Broken Record

by Wheller

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Vinyl froze; she heard a quiet plinking noise off in the distance. Any other pony wouldn’t have been able to hear it. The noise belonged to silenced submachine gun fire.

Vinyl picked up speed, rushing towards the source of the gunfire, the kangaroo commandos were in trouble and she had to help. Then the gunfire stopped, Vinyl wandered into the kangaroo commando encampment, and lying on the ground was the body of a manticore.

“Bloody hell! This forest is a death trap! How can something so big be that quiet?” one of the kangaroo commandos called out.

“I do believe you were warned,” Vinyl said. Poor choice on her part, as the commandos all swung their submachine guns around, pointing them at Vinyl and cocking them.

“Guns down lads,” Captain Blackthorn ordered as he hopped over to where the unicorn was standing. “You can put that away.”

Vinyl looked at her magnum revolver, nodding, and slipping it back into her saddlebag. “Captain Blackthorn.”

“Vinyl Scratch. Mind explaining what you’re doing here?” Blackthorn asked.

“Mind explaining what you’ve ordered the cavalry boys to keep quiet about?” Vinyl said flatly, answering Blackthorn’s question and asking one of her own in the process. “I’m guessing that you wouldn’t take too kindly to having anyone know you’re out here. If I haven’t done enough to earn your boy’s trust, then we’re going to start having some serious problems.”

“Are you threatening me, Vinyl Scratch?” Blackthorn asked.

“I’m giving you something to think about,” Vinyl said plainly.

Blackthorn looked back at Lieutenant Cutting, who nodded at him; Vinyl had been a trustworthy and valuable ally to the kangaroos so far.

Blackthorn agreed with Cutting, and gave in. “You want to know? Fine, I’ll show you.”

...

Freedom. Vinyl Scratch had freedom. She’d been out of Trigger’s employment for several years at this point; she spent most of her time at the public library, teaching herself everything she could about music. If she was going to be able to pay Trigger off, it would be through writing music.

Vinyl had her muzzle deep into a book, not paying attention to anything going on around her. She hadn’t seen the pony that had come up to her.

“So, you’re the pony that’s hauled off the entire music section.”

Vinyl jumped slightly, standing over her was a dark grey earth pony with a treble cleft cutie mark.
“Well?” the earth pony said again.

“Oh... uh, sorry, do... you need one of these?” Vinyl asked.

The earth pony smiled at her. “No, I’m merely surprised that anypony else uses the music section besides me. I’m Octavia.”

“Vinyl Scratch,” Vinyl said with a grin.

Octavia quickly became the first real friend that Vinyl had had in a very long time. They got together to study music, which naturally progressed into hanging out at coffee shops, going shopping, gossiping about celebrities, and eventually, getting involved in the club scene.

The first time that Vinyl had gone to a club had certainly been the most memorable. She listened to the music; it was unlike anything else she had ever heard of before. She loved it, the bass, the machine gun beats, the scratching of a record.

That was the sound that hooked her. She went out and got herself a turntable the very next day.

“You? A DJ? You’re kidding me,” Octavia said. “House music is so... low, Vinyl, any idiot with a turntable can do it. You can do so much better!”

“Well, fortunately for me, I just happen to be an idiot with a turntable!” Vinyl said with a grin.

Despite her initial misgivings, Octavia was incredibly supportive. Vinyl worked hard to make her routine perfect, and it was something that Octavia could respect, though she did think that Vinyl could have easily become a great composer of classical music.

Vinyl had gotten herself a gig, DJing opening for another, when Octavia had approached her.

“While I think that you could be doing so much better... but I figured that you simply can’t go out there without any... gear, so I got you these,” Octavia said, presenting Vinyl Scratch with a pair of violet goggles.

Vinyl smiled, donning the goggles and smiling brightly. “Hey! These are cool!”

Octavia looked over her goggle clad friend and groaned loudly. “By Celestia! I think I’ve created a monster!”

Both mares giggled.

...

“What am I looking at?” Vinyl Scratch asked as she looked out into the clearing on the western end of Everfree forest.

“What does it look like?” Blackthorn asked.

“It looks like you have twenty tied up gryphons and a tank,” Vinyl said.

“Good eyes, because we do have twenty tied up gryphons and a tank,” Blackthorn said mischievously. “Mark VIII Cruiser tank, to be more precise.”

“That’s all fine and dandy,” Vinyl said. “What is it doing here?”

“See the gryphons? It chased them here. According to the commander, a Sergeant Wilkes, he didn’t realise he’d chased them into Equestria, and with no markings on the border, had no idea he’d left the Hoofson Bay Area until we told him.”

Vinyl frowned. “You do realise, that if word gets back to the Twin Gryphon Kingdoms that so many kangaroos are in Equestria, they’ll think Equestria and South Island have joined forces and declare war.”

“You think we haven’t realised that?” Blackthorn said. “You think it’s what we want? Because it isn’t, South Island is doing fine in the war and doesn’t need to drag Equestria into it... We were sent here because we’d heard rumours of Gryphons infiltrating Equestria, and High Command is ready to extend the hand of friendship and help should the Gryphons declare war... right now though? We want to stop the war from spilling over if we can help it.”

Vinyl frowned at the kangaroo. “Newsflash Captain! You’ve failed! That platoon that attacked me, Willoughby, and Cutting in Whitetail was proof enough that you failed! Now you have twenty prisoners on Equestrian soil!”

Blackthorn nodded. “We’d leave if we could, really, we would. Fact of the matter is, both tanks don’t have enough fuel to get back, and No.38 Commando’s now deceased commanding officer accidentally set the fuel that they had brought with them... along with most of the forest on fire.”

Vinyl scowled at the kangaroo. “If the gryphons declare war, we’re going to have a serious problem, captain.”

She turned and left the kangaroos to their own devices. This was getting out of hand.

...

Vinyl had loved it, the lights, the colours, the sounds of her DJing performance, but what she loved the most was that by the time she had finished, the club ponies began stomping in applause.

Vinyl Scratch’s life had begun to turn up, for the first time, she was happy. Everything was going her way.

Trigger had accidentally swallowed a bit and choked to death on it, the police seized his funds and nopony stepped in and directly took over his business, Vinyl was rich. She had all the money that Trigger had given her, intending to scam her out of future earnings and now she didn’t have to pay it back.

Vinyl Scratch and money, however, did not end up being a good combination, as time went by. Her life became dedicated to pure hedonism. Vinyl partied, she started drinking heavily, she became addicted to zap, and soon enough, Octavia had become the designated, “keep Vinyl Scratch from dying” pony.

Vinyl had practically ceased to be Vinyl Scratch; she’d adopted the stage name of DJ Pon3. Something that which Octavia dismissed as childish, but Vinyl insisted was “cool.”

Vinyl had never realised how much Octavia truly cared about her until recently. She had put up with more than a fair share of garbage from the unicorn, and what had she done in return? Vinyl repaid Octavia’s kindness by vomiting on her after having too much to drink and regularly ditching her to have a-less-than-romantic-more-about-pleasure-encounter with a Stallion and/or Mare that she didn’t know the names of.

The night that Octavia had given Vinyl Scratch her goggles, she had said that she’d created a monster, they’d laughed about it, but it hadn’t ended up being a joke like they’d intended.

It had become the truth.

A drunken Vinyl Scratch and Octavia were walking home from a club one night, it was an odd situation, as Vinyl would usually ditch Octavia by this point for a late night romp, but for some reason that Vinyl could not recall, on account of the drunkenness, she had not done it that night.

Vinyl stumbled along while Octavia guided her home.

“I loves you O!” Vinyl said, nuzzling her friend as they walked. “You’re my bestest friend! Always lookin’ out for me.”

“Easy there lover-girl, I’m not one of the ponies you usually go home with!” Octavia said plainly.

“Sometimes I wish you were!” Vinyl said. “Sometimes I pretend they’re you!”

“I really don’t need to know about your love life, Vinyl,” Octavia said.

“Some love life, those ponies don’t love me, they love DJ Pon3, and the booze and the drugs!” Vinyl said. “Not like you! You were my friend before DJ Pon3. That’s why I loves you!”

And with that, Vinyl vomited in the street, passing out and requiring Octavia to carry her back to her apartment.

“I love you too Vinyl Scratch...” Octavia said quietly as she carried her friend off into the night.

Comments

And the war that one or more of the Entities want is pretty much a sure thing, isn't it? It might not happen exactly as it did in "Imperfect" but it does seem to be about to happen.

[Wolfren]

D'ahh...