//------------------------------//
// Drinkin' shampain, to forget yesterday... 
// Story: Bartender, Gimme Another Round 
// by The Princess Rarity 
//------------------------------//


Bartender, Gimme Another Round

by The Princess Rarity






Vinyl Scratch let out a sigh as she adjusted her gaudy sunglasses and ran a hoof through her two-toned mane. The jamming out was over, and now it was time for the real work to begin. Her shitty so-called job of bartending. This was not what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be at the top of the charts - her sick beats on every radio station - and having concerts and raves everynight... but alas.

"Lock up in about four hours." the elderly stallion who owned the joint hoarsely snapped, tossing the keys to Vinyl, who stood miserably behind the counter. "And don't think you're gonna get wasted with all of the drinks without paying for 'em."

Well, buck you too. she thought, but instead, she faked a smile and gave a nod in reply - to assure her bastard boss that she wouldn't screw her job up this time. (She could clearly remember last time - even if she was drunk off her flank. Totally worth it.)

Letting out a sigh as she collapsed in a stool, the alabaster mare spun around repeatedly, in some foalish way to entertain herself while the band up front played their usual slow jazz melodies. No customers ever came in around this time of night... er, day? It was around two in the morning, and it was an actual surprise that the musicians were actually even there. Vinyl, on the other hoof, was forced to stay until dawn if she wanted to keep holding her gigs there - and seeing how it was the only bar in this one horse town, she had no choice. It's not like she could play her wubs in the middle of the street or anything...

The sound of the bell tied to the doorknob rang clearly over the soft music from up on the tiny stage and those who were inside the bar all averted their gaze to the doorway, where a fumbling turquoise pegasus made her way to the bar - her expression and entire appearance being torn and ruffled, whilst her golden eyes were sunken and full of broken emotion.

"Need a drink?" Vinyl inquired with a raised eyebrow, although her question was obviously rhetorical. Anypony in this mare's condition obviously needed some hard cider to wallow their sorrows and pain in.

"Whatever you got is good with me." the pegasus mare sighed, plopping herself in a plush stool, brushing locks of her golden mane from her face.

Maybe it was just the DJ and her sleeplessness, but she could've sworn that she saw tears in this anonymous pegasus' eyes. Oh, yeah, she really did need a drink. And something strong, at that.

The mare slid five bits across the way and accepted the vodka/cider mix, taking a long sip.

"Somethin' got ya down, hmm?" Vinyl questioned, as she dropped the coins into the ancient cash register. "Relationship?" It was the most obvious choice, seeing that's why most mares resorted to coming down for a drink.

"Nah." the pegasus muttered, putting her beverage down. "My life."

That would've been the alabaster unicorn's second guess.

"I can relate, sister." she snorted, with a chuckle. "But I doubt it's that bad, huh?"

"Dunno," the other mare replied solemnly. "I guess being on the street wouldn't matter, compared to how badly I bucked up."

Vinyl lowered her sunglasses and raised an eyebrow. Damn. If it was that bad... what did she do?

However, not one to pry into anypony else's business, the DJ simply sat back in her spinning stool, continuing to use it as a makeshift thrill ride until she was forced to work once more.

"I almost had it." the light blue pegasus muttered. "I almost had it all. I almost succeeded. Instead, I bucked it all up." She took another long swig of her drink and slammed the now practically empty glass on the table. "Hit me again."

Blinking slowly, Vinyl did as she was told - refilling the glass and sliding it across the golden-maned anonymous mare, who was talking to herself. Now, most might say she was crazy, but the way her expression was so ... broken, it was only reasonable.

"He told me, 'Dusty, you're gonna be a Wonderbolt. You're gonna make this family proud.' and what did I do?" the winged pony growled and quickly wiped away a single tear that had escaped her eyes. "I did the exact opposite."

The alabaster mare behind the counter bit her lip and shook her head. She felt as if she should ask this pony what was going on, but prying just wasn't her thing. If this random pegasus wanted to pour out all of her sorrows, fine then. That was her choice. Vinyl didn't have to get involved with anypony else's problems - she had enough of her own.

"I was kicked out." the golden and teal mare hissed. "I worked my flank off to get into that Academy and now, look at me. Just... look at me." She glanced down into her drink and scowled. "I'm at some shitty bar drinking away whatever emotion I have left."

Well, that was it. Vinyl didn't want to say anything, but...

"Listen up." she declared. "Whatever you got going on, you gotta let it go."

The blue mare raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Why? What do you know?"

Vinyl let out a sigh, "I know you shouldn't feel bad about yourself - no matter how badly you screwed up."

"You don't know what I did."

"Did you land in jail for doing it?" the snow white unicorn questioned and her reply was a simple shake of the head. "Then you haven't truly messed up your life. You can turn around whatever it is you did - it can't be that bad, can it now?"

As locks of gold fell in front of her eyes, the pegasus looked back down into her drink and bit her lip. "I let down everypony who expected something of me." she muttered. "And one of them was really important to me."

"Yeah, well, looks like we're in the same boat then." Vinyl countered. "And lemme tell you, this ride isn't fun, but it'll help you in life."

A moment of silence passed and brilliant golden eyes flickered up to meet piercing crimson ones.

"How do you know that?" the teal mare questioned.

Scratching the back of her neck with a hoof, the DJ simply shrugged. "I've been riding this ship of disappointing everypony for a while now, so I have experience." she replied. "And I've learned that trying to please them will never happen."

"But-" the mare with the golden mane hesitated. "What if it was your dream to begin with?"

Vinyl stopped and thought for a moment - her eyebrows knit and her expression now turned into a daydreaming-like look. Memories flooded her mind, along with ways to possibly try and cheer this random pegasus up, although she never was the pony to automatically make others smile.

"I guess then," the white equine paused, only before finally finding the correct words to say. "You gotta say 'Buck them all' and do what you originally wanted. Forget what everypony else said and-" she chuckled. "As cliche as it sounds, follow your heart."

Giving a nod and continuing to down her drink, tears were still in those gold eyes, and they beckoned Vinyl to say more. The DJ's mind refused, although her conscience relented.

"Hey." she murmured. "I can tell you just need somepony, don'tcha?" The blue pony hesitated at first, only before nodding. "Well then, it's good to meet ya." The unicorn grinned and lowered her shades. "I'm Vinyl - Vinyl Scratch."

"Lightning Dust." the pegasus replied shyly.

"Listen, Dust, if it makes you feel any better, I got it worse than you." the alabaster mare quipped, with a bittersweet smile. "Nopony supported my dream at first. You're lucky you had others backing you."

Lightning Dust shrugged indifferently and looked back down into her half empty glass, only before going for another dose of the drink.

"If you wanna ramble, I'm here to listen, y'know." Vinyl offered. "It's not like I have anypony else to serve anyway." She let out a chuckle and glanced around at the now empty bar. Seems like the jazz band had left and the two mares were the only ponies in the old building.

"Well," Lightning Dust fumbled over her words. "I think it all began when I was first born."

"Ouch." the DJ winced. "I know that feel. What was your deal?"

"My dad." the gold and blue mare murmured. "He was Cloudbrusher. A... a coach for the Wonderbolts." She bit her lip and took a final sip of her drink, only for Vinyl to slid over another one without hesitation. "Thanks. Anyway, ever since I was little, no matter what, I always wanted to be like him. And yet, he told me that I could do better. I could be a Wonderbolt, if I just tried... and so, I did. Problem was, I had trouble flying when I was a filly. I was the slowest in probably the whole Flight Class and my wings could barely get me an inch up. Didn't matter, though, I was always given perks for my fearlessness." She chuckled and shook her head playfully. "All of the other students were flying up high, and I was the one propelling myself down towards the ground, hoping to catch some air or something." Her small smile was quickly replaced with a frown. "Though, I still got called names. All of them were pretty dumb too. And... I never bothered to say who my dad was. I guess I just wanted ponies to like me for who I was, y'know? Not because I was close to the Wonderbolts or anything. So, throughout all my years at Flight School, I ignored everypony - even the teachers. I'd ditch class and go watch the Wonderbolts, get tips from them, and constantly challenge myself. I'd do wing exercises, fly laps around the track near my house, read up on ways to get better at flying in general, and eventually, I was like any other normal pegasus." Lightning Dust hesitated, her golden eyes falling downcast. "Forget it. You don't wanna hear this crap."

"Better than just spinning around on my stool and possibly getting sick." Vinyl joked, with a smirk, only before letting out a chuckle. "Seriously though, go ahead and blab. I don't mind listening to anypony who's got a problem. I can guarantee I probably won't be able to fix it, but I can still hear ya out."

A small, content smile spread across Lightning Dust's expression and she looked up at the alabaster unicorn. "Thanks." she murmured. "It's just... everypony I've ever talked to about this - y'know, my life and everything? They just shut me up after a while."

"Maybe it's because you've never had anypony who could relate to you?" the DJ offered, with a raised eyebrow and a simple shrug. "Or it's just everypony never has time to listen. But I do, on both of those matters, so... go ahead and keep talking."

The teal pegasus gave a nod and continued, "Right. Well," she fumbled over her words and thought for a moment. "After I finally hit my growth spurt, and could fly properly, I started enrolling myself in daredevil courses. Nopony at the Flight School thought I could ace even the first class, but when I passed with flying colors, they suddenly all had my back. They were all supporting me in what I was doing, and eventually, when I revealed I wanted to be a Wonderbolt, practically the whole city of Cloudsdale was for me. I was famous, basically. The rookie filly, they called me. So, one day, when I was practicing, the new Captain of the Wonderbolts - Spitfire - she approached me and told me to attend the Wonderbolts Academy on a scholarship for a whole year."

Lightning Dust chuckled and took a sip of her drink, only before resuming with her tale, "I still can't believe that day ever happened. I was gonna do it - I was gonna be a Wonderbolt. I had my training uniform and everything, I wowed the Captain herself with my, uh, I dunno, bravery, you could call it, and everypony else in the class was jealous of me. I was even a Lead Pony for a while..." Her expression fell and she nearly broke down in tears. "Until I bucked it all up." She pushed her drink aside and placed her head down on the counter of the bar. "I nearly got me and my wingpony hurt in a challenge, cheated a few times, and got some other mares in danger. I was so focused on making it to being a Wonderbolt, I had turned totally selfish." She bit her lip and screwed her eyes shut. "And I was expelled. Right there. In front of everypony. The guards had to carry me out! The guards!" Lightning Dust whimpered and let a few hot tears trickle down her cheeks. "And what hurts the most is that once I was kicked out, Spitfire approached me and told me, 'You're not who I thought you were, kid.' and that was it. She left me. And once the city found out, they all pretended I never even existed."

An awkward silence suddenly filled the bar.

"Wow." Vinyl muttered. "That... that really does suck."

"Yeah." Lightning Dust sighed. "So, I moved here, to Canterlot, in hopes I could restart my life." She scowled. "Apparently, as you can see, it's not working out."

"Well," the alabaster unicorn hesitated and gave a shrug. "You got the rest of your life. Maybe this is just a rough patch, y'know?"

The turquoise pegasus frowned and shook her head. "Nah. I dunno." she replied sorrowfully. "I think I'm just... gonna be haunted with being a failure. I still can't believe I messed up so bad."

"Clearly you don't know the real definition of messing up." Vinyl countered, propping up her shades once more, to look down Lightning Dust. "Listen, you know how I said that I get you? You know, how we both bucked up our lives and all?"

"Yeah..." the golden-maned mare said slowly. "What're you getting at?"

"Here." Quickly with her magic, the snow white unicorn refilled Lightning Dust's glass and snatched a bottle of Applejack Daniels for herself, placing the two beverages on the table. (Screw what the boss said, she didn't care either way.) "You told me your story, and I'll tell you mine." Vinyl declared, popping the top off her drink. "And don't worry, I'll keep it simple."

"Alright." Lightning Dust shrugged nonchalantly, and took a sip as the DJ began to tell her tale.

"It all started when I was born too, believe or not." Vinyl began, letting out a sigh. "I... didn't really ask for it. I mean, does anypony? Boom. Kid of famous ponies, paparazzi watching your every move, it's bucked up. You try to lock yourself away, but it never works - either way, you're on the front page of magazines, whether you wanna be or not. I was forced into a world of fashion, apparently." The confused look on Lightning Dust's face said it all, and it made the DJ let out a chuckle. Vinyl's appearance obviously suggested that she didn't even know how to use a comb, let alone know a thing about the profession of couture. "I know. Me, fashion. Not a good mix. At all." She laughed and shook her head playfully. "But, it happened, apparently. And sweet Mother of Celestia, you shoulda seen the look on their faces when this thing popped up on my flank one day." She gestured to her cutie mark - a simple black eighth note - and smirked. "So, my mom got this nutso idea that day and got my name legally changed to what it is today." She hesitated for a moment and made a disgusted face. "Don't ask what my original name was. Anyway, after I got my cutie mark, I was happy, y'know, like any other foal. I kept going at what I was good in. Although, when I was about, I dunno, sixteen, I started feeling... kinda, I guess, depressed? I thought I had let my folks down. I was born into a family of fashion and stardom, not being a rowdy musician. So," she fumbled over her words, taking a long swig of her beer. "I begged my parents to let me take classes on design. Oddly enough, my dad was great with it, he was always rooting that I was secretly a designer, but my mom... she was kinda shocked. She wanted me to go after music. She saw how talented I was and didn't want me to throw it away." Vinyl bit her lip and let out a sigh. "But I was young and confused, so I did anything to please them, to, y'know, do what I thought I was meant to. I mean, if I was born into fashion, I had to have something to do with it, right?"

Lightning Dust blinked slowly and nodded. "So... you thought you were messed up from the start?" she murmured.

"Exactly." the DJ replied. "So, since I wouldn't shut up about it, my parents enrolled me in the finest design academy in Germaney, where my mom studied, and would you be surprised that I failed every single class?"

"Well," the pegasus quickly averted her eyes to Vinyl's cutie mark and shrugged. "No."

The two mares chuckled and thus, the white mare continued, "And when my semester was over, as crazy as it sounds, I wanted to go back another year. I guess thinking that if I kept practicing it, somehow, my cutie mark would change. But," she hesitated and the smallest of smiles spread across her expression. "That summer, I met a mare - a cellist - and holy Luna, she was amazing. I swear. We became friends at first, though, she was such a sexy piece of flank, I couldn't hold my feelings in long." The smile on Vinyl's expression turned into a playful smirk. "We dated for a while, and she was the one that made me embrace who I am. I didn't need to fit in. She told me that just because you think you're destined for something doesn't mean you really are. Things change." Her expression fell. "And apparently, so did she. Four years after dating, I was sure she was the One, and I was planning to ask her to marry me and everything, but... she left me. She thought that we were holding each other back in our careers. She thought that, if we broke up, then we could pursue our dreams. Mine, obviously, was to become a DJ, and she was going to become part of the Canterlot Orchestra." Vinyl scowled and downed some more of her drink. "Turns out, a year later, she went up and got hitched to some stuck-up pianist. And I'm here, still, stuck in this shitty bar." She sighed. "My mom's trying to help me get a record deal, my dad wants nothing to do with me anymore since I'm not into fashion and my two best friends are in the next town over." She shrugged nonchalantly. "But I'm not complaining, y'know? It's the cards I was dealt with in life. It's not like I can change 'em or ask for another deal or anything."

A moment of peaceful silence passed between the two mares, only before they both sported almost identical smiles.

"So you understand what I mean, right?" Vinyl inquired. "Just because you bucked up doesn't mean you can't keep trying. Go after this Wonderbolt gig, or try something else, like Royal Guard, I dunno, just... live in the moment., Dust."

Lightning Dust chuckled and nodded. "I get it, Vinyl." she murmured. "I... really do."

"Ah, good." the DJ smirked, chugging down the last of her beer. "So - don't go thinking of yourself as a failure, or that's all you'll be. Don't drown your sorrows and shit in drinks or any of that bad stuff, got it?"

"What are you, my mom?" the turquoise pegasus laughed, and for once, deep down, she actually felt... happy. It had been three months since she had bucked it all up for herself, but now, this Vinyl Scratch mare had turned it all around for her.

"No," the alabaster unicorn said simply, only before chuckling. "But I'm pretty sure I was your shrink a few minutes ago."

"Touche." Lightning Dust countered, letting out a light laugh once more. Stealing a glance at her untouched refill, the teal pegasus pushed away the drink. "I'm gonna go home. Get some sleep. Think about what you said, y'know?"

Vinyl smiled. "Good on ya." she replied. "And, hey-" she hesitated, "If you need a job, we're always hiring. You can perform on stage, clean up, or help me here. I mean... if you want."

The pegasus beamed like Celestia's sun and gave a nod of assurance. "Sign me up for whatever spot." she declared. "I'm ready to start over."

"See ya tomorrow... or, later today, then." the DJ smirked as she watched Lightning Dust get up from her seat and walk off, towards the door, but just as the flying pony was about to leave, she turned around, looking back at Vinyl with a content smile.

"Vinyl?"

"Yeah?"

"...Thank you."

And with that, Lightning Dust was gone like a bolt of her namesake, leaving the white unicorn completely alone behind the counter, with a smile plastered on her expression. Getting her own sorrows off her chest, meeting that pegasus, kicking back and relaxing... alright, maybe working nights at a rundown bar wasn't bad after all.


~fin~