Lunch Talk

Vinyl aimlessly fiddled with the three bits remaining atop her counter. She stole a glance at her clock again, which read ten past one. She was now at the point where she definitely knew Trance wasn't coming. Waiting for him that long had already put her into deep hunger, and she couldn't starve herself giving him more time to show up. Disappointed, she stood to leave. On her way out she grabbed her saddlebags, her poniPod, and keys.

The day's light outside hit her eyes hard, reminding her the only protection she had was from Trance's hat. "I can't believe he bailed on me", she told her lock as she turned it around, "I thought he was cooler than that…" Vinyl set out for the nearest place to eat.

"Hey! Vinyl!" called Trance from behind. She turned to see him galloping as fast as he could to her. "I…I…" he panted when he slid to a stop.

"Hey, breathe, Kid", she laughed.

He straightened up. "Sorry I'm mad late. I got caught up with an old friend. I didn't mean to miss lunch…"

"Well, it's a good thing I waited on ya."

"You waited for me?" he deadpanned. "This long?"

She nodded. "It blows to have lunch by yourself, so I gave ya a little time to get here. To you know, keep me company."

He blinked. "Whoa, uh, thanks."

"Don't mention it", she replied, leading him to lunch. "So, who had ya so caught up?"

"My friend Fluttershy. We went to school together way back when I lived in Ponyville."

"You're from here?"

"Yep, before I moved."

"I thought you were from outta town. Ya know, because of the hotel thing."

Trance shrugged. "I'm actually surprised anypony remembers me. I didn't exactly leave on a goodbye. But that's all over and done with now, and I'm too hungry to remember it."

Vinyl stopped. "That's great, because we're here."

Trance looked up from her face to see that during their conversation, they had manage to trot across five blocks, coming to a stop at a new restaurant he didn't remember being there from years ago. "'Pepper's?'" he read from the sign.

She grinned and nodded. "Yeah, just opened up with a new foreign food from Ifilly. Ever heard of pizza?"

"Sounds like a virus", he replied with a shake of his head.

"It's the best! Come on!"

He followed her into the pizzeria, where a delightful new smell sent him into bliss. Vinyl laughed at his pleasure-filled expression. "I know, right?" She took a big whiff of the aroma. "Gets better every time."

She led him to the back, where high tables rose from the floor. Shortly after they climbed into the towering stools a lemon yellow Pegasus fluttered over to take their order. "Velcome to Pepper's!" he greeted, "And vhat can I get you two fine ponies today?"

Since Trance just learned what pizza was, Vinyl took over from there. "I'm really craving a banana pepper and wheat right now", she told him.

"Ah, excellent! And to drink?"

"Hmm…Sunburst Cola", Vinyl decided, "What do you want, Kid?"

"Water."

"Water?" she said while their server left for the kitchen, "Kinda boring, don'tcha think?"

"So I like to keep my teeth white." He smirked. "Sue me."

The unicorn rolled her eyes. Changing the subject, she said, "So, we really didn't lay anything out for Saturday."

"What?"

"You know, our date. I was thinking earlier that you just asked to hang out. Like, you didn't say when or where."

Trance scratched his head. "Oh, yeah…I didn't even think I'd get far enough to work out the details…heheh."

Vinyl smiled. He was really cute when he got nervous. "How about a movie?"

"I don't know what's playing this weekend…but sure. A movie sounds cool."

The evil teasing side that dwelled inside of her worked an evil grin up Vinyl's face. "Good, we can watch a romantic one. With lots of smooching." To top off her flirt, she gave him a generous wink.

Trance almost fell off his stool, getting a big laugh from the unicorn. "Haha! Oh, that's funny! I'm just messin' with ya, Kid!"

He laughed off the embarrassment. "Yeah, I really didn't take you for that kinda pony anyway…"

"What kinda pony is that?" she asked.

"You know, into that lovey dovey stuff."

"Believe it or not, Kid, I actually have a softer side."

Vinyl's confession came as a shock to the younger colt. He had always thought she was beyond sensitivity to a point. Maybe everything he thought he knew about the famous mare wasn't what he first thought after all. That made her a hundred times more interesting. He smiled. "I thought I was a DJ-Pon3 expert."

"You thought wrong", Vinyl chuckled.

"Your drinks!" announced their server happily, appearing out of nowhere. He placed both cups on their table. "Your pizza will be out as soon as it leaves zee oven."

"'It'?" Trance asked, "As in 'one'?"

"You'll see", Vinyl told him. "Anyway, back to our date Saturday, what time'll work for you? I can close down the shop whenever."

"How about six? It'll take about three hours for me to get here."

"Going back home?"

With a nod, he answered, "Yeah, later at about seven. Wish I could stay, but you know, gotta make money."

"Really, what do you do?"

"I write music for a record company." He shrugged. "Easy, but it takes a while."

"And that pays the bills?"

The skepticism in her voice was well placed, so Trance said, "Okay, you got me. My mom's music royalties help a little."

"She famous?"

He raised his eyebrows. "You could say that…" Trance took a sip of his water, trying to find a way off the subject. To his satisfaction, Vinyl was in no mood to pry. Instead, she veered somewhere else.

"Got a brother or sister?"

He shook his head. "Only foal."

"That bites."

"Tell me about it", he mumbled.

"Your pizza!" announced their waiter happily, sliding the steaming pie onto the table.

Trance studied the round pie. The melted cheese, a swamp which still bubbled with the heat of the oven, trapped helpless slices of banana peppers and shreds of wheat in its gooey clutches. Hints of oregano and other spices from Ifilly. He noticed it was cut like a pie, which was odd, until Vinyl levitated a slice onto his plate he didn't realized was sitting in front of him.

"Come on, try it!" she said with a mouthful of half of her slice.

It smelled okay to him, though he still took a small bite just in case his nose was leading him astray. The first thing his tastebuds picked up was the perfectly melted cheese. Even if that was the only thing that topped the crust, Trance would still have been more than happy to scarf down rest of the slice.

"Whoa whoa!" Vinyl laughed, "Chill out, Kid! It's not running from ya."

No longer on an eating rampage, Trance focused on his hooves, which were almost in his mouth. His face fell to the red plague of embarrassment. "I, uh, sorry…"

"I have never seen somepony eat like that before", Vinyl commented, "Please don't tell me you do it for sport."

He shook his head. "I just like to eat."

She rolled her eyes. "That's obvious." Seeing how uncomfortable Trance was becoming with his food devouring episode, Vinyl the veered the conversation elsewhere. "How long have ya been living out of town?"

"About eight years. This is actually my first time back."

"Never even visited? Why?" Vinyl couldn't believe that somepony from Ponyville left and never came back. It was just too good a town for that kind of abandonment.

He looked into the glass of water he used to block his face from view. "I wish I could. I really don't want to go into why I couldn't…"

The unicorn studied the colt. On the outside, the colt upheld her idea of a fun pony. Now she knew that he carried some baggage that he didn't sound very proud of. Most colts she knew handled issues like that withdrew from society. Trance powered through it, though. He forced himself to be happy outside of his troubles. Vinyl liked that. In fact, she liked it a lot.

"That's cool", she said, "You can tell me when you feel like it."

He cracked a small smile. "Thanks."

After that, much of their conversation fell into idle chitchat. Nothing really interesting happened for the next few hours outside getting a surprise visit from Derpy Hooves. The day slipped away from the two ponies; sooner than either of them realized, Trance was waving Vinyl goodbye from the window of his train car window. They might have been slightly disheartened at having to see each other slip away into the distance, yet the overwhelming thought of knowing that in less than a week they would see each other conquered their minds.

When the Friendship Express disappeared over the horizon, Vinyl headed home. She didn't know it right then, but she had set in motion a chain of events that would change her and Trance's life forever.

Short chapter. Very sweet. Much cuteness.

I had no idea how this chapter was going to turn out, as I kept running into roadblock after roadblock while writing.

That being said, I could use some major help revising this chapter. I feel it's very shallow and is mostly just a big pile of filler.

Trivia:

To be determined later.