**Extra Note: All R63 changes have been removed, if you see a mistake please let me know.**
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Beep
Beep
Octavia’s eyes flickered and her brain began to slowly turn its lights back on.
Beep
“Heart monitor.” The thought drifted to the surface of Octavia’s mind slowly, floating in the air before her like a jellyfish being pushed and prodded by the slow waves of sensation rolling over her. “Hospital. Can’t think. Drugs. Probably... full of anesthetic.”
Beep
The air smelled sterile, that almost too clean smell which implied somepony had been trying hard to get odors out of the air. Octavia was lying on a bed which was propped at about a forty degree angle. She could feel a moderate layer of blankets covering her up to her chest and a tight layer of padding around her middle. It was thicker on her side and she quickly identified it as gauze.
Beep.. beep
Finally forcing her eyes open, the hospital room she had expected to see came into view. It was slightly blurred and she tried blinking it away. Instead, her eyes watered when it did not help clear her vision. Squeezing her eyes back shut, she lifted a sluggish hoof to rub them. Relaxing back against the pillows she headed back into her memories, recalling why she was here.
Images of the night before came into view. She flew through the nightclub and seeing the DJ for the first time. Her chat with the bartender as things died down, then walking out of the bar to wait for Vinyl to appear. Slowing down, she recalled her stalking.
She was such an idiot for not realizing there might have been others following the DJ. Octavia knew she had been hidden, but did not even think twice that others might have been following the same target. Octavia did not even think to check the rooftops, let alone follow from that high.
The fight came back to her in a rush. Looking back she felt like an idiot for not making sure the pegasus was, at the least, incapacitated. But at least she had protected her target. At least she was pretty sure, her memory was a little hazy towards the end.
Octavia opened her eyes again in alarm at that last thought. Where was her target now? How had she gotten to the hospital? Had she failed? She glanced underneath the blankets at her bandaged wound as more questions buzzed through her mind.
Beep.. beep.. beep.. beep..
She glanced at the monitor, it had increased its rate by almost half its current amount. Octavia closed her eyes and laid back down, taking a few deep breaths. There was nothing to worry about yet, she just needed to wait for information.
“Oh hey! You’re awake!”
Octavia’s eyes flew open at the voice. She turned to see a white pony hopping up from a waiting chair near the window. She blinked, thankfully clearing her vision, and observed it was a white unicorn. More specifically, the DJ she had almost died for the night previous.
She said nothing as he approached. To say she was thrilled would be a lie. But then, Octavia was pleasantly surprised the mare stuck around.
“At least it was respectful, to make sure the pony who saved your life was in good hooves.”
The DJ stopped at the bedside and stood awkwardly for a moment. She was still wearing the shades from the night before.
“Listen, I...” she hesitated. Slowly she pulled her shades off. “I don’t know you, but I just want you to know I’m really... thankful, for you saving me.”
Octavia remained silent. She was busy running through all the procedures and protocols that she had at her disposal if she ever had to talk with her target. For some reason, there was none that was titled: “Your Target Saved Your Life After You Saved Theirs and You are Now Cornered in a Hospital Bed: What Do?”
“Sooo, I’m Vinyl Scratch. A part time, and if I do say so myself, very skilled DJ. Who are you?” Vinyl said giving Octavia a grin.
“I’m Octavia.” She responded slowly.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Octavia.” The DJ said formally, giving a slight bow. Octavia raised an eyebrow as the mare straightened up with a smirk.
“So,” the DJ continued, “how in the world did you learn to fight like that? And where did you get that awesome sword? I’d like to buy one.”
“I... Uhh...” Octavia closed her mouth with a click. What did this mare know about her now? What could she tell her? Or, most importantly, did she even want to tell her anything? One thing for sure, Octavia was growing irritated with how close the mare was continuing to stand next to the bed. They weren’t anywhere near that friendly and the DJ seemed to have no knowledge of personal space.
“Um, well I suppose you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Vinyl said, backing off slightly. “I guess it is a little overwhelming after what you’ve just been through and here I am rambling on like that crazy uncle.”
“Ya think?” Octavia grimaced slightly, but once again said nothing. The silence began to stretch out and the white unicorn shifted nervously.
“I’m just really curious as to why you...I mean, not that I’m not super grateful and all but... I’m just wondering why-”
The door to the hospital room opened right then and Octavia held in a sigh of relief that the awkward, one sided conversation was over. However, her blood chilled slightly as she saw who walked through the door. A stallion wearing a snappy white shirt and blue-green tie walked in, he had a small gold tie tack with a symbol of the Order on it.
“Octavia darling! Your mother informed me as soon as she could about what happened! I came as quickly as I could! I told her letting our daughter take those martial arts lessons would pay off! I can’t imagine what might have happened otherwise.” The stallion gave a decent shudder, but it seemed forced to Octavia.
He continued smoothly, “You must be Vinyl, I talked with the authorities before I came in. I would like to thank you for bringing my daughter in after what happened, I bet you were both terrified.”
Vinyl gave a nervous laugh. “Heh, yea. I thought I was a goner when they slapped that magic suppressor on my horn. Then Octavia showed up, so it was the least I could do.”
“Indeed.” The stallion said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I would really like to chat with my daughter privately for just a moment.”
“Oh sure, no problem.” Vinyl said, moving towards the door.
The stallion walked her out. “Just for a moment you know, but please don’t go anywhere, I’d like to speak with you again, if that’s alright?”
“I’ll wait here in the hall then.”
“Thank you.” The stallion smiled as he closed the door on her.
He stood there for a moment before sighing and turning back to Octavia. He didn’t look at her as he approached the end of the bed. He stood there for a moment staring at the blankets. Octavia fiddled with her hooves and waited.
She wasn’t sure who this was, there were so many agents who had not set a foot in the fortress during her lifetime. But one thing she was sure of was that this stallion probably knew everything about last night and had the authority to give her an earful.
“Well Octavia, you may call me Bret.” He said, looking at her. She glanced at him, but did not retain eye contact.
“I’ll just get right to it. You screwed up during the fight and were compromised. From what I hear, it was a stupid mistake. In doing so, you have gone and ruined your cover.” He paused for a moment and straightened his tie. “Now, usually things do get complicated if you have to step in and save your target, but usually our agents aren't being dragged to the hospital by the target afterwards.”
Octavia took a deep breath and let it out slowly. But she said nothing.
The stallion kept talking. “However, this situation can still be salvaged. You are lucky you are getting a second chance with this.” Octavia perked her ears and glanced up, but the stallion was giving her a glare and she quickly averted her gaze again.
“We’ve been having trouble keeping up with the details of Vinyl Scratch’s progress. So this is where you come in now. You have been ordered to befriend your target. You will be our new source of information on her personal life.”
Octavia’s eyes widened and she quickly opened her mouth. “What? No! I don’t want to--”
“You will Octavia, it isn’t like you can refuse.” The stallion growled, leaning in closer.
Octavia glowered, but said no more.
“Now, a cover has been set up for you. You won’t be able to spend all your time with her. She isn’t stupid, and she will begin to wonder why you never leave. We can’t allow that.” Octavia raised an eyebrow as he continued. “A new agent will be set to following Scratch half the time. You will undergo training here at Canterlot in our headquarters on these off days. You will keep the same general as a musician, and you will be doing, well, we decided to leave that to you. You can handle that part without our intervention, yes? At least, I hope you can."
Octavia groaned and buried her head in her hooves. Great, the guild hall here was run by a notoriously brutal teacher. That, coupled with her having to befriend the DJ seemed like an overabundance of punishment. But, there was nothing she could do about it.
“You got all that Octavia?” The stallion asked.
“Yes.”
“Alright, well I’m leaving. More details will be sent to your apartment. I’ll send Vinyl back in. She will be informed that the whole situation has been taken care of legally and encouraged to remain quiet. I want you to spend some time getting to know her; maybe set up some times for you to get together in the future. Yes?”
“Okay,” she mumbled.
“Alright then. Not to sound rude, but I hope I won’t have to meet with you again.” He paused, leaning in as if to say more, but then shut his mouth and turned away.
“Goodbye Octavia.” He said briskly and walked out the door.
“Bye...”
Octavia sat by herself for, she counted, a minute and forty-eight seconds, fuming silently the whole time. It just wasn’t fair! The punishment was way over the top and she had no choice but to endure it. Now she was going to have to make friends with some DJ and make up excuses as to why she kept coming back from music classes or concerts with bruises.
The DJ -No, she would have to stop calling her that- Vinyl walked back in. Octavia took a deep breath and tried to give a sincere smile and not grimace.
“Thank you for bringing me to the hospital. Sorry for not saying much earlier, I was still a little overwhelmed.” she said.
“Hey, no problem,” Vinyl responded, “I guess your dad squared away everything about the incident. It seems I was lucky you were coming home late from that party, huh?” The mare moved over to the bedside.
“Uh, yea... it was. Good thing I didn’t drink much either.” Octavia added, cottoning onto her new cover.
“Well, I’ll be going to work tonight if I’m going to keep this quiet.” Vinyl made to move off. “Which means, I had better get going, it’s 4 P.M. and I should be setting up.”
Octavia opened her mouth to ask the mare to wait, but drew a blank. She didn’t want to say, “Hey wait, I want to go out and spend some time with you.” That would just be weird.
But she was saved as Vinyl hesitated at the end of the bed.
“Hey, Octavia, I’d like to get you dinner sometime or something. It’s the least I can do.” The mare hesitated again. “I mean, if you don’t want to then-”
“No! No, it’s alright. I’d love to get to know you better actually.” Octavia interrupted.
Vinyl beamed. “Great! Tell you what, I’ll come back after work and hang out a bit and we can decide on something.”
Octavia forced a smile and shuffled her blankets. The smile quickly turned into a grimace as the movement pulled at her side. Vinyl dropped her grin.
“Hey, I’ll let the doctor know you’re awake, I bet the painkillers are wearing off.”
“Thanks.”
Vinyl grinned again and headed out, replacing her signature shades.
Octavia sighed as she heard the door click shut. She leaned back and closed her eyes. It would be a few days before she would be fit for anything. Judging by the lack of extensive monitoring equipment, she guessed her wound wasn’t that bad. Which probably meant she would be lucky to get a week of down time.
She relaxed and tried to drift off, but the new changes forced on her were replaying in her mind. Breathing deeply, she tried to quiet her thoughts. It took a few moments, but eventually she was able to calm down by convincing herself the future would deal with itself.
Slowly, Vinyl floated to the forefront of her thoughts. She sifted through all the interaction she had had with the mare. She had been loud, impersonal and downright crazy at the club. But to her surprise, she had conducted herself responsibly, if too exuberantly, here at the hospital. She was wary of her immediate request for dinner though. Octavia was no expert on relationships herself, but it seemed that dinner was a rather personal and important thing to start with.
Still, the unicorn was an open book. Every posture, every glance had been sincere, and she probably just wanted to be friends. It helped when she had pulled off those ridiculous sunglasses. She had striking crimson red eyes, and as mesmerising as they were, they spoke volumes as to what the mare was thinking. Octavia snorted weakly in amusement. Perhaps this DJ, Vinyl, could be interesting. Only time would tell.
Soon, her mind released the rest of her worries, and she fell into a deep, peaceful slumber. Lulled by the gentle, warm comfort of the hospital bed, something that her own cushions at En Reach had never obtained over the years. Octavia slept deeply. Even when the nurse snuck into her room, checking to ensure that she was well, and to leave a glass of water and a small bottle of painkillers, Octavia didn't so much as twitch.