All Good Things... (Part 1)
I would like to apologize for going so long without updating this journal. After returning from our vacation, things became exceedingly busy, and the time not spent practicing or dealing with the orchestra was… well, there really wasn’t any time outside of the orchestra as Vinyl would be more than happy to bring up, so I’m afraid that my journal writing fell by the wayside.
Now that I finally have some free time, I find myself in a rather strange predicament. I can either attempt to write down every last thing that has happened to me in the past month and a half, or I can save time and focus only on the events that left a profound impression on me. While a part of me would very much like to take the first option and describe in detail everything that has happened between my last entry and now, I feel it would be for the best if I took the shorter option. My hooves are sore enough after dealing spending the last four weeks playing the cello for almost every waking moment of my day and adding to their pain by writing an entry that could easily stand at forty thousand words strikes me as particularly ill-advised. Also, I am ashamed to say that I don’t actually remember everything that has happened in the last month or so.
After Lyra’s engagement and impromptu all-night party, the four of us spent most of our last day on the cruise sleeping wherever we had passed out. As final days go, it was rather anticlimactic, and when I was writing the last entry on the train ride back to Ponyville, I thought it better to end the story of our vacation on a high note as opposed to going on for a few extra paragraphs to detail the fact that after three of us got incredibly hammered, we did indeed have another couple of meals aboard the Valiant and that Vinyl decided to take a few souvenirs from our suite before we left. I love the mare, but sometimes I do not understand her at all.
When we finally reached Ponyville after a several day train ride (Las Pegasus is much farther away from Ponyville than Manehattan), the four of us groggily disembarked and headed back home, Vinyl carrying most of our luggage while I handled my cello As we approached our home, we saw that at some point during our absence, a small herd of animals had surrounded our house.
‘We leave for one week and something odd happens to our house,” I sighed, “Why am I even surprised anymore?”
“Because some part of you keeps hoping for the best?” Vinyl half-asked half-said, turning to face me and smile.
“I suppose it’s just my boundless optimism that keeps getting me into trouble. Shall we go see what is going on?”
Vinyl nodded and followed me as we headed towards the house when the animals suddenly turned to stare at us. “Ahh… the Deathbringer and Lifegiver have returned,” they said as one. “For generations we waited for you to come back to us so that we might show you how we have improved ourselves.”
“Oh… uh, hi Moldy, how’s it hanging?” Vinyl said, her expression fluctuating between worry and shock..
“Really?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her, “Your sentient mold… creature starts forming a gestalt entity and all you can ask it is ‘how’s it hanging?’” I turned to face the mold monster, “Moldy, what exactly are you doing?”
“While you were gone, we realized our understanding of ponydom was limited, and because of those limitations it would be difficult for us to interact with them. Therefore, it was decided we must start adding other entities to the collective so that we can assimilate and properly process their experiences. These creatures are what you would call a trial run, and we are pleased to report that the collective has absorbed their individuality.”
Oh wonderful, Vinyl and I had inadvertently created some sort of hive mind that wanted to absorb Equestria, I thought to myself as I imagined all the many terrible ways this could play out. “Have you considered how the creature’s you are… absorbing feel about this?” I asked as ponies on the street looked at the disturbance in front of our house. “Also, can we please continue this conversation indoors?”
“Of course,” it said as the door to the house creaked open of its own accord. “We await you inside.”
I leaned in and whispered to my marefriend, “If it starts trying to add us to it’s collective consciousness, we are running and informing Twilight so Celestia can rain solar flares down on our house, alright?”
Vinyl nodded as we followed the herd into the house, and I plucked a note off the door before storing it in my cello case. As we walked through the door, we saw a green blob bubbling it’s way down the stairs. I nodded my head at it, hoping to stay on it’s good side. “We are glad to see you again,” it said, attempting to form legs and a head before collapsing in on itself, “We have been busy while you are away.”
“I can see that,” I said, forcing a smile as Moldy’s black eyes bubbled up to the it’s surface before sinking back into the primordial mass that spawned them, “Would you mind telling me what exactly you have been doing?”
“We have been expanding. Bringing more entities in the collective consciousness so that they might experience unity and we might understand more of Equestrian society through their experiences.”
A hoof made of mold slowly emerged from it’s mass and pointed at the animals in our house, “These are the first additions. Through them, we have learned much about Equestrian biology and their simple programs have been preserved and added to the collective. We very much look forward to better understanding the programs and experiences of sapient beings.”
I suppose this is really my own fault for ever thinking there could ever be a day in Ponyville that wasn’t profoundly strange. “Might I ask how you intend to do that?” I said as politely as I could.
“Spores. We will launch spores into the air. Ponies will inhale them. The spores will grow and bring their individuality to the collective and both will be enriched. Through this, we will bring harmony.”
“Alright,”I said, taking a step away from the thing still slowly creeping down the stairs, “I noticed that at no point in your plan do you ask other ponies if they want to join your collective. That might be a key step you are overlooking.”
It paused in its descent, bubbling in thought. “The Lifebringer informed us that unity and harmony were key values in Equestrian society. Why would ponies ever turn down an offer that brings both? Would we not bring forth a new age of harmony? From our understanding, you and the Lifebringer seek to find perfect harmony with each other.It is within our power to grant you both that. Is this not the greatest good possible?
“Well, I didn’t mean you should go create some sort of… crazy hive mind.” Vinyl said, “That’s- Ponies wouldn’t like that.”
“Why?” It said, finally bubbling to the bottom of the stairs.
“Let me handle this,” I said, nodding to Vinyl before turning my attention back to Moldy. “Yes, ponies value harmony, and we try to reflect that in everything we do, but what you are talking about isn’t harmony. It’s tyranny. Harmony can’t be forced on somepony, it has to be earned, achieved. Harmony is desirable because ponies keep pursuing it, we work to make ourselves better, and in doing so make a better Equestria. If it was suddenly forced upon us, all of that self improvement would be lost.” Apparently I am amazing at talking down monsters with extemporaneous inspirational speeches. Huh. Perhaps Lyra was right and I am a diplomancer.
“We think we understand you. You argue that harmony is something to be pursued, not something to be given freely and by uniting all of Equestria under our collective, we would be destroying potential value gained in the pursuit of harmony?”
I nodded slowly, choosing my next few words carefully, “When Vinyl and I first met, we didn’t get along, but eventually, we learned to like each other and then love each other. If we had been born into your collective, we might have gotten along fine from the start, but our relationship would be much weaker now as a result.”
For a long moment, nobody spoke, with the only sound being the occasional gurgling coming from Moldy. “Ponies only value harmony when the individual is free to pursue it. By taking that choice from them, we do not advocate harmony. We will release these creatures and allow them to continue their lives.”
“Yes, before you do that though, could you bring them back outside? I would prefer not to have a dozen small animals suddenly regain control of their bodies in my house.”
“Agreed,” it said as the animals slowly walked towards the door, “We thank you for your instruction Deathbringer, we look forward to you teaching us more about life in Equestria and what is and isn’t appropriate.”
“Of course,” I said, smiling slightly, “Just try not to add any ponies to your collective.”
Moldy made a deep-throated gurgling noise, that might be mistaken for laughter by somepony who was severely intoxicated as several animals chattered outside. “They are released. Thank you for preventing us from making a mistake that might ostracize us from pony society.”
“Anytime,” Vinyl said, as I finally investigated the note on our door.
Dear Octavia,
I will be staying at the Prancing Pony Inn until you return from your vacation. I look forward to working for you again.
Sincerely, Woodhoof
“Oh, Moldy,” I said as the creature slowly tried to walk it’s way upstairs, “I hope you won’t mind having a roommate. He and I share a desire to make things tidy, so I am sure he will be happy to cleanse you whenever you want it.”
“This is acceptable,” it said as it reached the top of the stairs, leaving a green trail of ooze in it’s wake.
I walked towards the couch,“Wonderful, I am sure you will be the best of friends soon.”
As soon as Moldy went back to his room, I plopped down on the couch and let out a sigh of relief.
“You need some help, Tavi?” Vinyl asked, “That can’t be too comfortable having that cello strapped to your back. Want me to take it off for you?”
I weakly nodded my head, still processing what had just happened. “Vinyl, did I just talk your mold monster down from trying to absorb Equestria?”
She nodded as she used her magic to undo the straps of my cello case, “Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I should definitely let Luna know about that when we have our next chat, we will probably get another awesome vacation from the deal.”
“I really don’t think it’s that big an issue,” I said, resting my eyes as I felt the weight on my back vanish, “All I did was point out that some parts of it’s plan were incorrect. I don’t feel I deserve any commendation. Anypony could have done what I did.”
“Please,” Vinyl said, moving to massage my back, “Did you SEE how useless I was back there? You took care of things before they could get too bad and that is pretty awesome in my book.” She leaned in to kiss my neck, and my cheeks suddenly became quite warm..
“Thank you Vinyl,” I said, sighing happily as my marefriend proved to be quite adept at giving back massages.
“Like I said, no problem. Now what do you want to do for the rest of the day? I am thinking we-”
“Woodhoof.” I said.
Vinyl stopped her massage. “Look, I am all for being adventurous and stuff, but that sounds a bit too out there for my tastes.”
“No, not- Actually, I have no idea what you thought I was talking about, and I would very much like to remain ignorant on that subject. I was talking about picking up Woodhoof from the Prancing Pony.”
“Oh right,” Vinyl said as I rolled off the couch and got up to my hooves, “Guess we should bring him in and give him the grand tour.”
“Our house has eight rooms. I don’t think anything about it can be called grand,” I said as I walked towards the door, “Now I have no idea where the Prancing Pony is, so you will have to lead on.”
She nodded and took the lead, and I followed her through Ponyville’s streets until we finally reached the Prancing Pony. “It’s an odd name for an inn, isn’t it?” I said as we walked inside.
“Yeah, the owner intended for it to be a reference to something, but I don’t think anypony in town got it. Except Pinkie, she laughed for half an hour when she heard the name.”
“Of course she would,” I muttered as we walked through the inn doors to find a mostly empty main room with a few ponies sitting off in one corner.
“Excuse me,” I said, approaching the front desk, “I am looking for Woodhoof, could you please point me towards his room?”
“Room 203,” the stallion behind the desk said, pointing to the stairs.
I nodded at him in thanks before heading off to meet my oldest friend.
“Hello?” He said, slowly opening the door after I knocked on it, “Who- Oh, Miss Octavia, you have returned. I am so eager to start working for you.”
“Please,” I said, smiling, “I want you to enjoy yourself, you’ve spent a lifetime working hard, I think the least my family owes you is a few years of rest.”
His smile vanished in an instant, “While I appreciate the sentiment, I am a professional Miss Octavia, and I will not shirk my duties. I am upset that you think I would.”
“Of course,” I said, “I just wanted to show my appreciation for all your years of work since I am certain that my parents never would.”
“I know what you were trying to do, but I resent the implication that I am too old to do my job or need to be retired. I greatly enjoy my work and take satisfaction from serving other ponies adequately. While your parents and I disagreed on many things, the one thing they did that I whole-heartedly supported was never to assume that I couldn’t perform a task they had set out for me. I would ask you to follow their wisdom on that issue.”
I nodded my head in deference, “Of course Woodhoof, I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“It’s quite alright Miss Octavia, I have dealt with worse offenses, but I wanted to clarify things before they became a problem.”
“Should we head back home then?” Vinyl said, “I can carry your stuff for you, I am sure there is a lot.”
“No need,” he said, grabbing the strap of a nearby duffel bag and throwing it over his shoulder. “I am perfectly capable of carrying my own possessions.”
“Well yeah,” Vinyl said, rubbing the back of her neck, “But don’t you have more stuff? All that seems pretty light.”
“A good butler never packs more than he can carry or overburdens himself in any way. I brought a few personal effects and my bowties with me. I saw no reason to burden myself with anything else.”
“But don’t you have other stuff? I mean, I imagine that you’ve got a lot of stuff over your long- You have to own more than just a duffel bag full of stuff.”
Woodhoof and I shook our heads, “Most of my earnings have gone in to the bank to be saved for a rainy day, the only personal effects I allow myself are a few photo albums which I brought with me. Several of which detail Miss Octavia’s foalhood.”
“Sweet,” Vinyl said, “I bet you have plenty of embarrassing stories then?”
He nodded far too enthusiastically for my taste and I let out a small sigh as we headed back home. “So then, this is where you live,” he said as we reached the door to our house, “It seems like a perfectly fine dwelling. Certainly a refreshing change from my last house.”
“It is a bit smaller than your last home,” I said, opening the door.
“Not true, my last home was a small cell in the basement of your family’s estate. It’s hard to imagine a home smaller than that.”
“Well remember, you will be sharing a room with a sentient mold creature. He’s generally nice, but was a bit weird earlier this morning,” Vinyl said as we walked inside the house.
“By which she means that it intended to add all of Equestria to its collective consciousness a few hours ago. Thankfully, we managed to talk it down.” I paused, imaging how that sentence might sound to somepony who wasn’t intimately familiar with the daily details of our lives. “Things here can get rather strange sometimes. My best advice would be to just accept it.”
“We? I didn’t do anything but stand there, you did all the cool talking stuff,” Vinyl said, elbowing me playfully, “Don’t let her humility fool you, she probably neutralized a major threat to Equestria in like… less than five minutes.”
“Very good, Miss Octavia, I am very impressed. Now, on the subject of my living arrangement, this Moldy won’t try to… how did you describe it? Add me to it’s collective consciousness?”
“It shouldn’t,” I said, “And if it does then just let me know and it will be taken care of. Also, Moldy would appreciate it if you would occasionally if you would occasionally try to wipe it from the face of Equestria.”
Woodhoof’s lips slowly twisted into a smile and he nodded his head, “I believe I can do that, now if you will excuse me, I believe I should unpack.”
As he walked upstairs, I turned and kissed Vinyl’s neck before sitting down on the couch.
“Not that I am complaining, but what is that for?” She asked.
“For letting him use your old room. It’s… I am glad he is finally away from my parents.”
Vinyl laughed as she sat down next to me, “I think most ponies would be glad to get away from your parents.”
“True,” I said, smiling at her, “So what now?”
“Well, I was thinking we could have a nice little lunch at home. Nothing big you know, but it could be fun for everypony to talk and have Woodhoof get to know every pony.”
“That does sound pleasant,” I said, tapping my chin, “But there is absolutely nothing acceptable to eat at the house.”
“What are you talking about?” She said, kissing me on the cheek, “We have plenty of Trot-Tarts.”
I groaned, “Vinyl, I am not going to have Woodhoof eat Trot-Tarts for his first meal here. It’s bad enough he has to live with a sentient mold monster, but to subject him to Trot-Tarts… that’s just insult to injury.”
We had Trot-Tarts for lunch. Surprisingly enough, Woodhoof refrained from making disparaging comments. Instead, the four of us managed to have a perfectly pleasant conversation while eating Trot-Tarts. Of all the strange things that had happened to me in the past several weeks, a mold monster, my childhood butler, my marefriend, and myself sitting around a table, eating Trot-Tarts, and discussing our vacation struck me as the most surreal. Once we had finished eating, Woodhoof retrieved one of his photo albums and began to regale the three of us with tales of my foalhood. I have decided not to include those stories here to minimize future embarrassment.
The rest of the day was uneventful, and Vinyl and I were soon in bed discussing our vacation and what the future planned before falling asleep in each other’s forehooves. The next morning, with our vacation and unpacking officially over, it was time for us to resume work on the orchestra. The days passed quickly and almost every waking moment of mine was spent either practicing the cello or critiquing the other ponies in the orchestra. It is for that reason that I neglected my journal writing duties and am instead forced to catch up all at once, although I suppose this is marginally better than writing I practiced my cello this morning and then spent the afternoon and evening listening to a hundred ponies practice for the orchestra and critiquing them thirty times.
I will say that after my return, Royal Riff and I managed to get along and work together while dealing with the orchestra. I oversaw the practice most of the time while he worked on arranging all the details that I had never considered before, and we would discuss our progress with each other once a week. Once he got over being an insufferable jerk, he was actually quite pleasant, and I soon found myself counting him as a friend.
Pinkie Pie left the orchestra about a week after my return, saying that she had to get back to work at the bakery now that her role in the story was over. Sometimes I remember that I am related to that mare, and the thought absolutely terrifies me. Thankfully, I can keep the insanity I share with her in check most of the time. Mostly.
“We need to make sure other ponies won’t quit the orchestra before the performance,” Royal Riff said during one of our weekly luncheaons, looking through the notes on the orchestra’s performance I had written for him.
“Of course,” I said, having a sip of my seltzer water, “While Pinkie is a… friend of mine, we can’t afford to lose ponies so suddenly, especially with the Winter Moon Celebration just over a month away. I have taken the liberty of asking all ponies who want to leave to wait until after our first performance, and highlighting the high risk ponies in my report.”
He smiled, “You are wonderful Octavia, I suppose Luna put you in charge of this orchestra for a reason.”
“To be fair, I think the both of us count as co-founders now, and in truth, I still think you do most of the work.”
“Well, that wouldn’t have happened unless you talked me into actually working with you.” He flipped through the performance reports I had given him, “Now I have a rather important question for you, why is Vinyl Scratch performing so poorly? In your last three reports you ranked her at the bottom of all the orchestra players.”
I nodded, “I’ve been trying to be objective with my evaluation of her performance, and I feel her lack of classical training is affecting her ability to play.”
“Really?” Royal Riff said, “Because, pardon me for saying so, but I’ve been talking with Fiddlesticks and she says that Vinyl is playing just fine.”
I raised an eyebrow, “And you were talking with Fiddlesticks because?”
“Oh, she is a lovely mare and I like to think of her as a friend.”
“Just a friend?” I asked, recalling all their shared glances during the last few weeks.
“Well… uhmm, yes, of course. Any romantic fraternization between boss and employee would be quite unprofessional and jeopardize our objectivity. Which is actually what I wanted to bring up with you today. I know you and Vinyl are rather close. Are you sure your relationship isn’t compromising your ability to objectively rate her performance?”
“Of course,” I said, frowning at him over my meal, “If anything, I’m harder on her than I am on anypony else.”
“You do realize that that isn’t objectivity?” He said, “I suppose the argument could be made that it is impossible for any of us to be objective, but the fact that you are treating her differently than other ponies is problematic.”
“What are you suggesting?” I asked, swallowing a lump in my throat.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to say that you should break up with her or that you should resign, I just think that perhaps you should talk to her about it and work out a solution. If the problem persists, then we will talk about more severe options.” Was he the same stallion I found so insufferable just over a month ago? Amazing what a little time in Ponyville will do.
I nodded my head as our lunch concluded before walking back to the orchestra (We were still practicing in the town hall as it’s first floor had a nice empty space that could fit the entire orchestra. Unfortunately, several mayoral aides were less than pleased with this development).
I had gotten back early, and most ponies were still on their lunch break, leaving me alone with my marefriend. “Can I talk with you?” I asked as she continued practicing on her double bass.
“I don’t know,” she said, not bother to hide her frustration, “You already made me practice through lunch until I mastered this piece, and to be honest, I’m not really sure why. I’m hitting all the notes and I sound as good as everypony else, but...”
“That’s actually wanted to talk to you about that,” I said, not bothering to hide my frown.
“Save it,” Vinyl said, suddenly stopping her practice and levitating the double bass back to it’s case. “I quit.”
Before I could marshal a response, she had marched out of the building, leaving me absolutely stunned. As I walked towards the door to follow her and explain myself, the rest of the orchestra chose that exact moment to return. I wanted more than anything to follow Vinyl and explain myself to her, but if I did that, then I would be guilty of putting my own needs before the needs of the orchestra I was in charge of. Trying to mask my grimace, I nodded my head at the returning ponies, “Alright everypony, let’s resume our practice. We only have a month until our first performance, and I want everything to be perfect.”
The orchestra ponies moved to their designated spots while Princess Twilight took hers, and we practiced until sunset. If I was the type of mare to take half measures, I might have called our practice early so I could talk with my marefriend, but I am not and so I did not. Even if I desperately wanted to.
As soon as our daily rehearsal session ended, I sprinted back home as quickly as I could. “Vinyl,” I said, barging through the front door, “I am sorry for being so demanding…” I walked in as Woodhoof and Moldy were having some chips and hummus. Apparently while I had been working on the orchestra, Moldy learned how to keep an equine shape without turning into a pile of goo, which I suppose is a good thing? Maybe? At the very least, it had stopped trying to add other beings to it’s collective, so I count that as a victory for Equestria.
“Where is Vinyl at?”
They pointed upstairs. “In her DJ room,” Woodhoof said, “She has been there since she came in this afternoon and she seemed to be quite upset about something.” As he spoke a loud boom shook the room.
“I thought her work room was sound proof,” I said as I headed up the stairs.
“It is,” the other two nodded glumly, “You should probably go talk to her.”
The floor of the house shook with every throb of Vinyl’s bass, I tried knocking on the door but couldn’t even hear myself. Mouthing an apology to my eardrums, I opened the door. Vinyl stared at her turntable, so absorbed in her work that she didn’t even notice me walk into her room. Moving as quickly as I could to avoid any more permanent damage to my hearing. I tapped on her shoulder and she finally stopped her music (At some point I really need to research the technical terms for turntable so I can write about it without revealing my ignorance). “Back already?” She said, taking her goggles off and glaring at me, “I thought you were going to practice with the orchestra all night.”
I sighed and sat next to her. “Listen Vinyl, I am sorry for being so hard on you with the orchestra. That… I just wanted to show that I could be impartial. It’s important to me that the other ponies think of me as objective, and if they saw me giving special treatment to my marefriend they might resent me. You were fine though.”
Her expression softened as I spoke. “Yeah, you are kind of grueling. The other ponies thought you were being super hard on me and the other ponies generally just think of you as a slavedri- an inspiring leader. Also, I wasn’t that upset with you for being super critical of me.”
“Wait, slavedriver,” I said, figuring out what she almost said and raising an eyebrow, “How is expecting them to give their best being a slavedriver? And more importantly, if you were that upset with me, then why did you quit?”
Vinyl laughed, “First of all, you didn’t hear that from me, and second of all, I think most of them just wanted them to complain about the boss lady. I mean, you did work us like… twelve hours a day, six days a week, and that’s why I quit, because you’ve been working seventy-two hours a week.”
“I have to get them in shape for our first performance in a few weeks. I’ve spent the last month taking things slow, and now we just don’t have time for it,” I shook my head, “Luna is depending on me to make this orchestra be the best it can and that won’t happen by taking half-measures. Besides, I don’t ask them to do anything I can’t do. They put in twelve hours, I practice for sixteen, they work six days a week, I work seven.”
“That’s my point! You’ve been so busy with the orchestra, that I’m kind of feeling a little neglected. I know that it’s important to you, but would it be possible for us to spend some time together now and then?”
“We spend time together,” I said, trying to smile, “We spend twelve hours a day practicing together.”
“Yeah, time which you spend being super critical of me because you are afraid of being seen as playing favorites.” She narrowed her eyes slightly, enough to let me know that I was on thin ice, “Also, spending time practicing with a hundred other ponies isn’t exactly my idea of date night.”
“Fair enough,” I said, “Listen, come back to the orchestra. I realize I’ve made a few mistakes, and I promise I will do better in the future.”
She shook her head, “No, but thanks for offering.”
“What, why? I… are you still mad at me? Listen, I understand that you are upset, but the orchestra needs everypony it can get.”
“Tavi, I love you, but the orchestra doesn’t need me. I’m a DJ, spending all day playing the double bass isn’t my idea of a good time, and the orchestra isn’t short on ponies now, so I figured I could leave.”
“Then why did you make a big issue about me being too critical of you? If you were going to quit anyways-”
“Oh no, I was totally upset with you and I wanted to have this talk with you, so I guess I thought it would be a good way to take care of two issues at once,” she frowned, “Though I can see why you would get upset with me for being kind of manipulative.”
I paused and pursed my lips, “I don’t think I was ever that devious. I knew how to manipulate Pinkie Pie, and I could be rather… oblique about things, but I don’t think I ever…” I kissed her, “I am impressed.”
“Yeah, well with you getting all honest and expressing your feelings, I thought I might as well practice my ability to manipulate issues,” she smiled and laughed and I found myself joining her. “Guess we’re even?”
“Wait, the orchestra is going to go on tour after our first performance, what are you going to do then?”
She shrugged, “Probably stay home, visit you when I can. I mean, you are going to be too busy to do much beyond practice anyways, and I don’t like the idea of spending several months away from home.”
“We would be away from each other for quite a while,” I said, my lips slowly turning into a frown, “I suppose I was hoping that with you staying in the orchestra, we could avoid that problem.”
“Hey,” she said, pecking me on the cheek, “I can travel with you if you want, I mean those cities will need a DJ just as much as Ponyville does.”
“True,” I said, trying to smile, “But I don’t want to ask that of you? After all that you’ve done for me, it seems… I don’t know.”
She moved to rub my back with one hoof, “This’ll all work out, I promise and no matter what happens we will stay together.”
I nodded my head at that, now dedicating most of my mental energies towards developing the perfect solution to the problem. Not to sound like the sort of mare who absolutely needs her marefriend by her side at all times, but premier tour is slated to last ten months or five times longer than our current relationship. It was not something I wanted to endure.
“Hello, earth to Tavi, you here?’ For effect, my marefriend waved a forehoof in front of my face, suddenly gaining my attention.
“Yes, what? Sorry, I was thinking.”
“It’s alright,” Vinyl said, “You were just kind of staring off into space for like a minute. Care to tell me what’s on your mind?”
I shook my head, “Just trying to think of a better resolution to this so we both get what we want.”
“Well what do you want?” She asked, a look of concern on her face.
“That… I’m not sure. Travelling with the orchestra would be wonderful and a great career opportunity, but leaving you and,” I paused for a second as the enormity of what I was about to say sank in, “I like this town. The ponies here are friendly, I have a few social contacts, and in spite of everything that has happened to me since coming here, I am actually inclined to think fondly of it.”
“Yeah,” Vinyl said, nodding her head, “This town’ll do that to you. I think it actually took you longer than most to fall under it’s spell, though I guess that’s understandable considering all that’s happened.”
I got to my hooves and slowly staggered towards the door, my voice felt stiff and mechanical. “I need to think this over for a while. I will be in my room,” I turned my head back to look at Vinyl, “I promise I won’t let my work consume me as much in the future. You are right, we need to make time for each other.”
With that, I walked to our room, closed the door, and flopped onto the bed. Up until today I had assumed that we would be going to tour Equestria with the orchestra together, but now… the idea of leaving Ponyville and Vinyl for ten months wasn’t as comforting as it would have been even a few weeks ago. On the other hoof, touring with the Royal Ponyville Orchestra, no matter how laughable the name, was an idea career opportunity, and turning it down must be a form of madness. In this fashion, my mind turned and twisted in on itself until Vinyl finally came into our room during the early hours of the morning and wrapped her forelegs around me. For some reason, that small reflexive action was enough to calm my mind and allow me to sleep.
The next morning, I redoubled my efforts with the orchestra, although I did make sure to have lunch with Vinyl at least five times a week and take a few hours off on Saturday to spend time with her. It wasn’t much, and she didn’t complain, but if I could redo things, I would spend less time with my cello (A sentence I have never before written). I think, in hindsight, that my monomaniacal obsession with the orchestra was brought on by my conflict between Vinyl and the orchestra, but at the time my primary focus was ensuring the orchestra premiered without a hitch.
This continued for several more weeks, and if I had been a more cautious mare, I might have noticed that I had been allowed several weeks of relative normalcy and prepared for whatever the town had planned next, but I was so focused on my work that I completely ignored the growing feeling of impending doom. It was for that reason that I was completely and totally surprised when I was teleported from practice to a foal’s birthday party one day a few weeks before our performance.
I am sorry, was that a sudden announcement? Perhaps jarring and unexpected with absolutely no foreshadowing? Because that’s exactly how it felt to me to. One second, I was complimenting the orchestra on how far they had come, and the next myself and two other orchestra members were surrounded by screaming foals and compelled to keep playing our instrument.
After I managed to overcome my shock (Taking far less time than I would have thought possible two months ago), I noticed two things. The first was that the party was far too sophisticated for most children, and the second was that I was completely unable to stop playing or in anyway acknowledge my surprise. A quick test revealed that I was also unable to talk. Oh well, I thought with a resigned sigh that I was unable to physically express, at least I was being given a splendid opportunity to practice and nopony was currently bothering me.
Almost as soon as I thought up those words, I saw a pink blur in the corner of my vision. Of course Pinkie would be involved in this somehow. It would have been crazy if she wasn’t.“My party!” She shrieked, “I was gone for one minute and now the cake has been replaced with tiny pies and the band is replaced with- Oh, hi Octavia.”
With one smooth motion, her head swiveled around to face me, her eyes boring into my head, “Did you happen to see what happened here? Huh? Cause if you did that would be a big help to me.” As much as I would have liked to have done otherwise, I ignored her and continued playing.
She leaned her head in closer, “Won’t tell me, hey? Or maybe, can’t! Quick, blink three times if you are under an unknown magical compulsion that is forcing you to play the cello.”
Thankfully, I was still able to blink and quickly followed her command. Normally, I would go on a diatribe here wondering how she could possibly make the logical jump to me being under a magical compulsion because I failed to answer a question, but at this point, I would be less surprised if she didn’t. As soon as I had finished blinking, she wrapped her forelegs around me, “Oh Tavi, don’t worry we will figure out how to fix this right away. As long as there are no other strange magical anomalies I bet Twilight can get you fixed up right away.” On cue, the streets turned to gold.
Pinkie laughed nervously, “Or maybe you will have to wait a while. Do you want me to get Vinyl for you? Blink twice for yes.”
Blink. Blink.
“Got it! We will be back before you can say ‘Mad with power.’ Have fun playing the cello.” Of all the strange sanity-breaking things that have happened to me since coming to Ponyville, I have to say that being forced to play the cello was probably the most pleasant. A few minutes later, Pinkie had returned with Vinyl in tow.
“Told you we would be back before you could say ‘Mad with power.’ Now I’ve got to run and let Twilight know that there is a foal’s party that needs fixing, though judging by how quickly the entire town is turning into crystal, I think that might be a little low on her to-do list. Anyways, you two crazy kids have fun, Auntie Pinkie is going to make sure everything stays peachy.” Just like that, she vanished, leaving Vinyl and I to stare awkwardly at each other.
“So… Pinkie told me that you can only play the cello and blink. Is that true?”
Blink. Blink.
“I will take that as a yes then,” she gave me a devious smile, “Well, since I’ve got you here and most of the foals have left, I think we can do some testing on just how strong the compulsion is.” Before I could… Well, I couldn’t actually do anything, but before I could properly process her statement, she had kissed me. I kept playing the cello.
“Okay,” she said, pulling away, “Let’s try that again.” This time she wrapped her forelegs around me in an embrace while pressing our lips and bodies together, with the only thing separating us being the cello I still insisted on playing. To my credit, I still managed to play it flawlessly even when it was sandwiched between two mares. I don’t think that is physically possible.
“Wow,” she said after several minutes had passed, “That must be a pretty powerful compulsion you got hit with if you are still playing after all that. Most of them have a fail safe in the spell so a pony isn’t forced to act against their nature or do something they see as life threatening. Guess making out with me in public is in your nature, so that’s good to know.”
She sat in front of me and tapped her chin, “Now what can I do that you would never let me get away with if you could actually do stuff. I know! I can tell everypony in town about that little noise you make when we-”
“Don’t you dare,” I said. My cello playing stopped while I tried to decide whether I should be upset with Vinyl for even joking about mentioning that little detail of our personal lives or glad that she managed to break the compulsion.
She smiled at me, “And you’re welcome. Now that you can talk and stuff, do you have any idea why you were forced to play at the fanciest foal’s birthday party ever?”
I shook my head, luxuriating in the feeling of being able to move my own muscles, “Not at all, one minute I was talking with the orchestra, and the next I was here. Believe me, I am just as confused as you are. Also, thank you for freeing me.” Around us, several buildings turned to crystal.
“Well,” she said, “If I had to guess, it’s probably related with all the other weirdness currently going on in town. I mean, weird things aren’t that uncommon Ponyville, but two weird things going on at once is pretty much unheard of. Anyways, you want to get something to eat?” She asked before kissing me on the cheek.
I shrugged, “I suppose that wouldn’t be too terrible, I highly doubt the orchestra will be doing anymore practice until this issue gets sorted. Speaking of,” I turned to face the other two orchestra members afflicted by the compulsion. “If you can break free of your compulsion, I will give you the rest of the day off.”
They stopped playing almost immediately as I walked off with Vinyl. “Don’t you want to tell them to never repeat what they saw here or something so they don’t go tell the entire orchestra how much you love making out with your marefriend.”
“Not at all, threats of force are so very undignified. Besides, I know that my friends and coworkers would never consider publicly humiliating their friend and employer or doing anything that might make her cross with them. Certainly not if she had the power to make them work every day for a year.” I smiled at them, and the two stallions smiled back nervously.
When we got back to the house, Vinyl and I answered Woodhoof and Moldy’s questions about just why the house had suddenly transformed into a giant crystal with no warning. A few hours later, our house shifted back to normal as a familiar midnight blue alicorn walked into our house.
“Ah, Princess Luna, to what do we owe the honor?” I asked, bowing before her.
“I was merely in town helping clean up when I thought I would pay you and your friends a visit. I hope you do not mind.”
“Of course not,” I said, getting back up on my hooves, “Princess Luna, allow me to introduce you to my new roommates, Wood-”
“Woodhoof and the mold collective,” she said, finishing for me. Woodhoof had the good sense to bow while Moldy stared dispassionately at the princess, “I do apologize for ruining your surprise Octavia, but as my duties involve me defending the dreams of my subjects, I am quite familiar with most of my subjects. Even those whose dreams are unlike anything we had seen previous.”
“Ah,” Moldy said, nodding his head in acknowledgment, “It is your presence we feel inside the resting places of the collective consciousness. What is the nature of your intervention?”
Luna just smiled, “As I said earlier, I shield dreams from outside influences and when the need arises, I intervene. Most ponies never even know I was there.”
“While the nature of our consciousness gives us greater perception when it comes to detecting outside influences.”
“Yes,” she said, pausing in thought “Now that you mention it, your collective consciousness could be useful in helping me defend Equestria if you feel so inclined. It would help me greatly to have more eyes on the Nightmare Lands.”
Moldy tilted his head in thought for several seconds, “We believe we can assist in this task, though it would require a multiplication of our resources.” Great, I thought, the mold collective that wanted to absorb all of Equestria a few weeks ago was now being given a job defending it. Surely that couldn’t go wrong. Still, I wasn’t about to argue with the princess.
“We- I can cultivate a sample in the palace, if you promise those resources will go towards-”
“Yes, of course. We would multiply and you would gain a valuable asset in the defense of Equestria. We can provide you with a sample that will possess all our current knowledge, but from there the entity will be an independent collective, a requirement of the distances involved. Although if the new collective starts to become recalcitrant, we will be happy to speak with it and exchange information.”
“Agreed,” she said, “The Royal Botanist will be over in a few days to take a sample. Please do what you need to do.”
The princess turned to face Vinyl and I, “Now, on to less serious topics, how have you all been? Miss Scratch, I heard about your departure from the orchestra, I hope you have been faring well since then.”
“Yep,” my roommate said, nodding her head, “The orchestra was fun, but way too quiet. It’s nice getting back to my roots and focusing on the fusion project and playing gigs. Especially since Tavi is spending most of her days time doing orchestra stuff.”
Luna winked at me, “I hope you’ve still been taking time out to socialize with other ponies. Remember, your friends are just as important as your work.” It wasn’t the first time I had heard that, though it was the first time in months that somepony told me I needed to make friends. It was a small point of pride to me.
“Wait,” I said, recalling the events that had originally led me to Ponyville, “When I first came here, how did you even know that I needed to go out and make friends? We had only met once before the business with the orchestra, and I don’t recall my lack of social experience coming up during that discussion.”
“Well, you see,” she said, suddenly finding the ground fascinating, “The truth is-” Her ears suddenly perked up, “Oh listen to that, Twilight and Cadance need my help, I must go. We will talk later.” In a few hoofsteps she had stepped outside our house and flown off into the distance.
“Did she seem particularly evasive to you?” Vinyl said, as I walked to look out the front door.
“Actually, no,” I said after a pause, “The last time I mentioned a similar topic to her, she flew off as well. At this point I have decided that no matter what is going on, things have worked out for the best.” I kissed her cheek to make my point.
“Yeah,” she said as we walked back to Moldy and Woodhoof, “Things did work out pretty awesome for you. Still, I wonder what caused all the buildings in town to get turned into crystal? We usually have a pretty clear resolution to these things.”
The answer to that question came early the next morning when somepony knocked on our door a few minutes before sunrise, while I was still working on grooming myself. “Hello?” I said, rubbing sleep from my eyes as I opened the door, “You will have to forgive me, I haven’t had time to properly groom myself yet.”
“Perfectly understandable, dear,” our unexpected guest said, a black cloak wrapped around her white coat. “I apologize for dropping by unannounced.”
I closed the door behind her, “Good morning to you too Rarity, it’s a bit early for social calls, isn’t it?”
“May I take a seat? I’ve been up all night planning out these apologies, and I thought I should talk to you first. I know how busy you are with your orchestra practice these days.” Upon closer inspection, I saw puffy bags under her eyes that all the make-up in the world couldn’t conceal.
“Of course,” I said, gesturing towards the table, “What is it?”
“I trust you remember yesterday’s unpleasantness? When you were unceremoniously teleported to the middle of a children’s birthday party?”
I stared at her, “Strangely enough, now that you mention it, I do recall something like that happening yesterday.”
“Ha ha, very funny,” she said, sitting at the table, “Although I suppose if the worst I get out of this whole apology is a sarcastic barb, I should count myself lucky.”
“Apology?” I asked, quickly deducing just what the apology might involve.
“Yes,” she said, staring down at our table while I wondered if I should have fixed some coffee for us, “You see, a few days ago I was struggling with… I don’t know, I suppose you might call it a lack of creative juices when a very dear friend risked life and limb to find a way to alleviate that problem.”
She paused for a second, “Unfortunately for him, the solution he found was an ancient and, as we later learned, evil spell that, once cast, began to corrupt my mind. It gave me the power to redesign the world as I saw fit and I fear that I quickly fell to it’s influences.”
Rarity sniffled slightly, “I want to say that it wasn’t really my fault, to argue that it wasn’t actually me that was doing all those wicked nasty things yesterday, but that’s not true. I remember thinking that that birthday party desperately needed a touch of sophistication, and I remember thinking that my good friend Octavia would love the extra exposure. That’s the funny thing about it, even during the worst of it, I was always convinced that what I was doing helped ponies, that they would be grateful once I revealed my actions to them. In hindsight, I see what an utter foal I was and can only hope that those I wronged will forgive me in time, which is why I am here this morning.”
It was definitely a morning for coffee. “One minute,” I said as I headed over to the espresso machine, “Do you want anything?”
“Is that all?” She said, looking up at me as I went to work making our drinks (I had taken the liberty of assuming her answer would be in affirmation), “I came here to explain my actions and beg for your forgiveness and you just… offer me coffee?”
I nodded, “Essentially, yes.”
“Aren’t you at least going to give me the chance to earn your forgiveness?”
“No, because you are already forgiven,” I said as I poured the espresso (Hooray for magic brewing), “Sorry, I suppose I should have said that earlier, but it is rather early and I really wanted some coffee. Yes, you are forgiven.”
“You will have to forgive me, but I thought this would be a bit more of a struggle, I thought I would have to promise to make amends before you finally forgave me.”
“Rarity,” I said as I brought the coffee to our table, “If this town has taught me anything, it’s that- Let me start over. I know what it’s like to go mad and do things you regret after coming to your senses. It’s not a feeling you forget, and I still struggle with accepting that fact. If you are like me, the next few weeks will be difficult for you. There will be regret. There will be nights you don’t want to sleep because you know nightmares are all that await you. It’s- If it wasn’t for my work and the fact that my friends forgave me unconditionally, I certainly wouldn’t be as well off as I am now. So I suppose I feel it’s my turn to return the favor, and as one mare desperately trying to forgive herself to another, I understand. I really do, and if you ever want to talk to me about anythin-”
She broke down sobbing, “It turned my own virtue against me, Octavia. I’ve always prided myself in my ability to help others, and it twisted that. I still wanted to help ponies, but I forgot how. I forgot how to separate my wants from their needs and so I gave everypony in town things that I would like. It’s- How could I have even-”
I moved to pat her on the back, “It’s alright, Rarity, let it out if you need to, just remember that it’s over now. Everything is back to normal, and I promise that with time things will get better in time. Just try to forgive yourself.”
Rarity sobbed for a few more minutes before finally regaining her composure, “Thank you Octavia, that was… I’m glad I came to you first. Hopefully the rest of my friends will be as forgiving as you.”
“If they are your friends, they will be,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee, “And if you ever need to talk more about this with somepony who understands, you know where to find me.”
“Thank you,” she said, a faint smile forming, “You know Octavia, you have come quite a long way since you moved here. Why, it seems like only yesterday that I thought you were a loud brute in a bowtie, and now I count you as one of my closest friends.”
The two of us talked for a while longer while we sipped our espressos. She asked me not to tell anypony, and I agreed as long as I Vinyl was exempt from that promise (Hiding that information and then having private conversations with Rarity seemed like the type of thing that might arouse suspicion without a proper understanding of the situation). As Rarity was finally getting ready to leave, Vinyl came downstairs and we explained the situation to her. She was quite understanding about the whole thing and our meeting soon ended.
After that, things moved quickly. With the orchestra’s premier drawing ever nearer, it became even harder for me to spend time with Vinyl, and there were more than a few lunch dates that I had to cancel. Thankfully, she was sympathetic while still making it clear that I would make this up to her later. I suppose I couldn’t have hoped for more. All of this brings us to yesterday. The day my life had been building up to for the last three months. The premier of the Royal Ponyville Orchestra. Do I even have to say that it was eventful enough to merit its own journal entry?
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I sense things coming to a close. An excellent chapter. Nice to see the closing action start.
Sad that Pinkie thinks her role is over, but such is story life. I'm looking forward to seeing how the premier goes.
I haven't read the Spoiler chapter since I've been enjoying things in order.
Bad Moldy, what would Fluttershy think if she found out about those poor critters? Also Tavi coming to terms with her diplomancer status is nice :D. Also I'm quite pleased that you referenced the inspiration spell's effect on Tavi. Also now I wonder what that sound is like. :D
Hm. Just came across this story... seems interesting, although I can't help wondering if it ought not have a "Dark" tag, considering some of the things that've taken place so far... ("Dark" and "Comedy" aren't mutually exclusive -- a prime example being the movie War of the Roses -- and this story seems to be treading rather firmly into that territory, IMO...)
One error which I have noticed recurring constantly, which you might want to go back and fix:
it's, with the apostrophe, is the contraction of "it is."
its, without the apostrophe, is the possessive pronoun.
When in doubt, take "it is" and plug it into the sentence, and see if it still makes sense:
Incidentally, this trick also works for other homonyms like –
(Home-of-whats, now?)
(Homonyms, Applejack. Words that sound the same but are spelled differently and mean different things.)
(Oh. Them things.)
("Those" things, darling.)
(That's what Ah said.)
(No, you said–)
(*Ahem* Ladies, do you mind?)
(Not at all. Sorry to interrupt.)
As I was saying, this trick also works for pairs like "your" vs. "you're", "were" vs. "we're", etc., but you seem to have a pretty good handle on those; it's mostly just the "its" possessive pronoun that keeps tripping you up.
Also, sentences like this:
(You've got a misplaced "the" in there, BTW.)
That comma needs to be a period, because the dialogue in orange which follows the attribution is not a continuation of the prior dialogue in purple. They're two separate sentences, separated by a dialogue attribution of who said it and how, so only the first dialogue sentence links with the attribution via a comma. Similarly:
Here, too, you need to end with a period instead of a comma, because this first part in purple is not a dialogue attribution, and the following dialogue is not linked with it. It's a separate action which is performed before Moldy begins speaking. Always be aware of the actual sequence of events taking place when deciding whether the descriptions which come before or after dialogue are attributions, or separate actions -- if the actions occur while a character is speaking, and describe how they're speaking, it's a linked attribution and should be considered a single sentence along with the dialogue, linked by commas; if the action occurs before the character speaks, or after they finish speaking, then it's not an attribution and should stand alone as a separate sentence.
(Y'all done bein' pedantic now?)
(You actually know what "pedantic" means? I'm impressed.)
(...why do Ah get th' feelin' Ah've just been insulted?)
(Yes, I think we're done. Say goodnight, Applejack.)
(Ohhh, no, Ah ain't fallin' for that one again. That joke's older'n Celestia.)
(...)
(She's standin' right behind me, ain't she.)
I read the first part of this chapter and all I could think was "yay moldy is not evil!" also I just learned that yay is not a real word as recognized by spell check. I call heresy.
also moldy is best mold pony.
Moldy.
I read the Unbearable Lightness of Sweetie Belle before reading this. Now I know what Mr. Moldeaux was.