Harpflank and Sweets: Forced Introspection

by Arcainum

Breaking The Surface: Vinyl Scratch

“I don’t have to listen to you, you’re not my mom.”

Discord’s eye imperceptibly twitched. The day was proving decidedly unsuccessful.

“I... what?”

Vinyl stood up, glaring at the floating Discord with a petulant expression.

“Hay no! Who do you think you are, getting all up in my memories and trying to get me down? Even Nightmare Moon had the decency to attack us in person.”

Discord laughed at Vinyl’s pout.

“Oh, you’re hardly helping your case here.”

“Ah, shut up. You’re just twisting words. You think I spent a lifetime hanging around Tavi without hearing a little wordplay? Okay, so I’ve kinda breezed through life. I got a good family, I’ve been lucky with jobs, Tavi’s got my back...”

Her expression hardened.

“Yeah, I was lucky. But that doesn’t make me a bad pony. Whatever luck I had, I acted on it. I played around at school, sure, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t work. And if you’re so big on my memories, then you know the sweat and tears that went into this baby.”

She cocked her head back, nodding at her cutie mark.

“Say what you like about how I got to where I am today, but the fact remains that I spend every minute of every day working my butt off. I doing what I love, and what I love helps keep ponies safe.”

She stuck out her tongue and blew a long, dismissive raspberry.

“So nuuuh.”

Discord threw his claws into the air and sighed.

“Oh, fine! You win as well. Congratulations on being incorruptible, like all the rest of your blasted friends.”

He froze, and the faintest hint of a grin crept into his expression.

“...Yes. Yes, you should wake up now.”

~

Vinyl’s eyes snapped open and she sat bolt-upright, eyes wide. She had easily deflected the mental attack, but Discord had sounded almost... smug.

A noise behind her made her spin in her chair, leaping to her hooves.

“Tavi?!”

Vinyl looked in horror at her friend, who had collapsed to the floor of the office and lay head in hooves, wracked with sobs. Vinyl galloped to Octavia’s side, panic gripping her. In all her life, she had never seen her friend so broken, so... lifeless. Her grey coat had lost its lustre.

“Tavi?! Tavi, what’s wrong?! Octavia!”

At the sound of Vinyl’s voice, Octavia’s head jerked up, and Vinyl gasped. Her friend’s face was a mask of bleak despair, her gleaming tears sharply contrasting the dull colourlessness of her eyes. Vinyl reached a tender hoof toward her, and Octavia clutched at it desperately. Vinyl knelt beside her and gently stroked her mane.

“Please, Octavia. What the hay happened?”

Octavia swallowed, choking back the emotions that consumed her. She shuddered as she fought the horror that had so overtaken her and scrambled closer to Vinyl, pulling her into a tight embrace as if they were foals again. As the lifelong friends held each other close, the light gradually began to play on Octavia’s coat again, and the colour seeped back into her eyes.

Comments

[Law]

wow.

[Firebirdbtops]

6 wins in a row, but what about #7?

[ShadowLDrago]

Wow, Discord really did a number on Octavia...