They Say to Go Out With a Bang

Author's Note:

I personally don't think this is one of my better pieces.

Well, I'm gonna publish it anyway/

The unicorn stared at her reflection in the mirror. Her blue mane was spiked wildly in one general direction, revealing one half of her white furred head. Her rose colored eyes stared back at her.

The room around her was small, illuminated by ceiling lights and the large glowing lightbulbs stuck into the frame of her mirror. She levitated a pair of shades onto her face, hiding her rose colored eyes.

The shades had been a gift from the unicorn’s good friend, who was currently waiting outside the unicorn’s room.

The room had an old-time record in a glass case on one of the walls and a rack of different sorts of clothing that the unicorn assumed had been stored in the dressing room as she never wore any attire outside of her shades during performances.

“Hey, Vinyl, you ready?” a voice called out from behind the door, thick with a Bitain accent.

“Be right there.” The unicorn answered, smoothing one hoof over her mane one more time before getting up and trotting over to the door and opened it to see the gray earth mare. She was wearing her signature pink bow tie.

The walls around them were decorated in posters. Posters proudly advertising performances from upcoming pop-star Sweetie Belle and popular singer and dancer, Sapphire Shores, in other Spinning Record owned venues.

One poster had her wearing a gorgeous head dress which most ponies knew came from the owner of Canterlot Carousel, Rarity Belle. Fame seemed to run in the Belle family, although their parents had long since faded out of the public eye with only a few old-school ponies that would know who they were.

The two walked over down the hall, ending up in the bustling area backstage. It was cramped, but Vinyl didn’t mind that. She’d been in more cramped spaces. Vinyl’s companion just looked slightly uneasy as she swerved out of the way of a earth stallion pushing a cart full of neatly bundled cords. He didn’t pay the mare any mind, instead continuing to push the cart to his destination. He either ignored or didn’t hear the mare’s apology.

“Well, I’ll be watching. You’ll do good, I’m sure.” The mare gave Vinyl Scratch a reassuring pat with on the shoulder before trotting off to either go get a drink, mingle, or both. Vinyl didn’t greatly mind which one.

Vinyl Scratch walked out to the small platform that the ponies bothered to call a ‘stage’. She’d seen far grander stages for her friend’s performances.
Then again, she didn’t need a big space. Just enough space for her DJ set and herself. That was it.

There were a couple maintenance ponies double and triple checking over all the cords and technology. Vinyl Scratch let them, as it was their job and she didn’t mind ponies making sure her performance would go over smoothly.

Her talent was in music, not in technology after all.

“Alright, Miss Scratch! The crowd is ready to hear you!” One pony shouted and the maintenance ponies trotted off to do some other task after Vinyl gave a quick nod and stepped up to the center of the C shaped DJ set.

The sea of ponies before her were starting to pay attention once they noticed that their favorite pony, DJ PON3 was onstage. The mare’s horn lit up as she used a voice amplification spell to talk to the crowd and levitated a pair of headphones.

“Hello Manehattan!” She drew out the ‘o’ in the introduction. “How are you lovely ponies doing tonight!?” The club filled with a thundering of pony hooves that Vinyl was sure was shaking the very foundations of the club.

“Alright! You ponies ready to party!?” The attendees added cheers to the mix of thundering hooves. For a second, Vinyl’s mind entertained the idea that this might deafen her and then remembered the headphones had been enchanted and she slipped them on. “Well then let’s get started!” Vinyl’s magic wove around the records and she grinned as the speakers started blasting with her music.

The dance floor lit up with neon lights and ponies began to dance in their own ways, the ponies at the multiple bars chatting. Stallions trying to pick up mares for either a date or a one night stand, either way the party scene was one that Vinyl Scratch was familiar with.

And she loved it.

Vinyl bobbed her head, grinning as the strobe lights made identifying a pony’s coat or hair color practically impossible. Not that it was difficult to spot her friend, who was watching from her spot on one of the bar-stools. She rose up her glass and gave a pleasant smile.

Vinyl didn’t know this club sold wine. She’d have to try it sometime if her friend found it as good as it appeared.

The song ended with a large boom and Vinyl started up the next song, which was a little longer and was a lot more intense.

About several moments into the song, the windows shattered inwards, spraying the ponies sitting in the window booths with shards of glass. Vinyl’s song was overlaid by their panic which rapidly spread to the rest of the club.

And then the song abruptly cut off as the power to the club ran out.

The only pony who seemed to be remaining in one spot was Vinyl’s friend, whose glass of wine was knocked out of her hoof and shattered on the floor by a stallion who seemed dead-set on getting out first.

Then, Vinyl felt the floor violently shake beneath her hooves, down to the very foundation of the building. Drinks toppled to the ground, whether they be abandoned on the bar or the bottles of high-quality alcohol that had been sitting on the previously-glowing shelving behind the bartenders.

One bartender scrambled over the bar, joining the river of ponies heading for the door. The other bartender was a pegasus and was able to fly over the heads of everypony else, only to accidentally slam into another pegasus.

Then, one of the lights that had been hanging above Vinyl crashed down onto her DJ set. Vinyl scrambled backwards in panic to avoid the shards of glass and metal that flew out at her, her magic pulling up a weak shield that repelled them away from her soft skin.

Then, the DJ set burst into flames. Vinyl yelped and wildly looked around for the fire exit. She looked around for her friend, but she was gone, likely having been swept up into the flood of ponies.

Vinyl swerved around the DJ set and bolted for the door, which still had a cluster of ponies around it. The doors appeared to have been ripped from their hinges.

And then, somepony knocked off Vinyl’s headphones.

Vinyl’s ears pinned back against her head and she flinched as she heard screaming and shouting as ponies darted wildly around the streets, calling for their foals and other loved ones to ensure they were alive and okay.

And then, the store across the street burst into flames, just as Vinyl’s DJ set had. Only, this store was bigger. And had ponies inside it.

Vinyl’s eyes bulged in horror as she watched the shop-owner flee the store, screaming in agony as the fire ate away at her fur and mane. Vinyl looked up, hoping for a pegasus with a rain cloud or something would conveniently be in Manehatten’s sky space.

Instead, she saw a large swarm of what she assumed was a flock of pegasi that were oddly blending into the dark night sky. Then, it hit her.

They were griffons. That explained why they had darker fur and feathers than the pegasi she was used to seeing on a daily basis.

Vinyl wanted to scream for their help, but they wouldn’t be able to hear her over everypony else’s screaming.

Then, one griffon released it’s hold on something it had been holding, and Vinyl Scratch watched in frozen horror as it dropped into the center of the street. The moment it hit the asphalt, it burst into flames and an explosion, spraying pony gore around it as it demolished those more unfortunate to be in it’s range.

These griffons weren’t here to with friendly intentions.

Vinyl shot around and galloped as fast as her legs could carry her. She had to get out of Manehatten. To the outskirts at the very least. But while she was running, she decided to add her voice to the crescendo of shouting ponies.

“OCTAVIA! OCTAVIA, WHERE ARE YOU!?” Vinyl was sure that if the mare had gotten out of the nightclub alive and safely, she wouldn’t be staying in the main part of the city. She’d head to the outskirts, maybe leap onto a train.

Vinyl swerved to a stop, almost tripping over her forelegs in the process, as a griffin landed in front of her, pointing a gun right into her face.

Vinyl’s magic quickly grabbed hold of the gun in a moment of pure self preservation and she flung it out of the griffon’s claws. The griffon squawked angrily and delivered a strong blow to the left of the unicorn’s face, the griffon’s claws reaching under the shades to cause their damage.

Vinyl cried out in pain and squeezed her left eye shut, watching as her shards fell to the street and shattered. That was possibly all she had left from Octavia, if her friend was unfortunate enough to have not survived.

Vinyl’s magic wrapped around the griffon’s neck and she forced it face first into the street before galloping away, wanting to get out of sight of the griffin flock before she did anything else.

Then, Vinyl tripped over something. She crashed into the pavement of the street and turned to see what she’d tripped over, a dull headache starting to blossom in the base of her skull.

She felt her stomach lurch in horror and disgust, which nearly caused her to vomit the mix of half a sandwich and alcohol onto the street.

It was a filly, probably having just earned her cutie mark recently. Her eyes were glassy and vacant, large gash marks covered her neck, the most vicious being her throat, which had filled a shallow pothole that the mare’s head dipped into with scarlet liquid.

Vinyl shook her head, spinning around and continuing to gallop away. Her legs were starting to ache, but she didn’t care. She had to get out.

She had to escape Manehatten.

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