Velvet String quickly, yet carefully made his way down the streets of Manehatten. He shivered under his coat as chilled wind blew across his body.
“Curse this insufferable weather,” He grunted, mildly annoyed that he even still lived in this city.
He gathered himself in his coat as best he could as he kept moving. Normally he wouldn’t have even been in this part of the city, but today wasn’t a normal day for him. He wasn’t here for himself. He was here for a friend.
Octavia was here, in this part of the city. Before, when she wasn’t so solemn. He asked around. There wasn’t much anypony remembered from six months prior, but he did finally manage to get something. Octavia was walking through this part of the city. It may not have been the nicest part of the city, so he couldn’t really figure out what she was doing here. There was nothing around here but small little shops, a few clubs, and some not very appealing apartment complexes.
"Why were you here, Octavia," He asked himself as he looked around. He could see the hotel her family used. It was so far away, but he could still see it so clearly. In contrast to where he was now, it seemed so odd. His thoughts ended as another gust of wind brought more chills. He shivered again.
He took one last look around. He was about to leave when he heard something. It was a small thing. A thump? A thud? A grunt? He was not quite sure exactly. It was coming from a building down the block. His curiosity won out as he trotted over to the only door he could see. He neared the door and he heard it again. It was much easier to make out this time. A crash. Yelling and shouting. Grunting, breathing. It was getting closer. He stepped back from the door as it burst open and a pony stumbled out. She only managed to get a few steps before collapsing into the snow.
Velvet looked down upon the white mare. She breathed heavy as she lay there, red streaks running down her cheeks. Velvet rushed to her side. He gently brushed a bit of her mane from her face. Her left eye was bruised and swollen. Underneath was a cut that was turning the snow red.
"Oh my," His voice trembled with worry.
"Where is she?!" The voice echoed up from the building. "I swear, when I get that mare in my hooves. . ."
Velvet didn’t know why, but for some reason he looked in the building. He peeked his head in just enough to see down the steps the mare had just come from. What he saw he did not like.
A stallion of a rather large size, certainly larger than Velvet himself. This stallion did not look happy, or even nice. His mane was a mess, his face was lightly bruised and he wore a panic inducing face of unadulterated anger. Velvet gulped and turned back the mare at his feet.
"I know this isn’t the best time," He hurriedly uttered as he picked the mare up from the ground. "But did he do this to you?"
She hung limply from Velvet’s hooves. Her breathing was still heavy and slow. And yet, she was able to give him a slight nod. That was all he needed. He gathered her up as best he could without causing her too much discomfort. He had to move fast though.
"Let's get you out of here then," Velvet said as he used his own magic to close the door behind them, trying to slow that mad stallion down a bit.
It was only mere moments after they had left that he heard the door slam open. It was so loud he worried if they had gotten far enough away. He didn’t stop moving, though. Every part of him was telling him to panic. He held the mare close to him, hoping beyond hope that maybe the swirling snow all around them would hide them enough.
"Vinyl!" The mad stallion screamed. "When I find ya, yur done!"
Velvet let out a small sigh of relief. Maybe this weather is good for something after all.
Vinyl’s eyes snapped open. She tried to sit up, quickly realizing that was a mistake. A pain unlike anything she had ever felt coursed through her. She winced and grimaced as she brought a hoof up to her face. She ever so lightly brushed her hoof against her eye. Memories of what happened came flooding back to her. The cold of the outside, the warmth of the inside. That pony, the manager. She remembered what he tried to do. She tensed up at the memory but the soreness and pain in her body reminded her to calm down.
She slid her hoof down her cheek. She knew her cut cheek was just below her swollen eye, but she didn’t feel it. Instead, she felt the feel of a bandage. She looked down at the rest of her body. She had bandages around more of her body than she would have liked. She breathed in deeply. At least she was alive.
"Oh, you’re awake."
The voice brought Vinyl’s attention immediately to the door. Her body instinctively tensed up as she spotted a pony in the doorway. A stallion Unicorn. He stood up straight with his mane hanging down around his face. His eyes seemed warm and inviting. He looked at here without judgment or malice. He smiled with a kind smile that she hadn’t seen much in her life. She liked it. She allowed herself to relax a bit as he came in.
"I hope you like the room," He said nervously. "I wasn’t exactly sure what to do once we got away from that stallion, so I just brought you home. This is my guest room."
Vinyl cast her gaze around the room. She hadn’t noticed it before, but this was a nice room. It was large and spacious. The windows faced the setting sun and she watched a moment as the last rays of daylight disappeared beneath the horizon. She took a deep breath. The room smelled of vanilla candles. There was a table and chair along the opposite wall. The floor had a rug. This was everything she was not used to. Everything she didn’t have.
"I know it may seem like a little much to a pony like you," Velvet muttered while nervously looking at the room. Vinyl scowled at him with clear annoyance. She narrowed her eyes when he looked back at her. "Oh, no! I didn’t mean it like that," He frantically apologized. "I just meant that I don’t think you’re used to this kind of a place."
Vinyl kept staring at him for a few seconds. She let her scowl fade away. She was still annoyed, but she knew he was right. And he was genuinely apologetic. She twisted in bed and almost passed out again as pain shot through her.
"Whoa, there. Be careful now," Velvet told her with compassion in his voice. "The doctor said you were in pretty bad shape. Your face was badly bruised. You had some bruised ribs as well. You passed out from exhaustion he said. I don’t know what happened to you, but I must have been pretty bad."
Vinyl looked over to him. Why was he being so nice to her? Who was this pony? She glanced over at him again. He was looking over her body. More specifically, he was looking at her bandages. She waved her hoof just enough to get his attention. When he looked up at her she shrugged. She gestured at her injured self and the room she was in, and shrugged again.
"You, uh, don’t talk much," Velvet stated the obvious. "But I think I get what you’re saying. You want to know why, don’t you? Why am I helping you? Why did I bring you here instead of just dropping you off at some hospital in the city? Is that it?"
Vinyl nodded in response.
"Well, that’s actually a pretty simple answer,' Velvet replied with a kind smile and light chuckle. "I have this friend you see, and she has always been kind and wonderful to everypony around her. It never mattered who they were or where they were from. She would talk to the pony that delivered the mail the same as she would talk to a high society pony at some grand event."
Velvet stopped for a moment to grab a chair and bring it closer to the bed. He sat down next to Vinyl and continued. Vinyl adjusted herself in the bed so she was more comfortable. She was almost laying down at this point.
"She was always in such a good mood, too. Always with a smile on her face. And her music! She used to play with such cheer and happiness," Velvet grinned, to which Vinyl’s ears perked up. "She used to play in such a way that the entire room could feel it. It was like you could closed your eyes and reach out with a hoof and touch it. Every note she played was joyous!"
Velvet had gotten a little ahead of himself. He was lost in his thoughts, reminiscing about his friend. When he looked back over at Vinyl he was quite surprised. Vinyl had managed to sit up in her bed despite the pain it must have caused. Her head was down and her eyes were closed. Her ears, however, were perked up. They moved and twitched to an unheard force as her hooves moved through the air. Once she held high as the other she dragged through the air beneath. To anyone else, she would have been seen as crazy or confused.
"That’s exactly as Octavia plays," Velvet exclaimed.
Vinyl’s eyes opened up, sparkling at the mention of Octavia’s name. She leaned closer to Velvet with a smile widening on her face, begging him to keep going. She wanted to hear more of Octavia and her music.
"So you’ve heard Octavia play before," Velvet asked. "It’s such a beautiful thing to hear. If only she still played like that. Unfortunately, as of late her music has been somber and full of woe. It is filled with such a sadness that I cannot understand. And Octavia carries this with her always, and she always seems so alone."
Velvet hung his head low. His words had brought such a bright smile to this mares face and now he knew they would just a quickly take it away. He did not want to look up at her, and so he kept his eyes on the floor. Seconds passed like hours in the most uncomfortable silence he had ever heard. The air itself seemed to weigh down on him. He stared at the floor, only to see drops falling down. He looked back up.
Vinyl was still sitting at the side of the bed, leaning forward. He saw that now her eyes no longer sparkled as they did. Now, her eyes had welled up with tears and they were running down her cheeks like rivers. And yet, she still held onto that smile. Velvet was amazed, and confused.
"Why?"
Vinyl slid forward, kind of falling off the bed. She ignored the pain as she wrapped her hooves around Velvet in a warm hug. She shut her eyes tight and held that hug. Velvet was too shocked to do anything for a moment. But when he did finally regain himself he returned the embrace.
"I'm not sure what I did or said exactly," He kindly whispered to her, "But you are most welcome."