"So... you... spin the records and it makes noises?"
Vinyl was nodding her head with a grin on her face as she stood across her own table from the pink pony. "Yup! But I don't JUST spin the records! I mix beats! I make noise! I make MUSIC!" She held a hoof in the air in triumph; a victory she awarded herself for her own proclamations.
"If you can call that earth cracking, mind numbing sound music."
Vinyl groaned and turned to face Octavia. "Hey, just because my music wasn't made two hundred years ago by some long dead pony doesn't make it any less music!" said the white unicorn mare, pointing at Octavia.
"No, what makes it any less music is that what you do is little more than remixing and vandalizing music made by somepony else."
Vinyl scowled at her friend.
"I'll have you know I do a LOT more than just 'mix music made by other ponies.' I can make my own sounds, with the push of buttons I can produce just about any noise I need, with the spin of a disc I can make that noise any pitch, give it rhythm..."
"All on borrowed sounds, by your own admittance."
Vinyl gritted her teeth. "It's using sounds made by an instrument! I'd think you'd be able to appreciate that!
Octavia laughed. "Please! At least my instrument requires musical knowledge; anypony can push buttons and turn discs!"
Vinyl growled and leaned over her own turntable. "Oh!? Well then why don't YOU try it, little miss superior?"
Octavia leaned over, shoving her face into Vinyl's. "I would NEVER befoul myself with your wretched, overly hyped piece of record destroying equipment!"
"GIRLS!"
The two ponies stopped and looked over to the pink pony standing a distance away. It was then Pinkamena realized that all eyes were on her, and she became a tad nervous. "Uh... I mean, I think both musics can be equally good, right? There's no reason somepony can't like BOTH of them? For their own special qualities? Can't we just agree to disagree?"
Octavia and Vinyl looked at each other, then back to Pinkamena, and said at the same time...
"No!"
Pinkamena shrank back as the two ponies continued to bicker and argue. The pink pony let out a defeated sigh and decided now was as good a time as any to explore town, so she turned and trotted towards the front door of the little cottage, opened it, and stepped out, being sure to gently close it behind her.
Once more, Pinkamena was face-to-face with Ponyville. She had, to be honest, hoped the next time she came out she would be in her sister's company, but she knew Octavia well enough to know that her sister would not stop arguing until either she got the point across (which, judging by the passion Vinyl obviously felt about her noise-making table, was not likely to happen anytime soon) or when her voice started to give out. If there was one thing she learned on the Rock Farm, it was that if you wanted to get something done, sometimes you had to take the initiative.
It was so much easier to do when you were farming rocks.
Pinkamena gulped nervously and began to trot down the street, ready to begin her adventure.
The sights were, by her own admittance, very interesting. Never had she seen so many ponies before! In fact... never had she seen so many none-earth ponies! It seemed for every earth pony she saw, she saw just as many unicorns and pegasai! There was a level of fear in her for this; her community had always regarded Unicorns as sinful, evil beings who corrupted and perverted reality with their wicked magic, changing things from their natural ways through unnatural means. The Pegasai were not quite as maligned, for they often proved helpful to the community (or at least those who grew crops and raised cattle) but still, she had never seen a pegasus up close before (it was rare any of the pegasai would turn their attention from cloud work to do anything beyond maybe talking with the community elder.)
As Pinkamena was on her merry way, she stopped when she felt her knee get pinchy, and her tail was twitching. "Wait... that... that's not a combo...."
Quickly, Pinkamena hopped to the side just in time to see a single cupcake fall from the sky and land on the floor.
"You hack! You couldn't make pastries if the perfect batch was sitting right in front of you and all you had to do was put on the icing!"
"If the perfect batch was right in front of me and I had no recollection of making it, I'd assume I made it in a drunken stupor before I assumed it came from YOUR crummy little shop of horrors, you bitch!"
Pinkamena's jaw dropped. Never before had she heard anypony fight like that! And why one of the ponies involved was referring to another pony as a breeding dog, she would never know... unless... can dogs bake? And talk for that matter? Curiosity lead the pink mare to turn her attention to realize that there were two ponies standing outside of two stores, arguing with each other.
One of them was a lanky stallion with yellow fur and an orange mane. From this distance, she could barely make out freckles on his face, and three pieces of cake on his flank. Across from him was a shorter, slightly pudgy blue mare with a spirally pink mane, her own flank adorned with three cupcakes.
"What!? I'll have you know my cupcakes and muffins are considered top-of-the-line! TOP! OF! THE! LINE! You halfwit!"
"Yeah!? Well I'll have YOU know that my cookies and my cakes have won competitions!"
"Mine too!"
"Only because mine weren’t there!"
The two ponies seemed ready to rip each other apart. Pinkamena couldn't help but notice a grey pegasus mare trotting out of one of the bakeries holding a box of muffins. Immediately, something that struck her as odd was the mare's eyes didn't seem to match up. Slowly, the mare poked at the other mare's flank.
"WHAT!?"
The blue mare's eyes softened and showed visible regret. "Oh! Oh, I'm so, SO sorry Derpy! I didn't mean to-- I mean, uh... what can I do for you?"
The other mare seemed a bit shaken, but she smiled. "Uh... I... I think I'd like to pay for my muffins now, Miss Cup?"
The so-called 'Cup' smiled. "Oh, sweety, please! It's on the house! Go ahead, take them with my blessing!"
Just then, the stallion leaned to the side. "Hey! I'll give you twice as many muffins with twice the quality! For free! I'll even throw in a cookie!"
Derpy bit her lip and galloped away. "Sorry! I don't want to be in the middle of this!"
The two watched her leave before turning on each other, the mare grinning. "See? She obviously likes MY muffins better!"
The stallion growled. "She only left because she didn't want YOU to flip your lid when she took my masterpieces! If you had been somewhere else, that filly of hers would be teething on muffins so delicious it can only be described as art! ART!"
The two continued to bicker, and Pinkamena decided she would not force herself to watch this monstrosity of a pastry battle anymore. Content to let those two crazy ponies fight out whatever little grudge match they had, she trotted forward, hoping to find something more pleasant. Just as she was turning a corner, however, she bumped into somepony and fell on her back.
"PLEASE DON'T HIT ME! I'M NOT FROM AROUND HERE!"
It took a few moments before Pinkamena realized she was the one who had screamed that sentence.
"What!? Hit ya!? Why in th' wide wide world would Ah do somethin' as rude as that?"
Pinkamena righted herself to see before her an orange coated mare. Her hair was blonde, hung in braids on either side of her head. Her face was adorned with freckles, her eyes emerald green, and she wore a red bandanna around her neck.
"Y'all alright? Sorry Ah bumped into ya, Ah wasn't payin' attention t' where Ah was goin'!"
Pinkamena sighed a breath of relief - FINALLY, somepony who wasn't fighting! She smiled a sincere smile (that she didn't notice was more like a massive grin) and nodded her head enthusiastically. "Oh yes, I'm fine! I've just been seeing a lot of ponies fighting and arguing, so it's good to see somepony being polite!"
The other pony quirked a brow. "Oh... you new in town or somethin'?"
Pinkamena nodded again. "Oh yes! I'm from a small community a short distance from here, we sell rocks and rock accessories, and I'm here on my coming of age rite of passage!"
The other pony smiled. "Oh! A rock farmer eh? Well, mah family owns a farm too! We sell apples n' apple accessories!"
"Yup?"
"Yup!"
"Eeyup."
The two ponies jumped around to see a stallion trotting up towards them. This stallion was perhaps the single largest specimen of male that Pinkamena had ever seen; his coat was apple red, his orange mane cut mid-length, he had a rather stoic expression on his face and a wheat stalk hung from his mouth. Around his neck hung a yoke that seemed to be rather worn, yet still quite sturdy.
"Oh sweet merciful geodes he's a biggun..." said Pinkamena.
The other mare quirked her brow. "What? Big McIntosh?" She grinned a bit. "Yeah, he's mah big brother! One'a th' biggest n' strongest ponies in Ponyville! Why, ya'd be hard pressed t' find a stallion quite as big OR as strong as Big Mac here! Right Big Mac?"
The stallion looked down at his sister. "Now Applejack, you remember what Granny told y'all about boastin'."
Applejack, as she was called, looked down at the ground. "Ah know, Ah know..." she turned her attention back to her brother. "But why not be proud? Y'all worked hard t' be th' stallion you are!"
Big McIntosh did not change his stoic expression. "Applejack, Ah do believe we've got some things to do for a certain family reunion? We've got durn near every relative within a hundred miles comin' here, an' Granny's been feelin' a mite down late, so Ah want it t' go over well, if that's alright with you?"
Applejack gasped. "Ah almost forgot!"
She turned about and shook Pinkamena's hoof. "Look, we'll catch up later if y'all like, but we got a schedule to keep up with! Don't be a stranger now, y'hear?"
With that, the two ponies continued their trot down the street. Pinkamena watched them until they turned a corner and disappeared.
"... F-Forgive me... for I think I am having impure thoughts..."
Quickly, she shook her head to clear her mind. There would be time to chastise herself for her hormones later. For now, she had a town to explore! So, onward she went, trotting back down the path she was headed before her impromptu fight with physics.
Once more, Pinkamena found herself just looking around, admiring the number of ponies and the general atmosphere. Somewhere in her head, she couldn't help but find herself thinking that town life was almost like a party in and of itself. Sure, there was no loud music, and no confetti, but ponies were enjoying each others' company still, talking, bartering, trading, exchanging laughs... it was all interrupted by the sound of her stomach growling. Pinkamena had realized that she hadn't eaten since breakfast, and it was almost late noon! Her new mission was clear; she needed to get a bite to eat!
***********
"Oh sweet merciful Celestia, where is she!?"
Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were trotting side-by-side, looking around - Octavia a little more frantically so than Vinyl. "She's never been in Ponyville before! She doesn't know the town! What if she's lost!? What if she wandered out of town!? What if she--" Octavia's pupils shrank to pinpricks. "What if she wandered into the Everfree Forest!?"
Vinyl waved a hoof. "C'mon now, Octi. I doubt your sister is so scatterbrained that she'd wander into a spooky lookin' forest, right?"
Octavia grabbed Vinyl and pulled her very close. "Listen to me you hooligan! Pinkamena is NOT afraid of the dark! She's not afraid of scary trees! The only time she feels threatened is in the presence of clear and obvious danger! If she felt the need to explore, she would do so without a moment's hesitation!"
Vinyl's shades slid down, allowing her to stare Octavia in the eyes. "So... wait... she MIGHT be ditzy enough to go there?"
Octavia pushed Vinyl to the ground. "Of course she is! The only thing that kept her from leaving the community in the first place was knowing it would make daddy mad! But now she's on her rite of passage, and as far as she's been told, there IS no restrictions, no places she can't go! She doesn't know what half of the people of this town take for granted! Why, if somepony were to tell her they had food hidden in a dark and spooky alley, she'd go right with them none the wiser!"
"None the wiser of what?"
Both ponies leapt into each others' forelegs and turned to the source of their startling. Standing before them was none other than Pinkamena, a little dirtier than she was when she left.
"Pinkamena, what happened!?" shouted Octavia.
"Oh! Well, after you two were fighting about which was better between your classical music and Vinyl's table music, I decided I wasn't going to get anywhere with my town exploration waiting for you two, so I went on ahead on my own and saw a lot of ponies, and then I got a tail-a-twitcha-twitchin', so ducked before the cupcake hit my head, then I saw two ponies fighting each other, which explained why I felt a pinch-a-pinchin' in my knee, and then--"
"Pinkamena!" interrupted Octavia. "Please! Skip to the part where you tell us why you're so filthy!"
Pinkamena nodded. "Well, I got hungry after having impure thoughts about Big McIntosh and then I went to some kind of food place and ordered a big meal! I didn't even know you could have more than one dish! Well, anyway, after that they told me that I had to pay! Apparently you need bits to eat here, instead of trading services and stuff, so they had me wash dishes to make up the difference! I mean, if you say one thing and do the other, what's the point!? Well, anyway, I got REALLY messy cause I ate a lot of food and had to wash a lot of dishes to make up for it, and a lot of them were still pretty messy! I'm probably gonna need a bath when we get back home!"
Octavia had her hoof on her face since the statement about impure thoughts.
"Right... well... is everything okay Pinkamena? Nopony did anything did they? You didn't take any food from strangers or go into any dark alleys?"
Pinkamena shook her head. "Nope! I stuck to the streets until I smelled the delicious smell coming from that place!" She pointed a hoof towards a nearby cafe where a stallion was sticking his head out of the door. "And don't come back until ya have some money!"
Pinkamena shrugged. "Who knew?"
Octavia sighed a bit. "Well... I guess if you still feel like exploring, we can take you to a few more places? After all, it's the least I could do to make it up to you..."
Pinkamena gasped. "Really!? You'd do that for me!?"
Octavia smiled and nodded. "Of course, dear sister. Now, shall we away?"
Vinyl shrugged. "Should I tag along with you and Pinkie or you two wanna be alone and have some bonding time?"
Pinkamena quirked a brow. "Pinkie? Who's Pinkie?"
Vinyl looked towards Octavia with a concerned look on her face. "She's joking, right?"
Octavia rolled her eyes. "Pinkamena, she means you. She just took your name and shortened it... and then added the "ee" sound at the end because it's her way of 'endearing' ponies.
Pinkamena tapped a hoof to her chin. "Oh.... Pinkie! .... Pinkie Pie...." She stood upright. "Pinkie Pie!" She looked to Octavia. "Pinkie Pie!" A big grin spread across her face. "Pinkie Pie!" She burst into a fit of giggles and snorts. "I like it! It's so... so... me!"
This was met by mixed responses; Vinyl grinned triumphantly. "Pinkie Pie IS a pretty cool sounding name!"
Meanwhile, Octavia groaned and rubbed her forehead with her hoof. "Oh great, now she's taking ideas from Vinyl... these two will be the death of me yet..."
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TO BE CONTINUED...