> 7DSJ: Shake It Off
>  by Shinzakura
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> January 27: Sunshine After the Rain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I wanna see the sunshine after the rain
I wanna see bluebirds flying
Over the mountains again”
- Berri



Vinyl Scratch looked at herself in the mirror, and the first thing that came to her mind was that she looked like a demented version of the clone girl from that giant robot anime from a decade ago.  She couldn’t remember the name; it was a favorite of one of the boys she briefly dated at her mother’s behest.  But the image of the fictional girl with the ice-blue hair and red eyes, wearing a cream sweater vest over a white shirt and blue skirt very much stuck in the mind of the very real girl with blue hair and wine-colored eyes, currently wearing her new school uniform in its summer configuration:  a cream sweater vest over a white shirt and blue skirt.

I’m never going to get used to this, she sighed as she took it off, changing into the winter configuration: basically the same thing, save for the addition of a tie and a full-length sweater, with a blazer as well.  Well, time to go downstairs and face the music.





A few minutes later, she was sitting downstairs at the kitchen table, looking across at a lanky boy with maroon-and-red hair and ice-blue eyes pour cereal into a bowl.  “So, ready for your first day?”  She shook her head and the boy laughed.  “Vinyl, you’ll be fine, really.”

“Thanks, LP,” she said, unwinding a little more and looking at her older brother, Long Play.  It was still weird seeing him on a regular basis, but that was the end result of Vinyl’s world-shattering mistake back in California.  While she’d completed her deposition for the prosecutors this past weekend, it had still been rough-going: she’d pinned all the blame back on Blueblood, and while the prosecution agreed that she’d done what she did under duress, the bale stare of that one attorney – Cadenza, if Vinyl remembered the name right – made her feel as though she was going to melt from pure beams of hate.

However, it didn’t save her from the most immediate repercussion: When Vinyl’s mother had found out about her daughter’s true sexual preferences, she made it absolutely clear that the teenager was no longer welcome in her home.  That was fine by Vinyl; she hated her mother anyway, and luckily for her, she’d been able to move in with a friend until something more permanent could be arranged for her.

And now here she was, in the last week of January, starting her life over thousands of miles away from Canterlot.  Of course, she had to admit, if she was going to have to start over, at least there were some upsides to the situation.  In truth, she’d landed more than a bit of luck – ending up with her father and brother, the family that she knew loved her unconditionally.  Plus, they lived in the East Ferry District, one of the toniest parts of town.  The biggest speedbump so far was when her father told her that she wouldn’t be attending public high school, but rather the prestigious D’Aguanno School, rated as one of the best private schools in the country.

Now if I can just get used to the uniforms, Vinyl sighed.  She hated skirts, blouses and ties.  She hated anything that looked formal, even when she went on dates.  Hell, the somewhat stylish attire that she’d worn on her ill-starred misadventure with Octavia Melody had been something that her mother had insisted on her wearing when she found out Vinyl had a date that night.  Vinyl was always casual, and that always set her against her mother’s very fashionable ways.

At the head of the table, a man with a ponytail of dark rose and blue laughed.  This was Vinyl’s father, Deep Bass, “The Voice of Detroit”, the most popular DJ at the Top 40s station in town.  “Vi, honey, I didn’t like uniforms either when I attended the D, but you’ll get used to them.”

“You went to the D?” Long asked, surprised.  “Always wondered why you said it was traditional that I had to go there.”

“Yeah.  Went there, as did your grandfather and grandmother,” Bass noted.  “We’re a legacy family.”  Turning back to Vinyl, he added, “Look, think of it this way: This is your chance to wipe the slate clean and start anew – and keep in mind, you’re not doing it alone.”


As if on cue, a blonde with dark skin came down the stairs, moving over quickly to kiss both Long and Bass on the cheek before sitting down next to Vinyl and planting a long, loving kiss on the other girl’s lips.

“You two keep that up, you’re going to be late,” Bass chuckled before returning to his eggs.

“Hell, you two keep it up, I’m going to go get a camera and film this thing for Brazzers,” Long snarked.   

“So~rry,” Cloud Kicker apologized.  “Couldn’t find the conditioner.  Vi, one of these days, we’re gonna have to organize the bathroom.”

“Maybe you should just get it cut short, like me,” Vinyl replied, shaking her shaggy mop of a hairdo.

“Personally, I prefer to look good and not like a day-glo mop,” Cloud mock-retorted.

“You look good enough to me in bed,” Vinyl purred, and was rewarded by that by another long kiss.

Long grunted.  “Great – my little sis gets more action with girls than I do.”

Vinyl answered that by sticking her tongue out at her brother, but in truth, she was absolutely proud of her family.  Not only had her father and brother accepted her lesbianism, but they’d gone so far as to let her girlfriend move in with them, as Cloud’s parents had decided to move to a hippie commune in Ukiah and knew their daughter’s ways weren’t theirs.  It had been Bass that had set up both of them at D’Aguanno, and was paying the tuition.  Though they’d both been at the home for only a week, both girls felt more like they were a married couple living with Vinyl’s father than anything else.

“Don’t shit me, LP,” Cloud replied haughtily.  “I know you get play.  What was her name again?  Strawberry Swirl or something?”

“Sparkleberry Swirl,” the boy replied.  “And yes, I did her.  Oh my God, she’s got the greatest tits!”

Cloud nodded.  “Oh, hell yes.  Plus that ass?  I’m supremely jealous, dude.”

As the table descended into a discussion to the suitability of her older brother’s latest one-night stand, Vinyl quietly buttered a piece of toast and took a bite, enjoying the interplay of her family.  A father who was the morning DJ at the most popular station in town, an older brother studying fine art and music at the College for Creative Studies, and her live-in girlfriend.  She smiled.  

Paradise, at last.





Long pulled his car up to the parking lot of D’Aguanno.  The school, an aged brick and mortar complex, looked more like a small university than a mere private school.  “Here we are, girls.  The D.  One of the best schools, great for K to 12, yadda, yadda, yadda.  The only important part that I ever gave a shit about is that they have an outstanding arts program.  Anyway, time for you two to get out.  You got everything you need?”

Sitting in the back seat, both teens nodded, but double-checked just in case.  “Yeah, we’re good.  You or Dad picking us up later?”

“Depends.  If Sparky’s still in town, I’ll be, uh, a little busy.”

“You mean your little swimmers’ll be busy,” Cloud teased.  “Trust me, I’ve done both – I know how it works.”

Long shrugged.  “Whatevs.  Anyway, if she hasn’t left for work, I’ll pick you up.  If not, either Dad will or his girlfriend.”

“When do I get to meet her?” Vinyl asked.

“Soon.  She’s been busy the past week, but trust me – you’ll get to meet her soon.  Catch you girls later.  Oh, and no sex in the locker room, okay?  D’Aguanno’s a classy place.”  Giggling, both girls got out of the car, and onto the snow-covered grounds of the campus, headed for the front door and the admin office.


As they walked down the cobblestone pathway, Vinyl clearly was impressed at the school’s environs.  “You know, I always thought CHS was ridiculously ornate, given that was designed after one of these old-style schools, but now I can see why Principal Celestia blew her fuse when that accident happened last October during Homecoming.”

Cloud shrugged.  “Dunno; County High was the typical modernist building, high on cheap and low on style.”  A thought then came to her.  “What did happen with that incident?  I remember you mentioning it, but never heard the full story.”

“Apparently some maintenance to the front windows went wrong and it exposed some bad construction on the school’s front façade or something like that; I remember Ms. Luna mentioning it a week or so after on the intercom.  Funny thing is, there were a couple of people who tried to blame Sunset Shimmer or that one exchange student we had in town that week.  But even Sunset couldn’t pull that kind of shit and no way is some exchange student rocking the boat like that.  Not important anyway.  Well, looks like we’re here.”

The two walked through the front door and into the adjacent admin office.  After introducing themselves, they were told that the school headmistress wanted to briefly speak with both of them.  As they were escorted to the Headmistress’ Office, both girls looked at each other.

“I see my rep caught up with me,” Vinyl replied nervously.

“Hey, you have me – and I’m with you all the way,” Cloud replied, showing her promise ring.  She’d never removed it since the day they became a couple again, a vow of her insistence to remain with Vinyl forever.  Someday, both girls figured it’d be replaced with an engagement ring, and finally a wedding band – but that time was still years off.

Shortly they entered an ornately-styled office that looked like something out of a Hollywood movie about private schools: there was a classic globe, a well-stocked shelf of books, and an ornate wooden desk.  Seated behind it was a woman in her late forties, with deep-pink and Irish-green hair, dressed in a blouse and blazer.  As the girls approached the desk, she stood up and raised her hands.  “Good morning, Ms. Scratch and Ms. Kicker.  I’m Ms. Clover, the Headmistress of D’Aguanno School.”

“Hello, Ms. Clover,” Vinyl said, shaking her hand and sitting.

“Good morning, Ms. Clover,” Cloud said as she did the same.

“So, getting settled into Detroit well?”  Both girls nodded.  “Didn’t break the bed Bass bought you yet, did you?”  When both girls’ eyes went wide, Clover laughed.  “I may as well let you both know now: Vinyl, your father and I are engaged.  He and I met when your brother was a student here, so we’ve known each other for quite a while.  He asked me for help getting you in despite your, ahem, ‘current issues’.”

“I…see,” Vinyl replied, sinking into her seat.

“So let’s set a few ground rules here.  Obviously, you’ll have to call me ‘Ms. Clover’ or ‘Headmistress Clover’ while here.  Also, no public displays of affection.  I know you two are dating, but the school board wanted a zero-tolerance policy on it, so please, while I know you two are pledged to one another – which I have to admit, is very sweet – while on school grounds, you’re just two students who happen to have the same address, understood?”  When both girls reluctantly nodded, Clover added, “For the record, I don’t like it either.  But the board cares more about the school’s rep than adjusting to the times, so that’s that.  For the record, they nearly fired Mr. Lancer, our biology teacher, who is also gay, until I had to remind them about the state’s discrimination policy.

“Which, to be honest, brings me to the next part: D’Aguanno is a storied school, one of the best in the country and known for its contribution to the arts.  Famous musicians and artists have come from this school: Bass, the 60s girl group The Dazzlings, half the members of the heavy metal group Deep Cherry, and the guitarist for Twangy Tunes, just to name a few.  As of current, Tequila Sunrise attends school here when she’s not on tour.”

Cloud perked up at that.  “Tequila Sunrise is a student here?”  Hearing her girlfriend’s sudden burst of fangirling, Vinyl groaned.  In her opinion, Tequila Sunrise was just another typical pop starlet no better than Sapphire Shores or Midnight Moondust, and platinum-selling album or not – Rise Up was selling by the bucketload, even if Vinyl considered it to be boring pop pabulum – Vinyl always thought she could do better if given the chance.

“Yes, though I would appreciate it if you treated her as just another student while she’s here,” Clover told Cloud before turning back to Vinyl.  “Anyway, despite your family’s legacy of students here at the school, your father’s recent donation to the endowment, his influence as a radio personality, and your brother’s status as a well-known composer for his age, I still had to fight tooth and nail to get you accepted as a student, both because of your grades and the incident in California.  I finally managed to convince them based on your musical ability, which I’m told is very prodigious – one of the independent board members is a record producer and believes you may even be a bigger talent than Tequila Sunrise.  But let me make this clear, Vinyl: that’s not enough.

“Frankly, you need to improve your grades immediately – and if you need tutoring, I’ll be glad to do so at home – but the bigger worry is that legal cloud hanging over you.  While you were cleared by California’s courts, you’re going to be facing a more damning judge: the Court of Public Opinion, and once they find out – and sooner or later, they will – you will be walking a razor-thin tightrope.  Actually, both of us will; I suspect that because I went to bat for you, my job is probably on the line as well.  So please: don’t screw this up.”

If Vinyl could crawl any further into the upholstery of the chair, she would.  Meanwhile, Cloud needed something answered for her own sake: “Ms. Clover, what about my status?”

“You’re fine, Cloud.  Your grades are above average, and you’re in no legal trouble, so your status was never in question.  But I suspect that you’d want to quit the school if Vinyl were kicked out, wouldn’t you?”  The teen nodded and Clover sighed.  “Don’t.  Think about your future, especially if you two have one together.  I’ll do what I can for you, Vinyl, but I’ll need your help to do so, too.”  Clover’s eyes glanced at the clock and she said, “Well, let me see if I can find a student here who can take you to your first period class, girls, and we’ll see what we can do.”


As they stepped out of Clover’s office, the woman noticed a young girl apparently picking up some papers for a teacher.  She was humming to herself, and there was something about her that said that she was a little “different”.  But the moment Vinyl looked at the girl, she instantly saw what must have been Pinkie Pie’s spiritual cousin: while the girl looked a little more like that shy girl Pinkie hung around with, that was where the similarities ended.  The girl had chiffon-colored hair shot through with butter yellow and magenta, but the sparkle in her soft pink eyes made her look very not normal.

Plus, she was practically dancing in place, without a care in the world.  And no music, either.  Vinyl instantly remembered the old saying “Dance like nobody’s watching,” but there was no way anyone would have missed the barely-contained fünkengrüven girl poplocking in place in front of the photocopier.

“Ms. Bon-Bon?” Clover asked.  “You have Geometry with Mrs. Mystique, right?  Would you be willing to escort them there?”

The girl named Bon-Bon gave a wide smile that confirmed Vinyl’s thoughts: Yeah, local Pinkie Pie.

“New students?  Really?  Really?  Reallyreallyreallyreallyreally?”  She immediately shot over to Vinyl and Cloud, shaking both of their hands like the fate of the world depended on it.  “Hi!  My name is Bon-Bon but you can call me Bons or Bonnie or BB or….”  With a move that had to be practiced, she pulled her phone out of her left pocket, tossed in the air, spun, caught it with her right and held it out them, “You can call me on my phone!”

Vinyl waved.  “Hi,” she said simply.  Cloud looked around, not trying to say a thing.

“Oh, we’re going to be the bestest friends ever!  C’mon, we’ve got to get to class!”  Not really waiting for them, Bon-Bon danced out of the room – literally danced out of the room.

Cloud looked at Clover.  “Does she do this often?”

“She’s part of the dance and baking clubs,” Clover said with a straight face.  “So, yes, this is normal for her.  And you might want to catch up, she moves pretty fast.”

Neither girl needed further prodding.  As they watched the far-too-cheerful-for-her-own-good girl, Cloud grunted, “I swear she reminds me of that one waitress at the Sugarcube Corner Café – Pinkie Pie.”  She watched as Bon-Bon hopped around like a spinning gyro.  “Way too much like that waitress,” she sighed.

Vinyl grinned.  “Know what you mean; I went to high school with Pinkie.  I thought she was a meth addict, but she’s just a sugar and caffeine junkie instead.”

As they caught up to Bon-Bon, Vinyl mused, And here I thought that coming here was going to be dull. 





After a couple of class periods, lunchtime finally came, and the first thing Vinyl did was to throw her books in her locker.  Geometry had been surprisingly easy for her; she chalked it up, strangely enough, to her DJ skills, because she couldn’t think of any other reason that would make sense.  Fortunately after that was classical music, and she’d had the opportunity to tell them about herself.  Many of them rolled their collective eyes when she explained that she was a DJ by trade, but when the teacher asked if she had any “real music skills”, she walked over to the nearest acoustic guitar and laid down some Latin jazz that had completely stunned the teacher and students until the bell rang.  After that, nobody was questioning her competency.  Too bad they couldn’t say the same about her following class, History.

Hustling over to the cafeteria, she found Cloud waiting outside the room for her.  “Hey, swe…I mean, Kicky,” Vinyl said softly.  “How was class?”

Cloud shook her head.  “It is so weird seeing a teacher that reminds you of yourself, you know.”

“How so?”

“The English teacher, Ms. Bright Eyes?  Should probably call herself ‘Bedroom Eyes’, instead.  I swear, woman looked like she wanted to sleep with everybody in the class, me included.”

“Hey, you’d better have your spots reserved for me,” Vinyl pouted, as they both made their way in and got in line.

Cloud grinned.  “Only for my girl.  You know that,” she whispered.  Changing to a normal tone, she added, “Besides, it gets old keeping up with everyone after a while.”  Checking her funds, Cloud opened her wallet and sighed.  “Looks like I’m going to have to get a job.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll cover,” Vinyl insisted.  “Didn’t your parents give you money when you moved?”

“Yeah, but it’s in a trust fund and I can’t touch the majority of it until I’m twenty-five,” she sighed.  “I get a monthly stipend out of it, but that’s gotta last me until the next time, and I’m not sure it’s enough.  Besides, I spent all my previous free time in Canterlot either hanging with Blossomforth or…well, you know.  Now I gotta keep busy without gettin’ busy…certain persons excepted, of course.”

“I understand,” Vinyl said as she grabbed a Turkey and Swiss, apple and Coke.  “But we’re in this together.  Besides, I’d like to find some gigs as well.  Maybe we can come up with something together?”

Cloud grabbed a cheeseburger, orange and a Mountain Dew.  “That’d be nice.”  Vinyl paid for both, and as they looked for a seat, they immediately saw Bon-Bon jumping up and down trying to get their attention.  

“Can’t escape, can we?” Cloud muttered.

“I’m sure we’ll get used to it,” Vinyl sighed.  “I put up with Pinkie for years, after all.”


As both sat down, Bon-Bon went over and hugged them.  “You made it!  You made it!”  With no cue whatsoever, she began bouncing around the table, fist pumping and strewing confetti all over the place.  Both Cloud and Vinyl briefly wondered where she was getting all the confetti from, but then decided that discretion was the better part of valor.

“I see you survived the first half of your first day of school.”  That came from another girl sitting at the table, the curling waves of her ice-blue hair shining like diamonds.  She carried herself like Rarity in every way, complete with the odd accent.  “Plus, I see our dear Bon-Bon has taken a liking to you both.”

“Thought a private school would be tougher,” Vinyl replied, while Cloud merely nodded.  “School’s going to be a lot easier than I thought it’d be.”

“Man, you guys must be ace students,” another one of the girls there said, a grin on her face.  She had her hair in twin ponytails, colored of brown and red.  She was looking through a book at the moment, but it was more of the “last second catching up on homework due next period” kind than actual scholarly pursuits.

“Eh, trust me.  This place is mostly for rich idiots to send their idiot kids to grow up as a new generation of idiots.  Fortunately, some of us have brains.  And if BB found you, well, I’m gonna guess you aren’t space cases like her.”  The fourth in the group carried herself like a tough girl, reminiscent of Gilda Griffin or Lightning Dust, two girls Vinyl was familiar with, though thankfully she hadn’t tussled with either.  Still, there seemed to be a gentle touch to this tough girl, enough so that her dismissive comment of Bon-Bon was likely more a gentle tease than actual insult.  Her shaggy, pine green hair was similar to that of Vinyl’s, but was held in place by a quaver-shaped hairpin.

"Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway,” Bon-Bon sang, “These are my friends!  This is Satin Splash, that’s Countryside, and the grumpy one there is Bossa Nova – but don’t let her meanie pants way fool you, she’s reallyreallyreallyreally cool!  Girls, this is Vinyl Scratch and Cloud Kicker, recently moved here from sunny California!”

Cloud spoke up.  “Wait, how’d you know that we moved from Cali?”

“Really?” Satin  piped up.  “God, I’d love t—”


“Hello, losers.”  Vinyl heard a feminine but harsh voice behind her, as well as the breath of someone on her exposed neck.  She turned to find a girl with long whisky-orange and agave-blue hair, clear skin and pink eyes, focused on the group.  She then looked at Vinyl and Cloud.  “Do yourselves a favor, you two, don’t join the Fucked Four.  Last thing we need around here is a Shitty Six.”

Vinyl turned around and stared at the girl.  “You know, it’s traditional to introduce yourself before throwing insults.  And then after that you can carry yourself away.”

Cloud, on the other hand, gasped.  “Vi, don’t you know who that is?  That’s Tequila Sunrise!”  She squeed as she realized her favorite pop star was right here in the flesh, a fellow student at D’Aguanno.  Said joy was tempered a split-second later as she realized said celebrity had just insulted her.

Meanwhile, Tequila laughed, clearly a practiced one.  “Someone actually doesn’t know who I am?  That’s so cute.  Well, I guess you’re the kind of girl that likes to learn the hard way.  Here.”  She handed Vinyl and Cloud business cards, then pointed at a table with a bunch of other students sitting there.  “Swing by in five minutes when you realize what kind of retards these morons are.”

“And on the horse you rode in on, slut!” Nova snarled.  “Ignore her; celebrity or not, here at this school of morons, she’s the queen retard!”

“Did I miss something?” Cloud asked, wistfully looking at the card given to her by Tequila before Vinyl took it out of her hands and crumpled it.

“Welcome to the pecking order of the D,” Countryside groaned.  “Despite the fact that she’s only here half the time, Tequila seems to think she’s the queen bee because of her celebrity.  She’s already got half the school wrapped around her finger, and her best friends act like her personal enforcers.  She and her buddies Stagecraft and Windsong have it out for us, they always have.”  The teen angrily looked in the direction of the table Tequila was returning to.  “You know why they say that Detroit has no gangs?  Because they’re all here in the school – the Top Brigade, that’s them.”

Satin sighed.  “And unless you wish to be at the bottom of the barrel along with us, you’d best leave now.”  For her part, Bon-Bon said nothing but looked as though she was about to cry.

Cloud and Vinyl shared a look with each other, knowing that they would be together.  And with that, both pulled out chairs, and sat down.  “Eh,” Cloud said with a shrug, “we don’t have brains anyway.  Stupid loves company.”

Nova looked at them as though they each grew a third eye.  “Are you two idiots?  Are you too stupid to realize that you’re risking your social standing?”  She then looked in particular at Cloud.  “Plus, I saw how you were looking at her.  No way in hell are you getting any of those free concert tickets she doles out on occasion if you’re on her bad side.”

“Eh, concerts are overrated as a spectator sport; I like mine interactive,” Vinyl said with a lopsided grin.  “As to how stupid we are?  We’re from California.  Your point is?”

Countryside seemed curious, so she asked.  “Where in Cali?  I was originally born in Bakersfield, but moved here when I was four.”

“Canterlot.  I had reasons to move out here,” Vinyl said, “and my girlfriend Cloud here talked her parents into joining me.  We live with my Dad.”

Satin sighed.  “A couple?  That’s sooooo romantic!”

“Yeah, but we were told it’s a hush-hush thing while on school grounds,” Cloud replied, trying to change the subject.  Fortunately for her, Bon-Bon, either in a rare moment of clarity or out of sheer boredom, started talking about a plethora of things at an increasingly dizzying pace, so much so that Vinyl and Cloud were completely lost less than a minute later.  Satin explained this was normal.

The group continued to talk and get to know each other until the lunch hour was over.  Finally, the warning bell sounded, and when it did, they went off to their respective classes, with Vinyl and Satin both attending French class while Cloud and Countryside headed off to Consumer Sciences.  But by the end of the day, Vinyl was sure that she and Cloud had made a new group of friends.





Vinyl closed her locker, happy as a clam.  She survived the first day of school and now she could hang around with some of her new friends.  Satin had offered to give her and Cloud a ride home after school since she lived within walking distance and her car was at home.  They all agreed to meet at the coffee shop that Bon-Bon’s family ran, and after a quick call to her family, Vinyl went off to the meeting place, the statue in front of the school.

But no sooner than she’d reached the main hallway, the sounds of an argument sounded, and soon a crowd had gathered.  When Vinyl got there, she noted she’d arrived in the middle of a fight…if you could call it that.  Nova, rage in her eyes, had pinned a guy against the wall.  It was surprising enough given that the guy, easily twice Nova’s size, looked like he was on the school’s football team.  But what was truly striking was the fact that he looked as though he was terrified of her.

The fear disappeared a second later as the guy took a swing at her, only to see it come to nothing as she grabbed his hand, and with practically no effort whatsoever, turned and slammed him to the ground, face first, pulling his arm into a very painful looking lock as she roared to his face, “APOLOGIZE!  Or the next thing you’ll lose is your teeth.”

And then she heard the crying.  On the ground, bawling her eyes out, was Bon-Bon, cradling the ripped-up remains of a bunny plushie as though it was a beloved – and now deceased – pet.  From what the DJ could tell, there was a wild, terrified look on her face and it almost seemed as though Bon-Bon had just regressed.

Meanwhile, the struggling football player glared at Nova as she pulled him to his feet.  “No way I’m going t—”

“Hey, I don’t know what you did, but you better damn well apologize.”  The words were out of Vinyl’s mouth before she realized she said them.  “That’s my friend there.  So you owe her.”

“And what are you going to do to me if y—AAARRRRGH!”  The boy collapsed to the ground in incredible pain, hands naturally going to the very sensitive place Vinyl just kicked.

“I’m not going to ask again, brickhead.  Apologize, or the next time’s a punch.”

“Okay, okay!  I’m sorry!” the boy yelped, more out of pain than regret.

“Fine, I’ll take a half-assed one,” Vinyl replied, removing her glasses and looking at him with her wine-colored eyes.  “Now get the fuck out of here.”  The boy didn’t need any further prodding, and limped off.  While the others around milled about still, Vinyl replied, “Okay, show’s over.  You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here!”


Meanwhile, Cloud, who had just arrived in the nick of time, saw what was going on and moved quickly to get Bon-Bon out of the fight circle.  “BB, c’mon.  Let me help you up, okay?”

Looking at Cloud helplessly, she held the torn plushie in her hands.  “But what about Feather?”  The way she held it so tenderly, and that the normally happy-go-lucky teen sounded so broken in her tone that Cloud knew this was a moment to tread very carefully.  Fortunately, she also knew someone who had been just as fragile in the beginning…but that was before an unworthy boyfriend had stolen her innocence, leaving her with child. 

Wish you were here, Blossom, Cloud thought.  Could really use your advice on this one.  But Blossomforth wasn’t there, and that meant that Cloud would have to sort this out for herself – but fortunately, there was something she could do.

“Would you like it sewn back together?” Cloud asked softly.  Bon-Bon wordlessly nodded, carefully handing Feather to Cloud as though it was the greatest treasure ever.  Taking it in a solemn grasp, the taller girl murmured to her friend, “I promise I’ll put Feather back together as good as new, okay?”  For that, Cloud was immediately enveloped in a teary embrace.

As the crowd began to break up, Countryside arrived.  “C’mon, girls,” she said in a soft voice.  “Let’s get to Satin’s house and then to the True Brew.  You two probably want an explanation.”





As Cloud stepped into the True Brew, she noticed that despite having vastly different décor, it had the exact same layout as the Sugarcube Corner Café.  I wonder if really good coffee shops just have this zen mastery of layout that normal coffee places can’t understand.  She made a mental note to contact Sunset Shimmer or Pinkie Pie and ask, just out of curiosity.

But that’s not important now, she thought as she saw a woman not old enough to be Bon-Bon’s mother talk to Satin and Countryside before gently taking the distraught teen by the hand and escorting her to the upstairs part of the building, where the family lived.

A few minutes later, the woman returned, carrying a tray of drinks, setting them in front of the girls.  “Okay, I’ve got her lying down in her room,” the woman told them all.  “She’ll probably be out for the rest of the day.  I can’t thank you enough for looking after her, girls.”  

Satin smiled awkwardly.  “Unfortunately, I wasn’t there for what happened.  You’ll really have to thank Country, Nova, Vi and Kicky.”  A quick sip of her raspberry tea, and Satin’s eyes opened in slight recall.  “Oh, I forgot, you haven’t met them.  Prae, this is Vinyl Scratch and Cloud Kicker; they just started attending our school today.  Girls, this is Praline – she’s BB’s older sister and legal guardian.”

Praline nodded.  “Well, half-sister technically, but BB and I are the only family we have left.  Well, there’s also my husband, but you get the idea.”

Vinyl caught that immediately.  “I guess there’s a story there.”

“Especially given the way she acted about her plushie,” Cloud added.  “She was traumatized – that can’t be good.”

Praline pulled a chair up.  “I’d rather not talk about it right now, but the long story short is that she got the plushie from my stepmother – her mother – the day before she and our father died.  Needless to say, she carries it everywhere, so you’re right that it’s become a coping mechanism of sorts for her.  The counselors she’s been seeing have been trying to get her to let it go, but she won’t.   They’ve informed me that it’s likely part of the reason she’s so happy-go-lucky otherwise.  I’ve actually tried taking it away from her for a while myself and she gets sullen and bitter very quickly.”

“Fucking bastards tore it apart,” Nova seethed.  “And I know who sent them, that Goddamn cunt.”

“Now’s not the time,” Countryside reproached.  “Our friend’s hurting, and that’s more important.”

“I used to have one of my waitresses sew it up whenever it ripped – she was good at that – but I’m no good with needle and thread and said waitress moved on,” Praline explained.  “Hell, as it is, we’re already short-staffed since Frenchie – that’s French Roast, my husband – runs our other store down on Grand Circus, leaving me here alon—”

“I can sew it,” Cloud replied.  “Besides, I already promised.  And if there’s a job opening, I’m looking for one.”

“If you can put Feather back together, there’s a reason right there for me to hire you on the spot!” Praline said, relieved.  

“If you’re hiring, I’m in.”

“Great!  Let me go get the paperwork – technicalities, you know – and I’ll be right back.  When can you start?”

“I’m good for tomorrow, right?” Cloud looked at Vinyl.  Vinyl nodded in response as Praline rose from the seat and went to the back.

“So, why did they tear up BB’s plushie?” Vinyl asked, getting back to the main focus.

Satin took another swig of her tea.  “It was Tequila.  She’s got the whole school practically working for her or in utter fear of her – including half the faculty.”

Vinyl groaned.  “Great, Sunset Shimmer 2.0.”

Cloud clucked her tongue in disapproval.  “Sunny’s not like that, Vi.”

“You weren’t there when she was a bitch, sweetie.  Sunny might be cool now, but you didn’t know her back then.  But that’s beside the point.  Sorry for interrupting, Satin.  Go ahead.”

“We all used to be friends once,” Satin told her.  “We all cared about her a lot.  But now…now she’s become this…thing…that’s worse than anything I’ve ever seen.  And now she’s stooped so far as to hurt BB, when she once promised to protect her from her nightmares.”

Countryside angrily banged her fist on the table as she vowed, “I’m going to punch her fucking teeth in if I see her, I swear to God I will.”

“That’s my job,” Nova said in a half-joking tone.  “I’m the one who takes kung-fu classes, not you.”

Satin then turned to Vinyl and Cloud, adding, “Last chance to bail out.  We’ll understand if you do.  You guys are new – you still have a chance to avoid this shit.”

“Oh hell no, girl!” Vinyl replied, crossing her arms.  “I was a coward once, and someone I liked paid the price because of that – and then I paid a bigger price.  I could’ve lost a lot….”  She then turned and looked at Cloud, then reached over and squeezed her hand.  “I could’ve lost you, without even knowing it.”  She turned back to the girls and said, “I really don’t want to give details right now – no offense – but I live here with my dad because I was kicked out of my mother’s house.  There’s more to it, and part of it has to do with my relationship with Kicky, but the main brunt of it was that I seriously fucked up, and became almost literally ‘Ms. Least Popular in Town.’

“So that’s why I’m here: This is probably my only chance to start over.  And that means I can’t afford to fuck up again.”

“So you’re leaving us?” Countryside asked, stunned.

“No.  That’d be the mistake.  I fucked up because I didn’t do what I was supposed to do: the right thing.  This time, it’s staring me in the face, and if I don’t do it?  I may as well be like Tequila, because I’d have no morals or ethics.  And I probably wouldn’t have Kicky, either.”

Kicky smiled.  “Vi, I’m so proud of you, you know that?  When we get home, I’m going to….”  She then proceeded to whisper in Vinyl’s ear, and as she did, the small smile on the azure-haired girl’s face grew wider and wider, until Cloud pulled away.

“With the chocolate body paint?”  Cloud nodded yes.  “And the edible undies?”  Cloud nodded yes again.  A smile wide enough on her face to make Pinkie Pie or Bon-Bon jealous, Vinyl said, “Do I have the greatest girlfriend in the world, or what?”





“We’re home.”  Vinyl and Cloud walked into the house, taking off their shoes, coats and other stuff.  “What’s for dinner?”

The answer was what neither girl expected.

“Heya, girls,” Clover said from over by the stove.  “Spaghetti okay?  I’m not much of a cook.  And as for the others, Long’s over at his girlfriend’s place, since he said it’s the last night of ‘getting some’ before she heads out of town for the week, and Bass had to attend some late-afternoon meeting at the radio station.”  In contrast to the prim and proper headmistress they saw earlier, Clover’s hair was let down, she was wearing a Lions T-shirt with clearly no bra on and jean shorts that were clearly made with porn starlets in mind.

“Ms. Clover?  What’re you doing here?”

“We’re home, so drop the Ms., if you would.  And I wanted you to get to know me off the clock, as it were, girls.  The truth is, Vi – it is, Vi, right? – your father and I got engaged last month, and we’re probably going to get married next year or so.  I live here, but technically still maintain a separate place, which is much more important now that you’re living here and attending school at D’Aguanno.”

“Oh, Mom’s going to have a field day about this,” Vinyl muttered.

“Actually, she tried suing your father for brainwashing you into becoming a lesbian.”  Clover reached into her pocket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, then lit and took a drag, blowing smoke into the air.  “Fortunately, he’s got a good lawyer.  Even better that I have a good one too, because I called your mom and told her that if she ever got into your personal business again, I would beat her within an inch of her life…and then get angry.”

“Really?”

Clover nodded.  “Vi, you’re my student and you’re going to be my stepdaughter someday.  I’m very big into protecting family – and besides, you’re not the only one with a past.  Not going to discuss mine, save to say that they sealed it when I turned eighteen.”

Cloud blinked.  “Wow, I’m a reformed slut and I think I’m the most normal person in this house.”

The woman laughed.  “You’re selling yourself short, Kicky.  Kicky or Kicks?  Either way, if this family was normal, we’d all be bored to death.”  She turned her eyes towards the stove.  “Dinner’s not going to be for another hour, so if you two are going to have sex, please don’t take that long.  Personally, I’d rather you waited until after you did your homework, but I know how young love – and lust – is.”  When the two stared at her, she grinned.  “I used to be a teenager too, you know.  I’m not stupid.”

“Never thought you were, Clover,” Vinyl replied, as Cloud took her hand and led her upstairs. 





“Kicky?”  Vinyl couldn’t sleep that night.

“Vi, go to sleep,” Cloud mumbled.  “I’m tired, we’ve done it three times and I have a test tomorrow.”

“No, it’s not that.”

“No, you can’t use my breasts as a pillow.  It gives you too many ideas.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes.  “No, not that, either.  Just…am I doing the right thing?  I fucked up hard last time because I was following my heart.  Now I’m doing it again, and if I get kicked out of the school, that’s going to follow me and along with my previous record, I am seriously done for.”

Reluctantly, Cloud sat up.  “Vi, the world is filled with people who followed their hearts at both the right and wrong times.  Look at me.  I followed you here out of love and because my parents are morons who let their girl do anything she wants.  But maybe following my heart is wrong.  Who says that when college comes, I’ll fall in love with a guy instead of you and marry him, and then decades later deny I was ever bi?”

“You wouldn’t do that, would you?”

“Of course not.  If anything, I have plans to sleep with your brother after we get married so that you and I can have children.”

“You’re weird, Kicky.”

“I know, right?”  She grinned.  “But seriously, part of growing up is knowing when to follow your heart…and sometimes not even adults figure that out.  Don’t you think your parents are a good example of that?  I mean, your Dad’s cool as shit.  I’ve never met your mom, but from what you tell me, she needs to get laid for fun like no tomorrow.”

“Never happening.  She climbs the corporate ladder sideways,” Vinyl replied.  “So you were saying?”

“The point I was trying to make is that you’re following your heart, and you’re afraid this isn’t the right move.  But I also follow my heart, and I know that it is.  I followed my heart to stop you from making a mistake.  I followed my heart to come here with you.  And I’ll follow my heart wherever it takes me, so long as you want me with you, Vi.  I love you.”  She leaned over and kissed her.

“Love you too, Kicky.”  Vinyl grinned.  She was just sixteen and yet she already had things people a decade older than her didn’t have.  And she had a happiness that her mother never attained.  And I wouldn’t have it without you, Kicky.  She reached over and kissed her love gently and the two embraced, holding each other together.

As Cloud broke from the embrace, she smiled tiredly.  “So, we’re in this for good, right?  Backing up our friends?” she asked.

Vinyl nodded.  “Hey, you just got hired.  Wouldn’t want you to lose your job so quickly.  Besides, if for no other reason, BB needs us.  I’ve seen girls like her before crumble without help, and I guess every Fluttershy needs a Rainbow Dash.”

“Who?” Cloud asked.

“Two girls at Canterlot High, close friends of Sunny’s.  Don’t think you ever met them.”

“I see.  Anything else, Vi?” Cloud yawned.

“So, sex now?” Vinyl asked.  The response to that was a pillow straight to the head.
> February 3: Stars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Here, beginning for end,
When it's all gone
Why should I pretend?”
- Ulrich Schnauss



It was a quiet afternoon in the True Brew Café.  The owner was out of the shop, having left it in the more than capable hands of her part-time employee.  Four customers, all girls, sat at one of the central tables, homework and backpacks strewn all over its surface.  Outside, a gentle snowfall dusted the ground in late winter bliss, giving the cityscape a soft, dreamy look.  All in all, it seemed as though nothing could go wrong this blissful February day.

However, Cloud knew, there was this slight problem that she had currently.  She had it for the past few days, with no sign of it stopping.

“BB, would you please let go of me?” Cloud groaned.

“You’re my bestestestsetest friend eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever!” Bon-Bon cooed while having a death grip on Cloud’s arm.

“Yeah, but I gotta clean the tables, and I need both arms for that.”

“Oh.  Sor~ry!” Bon-Bon said, a massive smile on her face.

Meanwhile, seated at one of the tables in the True Brew, Vinyl tried not to laugh.  “It’s a good thing that Kicky’s got eyes only for me, or I might be jealous,” she said with a grin.

Nova set down her coffee, lest she spill it from her laughter.  “Vi, you know that the only thing BB is in love with is sugar, dancing and her plushie – and I’m not even sure what order that’s in.”

Satin sighed.  “Must be nice to know what love is,” she murmured, slumping down on her textbook.

Countryside looked up from her tablet.  “Oh, I think someone forgot to tell us how her date went.  So spill, Satin.  How’d things with Surfrider go?”

“It didn’t,” she moaned, her hand moving in a careless motion that almost knocked over her mocha.  “We met at the movie theater, and just before we were going to go out to dinner first, he got a text and had to cancel the date.”

Vinyl asked before she lifted her caramel apple cider to her lips, “What, he had an emergency of some kind?”

“No, he was rather blatant about it: we’re all apparently on the DNDL – Tequila’s ‘Do Not Date List’.”  A lock of her ice-blue hair fell into her citrine eyes.  “And it looked as though he had worked forever to work up the strength to ask me out – and in one fell swoop, Tequila shut that down.”

Nova’s eyes narrowed.  “That bitch has breathed one breath too fucking many,” she snarled.  “Why hasn’t she been permanently hospitalized yet?”

“Awwwww, don’t be such a sour puss, Nova!” Bon-Bon bounced up and without further ado, dropped plates in front of her friends, each bearing a very delicious cake.  “C’mon, girls!  You gotta try my new recipe!  It’s reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally—”  Vinyl continued to drink silently while Bon-Bon was trying to set the world record for how many times you could string “really” together in a sentence, until about two minutes later, she finished up with, “—reallyreallyreally gotta try my new raspberry shortcake!  It’s good!  I mean it’s re—”

“We get the point, BB,” Countryside said, cutting her friend off gently and picking up a fork, then speaking the confection before taking a bite.  “Wow, you really out did yourself!  This is great!”

“That’s our BB, always making some seriously awesome treats!” Satin said, taking some comfort in the delicacy on her plate.

Back at the counter, Cloud had to control herself from grabbing another slice.  “No kidding, girl.  You plan to be a pastry chef or something?”

“No….”  She blushed.  “I just, um, I just want to help Prae and Frenchie run the café.  I really hadn’t thought beyond that.”

“You should think about going to a culinary school, BB!  Seriously!” Satin insisted.  “I mean, it’s really none of my business, but I think you really should consider expanding your horizons and succeed.”

“Well,” she said softly and mournfully, “I did think about it once, but Tequila laughed in my face about it, said I was a loser who couldn’t even make chocolate chip cookies.”

“Trust me, BB, she really doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” Vinyl insisted.  

“Hey, we’d better get this homework done if we’re going to the movies tonight,” Countryside reminded them.  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be up at three in the morning inventing answers and hoping it sounds good.  My parents’ll kill me if I do that again.”  The others agreed and turned to their respective tasks.

However, Vinyl and Cloud shared a brief look, and in that glance, a plan was set in motion.





Sitting on the couch, his guitar in hand, Long was playing his guitar and writing down some notation when both girls came into the house.

“Hey, you’re running home a little late,” he commented, looking at the clock against the wall, which read just past midnight.

“Tell me about it,” Cloud muttered as she stumbled through the door.  A little too exhausted to think straight due to working out and the movie, she immediately made a beeline for the stairs and their bedroom just beyond.  However, she unconsciously began undressing on the way, pulling off her bra and t-shirt as she walked through the living room past Long.

“You would flash me, wouldn’t you?” he asked as he looked up from his guitar.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy it,” Cloud said automatically, too tired to even think of a wittier repartee.  Vinyl, meanwhile, plopped onto the love seat adjacent to the couch. 

“Your girlfriend just flashed me, you know,” he told his sister.

“Yeah, well, she does that.  What, were you expecting me to flash you too?” Vinyl teased.  When Long rolled his eyes, she said, “Got something to ask you, if you don’t mind.  With Dad being in New York until tomorrow and I’m not sure Clover would give me the answer I need, I turn to you, o wise sage.”

He set down his guitar.  “Hey, giving advice to little sisters is supposedly a big brother thing, so fire away.”

“What can you tell me about a girl named Tequila Sunrise?  And you know I’m not talking about the bullshit they’d mention on MTV.  I need some real answers.”

The look on Long’s face was thoughtful, Vinyl noted, but concerned.  “I’m guessing you’re talking about Rhythm Beat’s little sister, right?”  He drew a blank stare from her, and he continued.  “Yeah, I’m going to guess so.  I’m writing a song for Rhythm right now, since we’re old friends, so I can answer some things.  Their family is legacy at the D, just like ours is, and Rhythm and I were in the same circles, more concerned with our music than the politics of the cafeteria, for the most part.  Let me guess: her little sister’s trying to run the show?”

“Tequila’s using her power to lord over everyone, and she’s making my friends miserable.  Plus, given that we’ve joined their circle, it’s only a matter of time before they go after me and Kicky, and you know what that means.”

“Wow, just two weeks and you’re already making enemies.  You move fast, Vi.”

“Ha. Ha,” Vinyl grunted.  “The others already had a history with her, and Kicky and I got dragged into that, fast.  My friends need help, and I’m not going to let them down – I already learned that lesson the hard way, and I don’t intend to repeat the same mistakes.”  She grinned.  “I’ll just fuck up in an entirely different way instead.”

“Well, if you’re going to do that, then you’re going to need to find out how to beat her at her own game.  But before that, you have to start taking out her minions. They’ll be just as dangerous and will come with their own tricks.  I remember when Rhythm finally got the quite negative attention of the alpha bitch at the time, a girl named Strawberry Basil.  Basil thought it was her right to go so far as to decide who got to date who.”

“That…sounds entirely too familiar,” Vinyl admitted.  “How’d that get nipped in the bud?”

“Wow, glad to know some things never change – note sarcasm,” Long replied.  “At least Basil didn’t copy anything from her predecessor’s notebooks.  Maybe Tequila isn’t as bad as you think, if she’s that unoriginal?”

“You could’ve fooled me.”  Vinyl then explained Tequila’s do not date list, and the result it had on Satin’s long-planned date.  She also commented about the manliness (or lack thereof) of Surfrider, as well as a few other choice retorts about some of the other boys there, including Rusher, the boy she’d kicked in the nuts after he’d destroyed Bon-Bon’s plushie.

For his part, Long’s eyes widened slightly.  “Enforcers?  Actual do not date lists?  Okay, I take it back – sounds like Tequila is definitely up to stupid shit.  Too bad I can’t recommend how my group dealt with Basil.”

“And why not?”

Long grinned.  “For one, you’d have to be far more male.  Secondly, even if she swung that way, you are in a promised relationship, right?”

“Yeah.  Even if I could, Kicky means too much to me,” Vinyl admitted.  “Was she at least worth it?  Basil, I mean.”

The smile on Long’s face was wide.  “Greatest weekend of booze, pot and sex I’ve had in my life so far.  And even though Basil and I aren’t together anymore, we’re still friends.”

“With or without benefits?”

“With, of course,” he said with a grin.  “Unlike you, I’m not tied down.  Sure, I got Sparky, but we haven’t really settled down yet, y’know?  Plus, I probably need to get my own place.  Definitely plan to do that as soon as my band takes off – almost done with our studio session.  But we’ll chat about that later.”

Vinyl went back to the subject at hand.  “Well, your point is that we hit them as hard as possible, right?  I really don’t like getting into fights, but hey, if that’s what it takes.”

“Well, yeah, but let me remind you of something, sis: You are still being watched by the authorities, okay?  They believe that you’re innocent of what went down in Canterlot, but if you get involved in something like this, it’s not just going to get you kicked out of the D – it’s going to cost Clover her job, Kicky her chance to go there as well…oh, and probably end up with you behind bars.  Do me a favor and do not play this game, Vi.  I haven’t had you around long enough to go visit you at the city jail, okay?”

“I’m going to assume that’s a term of affection, right?” 

“Yeah, it is, I admit, not having you around for most my life has been tough, but…it feels nice have a little sister around.  Two, if I kinda sorta count Kicky.”

Vinyl was genuinely touched by that.  “Awww…love you too, big bro.  And for that, you get a surprise.”  And with that, Vinyl removed her top and before Long could say anything, she hugged him so that he got a prominent face full of bra.

“Uh, Vi, are you aware that psychologists say that two siblings who are not raised together are far more likely to commit incest than ones who have been?” he said in a feeble voice.

“Why, are you getting a stiffie?” she cooed.

“Yeah.  Hard core,” he yelped.

She pulled away and laughed.  “Then my job is done,” she said with a wink.  Kissing him on the cheek as chastely as possible, she said, “Good night, big brother.”

Long sat in the chair, not moving until he could trust his body to do so.  Now I know why Mom wanted her out of the house.  God, I need a beer – and while this song for Rhythm isn’t coming to me, he thought as a huge grin came over his face, time to give my little sister a bit of comeuppance.





The next day, Vinyl and Cloud walked into the school to find Bon-Bon dancing around at high speeds and posting all kind of flyers all over the walls.  “Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” she sang, her happy smile ever-present as she handed them one of the papers.  “Wanna help me put these all over the school?  It’ll be reallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreallyreally—”

Cloud gently ignored her friend’s verbal assault and instead focused on the flyer in her hand.  “Hearts & Hopes Valentine’s Day Swing Fling?”

“Yeah!  It’s an afterschool party that the Dance Club and the Art Club throw together!  It’s always fun and it’s one of the few times that the school lets girls and boys…be well, boys and girls?”

“Wouldn’t know.  Closest I’ve ever gotten to that is a few boys that my mom wanted me to go out with…for her sake,” Vinyl grumbled.

“Oh, that’s right, I forgot.  Sor~ry!  But it’s going to be really romantic, and by that I mean reallyreallyreallyreallyreally—”

“I swear that word makes up half your vocabulary,” Cloud teased.  “But if you need help, yeah, I’d be glad to do so.  What about you, Vi?”

Vinyl looked at Bon-Bon’s smiling and hopeful face.  “Hey, ‘s what friends are all about, right?  Yeah, I’ll do it.”

Bon-Bon went over and hugged both, despite the public display of affection rule, chirping, “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!  I really appreciate it!  There’s going to be a meeting at lunch in Room 209 and you two are invited!  See you then!”  With that, Bon-Bon continued to bounce around, putting up more flyers as the school would allow.

Cloud looked at Vinyl, the latter being several inches shorter.  Normally Cloud found that an inconvenience when they kissed, but Vinyl hadn’t switched over from her shades to her eyeglasses yet, and so Cloud’s height let her see over the frames of her girlfriend’s shades and into the sad eyes behind them.  “Vi?  You okay?”

“Not really,” the latter responded.  When Cloud looked at her with an arched eyebrow, Vinyl added, “Nothing against BB; just that remembering about my mother just brought up all these bad memories.”

“Like what?”

“I went out once with Charmed Life, the son of the then-governor of California at the time; the Gov was at a political soiree in Canterlot, and Mom practically threw me at Charmed so she could get him out of the way and chat up the Gov.”

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

Vinyl’s eyes automatically narrowed; though Cloud knew that her love wasn’t angry at her, she never liked seeing Vinyl angry.  “Mom told me that if I slept with Charmed, she’d buy me a car for my 16th birthday.  Oh, and I was thirteen at the time – and hadn’t gone through puberty yet,” Vinyl snarled in a low tone.

“Fuck, sorry to hear that.  What happened?”

“Well, Charmed was a smooth player, but he figured out things in an instant.  Needless to say, things went better for me that night.  Unfortunately, I was grounded for a week for not doing what my mother told me to do.  And not a moment too soon – the week after that I had first blood.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I promise you won’t ever have to go through anything like that again,” Cloud said, putting her arm around Vinyl.  She knew it was a risk and a violation of the school’s policies, but she did it regardless.

“Thanks, hon,” Vinyl said, wanting to kiss Cloud at that moment.  Only her talk with her brother from the night before held her in place.


“Hey!  No PDAs, you two!”  The two turned to find a new girl with long, straight hair of brown with streaks of black and gold, standing there; she wore a blue-and-yellow armband on her right arm which meant one thing: Hall Monitor.  “Now, you two are new – I can tell because only two idiots like you would flaunt the rules, but we hall monitors can hand out demerits just like the teachers can.  Do the shit again and I will hit you hard, got that, carpet munchers?”

Cloud narrowed her eyes.  “Excuse me?”

Vinyl, however, knew a trap when she saw one.  “Let it go, Kicky.  Let it go.”

“Hey, at least the dyke has some brains.  Just remember: my name is Stagecraft, and I’ve got my eye on you two freaks.  Keep your hands to yourselves while on school grounds.  You can do whatever sick things you want to each other on your own time, got that?”  Without waiting for an answer, she turned around and left.

“Great.  A bigot – just what we need,” Cloud sighed.  “Thanks for stopping me.”

“No, I recognize the name.  She might be a bigot…but she’s one of Tequila’s folks,” Vinyl replied.  “That was a warning shot if I’ve ever seen one.  But forget about her for right now – we’re going to be late for class if we don’t get a move on.”





At lunchtime, several students poured into Room 209 with their lunches.  Amongst them was Vinyl and Cloud, and to no surprise whatsoever, they noticed that Bon-Bon had roped in the rest of their friends, with the exception of Satin, as well.  “So, I see you two got shanghai’ed into this as well?” Countryside giggled.

“Hey, it’s for BB, right?” Nova added.  “Besides, I don’t want to see what happens if we break a BB Promise.”

“A what?” Vinyl asked.

“Trust me, Vi, you don’t want to know.”

Just before the meeting started, Satin walked in, talking to a guy that, had Vinyl been of that persuasion, would have called “dreamy cute”.  He had that Flash Sentry kind of confidence (and hopefully without the same kind of creepiness); a hairstyle similar to Thunderbass, only with hair in shades of yellow-green; and dressed similar to that of Stylin’, although, again hopefully without any Club-like tendencies.  He seemed like a nice enough guy, and given the blush on Satin’s face, he’d said something that caught her attention.  Though the distance between the two groups was enough to ameliorate sound – also obscured by various students talking – Vinyl was sure that Satin mouthed the words call me.

He then left the room, while she went to go join her friends.  “Hello girls, I hope I’m not late.”

“So, who’s that guy?” Nova asked.

Satin replied in dreamy tones, “Oh, that’s Starfruit.  He’s such a hunk.  When he found out that I was stood up by Surfrider, it gave him the chance to ask me out.  He’s wanted to do so for a long time, he told me.”

“You sure about this?” Countryside asked.  “What about the list?”

She positively beamed.  “That’s the thing!  He said he doesn’t care about the list – he just wants to go out with me, no matter what.”  She blushed slightly, but recomposed herself slightly afterwards.  “So, are you guys ready for this?” she asked Vinyl and Cloud.  “If you think BB is, ahem, ‘eccentric’ now, wait until you see her when planning a party.”

Vinyl grinned.  “Heh, I should destroy the world by introducing her to Pinkie Pie – a similar girl we knew back in Canterlot.  Whole planet’ll be covered in confetti in under five seconds.”

Cloud giggled.  “Pinkie’s not that bad.”

“Principal Celestia had to repeatedly tell her that painting the entire school white and ice-blue, while cute enough for Canterlot High’s winter décor, didn’t go well with county ordinances.”

“Oh.”

Vinyl would have said more, but it was that point that Bon-Bon decided to make her grand appearance.  “Okay, who’s ready to make this the best.  Party.  Ever?”





Pinkie sat up with a jolt.  Addressing no one in particular, she said, “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in joy and were suddenly partying.  I fear something wonderful has happened…without me.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  “Pinkie, no more Star Wars quotes for you if you can’t do it right.  Now can we get back to planning that party for Sunny?”





Meanwhile, hundreds of miles south, in Lynwood High School, a young man with curly brown hair adjusted his glasses.  Looking at no one in particular, he voiced, “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in joy and were suddenly partyi—”

“Fine – you can help us plan the Valentine’s Day dance,” a girl sighed.  “Okay, ladies, Cheese Sandwich is helping us plan this one.”

Everyone groaned.





Back in D’Aguanno, Bon-Bon continued to zoom around the room, dropping off at each table small bags of cookies that she’d made, then went back to the front of the classroom, where the rest of the committee to plan the party sat.  “Okay, we need to start planning!  So let’s do this!  Any questions?”

A girl seated with the Drama Club raised her hand.  “Do we have a place to hold it?  I heard the gym’s off-limits for the week because they’re polishing the floorboards for this week’s basketball game.”

Another girl named Lake Iris, part of the planning committee, nodded.  “We settled on a compromise with the headmistress.  Ms. Clover will allow us to use the gym, but we’ll have to place craft paper and foam matting over the flooring so they won’t have to repolish.”

A guy named Papier-mâché said, “Well, my family runs a party supplies store, so I can probably get us some of the stuff we can use to decorate, if the clubs don’t already have it budgeted.”

Another girl named Ribbondance commented, “The gymnastics team will gladly donate the use of our mats.  We don’t have practice this week, so they’ll be available.”

Bon-Bon looked around the room, an unusually studious look on her face.  “So, would anyone else like to make announcements?”

Parfait, the assistant head of the Baking Club, then stood up; as head of the planning committee, Bon-Bon couldn’t speak for her club.  “And I know the Baking Club will be happy to plan out the appetizers for the party!”

“And I’m sure the Drama Club would help us with some lighting and such, since they just finished a recent play,” another girl insisted.  “Only problem is, we need music.  Tequila provided the music for last year’s party, but she’s out of town right now, isn’t she?”

Gypsy Jazz, the head of the Music Club, nodded.  “Yeah, she’s in LA this week, recording her current album.  I suppose we can ask Windsong, but she’s recording this week as well, so she may not be available.”  The look in her eyes was one of defeat, hinting that she and Windsong may have had a past interaction of the unpleasant kind.

Stagecraft, one of Tequila’s minions and technically the head of the Drama Club, theatrically sighed.  “I guess we’ll have to forego music, then.”

“I know I could get a chamber quartet or so together.  Elegant Strings has wanted to have her chamber quartet play at a school function for a long time.”

“Yeah, and that’s great for slow, intimate songs,” Stagecraft insisted, “but what about fast music?  We’ll need either a DJ or a musician for that, and I’m not sure where we can get one at all with Tequila and Windy out of town.”

At this point, Vinyl just sat back in her chair as a long, happy grin came over her face.





“DJ…Pony?” Satin asked Vinyl as they departed the classroom after the meeting had ended.

“Hey, I used to ask my parents for a pony all the time when I was a kid and they were still married,” Vinyl explained, having swapped out her eyeglasses for her trademark shades.  “Plus, it’s spelled P zero N dash 3 – got the idea from my favorite bands, a drum & bass group called Ba55 C4nnon.”

“Look, I know you know how to play classical guitar – your fingerwork is phenomenal,” Nova told her.  “But turntables are an entirely different discipline.  Not saying I don’t believe you, Vinyl, but….”


“I don’t believe you.”  There was a girl standing in the hall, one who had stepped out just beforehand.  She had curly gray hair, and eyes that were covered by eyeglasses as well.  “What I do believe is that you’re some California waste-of-space who moved here just to infect the rest of us with Valley Girl vapidness.  How’m I doing so far?”  She then turned to Stagecraft, who was next to her.  “Thanks for calling me, Crafty.  Can’t let the peasants get too uppity around here.”

“Windsong,” Nova seethed, her eyes narrowing.

“Oh, hello, Bossa Nova.  Still sore that I beat you in a singing contest?  Well, all of them, really,” Windsong laughed haughtily.  Nova’s hand clenched into a fist and Windsong added, “Oh, you don’t want to do that again.  Bad enough you bruised my perfect skin, but I’m sure you don’t want to be suspended again, right?”

By this point, everyone had realized that a fight was going to inevitably break out, but Vinyl wasn’t about to let that happen.  Putting an arm out in front of her friend, she said, “Nova, let me handle this.  Don’t want you to get hurt and besides, I need to start cuttin’ loose.”  Both Nova and Windsong watched as Vinyl turned to Cloud and handed the girl her phone, then walked in front of her friends, bouncing up and stretching as if she was ready for something athletic.

“Aww, how adorable,” Stagecraft cooed.  “It looks like the little dog has a flea standing up for her.”

“Crafty, record this, will you?” Windsong asked.  “Apparently someone thinks they’re worth something.  I need to fix that.”

“Yeah.  This’ll make great YouTube fodder.”

“No, you might have been here longer, but you’re walking into my world now.” Vinyl rejoindered.  “I’m DJ P0N-3…and I don’t lose.”

Windsong giggled again and said, “What, you challenging me to a fight?”

Vinyl then removed her backpack and pulled out a microphone.  “Damn straight,” she said, throwing one to Windsong, who caught it in a heartbeat.  “Improvised lyrics.  Now.”

“Sorry, I don’t do anything as pedestrian as rap,” Windsong retorted.  “It’s not real music anyway.”

“Did I say rap?  I said put up or shut up – if you’ve got talent, then prove it!”

The crowd that gathered suddenly fell quiet.


“Fine, then: I’ll hit you with the lyrics I was working on a few minutes ago while on the way back to school,” she said, a gleam dancing in her eyes.  “You lost the moment you challenged me!”  Reaching for her phone, she started the beat, then let it play as she cued the microphone to its ON position and sang her song:

“I’m overwhelmed
By your lack of competence
You said things I can’t forget
Like you became so insecure
And if I was so fortunate
If you had me first,
You might be just the best thing
Possibly in the world”

Vinyl rolled her eyes.  “R&B-infused pop song.  How stereotypical.”

Windsong looked at the microphone.  “Hrm…SM58 Dynamic.  Well, whatever other kind of loser you are, at least you know your mics.  Why don’t you join us over on the cool side and learn a thing or two?”

Vinyl’s response was to hand her phone over to Cloud, merely saying, “Beat 46.”  Cloud, long familiar with Vinyl’s thinking patterns, brought up the BEATMASTERS app and queued the song.  

As it played, Windsong laughed harder.  “Electronic beats?  Now who’s pathetic?”

Vinyl, however, merely flowed and moved with the groove and said, “Not my fault you brought a knife to a gunfight.”  And with that, she brought the mic to her lips and let loose:

“Welcome to the Breakbeat Underground, bringin’ the future right now
Openin’ the doors to explore this awesome sound….

“This musical scene, ain’t no dream –
I’m getting’ all tired of this anti-genre crossin’
And droppin’ of famous nom-de-plumes that feature the remixes by the Sweet Daddy Diddys
Of the bullshit industry world.
“Never seeing what’s been advertised
To pairs of eyes, it’s like living with a lock on your mind:
It’s no wonder that the sole sound
Is always around – 
You pound it ‘til it’s dead in the ground!”

The silence gave way to low murmurs as they just watched one of the best singers in the school get her talent handed to her by the new girl.  “Want to go for Round Two?  I can do this all day long, but frankly, I don’t like picking on the helpless.”

Windsong’s face revealed a girl who had not expected to meet her match, and one that hadn’t even been at the school a month yet!  Eyes filled with impotent rage, Windsong growled, “You know what?  I could destroy you now, but…you’re not worth the effort right now.”  Turning, she walked off, with Stagecraft following her soon after.

But Vinyl wasn’t done yet.  Letting the song move to its next part, she queued her microphone again, and even without the song, belted out a few quick lyrics in dub style:

“Hey girl, watch me drop you on the line,
Prob’ly now regrettin’ tryin’ t’ match me in the mind,
Keep on messin’ with me, I’ll pop and then provide,
You an’ your friends need t’ lose – soon comin’ th’ time!”

Around her, the group broke into applause.  Bon-Bon stopped dancing and immediately hugged Vinyl.  “Wow, that was reallyreallyreallyreally sooooooooo awesome!” she squealed.

Nova went to pick up the discarded microphone.  “Wow – that is all I have to say, Vinyl.  I always thought I was good at singing, but you just blew away anything I could ever do.”

“Because when I was in Canterlot, I practiced everything,” Vinyl replied.  “I notice music class here mainly focuses on instruments rather than vocals.  If you want, I can practice with you on that.  I learned more than a few things from Mrs. Torch Song – she was my music teacher at Canterlot.”

“Would you really?  If you do I’ll love you forever for that!  Uh, no offense, Kicky.”

Cloud giggled.  “None taken – and besides, I don’t see it as a problem at all.”

“Too bad that I do.”  The girls turned to see Ms. Clover there, arms folded and looking at them sternly.





A few minutes later, the six were in the headmistress’ office.  “Well, Headmistress,” Nova began, “For one, we weren’t really fighting.  Windsong got on our cases, and Vi challenged her to a song duel in order to prevent a fight.  Plus, nobody seemed to care when BB was attacked last week!”  Bon-Bon, remembering what happened, instinctively ducked behind Cloud for safety.

Clover gave the teen a hard glance.  “For the record, Ms. Nova, we had several people come up and claim that Windsong was physically attacked by Vinyl after they argued in the meeting for the dance planning.  Secondly, there was no report at all regarding the other attack you’ve mentioned.  So while I can’t do anything about the latter because too much time has passed, I hope you have evidence to back up your story about this one.”

“Well, amazing that Windsong wasn’t at the meeting,” Cloud chimed in, waking up her phone.  “I recorded the whole meeting just in case the girls and I needed more information later.”  She brought up the gallery app on her phone, handing it to the headmistress.

Clover watched it intently.  “Well, this explains a few things.  Okay, as far as I’m clear, the rest of you can go.  Ms. Kicker, I’d like you to stay behind so I can make a copy for the record.  Ms. Scratch, I would like you to remain as well so I can get an official statement.”

“Do you need us to stay, Ms. Clover?” Satin asked.

“No, it will be bad enough that Ms. Scratch and Ms. Kicker will be late to class, Ms. Splash.  I don’t want you others to be as well.”

“No worries, girls; we’ll meet you at the True Brew after school, okay?” Cloud insisted.  The others filed out, leaving the two teens alone with Clover.

Vinyl wasted no time.  “You knew this was going to happen,” she accused.  When the headmistress nodded her head, Vinyl asked in a softer but no less accusing tone, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because I’d hoped, maybe in vain, that you two would be able to fade into the woodwork.”  Clover sat down at the desk and in an instant was no longer the school’s headmistress, but the other adult currently in Vinyl’s life.  “But I should’ve known better that Deep Bass’ daughter would never do that.  And you, Kicky, you go where Vi goes.  Plus, you’re both here, and Tequila’s desperate to make her mark as the school year’s winding down.  It’s only going to be rougher from here – for all of us.”

“Why so?” Cloud asked.

“There’s more than one reason that Tequila’s family has pull at this school; if you thought it was just because they’ve been attending since the school’s founding over a century ago, you’d be wrong.  Tequila’s mother Pastel Pink heads up the school board, and believe me – she’s nothing like her public image.”  Vinyl and Cloud vaguely remembered the name; Pastel Pink was an actress famous for the films she’d done during the 80s – Pretty in Pink, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles and a dozen others.  She’d been called “America’s Sweetheart” by dozens of magazines and over the years had become a respected actress, having recently starred as a supporting character in the remake of Ferris Wheel’s Day Off, a movie where she’d played the girlfriend in the original.

“And while I see your minds are short-circuiting over that fact,” Clover continued, “keep in mind that since I’ve come to work here, we’ve been at each other’s throats.  She expects complete control of school functions, and I refuse to let her have that.  Furthermore, she hates your father for some reason and isn’t happy that Rhythm and LP are friends.  And now that you’re here and pose a potential threat to Tequila’s fame, that’s more than enough reason to make it personal.”

“Your brother and Tequila’s sister are tight?”

“Tell you later, sweetie,” Vinyl replied.  “Let me guess: that’s the reason for the No PDA rule here at school, right?”

Clover nodded.  “D’Aguanno has always had a PDA rule that’s stricter than the local public or parochial schools, but yes, she was the one who dialed it up to zero.  Pastel wants no chance of her pretty little princess falling in love and thus ruining her image as the girl everybody wants.”

“So this is all quite literally about high school politics?” Vinyl asked, stunned.

Clover laughed.  “What, you thought because once you grow up, it stops?  Oh no, girls.  High school is where real life begins.  Things change, but peoples’ personalities rarely do, so what you’ll see now is pretty much what you’ll see later on down the road.”

“All the more reason we have to break Tequila,” Vinyl insisted.  “She’s going to hurt some people if we don’t.”

“And it doesn’t have to be you who does; I’m serious about that.”  The look in Clover’s eyes was strangely protective.  “I don’t want either of you to get caught in a mess that I can’t get you out of, or worse, costs me my job as well.”

“Clover, do you trust us?” Vinyl asked.  “Really trust us?”

“Someday you’re going to be my stepdaughter, Vi.  If I didn’t, I wouldn’t last long with your father.”

“Thanks.  Then trust me when I say this: I’m going to end Tequila’s reign one way or the other…and I’m going to figure out how to do it without them being able to touch me.  And I’m going to do it with or without your permission.”

“You know that’s an incredibly dangerous thing to say, Vinyl, especially given that you’re telling me this.”

“Because you’ve only known me for two weeks, so you don’t know what I’m capable of.”  Vinyl looked right into Clover’s eyes for a second, then backed off to explain.  “I might be facing off against the would-be queen of the whole school, but I have three aces in my deck.”

“And those are?” Clover asked, intrigued.

“One, my friends – and I sorely need those right now just as much as they need me.  Two, my girl,” Vinyl said, reaching over and squeezing Cloud’s hand, openly flaunting the PDA rule right in front of the headmistress while on school grounds.  “Oh, and the third.”

Clover folded her arms in expectation.  “Which is?”

“Fight fire with fire: you know how you deal with a bad alpha bitch?  Enlist the help of a good one.”

“I’d really like to know where you’ll find a good alpha bitch – the term itself indicates otherwise.”

“Well, from what I understand, people like to refer to her as the ‘Go-To’ girl now.”

Cloud’s eyes widened as she realized.  “You are not on her list of favorite people right now,” she warned.

“But you are,” Vinyl reminded her.

Cloud groaned.





The things I do for my girl, Cloud groaned hours later as she made a call from her phone to a certain one 2375 miles away.

The ringtone sounded once.  Twice, then finally, “Hello?”

“Heya!  How goes?”

“Kicks?  Hey, how’s it going over in Detroit?”

“Eh, I’m adjusting.  Listen, do you got a minute to chat?”

“Well, I’m on my way to work, but I can spare a few minutes.  I’m all ears.”

Cloud then monopolized the next ten minutes of the conversation as she explained all that had transpired.  Finally, she ended with, “So that’s the situation here, and frankly, I could really use your help.”

The call on the other end was silent for the longest time before the speaker started.  “Honestly, I’m not really sure what I can do to help, given that I’m still cleaning up this mess from my angle.  I’m going to be talking with the Sands twins today.  They were at that party and there’s a rumor that…well, let’s just say that they’re really afraid to go to their parents with this, so I offered to talk to them both.  Plus, there’s also the fact that I’m two time zones away.”

“I…see,” Cloud said, waiting for the words that would end this call.

“My gut instinct says no, but…if I say no, I’m no better than I used to be.  So I’ll do whatever I can, I promise.  But in return, I want something.”

“Whatever I can do.”

“It’s not what you can do.  I want a written, genuine apology from Scratch to Tavi.  My cousin is still torn up over the whole thing and it’s causing me and my sister a lot of personal grief.  So I want the air cleared, and since I know that Scratch’s no good at writing…having her write it down will be her genuine feelings.”

“That makes no sense – but at the same time does,” Cloud muttered.

“Trust me, one of those little mysteries of life that strangely works.  So are we good on this?”

“I’ll get her to do it one way or the other,” Cloud insisted.  “Thanks, Sunny, I owe you for this.”

“No, Kicks, you don’t owe me anything – always happy to help a friend,” Sunset Shimmer said over the phone.  “But Vinyl owes Tavi – and it’s time to pay the piper.  Listen, I just got here and I think I see Black Sands, which means White’s behind her.  I gotta go.  Talk to you later.”

“Yeah, later,” Cloud commented as she hung up the phone.  Well, now the easy part’s done.  The hard part, is going to get Vi to write that letter.  


“Do I?” Vinyl asked when prodded several minutes later.  “You do realize that by giving her our address, Tavi will have a method by which she can send assassins to kill me, right?”

“You’re being ridiculous, hon,” Cloud sighed, on the verge of a facepalm.  “She’s not going to send assassins.”

“Oh, she will – teenage assassins, no less.  I saw it in a movie, so I know it’s true.  Just watch: once I send that letter, we’ll be swimming in teenage assassins.”

“Well, then you’d better hope they’re cuter than me.  Sunny said no letter, no help.”

“Do I have to?”

“No, I suppose not – but then she won’t lift a finger.”  Cloud pulled out her school notebook and a pen.  “Sit down, get writing, and I don’t want to see your hand move from that pad until you’ve finished, understood?”

“And if I don’t listen?”

A sudden flash of inspiration came to Cloud.  “Then you can sleep alone tonight.”

“And where are you going to sleep?”

“With your brother and his girlfriend.  And I’ll bet she’s fun.”

Vinyl looked fit to cry.  Grumbling, she sat down with the look of the condemned, and started to write.





Meanwhile, in a mansion in the tony suburb of Bloomfield Hills, three girls planned for war.  Windsong was over at Stagecraft’s house, and the two were on teleconference with Tequila, currently in Los Angeles.

“So that’s it: she threw the gauntlet down,” Tequila mused over the connection.  “Later than I expected, given what I’ve been able to find out about her so far.”

Stagecraft, meanwhile, wanted to throw up.  “Look, that carpet licker’s been here for nearly two weeks now and she’s already gotten too big for her britches.  She makes me sick.”

“Oh, please, join the modern era, Crafty,” Windsong retorted.  “Nobody’s offended by that anymore.  Plus, you don’t even have the excuse of being religious – isn’t your family atheist or something?”  She then turned to the camera and screen. “However, she’s right: Scratch and her girl haven’t been here a month and they’re already starting to make play.  What you have out there isn’t going to be enough to stop them, Quila.  We’re going to have to come up with better ideas.”

Tequila huffed, clearly in command of her little clique.  “Oh, please – don’t you think I’ve already got that in mind?  Trust me, you two – I’ve got them ready to take a blow right from where they least expect it.”

“Oh?  Do tell,” Windsong asked.  

Stagecraft smiled wickedly.  “You got some dirt on her?”

“Worse – far worse.”  Onscreen, Tequila smiled, but there was no joy there.  “Trust me: When I’m done, Vinyl Scratch is going to have a taste of her own medicine.  She’s going to wish she stayed in California rather than come here to Motor City.”





Today was not turning out to be Vinyl’s day.  Oh, it had gone alright right up to the point where she won her song battle.  Then she got chewed out by Clover.  And then she agreed to do something stupid; that stupidity had just been mailed out by Cloud, Canterlot bound.  And now her father had just returned home from his business trip, and Clover had already told him about the day’s events.

And now she had to ask him for something.

“So, you want to borrow my portable rig,” Bass said, matter-of-factly.  “It’s a lot more powerful than the stuff you’re used to, sweetie.”

“Yeah, I figured that,” Vinyl said, at the table.  ‘Don’t get me wrong; I really liked my old rig, but I only had enough money to ship over my discs.  Good thing Licorice Pizza needed some new decks; at least they went to a good cause.”

“But that’s not the point.  I talked to Clover an hour ago—”

“And this is the part where I run for my life?” Vinyl asked, half-joking.

“Maybe.  Mouthing off to her wasn’t particularly smart, Vinyl.  You actually hurt her by doing that – and I fully expect you to apologize before you go to bed.”

“Dad, if it means anything…I was trying to protect my friends.  Not doing so is how I ended up here, and if I didn’t continue to do so I’d be no better than Mom.”

“Maybe.  But hurting those that love you and are looking out for you, Clover included, isn’t helping matters either.  She went out of the way to get you into the school not just because of our relationship, but because she wants to be a better parent to you than Prim was.”  Bass looked at his youngest child intently.  “She can’t have kids, you know.  Waited too long, and now doctors say it’s a little too late.  So aside from adopting, you and LP are it.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“She doesn’t like admitting it; shows her age, she says.”  Bass leaned back in his chair and said, “Okay, this is what I’m going to do.  I’m going to lend you my portable rig until you can get one for yourself, but – and this is an important but – you’re going to have to apologize to Clover and give her the benefit of the doubt.  Believe me, she’s smarter than you think.”

“Really?”

He grinned.  “Who do you think it was that told your brother that the easiest way of shutting down the girl terrorizing the school at his age was to get into her pants?”  Vinyl looked at her father strangely.  “Trust me, she went to bat for LP after that girl’s mother found out, and while she came out a little worse for wear, you should’ve seen the other woman.”

At that point, the door opened and in walked Clover, a glass of wine in her hands.  “Sorry I’m late; had to do some excess paperwork and time caught up to me.”

The next thing she felt was Vinyl, moving over, holding her tight in an embrace.  “Sorry if I’ve made your life more difficult, Clover.  I didn’t mean that.  Will you forgive me?”

Clover bent down and kissed Vinyl on the forehead.  “Always, for family – but you’re going to have to trust me as well, Vinyl.  I know you’re not used to having adults back you up, but things are different here.  But I can only do it if you’re willing to let me in.”

“I will, I promise.”  Vinyl flashed a genuine smile.

“Okay, then that’s that,” Clover said, returning the gesture.

“Well, now that that’s done,” Bass said, “There’s another ground rule we have to set, Vinyl, and I have to admit that I’m disappointed in you for me having to actually set this rule: No taking your top off and shoving your breasts in your brother’s face.”  Clover blinked in surprise at that, then turned and looked at Vinyl.

The teen had the good grace to be completely horrified by her parents’ knowledge while she stammered, “Bu-but Dad, it doesn’t mean anything to me!  You kn-know I’m a lesbian!  It was just a joke!”

“Yes, but it’s bad enough that you’ve got LP crowing about being the only boy who’s touched your sweater kittens,” Bass said, while trying not to laugh.  “Apparently, it was…inspiring,” he said as he handed her a piece of sheet music.

“What’s thi…”  She looked up from the paper in horror.  “He didn’t.”

“He did.”

“I’m never going to live this down, am I?”

In response, Bass went to the table, grabbing his iPad.  He immediately set it to YouTube, playing a video with Long on-screen singing a song while playing guitar:

“Oh, my sister’s got perky tits,
She showed them just to me,
They’re the greatest pair of twin funbags
That ever would you see.

“She’s the kind of gal liking other girls,
So they’re perfectly male-free,
So sister’s jugs are just the ones
That make my dreams go squee.”

Vinyl facepalmed, her face almost completely red as if her entire bloodstream had dumped into her face.  “Dad, can we move to Alaska?”
> February 11: Scarborough RT
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Bossanova,
Bossanova,
Bossanova,
Bossanoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooova!”
- Moonstarr



Taking a sip from her peppermint white chocolate mocha, Clover enjoyed the late morning of a workday.  There wasn’t much paperwork to do, and other than a phone conference that was on the schedule, her calendar was clear for the day.  Part of her wanted to play hooky, but that wasn’t exactly the most responsible thing to do.

“Ah, but sometimes the most responsible things to do just aren’t fun,” she voiced to no one in particular.


Things changed a split-second later as the door to her office was thrown open and a woman who looked beautiful and got everything she ever wanted in life thundered over the threshold.  “We need to talk!” the woman barked, as if issuing a command to be ignored at Clover’s peril.

Behind the woman, Clover’s harried secretary bustled in, the look on her face nearly distraught.  “I’m sorry, Headmistress, but I told her you were on an important call and she insisted on seeing you anyway!”

“There’s nothing more important than my requirements,” the woman hissed, the words guttural and odd, given that they were issued from an otherwise normally-mellifluous voice.

Clover looked up from her desk, her countenance heavily indicating that this was a normal, or at least expected, occurrence.  “Oh, good morning, Chairwoman Pink.  It’s a surprise to see you here.  I thought you were filming in Chicago this week?”

“Goddamn director said I’m too old to play older sister roles,” the woman muttered under her breath.  She then looked at Clover with deep gray eyes, framed by long pink hair.  “I won’t mince words, Headmistress – I came to see what you plan to do about those ruffians that you brought into my school!”

Clover leaned back slightly in her chair to give her more of an appearance of Don’t you tell me what to do in my office, though she suspected the woman before her was too stupid to get that.  “Well, I’m presuming you’re referring to Ms. Vinyl Scratch and Ms. Cloud Kicker, am I correct?” she asked.  “As I understand it, they’ve settled in quite nicely.  Both seem to have found their niches in class, and our music teacher finds Ms. Scratch’s musical talents to be, as I recall, ‘the most gifted I’ve ever seen.’”

Pastel ignored the comments, just as she usually did with practically anything Clover said.  “Yes, that’s exactly who I mean!” she snarled.  “Those two – they’re the scourge of the school!  My dearest daughter and her friends have been nearly beaten within an inch of their lives by those two ruffians and their flunkies!”

“My, my, my – that is quite the accusation, Chairwoman,” Clover snarked, leaning forward on her desk.  “For starters, they must be criminal masterminds, given that neither girl has even been at the school a month yet.  Furthermore, hasn’t your daughter been out for the past couple of weeks, thus making it difficult for her to be threatened by those two?”

“Well, I suppose I misspoke there.  Either way, Windsong and Stagecraft wer—”

“We have documented evidence – a video, taken by another student – that Ms. Windsong attempted to start a fight with Ms. Scratch, one that the latter, quite admirably, defused in a creative manner.  I can provide you with a copy, if you wish.”

“Who’d they bribe to do it?  Or did they sleep with a boy to provide faked evidence?”  And then a malicious sneer came onto Pastel’s face as she added, “Or a girl?  I’ve heard rumors about those two.”

“Whatever their personal business is, is exactly that: their business, Chairwoman, and so long as it doesn’t impact or discredit the school, it deserves to remain that way.”  Clover had to restrain herself from launching out of the chair and smacking the smug look off Pastel’s face.  “And while I cannot speak for Ms. Kicker’s personal qualities, I’ve received a positive report regarding Ms. Scratch’s.”

The chairwoman giggled, hiding the motion by covering up her mouth with the back of her hand.  It was a stupid motion just for effect, and if there was one thing Clover hated, it was pointless posturing.  “Oh, come now, Headmistress – as if anyone’s going to believe the word of Deep Bass, ‘The Morning Voice of WZDF 101.5!’  The man is hardly any better than his daughter, and it clearly shows!”

Clover silently counted to ten to calm down before speaking lest she defenestrate the offender before her.  “No, if anything, Chairwoman, I was referring to her former principal.”  The woman reached over and pressed a button on her deskphone.  “Chairwoman Pink, I have on line Ms. Celestia, Principal of Canterlot High School in California.  Principal Celestia, I have in the room with me Chairwoman Pastel Pink, head of the school’s board of directors.”

“Hello, Chairwoman,” the voice on the other side of the phone said, “I was just reporting to Headmistress Clover about how much Ms. Scratch is missed here at Canterlot High.  Though I will admit that her grades could have been better, I have never met a more talented musician.  Our music teacher, Mrs. Torch Song, is an accomplished maestro and a former member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and she quite literally could not stop raving about Ms. Scratch’s musical talents.”

“Yes, Principal Celestia,” Pastel sniffed haughtily, “I’m quite aware of her, and I quote, ‘sick beats.’”

“Actually, I was referring to her classical guitar playing, which won her the Western Conference Musical Championships; or her piano playing, which was sterling enough that the local television station commissioned her for a musical piece for their morning news broadcast; or her singing, to which Mrs. Torch Song says is the finest young contralto voice she’s ever heard.  I will admit that I know little to nothing about musical talent; it’s not my forte.  But from a complete laywoman’s standpoint, if there was anything more that I could have done for her to prevent her move to Detroit, I assure you I would have.  Such a prodigy of any standing is quite the feather in the cap of any school, and I will admit to be slightly jealous of my loss being your gain.  But such is life, I suppose.” 

“So you’re saying that there’s more to the jewel than all the rough I see around her?  Forgive me for saying, madam, but you are merely the principal of a public high school.  Your job mostly involves babysitting, not educating future minds.”

There was a pause on the other end, followed by, “I take umbrage at that, madam Chairwoman.  And I’ve looked at your record – would you like to place your bachelor’s degree in business against my doctorate in education?  Just because I prefer to not use my doctoral title does not mean that I’m a mere ‘babysitter’, as I see it.  However, I am willing to disregard your statements regarding my occupation – but what I am not willing to overlook is your clear disdain for Vinyl Scratch.  Problems or not, she is a talented young woman and you ignore her at your peril.”

“What, you think I should fear her?” Pastel asked, a touch of incredulity in her voice.

“No, actually, I don’t believe you are smart enough to,” Celestia told her.  “But what I do believe is that if you nurture her talent, she will become the finest alumnus your school has ever had.  But if you disregard her…all you do is prove every condemnation of the private school system that ever was.”

“Hrmph.  Well, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll leave you two to discuss whatever you wish about those two.  But mark my words: Either Vinyl Scratch is put in her place, or the board will have to wonder if the headmistress is capable of performing her duties further.”  With no further words, she stormed out of Clover’s office, slamming the door as she departed.

“Sorry about that – now you see what I put up with,” Clover apologized.

“No need to apologize; I know that type of parent, and I see it far too often – and with the recent events, it only became three-fold,” Celestia replied.

“So, now that you’ve mailed me the rest of your files on Vinyl Scratch, would you be able to get a hold of County High and have them send the files for Cloud Kicker?”

“I’ll do what I can.  But please, take care of Vinyl.  She’s a girl who’s been through a lot and while I feel she’s in a better place, the way your chairwoman carried herself indicated that Vinyl’s not out of the woods yet.”

“I’ll do what I can for her, Celestia, you have my word.”





“And then he kissed me and asked me to be his girl,” Satin sighed.  “It was…heavenly.  Absolutely perfect.”

“You lucky girl!” Nova cried in congratulatory tones.  “Looks like you and Starfruit are all set up to double-date with Vi and Kicky sometime!”

Seated where she was, Countryside just sighed.  “Does he have a cute friend that’s single, by any chance?” she asked.

The girls had just completed another day of planning for the Valentine’s Day event, and were now relaxing in their usual location at the True Brew.  Once again, Cloud had full run of the shop, as Praline had taken Bon-Bon to her weekly counseling session.  Business was jumping in the café, but the teen had more than a handle on things, still allowing her time to talk to her friends.

Currently behind the counter brewing up a double mocha for a customer at one of the tables, Cloud asked, “So, what’re your plans for the dance?  Going together, or…?”

Satin blushed.  “Of course he and I are going as a couple; a girl wants to be seen with her beau, you know.”  A thought then crossed her mind and she added, “I’ve met a few of his friends that attend other schools – they might be interested in going out with you girls, if you’re interested.”

Countryside’s eyes brightened. “Really?”

“Do you know how much you just sounded like BB right now?” Nova laughed.  “But seriously, Satin, it sounds like things are finally looking up for you!”

The ice-blue-haired girl grinned.  “For us.  I want us all to be happy, not just me.  I’d like us all to have boyfriends we can rely on and love to our heart’s content.  Uh, no offense, Kicky.”

Cloud smiled.  “None taken.  But here’s the big question: Who are you going to find to ask BB out?”  Satin’s eyes suddenly widened in horror as the realization dawned on her, and while Countryside tried to give her friend a comforting pat on the shoulder, there was no true sense as such for the budding fashionista any longer.





Meanwhile, as the other girls were enjoying themselves at the True Brew, Vinyl was at her father’s radio station, looking over his portable rig.  It was a lot bigger than she expected, and while she relished the idea of playing with a new toy, she had to admit he was right: his setup was a lot more complex than she’d seen before.  Her friends in the DJ scene back in California, especially the veterans, had their own setups, and many of them could be extremely intricate.  This one, however, blew them all away, by magnitudes.  It was so complex, in fact, that part of her imagined that if she could add a motor and glass somewhere, maybe she could build a transforming car that turned into a DJ rig, but she laughed inwardly; this was real life, not some cartoon.

She stood there, admiring its sleek, technological beauty, until her eyes fell on something close to the bottom middle of the setup.  And then she looked at her father with a gaze of utter betrayal: “Digital controller surfaces?  I can’t believe this!” she cried.  “This goes against everything you ever taught me!”

Bass laughed.  “Vi, if you look at the rig, the DCSes are designed to enhance the sound, not replace them.  Everything comes out of the main drives.  You can do direct output, or move to the DCSes to speed juggle.  And I know you use some digital equipment, so don’t play the purist game with me, young lady.”

“Sorry,” she said in a genuine tone.  She then looked at the turntables themselves and was astonished.  “Wow – Pioneer PLX-1000s?”  She whistled in appreciation.  “I mean, I had a pair of Stanton T-92s, but these…these are golden!”  The sound in Vinyl’s voice was borderlining on worship.

“Hey, had to replace my Technics SL-1200s, now that they’re literally museum pieces,” Deep said, nostalgia clear in his own voice.  “But times change, and you can’t just stay with the same tables, Vi.”

“Yeah, I know, Dad – before all this happened, I was looking into upgrading to Audio Technicas.”  She placed a gentle hand on the deck’s surface, moving it gently to and fro.  The smile on her face was wide.  “This feels smooth as silk!” she said with obvious approval. “The play on this is just amazing.”

“Well, care to put it through its paces?” Deep asked, flicking on the power.  “I’ve got a copy of Smooooove Movin’ by Unlimited Gold that I use for T&C.”

But Vinyl had her own ideas when it came to testing and calibration.  “That’s okay, I brought my own.”  She reached into the boxy case next to her, and pulled out two discs: It’s a Groovy Day by 70s group Afterschool Special, while on the other turntable she put down 260 Calories Per Bottle, the latest album from Ba55 C4nnon.

“70s sunshine pop and a current D&B group.  Eclectic mix,” Deep said with approval.

Vinyl grinned.  “You and I have different disciplines, Dad.  When you’re not on the radio, you’re playing tunes meant to get people to dance with one another, as a DJ would.  But I’m a full-out turntablist, using the decks both as remixer and instrument. It’s my job to read the crowd and burn them out on others’ beats and my own.”

“Yes, but with this party of yours, you’re going to have to use your style and mine,” Deep instructed.  “So let me show you how to use the DCS units to add shifting and chopping to the analog feeds.”  He stepped forward to the decks while Vinyl stepped back, watching a master at work.  And she had to admit, while she was good and getting stronger every day, she still didn’t have her father’s skill.  Back in Canterlot she’d been a proverbial big fish in a small pond when it came to that town’s deejaying scene, but here?  She was small potatoes compared to him, the legend of Detroit.

As she watched and learned, she couldn’t help but feel incredibly proud of her father.





Meanwhile, miles away at the Twelve Oaks Mall, Starfruit was looking for the perfect shirt to wear to the dance.  It was his only chance, in his opinion, to really prove himself worthy of the girl he wanted to call his own, and he was already riding disaster.  One false step could cost him everything and make him the laughing stock of metro Detroit.

But that meant risking shopping here.  Normally, he wouldn’t worry about it.  But truth be told….

“Hey, Starfruit, that you?” he heard someone call to him.  He winced, turning around to see who was calling for him – it had to be him; Starfruit was not a common name in the US – and saw someone from his school approaching, someone not in his social circle.   “Hey, man, how’s it going?”

“Oh, h-hey, Royal Flush,” Starfruit asked, “wh-what brings you here?” Of all the people who had to run into him, it was Royal, a member of the “Top Brigade”, the school’s crème de la crème, and most definitely a person he wouldn’t associate with on a regular basis.  That wasn’t to say that Royal was a bully or mean, but rather a natural fact of life: Royal was a rich kid, with his family heavy into real estate holdings, whereas Starfruit was attending D’Aguanno purely on an academic scholarship due to his perfect grades.  In short, having the two of them together in the same location outside of scholastic activities was like the snake befriending the mouse that was supposed to be lunch – not exactly impossible, but well out of the realm of probability.

Royal smiled widely.  “It’s been brought to our attention by school counselors that members of the Top Brigade aren’t doing enough to make other students feel welcome at the D.  So a bunch of us got together and decided to help some of the students from lower-income backgrounds feel more at home at the school.  I happened to get your name from the draw and, while I hadn’t expected to find you here, it’s lucky for both of us.”

“Oh, so you know about that,” Starfruit sighed.  He wasn’t happy about admitting it, and outside of the school headmistress, he didn’t think anyone knew about his background.  Sure, he didn’t exactly try to hide it or anything, but there was a reason that his grandmother drove him to and from school, and why he was glad that the D wore uniforms instead of everyday wear like public school.  Sure, it wasn’t a perfect life, living with his mother, grandmother and two kid sisters in a small house in Romulus, but he was okay with it.

“Know about what?  That you’re attending the school on an academic scholarship?  Pfft – no shame in that, bro; if anything, that’s absolutely amazing!”  Seeing the look in the other boy’s eyes, Royal nodded in understanding.  “Look, yeah, I know what you’re thinking: ‘How come the Top’s looking at me?  What’d I do to deserve this?’  Well, let me tell you: you didn’t do anything.  If anything, it was a few in the Top that fucked up.”  Royal shook his head and commented, “Personally, between you and me?  Metalwork got exactly what that asshole deserved.  Fucker thought because he’s old money that he could get away with a hidden camera in the girls’ bathroom.  And maybe if this were any other school he could have.  But Headmistress Clover just railed into him hard – he’s lucky he didn’t get expelled, though if you ask me, a week suspension is going to be justifiably humiliating.”

“I see,” Starfruit commented, then went back to looking at the racks.

“Hrm…getting clothes?” Royal asked.

No sense hiding it, Starfruit admitted to himself.  “Yeah,” he told Royal, hoping the other boy wouldn’t notice the big sign that said CLEARANCE SALE.  “Picking out an outfit for the Valentine’s Dance.”

Royal looked at the sign sure enough, and said, “Hey, are you sure you want to impress your girl in clothes that were trendy three years ago?”  Starfruit sighed, expecting the insults to fly at any moment, but Royal smiled.  “Hey, so you’re from the quote, unquote, ‘wrong side of the tracks’.  No shame in that.”

“You’re kidding me,” Starfruit commented, now really wary – if a Top wasn’t going to make fun of him, then obviously it was his station in life that would be a target.

“No, seriously,” Royal said, proving him wrong.  “Look, you probably won’t believe me, but…do you know why my family’s rich?  Dad won the lottery when I was six, and then made a huge amount of really good investments.  We used to live in this small town upstate called Little Lake, which…well, while it wasn’t Eight Mile, it was kinda like Romulus in the boonies.  My Mom jokes that I had a pet bear as a kid because we weren’t well-off enough for dogs.”  He gave a wistful sigh and added, “Don’t think of me as the kid from the family who owns the Joker’s Wild Casino down on Riverfront, because I guarantee you, I don’t think of myself that way.  I was old enough to remember what it was like to shop in the clearance aisles, too.  Hell, my sister, who attends Harvard, for crying out loud, prefers to shop at the local Barnyard Bargains instead of the high-end stores because she still remembers when we had to scrimp and save for everything.”

Starfruit looked into Royal’s eyes and knew it was true.  “So then why…?”

Royal interrupted the other boy before he could speak.  “Because not everyone in the Brigade is under Tequila Sunrise’s sway.  Honestly, there’s a group of us that don’t even like the idea of an ‘elite club’.  Most kids at the school don’t see it, but there’s a battle going on at the school.  On one side you have the ‘new money’ folks like me or Codebase, whose parents sold their Silicon Valley company for millions; on the other side, there’s the ‘old money’, like Metalwork or Tequila herself.  For the longest time, me, Code and my friends thought the Old Money had the advantage.  But then the Earthquake happened.”  

“Earthquake?”

“Yeah – that new girl, Vinyl Scratch.  She put Windsong in her place, and hard.  Personally, that bitch has deserved her comeuppance since Seventh Grade, and for a new girl to just come in and not only tell her off but outsing her?  Trust me, bro – there’s a war about to brew at the D and people are picking sides: the Six versus the Tequila’s Tops.”

“The Six?  Tequila’s Tops?  You’re losing me.”  That much was certainly true: Starfruit really didn’t have any friends at D’Aguanno (most of them attended a high school in Romulus), so he focused almost entirely on his studies; in fact, up until he worked up the courage to ask Satin out, he hadn’t paid a single bit of attention to anything in the school other than his grades, just to keep his scholarship going.  For example, he barely knew what the school colors were (brilliant-blue and sunlit-gold), the school mascot (the Sculptors) or that the school was named after the Italian benefactor who built the school in the mid-1800s.  He certainly couldn’t tell you the unofficial roster of the thirty-odd students in the school who made up the Top Brigade, the name of the varsity football quarterback, or the number of guys who claimed to be Tequila Sunrise’s secret boyfriend.  In many ways, asking Satin out was an awakening to a whole new world.

“The Six, formerly the Four – or to use Tequila’s insulting terms, the Shitty Six and the Fucked-up Four – are Vinyl Scratch and her friends, including your girl Satin.  As for Tequila’s Tops, that’s the group that hangs with her the most: Windsong, Stagecraft, Connector, Golden Age, Wisteria, Polished Marble and Lightning Fast – but really it’s just Tequila and her bosom buddies, and the rest pretty much dance to that trio’s tune.”

Something then clicked in his mind the moment Royal mentioned Satin and her friends.  “Okay, which one’s phone number do you want?”

Now it was Royal’s turn to blush.  “You have to understand, Starfruit – I’m genuinely here to help regardless of what you say…though since you’re offering nicely, I’d like to get in touch with Cloud Kicker.”

“Cloud Kicker?” Starfruit asked.

“Yeah.  God that girl is hot,” Royal admitted.  “Plus, she’s got a good heart.  I was there when Bossa Nova painted the wall with Rusher a couple of weeks back and there Cloud was, helping Bon-Bon up.  She didn’t have to, since it was her first day at school, but she clearly felt she had to.  That’s a goodhearted girl, and it made me just want to ask her out all the more.”

“Well, if I remember Satin correctly, Cloud and Vinyl live together.  They don’t look alike, so I’m guessing they’re cousins.  Kid across the street from me lives with his uncle and aunt, because her parents are stationed overseas somewhere in the Army.  So maybe that’s the case.”

“Well, hey, if you can introduce me to her, I’d be forever in your debt.  In fact, let’s make good on that now: let’s go see what looks good on you over at The Finest Cut.”

Starfruit’s eyes widened.  “You’re kidding, right?  No way in hell can I afford that!”  Unlike the other stores in the mall, The Finest Cut was a tailor shop that specialized in custom men’s apparel.  As a result, it was a place where many wealthy men got their clothing precision-fit and to have attire from the store was considered in and of itself a status symbol.  The very idea of the store’s existence made Starfruit feel excessively small just walking past it on the way to where he was now, and he was, in secret, saving up for the day he’d be able to get a suit made by them for his graduation from D’Aguanno.

The look in Royal’s eyes, however, was kind.  “It’s on me – seriously, I’ve got the tab.  You’ve got to look your best for Satin, right?  So let’s get you set up, because if you look good, then I look good and when you introduce me to Cloud Kicker, I’m all set.  Trust me, it’ll be perfect.”

“Well, if you’re really sure,” Starfruit said, looking at the clearance rack, then letting go of the shirt he was sizing up – it really made him look sallow, now that he thought about it.

“Very sure.  Besides, you’re going places in the world dude, just by your brains.  Best that you look good doing it – and The Finest Cut’s suits are the best in all of Detroit.  Trust me.”

“Thanks!”

“No, man, thank you.”	





Stagecraft was bored, bored, bored.  Bad enough that she tried to bring her boyfriend Connector today to try to find something matching for the Valentine’s Dance, but he didn’t seem to care about that.  And now, as she was looking over dress designs at The Finest Cut, she just wanted to strangle him, because he didn’t seem to give a damn.  Why the hell do I stay with him?

A second later, she remembered: Oh, that’s right, because he’s great in the sack.  Well, if this is going to be a long-term thing, I really need to straighten him out.  Holding up a his-and-hers set, she asked, “Nector, what do you think?”

Connector looked up from his tablet, he yawned.  “Crafty, I am not wearing a coral pink shirt.  I’ll look like an idiot.”

The smile became nigh vicious.  “If you ever want me in bed again you will.”

Connector sighed.  “Fine, just…don’t make me look like a pimp, okay?  Because that will only make you look bad, too.”

Stagecraft was just about to say something when she saw both Royal and Starfruit walking in, both talking like old friends.  “That can’t be good,” she whispered.  “Looks like certain members of the Brigade are getting their own ideas again.  Nector, honey, do you still have those wireless button cameras you were messing with?”

“Yeah, I have them on me, why?”  In response, she gave him a sunny smile, but he knew that smile all too well; it was a sign that Stagecraft was in another of her sociopathic moods, and that meant that someone wasn’t going to walk away unscathed.  Thankfully, he knew the victim at least this time around wouldn’t be him.

“Give them to me, hon.  All of them,” she insisted as he grabbed his backpack.  “Whatever Flush is up to with that piece of ghetto trash Starfruit, I’m going to make sure that it stops.  Flush should know better than to associate with common rabble, and Starfruit can go be a bootlicker when he gets to college – not now.”

“Fine.”  He reached into his knapsack, pulling out a plastic bag.  “They’re designed to look like regular buttons unless activated from remote.  They’re water resistant to fifty meters, shock resistant to two Gs, and will broadcast a signal for a radius of half a kilometer.  I have the software on my laptop set to pick up their signal.”  He looked at her with annoyance.  “You know, I was going to use those for sousveillance, not to spy on people.”

“Don’t worry, sweetie – I’m going to spy on people, not you.  And besides,” she said, as she got on tiptoes to whisper in his ear, “you know that letting me do whatever I want gets me hot, right?”

He reached into his backpack again, this time pulling out his laptop.  “Fine, I’ll set up the software.  Oh, and my parents aren’t going to be home tonight.”

“Good.  Do you want me to wear the negligee or the ribbons?  Think about that while I go talk to one of the tailors for a favor,” she told him.  Connector already knew that favor was probably going to cost her a couple hundred in bribe money to the tailor, but again, as long as he wasn’t the victim, he really didn’t care. 	





Thirty minutes later and a timely $200 bribe to some woman who was probably an illegal, Stagecraft’s phone chirped.  She looked over the text, and smiled – she had exactly what she needed.

“Good news?” Connector asked as they pulled into the driveway of his home.  His parents were in Europe right now for something; he didn’t really care in particular.

“Yeah.  It seems that fucking moron Flush bought Starfruit a whole wardrobe – why the fuck would that idiot do that?  Worse, why would he waste much money on Starfruit?  That fucker’s poor as shit, enough so that he doesn’t deserve to go to the D – it’s not like the school’s a charity case.”  She grunted.  “Eh, they’re probably fags fucking each other.”

Both got out of the car, and before Connector could say anything, Stagecraft was dialing on her phone.  A quick call to Tequila, and Stagecraft went over everything she knew.  

“I knew that asshat was too good to be true,” she heard Tequila say over the phone.  “Okay, it’s time to let Royal know who the fuck is in charge here, and to put Starfruit back in his place.”

“Any suggestions?”

“Yeah, have Windy talk to that boyfriend of hers; Metalwork knows how to deal with Flush.  And as for Starfruit?  Those cameras will come in handy, I’m sure.”

“Fuck yeah,” Stagecraft agreed as both girls talked for a few minutes as Connector and Stagecraft entered the latter’s mansion.  Finally, the phone call ended, and she looked at him.  “So?”

“So?”

She growled at him angrily.  “You have one minute to take me up there and get all our clothes off before you get nothing tonight, understood?”  As he picked her up, she thought, I feel like I have to do everything around here.





Cloud’s finger slithered down Vinyl’s back.  “Oh, hon….”

Vinyl moved away.  “Not tonight, okay?  I’m reading.”  Sure enough, Vinyl had a manual in her hand, with an additional stack of them on the bed.

“Wait – you’re turning me down?”

“Kicky, it’s not like there were days when we didn’t do anything the first time we were dating, right?”  Without even looking up from the manuals, she added, “Hell, we’re lucky we usually get our periods the same week, or else there’d be two weeks nothing would be going on.”

Cloud, strangely enough, felt hurt.  She wasn’t sure why, but Vinyl turning down sex made her feel unattractive somehow.  “Vinyl, am I…?”

Vinyl looked up from her manual.  “Hey, just because I don’t feel like it doesn’t mean I don’t have the greatest gal, okay?”  She turned back to the documents and murmured, “Just means I have my focus elsewhere at the moment.”

Cloud decided to take action by lying on top of the manuals and batting her eyes at Vinyl.  “But I feel unloved.  Vinyl, please love me?”

The azure-haired girl rolled her eyes, set down the manual she was reading, then brought her lips to Cloud’s.  The things I do for love, she mused. 	





The next day at school, Starfruit approached Cloud Kicker while she was looking in her locker.  “Hey, Cloud, you got a sec?”

She peeked out of her locker for a second, flashing him a smile.  “Sorry, I don’t play that game anymore, though you are cute,” she deadpanned.  When he looked at her weirdly, she laughed.  “Sorry, old joke; you wouldn’t get it.  Anyway, what’s up?”

“Uh, there’s a guy that—”

Cloud’s eyes narrowed.  “I thought you were dating Satin.”

“I am!  This isn’t me, I promise!  Anyway, there’s a guy that wants to meet you a—”

“Sorry, pass.”  She went back to looking in her locker.

“Look, I’m not trying to hit on you, Cloud—”

“Kicky or Kicks, if you please.  ‘Cloud’ reminds me of my mother,” Cloud replied, “and all my friends call me either Kicky or Kicks.”

Starfruit blinked; this was not at all how expected this to go.  “Okay, Kicks, then.  Seriously, though, I’ve been asked to, uh, ‘intermediary’ between you and another guy—”

“Okay,” the girl commented.  “Answer’s still a no, though.”

“Why not?  I have to tell him something.”

She held up her hand, with a thin band on it.  “This is why.”

“What is it?”

She poked her head out of the locker.  “It’s a promise ring.  Think of it as an engagement ring for lesbians.”

“Wait, you’re a lesbian?” he asked, and Cloud nodded.  “Ah, well, that explains that, sorry.”

“Actually, I’m bi, but I promised myself to Vinyl.”

“You’re dating Vinyl?  I thought she was your cousin or something!”

“Nope; we’re promised to each other, just living at her dad’s place.”  Cloud flashed him another sweet smile.  “However, I do actually appreciate what you’re doing, though; it shows you care about people.”  A thought crossed her face.  “Just out of curiosity, who were you going to try to pair me up with?”

“Royal Flush.  He asked about you the other day a—”

“Did you just say Royal Flush?”  When Starfruit nodded, she grinned.  “Did you know that Nova has been pining over him for ages?”

“Nova?  Really?  Did not know that,” Starfruit commented.

“You know, I think we could really come up with an idea here,” Cloud thought.  “Tell ya what: meet me after school at the True Brew, and we’ll talk.  I know the girls and I usually hang out there, but Nova won’t be there today.  She has singing practice with Vi – she agreed to help Nova with her singing.”

“But I thought Vinyl was a guitarist.”

“Oh, Vi’s a girl of many talents,” Cloud commented, a lazy, contented smile on her face.  “Trust me…she knows how to use her tongue.” 	





“Reallyreallyreallyreallyreally?” Bon-Bon asked.  “I can’t believe you didn’t know what that meant, Fruity!”

“BB, do you even know what that means?” Countryside asked, trying not to laugh as Bon-Bon gave yet another nickname to someone related to their circle.

The look of confusion on Bon-Bon’s face could only be described as “cute”.  “Uh, not really,” she said, blushing.

“Well, I cannot believe it took me the majority of the day to get what she meant,” Starfruit said, looking completely humiliated.

“Trust me, sweetie, you have to keep up when you’re talking to either Kicky or Vi,” Satin said, leaning against her boyfriend in support.  “As for what that meant, I think we can explore later, right?”  He blushed and she laughed.

“Wow, you just started dating just a couple of weeks ago and you’re already at that point?” Countryside snarked.  “Never thought you’d be that fast.”  Now it was Satin’s turn to blush even as Starfruit chuckled slightly.

“Look, I think we’re getting afield here,” Cloud said, stepping away from the counter as business had slowed down.  “The point was that we were going to work it so that Royal and Nova get together, right?”

Starfruit nodded.  “I told him about you and he took it in good stride; like me, he thought you and Vinyl were cousins or something.”

“Kissing cousins, maybe,” Cloud teased with a wink.  “But seriously, what else?”

“I was just getting to that.  Then I told him about this mystery girl that really liked him and wanted to get to know him at the Valentine’s dance.  That caught his attention, so I’m betting he’s ready to roll.”

“Well then, hopefully it’ll work on the other end,” Countryside said, as she hit enter on the laptop in front of her.  “Okay, email sent.  I just hope that Vi gets a chance to read it while Nova is tied up, or else this isn’t going to work.” 	





“Wow, you’ve got some pipes on you,” Vinyl said in appreciation.

“Thanks,” Nova replied.  At the moment, the pair was in the private studio that was built in the basement of Vinyl’s house.  Her father occasionally did shows from there on the days he was sick, and he also used it to record some of the comedy skits that played on his radio show.  Vinyl, for the moment, was using it as a training location for her friend, since the other option was at the music room at D’Aguanno, which could be sabotaged by Tequila and her fellow idiots.

“Have you ever considered that you’re singing the wrong style of music?” Vinyl asked.  “Yeah, I know you’re into Sapphire Shores and Midnight Moondust, but…your voice reminds me a lot of Flora.”

“Who?”

“Brazilian singer, sings mostly jazz, but has been on a whole bunch of other works.  Hold on, my Dad has one of her more recent albums here.  C’mon over here and I’ll play one for you.”  At the engineering console, Vinyl brought up some MP3 files while Nova came out of the sound booth and sat down next to Vinyl.  “Here,” Vinyl said, passing her friend a pair of headphones.  “This is “Light as a Feather”, from Terminal Island 1976, an album she recorded with Cannonball and Sweet Duke.”

Nova slipped on the headphones and listened, quickly soaking in the ambiance of the music.  For the next several minutes, Vinyl watched her friend as she seemed to learn from the music.  Finally, as the song stopped, the other girl nodded.  “She kinda sounds like me…or rather, who I’d like to sound like.  But I’m not a huge fan of jazz, Vi.”

Vinyl grinned.  “I know.  Which is why I said she plays in a lot of other genres.  Let me queue up another song by hers: “Angels”, from her 1977 album Nothing is As it Ever Was.  Nova slipped on the headphones again, and Vinyl hit the play button.

“Wow, is this 70s pop?” Nova asked while still listening to the music.  As the song ended, Vinyl went to go hit the pause button before the next track sounded, but the verdant-haired girl shook her head, as if concentrating on the song.  “Restart it, please.”  Vinyl nodded, recuing the song, and then let it fly.


And then something amazing happened.


Perfectly timed, even though this was only the second time she’d heard it, Nova sang along to the song in perfect accompaniment.  Nevermind that the song’s “lyrics” were actually just scat singing, the singer was able to keep up easily and in perfect timing with Flora’s own voice.  Vinyl noted that the two singers were so alike it was almost as though Flora’s voice had been dubbed in twice, and only Nova’s occasionally unsure warble prevented them from being identical.

When the song was over, Vinyl’s mouth was agape.  “That was fucking AWESOME!” she cried.  “Damn, I could barely tell which one was you and which one was Flora.  Seriously, Nova, that was amazing!”

“Y-you really think so?” the singer asked.

The answer to that was a resounding clap that was neither hers nor Vinyl’s.  “Brava!” Deep said as he came downstairs.  “Vinyl, I thought you might be doing some remixing, but I hadn’t expected to find Flora herself here!  And now, I see that wasn’t the case.”

Nova looked very flustered all of a sudden.  She knew that Vinyl’s father was Deep Bass, but the verdant-haired singer really hadn’t expected to meet him.  “I…uh…hello, Mr. Bass!” she stammered, trying to figure out how not to both squee and hide under the floor at the same time.

Deep laughed.  “Don’t worry, miss, I get that all the time.  Besides, we all put our pants on the same way, right?”  He then winked and added, “Well, except for me.  I’m a celebrity, so they just magically appear on me in my case.”  When Nova giggled, he said, “And now you’ve got it.  But my daughter’s a very astute observer of talent, young lady, and you have it.  Have you ever considered going into a career in music?”

“I…that is…well….” Nova sputtered, unsure of what to say next.

“All in due time, Nova,” Vinyl said with a grin.  “Now, let’s practice a little more and see what we can do, okay?”





Finally, the day of the dance came.  The school was festooned in shades of red, pink and white, and as a treat, the students were allowed to forego their uniforms for a change in favor of something that fit the school’s alternate dress code.  As a result, most of the pupil dressed in a “dressy casual” style, both to catch the eyes of their respective intended while at the same time trying not to look like they tried too hard to impress anyone.

For Cloud, that simply meant a hoodie and her favorite pair of charcoal-colored jeans.  Vinyl, always the showoff, however, wore her limited-edition Ba55 C4nnon “Musicus” jersey, complete with the band’s latest song playing from the built-in speaker.  She also wore a pair of pristine white jeans and neon-purple sneakers to compliment the look.

“So, are you nervous about tonight?” Cloud asked her lover.  Vinyl wasn’t usually the kind who got cold feet when it came to performing, but this evening was going to be a night unlike no other and the potential happiness of two couples rode on what she had planned.

“A little,” she admitted.  “Satin and Starfruit have a good thing going, and I have a chance to get Royal and Nova together.  This is going to be special for them and I can’t screw it up for either, y’know?”

“Hey, you won’t screw it up,” Cloud replied.  “I know you too well, girl.  You won’t screw it up, okay?”

“You sure?”

Cloud thought for a moment.  “Well, if things go wrong, then you’ll need cheering up, right?  And there’s nothing like cheering-up sex to make you smile.”

“Oh, really?” Vinyl said, both interested and skeptical at the same time.

The smile on Cloud’s face became serene.  “Trust me, Padawan, I still know yet more tricks.  Plus, it’s Valentine’s Day – I’ll use the really fun ones.” 


“Hihihihihi!”  Bon-Bon rushed up to them, carrying what had to be the largest batch of heart-shaped cookies known to mankind.  She was wearing a blindingly pink blouse with a red skirt and a white shawl over it and, combined with her hair colors, gave the appearance of the world’s largest cupcake.  “Want some cookies?  Just made them!”

“How did you jus….” Vinyl then noticed the cart behind her, bearing eight Easy-Bake ovens all connected to a UPC unit that was in turn connected to what was likely the world’s longest retractable extension cord.  “No, don’t answer that.  I don’t want to know.”

“So what’ve you two got planned for the day?  I thought I’d make these and spend the day baking stuff for the dance.”

“You mean you’re not going?” Cloud asked, shocked.  “I thought you loved dancing!”

“I do!” Bon-Bon squealed, but then blushed and said, “The guy you guys fixed me up with?  Pecan Roll?  He really likes baking and, well….”

Vinyl gave her a thumbs-up.  “Say no more, BB.  Just…make sure you get out there so you can see the special performance that we’ve got planned for tonight, okay?”

“What is it?” she asked.

Vinyl winked.  “It’s something that’s going to be really good,” she replied enigmatically.	





“You nervous?” Vinyl asked Nova as both stood on the stage.  The “stage” actually was a set of platforms, most of it taken up by Vinyl’s gear.  But in an extension in the front, was a single microphone, as well as a stand for Vinyl’s acoustic guitar and a microphone for said guitar.  And standing next to her, in a spectacular number, was Cloud, wearing a special little black dress that had been designed for her by Rarity as a farewell gift.  It had been a way of the fashionista showing no hard feelings towards the teen.  As for Vinyl herself, she was wearing an indigo button-up shirt and black slacks, easy enough to perform in but still looking stylish enough.

“Hey, I’m the one who looks good in anything,” Cloud replied.

“And out of it,” Vinyl said, blowing a kiss.

“Well, I see you two are calm about all this, but I’m not!” Nova replied.  At the moment, she was wearing a beautiful strapless red satin gown, with an accompanying small cape.  That had also been designed by Rarity, courtesy of the fashionista measuring the verdant-haired girl from one very awkward Skype call.  With some assistance from Praline in the makeup department, the young woman looked like the perfect princess, a veritable figure of love for the evening.  “About the only thing I’m sure of is this dress your friend made for me!”

“You’ll do fine, Nova,” Vinyl assured her.  “And if you really want to win Royal’s heart, you gotta do this.”  She patted her friend on the shoulder.  “After tonight, you’re only going to have one problem.”

“What’s that?”

“Finding out what his favorite color is, and if you can get lingerie in that color,” was the azure-haired girl’s response, and Nova blushed furiously.  Vinyl amended that with, “Okay, ladies, take your places, the dance is starting!”


As the crowds began to come in, Vinyl watched as the Baking Club made sure the refreshments were ready to go.  Several students from the Drama Club manned the lighting fixtures, set on a predesigned setup that both Vinyl and Stagelight had agreed on.  The Music Club had the speakers perfectly set, the school’s boxy, slightly industrial speakers being complemented by sleek performance monstrosities that Vinyl had brought from the house.

Stepping behind the rig, she started up the beats.  Playing a relatively slow song to get the crowd warmed up, she switched in the R&B grooves of “You’ve Got My Heart Goin’ Beatin’” by Sapphire Shores with the samba funk sounds of Brazilian artist País Tropical.  It was a lot of music that the kids on the dance floor had never heard before…and frankly, Vinyl wasn’t too exposed to it either.  Surprisingly, even with her expansive tastes in music, it was her father’s music collection, already set in digital form on a drive set in the console, which allowed her to play the analog beats of Sapphire Shores, scratching it up with a second album, and then processing it all through the DCS unit that had País Tropical’s tunes on it.  It was nothing like what Vinyl had done before, and in a short instance, she’d outperformed anything that she’d done back in Canterlot.

Maybe I should get a job at a dance club this summer, just to see what the local scene is like, Vinyl thought to herself.  She quickly pushed it away as she then saw exactly what she wanted to see: Satin was dancing with Starfruit, who was dressed far sharper than he normally did.  Over by the snacks, BB was dancing in place to the music and giving occasional glances, if not outright hints – or whatever passed as hints in BB’s mind – to Pecan Roll.  Countryside was chatting with one of the guys from the Astronomy Club – Shooting Star, if Vinyl remembered the name correctly – and they were hitting it off.  Not well enough to hit the dance floor, but the night was still young….

Vinyl then switched over to a new song mix, pairing up the disco beats of Red Hot Riot with the electronica sounds of Japanese artist Wataridori.  Back when she’d lived with her mother, Vinyl had met Red Hot and found that she was everything as advertised, a girl with a set of pipes and a very glittery way of looking at the world.  It had been Red Hot that had pointed out that one of her singles, “All My Lovin’ for You,” sounded like one half of a song when played right next to Wataridori’s own “Sun-Dappled Sakurajima”.

Finally, after the fourth song, as Vinyl was getting ready to fade in both Beat and Soul’s new single alongside a country-pop song from the 80s that paired well, she saw Royal walk in.  He was wearing a white dinner jacket, along with a white tuxedo shirt and a magenta bowtie, accompanied by dark slacks and clearly expensive shoes.  He carried a single rose with him, and just behind him…

Vinyl’s eyes narrowed.  There she is.  Tequila Sunrise and her crew walked in, and based on the looks on their faces, they were doing so reluctantly.  Either to put in a show just to display how nothing at the school could happen without them, or in order to plan to trash the place, it didn’t matter.  Tequila’s presence meant trouble, proven a split second later as Vinyl and Tequila locked eyes on one other.  The musician could practically feel the waves of hatred coming from the girl.

Wow, ended up as her Public Enemy Number One, Vinyl thought, a slight smirk coming to her face that automatically pissed off the other girl, who stormed over to the refreshments table.  Now I’m really hoping this screws things up for them.

Speaking to Cloud, who was dancing in place next to her, Vinyl said, “Finish out this song, and then cue both microphones, okay?  It’s showtime.”

“Be careful, sweetie,” Cloud replied, kissing Vinyl briefly.  “This is make or break for Nova.”

“Yeah, I know.”  She turned to Nova, who had been sitting to the side, tapping out something on her phone.  “You ready?”

“Ready as I’m never going to be,” she said with a grin, setting down her phone.

“Then let’s get going!” Vinyl replied, taking her girlfriend by the hand.


Cloud, at the decks, finished out the song, then did as instructed, switching to her microphone as she called out, “Is everyone having a good time?”  There were cheers.  “No, seriously, is everyone having a good time?”  The cheers got louder and Cloud got into it.  “Okay, for all you lovers out there, we’ve got a special treat for you!  Vinyl Scratch and Nova are going to perform for all those who want to dance with their honeys.  So give it up for them!”  The applause grew as Vinyl took to the stage.

Vinyl sat down on the stool, grabbing her guitar and slipping the strap around her shoulder, getting comfortable with it.  She then looked at the crowd around her, soaking in their interest, and then finally at Nova, who gave her a nervous glance.  Vinyl hoped her visual reply was all that needed to be said: Girl, you got this.

Nodding, Nova turned to the microphone in front of her and said, “I’d love to sing a little song for all of those in the audience.”  She looked right at Royal and gave him what she hoped was her best seductive smile.  Royal, surprisingly, blushed a little and that gave her all the strength she needed.

Sensing her friend’s change in mood, Vinyl took that as a cue to start, and she did, her fingers expertly sliding across her guitar.  She felt the play of the nylon strings, heard the sweet sound against the cedar and mahogany of the box as she played along, hoping for the vocals to commence soon.

She didn’t have to wait long as a beautiful voice lifted notes into the air:





“Beat, beat, beat, beat
Is the sound my heart makes – beat, beat
Sounds just like a sam-ba drum-mer
That’s makin’ my heart go astir
Just for you 

“Beat, beat, beat, beat
Is the sound my heart makes – beat, beat
Sounds just like a sam-ba drum-mer
That’s makin’ my heart go astir”

With a confidence she didn’t know she had, Nova glided off the stage right over to the unsuspecting Royal, and putting her arms around herself, sang to the whole group, but in truth, serenaded just one single soul:

“Will you be true
When I offer myself to you?
Or is all just a dream
Hoping that you won’t split my heart at the seams?

“Beat, beat, beat, beat
Is the sound my heart makes – beat, beat
Sounds just like a sam-ba drum-mer
That’s makin’ my heart go astir
Just for you….”

As Vinyl went into the instrumental bridge of the song, Nova couldn’t help but wrap her arms around Royal.  Instinctively, their lips met, brushed together, then fully connected, sending both into paradise.  Due to her singing, the kiss had to end nearly as soon as it began, but as she parted, she knew she had his heart, and he had hers.  She then stepped back and, giddy as could be, started with the third stanza of the song.



 

Standing by the entrance, Windsong, Stagecraft and Tequila Sunrise, along with their dates, watched in utter shock as Vinyl Scratch and Nova completely entranced the crowd before them, sure as any siren’s song.  Finally, she kissed Royal briefly before returning to the stage, continuing her song.

“Buh….” Windsong blurted.  “But…but how…how?  She can’t sing for shit!  And I know that song!  That’s ‘Tim Tim Tim’ by Esquema Novo!  Where the hell did she learn how to sing bossa nova?”

“Hell, where the fuck did she learn how to sing, period?” Stagecraft murmured.  “She can outsing you now, Windy!”  She suddenly realized that was the exact wrong thing to say and she winced as Windsong smacked her in the back of the head.

“Okay you two, knock it off!” Tequila seethed.  As the two performers on stage wrapped up their song, the crowd began to cheer and clap wildly, calling for encores.  Nova and Vinyl spoke briefly, then they bid the crowd to take their partners and dance as the musical duo then went into a slow, sultry rendition of Midnight Moondust’s “Moonlight Wish”.  Somehow, they’d managed to turn a fast-paced song into a soft, lilting love song that brought crowds together in a way Tequila had never seen before.

The teen could practically hear her hold over the student body snapping in two.  Without a word more, she stormed out, her date looking at her strangely then following, with the rest of her circle of friends following close behind her.


From their respective locations, the Six could see Tequila’s antics, but it didn’t matter.  This night was for shining and love, and thanks to Nova and Vinyl, they managed to make a magical night all the more special.





Watching from a darkened corner of the gym, Clover smiled softly.  It looks like Vinyl and company found a way to put Tequila in her place, she thought with not a small bit of pride towards her future stepdaughter.  But the smile fell from her face as she knew that Tequila, as well as her mother, would retaliate against the school and its students, and soon.  She would have to look for a way to stop the inevitable attack, because she was certain it would be ugly.

But for now, she would savor this moment.





Storming out of the gym, Tequila seethed – she’d never been so humiliated!  Vinyl Scratch had just pushed Tequila’s buttons harder than anyone had ever done before, effectively declaring war.  It was now between the Shitty Six and Tequila’s Tops, and the whisky-haired teen knew exactly how that was going to end.

You want to prove you can fly, Scratch? Tequila thought as she pulled her phone out of her purse.  You’re about to learn the hard way what it’s like when you become Icarus.
> March 15: Love Inflation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“A feeling becomes a word
The word loses it meaning
When you say it again and again
You are losing
You are losing
You are losing it”
- Kraak & Smaak



“I cannot believe your behavior!” Tequila Sunrise looked down at the ground, unable to face her mother, Pastel Pink. Her mother was yelling at her at the breakfast table and throwing one of her typical temper tantrums. “How can you do this to me?” Tequila thought about saying something, but as always, opted not to – it was less painful that way.

“ANSWER ME!”

Tequila finally looked up. “But Mother, you heard what happened at the dance! That upstart! She and her…associate—”

“You mean living blow-up doll,” Pink seethed. “I’ve done some research on those two. Apparently, the little blondie will go after anything with a pulse. As to the other one….”

“Vinyl.”

“Yes, whatever her name is. She has some protection via her father, but the private investigator I hired to look into them has yet to dig up what the little blue-haired whore is hiding. In any case, I’ve prepared some assistance for you and your friends.” Pink threw a folder at her daughter. “Now, I expect you to fully follow my directions. We’re going to put a stop to those little bitches, so that you will retake your position at the top of the school order, do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Good. Now, I’ll be out of town in Los Angeles for the rest of the week. I have to have a discussion with my producer as to why he wants me to play another mother role.” She struck a pose and smiled. “Aren’t I young and voluptuous enough to play a girlfriend?”

“Yes, Mother,” Tequila said flatly, not reminding her mother that she’d had so many facelifts over the years that her smile lines were probably behind her ears at this point.

“Well then, dear. I’ll be off now. Best of luck and I’ll expect results when I get back. Ciao!” With that, her mother left the kitchen. Tequila waited until she heard the car drive off before she bothered to open the dossier.

What she found surprised her. She knew her friends had been digging up some dirt, but her mother had hired a professional and with that came some information she had no idea even existed. What she had already would highly embarrass the Shitty Six.

What Tequila’s mother had given her would destroy them utterly.

She reached over and grabbed her phone.

“Hey, Crafty? I need both of you to meet me at the Highpoint Coffee Shop in an hour.” Holding the folder in her hand like a precious jewel, she said, “I have something that’s going to make our lives easier…and make the Shitty Six a thing of the past.”





Vinyl lifted her spatula, the flat bready disc pirouetting through the air, though she barely paid attention to it. Something felt wrong – she wasn’t sure what it was, and if anyone was to ask her, she wouldn’t be able to verbalize it, either. Still, if there was one thing she was starting to learn since moving from Canterlot, it was that she needed to pay attention to her instincts.

She heard footsteps and looked up to see Cloud descending the stairs, and that caught her attention. Ever since she had come into her life permanently, Cloud was changing, smoothing off her rough edges and in the past couple of months had become more feminine, if that was a word to use. Sure, she was still earthy, could curse up a storm and was great in the sack, Vinyl had to admit, but Cloud Kicker was undergoing a metamorphosis from lover to girlfriend, and somehow, the azure-haired teen wasn’t going to complain.

“Pancakes?” Cloud asked as she walked over to Vinyl and kissed her on the cheek.

“Crepes, actually,” Vinyl admitted, adjusting her glasses. “It was one of the few things of value that I learned from my mother.” She sighed. “Why the hell is it that I think about her whenever I think something bad’s about to happen?” Cloud looked at her with concern, and Vinyl turned back to her crepe, sliding it from the skillet to a plate. “Sorry,” she apologized. “It’s just that I get that something’s wrong.”

“You’re right there’s something wrong,” Cloud told her. “You’re bothered by something and not telling me what it is, Vi. I’m your girlfriend. We’re supposed to talk.”

The shorter teen reached for the batter and poured another flat disc. “There’s nothing to tell,” she commented. “I really can’t explain it, Kicky. I wish I could. But it’s just a feeling that something’s wrong.”

“Something wrong as in I’m not paying enough attention to you, or—”

“You pay plenty of attention to me, Kicky. Just because you have a job now doesn’t mean that we have to be testing the bed all the time. Besides, I kinda like little moments like this,” she said with a blush.

“Then what is it?”

“This is going to sound weird – call it blue pineapples or jitters or whatever the hell you want to call it…you’ll probably think it’s trivial.”

Cloud took her girlfriend’s face in her hand. “You’re not trivial to me, Vi, you know that.”

“Thanks,” she said with a meaningful smile. “Anyway, I have that same feeling I did when I was around Blueblood. My instincts told me that I should’ve stepped away but I didn’t and you know what happened. I’m getting that same feeling now, but I don’t know why.” She flipped the crepe with a twist of her wrist, then brought it down again. “I dunno. Maybe dinner last night is getting to me.”

“Well, Bulgarian food was an interesting experience,” Cloud admitted.

“Yeah, so interesting I don’t think I’ll want to go back to that restaurant, but Dad and Clover wanted us all to go out to dinner before they left on their vacation, and at least Clover liked it.”


There was another rumble of footfalls down the steps and both turned to see Long Play coming down the stairs. “Hey, how’s my favorite girls I’m not sleeping with?” he asked, putting arms around them.

“Thanks for making that so gross,” Vinyl said, smacking her brother on the back of the head.

“We were having a moment, and you ruined it, Long,” Cloud added.

“Oh, you guys were having a moment?” he asked. Both nodded, and he laughed. “That’s so cute. Listen, Vi, you busy tonight?”

“I didn’t have any plans, why?” she asked, as she moved the done crepe to the ready plate and started on a third.

“I’m working late tonight,” Cloud added, “so I don’t have anything set.”

“Good – I need a favor,” Long started. “I was supposed to do a gig tonight over in Kalamazoo. But I just got a call from our drummer and there’s a rep from Persephone who wants to see us play.” He gave a wide smile. “This could be my big break!”

“Good for you!” Cloud cheered.

“So, I told the guys at Kalamazoo that I needed to bounce, but that you were just as good at the decks and I recommended you. They’re willing to pay you the same rate that they were going to pay me, plus a bonus for last-minute scheduling. And since the party’s expected to run late, they reserved a hotel room for you as well. You up for that?”

“You should do it,” Cloud told her. “I don’t know how late it’s going to be when I get home, and besides, sounds like it’s a good gig.”

“Yeah, okay, then I’m in.”

“Cool. Let’s eat breakfast, and then I can go over the basics before I head out.”

Vinyl’s answer was to flip the third crepe. “Sure thing!”





“Okay,” Windsong called to her friend as she walked through the door of the Highpoint Coffee Shop, “what’s this I hear about you having a way for us to get rid of the Shitty Six for good? You been holding out on us?”

Tequila took a drink from her coffee while Stagecraft, who had shown up just a few minutes before, was silent. “Have a seat and read,” the former said, sliding a copy over to the empty seat on the other end of the table. As the third girl sat down and picked it up, the teen chanteuse added, “Trust me, this shit’s the good stuff, and should put them down once and for all. Granted, the spying that we’re planning on Satin should work for her, but there’s a couple of others that are going to need a little…coercion.”

Windsong quickly skimmed through her copy, her jaw falling more and more as she saw the information. “Is this shit legit?” she asked Tequila, who nodded. “Do you know how much we could destroy those bitches?”

Stagecraft finally looked up from her copy and wiped a faux tear away from her eye. “This is beautiful, Quila. You have come up with a masterpiece.”

“I don’t care if it’s a masterpiece or not,” Windsong scoffed. “Look, as long as we get rid of the retard and the carpet munchers, I give no fucks.” She pointed at one particular page. “Now this shit I can believe, given that cunt Cloud Kicker looks at everyone like she wants to lick their bungholes.”

“Ewww!” Stagecraft spat. “Nobody wants to hear that!”

Tequila grinned. “Doesn’t matter. After what we have, we’re going to bury them so hard in the next couple of days that they’re going to beg us to kick them out!” She grinned maliciously. You’re going to pay for your insolence, Vinyl Scratch. Just you wait!





A little while later, Cloud and Vinyl showed up at the True Brew. With spring break fully in session, it was a week that Cloud could pick up some extra hours, while Vinyl just wanted to hang out with her friends before her gig tonight. But as they arrived, they found that neither Satin nor Bossa Nova were present. “Hey, where’s the others?” she asked.

Countryside grinned. “Satin’s playing house at her place with Starfruit this weekend, while Royal and Nova went out of town this weekend with his parents. As for BB, she went shopping for some baking stuff – I think she wants to bake Satin and Starfruit a ‘Happy Month-Long Anniversary’ cake when she gets back.”

Something in the back of Vinyl’s mind tingled. “Is she okay?”

At this moment, Praline came out from the back of the shop and said, “She’s fine, Vi. Pecan is with her. I swear since those two met at the dance planning sessions, they’re completely inseparable. Why, is something wrong?”

Cloud rolled her eyes. “Vi’s been of the opinion that something strange is going to happen soon.”

“Hey, it worked for Pinkie, okay?”

Countryside looked at her friend. “Who’s Pinkie?”

“Friend of ours back in Canterlot. Had this thing she called a ‘Pinkie Sense’, where she could predict something before it happened. Maybe it rubbed off on me or something.”

Countryside giggled. “New age type, I’m figuring?”

“No, that’d be Lyra.”

“Sounds like you had some interesting friends, girls.”

“Yeah,” Vinyl sighed, “until I screwed up so many of those friendships.” Even two months after she’d moved on from the whole Vibe affair, she never really got over it…and she wasn’t one of the ones fully victimized by Blueblood and Flash Sentry’s “Club.” The last conversation Cloud had with Sunset this past Friday via Skype indicated that Vinyl’s reputation would never really recover, and that psychiatrists and counselors in the Canterlot metropolitan area were worth their weight in gold right now from the fallout of the Vibe situation.

“I’m just as much to blame as you were,” Cloud said. “I could have stopped you earlier, but I didn’t. Besides, it’s all in the past now. We did move here to start over, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, we did,” Vinyl said in gratitude for being reminded of that. As the bell rang and several customers came in, Cloud went back to the counter, leaving Vinyl and Countryside alone. “Yeah, it still bothers me.”

“We all have our dirty pasts, Vinyl,” Countryside replied. “Mine is that my dad isn’t my birth father – my mother had an affair while she and Dad were on the verge of divorce and got pregnant, but they patched things up and Mom has never told me who my biological father is, so I’ve never met him. My dad is the only father I’ve known, and he loves me just as much as if I was his by blood.”

“That’s nice. I wish I could say the same about my mom,” Vinyl replied. “I mean, things were great when I was a kid, but then Mom wanted to climb through the halls of power in Canterlot – I think she has her eye on an elected seat someday – and Dad just wanted to be a DJ. Dad got offered the afternoon slot in Houston, he and Mom divorced, Dad took Long and moved there, and I stayed with Mom because they thought that was the best thing for me at the time.” She sighed. “I wonder if Dad knew how much shit Mom put me through if he would’ve changed his mind.”

“Sounds like your mother was a real problem.”

Vinyl nodded. “Don’t get me wrong – Mom did take care of me; it’s just that she wants to be at the top so badly that she did everything she could to make sure that all the stars aligned in her favor…and as I got older, that included using me as a tool as well. It got so bad that when I got mixed into my troubles, Mom sent me away because I’d become more trouble than I was worth…because she never saw me as a value other than her fortunes in the end.”

“You reap what you sow,” Countrytime agreed. “But hey, Canterlot’s loss is our gain, right?”

“I guess,” Vinyl said nonchalantly. “I’d just settle for being as normally cool as I already am.”

“And humble, too, I see.”





Satin Splash looked up at the ceiling, smiling softly. She was sore right now, but sore in a good way. She could still feel the sharp pain inside her, the tears of both pleasure and pain that had welled in her eyes, and the inexplicable sensation she felt when she gave up her virginity. It was worth it, she felt.

She looked at the boy dozing silently next to her. Thankfully, her bed was big enough for the both of them; her parents were out of town, and Starfruit had told his parents that he was staying over a friend’s place for the weekend. Sure enough, that made it ideal for the two to have a beautiful weekend exploring their relationship…and each other’s bodies.

She ran a finger down the length of his jawline and the movement woke him up. “Hello, love,” she said softly, taking in his essence.

“Hey, yourself,” he said, reaching over and kissing her softly. “How do you feel?”

“Like I want you again,” she purred.

“I think I can oblige,” he said, as he slithered under the sheets, to her pleasurable sighs.


Meanwhile, on a discarded shirt hanging on a chair just six feet away, a series of small cameras shaped like buttons recorded the whole thing, feeding the data to a receiver system on a drone floating above the house and in violation of FAA regulations. However, teenagers never really gave much care for laws when it didn’t directly impact them, not when it came to illegal use of drones…or the illegal use of encrypted transmissions to a location not too far away.

Seated in a car at the end of the block, Tequila watched the footage of the two teenagers making love. It was both bumbling – that usually happened for two people who were going through their first times – and erotic, that last part being due to the passion of the two involved, but that held no interest for her. No, what truly caught her attention was the sheer…usefulness…of the video.

One down, four more to go, she grinned maliciously.





“Thanks for giving me a lift home,” Countryside said to Vinyl as they pulled up in front of the former’s house. “My car’s in the shop right now, and it’s a pain taking the bus everywhere.”

“I can imagine,” Vinyl replied. “Well, I gotta get going. It’s a long drive to Kalamazoo, and I’ve never been there before.”

“I’ve been there a few times,” Countryside commented. A thought then came to her. “Want me to come with you? I’ve got nothing going on.”

“You sure? I don’t want to drag you out to the middle of nowhere where you’ll be bored.”

“Hey, we’re friends, right? Besides, better to travel the road with company than with no one at all.” She waved her in. “C’mon, won’t take me a minute to pack, then leave a note for my parents.”

“Sure, be right in,” Vinyl said, as she turned off the ignition and locked the car, stepping out to briefly join her friend in the house. After a quick drink, and Countryside throwing some clothing in a bag, as well as leaving a note for her parents and promising she’d be back the next day. With that, the two rushed out of the house, eager to go on their trip.

They were so focused, they didn’t see the small package sitting by the door that read FOR COUNTRYSIDE.





Bon-Bon put her head briefly against Pecan Roll’s shoulder. So far things were going perfectly! Ever the gentleman, Pecan offered to help her shop for stuff so that they could make treats together. True, they’d been dating for nearly a month now and almost got to kiss! But neither of them was ready to make that big of a step yet…that was an awfully big change in their relationship, after all.

“Well,” said Pecan as he looked at the shopping list on his phone, “we still have to stop by Kumquat’s Fruit Stand, then Natural Goodness’ Organic Shoppe, and then we can head back to the True Brew to start baking, okay?”

Bon-Bon looked at her own watch. “You know….” she said in a sweet voice, “I saved a whole hour, thanks to you.” She turned a bright red, then shuffled her feet nervously as she said, “Well, um, you know, I guess, maybe you deserve a kiss for all that, and…I….”

Pecan himself blushed, adjusting his glasses nervously. “I mean…are you sure? I-I-I don’t want to rush you, if you don’t think you’re ready and….”

She smiled winsomely. “Let’s…pick up the final things we need, then we’ll go back and talk about it in my room, okay?”

Pecan tried not to show the shock at how forward she was being. Inviting him into her room? That was…. Wow, she moves fast! he mentally gasped. In order to push off his surprise, he suggested, “Let’s take a shortcut. This alley cuts through the block, and we should be able to get to the bus stop from there, okay?”

Bon-Bon smiled, and that was the sweetest thing in the world to him. “That’s a reallyreallyreallyreally great idea, Pecan!” she cooed. With that, he gestured for her to enter in first, and then, ever the gentleman, Pecan walked in front, braving the slightly dingy and dirty reality that was the alleyway.

That lasted right until he was slugged hard in the solar plexus, dropping him in an instant. The blow had been so hard, that he was completely unconscious by the time he hit the ground. Bon-Bon reacted immediately, moving to Pecan’s side in an instant…only to be yanked hard back to her feet by a bunch of men wearing masks.

“Don’t move a single fucking muscle,” the man holding her by the arms growled at her while a second one ripped off her backpack and started rummaging through it.

“No!” Bon-Bon screamed, frightened by what she knew was going to happen the moment the second man unearthed Feather. Trying to desperately wriggle out of her assailant’s grasp while trying to rescue her beloved plushie from the other thug. It only became worse when the man produced a lighter and started to bring it towards the polyester fur.

“No! Please don’t!” Bon-Bon cried, tears streaming down her face. She was pulling as hard as she could now, far beyond that of someone riled about the destruction of her property and more akin to a person desperately attempting to save a loved one. With a final wrench that looked as though she dislocated something, she fell to the ground, dazed.

“What the fuck?” the first thug asked the second.

The second didn’t listen, however, lighting the plushie on fire. Whether it was due to the materials used in its construction or countless repairs, the toy went up in flames. “Here – you can have it back!” the second man taunted, throwing the burning plushie at the girl. The burnt plushie bounced once, then impacted against her shirt and her hair…which then caught fire.

The screams became louder, almost insane in their cacophony.

“Fuck, let’s get out of here!” the second one screamed, both beating a quick retreat as people arrived to investigate the terror-stricken shrieking.





“So it’s done?” Windsong said into the phone. “No, I’ve no idea why that little cunt would act like that, and frankly, it’s not my problem….Yeah, don’t worry, Grind, you’ll get your cash.” Pressing the disconnect button, Windsong looked at the other two. “Well, that’s one problem taken care of.”

Tequila looked at Windsong. “Which one?”

“Grindout and Takeoff ran into Bon-Bon and that faggy boyfriend of hers downtown. Since they’re just dumb jocks and I know how to handle them, I made them an offer to break the two of them.”

Stagecraft giggled. “Oh, do tell.”

Windsong laughed. “You know that stupid doll that Bon-Bon always carries around? Well, I told TW and BD to rough up Pecan Roll, then to set that fucking doll of Bon-Bon’s on fire.”

The look on Tequila’s face was one that Windsong hadn’t expected. “You set her plushie on fire?”

“Fuck yes? Who the fuck carries a doll to school? I haven’t done that since I was in first grade!” Stagecraft sneered.

Tequila sighed. “Windy, Crafty…that plushie was important to—”

“Did I just hear you right?” Stagecraft asked, surprised. “Are you actually giving a shit about that retard girl?”

“I…no! Why would I?” Tequila stammered. “It’s just that…she didn’t get hurt, did she? That’s…that’s going too far.”

“Hey, the boys aren’t that stupid,” Windsong scoffed. “I bet all they did was just scare her and rough up her fagboy a little, nothing serious.”

“Besides,” Stagecraft added, “main event hasn’t kicked in yet. Got a friend making copies of Satin Splash and Starfruit’s, ahem, ‘entertainment’, as it were. We should expect it to go online in as many places as possible during the first week of school.”

“And what about the others?” Tequila asked. “Do we have anyone we can trust to take care of them?”

“Still working on that. Can’t promise anything, but if worst comes to, the shame of being tied to the others should be more than enough,” Stagecraft promised.





A rented truck rolled down the eastbound Interstate 94, well on its way to its destination. Seated in the cab, two people relaxed, playing some relaxing beats by the Tunetwisters as they chowed down on lunch.

“Okay, so tell me about this whole gig,” Countryside asked. “Sounds interesting.”

“Well, from what my brother said, the party’s being done by some old high school buddy of his. Apparently, it’s his 23rd birthday today, so he thought he’d celebrate in over-expensive style. The rest, of course, you know.”

“Yeah, but Kalamazoo? Didn’t think there was much there.”

“Yeah, I kinda got the feeling myself,” Vinyl admitted, “but hey, I go where the pay is. Besides, you get to party tonight and relax at a hotel tomorrow. What’s so bad about that?”

“Point,” Countryside laughed. “Are you going to need help setting up your rig?”

“Some, because I don’t know if there’s anyone there who knows how to put one together. Besides, I’d rather it be someone I trust.” Vinyl was thoughtful for a second, and added, “Oh, and it goes without saying that since it’s a party, there’s probably going to be a lot of drinking and maybe even some drugs. Not my job to bother you about that, but whatever you do, don’t bring it around the rig. It’s a professional piece of machinery, so I gotta do my best.”

“No worries on my end, but what about you?”

“I don’t touch anything while I’m on the job, not even water or soft drinks. Hell, that even includes Kicky.”

“You’ve had her behind the decks before,” Countryside reminded her. “Wasn’t she on the decks?”

“Yeah, but usually it’s just to finish something out or while I step out to use the little girls’ room,” Vinyl explained. “Trust me, her main interest when it comes to gear is usually the person running it, AKA me.”





“T-thank…you.” Praline nervously put down the phone before dropping to the floor.

“PRAE!” Cloud immediately dropped her tray and rushed to her boss’ side. “You okay?”

“I’ve got to get to the hospital!” the woman cried. “BB’s there – she was attacked and burned!”

“Burned?” Cloud asked, shocked, then recovered. “Get to the hospital,” she insisted. “I’ll get a hold of Frenchie, then close the café and head over there!” While Praline rushed to her car, Cloud started to get people their drinks as fast as she could in order to close up shop. She slipped the store’s Bluetooth into her ear so she could get a hold of Frenchie and give him the sad news. After that, she’d have to rush to the hospital immediately, as well as call the others.

Vinyl’s going to be out of town for the rest of the day, and Nova and her boyfriend are on vacation as well, she sighed, as the phone dialed the other café. Hopefully I can get a hold of Countryside – I think we’re going to need her help.





Vinyl stood there, trying to recover from the shock. The place was huge – it was easily the biggest gig she’d ever work. There were two stages, one for the bands and one for her gear. There were already a bunch of people drinking and toking, and it was blatantly obvious that there would be a few couples, well…coupling by the end of the night, if not sooner.

But that wasn’t the thing that had her attention. No, that honor entirely belonged to the person of honor, the one throwing this whole shindig: Kind Bud. A spoiled trustafarian living a sybaritic lifestyle, and looked stoned out of his gourd. She could practically smell the THC he was giving off.

“Hey, man, so you’re Long’s kid sister! Fuckin’ awesome! Band’s’ll be playin’ until about 11, and then you’ll go on until everyone drops or the sun comes up. You got the hotel room for the week you’re here!”

Vinyl and Countryside looked at each other in surprise. “Week?” they both asked.

“Yeah, didn’t your brother tell you ‘bout that? Party was just supposed to be ‘bout me, but then my cousin came in town and I haven’t seen her in ages, so I made it a family reunion, too! Totally sweet!” He turned and waved over. “Yo, Octy, c’mon down and intro yourself to the DJ!”

Down the steps, came the person in question and with that, Vinyl’s jaw dropped: the girl looked like a double of Octavia Melody, the hot, wet dream of Vinyl’s life. But this was even stronger: somehow this girl knew what she had and she displayed it, with a too-tight shirt, pants that clung to her, and burgundy eyes that burned with desire.

It was beyond belief, Vinyl knew, and she couldn’t even begin to calculate the odds of having a second person looking so much like the girl that had once taken her heart and caused her to end up living out here in Michigan. Yet, as she well knew, the world was a weird place and it was possible.

Plus, she remembered the C2 ad campaign for a few years back with the “someone else on this world looks just like you” when she was a kid; with her mother’s permission – her mother was still cool back then – Vinyl had uploaded a picture of herself and it was matched to a girl named Tekno Elektrisch, who lived in Belgium…too bad the system didn’t allow for addresses to be put in.

But this…

But this…

The girl leaned against Bud and sighed. “Really, Bud? I was busy.” The way she said it sounded sexy enough that Vinyl’s body practically started vibrating and it took everything in her to calm herself down.

“Hey, this is Vinyl Scratch, the DJ performing tonight,” Bud said, “and I didn’t get your name.”

“Um…Countryside,” Countryside stated. “I’m a friend of Vinyl’s.”

“And this is my cousin, Octavia Philharmonica. Octy’s a musician herself, but she’s just here to relax.”

Octavia looked at Vinyl and Countryside before sighing in what sounded ominously orgasmic. “Do I get to keep them?” She waltzed over to the two girls, looking at them as if they were pieces of meat on display. “She looks like she goes for the long haul,” she purred, before turning to look at Vinyl. “And you already look ready to go, don’t you?”

“I…uh….”

Octavia fished her room key out of her pocket. “My room, in an hour. Don’t keep me waiting.”

She was just about to walk away, when Vinyl steeled herself. This is wrong! “No,” Vinyl said, handing the key back. “No, you just reminded me of someone I knew back when I lived in Canterlot.”

“Oh, her.” Octavia’s tone suddenly went from wanting to venomous. “That frigid little goody-two-shoes cunt. Should’ve known. She ruins everything.”

“Who?” Bud asked.

Octavia sighed, but this time it was one of exasperation. “I have a cousin that lives in Canterlot by the name of Octavia Melody. We look very much alike, but I’m nothing like her. She wishes she had the talent, the drive and the libido I do, but she’s a stuck-up little fucking Pollyanna.” She then turned back to Vinyl. “Keep the card. You want memories of an Octavia that’ll last you a lifetime? You know where to find me.” She walked over and kissed Vinyl, not deep, but enough to get the point across. “I’ll make you forget she ever existed.” With that, she walked off.

Bud sat there for a while, speechless. Then a lazy grin came over his face and he added, “Sweet. Looks like you two got yourself a threesome. Well, I gotta go see about the herb shipment and the alcohol, so see you around, girls!” He then headed off as well.

“That was…intense,” Countryside said, grasping for a word. “Is it bad I’m not even gay and I felt her desire?” Vinyl didn’t respond, and Countryside said, “Vinyl, you okay?”

Vinyl stood there, her hands balled into fists and her eyes shut tight, tears at the end. “Why me? Why me, Goddammit?”

“Hey, Vi….”

“C’mon, let’s go load the rig and then get to our hotel room. This isn’t what I expected, and I’ll need your help. I’ll need a friend.”

“Why?”

“Because I love Kicky,” Vinyl admitted, “but I just got offered the temptation of a lifetime. We’ll talk later.”





Nestled in a vacation home just north of Woodstock, Ontario, Royal Flush and his girlfriend Bossa Nova sat outside, just enjoying the spring breeze. Across the way, his parents were getting in a rented van and getting ready to tour the local Ontario farm country. They didn’t bother asking the two teens whether they wanted to go; Royal had already received the lecture about being a gentleman when it came to the ladies, and besides, when it came to his girl, Royal had very much intended to treat her like his own personal treasure.

“So….” he began delicately. “What do you want to do now?”

Nova gave her beau what she hoped was her sultriest smile. “I was thinking we could start by making out, and then if we have time, bed-shattering sex.”

His eyes widened large enough to be easily confused with those of a cartoon equine. “WHAT?!?!?!?!?”

She laughed softly. “Vinyl said that would break you, and I told her that it wouldn’t faze you at all. I guess I owe her twenty bucks now.”

“No, it didn’t,” he said, blatantly lying through his teeth, which made her laugh all the more.

“Yes it did, you can admit it.”

“I admit nothing,” he told her. “Only thing I admit is that you have my heart.”

“And don’t I know that, which is why you’re not getting rid of me,” she said with a soft smile. She caressed his cheek, and he could feel the warmth of her hand, as well as the faint pulse within, as if sending a morse code of desire. “I love you,” she said, as she leaned forward to kiss him—

—only to have his cellphone go off. “Sorry,” he said and she nodded as she moved back. “Yeah, this is Royal.”

“Royal!” the voice on the other end was panicked, and female. “Is Nova there?”

He finally realized who it was. “Kicks? What’s up?”

“Oh, thank God! I’ve been trying to get a hold of everyone and I can’t!” She sounded as if she was almost about to shatter. “I can’t get a hold of Satin, Countryside or Vi! If Nova’s there, please put her on the phone!”





“…and thanks for keeping me in the loop, Kicks.” On the other end, Nova sounded as if she wanted to cry. “Please take care of BB. We need her to be okay.”

“I will,” Cloud said. “You guys take care. Bye.” She hung up the phone and looked out the window of the fifth floor of Royal Oaks Medical Center, the best hospital in all of Detroit. BB was in the ICU right now and though brutalized to the point where he’d been hospitalized as well, Pecan gave a statement to the Detroit Police Department. With her was Praline and French Roast, and because she wasn’t family, she couldn’t go in.

She’d managed to get a hold of Satin and her boyfriend, but both Vinyl and Countryside were still out of touch. Were they both in an area where there was no phone reception? Or were the batteries run down, or…. Cloud forced herself to calm down; Vinyl knew how to take care of herself, and she was sure Countryside was okay as well. For the former, she’d just have to ask Long for info tonight when she got home, and as for the latter, she could probably have him drive her to Countryside’s place tomorrow.

“Kicks?” She turned to see Praline approach, and she looked horrified. “I thought you’d want to know what happened to BB.” She walked over to a seat and slumped in it. “For starters, she’s physically okay. It burned off most of her hair and she had first degree burns, but despite his broken arm and ribs, Pecan smothered her with his shirt in time.” She smiled sadly. “He protected her and I never expected that of him. As far as I’m concerned, while he was fine to date her before, he’s great in my book now.”

But Cloud caught her comment. “You said physically.”

At that, Praline broke out in sobs. “She’s in a coma,” she explained. “Whoever attacked them burned Feather and the shock….” Cloud wrapped her arms around the woman and held her close. “I can’t lose her,” Praline moaned. “I just can’t.”

“We won’t,” Cloud promised. “We’ll make sure that she’ll get through this. You have my word.” Cloud was going to say something else, but then her phone went off. She looked at it and saw a voicemail.

“It might be Vinyl or Countryside,” Cloud explained. “Let me check.” She unlocked her phone, went to voicemail, and listened.

“Hey, hottie babe, this is Jukebox. Now, I know you moved away and you don’t play no more; this call ain’t about that. No, I called to let you know some shit’s going down and I think you might want to turn on the TV, girl. Anyway, best to you and whoever you got lickin’ both your lips. Later!”

Cloud stared at the phone; Jukebox had been one of her regulars, but she’d always thought him weird. The truth was, if it wasn’t for the fact that he was hung like a horse, she wouldn’t have bothered. But whatever it was, it was serious enough for him to call her.

Turn on the TV? Wonder what that’s about?

On a hunch, she opened her browser to CNN and saw the headline:


MAJOR CRIME RING UNCOVERED
Dozens Arrested at Commune in Ukiah
Sheriff: “These Hippies Were Up to No Good” 


Cloud then read with shock about the arrests being made at the Ukiah All-Natural Wellness Center. About the sex slavery, the hardcore drugs, counterfeiting, the works. And then the piece d’ resistance: her parents, Wheat and Flax, being dragged off in cuffs and ushered into the back of a Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department cruiser.

Things weren’t bad right now…

…no, they were worse.