//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Lyre, lyre, mane's on fire 
// by Hurricane 
//------------------------------//

	The ringing of the alarm filled the room with its cacophany of noise, instantly rousing the dreaming unicorn from her slumber. The sheets around her rustled as she shifted her position, glaring at the bell-topped clockwork device, trying to focus her eyes on the time displayed on it. All she could make out through the haze was that the clock, indeed, had hands, and, if she focused intently, she could see that the clock also had vague blobs that might have been numbers. She let out a heavy groan, and rolled onto her side. Suddenly, a vile, despicable force assaulted her, and to her chagrin, she fell from the bed, landing heavily on the floor, her silken sheets falling atop her. This confused her, because, as far as she knew, she didn't own silk sheets. She sat upright, blinking heavily in the early morning sunlight, shuddering as her head throbbed once more. She sighed, and leaned back against the bed, lamenting the fact that the light meant she was unlikely able to spend the day with Lotus and Aloe, the two magnificently talented spa twins, tending to her every need. Running a hoof through her tustled neon blue mane, she pushed herself to her hooves, her horn flaring as she set her goggles, which has been placed on a nearby table, back onto her head. With a huff, Vinyl Scratch, the best DJ in Ponyville, paced from the room, intent on finding out exactly where she was.
The room she emerged into was elegant to say the least, with fine furniture and expensive looking artwork and vases, as well as a set of fine statues, she recognised, of the ponysonifications of the Virtues. Whoever owned this place was cultured, and well learned, to know of such an ancient concept, from a time far beyond Celestia's reign and the elements of harmony. She arched her eyebrow at one particular piece, showing a strange figure stood on two legs. The alabaster-skinned mare leaned back against the statue of Sacrifice, and inspected the picture with great scrutiny.
"Hmph! I see you have finally awoken. I do hope you are more coherent now," she heard a voice say, a strong, refined voice, with almost regal tones, and a high level of eloquence. She turned to see a grey-maned pegasus staring at her with an air of haughty derision, which was exceptionally impressive, considering she was boss-eyed. Her mane was golden blonde, and upon her flank sat the image of a series of bubbles. Scratch recognised the mare as the pony everypony knew as Derpy Hooves, a horrid nickname if ever there was one. The unicorn did however assume that this mare had taken her in last night, after she assumed she had drunk too much, and graciously housed her for the night. She placed a hoof upon her heart, and bowed low.
"You are most welcome, Miss Scratch. I am Ditzerella Do, of the family Do, though most call me Ditzy. You may well have heard of the exploits of my cousin, Daring," she said, replying to the bow with a curtsey. "I am the family's dark little secret," she added with a sigh, "but they do keep a steady supply of bits coming my way, so long as I remain out of the public eye, aha," she said, sitting upon a sofa that looked like it could have been made from spidersilk, or even cinderweave, a rare material crafted from the ash of volcanos. Vinyl nodded her head slowly, she knew a lot about rich families and their hidden secrets, one of her best friends, Octavia, was one such pony. Daughter of a spinster, elegant and talented but wild when drunk and prone to sleep with any pony, mare or colt, who gave her any interest. The DJ shrugged a little, waving her hooves around vaguely.
"Ah yes, you must be confused as to why you are here. Well, Chives, my maneservant, found you passed out upon the back lawn, writing in the dirt. As far as I am aware, you had written the word sorry approximately seven times. You also wrote the word srory twice, syrro once and, surprisingly, raly. You were quite eloquent in your innebriation," she said. The unicorn's eyes slammed open, and she looked about for the door, which the pale mare pointed to. She ran through it, seaching for said dirt scratches. No... Lyra... she thought to herself, as she looked down at the mess in the grass. Her mind reeled as she began to recall the previous 24 hours.
"As I thought. You have done something bad, have you not?" Ditzy said, and Vinyl nodded her head weakly. She felt physically sick, her whole body was shaking as she remembered more and more. She had put on a set, which had bombed, and... like always, she got angry. She had lashed out, and... Oh Celestia no... she thought, as she hastily scratched a message into the dirt, before running off. The pegasus arched her eyebrow as she watched the unicorn clear fault her fence, and dash off towards town. She glanced to the ground, and sighed. In the dust, Vinyl had written the words 'I hit Lyra'.

"Rarity, stop it! Please, just come back down!" the voice of Twilight Sparkle could be heard as Vinyl galloped along the grassy streets of the town, causing the DJ to turn, albeit barely, as her interest was piqued by the likelihood of shenanigans that seemed to follow the purple unicorn wherever she went. As it turned out, Rarity, the owner of the Carousel Boutique, had stolen Twilight's balloon, and was even now floating up into the sky.
"No! Never! I'm not coming back down to ground! It's so... dirty! Mud everywhere! Ponies who don't even wash their hooves before shaking yours! Germs! Filth! APPLEJACK!" came the reply, the cleanly unicorn's voice ragged, as though she had been under some severe stress. From what Vinyl could gather, the white unicorn suffered from pretty bad OCD, and had frequent minor psychotic breaks as a result of her illness.
"Whut in tarnation dya suppose she means by that?" Applejack, the orange earth pony asked the little collection of ponies that had an affinity to the Elements of Harmony. This question was rather silly, considering that she currently looked as though she had been fighting a mud wrestling bout against the mud itself, with a thick layer of grime smeared all down her coat. Vinyl shook her head as she passed by the scene, on almost any other day, she would have stuck around to find out what was going to happen, plus, she liked hanging out with Fluttershy, the mare knew hoof language and always responded to her in it, but unfortunately, she had more important things to worry about. Like trying to fix the problem she had been out drinking all night to avoid. She had to track down the mare, to find out if she was OK. She was about to head to the mare's house, when her ears twitched as they picked up a sound. She followed it until she came back to it. Back to the scene of the crime.

In the dark, echoey hall of the Hot to Trot, the hottest new nightclub in Ponyville, there should not have been a soul inside. The building tended to sleep during the day, like she herself should have been doing. However, Vinyl knew that, as she pushed the back door open, somepony was inside. A pony who who was waiting just for her. Someone very, very angry. Glancing around the back offices, she could find no trace of the pony she had come to see, but, as she headed closer to the public area of the club, she heard it again. A light, plinking sound, a metallic but very delicate noise, one that could have only been generated by one thing. Pushing the door to the stage open slowly, she glanced out onto the stage to see Lyra, the cyan-coated musician, sat in the centre, her eyes closed as she played a slow, minor key lament upon her lyre. Vinyl couldn't help but let out a throaty whimper as she listened to the haunting song, knowing in her heart that what she had done, what she needed to do now would likely destroy the chance for her to hear that music played ever again. As the song finished, she walked slowly onto the stage, her head dipped low.
"Oh... it's you..." Lyra stated, her tone one of quiet aggression. It was clear she was holding back her rage, unable to look at the DJ or her vibrant mane for more than a few seconds before turning away in disgust. Vinyl held up a hoof, but Lyra screamed back at her, her face twisted with anger and betrayal. Upon her left cheek was a dark bruise, one that was unmistakably caused by a hoof.
"Save it! I don't want to know what you want to say. I don't care! I just want you to know how much pain you're putting me through. How much anguish, how much... it doesn't just... you can't... ARRRGH! Get out of my damn sight, Vinyl. Just leave! I can't do this!" she said, turning away from the other unicorn, whose expression was one of pain, fear, and, above all, sadness. She knew she had done wrong, but she couldn't even express it to Lyra how she felt.

This was the worst thing she had ever done in her life, and certainly the worst thing she had ever done to Lyra, the pony that she had known for most of her life. The two unicorns had grown up together, and they had grown close thanks to their mutual love of music. As the years had come and gone, that love of music had blossomed and sprouted into something between. Unfortunately, fate intervened, and Vinyl had to move. Her father was a notorious drunkard, and often lashed out at her mother and her. Eventually, though, she had pushed her luck too far, and the stallion had assaulted her, crushing her windpipe with a hoof, and battering her to within an inch of her life. To protect her and her mother, she was moved to Canterlot, and away from the filly she had fallen in love with. She moved on, she learned all about music, and, eventually, she ventured out to Manehatten to get her degree, and fate intervened again. Her college roommate was none other than Lyra! And boy, did Vinyl crush on her hard. All the memories came flooding back, here was a mare who knew her inside and out, and beautiful as the crystal blue sea. It was hard for Vinyl, who found it harder and harder to talk to the mare, thanks in no small to part to her having lost her ability to talk, thanks to her father. Fortunately, she had learned to communicate through hoof language, a method of motions with her forehooves, and her music played a large part in communicating how she felt, but nothing she had ever created had come close to how she felt about Lyra. The crush had lasted a long, long time, and even now, the mare was head over hooves in love.

"Why are you still here, I said leave!" Lyra snapped, tears welling up in her eyes as she glared at the DJ, who slowly shook her head. She paced towards the sobbing pony, her every step echoing around the vast, empty hall, until she was stood next to her. With tears forming in her own eyes, she dipped her head down, and, with the gentlest touch, licked at the bruised skin. This made Lyra flinch backwards, the cyan unicorn pacing backwards a few steps.
"N..no! You don't get to... you can't just come up to me and do something sweet and just make everything better! You don't have that right anymore, Vinyl!" Lyra croaked, her whole body shaking as she stared at the white pony. Vinyl nodded her head glumly, and rested back on her haunches. She began to move her front legs in vague shapes, using a technique known as Hoof language.
'Please. Let me explain. I am so sorry,' she signed, before pulling up her goggles, to give the pony the chance to see her in earnest, to see that she was trying her very best to atone for her terrible mistake. Lyra looked deep into those eyes, those pure, dazzling amethyst orbs, and her expression hardend.
"No! Damnit, Vinyl, you've gone too far this time! I just... this is... Damnit, Scratch, your anger, you, you attacked me! You hit me, Vinyl! The only way I'd ever let you explain is if you told me! Yes, told me, not wrote to me, or signed, or played me anything. Speak!" she hissed, all her petty bile flowing out of her in one go. "GET OUT, VINYL! LEAVE HERE! I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU! GET OUT OF MY FACE!" she screamed, pushing the musician away. With a heartbroken expression, and tears streaming down her cheek, Vinyl turned, and began to walk away. "I thought you took after your mother... not your father," Lyra whispered.

The hoof plant that Vinyl made after hearing this echoed throughout the entire club. Slowly, the mare turned, her eyes narrowing as she glared up at the string musician, who shivered as she looked at her. The white bodied unicorn paced forwards, up to the stage, pushing the mare back, and against the wall. Her horn flared, and a pad and pencil flew in front of her. Slowly, the pencil began to write.
'I! AM! SORRY! I WAS ANGRY! I WAS HITTING THE WALL! YOU WALKED IN AS I LASHED OUT! NEVER COMPARE ME TO THAT BASTARD!' she wrote, on several sheets of the pad, thrusting each sheet into Lyra's face as she quivered, her body shaking with sobs as she scribbled. She was so... so... so angry, and sad, and regretful all at once. She was so confused, about everything, about how she should feel. On the one hoof, she should never had hit the pony. On the other, it had been an accident, and the comments Lyra had made were so full of spite that she just, she had no idea how to think.
"I... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry, Vinyl..." Lyra whimpered suddenly, falling onto her haunches, a piercing wail escaping her as she burst into tears. In that moment, everything became crystal clear. She knew exactly what she needed to do. Pulling the mare close, she nuzzled at her gently. Whatever the problem, she knew now. She needed Lyra.