//------------------------------//
// Drunken Revelations 
// Story: The Unwilling Command 
// by KGBCowgirl 
//------------------------------//

	I slammed back another shot, my twentieth for the evening. I looked over to Vinyl's station, seeing her grin while she made the entire club reverberate with her mixes. She had left me at the bar, saying that she needed to help Octavia for the evening. I looked at the clock, which read 11:52, and wondered if I should do something crazy for my actual birthday since I was already drunk enough. I pulled out a fifty dollar bill and laid it on the bar, signalling the bartender that I was ready to pay my rather expensive tab. He walked over and looked at the money, then at me.

"What's this for?" He asked. I stared at him, confused.

"To pay my tab?" I responded questioningly. I received a laugh in response.

The bartender slid the bill back to me, and I was even more confused at this point. He stopped laughing before pointing to Vinyl. "The boss said tonight's drinks were on the house for you. She also said to tell you to meet her in her office after you were done." He paused for a bit before asking me, "Was you old boss really threatening PON3 and Octavia?"

My stomach dropped a bit as I was reminded of what I'd done several hours earlier. "I don't want to talk about that little experience..." I muttered. He looked at me with what I guessed was sympathy and left me, still not taking the fifty. I sighed as I pocketed my money and walked towards the manager's office. I waved to Vinyl as I passed, and she seemed to light up a bit at that. I smiled back before continuing to her office. I opened the door to see Octavia sitting in a chair, facing the door.

She looked me in the eyes before speaking. "Ah, Mister Cross. You've finished calming down?"

"I thought I was meeting with Vinyl in here..." I said, going on the defensive a bit. I knew that Octavia wasn't hostile, but I wasn't sure if she was friendly either. "The bartender said that 'the boss' wanted to meet my in here..."

Octavia smiled. "And I do." She said simply. "You are aware that we asked for you specifically, correct?"

I frowned and crossed my arms. "I was under the impression that Vinyl was the owner... And no, I was not aware of such. I figured Luke went off the basic description of 'someone who had experience with clubs,' and my name came up."

Octavia's smile grew wider. She seemed to be enjoying my discomfort, which was not being helped by my inebriation. "Vinyl simply could not stop talking about you. She also said that when you two were on the stage together, it felt almost like she was on a date."

I stared at Octavia in mild confusion, who seemed to be shifting nervously under my gaze, if her fading smile was anything to go by. I realized I wasn't wearing my glasses still. My eyes seemed to freak people out, no matter what I did, their color caused a great deal of discomfort. "A... date?" I asked, my nervousness filtering through to my voice. "I, uh..." I was at a loss for words, but couldn't find a way to change the subject.

"Oh, dear." Octavia said. "Was that too sudden? I do apologize for that, but I wanted to make sure you were aware of how Vinyl felt before she did something..." She looked down at the floor, fiddling with a pen in her hands.

I suddenly felt horrible about my reaction. I was about to respond when Vinyl walked into the office, sweat pouring off of her. She seemed exhausted, but her expression lit up when she saw that I was also present in the office. I smiled back, more than a little nervous about the recent development, but choked down my discomfort. I was about to say something when Vinyl rushed up to me and gave me a hug. I didn't know how to react, just standing there with the DJ wrapped around my midsection. I decided to return the hug, catching a slight whiff of her hair when she moved closer. She smelled vaguely of grapes and blueberries, under the obvious scent of her sweat from being up on stage in the sweltering club environment.

"What's up, Bass Drop?" She asked happily as she released me. "I saw you wave when you came back here. You need something?" Her purple glasses did next to nothing to conceal her excitement, since she was close enough for me to see her eyes through the lenses.

"Uh, maybe..." I said, looking over to Octavia, who appeared to be suppressing a great deal of laughter, if the fact that her eyes were glinting and she was concealing a grin behind her hand was anything to go by. "Miss Octavia here apparently wanted to see me about something."

Octavia's eyes widened a bit before she waved a hand in a dismissive gesture. "Oh, no. I think I've already let you know everything about the job here. I'll just leave you two alone." She stood up quickly and rushed out the door, as the door shut, I could make out the quiet click of it locking from the outside. "Have fun in there!" She called through the door.

I rushed to the door, banging on it loudly. "Dammit, Octavia! Let me out of here, I have work to do!" As I think back on it now, it would have more than likely been best for me to have not had my back turned to Vinyl for any length of time that evening. I felt something soft press up against my back, and a warm air blowing across the back of my neck. I may have been drunk off my ass, but I could still tell that Vinyl had managed to drink way more than myself. I could almost taste the alcohol on her breath, it was so strong. 'Am I about to be raped by Vinyl Scratch?' I wondered. I didn't get paid enough for this, considering I had no preparation for this particular extracurricular activity. "Uh, Vinyl..."

She didn't respond, but I felt her trying to unbutton my pants. Her hot breath still washed over the nape of my neck. I put my hand down at my waist and pulled her own hand away. I turned around to say something, but had to fend off her rushing me, obviously trying to kiss me. I was drunk, she was smashed, and Octavia had just locked us in a small room. Under other circumstances, I would have been thanking the gods for my fortune, but I had a woman who I thought may or may not be able to use telekinetic magic running her hands all over me, while I had no way to protect myself, both from her advances and the prospect of unwanted children. At that moment, I was very glad that I had a second, almost unreachable from the outside, button holding my pants closed.

"Vinyl, this is extremely inappropriate..." I said as she gave up on my pants and had moved on to removing my other clothes. My trench coat had already been tossed across the room and my shirt was not about to face the same fate. I grabbed Vinyl's wrists and held them at her shoulders. "Miss Scratch!" I yelled. "I appreciate that you like me, you're very attractive, yourself. However, I cannot condone you attempting to... mmpf!" I was cut off when she lunged at me and caught my mouth with hers. I could taste exactly what she had drunk before she came to the office: a really strong daiquiri. I fell into such a state of shock that I released her arms and let my own reach around her waist.

She leaned back, releasing my mouth. She spoke in a slightly slurred voice, the smell of the rum from her drink still present. "You wanna keep those on?" She pointed to my pants. "Fine! But I wanna make some sweet wub to... you..." She fell forward and I caught her before she hit the floor. I could hear the snores quietly coming from her mouth. I sighed before I looked at the couch, then back at the passed out woman.

"Well, fuck me..." I said. I thought I heard Vinyl mumble "With pleasure," but ignored the response. I picked Vinyl up and laid her down on the couch. I threw my coat over her sleeping form before I searched for a way to open the office door. After nearly and hour of searching through every crack and crevice of the office and it's furniture, I threw my hands up in defeat and returned my attention to the sleeping DJ. I weighed my options: One, sleep on the floor and risk Vinyl either falling on me or waking up and attempting to rape me again. Two, sleep in the chair, run less of a risk of being raped, but have to deal with the back problems in the morning. And three... Three was the riskiest idea of the bunch. I could sleep on the couch with Vinyl and hope that she wouldn't try to doing anything rash in the morning.

I ended up picking number three. Before I laid down, I pulled out my pistol from the holster in the coat, removed the magazine, and made sure the safety was on before hiding it behind the couch. I could retrieve it in the morning. Then, I lifted up the coat, moved to the position behind Vinyl, and laid the coat back down over both of us. I was about to consider myself home free until I saw Vinyl turn over to face me. I almost jumped off the couch until I felt her nuzzle into my chest, take sleeping possession of my right arm, and go back to sleep. I sighed, then laid my left arm over her and fell asleep.





I awakened to the familiar sight of the ceiling of the manager's office of Club PON3. I looked over to the clock on the wall, which read 8:37. I had no idea of it was morning or evening, due to the lack of windows in the room. I stretched and sat up, feeling the grogginess that accompanied my usual hangovers. I groaned as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, then slowly stood up. I stumbled a bit as I opened the door to the office. I was met with the sun leaking in through a window down the hall.

"Sunlight... evil..." I groaned loudly, my displeasure vocalized with the sight of natural light. I turned back around and tracked down my glasses, put them on, and walked out again. I made my way to the main floor of the club, spotting the sleeping form of Vinyl on one of the large angled couches near the hallway, her glasses missing. I wandered to the bar, trying to find something that could fix my fatigue. "Fully functioning bar, and they don't have any fucking NOS..." I muttered to myself.

"That's because we never get requests for it," I heard Octavia say from the other side of the bar. I swore as I stood too fast and cracked my head on the counter. "Are you all right?" She asked, appearing concerned.

I groaned for the third time that morning before replying. "Just hung over and in need of saturated caffeine. Usual morning antics for me..." She didn't look any less concerned at this. I sighed before continuing. "I'm not a morning person, sorry. Or a day person in general for that matter..." This elicited a giggle from the dark-haired woman. I detected something other than amusement in her giggle, but ignored it as I spotted a green and black can. I did my best impression of a chorister while singing. "Nectar of the gods!" I popped open the can and chugged its entire contents, suppressing a belch before standing. My view revealed a groggy Vinyl sitting at the bar.

"Gimme one of those..." She mumbled, rubbing her eyes. I looked at her suspiciously, wondering if she remember the night before. I pulled out another Monster and cracked it open before handing it to her. Her red eyes widened a little bit before she reached over the bar and gave me a one-handed hug around my neck. "You're my new favorite pony!" She exclaimed before giving Octavia an apologetic smile. "Sorry, 'Tavi..." I watched as she drank from the can and sighed contentedly. Her words went through my head, throwing up only one red flag.

"Uh, did you just say... pony?" I asked nervously. Vinyl stopped mid-drink, and I saw Octavia stiffen from the corner of my eye. "You know what? The whole cosplay thing was cool for a while, and you two have your characters down to a "T"..." I spoke slowly, my headache beginning to come back. "But, it's getting a little weird."

"Uh, right... about that..." Octavia began.

I shook my head. "Uh, uh. It's too early for this shit..." I grabbed my head and snapped my eyes shut as the headache progressed into a migraine. "I didn't even have the whole bottle..." I opened my eyes to see both Octavia and Vinyl staring at me as if I had... "Do I have something on my face?" I asked in a slightly panicked voice. I dared not move my hands now, save to massage my temples in an attempt to ease the pain.

"No, dude..." Vinyl said, her red eyes still wide.

Octavia finished for her. "You appear to be glowing..."

'Eh?' I thought before looking for a white wall. I found one in the sound room, go figure. I held my hand up and looked at a perceived point between the wall and my hand. It took a few seconds, but I finally made out a whitish-blue shimmer around my fingertips, which overlapped my aura, which, while normally orange with a soft blue undertone, now also had a dirty brown overlay in addition to the aforementioned shimmering. I figured that my insecurity had something to do with either my killing Mikael, or my discomfort surrounding my interesting evening with Vinyl.

I walked out of the room, coming face to face with both women immediately. I gave them no chance to speak before asking. "Whitish-blue?" They nodded. "Around my whole body?" More nodding. "Hmm, is it anything like Vinyl's aura?" Half nod before a shocked pause. "And there's the part I was looking for... You two didn't know I can see auras, did you?"

"Er... what's an aura?" Octavia asked nervously. "I thought that the field around you was your magic."

That shut me up really fast.

"Yeah!" Vinyl continued. "You said you can see it, right? You saw my magic!"

I resembled a fish for a few seconds while my brain tried to go through a reboot process. I finally found the capacity to speak after I observed Vinyl's "magic" fluctuating. Apparently it reacted to moods, just like an aura, just without the color change. "Uh, magic doesn't exist..." I said.

Now was the women's turn to stare. "But... you... we... WHAT DO YOU MEAN	 MAGIC DOESN'T EXIST?!" Vinyl screamed. "Explain! NOW!"

Octavia seemed to be the only person present who could keep her cool, since she put a hand on Vinyl's shoulder. This seemed to calm the angry Vinyl down. Octavia looked at me closely, and I guessed she was trying to determine if I was lying. Not to say that I hadn't done a little bit of research into the metaphysical, but there was no evidence to suggest... that... 'Oh, balls...' I thought, my mind returning to the first time I'd seen Vinyl's aura, the circumstances of their almost sudden appearance, and the strange storms all over the world. I went through a rather unpleasant phase of connection before I heard a voice, which wasn't mine.

"Ah, so you know the truth now?" It said. The voice sounded vaguely familiar, and definitely female.

I jumped in shock before my head darted around rapidly. "CHE DIAVOLO ERA QUELLO?" I yelled, trying to find the source of the voice. "Where are you?!"

"You already know, young Maximus." The voice said again. "These young women will need your help in the coming storm."

"Storm? What storm?" I demanded. "You're not making any sense! Reveal yourself!"

I really wished at that moment that I hadn't said that. You know how it seems like the universe is a sadistic bitch at the worst times? This was not one of those times. Instead, I think even the universe was scratching its proverbial head at what happened next. A bright flash of golden light appeared in the middle of the club, temporarily blinding me. When my vision cleared, I saw both Vinyl and Octavia kneeling before a tall woman with pastel colored hair that appeared to move of its own volition. She was garbed in a white dress that made her look like she was some sort of royalty. Her eyes were an almost unreal shade of violet. Topping off this entire image was the pair of massive white wings on her back. She had a smile on her face that on the surface bespoke benevolence, but her aura revealed undertones of power and authority. I figure that if I made this woman even the slightest bit upset, my destabilization of my perception of reality would be the least of my worries.

"What are you doing?!" Vinyl hissed at me. "Kneel before the princess!" I just looked at her stupidly, ignoring the glares she and Octavia sent my way. My attention turned to the regal woman in front of me, who, judging by her seemingly kind smile, looked like she was either about to act like a kind mother or go Hannibal Lecter on my ass. I was relieved when she chose the former.

"It's a pleasure to see you, too, my subjects." She said in that same familiar voice. I still couldn't place it, which is why when she said "subjects", I had to stop myself from laughing. 'She will kill you...' My mind seemed to say. "And it's an even greater pleasure to meet the young stallion who welcomed them so graciously." I hated my brain, since it chose then to allow me to snort after this dignified woman called me a "stallion." I seemed to be missing some elaborate prank that probably had a lame punch line. I suddenly felt the room become stiflingly warm.I lifted my glasses and looked the woman in the eyes, and regretted it instantly. It felt like I was looking directly at the sun, and my soul was being burned in penance. I stared right back, hoping that she would back down.

We stared at each other angrily for a few minutes, before I spoke. "I will never blink!" I said in a half-quiet voice, enunciating the last word. This broke her concentration as she burst into outright laughter. I put my glasses back down and looked at the woman in confusion. 'Wasn't she about to end me?' I thought before I started making connections again. I hate my mind sometimes... It gets me into projects that I have no time for, and situations I have no way to defuse. Instead of pondering the subject further, however, I opted to walk to the bar. I sat down and laid my head down while I waited for the woman's laughter to subside. I was only there for a few seconds before I noticed someone sit on the chair next to me. I looked over to see the woman still giggling, but in a much more subsided manner.

"I am sorry," She said, in between giggles. "But you are the first individual I've met during my visit here who didn't try to run away when I overreacted." I raised an eyebrow at this before sighing and walking around to the other side of the bar. I pulled a full bottle of Hpnotiq from the shelf an set it down before tracking down my apparently paid for vodka. I started flipping the bottles like drummers would with their sticks and poured both into a glass simultaneously. I stopped pouring and switched to a second, third, and fourth glass in sequence. I placed one of the drinks in front of the woman, who eyed it suspiciously. "What in the world is this?" She asked, sniffing the alcohol. "It smells strange..." I ignored her reaction before handing the second and fourth glasses to Vinyl and Octavia, who had followed me to the bar shortly after the scary woman, who still hadn't properly introduced herself, despite my suspicions concerning her identity. I lifted my glass in a toasting fashion.

"Before I say anything," I began. "Who in the names of all of the ancient god are you." I delivered a pointed look to the woman in front of me as I tried to ignore her still-moving-of-its-own-volition hair. I waited patiently for about a minute as I received glares from Vinyl and Octavia. "I'm waiting..." I waited for a second before I held my hand up. "One moment, please." I knocked back my Blue Storm, watching as everyone else followed suit, except the regal woman, who was still eyeing the shot suspiciously. "You drink it. It ain't gonna bite you." I said in the nicest tone I could manage. I watched as she drank the alcohol, mimicking my action. I chuckled as I saw her reaction to the apparent burn of the alcohol. "Now, you were saying?"

The woman gave me a motherly smile before speaking. I thought that there was nothing that she could have said that would bother me any more than my little experience with my new extra layer to my aura, but I was proven horribly wrong when she said. "I figured you already knew by now. But I suppose you are having some trouble with all of this, so I'll tell you." She had a slight flush to her cheeks. I guessed she was a bit of a lightweight. "I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria and Goddess of the sun."

My brain went through a series of computer-like operations, trying to process the new information. However, the recent shock I'd experienced with seeing a whole new layer to my aura that should have been there, as well as Vinyl trying to... I wouldn't even go back to that. Trauma aside, I knew what was coming next, and felt the need to say what had now become my signature line for my reaction to extreme shock overload.

"Cross, OUT!"

I never thought the floor could come up that fast...