Darkness. That's the first thing Vinyl remembered.
She couldn't see anything, except a few blurred shapes. She carefully reached out her pale white hoof and froze when she felt something cold and solid. She began to reach out to the space around her in panic and felt the same thing. Her eyes began to widen in terror as she realised where she was.
She was in a coffin. All of her memories began to flood back to her, and a cold realisation to why she was there.
She was dead.
Vinyl began to pound her hooves on the roof of the coffin in a panicked attempt to break free, which, to her surprise began to work! Unfortunately her plan worked all too well as dirt began to fall into the coffin and all over Vinyl's porcelain skin! As the mountain of dirt began to cover her Vinyl began to dig upwards through the dirt in order to avoid the fate that would become her, until finally she burst through the surface of her grave and desperately gasped for air!
That was the moment when she realised that she no longer needed it.
As she crawled out of her grave she sensed something cold and alarming. She slowly raised her head and looked in front of her, that's when she saw him. A tall dark stranger masked under a large cloak, but there was one thing about him that no one could miss, his glowing red eyes lined with purple smoke piercing through the darkness. Vinyl felt a mixture of fear and rage for she had seen this creature before.
He was the one who did this to her. Then all of a sudden he spoke.
"Vinyl" his voice that of a snake's venomous hiss. "Vinyl!"
Vinyl began to back away from the dark figure in terror. "No!"
"Vinyl!"
As he began to move towards her, she raised her hooves to her ears and shut her eyes tight. "NO!"
"Vinyl!"
"Vinyl!"
"Vinyl, wake up!"
Vinyl awoke with a start. She looked around frantically to make sure that she wasn't back in that awful place. Luckily she wasn't, and from what she could tell she seemed to be in a carriage and then she took notice of the pale green mare looking at her with great concern.
"What?"
The young mare sighed. "You had the nightmare again didn't you?"
Vinyl looked to the floor. "Yes"
"Oh, Vinyl" the mare said sadly.
Vinyl looked back up at her and smiled. "Hey Iv's, its okay, I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me"
The young unicorn mare had pale green fur and a long dark crimson mane and tail. She wore an elegant emerald green dress with a black corset to match her large emerald eyes. Her mane fell loosely on her shoulders as well as a pale grey shawl. Her name was Ivy Winterfield Forest and she had been a good friend of Vinyl's for many years.
"Are you sure?" Ivy asked. "Because you kept shaking and yelling in your sleep. I tried to calm you down but nothing would work"
"Yes, I'm sure" Vinyl said reassuringly. "hey, why did you wake me up anyway?"
"Well, we're here! That's why"
"Oh, already? Yeesh that was a quick journey"
Ivy frowned. "Not really, it took over an hour just to get from the docks to here. You slept through most of it"
"Well yeah, but it's only six 'o' clock at night. They probably weren't expecting us until later. Maybe we better come back when they are more prepared" she said, looking around nervously.
Ivy was confused by her friends jittery behaviour, until she realised something.
Ivy smirked. "Vinyl, if I didn't know any better I would say you were nervous to meet my family"
"Pfft, What? No..." Ivy raised an eyebrow at this. "Oh, alright, of course I'm nervous! I'm nervous that we'll be found out!"
Ivy put a hoof on Vinyl's shoulder in comfort. "Hey, I've managed to hide this from them for the last sixty years. I don't think they'll figure it out"
"And I have been doing it for over one hundred years, and in that time I have learned that keeping in contact with your family is a bad idea!"
Ivy frowned at this. "Vinyl, you know very well why I can keep ties with my family!"
"Yes, but these ponies as from your father's side of the family, ya know, the non-witchy side!"
"First of all, please don't refer to my mother's side of the family as "the witchy side", and second of all, my father's family doesn't suspect a thing, they're not really the superstitious type" Ivy retorted.
"I don't know..."
"Vinyl, trust me on this one, I know what I'm doing"
"Hmm okay"
Ivy smiled. "Alright then, shall we go inside?"
"Yes, we shall" Vinyl replied in a fake posh accent, which made Ivy giggle.
Vinyl then opened the carriage door and got out, followed by Ivy, who was helped down and out of the carriage by their driver. Ivy then smiled sweetly at the driver and thanked him, to which he offered a tip of his hat. The driver, Thunderlane, then began to un-load the young ladies' bags and carry them up to the door.
"Well, that's the last of them" Thunderlane said, after he heaved the last couple of bags onto the doorstep.
"Thank you ever so much for your help, Mr Lane" Ivy said kindly.
"It was my pleasure, miss" Thunderlane stated, as he made his way back to his carriage. He then turned to face the mares and said. "Oh, and welcome to London!" And with that he took off in his carriage leaving the young mares standing in front of a very large estate, waiting to knock on the door.
Ivy looked to Vinyl. "Are you ready?"
Vinyl nodded in reply. "Yes"
So, Ivy encased the manticore-head door knocker in her green aura and hit it hard three times. Finally they heard hoofsteps approaching the door.
Then the two mares heard a loud clank and the door opened to reveal a pale yellow mare, with a light blue mane and tail, in a maid's uniform.
"Hello, you must be the Lady Ivy and Viola" the mare said meekly. "If you will follow me, I will lead you to the Lord and Lady Melody while someone fetches your bags and delivers them to your rooms"
The two mares then followed the maid into the house and out of the cold darkness of the night.
"Wait here" the maid told the two mares, once they reached a large set of double doors at the end of the hall. The maid then knocked on the door.
"Enter" said a masculine voice.
The maid then opened the door and ushered them to follow her inside.
"May I present the Ladies Ivy and Viola" she said timidly, gesturing towards the two mares who had entered the room behind her.
The room was very large and inside were four ponies, one was a mare and the other three were stallions, each seated on a different chair doing something different. The mare, who looked to be around the age of fifty, was busy embroidering piece of fabric while one of the stallions in the room, who looked to be the eldest, was reading a newspaper. The other two were stallions that looked no older than thirty and they were busy conversing amongst themselves. However, once the young mares entered all of their attention seemed to be drawn towards them.
Ivy instantly recognised them. The eldest stallion was her cousin, Colten Vines and the mare was his wife, Twinkle Shine. Ivy then turned her attention to the younger stallions. She recognised one of them as her second cousin, Noteworthy, the youngest son of Colten, but she had never met the other one before. Her first instinct was to run towards her cousin and hug him but then she realised that, as far as they were concerned, they had never met her. That was the downside to pretending to be your own daughter, so that no questions are asked about your youth, it turns your whole family tree haywire.
Twinkle Shine was the first to speak. "Oh, you're here!" she exclaimed as she made her way over to the two friends. She then turned towards the maid. "Thank you, Coco, you may go now"
"Thank you, ma'am" Coco said quietly as she left the room, closing the doors behind her.
Crap, now we're trapped! Vinyl thought, forgetting Ivy could read minds.
Vinyl! Ivy yelled mentally.
"So you're Ivy's daughter!" Twinkle exclaimed, looking at Ivy with interest. That got Ivy's attention. "My, the resemblance really is uncanny!"
"Yes, that's me!" Ivy replied. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you all!"
"Oh, you too sweetie!" Tinkle said sweetly. "We're just sorry that it hasn't happened sooner"
"Oh, it's no problem, I understand that it's a little bit harder to have casual visits when we live so far from each other. Speaking of which, I still can't thank you enough for letting us stay here" Ivy said with a smile.
"Oh no, it's no problem at all, you are family after all and speaking of which, let's get you aquainted with us all, shall we?" Twinkle exclaimed, as she ushered the mares further into the room until they reached the other ponies in the room.
"Right, well this is my husband, Colten Vines" she stated, gesturing towards the elder stallion with a faded pale yellow coat and lime green mane and tail, who had been reading the newspaper.
"Good to finally meet you!" said Colten kindly.
"And this is our youngest son, Noteworthy!" Twinkle continues, gesturing to the young unicorn stallion with a pale blue coat and dark blue mane and tail.
"Great to meet you ladies" he said as he planted a delicate kiss on each of their hoof's, paying extra attention to Vinyl.
"Oh, and this is his friend, Trenderhoof" she said, gesturing to a handsome unicorn stallion with a pale brown coat and light blonde hair.
"It's a pleasure" he said, with a hint of seductiveness, as he took special care with planting a kiss on Ivy's front hoof, not once taking his eyes off hers as he did so. This made Ivy feel slightly uncomfortable.
This guy is weird, he is kinda giving off this creepy vibe. I don't like it! Ivy said internally
Yeah, he is kinda forward with his advances. Best keep an eye on him! Vinyl replied
They instantly snapped back to reality when they herd the large double doors open again, to reveal the same maid who brought them here.
"Umm, the Lady Octavia has decided to join you all" Coco said as she stepped aside to reveal a beautiful young earth mare with pale brown fur and a dark ebony mane and tail, in an elegant dark grey dress.
"Umm, hello" the mare said.
"Octavia, darling!" Twinkle exclaimed, signalling her over to them. "You're just in time to meet our guests"
Octavia turned to the new mares and studied them carefully, until Ivy interrupted.
"Hi, I'm Ivy and this is my friend, Viola" The unicorn mare said with a smile.
"But most people call me Vinyl" Vinyl added.
"Nice to meet you both" Octavia said quietly.
