"Hurm..."
Vinyl was getting nowhere, and she was getting there fast. She turned around, facing away from the police box that was the Doctor's spaceship and time machine and gave it a heavy buck with her hind hooves. The ship rocked, but did not open.
"Oh come on!"
She once more smacked the door before leaning against it.
"Please, just please open..."
As if in accordance to her pleas, it opened, causing her to tumble backwards into the bigger-on-the-inside console room.
"Really? You open to 'please'?"
There was of course, no response.
"Whatever."
It did not matter that she was probably going crazy and talking to a machine. She had to search for the homing signal and activate it. Easy as Pinkie Pie! Except it wasn't. She lowered her glasses and looked to the centre jewel. She had forgotten that the inside had changed. There was no difference in the glass panels that surrounded the floating rock, and she had completely forgotten to ask how she was even meant to use it. Curse her laziness.
Before going through and trying a whole bunch of useless attempts at starting up the machine, Scratch tried something.
"Please take me to the Doctor?"
Nothing.
"Ah well, it was worth a shot."
She cantered over to the first panel hoping to see something that would maybe come in handy. It was the same as all the others, and after searching through all of them Vinyl found nothing to separate the homing signal from anything else. How did he even expect her to accomplish her goal if she didn't know what her goal even looked like.
After a few moments of searching not a single hint a to where the homing signal could possibly be.
Okay, I need a list of what I've tried.
1. Say 'please'
2. Look for something that looks important.
That just leaves three and four....
The third step on her list was to mash random buttons. Looking at the panels she sighed. Who has a machine with no buttons to randomly mash? That just left number four. Magic. She never was the best at magic, or the most powerful spellcaster, but she was at least proficient in hijacking radio stations and picking locks. How much harder could hot wiring an alien ship be?
The one problem with her plan, which she would know if she did her research, was that mixing spells, and even creating a new spell usually comes with disastrous results, even for the most experienced unicorns.
Her recklessness overtook her common sense as she remembered a book she had read once. "Creating Spells for Foals". What possessed her to read such a book without consulting the librarian or a professional (or in Ponyville's case, both) before even thinking of attempting what was described in the book is a mystery.
Her white horn began to spark to life as she focused in on the spell. Her idea of a TARDIS-jacking spell was somewhere between between the lock picking and radio hijacking spells she knew, and used both as a template. The horn became encased in the cobalt glow as the spell began sputtering into existence, but soon ceased. Jeeze, this is waaaay harder than it looks.
She shifted into a stance that left her unicorn appendage aimed directly at the centre crystal. Again her horn glowed, but this time a small, purple orb appeared, focused in front of the very tip. Beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as she racked her brain and searched her whole body for any magical energy.
The centrepiece began to rotate in place, the glass plates around it still hovering in place. When all of Vinyls energy had been sapped from her body and stored in her horn, a beam shot out at the crystal. Her legs weakened and her glasses fell to the floor and shattered, revealing Scratch's magenta eyes before she closed them.
She collapsed.
_______________________________
The pitch blackness of Vinyl's subconscious was lit up by an unknown brightness. Everything around her became white, leaving her floating in the strange white world. Her magenta eyes slowly blinked open as if this was reality and she was in a dream. Her pupils shifted, searching for any signs of, well, anything. Nothing else came into her sight. Floating. Simply floating.
"Hello, Vinyl Scratch."
The calm flowing voice startled her. The voice itself was peaceful, but the fact that it came from seemingly nowhere is what got her.
She shifted her body weight and turned around. Hovering there was not just a pony, but a pony that seemed to be made out of a deep blue energy. It was a mare with flowing hair that rivalled even Celestia's in sheer beauty. Only her shining white eyes deviated from the natural blue of the rest of her body.
"Who are you?" asked Vinyl Scratch. "What are you?"
The mare of light responded with her smooth as silk voice. "I've been called quite a few things. Blue box, time machine, sexy."
"Sexy?"
The mare gave a hearty chuckle before continuing. "It's a long story. Anyway, I am most commonly referred to as 'TARDIS'."
Vinyl gaped upon hearing that this strange pony was the Doctor's TARDIS. But how was that even possible? There was absolutely no way that a machine could possibly become a pony. She couldn't have screwed up the spell THAT badly.
"Am... Am I dreaming this?" she asked.
"Yes... And no. This is your subconscious but the conversation we are having is in every way real."
"So you're a pony?" asked Vinyl.
"No, but that's how you perceive me." TARDIS swiftly glided through open space around Vinyl. "Wow, your subconscious has a lot of space. Much roomier than my place."
It took a minute for the comment to sink in, but when it did Vinyl didn't know wether to take it as a compliment or an insult. TARDIS giggled, raising her hoof to her mouth.
"Don't, worry, it was more of a compliment than anything."
Vinyl was getting a bit confused. "How did you-"
"Know what you were thinking?" she interrupted. "Hehehe, we're in your subconscious, remember? I know everything you're thinking. I know how much you're craving pie, and I know that you want to know what's going on."
Vinyl blinked in wonderment. The machine-made-pony responded with a smile and another giggle.
"So, um... TARDIS-"
"You don't have to call me that, you can call me whatever you want."
"Okay, um..." Vinyl put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. "Okay, how about... Minuette?"
The energetic faux-pony thought about it for a moment before responding, "I love it!"
Vinyl smiled. "So, Minuette, how are we here, in my subconscious?"
The blue energy pony floated around in an upwards spiral, then came back down and faced Vinyl. But she was now upside down. "Well, you failed your little spell, of course! Residual magic along with my life energy fed back into your horn and caused you to see me in you subconscious. In reality, you're still standing there blasting away."
This was even worse news for the dubstep artist. She frowned.
"What's wrong?" Minuette asked.
"Well," Vinyl began, "how am I supposed to get out of here then? How am I supposed to get to the Doctor and Octavia?" She never was a big fan of Octavia's company, but there were still times that they had fun together from time to time, and they were friends. It was mostly the boring music Octavia played that earned her dislike.
It was easy for Minuette to see that she truly cared for her friends. It would not be too hard for her to help, but there were definite consequences for meddling with such events.
"Vinyl," she began, "I can help you, we can save them. But..."
Vinyl shook a fist (hoof) above her head before saying, "Ya, alright, let's go save 'em then!" she was getting excited, not letting Minuette get the rest of her sentence out.
_______________________________
A soft wheezing noise filled the alleyway as the wind picked up around the many stallions (and one mare). The noise grew louder and louder, the faint outline of a blue box appearing all the while. The Doctor, and then Octavia smiled while the security colts began to back away. Around the two escaped ponies formed the brown stallion's source of travel. Soon the box was completely materialised and the mare and stallion were nowhere to be seen. On the much larger inside of the blue box, the Doctor and Octavia were celebrating their escape.
" 'Atta girl! I knew you could do it!" the Doctor exclaimed while standing up on his hind legs and hugging her in a tight embrace. He then scrambled to the centre console and began the launch process.
Outside, the TARDIS was once again making its noise while rising into the air. Vinyl, with her cocky attitude decided it would be fun to mock Crescendo and his men while they disappeared into their own time. She opened the door.
"So long, boys!" the magenta-eyed unicorn yelled down. The dematerialisation process began and the machine began to fade.
Safeguard was now pretty angry. The whole day was one of the worst days of his career. "I won't let you get away," he grumbled under his breath. "Men, open fire!"
The multiple stallions charged their horns with all different colours of magic before firing off several of their magic missiles. Some hit the side, doing no damage, others missed, and some simply bounced off, but one stray blast of magic was able to make it way through the TARDIS doors and rock the whole machine from the inside. Sparks flew from the ceiling. Vinyl fell. Oh no. Sad face.
"Vinyl!" both Octavia and the Doctor yelled at the same time. The colt dashed to the entrance and looked down. She was still hanging from the door frame.
"Vinyl, you need to grab my hand- I mean hoof!" he exclaimed.
Vinyl was able to reach up and take hold. But before he was able to pull her up another blast of magic rocked the TARDIS, and the two lost their grip on each other. She fell, and the time machine disappeared without her.
_______________________________
The smell of roses began to fill her nostrils as she awakened, accompanied by the soothing sounds of a piano and violin. The grace with which they were played was silk to Vinyl's ears. Even though she was not a fan of the genre, a grin graced her face as she inhaled deeply. The mare was in an eternal state of bliss, entranced by the smells, the sounds, the feeling of the soft blanket that she was just now starting to realise was not her own.
In fact, the sounds and smells were not the kind that she smelled and heard at home. A more accurate way to describe her normal wake up was the annoying squeaking of birds and the smell of fish and custard. Her eyes shot open.
The magenta pupils observed all the details in the room. Everything was pink, purple, soft and beautiful. The entire room itself was nearly as large as her whole house. She sat up.
There were banners and tapestries, a few large bookshelves, paintings were hung on the walls, and there was a large area reserved for many musical instruments, two of which were being played, explaining what she was hearing.
Crescendo Pianissimo's hooves dances across the keys of the piano while his accomplice, an unknown purple earth pony mare stood on her hind hooves and played her violin.
The music stopped, and Crescendo looked up from his instrument to see that Scratch had awoken.
"Why good morning, Vinyl Scratch. Might I say, you look positively dashing, like a rainbow, darling," he greeted her. "Fine Tune, you may go now."
The violinist he had just identified packed her instrument away and trotted out the door. Vinyl stepped down a small set of stairs and towards Crescendo who outstretched his foreleg in hopes that she would hold it. Instead she walked right up to him, her horn glowing. She pointed the spell at his throat in anger.
"Alright bucko, you're going to tell me where my friends are." Her face was filled with rage, amplified by her eyes, which are usually hidden behind her purple sunglasses.
"Oh, you're a feisty one aren't you. I'm sorry, your friends are gone, they've left. But you are most welcome to stay here."
Vinyl discharged her horn. "So... What am I doing here? Aren't I supposed to be in prison or something?"
He put a hoof on her shoulder, still smiling.
"And why would I need to imprison one of the most beautiful mares I have ever laid eyes on?"
Vinyl gawked at this. She couldn't believe that somepony like Crescendo Pianissimo, a fancy pants piano player from Canterlot would even be somewhat interested in little old her.
"Woah, okay. That was... Um... Ya."
When she first met him (and by 'met' I mean saw him while she was locked up in his evil-underground-prison -of-doom, or, E.U.P.o.D for short), she was too busy paying attention to his cliche evil villain-ness to notice him. But now that she had time to absorb his features, Vinyl could see that this stallion was actually quite... Attractive. She never would have admitted it to her friends, but Crescendo wasn't a bad looking pony.
It was blatantly obvious that he had a thing going on for her. Not so much the other way around, but the whole situation was much better than before.
Crescendo continued his smug-looking smile as he spoke. "Are you parched? I can get my assistant Eva Faithful to bring us some drinks. Faithful, one bottle of our finest grape juice and two glasses!"
Not a moment later a young lavender unicorn returned with the items specified by Crescendo. The drinks were poured and levitated to him and his guest before Eva left.
Vinyl had no reason to take the drink, or to even stay there, but she had to mean of returning to her time until the Doctor and Octavia returned (if they even did return), and if Crescendo was offering she might as well mooch off his generosity as much as possible. She took the glass and sipped.
_______________________________
Why? Why had they they broken out of prison and evaded capture only to lose Vinyl Scratch? Was it karma coming back to bite Octavia in the flank, or was it some uncontrollable force that controlled every aspect of their lives and felt that it would be fun to torture them? Either way, Octavia felt that it was all to be blamed on her. It was her that suggested the destination. She didn't even care about the fight they had that morning.
Wait, what's going on?
All lights had gone out and everything in the TARDIS ceased to move or make any sound. Something had gone wrong.
"Doctor, what is going on?" she called out. She stood up carefully, hoping she would not trip over or run into anything.
"I... Actually have no idea. Get to the wall and try to find the door, we're going outside," returned the voice of the Doctor.
She did as he told her and found the wall and slid herself across until she found herself grabbing hold of the metal handle. The Doctor, of course, found his way to her.
She pushed open the door and found a rush of white light pouring through the door frame.
Outside, two ponies surrounded the entry, pointing at them spears seemingly made from light. Each stallion was completely encased in a white armour from head to hoof.
"Oh dear!"
"Again!?"
_______________________________
Once more the two ponies were trapped in a cell; without Vinyl, of course. This time they were in a pure white cubic room. There was no dirt, no imperfections, just a pure white, perfect little room.
Octavia slumped in a corner. "So Doctor, when are we going to be escaping?"
He was scouring the whole room for some sort of clue for their escape. There was absolutely nothing that would lead him to believe there was any sort of exit.
"Sorry Miss Octavia, but I can't find anything. It's as if there is no exit. There aren't even any sort of seams to show that it's a sealed off cage," he replied.
Octavia sighed. The universe had a weird way of expressing itself.
A dinging noise was heard, echoing throughout the white room. The two accomplices looked to one side of the room to find the entire wall opening up and sliding I either side. The two armoured ponies from before entered the room followed by a white unicorn.
This was where Octavia got so confused she nearly lost balance.
"Vinyl Scratch?"
Before them stood a unicorn with the same cobalt mane as their lost friend. The only difference now was that she did not wear her signature purple shades and her hair was now worn in a ponytail. But then Octavia noticed the cutie mark. It was not the backwards double quaver that adorned her friend's flank, but what she saw was a record disc imprinted with a backwards treble clef.
The mare chuckled at her remark before responding. "No, I'm pretty sure I'm not my mother, but I know exactly who you are."
It was clear now that this was not Vinyl. Her voice was higher and much smoother than- Wait, Vinyl Scratch is her... mother? It seemed impossible. Vinyl Scratch had no children, and she was stuck in the past anyways. What was going on?
The Scratch-impostor turned around and said, "Please, follow me."
She trotted out of the room, signaling for the guards, the Doctor and Octavia to follow.
"As you've probably figured out, this is the future. Or at least your future. I am Sonata Spin, and I am the daughter of Vinyl Scratch."
"Wait," Octavia interrupted, "how do you know who we are? In fact, how do you know where we are from?"
It would be easy for Sonata to explain. She continued through a metal door and into a book-filled room. To her left was a large shelf from which she levitated a large, old, blue book. He flipped through the pages until she found exactly what she was looking for before she gave it to Octavia to see. She gasped. She recognised this hoof writing. It was her own, with small notes written by Vinyl.
Dear Princess Luna,
Today Vinyl Scratch, the Doctor and I (Octavia) went on a small trip that ended up being quite the doozy...
_______________________________
...and so Princess, Vinyl Scratch and I ended up learning to appreciate other kinds of music, and that just because something conflicts with your interests it does not mean you cannot accept and tolerate it.
-Octavia, and Vinyl Scratch
She closed the book. This was most definitely a letter she would inevitably write to Princess Luna once they got home. It was even signed with her exact signature. There was no doubt about it.
"I trust you." She was obviously telling the truth, and if she really was Vinyl's daughter then they had a chance of getting her back. "Sonata Spin, if you're here now and we end up writing this note, how did we get back to get Vinyl? In the letter it says 'We were eventually able to get the Doctor's machine working.' How did we do it?"
Spin thought for a moment, trying to remember if her mother had ever told her anything about what happened. "No," she said, "sorry, can't help you there. Octavia frowned. "But," continued Sonata, "I recall mom saying something about you two staying here for about three days before rocketing off. Maybe if you stay here you'll figure out how to fix this."
It was disheartening to hear that they would need to wait so long, but the fact that they had a time machine meant it would not matter how long they stayed in the future.
But still, Octavia was disheartened over this disheartening news. How disheartening. The Doctor, silently observing until this point then stepped up to her.
"Don't worry Miss Octavia. I promise you we'll figure this out and go back for Miss Scratch."
"Are you sure?"
"I promise," he whispered.
_______________________________
For the next few days the two of them stayed with Sonata Spin and her family. The Doctor spent most of his time trying to find out what was wrong with the TARDIS while Octavia got to know more about Vinyl's future family.
Sonata was married with one child. Her husband, away on a business trip to Cloudsdale, was a black pegasus whose name Octavia could not seem to remember but found it to be familiar. He was the current chief weather consultant at the Cloudsdale Raincloud Factory.
Her daughter, a mere earth pony foal was named Spring Sprinkles. Octavia never could have imagined Vinyl having a granddaughter if she didn't see it herself.
Sonata herself worked as a music composer, resembling elements of both electronic music and orchestral music. It was the strangest thing Octavia had heard, yet it was beautiful.
It was the end of the third day and still no progress was made on fixing the TARDIS. Octavia and the Doctor sat down at Sonata's family's dinner table. The Doctor was still writing all over a dirty old napkin while muttering something to himself about ducks and bicycles. Octavia absentmindedly poked at the pile of hay sitting on her plate.
Sonata sat down and began eating. She chewed an swallowed a mouthful of hay and said, "I'm sorry you weren't able to figure something out today. Maybe tomorrow you'll think of something. Now eat. After dinner we're going to-"
"THAT'S IT!!!" the Doctor exclaimed, smashing the table. Plates were sent flying before crashing down and shattering. Octavia and Sonata stared in confusion, Sonata being a bit more agitated since he had broken her plates. Spring Sprinkles continued what she was doing, that is to say, she continued to basically eat her hooves.
"When I scanned the TARDIS with my sonic I found a residual leftover magic that wasn't previously in there. Since I'm positive no one else got in, it must have been Vinyl. That explains how she got it to come to us, since I... Um, forgot to tell her what to actually do. Now, since she was left in the past, the fact that we travelled to the far future, that puts us in a different sort of a 'time zone' than her. Her connection, however big or small it is, was cut off. The leftover energy left somewhat of a magical pass code lock. All we need is for her to cast another spell in the TARDIS and the lock will be dispelled!"
Octavia stared at him flatly for a moment before actually responding. "Have you already forgotten that she isn't here. That's hat we're trying to fix."
"Exactly," he quipped, "but we've already saved her. At least, we will. We need Vinyls already saved future self to help. Now Sonata, where is she now?"
She gloomily looked down at the table. It took a few seconds for her to answer.
"She... She isn't... 'With us'..." she stuttered. Octavia gasped. Silence.
"Sonata, I'm so, so sorry," the Doctor apologised.
Sonata quickly recovered and said, "Oh, no no, it's fine really. I'm fine."
The silence continued for a few moments while each of them contemplated. Sprinkles was playing with her mane.
"You know Sonata, there is one way we might be able to fix this," muttered the Doctor.
"Doctor, now's not the time!" Octavia quipped.
Sonata thought otherwise. "It's fine, Octavia," she said. "Continue."
"Well, a friend of mine I met a few weeks ago named Starswirl once told me that each unicorn has their own spell signature, but more often than not that signature is passed down the family tree. It is possible that you have the same spell signature as your mother."
She contemplated for a minute. "I see... I'll do it. Anything to help you two."
"Perfect."
_______________________________
It had been a week since that incident where she fell out of the TARDIS and into the hooves of Crescendo Pianissimo. To her surprise, she had a great time with him. Each day he brought her along to one of his concerts and each night he took her out to dinner. Soon enough she had gained an appreciation for not only classical music, but also for him. At first she complied only to mooch off of the rich stallion, but now she genuinely liked him.
It's an odd line to cross from thinking of somepony as an evil villain to thinking of them as acquaintance of sorts. And maybe even, *le gasp* a friend!
It was another night after one of their dinners and Vinyl was tuckered out. It was time for another night in her new fancy bed. She always exhaled in delight every time she entered the super soft bed in her silk pyjamas. She slowly closed her eyes to the sweet tune of violins. She finally drifted off into dream land when the soft wheezing of the violins-
Wait... Violins don't wheeze.
Scratch jumped from her bed to find out the source of the strange, familiar noise. Of course, though she was still in her bed she was no longer in her room. Now flooding her vision was the soft glow of the TARDIS' centre crystal.
"Welcome back Vinyl Scratch!"
She turned around to look at the source of the voice. Behind her were the Doctor and her good friend Octavia.
All of a sudden; hugs. Hugs everywhere.
Octavia wrapped her forehoooves around Vinyl in a tight embrace. Even the Doctor joined in on the hugsplosion. Vinyl, taken back by the sudden show of affection sat on the bed with a blank look on her face. For a few moments she continued to be confused until her brain caught up with what was going on and she hugged them both back.
"We missed you Vinyl Scratch, we truly did," said Octavia. Her eyes ran with tears of joy.
"I... I missed you guys too," Scratch replied.
The embrace was broken and Vinyl jumped out of her bed and on to the wood floor of the TARDIS. She smiled.
"Octavia, I was back there for a week, and during that time I realised I was wrong about your kind of music. I'm sorry for getting so mad at you. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"
"Of course dear, but I'm afraid that I too was wrong. It has been three days for me. Not as long as your time, but I found that your music isn't as vulgar and unsophisticated as I previously believed. And I'm also sorry about the whole business with the Gala. Can you forgive me?" The grey cellist smiled back at her.
"Absolutely," she responded. They hugged once more before Vinyl turned to their time travelling friend and announced, "Alright Doc, I'm ready to get back to Ponyville!"
A grin graced his face. "I thought you'd never ask."
_______________________________
The three arrived back in the kitchen of Lyra and Bon Bon's home, exactly where they left from. The clock on the wall showed that they had been gone nearly the whole day, as opposed to a week or three days. As they stepped out of the kitchen their other three friends came through the front door. They all looked pretty exhausted, as if they had been chasing somepony for some reason.
Lyra popped her head up, ceasing her panting. "Oh, hello Doctor. I haven't seen you in a while. Have you been here all day with Vinyl and Octavia? I hope they didn't cause you too much trouble."
He smirked. "You could say that."
After about an hour of the three ponies explaining what had happened that day (or three days, or week), the group decided that they should write their second official letter to Princess Luna.
Dear Princess Luna,
Today Vinyl Scratch, the Doctor and I (Octavia) went on a small trip that ended up being quite the doozy...