“Hey, your first song is up next!”
 
“Good deal.”
 
“You want to come on up? Dance with the DJ?”
 
“You know I don’t dance, Vinyl.”
 
“Get your tailfeathers up here, birdbrain ;) “
 
 
Vinyl didn’t even need to bother waiting for Helios to reply, knowing full well the bird was already on his way.
 
It was a decent showing tonight. She’d actually gotten Octavia to come, and she seemed to be enjoying herself more than even Vinyl thought she would. Of course, the couple of glasses of Red Wine that she’d already downed probably helped with that some. With a smirk, she raised up her phone and candidly snapped a few pictures of the gray mare. She already couldn’t wait to see the look on her roommate’s face when she saw those pictures tomorrow.
 
The crowd was a mixture of ponies and other folks. There was Roxana off to her right. Lyra and Bon Bon practically clinging to each other in the back. Pinkie of course was owning the dancefloor off to the left. And there was Starlight, already halfway through her bottle of Jameson, talking about her recent trip to the Changeling hive, of course making sure to get in plenty of digs towards Trixie, much to the magician’s annoyance.
 
The mercenaries from down south had also shown up. Turns out they had a lot in common when they weren’t trying to kill each other. With that said, she wasn’t sure why the RED Soldier had shown up. ‘Probably thinks he’s infiltrating a BLU base or something.’
 
The song was coming down to its final beats. That’s when she knew it was time to start the show.
 
Adjusting the controls on the turntable a bit, the unicorn swayed her body to the beat, showing off her sublime figure. It wasn’t long before the crowd got a better view, as Vinyl peeled off her shirt, arching her back as the cool air of the club gently caressed her skin.
 
But she wasn’t done yet. She set the discarded garment near her laptop, hips swaying back and forth to the closing notes of the song. All eyes were on her now, just the way she liked it. Her hands moved down her frame and rested on the hem of her jeans. She took her time undoing the belt and zipper and gradually worked her jeans down off her hips.
 
She knew that she’d timed this perfectly as she glanced over her shoulder to spot the avian form of her phoenix friend taking in the sight of her perfectly formed rear. Casting him a devilish smirk she let her jeans fall to the floor, stepping out of them as she turned to walk towards him. The familiar beat of Ed Sheeran’s hit song, albeit with a bit of a Latin flavor added in, starting to flow from the speakers as Vinyl stroked a hand down Helios’ chest.
 
“So, feel like dancing now?”
 
So what started out as a test pic for some resources that were passed onto me (and I’m not at liberty to discuss at the moment) turned into this: two days worth of work to create perhaps my most complex SFM picture yet.
 
In a way, this picture is meant to be a sequel/remake of my first “Vinylicious” picture. While I’m glad that picture got the reception it did, I’ve always never been completely happy with how that turned out and those who read the “making of” blurb about it know that it was only a shell of the original concept.
 
So, three years later, to be able to fulfill the original concept of the picture as well as improve on it in some areas gives me great personal satisfaction (and hopefully shows how much my SFM skills have improved as well).
 
So a couple of notes here:  
-Everything in this picture aside from Vinyl and Roxana is actually animated. I rigged up dance anims for the mercs + Tavi and froze on this particular frame. I bring this up because some have suggested that I turn this into a proper animation. I may do so at a later date.  
-There were originally going to be several other ponies as well as the rest of the TF2 mercs, but the pic was looking cluttered and pushing SFM’s memory budget. Just imagine that the other pones/mercs mentioned in the story are off-screen.  
-Roxana’s pose is my attempt at making a dancing pose by hand. Thankfully she’s mostly obscured by props so it doesn’t look as jarring as it did when rendering.  
-Vinyl’s pose is inspired by (read: outright stolen from) this picture by Zeplich  
-I am particularly proud of the Soldier’s pose/expression. That took about 20 minutes to get right.  
-I had to resort to some trickery to dress Vinyl. Because the outfit she’s wearing wasn’t made for the body she’s using, she went through various stages of undress while rendering. The shirt for the outfit can be seen slung over the laptop on the right.  
-The conversation at the start of the little story was part of a Facebook chat between Helios and Vinyl that was supposed to appear on the laptop screen, but I couldn’t get it to look right. Here’s the full convo for those who want to see it  
-This picture was rendered in 4K resolution! Click the download to see it.  
-Also obligatory mention that Roxana is owned by Narox22, TF2 mercs are owned by Valve and Vinyl and Tavi are owned by Hasbro.
 
So yah. As this pic took a while to do, there was a whole playlist of songs I listened to while making this. Here they are.
 
Shape Of You (Latin Remix)- Ed Sheeran Ft. Zion & Lennox  
Despacito- Luis Fonsi, Daddy Yankee Ft. Justin Bieber  
Hey Mama- Black Eyed Peas  
So Ambitious (GDM Remix)- Victorian Halls  
This Is Our House- Bon Jovi  
Ready Or Not- Mischa ‘Book’ Chillak Ft. Esthero  
Strike- Airtones  
Flyover- Asian Dub Foundation
 
Oh and the highlights of the Michigan game on Saturday. Go Blue!  
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