//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Shattered // by PessBont //------------------------------// A loud squawking from a bird unceremoniously woke Vinyl from her sleep. She had never been a morning pony, yet her eyes seemed to strain especially hard to open on this particular occasion, not helping that the first thing her eyes opened up to was the blinding light of the sun rising over the horizon. She figured that it couldn’t be more than 6:30 in the morning. Her head pounded from every direction, and her neck and back ached with every movement she made. She soon realized that she had fallen asleep on a park bench somewhere in downtown Canterlot, not remembering how or when she had gotten there the night before. It took every ounce of willpower and strength she had to force herself to sit up, and even that caused her to become incredibly lightheaded to the point where she threatened to pass out sitting down. She closed her eyes and attempted to keep herself lucid, proving to be a more difficult task than she thought. In her line of work, Vinyl was used to hangovers and had an innate ability to work her way through them, but this was probably one of the worst she had on record. Even worse, she still felt a bit dizzy and off balance, indicating to her that she may still be a little bit drunk, meaning that worst of it was still yet to come. She was at least glad that it was early enough for nopony to be awake yet to see her like this. She tried to lift herself off the bench onto her hooves, but an incredible pain shot up through her chest and into her head. Scattered memories of a barfight the previous night began to resurface, and she quickly began to analyze herself. Her left eye couldn’t open beyond halfway, her left cheek felt particularly inflamed, and the right side of her chest burned with almost every breath she took, indicating that, at the very least, one of her ribs was fractured, if not broken. She looked around at the park, and noticed a small birdbath nearby. She, slowly and painfully, worked her way over to it and looked at herself in the reflection. Indeed, her left eye was colored a deep blue and purple and was almost swollen shut, and dried blood streamed out of both of her nostrils. Unable to bear looking at herself anymore, she turned away from the pool and sat down on her haunches , trying to regain her grip on the previous night. Clearly, she had gotten wasted off her ass, that much was obvious, and she had gotten into an altercation with another pony, Celestia help her if she could ever remember who. She vaguely recalled somepony with a pink mohawk, but it really didn’t matter, honestly. She then remembered Octavia. Oh, poor Octavia. For all of the liquor she could pour into herself, that was the one thing she couldn’t escape from. She felt herself begin to break down again and start to cry, silently to herself, the flood of emotions once again returning to her. After a minute or so, she regained control of her senses, wiping her face with her hoof and taking a few deep breaths. The previous night had clearly not helped any to make her forget about what she had done, or at least make her hurt less about it, and at the end of the day, she was just even worse off than she was to begin with. She was afraid. She was afraid of losing Octavia forever, and after what she had done to her, the pain she had inflicted on her, she had every right to lose her friendship. Vinyl felt her emotions surge again, but with a sniffle, refused to let herself break down again. She resented the things that she said to Octavia, about having nothing and no one besides her...she felt like a hypocrite. Octavia had become such a driving force in Vinyl’s life over the last few months that she forgot what her life was even like without her, and she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her forever on account of her own mistakes. No, she wouldn’t let this happen, Vinyl thought. She was going to fix this...somehow. With that resolve, Vinyl painfully worked her way onto her hooves and left the park. ----------- “Vinyl, is that you? Sweet Celestia, what happened to you?” the voice of an older mare called out. Vinyl quickly snapped to, realizing that she had fallen asleep on her own haunches outside of Coda’s Music Shoppe. It took her a moment to regain consciousness; judging by the position of the sun, it now hat to be around 8 in the morning. “Uh...hi, erm...sorry, Coda, I...” Vinyl attempted to say, stumbling over her words. She may still have been a bit drunk, though by now, most of that had translated into her hangover. “My goodness, young mare, you look awful. Are you okay?” Coda asked, concerned. Vinyl’s vision finally sharpened as she stared at the deep grey earth pony. “Yeah, I...I’m fine, don’t worry about it. Listen, I need your help with something...” Vinyl said, her voice wavering slightly. Coda wasn’t convinced. “Come inside, Vinyl. What in Celestia’s name happened to you?” “It’s a long story, but I need to talk to you, I need a cello, and I...I....” Vinyl tried to say, but soon lost her balance and fell onto one of her hooves. Coda quickly helped her up. “Good heavens, Vinyl...c-come inside and sit yourself down, come with me,” Coda insisted, guiding Vinyl by the hoof into her shop. ----------- Vinyl sat in the back room of Coda’s shoppe, carefully balancing a mug of coffee in her magical aura. She was still feeling a bit woozy, and it took most of her concentration to hang on to it, let alone be able to sip on it. She had to admit, though, the caffeine of the coffee was helping to perk her up, even if it didn’t do anything for the pounding headache. Coda appeared through the door, carrying a wet washcloth. “Here you are Vinyl, clean yourself up a bit,” she said, handing it to Vinyl. She took it without question and began dabbing at the bloodstained portions of her face. “Thanks." “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about what happened?” asked Coda. “Yes,” responded Vinyl, softly but firmly. “...okay, if you’re sure. Well, you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have a reason. Is there anything you need?” asked Coda. “Yeah, there is...there is something...I need a cello,” responded Vinyl. “And this one is really important, I need the best one you have or you can make.” “I know it’s none of my business, but this wouldn’t happen to be for that cellist mare you’ve been hanging out a lot with lately, would it?” asked Coda. Vinyl didn’t respond. Instead, her lower lip began to tremble. Coda saw this and quickly moved the conversation forward. “Okay, okay, I see, well...I have a number of cellos in stock, some very fine ones, but I’m gonna warn you, the best ones I have aren’t gonna be cheap-” “Money isn’t a problem,” interrupted Vinyl, assuredly. “Okay, then. Come with me, I’ll show you have I have.” said Coda. ------------ “This is the one...it’s perfect,” Vinyl said, carefully observing the build and make of the cello in her hooves. “Alright, if this is the one, then I’ll go ahead and ring you up for it. As a gesture of good faith, I’ll even throw in the case for free,” said Coda. “Thanks, I appreciate it,” said Vinyl. Holding the cello in her hands, she once again found herself fighting to hold back tears. This was proving to be a far more emotional day for Vinyl than she was used to. “If that will be all, then let’s go ahead and bring this up to the register, then...” said Coda. “Actually...” Vinyl said. “...there is one more thing I’d like, if it’s not too much...”