//------------------------------// // Party // Story: Different Circles // by Anonymous Pegasus //------------------------------// Vinyl breathed in the air of the party. It was stale, sweaty, and contained the scents of many different ponies. But it was the ambiance she was enjoying more than that. The aura of ponies enjoying themselves, rocking to the beat of the music that the ponies on the stage were putting out. They had a bass player, drummer, fiddler and a vocalist all on stage. A live band. The sensation of records hadn’t quite reached Ponyville just yet, and so all entertainment was live. There were talks of a single ‘turntable’ in Canterlot that a pony could put special flat discs on to to produce music. But it wasn’t a common technology yet, and definitely hadn’t made it down to Ponyville. And certainly not to student parties. There were jugs of cider aplenty, an older ponies, all with their cutie marks, danced on the dancefloor set aside for them. It was an old-fashioned hoe-down, held in a barn outside of Ponyville. The music reverberated in the air, in a pounding rhythm consistent with the bass, seeming to make the air itself vibrate to the beat in a joyful dance. This is what Vinyl loved. Parties were her thing, and she was right in the thick of it near the stage, dancing with the other ponies. Various groups mingled on the dance floor, from younger ponies like Vinyl, to older ponies who were just relieving stress that built up over the week. And then there was a very out-of-place group, with a rapidly diminishing pool of members. They were the group of ponies from the Canterlot music school, sitting at a table by themselves, not joining in with the festivities. Vinyl of course noticed them, and noticed their members leaving the party as they found nothing to interest them. They were all high ponies, uppish, from wealthy families. They didn’t know anything about a good old-fashioned hoedown. Didn’t know how to enjoy them. To Vinyl’s mind, they would be more at home sipping cider from sparkling crystal goblets and listening to a piano than the rousing beat of this simple, chaotic music. And then, there was only one pony left at the ‘high table’ as Vinyl had come to regard it. It was Octavia, staring at the ponies on the dance floor with a wistful expression in her eyes. Vinyl almost felt compelled to go over and drag her onto the dance floor. Open her up a little bit to the life of a real pony. Something different from piano’s and snootiness. But then she remembered how haughty the earth pony was, and decided against it. And so, Vinyl danced. She danced with her friends there on the dance floor, while Octavia watched on, alone, sitting at the edge of the floor. Even the loneliest of the colts around the floor didn’t bother approaching her. They knew it would be social suicide to show interest in a ‘high’ filly like her. But the party had to wind down eventually. It was getting late; and the older ponies were shooing the younger ones off to bed. With a sigh, Vinyl slipped off the dance floor and towards the door, waving goodbye to her friends. Vinyl was actually rather popular around Ponyville, at least with the younger generation of ponies. Octavia also moved towards the doors, wheedling her way between larger ponies to get outside where the air was fresher. The night air was cool and held a trace of moisture in its depths, cooling it even further. It was on the cusp of needing clothing, but not quite there just yet. Octavia pushed her way through the small crowd and out into the cool night, heading towards the lights of Ponyville down the hill. Luna’s moon was out, so the path was faintly lit, just enough to avoid any rocks along the way. Little did the young earth pony know, though, that she was being followed. Octavia cursed ever-so-softly as she trod on a stone, pausing to kick it away into the darkness. The trees overshadowing the path here were just  thick enough that the path itself was dark and hard to see. And that was why the young earth pony walked flat into the chest of an older pony with a heavy thud, bouncing off an landing on her rump, staring up at the dark shape of the earth pony above her. “Oh I’m terribly sorry, it’s just so dark on this part of the path,” Octavia explained helplessly, picking herself up and brushing her rump off with a sweep of her hoof. “Yeah...I kinda noticed it was really dark down this part of the path,” the large pony said, leaning in close. A shaft of moonlight lit up his smiling face in a truly terrifying way. “W-well...I-I’ll just be going. Excuse m-me,” Octavia said, sidestepping to move past the larger pony. The pony deftly sidestepped to block her. She tried to go the other side, and was neatly blocked again. “I-I’m sorry sir, but you seem to be in my way...” Octavia said timidly, her ears splaying backwards. She looked over her shoulder towards the barn in the distance, wondering how long it would take help to arrive if she screamed. Too long. “That’s kinda the point, isn’t it?” the stallion asked with a grin, leaning in closer to her again. “You know...I always wondered what I’d do if I got a stuck-up little filly like you on their own, away from her snooty parents...” Octavia swallowed audibly. “So whatcha doin’?” came a query from a voice that Octavia recognized. Vinyl. “I‘m deciding on what to do with this young filly...you saw her sitting on the edge of the dance floor, watching us all dance. She was judging us, she was,” the stallion said, nodding darkly. “She isn’t worth the trouble,” Vinyl said with a shrug. “C’mon, I know where we can get some more cider.” “You go on without me. I wanna have some fun with this filly. Never know when I’ll get some snooty filly all alone again...” the stallion said with obvious relish. “...I’m telling you to leave her alone,” Vinyl said, her words carrying more forceful tones with them. “I don’t have to listen to you. You’re not the boss of me,” the stallion stated flatly, taking a step towards Octavia. Octavia recoiled slightly, considering running. But she was a musician, not an athlete or a pegasus. It wasn’t as if she would get very far. Vinyl threw out a hoof to halt the stallions advance. “I said, no.” “And I said I don’t care!” the stallion said, shifting and backhoofing the unicorn in the face. There was a crunch as the unicorns’ glasses broke, and tumbled away into the darkness, landing somewhere in the grass. Soft whimpers left the unicorn, seeming sobs. And the stallion turned back towards Octavia, grinning menacingly. But then the sob-like sounds began to resolve themselves into soft, mirthful laughter. The stallion blinked once, recoiling slightly at the sheer strangeness of it all. He had just struck her across the cheek hard enough to break her glasses, and she was laughing? Vinyl turned her head slowly towards the stallion, her eyes closed. “You know. That was a bad idea,” the unicorn stated, her eyes opening as her horn began to glow. In the light of Vinyl’s magic, Octavia caught sight of a pair of magenta eyes, before they narrowed and a blast of blue magic pummeled the stallion, sending him reeling sideways. “Go!” Vinyl said to Octavia, as she bounded forwards and struck the stallion hard with her glowing horn, sending him sprawling out with a yelp of pain. Octavia didn’t need to be told twice, and bounded away down the path as fast as her legs could carry her, breathing hard in both exertion and fear. She crawled into a bush near the entrance of Ponyville, and waited to see which ponies passed. But after several long, long minutes, she didn’t see Vinyl. A long, slow violin note trembled in the air as the young unicorn worked the bow with her hoof. Somehow, using magic to work the bow felt like cheating. At least with instruments. Her eyes were closed, and she was focusing on the sound, trying to play as her heart commanded her to. She had never been good with sheet music, but she could play almost perfectly by ear. Her glasses were gone, lost to the darkness of the previous night, probably sitting broken, somewhere in the grass. A bruise was showing rather vividly on her cheek, but any time anypony commented, she just airily waved off the question with a ‘got stuck into the cider and fell down the stairs’. It was already nearly night, and she was still practicing. There was a party on, but she felt no urge to go. Not tonight. And especially not without her glasses. “Vinyl?” queried a small voice. Vinyl lowered the violin, opening her eyes and turning her gaze towards the door, where Octavia stood uncertainly. “Yeah?” she asked, raising a brow, but not offering a hello. “I...I wanted to thank you...for last night...” Octavia said in a small voice, mincing into the room and standing nearby her, looking down at her hooves. “And well you should,” Vinyl said coolly, lifting the violin bow and strumming another chord. “I mean, it’s not every night I pull dance moves like that.” “I...but...what?” Octavia asked, confused, blinking once. “I saw you watching me dancing. I saw you watching all of us dancing. So I showed off some of my better moves,” Vinyl explained with a shrug, beginning to strum out a new tune with the violin. “You know what I’m talking about,” the earth pony said with a scowl. “You saved me!” “Saved you from embarrassment, sure. I know if you weren’t so intimidated by my dancing, you would have gotten on the dance floor and made a damn fool of yourself with those snooty dance moves,” the unicorn said with a shake of her head. “I...just...” Octavia trailed off with a shake of her head, not sure how to take Vinyl now at all. “I...Thank you, Vinyl Scratch. For not letting me make a fool of myself.” “You are very welcome,” Vinyl responded, inclining her head towards the earth pony in a gracious nod. “I...Found someponies glasses at the party last night,” Octavia lied, producing Vinyl’s pair of broken glasses, holding them out. Truthfully, she had spent the better part of the afternoon rooting around in the grass along the path looking for them. For being a pair of reflective glasses, they were surprisingly hard to find. “They were kind of broken...so I taped them back up.” Vinyl paused in her music-making to peer down at the glasses, and then up at the earth pony. “Oh score!” she said, taking the glasses and putting them on, adjusting them slightly to make them sit right. She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper,  “I lost mine when I went for a tumble down the steps. Shouldn’t have been sneaking that cider.” “Indeed?” Octavia asked, raising a brow. “One must be careful how much cider they imbibe.” Vinyl nodded once in response, before lifting the bow again, pausing as she decided what to play. Octavia moved over to the piano, setting her hooves on the keys. “Would...would you like to try a duet?” Octavia offered tentatively, before she added with a touch of her proper haughty tone, “I mean, I can’t concentrate on my notes with that godawful racket you call music in the background. I can at least make you keep tune.” Vinyl lowered the violin for a moment to look at Octavia, her expression thoughtful behind her glasses. And then she stepped closer to the piano, smiling. “I’d like that.”