//------------------------------// // Party Hard // Story: Order and Chaos // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// As Pinkie pronked her way through the portal, she found herself in a wide cavernous space filled with streamers, confetti, balloons, and suggestive banners. She immediately felt right at home as she bounced around the creatures of various shapes drawn out of nightmares and fever dreams, eagerly waving hi and greeting them all. When intense fiddle music cut the air, she immediately made her way towards the source so she could dance. As the song played from the stage, telling a rather interesting tale of 'the devil' and 'Johnny', Pinkie went looking for a dance partner that could keep up with her, and soon found herself dancing with a red skinned humanoid in silver armor. The symbolism escaped her, however, and instead threw herself into the dancing. To her surprise, the red man could keep up with her on the dance floor, even if most of the other dancers found themselves flattened against the nearest wall from careless hip checks. While she'd normally be concerned about sending strangers flying at a party she'd just arrived at, but the other guests seemed to applaud it, so she wasn't going to question it. As she danced to the music, however, a frown crossed her face. When the song got to the part about the actual fiddle battle, it felt...subpar. Was that really the best they could do? "Hold on a second!" she screamed out before leaping onto the stage. Going up to the fiddle player doing the part of 'Johnny', she promptly hip checked them away before catching the fiddle and bow in her forelegs as they came down. "Let's show this crowd a performance the devil would be proud to lose to!" Her dance partner laughed jovially. "I like your style!" he called out, lifting his hand to the other performer. 'The devil' happily tossed his fiddle and bow over to the red skinned man, who caught both easily and put bow to strings. "I'll start this show." As the bow on the fiddle made an evil hiss, Pinkie dragged her own bow across her fiddle with an angelic hum. The two then began playing, putting their all into the music as they played around each others' performances, each trying to outdo the other while also balancing their playing against each other so the two melodies blended seamlessly. The entire audience was soon clapping along to the beet, stomping their feet/hooves/tails/pseudopods to the rhythm, cheering wildly. As the pair continued to play, Pinkie was able to shape her music to her partner/foe readily as she could sense how the music would play...until she decided to up the ante. The music began to speed up as Pinkie increased her rhythm, and she locked eyes with the red man as she grinned from ear to ear. His answering grin was an odd combination of friendly and vicious, and he moved to keep pace in the music. The music got faster and faster, still keeping the tune, until the red man let out a yelp as his fingers began to smoke. He dropped the fiddle and blew on his fingertips, watching as the fiddle and bow he'd dropped burst into flames. Pinkie, for her part, continued her own music, slowly winding down as she played the music for the whole song one last time as she danced around the stage for a victory lap to the cheers of all watching. As a final flourish, she flipped the fiddle against the bow and launched it through the air before dashing across the room, setting an apple on the red man's head for the fiddle to pluck off like an arrow as it flew, pinning it against the far wall. The red man laughed gaily as he eagerly applauded. "Bravo, young one! Bravo! You sure do know your way around a fiddle!" "Actually, I never played one before!" Pinkie offered with a smile. "Personally, I prefer playing One Mare Band." "Oh?" the red man asked curiously. "How does that work?" Grinning from ear to ear, Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out all the instruments she used to lead the Parasprites out of Ponyville. She then proceeded to play her instruments to demonstrate what she meant. Quickly catching on, the red man pulled out his own set of different instruments, and the game of musical one upsmanship continued as more and more instruments were pulled out of nowhere and expertly played until the volume of instruments overflowed the cavern. Pinkie gasped for breath as she lay atop the massive pile of instruments, the red man laughing at her side. Grinning, she hopped to her hooves. "I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name?" The red man chuckled softly. "I am Sanguine, Daedric Prince of Debauchery," he introduced himself with a bow, its grace only marred by the fact he didn't bother to take an upright position first. Pinkie tilted her head. "Debt archery?" she asked in confusion. "I know nopony likes the tax collector, but is that really the sort of thing to make a title out of?" Sanguine laughed to himself. "No, debauchery. The pleasurable excesses of celebration. The baser urges that sapient species suppress, but unleash at times of revelry-" Pinkie's excited gasp interrupted Sanguine's explanation. "You're the Prince of Parties!" she proclaimed eagerly. Snaguine blinked a few times, then chuckled. "I admit I'd never thought of it that way, as most of the 'parties' I've seen amongst mortals are the sort I'd crash to inject a good amount of debauchery into-" "Oh, like the Grand Galloping Gala!" Pinkie interrupted again. "Yeah, that was a total snooze fest! Parties are supposed to be about fun and cutting loose, not being snooty!" Sanguine grinned widely enough to rival Pinkie's. "I like you, Pinkie Pie." "Neato torpedo!" Pinkie squealed happily. At that moment, a large torpedo shot into the pile of instruments they were laying on, causing a large explosion. "Hit the deck!" Pinkie shouted, tossing some playing cards over the side. "Should have known letting Discord shape an undefined Pleasure Pocket for me would make things a little chaotic," Sanguine muttered to himself as he stared at the shifting world. "Well this ship isn't going down without a fight!" Pinkie proclaimed as the instruments gathered together into a destroyer, sailing in a circle in a sea of pudding against a battleship with a pie crust hull and cheesecake filling. "Fire the canons!" Grinning, Sanguine pulled a nearby lever and bombarded the enemy ship with books, causing it to sink under the weight, crumbling into floatsam. "Now this is exciting!" "What were you saying about Pleasure Pockets?" Pinkie asked curiously. Sanguine chuckled before explaining. "I have different realms for different types of parties, depending on how I want to indulge. Discord made this one for me for when I didn't have any specific type of party I wanted to indulge in, or when I wanted to be a bit more random." "Oh, I like random!" Pinkie proclaimed. "I am the Queen of Random!" "So I've noticed," Sanguine agreed with a chuckle. "I can't think of a way this could have been more fun." "I can!" Pinkie countered. "But I can't...hang on!" Turning, she pushed her face through- ajsnhbfasdjbvljhsdgbas,bgvsadhlfjhasdlfjlhgsdajgfhsdjahfgnm,asdbsdjahgjkshalfgjkdshgfvjkahsdljhasdfjhlsdkfjalasdjka -and pulled her head back in as reality returned to normal. "Sweet! We're rated Teen!" Sanguine blinked for a bit, pushing from his mind the blatant breaking of reality that made the powers of CHiM look like stage magic. "And that means...?" "Implication is fine, just keep it off panel!" Pinkie proclaimed eagerly. Turning towards Sanguine, she lowered her head and wriggled her hindquarters... ...and then pounced. An unknown amount of time later, Sanguine laid back with Pinkie curled up on his chest. "...I have so many questions..." he murmured softly. Pinkie giggled somewhat drunkenly, despite not having drunk anything...alcoholic. "Take a shot fer the reference!" she proclaimed happily. "How did you manage to get my armor off?" Sanguine demanded curiously. "Oh, I have my ways," Pinkie purred, nuzzling Sanguine's bare chest. "Ear scratchies?" Chuckling, Sanguine complied, lifting a hand to scratch her behind the ear. After a time, he reached into the ether and pulled out the Sanguine Rose, handing the glowing staff to the pony on top of him. Pinkie giggled as she took it. "A single rose...Saggy, are you trying to court me?" she asked teasingly, looking up into his face and fluttering her eyelashes. Sanguine was quite glad he lacked a true physical heart: he was certain that if he had one, it would have exploded then and there. "Absolutely," he confirmed. "The fact that Discord marked that as the artifact you needed to collect from me is a total coincidence." "Either that or he was playing matchmaker," Pinkie offered, snuggling up again. Sanguine smiled down at the pink pony. "...going to go join your friends?" "Eventually," Pinkie allowed. "...can you pull some music out of my mane?" Raising an eyebrow, Sanguine reached a hand into Pinkie's thick curls. When he pulled his hand out, music began to play. After listening for a time, he smiled, sitting back with one hand behind his head while the other continued the ear scratches.