Chapter 1
By TwinTurboDOHC
Everypony has to make decisions. Sometimes they're easy ones, for example: Which is better? A cake or, say, a good solid kick to the head? Sometimes choices are hard, e.g: Which is better? One direction or, say, a good solid kick to the head?
I, Vinyl scratch, faced one of these tough decisions. This was at a time in my life when everything was an opportunity. I was developing my skills as a disc jockey, but I had also been told on many occasions that I was highly intelligent. I had experimented trying both at the same time, but that DEFINITELY didn't work.
When I say didn't work I mean REALLY didn't work. I was dj-ing at a friend's birthday party the night before a test. Between records, I would say something like, "Yeah! Round of applause for the birthday queen!" or something along those lines. Well, the song finished and I was concentrating on a particularly hard equation, so I yelled into the mic, "Woooo! What's the square route of one hundred and forty four!" My rep significantly decreased after that. On the bright side, I did get 96% in the exam. Every cloud has a silver lining.
Anyway, one day after class my high school teacher called me back. We'd had a pop quiz that lesson, so, me being me, I foolishly thought she was congratulating me on how amazingly well I'd done. "Sit down, Miss Scratch." I sat down, casually. "Now, I need to tell you something important, that will affect the rest of your life."
"Wow, erm... that's pretty heavy to drop on me all at once. I mean-"
"Quiet. I haven't told you what it is yet." She snapped. Which was unusual as she always pretty layed back. "From what your classmates have told me, you are a very talented DJ."
"Well what can I say-"
"Nothing, I'm the one speaking." I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "On the other hoof, your test results say you have a much higher than average intelligence."
"Go on..." I encouraged.
"Therefor I present you with a choice: either continue with your music or, alternatively, continue your studies and become an intellectual. Be warned, if you choose music, there's no promising as to if you'll come out on top."
"Could I have some time to think about it?"
"No. You must make your decision now, or the school board will decide for you."
This was heavy. Like, seriously heavy stuff. Like lead, mercury and slipnot all mixed into one.
"I choose... erm... music!"
"For Celestias sake." Thought the teacher to herself, "she was our best student. The board is gonna be pissed!"
So that's it, from then on, my fate was decided. I moved into a tiny basement apartment in the northern part of Manehatten and went from there. I played small backstreet clubs at first. You know, the kind where everything is like a real club, but grimier.
Gradually I built up my skills and my rep increased, soon I was playing better and bigger clubs like pLace, Red door, the infamous 42½ and then onto the now legendary hoofbeats club. THE coolest place in the entirety Equestria. Well, except the frozen north. Where for some reason nightclubs are quite thin on the ground.
Along the way, I made friends, lost others but by far my best friend (and flat mate) was Octavia, who flanked my career the entire time. Without her, I wouldn't have lasted one week. Especially with the drug rings, rumours and scandals. Because of this, we both decided to find somewhere nice and remote, but still a place big enough to play events.
After a considerable amount of looking about in estate magazines, we finally settled on a place called Ponyville. We decided to each get separate houses, as we each had a bit more cash to play around with and wanted a bit more room to spare.
Some ponies ask what the story is with my glasses. Well, I was walking to Hoofbeats for my three hour slot performing, when I saw these glasses in a shop window. I went inside the shop and said to the shopkeeper, "How much are those magenta glasses in the window? I want to buy them."
"15 bits." replied the shopkeeper.
"Thanks!" I said, and walked out of the store. Sometimes, I tell that story to ponies at parties. Sometimes they say, "You call that a story?"
To which I reply: "No, but that was what the shopkeeper would call a sale."
Now, three years later, I had been enjoying Ponyville immensely. The first difference I'd noticed was that everypony is so much less judgemental. They just accept it. I get regular gigs from the town's very own permanently pleasant party planner, Pinkie pie. Mainly due to the fact she makes a party for everything. Highlights include: Happy first lemon party (which was for a lemon tree) and my personal favourite, happy happy birthday party. Party-ception.
So all was good in my particular hood for a long time. Well, apart from discord happening and a load of other bad stuff. Other than that, everything was peaceful. I had no real worries up, that is, until today.
It was your typical Ponyville Saturday afternoon. The sun beat down on the thatched rooves of the houses, it beat on the dirt and cobble paths weaving in and out of the afore mentioned houses. It beat down on the the throbbing market, where all kinds of ponies haggled over a broad range of items. It didn't beat down on the ponies with hats though.
As me and Octavia wound our way through the busy market, we noticed a tent with a sign outside saying, "Madame Clair Voyant can make you see what could have been! Dare you enter? -5 bits per pony"
"Why don't we try the fortune telling stand Vinyl?" Suggested Octavia.
"Meh, the record stand is over there, and the guy always has the hottest new tracks!" I said.
"C'mon! It'll be fun, we can go to the record stand later. We've got all afternoon."
"Fine, but you're paying for me."
"Ok, I don't mind."
We entered the tent. Inside there were three chairs and a table. Two on the side near the entrance and one on the opposite side which was occupied by a deep blue coated unicorn with an aquamarine blue mane. The table was covered in a red and gold patterned cloth, in the middle of which sat a clouded crystal ball about 8 inches in diameter.
"If you have a weak heart, leave now. The news I am about to tell you may shock you especially, Vinyl." I was uninterested before but now I was focused entirely on the Clair.
"If you wish to know more, please deposit your five bits on the table now." We both complied.
"Good, now let us begin." The room darkened and the table started to rattle. The crystal ball rose sharply and suspended itself in midair as me and Octavia stared in awe. It hovered in much the same way a brick doesn't. The freaky thing was, there was no magical outline around the crystal ball and Clair's horn wasn't glowing.
The room began to swirl sickeningly as all the miscellaneous objects in the tent rose into the air and spun rapidly. Suddenly there was a violent flash of light and I screamed as I felt my individual cells tear themselves apart then reassemble in a vaguely familiar corridor. Slowly, it dawned on me. This was my high school.
"Wha... what the hay are we doing at my old school?" This was too much. The sheer amount of de ja vu could kill you. I realised also that Octavia was missing. "Hey, uh, where's Octavia? She was here a minute ago."
"It matters not, come Vinyl, there is much to see." Said Clair.
A door opened in front of us, Clair gestured for me to follow her. So I did.
"I remember this! This was when I had to make the easiest decision of, like, my entire life."
"Was it? Now be silent, and watch."
"Therefor I present you with a choice: either continue with your music or, alternatively, continue your studies and become an intellectual. Be warned, if you choose music, there's no promising as to if you'll come out on top."
"Could I have some time to think about it?"
"No. You must make your decision now, or the school board will decide for you."
This was heavy. Like, seriously heavy stuff. Like lead, mercury and slipnot all mixed into one.
"I choose... erm...to, er... continue with my studies."
"Well done Miss Scratch, you made the right decision."
"Well, this is wrong. I chose music." I couldn't imagine doing anything else.
"Not on this timeline. Come, there is still much to see."
"Whatever the hay you say, Clair." This was seriously far out stuff.
The was a violent flash of light as my atoms sped through nothingness.
Chapter 2
By TwinTurboDOHC
As my individual atoms rematerialised, I thought to myself, "What have I gotten myself into? Will Octavia be okay?" This was seriously freaky, a separate timeline where I choose academics? Why would I do that? I chose music-
"To answer your questions, Vinyl, you already payed the bits, so there's no backing out now. Octavia is fine. Finally, the chance between choosing music and academics was 50/50."
"How is it possible for us to be here?"
"All will become clear to you."
"I don't know about that. Everything has a magenta tinge at the moment." I said flapping my last shreds of ego at her in a halfhearted show of nonchalance. I saw Clair mentally facehoof.
Unlike last time, I didn't recognize this place. I went to look out of a plate glass window and had a sudden stab of vertigo. We were about twenty stories up. Looking around, this was some kind of administrative office block. It was seriously tricked out, there was a pool table, a ping pong table and not-very-minibar.
"Come, Vinyl." I followed her to what I guessed was the main conference room. I guessed right. Inside the room were ten black leather office chairs, each accompanied by a pony who was then accompanied by an expensive suit. I looked to the head of the table, and there I was. In my own suit and everything. Business me was looking intently at a nervous looking, middle-aged stallion holding a pie chart.
"So, erm, I mean, employee happiness is at an all time, er, high so we, er, as employees at scratch records would, er, I mean, erm..." He was dying out there, like me at my first proper gig.
"It's ok, Sharp. Take your time." Business me said. At least I was still nice.
"Well, erm..." He paused, a sudden determined look crossed his face. "You know what? Fuck you, boss! You and I both know this company is falling apart around your ears! Octavian enterprises destroyed-"
"Do NOT mention that name!" Business me thumped my hoof on the table.
"Oh yeah? Why the fuck not? Octavia! Octavia! Octavia! Your marefriend misses you!"
"Now." I said. The guard pulled a blow dart tube, loaded it and fired at the stallion. He screamed. He screamed and screamed until I thought my ears (me, music Vinyl) would explode.
"What the... aargh is it!?" He screeched. His whole body was slick with sweat.
"That? Oh, just a nerve toxin that inflicts severe whole body pain whilst keeping the victim from dying of shock and conscious, all at the same time." I said with infinite calmness, despite the piercing screams of the stallion. "Take him away." Two humongous guards walked over and carried the stallion out through a hidden door at the back of the room.
What I had just witnessed was the single most horrific sight of my life. His screams still echoed in my head and wrenched my soul. Clair was also visibly taken aback. I could never imagine being in that much pain. Business me was a soulless, heartless monster. Surely I could never be that cruel. I mean, even if I had chosen academics in real life, I was set to become a medical professional, not the CEO of a record company. Also, business me got really mad when Octavia was mentioned. Meaning that we must have had some kind of fight that resulted in me hating her.
This was too much to take in, but one thing was clear: I had to take down business me. I burst into the conference room and stormed towards myself. I suddenly started running. I flew across the smooth glass table, slid the last few feet and went in for a tackle. Except, I didn't. I flew straight through myself and landed with a hard thump on the floor. I sat up, confused.
Clair was by my side. "Two timelines won't mix. Therefor anything you do when you're with me, won't affect other timelines, including this one."
"Oh..." I said.
"Now, our time is up. We must leave now." I reluctantly got to my hooves. I felt all of my individual atoms fly apart and throw themselves through the fabric of time and space.
Half a second later, they reassembled in a tent in the Ponyville market. That was an experience, but was it a good one?
"Thank you Clair. That was, erm, fun? I guess?" said Octavia. "We'll just be off then, won't we Vinyl?" I nodded slightly. "Thanks, bye."
We exited the tent onto the busy market street. "Mine was boring, Vinyl. It was an alternate timeline where I had fries instead of a burger and got food poisoning. Is it some kind of message? Anyway, what was yours?" asked Octavia.
"I don't want to talk about it." I said moodily.
"Is something wrong? Do you want to talk about?"
"No, geez, get off my case, Octavia! No, I don't want to talk about it!" I snapped.
"Vinyl! Don't shout, ponies are watching."
"You know what? I'm going home."
"What about the record sta-"
"Just shut up and leave me alone!" I stormed off. Why did she have be so goddess damn nosey?
I flumped down on the couch in my living room. It was a particularly hard flump, so I yelped particularly loud when a pair of headphones stabbed me in the back. And broke.
I decided to listen to my radio, see if anything was on to suit my mood. I flipped from station to station but they were all happy songs thanking the pegasi for clearing the sky so well. I turned the radio off. I went upstairs to the library to try and find something to play.
My library was a spare room that I never used and was therefor the best place to store my records. I picked a shelf at random and started flipping through records at random. 'Greatest party anthems vol 1' nope. 'Greatest dance hits' no way. 'Heaviest beats vol 5' no! Easily more than one thousand records and I didn't have one to describe how I felt.
I felt really angry. How could I have it in me to be so completely heartless. This was stupid, "WHY CAN'T I FIND A SINGLE FUCKING RECORD! THAT'S LITERALLY ALL I'VE DONE SINCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL!" In a rage, I threw 'The best club beats' over my shoulder towards the door. So I was surprised when there was a scream.
"Octavia! What are you doing here? I told you to go away!"
"Vinyl, when you're done playing frisbee with records, you need to come downstairs. You have some visitors here to see you."
"Fine, I'm coming."
I wandered downstairs after Octavia. "Surprise!" said all the ponies in my living room. This had to be a Pinkie party.
"Hey, there miss grumpy pants! We made you a party to celebrate!" She pointed to a banner over the fireplace. It said 'Happy wierd tent trip that we won't ask you about right now!' The writing got smaller towards the end as they had evidently run out of banner.
"Wow, er, I don't know what to say Pinkie." I rubbed the back of my head with my hoof.
"Niether do I, but it's usually good. Now get on those turntables! It would be a party without cool music would it?" She shunted me towards the turntables. How they got it set up so quickly I... still don't know.
Anyway, about five minutes later, the party was in full swing. Soon, more ponies arrived and party started spilling into the street as the sun set majestically over the horizon. The party continued late into the night and eventually wound to a close at about three in the morning, as the snacks and drinks had run out and all the shops were closed.
By the end I was feeling much better, had apologised to Octavia for acting so rude and embarrassingly in the market. "See ya next time Pinkie!" I said and closed the front door. "Phew. I'm exhausted."
"Irrelevent."
"Not really. Also, the party is officially fini-"
"Are you Vinyl Scratch?"
"The one and the only. Like I said before, parties ov-"
"Grab her." I turned around to run away, but I was met by a large bodyguard. He pulled out a cloth with his magic.
"Do I know you?" He pressed the cloth to my muzzle. "You're the..." I slipped into unconsciousness.
