From Scratch

by Kaldanor


Chapter 12

Octavia yawned as her eyes strayed around the hospital room. They lingered for a moment on a few of the rooms’ details that, by this point, she felt like she knew better than those of her own bedroom. It seemed that whenever she had visited recently, Resonance had been either already asleep or on the very edge of sleep. One way or the other, Octavia had always found herself glancing around the room with a bored expression. Today, her mind kept wandering back to Vinyl’s words from the previous week. The picture of Resonance that Vinyl had painted was completely at odds with the constantly tired and demure behavior that Octavia had always seen from the mare.

She sank a little further into her usual chair in the back corner of the room as she considered the contradiction some more. The Resonance that Vinyl had described had come off as cheerful and maybe even excitable, yet Octavia had rarely seen anything of the like. She had no reason to believe that Vinyl would lie about that sort of a thing, and Resonance did tend to be genuinely rather shy around her. The shy behavior also fit perfectly with what Vinyl had been implying, but Octavia still had to wonder why Resonance was always so sleepy whenever she visited.

Resonance wouldn’t... would she? She always seemed like the sweet and innocent type instead of the manipulative; yet, not much else makes sense…

Octavia blinked as the vague suspicion bounced around in her head, and her eyes narrowed slightly as it took a greater hold over her. She leaned forward in her chair so that she could get a closer look at the sleeping mare in order to confirm her suspicions. Resonance was, to all outward appearances, sound asleep; but the more Octavia looked at the mare, the more she wondered.

Is it normal for a sleeping pony to take such frequent breaths?

Octavia silently slipped from her chair with an expression of doubt spreading across her face and drew closer to the bed. Part of her mind wanted to write off the suspicions as simply being her imagination, but the more vocal part was shouting that it all made too much sense. She locked her eyes on the sleeping unicorn as she both approached and carefully watched for any signs of change in Resonance’s position. Either Resonance was a champion actor, or Octavia was simply grasping at straws. She checked to make sure that she wouldn’t cast a shadow over the mare as she leaned closer and narrowed her eyes even further.

A slight twitch. The cheek had seemed as if it had shifted for a moment, but Octavia was no longer confident to guarantee that she hadn’t imagined it. It had certainly appeared as if it had moved, but she’d also seen Vinyl reach up and scratch her face while sound asleep.

Octavia became painfully aware of how strange this would look to anypony who happened to gaze into the room the instant she heard the door slowly creak open. She bolted into an upright position and shot an accusatory glance towards the doorway, only for her to see a confused white face with bright red eyes and neon blue hair poking halfway into the room. A slight grin slowly spread its way across Vinyl’s face as she shook in place with suppressed laughter and made her question completely clear without actually having to open her mouth. Octavia grimaced as her imagination did the work for her and filled in the voice, complete with playful sarcasm.

”Hey, do you need me to give you two some time alone? I could come back in a few hours…”

Octavia managed to catch herself before she let out an all-suffering sigh that might awaken Resonance. The angry glare she sent towards the doorway seemed to, if anything, cause Vinyl’s silent laughter to deepen. It took quite a lot of willpower for Octavia to squash the urge to swear under her breath. Instead, she stalked towards the doorway, planted a hoof on Vinyl’s forehead and playfully pushed the unicorn out into the hallway.

“Very funny, Scratch,” Octavia said with her voice dripping with sarcasm after closing the door behind them. She kept her voice down, aware of the fact that they were still close enough to be in danger of waking up the sleeping mare. She held up a hoof to delay Vinyl’s response and then held it in front of her own mouth theatrically as she nudged her head towards the doorway.

“What? I didn’t say anything,” Vinyl quietly replied with her best innocent expression. The effect was marred slightly by her sniggering shortly afterwards.

“Let’s just say that I know you well enough to guess exactly what you were about to say. That wasn’t what it looked like, and you know it,” Octavia said as she struggled to maintain her quiet voice.

“Oh? So what were you doing then, if not trying to awake her from an enchanted slumber?” Vinyl questioned as she struggled to avoid bursting at the seams from stifled laughter.

“I was struck by an idea that I don’t like at all, Vinyl,” Octavia replied with a roll of the eyes. “In fact, it’s rather disturbing. I remembered how you had said that she always pesters you with questions whenever you visit her. So she’s always awake whenever you come around, right?”

“She’s usually just lying there, but when I quietly say hi to see if she’s awake, she turns to face me almost immediately.”

“I realized today that whenever I come around, she’s either already asleep or falls asleep soon afterwards. It struck me as odd, seeing as I’ve tried coming around at different times of the day and always get the same result. You, on the other hoof, get a more lively response,” Octavia finished explaining.

“Yeah... I guess that’s a little odd. What’s your point, Tavi?”

“Well, it didn’t make any sense. Then I remembered about how you had agreed with me on the way she might be... harboring certain feelings. What if she has been pretending to be asleep around me because she is shy? When you opened the door, I was trying to ascertain if she was actually asleep or not,” Octavia finished while trying to show Vinyl with her expression that now was not the time for joking around.

“So you think that she’s been awake whenever you come around to visit and just not saying anything? Wow, she must have it bad for you if she’s been doing that...” Vinyl replied thoughtfully before she suddenly snapped her full attention back towards Octavia. “Wait, you still haven’t talked to her yet, have you?”

“N-no?” Octavia ventured with a bashful smile as she took a step backwards under the suddenly intense stare from Vinyl.

“You are actually impossible, Octavia,” Vinyl said through a sigh as she dragged a hoof across her face. “How could you have put this off for so long?”

“I haven’t been able to figure out the right wa-”

“Oh shove it with that lame excuse already, you’ve been using it all week!” Vinyl replied angrily as she stepped closer. “You’re lying to yourself, and you know it. You’ve had a week to think about how to approach it plus all that time you antagonized over it by yourself. I think it’s my turn to force you to apologize to our friend here.”

“You can’t be serious, Scratch. If I say the wrong thing then it could seriously upset her.”

“I’m confident that you can fix any missteps rather quickly. I might even say that you have a way with words. You’ve said quite a lot to me since we’ve gotten to known each other, and you’ve always seemed to say exactly what you intended to. Now get going!” Vinyl added and gave Octavia a playful, yet forceful, shove towards the doorway.

“You are not- going to at least- let me- gather my- thoughts?” Octavia asked as she inflated herself with an air of haughtiness between the sharp shoves at her flank from Vinyl. Her ploy didn’t seem to have any effect on the unicorn, so she was forced to try and focus her chaotic thoughts as she was directed towards the doorway.

“Nope!” Vinyl answered cheerfully. She seemed to pick up on Octavia’s acceptance and strode ahead to hold the door open with a theatric bow and sardonic smile.

“If this goes wrong, we are going to have words, Scratch,” Octavia said icily before she drew herself up fully and strode past the unicorn.

“Let’s just say that I have confidence in you, Tavi.”

Octavia directed a final glare towards Vinyl before she walked over to the bedside and stared at Resonance for a moment. She looked carefully at the sleeping unicorn and ignored the presence that joined her next to the bed as she continued to ponder. Octavia narrowed her eyes and very carefully observed the rising and falling of Resonance’s chest as she lay there.

“Resonance...” Octavia finally said in a hushed voice.

“I know you’re awake,” Octavia quietly added after a pause. “We need to talk.”

Silence filled the room as Octavia directed her stare towards the cream-colored unicorn’s face and waited for some kind of a response. It appeared for a long while that she had actually been mistaken since Resonance simply continued to lie there with a passive expression. Octavia didn’t give up that easily, though; she called out the mare’s name very quietly once more. This time, there was the slightest twitch in Resonance’s cheek, almost exactly like the one from before.

“Resonance, if you don’t stop playing around, then I’ll have to take extreme measures...” Octavia started as she leaned closer and let her voice fall into a dread whisper that only Resonance and Vinyl could hope to make out. “I’ll tickle you mercilessly until you can’t breathe for lying to me.”

Resonance’s eyes shot wide open as she desperately tried to shuffle away from the deranged smile that Octavia was giving her. The restraints around her leg meant that she would have only made it a few inches, but she was immediately distracted by the sound of Vinyl’s sudden and hysterical laughter. Octavia couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh at the reaction, but she soon returned a pointed gaze towards Resonance.

“Why were you pretending to be asleep, Resonance? If you didn’t want to talk to me, then you could have just said something,” Octavia said with an attempted soothing voice.

“I was scared,” came the quiet, almost whispered, response.

“Scared? Whatever for? I didn’t do anything wrong did I?” Octavia questioned and turned towards Vinyl for a moment with a confused expression. A light shrug was the only response that Octavia received, so she turned back towards Resonance with a blank stare.

“I was scared... scared of what you were going to say to me,” Resonance finally managed to mumble. “I just wanted to pretend a little bit longer.”

“Wait, so you already knew what I was going to say to you?”

“Don’t think you’re wriggling out of it that easily, Octavia,” Vinyl warned with a glare.

“I-I mean, what was it that you thought I was going to say?” Octavia asked with a nervous chuckle and took a sideways step away from Vinyl.

“You were going to tell me that I shouldn’t get my hopes up... That I shouldn’t be letting my silly crush take any hold over me. You shrank away from me when I hugged your hoof my first night in the hospital. After that, you kept making distraught faces whenever you thought I wasn’t looking...” Resonance trailed off and closed her eyes, remaining silent for a long moment before she continued. “I knew that nothing was going to happen between us, but I just wanted to dream a little bit longer.”

The ticking of the clock seemed to echo all around the silent room, building to a deafening volume. It was as if the sound was amplified every time it reflected off of a wall, to the point that Octavia was having a hard time pinpointing which direction it was coming from. She knew that she should say something, she needed to offer some kind of comfort at least, but wasn’t that what got her into trouble in the first place?

“Don’t worry about it, T-Tavi. I know that there’s no way I could come between you and Vinyl. I just wanted to fantasize a little bit longer. I’m sorry for deceiving you like that...” Resonance finally said to break the silence, even as she kept her eyes shut.

What?” Octavia demanded as she stepped closer. She was about to question the mare further when she was cut off by rambunctious laughter from beside her.

“H-how did you know?” Vinyl managed to ask between fits of hysterics. “I mean, I thought we hid it so well!”

“Wh-what are you going on about, Scratch?” Octavia nearly yelled as her eyes shot wide open and she rounded on the laughing pony. “This is not a joking matter! You can not be serious; tell me this is a joke that you two set up. This had better be some kind of sick prank, Scratch.”

“You don’t have to try and hide it any more, Octavia. I’ve seen the way your expression changes when you talk about her; the way you seem to calm down as you close your eyes and take slow deep breaths,” Resonance quietly insisted.

“That’s because I’m forcibly calming myself down to prevent any angry outbursts! If I don’t stop and take some deep breaths then I’ll get so frustrated that I’ll want to scream. THIS ISN’T FUNNY, SCRATCH!” Octavia yelled as she stamped her hooves on the floor and caused the other two ponies to start slightly. “Please tell me this is a joke, an elaborate ploy, nothing more...”

“Oh come on, it is pretty funn-” Vinyl started to say until Octavia sent her a look that caused her to physically shiver.

“So you two aren’t dating?” Resonance questioned after a quiet giggle at their behavior. “But even now, you two argue like an old married couple, and Vinyl can’t stop giggling when she talks about you as well...”

“What? Talking to her about you gives me such great ideas on how to tease you...” Vinyl responded with a laugh at the death-stare coming from Octavia.

“Oh, does that mean that I...” Resonance started to question softly as her face visibly started to tinge red.

“No,” Octavia stated firmly. “Listen, Resonance, I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression at first. I was worried that you had been more seriously hurt and didn’t stop to think about what my actions might be interpreted as. I had seen you dashing from the studio a few days in a row, and part of me felt responsible for not trying to put a stop to it. I wanted to say something to Vinyl, but I never managed to do so. When you fell, I couldn’t help but blame myself. I thought that it was my fault, and I realized that I had been, as a result, lavishing you with a bit too much... tenderness.”

“I was scared to say anything, because it seemed cruel to shatter the heart of a pony stuck in bed. I should have stopped it immediately, but the initial hesitation just made it easier to remain silent. I kept coming to visit because I was too afraid of what might happen if I suddenly stopped. This one...” Octavia punched Vinyl’s side hard enough to get the unicorn to stop giggling, “got on my case about telling you the truth, since she had picked up on your behavior as well. We are not dating, but I don’t think of you in that way. I’m sorry for giving you false impressions to begin with.”

“Oh...” Resonance offered quietly after a long moment of silence and turned her attention towards the ceiling.

“I really am sorry; it was never my intention to have to turn you down like this,” Octavia said softly as she forcibly resisted the desire to reach out with a hoof to comfort the mare.

“It’s fine, or at least it will be. Like I said, I didn’t think I had a chance anyway. So, it’s not like this is much worse, right?” Resonance asked with a half-hearted smile as she briefly turned towards Octavia.

Octavia opened her mouth to respond, but no words seemed to be capable of forming on her lips. She tried a few more times but was interrupted from her struggles by a nudge at her side from Vinyl. The unicorn had finally managed to cease her infernal giggling and was instead directing a more serious look at Octavia while gesturing with her head towards the doorway. Octavia hesitated for a moment, she stared at Resonance lying there in bed as she opened and closed her mouth one more time before she hung her head slightly.

“I’m sorry...” she mumbled and then turned to walk out of the room.

She kept silent as she walked down the hallway. Octavia was aware of Vinyl’s presence behind her but was grateful for the silence offered by the unicorn. Once they left the hospital and walked several blocks towards her apartment, she became aware of the quiet laughter now accompanying the steady hoofsteps behind her.

“Shouldn’t you be heading home, Scratch?” Octavia snapped as she came to a sudden stop and shot an annoyed glance at Vinyl.

“What? Why?” Vinyl asked with a confused expression even as she had to stifle another fit of giggles.

“It's not funny, Scratch!” Octavia yelled at the top of her lungs.

“Oh come on, she thought that we were dating,” Vinyl replied through an amused smile.

“I just had to break that poor mare’s heart! I don’t want to hear about it, just go home, Scratch. I don’t know why you’re still following me, but I’ve had enough of you for today.”

“What? So, you’re planning on skipping out on work today?” Vinyl replied with a more serious tone.

“I- What?”

“Well, I was on the way to the hospital for a quick visit before our session since I didn’t have time for anything else. I figured you were heading home now to get your double bass. Sure, I could go to the studio and wait, but everything is already set up and Oliver is going to be late today. If I went back there, then I’d just be sitting around bored while I wait for you anyway,” Vinyl explained simply. “Besides, it’s not as if I haven’t been in your apartment before.”

Octavia tried to hide her look of shock as she glanced towards a nearby clock and inwardly swore at herself for losing track of time. By the sounds of renewed sniggering, she gathered that she wasn’t very successful in the venture and sighed.

“Fine. Just cut out the obnoxious laughing, will you?”


Octavia and Vinyl both froze as they entered the studio. The teasing laughter after yet another joke from Vinyl ceased immediately when they both saw who was waiting for them inside. Standing in the waiting room with an angry look on his face was the same brown unicorn stallion that Octavia remembered from the incident a week ago. He started to confidently storm towards Vinyl as he opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped and hesitated visibly the instant his gaze flicked over towards Octavia. His mouth continued to hang open for a moment as he stared at her like he hadn’t actually seen her standing there until now. The three of them stared at each other through narrowed eyes as silence filled the room.

“What the hell do you want?” Vinyl finally demanded in a cold voice that broke the uncomfortable silence.

Octavia jumped slightly at the sound of Vinyl’s voice. She had once before mused over the fact that she’d only ever seen Vinyl actually angry once. Despite their numerous arguments and shouting matches, she had only ever heard Vinyl sound truly angry about it that one time outside of the hospital. Looking back now with a proper example to compare against, it occurred to Octavia that the anger she had seen then was a weak imitation of what she was seeing now. The way that Vinyl seemed to barely gasp out the words with ice dripping from her voice was enough to actually scare Octavia. She turned a concerned look towards Vinyl to offer some kind of silent support, only for the unicorn to flash her red eyes over at her in such an intense expression that Octavia visibly recoiled.

Vinyl seemed to become immediately aware of what she had done and softened her expression for a moment. She ventured a slight smile directed solely towards Octavia as her eyes twinkled for a moment, allowing an unspoken apology to pass between them. Suddenly, Vinyl was directing her gaze of pure hatred back towards the stallion, as if the brief interlude in the anger had never happened.

“I asked you a question: ‘what the hell do you want?’ I’ve made it clear that you’re not going to get anything from me, and I sure as hell don’t feel like chatting with you, so you can just get out,” Vinyl muttered darkly.

Octavia wasn’t entirely certain if she should say anything, but the ferocity of the glare passing between them was enough to silence her for now. She knew that she shouldn’t leave these two alone, especially after seeing the way he kept hesitating every time he shot a nervous glance in her direction. She had only heard stories of their previous interactions, but this time she had the sense that something dire was floating in the air between them. Octavia took a few steps to the side without breaking eye contact, slid the double bass from her back and set it down quite a ways away. She made up her mind to not budge an inch from where she stood next to Vinyl as she returned to her previous position and offered her silent support.

“I’ve come to settle things. You are going to pay me, Vinyl,” he finally responded after another worrisome look directed towards Octavia.

“And I told you that you can just get out, so what’s taking you?” Vinyl responded through her teeth.

He took a slow, menacing step forward and stared intensely at Vinyl. When his glance finally strayed away, it hesitantly flicked between the two mares a few times in rapid succession before finally focusing back on Vinyl.

“I told you that I was going to get my money, one way or another...” he replied menacingly and stepped forward again.

Octavia’s eyes widened at the repeat of the threat, and she took a step closer towards Vinyl in the same instant that Vinyl took a small step backwards. Octavia opened her mouth and was about to speak her mind to this foul stallion, but she was interrupted by a brown hoof that slammed heavily across her face and sent her reeling.

Octavia crashed heavily onto her side and struggled in vain to right the world again. Her hooves didn’t seem to be able to find any purchase on the carpet, and the sound of Vinyl yelling out her name through the loud ringing in her ears wasn’t helping either. She desperately tried to force her legs to cooperate in order to work her way back up into a standing position; however, she was only partially successful before her legs gave way and she fell heavily onto her side. Octavia struggled for a moment longer, even with the edges of her vision going fuzzy, but couldn’t prevent herself from blacking out.


Octavia fluttered her eyes open and started to shift onto her hooves, only to immediate regret it as every muscle along her side screamed in protest. A sense of urgency overrode her muscles and drove her back onto her unsteady hooves as she tried to shake the dizziness away. She could hear a slight rustling and a muffled whimpering nearby, but it took her a moment to remember why it had been so important to get onto her hooves again.

She immediately opened her eyes wide with fear as she flicked her glance around the blindingly bright room for any sign of the other mare. Octavia appeared to be still in the studio’s waiting room but saw no sign of Vinyl. Panic immediately gripped at her chest as she surveyed the room more carefully this time and spotted the brown stallion. He was hunched over the carpet a short distance away and appeared to be struggling with something under his hooves.

It took her a moment to realize what he was wrestling with, and when she noticed the flashes of blue tail and mane whipping around she was instantly wide awake. Her breath was suddenly coming in quick, heavy bursts as she took a step closer towards the scene unfolding before her. Vinyl was whimpering pathetically as her snout was getting mashed forcefully into the carpet by one brown forehoof as the other was trying to force her rear in the air. Vinyl was making it difficult for him, though. She kept lashing her rear legs out at him whenever she had an opportunity so that he wasn’t able to gain any significant purchase over her and had to stay shifted over towards her side. It only took a short moment of observation for Octavia to realize what position he was trying to force Vinyl into, and why he was attempting to safely work his way behind the thrashing hooves.

Rage. It was the only word that Octavia could possibly use to describe the feeling that suddenly overcame her. She never thought that such blinding anger could have surged through her in the way that it did. The fact that he would even attempt to do such a thing caused her vision to turn red as she stepped forward with malice and forethought. The stallion seemed to be completely oblivious of Octavia, being too preoccupied with trying to wrestle Vinyl into the proper position. It was a difficult endeavor for him to try and force her to stand on her rear legs without letting her lash them out at him.

Octavia became acutely aware of her advantage and aimed to use it to its fullest extent. She drew closer to make sure that he had not managed to succeed in his goal and felt a surge of strangely misplaced pride when she saw that Vinyl was still making it too difficult for him. Still, Vinyl was using up a lot of energy and Octavia was aware that she couldn’t count on Vinyl holding out indefinitely.

Octavia very slowly drew closer and then turned around as she became aware of what she was about to do. She wasn’t normally the type for violence, but for this vile stallion she would try her best to become a quick study. The images that had flashed through her head in her first few turbulent sessions with Vinyl returned to her: a hoof punching the now brown unicorn stallion’s face, a kick directed at his flank instead of her bed, and a chair lifted up in her hooves ready to smash down on his cowering form. Octavia fought back the evil grin that was forming and shook her head. She tested her stance and leaned forward to make sure she could support herself properly as she got ready to lift her rear legs and lash them out with all of her might.

She wasn’t entirely certain if it was simply the natural strength that came from being an earth pony or the anger that fueled the kick, but when her hooves made contact it seemed to her as if they were powered by more strength than she could have imagined. The result was exactly what she had hoped for deep down. He was rocketed off of Vinyl’s struggling form, leaving her to collapse sobbing onto the carpet, while he slammed heavily into the opposite wall with a sickening crash. Octavia walked past Vinyl, as that was a problem for later, for she had more important things to deal with now.

“Get... out...” she growled through her teeth as she stalked closer to the groaning stallion and narrowed her eyes. The anger welling up inside of her made it difficult for her to see if he was bleeding or if her sight had merely turned completely red.

“If I ever see you around here again, I will personally make sure that you will never have foals,” Octavia intoned quietly as she roughly kicked him with her forehoof and then yelled at the top of her lungs. “Now, get out of my sight!"

The stallion stared up at her in shock and attempted to shift away from the vision of pure rage in front of him without getting onto his hooves. He made some decent headway until he bumped heavily into one of the couches and yelped like a dog. As Octavia reared up to slam a hoof down on top of him, his eyes shot wide open and he bolted out of the way. The stallion was a blur as he shot through the doorway so fast that the door slammed into the wall outside with a splintering crash.

Octavia was fighting against the urge to run after him and make his life hell, when she heard another sob from Vinyl. The feeling of rage that had so completely taken her over seemed to disappear as instantly as it had come. The terrible beast that had risen up in her chest and seized her heart had slunk back into whatever hole it had crawled out of and left her feeling oddly empty. The sight of Vinyl curled up in the fetal position and sobbing uncontrollably was enough to force the last bits of anger from her system. She rushed over to the unicorn and dropped to the floor next to her.

Octavia ignored the screaming pain in her muscles that seemed to have returned with a vengeance at the exact moment that the rage had left her. She gathered Vinyl up into her hooves and then ran a hoof through the unicorn’s mane in her best attempt to soothe Vinyl. The response was near instant; Vinyl uncurled herself only to throw her forelegs around Octavia’s neck and to sob into the gray mare’s coat as she shivered uncontrollably.

“Shhh... he’s gone now,” Octavia finally managed to whisper in the closest approximation of a comforting voice that she could manage.

If anything, Vinyl started to sob even harder at those words; she quickly made a mess of Octavia’s coat as she continued to cling to the earth pony as if her life depended on it. Her choked crying was frequently broken by a gasp or a quiet hiccup, which was usually punctuated by a near strangling clutch at the earth pony. Octavia continued trying to comfort Vinyl with her presence, giving up on words and simply running her hoof slowly across the bright blue mane and over the top of the unicorn’s head.

“You knew he was going to do something like that, didn’t you? That’s why you were afraid of him...” Octavia said quietly as she came to the mortifying realization; it was a statement that was coupled with her eyes narrowing as she turned her gaze to the doorway.

Octavia didn’t need to wait for the timid nod against her chest through the sobbing to confirm it. She already knew the answer before she asked the question. Everything that had happened after her first encounter with the stallion suddenly made more sense. That was the reason behind Vinyl’s crying in the recording room, her refusal to talk about it, and then her eventual apology. Octavia had an idea of what she needed to do, but getting Vinyl to calm down was more important.

Octavia shifted into a sitting position and allowed Vinyl to continue to cling to her as the unicorn sobbed uncontrollably. It seemed as if there had been a subtle shift in the distraught outbursts, as if Vinyl might be calming down, but she was loathe to do anything more than offer quiet hushing sounds. She didn’t have the heart to actually tell Vinyl to stop crying; instead, she simply kept running her hoof over Vinyl’s form and let the unicorn cry herself out.

She wasn’t aware of how long it took for Vinyl to finally calm down; she honestly hadn’t been focusing her attention on the passing of time. Eventually, Vinyl did quiet down with a few soft gulps, and the strangling hug eased up slightly. Octavia offered another quiet hushing sound and assured Vinyl that she was safe, making no move to force Vinyl to relinquish her grip. Octavia eventually became aware of a shift in position from Vinyl; she wasn’t so much hugging her anymore as just leaning against her gray chest. Vinyl’s breaths slowed down into more even bursts, and she eventually fell into an exhausted sleep against Octavia. The gray mare let her rest there for a long while before she stood up and once again ignored her protesting muscles as she kneeled down and lifted Vinyl across her back.

Octavia walked very slowly with her precious cargo; the last thing she wanted to do was wake Vinyl from her well-earned rest. She eventually made it to the elevator and pressed the button to Vinyl’s floor, wincing at the seemingly deafening ding that it elicited. Luckily, she found the door to Vinyl’s apartments unlocked, and she was able to carry the unicorn all the way through to the bedroom while avoiding the stacks of papers. Octavia gently slid Vinyl off onto the bed and tucked her in as she glanced down at the sleeping pony.

She did her best to wipe away the last couple of tears with her hoof before she tried to position Vinyl comfortably on the pillows. There was a lot that she needed to ask Vinyl, but that could wait. She grabbed one of the extra pillows and set it down on the plush carpet. She couldn’t help but smile at the reversal of roles as she glanced up to make sure Vinyl was comfortable. She then attempted to force away the throbbing in her head with a few slow breaths so that she could get some rest as well.