Bars

by runeplay2

Chapter 1

Right. Nothing but bass.
*WUB WUB*

Get that beat as sick and gnarly as you can.
*WUB WUB*

When this is all over, they’ll be crying for more.
*DUB DUB*

Hay yeah, this is gonna be--

“Would you turn that infernal racket down?!”

The mare jolt out of her sleep, disturbed by the sudden yelling.

“Young lady, I am about to evict you from this building if you do not stop this!”

She attempted to rub the sleep from her eyes, internally debating on telling Marble House off or not.

“I will give you five seconds, or you’re out!”

Aw buck…

“All right, just let me get to the alarm clock!”

As she started towards the alarm clock on her night stand, she heard the fumbling of keys from outside the door. She wasn’t sure what exactly the landlord wanted other than her alarm turned off, but she was about to find out.

“Listen, I turned off the alarm, so there’s no need to-“

“I’m already in, Miss Octavia,” The landlord began surveying the room, his eyebrows furrowing in disgust, “and I must say- I am highly disappointed. If you do not have this room- and your act- cleaned up by the time I come back from Manehattan, you will be evicted from here immediately.”

Octavia had always had an ability to suppress any rogue emotion that would seem impolite at the time- but Brick was certainly pushing it. As he continued his look-over of the room, his eyes happened upon a bottle of Vodka, and he gave an audible gasp.

“Young lady! How could you even think of having such an… unrefined drink in here? You’re almost convincing me of going back to my “No tenants under 30” rule!”

“Well, I’m sorry, sir. I had company over last night, and-“

“You? Company? Oh please, stop yourself right there. I might actually lose my composure over the very idea. You have never had company over aside from your parents!”

Her ears flattened against her head, and her jaw clenched as she continued to fight back the impulse to tell him to buck off.

“And in any case, that would still be nowhere near an excuse. If this has something to do with your newfound midnight habits, then I would suggest that you change them- the sooner the better.”

“Of course, sir.”

Octavia rolled her eyes as Marble House started his monologue of how he had gone from a lower class, unsophisticated birth to become one of the most prominent ponies in Canterlot, and how he was rather disappointed with the newer generation, stating they “expected too much for too little”. The first time she had heard it, during her tour of the luxurious apartment building, she had actually been quite impressed. There were few ponies she had ever met who would have had the determination that he had.

But now, the 9th or 10th time she had heard it, she was impressed again. Not from the amazing story, but because she found it amazing anypony could titter on about their own overinflated ego for over twenty minutes. She allowed her mind to drift away from House’s monologue, keeping it close enough that she would be able to tell when he was almost finished, towards her more recent night life.

After all, it was her night life that had gotten her into this mess. She was doing a report for her orchestra’s conductor, Enlightened Baton, on the local clubs and bars- not because Baton was interested in which bar had the best mai-tai, but because as of late, their concerts had been getting less packed. Baton had suggested that the best place to figure out why wasn’t through their listeners- that would be plain rude to ask them; but also because if they knew why other ponies weren’t coming, they wouldn’t either- but rather through bars. Something about how fantasy stories always beginning at bars, and what-have-you, she couldn’t remember. She at the time was more worried about walking into places typically referenced as being “Smelly, unclean, and full of drunkards”. After walking into the first bar on her list- “The Drinking Trough”- that she had almost immediately given up. She had spent less than 10 minutes within the establishment and she had already been accosted by a drunken stallion and some filly in the dark corner had been staring at her the entire night.

“And so,” Octavia’s mind flew back to the scene at hand as she heard her que, “That is why I have become so opposed to allowing riff-raff into my apartment building. So- are we going to have this discussion again?”

“No, Sir.” She barely moved her head as she spoke- enough that she seemed sincere but not too much as to seem she had reverted back to her fillyhood.

“All right.” He left the room as blazenly as anypony still walking with a stiff arrogance about him could.

“Yeesh, I thought he’d never leave!” Octavia mumbled to herself, as she began to clean the apartment of any evidence of her last night’s debauchery.

-------------------------------------------------------------- Bars --------------------------------------------------

The vodka bottle would definitely need to go- she had an image to uphold, even if it were only for the housekeepers. The housekeepers had never really said much to her, or about her, and she had always appreciated that. She left them a rather hefty tip on the night stand- after all, she did leave quite the mess, and would feel absolutely guilty if she hadn’t. Besides, she had thought it best to at least give them as much of a tip as the bar tender from last night.

“Dear sweet Celestia, why did I ever even think of going there…” She slowly began to recall all of the events of last night, her face reddening more and more as the events became all the more clear.

“So then, you want into Space 34, just because your orchestra is low on audience members and you’re trying to figure out why?” The bouncer scoffed at Octavia’s request.

“Yes, sir, I am.” She began to glare at the bouncer, rather irritated that someone of her stature would be barred from going in.

“Listen, lady, I can tell you right now, nopony here would be caught dead at one of your concerts. That, or they’d probably die of boredom.”

“How dare you say such a thing!” Octavia’s temper was only being held in check right now because of almost a decade of etiquette training, though she was almost reaching her breaking point here. “Celestia’s 457’th Orchestra is certainly far from boring!”

“Listen,” The bouncer gave a roll of his eyes as he waved towards the line of ponies behind her, “If I let everypony who had done something in their life in, I’d be out of a job. So, I suggest you leave and stop wasting my time.”

Octavia turned to leave, her head hanging down low, when a pony with a muzzle full of groceries came strolling up past the entire line.

“Oh, hey Vinyl, enjoy your shopping?” The bouncer stepped aside as he and revealed a small platform- perhaps large enough to hold a small filly right next to the door, which Vinyl set her groceries on.

“Hey Brick. What’s up with the long face on that filly?” Vinyl gestured over towards Octavia with her tail.

“Oh, her?” He pointed his hoof towards Octavia to make sure they were talking about the same filly, “She’s from some orchestra trying to figure out why their usual ponies haven’t been showing up.”

Octavia was prepared for the mare to make some snide remark about orchestra music sucking flank, and wasn’t in the mood to hear the rest of it. What she wasn’t ready for was what she heard.

“Let her in.”

“What?” Both Octavia and the bouncer said in unison.

“I said: Let her in.”

Octavia stammered, not really ready to respond to such an act of kindness. Brick, on the other hand, began making some defense that Octavia seemed to be a mood killing sort of pony.

“Yeah, well, she may be a mood-killer, but the I can understand where she’s coming from. And besides,” She added in as an aside to the bouncer, “I might just be able to fix that.”

Vinyl spun around to get a better look at what she had to work with- a well-groomed, well-dressed, un-inebriated mare. All three of which had to go.

“Anyway, umm… What’s your name? I never actually heard it, so…”

“Oh, I- my name is Octavia.”

“Octavia…?”

“Yes, that is my given name. Why?”

“Eh,” Vinyl replied with a shrug, “it sounds way too formal. How ‘bout ‘Tavi’?”

“I don’t really see what the point of giving myself a nickname is…” Octavia couldn’t help but feel a little bit disappointed in the idea of misrepresenting herself with a nickname. She had always represented herself as Octavia- Cavatina for those who actually cared for last names- and had been brought up that “Stage names” were something to be looked down upon.

“Well, it’s a lot easier when you can just say a smaller portion of the other pony’s name instead of the entire thing. Plus, if you do go with ‘Octavia’, every time I see you I’m going to keep calling you ‘Octaaaaaaaaavia’”. Vinyl did her best to sound like one of those super-nanny mares she had heard about with the overly thick accents.

“Well, I- all right, ‘Tavi’ it is.”

“Great! Oh, and one more thing, you look like you’re dressed for a funeral.” Vinyl poked, indicating Octavia’s bow tie.

“I do not look like I-“

“You want in, or not?”

Octavia bit her lip and muttered out a “Fine”.

“All right- follow me through the club- I’ve got a room upstairs, and I think I have a few duds for you to borrow.”

Vinyl didn’t even wait for Octavia to respond, she just headed straight into the club. Octavia began to follow, un-entirely sure of where her “guide” had disappeared to. The only real indicator she got was the reflection on Vinyl’s glasses. As she followed Vinyl through the crowd, she couldn’t help but notice how Vinyl was able to move through the crowd so smoothly- like water over rocks, maybe. Never really forcing her way through, but rather just always finding that one way through. Octavia would have loved to ask the DJ how she did it—if she wasn’t constantly getting barraged by other ponies bumping her about, and occasionally pushing her towards the wrong direction. Some went as so far as to ask “What the buck are you doing?”, and others actually tried to continue rubbing against her. By the time she reached the stairs, she couldn’t help but be relieved. The stairs were barely wide enough for a single pony to get up- let alone two- so the odds of anyone hanging out on them were slim. That, and she was entertaining the feeling of claustrophobia. She quickly ascended, eager to find Vinyl, and perhaps tell her that this was a mistake—this club was way too crowded for her, she was getting a stomach ache, there were fumes... just something to get her out of here. As she neared the top of the stairs, she noticed that the steel grate stairs had turned into carpeted steps, and instead of railings there was drywall.

Well, this certainly is a nice change…

At the top of the stairs stood a large oak door, with the inscription of “Life is one grand, sweet, song, so let’s start the music.”

“I remember Princess Celestia saying this when she came to my class’s graduation. Had she taken any longer saying it, I probably would have passed out from the stress. Though I think I may just do that now.” Octavia chuckled to herself, as she recalled the embarrassing event. Come to think of it, that’s how she had even ended up here in the first place! If she hadn’t played her hooves off, the Enlightened Baton might as well have never even noticed her, and she might have been able to avoid this whole mess! She could have been passed up for the Symphony, and then… okay, so she wasn’t that desperate to get out of here.

Shuffling uneasily, Octavia began to wonder if maybe Vinyl was tricking her. Or perhaps, she had just forgotten. It wouldn’t be the first time she had been left, standing in front of somepony’s door, looking like an idiot. Though this time, at least she could possibly get out without everypony staring at her down the block. Heaving a small sigh, she turned to head down the stairs.

“The last time I try talking my way into any bar—“

“Hey! Where ya goin’?” Vinyl had opened the door, wearing her devil-may-care grin as she called down to Octavia.

“Well, I thought you had forgotten that I was following you.”

“Naw, I’d never do that. Anyway, come on up here! You’re still not going down there again wearing that tie!”

“Well, all right.”

I guess this may not be so bad, after all.

Comments

[Stereo_Sub]

I like where this is going. Please continue!

[DELETEDDELETEDDELETEDDEL]

I love how you take the time to add a little it of depth, really get into the characters personalities before continueing the story, i'm how you say "hooked" on this story. I am eager to see how it progresses.

[Midnight-Moon]

Octavia: I guess this may not be so bad, after all.

Famous last words.

[User_Name555]

images.sodahead.com/polls/001781401/254991506_interesting_xlarge.jpeg