My Little DJ

by iDash

Chapter 2: With the Beats

An orange pegasus filly let her eyes flutter open as she woke up. She sat up in bed and looked around, and realized she had no idea where she was. It was a pretty empty room, one of the only things there was the bed that she sat on. There was a dresser in the corner with a mirror that was probably empty.

Scootaloo closed her eyes as she tried to remember how she got there and the memory of Vinyl from last night came into her mind. Vinyl had found her in the clubhouse. This part was what brought Scootaloo down the most. What was she going to do now that they had discovered her? Vinyl had said to follow her. Scootaloo fell asleep and that was all she could remember.

Scootaloo groaned as she got out of bed and headed towards the door, not bothering to fix her usually unkempt violet mane.

She opened the door to the room and was about to walk out, but she stopped. Something she had heard caught her attention. It was a beautiful voice, singing. It seemed to come from down the stairs in the house.

Scootaloo walked out slowly and quietly, not wanting to disturb the voice. Her ears perked up with every word. She didn’t know the song, but the mare’s voice flowed beautifully with every verse. It was unlike anything Scootaloo had ever heard before. It made her feel warm and happy inside, like everything was okay and nothing else mattered. She walked down the carpeted stairs in a trance and into what looked like a living room, but she didn’t pay attention. She had to find the source of that voice.

As she progressed further, however, she noticed that the singing had stopped and was replaced with a familiar voice.

“Oh, hey there, kiddo. ‘Bout time you woke up,” Vinyl said as she smiled at the filly. She was standing in the kitchen over a skillet. “Want some pancakes, kid?”

Scootaloo looked over and saw that the unicorn had been making pancakes. The smell of the fluffy treat wafted to her nose, making her mouth water a little. She must’ve been paying too much attention to the singing to notice them.

She brushed aside the thought of pancakes, though and turned her attention towards Vinyl. “Was that you singing just now?”

“Eeyup. That’s right.” Vinyl flipped another pancake with a spatula held by her purple magic.

Scootaloo’s expression brightened up, “That was amazing! I had no idea that you could sing like that.”

Vinyl chuckled, setting some pancakes on a couple of plates, “Heh, thanks, kid. As a DJ, I’ve had to make my own vocals for my songs, so being able to sing is kind of a requirement.”

The white unicorn set the plates on a table as she sat down and motioned for the filly to join her. The two sat in silence as they ate the pancakes, which were delicious in Scootaloo’s opinion. As she was eating, the pegasus looked all around her and took in her surroundings. She had never seen Vinyl’s house, but didn’t expect it to be this large.

“I didn’t know that your house was so big,” Scootaloo said to her, still looking around.

Vinyl chuckled, “Yeah, I used to share it with my old pal, ‘Tavi, but she moved out after a while. Couldn’t handle the wubs.”

Scootaloo had no idea what she was talking about, but just accepted it and kept eating.

There was more silence. She didn’t notice that Vinyl had stopped eating until she spoke up. “So, about last night…” her voice trailed off as she looked at the filly.

Scootaloo’s expression quickly turned sullen as the inevitable finally came.

“W-what about it?” she said, trying to remain vague.

“Well,” Vinyl started in a sarcastic tone. “I remember a lot of walking, Sweet Apple Acres, a treehouse, and… well, I think you know what happens after that.”

“Oh…” Scootaloo didn’t know what to say. She knew she couldn’t lie. “It’s because…”

The next five words hit Vinyl like a punch in the gut, and they hurt just as much.

“I don’t have a home.”

They sat there in another torturing silence. Scootaloo’s pale purple eyes had begun to get watery. Vinyl was afraid to ask the next question, but she had to know the answer.

“Where… where are your parents?”

A tear threatened to escape the filly’s eyes, but she did her best to hold them back. She looked to the pale white unicorn in front of her. Something about her told Scootaloo she could trust her. And so, she told her story.

“I… I’m an orphan. I never knew my father because he walked out on my mom before I was born. And my mom… she- she got really sick and died when I was young, so they sent me to an orphanage. I lived there for five years and I hated it. Everybody treated me like trash there and they abused me, so I ran away. I came here and lived by myself. I even enrolled myself into school so that no one would suspect me try to send me back to the orphanage.”

As Scootaloo finished her story, a tear rolled down her cheek. Vinyl was bewildered by the story she had just heard, her mouth hanging open in a gape. When she saw the tear on the pegasus filly’s muzzle, she quickly stood up and rushed to the other side of the table. She rested a forehoof on Scootaloo’s shoulder and wiped the tear away with the other.

“Hey now, don’t cry. Come on, it’ll be alright.” Vinyl tried her best to soothe the crestfallen filly in front of her.

“So, there you go. That’s why I was in the treehouse. Because I don’t have a home.”

“You haven’t told any of your friends yet, have you?” Vinyl suspected that she hadn’t told anyone, since no one has tried to help her.

“No, I don’t want them to find out,” she said without looking at Vinyl. “So, I’m just going to have to keep sleeping there.”

“No, you’re not.” Vinyl would absolutely not let the poor filly sleep out in the cold all alone.

“W-what?” Scootaloo stuttered, looking into her deep red eyes.

“I said you’re not going to sleep there anymore. I can’t stand to see you like that.”

Scootaloo had a look of confusion on her face. “Well, then how am I-?”

“You can stay here,” Vinyl said without hesitation.

“I-… what?” She now stared at the unicorn in disbelief.

“You heard me. If you’re not gonna tell anypony else, then you can stay here with me. Besides, winter’s comin’ up and I get the feeling you don’t want to sleep through that in a treehouse.” Vinyl smirked.

She smiled at the look of joy that spread across the filly’s face as Scootaloo shot out of her chair and hugged.

“Thank you, Vinyl.”

Vinyl just chuckled, “Don’t mention it, kid.”

The four months since that time passed quickly. Though, they spent most of the winter inside. During the time, the two grew quite close, wasting no time getting to know each other. They had a lot of fun as well. Vinyl often let Scootaloo into the club with her to enjoy the music as she played it.

She started to teach Scootaloo how to use the set. The filly was a natural at it. It didn’t take her long to get the hang of things after she boosted the bass a little too loud and blew out more speakers than her mentor could count. This normally wouldn’t have bothered Vinyl, but more than half of the windows weren’t hers. Nonetheless, she didn’t stop laughing about it until days after.

It always made Vinyl happy to see the look of joy splayed on the filly’s face whenever Vinyl taught her or whenever she got to play.

Scootaloo still hung around her friends and kept the CMC thing going, but started spending a lot of time with Vinyl. Over the winter, without her noticing, her wings had grown considerably to the point where they no longer buzzed as she rode her scooter. Instead, they made a soft, fluttering sound.

It was a day after Winter Wrap-up that year when she and Vinyl decided to chill at the park, enjoying the new warmth. Scootaloo had taken note of her grown wings and stood in the middle of the park with the DJ pony watching. With one solid thrust of her wings, she shot straight into the air. It took her a moment to recover from her initial surprise, but when she regained balance, she realized that she was easily hovering in the air above Vinyl. The look of sheer joy that she had in her eyes was almost indescribable.

In celebration of her achievement, they bought out all the sweets they could find at Sugarcube Corner and gorged themselves on the treats. As a special surprise that night, Vinyl took her to the club and gave her the honors of DJ’ing the first track for the night.

During that whole period of time, from winter to spring, Scootaloo had almost completely forgotten about her trouble with Rainbow Dash, the mare she used to look up to. She sometimes wondered why she would look up to somepony who always rejected her like that. It didn’t matter, though. She had found another role model in Vinyl.

They had grown so close that Scootaloo now saw her as something like a mother, and she had the feeling that Vinyl saw their relationship as something like that, too, seeing Scootaloo as her daughter. Why wouldn’t the filly feel that way, though? Vinyl had watched over her and taken care of her when nopony else bothered to notice her turmoil. She was so glad to have met her.

It was a warm spring day when Scootaloo rode her scooter into town. There was no longer any need for the scooter, seeing as she could fly the short distance to her destination, but it felt comfortable to ride it still, so she did. She was headed to Sugarcube Corner to pick up some sweets for a movie night that her and Vinyl had planned a while ago. The sweets in question would be a cake that she herself had made the previous day, with the help of Pinkie Pie, of course who was holding it for her. She was going to use it to surprise Vinyl that night.

In no time at all, Scootaloo arrived at Ponyville’s best stop for treats and walked in. Her heart skipped a beat as she stopped in front of the doorway, though. Right there, not ten feet in front of her, stood Rainbow Dash, who she hadn’t seen for the entirety of the winter.

Rainbow Dash quickly noticed her as the bells on the door jingled.

“Hey Scootaloo!” Pinkie Pie hollered, bouncing behind a counter. “You’re probably here for the cake, huh. Uno momento!
Let me get it really quick.” She trotted off happily towards the back of the small shop.

Rainbow’s face brightened up, “Oh, hey there, squirt. Long time, no see, huh?” she said, still smiling. “So, how’s my #1 fan been? Haven’t seen ya around during my practices for a while.”

“Hey… Rainbow Dash.”

“Aw man, you should’ve seen the last trick I pulled off! It would blow your mind…” Rainbow continued to boast about her flying as the orange filly remained in relative silence.

Was this it? Rainbow wasn’t even making an attempt at apologizing. Did she even remember about the day that she had hurt Scootaloo? Did she even care?

Pinkie Pie returned, bouncing, from the back. Neither of the other ponies present had any idea how she managed to bounce like that while balancing the cake perfectly on her head. Nor did they understand how she could set it down so gently without it toppling.

“Here’s your cake Scoots! So, are you having that movie night thing with Vinyl tonight?”

Rainbow Dash looked over with a curious look on her face. “Hm? So, you’ve been hanging out with Vinyl Scratch?”

Scootaloo hesitated a moment before simply replying, “You could say that.”

She was hesitant to even speak with Rainbow Dash, let alone inform her of her current personal life. She grabbed the cake, which was in a clear glass case, off of the counter with her teeth.

“Hmmmm. Well, anyways,” Rainbow started, brushing off the vague reply without any concern. “I got that new trick down pat. You want to go to the park or something and see it?” more frustration was building up inside the filly.

When she didn’t answer, Rainbow Dash just grinned, nudging Scootaloo with her hoof. “I bet ya can’t wait, huh?”

“No.”

“Yeah, I-… Wait, what?” Rainbow was taken aback by the filly’s response. The Scootaloo she knew would never even miss a chance to talk to Rainbow Dash, let alone see a new stunt.

“I said ‘no’, Rainbow.” Scootaloo turned to the bewildered mare with an angry look plastered across her face. She had had enough of this. “I don’t care anymore, so just do it by yourself.”

With the cake, she walked to the entrance of the shop and set it down on her scooter before saying one last thing to the cyan mare, “I don’t care, so just disappear, Rainbow.”

With that, she shot off on her scooter leaving behind a very confused and even hurt Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus filly wasn’t the only one having a bad day. A certain pale unicorn mare had just returned home that night after a very stressful talk with her boss. He had just ‘kicked her out’. Well, he had actually sent her on a small vacation with pay, but ‘kicked out’ is how she saw it. The reason for his actions frustrated her, too.

For the past month or so, she had been trying her hardest to make new material for her performances, since, lately her usual stuff had become mundane to the ponies she played for every night. No matter what she did, however, she couldn’t produce anything that was worth playing at the club.

As she reached her home, Vinyl hastily unlocked and threw open the door, stomping in and slamming it behind her as hard as she could without breaking the hinges. This all came as much of a surprise to the pegasus filly who had been sitting down on the couch, but had bolted up with surprise and Vinyl barged in. Scootaloo had not expected her home this early… or this angry.

Vinyl noisily made her way to the kitchen, angrily muttering to herself as she went. She flung open the fridge door and pulled out a pitcher of water. A cup surrounded by a hazy purple aura floated out of one of the cupboards. The DJ poured herself a glass and chugged it down without stopping and poured herself another, this time taking it a little slower.

Scootaloo crouched on the other side of the sofa, her eyes peeking over the top.

She was a little hesitant to speak, but eventually began after she thought that unicorn had calmed down enough.

“U-um… hey, Vinyl?”

“What?” the alabaster unicorn bluntly replied.

Scootaloo cringed a little at this. “Do you, uh… wanna start the movie or something? I-I got some sweets from Pinkie that we could have.”

Vinyl sighs as she lifts her shades off of her head with magic and sets them on a countertop.

She shakes her head in irritation, rubbing her eyes, “Not right now.”

No further explanation was provided. They stood in silence until Scootaloo piped up.

“But… I-I thought you said we could-” she was quickly cut off, though.

Vinyl turned around quickly to face the other pony. “Yeah, I did say that, but now I’m saying, ‘Not. Right. Now!’” She harshly snapped at the poor filly. The DJ noticed and tried to tone it down a bit. “I’ve had a really bad day, OK?”

Scootaloo didn’t know how to respond to the outburst, so she responded with the only thing she had seemed to be feeling all day. Anger. She stood up from the couch and settled in front of Vinyl.

“You know, you don’t have to be such a jerk just because you had a bad day.”

Vinyl bitterly chuckled at this before taking another swig of her water. “Whatever. You try having as horrible a day as mine, and then try saying that.”

Scootaloo was offended but tried not to show it. She was mad now.

“Well, what if I have?”

“Huh, I doubt it.”

That was it.

“You know what, Vinyl? I’ve had a pretty bad day, too! So you should just stop moping about it! I’ve been miserable all day, and all I wanted to do was just watch a movie-!”

Vinyl snapped back angrily in return before thinking about what she was saying. “Well then go cry about it to your freaking mommy-?!”

Uh-oh.

Her hoof shot up to her muzzle, but she couldn’t stop herself soon enough.

Scootaloo said nothing, but glared at Vinyl with tears coming to her eyes.

“Scootaloo, I-” She started, but instead of listening, Scootaloo darted past her and up the stairs to her room, a trail of tears following behind her.

Vinyl didn’t do anything. She just sat and stared at the ground where Scootaloo stood a moment ago.

‘Geez, I really bucked up this time,’ she thought to herself. She sighed. ‘Well, time for my heartfelt apology.’

She turned to put the pitcher of water away and opened the fridge. She was about to shut the door again, but stopped.

Something caught her eye that she was too furious to notice before. A rectangular glass case sat on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Curious, she pulled it out a bit with her magic and knelt down to examine it. It was a cake, electric blue just like her mane. It was very well designed, too. In the center of the cake, a picture was painted in frosting. It was two ponies, a small filly and a mare, holding each other in a tight embrace. They unmistakably resembled herself and Scootaloo.

Vinyl didn’t know what to make of it, and then she saw a note on the front of the glass case. The piece of paper was neatly folded and had her name written on it. She lifted and unfolded it with her magic to hold it in front of her face and she read:

Vinyl,

Thank you. Thank you for everything you have done for me. You gave me a home, a bed, you gave me a roof over my head. You fed me and cared for me. You guarded me from the cold. You supported me when I thought nopony else would. You held me when I thought I was all alone. You made me happy when I just wanted to break down and cry. I opened up to you with my deepest secret and you accepted me. You could’ve turned away, Vinyl. You could’ve left me cold, hungry, and alone, but you didn’t. You shared your love with me, even though I didn’t even deserve it. Every day, I think about how lucky I am for you to have found me. How lucky I am to have somepony like you. There is no way that I can say thank you enough, so I made you this cake, too. I hope you like it. But again, thank you so much for being there for me.

Love,
Scootaloo

Vinyl read the note over and over again, each time slower.

Her heart broke.

She couldn’t believe it, shifting glances from the cake to the letter. She felt a solemn tear form in her ruby eyes.

‘Oh, Celestia. What have I done?’

Without a second thought, she dropped the letter and rushed up the stairs as quickly as her legs would carry her.

“Scootaloo!” she exclaimed, knocking on her door.

There was no answer.

“Scootaloo, please. Open up.”

Still no answer.

“Alright. I’m comin’ in now.”

She took a step back, turned around, and bucked at the door with her hind legs, breaking part of the wood frame and almost removing the door from its hinges.

She darted inside and looked around. Scootaloo wasn’t there. Her eyes quickly shifted around the room and she found what she was looking for. The window to the second story bedroom stood wide open, the fresh air flowing through it.

‘Crap,’ Vinyl thought as she ran out of the room and back down the stairs. She hastily opened the door and rushed out, not bothering to even close it behind her, and began to look for Scootaloo.

Though, she already knew where she was.

She was here. In front of her stood a familiar treehouse in a distant part of Sweet Apple Acres. It was quiet, but Vinyl knew that the pony she was looking for was up there. She placed her hoof on the ramp and slowly made her way up, cringing at the sound of each loud creak. As she came closer to the entrance, she began to here short, quiet gasps. Her mind made the connection and she knew what was going on.

Scootaloo was crying. Alone.

It hurt her to hear this, but she continued on. Vinyl reached the entrance and opened the door to go in. In the middle of the floor sat Scootaloo, wrapped up in a CMC cape and her head in her forehooves. Her back rose and fell as sharp breaths escaped her.

She heard Vinyl walk in but didn’t bother to raise her head.

“G-go away,” she said with a shaky voice between sobs.

The words hurt Vinyl, but she didn’t stop.

The unicorn sat on her haunches in front of the filly. She pulled the sobbing Scootaloo into a tight hug, letting her cry into her arms. Scootaloo didn’t resist. Instead, she returned the embrace and continued to shed tears into Vinyl’s coat.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Scootaloo,” Vinyl croaked out, stroking the filly’s mane to try and calm her down. She let a single tear fall from her eyes. “Please, don’t cry.”

Vinyl was angry, but she was angry at herself. She hated herself for hurting Scootaloo like this. And it hurt her to see the filly like this. She felt so stupid and senseless for treating her like she did. And in the end, all she could say was ‘sorry’. She could only imagine the pain that Scootaloo had been going through and hated herself for making her go through more.

They sat there for a while, losing track of time while Scootaloo cried and Vinyl held her in a warm hug. Eventually, the sobs began to subside and she began to calm down, but still clung to Vinyl. Her breathing became steady. She was about to fall asleep.

She muttered one thing, however, before nodding off. “Thank you.”

Vinyl smiled and waited until she was fast asleep to move. She got up and carefully lifted the sleeping filly onto her back with her magic.

Just like the night she had first taken her in, Vinyl carried Scootaloo to her home, the filly nuzzling her mane as she slept. She walked up the soft stairs and into her passenger’s room and set her gently down on the bed. Vinyl tucked her in while simultaneously shutting the open window.

Before returning to her own room, she turned to Scootaloo, who was smiling in her sleep. She knelt down and gently kissed her on the forehead, just like a mother would to her child, and went to bed, lightly closing the broken door behind her.