//------------------------------// // Chapter IV: Pardon the Pun // Story: Tears of an Angel // by Jet Howitzer //------------------------------// (Moar Vinyl Fun! Enjoy.) You sank slowly into the warm embrace of your bed, reflecting grimly on the way today had gone. In the past twenty four hours your sister had died, Vinyl had forcibly inserted herself into your life, again, and you now had a funeral to plan. Fun. Still, you would manage to get it done, like you had always managed. You slowly let your eyelids settle over your eyes, and then you let your mind flow. No topic ever held your mind for long, and soon you were lost in the depths of your own mind. There were some more prevalent topics, though. The mare in your home was one of those topics, but more importantly, your history with her. ---/\/\ Six Years Ago: Junior Year of High School /\/\--- The mare finally began to stir on the bed the nurses had put her on. Your head jerked up at the sound, and soon the mare’s eyes opened. She quickly began looking around the room, her gaze settling on you, and her eyes quickly narrowed. She opened her mouth to speak, but then she quickly closed it, and her head tilted slightly as she continued to look at you. “You…” Her voice came out quite roughly, and she quickly fell into a bout of coughing. The doctors had told you this might happen, and so you offered her the glass of water they had left for her. She downed it quickly, finishing the entire glass in a matter of seconds. You chuckled softly at her display, and when she finished the glass she simply dropped it into her lap. When she spoke her voice was much smoother, but it still had an edge of roughness to it. “You were at the party.” “That I was. And I was there to watch you nearly drink yourself to death.” The mare’s head drooped, and she began fiddling with the glass sitting in her lap. This continued for several minutes before you cleared your throat, trying to get her attention. “This is the point where most ponies would thank the pony that saved their life.” “I know. It’s just… I’m not used to being so weak.” She pauses for a moment, and you open your mouth to speak before she continues. “I don’t mean physically weak, I expect that after what I did, I mean mentally weak. I’ve never had to rely on anypony to get what I needed, and now I’m finding that I owe you my life.” She looks over at you, and you see tears in her eyes. “I want to thank you, but I don’t know what I can say that would do you the justice you deserve.” You offer her a small smile, and she slowly returns it. “Don’t worry, Vinyl. I’m sure you’ll think of some way to thank me for what I did.” The mare’s eyes drop again, and you raise an eyebrow. “Why do you keep looking away from me? Am I that offending to look at?” “No.” Her response is quite quick, and you swear that you see a blush on her cheeks as she quickly tries to recover. “I mean, no. You’re not ugly, or anything. It’s just hard to look you in the eyes when you’ve got those sunglasses on.” You bring a hoof to your face, and you realize that you were still wearing the sunglasses. You’d grown used to the reduced lighting, thinking that it was set lower since it was night time. Still, they weren’t the best sunglasses around, being more for looks than practicality. You take them off, finally able to see the white mare in her true colors. You already knew that she had a white coat, but now you could see it with your eyes unclouded by the lenses of your sunglasses. As you met her gaze once again you noticed a slight reddening of her cheeks. You had enough tact not to mention it to her, but you couldn’t just ignore it. “Now that those are out of the way, shall we continue?” A simple nod was your response, and with that you allowed yourself a smile. “As for what you can do to thank me? I still think that you’ll come up with something adequate. I don’t like putting ponies on the spot, so I’ll let you come up with something on your own.” “Th… Thank you.” She brought a hoof up to her eyes, and she wiped away the tears that had started running down her cheeks. “Um, if it’s not too much trouble could you not mention the way I’m acting right now? Among my fairly small circle of friends I’ve got a bit of a reputation to uphold. A reputation that I’d much rather keep intact.” You let out a chuckle before you reply. “I understand. Trust me, I won’t tell anypony about this. I doubt that it’d look very favorable for either of us.” You lean back in the chair, the smile on your face widening as you look at the mare who was now fiddling with her hooves in her lap. “Anypony ever tell you that you look kind of cute when you don’t know what to do?” You fell on your back as you realized what you had said, and when you hit the ground the only sound you could hear was your own breathing. You scrambled to your hooves as quick as you could and when you looked at the mare you could see she had an intense blush on her cheeks. A blush that you knew you caused. “No.” She looked up from her hooves and at you. “Nopony has ever told me that. Or that I ever look cute.” “Oh. You’re… single?” “Yep. Always have been, too.” The mare shifted uncomfortably for a moment, before she continued. “It’s not for lack of trying, though. A ton of stallions have asked me out, but all of them were just interested in my flank. Once they actually got to know me, they all bolted. More often than not finding some other mare with a big flank.” “Right. Well, I’m single too.” The mare tilted her head at you for a moment, and then she blushed once again, a smile coming to her face. “Are you trying to ask me out, or something?” You recoiled slightly at this accusation, but then you paused. Am I asking her out? “Well, I suppose that I am.” ---/\/\ The Present /\/\--- The morning sun had a nasty habit of hitting your eyes dead on each morning. It was a problem that you’d really have to fix one of these days. You’d either move your bed, or board up the window. Either option would work, but you opted for moving the bed. Less hammering involved that way. You let that train of thought die before you sat up in bed, your mind already spinning up to full speed. You trudged from the bedroom to the bathroom, your morning ritual already underway. After just fifteen minutes you emerged from the bathroom, your coat clean, and your mane left tussled just right. You quickly went to the kitchen, taking care not to be too loud, should Vinyl still be asleep. She, unsurprisingly, was still asleep, curled up into a ball beneath the blankets that you’d given her. As you passed by the living room door you paused for a moment, looking at the slumbering mare. You walked over to her, still making sure that you were silent, lest she wake. Only her head was free of the blanket’s embrace, and that was facing away from you. You couldn’t stop the smile from forming on your face as you looked down at her. “I tried, Vinyl. But you wouldn’t have it. If you were a pegasus instead of a unicorn then you’d really be an angel.” Before you could continue, you turned and went to the kitchen, a half tear forming in your eye. She made her choice. Every time you thought about that choice, though, you couldn’t help but think that maybe you could’ve spoken up a bit sooner. Been a bit blunter in what you had said. Sure, that first time in the hospital was straightforward, but even then she had just brushed you off. The mares inevitably go for the jocks in their youth, favoring the ‘bad colts’ over the good colts. Your rebellious phase had been incredibly short lived, since you quickly decided that you were happy with who you were, and you didn’t need to pretend to be somepony else to fit in. Or to stand out. The meal in front of you seemed to have materialized from nowhere, and you looked at it dumbly before you realized that you had whipped this up while lost in thought. And, apparently, you had already started a list of preparations for the quickly approaching funeral. A guest list was foremost among the items you had to take care of. As your small meal vanished before you, and the list of things that needed to be addressed grew, you lost track of time, not even noticing when the alabaster mare came and went from the kitchen. A gentle nudge of your shoulder, though, shook you from your stupor. Vinyl had a concerned look on her face, and when you looked at her it faded slightly. “There’s somepony here to see you, Note. I took the liberty of letting him in, but I told him to wait in the living room. I think he’s here for your sister’s will.” “She had a will?” “That’s what the pony said.” “She was too young to have a will.” Nevertheless, you stood and made your way to the living room, a strange sense of formality settling in your mind. You knew she was dead, but this was just another nail in the coffin, pardon the pun. As you entered the room the stallion perked up, a sad smile coming to his face at your entrance. “Ah, Pure Note. I have your sister’s will, here, and she asked that I read it in your presence before anypony else’s.” You glanced at Vinyl, and she looked at you for a moment before she frowned. “Vinyl can stay.” “Well, alright. I suppose that’s your choice.” The stallion cleared his throat before he began reading. Pure Note: brother, annoyance, sibling, pest. All of these, and more, I’ve used to describe you. Through thick and thin you were there, offering support when I needed it, and a kick in the ass when I deserved it. If you’re hearing this, than I’m gone, and some stuffy lawyer pony is reading this to you. Since I’ve never been a fan of stuffy lists, I decided to keep mine as short and sweet as possible. This is a will, after all, so I need to dish out my loot. First, and foremost, I leave all of my worldly possessions, save for the following items in the notes still to come, to Pure Note, my only sibling. I know that it’s not really all that much, but this does include all of my finances, which should help you to make it through until you find a job, or something to that effect. I trust you, bro. Make me proud. Second. To my friends, I leave the contents of the enclosed letters. Each one is written by me, for them. It’s not much, but I wanted to be able to say goodbye my own way. Third, I leave to my parents my collection of awards, and trophies. I never really was the daughter they wanted, but I still want to share what I accomplished with them. Fourth, and last. To DJ Pon3, AKA, Vinyl Scratch. I wrote you a very specific letter. One that you must take very seriously, and must promise, to yourself, that you will follow through with what it asks of you. It’s not much, really, but I thought that I’d give you something, since I always did enjoy having you around. Even if your taste in music was awful. There is, of course, a bit of paperwork to go along with all of this, and so I already took care of most of it. You, Note, now just have to take the time to finalize everything, and take care of my ashes, since I have been cremated by now. I know that it’s not what mom and dad wanted, but I figure that I have a bit more of a say in this than they do. It’s my corpse, after all. “That’s it. After that is all the official paperwork, and the letters written to the ponies mentioned. I’ll take care of all the deliveries, Note, so that you can stay focused on what you have to take care of.” The stallion quickly pulled out a stack of papers, and then he put them on the coffee table. “That’s everything that you need in order to make this all official. In addition to that is a letter from her to you, and the letter from her to you, Miss Scratch. I’d stay and chat some, but I don’t think that’s entirely appropriate, and I do have other things to take care of. Good day, Note. And I’m sorry for your loss.” Vinyl showed him out, leaving you to look at the stack of papers. Sitting atop that stack was the letter for you. You dearly wanted to know what she had written to you, but you wanted to wait until after the funeral to read it. Just a few pages down, you saw as you looked through the stack, was the letter written to Vinyl. It was a good bit heftier than the one to you, and that made you pause for a moment. What all could she have to say to Vinyl? Before you could ponder on that any longer, the mare returned, a small smile on her face. “Well, that was short. Grace was never fond of long speeches, was she?” “No. She either fell asleep during them, or she’d make a point to make fun of the way they worded whatever they were saying. I’m pretty sure that, knowing her, she’d have gotten a laugh out of her own will reading.” “When’s the funeral going to be?” Your head quickly shifted from the pile of paperwork to the mare, your eyes narrowing. “I don’t want it any more than you do, but it’s something that you’ll have to do.” “I know. It’s just… It’s still hard to accept that she’s gone. My whole life she was there, every step of the way. Offering enough help to prevent the worst of life, but not doing so much that I felt like she was living my life for me. Equestria lost something great when she died, that much I know.” “Now that she’s… Now that she’s dead, what are you going to do with all of her stuff? Now that it’s yours you can do what you want with it.” “Probably going to go through it, and keep what’s sentimental, and sell or toss the rest. I want to keep it for when she gets back, but I know that she’s not coming back, and that makes this so much harder to do.” You just kept looking at the pile of papers when you felt a gentle nuzzling on your neck. “I’m here if you need me, Note.” You looked at the mare for a moment, a plethora of things coming to mind that you wanted to say. So many of them were unpleasant, and mocking, throwing back at her all the support that you offered, only to be pushed away once the moment had passed. But you couldn’t. Despite this perfect chance for revenge, you couldn’t bring yourself to push away the only pony truly offering to help you though all of this. Instead of all of those things, you settled for just one word. “Thanks.” The mare took a seat next to you, and then you leaned into her, and she into you. As you looked at the pile of papers, you used your magic to lift the first sheet, along with a quill. It’d take quite a bit of time to get through the whole thing, and getting started now would make things go better for you in the end. Four hours later, and you finally finished reading over the last sheet, and signing your name for at least the thousandth time. Vinyl had taken her letter hours ago, leaving you to your dull work. You couldn’t really blame her, though. You wanted to leave and do something else too. With a groan, you let the quill drop to the table, the pile of paperwork stacking itself neatly under the influence of your magic. With this monumental task out of the way, all that was left was the official funeral ceremony, and the final reading of the will in the company of all those ponies mentioned. Hopefully that could be taken care of quickly, since taking care of your sisters final wishes for her ashes would be a long walk. A series of knocks on your front door shook you from your momentary reverie, and you then walked to the door, not sure who it was that you should be expecting. The mail wasn’t due for at least another hour, and nopony had mentioned anything about coming by today. The options were limited, but, despite your list of possible visitors, the three ponies outside the door surprised you quite a bit. Lyra’s mint green coat caught your attention, and the sad smile on her face left you confused, until you recognized the two ponies beside her. The two of them were both unicorns, their coats and manes the same as the last time you had seen them, if just a bit duller than before. “Mother. Father.” “Son.” “To what do I owe the… honor of your presence?” “We came for the funeral.” “But you couldn’t come for when she was still alive? You couldn’t come when she needed the two of you the most? You couldn’t come when I was here, alone, trying to keep my life together while I dealt with my sister, your daughter, dying? You just decide to show up, now, after she’s dead and gone?” “Note, we’re your parents, and you won’t speak to us this way. We had to take time out of our busy-” “No, you listen! After dad got that promotion I expected the two of you to be a bit busier, but to go this long without visiting? And then to show up unannounced just after she dies?” “Note, we were busy with work.” Your mother tried to speak, but you didn’t give her a chance to continue. “Oh, right, because I had just so much free time? Because I wanted to spend all of my time at the hospital, watching Grace die?” At this point, Vinyl showed up, and your father’s eyes widened. “And you’re here with this whorse?!” Well, this is off to a great start. Thanks, dad. (Family issues. This gun be good.)