The Violet Memoir

It was a nice nap, I remember the dream I had, I was laying under the shade of the old Oak tree on the campus, Tavi was sitting nearby, practicing her Cello. The sound of her playing, combined with the cool breeze, was so relaxing. But when the sound of her cello stopped suddenly, I sat up to look at her and was horrified at what I saw. Octavi had dropped the cello, as she began wasting away before my eyes, he body growing thin from starvation, until the life in her eyes finally faded. I woke from that dream right as I jumped forward to catch her.

Much to my own dismay I jumped right off the bed, landing face first onto the wooden floors with a loud crash. Mr.Cake was nowhere to be found, but Ms.Cake offered me a hoof. “You should be careful sweetie, and sit down, don’t want you falling down again, We'll be there shortly.” Now that she had spoken I finally realized that we were in fact moving. “wh-where are we going?” “To Manehattan, We were actually over due to head there, waiting for somepony to come back with important information.” I could only assume that they had been waiting for my brother, and whatever information he could bring back from Canterlot. This always make me wonder who his informant was, could he have been using me for information? Or maybe he met his informant before me and stuck around to talk with me, I'll never get to know the answer now that he is gone.

Everything that was loose in the carriage had been put away in cabinets and locked shut, so that if they hit a bump it wouldn't break or injure one of the passengers. Ms.Cake explained that Mr.Cake pulled their carriage, and their Generator behind it whenever they moved from town to town, and that right after Ponyville they always visited Manehattan to resupply materials to trade with. This was the first time I had ever been to Manehattan, and I had heard it was in some ways more grand than Canterlot, and this always inspired me to want to visit there someday, and now I was on my way there. “So how long have we been on the road?” “Since about and hour after you nodded off, you were just so cute sleeping that I told Carrot to let you sleep, and we packed up. Oh and you don't have to worry, Pinkie checked in and knows that your with us.”

Judging from the light outside it was a little bit after noon, they had been travelling for hours, and when I looked out the small window all you could see of the city was just the tops of a few skyscrapers. I just stared out the window for a while, watching the country pass by, as the buildings just grew larger on the horizon. Ms.Cake must have thought I was growing depressed as she quickly tried to find something to grab my attention. “Pinkie dropped off your saddlebags before we left, and I couldn't help but notice the Turntable. We had somepony who used to have charity events, and He used one of these to play some pretty interesting music. The younger ponies seemed to like it, and it almost always drew in a crowd. I think Pinkie asked Mac to keep his speakers, maybe you should ask if you can use them.” I perked up a bit, loving the opportunity to do as I had said, and really pick up where my Brother had left off. but the way she worded it, it made me wonder how much everypony knew about me, and if they were all just feigning ignorance for my sake. “Yeah? That sounds great, I would love to be able to mess around with it.”

I grabbed my bag and pulled the Turntable from it, and began explaining some of the functions that my brother had taught me. “though, I've never really played with one while its been connected to speakers, so I only know the theory, but I used to help my best friend write songs, so I think I should be okay.” The time seemed to fly as I spoke with Ms.Cake, and before I realized it had become dark. not long after the Carriage stopped, and Mr.Cake came into the carriage. “ We're here, take a peek outside Vinyl, I'm sure its like nothing you've ever seen.” This really got me curious, so I nearly jumped off the bed and rushed out the door. “Woah~!” He was truly right, the high class city of Canterlot never prepared me for Manehattan, the buildings all touching the clouds, and lit up to the top. “We are just outside of the city, we aren't allowed to set up camp inside city limits, but we are just a short walk from it.” I heard Mr.Cake call out to me. “You should go into town and have a look around, and go have some fun.” He actually tossed me a few bits, this shocked me, seeing how little they had. but i wasn't about to waste an opportunity to go have fun in my youth, so I began running for the city, and called back. “Thanks, I’ll be sure to pay you back!”

Despite it being dark, and far past the time most other ponies went to bed, The ponies in this city were still awake and bustling in fact. I had never seen so many ponies all with someplace to be, or somepony to see, all at this hour. It was all so crazy, and I felt like I was just lost compared to everypony who knew what they were doing. So I threw my hood up over my head, and put my goggles over my eyes and began walking around. I liked wearing my goggles in public, ponies would sometimes look at me funny, but I liked it because I could watch everypony and nopony would know it. after a time of just walking around and doing a bit of pony-watching a group of rowdy ponies came up behind me and began speaking at me. “Hey, why’r ya hidin’ your face?” I tried to just ignore them, hoping they would go away, but then they surrounded me. The stallion then got in my face and said again. “I said, why’r ya hidin’ your face?” The liquor was practically dripping off his breath, and this being my first real encounter with it, I couldn't help but cough a bit.

When I tilted my head and covered my mouth to cough, the Stallion to my left pulled my hood off. “Ay, she’s not too bad lookin!” “now if she’d take off th’ damn goggles.” The Stallion began reaching to pull off my goggles, but I recoiled in time to stop him from removing them. This was apparently the wrong thing to do in this situation, as the stallion to each of my sides grabbed me, and held me in place. There was something there, behind their smiles, that frightened me. My heart was beating so fast, as the stallion in front of me drew closer. Fear was grasping over me, and like before, my throat seemed to swell, and not even a yelp would escape me, It was just then I heard a voice call out. “If I were you gents, I would consider letting that one go.” The Stallion in front of me stopped at the sound of the voice, and the two to each side let me go. “an’ if we say we don’t wanna?” “Well then I'm very sorry for what I'm about to do.” The mysterious stallion took a step closer as he drew something from his coat, the three stallions who had assaulted me began backing away from him, leaving me, still quivering, alone as the Stallion drew nearer.

When he was standing right in front of me, he helped me to my feet and whispered in my ear. “Are you alright miss?” I only nodded slightly. “I want you to trust me alright?” I only nodded again. “RUN!” At that moment he drew a strange slender object. I was only able to see it for a moment, as the tip began to glow blue, and a jet of steam from a man-hole being opened between us shot up, Covering our escape as we both dashed for it. We didn't even look behind us to see if they were chasing, and we didn't stop until we had put a couple of blocks behind us. We were standing in front of an unmarked building as we both caught our breath. “Th-Thank you, you saved me.” “Really? Hadn't noticed.” I giggled at his attempt at a joke, his odd accent sounded Canterlot, but with much less refinement to it. “I don’t even know your name.” “hmm, I’m Smith, John Smith.” I couldn't help but laugh at it. “Sorry, but that is such a weird name. I’m Vinyl Scratch.” “Well it’s a pleasure to meet you Vinyl Scratch.” “Mutually.” I said as I offered my hoof to him. “I’m not sure, but perhaps we should go into hiding for a time, maybe wait and make sure nopony is after you.” I nodded and smiled. “Lead the way, John Smith.” “Right.” He looked up at the unmarked building in front of us. “This seems like a good place.” I giggled at the silly man’s way of thinking. “Fine with me.” “Right, in we go then.”

When we entered the building all that could be heard was a low hum, with thumping coming from down the hall, all the other doors had been boarded up, and the walls covered in graffiti. “Well come on, lets go have a look.” John looked down the hall and began walking, there was a dull blue light at the end of the hall, just a sliver of it, like it was only escaping from under the edge of a door. “Shall we?” I asked, John nodded and swung open the door. The sights and sounds from inside that room bombarded us, Music louder than any I had ever heard before, Lights flashing, lasers flying across the ceiling, and ponies everywhere dancing, it was truly amazing. “Oh, its a club! Why didn't I think of that.” John spoke, but I was hardly paying attention, I was too mesmerized by my current surroundings. “Well come on, don't just stand there. Dance!” He quickly grabbed me and swept me into the crowd, it was hot, all the ponies were pressing together, the whole room was alive, even the air vibrated with life. I let instinct take control, I let my body flow with to rhythmic music, “What kind of music is this!” I was forced to yell in hopes that John would be able to hear me. “Its fairly new, the ponies are calling it Dubtrot.” “Dubtrot, I Love it!”

I must have gotten lost in the moment, because while I was dancing, I lost track of John, and of the time. Much later the music was slowing, and ponies began leaving, the night was coming to a close, but I stuck around to talk with the DJ. After everypony else had left, I was still on the floor dancing by myself, that was when the DJ picked up a Microphone and spoke to me. “Hey, everypony else has gone home kiddo, and I need to also. So this is the last song.” I screamed up at him. “OKAY!” Then stuck around to the bitter end, I even helped him pack up his equipment, we talked, his DJ name was V3KT0R, and he told me that if I was that interested, that I could use this place to practice, since it had been sound proofed for the raves. I gladly accepted, “I’m glad I stuck around, your really cool! maybe I’ll be able to see another of your shows sometime.” Then he left me to the large empty, and now silent room, to practice my own hooves at DJ-ing.

So there I was, sitting in the rather large, painted black, sound proofed, and windowless room. The only light supply was an array behind where the DJ had been setup, all of them had been raised and were pointed at the DJ’s booth, where a set of controls had been placed for them. I trotted up, and looked down, imagining all the ponies dancing, I just had to try my hand at it.

I ran as fast as I could back to the Camp, rushing up to the Cake’s carriage, I nearly busted in, but stopped myself short of just opening the door, and knocked politely, and heard from the inside. “The door is open.” I opened it to see Ms.Cake Knitting on her spot in the bed, and Mr.Cake nowhere to be found. “Oh hello sweetie, Carrot is out.” I nodded and smiled. “Is my bag still here?” “Oh, yes, right there.” She gestured a little ways over from her, where my bag sat on the floor, leaning against a cabinet. Without saying much i walked over and slung it over me. “I’m going out for a while, I’ll see you both later.” “Alright dear, be safe, and remember your always welcome over for dinner.” I waved and then ran back into town.

I nearly ran a couple of ponies over when I was trying to run through the packed streets, but i was in such a hurry that I barely even said sorry. when I made it back to that eerily silent, and dark room, I trotted back to the stop i had made the first dash from. I was so happy I would finally be able to hook up this Turntable to something, after messing around with it for a time I finally got all the wires hooked up. When I first hit the switch, the dull buzz of the speakers kicking to life filled the room, and then the Turntables, they started spinning, but nothing came out. “Whats wrong with it?” It took me a moment in my overly excited state that this didn’t have an input of music, and my brother didn’t have enough money to buy a computer, so he always used Records. Luckily there was quite a few in milk crates next to the booth, and so I started pulling them out and looking at them, they were all by artist I had never heard of at the time. Instead of going through them all I just choose two that sounded good to me, I went back to the turntable, slapped those records on, flipped the fader over to one side, and then pushed the volume controls up.

I had apparently chosen well, or all the records were pretty good, because something wonderful started playing, it wasn’t Dubtrot, but it was electronic. Luckily my brother had told me what each of the controls did, what effect each little button did, and how to use them effectively. When I started the second record, much to my surprise it was Dubtrot, it was a little bit hard to mix the two together at first, but I got the hang of it after a couple of tries. Soon i had played over half a dozen Records on each side and my exhaustion was getting the better of me, the last thing I remember was me sliding the fader over, and then black.

The next thing I remember is being poked on my backside and an unfamiliar voice. “Hey are you a DJ?” I in my groggy state nodded. “Course I am, dont’cha see my Turntables?” and then attempted to roll over, only to my surprise there wasn’t anything to roll over onto except a small drop down the first step of the short flight of stairs up to the DJ booth. I heard laughter as I sat up and rubbed my head, then I turned to look and see who had woke me up from what was probably a more embarrassing position than I would like to think. A mare, probably only a few years older than myself, with an odd facial mask, and neon blue goggles. “So your a DJ huh? want to have a little competition then? Just for fun of course.” I raised an eyebrow, she was a DJ? well the more I thought about it, the more that part made sense, but she wanted to compete with me? “I’m known as Miss Kittin, and you?” I hadn’t even thought of a DJ name, was it required for the job? would she laugh if just used my name? Well I’m a pony, a DJ Pony. “I’m DJ P0N-3, spelled Pon-three.” I had thankfully learned that bit from my previous encounter with V3KT0R. “P0N-3 eh? never heard of you, but you probably have never heard of me. but lets be sure and give the crowd a good show tonight hmm?” I nodded and trotted back up to the booth where Kittin was standing, and moved over my Turntable so she would have enough room. She looked at my setup, the crate of records on the ground next to me, and set a laptop and turntable up on her portion of the table. I must have watching too closely as she remarked, “Don’t worry, lots of us started just like you, Turntable and records, if you keep at it though you’ll get a computer eventually too.” I smiled and tried not to stare so much. “Yeah, that would be great, switching these record can be a hassle sometimes.” she smiled and continued to set up her equipment.

Because no-pony had shown up yet I had asked if Kittin was thirsty and offered to go to a nearby vending machine and get us both something to drink, she said yes, and so I was off. I knew how to use a vending machine, they weren’t very common in Canterlot, but the High school had one in the lunchroom at the least. After getting a could of soda’s for us I ran back, only to find pony after pony flooding to get in. i stood looking at the makeshift like they had created, two or three ponies entering the door at a time, no chance of allowing anypony else in before any of them. and I wouldn’t have gotten back in if Kittin had’t pushed her way through the crowd screaming “I’m the DJ, let me through or there will be NO show!” This immediately caused anypony who heard it to stop and make a way through, once she was outside she looked at me. “There you are, everypony started showing up as soon as you left. We have to get started.” I nodded and followed her back inside, and up to the booth. “Hope you don’t mind if I start us off.” she said as soon as we got up there, and began playing her first song.

I soon learned that in a supposed competition the DJ’s take turns playing songs, mixing them with others in the middle, adding effects, and let the other DJ mix into their song, honestly there was no winner, just a good time is had by everypony, and that is exactly what we had. I learned new tricks from watching Kittin that close, and she remarked I was pretty good at switching and mixing considering that I was using records. But at the end of the night we all had fun, and then after we had taken down our equipment and were about to leave, Kittin told me. “You really should stick with it, you have the potential to become great, Pon-three. I'll see ya around.”

I should have been tired for the walk home, but I was just so filled with adrenaline that I felt like I could go on for hours. I rushed through the camp, and into my and Pinkie’s tent and was quickly tackled by her. Tears were running down her face and dripping onto me as she sobbed. “You- you disappeared for an entire day! not even a word of where you went! You told me your would be here for me, and then you went missing. I just- I thought I was alone again.” I wrapped my hooves around Pinkie, embracing her in a comforting hug. “I’m sorry Pinkie, I didn’t even think about how you would feel.” Her sobbing lessened as she took a more agressive tone. “Thats right, you didn’t think! Manehattan is a dangerous place, somepony could have kidnapped you, stolen your liver, or worse, sold you into slavery.”

I had never even thought of the dangers of being alone in a large city. Canterlot was well patrolled, crime virtually never happened there, and you heard little of the outer cities from the inside. “I- I’m sorry Pinkie, I didn’t realize. It wont happen again.” She finally returned my hug, her anger lessening. “I just don’t want something to happen to you, we have so much to do together. So what were you doing when you were gone anyways?” My face lit up as I regaled Pinkie with my tale of the past couple of nights, how I had met two DJ’s, and how much fun I had. During my telling be had moved to the bed, I was laying down, while she was sitting next to me. “You really are his sister. Ya’know maybe you really are up to take his role.” My face grew flush and I shot upright to look at her. “wh-wha-“ She began giggling at my flustered state. “Not like THAT.” she gave me a light push. “It takes more than that to get this mare.” she added before slapping a hoof over her own mouth, looking quite embarrassed herself. I only grinned and gave her a light push back before laying back down. “Wh-what I meant was in the camp, Zed held concerts for us, among other things. We should talk to Mac about it.

I agreed, anything that would let me play that music, to feel that excitement again. and so we set off towards Mac’s tent, the camp itself was fairly quiet, most of the ponies probably went into town, for entertainment or necessities. “Hey Pinkie, how do you know he’ll even be here?” I asked as we trudged along, her only response was. “Well because he’s Mac, duuuuh.” That slightly annoyed me, but I shrugged it off as something Pinkie would say no matter who she was talking to.

After a short walk, comparably from walking to and from the city, we reached the large tent I had initially entered when I told them I wanted to join the camp. Pinkie just bounded her way through the loose hanging tent flaps. “MaAaAac! I think Vinyl has what it takes.” Much to my surprise as i enter the tent myself, I hear Mac’s response. “Well, tha’s good ta’ know, now we can move on wit’ th’ plan.” “Plan, what plan?” I spoke as soon as the inside was visible.