//------------------------------// // In the Midst of Death is Life // Story: Letters to Vinyl // by runforever101 //------------------------------// Enigma’s heart nearly stopped. He dropped the bouquet of flowers he was holding to the ground. There was no chance of trying to hide the fact that he was crying, he already attracted the attention of everypony in the hospital lobby. The world spun around. He couldn’t hear himself scream. He kicked and thrashed and bawled. He couldn’t contain himself. His grandfather had just died. The doctor tried to calm him down, but the burgundy stallion didn’t want to calm down. He wanted to raise tartarus. He wanted to scream at Celestia, the Mare in the Moon, Princess Cadence, Prince Blueblood, the doctors, anypony. He needed somepony to blame. Soon two muscular earth pony stallions grabbed him by his hooves. Enigma managed to break loose and fly up the stairs to his grandfather’s room. He wouldn’t believe them until he saw it himself. As soon as he reached the floor his greatest role model was on, his wings tightened to his body as his hooves touched the smooth, checkered floor. He galloped at full speed towards Room 15, his legs burned but he didn’t care. He skidded to stop as he came up to the dreaded room. His hoof came up to his doorknob, but then heisitated. Soon his hoof spun the cold knob and pushed the door open slowly. There he was, Grandpa Crux. Enigma slowly approached the old pony. His grayish red coat was still as stone, and his yellow and orange mane was hanging over his eyes. His wings were splayed out, as if he was flying. Even though he was old, he never truly looked that way. With what strength the younger pegasus had left, he knelt over his grandpa and sobbed. Soon the big earth pony’s came in again, but at this point they just let their prisoner grieve. After a good amount of time, Enigma slowly got up. His eyes were red from crying and his coat and mane were dull from his sorrow. The guards escorted him out of the room and to the street. As he walked by he could tell ponies were staring at him, it was indeed strange for an adult stallion to cry. But of course, there was one pony who would mistake him for something that he wasn’t. “E-excuse me ma’am?” Soon his sadness was quickly converted into red, hot anger. He turned around to the voice, ready to attack. His teeth were clenched and his wings were spread. He closed his eyes and turned around to face the speaker. “I’M NOT A MARE!” he screamed. He opened his eyes after that to see the one who asked him if he was okay. It was a little violet-colored filly. He wondered if she had cancer, since she had no mane or tail, was hooked up to an IV, and was wearing a hospital gown. Her first tear soon dripped out of her right eye. Soon more salty sobs followed turning her white, amber, and black eyes to red, amber and black. A pony who was doing paperwork turned around to face them. She had a dark pink coat and furios looking amber eyes. This was obviously her mother. “HOW DARE YOU!?” she screamed, with more anger than Enigma originally was. He was mortified. Looking around he saw other angry ponies, ponies who were helping the fillies, ponies who were smirking, ponies who had no emotion about it at all. “I…” he ran out, he couldn’t bear that place anymore. He didn’t want angry glares, bad news or mistaken fillies. He just wanted peace. He flew back to his apartment as quickly as he could. As soon as he got there, he grabbed his apartment key from the landlord and raced up to his little home. He unlocked the door, raced into his bedroom, and plopped onto his bed to cry some more. He just need to clear his mind, forget everything, but something bothered him. The Vinyl Scratch plushie that his grandfather had given him was just sitting there, mocking him. The pegasus snarled, grabbed it with his teeth, and chucked it across the room. He had only gotten it a few days ago, but it meant so much to him. He sighed, and curled up under the covers of the small bed. “I never needed that thing anyways…” It was three months later, Enigma was finally moving into a better apartment. He breathed in the air outside as he watched the moving ponies his belongings to a big moving truck. “That’s it Mr. Enigma!” smiled a lime-green earth pony. He smiled back a tad awkwardly, “Thanks for everything!” “We did notice something you didn’t pack up though.” He pulled a small object out of his saddlebag. It was the Vinyl plushie. “Wow… Thanks.” A million questions ran through his head. Should he keep it? How did it end up under his bed? Why was it right here, right now? He climbed into the passenger side of the truck and looked at the doll. Now that he thought about, he realized that he loved the doll. It wasn’t really a sign of death, it was a sign of love. His grandfather gave it to him, he didn’t die because of it. “Maybe I should keep you,” he muttered nuzzling the doll. Soon the new building came into his view. "Welcome to your new home Vinyl Scratch.” There were billions of ways to cope with a loved one’s death, Enigma read up on it all. One way he thought was crazy, writing. He never really liked writing, he did like drawing though. But there he was, sitting at his new desk with a feather pen in his hoof and a stuffed doll motivating him to put his feelings on paper. “I’m only doing this for you...” he muttered wearily eyeing the plushie. Dear Vinyl Scratch, About four months ago, my grandfather died. I thought I could cope with it by throwing the thing I loved most around, you, or a plushie version of you at least. I thought if I threw away the thing Grandad gave me, I would be able to forget him. I later found out that you shouldn’t hid my my feelings, I should embrace them like I did here. I felt angry, betrayed, and depressed, and I blamed it on you. I knew that he went to your concert and died a few days later. I know it wasn’t you fault, but I needed someone to blame. This happened about four months ago. Just the other day, I realized all of this when I dug up the plushie. I’m sorry for blaming you, I hope you can forgive me. Sincerely, Enigma Mystere He sighed as he set the letter down. He just felt so happy that all of that was off his chest. He opened the window of the apartment, and let the letter fly away with the wind. He thought it would probably blow into the river or something, but fate had a different idea. It flew through the breeze, ducking over tall buildings, and it finally landed smack-dab in the middle of of somepony’s face. She pulled the letter off and growled. “Are you okay Vinyl?” asked a yellow pagasus beside her. “Yeah, this piece of paper just flew into my face though!” “Wow, maybe it’s important!” “Maybe,” she smiled, tucking into her coat pocket. Vinyl seemed like the perfect pony. Her parents were Canterlot’s top elite, she had billions of dollars, and she was extremely famous and popular. It was actually the opposite. She was never truly loved. When she was a filly, a nanny would watch her. Her parents always traveled, attending late parties and foreign countries. She never saw her other family either, they were all dead or busy. Nopony wanted to visit the little white unicorn. When she finally moved out, she would drown out her pain with drinking. She tried to forget as hard as she could about the nannies, the parties, the lonely holidays. But it never worked. One day when she was young, she wished upon The Mare in the Moon’s stars. “I wish, I hope, I dream, I pray. By the princess’s rule light my way. I just want to have someone I can hold and love!” She never believed it would come true, but after many years, it finally did. And it literally hit her in the face. “Are you okay Vinyl?” “Yeah, this piece of paper just flew into my face though!” “Wow, maybe it’s important!” “Maybe.” Vinyl walked back to her pent house that night. It was dark and quiet, like usual. She flipped on a few lights and sat down at the bar in her kitchen and grabbed a large bottle of Applejack Daniel’s. She took a huge swig and began to read through the letter. That one piece of paper warmed her crusty heart. It wasn’t the story, it wasn’t the moral, it was this pony’s love for his grandfather. She set down the bottle, sobered up, and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. Dear Enigma, Thank you for your letter; I’m not quite sure how you got it to me though. I really truly liked it. You see, I really never knew what it was like to love, or to be loved growing up. Your story touched my heart. Yours truly, Vinyl Scratch It was only a day later when Enigma was getting his mail. He was getting used to his new apartment. Sure it had tons of boxes and such, but it was much roomier. He grabbed the letters and scanned through them. “Bill, magazine, magazine, letter from-“ He nearly dropped everything. A letter from Vinyl Scratch? What did she want to do with him? He almost had a heart attack when he thought of the letter that he had sent off a day ago. “Crap.”