Filly Friends

by thehalfelf

Zwip

Zwip

“I’m not wearing that,” I deadpanned to Vinyl, glaring at the offending strips of cloth laid out on my bed.

“Why not?” Vinyl asked, pouting. “We both walk around with no clothes on every day. Dress up a little bit.”

“Emphasis on little,” I muttered back. I poked at a section of torn fabric supposed to cover my cutie mark. “By your own logic, since we walk around with no clothes on, what is the point of wearing this?”

“To look sexy,” Symphonia chimed in, the effect somewhat ruined by the chips in her mouth. “You know, the art of suggestive covering and all that.”

“Denied,” I said, poking at the dress one more time before turning to Vinyl. “Besides, you aren’t wearing anything, and I am most definitely not going to be the only one of the two of us dressed up.”

Vinyl looked at herself. “Are you saying you prefer me to go in nothing at all?”

She fluttered her eyes at me. I hit her.

“You should save that for after we get ba— Please don’t hit me again!” Vinyl jumped back as I reared my hoof back again, right into Symphonia’s reach. I wasn’t able to smack Vinyl again, but my ever faithful roommate did for me.

“I can’t win with you two,’ Vinyl whined. She pointed to the supposed dress on my bed. “That’s mine, I figured you didn’t have something informal to wear. It’s the only one I’ve got, though, that’s why I’m not wearing anything.”

“Thanks, Vinyl, but I’m not wearing it,” I said firmly. To be even more clear, I moved the loosely connected bits of fabric from my bed.

“If you won’t wear that, I won’t wear anything to your recital,” Vinyl countered.

Symphonia and I looked at each other.

“I suppose I could find something from my closet,” Symphonia said, rising from the couch. She strolled off to the closet and began to hunt around.

“I’m just so excited!” Vinyl shouted, springing across the table to hug me. “I’ve never been to a club on opening night, and haven’t really been anywhere other than The Underground. It’s nice and all, but totally earned it’s rep, y’know?”

“No, I really don’t,” I replied, trying to pry her hooves off my neck. “I’ve not been to anything even close to a club since our misadventure in Manehatten.”

“Even better!” She resisted every effort to separate us.

I looked longingly over at Symphonia, now fully half inside her closet, praying for a savior. She ignored my silent pleas, leaving me at the mercy of an excited Vinyl. She chattered on and on for several minutes about speaker setups, and dance floors, and hazers, and all sorts of things I didn’t understand.

“Here, try this,” Symphonia said, interrupting a very engaging conversation on things hanging from the ceiling affecting room acoustics. She tossed a glittery silver slip of a dress over Vinyl’s head.

Vinyl scrabbled at the fabric frantically trying to free herself. “Aah, sequins, they burn!”

I pulled the dress from Vinyl’s head and looked it over. It was simple enough, and the color was dark enough to blend well with my coat. Without thinking about it too hard, I shimmied into the dress and stood. “Should we go then?”

Vinyl hopped to her hooves, threw on the dress she’d brought for me, and grabbed her saddlebags. “Let’s go!”

<><><><><>

To the credit of Night-Glo, they really knew their stuff. Standing in line with Vinyl you couldn’t hear a thing from inside. The ground under us thrummed ever so slightly, but it could be easily passed off as carriage traffic from the street. The line itself was pretty long, but moved quickly.

“Are you excited for Father’s show?” I asked Vinyl as we neared the front. A little more music bled through the door, so I had to raise my voice slightly.

“The one in Las Pegasus? Yeah, should be cool,” she replied. “The only time I’ve been outside of Canterlot is when we went to Manehatten, so that’ll be cool too.”

It wasn’t much longer before we reached the bouncer and were shown in. We pushed our way through the door and a very thick velvet curtain and into the dark. Music thrummed through the small hallway, building in volume and intensity as we followed a neon-green line of paint on the floor. After pushing through another curtain, we finally arrived.

As far as I could tell, the room has no actual light. Everything was lit by a combination of random lines drawn in glowing paint, glowsticks on ponies, and a gentle background of black light. Hundreds of lasers, each one thick as a pen’s head, danced wildly across the throng of ponies taking up the majority of the room.

Vinyl whistled, at least I think she did, since I couldn’t actually hear her, and pulled me off to one side of the room. “This is so cool!”

Despite the darkness and the overabundance of ponies, I had to agree. “Can you even see through those glasses?”

“Not at all!”

I shook my head and tried to pull her over towards the bar and seating, but she resisted. We had an awkward moment where neither of us moved before I gave in and allowed myself to be brought to the dance pit.

We pressed into the back-most row of ponies, Vinyl already starting to bob along to the beat pulsing through the room, and continued further. Ponies parted around us as Vinyl pulled me closer and closer into the densest sections. Once she’d found a spot she liked, Vinyl stopped and began to bop and sway, seemingly at random.

I’d talked to her about this in the past. Despite all my musical training, I really had no sense for dancing. And I definitely had no sense for whatever this was. All around us were ponies dipping, bobbing, gyrating, and otherwise flailing around with no sense of order.

I did my best to keep up. At the very least my flailing around was on beat, even if I felt like an absolute idiot.

At least Vinyl couldn’t see me.

We danced, or at least I pretended to, until Vinyl decided she’d had enough. She moved right next to my ear to shout something that I couldn’t hear, then wandered off. I followed after, partly to ask what she said, and partly because I didn’t want to be left alone. We popped back out of the herd and ended up back over by the bar. I went to find us an open table while Vinyl ordered drinks.

“Having fun?” she asked when she came over, floating a glass of something over to me.

I took a tentative sip and was pleasantly surprised to only find water. “I suppose. Is it what you wanted?”

“Yeah, it’s a pretty cool place.” Vinyl drank deep of her own drink, something blue and fizzy, and took a long look around the room. “I know you’ve never been to The Underground, but it’s always seemed a little grungy, kind of. It might be because this place is new, but it seems so clean.”

“And Hazelblossom isn’t here.”

Vinyl looked over at me, grinned, and raised her glass towards mine. “And Hazelblossom isn’t here!”

I held my own drink up, as best I could, and Vinyl tapped it with hers. She downed the rest of her drink and motioned to my cup. “You want another? Something else?”

In the moment I took to think about it, Vinyl had already grabbed my half-full glass and taken off towards the bar. I shook my head and resigned myself to only taking sips of whatever she brought back. I wasn’t much of a drinker, unlike Father or Symphonia. As Vinyl returned, now with two glasses of fizzy blue something, I could only pray that it wasn’t too alcoholic.

“I just got you what I had, it’s pretty good.” Vinyl set the drink down in front of me and sipped her own. “Wait… do you drink?”

“A little late to ask now, isn’t it?” I retorted, taking a sip. It was surprisingly good, but what Symphonia called a dangerous drink. I couldn’t even taste alcohol.

Small sips it was then.

We sat and chatted for a while, as we normally did, and generally passed the time ponywatching. It was fun to watch the crowd for long periods of time, eventually they just turned into a mass of writhing and glowing fur. On the far wall opposite us sat the DJ, on a raised platform behind a wall of equipment. A mare played currently, giant headphones half hanging off her head. She looked like she was having a blast.

“So that’s what you want to do then?” I asked Vinyl. I pointed at the DJ.

“Yeah. I want to make and mix my own stuff, and play it for a crowd. I’ve never done it, but it looks like so much fun, and I really love making music.”

“I can understand that. Playing, anyway. I’m not very good at making music.”

“Nonsense,” boomed a deep voice from behind us. Vinyl and I both jumped and quickly looked back. A rather large pegasus stallion in a suit that seemed made for this building stood there, looking at us with a small smile. “Anypony can make music, you just gotta know how.”

“Maybe, but if it’s not something they want to do, should they?” Vinyl replied. The mystery stallion turned to face her, and she met the stare head on. “I can’t play traditional music like Tavi. I know any pony can pick one up and learn it, but it’s not quite the same.”

The stallion nodded. “I see. My name is Midnight Oil, I run this establishment. Might I ask your names?”

I quickly searched his face, mostly worried that Vinyl had somehow offended him and we were about to be removed. Seeing nothing other than a pleasant smile, I said, “Octavia Philharmonica. That is Vinyl Scratch.”

Midnight Oil’s grin morphed into a full smile. “So you are Vinyl Scratch, I thought you looked familiar. I spent a lot of time at The Underground, you see. I used to see you there often, but you’ve been absent of late.”

Vinyl chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, I’ve got some personal reasons for not being around, but this place seems loads better.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourselves,” he replied with a slight bow. He motioned towards the bar, then bowed once again. “I must take my leave, many patrons to greet. If the two of you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to speak with you again later. Drinks are on me.”

“He seems nice,” I said as Midnight Oil moved towards the next table. “Not quite the kind of pony I expected to be running a nightclub, though.”

“I wonder what he wants,” Vinyl mused, nursing her drink. “But hey, free booze!”

I couldn’t resist smacking my head with a hoof. “Vinyl…”

“What?” she asked, rising. “I’m gonna get another, I’ll bring you something.”

As she walked away I turned my attention to Midnight Oil strolling between tables. Despite his looks, he was definitely used to this sort of environment. He’d even latched onto Vinyl’s name instead of mine, which in itself was odd. We weren’t famous by some definitions, but just about every pony had at least heard of Father for his shows, or Mother for her solo career.

Vinyl came and went several times before Midnight Oil decided to join us. To her credit, she only got somewhat drunk, while my own collection of half-finished drinks grew. We were there for at least three or four hours before we were called by staff to a back room, as the last DJ was signing off for the night.

The staff member led us back into the unthemed back parts of the club. The normal lighting after seeing by glow for the last several hours stung my eyes, and for the first time I was jealous of Vinyl’s ever present glasses. Our leader clicked open a locked door and ushered us into a very normal looking office.

Midnight Oil sat in a chair similar to Father’s office chair, the back covered by his suit jacket. “Thank you, you may leave,” he said to the employee. He then turned his full attention to us and smiled. “Come in, take a seat.”

The leather creaked under me as Vinyl and I sat to face the stallion behind the desk. He poured three glasses of water and moved two over in front of us. “Did you enjoy your evening?”

“Yeah,” Vinyl replied, quickly snatching up her water and drinking.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” I joined in, allowing Vinyl the time she needed to rehydrate. “You said there was something you wished to talk to us about?”

Midnight Oil nodded and motioned towards Vinyl. “Her, actually. I’m sure your skill is equal to your mother’s, Miss Philharmonica, but it’s not quite what I need right now.”

Like I said, most ponies knew either my Father or Mother. It didn’t help his words not sting, but I’d been here tonight solely for Vinyl. This meeting wouldn’t be any different. She wasn’t drunk, but was much more so than I, and I wouldn’t let her agree to anything she wouldn’t do normally.

Vinyl sat up a little straighter and seemed to focus a little more. “What do you mean?”

“I am, how shall we say, acquainted with a lot of the ‘talent’ that performs at The Underground. Up until recently, I had a major stake in the company and, as I said, spent a lot of time there. I’m also aware of a certain high school aged filly who was sneaking in using a false ID.”

Vinyl coughed suddenly, nearly spitting out her water.

“I also noticed when one of our amateur DJs started playing music that was significantly different from his normal style. A DJ I’m sure you know, a stallion named Hazelblossom,” Midnight Oil continued, unfazed.

I glanced over at Vinyl, but she didn’t seem to react to the name. She nodded once and said, “yeah, I know him.”

“I’ll be blunt, then. He started bragging about a new source of music, but refused to share whom or where it came from. Some of the owners had no problem with that. I did, and left, but that’s not why we’re here. I am almost positive it was you, as the new music showed up around the time you did, and stopped after you stopped coming. I’m willing to offer you a job making house music for our club, pending a sample piece, of course.”

Vinyl slowly grew more agitated as Midnight Oil finished speaking. “That bastard…” she muttered, but I don’t think it was loud enough for him to hear.

I looked over at Vinyl, completely tuned out, and spoke up for her. “As long as the music remains hers, and she is compensated fairly,” I said, turning back to stare Midnight Oil in the eyes.

He nodded without a moment’s hesitation. “Of course.”

The room fell silent for a moment as Vinyl thought. I could understand her hesitation, seeing as she’d already made two such deals in her life and received nothing for either. If he was above board though, it could be a big thing for her.

After almost a minute of patiently waiting, I poked Vinyl. She jumped and nodded to Midnight Oil. “I can spin up a couple of sample tracks and bring them by in a couple of days.”

He clapped his hooves together once and stood. “Excellent! I’ll have somepony draw up a contract, assuming everything goes well, and we can bring you aboard. I’ll also have both of you added to our VIP list. I hope to see you both soon.”

We all stood as Midnight Oil showed up out of his office. I walked with Vinyl through the club and back to the warm night air. A few blocks away Vinyl suddenly jumped into the air and whooped, the sound echoing off down the street.

I smiled at her as she dropped back down and spun to face me. “I guess this means we’re going to be there more often, aren’t we?” I asked.

Vinyl bumped against me as we continued to walk, our coats brushing against each other. “Only if you want to, and only after your show.”

“I’m surprised you remembered.”

“How could I forget?”

Author's Note:

Chapter title mostly unrelated

Sorry for the late post, guys, I was finishing up Kaguya-sama with a buddy and totally forgot the time. My bad.

Comments

[EddWar]

More, please

[thehalfelf]

10192309
Of course. Next chapter is already done and edited, will go up tomorrow

[Dusty Old Qrow]

Hooray for being recognized for your work. Midnight Oil seems like a chill dude. 10/10 would have a drink with.