//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Revenge is a Dish Best Served Squeaky // by Pony Professor //------------------------------// “Vinyl Scratch!” Uh-oh. Octavia sounded furious this time. She never used Vinyl’s full name unless she was seriously ticked. Time to bolt. “Oh, no you don’t!” The gray mare blocked Vinyl’s path before she could get to the door. Curse earth ponies and their land speed. “Hey, ‘Tavi, I was just about to head out to get some, uh, sugar because we… were… out…” Each word in Vinyl’s sentence faded as Octavia’s glare grew more and more stern. “I bought some yesterday after somepony decided to make art with it!” Okay, that wasn't even that big of a deal. It takes skill to make a tiny turntable out of sugar cubes and syrup. “Oh, come on, ‘Tavi—” “Don’t you ‘Oh, come on, ‘Tavi’ me,” Octavia really was mad, wasn’t she? Vinyl must have really messed up today. What was it that she had done, again? Remembering things wasn’t the unicorn’s strong suit. “Don’t act like you don’t remember!” Octavia yelled, her Trottingham accent now quite prominent, as it often got when she was emotionally charged. Dang it, Vinyl thought, she can read me like a book. “You keep leaving the refrigerator open, you never turn your lamps off when you leave the house for Celestia knows how long, and you shower like you’re made of water! Our utility bills are at least twenty percent higher from last month, and last month they were twenty percent higher than the one before that! We don’t have the bits to pay for this wastefulness, Vinyl!” Oh, so it wasn’t one thing she had done. It was a whole bunch of things, and now they were in debt. “Chill, ‘Tavi, I’ll do a few extra shows this month, maybe charge a bit more for tic—” “No, Vinyl! I’m not letting you worm your way out of this. I’m going to punish you big time.” Now that was odd. The only time Octavia threatened punishment was when she and Vinyl were playing— “Wipe that smirk off your face. That’s not what I mean. I’ve had this planned for a long time in case your messing up of things went too far one day. It turns out today is that day.” A punishment that didn’t end in something good for the both of them? Now Vinyl was extremely nervous. What could Octavia possibly have planned? “So, are we living without electricity for a while or something? Oh, no. If I can’t create my beats I don’t know how I’ll survive! I need my wubs, ‘Tavi! I need my wubs!” Octavia sighed, “We aren’t doing anything. I’m going to Canterlot for the week with some of my savings that I had to dip into because I don’t have any extra income thanks to a certain irresponsible house-mate. You are staying here to see if you can’t learn a little something about responsibility and how not having it affects the ponies around you.” The worst of Octavia’s anger was over, Vinyl guessed. At least she had stopped yelling. Still, she didn’t see how a week on her own would teach her anything about responsibility. If she couldn’t handle taking care of things with a roommate, half of Ponyville might as well be ablaze if Vinyl’s best friend wasn’t around to help out every once in a while. Besides, Vinyl liked it when Octavia was out. It meant she could blast her music as loud as she wanted and live like the bachelorette that was deeply rooted inside her. “Sweet, a week with my own pad. All right, ‘Tavi, you can take your little vacation and when you come back I’ll be totally responsible and stuff.” Vinyl said, already planning the week’s debauchery. “Not so fast, Vinyl. I didn’t say I was leaving you here alone. You’ll be taking care of a little guest while I’m gone,” Octavia grew a little smirk on her face as she said that. Vinyl’s nervousness returned. If there was one thing scarier than a ‘Tavi with an angry expression, it was a ‘Tavi with a smile on her face. “W-what, did you get me a ferret or something?” Vinyl tried to joke. “Something like that,” Octavia said. As if on cue, the doorbell rang right as she finished speaking. “That must be her.” Vinyl spun around to see what fate awaited her. The door that was once her escape from Octavia’s wrath now held her doom. Octavia gave Vinyl one last mischievous glance and opened the door. Vinyl’s heart sank when she saw the pony on the opposite side. Rarity. Oh, no. Not Rarity. That unicorn was the one pony that could be more irritating to Vinyl than Octavia on a good day. She was like Octavia squared. Vinyl didn’t know how many Octavia’s that would be, but enough Octavia’s in one equals one Rarity, and just one Rarity was so not cool. The worst part about it was Rarity and Octavia were friends. No wonder Octavia thought that Vinyl would learn how to be responsible in a week. Anypony would change after just one day with Rarity. “’Tavi, no. Not her. You want me to live, don’t you? You like me, right?” Vinyl threw herself at Octavia’s hooves, “Please, ‘Tavi, anyone but her!” Rarity, well within earshot, coughed, “Ahem,” she raised an eyebrow. Vinyl, still at Octavia’s feet, looked up, “Miss Prissy,” she said, pretending to be civilized. “Miss Scratch,” Rarity replied, “While I appreciate your, ah, enthusiasm at me keeping you company for the next few days, I am not the one who will be rooming here.” The DJ party pony sighed the biggest sigh of her life, “Oh, thank Celestia!” “Sweetie Belle!” Rarity called behind her. Sweetie Belle? Many a tea time Vinyl had overheard Rarity speaking of her little sister with Octavia. She never paid much attention past her name, though. Was she a smaller version of Rarity? That wouldn’t be too fun, Vinyl thought. She wasn’t very good with kids, either. Her jobs mostly consisted of rave and night club gigs with ponies that were certainly past fillyhood. Vinyl braced herself for the worst. A small white unicorn filly with cotton candy colored hair dragged a suitcase that was bigger than her into Vinyl and Octavia’s home. “Hi! I’m Sweetie Belle. Rarity said I’m going to stay here for the week,” she squeaked. She squeaked. Vinyl almost burst out laughing but decided against it given her current situation. This was not what she expected Rarity’s little sister to be like. “’Tavi, you can’t expect me to baby-sit this kid,” Vinyl pointed her hoof out. “I’m not a kid!” Sweetie Belle protested, “I’ll get my cutie mark any day now, just you wait!” The filly’s adorableness was blinding. Vinyl almost had to clench her heart to keep herself from letting out a very out of character squeal. Octavia and her roommate stared at each other for a moment, having a silent argument, which Vinyl lost. The deal was done. Whatever part of Tartarus that was going to be unleashed on the blue haired DJ was unavoidable now. “Come, now, Octavia. We’ll barely catch our train to Canterlot if we dawdle any longer.” Rarity urged her friend along. “Right, let me just get my things,” Octavia replied. There was an awkward silence between the three white unicorns for a moment, save for Sweetie Belle’s humming. Vinyl didn’t know the song, but she couldn’t help adding some beats to it in her head. “Right then,” Octavia returned from her room with her luggage and saddle bags, “Vinyl, I expect big changes from you in seven days. If I find you haven’t changed your ways, I’m evicting you from this house.” Now she tells her. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, you never said anything about that!” Vinyl complained. “That’s because I knew you’d throw a fit if I had told you earlier. Now you don’t get a chance to protest,” Octavia said. “But… ‘Tavi… I’m your best friend. How could you kick me out?” Vinyl pleaded. “It’s only if you don’t stop being wasteful and irresponsible. Sweetie Belle can teach you a lot about that, trust me,” The gray mare put her foreleg around her friend’s neck and lowered her voice, “It’s not like I want to do this, Vinyl. You’re my best friend and I love you, and that’s why I put together this little project. You have my word, we’ll both be happier when this is through.” Rarity coughed again, “Octavia?” she called. “I’ll be back, Vinyl. Please don’t disappoint me.” With that, Octavia and Rarity set off, shutting the door behind them. Vinyl let out another large sigh and wondered how she was supposed to learn anything from a filly, even if it was a mini-Rarity. “All right, kid. It looks like it’s just you and…” Hold on. Where did the little scamp run off to? Vinyl was worried she had failed in the first thirty seconds of her mission when she heard a resounding crash come from the kitchen. Not a second later, the smoke alarm went off. Vinyl rushed to the source of the commotion, and found Sweetie Belle happily doing to the kitchen what she couldn’t accomplish in a month of being left to her own devices. Egg shells littered the table, a mixture of Celestia knows what was being massacred by a rogue electric mixer, and somehow, some way, an expired carton of milk had caught fire inside the open refrigerator. “Oh, hi!” The filly squeaked in her unnaturally high-pitched voice, “I thought I’d go ahead and start making us lunch. I hope you like oatmeal!” The DJ had to rub her eyes with her hooves to make sure the tornado of destruction that lay before her was reality. “Luna and Celestia above,” Vinyl gasped, “what are you?”