Chapter 1: It’s Way Past Midnight…
Vinyl was at her peak.
She was high above the crowd, behind the turntables and multitude of speakers, in a large glass-walled booth that had a number of lights and strobes emanating from it in tune with the music she was blasting. Her audience screamed and pounded their hooves in approval with each new song and sound that boomed out. The ever-partying crowd of ponies only grew larger as the night drew on. She looked over the huge crowd, all dancing in tune with the thumping bass and erratic melodies that shook the shiny neon-and-black walls and floors of the club. Some looked a bit too happy, and she chalked it up to some ponies having either too much to drink, or consuming some... more illicit substances. To each their own, she supposed. Clubs like this always felt like home to her, regardless of how they might appear to others: the equipment, her children; and all the roaring fans, her family.
As she blasted the final song of the night, the ponies’ numbers began to dwindle. She took a deep breath, and with deft movement that could come only from years of practice and experience, she launched into yet another fast–paced, earth-rocking song, shaking the whole club with the beats as she threw her hooves up in the air. As the final song died down, and ponies began to file out of the club, the exhausted DJ swung a matted, sweaty lock of neon blue mane out of her face, and started to take down the equipment she had brought. As she levitated her headphones into her saddlebag, she couldn’t help but feel a rather ominous presence nearby. She looked over, and noticed a rather shady mare just standing near the entrance. She’s probably just waiting for someone. She thought to herself, paying it no further thought.
After most of the guests had left, and she felt she could step down from the booth without being swarmed by adoring ponies, she carried her equipment over to the bar; not for alcohol, as much as she would have loved that, but to simply wind down from such an energetic performance. She picked up a bottle of water in her magic, and downed half of it in one gulp. But then was that ominous feeling again. She glanced over to see the same rather skinny, but still attractive and young, earth pony mare with an icy white mane take a seat next to her, and turned a bit. Her mane hid her face, but Vinyl could hear her silky but ominous voice all the same.
“Well, well, well… if it isn’t Vinyl Scratch, AKA, DJ Pon3. Big fan.” Vinyl could hear the sarcastic, almost mocking tone in the mare’s voice. Vinyl downed the last of her water, and turned to the offending creature.
“Cut to the chase. What do you want?”
The mare looked hurt, if for a moment only. “You’re an up and coming DJ, yes?”
Vinyl looked at her with a ‘Thank you, Captain Obvious’ look. Where’s she going with this…? She thought to herself. Vinyl growled. She was known to be a very lax person when it came to most things, but this mare was getting on her nerves, big time. “You’ve got ten seconds to prove that you’re not wasting my time.”
The mare chuckled. "Please, I know your type- fame just keeps climbing higher and higher. But after a while, that's not the only thing that gets higher, is it?"
“It’s never been a problem, and it won’t become one. Beat it, newspony.” Vinyl knew that wasn’t true, but she didn’t like to talk about her previous addictions. The mare smirked.
“Newspony? Oh, no no no. I was merely making a business proposal.” She slid a piece of paper with an address scrawled onto it, before standing up. “If you ever need a fix -and I know you will-, don’t hesitate to visit.” She walked out of the club without another word, save for a confident smirk.
That was three weeks ago. And needless to say, the mysterious mare had been taken up on her offer. After the first few times, however, it was no longer in Vinyl’s total control when she got her fix. Her subconscious decided when she pumped herself full of H, as though it was controlling her mind, turning her into a robot whose only directive was to get another high.
Vinyl wandered the streets of Manehattan, her vision a bit hazy. Taking precautions against being practically attacked by newsponies or fans, she wore a long coat that hid most of her appearance. She was exhausted from her show. Every once in a while she would lean against a wall to steady herself for a moment. She looked about as the attention of the various street urchins made itself known. She groaned inwardly and sighed as she saw the stallion she was eager to find. She hurriedly walked up to him, as he smirked to see her eagerly returning to him, like a moth to a flame.
“Back for more, I see?” Vinyl glared at him from behind her tinted glasses, with a small smirk.
“Bite me. You know the drill, Rocks.” She said as she looked around quickly before producing a moderately sized bag of bits and tossing it to him. The gangly, dark green pony looked inside the pouch, grinned, and tossed a bag to her in exchange, which she quickly caught with her magic. She quickly thanked the dealer pony before hurriedly trotting away. She couldn’t afford to be caught like this; it would certainly mean the end of her fame. The green stallion chuckled harshly to himself, and returned into a dilapidated building nearby.
A few minutes later, a certain unicorn mare was holed up in a dark alley, senses drowning in an intense euphoria. Wave after wave of white-hot bliss flooded through her veins, threatening to sweep her consciousness away. All of this was caused by a mere heated substance contained in a syringe. As Vinyl pierced herself with the needle, she all but moaned, overtaken by yet another surge of pleasure from the offending substance. This searing flood of ecstasy dragged on for yet another minute, and another, and another...
A few hours later, finally coming down from her high, Vinyl sighed, half from the loss of the pleasure, half from some deep-down feeling of remorse. One of her first sober thoughts drifted to her marefriend, how she had been blowing what was supposed to pay her half of the rent on drugs, and the look on her marefriend’s face when she would inevitably, at some point, have to explain where the money had gone, and she began to sob. “I’m sorry, Octy…. So sorry…” She choked out past her tears. Where but a short while ago she had felt on top of the world, she now felt truly dropped at the bottom of the heap.
Vinyl crept slowly through the doorway of the apartment, trying to make as little noise as possible. She swore under her breath as her flank bumped against the table by the door, causing the table to squeak across the hardwood floor slightly. The mare pricked her ears up, listening for the stirring of her lover, Octavia. Hearing nothing from the bedroom, she continued into the house, shutting the door silently behind her. Her hooves found soft purchase on the plush, albeit old, carpet of the living room. As she entered the common area, she suddenly felt like she was being watched. And unfortunately for her plans of getting into the apartment unnoticed, she was right.
“Hello, Vinyl.” A familiar female voice rang out, clearly miffed, but silky as ever. As a lamp flickered on, she cringed at the sight she was met with. A grey mare with a charcoal mane, wearing a thick robe and sitting in the chair, forehooves crossed. The piercing look in her eyes directed sternly at Vinyl said it all.
Great… Vinyl thought to herself. She is pissed. With a capital P-I-S-S-E-D.
“Vinyl, it is far past midnight. I was worried sick! You said you’d come home right after your performance, and this has happened time and time again! Frankly, I’m beginning to get fed up. Where in Tartarus have you been all these times?” Octavia fumed, just barely keeping her voice level. Vinyl ran a hoof through her electric mane as she struggled to come up with an excuse.
“S-sorry Octy…. I always try to come home after my gigs, but the boss usually makes me stay late, and if it isn’t that, it’s my damn agent hounding me about the next performance, or some newspony demanding an interview and not taking no for an answer… I’m really sorry.” She muttered rather rude comments about the aforementioned ponies for effect. To Vinyl’s relief, Octavia seemed to buy that as her sharp expression softened, albeit only somewhat; but nonetheless...
“It’s alright dear… I understand. Honestly though, you really need to be in touch more; every time you don’t come home when you say you will, it worries me. I just don’t want you to get into trouble. Ok?” She gave a small smile before pecking her lover’s cheek. Vinyl smiled and nodded, an icy ball of guilt forming in her stomach when she thought of the actual reason she had been so late coming home.
But she can’t know about that…. She thought to herself. I could never do that to her...
Chapter 2: Caught
Vinyl sighed and rolled over in bed, yet again. No matter how hard she tried, or how she tried to sleep, she was unable to get comfortable. Octavia had fallen asleep long before her. It felt like she had fallen asleep hours ago, it seemed, while she was painfully awake. She finally groaned in frustration, and threw up her hooves, then climbing out of bed very gingerly as to not wake Octavia. She looked back at her lover, and smiled. Octavia always looked so peaceful when she slept; Vinyl almost giggled out loud, noticing the slightest bit of drool at the corner of the sleeping mare’s mouth.. Freakin’ adorable. She thought to herself. She tiptoed out of the bedroom, and headed towards the bathroom. She shut the door, and flicked on the light. An near grim visage that she almost didn't recognize as her own, stared back at her tiredly. She splashed some water against her face, looked in the mirror and sighed. Dark hanging bags were beginning to appear under her eyes, and her cerise eyes had all but lost their once vibrant and youthful shine. She turned away from the mirror, and turned the light off, quietly returning to the bedroom. After a not insignificant amount of effort, Vinyl fell into a fitful sleep, strewn with strange dreams and terrors.
Vinyl awoke unpleasantly, the sensation of something like a hangover washing over her almost immediately. As Vinyl’s eyes cracked open a bit, not wanting to admit the sunlight streaming in from the window, she shielded her eyes with a forehoof, and rolled over to look at the bedside clock.
11:35 PM, the little red numbers shined.
Vinyl blinked a few times, and for the first time that morning, noticed the absence of warmth on the other side of the bed. Octavia almost never let her sleep late. For a moment, she wondered if she had forgotten a special occasion, before noticing a note on the bedside table, written in Octavia's crude but flowing script.
Vinyl,
I had to go to an unexpected rehearsal today. I didn’t want to wake you; I’ll be back around 4.
I’m sure you can occupy yourself until then.
Love you,
-Octavia
Vinyl looked at the note for a moment before getting up, and walking into the living room. She cracked her neck and stretched; a series of ‘pops’ sounding out. She sat down on the couch for a moment.
Her thoughts quickly drifted to a small wooden box tucked in an alcove beneath the bed in the bedroom, nestled into the wall. She rushed into the bedroom, and withdrew the box. She sighed in a mixture of longing and guilt as she went through the contents. Inside, there were several syringes, a bag containing a rocky substance, and a spoon.
This is wrong… She thought to herself.
She groaned at the internal exchange, and got to work. It only then occurred to her how lucky she was to have a horn, as she used her magic to heat the substance. She loaded a syringe, and after a moment of apprehension, stabbed it in. She hissed in pain at the pinprick sensation, but soon fell into a state of ecstasy. Time soon became irrelevant, and reality became unnecessary.
Vinyl groaned as the last residue of her high made it clear it was gone. Everything ached, like it always did. She felt soul-crushing guilt, like she always did, but strangely, she felt a sense of sick fulfillment, and a hunger in her mind was assuaged. She hated this tornado of emotion that always crept into her mind during this limbo-like period. She lied there in silence, for another about another 20 minutes, before sitting up at a familiar sound.
She heard the door to the apartment beginning to open. She always cursed that faulty lock, but now its ability to slow Octavia down was a godsend.
Ohfuckohfuckohfuck! She kept swearing in her mind, as she quickly put away all the offending objects, locked the small box they resided in, jamming them back into the hole, and lying down in bed, hoping against hope that it would convince her marefriend she had been asleep all day.
She heard the door click open, and relaxed, attempting to look asleep.
It apparently worked, as Octavia entered the bedroom, only to utter a soft ‘aww…’ and pull the covers up to Vinyl’s neck, kissing her marefriend on the cheek and leaving her.
Vinyl sighed softly, feeling bad about practically lying to her lover. She relaxed, and eventually fell asleep. She awoke and walked out into the kitchen. She groaned as she walked and stretched. Lying in bed after that left her somewhat stiff. She looked up at the clock; it was past 10, she had to be ready to perform at her show in less than 30 minutes. “OH BUCK!” She said, much louder than she intended.
“Vinyl! Language!” Octavia scolded from the next room, before walking in.
“Sorry!” Vinyl said quickly, grabbing her box of records in her magic, and getting ready to head out the door.
“Vinyl, wait.”
“What?” Vinyl let out in a mixture of a whine and a sigh, exasperated and obviously in a hurry.
“Are you ok? You’ve been acting different lately. You’re coming home late, and you’re flighty. You look almost… sick, at times...” Octavia finished, with a forlorn expression.
On the outside, Vinyl was hardly fazed. On the inside, she hated herself. She hated lying to Octavia, but she felt like she had to, like she was protecting her from this. “I’m fine, Octavia.” She said, more curtly than she intended.
“Vinyl, love, I’m just worried. You know you can tell me anything, right?”
“I said I’m fine.” She said again.
“But-“ Octavia started.
“No buts. Seriously, I promise I’m okay. Now, I gotta go. I love you.” She dashed out, hiding the tears in her eyes as she heard Octavia call after her, “I love you too.”
All throughout the dark night of Manehattan, the bass emanating from Vinyl’s turntables shook the night club with impressive intensity as the DJ bobbed her head, her striped mane flying to and fro, and worked her magic. While heroin gave her a high, performing on stage gave her the same rush, more or less.
The crowd of ponies below roared in approval of the music and pounded their hooves as they danced to the beat, and she flashed her trademark grin, causing them to go wild. Suddenly, a thought struck her, one that quickly erased the grin from her face, though her hooves never stopped their continuous movement.
‘I wish she was here.’
Octavia groaned as she sorted through the piles of junk that made up Vinyl’s side of the room. She had lectured her numerous times about keeping her side of the room clean, but as with many other lectures with that mare, it went in one ear, out the other, like always.
‘That mare… what will I ever do with her?’ She asked herself with a sigh.
As she moved a blue and white striped sock aside, she turned beet red, remembering just why it was tossed so carelessly aside. She shook her head, and went back to her cleaning. As she reached for a discarded battery, she slipped and fell, letting out a cry that she would certainly never utter in mixed company. She reached for the battery, which had now rolled under the bed, and bumped a rectangular wooden box.
“Hm?” She reached for it, and pulled it out. “What’s in here?” She wondered aloud, and then noticed the lock on the box. Her frown only became more apparent. She tried to contain herself, but the mounting fear only grew when she saw a small bit of plastic sticking out from the box.
‘Nononononono, she told me she was over that years ago, she couldn’t possibly… Maybe that’s why she’s been home so late lately…’ She kept saying to herself, fearing the worst. A whirlwind of conclusions went through her head, until she took a few deep breaths, and finally managed to calm down. ‘There is no need to get so flustered, Octavia. All you have to do is ask her about it when she gets home. Surely there’s an explanation for this.’ She nodded to herself, but was still incredibly nervous. She set the box on the bed, and went back to her cleaning.
______________________________________________________________________________
Vinyl arrived home after her performance, yawning. She was home a lot earlier than she had been lately, considering she hadn’t needed to go, ‘run some errands,’ as she sometimes called it to herself. She sighed to herself as she entered the kitchen, noticing Octavia was still up, and she didn’t look Grade-A pissed off about something when Vinyl got home, for once. Octavia looked up from the marked up and scattered sheet music on the table.
“Hi, Vinyl. Nice to see you home at a decent time for once.” She said, with teasing sarcasm, and what Vinyl could’ve sworn was a bit of an edge.
“…You alright, babe?” She asked, with concern, and a bit of fear for her own hide.
Octavia smiled, “Of course. Why?” The edge was gone. Maybe it was just her imagination.
“Oh, no reason, I’m just wondering.” Vinyl lied, as she walked over and gave her marefriend a kiss on the nose.
“Oh, how sweet.” Octavia giggled.
Vinyl yawned and cracked her neck. “I’m a bit tired, I’m gonna go lay down. Care to join me?” She winked.
Octavia blushed, then shook her head, smiling coyly. “Oh, you never change. I’ll be there in a minute, okay?”
Vinyl grinned, and nodded. “Alright, love ya, babe.”
“I love you too.” Octavia replied, cheery as ever.
Vinyl walked into the bedroom. ‘Aw yeah, time to get it on.’ She thought to herself, but that and similar thoughts that all meant laying out her marefriend came to a screeching halt when she saw the wooden box on the bed. If she could be paler than her coat of ivory, she most certainly would be.
“Why were you hiding that, Vinyl?” Vinyl practically jumped out of her coat, and turned to see an Octavia, somehow holding a gaze that was an odd but all the same terrifying mixture between an icy glare, and an innocent curiosity.
“I…. uh…” Vinyl suddenly lost the ability to speak, to explain to the mare that was now staring her into silence, the mare she had let down, again. Vinyl’s silence only confirming Octavia’s fears.
“What happened to giving it up forever? Our love being more important than some stupid high? What happened?” As Octavia’s voice rose, so did the tears in her eyes, and the cold guilt in Vinyl’s chest.
“I….I…”
“Open the box, Vinyl.” Octavia said, her voice practically radiating, ‘I’m not messing around.’
“But…” Vinyl began.
“Vinyl Record Scratch, open that box, this instant.”
