The Wub That Blinds

by Shadowswipe

The Meet

You open your eyes only to be instantly blinded by the sun. You slam your eyes shut and roll over.

“Oh go away sun.” You mumble. You sit up and rub your eyes. You sit there on your bed blinking a few times, trying to get the morning feeling out of you. You decide it’s time to get up. You slide your hooves off the bed and stand lazily.

“That was one hell of a dream, me at a club, the one and only Vinyl Scratch talking to me and giving me her number. There is no way that was real.” You walk the halls of your house talking to yourself.

You trot down the stairs, your hooves still a bit sore from the night before. When you reach the bottom you see a bundle of mail in the mail slot in your door. You trot over and pick it up by the string binding it together. With the stack of mail hanging from your mouth you head for the kitchen.

You drop the bundle on the table and untie it.

“Okay, let’s see what’s actually mine.” You say. You put a hoof and start sliding letters, bills and magazines off the pile.

“No, no, no, no, yes, yes, no, no, yes, no.” You’ve gotten good at this routine, seeing as almost every day you had to do it. Ever since you switched to Pegasus Mail for faster deliveries, they’ve been sending a wall-eyed pegasus to your place to deliver the mail. She always seems to get something wrong. Oh well, at least the wrong ones aren’t far away. You think.

“Now that that’s done, I think it’s coffee time.” You say after tying the wrong mail back up. You turn and face the counter. It’s a very simple design, coffee maker in the corner beside the fridge and toaster beside the coffee maker. You take a quick glance at the clock on the stove, it reads 12:09 PM. You shrug and trot over to the coffee maker. You do the usual morning routine, make coffee, put wrong mail on your doorstep, look at current headlines in the newspaper and groom yourself.

After your morning, or well afternoon routine, you’ve had something in the back of your mind that’s been killing you. A note, something from the dream, you remember it being beside your phone. You trot into the kitchen and look at the phone. Sure enough there it was a white folded piece of paper. You cock your head in confusion.

“Maybe it wasn’t a dream, and if it wasn’t, why me?” You say aloud. You walk cautiously, unsure of what you’ll find written on the paper. You take the paper in one hoof and begin to unfold it. Sure enough it’s as you thought, Vinyl Scratch’s number.

“Once again, why me?” You ask aloud. You flatten the note on the counter and leave it beside the phone. You pace from the kitchen to the living room and back again. Thousands of questions began to leak back into your head. You pick up the phone and stare at the number on the paper. You just stand and stare for a good few minutes. You finally find the courage to dial the number.

You take a deep breath and hold it while dialing the number. You hold the phone to your ear and wait, when you hear it ringing you let out the breath. At the end of your sigh you hear a familiar voice.

“Bass Canon records, Vinyl Scratch speaking.” You hear over the phone.

“Uh, hey, it’s me. From the club yesterday, you uh, offered me that singing thing.” You say, your nerves getting the better of you.

“Oh yeah, sup dude?” She asks.

“Oh. Uh nothing much. Just calling like you said.” You reply.

“Alright, let’s see. I have a spot open for later today, would you be able to make six o’clock?” She asks, you can hear paper rustling in the background.

“Yeah, I should be able to make it.” You say. You look around your kitchen, looking for anything to do until six.

“Awesome, just come to my studio, it’s on the corner of Fifth and Mane.” She says, the sounds of paper stops. You can hear hoofsteps through the phone.

“Will do. See ya there.” You say, your voice still shaky.

“Alright, well I gotta go. See ya later bro.” She says before hanging up.

You place the phone down on the receiver and let out a bigger sigh then before. You heart was beating a mile a minute. You lean yourself against the wall. You feel a little sweat run down your forehead; you wipe your forehead with your hoof.

“Guess I should practice.” You say.

You walk into your living room and turn on the radio. There is a blue cable connecting a small music player to the radio. The music player lights up and music begins to play through the radio. The song that comes on you know very well, you clear your throat and get ready to sing.

A few hours of singing later you find that it’s quickly approaching six o’clock. You turn off the music and head for the door. On your way out you lock the door and slip the key under the door mat. You begin to walk the streets towards Fifth and Mane.

It was a strange time of year, and day. It was on the border of Autumn and Winter, the trees were barren of any leaves and most animals were hibernating. But the air was still kinda warm, sure with a breeze you could feel the cold, but when there was no wind it was nice and warm.

Finally after fifteen minutes of walking you made it to Mane. Now you had to find Fifth and Mane. The streets of Ponyville have gotten confusing. You’ve lived in Ponyville since it was just a little village town, now it’s a borderline city.

You reach Fifth and Mane, only to be met by a massive neon sign reading. “Bass Canon Studio” You look up at the sign in amazement. It’s not often you come to this part of town. You like the outskirts, where it’s quiet.

You walk up to the door of the studio and push it open. Loud music could be heard playing throughout the studio. You look around, trying to soak in the sights and sounds. The walls were painted a dark shade of red and were covered in paintings and posters. Your eyes wander the walls, looking at the posters and paintings. Some of the posters you recognized but most were completely alien to you. Before long your surveillance was cut short by a voice.

“You’re late.” You hear. You look over to see Vinyl Scratch standing behind a counter; she was levitating a pen over a book. She looked visibly pissed.

“I am? I’m sorry, I don’t come to town that often.” You say defensively.

“Mmhm.” She hums. She writes something in the book then closes it.

“Alright, you’re here now. That’s what counts. C’mon, we should get started.” She says. She begins to walk to an open door. You follow her to the door. You look through the door way, all you see is a stairway leading down. Vinyl Scratch begins to walk down the stairs. You follow her closely.

At the bottom of the stairs there was another door, but there was no door, it was only a frame. Above the frame was a sign, it said.

“Welcome to The Pit.” You read out loud, you snicker slightly at what it says. Vinyl looks back at you, no emotion on her face. You could feel her eyes boring into you through her glasses. You wince and continue following her.

She leads you to a glass booth, inside was a single microphone. The microphone was hanging from the ceiling and had a rather large pop filter in front of it.

“Step in there. Do you have a particular song you like to sing?” She asks.

“Uh yeah, Beyond Her Tomb by Glaze and Mic The Microphone.” You say. She noticeably winces when you say Glaze. You look at her; a look of concern adorns your face.

She looks back at you, her horn starts to glow and some papers fly into the room with the mic. She looks at the control panel outside the room, some knobs and switches begin to glow.

“Alright, room’s set up. Now it’s all you.” She says.

“O-okay.” You say nervously. You walk into the room, the door closes behind you. It’s deathly quiet in the room. The papers were hovering under the mic, you walk up to them and begin to read what they say. It’s just the lyrics to the song. Suddenly you hear something over the speakers in the room, it sounded like feedback, but worse. You cringe and lower your head.

“Sorry, just adjusting some things out here. Just let me know when you’re ready to begin.” She says over the intercom.

You take a deep breath and look at the papers. You look out the glass wall at Vinyl, you nod and the music begins.

You quickly start to rap to the song, you mess up a few parts, but you soldier on. To your surprise you were doing relatively well, keeping your pitch and tone steady. You skip over the parts of the song when Glaze sings, seeing as you don’t have a voice synth, you figure there’s no point in singing those parts.

When the song finishes the door to the room opens.

“Alright, come on out.” Vinyl says over the intercom.

You walk out of the room and into the control room. High tech stuff in the control room, nothing you knew how to use. You see Vinyl Scratch sitting in a chair staring at a computer screen.

“Not bad, you just need to work on a few pitch corrections here and there, but other than that it sounded good.” She says, she swings around in the chair and smiles at you.

“Okay, I can work on that. But I have an unrelated question, well questions.” You reply.

“Shoot.” She says while leaning back into the chair.

“My first question is, why did you cringe when I mentioned Glaze?” You ask. She once again cringes at the name.

“He stole Tombstone. We were supposed to be work on some new tracks, but he ran out this morning saying he had some huge tour to do with Glaze. He didn’t even tell me about it. So I’m pretty pissed at both of them right now.” She explains.

“Ah, I see. My second question is, Why me? Why not get some other musician to help you?”

“Because I’m tired of working around schedules. Tombstone and I have been looking for new singers for about a year now. We’ve tried all the other musicians, and all we’ve gotten are maybes. I’m sick of it; I just want this damn project done now.” She explains, a hint of anger in her voice.

“Yes, but why me? There was hundreds of ponies in that club, why did you choose me?” You ask, your tone a little more forceful.

“Instinct, foolishness, last resort. Call it what you want. I just had a feeling and I acted on it, and looks like we got a winner.” She says, her tone was very quick and dismissive.

“What do you mean we got a winner?” You ask, a very confused tone covered your words.

“You’re the best we’ve gotten. What do you say?” She leans forward in the chair, staring into your eyes.

The question caught you by surprise. You stammer and mumble.

“What was that?” She asks.

“S-sure. What do I have to do?” You ask, your voice shaky.

“Just be here tomorrow. Eight AM. We start early.” She says excitedly.

“Really? Eight AM, fine.” You reply.

“Something wrong?” She asks.

“I’m usually asleep until at least ten.” You say.

Vinyl bursts out laughing. She almost falls out of her chair.

“Me too dude, that’s why I live here. I’m usually up at six, but I’m a zombie until ten.” She says between fits of laughter. You chuckle along with her.

“Well I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” You say, glancing over at the clock. The clock reads 8:37 PM. Two hours, how did I spend two hours here? You think.

“Alright dude. I’ll catch ya later.” She replies. She gives you a little smile then swings the chair back around face the computer screen.

You turn and trot for the stairs. On the way up the gears in your head start to turn. You mind is full of questions once again. You shake your head. When you reached the top of the stairs you see its gotten dark outside.

You head for the door and open it. You look back at the studio. Your mind is flooded with more questions. Once again you shake your head to get the questions out. You close the door behind you and head for home.

It was quicker on the way home now that you know the route.

When you get home you take the key out from under the door mat and unlock your front door. You head inside. The lights were on, that was good. You head to the kitchen and fix yourself a little snack before bed.

After you finish eating you drop your plate in the sink and head for the stairs. You turn off the lights as you pass them. When reach the top of the stairs you look into your room. The window was open and a cold breeze blew through. You lazily walk up to the window and close it. You look over at your bed and flop down on it. You slip under the covers for warmth.

It takes a while before you fall asleep, but eventually you do fall asleep. Before you fell asleep you remembered to set your alarm. Once you close your eyes you begin to feel yourself drift off.

Comments

[Flutter616]

I like it, I'm expecting a very good fic. Looking forward to reading more.

[Agarwaen]

I can't get past the logistics. There are a distracting amount of commas missing, and the word you is used too heavily. It can be difficult, but you have to use that word as sparingly as possible in a second person story. I know that it seems strange, but if you use it too much, the story just feels boring. Gonna mark this unread and come back to it to try again, but I didn't get through the morning before I had to stop.

[Akmentop]

How did I spend to hours here?
I believe you meant two?