Have you ever been sitting with your friends and just wondered, 'how do I know these ponies?'. Not just in the bad way, but in the good way also. As in, by what twist of fate have I been set in a position that I am privileged enough to know these fabulous ponies. It makes me wonder about fate on the whole really. I understand the idea of fate deciding your life, but just how much does it control? Is every choice ever made already planned out? Or is the die rolled at the beginning of your life with its certain prohibitions and the outcome purely chance? These are my current thoughts as I sit he-
The text slowly fades as the quill being used to write runs dry. In an attempt to refresh its writing capabilities the user begins to dab it in ink before stumbling slightly and letting it drop from her mouth. "oh silly me, I've done it again"
The earth pony turns to pick up the tool but is unable due to the quill's small size. Her dark grey tail and mane swish as she turns. She has to accommodate a lighter grey coat along with mulberry eyes. She immediately gives off an impression of innocence to any observer. Her pink bow tie with white collar attachment sum up her simplicity in attitude, dainty stature and general sophistication.
"Vinyl, would you get this for me?" She says glancing over at the unicorn currently spread across the neighbouring sofa.
"Huh? Whah? Oh right, yeah I got it just gimme a sec.." Replied Vinyl Scratch, or DJ-Pon3 as her stage name labels her. The unicorn was lying on a red sofa doodling. From where she sat the drawing appeared to be of some sort of duel between two ponies. It is in moments like these that the DJ actually had removed her white-rimmed purple tinted sunglasses, a rare occurrence indeed. She has a white coat with a striped mane consisting of a cobalt blue and bright cyan. Her cutie mark a mirrored image of two bridged eighth notes, which I personally always found amusing; it connected perfectly with her completely backwards view on what classes as good music.
"Vinyl, could you make that by this evening?"
"ok! I've got it! Geese... Why do you use a dumb quill? Pencils are so much easier for you earth ponies. And what are you even righting anyway?
"There are certain things one must do when writing to keep an established tradition." She replied slightly frustrated by her friend's lack of understanding. "Perhaps unfortunately for me, one is to always look to a quill when comprising literature." A quick remark followed by a turn of her head to get back to her work.
"Right right. But like, why are you using a quill now. I thought you were just writing up like notes or something." Vinyl says, levitating the quill back onto the table.
"Well I figured if I am going to make this a worthwhile memory I may as well write it in an interesting format. So a story for example." She receives a questioning look from the unicorn. "Purely for my own interests, of course! I wouldn't dare reveal what has been done, much as we promised." The words were slightly shaken as she didn't want to enrage Vinyl.
"Wait, so you gunna write like a book or something?"
"No! I mean, I wasn't intending to as it would surely blow our cover. Right?"
"Woah, why not? That sounds totally awesome! Don't you remember how cool everything was?" The unicorn at this point has sat up straight and has a large grin on her face. She is visibly recounting all of her recent memories to make sure they were in fact as awesome as she had stated.
"I thought that publicity was a bad thing. What happened to the secrecy and stealth?" Octavia asks, slightly confused at how easily Vinyl had shaken off such an important fact.
"Look, Vinyl, I don't think any notoriety from the public is what we want right now. Or ever to be honest." She states blankly, hoping that Vinyl would calm down. She raised her hoof to make a remark when the door suddenly burst open.
"How dare you denounce publicity! We should be marveled for our skill in this profession!"
"Trixie?! How long have you been listening in on our conversation?" 'Of course she would say something like that. Blast, I was hoping to keep this from everypony else until I had at least had half written up.' Octavia thought to herself, annoyed at Trixie's poor contribution.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie believes that if you intend to take down what we have accomplished then we must all partake as to create an 100% accurate tale." Trixie. An ex-travelling magician known for conning villages into believing her tall tales of how powerful she is said to be. Then extorting as much profit as possible. She has an azure blue coat and striped mane with two different shades of a very light blue. Combined with her piercing violet eyes and extroverted attitude it was suffice to say she easily stood out in a crowd.
"Thank you Trixie for making a sensible point. Now Vinyl let me ex-"
"So that it may sell even better as a novel!" Octavia promptly begins to facehoof but is cut off by a large yellow object colliding with her.
"Wahey! Heard you're writtin a book! That true Octy? Huh? Is it? Is it?" The words rocket from the mouth of Cheese Sandwich as he pins Octavia down to the floor. He has a huge grin on his face. He has a plain brown mane that somehow stays in a constant bushy state and a fur colour that lies somewhere in colour between a dark yellow, light orange and dull peach. A set of brilliant green eyes are currently locked on to Octavia as he speaks. He appears a true accomplice of madness itself, in a good way of course.
"Woah, Cheese. Wait a second! I didn't say anything of the sort. It was just these two here getting everypony hyped up."
"Aaaaaaaw. And I really wanted to write my own bit about how fun it was..." His whole body droops as he slowly reverses of Octavia. The large grin has now become an equally sized frown. Meanwhile Vinyl and Trixie are both disapproving in their own ways.
"Guys, calm down. All I said was that I was writing what happened in the form of a story just so that it is easier to remember. I have no intentions to publish it as a proper story. Seriously, have all of you forgotten how worked up some ponies are getting?" Luckily the message managed to get through to the others listening, and thus they all begun to stand down. However things still needed to be said.
"That might be true.." Trixie says as she slowly walks closer to Octavia "But you weren't there for a lot of it. So you will need us to tell you what happened, and the Great and Remembering Trixie can recount all of the facts!"
Vinyl, whose hope is now revitalized, reenters the conversation "Yeah! There was like a crazy tonne of stuff you didn't get to see! And man, it was totally wicked cool!"
Octavia sighs as she watches them all gradually tip back over the edge of sensibility straight into the pit of pure immature madness. She slowly sinks down to the floor, hooves over ears, and tries to simply block out all the noise as the ponies all start rambling. Yet somehow she winces at the sound of the door being once again near blown of its hinges. Everypony falls silent to see who has just announced their entrance similarly to how a grenade announces to the local area that it's tired of being in one place and suddenly wants to be everywhere instantaneously.
"Wonderful! So whose turn is it to give me all the marvelous ideas on how to officially blow our cover, get tracked down and probably be sent to prison forever??" She shouts out whilst lifting her head up to look towards the door.
Vinyl, Cheese and Trixie all recoil slightly at how aggressive Octavia is being so suddenly. Standing at the door in her usual adventuring gear is Daring Do. Infamous among fans of A.K. Yearling as the world renowned adventurer, fearless fighter and general badass.
"What's this about all of you idiots trying to write a book about our adventure!?" She punctuates her point with a hard hoof stomp. She glares at each pony in turn with her rosy eyes. She was certainly quite the sight; her coat a light gold and her mane being a greyscale rainbow. 'Vinyl was right when she said Daring and Rainbow Dash look alike. I mean, that's almost scary.' Octavia thought to herself idly as Daring probably prepared a speech. She took this opportunity to speak up during the brief silence.
"Thank you Daring! Finally somebody sensible enough to realize how stupid of an idea publishing the ins and outs of a heist being written by us, the ones who committed the act, is!" Octavia near screams.
"Exactly! Don't any of you know how to think?" Daring exclaims loudly.
"Phew, now I if I can just get back t-" She barely had time to pick up the quill before she was once again interrupted.
"Obviously I should be the writer!"
"What?!" The entire room says, dumbfounded by her apparent sudden change in stance on the matter. Octavia, positively furious at this point in fact snaps the quill through the sheer exasperation she was feeling.
"C'mon guys, get real! I am the only one here who has written an entire series of books let alone just the one! A life time spent under the name A.K. Yearling has taught me the skills needed. And I know that none of you have any of that."
"No, of course not! None of you, not even Daring are intelligent enough to understand why we can't do this..." Octavia says as she sinks back onto her hind. The group argument continues.
"The Great and Literate Trixie demands that you take that back at once! I would write mere pages that would put your whole series to shame!"
"oooooh no, sweet Celestia please tell me she didn't just say that!" Octavia says to herself quietly. She looks up just in time to see Daring give Trixie a look that could probably stop a falling meteor, force it to slice itself into tiny pieces, and reform into a stunning quartz mansion. Trixie doesn't even have time to comprehend anything before Daring has launched at her. Literally, Daring has picked her up and begun flying around the room keeping her in a choke hold whilst Trixie is using her magic to try and send various household objects towards her head.
Meanwhile Cheese Sandwich was standing under it yelling up at them to stop. He wasn't really helping as every comment he made was just used as an argument by one of the two currently locked in battle to try and verbally assault the other. Somehow Vinyl was enjoying herself. In fact she had sat back down on the sofa and continued the drawing, now being coloured to suit the current duelists. 'Well isn't that an odd coincidence?' Octavia thinks to herself. 'Hang on! What the hay am I doing? I cannot simply sit and let this happen! But what am I meant to say? It's 4 against 1.' She sighs 'Oh well, why not give it a try? Vinyl is always going on about how I need to be more adventurous anyway.'
Octavia slowly rises to her hooves and prepares to make a decision that might go extremely well, perhaps even make them more bits than ever before. Or go extremely horribly and wind them all up in prison. She raises her head slightly so that she can look down her nose at whoever she is speaking, just to add authority.
"Excuse me!" She says very loudly before stomping the floor very loudly with one hoof. "I shall say this once! Daring! You are NOT writing anything by yourself! Trixie! You have literally never written anything further than threats to Twilight, Daring is more experienced. Get over it! Cheese! Just calm down for once and listen! And Viny-" She is cut off by the sheer look of shock on her friend's face. A combination of seeing a ghost, finding out you have a long lost sibling and being told you have to sleep in the same bed as Pinkie Pie would be comparable. Maybe.
"What is it Vinyl? Why are you staring at me?" She asks very angrily. It was so aggressive that for the first time that century a question was asked that was also both a statement and command. The last time this happened was of course when Equestria was first founded and one of the settlers suddenly realized there was no spare clothing for winter. It is understandable that when asking Derpeth Hooves (The one in charge of clothes and distant ancestor of Derpy Hooves) the scout was angry when suspecting they weren't where they were meant to be. Mainly because they had to trek back near 2000 miles to fetch the clothing after the response was no.
"Uuugh Octy, it happened again." Vinyl says almost frightened. She quickly levitates a mirror in front of Octavia. She is repulsed by what she sees. Instead of the normal mulberry eyes, a pair of golden yellow orbs stared back at her from positions set above what know looked like a much more refined snout area. Her mane had darkened slightly in colour, was longer and had curled slightly at the ends as it was much scruffier. It appeared that she had grown slightly in height and was more muscular on her legs. Looking back at her face she noticed that her mouth was open showing a set of much sharper teeth. The most prevailing being a deadly-looking set of canines.
"Oh my word. Sorry for blowing up a bit guys." Octavia replies depressingly as she begins to slowly return to her normal shape by force calming herself down. Daring is the first to speak after a moderate awkward silence.
"Look, we don't know why this keeps happening so it's probably safest to write down everything that happened and go over it together. Because from the looks of it this is going down hill and fast." Daring gives her an apologetic look as she speaks.
"The Great and Apologetic Trixie also thinks we should do that."
Vinyl simply nods in agreement.
"Well let's get started!" Cheese says, holding up a fresh set of paper and quills. With no time to even question where Cheese managed to get those or how quickly Octavia simply sits back down at her desk and starts writing.
"Hmm, where to start? Where do you think fellows?"
Vinyl pipes up very quickly.
"oh yeah I got it! Make it like, the first time we all met. Remember? At Sugarcube corner?" A round of nods back it up.
"Good idea Vinyl. We may as well start with the beginning, it is a good place to start." And like that she started writing.
Author's Note
Woo! Thanks for reading this to the bottom of the page! Well that is assuming you actually read it all and didn't simply skip straight to the bottom. Feel free to post constructive criticism in the comments. This is my first story and I would like to make it acceptable.
If you haven't guessed the tale is inspired by a mixture of "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman" and a friend of mine challenging me to write a fanfiction based on some sort of heist. Also sorry for a slightly confusing first chapter! All will be explained as it goes on, Pinkie promise! Finally I am planning to have this as the first in a series of tales revolving around the cast. So it is a prequel effectively. I hope to be posting new chapters every week whilst constantly trying to improve old ones. I do hope you keep reading and give me a chance. Thanks!
Chapter 2 - Vinyl's Job Response
It was only 3 weeks ago from the current date of writing this when I received a letter. It was unusual for a number of reasons. Firstly, there was no indication it had been opened, as in the entire envelope appeared a single piece of material. I drew to the conclusion that it must have been formed with magic, thus meaning its contents must be of some considerable value. But what could it be? Secondly, there was no indication of how it had arrived. Not even the usual disgusting drool left by Derpy, the usual mailpony. 'Who actually appointed her anyway?' Regardless the mystery was piling up when the third odd thing happened; the envelope began to just melt away, leaving a small scroll in my hooves to simply stare at in bewilderment.
"Um, Vinyl?" I turn my head towards the kitchen hoping that perhaps Vinyl Scratch might know something. 'Huh, that would be a change' I think to myself as she trots round the corner.
"yeah Octy? What's up?" She looks at me and tilts her head slightly.
"Are we expecting any mail?"
Vinyl looks back at me confused.
"What kinda mail? And before you ask, no I didn't break anything at my last gig! So it's not that."
"As in the sort of mail that arrives completely anonymously in magical packaging that opens itself.." I give her a hopeful look. It's not like she would know what it was but I felt it worth a try. I wonder how many times we've been in this situation; me asking her something and she just looking back at me blankly, completely obliv-
"Oh yeah! That thing.. I sorta forgot to tell you Octy..."
I am slightly taken back, probably only because I was so sure her she would live up to my usual expectations.
"Hold on, then what exactly is this? I would like to know as the underside appears to be glowing." It was true, whilst thinking to myself the underside of the scroll, presumably the text, had begun to glow a soft pink.
"Well..." Vinyl says, rubbing he back of her neck anxiously.
"Vinyl? Tell me this instance. What is this meant to be?" I say as I slowly start moving towards Vinyl.
"Well... huh y'see I was just kinda.." Vinyl says nervously as she begins to back away.
"Vinyl! Tell me!"
"I signed us up for a job position!" She quickly puts her hooves up in front of her expecting a slap or something similar, her eyes closed as if she were stuck mid flinch.
"I beg your pardon?"
Vinyl slowly lowers her hooves and opens her eyes. Head hanging a bit low and looking up at me to try and look innocent in hopes of mercy.
"I heard from this guy that he was lookin' for a couple ponies that could get a job done. Like, organizing stuff and I thought 'oh, I could use a few bits'. And then I thought that like, I would never be able to do it without you! So I just kinda sorta might of maybe signed both of us up a little bit.....please don't be mad at me..." She says whilst slowly raising her hooves again in fear once again of being hit.
I draw out a long sigh.
"Was he a shady looking pony?"
"Nah, nah! He was totally legit! I mean it! Octy you gotta believe me, I was just lookin for work and this came up."
"And where in your plan did you see me partaking in this?"
A sudden realization spread across Vinyl's face as I said my last comment.
"Woah woah woah! Hold up Octy! I really really need this. Please..."
The look on her face was so cute. Damnit she knew how to pull a puppy face when she needed it. I groan audibly as I make my decision. 'Sweet Celestia. I am going to regret this aren't I?' I must say that looking back at it now, I am quite proud of myself for being courageous enough to make both the worst and best decision of my life in a single moment. So yay for me!
"Vinyl. I have known you for a while and thus I am used to your occasional mishaps. But, as a friend of yours I am obliged to trust you when making your life decisions. For the sake of our friendship."
"Wait, so.." She asks me quizzically
"For your sake, I shall give this a shot with you." I barely had time to finish before Vinyl had pounced on me and started hugging the life out me.
"Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou! Thankyou!"
"Vinyl, please.." I say as the oxygen is slowly pressed out of my lungs. I manage to push her off just before suffocation.
"Thank you. But before we make a move I suggest that we actually read this first as magical glowing scrolls don't seem like the sort of response you get for a job application. And I can't help but feel this might burst into flames or something of that liking if we don't read it. For all we know it's just the wrong letter.
"k. Got it. Let's read it then." Vinyl replies calmly even though she is practically ecstatic at this point. She actually hides it very well.
We both take a seat in the sitting room and unroll the scroll to begin reading. However just as I finished unrolling it the pink glow brightened to the point of near blinding us. I raise my hooves to block my eyes, assuming that the scroll will fall to the floor. yet it just stays in place. And the pink glowing letters began to read themselves. I expected some sort of booming voice to read me my destiny or something similar.
"Hi! How ya feelin?" The voice asks very enthusiastically.
Vinyl attempts to respond but simply stammers through sheer dumbfoundedness. My instant response is just to facehoof.
"Actually this is pre-recorded so you can't really answer. Oops, silly me! Well if you're hearing this then you applied for the position and you got it! Woo! Good for you! Unless you're a naughty mail pony and opening mail that isn't yours...If so, put it back Derpy! Is she gone? Good. Now let's get down to business. You accepted the job, so you obviously agreed to the terms and conditions. I'm slightly surprised you replied so quickly; usually it takes a few weeks for people to fully read and understand all the rules and stuff. Oh well, you must be really smart!"
A quick glance at Vinyl being replied with a sorry look and a shrug confirms that she didn't do any of the things deemed necessary. I just roll my eyes and continue listening.
"So I'll be expecting you at Sugarcube corner in a few weeks then. See ya there! Ooh and look for the table with the pink box on it! K bye!"
And with that the glow fades away and the scroll falls to the floor.
"Right then. I suppose we should prepare then?" I barely had enough time to think before the scroll started glowing again.
"Oh yeah almost forgot! If you don't show up in 3 weeks something really bad will happen to you! Ok, that's everything. Step back as I'm gunna explode now! Weeeeeeeee!" As the voice described the paper burst into a pink flame and burnt away quickly. I turn back to Vinyl.
"Right. What do you think we will need? Because from that description this is a very serious job."
Vinyl still looks scared of getting a smack from me. To be honest I probably should have.
"Wait, so you're not mad at me for not reading what I was meant to?"
I can feel my eyes bore into her head as I glare at her. 'My word I am getting good at this.' I think to myself.
"Oh don't worry I'm certainly mad at you. However I feel that the consequences of your poor actions will probably make up for anything I could say to you. Because no matter how much money might come out of this we can't use it if we ARE BOTH DEAD!" I scream the last bit perhaps too loudly. Surprisingly Vinyl stops cowering and stands up to begin shouting.
"Hey! Sorry for trying to get us some money! Geese, I was thinking of you too y'know!" She shouts, turning away and crossing her arms in the process. I'm not sure why I was so mad; for all I knew it was just some prank Vinyl wanted to play as she was bored. Or maybe it was just a secret gift at the end to thank me for being a good friend. Not that anything positive was going through my mind at that point as I was so angry. We were both off the sofa now and were ready to continue our shouting match. She was standing by the door that led to the kitchen whilst I was on the other side by the stairs. I did consider simply walking away to prevent the argument from evolving any further. Yet I ,for whatever reason, really wanted to just hell her down. So I continued with a rebuttl-
"Actually Octy, could we like leave the argument out?"
I look up from the paper to see her pulling quite the awkward face. I had forgotten how much she hated others knowing that she occasionally loses her cool. Come to think of it it was a fairly ferocious argument. Thus I gave in to her wishes.
"Sure Vinyl, whatever you say. I'll skip straight to where we make up."
Trixie was opening her mouth to say something but Daring stopped her; this was quite serious and didn't need any comments.
Yet I, for whatever reason, really wanted to just yell her down. ~~So I continued with a rebuttl~~
However I kept my cool and continued calmly.
"Vinyl I understand that. But you must realize how bad this could go, surely?"
I tried moving slightly closer and looking at her more sincerely as apposed to angrily. At the end of the day we didn't share a living space just because we were slightly short on money. It was because we were friends, great friends perhaps even each other's best friends. Well I am not too sure for Vinyl but she definitely meant a lot to me at the very least. And she was right on one thing; we both really needed money.
"Yeah your right Octy, as usual. I've been kinda worrying about this for a while as soon as I signed us up for it. And maybe I should have asked you about it first. Because you are the smart one. And I shoulda known you would be there to guide me." She comes forward for a hug. "Sorry?"
I embrace quickly
"Apology accepted." We hold each other for a second before breaking and talking some more.
"So, what do you think we should do? I mean, I don't think we can just ignore it."
"Well the message said that 'something bad' will happen to us if we don't go. I normally wouldn't worry, but the way the message came was just so grand that I can't help but believe what was said. Personally I think we should go but still be cautious with our approach."
"Yeah, sounds good. Do ya think we should like ask around to see if anyone knows anything like it?" Vinyl says. I think it's actually the first time she has completely thought something through before saying it. Even though the point still did have its flaws.
"No. I think it would be safer to simply avoid mentioning it to anyone; I'm still not quite comfortable with the lack of information we have been given about our employer and the task we are meant to be doing."
Vinyl looked slightly disappointed at how little we knew about what we were really going into. I felt the same really.
"So Sugarcube corner in 3 weeks?"
"Yup. Looks like it."
So we left it at that. We only discussed it again on the day a few weeks later.
"So is everyone happy with that?" I ask having stopped writing. Vinyl seemed content yet the others shared a similar concern.
"Surely we must take down all of our callings? In case of necessary comparisons to find a trend of course." Trixie says. Although the last bit was probably added just so that her urge to write about herself was at least partially hidden. Her self-centered nature truly knows no bounds. She is far too desperate for attention.
"All right then. Who would like to write first?"
Surprisingly Cheese Sandwich manages to intervene before Trixie.
"Ooh ooh! Pick me! I wanna write first Octy!"
Trixie's frustrated look manages to make me giggle slightly.
"Yeah, go ahead Cheese! Just make it obvious that it's not me writing now. And start a new chapter too."
"Okie dokie loki!" Pinkie's signature catchphrase coming out of Cheese's mouth seemed odd. I noted it away in the back of my mind just in case it became helpful. We then switched places so that he could begin to write. I was actually quite looking forward to seeing how Cheese was called upon. And now I got to! Trixie was right, this is a good idea.
Author's Note
Sorry for a slightly shorter chapter. I am planning to have chapters vary quite drastically in size when going through other character's accounts of the same scene. Just to make it still interesting so that you won't have to re-read the same scene 4 or 5 times over. Again thanks for reading this chapter and don't be afraid to post any criticisms or corrections in the comments but do make them polite is all I ask. Also I have said that I will try to update every week, however I feel that at the beginning my updates might be more spontaneous; if I feel like finishing a chapter and updating I probably just will. Thanks for reading!
