I let out an agonizing scream, one so loud half of Canterlot could hear me, but I was silent. Nothing escaped my mouth as I begged for this to never have happened, but raspy noises and hyperventilation was all I could hear. The hot salty tears flowed from my eyes to the cruel ground. This was goodbye, the breaking of the last tie.
“Viney, come here,” Mom called.
“What is it Mom?”
“Come here.”
She sighed and went over, gasping when she saw me, “No way Mom, you’re the best!”
She giggled as Vinyl put me on for the first time, “Cool,” was all she said.
See, I’m meant to be for little kids, and I’m not supposed to cover only the eyes like Vinyl wears me. I am for novelty. I’m supposed to be a gag that covers up most of a pony’s face; not actual glasses meant to be wore on a regular basis.
Oh how Vinyl loved me, she’d have me everywhere, even if she wasn’t wearing me. And I loved her too; a mare and her glasses, two things that could never be separated. Oh how she’d cry when her mom told her that she was going someplace formal, and I was to be removed because of my informality. And you should have seen her as cute little filly. And as she got older how beautiful she was with longer hair that rolled in waves down to the beach where they broke into gorgeous spirals. I know that if I was a pony I would have, and still would mind you, marry her…
She always loved music, which I didn’t mind because she always knew what to listen to. Her passion started when her parents took her to a concert. After that, trips to anything music centered were quite regular. And soon enough her parents realized that listening wasn’t enough, so they bought her a violin. She dove right in, learning to play everything, and she was quite a prodigy. In that time I had growing periods of neglect as her warm face needed me less and less. But I never was far, and was always on her head as she wrote her own music. But before that, since she had learned to play using magic; she needed to learn to play with just her hooves. It was always more beautiful when she played her own songs with her hooves.
Then came the day for her to start work. Even though her mom said that I was too informal, she still wore me as an adornment on her head.
This was back when she still had her flowing hair, and that youthful innocence in her eyes. That look you have when you’re carefree, live for fun, when nothing can stop you because you’re young and innocent. Her eyes still shot every which way to see everything in their oblivious gaze. And her smile was so perfect it made everypony that saw it think back to being her age. And her eyes showed too how fragile she really was because of how perfect a world she saw; no way of knowing how quick it could be shattered.
She got a job with a band needing a violinist. They had no tracks, no foreseeable future, and no guarantee of success, but Vinyl knew they were the right group because of how alike she was to each member of the group. They all quickly became friends, as well as made a name for themselves. Of course, Canterlot was not a stage for a band like them to start on, so we traveled to the great city of Manehattan.
But the city had its downsides, namely the clubs. Once they had started to drum up interest for performances, they started celebrating at clubs. As they got more and more popular, they even started carrying their instruments into the clubs and giving spontaneous live performances. That’s how Vinyl was introduced to the electronic style of music, and she loved it as much as any other type genre she had heard.
All was not well, however. The drummer for the band became quite the drunk, and eventually it began to interfere with his performances. Ultimately he was kicked off when he showed up to practice drunk out of his mind. They had just picked up a new drummer when the friends and band members began to fight amongst each other. A few of them wanted to switch to electronic music, while others insisted they stayed instrumental; Vinyl just tried to keep the peace.
It didn’t work, and soon we found ourselves back in Canterlot. But the band did introduce her to electronic music, and supplied her with enough money to be independent. So she walked up to a club hiring a DJ and got herself a job.
She quickly became proficient and popular as DJ Pon-3, and saved money to the point where she could open a club of her own. This is about when she met Bass, and stole him from another club. For a little over a year she enjoyed the best time of her life, but everything must come to an end.
It started with a simple dinner at her parent’s house where just about the most tragic thing was Vinyl’s mane (her Mom almost cried when she saw it straightened and cut short).
The next day it was not raining. It was not drizzling. There were no clouds, not a single one. Thunder didn’t clap, no lightning flashed. It was wonderful weather. It wasn’t autumn, not even close. There was no bone-chilling breeze that rustled the leaves. All was still. There was no one around, no comforting shoulder, and no one to lean on. Vinyl was alone. There was no midnight pounding on the door. It was the middle of the day. This perfect day with the sun high and nothing can go wrong…
The phone rang. It could be a telemarketer. Probably the neighbor calling to say the music’s too loud again. Maybe the desk saying she owes rent on the apartment. Possibly the music store saying the violin’s fixed (Vinyl really never played it anymore, but she liked to keep it in working condition). Small stuff, never anything interesting.
So you can understand Vinyl’s reaction when the voice on the line said, “Hello, this is Officer Brave Wing from the Canterlot police force, could I speak to Miss Scratch?”
When she replied the stallion continued, “I regret to inform you that there was a fire at your parent’s house late last night, and both of them are in intensive care…”
The phone fell to the ground as Vinyl’s magic stopped. She stood shock for what must have been days. No, seconds. She ran out the door and ran as fast as she could to the nearest hospital to her parent’s house; crying the entire time. Through the window she could see them, but closer than that was prohibited. She never got to talk to them again.
She went to the house a month later, after all the guards around it were dismissed, and the now collapsed building was getting ready for excavation. They knew it was a crime scene, but not much more. Bass was there for Vinyl as she walked through the debris and searched for anything that could be a memento, but there was nothing.
I remember that conversation…
“Vinyl, why are you alone, don’t you have someone in your life?”
She shook her head, “No, I’m truly alone…”
“Why aren’t you another Stallion’s Mare?”
“I’m never around. I can’t sleep at night, Bass, I can’t because I’m just so s-s-scared!”
As I sat there on the street crying I ignored the stares from everypony around me. I felt a part of me die with these glasses; the last reminder of my parents I had.