I woke up after, I assume, a few hours. Which was a bit weird considering I didn't even know I fell asleep.
"I must have been feeling more stress than I originally assumed."
But as the saying goes: "Assuming makes an ass out of you and me." So I picked myself off the ground and stretched my aching back. I could hear and feel the pops and my back immediately felt better. A corner in an old shack is not the best of sleeping arrangements. After a few more seconds of stretching my muscles, I put my backpack back on and walked out of the shack. Looking up into the sky I guesstimated it was around midnight, or it could not be, I honestly don't know. I need to get something that can tell time but with the current tech, I don't think a watch is in the near future.
As I was staring at the night sky a loud growl was heard and I finally realized how hungry I was. I contemplated how I was going to find food. A forest expert I was not and my hunting skills didn't go beyond random hunting games on my Xbox. I sighed as I knew what I had to do.
"With no money, a town of frightened ponies that I honestly doubt will help me now, and absolutely no knowledge of anything beyond what will happen really far into the future there is only one thing I can do. Though it grates on my morals I need to steal food." A growl from my stomach decided to give its input. "And fast too, the little guy won't shut up."
I straightened myself up and began to walk back towards the town.
"Might as well get this over with."
♫♫♫
It took me around thirty minutes to get back to the town. As I neared the town I took off my headphones and turned off the music I was using to calm my frazzled nerves.
On a side note, it turns out I'm actually in early Fillydelphia. There was a nice little sign not too far off on the road that I completely missed while I was dicking around with my computer.
When I got close enough I hid in some bushes off the side of the road. I scanned the, hopefully, empty streets with my red eyes. Naturally, I do not wear my sunglasses at night. Nothing seemed amiss and so I crept and inched closer, bush by bush. I finally got myself to the very edge of the town's buildings and pressed myself against one. I peeked my head around the side of the building I was pressed against and-
"What are you doing?" A voice suddenly spoke out.
I jumped three feet into the air with a small squeak, that I did not do, and landed flat on my face. I quickly shot my head up to see a small yellow earth pony with a light green mane staring down at me.
"I uh, I mean I was just- uh. Aren't you scared of me? I did make that noise that got the others all pissed and... it was an accident of course! But still-" I cut myself off when I realized I was beginning to ramble and saw the little pony looking at me with no small amount of concern.
I got back up to my feet and cleared my throat and said, "Er, I'm hungry. I need food and since I have no money and since the adults don't like me... I was gonna steal some." I admitted the last part with a guilty and sheepish look to the side.
For her part, the small filly looked horrified and for a brief moment, I thought she was gonna scream thief and bloody murder. That was until she darted towards me and wrapped herself around my leg.
"What the-" I managed to start saying till she sniffed. "Aww don't cry. Why are you crying?"
She looked up at me with pitiful eyes and said, "Nopony should be hungry and starving, that just ain't right! Now follow me." And with that, she detached herself from me and began walking off.
"Wait! How did you notice me anyway? Also, what's your name?" I asked the little pony.
She stopped and turned to look at me. "I saw you from my window over there." She punctuated that with a point of her hoof to a window one building over from where we stood. I briefly felt annoyed at how easily my sneaking plan fell apart. "My name is Golden Apple and my daddy helps our family bring in apples from the countryside. Now what is your name?"
And that one question actually gave me pause. On one hand, I felt no desire to try and change my identity into something that I'm not. On the other, I am not who I used to be. I am now a girl that happens to be the human counterpart of a pony that won't be born many years into the future, I have a magic backpack along with eldritch knowledge of wubs, and I'm in ponyland. Add to the fact that I've been mentally on my knees praying to any god that would give half a rat's ass that I wouldn't get any 'womanly issues', means I was in a right identity crisis.
With a shake of my head, I dispelled those thoughts and began to follow the filly. With resigned determination, I replied, "My name is Vinyl Scratch, but you can just call me Vinyl."
♫♫♫
"So uh, you sure your parents won't mind me being here?" I asked Golden apple as she pulled out some assorted vegetables and fruit. I gave myself a mental note to find a way to get some meat sooner or later. I tapped my fingers to one of my song's beat on the tabletop.
"Nah, don't worry. They ain't even here right now, they are at some boring adult party right now. They won't even know you're here, you'll be out before they get back." Golden Apple assured me as she set a plate of food in front of me, with thankfully no grass, hay, or flowers. I merrily dug in as I was too hungry to even care about the fact I was eating rabbit food.
"Well, that's good," I said around the last mouthful of produce. I took a bite out of a really juicy apple. "Damn, these are great apples!"
"Thanks! My family grows the best apples in all of Equestria!" said Golden Apple with a wide grin. She then adopts a curious look and asks, "What was that noise you were doing with your claws all about?"
I looked at the curious pony and said, "Fingers, not claws. And It was just a beat from one of my songs on here." With that, I pulled my iPod out and showed it to the filly.
"Whoa! How can this little thing play music? It doesn't look like it has any instruments!" She looked at her reflection in the screen with wonder.
I chuckled, "It doesn't look like it has instruments because they are all inside of it." I lied because she honestly wouldn't get it. "Would you want to hear some of the songs on here?"
"Would I!?"
"Alright, just let me get something first." With that, I pulled out some earbuds from my backpack, plugged it into the iPod and put the earbuds into Golden's ears and looked at my iPod. I scrolled through the list and chose a song from my very large arsenal and played it.
At first, she looked confused and then when the bass dropped, she started to bob her head a bit to the tune. A smile was on her face and I felt a rush of joy rise into my chest as I converted a local to the wonders of wubs. Me choosing a song and Golden listening to it went on for what seemed like an hour. That was until fate decided I was too comfortable and happy.
The front door swung open and since the kitchen table was not too far from the door we were immediately seen. A seemingly generic brown coated stallion with a black mane and his wife, a yellow mare with an orange mane stood in shock at the front door. They looked at me, then to Golden, then to the earbuds in her ears and followed it to my iPod.
The mare screamed, "Sweet Celestia that thing is trying to brainwash our daughter!"
Only one thing came to mind, "Aw shit, I can't catch a break today."
♫♫♫Back to the Future♫♫♫
"This dishwasher is amazing! But the bass only goes to eleven?" Me and pony Vinyl were sitting in the kitchen resting after doing dishes. We just finished a nice meal together with our heads bobbing to the killer beats coming from that little piece of heaven to the side of the sink.
"Yeah, I first made it with the setting up to twenty but anything higher than eleven broke the dishes and 'Tavi wasn't too thrilled with that. It sucks because the whole house shook and that was a wicked experience." Pony Vinyl explained after chugging the last bit of cider in her mug.
"Yeah dude, wubs are the best when you can make even the house dance to 'em." I said as I also polished off my mug of cider, it might not be alcoholic but damn if it wasn't good.
Pony Vinyl nodded, "Totally." With that, she levitated our mugs into the sink to be washed later. She got herself into a more relaxed position and after a while said, "So you would be me if I was this something you called a human?"
I also got into a more relaxed position as I thought about what to say. I was just barely containing my fangirling, ugh, as I chatted with best pony. Wait... would it be considered arrogant if I am technically calling myself best pony? Maybe, but whatever, it's true.
"Pretty much, though I'm sure we could possibly share some differences. Big multiverse and all." I replied, shrugging.
"I guess." She stayed silent for a while before saying, "So you need a place to crash tonight? 'Tavi is off visiting family. That's why I was a bit confused when I heard our door opening."
"Yeah, got the cops on my figurative tail. I was wondering if I could hole up here for tonight and leave tomorrow night. If that's cool with you of course."
Pony Vinyl nodded sagely, "Yeah, it's cool; I've had the cops on my tail before too. Too drunk out in the street one night, too much loud 'noise' on others. Honestly, you'd think they would know what wubstep is considering how popular it is nowadays."
I shook my head in disappointment. "There is no helping some ponies sometimes." I heard an agreement come from pony me and with that, we continued with our conversation that sparked many ideas for future wub projects.
Soon it was time for bed and she led me to a guest bedroom with attached bathroom. After an exchange of "good night" between us pony Vinyl went off to her bedroom and I shot straight towards the toilet, that cider goes straight through you. After doing my business and washing my hands I made sure the curtains were closed before taking off my shoes, setting my bag near the edge of the bed, and crashing down onto the bed.
I just closed my eyes when I suddenly felt something drop onto my face. Pushing off the offending object I sat up and looked at what intruded the personal space of my face. It was... the Tesseract? No, not a tesseract, just a lookalike.
"I don't even... what?" I mumbled in confusion. Shaking my head I decided to pick up the random Rubix cube wannabe. As I picked it up I heard a voice in my head.
"Uhh. This is the... Animorph... Wade. Call me... if you need any help?"
I yelped in shock and dropped the cube back onto my bed. I waited for a few minutes and nothing bad happened, so I picked up my backpack and placed it next to the cube. Deciding to keep it for a possible future, though with no definite thought it might ever come up again, I put it into one of my pack's side pockets.
When that was finished I felt a small urge to create something. It was nothing more than an annoying itch and I knew I would get no sleep if I did not scratch it. So I pulled out my tool roll and spread it out on my bed, then I pulled out some parts that I constantly kept stocked up on from my pack and mindlessly set to work.
It did not take long to finish and when I broke out of the trance I put myself in I examined my newest creation. Small leftover wisps of my magic disappeared into the air from my hands. Magic I, unfortunately, can only use during special circumstances, but that is a story for another time.
The thing before me was a basic iPod. It had an unremarkable shade of gray for its casing but that was of little importance. I took a sharpie from my backpacks front pocket and drew my cutie mark on the back of it. Then I took my computer out and hooked the new iPod into it. When that was finished I opened up a voice recording application and recorded myself a message, the itch was still there and I felt compelled on some level to record what I was about to say.
"Hey wassup dude or dudette! This is Vinyl Scratch and if ya need some cool tunes or just wanna hang out and party then you found your gal! I ain't too great at fighting so unless you just want a wicked bass cannon or something I wouldn't call me up for that. Later dudes!"
With that, I synced up the audio file and the iPod. I disconnected it and summoned some earbuds from my backpack. I connected the earbuds to the iPod and wrapped it all up before walking to the bathroom mirror, still letting the itch mindlessly guide me. When I got to the mirror I cocked my arm back as magic gathered in my hand.
"I really hope this doesn't break anything." I thought, pony me has been a very gracious host and I didn't want to break anything of hers or her roommates.
I chucked the iPod plus earbuds at the mirror and watched fascinated as the mirror rippled and accepted the iPod with no resistance. The mirror showed a dark expanse and I watched my newly created iPod replicate many, many times and fly off towards god knows where. Soon the mirror returned to normal and I merely saw my own reflection with a far off look in my eyes.
I scratched the back of my head and with a shrug said, "Sure would suck if those earbuds got tangled. But honestly how could they? Not like they are known for that."
I finally was able to head off for bed, thoroughly exhausted.