Of Wubs and Wordsby CavemonkynickChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 1Si-Lin Vas Rah ran desperately through the ruined streets of what used to be downtown London. The Quarian dove over a low wall, quickly pressed her back against it, and groaned at the hopelessness of her situation. She had lost her squad, was down to her last thermal clip, and for some reason she couldn't get her bloody shields to recharge. She felt naked with nothing but her environmental suit left to protect her, but she couldn't give up now. "I just had to insist on being on the ground," she complained to herself, barely audible amidst the gunfire and explosions. She drew her Black Widow sniper rifle from her back. An upgrade of the M-98 Widow Anti-Material rifle, the Black Widow wasn't quite as powerful but it retained the originals ability to pierce up to ten inches of nearly any known material while maintaining lethal velocity and boasted a three round clip to boot. It could also take your arm off if you were stupid enough to fire it without training or reinforced plating in your suit. Lucky for her, she had both. "Cloak," Si-Lin said. Immediately the air shimmered around her and she watched herself disappear. "At least that still works." She thought aloud. She spun around, bringing the rifle up to her shoulder and bracing herself on the wall. She took in the scene in a split second. The Reaper forces had been hot on her heels. Three Marauders and two Husks were closing in on her position. Si-Lin took a deep breath and brought the scope to her eye. As she did micro-processors in her suit began pumping Adrenaline through her system, honing her senses, causing the world around her to slow. She lined up her first shot and squeezed the trigger. The rifle slammed into Si-Lin' shoulder but she didn't falter. Through the scope Si-Lin could see that she had been on target and lined up her second victim. Another deafening blast, another dead Marauder. Si-Lin lined up the last and fired. The last of the Marauders fell, dead, to the ground. And they said Quarians made bad snipers because of the helmets. As she pulled away from the scope she felt a ripple of energy pass over her that told her the cloak was gone. Now there were only the Husks to deal with. One was charging straight at her. Si-Lin had just enough time to replace the Black Widow on her back before the Husk was just on the other side of the wall, right where she wanted it. She grabbed the cyberneticly twisted abomination by the throat, yanked it over the wall, and slammed it on the ground with surprising force. Quarians may have been a little fragile with their easily compromised immune systems but they were far from weak. With her other hand she drew up her Omni-Blade and brought it down on the husk with full force. The Husk went limp, one down. In the chaos she had lost track of the other. She began to scan her surroundings when it jumped her from behind. Si-Lin resisted the urge to panic, instead falling backwards to the ground stunning the Husk. She then flipped over and plunged her blade into it. Si-Lin took the momentary calm to gather her thoughts, but the calm didn't last. A horrible shriek split the air. "Oh Keelah… please no…" Si-Lin frantically tried to find the source. Her stomach dropped. "Banshee…" Si-Lin's brain was screaming at her to run but her feet stayed rooted to the ground. She had no ammo, no backup, and no escape. The air around the Banshee pulsed blue and in an instant it had materialized two feet away from her. Purely on instinct, Si-Lin finally turned away and attempted to run but as she did she felt the Banshee's elongated fingers close around her helmet. Despite herself she couldn't help but wonder how the spindly fingers were strong enough to hold her. She felt herself being lifted off the ground. The Banshee turned her until they were face to face, well face to visor. The Banshee’s cold, dead eyes sent waves of pure terror through Si-Lin’s entire body. The Banshee drew its other arm back. Si-Lin knew what was coming. She closed her eyes. Her last conscious thought was regret that she had let the Reapers beat her. Then came the terrible pain of the Banshee's arm, warped into a blade by its biotic power, piercing Si-Lin's stomach. She felt the arm being pulled out, felt herself fall to the ground, and then there was nothing. I cursed loudly at the “Mission Failed” screen that was clearly mocking me. “What the heck just happened?” My friend Mack’s voice came through my headset. “My control disconnected for no bloody reason and by the time it came back on the Banshee had me.” I explained. “Well that sucks,” Mack replied. “Tell me about it.” I glanced up at the clock. “Hey, the girl that’s gonna be boarding with me will be here soon. I gotta clean the place up a bit.” “I can’t believe your roommate is a pony.” “Yeah, neither can I.” “So remind me again how it isn’t weird that a man with a girlfriend is sharing a room with another chick.” “One: We’re not dating right now, she wanted a break. Two: It’s not like we're sharing a bed. She has her own room. Three: She’s a pony.” “And that makes it less weird because-....” “Screw you.” “Is that the best you can come up with? I thought you were a writer.” “How about we continue this later?” I asked brushing off the usual banter. “Indeed.” He replied and went offline. I took off my headset and pressed the home button on my X-Box 360 control. I pulled up the music player and tapped into a playlist on my laptop. “Ah the wonders of wireless internet routers,” I mused aloud as harmonic bliss accompanied by that kind of bass that massages your very soul filled the room. I looked around at the cans and plastic wrappers that littered the room and was mildly surprised. I had only been here a week and already the den/kitchen was a disaster area. The layout of the apartment was simple. Two bedrooms, one bath, a small utility room with a washer and drier, the den and kitchen were the same room and it was a pretty decent size. And as an added plus, it was on the fourth floor so it had a nice view. I really had scored with this one. As I finished taking care of all the trash there was a knock on the door. “It’s open!” I yelled, turning the music down a bit. I turned and watched as the door opened and a white unicorn with a neon blue mane and tail and two bridged eighth notes on her flank stepped in, closing the door behind her with a kick. “You must be Nick.” She said. “Yep, and that makes you Vinyl Scratch.” I replied. “DJ Pon-3 at your service,” she said with a grin. “Well, welcome to our home away from home.” “Not bad,” She nodded, taking in the room. “Bigger than my flat back home.” She lifted her saddle bags from her back with her magic and sat them on the table before sprawling out on the couch. “Is that all your stuff?” I asked. Grabbing my 360 control and settling in my recliner. “Nah, just the essentials,” She replied, “The rest is in the mail.” “Gotcha,” I started booting up my game again. “So what is this?” Vinyl asked. “Mass Effect 3,” I replied and went into a brief explanation of the series. While I talked I started up a multiplayer round by myself just to kill a bit of time. “So what are you studying?” I asked changing the subject before I went into a thirty minute rant on the history of this fictional universe which I knew way to well. “Music engineering. This place has some pretty sick technology that could really help my mixes. What about you?” “Creative writing for entertainment. If everything goes as planned I’ll hopefully be writing stories for video games.” “Sounds cool,” She replied. I checked my phone. “It’s getting about dinner time, wanna put in a movie and order a pizza?” “I could go for a cheese and daisy, sure.” “Uhh, I don’t think Pizza Hut does daisies.” “Right,” Vinyl said with a small laugh, “That’s gonna take some getting used to. Just cheese is fine.” “Alright,” This semester is going to be interesting… Chapter 2“Sweet Celestia’s pearly white flank, did you see his head explode?!” “Yes Vinyl,” I sighed, “I’m the one who shot him.” It was the next morning and I was killing time with video games as usual, Resident Evil 4 in this case. I have to admit, I was a bit worried I’d end up freaking out Vinyl with some of the more disturbing stuff but she took it all in stride. Turns out Equestria isn’t the sheltered haven I figured it for, which was admittedly a bit shallow but what was I supposed to think when the best description I got of the place was “It's a world full of colorful, talking, magic ponies?” “Who comes up with this stuff?” She asked. “Someone with an imagination much more twisted than mine,” I replied “Said the aspiring writer.” “Ouch, low blow.” We both laughed, although my laughter was cut short by an extremely annoyed villager with a chainsaw. “Buck, betcha that hurt,” Vinyl said. “Not even Leon's fabulous hair could save him,” I added. This earned another round of laughter from Vinyl. Across the room, my phone began blaring “One Inch Punch” signaling an incoming call. I hoisted myself up and grabbed it from the counter. It was Jared, one of my few High School friends I still kept in touch with. He was a MP with the Navy, which is to say he was a glorified security guard. “Hey!” I said, answering the call. “Hey man, how ya doin?” He replied. “Not bad, just settled in at my new flat.” “You seem up-beat, all things considered.” “You mean me and Bailey? We’re just on a break.” He didn’t respond right away. “When’s the last time you checked her Facebook?” “I don’t stalk her, besides she threw a hissy fit when I got upset about her telling me she wanted a break through a text message at four in the morning and blocked me… Why?” “Well… It says here, she’s dating another guy.” My stomach dropped clean through the floor. “Bullshit.” “Dude, I would not screw with you on this, I swear.” “Yeah I… Thanks for telling me, I owe you.” My natural failsafe was kicking in: shut down all emotions and don’t shoot the messenger. “You ok? Is there something-” I cut him off. “No I’m not ok but there’s nothing you can do… I gotta go. Good hearing from you. You should call more.” “Phones work both ways you know.” I actually laughed, although it sounded bitter. “You’re the one with the crazy hours bro.” “Good point. I’ll check back in tomorrow about the same time.” “Thanks, talk to you then.” “Peace,” then we hung up. I turned around to find Vinyl staring at me with huge magenta eyes, her shades pushed up on her forehead. “Everything ok?” She asked hesitantly. “Nope,” I replied flatly and moved to the fridge to grab a coke. “I just found out through a friend that my girlfriend, sorry EX-girlfriend, has left me for another man after five years of dating.” I popped the tab and drained it in one go. “Oh… Uh,” she started. “No, you don’t have to say anything just,” I paused for a moment, “I’m gonna grab a shower and sort my head out then we’re heading to campus to pick our up books and stuff.” “Ignore the problem and hope it goes away?” “For now, just so I can function.” I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I stripped down and double checked the water temperature before stepping in. All at once my emotions hit me square in the chest and standing there, in the embrace of the cascading water, I fell to pieces. My head swam at the suddenness of the news. My blood boiled at her betrayal. She had told me she was coming back to me. She had told me there was no one else. She had broken my heart. She had been my first love, my first kiss, my first lover, just as I had been hers. And now she was gone. At some point in my spiraling decent into madness I ended up curled into a fetal position on the floor of the shower. When I realized where I was I reached out and killed the hot water, letting the shock of the cold bring me back to my senses. The effect was nearly instantaneous. Every muscle in my body retracted before self-preservation sent me into convulsions. Unfortunately my face also involuntarily scrunched up effectively blinding me so I couldn’t find the other valve to shut the cold water off. I pulled the shower door open and half crawled, half rolled out from under the frigid streams and onto the bathroom floor. “G-g-god I’m p-p-p-pathetic.” I stuttered to myself, still shivering. As I gathered myself Vinyl knocked on the door. “You ok in there?” She asked through the door. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just… dropped something, that’s all.” The answer must have satisfied her because she didn’t respond. I dried myself and threw the towel across the floor before donning my robe and emerging from the bathroom. “How long was I in there?” “Bout an hour,” Vinyl replied. “Damn,” I muttered, “I’ll get dressed.” One plain t-shirt and pair of jean shorts later I returned to the den to find Vinyl sitting on the sofa with her saddlebags on. “Ready?” She asked. I grabbed my phone from the counter and slid my sandals on before nodding to her. Our flat was just up the road from the campus so it only took about five minutes to reach the bookstore. I noticed Vinyl caught a few odd glances on the way but it didn’t seem to bother her, in fact, I think she may have enjoyed the attention. For the first time in my life the system had worked to my advantage and our books were waiting for us. After we picked them up we decided to grab lunch. We found a small local café just outside of campus. After placing out orders, Vinyl surprised me yet again. “All right, talk to me.” She said. “Vinyl, you don’t have to-” I started, but she cut me off. “I know I don’t have to, but you need to talk.” “Look, I have a bad habit of emotionally dumping on anyone who sits still long enough. I’m not doing that to you. If you wanna help me, then just be a friend and help me forget her for now.” “You can’t just avoid it forever you know.” “Yeah, but right now I need to focus on school. She broke my heart, but she won’t ruin my life.” “Atta boy,” She grinned. I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t get you.” I said. “How can you? You don’t know me.” She still had that grin. “That’s what I don’t get. Why are you so insistent on helping me?” “Maybe it’s because I have to live with you?” “Come on, be straight with me.” Her grin fell into a sincere smile. “It’s your eyes.” She said simply. “They remind me of hers.” “Hers?” “Octavia, the day we met, she was hurting as well. Not for the same reasons mind you, but the pain was there.” “I take it she means a lot to you.” “Oh yeah, but that’s a story for another time, the grub’s here!” Sure enough the waitress was headed our way. This semester really is going to be interesting. Chapter 3My head was pounding as the bass blaring from my headphones tore through my skull, but it was a blissful kind of pain. When Vinyl and I arrived home from our outing we found that her stuff had arrived. After lugging it upstairs, a daunting task made easy with her magic, she started unpacking and I sunk into my chair to brood a bit. The easiest way for me to clear my mind is to bombard it with music, the particular selection depends on the occasion; in this case bass heavy electronic music, perfect for an assault on the senses. As I sat there, I let the beats and melodies paint pulsing images in my mind. Swirls of color and waves of sound enveloped my senses until the music was tangible. Reality melted away and my thoughts slowed down just long enough for me to knit together what was left of my sanity. And then my iPod betrayed me by randomly playing Owl City. “Fucking Vanilla Twilight,” I groaned, pushing my headphones down to hang on my neck. “Oh good, you’re not dead,” Vinyl called from across the room. “I was just about to throw something at ya to make sure. So what’s Vanilla Twilight?” “A song that sucked a lot less a month ago,” I replied, sitting up. "How's the unpacking coming?" "I finished ages ago, I've just been mulling around for the last half hour waiting to see if you were gonna snap out of your funk today or if I was going to have to make my own entertainment." "I really need to stop zoning out like that." I said. She laughed. "Hey, wanna help me out with something?" "Sure, why not." “Great, hold out your claws.” She demanded walking over to me. “Umm, they’re called hands.” I replied. “Hands, claws, same thing, just hold ‘em out.” I did as I was told. Vinyl’s horn lit up and the soft glow of her magic enveloped my hands. “So what are we doing exactly?” I asked. “Your world practically revolves around those things, and since I don’t have any I’ll need to improvise a bit.” “This isn’t like some kinda foreplay is it?” “Nah… Well not in this context anyway.” I raised an eyebrow at her response, but she ignored me. “Unicorns don’t just use magic. We feel it, which can make for some interesting applications. It’s like an extra leg but infinitely more useful.” “This is all fascinating, but what does it have to do with the magic gloves?” “I’m getting there. Since we feel our magic, we subconsciously develop habits.” “So, magical muscle memory?” “Exactly. I want to get used to how hands work and feel before I start replicating them.” "So what do you want me to do?" I asked turning my hands over and examining them. "Whatever you usually do." "Games it is then." I said, rising from my chair. Instead of firing up my 360, I turned to my Wii and popped in Metroid Prime: Trilogy. "How many of these things do you have?" Vinyl asked. "Quite a few," I laughed. "So tell me, who's Octavia?" "She's a cellist, and a very close friend of mine." "How close?" "Nope, my turn. Who's your ex?" "Well played." I sighed, pulling up Metroid Prime 2: Echoes from the main menu. "Alright, her name is Bailey. I've known her all my life but we didn't start dating until high school. So are you and Octavia a thing or what?" I asked as the game finished loading and put me in control. "That’s a bit complicated," Vinyl said, shifting a bit. "She lives in the capital, Canterlot. I recently moved in with her but when I did the nobles stopped hiring her for their garden parties." "So you left." "It's not that simple." She said softly. "When is it ever?" I replied. When she didn't answer I continued. "Bailey ran too. Joined the Navy and left everything behind but me, or so I thought. I guess-" My voice broke. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I guess she got tired of waiting." Again, Vinyl stayed silent. I let the silence stand as I navigated my way through the murky depths of the underwater temple in the Torvus Bog. It was a good ten minutes before she spoke again. "Why did she run?" "Because I wasn't enough reason for her to stay." I said, noting I sounded a little bitter. "I couldn't provide for her the way I wanted, and she couldn't see any way out of the little dead end town we were raised in except to run. She settled for a job she didn't want in the military and took the earliest ship date to boot camp that they would give her. Damn near killed me to watch her go, but I wasn't going to tie her down. For two months we talked through letters. I wrote her every day. And once a week on Thursday I'd get a letter from her. Sometimes it was a few lines, sometimes a few pages, but it was always just enough to get by." "Then it came time for her to graduate. I drove fourteen hours, nearly a thousand miles just to see her. She was so happy. Free of her broken home, free of her dead end life, free of me. Even if we didn't realize it at the time. We only had a few hours together before I had to go. I gave her my class ring, and she promised to bring it back. It was our vow that she would stay safe and I'd be waiting. This was just five months ago." "I expected things to be hard, I expected struggles, but I never saw this coming. I never thought she'd give up on me. I never thought-" I had to pause the game as the tears came again. Silence fell once more as they streamed down my face. With a shuddering breath I managed to pull myself together. "Now she's halfway around the world and I'm left here to try and start over." I turned to Vinyl. "Why did you run?" She didn't answer. Without looking at me she slid her hooves to the floor and walked to her room. I felt her magic dissipate from my hands as she shut the door behind her. "Fair enough," I mumbled returning to my game. She'd talk when she was ready. Until then, I had more than enough to occupy my mind. Chapter 4I don’t remember falling asleep but I sure as hell remember waking up. From my pocket my phone started screaming at me. It took a considerable amount of effort to retrieve it and unlock the screen before sticking it to my face and grunting. “Uh, is this Nicholas?” My blood froze and suddenly I was fully awake. “Bailey?” I asked. “Hey, yeah, it’s me,” she replied. “H-Hey,” I said quietly. “So… How are you?” “Seriously? How the fuck do you think I am?” I almost shouted, my shock melting into rage. “What’s that suppose-“ “I got an interesting phone call from a concerned friend this morning informing me that you’ve got a new guy.” “I… Oh…” A silence fell. “When were you going to tell me?” “I don’t know.” “You can’t be serious.” “How is he your business?” “You told me you were coming back!” I was screaming so hard that my vision was clouding. “You told me you just needed a break! Now after two months of absolutely no contact someone else has to tell me you've moved on because you won't own up to leaving me and you have the nerve to ask me how it's my business?! YOU SAID YOU STILL LOVED ME!” Her muttered reply was drowned out by the ringing in my ears. “Did you hear me?” She said after a few seconds. “I said I have to go, my shift is starting.” “Of course it is,” I replied. She said nothing. After a few seconds, she hung up. I sighed and sunk back into my recliner, I don’t even remember standing up. “What the buck is going on?” I glanced up at Vinyl. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” was all I could think to say. My whole body was shaking. My vision swam. My stomach churned. I stood and ran to the bathroom. I heaved at the toilet but nothing came up. After a bit Vinyl showed up with a bag of ice. "Just try and breathe," she said holding it to my head. I slid my back to the wall and leaned against it. "Thanks," I muttered. For the second time that night, I drifted off without realizing it. Oddly enough I woke up in my own bed and judging by the pounding in my head, it hadn't really been sleep. More like my mind and body shutting down for maintenance. I groaned as I sat up and swung my feet to the floor. The room was dark save for a few stray rays of what I guessed was morning sunlight. As I got up and headed for the door the pounding got worse. It wasn’t until I opened said door that I realized the pounding was bass coming from the living area. Somehow knowing that made my head hurt less. I stumbled down the short hall, fighting the brightness of the sun in full now, and found that Vinyl had finally set up her music equipment. She stood behind a half circle of wires, soundboards, and speakers. A few records floated above her, held in her magic, while she half scowled at a laptop sitting next to a turn table. She hadn't noticed me yet so I made for the kitchen in search of caffeine and pain pills. I'd just started setting up the coffeemaker when the music died. "Morning sunshine." Vinyl called. "It's nearly one in the afternoon," I grunted taking note of the clock on the coffeemaker. "Same thing," she replied. I could almost feel her hesitate for a breath before she continued. "How are you holding up?" "Ask me in half an hour when I'm awake." She laughed. "So did you, like, carry me to my room last night?" "Nah, after a while I helped you up and just kept you walking in the right direction." "Ah, well, thanks," I said turning to face her, "You haven't really seen me at my best." "I hope not," she laughed again. "It seems like I meet most of my friends at their lowest, so in a weird way I almost expected this." "That's a story begging to be told but I really don't have the mind to pry it out. Where did you get a laptop? And how do you even know how to use it?" "You don't just jump headfirst into a new world dude. I did a good bit of research before I came. It got here this morning, figuring it out as I go." "Just like that huh?" It made sense, and I felt a bit dumb for assuming... whatever I had assumed before. Come to think of it, I hadn't really given it too much thought. Halfway around the globe and my world was still tied to her wrist like a balloon. "Music is what I do," Vinyl said. "Give me two hours and I'll blow your mind." "Kick it then," I said. Vinyl grinned and the beat filled our apartment again. I fixed my first cup of coffee, popped two pain pills and sunk into my recliner. Vinyl started simple, playing around with a few different rhythms and sound styles before settling into a slower thudding beat. I closed my eyes. I'm not sure if the beat matched my pulse at first or it was the other way around, but the bass unraveled me. A few soft notes melted into the rhythm, disjointed at first but they soon collided into a slow melody. At first it almost felt sad, but as the harmonies began to fall into place a feeling of peace washed over me. For the first time in recent memory, my mind just... stopped. It felt like I was breathing for the first time in years. Vinyl kept the pace for a bit before fading the bass away leaving only the slow, walking melody. The walking trickled away and stopped for a few seconds before breaking out in a run, the pace doubled. The bass returned more intense than before, my heart kept time. It was just me and the music now, running. Running for our lives, running towards our future, running just to run. Liberation. The music built more, breaking into a sprint with me on its heels. It just kept building faster and faster, practically dragging me, my heart pounding out the tempo against my ribs. Then it stopped. I was falling. The rapid pace had given way to the same slow melody as before and I was drowning in it. My pulse was starting to slow and I realized I had been holding my breath since the fall. The melody began to dissipate into the disjointed notes of its beginning. "That was amazing," I thought aloud. "That's what I aim for." Vinyl replied. "And it only took twenty minutes." "Seriously? It felt more like five." "You really got lost in that one didn't you?" "Hopelessly," I said, reaching for my laptop which had been left on the coffee table. "Can you do it again?" By way of answering she started the beat up again, and I began to write. Music is one of those things that is easy to define but hard to understand. Anyone can throw together a generic beat and a simple melody and call it music, and it would be, but only by definition. Truly good music, regardless of genre, does not come from the mind but from the soul. Passion, joy, peace, rage, sorrow, pride, terror, they give music weight. Music composed by the soul embodies the soul that composed it, and as such cannot simply be listened to. Close your eyes and you can hear the voice of the artist, open your heart and you feel the cry of theirs. The same applies to any artistic medium. Writing is, on the surface, the easiest way to convey a feeling as long as it's simple. Anything deeper than that and it becomes a challenge. Words have lost their weight. They are such a pivotal part of day to day life that they've been watered down. What was once a window to the mind is now taken for granted. Take the word "restoration." Ask a group of people what it means and you'll probably get an answer like "it means to restore something." No weight. According to Webster, restoration is defined as follows: the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition; or the return of a hereditary monarch to a throne, a head of state to government, or a regime to power. For me, the last one is the best, the weight of a returning a regime to power held in a single word. That's not to say every word has to carry the weight of the world. In most cases, it’s the combination of certain words in just the right way that gets to us. Add to the formula the multitude of words at an artist’s disposal and the possibilities are endless. Just as with music, the best words are written with the soul; the artist pouring his heart out on a page. Such passion is easy to label and define, but so hard to understand. I sighed as I read and reread the brief passage I had typed. "You know," I half shouted over the music. Vinyl pulled the volume down a bit and I was able to talk normally, "I think writing is the hardest form of art to present." "How do you mean?" Vinyl responded. "The scope of interpreting music and visual art is nearly universal. They can ignore barriers like language that writing can't. Sure, words can be translated but, more often than not, a direct translation can't carry the original intent. The only way past it is to rewrite the piece and try to capture the original as best you can. Beyond that, writers have to wrestle with structure. I don't know how it works for you but I have all these different things bouncing around inside my skull and I have to practically bleed them onto a page and hope the words line up. It's so frustrating when you have this thing in your head and you want so badly for others to understand it but you just can't adequately explain it. What do you write when you want to explain how hurt you are and broken isn't enough?" "You should be writing this down," I could hear the smirk in her voice. "That's the other thing, I can't tell you how many times I've had a thought or idea and by the time I got it to the page it was something else entirely and I can't even remember where I started. It's like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands." Vinyl seemed to think on this for a moment. Her horn glowed and some settings shifted on her various boards. The beat became distorted, as if underwater, and the melody shifted to strings. "I met Octavia just over three years ago." She said suddenly. I closed my laptop. "We were both budding musicians at the time, although I already had a bit of a name for myself. Tavi's parents had been trying to force her to take over the family business. They had a bank I think, something to do with money, but her passion was music and it showed when she played." Vinyl smiled softly. Her eyes grew a bit distant as she continued. "I’ve never seen an earth pony move the way she does when she plays. Some of the things she does shouldn’t even be possible, like gravity itself bends so that it can hear her play. I got her on her first gig. It was small time, but she caught the eye of talent and started getting calls. Her parents still ride her though, despite the fact that she makes better than they do now." "Where do you fit in all of that?" I asked. Her eyes glazed over. "I’m still figuring that out. Our audiences are so different. A high class cellist shacking up with a disk jockey," she gave a bitter snort. "What a scandal for those blue blooded snobs. We ignored it at first. We were happy, that’s all that mattered, but when the jobs stopped coming... Happy doesn’t pay the rent." The music faded and Vinyl sighed. "That mare deserves so much more than I'll ever be able to give her there. So I came here. With any luck we can start over." "Why isn't she with you then?" "She wanted to make sure I had something to come back to if this doesn’t work out." "You couldn't have said that last night?" "Words are hard for me," she sighed. "It's like you said, putting thoughts into words, they never come out right. Music is what I understand. There’s just something about being behind the turn tables that makes pouring my heart out the easiest thing in the world, ya’ know?" "Next time just say so." I smiled. "Shut up," she smiled back. “I may steal that bit about gravity bending to hear her music. That was really good.” “Go for it,” she said and dove back into her music. Chapter 5A few days later, I found myself on the roof of our building. I'd wandered up to clear my head but my plans had changed. I checked my phone for the time, twelve minutes past midnight. I should be getting the call soon. I sighed into the gentle breeze that washed over my face. It was cool and refreshing, and it rustled my curly shoulder length hair. My phone vibrated in my hand. I answered. "Hello Bailey." "So are we actually talking this time?" She replied bitterly. "I shouldn't have lost my cool like that," I said, surprised at my own level headedness, "but can you really blame me?" "What do you want Nick?" "Closure," She was silent for a time, so I continued. "I'll never come to terms with what you've done to me. I gave you everything I had to give, made my every decision so that we could have a future, so that you could have a home, and despite all that I'm not good enough." "Nick-" "No," I cut her off. "Let me finish. You tore my heart out Bailey. You crumpled it up and left it somewhere I can't get it back. I've thought really hard about this. Right now I'm standing on the edge of my apartment building, about six stories off the ground. In just a minute I'm going to jump." "What!?" She actually sounded concerned. I was surprised, but I'd made up my mind. I would not have her back out of pity. "I have nothing left Bailey. As I said, all of my plans were for us. I have no future left, and it's your fault. So you are going to listen to me do it." "Why should I? I could just hang up." "You could, but you won't. I know you. You don't think I'll do it. You think this is a desperate attempt to get you back, so you'll listen. You will hear me fall and when I hit the ground you'll know that you did this to me and you'll never hurt another person the way you hurt me." "Nick, this is stupid." "Maybe," I smiled, "but we did dumber things for worse reasons. Goodbye Bailey. Know that I loved you to the very end." And with that I took my last step. Bailey was screaming but her words were drowned out by the wind. The fall was strangely comforting. True my chest was pounding but my mind was free. There was nothing left but to close my eyes and wait for the pain to end. I awoke to the sound of my own screaming. I was covered in cold sweat and curled into a ball in the middle of my bed. "This has to stop," A voice said from the door. "Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do," I told Vinyl, trying to force the shaking out of my voice. I threw the covers off of me and started towards the kitchen. "Every fucking night it's the same damn thing." "And earlier too," Vinyl added. "You didn't even make it to one tonight." "Great," I mumbled. I plugged the kitchen sink and started filling it with cold water. A coke levitated to my side. "Thanks," I said, grabbing it and popping the top. I sipped at it while I waited for the sink to fill. It had been just over two weeks since the news and the phone call. Vinyl and I had started classes and developed a bit of a routine. The nightmares had started the night after the phone call. In the beginning they were outlandish. Me going to Japan and killing her then myself, or going and killing the other guy, things I didn’t have the means or nerve to do. But now they were getting quite believable and very lucid. I was starting to unravel. My classes were going well at least. They were a welcome distraction and I found myself being more dedicated than I ever was in high school. I'm sure that part of it was simply not having to worry about an overly complicated and utterly useless math class but the the brunt of my favor was due the fact that they made me stop thinking about her. As the sink finished filling I drained the last of my coke and shut off the tap. I pulled my bangs back, took a breath, and then dunked my face in the water. The cold shocked my system enough to shake off the last few fingers of dread that the dream still had wrapped around my throat. Past that the chill was comforting. I didn't come up for air until Vinyl tapped my shin. She'd adopted a suicide watch mentality, not that I'd tried anything but the gesture was appreciated. "Remember our talk about breathing being important?" She said. "I thought we came to the conclusion that it was overrated." I replied, pulling the plug from the sink. "Only when you have to work for it," She passed me a paper towel with her magic. "Pretty sure I'm past that point." "Come on, we're pulling an all-nighter. You can sleep when the sun comes up and your screaming wont wake the neighbors." Chapter 6Mid-terms were coming. Only a single weekend stood between me and the first major milestone of my college career. The way I figured, I had it pretty easy. An essay or two here, a forty question test on near high school level math there, and a five minute minimum speech for a public speaking class to tie it all up. First semester English majors had it made. Vinyl was taking things a lot worse. One of her music classes was music history, and while she enjoyed it she had a hard time keeping up with all of the names for composers and periods. "Its like your entire species has nothing better to do than name stuff, at least until you get back to the classical era. How did they keep all of the Waltzs and Symphonies straight?" At least I wasn't wearing on her anymore. My nightmares had calmed down enough to where I got a decent night's sleep. Hell, I even had some pretty good days, most of them involving epic game sessions. It hadn't taken much to get Vinyl hooked, and now Fridays were officially game night. Sometimes it was just the two of us, but tonight was a planned four player tag team. The game, Dungeon Defenders. It had taken a bit of work, but I'd convinced Vinyl to relax a bit. If she wanted to have a mental breakdown it could wait until Saturday. The other two members of our party were Mac and a German friend I'd met online who went by CockyMartins. The object of the game was simple; make use of the weapons and defenses at our disposal to protect an important object from waves of enemies. Cocky played a mage, and as the guy who got us all hooked on the game he had seniority in both level and experience. His magic towers were the backbone of our defenses. Mac was a summoner, bringing crystal versions of our enemies to the field as defenses. His job was to save up and place ogres in front of lines of Cocky's towers acting as an offensive wall against suicide troops and heavy hitters. Vinyl and I were a bit more offensive. I was a ranger, and ever since I'd found a mini-gun twice my size that fired nearly three hundred electricity charged rounds per minute I'd been referred to as a mobile turret by Cocky. Vinyl was a countess, a heavy direct melee class. While the rest of us held back hammering choke points and buffing defenses, she took the fight to the horde cutting down pesky mages who spawned even more creatures and warriors who vaulted our defenses. Our dynamic had been tricky to solidify, but we were fast becoming unstoppable. The objective for the night was to play survival until the sun came up for Cocky who was six hours ahead of the rest of us. It's worth mentioning that the last time we tried this, a last minute, middle of the week session, Cocky had been up for just shy of thirty two hours for some reason. Mac decided to screw around with another class, the jester. Its biggest gimmick was moving defenses, but it was its other ability that had crashed the session, the ability to place a present on the map. The present would spawn a random defense wherever it was placed; the catch being there was a small chance of it spawning a monster. Mac, in his infinite wisdom, placed it right next to the crystal we were supposed to be protecting. It was wave twenty of survival, five shy of the goal. The present spawned an elite ogre. To my immense discredit, all I could do was laugh as Vinyl desperately sprinted across the map to try and stop the new foe. It wasn't enough. With three swings of its mighty club, the ogre shattered the crystal it had spawned next to and the match ended. I continued laughing as Cocky had as quiet a mental breakdown as he could manage seeing as it was early morning for him. Before long Vinyl was laughing too, even Cocky was giggling as he made Mac swear to never place another present, ever, before turning in. The map loaded up and we all took our places. Build phase, Cocky gets all the mana. Period. Vinyl and I are on fetch duty, grabbing mana from chests and bringing it to where Cocky is working. Mac's job is apparently to switch to his jester to get a rise out of Cocky. "No Jon," Cocky said calmly, using Mac's real name. "Just... Just no." We shared a laugh and Mac swapped back to his summoner. Once the mana was delivered I spent a few minutes running blindly around the map mentally planning shortcuts and generally getting the feel for it. My laptop tended to complain during heavier waves and it took a practiced hand to know where to look and when to jump when the display was lagging behind. Vinyl was doing the same, granted her much newer laptop ran better than mine so she was more killing time than anything. "Ok, I've got everything locked down but bottom." Cocky said. "Gotcha covered," Vinyl said. "I'll pick off stragglers," I added, "but in three waves you'll need to get some stuff down here, because I'll have to take wyvern duty." "Next wave, no problem. 'G'," Cocky replied. Pressing "G" started the countdown for the next wave, and once we'd all punched it the fight was on. It was a very short wave, the first few always were. Vinyl was effective enough that I could have set my laptop down and left the room but I preferred spraying electric death into the crowd. It was more fun. Mac was on mana runs. The summoner was defenseless, in that it was the only class without a direct attack. It did have the ability to hover around the map though, which Mac used to grab every bit of mana he could. The wave ended and more mana chests spawned. Vinyl and I gathered their spoils and delivered them to Cocky. Things continued like that for the next hour, build, kill, mana, rinse, repeat. Like a well-oiled machine we set up and buffed our defenses to the point where we could all sit back and let Cocky's towers and Mac's minions do all the work, occasionally intervening when a mage stopped just out of reach or two elite ogres decided to spawn at the same time. Bailey was the furthest thing from my mind. Mac was my best friend. We'd known each other for nearly fifteen years. I could always count on him when I needed to unwind. We'd made the decision early on that there were just some things we were never going to discuss. The two big ones were politics and relationships, so Bailey never came up. "Anyone doing anything fun for Halloween?" Cocky asked halfway through our third survival of the night. "Haven't thought about it," I answered. "Gotta get through mid-terms first." Halloween was the week after. "You coming home for it?" Mac asked. Mac and I were from the same town. He stayed local for school. "Nah, a fourteen hour round trip isn't worth one night. We'll be up for thanksgiving though." "We will?" Vinyl asked. "Yeah, unless you have other plans of course." "Not really, just haven't thought that far ahead." "Cool, Mom really wants to meet you. I'll-" "We just lost the right side," Mac interrupted, and the conversation dissolved into a flurry of panic and explicatives.
Chapter 1Si-Lin Vas Rah ran desperately through the ruined streets of what used to be downtown London. The Quarian dove over a low wall, quickly pressed her back against it, and groaned at the hopelessness of her situation. She had lost her squad, was down to her last thermal clip, and for some reason she couldn't get her bloody shields to recharge. She felt naked with nothing but her environmental suit left to protect her, but she couldn't give up now. "I just had to insist on being on the ground," she complained to herself, barely audible amidst the gunfire and explosions. She drew her Black Widow sniper rifle from her back. An upgrade of the M-98 Widow Anti-Material rifle, the Black Widow wasn't quite as powerful but it retained the originals ability to pierce up to ten inches of nearly any known material while maintaining lethal velocity and boasted a three round clip to boot. It could also take your arm off if you were stupid enough to fire it without training or reinforced plating in your suit. Lucky for her, she had both. "Cloak," Si-Lin said. Immediately the air shimmered around her and she watched herself disappear. "At least that still works." She thought aloud. She spun around, bringing the rifle up to her shoulder and bracing herself on the wall. She took in the scene in a split second. The Reaper forces had been hot on her heels. Three Marauders and two Husks were closing in on her position. Si-Lin took a deep breath and brought the scope to her eye. As she did micro-processors in her suit began pumping Adrenaline through her system, honing her senses, causing the world around her to slow. She lined up her first shot and squeezed the trigger. The rifle slammed into Si-Lin' shoulder but she didn't falter. Through the scope Si-Lin could see that she had been on target and lined up her second victim. Another deafening blast, another dead Marauder. Si-Lin lined up the last and fired. The last of the Marauders fell, dead, to the ground. And they said Quarians made bad snipers because of the helmets. As she pulled away from the scope she felt a ripple of energy pass over her that told her the cloak was gone. Now there were only the Husks to deal with. One was charging straight at her. Si-Lin had just enough time to replace the Black Widow on her back before the Husk was just on the other side of the wall, right where she wanted it. She grabbed the cyberneticly twisted abomination by the throat, yanked it over the wall, and slammed it on the ground with surprising force. Quarians may have been a little fragile with their easily compromised immune systems but they were far from weak. With her other hand she drew up her Omni-Blade and brought it down on the husk with full force. The Husk went limp, one down. In the chaos she had lost track of the other. She began to scan her surroundings when it jumped her from behind. Si-Lin resisted the urge to panic, instead falling backwards to the ground stunning the Husk. She then flipped over and plunged her blade into it. Si-Lin took the momentary calm to gather her thoughts, but the calm didn't last. A horrible shriek split the air. "Oh Keelah… please no…" Si-Lin frantically tried to find the source. Her stomach dropped. "Banshee…" Si-Lin's brain was screaming at her to run but her feet stayed rooted to the ground. She had no ammo, no backup, and no escape. The air around the Banshee pulsed blue and in an instant it had materialized two feet away from her. Purely on instinct, Si-Lin finally turned away and attempted to run but as she did she felt the Banshee's elongated fingers close around her helmet. Despite herself she couldn't help but wonder how the spindly fingers were strong enough to hold her. She felt herself being lifted off the ground. The Banshee turned her until they were face to face, well face to visor. The Banshee’s cold, dead eyes sent waves of pure terror through Si-Lin’s entire body. The Banshee drew its other arm back. Si-Lin knew what was coming. She closed her eyes. Her last conscious thought was regret that she had let the Reapers beat her. Then came the terrible pain of the Banshee's arm, warped into a blade by its biotic power, piercing Si-Lin's stomach. She felt the arm being pulled out, felt herself fall to the ground, and then there was nothing. I cursed loudly at the “Mission Failed” screen that was clearly mocking me. “What the heck just happened?” My friend Mack’s voice came through my headset. “My control disconnected for no bloody reason and by the time it came back on the Banshee had me.” I explained. “Well that sucks,” Mack replied. “Tell me about it.” I glanced up at the clock. “Hey, the girl that’s gonna be boarding with me will be here soon. I gotta clean the place up a bit.” “I can’t believe your roommate is a pony.” “Yeah, neither can I.” “So remind me again how it isn’t weird that a man with a girlfriend is sharing a room with another chick.” “One: We’re not dating right now, she wanted a break. Two: It’s not like we're sharing a bed. She has her own room. Three: She’s a pony.” “And that makes it less weird because-....” “Screw you.” “Is that the best you can come up with? I thought you were a writer.” “How about we continue this later?” I asked brushing off the usual banter. “Indeed.” He replied and went offline. I took off my headset and pressed the home button on my X-Box 360 control. I pulled up the music player and tapped into a playlist on my laptop. “Ah the wonders of wireless internet routers,” I mused aloud as harmonic bliss accompanied by that kind of bass that massages your very soul filled the room. I looked around at the cans and plastic wrappers that littered the room and was mildly surprised. I had only been here a week and already the den/kitchen was a disaster area. The layout of the apartment was simple. Two bedrooms, one bath, a small utility room with a washer and drier, the den and kitchen were the same room and it was a pretty decent size. And as an added plus, it was on the fourth floor so it had a nice view. I really had scored with this one. As I finished taking care of all the trash there was a knock on the door. “It’s open!” I yelled, turning the music down a bit. I turned and watched as the door opened and a white unicorn with a neon blue mane and tail and two bridged eighth notes on her flank stepped in, closing the door behind her with a kick. “You must be Nick.” She said. “Yep, and that makes you Vinyl Scratch.” I replied. “DJ Pon-3 at your service,” she said with a grin. “Well, welcome to our home away from home.” “Not bad,” She nodded, taking in the room. “Bigger than my flat back home.” She lifted her saddle bags from her back with her magic and sat them on the table before sprawling out on the couch. “Is that all your stuff?” I asked. Grabbing my 360 control and settling in my recliner. “Nah, just the essentials,” She replied, “The rest is in the mail.” “Gotcha,” I started booting up my game again. “So what is this?” Vinyl asked. “Mass Effect 3,” I replied and went into a brief explanation of the series. While I talked I started up a multiplayer round by myself just to kill a bit of time. “So what are you studying?” I asked changing the subject before I went into a thirty minute rant on the history of this fictional universe which I knew way to well. “Music engineering. This place has some pretty sick technology that could really help my mixes. What about you?” “Creative writing for entertainment. If everything goes as planned I’ll hopefully be writing stories for video games.” “Sounds cool,” She replied. I checked my phone. “It’s getting about dinner time, wanna put in a movie and order a pizza?” “I could go for a cheese and daisy, sure.” “Uhh, I don’t think Pizza Hut does daisies.” “Right,” Vinyl said with a small laugh, “That’s gonna take some getting used to. Just cheese is fine.” “Alright,” This semester is going to be interesting…
Chapter 2“Sweet Celestia’s pearly white flank, did you see his head explode?!” “Yes Vinyl,” I sighed, “I’m the one who shot him.” It was the next morning and I was killing time with video games as usual, Resident Evil 4 in this case. I have to admit, I was a bit worried I’d end up freaking out Vinyl with some of the more disturbing stuff but she took it all in stride. Turns out Equestria isn’t the sheltered haven I figured it for, which was admittedly a bit shallow but what was I supposed to think when the best description I got of the place was “It's a world full of colorful, talking, magic ponies?” “Who comes up with this stuff?” She asked. “Someone with an imagination much more twisted than mine,” I replied “Said the aspiring writer.” “Ouch, low blow.” We both laughed, although my laughter was cut short by an extremely annoyed villager with a chainsaw. “Buck, betcha that hurt,” Vinyl said. “Not even Leon's fabulous hair could save him,” I added. This earned another round of laughter from Vinyl. Across the room, my phone began blaring “One Inch Punch” signaling an incoming call. I hoisted myself up and grabbed it from the counter. It was Jared, one of my few High School friends I still kept in touch with. He was a MP with the Navy, which is to say he was a glorified security guard. “Hey!” I said, answering the call. “Hey man, how ya doin?” He replied. “Not bad, just settled in at my new flat.” “You seem up-beat, all things considered.” “You mean me and Bailey? We’re just on a break.” He didn’t respond right away. “When’s the last time you checked her Facebook?” “I don’t stalk her, besides she threw a hissy fit when I got upset about her telling me she wanted a break through a text message at four in the morning and blocked me… Why?” “Well… It says here, she’s dating another guy.” My stomach dropped clean through the floor. “Bullshit.” “Dude, I would not screw with you on this, I swear.” “Yeah I… Thanks for telling me, I owe you.” My natural failsafe was kicking in: shut down all emotions and don’t shoot the messenger. “You ok? Is there something-” I cut him off. “No I’m not ok but there’s nothing you can do… I gotta go. Good hearing from you. You should call more.” “Phones work both ways you know.” I actually laughed, although it sounded bitter. “You’re the one with the crazy hours bro.” “Good point. I’ll check back in tomorrow about the same time.” “Thanks, talk to you then.” “Peace,” then we hung up. I turned around to find Vinyl staring at me with huge magenta eyes, her shades pushed up on her forehead. “Everything ok?” She asked hesitantly. “Nope,” I replied flatly and moved to the fridge to grab a coke. “I just found out through a friend that my girlfriend, sorry EX-girlfriend, has left me for another man after five years of dating.” I popped the tab and drained it in one go. “Oh… Uh,” she started. “No, you don’t have to say anything just,” I paused for a moment, “I’m gonna grab a shower and sort my head out then we’re heading to campus to pick our up books and stuff.” “Ignore the problem and hope it goes away?” “For now, just so I can function.” I stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I stripped down and double checked the water temperature before stepping in. All at once my emotions hit me square in the chest and standing there, in the embrace of the cascading water, I fell to pieces. My head swam at the suddenness of the news. My blood boiled at her betrayal. She had told me she was coming back to me. She had told me there was no one else. She had broken my heart. She had been my first love, my first kiss, my first lover, just as I had been hers. And now she was gone. At some point in my spiraling decent into madness I ended up curled into a fetal position on the floor of the shower. When I realized where I was I reached out and killed the hot water, letting the shock of the cold bring me back to my senses. The effect was nearly instantaneous. Every muscle in my body retracted before self-preservation sent me into convulsions. Unfortunately my face also involuntarily scrunched up effectively blinding me so I couldn’t find the other valve to shut the cold water off. I pulled the shower door open and half crawled, half rolled out from under the frigid streams and onto the bathroom floor. “G-g-god I’m p-p-p-pathetic.” I stuttered to myself, still shivering. As I gathered myself Vinyl knocked on the door. “You ok in there?” She asked through the door. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just… dropped something, that’s all.” The answer must have satisfied her because she didn’t respond. I dried myself and threw the towel across the floor before donning my robe and emerging from the bathroom. “How long was I in there?” “Bout an hour,” Vinyl replied. “Damn,” I muttered, “I’ll get dressed.” One plain t-shirt and pair of jean shorts later I returned to the den to find Vinyl sitting on the sofa with her saddlebags on. “Ready?” She asked. I grabbed my phone from the counter and slid my sandals on before nodding to her. Our flat was just up the road from the campus so it only took about five minutes to reach the bookstore. I noticed Vinyl caught a few odd glances on the way but it didn’t seem to bother her, in fact, I think she may have enjoyed the attention. For the first time in my life the system had worked to my advantage and our books were waiting for us. After we picked them up we decided to grab lunch. We found a small local café just outside of campus. After placing out orders, Vinyl surprised me yet again. “All right, talk to me.” She said. “Vinyl, you don’t have to-” I started, but she cut me off. “I know I don’t have to, but you need to talk.” “Look, I have a bad habit of emotionally dumping on anyone who sits still long enough. I’m not doing that to you. If you wanna help me, then just be a friend and help me forget her for now.” “You can’t just avoid it forever you know.” “Yeah, but right now I need to focus on school. She broke my heart, but she won’t ruin my life.” “Atta boy,” She grinned. I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t get you.” I said. “How can you? You don’t know me.” She still had that grin. “That’s what I don’t get. Why are you so insistent on helping me?” “Maybe it’s because I have to live with you?” “Come on, be straight with me.” Her grin fell into a sincere smile. “It’s your eyes.” She said simply. “They remind me of hers.” “Hers?” “Octavia, the day we met, she was hurting as well. Not for the same reasons mind you, but the pain was there.” “I take it she means a lot to you.” “Oh yeah, but that’s a story for another time, the grub’s here!” Sure enough the waitress was headed our way. This semester really is going to be interesting.
Chapter 3My head was pounding as the bass blaring from my headphones tore through my skull, but it was a blissful kind of pain. When Vinyl and I arrived home from our outing we found that her stuff had arrived. After lugging it upstairs, a daunting task made easy with her magic, she started unpacking and I sunk into my chair to brood a bit. The easiest way for me to clear my mind is to bombard it with music, the particular selection depends on the occasion; in this case bass heavy electronic music, perfect for an assault on the senses. As I sat there, I let the beats and melodies paint pulsing images in my mind. Swirls of color and waves of sound enveloped my senses until the music was tangible. Reality melted away and my thoughts slowed down just long enough for me to knit together what was left of my sanity. And then my iPod betrayed me by randomly playing Owl City. “Fucking Vanilla Twilight,” I groaned, pushing my headphones down to hang on my neck. “Oh good, you’re not dead,” Vinyl called from across the room. “I was just about to throw something at ya to make sure. So what’s Vanilla Twilight?” “A song that sucked a lot less a month ago,” I replied, sitting up. "How's the unpacking coming?" "I finished ages ago, I've just been mulling around for the last half hour waiting to see if you were gonna snap out of your funk today or if I was going to have to make my own entertainment." "I really need to stop zoning out like that." I said. She laughed. "Hey, wanna help me out with something?" "Sure, why not." “Great, hold out your claws.” She demanded walking over to me. “Umm, they’re called hands.” I replied. “Hands, claws, same thing, just hold ‘em out.” I did as I was told. Vinyl’s horn lit up and the soft glow of her magic enveloped my hands. “So what are we doing exactly?” I asked. “Your world practically revolves around those things, and since I don’t have any I’ll need to improvise a bit.” “This isn’t like some kinda foreplay is it?” “Nah… Well not in this context anyway.” I raised an eyebrow at her response, but she ignored me. “Unicorns don’t just use magic. We feel it, which can make for some interesting applications. It’s like an extra leg but infinitely more useful.” “This is all fascinating, but what does it have to do with the magic gloves?” “I’m getting there. Since we feel our magic, we subconsciously develop habits.” “So, magical muscle memory?” “Exactly. I want to get used to how hands work and feel before I start replicating them.” "So what do you want me to do?" I asked turning my hands over and examining them. "Whatever you usually do." "Games it is then." I said, rising from my chair. Instead of firing up my 360, I turned to my Wii and popped in Metroid Prime: Trilogy. "How many of these things do you have?" Vinyl asked. "Quite a few," I laughed. "So tell me, who's Octavia?" "She's a cellist, and a very close friend of mine." "How close?" "Nope, my turn. Who's your ex?" "Well played." I sighed, pulling up Metroid Prime 2: Echoes from the main menu. "Alright, her name is Bailey. I've known her all my life but we didn't start dating until high school. So are you and Octavia a thing or what?" I asked as the game finished loading and put me in control. "That’s a bit complicated," Vinyl said, shifting a bit. "She lives in the capital, Canterlot. I recently moved in with her but when I did the nobles stopped hiring her for their garden parties." "So you left." "It's not that simple." She said softly. "When is it ever?" I replied. When she didn't answer I continued. "Bailey ran too. Joined the Navy and left everything behind but me, or so I thought. I guess-" My voice broke. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I guess she got tired of waiting." Again, Vinyl stayed silent. I let the silence stand as I navigated my way through the murky depths of the underwater temple in the Torvus Bog. It was a good ten minutes before she spoke again. "Why did she run?" "Because I wasn't enough reason for her to stay." I said, noting I sounded a little bitter. "I couldn't provide for her the way I wanted, and she couldn't see any way out of the little dead end town we were raised in except to run. She settled for a job she didn't want in the military and took the earliest ship date to boot camp that they would give her. Damn near killed me to watch her go, but I wasn't going to tie her down. For two months we talked through letters. I wrote her every day. And once a week on Thursday I'd get a letter from her. Sometimes it was a few lines, sometimes a few pages, but it was always just enough to get by." "Then it came time for her to graduate. I drove fourteen hours, nearly a thousand miles just to see her. She was so happy. Free of her broken home, free of her dead end life, free of me. Even if we didn't realize it at the time. We only had a few hours together before I had to go. I gave her my class ring, and she promised to bring it back. It was our vow that she would stay safe and I'd be waiting. This was just five months ago." "I expected things to be hard, I expected struggles, but I never saw this coming. I never thought she'd give up on me. I never thought-" I had to pause the game as the tears came again. Silence fell once more as they streamed down my face. With a shuddering breath I managed to pull myself together. "Now she's halfway around the world and I'm left here to try and start over." I turned to Vinyl. "Why did you run?" She didn't answer. Without looking at me she slid her hooves to the floor and walked to her room. I felt her magic dissipate from my hands as she shut the door behind her. "Fair enough," I mumbled returning to my game. She'd talk when she was ready. Until then, I had more than enough to occupy my mind.
Chapter 4I don’t remember falling asleep but I sure as hell remember waking up. From my pocket my phone started screaming at me. It took a considerable amount of effort to retrieve it and unlock the screen before sticking it to my face and grunting. “Uh, is this Nicholas?” My blood froze and suddenly I was fully awake. “Bailey?” I asked. “Hey, yeah, it’s me,” she replied. “H-Hey,” I said quietly. “So… How are you?” “Seriously? How the fuck do you think I am?” I almost shouted, my shock melting into rage. “What’s that suppose-“ “I got an interesting phone call from a concerned friend this morning informing me that you’ve got a new guy.” “I… Oh…” A silence fell. “When were you going to tell me?” “I don’t know.” “You can’t be serious.” “How is he your business?” “You told me you were coming back!” I was screaming so hard that my vision was clouding. “You told me you just needed a break! Now after two months of absolutely no contact someone else has to tell me you've moved on because you won't own up to leaving me and you have the nerve to ask me how it's my business?! YOU SAID YOU STILL LOVED ME!” Her muttered reply was drowned out by the ringing in my ears. “Did you hear me?” She said after a few seconds. “I said I have to go, my shift is starting.” “Of course it is,” I replied. She said nothing. After a few seconds, she hung up. I sighed and sunk back into my recliner, I don’t even remember standing up. “What the buck is going on?” I glanced up at Vinyl. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” was all I could think to say. My whole body was shaking. My vision swam. My stomach churned. I stood and ran to the bathroom. I heaved at the toilet but nothing came up. After a bit Vinyl showed up with a bag of ice. "Just try and breathe," she said holding it to my head. I slid my back to the wall and leaned against it. "Thanks," I muttered. For the second time that night, I drifted off without realizing it. Oddly enough I woke up in my own bed and judging by the pounding in my head, it hadn't really been sleep. More like my mind and body shutting down for maintenance. I groaned as I sat up and swung my feet to the floor. The room was dark save for a few stray rays of what I guessed was morning sunlight. As I got up and headed for the door the pounding got worse. It wasn’t until I opened said door that I realized the pounding was bass coming from the living area. Somehow knowing that made my head hurt less. I stumbled down the short hall, fighting the brightness of the sun in full now, and found that Vinyl had finally set up her music equipment. She stood behind a half circle of wires, soundboards, and speakers. A few records floated above her, held in her magic, while she half scowled at a laptop sitting next to a turn table. She hadn't noticed me yet so I made for the kitchen in search of caffeine and pain pills. I'd just started setting up the coffeemaker when the music died. "Morning sunshine." Vinyl called. "It's nearly one in the afternoon," I grunted taking note of the clock on the coffeemaker. "Same thing," she replied. I could almost feel her hesitate for a breath before she continued. "How are you holding up?" "Ask me in half an hour when I'm awake." She laughed. "So did you, like, carry me to my room last night?" "Nah, after a while I helped you up and just kept you walking in the right direction." "Ah, well, thanks," I said turning to face her, "You haven't really seen me at my best." "I hope not," she laughed again. "It seems like I meet most of my friends at their lowest, so in a weird way I almost expected this." "That's a story begging to be told but I really don't have the mind to pry it out. Where did you get a laptop? And how do you even know how to use it?" "You don't just jump headfirst into a new world dude. I did a good bit of research before I came. It got here this morning, figuring it out as I go." "Just like that huh?" It made sense, and I felt a bit dumb for assuming... whatever I had assumed before. Come to think of it, I hadn't really given it too much thought. Halfway around the globe and my world was still tied to her wrist like a balloon. "Music is what I do," Vinyl said. "Give me two hours and I'll blow your mind." "Kick it then," I said. Vinyl grinned and the beat filled our apartment again. I fixed my first cup of coffee, popped two pain pills and sunk into my recliner. Vinyl started simple, playing around with a few different rhythms and sound styles before settling into a slower thudding beat. I closed my eyes. I'm not sure if the beat matched my pulse at first or it was the other way around, but the bass unraveled me. A few soft notes melted into the rhythm, disjointed at first but they soon collided into a slow melody. At first it almost felt sad, but as the harmonies began to fall into place a feeling of peace washed over me. For the first time in recent memory, my mind just... stopped. It felt like I was breathing for the first time in years. Vinyl kept the pace for a bit before fading the bass away leaving only the slow, walking melody. The walking trickled away and stopped for a few seconds before breaking out in a run, the pace doubled. The bass returned more intense than before, my heart kept time. It was just me and the music now, running. Running for our lives, running towards our future, running just to run. Liberation. The music built more, breaking into a sprint with me on its heels. It just kept building faster and faster, practically dragging me, my heart pounding out the tempo against my ribs. Then it stopped. I was falling. The rapid pace had given way to the same slow melody as before and I was drowning in it. My pulse was starting to slow and I realized I had been holding my breath since the fall. The melody began to dissipate into the disjointed notes of its beginning. "That was amazing," I thought aloud. "That's what I aim for." Vinyl replied. "And it only took twenty minutes." "Seriously? It felt more like five." "You really got lost in that one didn't you?" "Hopelessly," I said, reaching for my laptop which had been left on the coffee table. "Can you do it again?" By way of answering she started the beat up again, and I began to write. Music is one of those things that is easy to define but hard to understand. Anyone can throw together a generic beat and a simple melody and call it music, and it would be, but only by definition. Truly good music, regardless of genre, does not come from the mind but from the soul. Passion, joy, peace, rage, sorrow, pride, terror, they give music weight. Music composed by the soul embodies the soul that composed it, and as such cannot simply be listened to. Close your eyes and you can hear the voice of the artist, open your heart and you feel the cry of theirs. The same applies to any artistic medium. Writing is, on the surface, the easiest way to convey a feeling as long as it's simple. Anything deeper than that and it becomes a challenge. Words have lost their weight. They are such a pivotal part of day to day life that they've been watered down. What was once a window to the mind is now taken for granted. Take the word "restoration." Ask a group of people what it means and you'll probably get an answer like "it means to restore something." No weight. According to Webster, restoration is defined as follows: the action of returning something to a former owner, place, or condition; or the return of a hereditary monarch to a throne, a head of state to government, or a regime to power. For me, the last one is the best, the weight of a returning a regime to power held in a single word. That's not to say every word has to carry the weight of the world. In most cases, it’s the combination of certain words in just the right way that gets to us. Add to the formula the multitude of words at an artist’s disposal and the possibilities are endless. Just as with music, the best words are written with the soul; the artist pouring his heart out on a page. Such passion is easy to label and define, but so hard to understand. I sighed as I read and reread the brief passage I had typed. "You know," I half shouted over the music. Vinyl pulled the volume down a bit and I was able to talk normally, "I think writing is the hardest form of art to present." "How do you mean?" Vinyl responded. "The scope of interpreting music and visual art is nearly universal. They can ignore barriers like language that writing can't. Sure, words can be translated but, more often than not, a direct translation can't carry the original intent. The only way past it is to rewrite the piece and try to capture the original as best you can. Beyond that, writers have to wrestle with structure. I don't know how it works for you but I have all these different things bouncing around inside my skull and I have to practically bleed them onto a page and hope the words line up. It's so frustrating when you have this thing in your head and you want so badly for others to understand it but you just can't adequately explain it. What do you write when you want to explain how hurt you are and broken isn't enough?" "You should be writing this down," I could hear the smirk in her voice. "That's the other thing, I can't tell you how many times I've had a thought or idea and by the time I got it to the page it was something else entirely and I can't even remember where I started. It's like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands." Vinyl seemed to think on this for a moment. Her horn glowed and some settings shifted on her various boards. The beat became distorted, as if underwater, and the melody shifted to strings. "I met Octavia just over three years ago." She said suddenly. I closed my laptop. "We were both budding musicians at the time, although I already had a bit of a name for myself. Tavi's parents had been trying to force her to take over the family business. They had a bank I think, something to do with money, but her passion was music and it showed when she played." Vinyl smiled softly. Her eyes grew a bit distant as she continued. "I’ve never seen an earth pony move the way she does when she plays. Some of the things she does shouldn’t even be possible, like gravity itself bends so that it can hear her play. I got her on her first gig. It was small time, but she caught the eye of talent and started getting calls. Her parents still ride her though, despite the fact that she makes better than they do now." "Where do you fit in all of that?" I asked. Her eyes glazed over. "I’m still figuring that out. Our audiences are so different. A high class cellist shacking up with a disk jockey," she gave a bitter snort. "What a scandal for those blue blooded snobs. We ignored it at first. We were happy, that’s all that mattered, but when the jobs stopped coming... Happy doesn’t pay the rent." The music faded and Vinyl sighed. "That mare deserves so much more than I'll ever be able to give her there. So I came here. With any luck we can start over." "Why isn't she with you then?" "She wanted to make sure I had something to come back to if this doesn’t work out." "You couldn't have said that last night?" "Words are hard for me," she sighed. "It's like you said, putting thoughts into words, they never come out right. Music is what I understand. There’s just something about being behind the turn tables that makes pouring my heart out the easiest thing in the world, ya’ know?" "Next time just say so." I smiled. "Shut up," she smiled back. “I may steal that bit about gravity bending to hear her music. That was really good.” “Go for it,” she said and dove back into her music.
Chapter 5A few days later, I found myself on the roof of our building. I'd wandered up to clear my head but my plans had changed. I checked my phone for the time, twelve minutes past midnight. I should be getting the call soon. I sighed into the gentle breeze that washed over my face. It was cool and refreshing, and it rustled my curly shoulder length hair. My phone vibrated in my hand. I answered. "Hello Bailey." "So are we actually talking this time?" She replied bitterly. "I shouldn't have lost my cool like that," I said, surprised at my own level headedness, "but can you really blame me?" "What do you want Nick?" "Closure," She was silent for a time, so I continued. "I'll never come to terms with what you've done to me. I gave you everything I had to give, made my every decision so that we could have a future, so that you could have a home, and despite all that I'm not good enough." "Nick-" "No," I cut her off. "Let me finish. You tore my heart out Bailey. You crumpled it up and left it somewhere I can't get it back. I've thought really hard about this. Right now I'm standing on the edge of my apartment building, about six stories off the ground. In just a minute I'm going to jump." "What!?" She actually sounded concerned. I was surprised, but I'd made up my mind. I would not have her back out of pity. "I have nothing left Bailey. As I said, all of my plans were for us. I have no future left, and it's your fault. So you are going to listen to me do it." "Why should I? I could just hang up." "You could, but you won't. I know you. You don't think I'll do it. You think this is a desperate attempt to get you back, so you'll listen. You will hear me fall and when I hit the ground you'll know that you did this to me and you'll never hurt another person the way you hurt me." "Nick, this is stupid." "Maybe," I smiled, "but we did dumber things for worse reasons. Goodbye Bailey. Know that I loved you to the very end." And with that I took my last step. Bailey was screaming but her words were drowned out by the wind. The fall was strangely comforting. True my chest was pounding but my mind was free. There was nothing left but to close my eyes and wait for the pain to end. I awoke to the sound of my own screaming. I was covered in cold sweat and curled into a ball in the middle of my bed. "This has to stop," A voice said from the door. "Trust me, I don’t like it any more than you do," I told Vinyl, trying to force the shaking out of my voice. I threw the covers off of me and started towards the kitchen. "Every fucking night it's the same damn thing." "And earlier too," Vinyl added. "You didn't even make it to one tonight." "Great," I mumbled. I plugged the kitchen sink and started filling it with cold water. A coke levitated to my side. "Thanks," I said, grabbing it and popping the top. I sipped at it while I waited for the sink to fill. It had been just over two weeks since the news and the phone call. Vinyl and I had started classes and developed a bit of a routine. The nightmares had started the night after the phone call. In the beginning they were outlandish. Me going to Japan and killing her then myself, or going and killing the other guy, things I didn’t have the means or nerve to do. But now they were getting quite believable and very lucid. I was starting to unravel. My classes were going well at least. They were a welcome distraction and I found myself being more dedicated than I ever was in high school. I'm sure that part of it was simply not having to worry about an overly complicated and utterly useless math class but the the brunt of my favor was due the fact that they made me stop thinking about her. As the sink finished filling I drained the last of my coke and shut off the tap. I pulled my bangs back, took a breath, and then dunked my face in the water. The cold shocked my system enough to shake off the last few fingers of dread that the dream still had wrapped around my throat. Past that the chill was comforting. I didn't come up for air until Vinyl tapped my shin. She'd adopted a suicide watch mentality, not that I'd tried anything but the gesture was appreciated. "Remember our talk about breathing being important?" She said. "I thought we came to the conclusion that it was overrated." I replied, pulling the plug from the sink. "Only when you have to work for it," She passed me a paper towel with her magic. "Pretty sure I'm past that point." "Come on, we're pulling an all-nighter. You can sleep when the sun comes up and your screaming wont wake the neighbors."
Chapter 6Mid-terms were coming. Only a single weekend stood between me and the first major milestone of my college career. The way I figured, I had it pretty easy. An essay or two here, a forty question test on near high school level math there, and a five minute minimum speech for a public speaking class to tie it all up. First semester English majors had it made. Vinyl was taking things a lot worse. One of her music classes was music history, and while she enjoyed it she had a hard time keeping up with all of the names for composers and periods. "Its like your entire species has nothing better to do than name stuff, at least until you get back to the classical era. How did they keep all of the Waltzs and Symphonies straight?" At least I wasn't wearing on her anymore. My nightmares had calmed down enough to where I got a decent night's sleep. Hell, I even had some pretty good days, most of them involving epic game sessions. It hadn't taken much to get Vinyl hooked, and now Fridays were officially game night. Sometimes it was just the two of us, but tonight was a planned four player tag team. The game, Dungeon Defenders. It had taken a bit of work, but I'd convinced Vinyl to relax a bit. If she wanted to have a mental breakdown it could wait until Saturday. The other two members of our party were Mac and a German friend I'd met online who went by CockyMartins. The object of the game was simple; make use of the weapons and defenses at our disposal to protect an important object from waves of enemies. Cocky played a mage, and as the guy who got us all hooked on the game he had seniority in both level and experience. His magic towers were the backbone of our defenses. Mac was a summoner, bringing crystal versions of our enemies to the field as defenses. His job was to save up and place ogres in front of lines of Cocky's towers acting as an offensive wall against suicide troops and heavy hitters. Vinyl and I were a bit more offensive. I was a ranger, and ever since I'd found a mini-gun twice my size that fired nearly three hundred electricity charged rounds per minute I'd been referred to as a mobile turret by Cocky. Vinyl was a countess, a heavy direct melee class. While the rest of us held back hammering choke points and buffing defenses, she took the fight to the horde cutting down pesky mages who spawned even more creatures and warriors who vaulted our defenses. Our dynamic had been tricky to solidify, but we were fast becoming unstoppable. The objective for the night was to play survival until the sun came up for Cocky who was six hours ahead of the rest of us. It's worth mentioning that the last time we tried this, a last minute, middle of the week session, Cocky had been up for just shy of thirty two hours for some reason. Mac decided to screw around with another class, the jester. Its biggest gimmick was moving defenses, but it was its other ability that had crashed the session, the ability to place a present on the map. The present would spawn a random defense wherever it was placed; the catch being there was a small chance of it spawning a monster. Mac, in his infinite wisdom, placed it right next to the crystal we were supposed to be protecting. It was wave twenty of survival, five shy of the goal. The present spawned an elite ogre. To my immense discredit, all I could do was laugh as Vinyl desperately sprinted across the map to try and stop the new foe. It wasn't enough. With three swings of its mighty club, the ogre shattered the crystal it had spawned next to and the match ended. I continued laughing as Cocky had as quiet a mental breakdown as he could manage seeing as it was early morning for him. Before long Vinyl was laughing too, even Cocky was giggling as he made Mac swear to never place another present, ever, before turning in. The map loaded up and we all took our places. Build phase, Cocky gets all the mana. Period. Vinyl and I are on fetch duty, grabbing mana from chests and bringing it to where Cocky is working. Mac's job is apparently to switch to his jester to get a rise out of Cocky. "No Jon," Cocky said calmly, using Mac's real name. "Just... Just no." We shared a laugh and Mac swapped back to his summoner. Once the mana was delivered I spent a few minutes running blindly around the map mentally planning shortcuts and generally getting the feel for it. My laptop tended to complain during heavier waves and it took a practiced hand to know where to look and when to jump when the display was lagging behind. Vinyl was doing the same, granted her much newer laptop ran better than mine so she was more killing time than anything. "Ok, I've got everything locked down but bottom." Cocky said. "Gotcha covered," Vinyl said. "I'll pick off stragglers," I added, "but in three waves you'll need to get some stuff down here, because I'll have to take wyvern duty." "Next wave, no problem. 'G'," Cocky replied. Pressing "G" started the countdown for the next wave, and once we'd all punched it the fight was on. It was a very short wave, the first few always were. Vinyl was effective enough that I could have set my laptop down and left the room but I preferred spraying electric death into the crowd. It was more fun. Mac was on mana runs. The summoner was defenseless, in that it was the only class without a direct attack. It did have the ability to hover around the map though, which Mac used to grab every bit of mana he could. The wave ended and more mana chests spawned. Vinyl and I gathered their spoils and delivered them to Cocky. Things continued like that for the next hour, build, kill, mana, rinse, repeat. Like a well-oiled machine we set up and buffed our defenses to the point where we could all sit back and let Cocky's towers and Mac's minions do all the work, occasionally intervening when a mage stopped just out of reach or two elite ogres decided to spawn at the same time. Bailey was the furthest thing from my mind. Mac was my best friend. We'd known each other for nearly fifteen years. I could always count on him when I needed to unwind. We'd made the decision early on that there were just some things we were never going to discuss. The two big ones were politics and relationships, so Bailey never came up. "Anyone doing anything fun for Halloween?" Cocky asked halfway through our third survival of the night. "Haven't thought about it," I answered. "Gotta get through mid-terms first." Halloween was the week after. "You coming home for it?" Mac asked. Mac and I were from the same town. He stayed local for school. "Nah, a fourteen hour round trip isn't worth one night. We'll be up for thanksgiving though." "We will?" Vinyl asked. "Yeah, unless you have other plans of course." "Not really, just haven't thought that far ahead." "Cool, Mom really wants to meet you. I'll-" "We just lost the right side," Mac interrupted, and the conversation dissolved into a flurry of panic and explicatives.
