A DJ's Experience

Chapter 2 - Chaos

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

        I slowly came back to consciousness to see a bright yellow. Wait a second, that’s not right. I opened my eyes some more and almost immediately regretted doing so.

        “Ugh, why is it so bright in the mornings,” I groaned into my pillow. My certain lifestyle comes with two things that I utterly hate. One is that I wake up every morning feeling like a wreck. Two, I am so sleep deprived it isn’t not funny, but despite these two downsides to it, I still managed to drive through it somehow. Emphasis on somehow.

        I also realized that there was a second reason, besides the Celestia’s damned sun, I was awake. I had set my alarm clock, which was still blaring very loud drumstep. That’s something I can always look forward to waking up in the morning. My favorite type of music playing right next to my ears. And with that last comment I got up and fell off the bed, still slightly tired.

        “Agh, remind me to get a carpet,” I said to the hardwood floor that my face was currently greeting. Unfortunately, I landed on the one spot that didn’t have anything on it. My room was the messiest thing I owned. Ever. It was probably even messier than my idol’s room. So with my body complaining, I stood up, turned off my alarm clock, and trotted out of my room and into my apartment’s kitchen. I looked around and saw the only thing that has been keeping me alive the  past five weeks. The wonderful miracle meal of toast and butter. Occasionally I treated myself to some jelly but I usually didn’t have enough time considering that I make most of my music and had to stock up for last nights gig.

        “Today. Today this ends!” I declared to the ever listening air. Dude, you need to stop talking to yourself. “Shut up brain, I can do what I want in my own apartment,” and with that I made myself some toast, with some jelly I might add, and threw myself upon my black, felt, comfortable couch. I swear that right before I bit down into my breakfast a knock came from the door. What now! What could possibly be more important than my breakfast right now. Another knock.

        “ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! I’M COMING!” I yelled angrily in the general direction of the door. I grasped my toast with my magic and trotted towards the door. I opened it to see a white mare with purple shades covering her eyes. Wait.... purple shades, purple shades. Oh!

        “H-hey DJ-Pon3, what’s up, and what are you doing at my apartment?” I asked offering a hoof bump while cocking my head inquisitively.

        Pounding my hoof with her own, “Hey new kid. After I was done messin’ around with ‘Tavi, I came back to see what you were doing to the poor ponies who heard your music.”

This is in no way good. I swallowed nervously.

“As it turns out, you did a mediocre job while I was watching," she cracked a grin, “Actually, you did an awesome job, well done newbie. As for why I’m here, well I thought I might kick ya outta bed in case last night was a bit much for you.”

        While she was finishing that sentence, I became very aware of how my matted fur may look. Grime, an unknown liquid, I hope it’s soda, and the amount of sweat to drown the apartment complex had settled into my coat while I was adventuring with Doctor Whooves in time and space, and my mane looking like as if I had actually done so but in a more... much more wild sense.

        “You know, you might wanna call up those uppity World Record ponies. I always thought that I was the worst at waking up but you might have beaten me on this one.”

        My cheeks suddenly turned into beets, “Well uhh, I was kinda on my way to the showers when you knocked. Uh,” I struggled to find a way to change the subject, “Hey, wait a sec, how did you find my apartment. You didn’t follow me home last night did you?” It came out as a semi-joke, semi-serious question.

        Vinyl didn’t laugh. Her toothy grin widening into an even wider smile. I suddenly became aware of the fact that during our conversation, I had stepped back into my apartment, yet we were strangely the same distance apart from where we started talking. Fresh cold sweat broke through the caked old layers.

        “Nah, nothing like that,” she tilted her head down and winked, breaking the uneasy silence that had descended upon the area. “It’s just a business standard of mine to know where all of the souls I own like to think they live.”

        I laughed uneasily, she didn’t. “Heh heh, right right. Good one... What do mean by ‘own’?”

        “Oh you know,” She shrugged, “You did sign the dotted line on ‘the contract’. Fun fact actually, it used to be fresh blood, but nowadays ink works, way better for that sort of stuff. Lets the soul keep the flavor for later when I get hungry y’know?” I think she may have glanced quickly around my apartment, being able to see much more of it now but I couldn’t tell through the trademark purple shades. “‘Tavi was my test case for that. I just keep her around for nostalgia,” The DJ coughed. “Also, if you tell anypony this, I’m going to have your soul for dinner but I actually like classical music, it reminds me of the good old days when I had a cobweb ridden castle.” She smiled evilly my ways, then breathed deeply. When I was little, I had gone to a zoo and saw a manticore. They breathed just like Vinyl was when it was feeding time.

        I looked around frantically, “I.... what, wait... soul?” I whimpered, heart pounding in my barrel. “Buh-wuh, I didn’t... I...”

        “You did say that you would do anything to be able to perform at my club, on multiple occasions, am I correct?” She put emphasis on the word ‘anything’.

“But, but... I need my soul!”

        “Not as much as you think really, after all I would know wouldn’t I?” She insisted with a flick of a multi-colored tail. “Oh, by the way, you gonna finish that toast?”

        I blinked, and blinked again. That question was almost enough to cut through to my common sense. The way she snickered, then broke down laughing definitely was.

        “Oh man, this is too much. Kid you’re too freakin’ easy!” She giggled, breaking into a wide smile and patting me on the shoulder. “Whoo! Listen, breathe, just relax and breathe. You got me? I just pulled out your file last night, read the contact data you filled out, and here I am,” She stepped backwards. “Oh this is great. Octy’s always so straight-laced. I haven’t gotten anypony with the old ‘soul-collector’ thing in a long time!”

        I forced out a strained laugh while trying to keep my barrel intact.

        “There was this one time with a record company exec who kept bothering her, and whoo! I still show up at his house every so often, just walk in and sit down at the dinner table. His wife, oh, the look on her face was a riot!”

        Still trying to get my heart rate to a normal level, I nodded. “Y-yeah. M-must be pretty funny!” I silently berated myself for falling for her charade. Then again, Vinyl was known for her mind-games, after all, that was what made her such an amazing DJ. Once, she had even got a crowd in Canterlot stadium full of ponies to believe that the moon was made of swiss cheese.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

        After my shower, I stepped into the now steam filled bathroom and wiped a bit off a bit of the fogged up mirror. “Looking good as always stallion,” I complemented my reflection and combed my hair into a vaguely controlled version of my bed mane. Trotting out of the bathroom, I glanced at the time. I still had half an hour, if I set out now, I still could make it. So I did just that. After greeting the receptionist with the rent money and a ‘’Good Morning’’, I went out the doors and into the cold afternoon air and pleasantly began trotting down the streets of Manehattan towards my favorite part of the city. The Strip.

        I had reached the beginnings of The Strip when things began to get strange. At first, I just noticed that I could barely hear a thing, but that went away with time. Then it was the lack of ponies out on the streets, That’s odd, there should be plenty of fillies and colts enjoying the cold weather. And thats another thing, it wasn’t this cold last night either I thought.

        Then beginning to feel my hearing again, I decided to slow my trot down so I could see more of the normally bustling city. It looked normal except for one thing, the roads were now a soapy mess. I stopped and tried to say, “Wait, what?” When I found that I couldn’t, my hooves reached up to try to feel my mouth. It wasn’t there. I looked up and saying that the buildings were losing their color would be an understatement. The buildings were literally turning gray from the top down. It was like gray rain was being poured onto the city. It then started to rain. It wasn’t normal rain, but chocolate milk coming from pink clouds. This couldn’t be happening, it is physically impossible.

        “And where’s the fun in making sense?” A voice came from behind me. I whirled around and saw what could only be explained as if somepony’s toybox had exploded and a filly or colt had built it back together horribly misshapen. Even then, that couldn’t explain how it looked like, and the fact that it had some mismatched wings didn’t help it in the least. “What, cat got your tongue? Oh wait, I do.” He pulled out a pink length of flesh from his mouth, making me gag... or at least try to since I didn’t exactly have a mouth.

        It said, “You know what, you’re not that fun you know. I was expecting more from an aspiring DJ of Manehattan but n-o-o-o-o. You just couldn’t speak at all. You know what, if you don’t want to talk fine,” it leaned its face to be right in front of mine and he tapped my horn with a talon, “Be forever alone,” And with that he was gone. Suddenly it felt like my feelings were being wrenched from me in the most painfully and slowest way possible. First went my hearing, then went my touch and my speech was already gone. The last thing I saw before going blind and presumably passing out were two yellow orbs with red pupils staring at me in the darkness.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\