R3B0UNd

by Page Turner

The Part Where Things Get Interesting

Twilight was the first to arrive, knocking gently on the barn door. She was answered almost instantly by Pinkie Pie, who threw open the barn door, causing several party horns to go off and tipping a bucket of confetti onto the surprised purple unicorn’s head. “Hi Twilight! Glad you could be here!” Pinkie proclaimed.
“I wouldn’t want to miss the biggest party ever.” Twilight replied.
“Where’s Spike?” the pink one inquired, searching the doorway in vain for a second purple body.
“He’s still out, I’m sure he’ll be along soon.” Twilight replied.
“Well better late than never.” The pink one replied. Just then there was another knock, which the party pony rushed to answer, allowing Rarity and Fluttershy to enter. “Hi Girls!” Pinkie exclaimed over the sounds of the party horns.
“Eep!”
“Oh sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to scare you.” the magenta mare said apologetically.
“That’s okay Pinkie” the shuddering yellow pegusus replied in her quiet way.
“Oh! I love what you’ve done with the place, darling!” Enthused the yellow one’s companion.
“Thanks! Vinyl was very specific about what she wanted.” Pinkie replied.
“And is that an ice sculpture I see?” the white unicorn inquired.
“Oh, a phoenix! How nice.” Fluttershy added.
“And symbolic!” Twilight interjected ”The phoenix is clearly a symbol of how Vinyl will rise above her hard times and come out better for it, in the same way a phoenix is reborn from it’s own ashes!” All three of her friends fell silent, giving her blank stares. “What?” She asked defensively.
Knock, knock, knock.
“I’ll get it!” Pinkie said, going quickly to the door.

“Wh-what?” Octavia gasped.
“Will you come back to Canterlot with me?” Silver Bright repeated. “I was thinking that maybe you would like a chance to start over. You clearly don’t belong here in Ponyville.  I know a mare who can get you a good price on an apartment, or you could move in with me, I have plenty of room.”
The gray mare’s head was spinning, this was all happening so fast! “I, I’ll need to think about it.” she replied haltingly. “I’m not sure I’m ready for another serious commitment quite so soon.”
The blue stallion nodded, “I understand, take all the time you need.”
Knock, knock, knock.
“I wonder who that could be.” Octavia muttered. She opened the door to see an extremely winded baby dragon. “Yes?”
“Pinkie Pie... *huff* Is throwing the... Biggest party Ponyville has ever... *gasp* Seen. This afternoon at... Sweet Apple Acres...” the small purple biped panted.
Silver joined Octavia at the door “Woah now, slow down little fella. Take a moment to breathe. We aren’t going anywh-”
Octavia shut the door. “Not interested!”
Silver looked over at her. “What was that about?”
“I am not in a ‘party’ mood right now.”
“Well that’s a shame, I was going to ask if you wanted to go together.”
“I have no time for... wait. You want to go on a date?”
Silver shrugged. “It’s fine if you don’t want to, I suppose I can go on my own...”
Octavia rushed to her room. “I’ll be ready in five minutes!”
Silver smiled.

Vinyl Scratch allowed a smile to touch her lips as she looked out at the crowded dance floor. Pinkie had been right, this did make her feel better. This was Vinyl’s true passion, the pounding beat of the music she loved so much, the lingering smells of sugar and sweat, the endless motion of the gyrating ponies on the dance floor, what more could a pony ask for than this?
“HI!”
Vinyl nearly jumped out of her skin as Pinkie appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “Oh, hey Pinkie!” she recovered quickly. “Great party, you really outdid yourself!”
The out of control party animal shrugged. “Only the best for the best pony!”
The DJ found herself blushing slightly, and mentally slapped herself. Gotta be cool. “Heh, well, I guess I am pretty awesome...”
Pinkie’s smile got even wider (how was that even possible?). “I have a song request!”
Vinyl lowered her shades and looked at Pinkie in a way that she hoped looked cool. “Let’s hear it.”
Pinkie opened her mouth to speak, but just then a scream rang out from the crowd. The two on stage looked over to see that the ice sculpture was on fire.
“Sorry! That’s my fault!” a familiar voice called.
“Nice going Derpy!”
“I just don’t know what went wrong!”
“How the hay do you catch an ice sculpture on fire?”
Pinkie Gave Vinyl an apologetic glance. “Teehee, lemme just take care of this...” In a flash, Pinkie was over by the sculpture. “Nopony panic! I’ve got this!” She called, grabbing the punch bowl. She quickly jumped up on the table next to the sculpture, emptying the punch bowl onto it. Instead of dousing the flames, however, the punch seemed to add fuel to them. pinkie looked at the empty punch bowl in confusion, then shrugged, tossing it over her shoulder. “Okie dokie. NOW you can all panic.”
Before anypony could start screaming, a well placed buck from Applejack sent the bobbing for apples tub flying onto the sculpture, dousing both the flames and anypony who had been standing within a three foot radius. “Thar, prob’m solved.”
Silence reigned for several moments before Pinkie broke the silence. “Aww. I always wanted to have a panic at the disco, rave, party, thing.”
“Oh my, how, erm, charming.” came a voice from the doorway.  Several heads turned to see the pony who had spoken, a posh looking blue stallion with a silver mane. The newcomer looked around with amusement before entering. An audible gasp went through the crowd as they saw the pony behind Silver, a gray pony in a bow tie. Octavia.
“Hoo boy,” a reddish stallion said to his yellow companion. “This is the part where things get interesting." 
Vinyl stood frozen on the stage as Octavia and her Coltfriend stood at the door, surveying the shambles that the party had become. What the BUCK was she doing here? Pinkie had said that everypony was invited, but why would Octavia want to come to Vinyl’s party? To apologize and take her back? Not likely.  If that was it, she wouldn’t have brought HIM with her. Vinyl grimaced, ‘She’s probably here to make me pay for the bass I broke.’ She thought.
        Octavia’s well dressed unicorn companion stepped forward, levitating a smallish purple lump off of his back. “Did somepony lose a dragon?” He called. “We found him passed out in the middle of the street.”
        “Spike!” Twilight pushed through the crowd, eliciting shouts of disapproval from the ponies she knocked aside. “Sorry about that Bon-Bon, oh, June Bug are you okay? No, Daisy, I just stepped on your tail, don’t freak out.” She was panting by the time she stood before the stallion. “Thank you for bringing him to me. Sir, my name’s Twilight Sparkle, what’s yours?”
        “Silver Bright, pleased to meet you.” He replied, inclining his head. He then used his magic to levitate the sleeping dragon over to Twilight, who turned to the side and allowed the hovering form to settle onto her back.
        A pink form suddenly appeared between the two unicorns. “Twilight! Don’t talk to him! He’s the enemy!”
        Twilight gave her overactive friend a hard look. “Pinkie, that’s no way to treat somepony you just met.”        
        “But Twilight! He’s the cause of Vine-y and Oct-y’s problems!”
        “No he’s not. They-” Twilight began, but before she could continue her argument, the voice of Vinyl Scratch burst out over the entire crowd, amplified by the stage’s sound setup.
        “OCTAVIA! What the hay are you doing here!?!”
        “I was invited” The bassist called.
        Vinyl cursed under her breath; there would be words between her and that dragon later. “Well that was clearly an accident. I am un-inviting you. Please leave immediately!”
        “Why should I?”
        “Because it’s my party and I can un-invite whoever I like! Bouncer! Please escort Miss Octavia to the exit.”
Pinkie Pie put on her serious face and bounced over to Octavia. “Alright, missy. Move it!”
Octavia stared blankly at Pinkie for a long moment as the magenta maned mare continued to bounce up and down. Then she called up to the stage. “That pun is atrocious!”
Up on the stage Vinyl shrugged. “Take it up with the author.”
“Who?”
“I have no idea but that’s where Pinkie says she got the idea from.”
“What are- don’t change the subject!”
“From what?”
“Hold it!” a new voice cut through the argument as a red stallion leapt onto the stage, snatching the mic away from Vinyl. “Hi, I’m Apple Cider of Chef and Cider’s Eatery and Drinkery.” The stallion introduced himself to the crowd, who were all staring at him in disbelief.
A yellow pony near the back slammed a hoof to his face “Cider, what are you doing?”
“Now, I can see y’all are having a bit of an argument,” Apple Cider continued.
Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “Ya think?”
“...and I’mma let you finish, but first just think for a moment.” the talkative pony continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Is this really that big a deal?”
“YES!” the two antagonists shouted in tandem.
“Oh? Well that’s a shame, you two compliment each other so well.  You’re like two sides of a coin. I mean sure, you have your disagreements, but everypony has fights! Heck, Starry and me fight all the time!” He turned his attention to the crowd “Ain’t that right, Starry?”
“Don’t you dare drag me into this!” came the reply from somewhere in the back of the crowd.
Cider continued unperturbed. “Just think about that.  Ya don’t want to be saying things you’ll regret later when you inevitably make up.” Having said his piece, he held the mic out to Vinyl, who took it with her magic and placed it back on it’s stand.
“The interloper does have a point, as much as I hate to admit it. We do have a history of this, and we did complement each other well when we weren’t at each other’s throats, BUT, all that is over now! I’m tired of being your... your yo-yo! It’s over! I don’t need you anymore! You have been replaced! Because, I’M IN LOVE WITH PINKIE PIE!!!”
“WHAT?” Octavia demanded.
“WHAT?” Twilight gasped.
“WHAT?” the crowd exclaimed.
“Geez louise,” Pinkie chattered. “That was a bit too easy.  I had this whole big eleven step plan to make her like me and it only took three.  I mean I had heard she fell fast, but wow.” She looked around at the weird looks her friends were giving her. “Uh, I mean, WHAT?  That came out of nowhere!”