//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10 
// Story: Miller 
// by totallynotabrony 
//------------------------------//

	“Have you had dinner yet?” asked Vinyl.
“No, it’s been kind of a long day.” Not only had I flown all the way to Vanhoover and back, but slipping through the clutches of griffons, a hydra, and overweight police had really taken it out of me.
“I’ll help you cook something. I really owe you for everything you’ve done for me.” Vinyl looked away. “I just wish I’d made better choices. Smelling salts…well, I should have considered what it would do to my life. I ignored all those anti-drug campaigns in school. And now, I’ve got basically nothing left. I don’t know where to go from here.”
“Well, why don’t we start with dinner,” I suggested.
“I’d really like to talk about it. If you’ll listen.” She took off her sunglasses to look at me directly.
I swallowed. Nobody enjoys listening to the sadness of someone coming to terms with their mistakes. The fact that I had played more than a small part in drug distribution put me even further in the emotional hole.
“I guess it started out with the little stuff. Just a puff of buckweed here and there at parties. But then…well, you’ve probably heard stories about how things escalate.”
I nodded.
“The hospital psychologist helped me see what I was doing.” Vinyl wasn’t crying, but she did seem to be sniffing a lot. “I started making sacrifices. Everything that was supposed to be important to me just wasn’t anymore. All I had went to getting high. I’m two months behind on rent, and there isn’t much left to sell.”
Her attitude abruptly changed, and for the better. With a different look in her eyes, Vinyl said, “I’m going to try my hardest not to go back to what I was doing, but I’m worried that I don’t have that kind of willpower by myself. I don’t know if I could do it without you. You’re a good friend. It really means a lot to me.”
I struggled with a response. Vinyl looked like she expected one. I finally managed, “I’ll do what I can.”
Something began to creep into her expression. I wasn’t sure if it was doubt or disappointment. I knew my tone hadn’t been rock-solid supportive, something that Vinyl desperately needed. I gulped and tried again. “We’ve all done things we aren’t proud of.”
She looked unconvinced. I debated saying more, unsure if it would help or just look like I was grasping at straws. I turned to the stove to adjust the temperature.
“What have you done?” Vinyl asked quietly.
I paused with my back to her. She went on. “You’re a really great guy. What could you possibly not be proud of?”
I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer before turning. “Should I start at the beginning, or just give you the highlights?”
If I stopped talking for any reason I might realize what I was doing and get scared. Without waiting for her to answer, I plowed ahead. “Earlier today, I was in a fight.”
I raised my wing, showing off the scabbed talon scratches. Vinyl’s eyes went big, and I explained, “Four griffons and a hydra, if you can believe that. It was a little detour on my way to a delivery. I was taking a cartload of smelling salts to Vanhoover.”
Vinyl wore an expression like a kid who had just been told that Santa Claus wasn’t real. “You…you’re…” 
I couldn’t wait for her to put together a whole sentence or my storytelling momentum might be lost. “That’s on top of the other terrible things I’ve had to do since I got here. Not just the fighting, but doing business with criminals from both inside and outside Equestria, transporting drugs everywhere, and just the other day, they wanted me to murder one this stallion—”
Vinyl held up her hooves, looking like somepony in fear for her life. The tears she’d held back earlier began to break free. “I didn’t want to believe it. When I last talked to my dealer, he said there was somepony new in town. I just couldn’t believe it was the same pony I knew. How could you be Miller the Killer?”
She was already bolting for the door by the time her last sentence was finished. She slammed it open and charged down the hallway. Her racing steps didn’t stop at the next door apartment, and I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to live near somepony who had a such a ghastly epithet, either.
Miller the Killer. Really? Who came up with that? I shook my head. Just what kind of reputation had I built? It was surely undeserved and absolutely paper-thin. As soon as I failed to live up to such a name, I was toast. Duster, or any pony he associated with, was brutal enough to actually deserve a moniker like that, not me. I was the wrong guy. Wrong place, time, body, wrong everything.
There was something I could do right, however. I felt like I had to. Quickly turning off the stove, I went out the door and after Vinyl. She had said that I was a good friend. Well, it was time to prove that I deserved that reputation.
She had left her sunglasses, and I slipped them on for safekeeping. To my surprise, they actually made it easier to see at night. Some sort of enchantment, I supposed. That made it doubly simple to track her down.
It was basically impossible for a running pony to outpace a pegasus. I didn’t want to just swoop in or Vinyl might get the wrong idea. I decided to just wait and watch for a while. Maybe I could approach her when her emotions began to calm and she slowed down.
About five minutes and many blocks later, Vinyl slowed to a trot. Her sides were heaving, and not just from exertion. Trying to be as gentle as possible, I landed on the corner ahead of her. She saw me and came to a halt.
“I’m sorry!” That seemed like a good way to begin. Continuing, I said, “I didn’t mean to get caught up in all this. I couldn’t help it. Things just got out of hand, and I couldn’t get myself out of the situation. I’ve been dead on my feet trying to fix things, and…I need your help.”
Seconds passed. Vinyl seemed less fearful than before, but I could still see mistrust in her eyes. She opened her mouth. “What do you mean by—”
And then I was slammed to the pavement by a very angry griffon.
“Thought you could get away?” he roared in my ear. “I don’t care if there was a hydra, I’m not going back to the boss with nothing to show!”
Well, I now knew what had happened to the fourth griffon from earlier in the day. I kind of wish I didn’t, though. I could have gone my whole life without seeing him again.
“Hey!” shouted Vinyl. She shot a burst of magic at the griffon, which didn’t seem to hurt him too much, but loosened his grip enough that I struggled free. I leaped into the air and he followed. That was good, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted him to focus on Vinyl.
I shot upwards, making it to the rooftops without being caught. The city was a much better place to duck and weave than the open air, letting me use my advantage of maneuverability. Along with Vinyl’s sunglasses making everything look nearly as bright as day, I actually felt confident in my ability to escape. Well, that was certainly a welcome change.
I reached the opposite side of the roof and twisted into a corkscrew, rolling over and following the wall of the building towards the sidewalk. There was an alley directly across the way, and I shot down it just a few feet off the ground. Turning my head, I caught a glimpse of the griffon working hard to catch me.
Glancing upwards revealed a rooftop water tower on the next building over. It sat on a short structure made of metal beams. I made a small miscalculation in executing my climb and the griffon came uncomfortably close. For an instant I tucked my wings and legs close, whipping through the framework of the tower like a bullet. Forced to go around, the griffon lost some distance.
Diving down into a courtyard between two sides of an apartment complex, I barely avoided some laundry lines and just missed the spray from a fountain on the ground. After another steep climb, I began setting up for further evasive maneuvers.
Glancing back showed no pursuit. Nervously, I checked all around. The griffon was nowhere to be seen. There were no clouds to hide behind, and I was far enough over the buildings to have a good view.
Cautiously circling, I tried to figure out where he might have gone. It was hard to believe that he’d simply given up. Had he abandoned me for Vinyl? I began to backtrack the route I had taken.
I found his body hanging limply in the clothes lines. His neck was wrapped tightly, and it was hard to tell if it had been broken or he’d merely suffocated. I pushed the sunglasses back. Without their help, the grisly scene only a few feet in front of me was nearly hidden from view in the darkness. I’d effectively lured the griffon into a trap that neither of us saw coming.
For the second time, I thought about how I could have gone my whole life without seeing this griffon again, but I meant it more this time. I turned away and hurridly headed back to where I’d seen Vinyl last. I wanted to make sure she was okay, and it seemed only fair that I thank her for the help even if purple sunglasses weren’t really my style.
She was not far from where I’d been attacked. I saw a look go across her face when she realized how unworried I was about the possibility of ever meeting the same griffon again.
I gave her back the sunglasses. “Thanks. I always wondered why you wear your sunglasses at night.”
She grinned, although it looked very forced forced, as if she was trying to get over the awkward Miller-just-killed-a-guy thing just as much as I was. “Well, doing the DJ thing usually involves clubs with dim lights. I have to be able to see what I’m doing.”
I nodded. “Makes sense.”
Several seconds of awkwardness passed. We stood several feet apart, more distant than two friends would normally have a conversation. I cleared my throat. “I also wanted to thank you for the help in getting that griffon off me.”
“I...I just reacted.” Vinyl sighed. “I guess I still don’t know how to feel about all this, but I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Thank you.” I felt the ice beginning to break. It would take awhile to re-earn her trust, but the process was started.
I started walking, and she fell in step beside me, although still not at a friendly distance. The two of us took up the whole sidewalk, both wanting to give the other space. Vinyl decided that talking would be okay, however. I was willing to listen.
“Earlier, just before that griffon came, you said something weird.”
“I’m afraid whatever it was slipped my mind in the last few minutes,” I admitted.
“You said something about things getting out of hand and being dead on your feet. I think I understand the meaning, but I’ve never heard those expressions before.”
Well, it had already been a weird night. What the heck. “There’s a very good reason for that. I used to have hands and feet. I’m not supposed to be a pony, Vinyl.”
On top of everything else that had happened, it was good to know that I could still surprise her. Her baffled, astonished, creeped-out face made me want to laugh. I held back, however, because now was certainly not the time.
Glancing up as we passed a café, I said “Hey look, Oven’s is open late. Are you still hungry?”