//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: The Life of Vinyl Scratch // by DJ nightmare night //------------------------------// the effervescent sun was hanging in the sky spreading it's smile across ponyville. There was not a cloud in sight, not the thinnest of cotton whisps. "Hey your a teacher, you know stuff right?" Flattered by her daughters compliment Cheerilee answered warily "yes Vinyl" for she knew that with Vinyl complements where often followed by 'can i have this' or 'can i have that'. "Why is the sky blue?" Cheerilee's brow made like a plow; furrowed. After walking through ponyville town for some time in silent contemplation with Vinyl eagerly at her side she gave in "i don't think i know the answer to that question my dear, why do you ask?" "oh, no reason. It's just, it's just the sky y'know it's pretty and stuff" Vinyl said as she walked along, her head tilted right back gazing at the sky above her. "it's a weird kinda blue isn't it, like a cyan but not quite as bright. And it's not the same all over, over there see it gets darker like, like, like a sapphire." Looking suprised Cheerilee faced her daughter and said "Why yes i suppose it does. Vinyl, how can you see the sky exactly the same as how i can? And since when di you get so poetic, are you feeling alright? "hey i can be sophisticated without having something wrong with me" Vinyl retorted. Her stride broke as she stopped walking to put emphasis in her statement. Cheerilee just turned her head without even slowing down and told her daughter she better hurry up or they will be late for school. Vinyl was pretty sure she had made her point so she didn't take it any further. She cantered past her mother shouting against the wind as she passed her "come on slow-coach, or we'll be late for school" in a distorted mimic of her mother's tone. "oh it is on" Cheerilee transitioned her gait from walking straight into a full gallop, skipping out trot and canter altogether. She was soon catching up with her young one and closing in fast. Weaving in and out of lamp-posts, skidding round corners, engulfing other ponies in a dusty haze. All to catch up with the elusive Vinyl who somehow managed to out-weigh Cheerilee's speed with her nimble agility. Taking a final leap of faith she soared through the sky to land dead on target; she had Vinyl now, locked in a ball of limbs and giggles. Recovering from their laughter they both managed to stand and after straightening up Vinyl's brand new saddlebags they resolved that they should get heading to the school again. Trotting back down to the end of the road, both with huge grins on their faces. At the end of the road there was a gap where no houses had yet been built, on the town side of the empty space was the famous sugarcube corner and at the other side was the school. crossing this void took only a few minutes and soon they where climbing the granite steps to the front entrance. "Ok Vinyl you know where your classroom is right, have a good day" Cheerilee said, and followed in a hushed tone "and keep the mischief on the low, please" Vinyl stood outside her classroom leaning on the wall, not so much for support just.... added coolness. Waiting for other ponies to arrive was boooooooore - ring, why was there nothing to do round these places. After what seemed like hours some more ponies started turning up, they all looked really nervous and didn't talk very much. sure a few mumbles where exchanged but nothing that could constitute words. Vinyl couldn't take the awkwardness any longer, this was just like the doctor's all over again. DAMN YOU SILENCE, YOU WILL NEVER WIN. she turned to the closest pony to her and cracked out the best ice-braker she could come up with. "soooooo your new here too right, i'm Vinyl, whats your name?" Bam, just like harmony to a wendigo the ice cracked into a thousand tiny shards and tinkled to the floor. The beige filly she was talking to nervously answered "H-hi I'm Twist". she was saved from further conversation by the sound of purposeful hoof-steps echoing through the hallway, the sound was soon followed by an old mare emerging from round the corner. "hey about time, eh" vinyl muttered to twist, giving her a light elbow nudge to emphasize her point. This managed to lighten the mood sufficiently and even got a snicker out of twist. "alright kido's lets get you in class, now when i open the door don't all rush to your seats at once. Take your time choosing carefully now" Of course not a single student was eager to dedicate themselves to a particular seat straight away, they all just lingered on the sidelines, watching the seats with fear and apprehension. All except one filly of course, Vinyl picked her way through the back row of tables and plonked herself down on the second to back row. She would have chosen the right hand back corner but this place just in front was a window seat, windows are cool. Pretty soon she noticed no other ponies where taking their seats, they where all wide-eyed staring at them as if the seats where some gaping jaw about to eat them "yo whats up with everypony, did someone put superglue on the walls again or something?" "c'mon, sooner we start the sooner we can finish" Incensed by Vinyl's enthusiasm and a little cheered up by her jovial nature ponies began to pluck up the courage to move off the wall. One by one at first, students drifted towards the seats and carefully chose which one they would like to sit in. Once a few had moved in the rest soon followed suit. "alrighty then class, my name is Miss Elizabeth" the teacher said then turned to the blackboard at the front of the room and wrote her name up on it. While the teacher was writing up her name Vinyl lent over to the pony sat next to her and said in a wholly uninterested monotone "this looks like it's gonna be fun. Hey can you do this" behind the teachers back Vinyl contorted her face through un-natural positions to force her tongue into toughing her nose for the other pony. The yellow pony next to her stifled chuckles behind a hoof and tried to imitate the contortions but with little success, which Vinyl found greatly amusing. Vinyl's amusement was cut short when the teacher turned back around and announced "as it's the first lesson of the day i think it would be nice for every pony to get to know each other. So if you would each like to pair up with the pony next to you, you've got ten minutes to exchange three facts about each other." "your ten minutes starts; now" The cacophony of every chair in the room being pushed back in unison flooded the room as everypony turned to face their respective neighbors and began exchanging information about each other. Swiveling round in her seat the yellow pony faced the white pony next to her. "So ah guess we should be start'n with our names" "Sounds like a plan partner, the name's Vinyl what's yours?" "why ah'm Applebloom, me an mah family run sweet apple acres just out'a town" "Woe there filly now you got one fact up on me, now let me see...... stuff about me. hmmmm... well i live in town" "and i suppose i could use that my momma is Cheerilee, the third years teacher" "Ah neat, ah bet she must teach ya loads a cool stuff" said Appleblooom but with a cheeky grin she replied "but now ya see it's ya'll that's got one up on me" "Not many ponies know this;" her volume reduced to a hushed whisper "sometimes when AJ aint lookin' ah like t' wear her hat. ya can't let her find out though, why she'd tan mah hide if she ever did" Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and booming guffaws ricocheted off the walls of the classroom halting the clamoring exchange of personal information and drawing all eyes to the pair of fillies near the back of the room. "Alright class i think that's enough time for discussion, shall we move on to the lesson now" Miss Elizabeth said to return the classes eyes to their rightful positions, faced forwards towards the board. The lesson was easy peasy for Vinyl, her momma had taught her this stuff ages ago and it was all just common sense to her now. Of course that didn't make the lesson any less grueling for her. When it finally ended she joined the charge to the door with every other foal and filly and was going to walk straight home but she found Twist and Applebloom together on the main semi-circle stairs. When they saw Vinyl come through the doors they walked towards her through the crowds of evacuating ponies. "hey girls!" she called out to them as they approached "that lesson was such a drag, right" "ha ha yea" Twist called back in agreement They finally managed to permeate through the bustling crowd outside the school and where able to speak normally to each other "Me an Twist jus' wan'ed ta say goodbye an we'll see ya'll tomorrow before we all hit the dusty track back home" "Ah'll have ta say goodbye here but Twist lives in town too an she said she can walk back some o tha way with you" "okay Applebloom, see ya later alligator" "so where abouts do you live then Twist?" "Oh it's near the west side of the town, number seven foxtrot lane" she recited with great concentration. Her mother had taught her to remember her address in case she ever got lost but she still had to concentrate to remember it. "There's something i don't get" Twist said as Vinyl started towards town. Twist remained fixed to the spot with a questioning look behind her comically over-sized glasses "Applebloom was saying earlier that Cheerilee's your mum, is that right" "She sure is, and i can honestly say there is no momma more awesome than her" "Shouldn't we like wait for her? As you two are going to the same place and all" "ahhh Twist you silly filly, didn't you know that teachers stay behind for ages after us. Don't know what they do exactly, teacher-y things i guess" Vinyl was left with a nugget of contemplation, she had answered one question but in the process had stumbled across another. This truly was a conundrum to her logic. she stood for a few seconds chewing on the nugget before disregarding it as boring. A short beckon to her new friend and a "come on, it's getting cold just standing round here all day" soon got the two fillies on the move and heading into town to their respective homes. The week went on and everything was going well. Vinyl found that she already knew everything that Miss was teaching the class, she guessed that's what happens when your momma's a teacher. It wasn't that she was super clever just that this stuff happened to be common sense to her. Of course the great advantage of already knowing what is being taught is that she didn't need to concentrate on the teaching. And of course not having to concentrate on the teaching allowed her to have fun; cracking jokes in tactical places, pulling funny faces, passing notes, doodling, tapping on the tables, life was brilliant! but beyond this glade of joy there was a creature lurking in the shadows, a creature born of pure distilled hatred. It's eyes twinned whirlpools in the inky black bestormed sea. Lurking, ,watching, waiting. "Hey tavi, watcha doin?" Vinyl shouted above the clamor of the weekend market. Octavia thought she heard a familiar voice above the din of a hundred other voices haggling over wares and such, she stopped and gracefully cast her gaze around in one fluid movement. It was like she had practiced the routine a thousand times before and now was it's grad public unveiling. She was shocked when out of the crowd before her leapt a body of pure white, streaks of electric blue flapping like streamers behind it. "Ah Vinyl how nice it is to see you again" it took but an instant to realize who it was addressing her and at once a grin spread across her face as Vinyl crashed to the floor, sprawled on the cobblestones. She would have beamed from ear to ear and even laughed if it where not for her etiquette holding her back. "you really should give more attention to your landing, i think i have a book on pegasi landing techniques you could borrow if it should please you" announced Octavia through her smile, this was cracking her up. "haha nice one, very funny Tavi" came the sarcastic reply "i would have landed perfectly. If it wasn't for that puddle over there, water is damn slippery ya know" "yes I'm sure you would have. How have you been, we have not me since the time in the changing rooms" "I'm good, school's easy peasy. I already know the stuff we're being taught so i get to mess around all lesson and when the teacher notices she does that thing when a teacher thinks they're gonna humiliate you" adopting her best teacher voice "Vinyl would you like to explain to the class what you have just missed while you were pulling faces behind my back?" "Then i come back at her and get it completely right, total burn, i tell ya Tavi the look on her face. Priceless!" "So hows that posh school panning out for ya?" Octavia's face lit up at the mention of her school "oh it's simply marvelous, true most of the other students are not quite as sophisticated as i, however i still feel at home there. Like i belong." her eyes glinted in the sunlight as she continued her account of the marvelous things she got up to. Vinyl kind of filtered the long posh words out but still got the main gist and managed to nod and smile in the right places, she liked Octavia and she didn't want to offend her "and the elocution lessons, oh they are divine! Of course i excel in that particular lesson. The teacher truly brings our language to life" vinyl getting settled into school 1 outside classroom 2 going in and choosing seats 3 first lesson 4 go home, cheerilee has to stay back later to do teacher-y things repeat 3 and 4 to develop the feel of vinyl being popular vinyl bumps into Octavia in town and they chat for a bit about their different schools vinyl being bullied 1 have a good first day of second week 2 end of day somepony from a higher year "hey guys look it's the special filly that can't anything" "dude that's a bit harsh"...... "nahh it aint. anyway it's not like she can tell who i am: she can't see me" 3 this scenario continues. she's the heart of her class, always enigmatic, and everyone in her year knows her and recognizes her awesomeness but no-one in her year knows about her getting bullied. 4 short scene as main bully organizing others to chase vinyl out of school and out of town As soon as the class was dismissed all the fillies and foals made their usual mad dash out of the classroom and into freedom. Vinyl said her goodbyes to Twist and Applebloom at the semi-circle steps of the main entrance and they went their separate ways. Vinyl headed towards the road that led past Sugarcube corner and up to her house right at the other end and round the corner, it wasn't the fastest way but she hoped she would 'accidentally' bump into Octavia again. It would have gone to plan as well if the cruel hand of fate had not intervened. It just so happened that the jet black colt who had upset Vinyl the day before was standing at the entrance to a dank alleyway off the main street, and this time he had more than two other friends. Vinyl, not being able to see details could tell there was a pony in front of her however at this distance she couldn't tell who it was unless they spoke, or had some kind of distinguishing feature like say a horn of wings. She moved to the side so she could safely walk around the pony ahead of her. "hey old red eyes is back for more" he called to his friends who promptly emerged from the inky shadows "cant you see were hangin over here, this area is for cool ponies only " Vinyl recognised that voice. That was the voice of that meanie, she could only stammer and try to carry on walking in the direction she was going. They soon put a stop to that of course, forming a line of colts seven strong. The barricade completely blocked her way, any hope of continuing on her way soon died. "oh yea of course you cant see, your a freak. ha i almost forgot" hurt speared through Vinyl's heart, tears burnt through her eyes. She turned and bolted for somewhere, anywhere but here. Somewhere safe, where she could be alone, without those horrible colts. "yea you better run" they shouted after her as she dissipated into the crowd of market shoppers. When she had gone and they had finished calling after her one colt said "yo guys, d'ya think she can even cry properly" which had the rest laugh so hard they fell to the floor clutching their stomachs. After a long while they recovered their composure and started walking through the streets. As they walked one colt said "i heard that cheerilee isn't even her real mother" and was closely followed by another colt "yea i heard she was just left abandoned one night" This stayed hanging in the air for a short while, the seven colts all looking at each other while they walked through the town, some of them felt kinda sorry for the filly so didn't want to actually say anything. A jet black colt with a mane of pure obsidian, the very same colt that had started the bullying of Vinyl, broke the hush "don't you see it guys, this is perfect! man we can REALLY get to her now" "tomorrow. Meet me in the alley straight after school and bring your chains, I've got a plan" vinyl getting run out of town 1 finish at school 2 start walking home, get half way to sugarcube corner when bullies pounce. 3 vinyl gets chased. stones get thrown, words are shouted at her........ect 4 run up a hill and into outskirts of everfree forest 5 bullies are to chicken to follow her, they linger, hurling abuse and rocks, a few hit her, one on the forehead and cheek and a few on the side........ and her bag gets ripped on a tree 6 she lies in a heap under a tree crying all night vinyl the next day 1 makes her way home - cannot bring herself to go to school 2 wallows, goes to bed 3 Cheerilee gets back, all worried, turns out she didn't go to school either, she was searching for vinyl all night and day since she didn't come back after school confession time 1 cheerilee is all like why didnt you come back, and where did you go, i was so worried 2 vinyl recounts her tale 3 cheerilee is all "why didnt you tell me earlyer i could have sorted it out .... blah blah blah" 4 vinyl explians that she doesnt know who they are cos she cant actually see them cheerilee sorts the twats out the next day and they kinda hold off the bullying for a while and life is good but they still take the piss out of her (only more slyly cos now they know vinyl is a teachers daughter) round Tavi's 1 vinyls bumps into tavi again and they chat and she notices vinyles saddlebags are ripped 2 she insists on repairing her friends most precious saddlebags 3 invites vinyl over to her house, which rurns out to be next door to sugarcube corner 4 vinyl stops still and gapes at the scene "woa, hold up a second..... you... you live next door to sugarcube corner?!!! that is SO awesome! 5 Tavi tells vinyl to stop fishing for fly's with her mouth and come in 6 vinyl sits around while Tavi repairs her bags and chatting happens about tavi's school. vinyl purposely asks loads of questions so Tavi doesn't have chance to ask how the bag got ripped 7 after a while the dreaded question drops into conversation...... 8 vinyl has to explain that she got run out of town 9 sympathy for vinyl staying over 1 vinyl is in a bad state, feeling like she would be lonely if she went home 2 Octavia reads this in her friend and offers a girls night, vinyl has to check with her mom so she doesn't worry 3 they both take a walk back to the school to ask Cheerilee and she is fine with it 4 on their way back they stop off at SC corner just before it closes to stock up on provisions changes 1 in the middle of a class vinyl's horn suddenly starts glowing and she blacks out 2 scene where she has a vision of her mother on the moon where she is banished 3 Luna senses a stress threat to her daughter so she teaches vinyl to use magic and tells her she will be coming back soon. 4 nightmare moon takes over and cuts off the confection coming home 1 summer sun celebration 2 battle of nightmare moon 3 luna comes back to ponyville, does the ceremony, then goes to see her daughter 4 she tells vinyl her special tallent learning the ropes 1 vinyl learning how to DJ, mostly at twilight's library reading books on the subject 2 a DJ with no set 1 luna organizes a public set for vinyl to DJ for