After eating with the Apple family, I decided to go into town, to find a place to sleep for the next few nights, at least.
When I went into town, I saw several houses on a VERY raised level. Around 50 feet!
'How am I supposed to get up THERE?' I thought to myself.
As if on cue, a platform lowered for me.
"Well, that's convenient." I thought aloud, stepping on.
When it brought me up all the way, I trotted into town. The houses were much as I remembered from long, long ago. But, you know, with some... improvements.
I saw several houses, but one house that caught my eye looked like it was split in two. One side looked classical, while the other looked like... well... I don't know how to describe it!
Either way, I recognized it as Octavia and Vinyl Scratch's house.
Trotting up to the door, I knocked.
When the door opened, I saw Octavia, looking exasparated. "Yes?" she deadpanned.
"Hi. I'm Winter Fields."
"Hi. I'm confused." she said, blinking twice, suddenly awake.
"A pleasure." I joked. "I'm wondering if you have a spare room for the night."
"As it happens..." she started, not finishing. She pointed to the sign at the side of the front door.
"Uh... You might say that I'm not from around here?" I said, somewhat embarassed.
"Just put one hoof on it and shake it." she replied, rolling her eyes.
Doing just that, the sign translateed to English. "Nice." I said.
The sign read as follows.
ROOM FOR RENT.
Looking at the sign, Octavia said, "Oh. You're one of those ones. Come in!" she finished, moving aside.
When I stepped in, I saw that the inner area was much like the outer. Complete with a 70" TV. "Groovy." I said, raising my eyebrows.
Octavia smiled brightly. "You're the first one recently that hasn't reacted poorly to the aesthetic of the house."
"Well," I started in reply, "I am a music fan myself."
Octavia grinned outright at that. "I'm liking you more and more!" Then she turned and exclaimed, "VINYL! Come meet our new tenant!"
Vinyl trotted out, oddly enough in bipedal form. "Qui es, 'Tavi?" she queried. "Go go Ponify." she finished, becoming quadrupedal once more.
I waved. "Allo!"
Vinyl smiled. "I see you speak fancy too."
I blushed at that. "Only a bit. Not enough to carry a full conversation. When I was in grade four I read through my... classes in that language. They let me. Upside: I received a Reader's Achievement medal for being able to read at five grades my senior. Downside: My French- I mean, Prench- was stunted. I was able to catch up in later years, but not entirely.(1)"
"Bummer." Vinyl said curtly.
"Tell me about it." I replied. "So what's with the Anthro form?
"I was restoring some ancient tech." she said. "I think i fixed it, but I can't get it to work."
"Can I see it?" I asked.
"Sure. Follow me."
Walking into the back, I saw-
"A Wii?" In near mint condition, too!
"You know what this is?" Vinyl asked.
"Hook it up to thet TV you have and I'll show you what it can do."
Looking at it, I could see that a crystal was plugged into the back. Otherwise it looked fairly normal. It also had all of the requirements for it to work.
After it was hooked up, the TV was turned on. Apparently there was a Just Dance CD in it.
I grinned. This was practically an old glove for me.
"You know about this?" Vinyl asked.
"Just watch me." I said. "Go Go: Anthro!"
Sure enough, I shifted to the Anthro form. Grabbing the Wii-mote, I attached it to my now-hand.
Picking out a song, I stretched before picking a character. The song started up...
(2)
As the song ended, Vinyl said, "That was awesome!" Octavia just yawned.
"There's more!" I said, grinning.
Partway through the song, Octavia came over, interested.
As that ended, Octavia was smiling. "That was lovely!" she said.
I replied, "Ah, but you ain't seen nothin' yet! Watch this one!"
(3)
As it turned out, both liked that one.
"Wow." they said simultaneously.
Suddenly, an alarm went off.
"A monster attack?! Blast!" Octavia said. "And it was just getting good. To the armaments!"
They invited me to join, which I accepted.
As it turned out, there was a swarm of Rathalos.
"Fire when ready." Octavia growled with grim determination, by a Binder.
I took a Ballista, while Vinyl sat at a cannon, using her magic to lift cannonballs into the cannon..
As one of the junior Rathalos got closer, Octavia fired off a round, binding it. While it flailed around, I fired some shots at it, bringing it down.
When a senior one got close, Vinyl let loose, slamming the beast with several cannonballs at once, causing it to crash as Vinyl reloaded.
A Silver Rathalos flew by. Octavia pressed a button and all three of us let loose, Octavia's Binder firing a flaming coil of energy, bringing it down.
When an Azure Rathalos came, I pressed a button nearby and out came a familiar armament.
A voice exclaimed, "D-D-D-Dragonator!" Taking careful aim, I fired that at the new target, only to find that Vinyl had the same idea; full-on overkill.
As that crashed nearby, the rest of the monsters flew away, other houses firing at them, bringing a few down.
Octavia and Vinyl brought out their carving knives, myself getting one as well.
As we carved off various parts, Octavia asked, " Where'd you learn to- Ngh! Aim so well?"
I smiled. "Let's just- ragh! Just say i- ngh- have my share of ngh-experience."
After that, we put the parts in one bin, the corpses of the monsters into another.
A ticker rang up our reward. Octavia said, wiping her brow, "I can tell this is going to be a wonderful partnership."
Vinyl asked, "How's that?"
Octavia replied, "Anypony who can get an ancient machine working, entertain us, then bring down a Silver Rathalos and aid with downing an Azure Rathalos with such accuracy... Is somepony I want on my side!"
Vinyl said, "Fair enough! Now what say we order some pizza?"
As it turned out, with all of the new things, some things never change.