Two days later, Vinyl stared down at her phone.
Sudden gig out of town be gone fore one week stay safe
Vinyl sighed and groaned. "Neon, how can you stand me up like this?"
Vinyl was several streets over at their fourth-favorite club, the latest "safe" one, sitting in a booth, waiting for her Best Straight Guy Friend to show. Or at least she had been. Now he wasn't going to show. He had a gig. The text said so.
Vinyl had gotten to the club early, eager to spend more time with her friend. But he hadn't shown. And it hurt. And so instead of going back home and staring at the wall, Vinyl had decided going out alone wasn't just for losers, which was something Vinyl was definitely not. Going out alone was also for angsty and emotionally-damaged but brave, love-lorn loners on the rebound. Which Vinyl had just decided that she was. Yup.
Vinyl sat alone in the booth with her empty drink, reading and rereading the text from Neon she had received now almost an hour ago. It was a little strange of him to just get up and go without any warning, but Neon Lights wasn't like Vinyl, he wasn't an established artist yet, and he had to take work where he could find it. DJ-PON3 had made so much money that Vinyl never would have to work again for the rest of her life if she didn't want to and lived modestly. And Neon was going to get there someday, too. He just needed to make a name for himself was all. Vinyl considered herself something of a mentor to him as well as a friend.
She sighed and aimlessly flicked up through their text history. There was a nasty text from yesterday about that dark mare, Neon saying he had told her off. Neon sure hated that mare, that was no secret. But Vinyl couldn't really see why. Neon kind of started the whole fight with his rudeness, right? And hadn't Neon said the best thing about Vinyl was her passion? And Vinyl had a lot of passionate fans, usually looking for a selfie and a chat. And there was nothing wrong with being a fan, right? Eh, thought Vinyl.
She put her phone away and gave the club a disdainful once-over. This was Vinyl and Neon's fourth-favorite club because the music here tended to be lame and conservative and crowd-please-y. But the bass thumping through the smoky air and the flashing lasers still made the place home. And even though the music was lame, a bunch of ponies were on the dance floor, burning it up, making it bounce, kicking their hooves up, really enjoying themselves. And isn't that what's most important here? The fans? Eh, thought Vinyl.
Nothing was quite the same since her ex. It was harder to care.
Vinyl got up out of the booth and wound her way to the opposite side of the club, passing between noisy tables of clubbing ponies, and across the floor to the bar. It was half-full of sitting ponies and Vinyl hopped up and took a seat on one of the stools on the end, closest to the dance floor and the music.
A green-eyed pegasus barmare cutie with a lot of eye makeup, a string of piercings in her ears, and dyed pink feather-tips leaned over the bar with a mischievous grin.
"Ey, what'll it be, baby?"
"I don't know, a beer."
"I don't know a beer coming up!" She smiled engagingly with a little wink and turned away.
Vinyl rolled her eyes behind her shades. Everypony's a joker these days.
Vinyl drummed her hooves absently on the bar, waiting. And then it happened. Horrible music started coming out of the speakers overhead. Terrible music! Vinyl swiveled on her stool in disgust to confirm she actually was hearing what she thought she was hearing.
Yes, it was true. The club's DJ was playing a remix of "Canned Heat." Canned Heat! And ponies were dancing to it. This is a vicious crime against dance and against music. There should be a law that no DJ ever be forced to play that song ever again.
There was a crash and a short scream from the other end of the bar.
Vinyl put her chin in her hoof and regarded the dancing ponies with tired eyes. None of them seemed to be dancing ironically. They were really, actually, genuinely enjoying themselves. Eh. Vinyl mused to herself, sighing at the happy ponies. Am I becoming a music snob? Am I getting too concerned with appearances? Have I forgotten what fun is like? ...Is Canned Heat really that annoying of a song?
Vinyl's attention was drawn back to the bar by the arrival of her drink. But it was not a beer. It was a Canterlot Cobbler.
Vinyl looked up and gave a little gasp. Behind the bar was not the pegasus who had taken her order, it was the dark mare, one one from two nights ago, the one who had argued with Neon, and her eyes! The eyes of this mare! They were a piercing lavender, the color of wet flowers, like the kind you'd find under the steamy glass of a sweltering orchid hothouse. She was smiling a little at Vinyl, poised just so. Up close she was even more elegant and beautiful than before, with that long, black, glossy mane and that cute little pink silk bow tie. She had a small, secret smile on her face.
Vinyl was frozen.
The mare blinked long lashes at Vinyl and edged the orange drink closer to Vinyl with her hoof, those entrancing, magnetic eyes never leaving Vinyl's.
There almost an inner glow to those eyes and Vinyl had an impossible sense that those shining eyes could somehow see right through her sunglasses.
Vinyl levitated up the drink. "Hey, thanks," she said, playing it cool. Vinyl hefted the drink and took a sip. Her eyebrow jumped. It was good!
Nearby ponies had gone a little quiet and Vinyl looked up along the bar. More than a few of the ponies were staring at the two of them.
Vinyl looked back at the dark mare behind the bar. She was still smiling a small, secret smile. Her eyes had never left Vinyl.
Be cool, superstar. Vinyl cleared her throat. "Ey, filly, howyadoin'? Didn't know you worked here."
The mare's smile grew fractionally wider. "Ah, I guess you could say I'm helping out at the moment." She giggled. Sophistication was written all over her posh tone. Sophistication and that slight accent which was just a little bit exotic, making every word she said get your attention and hold it. Listen to it and let it roll around inside your head.
Vinyl took another sip of her drink. It was really good! "This is really good!"
The dark mare beamed and Vinyl thought tears were going to come into those orchid-colored eyes. "Ah! It makes me so happy to hear that! I studied a little mixology so I could be sure to make you the perfect drink if a situation like this ever arose."
"That's some pretty nice service." Vinyl took another sip, sneaking another glance to the side.
Ponies were still staring at them.
Vinyl glanced back at the mare and gestured with her head to the other ponies. "Are... you gonna to serve them? And where's that other bartender?"
The dark mare behind the bar was still looking at Vinyl, smiling her secret little smile. Vinyl wasn't sure if she'd even blinked once in two minutes.
"Oh, no," she laughed lightly. "I'm here to service only you. And she, well, I suppose you could say she's on a break!" The dark mare giggled.
"HEY! You there!"
Vinyl turned to see two burly stallions in tight black SECURITY shirts charge up.
"I'll see you later," whispered the mare behind the bar.
Vinyl turned to look at her but she had already vaulted the bar and dashed off into the dancing crowd. The security ponies followed her, vanishing into the crowd.
Vinyl spun on the barstool, leaning back against the bar with one elbow, sipping her floating drink, watching the crowd still dancing to the Canned Heat remix. When the song's chorus hit the word 'DANCE!' all the ponies on the floor reared and threw up their hooves. At that moment, from deep inside the crowd, there was the sound of a meaty impact and a stallion wearing a tight black SECURITY shirt went flying up out of the crowd through the air to crash through an unoccupied table against the far wall.
Vinyl turned slightly as four more security ponies charged past her, barreling into the crowd. After a few moments and several screams nearly drowned out by the music, a trio of unicorns in SECURITY shirts carefully walked backwards out of the crowd, their horns glowing. Levitating between the three of them was the dark mare from behind the bar. She was struggling and screaming obscenities.
"YOU NAPPY PEG-HEAD CANNERS! GET YOUR FILTHY STUBS OFF ME OR I SHALL BREAK THEM OFF AND GELD YOU BLOODY WITH THE JAGGED END OF oh hallo there, Vinyl!" As the mare floated past Vinyl, she stopped struggling and screaming and swearing and smiled pleasantly.
The security ponies slowly backed past Vinyl and the dark mare floated with them. Vinyl sat on her stool, sipping her drink, casually watching the process.
"Nothing to worry about, Vinyl, just a bit of misunderstanding with the staff here! It seems they don't think I'm WAIT I'M NOT DONE TALKING TO-" The mare flailed her limbs, trying to swim through the air back to Vinyl.
The security ponies reached the door to the club and they forcibly launched the dark mare out onto the streets.
Vinyl sipped her drink. She swallowed. "Huh," she concluded. That was weird.
* *
Two hours later, Vinyl had had enough of the crickets DJ (Vinyl had decided Canned Heat was an objectively bad song) and enough of their crickets drinks and decided to leave. Apparently their main bartender slipped and fell earlier and they had to call in a replacement and nopony knew how to make a Canterlot Cobbler as well as Vinyl's first.
Vinyl wasn't too clear on the details of the matter. Vinyl was wrapped in that warm, wonderful blanket of alcohol which makes all problems go away.
On uneven hooves, Vinyl opened the front door to the club, trying to get outside and leave. But her hoof slipped off the door and it closed too soon... but not before Vinyl caught sight of that dark mare outside on the sidewalk across the street. The mare was standing there, out in the night, apparently waiting.
Waiting for whom? It was a difficult question. Vinyl tried to wrap her blanket-y mind around it.
A big security stallion at the door noticed Vinyl loitering. "Can I help you, miss? You need me to call a carriage or you okay to walk?"
"No, there's, um," Vinyl collected her thoughts. "Hey, you know, the bar? Over there?" Vinyl pointed at the long piece of wood with stools in front of it and a bartender and lot of alcohol behind it.
The security pony stared at Vinyl. "Yeah," he deadpanned.
"Before, a little while ago, there was a mare behind it, a mare with a pink bow tie."
The security pony touched his face and Vinyl noticed he had the good start of a black eye. "What about her?"
"She's, you know. Outside. On the street? Now."
The security pony's eyes went wide and he stepped to the door and opened it a crack and peeked outside. "Well, well. Little Miss Judo Princess can't take a hint." The security pony looked down at Vinyl. "Wait here."
Vinyl, with nothing better to do, did so.
After a minute, the security pony returned and he and Vinyl huddled by the door, looking out of a crack at the mare on the street.
Soon, a black and white-painted carriage pulled around the corner, drawn by a pair of uniformed unicorn ponies, one of them red and one blue.
Vinyl, watching the arrival of the police, glanced back to where the dark mare was standing.
She was gone.
Vinyl searched the road and saw the mare's black tail disappear around the end of the block as she leapt nimbly over a watermelon which had fallen from a nearby vendor's stand.
The security pony next to Vinyl exploded out of the door and called to the police, forcefully gesturing up the street to where the mare had run. The two police ponies quickly unhitched themselves, leapt into the black and white-painted carriage, and lit up their colored magic to spin the carriage's wheels beneath them. Their horns flashed as the magically propelled carriage rocketed forward in pursuit of the mare, careening down the street, crashing through the watermelon stand at the corner before making a wide turn and disappearing from sight.
Vinyl was pretty sure the police ponies were making weeeoooh weeeoooh siren noises with their mouths.
The security pony was facehoofing. "Where's the Royal Guard when you need them."
Vinyl drunkenly patted him on the foreleg. "Hey. It's cool, bro."
He looked down at Vinyl. "You'll probably be safe now. You're that one DJ, right?" He gestured with his head out towards the street. "You should watch out for crazy ponies like her, you know? Obsessed fans."
"I dunno if she's a fan," mumbled Vinyl.
"But still." He rolled his eyes. "Whatever."
Vinyl extended her hoof. "You're a good stallion, sir."
He rolled his eyes again and bumped her hoof. "Have a pleasant evening, miss."