My Little Background Pony: Boasters Busted

by comicfan616

Differences

Even with Trixie’s leftover “trail,” the ponies did not have to pay too much attention to their path to find the cave the Ursa appeared from; being so big, it made its own path to the town, leaving behind a swath cleared of trees. Vinyl was slightly reminded of their first excursion through the forest, though it wasn’t as elating as then.

The three unicorns carried the Ursa all the way to the cave, with the other four ponies acting as watch for any creatures about. Even though Vinyl hadn’t encountered anything other than the Ursa during her initial excursion, after remembering Octavia’s outburst when they got back, she decided it would be best, in a lot of ways, to have them accompany her.

Soon, they all reached the cave. Slowly and gently, the three unicorns ushered the sleeping Ursa into it. They waited until it was deep inside the cave and set it gently down until they felt it rest on solid ground. Everypony breathed a sigh of relief at having that humongous weight out of their grasp.

“Well,” Vinyl said after a few pants, “that’s that.”

“Indeed,” Trixie added. Then, with a suddenly renewed confidence, she said, “Well, then, seeing as Trixie has proven her point, she will be going now.”

“Wait, what?!” Vinyl said, just stopping herself from outright yelling.

“You admitted defeat,” Trixie said smugly. “Or did you not say, ‘I may not be as skilled in magic as you’?”

Vinyl recoiled a bit. “Um, maybe, but…!”

“Then the Great and Powerful Trixie has no more need to waste time with the likes of you.” Suddenly, she reared up and struck the ground below her, causing a plume of smoke to erupt from where she landed. The others all closed their eyes covered their mouths, though that didn’t prevent all of the smoke from invading their lungs, prompting a few coughs. When it finally cleared, everyone looked around the area. But Trixie was nowhere to be found.

“Did she just… disappear?” Derpy asked. One of her eyes moved to the side and something caught her vision. “Oh, wait, there she is.” Almost immediately, Trixie appeared from behind the tree from where she was hiding and ran off toward the edge of the forest.

“Maybe we can still catch her,” Lyra suggested, looking like she was going to break into a run.

“Forget it.” Everyone looked at Vinyl, almost surprised the words had come from her mouth. “She’s not worth the trouble.” She let out a deep sigh. “Wish I’d known that from the start,” she mumbled.

Octavia walked up to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “At least you knew when to stop,” she reassured.

“Doesn’t make it right, though,” Vinyl continued. She started walking out of the forest. The others followed. “To be honest, I don’t really think I told her off just because her performance was bad. I mean, it was bad, but I guess I just thought I could do better.” She sighed again. “Really should have kept that bit to myself, though. You were right, Tavi, I’m no different from Trixie.”

“And I think that’s the difference between the two of you,” Octavia affirmed. Vinyl looked at her in confusion. “Maybe you didn’t stop yourself from bragging like she did, but you did admit your mistake. Trixie, as it stands, has yet to admit her own faults.”

Vinyl smiled a little, but turned her gaze back to the ground. “Maybe, but I can’t help but feel like I really screwed up. Between how I treated her and what it led to,” she pointed back toward the cave, “I’m clearly not the posterfilly for good decisions.”

Octavia thought for a moment before saying, “Well, if it means that much to you, I have an idea on how you can make it up to everypony.”

---

Okay, Vinyl, you got this. Just do it like you rehearsed. Still, even after all her practice, Vinyl felt something she never thought possible for her: anxiety. Whether it was because of the incident with Trixie or this being her first real performance outside of Ponyville, she could not entirely be sure; perhaps a combination of both.

She couldn’t dwell on these thoughts for long though, as she heard those pivotal words. “…so, fillies and gentlecolts, please help me in welcoming the newest face to the DJ gig, DJ-PON3!”

And the announcer introduces me. Vinyl breathed once to calm her nerves as she heard the cheers of the crowd on the other side of the curtain. Let’s do this. She stepped out onto the stage. “Hey, everypony, how you all doin’ tonight?” she shouted. The applause was thunderous. So far, so good. “Now, I know this is the part where I introduce myself because you don’t know a darn thing about me. But you know what?” She pointed to where the MC had walked offstage. “That guy already did that, so I won’t bother.” She heard a few chuckles. “Besides, I’m the kinda mare who lets her work speak for itself.” By now, she had made her way to her turntables and situated herself behind them. “I hope you’re ready to dance, because you’re all about to experience a case of Night Fever!” Aaaaaand hit the music.

The music started playing. The crowd started dancing. As she bobbed her head to the music, Vinyl looked out at her audience, smiling. Hm. Guess Tavi was right. Things turned out okay after all.

Wait, did I just admit Tavi was right? Oh, she’s not gonna let me hear the end of this.

Author's Note:

This might be the shortest story I ever wrote for this series. I'll try to make them longer in the future, but I've always been the kind of guy who believes in letting the story itself dictate the length rather than unnaturally force it to be longer than necessary.

With that said, that's the end of another one, folks. Hope you liked it.

This is CF, signing out.

Comments

[Comickook]

Hey there. Thanks very much for sharing this short story. I'm sorry I took so long to get around to reading and reviewing (well, reviewing; I HAVE been reading it AND enjoying it. I've just been too lazy, by my own admission).

Anyway, this WAS a pretty entertaining short story. I DID like that it showed AND acknowledged that both sides were at fault. Anyway, great job on the exchanges, emotional content, humor, action and wrap-up in all the right places.

Anyway, I seem to recall reading that you were trying to think of something to pay tribute to the memory of Cassey Kassem a couple of years ago. I might have thought of something:

Vinyl's idol, the host of Equestrian Top 40, is having trouble with a ghost haunting his studio. Time Turner and his friends investigate the matter.

Not only does it acknowledge Casey Kasem's longtime role as the host of American Top 40, it also pays tribute to a certain cartoon franchise that Kasem quite famously did long time voice work for. Of course, it would be up to you if the "ghost" turns out to be real, a clever crook using special effects or some extra-terrestrial with actual ghost-like powers.

And that, would also be assuming you like the idea enough to use it. If not, I DO profusely apologize for wasting your time.

[MegaBrony95]

Hopefully you get to this soon. No rush though.

P.S. Does Derpy have a crush on the Doctor? Just wondering

[QuartzScale]

I hope there is more to this series. This series actually got me to join the site and consider writing my own story. The characters are endearing as they are portrayed. While I may have drawn influence from another writer I do prefer the deeper story found here.

[TRUSTeT34M]

Is there more to this series