//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: Old World Blues 
// by Wheller 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 6

Octavia and Vinyl continued their walk down the street; they stopped for a moment in front of the place Vinyl had been talking about. A ‘for rent’ sign continued to hang in the window for it.

‘It’s... nice’, Octavia said looking it over. ‘The architecture is a little different from what I’m used to... but it’s nice, quaint’.

‘I’m sorry, were you describing the flat, or me? I couldn’t tell’, Vinyl said, flashing a grin at her friend. Octavia said nothing, she merely rolled her eyes at Vinyl and the two continued on their way.

They did not get far before commotion sprung on them. Rounding from around the corner was a grey coated stallion, an orange mane and tail, with eyes an equal orange. Though perhaps the most notable about him was the set of royal blue robes that he was wearing, the earth pony (or at least as so as they presumed, if he was a Pegasus, the robes were covering the spot where you’d find the wings) was being chased by two individuals that Vinyl Scratch recognised.

‘Stop! I order you to stop!’ Detective Sergeant Lucky shouted at the earth pony stallion that he was pursuing. His partner, Detective Constable Banana Crème was huffing and puffing not far behind him.

As the robed stallion passed them, Octavia leapt quickly into action, she turned and planted her hind hooves into the robed stallion’s flank, sending him toppling to the ground in surprise.

He attempted to get back to his hooves, but it had been just long enough for DS Lucky to close the gap, he pounced on the robed stallion and quickly slapped restraints on him.

‘I’m arresting you for the theft of a wireless receiver! You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something that you may rely upon in court, anything you do say may be given in evidence’, Lucky grunted as DC Banana Crème caught up with him.

Banana Crème picked the stallion up and walked off with him over towards a park bench where she sat him down and waited for her partner to come. Lucky turned to the two mares before him and smiled.

‘Nice save miss...?’ Lucky questioned.

‘Octavia Auditore’, Octavia said simply. Behind her, Vinyl Scratch began to giggle. Octavia turned to her and gave a deadly stare. ‘What?’ she asked coldly.

‘Auditore. Get it? Auditory? It’s funny, because you’re a musician’, Vinyl said, continuing to snicker. Octavia’s death stare continued, causing Vinyl to chuckle nervously. ‘Okay, I’m done! Shutting up now’.

DS Lucky blinked a few times before nodding. ‘Anyway... Miss Auditore, thank you for your assistance’, he turned and began to trot towards Banana Crème. ‘Got anything out of the suspect yet?’ He asked.

‘Not much’, she responded. ‘Won’t give me anything but his name, Montana Ulan’.

Vinyl Scratch’s head snapped up to attention, she glanced over at the stallion, she had thought he’d looked familiar, and there it was, plain as day. Montana Ulan himself was sitting, looking nervously at her as she watched.

‘You!’ Vinyl shouted as she trotted over at high speed. Octavia rolled her eyes; Vinyl was making a spectacle of herself again. ‘You have a lot to answer for!’ Vinyl continued. DS Lucky went forward and put himself between her and his suspect.

‘I’m sorry miss; I’m going to have to ask you to step back. You’re interfering with police business’, Lucky said.

Octavia trotted up to Lucky and spoke aloud. ‘Actually, Detective Sergeant, it would be you that’s interfering’.

Lucky raised an eyebrow. ‘What are you playing at Miss Auditore?’ he asked.

Octavia whipped open her saddlebags and pulled out an ID booklet, she opened it and showed it to him. ‘That would be Detective Inspector Auditore, Greater Manehattan Police, Montana Ulan is wanted in connection with a technology smuggling ring, and I’m going to ask that you turn him over to me. Smuggling trumps petty theft’.

Vinyl Scratch’s mouth dropped open in shock.

‘You didn’t mention this before’, Lucky said suspiciously.

‘I didn’t think it mattered to me before’, Octavia countered. ‘Now it does, now are you going to cooperate with me, or am I going to have to go to your DCI over it?’

Lucky grumbled, but eventually nodded to Banana Crème, and they released Monty Ulan to them. They continued to grumble as they rounded the corner and out of view.

‘You’re a copper!’ Vinyl Scratch exclaimed. ‘How could you not tell me that!?’

‘I didn’t tell you, because I met you while on assignment’, Octavia said slipping her badge back into her bag.

‘So what, you were going after me, is that what?’ Vinyl harked at her.

Octavia sighed and rolled her eyes. ‘Please, Vinyl, GMP never cared about you. They wanted Trigger. Just so happened the poor bastard choked to death before I was going to ask you to turn Princess’ Evidence against him, besides, it’s not like you never did anything to hurt me, I never lied to you, Vinyl Scratch, I just didn’t tell you the whole truth’.

Vinyl Scratch swallowed hard, she hadn’t thought about Trigger in a long, long time. When Vinyl was younger, she’d been roped into dealing drugs for a seedy, greedy Gnoll, also known as a Diamond Dog, by the name of Tigger who loved nothing more than shiny bits. How fitting that his death had been caused by one. He swallowed a coin and choked to death on it.

‘So the cushy flat? The radio station manager?’ Vinyl asked.

‘Both belonged to my cousin, Giovanni, I lived with him. He got us kicked out when he got sacked for telling his boss to get stuffed’, Octavia reported.

‘How come I never met him?’ Vinyl asked.

‘Because we never went to my place, Vinyl, it was always yours’, Octavia said rolling her eyes. She was angry now. ‘Not that I’d expect you to remember, I don’t know how I can expect you to remember anything considering how much time you spent with your head in a bottle, your nose in the sand, and the rest of you in bed’.

Vinyl Scratch was fuming in anger by this point. ‘Get the fuck out of my town, right now, before I do something I regret’, Vinyl said, unintentionally using her magic to open her saddlebags.

Monty Ulan yawned loudly, causing both mares to look at him after completely forgetting about him. ‘This is entertaining at all, but I’ve got things to do, so hurry up and get me back to Manehattan’s CID so you can release me when the charges won’t stick’.

‘SHUT THE FUCK UP!’ Octavia and Vinyl screamed at him angrily, causing the earth pony to smirk.

‘Well, I’d like to say it’s been fun, Detective Inspector Auditore, but this pretty much killed the mood’, Vinyl snapped.

‘Well I can say the same to you, drug addled whore’, Octavia snapped back. She grabbed Monty Ulan and began dragging him away. ‘Where’s a police box when you need one!?’

‘You might try looking in the same place as your stick! Up your arse!’ Vinyl called out in frustration, she turned and galloped back to the Library, where she flung open the door and scampered over to the stairs of the rarely used basement. Locking the door behind her she trotted down the stairs and flipped on the lights.

She promptly collapsed onto the floor, ripping the goggles from her eyes and tossing them to the ground. She burst into tears, and began sobbing heavily into her hooves. It was at this moment that she was glad that Twilight and Rainbow Dash couldn’t hear her from here. She needed to be alone right now.

The more Vinyl thought about it, the more Octavia being a copper made sense. Octavia would never talk about what she did during the daylight hours; she had no friends outside of Vinyl, and a select few members of the Manehattan Symphony Orchestra.

Vinyl had to wonder if Octavia had been a detective the first time around, in the old world. Vinyl Scratch’s old world and new world lives had ended up being pretty much the same, but maybe things were different for the other ponies. Maybe Octavia had been her friend on the level the first time around. Maybe she was reliving the exact same lie. She had no way of knowing.

Vinyl Scratch’s sobs began to slow, and she pulled her puffy eyes out from her hooves and nearly jumped in surprise when she discovered that a spritebot armed with a submachine gun was hovering, quite literally, two centimetres from her face.

‘Are you quite finished?’ the tinny voice of Emerald Sparkle barked over the spritebot’s speakers. ‘You’re upset, I get it, but you have more pressing concerns’.

‘Piss off’, Vinyl said. And she was supposed to be a witty one.

‘No’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘I saw that little spectacle you and your... whatever you are pulled outside, I don’t care about that. I care about the one that was with you. Montana Ulan, I know those robes he was wearing. He’s a member of the Machine Cult’.

‘The what?’ Vinyl asked.

‘Exactly’, Emerald Sparkle said. ‘I don’t have time to explain it to you, Vinyl Scratch, you live in a Library, read a book, figure it out, see why it’s important’.

With that, the spritebot turned itself invisible, and just like that, it was gone.