“Hey Applejack, how did you like your first day at school?” I asked.
She responded, “Ah liked meetin’ everypony, but Ah won’t need some fancy-pants book smarts when Ah’m workin’ the farm wit’ mah brother Big Mac when Ah’m a full grown mare. But anywho, what’d y’all think sugarcube?”
“I didn’t mind meeting everypony either, but I don’t like the idea of another twelve years of this. I hear it gets a lot more boring as you grow older.”
“Twelve more years?! That sounds awful! Ah don’t like that much either. Hey, do ya think you could come on down to the farm with me? I gots a neat trick to show y’all.”
“Okay, but I’m going to need to stop by my place to let mom and dad know. See you there!”
“See ya soon!”
The walk to my place wasn’t all too bad, considering it was maybe a mile away. When I got there my parents were grinning. “How was your first day at school, honey?” my mom asked.
“It was pretty fun” I answered.
“Did you make lots of friends?” my dad wondered.
I responded, “Yes, dad.”
Mom asked, “Meet any cute fillies?”
“Mooooom!” I responded. That was quite an embarrassing question.
“I’m just asking!”
“Anyways, I’m headed off to Applejack’s place, said she’s got some sort of trick to show me.”
“You have fun dear.”
I heard my mom say to my dad under her breath, “I am quite concerned for that boy. He says he has a bunch of friends but all I ever hear is Applejack, Applejack, Applejack.”
“Don’t worry honey, he’ll make friends soon enough. It’s his first day,” he responded.
“Good Bye!” I said as I shut the door. As I started on my long journey, I wondered what she wanted to show me. I heard somepony call out my name from behind me.
“Hey, Shadow,” I said. Everypony in class knew about him, but he mainly kept to himself.
“Where are you headed to?” he asked, which was weird, because I had heard him talk only on a few rare occasions. “I’m going to Applejack’s farm. She says she’s got some sort of trick to show me.”
“Can I go with you?” he asked. I hated these sort of situations. I didn’t know what to do, what to say. So I went with the first thing that came to mind. “Umm... Sure?”
“Thanks,” he said sheepishly.
When we got to Applejack’s farm, Shadow stopped dead where he was standing, staring wide-eyed at the acres upon acres of apple trees as far as the eye could see.
“They’re unicorns like me, right? There’s no way that they could possibly buck all those
trees every season I mean, you’d have to be insanely strong and... and...” he stammered.
“Nope, they aren’t. They’re just regular earth ponies, and they have been bucking those fields for centuries, ever since Granny Smith founded Ponyville and the farm.”
Just then Applejack walked up to me. “Right, Applejack?”
“Sure as sugar! Ah haven’t been able to though, ‘cuz Ah’m too young accordin’ to Big Mac. But, lookie here.”
She picked up a leg and kicked the tree with all her might. Nothing. Again. Nothing. “Hey, Applejack, I don’t want to tell you how to do your job, but don’t you think it would be easier if you used both legs?”
“Ah never thought of that, you mean like this?” She jumped off her back legs, and then slammed them into the tree. It shook, dropping basket-fulls of apples. “Thank you so much!” she practically shouted. She was obviously ecstatic, having bucked her very first tree. It was then that I noticed Shadow’s hoof. It was pointed towards me.
I wondered how long I had left him hanging. It couldn’t have been that long. So I did the only polite thing. Hoofbump! He was smiling, as was I. Suddenly Applejack was gone, so was Shadow, and even the entire farm! I was walking, I think, but I wasn’t in my body. I was walking on my hind legs, and my front hooves had tinier legs on them. But everypony else did too! I couldn’t control anything I was doing. But anypony who looked at me was first shocked, then angry. It was then I realized I was scowling, and giving them all mean looks.
What’s going on? I was scared. I had never had this happen, and as far as I knew, neither did anypony else. I walked into a building and started talking to another of these creatures. It looked angry, and I started yelling. Why am I seeing this? I left and started walking through an alley-looking place. Suddenly two of these creatures jumped out. “We told you that if you didn’t pay, we would get it out of you!” one of the creatures said. This doesn’t look good! I turned around and ran. Since this wasn’t actually my own actions, I was helpless to see what happened next.
Two more walked into the alley-place. I was trapped. They pulled out a weird metallic stick, and I ran the other way, terrified. I apparently was going to try to run through these guys, but they stopped me before I could make it through. They turned me around and held my front legs with theirs. The man with the metallic stick thrust it towards my stomach area, and I was suddenly in a horrible agony. I was bleeding, and before long I was getting dizzy. The last thing I felt was a sharp blow to my side.
Eyes. That was the first thing I saw when I woke up. Two pairs of eyes that I had never been more happy to see in my life. Applejack and Shadow. They were standing over me. I got up to my feet and ran as fast as I could. I wanted to get away from that place where I saw and felt horrible things.
“And you’re just telling me this now why? That was nearly 8 years ago!” Vinyl practically yelled at me.
“Because I had another one just today.” I responded, full of terror and uncertainty.
“It was bright, and there were those same creatures around me. They were wearing green masks over their mouths. It looked like- yeah, it was a hospital,” I said, trying to recall the details to the best of my ability, yet not wanting to feel the pain, the terror, of this dramatically alien world that i was forced to have some sick connection to.
“I was strapped onto some sort of board with wheels way below it. There was this beeping. It was driving me cra zy. Beep. Beep. Beep. And that was all the time. The lights came and went. “My” vision went black frequently. And the pain. Oh Celestia, it was awful. The pain I had felt during the first vision was nothing compared to it. It did, however, fade like the lights during the moments of darkness.”
“Oh dear Celestia! Are you sure you’re okay? Would you like to see a doctor? I mean-” Vinyl stammered. I tried to comfort her “I’m fine. It didn’t actually happen.” Or, was I comforting her, or me? I couldn’t tell, didn’t want to. “They moved me to a room. That’s when it faded to black.”
“Suddenly, I felt an intense surge through my chest. My eyes burst open, my entire body shuddered. The lights were so bright, I couldn’t stand it. ‘He’s alive!’ I heard one doctor shout. ‘We need to operate STAT’ another said, I could see the concern in it’s eyes. That’s when they put a mask on me. It was a different mask than theirs though, It was clear and hard. I started breathing in the air the mask supplied. I started feeling funny, the pain was leaving. The beeping was fading. The lights were dimming. And then I woke up, in my bed. In my home. I was back in Equestria.”
“Whoa,“ was all Vinyl had to say. She just stared wide-eyed, a hint of fear mixed in with a hefty amount of concern. She suddenly changed her expression, mischief in her eyes, a smile on her lips. She had a wicked idea. Just like Vinyl, that’s for sure. I was not impressed.
“Here’s an idea, “ she said, as if I didn’t know it from her look alone. “Let’s get you back to my place, I got the perfect way to cheer you up.”
Oh Celestia, I hadn’t been to her place in quite some time. Last time I went the place was an absolute pigsty. I had gently told her that cleaning once in awhile wouldn’t kill her. When I got to her place, I saw it looked quite nice for a change. “Well as you can see, I followed your advice!” My frown had disappeared at this sight. “Well now, onto my idea, “ she said, leading me downstairs. There wasn’t much down here. The gaming room, She may be a DJ, but she’s a mean gamer. There was her bedroom, which I had never seen before. And there was the bathroom.
So you can imagine my surprise right now. She passed the gaming room, and that’s when I got nervous. She stopped right at her bedroom. “Here we are!” she said, grinning ear to ear. She busted the door open. “I know you haven’t seen it, but here’s my room. Cool huh?” she was ecstatic. This made me incredibly nervous, ‘cause as I said, I had never seen her room. And yet here I was. In her room. With her. Alone. My heart started beating. I was thinking of excuses I could make. “Well? What are you waiting for?” Vinyl said, grinning even wider somehow.
She was pointing to something, her turntables. I grinned too, I was also a very talented musician, but whereas she was amazing at mixing songs, I was good at making songs. It was something I often made fun of her for. Her response was always “Well then, let’s see you do it, Mister ‘I-Can-Make-Music-And-You-Can’t” And I always responded, “Anywhere, anytime.”
“Let’s do this, “ I said, with a smirk. I knew that I would probably fail horribly. I walked over to the mixer, and started picking out songs. I noticed she had almost all of my songs. I never have felt more happy. I picked out two of my favorites, and since I made them, I knew them forwards, backwards, upside-down etc. “One quick question before I start. Why are your turntables in your room?”
“This room has the best acoustics, it also has the best sound proofing.” she stated matter-of-factly.
“One more thing, would you please tell me how to work this thing. I may know how some of it works, but you’re the DJ, not me.”
“Alright fine. The turntables themselves, these two discs, don’t move, unlike on a record-based turntable. If you touch it, the song will stop, you then control the direction and speed by rotating it clockwise and counterclockwise for forward and reverse, respectively. Additionally...” I had a blast learning all the ins and outs of the turntable. So many intricacies, it almost could make songs on its own. But that’s my job. It was my turn to try to come close to being as good at DJing as her, which was nearly impossible, being it WAS her special talent. After about a half-hour, I sounded pretty good (I think). “Not bad, for a rookie,” Vinyl commented.
“I’d like to see you do that well when you’re on MY equipment,” I challenged, knowing she couldn’t resist. “You’re on!” she responded, as confident as ever, that smirk on her face that was oh so Vinyl. Suddenly, I had an idea. I put one hoof on the crossfader, the other on the play/pause button. I started playing the first track, waited, then the second. I started a short loop on the first track, then faded over the other track, increasing the speed of the loop. I decided to mess with the cues, which jump to a set point, the loop, and the leap, which loops the audio, and when you stop the loop, it skips ahead the exact amount of time you looped. “You ready to party?” I asked. I let the second track play, then set my cues on the first. I put my left hoof on the first turntable, my right on the crossfader. “Let’s do this!” I shouted. I flared my wings, one over the effects filter, the other over the second track. I was doing it. I was making glitchstep, said to be impossible to do live. That’s when I noticed the blue glow. I turned to her, “Not cool”
“You seemed happy, though” She said, trying to keep a straight face. She stopped the tracks. “Why don’t we do something else? It’s been awhile since I whooped your ass.” I suggested. “Keep dreaming, you’ll never whoop my ass.” she retorted. We went into her gaming room. When I first started gaming, it was confusing, then Vi explained it to me. “Other than your wings or gender, what is the difference between you and me?”
“Your horn.”
“Right, now what else?”
“Magic?”
“Close, but no. And that’s okay. Not many know this, but the two reasons we unicorns are able to perform magic are the horn, and the mind. You see, we developed an enhanced mind, capable of projecting powerful telepathic waves. That does not constitute magic, though. That’s where the horn comes in. It amplifies and refines these waves. That’s where the glow comes from, the horn capturing, holding, amplifying and outputting magic.”
“But what about the glow on other objects?”
“That’s the conversion process. It turns the signal into a manipulation field.”
“And what does this have to do with me exactly?”
“Because everypony emits these telepathic waves. Your cutie mark is like a weak horn. It allows you to be the best at what you do. Nopony can DJ like me, because my cutie mark interacts with the turntable to produce different and amazing mixes. Yours interacts with your mind and your equipment, allowing you to whip up the best electronic music ever. Except a cutie mark does it on its own. That’s why there’s no glow. By using your mind, you can control the game. You have to envision using a controller of some sorts though, and it will take a lot of practice. But you can do it.”
“If not very many people know that, then how was this designed, how do videogames exist if you have to tell everypony this just so they know what to do?”
“Because first, the games are programmed by either unicorns, or ponies with keyboards. And secondly, I made a custom system that allows for multiplayer, even offlline, and so I can play on my huge flatscreen without a keyboard.” I went over a lot, learning to master this difficult concept. After I got really good, she gave me my own, so we could play online.
“So what do you want to play?”
“Whatever you want.” I said, not caring. She went to the left couch, I sat down on the right. I pictured my controller in my hands, thumbs on the joysticks. Wait a minute, sat, hands, THUMBS?! “VINYL!” IT’S GETTING INTO MY HEAD! HELP! DO SOMETHING!” She looked over to me. “Holy SHIT! You’re sitting! Why are you sitting?” she responded, glasses falling onto the ground, mouth and eyes agape.
“How do you know that it’s called that?!”
“Lyra! She sits! She’s the only one that sits! It’s because she’s obsessed with... humans.”
“This is bad! This is very bad! What am I going to do?!”
“Let me get you something...” Vinyl walked up the stairs.
“Oh no. This is not good. What if that... human gets hurt again? What if it kills me? Oh no oh no ohno.”
Just then she came down, cold drink in hand- er hoof. Dammit! “Drink this.” I downed it all. My vision blurred. Alcohol. I meant to say “Why the alcohol?” but instead a much less intelligible blabbering came out. “That’s not good! One drink should not do that!” My vision twisted and turned, stretched and flattened. Not again. Vinyl was trying to snap me out of it, to bring me out of this state. My vision flickered black.
Pain.
I was there again, in this “human” body. I was sitting in a wheelchair. How do I know these things? Why is this happening again, especially so soon? The last one was 8 years ago. I was less terrified, having been through this twice before. I was groggy, er- the human was. “Alright mister...” I couldn't understand what she says here “...and you should be released soon. Any questions?”
Tons. Who is this person? Where am I? Why is this happening? etc. But the one he asked was. “How long will the grogginess last?”
“That’s the anesthesia sir, it should wear off in about a half-hour.”
“Thank you.”
He pulled out a phone. “Hello honey? I’m alright. The doctor said that it missed any important body part.”
“Oh thank heavens! Will you be home soon?”
“I will be. I will need you to pick me up though.”
“Of course.”
I was wheeled into a room, where I waited for 5 hours, with a single tray of food, which tasted like shit. Finally some lady showed up, which I guessed to be his wife. He got out of the wheelchair and into a car with the lady, every now and again the wound would hurt. She drove him to a house, and he sat down for dinner. “Honey, you just got out of the hospital, don’t you want to wait?”
“Honey, I feel fi-” Just then 3 young children came running into the room.
“Daddy! You’re home!” They all yelled.
“I sure am, now who’s hungry?”
“I am!” they all responded. This was such a happy place, such a nice life, why did he have a run in with those... people?
“Well, honey, I don’t think I should...”
“I’ll cook for you. But only because you’re back.” She said, grin on her face, it reminded me of Vinyl and- I need to get back. What is happening to me? Am I dead? What’s going on? What will Vinyl say to my parents? This needs to stop. By the time I got back to this place I was held captive in, the kids were all upstairs, going whatever kids do. He turned on a song and danced with his wife. That song... Where have I heard something like that before? That’s when I remembered. My game. I could control the character with my mind. I strained as hard as I could. Me and her had practiced morse code, and now was the time to use it. I sent a signal. Help! Use your magic to push it from my mind. I’ll try too. That’s when I felt another presence.
“You’re such a good dancer. I should get you out more.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, we should just bust out of here, leave this behind. Save yourself.” She was in. I pushed, she pushed. I could feel it. It was an infection, and yet part of me. If I tried to get rid of it, I would die. I was doomed to return. I felt where it was hijacking and pushed against it, so did Vinyl. It was slipping. I could feel it more clearly. It was as though it was the wall of my very cells, it contained me, it was me, and I was it. I then got a creeping suspicion. Is this some sort of alternate reality me? The last thing I saw before escaping was him speaking to one of the kids, who looked oh so terrified. “You’re not supposed to be out of bed, are you?” I realized he was holding a belt in his right hand.
“OH MY GOD ARE YOU OKAY?!?!?” Vinyl hugged me, tighter than ever before. She had been crying. I could hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes, she cared. “Yeah, I’m fine. We should start a duet at clubs, take the world by storm. If this thing could kill me, at least I want to know I gave it my all, that I lived the best life I could, with the people who I care about.”
“What? Totally! A bit sudden though, don’t you think? What would we even call ourselves?” I thought about this a bit. Aha, I got it.
“Sound and Confusion.”
