The rest of the evening was pleasant. Vinyl and Applejack had cooked a fantastic dinner. Said dinner was interrupted by Pinkie Pie who had returned from her escape carrying a sleeping Twilight on her back. Her explanation was that Twilight wanted to play tag with her using teleporting magic but got exhausted.
After putting Twilight to bed and keeping a plate for her in case she wakes up hungry in the night. The three sisters of the Apple family kept the evening going with various stories of the Orchard. It wasn't any Daring Do novel but it had a knack to it, to quote Rainbow Dash. When Applebloom almost fell asleep off her chair, they decided it was time to end the evening and to bid the sandman hello. Vinyl and Applejack had stayed to wash the dishes.
"Well ah don't know about ya" Applejack said, covering a massive yawn with her hand. "But ah'm plum tuckered out."
"Go to bed already." Vinyl chuckled. "I'll finish the dishes."
"Suit yourself." Applejack said, as she exited the kitchen. "Ya're coming to sleep after ya're done?"
"No, I wanted to play the guitar a little before going to bed." Vinyl answered.
"Ok. Try to keep it down, we have Applebloom and guests sleeping in here."
"Aye, Aye, Ma'am." Vinyl playfully saluted AJ.
Few minutes later, she had finished the dishes and went to her spot on the patio with her guitar. The only instrument she had kept in all the years she could play by magic. It was an simple old yellowish acoustic guitar. To any instrument retailer it wasn't worth the comparison to recent models in term of value. To Vinyl, it was one of the most precious thing in the world. It was the first instrument her father gave her when he noticed her burgeoning passion for music.
Vinyl sat on the patio's bench. She gaze at the night sky and its billion of shining stars. She grabbed her instrument and then started to play. She played at low volume, not wanting to wake up the house. She closed her eyes and let the memory of her father teaching her this song flow in her mind. Her song lasted for a bit more than five minutes. Only when she had ended her song, she slowly opened her eyes.
"My. My. You can play in a traditional way after all." Giggled a soft sophisticated voice.
"You have to crawl before you can walk, Miss Philharmonica." Chuckled Vinyl as she faced toward the black haired cellist wearing a dark grey night-gown over her pj's. "I hope I didn't play too loud."
"Don't worry about it, I doubt that anyone beside me noticed." Octavia said. "Not everyone has an ear for music." She added, tapping her left ear with her fore-finger. "May I keep you company?"
"Sure thing." Vinyl answered as she moved a little to give Octavia some space on the bench.
"Anyway, it was a beautiful song." Octavia said as she sat next to Vinyl. "Did you write it?"
"No, my dad did." Vinyl slowly answered. "It was the first song he taught me."
"I didn't know he was a musician."
"He wasn't, he just played for the sake of playing." Vinyl explained. "He could have made it in the music business but he was a farmer at heart."
"I understand." Octavia said before turning her face to Vinyl. "Vinyl, I was wondering if..."
"You want to know what happened this afternoon?" Vinyl said as she put her guitar next to the bench.
Octavia nodded. "You did say later, so I thought you might want to talk about it."
"I don't mind telling you. So when I arrived at..." Vinyl explained in details what had happened at Barnyard Bargain. Not once Octavia interrupted her, she kept listening not voicing her reactions even if they were quite visible. Her mood at the end of the tale was quite similar to Applejack's, only a lot more restrained." ...Then I drove the cart to our rendezvous point a bit before you arrived."
"Well, I can understand why you seemed upset." Octavia said in her tempered anger. "To think someone that would treat you like that lives in Ponyville. All the people I met there were so polite and cheerful."
"Every town has its black sheep." Vinyl shrugged. "Maybe she was different when she was young and that being married to one of the richest man in town changed her like that."
"I suppose you're right. Money and power do that to people." Octavia slowly said. "Still, it's not an excuse to say something that awful about your parents."
"Yeah, I know. But what can you do? No point in trying to change that old hag." Vinyl said before chuckling. "Heck, I think her poor husband has been trying for years."
"Poor Mr Rich, indeed." Octavia giggled. She pondered for a minute then face Vinyl. "Can I ask you something?"
"You just did." Vinyl joked earning a deadpan from Octavia. "But I give you another shot."
"So kind of you." Octavia said playfully before becoming a tad serious. "Could you tell me exactly how you ended up here?"
"Oh." Vinyl said in surprise. "Nobody has asked me that in a while..."
"If it's too personal, I don't mind you not telling me."
"No, No. It's ok, it's not a bad story." Vinyl waved. "But not really a short one."
"Well considering I'm on 'forced' vacation on a farm, I got all the time you'll need." Octavia said smiling.
"I guess you're right." Vinyl said." So where to begin...."
I was on the road, I was, what, nearly six years old. It's been about a week since I ran away from the orphanage where I grew up. I hated there, the other kids hated me, the director and it's employees hated me. What for? I still have no clue about that. Maybe my hair or my eyes color. Anyway, I was wandering along the road with a small sleeping bag.
One day, I arrived near a fence and behind was the biggest lot of apple trees I have ever seen in my life. Full of delicious red apples. I passed on the other side of the fence. Maybe not the best idea for a runaway orphan to trespass someone's property, but I was hungry so I didn't think this through. I put my sleeping bag near the closest tree, then I tried to grab some of the apples of the lower branches. I managed to grab five or six apples before I heard a shout from my left.
"Stop right there, you thievin' vermit." Said a southern accented squeaky voice.
I turned around to see blond girl with green eyes and freckles charging toward me. I couldn't dodge in time when she tackled me to the ground. I took a glimpse at the girl when she was sitting on top of me, she was about my age.
"Gotya ya apple thief." She said with a triumphing smile.
I had my share of fight at the orphanage, so I started to struggle against the other girl. She clearly didn't expect it. We rolled around, wrestled, pulled our hair and what not. You know like kindergarten fights. Come to think of it, we were at the kindergarten age. Anyway we fought for about ten minutes, and at my great displeasure, she had managed to pin me down again.
"Haha. Ya lose again."
"Get off me..." I was interrupted by a loud grumble coming from my stomach. I was so embarrassed. The girl expression passed from victorious to concerned.
"Ya'll hungry?" She slowly asked me.
When I nodded, she stood up and pulled me up from the ground. She picked the closest apple and extended to me. I was rather surprised, considering how she called me earlier.
"I thought I was a thief."
"Ma papy says that someone that's hungry is no thief, it's someone that needs help." She answered.
I slowly reached for the apple, I was sure that it was some sort of trick to hurt me. It wasn't. I just took the apple and eat it.
"Oh man, its delicious."
"Of course they are." The blond said with pride. "Here at Sweet Apple Acres, we have all types of delicious apples."
"There are various types of apple?" I asked with surprise.
"Of course, for example this here apple ya'll eating now. It's an Almata apple."
"Almata apple... It's good name for a fruit." I slowly said.
"Oh! Where are ma manners, ah' don' even introduce maself." She said eagerly with a smile. "Name's Jacquelyn Apple. What's yar's?" She asked extending her hand toward me.
I hesitantly took her hand and shook it. "Vinyl Scratch."
"And that's how I arrived in Sweet Apple Acres." Vinyl concluded.
"Such a sweet story." Octavia said smiling. "It's kinda fun that your first contact with Applejack was a fight and now you're so close."
"I know." Vinyl chuckled. "We still have that sort of rivalry from time to time."
"What happened after that?" Octavia asked.
"We stayed there and talked while I was eating apples." Vinyl said. "At some point, AJ's father had started to look for her, so he found us and brought us back to the house." Vinyl paused an instant. "They asked me my story, so I told them. They said that I could stay for the night but that the next morning they would bring me back to the orphanage." She slowly said.
"What changed their mind?"
"The fact that I had to take a bath before going to bed." Vinyl simply said.
Octavia was confused. "What does a bath has to do with that?" She asked. Instead of answering, Vinyl shifted to show her back to Octavia and she started to raise her shirt. "What... what are you doing?" Octavia asked with a blush slowly appearing on her cheeks. But the blush dissipated itself instantly as her eyes widened in shock. Vinyl's back was covered of scars. Really old scars, but still visible. "Oh my goodness..."
Vinyl let her shirt fall back in place and faced Octavia again. "AJ's mother came in the bathroom during my bath." Vinyl continued. "When she saw my back, she did something I've never forgotten. She pulled me out of the bathtub, put a towel around me and hugged me. Just that for a long time. It was warm, it felt safe. She held me like a mother would have held her daughter." Vinyl said with smile as tears were starting to roll along her cheeks. "I fell asleep in her arms. When I woke up, I found out that it was out of question to bring me back to the orphanage."
Vinyl rubbed her eyes before continuing. "AJ's mom said I could stay with them. After a while, the orphanage had been closed, AJ's family had made it shut down and put the director behind bars for violence on children. Few weeks later, the adoption papers were signed and I became officially part of the Apple family. They gave me for second name 'Almata', the first apple I ever have eaten in Sweet Apple Acres, the first gift I received from AJ."
Octavia drew closer and put an arm around her shoulder as Vinyl was crying a little. "Everything turned out for the best." Octavia slowly said.
"Yeah." Vinyl said as she wiped out her tears. "If AJ hadn't found me back then, who knows where I would be."
"Where you could be doesn't really matter." Octavia smiled. "You are here now."
"You're right." Vinyl answered. "Thanks for listening to me."
"You're quite welcome." Octavia said. "What do you say we go to sleep now? You have to work early tomorrow morning."Octavia asked as she stood up and went back inside.
"True." Vinyl said with her usual tone. She picked her guitar up and followed Octavia.
After putting Vinyl's guitar back on her spot in the living, they went upstairs and stopped in front of Octavia's bedroom.
"Well this is where we part way." Octavia said. "Thank you for sharing your story with me." She added before quickly pecking Vinyl on the cheek. "Good night Vinyl." She slowly said with her eyes full of affection before entering her room and closing the door.
"Good night..."Vinyl said absently at the closed door. She brought her hand where Octavia had kissed her and went to the room she shared with AJ.
When she opened the door, she saw AJ taking all the place she could on the double bed in the room. Vinyl changed quickly to her night clothes: shorts and a T-shirt, before slightly and delicately poking Applejack's arm.
"AJ, could you move a little?" Vinyl whispered.
Applejack didn't say anything, open her eyes nor show that she had heard Vinyl. AJ just slowly shifted in the bed to give her sister the space she needed.
"Thanks."
Vinyl laid down in bed and looked at AJ's sleeping face. She couldn't help but to think that everything good that has happened in her life, from being part of the Apple family to Octavia's peck from earlier, she owed it to Applejack.
As her eyes slowly closed and her mind drifted toward dreamworld, she managed to whisper something. It was so quiet that she wasn't even sure she had even said it.
"Thank you, Sis'. Thank you for everything."