It was the middle of the afternoon, a perfect Sunday. Not a speck of cloud in sky to mar the beauty of the pristine azure blue, in which birds, butterflies and pegasi alike flew happily, with not a care in the world. The ponies of Ponyville went happily about their business, whether it was grabbing a snack at Sugarcube Corner, playing with their pets in the park, reading a book under a tree, crusading for their cutie marks, having a picnic, taking a dip in the lake, strolling with their special somepony, or any other fun or relaxing thing a pony could be doing on such a perfect weekend day. Everypony in Ponyville was happy and enjoying themselves, all except one...
The house formerly belonging to both Octavia and Vinyl Scratch, but now belonging to Vinyl alone, was a complete and utter mess. All the blinds were drawn and the windows closed, leaving the interior dank, dark, and dusty as no cleaning had been done in over a week. The small kitchen was empty of pretty much all food, and dirty pots, cups, dishes and cutlery filled the sink and covered all the surrounding benches. The living room floor was littered with pizza boxes, drink cans and bottles, empty cans, wrappers of various items, a half-empty container of melted ice-cream, and really just rubbish in general.
The living room was dark, except for one thin beam of golden light filled with dancing and swirling motes of dust, originating from a small gap at the top of the curtains. The beam had appeared after the sun had left it's zenith, and had been slowly making its way across the room towards the couch, bent on annoying the houses one inhabitant, and it succeeded in it's mission. Vinyl Scratch moaned as the beam hit her closed eyelid, and silently cursed the brightness of the sun as she rolled over to face away from the beam.
It had been two weeks since Vinyl Scratch had killed Octavia.
Two weeks since she had discovered that Octavia had been secretly capturing innocent ponies that had apparently done something she didn't like and replaceing them with identical clones, then torturing them until they committed suicide, all in a sub-cellar Vinyl hadn't known they had. Two weeks since she had rescued Fluttershy and Colgate, only for Colgate to die in the night and Octavia to hunt them down and have a clone kill Fluttershy.
Two weeks since Vinyl had killed her best friend. But she had to do it, Octavia would have locked her up and tortured her till she died of old age, all the while, replacing each and every one of Ponyville's inhabitants. It was better that Octavia was dead... wasn't it?
Vinyl Scratch felt torn. She had stopped something really evil from happening, but in the process had lost a pony that was like a big sister, favourite cousin and B.F.F all in one.
Was protecting all of Ponyville, and possibly the rest of Equestria too, worth murdering one pony?
Yes, Vinyl told herself, it was. But she had lost Octavia...
She was insane though, she couldn't be helped, even if she ever got out of jail if she was found out...
She was my bestest friend ever though...
She was going to lock you up and torture you forever...
But I miss her, insane or not...
This kind of inner argument had been running through Vinyls head ever since she had woken in the woods, alone. The clones of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Colgate had taken away Octavia's body, as well as real Fluttershy and Colgates bodies. It had been well past midnight when Vinyl had finally stumbled home, her injured leg slowing her down. She had desperately hoped, prayed to find that it had all been a nightmare, that she had merely sleepwalked into the woods and injured her leg there, that she would come home to find Octavia waiting for her. But it hadn't been a nightmare, it was what had happened.
Over the next couple of days Vinyl had told ponies that Octavia had had to leave suddenly to care for her grandparents as they were both sick. The residents of Ponyville had accepted the story quickly, and Vinyl had soon retreated to her home, and hadn't left it since. She knew she would need to leave soon, she was nearly out of food, and she should make some sort of appearance so ponies didn't worry about her. She hadn't done any gigs, she had cancelled them all. There was no way she could bring herself to do something she enjoyed when her friend was dead.
Sighing, Vinyl Scratch got up to complete what had become her daily ritual, which started with her waking up, having breakfast, cleaning Octavia's cello, having a snack, staring at photos of much happier times, having another snack, then falling asleep on the couch until that troublesome beam of light woke her. Most times she wished she wouldn't wake up, that she'd go on sleeping forever, despite the nightmares.
She now made her way down to the sub cellar, as per ritual, to contemplate suicide. She sat on a chair at the table, surrounded by the smell of moldy hay, sickeningly strong roses, old blood and pony waste, and stared at the wall of wickedly sharp knives and implements of torture, which had previously belonged to Octavia. She wondered if it would be easy or hard to kill herself? Would it hurt? Would she die instantly or slowly? Could she even ever bring herself to do it?
How long she had sat, staring at that accursed wall, she didn't know, but she knew it was time to leave as the stench was making her feel sick. Leaving the sub-cellar, she went upstairs and had a shower. She had to be clean for the next part of her ritual.
Sometime later, Vinyl Scratch slowly opened the door of Octavia's room, as if expecting to find Octavia napping in bed as the sun neared the horizon, but she never was there. Sighing, Vinyl set about her task of keeping Octavia's bedroom as spotlessly clean as it always had been. She didn't really know why she did this, she just did. She handled each of Octavia's possessions with the utmost care, replacing them exactly as she had found them. Once she was happy with the cleanliness of the room, she headed back downstairs.
Vinyl Scratch suddenly heard a knock on the door. Confused as to who it might be, and a little scared it might be somepony who had somehow discovered what had happened, she hesitantly opened the front door. In the doorway stood a unicorn delivery colt in a Pizza Stable uniform with a hot-bag on his back and a pizza in his magic field.
"Tomato Cheese Extreme pizza for miss Vinyl Scratch?" the colt asked with a smile.
"Oh, err, yes, umm, thanks" Vinyl replied, having forgotten that she'd ordered a pizza. She magically floated over a few bits from a coin purse by the door to pay the colt.
Taking the money and giving Vinyl her pizza, he smiled. "Have a nice night miss Scratch!" he said, the trotted off, probably to deliver another pizza in the area.
Vinyl took the pizza to the living room to eat. Tomato Cheese Extreme was her all time favourite pizza, Octavia's too. They had usually had it on Sunday nights as a kind of 'end of weekend' treat, ordering it from Pizza Stable whenever Octavia didn't feel like cooking it herself. Vinyl sighed at the memory, then frowned when she remembered the delivery colts smile. She loathed other ponies because they were all so happy when she was so miserable.
Something had to be done about it, Vinyl Scratch thought to herself. No pony had the right to be happy when she was as far from happy as anypony could get.
Somepony had to do something about it...
A small smirk appeared on her face.
She would do something about it.
And at that moment, something snapped in her mind.
An idea.
It had been flickering around the edge of her mind for the past two weeks but now it blazed to life.
The party to END all parties.
These ponies would pay for the happiness she couldn't have.
