Bonds of the Midnight Mares

by Dusk-Spark

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, DJ P0N-3, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Original Character
Length: 6424

Vinyl and her recently formed band are invited to perform at their old university. However, something is weighing heavily on Vinyl's mind, and she doesn't know if she wants to deal with or run away from it.

[An entry for Equestria Daily's, Writer's Training Ground #008]

It's graduation day for the stallions and mares of the Canterlot University of Music. Vinyl's recently formed band, The Midnight Mares, which consist of: Gale (an earth pony drummer), Crimson Talon (a gryphon guitarist), Neon Lights (a unicorn keyboardist), and Vinyl herself on Bass/Singing duty. They've been asked by their old university to put on a show for the graduating class.

Despite this opportunity for them, Vinyl seems intent on not attending the graduation show for some reason. Worried about Vinyl, disappointing prospective fans, and maybe a little worried about being an accessory to whatever trouble Vinyl gets herself into, the Midnight Mares go out in search for Vinyl. Luckily it's not that hard to find her, just follow the path of chaos.

Published 2014-02-21 00:10:06 UTC
Last updated 2014-02-21 00:10:06 UTC

Catharsis

"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN, VINYL!"

"WELL FINE, LEAVE! SEE IF I CARE?!"

The soft rays of the grossly incandescent sun penetrated her window's blinds. She groaned in agitation while trying to smother herself with the pillow. She wanted to go back to the land of dreams where she was the undisputed queen, but she also wanted to dunk her head in a bucket of coffee to keep the nightmares away. "Screw it."

'When was the last time I woke up this early?' It was only 10:46am. While other ponies would be going to work and such, Vinyl would usually be buried under an avalanche of blankets and pillows until at least noon. Her fellow Midnight Mares bandmate's weren't even up yet. The suite they'd been staying in (courtesy of their university of course), felt strangely empty without their company.
The intoxicating aroma of the warm blend of coffee she'd just brewed made its way up her nostrils. "Perfect." Maybe she should've gotten a cutie mark in coffee making; this coffee was just perfect in every way, now if only someone were awake to see her accomplishments.
She sat at the empty round table, the cup of warm coffee firmly in her telekinetic grip. She took one more whiff if the aroma, a shiver ran down her spine, she lifted the cup to her mouth to finally take a drink. For a brief moment, the cup and the liquid obscured her vision. 'Ahhhh, good stuff.'

"Had a rough night, Vinyl? Don't normally see ya up before noon."

With a weary sigh, Vinyl addressed the voice in her head, "Yeah, this whole gig's messing with my head." Vinyl took another sip from her cup.

"Making ya remember things you'd rather forget?"

"Yeah! I mean, I thought I was over it-" She stopped mid-sentence. When did her inner monologues start talking back? Rather, when did they get a thick appleoosan accent? She turned, and saw a blue, earth pony stallion sitting next to her.

"Howdy," he announced, with a wave of his hoof.

Vinyl's impending heart attack finally caught up with her, as she fell out of the chair. 'Deep breaths, Vinyl! Deep breaths!' She pointed an accusatory hoof at the blue stallion, who was just calmly sitting at the table sniffing Vinyl's coffee. "Gale! Why are you so freakishly good at sneaking around?!"

Gale's amber eyes locked onto Vinyl's magenta eyes. With a blank expression frozen on his face, he explained without skipping a beat, "I grew up with nine older brothers, an' I was the runt o' the litter." He stood up to help Vinyl back onto her hooves, then helped to wipe the dust off her coat. "So, what kinda nightmares ya havin'?"

"What?" Vinyl was confused at first, and then remembered she'd been talking about her nightmares.

He took Vinyl's cup of coffee and swished what remained of the liquid inside. "Your nightmares. I ain't really all that good at talkin', but I'm your friend." He put the coffee down, "An' if there's somethin' botherin' ya, then talk to us. Myself, Crim, an' Neon are here for ya."

Vinyl knew her bandmates were there for her. Still, this was a conversation topic she really didn't want to talk about, especially not when they had a gig tonight! She needed to come up with the most brilliant escape plan ever!
. . . . . . . .
She pointed a hoof behind Gale, "HEY, IS THAT PRINCESS CELESTIA!" Whether or not he turned around, Vinyl immediately bolted into her room. "Perfectly executed." There was a tiny bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"Making ya remember things you'd rather forget?"

Another sigh escaped Vinyl's lips as the image of a tear stained mare's face flashed in her mind. "Why now of all times?" She did not need to feel like crap right now (that should come after a night of heavy drinking at parties).
Before she realized it, she had opened her luggage trunk. Was she looking for the bass guitar? Maybe she was gonna write a new kick-flank song? Or maybe she could get in some DJ-ing work? That was her main job, outside the band after all. No, none of those.
Her telekinetic grip brought out a bow, but there was no violin, cello, fiddle, or any other stringed instrument to go with it (well except her bass guitar). The bow looked rather ornate and worn down, not something that the party pony, Vinyl Scratch, would carry around. However, the thing that really drew the eye was the duct tape around the middle.

It's too bad he couldn't carry his drumset everywhere, life would be a lot more interesting that way. Comedic moment? Punchline drum! Death of a close friend? Somber drum. About to kiss the love of your life? Suspenseful drum! There is no situation that drums can't make MORE important. At least, that's the way he'd always felt... though that may have been because his brothers had the traditional 'cool pony' instruments, and he got saddled with the instrument no one wanted.
While contemplating his choices in life, Gale took a sip of the freshly brewed coffee. ". . . . " Vinyl really should've been a coffee maker.

"Morning, hun." A red feathered griffin walked past the round table, giving Gale a light kiss on the head, before she noticed the pitcher of coffee on the counter. "Oh cool, you made coffee?"

"Actually, that was Vinyl."

"Vinyl," she stifled a laugh, "she made coffee?" For obvious reasons, that surprised the red feathered griffin. "Wait, Vinyl's up? Where is she? I wanted to talk to her about this killer idea for a guitar solo."

"She went in her room." Of course that was a little an hour ago and Vinyl hadn't made a noise since. 'Ya know, it's way too quiet round here.' Those who knew Vinyl personally, would've found the odd silence in the air just a tiny bit worrying. Of course, Gale was way too laid back to actually go about investigating.

Which is why it came as a shock to him, when Crim came flying through the kitchen with enough speed to knock the newspaper off the round table and out the open window.

"Awww," Gale reacted, "I wanted to see if the Chemical Restraints made it to the playoffs..." He still wondered what kind of night of heavy drinking led the team to name themselves after things that happen in a mental hospital or--

"Gale did you hear me?" Apparently, Crim had been talking frantically to Gale.

"Y-Yeah?" He lied, badly. Even by Appleoosan standards, he was a terrible liar.

She facepalmed and sighed, "Vinyl's not in her room, her window's open, and it looks like she tied her bedsheets together, and climbed out the window!"

This struck Gale as a very odd turn of events, "Crim, sugarcube, how in the hay does she climb with hooves?" Now that he thought of it, weren't they on the 6th floor? He was less concerned about Vinyl's well-being and more about how she managed that feat? Maybe with magic? Could unicorn magic do that?

"Gale, focus! Don't you remember the last time we left Vinyl got loose?"

. . . . . . . . . .

The suite was dead silent. Gale sighed, put down his cup of coffee, stood up and started trotting over to Neon's room. "Alright, you get out there an' find her, I'mma wake up Neon. Bring her to the stage, alright sugarcube?"

She gave a thumbs up while struggling to fit through the window, "On it!" And with that, Crim was off.

Gale was just about to knock on Neon's door, when another knock at the suite's front door caught his attention. "Now what in the hay could that be?"

Crim the gryphon, was a lot of things. She was abrasive, selfish, loud, violent, mean, rebellious, and a whole mess of negative adjectives. What amazed her more than the fact that she was dating an EARTH pony, was that he was pretty much the exact opposite of her. Sometimes she'd wonder, what the heck did he see in her?
Regardless, one thing she certainly was not, was a detective. Though, you didn't need to be a detective (or really all that bright) to find, Vinyl Scratch. Just follow the path of chaos and/or angry ponies, then you'll usually find her brandishing a torch and pitchfork in an angry mob, being chased by the angry mob, or actually leading the angry mob. Vinyl's path of chaos had led her from shops of all sorts, to a bar, to somepony's house, and then to another shop which... clearly bared signs of Vinyl's company, because the whole place looked as though a tornado had swept through. Which created a weird... mismatch of stuff. There were instruments, paintings, nerdy stuff, tombs and wyvern games, clothe-- wow, just by standing in the doorway, she wanted to give someone a wedgie. She didn't even really need to question the shopkeeper.

"That little sociopath? Yeah she was here. Are you her friend? She destroyed my merchandise! Look, she even ruined my prized painting, A Red Autumn!" The unicorn shopkeeper swiftly pointed a hoof at a red-painted portrait of a forest, propped up against the wall.

Despite the odd color scheme, there didn't seem to be anything broken about it, "Well what's wrong with it?"

"IT USED TO BE GREEN!"

"Wow, that's terrible," she sarcastically replied. "Look, did you see where she went?"

"Yes! She tackled a minotaur right through my display window, and then ran off!" It's funny how Crim hadn't paid much attention to that.

While Crim investigated outside, trying to figure out where Vinyl had gone, the unicorn shopkeeper kept badgering her about who was going to pay for the merchandise he lost, or something along those lines. Crim, could honestly care less about that. All she wanted to do was find Vinyl, drag her flank to the stage, and then hope the Midnight Mares don't get thrown in a dungeon for being an accessory to whatever felony, Vinyl was committing.

"Are you even listening to me, gryphon?!"

"Okay." Crim wheeled around, "First off, my name is not gryphon. Secondly, under any other circumstance, I would love to spend my hard earned money replacing your crap. But, you mentioned a minotaur, so I have to go find my friend before she gets pulverized," She snatched a pen from the unicorn's apron pocket, "send the bill there, and someone'll deal with it." She wrote down a nonsensical address (on his face), anything to get the snooty shopkeeper off her back before she tossed him over a cliff! "Now if you want to be helpful, you can start by telling me what that sociopath came in here for?"

"She came in here, I could tell she'd been drinking. And she demanded that I fix what remained of a Lunar Melodious brand, double-bass bow. And I asked her, how stupid could she possibly be to break one of the best and oldest brands of bows? I also informed her that the material used to make said bow were worth more than her life! And then she took offense to that."

'I can't imagine why.' Crim rolled her eyes. "And then?"

"Well, a minotaur came by demanding a return on something he recently bought. Naturally, he didn't have the receipt, he got a little angry and that's when your psychotic friend started insulting him. This went back and forth for several minutes before she threw the first telekinetic strike. And then, well... LOOK AT WHAT THEY DID TO MY SHOP!"

"Uh-huh." None of this even remotely surprised Crim. "And lemme guess, you called the guards and they chased her down the street."

"Yes, that's exactly what happened. Now about this-- HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!"

Once Crim had gotten the information she needed, there was really only one place Vinyl could be. She probably should've checked there first, it's usually where Vinyl ended up whenever she went on these little adventures.

Crim hated paperwork. She hated everything about it, right down to the asinine bureaucracy involved, how everything needed to be signed in triplicate, she even hated thinking about things that reminded her of paperwork. So one could imagine how she felt having to fill out the proper forms to get Vinyl released from a holding cell, and then pay the necessary fines (she was saving up to buy a gift for Gale). "Thank you, officer. Really glad you found her." Crim finally breathed a sigh of relief, 'before she committed any felonies. Again.'

Some guards brought a swaying Vinyl out from the holding cell, while she shouted, "ALRIGHT, I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER, MITTENS! NEXT TIME, I'LL TELL YOU ABOUT HOW I BEAT UP A BEAR!"

The guard sighed as he turned her over to Crim, "Tell your friend to stay out of trouble. Or at least, don't pick a fight with a minotaur, my wing's gonna be bruised for a week..."

"...." Crim envied the guards optimism, if he only knew what kind of pony Vinyl was, and how absolutely impossible that request was. "I will." She was clearly lying through her teeth...

Vinyl swayed out of the guard station. She gasped when she finally noticed her red feathered gryphon companion, "Oh hey, Crim! I beat up a minotaur!" She announced in a loud voice, getting the attention of several ponies.

"Yeah, yeah." Crim rolled her eyes as she led Vinyl away from the guard station, before she got in more trouble.

"Turns out he's a real nice guy. We're getting drinks in a week! You should come!"

"Uh-huh. So, when exactly in your chaotic antics, did you find the time to get drunk? Actually, why did you get drunk?" When Vinyl started to lose her balance, Crim acted quickly to catch her. "Okay, okay. Take a seat." Crim propped up Vinyl outside of a convenience store.

"Well, after I made my daring escape--"

"You fell in a wagon of cabbages." Which Crim had to reimburse.

"After I made my daring escape, I wandered around Canterlot, minding my own business--"

"THAT IS SUCH A LOAD OF CRAP!"

"I WAAAAS!" Vinyl whined in a nasally voice.

"Fine, I'll bite. And what happened while you were, minding your own business?"

"Okay! So I was just minding my business all around town, when I ended up at a bar and started drinking. But for some reason the bartender got really mad at me!"

"And why is that?"

"I don't know? Maybe he was just crazy, all I was doing was drinking from behind the counter and making fun of his stupid mustache--"

"THEN OF COURSE HE'D BE PISSED AT YOU!" Crim sighed, she really didn't need to hear the rest of the story. She had practically followed Vinyl's path of chaos enough to get the gist of everything.

"And she demanded that I fix what remained of a Lunar Melodious brand, double bass bow!"

That was the weird thing about Vinyl's rampage. Yeah, a lot of things Vinyl did when she caused mayhem only made sense to another psychotically deranged pony, but something about going into a shop to get something fixed, wasn't really psycho Vinyl's modus operandi. She was probably going to regret asking, "So are you gonna tell me what's the story with the double bass bow?" She didn't even know Vinyl carried anything classy like that. Seemed so out of character for her; but it wasn't for... another pony she used to know.

Vinyl immediately stopped her drunken giggling, then lowered her trademark purple sunglasses down to conceal her eyes. "D-Don't know what you're talking about." She didn't even try to come up with a good lie.

"Vinyl. You've been acting really strange, even by your standards, since we agreed to this gig. Gale would probably say that you're running away from something, do you wanna talk about it? I kind of need you at the top of your game for this gig."

"Ya know, Crim, you're a real awesome lion... eagle... YOU'RE GREAT, CRIM!" Vinyl completely ignored the question. "Hey, ya know what we should do? Let's go hit up a night club!" The sun hadn't even set yet.

"Vinyl." Crim cut her off sharply.

Vinyl realized that wasn't gonna talk her way out of this one, she heaved a heavy sigh of resignation, "Fine. It was a year ago, I did something really stupid..."

"No, really?" Sarcasm strikes again.

"Yeah, so I threw this wicked party to, ya know, shamelessly self-promote myself. And well..." Vinyl trailed off as she let out another sigh, "things quickly got out of hoof..."

"...And?"

"Hey, can you do me a solid and buy me some Umber Ale?"

"Why?"

Vinyl threw up the contents of her stomach onto the pavement. "Because that."

Vinyl woke up under an overturned couch, interestingly enough not the strangest place she'd woken up after a raging party. She crawled out from under her resting place and couldn't help but laugh, she'd seen tornado ravaged towns that looked cleaner than her apartment. Was she still a little drunk? She wasn't entirely sure. Maybe the giant, pink elephant wearing the top hat and playing the piano could answer her questions.

. . . . . . . .

She soon realized, that was a lamp, not an elephant. A very shifty looking lamp, but still just a lamp.
Strangely enough, there wasn't a nagging, gray mare lecturing her this time. "Octi?" Had she gotten home the night before? Vinyl couldn't really remember much of anything last night, it all kind of blurred together around the time she got into a drinking contest. Octi's door was ajar, that was odd. Nopony ever went into Octavia's room (Vinyl would know, she's tried). Cautiously, she opened the door.

A shivering gray mare sat in the darkness. Under normal circumstances, she'd probably say: "Vinyl, we've talked about coming into my room without knocking!" Not this time though. This time, she didn't even look at Vinyl.

"Octi?" She was getting a little concerned now. She moved around to get a better view of what exactly Octavia was looking at. It was just her double bass bow. Was that all? Vinyl thought she'd been hurt or sick, but it was just that? "Hey, Octi you-" Vinyl stopped when she realized, Octavia was crying.

Octavia wiped the snot from her nose in an uncharacteristically uncouth way, "Who did this?" Her voice was low and dangerous.

"Did what?"

"Who. Broke. My. Bow?" Octavia said slowly.

"Uhhh..." Vinyl wracked her brains trying to remember. "Oh right, sorry, Octi! That was me, I don't know how it happened but we just kind of started an archery thing and I need an arrow. It was a really wicked thing ya see-"

"Shut up." Octavia interrupted, "you broke into my room, you took my stuff, and you used it for...a bloody party game?!"

"Y-Yeah? What? That thing was expensive? I'll just go buy you a new one, they can't be that expensive."

"IT'S NOT ABOUT HOW EXPENSIVE IT IS!" Octavia was shouting now, "YOU DON'T EVEN CARE, DO YOU?!" Her voice cracked as more tears started to well up.

"Octi, I-"

"NO! You know what? I'm done! I am so sick of coming home to see a trashed apartment, I'm so sick of staying up at night waiting for you to get home, I'm sick of you never showing up for any of my recitals when I take the time to show up to your concerts, I'm sick of having to clean up after your drunken shenanigans, I'm sick of you mocking everything I do, I'm just... sick of you, Vinyl!"

"Hey, now hold on a minute!" Now it was Vinyl's turn to get pissed off. Yeah, she messed up, but that was no reason to go into other things like that. That's taking it way too far. "I didn't mean to break your stupid bow!"

"IT'S NOT STUPID!"

"YOU'RE CRYING LIKE I JUST KILLED YOUR PET OR SOMETHING! IT'S JUST A STUPID BOW, OCTI, GO BUY YOURSELF A NEW ONE! And if I'm such a pain to live with, why don't you just leave?!"

Octavia said nothing, but her face held nothing but disdain for Vinyl. She shoved past the alabaster mare and marched downstairs, "I'm leaving Vinyl, someone will be by to pick up my things later."

"WELL GOOD! I DON'T WANT YOUR CRAPPY STUFF MESSING UP THE APARTMENT!"

"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN, VINYL!"

"WELL FINE, LEAVE! SEE IF I CARE?!"

Vinyl took a drink from the can of Umber Ale, Crim brought her. "Wonder if Celestia's magic could make this taste less like a dirty sock?" She muttered under her breath.

Crim chose to ignore that last comment, "I was wondering what happened between you two," Something about Vinyl's story didn't add up. "So, why do you still have the bow?"

"Well... we all do stupid things when we're mad." Vinyl levitated out the taped up bow from her saddlebag, "I said I threw it out." Vinyl sighed for what must've been the 50th time that day. She crushed the can against her head like a bro, and tossed it aside.

Crim sighed, she knew she had to say something here. But she was more in the camp of, "tough love." Whereas Gale was more, "you can tell me anything." She sighed before starting, "Look, I ran away from home, so I can tell you right now, it's not gonna go away just because you ignore it."

"You ran away from home?"

That was what she was focusing on, "Yeah. What? You think I just came to Canterlot's university of music with the loving support of my family? Heck no, they tried to think of every rule in the book to keep me in the family business."

"Family business?" Vinyl seemed strangely interested in this line of questions. "What exactly did your parents do?"

"...They had their own corporation dealing in sweets, snacks, candies and the like." This fact seemed to embarrass Crim for some reason. "Half my childhood was rigorous studying to take over the family business, and cooking. I'm only a guitarist, because it felt like something that I actually had some level of control over."

"What's your real name?"

"M-My real name?"

"Yeah! Something tells me, your parents would never call you something rad like, Crimson Talon. So, spill. What's your real name?"

"...Promise not to laugh."

"Promise." Vinyl was most likely lying again.

Crim felt like she was gonna regret this. Actually, she knew shew was gonna regret this. "...Fiora."

"That's it?" Vinyl was clearly disappointed.

Crim sighed, rolled her eyes and continued, "...Fiora Henrietta Von Schweetz."

". . . . . . ."

"Vinyl? Are you gonna throw up again?"

Vinyl fell onto her back, practically dying with barely contained laughter.

"YOU PROMISED!" Of course, Crim realized that there was no way Vinyl wasn't going to laugh. Still, that didn't stop her from wanting to put her in a headlock or something.

"I'm sorry, it's just that name it's so... cute!" She said in between roars of laughter.

Crim groaned, wanting to go back in time and punch herself in the face. "Hey! I'm trying to have a serious, heart-to-heart conversation with you! Look, the point I'm trying to make is-- CAN YOU STOP LAUGHING FOR TWO MINUTES!"

Vinyl straightened up, staring unblinkingly at Crim.

"Okay," Crim sighed. "Look, the point is... running away might make things seem like they're better. Out of sight, out of mind. But eventually, it will catch up to you. And you'll keep feeling like crap until you finally get off your flank and do something about it!"

". . . . . . ." Nothing but silence from Vinyl, she clapped softly. "That's.. actually, really deep," Vinyl said with a nod, "You're right, ya know. I have been running away, and I think I should face it. But first, can you get me another can of Umber Ale? I think I'm about to see what I had for lunch yesterday!" Vinyl's cheeked puffed up.

"Okay, okay! Just don't make a mess out here!" This was going swimmingly, and yet, Crim felt like she was missing something. Probably wasn't important, all she had to do now was get Vinyl sober enough to play at the gig, then drag her flank down there (willingly, or kicking and screaming).
She had gotten to the aisle, when something caught her eyes. It was a little box of deserts in the adjacent aisle, there was a happy, twee gryphon on the cover, with a speech bubble that read: "Von Schweetz makes the best sweets."

And you'll keep feeling like crap until you finally get off your flank and do something about it!

Memories of her parents, of their smiling faces when she finally finished making those damned treats that she'd spend weeks slaving over. Trying to get them just right. She never hated it, so why had she flown all the way to Equestria, and cut all contact with her family? Had she really made peace with what she did? Or had she been somewhat like Vinyl? Just running away and ignoring it? Well, not exactly like Vinyl. Vinyl, still had feelings of guilt and regret eating away at her, that's what drove her to try and get the bow properly fixed. Crim, on the other hand, had gone out of her way to ignore the various letters from her family. If she had really gotten over it, she would've gotten rid of them... but, they were just sitting in a locked cupboard, back in her home. "Maybe I should take my own advice..."

"Crim?" A male voice brought her out of her inner monologue.

Crim fumbled with the box of sweets, catching it with her tail just before it hit the ground; then she'd have to pay for that too, which reminded her: Vinyl owed her so much money! "H-Hey, Neon." And then it hit her, Neon, her pale green bandmate was standing right there, snuck up on her as if he'd taken a page out of Gale's book. "Hey, wait. Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for the show? And why do you look so out of breath?"

"I... was looking for you guys. Where's Vinyl and... gimme a minute, I need to take a break..."

"Vinyl's outside? Didn't you see her on the way?"

"She's what now?"

"Outside."

"And you... left her alone?"

"Yeah... oh crap, what have I done?!" She bolted out of the store, knocking over several things, followed by a very angry shopkeeper. She looked around frantically, her cheeks puffed up, and then she shouted a whole slew of curses straight to the heavens.

. . . . . . . . .

When it was finally over, Neon's glasses had fallen off his face. "Woah..."

Crim cracked her knuckles, twitching and laughing like a maniac, "I'm gonna find her. I'm gonna take her up as high as I can possibly go. And then, I'm gonna drop her. Yeah, I'm so going to drop her like a-"

"Hey, Crim-"

"WHAT?!" She spat in his face.

"Why don't you let me deal with, Vinyl. In the meantime, I've got something else for you to do..."

The stones skipped along the water, sending ripples in the lake. Vinyl thought this would calm her nerves, but all it really did was give her a mirror to remind her of what she did. In the water's reflection, she could see how ugly she had acted a year ago. She could see how she had been intent on burning the stupid bow, until she saw the inscription on the bottom:

"From mother to daughter."

She levitated the bow from her saddlebag. Staring at it with a mix of disdain and regret. "This is all because of you." She wasn't sure if she was talking to the bow or her reflection in the water anymore. "If only you weren't here..."

"Vinyl, there you are!" That male voice could only belong to one pony.

"Neon." Vinyl barely acknowledged his presence. 'Come on Vinyl, put on another face. Just like before.' She forced a smile, "Hey bro, how ya doing?!" She pulled Neon into a half-hug and gave him a playful noogie. Maybe she was overdoing it, but whatever.

Neon struggled from the grip, "I'm fine, Vinyl," he responded with a dry tone, "you've been causing a lot of chaos in Canterlot."

"You call it chaos, I call it a party!"

"At least there's no angry mob this time."

"Gimme a minute." Vinyl finally released him from the noogie, then gazed into the water's reflection and sighed, "Hey, ya know what would be awesome? If we just said, to hell with the whole gig, and just like, took our music on the road!"

Neon stared at her for several seconds, before pulling off his glasses. "Sure." He said, with no hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Vinyl, was surprised to say the least. If it was Crim, she'd call Vinyl an idiot. If it was Gale, he'd probably try to talk her out of it. But Neon, was strangely okay with it? That was boring. "Wait, really?"

"Yeah. I mean you're clearly not having fun. When it stops being fun, and starts turning into a chore, then why should we keep playing? Besides, there's something strangely romantic about the idea, two ponies with nothing but a song in their hearts, and a sense of adventure. Let's leave right now!" Neon seemed practically ecstatic at the idea.

Vinyl was at a loss for words, "B-But what about the rest of the band?"

"They can come if they want, or we'll make a new band. It'll be awesome. Maybe we'll find a diamond dog drummer? Ha, I'm gonna call him Sir Barkington!"

"Wait, Neon. Stop. What are you doing?" Vinyl was not used to being the responsible one here. Usually it was the rest of the band's job to pick up after Vinyl's stupidity, not the other way around! "I'm supposed to be the chaotic, impulsive character. Why are you just blindly going along with this?!"

Neon stopped, looked down into the lake, and then shrugged, "Dunno. Sounds fun. So how could it possibly go wrong."

"A LOT OF WAYS!" Vinyl just came up with several off the top of her head about why just running away was a stupid idea. "How are we gonna travel, where are we gonna go, how are we gonna pay for all that, what if dragons attack?!"

"I don't know," Neon responded without delay, "It's your idea. You tell me."

". . . . . ." And now, Vinyl's head was a mess of confusion.

"...Vinyl, you're a lot of things; pushy, abrasive, insensitive, wild, and a whole bunch of choice words. But, you do know when you've really messed up, and it bothers you so much that you can't help but want to fix it. How do I know all this? Because you've been holding onto, Octavia's bow for the past year."

No use in hiding it anymore, Vinyl brought the bow out in between the two ponies. "Yeah, Crim was telling me how, I need to stop running away, but I don't know. How do I even begin to say how sorry I am? What if Octavia won't even speak to me? What do I do when my best friend hates my guts?!" She put her hooves onto Neon's shoulder, fighting back the urge to cry.

"...I don't have the answers, Vinyl. But, you have to make a choice, right now." He levitated the bow with his magic, "you can't keep running away from this, no one make the decision for you. But, I can tell you that, whatever you choose to do, we'll support you." Neon gave Vinyl some space; what she was going to do, she needed to do without feeling like she was being pressured into it.

It was like, the world just put a stop to everything: the birds, the wind, the hustle and bustle of Canterlot, everything just froze. Except for her, the bow, and the lake. Everything now depended on what she was going to do...

Canterlot University of Music, one of the most prestigious musical colleges in all of Equestria, had a stadium full of graduates, expecting to hear a live performance from the Midnight Mares. Instead, they got a magic show.

"And now watch, and be amazed at the Great and Powerful Trixie's next spell of--"

"Ahem!" Gale interrupted her from behind the curtains, "Thanks for the help, ma'am. We're all set here, so can ya end it with a bang? Just like we agreed on?"

The blue unicorn nodded with a smirk on her face, setting up her greatest exit ever.

Behind the curtains, the Midnight Mares were getting into the zone. Vinyl's hooves wouldn't stop shaking, it was like she was back at her first performance.

"Ya alright, Vinyl?" Gale said, passing her on the way to the drumset.

"Y-Yeah. I'm good. As long as I've got you guys, then we'll manage." Vinyl telekinetically picked up her bass guitar. Light was starting to seep in as the curtains were being pulled, "Alright guys, let's play loud and--" Vinyl stopped when she gazed out onto the crowd and the spotlight shined on her. Were spotlights always that bright? 'Octavia...' Out of the hundreds of ponies out in the stadium, Vinyl caught sight of her. And, she speech she'd prepared had just... erased itself from her mind.

"Vinyl, wake up!" Crim smacked her over the head.

"HEY GUYS!" Vinyl accidentally shouted into the mic, getting some rather painful feedback. "Sorry bout that, I'm a little tipsy. Look, I had this awesome, kickass speech prepared like two nights ago. But, I wanna say something else. See, I've actually been struggling with my music for the past year, I did something... real stupid, and I ended up hurting someone I really cared about. I don't know why I'm even talking about this, just goin' off script. Yeah, I know I'm stupid..."

"Damn straight."

"Yep."

"Sorry, Vinyl."

"THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT GUYS! See what I have to put up with, folks? Anyways, I wanna dedicate this performance to her and tell her, I'm sorry! Now let's get on with the show!"

And so Vinyl played, she played and she sang her her heart out. Vinyl probably hit a lot of wrong notes, in fact she was certain of it. The audience didn't seem the care all that much, they were just too absorbed by the atmosphere. Maybe it was the pounding of her own heart, but Vinyl couldn't hear anything other than her singing. If she sounded like a drunken mad pony singing about something nonsensical, she didn't notice... images of her time hanging out with Octavia, Crim, Neon, and Gale from their university days flooded her vision. And she finally cried, but she still played despite the tears. Vinyl wasn't a religious pony, but she prayed to an alicorn of legend from before her time, to smile upon her and make everything go right for once. Then, the curtains fell...

Backstage, the Midnight Mares and Trixie were having a celebratory drink. "Nice work everyone, we tore that stadium apart!" Vinyl said, bringing the group into as big as she could (which was a pretty amazing feat on its own).

Crim punched Vinyl in the arm.

Gale ruffled her mane energetically.

Neon, pat her on the shoulder and said, "You did okay."

"Trixie must admit, that was an acceptable so-- " Trixie stopped mid-sentence, looking past Vinyl to the stage entrance. "Yes? Did you need something from the great and powerful Trixie?"

The band turned to see who Trixie was addressing and, it was the most unlikely of ponies.

"Is, Vinyl here?" Octavia hesitantly asked.

The band cleared away so nothing could obstruct Vinyl and Octavia's talk. Part of Vinyl wanted to sink into the ground, but no, she couldn't do that. Mostly because she didn't know how. "Hey, Octi..."

"Your... I liked your show," Octavia muttered while forcing a nervous smile.

"Th-Thanks." The uncomfortable atmosphere was just getting unbearable. "Oh screw it. Listen, Octi-- "

"I'm sorry." It was Octavia who apologized.

"What? No, I want to apologize I--"

"We both said some things, I think we both regret them." Octavia closed the distance, putting a hoof on Vinyl's shoulder. "I don't know if we can ever really go back to the way we were," Octavia frowned when she saw Vinyl's crestfallen expression, "but I'd like to try. That is, if you think that this friendship has anything worth salvagin-"

Vinyl threw her arms around Octavia and hugged her tightly, she let the tears flow freely this time instead of holding it back. "I'M SO SORRY OCTI!"

"Vinyl..." Octavia hugged her back, her voice cracking ever so slightly. "Come find me after the show, we'll get something to eat and talk. I've really missed you, and everyone else of course."

"Why not now?" Vinyl asked.

"Well... it looks like you're wanted for an encore."

Vinyl hadn't even been paying attention to the cries of: "MIDNIGHT MARES!" from beyond the curtains.

"Don't disappoint your fans, Vinyl. I'll be here when you get back."

"Right! Of course! Oh wait." Vinyl levitated out the bow that she'd been holding onto, and passed it over to Octavia. "I should've done this from the start."

Octavia smiled, tears welling up in her eye. "Th-Thank you, Vinyl."

Vinyl could barely contain the joy in her heart. She happily trotted back to the Midnight Mares. Vinyl didn't have all the answers, she was sure she'd mess up again. But, Vinyl didn't want to keep running away anymore. From now on, she was gonna keep looking forward, and face her problems head on. As long as she had her friends by her side, she could deal with anything that came her way. "Let's rock, guys."

Author's Note

I wasn't sure if I was gonna finish this one on time, so I had to borrow a temporary cover. If you want to see what the cover art was before, here you go:
shelmo69
Go check them out, they're amazing.