Vinyl scratch sneezed onto her hoof, sticking out her tongue in slight disgust at its new...coating. Octavia came up behind her and draped her in a blue linen blanket and adjusting her ice cap. “You need to stop all this drinking, Vinyl! It’s draining you of your bits AND your health! Just look at you…I’m actually beginning to get worried.” The gray mare rolled her magenta eyes. “You’ve got a little something on your hoof, Vinyl.”
The white-coated DJ smirked despite her bad health. Speaking in a weak voice, obviously congested, she attempts to brighten Octavia’s face. “Yeah. I’m gonna stop drinking, and then I’m gonna get down on my knees and bow to her good ladyship. You go to your band practice, I’m FINE, Octy. I won’t drink until I start feelin’ better. Pon-3 promise. Cross my wubs, hope to fly, stick a muffin in my eye. Now go!” She managed to get down from the chair on all fours, groaning in protest.
Octavia raised an eyebrow in annoyance. “Vinyl, you’re sick. It’s one practice with my ensemble. I can afford to miss it. You’d spend a day helping me if I were-“
Vinyl opened her mouth to laugh, instead losing her breakfast she had been eating. “Uhh…prollehnohtav…” She staggered over to a couch the same color as Vinyl Scratch’s trademark glasses, a midnight purple color. Vinyl lied down on the couch, groaning.
Octavia couldn’t believe two things. One, she was just told by the very pony she constantly risked her career as a professional cellist for say if Octavia was sick, she would leave her there alone. Two, she had ANOTHER puddle of Vinyl sick to clean up. “Selfish…ungrateful…ugh!” Octavia trotted away, her voluptuous gray tail hanging limp as it always did when she felt miserable.
Why, in the name of Celestia, do I give a damn about Vinyl?! All she does is make fun of ponies, especially me, and blasts music that only CREATURES like her could POSSIBLY enjoy! Octavia rubbed her eyes, realizing they were full of tears. Vinyl was supposed to be Octavia’s friend…if she weren’t, on top of paying half the rent and doing the dishes, Vinyl Scratch would not be living in the same apartment as the refined ash-colored cellist.
Octavia pulled open the broom closet, looking around inside. It was dark, making it incredibly difficult for the young mare to see inside. After a few moments of looking around, she noticed the end of a mop handle sticking out behind an assortment of old amps belonging to Vinyl. The mare hopped up onto a tall bucket, then balanced on an amp that was almost smaller than her back hoof. Pushing a few others to the side, she managed to pull free the mop. Sighing, she adjusted the pink bow on her neck before trotting back into the kitchen. Of all ponies to become roommates with, she let in a drunken DJ…
When Octavia walked through the door, Vinyl was out cold on the couch. Octavia simply rolled her eyes and went to clean up her roommate’s mess. After a few moments of disgusting work, she wiped her brow. “Vinyl, I swear I’m going to kill you…” Octavia threw the mop into the sink behind her before going to take a shower.
* * *
Vinyl awoke with a start. “Huh? Octy? Guess she went to her band practice after all. Sweet…” Her hangover was nearly gone, and she was ready to head out and party again. She rolled off the couch onto her feet. As soon as she stood, her nausea returned and she was nearly forced to the ground. She managed to regain her footing. “Now, where’s that phone…maybe Berry Punch wants to go clubbing.”
Vinyl walked as slow as she could without getting bored with herself. After about 5 minutes of walking, she fell flat on her face, her tinted purple shades getting knocked off her nose. Lying there in pain for a few moments, she searched for her shades with one alabaster hoof blindly. Finally finding them, she slid them on. She groaned, now clutching her temples in agony. “Go away…go…away…” She rocked there for what seemed like forever.
Not too long after Vinyl had curled up in a ball, the buzzing noise in her head she had associated with her terrible hangover ended very abruptly, though not giving the renowned DJ any respite from her pain. Only when Octavia came into the room did she pry one eye open. “Oh sonova…”
Octavia’s charcoal mane hung over her shoulders, weighed down from the water that dripped down her coat and mane. “Oh, um…Vinyl…you’re awake.” The cellist’s amethyst eyes looked around the room for her pink bowtie. She hated being seen without it, especially after showering. Allowing the DJ to see her this way was even worse…Ponies didn’t wear clothes most of the time, but she HAD just gotten out of the shower…
The DJ was curled in her little ball still, having only noticed Octavia was there and not at her band-on somble or whatever she had called it. Oh Celestia, make it end… She felt extreme cold on her head very suddenly, and her aching head was soothed. The last thing she saw before fainting from exhaustion and pain was a streak of amethyst.
* * *
Octavia couldn’t help but smile at the unconscious DJ. Octavia had never experienced a hangover before, but she knew from the few weeks she had spent with Vinyl that they were awful. "Ha, that’s an understatement…" She thought to herself. As soon as the fresh ice pack touched the alabaster mare, she drifted off. It must have been truly painful to knock Vinyl out. "On second thought…maybe she should drink more often." The ash colored mare thought evilly to herself.
Celestia knew she was constantly forming different opinions about her strange roommate. Only this morning after Vinyl’s first…release…she had wanted to—well, being the refined mare she was, she would not allow such evil thoughts to cross her mind again. Now, she felt well enough about Vinyl Scratch to joke about the mare and her habits. "I’m so cruel," she mused.
Vinyl awoke again, this time feeling as normal as the DJ had ever felt. All things considered, it had already been a good morning. She had only vomited three times—or so she guessed, considering the wet spot on the carpet next to her. “Tavi…” she croaked. Behind her tinted shades, she shut her eyes. Trying to talk made her slightly nauseous, but otherwise she felt well enough. She rolled onto her hooves for the third time that day, looking around. Her roommate was nowhere to be found.
“Maybe she’s right,” the DJ considered aloud. “I do NOT wanna go through that again…Ugh…” Vinyl trotted over to the small wooden desk that Octavia used for writing her music and planning out her day. Her horn glowed blue as she levitated a quill and sheet of paper onto the desktop. “Hmm, might as well tell her where I’m going.” Despite how irritating the cellist was with her Canterlot personality, Vinyl hated leaving her worried about anything.
Vinyl pulled out the tiny stool from underneath the desk with her magic and sat on the tiny circle of wood. It was cold and hard, causing her to feel uncomfortable. She decided to get her work done as soon as possible. The mare’s horn flashed a bit as she brought the tip of her quill into the inkwell beside her, then scratched against the paper. Vinyl’s message was short but simple:
Octy,
Went to see someone about my problem. Should be back in a few hours. If I’m not back by then, don’t worry, I’ll probably have stayed late and had to spend the night with Berry Punch or somepony. Do whatever it is you normally do in peace for once, blah blah blah, whatever it is that you usually say you wish happened around here.
Seeya later, Tav.
THE MOST EPIC, AMAZING, AND HIP PONY IN EQUESTRIA,
DJ Pon-3
Vinyl stood and smiled triumphantly to the air. She particularly liked that signoff… she’d have to use it in all her letters from now on. With a flick of her tail, she almost leapt out the front door, speeding along as fast as her hooves would take her.
* * *
Octavia awoke with a start as she heard the front door of their apartment slam shut. Sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes lazily. “Oh, bloody hell…Vinyl went drinking again, didn’t she?” The mare facehoofed, thinking at the moment only of what this could mean for her later.
. Then she remembered what this could mean for her friend. She tries to get three hours of sleep because Vinyl woke her up so early, and now she goes out again…?! “I’m not going to kill Vinyl, she’s going to kill herself!” the gray cellist shouted angrily. She grabbed a flask of water and tossed it into her saddlebag, which she struggled to wrap around her midsection before charging out the door. As she left, Octavia stepped on something on the floor that stuck to her hoof, but she paid it no mind.
Octavia emerged from the apartment complex looking nervous, shaking her head from side to side as if searching for somepony. Across the street, Bon Bon and Lyra Heartstrings giggled to themselves. Octavia only flashed them a quick look and they stopped, knowing the cellist was ready to attack them if provoked. There was no sign of the DJ anywhere.
Octavia looked both ways. The left road lead to the marketplace…that means Vinyl must have taken the right road towards the bars and bigger businesses. She looked over her shoulder one last time before darting off in that direction, still hoping to save her friend from herself.
* * *
The bells over the door jingled as Vinyl stepped inside the small reception room. There were old chairs made from dark polished birch wood with green covers over the cushions. A fire crackled in the corner of the room, giving the whole place a cozy feel. At the reception desk, a white mare with curled pink hair sat and stared at a piece of paper attached to a clipboard with lazy eyes and a hoof buried in her cheek. When the bells rang, she did not look up. Only when Vinyl approached the desk and tapped the bell did she look up.
“Err, yeah, I need an appointment with Dr. Psych…now, please?” Vinyl said. The desk mare took the clipboard in her mouth and handed it over to Vinyl, who levitated the clipboard and a quill in front of her face. With a few strokes of the already-wet quill, she signed her name and the date on the slip of paper. Turning her head, she stared at the clock. 7:36 p.m. Vinyl would need to make this quick.
“The doctor’ll be ready in just a few minutes. Take a seat, dearie, and for Celestia’s sake, take of those glasses…its dark enough in here as it is.”
Vinyl nodded, but left her shades on. The mare wasn’t paying attention anyway; she wouldn’t notice her advice went unheeded. Truth was, it was difficult for Vinyl to see with those shades, but she didn’t care. It wasn’t worth it to take them off. After a few minutes, a door behind the reception desk opened, and a masculine voice called her name. She trotted over, entering the room that was modeled almost exactly like the reception room except that it was smaller, had only two chairs, and a long couch. “Déjà vu,” she muttered.
Dr. Psych was a brown coated stallion with a frizzy orange mane and a handlebar moustache that made him look like a character from a book for foals. Vinyl herself had to stifle a giggle at his awkward appearance. They said nothing for a moment, only staring at each other. Eventually, Psych nodded to the couch. “Have a seat, Ms. Scratch. Let’s talk.” Vinyl glared as he called her that.
“I’d appreciate it if you just called me by my stage name, Doctor. DJ—“
“Pon-3, I know. I’m a fan. And please, call me Psych,” he said with a smile.
Vinyl was intrigued that this pony was a fan of hers. To be honest, she wasn’t sure she liked this kind of pony at her shows. She settled onto the couch, lying on her back. “Alright then, Psych. I’ve had this…problem, see…and I don’t know what to do. Let me tell you how it all happened, starting at the point I realized my problem. It all started like this…
* * *
Octavia had checked half of the bars in Manehatten and still there was no sign of the DJ. She screamed in frustration the way the ex-model Fluttershy had once. She had always wondered what happened to Photo Finish’s big star…but she had more pressing matters to attend to at the moment.
. She stormed into another bar, met by a few curious stares as she stood at the entrance, not speaking a word for several seconds as she scanned the place, then stalked right out again.
Octavia was infuriated. How could Vinyl not have left her a message? She knew how much the ash colored cellist worried when she went and put herself in danger… The object still clung to her back hoof like an annoying parasite. In frustration, Octavia attempted to shake it off, eventually knocking it loose. It fluttered to the ground.
Octavia stamped off towards another bar when a familiar voice called out her name. “Vinyl?” She gasped hopefully. She spun around, seeing a magenta colored mare with a fluffy purple mane and magenta eyes called out to her.
“Hey, Octavia! You dropped somethin’! Looks like a note from Vin’!” called Berry Punch, owner of the Berry Blast Bar (BBB) in Manehatten East. She approached Octavia swiftly, almost barreling into her. She skidded to a halt directly in front of the cellist, almost nose to nose. In her mouth, she carried a yellow slip of paper with a hoof print on it. “This fell off yer’ hoof, didn’t know if y’wanted it or not…”
Octavia snatched the slip of paper and read over it several times, holding it still over her hooves. She sighed in relief, hugged Berry, then ran off back the way she had come with new purpose. She had only a few options on where Vinyl was now.
* * *
“Ms. Scratch, we’re going to have to ask you to leave,” said the burly black stallion rather bluntly. “You haven’t paid rent in two months. Your time is up,” As if to stress his point, his equally muscular partner huffed a breath through his nose.
Vinyl Scratch threw her hooves in the air. “What d’you expect me to do?! I only get the money I make from my gigs, and I haven’t been booked many places lately…” She crossed her hooves. She would put up as much a fight as she could before it got violent.
But it was too late. These guys meant business. The speaker lifted Vinyl into the air with his magic, where the other who was a pegasus slipped a black ring onto her horn. Vinyl gasped in hatred and pain as her magic was rendered useless. She squirmed in the air as the pegasus pony assisted his friend in carrying the alabaster mare down the stairs from her penthouse suite and to the doors of the main lobby. Out the door the DJ went, propelled through the air by the first pony’s magic. They left the ring on her horn, leaving her powerless until she could find somepony to remove it for her.
For days, she wandered the streets. At one point, she managed to beg a few bits off of some kindhearted ponies. Rather than buying a meal for herself, she went straight to a liqueur store and purchased a bottle of whiskey to ‘keep her warm’. As she slid the only bits she had left across the counter and took the bottle, it began to rain. She turned to ask for a coat instead of the expensive drink, but as she turned she saw a sign reading “NO REFUNDS” on the countertop. The clerk glared at her and looked to a black door behind him with a SECURITY label on the door. She took the hint, trotting out of the store as fast as possible.
Vinyl walked over to a back alley behind an apartment complex and crouched behind a dumpster, tearing off the cap to the whiskey and taking a swing as she began to sob. She had never been exposed to such horrible accommodations in her life before. For an hour, she drank the hot liquid in large gulps, not sparing any or rationing her sips.
Within an hour, the whole bottle was gone and Vinyl felt even more horrible than before. She was sick to her stomach and there was no sign of it getting any better, nor of the storm letting up. If she had spent those few bits she had had, she would not be so cold or so sick. Sobs wracked her body as the alabaster mare’s fur grew grayer by the moment and her usually styled mane hung limp, cascading down her back and shoulders, heavy from all the rain. Her shades were misty, and she could not see out of them. As her stomach churned, Vinyl keeled over, spewing vileness from her lips.
As she sat up, however, she saw a new shape appear amidst the gloom. She saw two amethyst orbs staring at her, burning into her soul. The rest of the body of the pony was impossible to see with the storm, her body being gray and her mane the color of ash. She looked over Vinyl almost curiously, when in an accented voice, she exclaimed, “Vinyl Scratch?! Is that you? I haven’t seen you since we graduated from New Trampshire University…Oh, you poor thing, come inside, quickly now…!”
Vinyl was led up the cold wet stairs to an apartment five floors from ground level, where she was ushered inside by the still unknown mare. When she wiped her glasses, the face of a pony she had met before was in front of her, looking concerned. It was Octavia Philarmonica, the valedictorian of their year at NTU and an expert cello player. She was still shivering and sobbing, when she felt a sudden burst of energy. She felt her magic return to her. Glancing at Octavia, she noticed the anti-magic ring in her mouth, which she spat into a trash bin.
Vinyl wrapped a hoof around Octavia, holding her close to sob into her mane. “Never speak of this again…p-please…?” The DJ sniffed.
The cellist, happy to see her old friend’s sense of humor return, nodded. “I promise, nothing about this will fall on anypony’s ears. You can stay with me until you can get yourself a place of your own, Vinyl…” They smiled and embraced once more.
“Well, that’s basically it. My drinkin’ habits caused me to go broke; I got kicked outta my hotel…bad experience. What should I do?” Vinyl inquired when she finished her tale. Psych hadn’t said a word, nor looked at Vinyl. The whole time, he sat there and wrote. About two minutes after Vinyl had spoken, he looked up and sighed.
“What I suggest you do, DJ, is that you start drinking weaker drinks at first, like stop with whiskey now, then choose something a bit weaker each time you decide you’ve got to drink. Eventually, work your way down to wine, then make alcohol an occasional thing. What I’m saying is, you need to wean yourself off of the alcohol, bit by bit—and talking to this Octavia character wouldn’t hurt either.”
Vinyl looked at him quizzically. “Whaddaya mean, talk to her? I talk to her all the time and she’s always there for me when I need her… She’s the greatest pony I know!” That’s when her eyes grew wide. She opened her mouth to say something more, but the door flew open then.
Octavia stood in the doorway, panting but beaming. “Oh, at LAST, Vinyl…I thought I’d never find you!!! I was so worried about you…I’ve been running around the city all night looking for you!” She embraced the alabaster mare, holding her for several seconds. Vinyl choked a bit and pushed Octavia off.
“I left you a note, didn’t I?” The DJ reminded her as they walked out of the therapist’s together.
Psych watched them go happily. “My work here is done…” He smiled, removing his false moustache and combing his hair for the first time that night.
