Karaoke Night
Strings couldn't believe that of all of the places in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie brought him to a karaoke club. He couldn't help but awkwardly chuckle himself to hiccups for being so out of place. He managed to get it together after a few ponies started to stare. He looked around. It looked like a regular hangout place. Everypony seemed to be so casual. A colt on stage was singing along to a pop song that didn't much appeal to the rock pony. There were many more mares in the place than colts, making him feel even more uncomfortable. His gaze stopped at Pinkie Pie, who was still ordering their food. He cracked a smile at the pink mare and sighed. Even way over there, she's still so pretty... To fight down the new blush, he shook the thought away. Pinkie Pie looked like she was really preoccupied with what she was ordering, leaving Strings to slip away from the table unnoticed. He snuck up to her and, when he was close enough, threw his hooves over her eyes.
"And five bags of candy!" she said without missing a beat. She reached around with her right hoof to foil Strings's plan by giving his side a tickle.
He jumped back with a slight yelp. "Hey, no fair!"
"All's fair in tickle war", she replied slyly.
"I'm gonna remember that." He stepped up to her side. "So, what're we getting for food?"
"I've got haydogs, fries, nachos, and tons of candy on the way!"
"No drinks?"
"Oh, yeah!" She turned back around.
"Pink lemonade!" they both shouted at the pony behind the counter. He cringed slightly, only used to one Pinkie Pie at a time.
"Hey, you like pink lemonade too!?" Pinkie Pie asked excitedly.
"Most radical drink ever!" he replied. The next thing from his mouth was on impulse. "I love the color pink", he blurted.
It was the first time since they had met that they both were blushing at the same time. Strings from embarrassment, Pinkie Pie from, well, that tickly feeling again. The blushes didn't stay for long, for they were booted from their respective faces by a tray thrust across the counter.
"Here ya go guys!" the stallion said before turning to take another order.
Strings levitated the tray from the counter and led Pinkie Pie back to their table. He scooted in the booth and to his surprise was forced over by Pinkie, who scooted in right beside him. As much as he liked her next to him, he asked, "Aren'tcha supposed to be on the other side?"
"If I sat over there, then I wouldn't be able to sit next to you silly!"
Strings' second blush rose to his cheeks. "Okay, then", he chuckled.
Pinkie Pie was enjoying how close they were. She had scooted so far that she was almost touching him. By now, she was so used to that tickly feeling that she barely even noticed it. At least, not over the empty feeling she was getting from barely eating all day. She quickly picked up a hoofull of fries and shoved them into her mouth while Strings went for the nachos. For a while, they didn't say or do anything but eat until their stomachs had been filled to an adequate capacity.
After sip of his lemonade, Strings asked, "So, Pink, why'd you bring me to a karaoke club? Gonna sing me a love song or something?"
"Oooh", she said with her mouth full of candy, "That's a great idea! And then YOU can sing a song!"
The conversation officially hit a brick wall with that statement. "Oh, no sorry, Pinkie Pie. I don't sing", he barely managed to say.
"It's easy!" Pinkie Pie chimed, "All you gotta do is just follow the words on the screen!"
"No Pink", he replied after a bite of his haydog, "I mean I CAN'T sing. It hurts ponies' ears…"
"In that case we can sing a duet!"
Strings almost choked on his drink. He coughed, "No, Pinkie, I can't—"
Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. She knew how she could get him to sing. No pony could resist her persuasion. "Okay, I'll go sing by myself then!"
Strings cringed slightly, but it didn't affect him very much. He seriously didn't want to embarrass himself that much. "Can't wait! You have an awesome singing voice!"
Pinkie Pie didn't reply with her mouth full of food again. She barely even heard him. The song the pony on stage was singing had ended, leaving the stage empty. Pinkie Pie thought against enacting her plan just yet; she had to catch Strings off guard. Besides, an Earth Pony had already raced up to the screen to pick out her song to sing.
"What kind of song are you gonna sing?" Strings asked, looking over at her. He sipped his lemonade while he waited for her to answer.
She shrugged. "I'ma push the random button and sing the first song that pops up!"
"What if it's a song you don't like?"
"Then I'll just push it again!"
The thought of taking all night for picking a song gave Strings an idea. "Hey, can I pick it for you?" He didn't know it yet, but he walked right into a Pinkie Pie sized pony trap.
"You sure can!" Pinkie Pie shouted. "You pick it, I'll sing it! Just like that no questions asked!"
She was about to eat another piece of candy, when Strings levitated it right out of her hoof and put it in his mouth instead. "Mmm", he teased, "Blueberry."
She narrowed her eyes playfully, "You shall pay for this!"
"What are you gonna do about it?" he challenged. He levitated another blueberry chew up to his face.
Pinkie Pie shot forth and snatched the candy from the air with her mouth and chewed on it noisily. "That!"
Strings blinked. Pinkie Pie sure was full of surprises. "Hey! I was gonna eat that!"
Pinkie Pie held out the candy on her tongue. "'ere ya 'o!"
"No you keep it. I think it's happier in your mouth", Strings chuckled.
The lights in the club dimmed. Smaller lights in the back made the place glow violet.
"Hey, what's going on?" Strings looked around until the floor lights on the stage lit up the Earth Pony on stage. She was turquoise with two giant teal pigtails for a mane. She was wearing a black skirt with a blue ring around it and a blue-gray shirt. Electronic music started playing from the surround sound, giving cue to the regulars to stand and get ready to dance.
Pinkie Pie stood up and pulled Strings with her. She grabbed him at the right time. He couldn't object with his mouth full of hay fries. That didn't mean he couldn't resist. Pinkie Pie had to drag him into the middle of the dance floor in front of the stage. She made sure that they were directly in the middle of everypony so that he couldn't take off.
"Ready?" Pinkie asked when they finally stopped.
Strings looked around. All eyes were on the stage. The music picked up, and the room was filled with a quick cheer from the audience. "Ready for what?"
"To dance, silly. When somepony picks the Spotlight song, everypony has to dance." Pinkie Pie pulled a small instruction manual out of nowhere. "Club rules!"
Dance? That's not too bad, except that I can't dance to this kind of music! "Pink, I can't dance to this."
"It's easy!" Pinkie Pie swayed and hopped from hoof to hoof with the music. "Just do what I do!" She twisted and shuffled left.
Strings gulped. Around him, all of the other ponies were dancing along with the pony onstage. He watched Pinkie Pie dance while he tried to get a feel for the music, no matter how queasy it made him. Once he found that the dance repeated with the music, he managed to slowly start off. Okay, I got this, let's see, left hoof left hoof, turn and hop…
Pinkie Pie turned back around to see Strings awkwardly watching his hooves as he attempted to copy the stage pony. She smiled and gave the ground near his hooves a tap. He looked up to see her singing along with the song. A small blush appeared on his cheeks at how cute she was. She danced in front of him and amazingly, he found it was way easier to dance along with her. He turned and hopped from his right hooves to his left hooves, just like everypony else. He was enjoying himself, only vaguely aware of the song that was making him nauseous earlier. Then just like that, the song stopped. That was a short song, he thought disappointedly.
S
"Told you it was easy", Pinkie giggled back in the booth. They were sitting across from each other now, so they could talk easier.
Strings smiled. "Yep, and I had a radical time!"
"I'm going to go pick my song now!" Pinkie Pie bounced away to the song selector next to the stage, leaving Strings shaking his head after her. They had just got back and now she was on her way right back out there. He stretched and put his hooves behind his head when a thought hit him. Wait, I'm supposed to pick her song. What if she picks random and another song like that pops up? Or a slow song, or an instrumental or something? Oh, man, I gotta stop her!
"Pinkie Pie!" he called, galloping up from behind, "Pinkie—"
Pinkie Pie's final phase kicked in. She turned, grabbed the blue unicorn, and pulled him on stage.
"Pinkie Pie, what're you—"
"You're singing with me!" she cheered happily.
There was no arguing, just an escape plan. Strings made a beeline for the stage exit. Right before he was home free, a magic barrier prevented his escape. He looked around to see a unicorn pointing to a sign that read "No mind changes". Strings walked back slowly. Pinkie Pie had a microphone in her hooves and was motioning for him to take a place by her side. So much stress was flying through his mind. The pressure from all of the eyes on him was suffocating him. He was close to passing out when the opening drum solo blasted out from the speakers above him. He froze and listened. I know this song!
Pinkie Pie tapped his shoulder and pointed to the lyrics monitor set into the stage floor. The title read across the screen: "My Own Way by The Shooting Stars". He looked out over the sea of on looking ponies. He smiled and thought, Luna…thanks. He forced as much magic energy into his horn as he could. When enough was gathered, a plume of smoke discharged from it, just as the drum solo exploded with bass. When it cleared, everypony saw that Strings now had a black star covering his left eye. His guitar had been summoned from Pinkie Pie's room and his mane had flared out a little more.
The pink mare on stage with him gaped at the sight. He looked back and nodded his head toward the screen. Pinkie Pie followed the gesture and saw that she was going to miss the opening lyrics. She jumped, but didn't hesitate. She started the song off. There would be time to ask Strings the hundreds of questions later.
"I see the faces pass in almighty mass. Going one way, just passing through the day! But that's not me. I just cannot see, myself as one of these ordinary pon-ies!"
Strings stood on his hind legs and held himself up with his guitar to get ready for his part. Pinkie Pie went on.
"So I turn around, and I scream and shout…"
Strings raised his strumming hoof high above his head and linked his magic to his guitar. The words on the monitor turned blue, signaling that it was the second singer's turn. Strings didn't need it; he knew this song by heart. At one time, he brought his hoof down and slammed a loud, hard note and sang, "I want to blast out! I wanna rock out loud! I don't want to be the same, I wanna go my own way!"
He didn't care how bad he sounded; all he knew was that he wasn't going to let the song fail. Pinkie Pie, however, found that he was a great singer. Whatever he was saying about not being able to sing earlier just flew out of the window. She watched him shred in awe. She knew this was a different Strings. Something was definitely not the same about him on stage. Maybe it was how serious he was about making sure he didn't miss a note with the guitar. The lyrics changed color again to pink, and she followed along.
"They try to drag me down, bring me with the crowd. But I don't want to go and I'm going to make it knoo-oown. Grabbing my guitar, I'm making my mark!"
Strings dropped another bass-filled bomb with his guitar. "I'm gonna blast out! I'm going to rock out loud! I will be different! I will be magnificent!"
The crowd was now getting into the rhythm. They were jumping with the beat and shuffling with Strings's chords.
"I'm not ordinary, I'm more imaginary. These ponies criticize before my eyes. I just give a smirk, then I turn away, and show them my Cutie Mark."
"It's then I say, 'You see this Cutie Mark? It's something we all seek, and just like all us ponies, each one's special and unique.'"
Pinkie Pie grabbed the next verse. "I walk away, grab up my guitar, throw up my hooves, then scream and shout…"
Now the lyrics were purple. Strings upped the volume and nearly blew the windows out of the place. Together they sang the final chorus as loud as they could, "I'm blasting out! I'm rocking loud! I'm different and proud! I'm not the same!"
"And so on this day, I'm going my own…waaaaaayyy…my own way." they sang as the song faded out.
The ponies in the crowd erupted into a roar of applause and cheering.
S
Strings propped his guitar back against the wall from which he had summoned it for the song. He didn't wipe the star from his face just yet. He wanted to savor wearing it just a little longer. The memories drowned him with mixed feelings. He wanted to be happy for remembering the good times with that song, but wanted to cry through the sour feeling it left in his stomach. Strings pushed all of those away and focused on what happened just that night. Man, that was so awesome…and Pink, geez, she sang better than…
"That was superamazinglyawesomefying!" Pinkie Pie yelled from the threshold of her room. She grinned from ear to ear as she bounced over to him. She didn't say anything since they left the karaoke club, which was surprised even her. She was just so awestruck with his performance that she was left completely speechless. That, and it didn't seem like he wanted to talk much. He left right out of the building without even letting her know.
"It was just instinct", Strings chuckled. "Really, no big deal."
"No big deal!?" Pinkie screamed. "They made us permamembers! Almost no pony gets that!"
"Okay, then, it wasn't hard or really that special." Strings sighed. "YOU were the awesome one."
"Not as awesome as you!"
Strings wanted to tell her she out sang the original vocalist, but thought against it. So instead he flopped down on her bed. "You usin' this tonight?"
She shook her head. "It was fun sleeping on the floor last night! I wanna do it again!"
"Good. I wasn't getting up even if you tried pushing me", he teased.
"If I tickled you again you would!" Pinkie Pie held up her hooves, ready to strike.
Strings rolled over on his back and closed his eyes. "Please don't, I'm way too tired for that."
"You're just lucky I don't want to."
Strings wanted to say something, but a yawn came out instead. "What time is it?" When he got no reply he looked up to see that Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be found. "Pink?" He shrugged, figuring she probably had gone on a snack raid. He stretched and turned back over. He spotted the letter from his mother. He knew he needed to write the reply while he was thinking about it. The last thing he wanted to do was give her a heart attack with a late letter. He conjured up a sheet of paper and a pencil and began to write.
S
Pinkie Pie shivered as she hopped out of her bathtub. She took a quick bath, and didn't let the water heat up all the way. She was super eager to get back to Strings. Using a little Pinkie Power, she shook off the water and poofed her mane back into its usual, curly fashion. She bounced back to her room, knowing she had caught Strings off guard when she left. It was a small prank, but she was sure she still got him good.
On the inside of her room, Pinkie Pie saw Strings barely asleep on her bed. A devious smile rose to her face as she snuck across. She walked on the tips of her hooves so not to make any noise. When she made it to the side of the bed, she pounced.
Strings caught her off guard. He hurriedly rolled over and caught her in midair with a levitation spell. He held up his hooves. "I'm gonna enjoy this!"
"Noooooooo!" Pinkie Pie cried.
Strings tickled her mercilessly.
"Heehee!" she giggle-screamed, "No fair!"
"Ha!" Strings laughed, "All's fair in tickle war!"
He kept poking her sides until he was laughing so hard he lost concentration. The spell dissolved from around Pinkie's body. She fell out of the air and right on top of him. Luckily, she didn't hit very hard. Neither could move through the shock of her fall. Strings was the first to recover. Gently, he rolled her to his side.
"Hey, Strings?" Pinkie Pie sat up.
"Yeah?"
"Why did you bring your guitar on stage earlier?"
"Because I wrote that song", he answered. "A long time ago, I was in a band. The same band that played it first."
"The Shooting Stars."
"Uh huh", he yawned.
"Why do you have—"
"The star's my signature mark for the band. We all had one."
"That's so neat! Can I have one too?"
"Maybe…" Strings gave one more yawn before drifting off. The laziness in his body beat his stubbornness to stay awake.
Pinkie Pie took a look at her clock. It read eight-thirty. She thought it was weird for anypony his age to fall asleep so early, but shrugged and left to go say good night to the twins. Before she left out of the room, she walked back and threw her blanket over Strings. She watched him snuggle into the bed even more and sigh in his sleep with a comfortable smile.
For the oddest reason, the tickly feeling in her stomach and moved up to her lips, making her want to kiss him on the cheek. But, being Pinkie Pie, she managed to ignore it and left the room, wondering why the feeling was getting stronger the farther away she got from him.
Maybe her Pinkie Sense was going haywire…