//------------------------------// // Old friends // Story: Great, another OctaScratch fic // by The Batmane of equestria //------------------------------// Vinyl woke up slowly. She felt a familiar build up in her throat and she coughed, allowing her some comfort at least. She opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry, but cleared after a few moments. She was sitting, but not in her pony form. It took her a moment to register everything that had happened. She groaned as she thought, the effort a bit too much after only just waking up. So, there was a club. We got... arrested? Then we were in jail. Then we broke out. No, were broken out. By... Derpy and Doctor. Then something happened and now I'm in this form. And then I woke up in the night, and there was... gas... OH NO, OH CRAP. WHERE AM I!? Then she realised that she couldn't move her arms or her legs. NONONONONONONONO! What happened to Tavi!? She looked around the room. It was a dull gray concrete room, with a steel door on the wall to her right. There were two light fittings on the ceiling. In the room were six chairs. She was tied to one of them. The other five were occupied by her friends. They were positioned in a semi circle. She struggled against the ropes pressing into her wrists, but to no avail. She grunted as she squirmed, waking the others up. Just as this happened, the door burst open and two people dressed in ninja outfits entered. One held the door open, staring blankly in front of him. The other stood opposite, equally as blank. Just then, a tall, bulky man in a suit entered the room. He looked quite old, with gray, combed-back hair, red eyes and a goatee. His left incisor extended out of his mouth and he wore an eyepatch on his right eye, covering up what appeared to be a large scar. "Hello, Doctor." he said, a deep Australian accent evident in his voice. "Dregoborovic." The Doctor replied. He brightened up. "Good to see you, buddy!" Dregoborovic laughed. "Good to see you too! You two," he said, looking at his guards. "Untie them!" The two ninjas bowed and then threw one shuriken each. They whipped around, severing the ropes that tied them before returning to their throwers, who caught them and neatly tucked them away. The Doctor stood up. "I must say, you've trained them well. Nice prank, by the way, leading us to believe we were captured." "Oh, you were. My guys got to them before they escaped with you. They were Leoni's stealth unit. That's why we took you here, because Leoni is after you and would surely use them," he said, indicating to the five women. "As bait. Why he's after you, I'm not sure, but whatever it is, you need to stay hidden." The Doctor nodded. He turned on his heels to face the others. "Guys, this is my good friend, Dregoborovic. Despite his name being Stalliongradish, I mean, Russian, his heritage is actually Australian. He is a very powerful man. His plan was to bring the world to its knees but he got a marefr- girlfriend, so he changed for her. Now he's trying to help others, as far as I know. It appears we're going to be under his protection for the time being. At least we can still go out, but we need an escort if we do." The five women simply nodded. "Wait a minute." Vinyl said. "You talk like you've been in this situation before. Care to elaborate?" "Oh this has happened a lot to me. In this world, I'm a billionaire, one of the richest people in the world. This has frequently lead to people trying to capture me, powerful people, to use my money for their own goals. Luckily, I'm friends with Dregoborovic here." "Well, that escalated quickly." Vinyl mused. "So what do we do now?" "Make ourselves at home, I guess." Two days later... Vinyl walked alongside Octavia on 5th avenue, a prime location for shopping. Two of Dregoborovic's guards kept close watch over the two as they shopped endlessly with The Doctor's money. Vinyl was currently drooling at a window display at an electronic music store. "OH MY GOSH, TAVI1 THEY HAVE A MIXMASTER 7000X ON SALE HERE!!!!! CANIHAVEITCANIHAVEITCANIHAVEIT!?" Vinyl screamed, attracting a few curious glances, not that Octavia noticed. "Fine. But you have to carry it." Octavia said. "THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!" Vinyl screamed hugging Octavia and planting kisses all over her face. They walked inside the store. Well, Octavia walked, Vinyl was bouncing on her tiptoes. The store was well maintained. The walls that weren't covered in posters of various musicians and singers were a light turquoise colour. The roof was pure white with a few light fittings and the occasional fan to cool the room down. The floor they stood on was a navy blue carpet. The store was lined with various isles containing different genres of music and music equipment. The counter was on the far wall. Behind the counter were a few shelves containing headphones, CD players and various other music-themed devices. A medium-height man with short, spiky hair, eyes concealed by sunglasses, casual clothing and a welcoming smile stood behind the counter. "Hello and welcome to my store! What can I do for you?" He said, still smiling. "Yes, we would like to purchase-" Octavia was cut off by Vinyl. "DO YOU HAVE ANY MIXMASTER 7000X'S IN STOCK!?" Vinyl shouted, startling the man at the counter. Octavia glared at Vinyl. Vinyl coughed. "Please." Octavia rolled her eyes. The shopkeeper realigned his sunglasses. "Certainly! Tell you what, you seem really excited about it right?" Vinyl nodded. "So, I'll do you a deal: I'll knock off 50% of the price and throw in some of our finest headphones and a few tracks for free. Just because you seem excited about it." The truth was, he did knock off some of the price because of her excitement, but mostly because it was overpriced, in his opinion. He left the room and entered the storage room, where he had one ready to go. Octavia and the guards waited patiently whilst Vinyl squealed and was hopping from foot to foot.After a few minutes, the shopkeeper returned with a large box, with two smaller boxes on top. "Ok, this is the actual turntables," he said, motioning towards the larger box. "And these are the headphones and tracks." Vinyl was nearly fainting from excitement at this point. "And that'll be $300, please." Octavia handed over the money. "Thank you and have a nice day. Wait a minute." Octavia and Vinyl turned around. "I'm sure I know you two from somewhere." he said. He turned his head to the right to see a large poster. It was Vinyl's human form standing behind some turntables, a blue hoodie covering her head, her arms crossed and the words "DJ-1NS4N3" inscribed on it. Next to that poster was a magazine cover-turned-poster of Octavia's human form. She stood, poised behind her cello and the words "Octavia Philharmonica: Musician of the year." written besides her. "Oh. My. God." The shopkeeper said in awe. Vinyl and Octavia were also shocked. "Can I please have your autographs!?" He shouted, fumbling for a pen and paper. Vinyl shrugged before saying, "Why not?" Octavia followed suit. They both walked back to the counter, where he was waiting with the pen and paper. "What's your name?" Vinyl asked him. "Oh, it's Neon. Neon Lights." he responded. Vinyl scribbled on the paper. It read "To my best buddy in the world, Neon. Keep up the good work. DJ-1NS4N3." which was followed by her signature. Octavia took the pen and wrote "To my good friend Neon. You're doing well so I don't think you need any luck from me but you have it nevertheless. Octavia." which was, too, followed by her signature. She smiled before turning around. "So, Vinyl. How do intend on transporting this?" Octavia asked. "Simple." Vinyl responded. She walked away. Then, without warning, a blue aura surrounded the three boxes and lifted it up with ease. Vinyl walked to the door. Then she realised no-one was following. She turned around to see the shocked faces of Octavia, the guards and Neon. "What?" "You... how did you... I can't...Huh?" Octavia responded. "How are you lifting those boxes?" Then Vinyl realised she was in human form. That meant she didn't have a horn. She looked down for some sort of explanation, only to see that a light blue glow was coming from her hands. "Uh... Magic?" "But... how?" "I don't know. I sorta just did what I normally do when I was a unicorn and then this happened." Neon fainted. They stood in silence for a minute. "I think we better get back to the safehouse before anything else strange happens." Octavia broke the silence. "Yup."