//------------------------------// // Realizations // Story: Guided Rhythm // by Valshe //------------------------------// Chapter 8: Realizations ________________________________________________ There wasn’t much else interesting that happened as we finished our meals rather quickly. We soon all piled back into the car, and began to find the nearest hotel. “I don’t know about you guys, but that was one of the best meals I had in a long while!” I said as I continued to clean my teeth out with a toothpick. “Indeed,” Trixie agreed, “we had become quite famished from the day’s exertions. It was quite refreshing, some incidents aside.” “Again,” Serah spoke up, sounding apologetic, “Sorry for spilling my drink all over the table.” “Your apology is suitable,”  The show mare replied casually. “I’m still sorry for not being very skilled, it would’ve easy to get your cups refilled.” Zecora said while looking over in Trixie’s direction. I did feel a bit bad that I got a free drink, and she didn’t... But on the bright side, free drink! “And I’m sorry for not respecting you as a person, Zecora,” A voice from the back announced. “Yeah, what Enrique said, but to Nurse Red—Serah,” Pablo was quick to respond to Snip’s apology. Serah gave a sincere smile and said, “Apology accepted. Just don’t go doing that again. Okay?” I heard some muffled whispering in the trunk, then Pablo asked, “Never again?” Trixie turned her head to stare daggers at him, and he cowered. “Okay,” he said. Well, now that the apology war was finally over, Luis had turned into the parking lot for a local Holiday Inn. Luis looked to all of us. “Hey, we’re here. Merille and I will go in and pay for all eight of us, then we’ll come back and help everyone with their stuff.” Trixie opened the door with a quick spell once the car came to a complete stop, and we got out of the car. Looking over to Luis and Merille as the headed for the lobby. “Two rooms!” Trixie called. Luis looked back over to me and gave a quick nod before heading inside the lobby. I soon began to wonder why we would waste more money and get two rooms. “Wait. Why would we need to get two... OH! Now I get why!” I said as it suddenly came to me. “Correct, this isn’t Europe,” Trixie said. “Don’t need four folks piling into the same bed. Eight into one Prius is quite enough. The question remains, who goes to which room?”         Completely clueless to Trixie’s saying, I wondered... What does Europe have to do with that? Oh well, I’d just Google it later, as she did bring up a point. Who gets which room? Snips and Snails ground their hooves into the pavement, looking at it intently. “We’ll stick to one room,” they said. Trixie sneaked a quick glance to the lobby, from which Luis and Merille were coming back to us, Merille twirling two sets of key’s on his finger. “Got the rooms, right beside each other as well,” Merille said. He stopped by one door as Luis grabbed all of the bags from the trunk. Merille opened the first door and held it open as Luis dragged the stage magician’s bag from the car to the room. They didn’t even have to ask which room we were taking. Trixie looked over to Pablo and Enrique. I guessed that they had come to an agreement prior to brief trip to the motel. Luis rubbed his shoulder as he walked up to Merille, “Care to handle your bag and mine?” he asked. Merille nodded, handing him the keys, then heading to the car while Luis opened the other door. He held it open, and Pablo and Enrique stepped inside as Merille brought his own bags. Trixie walked over to the other room and poked her head inside, spying the two colts. “Anything either of you are going to need from the suitcase?” Enrique shook his head. “No, we’ll be fine, thanks for asking though.” After being sure that they had everything they needed, she quickly followed us into the hotel room. It was your usual setup for a motel room. Two double beds with a night stand between them on the right side of the room, and the bathroom past that. On the left side of the room there was, from closest to the door to farthest, a desk with a chair and phone, a dresser with a television on it, and a table with a coffee maker on it. The carpet was a light brown, no doubt to hide dirt, if the feeling on my hooves was anything to go by. The walls were painted beige, and the window was covered with a dark forest green set of curtains. I was exhausted from today’s events, so I quickly wanted to get sleeping arrangements out of the way. “Alrighty then! How about this, me and Zeccy got dibs on the bed next to the window, while Trix and Serah get the other bed!” Everyone seemed to be okay with it as they all nodded. “Very well.” I walked past us before looking at Serah. “Just... no drinking in bed... please.” She looked at her while chuckling nervously. I trotted over to where my bed is and inspected my glasses. Before all of this, they were prescription glasses that I needed to see with, as my vision was horrid without them. It also made me think of a few things... We all were headed to New York simply because of one statement from someone we didn’t even know personally. We all had different reasonings, but I was curious as to why they were headed there as well. I looked over to Trixie and the others and said, “We’re all going to the same place, yet none of us even know our reasonings behind it. We could have all just stayed put and not do anything, yet here we are. So, I just gotta ask, what’s your reasoning for going on this trip?” “And leave solving this situation to that foolish filly, Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie quipped as she shut her eyes and turned her nose to the air, “Please, Trixie does not leave such things to chance.”         I guessed Trixie was refusing to let bygones be bygones. Zecora took a moment before she finally spoke up. “I don’t know if I have a part to play.” She looked idly at the rings on her foreleg. “I just want to know why I became this way. How this form I had come to obtain, and what must be done to go back again.” Trixie was still laying on the bed, not even bothering to pick her head up. “What about you, Serah? Sounded to me like you just ended up being dragged along by Vinyl.” She shrugged and said, “Well, I before I met Vinyl, I was in a position where I had almost nowhere to go... And I when I told her that I was curious about the whole New York situation, she offered to let me go with them. So, with nothing else to do, I took up on that offer.” “Y tú, Vinyl?” Trixie asked. “What made you decide to travel across the country?” I had laid down on the bed as I answered honestly. “To get some answers to my questions. ‘Why was it me that transformed?’ ‘Why into Vinyl Scratch of all ponies?’ and ‘How the hell do I change back, if I can at all?’” At that moment, my cell phone began to ring. I looked at who was calling me. My eyes went wide when I saw who it was. No amount of preparing would ready me for this. It was my mother. The one whom I abandoned when I began the journey. I knew it was wrong of me to do, but I didn’t want them to get involved in this. Besides, I needed to go. I had to get answers, something I would have never gotten if I stayed home.         I quickly turned to the ponies in front of me, “Sorry... But I have to take this call.”         I trotted out the door to answer the call. It was always a habit of mine, I would stay outside for the duration of a call, no matter the weather or temperature. I galloped to the far end of the building, to make sure nobody was in earshot.         I pressed the answer button as I brought the phone to my head. “H-Hello?”         The response on the other end of the line sounded shocked, “Who is this? Why do you have my son’s phone?”         I figured it would be best to just be blunt about it. “That’s because this is your son. You remember on the news how people were becoming those technicolor horses? Yeah, it happened to me.”         I could tell by her tone that she was surprised, “It happened to you? Then where are you?”         I cringed a bit, I had to tell her the truth, there was no denying it, “I’m with a couple of friends, but I’m not at their house right now...” I hesitated a bit, it was now or never, “I... I’m... I’m not even in Louisiana...”         I could tell that she was getting angry with me, “You mean to tell me you aren’t even in the state!? Where are you!?”         I gulped audibly at this. I didn’t want them to get involved at all. No matter what. “I... Can’t tell you, but all you need to know is that I’m safe.”         “Why can’t you tell me? Why do you have to keep it a secret from me?” she asked with both anger and worry in her voice.         I stood there in silence, her voice asking me why. “Because... I didn’t want to drag you into this, okay!?”         I knew I was going about this the wrong way. I knew I could have just stayed there at home, and everything would have been fine, but I didn’t. I left home. I ran away from everything that made me feel safe. Now, I was too afraid to confront my own mother behind my admittedly terrible choice. Without thinking, I used my magic and flung my phone as far away from me as possible.         I don’t know where it landed, but I heard an audible crash when it hit the pavement. I stood there in total silence, reflecting on what I had done. I put my friends and people in danger, just for my own selfish needs. Needless to say, I felt terrible. I remembered back at Wal-Mart, I had gotten my friends in near-mortal danger just because I had the nerve to confront terrible people directly. In Mississippi, we were almost killed by a robber, and now when confronted myself with my choices, I instead ran away from them.         I sat down on the stairway, glasses to the side of me as I cried. The realizations finally hit home. I ran away from everything, and when faced with it directly, I couldn’t handle it, so I continued to run. The cool night air only made me feel worse as I stayed there, unable to move. If I just stayed home, none of this would have happened. Most likely, we would have all been at home, being bored, but safe and sound. I don’t know how long I sat there, as the moon was covered by clouds. Though during that time, I did something I hadn’t done in many, many years...         I prayed.         “Please God... I beg you... When this is all over, let me be able to right my wrongs... Please let me have some sort of redemption...”         I picked up my glasses and headed back inside the hotel room. I had started to feel really sleepy. I assumed all of that sobbing really took it out of me. Though I took one last stop to stare at the moon. I made one last promise to myself that I would make things better tomorrow. Then, I’d start to face my problems directly, no matter how tough. When I walked in the room, I took notice of the duo in front of me. “Hey Zecora, Redheart. Don’t bother me. I’m going to sleep.”         I soon climbed into the bed and put my glasses on the end table next to a lamp. When I covered myself up, I got comfortable and soon let myself drift off to sleep. _______________________                  I awoke to the sound of snoring. Lifting my head off of my pillow, I took a look around at my surroundings. Zecora was fast asleep next to me. Trixie was sprawled out on the bed, and Redheart on the floor, apparently having been kicked off of the bed by Trixie. I took a look at the clock beside me.         “One thirty-five... Perfect... Just enough time to get my work done.”         After ninjaing my way out of the bed, I immediately grabbed the small clock radio that laid on the end table. Thankfully technology here is similar to tech back in Equestria. Using my magic to rip open the contraption, I carefully began to rewire and reshape the system to make it look more like a cannon. Using my magic, I began to supercharge the wires and hardware to be amplified. So far, it was coming out great. My jerry rigging was turning out to make the radio look like the way I planned it to be. I couldn’t help but bask in my glory.         I think I basked too much though as I began to hear hoofsteps from the direction of the bed. “Vinyl... its so late, why are you awake?” Zecora groaned as I turned to face her. I could tell from her eyes she still seemed half asleep. I chuckled a bit to myself, “Well sleepy zebra, I’m crafting a portable Bass Cannon from that old clock radio that was on the night stand.” Zecora’s eyes furrowed as I explained as if she had never heard of a Bass Cannon before. “A... Bass Cannon?” she asked in a deadpanned tone. Guess that earned enough for even a break in rhyme. I cocked my head to the side and gave her a grin. “It was an old trick of mine that I cooked up by accident back in my days as a freelance DJ. Back in Ponyville, I was trying to amplify my stereo system to create a light show to go with my concerts. They were supposed to make sound waves that move to the rhythm, but what came out was a blast that blew a hole in my wall.” Zecora just seemed to stare at me glass eyed for some reason. “But, what you are saying certainly can not be right... Red...” She caught herself before saying the rest of the nurse’s name “Your home was in Louisiana before tonight.” That’s when it hit me. She thought I was still Gage! “Nah, dude. You’re not talking to Gage. He’s not here right now. You’re talking to DJ Pon-3 herself.” I raised a hoof to Zecora, “Vinyl Scratch. Nice to meet ya’.”         The now fully awake Zebra didn't return my hoof bump. Odd, it was highly unusual for anypony to turn one down from the wubmaster herself. “What do you mean he’s not here? Did...” Zecora paused for a moment as her voice shook slightly. “ Did he just disappear?”         I looked at her with confusion. “He’s not here, as in. Not taking part of this conversation. Don’t worry. He’ll be back in the morning.” Zeccy’s face didn't seem to inspire reassurance. “This seems all too premature... but he is safe, you are sure?” she spoke with a bit of a stutter in her voice. Geez, I’d seen some pretty insecure ponies before but this zebra seemed to take the cake.         I waved my hoof and said, “Of course I’m sure. What? You thought he was vanishing or something?”         “I... didn't mean to make such a suggestion...” Zecora trailed off as she let out a hesitant chuckle. “I suppose it was a silly question.” I chuckled and soon returned to work on the mini-cannon. After reshaping a few parts of the speaker and using the glass parts that were for the clock to act as magnifiers, I was finally finished with it. It was a really quick job, but one that would pay off in the near-future.         I quickly shoved the thing in Zecora’s face as I said in a loud whisper, “Look! My creation is complete! Time to test this thing!”         I quickly grabbed Zecora by her hoof and quite literally dragged her outside into the parking lot of the hotel. “GAH!” Zecora yelped in surprise as I began to drag her to the door with my masterpiece. She quickly quieted down as I brought a hoof to my mouth to shush her from waking the others. I quickly, but quietly, opened the door to the hotel room and brought Zecora with me to the parking lot outside. I found a spot that had no cars in the surrounding area as I began to show the finished product once again to the zebra. “Check it out. If made right, this thing has enough power to blast any threat back at least thirty feet. It should knock the wind right out of them!” I quickly handed the mini Bass Cannon to Zecora. “Go on! Give it a try. Aim for the trees over there and press the button on top of the cannon.” Zecora looked at the device with doubtful eyes. “I don't know Vinyl. I don't have much faith, that this is very safe.” She paused as she looked at the speaker, staring it down as if it was some sort of alien artifact. “All these wires are thrown to nether, it all just seem so thrown together.” I waved my hoof and gave her a nonchalant look, “Don’t worry. It’ll work fine. There’s nothing that can go wrong.” She stared at the device a moment more before she hovered her hoof over the large button I added on the top of it before looking back at me for a bit of reassurance. I simply waved a hoof at her before pressing her hoof against the button. The blast that ensued was magnificent. The sound that emerged was perfect for something so great. It was a blue beam that shot out of the speaker, past the trees that we were aiming at. Instead, it hit a car parked at the nearby building. It shattered the window, which caused the car alarm to go off. I brought my hooves up in the air in a victory cheer. “It works!” I glanced back to Zecora, who was covering her ears with surprise. At first her expression was of utter confusion, but quickly turned into a grin as she looked towards me when she realized it had worked. “Wow...” was all she managed to say. “but... owee...” she spoke as she rubbed her ears again. After we basked in the glory of a successful Bass Cannon, I picked up the mini-cannon and quickly began leading Zecora back to the hotel room. “We need to hurry back inside. The cops are probably going to be here soon with that car alarm going off like that and I don’t want to spend a night in a jail cell!”         “No need to say those words twice, just once is enough to suffice.” Zecora spoke quickly as her expression changed. Even in the night I could tell she seemed about ready to panic as she shuffled on her hooves as she looked to the Camaro still going off loudly.         When we got back to the hotel room, we couldn’t help but giggle at the escapade we got into. I took another quick look at the mini-cannon before stuffing it in Zecora’s gourd-bag. I gave her a wink as I said, “Here, you keep it for now. Don’t tell the others about it just yet. Let’s keep the thing a secret between us until you need to use it.” Zecora gave me her now trademark confused stare as I spoke to her and tilted her head slightly. It had become almost a natural thing every time I spoke to the mare so far. “Alright...?” She spoke distantly as she bit her lip. “But why would you give this to me to protect? Wouldn't Gage be a better choice to select?” I put a hoof on her shoulder and solemnly said, “Because he isn’t ready yet. He’s still a kid fresh out of school, so he’s the youngest out of the entire group. Minus only Snails, as Snips may be young now physically, but before that, he was an adult. I’m scared that he might be reckless with it, and bring more harm than good.” I took my hooves off of her as I took the glasses off of my head. “He still has much to learn about responsibility... Something he can learn from you and Trixie. Only when I give you permission, then you can hand it over to him. Until then, make sure he doesn’t know of its existence.” Zecora just stared at me and then back to Trixie’s bed. “Why not Trixie or even Redheart?” Guess she gave up on the names. “They’ve both been trusting and rather smart... I don't believe-” I sighed and put my hoof to her mouth before she could finish. “Trixie...” I gestured  to the two sleeping forms in the other bed. “To tell you the truth, I don’t completely trust her yet. As for Redheart, she seems to have a problem with keeping secrets.” I looked back to Zecora, “Since you’re hiding a bunch of stuff already, I know you can be the one to keep that hidden as well... Also, you were already awake.” “I, err, don't know what you're trying to convey, I’ve had nothing I’ve tried to hide away,” She lied quite obviously. Whatever the zebra was hiding she was doing a horrible job at it. I mean really, her entire face changed and she immediately looked away from me. “But... if you want me to keep it secure... your secret I shall try to endure.” Well, at least I could count on her to keep a secret. I smiled at her as I hopped back in the bed. “Thanks. Anyway, you should head back to bed, since from what I heard, a holiday is tomorrow... Well, today... You get my meaning.” The zebra simply nodded hesitantly as I laid my head back on the pillow and fell back asleep.