//------------------------------// // Tonight // Story: A Scratch On Shining Armor // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// “Remember tonight... for it is the beginning of always.” - Dante Alighieri Vinyl stumbled back to the record shop in a state of shock. There was a sense of betrayal that coursed through her head. Vinyl’s mind was yelling at her that this whole thing had been a ruse, everything. Part of her wanted to be convinced that Shining Armor and Cadance had been manipulating her from the get-go. The look in Shining’s eyes, though. It shot down that idea. The worst part was Intrepid. Vinyl had felt such a real connection with the stallion, or at least what she assumed was real. That was all a sham, though. An illusion put up by a jealous marefriend who just wanted Vinyl out of the picture. Vinyl had an anger boiling deep within her. It was justified and it was starting to burn her up. She had put up with a guard meddling in her personal life, but now she had to deal with royalty messing with her love life? No. That wasn’t going to fly.         The unicorn threw the door to the record shop open. As she expected, Uncle B was standing behind the counter. His ever-present cigar casting a glow across his face. It illuminated the scowl across his face perfectly.         “You’re late, Scratchy.” The older unicorn took the cigar out of his mouth and tapped it on the nearby ashtray. “I thought I told ya, one hour.” Now she had to deal with this as well, great.         “Can you stay off of my case for like five minutes? I just started having a really bad day.” Vinyl moved her way across the shop and took her place behind the counter.         “Ya know what? No.” Vinyl didn’t look at him, but she saw Uncle B’s scowl deepen. “I’ve been stayin’ off yer case for seven bucking years, and I’m done.” Vinyl shook her head and kept looking at the grain of the counter. “For seven years I’ve let ya do whatever ya wanted, and look where that’s got ya.”         “What?” Vinyl stood up fully and turned to her uncle. “I think I’m doing pretty alright. I have an apartment, I have friends.” The stallion laughed at her. It was bitter and demeaning. The tone alone made Vinyl feel small.         “Ya only have that apartment because I pay for it, Scratchy. Ya think yer doin’ alright? Nah, not with that guard followin’ ya around. Ya think that’s alright?” Uncle B raised a hoof and pushed it into her chest. “I thought that guard was the wake up call ya needed, but I guess ya need one from me too.”         “That guard?” Vinyl removed her glasses from her face so she could stare down Uncle B face to face. She leveled the same glare he had right back at him. “That guard is nothing, alright? He’s here until I can convince him he isn’t needed anymore and that’s it.” She wanted to turn around and walk away, but she stopped herself halfway into the action. “Today, he just made it pretty damn clear that he isn’t needed.”         “Listen, Scratchy-” Vinyl put her hoof up, stopping the stallion mid-sentence.         “-Quit calling me that. It’s not my name.”         “Fine. Vinyl. I don’t give a flyin’ feather what happened today. I don’t care what ya think ya need, cuz I know exactly what you need.” Vinyl was going to give him a venomous response, but he started back before she could retort. “Ya need to accept some responsibility for yer own actions. Everythin’ ya do, ya think it’s somepony else’s fault when it goes wrong.”         “You don’t know what I’ve been through!” Vinyl screamed at her Uncle. “I’ve been alone since mom and dad died, alright!” Vinyl felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. Today her emotions were boiling over into a tumultuous maelstrom, and she had to relieve the pressure somehow.         “Because ya pushed Glory away!” Uncle B roared back, genuine anger in his voice. “They were her parents too, Vinyl. She was just as broken as you were,and when she made a mistake ya left her! The one time ya needed to stay with somepony, and ya throw her out and leave yerself alone” Uncle B took a deep breath and stuffed the cigar that was in his mouth, which was but a stub now, into the ashtray. “It’s all my fault…I shoulda been there for ya. I shoulda made ya talk to Glory, shoulda done a lot of things. But I thought it best to give ya time to grieve.”         “What Glory did was wrong!” Vinyl had been pushing this for so long, that the words were becoming heavy. Every time she had to yell it at someone, Shining, Cadance, herself...every time it took a bit more effort.         “She was young, Vinyl. My parents, your grandparents, did the same thing. Ya know they gave me up for adoption because they were young and stupid. For a long time, I hated ‘em for it. I hated ‘em almost as much as you hate Glory for it.” His hoof found it’s way to her shoulder. “I know yer pain better than anypony else in this city, alright? Ya lost yer mom and dad, I lost my Brother and Sister-In-Law. Ya saw Glory give up her foal, I saw another me bein’ made.” A moment of silence followed, one that was filled to the brim with sadness from both parties. “So ya can quit acting like yer the only one who was affected. I’m sick of it.”         Vinyl dropped her head. She had never given a thought to Uncle B and how losing her dad had affected him. Uncle B had been so quiet when it came to Vinyl’s parents. He had showed up to their funeral, but she saw no tears. Vinyl had never seen that stallion cry, and it occurred to her that there was probably a reason for that. He wanted to seem strong for her and Glory.         “I…can I leave?” Vinyl didn’t want to be here at the moment. She wanted to be home with a bottle nearby to drown her sorrows.         “Ya can leave when yer shift’s over.” Uncle B turned tail and went back to his office, leaving Vinyl alone again. ----         Celestia was having a pretty good day, all things considered. Court had gone rather well, the nobles seemed content for once, and there had been no emergencies today. A relatively normal day if there ever was one for Princess Celestia.         Now she supposed would be a good time to have a study session with her pupil. The more free time she had to give to young Twilight, there was less of a chance for her to end up like Celestia’s last pupil. If there was one thing Celestia would try with all her might, it was preventing another Sunset Shimmer.         But what to study today was the question? Perhaps some more of Starswirl’s scrolls? Twilight did always like the old unicorn’s lessons. She seemed to have a bit of a fascination with him, which was fine with Celestia. If her dreams were correct, Twilight would need to study as much Starswirl as possible to prepare for the future.         Lost in her thoughts, Celestia almost didn’t catch the faint sound coming from one of the doors she was passing. It was crying, very faint and pitiful. Even worse, it was coming from Cadance’s door.         “How long has she been crying?” Celestia addressed the guard that stood beside the door. She didn’t like to admit it, but there was a reason why a guard was always posted outside of certain doors. Celestia liked to have her little birds to talk to.         “About half an hour.” The guard answered. “When she ran in, she was saying something about Shining Armor, Your Majesty.” Oh dear. Crying, plus a stallion. This could only mean one, very ugly thing.         “Stahlhelm.” Celestia addressed the guard calmly and quietly. “I need you to go down to the kitchen and get the two biggest bowls we have.” The guard nodded. “Fill them with ice cream, and bring them back here. Leave them at the door and knock. Do not, under any circumstances, come in.” The guard nodded and scurried off, leaving Celestia alone before the door. She was going to knock, but it was her castle. Plus she didn’t want to give Cadance any time to prepare. So, the monarch simply pushed the door open.         “I told you not to come in!” The angry cry was sent Celestia’s way, along with an oversized pillow. Celestia caught the pillow easily and tossed it aside. “O-oh, I-I’m sorry Aunt Tia...I thought you were Stahlhelm.”         Cadance did not look good. Her mane was ragged and stuck to her face in some places, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and...well, crying looked good on nopony. As Celestia made her way over to the younger alicorn, she took stock of the room. Cadance’s royal vestments were strewn across the floor, along with the sheets from her bed. Celestia could not spot her crown though, which was a worrying sign. The royal jewelers did not like it when a crown was lost, she knew that personally.         “What’s happened, Cadance?” Celestia sat on the bed beside the pink princess. She spoke softly, with the warmth that she had heard from her own mother in youth.         “I-I messed up.” Cadance sniffled out, using a hoof to wipe the tears out of her eyes. “I-I tried so hard to help and I just hurt them even more.” It was one of those. Celestia knew that well enough. It was a trap that those with power tended to end up in, using their power to further what they saw as a noble cause and paying for it.         “It’s alright, sweetie.” Celestia stretched out one of her wings and pulled Cadance close. “Just talk to me, tell me what’s happened.” The young pony rested her head against Celestia’s chest, sniffling quietly.         “I-I misused my powers…” The younger alicorn blubbered out. Celestia knew that this moment was coming, it happened to everypony with the amount of power that the alicorns possessed. “I used them on Shining Armor.” Oh dear. Celestia was not expecting that.         “How…” Celestia was trying to find a way to phrase this question without upsetting Cadance further. “What exactly…” No, that wouldn’t do either. “Why?” Probably the best one so far. Simple and able to be interpreted in a multitude of ways. Not perfect, but it was a start.         “I-I just hated it when we argued. I thought that if I could just remind him how much we love each other…” Cadance trailed off, more tears starting to fall from her eyes. “I never meant to hurt him…”         Now it was Celestia’s turn to go full mentor. It was something she had not done in a while, and hoped she was still good at it. On the bright side, it would be good practice for when Twilight eventually stumbled and needed kind words.         “We never do.” Celestia started, nuzzling the smaller alicorn. “We can try all we want to be gentle, to not hurt others, but we do. It’s not an alicorn problem, it’s a pony problem. We do our best, or at least what we think is best, and we hurt those that mean the most to us.” Celestia gazed wistfully towards the ceiling, memories overtaking her. “It lets us know that at least we’re still equine.”         “B-but we’re princesses…”         “That just means we’re under more scrutiny, not that we’re perfect. It means we must put up a front of perfection, not actually practice it.” Celestia pushed away certain thoughts that were slowly encroaching on her mind, those that wanted to remind her of imperfections and blemishes upon herself. “We…we must be crafty with our failures. We must not let them consume us. We have to rise above them, accept them gracefully, and move on.”         “Y-you think I should move on from Shining Armor?” Celestia saw the grief on Cadance’s face and immediately realized she screwed up. It was the wrong choice of words for the time. The monarch had just been too caught up in her own experiences to tailor the conversation.         “No.” She started, a small smile crossing her face. “I think you need to accept that it was a mistake...and then ask for forgiveness.” Celestia knew that asking wasn’t the hard part, it was accepting the answer from those you were asking. It was in their hooves where your happiness and your guilt were. “If you hurt somepony, no matter how you’ve done it, they deserve an apology in the least.”         The pink pony sat for a minute, sniffling and quietly thinking to herself. Celestia was not going to push her, this had to be thought about on Cadance’s own time. This kind of thing required patience.         “B-but what about Vinyl?” Celestia wondered what Vinyl Scratch had to do with this. Yes, she was under the care of Shining Armor but she should not be affected by this. “She’s so upset, and I don’t think she’ll ever forgive me…”         “What happened with Vinyl Scratch?” It was possible that the unicorn had just been upset with Cadance’s deception of Shining Armor as well. If that was the case, then it was at least a good thing for Vinyl’s rehabilitation. It meant Vinyl had some sort of kinship with the guard.         “I-I was using my magic to push her and another pony together.” Cadance lowered her head once more, a deep sham overtaking her words.         “And…?” Celestia asked.         “A-and it was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have been interfering.” Cadance took her head off of Celestia’s chest. “I-I thought you would be upset with me…”         “For doing your job?” Celestia chuckled and gave her little pony a soft smile. “Would you be mad at me if I told you I raised the sun this morning?” Cadance shook her head. “Of course not, it’s my duty. Just as it is yours to spread love to ponies who need it most, and Vinyl Scratch is certainly one of those ponies.”         “She was so mad with me though. She wouldn’t even speak to me…” Celestia sighed. The younger alicorn was going to have to learn this lesson one way or the other. It was best for Celestia to teach it to her.         “Ponies...ponies like to think that they control their world, Cadance. They like to think that nothing anypony else does can affect their lives. Call it hubris or willful ignorance.” Celestia waved at the thought. “It’s false. There will always be another pony pulling at the strings...and most likely it will be one of us. It is so hard for ponies to accept the truth when they find out that they tend to lash out. The best we can do is not be found out.” Celestia smiled. “I was once told that ‘you know you’re doing a good job when nopony thinks you’re doing anything at all.”         “But what if you do it for the wrong reasons…?” Cadance’s eyes seemed to glaze over with an inexorable sadness. Even the young alicorn’s mere presence seemed to dim. “What if I did it because I was jealous…?”         “Hmm…” Celestia was capable of taking things in stride. Very capable. This revelation, no matter how shocking it was, she couldn’t show it bothered her. It might upset Cadance even further. “We are not perfect, Cadance. A travesty to learn, I know. At the end of the day, you and I, we’re still ponies. We do pony things like give into vices and do things against our better judgement. I think it’s best to know that and learn to forgive yourself, then seek forgiveness from those you’ve wronged.”         “So I should go ask them both to forgive me…?” Cadance asked. There was a knock at the door, causing the pink princess to get up. Celestia gently pushed her back down with a wing.         “Perhaps not tonight. For right now, why don’t we enjoy some nice ice cream together?” Celestia smiled and got up to fetch their delicious dessert. “Perhaps I’ll tell you of some of my failed relationships. Trust me, this is nothing compared to almost burning the planet after a breakup.” ----         Vinyl kicked her front door open as gently as her boiling temper would allow her, which was to say not gently at all. It wasn’t her fault that the door was in between her and where she wanted to be. It should’ve moved out of her way.         The first thing she noticed  in the apartment was her personal guard, Shining Armor, sitting on the couch and staring intently at a small bottle of alcohol on the table in front of him. Vinyl was going to admonish him for drinking without her, but then she noticed that the bottle itself was full and unopened.         “You’re home late…” The guard commented in a very dead tone. His eyes were glazed over as they were still fixed on the bottle in front of him.         “Yeah. Uncle B made me stay late to sweep the entire store and organize his office…” Vinyl responded with no small amount of venom in her words. There was no more sun streaming in through the windows, instead it was replaced by the pale moonlight. Cleaning that place had taken up her entire night. “What’s up with you?”         “Been thinking whether or not I should open this for awhile.” Vinyl took a seat on the couch next to Twinkle. “I’m technically on duty still, so I shouldn’t drink.” Vinyl was impressed at the amount of restraint the guard was showing. If it was her, that bottle would probably be gone by now.         “What, you want to drink out of sadness for me, Twinkle? I’m touched.” Vinyl picked the bottle up in her magic, looking over the various labels that obscured the dark liquor within. It was whiskey, the top shelf stuff but in a rather small bottle. It probably cost him a pretty bit nonetheless.         “Turns out you and Intrepid weren’t the only ones Cadance was using her magic on.” That pulled Vinyl from the bottle’s details. “Apparently she’s been using it during our arguments...y’know, to remind me of how much I love her.” Vinyl just realized not how dead Shining sounded, but how sad. There was true sorrow in his voice, the kind that wouldn’t go away with any of her usual sarcasm or wit.         “You know what, Twinkle?” Vinyl concentrated on one of the cupboards in the kitchen that she could see. She opened it with her magic and pulled out two shot glasses. “Right now I don’t think a guard needs to share a drink with me.” Vinyl brought the two glasses over to the table and gently sat them down. “I think my friend needs to share a drink with me.” As she opened the bottle of whiskey, she realized that it was the first time she had actually called Twinkle her friend. Then again, she was just trying to be nice. She had the distinct feeling that Shining needed somepony to be nice to him at the moment. “Thanks, Scratch.” Shining said with a small smile. After she had finished pouring their shots, he took one of them in his own magic and then held it out towards her. Taking the cue, Vinyl clinked her glass against his. “Prost” “Cheers.” They both slammed their shots back at the same time. Vinyl closed her eyes as the liquid hit the back of her throat, sending a slight burning sensation throughout her entire mouth. It was so refreshing to her. Apparently not to Shining, though, as he was currently coughing up a lung and trying keep the tears from coming from his eyes. “Are you a lightweight, Twinkle?” Vinyl said with a laugh as she took off her tinted glasses and sat the glass down on the table. “Oh man, I thought you guards were made of some tougher stuff.” “Sh-shut up, Scratch,” Twinkle said, coughing just a few more times before stopping. “That stuff is a lot stronger than I’m used to.” The guard took a deep breath and picked up the bottle in his magic, studying it intently. “Oh, I’m sorry Princess. Would you like something a bit easier?” A cruel smile played across her features. Now it was time to have a little fun. “A Mimosa, perhaps? Sex On The Beach?” “Shut up, Scratch. I could drink you under the table if I wanted to. I just wasn’t expecting that strong of a drink.” To Vinyl, that sounded like an excuse. But it also sounded like he thought he was a better drinker than Vinyl. Nopony was a better drinker than Vinyl.         “Oh? Is that a threat or a promise, Twinkle?” Vinyl poured two more shots, holding up one to her new drinking buddy. He took it from her magical grasp, a little fire in his eyes.         “Both.” --One bottle of whiskey later--         Shining was trying to focus on Vinyl as she poured the last of the alcohol into the shot glasses, but his eyes wouldn’t let him. The similarly colored unicorn was gently swaying back in forth in his eyes. He wasn’t sure if that was just because he was drunk, or if it was because they both were.         “Last ones…” Vinyl said sluggishly as she held out a glass to him. He took it, his magic grip nearly faltering for a second. Vinyl gave him a devilish smirk because of it, but he wasn’t going to let her have this victory. No sir.         They had stopped saying cheers Celestia knows how many shots ago, so without another word they both slammed back their drinks. Shining was used to the burning by now, so it went down smooth and warm. Every shot he could feel it affecting him less and less, so he knew he was far past drunk at this point. Drunk was something he wished he was.         “Told you...told you I could keep up,” he said, stumbling over his words. That’s what this little game had turned into about halfway through. Not him drinking her under the table, but him trying to keep up. It was obvious that Vinyl could hold her liquor much better than he could. At least she was maybe drunk.         “Can’t beat me, though.” That sly grin came back. It was really starting to piss Shining off. It was always there on her smug face when she had the upper hoof. Which had been the entire night at this point. “But you gave it your best shot, Twinkle.”         “Yeah, thanks,” Shining grumbled out. The stallion closed his eyes, focusing on nothing in particular. That’s when he realized just how tired he was. The entire day had been kind of emotionally draining to a severe degree. He hadn’t been able to slow down enough to feel it until now, though. “I really need to go to bed,” was his final conclusion.         “Yeah, I got work in the morning.” Vinyl stood up, wavering on her hooves slightly, but ultimately staying upright. “Might as well try to get a little sleep.” She started to move away from the couch.         Shining stood up, intending to follow her. However, his balance had some other ideas. The stallion didn’t just waver on his hooves, he started to fall over. He never fell over, though. Before he could capsize, Vinyl was standing at his side, placing herself firmly against his side.         “Y’allright?” she managed to get out, seemingly supporting the much larger stallion without too much difficulty. “Last thing we need is you getting hurt. They’ll probably blame it on me.” Shining righted himself, still leaning a little on his companion. He blinked a few times and tried to compose himself as best he could. He hadn’t actually been this smashed since he graduated from guard school, and he didn’t remember a damn thing about that night. “Yeah, I just….sorry. Guess I’m a little more drunk than I thought…” “It’s alright, Twinkle. I’ll escort you to bed. Least I could do after drinking you under the table.” For what it was worth, Vinyl was being as non-Vinyl as possible at the moment. Sure the grin was pretty much omnipresent at the moment, but there were no sharp quips at his expense. It was a welcome change of pace. Slowly, the duo made their way to the spare bedroom that Shining was now using as his room. When he had first suggested the idea to Vinyl yesterday, she had been against it. But he had convinced her to let him stay in her parents’ old room as long as he didn’t mess with anything. They staggered through the doorway and neared the bed. At this point he was close enough to flop onto the bed on his stomach. He groaned happily into the soft comforter, allowing himself a brief respite. Another form flopped beside him. He lifted his head to see Vinyl laying on her back next to him. “Ignore me, Twinkle. I don’t think I can make it to my room.” The unicorn started to laugh. “Y-you were helping me just as much as I was helping you.” She rolled over onto her side to face him. He wasn’t going to fight her on that. If she couldn’t walk safely, then he wasn’t going to make her leave. “Y’know, you’ve been really nice to me tonight, what’s up with that?” The malfunctioning filter between his mind and mouth let that slip through. He momentarily regretted that, before deciding there was nothing he could do to stop it now. “Nopony with a broken heart should be alone, Twinkle. Not even you.” It seemed that Vinyl’s filter wasn’t working either, because she would never say that. “Plus, I needed a drink or a dozen just as much as you.” Fair enough. “What’s...what’s your opinion on this whole Cadance thing?” During their drinking session, he had explained to Vinyl the entire situation. Every feeling of betrayal and hurt, and what he had said to her. “Buck her. She hurt you, man.” Vinyl sighed and rolled back onto her back. “If a pony does something like that, you can’t forgive ‘em. You just can’t.” There was a slight pause of thought, or was it sadness? “You can’t let ponies get away with that stuff. You gotta let ‘em know it’s not okay. You have to send a message, Twinkle.” He should’ve expected that from Vinyl. It’s exactly what she had done with Glory. It had left them both estranged and Vinyl brooding with anger. But was that so bad? It let Vinyl live a bit more, left her a bit harder to get to. Made it so she didn’t get hurt as easily. Shining didn’t like this feeling, this empty-heartedness. So if doing what Vinyl was talking about made it so he wouldn’t feel it again, would it be so bad? “Hey Twinkle…?” He was snapped out of his thoughts by Vinyl, who was now facing him once again. She was looking at him in a way he had never seen before, a mix of a kind smile and soft eyes. Before he could respond, he felt a pair of soft lips pressed against his own. Alcohol soaked breath mingled between the two. Vinyl was kissing him...and he wasn’t mad. He wasn’t surprised….he actually kind of liked it.