//------------------------------// // Vignettes // Story: Vinyl Scratch, Mentoring is AWESOME! // by SciWriter //------------------------------// The Universe is Messing With Me: “Stamp on the ground, jumpin’ all around!” and so I did. I love the Itolabrothers! My head phones told me what to do and I always obeyed the music, no matter how many ponies were watching. You think I learned that from Lightning? No other way an adult pony would just be doing that? Hah! Common mistake. You think I’m an adult. I’m just older than most kids! So there I was, rocking out in the hospital waiting room. It didn’t hurt that Dusty started participating despite himself, rocking his head and shoulders, but really he was doing his best to just stay in his seat while I got down in the middle of the floor. Several of the mares around started acting uncomfortable, but weirding out snobs is just another one of my services. The primary would be being there for my fans! My biggest was still being operated on. Not sure what a broken shoulder entails as far as operations, but I was pretty sure it was similarly as painful to what they had to do for me when I broke a shin at ten. Apparently Lightning was deep under right now as the doctors worked their magic. Thus I had worked some of my own. I knew of two ponies Lightning and her brother were also wild about, so I figured I would call in a few favors. I wanted it to be special when I told the filly she was to be my… student?... half daughter?... friend I hope? The terms of the arrangement between me and Torkuda were kind of vague. In any case I had long since closed my eyes to better hear the music, tuning out the complaining adults. I was waiting to hear Dusk’s hooves joining me. Finally I heard the clicking of… two sets of young hooves? I opened my eyes to see I was not being joined by Dusk, but two fillies, one orange pegasus, flittering her wings without lifting off, and one yellow earth pony with a bow in her hair. “Scootaloo!” I heard a shout. “Oh no ya don’t!” Suddenly my cd player was stopped. I looked down to notice Dusk by my side. “If you don’t mind…” I looked at him with curiosity, he wasn’t usually anywhere near that forward. “Head phone spell?” I figured I should have scolded him for touching my stuff, but I decided against it, I was curious to see where this was going. I complied, casting my sound sharing spell on him, two energy balls appearing on either side of his head. “Start her up!” As the music started playing, the colt stood on the floor closing his eyes. Me and the two CMC members started watching. “Stamp on the ground,” he stomped both front feet. “Move it all around,” he spun. Then he stamped again. Then he jumped four times. Then he spun. I recognized this as just the dance prescribed by the song but wasn’t sure where Dusk was going. Then came the music bridge. For a few seconds Dusk stood still, smiling. Then, his feet started skittering on the floor in perfect rhythm. It was… tap dancing? AWESOME! My eyes doubled size and a grin shot across my face. The two fillies just stood there bewildered until I remember to cast my audio sharing spell on them. Just like that the two CMC members were on either side of Dusk, watching his feet. Both were trying their best to keep up, but tap dancing… heck I haven’t been able to figure it out myself and I’m twenty. The first verse came and the colt stopped again. He smiled looking at Scootaloo. “Dance… please?” Scootaloo shrugged. “River dance, I’ll lead!” “What?” Thus he started, a river dance of sorts. I’m not sure if Stamp on the Ground is a river dance song, but if it were, some six year old was convincing me it was. Well, Dusk was, Scootaloo was completely lost, but obviously doing her best. She started tripping over herself, probably still trying to tap dance, as was Apple Bloom. Really all three kids were doing their own thing. As the CMC members were tap dancing… sorta… Dusk changed back to that. “How long av’ ya been practin’ this?” asked Apple Bloom, tripping over her own feet. “Tap dancing? Since I was four! Only started River Dance a year ago.” The three kept going. If I had to guess, the pegasus filly that caught Dusk’s attention in the first place, Scootaloo, seemed to be catching onto the dance faster. Poor Bloom was utterly lost. Finally came the voice of the filly I knew was missing. “Hey! Don’t leave me out!” I chuckled to myself as Sweetie Belle ran up. I knew all three of the fillies pretty well. The CMC pretty much went all over town on their adventures and had messed with me several times. DJing was apparently out for them and I was sure they had already tried dancing, but if they were having fun, they would do whatever. Sweetie looked up at me with pleading eyes. I shared the spell with her. The song was ending, but she did her best to join in. In a few minutes the song was over. The three girls sighed in disappointment. However Dusk wasn’t disappointed for some reason. “Did ya like that?” he asked Scootaloo. “I think so,” Scoots replied. She checked her flank. “Nothing though… you’re pretty good though.” I looked at the colt curiously. “What?” ‘If you can dance that good, why didn’t you earlier when we first met?’ “Well Lightning’s a lot faster than me, I couldn’t keep pace so I just said “screw it” and did whatever.” He looked down. “Not sure why, but it’s easy to do that when she’s around.” “Can we do another song?” asked Sweetie. “I kinda missed out.” The three foals nodded. I moved to start my player again, however Scootaloo put up a hoof. “Hold up!” She trotted around Dusk a few times. “You’re really good at that, and… you’re younger than me I think… doesn’t that mean you should have well, ya know?” “Ya, why don’t ya have yer cuitie mark?” Dusk looked at his flank. He shrugged. “I don’t know. My friend Lightning- I mean my sis says- the universe is messing with me, whatever that means.” The three fillies just stood still for a while. Finally Apple Bloom spoke up. “Ya… ya… ya mean we could find something we like, we could find what we’ll have our future talents in an’ still not get cutie marks?” Again Dusk shrugged. “I guess, maybe? My sister is a little nutty.” “You pretty much made up that dance didn’t you?” asked Scoots. “But you don’t have a mark in dancing or at least tapping?” Eyes wide all three fillies started walking away together, my spell leaving them. “Um… can me and my sis join the crusaders?” asked Dusk as they started to go for the door. “Ah… um… yea… um” Apple Bloom started. “Talk ta us tomorrow. Um… we got some um, thinkin’ ta do um… yea.” The two fillies left. “YEEEEEESSSSS!” Dusk shouted. Myself I just stood there, dumbfounded. Did a six-year-old just unintentionally teach the CMC a life lesson? (***) Lightning the Bard No the members of the CMC were not the ponies I invited over. Dusk had left to go visit his sister while I was still stuck waiting for the two I had invited. A bit of a perfectionist, I wanted to enter her room with them in toe. Finally they walked into the waiting room. Excitedly I lead the two mares into my little fan filly’s room. As we three walked in, I only got a preview of what the foals were doing, I think Dusk was reading to his sister. Sweet and all, but that book was suddenly slammed shut and I heard two declarations almost in unison. Still they were somehow discernable. “Honest Apple!” yelled Dusk. “Rebel Rainbow!” Lightning yelled. Apple Jack, on my left, smiled big and proud. Rainbow Dash on my right however looked more confused. “Rebel Rainbow!” Lightning shouted again. “She’s twenty percent cooler!” Rainbow Dash grinned, her friend asking, “Now exactly how the hay did that catch on?” “They can only tolerate each other when the forces of evil threaten the fillies of the world!” “Now hold on a sec-“ AJ started, but RD interrupted. “What about the colts?” Rainbow asked. “Details! Who cares about colts?” Lightning yelled. “Hey!” Dusk shouted. “You can just hit my shoulder if I get too annoying,” Lightning quickly told him. Probably the worst advice in the universe but, as a positively awful parental figure, I wrote nothing in response. “You two are the most positively amazing ponies in the universe!” both mares smiled, Rainbow nodding. “I can’t believe you’re here. Only one pony in all the cosmos is better, DJpon3 and I get to see her all the time,” I smiled and nodded. “I’ve got to be the luckiest filly alive!- Minus the broken shoulder- and the fact that my bio parents abandoned me when I was a baby-but anyway-” All three of us mares started to look at each other with concern at that line. “Ya know I’m not really a reb-“ began Rainbow, but she was interrupted. “I had this really cool story with you guys in it, ya wanna hear it?” Rainbow and AJ shrugged their shoulders and sat down by the filly’s bed. (***) One night, the evil Dr. Dusk Nighttime *OW* kidnapped the gentle and ever feminine Apple Bloom Flowers after she had just finished picking daisies and chasing butterflies. *Ah recon it’s a good thang ma sis ain’t here* He carried her off to his evil cave layer where he planned to weave a magic spell on her. However Scootaloo the bravest filly who ever lived saw him carry her away. *Scoots might like to hear this though.* She followed him. There stood Scootaloo, hiding behind a large stone column in the cave. Despite their many differences, Apple Bloom was Scootaloo’s dearest friend. She watched, even her bravery not enough to concur the horror of seeing a friend being hurt. Dusk cursed the fair filly that she would forever believe she was alone, blind to any love for her in all the world. “The only thing that can set this filly free is the love of a true friend!” shouted the villain. Scootaloo watched her friend. “They’ve all left me!” she cried. In her mind the planted memories of ponies walking away played over and over. Soon she started to believe no one had ever loved her. She sobbed into the floor of the cave. Scootaloo pulled out her wooden sword. She had been planning on reporting what was happening to the great protectors of Ponyville, but she couldn’t leave her friend, not like this. She charged out from her cover at the evil Dr. Dusk, her sword just missing him. Dr. Dusk being a powerful pegasus, he took to the air. Scootaloo swiped at him several times, jumping in the air, but each time, the evil Doctor managed to just dodge. Finally the Dr grabbed the brave filly by her small wings, yanking on them so hard the pain caused her to drop her sword. Scootaloo’s wings had never allowed her to fly and now they were causing her to be taken prisoner. Hearing the screams of her protector, the spell on Apple Bloom was broken, but the evil Doctor still had Scootaloo in his clutches. Apple Bloom screamed for him to let her friend go, but he didn’t listen. He flew for the entrance to the cave. Apple Bloom ran after them, screaming and yelling, tears coming to her eyes as she saw the two leave the mouth of the cave. “Please… no!” she yelled as she ran out of the cave. She could only watch helplessly from the ground as Scootaloo was carried into the clouds. Higher and higher the Doctor flew, Apple Bloom only able to glimpse Scootaloo’s struggling before they disappeared into the clouds. The young red haired filly’s breath caught in her throat. “Please… no…” she started to gasp out. She then heard screaming and looked up. She could only feel as a lump of a sob started to come up her throat. Scootaloo was falling to the ground, faster and faster, her wings flapping uselessly as she continued her decent. Scootaloo was going to fall close to her, but Apple Bloom just knew she would never catch her friend in time. Apple Bloom closed her eyes waiting to hear the crash. Apple Bloom felt something fly over her and then heard two hooves hitting the ground. Apple Bloom’s eyes flittered open, suddenly seeing Honest Apple. Honest Apple had caught her friend and rode a few feet forward, carried by momentum. Honest set down the brave filly. Apple Bloom ran to her friend. Scootaloo was seriously hurt, but breathing. Honest glared into the sky at Dr. Dusk, the stallion flying just out of reach. “Really?” Dusk said. “A pathetic earth pony? It just keeps getting better today. I’ll just drop you all-“ Dr. Dusk had to duck just in time as a blue hoof flew over his head. He stared with despair at the furious Rebel Rainbow! He flew back a few feet, but Rebel quickly covered the distance. Rebel grabbed Dusk by his forelegs and threw him to the ground, the evil pegasus managing to catch himself just in time in the air with outstretch wings. Dusk started to fly away, but Rebel cared about those two fillies he had threatened. She wasn’t going to let this attack go unpunished. Her hoof pulled back she took off after him. She was ready to rip his head off but… (***) Lightning’s tone suddenly started to stutter. “But… but…” she looked over at her brother. “Dusk got away. He didn’t get hurt… no one hurts Dusk… no one… no one.” Lightning started looking around. “That wasn’t how the story was supposed to go… it… it…” “That was… kinda intense…” Rainbow commented. “Yea… kinda…” Apple Jack agreed. “I mean wow,” Rainbow continued. “I really didn’t expect the Doctor to almost kill Scootaloo like that. Right out of nowhere, but it worked. I mean, I thought Apple Bloom was the one in danger, but woosh! Had Honest been just a little late well… KEEER SPLAT!” Lightning didn’t look happy at this praise. Her eyes went wide and her mouth was fixed in a position of pure horror. “But-but… um… good thing that didn’t happen I mean… Scoots is my daughter in real life so that would be sad. I-I… okay the mood here changed really fast, what’s going on?” Dusk held out a hoof to his sister, which she grabbed with her own. Apple Jack looked at me with concern. “What was that?” I looked at the scared filly. My pen and pad floated out. ‘I don’t know,’ I wrote. ‘But I have a sneaking suspicion that something in that story was more real than Lightning meant it to be.' “Something about that was… almost creepy. Why does a filly get scared of her own silly adventure story?” Apple Jack continued. Rainbow Dash left my side to walk around the bed and sit by Dusk. She put a hoof on the scared filly’s head, smiling as warmly as she could manage. ‘I heard too,’ I wrote with a nod. ‘Maybe we should change the subject for now though. She’s really scared.’ Apple Jack nodded. I gave Lightning the news that I would be her half guardian. I wasn’t sure how exactly to word it for her but eventually she kind of understood. She yelled in glee. I heaved a sigh of relief. Crisis averted. Now… why had there been a crisis in the first place? Mute About a week later: “I can’t believe it!” Lightning yelled. “Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!” she said to Dusk as they walked. “I’m on the Apple Farm!” She looked ahead, “The CMC… the CMC club house!” The three fillies chuckled, Apple Bloom starting to blush. “I heard all about you guys in Manehatten. The Great and Musical Bard Trixie talked all about your adventures. Is it true you guys defeated a dragon?” she asked the girls. “Well actu-“ began Apple Bloom, but she was interrupted. “Absolutely!” Scootaloo shouted. Lightning seemed to pause. “It was a mean dragon right?” “Of course,” Sweetie answered, Apple Bloom seeming a little uncomfortable as her friends continued what I was guessing was a lie more colossal than Torkuda himself. “But that’s in the past, sure did happen, but hey, we got new members to initiate!” Really I had a kinds of questions about why the CMC was so popular as to be heard about by my two charges, but I decided it could wait. I wasn’t needed for a bunch of foals to have fun. Lightning looked at me, as if to ask my permission to join her new friends. I nodded and turned to leave. Behind me Apple Bloom spoke up. “Wait… ah was wondering… ah mean Sweetie was wondering-OW- we were all wondering… if ya could answer a few question?” I turned around. “It’s about yer um… problem… how am ah supposed to say um-“ I rolled my eyes and had my pen and pad float out. ‘Just say disability. It’s an okay general term.’ “Okay then, disability. Ya don’t mind do ya? Ah just… we’re just curious.” Normally I actually might have told them to mind their own business. For a few months not being able to speak had been a sensitive issue for me. Even after my experience with Lightning had broken the ice by giving me someone to relate to a little about being different, I still didn’t like being questioned about my “problem” like I was some kind of exhibit. However, I looked over at Scootaloo for a minute. For the longest time I had always felt sorry for her, which these days I’m ashamed to admit. I had always been one of the ponies who told her she should just stop trying to fly. It had gotten around a while ago that she had a birth defect and would never fly, so it always seemed so sad to me that she tried anyway. That is until I got my own issue. Ponies then started to treat me the same way, telling me not to try so hard to communicate. Eventually I got to the point where I could write fast enough to hold a normal conversation, but it was hard and the last thing I had needed was for someone to tell me to stop trying. I knew I would never speak again, or at least that such was unlikely, and Scoots had to know flying wasn’t in the cards, but we were both ever searching for something. We knew we couldn’t have what was denied us, but we wanted something like it. That was probably where her scooter came in, and where my pen and pad came in. I decided to go ahead and let them ask their questions. I knew I wouldn’t be able to teach Scootaloo anything about being disabled that she didn’t already know, but maybe she would get that she wasn’t alone. Scootaloo waved at me. “What are you looking at me for?” she asked. I shook myself out of my thought process. I looked properly at the filly who had asked me to “talk” and nodded to her. The three CMC members looked a little excited. “I was wondering how you write so fast?” Sweetie started. “What happens when you run out of paper?” Scootaloo asked. “Oh better yet, where did you get the idea for that anyway, makes it like you can still talk… well I mean-“ ‘It’s okay, I know what you mean,’ I wrote. “Really ah was just wondering if yer issue is the reason you stopped makin’ music. Ah been missin’ yer stuff. Not always my kind of music, but it was fun ta watch others dance to it an’ ah always loved seein’ ya at Pinkie’s parities. By the way, Pinkie let me know, she misses ya.” I smiled. Good old Pinkie. I had snapped at her when she started to press me about not helping with her parties anymore. That was wrong. Lately she had decided to give me some space, but I was happy to hear she still wanted me around. Really I never should have doubted it. I figured go in order, that way I could put off the tough questions from Apple Bloom. ‘My writing speed came with practice. Octy was actually a good help with that. She sat and talked with me for hours helping me speed up by making me talk to her about my DJ music. I’m pretty sure she never understood a thing of the technicals of what I do, nor do I really think she cared, but having to write things out for her gave me the experience I needed. She even missed out on a concert to sit with me once and just talk. Really I was just feeling extra frustrated that day, but it must have been the fastest I’ve ever written.’ I turned the page. ‘Now as to where I got the idea to write… well I’ll take credit for thinking of that myself. I thought about communicating through music, but to be honest, in practice that’s more poetic than practical.’ Scootaloo looked at me crossed eyed. ‘It doesn’t work. In any case, I never run out of paper. Did you not think to ask where my papers go when I’m done with them?’ “Don’t you just stuff them in your saddle bag?” asked Sweetie. ‘Nope. They instantly erase. Actually I’m just writing on paper clones. They can’t retain writing for long, nor can they even exist for very long. It’s all thanks to a series of spells I learned from Trixie before she left for Manehatten. I always liked that mare. Really never sure why she and the bearers got off on the wrong hoof. She went through her own problems and all but well… not like we don’t all have a few.’ “Yea, we all know about her “problems”” Scootaloo mumbled. I thought about writing something to defend my friend, but I knew what Scoots was referring to. Maybe the bearers were too harsh on Trixie and her magic show, but there was no defending her later out and out attack on Ponyville. ‘Yea well, she’s moved on these days. You should go to her shows if you get the chance… she’s a bard now?’ I looked over at Lightning, who was currently flying over the group. She seemed to be paying attention, but she was also doing tricks while no one really paid attention. “Oh yea, she’s really good too, some of the best song stories ever I tell you what!” Lightning spat out. I nodded. Trixie always had a flare for the dramatic. I’m pretty sure she’s were “Rebel Rainbow” came from. Not that whole story mind you, that was Lightning’s own work, but the character itself definitely. ‘Moving on, as to my music well… that’s harder to answer. You see, it’s not easy to lose the ability to do something. When something bad happens and you realize all that it means, you sometimes go to a… I guess a dark place. Do you know what I’m talking about?' Both Scootaloo and Apple Bloom started to avoid eye contact with all of us. I looked up at Lightning just to notice she had suddenly landed and was looking at the ground. Dusk had bitten his lip. Only Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Not really.” Some might have criticized her for saying that, but me, I was just happy for her. From what little I knew of her, there wasn’t much tragedy in her life. No abandoning, no dead parents, no disabilities, she was lucky. I smiled at her despite myself. ‘You might not understand, but this is one of those things you should just enjoy not really understanding.’ Sweetie cocked her head sideways. ‘Trust me. You’ll have hard times in your life too eventually. Enjoy it while you’re blessed.’ WOW! How many ponies had told me that when I was younger. I always thought it was just a flowery speech but now, I wish I had taken that advice! Not that I didn’t enjoy life before, but I would have even more had I known what was coming… or would I have? I’m not sure… maybe? But still… I looked at the foals in front of me. All of them so young. Apple Bloom’s parents were gone and I wasn’t sure if she ever even knew them. Apparently Lightning’s parents had left her as a baby, eventually she even confided to me she was a dumpster baby. Dusk was also an adoptee so I could only assume he had a similar past to her. Then there was Scootaloo. It was like the cosmos had it out for that filly. Disabled, neglected, I even remember hearing that her own mother told her to her face she didn’t love her, I couldn’t even imagine how that must have felt. Compared to them, just how bad was a lost voice? I had been adopted at four, so a life with a full family and all my abilities was all I had ever known for most of my conscious life. And then when I got my disability, like the worst hearth’s warming present ever, my family and friends surrounded me. Octie, Trixie, Pinkie, my parents, it was like I had a net of ponies just waiting to catch me. Lightning and Dusk certainly didn’t get support like that as foster kids, I could only hope they felt they were getting it now. ‘I’m coming out of that dark place now,’ I wrote. ‘I… I um…’ what could I write? I still hadn’t started making music again, I had only thought about it. My sister kept me working to keep my mind from going to dark places, Pinkie had invited me to so many parties, Trixie had even gone out of her way to show me some tricks that she normally guarded. I was suddenly starting to feel a sense of owing them all. My eyes fell on Lightning again. Abandoned by her parents, her abilities scaring other ponies off. If I stopped playing, would that be like me abandoning her too?- Well of course not but… she believed in me. Even someone who barely knew me was supporting me. ‘I stopped for a while but ya know what? You foals have fun! Tomorrow why don’t you all come to my house. I’ll have a brand new song started by then. Not sure how close to done it will be but-‘ “YES!” shouted Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Lightning all in unison. The other two foals just smiled. Hey, dance music wasn’t really their thing. They were still great.