Of Wubs and Words

by Cavemonkynick

Chapter 3

My head was pounding as the bass blaring from my headphones tore through my skull, but it was a blissful kind of pain.

When Vinyl and I arrived home from our outing we found that her stuff had arrived. After lugging it upstairs, a daunting task made easy with her magic, she started unpacking and I sunk into my chair to brood a bit.

The easiest way for me to clear my mind is to bombard it with music, the particular selection depends on the occasion; in this case bass heavy electronic music, perfect for an assault on the senses. As I sat there, I let the beats and melodies paint pulsing images in my mind. Swirls of color and waves of sound enveloped my senses until the music was tangible. Reality melted away and my thoughts slowed down just long enough for me to knit together what was left of my sanity.

And then my iPod betrayed me by randomly playing Owl City.

“Fucking Vanilla Twilight,” I groaned, pushing my headphones down to hang on my neck.

“Oh good, you’re not dead,” Vinyl called from across the room. “I was just about to throw something at ya to make sure. So what’s Vanilla Twilight?”

“A song that sucked a lot less a month ago,” I replied, sitting up. "How's the unpacking coming?"

"I finished ages ago, I've just been mulling around for the last half hour waiting to see if you were gonna snap out of your funk today or if I was going to have to make my own entertainment."

"I really need to stop zoning out like that." I said. She laughed.

"Hey, wanna help me out with something?"

"Sure, why not."

“Great, hold out your claws.” She demanded walking over to me.

“Umm, they’re called hands.” I replied.

“Hands, claws, same thing, just hold ‘em out.” I did as I was told. Vinyl’s horn lit up and the soft glow of her magic enveloped my hands.

“So what are we doing exactly?” I asked.

“Your world practically revolves around those things, and since I don’t have any I’ll need to improvise a bit.”

“This isn’t like some kinda foreplay is it?”

“Nah… Well not in this context anyway.” I raised an eyebrow at her response, but she ignored me. “Unicorns don’t just use magic. We feel it, which can make for some interesting applications. It’s like an extra leg but infinitely more useful.”

“This is all fascinating, but what does it have to do with the magic gloves?”

“I’m getting there. Since we feel our magic, we subconsciously develop habits.”

“So, magical muscle memory?”

“Exactly. I want to get used to how hands work and feel before I start replicating them.”

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked turning my hands over and examining them.

"Whatever you usually do."

"Games it is then." I said, rising from my chair. Instead of firing up my 360, I turned to my Wii and popped in Metroid Prime: Trilogy.

"How many of these things do you have?" Vinyl asked.

"Quite a few," I laughed. "So tell me, who's Octavia?"

"She's a cellist, and a very close friend of mine."

"How close?"

"Nope, my turn. Who's your ex?"

"Well played." I sighed, pulling up Metroid Prime 2: Echoes from the main menu. "Alright, her name is Bailey. I've known her all my life but we didn't start dating until high school. So are you and Octavia a thing or what?" I asked as the game finished loading and put me in control.

"That’s a bit complicated," Vinyl said, shifting a bit. "She lives in the capital, Canterlot. I recently moved in with her but when I did the nobles stopped hiring her for their garden parties."

"So you left."

"It's not that simple." She said softly.

"When is it ever?" I replied. When she didn't answer I continued. "Bailey ran too. Joined the Navy and left everything behind but me, or so I thought. I guess-" My voice broke. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I guess she got tired of waiting." Again, Vinyl stayed silent. I let the silence stand as I navigated my way through the murky depths of the underwater temple in the Torvus Bog. It was a good ten minutes before she spoke again.

"Why did she run?"

"Because I wasn't enough reason for her to stay." I said, noting I sounded a little bitter. "I couldn't provide for her the way I wanted, and she couldn't see any way out of the little dead end town we were raised in except to run. She settled for a job she didn't want in the military and took the earliest ship date to boot camp that they would give her. Damn near killed me to watch her go, but I wasn't going to tie her down. For two months we talked through letters. I wrote her every day. And once a week on Thursday I'd get a letter from her. Sometimes it was a few lines, sometimes a few pages, but it was always just enough to get by."

"Then it came time for her to graduate. I drove fourteen hours, nearly a thousand miles just to see her. She was so happy. Free of her broken home, free of her dead end life, free of me. Even if we didn't realize it at the time. We only had a few hours together before I had to go. I gave her my class ring, and she promised to bring it back. It was our vow that she would stay safe and I'd be waiting. This was just five months ago."

"I expected things to be hard, I expected struggles, but I never saw this coming. I never thought she'd give up on me. I never thought-" I had to pause the game as the tears came again. Silence fell once more as they streamed down my face. With a shuddering breath I managed to pull myself together. "Now she's halfway around the world and I'm left here to try and start over." I turned to Vinyl. "Why did you run?"

She didn't answer. Without looking at me she slid her hooves to the floor and walked to her room. I felt her magic dissipate from my hands as she shut the door behind her.

"Fair enough," I mumbled returning to my game. She'd talk when she was ready. Until then, I had more than enough to occupy my mind.

Comments

[ShyYoungBrony]

Well, I know Nick promised to get this out ages ago... and he'd have had it ready 4 weeks and 3 days ago if not for a rather unforeseen inconvenience on my part. Any and all negative feedback regarding this delay is to be directed at me, as he has no responsibility whatsoever in this. That being said, I'm sure all of you will like this chapter as the story continues to build up. I won't spoil anything though, so go read it!

[Magus of Chronicles]

Alrighty then, lets keep this gravy train a rollin'.

[totallynotabrony]

<-- My face. Seriously.

MOAR

[Iron Sides]

I really need to do a story like this only with like older me and big mac at like Lincoln tech

[DarthMalentai]

That reason why she left was deep.

[Cavemonkynick]

3249149
Which she?

[DarthMalentai]

3249515
main guys Ex-girlfriend. (my mind is not thinking straight so you might think I am talking weirdly)