Octavia had already grown tired of staring down the barrel of a gun. Granted, it’d only happened twice in her life, but quite honestly, that was already too many times. She’d expected her life to be quiet and slow, simple and straightforward not something like this.
What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion to her mind. All at once, VInyl moved, crashing into Octavia and throwing her to the side. At the same moment, the barrel of the gun erupted, no guard, no shield to save her this time. The momentum from Vinyl’s push carried her over, and Octavia felt a sudden, searing pain in the top of her ear, a splatter of blood dotting her face.
But she wasn’t dead. It’d missed, for the most part. The mare landed in a heap on the ground, Vinyl on top of her, but only for a moment. With a strangled, feral yell, Vinyl moved again, crashing her body right into the killer mare’s.
The gun went off again, and then another time as Octavia struggled to her paws. Her ears rang, the closer quarters and lack of hearing protection meaning the gun threatened to blow out her eardrums with every shot. The sudden impact against the ground had left her dazed as well, the two sensations combining to leave her slow to react.
When her head cleared enough to see what waited in front of her, she could see Vinyl and the mare tossing and scrapping on the ground, fighting for every piece they could. She started to stumble forward, but the biting pain in her ear frazzled her mind and she slipped, falling nearly onto her muzzle right in front of the scuffle.
It was close enough that she could see the gun press against Vinyl’s head, close enough she could even spy the imprint in the fur. Magic pulled back the trigger, and for just a second, terror filled Octavia’s entire being.
But then the gun clicked, empty.
Instead of terror, rage took the lead. This time, Octavia kicked the gun out of the way, bucking it hard and shattering the magic’s hold on it. She didn’t stop there, instead flying into a frenzy of moving limbs. For a while, she blacked out.
Spots of her memory disappeared entirely, the girl not sure what happened or how it happened, but the next moment she could feel had her atop the killer mare, the other mare bleeding and laying on the ground, not moving with Octavia gasping for breath. Vinyl shook her shoulder, hooves pressing against her, desperately trying to snap her out of it.
“...can go! We can get out of here, Tavi, come on,” Vinyl plead, the noises, the words only now reaching Octavia’s mind.
Numbness kept it’s grip, but Octavia didn’t intend to let it stay there. She’d been in this situation before, an overload of emotions and senses and she could fix it. She just had to breath, just had to suck in a couple of breaths and get her heart to stop racing.
The world came back into focus, Vinyl’s pleas getting a little louder. In front of her, she could see the mare who had tormented her so, broken and beaten on the ground, even her chest no longer rising and falling. Had Octavia killed her? There was, quite literally, blood on her hooves now, splattered on her chest, her tail, her mane, she felt so filthy. All the while, Vinyl looked to pull her, leading her towards the exit.
Finally, she’d let it happen.”Okay. Okay, how do I get you unchained?” she asked, blearily looking over the cuffs, all of it. They were still tied tight to the wall and Octavia wouldn’t leave Vinyl no matter how dangerous things got.
Only now did she realize the bandage around Vinyl’s neck had a fresh bit of red blood on it, the movement, the fight probably breaking open the stitches that kept it close. They needed to get to a hospital, to get help. Did the fight keep raging? Were they even safe to leave?
Vinyl glanced around, a bit frantically before hitting herself on the head. “I heard it every day!” she croaked out, her beautiful voice a little waver-y, rapsy as could be. “End of the hall, near the stairs. There should uh, there should be some keys. I think. Go, hurry,” she urged, pulling against the chains, letting them go to their limit, which was nearly to the door.
No time to wait. Octavia went, sprinting back down the hall, getting closer to the door and hearing the fighting still going on above. The one she’d come through had been bust off its hinges, wedged halfway down the stairs in a way that almost blocked them in. They would’ve been able to get out, but it’d be hard and loud. She searched around, looking through a small desk nearby and not finding them before finally seeing them hanging out a hook against the wall.
Of course, where else would they be? It was a keyring with eight keys, each one labeled one through eight. Vinyl was… fifth or sixth, right? It had to be. The mare rejoined her lover in the room, the keys dangling from her muzzle. Vinyl reached out her hooves, looking with a pleading, begging glance.
And for the life of her, it actually worked. The fifth key worked, unlocking the first cuff and then the second. She dropped the keys and threw her forelegs around Vinyl again, taking the time to squeeze her. “It’s still going upstairs,” she whispered. “I don’t know who’s winning. We may be stuck down here for now but we’re together. We’re together.”
Yet the hug only lasted a couple of seconds before Vinyl pushed her off. Octavia honestly barely felt it at first, Vinyl so weak, so much smaller that the push nearly didn’t register. But when it did, her eyes went wide and she looked over her love, a touch confused. “We aren’t staying here,” Vinyl decreed, hobbling towards the door. Her steps were slow, all her energy apparently expended in the fight, but she kept moving. “I know a way out. There’s a tunnel down here so my parents could visit me during the whole thing.” Vinyl’s parents. The ones who started all of this. “Trust me, you good with that, Tavi?” she asked, glancing towards Octavia with a small smile.
And how could she not?
Octavia nodded numbly and let Vinyl lead. The underground hallway turned at the end where Octavia couldn’t see it in the dark, twisting and going down, further down. Here, the rock wasn’t perfectly hewn and clean. It was rough and barely chiseled, string lights barely illuminating the space. Octavia could swear that she heard water drip all around her as well, the noise of the chaos above slowly disappearing.
It was quiet. Too quiet after everything that she’d been through, only the sounds of her breath and Vinyl’s rasping one breaking the silence around them. There didn’t seem in be anypony else there, and each movement made her hooves clop against the ground, the echoing starting to join their breaths in the air.
“How did you know about this?” Octavia asked, in a whisper. Despite being alone, Octavia couldn’t help but feel like they were being watched. Did somepony follow them? Were there little windows in the stone that she couldn’t see? That was preposterous, there was only two ways, one in and one out, and Octavia had come from one of them.
It took a second for Vinyl to answer, her rasping sounding a little… wet, definitely something that boded poorly. “Parents. Took me down here all the time when I was a filly,” she answered. “They took me through these to show me how everything -nng- worked.” That interruption bothered her, every time that Vinyl hesitated it sounded like pain, like she got worse and worse the longer the two of them kept going.
What chance did they have but to keep going though? “Oh. I forgot that you used to be a part of all this,” she admitted. Octavia couldn’t see Vinyl as a part of this. In her mind, Vinyl was perfect and lovely, everything that Octavia wanted and more. “Do you know where this goes?”
Vinyl didn’t answer, but she looked fine since she kept walking, kept moving just in silence. She looked over her shoulder, Octavia instantly recognizing that fearful look on her face. “My parents house,” she answered.
Oh. Oh. This could take them out of the frying pan and into the fire. Damnit, she wished she’d known this earlier. For a second, Octavia stopped, swallowing hard and thinking - would they have better chances going back and dealing with the ponies above? Or better to keep going?
Vinyl broke her thought process. “It’s alright. It’s into their basement and there is a way right out. Not a problem, we won’t see them or anypony else. I swear,” she promised.
They wouldn’t have to go much longer. The tunnel did eventually end, bottoming out in front of them and leading towards a door, a simple wooden one. Octavia heard nothing but silence on the other side, nothing to scare them off, nothing to keep them away. She swallowed and swallowed hard, fear gripping her heart as her hoof shook. Vinyl led the way, pressing forward and opening the door slow, carefully… naturally, it still let out quite the creaking noise.
The basement itself didn’t look too impressive. It might have been a wine cellar once upon a time, now replaced with old, decrepit furniture that seemed to have no use or was broken beyond repair. Nothing stood out about it except for its size, the thing crawling and rather massive. Even now, Octavia could see a light coming from one side. The exit, it had to be.
This time, Octavia lead the way and the two moved in utter silence, not disturbing a thing, not making too much noise, just doing their absolute best to keep unnoticed. It was difficult, especially with the way that her lover gasped and rasped as they moved, each step labored and painful for the one she so cherished. But it wouldn’t be far. Two dozen yards, maybe a bit more around some furniture.
Truly, that was the hardest part of it, getting over all the mess. White sheets covered the majority of it, but it was solid enough to either move or climb on top of and around. Not too bad, had they both been healthy.
But they weren’t, and they weren’t going to get Vinyl care unless they got out of there. They’d made it, made it to the exit, Octavia letting out a small grunt as she pushed open the cellar doors. Bright, white sunlight of Celestia’s sun shone through, illuminating the space around them and blinding Octavia for a few seconds.
In front of them, a pleasant area sat, a small garden with a table set up with tea and all. There were snacks as well as perfectly filled up cups, a lovely little space to enjoy the afternoon sun. It wasn’t what Octavia expected. She expected something darker, something more sinister for mobsters, but this seemed so normal that it made it hard to connect in her mind.
What surprised her even more was that there were two mares sitting at the table. One didn’t bring much attention to herself, just a standard, non descript mare. There was likely something interesting about her, but Octavia focused so much on the other that it stayed far, far away from her head.
The other mare looked exactly like Vinyl. A spitting image, but slightly older, though she wore nice, white flowing dress instead of the usual punk wear that Vinyl did. She even had the same red eyes, eyes that were staring right at the two.
“Sweetie?” the mare asked, her voice soft and delicate sounding.
“Hey Mom,” Vinyl answered.