//------------------------------//
// Meeting Vinyl 
// Story: An Unexpected Turn 
// by Dj8996 
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	She stood several feet away from me, coming in at around my height (considering I was still sitting on the ground). After blinking several times, still in partial shock that she was here, I turned and shifted my body in her direction, with now wide eyes. When I turned to face her, she took a small step back and lifted one hoof from the ground, up to her chest, an expression of slight fear, now infused with her already sad and curious face.

“Uhh…Hey there,” I said ever so quietly, my heart speeding up a little, crossing my arms over my belly. She placed her hoof back on the ground, but still remained her distance from me.

“Oh…uh, hi,” She replied, still scanning me up and down, wondering whether I would be a potential threat or not.
“Don’t worry, I’m not harmful in any way, I’m just… lost, is all,” I said to her, aiming my head at the ground in front of me, to avoid staring at her.
Lifting her hoof off the ground, and placing it in front of her, she soon took a few steps closer, her expression of fear now being replaced with just curiosity at this point.

“I’ve never seen anyone like you here before,” She said, now sounding more relaxed. I grinned a little bit, my eyes still showing my inner sadness, and I said back to her,

“Yeah, I’m not from anywhere around here,” I said, briefly glancing my head around me while saying that.

Then out of nowhere, my right ear is suddenly deafened by the ear-splitting loud music that came from my ear bud (which I’d entirely forgotten about until now). I let out a small, but quick groan, as I yanked the remaining ear bud from my ear onto the ground beside me, the music being clearly audible from a distance. Vinyl jumped back out of fear from me making a quick, unexpected movement like that. I was now rubbing my ear at this point, with my right eye partially squinting.

“Ughh…I shouldn’t have turned my music up so high,” I said out loud to myself, my attention now averted to my ringing ear.

“Wait, you listen to that kind of music?” She said; leaning her head forward and perking her ear up, to hear the techno music now blasting from my ear buds on the ground. Her face immediately lit up with a huge grin on her face at this point, her head lightly bobbing to the rhythm of it.

“Thank you shuffle mode, I thought I was screwed there for a second”, I thought to myself, letting out a small laugh, as I reached my phone from my pocket momentarily, while she was still distracted by the music, and turned the volume off. Her head stopped bobbing after I turned it off, as I shoved my phone back into my pocket immediately before she could notice anything
.
“Well, well, well, I didn’t know you were into jams like that!” She said with a now relatively big grin on her face, her purple glasses still propped up above her horn.

“Hehe, yeah, I didn’t exactly expect the music to play that just yet,” I said, while now getting on my knees to stand up at this point. Vinyl took a full step back, now looking concerned, as I reached my arms skywards, stretching my back until I heard a series of satisfying cracks in unison.

“That’s muuuuuuch better” I said, while lowering my arms again, letting out a deep sigh at the end. I realized as I turned my head to my left, that Vinyl was sitting there now looking up at me in partial shock. I was significantly taller than her than I had realized, she came in at around my stomach in height.

“Oh, sorry, I was just stretching my back out after sitting down for so long, and it felt absolutely wonderful! I said, as I reached my arm to scratch the back of my head out of slight embarrassment, putting a small grin on my face while doing so. Vinyl’s face then went from concerned, now to a look of relief, as I sat back down
.
“Well, at least she knows I’m harmless at this point,” I thought to myself.

“So, who are you anyway?” Vinyl asked with genuine curiosity.

“Oh, I’m David, and you are…?” I asked, pretending not to know who she is, just to avoid having to explain how I know about her.

“I’m Vinyl Scratch! Though everypony usually calls me by my nickname, ‘DJ Pon-3’,” She said, looking proud of herself. I was momentarily confused on why she said ‘everypony’, and not ‘everybody’, until I realized that everyone here was a pony, duh.

“Well it’s nice to meet you Vinyl,” I said, kneeling down reaching my hand out in front of me, expecting a handshake.

“Oh yeah… I forgot, they have hoofs,” I thought to myself, shaping my already-extended hand into a ‘fist-bump’ sort of position. She looked down at my hand, back at me, and back again. A moment later, she lifted her hoof off the ground, and bumped it against mine, holding it there for about a second, and her face now having a big smile on it. She dropped her hoof back to the ground, as I shifted my body against the tree.

“Hey, what are you doing out here anyway, David?” She asked me. My face went from a smile, to an almost sad look, being reminded of what was going on before I’d met her.

“I… don’t know. I’m just lost, like I said.” I said rather sullenly. Vinyl seemed to get the message of how I was feeling. Her grin disappeared as she responded.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“ 

“It’s okay, really.” I said, cutting her off, in a quiet and reassuring tone, putting a small grin on my face, to cheer her up as well. She smiled, and nodded her head in understanding.

After straightening my back once more, I felt a massive yawn coming on, so I went with it, holding my hand over my mouth, and feeling a huge wave of sleepiness wash over me. I shook off the tiredness, telling myself that I couldn’t go to sleep any time soon, due to the current situation. After a few moments of silence, the only sounds audible, being the occasional “Hoo” from an owl in the distance, and the leafs in the trees rustling overhead, I had said to Vinyl,

“Hey Vinyl, why are you out here to begin with?”, With actual curiosity at this point.

“Oh, I was just taking a little mid-night stroll, enjoying the sound of silence for a little while,” She said, with overall calmness in her voice.

“Yeah, I can definitely relate to you on that one”, I said back to her, aiming my head up at the sky, just over the branches above my head.

I noticed I faint blue glow along the horizon, From the looks of it, I’d say I had not too many hours before daytime arrives, I almost shuddered at the thought of it, thinking every other pony would freak out when seeing me, except Lyra. If she knows a thing or two about humans, then I think that she would just flip her lid out of excitement more than anything.

With a now more serious look on Vinyl’s face, she trotted a little closer to me, now having no more than 2 feet of distance from each other.

“Are you going to try and sleep any time soon?” she said softly, with a slight look of concern.

“I- I don’t know, I just need time to think about a lot of stuff right now,” I said with a look of deep thoughtfulness in my eyes.

“Oh, well… Okay then, I can understand that,” She said with a slightly more uplifting tone. Not a moment later, she herself let out a huge yawn also, placing her hoof over her mouth in the process. I could tell she was just as tired as me at this point.

As she began to turn herself back in the direction of the town, she turned her head back towards me one last time.

“Well, it was nice to meet you; I hope that we get to meet again sometime soon,” She said with a look of sincere happiness.

“Do you see that town over their?” She asked me, whilst pointing her hoof directly towards Ponyville.

“That’s Ponyville, home to me a lot of other nice ponies,” She said, now lowering her hoof back to the ground.

“I really hope we can meet again sometime soon, David, you seem like a cool dude,” She said, while slowly trotting away.

“Wait!” I yelled out, partially extending my arm in her direction. She looked back, with her eyes slightly widened.

“Thank you, for everything,” I said quietly, with a small grin on my face. Vinyl blushed, and looked back at me for the last time, with a look of happiness in her eyes.

She began to trot away from me, her body eventually fading away into the darkness. I stood there for a moment, watching her fade away into the distance. After she was gone, I carefully sat back down in the grass, and propped myself up against the base of the tree behind me. I didn’t know how to feel about everything that had just happened. One moment, I was crying over leaving everything behind, and then Vinyl comes out of nowhere, and somehow patches that hole in my heart. My experience with her; was much unexpected. I couldn’t help but shed a single tear, this time, out of happiness.

I stared up into the star-filled night sky, listening to the sound of the wind, feeling it blow gently over me, as my eyes started to get narrower. My thoughts, and the former emptiness my heart, were now at rest entirely, considering everything that had happened over the past couple hours. I shut my eyes all the way, letting that one tear from earlier, travel all the way down my cheek, and into the grass beside me. I gently lay my head onto the grass, and let myself slip away into a deep and soothing sleep.