Octavia felt... odd.

The club she was in was poorly lit, save for the flashes of the strobe lights and the many-colored lasers which pierced the darkness. The lights pulsed and the lasers swung in time with the deep, bass-laden music. Ponies were packed onto the dance floor, and the whole affair smelled of cheap liquor and sweat.

Octavia never came to places like this. Not until recently, anyway. She was a pony of dignity and class, and had little need for such lowbrow entertainment as this.

Yet, here she was. On the dance floor, moving her body in time with the music and the lights. She knew it was wrong, somehow, but she couldn't stop herself. She could not even say what precisely was wrong...

Perhaps it was the music. Until recently, she could not tolerate such 'noise pollution'. Now, it was all she listened to. Even when it wasn't playing, she heard it inside her head. The deep, thumping beat that seemed to drown out all thought...

She gave a moan of pleasure as one of the mares she was dancing between began kissing her neck, and her thoughts were once again derailed.

Even so, a part of her mind insisted that this, too, was odd. She had never met either of the earth ponies who were pressed against her before tonight. She didn't even know their names. The one behind her, who seemed so entranced by her neck, was a pink pony with a single white flower in her blonde mane. It came to Octavia's mind that it looked delicious. Although whether the thought was directed at the flower or the pony, Octavia could not tell...

The mare in front of her, a stunning earth pony with a pale yellow coat, slid to her knees. Octavia could see her raspberry-colored mane, with its lighter-colored streak, as she looked down at the top of the pony's head. She watched with stunned fascination as the lovely pony stuck her face between Octavia's legs, and began to kiss her with even more vigor than her companion.

Octavia felt her legs weaken. Her knees began to tremble, and she felt certain she would have fallen to the floor had the pink pony behind her not held her up. Even bearing her weight, the pony was still able to start licking Octavia's neck with indecent enthusiasm. Somehow, the licking was even more effective than the kissing, and Octavia found herself dripping onto the dance floor as the two ponies worked on her.

A part of her brain screamed that she didn't enjoy this sort of thing. That she wasn't a fillyfooler, or the kind of pony who would do such a thing in a public place! But the music, the lights, and her body's own reaction told her otherwise. This was exactly the kind of pony she was.

Octavia lifted her head and looked around to make sure nopony was watching her.

They weren't. In darkened corners, in booths, and right out on the dance floor, ponies were gathered in groups doing all sorts of similarly unspeakable things. Hooves and tongues worked furiously in time with the thumping of the music. Not twenty feet away, Octavia saw a magenta earth pony with curly green hair, the kind no stallion ever gave a second glance. But now she had three of them on her, thrusting into every orifice in her that was wide enough to take them. She was completely covered in sweat and bodily fluids, and even though her mouth was too full to make anything but indistinct noises, Octavia could tell from the look on her face that she was enjoying every second of it.

Everypony was so busy that none of them had a glance to spare for the grey-coated earth pony and her new 'friends'.

Except one.

She lifted her eyes to the DJ booth, set on a raised platform high above the dance floor. There, behind the turntables, sat a white-coated unicorn with a streaked blue mane, her amethyst-tinted glasses pointed down at Octavia.

The earth pony below stared up at the unicorn for several moments, ideas slowly forming in her mind. Then, the DJ lifted her glasses, staring down at Octavia with eyes the color of rubies, and gave a quirky little smile. With a hoof, she deftly moved one of the sliders on the console before her.

Octavia gasped. Suddenly, all the ponies in the room were watching her. Even the magenta pony and her partners had stopped mid-intercourse, the stallions still inside her as all four stared intently at Octavia. She was the center of attention as she climaxed, unable to hold back any longer. The ponies throughout the club watched as she came, crying out the name of the DJ in the booth. They watched as the red-maned pony greedily licked at her juices, while the one behind held her up, nuzzling into the wet spot on her neck that the vigorous licking had left.

Octavia knew none of the ponies here would remember this night, except as a vague 'good time', but that did nothing to reduce her feeling of shame. She understood, as much as she could understand anything anymore, that the combination of music and light show produced quicker results, but that it wasn't anything near as permanent as what had been done to her.

"What has been done to me?" She wondered, vaguely, as she was let down to the floor, unable to do anything but pant heavily as afterglow overtook her. "It was the music," she thought, "The music made me... better." The word sounded... wrong. But it was right. She KNEW it was right. The music made her better, and the music was made by...

She looked up from the floor, all the way up to the DJ booth, into the eyes of the pony still staring at her fervently. That was the pony who made the music. The same pony she pleasured every night. The pony whose name she had cried out in her moment of ecstasy. Her name... was Vinyl Scratch.

* * *

An hour later, Octavia found herself wandering the streets. Vinyl had let her go with just a kiss and a nuzzle, although Octavia knew from the look she had been given that tonight was going to be... intense. She felt something like tears at the corner of her eyes, but she couldn't say why.

The streets were dark and nearly all the shops were closed. Octavia let her hooves carry her until she found herself in front of a familiar building with a stylized blue and yellow candy hanging above the door.

The sign in the window read 'Closed', but there was a faint light coming through the cracks in the curtains. Octavia lifted her hoof and knocked slowly on the door.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then she heard the sound of hooves trotting up to the door, and it opened slightly to reveal a cream-colored pony with a curly blue and pink mane. The pony was already saying, "I'm terribly sorry, but the shop is closed for..." when she noticed who her visitor was.

"Oh! Octavia? What brings you here at this hour?" she asked, quizzically.

"Hello, Bon Bon. I was just wandering around and found myself here," the gray earth pony replied. "May I come in?"

Bon Bon look nonplussed, but opened the door anyway, with a muttered "Of course, come right in..."

Octavia followed her in, noting the single plate of apple fritters on the counter, half of which were eaten.

"Lyra isn't here?" she asked.

"No," came the reply, "She's still practicing with the orchestra..." the last word trailed away as Bon Bon remembered to whom she was speaking.

"Oh." Octavia said it in a flat, eomtionless voice, but Bon Bon could tell that there was something hidden beneath the surface.

"You should... go see her," she said, hesitantly. "I mean, I know you two didn't always get along, but... I think she misses you."

Octavia was stunned to find that she missed the mint-green unicorn, as well. In fact, she missed a lot of things ever since...

NO.

The voice in her head was firm, and she shook her head. "I... can't." she said, with only a touch of sadness.

"You... can't?" Bon Bon stared at her curiously.

"I'm not allowed," she thought. "Vinyl has commanded me not to go near anypony in the orchestra, and I must obey Vinyl..." But then... why was she here...?

"I should go," she said, already turning and trotting towards the door. "Thank you for the company."

Bon Bon raised her hoof, but the other pony was aleady gone before she could think of anything to say.

* * *

She wasn't allowed.

And yet, here she was. Standing in front of the practice hall she knew so well.

She couldn't go in, but... without realizing how it had gotten there, her hoof was on the door.

NO.

She heard the voice, as strong as ever, but her hoof didn't move. She had to put it down. Had to walk away and never come back.

But she couldn't.

With a push that took every last ounce of her willpower, Octavia opened the door very slightly.

She heard the music.

It was unlike any of the music she'd been listening to lately. It swelled with triumph, a clean and pure sound that filled her with a joy she had never known.

But... she had known it, once, hadn't she? Before the other music. Before the voice. Before...

The sound of the lyre came drifting through the open door. She knew who was playing it. For all of her oddities and faults, Lyra Heartstrings had a way of playing her instrument like no other pony. A way that was masterful, and yet full of innocence...

To Octavia, the sound was like a warm spring rain, washing her mind clean of all the things that had been polluting it.
For the first time in weeks, Octavia was herself again. She stood there, listening to the music for a while longer, and then let the door swing shut. Her face set, the former cellist turned and trotted off into the night.

Vinyl was out of control. Music was something pure and good, and she was perverting it. Octavia felt a righeous rage burning inside her. She knew now what she had to do.

She had to stop Vinyl Scratch.

Author's Note

More was supposed to happen in this chapter, but I felt it was long enough to go ahead and put it up. Because of that, there will probably be two more chapters instead of just one.
Comments (and criticism) are definitely encouraged!