“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
-Abbie Hoffman
“So what, we’re just going to pack up and leave?” Glory practically shouted at Vinyl as the trio of ponies trudged through Sweet Apple Acres. “You’re just going to make me abandon her again, Vinyl?” Shining was electing to stand far behind the two sisters, as he wanted to keep an eye on the situation and also have no part of it.
“We have stuff to do, Sky…” Vinyl responded in an uncharacteristically monotone voice. Whatever Lily had said to her had gotten to Vinyl on such a deep level that Shining wasn’t even sure how to address it.
“What could be more important than my daughter, Vinyl?” Glory stopped and shoved Vinyl with a hoof. “What could be more important than Lily?! Some hunch that Shining Armor had that something’s wrong? Some inkling of a chance of a possibility that something is so wrong in Canterlot that not even Celestia can fix it so he has to be there?” Shining Armor blinked. He had never heard Glory be so forceful or mean. “Give me a break, Vinyl. I’m not stupid, you would never let somepony do something that so obviously pointless. So how about you be an adult and tell me what’s really wrong instead of trying to get some sort of sick petty revenge on me by pulling me away from Lily.” This could be considered full ‘mom-mode’ for Glory. The posture, the stance, even the glare was pretty classic mom stuff, and Vinyl was the petulant foal she was scolding.
“There’s nothing here for me.” Vinyl mumbled out from behind her mane. “There’s no point to me being here…” Shining sat down, this was going to be another one of those long talks, he could tell.
“Lily is here! Why don’t you understand that?” Glory put both of her front hooves on Vinyl’s shoulders, and practically pleaded with the unicorn. “Please get it through your thick skull that lily is the most important thing in the world right now. We have to be there for her.”
“No…” Vinyl sighed out. “All I ever wanted was to know she’s okay….and she is.” Vinyl wouldn’t dare meet her sister’s eyes. Was it out of fear or shame? Shining couldn’t tell, maybe a mixture of the two. “I never wanted to have her in our family again, because I knew she never would be. As soon as I saw her with her sisters, I knew she wasn’t ours anymore, Glory.”
The silence of the orchard was broken by the sound of a hoof slapping a face. Glory was in tears, but she was as angry as could be. The pegasus raised her other hoof and struck Vinyl once again.
“Don’t you ever say that! Never say that again!” Glory screamed. “She is my daughter! She’s my little filly, do you understand?!” The elder sister shook the younger, and then let go only when Vinyl would not respond or retaliate.
“Lily...she told me something back there.” Vinyl spoke low and slowly. “ She said ‘you gotta try to be happy, or else you’ll never stop being sad’ and it made me realize something, Sky.” Shining got up and trotted closer to the pair, he could feel Vinyl building to something and it wasn’t going to be pretty. “You’ll never make me happy again. Not the sight of you, not the thought of you, not even the memories of you. They’re all tainted now, every single part of you is just sad to me.” Vinyl looked up for the first time in minutes and revealed tear stained eyes. She heaved out a sob and bit back another so she could speak again. “I have to be happy, Glory. That’s what this is all about, all of this travelling and drama...it’s about allowing me to be happy again. If...if you do nothing but make me sad, then what place do you have in my life…?”
“Vinyl…” Both Glory and Shining uttered her name at the same time, both with the same look of shock but only one held true pain. Shining could never imagine that, the pain of a sister disowning you...it had to be one of the worst feelings in the world.
“I’m so sorry, Sky.” Vinyl said with a quivering lip and watering eyes. “I have to move on from you, because holding on just hurts too much.” Vinyl turned towards Shining, giving him a sad, solemn look. “Can you turn off the binding spell, Shining? I just wanna head to the hotel, promise.”
Shining nodded and focused on their link, severing it for the first time in a few days. It was usually so easy, but now it felt like lifting a ton off of his head. He knew he could trust Vinyl, he just really didn’t want to leave her alone.
Without another word, Vinyl started to trot off. She left both Shining and Glory in a stunned silence, both almost too afraid to speak. The pair simply sat without words for several minutes until the sound of hooves on hard earth drew closer to their location.
“What’s going on?” Cedar Mulch burst from the treeline, looking around frantically. “What’s happened? I heard somepony yelling and came to make sure you were all okay.” He took a slower look around and spotted the discrepancy. “Where’s Vinyl Scratch?”
“Cedar.” Shining trotted towards the stallion and spoke in hushed tones. “I really need you to help us right now. Some very personal stuff just went down between Vinyl and Glory and...I’m not sure what’s going to happen next.” Shining did not like uncertainty, he liked plans and order and schedules. This sort of chaos and confusion was not his friend, and he hated dealing with it. “Vinyl and I might head back to Canterlot tonight, I’m not really sure. If we do, I think Glory is going to stay here until tomorrow morning when we were supposed to leave.” Shining sighed. “I really hate to ask this, but could you make sure Glory gets to the train station if it comes to that?”
“I could.” Cedar nodded. “Just answer one question for me, would you?” Shining nodded, he would definitely try to answer any questions. “We aren’t going to see Vinyl Scratch again are we? I mean, me and the girls.” Shining opened his mouth, but closed it when he realized he might not be able to answer that particular question. “I knew it yesterday when she didn’t want to stick around for dinner. I saw it in her eyes, that desire to get away. Now, I don’t know much about her or her life, but I can tell you that I don’t like ponies wasting my time like that.”
“She was here for Glory and to make sure Lily was happy.” Shining admitted. “She saw that Lily was happy and...things got complicated with Glory. So...I don’t know. If I can convince her that what she just did wasn’t smart or rational, then maybe I can make it so she does see you again.” That was the best answer that he could give, a firm maybe. It wasn’t one he liked, but that was all he had at the moment.
“Don’t go trying to change the mind of a brick wall.” Cedar warned. “You’ll just end up with a headache.” The older stallion sighed and looked at the forlorn pegasus that was sitting on the ground. “You go on, I’ll take care of her for now. If there’s anything she needs that you might have, just put it in my mailbox and I’ll grab it when we get home.”
“Thank you, Cedar.” Shining was relieved he didn’t have to take Glory back to the hotel room with him. That would only brew more chaos for him to clean up, and he knew it. It was just one less thing he would have to deal with so he could focus on Vinyl and trying to set her straight.
With that, he set off towards the hotel. He didn’t gallop, so he didn;t draw any attention to himself. Plus, going a bit slower would allow him to think up some sort of gameplan for when he actually talked to Scratch.
Well, obviously the main plan was to get Vinyl to renounce what she said back there. It wasn’t going to help her to cut ponies off, and it wasn’t going to look good to Celestia when the rehabilitation review came. So he really had to fix this mess before it spiraled even further out of control.
The problem was how soft he was getting with Scratch now. At the start of all of this, he would take a hardline stance with the thought that the pain she would endure would be worth it. But now the sight of this self-inflicted trauma just made him want to protect her and fix it all. He couldn’t decide whether it was because he felt like nopony should hurt themselves like that, or he just hated seeing Vinyl upset now.
She had been right in asking the question right now: why did everything have to be so complicated? At the beginning of all of this, it had seemed so simple. But as he quested deeper, more routes and troubles popped up. New feelings were unearthed and more and more complications arose.
All for what? More pain and a hope that this would somehow help Vinyl? What good was hope doing him now? Where had it gotten him? A backwater village with a temperamentally challenged mare and more problems than he could count. What was the play here? What was the solution?
“What do I do…?” The solemn guard mumbled out as he looked up to the distant city of Canterlot. The shining jewel on the mountain was one of Shining’s loves in life, and if he ever needed to think, he would take a walk around. That was when he had time, which he was criminally short of at this point.
His only option was to wing it and hoped something good came out of just talking to Vinyl.
So he resigned himself to that plan of action. When he got to the hotel, he made a beeline for the room and opened the door with his key. Inside, Vinyl was sitting on the edge of her bed just staring into space. He had expected her to be packing or moving, or doing something at the very least.
“Vinyl-” Shining started as he took a step towards the mare.
“What’s your favorite story, Shining?” Vinyl interrupted him, her voice still flat and emotionless. He was a bit taken aback by the seemingly random question, what did that have to do with anything?
“Vinyl, I need you to talk to me, here.” Shining pleaded as he sat in front of the mare. “C’mon, we can figure this out like we always do. You just have to work with me.” He was going to make this right, he was going to get Glory and Vinyl talking again. He was going to help fix their family and make everything okay again. It was his job, he had to.
“Can you just answer me?” Vinyl asked. “I just really don’t want to talk about me right now.” Shining looked into her eyes and saw no tears or even sadness, just a look of realization and pain.
“Alright.” Shining caved. He would answer if it got Vinyl to open up a bit more. “My favorite story? It’s called ‘The Front’, ever heard of it?” Vinyl shook her head. “It’s...well, it’s about this guard from Manehatten who gets moved to a town on the border of the Griffon Empire. Y’know, at first he doesn’t like it because it’s dangerous and the town is mean and standoffish...but the more he hangs around, the more he likes it. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but it ends with the Griffons attacking the town, and the guard putting his life on the line to defend this little bad, backwater town he’s come to love.” Shining smiled at the thought of the book, it was filled with a lot of good scenes and themes that struck a chord with him. Hell, the protagonist was a bit of a personal hero to him.
“Mine’s ‘The Many Dangers of Going Alone’.” Shining chuckled and tried to hide his smile. “What’s so funny, Twinkle?” He knew the glare he was getting, and he knew how dangerous it was.
“I just never figured you for an adventure story lover.” Shining had pegged Vinyl as the kind of pony that didn’t actually read all that much. Call him a bit naive, but Vinyl Scratch was a far cry from Twily or his mother.
“I don’t read all that much, but I like that book. Y’know, something about getting away like that. Just striking out and finding yourself, dealing with all the things you come across with only your wits and just...surviving, y’know?” Vinyl sighed. “I always thought if I ever had to make a hard decision like any in the book, that I could do it no problem. Turns out I was right.” There was no joy or mirth to the statement, not like any other time she had declared herself correct. There was a resignation, an almost disappointment.
“So we’re talking about it, then?” Vinyl nodded, so Shining sighed and collected a few choice thoughts. “You know you can’t just cut Glory out of your life like that. It’s not healthy to just do that.” He closed his eyes, trying to decide on a direction to go. It came to him, but it wasn’t going to be a pretty one. “What would your parents think? Your dad, he said as long as you had each other nothing could stop you.” Shining was recalling the vividly displayed memories from Vinyl’s parent’s room, hoping a bit of emotional shock could get through.
“They’re not here anymore, Shining!” Vinyl screamed at him, standing up and glaring daggers. “If they were still here, I wouldn’t be sitting in a bucking hotel room in Ponyville, would I?!” She didn’t give him time to answer or rebuke her statements. “You’re the one who’s been saying I need to move on, saying my life needs to change! So for the first time since we’ve met I’m actually trying to change my life and you don’t want me to?”
“This isn’t the kind of change I wanted for you.” Shining fired back, taking to his hooves and looking down at Scratch. “I wanted you and Sky to get better together, not for you to let go of her entirely! You need ponies who will be there for you, ponies who will always be there to help when you need it. You need family.” He desperately wanted Vinyl to see it his way, to wake up and see that this was not healthy or right.
“What if it’s the change I need?” Vinyl calmed down and looked up at him with pleading eyes. “I’ll never forgive her, Shining. I know I said I could move past it, but I really don’t think I can. I can’t see my sister anymore, all I see is the mare who abandoned her foal and blamed me for not talking to her, for not being there when I gave up a year to be next to her.” Vinyl pointed out of the window, towards the apple orchards. “That’s not okay. Trying to just act like none of it happened, pushing it all down into a little box and trying to repress it? That is not okay.” Vinyl took her hoof and poked Shining in the chest with it. “You want me to be happy? Then you have to let me quit being around the things that make me sad.”
“If…” Shining took a second to think about what he was about to say. It was dangerous, and downright unthinkable, but it looked to be the only way. Vinyl was stubborn, and she wasn’t going to let her mind be changed on this one. It wasn’t that he didn’t see her point, he did and she was right in some ways, but he still thought it was unhealthy and dangerous to just cut ponies out of your life like that. “...if I allow this to happen, what do we do next? Just leave?”
“Twinkle…” Vinyl stopped digging her hoof into his chest and instead rested it on his shoulder. “...you didn’t fail your job or me. Bringing me here and letting me see Lily is okay was something I needed. It did a lot of good, I promise. So don’t think this was a wash or something. It isn’t, it’s not just the end of me and Sky, it’s the beginning of me moving past it.”
“Alright.” Shining was not going to dwell on it. He would see how all of this played out, and if things started to go sour because Glory wasn’t around anymore, he would fix it. For now, he would go with it against his own better judgement. Vinyl was right, he didn’t always know what she needed. He was going to have to trust her on this one. “So are we going back to Canterlot today, then?”
“I would really like to go home, yeah.” Vinyl trotted over to her suitcase and picked it up with her magic. “Plus, we have to see what’s going down in Canterlot, right?” Shining nodded, he still felt guilty that he had been spending a lot of time worrying about the city. Glory had been right on that, he probably couldn’t do anything even if something was wrong, but it would settle him down at least being there.
With that, the duo silently went through the motions. Shining recast the binding spell and put on his armor, while Vinyl gathered her stuff and grabbed Glory’s ticket so they could drop it off at Cedar’s.
The trip through Ponyville was as silent as the hotel, the two unicorns were both out of things to say for the day. Both lost in their own separate trains of thought, but the tracks were running parallel. Both were thinking about the future, and what new days might bring.
----
A Few Hours Later
Much like most of the day, the train ride back to Canterlot had been quiet. Vinyl couldn’t remember a time when they had said less words to each other, but maybe it was for the best at the moment. They were likely to get into a heated argument, or worse one of them would break down if they spoke.
Vinyl was fine with the silence, though. It let her ruminate on her decision to let Glory go. Were there good memories still? Sure, but they were far outweighed by all of the bad. As Vinyl had said back at the orchard, everything was just tainted now. It was like every thought was covered in a thin black film that just wouldn’t go away.
Maybe if Lily hadn’t been okay, if she had been in a bad home or wasn’t happy, then maybe this wouldn’t have happened. Vinyl and Sky could’ve banded together and worked towards a common goal as a family, for something greater than themselves. Seeing Lily happy, and seeing Sky almost...mooch off of all of the positive energy, it made Vinyl realize that there was nothing between them anymore.
It still hurt like hell, though.
“Now arriving at Canterlot Station West.” The voice came over the small speakers above the seats, signalling it was time to depart. Both Vinyl and Shining grabbed their things and got up. Seeing as how they were the only ponies on this train, they were quick to depart and start trotting.
Something was sour in Canterlot. Vinyl could tell that as soon as they exited the station. There was a palatable sense of confusion and fear that was so thick it practically covered the streets. Vinyl turned to Twinkle to make sure he was getting it too, the worried look on his face confirmed it.
“Special Edition of the Canterlot Post!” A crier called from a nearby street corner. His magic held aloft a copy of the very newspaper he referenced. “Big shakeup in Canterlot leaves one hundred without jobs!” Before she could react, Shining was across the street in front of the crier. The stallion held out the newspaper and scrutinized Shining before taking his bits. “You’re one of the lucky ones, huh?”
“What are you talking about?” Shining questioned. The only response he got was the paper being thrust towards him. Vinyl stood behind her guard as he unfolded the paper and saw the headline across the top of the page.
Galea Purges Guard: One-Hundred Fired For Misconduct!