Evil Empire

The time was around two-thirty in the afternoon, as Vinyl slurped down yet another one of Sugarcube Cafe's chocolate milkshakes. Considering it being her sixth one this week made her take a mental note. This hadn't gone out of hand enough for a therapist just yet, but she should really try cutting it down sometime.

Some concerned thoughts on her loose motives for going into town, or anywhere else also couldn't hurt, for that matter. She had been sitting at the exact same table for almost two hours by now, her mind constantly revolving around one question:

What the hell am I doing with my life?

She cast a glance out the window, seeing a garbage truck pass by. If that represented some higher power giving her a sign, it didn't made her feel any better about herself. And Vinyl hated to admit it, but she actually did miss the past few days. They had given her nothing but trouble, but had been mildly entertaining, nevertheless. Anything better than this.

Carefully, and since there was nothing better to do, really, she tried to reconstruct the events of her earlier visit to the cafe. There had been the Rainbooms, playing their set in the corner, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Also, Trixie being weird and Flash pathetic, but there had been something, or rather someone else.

Those three, hooded people, sitting next to them - and Vinyl was positively sure about opposing Trixie's Nazi theories - still proved a subject she couldn't quite put her finger on. Which made her think, since having also seen those three strange new girls at school with their hypnosis...strategies and all, there might have been a connection there. Maybe, they'd just...

"Ah! The girl we've been looking for!"

Vinyl looked around in surprise, trying to diagnose the call's source. Which didn't take her particularly long, since the answer had already set itself up right in front of her. As a matter of fact, the three girls she had just been thinking about stood next to her table, just now. All of them had satisfied grins on their faces, looking down onto the clueless DJ.

"Um...hi?" Vinyl tried her best not to sound excessively bewildered. "Aren't you those strippers girls...something?"

Their smirks vanished abruptly, as the purple one quickly turned around to her light blue friend, whose eyes had just widened in horror, giving her hand an empathetic squeeze. At the same time, the orange girl's eyes narrowed in anger.

"We're not that, okay? No matter what you've been told...ugh." She sighed. "Listen, can we sit down? I just wanna talk."

"Suit yourselves."

"Why, thank you."

In the blink of an eye, the three of them had planted themselves onto the couch opposite to Vinyl. Their expressions suddenly went back to being dead-serious, as they thoroughly stared at her.

"Uh...y'all okay?" she asked somewhat intimidated, taking another sip off her drink.

"Well..." the orange girl, who had placed herself in between the other two, started off in a tense tone. "I think you know about the game being played here very well. And that is why we came here: We want you to tell us, now!"

"Tell you...what?" Vinyl cocked her head in confusion.

"Everything," the purple one added, joining in. "What about that Equestrian magic, making you immune to our spell? When did you get it, and how? How did you learn about using it, and what's your connection to those six other ones?"

Magic? Spell? Others? Oh, what the hell...

Vinyl leaned back in her chair, putting on a fake smile as facade. "You want information?" she asked. "Fine. I'll tell you all I know. Of course, I'm also afraid to tell you nothing in this world's for free, so..."

To her surprise, the old 20's gangster show actually played its part. After a short moment of consideration, the orange girl produced a green slip of paper from her pocket, handing it to Vinyl. She couldn't remember ever being so enthusiastic about seeing Former President Jackson's face before, but whatever. Letting out a low snicker, she leaned back once again.

"Truth is, I don't know shit," she replied. "'cept getting half a Saturday's wage out of some naive fundamentalists' ideas. And no, I'm not gonna accept Jesus as my savior, don't even try. You'll just be wasting your time."

Right now, it was Vinyl's turn to smirk, since the other three had obviously lost their every reason to do so. While the orange girl simply deadpanned, trying to catch up with what had just happened, her purple friend spontaneously decided to slam her head on the table, right there. Their blue companion, on the other hand, didn't seem to get along with the conversation very well at all, judging from her confused face.

"Wait, but...you...WHAT?!" The orange one clearly came at a loss of words, while Vinyl happily slurped down the last remnants of her drink. "You can't just do that! We were going to buy ourselves dinner with that money!"

"Well, seems like someone's gonna go to bed hungry tonight," Vinyl told her, grinning from ear to ear. "Guess I'll just get some more pie to eat in front of your faces."

With that, she got up, ready to walk back to the counter. "Gimme a minute, I'll be right back."

"No," the girl then replied to her with grim determination in her voice. "You won't." And with that, they started to chant a melody in unison. Vinyl would look back at them for a second, then shrug, continuing her walking.

As she did, the voices suddenly stopped, once again.

Vinyl returned to her table with a piece of cake and a cup of coffee, only to find it entirely deserted. Apart from a yellow post-it note, nothing witnessed of her visitors. For some reason, they must have been able to leave the place incredibly stealthily, and quick.

Sitting back down, she lifted the small piece of paper up, her eyes briefly wandering over it.

Just so you know, this isn't over.

We'll find your secret, whether you tell us or not.

Prepare for trouble, Vinyl Scratch!

- A.D., A.B., S.D.

Vinyl Scratch scratched her chin, finding herself chuckling once more.

"Heh. Morons," she eventually concluded, unplugging her earphones.