//------------------------------//
// Ch 5: The comic shop and Stan. 
// Story: Switching Up the Beats 
// by Dizzylightning 
//------------------------------//

Switching Up The Beats
Ch. 5
By: Dizzy Lightning.
Octavia stood outside the bathroom door, trying to offer sympathy to the pony who sounded like she was dying within. "Vinyl dear," She said above the terrible retching sound, "Are you sure you want to go today?"
"Octavia we -hurp-, we've put this off for two days now." The gray mare replied through the door.
"It's just that you sound so ill, I don't want you putting too much strain on yourself."
The door opened, as Vinyl walked out into the hallway. "I feel better now," she said, "besides, Drama isn't going to be in town much longer, if we wait we might not have this fixed in time for our concerts."
As the time for their meeting approached, there was still no sign of the deranged purple nuisance coming up the path to their house. Eventually the two mares decided to head to the alternate meeting spot, the little cafe just across the road from the comic shop. "Canterlot's House of Enchanted Comics?" Vinyl said with her head tilted slightly. "Funny, I've been up and down the streets of this city, and I've never seen that shop before."
Before Octavia could reply, the waitress returned with their orders. A simple tea for Octavia, and a mountain of hay-fries and a veggie burger for Vinyl. "Should you be eating that? I mean, after this morning it doesn't seem wise."
"I don't know what it is Octi," Vinyl said in between massive mouth-fulls. "But I smelled the burgers cooking and I suddenly wanted one."
"Well, if you're craving it, eating it probably isn't that bad for you."
Octavia paused the conversation long enough for her suddenly gluttonous mare to eat. "Where is that bedeviled friend of yours anyway?" She finally asked.
"She should be here any minute."
There was a sudden puff of smoke. The purple mare appeared, wrapped in a large black cape. "Greetings!" She shouted, ignoring the coughing of the two mares in front of her. "We can go into the shop if you like, I've got a key, but Stan's gonna be a few minutes, he's busy testing his new comic."
Vinyl suddenly seemed to recover from her coughing. "Wait a minute, Stan... No, you can't be..."
"Vinyl, what is it dear?" Octavia asked.
"You can't mean Stan Za, only the most famous comic writer ever?"
"Yep."
"Founder of Marevel comics?"
"Yep."
"Author of the Power Ponies?"
"Yep, and creator of the enchanted adventure comic."
Vinyl let out a fan-girl squee, "I have so many of his comics, I can't believe you never mentioned this before."
"To be fair, we haven't spoken in a while."
Octavia cleared her throat. "So, can we go in now, I'd like to get this situation resolved as quickly as possible."
Drama sighed, Vinyl and Octavia left a tip on the table, and the three mares crossed the street. The little door bell tinkled as they entered the shop. All along the walls were brightly colored comics, each wrapped in a clear plastic case. One comic sat open on the counter, flipped to the last page. A note sat next to it on the counter, "Drama, if you're here before I'm back, go ahead and start setting up, my spell journal's in the back - Stan."
"Hey Octavia," Drama said with a sideways glance, "you want to work some actual magic?"
Octavia thought about it for a moment. She looked at Vinyl with a huge grin, "Yes, ever since I tapped into Vinyl's magic on accident I've wondered what it would be like to do something bigger."
With that Octavia and Drama vanished into the back. Vinyl was totally lost in the wonderland of geeks. She stopped to look at the comic on the desk. *SQUEEE!* It was the newest issue of Power Ponies, this hadn't even been released to the publisher yet. She flipped it excitedly back to the beginning, struggling not to tear it with her hooves. She had just gotten through the second page when the book began to glow. She shut her eyes and stepped away from the book. With a bright flash, a tan colored stallion, with a close-cut gray mane, a cutie-mark that looked like a comic page, and a pair of brown sunglasses emerged from the pages. "STAN ZA!" Vinyl said, letting out a fan-girl scream, "Will you sign my comic?" She asked, holding the issue she'd been browsing.
"I believe you mean MY comic?" The stallion said with a chuckle
"Oh, right..." Vinyl said, placing it back on the counter.
With a smile, the unicorn took a comic off the shelf, moving aside the plastic cover. "Although, for a friend of Drama's, I'm willing to do this." He said, signing the comic and placing it back in the wrapper.
Vinyl looked at the article, a signed issue of the first-ever Power Ponies comic, where all of their back stories are explained. Vinyl started jumping around the shop letting out several whoops of joy. "What's all the racket?" a voice from the back shouted,  "We're trying to concentrate remember." Drama said as she slid out from the back of the store. "Oh hey Stan, glad you're with us, maybe now we can get to work on this."
Stan nodded and headed towards the back. As he turned, he saw Vinyl a little down trodden. "Hey, I know you can't really help us right now, but feel free to read anything in the store." No sooner had he said this, then Vinyl began compiling a To Read list of comics on the counter. Stan chuckled to himself as he passed into the back of the shop.