It's not the place, it's the experience,
The music thrumming through your flesh,
The walls vibrating against your skin,
The lights shearing through your soul,
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience,
It's the piercing of your skin like iron,
Pouring liquid magic into your bloodstream
Giving you a whole new world
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience,
It's the cold chill of waking up on concrete,
The silence of a now abandoned warehouse,
The sight of gray clouds floating past the window,
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience,
Walking home, sluggish like a living zombie,
Lips cracked from a night of stolen kisses,
Eyes creased, wincing behind violet glasses,
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience,
It's the hunger in your heart,
It's the desire in your soul,
The need to see that needle again, beautiful,
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience,
The music thrumming through your flesh,
The walls vibrating against your skin,
The lights shearing through your soul,
Flashing in Time with the beat.
Vinyl Scratch woke up, confused.
She was strewn across a pile of discarded couch cushions, most of which had holes and rips in them. Some were probably ripped when they were thrown away, but others were most certainly destroyed by the party last night. One hell of a party. The music was loud, the crowd was large, and there was no lack of vices. Liquor, drugs, sex, everything a pony could want if she wanted to give society a great big fuck you.
She played these parties a lot. She wasn't paid in cash, no, she was paid way better. DJ Pon3 was paid in whatever she wanted, free. She usually took her payment in the form of a prick to the skin, sweet liquid chasing the needle in. Her body warmed up, no, it lit on fire. She became electrified and, and... She became alive. It was her dirty little secret, the secret Equestria's proper folk didn't know. But even if they did, she didn't care. The rush was worth waking up in a warehouse that was lit only because the windows had been smashed out the previous night. Worth the knowledge that she probably fooled around with more ponies that most people met in their lifetime, worth the fact that she just didn't care.
Vinyl slowly stood up from the pile, stumbling for a few feet before she got used to her legs again. She hated walking in the morning. When she walked through the high, she was elegant, she was a dancer, she floated like no Pegasus could float. But when she was off that high, when she was walking away from whatever hell hole she partied in the night before, she was clumsy, heavy, a clod. Her head was spinning around her, and she felt sick. There was nothing less cool, less sweet, than coming off a high. Unless you were coming off a bad high. Either way, it just made her want to get back on the high. Made her want that needle again.
Vinyl sighed as she stepped into her bare, one room apartment. There wasn't much furniture, just a comfy old couch shoved into the corner, and a television sitting on a crate, both of which were so old Vinyl wasn't quite sure how they even worked anymore. She just blamed in on magic and moved on with her day. She sighed a deep, heavy sigh, pulling open the fridge and staring at the empty shelves, the pale light flickering. She needed to replace the bulb. Or feed herself. Regular food, not that tasty chocolate treat stuffed with those lovely little leaves. Or maybe she would get some of those brownies. They were great, staving off her true hunger until Celestia pulled the sun down, and she could enjoy the world that thrived under Luna's brilliant bright moon.
She was tired, of the world under the light. Of happiness and friendship, of rainbows and butterflies. She craved the world of depravity and sin, of pure darkness and ecstasy. It wasn't right. It was wrong. It was fantastically wrong. She lived for it. It was all that she wanted. But she needed money for that kind of life. She charged high, but she needed to work to make sure she got her job. To keep up her appearance. After all, ponies that look good are the ponies that get hired. The ponies get hired get paid. The ponies that get paid get to drown themselves in anything and everything that made them happy.
What made Vinyl happy was a needle full of molten diamond. A spoon of crystalline gold. A sweet smokey haze covering over the room, oh yes. Just being able to step into a party and inhale heaven. That made Vinyl happy.
The day passed too slowly. Vinyl worked another one of Photo Finish's fashion shows, spinning the discs as the models walked. It made things easier. She could admire the girls walking around, admire their nice clothes, and take in the myriad of colors, using it to try and convince herself that she wasn't as crushingly sober as she actually was. She hoped to get something good tonight. Something real good. She wanted to wake up in the Griffin's kingdom covered in feathers next to a content looking dragon with neither of them knowing what the hell happened. Or a manticore. It didn't matter. She wanted to fly.
The ponies were already raving by the time she got there. An abandoned department store, the first floor turned to so much more, it's not the place but the experience. Bodies moved in one simultaneous heap, swerving and sliding, sweat already beading on the walls. Vinyl lept through them, nervous and jittery. She could see it in their eyes, that utter happiness, and she wanted it. She wanted it so badly she could feel her mouth go dry. She could feel her heart go hollow, craving for that high. She needed it. She needed it badly. So badly it burned. Vinyl lept to the dj booth, starting the set as quickly as she could. The music blasted to life, earning a bright and excited howl from the ponies.
She played for a while, spinning the discs to the beat of the music, swerving her body in time with the ponies in the crowd, every fiber of her being begging to join the crowd, to get her high, to feel the needle shoot through her skin and inject her with life until she flew. Vinyl wanted to fly, to go up high until the world began a mosaic beneath her feet. She wanted to blend with the other ponies until they became one force dancing through the universe. Vinyl set the music to play on its own for a while, trotting away from the booth, seeking the pony that would give her the high she wanted so badly.
The syringe was small, it gave her a lift though. In an instant, in a flash, in a bit of boiling warmth, the world got a bit brighter, the world got a bit spicier. Everything was better and everything was good. She laughed and danced until she craved more, more, more. Vinyl ran through the partying ponies, eagerly finding a pony with a pile full of little pills. He pushed a pair over to her, which she gulped down, trailing it with a bottle of liquor she was sure was made in someone's basement. It didn't take long for the high to get better, to get stronger.
Colors began to blur, the abandoned apartment store became a stained glass window, a cathedral to the night, filled with an incense that smoked and spiraled, that filled Vinyl's lungs and made her laugh, made her relax, made everything right. She couldn't understand why every pony didn't do that. She couldn't understand why any pony would want to walk around during the day, when the night offered such great feelings, of such deliciousness, such warmth. Nothing terrible happened under the cover of the stars. Celestia made plants grow. But Luna gave Vinyl Scratch the universe.
Vinyl laughed as she stumbled into an attractive looking unicorn mare, the two of them quickly throwing themselves into an ecstasy fueled kiss, spinning around with the crowd that danced around them. Vinyl yelped in surprise as the two fell over, laughing as they rolled on the ground for a moment. She stood up, shaking herself, enjoying the way her mane fell as she tossed it from side to side. She looked down at her partner, her smile not failing even as she saw the deep gash in her leg. She smiled back at Vinyl, who sat down and playfully lapped up the blood from the unicorn's leg.
The light hit her like a freight train. She had never felt like that before. The drugs she had taken all her life, the drugs she had taken that night, nothing compared to the rush she suddenly got. Magic, nothing but magic, flew through her body. The music took to visibility, forming shifting shapes that glowed and danced around Vinyl, all the colors in the room could suddenly be heard, singing and cheering Vinyl's name. She could taste every touch from every body that danced around her, their bodies against hers a sweet buffet that could never be explained. She nearly cried tears of joy, as she wildly began to run around the room, pausing only to grab another pony and swirl them around. Her joy was an infection that moved through the drug riddled crowd like a pleasing plague.
Vinyl didn't quite understand why she felt like that. Was it a combination of the drugs? Was it just because today was a great day? Or did she just really like that unicorn mare she had left behind earlier? She didn't care. Who would care? The world had become something absolutely amazing and she never wanted to leave it behind. She ran back to her DJ booth, inspiration pouring into her body from every corner of the room, every corner of the universe. The music picked up, the ponies dancing, glittering, flashing in time with the beat. It was true euphoria, a euphoria that Vinyl had never experienced before.
"Euphoria in the night,
Moving to the star light,
Can't say I've ever felt this wrong,
Wrong like this,
like this ever before.
Euphoria in the night,
Glittering in the starlight,
Can't say I've ever felt right,
Right like this,
like this ever before."
Vinyl rarely added lyrics to her beats. But she had to. She couldn't keep that to herself, that greatness, that beat, that magnificence.
Vinyl awoke in pain, in pain like ever before. It seared and ripped and tore through her skull, knocking to her knees as soon as she stood up from her bed on the staircase. She let out a soundless scream, a tear falling from behind her goggles as she held her head in her hooves. With every great high came a great hangover, and this was no different. Or was it? It was. It was a high that she couldn't describe with words known to ponykind and now she was paying for it.
A discarded brownie curbed some of the pain, brought her back to a calm that allowed her to leave the old department store, heading back to her barren apartment in her barren life during the light of day. Nothing good happened during the day. Not for Vinyl. Her happiness was at night. Her happiness was finding that high. And that high could only be found when the sun finished whatever it needed to do and went away.
She struggled. Not having any work didn't help her any. She needed that high. She needed it now. But she had to wait. Instead she traveled the city, ate lunch, walked through the mall, glaring through her glasses as the ponies she saw. They were all so, ignorant. They didn't understand what she found. They didn't understand what got their fire started. They just wandered around, not knowing how wonderful it was to party. To be, alive.
But...unicorns... Vinyl couldn't help but smile at all the unicorns. They just seemed... magical. Not the everyday lift your tea with your mind magic, no. No. This was something, something greater. Every unicorn she glanced at, gave her an eagerness. A desire to... to.. What? She didn't know what she wanted to do. She wasn't sure why. She just accepted it and went through her day, struggling to reach the night, to go back to the party, to take those drugs again and regain that euphoria that blazed through her mind like a bright white inferno. She needed it. Living without that was absolutely insane.
The night fell slowly, as if the sun was mocking her with it's rays stretched across the sky, clinging to the mountain tops with claws rays. The sun dropped as she raced to the site of the next party, an underground sanctuary tucked under a bar at the edge of the city. She grabbed some of those brightly colored pills before even bothering to start the music. The high was nice, but it wasn't what she sought. It was just a light trace of color at the edge of a vision that begged for the spectrum to explode. The music was heavy, too heavy, without the high lifting it and dancing it around her. The light seemed dull when it wasn't singing in her soul. The ponies seemed rough, a swarm of steel wool coiling around itself. The high she was looking for just hadn't hit her yet.
Vinyl put the music to play by itself again, jumping out to find the needles again, to feel them slide through her flesh, to feel the electrical wonder bury itself into her soul, lighting up her world again. The syringe was larger this time, the pony delivering it more friendly, more sharing with their product. The smoke through the air was thicker, stronger. Reality shattered under their hold, and Vinyl could feel herself floating again, but it wasn't the same. She needed to fly. She needed to feel like everything was brighter than it could ever possibly be. She wanted it to feel like the sun had finally come to its senses and become part of the night.
What drug had done that for her? What had opened up her world to such an amazing extent? What had made life, livable? Vinyl ran through the cavern, seeking drug dealers, seeking anyone who could give her what she wanted. She came upon a unicorn, huddled in the corner, howling over a shard of glass jammed into her leg. Vinyl sighed, shaking her head slowly before trotting up, gingerly grabbing the glass with her teeth and pulling it out. The blood from the glass dripped into mouth, smothering her tongue, the remnants of which graced her throat...
Vinyl dropped the glass, a wide expression on her face. The rush, the high, it was back, it was back! It wasn't from the drugs, although the drugs made it better, made it great! The real drug there, was the blood, the blood from the unicorn! She was so high that she flew through the stars, danced with the cosmos and claimed it as her own. The thought passed that it might be wrong, that she shouldn't take such indescribable pleasure from the blood of her own kind, but then she moved without thinking, her tongue grazing the wound, the high intensifying to a light no sun could contend with.
The music began to dance again, the light flashed in time to the music's steps, the feel of the ponies against her fur, her skin, her flesh, felt sublimely sweet. It was so good, in a way that she couldn't comprehend. She laughed in excitement, dancing through the crowd, excitedly shaking herself about the dj booth. She did her job like she had never done before, throwing herself into it heart and soul, the smile on her face the most honest smile that had split those lips in years. It felt so good. So amazingly good. How did the world go so long without discovering how great it was? How did no one find out how perfect it was? The world could be so much more if everyone knew it.
But it could just be all hers. She didn't feel the need to educate everyone on how great it was. She could just love it by herself. The blood of unicorns, just a bit, was more than enough to give her all the high she could ever want. Sure, the hangover was something nasty, but it wasn't as if she couldn't get through the day. The reward for waiting was more than any reward that had ever been given in all of history. She smiled, eagerly giving up all common sense, all sense at all, and throwing herself into the whirlwind of emotion and sensory bliss that she had won for herself.
The pain she was anticipating was back. But it was alright. She knew now, knew how the high would come back. And so she wanted, slowly walking through the slush that was life during the light of day. She accepted the heavy weight on her shoulders, the pressure of gravity pulling her towards the ground. She kept her eyes towards the floor, trying to avoid looking at other ponies. She didn't want that look of hunger, of great and all consuming desire to cross her face whenever she glanced upon another unicorn. It would give too much away, it could steal the amazing high away from her. And she couldn't live without that high.
The music blared through the barn, lights flashing against the walls, the colors dancing through the night. It wasn't the place, it was the experience. And the experience she seeked...Coming out that far was worth it, even if she had to do it sober. Vinyl didn't need the pills, the needles dancing in the light, the smoke that curled through the air in an effortless ballet. All she needed was that crimson liquid dripping from the skin of a unicorn. It was fantastic. It was fabulous, beyond rhyme or reason. It needed no reason. It was the high that no one else was capable of accepting. She kept her eye out while the party continued, playing music that grew in its intensity. In a barn like this, a unicorn was soon to hurt themselves. She just needed to watch.... to wait...
The thirst gripped her, and eventually she set the music to play on its own again, carefully picking up a fallen nail and using her magic to hide it as she walked through the crowd, searching for a unicorn that would give her what she wanted, what she needed. She found him, alone near a hay bail. It was easy, too easy, to get him to relax, to have him enjoy the smoke and the pills that Vinyl no longer needed. When he had gone calm, when he was too far into the pleasure to notice anything out of the ordinary, Vinyl slashed into the side of his neck with the nail. Not deep enough to kill him, but deep enough to give Vinyl all the unicorn blood she could possibly want. She reveled in the high, lapping it up like a pony fresh out of a desert of all that was ill in the world. Her parched tongue swirled with delight along the wound, her mind quickly becoming warped and changed by the power of the blood.
She walked away, not noticing the pale expression of the unicorn that she left behind, not caring that he was too high to even bother checking if his wound needed attention. The world became alive, and that's all that mattered. All Vinyl would ever needed was that rush, that high. Gone were her days of taking in any drug, any vice that she could get her hooves on for a moment of pleasure. All she needed now was the sparkling red liquid her unicorn friends gave to her. All she needed was some unicorn blood, sweet and symphonic.
It's not the place, it's the experience.
It's the liquid, red like rubies,
Making light sing
And music shimmer in the light,
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience.
It's the dagger through their skin,
The salty sweet droplets falling,
The liquid pouring from their flesh
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience.
It's the squirming beneath your hooves,
It's the needle through their flesh.
It's the confusion and joy in their eyes,
Flashing in time with the beat.
It's not the place, it's the experience.
It's the high.
It's the thrill.
It's making reality shatter and fall under your laugh.
It's watching the world come alive before your eyes.
Flashing in time with the beat.
