Counter Culture

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Vinyl sat quietly, she was nibbling on a piece of toast waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. Octavia was cleaning the small dish she had used shooting glances at Vinyl every few seconds.

“Will you knock it off? Geez.”

“Well honestly Vinyl, you magically turned your hair red, how am I supposed to react?”

“I don't know, like a normal pony maybe?” she sat back in the chair, tossing the toast unto the plate,.

Octavia went back to her cleaning. Remembering how just a day prior they had been pursued by the police and then ended up staring at a cosmetics book at the Manehattan library. “Tell me again Vinyl, What are we doing here?” She had asked her unicorn counterpart who was currently seated; her magic quickly flipping through the pages of the book.

“I'm looking for a spell, something simple but useful.” The reply came quickly. Octavia sat and waited, her eyes examining the other books on the shelf. Nothing caught her eye but she was casually lost in thought when the white mare beside her let out a slight exclamation. “Alright, haha I found it.” She smiled as she read the spell to herself, a light blue glow expanding from her horn and engulfing her entire being. Octavia barely had the time to react before the spell was complete and she was left to stare and wonder.

“So what do you think? Pretty good right?”

The grey mare stood a bit confused, a faint smile adorning her face, “Vinyl your hair is red,” it was all she could manage to reply.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but it'll at least keep the police off my tail for awhile.”

Tavi let the thought process in her head, nodding at the notion. “I suppose that only makes sense, wait... shouldn't I get some sort of disguise or cosmetic enhancement as well?”

“Nah, they aren't looking for you and I seriously doubt they recognized you looking like that.” Vinyl pointed a hoof at her friend, chuckling softly; Octavia frowned at the comment but motioned for her friend to follow. They trotted slowly, the need for urgency behind them. They had been laying low in Octavia's apartment ever since.

Vinyl sighed, she was getting tired of being cooped up inside. Octavia had just sat down next to her friend when there was a small thud at the door. Octavia made a motion to get up but Vinyl had already opened the door with her magic; already the object floated its way towards them as the door shut behind it. As the unicorn set the object on the table they both gasped, one from recognition and one from shock. The newspaper's headline was written plainly

"Death on the Dance Floor: Four DJs found dead at Cloud Fall hotel.

'opening act caught in what is being called a horrible pyrotechnic malfunction."

Octavia remained quiet; Vinyl remained still, her eyes darting back over the newspaper in a desperate attempt to process the information. As the notion finally sank in she quickly ran out of the room. The grey earth pony turned to follow her finding her rummaging through her bag of things. The earth mare cleared her throat before speaking, "What are you looking for Vinyl?" she sounded like she was going to be sick.

Her friend ignored her, continuing on her task. "I know it's in her, where is that damn thing?" as she spoke Octavia Moved closer to her, now looking over her friend's shoulder.

"Here it is," the unicorn smiled triumphantly, "Come look at this Octavia." She jumped back a little as she turned to see her friend so close to her.

"What the buck Tavi? Geez nearly gave me a heart attack," she chided as the pamphlet floated towards the grey pony who carefully plucked it from the air. She looked over the paper and then to her friend, "What is this?"

"Doesn't it look familiar?" she walked towards her friend, "See? That first bullet that's where me and Neon were when..." she paused and shook her head, dislodging the image. "... And this second one is the Cloud Fall."

"Well that is a coincidental isn't it?"

"It's not a coincidence, this is my list of all the new clubs in Equestria. Tavi, somepony's offing all the DJs!"

Octavia gave the thought consideration, "But why Vinyl?"

"I don't know but we have to figure this out. Look the next club doesn't open for a week; that's plenty of time to figure this out."

The earth pony sat down, her flank hitting the hardwood with a small thud. "Shouldn't we alert the authorities?"

Vinyl shook her head using her front hooves for emphasis, "No colts, they're already looking for me and these guys. Plus... I owe this to Neon."

Octavia shook her head but knew her friend would go with or without her. "Okay Vinyl, where should we start?"

"At the Cloud Fall."

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Arpeggio sat quietly, she was alone in the large common room. She slowly hummed a tune to herself; she thought it was something reminiscent of Buch or Beethooven. Slowly she rose, trotting up to the living quarters levitating her cloak so that it trailed wistfully behind her. Nopony was around, no doubt they were in the concert hall rehearsing, she smiled; she enjoyed being alone.

She stored her cloak away, her eyes drifting across the many accolades she had acquired, which now were shelved above her piano. It was a struggle to convince Requiem to allow such a thing, it required her to take one of the larger bedrooms which were reserved solely for the high ranking members of their organization; she quickly earned her place. She sat before the large oak piano, it had been hoof-crafted in that very room, and began to play.

It was a slow, melancholy tune, similar to Beethooven's Moonlight Sonata. She smiled sadly: her piano, her music, her art; it was her only solace. A sanctuary of peace and serenity to block out the Violent acts she committed, she found it odd that those words brought to mind images of beating somepony with a pipe; something she had never done. She shrugged away the thought as she continued to play the symphony that lived only in her head. it would be quite some time before she'd have to be an assassin again, for now she was once again a musician.

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Vinyl and Octavia sat on the opposite side of the Hotel. Vinyl had received a few glances but it seemed that her temporary disguise was working like a charm. The hotel was relatively empty, closed due to the damage caused by the incident. A few police ponies remained to keep watch over the situation.

"Alright, all we need to do is sneak past them and into the hotel." Vinyl rubbed her hooves together as she spoke, a smirk etched across her face.

"What are we even hoping to find in there Vinyl? I mean really, there can't be much left." Octavia sat, staring at the clouds, a Pegasus drifted slowly on one; the grounded pony frowned, she wasn't sure about the plan anymore.

"Clues Tavi, anything that might be helpful. Don't be a so uptight about it, chill okay?"

"Fine, let's go then." The grey pony slowly began to walk towards the hotel.

"Wait... What are you doing?"

"I'm going to... distract them," her smile could only be described as practiced seduction. "You sneak in and I'll meet you inside."

Vinyl only nodded as she watched her normally reserved friend casually muss up her mane and tail. She walked a ways behind the  grey mare, watching for her opportunity.

Octavia took in a deep breathe before she began walking again, her flank swaying a bit more than necessary. She held her head tall, that same sexy half-smile plastered on her face. As she approached the staggered line of officers she began to look around confusedly, talking to herself. When she had their attention she began to make little half-circles; making sure her tail swished and swayed just enough to tease.

"Oh, I think I'm lost. Excuse me, but could one of you handsome officers help me?" she pouted innocently.

The four stallions took notice of her request, each one scrambled over to where she stood.

"You boys are too kind, oh and strong," she nearly cooed as her hoof traced over the chest of one of the bigger officers. She was smiling and flirting as they all tried to maintain her attention. She shot a glance at her friend, nodding in the direction of the hotel.

Vinyl quickly shook herself out of her state of shock, impressed by her friend's apparent skill. She quietly trotted over to the hotel, slipping in as the plan intended.

She sifted through the items scattered about the main lobby. Her magic floated each item closer for inspection. As she finished looking through all the items she heard a noise. Reacting quickly she jumped behind the counter. She ducked out of view listening carefully. The footsteps approached slowly, then stopped; Vinyl peeked her head over the counter.

"Thank Celestia, it's only you Tavi." She let out a sigh of relief as she trotted over to her friend. "Nice work out there, I didn't know you had it in you."

"I learned a few things in my life, one being that all stallions are the same." she brushed her mane back into place. "I slipped in the basement window, that looks to be the place where it all happened."  she started trotting towards the stairway, Vinyl followed suit. The light grew dimmer as they wandered down into the moist and humid club. Vinyl illuminated what she could as they trotted toward the stage. They looked around, burn marks were scorched onto the metal stage, some broken glass bottles and soaked papers were pasted to the floor.

"Notice anything?" Vinyl said as she combed the area.

"No, not really. Wait..." Octavia trotted over to the doorway that led backstage, the tiniest shimmer catching her eye. "Vinyl, come over her." As the unicorn turned to walk over Octavia stooped down and took a closer look.

"Do you see that?"

"What am I supposed to be seeing?"

Octavia pointed her hoof at a considerable length of near invisible string, "That's piano wire, how many bands have a real piano?"

"Well buck, what do you think?" Vinyl stared at the wire, barely able to distinguish it from the trash.

"The police said there was an explosion, a sort of tripwire was used to activate it, this must be it." Octavia felt happy with her conclusion.

Vinyl smiled, it wasn't much but it was at least something. They continued to search but found little else to support their last claim. The grey mare sighed as she repeated her scan, "What now Vinyl? There's nothing else."

The white pony stopped to think, "You said you fell into a bad crowd when you were younger, right"

"Well yes, but I don't want to talk about that."

"Where was that?"

"Here in Manehattan, I was attending the Manehatten Institute of the Classical Arts. What does this have to do with anything?" Octavia stared confusedly, sitting down before realizing the floor was wet and covered in trash.

"I think we should pay your old friends a visit." Vinyl smiled, the grey mare before her shaking her head in disagreement.

They had walked for hours, Octavia begrudgingly led her friend through the twists and turns of Manehatten's many side streets and back alleys. To any normal pony this would be an endless maze of twists and turns, to the earth pony it was just a walk down memory lane. She sighed, her creamy white friend followed close behind her. She swished her tail to indicate which turns they would be taking.

Slowly they approached a convergence in the alleyways, a small pillar of smoke rose from the central fire. Tents in various states of disarray were scattered about the square. Ponies of all kinds lay or sat, their clothing and hair disheveled and unkempt.

"You used to run with this crowd?" Vinyl spoke quietly, almost afraid to disrupt the group before them. Octavia sighed and shook her head, the only answer she was willing to offer.

"Let me do the talking, okay? Because Celestia only knows if you'll understand."

Vinyl raised her eyebrow at this but remained quiet as two tall ponies took notice of them.

"Well well well, what 'ave we 'ere. Dva dobby Devotchkas looking ta filly an eegra? Chicago you bezoomy bratchny come govereet with the ptitsas."

"What did he say?" Vinyl whispered quietly.

Octavia quickly turned away from the gruff orange stallion in front of her. "He said, 'look at this, two girls looking to play a game. Chicago you crazy bastard come talk to them.' Don't worry I know these two, they just haven't recognized me." she whispered before returning to see a faded yellow pony with a red mane approach.

"Ah dva fine ptitsas, huh? Can I interessovat ya in peet or pischna? Or just the old' in-out in-out." He chuckled a bit too madly at that.

Octavia cleared her throat before speaking. "Chicago Lightning mi merzky gloopy ded droog, ya don't pony mi goloss?

He shook his head in surprise, the stallion at his side looking at her closer. "'Tavia is 'at you?" he smiled softly, "You ol' kot we haven't viddied you since we was just nadsats in the staja," he cooed in remembrance.

Vinyl just stood and stared, it was unintelligible to her. Her eyes swept across the camp as her friend continued with her conversation. She took note of them all, they were performers from what she could tell. Each had something that they did; music, art, dance, perform. They made their living from their work, they lived off the streets, but they were happy.  She watched as a young colt began to juggle by the fire, a small crowd of foals sat and watched. Another colt sat beside him, tossing objects within his reach, until his total was 8. Vinyl watched, hypnotized by the simple act. Her eyes fixed on an orange and she tracked it as it traveled from hoof to hoof and back again. She was awoken from her reverie by her friend, Octavia nudged her side, "We finally have something to go on."