sleep on it, for he was surprisingly tired. Moving, exploring Ponyville, and partying seemed to have taken more out of him than he originally thought. Not to mention all he’d eaten that day were the snicker doodles and some snacks that Pinkie laid out for the party.

Just then, as Cross was going to lay down to sleep, he realized something. Something very important... He’d forgotten to replace his bed.

Buck.

Author's Note

Another reference in this one (aside from the music ones)! Hope you like what you've read so far!

Special thanks to my super dedicated prereader!
The5Pieces

Credit for Vinyl's music spell goes to him. Thanks for all your help, friend!