• Published 14th Mar 2014
  • 2,683 Views, 51 Comments

Waking Vinyl - Dragomeere



After a long night at work Vinyl asks Octavia to wake her up at three. Things don't turn out as she expected.

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In Which You Learn To Simply Use An Alarm

“Hey Tavia I’m going to take a nap, can you wake me up at three?” Vinyl said walking past her roommate to her bedroom, she was exhausted from a night of DJ’ing at Club Canturn and failed to notice the door was closed. “Ow!” The DJ exclaimed.

“Oh Vinyl, you’re such a klutz.” Lyra said emerging from the kitchen.

“Oh, I didn't know you were over Lye.” She said hoof bumping with the mare.

“You know I hate it when you call me that.” She said with a smile and put Vinyl in a headlock giving her a noogie she wouldn't soon forget.

Losing her balance she fell on the floor in a heap of limbs. “To lazy to say your whole name.” She said face first on the floor.

“Honestly Vinyl, would one more letter have killed you?” Octavia said taking a drink of something, Vinyl couldn't tell what though.

“Maybe it might have.”

“Just go to bed Vinyl. And set an alarm, I am not waking you up.”

“Tavia, you know alarms don’t wake me up.” Vinyl pouted.

“Yes, I do. I also know that you don’t take being woken up well.”

“Okay, okay, I admit, I get kind of cranky.”

“Very cranky, you get very cranky when woken up.”

“Alright, fine. I get really cranky when woken up… But I swear I won’t this time. Okay? So pleeeease Tavia? You can even pour a bucket of cold water on my head, I won’t get mad no matter how you wake me up. Promise.”

“No matter what?”

“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Where did you learn that?” Lyra asked.

“Pinkie Pie, she might not seem like the clubbing type, but she isn't all kids birthday parties ya know.” Lyra nodded. “Please Tavia?”

“Alright, but you better remember what you said and hold to it.”

“Thanks Tavia, your the best!” She said closing the door behind her leaving Octavia And Lyra standing in the living room.

Lyra looked at Octavia and said, “You’re going to give her a rude awakening aren't you?”

“Yep.”

“I’m in.”

“Ideas?”

“I have a few.”

“Well, are you going to tell me or not?”

“Well, I was thinking we could get a huge scorpion and have it sting her awake.”

“Are you insane! that’s going to kill her, not only that but where in the world are we going to get a scorpion?”

Lyra tapped her horn and said, “magic.”

“Either way the answer is still no.”

“Aww come on.”

“No.”

“Please Tavi?”

“Don’t call me Tavi, and I said no.”

“Don’t be like that Tavi.” Lyra made her best attempt at a pair of puppy dog eyes, “Pleeeeeease!”

“For the last time, no, I don’t need to end up in the hospital with my roommate... again.”

“Again. Why again?”

“Don’t ask.”

“But.”

“No.” Octavia gave Lyra a cold stare closing the case before Lyra found her contacts, they were her brand after all. Her special brand...

“Octavia, hey Octavia!”

“What.” Was I in a trance or something she thought to herself.

“You started staring off into space and your eyes got all huge and stuff. I think you were getting ready to drool.”

Octavia scratched her head in an embarrassed manner. “I had a bit of an epiphany just now.” She said in hopes that Lyra would forget about her mindless episode moments ago.

“Uh huh. What about.” She wasn’t convinced.

“You’re freaking insane.”

“It took you till now to figure that out.”

“I always knew you were insane. But seriously, waking up somepony with a scorpion?”

“Come on Tavi, I was just joking.”

“Sure you were.”

“Anyway, what are we going to do now?”

“What else, we’re going to plot ways to rudely awaken Vinyl.”

“Hehe. you said plot.”

“Remind me why I haven’t killed you yet.”

“Because it’s illegal.”

“True, sad but true.”

“Ah, but would you like to know what isn’t illegal?”

“You’re going to tell me whether I want to hear it or not.”

“Many more things than those that are illegal.” Lyra smiled at her own sarcasm. Octavia merely planted her hoof on her face. “But seriously, how are you planning on awakening her?”

“You’ll see.”

“Come on tell me.”

“You’ll see soon enough. Follow me.”


“I’m not so sure about this.”

“Why not?”

“You’re taking the easy way out Tavi.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Always.”

“Alright then Ms. Lyra. Do as you see fit.”

“Thank you Madam, if you would kindly step outside for a moment.”

“As you wish.” Octavia nodded and set down the bucket of ice water she was holding and walked outside closing the door gently behind her.

Lyra leaned out the door and said, “When I said outside, I meant it literally, trust me.” Octavia saluted Lyra and walked out the front door without another word. “Alrighty, lets do this.”

Octavia saw a blinding flash through the window, she burst through the door and couldn’t believe the amount of stuff that appeared, there were: switches and pulleys, levers, ropes, buttons and just about the inner machinations of the modern robot, “Well done Lyra, care to explain to me what all of this is going to do.”

“Nah, you’ll see how it works in a minute.” She gestured for them to walk in vinyls bedroom, “I’m going to allow you the honors of initiating the process Tavi.”

“Before I do, promise me that it won’t harm Vinyl.”

“It won’t harm her… Much.”

“Good enough for me. What am I doing.”

Lyra handed Octavia a pie, “I think you know what to do.”

Octavia nods understanding what she must do, “WAKEY WAKEY VINYL!” Octavia slams the pie in Vinyl’s face and she wakes up smashing her face into the button in front of her.

Vinyl reached up to rub her nose but her bed tipped backward sending her into a pool of runny… Something. Whatever it was it seemed to harden almost on contact with Vinyl’s coat. Vinyl laid there for a moment before a robotic arm came from the ceiling and stood her up. More arms came and held her stiff figure in place while another arm held a hair dryer up to her fur. The hot air from the drying device dried and stiffened the substance more than it already was.

Another pair of metallic arms grabbed Vinyl and set her on a course around the room like a racetrack, what little strands of Vinyl’s hair that was free from the hardened goop was flapping in the breeze threatened to rip out of her mane. A few pieces of the crusted substance chipped off her body due to the artificial winds created by lyra’s machine. Vinyl felt herself slowing down, or was she adjusting to feeling like Road Runner? The machine slowed to a stop and let her down onto the floor, she could move well enough to walk, but couldn’t do much else. Octavia gave Lyra a look that said, “you really are a madmare aren’t you?” She simply stared back with a huge smile on her face and beaming bright eyes. Yep, she has lost it. Lyra’s brain took the train to butter town and melted on the way back.

“You guys… Suck.” Vinyl said very stiffly, sounding as if she was going to hurl at any moment.

“Hey, you said we could wake you up however we wanted.” Octavia said with a dismissive wave of her hoof.

“I didn’t think I would be dumped in a lake of some random substance that hardens on contact!”

“Hey, all I knew was I was cramming a pie in your face, you can blame Lyra for the rest.”

“Still *wretch* rude.”

“While I agree with you I must also point out that Lyra is probably the most inefficient pony I know now, filling my whole house with machinery that did next to nothing.”

Lyra was done listening to her work being insulted and decided a change in subject was in order, “Go clean up Vinyl, me and Octavia have been hungry all morning.”

“Fine.” Vinyl said with a grumble heading toward the bathroom.

Octavia and Lyra left Vinyl to her incredibly stiff misery and headed to the kitchen to fill the pits they called their stomach, “So, how did you do that Lyra, I have to know.”

“Do what?”

“Well, machinery takes a massive amount of energy to transport and you summoned a ton of it in a matter of seconds. I don’t think even Celestia herself could do all of that in an hour let alone all at once. And she’s an Alicorn!”

“Oh, ya know, stuff.”

“What kind of stuff Lyra.”

“Stuffy stuff.”

“Oh Celestia be darned Lyra. You haven’t started studying black magic again have you. You know how much trouble that could…”

Lyra cut Octavia off, “Come off it Tavi, you know I gave up on that when I almost blew up Bon Bon’s house.”

“Fine, but seriously. How did you do it?”

“I sold my soul to the gates of Tartarus effectively unleashing every drop of my magical abilities.”

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT! ARE YOU TELLING ME YOU HAVE NO SOUL!”

“SHHH! Keep it down would you. Yes, I have no soul, but it’s not exactly what you think. You see, Luna’s guards were looking for a source of energy to help conceal the beast guarding the gates since the last breakout. Wouldn’t want Cerberus running loose again now would we?”

“But how are you still alive if you have no soul.”

“Ding! I knew you would figure it out, you’re one smart little giraffe Tavi, I guess I should have said lent rather than sold. My soul is going to be guarding the gates for the next three years, after those three years I get my soul back to prevent my body from decomposing and essentially collapsing in on itself. And the best part, I don’t age while my soul is outside of my body and I keep all the power I gained when my soul is returned to me.”

“Well my morning just got about a thousand percent stranger. I’m going to make some cheese sandwiches, would you like one?”

“Of course! He’s so hot.”

“What was that?”

“Uh, yes please. And make it hot.” Lyra smiled innocently.

“Mhm.” She said unconvinced.

Octavia walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to look for some cheese only to find a note taped to the side of the fridge that read, “ Dear Tavi, I ate everything in the fridge before work last night while you were asleep. Heh, sorry. :)” Octavia simply put the note on the counter, walked calmly to the hot water tank and turned it off.

“Nooo! that stuff Vinyl is coated in expands at the touch of cold!”

“What!”

A few moments passed by until the house was filled with the sound of certain now miserable unicorn enjoying (or not) a very cold shower. “AAAAAAAAAAH! Tavi the water is really cold suddenly!”

Vinyl walked out of the bathroom looking like a ball of dough with eyes. Octavia fell on her back and burst out laughing till tears welled in her eyes, “V-V-V-Vinyl, you, you, look like Flufflepuff with bleached fur!” Octavia threw her head back into the counter and continues laughing.

Lyra walked over to the controls and turned the hot water back on while Octavia recovered from her outburst. Wiping tears from her eyes Octavia smiled content with the havoc the unicorn endured due to her actions, “let this serve as a reminder to not empty my fridge.”

Vinyl gave Octavia what looked like a very squishy death glare, “Not cool Tavi! Not cool.”

“I’m sure the water is plenty cool.” Octavia said with a grin.

“Was cold, I just turned the hot water back on for you.” Lyra said.

“You should take lessons from Lyra, Octy, she is at least capable of being nice.”

“May I remind you if it weren’t for her you would simply be very wet and cold in bed.”

Vinyl stuck her tongue out at Octavia and went back in the bathroom. “Come on Lyra lets go get some food.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

“Think we should tell her she could just magic herself clean?”

“Nah.”

Taking no time to do much of anything other than open the front door Octavia and Lyra were out the door on their way to the Ponyville Bistro to get some dandelion sandwiches. While Lyra and Octavia were busy chatting away over food Vinyl sat on the floor in the shower shivering.

“This is what I get for eating the last slice of cheese.” Now a little more content with the non-sub zero temperature waters she stepped back in the shower. Little bits of crust fell out of her hair onto the shower floor. “I swear this stuff hardens the second it touches the water.”

Vinyl begins scraping the crusted substance off of her coat and scrubbing her mane and tail trying to keep as much of her hair on her as possible. Several minutes later, confident she was finally clean, she turned off the water and looked in the drain. It seemed to her that half of her mane was no longer attached to her head. Grabbing the towel with her magic she dried her body and tail leaving her mane sopping wet. As she stepped out of the bathroom Octavia and Lyra walked through the front door.

“Cleaned up have you?” Octavia said.

“Yep, my hooves are a little sore, but I’m clean now.”

“Why are your hooves sore.”

“I had to scrape all of that stuff you two covered me in off my fur. how else would I get it off?”

“Vinyl.” Lyra chimed in.

“What Lyra?”

Lyra tapped her horn, “you have magic remember?”

Vinyl took in enough breath to deliver a college level speech in one go but decided against it, instead she smacked a hoof to her face and said, “I’m done, I’m going back to bed.” She walked in her room and closed the door.

“I’ll be in to wake you up at five!” Lyra hollered. Vinyl gave no verbal response, instead she barricaded her door with a magical spell that shocked anyone who tried to touch it. “Feisty one she is.”

“Just because you’re green doesn’t mean you’re Yoda.”

“Up your butt, should you cram it, yes.”

Octavia face hoofed, “why do I associate with these ponies.”

Comments ( 48 )

“Just because you’re green doesn’t mean you’re Yoda.”

“Up your butt, should you cram it, yes.”

This... right here. This is why I have given you a thumb up. :yay:

4082539 Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

Bend over you will

4083185 For what I bend over hm?

“To lazy to say your whole name.”

I was going to say too lazy and not to lazy but...

“Honestly Vinyl, would one more letter have killed you?”

Octavia beat me to it.:rainbowlaugh:

This is good.:pinkiehappy:

4083507 Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

4083808 Try it sometime, you'll enjoy it. :moustache:

The only thing I'd criticize is that the dialogue has a bit too much filler.

“For the last time, no, I don’t need to end up in the hospital with my roommate... again.”
“Again. Why again?”
“Don’t ask.”
“But.”
“No.” Octavia gave Lyra a cold stare

Short unresolved arguments like these leave the reader wondering what had happened, and only serves to weaken their concentration on the rest of the actual story. It sort of seems like it was added just for the sake of filling more space with banter, and in my opinion it would be better to either omit the back-and-forth, or to actually do something with the idea and provide a quick recount/flashback of a specific event Octavia is referring to.

Anyway, it was a great story regardless. Funny and very unique. :twilightsmile:

4085333 Thank you, I'll have to remember that for the next one I write (or I could write another short story about it?) Anyway, thanks for reading, glad you liked it :twilightsheepish:

4083212
Talking like Yoda we are?

Comment posted by Meekoli Sean deleted Mar 15th, 2014

4086117 MMM, yes young pony. Listen to my wisdom you will.

Wonder how Vinyl will next be awoken, I do

This was amazing, good job :P

"Remind me why I haven't killed you yet."

You have no idea how many times I say that in a week...

IT LOOKED LIKE CLOP

IT WASN'T CLOP

I felt like this needed a slightly slower pace. To give an example of what I mean, compare

“Oh Vinyl, you’re such a klutz.” Lyra said emerging from the kitchen.

to, as one of many possible ways to rewrite,

Lyra emerged from the kitchen just in time to see Vinyl smack into the door. “Oh Vinyl, you’re such a klutz,” she said.

Both take up about the same amount of space and convey the same amount of information, but the latter draws a clear separation between the descriptive part and the dialogue part, making it feel slower. The result is that the description has more time to build in the reader's mind, creating a clearer mental image.

My usual complaint when a story is this fast-paced is that it feels like a script, waiting for actors to bring it to life. To its credit, this story isn't like that--the characters have too much personality. But it does have something of a runny-eggs feel to it, everything blending together with no time to separate it out.

This was terrible and awesome all at once. I'm still laughing. :rainbowlaugh:

4085333
I disagree, sometimes leaving things unsaid is the best way to go. It gives the reader something to imagine. :3

4086853
Young I am not
Old I am
Wisdom you have not
Potatoes you need

"Her special brand..."

I have special eyes...

Good story let down by very poor writing.

A lot of potential in this; practice is needed, though.

Ok, gonna pin the tail on the pony right here: this was painful to read. I find the premise fantastic, but the writing was, simply put, absolutely bucking horrible. Knowing myself, I probably won't be able to refrain from editing this myself in a few days; again, however, the story and plot (hehe, plot) was an absolutely brilliant idea.

My apologies if this sounded too harsh, but I think some other ponies agree.

~HM892

4096183
Coming from someone who's username is Yoda249...

"Wise, you are not, failure, you have succeeded in, better insults, you must find."

And I just ate some potatoes. Cause I like them:yay:

4094057 I'm the one who gets told it, not in a serious way but as a joke. (I'm that one guy with a really sarcastic sense of humor).


4094543 BUT WAS IT ENJOYABLE!?


4094872 I personally found that the longer and more descriptive I made the story the more it lost its effect and seemed like fluff writing. That's just me though. Thank you for the feedback!


4096183 How many potato?


4096416 I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS COMMENT! THANK YOU! :pinkiehappy:


4096473 It is only the second story I've written after all, though it would be nice if you added some constructive criticism to your comment. You don't have to but it would be nice.


4097104 I appreciate the feedback but it would be nice if there was some constructive criticism in the comment. One of the reasons I began to write was to help better my writing, but I can't do that if I don't know what is wrong (or poorly gone about) in my stories. And it did not offend me, it takes quite a lot to offend me.

4098089

I DONT KNOW I DIDNT READ IT

4098109 I don't know why but I laughed when I read that comment.

Coulda sworn this had sex in it... Awesome though.

4098089

Honestly, just reading style guides like this and consistently working with a good editor to refine your writing is all I can suggest.

Your writing consistently made grammar errors, unnecessary read ons, poor narrative choice - now, that makes it sound a lot worse than it is though.

If - when - you write something new whack it in a GDocs and I'd be more than happy to help a potential author work through the messy kinks. Consider it me paying it forward; My first story was on this very site, back when we had a star rating.

Try to imagine the person who wrote this scoring as little as 1.4 stars out of five in as few as two and a bit years ago.

4098089
Right, yes. I was going to be constructive, but I was tired at the time.
So, I'll do it now. I agree with many other ponies here, in that you may need more practice. For example, something as easy as correcting punctuation mistakes by going through the story a few times would be ideal. Or even, correcting the tensing error below:

Lyra handed Octavia a pie, “I think you know what to do.”

Octavia nods understanding what she must do, “WAKEY WAKEY VINYL!” Octavia slams the pie in Vinyl’s face and she wakes up smashing her face into the button in front of her.

Now, here it says that Lyra handed (past tense) Octavia a pie (then proceeded to talk without a verb), but the real kicker is that it then says that Octavia nods (present tense) (also talking without a verb). Assuming this was written from a future point of view, a corrected version would be:

Lyra handed Octavia a pie.
“I think you know what to do.”
The earth pony nodded, silently making her way over to her DJ friend.
“WAKEY WAKEY, VINYL!” Octavia yelled as she slammed the pie into Vinyl’s face. The poor unicorn woke up, and proceeded to smash her face into a conveniently placed button.

Personally, I think that reads a buck-load better than the original, although I do digress that I could've tried a bit harder. However, like I mentioned previously: the story was otherwise fantastic. You still have my upvote sitting in the little box in the corner.

~HM892

4100171 That's a lot of information in that link, I'll have to take a look at it again at a later date when I have more time to read it and truly absorb what it's putting out. And man that's a highly rated story. I'm going to have to read that later as well. Anyways, thank you for the suggestions, I hope to one day be a much better writer than I am currently.

4101350 My grammar does seem to be my biggest problem when I write (or so other have told me.) Switching between home schooling and public school made a huge gap in my grammatical skills and I am literally just starting to learn the majority of the rules in my last two years of high school (all they seemed to care about up until now was us passing the ACT) but that's a part of why I write is to hopefully improve my writing, I love writing I'm just not that great at it which has been noticed by many. And this is actually the version that I read about 7 times before putting it up which only further proves how much room my grammar skills have to grow. Thank you for the read (and up vote).

4098089
Many potatoes you need
Tacos you must give me
Yoda I sound like

4102010
Well, I'm always glad to advise a pony who I feel needs it. I also extend the same offer as MrNumbers as to helping with editing and proofing. Now to get that edit I'm meant to be doing done...

~HM892

This story. Great it it.

7/10

4753984 Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

This was hilarious.
You should do a sequel where Vinyl gets back at Lyra

5719406 I never thought of that before, maybe I should try and write something up soon (I'm currently working on a book about Philosophy but 99.99 percent of it is only written in my head rather than on paper.)

5723453 I already have a bit of an idea for the sequel.
Look at this bit from "Too Many Pinkie Pies" and I think you'll know what it is.

5723514 :rainbowlaugh: Lyra would be so mad
Lyra :flutterrage::raritycry::raritydespair:
Vinyl: :eeyup::moustache::trollestia:

5728999 Definitely.
And Octavia would be like: :ajbemused::facehoof:

5729077 Octavia, forever the peaceful one.

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