Chapter V: As if it Was Another Pony
(More to read, and still more to write. Enjoy.)
You felt your eyelid twitch as you looked at your parents, they looked at Vinyl, and Vinyl looked between all three of you. Lyra was, for her part, doing everything in her power to leave without being noticed. Not exactly an easy feat when things are this tense, but she was still trying.
“Father, I’m going to pretend that you didn’t just call Vinyl a whorse.” Your father looked from Vinyl to you, and he let out a snort.
“Why are you defending this whor… mare of less than reputable standing? Surely you haven’t forgotten all those things you said about her when she turned you down all those times.”
“No, dad, I haven’t. But that was a long time ago. Now, are you just here to insult my company, or is there some other reason, aside from the funeral, that has caused your timely arrival?” Before your father could respond, your mother jumped in.
“Note, you may be independent now, but I won’t tolerate you talking to your father and I like this. You, and your sister, said that it would be okay for us to move so that your father could accept that promotion. You knew what it would entail, and you were okay with it.” Her reasoning was sound, and you knew it. Both you, and Grace, had agreed to their moving. It had been for the betterment of the family, but that didn’t make it any easier now.
“I…” You found that all your ire had left you, and in its place it had left nothing but sadness. “I know that it’s not your fault.” You shifted your gaze from them to the ground, a hoof running in small circles. “Its nopony’s fault, but that doesn’t make it easier to accept.” You felt a hoof on your shoulder, and you looked up to see your father’s face close to your own.
“We’re here, now, Note. We’re going to stay for the funeral, and after that we’re going to be heading home. You’re more than welcome to come, if you’d like. I know that it’ll probably be hard for you to be here by yourself, so I wouldn’t have a problem if you wanted to move back in with us.”
“No. I appreciate what you’re doing, dad, but I can’t just run to you when things get hard. I need to stay here, so that I can live my life.” The hoof came off your shoulder, and then your dad gave you a small smile. “I just need some time to accept all of this, and then I’ll be back to living my life again.”
“I understand, Note.” Then, without a pause, he looked at Vinyl. “And what, may I ask, are you doing here? Last I heard you were flitting from stallion to stallion, running those damn clubs up in Canterlot.” Vinyl took a half step back from your father due to his sudden shift in demeanor and tone. “Hmm? Using my son to ‘recover’ from another failed relationship? Taking advantage of his kindness once again?” Your mother attempted to step in at this point, but your father wouldn’t stop now. This had been a problem for him his whole life. He could shift moods at a moments notice, and once he got going he wouldn’t stop until he was done. Or, at least, he wouldn’t stop short of something drastic happening.
“I’m not using your son.” The mare’s voice was oddly subdued, and your father only seemed to get angrier because of it.
“Not using him? How can you claim that you aren’t using him? You’re here, living in his home, taking advantage of his kindness so that you don’t have to support yourself when anypony who is at least the slightest bit educated knows that you’re fabulously wealthy! You own seven different night clubs in Canterlot alone! And yet, here you are, mooching off of my son.” Vinyl attempted to answer again, but she couldn’t get a word in before your father continued. “You’re like so many other mares that I met before I finally found Note’s mother. You find a stallion that is nice, and you suck them dry. You use them for all their kindness, comfort, and passion, leaving behind the scum of Equestria. It’s mares like you that turn good stallions into awful ones. You even twist them into thinking that they’re doing the right thing by simply helping you without getting anything in return.”
You had wanted to say something to your father throughout his speech, but that last bit stuck in your mind. You refused to believe that Vinyl would do something like that, but, at the same time, it did sound possible. Vinyl took off the sunglasses that she’d been wearing, revealing her bloodshot eyes, and allowing the tears to flow freely down her face.
“I’m not here to use your son, I’m here to… to…” You looked at her while she struggled with her words, but after a few moments she simply looked between you and your father, her expression growing a bit more frantic. Without a sound, save for a choked sob, the mare bolted past you, and onto the streets. You wanted to follow her, but something stayed your hooves. If she hadn’t been using you, why couldn’t she have said why she was here?
“Note, I really think that you should come home with us. Get away from all these bad memories, and start again. After the funeral, we’ll pack you up, and then we’ll head home, okay?” You nodded slowly, barely feeling the brief hug that your mother gave you before they said something about heading back to the place where they had rented a room for the funeral. After they left, you closed the door, and headed to your room, barely aware of the tears running down your cheeks.
When you did enter your room, you just stood there, unmoving as you looked down at the ground. She couldn’t have been just using me. She… She… She always came by after some breakup, or something going wrong with her love life. I was just there to help her cope. You walked over to the mirror that hung on the wall in your room, and you looked at it, treating it as if it was another pony.
“She used me.” You said to your reflection.
“You never gave her a chance,” it responded.
“This was just like all the other times, though! She screwed up her relationship, and it falls to me to fix it!”
“Fuck that! Look, something’s different about this time. She’d never, even at her drunkest, fallen down and hurt herself. And now you’re just passing this up because you don’t want to risk falling for her again. Be a stallion and go find her.”
“But mom and dad were right!”
“You need to look past them, and towards the one pony who helped you! Who was there for you every step of the way? Who helped you deal with your anger issues? Who was there when Vinyl shut you down that first time?”
“Grace.”
“And who gave you one last pearl of wisdom before she died?” Without responding to your reflection, you bolted downstairs, and to the letter that you’d left in the living room. You grabbed it without hesitation, but when you wanted to open it, you felt yourself stop. You needed to read this, and see what could be done. And yet…
You were afraid. She’d always been there to help you, and get you through it all. But now you’d be on your own, save for whatever was written on these pages. With a bit of concentration, you opened the letter, revealing several pages, bound together in seemingly random groups. There were a few loose sheets, though, and so you grabbed those first. A small number at the top of each page revealed that there was an order, so you quickly found page one.
Pure Note,
It seems like only yesterday that I was holding your tiny form in my arms, watching you with equal measures of disgust and love. You were always a messy foal, and it only got worse as you grew up. I’m writing this in the hospital, hoping that you won’t have to read it, but suspecting that you will. And now, you are reading it, which means that I’m gone. I want to call out to you as I write this, so I can say it in person, but I know that if I write it, you’ll have it forever. Yeah, you only just left. But, I want you to go and live your life, so I let you leave.
I was never one for speeches, but there is a time and a place for everything. In this letter, and all the added letters, I have included a ton of advice for you, and your friends, for as many things as I could think of. But, as life goes, I don’t know how much of it will be useful as the times change. I mean, since we were born Princess Luna has returned, Discord returned, and there was that whole fiasco with Storm Runner, so I only hope that what I have to say is still relevant when you read it.
Don’t read this whole thing all the way through, is my first piece of advice. Read it when you feel like you would ask me for help. For your convenience, I’ll put in a little blurb right here for when you know I’d just give you some little glib remark. Figure it out yourself. I did, and you can too.
There, see? I’m not always… I wasn’t always as good at life as you thought. I had my moments where I fucked up royally. Hay, I had moments where I thought I wasn’t going to make it through. But, then, you’d come and ask me something, or just come and hang out with me, and I’d remember what was important in life. And this brings me to the first thing that I want to make clear to you.
Love.
Love is a picky emotion. I had my share of stallions, and even a mare or two when I was experimenting. Yes, I did it with mares. No, I won’t tell you who. That’s just sick, bro. Anyway, my first bit of advice is probably one that you already know, but won’t act on unless someone tells you in plain writing. So, I suggest you head to page four to get my advice for your love life. You can keep reading this letter later, but now go to that page, and do what you need to. This letter will be here when you get back.
You put the first three pages down slowly, letting her words sink in. You knew that you’d helped her out a few times in her life, but you never really knew how bad she had had it at times. You sort through the pages until you find page four, and you slowly unfold it, your brow creasing as you see that it is mostly blank. When you do see the writing, it is a surprisingly small amount.
Ah, love.
Now, I suspect that there are two major possibilities for this page. The first one it the one that I think it is, and that I, honestly, hope it is. The second one is less likely, but still a possibility.
For the first possibility, all I have to say is that you can’t let go of her. She’s a great mare, and you need to understand that she didn’t have the best foalhood. And it carried over to her love life quite a bit. Find her, and help her. Vinyl is a great mare, and you just need to help her to see that you’re the stallion for her. She and I have spoken about you in the past, and I will be writing a letter for her as well as this one for you. Trust me when I say that you have a much better chance than you think. Now go! Unless this isn’t the option that is relevant, in which case read number two.
You read over that paragraph many times, each time trying to guess how she could know that this is so relevant to what you were facing right now. After the fifth reading, you let the letter drop onto the small pile. You moved over to the door of your home, and without a backward glance you stepped out into the twilight. The sun was setting, and you were about to try and fix not only a mare, but yourself as well. As you closed the door behind yourself, you felt a tiny stab of uncertainty. This moment of uncertainty manifested itself as a facehoof. You had no clue where Vinyl could have gone.
Still, you’d try to find her. With a snort, you stepped onto the street, and began your search of the town. You went by all the places that you could think of to look for her, but she was nowhere to be found. After checking all of the major places in town, you found yourself in the park, sitting on a bench, your head in your hooves. The only places that you could think of, that were really meaningful to either of you, were places that you’d checked.
The sound of hooves on the path made you raise your head to see who was coming, and you were disappointed to see that it wasn’t Vinyl. It was, instead, Taupe. He smiled at you when he saw you, but when you failed to return the smile his vanished. He sat down on the bench next to you, and he just looked towards the sunset, just like you were now doing.
“I don’t think you’re here to enjoy the sights.”
“Nope.”
“Nor, do I think, are you here to wait for somepony.”
“Two for two.”
“So, I’m going to take a guess, and say that you’re looking for somepony.”
“Three for three, Taupe. But I’ve already looked everywhere that I could think of to find her.”
“Well, I don’t know who this mystery mare of yours is, but I suspect that you’re probably looking at this the wrong way. And yes, I knew it was a mare. You just had that look about you.”
“So, if I’m looking at it wrong, how would you go about it?”
“Instead of thinking of things that are important to you, think of things that are important to her. If it’s something you did, she’d go somewhere that doesn’t remind her of you. If it’s something that you aren’t responsible for, she would go somewhere that has always given her comfort. And if you’re the problem, well, then I’d suggest you try harder to find her, since she wouldn’t go anywhere you’d think of. Now, rather than sit here and mope, I’d suggest you get going.”
As he finished, he simply got up, and continued his walk, acting like he’d never even stopped. You watched him for a moment, before you got up as well, wracking your mind to see if you could think of anyplace within Ponyville that Vinyl could’ve run to. Nothing came to mind at first, but then you dug deeper into your memories, scouring for anyplace she’d mentioned going to seek comfort.
When it finally hit you, you allowed yourself a small smile. Of course she’d go there…
Your hooves quickly carried you to the cemetery, and then between the tombstones and past the small mausoleums that dotted the graveyard. She’d only taken you here once, and that was just because you had been insistent on asking about what had happened to her mother. You had regretted the decision shortly after asking, but she had been slightly happy to finally share with somepony the one place she could go that reminded her of her mother, and only her mother.
You spotted her only a few minutes after entering the cemetery, and you knew immediately what she was doing. She had a single plain tombstone in front of her, and she was just staring at it with an intense frown upon her face. You could just make out that her jaw was moving, and you figured that she was talking to it. Her words were too soft for you to make out, and as you grew closer, her words grew no clearer.
When you were just a few steps away, you finally stopped. The mare stopped talking as well, but she didn’t look at you. “I wasn’t using you, Note.” She looked at you briefly before her gaze fell back to the ground. She tried to speak once again, but words seemed to fail her, and so she just remained silent.
You moved beside her, and still she said nothing. “Vinyl, make me understand. Why couldn’t you tell me why you were here when my father asked?”
“Because I’m too damn stupid to see what’s right in front of me. Because I can’t stand to admit when I’m wrong. Because of a million other things that don’t really matter. Note, no matter how successful I am, no matter how many bits I have, I’m never happy. I went from stallion to stallion hoping that they could offer me some distraction from the sadness that I felt, but none of them ever did it. They just passed me up for some mare who was willing to give them what I wouldn’t.” The mare finally looked at you, and she held your gaze. A faint glow of her horn was all the warning you had before her coat seemed to shimmer before your eyes.
Several long gashes appeared along her body, and a large number of discolored spots appeared on her head and neck. “But the last one wouldn’t take no for an answer, and so he tried to take it by force. I came here, hoping to escape from Canterlot and spend some time with you, since you were always there. But then I found out that you lost Grace… Note, I’m so sorry.”
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good chapter bro i really hope these come out more frequently i love this story and all the work you do keep it up
Oh, you'd better not stop till I see some justly given retribution!!!! And if you do, I will travel through the fabled 4th wall and deliver it myself!!!!
And then I'm coming for you........I have the resources and the contacts......nowhere on this world will be a safe haven for you!!!!
Those last two paragraphs...
Loved it! Getting more emotional now...
Excellent Chapter!
Keep at it.
I second that.
I hope the frequency increases.
Love this fic..
Too much emotion
can't take it
*tear* hope there is a happy ending
...ow.
Someone tried raping Vinyl?
Sithis will take great pleasure in his torment in the Void. All Hail Sithis! All hail the Dark Brotherhood!
Damn.
Just... Damn.
1821486 What about the Night Mother?
Just kiss already
I like all your stories but there is somthing about this one...idono what but it just draws me to it.
1821862 The Night Mother is merely a way for Sithis to communicate his will, I believe in the lore that she is actually his wife's mortal corpse. So worshiping her is just an indirect way of worshiping Sithis.
The urge to hospitalize his father are not subsiding, in fact they are getting worce , and I wil formally request more and i wish you to have the speed of darkness in wrighting the next chapter (unfortunately I don't think that's possible because that would mean you could type nine hunderd ninety-nine centillion words per millionth of a millisecond)
The humans in this comment section are funny,
King Lazaro Sol of Ziolia
1821367 I well it's a good thing I order to keep jet making more stories I can teleport him to a univerce that not even you can reach.
Holy tits dude, this was definitely worth the wait! Next mission is to wait once again, and then scream and flail in excitement when and after I read it!
Great job! This chapter had a lot of emotion, and it really gave me the feels
Boom! Right in the feels. I want to see how this turns out; even if you don't know yet.
Very emotional this chapter is. Why is there so much suffering and sadness in the world?
cdn.derpiboo.ru/media/BAhbBlsHOgZmSSI9MjAxMi8xMC8yNC8yMl8zM18zOF80ODJfMTMxMTc0X19VTk9QVF9fdmlueWxfc2NyYXRjaF9zYWQGOgZFVA/131174__safe_vinyl-scratch_crying_sad.png
1823226 Where there's a will, there's a way...........now, how many people do I know called Will???????
This is probably more than a little nitpicky, Jet, but I think the chapter title is a little less than grammatically correct. Basically, you seem to be using the subjunctive mood and therefore should have written 'were' in place of 'was.' Of course, I could have misinterpreted your meaning in the title, (which, perhaps is a little opaque) but I'd still suggest the change.
Google suggests this handy guide as your short English lesson for the day: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subjunctive-verbs-was-i-were.aspx
But hey, great chapter as always, Jet. I like seeing the plot move forward.
1824533 Frankly, when I go for chapter titles, grammar is the least of my concerns. When I write a chapter title I am, more often than not, taking a line from the chapter and using that as the title. Would it help if I was to put an ellipsis in front of it, in order to make it clear that it is a quote taken from a larger sample?
1824347 ok then, if its a war you want it's a massacre you'll be dieing in!
King Lazaro Sol of Ziolia
This is probably why I suggested earlier on in the story that "we'd" end up 'taking care' of some 'stuff' from Vinyl's past domestic life. Then again, it may just me wanting some vigilante style justice.
As long as you're still producing content, I'll keep reading it, as long as I find it to my liking, of course.
Awe shat.
1824080 dude that pic of vinyl made me have a heart attack from adorableness...... where did u find that?
>>Rainchaser14
It's a snapshot from the video Epic Wub Time.
1828693 Well what can I say to that except.....
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1831838 have your heard of sun tzu? His tactics are less than nothing compred to mine! Meh I'll just have my daughter handle this, CELESTIA! (Btw I could only understand you because of the one with my other daughter)
In the story vinyl said that "the last one wouldn’t take no for an answer, and so he tried to take it by force". Just out of curiosity, did he succeed in taking "it" or did vinyl manage to beat him off before... "it" happened.
unnecessary !!!Derpy!!!
1857441 I have not decided yet. Although I'm fairly certain that he didn't get 'it'.
Goly Gee Fucking Wilikers Batman!
Side note this feels awkward.