//------------------------------//
// Six Pack 
// Story: The Sound And Fury From Seaddle 
// by Nic-Fit 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 15 : Six Pack



In which they actually do what they set out to do



~


Having recovered from her brief bout of sickness a couple of days ago, Vinyl was having a pretty good Wednesday. Business had been pretty good all morning, and she had a toasted sandwich for lunch. Right now, she was leaning on the counter, daydreaming. It was a pretty great sandwich, after all. Like, for real.

Seriously, this sandwich.

Her crusty musings were interrupted by the ringing of the phone. This presented a dilemma: the phone was in the back, but Tavi was out on her own lunch break, and Lyra didn't actually work here, and just sort of came and went as she saw fit. Which, unfortunately, wasn't now. The shrill, repetitive tone continued to eat away at her until she begrudgingly conceded, and with great exaggerated effort, answered the phone.

"Hello, The Vinyl Shack V. 2.0, how can I help?"

The pony on the shop side of the counter waited patiently while Vinyl was busy. It was sorta awkward, really, but what else could he do?

"Yes, that's me."

"Yes, I know it."

"Uh huh..."

"Well, I'll have to ask-"

"Wait, as in 'play a gig' gig?"

"HELL YES WE CAN!"

"This Saturday?"

"And we bring all our own stuff?"

"Wonderful, thank you very much!"

Vinyl slammed the phone back into the receiver and proceeded to moonwalk out of the office and back out to the counter, where she just continued to circle around repeatedly, in the same moonwalk-y fashion, much to the amusement of the waiting stallion, and bemusement of Octavia, who had just come back from her lunch break.

After a minute or two, the customer's amusement was replaced by impatience, clearing his throat loudly several times in order to get Vinyl's attention. It didn't.

Octavia stepped forwards and waved a hoof at the still moonwalking mare, only to receive the same non-responsiveness as the stallion.

"Uh, Vinyl?"

"Not now, busy." She replied, not even glancing at Octavia, lest she break the thang she had going on.

Octavia just sighed, when Vinyl got like this it was oftentimes easier to just do what Vinyl should've been doing herself rather than coax her out of whatever shtick she'd gotten into. She probably wont even be responsive for an hour or so.

Sighing again, Octavia made her way behind the counter, giving Vinyl a wide berth so as to avoid bumping into her as she continued to reverse.

"Sorry sir, can I help you?"


~


Two days.

Well, two whole days. More like 'two days and four fifths of a day'.

This was how long they had to practice as a band for the gig Vinyl had accepted to play. Not including time spent at the shop, sleeping, eating, whatever. So really, just a matter of hours to prepare.

Not enough time, according to Octavia, her disciplined, classical roots re-surfacing. Upon being told about the gig by Vinyl, she immediately launched herself into a panicked frenzy, galloping home as fast as she could and launching right into rehearsing her cello parts, until she got a call from Lyra indicating that practicing as a band would make much more sense. 

"Ok, so this is whats going to happen." Octavia commanded, trotting back and forth around the instrument-stuffed room.

"We, are going to play our songs. All of them. After each song I'm going to point out every mistake, and we'll do it again until there are no mistakes."

Octavia turned to face her bandmates, only to get blank stares in return.

"W-what?"

Lyra shook her head. "Tavi, you can't be a perfectionist and make garage-y punk-y music. It's all imperfections."

"I'm not being a perfectionist! This is how I always practiced!"

"Yes, while you were with the orchestra, this is different. Relax, Tavi! Go get a beer or something and phone up Mr. Ponyman from Below Class while we finish setting up."

Octavia opened her mouth as if to argue, but whatever she had to say died in her mouth, and she instead turned for the door.

"Oh, hey Tavi! Bring the rest of the beers back with you!" Vinyl shouted after her.

Octavia let out her third sigh of the day.

"Oh, and we need to send a superspeedyfast letter to the princess, too!"

Octavia knew that 'we' meant that she was doing that as well.


~


This was it. Saturday had arrived, work had come and gone, and now the show was mere hours away. Lyra and Vinyl were chatting excitedly in anticipation of their live debut. Octavia, however, was a nervous wreck.

'What if it goes wrong?'

'What if they don't like it?'

'Did we definitely get the timing to 'Here Comes Sickness' right at the end?'

'Is the order of the set list okay?'

'Do we have-'

"OW!"

Octavia was snapped out of her stupor, courtesy of an empty beer can thrown by Vinyl. She returned the distraction with an annoyed glare.

"Not funny."

"Jeez, chill out, Tavi!" Came Vinyl's retort.

She couldn't 'chill out', not while the prospect of everything going horrifically wrong was still possible. They even had to complicate things further by including one of Lyra's new songs, and covering Sonic Foal's 'Nightmare Night'. Even so, it was still a pretty short set. If it did get catastrophic, at least it would be over quickly.


~


Octavia was jittery all through soundcheck, and she didn't know why. She had played to much larger audiences than the one she anticipated would attend tonight. Maybe it was the fact that all most more than one of the songs she had written herself. Playing with the orchestra, she never was able to play any of her own pieces, she'd only been able to play them solo.

Perhaps what was getting to her was the fact that if the crowd didn't like her songs, she couldn't blame the composer. She was the composer. If the songs were bad, it was her own fault. For her songs, anyway.

Maybe it was the fact that a pony who would effect the direction of her life would be in attendance.

Maybe it was the fact that royalty had asked to come and watch.

Truthfully, she didn't know.

"Tavi, what's wrong?" Lyra asked, trotting up beside her.

"Oh, it's nothing..."

"Come now, I can see something is bothering you. Take a seat and tell old uncle Lyra the problem."

Octavia was about to point out everything wrong with what Lyra just said, but Lyra spoke again before even giving her a chance.

"I know the solution to your problem!" She exclaimed, before leaning in close to Octavia's ear.

"It's beer."

Before she could react, Lyra had practically forced a can of beer down her throat with her magic, leaving a coughing and irritated Octavia.

"LYRA! WHAT. THE. HELL?!"

"Hmm, that's not right, Maybe more beer will work."

Lyra repeated the process, once again leaving Octavia nearly breathless.

"See, isn't that better?"

Octavia had to admit, she wasn't nervous anymore. Just angry at Lyra.


~


8:30 Doors opened. 9:00 Band starts.

The band watched excitedly as literally TENS of ponies filled the venue. A quick glace also confirmed the presence of Mr. Ponyman from Below Class. They were all set to go, and with 5 minutes to spare!

It did slightly dishearten them, however, that their #1 fan was nowhere to be seen in the crowd. It didn't bother them too much, she was a princess after all, she was probably too busy princessing. Or maybe the letter arrived too late, or something. Still, it would have been nice to finally give her the shirt she wanted. Pushing these thoughts aside, Octavia glanced around one more time, making sure everything was set up correctly.

Satisfied, and with the time approaching, she gestured for the band to come out, much to the delight of the hundred or so drunk ponies below.

Wordlessly, they launched straight into the oh so familiar Fluffgun '91.

The crowd loved it.


~


'Oh my!' Thought a certain #1 fan, unseen backstage. 'This is different from hearing it on the tape.'

She continued to watch around the corner, so far avoiding being spotted by anypony. She could see the rhythmic rise and fall of the audience, along with the thrashings of Lyra, and a few ponies a the front of the crowd.

"Odd."

She continued to watch and listen intently.

"We like it."


~


The show was going really well, if not a bit strangely. Lyra could swear she heard the stage wall 'squee' at the mention of a new song, and she kept seeing something moving out of the corner of her eye.

With a shrug, she concluded that the venue was haunted, and continued with the show, starting to play 'You Got It'. The crowd liked that very much.


~


"Okay then guys, this'll be our last song of the night."

Groans filled the tiny venue.

'Drat, we were having such fun!'

"Hey, don't be like that. Its not like we have any more songs anyway!"

'Miss Heartstrings raises a fair point...'

A few seconds (and moans from the audience) later, the band had begun to play their final song of the set, 'In 'N' Out Of Grace'.

Luna's eyes widened. This was her favorite song, probably ever (much to Celestia's chagrin, considering the amount of 'air time' it now received in the castle), and she was missing out back here. She had to break cover.

She gingerly trotted out onto the stage, right as the drum break started. Octavia and Vinyl both looked to be in some kind of music-induced trance, and Lyra was galloping up and down the stage, jumping as she reached the middle like she was a part of a mildly drunken ballet.

Lyra paused, realising she was now sharing the stage, only to wear a wide smile as she realised who she was sharing it with. She gestured with a hoof for Luna to join in with her running and jumping. The crowd also seemed to agree with her. So Luna complied, the both of them running and jumping in opposite directions along the stage, all the while Vinyl and Octavia kept the break going.

'This is most fun!' Mused Luna 'Odd, but fun nonetheless!'

Soon enough, Lyra broke away from her acrobatic display in anticipation of the upcoming anti-solo. The drum roll came around and she launched herself backwards, gripping the guitar in random places, generating harsh squeals and dissonance.

While Lyra was busy thrashing around, Luna found herself awkwardly alone on the stage. The crowd seemed to notice this as well. It started out small, just a couple of ponies near the front shouting "JUMP!". This, however, caught the attention of more of the crowd, and they brought it to the attention of even more of the crowd, until almost the whole audience was chanting.

"JUMP! JUMP! JUMP!"

Luna was unsure, to say the least. She turned to Lyra for help, who simply smiled and nodded.

'When in Roam, I suppose...'

And on that day, in the tiny venue called 'The Old Rooms', Royalty did indeed crowd surf.


~