//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again // by Wheller //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Vinyl was doing her best, struggling to keep Surprise’s hooves away from her neck, so far, she was succeeding, but it was only a matter of time before the crazed Pegasus overpowered her. Surprise had murder in her eyes; she would not stop until one of them was dead. “What is going on here!?” Both of them stopped and looked at who had been unlucky enough to approach them. Surprise’s eyes widened. “Master!” She called out, leaping off Vinyl and throwing herself at Whirlwind’s hooves. “Oh Master! I am so glad to see you! I feared the worst!” Whirlwind looked utterly confused, and looked to Vinyl for help. Play along, Vinyl mouthed silently, Whirlwind nodded in understanding. Vinyl began to act out what she wanted him to say, she pointed to her eye. “I...” Whirlwind began. Vinyl pointed at Whirlwind with her hoof, taking up a stern look and intimating a famous old propaganda posted. “I need you...” Whirlwind said. Vinyl was happy, Whirlwind was either very good at charades, or she was really bad at it. She leapt to her hooves and began to trot in place. “To... walk?” Whirlwind said unsurely. Good enough. Vinyl pointed to the east, and made an arcing motion with her hooves, when her hoof was directly over her head; she began to pant, and wiped imaginary sweat off her brow. Her hoof lowered, pointing to the west and jabbing several times, indicating where she wanted Surprise to go. “Where the sun sets?” Whirlwind asked. Vinyl nodded. “I want you to walk west...” Whirlwind said, looking back at Surprise, who was still watching him intensely; completely oblivious to the fact that Vinyl was acting incredibly silly behind her. Vinyl started to trot in place again, but then stopped; she hopped a small distance and stood up, balancing herself on her hind legs with great difficulty, and bringing her forelegs over her head and fashioning them into a point above her head. “Into the Everfree forest?” Vinyl dropped down to all fours and nodded at him. She then sat down, looking out blankly into space; she raised her foreleg and looked at, then set it down, and then raised it up and looked at it again with a silent sigh. “And wait there...” Whirlwind said. Vinyl nodded and began acting out the next set of instructions; however Whirlwind seemed to get the idea. “Until I come for you. Can you do that for me?” Surprise nodded, intensely smiling at him. “Anything for you Master! I love you Master!” she bowed towards Whirlwind and then rose to her hooves and began walking towards the Everfree forest. “And don’t do anything else on the way!” Whirlwind added quickly. “Of course Master!” Surprise called back. They waited until she was out of view, and then Whirlwind turned to Vinyl. “I think I deserve an explanation for what just happened here.” “You do,” Vinyl said, giving the Pegasus a small smile. “You really do Whirlwind... just, not right now, okay? I have a lot of thinking to do after that... episode.” Whirlwind gave a small, quiet sigh, but looked up at the unicorn mare and gave her a smile. “All right,” he said simply. Vinyl smiled back at him. “You’re a good colt Whirlwind; Rainbow Dash doesn’t know what she’s missing.” “Take care, Miss Scratch,” Whirlwind said, and with that the two parted ways. Vinyl went back to the library, and pushed the door open gingerly. Twilight was still awake, scribbling something on a scroll with her magic. “Oh good! Vinyl you’re back I was beginning to think you got lost and... oh my gosh! What happened to you?!” Twilight cried in surprise as she looked over the mare, who was covered in dirt, and had her mane and tail tossed about in a complete mess from her scuffle with Surprise. “I... It’s nothing you need to worry about,” Vinyl said with a small smile. “Relax, it was dark, and I tripped and fell on my face! No biggie!” Twilight didn’t seem to be convinced, but gave in to the fact that Vinyl wasn’t going to give up anymore than that. “I appreciate the concern!” Vinyl said. “But really! I’m fine!” Truth be told, that had been a complete lie. Vinyl Scratch was more than a little disturbed by everything that had happened. Surprise had appeared from nowhere and tried to kill her, only for her to be saved in the nick of time by Overdrive. No, that wasn’t fair, Whirlwind wasn’t Overdrive, but the way Surprise had acted when she saw him had pretty much confirmed that he had been Overdrive in... whatever this place wasn’t. Truth be told, Vinyl still hadn’t the faintest clue about what this place was, and it had bothered her that she’d seemed to stop caring about it when Twilight invited her into her home. “You know, I do have a second bed upstairs in my loft, you’re welcome to it,” Twilight said. “Nah, I don’t want to intrude on your privacy, the sofa’s fine, let’s just say I’m well acquainted with it,” Vinyl said with a grin. Twilight raised an eyebrow in curiosity, wondering what she could possibly mean by that. “You... sleep on other ponies sofa’s a lot?” She asked. “Yeah,” Vinyl said. “I guess I do actually.” Twilight looked at the mare in front of her; Vinyl could tell that the thoughts running through her mind were something along the lines of “what have I gotten myself into?” Vinyl grinned reassuringly at her, but she wasn’t sure it was having an effect. Twilight eventually returned the smile, and bid the mare goodnight, she went upstairs, and Vinyl went and lied down on the sofa. She closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep; very happy to be... whatever the hell she was right now, as she didn’t know if alive was the right word. ... Vinyl Scratch awoke to a knock on the door, she groggily rose to her hooves and opened the front door. “You’re not Twilight Sparkle!” Vinyl blinked in the early morning light, Derpy Hooves, the town postal mare was standing outside with a comically large box that would have been impossible for her to get here by herself, even though Vinyl looked around to find that there was no other pony around who could have helped her. “Uh... no, I’m not, I’m Vinyl Scratch. I’m just staying with Twilight for a little while... do you need me to go get her?” Vinyl asked. “Oh, no, if she’s sleeping I don’t want to wake her up! I know she’s usually up all night studying and I feel bad when I have to wake her up to sign for a package. Anypony can do it; it’s just that she’s the only one who usually does.” “Okay,” Vinyl said with a smile, she took the mare’s pencil and clipboard and signed her name for the package, and returned it. The wall eyed Pegasus smiled back as she placed the clipboard back into her bag and helped Vinyl bring the large box inside with great difficulty. “What is in this thing!?” Vinyl asked. “Couldn’t tell you, not allowed to open anypony’s packages,” Derpy said with a grunt as they brought the box into the centre of the room. Derpy sighed in relief. “I am so glad to have this thing delivered! It was so heavy!” Vinyl nodded in agreement and gave the mare another smile. “I hope you don’t mind me saying this... but has anypony ever told you that you have really pretty eyes?” “I...” the wall-eyed Pegasus said and then froze, processing what had just been said to her. Her face turned a bright red. “Do... do you really mean that?” “I do,” Vinyl said with a grin. She found Derpy to be a rather attractive mare, and she knew that if the ponies of Ponyville could look past her eye problems, they’d probably see the same thing to. “I...” Derpy said, stammering in surprise, she clearly hadn’t heard such a compliment in a long time. “Thank you! Would it be all right... if I could see yours too?” “Sure!” Vinyl said, lifting her goggles off her face, her bright red eyes shining in the morning light. Derpy smiled back at her. “You have really pretty eyes too... I uh, I have to get back to delivering the post... maybe I’ll see you tomorrow? Hopefully?” “I hope so,” Vinyl said grinning from ear to ear. Derpy bid her goodbye, and continued on her way, humming a cheerful tune as she worked. Vinyl slid her goggles back down over her eyes and took a look at the large box before her. Twilight was probably going to want to open it right away. Vinyl called for her, and she trotted down the stairs slowly and yawning heavily, upon laying eyes on the box, her eyes widened and she ran over to it. “It’s here! It’s here!” She cried gleefully. She went over to her supply closet and levitated a crowbar out from it. Vinyl watched as she brought it over to it, glancing at the closet. She knew that Twilight liked to be prepared, but sometimes it felt like the solution to every single imaginable problem was inside that closet. “Why do you have a crowbar?” Vinyl asked. “Obviously, for this such occasion!” Twilight said with excitement in her voice. She levitated the crowbar up and pried the lid off, it clattered down onto the floor and the two mares looked inside. Twilight looked at it intensely. “It’s beautiful!”