Her First Bass Drop

by nctransgirl

Verse

Verse

The city of Fillydelphia was a bustling one, to say the least. Horse-drawn carriages flooded streets lined with tourists and residents alike. A plume of smoke rose in the distance, the sure sign of the Friendship Express pulling into the train station. The entire city gave off a strange feeling of nostalgia through its tourist attractions, mainly through places like the Flanklin Institute and the Fillydelphia Zoo, the first public zoo in the history of eastern Equestria. As Vinyl and Break Beat stepped out into this world, they couldn't help but feel overcome by the choices of destination. So many places, and only a few hours to visit them before their parents - or at least, Break Beat's parents, went berserk with worry. After crossing the street back onto Thunderhoof Road from the school, Break Beat made a suggestion.

"Y'know, my parents always hold my hoof when we go out in public." His blue cheeks went purple with blush for a moment. "Maybe we should? I-I-I mean for safety, of course. Wouldn't wanna get lost out there, you know?" His faithful friend smiled and tilted her head, looking into his eyes crookedly.

"Nah! I'll be fine!" Vinyl struck Break Beat's shoulder lightly with a hoof. "I'm tougher than I look, ya know! Now, where should we go first? The Museum? I know it sounds boring, but there's somepony there I think ya'd like to see! We'll go there, and when we're done, we can just hang around town. Don't worry, I'll get ya home on time...maybe." After rubbing the wound from Vinyl's blow, which was, much like herself, tougher than it seemed, Break Beat took a moment to smile. There it was - the infamous rebellious spirit of the filly Vinyl Scratch. Behind all of her momentary lapses of self-control, it'd always been there.

"That sounds great, Vinny. When do you wanna-"

"Right now, duh! Come on!" Vinyl began to gallop down the sidewalk, and Break Beat followed suit. Vinyl was fast - no, very fast. Everypony in class knew that much. The way she could maneuver her way through crowds was unmatched even by the Earth colts she knew, most likely as a result of the intense amount of running she had done after being caught sneaking into umpteen buildings. Of course, she did have her off days. That morning in particular was strange for Vinyl - she'd never been so clumsy. Perhaps it was the stress of the previous night, and perhaps it was the anticipation she had due to the fact that she was about to see her best friend for the first time in months.. She wasn't really sure, and she didn't really care.

"Come on Vinny, wait up!" Vinyl stopped dead in her tracks to check behind her, where, a good twenty feet away, Break Beat was still catching up. After a good three or four seconds, he caught up to his restless friend.

"Seriously, Breaker, ya gotta learn to pick up your pace! We only have a few hours before your parents totally lose it, remember?" Vinyl tapped her hoof on the ground with impatience.

"Yeah, I know. But please, Vinny, can you slow down?" A pant escaped Break Beat as he tried to catch his breath. You'll get on a lot of nerves if you just run in the way of everypony!" "Vinny" exhaled strongly.

"Okay, fine. If that's what ya want. Come on, let's go to the museum."

Together, the two ponies made their way slowly to the turn back onto Starswirl Street, talking and laughing along the way.

"So, my brother had another gig last month." Break Beat had turned to Vinyl as they walked. His brother, Blast Beat, was a bit of a metalhead, but had been trying to branch out from the drums, despite the fact that he already had his cutie mark. He was a bit of a nut, or at least to Break Beat.

"Oh, Celestia. What instrument did he play this time?" Vinyl had smirked.

"Guitar. He broke two strings, and at the end of the show, he just tossed it in the air, broke it into a million pieces. He's such a numbskull!" Breaker had let out a laugh that would've filled the streets, had they been empty.

However, as the two turned onto Starswirl Street, they each remembered simultaneously that the streets were not, in fact, empty. Starswirl Street was booming, as usual. Businessponies trotted down the streets to their latest appointments while a group of socialite mares wearing the newest dresses approved by the up-and-coming fashion critic, Hoity Toity, gawked at passersby that they deemed "unfashionable", completely ignoring the fact that many of these passersby were not wearing clothes in the first place. When looking out at Fillydelphia, which had sported a population of over thirty thousand - the third-highest in Equestria, Breaker's suggestion to hold hooves made perfect sense; somepony could easily get lost.

"Everypony seems really busy today," Break Beat observed. "I wonder if the Museum is going to be this crowded." Vinyl chuckled.

"Did ya really just use the words 'crowded' and 'museum' in the same sentence? Nah, it's not gonna be crowded, but it's gonna be noisy! Now come on, let's go!" Vinyl sped up to a slow trot, passing by the residential buildings of Starswirl Street as Breaker followed. Ignoring the turn onto Skyfang Lane, the duo found themselves in the first business area of Starswirl Street. Skyfang, was, as everypony knew, the captain of the Wonderbolts. Remembering a conversation about the Wonderbolts he had once heard, Break Beat struck one of his own.

"You know what I heard?" Breaker exclaimed as the trotted down the sidewalk. "I heard that Skyfang Street is named after the captain of a team of Pegasi called the Wonderbolts! Isn't that an awesome name?"

"Yeah, yeah. But Skyfang is getting old. He doesn't have more than five years left in him. There's even a rumor that the newbie, Spitfire, is gonna take over. That's what my dad's friend said, anyway." Break Beat let out a sigh and cantered up to Vinyl's side.

"Your parents and their friends are the only ponies you ever hang out with. Don't you wanna play with me, Vinny?" Break Beat tilted his head down, obviously distraught. With a touch of her hoof against his chin, Vinyl responded:

"Ya think I don't wanna hang out with ya? No, no no no! It's my parents, they've never let me see anypony. But I couldn't try to tell them to, they think I'm just a dumb foal or som'n. You're an awesome bud, Breaker. Don't forget it." Vinyl let a warm smile escape her, something she only showed to her closest friend.

"Okay, Vinny. You know, you've gotta talk to them sometime, they're taking over your life!" Vinyl stopped in her tracks.

"Yeah," she said. "I know. It's not your problem, though!" She smiled. "Now c'mon, let's go already! Enough hold-ups!" She trotted down the seemingly endless sidewalk. As the two traveled together, they noticed a pair of ponies outside a local bar.

"Ms. Moonshine, I think you've had enough," the indigo mare said to the younger, light blue mare, who held a mug of cider in her hoof.

"Are you kidding!?" The mare with the mug of cider on her flank rejoined. "I'm only half-through with my fourth, I can go for at least another three cans. Ya wanna make a big deal about it? You wanna fight?" She spoke slurred words, swinging her free hoof around wildly.

"Umm...no? I just think that you..." The words faded out as the young pair of unicorns laughed and walked away. For a fleeting moment, as Vinyl and Break Beat passed an alley, Break Beat thought he could see the figure of a little pony in the narrow crevice. Shaking the sight off, Breaker turned to his companion and asked.

"How much further until we get to the Museum? My hooves are killing me!"

"Well, there's the radio tower, so it should be..." She pointed her hoof at the tower and trailed off to the left. "Right there!" She settled her hoof in midair, directed at a large building checkered with panes of glass that varied in color. Break Beat and Vinyl never ceased to be amazed by the building which seemed to shine with every color in the spectrum when the sun struck it. The Fillydelphian Museum of Modern Music was without a doubt the greatest sight in the city, and everypony knew it. "Just a little further! C'mon!" Vinyl galloped away as she had always done when excited, and with a sigh, Breaker followed.

"Hey, you're that jerk filly from this morning!" Vinyl heard a voice and skidded to a halt, at which point Break Beat was able to catch up. After turning around, Vinyl found herself in front of a familiar green stallion, who seemed perfectly comfortable approaching a little pony with hostility in the air.

"And who are ya s'posed to be?" Vinyl lowered her eyes with disinterest. "I'm sorry, but I've gotta get to the Museum over there." Again, she pointed her hoof to the multicolored building. "There's a pony there that I've gotta introduce my friend to." She pointed to Break Beat, who was catching his breath.

"I'm the pony that lost a perfectly good sandwich to you this morning! And I don't care where you're going, you owe me, you little thief! You know, you're lucky I don't find out who your parents are and-"

"Their names are Mezzo Soprano and Paradiddle. Give 'em a call if ya want, it's not like I care one way or the other. And for the record, you've been holding this sandwich thing against me all day? Sounds like you're wasting your time." Vinyl cut him off for her own half of the speech.

"Mezzo Soprano? Paradiddle? So you're the punk daughter of those two? You'd think they of all ponies would be able to teach a foal some manners." He muttered the latter statement under his breath loudly enough to allow Vinyl to hear every heavily enunciated word.

"Yeah, ya think they would. Now stop worrying about that sandwich. Break Beat, ya mind giving this oaf a few bits? I'll give ya double back, my parents' treat." Breaker pulled a small bag of bits out of his saddle bag with his mouth and tossed it to the stallion.

"You can't use magic? At your age? Seriously?" The green pony asked Break Beat, disappointed at the colt's disuse of magic.

"Oh, I can use magic. I just don't want to waste any on some stranger. There's about fifteen silver bits in that bag. You can get tons of sandwiches with them. Now, leave my friend alone, or I'll show you what kind of magic I can use." He spoke with an over-dramatic confidence.

"Oh, that's just not going to do it." The agitated stallion telekinetically lifted his new bag of bits to his side. "I've got to teach your friend a lesson about stealing." Vinyl laughed off the farcical notion.

"Well, you'll have to get me first!" The boisterous filly galloped off toward the Museum, leaving Break Beat behind.

"Oh, I don't think so." The green unicorn started to give chase to Vinyl before being stopped in his tracks by Break Beat, who would have nearly slammed his face against the pursuer's own had he not been the cautious pony he was.

"Don't you think you should give her a head start?" Break Beat's horn glowed light blue for a split second before releasing a small burst of pure force, knocking the stallion onto his back. Seeing Vinyl galloping away, he cantered off to her, leaving the shocked victim of sandwich theft to recompose himself on his own.

"Hey Vinyl, slow down! I don't think he's going to come after us after all!" Break Beat called to his friend, who turned around.

"Really?" She replied simply. "What did ya do?"

"Pulled out a trick my brother taught me at one of his gigs. Invisible energy wave, great for hitting drums in case you drop a stick."

"Nice! Ya better show it to me sometime!" The two bumped hooves and picked up where they left off on their little journey. The rest of the walk to the Museum didn't include further disruptions or detours, thankfully for them, though Break Beat did at one point find that a pigeon had "done its business" on him, which Vinyl must've found to be the most amusing thing in Equestria, as she fell to the ground in laughter.

As they continued to walk, thoughts swarmed Vinyl Scratch's mind. "You'd think they of all ponies would be able to teach a foal some manners", that stallion had said. Another pony trying to take away any thoughts of me being my own pony. What's so great about Mom and Dad? The unicorn was beginning to grow weary of the thoughts she harbored behind closed doors.

When the two arrived at the Museum, the first things they noticed, as always, were the rays of refracted light that bounced off of each colored glass pane and hit the ground, which allowed the stone the the friends stood on to erupt in a gorgeous makeshift rainbow, tantalizing each of them for a moment. As always, Vinyl was the one to shatter the calming atmosphere around them.

"Hey, Equestria to Breaker! It's your pal, Vinyl! C'mon, let's go! She flailed a front hoof in front of Break Beat's face, snapping him out of his trance.

"Sorry, the lights are-"

"They're just lights. C'mon." Suddenly, Vinyl had lost the pep in her voice, a fact that Break Beat noticed almost immediately.

"What's wrong, Vinny? You know, that stallion back there was just-"

"He was relating me to my parents. Why does everypony have to do that? They're my parents, big whoop! I'm a pony too. I mean, why am I just the daughter of Mezzo Soprano and Paradiddle to everypony? Can you tell me?"

She said "you." She never says "you." The thought struck Break Beat with the force of a hammer. What was more troubling to Breaker was that, for the very first time, the sympathetic pony didn't have an answer for the questions his friend was asking.

"I'm not sure..." His voice trailed off à la Morning Aria.

"I didn't think you'd know. C'mon, Breaker, let's go inside." Vinyl telekinetically opened the glass door that sat underneath an arch in the building and allowed Break Beat to enter the building first, a short breeze dancing through his mane as he entered. Vinyl followed suit, the air floating by her as well.

When the two ponies took their first steps onto the hardwood floor, they entered a special world, one that they felt only they could appreciate. Guitars hung from the west wall, basses from the east. In the distance, three hallways could be seen side-by-side, each leading to a different wing of the Museum, which was famous for the very strange detail in which it operated. For as long as the Museum had been open, guest exhibitions had been common - that is, rather than displaying new memorabilia, new ponies were displayed, giving lessons and demonstrations to any pony that paid a simple fee.

"Good afternoon, little ponies!" A homely mare waved to Vinyl and Break Beat from behind a desk. "How'd you wander in here? Are you two lost?" Break Beat and Vinyl giggled at the question.

"Nah, we're not lost! I'm Vinyl Scratch, and this is my best bud Break Beat," Vinyl answered the inquisitive mare, her voice echoing throughout the room. "We're here for the guest!" The mare behind the counter was shocked, to say the least.

"Oh, but it'll be very loud in there, are you sure you want to-"

"Look, lady, we just walked a couple miles to get here. I think we wanna see the guest." The pressure of the day must be getting to her. The thought rested in Break Beat's mind as the mare began to respond.

"Well, if you're sure, it's ten bits."

"Ten bits? Breaker? I promise I'll pay ya back." She never did. Break Beat frowned for a second before pulling another small bag of bits out of his saddle bag and tossing it to the front desk. Everypony talking about her parents must be getting to her again, he thought to himself.

After opening up Breaker's bag and counting the bits inside, the teal mare pointed to the leftmost of the three hallways to the north. "That's the rock music wing. That's where the guest is. Just follow the sound of drums and you'll get to the guest. And please, for the love of Celestia, don't touch anything. Somepony tried to steal Power Chord's guitar a few months back and it was all over the news."

"No prob, miss. Ya won't even know we were here." Vinyl smirked and turned to Break Beat. "Now c'mon, Breaker, let's go." She feigned enthusiasm as she smiled at her friend and led him down the west wing of the Museum.

The west wing was, without a doubt, the most famous in the Museum, gathering over fifty thousand visitors per years, as opposed to the thirty-three thousand that visited the blues wing and the minuscule sixteen thousand who somehow found the jazz wing to be enjoyable. At the time, an electronic music wing was in the works, but nopony truly expected anything to come out of it.

As Vinyl and Breaker traveled through the first hallway in silence, they each gazed at every piece of memorabilia that the establishment had to offer. Picks, guitars, drumsticks, clothing - the Museum seemed to have everything. The further they traveled, the more prominent the sounds of wood clattering against copper violently. His eyes filled with wonder, Breaker turned to Vinyl and asked:

"So, who's the guest? Is it Tom Tom? Or Double Kick? Who is it? You've gotta tell me!"

"Oh, none o'them. But I'm sure the two of ya are gonna love each other!" Vinyl laughed for a moment and smiled at Break Beat. When they reached the second hallway, one lined with doors leading to different eras of rock history, the sound of drums pounding began to fill their ears, and once they had traced the origin of the sound to the third and final door on the right, labeled "EXHIBITION ROOM", Break Beat opened it slowly.

Inside, in the corner of the claustrophobia-triggering room, pounding away at an impossibly large kit from atop a drum throne, was a stallion who boasted a dark crimson coat and a spiked white mane, accompanied by a small crowd of spellbound ponies who sat in silence from their wooden seats. Three seats in the back row were left unoccupied, and after noticing this, Vinyl led Break Beat to them, their legs bumping into those of audience members. After getting to their chairs, the two ponies rested their saddle bags on the floor and sat down.

Taking a seat after all of the walking the two had done was a relief for the both of them, as if they could just sink into their chairs and float away to a calmer world. However, being in the same room as a drummer meant that was not going to happen anytime soon. As Break Beat became entranced with every beat the drummer played, Vinyl found herself trying to think. She always did, in the end. When did the loneliness start? When did her parents begin to suck her into their world? Oh yeah...a memory returned. Not the beginning, yet so close...

"Vinyl!" Her mother, in her distinctly Canterlot manner, had called up the marble staircase. "Be a dear and come down here!" The upper-class accent bounced off of each and every wall it could, creating a long reverberating sound.

"What is it, Mom? I'm about to listen to a new record Breaker gave me!" The high-pitched voice of Mezzo Soprano's daughter did not reverberate in the way her mother's had; her door was closed, as it had so often been. Vinyl wasn't one to relate to her parents - their taste in music and hers were too different.

"I hope your little friend has chosen some quality music rather than the usual rubbish he infects your mind with." Again, the ostentatious voice danced its way upward to Vinyl's door, filling the main hall with sound. The sound of a doorknob creaking reach Mezzo's ears, and the high-pitched voice echoed:

"It's not rubbish! It's one of Breaker's favorite bands, so it's fine!"

"Yes, because he has such a fine ear."

"Well, I think he does! So just let me listen to it, okay Mom?" Vinyl's tone had grown a bit more harsh.

"I am your mother and you will refer to me as such, young filly!"

"Heh. Make me." The door slammed, and in just a few seconds, the muffled sound of distorted guitars and heavy drums flooded the entire 2nd floor of the house.

"This nonsense again," Mezzo muttered to herself as she stomped up the staircase. "Vinyl Scratch, that music is tripe and you and I are both completely aware of it!" No reply.

When Mezzo reached Vinyl's door, the sound of aggressive, near-unintelligible vocals filled the angry mother's ears.

"Vinyl! Turn that nonsense off this instant! Your father is trying to sleep!" This, as Vinyl was well aware of, was a complete fabrication. Her father was a very punctual stallion, even making a point to go to sleep at a designated time - 10:42 P.M. sharp - Vinyl wasn't sure why he chose 10:42, but then, she wasn't sure of many things when it came to her father. At that moment, it was 8:35 P.M., and it was because of this that Vinyl was able to pick up on Mezzo's lie immediately.

"He's not asleep, prolly just reading or som'n." Vinyl's reply was as apathetic as ever.

"Well, that doesn't change the fact that you need to turn that ridiculous mess you call 'music' off!" Mezzo Soprano opened Vinyl's door and made her way to the record player by the bed where Vinyl had pushed her face deep inside a pillow.

"No more of this nonsense. I'm taking this record and the phonograph. From now on, you will only listen to proper music."

"For the hundredth time, Mom, it's called a turntable, and Break Beat got me that for my birthday!" Vinyl looked away and muttered as her mother grabbed the device and began to walk off.

"And on that note, I don't want to hear any more about this...Break Beat." Once she found herself in the hallway, Mezzo Soprano slammed the door of the bedroom. As she opened up the stairway to the dilapidated attic to store Vinyl's only real possession, a tear streamed down the filly's face like honey.

The last record Break Beat ever got her. That's what it was. The last song she'd heard that reminded her of the only colt who truly understood her. Her tear reached across time and flowed down her left cheek once more - thank Celestia Break Beat was to her right. She wiped away the tear, and, after phasing back into the present day, was able to catch the ending of the guest's performance. As the pony's sticks slammed against a pair of cymbals for the final time, every pony in the room began to cheer, Break Beat included.

"Alright," the pony behind the drum kit said with a bit of exhaustion after wiping away a bead of sweat, "at this time, I'll be taking questions." Immediately, Break Beat's hoof, along with about four others, shot up.

"You, in the front." A yellow stallion smiled.

"What was it like working on your new album with Flashbang?" The exuberant pony stuttered his way along the question. Break Beats eyes widened as he turned to Vinyl.

"That's Ballistic? From Flashbang?" He giggled like a foal in a candy store.

"Yup." Vinyl managed a smile, though she opted not to turn back to him, instead looking at the excited colt out of her peripheral vision.

Questions piled up, ranging from "What was your favorite song from the new album?" to "Will you go out with me?" The answer to the latter was a bout of laughter from everypony who remained in the room. When it was finally Break Beat's turn, the Q&A had been going on for over half an hour, and everypony else had left. With enthusiasm, he asked his question:

"What kind of drums do you use?" A simple question, but after hearing the brightness of Ballistic's snare, Break Beat was dying to know.

"Horseshoe, of course! It's my company - well, my family's. My dad runs it." Breaker's smile grew tenfold.

"No way! That's my family's company! What's your name?" His calm voice suddenly grew excited.

"Well, everypony calls me Ballistic, but before I tell you my name, tell me yours." The red stallion raised an eye.

"I'm Break Beat."

"Oh, Gravity Roll's kid! I've heard about you! I'm Back Beat. I think Gravity and my dad are cousins, if I'm not mistaken." Vinyl let a smile spread across her face as Breaker trotted up to his idol.

"So my cousin is the best drummer ever? That's too cool! Can I maybe...hug you?" Breaker grinned.

"Sure, c'mere." The stallion embraced Break Beat, who was experiencing happiness to the point of laughter, with a hoof tightly before letting go. "Now, don't tell anypony I did that. You're my cousin, but I've still got a reputation."

"Can do! So, what's it like? Being a pro and all, I mean." Suddenly, Break Beat was able to regain some of his composure.

Back Beat's response became blurred in Vinyl's mind as thoughts took hold of her once more. It's good to see him act like a colt for once. Why the hay does he worry so much about me? I know we're friends and all, but the hoof-holding seemed kinda weird. Doesn't he know I can take care of myself? ...I can, can't I? I don't need Mom and Dad, I know I don't...but Break Beat...he feels different.

"So, we'll catch up later, okay Breaker?" Back Beat's voice halted Vinyl's train of thought.

"Sure thing!" Vinyl saw the two ponies hug one more time.

"Oh, and Back Beat, this is my best friend Vinyl Scratch." Back Beat stared at the uncharacteristically listless pony's flank for a moment, taking a few seconds to laugh before walking toward her.

"I remember when I got my cutie mark. Don't think too much about it, Vinyl. You'll get it sooner or later." He placed a hoof around her neck. "It's going to be great, you'll see."

"Yeah, it'll be great." Vinyl broke her silence with the nearly-sarcastic response. "Breaker, ya ready to go?"

"Mhmm! Just let me get my saddle bag." Breaker was as cheery as he'd ever been. He pulled his bag over his back and Vinyl followed suit. After they were ready, the ponies headed to the door, and with a wave to Breaker's new family member, they left the room first, followed by the museum. When they exited the building, the two ponies were surprised to find that the sun had already started its descent. With a wordless nod, they began to canter back to Starswirl Street to hail a carriage. Of course, the pair still needed their energy, and by the time they had reached Skyfang Street they had run out. After searching for a place to rest, Vinyl settled for the alley the two had passed earlier.

"There's a little alley right here." For once, Break Beat could hear exhaustion in Vinyl's voice. "Let's hang out there until our legs decide not to give up on us."

"Agreed," Break Beat said, equally exhausted. The two ponies were able to find a place to sit in the crevice that wasn't completely filthy, though they had their backs against a brick wall - not the most comfortable place to rest, but a place nonetheless.

"I still can't believe my cousin is Ballistic!" Break Beat exclaimed.

"I know, it's pretty awesome, Break Beat." Vinyl replied.

"Break Beat? You're there?" A somber voice echoed from further down the alley, the remnants of its initial sound pouring out into the street before getting lost in a sea of bodies.

"I knew I recognized this alley. I saw it on the w-" Break Beat interrupted himself. "Wait. Gliss?"

"It is you! Hold on, I'll find my way to you!" Out of the shadows of the alley, Break Beat and Vinyl saw Glissando slowly edge her way along the wall and rushed to her.

"We're right here, Gliss." Break Beat comforted her with his voice and a hoof around her neck. "But why're you here? Shouldn't you be at home? I thought your mom was going to pick you up!" Gliss' head suddenly began to tilt downward.

"She never came. Ms. Cantata began to walk me home, but she started talking to this stallion who came rushing up to her. It sounded like he was in a big hurry, and he needed her back at the school, so she told me to wait. I didn't know where to go, so I came here! I think this is an alleyway..."

"It is. And Ms. Cantata just left you by yourself right in the middle of Fillydelphia? What's wrong with her? And why didn't your dad come for you?" Break Beat began to shout, prompting Gliss to cover an ear with her hoof.

"I think she's getting a little too old for that job of hers," Vinyl replied with a hint of irreverence. "No self-respecting adult leaves a little filly out here like this."

"Daddy's gone to Baltimare for a few performances...he won't be back for another three or four days."

"We've got to get you somewhere, Gliss. It's going to get really dark and cold soon. Vinyl, could she stay at your house for tonight?"

"Yeah, not only would I come home late, but I'd be with some strange pony they've never met or heard of. My parents would be so into that idea."

"Then I guess it's my house. Gliss, are you okay with that?" Glissando nodded "yes". "Alright then," Break Beat said. "Vinyl, we're not resting. We've got to get home before somepony tries to hurt Gliss." The sightless filly's head tilted even further down.

"I'm not any trouble, am I? You two should get your rest." Gliss pulled her head up and somehow managed to look Vinyl in the eyes.

"Breaker's got a point. We need to get ya out of here before some weirdo tries to get to ya. C'mon, both of ya. It's not totally dark, we can still get a carriage ride to Break Beat's house and drop you two off."

"What about you, Vinyl? Won't you stay with us?" Break Beat asked.

"I've gotta face the wrath of Mezzo Soprano, remember?" She sighed. "Now, like I said, c'mon." Break Beat held Gliss close and began to walk out of the alley with Vinyl in tow. After finding herself and the other two back on the street, Vinyl trotted in front of the two, taking charge of their group.

"Hey...did you hear about the murder?"

"Oh dear...who was it this time?"

A pair of mares conversed only about ten feet from the trio. Ya'd think they would save this conversation for later, when there's not a couple of schoolponies right next to them, Vinyl thought to herself.

"She didn't have an ID with her...they don't know her name, but she was a pink mare with a blonde mane...she was on her way to the music school. The police said it was a magic-related death...she choked to death, but there wasn't a single mark anywhere on her." As tears welled up in Glissando's eyes, Vinyl led the other two away from the disturbing conversation. Noticing her deep breathing, Break Beat stopped walking and looked into Gliss' eyes, wiping away a tear.

"Do you know who the pony - no..." Break Beat almost shed a tear himself. "It wasn't her, was it?"

"My mother...that's exactly what I remember her looking like...how Daddy always describes her." Break Beat held the filly close.

Vinyl, we have to go get a carriage so I can take her home. She's had enough." Break Beat turned to the speechless filly.

"Alright, alright..." Vinyl paused for a moment. "I'll be right back with our ride. Just keep her safe." Vinyl galloped off like a bolt of lightning to find the nearest carriage while Break Beat attempted to calm Glissando, to no avail.

After a few moments of galloping down the street looking for her way home, Vinyl's legs finally began to give out. "Can anypony please get me a carriage? I need to get home." As she cried out, a carriage came from behind her, the sounds of wooden wheels rolling along the cement almost implanting itself into her ear. Once she had realized what was coming, she shouted again.

"Hey! Hey mister! I need a ride home, and so do my friends! Can ya stop the carriage?" With a tug of their reins, the ponies pulling the vehicle continued on slowly for a moment before decelerating. As the carriage came to a halt, Vinyl sighed in relief. The graphite-colored pony steering the carriage stepped down from his position atop the carriage and greeted Vinyl, who was easily less than half his height.

"Hey there, little pony, nice to meet you. Now, I've got two questions. My first question is: What are you doing out so late?"

"Listen, I just need ya to take me and my friends home. I went to the museum with one of 'em, and we had a blast, but on our way to get a carriage back home, we found our blind friend, and we're all basically positive that her mom just got killed this afternoon, so we need you to take us to our houses, alright?" She shot the words out as fast as she could manage, tripping on a few along the way." There was a brief moment of silence.

"Get in. I won't charge. Just get in." The stallion opened the door of the carriage and allowed Vinyl to get inside, shutting the door once she was situated and returning to his previous station as driver.

"Now, where are your friends?" He called back to her through an open window that rested in the wall in front of her seat.

"Just go the other way, you'll find 'em." Vinyl sat back in her leather seat and waited, worrying for both Gliss and herself. Sure enough, after a few minutes of driving, the stallion called at her again.

"Is that them?" He slowed down, allowing Vinyl to peer out of the window at a blue colt, sitting, holding a smaller filly close.

"That's them." Vinyl responded, and the carriage slowly came to a halt. Vinyl's door opened, and Break Beat spoke to Glissando outside the carriage.

"Hey, Gliss, Vinyl's here. We can go home now, kay?" He embraced Gliss, who had returned to her fit of crying, and got up on all fours, lending her a hoof as she slowly followed. "Come on," he said gently as he led her to the step that the door rested on. "Get in."

"Okay..." Gliss responded, almost silently, as, with Break Beat's assistance, she found her way inside the carriage, sitting adjacent to Vinyl. Once she had taken her seat, Break Beat did the same and shut the door.

"Now, where am I taking you three?" The stallion asked Vinyl.

"Cloudsdale Boulevard." Vinyl replied monotonously.

There was no speech for at least another twenty minutes, save for the occasional direction provided by Vinyl; Break Beat and Vinyl were too busy being concerned about their new friend to even consider talking. Even if they wanted to say something, how could they? What words could justify her experience? What could possibly be said to alleviate Gliss' distress? The two both pondered and pondered, but nothing seemed to emerge. No real solution. All either of the two knew was that they would have to wait, and simply hope for Glissando's mood to improve. During the entire forty-minute ride home, Break Beat couldn't help but hold Gliss close for comfort, as that seemed to be his only current solution of any sort.

When the carriage stopped in front of 23 Cloudsdale Boulevard, Vinyl breathed a heavy sigh. The day was finally about to be over.

"Gliss, we're at my house. You can stay here until your dad gets home, okay?" Break Beat pulled away from the filly.

"Okay, Break Beat. And both of you, thank you so much..." Vinyl smiled ever-so-slightly and spoke:

"It's our pleasure, Gliss. Both of ya, have a great night." Break Beat replied:

"We will. Good night, Vinny."

"See ya, Breaker." Her two companions left with the slam of a door and began to travel down the path to Break Beat's home.

"Okay, driver. 57 Cloudsdale."

"Can do, ma'am." The wheels began to roll again. After only a short time, they had stopped, this time in front of Vinyl's house.

"Thanks for your help, mister. Couldn't have got home without ya, and I know Gliss appreciates it." Vinyl opened up the carriage door and made her way out.

"Anything for a cute filly like yourself. Now have a good night." She nodded wordlessly at the stallion. "C'mon boys, the night's almost over." The driver lashed his reins and the two ponies he steered went into a canter. Once they had completely left Vinyl's field of vision, she walked slowly down the cobblestone path to the door of her home and opened it.

Inside, as if she wasn't expecting it, were both of her parents. Her mother, looking infuriated, walked straight up to Vinyl, gave her a deathly stare, and asked a question Vinyl had seen coming since the moment she had left school:

"Where have you been?"

Apparently, this was going to be an even longer and worse evening than Vinyl had expected.

Comments

[kalash93]

I will soon read your story and then write up your review.

[kalash93]

This is Kalash93 from Authors Helping Authors reviewing your story.

Grammatik: 7 -- You need to revise how you do dialogue and direct addresses. You also need to mind your paragraph breaks. Lastly, some of your diction is awkward.

Pros
1. Your pacing is good.
2. Your characters all have distinct personalities.
3. Your dialogue works.

Cons
1. You are completely without subtlety.
2. You use some odd syntax.
3. You seem to be missing a dark tag.

Notes

I don't know how you did it, but you've managed to get things moving at exactly the right speed. Some things take a little too long, such as the class introduction, but the tale is moving at a good pace. Nothing is rushed. Nothing is prolonged. The scenes develop and then they end at just the right moment before they get boring. You did a good job at creating characters with distinct personalities. This ties directly in with how you used dialogue. It's not easy to write a lot of dialogue, let alone good dialogue, especially in large quantities. Somehow, you pulled it off. This story is a massive improvement over your previous one. Now, you do way too much showing and not enough telling. You are often redundant. It is also much less engaging to read a story where you just tell us everything instead of letting us use our minds to compliment the idea you plan in our heads. Your syntax can be odd at times. I recommend going back through and editing the parts that just don't feel right. I found such glitches to be grattingly jarring, although not too common. Finally, it seems as if your story might need a dark tag. It says sad, but a child's mother is dead. And I have a feeling that it's all Vinyl Scratch's fault.

I hope you enjoyed your review. I remember that I asked you to take a look at my story, Racer And The Geek (http://www.fimfiction.net/story/81159/racer-and-the-geek), more than a month ago. I am still awaiting your review. For this one, take your pick of any of my other stories. Try to have at least one of them done within a week, and both done by the end of the month.

Your story is of middling quality. You earn a fair 5/10 flutteryays.

[nctransgirl]

2444100 I was debating on the "Tragedy" tag for a while.

This story is a bit of a diversion from Frozen Over, I'll agree there. I wanted to try something in the third-person, with more time spent on events in general. Thank you for the comment about their personalities, I actually try to have most of the classroom characters have personalities directly related to their names, and as for Vinyl and Break Beat, I think of them as foils.

Thanks for the review. I'll be honest, the reason I haven't gotten to Racer and the Geek yet is because I'm just a bit intimidated by the word count. Mind if I do my review in sections? I'm sorry if that seems lazy.

[kalash93]

2444200

You can do your review in sections.

[Dark Flame]

Oh man, I feel so sad for gliss, that's messed up her mum dead and her dad away still love reading it though

[I accept headpats]

Poor Glissando...

[I accept headpats]

2407090

[Nightshade Dawn]

2446100 dude she's blind her mother died and they can't get in contact with her father, could be worse she could be an orphan with no extended family.

[Dark Flame]

2536934 ah man I hope it don't come down to that she's so nice she deserves better :(

[Nightshade Dawn]

2537362 yea no shit I bet you 100,000 bits that she and Break beat get together. nctransgirl you can't tell us what is going to happen if you do I know pinkimenea and she always wants to play.