Chapter 2
Vinyl was panicking, nothing made sense anymore. She remembered everything. The bomb had gone off that meant...
That meant she was dead.
Vinyl collapsed onto the ground, sobbing heavily, she was dead. She killed Scootaloo, and she probably killed everypony else alongside her, but it lead her to another question. If she was dead, then what was all this?
“Are you all right?”
Vinyl Scratch looked up to see that Whirlwind was standing over her, but when Vinyl looked upon him, she didn’t see Whirlwind, she saw Overdrive. The coat, mane, and eyes, those were all his.
Vinyl screamed at the top of her lungs, and instinctively began to back away. “Get the fuck away from me!” she cried out hysterically.
She had clearly startled the Pegasus, he took a step back, but immediately regained composure and donned a neutral expression, clearly an attempt to put the unicorn mare at ease, but so far, it had failed.
“What is going on over here?!” Rainbow Dash cried out as she approached them.
“I... I don’t know, I didn’t do anything,” Whirlwind said.
“That’s right you’re not doing anything! Get back to work!” Rainbow Dash said.
Whirlwind nodded and leapt into the air, Rainbow Dash kneeled down at Vinyl’s side.
“Hey, are you all right?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Vinyl was not able to answer in more than a stammer.
“Okay... I think you might need to see a doctor, come on! Whirlwind can go ten minutes without my supervision,” Rainbow Dash said as she helped Vinyl to her hooves.
Vinyl was not able to answer, for a pony that had a talent with words; she was not able to find any.
Rainbow Dash helped Vinyl towards the Ponyville Clinic, they made a good pace, when Vinyl wasn’t tripping over herself anyway, she was horribly disoriented, and the shock of her previous life’s memories returning to her all at once had done a number on the unicorn’s mind. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof didn’t know what to think, she assumed that the unicorn had been drinking before wandering into town, but chose to withhold her judgement as she half carried her into the clinic.
Sitting at the receptionist’s desk was a blue coated unicorn mare with an hourglass cutie mark, and a mane that reminded Vinyl of toothpaste.
“Hi Colgate,” Rainbow Dash said. “Is the Doc in? It’s kind of important.”
Colgate frowned as she looked Vinyl over. “My, she really doesn’t look well. Go ahead and take her back, I’ll fetch him for you.”
“Thanks,” Rainbow Dash said, she walked Vinyl back to the examination room, helping her onto the examination table, and taking a seat at the back of the room.
“I hope you know that I haven’t forgiven you for hitting on me! I’m just helping you because it’s the right thing to do!” Rainbow said.
Vinyl smiled weakly at her, she had missed Rainbow Dash so much.
The door opened and the doctor walked in. Vinyl really didn’t know who else to have expected, but when Doctor Nightly walked in, she began to scream at the top of her lungs. She wasn’t seeing Nightly, she was seeing Nightshadow.
Her eyes darted around the room for the best weapon that she could find. So far, a reflex hammer was about all she could find, she reached out with her magic and grabbed it, pulling it towards her and pointing it as threateningly as she could towards him.
“Get away from me!” Vinyl screamed.
“Miss Scratch... please put that down,” Doctor Nightly said with a frown. “I just want to help you.”
“The fuck you do!” Vinyl screamed back.
“Woah! Hey!” Rainbow Dash called out. “I don’t know where you’re from, but that kind of language isn’t acceptable around here! Now stop being crazy and let the doc do his job!”
The vocal equivalent to a smack across the face had done its job, Vinyl realised how ridiculous she must have looked to Rainbow Dash; she had remembered the Siblings Nightmare and what they had done. Rainbow did not. Vinyl frowned and uneasily set the reflex hammer down where it had been lying before.
“Don’t you worry!” Doctor Nightly said with a smile. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you! I’m a doctor, I just want to help, now lie back so I can give you a good look over.”
Vinyl complied; Doctor Nightly’s horn began to glow as he waved it back and forth over her, collecting as much information as he could with his magic.
“Have you been drinking, Miss Scratch?” Nightly asked.
“I... I don’t know,” Vinyl said. She tried to remember anything about what she had been doing before waking up in Whitetail Wood, but nothing came to her. She supposed that it wasn’t surprising; her old life before meeting Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle on the way to the Hoofson Bay had been like that, with large swaths of her memory completely missing.
“Well, apart from a case of mild dehydration... I can’t seem to find anything that’s wrong with you. Drink lots of water today, and come back at the end of the week and I’ll give you another look over, how’s that sound?”
“All right,” Vinyl said uneasily, she sat back up and hopped down off the examination table. Doctor Nightly smiled at her as she and Rainbow Dash departed from the clinic.
“You know...” Rainbow Dash said. “I couldn’t help but think how familiar you are, I think I know who you are!”
Vinyl stopped and looked at Rainbow Dash with a huge smile forming on her face. “You do!?” she asked.
“Yeah... You’re DJ Pon3! I went to one of your shows a couple of years ago!” Rainbow Dash said.
“Oh,” Vinyl said, her ears drooped in disappointment. Just like her old life, everypony that knew her knew her as DJ Pon3. She didn’t want to be DJ Pon3 anymore; she just wanted to be Vinyl Scratch. “Hey, Rainbow Dash? Thanks for helping me out... and sorry for giving you such a hard time this morning.”
“Hey? Are you going to be all right?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I’ll manage,” Vinyl said, giving Rainbow Dash a feeble smile, and the two of them parted ways.
...
Vinyl wandered through the streets for several hours. She was afraid, she had no idea what to think of all this and she didn’t notice that she had walked into somepony until after it had already happened.
“Oh gosh! I’m so sorry!” Vinyl said, she looked up to see that she walked into a bright pink earth pony with a curly magenta mane, deep blue eyes looking back at her.
Pinkie Pie looked at Vinyl intensely, making her feel more than a little uneasy.
“Uh... hello?” Vinyl asked.
Pinkie Pie leapt into the air and let out an exasperated gasp, and immediately scampered off in the other direction. Vinyl’s ears drooped in disappointment, Vinyl remembered Twilight Sparkle describing a similar incident, this meant that Pinkie Pie had not recognised her, and was running off to plan a surprise party for her.
Vinyl didn’t want a party. She wanted to be remembered, her head hanging low, she continued to wander up and down through the town, passed the Ponyville Library and eventually sitting down on a park bench next to it.
She looked across the street, noticing that the flat she had been living at with Scootaloo had a “for rent” sign hanging in the window. She felt tears forming in her eyes and ripped her goggles off her head with her magic and threw them across the street in frustration.
“Ow! Hey!”
Vinyl’s head snapped up, she’d accidentally hit somepony with them. She frowned when she saw who it was. Twilight Sparkle was sitting on the ground, rubbing her head while the goggles were lying next to her.
“Oh... fuck!” Vinyl said quietly, she hopped up and crossed the street to help Twilight up. “I am so sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you!”
“It’s... are you crying?” Twilight asked looking up at her. Vinyl was. In her panic, she had forgotten the tears that were streaming down her muzzle. “Are you all right?”
“I... uh... shouldn’t I be the one asking you that?” Vinyl asked, attempting to deflect the question.
“I’m okay,” Twilight said as Vinyl helped her to her hooves. “Are you?”
Vinyl frowned. “I’m fine,” she said unconvincingly.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. “I don’t believe you, I haven’t seen you around before, are you new to town?”
“I... yeah, just rolled in this morning,” Vinyl said simply.
“And let me guess, you don’t have any place to stay?” Twilight asked.
“I... no,” Vinyl admitted.
“Didn’t think so,” Twilight said with a small smile. “Come on! You can stay with me.”
“You’re being awfully nice to a pony that you don’t even know,” Vinyl said.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle, what’s your name?” Twilight asked.
“Vinyl Scratch.”
“Well Vinyl Scratch, now we know each other!” Twilight said smiling brightly. “Now come on! I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
Vinyl smiled weakly at Twilight, she picked up her goggles and followed her into the Ponyville Library.
Vinyl was glad that she would always have Twilight, even if she didn’t remember her.