//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: Home II: A bit of a Tease // Story: A Vinyl's Last Scratch // by Shadowflash //------------------------------// Chapter 16: Home II Home, sweet... Home... "So, that's the plan?", Joseph clasped his hands together, grinning lightly as if not believing anything Vinyl said. "It has to work. I know it has to. Just, please, let me try?", Vinyl tilted her head, giving 'puppy-like' eyes to beg. Joseph looked towards James and Carry, who both shrugged. "I guess it's worth a shot.", Joseph shrugged, looking at Vinyl. Vinyl smiled and saw Joseph pick a black device up off a desk, and move it to the centre of the room, in front of Vinyl. Vinyl stared at the 'monitor' like object, glaring down at the black film on it. There was a symbol on the bottom that was labelled 'DELL', with the 'E' tilted lightly to the left, making the 'D' and first 'L' connect together. "May you turn it on?", Vinyl asked. Joseph nodded and clicked a circular button in the middle of the object, and it started fanning heavily, making loud whirring noises. It beeped and started to turn on. A blue screen came up, labelled: "ERROR - CODE - BLUE SCRE3N - 411111@%/ Comment four - zero - seven - eight." "Uhh...?", Vinyl tilted her head. "Oh, sorry.", Joseph pressed a key on the 'keyboard', and it changed the blue screen to a black one. A small circle was spinning in the middle as a 4 square object appeared and said 'Windows 2'. After a minute or two, it loaded to a screen filled with many different icons. One labelled 'Internet Explorer', another one labelled 'Chrome Games', et cetera. Was fascinating her greatly, seeing this kind of technology. What if she cou--... Never fret about that. "Well...", She took in a deep breath, "Here we go.", Vinyl lowered her horn, and it started to glow brightly. The computer, and her horn, were covered in a bright, blue, glow and it started to shine brightly. The glows emanated a small spark of electricity. It flicked back and forth, like a flail, hitting the devices black box underneath it, in which the sounds of beeping transferred to 'Wzzzzurrrrp' noises. Eventually, the sparks made their way to Vinyl's horn, all starting to centre to the screen of the device, and aim into her brilliant glow. Vinyl felt the aura of magic strongly push into her horn, and she back away, concentrating on Equestria. She knew her map of Equestria within her saddlebag would be enough to centre the co-ordinates to such a place. She started to feel sweat beat down the sides of her forehead, slowly dripping onto the floor. The sparks smashed wildly around, and Vinyl kept concentrated. Her determination wanted her to get home, and she wanted to open this portal, nice and easy. Just as the electricity flailed, it calmed, and re-aligned to her horn. Slowly, a black swirl formed in the middle, opening a small, dark, hole. The hole started to spin, taking in a large amount of electricity from Vinyl's horn, and the black device. The device jerked slightly as many of it's pieces flailed inside, almost breaking it's core components. The hole gapped open further, stretching out until it was the size of Vinyl, and the magic stopped. The hole swirled, around and around, black and purple spirals aiming downward to an unknown piece of the universe. Vinyl stared at her accomplishment. All her years of university paid off. "Whoa...", Carry, Joseph and James all exclaimed in amazement. "Well... I hope this takes me home... I...", Vinyl looked at the three. "Thank you. Thank you so much... For letting me, hopefully, get home. Letting me just... Be free again. I can't wait to see my friends... I think I really did learn something here... But, I'll keep it for myself.", Vinyl smiled, as a tear shed from her eye, and was gently brimming towards the vortex, as its gravity wanted to pull her in now. "Y-you're welcome... Holy crap...", Joseph said, wanting to dive in. Slowly, the portal started closing. This was her chance. This was her chance to leave and go home. Go home forever. This time; for real. Vinyl dove into the vortex, it swallowing her up and quickly closing as she did so. She felt her fabric and matter spread apart many times as she swirled around the extending hole. She was bounced, back and forth, hitting invisible barriers and smacking making her saddlebags almost shred open... If it weren't for her grabbing them, at least. Vinyl then felt a rush of gravity pull her further. The vortex seemed to bend, and then thrust her to a small, green, dot. She felt many lights pass her as she landed, hard, onto the ground with a face full of dirt. "Mmmmmf!!!!!", Vinyl yelled in pain, muffled by the dirt within her face. "Ohmigosh, are you okay?!", The soft voice of a woman prodded next to her, and Vinyl could here many hoof steps around-- Wait, hoof steps?! Vinyl erected immediately, and shot out of her daze to see she was surrounded by ponies. Ponies! She stared around her a moment and saw that it was a green, and flowery, landscape, and in the close distance, a town. Vinyl screamed in joy, literally, and hugged a nearby pony with a bright, pink, mane and a light yellow coat. Her cyan eyes went wide with confusion and her cheeks blushed softly. "O-oh... Uhm... A-are you okay?", The mare softly spoke. "Yes! I'm more then okay!", Vinyl pushed her gently away, clopping her hooves together. "Oh, I'm home! Yes!", Vinyl jumped up and grabbed her saddlebags, running directly away from the group, towards the centre, of what she could now see, was Ponyville. I can't believe I'm home! Yes! Finally!, Vinyl ran excitedly to the town, her mind bouncing with excitement and happiness. "Vinyl?", a familiar voice called. Vinyl immediately stopped in her tracks, turning her head to spot a lavender pony smiling at her. "Twilight!", Vinyl ran up to Twilight Sparkle, wrapping her white forelimbs around the ponies neck and hugging her tightly, shaking her back and forth. "I-i-it's g-g-good to s-s-see you t-t-too V-V-Vinyl!", Twilight managed to squeak out of herself as she was shaken violently, back and forth. "Oh, Twilight! You don't realise how... How ...", Vinyl stopped, her excitement seemed to drop for a moment as she let go of Twilight and calmed down. Twilight stared, with her purple eyes, at Vinyl, tilting her head. "How, what, Vinyl?", Twilight asked, softly. Vinyl softly sighed, and stared at Twilight. "Let's head to my place, first... I need to calm down so I can tell you.", Vinyl turned and Twilight followed suit. They walked down the trail of Ponyville, going through the markets and town centre, and eventually around to a crossroad. They went down the left crossroad, which lead straight to Vinyl's house. The grand house stood, empty, and a few stacks of newspapers laid in front. "They didn't bother stop sending.", Vinyl said, jokingly. "Actually, Ditzy delivered those today!", Twilight started to giggle. Vinyl smiled softly, and opened the door, allowed Twilight to enter first. Vinyl immediately set her saddlebag down, and pushed herself onto her velvet couch, sprawling out and stretching. Twilight found herself to another couch, sitting down and looking over at the tired Vinyl Scratch. Twilight tilted her head softly, as Vinyl started to rub her temples. "So...", Twilight started. "It... It was really bad.", Vinyl said, softly. Twilight didn't bother to push forward. It wasn't necessary, anyways. Vinyl continued. "The humans... They're abusive... Somewhat caring, but... Really abusive... I... Well... It was really only one... The other one was fine, but... He gave me an odd drink that made me try to kiss him, and then he kicked me out. I understand why, I would've done the same thing, but... It really wasn't the humans that made it bad, I guess...", Vinyl sighed. "What did, then?", Twilight asked. Vinyl looked over at Twilight, sighing softly, and wanting to not continue... But, if there's one thing she learned, she had to tell somepony. "I... When I was little, I was ... 'Abused'... By my real father... He... Did things to me that... Weren't socially acceptable... Uhm...", Vinyl cringed a moment, and continued. "I... I really had re-occurring dreams about it... Repressed memories, if you will... And... It just... It made me on the edge and feel so stressed... But now that I'm telling somepony about it... I'm feeling a lot better... Like,... I don't know how to explain it, exactly, but, still.", Vinyl looked over at Twilight, who was looking like she was processing everything. "I... I don't know what to say... That's awful that your father did that... I couldn't imagine i--" "Please, don't tell anypony. I'll tell my friends myself, but please, nopony else, Twilight. The only reason I'm telling you is because... I...", Vinyl stopped. She had no clue why she was telling Twilight. She just wanted to vent it out, finally. "Because... I trust you.", She lied to herself, but, she did feel like she could trust Twilight with this. Twilight smiled softly, to re-assure her next sentence: "I promise, I'll keep it a secret.", Twilight's eyes gently glistened with brightness as Vinyl smiled over at her, knowing this pony could keep this secret for her. "Thank you, Twilight. Thank you so much... I'm so glad to be home, now... To be in this place, and not there... I don't think I'll ever take my life here for granted again!", Vinyl giggled softly, and Twilight couldn't help but join in... So, Vinyl finally arrived at home, and took the next month off from musical work. She eventually told Octavia, and most of her friends about her father, and her mother. She made amends with her ageing foster parents as well, and spoke to Sunny, who was becoming a famous author, now! Anyways, Vinyl was now warmly at home, and now pushed aside all thoughts of her father, the once evil and troublesome stallion that was in her life is now gone. Forever. Picture of her original mother now surround her walls of the musical mare's house, and thoughts of joy now fill her mind... The End Author's Note: Sorry for the short nature of this chapter, I just lost track of my ideas. I hope it wasn't too short, if it needs revision, offer some. Thanks.