//------------------------------// // All Good Things // Story: A Scratch On Shining Armor // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// “And in real life endings aren't always neat, whether they're happy endings, or whether they're sad endings.” -Stephen King Vinyl didn’t sleep, she couldn’t. Each minute that ticked away through the night was one more minute that she didn’t know what had happened to Shining Armor. Once he didn’t show up by midnight, she knew his fate. He would’ve shown up by then, he would’ve been back if it wasn’t for Cadance. Those thought occupied her thinking from the time Soarin left to go lay down to when he got up again at the crack of dawn. She was laid on the couch, a blanket pulled over her and her eyes gazing out over the city of Canterlot. Somewhere down there, the free will of a pony had been stolen. Good intentions had paved the path to Tartarus and Cadance had dragged Shining down it with her. “He didn’t show up,” Soarin stated with a sad sigh. “Didn’t sleep?” He asked, the bags under his eyes from yesterday even more prevalent. All he did was look at Vinyl and nod. “Yeah, me neither.” “What are we going to do…?” Vinyl asked, her eyes not moving from the skyline. “Are we just going to go up to Cadance and demand she let Shining go?” Vinyl could see the hopelessness in the situation from far out. All Cadance really wanted was for Vinyl to be delivered to her so she could clean up the rest. “I was going to say get the guard and Princess Celestia,” Soarin commented. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Princess Cadance can stand up to everypony in the castle.” Soarin was trying to make her feel better, trying to offer some sort of reassurance, but it wasn’t working. “We’ll never know if it works until we try, alright?” Vinyl sluggishly pulled herself from the sofa and stood up. Depression had set in, but she wanted nothing more than to see Shining Armor. He needed to be okay, he had to be. Just like Shining had told her, the spell Cadance had cast would not let Vinyl ignore something she wanted. It was the only thing that motivated her, the desire to see Shining again no matter the cost or state he was in. “Alright,” Vinyl said, looking to her new companion. “Let’s go to the palace, I guess.” There was just this sense of dread and defeat that loomed over the day. The sun didn’t seem as bright as it should, and even the colors of the world seemed saturated and unimportant. “Hey…” Soarin touched Vinyl’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine, okay? Shining is a smart stallion, I bet he convinced her to not even cast the spell. He’s probably waiting at the castle for us, not even under a spell or anything.” Vinyl knew better than to have that kind of optimism, it wasn’t possible. The most they could hope for would be Shining just under some simple love spell that needed to be renewed by Cadance every so often. At least then they could just isolate him and wait for it to wear off, but Vinyl doubted that was the case. If the princess was as determined as Vinyl assumed, it would’ve been drastic measures that couldn’t be changed or fixed. Vinyl trotted to the door without a word, Soarin following close behind. The unlikely duo, a DJ and a Wonderbolt, took the elevator down to the entryway and outside into the great city beyond. The usually bustling streets were quiet and subdued. Ponies who passed wore frowns or worried looks, those that weren’t were muttering to the ponies next to them. It was bizarre and even more than a little disconcerting. Ponies must’ve caught wind of something happening last night. After all, a princess flying across Canterlot wasn’t something that went unnoticed or not talked about. It left Vinyl with a pit in her stomach. How much had come out? How much did ponies know and did they know about her involvement? She had enough problems, and being at the center of royal drama that was in the open would do nothing to settle her life. “Seems like everypony is in good spirits…” Soarin said sarcastically. Vinyl would’ve normally said something like that, but this just felt wrong. She looked up and down the street until she saw a stallion on a corner selling newspapers. She quickly broke away from Soarin and dashed over to the pony, dropped hm two bits and retrieved a paper from the stack beside him. CADANCE IN TROUBLE WITH CELESTIA? PRINCESS CONFRONTATION UNDER THE MOON! The headline was obnoxious and lacking any real detail, the actual story even more so. There was no mention of Shining Armor at all. The only things actually talked about were rumors and speculation about what might’ve caused it. Vinyl sighed and put the paper down, cursing the advent of tabloid journalism. These papers knew he existed, they knew that he and Cadance were an item. If he was there, it should’ve been mentioned. “Oh man, it’s in the papers now?” Soarin flew over to Vinyl’s side and picked the paper up off of the ground. He gave it a cursory glance and frowned. “No mention of Shining.” Vinyl felt him look at her, and stammer. “W-well maybe that’s a good thing. He probably got away, otherwise his name would be somewhere in the article, right?” It was optimistic of Soarin to think that, but Vinyl wasn’t so easily swayed to the side of positive thinking. “Maybe…” She said, allowing herself to lie to Soarin’s face. “Or maybe he-” Vinyl was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned and nearly bumped into the two royal guards in full armor standing right beside her. “Vinyl Scratch?” One of the guards asked in a level tone. “Yeah…” Vinyl responded hesitantly. Usually she wouldn’t trust a guard when they asked about who she was, but considering that her best friend was a guard she was willing to give the stallions in gold a little leeway. “You’re coming with us.” Both guards moved on her, horns lighting up and encasing her body in a heterogenous glow of blue and gold. Vinyl struggled and fought, but the aura would not relent. “Hey! Let me go!” Vinyl protested, attempting to light her own horn and fight her way out if need be. The guards wouldn’t budge, though. They simply started to walk away with her in tow. “What are you guys doing?!” Soarin stood in front of the two guards, blocking their path. “You can’t just take her away! She’s done nothing wrong!” Vinyl didn’t know Soarin very well, but in that moment she admired him. It took a lot of guts to stand up to two royal guards. “We’re under orders from Captain Galea herself,” the guards both said at the same time. “She is without her guard and is therefore in violation of the terms of her bondage.” One of the guards, Vinyl couldn’t tell which, continued. “She is being taken back to the castle to speak with Princess Celestia about the matter.” “What?!” Vinyl yelled. “No, wait! You’ve got it all wrong!” Celestia had been compromised too, that had to be it. Now she was in on it and was looking to help Cadance tie up loose ends! “Please, just let me go and we ca-mmmph” Vinyl’s mouth was clamped shut by a spell and she was forced into silence. ---- Cadance was pacing in her room. It was all she had done over the course of the night and she wasn’t going to stop now. It had been over twelve hours since Cadance had even detected Tia’s presence near her room, and that was just to cast a spell that locked every door and window down tight so that not even Cadance could power through them. Since then, there had not been any sign of the monarch. She wished that Celestia would hurry up. Cadance needed to get back to Shining Armor to complete the process and make sure he was okay. It was killing her to think that she wasn’t by his side, and instead he was off alone. It would make her so much happier if she could just see him, just complete her work. “Cadance, I’m coming in.” The voice of the elder alicorn came from the other side of Cadance’s door, causing the younger princess to stop and bound over to the door. When it opened, Cadance saw a much different Celestia than she was expecting. Tia’s mane was not moving or flowing brilliantly, instead it was stagnant and its colors were bleeding into one another. Her usually full and vibrant magenta eyes were dimmed from lack of sleep and worry. It was a sorry state for the Princess, that was for sure. “Cadance…” She spoke softly and calm, but there was something else there. It was a twinge of disappointment if Cadance was to be honest with herself. “...do you know what you’ve done?” “I-I was fixing everything!” Cadance protested. “You told me to do the right thing if I could, to make sure a pony I loved wouldn’t self-destruct! You told me I could do this!” Cadance was not afraid to call Celestia out when it was clear that the older alicorn had forgotten what she had said. “I never told you to erase a pony’s memories!” Celestia stepped into the room and slammed the door shut behind her. “You told me you were going to convince Vinyl to forgive her sister, something I was okay with letting you do. I did not say it was okay to remove her inhibition, attempt to charm my favorite librarian, threaten my student with a memory wipe, and actually go through with one on Shining Armor!” Celestia advanced on Cadance, looking down on her with an intense glare. “What is wrong with you? Did you not think before you acted?” “I-I just wanted everything to go back to normal.” Cadance’s voice trembled as she spoke. “He left me, he left me and was going date Vinyl Scratch.” Cadance shook her head, pushing that monstrosity of an idea away. “I couldn’t let him, Auntie Tia! I couldn’t let him throw me away like that!” Cadance couldn’t bear to think about how it would feel to be left behind, that heart-breaking loneliness. “I couldn’t be without him.” “That is why you’ve caused the greatest ethical conundrum in one-thousand years? You were afraid of losing somepony?” Celestia asked the question softly. Cadance nodded, tears forming in her eyes. “I have lost a million someponies, I have lost my parents, my friends, my lovers, and my sister. Do you not think that I ever wanted to indulge myself and use magic to bring them back or let me hold onto them?” Cadance knew how long Celestia had lived, but she also knew that Celestia didn’t understand what she and Shining Armor had! She didn’t understand that love! “Shining is the one, Aunt Tia! He’s the one I want to spend the rest of my life with!” Cadance was sure of that, Shining was her Prince Charming. He was supposed to be her happy ending. “Get that idea out of your head right now,” Celestia said sternly. “There are no other ponies in the world we can spend the rest of our lives with other than each other.” Celestia was fighting something back, tears brought on by memories. “He will die. Shining Armor will die while you go on. You will see him wither and fade while you stay strong and young. You will see everypony you’ve ever loved leave by time or circumstance and not even the most powerful magic in the world can stop that, Cadance! This!” Celestia spread her wings wide and lit her horn. “This is a gift we were privileged to receive, but it is also a curse we must bare. We will not leave, we will not wither or fade. We will be around as long as there is sunlight or love in the world, and that is something you need to learn.” “But-” Cadance didn’t like to think about mortality, especially her own immortality. It hadn’t ever been a topic of conversation between the princesses save for a couple of times early in their relationship. It had mostly been a spectre she had ignored, an idea too far away to think about. “I love him.” “And now you must let him go.” Celestia shrugged coldly. “That’s life, Cadance.” Cadance couldn’t believe this! Never before had Celestia shown such shallowness. It was appalling! “How can you be so cold?” Cadance asked. “How can you stand there and tell me to move on from the one pony that has ever treated me like I was actually a real pony and not some sort of porcelain figure?” It had been the defining thing in their relationship; Shining didn’t see her as a princess, he saw her as a pony who he loved. He saw her as an equal. “Because if you do not learn this lesson now, you will only have to do it later.” Celestia fired back. “Tell me, what if you were to have a foal with Shining Armor? What if it was born as a normal pony and not an alicorn? Could you bury your own foal after seeing them age to the point of immobility and their mind leave them? Could you hold their hooves as they died, knowing that their entire life was barely a moment of your own?” Cadance searched Celestia’s eyes for some sort of jest or sarcasm, but found only cold understanding. “I-I never thought-” Cadance said with a sob, trying to fight back the ideas crossing through her mind. Such unknowable sadness, such grief and misery would stick with you forever. “Because you refuse to think,” Celestia continued. “You are only thinking about today and tomorrow. What of a year from now? Or ten? Or one hundred? What will you do then if the only thing that follows you is a tale twisted by age that depicts you as a monster and not a pony who simply lost their way? What will you do if foals cower under their sheets because their parents tell them of ‘Cadance the Manipulator’ who ‘changes ponies and wipes their minds if they’re not good’. Is that what you want? Do you want to be treated like Luna?” Cadance knew of Luna, she had heard Celestia’s story of the bull-headed, incalculably precise, unwaveringly charismatic princess of the night. It was only lovely things that she had heard, all of the fun times the sisters had shared and all of the good deeds Luna had done. But it was still marred by the existence of Nightmare Moon. Everypony knows the stories, everypony knows the monster that hides in the moon and waits to return, everypony fears it. Cadance didn’t want to end up like that, she didn’t want to be just another monster story. “No, no I don’t.” Cadance fell to her haunches and began to sob. Everything that had been said was devastating to her very core. She didn’t want to be like Luna, she didn’t want to be alone for her entire life, and she didn’t want to be a princess any more if it meant living with that. “I’m sorry, Cadance…” Celestia sat beside her and rested her head upon Cadance’s own. “I didn’t mean to upset you, I just-” Celestia sighed. “I need you to understand that we are more than normal ponies. We will persist forever, we will always be here and what we are remembered as in every age will follow us for eternity.” Celestia’s gentle magic combed its way through Cadance’s mane. “I will try to suppress the real story as much as I can, I already convinced the press to not print the full story. But I’m afraid it will not be enough.” Cadance felt Celestia’s jaw tighten. “What are we going to do?” Cadance asked, choking back sobs. All she wanted was for things to be normal again, to feel like a normal pony for even a fraction of her time on this planet. That didn’t seem to be an option, though. “I think you need to be out of the public eye for a while, Cadance.” Celestia spoke softly, her voice full of pain and regret. “Ponies are such forgetful creatures, a decade or two of not seeing you and they will forget about last night. They will forget about everything.” Cadance felt her breathing halt and her heart cease to beat from shock. “Y-you want me to leave?” Cadance asked, backing away from Celestia. “Wh-where would I go? Where would I stay?” Cadance didn’t want to leave Canterlot. It had been the only city she had ever called home, the only place she felt right at in the world. She had nowhere else. “I don’t want you to leave, Cadance. I think it is best that you do, though.” Celestia could not be serious, she couldn’t actually mean that! It all had to be a joke, it had to be a ruse to throw Cadance off of her real plan. “Mine and Luna’s old castle in the Everfree would be good, I think. It could use some fixing up, but I can have that done in no time.” Celestia’s heavy words fell into Cadance’s head with all of the subtlety of a boulder through water: they sunk in quick and hit hard. “I know it’s not ideal, but it’s no time at all, really.” “H-how can you say that?” Cadance asked, her eyes wide with incredulity. “How can you just think about sending me away so easily?” Cadance was stunned, she was upset, and she was mad. She would not be locked away like a keepsake to preserve her image! “Because there is a stallion laying in the medical wing after I spent all night with trying to restore the memories that you ripped out of him,” Celestia retorted bluntly. “I am forgiving, I want you to move past this. If ponies found out they would be calling for your head, Cadance. They wouldn’t trust you ever again, they would see you removed and exiled until the end of time. I am offering you an alternative, one that I can spin.” Celestia looked into Cadance’s eyes with no sense of joy or the usual light that rested there, instead it was an unwavering certainty and cold reality. “I don’t need to do this, you need me to do this.” “H-how long…?” Cadance asked, wishing that there were any other solution. But by the way Celestia was painting it, there was no other option. She was going to be exiled to a forest, whether she liked the idea or not. ---- Vinyl was practically thrown into the room the pair of guards that apprehended her had stopped at. Magic binds around her body and muzzle dissolved as the guards slammed the door behind them and locked it. Immediately Vinyl took to her hooves and beat on the door with all of her might. “You don’t understand!” she hollered. “Shining Armor’s disappeared! I don’t know where he is!” Vinyl stopped beating on the door and slumped to her rump. This was never going to be solved, there was never going to be a resolution that would make her happy. That was impossible now if what she believed turned out to be true. What point was there in fighting anymore? It would make no difference. Instead, she decided to investigate her makeshift cell. She got up and turned around to face the bulk of the room. It was an oddity for the palace, that was for sure. Small and cramped with dark blue and ebony walls. There was no windows, but the domed ceiling was painted with a perfect representation of the night sky. Other than that rather fantastical feature, the only other thing in this room beside her were sconces lining the walls, the candles within all lit and burning. “This was never my favorite room. Too dark.” Vinyl spun on her hooves to face the voice. She had heard no door open, or the sound of a spell being cast. Standing there, in all of her usual glory, was Princess Celestia herself. Vinyl was not the trusting sort when it came to alicorns at the moment, so she assumed a defensive posture. “Why am I here?” she asked, flattening her ears. “What are you going to do to me?” Vinyl was expecting to be lifted into the air and her mind changed by magic she couldn’t possibly ever understand. Instead, Celestia simply frowned. “I’m not going to hurt you, Vinyl Scratch. I have no intention of doing so. I apologize if my way of retrieving you was harsh, but I could not possibly tell you the truth in public. I needed a realistic, if not slightly true, reason to bring you here.” There was something about Celestia that, even through the treachery Vinyl thought her capable of, made her inherently trustworthy. “I wanted to tell you that Shining Armor is okay and he’s being taken care of.” “He is?” Vinyl’s ears perked up and her eyes widened. “Where is he?” She was worried about him more than she would ever admit to his face. Now that she had actually heard something, something official no less, it settled her greatly. “He’s in my private medical wing of the castle,” Celestia responded, her voice turning grim towards the end of the sentence. “I’m afraid Cadance did cause some problems, but I assure you I am working on rectifying them.” Vinyl’s blood went cold. What had Cadance done? How had she hurt Shining? “Wh-what’s wrong with him?” Vinyl stammered out as she stepped towards the princess. “Are you sure he’s okay?” The hesitation that Vinyl received in return from Celestia did not inspire confidence, only fear. “She did manage to erase some of his memories, mostly the ones regarding you from what I can tell.” Celestia stepped ever closer to the mare, a sigh escaping her lips. “I did my best to restore what I could with the time and magic I had, but I’m sorry to say that there were some that I could not salvage. So when you see him, he might not remember some things.” Vinyl staggered backwards. Cadance had got rid of his memories? She had tried to erase Vinyl from Shining’s head? How could anypony ever think to do that? Vinyl went from afraid, to depressed to pissed off in seconds. None of the emotions faded either, they mixed and roiled within her head and fought for dominance. “He’ll remember me though, right?” That was her most pressing question. She didn’t know what memories were taken, but she wanted a little place in her favorite stallion’s head. She never wanted to leave, either. She wanted to be a part of his memories forever. “I believe so, yes. He’ll remember the broad strokes, it’s the little details he will need help with.” Celestia stepped closer to Vinyl and put a gilded hoof on the ponies shoulder. “I did what I could, Vinyl Scratch. Cadance’s work, it was sloppy and brutish. I could not salvage every broad memory, either. Some were far too mangled to recover.” Vinyl’s heart sank once more. What had been lost? Their kiss? Their nights spent together? How many precious moments had Cadance stolen and tossed away out of pure jealousy and spite? “What about Cadance?” Vinyl asked, focusing on the root of the problem. “What’s going to happen to her?” If Cadance was going to stay in Canterlot, Vinyl would leave. Pure and simple. She didn’t want to stay in the same city as that mare if she had a choice in the matter. “I’ve dealt with that, Vinyl Scratch,” Celestia said, her tone reassuring, if not holding a tinge of sadness behind it. “She’ll be going away for a little while to take some time to herself and think about what she’s done. She’s still young and I believe after some soul-searching she will come to realize her actions were wrong and how badly she has hurt multiple ponies.” ‘Going away’ sounded a bit like exile, and the rest sounded like clever spin if Vinyl was going to be honest. Not that Vinyl cared how Celestia decided to spin it, all that mattered was Cadance was going to go away. “She will be back once she accepted that what she’s done was wrong and once she learns greater discipline with her magic.” “So that’s it?” Vinyl asked, her impulsiveness getting the best of her. “All she gets is sent away to probably live in luxury somewhere for a few months while we’re all back here just…dealing with it?” It felt unfair, it felt a little cheap. Cadance was getting to run away from her problems while everypony back here had to clean up after her. It felt wrong. “I guarantee you that it is more than that, Vinyl Scratch.” The monarch spoke, her voice going the smallest amount of stern. “Now let’s not waste time on talking about Cadance. Do you want to go see Shining Armor now?” Vinyl wasn’t going to forget the whole Cadance thing, no matter how long the pink alicorn went into hiding. Whenever she poked her head out again, Vinyl would be there to remind the world of what she did. “Yeah, I do.” Vinyl responded, pushing Cadance out of her mind for now. The time would come for that, but now was not it. “Do you think he’s up for a visitor?” That was Vinyl’s primary concern. She didn’t know just how much having memories stolen and given back took out of you, but she imagined it was a lot. “He might be asleep, but I think he would find it wonderful if he awoke with you by his side.” The princess replied with a knowing smile. So whatever dumpster diving she had done into Shining’s memories had resulted in her knowing more about their relationship than anypony else. That was a thing that Vinyl wasn’t sure how to feel about. “Yeah, I think so too.” Vinyl decided that she could trust Celestia for now, and that none of this was a trap of any kind. Before now that thought had been lingering, but now that Celestia knew about her and Shining, it was pretty obvious the truth was being told. So Vinyl followed the monarch out of the room and through the castle. The mismatched pair wound themselves throughout the bowels of the castle into areas that Vinyl had never seen before. They continued through this new sector until they came across a small, white metal door with a wire framed window in the middle of it. Vinyl found herself too short to see through the window and was left wanting to know what was on the other side. “I’ll let you go in and spend a moment alone, alright?” Celestia asked. “I will be out here if you need anything at all or if, Spirits forbid, something goes wrong.” It actually wasn’t the last part that caught Vinyl off guard, instead it was the use of ‘spirits’ where most ponies would say ‘Celestia forbid’. Vinyl had never really considered who it actually was that Celestia saw as a spiritual figure, well now she had at least a little insight to chew on. “Thank you, Princess.” Vinyl bowed to the monarch. “I’m really sorry I ever thought you were part of this. I should’ve known better.” That was sticking with Vinyl, how she had just blindly assumed Celestia had been in cahoots with Cadance. It made her more than a little sick. How could she have doubted Celestia? Like Shining had said, she always did the right thing. “We all make mistakes, my little pony.” Celestia said, accompanied by a warm smile. “The most important thing we can do is admit we were wrong and move on.” Vinyl returned the smile and trotted through the door into the room beyond. “Son of a-” Vinyl bit her tongue as she saw not just Shining Armor on a luxurious mint green bed, but a very familiar pony sitting next to him. “Hi Sky.” It was not a pony she wanted to see, not here. It left her feeling things she never wanted to feel, emotions she wanted to let go of and move on from. Now here she was, faced with them once again. “Vinyl!” Skyward Glory got up from her spot next to Shining on the bed and sped over to her sister. Vinyl found herself wrapped in a hug she was not exactly keen on reciprocating or wanting at all. “I was so worried about you! The guards came to my house and asked if I knew where you were! I told them I had no idea and they told me that Shining was hurt, and-” Sky looked at Vinyl with tears in her eyes. “I’m so happy you’re okay!” “Hi…Sky.” Vinyl was still processing the appearance of her supposed-to-be-estranged sister. Had Celestia set this up or was it all just coincidence? It felt almost a little too coincidental for Celestia to not have a hoof in it. If she had been rooting around in Shining’s memories, then the princess knew this was the last pony she was supposed to talk to. “What...uh...why are you in here with Shining?” “I just-well after I heard that he was hurt and you were missing, I figured the best place for me to be was by his side.” Sky twirled her magenta mane with her wing nervously. “I knew you would show up eventually, and I knew you would be looking for him.” “But why?” Vinyl asked. “No offense Sky, but I told you that I was moving on from you. I didn’t think I would see you again until I wanted to.” Maybe a little harsh, but Sky wasn’t supposed to be here. That part of her life was over, now Vinyl needed to focus on Shining and building a new life from the ruins of her old one. “I assumed that what you said back on the farm was just...I thought you were venting, Vinyl. You know how you get when you’re worked up.” Sky was testing her patience at the moment. Vinyl was far too stressed and wound up to deal with this rationally or calmly like she had wanted. “I thought you just needed a little time and space to think everything out.” “No, Sky. No.” Vinyl started, shaking her head. “That was me being level and thinking more clearly than I had in years.” She sighed, how was she supposed to get this through Sky’s head? “I need to move on from you, I need to move on from everything that’s been holding me back. That ends with you.” “We’re family, Vinyl. You just can’t abandon me or pretend like I don’t exist.” Glory stepped closer to Vinyl, causing the unicorn to back away. “You can’t do this. What would dad think?” Vinyl closed her eyes and ignored the invocation of her dad, she would let that one slide for now. “Dad would understand, Sky. He would see how unhappy I was and he would get it that I need to move past all of the bullshit in my life, alright?” Vinyl fought the urge to raise her voice, she fought with all of her might to fight off the spell that was telling her to yell and scream at Sky until she left and never returned. In order for this to work she needed to be calm, she needed to really explain it. “For years the thought of you and Lily had done nothing but piss me off and make me upset. Every time I thought about mom or dad, I would think about you and every time I thought about you would make me think about the foal you abandoned and every time I thought about the foal you abandoned it would just make me want to bury my feelings under a pile of parties and booze.” For the first time in forever, it really felt like she was getting something off of her chest concerning Sky. “I made peace with mom and dad passing. There was nothing I could do and I know it wasn’t their fault. I learned that Lily is happy where she is and she’s taken care of and in a good place. That just leaves you.” “What about me? I-I made peace with mom and dad’s deaths. I’m happy that Lily is with a family that loves her. I’m happy now, so why can’t you accept me?” Sky still didn’t understand, she didn’t see the problem and that in itself was the problem. “You refuse to say what you did was wrong. You think you did the right thing, you think blaming me for Lily and saying everything’s forgiven now that we know she’s safe is okay.” Vinyl felt her voice going into venomous territory and she couldn’t stop it. “You never apologized to me, even after everything I did for you and how you just threw it back in my face. You never tried to talk to me about Lily, you never tried to say you were sorry or what you did was wrong. You tried to move past it like it was nothing when it was everything to me!” Vinyl’s voice cracked from the feeling swelling in her throat. “It was a mistake, Vinyl! I was young and stupid, you can’t hold that against me forever. It’s fine, Lily’s fine now.” Vinyl closed her eyes and held back tears, this was so hard to do. It was like climbing the tallest mountain or swimming across the fastest river. It was breaking her down on a physical level. “I didn’t know she was okay.” Vinyl said in a small voice. “For years I thought she was dead. I thought you had killed her and to me it looked like you didn’t care.” That’s what hurt the most in Vinyl’s head, the fact that Sky was able to shrug that idea off. “I don’t care what it turned out to be, I care about how you acted for so long. I care about how you seemed so fine with abandoning a foal.” “Vinyl, you know I loved her. You know I missed her. I just knew that one day I would find her.” Vinyl felt like she was going to be sick, the amount of justifications going on was vile and putrid. It made her want to leave the room and never return. “Then why didn’t you go look for her?” Silence came from the malnourished pegasus. “If you knew she was fine and you missed her, why did you not once go and try to find her?” Again, silence. “I’m sorry, Sky. I can’t do this anymore, I can’t spend the rest of my life pretending like I’m okay with that. I can’t spend the rest of my life lying to you and myself. I can’t do it anymore and there’s absolutely nothing you can do to stop me.” Vinyl’s word was final, it was solid and set in stone. She was done with all of the nonsense, all of the runarounds and justifications. All of the stuff she put up with in her life because she was too afraid to do anything about it stopped right here and right now. “Is…is this it?” Sky asked, tears streaming down her cheeks and her frail frame shaking. “Please, I don’t want this to be the end, Vinyl.” The unicorn did nothing but keep her eyes locked firmly onto Sky’s. “I’m sorry it has to be like this, Sky…” Vinyl responded in a half mumble, wiping tears from her own eyes. “I’m so sorry…” Vinyl felt herself embraced once more. This time she did not revile or try to fight it, instead she did something that she needed to do. She hugged her sister for one last time. “I love you, Vinyl Scratch. Please never forget that.” “I loved you too, Skyward Glory.” ---- Shining Armor came back into the waking world plagued by a headache, the likes of which were unmatched in his experience on the planet. His head felt like it went a couple of rounds with a world renowned boxer and lost horribly. He could go on with analogies, but his head hurt more than enough to stop him. When he finally felt confident enough to open his eyes he found himself in a sterile room painted all white from the floors to the ceiling. Light streamed in from multiple thin vertical windows that lined one side of the rather spacious yet empty room. He was in a large bed, a thin mint green sheet covering most of his body. He didn’t remember coming here, or even where here was. Last night was a blur of things he wasn’t sure were dreams or reality, and he needed some clarification from somepony for some of the things that were prevalent in his head. The stallion rolled over onto his other side, hoping to find out more about where he was based on the other half of the room. Instead of being met with a mirrored room, he was instead met with a face of two-tone blue mane. He craned his neck to see if it belonged to the pony he thought, and he was correct. “Scratch?” he asked, his own voice ringing throughout his head like a bell made out of pain. Vinyl was currently passed out on the edge of the bed, the back half of the mare sitting on a chair and the front half resting on the sheet he had over himself. Any way he looked at it, Vinyl being here was a good thing. It meant that after last night she was okay, and as long as she was okay so was he. No matter how much his head hurt. He poked the mare and shook her until he got a response. Magenta eyes blinked open slowly and sleep was rubbed from the corners. Vinyl propped herself up on one hoof and looked sleepily at Shining. It was a few moments before her mind kicked into gear and she realized just what she was seeing. “Twinkle!” Vinyl shouted, much to Shining’s dismay, as she leapt and captured him in a hug. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you awake.” Vinyl buried her muzzle into his neck and took a few deep breaths. Shining couldn’t help but to blush at the rather public display of affection considering they were not in her home or his own. “You have no idea…” She mumbled, her words muffled by his fur. “Hey, yeah.” Shining was still a little confused and was gaining his bearings. “I’m fine. I’m good.” Vinyl pulled away, a bright smile and happy tears accentuating her visage. “I’m okay. Are you?” “I was just worried.” Vinyl replied, wiping the tears away. “I made it to Soarin’s last night, and when you didn’t show up I thought…I thought Cadance had got you.” Right, Soarin and Cadance. It was all slowly coming back to him, it was just taking a little longer than normal for him to remember things for the moment. “I guess I was half right. From what Celestia said, she tore out most of your memories of me.” “Wha-” Shining’s blood ran cold as everything from last night came back to him. The magic digging into his skull and ripping things out without pause, the sudden loss of forgetting something important. The Vinyl-shaped hole that had been left over. That all had happened, it actually happened. “Vinyl…” It was traumatic, the thought of it. He remembered the feeling of loss without understanding what it was he was missing, he remembered the intense feeling of failure and sadness that came with it all. “Vinyl…” There were so many things that ran through his head when he looked into her eyes, when he saw the amount of emotion for him behind her eyes. It was pure and raw, it was something more than just affection. “Yeah, that’s my name dummy.” Vinyl leaned in and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Just don’t sweat it if you can’t remember something, alright? That’s what I’m here, to fill in the blanks.” It concerned him that he even had to worry about blanks. He remembered a lot of his time with Vinyl, carrying her out of the restaurant that first night, going to the concert with her and Cadance, waking up in the same bed with her after drinking, kissing...a lot of the important stuff was still there. So what was he missing. “Hey, you okay? You kinda spaced out there.” Vinyl was right in his face now, waving her hoof and trying to get his attention. “Yeah. Yeah,” he responded, clearing his head and focusing back on Scratch. “So…so Celestia was here? I remember her showing up last night and…everything after that is just black.” He assumed he had passed out and it wasn’t his faulty head. “Yeah, she put in a lot of work to get your head straight.” Vinyl nodded. “She said she got what she could, the broad strokes. She said a lot of the little stuff might not be there, but I’m supposed to help you with that.” Vinyl looked away, a light blush on her cheeks. “You-uh-you remember about ‘us’, right? Like…the hotel in Ponyville?” “Yeah. I remember that.” Shining, like Vinyl had said, remembered the broad strokes of it. There was a conversation of some emotional significance and it had led to a kiss they both had wanted. It led to more conversations he was sure would come back to him in time. “I’m glad you’re okay, Twinkle,” Vinyl said once more as she pulled Shining into a hug, one he gladly took and reciprocated. He pulled Vinyl close and closed his eyes, enjoying the moment for what it was. It felt right, it felt wonderful. “Hello you two.” The voice caused something to snap in Shining Armor and he bolted upright, jarring Vinyl loose from his grasp and nearly throwing her to the ground. He turned his head towards the metal door across the room and saw Princess Celestia standing in the doorway. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.” “Nothing we can’t continue later,” Vinyl groaned as she righted herself and got back onto her chair. “I intend on cashing in on some of the things he promised after we get out of here anyways, might as well throw a hug into the mix.” Shining didn’t feel all too confident about whatever it was he promised. Hell, how was he supposed to know if he promised it or not? “I’m glad to hear you both seem to be adjusting well.” Celestia trotted into the room, a warm smile across her face. “How are you feeling, Shining Armor?” The princess sat herself on the floor at the side of the bed and cocked her head to the side, studying him. “My head hurts a bit, your highness.” He was going to be straight with the princess and hope it didn’t bite him later. “Other than that, I’m just a bit confused. I would like some clarification on what exactly happened. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details.” Sure, Vinyl had semi-explained the situation in a very Vinyl way, but getting more in-depth with Celestia would soothe his nerves. “I assure you, the pain will subside.” Celestia nodded as she spoke. “You don’t get to walk away from two alicorns messing with your head without at least a headache, I’m afraid.” The playful smile helped, but it didn’t completely disguise the fact that indeed two separate god-like ponies had forced their way into his mind with magic. Noticing his discomfort with the playfulness, Celestia moved on. “As for what happened, I pieced all of it together from what I saw in your memories. It seems you were taking Vinyl and yourself to one of the Wonderbolts’ apartments to hide out until I could contain Cadance, but she intercepted you in the city center.” Shining vaguely remembered the midnight run and the visit by his mother that had provoked it. “You fended her off for a moment with some sort of light detonation spell that allowed Vinyl Scratch to escape, but allowed yourself to be caught instead.” Yeah, he remembered talking to Cadance as well and the turmoil of deciding just what to do with her. “She forced her way into your mind and started tearing away memories that involved Vinyl Scratch. I came along and stopped her, not before it was too late though. I’m afraid her work had been all but completed at that point, so I spent all of last night piecing what I could back together.” Celestia’s voice did not waver an inch during the explanation, it was cold and clinical, the same way Twily got when she was reciting something. “Where’s Cadance?” That was his biggest worry at the moment. He assumed he was in a part of the castle, which meant he would be near his ex and in his professional opinion, not safe. The last thing he wanted was to fall asleep and fall prey to her machinations once again, only for them to succeed this time. “Contained, for now.” Celestia said, her voice low and heavy. “She’s going away for awhile, somewhere she can reflect and to a place where she cannot hurt anypony.” Celestia looked Shining dead in the eye and spoke with supreme confidence he could not shake. “She will not harm you, your family, or Vinyl Scratch ever again. You have my word.” Shining had never wanted it to end like this. He didn’t want Cadance to have to leave her home, he didn’t want Celestia to be angry with her niece. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end. But maybe, in another world, in another time, none of this would’ve happened and he and Cadance would be happy right now. Maybe, but that wasn’t the reality he was living in. His was broken by choices and consequences that he had never seen coming, and he knew it would never be as it should. “May I offer some good news?” Both Vinyl and Shining looked to the princess with confused glances. Not a lot of good could come from today, not really. This was the aftermath of bad, this was supposed to be cleanup. “I am prepared to declare Vinyl fully rehabilitated.” Shining’s eyes widened. They had talked about it, but he didn’t know if Scratch was ready for that. They still had Glory to get to, after all. “Seeing as how when I was looking through your memories, I saw that you only had her sister to get to, I arranged the meeting to take place before you woke up, Shining Armor.” “Really?” He looked to Vinyl, who was now staring at the ground. “How’d it go? What…what did you decide on?” He reached out to touch Vinyl, but Celestia stayed his hoof. “Vinyl Scratch, why don’t you tell me what you’ve learned throughout all of this. Tell me what’s changed since Shining Armor came into your life.” Celestia’s hoof moved to Vinyl, lifting her chin so she could look the princess in the eyes. “No pressure on you, just tell me what you’re feeling.” “I…” Shining saw the fight going across Vinyl’s face. “Okay.” Vinyl stood up and began pacing. It was a few minutes before she spoke again. “I think I learned that sometimes you have to move on. If something is holding you back and is only causing you pain, you have to figure out how to get past it. Y’know, you need to work your hardest to try and find a way to let go.” He and Vinyl locked eyes. “You need somepony there with you, though. You need somepony strong and brave, and more stubborn than you thought possible. You need somepony by your side because when you allow yourself to suffer alone, all you’re doing is making it worse. You become complacent, I think. You wake up every morning sad and angry at the world and that’s normal. You accept it every day because that’s how it’s been for so long. But you do need somepony to pull you out of that rut, you need somepony to fight that normalcy and help you get somewhere happy again.” Vinyl shrugged and chuckled bitterly. “Even if it means throwing everything you’ve ever known away, because sometimes the stuff you don’t know might be better than the stuff you do. You’ll never know until you try, and you’ll never get to happy without something forcing change. Whether it’s an epiphany, finding a long lost relative…or even just a guard that doesn’t know when to quit.” Vinyl stopped her pacing and looked towards the princess. “I learned that love is dangerous, it can hold you back and make you do things that are crazy and destructive. It can make everything in the world seem pointless and bitter if the thing you love is gone or doesn’t love you back. It’s important, though. It makes the world go ‘round. It makes you do stupid things, but it also keeps you going, you just need to know when to stop loving something and let it go.” “Do you think you’ve made it to ‘happy’ yet?” Celestia questioned. “I think I’m getting there.” Vinyl responded, sitting back down. “I think I know how to make it, though.” Shining thought he knew how to make it there as well. He couldn’t focus on Cadance anymore or what was or might’ve been. It would only hurt in the long run. He needed to move on and accept that it happened and try to escape the bitterness that would come with rumination. He needed to be the Vinyl Scratch of today, not the Vinyl of a month ago. “Very well.” Celestia nodded and looked towards Shining. “Congratulations. I’ll fill out the paperwork with Galea and make it official.” Celestia stood up and started towards the door. “Oh, by the way-” She turned back to them “-I think we can also overlook that silly little rule about dating between bound guards and the ponies they worked with. If only this once.” With that, Celestia left the room. “Holy shit. She’s actually a pretty cool chick.” Vinyl said absentmindedly, causing Shining to start laughing. “What, what are you laughing about? I pour my heart out and you’re laughing.” Vinyl jumped onto the bed and sat right beside him. “Do you want to be slapped, Twinkle? Because this is how you get slapped.” It felt good to have this kind of banter again, it helped him feel some semblance of familiar, but that wasn’t what he found humorous. “This…this has been the worst twenty-four hours of my life…and I’m going to get promoted for it.” Shining couldn’t help but laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. He had been mind-probed twice, lost memories, been hunted by his ex through the streets, and now he was going to make more money. It seemed like such a distant problem to be solved, but there it was. “Well don’t forget-” Vinyl said, stretching and laying across Shining’s midsection. “-you promised to take me on a date after we were done with all of this. So don’t think I’m going to let you off the hook on that one. I expect somewhere nice.” “I may not remember that promise…” Shining grunted as he sat up and leaned to touch his nose to Vinyl’s. “…but I’ll keep it anyway.” ---- One Week Later Vinyl sat at the table in a restaurant she didn’t belong in. It wasn’t really her style, anyways. All of these upper class nobodies who thought they were more important than everypony else weren’t the types she liked. She would much rather be in some club slumming it with the real ponies, but tonight was special. Tonight was her promised date. She had even dressed up for the occasion in the ruby red gown that she had worn to the concert. Twinkle had said he liked it, in fact she thought he liked it a bit more than he let on. Aside from that, she even styled her mane in curls, an old holdover, but one she liked to indulge in from time to time. Personally, she thought she looked bangin’ and the night was going to be perfect. There was one problem though, her date was not present. One hour after the reservation time and he was a no-show. So as of right now, her perfect night was quickly becoming D.O.A. “I’m gonna kill ‘im,” Vinyl decided, mumbling to herself. “I’m going to kill him when I see him.” The last week since Shining had been allowed out of the palace hospital had been an uneventful one. For the most part, Twinkle had been too preoccupied with getting adjusted to his new work at DEqI to really focus on her. Apparently they worked new guys hard, but that was no excuse for tonight. He had promised to get off early. Hell, he had said he’d already requested for a half day. “He’s going to be dead by morning.” She reiterated to no one in particular. “Sorry! Sorry!” Vinyl raised her head from her spotless plate to see what was causing the ruckus. Lo and behold, Twinkle was making his way across the dining room floor, pulling on a suit jacket and tying his bow tie as he went. He saw Vinyl and made a beeline for her table. As he approached, Vinyl took note that his mane was as shaggy as ever with no care put into it. Here she had thought they had agreed to dress up and look nice tonight. “Glad you decided to show,” Vinyl said with a deadpan glare as Twinkle took his seat across from her. “Have fun at work?” She wasn’t holding back the venom from her voice. As far as she was concerned, he deserved every ounce “I’m so sorry, Vinyl,” Shining stated as he finished tying the bow tie he insisted was cool. “I tried to get off early, but work was kind of piling up and I couldn’t get away.” If he ever decided to tell Vinyl what exactly it was he was doing now, she would be a little more sympathetic to his plight. As it stood, his ‘confidential work’ served only to annoy her. “Well you’re here now, and I guess that’s what counts, right?” Sure, she was annoyed but even a late date was still a date. She cold put up with it as long as he made it up to her somehow later. “Right,” Shining said with a smile. “How was your day? Any luck?” Vinyl had been spending the last week taking some of her music and showing it off to some record labels, hoping that somepony would pick it up. “Nope,” Vinyl said with a sigh. “Got a letter back from Cumulous City Records today and they weren’t interested. Said I sounded ‘derivative’.” It was a little demoralizing, but she knew she would get signed one day. It was her talent after all, ponies always did whatever their talent was. “Sorry to hear that,” Twinkle said with a sad look. “Just keep at it, huh? One day one of those record companies will see how talented you are and that’ll be the end of it.” She liked his optimism, it really helped level out her more cynical nature. “As for my work, no I still can’t tell you about it, and again I’m sorry.” Vinyl rolled her eyes but accepted the fact that his work was none of her business, even if it would be nice what was always keeping him so late. “But I know what we can talk about. We can get back to filling in my memory gaps, right? I’m sure you can think of a thing or two to tell me.” “Yeah.” Vinyl loved reminiscing with Twinkle about things he didn’t remember. It was like telling a story that they were living the ending to. It was fun and simple. “I’ve been thinking and I think there’s a little story you might not remember.” “Hit me.” Twinkle responded, taking a sip from his glass of water and leaning forward intently. “I dated a Diamond Dog once.” She started with a sly grin, it was one of her favorite stories and never failed to raise a few eyebrows. “Guess you could say I’m a real gem, huh?” Twinkle nearly spit out his water, but managed to contain it. He choked back his drink and looked at her incredulously. “Sweet Celestia, that is such a bad joke.” Vinyl hadn’t gotten somepony to laugh at that since Twinkle’s parents. Coming from him, though, it meant a whole lot more. It made her feel like life was worth living and the future was bright. It made all of the stuff they had gone through together feel worth it. All of their problems seemed so far away. Galea was off of Shining’s back, Cadance had left the city the other day to go Celestia knows where, and Vinyl was free from her past. Yeah, everything felt right. They were well on their way to happy.