The Sound And Fury From Seaddle

Chapters

Endtroducing
Turntable
Let It Slide
Expressway To Yr. Skull
Enter the Lu-Tang
Precious Thing
You're Living All Over Me
Bone Machine
The Money Will Roll Right In
A Pretty Dress
Interlude: I've Seen Footage
Kick Out The Jams
Foreign Lawns
Special Agent Conrad Uno
Touch Me I'm Sick
Six Pack
Half Life (Guest Chapter)
News Of The World
Prologue
Interlude: Sonic Foal Tour Diary, Day 25: Seaddle

Endtroducing

Chapter One : Endtroducing

In which Octavia first encounters the percussion section

Octavia stormed through the door. Not a second later, the door slammed shut behind her, rattling the entire house. She was angry, angrier than she had ever been before. For her, this was an unheard of say-anything-and-I-will-dismember-you level of fury. It was entirely justified too, at least she thought so,

"How could they pick that...that...IMBECILE over me?!" She exclaimed, venting her rage to the thin air around her.

"I poured my heart and soul into that composition," She slammed a hoof on the floor, tears now building up in her eyes, "But nooo, it 'strains the boundaries', its 'too wild', never mind the months I've spent on it."

She paused briefly, and began pacing around the kitchen in a effort to calm herself. It was useless, she wanted to be angry. She had never experienced a feeling like this. Sure, she had been mad before, but nothing like this!

"And then to present the prize to HIM!? He didn't even play his own song! Anypony could have gone up there and played Beethoofen's 5th Symphony. I tried to make something new and beautiful, but I guess the world just doesn't want that..."

The grey Earth pony sighed, her anger now giving way to depression. She had to fight it, she had never felt empowerment like what her anger had brought. She wanted more of it, and anything was better than sadly moping around for who knows how long. She had to do something about it. She was going to do something about it. Racing to the door, she grabbed her coin purse and left the house just as quickly as she had entered.

She lamented at how light the purse was, she was depending on winning that contest. She wanted her music to be heard all over, but the prize money would also have been really nice to have. Maybe she could just slip something out of the shop with her and hope nopony notices. "No, that's wrong. You know better. You were raised better." her mind told her.

"Yeah, you were also better than the other contestants, but that didn't seem to matter." A different part of her mind retorted, causing her anger to steadily rise again. "Stupid musicians guild, can't accept change..."

Now left feeling conflicted, her target finally came into sight: the record store. It suddenly occurred to her that she had no idea what she would be looking for once inside.

"...Well...you could just ask whoever is there..."

This was true, but she would have to calm down before she could talk. This was counter-productive, Octavia wanted to prolong her anger, but considering that she really, truly had no clue what she was doing, she was left with no choice, other than going home, but she was here now. A pause, and a few deep breaths later, she was through the door.

She had never been to a record shop before, she opted to just order her music and have it delivered, rather than having to search around for it, but she couldn't order an album if she didn't know what it was she wanted. The shop itself was large, but by no means spacious. Crates of records covered every available surface, leaving only a small path to allow movement. Luckily, she was the only customer at the moment, meaning she could avoid waiting and awkwardly brushing past anypony else in the narrow clearings.

Scanning around, she spied the counter, and the mare sitting behind it. "Okay, step one complete, you're inside, but you still have no idea what you're looking for. Step two, ask her for help" Mentally reading off her instructions, Octavia slowly made her way over to the check out, glancing occasionally at albums by bands she'd never heard of. Then again, until now, she never really listened to anything the world of modern music had to offer. She was genuinely excited by this prospect, the sheer volume of music out there that had yet to grace her ears. All she needed was a point in the right direction.

The pony behind the counter was a white unicorn with a blue mane, and despite the fact that it was cloudy, and she was indoors, a pair of sunglasses resting on her forehead. She greeted Octavia with a grin.

"Heya, Welcome! I've never seen you in here before, can I help with anything?" She spoke very fast, her grin growing wider.

Octavia winced a little at the mare's enthusiasm, but she had offered to help her, so she might as well continue as planned.

"Uhm, actually yes. I'm looking for something...angry." She hesitated, suddenly thinking this might not be such a good idea after all.

"Angry huh, world got you down?" The unicorn asked, not allowing Octavia to voice her hesitation. "Yeah, I sure have angry stuff, are you looking for anything in particular?"

"Well, I'm not particularly...knowledgeable, shall we say, with regards to music like this. However, as you put it, yes, the world has got me down today, and I really need some way TO VENT MY FRUSTRATION."

The unicorn stared at Octavia, a little bit shocked.

"...Sorry..."

"S'alright, you're certainly not lying. Angry stuff huh? I got a few ideas, follow me."

She came out from behind the counter, and led Octavia to a section of the store labeled "Punk and Alternitive". Octavia was sure she had heard the term "Punk" used before, to describe a few less-than-reputable individuals.

"My name's Vinyl, by the way, Vinyl Scratch." She said, glancing over to Octavia while simultaneously digging through the crates.

"Octavia" She returned, Vinyl smiled and nodded in response. "Thank you for your help, Vinyl, I'm truly lost with regards to music of this sort."

"Oh, its no problem at all, I love helping ponies find new music!" She replied, pulling a record out and laying it down with three others. She reached the back of the crate, and turned back to face Octavia, picking up the records with her magic.

"Okay, so I think you'll like these albums, at the very least they'll open your world to new sounds." Vinyl brought the records out to face Octavia, and pointed at the one on the left.

"This is Damaged by Black Flank, very angsty and shouty, and quite politicized too. Lotta meaning behind all the screams,"

Octavia had never heard screaming in music before, this should be...interesting to say the least.

Vinyl's magic lay the first record down, bringing the second one closer.

"Okay, this one is a bit different from the last one. This is II by the Mare Puppets. Its an odd mix of country, punk, and a whole bunch of other stuff too. And finally..."

She brought the final record over, stacking the second disc on top of the first.

"Big Mac, Songs About Bucking."

The album cover was, simply put, vulgar. Octavia wasn't sure about this one, and apparently her face made it known.

"Hey now, I know what it looks like, but trust me on this. You asked for angry, and this, my friend, is as angry as they come. You should prepare yourself though, its pretty abrasive."

Abrasive. That was a new term to her, music wise at least. She was a little unsure of ~~the unicorn~~ Vinyl's final choices, but Vinyl certainly knew what she was talking about a whole lot more that Octavia did.

"Very well, if you say these fit the bill, who am I to argue."

"Great! Just follow me back over then!" Vinyl picked up the small stack of records and placed them in a bag, then set them down on the counter top.

"That'll be 27 Bits."

...

"PONYFEATHERS! I didn't bring enough, What do I do, what do I do?"

"Duh, put one back."

After another internal conflict, and feeling the anger she'd suppressed building back up, she opened her mouth to speak.

"I...Uh..I..bleh..."

"Smooth..."

"I...uh, sorry, I only have 22 Bits, I'll just have to leave one here."

"Nonsense! its absolutely fine, take 'it, free of charge!" She levitated the bag to Octavia. "I mean, you seem to be having a pretty rough day, I don't wanna make it any worse. Consider it a gift!"

Octavia was a little taken aback by this kindness from somepony she barely even knew the name of, all in an effort to make her day better. This, led to her current state of emotions becoming even more unbalanced. She sniffed a little, and looked up at Vinyl.

"Hey, uh, you okay?" Vinyl said, looking rather concerned.

"Yes, I'm fine." Octavia replied, wiping a small tear from her eye, "I...thank you, Vinyl."

"Hey, it was my pleasure! Be sure to come back and tell me what you think once you've given those albums a spin!"

"I certainly will. Thank you, again."

And with that, Octavia left to walk home. Slowly. Very slowly, apparently having mellowed out a bit.

And with that, Vinyl continued her lunch. Rather quickly, being very hungry.

Turntable

Chapter 2 : Turntable

In which- OH HEY, NEW MUSIC!

The door opened, and closed again, much calmer than last time. A grey blur shot through the house and straight to the record player. Octavia slid her new records out of the bag and set about inspecting them.

Acquisition number one: Damaged by Black Flank. Even the cover of this record looked angry, it was a photograph of a stallion with a close shaven mane attacking his own refection in a broken mirror. She hurriedly removed the record from its sleeve and made her way over to the record player. She was so excited to hear something new, she almost missed something about the record that made it stand out from the others in her collection. Besides genre. She hadn't noticed it when it was in the sleeve, but in the light, the record was transparent purple.

"I didn't know you could get them in different colours! How many colours do they come in? Should I be collecting them?"

Snapping out of her mental tangent, Octavia put the disc on the turntable and let the needle drop. There was a steady drum beat, followed by a descending pattern.

"Oh my! This certainly is a new sound! I wonder how-"

She was interrupted by the vocalist on the record suddenly tearing right into the song.

...

Yep. Defiantly angry, no mistaking it. Octavia was captivated, this was uncharted territory for her. It was all so...untamed, wild, and, well, angry! She was fighting the urge to thrash around a little bit, it would be most un-characterful. But the fact the record made her want to amazed Octavia in itself, under no other circumstances had she ever wanted to do such a thing.

She had decided, this was a good record, even though she was only at the start.

Approximately 40 minutes later

Acquisition number two: II by the Mare Puppets. This one struck her as a little more odd than 'Damaged'. The album cover was a swirly mess of paint, possibly depicting a buffalo? Maybe a cow? It also crossed her mind how little sense it made to start listening to an album named 'II', as she assumed for there to be a II there should also be a I. Should she not start with I?

Octavia cast these thoughts aside, she was meant to be listening to new music, not questioning the ordering of the albums. The disc quickly took its place on the turntable, and the needle came down once again.

This album certainly was very different from 'Damaged'. It started out sort of similarly, but where as Black Flank's vocalist had been growly and aggressive, Mare Puppet's was more whiny and sounded irritated and desperate instead of furious. After the first track the albums quickly became even more different. A country tinge was very present in II, noticeable in a lot of the songs.

"Hmm...Yes. This one is good also." Octavia announced to nopony in particular other than herself. The instrumentation on this album was more complex and feeling, and the songs changed moods often, giving the album a varied sound.

Another short time later

Acquisition number three: Songs About Bucking by Big Mac. The one she was feeling apprehensive about. It was the cover putting her off, it was a bright, garish green, with a drawing of a mare who seemed to be....ahem...'busy'...thankfully only showing the side of the face.

As with the other two, the record made its way over to the player and started spinning.

The grey pony was not prepared for the noise that resulted.

It was like listening to pure aggression. Octavia was genuinely a little bit scared, especially considering the subject matters of the songs. Subjects like murder, drugs, and a myriad of other things. Each song was delivered in a scratchy sounding, shout, frightening blast. She imagined it was not to dissimilar to listening to sandpaper, or gravel.

But it was certainly different, to say the least. She would have to revisit it at some point.

It didn't really matter at the moment though. She was ecstatic, having just hear three albums from genres just a day ago she wouldn't even consider listening to, and she enjoyed it! Left wanting more, she cast her thoughts back to the current state of her finances. Or rather the lack of.

"Well, there's always next month," She sighed, "Always next month..."

She turned back to the record player. She wanted to hear them again. Octavia would've probably worn the albums out by the amount of plays that day alone, where it not for the early night she decided to have.

"Next month..."

Let It Slide

Chapter 3 : Let It Slide

In which a gig is attended

Three months is a long time if you think about it. Its a whole quarter of a year, a lot can change in that time. A lot had changed, for Octavia anyway.

Over the course of the last few months her taste in music had completely changed. She was way more 'Manticore Jr.' now, rather than 'Tchaitrotsky'. Thats not to say she didn't still enjoy her old stuff, it just wasn't particularly exciting anymore. Plus, her new collection outnumbered her old collection now anyway, so chances are if she even just picked something at random it would be one of her newer discoveries. This new taste she had acquired had begun to show itself, Octavia found herself wearing her faithful bow tie less and less, and band shirts a lot more. Band shirts. She blamed Vinyl for that development.

Speaking of which, Vinyl had very kindly offered Octavia a job at the record shop, and she couldn't accept the offer fast enough. It was perfect; her work had been slow and sporadic lately anyway, she would get to talk to ponies about music as part of the job, and she got to work with a friend in a place she enjoyed spending time at. Basically, Octavia was getting paid to do something she would probably have done anyway, if not from the other side of the counter.

It was a slow day at the record shop, which gave Octavia a chance to browse through the crates for something new. Again. It happens quite a lot. The Alternative and Punk section of the shop had sort of become an impromptu base of operations for her, every foray starting there, then expanding into the other sections. It would always go in an order, she'd look around until she found something interesting, then she'd take it to the store's record player and listen, and if she enjoyed it she'd buy it. A significant amount of her earnings were used in this process.

After five or ten minutes or so, she'd found something that looked interesting. 'In The Balloon Over The Sea' by 'Neutral Milk Stable'. The cover was an old timey painting of ponies at the seaside, but one of them had a drum instead of a head. Drum? Potato slice? Tambourine? Anyway, it looked interesting. She made her way over to the record player and put it down on the turntable. The first song was all acoustic, but had some weird sounding instruments she couldn't name. The singer had an odd voice, and he was singing about carrots and suicide. It was strange, but it wasn't bad. Then it went and got droney and oddly spiritual for a bit, and then changed again, this time a high energy distorted state of affairs. She wasn't sure what was going on, but it was enjoyable none the less, she would probably buy this one.

So she sat there contently listening, humming along to the melodies, working out the lyrics, picking apart chord progr-

"TAVI!"

Octavia jumped and spun around, finding an exasperated looking Vinyl had poked her head out of the office door. She pointed a hoof out to the shop front, and to the line that had formed at the counter. None of the ponies in line looked very pleased.

She turned back to Vinyl, sheepish grin on full display.

"Sorry..."

The queue was defeated about 10 minutes later, during which Octavia had learned: A. To pay more attention to her surroundings, and B. She never wanted to make eye contact with anypony she had annoyed again. Ever. It was pretty busy in the store after that, so she had stuff to do right up to closing time. She didn't mind, at least these customers weren't angry with her, and she could have a chat about music if any of them were feeling particularly talkative. She even managed to get some information about 'Neutral Milk Stable' from one of them. Apparently they are exactly as weird as they sound like they should be.

Soon enough it was time to start closing up. Yes, it was a few minutes early, but the shop was devoid of customers. Until one walked in anyway. A minty green unicorn was stood at the counter, smiling expectantly. Curiously, she had nothing to buy.

"Sorry, we're just closing up. Can I help at all?"

"Oh yes actually, I just came by to talk to Vinyl, but if you're busy packing up it can wait."

"No, its fine, I'll go get her."

Vinyl was usually in the small office behind the counter. Really, the reason Octavia worked there was to let Vinyl work in the office rather than the till. She always told Octavia how boring it was, but it meant Vinyl could do all the admin stuff here, rather than finishing up at work and then getting home to starting more work.

The office was much messier than usual, normally all the paperwork is at least on the desk. Or shelf. Or really what ever empty, flat surface presented itself. There was a large pile of papers in the center of the tiny room, with sheets littering everywhere else. There was, however, no sign of Vinyl anywhere.

"Uh...Vinyl?"

There was a light rustling as the pile of paperwork in the middle of the floor stirred. "...Ugh, leave me alone mom, I don't have to get up yet..."

OoooKaaaay...

Octavia silently approach the pile/pony with a sly grin. Reaching the target, she leaned in closer...

...

"Boo!"

The resulting noise produced by the white unicorn was comparable to the sound of a train being violently assaulted. Also to thank from her surprise wake up call, was that now, due to her jumping, she was stuck horn first in the ceiling. The final thing to emerge from this event were the stifled fits of giggling coming from the grey pony at the door.

"Yeah yeah, very funny. A little help, please?"

The laughter continued, if anything getting louder.

"Aww, come on! This is-pffft...This is really starting to-"

Vinyl had realized the ridiculousness of the situation she had found herself in, and was now left struggling to keep in a laugh. Thankfully, she was rescued from her brief skyward adventure by Octavia, who had finally moved from the door. Now back on Terra Firma, she let out the laughs that had built up.

"Vinyl! Vinyl!" Octavia managed between giggles and breaths, "Th-theres somepony here to see you."

"Okay, deep breaths, calm down. You too Tavi."

It didn't work, and Vinyl made her way to the door still chuckling, Octavia following behind after. The green unicorn was still waiting at the counter. Upon seeing Vinyl her smile widened and she cocked her head slightly.

"Having fun?"

Vinyl gasped a little, and then cleared the counter completely, taking out the other pony in a sort of tackle-hug combo.

"OhmygoshOhmygosh! Lyra! I've not seen you in forever!"

"Its great seeing you too, but I was rather enjoying the ability to breathe..."

"Heh, sorry..." The second awkward grin of the day appeared on Vinyl's face as she took a step back. "What brings you here, I thought you moved away?"

"Well, I did but it didn't really work out. I'm was meant to come back next week, but I've got tickets for Sonic Foal here tomorrow, so I decided to come back early."

"Ooh, Sonic Foal! You're so lucky, that show was booked out waaaaay in advance..." Vinyl sighed.

"Woah, slow down. I won them in a contest. Three of them. I stopped by to ask if you wanted to go, but I think I already know the answer."

"Oooh, thank you! I would love to go! Who else is coming?" Vinyl started bouncing on the spot gleefully, Sonic Foal had been on her 'watch live' list for a few years now, their shows were apparently exceedingly good, no nonsense affairs, with frequent improvisation and experimentation.

"See, thats the thing, I dunno. I was gonna go with Bon Bon, but she was all "I don't even like them" and I was all "Come on, it'll be fun!", then she was like "No." So now I have no idea, unless you have a friend who would like to come."

"Hmm..." Vinyl turned to face Octavia, who had gone back to sorting the shelves behind the counter. "PRIVATE TAVI!"

Octavia jumped, hitting her head on the shelf above. "Ow. Yeah?"

Vinyl scowled at her. Octavia sighed, and feigned a salute.

"Better!" Vinyl's expression softened back to a smile. "So Tavi, whadaya say? Want to come see Sonic Foal with us tomorrow? It'll be fuuuun!"

Octavia weighed the choice up. On one hoof she hadn't really listened to much Sonic Foal, but on the other hoof, she had liked what she'd heard, she wasn't doing anything otherwise, it would be free, and she's looking for new music anyway.

"Okay, why not. Sounds good!"

"Well then, I suggest you and Lyra get chatting! I'm going to clear up the office." With that, Vinyl returned behind the counter.

"..."

"Uh...hi..."

"Hey."

Awkward

Lyra, Vinyl and Octavia got to the venue pretty early, allowing them to use the bar before it was packed, if nothing else. It was a pretty small place, it looked like it would be maxed out at about 500 ponies, but it was a nice environment. While it was empty, anyway. It would be another 40 minutes before the support act came to the stage, a garage noise rock band by the name of 'Pony Galore', notable for using garbage cans instead of drums. That should be interesting.

Sonic Foal themselves should also be pretty interesting, they have a reputation for modifying their instruments, playing in strange tunings, and using odd methods to play the instruments, yielding different noises.

But there was still at least an hour until Sonic Foal took the stage, and that time has to be occupied somehow. Probably involving drinking.

"Sooo, Vinyl tells me you play the cello?" Lyra inquired.

"Oh yes," She replied taking a swig of her drink. "I've been playing for some years now. Do you play?"

"Not the cello, no, but I've been playing the lyre since forever. Maybe longer. We should jam some time, I'll get Vinyl to bring her drums."

"I didn't know she played the drums!"

"Oh yeah." Lyra paused to finish her drink. "She only really uses them to record samples for her electronic stuff, but she certainly knows her way around them."

"Huh..."

This left Octavia wondering what else she didn't know about her companions, she'd never really bothered to ask them anything.

"Note to self: get to know them better."

Soon enough the open act were on. It was exactly as predicted: noisy, different and fun. The bins in place of drums made for a nice departure from convention, even if musical convention wasn't really what anypony there was expecting. Octavia's biggest surprise, however, was just how loud it was. She used to play in an orchestra, that was loud. But the volume generated by just the 4 ponies on stage was mind boggling.

Soon enough, Pony Galore finished their set and trotted off stage. The crowd huddled closer to the stage in anticipation, the venue staff already bringing out Sonic Foal's equipment.

"Hey Tavi, me and Lyra are going to go up the front, you coming?"

This was a difficult choice for Octavia. This was her first gig, outside of classical performances (which were pretty different), and she wanted the full experience. However, she also knew that being at the front would likely be terrifying for somepony like her, it wasn't in her nature to thrash around a lot.

"Uh...I think I'll pass. Maybe I'll come down later..."

"Suit yourself, but its gonna be fuuuuuuuuuuuun!" Vinyl turned and left, with Lyra following afterwards, disappearing into the crowd.

About 5 minutes after they had left for the front, Sonic Foal took to the stage. The noise was almost deafening, and the band hadn't even started playing yet, it was all coming from the crowd. The cheers only seemed to get louder when they did start playing, the show could probably be heard for miles.

Octavia had found herself a nice spot next to the sound booth to watch the show from. The floor around the booth was raised slightly, giving her a good view, and a place to set her drink down. Two thing struck her from her vantage point: the first was the amount of movement the band had going on. Classical shows are very controlled affairs, and with most of the orchestra sat down, there wasn't a whole lot of room for moving around anyway. Sonic Foal were acrobats in comparison, running around, jumping, thrashing about, it made for quite the spectacle.

The second thing that struck her was the amount of moving the crowd was doing, especially at the front. Octavia had expected this from the stories Vinyl had told her about all the bands she'd seen, but it truly was a mesmerizing sight. The crowd rose and fell, it tore itself apart and flowed back together, it was like watching rippling water, or a shrub moving in the wind. She tried to find her friends from her spot, but the movement of crowd prevented it.

After an hour and a half, the show was coming to an end. The crowd showed no signs of slowing down, and were still as hypnotizing as ever. Octavia had decided, she was going to be a part of it before the show drew to a close. She made her way through the crowd, which was no easy feat considering how densely packed the venue was. Nearing the front, she began her search for Vinyl and/or Lyra, which was proving to be more difficult than expected, considering that the movement of the ponies around her put Octavia in a constant state of about-to-fall-over. It made it very difficult to focus.

Even if she couldn't find her friends, being at the front was thrilling. Terrifying, but thrilling none the less. The noise and movement made for an all out assault on the senses, leaving Octavia feeling disoriented, and a little bit sick, but content. Between songs, the moshing died down, but it was still just as loud. She took this brief break to get herself together, facing the front of the venue to get her bearings. As she did, the singer took the microphone.

"Ok guys, this is gonna be our last song for the night. We know you know it. We just wanna say thank you, and goodnight."

The band played the opening chords to the song. The concert goes reacted immediately, shouting and cheering louder than before. The drums kicked in, and that was it, the crowd was in full thrash mode. This left Octavia struggling to balance, She knew she just had to go with it, but she didn't even want to consider the consequences of falling over. Not only was the floor filthy, but there was a pretty large risk of getting trampled.

Then, something unexpected happened.

Vinyl had told Octavia about stage diving once before, when Vinyl had gone to see The U-Stallions. Some pony would jump off stage, and the surrounding unicorns would use their magic to carry them over the crowd and to the back. Octavia had never encountered it, until now. Things seemed to slow down when she noticed it, an orange unicorn had made his way onto the stage, and was in the process of vacating it. Right in her direction. She didn't really realize what was happening until it was too late. Recognizing the situation, she started to brace herself, only to take a hoof to the face as an award for her delayed reactions.

The grey pony swayed for a bit, muttered something under her breath and promptly collapsed on the floor, unconscious. In the middle of the stomping crowd. Away from her friends.

All things considered, it could probably have gone better...

Expressway To Yr. Skull

Chapter 4 : Exressway To Yr. Skull

Mystery train, Three way plane, Expressway....

To your skull

Octavia stirred groggily, slowly opening her eyes and glancing around, vision still a little hazy. She was in an unfamiliar room, its was large, manky, and poorly lit. She had no idea where she was, or how she got here. Plus, her head absolutely killed. She brought a hoof to her forehead in an effort to relieve the pain, only to be greeted by a nasty stickiness. Confused, she pulled her hoof away. It was red.

"Blood?"

"My blood?"

"Aaaaaaah. Aaaaaaaaaaaah."

"AAAAAAH!"

Panicked, she rolled over, and landed with a thud. She had apparently been laying on a sofa, though how and why were a mystery to her.

"Oh, where am I? How did I get here? Is some pony trying to kidnap me? Did- Did they try to m-murder me? What do I do, What do I do?!

Octavia's mental breakdown was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. She swung around to face the door, ready to bolt at the first sign of trouble (which would be pretty useless, as that door was the only exit), only to be greeted by a friendly face.

Vinyl put on a massive smile, and lunged at Octavia, trapping the grey pony in one of her signature hugs/strangulations.

"OhmygoshTaviyou'reok!Weweresoworried!Ithoughyou'dreallyhurtyourselfwhenIsawyoubutI'msohappyyou'reok!"

"...Uh, thats great..." Octavia struggled to say, attempting and failing to process any of what Vinyl had just said at all, "But do you think you can ease up a little, I can't breathe."

"Heh, sorry..." A familiar awkward smile found its way to Vinyls face, only to be quickly replaced by a look of shock. "TAVI! YOU'RE BLEEDING!"

"Woah, calm down Vinyl, a first aid kit is on the way as we speak." Lyra said as she came in, stopping lean on the door frame. "How're you holding up?"

"Uh, not great, really. I have no idea how I... well I guess we, got here." Octavia glanced around the room. "Where even is here? How long was I out for?"

A third voice chimed in from behind the door, it was familiar, but Octavia couldn't quite place it. "You're just in the back rooms of the venue. We saw you lying on the floor, and couldn't really just leave you there, could we?"

A pale blue unicorn stallion entered the room, with a heavily beaten up guitar in tow. The voice now had a face it seems. "As for how long you've been out, I can't really say, but we found you out there about 10 or so minutes ago. Let me introduce myself, I'm No Wave. Your friends tell me your name is Octavia?"

No Wave, No Wave....she had heard that name before. But where. Then it hit her, the familiar voice, this No Wave character, the fact she was in the back room of this 'venue'. She let out a small gasp.

"You're from Sonic Foal!"

"Yep, at least I was the last time I checked. So then, Ms. Octavia, care to tell us how you ended up on the floor?"

"Okay, you know where you are and why, but what about how? Focus, you were watching the show, Vinyl and Lyra left for the front, and so did you after a bit. You got to the front and...THATS IT!"

"Well, I'd made my way to the front to try and find Vinyl and Lyra, but when I got there somepony jumped off the stage and hit me right in the face." Octavia explained, wincing as she brushed her new wound.

No Wave sighed, "Another stage diving accident? I swear these happen, like, every other show. Well, I'd like to apologies on behalf of Sonic Foal for this, Dissonance is just off finding you something for your head."

"Oh there's no need to apologize at all! I mean, you could've just left me out there on the floor, but I'm very grateful that you didn't. Its not like it was your fault anyway."

A tiny, tiny, shell pink pegasus mare came through the door, with a medical bag balanced on her back. "Point is," She said, sitting down next to Octavia and looking through the bag, "We all feel really bad about this, Hold still, this'll sting a bit."

She set about cleaning the wound on Octavia's head. It did, as promised, sting.

"Dissy is right, nopony has ever gotten hurt this badly at one of our shows before. Except that one time an amp stack fell on our manager, but that was pretty funny."

Octavia was about to question how it could have possibly been funny, but was stopped short by Dissonance. "Trust me. It was actually pretty funny."

"But anyway, we're really sorry about this whole thing. We've asked the venue to refund all your tickets for the trouble. Plus, we want you to have this, Octavia, to say sorry."

No Wave presented Octavia with a copy of the new Sonic Foal album. It had been signed by all the members.

"Vinyl here tells us you're somewhat of a record collector, we thought you'd like this. We all signed it too, plus its limited edition, check it out!"

Octavia slid the record out of the sleeve, revealing that it was marbled light pink in colour, with flecks of grey and white. It was a work of art in its own right.

"This is...I-I can't accept this! You've already done so much, if anything I owe you!"

"Nonsense, I can't let anypony leave a show feeling disappointed, let alone hurt! At any rate, I thought you could probably use some cheering up after what happened." No Wave offered a reassuring smile.

Octavia paused, glancing up at No Wave and Dissonance.

"Thank you so much, for everything. I mean it."

"She's getting emotional again." Vinyl whispered to Lyra. "She did it when I gave her free stuff too."

The three spent the next hour or so hanging out backstage with Sonic Foal. Vinyl had decided that 'hanging out with Sonic Foal" was probably the coolest thing to happen, ever. Many photos were taken. Many ever so slightly drunk conversations were had.

"Wait wait wait, lemme get this straight, you all play instruments, and you all like similar music, but you're not a band?"

Octavia, Lyra and Vinyl all nodded in unison.

"Pfft, thats dumb. You should totally start a band."

The drummer had a point, even though he was a buzzing a bit. It was pretty stupid that they weren't a band. To be fair though, Lyra and Octavia had only known each other for about 18 or 19 hours, tops. Still, it was something that should be considered.

"Oh, we really should!" Vinyl interjected. "That would be soooo fun!"

"Go for it, there's no reason not to, I mean, we did and it worked out pretty great."

"I would totally be up for that." Lyra said between sips of her drink.

"YESYESYES!" Vinyl pretty much exploded, turning to face Octavia with the biggest smile probably ever. "Taaaviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii?"

It would be pretty great. And, unlike normal, she couldn't really see any downsides. If it was really that bad, they could just stop. Unable to find a flaw, she decided.

"Yes. Yes, this is a good idea."

"YES! THIS IS HAPPENING!" Vinyl grabbed Lyra and Octavia into a group hug. "THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT EVER!"

And so, with the majority of the band members unable to move or breathe, the band was started.

Soon enough it was time to leave, the venue had closed for the night, plus the band needed to get going, unless they wanted to miss their next gig. Thank you's were exchanged, and the groups went their separate ways.

"I can't believe we just hung out with Sonic Foal!" Vinyl beamed, "And Tavi, can't believe you got a signed record! And I can't believe we started a band! This night has just been the coolest!"

"Yeah, its been pretty wild..." Octavia brought a hoof to her head in an attempt to ease the sharp ache she felt now that the painkillers had started to wear off. "I think I would like to go to the hospital tomorrow, though..."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, that cut looked pretty nasty..." Lyra replied, suppressing a yawn.

They continued along for a few more minutes in relative quiet, until Octavia broke off from the others.

"Well, this is my house. I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow. Goodnight!"

Having said her goodbyes, Octavia made her way inside, setting down her precious musical cargo, and headed straight for her bed. She was asleep in seconds.

Lyra and Vinyl continued on, slowly making their way back to the record shop. As it turned out Lyra didn't really have anywhere to stay, but Vinyl had said it was cool for her to crash in the living room above the shop.

Vinyl fumbled at the door, struggling to work it as a result of the tiredness/inebriation combo. Finally, the mechanism worked with a satisfying click. Proud of her victory, she pushed the door open and walked in. Alone.

Lyra grumbled a little in her sleep. On the side walk. Tiredness had gotten the better of her between Octavia's house and the record shop. It was going to be an uncomfortable night.

Enter the Lu-Tang

Chapter 5 : Enter the Lu-Tang

In which da ruckus is brought

It was a rainy morning in Seaddle. For some reason the weather team made it rain a lot in Seaddle, but everypony was used to it, really. It wasn't known as 'The Rainy City' for nothing, so its not like they didn't know what to expect.

It was just past 11 when Vinyl woke up. She was glad it was Sunday, the shop was closed on Sundays so she got a lie in, which was very much required today, what with last night's antics. She was feeling pretty sick, and there was a nagging feeling she had about...something, but what she remembered of last night was enough to counter the sickness, and she figured she probably just needed to check stock or something later. Vinyl rolled around in bed for a while, she had no plans to leave it anytime soon.

Her lazing was rudely interrupted by knocking from downstairs. Vinyl groggily rolled out of bed and made her way downstairs and into the shop, leaning on the banister on the way down. She opened the door that led to the shop front and looked out the glass door. Stood there knocking, was a dirtied, soaked Lyra. Vinyl opened the door and Lyra came in, and immediately tripped and fell in a puddle of her impromptu shower. She offered a weary look up at Vinyl.

"I hate everything."

Octavia was up at 7, same as any other day.

What was not the same, however, was the rather large cut on her head, and the left over feeling of being a little bit drunk. Drunk is not a feeling she is used to, and her injury really wasn't helping. Still, things to do, can't stay in bed forever.

After a quick shower, and some medicine for her head, she removed the bandages to see how the wound was holding up.

"Ouch...Well then, hospital it is."

She had forgotten that it was Sunday, and that the clinic didn't open until 9, which meant about half an hour of awkwardly standing around under any possible shelter from the rain. At least there was nopony else waiting so she could get treated pretty quickly.

Good news: No stitches!

Bad news: More stinging pain!

The doctor glued the wound closed and bandaged it up again, giving her some spare ones so she could change them. All that was left was her hangover, but she would just have to deal with it. She stepped back out into the rain and set about getting home at a brisk pace.

"Okay then, what have I got to do today? Well, I have that new Sonic Foal album to listen to, and...."

"Wow, is that really all? Guess I'll go over to Vinyl's then."

Octavia reaches her house and gets upstairs fast, quickly drying herself with a towel. Stupid umbrella, getting broken when needed. She made her way back to her room, and removed the special record from it's sleeve. Placing it gently onto the turntable, it started spinning in its flecked blue glory.

The first song starts. Its a mellow piece, almost droney, and very relaxing. The dynamic's suddenly change, the song becomes faster and eratic, with much more energy. She remembers this, it was the song they opened with last night. There were some very odd sounds worked into the song; ringing, almost bell like sounds and long, scratchy drawn out sounds. A glance at the liner notes revealed nothing out of the ordinary instrument wise. The band had to be doing something weird to them to get those noises. She wanted to know, new noises are always fun.

"You do know you were there watching the play this less than a day ago, right?"

Now that she thought about it, some of their equipment did have some off modifications. Things like tools wedged under the strings, and she thinks one of them was hitting their guitar with drum sticks. This presented a problem, she wanted to have a go at making these noises, but could she risk damaging her cello? It cost a lot, and really meant a lot to her...

"Stop worrying about this now and just enjoy the music."

"Why did you just leave me outside? Seriously, not cool!"

"I DIDN'T KNOW" I thought you came in with me! I was drunk, ok?!"

"Oh? And did you just forget about me this morning then?"

"...I'm still a bit drunk..."

The two arguing mares were interrupted by the sound of a ringing bell. Octavia had just come into the shop (Vinyl had forgotten to lock the door after letting Lyra in) and she was just...standing there, staring off into the distance.

"Uh, Tavi? Are you okay?" Vinyl asks, moving closer to her.

Octavia doesn't break from her trance, her eyes are fixed on the wall behind the counter, and she isn't moving from the spot.

"...That...album, the Sonic Foal one, from last night..."

"Mmmhmm, was it good?"

Octavia turned her head to face Vinyl, looking her straight in the eye with an emotionless face, it was slightly unnerving.

"It was life changing."

Octavia slowly made her way to the record player behind the counter, removing the aforementioned album from her bag. She put it on the player and started it, the music coming through the shop's sound system. The droney mellow intro passed, and then the dynamic change kicked in.

"Woah." Vinyl and Lyra said in unison.

What an album. DAMN, what an album.

The three mares listened to it about 5 or 6 times all the way through, back to back. It was that good. There was no doubt that they'd listen to it again later. It had defused the situation between Lyra and Vinyl, and chilled them both out. Octavia was already chilled out, she'd heard it first.

"Wow, I've not listened to an album I liked that much since Enter the...Lu...Tang..." Vinyl paused. "...Buck..."

"Huh?"

"Oh this is bad, very bad! Its Sunday, yeah?"

Lyra nodded.

"I'm meant to be in Manehattan tomorrow! I totally forgot!" Vinyl said frantically, quickly running up stairs and returning with a suitcase.

"Wait, why?"

"Method Mane from the Lu-Tang Clan caught one of my DJ sets a few months a go and said he was impressed, he asked me to guest at one or two of their shows. First one is tomorrow! I gotta get there fast!" Vinyl was hurriedly stuffing the case with records from behind the counter, kept separate from the rest.

"Couldn't you just, like, not go?" Lyra asked.

Vinyl paused, looking at Lyra with an eyebrow raised.

"Lyra, Lu-Tang Clan ain't nothin' ta buck wit!" She reverted back to stuffing the suitcase.

"Wait, how long are you going for?"

"Shouldn't be more than a few days."

"Mmmhmm, and what about the shop?" Lyra inquired, not impressed.

Vinyl stopped. She hadn't thought about that.

"AUUGHGH! EVERYTHING IS GOING WRONG!"

"Hey, what if Lyra and I watched the shop while you're gone?" Octavia offered.

Lyra and Vinyl returned the offer with a "Huh?" in unison.

"Well, I've been working here a few months now, I think I get how everything works around here. I'm sure Lyra has some clue as to what she'd be doing. It should all work out fine!"

"Well, I dunno..."

"It'll be totally fine! What could go wrong?"

Vinyl sighed and lowered her head.

"Look, I trust you. Both of you. But this shop, its...its everything I have, you know? Its just...this is...." Vinyl glanced back up at the other two.

"...Please be careful..."

"Of course! We wont let you down!" Octavia replied, sporting a mock salute.

"Now come on, you've got a gig to get to!" Lyra said, helping Vinyl pack.

It was a pretty chilly morning. Lyra had come down to open the door, since she was staying in the shop, so she had the keys. Octavia came inside, an autumn breeze blowing in some crud with her, mostly dead leaves.

Its 8:30, the shop would be opening proper soon. Lyra was eating a breakfast of toast, while Octavia was sorting through the record crates and moving any records in the wrong spots. It also made a great excuse to just look through for interesting stuff. After a while, Lyra turns the sign on the door with her magic. Open. Let the day start.

Lyra didn't know how to fill out all the paperwork in the office, so she just stuck around the counter with Octavia. A lot of time was spent staring out the windows, it was pretty slow (apparently most ponies don't have time to browse music on the way to work in the morning), and neither of them could think of anything to talk about, Octavia still didn't know Lyra that well, and Lyra was just really tired, especially after her night of accidental homelessness.

"Welllllll...this is fun."

The silence was awful. They needed to do...something! Then, Octavia suddenly had an idea.

"Sooooo...hows this whole 'band thing' going to work?" Octavia smiled expectantly, awaiting the reply. She'd never been in a band before. Ensembles, yes, Bands, no. Were they very different? If they were, it what ways was it different? Octavia's smile dropped when she received no reply.

"Lyra?" Octavia nudged her. Still nothing. Upon closer inspection, Lyra had fallen asleep.

"Figures." She let out a sigh.

"Oh well, at least I'll be busy with all these customers." She thought to herself, glancing out at the empty shop floor.

It was going to be a long day.

It was 4 hours before a customer came in. They didn't even want to talk! At least the sound of the cash register woke Lyra up. so she could talk to somepony.

"Okay, lets try that again."

"So then, how about this whole band thing?"

"Whu-huh?" Lyra replied, rubbing her eyes.

"You know, the whole 'we should start a band thing' when we went to see Sonic Foal?"

"OOOH! Well...I guess we...just practice? I dunno really. We should probably come here for it, since Vinyl's drums are here, and they're a pain to move."

"But what would we be playing?"

"Can't say really, we gotta ask Vinyl before we do anything."

Lyra put her head back on the counter in an attempt to go back to sleep.

"Riveting."

It was turning out to be a long day.

Shutting up shop was a lot easier than it normally is. There wasn't any mess to clean up, seeing as how there were only 3 customers today. Since she had finished cleaning up way earlier than usual, Octavia took the opportunity to look through the crates. Again.

Lyra was counting the day's profits, a whopping 44 Bits altogether.

"Vinyl isn't going to be very happy about this. I wonder how she's doing?"

"She'll be fine, I'm sure of it!"

Meanwhile in Manehattan

The crowd were milling around expectantly, the show was meant to start 10 minutes ago now. Their attention was suddenly drawn to the noise emanating from the venue's sound system.

"En garde! I'll let you try my Lu-Tang style!"

With that, a large group of ponies took the stage, bouncing around to the beats played by a certain white unicorn. At this point the mics came into play.

"BRING DA MOTHA BUCKIN' RUCKUS! BRING DA MOTHA BUCKIN' RUCKUS!"

The crowd went wild, and the DJ smiled to herself from behind the decks. The Manehattan underground was, simply put, incredible.

"This is too cool!"

Precious Thing

Chapter 6 : Precious Thing

In which da ruckus continues

It had started raining again after closing time, so it was pretty quiet out, nopony wanted to be out in the dark, especially with the cold and rain. Octavia had left in a hurry in an attempt to reduce time in the weather, so there wasn't much point in sticking around the shop front. Lyra locked the shop up for the night and went upstairs into Vinyl's living space. She made herself a quick dinner of I'm-lazy-and-there-isn't-much-left-in-the-kitchen surprise and started reading the latest issue of "Below Classical". It was her favorite fanzine, all about underground music of any genre around Equestria. Issues only came out once every few months, and this was a particularly hefty addition, mostly focusing on the upcoming bands from around Seaddle. The town had started to develop its own sound, out of boredom if nothing else. Seaddle was a fair distance away from any other cities, so a lot of bands just wouldn't bother playing here when on tour.

The article mentioned several rising bands from the local area, Marevins and The U-Stallions in particular as well as a few Lyra wasn't familiar with, but she had been away in Ponyville a while. She made a mental note of the ones that sounded interesting, she could probably go watch a few of them considering she was now in the area.

Lyra finished the article and moved onto the next. Lu-Tang Clan. "Huh. I wonder how Vinyl's doing..." She read the article, the parts about gun running, drugs and possible connections to murders particularly stuck out to her. "I'm sure she's fine...I hope she's fine, anyway..."

Meanwhile in Manehattan

Vinyl scrambled to hide behind a dumpster, she couldn't afford to be seen. Crouching down beside the dumpster, she found herself staring at Ghostieface Killah hidden behind some crates opposite her,obviously he'd though this alley seemed like a pretty solid hiding spot too. He put a hoof up to his mouth, miming a "Shh" to her. Vinyl rolled her eyes. "You don't need to tell me that..."

She found herself crouching lower to the ground in an effort to evade an approaching noise. There was no doubt about it now, it was most definitely a guard patrol. The show had been a set up, the guards had used the show as a way to get the Clan all in one place and arrest them for various charges. Unfortunately for Vinyl, who was on stage at the time, this now included her, though if she could get away she doubted they would come after her anymore, seeing as how it was incredibly unlikely any of the guard's documents mentioned her in any way, for this operation at least. The sound grew closer, Vinyl lowered her breathing to keep quiet. It was to a great deal of relief for her that they continued on straight past the alley, not even giving it a second glance.

Quickly making sure the guard's had past, she made her way over to Ghostieface and sat down with him. She sighed and faced him.

"Look, Ghostie, this has all been very exciting, it really has. And its been a privilege to not only DJ with you guys, but to perform at one of you're shows? That's just a whole other level! Buuuuut, I really could do without being arrested, you know? I think it might be best if I head back home early..."

"S'cool, this life aint' ta everypony's liking, and da guard's a whole lotta hassle we don't need. I gotta say though, you were on it tonight, sounded real tight. I hope we can have you back some time."

"I'd like that." Vinyl smiled and glanced out from behind the boxes. The coast was clear.

"Alright Ghostie, I'm gonna head out while its clear, tell the rest of the Clan I said thanks!" She saluted the rapper and made her leave.

"Gee, this would make one hell of a story.."

Lyra had put the spare covers back onto Vinyl's sofa for the night. She could sleep in Vinyl's bed while she was away, but it would make her feel weird, for some reason she couldn't explain. She put down her copy of Below Classical and put the lights out, it was late and she had to be up in the morning, she could finish reading tomorrow. With everything sorted, she settled in for the night.

Lyra was awoken by a large crash from downstairs She glanced over at the clock: 4:17AM. She grumbled to herself as she rolled of the makeshift bed and went to investigate. "I was having a good dream too! There was cake and everything. Stupid noise, this better be important." She reached the bottom of the stairs and opened the door. It was indeed very important.

Stood in the corner of the shop next to a broken window, was a pony, a hood concealing any of its features. All Lyra could tell was that it was a red pegasus. She snapped out of what was left of her sleep and went into full anger mode.

"WHAT THE HAY DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!?"

The pony turned to face Lyra, a grin visible, but the rest of it's face obscured. It was emptying a can of lantern oil onto the floor. Then from the pocket of it's hood, it produced a lighter. Fear swept across Lyra at the sight.

"No."

"NO!Nononono! Please!"

The pegasus flicked the lighter and dropped it into the puddle, before exiting back through the window. The fluid ignited instantly, filling the shop with smoke. The fire began to spread to the record crates and walls. The smell of burning plastic and wood began to fill the air, the fire now producing thick black fumes.

"Okayokayokay! Don't panic. What do I...WATER!"

Lyra bolted upstairs and returned with a few buckets of water. She used her magic to pour them all at once over the fire in an attempt to smother it. It sorta worked, but by the time she'd filled the buckets up and come back downstairs it had spread further along the walls.

"AHHHH! THIS ISN'T WORKING!"

She needed to go and get help, but the fire was blocking the exit. She was trapped, the only way she would be able to get out was...

She ran back upstairs, closing everything behind her to try and stop the fire spreading this far. She reached Vinyl's living room and opened one of the windows. The shop front made a small ledge underneath the window, not too far down. "No turning back now...". Lyra lowered herself out of the window and onto the narrow ledge, before repeating that step to get to street level. She landed with a thud on the paving slabs. Lyra scrambled to her hooves and made for the nearest emergency point, which was fortunately only a short distance from the shop. She activated the fire beacon and waited for assistance, not taking her eyes off of the burning building for a second.

7AM, Time for Octavia to wake up. She started her infallible morning routine: Get up, wash, get dressed, eat breakfast. She opted for her bow tie today instead of another band shirt, they all needed to be washed anyway. She gathered up some food for Lyra, figuring she'd appreciate it, and set off for the shop with her delicious care package.

It was a chilly, foggy morning. Octavia wished she'd brought her scarf, winter surely was on it's way in now. At least the food in the bag was still sorta warm. She rounded the corner onto the street the shop was on, noticing it was much busier than usual, especially at this time of the day. Something wasn't right, that much was evident from the emergency carts in the road. The smell in the air wasn't a good sign either, something had definitely happened here.

She approached the shop, but her path was blocked, there was a crowd gathered around it. "Odd." Octavia managed to get to the front of the crowd, only to be prevented access by a barrier, and several guards. The weather team were there too, moving clouds out of the shop. The shop itself was charred but recognizable, the front was ruined but the rest of the building seemed intact. "What the hay happened here?" A pang of sadness hit Octavia, this wasn't only where she worked, it was somewhere she enjoyed being. Vinyl was going to be devastated...

...

"LYRA!"

Octavia dropped the food and rushed up to the guards, she had to know Lyra was ok.

"Um, excuse me, but I work here and can you tell mewhathappenedpleasesayshe'sokLyraisokright?..."

It took a few seconds for the guards to figure out what it was she'd just said, but the message got across.

"Look, don't worry, everypony is fine. You said you worked here? Maybe you should come talk to her."

The guard stepped aside, allowing Octavia to pass through. She picked up the bag of food she'd brought for Lyra and made her way through. The shop front was an absolute wreck, and there was no point in entering it now anyway. Looking around, she spotted Lyra sitting in the back of a medical cart with a blanket and a drink. Octavia reached the cart in a flash and quickly had Lyra in a hug,

"Oh my gosh, Lyra! I'm so happy you're okay! What happened?"

Lyra stared off into the distance with empty eyes, taking a sip from her coffee.

"Somepony broke in." She said, with no hint of emotion.

"W-what?"

"They broke the window and came in," Lyra pointed for emphasis, "And started pouring lantern oil everywhere. They dropped a lighter in it and flew back out." She turned to Octavia with a tearful look. "I-I tried to stop it..."

Octavia put her foreleg around Lyra to comfort her. "Shhhshhshh, it wasn't your fault Lyra, some sick pony broke in and did this, there wasn't anything you could do."

"I-I-I should've stopped them! I was too slow, and now look at the shop!" Lyra buried her face in her hooves.

"Lyra. Listen to me. It's not your fault."

"...I let her down, Tavi. Vinyl. She said it herself, this shop was everything. I said nothing would happen to it, now look at it." Lyra burst into tears, and Octavia pulled her in for another hug.

"Hey now, don't talk like that, none of us could've know this would happen. I'm sure she'll be happy just to find out you're safe."

The sat there wordlessly for a few minutes watching the emergency crews as they moved around the scene. Octavia broke the silence.

"Oh, I brought you some breakfast too!" She passed the bag to Lyra. It contained a flask of coffee and a fresh croissant Octavia had made. As well as being musical, she was a damn good cook.

Vinyl gathered her things and stepped off the train. She had not slept, overnight travel isn't something she does well and the train was pretty noisy all night, but she was happy to be back home, even if it had only been a brief departure. It was certainly more relaxing already, not having to dodge any patrols. Plus, she still had most of the things she had left with, so that was good too. She figured the guards had seized anything she was missing records in the raid, thankfully nothing rare or expensive.

She left the station and set about getting home, still buzzing. She'd DJ'd with the Lu-Tang Clan. She was gonna talk about this for weeks. Not only that, but they invited her back too. Truly, it had been a great trip, even if it did get cut short. It was a pretty quick walk to the shop. She stopped by a café on the way, having not eaten since last night. Eventually she rounded the corner onto the street where the shop was located, which seemed much busier than normal. Funnily enough, the fuss seemed to be concentrated around...her...shop...

Vinyl galloped over to see why everypony was outside her shop. She noticed the emergency carts lining the road, and the presence of guards. "Oh, there is no way this can be good." Paranoia struck her, what if they were still trying to arrest her from Manehattan? Was there a robbery? What if something had happened to Lyra? Fighting her way through the crowd, she got her answer.

The whole front of the shop was blackened with soot, the door had been forced open and one of the windows was gone. The front half of the shop floor was completely destroyed, the back seemed to have fared better but was still damaged in places. The rest of the building looked in okay shape. Any stock she had out on the floor had been rendered unsellable, melted by the heat of the blaze. Lyra was no where to be seen. She had to be okay, she had to be. Vinyl found the nearest guard to try and get some information.

"E-e-excuse me, I'm the owner of this building...What...What happened?" Vinyl eventually force out, holding back tears.

"The owner? Vinyl Scratch, correct?"

Vinyl nodded at the guard.

"I see. If you would like to follow me." The guard led her to a medical cart, containing her friends. Vinyl rushed over to them.

"GUYS! YOU'RE ALRIGHT!" Vinyl exclaimed, no longer attempting to hold back tears. The three embraced in a group hug, which was actually fairly uncomfortable considering the crampedness of the cart.

"Guys...what happened?"

"Arson." Lyra said bluntly. "Last night, somepony broke in and set fire to the shop. Vinyl, I'm so, so sorry."

"Arson? Why? Why would anypony..." Vinyl choked on her sentence, and was again struggling back tears.

"I don't know, Vinyl. I just don't know. I didn't even recognize them."

"You saw who it was? What did they look like?"

Lyra shook her head. "They were wearing a hood, all I could see was their snout. The only thing I can say for sure is that is was a red pegasus." Lyra looked Vinyl straight in the eye. "Vinyl, I'm sorry. I...I let you down, I promised nothing would happen while you were gone.." Lyra broke her gaze and hung her head, she started crying again.

Vinyl put a hoof on Lyra's chin and brought her head back up. "Lyra. Look at me. This isn't your fault. This is not your fault, okay? I'm just happy you're safe."

"B-but your shop..."

"I have insurance. Sure, this is a massive set back, and its gonna be a lot of work, but it'll get taken care of. I...I'd need to find out the extent of the damage, but that can wait. You guys are safe, and that's the main thing."

Lyra nodded, and looked back at the floor again. "Upstairs is fine, but the shop front is pretty bad. I don't know about the rest of the shop..."

"Well, if its just the front, thats a lot less work than the whole building." Vinyl looked back at the shop and sighed. "Well Lyra, guess I'd better start looking for a hotel for the both of us, I doubt they'll let us stay here until they declare it safe, and that could be a few days."

"Nonsense!" Octavia interjected. "You're welcome to stay at my house while this mess get sorted, its the least I can do!"

Vinyl offered her a slight smile. "Thanks a lot, Tavi."

"Anytime, I'll do anything to help! I'd suggest we head there now, it is pretty chilly today."

"I don't think we can leave yet, the guards are going to have questions and stuff..."

"Well, the guards have already talked to me," Lyra explained." and I guess I have more information...I'm sure if you just tell them where you're going it'll be fine."

"Okay then, guess I'll go do that."

"Excellent!" Octavia exclaimed, "We'll wait for you and then make our way back to my house. I'll have to set up the spare room, but everything should be fine."

"Thanks Tavi, I guess I'll go find a guard to talk to then."

"Tavi, you don't have to do this, I'll find a hotel." Lyra said.

"I wont hear a word of it! You've been through quite enough. Come along now, its frosty today!"

And so they left for Octavia's house, which was, as suggested, much much warmer than just hanging around in that cart all day. Guards came by later with questions for Vinyl; stuff like details of ownership of the building, asking if she could think of any reason for anypony to do what they did, the usual stuff. Octavia set up her spare room for the two, and they settled in for their stay, however long it might be.

You're Living All Over Me

Chapter 7 : You're Living All Over Me

In which the house is shared

All at once a number of unexpected things happened.

Octavia did not own a copy of "Straight Outta Cloudsdale", and as such there was no reason for it to be playing so loudly in her house, let alone at all.
4:43 AM is not a time she associated with anything other than sleep, why was this album playing at this time in the morning?
She was definitely sure that when she went to bed there were no light show installments anywhere on her property.

She let out a groan and got up to investigate. She was missing out on a good two and a bit hours of sleep now, and she was not best pleased about it. Turning the corner and heading down the stairs (avoiding the lighting that had now been set up), Octavia found herself in the room that housed her record player. Vinyl was there with an unfamiliar dirt coated box full of records, looking as if she was about to burst into tears.

"Vinyl? W-what is this? Its 4 in the morning!"

"I-I-I-I panicked thinking about the store....I had to put some music on to..."

"But why so loud?" She pointed a hoof at the box. "Where did you even get these from?!"

"Its one of my emergency record crates. I have them buried around town in case of an occasion like this."

"..." Octavia didn't really know how to respond to that.

"Look, Tavi, I'm really sorry, but this is just how I cope when bad things happen..." Vinyl turned down the volume on the player.

"Well....Can you...Do you think you can cope more quietly? Not just for me and Lyra, but I think the neighbors are gonna be pretty angry too."

"I dunno Tavi, but I can try."

"Hmm...well, we're a band now, right?" Octavia let out a yawn. It was still pre-sunrise after all. "Why don't you try writing a song?"

"I tried that, but when I get sad and mopey everything I write comes out sad and mopey."

"Well then let it be sad and mopey! Let it out! Who knows, it could be great..." Octavia turned around and headed back upstairs. A mares gotta get her rest after all. Vinyl heard her door click shut, she was alone again. She sighed and wen over to the window, it was still dark outside, progressing further into autumn meant dawn came later and later each day. The stars were even still out.

"Let it all out, huh? Maybe I should try this..."

"Wow Vinyl, this is pretty..." Octavia trailed off.

"...Dark." Lyra finished for her.

The three were grouped around the table in Octavia's kitchen, she'd made a breakfast of pancakes for them all.

"Well, you said to let it out, so I did!" Vinyl pouted.

"Well yes, but this is far...angrier than I would've expected."

Vinyl rubbed the back of her neck. "Well I uh...may have started thinking about the arsonist while that P.W.A album was still playing..."

Song #1 - No idea for a title yet. Something about grace I imagine

No idea about chords or notes, but it would probably be played flat.

Note: Fast and distorted would probably be pretty good on this. Or maybe slow and sludgy. See how it sounds. Punky sound would be pretty cool I guess

Song number one is not a buck you song

Luna take me to a higher place