Of Wubs and Men

by MoltenXKid

Thursday

Author's Note:

This can't be! A new chapter! Impossible!

Enjoy ,mates

(Mason’s POV)

I awoke on the couch, refreshed. I suppose not waking up in a hangover is pretty good. Though, a guy becomes pretty attached to something he felt almost every day. Fortunately, this is something I could easily get used to. Still, it’s impossible for me to quit cold turkey with alcohol. Not like I was planning on it. Just slowing down a bit. A lot based on Anastasia’s words.

I felt a need to drain the snake, so I began to move from my spot. I still can’t figure out why I didn’t feel three bodies all surrounding me. It seemed like Vinyl, Octy, and Ana had all fallen to sleep on the couch with me. It explained why I was stiff from not moving at night. After some maneuvering, I managed to lay each one of them on each other so they wouldn’t wake.

All three looked peaceful huddled on the couch. Well, I wouldn’t say that. They looked comfortable. Ana, resting on Vinyl, had her head leaned back while she slouched. Her deep, slow breathing match Octavia’s, who had her head resting on her fist. In the middle of the trio was Vinyl who leaned on Octy. Her breathing was almost double the pace of the other two.

They seemed happy, which brought joy to me. Then, they damn went and almost gave me an heart attack. With a yawn, Vinyl snuggled into Octavia’s bosom. This made Octy lift her arm and bring Vinyl closer in. Now, all this left Ana alone…for only a short while. Vinyl’s horn lit and her magic surrounded my girlfriend. Her position shifted as Vinyl laid Ana’s head onto her lap and laid a hand on her stomach.

The scene damn near made my heart give out, but my bladder was winning the fight, so I hurriedly rushed to the bathroom and relieved myself. With a flush and a wash of my hands, I closed left the bathroom and walked to the kitchen. I figured some breakfast would be nice for everyone. My body was feeling up to the workload. The cream the paramedic gave was doing wonders.

“Let’s see what I can whoop up today,” I said as I looked through the cabinets, “Fuck…”

I suppose I had been slacking on my shopping lately since the only thing left in my home was ten wrapped packets of beef instant ramen and a couple of eggs.. Usually when I purchase food there’s enough to last me a while…I suppose I forgot about the guests in my home. I shrugged my shoulders and decided to make good out of a bad situation.

I filled a huge pot with water and struggled to carry it to the stove. I felt an intense pain run through me as I lifted it.(I had to rest for a moment.) Then I unwrapped each ramen packet and waited. I heard the saying a watched pot never boils but comeon! The fucking thing was on high! I mean, eventually it got there but shit. Anyway, once the water boiled, I put every Ramen packet in there and waited for ‘em to cook. Three- ish minutes later I scooped the noodles into six different bowls and added the same amount of water to each. After that, I simple mixed the flavor powder into each.

Next, I cooked the eggs. I didn’t scramble them; just sunny side up. Luckily, I could cook about three at one time, so breakfast would be ready in the next couple of minutes. Plus, I was starting to ache and the trio on the couch was stirring. When each egg was finished, I placed it on top of the ramen in the bowls. It was something I learned from years of living alone.

“What smells like food?” My father asked coming the hallway, “Smells like bachelor food and ingenuity .”

“Aren’t they one in the same,” I replied.

“True that. I’ll get your mother and you wake up the three on the couch.”

---

“As delicious as that was…you really need to keep your house stocked with food,” My mother said as she wiped the corners of her mouth, “Now, having a barren house by yourself is alright; Having one filled with women is unacceptable; and having one with children is downright evil.”

“Mom…there’s no children here.” I mentioned.

“Not yet.”

I stopped eating. It was something about my mother’s words that got to me. I would have kids…one day. Probably. Just not here soon. (I have time, right?) Though, my mother’s words made it seem like it was bound to happen sooner than expected. I looked to my father who continued to eat, unfazed by his wife's words. I looked towards Ana who seemed to be in her own thought about the words. Then, I looked towards Vinyl and Octy who were looking at each other. It was like they were having a conversation no one else could hear.

“But right now, you need to get some food in this house, Mister, “ My mom filled the silence.

“Uhh…yeah, she’s right Mason. We can shop after we clean this mess up.” Ana spoke as she came from her thoughts.

“Cool. I’ll drive.”

“No you’re not. You’re hurt and need to rest. I’ll go.”

“But…”

“She’s right, Mason, “Octavia spoke, “I thank you for the meal, but taking you shopping and lifting items all day is not something we can let you do. Stay here and rest. Ana, Vinyl, and I can shop.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Vinyl added.

“I can’t make you guys go do that. My fault there’s no food; I have to fix. It only makes sense.”

Octavia nodded in agreement as she stacked each bowl and put the utensils in the top one. She took them over to the sink and turned back to me.

“Well, if your’re filling up to it, can you bring over the pot on the stove?”

“Sure…”

I grabbed the pot by both handles and lifted. The pot rose but then, a shock came through me, and I released. I was expecting it to crash and the water spill everywhere, yet I saw two gray, fur covered arms, holding the pot from behind me.

“You need to rest.”

---

“And we’re off! Make sure the house is clean before I sock you one, dear,” Ana joked, “Seriously, you need to clean.”

“Wow…I can’t shop, but cleaning is just fine.” I said

“You don’t typically need to lift anything heavy to clean.”

“Whatever. Vinyl and Octy…please watch her. She’s a bit crazy when she’s loose.”

“Aye aye ,cap’n!” Vinyl saluted.

“We will watch her,” Octy stated.

“No ,I’m serious,”

I turned to Anastasia with a serious look. As much as I could create.

“No smoking…or drinking while driving.” I commanded.

“What?!”

“You heard me. If I can’t drink as much, you have to follow the same rules.”

“Come on…I smoke and I drink. Well, I don't drink as much as you, but it’s what I do. I try to stop, but I can’t.”

“Don’t be such a downer, dude, “Vinyl spoke, “I’m pretty sure she does those things for you.”

“Don’t worry, Mason. It’s a toxic dance that posses a pony. We will be safe.”

With that, the females left and I closed the door. I turned to walk away, no idea on how I was going to spend my day until a song rhythm and melody appeared in my head from nowhere.

“I smoke…I drink…I try to stop…I can’t…’cuz this toxic dance has me all possessed…”

---

(Octavia’s POV)

Once we were all outside, we walked towards, Ms. Stepp’s carriage, which I must say looked a bit tougher than Mason’s. We all climbed in: I in the front, Vinyl in the back, and Ana driving her carriage. She pressed her thumb against a pad and the inside illuminated before this contraption roared to life. Unlike Mason’s carriage, this one was loud, rabid, almost as if it were ready to attack anything in its path. I dare say I liked it.

After pressing a peddle multiple time and making her beast roar louder, Anastasia decided it was time to go. We shot out the driveway, made a sharp turn, and sped down the road. I, for one, was getting a bit cautious for my life, yet Ana and Vinyl seemed to be enjoying it. A little too much for my taste. It wasn’t until Edison-Ana’s own assistant- alerted her of an officer coming closer, that she slowed down to the speed limit.

“Well, that was fun while it lasted, “Ana spoke, “I barely get to open this thing up.”

“That was fucking awesome,” cheered Vinyl from the backseat. She had to readjust her glasses, “We can we do that again?”

“Hopefully never. That was dangerous.” I said.

“Come on, Octavia. Let loose a little,” Ana swerved her car on the road to prove a point, “And we probably won’t do that for a while. There’s rarely an opportunity to do that since the police are always around.”

“Then what’s the point of having a machine like this?!” Vinyl asked.

“To impress the Joneses,”

We drove in silence for a little while longer. Not an awkward silence. Far from it. It was just three females in their own thoughts. My thoughts mostly surrounded the fact of Vinyl and Mason. I saw nothing against it…really. Earth ponies often did have a herd to keep our number high seeing as the male population is low back home. Though, often times my thoughts would drift to Ana. I had an urge to get to know her. A small one that would annoy me until I did its bidding.

“So, Anastasia, yesterday I noticed you shied away from the officer.” I brought up. Perhaps it was getting too personal, but it was the only thing that came to mind.

“Hah…haha!” She laughed, letting go of the steering wheel before hastily grabbing it, “Long long time ago, the government decided to legalized marijuana-or should I say MARE-ijuana- as long as you bought it from them. It was smooth sailing from there. Everything was looking up. But, the government had to fuck things up…”

“So how does that relate?” I asked, noticing Vinyl leaning closer to hear.

“I’m getting there. I’m getting there. You see, they government wanted more money or something along those lines, so they produced cheaper, weaker strains of the drug, yet sold it at the same price. Now, people like me, who can tell the difference, noticed this quickly. Slowly but surely, an underground market of stronger marijuana formed. I never touched the illegal stuff…well to profit from it anyway. I just let the transactions happen in my club every so often. Wait…I’m rambling. Long story short, Mason’s cop buddy caught on and gave me a warning about it. I stopped the deals ,and we lived happily ever after.”

“Had to stop fighting the power…sucks “Vinyl sighed.

“Well, it was illegal…” I brought up.

“Both of you are right, but it was for the best. I had my business to think of. Besides, I never really stopped all transactions,” Ana smirked.

She pressed a button on the wheel she was holding, and a compartment in front of me opened. In there were two rolled pieces of paper. She asked me to hand her one which I did. She put in her mouth, let go of the wheel, and lit the paper with a lighter from her carriage. She then breathed in deep, held her breath for a second, and breathed out. It only took a second for Vinyl and I to realize what she was doing and we rolled down our windows.

Within moments, her body drooped, and her expression calmed. She always seemed cheerful, yet now…I can’t describe it, but I knew what was happening. I may have experience with this type of thing.

“I thought Mason said no smoking,” Vinyl said covering her nose.

“Pshhh…He has no power here…this is my domain!”She yelled, once again letting go of the steering wheel, “Besides, I drive better when stoned.”

She wasn’t lying. She was staying the speed limit; started using the blinking lights on the side of vehicle, and let other people join traffic.

She took another deep breath before taking out the paper and offering it to us. Vinyl instantly said no, yet I considered it. Slight memories of the past came back, yet a look from Vinyl pushed me to say no.

“Thank you, but no thank you.” I said, rejecting the offer.

“Don’t worry…”She said as she took a deep breath, “I wasn’t going to give it to ya. Might ruin your innocence…”

“Innocence?! Please, ponies would smoke this stuff like there was no tomorrow; it’s just that it wasn’t common. There was really no need.”

“There’s a need here, dear. A lot of need.”

“You know, Octy used need it. Right before big shows, she’d do it to calm herself.”

I looked at Vinyl with daggers. That was suppose to stay out little secret.

“Look, it wasn’t necessary, but it helped. Besides, Vinyl had a worse experience with the drug.”

“Hey!” Vinyl yelled, “That’s a secret!”

“Dear, all of Equestria knows,” I told before returning to Ana, “Basically, Vinyl over-indulged herself, started hallucinating, and shot magic beams ever where…we had to pay for all the damages.”

Vinyl’s cheeks turned red from embarrassment as she sat back in the seat. Ana, however, laughed. More than she should, but I suppose the chemicals in her system were hard at work.

“That’s hilarious! You know, Mason also had a bad experience with once,” Admitted Ana, “We were in an old car of his long ago when we were smoking. He got sooooo up there; he vomited on the outside of the car. Then when he tried to drive home, he scratched the shit out of someone’s vehicle. He never smoked again.”

We all shared a good laugh at Mason’s expense before Vinyl said something along the lines of the drug being bad or stupid. Soon enough, we all arrived to the local super market. Anastasia rolled the windows up in her car and was about to put out the mare-ijuana, yet stopped.

“Since you two aren’t innocent, would ya wanna hit?” offered Anastasia. I noticed her eyes were glassy and a tad bit red.

Vinyl shook her head and spoke, “No thanks. We have no need for-“

“Sure, I’ll try,” I spoke, interrupting Vinyl. I don’t know why I took her offer. Maybe it was me trying to get on her good side. I don’t know, but there wasn’t any going back. I grabbed the roll from Ana and looked both mares in the eyes. Ana had a calm expression that somehow expressed her excitement while Vinyl had an iffy expression. She probably was remembering her bad experience. Though, I knew she’d try to.

So, without hesitation, I inhaled deep.

---

(Mason’s POV)

I sat in the living room with a glass of water and my laptop. For the first time in months, I was making a song. Not just any song, but a song a song I decided to make on my own free will. A song that no one asked me to make or paid for. A song just for the hell of it. Just like I used to do. Before my career.

I had to admit: It felt great. Knowing that this creation was of my own free just energized me. It made me want to continue the song. It even made me want to create others, but I couldn’t do that. I didn’t need hundreds of unfinished projects lying around…like I already do. Anyway, it seemed like everything was in order. Words, snares, bass, etc. It was all coming together. Of course I could have done better, but I got rusty. Making a song from scratch was a lot harder than pulling together samples from forgotten songs or old projects.

In the midst of my genius, Tesla alerted me to a presence at my front door. It seemed ever since, those ponies came, my door closes. I blew air from my nose and walked to the door and opened it. Before me, stood a man dressed in a striped suit tailored to his form. His face had a gimmicky smile and showed he had one too many plastic surgeries and spray tan. Plus, his comb over looked like it was stuck in place by too much grease. Lastly, he smelled of money and the vehicle parked in front of my home helped that fact.

“Uh…can I help you? I asked, “I’m going on a limb here and say you’re lost.”

“No, Mr. Williams I’m exactly where I want to be,” The man spoke. His voiced sounded like something along the lines of door-to-door sells men, “But are you?”

“Yeah…I am…”

“Are you sure? You have a simple two story house, a simple vehicle, a simple life, and a simple career that’s almost over. These things don’t seem like something the hotshot who calls himself DJ Helix would want. Now do they?”

I looked at this guy. I looked at him hard trying to figure out his angle. He was right ,though. The things I have now were not the things I dreamed about when I first started into music. Not even close. But, I couldn’t complain. I got a lot further than most people do in this area. For that, I am proud.

“Skip the B.S. Why are you here?” I asked, mentally trying to keep the song I was working on in my head.

“I’m here to offer you a second chance, Mr. Helix,” The man began, “A chance to get the fame you actually deserve. You see, I’m Walter Cobble from World Wide Records. Lately, we’ve been watching and finally we decided to offer a chance.”

That moment, I remembered what Percy told me about that company. How I’d be just a number and be thrown away when the money stops flowing. Maybe old me wouldn’t have cared, but I’ve grown a little. No alot

“I don’t want it,” I denied, “Music Maid has been good to me, and I won’t leave 'em.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying, kid. Loyalty is good and all, but when I’m literally handing you a new life, you choose the wrong time to show it.”

“I’m sorry, but-“

The man’s expression drastically changed. The cheesy salesmen mask fell off to reveal some angry, pissed monster. At that moment, I felt like slamming the door before the bomb could explode, but it was too late. Far too late.

“Do you know even know what you’re giving up? What you are letting slide through your dirty little fingers? I’m literally handing you a new life! People would kill-no-People have killed for something like this, and you, being a little dumbass, is letting it go,” Cobble walked away. He seemed to be gathering his thoughts through his rising anger, “Let me guess: those ponies came into your life and showed you the true meaning of music or some shit like that. Let me tell you this: life isn’t a fucking story where everything ends all happy and nothing bad happens after the main plot. No, kid…life will continue to fuck you for as long as you live. What I was handing you was some lube so it wouldn’t hurt so badly. But, I suppose you like biting the pillow. So, good day, Mr. Williams. Enjoy the shit hole you call a life.”

Before I could respond-as if I had a response- the guy walked away towards his vehicle. Before he got in, he combed his hair which had gotten disheveled in his rant. The vehicle was started, yet before he drove off; he pulled out his phone, and made a call. I stood there watching him because what else could I do? I was still in shock. I wasn’t sure whether he made a good points or it was one of his many ways to get me to sign.

As the guy talked on his phone, he nodded and only replied with single words answers. Finally, the call ended. He sat in his car for a couple of moment, calming himself. Once he was ready, he opened his door, straightened his suit, and walked back to me. I prepared myself for another rant, yet his salesmen masked seemed to be back on.

“Mr. Williams…sorry about my previous actions. It’s just I’m very excited about music and bringing talent to the forefront. Anyway, my uppers tell me that expecting a big decision like this so quickly is inconceivable, so we are giving you till Saturday to make a decision.”

“Sorry, dude…Saturday I’m bu-“

“Saturday it is! Have your decision ready! Make it a wise one.”

Walter then handed me his business card, before walking off. I thought over the conversation we had when something hit me.

“Hey,” I yelled, “ How’d you know about the ponies?”

“Oh please, Mr. Williams, we always keep an I on potential musicians.”

With those final words, Mr. Cobble left me standing there dumbfounded and confused. I looked over the business card again before sitting it down on the coffee table and returning to my laptop. That guy was making me think about things I didn’t want to think about at the moment. I just wanted to finish the song I was working.

I could only hope the girls were having a better time.

Comments

[L0rd0f7hund3r]

Man, this Cobble guy sounds like a mid-XXIₛₜ century version Suge Knight. And his career raised to phenomenal heights before he crashed, hard. I just hope Mason doesn't fall for his shit.

[Ron Jeremy Pony]

I see.. I see... I see a sleazy record agent ready to ream the living hell out of a new artist. Let's hope that Mason doesn't fall for his bullshit.

[dyedquartz]

Man I thought that mason would be the drug-addict.

[MoltenXKid]

6352227 who needs drugs when you have music?
6460351 unfortunately it did