Old World Blues

by Wheller

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Having fallen asleep in each other’s grasp, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were suddenly awoken by the crashing sounds from the level below. Their eyes shot open and the two sat up and leapt out of bed, running down the stairs to see what was going on.

They discovered Vinyl Scratch pulling books off their shelves and tossing them about haphazardly.

‘VINYL!’ Twilight called out to her. ‘What in the good name of Celestia are you doing!?’

‘Given what we know about, I would argue that it’s far from good’, Vinyl said, without bothering to turn around, she didn’t even grin.

‘Where’s your friend?’ Rainbow Dash asked as she continued to make her way down the stairs towards the book covered floor the Ponyville public library.

‘Detective Inspector Auditore, and I are not friends, not any more’, Vinyl said in a huff.

‘Detective Inspector?’ Rainbow Dash asked, stepping over a book in the process.

‘I’ll explain later’, Vinyl said, she let out a growl of frustration and turned her head upwards. ‘Emerald! I get it, you want me to figure it out on my own, but please! Point me in the right direction!’

Both Twilight and Rainbow Dash continued to watch in confusion. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the sound of a book falling off the shelf and landing on the floor hard.

Vinyl Scratch let out a grin and scampered over to it. ‘Thank you Emerald!’ she enveloped the book in her magic and brought it up to her face. She lifted the goggles off her eyes and took a closer look.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash approached Vinyl, but she quickly snapped the book shut and walked over to where her saddlebags were laying on the ground, and placed them on her haunches. She pulled her revolver out of her saddlebags and opened the break, sliding six rounds into the cylinder and snapped it shut. She slipped the revolver and the book back into her bag. She trotted over to the door and opened it up.

‘Vinyl?’ Twilight asked. ‘Where are you going!? What are you doing?’

‘Out’, Vinyl said, pulling her goggles back down over her eyes. ‘I got something I need to do, don’t follow me. This path on the long road is one I need to walk myself’.

Vinyl Scratch pushed open the door and shut it tightly behind her. The mare made her way down the south eastern road, and soon enough, was out of Ponyville.

Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle, however, continued to stare towards the door in confusion.

‘Should we go after her?’ Twilight asked.

‘Yes!’ Rainbow Dash said. She burst through the door, breaking her spellbound state and leapt into the air. She looked around for Vinyl Scratch, but the off-white coated mare was already nowhere to be found. It was already dark, and many of the town ponies had already gone to bed, Rainbow Dash wasn’t going to wake them by yelling for Vinyl Scratch when she knew that the mare wasn’t going to answer.

That pony was stubborn, and she wasn’t going to announce herself when she was deliberately taking cover from her. Rainbow Dash scowled and landed back on the ground.

‘Did you see her?’ Twilight asked.

Rainbow Dash shook her head in the negative, frowning at Twilight, the two went back into the Library, hoping that Vinyl would be okay.

...

Octavia sat staring angrily out the window as the train rolled through the Canterlot province countryside in a private compartment in the back car of the train. She’d used her authority to clear it out, sitting across from her was Montana Ulan, whom she’d dragged from Ponyville just in time to make the evening express. Octavia was sure to keep a close eye on him. Montana Ulan was crafty, this she’d known already. He and several of his smuggler friends had been arrested several times in the past, but somehow managed to get off on either a technicality or a mysterious order from the top.

‘You’re wasting your time, you know’, Montana Ulan said simply. ‘I’ll bet you twenty bits that I’ll be out of your custody before we even get to midtown’.

Octavia eyed the robed earth pony with annoyance. ‘As if I had twenty pounds on me to waste on you... but no, you’re not getting out of this, I don’t care if one of the princesses themselves comes down before me and orders me to release you, I’m still not going to do it’.

‘Oh, I think you would, care to test that theory?’ Montana said flashing a very Vinyl Scratch like grin, something that irked Octavia Auditore just more than a little. Octavia was fuming at the way Vinyl Scratch had acted; it wasn’t as if Vinyl was a saint or anything. Octavia might have met her because of the assignment, but she really had cared about her. GMP had thrown more than a few fits over Vinyl Scratch. After the Diamond Dog, Trigger, had choked to death, GMP had wanted to make an example of her, and Octavia had gotten into several altercations with her Detective Chief Inspector over it. She’d still been a Detective Sergeant at the time, and had argued that Vinyl Scratch was more useful to them out of custody than in it.

Vinyl Scratch had spent much of the time of their friendship high, and in bed with a stranger from one of the clubs that they frequented. That stranger would usually end up being arrested in two to three days after that. The steady stream of arrests for the Drug Squad kept GMP off Vinyl’s haunches, but the constant conflict between Octavia and her superiors had pretty much guaranteed that she’d never make it past Detective Inspector.

‘I hate to interrupt what is clearly a stream of pleasant thoughts’, Montana Ulan said. ‘I need to use the washroom’.

Octavia sighed, they had a few hours ride left, she couldn’t make him hold it, she ushered him up and over to the washroom at the front of the car. Octavia opened the door for him and he raised his forelegs in response, wanting her to un-cuff him.

‘I don’t think so’, Octavia said with a scowl.

‘All right, fine, it’s going to take me a while though, hard to get these robes on and off even when I have full movement of my legs’, Montana Ulan said.

‘We have time’, Octavia said displeasingly.

The robe clad earth pony nodded and went into the washroom.

Ten minutes passed, and Octavia was getting impatient. ‘You’ve had long enough! Out here! Now!’

She got no response. With that, Octavia forced the door open, only to discover that the washroom was empty. The window was open, a set of hoofcuffs lay on the floor, and there was a note taped to the door.

That’ll be £20.

She heard a knock behind her. Octavia poked her head out the door. Montana Ulan was on the gangway between the two cars waving at her. Octavia’s eyes widened as he pulled the hitch out and disconnected the rail cars. Montana Ulan continued to wave at her as the rest of the train rocketed away towards Manehattan, and the rear car and the caboose slowly slid to a halt.

Octavia pounded on the door in frustration, he’d gotten away! Now, she had to walk back home...

...

Fluttershy and Surprise trotted through town Fluttershy was humming a tune as she walked, and enjoyed the cool March day, not noticing that Surprise was keeping in step with her, and was humming the same tune.

Fluttershy looked down the street to discover Twilight and Rainbow Dash at the end of the high street and turned to walk over towards them; Surprise didn’t miss a beat, and kept in step next to her.

Surprise began looking around, figuring that Vinyl Scratch would be with them, but quickly discovered that she was not.

‘Hello Twilight, hello Rainbow Dash’, Fluttershy said sweetly. ‘Good morning to you!’

‘Oh! Hey Fluttershy’, Twilight said, ignoring Surprise entirely.

‘Hey Fluttershy, hey Surprise’, Rainbow Dash said.

‘Where is Vinyl Scratch?’ Surprise asked.

‘I don’t know’, Rainbow Dash said with a shrug. ‘She took off late last night, storming around the Library tossing books everywhere, then she found one and stuffed it in her saddlebag, loaded her gun, and went out the door telling us not to follow her’.

Surprise looked blankly at Rainbow Dash for a moment, then without moment, her wings popped open and scared Fluttershy senselessly. Surprise got low to the ground and kicked hard, bounding into the air and heading off in the south eastern direction.

Twilight knelt down next to Fluttershy to comfort her, Rainbow Dash turned and watched as Surprise flew out of view.

‘What was that all about?’ Rainbow Dash asked.

‘I guess...’ Twilight said, helping Fluttershy up. ‘She’s going to look for Vinyl Scratch?’

‘Well, at least she’s loyal’, Rainbow Dash said, she turned at Twilight and offered her a faint smile. ‘It’s too bad you don’t like her, because I do’.

Twilight scowled at Rainbow Dash, that comment had just earned her a sleeping spot on the balcony.

Comments

[Lord English]

Wasn't Vinyl's excessive drug abuse, etc. part of the old world? Since Octavia's old-world memories haven't been restored, does that mean that old-world Vinyl and new world Vinyl effectively lived the same lives?

[Wheller]

46567

Vinyl Scratch is plagued with poor judgement and and even worse impulse control. They're not exactly the same, but similar enough that Vinyl has trouble sorting the difference between memories from the two worlds.

[DreadedCandiru2]

There seems to be another thing she's not good at: understanding the ponies around her. She has no real idea that it wasn't JUST a job for DI Auditore and doesn't honestly seem to care.

[Wheller]

46609

Vinyl is mad, Octavia is mad, Surpise is mad (different context though, I suppose.)

EVERYPONY IS MAD!

Octavia and Vinyl fight all the time. They'll come around, they always do.

[DreadedCandiru2]

46614
Ah. Good point. It is the one constant in both worlds gone mad. Well, that and the fact that electronic devices bring out the fearful maniac in Celestia.

[Fallen Knight]

Great work Vinyl, why get help to do something when you can go alone and die right?

Well she always got lucky breaks before who says she won't get one again

Well almost always except for the whole everything that happened before this like radiation poisoning legion coming out, the whole old world really, and about a dozen things I can't really remember exactly.