Tuned Too Low

        Vinyl had just finished putting up the last of the streamers for the party. She was exhausted. And had no idea that Pinkie Pie had SO many decorations! "Where...does....she....keep this stuff?!" She trotter over to the center of the room and looked around. 'Perfect.' She thought. 'I wonder what's taking Pinks and the kids?'

_________________________________________________________________________________

         Well, many things, Vinyl. Like running away from the school hoping they weren't being followed by royal guards. Or an angry teacher covered in pie. I mean, sure Pinkie may be old enough to be allowed to pick up two little ponies from school, but the fact that she pied a teacher in the face and that they had technically pony-napped Coraline....

         Half a mile away from school, Pinkie separated from the group, (something about a cannon), while Red and C.D., with Coraline, ran through the center of town hoping they wouldn't get caught. They came across section of food carts. When the pony at the cider cart walked away, they hid behind it as several other ponies trotted by. "Best not to gather any unneeded attention." C.D. whispered. After the three knew nopony was looking, they darted towards the library, hoping to find Skylark.

         C.D. knocked on the door and then waited beside Coraline, who was shaking with paranoia. "Hey, Coraline. Are you okay?" He asked.

         She quickly turned to him and then looked away. She observed her surroundings, she had never been outside of school when it was a school day. It drove her kinda crazy thinking that if anypony saw them, they would be caught. She was on a full on panic.

         "No! I mean, yes! I mean...Oh I don't know." She gave up. "This is very risky, Cee. What if we get spotted by guards. Or somepony we know?" She looked closer. "What if my PARENTS saw me?"

At this point she was on the ground, curled up in a ball. Cee stared at her like anypony listening to Pinkie Pie would stare. He looked at Red, who instead of laughing, looked at her shaking his head. "You need to relax. We're not gonna get caught." Cee assured her. "If anything, we're gonna be golden later at the party."

Coraline unfurled herself and looked up at Cee. "How are you so sure?"

"Do you think that this is the first time me and Red left school?" He looked at her with a grin. "We ditched school, like, two weeks ago to go pick up a c.d. from his dad's record shop."

"Yeah! We went to go pick up our copies of 'Get Kind!' By Ponyhead." Red added.

Coraline cocked her head at the two and squinted her eyes. " 'Ponyhead'? What's 'Ponyhead'?"

If you have ever been in this situation before, then you know whats gonna happen. Cee looked like he saw a ghost. Red face hoofed and backed away slowly. Cee's favorite band, Besides Buck 182, was Ponyhead. His whole style of guitar playing came from Ponyhead's sound. He looked back at Coraline, who has no idea what's coming for her.

"Y-you...." He stammered. "You. DON'T know who Ponyhead is?"

"N-no. Are you okay?" Coraline got up from the ground and put a hoof on Cee's forehead.

"Oh no, I'm fine..." He trailed off, cursing under his breath. 'She doesn't know who they are?! I worship this band!' He thought. He heard noises on the other side of the door. They all looked on as it opened, reveling a purple baby dragon.

"Hey, Cee. Sup, Red. Hey, Cor-" Spike stopped in mid-sentence surprised to see her here. "Coraline?!" He looked around suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"It's okay, Spike. I'm with them. Sort of." She told him.

  Spike shook his head and laughed. "You know this two trouble makers?"

"You know Spike?" Red asked her.

"Trouble makers?" Cee glared at Spike, then turned to Coraline. "Sort of?"

"Long story." She told Cee, ignoring the 'Sort of' comment. "I met him and Twilight a while ago."

"Anyway." Spike got back to the matter at hand. "What are you three doing here? Isn't it a school day?"

"Eh. Who goes to school anymore?" Cee scoffed, making Spike laugh at the statement.

"Good point. Come on in!" He invited the three ponies into the tree house and shut the door behind them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

  Pinkie Pie bounced along the road to the Scratch home where Vinyl decide to chill on the lawn, blasting music that the neighbors love, whether they like it or not. She noticed Pinkie coming up towards the house. "Hey, Pinkie!" She looked pass her and tilted her head to the side in confusion. "Hey, uh, Pinks?"

"Yes, Scratchie?" Pinkie Pie said, suddenly loading her party cannon, with pies, cupcakes, and confetti (Oh boy.)

"Where's Cee?" Pinkie looked up and turned around. She did a complete three-sixty then looked down. She "Horse Apples!" She then realized she was no longer being followed by three ponies.

__________________________________________________________________________________

  Spike had brought muffins in to the living quarters of the library to the ponies sitting on the couch. He passed them out and sat on the chair across from them with his own muffin. "So, Pinkie threw the pie in her face?" He laughed. "Now, that's comedy."

  Cee was noming on his muffin then looked up. "Yeah. Then when we got far away enough from the school, she dissapeared."

"And then we came here to see if Sky was here." Red added.

"And I was brought into the mix by Cee." Coraline said finishing her muffin. "Apparently, there's a party for his mom and he wanted me to come."

"Yeah, he likes her!" Red snickered under his breath. Suddenly a muffin shot from one side of the room to the other hitting Red in the face. He shook his head and looked towards a glaring Cee. Spike and Coraline laughed at the two.

"ANYWAY." Cee said annoyed. "Is Sky here? We're playing it and we can't without our bassist. You, Twilight and Trixie gonna come?"

"Duh!" Spike finished his muffin and stood up off his chair.  "He's in his room. I'll go get him." He turned and ran to the bottom of the stairs but stopped. He turned back at Cee. "Oh and Cee?"

"Yeah?" Cee asked.

"Two things. Coraline's nice. Don't screw this up." Cee rolled his eyes and Coraline glared at Spike, trying to hide her blush. "What's the second thing?"

"Don't make a mess of the place. You remember last time I was gone for TWO minutes." He laughed and continued up the stairs to Skylarks room. Cee sighed and walked back to the couch, but was stopped when Coraline stepped in his way.

"So....." She said looking him in the eyes.

Cee stared back into her eyes and froze. "S-so....." He stammered.

"HEY!" They both looked at the crimson colt who sat on the couch waving his hooves in the air. "I'm still here, you know!" Cee got a sense of Dejah-vu.

"Anyway," Coraline attempted to changed the subject. "You guys two have a band? What's it called?"

"Just a Scratch." They said in unison.

"Really?" Coraline laughed expecting the real name. Cee and Red slowly turned they're gaze to other parts of the room.  Causing an awkward silence to fill the air.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" She was cut off by they're sudden laughter.

"See, Cee. I told you the name sucked!" Red said between fits of laughing.

"Shut up! It's not that bad!" Cee laughed. He turned to Coraline who looked like she really insulted them and felt bad.

"Hey, relax. You didn't make fun of us! We made up the name, like, such a long time ago!" Ce assureed her. She still looked at the floor. "Hey, Coraline." She looked back up to C.D.

"How about when Sky comes down, When EVER HE COMES DOWN!" Cee shouted up stairs. "You come watch us practice?" Suddenly, he was tackled by a surprise hug from Coraline, causing him to become as red as a rose.

"Really?! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She squeezed him. When she let go, she noticed Red giggling in the corner. "Hey, Red. What do you do in the band anyway?"

"He drums and he's the one that complains the most." The voice said from the top of the stairs. Skylark came down holding his bass and a big hat on his head. Note: He never wears one. Red glared at the comment but still managed a smile.

"Sky! Whassup!" Cee shouted as he trotted towards him. "Dude. What up with the hat?"

Sky shook his head then looked at the filly behind Cee. "What up with the chick?"

"The chick has a name, dork." Cee shot back. "No really. The HAT, Sky."

Coraline and Red sat on the couch as the two colts bickered. Spike walked over with more muffins.

"The HAT," Sky began. "That you continue to bring up, is protecting me from embarrassment. I...uh, had a mishap." He then looked at Spike.

"He dyed his mane and tried to make it a Mohawk." Spike giggled.

Cee's eyes widened and looked into Sky's. "DUDE. LET. ME. SEE!" He then tried to take the hat off, but Sky moved away and hid behind Red. "Come on, Cee! Leave it alone!" He begged.

"Alright..." Cee shrugged. "Let's head out!"

________________________________________________________________________________

"HOW DID YOU LOSE THEM?!" Vinyl panicked. "Oh this is bad! This is really bad!" She paced back in forth in the living room. Pinkie sat quietly in a chair in the corner. She looked down sadly and her hair was less poofy then usual.

"I'm sorry!" Pinkie blurted,"I should have been more careful! Please don't be mad!" She was sobbing at her mistake. This caused Vinyl to calm down and comfort her. "*sigh* It's not your fault, Pinkie. They probably just ran off when your back was turned." She put a hoof on the pink mare's shoulder. "Now, all we have to do is find them, Alright?" Pinkie's hair poofed up back to normal as she hopped out of her chair and saluted. "You can count on me, Scratchie!" And with that, she was out the door. Vinyl shook her head. 'Oh Celestia, what have I gotten myself into?'

________________________________________________________________________________

  All four waved goodbye to Spike and left for the party. Sky went with Red to get his drums and other equipment. While C.D. and Coraline went to the party to prepare.

  Coraline and Cee walked at a slow pace to just enjoy the fact that they weren't in school. Coraline was getting more use to it and stopped worrying. They made eye contact once or twice, but quickly looked away due to nervousness. *sigh*

   Finally! Coraline spoke up. "So, how do you know Spike?" She turned and asked Cee.

  "When I first moved here, I met him, Twilight, Trixie, and even Pinkie Pie all at the same time." He answered. "You know....Since nopony else is around..."

   Coraline looked at him puzzled. "....you could finally tell me what happened between you and the snobby duo."

   She sighed and threw her hooves in the air. "Are you STILL on that? You're really intrusive, you know that?"

   "Yes. Yes I do." He grinned.

   "Okay." She whispered.

   "Okay?"

   "Okay! I'll tell you!" She shouted causing him to jump away a little. "Oops. Sorry...."

___________________________________________________________________________

It was three days after the incident at Sugar Cube Corner and everything was quiet.  Instead of hanging out with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Coraline sat by herself. "It happened at school...Everyone was out in the playground and was talking with their friends...I was sitting by the flowers away from everyone...and then there was a scream."

         "AHHHHHHHHHHHH-*Crash*!" Everyone ran towards the scene where the scream occurred. They found Scootaloo's scooter broken apart...and Scootaloo, herself, in a wreckage of wood and dirt. "She crashed into the school's picket fence. She had splinters and broken chunks of wood sticking out of her wings...there was a lot of blood."

"SCOOTS!" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle ran towards their fallen friend with tears in there eyes. She was in bad shape, but it only got worse when they found out what happened. "Excuse us!" A stuck up voice shouted as they made way through the crowd of colts and fillies. "We know what happened." Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stood before the CMC's with a school bag. When Diamond emptied it, they found a screwdriver and a bolt. "And guess whose bag this is!" Silver Spoon shouted turn her gaze over to the flower patch. The crowd of children followed them over to Coraline and confronted her.

"Well, well, well!" Silver said. "You just had to go and hurt one of you 'friends'!"

"What are you talking about, Silver?" Coraline said scornfully. "I wouldn't hurt my friends."

"YOU LIE!" Applebloom ran towards her with angry tears rolling down her cheeks. "We know you did it! Why? WHY?!" She pushed at Coraline, who was now tearing up.

"Applebloom, what are you talking about? I would never-"

"Shut UP!" Sweetie Belle shouted causing everypony to back up. "Coraline....Just...Go. Leave."

"Sweetie...." Coraline sobbed. "No. No, you don't believe-"

"Just go! Please." Sweetie turned and walked with Applebloom back to the now being carted away Scootaloo. The crowd then followed them. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara stood there watching Coraline cry.

"There, there, Cory." Silver said sitting right beside her. "At least you still have us."

Coraline got up and pushed her away causing Silver to fall back. "NO! I don't want you, or Diamond, to be anywhere near me! You two are the most crudest, stuck up, conceited..." She stopped and looked at the ground. Silver Spoon got up into her face. "Who do you think you are?! Don't you know who I-"

"Shut up." Coraline interrupted her. She turned and walked towards the exit of the school playground.  "I HATE you." She turned and ran away.

_________________________________________________________________________________

"....And for the rest...*sob*...of that year...*sob*...they all ignored me...everypony..." She sat on the ground in front of Cee. "Scootaloo found out what they did and told me....*sob*...that she was okay. She knew that....*sniff*....it was them...But it still hurts." She sat there, in the middle of the road and cried. C.D. watched in anger at hearing the rest of the story. He was mad at himself for bringing it up so much, but he was also mad at Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara for what they did.

         Without a second thought he picked her up and hugged her tightly. They stood for seemed like an eternity before one of them spoke up again. "Cee...." She whispered.

         "Don't...." He said. "You never should have had to go through that...I had to go through terrible kids at my last school." She hugged tighter, crying into his shoulder. "I was bullied there because...my parents were gay...and I got into a fight with one of the bigger kids there..." Coraline pulled away, still holding him and looked at his face. There were tears rolling down his cheeks as well. "I hate seeing other ponies in pain....I especially hate seeing ponies I care about in pain." He smiled.

They smiled and held each other in the middle of the road. They didn't care what happened. They didn't care who saw, all they did care for at that moment was each other.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Author's Notes

Wow. It's 11:40 PM here and I started this chapter 4 hours ago. Editing, Like A Boss. So yeah, school might get in the way of this and 'Just a Scratch', but don't fret. I'll keep dishing them out. The next chapter will probably come out after Chapter 8 of 'Just a Scratch'

-TLC