Chapter 1 - The First Day
The ash gray mare with an exceptionally groomed charcoal colored mane approached the dorm room slowly. She was in no hurry to spoil the surprise that awaited her in the form of her roommate. She approached the door that had the number one hundred and sixty-seven on it, knocking twice before waiting a few seconds for a response. When none came, she slowly started turning the knob, her heart began racing. She slowly opened the door. The door opened into the small room there were two beds barren of everything. Both beds sat against the far corners of the room. There was a small desk on the right wall and on the opposite side there was a closet with adequate space for their clothes.
“Not much here at all, not at all like home.” She thought.
There was a bang at the door. The mare could hear muffled cursing coming from the other side. She walked over and opened the door, she jumped back just in the nick of time as an avalanche of boxes tumbled into the dorm room. The elegant mare looked up their standing in the doorway was an off white unicorn with electric neon blue hair, and dark red eyes.
“A-are you my roommate,” she stammered to try to get the words out of her mouth.
“This is room one hundred and sixty-seven right.” She asked questioningly?
The white mare looked on the door and saw that it was the right room.
“Yep awesome we’re going to have a rocking year together, I’m Vinyl Scratch.”
The unicorn raised her hoof for a hoof-bump.
“This can’t be my roommate, oh sweet Celestia anypony else but somepony like her.” She thought to herself while she stared at Vinyl in disbelief with her jaw slightly agape.
She suddenly realized her facial expression was one of inelegance and quickly returned to her proper respectful sitting position she had been in before all the commotion.
When Vinyl didn’t receive a hoof-bump she put her hoof down.
“I-it’s quite nice to meet you, I-I am Octavia Philharmonica-Melody.” She said still stammering through her words.
Vinyl walked into the room stepping over her boxes with a childish grace. As Octavia started to pick up and stack the boxes against the wall.
“What are you doing? You aren’t a neat freak are ya,” Vinyl asked questionably.
“Certainly not Vinyl dear I just don’t want the boxes in front of the door if our parents decide to show up to help us unpack everything”
Vinyl's expression was one of extreme distaste with what Octavia had just said.
“Buck parents, who needs them, scoot over I got this.”
“Certainly, but will you please refrain from using such barbaric language in the future.”
Vinyl ignored Octavia’s comment. A soft blue aura covered the mountain of boxes still by the doorway. They all moved farther into the room being arranged as they were slowly sat on to the floor. The white mare looked for a few of the boxes labeled mixing table. She tore the tape off of them and proceeded to put the table together. She floated a few boxes over to the table and sat them down next to it with her magic.
“Wouldn’t want you to go crazy with this place being a mess now would I?” she teased.
The grey mare turned her head in anger for a second at the comment, but then turned back to her roommate interested in what she was doing.
“If I may ask what are in those boxes there?”
“My records, I’m a DJ after all.”
“So you’re some sort of musician.”
“Yeah, my stage name is DJ Pon-3? Ever hear of me?”
“I have to say I haven’t after all I’ve been busy writing my music and composing it for the few fans that I’ve managed to acquire.”
Octavia walked around the table inspecting it for any flaws. It had dents from who knows what, scratches all over it, and the wires were almost entirely detached from the power source.
“What are you doing? This baby will work no matter what you do to it.”
“Vinyl, this table will endanger the dorm if you use it.”
She waved a hoof in dismissal and proceeded to turn it on with her magic. After a few seconds the machine roared to life and then promptly died, she facehoofed herself.
“Aw come on you bucking piece of junk,” Vinyl said as she smacked it with her hoof.
“You were saying,” Octavia said with a smirk.
“It’ll work.”
She frantically started pushing the button over and over.
“Stop pushing the button!” Octavia said annoyed.
“How about you push it then miss fancy pants.”
“Fine I shall.”
She walked over to the machine and pushed the button. The machine roared to life again just like before. The records started turning.
“Ha I guess I have the magic hoof.” She said as she raised her hoof triumphantly pointing it at Vinyl as the machine sputtered to a halt.
“Bwhahahaha!”
“Stop laughing,” She said, as her cheeks slightly red with embarrassment.
“Well, I’m going out. Catch ya later magic hooves.”
“Wait! Get back here.”
The white mare kept walking pretending not to hear her roommate. She trotted down the stairs and out the door. The chilly autumn air hit her like a ton of bricks. She pushed through it not wanting to go back to the warmth of the dorm room after all she’d been living on and off the streets for five years. Her childhood in Foaledo had been wonderful her parents were successful but not rich, even though they had bits to spend, she didn’t want to go to her parents and ask them for a record or a turntable, when she could work for it, but her grades usually suffered because of that. They liked that she worked to get her things but they didn’t approve of her grades slipping. When she was in her last year of junior high her dad lost his job. He tried to drink his depression away, but it never worked. He would come home and beat her for no reason. One night after he had beat her pretty severely she had finally had enough of it, she packed her things up and left the house. She didn’t realize how hard living on the streets was, because she was to proud to beg for bits, so she had to constantly steal food from the vendors; she hated having to do it, but she had to eat. She finished junior high and barely finished high school. During high school she bummed a place to stay off of her childhood friends Spitfire and Neon Lights. Spitfire had managed to help her acquire a job at a local music store. She ended up not attend college for a few years because she was trying to save enough bits to get a place to stay.
She walked down the surprisingly lonely campus streets not exactly sure where she was going she just needed to get away from her roommate. She ended up at a burger joint. She opened the door and just about got run over by a mare. She walked into the restaurant; it was a cozy place it had four or five high-backed cushioned booths and ten tables with chairs to sit in. Vinyl looked over at the counter; the line stretched back a ways. She wasn’t feeling like standing for a long time, so she went and took a booth in the back right corner away from the window. The table was in a kind of secluded part of the restaurant. Some of the lights had burnt out close to the table, so it was a bit darker than the rest of the place. That’s just how she liked it quiet and lonely. It was peaceful to her. The warmth of the restaurant slowly started to lull her to sleep.
“I’m so tired, I haven’t slept for almost twenty-four hours.”
As soon as she said those words she was out like a light snoring quietly for the time being.
Octavia finally finished unpacking all of her school supplies and odds and ends into her desk. She sat down and grabbed a pen and she began to write a letter to her parents.
“I see now why father was so against me attending this less-then prestigious University and wanting me to attend Canterlot Royal Musical University or North Trottingham University. Most of the ponies here I suspect are rather different from what they would be at those universities, take my roommate for an example it hasn’t even been a full day and I can already tell she will be a pain to get along with. She doesn’t use proper grammar, her mane is a complete disaster, and she is loud. Father made it clear I’m on my own for a year, but if I ever needed help I can call you for anything. I’m still hopeful that these years in college will be some of the best years of my life. I wonder if you’ll even show up for parent’s day.”
Octavia continued to write for a while. After about an hour of writing she set the pencil down and looked at the clock it was nine. She yawned and rubbed her eyes a bit.
“Where on earth is that mare at?”
Octavia set her head down on her pillow and slowly fell into a peaceful slumber.
Vinyl was awoke from her peaceful slumber by the sound of a siren.
“What the hay? Awe man I was about to beat Neon in a game of hoofball.”
Vinyl sat there for a moment at the now dark restaurant that had just recently closed. She got up and started to walk out the door when she stopped and turned toward the counter. She walked up to the counter placing a few bits on it and floating a cup over to her she trotted over to the soda machine and filled it with the sweet sugary liquid. She unlocked the lock with her magic and relocked it on the way out. She saw another fire wagon go by it was heading toward the Baltimare dorms.
“Surely it won’t turn on the road towards mine,” she thought.
Sure enough it did.
“Oh buck me! My records I’ve got to save them!” Vinyl yelled as she galloped toward her dorm at full speed.
Vinyl saw an orange glow coming from her dorm. She started to run at full gallop almost dropping her drink. She was upon her dorm within ten minutes. She looked around for the door; she saw a grey Pegasus pony with eyes looking in different directions explaining what happened.
“I was making a new hay formula that I hoped would make my hay grow faster. I put a little too much of the chemical that I was testing in and it exploded in my face and started the fire. I’m sorry I didn’t want any of this to happen. I just don’t know what went wrong.” She said as she looked down at the ground with one eye looking up.
Vinyl finally found the entrance she rushed towards it pushing passed the police ponies that were guarding the entrance to the dorm. Once she was inside the dorm she was instantly hit by smoke and intense heat, some burning debris blocked her path. Her horn flickered to life and moved the debris to the side. She moved forward toward the stairs that lead up to her room; she used her horn to move some more debris away from the stairs. She galloped up the flights of stairs, finally reaching the floor that her room was on. She looked down the smoke-filled hallway she saw the door to her room was gone and engulfed in orange and yellow fire. She debated turning back right then and there seeing as how it would most likely be a lost cause and she could barely breathe. She made a split second decision and rushed towards the door jumping over the fire and landing safely on the other side. She ran to her turntable and tried to pick it up with her magic but couldn’t.
”Aww what the buck! Why can’t I lift it?"
As she was running over to get her records she tripped over something, she looked behind her and saw it was Octavia.
“Hey are you alright? Octavia… Octavia… Octavia!”
The mare didn’t respond. She levitated her unconscious roommate on to her back and picked her records up and began to run out of the room but the fire had gotten bigger. She threw her soda at it. It wasn’t very effective at dowsing the flames. She started to cough.
“I’m just going to go for it.”
She jumped but the flames caught her records so she had to get rid of them, she tossed them to the side and tried to go back the way she had come but the flames and smoke were too much. She remembered she had come up the back stairs earlier, so she headed towards those. There was almost no trace of smoke near them, she hurried down the few flights of stairs there were. She reached the last set of stairs; she felt her energy draining away quickly.
“Just a little further Vinyl.” She thought to herself.
She burst out the door and on to the cool night grass. The sky was clear and the moon was full that night. She dumped Octavia off of her, and looked down at her. The moonlight shone on Octavia; Vinyl became entranced by Octavia’s features and before she knew what happened she had bent down and was gently kissed Octavia on her lips. She pulled back a bit in shock.
“What’s wrong with me? I just kissed a mare I just met a few hours ago. Why… Why…”
She struggled to get the next few words out of her mouth,” I-I’m not a-a f-filly… fillyfooler, a-am I?”
She buried her face in her hooves and began to do something she hadn’t done in a longtime. She cried.
“V-Vinyl…W-what happened?” Octavia struggled to say as she started coughing.
“I saved you from burning alive in a fire when I found you. You were unconscious.”
“Oh yeah.”
She looked around the room she was in, it was quite small but it had a sink and a couch to the right of the entryway. On the left side there was a small table, pink and blue balloons, and get well soon cards sat upon the table, they all said get well soon dorm mate.
She struggled slowly sat up, causing her to cough a bit more.
“I kinda drug your flank out of there and to safety.”
“I have to leave. Classes start tomorrow and if I not there I will get behind and have to catch up.”
“Just relax okay; the docs say you’re fine, just a bit of smoke inhalation.
“Vinyl, why did you go into the burning building?”
“I was woken by the sirens of the fire wagons. I saw they were heading toward our dorms, so I galloped back to see if you were okay and to try to save my records from being destroyed, but I had to ditch them though because I had you. Which isn’t bad, because I am a hero now, I still don’t understand why you weren’t outside yet? Didn’t you here the alarm?”
“Well I kind of fell asleep and didn’t hear the alarm until I woke up because I started coughing. Then I kind of panicked and hid, but wait. Did you pay for my hospital bill?”
“Yeah I did.”
“It didn’t cost too much did it?”
“I kinda almost used my entire college grant. I only have like twenty bits left thanks to you.”
“I-I’m terribly sorry. I’ve caused you a mess haven’t I? I swear to you I’ll pay you everything back in full.”
“It’s cool magic hooves.”
“No I’ll call my…” She stopped mid sentence.
Vinyl decided to finish the sentence, because she felt she knew what Octavia was going to say.
“You’ll call your parents? You rich mares are all the same. I’ll call mommy and daddy to come bail me outta jail, while us poor ponies have to sit there until their sentence is up.” Vinyl said annoyed.
“It’s true I am the daughter of a rich family, but I wanted to get away from that life. I wanted to make my fortune my way, and not have it handed to me by my parents.”
Vinyl raised an eyebrow at what the grey earth pony had just said.
“Really now that’s surprising,” Vinyl said.
“But I must pay you back somehow those were your bits that I used up.”
“It’s alright I’m just glad that you’re okay. I can’t say the same about my mixing table and it’s not like I haven’t been in this sort of situation before. I’m kinda used to not having many bits. I should let you rest. I’ll talk to you later magic hooves.”
“Wait please, there has to be something that I can do to pay you back.”
“I’ve never liked getting things handed to me. I like to work to get them. I doubt that you have enough bits to get me a new mixing table anyway without asking your parents. Am I right?”
Octavia looked down at her hooves.
“No I don’t Vinyl.” She whispered.
“I’ll get another one eventually, so it’s all good.”
“No I can’t accept that. Please write this number down. 3179.”
“What’s it for magic hooves?”
“It’s my pin to my bank account. Buy whatever you want. You have to go to the First Bank of Trottingham or Baltimare.”
“Octavia… I…” Vinyl began to say but stopped.
“It’s okay Vinyl really… I owe you a new mixing table and some records. I won’t have any bits left but I’ll have paid you back in full. I can skip a few meals even though I really don’t want too.”
“I’ll just buy a mixing table.”
“Any idea on where you’re going to put it?”
I guess I’ll just leave it at my friends pad for a while until I get a new dorm room.”
A white mare walked in.
“I’m sorry miss but you’re going to have to leave.”
“Darn it. Well I'll see ya later magic hooves.”
“Ma’am can she please stay here tonight, she doesn’t have anywhere to go.”
“Okay but only since you’re being released tomorrow.”
The mare left and Vinyl closed the door behind her. Octavia started coughing some more.
“I am really the nuisance today aren’t I.” she said quietly while frowning slightly.
“Yeah you are but you’re better than I first thought.” Vinyl said with a smile and a wink.
Octavia smiled faintly, before closing her eyes and nodding off to sleep.
Orange beams of light shone through a few of the blinds. Octavia started to stir her body felt heavy, she slowly opened her eyes. She saw why, Vinyl was lying on top of her. She tried to push the white mare off of her but to no avail. She heard a knock on the door, it startled her. The mare on top of her didn’t budge an inch at the noise. The door started to open and in walked a light-grey colored mare.
