The Tunes Are A-Changin'

by ShadeJak

The Truth Hurts

Immediately I leaped in front of Olivia, gritting my teeth and glaring daggers at the freakish, grinning creature in front of us. I’d only remembered glimpses of him till now, but getting a good look at him, I didn’t even know how to properly describe it other then that someone had just stuck the parts of random animals together and gave it life. Its snakelike body was thin and covered in feathers, its tail was long and winding, covered in red scales with a long white tuft of fur at the end. Each of its limbs belonged to a different animal, a lizard and a goat had donated one of their hind legs, a lion and an eagle had been good enough to sacrifice a paw and a claw to give it arms, its wings were a blue birdlike wing and a purple batlike wing. Its neck was long and covered in gray fur with a short black stripe along the back. Its head... like some kind of demonic thing that seemed a mix of a goat and a horse's head, with yellow eyes and the horn and an antler, with a large fang on the right side of his crooked grin.

“Stay back!” I demanded, and a bolt of blue magic fired from my horn again, right at the creature, the blast tearing a huge hole where his face was. Any relief that my girlfriend or I had was quickly diminished when his head reformed itself like it were made of liquid and he let out a cruel laugh.

“Oh, aren’t you just the most precious thing, Vinyl Scratch! Standing up for your marefriend just like before!”

“Just like before?” I asked, cocking my head as one eye narrowed and the other widened in confusion. My attention turned when I heard a shudder from behind me, and I saw Olivia’s shocked expression when I looked.

“Oooooooh! I think she’s getting it!” the creature said gleefully, biting his lower lip.

“The dreams… when this all started…” my girlfriend said.

“Indeed, doesn’t this scene seem a little familiar to you both?” the creature asked.

I remembered the brief dream I’d had when this happened, a female voice behind me, a female voice where I was that… sounded like the one I had now… the creature was there, too… “Oh my god…”

“Discord will suffice, but I appreciate the flattery,” the creature answered. “That’s right, fillies, it was no dream, but rather a lingering memory.”

“N-no… NO!” I stammered, backing away a little. I liked to think I was pretty open-minded about paranormal things, but there was no way what he was implying could be possible! “You… whatever the fuck you are… you did this to us! You turned us into these… pony-things! Turn us back!”

“You’re half-right, Vinyl, but denial kept you from getting the A+…” the creature, Discord answered. “True, I did do this to you, but not the way you little ponies think. The truth of the matter is, I already DID turn you back!” He put his paw and eagle claw together for a second and pulled them away from one-another, a large mirror stretching out between them as he did and showing us the reflections of the people we’d once been.

“You don’t want to admit it, but you know it’s the truth…” he explained, our former reflections fading and being replaced by the pony ones. “Happy twenty-fifth birthday you two!” he declared, tooting a horn in our faces that suddenly slithered around us, squeezing us together as it suddenly morphed into Discord’s serpentine body. “You little lovebirds getting together was no coincidence. Nor were your talents for your… diverse tastes in music,” he explained, unwinding around us and hovering in the air.

“How can you expect us to believe that?” I demanded. “It’s characters from a children’s show! Even I can admit to when something’s fictional!” Couldn’t say the same for some of it’s fanbase from what I’ve heard, though.

“I could tell you the truth behind that, but what fun would that be to take all the fun away?” Discord asked with a laugh. “The fact of the matter is, those pretty little equine forms are in fact the real you… you can’t believe your similarities to them as humans was simple coincidence. Or that it was these ponies you’re now seeing any time you face a mirror?

“You can’t mean…” my girlfriend began. I didn’t like what she was getting at. If we were to trust this thing, it meant…

“I’m certain it’s occurred to you, that was Vinyl in your dream, Octavia. Just as you know the voice from behind you in yours was Octavia, Vinyl,” Discord replied.

“My name’s NOT Vinyl! It’s…” I stammered, my mind blanking out for a moment. “M-my name’s… my name’s… Vinyl … n-no! I didn’t mean that, I meant… V-Vinyl…” it was hopeless, any time I tried to say what should have been my real name it felt so wrong, or not even there, and like I just said the other name on instinct.

“Search your feelings, you know it to be true,” Discord taunted in a very deep, reverberating voice.

“Shut up!” I shouted, and suddenly I felt Octavia… no, no, it was… her… my girlfriend’s hoof on my shoulder.

“You can’t be serious! We had lives! For the last twenty-five years! I’m the daughter of two rich socialites from England, I met Vin…” she paused. “We met in college!”

“As I said, you’ll get the whole story behind that all in good time, my dears. In the meantime, why not enjoy a little trip down memory lane, Discord-style!” he declared, snapping his eagle claw and suddenly all of reality spun around us.

~o~

I found myself in another room, though a larger one with walls that looked like someone had just dumped an entire shelf of different paints on them, and candy cane-looking columns. As I looked about, I could see chairs floating around us, and fish swimming about in the air. Looking down at myself, I saw familiar gray hooves and it was evident I was still a pony.

“You gotta get through me if you wanna go near her, Discord!” I turned and saw a white pony facing away from me, her electric-blue tail flicking as she pawed the ground and glared at the hideous creature before us.

~o~

“Vinyl, what are you doing?!” I could hear a voice behind me… Octavia? I turned, seeing her there on the floor, bruised up and looking frightened… she was… worried for me? A chill went down my back as I heard Discord laugh.

~o~

Vinyl fired a blast of magic at him, but the creature dodged it with ease. She growled angrily and focused on several speakers that hung on the wall, causing them to glow brightly and fire beams of some kind of energy at him, causing the creature to recoil back and cry out… before breaking into a fit of laughter and pulling out a bath brush, scrubbing himself as he allowed the beams to hit him.

“Ohhh yes, right there! That’s the spot! What do you know, music does have a soothing effect!” Discord taunted before snapping his eagle claw and the speakers grew wings, flying out the nearby window.

~o~

“No! I won’t let you beat us!” I heard myself cry out, but the fear in my tone betrayed my words and the sense of despair became more evident to me as I watched the trick I’d attempted prove completely futile and only serve to amuse the being confronting us. “You may have beat the Elements, but we’re not going down so easy!” I looked back at Octavia, she looked absolutely terrified, now. I had to help her… I couldn’t let him get her…

…not the mare I loved…

~o~

“How sweet, the classic case of opposites attracting, together to the end!” the creature sang, before giving a sideways retching gesture.

“It’s not the end!” Vinyl shouted, firing another blast in desperation, but Discord just waved his eagle claw, and the magic blast sputtered and spun away like a deflating balloon.

I wanted to help, but what could I do? I didn’t have magic… what good was I against this monster that seemed to just play with reality itself?

“Fun’s over! Time to join the others!” Discord gloated, Vinyl shuddered and backed away towards me, and embraced me tightly, positioning herself between me and him and squeezing her eyes shut.

~o~

It was no use… I couldn’t protect her… if I was no match for him neither was she… all I could do now… was be with her for what little time he was going to give us together…

Five Score Divided by Four…

As I felt her return my embrace, tears welled up in my eyes, an unbearable agony beginning to course through my body…

~o~

Your memories removed, your bodies confused…

A horrible pain began to crawl up my body as Vinyl held me, I could feel her shaking… sobbing as she held me tightly.

“T-Tavi…”

Nopony will remain, to escape this new game…

~o~

For your failures you must pay. Cast to a land far, far away…

“Vinyl… Vinyl I’m right here…” she said softly to me, I struggled to open my eyes, looking into hers. I didn’t want her to see me crying, to see how scared I was.

“Your minds now weak, your outlooks bleak…”

I wouldn’t let go, not a chance, the pain continued to spread across me, but I would not let go…

~o~

Forgetting everything and living like fools…

“Octavia, I’m so, so sorry!” Vinyl cried, trying to hold me but then some force violently tore us from one-another.

“NO!” I screamed out as she was pulled away, disintegrating away before my eyes as whiteness engulfed us.

And now Equestria obeys my rules!

Reality reappeared before me, and Vinyl and I were back in our bedroom, I stared agape, speechless as the serpentine creature hovered there, arms folded.

“Well, does that help the pieces fall into place a little more?” he asked, cocking his head and stroking his beard. “Oh, why the long faces, ponies?”

“What… could you possibly want with us?” I asked, shaking all over.

“Isn’t it clear to you both? That everything from a… children’s show…” he replied, using finger quotations on the last two words. “…was real after all, I mean it must have some impact, knowing your lives as you knew them were a lie!” Discord answered.

“You bastard… whatever you are…” Vinyl snapped, gritting her teeth and I could see light gathering around her horn again. “Change us back to who we were or I’ll—”

“You’ll do what? Fail miserably like last time? Don’t get cute with me, Vinyl… though I suppose it’s a little late for that,” Discord replied, pinching her cheek for good measure, causing her to jerk away angrily. “And even if you could do something to me, I can’t. The spell ran its course, and even then, suppose I could… why would I?” he asked with a laugh. “Especially with so much amusement at the expense of you and the others surviving this world!”

“Wait, others?” I asked.

“Whoopsie…” Discord muttered, grinning sheepishly. “But I suppose that’s not particularly important. You have this lovely, well-furnished prison to rot away in. Set one hoof outside, and you take quite a chance… but I’m certain you don’t need me to point that out, do you?” he mused, snapping his claw and vanishing in a bright flash of light.

I took a few breaths, trying to avoid panicking, trying to think logically again, anything to stay calm. Vinyl, however, was not so fortunate. I turned and saw she had already curled up on the floor, shaking and trying not to cry.

Slowly, I approached and put my forelegs around her, embracing her and resting my head over her shoulder.

“Th-this… all of this is real, isn’t it?” she asked softly.

“Even I can’t argue against it… I don’t think either one of us can,” I muttered.

“It all… those last twenty-five years… really does feel like a lie, now… like suddenly waking up from a dream you were happy in,” she opened her magenta eyes and looked at me. “I don’t want it to be. It can't be! I don’t want that to just mean nothing even if I’m stuck this way forever!”

“Vinyl…” I replied, looking downcast for a moment, the name seemed so natural, now, even though it must have bothered her to hear it. Our names were the first thing we were given, after all. “Despite what he said I don’t think who we were… and… what we had were meaningless…” I wasn’t even sure if I believed it either with all we’d just learned, honestly. All I knew now was how much I wanted to. There were still uncertainties in it, and a chaos god didn't seem the most believable source of information.

“If I really am this,” she said, gesturing down at herself. “If that My Little Pony show was part of something that actually happened… then what is the person I thought I was? Did Vincent Spencer just exist so Vinyl Scratch could come back? If that Discord guy didn’t do his five-score-whatevermore on her, would… I have even been born? Would either of us have ever been born if he didn’t do what he did to Vinyl and Octavia? Were we just… I dunno… just some box or crate to hold them in for twenty-five years?”

I wanted to say something. Anything to make her feel better, but I couldn’t. Nothing I could say would have felt honest at all because the same questions were going through my mind. If that was true, I’d feel like I was abandoning the twenty-five years I’d been alive, the twenty-five years I’ve struggled to get free of the miserable life under my parents’ direction. The last five years the two of us made a life together, I couldn’t just throw it away as meaningless and she clearly felt the same.

I took a moment, trying to think of the right words; I had a lot to think about, myself, after all. “I don’t think we’re going back,” it was harsh, but it was, I felt, what we both needed to hear and hopefully, help us accept sooner. I was not as good at rolling with the punches, as Vic always called it as my boyfriend had been. I needed a plan, a goal and steps for it. If I could work through this phase by seeing it for what it was, I could get out of it faster. “He told us what he knew was going to hurt,” I tried to keep from breaking down. “Whatever it is, if it's true, surely then Vinyl or Vic, Olivia or Octavia…” it was somehow easier to say those names if I distanced a little from them. “…we’re still us, inside.”

“Getting all philosophical on me, babe?” Vinyl asked, nuzzling me gently.

I rolled my eyes. “Well, we “uptight, high-class prudes” have to be if we don’t have money to lull our senses,”

She seemed to smile a little at that. “I guess it won’t hurt to find out what we can about all this to know for sure,”

“Indeed. It may give us some idea on what to do next, Discord made a point that if we leave this place we take a risk… but we’ll need to, eventually it’d be to our benefit if we had a reason to aside from bloody cabin fever,” I muttered.

Vinyl nodded and gave me a hug before turning to head back to the hallway. “Oh, and babe?” she asked.

“Yes, Vinyl?” I asked, cocking my head.

“Don’t tell anyone I actually cried back there,” she replied with a smirk.

Relieved to see her sense of humor back, I smiled and shook my head. Typical you… “Of course I won’t.”

Author's Note:

And another chapter done over the weekend!

Comments

[CitrusWishes]

Just, speechless. Discord, you bugger.