Scratched Vinyl(Firestreak)

[Vinyl Scratch]

The night wasn't young inside Vinyl's head, it was late, just late enough for it to be the absolute darkest night, no moon in the sky and thanks to the lights below there were also no stars. Luckily, the lights below made everything incredibly visible, strobe lights, lasers, and dozens of spot lights lit up the scene. Giant red diamond cut across the sky as special lights danced. The diamonds also speckled the ground thanks to special, possibly geometrically impossible disco balls spun scattering dozens of quadrilaterals onto the crowd. The crowd itself spanned far into the distance, in fact, it didn't seem to end. Of course Vinyl Scratch's dream would be about the most massive party to ever grace 'earth'. There was one problem though, the DJ was no where to be seen. There were plenty of DJ's though, many looking almost exactly like the mare. They all sported the same hair color or style, their bodies also were dozens of colors. They all looked quite a bit like Vinyl Scratch, but ended up having small or large differences to show they, indeed, weren't her. There were dozen's of these DJ stands within sight, but no Vinyl. She didn't seem to be on the platforms. Suddenly the crowd swelled as the bass dropped, causing even more chaos and noise. It was the biggest celebration anyone would ever see...but it's architect was no where to be seen.Pegasi soared through the air and unicorns lit up the ground as earth ponies shook the ground. The only one missing was the one who was supposed to be here. She was in the crowd though, somewhere, it was here dream after all, or rather, her nightmare.

[Deleted]

Fire Streak appeared in Vinyl's dream like he had looked in reality, dressed in his Wonderbolt flight suit. Entering the DJ's mind had been what he expected, a giant party. Even though it was as expected, all the lights and sounds still hit him pretty hard. It took a few moments for him to acclimate to the environment and begin to tune things out so he could start his search.

"Vinyl?!" he called out as he was bounced around by the crowd. He called out for the DJ again, but it was no use, the ponies were just too loud. "What am I doing? I'm a Pegasus, I can just fly over the crowd and spot her." With a strong leap and a few good beats of his wings he took to the air. It was less crowded up there. It was easy for him to spot a DJ booth and he swooped down for it.

"Hey I've been looking for-" he paused as he got a better look at the DJ he had approached. The shades she was wearing weren't Vinyl's and the fact that her mane was parted on the opposite side was a dead give away. The lack of a horn helped too. "Sorry! You sorta looked like someone I'm looking for."

The Wonderbolt took to the air again to start his search again. His keen eyes began picking out all of the Vinyl impostors. They were all sort of like Vinyl, but not Vinyl. "That one has wings... That one has the wrong cutie mark... Wrong mane style... Her flanks not that big... that one just poured out a Magic Mary... I don't think Vinyl has a robot arm..."

Fire Streak stopped to hover in the air as he thought things over. He'd need a plan of some sort. Flying around wasn't going to help much when he couldn't see the edges of the party. How long did it stretch on for? He'd need some sort of way of getting all the Not-Vinyls, and Vinyl, together in one place so he could start sorting them out. How to do it though? It was a dream and he could manipulate some stuff, but what would entice all of them? Giant Magic Mary swimming pool? No... that could get a bunch of ponies showing up. He'd have to think of something clever.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Vinyl herself sat in the crowd, somewhere. She didn't know where, her ears hurt. Her shades laid shattered on the ground as she laid on the ground, confidence shattered. Was she really all that great if all these DJ's could draw the same crowds, hell, bigger. She was replaceable, nothing she had made really mattered. A year, maybe two, maybe a few minutes before she fell off the top. The crowd cheered on, Vinyl looked on with a whimper. ---- Firesteak, even from above, probably wouldn't spot much. The crowd was thick and dense. Standing room only was an understatement. They also didn't seem to be paying much attention to anyone in particular. Their attention continued shifting from place to place, to the brightest lights, the deepest bass, the loudest music, the next announcement. They couldn't hold still. That wasn't all though, several pegasi, with scarlet eyes and diamond irises, suddenly took hold of Firestreak. There were stallions and mares alike. They did their best to pull the Wonderbolt into the fray, not particularly mindful of his well being, getting in the way of his wings and hooves as they danced around him "Come on, join in the fun!" they chimed like sirens. This wasn't a set that was ending anytime soon.

[Deleted]

Fire Streak did not take kindly to being grabbed by random dream Pegasi. He shook his would-be captors off, and with a thought made his mane and tail burst into flames to discourage any more from trying to grab him. This was a dream, and the diamond-eyed Pegasi probably weren't going to be helpful. He still needed to get to Vinyl, just now a bit more subtle about it.

Or perhaps going over the top was the answer?

"I'm here to have fun, official Wonderbolt fun business!" he reached into his flight suit and pulled out a microphone. He thought hard on it to make it work on all the speakers around. "Hello party-goers! Is everypony having fun? This is Fire streak of the Wonderbolts talking to all of you. Below me is a stage" He willed a stage to appear below him with a ring of velvet rope surrounding it. "I'm here to judge a Vinyl Scratch look-alike contest. If you think you look like DJ-P0n3, or know somepony who does, come on down. Winner will get to DJ at the next Wonderbolt party, and get to put all their Magic Mary's on the Wonderbolt's tab for a year!"

He hoped the idea of a fun contest would please the crowd and bring all the Vinyl doppelgangers together. If the real Vinyl was in the mix he could get to her and get her to wake up. If she wasn't there... he'd cross that river if he got to it.

[Vinyl Scratch]

As Firestreak gasped his would be stallion-nappers gasped. Official Wonderbolt business?!? Now that sounded important and, more importantly, fun! Not to mention it seemed like a chance to distract the Wonderbolt from his mission. They knew he was real and there was only one reason someone real could be in here, to end them. "That's a great idea!" they all exclaimed. All of them, it was deafening. As most of the Vinyl's started towards the stage more seemed to be appearing, soon there were many, many more lookalike's than there had been, on the plus side, they were all centered now. The noise became even more unbearable as their voices raised to compete with each other, all of them vying for the attention of the Wonderbolt, their eyes transfixed on the blue uniform. Many of the shades began changing to red, shape changing to be more angular, diamonds. They were more than willing to waste some time "Come on. Choose. Choose. Choose." they began chanting ---------------- Vinyl. The real Vinyl's condition began worsening as she spotted more and more of....herself, reinforcing the idea she could be replaced. This was when the number of lookalikes began increasing swelling to more than double what they had been. Vinyl began separating herself, just a bit, wanting to escape. Luckily for her, something appeared to hide near and under, an unalicornly long runway attached itself to Firestreak's stage, many of the lookalike's hopping onto it without a moments notice to strut themselves in front of...something, Vinyl couldn't tell what was here. She quickly began trying to separate herself from the rest of the Vinyl's.

[Deleted]

Fire Streak hovered as he watched all the Vinyl's converge to a single point. With each new pony the sound grew louder and louder. The flier had to conjure up a pair of earmuffs to soften out all the noise. As he watched the group with a very thoughtful and scrutinizing expression on his face, he began to think about why Vinyl would have this dream. Sometimes dreams were dreams, but if this didn't have any symbolism in it he'd give up his badge.

This was a nightmare, that much was steadily becoming evident. Could Vinyl be worried about being pulled in different directions? That didn't seem like it. A dream like that would probably have a few very distinct Vinyls. Maybe she felt that she was no longer unique, or her uniqueness was in danger? That could be it. Fire Streak knew that feeling all too well.

The unified chanting and changing of shades was a bit of a give away, and creepy as all heck too!

"Some turn-out we have here don't we everypony?!" he addressed the crowd. "It's really hard to choose. They all look so close to the real thing. I don't think I can pick a favorite. I think we might need a little more judging, and I know just what to use for the next category." As he flew around trying to hype up the crowd he kept looking around. Surely the real one was somewhere around here.

"Us Wonderbolts do a lot of shows in the summer. The weather's nice. The day is bright enough for us to use smokes, and at night we can launch fireworks. These flight suits get really hot after a long show, and there's no better way to cool off than with a POOL PARTY!" The Pegasus pointed dramatically off to the side where there was inexplicably a large pool, tiki-themed bar, and only a hooful of changing booths. "That's right, the next part of the contest will be a swimsuit competition!"

The Wonderbolt caught sight of something blue peaking out from under a catwalk. All the DJs were so anxious for attention, but why would one be hiding? This needed to be investigated further. Fire Streak landed on the ground and started waving to get the herd of Djs moving toward the pool. "Alright DJs head to the changing booths and pick our your favorite swimsuit. This segment will be judged on how well you look, and how well you look jumping off the diving board." The inadequate room for changing, and the single diving board meant it'd take a bit for the herd to go through it all. While he was waving with one leg he 'accidentally' bumped his mic out of his other hoof. "Whoops, I'll get it. You all go get ready!"

Fire Stream crouched down to pick up the fallen mic, then quickly slipped under the catwalk. "Psssssst Vinyl, if it's really you down here, it's me Fire Streak. I'm here to rescue you."

[Vinyl Scratch]

Vinyl's stealthy escape didn't last long. She jumped as Fire Streak spoke to her, quickly turning and revealing her shattered shades, splinters of glass dangerously close to her eyes. It was a dream though, that was probably least of her worries given her current predicament. She stared at Fire streak blankly for a few moments before saying, in disbelief. "Yo-you want me?" The noise from the crowd around them seemed muffled as they talked, thanks to Vinyl's newly gained focus. The near doppelgangers still hustle and bustled around them though. Many were simply changing outside the booths(rave goers weren't known for their modesty) but they were distracted...for now at least. Vinyl took a cautious step toward Fire Streak getting a good look at him "And...you're Fire Streak right?" she smiled as she remembered him. He was cool! Thanks to him she had been invited to a future Wonderbolt part! Her happiness seemed to catalyze the copies. Their muffled voice suddenly became a lot louder and they closed in on the two ponies, pushing themselves between the two real ponies as they each tried to catch Streak's attention. The muffled sound quickly became overwhelming, more defined, and along with both of those, more chaotic. Soon the ponies began physically pulling Fire Streak away from his target. Her blue hair fading into the sea. Her thoughts turned grim once again as she was separated from her hero, shoved back into the position of damsel in distress while Fire Streak was set back to dealing with a dragon in the form of a sea of ponies, red pupils shining bright as they pushed him, yelling for him to start the competition, only becoming less satisfied and rougher in correlation to how much time he took.

[Deleted]

"Of course I want you. You're the whole reason I'm here. This is a dream, and I'm here to help you get out of it." Fire Streak said with all the confidence of a hero. It only increased when she recognized him. He had the real Vinyl, and now all he needed to do was get her to wake up. That was easier said than done though.

The clone army found their hiding place and were now determined to split them up again. Fire Streak reached out a hoof to try and grab Vinyl, but the crowd became more and more insistent! The Wonderbolt was not liking the rough treatment he was getting. A low growl escaped his throat as finally he snapped. Fire Streak was angry, and things were about to get ugly.

"ENOUGH!" He roared as he shoved hard with his wings to make himself some space. His mane and tail were once again flames, and his eyes now had draconian slits in them. "None of you can hold a candle to the real DJ-P0N3!" His blue and yellow flight-suit shimmered and took on the appearance of an armored version of it, and an ominous glow came from his mouth as he spoke.

"This is a nightmre Vinyl! To end it, you just need to wake up! I came here to save you, and if these posers think they can deal with the stuff of my nightmares in order to keep me from you, then they'll burn trying! You're the coolest DJ around, and all of these put together don't come out to be half the mare you are Vinyl!"

Fire Streak had spent a good deal of his military career as a member of the Dragon Watch. While he had a relatively safe outpost to watch over, he still had to learn all about dragons to do his job. That included every single nasty thing a dragon could do to a pony. Fire, acid, frost breaths, and more were all very gruesome ways to go out. The images and stories he'd seen had haunted him as a rookie. He was about to unleash a world of pain on the mob if they didn't get out of his way.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Vinyl looked at Fire Streak hopefully. He had come this entire way just to save her from....something?!? Honestly that seemed a bit far fetched to Vinyl, but that meant either way it had to be a dream. She was either dreaming that Fire Streak was here, or she was just dreaming and Fire Streak....was still somehow here. Well that cut down the possibilities at the least. As Fire Streak burst into flames, even Vinyl flinched at the sudden fierceness of the Wonderbolt. The crowd, however, seemed to smile for the most part. They latched on to Vinyl's small moment of fear and built off of it even as his inspiring words reached her. Despite her struggles to get to Fire Streak, the dream ponies were too numerous, their numbers were thinning though, as they gathered in front of Fire Streak, morphing into something else. They matched his dragon like eyes, and raised him one entire dragon! It curled it's claws experimentally before giving a gale inducing flat of it's wings. Vinyl's look of hope faded quickly, turning to terror and cowardice. A stone tower rose her out of harm's way, but also trapped her on top of it as the Dragon let out a primal roar, standing at a gargantuan height while the leftover dream ponies simply turned into little drakes, swirling around their larger self. It let a gout of fire into the air before turning it's sights to Fire Streak, making a swipe at him with it's claws and pumping it's wings to try and keep him off balance with the storm like winds it produced. It was time to put those dragon watch skills to use!

[Deleted]

Being afraid of the dark is the simplest fear there was, but also the most complex. Most of the time it wasn't the fear of darkness itself, but rather what could be lurking in it. Ponies feared what they didn't know or understand. Fire Streak understood dragons. Seeing the gargantuan beast made him grin, even as it belched fire.

The most common form of fire breath was just that, breath. Dragons that could breathe fire typically had some way of producing a flammable gas, and some way of producing a spark to ignite it all, most likely a bio-electric organ located in the back of their mouth. The less-common, but far more dangerous way, was projecting a flammable liquid. Instead of burning up quickly like a gas, it could stick to things and continue to burn. Very harsh stuff. Then there was magical fire breath, which used magic, and could have unique effects because of its magic. Since this was a dream Fire Streak was confident what he had in mind was cooler.

The beast's size was mildly intimidating. Being a big brute didn't mean anything if you couldn't hit something, and Fire Streak was one of Equestria's top fliers. How many times could a pony flail around trying to swat a fly without touching it? Just like the beast's wings were kicking up a lot of air, so would the swipes from his massive claws. There was a chance that the air cushion around it could send him right out of the way.

"HAHA! Is that seriously the best you can come up with? A big scary dragon? Oooh I'm quaking in my flight suit. There's way more scarier dragons than that, and I'm scarier than them all! Vinyl! This is a dream, you've seen the random stuff I've done, you can do it to. You don't have to be some princess in a tower, you can fight back to. This you YOUR mind and in here YOU'RE the boss!" The Wonderbolt taunted the dragon-beast before shouting some encouragement at Vinyl. He had to keep her confidence up too.

Fire Streak flew up high where the wind wouldn't affect him as much. He flew above the dragon-beast where it would be the most awkward for it to try and buffet him with air then tucked himself into a dive. He aimed almost straight at it and fell like a flaming comet. His flaming hair and tail began to burn brighter before he opened his mouth and let out a radiant beam of solar fire. The power of Celestia's fiery sun with all of it's heat, magic, and radiation condensed into a beam no wider than an apple.

Many fire-aligned dragons could withstand bathing in lava. In fact it was a very good way for a dragon to get cleans. No bacteria could survive the heat. The thermal bloom coming from the beam would be hot enough to melt boulders like they were simple icecubes on a hot summer pavement. Fire Streak imagined the beam itself able to melt holes into the ground like a glowing hot knife through butter. The magical nature of it burning anything that dared get in his way of protecting Vinyl Scratch, thus also being harmless to her. She'd feel the air grow hot and dry, but wouldn't be burned.

Fire Streak flew across the gargantuan dragon's back, raking his firey beam of divine justice and punishment across the leathery membrane of it's wing. The bigger the dragon, the more air it needed to move to lift itself off of the ground. All Streak needed to do was slice one wing open with his solar beam to keep it grounded. He pulled out of the dive to avoid any sort of tail swipe that might come his way and swung his head around in an arc to face where he was going to go. His fiery ray swept across the sky like a righteous flaming sword of fire turning any drakes caught in it's path into ash and causing burns in those that were near it's path to be felt to their bones.

This was no ordinary dragon Streak was fighting, but his mentality stayed with what he knew. Dragon hierarchy was established with power. A dragon's hoard was a good indicator on how powerful it was. It showed how much a dragon could take and keep. That figured a lot in dragon diplomacy. One way to catch a dragon off guard was to swagger into his place and not bat an eye at their treasures.

So in Streak's mind his hoard of treasure could BURY the nightmare-dragon, and that would only be the part of the hoard that had yet to be sorted. The equivalent to a change jar that would sit on a desk or counter. He also believed himself bigger in other areas too.

[Vinyl Scratch]

The dragon angrily spat flames out of it's mouth as Fire Streak razed it with his heatbeam, feeling long gashes appear where it hit. They shone out as though the dragon itself was made of fire, the light shining against Vinyl's fragmented shades as she watched the two fight from atop her tower. She watched the Wonderbolt strike with, literally, military precision, deeply amazed, though she was still scared and intimidated by the beast. His words helped, but they only managed to knock her out of her fearful daze and start her on the way of trying to decide a course of action. Of course anything she would have thought was shattered when the dragon took advantage of the most important aspect of the battle at hand. This was a dream. His cuts didn't seem to slow him down as his tail swept up at Fire Streak like a saw, the blade gleaming in the air. It's spines Gleamed in the light, each one the size of a pike as they severed the air in front of them. The tail was incredibly fast for such a large creature and so was the rest of its onslaught as it turned and unleashed a wall of flames upon the pony. They spread out, instead of burning into him and began to make a sphere around him, entrapping the Wonderbolt, but before it got half way Vinyl cried out, "Fire Streak!", and blew the flames away with a large gust of wind. She was startled by her own voice, though it was rightfully so in this situation. "I-I can do this" she said firmly, her tower beginning to crumble as she managed to regain some semblance of confidence. She stepped into the air as the tower crumbled behind her, falling to the ground as dust and rubble. She stood upon...glass? No, nothing. This was a dream, it didn't have to make sense. The dragon chose to try and ignore the pony, possibly shake her into fearing him again by hurting Fire Streak and surprising her while she was distracted. The dragon's maw let loose another salvo of fire while it swiping it's claws at him with surprising speed. Vinyl began to trot forward, getting used to the new situation. Just then, the tail of the dragon came swinging up at her.

[Deleted]

Right, just because he knew things were a dream, and he was trying to convince Vinyl it was a dream, didn't mean the dragon he was fighting wasn't aware of it. Fire Streak's mind was focused on details and precision. There was also creativity there too. Dodging the tail was easy for the Wonderbolt. A tilt of the wing here, and he swerved out of the way. Fire that seemed to have a will of it's own to form around him, however, caught him off guard.

It didn't last long though as the flames here blown out like a birthday candle. His precision strikes could whittle a beast like this down. It would be easy, if logic worked, but a strike to the heart or brain wasn't going to down this beast. It needed a decisive blow. Something like that could only come from a strong personality, and the strongest one here was starting to realize her power.

Fire Streak did his best to run interference and annoy the beast as much as he could. His own beams of fire scorched a path across the dragon while he danced around it's claws and jaws. "The first song of yours I ever used to cause an avalanche was Bass Cannon. Does that give you an- BELOW YOU!" he shouted his warning about the rising tail beneath Vinyl.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Vinyl's thoughts were racing at the moment, trying to take the full weight of what being in a dream meant for how she could help. As a creative pony, she couldn't simply go with the first thing to come to mind, she wanted to go for the best thing to come to mind. She wanted to be flashy, be awesome, there was a Wonderbolt in the audience after all! Unfortunately, the number of possibilities was a pretty big distraction for somepony already as unfocused as Vinyl. "You wha-AHH!" she cried out as she spotted the tail coming up towards her, a bit too late. Even if it hadn't been, the sudden panic the seized her made her imaginary walk way crumble and fall away as she tried to escape. The rising tail knocked her to the side and to the ground, she didn't actually get hurt much, but she was hit hard enough to groan as she stood up, her horn weakly glowing as she, with a newly cleared head, decided on just using a bit of a laser. She targeted the dragon's tail spitefully and fired a punch of a laser at hit, rather than a sweeping beam. It drilled a, pretty small, hole through the tail, serving no purpose but to anger the giant beast "o-oops." Vinyl said as it roared out at the injury "Uh,...You're up Streak!" she said, trying to imagine something up.

[Deleted]

Fire Streak's confidence grew as Vinyl fought back. Even if it was a little she had still made a mark and any progress is still progress. "Good job! Keep it up Vinyl!" The Wonderbolt shouted encouragement. Positive reinforcement was a good way to keep someone's spirits up. He hated teachers that only used negative reinforcement, it never felt like you accomplished anything.

The Pegasus decided to capitalize on the Dragon's split attention. With it now focusing on Vinyl he went in for an attack! The dragon-pegasus-wonderbolt-avatar of awesome pressed his offensive. With a mighty flap of his wings he streaked through the air! His glowing mouth opened, and once against he unleashed his beam of fiery justice on the best! This time he raked it across the dragon's face trying to blind it with a shot to its eye.

[Vinyl Scratch]

The nightmare dragon roared at it's two assailants, starting to feel outnumbered and losing its ground as it's victim gained confidence. This was Firestreak's fault. That stupid pegasus had come in and was giving her delusions of grandeur. He was giving her a solid sense of worth. To keep her weak the dragon, the nightmare needed to stop that or stop him. It was a bit too late to try and conjure up another Vinyl look-alike army. It probably wouldn't work as long as the Wonderbolt was spitting out inspiring words anyways. This left one choice. Kill the Flaming pony. It would require him to ignore Vinyl, which would probably end up hurting a lot if she kept firing off those attacks. He would have to take a risk and try to end the Streak quickly and make him little more than a streak on the ground. Too bad these thoughts had distracted the dragon. It's eye was razed by the beam from Fire Streak, blood dripping out in the form of thousands of tiny red diamonds. The dragon snapped at the source of the laser, struggling to find it due to a missing and eye. ------ Vinyl watched in amazement as the dragon was injured once again. A smile found its way onto her face as it bit at the air in vain. "Go Fire Streak!" she shouted loudly as the dragon took off after the Wonderbolt, chasing him and trying to smash the Wonderbolt to the ground. She began charging another magic beam, firing it off to sever one of the Dragon's wings as it took a swipe at Fire Streak.