The Gig
Vinyl Scratch, better known to her fans as DJ Pon-3, stood in the disc jockey booth at Neon Flanks. The place was one of her more regular gigs since they would usually book her for one weekend a month (alternating between her and three others). The management paid fairly for the most part, and the crowd was always a decent size.
How good a crowd was part of her job. After all, ponies came to the club to hang out, dance, and have fun. Part of that meant that there had to be some great music for them to enjoy. That was what she did, play the music to get them in a good mood and moving.
Vinyl shifted as she looked out over the dance floor, scanning the crowd. The dark glasses she wore kept out the worst of the lights, allowing her to see without too much trouble. She adjusted her headphones to hear the music a little better, and lit her horn to try and get more of a feel for the general mood of the crowd. An understanding of her crowd's general mood would allow her to better adjust the music that would be the most effective.
Near the center of the crowd, something got her attention. It looked like a stallion was trying to get a mare to dance with him, despite the facts that the mare was a: clearly not interested, and b: already dancing with another mare. Worse, it did not look like he was taking no for an answer.
After quickly checking the remaining duration of the song currently playing, Vinyl set up another to play as soon as it ended. That would give her about five minutes to deal with the matter. Satisfied, she slipped out of her booth and onto the dance floor.
Being one to visit the clubs as much as she worked at them, making her way through the crowd was pretty easy. For her it was mostly a matter of fitting the movement to the rhythm of the music, and knowing who was dancing with whom so as not to try and get between them. It was made easier since some of the ponies would actually move out of her way to let Vinyl through. A few of them even stopped dancing to watch her.
"Come on," the stallion was saying. "You're hot. I'm hot. Why don't we dance together? Who knows, you might like it so much you'll want to do some dancing back at my place." He let out a chuckle. "Who am I kidding. There's no might about it."
The mare looked at him from the corner of her eye, took several steps to one side (away from him), and continued dancing. Not taking the hint, the stallion moved with her.
"Anyone tell you that you got a nice flank?" he asked. "I bet you're the type that likes to get it slapped."
"Hey," Vinyl called out as she placed a hoof on the stallion's shoulder. "I don't think she's interested. Time for you to move on."
"Keep your hooves off me!" the stallion snapped, swatting at Vinyl's arm. "And mind your own business. This is between me and this hot-flanked mare." He turned back to the mare in question.
"Come on," he called out to her. "I promise it will be a night you will never forget. The don't call me Rock just because I'm tough you know."
"Seriously," Vinyl said as she moved to step between the stallion and the mare. "Learn to take a hint. She's not interested. Drop the matter and move on."
"Why you gotta be buck blockin' me?" the stallion, Rock something or other, asked as he glared at Vinyl. "Is she some groupie slut of yours or something?"
"Okay," Vinyl snarled. "I'm done trying to be polite. Get this through your thick skull." She pointed a hoof at him. "Leave her alone or I'm going to get a bouncer to throw your worthless plot out of here. Do you understand?"
Instead of saying anything, Rock reared up on his hind legs and kicked out. There was a meaty thump as his hoof struck Vinyl in the nose.
Vinyl let out a cry as white hot pain flared through her head, causing her to stumble back. Without thinking about it, she used her magic to lift up her sunglasses. One hoof reached up to touch her nose. Pulling it back, she found the her white fur was stained red.
Blood.
The moment that Rock punched Vinyl, the very atmosphere of the club changed. Many of the other ponies stopped dancing, turning their attention to the bloody-nosed DJ and the rather angry looking earth stallion. If any of the witnesses had been asked, most would have said that the entire place turned dead quiet the moment that Rock punch Vinyl. This statement would have technically been inaccurate since Vinyl made certain the music would keep playing while she was away. It was simply forgotten about though, as all attention was turned on the pair of ponies to see what would happen next.
A smaller number, those closer to the center, swear up and down that the mare's normally violet-red eyes turned into a bright ruby red color.
Vinyl Scratch continued to stare at the stain on her hoof from her nose for a moment. Movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention. One of the bouncers was starting to move forward from his position near the wall. Vinyl caught his attention, held her hoof for him to stop, and gave a shake of her head. The bouncer gave a nod and stopped where he was.
Vinyl then turned all her attention back to Rock, her eyes narrowing. She had to resist the urge to sniff.
"That's how it is?" she asked. Several of the ponies shivered as a chill went down their spines and took a step back.
"Big bad stallion think's he so tough." She took a step forward. "Has to hit on a filly that is clearly not interested and sucker punch a pony that was just trying to help." She tilted her head back and toward one side, looking at him from the corner of her eye. Her tongue slipped out to lick along her upper lip, tasting the blood.
"Well I'm ready for you this time," Vinyl said as her eyes narrowed more. "Think you have the stones to take me take me on with my knowing? Or..." she let her gaze shift down toward his underside "..have you been exaggerating the size of your...'twig and pebbles?'"
A part of Vinyl knew that it was a bad idea to provoke him. The two of them could have probably ended it after that and let things get back to normal. She could have the bouncer just toss him out while she went back to the booth and continued to play. A few of the ponies would have a story to tell, but most of them would be more than happy to get back to their dancing.
But she could not let that happen. She could not just walk away. She had to deal with this, and she had to do it herself. First, Vinyl could be a very stubborn mare. Any challenge that came up, she would try to face and take down. There were -- admittedly -- times that she had failed and was forced to give up, but that stubborness had also been what had kept her going until she had actually been able to make a living off her musical skills. Second, there was the matter of her reputation. Although some would respect her for walking away, others would see it as weakness. There would then be some ponies that thought they could do better than her at her job, and have to show her up, as well as those that would think they could cause all sorts of trouble at her shows without any consequence. Third was the stallion. If he was allowed to just walk away after harassing one mare and assaulting another with just being thrown out of a club, he was probably not going to learn his lesson. Granted, he probably was not going to anyway, but the best chance for a pony like him was for somepony to thoroughly teach it to him the hard and painful way.
Although if he backed down, her reputation would remain in tact and it would make her consider that maybe she was underestimating his ability to learn.
Rock took another swing at her, putting all his weight in it as he aimed a hoof for the mare's head.
Vinyl had been in more than her fair share of fights, and had learned a few things. She did not have the raw physical strength of earth ponies, nor did she have the speed and agility that pegasus ponies were so well known for. She did have magic, which she could use in a fight, but it was not really meant for it, and certainly not in this situation. As such, like most unicorns, she had to rely on her wits. While not as well trained as Octavia, she did know enough to (hopefully) make this a quick victory.
Vinyl dropped low, letting the attack go over her head. She kicked out with one of her front legs, driving the blade of her hoof into the fetlock joint of stallion's supporting front leg. The impact made it difficult to support the stallions weight and -- with the smooth surface of the dance floor -- slipped out from under him.
Not giving Rock time to regain his balance, Vinyl lunged forward. She kicked out again, this time driving her hoof into the knee joint of the leg he had tried to punch her with. This kept him from regaining his footing, and had the bonus of being incredibly painful from hyper-extending the joint.
More than anything, Vinyl wanted to finish this whole thing quickly and decisively. She tilted her head to one side as she lunged hard. Moving up and forward, she drove the side of her skull into the underside of his jaw (she had to be careful of her horn when she did this since slamming that into him would probably hurt her more than him). She could feel the thump of impact and thought she felt something shift. She might have hit harder than she intended and cracked some of his teeth, if not breaking his jaw.
With a hard push, she shoved Rock backwards and watched him fall. Vinyl braced herself, watching to see if he would get up. After twenty seconds, the stallion was still on the floor. He was alive, but clearly not conscious. Vinyl motioned toward bouncer that had been stopped earlier. He nodded and moved forward once more. As the bouncer moved in to take the unconscious stallion, Vinyl made her way back toward the DJ booth.
Something cracking under her hooves made her freeze.
Lifting her hoof, she looked down and found her sunglasses. She had completely forgotten about them when dealing the that stupid stallion. They must have dropped off her forehead when she was in the fight. Now she had just stepped on them. If they were not damaged before (and that was very unlikely), they were definitely destroyed now. If she was lucky, she could get them fixed, but would be without them until Sunday. If not, she would have to buy a whole new pair, which would take a lot more time and money. She collected as much of the remains as she could, and went back to her booth.
"Alright mares and stallions," Vinyl said into the microphone when the song had ended. "Things have gotten a little tense here tonight. So, let's change things up. Grab the pony you care for and hold them close for this next song." With that, she put on a slower, more romantic song. A smile spread across her lips as she watched the ponies cuddle close and move gently to the beat. Times like this, she kind of wish there was a way to slip away for a song and dance with Octavia. Maybe the two of them could do a little dancing together tomorrow before they both went off to work.