Loud and Clear · 11:40am Dec 26th, 2014
The Fade hissed towards me, slithering up the rocks with terrifying, inequine grace. I didn't move, didn't breath, didn't think, just stared it down and waited. Aura was screaming; I heard her faintly, in the back of my head, like the buzz in bad headphones. I wished she'd stop, but I didn't exactly have the time to say so. No time, no tricks, nothing. Just rhythm. Focus. Force of will.
I got this.
It reached out, the flickering multicolored mist of its front hoof coiling around mine and squeezing, making me gasp a little. I could feel the cold, endless hiss already, eating away at the last shreds of what made me Vinyl Scratch. My hooves were going icy cold, spots dancing around my eyes. Not much longer...
"Y'like that, huh?" I spat, glaring at the place where face should've been. Now Lyra was screaming, and Octavia, and maybe even Red. Fuck's sake, didn't they realize they weren't helping? "You want..." I had to catch my breath as I felt the hungry, icy noise snatch it away. "You want some more?" It was now or never.
As the Fade pushed towards me, I pushed back, shoving myself right through its stupid goddessdamned essence-draining face.
The shock was like electrocution but worse, all my nerves bursting into searing agony and then numbing in seconds, sucking all the energy away, but as the mist flashed and flickered around me, I took another breath, forcing the white noise in. It went down like the worst shot of ice-cold vodka I'd ever had and then some, but I took it. I had to. The awful, soul-draining noise was in my veins now, in my head, my chest, everywhere, drowning out everything...
Perfect.
Another ragged breath, and my spark flared, choking out a faint, out-of-focus melody that barely seemed to echo out through the layers and layers of all-consuming noise. I drew it out, bit by bit, weaving it through the white noise, pulling hot and cold together. The music shifted with the force of a punch, and I doubled over, gritting my teeth and forcing the raw Fade inside me to pulse with the beat. The static flashed and hissed and sputtered, but I didn't stop, fusing melody and noise closer, closer... there!
With a half-scream, half-whoop, I slammed my front hooves on the ground, gasping as it distorted and shifted, scorch marks dancing with flickers of hungry mist. Every burst of bass forced another tinny rush of freezing static through me, and every hot, high-reaching note rang like amp feedback, but it had worked!
I stood up fully, licking my lips and wincing a little as I tasted what was definitely blood. "So..." I turned towards my friends, grinning weakly. Octavia was staring numbly, stiff as iron, Redheart was collapsed on the ground, Lyra had tears in her eyes, and Aura... Aura just looked at me and smiled.
"So," she said softly, taking a cautious step step closer. "You did it. How... how do you feel?"
I shivered, mentally flicking a tendril of Fade away from my face and into the air with a burst of synths and static. 'How do I feel?" My spark hummed in my chest, flashing hot and cold, and I pulled it through me, making the air ripple as silence and sound crashed against each other like waves. The melody grew, a cool, crushed hum of static layered over a lightning-crackle high riff, bright enough that I could see my coat glowing a whole rainbow of colors...
And I smiled. "I feel ready, Aura. Ready to take on the world."
i'm not sure if any of you have ever just been slammed against a metaphorical wall and pounced on by an idea for a plot arc but that's pretty much what's happening now so yeah
YESYESYESYESYES!YESYESYESYESYES!YESYESYESYESYES!YESYESYESYESYES!
IT'S BACK!
"inequine grace"
heyooo
The groove is back?
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WRITE MORE, DAMMIT.
Wait, this is tagged to a story. No; a novel. Way over the limit of stories-I-consider-reading.
Oh, all right, then.
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If it's any consolation, I'm planning to scrap the most recent 7 chapters or so and rewrite them all into something more coherent and manageable, so you won't have to play catch-up.