Red 1: Oh They Drive Me Crazy
Author's Note
Before we get started, two things of note: one, Vinyl doesn't have her sunglasses in this chapter, and two, I envisioned the new cat to sound like Timothy (from Monster Allergy). If you don't know what he sounds like, then oh well.
Red 1: Oh They Drive Me Crazy
She took off down the road in search of the day’s first home, and although it took a moment, she spotted the boutique. The gray mailmare landed softly behind the large tree out front, peering around to see the white cat in the window staring back at her.
“Kitty cat, ready to do battle,” Derpy whispered, trotting up to the door of Carousel Boutique after seeing she’d already been spotted.
She pulled a few letters and a magazine from her bag and lifted the mail slot, but as she went to slide them through, Opal jumped down from the window. A second later, all of the mail exploded back out of the slot in a flurry of paw swipes, scattering across the ground.
“She’s ready to go,” Derpy said, picking it back up. She tried again, but the paws fought back, hitting the mail away. “You—hey, no—b-bad. Come on.” Opal snagged her claws on the mailbag, and tried pulling it away. “Hey, that’s my bag,” Derpy said, tugging back. “Gimme my bag back, you.”
She freed her bag before coming up with a strategy. Folding the envelopes inside the magazine, she jammed it into the slot against the onslaught. She pulled her hooves away when Opal swiped at them, but the magazine was left sitting mostly in and the cat pull it through.
“Boy, she’s gettin’ tougher,” Derpy said, trotting off to the next address. “If only I had a camera to record that. I’ll bet it could’ve won a funniest videos contest for a heap of bits. There really should be a contest like that.”
Back inside Carousel Boutique, the letters were laying scattered across floor. One of the envelopes suddenly bulged from the inside, getting pushed open as two small floating creatures slipped out. One was a green limbless creature with a face for a body, two pointed elephant ears each the size of its body, and a short curved tail, and the other was a pale beige bubble with eyes, a mouth, and a halo.
“Phew, that was a gauntlet,” said the green creature, a Girti, “but now, we are home fr—”
“Mrrrroww.”
The creatures looked up to see Opal staring down at them. The pale bubble, a Bursty, sang a nervous note.
“D-don’t worry, it’s just looking at the envelope,” the Girti said. “These silly cats can’t even see us—”
The emblem of a trio of circles started glowing light blue on Opal’s chest.
“Every Monster for himself!” the Girti cried, flittering its ears to try and flap away towards the door. The Bursty let out a terrified note and popped. Two seconds later it popped back in, floating awkwardly for another second before taking in a big breath and blowing itself backwards, ramming into the Girti and pushing them both out the mail slot again. Opal sat proudly.
“Opaaaal,” Rarity sighed, walking in from the other room.
“Mrrow?” Opal replied as her emblem stopped glowing.
“Why do you always do this to the mail?” Rarity gathered up the mail with magic and began looking through it. “You treat it like it’s an enemy, but it’s harmless. See? It’s all just letters and…ads, and…fliers…you know what? On second thought, have at it.” She tossed the mail back onto the floor near Opal as she turned to leave.
Opal gave a loud, “Mreeaowww.”
“You’re not eating for another few hours, can it.”
As Rarity walked out of the room, however, a squat beige figure with dark pink blotches, two legs, three skinny arms, and four pink eyes, two in its face and two sitting out on top of its head, skidded over to the top of the stairs. On the first step, they tripped and tumbled down, breaking apart into a pile of limbs and body parts that just missed falling on Rarity as she turned into the kitchen. Opal facepawed. Snyakutzes {pron. "sih-NAI-uh-kuts-es"} were notorious for falling apart.
A bean-shaped brown figure with broom handle-thick limbs and a tan face with a large beak-like snout, Hah Solo, looked out from around the other corner and began reassembling the pieces and limbs into Snyak Brek. Bomboni, a bipedal pale blue fat salamander thing with a darker blue back covered in large purple spots and a mouth as wide as his face, scrambled down the stairs and helped Hah Solo finish.
“Thanks,” Snyak Brek said in his scratchy voice. Then he noticed he only had two arms. “Hey, where’s my other arm?”
“Me not know,” Bomboni said with his natural whimpering tone.
Opal raised an eyebrow at him.
Bomboni glanced around nervously. He swallowed before sticking out his large tongue with a shrunken purple and green sweater sitting on it. Opal shook her head, and Bomboni retracted his tongue for a second, this time bringing it out with a chest of blue gemstones. Opal furrowed her brow, and Bomboni retracted his tongue again, a few seconds later finally fishing out a pale skinny arm. Bombos were notorious for eating random things.
Snyak Brek grabbed the arm and wiped it off on a nearby kitchen cloth before sticking it back onto his side below his right arm. Opal rubbed her forehead in frustration. The emblem glowed on her chest again and a beam of energy shot from it, hitting the cloth and vaporizing the slimy residue off of it.
“Sorry,” said Snyak Brek.
Hah Solo raised his hand. “Question,” he said in his inherently annoying whooping voice, “why are we here?”
Opal cleared her throat into her paw before sitting up at attention.
“I have called you all here to address a matter of great importance,” she said with a voice much like a baroness that very much matched her appearance and demeanor. “I have just intercepted an attempted act of smuggling.” A series of gasps came from the gathered company. “It appears as if somemonster was trying to sneak something in to this Detention Oasis, which, as you should all well know, is strictly forbidden.”
“But who would do such a thing?” asked Bomboni.
“Having a bit of a relapse, are we?” she said before turning to the beak-nosed figure. “Hah Solo?”
“Me?” Hah Solo said. “What makes you think I did something?”
Opal picked up the envelope the two creatures had been hiding in and shook it. Out fell a book that shouldn’t have have fit inside: “101 Bad Puns”.
“Oh,” said Hah Solo. He game a nervous smile. Hahs were notorious for telling unfunny jokes.
Rarity couldn’t see the Monsters living right in her home, but walking behind Carousel Boutique at that moment was somepony who could have had she looked in the window.
Vinyl Scratch always kept to the side streets and back alleys of Ponyville to avoid the main roads. There was too big a risk of it happening. For once, at least, that wasn’t the only thing pressing on her mind.
With the help of her parents, she’d managed to establish a deal to rent out a family friend’s spare house in Ponyville. However, that was the last part they’d helped her out on. She’d always been a bit of a recluse, avoiding other ponies for fear of getting shunned again. However, that strategy didn’t prove very conducive to making good music in an already less than optimally popular genre, and she was quickly falling behind on the rent. Instead of getting kicked out, she’d agreed to get a roommate to even out the costs. A line for volunteers had never been shorter.
To a to-be-determined degree of fortune, however, the owner’s connections to the music industry clued them in on an orchestra with the perfect problem. When booking hotels in Ponyville, a miscount meant that one member couldn’t be accommodated, and on the owner’s suggestion, was allowed to be put with Vinyl. Lucky her.
Her roommate would be a mare named Octavia—no, wait, “Octa~via Me~lody Phi~lharmo~nica”. Just the sound of that name told her everything she needed to know about the pony.
Right now, she was heading back home after another failed attempt at getting her latest music put into the rotation of a dance club. With this success rate, a roommate would only delay the inevitable. As she was walking through an alley, she saw a small white cat with a large light blue bow on its head sitting on a crate by the wall. It stared at her.
“Hey, you’re that cat again,” Vinyl said. “I always see you around. It’s like you’re following me or something.”
“‘That cat’?” the cat said in a nasally male voice, startling Vinyl. “I’d really appreciate it if you found a better way to refer to me.”
“Whoa!” she said, taking a step back. “A talking cat?” She paused as the idea settled, then stepped forward again. “Neat. Bit of a disconnect between the look and the voice, though.”
“Hmm?” the cat said in surprise, seemingly taken aback.
“Hey, can you do any other tricks like, I dunno, writing with your tail?”
The cat raised its eyebrow. “You don’t seem very surprised at a talking cat like some ponies might be expected to be.”
“Eh, I’ve been seein’ odd things for years,” Vinyl brushed off, “but they usually freak out and run away when they realize I can see them. You’re the first one to actually stick around and talk back.”
“Yes, but…have you ever wondered about that?” the cat said in a mysterious tone. “About the things you can see but that nopon—”
“What I’m wondering about right now,” she cut him off, “is what I can call you, just like you said. Hmm…how’s Luna sound?”
“Why are you changing th—what?” the cat stumbled. “In case you didn’t notice, I’m not a girl.”
“Nah, Luna’s a great name for a talking cat,” Vinyl teased, “don’t you think?”
“I’ll forget you said that,” the cat said flatly. “But about what I start—”
“Okay then, how about Salem?”
“Are you seeing in photonegative or something? He was a black cat and—how do you even know about him?”
“No, no, wait, I got it. Purrcy.”
There was a silent pause.
“You know what?” the cat said flatter than before. “‘That cat’ isn’t sounding so bad anymore.”
“Snowbell?”
The cat stared daggers at her. “Back to what I was trying to say before…,” he grumbled.
“Listen,” Vinyl interrupted, “I’ve got this new roommate coming by, name sounds super punctuality and all, and not being there would be a bad first impression, so, gotta go.” She turned and trotted up the alley. “I’ll probably run into you again, it was a nice talk.”
“No, wait, I didn’t get to…,” the cat trailed off with a sigh. “This’ll be harder than I thought.”
As Vinyl continued home, she came across a crowd forming in front of Town Hall. Over their heads she saw the wooden roof of a traveling cart. Something didn’t feel right about this, but she couldn’t tell what. She stepped out into the fringe group at the back of the crowd as the roof flipped up and the cart unfolded with a fanfare to reveal a stage and curtain.
“Come one, come all!” said a mare’s voice. “Come and witness the dazzling, the daring, the Great and Powerful Trrrrixie!”
Vinyl couldn’t see the stage well, but something really felt suspicious, so she dared walk farther into the crowd. She could soon see a blue unicorn in a purple wizard’s hat and cape, presumably the advertised Trixie, standing on the stage in dramatic fashion and waving her hooves around mystically.
“The Great Trixie shall now,” the unicorn said, “before your very eyes, disappear…without magic!” An excited murmur swept the crowd. “Watch. My. Horn.”
She tilted her head back so her horn was visible below her hat. A few seconds later, a small burst of fireworks came from behind her, and while her horn didn’t glow with magic like she’d claimed it wouldn’t, neither did she move at all. However, a series of shocked reactions came from the crowd.
“Wow.” “Where’d she go?” “I wish I could do that at work.” “It’s a slight of the eyes, you see, they make you look in one place while the trick happens right under your nose.” “What happened? I blinked and missed it.”
“What’re they so impressed about?” Vinyl muttered. “She’s right there.” She squinted to look closer at the performer. Something was definitely off. “Isn’t she?” She stared even more intensely, when suddenly she felt a power surge up within her.
Sight Dom!
“Gah!” Vinyl let out as she recoiled, for in her eyes, the scene had suddenly changed dramatically. Instead of a blue unicorn standing on the stage, there was a large blue creature with a thin, crooked body and arched back standing on a base of three tentacles, with slim purple arms, an off-white head shaped like the former unicorn’s wizard hat and covered in small purple bumps, a wide mouth with purple lips and small square teeth, and a cluster of three diamond-shaped eyes, one vertical in the center of its face above and between the others. A brief glance around confirmed nopony else was seeing this. She’d seen weird things before, but nothing like this. But wait, then that meant…
Vinyl quickly held her arm up to her face. She saw a telltale pair of red glows on her white fur. Her magenta eyes were glowing red again. Not again, she thought in desperation. Not now, not here.
Unnoticed by Vinyl in her panic, the blue Trixie monster was looking out across the crowd, basking in the amazement of the little ponies at her “sudden disappearance”, when she saw them. Amidst the crowd of otherwise dull ponies, a pair of glowing red eyes were an easy thing for Omnitrix to spot, especially when they could only mean one thing about the pony who had them.
Vinyl ducked her head down. Stopping for a look had been a big mistake, and now she had to get out of the crowd before anypony noticed her eyes. She turned and pushed her way back out, muttering apologies at those she bumped into.
Omnitrix gave a sinister smile as she watched Vinyl leave, slithering off the stage on her tentacles like an octopus on land.
“Fillies and gentlecolts, the Great Trixie has defied what is possible!” came the magician’s voice from the left of the crowd, prompting another series of cheers and ahh’s from the audience. Vinyl guessed she’d made herself visible to them again, but as long as she could get away without being noticed, she didn’t care what she was leaving behind.
Vinyl’s eyes had stopped glowing by the time she reached her house, thankfully. She pushed the incident out of her mind and opened the door, only to find a gray mare in the living room unpacking a suitcase.
“I hope you don’t mind I let myself in,” the mare said, “but I was given a key.”
“Oh,” Vinyl said. This must be her. “Yeah, fine.”
“So, Vinyl is it?” she continued in her suave voice. “I suppose you’ll be my roommate for the time being.”
Vinyl could tell in an instant. She was one of those ponies. Best behavior, Vinyl, good first impression. Go for the least unpleasant time you can get. “Yeah, Vinyl Scratch.”
“Octavia Philharmonica.”
“What, no ‘Melody’?”
“Not around here, I’d prefer. Oh, by the way, you never said you had a pet.”
“Huh?” Vinyl said. “I don’t have a pet—ahh…” Out from behind Octavia’s suitcase walked the cat from the alley. He smiled and winked at her.
“What was that?” asked Octavia.
“Oh, uh…just that it, uh,” Vinyl stuttered, “must’ve slipped my mind.” She plastered a smile on her face. “That’s not a…”
“Oh, no, no problem,” answered Octavia, reaching over and patting the cat’s head, “just wasn’t expecting it. So, there’s no collar, what’s his name?”
“Funny story ’bout that, actually,” Vinyl said with a sly grin. Unseen by Octavia, the cat pointed at his eyes and then at Vinyl. “There were a few options I’d been considering, but I eventually made up my mind. Say hello to…”—as if preparing to receive a medal, the cat sat up tall and smiled—“That Cat.” The cat’s face instantly contorted into confusion and repulsion.
“‘That Cat’?” Octavia repeated with the cat’s sentiment.
“Trust me, it’s funny if you were there for the whole thing.”
The cat silently pointed a crooked finger at Vinyl while giving her a death glare. Octavia glanced over at him, and he immediately reached out his other paw to pretend he’d been stretching.
“I think he might want to be given a better, proper name,” Octavia said. The cat nodded its head furiously with a smile. “I’m thinking…Artemis. Or maybe Snowbell.”
The cat stopped nodding and lost his smile, rolling his eyes. Great minds think alike, don’t they?
“Nah,” said Vinyl, “‘That Cat’ it is.”
“If it must be,” Octavia sighed. “Speaking of, I hope you don’t mind but I took a quick look around, and I didn’t notice so much as a water bowl to suggest a cat lived here. What kind of care do you actually take of him?”
“Well, uh,” Vinyl said, “he’s kinda recent to have shown up and all…y’know. Kinda mostly cares for himself.” The newly christened That Cat looked over at Vinyl. “Wild, outdoorsy and all…” He crossed his arms and scowled at her. “Might have a few fleas…” He perked up in surprise and pointed at himself indignantly.
“Well, we’ll have to get that taken care of presently,” Octavia said.
That Cat cringed, and when Octavia turned away, pointed at Vinyl and slid his paw across his neck. Vinyl stuck her tongue out in response, both jumping back to innocent expressions as Octavia turned back to them.
“Well,” she said to Vinyl, “I assume you know the basic requirements of my stay with regard to orchestra practice and all, like needing relative quiet a few hours a week.”
“Yep, I have the list,” Vinyl said. “I can accommodate on pain of losing my place to live.”
Octavia shook her head with a sigh. “Oh, please don’t feel like I’m intruding,” she said, “I’m only here due to circumstances and decisions made above my influence and outside of my control.” She closed her suitcase and lifted it onto her back. “Guest room?”
“Upstairs, first on the left,” Vinyl replied. After waiting for Octavia to climb up the stairs past the archway and out of sight, Vinyl turned to That Cat. “Funny story, stop me if you’ve heard this one,” she said softly, and he sighed. “So this one day, I ran across this freaky talking cat in an alley, but when I go to head home, I find him waiting for me there, pretending like he’s been living there all along.”
“Okay, so perhaps—”
“And the best part is, I never even told him where I lived, and he’d still gotten there first, so it got me thinking…”
“This would all have gone over more smoothly if you’d heard me out the first time,” That Cat said.
“Well you should’ve waited for a moment when I actually had a moment to spare,” Vinyl countered. Then came a knock on the front door. “Now wait there like a good pet,” Vinyl said, ignoring his indignant reaction and walking to the door to answer it.
When she swung the door open, she was greeted by the sight of the large blue Trixie monster hunched forward to meet her at eye level. She jumped back as her eyes flashed red again, but the monster raised its hands at her.
“Easy there,” Omnitrix said in a warped version of what Trixie had sounded like, “I don’t want to fight. As a matter of fact, I’m inclined to something a bit more… constructive, if you’re interested.”
In its struggle with surprise and terror, confusion won out. “Huh?” Vinyl said.
“It’s simple,” she continued, tentacles slowly carrying her into the house, forcing Vinyl back step by step. “Someone with my strategy and somepony with your power. Together, we might be unstoppable.”
“Power?” Vinyl said. “What are you talking abou—?” She was cut off by a hiss from That Cat. He ran over to them, claws out and back fur standing on end, a display that largely lost its threat due to the large bow on his head.
“And what do we have here?” Omnitrix taunted at the new arrival. A pattern of three circles started shining on That Cat’s chest, Omnitrix shrinking back a step with a, “Rrrrrg.”
At the sound of a wooden creak, That Cat cut the light show, and the three turned to the stairs just as Octavia came into view.
“Vinyl, who are you talking to?” she asked before seeing the new arrival. However, the new arrival she saw wasn’t a tentacled monster, but a blue unicorn in a cape and hat. Vinyl quickly turned her head away to hide her glowing eyes as Octavia came over to them. “Oh, hello,” Octavia said, “who are you?”
Quickly clearing her throat, the unicorn responded, “Trixie, travelling magician. My show is in town for the day and I’m just trying to meet some of the locals. I travel around so much, it would be a shame not to make each stop stick out in my memory.”
“Oh, well if…,” Octavia started to say, but cut herself off, “actually, I only just arrived here, myself. Octavia, and this is Vinyl.” Omnitrix sent a sly grin at Vinyl. “She lives here, but my orchestra is taking a stay here for reasons of ‘offsite practice’, Mr. Gold calls it.” Vinyl tried thinking of a way to tell Octavia she didn’t know who she was talking to, but knew it would never work. “He says that it helps us relax and focus while away from the big city, and that he invented the method himself. Or, at least we think he said that, we don’t quite remember where it came from, but I’m sure he’d gladly take the credit. Oh, sorry if I’m rambling.”
“Mr. Gold, you say?” Trixie enticed. “Would this be the famous composer Murky Gold?”
“The very same,” Octavia replied excitedly, almost reading from the poster, “carrying on the legacy started by his predecessors, Iron Grain and Dell Derby.” She would’ve continued gushing, but That Cat hissed at Trixie. “Oi, cat, stop it.” He hissed again and Octavia scooped him up and took him out of the room.
Omnitrix rubbed her hands together. “Ah, I didn’t realize you had already met a Tutor.”
“A what?” Vinyl said.
“I’m sure he’s already tried warning you about Monsters like me and told you all about how untrustworthy my entire species is, but trust me when I say this: you want to be on the right side of history. I know this may seem sudden, but what say you to a spot on the winning team?”
“Hey, get back here,” came Octavia’s voice from up the hall, and a second later That Cat dashed back in, racing up to Omnitrix.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve, Gorka,” he said.
“Oh come now,” Omnitrix said, “can the little Tamer not answer anything without her lawyer present? Hush up and let her speak on her own, fuzzy.”
That comment washed through Vinyl’s mind. What was she doing? She hadn’t so much as argued when this creature had barged its way in to her home. So maybe you’re a bit timid around others, she though to herself, but there’s a line you need to hold. Stand up for yourself, Vinyl, and take control of the situation. She said your power could be part of ‘unstoppable’. She already thinks you have power, so let her think you knew that, and use it. “I don’t know what you’re offering,” she said in her best forceful tone, drawing Omnitrix’s attention, “but I can already tell I don’t like it, so get out.”
“How rude,” Omnitrix whined. “How would your friend feel if she knew you were talking that way to a guest?”
Vinyl stared right into Omnitrix’s eyes. She could almost feel a power within her helping her speak. “Out, I said,” she repeated, forcing Omnitrix to pull back.
Omnitrix clenched a fist and raised it. “You can’t get rid of Omnitrix that easily,” she grumbled.
Vinyl didn’t waver her stare. “Watch me.”
“You can go now,” said That Cat, “thanks for stopping by.”
Octavia walked back in the room. “Sorry about the cat, I don’t know what makes him tick yet,” she said before seeing Vinyl and Trixie locked in a staring contest. “Is something wrong?”
Omnitrix held the stare a few seconds longer. “I can see when I’m not welcome,” she whispered to Vinyl before turning to Octavia. “I think I’ll be going now,” Trixie said. “Don’t want to be a burden.”
“Oh,” said Octavia, “well, hope we’re worth remembering.”
“Trust me,” Trixie said, turning to the door, “you very much are.”
Wow, Vinyl thought, what was that feeling? Maybe I really do have some sort of power.
Omnitrix stopped at the door and turned back to Vinyl. “She doesn’t know very much,” Omnitrix said, pointing to Octavia, who had turned her attention back to That Cat, “does she?”
“Huh?” Vinyl said, but before she could say more, she felt a sudden pressure on her mind. Omnitrix’s third eye emitted a series of sweeping telepathic waves at Vinyl before she slipped out. Vinyl quickly pushed the door shut a bit too hard, drawing Octavia’s attention and an awkward pause. “Sorry,” Vinyl said. As she turned to her, however, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the door handle, and her eyes were still glowing. She quickly turned back away again in a panic. No, this was supposed to end when the thing left.
“So,” Octavia said, walking over, “now that we have a minute, are there any—” Vinyl hurried past her out of the room and to the stairs. “…ground rules for the place?”
That Cat quickly followed her halfway up the stairs. “Vinyl, what’s wrong?”
“That thing did something to me,” she said in a hushed voice. “My eyes, they won’t stop glowing.”
“It’s probably just a lingering effect from the encounter,” he said, “it should go away soon.”
“Yeah, but how soon?”
“Vinyl?” came Octavia’s voice. “Is everything alright?” Her hoofsteps approached.
Please don’t follow me. Leaving That Cat behind, Vinyl tried scrambling up the rest of the stairs—I can’t let you see—but she tripped on a step, her hooves clunking down loudly on the wood to recover.
“Vinyl?” Octavia said as she began ascending the staircase.
Vinyl reached the top and made for her room, second on the right. “Please listen to me,” Vinyl said, reaching for the door, “stay away—,” but she stopped as she heard a gasp. Everything stopped. The hallway up here was darker than downstairs, of course they were easier to see. And like an idiot she’d looked towards her door. She turned to see Octavia standing at the top of the stairs with a hoof still raised in midstep, mouth open in shock, and eyes fixed on hers.
Vinyl stared back, not knowing what she conveyed by doing so. Octavia slowly backed down the steps and out of view. Vinyl heard her hooves carry her through the living room and out the door. She sighed. That Cat, having followed Octavia up the steps, watched as Vinyl went into her room and shut the door. She sat on the floor beside her bed and stared at her reflection in a tall mirror on the wall.
A light shone through the keyhole and around the edges of the door, and it slowly swung open to reveal That Cat with the circle mark on his chest glowing. The glow faded and he walked into the dim room to find that Vinyl hadn’t moved, her eyes still glowing red.
“You’ve been in here for hours,” he said, “it’s getting dark out.”
“No matter what, they always do the same thing,” Vinyl mumbled. “I don’t know how long you’ve been spying on me, but ponies have been running from my eyes since I was a filly.”
“So she saw something,” That Cat said, “but she doesn’t know what she saw, there’s no danger in letting her go.”
“Every time I saw one of those invisible monsters,” Vinyl continued, “even sometimes when there weren’t any, my eyes would light up, and everypony would back away. The whispers were the toughest part to deal with, you never knew how you were being judged, but somehow you did. Add one more to the list. And I’d kept a streak going the past few years, too. Can probably count on her to cut the agreement and stay somewhere else. Goodbye money, hello eviction.”
“Pay her no mind, you have other things to worry about. Not to lay everything on you at once, but this issue just got much more urgent.”
“Guess listening is all I can do,” Vinyl sighed. “I trust you slightly more than the blue octopus, so if you’ve got something to say, then go for it.”
“I’ll start from the beginning,” he said, walking over to her. “Like I tried to say the first time, I’m here to tell you about those very things you’ve been seeing your whole life.” Vinyl looked over. “They’re called Monsters, capital M. To most creatures, they’re an invisible and long since forgotten feature of Equestria. Compared to the rest, however, you’re special.”
“Special, huh? And what does being special make me? A freak with glowing red eyes?”
“You’re a Tamer, Vinyl. A pony gifted with the power to see, fight, and control these Monsters, a rare gift indeed.”
“So that’s what she meant. And what did she call you, a Tutor?”
“Consider me a recruitment officer and possible teacher. I’m here to assist you in honing your Tamer skills so you can, if you so choose, use them properly and help keep the peace in and around Ponyville.”
“Me? You think I could do something like that?”
“Not without my help, you can’t. And even if you refuse, you’ll need to know things to stay safe. You’ve been getting by fine so far, but just today your skills were noticed, and some shadowy parties will focus only on your power and not care about the path you’ve chosen. I’d also prefer you not running into problems you don’t realize the context of and trying to ‘help’ in the wrong ways, so listen close and listen well.”
Octavia sat on a bench in Ponyville’s park, where she’d been since leaving Vinyl’s, turning over what she’d seen again and again in her mind. She had reached conclusions, but what with regard to the resulting decisions? She got up to pace, thinking over it all again. That had definitely been fear in her eyes.
She looked over at the setting sun, and realized how its brilliant radiance sunk down to hide. Suddenly, one thing became clearer. Finally, she was able to make one decision easily. She cantered out of the park to head somewhere.
“Preemptive Lesson One: the Monsters,” That Cat explained. “Most of the civilized Monsters, the Monster-Si, live their lives invisible to ponies in giant Monster cities suspended above your cities. You won’t find many of them in a small town like Ponyville, except perhaps for the troublemakers sent to Detention Oases for rehabilitation. Thusly, the Monster-Si aren’t likely to be much of a concern of yours.”
Vinyl nodded.
“What you should be concerned about and constantly on the lookout for are the Monster-Ska,” he continued, “the evil-hearted monsters, some of the more cunning of whom are likely out to topple both your and the Monster-Si societies. You’ve already met one, that obnoxious Omnitrix character. She’s a Gorka, one of the most infamous kinds of Monster-Ska, and it’s disturbing enough that she’s nearby, but she’s far outside of your skill set to deal with right now, so I’d forget about her for the time being.”
Vinyl nodded again, though more slowly.
“Around here, however, you’re most likely to encounter a more bestial subcategory of the Monster-Ska, who almost always live visible to ponies and are often simply taken as exotic wildlife. The truth is that they split from the normal Monster lineage ages back, most of them losing their sentience and ability to turn invisible, though those that have kept some semblance of personality are common enough, and some can even still talk.”
As the sun went down, Trixie sat in her traveling cart. She levitated a few fliers to decide her next stop, but though her horn was glowing, the magic force actually came from the light blue gem pendant holding her cape on. Then she heard something outside.
She went to her window and found a pair of colts standing eagerly by her cart. Ah, yes, these two fans had hung around so persistently she’d had to go invisible to sneak past them and look for that Tamer from the crowd. Vinyl, as her oblivious friend had so graciously informed her. However, now that everyone else was going inside…
Trixie stepped outside to meet her public. “And to what does the Great Trixie owe the pleasure of your visit?” she cooed.
“W-we’re just really big fans,” said the lanky yellow one, Snails. “We loved your show and want to become your apprentices and learn everything.”
Just as she expected.
“What can we do for you,” asked the squat teal one, Snips, “oh Great and Powerful one?”
“You can answer me this,” she said with a grin. “Do you wish to have…invulnerability?”
“Um,” Snips replied, “sure?”
Omnitrix sent a series of telepathic waves from her third eye washing across the two colts, grabbing their minds. “Feeble minds, be mine.” The two stood too dumbfounded to react or resist. Omnitrix raised her hands and sent a pair of blue energy auras at them, and they grabbed their heads in a fit. A second later, they stood at attention, and Omnitrix released them of the auras and telepathy. They stood now with invisible faces warped into pale three-eyed monstrosities she called Equigorkas, servants to her every will.
“If you want to help the Great Trixie,” Trixie said, “then stay here and keep an eye on things. Only tell me things I really need to know.” The two nodded and dispersed. As she turned back to her cart, she mumbled, “I need a better way of doing that big-scale…”
“Preemptive Lesson Two: the Monster Tamers,” That Cat continued. “Select individuals like yourself are born with inherent Dom Energy, a force that is tied to Monsters. Tamers are the ones who choose to use this energy and the various Dom powers it gives to assist with keeping peace within Monster society and between Monsters and ponies. These abilities are as follows: Sight Dom, to see Monsters; Voice Dom, to command Monsters; Gesture Dom, to control Monsters; Energy Dom, to subdue Monsters; and Enviro Dom, to defend against Monsters. Details will only come if you choose to pursue being a Tamer.”
“You expect me to remember all this?” Vinyl asked.
“A compiled reference handbook is available to Tamers only.”
“I get it, it’s a subscription package,” she said. “You said Monsters were ‘long since forgotten’. How long are we talking?”
“Ancient Tamers are the ones who helped conquer the Equestrian wilderness and subdue the magical creatures that terrorized early settlers. They’re the reason you have to go out of your way to encounter a manticore or a hydra nowadays. Observe.”
That Cat turned to the wall as his circle mark glowed, and a light shone out to project a sepia tone video onto the wall:
It was some sort of forested swamp area with a small town of brown wooden buildings arranged in a rough T-shape. There was nopony around and most of the buildings had broken walls or caved-in roofs. Then, a pink pegasus with a blue mane flew up the main street above roof level.
“Company!” she shouted, and from the swamp behind her erupted a bulge of water that fell to reveal a massive four-headed hydra. The beast hissed and growled, pulling itself after her up the street with its lone forelegs.
Lying in wait inside one of the houses up on its left was an earth pony mare; owing to the sepia, it was impossible to tell if she was blue and black or white and tan. She was holding a metal canister. She pushed down on the low dome on one end and twisted it, letting the dome flip open into four wedges to reveal the empty inside. Standing at a window, she held the can out at the hydra as it passed. Her eyes flashed to red, and a bright glow suddenly shone from inside the can, magenta energy swirling around the edges amidst a white glow.
Caught in its light for a few seconds, the hydra gained a faint glowing outline, drawing the attention of its left head, which turned to snarl at the mare.
“Over here, eight-eyes!” shouted a yellow unicorn stallion running in from the T’s right branch. His eyes flashed red and he held out his hoof to shoot an energy beam between the hydra’s necks.
The hydra roared and flailed in response, swinging its tail and smashing in the front of the mare with the can’s building. She quickly ducked out the back just in time to avoid the shower of splinters, running behind the row of buildings to find a better vantage point. No longer in the canister’s path, the hydra’s glow faded.
The pegasus flew past and kicked the left head to grab its attention, leading it in a circle and between two other necks before making it follow her signature double inside-out loop. As it snaked after her, the head suddenly jolted to a stop, its neck tied up with two of the others. The pegasus laughed back at it, not noticing the fourth head in front of her. She looked forward a second too late, and its gaping maw snapped shut around her.
Quickly charging glows on his hoof and horn, the unicorn fired a pair of energy beams that converged just below the fourth head. It let out a screech as it was severed from its neck as if made from wet clay, falling and crashing to the ground upside down. Its jaw jolted with a thump, then another, then it burst open from a double-hoofed kick, and the pegasus climbed out. She quickly flew off again as she saw the end of the severed neck bulging and splitting into two stumps that began molding themselves into new heads; the tangled heads were also unraveling themselves.
Climbing onto the roof of the building looking down the main road, the earth pony carefully stepped out to the edge and aimed the canister at the hydra again. A second later its outline began to glow, brighter and thicker this time. With a shriek, the beast made a thundering charge at her.
“Get outta there!” shouted the unicorn, but the earth pony kept the can aiming right at the hydra.
One of the heads reached out at her, but as it neared her, it began to smush, being pulled and stretched forward towards the glow of the can. Then another head shot forward right at her. She barely had time to jump before it smashed through the roof where she’d been standing, its body slamming into the building.
She fell to the ground and rolled left, the can flying and bouncing away as it and the hydra again stopped glowing, its other head returning to normal. The hydra pulled itself away from the building, the structure caving in on itself, and turned to the mare now lying motionless. It slowly pulled itself towards her.
The unicorn ran up to her, pulling the canister over with magic. She moaned, and it was clear she couldn’t hurry anywhere. He aimed the can up at the hydra, and it started glowing immediately. The first head that lunged began to stretch towards the can, but the others pulled back and prepared to strike at once.
As they shot forward at the ponies, however, a streak zipped down from the sky at the hydra, and the pegasus landed a kick at the center of where its necks connected. Its necks froze in place and let out a shrill hiss as its tail started flailing around.
All of its heads began smushing, stretching forward and losing their shape, merging into a writhing tan mass that funneled into the open canister. The hydra’s necks stretched out before its forelegs were pulled up along with its body, the mass getting sucked in as the tail snaked along after it. As the end of the hydra’s tail was pulled into the canister, the unicorn used magic to close the lid’s wedges and twist it closed. The creases between the wedges flashed, the can automatically welding itself shut.
The unicorn tossed the sealed can to the pegasus, who’d flown up next to him, and helped the earth pony back to her hooves.
The projection faded and That Cat’s mark stopped glowing.
“Tamers have the ability to turn any hollow space into a Monster trap,” he explained, “sucking them inside for containment regardless of size. There are, of course, specialized jars called Dom Boxes to make things more convenient, but they aren’t a day one lesson.”
As the moon began to rise, a unicorn in a cape walked out of town, pulling their traveling cart with them.
“Yeah, this is all great information,” Vinyl said. “It’ll sure come in handy when I no longer have a place to live.”
“Vinyl…,” That Cat started.
“No, you don’t seem to get that this is all—”
The sound of hoofsteps slowly coming up the stairs cut her off, and they both looked to the door. A few seconds later, a gray pony walked into view in the doorway, carrying something in their hoof.
“Octavia?” said Vinyl. “Y-you came back?”
Seeing the eyes again made Octavia pause. She took a deep breath before talking. “I know there’s something about yourself that you want to hide, and it’s probably a big deal…” She took another pause before proceeding, “…but I’ll let you have your privacy.” Vinyl’s ears perked up. “I’ll even leave if you want me to, I’ll find some other place to stay. Just realize that whether you let me stay or not, I won’t ever bring it up, and I don’t need to know what’s going on.” She slid the object she was holding across floor to Vinyl. “I’d just like to know that you’re okay.”
Vinyl didn’t know what to say. “Are you really just fine with this? I mean, I’d seem pretty suspicious to me.”
Octavia looked down. “Everypony is entitled to their secrets.” And with that, she left the doorway.
Vinyl just sat there. Nopony had ever come back before. She picked up the object that Octavia had slid over. It was a pair of large sunglasses with neon purple lenses. She looked up at her reflection in the mirror again, her glowing red eyes staring back at her. Then she slid the sunglasses on, and the glow disappeared from the image.
Vinyl gave a silent chuckle. The solution was obvious, had been all along. She’d just never felt it was a problem she was up to getting solved. Something had told her it would do no good. Leave it to this book she’d judged by not even cover but title alone…
Vinyl walked down to the foot of the stairs and saw Octavia in the living room packing things back into her suitcase.
“Hey,” Vinyl said, and Octavia looked over. “Where do you think you’re going?” She adjusted her sunglasses. “My new roommate’s not bailing on me that quickly.” If ever so faintly, she could tell that Octavia smiled. “Well, I’m starved. Kitchen has to have something for a makeshift dinner, I’ll be down in a minute to see what you’ve scavenged. And Octavia…thank you.” Octavia nodded.
Returning to her room, Vinyl said, “Alright, cat, you gave a good sell. I’m in. Make me a Tamer.”
In the next chapter, Vinyl and Octavia will try their best to connect through music, but something sinister is lurking nearby. What will Vinyl do when a Monster attacks? Find out on the next monstrous adventure, “Crawling Suspicion”.
