//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Nevermore // by CinnamonSticks //------------------------------// At five forty-five, Vinyl Scratch and her high-tech turntable warmed up backstage at the First Pony in Space fashion show. Earth ponies in all sorts of clothes scurried giddily around her, pegasi flew left and right above her head, and a few unicorns were charming jewelry onto themselves and other ponies. Vinyl pounded out a few beats into her headphones mindlessly, barely noticing a thing. Her mind was preoccupied with Octavia. What would she be thinking now? Tavi usually got to her performance an hour before the beginning, just to incessantly make double, triple, and quadruple checks until guests arrived. Would Octi be worried? Vinyl brushed the thought off. Her entire career depended on this moment. She churned out more beats, wubbing through her thoughts and letting herself slip into a sub-consciousness. Suddenly, the lights flashed on and off. A call to the seats. Vinyl tugged out her headphones and fastened a microphone headset to her ear. “Miss Scratch, on in 10, 9, 8, 7…,” muttered a voice into Vinyl’s headset. A pair of brawny assistant ponies with nearly identical cutie marks- one a pony lifting weights, the other a pony lifting dumbbells – began pushing her and her turntable to the front of the stage. It seemed that the model ponies would walk around her turntable. “3, 2, 1…and we’re on. Good luck, Miss Scratch.” The two assistant ponies grinned at her, then ran off into the wings as the curtains opened. Vinyl inhaled sharply. Wow. There were a lot of ponies out there. “Yo, Canterlot!” Vinyl begun, shouting out to the huge crowd. They responded with a deafening roar. “Who’s ready to be the…. First! Pony! In! Space!” she yelled into her microphone. Every word was accentuated with a burst of screams. Vinyl began a deep, throbbing beat as she nodded her head to the music. Models strutted around her in perfect synchronicity to her beats. She added in a creaking beat, which the models responded to by weaving their heads back and forth. Wow, Vinyl thought, this is the best show I’ve ever hosted. A voice, barely audible above her music, whispered into her headset. "Drop the bass in 3, 2, 1..." Vinyl smiled. This was the best night of her life. /)*(\ "Oh my, oh my, oh my, oh my," muttered Octavia under her breath. "Whatever am I to do! Ten minutes to curtain and no Vinyl!" She ran to her publicist and life-long friend, Thundercloud. "Oh, Thunder, where is Vinyl! She should have been here an hour ago!" Thundercloud, a gray pony with an electric blue mane, stretched his hooves above his head . "She'll be here," he said, pawing a hoof menacingly. /)*(\ Vinyl wubbed out beat after beat to the cheering crowd. A deafening roar of a rocket came on of no accord, apparently the signal to move to intermission. A tiny voice in her headset confirmed it. Vinyl walked backstage and spotted Solid Beats, the pony taking over the turntables. They bumped hooves as they went their separate ways, Vinyl to get water, and Beats to warm up. As she made her way to the water cooler, she spotted a familiar face. "Nightengale? Is that you?" she gasped to a tall mare with a purple mane and a navy blue coat. "Vinyl!" The two mares hoofbumped. "Yo, whatcha doin here?" Vinyl said to Nightengale. "Dude, I'm moving up the social ladder! I, like, designed half of these costumes.And after this, I'm doing a design for Hoity Toity! Can you believe it?" "Me too, man! Well, not the same thing, but I'm lined up for a bunch of high profile stuff after this." That was technically true. "Wanna get a drink?" said Nightengale. "Dude, awesome!" To her defense, Vinyl hesitated a tiny bit, before waving off thoughts of Octavia, figuring one drink couldn't hurt. /)*(\ An hour later, Vinyl was inebriated and making out with Rolling Stone, having totally forgotten about Octavia. The music was pounding, the drinks were free, and she was in Canterlot. There really was no better way to explain it.Vinyl was over the moon with happiness. That is, until the hall doors slammed open. "VINYL SCRATCH!" rang a voice so high and so loud that everyone paused to look, including Solid Beats, his turntable making static.Octavia and Thundercloud stormed in to the hall. The masses of ponies cleared a path for her to the corner of the room, where Vinyl sat at the bar. Once making eye contact with Octavia, her eyes widened, and she made a run for it, but she was too far under the influence to teleport. Thundercloud picked up Vinyl by the scruff of her neck and tossed her kicking and scratching form into the train with Octavia. "Uhhh...hey?" said Vinyl sheepishly. "I can't believe you." "Octiii, I missed, like, one show. Cut me a litttttttle bit of slack," slurred Vinyl, who was fighting to stay awake. Octavia snapped. "Nevermore! Nevermore shall we talk!" "But...Octi...I'm sorry." "Get out! I never want to see you again!" Thundercloud opened a door and shoved Vinyl out of the train. Vinyl sighed. Life was a confusing thing. It took Vinyl only two tries to swing herself back up into the next train. The train she had chosen was filled with food and other goods being brought to Ponyville. She nestled herself in between a sack of carrots and a crate of potatoes and fell into a restless sleep. /)*(\ The sharp trill of a train bell brought Vinyl from the hollows of dreamland and into the cold, dark, real world. She saw Ponyville approaching and prepared to leap off the train. She inhaled...and jumped off on the exhale. Galloping a few steps to regain her balance, she began a slow walk back to her studio apartment. Her mind, still recovering from the strong alcohol, began slipping in and out of the twilight zone. I'm such an idiot. Buck me. Rolling Stone's hot. Wait, what? Tavi's gonna kill me. Meteor Shower's gonna kill me. Photo Finish is gonna kill me. I'm gonna kill Nightengale. Why did I ever agree to these stupid shows? She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Hearth Warming's Eve was only a day away, and she had to prepare some tracks for her first album recording- Meteor Shower had talked her into it. Frustrated, she slammed open the door to her apartment building. The night concierge, a young guy named Broken Strings leapt up in surprise as she stormed through the tiny lobby and up the stairs. Finally alone, she made to run to her turntable, but tripped over something on the way there. Cursing, she made to throw the offending object out the window, but paused. It was the necklace Octavia had bought Vinyl for an early Hearth Warming's present, still in its box. Seeing it made her simultaneously want to throw the object out the window even harder and sink to the ground in tears. Her rage won out, and she threw the object out the window as hard as she could. She then curled up in a ball on her bed and sobbed, her sunglasses stained with tear streaks. Five seconds later, a pink-maned yellow pegasus was hit firmly on the head with a box.