Prompt: Cheerilee and Vinyl Scratch in Manehattan
Cheerilee turned her head towards the entrance of the arena. A steady crowd of ponies were streaming out, but she was waiting for one mare in particular.
She finally found her, appearing for a moment as if she were somepony else--her dark glasses were tucked up above her forelock, pushed just against the base of her horn. As soon as she stepped out into the sunlight, her horn lit briefly and her glasses slid down over her eyes, presenting the familiar facade of DJ-Pon3.
Cheerilee waved and the unicorn came over.
“I should have told you,” she said. It wasn’t much of an introduction, but it served. Vinyl nodded, and Cheerilee continued. “She . . . I didn’t know you were into wrestling.” And at first I was just didn’t feel like bringing it up, maybe lingering resentment from foalhood, maybe a belief that being a wrestler wasn’t a ‘real’ job.
It was different for Vinyl. Her housemate was famous in her own right, and everpyony knew that Octavia was one of the very best cellists in all of Equestria. Anypony would be proud to be her--that wasn’t fair. Vinyl was equally famous; maybe not a pony who Chererilee would go out of her way to see, she wasn’t into the dance scene and scratching turntables, but she couldn’t help how much Vinyl had overcome to get where she was . . . and everypony knew that a cutie mark never lied.
“I just didn’t want to sound like I was bragging,” Cheerilee said.
Vinyl nodded. She flicked her ears--Cheerilee wasn’t overly adept at reading ear language, but she knew it well enough to get by.
“Yes, I know.” Cheerilee’s drooped. “I should be proud. She’s proud I’m a teacher.”
Vinyl shrugged, and her ears twitched.
“It’s true. She said so, after I--” Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “I subbed for her in a match.”
Vinyl grinned.
“You already knew that, didn’t you?”
A nod.
“Rainbow told you.”
Another now, a couple of ear flicks; although Cheerilee could have understood even if Vinyl hadn’t explained.
Some ponies got angry at gossip, especially when they were involved in that gossip, but Cheerilee couldn’t blame Rainbow. She was always enthusiastic when meeting ponies she thought of as ‘awesome,’ and Cherry Blossom certainly qualified.
As well as the Ponyville schoolteacher kicking flank in the arena.
Vinyl touched her hoof to her lips and brought it forward, a simpler way of semaphoring ‘thank you.’
“We could go backstage and meet her,” Cheerilee offered. “She didn’t get me VIP tickets, but we are family, and. . .”
Vinyl grinned. Octavia never got VIP tickets, either.
“But . . . there are ponies who paid a lot of bits for their tickets,” Cheerilee said. “We should wait until after they’ve had their turn.”
Vinyl nodded, then her ears started moving.
“No, I don’t want to wait here, either,” Cheerilee replied. “But--there’s a Hayburger down the street. Want to get a snack?”
I... I kinda wanna know what happens next, but that's how your stories always effect me.
I don't usually comment on typos, but I read your blog about the typo on the back cover... so, yeah I couldn't resist.
Ear language! Yes. That should be a big thing. Horses/ponies use a lot of complex non vocal communication as to not alert predators. MORE of this!
You make the cons sound so fun and interesting.
I do love references to the more obscure comics, and this definitely qualifies. Great stuff, both in the uncommon character interactions and the ear language.
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They hang out at the Hayburger for a bit and just talk, and Cheerilee discovers that Vinyl is also a trained violinist. That’s how she met Octavia, you know.
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Oh, please do! If I ever blog about the difficulties in transforming my fimfic stuff to actual paperback, part of the issue was that I migrated it over from FimFiction, since that’s where all the corrected typos are. In most cases, I never fixed them in the gDocs.
The first place I came across something more complex than simply showing emotion (ears back, drooping, etc.) was Rogue Wolf’s Misunderstandings (if you haven’t read that, do), and it was one of those things that was so damn obvious I can’t believe that’s the first place I saw it. You’re right that horses use a lot of non-verbal communication, and there’s no reason that that wouldn’t translate into a form of language for the ponies, sort of the equivalent of sign language. Heck, it might even come more naturally to them.
Oh, they are. You totally gotta get to one whenever you get a chance.
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Funnily enough, as soon as I got the prompt, that’s right where I went. I did have to look up Cherry Blossom’s name, ‘cause I couldn’t remember it.
Thank you!
I can’t take full credit for ear language; I got that from Rogue Wolf’s Misunderstandings, and promptly stuck it in my headcanon, ‘cause it’s so brilliant.
I really want to see more of Cheerilee and Cherry Blossom's relationship.
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That would be an interesting avenue to explore. Maybe with Cherry Blossom coming to Ponyville, ponies thinking it’s Cheerilee . . . hmm.