With A Little Help From My Friends

Paul jumped off his drum stool and sat down on it. He counted off a one-two-three-four on his sticks and started playing a lively jazz-styled drum solo. The rest of the band joined him after a little more than thirty seconds of solid soloing that proved to all the newcomers in the club just why he was so special. Near the front of the stage, several unoccupied tables were immediately cleared out of the way to create a dance-floor which many ponies took advantage of immediately. Matt and I were sitting at our table freaking out over the fact that Paul was actually here with us.

“OH MY GOD HE’S HERE!!!! HE’S HERE!!!!” I yelled.

“HOLY SHIT!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!” Matt yelled back.

“Umm… Who is that?” Twilight asked quietly. We didn’t hear her however and we continued losing our minds over the fact that our friend was here in this world too. We started cheering for Paul at the top of our lungs.

“WOOOOOO!! GO PAULIE!!!!” I cheered.

“YOU MAKE ME WET!!!!!” Matt shouted with a high-pitched voice, Twilight and I stared at him completely confused “I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES PAUL!!!!!!!!” We dismissed Matt who continued to yell odd cheers following his format at the top of his lungs in his womanly voice for the remainder of the first song.

“I don’t believe he’s actually here!!” I yelled to Matt over the loud music.

“I know right?!?!? It’s friggin’ insane!!” He replied.

“Who is he?!” Twilight yelled angrily, we completely ignored her and continued to express our shock at finding our Ringo here. She sighed and continued drinking her cider. Once her cider was finished, she actually took my whiskey to help her drown the current stress. It was okay though, I should’ve ordered vodka like Matt, I didn’t really like whiskey that much anyway.

This is why you have to work on your drinks of choice, my boy.

Yeah… Not too good at that yet…

With practice, you will learn.

The band played for a solid hour, playing several instrumental jazz songs that ranged from all kinds of tempos and different styles. Most of the content of the songs seemed improvised from what I could tell. Once the band took their bows, they left the stage. The MC came out and bid everyone a good night and made an announcement about tomorrow night’s act which we did not bother to remember the name of. We saw Paul and the cello-playing pony go to the bar.

“Okay, we gotta go greet him, quickly, before he leaves!” I said scrambling up from the table. Matt quickly stood up and followed me. Twilight sighed and followed us too, still not knowing exactly who Paul was.

I sat at the stool next to Paul and ordered a vodka cooler. He didn’t notice me as he was lost in conversation with the grey mare he was talking to who apparently didn’t notice me either. She had ordered a bottle of water while Paul was drinking what seemed to be an Irish cream, I’d order one but I don’t know what it would be called here seeing as it definitely wouldn’t be ‘Irish’. I took my drink in one hand and I put my other hand on his shoulder.

Quick! Witty anonymous person banter go!

“Aight fadda, len’ me tree fiddy dey so…” I said in my best Bajan accent. Paul stopped mid-sentence.

“Leave him alone, you drunk-” The British-accented grey mare started but then stopped when she saw I was a human. Paul turned to face me.

“JIMMY!!!” He shouted when he realised it was me and gave me a hug “What are you doing here!?!?” I then noticed he had a slightly more British accent now than when I had last seen him.

“BROSKI!!” Matt shouted as he hugged Paul “I have not seen you since old world!! How goes things?”

“I’m doing great!! How’d you guys find me?” He asked.

“We found you by fluke, I saw this sign outside that said ‘Paulie Starr and Friends’, and I got to thinking that cuz we call you Ringo, and maybe you used the ‘Starr’ bit as your stage name. I couldn’t be sure, so we decided to check it out and sure enough we found you!!” I replied hugging him again, Matt joined in the hug as well.

The three brothers were at long last united again.

The grey mare and Twilight cleared their throats simultaneously.

“I don’t believe you’ve introduced me to your friends, Paul.” Said the grey mare.

“And you boys still haven’t told me who this guy is either.” Said Twilight.

“Oh, right of course.” I started “Twilight, this is our very good friend Paul, he was our drummer back before he left to go to university.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Paul.” She said holding out her hoof.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Twilight.” He replied shaking her hoof. He was bursting with excitement upon meeting Twilight, I could tell. She was one of the mane six after all. “Jimmy, Matt, this is my friend Octavia, she found me when I first arrived in Equestria and she’s been letting me stay with her since I got here.”

“Nice to meet you, Octavia.” Matt and I said slightly out of sync, with Matt shaking her hoof first and I second.

“Very nice to meet you,” She replied “How did you two end up here?” She asked me and Matt.

“We don’t really know; we literally just woke up here one morning. I woke up on a hill outside Ponyville and Matt woke up in the Everfree forest.” I replied “Paul, how did you get here?”

“I woke up and I was in the Castle Garden, some guards found me and were about to throw me out when Octavia saw me and stopped them.” He replied. “Wait, you guys got here in the morning?”

“Well, yeah, morning or early afternoon, why?” I asked.

“I woke up and it was nearly 2 am. That was last Saturday.” He replied.

“Must’ve been the time difference between us I guess… Or something…” Matt guessed.

“I like to call it the guards splashing a bucket of water on your head and dragging you out of the castle by your legs. In the air. With magic.” Paul replied.

“Oh…” Matt said trying to hold back his laughter, whereas I wasn’t able to contain my own.

Matt and I told him the stories of our past week and how we had become friends with Twilight, Rainbow Dash and the others and how we had been summoned here because the princesses wanted to meet us and such. He told us about his week with Octavia and how he had been performed at a couple other clubs with her this week. He’d made quite a name for himself here in Canterlot already. He was easily the best drummer in Canterlot. After a couple hours of catching up and getting to know Octavia and such, we were all getting a bit tired.

“Listen man, I think Octavia and I are gonna head home for the night.” Paul said.

NO. HE’S NOT LEAVING. TELL THIS MAN ABOUT OUR HOUSE.

“Oh, about that, I gotta ask you something.” I said putting down the third vodka I had finished that night “Listen, Matt and I just bought a place down in Ponyville. It’s like, a four bedroom house. What we were gonna do tomorrow was go furniture shopping and stuff and then at night we’ve got a private show with the princesses. Now, would you and Octavia be interested in coming back to Ponyville with us once we’re finished here?”

“Well… I don’t know, I would love to come back with you guys, but it’s really just up to Octavia.” Paul replied. He turned to Octavia “What do you think?”

“I’m not sure…” She replied “I have hardly been performing recently, you’ve been the only reason I have been able to perform. When I found you, I had just quit because I was sick of my snobby conductor and his foalishness. I’m still not sure.”
“We’ve got a recording studio in our basement.” I stated in an attempt to convince her “It’s totally sound proofed, we won’t have to worry about neighbours complaining about the noise ever!”

“Are you serious?” Paul and Octavia asked in unison.

“Yeah!” Matt confirmed.

“We were gonna buy a bunch of music equipment so we could record and stuff while we were here as well.” I continued “So Octavia, what do you think?” Matt, Paul and I looked at Octavia intently.

“You got me.” She said smiling “But, what about Vinyl?” She asked.

“Oh, geez… Right…” Paul said putting his hand to his head.

“Vinyl? Who’s that?” I asked, Matt kept quiet, but it was obvious he was holding back some kind of fanboy-ish scream or something along those lines.

“She’s a DJ who is our other room-mate and… My mare-friend…” She said blushing a bit. Matt let out a small yelp at this, at this rate, if he heard a ‘squee’ from one of the ponies here; he would have fan-gasmed so hard we would’ve gone back to our time. “You won’t hold it against me, will you?”

“Why would we hold it against you?” Twilight asked “There’s nothing wrong with loving someone, regardless of gender!”

lol Twilight’s a total lesbo.

Nigga her statement ain’t mean shit, you’ve got the same view on it.

Ehh, true. Still though.

lol yeah, she’s totally hot for Rainbow Dash.

“She’s right, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.” I added.

“I know but… Some ponies are against it, I wasn’t sure if you were as well or…” She continued.

“Don’t worry about it, Octavia.” I said taking her hoof smiling, she returned the smile and we carried on our conversations.

After a couple more drinks, we all parted ways. We had scheduled to meet up at a local music store to buy instruments the next morning. And so we did.

Matt and I arrived at the store Octavia had said to meet them at called ‘C&D Music Supplies’. It was ten o’clock and we were ready to spend some money.

We entered the store. To our immediate left was the store’s selection of lighting and general stage equipment. North-West of us was the help desk which was combined with the cash desk for this section of the store. Straight ahead of us was a section that led to a room containing many tables with many books and booklets containing sheet music arranged for almost every instrument imaginable. A door on the far right of the room led to a room full of pianos and keyboards. To the left in the “Sheet Music Room”, there was a sign pointing to upstairs that said ‘Brass and Strings’ on it. There was also a staircase going down that had a sign that said ‘Drums’.

“Let’s check the brass and strings first, they’re probably there.” I said as I started going up the stairs. Matt followed. The stairs led to a landing and a double door that led to the Brass and Strings section. The room was quite large and had many display tables. As the sign had implied, the room was filled with many types of brass and string instruments all of which would be used in an orchestra. No guitars or basses in this room, but to our left was a door which was labelled ‘Guitars’, so I was still in luck.

We saw Paul and a white unicorn with a blue striped mane wearing a hoodie and glasses with bright purple lenses watching Octavia playing a cello in a ‘closed-off’ room which was really just two short glass walls that stuck out from the main walls of the room that partially surrounded the area which there were a few cellos and contrabasses. I couldn’t make out what song Octavia was playing. All I know is that it looked very difficult to play. She was deep in concentration when we walked in. We didn’t say anything so that we would not disturb her. We watched her for a solid three minutes when the solo died down into a slow ending on what I believed was a low D. The four of us applauded her performance heartily.

“That was amazing, Octavia!” I said clapping.

“Why, thank you Jimmy.” She replied smiling.

“Ah, so you’re Jimmy.” The white unicorn said taking off her glasses. “I’m Vinyl Scratch.” She said holding out her hoof.

“Pleasure to meet you.” I replied shaking her hoof.

“So I guess that would make you Matt then?” She said as she walked towards Matt and held out her hoof again.

“DUDE SHE KNOWS MY NAME!!!! SHE’S GOTTA BE PSYCHIC OR SOMETHING!!!” Matt yelled before shaking Vinyl’s hoof, she let out a chuckle at Matt’s comment. I simply face-palmed.

“So, I hear that Paul and Octavia want to move to Ponyville with you two.” She stated.

“Yeah, we discussed that last night. We’ve got room for you guys, so it’s really no trouble. It’s all up to you.” I replied.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly turn down a room and board, especially since my special filly is gonna be there too,” She said slapping Octavia lightly on the flank which made Octavia jump a little bit and she let out a small squeal as she blushed “as well as my talented widdle drummer boy!” She said as she put Paul in a headlock and gave him a nuggie. Paul did not put up any resistance to the unicorn and simply took it like a man, although he was probably holding back tears.

“Alright cool, so we got all three of you coming back with us, excellent!” I said putting my hands together.

“We’ll try not to keep you up with the sex, don’t worry.” Vinyl said smiling deviously slapping Octavia on the flank again.

“Vinyl!” Octavia said scolding her.

I like her. She’s cool. She would be an awesome girlfriend.

I’ll bet she would be, too bad you’ll never know.

“Oh come on honey, even Paul knows you’re not quiet at all in bed. Especially when I--”

“VINYL!” Octavia shouted.

I like Vinyl even more now.

Paul backed away hoping that distance would keep him from being pulled into the argument. I wasn’t able to hold back my laughter and neither was Matt. Octavia’s face became the brightest shade of red I had ever seen somepony’s face. It was out of embarrassment rather than anger however.

“Don’t worry girls, it’ll be fine.” I said trying to ease the tension and hopefully to make them move on to another topic that wouldn’t result in some kind of brawl.

“Oh? You like hearing two mares going at it I see…” Vinyl stated with her devious smile growing ever larger.

NIGGA SHE KNOWS WHAT WE THINKING.

This is a problem.

That makes me even more moist than I was before…

Yeah, me t- Wait, what?

“Girls, yes, mares, well, you’re female, but I can’t say I’m turned on by the thought of two ponies doing it.” I replied.

“Oh really?” Matt interrupted “What about that time at Rar-”

“What’s rule number one and two?” I asked Matt interrupting him.

“Rules?”

“Rule one. We do not talk about the incident.”

“What’s the other one?”

“Rule two. We do NOT TALK ABOUT THE INCIDENT.”

“I want to hear more about this incident.” Said Paul.

“Paul, you’re like anonymus in this situation. No one cares about your opinion.” I replied.

“Okay…” Paul said looking down at the floor and hunching over slightly to try and imitate the meme. Matt pulled Paul away for a minute for them to go look at other instruments in the room.

Hmm… That cello’s pretty nice. Too bad we don’t play cello.

No, but Octavia does.

TIME TO SPEND MONEY!

“Octavia, did you want to buy that cello?” I asked. Octavia looked a bit taken back by the question.

“Well, it is a nice cello, but I do not require a new one.” She replied shrugging a bit. I could tell she did want the cello, I remember the one she had played the night before looked like it had a few years of use on it.

“That doesn’t really answer my question though, do you want the cello?” I asked again.

“Well… Yes, I would like to have it. My cello is fine however. I really do not need a new one.” She replied.

“Oh, come on Octavia!” Vinyl interjected “You’ve had your cello since you were what? Fifteen? It’s been a good eight years or so, I think you can get a new one now.”

“No, it is really quite alright. I’m… Perfectly… Happy with my cello at home, thank you.” Octavia replied.

From what I could guess, she thought that I wanted her to buy it with her money.

Well, better make that clear before she gets upset over something that isn’t an issue.

“I’ll buy it for you.” I said. Octavia didn’t believe what she heard.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?” She asked.

“I’m buying it for you.” I repeated. “Octavia, I saw your cello the other night, it looked pretty banged up. You could use a new one.”

“You can’t buy that for me, I mean…”

“Well, why not?” I asked. She couldn’t come up with a response. “Look, Octavia. It’s okay. You obviously really like it, and it’s a really nice cello. I’ve got the cash for it. The only reason I’m here is to buy music equipment for our studio back home.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up there.” Vinyl interrupted “A studio? Back… Home?”

“That’s right.” I replied “We’ve got a completely sound-proofed recording studio in our basement. I was going to buy instruments so that Matt, me, Paul and some other talented musicians could start a band or something like that. We’d have our own place to record and our own equipment. Hell, it would be nice to just have the equipment, y’know?” Vinyl stood there with her mouth agape.

“H-h-how soon are you guys going back?” Vinyl asked still shocked.

“In two days.” I replied.

“WOO!!” She shouted as she started jumping around in excitement. “This is gonna be so awesome!!”

“Yes, but before we can use the studio, we need audio equipment. Now, I don’t know what the best brands of equipment are. But something tells me you’ve got an idea of what the best stuff is.”

“Oh yeah! I can help you pick out amps and equipment and stuff! Let’s go! Come on! Let’s do it now!” She said still jumping for joy.

Hey bro, I think she’s excited.

NO. YOU DON’T SAY.

I do say! I’d even go as far as to say she’s ecstatic! Maybe even… Fuck, I can’t think of any other words that mean excited…

After we bought Octavia’s new cello, our group headed downstairs so that Vinyl could pick out good sound boards and amplifiers for us. Paul went downstairs to the drum room to pick out drums and cymbals so he could create his own drum kit.

After all that was done, we went back upstairs to pick out guitars. I bought an acoustic as well as a hollow-bodied electric guitar both made by a company called Hoofson. Happy with the instruments we bought, we continued the day by shopping for furniture for our bedrooms and the rest of the house as well as other household paraphernalia.

As we finished up at the last store for the day, Octavia and Vinyl headed home to start packing up their apartment. Paul came with us because we felt it would be a good idea for the princesses to be aware of the fact that Matt and I were not the only humans in this world.

“Are you sure I don’t need to be wearing anything different?” Paul asked worriedly.

“Yeah man, you’re fine, don’t worry about it.” Matt replied.

“You’ll just be meeting the princesses during dinner, don’t worr-” I stopped. I had forgotten something.

Oh shit nigger…

“What is it?” Matt asked.

“WE’RE SUPPOSED TO PERFORM FOR THE PRINCESSES TONIGHT!!!” I yelled.

AND PROM’S TOMORROW!!

“OH GOD WHAT DO WE DO WE HAVEN’T PREPARED ANY SONGS I DIDN’T TELL PAUL LIKE I SHOULD HAVE EARLIER ON OH GOD OH GO-” Matt put his hand over my mouth.

“Calm your tits.” He told me “We’ll be fine. We’ll just have a little practice run before we perform, okay? Besides, our set isn’t that big, we’re only doing like five songs.”

“BUT IT’S IN FRONT OF ROYALTY!!!” I yelled.

“Does it matter?” Matt asked “An audience is an audience. Everyone in an audience is a critic. Everyone-”

“Everypony.” Paul corrected.

“Okay, everypony, has their own opinion on everything and each one no more important than the next.” Matt continued “So don’t worry about it, we’ll be fine.”

“You have a point. Alright, sorry for freaking out guys.” I said.

“It’s no problem.” Paul replied “However, there is one problem still.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I don’t know the set.” He replied.

We told him our set-list and by sheer luck, Paul knew each song we were doing. He had decided to learn the ones we had never gotten around to performing on our own just in case we wanted to do them at some point in the future if we ever got back together. Our set consisted of six songs:

Whatsername and Basket Case by Green Day

Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin

Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones

Fire by Jimi Hendrix

Use Somebody by Kings of Leon

We had previously done most of these songs, but Fire and Basket Case were the new ones Paul had learnt. I was still worried though, we had not played with Paul since he was last back home which was in September. I know very well that playing together for the first time in months does not go over well in the first run. There has to be some practice. Hopefully this will all go over well…