//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Broken Record // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chronology notes: Stop! You are reading the Eighth story in the series started by The Kindness of Strangers! Please read The Kindness of Strangers first! http://www.fimfiction.net/story/389/ The second part of the story is Putting the Pieces Back Together found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/407/ The third part of the story is Midnight in the Heart of Equestria found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/419/ The fourth part of the story is Tomorrow is Always a New Day found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/433/ The fifth part of the story is To Each Their Own found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/526/ The sixith part of the story is Imperfect found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/600/ This story is the direct sequel to Paradiso found here: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/687/ Broken Record Chapter 1 “My name is Vinyl Scratch. Artist, musician, jack of all trades and master of none, Though you may be more familiar with my stage name: DJ Pon3.” “Vinyl? Who are you talking to?” Vinyl Scratch looked up from where she was laying. She was in Twilight Sparkle’s Library, lying on her sofa. It had become her home away from home, if she could call any of her three apartments in Canterlot, Manehattan, and Fillydelphia hope. “Twilight Sparkle, there is something very important that you need to know about me: I talk to myself, alot,” Vinyl said with a grin. “Did I wake you?” The lavender unicorn smiled back at her. “No, I was up to begin with, Rainbow snores.” “I know! I can hear her down here,” Vinyl said with a smile. “You must have really worn her out.” Twilight turned bright red. “Vinyl!” “Relax! It’s perfectly normal! I would know!” Vinyl grinned mischievously. Twilight deadpanned her. “Vinyl Scratch. There is nothing about you that is perfectly normal.” “You make an excellent point!” Twilight smiled at her friend and bid her goodnight, she returned upstairs to her sleeping partner, leaving Vinyl alone down stairs. Vinyl chuckled at Twilight and Rainbow Dash, her only two friends in town had recently become romantically involved with each other, something Vinyl Scratch had seen coming kilometres away. No, that wasn’t exactly true. They weren’t her only friends, She’d recently made friends with a kangaroo who’d been living in town, Benjamin Willoughby. Bonding with the kangaroo had been difficult, as he was highly introverted and preferred keeping to himself, though Vinyl figured that might have something to do with his training and his life experiences. Benjamin Willoughby was a member of The King’s Own South Island Dragoons. An armoured cavalry regiment of the Commonwealth of South Island Army, holding the rank of trooper. South Island was at war with the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms, Equestria’s neighbouring country. Vinyl Scratch, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle had met Willoughby in the Hoofson Bay Area, a neutral territory that the gryphons had occupied to strip mine for resources. Vinyl had met Twilight and Rainbow on their way to find a missing ambassador when they had been captured by an overzealous gryphon known as Gilda. Willoughby and the rest of the crew he belonged to had saved the three mares at the last minute, bonding the ponies and kangaroos together. That all seemed like ancient history at this point. It made the rest of her life seem prehistoric. Vinyl chuckled at her own joke, rolling over on her back and looking up at the ceiling. Friendship, real friendship, was something that had been few and far between during most of her life. Not that she was socially awkward or anything, she’d just never had much of an opportunity to make friends as a filly. What was the point when your parents just decided one day that they were picking up and moving after living in a place for only two months? She’d had a few, but could remember only a few of their names and none of their faces. She wouldn’t recognise any of them were they to bump into each other on the street tomorrow, and likely they wouldn’t either. Well, that wasn’t exactly true, Vinyl was somewhat famous. She wasn’t Sapphire Shores famous, not by any means of the word, but she was famous in her own niche. No, that wasn’t exactly true either. DJ Pon3 was famous; nopony knew who Vinyl Scratch was. On the converse, Vinyl had spent many nights with ponies that she had neglected to learn the names of either. So really, she had no right to complain, which she didn’t. “You must be getting old, Vinyl, you’re getting nostalgic for your old life,” she said, quietly to herself. Vinyl Scratch didn’t know where she was born. There were records of it, sure, and she could find them if she tried, but she had never really seen the point, her first memories were of Marenassass, an independent city between Canterlot and Fillydelphia provinces. She remembered playing in the front garden of her house when her father came home from his job, telling her that he’d gotten a new job and that they would be moving. They had lived there for three months. Her father was something of a sore subject. Vinyl Scratch immensely disliked her father; he was lazy, impertinent, and arrogant. He couldn’t hold a job if his life depended on it. Vinyl knew now that her father could have been much worse, he could have been an alcoholic, he could have abused her, but he didn’t. That role belonged to her mother. Vinyl’s mother was always angry about something, and her drinking habit usually made it worse. Generally, she was angry about her husband, not being able to keep a job. Money had always been tight, but most of it went to pay for mother’s alcohol. Vinyl hated her on the drink, when mum started drinking, the last thing she wanted to do was be around otherwise she was liable for a beating. Vinyl had been relatively well behaved for a child, but her mother always found an excuse to punish her. She had realised early on in life that her parents weren’t going to provide for her. If she wanted to get anywhere, she would have to do it herself. She spent most of her days out in the city, gathering up bottles, tin cans, and all amounts of refuse that she could in order to turn in for money. It didn’t get her much, but enough to get by. She remembered the time her mother found her stash of money under her bed, accused her of stealing, gave her a good beating, and then took her money to buy more booze. Vinyl became much better at hiding things after that, a skill that she would put to great use much later in life. Then one day, her father came home and announced that they were moving again. Vinyl’s family had been living in Manehattan at this time, and Vinyl was about the age of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She told her father flatly that she wasn’t going with them. She didn’t need her parents to survive. She’d pretty much been doing it on her own, and what was she getting for living with them? A dead beat dad and an abusive mother, the roof over her head was of no consequence, it was with that, Vinyl Scratch packed her few possessions and went out into the Manehattan streets to live on her own, to this day, she hadn’t seen her parents since that fateful day, but it didn’t matter, they were dead to her. Of course, life on her own was still difficult for a young filly, all alone in the big city. She was young, idealistic, and naive, and here she was, living alone, in the underworld of Manehattan, Equestria’s hive of scum and villainy. Manehattan wasn’t like Canterlot, not by a long shot. The royal guard kept Canterlot practically crime free, it had the distinction of being a big city, with small town safety. The city ponies in Canterlot behaved themselves, because they knew that Princess Celestia was watching them. Manehattan didn’t have that luxury. Vinyl had been forced to do things as a filly. Things that Twilight or Rainbow Dash would cringe at. Things that Vinyl still cringed at in the dead of night. Her eyes had grown heavy, and began to droop. Vinyl Scratch drifted off to sleep, dreaming of her mother beating her.