*SCREECH*
"Sorry!"
*SCREECH*
"Sorry!"
*SCREECH*
"S-sorry!"
*SCREECH*
"So sorry!"
"Heeeeeey!" *HONK HONK* "If you can't drive that thing, then get off the road!"
"I-I'm sorry!" Twilight whimpers, yanking left and right at the wheel as we brake-and-lurch-brake-and-lurch-brake-and-lurch across town. "I'm not usually this clumsy! I promise!"
"Well at least learn to indicate! Damn!"
"Indicate?" She bites her lip, looking at me. "Indicate?? Indicate what?? Th-that we're off on a quest to save the other Vinyl? But if we let anyone in on what we're doing, we might tip off the Dazzlings and—"
I motion viciously between the other metal monstrosities honking behind us and the "parking lot" looming just to our right.
"The light's green! Go!" *HONKKKK*
"Oh, is that what it means?" Twilight exhales, turning us into bumpily into the lot. "I-I thought it meant they were serving salad at the adjacent establishments—"
VRMMMMM! Traffic roars by us within seconds of our rolling over the curve.
"Hmmmphh..." Twilight frowns. "And I thought the ponies of Manehattan were rude." She looks over at me. "And why was that school bus driver yelling when we passed? I mean... the flashing red signs told me it was stopping. What else could he have wanted from us?"
I rub my head, wincing from all of the skull-splitting noises and fossil fuel fumes.
"I guess we'd better check on our progress. Just where are we? Some sort of snack store?" She squints out the driver's side window. "Wow, humans aren't very imaginative. Who names a store after two randon numbers? Anyways... uhm... now to make the car stay put." She yanks the stick. "There! 'N' for 'Neutralize!'"
We glide ever so slightly forward.
"I... I don't get it! Why haven't we stopped?"
I point a savage finger at the letter "P."
"Oh please, Vinyl..." Twilight rolls her eyes. "We're in no position to 'Prance' right now."
Gritting my teeth, I reach over and shove stick into the appropriate position.
We lurch to a final stop.
"Ohhhhh... I get it!" She grins. "'P' for 'Planted!' Heehee... humans are so silly..."
I sigh, then tap my finger across the computer screen.
"How's the signal?" Twilight leans forward. "Is it any clearer?"
I play the radio frequency's broadcast across the speakers. The sound system crackles with a more distinct harmony. It has many layers to it, like that of a mellow trance track... something that I might make in my spare time to fill an elevator for waiting ponies.
But beneath it is something else... a signature...
It's something that I've used several times in my own work... almost as a personal scavenger hunt to myself when I go back to sound edit.
It's one of the first melodies I ever heard... dating back to when I first got my cutie mark. It was an evening that I would never forget. There I was... standing atop my older sister's shoulders inside a high school hoofball stadium... and out of nowhere comes this killer stallion with a blue mane, riding a badflank float like a gallant knight... and instead of a lance he has a keytar... and he's just wailing his soul out with such crazy and wild passion that I felt my destiny unfurling before m—
"Shhhh!" Twilight rests a hand on my shoulder. "Listen! You hear that?"
Indeed, something has changed. Though it's hidden behind crackling layers of white noise, the melody suddenly stops. And a velvety voice takes over, a murderous mixture of vomit green and mud brown:
"No. No. No! That's the same damnable track as before! Stop refusing to make changes when I ask you to! Do you want to see your friends and fellow schoolmates ever again? Huh? Then create something that will help the Dazzlings and I unlock our hidden potential! I just know that we have some residual magic left! And we need your melody to retrieve! So quit stalling and get to work!"
After that, it's all static and hissing.
Then, with limping quality, the music repeats... slightly augmented now, but not without the hidden melody that only my ears can hear.
"No doubt about it," Twilight grumbles. "That was Adagio Dazzle." She looks at me with a frown. "Even without her gift of mind-bending song, she sounds as contemptuous as ever."
I pull out two pens and gesture.
"But... you're sure that's you performing?"
I nod at her.
"Well... the signal's clearer than it has been the last two times we checked." Twilight gulps. "We must be getting closer. A little further north?"
I smirk.
"Great!" She switches the gear back into drive. "Hold on, other Vinyl! Your friends are coming to get you!"
I grip the edges of my seat.
Aaaaaaand...
*SCREECH*
"Sorry!"
*SCREECH*
"S-sorry!"
*SCREECH*
"So sorry!"