The grey earth pony, Octavia, tossed and turned all over the bed. Nightmares of the three stallions plagued her dreams, their murderous glares closing in around her. Her eyes shot open wide with fear, and she threw herself into an upright position. She expected to wake back up to the sight of that same dank, dreaded ally.
"What the... oooww," Octavia rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. "What did they hit me with?" She asked herself out-loud. "Never mind that, where in Celestia's name am I?!" Her mind was finally beginning to register that she was in a bed, a comfy one at that. Her throbbing head and bleary eyes scanned the room up to four or five times, trying to piece together where she was. The grey mare decided it best to jump out of bed and investigate. Well, more like slide out of the bed with great care, as to not to make any noise. She tip-hooved over to the window to try and locate a street address, but with her luck she only found the view to a nice back yard. For some reason the back yard made her question something: Why did they bring me back to this house?
Octavia turned around and slumped to the floor in fear. All sorts of ideas as to why they brought her here, and what they planned on doing with her, flooded her mind. After a good half hour of dwelling on the horrid thoughts, she finally decided to take action. To try to sneak out of the house, hoping that the three stallions were still asleep. She stood up with trembling limbs. Get it together Octavia, and stop that shaking. She successfully made her way to the door without making a sound, and proceeded to quietly wrap her ankle around the door knob. Turning it, she slowly pulled it open, wincing whenever it would creak in protest. She once again tip-hooved down the hall (It may have been small, but it was still classified as a hall).
When the filly reached the stairs, she proceeded down them so slowly that if one were to glue a pebble to the floor, it would still undoubtedly beat her to the bottom. When she finally reached the half way mark, she decided to look to her left and see if her captors were still asleep. To her surprise they weren't there, but in their stead was a white unicorn with electric blue hair. The mare was sleeping on the couch with her purple shades right next to her; the glasses reminded Octavia of the unicorn back at the bar.
Memories started to flood back to the fight she witnessed take place in the bar, but a sharp pain in the back of her head ceased the stream. She put some more thought into why she was here, but not enough to come to the conclusion that this mare saved her. Octavia started to descend the rest of the stairs, however four steps before reaching the bottom she somehow managed to trip on absolutely nothing and began tumbling forwards. In the middle of falling she let out a yelp of surprise, and then proceeded to collide with the floor. The yelp was loud enough to awaken Vinyl.
"Oh... hey... you ok?" She asked while rubbing her eyes and yawning from the delightful nap and rubbing her eyes with her hooves.
Octavia just looked at the unicorn as she used her magic to put her glasses on.
Vinyl then got off of the coach and walked towards Octavia, a smile on her face as she extended a hoof for the grey pony. Octavia just sat there, silently studying the unicorn intensely.
"You ok sleeping beauty?”
"Oh… yeah," She said whilst trying to figure out the mare before her..
"Why are you looking at me funny? Do I have something on my face?" Vinyl asked, lifting her other hoof up to check. Sadly, she forgot one of her hooves was already extended; the unicorn fell forward, face first into the hard floor. Octavia couldn’t help but giggle as she stood herself up, and bent down to assist the strange mare. She felt this unicorn could be trusted.
"Don't laugh at the pony who saved you."
“Wait a second, you saved me?" She asked surprised.
"Yup," The unicorn stated in a no big deal tone of voice.
"Thank you!" Octavia gave Vinyl a hug, causing the unicorn's face turn a deep shade of red. When she let go of the unicorn she lost all power in her limbs, and just collapsed straight to the ground. "Are you ok madam?" Octavia asked truly worried.
"Yeah... but don't call me Madam it makes me feel old, I'm Vinyl Scratch." She said, getting up and shacking the blush away. Vinyl then extended a hoof to Octavia.
"I'm Octavia, nice to meet you Miss Scratch." She extended her hoof towards Vinyl's and shook it.
"Ugh, please don't call me that Octy, I'm not my mother."
"What did you just call me?”
"Octy, why?"
"Please don't call me that Miss Scratch."
"But I think it soun-"
"Oh my goodness! I’m sorry for interrupting you Miss Scratch, but I'm going to be late for practice." Octavia had just noticed the clock on the wall. Near death experience or not, she wasn’t going to make today her first time being late for anything.
"Oh that's alright, but if you’re going to leave here before breakfast you can at least take me with you. You know, so we can get to know each other a little better. I think we are going to become good friends."
"Umm… I guess you can, but on one condition."
"What exactly would that be?"
"Don't call me 'Octy'."
"You’ve got a deal, Octy."
"You’re not going to stop calling me that are you?" She asked, face-hooving herself.
"Nope!" Vinyl declared, a smile spreading across her face.
"Well at least don't call me it in public Miss Scratch."
"Only if you stop calling me 'Miss Scratch'."
"Okay, fair enough I guess," Octavia agreed.
"So, shall we get going?"
"Sure, but first we got to stop at my place to get my Cello."
"Okay, let’s get moving Octy we’re burning day light." She said, heading to the door and opening it for the two of them.
Octavia started to walk towards the door, but stopped early. She gave vinyl a fake smile, and curtly hit her in the back of the head with her hoof, and continued walking.
"Oooww, hey Octy not nice... should of known that was a fake smile, I give too many not to notice one." Stated vinyl, rubbing the back of her sore head with her hoof.
"What do you mean by that?" Octavia questioned her.
"What... oh... nothing..." Vinyl was lying badly, "So, where do you live?" She said, trying to change the subject.
Octavia thought about prying more at Vinyl’s secretiveness, but decided against it. It may be too personal a subject. "I live at 1400 MiddleHoof Street."
The two had been walking for over half an hour, neither one having spoken to each other since they left. Octavia realized this as they passed by the barber, a wave of awkwardness washing over her. She started considering conversations to take up with Vinyl to pass the time as they made their way to her apartment. As she opened her mouth to speak, Vinyl started to talk.
"So, what made you wanna play the cello Octy?"
"Oh, well it was a gift from my parents when I was just a filly and I guess I just fell in love with it. What about you Vinyl... wait, what do you play?"
"How do you know I play something?"
"Your cutie mark is two eighth notes."
"A HA! So you looked at my flank little Miss perv." Vinyl joked, but saw Octavia starting to blush a little. "Ah isn't that cute, you’re blushing, calm down it was a joke. Anyways, I'm a DJ... but not just any DJ; I'm DJ PON-3!"
"DJ PON-3? Never heard of you."
"Well... uhhh... that's because, never mind…"
"Wait, never mind? What do you mean by that? Is there something bothering you Vinyl?"
"No nothing… oh look, we're here." Vinyl tried desperately to change the subject once again.
"Okay..." She got the hint; Vinyl didn't want to talk about it. Well, not yet at least. Both the mares walked into the building and stepped into the elevator, neither glancing back to see who was behind them. Octavia trotted up and hit the button that was marked '12'. As the door closed Octavia looked at Vinyl, "Okay Vinyl, first when we get to the floor you are to wait outside the door while I get my cello. I don't want any pony to think something of us. Second, the only reason I let you come along is because you saved me from those three stallions. And thirdly, don't call me by that nickname you’ve kept calling me ever since I woke up today, or else." She warned her.
"Yeah yeah Octy, I got you." Vinyl said, waving her hoof to the warning.
"Vinyl what did I-" Octavia was cut off by a voice she knew all too well.
"Yes 'Octy' she understands," The familiar voice quipped behind them.
Octavia's eyes Widened as she started to turn around, she finally realized that some of her fellow ensemble members were in the elevator with them. "W-w-what are you doing here?"
"You were late over an hour ago. So we came here to check on you in-case you were sick or someting. But I noticed you walk in with this pretty young mare, so it was obvious that you were going on a stroll with your 'marefriend' here." The white unicorn said sheepishly. His yellow mane offset his coat, and his equally golden eyes matched the cutie mark on his flank, which resembled the shape of a harp.
"W-w-w-w-what are you talking about Golden Harp!?!?" Octavia exploded. She then quickly glanced at Vinyl, wondering why she hadn’t said anything. All she saw was the mare’s head pointed downward in the corner of the elevator.
"Oh, what's this?" Golden Harp asked with interest. He put his hoof under Vinyl's chin and pulled it up to him. "Hey guys, little Vinyl here is one of those rare multi-colored ponies. Body is white, but her face is red, amazing! I didn't know a pony could have this much blood in them." He stated in a very happy and joking tone. Vinyl just shook her head to retract all the blood that had flowed into her face. Doing this caused her glasses to accidently fly off of her head and collide with the elevator wall. She didn't notice this until the blush was finally gone, keeping her eyes closed the whole time.
“Vinyl, your glasses, they broke." Octavia said looking at her. The DJ pony did not look up. She just continued to concentrate on the floor, and refused to look at any one of them.
"You ok Vinyl? Come on, talk to Golden Harp."
"Yeah... why wouldn't I be?"
"Okay you talked, now can you look at me this time?"
Vinyl looked at Golden Harp with closed eyes and a fake smile on her face." Yeah? What is it?"
"What's the matter Vinyl?" Octavia asked, only to be shown the same face by her.
"What do you mean Octavia?"
"Don't try to give me a fake smile Vinyl, I know one when I see one." Octavia said flatly, she was starting to get a little annoyed with her. The words the unicorn had just heard made her cast her head down again, a frown now replacing the smile.
"Nothing is the matter…"
"Really now, you didn't call me that nickname you always do, and now you’re avoiding everypony's eyes without your glasses, why?" The elevator came to a stop and the door opened, every eye trained on Vinyl.