//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - The Long and Winding Road // Story: Music is Magic // by Jacker //------------------------------// Chapter 3 - The Long and Winding Road Atop a lonely balcony stood the Princess of the Night, known simply as Luna. She looked out beyond Canterlot and towards northern jagged mountains that obscured the dawn's horizon. The thought to tear herself away came for the thousandth time, but again she failed to heed its command. Instead, she simply gave forth a lament filled sigh. At that, she heard the creek of her bedroom door, and familiar hoofsteps approaching her. "Luna? What are you doing out here all alone?" asked Celestia, her tone laced with sisterly concern. "Listening." Luna replied softly. "Listening to what?" Celestia asked. Luna lowered her eyebrows, turning towards her sister. "Don't act as if you can't hear them." Celestia paused for a second, glancing away from her sister slightly. "I... can hear them." The night pony then tuned back towards her balcony rail, facing away from her sister. "Then you know they're coming." Luna heard Celestia creeping forward, her placing a cold hoof on her back. "Their song is still beautiful, you know. It's just... sadder now." "That's not helping sister but..." A hint of a warm smile flashed across her face. "Thanks for trying, I guess." "What happened wasn't your fault!" Luna grunted in annoyance. "Wasn't it?" she said, not bothering to face her sister. "No, it wasn't." Luna let loose another sigh. "You're right, it wasn't my fault... at least not completely." "So your blaming yourself for being flesh and blood?" Celestia asked, her voice a bit more stern. "We all have emotions Luna, even alicorns, even you. Though it would be nice sometimes, we can't simply turn them off. If I were in your place, it's very possible the same thing could have happened to me." Luna remained silent. "You're right though, what happened to them is regretful, but though it pains me I simply do not have the power to fix them." Her voice then softened somewhat. "For that I'm truly... truly sorry." A few small tears formed in the eyes of the night princess as she turned back to face her sister. "How did you ever bring yourself to forgive me?" A hint of a sympathetic, yet saddened smile etched across her sister's face. "I still wonder how you haven't forgiven yourself." "I wish I could..." Celestia gave her a look of stern resolve. "Then perhaps this is your chance to. You know them better than anypony, sister, how do we stop them?" Luna shook her head. "There is no stopping them... at least not in their current state of...." her eyes widened. "Wait a minute." With that, Luna turned to the side, pacing a few feet before halting and bringing a hoof up to her chin in thought. After a second, something struck her. With a slight grin hiding her inner sorrows, she turned back towards her sister. "Do you remember how good I used to be able to sing?" Celestia blinked in confusion. Octavia continued to stand awkwardly at the doorway to the community center. After a second, she began to back away... slowly, right before... "Hey everypony! Octavia's here!" "What's up, Octi?!" "Heyo! Never thought I'd see you out of that apartment of yours." "Come take a shot with us, Octavia!" Octavia glanced about nervously, obviously out of her element. "Uh... hi everpony. Listen, I think I might have left..." she paused for a second. "Er, my oven! Yes, I think I've left my oven on. I need to go and... turn it off. Don't want to cause a fire now, do I?" She grinned sheepishly. "Woah! Go take care of it then." A drunken voice said. "Yeah, good catch. Come right back afterwards!" Vinyl nearly facehoofed. Was she seriously the only sober pony left? She glanced around the crowd, half of them looking like zombies who fed off alcohol instead of brains. The only sober person was Spike, and considering he was a dragon... yep, she was the only pony left somewhat sober. As the crowd distracted Octavia, she quickly made her way over to her DJ console to switch to something a bit less... vulgar, her inwardly groaning as she did so. Sure, she had known the party was going to be somewhat wild when she invited Octavia but why did she have to put that song on the tracklist? Still, it wasn't entirely her fault. Apparently carefree ponies and a lot of alcohol was a larger combination for shenanigans then she expected. She squinted annoyance. There she went again. Why in the name of Celestia was she so concerned about the classical pony? It then hit her like a two-ton slab of metal. She really did have feelings for her, didn't she? B-But how? How was that possible? They were just so different. As if she were trying to fling the thoughts out of her brain, Vinyl shook her head. No matter the reason, she still wanted the brown mare here with her. She wasn't about to let her get away that easily. However, when she glanced over towards where Octavia stood she noticed the mare was now gone. Vinyl's eyes narrowed in determination. She couldn't have gotten that far. "Hey Pinkie, do you still remember that crash lesson I gave you on how to use this thing?" she asked, glancing over towards the pink mare who was currently doing a slobbery shotgun with the help of Rainbow Dash. Vinyl groaned inwardly at that. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to have the drunk party pony near her equipment... No matter though, it'd only be a second. "Wesh I dwo!" Pinkie beamed as she drank, spraying alcohol all over the rainbow haired mare. "ACK! Pinkie!" she shrieked, wiping the saliva-beer combination off her. "More chugging less talking!" "Swowwy!" The spraying had been doubled! "PINKIE!" Vinyl raised her eyebrows as the party pony finished up her drink. "Uh... actually, this song should take a bit to finish so don't worry about it." "Okie dokie lokie!" With that, Vinyl left her station to make her way towards the door. She cringed as she stepped over several passed out ponies; Lyra, Bon Bon, and Twilight, the newest addition to the slumber party on the floor. "Uggggh..." Spike groaned, gazing at Vinyl while prodding the downed mare with a single digit. "Looks like I'm going to need to take a trip to the coffee store in the morning..." He then paused, rolling his eyes slightly. "For a pony so concerned with keeping her mind straight, you sure know how to kill brain cells, Twilight." Vinyl chuckled slightly at that before she entered the outside world, a determined look on her face. She saw Octavia scooting off in the distance down the long and winding road that led from the community center to central Ponyville, it actually being located a slight distance from town. "Octavia, wait up!" Vinyl called. Octavia glanced over her shoulder towards the musical mare, her expression a mock look of worry. "Sorry Vinyl, but uhhh... oven fire!" Vinyl rolled her eyes. "Ugh, we both know that you're just making an excuse." With that, Octavia halted in her tracks, throwing Vinyl a sheepish grin and allowing her to catch up with her. "Listen, I'm sorry that was kind of... awkward for you. I honestly didn't expect the party to get this wild." The classical pony threw the dubstep pony a sympathetic glance. "It's alright, Vinyl.. it's just not my kind of social gathering." "Why don't you stay for a bit, though? I mean... maybe you'll get used to it?" Vinyl said with a grin. Octavia shook her head with a 'no means no' expression mixed with slight confusion. "Thanks Vinyl, really, but I should probably be sleeping anyway. I need to get up early for a few things." Octavia then began heading down the path to her apartment again. "Come on Vinyl, she's getting away!" With that, the floodgates holding back Vinyl's frustration broke. In an annoyed, exasperated tone she said, "ugh! If only you were a little less uptight!" Octavia snapped towards Vinyl, her face contorted with confusion and anger. "Excuse me? Why does it matter to you so much anyway?" Vinyl gulped at that, simmering down and putting on her best apologetic look. "S-Sorry... it's just...." she paused, courage building up in her chest. "It's just I really wanted to spend time with you tonight!" she finally spat out. Octavia's look of confusion continued for but the briefest second before she began to succumb to realization. She then sighed. "Vinyl..." "Yeah, I know. It's a stupid thought..." Octavia shook her head with a slight smile. "It's not stupid. Well, maybe it is. Maybe we're just both stupid." Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What do you mean?" "I mean that... well... I kind of... feel the same way," Octavia said, a slight smile etching across her face. "I knew the party was going to be pretty wild, but I came anyway tonight because I wanted to well... get to know you a little better. I wanted you to be more then just the mysterious mare of music who lived across the hall. Then when I got to the party and realized just how out of my element I was... well I began to have doubts anything could come of my feelings. We're just so different and yet..." "Yet you still think that somehow something could... work?" Vinyl said, her voice laced with hope. Octavia raised a hoof. "With a bit of effort." "I can do effort," Vinyl said, a smile forming on her face. "And a lot of patience." "I can do patience." The smile grew wider. "And a lot of music." "I can do music too!" The edges of the smile seemed as if they were going to fall off her face. Her eyes then widened, a slight grin coming across her face. "Wait, does that mean you want to try to jam together sometime?" Octavia smirked. "How's tomorrow sound?"