//------------------------------// // Dorks // Story: Vinyl Scratch, Mentoring is AWESOME! // by SciWriter //------------------------------// “Salt, pepper, milk, oranges, music... something like Mozart.” Yea, only the necessities she says. I kept reading down her shopping list. I felt like a house wife these days. As I went through town and passed by the old record shop, I had to stop. An old “DJpon3”, my stage name, poster was half ripped off. Wrinkled, the tape about to give, the owner didn’t even care about it. And why should he? I hadn’t so much as released a single in over nine months. This pause was not for lack of inspiration. Seriously, this is Ponyville some awesome monster attacks or catastrophe happens nearly every month. I never ran out of awesome images to compose to after the fact. Heck Discord himself now lived among us and if I couldn’t get inspiration from the lord of chaos himself just being there, I had no right to call myself a DJ. I straightened out my poster. It was of my last big hit CD. Oh come on! I’m not a sentimental pony for Celestia sake, so why was I getting teary eyed?! Like it had any right to, the memory of that day played in my head. Right after the fall of Tirek, our brave mare defenders celebrated in their new castle of friendship, thinking the whole of Equestria had just been returned to normal. However a good 20% of the population of Ponyville lost something of their talents forever. Good to know I wasn’t alone I guess. Still it hurt to remember. (***) I had woken up with a group of random ponies, an assortment of unicorns, earth ponies and pegasi. Last thing I remembered before blacking out a huge bull ape like creature with terrifying horn had attacked me and my sister Octy. The bull wasn’t around now but… “Octy?” I tried to yell, however nothing came out. I rasped a few times, but nothing. Octavia wasn’t in the crowd. My mind raced, she had to be okay, she just had to be! I took off running, seeing the buildings of Ponyvillie in the distance. Home was right there, home was alright, my sister had to be too. I ran into the empty town, noticing I wasn’t the only one coming in. Crowds of lost ponies started to swarm in. “Octavia!” I tried to yell, but again, nothing came out. The best I could do was cough. Finally she came into view. I was relieved. She started to yell my name frantically looking about. All I had to do was yell out to her. Nothing came out… just rasps and coughs. I watched my best friend and sister actually start panicking when she couldn’t find me in the crowd. I wanted to yell to her, but all I could get out were those stupid small rasps. I thought to try yelling again, but it finally hit me like a freight train. I tested my voice once, twice, three times. NO! This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t be! My voice! It wasn’t just different, it was GONE! I was completely mute. I kept watching my sister, but I didn’t bother trying to call again. I sat down, tears streaming down my face. Finally my sister found me. Seeing me crying, which I don’t often do, she immediately hugged me. “Vinyl!” she yelled. She squeezed me to herself, finally saying “What’s wrong?” What was I supposed to say? Well nothing I guess. I wanted to say something so badly, to comfort my panicking sister, but sick, sick irony, nothing came out. When that monster attacked he had officially made my last words and girlish scream of terror. That was it. I just pulled in Octy closer, crying silently, cursing the fates. (***) I sighed. Well… ‘darn it no!’ I thought. ‘I’m not gonna wallow! It’s not gonna be like that. If I want music, I’m going to get REAL music! Besides, every freakin music store in town sells Mozart.’ I shoved through the music store door. The bell rang, oh sweet bell, hearing that bell always meant I was in a new world. The record store! Lordi, Iron Savior, Sabaton, Styx, Electric Samurai, Sevendust, so many awesome songs and musics by so many awesome mares and stallions. The stallion behind the counter nodded at me. I was still a little disappointed that he didn’t get excited like he would have months ago. But I wasn’t in here to continue my funk. I was here to find some tunes to drive it into the ground. Out with the bad vibes, in with the good. I grabbed a basket with my magic. I tossed an old Beethoven CD in. It looked like one with a cover I never saw on Octy’s shelf so there was probably something different for her on it. Now, on to the important stuff. Electric Samurai. I sighed, just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s not good! After a good twenty minutes of searching, finally I found Guitar Hotei in the back. Where was it… Battle… Battle Without… Honor … oooh… “Kill the Target”! I picked up the CD and viewed the songs. KT was the cover song, but “Battle Without Honor” was still on it. At the front counter I heard a filly arguing with the shop keep. “But I can’t find the right color!” “Look kiddo, that’s what I have.” “But… but… she would never like these… maybe you have more on back order in the right color?” “We don’t order specific colors unless it’s for somepony very important.” “But we’ve been all over town looking for-“ “I’m sorry,” he said with a sigh. “I hate disappointing customers. This is what I have… blue is close.” “Yea, it is.” I walked over to the counter with my soon to be purchases. Sheesh, kids these days. Always looking for the best cover art on jewel cases. I wanted to tell her “the case isn’t important, it’s the music that it’s all about,” but well, mute remember? I looked down when I got to the check out. I was now standing behind two foals. A colt and the silly filly arguing with the shop keep. She was all that stood between me and musical escape… I could wait, so long as she didn’t turn rude. I liked the shop keeper after all, so she wouldn’t be if she knew what was good for her. Out of curiosity, I looked over her items currently on the counter. A pair of blue sunglasses (eh, not purple enough), a Smash mouth CD (hey, can’t fault good taste, gotta give her that) and my latest CD. Glad to see at least someone still liked me. The filly dropped some bits on the counter. The stallion on the other side counted them and then paused. “You’re a little short.” “What?! I saved all month for these!” The stallion shrugged. “I don’t set the prices. Put something back.” The filly looked at her stuff. She took my CD and pushed it forward. (Really, I would have thought a generic DJ Pon3 CD would be first to go), push the sun glasses forward and then pushed aside Smash Mouth. Really? A pair of sun glasses over Smash Mouth? An atrocity! I sighed, dropping a few bits on the table over the filly’s shoulder thinking to myself ‘eat your heart out Rarity!’. “Thanks miss!” the filly shouted. She grabbed her purchases and jetted away from the counter before the shop keeper could get change. He chuckled watching the door as the filly’s… brother I guess… colt friend maybe, followed. “Quick little bugger!” I quickly retrieved my note pad from my saddle bags and wrote out, ‘Reminds me of me at that age.’ The stallion grinned. “Yea Probably. Guess the change is yours anyway.” I made my purchase and walked out, another Electric Samurai CD all mine. NOW, I was ready for shopping. Scratch that, almost. I levitated my head phones out of my saddle bags along with my CD player. Just as I did I heard a raspy sound. It was that little filly from inside the shop. I decided to get a little bit of a look at her this time. She was a pegasi, yellow with a blue mane that looked like it hadn’t touched a brush since birth (good, who needs a brush!). Her colt friend was an earth pony, cyan with a dark blue mane and yellow highlights. The filly looked at me with wide eyes, looking like she was trying very hard to choke out some words. I heard those all too familiar rasps coming from her and I started to panic. I wasn’t just going to stand there and watch as another pony lost her voi- “DJ PON3!!!” She screamed. I grinned a little in embarrassment. I didn’t mind praise, but ponies stopped to look now, like I was this loud filly’s mom or something. “Calm down kid… oh and folks around here just call me Vinyl.” Is what I wanted to say, however again, mute… you adjust to it… even still but it’s frustrating sometimes. The filly took a marker out of her saddle bags and held up her copy of my last mix in her mouth. “Autograf?” she said through her stuffed mouth. I sighed, anything for the fans… wait… how many fans does a has been musician with mediocre fame have anyway? Who was this filly? I levitated the CD and marker and started signing. “Make it out to Lightning Strike and her brother Dusty.” “Dusk,” said the colt. “My name is Dusk,” said the colt. “That’s what I said, Dusty.” I smiled. This was a little familiar. Even when I was first adopted Octy loved to mess with my head when we were foals. Thus I had always been on the receiving end. I knew what was the right thing to do… and I did not care. I signed to “DJpon3, to my fan filly Lightning Strike and her brother Dusty!” I levitated the CD back to the foals, Lightning grinning and Dusk twisting his lips in frustration. I could tell he was just here with her anyway so I didn’t care. She put the CD back in her saddle bags saying, “can’t wait to get this back home.” She then looked back up at me. I heard a faint electric sound and blinked. She was then standing behind me. I looked back and suddenly, after another quick electric charging sound, she was standing to my left. “It’s you, it’s really you, I can’t believe it!” Another charging sound and she was above me. Sheesh I knew pegasi were fast but this was ridiculous. “You’re the most awesomest thing ever!” I grinned. This girl was a trip. She was now back in front of me. “So… when is the next CD coming out?” I looked off to the right. To tell the truth my funk had made me seriously consider quitting. The last event I had done as a DJ was a wedding, and that was only because Octy was there. I don’t think there was even a recording of it. I tried working on a few singles, but I kept coming to parts that needed vocals and well… “Why aren’t you talking to me?” She slumped her shoulders a bit. “I’m annoying aren’t I?” Her brother nodded behind her, her shooting him a fast glare and him grinning sheepishly. I did smile to see the teasing was mutual. Still I didn’t want the girl think I was giving her the brush off. I didn’t run around blabbing about my disability, but I wasn’t going to just let a fan think she was annoying me with the sin of praising me to the high hills. Thus I bit the bullet for her. I levitated my notepad out and wrote. ‘Sorry I’m mute.’ “Oh, okay, so just write things down… you sing but you’re mute, how does that work?” ‘I was changed after the incident with Tirek.’ She looked at me with pity. I hated that look. I was just waiting for her to move on from her broken hero. “So, what are you working on?” She zipped off to the left, then for no apparent reason, back to the right. “Anyway can I convince you to give me a sneak listen?” I did have a few trunk songs I was working on, as music was still my thing. Lightning just kept… jumping from one place to the next, almost like a unicorn practicing teleporting, but pegasi can’t do that so… what was she doing? She shot left, right, up down, behind me, in front- I stuck out a hoof and put it on her head. I looked at her with big eyes, trying my best to communicate the message of “clam down, you’re gonna hurt yourself” with just a look. I’m hyper, but this kid was making me look like a slug. “I’m freaking you out aren’t I?” I shook my head and decided to just write it out. ‘It’s not me I’m worried about. At that pace you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack.’ “Well gee I hope not. Though I guess all the electricity could hurt me in the end, I just don’t have any way of getting rid of it so I just hope not ya know? I got powers when an evil scientist experimented on me. I was rescued by LunaandsheprotectedmeandnowIcallhermommaLuna and can you take your hoof off my head you’re forcing all the energy to go to my mouth.” I obliged and she shot behind me. “Anyway, please tell me you have something.” Well, the base cannon mix I had in my saddle bag was only there because I forgot to take it out but it was decent. I put away my pad and took out my CD player and head phones. “Those look expensive,” she commented nervously. They were, as were my sunglasses so seeing those blue versions of them in her saddle bag, I quickly remembered my rather negative thoughts about her with an invisible cringe. Still I didn’t want this hyper active kid to accidently damage my equipment. I put the head phones on my own head. My horn glowed with a small purple hue. “I thought you were gonna-“ she stopped talking as two balls of energy affixed themselves to either of her ears. What I heard, now she would hear. This spell helped when I wanted critiques or to share with a friend, like right now. As the intro music started to play I started taking mental notes on the filly’s reaction. Again her motor mouth started up. “Is this a kind of spell to share music or… wait… what is-“ she stopped talking, her eyes going wide. Well that had the desired effect. I watched as the beat was dropped and the little filly started rocking her head back and forth, bucking her back legs, a huge smile on her face, her eyes closed tight. She was getting down to it alright. She spun a few times, which made me glad I had decided against giving her the head phones. She even started flying, her flight a little messed up by trying to flap with the beat. She was having a good time until the music came to a point where I decided to add a few record scratches without any base accompaniment. She cringed and dropped to the ground. ‘Okay’ I mentally noted, ‘fix that part’. Back to the base and she was rocking out again. It was a mess of a dance, but it was one that told me I had to be doing something right. She was making a scene and ponies were watching. Still, long as she didn’t mind. There was quiet in the head phones, the song abruptly ended. Lightning sat up, looking around. ‘Okay, another note, fade out, abrupt ending is too jarring’. As the next single came up, there was a hiss. Lighting furrowed her eyebrows. Louder and louder until a loud base BOOM! Lightning Strike jumped and then started to rock out again as the song proper got going. Her head and legs starting to shoot through completely random asymmetric patterns. She was helping me lose my funk (unintentionally but whatever) so I had to help her. I tapped her shoulder. The base went down and I stomped my front hooves on the ground. It went up and I stuck out my right hoof. Lightning started to copy me. I did my best to also get her to notice how I was moving my hips. Even rocking to a beat had a pattern to it after all, if you wanted the best experience anyway. The experience is of course made complete when you’re rocking out with a kid you barely know in public with every pony now staring at you. Screw it! I had a fan filly! “You guys are dorks,” Dusty said. I quickly moved on his right, Lightning currently on his left. In my head this was a perfectly coordinated dance number. In reality whenever I opened my eyes to check my fan filly, she was doing her best to keep up, but it looked better when she was just rocking out on her own. Dusty looked at his sister chuckling. He then turned to me, the grown mare dancing in the street just cause and he busted out laughing. Many have made the mistake of thinking I have shame. I don’t. I levitated Lightning’s sun glasses out of her pack and planted them on her nose, no mean feat as she was still trying to dance. Still watching her I decided to let her lead, doing my best to signal with my head for her to “take it away”. Who was I kidding? She had no pattern to her dancing so me following her looked even more ridiculous. Even more mares and stallions were staring now. Wait for it… Pinkie appeared next to me and started dancing right along. Bolts of electric energy started shooting off the hooves of the filly. They didn’t bother me until I started to notice them starting to turn into lightning bolts, shooting into the air. ‘The heck?’ I thought. Lightning spread her wings, bolts of energy striking around her. She started to levitate, the energy pushing her up. Her brother’s eyes went wide. Bolts of electric energy were tearing out from his sister, ponies running for cover. “Lightning, stop!” Lightning Strike dropped to the ground. As I watched she completely tuned out my music, looking out over the empty street. I stopped my CD and spell. Lightning Strike was silent and still, slowly looking around. Her eyes started getting moist as she looked back at me. She then looked at the ground, closing her eyes in shame. “Go ahead, run away.” Pinkie looked around. “Why? That was weird, but I like weird.” I levitated a note in front of her brother, ‘She didn’t hit anything… what was that?’ “I can’t entirely explain. She has some control over the power the mad doctor gave her… she's kinda a living weapon... but we have nothing to fight and we don’t want to be mean… so we’re just kinda lonely.” ‘But she didn’t hit anything…’ “Yea, she can easily not do that. But she can’t just change what she is. If you’re gonna walk away just do it. Thanks for dancing with us. It was fun.” I looked at Lightning Strike. The filly who just shook off my disability like it was completely irrelevant. She didn’t look like she was feeling so good. Course how would I feel? I shook my head. I wanted to speak up, to say, “Don’t worry Dusty, I wouldn’t dream of letting myself abandon someone who idolizes me. I closed my eyes, concentrating. Balls of energy appeared in the ears of both Dusty and Lightning. The only I answer I had to give was pushing the play button again. Hey, this time there was no one to stare. By the way, Dusty totally dances like a dork too. Oh and I think I forgot something… eh, probably not important.