Author's Notes:

Added on 18 May 2016

Formerly Come One. Come Some.

Colt’s motorized wagon reluctantly pulls up to Vinyl Scratch’s house through the alley. The whole time they were driving Colt became less excited and more wrecked, even going as far as offering to find another DJ to go to to beg for help. However, the other two insisted on Colt taking them to Vinyl Scratch, and now there they are.

Once they approach the house, they stare at it for a few seconds before Colt smacks his lips together and points at it.

“Well, there she is. Have fun guys,” says Colt, chuckling nervously and wiping a thick layer of sweat from his brow.

“Okay, what is your deal? You have been acting weird this entire drive,” says Shining Armor.

“Vinyl Scratch and Colt used to date,” says L. Roy as he wipes off the last of the dye from his face using ultra-strength wet wipes. “I’m guessing she was in her stallion-in-uniform phase.”

“So I take it their relationship ended badly?” says Shining Armor.

Colt lets out an exaggerated, nervous filled laugh and shakes his head.

“Oh no, it ended on a peachy note. A really, really, really, rotten, disgusting, deformed, unholy abomination of a peach,” says Colt, sinking further down into his seat with each passing word.

Shining Armor looks at Colt one last time, now barely able to see his mane since he took the afro off, before he and L. Roy approach Vinyl Scratch’s home. As they walk towards the house, Shining Armor remains quiet about the Colt-Vinyl situation, deciding it is none of his business and best not to probe about such a matter. However, L. Roy doesn’t let it go that easily.

“Just so you know, Vinyl Scratch can practically sense Colt,” says L. Roy.

Right as he finishes his sentence the door flies open and Vinyl Scratch stomps out, sporting her trademark sunglasses and levitating a shotgun next to her. Shining Armor swears and in a flash puts up a shield around himself and the motorized wagon.

“L. Roy, what the hell are you and Colt doing here!” screams Vinyl Scratch, aiming her shotgun at the motorized wagon.

Shining Armor leans towards L. Roy as the detective levitates his weapon out of his scabbard.

“I’m guessing you knew her, too,” says Shining Armor.

“Fortunately not that well,” replies L. Roy. “Vinyl, put down your weapon! We need your help with something!”

Vinyl Scratch aims her shotgun at L. Roy.

“Buzz off! And take your hobo friend with you!” says Vinyl Scratch.

Shining Armor growls and pulls down his hood and points at Vinyl Scratch.

“I am not a hobo! And I swear to Celestia that if you do not lower your weapon I will personally snap it in half!” says Shining Armor. “Same goes for you, L. Roy! Everypony lower your weapons!”

There is a moment of tense silence, but after that moment passes, L. Roy and Vinyl Scratch point their weapons to the ground in unison. Then Vinyl Scratch chuckles and L. Roy rolls his eyes as he returns his weapon to its proper place.

“Well I’ll be damned,” laughs Vinyl Scratch. “It’s been a while, Big Guy. How are the wife and kids?”

“Wife’s a wreck, don’t have any kids, now let us in,” orders Shining Armor.

“Are you the one that needs help?”

“All three of us need help,” replies Shining Armor.

“But you’re the one being hunted by the EIB for murder, right? It's all I've been hearing for the past six hours.”

Shining Armor scowls. “Yeah.”

Vinyl Scratch steps aside. “Okay, you can come in.” Then she points at L. Roy and her tone suddenly becomes venomous. “You keep watch and keep that wagon running in case we run into some problems.”

L. Roy looks at Shining Armor questionably, but Shining Armor nods his head.

“Do as she says,” orders Shining Armor, and then he looks at Vinyl Scratch sternly. “We need to have a private talk, anyway.”

Vinyl Scratch motions Shining Armor inside, and once he is inside, she locks the door and he sits on the ground by a table with stacks of books.

“It’s been awhile, Captain. How’s life?” says Vinyl.

Shining Armor turns to Vinyl Scratch, his hard scowl showing how unamused he is by her careless tone, and he keeps his eyes trained on her as she exits the room to grab something from her tiny kitchen.

“How do you think?” grumbles Shining Armor, now removing and folding his cloak.

“Could be better,” says Vinyl Scratch over the sounds of glass bottles clinking against each other.

When Vinyl Scratch exits the kitchen Shining Armor is putting his folded cloak on the table neatly. He realizes that she’s looking at him in a less than casual way, and when she removes her sunglasses, he sees those bedroom eyes. His cheeks and ears burn and he shifts uncomfortably in his spot.

Vinyl Scratch whistles and gets a sly smile. “Wow, you are a lot bigger than I remember. How often do you work out?”

“I'm still married, Vinyl,” says Shining Armor.

“Its an innocent question.”

“And we both remember how the innocent questions worked out last time.”

“C'mon, you know it was fun.”

Shining Armor huffs. “Look, Vinyl, I was set up, okay? Brisk Wind set me up and I need to prove it.”

“Okay,” says Vinyl, taking a swig of her drink. “Anything else?”

“I also need to know why you sent me that yearbook.”

“That yearbook thing is easy to explain. You needed some help, so I gave you some.”

“Not good enough.”

Vinyl Scratch leans her head against her hoof with a smile stretching across her face. “Well, how about this? Brisk Wind is somepony who needs a network to be efficient, and that yearbook showed us her closest buds. Luckily for you, two of her top guys are already dead, leaving just Glimmer and a small army of their goons. You take out Glimmer and that nutty featherbrain will have no more friends and her little army will scatter like a bunch of drugged up headless chickens.”

“But Quill Pen mentioned that she and Brisk Wind were working for somepony who was disguised, and she said that Brisk Wind knew who was behind the mask. Now Quill Pen is dead and I'm wanted for murder,” says Shining Armor.

Vinyl Scratch gets up and grabs another bottle of alcohol and hands it to Shining Armor. He rejects it with a quick wave of his hoof, and she shrugs and takes a sip from it.

“Well, to be fair to the villains you did run away, and you must’ve done something that made this all the easier to pin this on you,” says Vinyl Scratch.

“I might have said and done some things, but it still does not change the fact that Brisk Wind and whoever she is working with framed me,” says Shining Armor.

Vinyl Scratch raises a brow. “And you think I know who is behind the mask?”

“You got a lot of contacts, Vinyl. You have got to know something.”

Vinyl Scratch chuckles. “Unfortunately with a lot of contacts come a lot of stories, and a lot of them are not so good. However, word on the street is that Gilda has a gem mine of information about Brisk Wind locked away in a Bernese bank. And these same birdies are saying that the EIB just moved a small army of Rehabilitation Programees using backdoor funding to destroy it. So, if there is anything about a mask tugging on Brisk Wind's leash, then it will be in that box.”

“Well that’s just great!” says Shining Armor. “How am I supposed to do get a safety deposit box in Bernese, get past Brisk Wind’s army and show it to Princess Celestia to clear my name and dismantle the EIB?”

“You could always ask for help,” says Vinyl Scratch. “I got quite a list of guys that would love to stick Brisk Wind's head on a pike.”