Episode 2-Part 2: Crescendo and Mouse
"So, where are we?"
Vinyl Scratch had no idea what her friend Octavia had suggested to the Doctor, but considering how boring she was, things didn't look good for Vinyl's sanity. A glass square cut itself out from one of the panels. On it appeared a series of symbols that she could not make out.
The stallion known as the Doctor inspected the visual, scanning it carefully before turning around and announcing the news. "Well, Miss Scratch, we have arrived in Canterlot, year 835 of Celestia's reign, the classical era of music in Equestria."
"Gee Doc, I had no idea you knew this much about our history with you being an alien and all."
"Oh, well I've learned a lot in the past six months. I've travelled all over and done my research."
Octavia piped up. "So you've been gone for half a year but returned to Ponyville after only a week?"
"Precisely!"
The concept of time travel was beginning to confuse both her and Vinyl Scratch.
"Now, some even better news, we are sitting outside of one of the many concert halls in which a pony named Crescendo Pianissimo played. In fact, I've set us to arrive at the beginning of one of his concerts."
Octavia's eyes lit up. It was always her biggest dream to meet a famous composer. Now she would get to listen to a live performance from her idol, Crescendo Pianissimo. The unicorn standing next to her, on the other hoof, was disappointed. She did not want to go and watch some boring piano concert played by some pony she did not care enough to know.
"Well, what are we waiting for," asked Octavia who was already happily prancing towards the doors, "we need to go now! I'm going to miss the concert! How's my mane? Is my bow-tie straight?"
"'Atta girl!"
Both the Doctor and Vinyl Scratch followed, the former grinning widely and the latter sulking with her head down. But something very puzzling happened. When the door was opened Octavia stopped moving, and said absolutely nothing. What was more was the silence. They were just outside of a concert hall. There should have been the sound of a busy street, and at the very least the vague sound of music emanating from the building. When the brown stallion went to investigate, he saw exactly what was going on.
Outside of his little blue box was a group of five ponies, each wearing a navy blue hat with a star on the front. Spears pointed at the three travellers from all directions. Upon further inspection, the scene outside was not in the open streets. They were inside a building with a high ceiling, filled seats and...
"Oh."
"Eep!"
"Horseapples."
_______________________________
"Let us outta here! You're gonna regret putting us in jail!" She slammed her fore-hooves hard against the bars.
"Vinyl, you're not helping, now stop that incessant racket and sit down quietly in that corner." She pointed towards a far corner of the cage, which was dirty and wet, and had what looked like an ugly rusted toilet. Vinyl Scratch looked to Octavia's corner. It sat under a single ray of light coming through the barred window, and seemed to have been swept clean of all the dust and grime. Next to a neat little pile of hay was a pillow on which she sat.
"What the hay, why do I get the dumpy corner?"
"Well, evidently it fits your dumpy attitude" retorted Octavia.
The Doctor felt the need to cut in at this point, otherwise he would never hear the end of it. "Girls, I think some peace and quiet is in order. I'm going to need to think of a plan to get us out of here."
"Yes, Vinyl, the Doctor here needs silence. You're always so noisy."
Vinyl raised her hoof, and was about to respond when she caught herself, and left it at a growl. She sat in the corner Octavia pointed out. At least it was on the opposite side of the cell.
Unfortunately, silence only lasted for a few seconds before the screeching of iron bars attacked their ears.
When the three of them looked to see who or what opened the door for them, they saw one of the security ponies (this one had a pretty cool looking moustache) standing behind a blue stallion. His orange mane was well groomed, and he wore a black tailcoat with a purple bow-tie matching Octavia's own. On his flank was his cutie mark, a music note with a small 'P'.
"So it was you who disrupted my performance this evening."
Octavia swooned. Their visitor was none other than her idol, Crescendo Pianissimo. The security pony behind him entered the cell and took Octavia's front leg, causing a reaction from her.
"Get your grubby hooves off of me!" She shook her leg.
Crescendo spoke up. "Come on Chief Safeguard, you heard the lady, no touching." Safeguard let go of Octavia, but continued to prompt her out of the cell.
"Where are you taking us?" Octavia asked. The cell door slammed shut, leaving the Doctor and Vinyl still locked up.
"Oh," began Crescendo, "not 'us'. Just you. I'm simply taking you out for a bit of questioning... over dinner."
"And what of my friends?"
"Oh, we'll be returning later on. Just follow me to the upper floor. I know this fantastic restaurant just down the street from here..."
His voice trailed off the farther up the stairs they got. When the only sounds left to be heard was the dripping of water, Vinyl Scratch faced the wall and harrumphed. "Great. Just fantastic. Now Octavia is out prancing about with some piano-er, and we get stuck here in the cell. This is the worst trip ever."
"C'mon Vinyl don't be sad. This day didn't turn out so sad. Now, I have a plan. Listen up..."
_______________________________
Not too long after leaving the cell under the concert hall, Octavia, Crescendo, and the security pony had arrived at the restaurant that the pianist spoke of earlier. A large wooden plank adorned the front of the establishment, the name of the place being written on it in fancy lettering.
Deluxe
After entering, Octavia could see why Crescendo wanted to go here. It was beautiful. The extravagant decorations and high class food and fine dining. They really had to be in Canterlot for anything to be this perfect.
"Table for two, please."
"Right away Monsieur."
Chief Safeguard ruffled his moustache. "Table for two? What about me? This woman is a prisoner and should be treated as such."
"Do not fret Safeguard, I simply want to make her comfortable, and less reluctant to answer questions. Now, if you would be so kind, please stand guard outside the building."
The security pony grumbled before sauntering off outside the building. Octavia and her handsome escort were brought to a balcony seat, where they could see the entire room near them was a string quartet playing, with, what Octavia considered a horrible cellist by her standards.
A white unicorn with a clean blue mane and a cutie mark in the shape of a menu trotted up to the pair of ponies, levitating two flat booklets that matched the image on his flank. Without saying a word he set them on the table in front of each pony and left.
Crescendo began what should have been a series of interrogation questions. "So, what is such a beautiful mare like yourself doing disrupting shows and living in boxes?"
That was a bit unexpected.
Octavia gaped in a fit of stupor before attempting to string enough words together to form a sentence.
"I... Well..."
She stumbled over her own tongue for a moment, still unable to get over the fact that THE Crescendo Pianissimo might be coming on to her. She regained her composure.
"Ahem. I'm sure a musical genius such as yourself is able to recognise another musician when you see one. I simply wanted to watch you and listen to your work. There was simply... A slight directional misinterpretation" she explained. She did not think it would be taken very well if she said she was a time traveller from the future with an alien who wasn't really a pony and a musician that played using electronic sounds. Ya, it would not help at all.
Crescendo raised a golden eyebrow now that his interest was piqued. "Oh, you play? What instrument?"
"Cello."
"Then why don't you play a little something for me and we'll see wether or not I can't get you and your friends a bit of slack." He smirked.
It was going to be a fun night.
_______________________________
"...And that's the plan!"
"But Doc, where are we supposed to find a tattoo parlour at this time of night?"
"You're right Vinyl, what was I thinking! Maybe if we had a rubber hose and some slacks... Anyway, plan B. We break out."
Out of seemingly nowhere he pulled out his fancy device from the night he first appeared. Holding the metallic stick in his mouth, he bit down on a button and it started off. The insides of the cage lock twisted and clicked.
"Perfect! Now we just need to find Octavia. I heard the name if the restaurant they were supposed to go to so I'll go find her. You look for the TARDIS, she's in here somewhere. When you find her just wait. When you hear a loud buzzer, just activate the homing signal and she should come right to me. Ready?"
"Of course, this is gonna be awesome! Just one question. Why did you call it a she?"
"Because she's a girl, why else?"
Scratch looked at him flatly before shaking her thoughts out of her head. "Okay... Let's just... Go then."
Vinyl stepped out of the cell, wondering where on earth she was supposed to go while the Doctor galloped up the stairs and then out of the building, leaving her alone in the dark wet hall.
"Okay, so if I were a big time machine where would I hide..."
As if the writer was too lazy to describe Vinyls search for the TARDIS, two guards were heard walking down the hall. She hid.
"Did you her about the big box they pulled in?"
"Ya, I think I heard them say it was down in third floor storage, which is down the stairs at the end of the hall and to the left. Wish I could go see it, but they don't have guards stationed down there."
She let the two stallions pass before coming out of hiding. It was quite lucky that those security guards had walked by at that exact moment while spouting off that oddly specific, yet coincidentally helpful information for anypony to hear.
Like a speeding pie, she sped down the hallway before sliding down the stairs and continuing her sprint. Okay, so it was down the stairs and to the... Left! the thought raced through her mind as she slammed her hooves on the staircase landing. She burst through the doors. Inside was the old hunk of wood that she was looking for. Unfortunately, so were three unicorn stallions. Each wore the same black waistcoat and tie, and each was staring directly at her.
"Horseapples"
_______________________________
"...To get to the other side!"
The pair chuckled in delight of her seemingly new and innovative joke.
Pianissimo lifted a hoof to his eye and wiped a year. "Miss Octavia, you truly are an impressive pony. I've never met anypony quite like you." The grey mare blushed. "Now, tell me more about your friends, Vinyl Scratch and the Doctor."
Their waiter returned to retrieve their now empty dishes.
"Oh, you don't really want to hear about them, do you?"
"You forget, this is supposed to be an interrogation," he pointed out with a smirk, "and you wouldn't want to disappoint your interrogator."
She smiled and sighed before clearing her throat. "Well, I don't know much about the Doctor, as I have only met him recently. He's definitely... An odd one."
"And what of the mare?"
"Vinyl Scratch."
Her flat tone was not a subtle one, easily recognised to have a hint of disdain. "She is my neighbour. We don't usually talk, but when we do... Let's just say she has a different taste in music."
Crescendo's ears perked up at Another mention of music. "Does she too play an instrument?"
Just before opening her mouth, Octavia froze. Explaining anything about Vinyl would be tricky and dangerous. The modernised unicorn would seem almost alien to anypony in the past. Even the mere mention of 'Dubstep' would probably make Octavia seem crazy just mentioning it. She needed to think of something quick. Her head whipped to the instrumentalists playing in the background. There was one instrument that could be vaguely related to Scratches profession, but it was a longshot.
"Erm, she... Um, works with the... Keyboard."
"Ah, another pianist!"
"Yesss?" She nodded slowly.
Well, it wasn't a lie. She did happen to own an electronic piano, though, she did not really use it to generate REAL piano sounds.
"Well Octavia, I've had a fantastic time speaking to you. I just have one more thing to tell you. I am in lo-"
"Hello there!"
A brown earth pony with an hourglass cutie mark popped up next to the table. The Doctor had interrupted one of the most important moments in Octavia's life, and she was both furious and shocked. She knew exactly what Crescendo was going to say. His unfinished sentence hung in the air as silence fell on the group.
Still shocked, she was unable to say anything, leaving Crescendo to ask the question that the both of them were thinking.
"You! The Doctor! Wha... What are you doing here? I thought you were imprisoned. Were you released?"
He smiled and said "Nope, I escaped!" as if nothing was wrong with escaping from a prison cell. He grabbed Octavia's leg, getting her to stand up. "Sorry Crescendo, sir, but it's actually time for us to leave."
"Wait, I had something to say!"
"Yes Doctor, let him finish."
He pulled Octavia down the curving staircase without her consent saying, "Sorry, we've got a very important meeting. Goodbye!" The two tumbled out the entrance, stealing glares from ponies in the street. The brown stallion stood up and wiped dust off of his coat before helping his friend up.
Octavia, now furious, refused his help. She jumped up on her own and began to yell at him. "Do you know what you've just done!? Do you know what he was about to tell me!!? Do you even think before you act!!!?"
Everypony was now staring at her, including one Chief Safeguard who tapped her on the shoulder. Not bothering to see who it was that was trying to interrupt her rampage, Octavia shrugged it off told him to wait.
The Doctor thought before a moment before answering. "Hmmm. Yes, yes, aaand no, not usually."
"Dear sweet Celestia, you're nearly as bad as Vinyl Scratch," she muttered under her breath. She felt another hoof-tap on her shoulder. She turned to tell whoever it was to just wait, but she froze at the sight of the security pony that was her escort.
"Oy, what are you two doing? You're supposed to be locked up and you're supposed to be with Sir Crescendo."
The timing could not have been better. At that moment the blue stallion burst out the doors to the establishment in a fit of anger. He looked down at the three, then stared directly at Safeguard. "What are you doing you imbecile, arrest them!" he exclaimed.
Luckily for the two time travellers, the command howled from the musician was enough to distract Safeguard long enough for the Doctor to grab Octavia and make a mad dash away from the restaurant. The Chief bumbled about for a moment before galloping after the escapees.
The two rounded a corner and dived into the nearest shop. Once inside, the Doctor shoved his companion to the ground before diving down himself. He peeked through the small window that displayed the inside of the shop. Outside was Chief Safeguard shoving his way through a thick crowd of ponies in order to find the two jailbirds he was pursuing. After a few minutes of watching, he finally disappeared. The Doctor exhaled.
"Doctor, can't you just let me go back to Crescendo? I can probably talk him into letting us leave." Octavia needed a reason to go back. He was the love of her life along with her idol.
"No can do. We can't meddle too much with the timeline. Any change in already established points in history can have tragic effects on the future."
"Then why did you even take us here?" asked Octavia, raising her voice ever so slightly.
"Because we were only supposed to see a show."
"Well maybe we would if you drove your time machine correctly. How are we even meant to leave if we don't know where it is anyways?"
"Don't worry," responded the Doctor, easing up, "I got Miss Scratch to go find it. Once I give her the signal via my sonic, she should be on her way."
He grasped the screwdriver firmly between his teeth before pointing it straight up in the air and flicking the activation switch. Blue ripples emitted from the top along with the usual sound and glow.
_______________________________
BWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
The eardrum shattering buzzer sounded through the room that the TARDIS was in. Nothing at all could be heard but that irritating noise that hammered at the brains of all four ponies in the room. The three stallions that held Vinyl captive began trying to converse with eachother, but were unable to, even while yelling. From Vinyl's point of view, the following conversation seemed to take place.
"Where's the hat?"
"On the fish."
"The fish?"
"Yes, the fish with a monocle."
"Oh, you mean Desmond?"
"Yes, Desmond the fish, he has the hat."
She stared, confused. She had the right to be confused. A buzzer was blaring and ponies were talking about a Desmond the fish with a hat and a monocle. Maybe she would be less confused if she knew what they were really saying.
"Where's that noise coming from!?"
"What!?"
"What!?"
"We need to find a way to shut off that noise!"
"What's that noise!?"
"I can't hear you, we need to shut off that noise!"
But alas, Vinyl Scratch was not a lip reader. Either way, she had an idea as to what the noise was. It was an alert from the Doctor, and it meant she had to get to the TARDIS. While the three ponies that were believed to be scientists bumbled about, Vinyl began rocking the chair that she was tied to. No good. On a shelf to her left was a plethora of tools. One of them being a large knife that could easily cut through her bonds.
Her horn began to glow a warm shade of blue as she levitated the knife towards her and against the rope.
In mere seconds she was able to free herself. Now she just had to get into the TARDIS. When she first started in her line of work, she soon learned that there would always be sound issues and technical difficulties. So in response Vinyl learned a muffle spell that she would cast quite often to spare her ears. Now was the perfect time to use it.
Magic emitted from her horn and proceeded to cover her whole head. All of a sudden the buzzing stopped. Well, not per say, but it was dramatically reduced to a mere ringing. The three colts were still searching for some sort of shut off switch, but with no luck they eventually collapsed. The infinitely loud noise pretty much racked their brains until they could not take it and fell unconscious.
Vinyl trotted past the pile of pony and towards the doors of the awe inspiring big blue box. Reaching forward she put one hoof on the wood door and pushed.
It didn't move.
She pushed harder.
Nothing.
It's not like there was any sort of trick to it, she always saw the Doctor just push it open. She put her whole body against it and put all her body weight into opening the door.
Still it sat there, mocking her.
"DOCTOOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!"
_______________________________
"Now that's peculiar."
Octavia became worried. "What? What's peculiar? Is something wrong?"
"It's... Just that the TARDIS should be here by now. Unless Vinyl didn't activate the- Oooooohhh. I think I know what went wrong. Oh well, come along Miss Octavia, I'm afraid we'll have to go find the TARDIS ourselves."
The pair stepped out of the shop. Had they stepped out a mere second later, a certain security pony might not have seen them when he coincidentally happened to look in that general direction. Had they stepped out a second earlier, they would have bumped into a passerby and still would have managed to evade the guard's glance. But no, the stallion stared at the two before cupping his hooves around his mouth and yelling, "THERE THEY ARE!"
This caused every single pony on that street to turn to him. He pointed his hoof. Everypony stared at the brown stallion and grey mare. Octavia looked around at all of the ponies. She picked a few out of the crowd that wore the same blue hats as the alerted guard.
Eight. Eight guards. One on the stairs, two at the bakery, one at the fountain, three I'm the crowd and-
"GET THEEEEEM!!!"
And there's Safeguard.
The Doctor slowly stepped closer to Octavia, just enough to whisper to her. He whispered only one word, and it was the only word she needed to be convinced.
"Run."
On that note, he leapt out of the crowd, with his companion clinging to his short scruffy tail. As the law enforcers moved in for the kill, the two raced past the fountain, the centre of which held a stone impression of Princess Celestia. A purple guard pony dived at the two. The Doctor ducked, sliding directly under him while Octavia jumped over top. The now collected mass of security ponies ranging in colour charged by, whereupon the Doctor and Octavia peeked their heads out from two jars owned by a group of travelling zebra performers. All was clear until a security pony lifted up the lids of the jars, spooking the Doctor and Octavia into another escape.
As the stampede barrelled across old Canterlot, the chief, Safeguard dropped behind to inspect a very suspicious looking pair of mannequins. The others passed by, paying no attention to the two figures; one in a tailcoat and top hat, and the other in a rather large and poofy dress. Safeguard inspected them carefully. Something looked oddly familiar about these two mannequins, but he just could not put his hoof on it. He turned to leave and found himself looking at the escapees sneaking out from an alley. He looked back at the mannequins that so closely resembled them and back at the two ponies. He called for his party to return and continue the chase.
The two were able to escape and take cover by clinging to the underside of a bridge over a small stream that lead from one pond to another. As the mare wiped her brow in relief, she lost her hold on the bridge supports an fell into the water.
The chase continued down a new alleyway, Octavia now soaking wet. But once they turned a corner, they found themselves trapped at last. The unicorn stallions began to slowly move in with Safeguard in the lead.
"Oh Doctor, whatever shall we do? They're going to capture us, then imprison us, and then... Make us do our own laundry!" shrieked Octavia. The Doctor stared at her confusedly.
"That's what you're concerned about? You only wear a bow tie, what do you care?"
Safeguards men shifted aside to allow another stallion through, Crescendo. He trotted up beside the chief.
"Why must you run? I was going to eventually release you, but by causing trouble you've made it worse for yourselves."
Octavia stepped forward. "Stop! Before you do anything, wasn't there something you wanted to tell me? Something of grave importance?" She fluttered her eyelashes, staring at him with her head tilted upwards with a wide grin on her face.
"Well if you must know, it's that I'm in love," he confessed. Octavia's eyes were now glittering and her smile nearly tearing her cheeks apart, "with your friend, Vinyl Scratch."
Silence filled Octavia's wars. In fact, to her it was so quiet that he could almost hear the shattering of her innocent little heart. Her eyes watered and her legs weakened, becoming jelly under her. The musician's only true love had confessed that he loved another mare, her friend no less!
The guards were ready to pounce on the two earth ponies when suddenly...
Oh, sorry, did I leave you at a cliffhanger? Oh well that's your problem.
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I hate my life. It is IMPOSSIBLE for me to cram a story into only one or two chapters. This is sort of good for you guys because you get a longer story. I guess I'm going to be posting three chapter episodes, since one chapter per episode seems to be failing miserably.
1253271 you and your cliffhangers shuld BURN!!!!!!!!!!
...im just kidding, but please get the next chapter out......please........
I felt physical pain at that last line, how could you?
and vinyl landed the tardis ontop of crescendo.... like a boss
1253835
Are you reading my mind?
Good work for hitting the feature box!
Congratulations!
1254132 if your obsessed with rope then your a little insane, dont you think? of corse right now im obsessed with popcorn...
OK, you take forever to update this and then you leave us on a cliffhanger?!?
FUCK YOU ASSHOLE.
usually cliffhanger don't bother me but THIS IS THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. THING!!!!!!!!!
Uhh... Ears?
1256465
Hmmm. No, I'm pretty sure I meant wars. Octavia has lots of wars that she carries around with her.
I also spotted another spelling error of mine that I need to fix when I get home.
"... with your friend, Vinyl Scratch."
i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc185/Strikeninja95/black_guys_laughing.gif
Since a fish with a hat and monocle was mentioned...
desmond.imageshack.us/Himg11/scaled.php?server=11&filename=gentlefish.jpg&res=landing
1260624
totalbuiscate the fish version of the british commentator
1260911 I imagine you mean this?
i.imgur.com/lmHCr.png
1260624
Oh hey, you found my Desmond. I've been looking all over for him.
1261196 Yay I helped
1261122
um...yes and he looks scary in that picture like he is about to muder someone with the only colorful thing in the picture (the rose)
1262974 It's a godfather parody.
1264690 total biscuit is used as a godfather parady? does the godfather kill people?
1264811 I ain't gonna spoil the Godfather for somepony who hasn't seen it. Watch the movie, it's amazing.
1264819
So how would everyone like a Godpony episode?
1264819
im only 13 years old mister knofear
im not old enough to watch it
1265081 Nopony said you had to watch it with supervision
1264986 I would love that.
1265441
i dont want to get in trouble i have 4 other sublings and they would tell my parents if they saw it on, plus i dont know where that movie would be in my house my mom cleans it every day
1265713 I'm sure you could find it on the internet somewhere, but otherwise you can just wait until you're older I guess
cliffHAAANNGGEEEEERRRRRRR!!!!!!
Sooo...... I'm assuming people want me to write more cliffhangers?
You...that...but...
My soul has been crushed...crushed by your cliffhanger
THIS IS THE WORST POSSIBLE CLIFFHANGER
I LOL'd!
1264986 You just made me day with that sentence....can Derpy and Vinyl be asked to join the mob?
And this was flat out funny as buck, I'm laughing so hard right now...poor Tavi....this is great
this is LOLtastic.
Putting the doctor in doctory light, humor everywhere, feeling of MLP EVERYWHERE without feeling odd.
You need to make this an animation or something, it's just perfect.
He's in love with vinyl . I so saw that coming
1539288 I think it is a similiar thing as the "Bad Wolf" incident. The TARDIS trolling around with the timeline to lead them around as it wants them to.
I want to know what the Doctor's first escape plan was
So I was slightly confused at the beginning of the chase scene because it was kinda jumping around and then after the second jump I realized that it was a cartoon chase scene and I started laughing so hard for two reasons. One; the fact that I just realized that it was a cartoon style chase and Two; because I could actually imagine it in my head, playing out like a Scooby Doo chase scene would. Congrats on that. I'm loving the story so far and I really hope the rest of this holds up to the expectations that I've made for this story. But don't worry I get the feeling it will. Now time to read the next chapter.
He's in love with V-Scratch!? And a cliffhanger ending!? Well played sir. Well played.
Har har