Make Some Noise

You peel your eyes open and wince at the light pouring into an open window. Your head is pounding, as if someone had beaten you over the head with various blunt objects. Were you hungover? No, you had only a couple drinks last night. This feeling was different. Your chest felt hollow and your extremities numb. A glance reveals that they've been chained to the floor and bound together above your head. Your efforts to struggle against the clanking metal are futile, you wouldn't have the strength to break chains even if your limbs weren't asleep.

You let out a cry for help only to find your voice weak and muffled by some force. Were you drugged? The horrifyingly real chance strikes you. You take in your surroundings, you're chained to a dirty mattress in a dark room lit only by a small ceiling-high window. A basement? Most likely. The floors and walls seem to vibrate with rhythm. If you had to guess, you'd say it was maybe three in the afternoon.

You shake your arms to knock the chain against whatever surrounds it, and feel it whapping against something wooden. You look up, and see your shirt and phone on top of it. An idea forms in your mind. You struggle against the chains again, and manage to knock something over, a small desk maybe. Your phone skitters across the hard rock and stops near the mattress. Hoping the noise didn't gather any attention, you strain your wings to try and scrape your phone closer to your face. Success! You manage to hold down the home button long enough to bring up the screen.

"Siri, call the police!" You manage to whine weakly.

"Calling." The unemotional voice responds.

"Hello, this is the Equestrian Law Enforcement Emergency Line, please state your emergency." A friendly voice says over the phone.

"Please help me. I woke up tied to a mattress in some basement, I don't know where I am but-" You stop when you notice an aura around your phone. A vicious crack spreads across the screen and the frame begins to bend. "Send help!" You manage to shout before the phone ultimately shatters.

"That wasn't very nice... and I was gonna let you have so much fun." Your eyes widen at the voice and frame of your captor.

There, in the doorway, stood your friend. Vinyl Scratch.

"Now I'm gonna have to punish you."

~Yesterday~

You wake up in your bed with a yawn. It was a hard shift at the post office but the extra pay was worth it. You throw your legs over the side of the bed and stand. Your back cracks loudly, enticing you to twist left and right to pop your back even more. You make your bed and go to the kitchen. It's Saturday. And since you have weekends off of work, you decide that you'll have a shower before going out for breakfast. Navigating the halls of your apartment you manage to find the bathroom. Closing the door behind yourself, you strip your close until you are wearing nothing but your birthday suit.

You turn on the shower and stand idly whilst the water warms itself to a comfortable temperature. You let the water run over your hand and step into the stream of warm, relaxing water. You put head under the spray and let your mane go limp and hang down on your face. Snapping back to reality, you turn around and let the water cascade down your back and soak your wings. You bask in the feeling of the water on your sore wings, a feeling of pleasure only a Pegasus would know.

You get a squirt of shampoo and lather your hair, producing a surplus amount of eye-stinging foam that would double as your body-wash. After washing the mixture out of your hair and off of your body it would leave a pleasant scent that you found delightful. Clean as a whistle, you turn the shower off and grab a nearby towel to dry yourself.

Finishing your ever-exciting routine with the brushing of your teeth, you then exit the bathroom and take a seat in the living room, to think about where to go for breakfast.

“The bakery?” You ask yourself. “No, I’m not in the mood for anything sweet...” And then it hits you. “The diner! They’ve got a good breakfast menu.” So then you proceed to get changed into some decent clothes, which you do. From the counter, you grab your wallet, phone, and slide both items into your pants’ pocket.

Afterwards, you walk outdoors- the sun is beaming in your eyes, causing you to squint. Still feeling sore from the long work day yesterday, you decide against flying. Since you chose this, you walk the short way to the diner.

As you stride along the cobblestone, your steps becoming a crescendo, you notice a particular mare handing out things to others. “Thanks, see you tonight!” Vinyl Scratch, your long-time friend smiles at the pony that passes by her after receiving a small card.

“Oh, top of the mornin’ Vinyl! What’cha got there?” Your mouth cracks into a smile as you go onto your tippy-toes to look over her shoulder.

She glances at you, and does a double-take. “O-oh, hello! Nice seeing you here... Oh, by the way, I’m hosting a killer party tonight. Wanna come? It’s at my place!”

“Oh, a party? That sounds fun, you’re handing out fliers or somethin’?” You ask her, before she nods. Vinyl takes one out of her bag, and offers it to you. With a sincere smile, you take the invitation. Seeing the smile on Vinyl’s face makes you smile more. But something is a little off with her expression, as if she was rather uncomfortable around you. “... Is uh, something wrong?”

“Huh? No, what could be wrong?” Vinyl cocks her head at you.

“I’unno, you just looked kinda... eh, it doesn’t matter. I guess I’ll see you tonight? I bet it’ll be fun!” You chuckle a little bit, and she joins you. “Seeya later ‘Scratchy!” You cackle rather mischievously as her face lights-up in a priceless blush.

“S-stop calling me that!”

“AHAHAAAAHAHA!”

~That Night~

After a good breakfast at the expense of your wallet, and a day’s worth of sitting on your ass, your phone beeps as you receive a text message. With a sigh, you pick up the device and read said message. It is from Vinyl, of course. “Hey, where the buck are you? The party’s about to start, you doofus!” It reads.

“Shit,” You hiss, standing up. You check-over your apparel as quick as a cat, and nod in approval of your casual wear. Quickly you make your way out of the door, and start down the street to Vinyl’s house.

Which was all the way on the other side of fucking town. You flex your wings and decide to just fly to her house. Within minutes you are twice as far as you would have been if you were walking. You silently thank Celestia for bestowing the gifts of wings upon your back.

From your current position, you could see that Vinyl went and gone all-out for the party, even going as far as to rent several attention-grabbing spotlights. It seems that this wasn’t just an average house party afterall. You briefly wonder if you would see any other big-name producers there. Likely not, because Vinyl made some good music. Great music at that, since you are a fan of her musical talent.

You arrive at the house (finally), and Vinyl greets you at the door. “Hey! Glad to see you here, Mr. Late.” She smirks, before she pats you on the shoulder, leading you into the house. “C’mon, I got a special, unreleased track planned for this party.” You take a moment to gather and take-in your surroundings. Vinyl has her usual, old-school yet still impressive DJ Booth set up in her massive living room near the back. A small, makeshift bar is in the kitchen, and people are literally all over the place! Congregating on the stairs, dancing in the cleared-out spaces, drinking or snacking wherever they could. There likely isn’t a room without people occupying it.

Vinyl drags you again by your arm to a small chained-off area which is near her setup to be able to stand and talk without constantly being bumped into or pushed around by other party-goers. “Like what you see?” She asks, casting an arm over the dance-floor playfully.

“It’s awesome! I’m surprised at the turn out, no offense. Geez, the bill for the cleaning crew is going to be astronomical by the look of all the trash people are leaving everywhere.” You glance around the dance floor, and not to your surprise, people were already being irresponsible as to their messes.

“Ah, that’s fine. After I released my new record, I got a big. Fat. Check.” Vinyl chuckles, and you smile at her. “See, ‘cause I get paid depending on how many people enjoy my record. A million people, man! I got paid a fourth of that. Two hundred fifty G’s, baby!” She laughs heartily.

“You’re so kidding me!” You laugh as well.

“No way hosay. Took a little over half my budget just to pay for all of this.” She replies. “But... I have something to ask you.” Vinyl loses her look of playfulness, and it is replaced by one of solemnness and slight nervousness, from what you could tell at least.

“Yeah? What’s that?” You keep your considerate, compassionate smile on your face.

But what you hear almost makes you feel guilty on the inside. “Well... uh... I don’t know if you’re gonna appreciate this’re not, but I’ve... had my eye on you for a while...” Vinyl blushes. Oh dear Celestia, your poor damn heart! “A-and, I...” Her voice becomes shaky, tiny tears welling up in the corners of her eyes.

“Shhh, shh shh...” You place a finger softly over her mouth, and smile warmly at her. Your heart is begging you to not say what your brain is processing, but you can’t help it. “Look, Vinyl, I love you. But as a friend... I... know you might think otherwise of me, but I’m just... not sure that it’d work.” You see the tears well-up in her eyes. ‘Shit, shit, shit!’ You almost panic, but then you embrace her out of instinct.

“Hey, it’s okay... don’t cry.” The pre-made music in the background is loud enough to keep people from hearing your conversation. “I know it hurts to not have your feelings returned, but I haven’t lost any respect for you... I’m... actually flattered that you think of me that way.”

“Re-*sniffle*-really?” She meets eyes with you. But you can see the bitterness behind her masquerade of consideration. Your jimmies were definitely ruffled at this, but you ignore it for now.

You nod. “Why wouldn’t I? Now,” Wiping away her tears, you smile at her. “Come on, you got a party to host.” After letting her go, you walk down into the crowd to enjoy the night.

Not after taking a trip to the snack bar, though!

You find a little self-service bar with bowls to fill with various small snacks and quickly grab yourself a little bit of everything. You find a small bar stool and scoot it over and out of the way to eat without bothering anyone.

After about half an hour of getting more snacks occasionally, and listening to Vinyl’s amazing new record, the lady herself walks into the room holding two drinks. She grabs another conveniently empty seat and sits next to you. “Got you a drink.” Vinyl says, almost emotionlessly.

“Oh, thank you.” She places the drink in front of you, and you look in admiration of the cocktail. “This have alcohol in it?” You smirk as you look to her.

She nods. “Oh yeah. It’s strong.”

“I see you even took the liberty to line the glass with... salt?” You ask her, raising a brow.

“I crushed-up some rockets and lined it with that. I’m uh... not so good at mixing drinks,” Vinyl chuckles, “But I hope you like it!”

With a smile you take a drink. It is rather sweet, then all of a sudden- BANG! The vodka burns your throat mercilessly on its way down to your gut. It is like saturated in alcohol, but then you get hints of citrus, and a little bit of a tang. The ice cubes in the drink were not ice cubes, either. They were frozen balls of watermelon. Quite creative.“Gah, you trying to kill me? You know I’m a weak drinker!” You joke, taking another sip of the painfully good drink.

She chuckles, as you begin to feel warm all over, almost as if a tingling was travelling across your skin. “Make sure to eat the watermelon.” You nod, and pop one into your mouth.

The both of you converse with one another, until around twenty minutes later. Your vision starts to get blurry. “Ugh, I gotta... go to the bathroom.” You slur from your mouth, getting to stand.

Only to fall down and crack the back of your head off of the snack bar.

Before you hit the floor, you felt a warm liquid trickle down your face, your eyesight slowly fading with every blink, until finally, you pass out.