24. Final Fight! (Vinyl)
I woke up to the click-click-clacking of train wheels on tracks and the sound of conversation next to me. “Did you have to bring the monkey paw?” a voice I recognized as Bon-Bon’s asked.
“Yeah, the thing definitely needs to be disenchanted, and that takes a long time to do properly, so I figured I could do it at their house. You think they’ll mind?” Lyra asked while I heard a shuffling in one of her bags.
“For some reason, I don’t think they’ll be too upset that you’re trying to undo whatever curse is affecting them.”
“It’s not technically a curse,” Lyra said, “it’s just that as long as it exists it will try to work things related to the wish to go bad. It’s probably why I detected the faint aura of dark magic on that potion sample Tavi gave me.”
“Ooh, are you going to give them the good news about the potion?” Bon-Bon asked, her voice perking up. I thought about rolling over and letting them know I was awake, but… I didn’t want to face them right now, not after what I’d done. Besides, the bench I was on was really comfy and I kind of wanted to get back to sleep.
“I don’t know,” Lyra said. “All I found out was that there is a natural way to undo the potion’s effects, I still don’t know what it is and telling them now… it might just be false hope, you know?”
I heard a squishing kiss noise, and a second later, Bon-Bon spoke up. “Lyra, I think they deserve to know everything you do. Especially since I think every bit of good news will probably be appreciated soon. After Vinyl tells Octavia the truth, maybe some good news might calm her down.”
Oh, right, I had to tell Tavi I wished she drank the potion. Somehow I managed not to groan at the thought. Yeah, I had done it because I thought it would help her, but I didn’t expect her to be properly grateful. Like, I try to do my best for her and give her something she’d really like, but she couldn’t even be happy about it. I mean, maybe she would be, but… “Maybe you’re right,” Lyra said. “But what if I don’t find out how to fix it? I gave them all that hope for nothing.”
Was Lyra actually doubting herself? That seemed so odd, like… she was always so happy and enthusiastic about everything, and now she was… I mean, okay back when we were dating, she’d start freaking out about something super small, but I usually just ignored that and… Oh. That might’ve been one of the reasons we broke up. I was usually too busy focusing on my stuff that I didn’t notice when her stuff started bothering her.
Unless it directly impacted me, I didn’t care what she did; but then, she wasn’t particularly involved in my life, and we usually just did our own thing unless we were actively doing couple stuff. It wasn’t like what she had with Bon-Bon now, it didn’t have that mutual support. Like, if Lyra did this when we were dating, I probably would’ve asked if she wanted to talk about stuff before going back to my DJing. Instead, Bon-Bon was here, supporting her, probably letting Lyra rest her head on Bon-Bon’s shoulder. It was like what I had with Tavi. Had. Probably wouldn’t have it anymore once she learned the truth. I briefly considered grabbing the monkey paw and making a wish that Tavi loved me like she used to, but I killed the thought.
I could fix this… I had to. Once I explained myself, she’d understand, she’d forgive me. She had to, I thought, reassuring myself as the train sped towards Manehattan. Tavi would forgive me. She always did.
***
The house was almost completely silent when I walked in, and the only thing I could hear was the ticking of the clock. For some reason, the three of us were walking as quietly as possible, like we were worried about being overheard or something. I poked my head into the main sitting room, the central room for the wing we had made our home, and looked around. There, sitting in one of the lounge chairs, shooting daggers at me, was my wife. “I had an enlightening conversation with my mother today,” she said. “Or at least, I started to until she suddenly lost all her memories. She’s at the hospital with my father now, but I decided to stay here and wait for your return so you could explain yourself. You have twenty seconds–” She stopped as Lyra and Bon-Bon followed me into the room. “You brought friends.”
“Sorry,” Bon-Bon said, “Lyra had some urgent news for you and we were planning on just writing you a letter, but after Vinyl paid us a visit, we thought we should just go ahead and visit you.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Lyra said, “I tried to stop Vinyl from using the paw, but… are things with your mom bad?”
“Like I said, she lost all her memories.” Tavi said, frowning. Okay, so Tavi’s mom was kind of evil, but I didn’t want her to lose all her memories. Just one, and it didn’t even work out because she still managed to tell Tavi.
“Well, it couldn’t have happened to a better pony,” I said, unable to stop myself. All I managed to do was get Tavi to focus her attention back on me.
“I’m sorry, Vinyl, right now I can’t look at you without seeing the world go red, so I would suggest you keep your damned mouth shut.” I felt a twinge of anger as the voice shouting How dare she? made its return. I came here to apologize and instead she was treating me like an idiot. Yes, I had done some really shitty things to her, but I was trying to apologize. Tavi could at least listen to me. I mean, I did just insult her mother after I accidentally caused her to lose all her memories, but I couldn’t help it. The words just popped out. Also, holy crap, Tavi did not swear lightly, how upset would she have to be to yell at her wife?
“Sorry,” I said as one of my bandaged hooves started to itch, and I tried to remember how often I was supposed to change the bandages. They weren’t bloody, so that was good. “I… wasn’t thinking.”
“Your behavior of the last few days makes that readily apparent. Your damned lack of thinking is what got us into this mess. If you had exercised even an iota of thought, the last few weeks would have been far more pleasant. Today we should have discussed the name dream I had last night and instead you… you betray my trust in what might be the worst way I could imagine.” I could actually see fire in her eyes as she got out of her chair and took a step towards me.
“First, you use magic to alter my behavior, then you lie about it, and then when somepony discovers the truth, you wipe out all their memories. Do I even have to explain why I’m opposed to all those things?” As she spoke, she lost more and more of her composure as raw anger replaced her usual civility. “Do you even care about me anymore, or am I just something for you to use as you see fit? Tell me, is there anything of the mare I love left in you?”
“Actually, the potion might have affected Vinyl’s judgmen–”
I cut Lyra off as a wave of anger filled my body. “I did it all for you, you know. I thought you might like being a teenager again so I made the wish, and I made sure our daughter wasn’t affected. You should be thanking me, but instead you’re acting like I did something bad.”
“If you thought your actions were so good, then why didn’t you tell me immediately?” she asked, stomping a hoof angrily on the ground. “Admit how terrible your actions were and maybe I will forgive you. Beg for my forgiveness and I might consider it. Show me that you can even begin to comprehend your mistakes and I will be a bit more charitably disposed to your actions.”
“Vinyl, remember that stuff I said about the potion,” Lyra said when I opened my mouth to say something. “It’s really important you try to control your emotions right now. You can admit that lying to Tavi was wrong, right?”
“It might have been,” I said, glaring at Tavi. “But that’s only because she’s too stupid to see when I did her a favor. If you had any sense, you’d be thanking me, not yelling at me.” I… yeah, I regretted saying that pretty much immediately, I opened my mouth to take it back, but it was too late. The words were out and Tavi’s face was twisting into a snarl.
“You ungrateful obstinate foal!” Tavi shouted, losing whatever composure she had left. “I have tried and tried again to be understanding. To repay all you did for me when we first met, and what do you give me in return? Pain, lies, and manipulation. Whatever it was that made me fall in love with you, it’s clearly gone now, and the mare who’d see me through any hardship has been replaced by a callous, shallow, manipulative pony who wouldn’t help another unless it benefited her. Tell me, did you wish I’d become a teenager with the idea that I’d be more likely to accept your advances in mind? Or was that just an added bonus?”
“I wanted you to loosen up, that’s all. Yeah, I thought the sex would be better, but it wasn’t like it was why I did it. I just wanted you to let your mane down and have fun for once in your life, but that’s apparently impossible. I guess that pink stripe in your mane didn’t have an effect after all.”
Something terrible happened then. All the anger drained from her expression and she went eerily calm. “It did, actually. It’s my rebellion against ponies who would try to dictate the terms of my life. A call to resist those who would make me into what they wanted, and right now it’s reminding me that you should leave.”
I felt a pain in my chest, like somepony had just run a spear through my throat and a sob welled up in my throat. Oh no. Oh Celestia, I had… The events of the last few weeks shifted and I saw how I had used her, how I had… “Tavi, I’m–”
“Save it,” she said, cutting me off and turning towards the stairs. “There is nothing you can say to undo this, so don’t… just don’t try.” She turned back to look at me as she reached the stairs.
“Goodbye, Vinyl Scratch.”
For the first time in years, I sobbed.
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Well played.
The paw's plan has come together nicely. I hope it's proud of itself.
4744886 It's a creation of Discord, plans aren't really its thing.
Welp. Time for the divorce.
Also, that fucking paw needs to be destroyed.
this better have a happy ending
both Vinyl and Octavia are not in the right mind:
4744945 I won't say!
Alright now I'm sad. Why do you have to have them fight?
4744895 ya but I believe that discord has a mental link with all of his toys so when some one makes a wish he can decide on how he wants the wish to be.
4745511 Well, if that was the case then Discord would definitely be in violation of his reformation and huge trouble, and considering he seemed pretty thoroughly reformed after Tirek, I kind of doubt that. ALSO! I like to think he made a bunch of artifacts and scattered them over Equestria in the hopes of sewing chaos in case he was ever defeated (kind of like the plunderseeds in the S4 premiere). So in my head, the monkey paw is just a relic from a forgotten time that really shouldn't exist anymore.
If modern Discord knew about it, he would probably help clean up, especially since he still owes Tavi a favor.
4745585 and yet it still exists and I'm going to keep to my option
4745592 Maybe I wasn't clear. When I say it shouldn't exist anymore, I mean that Discord would probably destroy the damned thing if he knew it was still out there and that there's no place for a monkey paw in modern Equestria. Obviously, you are free to disagree with me because that's just how I pictured it working.
Even you said probably.
4745706 Like I said, you are free to disagree with me until I write a scene in the fic that explicitly states otherwise. Until then, all the stuff I write here is headcanon.
4745716 sorry if I seem mean but I still don't trust discord. Even if he helped save the day.
4745727 It's fine, I was just a little tickled by you telling the writer that the way he imagined something in his story was wrong, but I was worried about pulling that card because I thought I'd seem like an asshole, when in reality I was just amused.
4745736 if any thing I was an asshole.
4745738 Hey, disagreement is natural, I think you were fine, so don't sweat it too much.
4745743 thanks I also have one question what is the prequel to this story.
4745753 Royal Ponyville Orchestra is the first story set in this universe.
4745833 thanks I should have read that one first but I was looking at most popular stories and this is one of them by the way..
Good chapter. The fight had decent buildup and was satisfying.
I'm so addicted to your stories I'm going to have to go to rehab at the end of this month cuz I wont be getting my daily fix.
4747889 Well hey, at least you have one more week left. And then... yeah, there is gonna be a dry spell, but it will lead to higher quality content.
4747957 You have already earned a well deserved break and I'm looking forward to each thing you'll be writing.
4747976 And that break will be spent at BronyCon! Unfortunately since I am going to be spending most of Friday and Saturday travelling, I am trying to get two chapters out in one day.
4747987 One last high before the drought then
At least you'll have fun at Bronycon 