Bars

by runeplay2

Chapter 2

“On second thought, this is that bad.” Octavia began overlooking the clip-on cuffs that Vinyl had put on them, saying they “needed decoration”.

“Aw, come on! You only have two cuffs on each ear! And besides, we haven’t even started on your hair!”
“Listen, I appreciate the effort, but is all of this necessary?”

“Well,” Vinyl began with a smirk, “you want to get ponies talking to you, right?”

“I—well, yes, of course I do!”

“You want to know why they haven’t been talking to you much before?” Vinyl began to shake a can of hair spray she had picked out of her large organizer labeled “Upper Accessories”.

“Oh, and by the way, you’ll want to keep your mouth closed.”

“And why would I—“Octavia began before she was interrupted by a small blast of hair spray, causing her to hack and wheeze.

“Thing is,” Vinyl began, almost ignoring Octavia’s coughed protests, “ponies aren’t really going to loosen their lips if you look like you have a ruler is tucked in your mane, ready to smack them the second they answer the question wrong.”

“I dum mff—“

“Oh,” Vinyl added in between giggles, while staring at Octavia’s scrunched up face, “and you can open your eyes and mouth, I stopped spraying almost a minute ago.”

“I’m not entirely sure I want to open my eyes, after all that spraying you did.”

“Don’t worry, it’s temporary. Though, if you ask me, you should make it permanent.”

“Oh, fine, I might as well face the music—“ Octavia’s sentence stopped dead in its tracks as she opened her eyes to finally see her mane—it was tied back into a tail, with a long purple streak running the length of it.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“I- it’s-“

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Anyway,” the DJ proceeded to levitate her glasses off of her face, “mind holding these while I go wash this spray off of my hooves?”

Without even waiting for a response, she dropped them in the stuttering mare’s lap, and skipped towards her sink.

As Vinyl’s glasses came off, Octavia’s stuttering gave a brief pause, before continuing anew for a different reason.
“Did I just see that right?” Octavia mumbled to herself, as she slowly crept towards the sink.
Her eyes… they’re… almost a magenta? But I—
“Oh yeah,” Chuckled Vinyl as she began to wash her face in the mirror “almost forgot my contacts.”
While every single lesson in etiquette came screaming at her to look away, she couldn’t help it. Every story she had heard painted Vinyl as some deviant that lived in a shoddy apartment, looking over a club with eyes as red and deep as the blood that ran through her veins. Of all the thoughts in her head, a single one escaped her mouth.

“Why?”

With a startled yelp, Vinyl made a quick turnaround, holding one hoof over her eye.

“Geez, you always try to give heart attacks to everypony while they put in their contacts?”

“I- er- sorry.” Great, now I sound, feel, and no doubt look like a stammering, blundering idiot.

“It’s… fine.” Holy hay is she cute when she turns red. “Just help me find my contact, and I’ll answer whatever it was.”

Ripping her eyes from Vinyl, Octavia began to search the floor for the missing contact, which was not made any easier by the clay-colored marble floor.

“What was your question? I was a bit busy jabbing my eye from getting scared to death to hear it.”

“I- I was wondering why you do it.”

“You’re going to have to be a lot more specific. Unless you mean—“

“Found it!”

“Great, can you wash it and put it in for me?”

“I—well, I’m not sure—“

“You’re the one who plays the fancy instrument and has the not throbbing eye, not me.”

“All right, if you really insist…”

As Octavia began to head towards the sink, contact in hoof, Vinyl couldn’t help but notice her thoughts—or lack of thoughts, as it were—didn’t head straight to Octavia’s flank. Sure, there was plenty to look at, but try as she might, Vinyl just could not find it in her to imagine doing anything with it. It just… felt wrong.

“See something you… um… like, sailor?”

“I wasn’t—I don’t—I—“

“Oh, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one getting her ponyfeathers all rustled!”

Am I... flirting? Oh, I hope she doesn't take that the wrong way...

“I—just get it in already.”

With Vinyl staring at her, one eye the beautiful magenta, the other blood red, Octavia almost felt guilty. She, of all ponies, was able to see this—and now, she was covering up.

“So, what was it you were wondering?”

“Well, I…”

Holy hay, she’s trembling! Is Octavia really that afraid of this, or what?

“I guess I’m wondering why all the acting, all the secrets, the contacts? Just… why?”

Tapping her hoof on the floor, Vinyl deliberated with herself if she should tell Octavia the truth or not. On one hoof, she could just as easily be walking into a trap, just so that she would spill her deepest, darkest secrets. On the other, she hadn't had any reason to suspect Octavia before now. Besides, who would believe 'Tavi if she came out and said "Vinyl is a bucking liar?" It wasn't like she hadn't that name-- and worse-- thrown at her before.

“That’s seriously a tall order, ‘Tavi. If I tell you, you gotta promise me you won’t tell anypony.”

“Yes, I promise.”

“On your cello.”

“All right, I—“ Wait, what? I didn’t mention playing cello, did I….?

“How the hay did you know I play cello?”

Rolling her eyes, Vinyl made it clear she wasn’t going to elaborate without Octavia’s promise.
Oh, this definitely has my attention. Celestia knows who else has been given the honor of knowing this!

“I, Octavia Cavatina, promise on my cello, that I will not breathe a word of this to anypony.”

“You might want to be sitting down for this one, because it’s a doozy: I didn’t really plan any of it.”

“Any of what?”

“My image, or any of that. I guess it all started with that interview I got with the Manehatten Manestream. I hadn’t been able to sleep on the carriage ride from Ponyville to Manehatten, hence the shades and eyes. Everything was really, really bright, and my eyes were bloodshot. Sadly, they mis-printed it. Instead of “bloodshot, red, puffy eyes”, they ended up with “Blood red eyes.” So, I’ve been wearing these contacts since.”

“Your apartment?” Octavia prompted, wondering how any reporter could misconstrue the lavish apartment they were in for the ragged, beaten, musty, two-cent apartment Vinyl was known to live in.

“Well, the apartment part was true, at the time. I own this place- heck, my father owned it back in his day. Thing was, this place was getting a retrofit for new fire safety codes, so when they did the “in my habitat” interview—whatever good they think it will do to interview me at my house—I had to rent out an apartment, and the cruddy one the interviewer described was the only one available.”

“What about you hating orchestral? Was that the truth, or was that not right, either?”

“That one, I guess you can blame me and my agent. My agent for suggesting it, and me for going along.” Vinyl chuckled as the ill-fated advice began to ring in her ears.
Vinyl, your fans don’t care that you enjoy some fancy music, they want to know their idol is like them—down in the grunge pits, ready to blare it for anypony who will listen, got it? You saying you love classical would be like Hoof Bay saying he loved romantic dramas without any explosions, get it?

“Anyway,” Vinyl shook her head, chasing the bad advice off, “anything else?”

“Well, no, I guess not… thank you, though.”

“For what?”

“Well, for… everything, I guess.”

“Aw, it’s no problem, ‘Tavi. Anything to help a fellow musician.” Fellow terminally and unbearably cute musicians.

“Speaking of music, I think that we may want to get back to the club?” Octavia ruefully reminded herself and her host of her original goal.

“Yeah…” Well, buck. Tavi’s right, we couldn’t stay in here forever—however much I would like to.

“Let’s saddle up and get going, then.”

Vinyl froze, not entirely sure she was hearing Octavia correctly.

“You sure?” Her head shifted to the side, as though to drain some imaginary water from her ears.

“Am I sure that I will need to leave here eventually? Well, yes, I—“

“No, not that,” Vinyl replied, remembering that her company was not used to club lingo.

“Then what is it that I would be unsure of?”

“Well, in these sorta clubs, “saddling up” takes on a different meaning… sorta.”

Oh, of course it does. Why can’t a pony just say what she means to say and not have any other meaning?

“I take it from your reaction that “saddling up” means something rique, even in club terms?”

“No, it isn’t anything like that, trust me. Thing is, I thought you meant like actual saddles.” Vinyl could feel her face heating up as she continued the explanation. “And in clubs, when you’re wearing a saddle, that means you’re taken, so I thought—“

“Oh, my goodness gracious, I- I didn’t mean anything like that, I just meant it as in “Let’s get going”, that sort of thing.”

“Yeah, I figured, but I’m just a bit more used to club lingo, that’s all.”

After a nervous chuckle, Octavia queried if there was any other club lingo she should be aware of.

“No, I think that’s good… but whatever you do, don’t order any drinks you hear of that aren’t on the menu, okay?”

“Off-menu drinks?”

“And if someone offers you a drink, and you don’t know them, don’t take it.”

“All right, but—“

“And I don’t know if you smoke, but all we got around here is wacky tabaccy. Nothing you could find in a store.”

Octavia began another question, only to be cut off once more.

“And WHATEVER you do, DO NOT take body shots off of Lime Rickey.”

“Why?”

“The last mare to do that ended up in a dumpster. Nopony knows how, and nopony asks. Just don’t.”
That certainly is the most disturbing thing she has told me yet—bodyshots. Octavia shuddered at the thought of sucking alcohol off of some stallion she hadn’t even met was just… disturbing.
“O-kay then, suit yourself. Though you may change your mind by nights end.”

Comments

[runeplay2]

Well, that power outage put this chapter off for what seemed like... forever. Anyway, I hope I don't put anyone off by getting a bit heavier on the Dialogue! (I'm horrible at writing descriptions without a pre-reader, and I'm flying solo on this one.)

[User_Name555]

Nice! I like how this is turning out.

[Stereo_Sub]

This is brilliant so far. I really like the alternate characterization of Vinyl. It's nice to see her being given a more refined side in addition to the fun-loving party animal personality everyone is familiar with. Keep it up!