• Published 20th Nov 2013
  • 553 Views, 15 Comments

Note of Silence - Quicksear



In the aftermath of the descruction she caused, Vinyl Scratch will stop at nothing to undo the damage she's done not only to others, but herself.

  • ...
0
 15
 553

In Between

“Angel’s sick sing-song voice boiled against me, and I glared at her twisted smile as she walked up to me. In the darkness, hundreds of pitted scars reflected moonlight off her drained coat. She stared at me lopsidedly for a moment. Then all was still.”

*****

They’ll call you out in the middle of the night…

Everfree, safety
Have to help, fix, heal...

Canterlot

Judgement

Redemption
They don’t care, they want you dead, gone, out of their perfect little lives, they want you-
They don’t-

I don’t-

No one care’s about me.
They want you dead

But I care about her.

“Hey now, easy does it...don’t move too fast, you could hurt yourself.”

My eyes fluttered open. Of my senses, sound returned first, a low creaking and high rustling of the forest trees, muffled movement and muted conversation. The sensation of leaves and twigs pushing into my skin came next, with a warm smell of loam, then the gentle touch of a hoof on my shoulder.

“Are you okay, miss?”

My eyes finally focussed, and I found myself lying on my side beside a rocky overhang. Between me and a perfect view of the sky was the concerned face of a colt looking down at me. I blinked a few times. His pale eyes blinked back. Then he turned up and around, baring the side of his neck to me as he spoke. There I saw a rough scar against his warped grey coat, hiding under his unruly ash mane.

“Tech, she’s awake.”

The conversation stopped. I heard hoofsteps coming in my direction and the colt above me stepped aside. I strained around to watch him, but I found myself staring into yet another dull slate-grey eye not a hooflength away.

“Hello there,” this other colt said soflty, “My name is Tech Beat. Are you okay? Can you stand?”

I nodded. The Earth Pony in front of me reached out a hoof to help me up. I hesitantly accepted. As he pulled me up, I noticed the welt around the inside of his upper leg, a scar.

“Can you talk?”

“Y-yeah…” I muttered, shaking. I looked around me, trying to find out where I was. I didn’t recognize anything, only endless trees and hilly ground. We were a narrow defile that came to a head at the rockface now behind me. The first pony I had seen, a pegasus colt, had retreated to a tree on the left bank, and to the right I saw the slight unicorn mare from before, sitting still as stone over the black huddled body of her victim. I turned back quickly.

The earth pony, Tech Beat, was watching me intently. “So...you wanna start, or should I?”

Start what? Introductions? He sat patiently, waiting, unmoving. Greeaat… I thought dully. What should I say? How do the Taken introduce themselves? I scolded myself for thinking that; they were ponies, not foreign creatures, just the same as me. But still...I had not spoken so much in the past months as I had in the last few days. I didn’t even remember when last I said my name.

“Uh...Hi.”

The Earth Pony laughed a deep dry laugh. In the wake of his chuckles he gave me a pleasant grin, saying, “Ah, I see you’re still a little disorientated: That would be my fault, so I apologize. My name is Tech Beat. My friend there is Riff Pick,” he pointed to the pegasus beside his tree, “and that magnificent lady over there,” he waved to the unicorn sitting statuesque over her changeling, “is Elderberry! Say hello Elderberry!”

Elderberry flicked an ear.

Tech Beat grinned disarmingly, “She says hi.”

I eyed him cautiously, then the other two. I couldn’t help but notice that despite the three’s casual appearance, they had me perfectly and inescapably trapped. Oh, and one of them just so happened to be standing over a dead body. I unconsciously curled inwards defensively, saying tersly, “I’d like a explanation of what’s going on...of what happened, and where I am, if you don’t mind.”

“Uhh, right…” Tech shuffled his hooves, “You, um, saw Elderberry take out that bug back there?”

I nodded.

“Right,” He continued, “then you saw Berry’s Scatterlights, and heard my Quake?”

I recalled my last memory before waking up. It was a chaotic mess, one which I couldn't quite piece back together, but I remembered overwhelming sensastions; the painful, deadening concussions that seemed to knock the wind from my lungs, the constant drilling pitch of strings, and the glimpse of Elderberry wrapped in neon light. I nodded.

“Wouldn’t have gone quite so all-out if we’d known you were there,” Tech continued apologetically, “We just meant to disrupt the Changeling, not you too.”

Disrupt? Well, they’d sure managed that. Tech Beat noticed my meaningful glance at the black shape beneath Elderberry, a shape that was undeniably more than a little dead. “Overkill, much? And what is it even doing here? Why can I even see it?”

Tech’s happy demeanour faltered, and for half a second Elderberry’s eyes flicked up to me, glaring anger. I flinched back from her as Tech said softly, “You’d probably do well not to interrupt Elderberry’s vigil.” I’d already made the resolution to stay the hell out of that unicorn’s way, so I nodded curtly before Tech continued, “As to why it’s here, I’m sure you know. Riff Pick felt a Turn happening, so we investigated. Lucky we did, too.”

“What makes you think I needed your help? I could have handled it...” I muttered, glowering. I’d never accept help from these ponies, or anypony. I could have escaped, I just got…

You were helpless and pathetic. Just roll over and give up already.

I blinked the Voice away quickly. When I looked again, Tech was watching me intently. My falter told him far more than I wanted it to. I cursed Angel yet again. Tech spoke, “Don’t worry, there’s nothing you can have secret we haven’t already seen. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we aren’t quite whole either. But consider your…affliction, miss. Where Changelings go, Taken disappear.”

He smiled thinly at my shock.

“ Easy to feed on a pony no one remembers, after all.”

*****

I hadn’t answered Tech then. After a few more questions that I didn’t answer either, he sighed and left me be, neither of us any the wiser. But still, what he’d said rang through my head; the Changeling had been after me? It had nearly gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for the confusing fact that I had seen straight through its disguise. I was still in shock, but I was slowly discerning things about my situation. This glorified ditch we were hidden in showed signs of recent habitation; a dead cooking fire, cleared ground and a few chafe marks of trees where ropes may have been tied. It was all packed away now, in three sets of saddlebags in the centre of the clearing. Whoever these ponies were, they getting ready to leave. And I was just sitting here in their camp.

“Uh, hello again…”

I whirled around, too surprised even to growl at him. He flinched anyway. At first I thought it was Tech Beat, but on second glance, I noticed the grey wings.

“Sorry,” He smiled uncertainly, “My n-name’s Riff Pick.” He supplied. He waited a polite time, then continued, “Tech asked me to talk to you. I know how you must be feeling, so I’ll just answer any questions you have, and hopefully learn more about you?”

I glared at him. Who did he think he was, coming up to me like a shrink? And what did he want to learn? I knew, better than I ever did before, that I had many demons. Hell, one of them wasn’t even a metaphor. No, I wasn’t going to talk to this pony, nor anypony. He saw the stubbornness in my eyes, and gave a disappointed huff.

“I know who you are, by the way.” I spun towards him even before the last word left his mouth, anger flaring in my gut as my hoof whistled for his head. It took me a moment to realize I was roaring at thin air.

“Or, at least who you used to be.” I spun again to see Riff Pick standing casually behind me, a sad smile on his face, “I don’t know what names you go by, now, but I do recognize that cutie mark.”

“It’s an eighth note,“ I spat, backing up, head low, “They’re pretty common, mister Quaver Ass.”

Riff looked back at his own cutie mark, A guitar pick surrounded by quavers. “Nice jab. But I also happen to know that a certain DJ was very defensive of her common cutie mark from an early age.” He chuckled at my flinch, “I read your biography. I...was somewhat of a fan, before all this.”

“I’m not that pony anymore.” I said, I was angry and confused and a little scared, and I wanted out. I shoved forward and past the pegasus. He simply stood aside and watched quietly as I trudged up the hill. Tech was sitting behind a tree there, and jumped up on seeing me, but sat back down grudgingly at Riff’s quick gesture. I tried not to think about it as I walked up to the tallest hummock and sat there heavily. I was so tired…

“Um, I know you don’t want to, but can you please talk to me? I...need to know if you’re safe. And right now I can’t tell, with how you’re acting.”

“And how is that?!” I spat, turning away. I hoped he’d leave me alone, but instead he shrugged and said plainly;

“Like a Feral.”

“Like a what?!” I shouted at him, before his words quite sank in. Suddenly I was wordless.

“A Feral, you know, a Taken pony on the verge of Turning?” He snorted at me as I stared back blankly, “Geez, have you been living under a rock for two months?”

I thought back to my grotto under the floor of an abandoned house, but stayed silent. Riff’s eyes widened in realization, “Wait, have you ever even met another Taken before now?”

I hesitantly shook my head.

“Oh...oh wow, I’m so sorry,” Riff whispered, looking away. “I had no idea, I thought a pony like you would have-”

“Like I said,” I interrupted, “I’m not that pony.”

Riff looked up again, then nodded, “Right. Sorry. I know...I know how much what has happened to us can change a pony. But, to catch you up; We Taken, like you, have felt Soul Taps. We’re broken, in the same way. I’ve seen what happens to a normal pony when they are Taken; they fade away, slowly or quickly, it depends, but eventually, they lose something vital, and from there it’s bad news. They get violent, confused, forgetful. Feral. Then they Turn.” He pointed at my flank, “They lose their cutie mark, and within hours, they’re gone completely.”

“Gone?” My thoughts went back to Chasing Haze’s sister, and her tragic condition.

“Vanished.” Riff clarified, “Never seen again. That, and the moment when a pony is first Taken? Those are Turning points. I’m kinda able to feel the ethereal reaction, like a rip-current in the air. Takes me straight to them. Like I’m following a Song.”

“Yeah…” I whispered, “I get that, at least.”

Riff nodded, sliding up to me. I barely noticed “That’s because, like me, You’re a Virtuoso. You feel ponies in terms of music, right? I heard Octavia’s radio show, I’ve heard what you did, said.” I nodded again, remembering the hazy nights I’d spent under the spell of the Soul Taps, hearing every Song around me, barely able to hold back from flooring the nearest pony and sucking their souls dry right there…

“You and I are Virtuosos, right? Tech Beat is a Viber; he feels everything in terms of vibrations in the ground, sometimes the air. Elderberry is Lucent; she sees everything in terms of light and glowing...you look confused?”

I was. I so very was; “You keep saying feeling ‘in terms of’, but what exactly are we ‘feeling’?”

Riff Pick opened his mouth to answer, but a different voice cut the air, high, and sharp. “Essence.”

I looked across the gulch to see Elderberry, still staring curiously at the body before her. She was speaking, “Soul? No. Magic? No. Identity, spirit, resolve, no, no, no! None of these, save that which binds them together.” She looked oddly pleased with herself. I stared back, confused.

“Forgive Berry,” Riff whispered, “She came perilously close to Turning. Drove her half mad. But she has a good heart. She’s also right. I...we think at least, what we’re feeling in other ponies that which the Taps take away from us, the thing binding magic to our souls. Break that link, and we lose, well, a lot of things. You your magic, for instance.”

What Riff was saying was making a peculiar amount of sense to me. As I thought about it, pieces slipped together in my mind, “It all comes down to magic in the end, huh?”

Riff nodded, fluffing his wings, “Yes, in a way. What you hear, or feel, or see in other ponies is a reflection of what you’re missing. It’s different for every Taken, of course.”

“You make it sound like a study subject,” I muttered, “You even have a little classification system and everything? Virtuoso? Viber? How’d you come up with this stuff?”

Riff shot me a look that spoke of pain, “There used to be many more Taken in these woods, you know. There was even talk of coming out into the public eye before the Canterlot Invasion three years ago. Of course, a lot of those Changelings ended up in these woods, and things just got worse from there...”

“Changelings…” my eyes widened. Changelings had killed them all. A secret war Equestria had never even heard happening right in it’s very heart.

“The Taken tried clearing the woods, but there seemed to be a Changeling for every Taken they lost. Of us three, only Elderberry was there at the time. Now, I think we’re the only Taken left in the whole of Whitetail.”

A part of me was screaming. This tale was huge and reeked of fiction, but somehow I knew it was true. I’d never thought, two months ago when another grey pegasus had visited me in my studio in Canterlot after a show, that the small toothed clockwork she gave me would be nothing more than a single thread of such a vast tapestry. A tapestry growing smaller by the day.

“What did you lose?” I asked suddenly.

Riff gave me a questioning glance, to which i continued, “I lost my magic, what did you lose...besides your looks?” I added with a grin.

He smiled back, saying, “Hey, drab grey suits me just fine!” He sobered though as he added, “I can’t cloudwalk anymore.”

That jolted me. I was about to apologize for asking so roughly, but suddenly, a chill lanced under my skin. I trembled uncontrollably, just as Riff next to me flared his wings as the terrible shock washed over him. Across from us, Elderberry howled.

Tech Beat dropped down the bank to the gully bed, and snapped up his saddlebag, “Riff? Where?”

“West,” I blinked, then said again, “West, from around Hoofington.”

“Wait, how did you-” Tech swallowed his question as Riff Pick rested a hoof on my shoulder and nodded.

“She’s right. Hoofington, north side of town.”

“That’s nearly four miles away…” Tech frowned.

Elderberry jumped down and snatched her bags from the leaf litter, “She lights the sky. She comes. Cat and Mouse.”

Elderberry leapt from the hollow like a dog off it’s leash, and Riff fluttered after, shouting, “I’ll keep her in sight!”

Tech pointed at Riff’s saddlebag as he tightened his own, “Grab that Scratch, we gotta move!”

“I stood bolt upright, the bag falling from my mouth, “Don’t call me that!” I hissed.

“Then what?” Tech growled back, “You kinda want a name to stay around.”

I was breathing hard, hooves planted. A name. I hadn’t needed a name for a very long time. I hadn’t felt worthy of my own, nor bothered to get a new one. The ponies at Cherrie’s bar had called me ‘Ghost’, but that felt off to me. I was no ghost. I needed something...more.

A name, a name for the Taken that I am.

It hit me suddenly, wrong and right and neither at the same time. A harsh reality rather than a decision. I looked Tech square in the eyes and said,

“Angel.”

As I said it, a bass rumble echoed up from beneath my hooves and throbbed outwards, numbing, strong, burning. Tech eyed me worriedly, then nodded.

We ran through the forest, the light of the chase growing in our eyes, a small feral beast in our hearts howling after Elderberry in the distance as the beat of my hooves stopped the air dead around me.

My name is Angel.