Shellac
A solitary pony was looking for something in the darkness. Suddenly, she heard a loud, metallic thump; she’d accidentally pushed down a toolbox off the table. She angrily snorted and bent down to blindly gather the scattered tools, once she felt in her hoof what she was looking for. She scolded herself: she could have used her magic all along! But it didn’t matter now. She opened up a fuse box and inserted the wire she’d been looking for, and light flooded the room.
It was her very own personal empire. Colourful lamps shone overhead. Strange symbols painted the walls and floor. A huge, chromium coloured stage dominated the room, surrounded by speakers larger than ponies. An outside observer could be convinced that this was the very center of the world, or that it was a mysterious device out of space and time. Its appearance demanded for awe. Even the most curious filly would not dare approach it.
However, the queen of this empire stood confidently in front of the machine. She adjusted her glasses. Her horn glowed, and one of the switches clicked, and lights behind her were turned on. The bulbs were each as big as her head, and it was as though she’d turned into a living shadow and enveloped her kingdom. This shadow had enwrapped the room. She did not even have to say any words, the whole place harmonized to her heartbeat.
With a wide grin she turned all the dials as far as they would go, hoping to feel the ground shake beneath her hooves.
Instead of the awaited rumble, sparks showered her empire, then the entire place fell into darkness. A thin ray of light cut through the room, gradually widening as the door opened up, but instead of a saviour of light, it revealed an angry pony, breathing heavily through clenched teeth. The pony’s mane looked like an abandoned lawn. She was standing on her hind legs, holding a frying pan in her forelegs.
“Vinyl, you’ve been too on-the-nose in the basement for two days straight! This constant noise is driving me crazy! I swear to Celestia, if we get kicked out again …” She threateningly shook the pan. “Can you see what I’m holding in my hooves?”
“You bet! That’s a pan.” Vinyl answered without any thoughtfulness.
“Good,” said the angry mare. “Then I suppose you know the reason for it. With a more effective weapon I could kill too quickly.
Vinyl looked her roommate over, just now noticing the bits of egg that hang from her coat.
“That’s right! But also because it’s still hot and oily, so if you don’t switch to a humbler tone and wipe off that smug grin off your face… I’ve barely slept, so I might do something you’re gonna regret.” The grey pony was at the verge of crying. Vinyl suddenly realized her negligence, and started to feel sad for her friend.
“I’m really sorry, Octy, I promise you I’ll stop doing this. I’ve gotta go out to do things, anyway. So you can get a good night’s rest while I’m off,” she said, encouragingly.
“That isn’t my problem. My problem is that you’ve been down here for two days! I’m worried about you, Vinyl.”
“Don’t worry! I won’t be experimenting with anything for a while! Everything got busted! You know, this explosion taught me you have to take a break sometimes. I guess I’ll go out for a walk, get some fresh air.
Though Vinyl had a great amount of control over her internal clock. She even could fall asleep whenever she wanted.
Octavia worriedly looked into Vinyl’s eyes, but said nothing. She turned around and went to her bedroom. Vinyl looked at her smoking music studio, where she’d given so many concerts to her imaginary crowd. Her horn started sparkling, then the ventilator turned on, sucking the smoke from the room. It still wouldn’t be safe to start cleaning until she got back.
***
After two days underground, Vinyl soaked up the sunlight like a sponge. She took a big breath and walked along the street with a huge smile. If she went to the pawn shop, she might be able to get rid of her wrecked equipment and earn some money at the same time. It wouldn't be enough to recover her losses, but at least she'd feel a little less guilty for having bought the stuff in the first place.
Leisurely, she headed for the shop, watching the city dwellers on her way. Everything was normal: Berry Punch was drunk as a skunk; Derpy got stuck into a mall box, again, and Lyra and Bonbon sitting on a bench, staring at the by-passers. Vinyl giggled at the sight, and continued her journey.
Then she noticed something that she at first thought was all her imagination.
Somepony hung from the lamp post with a rope around their neck.
She carefully went closer, to see it better. She couldn’t take away her gaze from it. She felt as if she had seen this hanged pony before. Light brown coat, darker brown mane… His cutie mark was a glass hour. Vinyl suddenly recognized him. He was that eccentric clockmaker, who was obsessed with time, though Vinyl had never spoken with him. It seemed like nopony cared that it was in plain view. Passers-by didn’t even glance at it. She guessed it was some kind of joke that she missed, and that’s why nopony was paying attention to it.
She walked up to a young stallion with a great smile.
“Woah, what’d I miss?” she asked, motioning to the body. “Shouldn’t somepony take that down? I admit it’s a very good job, very lifelike, but it could scare the little fillies. Who made it?”
“I would guess the Nocluc company in Canterlot,” the stallion said. “They made every lamp post in the town. I suppose it could be cleaned up a bit, but I can’t see how it would scare little fillies. Besides, if they were taken down, how would we light the streets at night?"
“that’s very funny, but I was talking about that hanged pony thing.” Vinyl persisted.
“I don’t see any hanged pony thing.” replied the pony.
“What?” Vinyl gasped. “Don’t tell me you can’t see it, it’s right in front of you.”
“You’re supposed to have grown out of pranks jokes by your age,” the pony said mockingly. “I’ve gotta go. Have a nice day.” The pony galloped away. He looked back at Vinyl with a scowl, as if offended.
'But Vinly thought the stallion was trying to make a fool of her.
She walked even closer to the body and examined it. “It’s extremely realistic” she said to herself. “Bulging eyes, hanging tongue, colored face, and even this... rotten smell.” A quiet voice in her head told her she wasn’t supposed to be there. She knew, and she tried to move, but her legs were frozen.
She went to another pony on the street and repeated the same line of questioning. Initially, ponies laughed at her, because they thought she was only kidding around, but after she’d bothered almost everypony in the square they merely avoided her. Finally, she stopped in the middle of the square and shouted out:
“You crazy, cart-pulling candy busters, I’m not joking! This isn’t funny! Why can’t anypony give me a normal answer about that thing on the pole?”
The crowd simply watched, scared and worried, as the white mare made a row, until finally two town guards appeared at the square.
One of them, who looked slightly older than his comrade, shouted into the crowd:
“Alright! There is nothing to see here! Just keep walking and return to your business. We’ll take care of the girl. She may be under the influence of drugs or some kind of spell, so keep away from her.“ said on old looking guard firmly. The crowd quickly scattered and everypony got back their daily routine.
The other younger one tried to get Vinyl to calm down. “Relax, ma’am! We’re here to help you! For your own good, you will have to come with us.”
Vinyl was not afraid of the guards. She was happy to see them! Finally, the authorities, whose job it is to handle these kinds of cases.
“I have no problem, officer. I saw that pony hanging from the lamp, but no one else even wants to acknowledge it!” Vinyl said irritably.
“We know. We believe you. That’s why you have to come with us. Please, get into the cart.” the older officer told her, strictly, but encouragingly. “Once we reach the station, you can help us solve this hanged pony case.”
Vinyl was sincerely surprised that the guards believed her. She hesitated to get inside, but she knew there was no other option. The cart the guards had brought with them was a common guard-cart, in which convicts and suspects were delivered. She couldn’t ride on their back, so she half-heartedly got inside. The door closed behind her, and she could only see out of small windows on the cart side. She started to get anxious, the guard didn’t do anything with the body, they didn’t even look at it. They only got in front of the cart and started to pull it.
“Why are you leaving the body there?” Vinyl asked.
“We need to keep it intact for the coroner,” the older guard said.
“You know, like in the movies,” said the younger one, squinting as he looked back at her. “Hey, do I know you? Aren’t you that trendy DJ from Canterlot?
“The one and only,” said Vinyl, proudly.
“I knew it! And I’m a huge fan, Vinyl! I just never imagine I would meet you in a small town like this, in a situation like this.” The older guard rolled his eyes as the younger continued. “I bought your last summer album, I’ve even gone to some of your concerts. Damn, you’ve got to be quick to buy a ticket. They always run out too fast. Plus, I don’t like crowd, I dispel it. I gotta say, you’re even hotter in person. I wouldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d get to do your first scandal arrest.” He said this jauntily, as if she was a rare, missing piece for his collection. “Oh, right, my name is Brick. The old one’s Morph.”
Vinyl felt her blood freeze in her veins. These two guys didn’t believe her for a minute.
“As far as I saw, you must have partied pretty hard last night,” said Brick. “I imagine that’s bad for the nerves. The loud music, the colourful drinks. No idea what’s got you buzzed, but not every drunk pony starts shouting about hanged ponies in the middle of the street in broad daylight, so it must be something special. When we arrive at the station, the doc will have to take a little blood from you. For your own safety, of course.
Vinyl finally accepted that she was being lied to. They just thought she was nuts like the others. She tried to open the door of the cart, but it was locked.
“Don’t jitter, missy,” said Morph in his growly voice. “It can only be opened from the outside, and this whole cart is resistant to magic. Just lay back and enjoy the ride.
Vinyl didn’t give up. “I won’t let them sweep me off the stage so easily. They forgot that my real magical strength lies in music.” Vinyl thought.
She took off her sunglasses. Her magenta eyes turned red. Her mane and tail started to wave Her horn glowed, and then shone. Thin arcs of electric discharge surrounded her and the cart started shaking. Gathering the sound waves, she stamped on her seat, concentrating them all in one direction. Then they started to collide in a cyclic echo between the two ends of the cart, and she waited to see which one would buckle sooner.
“Hey! Didn’t I told you to stop the bravado?” the guard shouted back. He was dumbfounded at once when he saw the side of the cart blown out, his captive gone.
Vinyl jumped out of the freshly made hole and ran as fast as she could. She didn’t even look back, to see if the guards were chasing her. She ran until she found to a safe, secluded spot in an alley, then she stopped to catch her breath. When she raised her hoof to wipe sweat from her forehead, she realized she’d lost her trademark sunglasses.
***
She pulled herself together within minutes. She decided to go home and tell Tavi what happened, but she had to go through the town as unobtrusively as she could, to avoid any unnecessary attention. She never thought she would be happy in her life to lost her sunglasses, it was way harder to recognize her without them.
After finding her bearings and covering half the distance, she suddenly felt like someone was watching her. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, like a shark was creeping around her.
She looked all around, but she didn’t see anypony who was watching her. She took a deep breath and kept walking forward, but the feeling didn’t wear off, and even became stronger and stronger as she got closer to her house. It was like a noose tightening around her neck.
“Calm down, Vinyl,” she thought in her head. “You’re starting to get crazy. Pull yourself together. You can just tell Octavia what happened, she’ll have an explanation.”
As she was walking she heard weird noises, it was like wind blowing through a tree - no, it sounded more like buzzing, and she swatted at it instinctively. Like an insect hovering right in front of her face, but there was nothing there, and the sound kept getting louder.
“Why do I even care about that?” she asked herself. “My smallest problem is bigger than listening to weird buzzing noises.”
Looking up, she saw a black cloud in the sky above city hall. “They didn’t say there would be rain today,” she thought. She shook her head then continued her way forward, but couldn’t tear her gaze away from the clouds. When she got closer, she saw them moving erratically. After a moment one of them flew down and turned into a totally normal pony, right before her eyes. Her first thought was that changelings had returned, and quietly, without any attention they took over the town.
Vinyl watched in horror, as the creature finished its transformation. Without thinking, she turned around and ran directly away from town hall. She spotted a bus at the side of the road and, seeing her chance, went on just before it left its stop. She tried to gather her thoughts on the seat. “Why are these things happens to me? I didn’t do anything, as far as I can remember!”
“Okay, let’s think it through: I blew up the basement, I had a brief discussion with Octavia, there was that hanged pony that no one saw but me, I escaped from the guards, and now swarms of bugs are turning into bugs and ponies in front of my eyes.”
“Well, yeah, Vinyl, finally it’s happened: you’ve gone totally insane. Darn it! Why didn’t I listen to my parents when they told me the party-pony lifestyle would backfire sooner or later?”
She had one more uncomfortable thought - well, more of a feeling. A strange numb feeling on her nape. Running on instinct, turned around and saw someone staring directly at her.
“Hold your horses, Vinyl. You’re getting paranoid. It’s only an ordinary pony, going about their business like anypony else.
The feeling didn’t wear off. She turned back again, and looked up and down her newest admirer. It was a unicorn mare with a shiny blue coat, and a deep blue mane with a white stripe running down its length. The mare’s expression was not too friendly. She was frowning at Vinyl.
“'I can't be imagining this, too” she thought. She was beginning to question her own sanity.
“You have to get off,” said the voice in her head.
She watched the next stop approach, through the window. When the bus stopped, she launched out of her seat like a rocket. No attention paid to anypony, she ran out of the bus and among the buildings. She hid behind a tree and careful peeked around its trunk, checking whether a certain blue pony was following her.
When she saw nopony was on her tail, she calmed down. It must’ve been a false alarm. She stepped aside the tree and suddenly felt terribly tired. Though she was used to the night life, the events of this day had taken away all of her energy.
She heard her stomach growling. No wonder, she hadn’t eaten anything that day. She looked around the street for a place to eat, and she saw a bakery. She went in and bought a pizza, a donut and a coffee.
After her little feast, she felt finally content, and she calmly trotted along the street as though the events of the morning were merely a bad dream. For a moment, she really allowed herself to forget about everything, but it didn’t last long.
She smelled something strange in the air. It smelled like mouth wash. Then she saw the blue mare from the bus, looking around, as if searching for someone. She desperately looked around for a hiding spot, but it was too late: the blue mare noticed her, and headed towards her with determined steps. Vinyl did not hesitate: she dropped the rest of her coffee and ran. The other pony followed close behind.
Back in the populated streets, both of them were slaloming ponies. Vinyl looked back and was terrified to find the mare close on her tail. The mare’s expression grew more and more confident as she approached. There was only one thing that Vinyl was sure of: She didn’t want to get caught by this mare. But she was still slightly faster, she mustn’t have had such a trying day.
The chase continued for several minutes, and they had almost reached the town border; Vinyl knew she had better chances among the ponies and buildings than on an open road. She took a sudden turn into the nearest alley.
***
The blue unicorn was panting. She saw her target take a sharp turn into an alley. “She’s getting tired - this will be over soon,” she thought to herself. She followed the white mare, then suddenly everything went dark.
***
Vinyl stared at the body lying in front of her. She dropped the rock from her magical aura, then checked the mare’s life signs, And was relieved to see she was only unconscious.
“I’m sorry, she said. It’s not like I don’t want to talk with you. Actually, I have so many questions for you, but we gotta postpone it for next time.”
She lifted the body onto her back and hid it behind a dumpster. “You should be fine here, but by the time you wake up I’ll be long gone.” with this farewell she left the body there.
***
She managed to get home without any other problems.
On entering the house, she dashed up to the bedroom, where she thought Octavia was sleeping. She wanted nothing more than to leave the town as soon as possible, and get as far away as possible. All she had to do was put Tavi on her back and run.
She found no one in the bedroom. Normally this was no cause for concern, but this time she couldn’t stay calm. What if something had happened to her? She couldn’t drive away this thought. She felt like flipping the bed upside down just to relieve tension. She did.
After she rearranged the furniture in the room, she very nearly did the same with the whole house. She would not survive if something had happened to her best friend. She headed to the kitchen, hoping to find some kind of message explaining why her friend was gone, but she found something even better: Octavia, sitting at the table, looking surprised at Vinyl.
“‘Tavi, listen to me very closely!” she said. “Pack your things, only the essentials! We gotta get out of here immediately! Very strange things are happening in the town!”
Octavia was accustomed to Vinyl’s antics, due to her party life-style, so she only sighed, and said “Relax! What did you do this time, Vinyl?”
“Me? Nothing! I swear!” she said as she took out two pieces of luggage and started packing anything she could find, without thinking.
“Vinyl, listen! You’ve gone bonkers! Why don’t you at least tell me what happened?”
“It all started with the hanged dude that I found on the street” she explained, hardly stopping to breathe. “Everypony pretended they couldn’t see it, then the guards took me away, but I managed to escape. I tried to get back here, but I had to hide after I saw those storm clouds fly down to the ground and turn into ponies. Then a mare with a blue and white mane wanted to catch me, but I knocked her out with a rock and ran home.”
“Oh my gosh, Vinyl! Of all the crazy things you’ve done, this one ranks... somewhere in the middle, I guess. But I hope you didn’t kill that poor girl!”
“No, she’s fine, I made sure. I hid her in an alley, so she may not know where she is when she wakes up.” Vinyl smiled as she finally forced the two stuffed luggage closed. “By the time she wakes up, we’re gonna be over hedge and ditch.”
“Vinyl, you know, you’re my best friend. We’ve been sharing the same bed for years now. I thought I’d adapted to your sense of humor, but this seems a little much.
“What?” Vinyl mumbled anxiously. “What? You think, I’m lying?”
Octavia stepped closer to Vinyl and looked into her eyes and mouth.
“Alright, as far as I tell, you’re clean. If even half of what you told me is true, we have to do something as soon as possible. “
“Exactly!”
“On the other hoof, I can be accused with complicity if I don’t testify against you.”
“Do you still not believe me?”
“Do you really think I’m swallowing this junk?” Octavia barked.
Vinyl took Octavia’s shoulders, pressed their faces together, and, in a serious tone, she told her:
“Octavia, I know I usually make you mad and, I constantly tease you, and detract your music, but I’m telling you now that you’re still my very best friend and the only one I dare to be completely honest with. I'm only teasing you because I want to see you happy, and not so depressed all the time, and I also really enjoy it when you play your chello. I’m even a bit jealous of it, but, please you gotta believe me this time. Please, you’re my best friend.”
Octavia said nothing. She only stared at Vinyl’s tired eyes.
Finally, she spoke: “All right, Vinyl, I believe you. Besides, you’ve already finished packing for the both of us. I just have to grab my cello.
“Alright, I’ll wait for you, here.” Vinyl said. She began to calm herself down, but remained determined.
Octavia went upstairs.
After about a minute, Vinyl started nervously walking up and down the hall, checking the clock in every five seconds.
“What’s taking her so long?” she asked herself. “She’s been up there for five minutes. Is it really so hard to pack up a violin?”
She was about to follow Octavia upstairs to see what was going on when she heard someone coming down.
“Finally! What’d take you for so much time? Honestly, I’m curious.”
No answer came, but this did not bother Vinyl too much, as she was already headed for the door. Only when she turned her head backwards to see her friend did she realize it was not Octavia behind her. It was an insect like something that she saw on the street.
Vinyl’s legs gave out beneath her, and she fell to the ground. In a blind panic, unable to look away from the thing, she started crawled backwards until the door stopped her. She stood up and tried to open the door, but for some reason, it was jammed.
She didn’t have time to deal with this. She turned to face the alien, and tried to prepare herself for whatever was about to happen. It was much faster than she thought, and in an instant she fell to the ground under the beast. She tried to use her magic to free herself, but she couldn’t move it. All she had was only enough to keep it away from her face. She looked around, hoping to find something to hit it with. There was an umbrella stand next to the door - she threw it at the monster using what little magic she could spare. The creature recoiled from the hit, then she threw it again, and the bug slumped onto the floor, just past her hooves.
Vinyl used this moment to run into the kitchen, hoping to jump out of the window. She tried to open it with her magic, but it was stuck shut. She took one of the knives from a nearby drawer and tried to break open the window with it. As she was messing with the latch, she heard its steps down the hall, and then saw it in the doorway.
The beast jumped at her from the door. Vinyl only had time to face it before it tackled and knocked the wind out of her. She was pushed across the kitchen into the fridge, and her head hit the door, making her lose her footing. After that all Vinyl felt was the haze of near-unconsciousness.
When she came back to her senses, she realized something big and heavy was lying on her. She felt something warm around her legs, as if they had been soaked in warm water. With some effort she managed to get free, and crawled toward the nearest wall, just so she could lean against something. She tried to think over what had happened, but it was so much, so fast, her cloudy, sluggish mind couldn’t even manage that.
Perhaps it was trying to drive her away from this place. “There is no point in understanding anything, just stand up and get out of here,” it might say. But she was unable to stand up. Everything around her was broken, blood and glass everywhere. It was starting to get dark outside, and the walls were wrapped in twilight. She had no idea how much time had passed.
“It’s getting late,” she thought. “Or maybe I’m dying.”
She didn’t care either way. She enjoyed the strange mix of light and shadow. It made her feel like that was all just a terrible dream, and she’s about to wake up soon.
She forced herself to stand up.
She didn't care what would happen, she would find Octavia. She hoped that thing hadn't hurt her. She would find her and leave together
She stood up, but her vision wasn’t clear yet. She had to strain her eyes. She saw a grey patch of fur laid out on the floor before her hooves, with a purple clef on it, drentched in blood.
Vinyl gasped, and quickly ran out the door. She couldn’t think of anything else, she didn’t want to think about anything else. All she wanted to run and get away. She ran until she couldn’t bear it anymore, and collapsed on the ground, panting, sobbing.
“Why? Why me? Why is this happening to me?” She asked herself, the universe, her conscience, a greater power, but ultimately received no answer.
She lifted her head, and saw she had fallen just at the border of a town. She could even read the sign. She was in Whealyfield. Vinyl was surprised. Did she really run for so long? Whealyfield was a middle-sized town north-west from Ponyville, some thirty miles away.
It doesn’t matter, Vinyl thought. It’s even better, everything went crazy back at Ponyville. Somepony must help me here.
***
Most of the lights were already out, almost everypony would be asleep at this time. 'Only a few windows remained lit, shops and other buildings that remained open during the night. For instance, the local police office that Vinyl stepped in. She asked for the pony on duty.
The officer looked like as if he had just woken up, and started when he saw Vinyl. “Oh, my Celestia! What happened to you? You look terrible!”
“ I know you won’t believe me, but I’m gonna try to tell you.”
***
Vinyl was sitting in a relatively comfortable armchair. The officer had given her a blanket, and a hot cup of tea.
“That was a very… strange story, ma’am, but I have to say it isn’t the first time I’ve heard something like it,” the officer pony said. “There’s nothing to worry about. It is likely those two police-ponies busted you only for your… way of life. Do not be mad with them for this, I’m going to talk to them and set everything straight. Now, about the blue mare who chased you, well, frankly, she’s gone without a trace. “
“What?” Vinyl asked.
“Our rapid reaction pegasus didn’t find her at the place you said she was. I can only hope she came around and walked home by her own legs, safely. Nevertheless, we’ll continue the search.“
“A-and what about those bugs, and the… the…” Vinyl struggled to say everything that came to mind.
“It was not you who killed your friend, she’s been death for a long time. Don’t beat yourself up over it,” said the police pony, sympathetically.
“Those ‘bugs’ have been showing up now and then for years. By now, it’s become a routine job to deal with them.” The officer went to Vinyl, grabbed her hoof and lead her out of the office, down the same corridor they had come in by.
“But, what about that hanged pony? Who was he? Was he really there at all, or was I imagining it?” Vinyl asked.
“I’m glad you asked, and I’ll explain it with more than pleasure. That was bait, to catch ponies like you. You know, like how the light of a lantern attracts bugs.“
“ What the heck does that mean?” Vinyl asked desperately.
“I’ll show you.” The officer pushed her out the entrance of the station. Vinyl noticed a rope hanging from the mast of the station, dangling above the front door. At its end was the empty loop of a noose.
***
The local flower artist, Rose, had spent all day caring for her ornamental garden. She was tired and sweaty from hours of working in the sun, but finally she was able to look over her garden contentedly.
“Let’s call it a day,” she thought. It was time to go home and have a hot shower.
She peacefully trots along the street, then she suddenly noticed a blue haired, white coated mare hanging from the mast in front of the police station. The strangest thing was: nopony else seemed to care about it.