The Drabble Bag

by TheVulpineHero1

Welcome To The Club (Vinyl/Dash)

“Hey, gimme your glasses. I wanna try them on.”

Vinyl takes a sip of her drink, and sighs. What a twerp thing to say. A real fifth-grade ultimatum. It doesn't help that her follow-up act is absolutely massacring his set. So far the crowd's still pumped from her part of the show, but the management is hanging around and looking worried. She can see herself getting back up on stage if things go sour, and double shifts are never fun.

“No,” she snaps, and drains the rest of her glass in one gulp. It's a universal signal that she's prepared to walk away. It's also a total waste of a drink she was actually enjoying.

“Aw, come on. I just wanna see what I look like. It'd just be for a second.”

For a moment, Vinyl is relieved. There are only two types of twerp: belligerent, and wheedling. The wheedling ones are usually harmless enough, so at least she won't be turning up at home with a black eye in the morning. But then, the angry ones are way faster to deal with, one way or another, and she'd almost prefer a short brawl rather than another two hours of pestering.

“No. Quit asking.”

To her great surprise, the pony relents, and begins to slouch listlessly on the bar. It's difficult to tell if she's drunk or not; she wouldn't be out of place if she was blitzed, but there was no slur in her voice. For a second, Vinyl almost thinks she recognises her, but colour means nothing in a club washed with strobe lights, so she really can't tell.

“Geez, tonight suuuuuuucks,” the pony declares, drawing circles on the counter with her hoof.

Vinyl frowns. If ponies aren't enjoying themselves in a club she's played in, something's wrong. It's almost a personal insult. “What, the music not good enough?”

“Nah, it's fine. I just don't wanna be here. I argued with my marefriend and got kicked out for the night.”

Alarm bells start going off in Vinyl's head. She's got no interest in hearing some sob story from some random mare. That's the bartender's job. She's got enough to worry about, anyway. She's only just gotten back to Ponyville, and they're still trying to get the house habitable.

But, on the other hoof, she was here first. She shouldn't have to move because someone's moping in the stool next to her. She can always just not ask or answer, and hope that's enough of a deterrent. Even if the pegasus–and it is a pegasus, because her wings are folded up like a scolded schoolmare's–decides to rattle off her stupid life story, Vinyl doesn't have to listen. She can just sit, and drink, and ignore it. That way, she doesn't come off like a total jerk, and the mare gets something off her chest. It's just easier to sit there, she decides. It's got nothing to do with Octavia telling her to look for some friends outside the club scene, and absolutely nothing to do with wanting to offer comfort to strangers.

“I mean, it's not that unusual for us to argue. We tend to bicker a lot. But she's never kicked me out before. It's kinda scary, y'know? I'm worried that I might've, like, broken something, or made some huge mistake that I can't fix. You ever feel like that?”

“Uh huh,” Vinyl replies, and immediately regrets it. What happened to 'don't ask, don't answer'? Now she's just bought herself the entire lecture. She couldn't help it, though. That feeling of nervousness, of not knowing how to proceed after a big mistake… She can't claim to not have felt it.

The mare nods fervently, probably glad to have a sympathetic audience. “See? You get it. I don't know what to do. I was just annoyed because she brought her work home with her this evening. I mean, yeah, I get that her work's important, but we don't get a lot of time together. Usually, one or both of us are out of town doin' stuff. As soon as I said anything, she just flipped out and told me to get out of the house so she could finish it.”

“Sounds like me and my marefriend. We don't argue about it so much, but it's tough to spend time together,” the DJ replies, and then, because it seems like she'll be here a while, she adds: “Hey, bartender. Two of the usual, on the rocks.”

“Really? What does your marefriend do?”

“Music teacher. Well, she used to work as a cellist in this village, actually, but the concert hall that employed her shut down. She's really talented, too. It's just that she works days and I work nights, so it's tricky. Yours?”

The mare hesitates for a second. “She's, uh, a librarian. You'd probably know her if I told you her name. But she's pretty, uh, active in the community, and I'm always trying out for stunt flying competitions, so, yeah. How do you guys deal with it? The separation, I mean.”

Vinyl leans back on her stool, and takes a thoughtful breath. “We just do. I don't work every night, and she doesn't work every day. The time we get, we spend together. It doesn't always work out, and that sucks sometimes, but she's the most important mare in my life. I wouldn't trade what we've got for anything.”

The pegasus bows her head for a second, thinking deeply. Strobes lights lash across her face, but she doesn't seem to mind. Finally, she reaches her conclusion. “You're pretty cool. You know that?”

Vinyl frowns; she's not really comfortable with getting complements from total strangers. Well, complements unrelated to music, at least. “Yeah, well… You're a twerp. But I think you'll be fine. You had the nerve to come up to me and ask me for my glasses, so you should be able to get your marefriend to listen to you,” she says, and drains her glass. “If you're not drinking that, give it to me.”

The pegasus suddenly notices that she got a free drink out of the conversation, and makes a valiant attempt at downing it in one gulp. It ends with a splutter and some laughter. Vinyl grins wryly, and decides that the conversation has been entertaining enough for her not to regret it. But the management ponies are hovering ever closer, so she decides to get out of dodge before they can rope her into anything.

“Hey, wait. You come here often?” the pegasus asks, still coughing from her little stunt.

For a moment, Vinyl considers not answering. But it wasn't really that bad a time. She could do this kind of thing again. “Yeah, could say that. I work here sometimes, so try and catch me on stage. Quick warning, though. If you show up with that mopy expression when I'm doing my set, I'll bust you in the face when I'm done.”

The mare grins mischievously; evidently, she doesn't mind fighting talk. “Yeah? Well, bring it on. I'm pretty tough. Like, I once beat up a dragon. By the way, my name's Rain–”

“Tell me next time,” the unicorn replies, and takes the first few steps towards the door. “If you're not coming again, I don't want to bother remembering it.”

She leaves before the pegasus can answer back, although she's almost sure she hears someone shouting “Jerk!” just before she gets through the door.

It's still only four in the morning, and dawn hasn't quite begun to wash over Ponyville. She'll be home early this morning, so she might take the chance to cook up some breakfast in bed for her partner. As she picks her way through the streets of the sleeping village, she can't help but notice that the lights in the library are on, as if waiting for somepony to come home.

Author's Note:

This was one of the things I wrote shortly before my return from a year's hiatus. I was on a TwiDash phase, and just thought to myself: how would a grumpy Musicverse!Vinyl react to Rainbow Dash? Apparently like this. I almost feel like this could be a side chapter to Misadventures, but I don't really have anywhere to put it so in here it goes.

Comments

[Themaskedferret]

*Grins* Very nicely done. The characters feel very in tune. (I regret nothing.)