It was one of Manehattan's ordinary nights. The sun had just set a few hours ago and the streets were illuminated by the many light posts that were scattered across the big city, instead. Yet, Manehattan was still full of life.
Ponies bustled across the streets and over the squares, some of them with faces full of delight and happiness. There were mares clad in flashy, colorful outfits, manes styled in the weirdest and most obscure ways which they described as 'modern' and 'trendy'.
There were stallions who wore tight, grey trenchcoats and hats that they had pulled down deeply over their eyes and faces, making it impossible to tell if they were just returning home from work or up to no good, if one even wanted to find out, that is. Even a few foals galloped around carelessly, probably way past their bedtime, with their parents either not knowing or not caring. Their faces were full with mischievous grins and, their minds busy with whatever silliness they had planned to enact this night, none of them paid much attention to their path and so, they almost ran straight into a purple mare that was slowly trotting over the sidewalk.
If they had noticed that she was an alicorn, they might have stopped and apologized, but then again, this was Manehattan, the city were most everypony was just for itself and nopony else, so Twilight did not even attempt to shout after them. Instead she just sighed, then continued her way with rolling eyes.
Her glance was wandering over the buildings as she kept trotting hesitantly, wearing an expression that was a mix of disbelief, doubt and annoyance. Mostly annoyance.
Twilight groaned deeply. “I should be at home and taking care of the map right now, not trying to hunt after some great destiny that won't even happen here in Manehattan... Sometimes I almost regret it to be friends with the craziest pony between Appleloosa and Yakyakistan.” Her mind drifting off as she set sluggishly one hoof in front of the other, she thought back on what had happened earlier this evening.
She had been with Starlight in the throne room of her castle, experimenting with magic and trying to figure out how to get the map to work again after the former villain had wrecked it while manipulating it for her revenge. They only made slow progress, but a steady one, and might have just found the solution this night if there wouldn't have been a certain, pink interruption...
“Are you ready?” Twilight asked her student. Starlight Glimmer nodded, her eyes filled with the determination to fix what she had ruined. Twilight returned the nod. “Okay. There are good chances it's going to work this time. I will count to three, then we cast the spell together.” She did a last glance at Starlight to see if she was really ready, then began to count.
“One.” They ignited their horns.
“Two.” The student and the teacher focused their concentration on the map.
“Three.” Magic beams left their horns and aimed for the map simultaneously, their faces now sweating and their teeth clenched in concentration.
It was a spell of utmost importance, the map was maybe the key to save Equestria from doom again one day and who knew if not, right now, the Tree of Harmony was unsuccessfully trying to inform them of another world-shattering event going on at a place far, far away, so failing to fix the map was clearly something they could not–
“TWILIGHT!” An ear-piercing shout entered the ears of the two magic users and both of them dropped their spells, their concentration broken. Twilight groaned and planted a hoof in her face.
“Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!” the familiar, screeching voice continued to sound through the castle, clearly approaching them. A second later, the door of the throne room got smashed open with force and Pinkie Pie bounced into the room, her whole body shaking.
“Twilight! This is AMAZING!” She darted for her friend and, arriving in front of her, grabbed her cheeks and pulled her closer. “Something absolutely amazing just happened! You need to go to Manehattan RIGHT NOW!” Pinkie had problems to keep her hooves attached to Twilight's face as they kept shaking violently. Additionally, her eyes didn't stop blinking.
Twilight watched the pink earth pony in bewilderment, then pushed her hooves away from her face.
“Manehattan? Tonight?! Pinkie, we have an important task to do here, we can't just go and visit another place right now!”
Now in apparent panic, Pinkie shook her head. “Oh, but you must! YOU MUST! Your whole life will change because of it!” She pressed her face into Twilight's.
At Twilight's side, Starlight rolled her eyes. “Is this one of her crazy outbursts you told me about?”
“Yes,” Twilight answered, her voice still sounding annoyed, and pushed Pinkie Pie back. “More or less.” She looked at Pinkie. “What is this even supposed to mean? What Starlight and I are trying here is important and the fate of all of Equestria could depend on it! There is no way anything could be–”
Pinkie did not leave her any chance to voice her protest. “Oh, but it is! It. Is.” Her voice was hissing now. She looked into Twilight's eyes.
With Twilight now just glaring at her, eyes squinted, the pink mare trotted away a few steps again and pointed at her body, that was still acting up. “This is the sign,” she whispered mysteriously, then began to wildy point at different parts of her body. “Tail-twitch, eye-blink, hoof-shake, tail-twitch, flank-flinch, cheek-convulse, hoof-shake, eyebrow-wiggle, ear-flicker, mouth–” All off a sudden, Pinkie found herself forced to stop as her lips were wrapped into a purple aura, which kept them shut tightly.
“You don't need to go through the whole list. Make it short, Pinkie.” There was an aggressive undertone in Twilight's voice now.
Pinkie Pie immediately burst out again as Twilight released her magical grasp. “All of this!” she shouted. “Tail-twitch, eye-blink, hoof-shake, tail-twitch, flank-fli–” She stopped and squeaked as Twilight began to bare her teeth, a sheepish grin on her face. But as quickly as that expression had appeared, as quickly it disappeared again and Pinkie returned to her seriousness.
“THIS IS IMPORTANT!” she yelled. “This means my Pinkie Sense knows that something incredibly important will happen in Manehattan tonight, something that will change your life forever, Twilight!” Once more she locked eyes with the alicorn, her expression pleading now.
“Pinkie...” Twilight began, trying to be as calm as possible. “I know what your Pinkie Sense can do, but having a customized way to predict when something important will happen in my life, in Manehattan, is something that is impossible even for you. I'm sure it means something–”
Pinkie interrupted her once more. “But I can feel it! I feel it, Twilight, this is what it means! And you can't miss this!”
Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine, let's say you're right... Maybe something important and life-changing for me will happen in Manehattan tonight, but whatever it is, I'm not interested.”
Pinkie's eyes narrowed themselves at Twilight, even stopping to blink for a moment.
“As I said, I am busy fixing the map together with Starlight because we might need it to save Equestria and so I don't have time to go anywhere and search for something that could change my life.”
Her eyes still narrowed, Pinkie approached Twilight with slow hoofsteps, then pressed her face into hers until their noses touched, causing Twilight to retreat until she bumped into a wall behind her. “You don't understand how serious this is.....” Pinkie's voice hissed. “For some things there is only chance and if you miss it, you never get this chance again.”
Twilight's face took on a nervous expression, her eyes darting around. “Pinkie, I–”
“Silence! If you don't go to Manehattan tonight, everything could take a turn for the worse, all because you didn't take this one chance, and your life could be ruined forever.”
Twilight gulped at the words, but tried to remain calm. “You're not stopping until I say yes, isn't it?”
“No...” Pinkie replied, her voice hissing even stronger now.
Twilight did a deep breath, then shoved Pinkie out of her way once more. “Fine, I'll go and check it out... But only because I know that I wouldn't have a moment's rest if I keep resisting you. And if I find out there that nothing important is happening, then Celestia help me...”
After this, she had given Starlight a new instruction for her studies to keep her occupied during her absence, then she had left the throne room, Pinkie Pie looking after her, observing her movements with a straight, serious face...
And now she was here. In Manehattan, in the dark of the night and with no idea what this was all about. According to Pinkie, she needed to visit the Club Pony Party Palace, right above Rarity's new boutique, and spend her time there for the important event to happen. Twilight shook her head in confusion. This specification of her destination just made it all the more weird. But now she was here and with knowing how annoying her crazy friend could be, she decided to give the place at least a short check.
As the flashback in her mind had ended, Twilight found herself in front of the building Pinkie Pie had sent her to. Realizing that she didn't notice to be already here, she took a surprised look into the window of Rarity's boutique, the newest display only a strange mass of black shadows, as the insides of the shop were dark.
Shaking away the confusion, Twilight turned to the right and opened the brown door there. Immediately, she was greeted by faint music coming from the upper floors. A staircase was right behind the door, followed by an empty corridor the mare swiftly went through after climbing the stairs, then she ascended on a second staircase. Already the last few steps were bathed in a purple light.
Still intended to put this visit behind her as fast as possible, Twilight motioned to a small, box-like room to the left. Behind a window, a mare with a pierced lip sat, her black-painted eyes showing a bored, dull look. Slowly, she was chewing on something.
“Yeah?” she asked, her voice sounding disinterested.
Wordlessly, Twilight put a few bits on the counter and pushed them through a small hole that was cut out of the glass. The other mare nodded, then grabbed a stamp and pressed it down on Twilight's hoof. Twilight yelped in surprise and pulled it back. A blue picture of a discoball was now adorning it, the letters MCPPP under it. She grinned in embarrassment as the mare behind the counter gave her an amused, snide look, then proceeded to enter the club. She lifted her hoof as she approached the doorstallion, who nodded and opened the stand barriers for her.
Inside the club, Twilight looked around. Right in front of her was the dancefloor, lit up by tiles in blue, purple and pink colors. A group of about twenty ponies, so Twilight guessed without actually taking the time to count them, were dancing ecstatically on top of it. Her attention was drawn to three mares in the middle of the group for a moment, who stuck out from the crowd. One of them was wearing a pacifier around her neck, another one, who appeared to be a few years younger and was, judging by her size, still a teenager, lifted her flank and swung her tail in a very suggestive way. As she had noticed that Twilight was looking at her, she lowered her eyelids and shot her a seductive glance.
Twilight answered the gesture with a grin, trying to appear friendly, yet her face showed nervousness and her right eye twitched.
Looking away from the dancefloor, her eyes wandered to the left, where a few purple sofas were arranged. Only a few ponies sat there, drinks on the small tables in front of them. After moving over there quickly, Twilight sat down on an empty sofa and sighed.
“I won't stay here for long,” she spoke to herself. “Only one or two hours. If nothing happens by then, I'll leave.” She leaned back, noticing surprisedly how comfortable the sofa she sat on was, and began to observe the whole place.
On the other side of the dancefloor, opposite of her, was another arrangement of sofas, all of them empty, and to their left was a big table with a blueish-purple cloth draped over it. It was flanked by two gigantic speakers, four more of those were placed on the table itself. The top of the two upper speakers was of a blue color, instead of black like the other ones, and between them, a mixing console was placed, adorned by a blue horseshoe. Like at their last visit a few weeks ago, Vinyl Scratch, or DJ-Pon3, as she was known in the music scene and among nocturnal ponies, was putting on the music the ponies on the floor danced to. Nothing was out of the ordinary and Twilight did not feel that anything important would happen at all. Unless Pinkie's sense considered it as important when ponies who had a few drinks too much would make a slippery mess out of the dancefloor or when some high mare, be it from dancing or because of certain substances, would try to drag her off to her apartment.
Unused to all of these things, but not unaware of them, Twilight shuddered as she remembered the look by the suggestive-dancing mare again. She was by far not judging anypony's sexual interests, but she had always preferred male ponies, so the last thing she wanted to experience tonight was another mare trying to drag her into her bed.
As if on command, the pony she just thought about looked at her again, now subtly licking her lips, another suggestive expression in her eyes. In annoyance, Twilight rolled her eyes. And regretted it a moment later. A hurt expression appeared in the young mare's face, then it turned into a furious one and she turned her back on Twilight, looking into the other direction as she continued her dancing, the rhythmic movements of her flank now stronger than before.
Twilight planted a hoof in her face. “Very great, Twilight Sparkle!” she scolded herself. “You might not be the princess of love, but the reputation of being homophobic is still nothing you should strive for.” She removed her hoof from her face and let it come down on the sofa. “Just wait until I get you into my hooves, Pinkie...”
She looked at the lesbian teenager, who still had not stopped to jerk her flank around in anger, again. “I need to talk to her later.” For now, though, she decided to wait, until the young mare she had just insulted was more calm again and hopefully accepting of her apology.
Trying to forget what just happened, Twilight crossed her hooves and continued to observe the club for any odd occurences that would fit to Pinkie's dramatic behavior, avoiding eye contact with other ponies now. But no matter how closely she looked, there was nothing especially outstanding happening between the dancing ponies and the flickering, purple lights.
After an hour had passed, Twilight got up from her sofa, her legs feeling dull. “I can't sit and wait here anymore,” she grumbled. “Maybe I should check out the bar and then take a closer look at the dancefloor.”
While waiting, she had discovered a counter behind her with a mare who was hoofing out colorful drinks, which was where she now proceeded towards. Realizing that she didn't know how any of the drinks were called as she arrived there, Twilight just pointed at a blue drink a stallion was just carrying away back to one of the sofas. Having received a nod by the bartender, Twilight hoofed her some bits, then watched her mixing the drink. Nothing exciting did happen at the bar either, so she took her drink as it was finished and retreated to her sofa, a sigh leaving her lips.
Drinking from the straw in her glass, she continued to look over the dancefloor, her eyes now expressing boredom. As she was finished with it, she let her glass stand on the table and did as she had decided earlier: She went to inspect the dancefloor.
Attentively, she moved around between the rows of ponies, looking out for any who seemed unusual or appeared suspicious in some way. A lot of the ponies wore strange outfits, but other than that, there was nothing and Twilight could not detect anything of significance. Receiving more and more awkward glances by the ponies as they noticed how she was moving between them, Twilight stopped and retreated to a more or less empty corner of the dancefloor, where she performed a few alibi dance moves. Unlike her expectations, though, it only increased the intensity of the weird glances. Twilight acknowledged them with an embarrassed grin.
Making once again the resolve to get back at Pinkie for this, the alicorn mare slowly moved to the edges of the dancefloor, to get out of the awkward situation, as she suddenly noticed something in the corner of her eyes. She looked at it and gasped in surprise as she saw Vinyl Scratch waving at her. Unsure, she pointed a hoof at herself and gave the DJ a quizzical look. Vinyl nodded, then continued to wave her over.
Not thinking much of it, Twilight stopped dancing and moved over the dancefloor and behind the speakers. A few stairs led up to the mixing console there and she made her way up on them, curious as to what the DJ wanted from her.
Vinyl Scratch did not speak a word as she had arrived at her side. Instead, she just pointed to a metal door behind them. Twilight could barely make it out in the darkness behind the speakers, only seeing it as some fragment of the flashing lights found its way there. The DJ mare took a disc out from under her table, twirled it on her hoof, then swiftly replaced it with the current disc. The music stopped for a short moment, then switched to a new dance mix. Having changed the music, the female DJ trotted down the stairs and signaled Twilight to follow her.
The alicorn princess hesitated a little before she did as told. “If she leaves her mixing console like this, it's probably something important,” she deducted. “Maybe something is happening after all now, finally.” She began to trot after Vinyl, curious, but also still a bit sceptical. “I swear if not, Pinkie...” she added with a gnarl, only audible to herself.
As they had arrived at the door, a key was put into the lock, wrapped into Vinyl's red magic, and got turned around. With a push, Vinyl opened the door, Twilight following closely behind.
They were now in a small room. Twilight's eyes fell on a red sofa on the opposite side of it. A tiny window was above it, with just enough size to let in some fresh air, but not enough to see much of what was outside. It was open and a cool breeze found its way into Twilight's mane.
Having closed the door behind the alicorn princess, Vinyl pointed at the sofa welcomingly. “You can slump down over there, princess!” Then she trotted away, aiming for a fridge left of the sofa.
Twilight took seat and, while Vinyl was taking something out of the fridge, looked around in the room. As she had suspected there was indeed not much in here; just the sofa she sat on, the fridge and an assortment of framed pictures on the wall in front of her. Twilight noticed some popular album covers as well as some photos of famous music stars, Sapphire Shores and Coloratura among them.
Having finished her business at the fridge, Vinyl returned and, while sitting down at her side, hovered a soda can in front of her face.
“I hope you're down for a Cherry Bomb,” she commented her gesture.
“Yes. Thanks,” Twilight answered, a bit taken aback by the DJ's eagerness. She wrapped the can in her own magic, then opened it, letting the drink inside fizz. She took a sip, then turned towards Vinyl.
“So, Vinyl, why did you call me backstage? Is there anything you need my help for?”
The DJ shrugged. “Not really. But your dance style is awesome, so I had to invite you to talk!”
“Awesome?” Twilight's pupils shrunk in surprise. “That's something nopony said about my dancing before.” Disbelief radiated from her eyes as she looked at the other mare.
Vinyl just flashed her a grin, then opened her own can. She took a sip, then turned more towards Twilight, placing her left hoof on the back of the sofa.
“Yeah,” she said. Despite the perky, casual statement, honesty could be heard in her statement. “So, why you are you here at my party palace tonight, Twi?” she asked the princess at her side then, already dropping all the formalities.
“Well...” Twilight started an answer, but immediately trailed off, looking to the side nervously. “That's a crazy story.”
“Awesome! My whole life is a crazy story, I want to hear everything!” Vinyl hovered the can to her mouth and gulped down another portion of her drink.
“Well, if you insist, but I'm sure this story will be extreme even for you. It all started when I worked on something with my student earlier this evening...”
Vinyl stared at her curiously, the eyes behind her glasses full of excitement.
“One of my friends, Pinkie Pie, came in and...” Twilight paused, trying to find the right words. “Well, she has that really weird ability. Every time her body twitches, she can predict what's happening soon.” Twilight grimaced awkwardly at the DJ mare.
“Rad!” Vinyl answered, making only a short comment over Pinkie's unusual ability, much to Twilight's surprise. “What happened then?”
Twilight sighed at the memory. “Then she told me that her 'Pinkie Sense', that's how she calls it, had just predicted that something that would change my life would happen here in your club tonight. I didn't believe it, but she insisted, so I came here to check it out.” Twilight took a sip from her can.
“Awesome! And what happened?” Vinyl continued to ask, her voice now raised in volume and eagerness.
Twilight shook her head. “Nothing. There wasn't anything special happening here,” she said as she had gulped down the mouthful. She rolled her eyes. “It really was a waste of time to come all the way to Manehattan tonight.” The princess lowered her head and sighed again, then she brought the can to her mouth and took another sip.
“Amazing story!” Vinyl commented. “And maybe that thing's still happening. The night is young, princess!” She lifted her left hoof and gave Twilight a pat on the back so strong that it almost made her choke on her drink.
Twilight suppressed a few coughs, trying to not spill her mouth full of Cherry Bomb all over the floor of the backstage room. As she had finally swallowed it all, she coughed a few times, then looked over at Vinyl.
“You believe in those things?!” she addressed the other mare, her voice now slightly raised by annoyance.
“Yeah!” Vinyl answered. “Predictions, prophecies, looking into the future, all of that mythical stuff, that's totally true!”
Twilight's mouth gaped open as she watched the unicorn drinking from her can once more. “That's something I definitely didn't expect, I wouldn't have guessed that you all of ponies would believe in such things...”
“Sure thing, I'm more than just a crazy music mare and that's what inspired the tracks I produced!” Vinyl clarified.
Twilight was about to take another sip, but moved the can away from her face before she could. “Oh, no, that's not what I wanted to say, I was just–”
Before she could finish her sentence, Vinyl put a hoof on her mouth. “It's all swell,” she said.
“Right, swell.” Twilight grinned awkwardly as she took the word into her mouth. “But I'm really stumped to find this out, maybe that is what Pinkie predicted. She even predicted once that I would start to believe in her ability, years ago. I have no idea how this discovery is supposed to change my life, though.”
“Maybe,” the DJ replied casually. “And maybe that life-changing thing is still happening. Maybe it will even happen right now!”
“Right now?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, sceptically. “We're just sitting here and talk, I doubt anything that is–”
Before she could finish her sentence, she got silenced as the unicorn mare suddenly bent forward and placed her lips on her mouth. Twilight's pupils shrunk and a blush appeared on her face. For a second or two, Vinyl stayed like this, slightly squeezing Twilight's lips with her own, then she retreated.
“T-That was... I... This is...” Twilight stammered, then her voice broke off completely.
Without awaiting another attempt to answer by the alicorn mare, Vinyl shot her a grin, a slight tinge of red visible under her glasses as well now, then she emptied her can in one gulp, threw it into a bin in the corner and got up from the sofa.
“I need to go and take care of my music again,” she explained to the dazed mare on the sofa. “But take this before you leave.” She lit her horn and, from between the sofa cushions, a piece of paper appeared, wrapped into her red aura. She let it glide into Twilight's lap.
Confusion and surprise on her face, Twilight emptied her own can, which finally ended her rigidity. Throwing the can into the bin as well without really noticing it, she got up from the sofa too. Absentmindedly, she grabbed the piece of paper and looked at it, not quite able to read what the letters on it said.
“It's a ticket for my raveparty next week in Canterlot. Try to show up, ok?” And with that, Vinyl turned around and went outside through the door, back to her stage, leaving Twilight behind in her baffled state.
It took the alicorn mare a few moments to process what happened, then she trotted outside too, her hooves wobbly. Vinyl Scratch was already back at her console, having just placed a new disc on it. She was not turning around to Twilight and instead, rhythmically bobbing her head to the music.
Wonky, Twilight moved past the speakers and over the dancefloor. The mare she had unintentionally insulted was not here anymore. But even if she would have been, Twilight would not have paid attention to her right now and she only registered her absence at the edges of her mind. Standing in front of the doorstallion, Twilight turned around a last time, her eyes fixating themselves on the DJ. Suddenly, Vinyl was lifting her glasses, winked at her, then put them back on. A sheepish smile spread out on Twilight's face, then she went outside, down the stairs and left the building.
She was making her way back to the train station, her mind feeling drowsy all off a sudden. The lights of the nightly city and the buildings passed by in front of her eyes in a blur, yet somehow, she found her way rather automatically. She was like in trance as she trotted over the sidewalks and streets and, finally arrived at the train station, went inside of the already waiting train.
Mechanically, she sat down on the first seat right at the door and looked out the window, Vinyl's ticket still floating in the air at her side. With a sigh, she hovered it in front of her face, as the train slowly started to move and leave the station for Ponyville. While the landscape rushed past the window, Twilight stared at the ticket for minutes. Finally, she gave it another sigh. “Fine, Pinkie, you won. Let's see how good your Pinkie Sense is in predicting life-changing events...”
Still wearing a slight blush, she turned away from the window and leaned back into her seat, placing the ticket in her lap again. Feeling tired all off a sudden, she decided to take a little nap before arriving in Ponyville and closed her eyes.
“It better be worth it, Pinkie...” she muttered a few words before she dozed off to sleep.