Chapter VIII
A Little Talk Redux
Vinyl’s radio towered over its counterpart, which was supposedly the latest in modern communication technology. Small and light enough to easily lift with one hoof, the shiny white radio sported a screen that somehow managed to light up and display numbers without a projector. The device had been donated by the Canterlot College of Electrical Engineering, itself a very new facility of learning.
Considering she had no idea how a whole radio could be packed into such a little package, Vinyl was half-afraid to try it. What if she broke it? Would they take it out of her pay? Fifty Four had sent a message ensuring her that she was still getting paid wages based on a forty hour work week – undoubtedly at the insistence of royalty. Still, the thought of having to pay for the device made her treat it like a priceless specimen in a museum.
“Vinyl, you there?” Adi’s voice chirped up on the new radio, so clear that Vinyl couldn’t resist marveling.
She touched the small button on top of the white cube as gently as she could. “I’m here. Can you hear me?”
“Whoa,” Adi said, “your sound quality just jumped a few notches.”
“New radio.” Vinyl pulled her hoof away from the button, very slowly. “Dunno if I’m gonna keep using it. Can you still hear me?”
“Sure can. Why?”
“Huh.” Vinyl stared at the button, then at her hoof. “Continuous two-way communication. My dad would be amazed if he could see this.”
“Technology upgrade, huh?”
“Big upgrade, small package,” Vinyl replied. “I’m half afraid I’ll break it if I touch it, so I’m glad I don’t have to ta keep talking.”
“That’s the thing about consumer electronics,” Adi said in a sage tone, “they keep getting smaller all the time and they keep getting cheaper all the time.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Vinyl sat by the table and looked around the astronomy room. “Y’know, it’s nice staying at the castle and living in the lap of luxury, but I wanna go home.”
“Really? I thought there was nothing for you to do there.”
“True…” Vinyl sighed and rested her cheek on the table. “But this is Canterlot Castle. Only the nobility is even supposed to set hoof here. I’m so low brow I make low brow feel high brow. I don’t belong in this place.”
Adi sighed. “You always talk as though you’re poor as dirt.”
“I know, I should count my blessings—” Vinyl shifted so it was her chin on the table, “—but right now I’d give just about anything for some hayfries and an oatburger.”
“Until you have spent two years eating the exact same vegetables for every single meal, don’t talk to me about what food you miss.”
Vinyl shuddered. “Yeah, that does sound bad. Forget I said anything.”
There was a moment of silence before Adi spoke up again. “Do you have any idea when this other princess is supposed to show up?”
“Flash went to get her.” Vinyl couldn’t help smirking. “He’s been on pins and needles for the past three days over her coming.”
“Oh?”
“Yep.” She chuckled and glanced for the door. “He mentioned he’s a royal guard, right? Well he had this huge crush on Princess Twilight before. He actually asked her out, and got turned down flat. Crushed him, poor fella.”
“Wait a minute, you mean he asked out royalty? Don’t you have to be, like, nobility to do that?”
“Not really.” Vinyl toyed with the mic on her old radio, tossing it in the air. “Princess Cadance married the Captain of the Guard here in Canterlot, who most certainly wasn’t nobility at the time. By the way, that marriage makes Cadance and Twilight sisters-in-law.”
“Good to know.” Adi paused once more. “I need to re-evaluate my view of Flash. Any guy who can ask out someone so out of his league’s worthy of respect. All this time I kinda felt he was a dork.”
Vinyl broke into laughter. “Oh, he’s definitely a dork! A brave dork, but still a dork.”
“I heard that.”
Vinyl grinned and turned to find Flash standing at the door with a nervous smile. Before Vinyl could say anything, he stood aside and at attention. “Her Highness, Twilight Sparkle.”
Twilight trotted into the room with a bright smile and a particular shine in her eye, leaving the fidgeting Flash behind without so much as a second glance. She raised her hoof as Vinyl started to rise. “Please, no bowing! I get enough of that around here to last me a lifetime. You must be Vinyl Scratch.”
Vinyl had seen the new princess before on several occasions, but until now she’d never been directly addressed by Twilight. It felt weird seeing a former unicorn with wings. “That’d be me. We were beginning to wonder when you’d show.”
“That makes two of us!” Twilight flapped her wings. “I’m still not used to these things, so I took the train as a precaution. I have got to squeeze more flying lessons into my schedule.” She paused and gazed with wide eyes and an almost creepy smile at the radio. “Is… is she on?”
Adi spoke up. “A pleasure to meet you, Princess Sparkle.”
Twilight let out something between a gasp and a laugh, her wings jerking open with a poomph. “Oh my gosh, this is so amazing!” She practically flew into the seat next to Vinyl. “It is such an incredible pleasure to talk to you, you have no idea how excited I’ve been! Miss Longstaff, do you have any idea what this means?”
“Umm…” Adi gave a weak chuckle.
“The first true evidence of life beyond our world without having to cross dimensions.” Twilight clapped her hooves and gave a squee. “It’s so fascinating, it might be the greatest scientific discovery in of all pony history. I have so many questions for you, I just don’t know where to start!”
“Don’t mind her,” a new voice called. Vinyl turned to see a small purple dragon walking in, looking exhausted by the long trek up the stairs. “She gets like this all the time. She got so excited she forgot me at the bottom of the stairs.”
“Oh, sorry, Spike.” Twilight’s horn lit up, promptly lifting the dragon and setting him down between her and Vinyl. “I told you to hang on, didn’t I?”
He crossed his arms and huffed. “Yeah, after you’d already bolted.” He turned and offered his fist to Vinyl. “Hi, I’m Spike the Dragon.”
“Vinyl Scratch.” She hoofbumped his fist with a smile.
“Did he say ‘dragon?’” Adi asked. “Like, fire breathing, scales, wings, big as a house?”
“Actually, Spike’s a baby dragon,” Twilight replied eagerly, patting him on the head. He groaned and shoved her hoof away, to which she only grinned. “Also, he has no wings. We’re assuming he’ll grow into them later.”
“No wings, huh? Interesting.”
“Wait.” Twilight pressed her hooves to the table and leaned over the radio with wide eyes. “How do you know about dragons? Did Vinyl tell you about them?” The question had Vinyl perking her ears.
“Nope, dragons are an old part of Earth mythology. Everyone knows about dragons, they just don’t exist where I’m from.”
“That’s… that’s astounding.” Twilight sat once more and tapped her chin. “How is it possible that two races from two entirely different worlds could know about the same things?”
Adi barked a laugh. “You think that’s weird? How about those two races forming languages that are almost exactly the same, even grammatically? The odds have got to be astronomical.”
Twilight blinked, her eyes going wide. She turned to thrust a hoof in Vinyl’s face. “You didn’t teach her to speak common pony?”
Vinyl pushed the hoof aside. “Don’t look at me, she was already speaking it when we first met.”
“I find that hard to believe.” Flash’s voice made her jump, for she’d not realized that he’d walked up behind them.
“Me too,” Twilight said. “Those are just the tip of the iceberg! Like, why is it only radios in the general vicinity of Canterlot can catch you on this frequency?”
Vinyl couldn’t help but notice how Flash averted his gaze when Twilight’s passed over him.
“Yea,” Spike chirped up, “and let’s not forget that somehow only Miss Scratch discovered you. Talk about long odds.”
“I don’t have any answers for you,” Adi replied. “I’m as confused as all of you are, although I am glad I can finally talk about it.”
Vinyl leaned towards the radio with a raised eyebrow. “Hey! You could have talked to me about it at any time.”
Adi’s voice turned guilty. “You didn’t believe my story. I… I didn’t like being reminded of it.”
“Well, everypony in the scientific community of Equestria believes,” Twilight said, “and when the timing is right and we make the public announcement, so will everypony.”
“Everypony. Huh. Say, do you guys really look like ponies?”
Twilight, Vinyl, Flash and Spike all exchanged uncertain looks – Flash very obviously avoiding Twilight’s. “I guess that depends,” Twilight replied. “What do you think ponies look like?”
“Four legs, covered in fur, long muzzles. Manes and tails… I guess that wouldn’t be descriptive enough, come to think of it.”
“No, that sounds spot on,” Spike said. “Well, except for me, of course.”
“Seriously? So you don’t even have hands?”
Vinyl rubbed the back of her head and turned to Twilight. “Uh, what are hands?”
Twilight wiggled her hooves in the air demonstrably. “Ugly little hooves with five digits. The humans I met through the magic mirror had them, and they take some getting used to.”
"Just like my claw," Spike added, raising his for her to observe, "only longer and blunt." He took a moment to study it, wiggling his fingers. "Does it really look ugly?"
Adi’s voice grew in pitch. “You’ve met humans?”
Twilight's blushing apology to her assistant was cut off by her head whipping towards the radio. “Hu— That’s right, you claim to be ‘human.’ But… how can there be humans through the magic mirror… and…” She shot Spike a quizzical look, but he only shrugged. “Maybe… because the mirror leads to many dimensions, I guess it’s possible…”
“Wait,” Adi said, “what did these humans look like? Two-legged, wear clothes, hair on top of their heads?”
Twilight’s wings spread, whacking Flash in the face. “Exactly! Oh my gosh, this is great! It’s far more unusual than even my wildest expectations. I can’t wait to start studying your history, your culture, your lifestyle. Oh, oh, I’ve got to know, do you breathe oxygen?”
Vinyl stared at Twilight, then glanced back at Flash, who was being helped up by Spike. “She really gets into this stuff, doesn’t she?”
“What?” Adi asked. “Of course we do. What do you breathe?”
“Wow!” Twilight clapped her hooves. “You even live on a world with similar atmospheric properties! Spike, are you recording any of this?”
The dragon facepalmed. “You were in such a hurry to get up here you made us leave our luggage in the train to be sorted by the servants. That includes my notebook, Twilight.”
“Oh, no no no! That won’t do at all.” Twilight’s head swiveled about frantically. “I can’t ask questions without some means of writing down the answers. There has to be some way to—ah-ha!”
There was a flash of purple light that made Vinyl shield her eyes. When she looked again, Twilight had disappeared. A second flash produced the princess a few feet away, standing with a hoof raised to one of Luna’s rolling blackboards. “This is perfect! I’m sure Princess Luna won’t mind if I borrow a few of these for science.”
Spike raised his arms with an exasperated, “Here we go. Brace yourself, Adi, you’re in it for the long run now.”
“I don’t mind answering questions,” Adi replied with confidence in her tone.
“Don’t be so negative, Spike,” Twilight lectured. “This is perhaps the most important scientific discovery of our lifetimes – and considering I’m an alicorn and you’re a dragon, that’s going to be a long time. You should be more appreciative of the unique opportunity—”
Vinyl tuned out the lecture and turned to Flash, who was in the process of rolling his eyes. “So you like eggheads, huh?”
He blushed and made a good showing of looking anywhere but at Twilight. “Actually, I was kinda focused on the fact that she’s really cute.”
“Cute?” Vinyl shot Twilight a studious look.
“—since Starswirl the Bearded’s age, and I can’t tell you how excited he would be to be taking part in this! We could be on the verge of a new age. What if Miss Longstaff’s not the last alien to talk to us? I’ve never abused my royal status before, but I’ll be cockatrice droppings before I let this unprecedented opportunity pass me by! If you’d be more attentive to my—”
Vinyl turned back to Flash with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, cute. That’s the word.”
Flash winced and leaned in close, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Hey, cut me some slack. I’m not even interested in her anymore.”
“Oh yeah?” Vinyl smirked and knuckled his mane. “So why act so jumpy around her?”
He shoved her leg away and brushed his mane back into place. “I’d like to see you not be nervous as all Tartarus when in the same room with the princess who rejected you for a date.”
“No pity from me, Bolt Butt,” she replied with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “I’ve never been rejected for a date.”
He glared at her. “Why, ’cause nopony asks you out?”
She flinched and crossed her hooves with a huff. “No, I’m just too busy to go on dates.”
“Oh, really? So why did you—”
“Okay, okay, I get it!” Spike’s shout broke through their conversation. He waved his claws at Twilight. “Are you going to lecture me all day, or were you going to ask questions?”
“Actually,” Adi piped up cheerfully, “I was quite enjoying the conversations. Both of them.”
Vinyl leaned into the table to glower at the radio. “Not funny, Adi.”
Adi chuckled. “I thought so.”
“As much as I enjoy lecturing Spike,” Twilight said with a smug grin at her assistant, “his point is well taken. Have a seat, Miss Longstaff, and grab a snack; this could take a while.”
“A snack?” Adi scoffed. “I don’t get snacks. I’ve been eating the exact same things for ages.”
Twilight’s eyes lit up. “Such as?”
“Excuse me?”
The princess leaned forward, a piece of chalk already hovering by the board behind her. “What is it you eat while in space?”
“Oh. Uh… vegetables, mostly. Tomatoes are a staple because they have protein and are easy to grow.”
“Fascinating.” The word ‘tomatoes’ was written on the board as Twilight gazed with shining eyes at the radio. “And how do you grow plants in space?”
“That’s it!” Vinyl threw her hooves up high. “I’m gonna let you two brains talk. This kinda stuff is bo-ring.”
Twilight let out a gasp. “But don’t you want to know more about Miss Longstaff’s life in space? Think of all the—”
“I don’t want to talk about the details,” Vinyl said as she stood from the table. “I want to talk about Adi. You two have your nerdgasm, I’m gonna get out of this stuffy old castle for a while.” She grabbed Flash’s tail. “C’mon, Bolt Butt.” She gave a jerk that brought him to his barrel.
“Hey!” He tugged his tail free and stood, his face crimson. “Why am I going too?”
“Luna said you’re supposed to be my escort, right? So let’s go, escort.” Vinyl turned to the radio. “Talk to ya later, Adi.”
Adi let out a huff. “I’ll have you know I was a C student. Hardly nerd material.” She laughed. “Ciao, Vinyl. Have fun with your boyfriend.”
“Well, if you must,” Twilight said with a sigh, but her beaming smile came back in an instant. “Now Adi… I can call you Adi, right?”
The door closed, muffling the rest of the conversation. Vinyl mimed wiping sweat from her brow. “Whew, close call. C’mon, Flash, I need some food.”
Flash grumbled as he followed her. “You could have handled that a little better. She is the princess, y’know, and you just brushed her off.”
“Relax,” Vinyl said with a roll of her eyes. “I got her pegged the moment she walked into the room: she doesn’t wanna be treated like royalty. For a guy who claims he used to have a big crush on her, you sure didn’t pay much attention.”
“So I was blinded by her being adorable, sue me.” Flash caught up with her. “And yes, used to have a crush on her.”
She grinned and bumped shoulders with him, almost knocking him into the wall. “You sure didn’t wanna leave that room.”
“Yeah, because I thought you were rude.”
“Aww.” Vinyl raised her sunglasses so she could properly bat her eyes at him with as innocent a look as she could muster. “Did I make you look bad in front of the mare of your dreams?”
Flash let out a groan and lowered his head into a proper sulking position. “Forget it, let’s just get to the cafeteria.”
“I don’t think so,” Vinyl declared with head raised. “I’m tired of this place. We’re going out.”
He shot her a dark frown. “At what point did you decide me being assigned as your guard meant you could boss me around?”
“From the moment I realized you’d get in trouble if you left me alone.” She smirked at him. “That means you gotta stick by me, and if I decide to not do what you wanna do, too bad. The risks of me being alone are all on you.”
He thought on her statement for a few seconds before groaning. “This is going to be fun.”
“Wow,” Flash said as they left the Canterlot streets and entered the front doors of the restaurant. “I haven’t been to a Hay Burger in ages.”
Vinyl looked around at the familiar Lower Level restaurant, feeling very comfortable with the half-cleaned tables and greasy food. The pair of foals sobbing in the corner to their highly frustrated mother only added to the charm. “It might not be fancy like the place you brought me, but it’s what I like. Come on, let’s play ‘Find the One Clean Table.’”
“I think you just made that up,” he said with a smirk, following her to a booth by the windows. He looked very out of place in his golden armor. Vinyl couldn’t help smiling as the foals in the corner stopped their crying to point out the Royal Guard in that excited way that makes parents blush and head for the exit.
Flash shot the foals an amused smile and waved as they were ushered out. “I love it when they do that.”
Vinyl sat back in the lumpy seat, perfectly content. “Why’s that?”
He shrugged. “I remember when I was a foal, y’know? I was always excited when I saw a guard march by. Seeing that kind of excitement in foals just makes me feel good about myself.”
“Hello again, Scratch.” A donkey waitress with a serving tray walked up to them with a tired smile. “Haven’t seen you here in over a week, I was starting to wonder.”
“Hey, Louise.” Vinyl waved with a grin. “Yeah, I’ve been a little busy lately. Two of the usual.”
Flash blinked. “You’re ordering for me?”
Louise gave him a cheeky wink. “Don’t you worry none, cutie, Vinyl’s got great taste buds. Two regulars, coming right up.”
Flash waited until she was in the kitchen to lose his smile. “‘Cutie.’ Sometimes I wish ponies would stop calling me things like that.”
“Oh, it’s soooo bad! All the mares think I’m cute, woe is me.”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it.” He rolled his eyes and flexed his wings. “You kid, but do you know what it takes to gain respect when all the other guards keep calling you a ‘pretty colt?’ I had to work twice as hard to get half the respect.”
Vinyl studied him for a moment. “Gotta admit, your size doesn’t exactly intimidate, although I can say from experience that you’re a lot heavier than you look.”
“I know, I’ve got the ‘delicate pegasus’ look.” He brushed a hoof through his mane and sighed. “I can’t help that I inherited mom’s features.”
Louise appeared before Vinyl could respond. “Two double-patty oatburgers with extra onions and supersized hayfries, plus Bubble Colas.” She set the tray between them. Before Flash could reach from his wallet, Vinyl hoofed over the bits. “Enjoy. Hold on to this one, Vinyl, he looks like a keeper.”
“As if.” Vinyl and Louise shared a laugh, the former just noticing the touch of pink in Flash’s cheeks. “Thanks Louise.”
Flash lifted his oatburger, studying it as if it might be poisonous.
“What’s the matter, soldier?” Vinyl used her magic to grab her own burger. “I thought you said you used to go to Hay Burger.” She took a big bite.
“Yeah, until I realized how bad this stuff is for me.” He considered the burger for a few more seconds, but finally sighed. “Oh, what the hay?”
Vinyl swallowed her bite and heaved a sigh. “Ooh, such greasy, fatty, improper goodness. How I missed it.”
“I gotta admit,” Flash said with a breadcrumb-encircled grin, “it sure hasn’t lost its appeal.”
The two ate in silence for a few minutes, delighting in the taste of cheap junk food. Vinyl relished every bite, making sure to focus more on the fries than the burger as part of her ‘best for last’ eating strategy. Flash ate just as slowly, though it seemed more because he was hung up on ‘proper eating etiquette’ than a desire to prolong the experience.
Seeing this planted a curious thought in Vinyl’s head. “So where are you from, Bolt Butt?”
He paused, some fries hovering in his open mouth as he stared at her. “You wanna know more about me?”
“That’s what I said.” She gestured invitingly. “If I’m gonna be stuck with you for the foreseeable future, I might as well know who ya are in terms other than ‘royal guard’ and ‘dork.’”
“Don’t forget ‘cute,’” he added with a small smile. He ate a couple more fries as he considered his answer. “I was born in Seaddle, but my parents moved out before I was old enough to remember the place. I grew up in a town just south of Fillydelphia called Little Knothole, and the ‘little’ part isn’t an exaggeration.”
“Huh. What made them decide to make a big change like that?”
He shrugged. “Dad always said he didn’t like living in the city, and Mom claimed she hated the cold. I always had the feeling they weren’t telling me the full story.”
Vinyl nodded as she finished off an improperly large mouthful of burger. She had to take a big gulp to get it all down, and grinned at Flash’s raised eyebrow. “So what did they do?”
Flash shook his head with a disdainful sigh. “They’re both realtors.”
“Oh, wow, does that sound boring.”
He chuckled. “Believe me, it is.”
“So are they still around?”
“Yep.” He took a sip of his soda. “Still selling ramshackle homes for inflated prices. I guess I shouldn’t complain; I had a pretty easy foalhood because of it. It’s the reason I wanted to join the Royal Guard.”
Vinyl blinked and studied him from over the remnants of her burger. “Because you had an easy foalhood?”
“I know that sounds strange.” He averted his gaze and toyed with one of his last hayfries. “I just realized early on that Mom and Dad were giving me everything in life on a silver platter. They never challenged me to take responsibility, for myself or anything. It was pleasant I guess, but as I listened to their stories of how they got where they were, I realized that life won’t give me handouts forever.”
“I don’t see what any of that has to do with joining the Royal Guard,” she said. Despite her easy tone, she was leaning over the table and watching him intently.
Flash shrank a little from her attention. “It’s just… I wanted to be responsible, y’know? To prove that I didn’t need Mom and Dad’s bank account. Someday I’m going to have a family of my own, and I want to be able to support that family. I need to know that I can handle it, and being a guard is a pretty demanding job all around. Besides,” he added with a blush, “I always thought the uniform looked cool.”
Vinyl sat back, her entire body feeling heavy. His answer circled through her head again and again, and she found she really liked it. It reminded her of a certain other pony she used to know. The thought brought a warm smile to her face.
Flash fidgeted in his seat and stared out the window. “Yeah, I know, it’s strange.”
“No.” Vinyl pulled up her sunglasses and leaned forward. “It’s not strange at all. I like it.”
He glanced at her with the slightest of blushes. “Nah, you’re just saying that.”
“No, really.” Vinyl bowed her head as she thought of a grey face, a purple mane and an ever-exasperated smile. Her thoughts turned to a quiet night in an attic with a radio, spent hunched over it beneath a blanket and listening to the static.
Her smile broadened. “It’s a really good reason.”
Flash was staring at her. She coughed and finished off her burger.
He smiled. “Thanks, Vinyl. That means a lot more to me than you can know.”
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get all sappy on me.” She rubbed her face with a napkin and took a long drink of her soda. “Okay, Bolt Butt, now it’s your turn:
“How’d you get your cutie mark?”