Ep. 2: A Pony Named Vinyl

Doom n’ Gloom awoke the next morning with his face planted firmly in the book he had read last night; it was still turned to the page on which he had passed out. The page detailed the nature of changelings and the workings of their hierarchy. Doom struggled to remember the reason why he had been compelled to read this book in the first place, but nothing came to him. It was then that he noticed that he was surrounded by a number of ponies. They were all whispering to one another, quietly enough so as not to accidently wake him - quite the pointless gesture now - but not so quiet that Doom couldn’t hear what they were saying. Doom decided to stay motionless for a few moments longer, just to gather what exactly the ponies were talking about.
There were five of them in all, all trying to whisper to the rest at the same time, Doom could only catch small bits of conversations. From an orange pony on Doom’s far left he heard,
“What’s he doin’ here in Ponyville?”
Then a pink pony beside her giggled and said,
“He looks funny!”
Another voice piped up, this time to Doom’s right. It belonged to a white Unicorn, who looked like she spent far too much time brushing her mane,
“I think he’s quite handsome. Well, except for that garish mane do of course,”
Doom would have spoken up right then but a fourth pony , a Pegasus with the most obnoxious multicolored mane Doom had ever seen, thrust her head down to look doom in the eye and pressed her nose to his, forcing his eyes open. This pony didn’t whisper, and she was addressing Doom directly,
“Hey, I got a bet with AJ over there. Twenty bits saying your wings are too big to for a guy. So what’s the deal, are they fake or what?”
“Rainbow-“,
The orange pony tried to interject but she was shushed by the inquisitor.
Doom rose to his feet, blinking sleep from his eyes. There was light shining in from a nearby window, too bright for his eyes to bear this early in the morning. Flicking his sunglasses down from their perch above his horn, Doom then waited for his eyes to adjust before answering his interrogator,
“They’re real… Rainbow, is it? And would you mind perhaps taking a step or two back? I’d like to stretch them before they cramp up”,
The Pegasus stepped back and Doom thrust his wings outward, he saw where she got off asking him about his wings, they were easily twice the size of her own and even more so than the wings of any of the male Pegasi Doom had seen on his way into Ponyville. Suddenly embarrassed, Doom hurriedly re-folded his wings afraid to offend his audience. Doom was about to start making small talk when Twilight Sparkle came walking down the library stairs, saving him from making a fool of himself.
“Good you’re up, and I see you met the girls… Have they introduced themselves yet?”
Doom shot a glance at the rainbow Pegasus,
“Not exactly”,
“Oh, well girls this is Doom n’ Gloom. Doom, that’s Rainbow Dash in front of you; to your left are Pinkie Pie and Applejack, and to your right is Rarity - she didn’t say anything about your mane did she? Then lastly there’s… Ugh! Where’s Fluttershy?”
Twilight scanned the room fixing her gaze on a Small Pegasus trying her best to hide away in an empty corner of the library. Twilight stared daggers at Fluttershy but all that came from her was a small, barely audible squeak. Rolling her eyes Twilight said,
“That’s Fluttershy”,
Doom smiled at Fluttershy, but all that it did was make her avoid eye contact Doom and start poking at the ground with her hoof. Doom’s gaze returned to Twilight as she asked him,
“So, now that that’s out of the way, are you ready for your tour of Ponyville?”
“Definitely! Are your friends tagging along too?”
“No, it’s just you and me. Spike is upstairs sleeping”,
As Twilight started to head out the door, Doom decided against asking who spike was, not wanting to sit through another awkward introduction. Following Twilight out the door Doom caught the end of a conversation between Applejack and Rainbow Dash,
“You were hopin’ he was a mare weren’t you?”
“Shut up! He’ll hear you!”

The rest of the day passed by rather quickly. As Twilight stopped at each of Ponyville’s notable locations or vendors she only lingered long enough to give a brief description of the place, not even bothering to introduce Doom to the ponies they passed along the way. Only at the last stop on Twilight’s list -Sugarcube corner- did Doom finally get a chance to chat with another of Ponyville’s residents, He was a brown earth pony with an hourglass for a cutie mark and one of the strangest accents Doom had ever heard it also seemed that he was intrigued by Doom. He was incessantly probing the air around Doom with a sort of short metal wand, glowing green at the tip and asking volleys of completely random questions as he went about it. Doom wasn’t averted to answering the stallion but there were a few questions that he asked that Doom just couldn’t find answers to, namely the queries pertaining to Doom’s identity. Every time the stallion asked one of these questions Doom would open his mouth to speak but the answer he had aimed to give would elude him. It was ironic considering Doom should have known himself better than anyone, but all he could manage to remember was ‘My name is Doom n’ Gloom, I am an Alicorn’ and the rest was a blur.
Doom’s silence didn’t seem to deter his acquaintance however, as he continued to stab the air with the small device. Finally he put the rod back in his pocket and said, looking Doom in the eye,
“Have you any recollection of the events of your past… any at all?”
Doom tried one last time to grasp for a clue as to who he was but nothing came to him, it was like he was born a week ago. Doom shook his head and started to relay the news to the pony but was cut off as Twilight returned from the shop counter with a wide assortment of colored confections.
“Well that’s it for this stop, sorry I took so long, I had to pick up an order for a picnic me and the girls are having tomorrow, “
She pulled a roll of paper from her saddle bag and unraveled it. Scrutinizing it for a moment she said,
“Looks like you still have one place left to see. Shall we then?”
Doom’s ears perked up in confusion, it was already seven at night, where could it be that was still open at this hour? Nonetheless, Doom arose from his seat and followed behind Twilight. Before he left out the door however, he turned back to the brown pony he had been making conversation with and said
“By the way I never caught your name, mister…?”
The pony just smiled in surprise and said,
“Oh, well, I’m the Doctor,”
“Doctor who?”
Doom asked, but the pony didn’t answer. He just kept with his grin and said,
“Exactly!”
Doom would have demanded an explanation but Twilight had started to call from behind him, so instead he replied,
“Ok, then. I guess I’ll see you around Doc… bye”
And with that he trotted out the door. The Doctor waited until Doom was out of earshot before singing to himself,
“Sooner than you might think my friend, much sooner.”
Doom followed closely behind Twilight as she walked down the road ahead. Keeping his gaze fixed on the ground, he wondered about what he had read about changelings last night, as well as his recent conversation with the pony who had called himself ‘The Doctor’, during the conversation changelings were mentioned more than once. Doom knew there was a connection to be had between his loss of memory, changelings, and this Doctor character; there was too much coincidence for there not to be one. He just couldn’t place where said connection was.
Doom would have given the topic more thought but just then Twilight stopped in front of him and said,
“Well, here we are, Club Luna, Ponyville’s only after hours establishment,”
Doom looked up at the building; it was a large concrete warehouse, adorned with an assortment of colorful posters and an immense blazing neon sign above the entrance. Out of the warehouse’s many windows streamed a menagerie of harsh lights and through the open door Doom could hear music like he nothing had ever heard before, no vocals no instrumentals, just the overpowering sweep of digital bass and treble. It was all Doom could do to stare at this burning neon mausoleum, slack jawed and in wonder. Twilight didn’t seem to notice Doom’s expression however, and seemed anxious to leave, expressing such urgency she said,
“Well, it’s getting late and I should really be getting back to the library. Do you think you’ll be alright to, go on alone?”
Doom could only manage to nod as a response, his thoughts wandering to whoever was orchestrating the symphony coming from the club interior,
“Great,”
Twilight continued,
“I’ll see you at the Library then,”
Twilight headed off in the direction of town, while Doom took a step inside the club and the party within it. Doom’s eyes were instantly burned by the intense glow of the lights around him, coming from every direction, they were much brighter inside than he had expected. Doom’s eyes were watering by the time he flicked his sunglasses down from his horn, the polarized glass blocking out the worst of the neon glare. Doom looked around; he could now see where the music was coming from, on a pedestal above the rest of the crowd was a white Unicorn with a striking blue mane, and a dual music note for a cutie mark. Doom wanted nothing more at that moment than to walk up and get a closer look at her but he was barred from doing so by the sea of ponies in front of him, he walked back and forth around the crowd looking for a way through, but there was nothing, finally Doom gave up and walked towards the bar at the back of the club, feeling disheartened. Doom spent the next hour staring at the Unicorn DJ, enchanted by her every movement, his trance didn’t break until the music stopped and the Unicorn stepped down off the back of the pedestal. She was replaced by a dark gray Pegasus, who went on to shout in to a microphone,
“Alright everypony, Give it up for DJ Pon-3!”
The request was ill received, there were a few ponies who clapped lazily and one or two who gave an intoxicated whoop, but other than that the crowd remained silent. Doom couldn’t believe it, that Pony played her heart out and all she got was the half assed applause of a few drunken partygoers! Doom was beside himself in anger as the gray Pegasus spoke up again,
“Okay then… give us one second and we’ll bring the beat right back…”
He ripped a worn out old record from atop the turn table and replaced it with a newer shining disc, then he flipped a switch and the booth came to life blasting premade music through the club, it didn’t sound right to Doom, there was no soul behind the sounds coming from the speakers and it was blatantly obvious that the music was all automated. That wasn’t what appalled Doom however, what had him so averted was the fact that the crowd seemed more invigorated by the pre-recorded trash than they were by Pon-3’s performance.
At this point Doom was so riled up that he almost didn’t notice the filly walking up to the bar, he turned to look in her direction and notice it was the DJ from the pedestal. She seemed depressed as she took up a stool two across from where doom was seated, and rested her head on her hooves. Looking to the bar tender she said,
“Hit me with a Flim&Flam chief”
The bartender just scoffed and replied
“Not till you pay up your tab from last week,”
“But I’m a performer; Dust said it was on the house!”
“Yeah, well he also told you to stop playing the same five songs every night, and I don’t know about you but I’m pretty sure that has yet to happen, so until then you pay the same rates as everypony else. Got it?”
“But how am I supposed to cover a tab if Dust hasn’t even paid me yet?”
“Take it up with him, it’s not my problem,”
The DJ opened her mouth, doom was expecting her to respond with something witty and spiteful, but instead she just stared down at the bar top and sighed,
“Fine,”
The bartender sneered in victory, turned around and started to walk toward Doom, still using the same condescending tone he wielded against the DJ he said to Doom,
“Listen pal, you’ve been sitting there all night and haven’t ordered so much as a single cider, buy something or buck off,”
Doom had to fight the urge to put the arrogant stallion in his place, and then he had an idea. Rather than knocking the bartender down on his plot, Doom smirked and said,
“Alright, I’d like to open up a tab, put me up for two Flim&Flam ciders. Think you can do that?”
The barkeeper snarled as he lifted two cider casks onto the counter and said,
“That all you need Filly wings?”
“Sure is friend,”
Doom replied as he ground his teeth through the second time his wings had been insulted that day, then he levitated the casks off the bar top and made sure the bartender was watching as he walked over to the sulking DJ and placed one of the casks between her hooves. The DJ lifted her head off the bar top and looked up at doom, her eyes were shielded by a pair of sunglasses but her cheeks were tear stained, she had been crying since the bartender had told her off. Giving Doom a confused, and somewhat forced smile she said,
“Thanks… nopony’s ever bought me a drink before,”
Doom did his best to seem calm and tried desperately to find something to say, but his stomach was filling with butterflies and his idea suddenly seemed very stupid. The Unicorn must have caught on to this, because her smile was now much easier as she said,
“I take it you’ve never bought somepony a drink either”
Doom’s face lit up and he stammered,
“Well I - I - um, yes- I mean no! You see-“
The Filly in front of him giggled as she wiped tears from her eyes and lifted her glasses above her horn to reveal the two most beautiful eyes Doom had ever seen, her irises glared a vibrant crimson red and the whites were like planes of snow. Doom stared into those eyes and immediately rediscovered his composure. Smiling he said,
“No, I can’t say I have, but you looked like you needed a pick-me-up so, here I am. The name’s Doom N’ Gloom, by the way… What’s yours?”
The Unicorn‘s smile shifted into a look of surprise,
“You don’t already know? How often do you come here Gloom? ”
Doom kept smiling as he replied,
“It’s my first time, I’m just visiting Ponyville, see,”
“Oh, well I’m DJ Pon-3”
The unicorn said as she held out a hoof. Doom shook the hoof and said jokingly,
“Okay, does DJ Pon-3 have a real name then, or does being a DJ confine a pony to a life of secrecy?”
The Unicorn laughed again,
“My name’s Vinyl Scratch, smart ass”
“Well I think Vinyl scratch sounds much prettier than DJ Pon-3, so I guess I’ll stick with that, but only if it’s alright with you,”
The Unicorn blushed and said,
“I think I’d like that.”

The two ponies continued their conversation on for hours, the music stopped then started up again with a new tune at every interval. The two took turns making each other laugh and eventually Doom coaxed Vinyl into telling him how she became DJ Pon-3. She began the story,
“It’s gonna’ sound silly, but it started when I met a colt, his name was Star Breeze, he was like you, Doom, but well… less… nice. He told me he liked me, took me out for dinner a couple of times, then one day he hears me drumming my hooves on the floor, that’s when I found out he was some big shot producer from Manehattan . He likes the beat and sets me up in a recording studio and before long I had a few tracks laid out. Anyway Star managed to get my record out into public view and suddenly DJ Pon-3 was famous. I loved it because I got to work on music for a living, but he loved it because I was making him rich. Eventually my five minutes of super-stardom passed and my albums stopped selling. Star Breeze decided to move on to greener pastures and I was left to fend for myself here in Ponyville, I’ve been working here at Club Luna ever since… and that’s it I guess…”
Doom looked into Vinyl’s eyes, there were tears starting to well in their corners. Doom had to act fast, he held Vinyl’s hoof between his and said,
“I don’t know what it means coming from a stranger like me, but I’m sorry… I want to tell you that I understand, that I know how you feel, but I can’t and I don’t think I ever will…”
Vinyl blinked her tears away and said,
“Hearing that means a lot to me Doom, especially from a stranger,”
Then she straightened her posture and continued in a more cheery tone,
“So, that’s me. I do believe it’s your turn good sir”
Doom knew this part was coming, and he had prepared himself for it as best as he could. Doom relayed his rehearsed response,
“Well, feel free to call me a liar, but I don’t have a past to tell you about… or at least not one I can remember. In fact my last clear recollection is hopping on a train from Mareizona to… well I don’t know where I was headed. And now I’m here lost in Ponyville,”
As Doom finished he saw that Vinyl looked enthralled yet it seemed she was still waiting on one more detail, so Doom tried to explain,
“That’s it… I can’t remember anything beyond who I am, and even then there are blank spots,”
Vinyl just continued to stare at him with a trance like gaze and said,
“Well then why you don’t you tell me about that? I mean the fact that you’re an alicorn can’t be your only distinguishing feature,”
Doom was surprised. He was almost certain that his pathetic story would have driven Vinyl away, but it seemed that she was hanging on his every word, now more than ever. Not wanting to disappoint her, Doom started to elaborate,
“Okay, um… I like music, I sneeze whenever I’m around chocolate so I guess that mean I’m allergic, there’s also this weird feeling I get whenever I see a piano - songs start to play through my head and I just know how to play them, it’s kinda funny really,”
“That sounds like a pretty neat talent! Why isn’t it your cutie mark?”
As Vinyl piped up, Doom realized he actually hadn’t bothered to look at his cutie mark since he woke up in Mareizona, he couldn’t even remember what it looked like. Doom shifted on the bar stool so that he could get a better look at his mark. It was a skull, but there was something off about it. Doom leaned in to further scrutinize the symbol but suddenly his vision was filled with a scene like something out of a horror story. Doom tried to look around but it seemed that he wasn’t in control of his body. As hard as he tried, Doom couldn’t even twitch his eyelids.

Doom kept struggling but, it was to no avail. Finally he gave in and decided to observe his surroundings. He was floating several meters above the ground in what was left of a small burning village, it was then that he realized that there was a sizable crowd of ponies below him; or rather they were creatures that looked like ponies. Focusing his gaze a little harder he realized that they were in fact the same creatures from Twilight’s book, they were changelings! Doom shifted his gaze to the point that the changelings were fixated on. They were all staring at a small colt and a Unicorn stallion. The stallion was standing over a number of mangled changeling corpses and seemed to be speaking to the little colt, which was shaking a few paces in front of him. The colt in question, Doom noticed, looked like a ten year old version of himself, and was curled into a ball trying to hide himself from view.
Doom had to strain his senses but eventually he picked up on what the stallion was saying,
“Come on kid, we have to leave! I can’t hold these things off for much longer!”
Little Doom unfurled from his ball and begged,
“Please mister, run, before mommy comes,”
The stallion wasn’t having any of it however as he continued,
“I can protect you from the changelings, but we have to -“
The pony would have continued but just then one of the changelings from the crowd lunged at him, mouth open and fangs extended. As fast as the changeling was however, the Unicorn was faster and he blasted the changeling away with a bolt of magic. The changeling flew through the air landing at the colt Doom’s hooves.
“No!”
The little Doom screamed as he nudged the corpse of the changeling, trying to revive it with various spells. Tears streamed down the colts face as he finally stopped his fruitless attempts to bring the changeling back to life. The scene was silent save for the colts sobbing, and as the disembodied Doom shifted to gaze upon the stallion, he noticed that his expression of concern had transformed into one of disgust. The Stallion broke the silence by sneering,
“Little freak. You wanna stay here with the bugs? Fine by -”
The Unicorn was cut off once again and this time permanently, as Doom’s mini me lashed out with a bestial cry and a bolt of magic of his own, striking the Unicorn square in the chest. The Unicorn fell and it was immediately apparent that he was dead. The little Doom then collapsed on to the ground and curled back into a green and grey ball. A changeling pushed through the crowd and placed the quaking ball onto its back, followed by another two who gathered the corpse of the changeling that had been felled at Little Doom’s feet. The trio began to walk away, and as the crowd parted for them Doom could see a mark on the flank of his colt self that hadn’t been there moments ago, it was a cutie mark… it was Doom N’ Gloom’s cutie mark.

A flash of pain brought Doom back into reality. Blinking as his eyes re-focused to the club’s low light, Doom realized that he was staring at Vinyl Scratch, and that she was holding a hoof to his face,
“Are you okay Doom? Your eyes went all funny for a bit,”
“I’m fine,”
Doom replied, as he struggled to grasp what it was that he just saw
“What happened to me?”
Vinyl dropped her hoof away from Doom and said,
“Well, we were having this wonderful chat about your chocolate allergy, then you looked at your cutie mark and went as stiff as a board. Your eyes went all dragonish and you got this blank look on your face, like somepony just dropped ice down your back. You stayed like that for about five minutes until… well until I sort of… slapped you a little,”
Doom smiled as he massaged his still tingling cheek,
“Thanks for that by the way,”
“Sorry,”
Vinyl said as she averted her gaze down to the floor,
“Some first impression, huh?”
Doom took Vinyl’s hoof and, in an attempt to lighten her spirit, and said
“Hey, at least you didn’t black out in the middle of a conversation, like a certain somepony,”
Vinyl opened her mouth to say something, but was stopped short as the bartender slammed his hoof down on the bar top between her and Doom, with noticeably more force than was necessary. Doom glared at him and could see he was still fuming over the stunt Doom had pulled by paying for Vinyl’s cider.
“We’re closing lovebirds. Time to pack it up and take the kissy crap outside,”
Doom scowled as the obnoxious pony turned to look him in the eye and said,
“You got a problem with that, filly wings?”
Doom just ground his teeth like earlier and replied
“Not at all, dishwasher,”
Then, resuming a smile, he turned Vinyl and held his arm out to her, saying,
“Shall we take the kitchen maid’s advice, my lady?”
Vinyl burst out laughing as she took Doom’s arm and walked with him away from the bar,
“Of course, kind sir!”
The bar keeper rolled his eyes as he hefted the pair’s cider casks off of the bar top. Looking into the casks, he noticed that the caps were still firmly sealed over their tops; the two had talked for hours and hadn’t even touched the alcohol. He stared at the two as they walked away, amazed that anypony could be that happy while sober, then he shook himself away from the subject and went about cleaning his workstation.

Author's Note

so here's episode two and, yeah unless you haven't noticed we're still in the corny zone! same as last time, message me about typo's, and please try to keep your comments at the very least neutral... *sarcasm* I have some very delicate feelings *sarcasm*