Chapter Four
“Vinyl, I don’t think that this is a good idea...” Octavia said nervously as they approached a large house, just outside the city.
“Oh come on Octy; you can’t back out now. We’re already here,” Vinyl replied, determined to get Octavia to the party.
Octavia glanced back at the house, which was alive with lights flashing different colours. “I’m just nervous, I suppose. When is this party scheduled to end?”
Vinyl laughed a little.
“What’s so funny?” The cellist asked with a small frown.
“It’s not scheduled to end at all. For all I know, this party could go on for a couple of days. It is a Pinkie Pie party after all,” Vinyl replied.
“A couple of days?!”
“Oh don’t worry, we won’t stay that long. We’ll just be here for a few hours”
Octavia sighed in relief, “Well alright, that’s fine then. I thought Pinkie Pie lived in Ponyville.”
Vinyl nodded, “She does but she comes up here every now and again to throw parties like this one.”
“She can’t have parties like this in Ponyville?”
“Well she can but it’s a small town and the turnout wouldn’t be nearly as big as this.” She motioned to the crowd.
They approached the door and Vinyl reached for the doorbell. Suddenly she stopped.
“Hey Octy, one more thing before we go in: this is Lyra’s house and she tends to go a little overboard on the cider. If you meet her when she’s like that and Bon Bon isn’t around, find me.”
“Why is that? And who’s Bon Bon?”
“She tends to get a bit…flirty when she’s drunk around other mares and Bon Bon is her marefriend. She’s also the only one who can keep her a little restrained…kind of…” She rang the doorbell.
“What do you mean by ‘kind of’?”
Vinyl was about to answer when the door was opened by a light blue pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane.
“Vinyl! You made it!” The pegasus shouted over the music, giving a hoof-bump to the DJ
Vinyl grinned at her, “Of course I did! You really think I’m gonna miss one of Pinkie’s parties?”
“Well with your new club I just thought…whatever,” She looked to Octavia, “And who’s this?”
Octavia shifted nervously under the mares questioning gaze.
“Oh yea! Octavia, Rainbow Dash. Rainbow, Octavia. She’s one of my employees at the club.”
Octavia smiled and held out her hoof, “It’s very nice to meet you Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow shook the other mare’s hoof before turning back to Vinyl, “You brought an employee to a party?”
“Well she’s also been staying at my place lately and I thought this’d be fun”
Rainbow smirked a little, “Oh well come on in, we’re just getting started”
The two mares stepped into the house, which wasn’t as crowded as the yard but still had quite a few ponies in it. Rainbow pulled Vinyl to the side, away from Octavia before leaning in close to her.
“So…is she just staying with you or is there something else going on?”
Vinyl blushed a little but quickly covered it up. “There’s nothing going on between us. She just needed a little help getting back on her hooves.”
“Come on Vinyl…there’s got to be something going on. I mean-” Rainbow persisted then stopped, giving Vinyl a grin.
“What? Why are you smiling like that?”
“She doesn’t know does she?”
Vinyl’s face grew red once again, “What are you talking about? Know what?”
“Oh come on Vinyl, you know exactly what I’m talking about,” The pegasus said before taking a drink of the cider she’d been holding.
Vinyl tried changing the subject, “Where did Octavia go anyway?”
“Don’t change the…actually, I have no idea. Where is she? She was here a second ago wasn’t she?”
The DJ looked around the room, peering through her glasses, “I thought she was…maybe we should go find her.”
“Yea okay...and don’t think I’m just gonna drop that other thing. We’ll get back to that.”
Vinyl sighed softly as they began their search.
Octavia stood by the two mares as they talked for a few minutes before wandering off to explore the rest of the house.
Just as she entered the living room, a pale green pony came stumbling into the room, her manner clearly telling just how much alcohol she’d had already. Octavia looked to her flank and, seeing her lyre shaped cutie mark, assumed that this must be the mare that Vinyl had mentioned earlier.
She quickly headed for the closest door to avoid an encounter with the drunken mare.
Lyra spotted the unfamiliar grey mare from across the room and stumbled towards the door, blocking Octavia’s path. She stood in front of the new mare and looked her up and down, examining her in her drunken state. “Wh-whu ur yu?”
Octavia replied calmly, attempting to end their conversation before Lyra did anything, “My name is Octavia.”
“Whu brought yu too mah party?” She asked, still curious.
“A mare named Vinyl Scratch.”
Lyra walked around Octavia, still looking closely at her before giving a drunken smile, “Ah know Vinyl,” She said with a small giggle.
Octavia started towards the door again, only to be stopped again by the green mare.
“Excuse me, I’m trying to get through” She said, her patience wearing thin.
Lyra leaned close to Octavia, giving her the same drunken smile as before, “Soo…whut ‘ave you ‘nd Vinyl do together?”
“She hired me at her nightclub.”
“Is that all?”
Octavia nodded.
Lyra leaned in a little closer and Octavia took a step back. “Soo…no marefriend then huh?”
The cellist shook her head. “No no, our relationship is purely professional. But I do hear that you have one. Am I correct?”
Lyra opened her mouth to answer when a beige pony with a blue and pink mane walked through the door. “Yes. Yes she does.”
The new pony trotted over and pulled Lyra back a few paces. “I’m sorry about her, she gets weird when she’s drunk. I’m Bon Bon.” She held out her hoof and Octavia shook it.
“I’m Octavia. It’s nice to meet you.”
“And you as well. Are you new in town? I haven’t seen you at any of the other parties before.”
“This is my first party.”
“Oh. Well how did you find out about this one?” Bon Bon asked.
Lyra poked Bon Bon’s nose and giggled, “Vinyl brought ‘er.”
Bon Bon smiled, “Vinyl brought you?”
Octavia nodded, “Yes.”
“Are you that new mare she hired at the club?”
Again, she nodded. “I am.”
“She mentioned you a few days ago when I stopped by to tell her about the party.”
She mentioned me?, the cellist thought to herself. “What did she say?”
Bon Bon smiled again, “Nothing bad, she did seem pretty excited that you were going to stay with her. How is that going by the way? I know Vinyl’s apartment is a little small.”
“It’s going well. I’ve only spent one night there.
Lyra tugged on her marefriend’s ear, “Ah’m gonna go over there.”
She stumbled off without waiting for a response.
”Where’s she going now?” Octavia asked as Lyra left the room.
Bon Bon shrugged, “I don’t know. Probably to get more booze.”
They both turned towards another door as Rainbowdash and Vinyl entered the room.
“Hey Vinyl, good to see you,” Bon Bon said as the other mare approached.
Vinyl grinned at her, “Hey Bonnie! I see you already met Octy.” She stood next to Octavia.
“Yea, she just met Lyra,” Bon Bon said, laughing a little.
The mares talked for a minute before Bon Bon offered them a drink Rainbow declined, motioning to the drink she already had and said that she was going to see if Pinkie was still at the party. She trottted off as Octavia and Vinyl followed Bon Bon into a large room where a bar had been set up along one wall with a large bucket of ice and drinks on top of it and a television on the other. There were about ten other ponies in the room, most of which were watching the Cloudsdale games that were playing on the TV. The music was much quieter in the room, allowing them to speak normally and without raising their voices.
Two of the mares took a bottle out of the bucket, leaving only the cellist without a drink.
“Hey Octy, ya gonna get a drink or what?” Vinyl asked , taking a sip of her own.
Octavia shook her head slightly, “No thank you. I don’t drink alcohol.”
The DJ grabbed another bottle and held it out to her. “Come on Octy, it’s a party. You’re supposed to make exceptions.”
“I believe one of us must be sober to help the other home.”
Bon Bon laughed a little, watching the mares argue over the drink before interrupting, “Octavia, Vinyl isn’t going to give up so you might as well take it, you’ll be fine.”
Vinyl smiled and nodded eagerly, moving the bottle just a bit closer to the cellist. “Yea, what she said!”
Octavia looked back and forth at the two mares before gingerly taking the bottle from Vinyl. She examined it for a couple of seconds before twisting off the cap and, after another moment of hesitation, took a small sip.
It’s not as bad as I had imagined…It’s actually quite good, she thought to herself as the cool, citrusy liquid ran over her tongue and down her throat.
“Sooo…what d’ ya think?” Vinyl asked.
“It’s surprisingly good.” She took another sip, the alcohol making her feel warm on the inside.
Bon Bon chuckled, “See? It’s not so bad now is it?”
Octavia shook her head, “No, not at all. It’s actually quite nice.
Vinyl downed the rest of her bottle and grabbed another. “Now how about we go see the real party out back?”
The grey mare tilted her head a bit, confused, “This isn’t the real party?”
Vinyl laughed a little, “You can’t have a real Pinkie Pie party inside.”
“And why is that?”
“Cause there’s no room for the cannons.”
Octavia gulped, “Cannons…?”
Octavia stepped through the door into the backyard, following Bon Bon and Vinyl. She took a second to look around, shocked at just how many ponies had shown up to the party. Near the fence on the far side of the yard, a DJ was blasting music through the large speakers on each side. There were lasers and flashing lights set up all around the yard and there was even an electronic dance floor that was flashing to the beat of the music.
Vinyl clapped her hooves together in front of Octavia's face. "Hellooo...Earth to Octy!"
Octavia blinked, "Hm? Oh, yes. I was listening".
"No you weren't. I just asked what you think and you were just gazing off into the distance", Vinyl said. "So, again, What do ya think? Pretty awesome right?"
Octavia nodded, "Yes, it's 'pretty awesome'."
A glass bottle flew over her head, thrown by a pony to their left.
"Though it does seem to be a bit out of control..." Octavia continued.
Vinyl glared at the bottle thrower before answering, "It's not really out of control. You'd know if it was out of control".
Bon Bon laughed, "Yea, I've seen some pretty ridiculous parties. But Pinkie usually calms it down before it gets to that point."
They walked around for a few minutes before someone called Bon Bon away to deal with Lyra, who was currently yelling at everyone in the living room for no apparent reason.
"So...what did you say earlier about cannons?" Octavia asked.
"Oh yea! They're..." Vinyl trailed off, noticing the surprising lack off cannons. "I actually have no idea where they are. They're usually over there" She motions to the space on either side of the DJ Booth. "Hmm...well that kinda sucks. It's not a real Pinkie Pie party without the-"
BOOM
Two loud booms echo through the yard, making both Vinyl and Octavia jump as confetti rains down. The rest of the ponies in the backyard turn around towards the house and cheer just as two more booms erupt from the cannons that have been mounted in the second story windows, sending confetti raining down around them again.
Vinyl looks over at Octavia, jumps as the cannons continue to fire and laughs, "You should've seen the look on your face!"
The cellist frowns at her, "As i recall, you were scared too."
"What? Me? Nahh, I was just just pretending to be scared so you wouldn't feel bad"
Octaiva shook her head and chuckled, "My hero." She went to take a sip of her drink and stopped, realizing that it was empty. "Hey Vinyl, do you think you could get me another drink?"
Vinyl grinned, "Sure, but this time, how about something a little stronger?"