Vinyl was doing her best to quietly collect her things, her bags, computers CD's and other numerous possessions that had gone with her to the club. So far she had managed it, yes she had managed to quietly haul the bags and boxes outside and call for a cab pony, facing Hooving when she realized she could have done that the previous night. And they were about to set off when,

"Ma'am I must say you have beautiful eyes." The cab pony announced.

"My eyes?"

"Yes ma'am."

Those eyes, those beautiful red eyes, Magenta, her mom used to call them, widened. She had left her shades back in that guys house.

"Stop the cab now!"

The cab halted and she leapt from it, colliding with the ground and speeding off into the house and bursting into his room. He was there, already awake and looking at her, her shades in hoof.

"Ah, Miss Scratch. How nice of you to return, please take a seat so we can discuss our continued business together."

If Octavia had a horn to remove hair from her scalp she would have done so by now. The sun was at it's full height, the clock saying 11, the foal was still screeching its head off and Vinyl was no where to be seen. Octavia found that she was actually worried, how could she not be? Vinyl should have been home the previous night, almost 12 hours ago. Octavia didn't feel confident enough to watch the foal outside the confines of the house and there was no one to foal sit whilst she looked for Vinyl. So she resorted to pacing.

"What do I do? No no no, I'm sure Vinyl is perfectly fine, she's a sturdy mare with plenty of um, night time mileage under her belt" she kept pacing unaware of the terrible innuendo she just made, or its relevance to what Vinyl had done mere hours before. "I will give her until supper time, if the is no word I'll try ask one of the more dependable neighbors to foal sit whilst I search for her. Yes, that plan is perfect." With that she stopped pacing and sat down, a little more relaxed. And of course at that moment, Vinyl opened the door, looking awful, and dragged herself inside.

"Vinyl!" Octavia and the foal leapt up and rushed towards her, the foal tripping over its hooves in doing so. Vinyl merely looked up and nodded at them weakly, murmuring a curt "hey" in response to their worried faces. Octavia looked at her from her hooves to her flanks to her shades, her fur was messy and disheveled and some of the hair in her mane looked like it had been pulled at, suddenly Octavia guessed at what happened, she flew off the handle.

"I'VE BEEN WAITING ELEVEN HOURS FOR YOU TO HET HERE, I'VE BEEN WORRIED AND CALMING DOWN A CRYING BABY FOR ELEVEN HOURS AND YOU WERE OUT, HEY, WHERE IN ALMIGHTY CELESTIA ARE YOU GOING?"

Vinyl walked right passed her, dumping the sack of coins on the table.

"I got a regular gig at the nightclub. No more money problems," She said this and bent down, giving the foal a little kisses on the cheek before leaving the room. She trotted up to her own bedroom, closing the door behind her, as she staggered slowly towards her night stand, tear drops fell from below her shades. She looked into the mirror, magically removing the purple shades and staring at her eyes in the mirror, her beautiful red pupils, normally surrounded by clean white fur, were now sore and dented, with black and bluish marks all over them, all in the shape of large hooves. "No more money problems," She said, blinking through the constant pain and tears. "Whatever the cost."

Author's Notes:

Wow! Things have really just got quite serious haven't they?

There won't be another upload for a few days, I am on holiday but I had to get this chapter up. Enjoy my other story in the meantime, it's about the early lives of Luna and Celestia.