Starting the Recordby BasmatiChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 1Author's Note: If you haven't read the other books before this (mainly 'The New Journey' and 'Starting Off') there is a chance that you may not understand everything that you read. Just to warn you... Adara skipped down Ponyville's main street, smiling as she went. This was her second day in the town, and she was enjoying it very much. Even after only one day of being in Ponyville, Adara was already friendly with the townsponies; as she walked along, she heard people shouting 'Hi Adara!' She loved making friends - it was one of the only things she was really good at. As a child, she was the weird one, with the weird name, and her classmates made fun of her - similar to how Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made fun of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Adara smiled at this thought. How far she had come since those days when people would yell names at her and she would run crying inside and refuse to come out. Now, she had friends - eight close ones - and they would do anything for her. "Hi Adara!" Adara looked up. Above her was Derpy Hooves, Ponyville's mail mare. Waving at her, she replied. "Hi Derpy! How are you?" The grey pegasus landed next to the unicorn mare. "I'm doing ok. No one's yelled at me yet, so today's going well! What about you?" "I'm good. Just going for a stroll before Twilight gets up." Derpy smiled. Adara was so nice; usually ponies would only talk to her to complain about their mail being late or delivered to the wrong person. "I should probably get back to my rounds before I get yelled at. I'll see you later," Derpy said, taking flight. Adara waved the mail mare off, and looked around. Ponyville. This town was so special, yet so ordinary. It was so quiet, yet so busy. It was calm and it was also lively. She raised her head and felt the warm summer sun on her neck. She had never before felt so...at peace. She felt as if she could just feel happy forever. Adara knew that she would want to stay here forever. But that may not be possible. Adara wasn't like most ponies. She may look like them, and act like them, but she definately wasn't from here; she wasn't even from Equestria. Adara, and her friends were actually from another world entirely, and had been brought here by Princess Celestia to help defeat an old foe of hers. You see, Adara nad her friends weren't normal - they were special. They were the Bindings of Hope. It still felt weird to think that - she had only known that for 2 days. It would take some time to get used to it though, and Adara knew that. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to come to terms with it too soon. *** Walking down another part of Ponyville's streets was a white unicorn mare. As she walked, she flashed one of her trademark smiles at the townsponies as she walked past them. She immediately heard whispers as she walked. She smiled; she loved the attention. After a while, she flicked her blue and turquoise mane that was obstructing the view of her googles. Being able to see a bit better, she got a better look at her surroundings. Cute, she thought. "Adara?" she heard. She looked up and saw a grey mare with a yellow mane flying above her. What was weird about this pegasus was that her eyes were looking in different directions. "I'm sorry," the white unicorn replied. "I don't know who you are talking about." "Oh." the pegasus mare landed in front of her. "I'm sorry - I thought you were my friend. Are you lost?" "Oh no. I'm fine." she replied. "But thank you for asking." The unicorn carried on walking forward, leaving the pegasus behind her. "Wait! Who are you?" she heard her cry. "Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch." *** "Tomorrow? A party?" Adara asked her friend Lacey. "Are you serious?! But Skylar might not even be back by then!" "I know, but then we can have another party when she does come back!" Lacey replied, happily. Adara shook her head; she loved her friend, but sometimes Lacey could be a bit of a handful. They were standing in the middle of Sugarcube Corner - Adara had come to greet her friend, and Lacey had just announced to her that she was in fact going to be holding a party for all her friends, with the help of Pinkie Pie. "Lacey, please! Don't. Just wait until Sky gets back from Cloudsdale, then you can throw as many parties as you want," Adara pleaded. Lacey considered this for a moment, then nodded her head. It wouldn't be fair to throw a party without Skylar being there really, and Lacey didn't want to upset her friend. "Thank you!" Adara said, throwing her hooves around Lacey's neck. "I'm sure Skylar will want to thank you too, when she comes back." Adara looked at the fuschia pony. "How are you anyway?" "Oh, I'm fine. It's so nice here - Pinkie's always baking somekind of cake or sweet. Hopefully, soon Mr and Mrs Cake will let me have a job here too. I haven't tried my hand at baking yet, but I can't be that bad, right?" Adara laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Anyway, I've got to go now." With this, she gave her friend a hug, waved to Pinkie Pie and the Cakes, and departed the shop. Adara smiled as she walked out - all of her friends could be so random at times, Lacey in particular. Lacey always did remind her of the pink party pony, and it was just funny that they would actually be friends here in Equestria. Adara looked in front of her, and stopped. She blinked a few times, then, realising that what she was seeing was true, her mouth dropped open. *** Vinyl Scratch walked around the corner and stopped. She had a feeling that they was someone behind her. Someone important. She turned around to find a grey unicorn staring at her with her mouth open. But that wasn't the strange thing about this pony. The pony looked exactly like her. Chapter 2Vinyl stood there for a while, not believing what she saw. She had seen lookalikes of her before, but this was different. She slowly walked closer to the grey unicorn, watching her closely. Immediately, she saw some differences- this mare had purple eyes, a slightly darker coat, a bluer mane and, most importantly, no cutie mark. But even with those differences, she could easily pass as her, and vice versa. "Why hello," Vinyl said, grinning at the mare. "You're...you're Vinyl Scratch..." the grey unicorn muttered, her eyes wide. Vinyl smiled. "And you look just like me. May I just say, you are one beautiful mare." The unicorn's face dropped. "Sorry, but I don't swing that way." Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I hear that a lot, but usually, they retract that statement IN BED!" she replied, grinning. The grey unicorn facehoofed while Vinyl laughed. "You're funny. I like you. What's your name?" "Adara." "Well Adara, it is nice to meet such a good-looking pony," Vinyl said, shaking Adara's hoof. "I'm not kidding - I really don't go for mares and there is nothing you can do, or say, that will get me into bed," Adara said, sternly. "Damn." *** Adara sat in Sugarcube Corner, not really eating the purple cupcake in front of her. Sitting on the other side of the table was DJ P0N-3, the one and only, otherwise known as Vinyl Scratch, whom she met only minutes ago. Adara couldn't believe her luck - not only was she in Ponyville, but now she was sitting here, eating lunch with one of the most famous ponies in all of Equestria! It felt so surreal, and there was something that made Adara feel a bit edgy. "Hey, what's up? These cupcakes are the best I've ever had, but you haven't touched yours," Vinyl said. Adara couldn't tell due to her goggles, but it looked like her was raising one of her eyebrows. "Can I ask you something?" Adara asked. "Well, you just have. But you can ask me something else," she replied, giving Adara her famous grin, once again. "Why did you come here? To Ponyville, I mean." Vinyl stopped eating her cupcake. She carefully lowered the cake that she was floating using her magic, and sighed. "Long story short - I was bored. Bored of being everypony's business. Bored of taking drugs, drinking, waking up with a different mare or stallion every morning. So I decided to pack up and leave. Actually, just leave. I left everything in Manehatten and just started walking." "But why here?" Vinyl looked around and leaned in closer. "Don't judge me, but as I was walking, I got to a fork in the road. I was going to go left, but I hear a voice, and that voice tells me to go right." She stopped, and looked at Adara. "I know what you're thinking - hearing mysterous voices that tell me what path I should take - you think I'm crazy. But I'm not - well, I hope I'm not-" "I don't think you're crazy," Adara interrupted. Vinyl looked at Adara, for a bit, then raised her hooves to her head, and took her goggles off. Adara made no sound as Vinyl opened her eyes and revealled her deep red irises. Vinyl waited for a few moments, then spoke again. "You're too kind. But anyway, I decided to go right - I had no reason to go left, really. I carried on walking, and walked into Ponyville, and then met you, and then we went here and we got cupcakes and-" "Yes - I know the rest," Adara stopped her. "Well, I guess it's lucky that you did come here, otherwise you would have no idea who I was." "And wouldn't that just be awful?" Vinyl said, putting her goggles back on. Adara smiled, shaking her head at the DJ pony. "I'm sure you'll love it here. I've only been here for a few days, but I couldn't imagine being anywhere else." "Where were you before?" Vinyl asked her. Adara stopped. She was hoping that no one would ask her that question, or for at least a few weeks until she had gotten an answer. She immediately stood up and said, "Let's err... leave." Vinyl slowly got out of her chair, giving Adara a questioning look. "What's wrong?" she said, following Adara out of the door. "Where I came from - it's kinda...it's complicated, and we need to talk to someone about it. Follow me." *** Twilight sat in the library, reading one of her many books. That was the best thing about living in Ponyville Library - the never-ending supply of books. Well, she said never-ending, it would eventually end, and probably soon, at the rate that she was reading recently. The door suddenly burst open. Twilight flung her book down, jumped off the sofa, and faced the intruders. But instead, she saw Adara. "Adara? What's with the banging and the-" "Twilight, we need to talk." She stepped aside to reveal a white unicorn behind her. Twilight gasped. "DJ P0N-3." Chapter 3"How..." Twilight said, walking towards the two mares, her eyes wide with disbelief. She had never been a big music follower - she prefered reading, really - but DJ P0N-3 was somepony that everypony, especially Twilight, had heard of. "How in Equestria..." Vinyl turned to Adara and, while grinning, said, "Wow, she's almost as big a fan as you are." Vinyl looked at Twilight closer. "Hey, you're that mare that defeated Discord and stopped the chocolate rain. Twilight, was it?" Twilight stood still, a smile slowly taking over her face. "Yeah," she said, finally. "Yeah, that's me. Twilight Sparkle - saviour of Equestria." "Twilight, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?" Adara said, jerking her head in the direction of the kitchen, so that Twilight was sure to get the message. Twilight walked with Adara into the kitchen, almost walking into the wall as she stared at Vinyl. Once inside the kitchen, Adara shut the doors and turned towards the purple unicorn. "We have a slight problem." "Oh my Celestia! Vinyl Scratch, the Vinyl Scratch, knows who I am!" Twilight burst. "Twilight. Are you even listening to me?" "How," Twilight said, ignoring what Adara had said, and putting her hooves on her shoulders and shaking them slightly. "How did you meet Vinyl 'DJ P0N-3' Scratch?" "She was walking through town, and I saw her and she saw me - but that's not the point," Adara began. "The problem is that she asked me about where I was from, and my story." Twilight's smile fell immediately as she heard these words. "I see." She started pacing up and down the length of the room. "And what did you say?" "Nothing. "What can we do? I mean, we can't just not tell her - she'll know something's up. But we can't exactly tell her the truth-" "There's nothing else we can do," Twilight stopped pacing, and turned towards the grey unicorn mare. "We'll have to tell her the truth." *** Vinyl sat in Ponyville Library, looking up at Adara and Twilight, as they explained Adara's origin. As Twilight explained how Adara and her friends came here, and how they are all here for a special reason, Adara turned away. She had met Vinyl Scratch, the pony she wanted to meet the most, and now she may never talk to her again. After hearing what Twilight had to say, she wasn't even sure if wanted to know herself anymore. She sounded like some kind of alien, some kind of monster, that seem to take a form similar to the one of Vinyl herself. Twilight stopped talking, and Adara turned back around, to see Vinyl's reaction. She saw the DJ pony sitting silent for sometime, looking like she was staring at the floor, but her goggles obsured the view of her eyes. "So, you're not a pony? You come from somewhere else?" Vinyl asked, looking at Adara properly for the first time since they came out of the kitchen. Adara nodded, and looked down. "That's...awesome." Adara's head jerked up in confusion. "Wait. What?" "You're like...an alien. Except cooler. From an entirely different world. How is that not awesome?" Vinyl stood up and walked over to face Adara. "Wait. You're not weirded out by this? At all?" Vinyl shook her head. "Hell no! It's great. At least you're not some weirdo or somepony who killed a bunch of ponies just because you felt like it." Adara stood staring at the DJ pony in front of her. Suddenly, she flung herself at Vinyl, giving her a hug. She had a friend. A real friend, who accepted everything about her, even if it was extremely weird. "Thank you. So much," Adara said. "You are welcome. Can I get you into bed now?" Vinyl whispered in her ear. "No," was the quick reply. "Shoot."
Chapter 1Author's Note: If you haven't read the other books before this (mainly 'The New Journey' and 'Starting Off') there is a chance that you may not understand everything that you read. Just to warn you... Adara skipped down Ponyville's main street, smiling as she went. This was her second day in the town, and she was enjoying it very much. Even after only one day of being in Ponyville, Adara was already friendly with the townsponies; as she walked along, she heard people shouting 'Hi Adara!' She loved making friends - it was one of the only things she was really good at. As a child, she was the weird one, with the weird name, and her classmates made fun of her - similar to how Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon made fun of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Adara smiled at this thought. How far she had come since those days when people would yell names at her and she would run crying inside and refuse to come out. Now, she had friends - eight close ones - and they would do anything for her. "Hi Adara!" Adara looked up. Above her was Derpy Hooves, Ponyville's mail mare. Waving at her, she replied. "Hi Derpy! How are you?" The grey pegasus landed next to the unicorn mare. "I'm doing ok. No one's yelled at me yet, so today's going well! What about you?" "I'm good. Just going for a stroll before Twilight gets up." Derpy smiled. Adara was so nice; usually ponies would only talk to her to complain about their mail being late or delivered to the wrong person. "I should probably get back to my rounds before I get yelled at. I'll see you later," Derpy said, taking flight. Adara waved the mail mare off, and looked around. Ponyville. This town was so special, yet so ordinary. It was so quiet, yet so busy. It was calm and it was also lively. She raised her head and felt the warm summer sun on her neck. She had never before felt so...at peace. She felt as if she could just feel happy forever. Adara knew that she would want to stay here forever. But that may not be possible. Adara wasn't like most ponies. She may look like them, and act like them, but she definately wasn't from here; she wasn't even from Equestria. Adara, and her friends were actually from another world entirely, and had been brought here by Princess Celestia to help defeat an old foe of hers. You see, Adara nad her friends weren't normal - they were special. They were the Bindings of Hope. It still felt weird to think that - she had only known that for 2 days. It would take some time to get used to it though, and Adara knew that. She just hoped that she wouldn't have to come to terms with it too soon. *** Walking down another part of Ponyville's streets was a white unicorn mare. As she walked, she flashed one of her trademark smiles at the townsponies as she walked past them. She immediately heard whispers as she walked. She smiled; she loved the attention. After a while, she flicked her blue and turquoise mane that was obstructing the view of her googles. Being able to see a bit better, she got a better look at her surroundings. Cute, she thought. "Adara?" she heard. She looked up and saw a grey mare with a yellow mane flying above her. What was weird about this pegasus was that her eyes were looking in different directions. "I'm sorry," the white unicorn replied. "I don't know who you are talking about." "Oh." the pegasus mare landed in front of her. "I'm sorry - I thought you were my friend. Are you lost?" "Oh no. I'm fine." she replied. "But thank you for asking." The unicorn carried on walking forward, leaving the pegasus behind her. "Wait! Who are you?" she heard her cry. "Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch." *** "Tomorrow? A party?" Adara asked her friend Lacey. "Are you serious?! But Skylar might not even be back by then!" "I know, but then we can have another party when she does come back!" Lacey replied, happily. Adara shook her head; she loved her friend, but sometimes Lacey could be a bit of a handful. They were standing in the middle of Sugarcube Corner - Adara had come to greet her friend, and Lacey had just announced to her that she was in fact going to be holding a party for all her friends, with the help of Pinkie Pie. "Lacey, please! Don't. Just wait until Sky gets back from Cloudsdale, then you can throw as many parties as you want," Adara pleaded. Lacey considered this for a moment, then nodded her head. It wouldn't be fair to throw a party without Skylar being there really, and Lacey didn't want to upset her friend. "Thank you!" Adara said, throwing her hooves around Lacey's neck. "I'm sure Skylar will want to thank you too, when she comes back." Adara looked at the fuschia pony. "How are you anyway?" "Oh, I'm fine. It's so nice here - Pinkie's always baking somekind of cake or sweet. Hopefully, soon Mr and Mrs Cake will let me have a job here too. I haven't tried my hand at baking yet, but I can't be that bad, right?" Adara laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine. Anyway, I've got to go now." With this, she gave her friend a hug, waved to Pinkie Pie and the Cakes, and departed the shop. Adara smiled as she walked out - all of her friends could be so random at times, Lacey in particular. Lacey always did remind her of the pink party pony, and it was just funny that they would actually be friends here in Equestria. Adara looked in front of her, and stopped. She blinked a few times, then, realising that what she was seeing was true, her mouth dropped open. *** Vinyl Scratch walked around the corner and stopped. She had a feeling that they was someone behind her. Someone important. She turned around to find a grey unicorn staring at her with her mouth open. But that wasn't the strange thing about this pony. The pony looked exactly like her.
Chapter 2Vinyl stood there for a while, not believing what she saw. She had seen lookalikes of her before, but this was different. She slowly walked closer to the grey unicorn, watching her closely. Immediately, she saw some differences- this mare had purple eyes, a slightly darker coat, a bluer mane and, most importantly, no cutie mark. But even with those differences, she could easily pass as her, and vice versa. "Why hello," Vinyl said, grinning at the mare. "You're...you're Vinyl Scratch..." the grey unicorn muttered, her eyes wide. Vinyl smiled. "And you look just like me. May I just say, you are one beautiful mare." The unicorn's face dropped. "Sorry, but I don't swing that way." Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I hear that a lot, but usually, they retract that statement IN BED!" she replied, grinning. The grey unicorn facehoofed while Vinyl laughed. "You're funny. I like you. What's your name?" "Adara." "Well Adara, it is nice to meet such a good-looking pony," Vinyl said, shaking Adara's hoof. "I'm not kidding - I really don't go for mares and there is nothing you can do, or say, that will get me into bed," Adara said, sternly. "Damn." *** Adara sat in Sugarcube Corner, not really eating the purple cupcake in front of her. Sitting on the other side of the table was DJ P0N-3, the one and only, otherwise known as Vinyl Scratch, whom she met only minutes ago. Adara couldn't believe her luck - not only was she in Ponyville, but now she was sitting here, eating lunch with one of the most famous ponies in all of Equestria! It felt so surreal, and there was something that made Adara feel a bit edgy. "Hey, what's up? These cupcakes are the best I've ever had, but you haven't touched yours," Vinyl said. Adara couldn't tell due to her goggles, but it looked like her was raising one of her eyebrows. "Can I ask you something?" Adara asked. "Well, you just have. But you can ask me something else," she replied, giving Adara her famous grin, once again. "Why did you come here? To Ponyville, I mean." Vinyl stopped eating her cupcake. She carefully lowered the cake that she was floating using her magic, and sighed. "Long story short - I was bored. Bored of being everypony's business. Bored of taking drugs, drinking, waking up with a different mare or stallion every morning. So I decided to pack up and leave. Actually, just leave. I left everything in Manehatten and just started walking." "But why here?" Vinyl looked around and leaned in closer. "Don't judge me, but as I was walking, I got to a fork in the road. I was going to go left, but I hear a voice, and that voice tells me to go right." She stopped, and looked at Adara. "I know what you're thinking - hearing mysterous voices that tell me what path I should take - you think I'm crazy. But I'm not - well, I hope I'm not-" "I don't think you're crazy," Adara interrupted. Vinyl looked at Adara, for a bit, then raised her hooves to her head, and took her goggles off. Adara made no sound as Vinyl opened her eyes and revealled her deep red irises. Vinyl waited for a few moments, then spoke again. "You're too kind. But anyway, I decided to go right - I had no reason to go left, really. I carried on walking, and walked into Ponyville, and then met you, and then we went here and we got cupcakes and-" "Yes - I know the rest," Adara stopped her. "Well, I guess it's lucky that you did come here, otherwise you would have no idea who I was." "And wouldn't that just be awful?" Vinyl said, putting her goggles back on. Adara smiled, shaking her head at the DJ pony. "I'm sure you'll love it here. I've only been here for a few days, but I couldn't imagine being anywhere else." "Where were you before?" Vinyl asked her. Adara stopped. She was hoping that no one would ask her that question, or for at least a few weeks until she had gotten an answer. She immediately stood up and said, "Let's err... leave." Vinyl slowly got out of her chair, giving Adara a questioning look. "What's wrong?" she said, following Adara out of the door. "Where I came from - it's kinda...it's complicated, and we need to talk to someone about it. Follow me." *** Twilight sat in the library, reading one of her many books. That was the best thing about living in Ponyville Library - the never-ending supply of books. Well, she said never-ending, it would eventually end, and probably soon, at the rate that she was reading recently. The door suddenly burst open. Twilight flung her book down, jumped off the sofa, and faced the intruders. But instead, she saw Adara. "Adara? What's with the banging and the-" "Twilight, we need to talk." She stepped aside to reveal a white unicorn behind her. Twilight gasped. "DJ P0N-3."
Chapter 3"How..." Twilight said, walking towards the two mares, her eyes wide with disbelief. She had never been a big music follower - she prefered reading, really - but DJ P0N-3 was somepony that everypony, especially Twilight, had heard of. "How in Equestria..." Vinyl turned to Adara and, while grinning, said, "Wow, she's almost as big a fan as you are." Vinyl looked at Twilight closer. "Hey, you're that mare that defeated Discord and stopped the chocolate rain. Twilight, was it?" Twilight stood still, a smile slowly taking over her face. "Yeah," she said, finally. "Yeah, that's me. Twilight Sparkle - saviour of Equestria." "Twilight, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a minute?" Adara said, jerking her head in the direction of the kitchen, so that Twilight was sure to get the message. Twilight walked with Adara into the kitchen, almost walking into the wall as she stared at Vinyl. Once inside the kitchen, Adara shut the doors and turned towards the purple unicorn. "We have a slight problem." "Oh my Celestia! Vinyl Scratch, the Vinyl Scratch, knows who I am!" Twilight burst. "Twilight. Are you even listening to me?" "How," Twilight said, ignoring what Adara had said, and putting her hooves on her shoulders and shaking them slightly. "How did you meet Vinyl 'DJ P0N-3' Scratch?" "She was walking through town, and I saw her and she saw me - but that's not the point," Adara began. "The problem is that she asked me about where I was from, and my story." Twilight's smile fell immediately as she heard these words. "I see." She started pacing up and down the length of the room. "And what did you say?" "Nothing. "What can we do? I mean, we can't just not tell her - she'll know something's up. But we can't exactly tell her the truth-" "There's nothing else we can do," Twilight stopped pacing, and turned towards the grey unicorn mare. "We'll have to tell her the truth." *** Vinyl sat in Ponyville Library, looking up at Adara and Twilight, as they explained Adara's origin. As Twilight explained how Adara and her friends came here, and how they are all here for a special reason, Adara turned away. She had met Vinyl Scratch, the pony she wanted to meet the most, and now she may never talk to her again. After hearing what Twilight had to say, she wasn't even sure if wanted to know herself anymore. She sounded like some kind of alien, some kind of monster, that seem to take a form similar to the one of Vinyl herself. Twilight stopped talking, and Adara turned back around, to see Vinyl's reaction. She saw the DJ pony sitting silent for sometime, looking like she was staring at the floor, but her goggles obsured the view of her eyes. "So, you're not a pony? You come from somewhere else?" Vinyl asked, looking at Adara properly for the first time since they came out of the kitchen. Adara nodded, and looked down. "That's...awesome." Adara's head jerked up in confusion. "Wait. What?" "You're like...an alien. Except cooler. From an entirely different world. How is that not awesome?" Vinyl stood up and walked over to face Adara. "Wait. You're not weirded out by this? At all?" Vinyl shook her head. "Hell no! It's great. At least you're not some weirdo or somepony who killed a bunch of ponies just because you felt like it." Adara stood staring at the DJ pony in front of her. Suddenly, she flung herself at Vinyl, giving her a hug. She had a friend. A real friend, who accepted everything about her, even if it was extremely weird. "Thank you. So much," Adara said. "You are welcome. Can I get you into bed now?" Vinyl whispered in her ear. "No," was the quick reply. "Shoot."
