Tea took but a few minutes to finish setting up, and before long, Twilight and Octavia both had a cup in front of them. Octavia took a slow slip, giving a nod of approval even as her thoughts raced in her head. She wanted to cut to the chase, hurry up and get this out of the way, but pleasantries had been drilled into her head since the beginning of her life.
Indeed, this sort of thing came as a second nature to Octavia. Gently sip the tea, place it down on your saucer, give a smile and then a compliment. “It’s lovely, thank you,” she spoke, voice low, deferent. Society determined her to be the lesser one in terms of status, so she’d follow and give respect to the greater - especially since the greater happened to be a princess.
“Any time!” Twilight answered, cheery as could be. “So, I can see you’re anxious, why don’t you go ahead and tell me what’s bothering you?” The princess pressed her hooves together and leaned in, eyebrows rising up in time and as the mare smiled as wide as anypony Octavia had ever seen.
The stress melted away from Octavia’s face, brows unknitting practically like a zipper. “Oh, thank Celestia,” she let out a long sigh. Octavia deflated a touch, letting herself slump into the seat. She bit her lip, just a tiny bit as the words started to form inside of her head. “I don’t know how to say this,” she began. “And I don’t think you’re going to believe me. I think the simplest, easiest way is to just… be direct,” she decided. “I think my girlfriend has been kidnapped. By the mafia. Or something like it.”
A pause interrupted their conversation, disbelief taking over the mare’s face. “Oh. I see.” What else could be said to such a revelation? Not much. Twilight opened her muzzle and then shut it again. Then she shifted her hooves. Then her tail swished back and forth. And finally, she let herself stay silent by drinking quite a bit more of her tea.
And then more tea. All of sudden, there wasn’t any left in her cup and the world came back. “Oh.” Twilight let a small giggle escape herself, but the manic sort rather than actually laughing at Octavia. “No wonder you wanted to see me!” she practically squeaked out, her voice raising at least two octaves by the end of the sentence. “That’s um… Well, can you tell me more about it? Who is your girlfriend?”
That, Octavia could answer. “Her name is Vinyl Scratch, your highness,” she explained, shifting to get more comfortable, or at least, as much as she could considering the conversation at hand. “I love her. She means the world to me. We met a while ago, and have been living together for a bit. Her family, your highness, were mixed up in bad things. I never really got the details, and I don’t think I ever want to know them, but it’s bad.
“She’s been taken by them, I think. My house got broken into a couple nights ago and they took her. Dragged her out of my house. It’s why I approached you tonight. I have to get her back, she’s the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.” Octavia kept going, starting to ramble and really let her feelings free. Twilight wanted to know more about her? She’d tell everything.
“She’s a musician, like me. But- but different! She makes things, a-and mixes things together that nopony has ever done before. And she can play the piano! Like, like it’s magic! Why, I think she could probably take my position in the orchestra with a tiny bit of practice, like a week of it or something like that. Every time I look at her, I can feel my heart skip a beat, her eyes are entrancing, the most beautiful red things that you’ve ever seen.” Definitely gushing now, but funnily, she couldn’t find it in her to stop.
At some point, tears had started to tingle at the edge of her eyes. They were going to come, especially if she kept going. And keep going, she did. “I miss her so much. It’s been less than a week and I can’t stop thinking about her. Every time I close my eyes I see her. Every time I have more than a second of time on my own, I feel like I’m going to pull my mane out.” And there they went, right down her face, trailing down her cheeks and even dropping down onto the couch.
“I miss her, Twilight. I miss her so much, more than anything in the world. Your Highness, I need her back. Please. I’ll do anything for you. I just need you to help me, I need somepony to help me get her back and I don’t know how to do it alone.” She’d started to blubber, hadn’t she? So messy, so uncultured, the princess would probably think her an absolute train wreck!
“Please…”
A flash of amethyst near blinded her, and barely a moment later, something warm and soft wrapped itself around Octavia. It took her but a second more to realize that Twilight had teleported, crossing the distance between them with magic rather than more corporeal means. The very same princess hugged her tight, both forelegs wrapping around Octavia’s shoulder and keeping her close.
“It’s gonna be okay. I’m going to help you and things are going to be okay. I can help you, and we can find who took her. My brother, he’s the Captain of the Guard. A-and my old babysitter! She’s the duchess of the Crystal Empire. They’ll know people,” Twilight urged, trying her best to comfort the poor thing. “We’re going to get Vinyl Scratch back, I swear to you. Are you okay, Octavia? Have you been hurt?”
How could she answer that? “I’m not hurt,” she mumbled, resting her head against the alicorn’s shoulder. Maybe she shouldn’t do that. Maybe this was getting too comfortable, too much with somepony so important. But she hadn’t been the one to start this or the one who had even moved close to the other. Surely, it must be fine?
Leave it to Octavia, the consummate professional, to worry about what others would consider proper while sobbing against somepony’s shoulder. She sniffled, a loud, quick thing as her body began to tremble. “I’m terribly sorry,” she whispered, voice hoarse. “Without Vinyl, I didn’t know who I could trust. I’ve been keeping this in since it happened, and it seems to be all coming out right now,” she apologized as profusely as she could, mind and voice both blurred from the tears.
Twilight’s answered first with actions rather than words, a hoof rubbing against Octavia’s back in a comforting, friendly way. “It’s okay. It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I’ve lost somepony I cared deeply for as well, I understand.” The hurt, the old, echoed pain in Twilight’s voice verified the truth of those words more than anything possibly could. “We will get her back, I swear on my life and my wings.”
For a while, Octavia could do nothing but cry, could do nothing but let the feelings she’d been repressing out. She’d had to be so strong, the chance to just be weak and helpless for a few seconds helped more than even the promises of help. Luckily, it wouldn’t last forever. She could only cry for so long before things started to settle down, all of it out of her and done.
Slowly, ever so slowly, Octavia extricated herself from the royal’s grip, pulling herself out and resting back against the couch. “This means more to me than you could possibly know, your highness. I- thank you,” she mumbled out, looking down at her own lap. How long had they been here? Octavia needed to get back on the stage and to steel herself for the future. She’d let herself be weak for a while, and it’d come time to be strong once more.
“I think it may be time for us to get back, your highness. I have obligations, I’m afraid. Could I give you any more details to get started?” she asked, trying to get her presence, her courtesy. Be good, be strong for Vinyl, even if she wanted nothing more than to stay here with the princess who acted so kind to her.
A wave of a wing dismissed the question and Twilight shook her head. “No, that should be more than enough!” Twilight answered, the alicorn perking back up as well. Both of them had to put masks on, both of them had to pretend things were okay, just in different ways. “How about I come down to your place in a few day’s time? I can bring news, and maybe some extra security for you. Peace of mind is just as important as steps towards a solution.”
Octavia disagreed silently. She didn’t need peace of mind, she needed Vinyl back. But, she wouldn’t say that to the royal, even as she wiped away the last tears from her eyes. Her makeup had likely run, but it would have to do, it wasn’t like she had the time or the things here to clean it up. She even managed to fix her smile, the thing a bit wobbly but nothing more than that.
“That would be nice,” she finally acquiesced. “I am a bit worried about guards, your highness. I had some before, but they were private security and may have been bribed away from their post.” No answers had come forth for that yet. Maybe they’d been hurt and driven back, but if so, shouldn’t there be blood? Mostly likely, they’d simply gone temporarily blind and abandoned their posts for a very large sum of bits.
Apparently, Twilight had considered this, giving a wave of her hoof. “Don’t worry! I’ll get some of the ponies that I trust more than anything to help out. I’ll get them to your house tomorrow and nopony will go in and out without you knowing. And worst case, I’ll come down there myself,” she swore.
Now that would be something. Imagine hosting a princess, not as a visitor, but as a bodyguard. Octavia couldn’t help but stress about the thought alone - imagine how much cleaning she’d have to do! That’d be okay, actually, because Vinyl could help-
Oh. Right. Just like that, her heart sank again, and the feeling of crying came back without a second’s thought. Vinyl. Her Vinyl. Her best friend. Her only friend. She couldn’t do this without her, could she?
But she had to. Otherwise, Vinyl would never be back. Octavia swallowed the lump that had apparently teleported into her throat. The smile stayed in its place, Octavia could do this. “That sounds lovely. I’ve always dreamed of having a princess in my house,” she admitted, with her fledgling smile growing. “But regardless, your highness, I think it’s about time for both of us to return. I’m sure I go on shortly, and you have your royal duties.”
“You’re right. You know what they say, always more friends to make!” Twilight beamed - she really was the princess of friendship, wasn’t she? Octavia had always thought the title was more symbolic than anything. “You ready? I’ll teleport us.”
Octavia nodded and the world went purple.
But only for a second before the familiar sights and sounds of the ballroom came back into focus. A comforting tap on the shoulder was the last that Octavia got before Twilight started to drift back into the crowd again, ponies already flocking around her. The pony everypony should know.
With a bit of weakness and the same steel as earlier, Octavia started to trot her way back to the stage. Her plan had worked, she’d gotten help. All she could do now was wait, wait until Twilight got back to her, wait until something got settled.
And yet, Octavia couldn’t help but feel like she should do more. It was her love, her best friend, her everything, she needed to do more, she just, couldn’t.
With a heavy heart and a worry for the future, Octavia re-entered the stage.