My vision became surrounded by darkness again. I was scared of it. I wanted to be a back in the memory — well, alternate reality. I wanted to be with Tavi again. I wanted to be there when everything went right.
Instead, my eyes readjust to the bright lights of the room as Doctor Gonzo removed the gizmo from my head. I squinted, trying to bring my vision back. I figured that he knew this was going to happen, because he slid my sunglasses back onto my face.
My eyes flutter open, still stinging slightly, but at least I was able to look around. I wanted to sit up, but my body was still numbed and relaxed. So, I layed there, staring at the box in front of me.
“I saw it all happen on the monitor. For the most part. The images are still staticy whenever it’s in use, but they should come out clear whenever you view the memory from the orb.”
I nodded my head, letting him know I was listening.
“What you just saw is where you believe the best place to begin the relationship would have been. There was no sound, and I couldn’t make out much, but I saw there was a crowd of sorts. I could infer you were at a party. Now I need to ask you: did you see the memory of the event into its original completion, or did you see an alternate reality? Was it a completion?”
I shake my head.
“So it was an alternate reality?”
I nod.
“Wonderful! Amazing! That means you are the first subject where the experiment has proven to be successful.”
I didn’t know what to think of that.
“Now I know what you’re thinking: Why is it that the memory you saw took place in the past instead of the future like I told you it would? Well, the relationship has to start somewhere. Therefore, what better place for it to begin than at the time you felt it was most right! Do you feel the time was right?”
I nod again.
“That’s good! Splendid! Spectacular! Everything is going right. Now, I have to ask you if you’d be willing to take things a little further. You already saw the memory you wanted to see and how you wished it were perceived, now you have a chance to see the future that comes after. Are you ready to take that next step?”
Does he even have to ask? Nod your freakin head, Vinyl!
“Splendid! Excellent! Spe—”
— Tacular. I got to witness a world where everything went right for a change, and now I get to witness a world where everything goes right. It sounded too good to be true, even if none of it is real. I would get to live through the events of What Could Have Been, and I would be able to review them whenever I want afterward.
Wrapping my sunglasses in magic, I gave them back to Doctor Gonzo and waited for him to slide the gizmo back over my head. He insisted I get another shot before going back in, which I agreed to nervously. This time he was precise.
He slid the helmet back on and my eyes became submerged in darkness once again. A flick later, and I was standing inside a house, my head bobbing up and down to Razorgrain & Cyanide, a metal band that I got into a little bit after our high school graduation. Tavi not so much.
And to speak of the devil herself, she walked in front of me, getting a good look around the room. “This won’t do. This won’t do at all. It’s all only one room, and no offense, but I’m not quite ready to share a bed with you.”
I open my mouth to reply.
“Okay, I think the piano can go there,” Octavia interrupted me, pointing to a spot on the wall. “And your wub set can go over there — no, no… this won’t do at all. What do you think?” She turned to me, as if I had something to add.
A shrug. I added a shrug.
“Oh come on, say something! I don’t want my stuff mixing with yours, after all. What will we have to do, cut the house in half?”
So we did exactly that.
A blink later — which my mind somehow registered as three days — and our sides of the room were separated according to our tiles of choice. I chose vinyl, for unrelated reasons, and she chose traditional lightwood flooring. That’s the Tavi I knew, alright: keeping things traditional.
We managed to get our stuff moved in before the end of the week. I had my own little throne of speakers on my side, and Tavi had all her instruments neatly arranged. Since it was only one room, we agreed to not practice after hours for the sanity of the other pony.
The year went by quickly. There I was, laying in my bed in my new home for the first time. There I was, handing out candy on Nightmare Night. There I was again, exchanging gifts with Tavi over Hearth’s Warming.
Here we are now, sitting on the couch and cuddling. We had agreed to get one for the center of the room at some point because we realized there was a lack of furniture that we shared. Being a couple, that was a big no-no. So, we compensated by buying the cheapest looking couch Quills and Sofa had to offer, and had it reupholstered by the wonderfully creative Rarity (“It’s Miss. Miss Rarity!”). Now we had a bi-colored sofa. Black leather on my side; brown wool on hers.
Tavi was going over her sheet music. I was listening to the newest album by Moldy Ham in the Sunlight. Yeah, I know. It’s a weird name for a band, but I listen to whatever I can get my hooves on.
With the music turned up at half volume, I barely heard the knock at the door. Tavi got off the couch, and cold air hit me where her head had been laying. I didn’t want her to get up, but I also knew that I didn’t have the control over my body to say anything.
“Oh, hello, Derpy,” Tavi said to the mail pony.
“Mmmph, mmmph, mmmph,” he mail pony said, which I assumed meant something along the lines of, “Hello, Octavia!”
“Do you have anything for me to sign?”
“Yeah, but I left my clipboard at the post office.”
“Oh, I’m sure you won’t get into any trouble. Things like this happen.”
This is the seventh time she has done it.
“Okay, you have a good day!”
The door shut and Tavi sat next to me on the couch, sorting through the mail. “Electric bill is due,” she said. “Only ninety-three bits this month. I’m impressed, last month you managed to rack it up to one hundred seventy-three.”
I wanted to test a new stereo set, okay? So what if it was for three days straight while she was on a visit to Canterlot?
“Letter from my mother. She wants me to come to the family reunion. My Uncle Rockefeller will be there. I was a filly last time I saw him. Nothing for you from what I can see. But there is — oh, it’s for me. It’s a… oh my.”
Oh no.
I shoot my head in Tavi’s direction, curious. I didn’t recognize it at first because we didn’t have this couch originally — we weren’t a couple when we were still living together. But I recognize that face of hers: the excitement. It was —
“An acceptance letter into the Sunrise Orchestra!”
My body was excited, hugging her even. But if myself in this universe knew what was about to happen, I wouldn’t be reacting the way I was.
“Oh, I knew it would happen eventually! It took a year’s work of filling venues, but I did it! Vinyl, we must celebrate!”
I agreed by jumping off the couch, running to the ice box on my side, and pulling out a bottle of vodka. I wasn’t a fancy drinker, so I didn’t keep stuff like champagne lying around, but Ocean Water was the smoothest liquor in Ponyville.
I poured her a glass and myself one too. I floated a cup toward her, which she took and sipped happily from. She pulled it away, letting out a refreshing sigh, and I took a drink from mine as well.
“This is great, this is fantastic, this is amazing! All my dreams are realized — I’m realized. I can’t believe it. Vinyl, I’m so happy to share this experience with you!”
She took another sip from her glass. I responded to her by nodding along.
“I couldn’t have gotten this far without your help. It was your collaboration with my skills of class at Cranky Doodle’s wedding that got Fancy Pants to invite me to perform for his wedding, after all. This is it, Vinyl, I — we did it. I love you.”
My heart fluttered and my cheeks burned as she said that. I covered up my embarrassment by taking another drink from my glass. If I had control over my body, I would have chugged it down, knowing what was coming.
“I’m going to read the letter again. Where is it? Oh! It’s caught between the cushions.” She plucked the letter from the crevice and cleared her throat.
“Dear Octavia,
We are proud to inform you that you have been selected as third chair for the Sunrise Orchestra in Canterlot. We are excited to work with you and hope to see you perform soon.
Sincerely yours,
Treble Clef”
“Oh, Vinyl, we’re going to live in Canterlot!”
The room filled with silence. Tavi’s face drooped at the sound of her own words. “I mean, I’m going to Canterlot. You can come with me, if you wish. I know you have a life here.” She tilted her cup upward, draining its contents down her throat.
I forced a smile. The truth is, I do. I was a freelance DJ that took whatever job would pay me, and I made damn good money as DJ Pon3, earning her a reputation over the years. To leave now when things were just getting good would be a fool’s move.
“I’ll go with you!”
...What did I just say?
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