Broken Records

by Smashed Tapes

Chapter 2: Ain't No Rest For The Wicked

It was always the unimportant things Vinyl would tend to focus on, whether that be focusing on someone’s tone rather than the words that are being said, the way someone’s moving rather than what they’re doing, or in this case, focusing on the sounds of the car as it speedily drove on the highway with the early AM sun giving a small haze of the day to come. A yawn snaps her out of her focus, looking back to find Octavia slowly waking up from her seat as everyone else but herself and Lyra at the wheel were sound asleep, exhausted from the night they all went through. Octavia rubbed her eye and leaned forward.

“Oh blimey, what time is it? The sun isn’t even fully up yet”

Vinyl reached for her phone and checked.

“Like, 4am”

“Bloody hell”

“Yeah it’s fuckin early, are you like, okay?”

Octavia let out another yawn before trying to blink her eyes awake, her words at first coming slowly and drowsily.

“If you mean completely than not particularly, I didn’t exactly plan to be running from police when I awoke yesterday. But if you mean right this moment then I suppose I’m okay.”

Vinyl’s eyes lowered as she looked to the floor, the events of the night before playing out in her mind.

“Hey look, Octavia, I’m just, really fucking sorry how out of hand shit got. I-”

“I’m not hearing of this, Vinyl, no one knew that was going to happen, not with that storm and everything. You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?”

Vinyl looked up as a small smile formed on her lips.

“Thanks, still, shit’s kinda fucked right now”

“At least we’re not lost in the everfree forest this time”

She couldn’t help but chuckle, the time when Vinyl found a cool river away from camp everfree, only to accidentally get the group lost on the way back.

“You’re never going to let me live that down, aren’t you?”

“Nope!” She responded, beaming.

“You know the paths at that camp were confusing as shit.”

“Well it didn’t help that we were off the path.”

“I-It’s not like it would have helped!”

“Poor Haven, he was absolutely covered in bites and rashes when we got back, I swear he was redder than your flannel hoodie”

Vinyl just rolled her eyes as Octavia tried her best to contain her laughter so as to not wake the others. After managing to control herself, she leaned over to the driver’s seat.

“Any idea of when we need to stop, Lyra?”

“By like, mid afternoon, I pulled up maps on my phone and there’ll be a stop around then, we can get food, water and gas there.”

“Oh my…...that’s certainly a bit of a wait”

“Yeah well, we got a whole week in front of us, and that’s if Haven was being generous with his math”

Octavia slumped back on her chair and sighed, looking at the others as they snoozed away. This whole situation was insane, but hey, if she had her friends with her then things couldn’t get that bad, right? She leaned forward and rested her head against the seat in front of her, yawning.

“Wake me when we’re close, okay Vinyl?”

Before Vinyl could even respond, Octavia’s eyes had dropped, she could even hear her already starting to snore away. Vinyl smiled warmly at the sight.

“Of course, Tavi”

Lyra smirked at seeing the interaction, causing her friend to raise an eyebrow.

“What?”

“I see the ‘Tavi’ thing is back”

“I-It’s just a nickname…”

“Mmmhmm, sure, keep telling yourself that”

Vinyl just responded by playfully flipping her off.

“Yeah yeah, fuck you too, Lyra”

“That’s Bon Bon’s job”

“OKAY so we’ve reached TMI already”

“Not really, if you really want TMI then-”

“Oh please no, fuck no, I ain’t hearing this shit”

“Okay okay, no more from me”

Vinyl leaned into her seat, her eyes growing even heavier and heavier.

“Hey, V, catch some Zs. It’s been a long fucking day”

“You sure? You’ve been up just as long just as long as the rest of us”

“Nah, I actually slept in till like 1, look I’ll be fine. If I really need to switch over, I’ll pull over and wake you up. For now just get some rest, you deserve it”

Vinyl wanted to argue against it, but her weighty eyelids fought her attempt. She rested her head to the side as best as she could, seeing the pink of early morning coat the sky. She had to focus, she had to plan on how to help her friends out of this, make herself useful to them in some way. But Lyra’s words rang through her head, she needed to sleep, and with her and the others close by, maybe things will be alright for a while. Her eyes dropped, maybe it was alright to rest, even for a little while.

-----

The heat was what eventually woke Vinyl up, she had spent whole days in underground raves so the light of the sun didn’t bother her sleeping eyes. But the heat and burning feeling was definitely enough to force her out of her wonderful dream, one with her treating a certain cello player to a lovely night out. Her eyes shot open and then had to be quickly closed to block the intense beam of sunlight. She raised her hand above her face and opened her eyes again, it was shockingly later in the day than she expected, the late afternoon sun now shining at her to wake up. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes as her sense of the world around her slowly returned, slowly cursing the fact that her dream was cut short, they always seemed to stop right before Vinyl could get that kiss.

She sat upright and looked around, they were parked, for one thing, and no one was even in the truck.

“Fuuuuuuck, if the cops have already got us then this is by far the worst run attempt ever”

She slowly observed her surroundings, well they were surrounded by large, thick trees, a far cry from the concrete and lights of Canterlot Way. There was only one building in sight, what seemed to be some sort of gas station/road side shop combo, at which sat her friends at a table. Haven was standing up, pointing to a map against the wall and waving his arms around, he always seemed to do that when he was deep in explaining something. Along with Dixie, who just seemed happy to be there. Lyra and Bon sitting shoulder to shoulder with their hands firmly together, Vinyl swears that if she wasn’t already friends with the both of them before they got together, she would have found their endless hugs and kisses annoying. Then there was Octavia, the warm sunshine showing off her beautiful hair, did she do something different with it-

Vinyl shook her head, now wasn’t really the time to get caught up in...all that. She unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the car door, stepping outside. She stretched out her tired and sore muscles as she yawned and walked over to the rest of the group, stepping across the gravel road.

“So! If we take this series of back roads, we’ll make it to my uncles in the next 6 days! Of course, we would need to be driving for most of that, but I believe we can just switch drivers for those times!”

Haven smiled, happy he finally worked out a route that worked for both stealth and time. Lyra raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah me and Vinyl can drive the truck, but what if we’re both in need of rest, who can drive it then?”

The group looked at each other, no one wanting to speak up.

“Okay different question, who here even has a driving licence?”

Octavia raised her hand.

“I do, although it’s only for automatic vehicles I’m afraid”

“Well, since no one else can seemingly drive, Octavia! You will be our back up driver!”

“I-I just said I can only drive automatics!”

“Don’t worry, she’ll treat you right”

“I wasn’t questioning the truck!”

The conversation was soon cut short by the appearance of one tired Vinyl, as she claimed the nearest chair.

“Ah, good afternoon, Vinyl, sleep well?”

Octavia was honestly happy just to get out of that talk, she didn’t want to be the one responsible for it crashing or something like that.

“It was alright, didn’t expect to sleep all day though. When the fuck did we get here?”

Dixie fetched her phone out of her pocket.

“Only about a half hour ago! So don’t worry! You didn’t miss out on much”

“Okay then what did I miss out on?”

“Oh! Haven was just going over some driving plans. Haven?”

Haven smiled and motioned Vinyl to take a look at the map, which was balancing against the wall and a shipment box of ‘Scoota-Os’.

“Well Vinyl! After some discussion, I have found just the right route for us! We’ll take this path through the hills, it avoids all major highways, but it also won’t take us a month to get there”

“Wow, you guys really thought this though”

Bon clapped her hands together.

“Finally, now we can finally buy some food from here and hit the road again.”

“Wait, you guys haven’t even gone in yet?”

“Yeah, Haven here was very insistent that we sort out a plan first before we got distracted by food”

Vinyl rolled her eyes, of course he would. The group stood up while Haven wrapped up the map, entering the small shop. The walls had that vintage wooden feel, which did clash with the modern shelves and fridges. The older man at the counter sat slouched in his chair, from the looks of him he was one tall, well built guy, a bald head with a large brown beard. He waved at the group and smiled.

“About time I saw some friendly faces, welcome! Anything y’all need?”

Lyra smiled back and approached the counter.

“Yeah, actually, we need some gas cans and some packs of bottled water”

“Ah, going out far, young lady?”

“Yeah! We’re….going camping! We just need some things”

He stood up from his desk, clasping his hands together.

“Luckily for you, I got multiple of both in the back, lemme just go and get some out for you”

Bon ran up to Lyra, interupting their conversation as she excitedly held up some sort of bag.

“Babe! They got those mints you love! And they’re on sale!”

“Oh shit, that’s awesome! Can we afford some?”

“Already counted, we’ll have plenty left over”

“Thanks Bon Bon”

Bon planted a small kiss on Lyra’s cheek and ran off to join the rest. The friendly smile from the man quickly disappeared. He raised an eyebrow and looked at the rest of the group.

“Some group you got here, you and your…...friend there seem close”

“Hm? Oh that’s just my girlfriend, she gets really excited about sweets”

His only response was a low grunt as he seemingly focused on one person in particular, causing Lyra to get confused.

“You okay sir?”

He simply grunted again and turned to the back door.

“Gimme a minute to uh, get your things”

Without waiting for any kind of response, he entered the back and slammed the door behind him.

“Okaaaay? What a weird guy”

Lyra turned and returned to her friends, Dixie trying to stop Vinyl from loading her bag with…

“Fucking cola!? Again Vinyl!? We have some in the truck!”

Vinyl just whined as Dixie pulled the bottle of soda away.

“But these ones are cooooold”

Lyra pinched the bridge of her nose.

“One, you can get fucking one cold bottle, but we need to be careful with our money here”

Vinyl excitedly grabbed the bottle from Dixie and loaded it into her bag, Octavia looking on.

“I never understood your….. fondness for that particular soda, Vinyl”

“It’s fizy and it tastes great, what’s there not to love?”

“The teeth rot, perhaps”

“My teeth are fiiiine”

The rest of their shopping was uneventful, stocking up on basic foods, a first aid kit, and some of their favourites to treat themselves on the road. All and all it only took about a half hour to gather everything they wanted as they placed it on the counter. Vinyl looked around as she placed her bag down.

“Didn’t you talk to the dude about getting some gas and water? He’s been gone for awhile”

Lyra shrugged as she helped Dixie with her bag.

“I’m sure he’s just sorting out some stock or something while he’s back there, or maybe a nap or something”

“Or maybe he found a haunted statue and is fighting it to the death as we speak!”

“Or maybe he found a mystic portal to a far away world that he now has to save”

"Or maybe-"

Their banter was cut short as the large man came through the back door, his annoyed expression from before still covering his face.

“Sorry about the wait, I found your stuff, I’ll need some help with it though, it’s pretty heavy”

He pulled out a stack of wrapped water bottles, and 3 filled gas cans.

“Someone grab the gas, you, blue girl, care to help with this water?”

Vinyl shrugged and walked to the stack of bottles.

“Sure, can you guys get the other stuff?”

Bon, Lyra and Haven grabbed a gas can each as Dixie quickly walked to the truck.

“I’ll get the money for our stuff!”

The other three slowly hauled their gas cans out the door, while Octavia turned to the water.

“I may not have built arms like you, Vinyl, but carrying around a cello everyday has its results”

The man just grunted, waiting for Vinyl to take the lead leading the water outside. Octavia hauled her water case through the door.

“Thank you so much for your help sir-”

Octavia felt a strong shove forward out the door as it was slammed shut behind her, Vinyl now suddenly having to deal with the man standing in front of her and the door. She dropped her water and took a step back.

“Hey you fucking asshole! What do you think you’re fucking doing!?”

The man stomped forward, locking the shop door behind him.

“Miss Vinyl, I presume?”

“H-How the fuck-”

“I knew there was something wrong when I found a bunch of fucking queers entering my lovely store, so I did some digging. The Bluebloods, huh? You must have done something big for them to put that kind of price on your head, not like I need the money.”

“G-GUYS!?”

Octavia raised to her feet and turned back, shocked at what she was seeing, quickly leaping to the door only to find it locked, she fought against the unmoving handle with all her might while telling out to the group.

“EVERYONE! THE STOREKEEPER JUST LOCKED THE DOOR! HE HAS VINYL!”

The group looked, then sprinted over, pounding on the door and yelling, Lyra trying to smash the door down.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! LET MY FUCKING FRIEND GO!”

The man reached to his waist, and pulled out a small handgun out of a holster, causing everyone to freeze. Vinyl stood in place, scared shitless out of her mind, did this guy really just pull out a gun? And was she really stuck in here with him??

He turned and pointed it to the outside group.

“Break my door and I’ll have to deal with you fucking queers too. Stay out of this, this is between me and her. The Bluebloods really want her in, and I wouldn’t be doing my job as a helpful citizen if I didn’t help a good family out with capturing some queer bitch for them”

Vinyl clinched her fist, her eyes filled with rage as some papers and magazines started to move to a non-existent breeze.

“Shut your fucking mouth, asshole! We’re fucking leaving”

She took a step forward only to have the man turn back and look at her, causing her to stop in her tracks.

“You fucking move again, and I’m gonna have to start taking shots at your group over there, maybe starting with that disgusting sinner couple”

“Y-You can’t do that! You’ll be arrested!”

“What? It’s just self defense, after all, I’m sure the Force would be understanding after I had to defend myself after you lot broke into my shop”

Vinyl felt her rage boiling, her knuckles turned white as her fists shook, the papers and magazines now really being kicked up, where the hell was that breeze even coming from?

“So if you take one more step, I’m dealing with your friends. Maybe even starting with that british bitch”

Her rage reached its breaking point, she leaped from her spot and went to send a right hook straight into his face.

“DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE HURT HER-”

She was quickly silenced as he backhanded her with his weapon, sending her crashing into the counter, drifting into unconsciousness as she could hear her friends call out her name.

-----

Vinyl awoke for the second time that day, but instead of being greeted with sunshine and the sight of her friends, she could only see dark. Her head throbbed with pain, she went to hold it but found one of her arms couldn’t make that journey, her wrist felt stuck to something. She pulled against it but was only met with the sounds of a chain being pulled, once her eyes adjusted to the dark she could make out that she was handcuffed to some sort of desk. If she was going to wake up in handcuffs, this is not how she would picture it, realistically she’d find herself in a cell, but ideally she'd have wanted it to be chained to a bed. She looked around the small room she was in, the walls stacked with shipping boxes of various products. Her memory slowly returned, she remembered some sort of shop on the road, cola, and a man-

Oh, that’s right, she got her lights knocked out by some higher than thou homophobe, Vinyl was disappointed that she didn’t get a good hit on him first before that happened. Now that she remembered what happened, it was time to actually figure out how to get out of this mess, because there was no way she was going to let herself get handed over to the fucking Bluebloods.

“Psst! Vinyl! Viiinyl!”

Vinyl heard a harsh whisper above her, she turned her wrist as much as she could and looked up, seeing a window high above her, being able to barely make the faces of her friends, particularly Octavia’s, who was currently trying to whisper simultaneously as loud and as quiet as possible.

“Tavi? What are…..what are you doing?”

She rubbed her head, it still throbbed with pain.

“We’re here to get you of course!”

“W-What about crazy homophobe dude?”

“He waved his gun around and told us to get lost, so we parked the truck a road away and came to get you! He’s waiting out front of the store now, I think for the Bluebloods”

Lyra and Haven moved in, pushing the window up the rest of the way.

“Vinyl, is there a key down there?”

Vinyl shrugged at Lyra.

“I’m pretty sure Mr Crazy has it”

Vinyl’s eyes lit up, and snapped her head to look at the group.

“Wait! Does anyone have, like, a normal hair pin?”

Dixie reached to her side and pulled a thin hair pin out, she leaned in and held it up for her friend to see.

“Like this?”
“Yeah! Now drop it to me!”

Dixie quickly did what was asked and dropped it to the floor, Vinyl quickly grabbing it and bending it, sticking one end into the hole in the cuff. After some turns and twists, a small click is heard and her wrist is free, she rubs it and looks up at her friends.

“Now help me up before-”

The sound of a car was heard rumbling in, then stopping at the front of the shop, everyone shot each other a glance of worry.

“Well fuck, guess Kyle and the rest of his rich bitch squad is here, now help me the fuck up!”

Talking was heard from just around the corner as Lyra and Bon reached their arms down to her, Vinyl having to leap up and catch their hands. With some difficulty they lifted her through the window and onto the grass outside. Octavia gasped and quickly knelt down next to Vinyl, her hand just hoving barely over a large red gash on the blue haired girl’s face.

“Oh my god! Vinyl you’re hurt!”

The door is heard swung open, followed by multiple sets of footsteps.

“She was just right here! I checked only a few minutes ago”
“Then I suppose she hasn’t gone very fair, you idiot. Men! Search for them! If she got out then her friends won’t be too far”

The sounds of his posh, narcissistic voice made everyone shiver with dread. Lyra signaling everyone to follow.

“We can worry about that gash later, right now we need to fucking run!”

“She’s hurt, Lyra! I can at least cover it before we run”

“Okay then just fucking hurry up”

Octavia was somewhat right, as Vinyl stepping to her feet caused her head to spin, that guy must have done more damage to her than she first thought. It was now stinging from the cold bite of the wind as Vinyl tried to stand up right, blooding dripping down and onto her face. Octavia didn’t hesitate to get her to lean her weight on her own shoulders, nodding to Lyra.

“Okay, I got a cloth in my pocket-”

“Oh my, that is so thoughtful, Miss Octavia”

The group turned around in dread, seeing Kyle Blueblood stand there with three of his private guards, each carrying a tall taser. He smirked and flipped his blonde hair back, showing his bandaged wound from the night prior.

“I must say, you lot just up and running from my party did complicated things, but did you really think you could just ruin my party, wreck my lovely, expensive home, and do THIS to my handsome face and expect to just walk? No no no, my Blueblood honour will not allow that. Which is why you’re all coming with me, and don’t bother saying you won’t come with, you don’t have a choice”

Bon grabbed a large rock from the ground and threw it as hard as she could right into Kyle’s face. He screamed in pain as the group bolted deep into the forest, Octavia holding Vinyl up as they tried to place as much distance between their group and Kyle’s as they could. Kyle reeled his head back in pain and glared at his guards.

“Don’t just fucking stand there! Whoever gets that lesbian bitch gets double their pay! GO!”

The guards sprinted into the forest, trying to catch up with the group of young adults, they sprinted for dear life as they approached the open road, spotting Lyra’s truck up the street.

“There! Fucking go!”

Lyra ran forward and unlocked the vehicle, quickly starting the engine as the others piled in, with only Vinyl and Octavia lagging behind. A guard approached the two, igniting his taser with a chuckle.

“You two will make Mr Blueblood very happy-”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence, as Octavia swung her leg up as hard as she could and kicked square in the middle of his legs, a small squeal of pain was heard before he collapsed to the floor. Vinyl looked at Octavia, impressed.

“Damn, didn’t know you could kick that hard”

“Comes in handy, doesn’t it?”

She quickly led Vinyl to the truck, helping her into the back with Lyra slamming the gas as soon as they were both in, zooming past the other two guards as they rounded the corner and away from the road side shop. Octavia fetched her cloth from her pocket and wrapped it around Vinyl’s head.

“Here, it won’t help too much, but it’ll stop the bleeding for now, then I can clean it and actually dress it”

Vinyl simply nodded and smiled.

“Thanks, you’re a real lifesaver”

She looked around at everyone else, Bon and Lyra in the front with only Haven in the back of the truck, Dixie taking the other free seat.

“Is everyone okay? Did we even get the stuff?”

Dixie nodded.

“I think we’re all fine, and yes! We actually got everything still”

“How the fuck?”

Bon chipped in, looking into the back.

“I don’t think he cared, once he yelled at us to leave, we kinda just threw everything we could into the back. So we got gas and water! Sadly none of the food and drink though, that was inside”

Vinyl nodded, holding up her head, true to Octavia’s word the cloth did seem to stop the bleeding for now, or at least slow it down. Dixie leaned forward with wonder in her eyes.

"Vinyl! How did you get those cuffs off?"

"Uh, hair pins are really good at getting past simple locks like that"

"Wait....you can pick locks?"

The group looked at Vinyl, who now was very aware that suddenly showing that you can pick locks isn't exactly a normal person would know.

"I-I learnt how to do it to sneak around my old highschool, y-you know??"

Dixie shrugged, smiling and sitting back into her seat as Vinyl breathed a sigh of relief. The group finally had a moment to relax again, everyone taking a moment to breathe as they finally let themselves be free from the intense stress of the situation. Lyra focused on the road ahead as Vinyl tried to not focus on the pain throbbing through her head. Octavia leant close in worry.

“Are you alright?”

“It’s just a bit of pain, nothing I can’t live with”

“Well as soon as I can I will make sure it’s nothing serious. You had me really worried”

Vinyl smiled and relaxed in her seat, after everything that just happened, she could use a few Zs.

“Um, Vinyl, can I ask you something?”

“Hmm? Yeah? What is it?”

“Tavi”

“Huh?”

“Is Tavi some sort of nickname you have for me now?”

Octavia smirked as a small blush grew on Vinyl’s cheeks.

“I-It’s nothing, really, just didn’t have the energy to say your full name, is all”

“Well, I like it”

“H-Huh?”

“I like it! Everyone is so formal with me all the time, I don’t think I would mind someone treating me more…..casually”

“Heh, alright, I can keep calling you Tavi if you want”

Octavia smiled and put her head back, looking to get some rest, Vinyl followed suit, letting her eyes drop as the world once again dipped into black, at least when she woke up, instead of being in cuffed in a back room or having sun in her face, it would be next to Octavia.

Author's Note:

Hello everyone! No way I'm letting this story die on it's first chapter. I hope y'all enjoyed! Chapter 3 is already being written and 4 is being planned out, looking forward to showing what I have in store! <3

Comments

[Fable Caster]

I smell magic in the air! Or maybe it's barbecue..? Time will tell, time will tell.

Dixie quickly did what was asked and dropped it to the floor, Vinyl quickly grabbing it and bending it, sticking one end into the hole in the cuff. After some turns and twists, a small click is heard and her wrist is free, she rubs it and looks up at her friends.

I noticed in a few spots, like the example above, you slipped a bit between past and present tense.