"You were awesome, Vinyl!" I exclaimed, trotting through the door.
"Really? That was B-Tier at best." she joked.
"You're way too modest." I told her in confidence.
"I actually have something to tell you." I said, nervously trying to work my way up to telling her how I felt.
"Yeah, sure. What is-" she was interrupted by the phone ringing in the kitchen. "Lemme go get this real quick. Be right back!" she called, trotting for the kitchen.
I heard her talking on the phone from here. I took this as a chance to psych myself out of feeling nervous. I slumped down on the couch with a heaving sigh.
This is gonna be harder than I thought. I admitted to myself.
"Really?" I heard Vinyl say from the kitchen. "Yeah, of course! Anything for a friend." she almost seemed to choke out the word friend, like it was painful.
"Alright! See ya then, bye." she said.
"Who was that?" I asked, as calmly as possible.
"Oh, that was my friend Octavia." she said, choking on friend again. That got me really thinking.
"You seem to not like that word in her context. Friend." I wondered. She cringed at friend. What the hell?
"Uh, yeah... About that... I was a bit of a filly-fooler in my college days. She was my marefriend from freshman to senior year. When we parted ways, things got hard. We fought a lot, and eventually she ended it. We started talking again, and we're friends again." she explained sadly. "Well, the Canterlot orchestra went on hiatus and she's moving down here for the time being. To tell the truth, I'm still not really over her yet." she said broodingly.
BUCK.
"I'm sorry that happened." I empathized. "But it's good you two are still friends." I managed a weak smile. "God knows, I could never be friends with my ex." I joked.
She laughed weakly. "So, what is it you wanted to tell me?" she asked with new found vigor.
"I uh... Wanted to... You know what? Never mind, it's not that important anyways." I mustered.
I can't. Bucking. Believe this.
I said as I covered my eyes with my hooves in frustration.
What do I do about this?
We waited at the train station for an hour. My hooves ached from standing so much. "Is she gonna be here any time soon? Or ever?" I asked, frustrated.
"Have some patience, dude. She'll be here any minute." almost like she was The Great and Powerful Trixie and summoned the train, it came.
"Well, that had good timing." I said. The second I saw her, I knew who she was. I recognized her from the background of some of the episodes.
That's her name! I thought.
"Vinyl! My darling, how are you?" she exclaimed, giving her two pecks on the cheeks all fancy-like.
Ugh. Just how I thought she'd be...
"And might I know your name?" she asked, looking up at me.
"I'm uh... River. River Flow." I told her, somewhat distracted.
"Vinyl, be a dear and grab my suitcase?" she asked her. That reminded me of Atlas from Bioshock. 'Would you kindly?' Creepy.
As we were walking back to Vinyl's house, Octavia brought up a weird subject. "So, Vinyl. Are you seeing anyone?" she asked in that snooty way she speaks.
"Oh, no! Nope, I'm totally single. Single and out there." she said, almost nervously.
"Good, good." she muttered.
What the hell?
"What about you, River? Seeing anyone special?" she asked.
"No." I said sternly.
"Wouldn't you like to be?" she asked, slightly bobbing her head toward Vinyl.
"Oh, I guess. No hurry, though." I said, uncomfortable at Octavia's close proximity.
Then I took the offensive. "Are you seeing anyone, Octavia?" I asked.
"Oh, I had a few stallions in Canterlot wrapped around my hoof, but nothing major." she said with a laugh.
I despised the way she spoke. I couldn't quite figure why. It seemed kind of ominous and daunting. Very passive aggressive. My ears had fits every time she said something. To be honest, she scared the living shit out of me.
I woke up the next morning, and I was me again. I was human. My room was pitch black. I reached my hands out to find a light switch. I thought I found one. When I grabbed it to turn it on, it played a harsh note. It almost sounded like... A cello. Lights flared on above me and Octavia's head swirled around me, laughing. Then Vinyl's head started too. I was freaking out. A trap door in the floor opened below me and I fell into the black depth of my own mind.
"AHH!!" I screamed.
I shot up to a complete ninety degree angle in my bed. I was sweating profusely. My heart raced and my breath was shaky. I raised my arms in front of my eyes. Still hooves. I let out a sigh of relief. I slipped on my robe and went down the stairs. I came down to find Octavia sitting on the couch. Not watching TV, not drinking coffee or anything, just sitting. She tilted her head so she was looking straight at me. Her eyes seemed to bear deep into my inner. Not like Twilight's eyes, which were bright and innocent. Octavia's eyes held a certain dark air. They may have been a bright color, but they had dark intent.
"Hey, Octavia." I said, cautiously.
"Hello, River." she said, smirking.
"Whatcha smiling about?" I asked.
"You like Vinyl, don't you River?" she asked, accusingly.
I was surprised by the sudden change in conversation.
"Would you even say you - loved her?" she asked, creeping closer.
"Yeah. I guess you could say that." I said, growing more and more wary of what she was getting at.
"Well isn't that too bad?" she said, condescendingly sad. "You see, River, I know Vinyl better than anypony else. I can please her better than anypony else." she said, creeping closer to me with each word. I backed away, but she continued after me.
"There's no way you could ever mean more to her than I do. I am her everything, and I intend to keep it that way. So, in Layman's terms, back off of Vinyl, or we're going to have a very serious problem. Any questions?" she said.
"Yooouu... DENSE motherfucker." I said horrified that my suspicions were true. "You're regretting that you dumped her aren't you?" I accused. Before she had a chance to defend herself, I continued. "You're jealous that she's moved on." I lied, hoping she wouldn't see through it.
"Oh, please. I have Vinyl wrapped around my hoof. I basically own her." she said smugly.
"Vinyl is not your property, you bitch." I almost yelled softly. "If you ever do anything to hurt her, we're going to have a very serious problem. Are we clear? Do you have any questions? Good." I said, feeling powerful.
"Crystal clear, Mr. Flow. Crystal clear..." she almost sang to herself. Relatively beautiful on the outside, a fucking monster on the inside.
"You sicken me, Octavia." I told her.
"And you sicken me as well, River."
Disgusting.