Paradiso

by Syvvak

Chapter 4

        ‘Course it had to rain today, Vinyl thought, shaking some loose water from her mane as she walked up to the door. As she looked upon it, she felt as though she were standing before Nightmare Moon. Pfft, I would prefer to be in front of her. Tavi’s gonna kill me.
        Continuing to stare at the barrier, she let out a sigh. “Come on,” she said aloud, hoping that hearing her voice would bolster her courage, “you gotta do this, Scratch. You have to set things straight. Let her know you didn’t know and will do anything you can to fix it. She’s always been all reasonable and level-headed. She will listen to ya. Just stay calm, respectful, and answer truthfully. And take your glasses off.”
        Levitating her glasses over her horn, Vinyl raised her hoof to the door. Before it made contact, she paused, looked skyward and whispered, “Please let this work.” Gathering herself together with a deep breath, she rapped her hoof on the wooden portal and prepared herself for what was to come.

        Neither the rain nor the speed at which Octavia was running through the near-empty streets were the sole reason everything around her seemed to be blurred. They became one with the pained tears that flew freely from her eyes. Finding out she had been betrayed by her manager had broken down the meager emotional walls she had been working to rebuild since waking up. Unable to keep it together, she ran out the door and in the direction she could only hope her home was.
        In her distraught state, she had forgotten there was a downpour scheduled. It was a blessing she had not been expecting. She didn’t have to worry about bumping into ponies as she ran home to lock herself away from the world once again.
        Seeing the blurred image of her house enter her view, she prayed she had left the door unlocked. She didn’t slow her sprint until she closed in on the steps to the modest porch. Stepping under the roof, she shook as much water from her coat and mane as she could. She heard a startled yelp and stopped her actions immediately. She stood with her head bowed, hoping against hope that she had been hearing things.
        She heard some nervous shuffling and a throat clearing before a familiar voice spoke up. “Hello, Octavia.”
        Without a second thought, she opened the door and ran into her house. “Go away, Scratch!” was shouted as she slammed the door, leaving the unicorn on the porch by herself. Not caring if the water on her coat were to ruin the fabric, Octavia threw herself onto the loveseat, cradling her head in her hooves and crying.

        Vinyl sat on the porch, despondent. She had expected Octavia to do something like that when she had first decided to come here, but it still hurt. She knew that Octavia would be hurting and probably wouldn’t want to talk to her, but she needed to do this. Even if the cellist wouldn’t hear her out, Vinyl still needed to say it, even if it was through a door.
        Gathering herself with a few deep breaths, Vinyl began to talk. “Octavia, look. We nee-”
        “Go away!” the grey cellist shouted, cutting her off.
        “But I just wanted to apologize and tr-” Vinyl tried again, only to be cut off again.
        “I don’t care! I don’t care what you have to say. I don’t care if you are sorry. And I don’t care about you.” Vinyl could hear the hurt and anger in her words even though they were often interrupted by sobs and sniffles.
        They say words can’t hurt you, but they lied. To Vinyl, the words hurt more than being thrown across a room with magic. More than watching everyone she knew abandon her. More than the cold, hard ground beneath as she tried to find sleep, until a grey mare offered her a helping hoof. Nothing could compare to the crushing agony she felt now.
        “Just leave, and don’t EVER come back!” She didn’t know what she had done to deserve this. They had been great friends once, but now Octavia hated her and she didn’t know why. Head hung low, Vinyl felt tears start to fall from her face. She didn’t know what they were for. The hurt of the words? The regret of not fixing things sooner? Anger? Confusion? She didn’t know, but what she did know is what she was there for.
        Resolute, she raised her head and focused her teary gaze on the door. Testing the handle with her magic, not wanting a repeat of the night before, she found that Octavia hadn’t locked it. Her mind set and her emotions frazzled, Vinyl pushed open the door and stepped into the place she had once called home.

        Though the wet fur and the position she was lying in were uncomfortable, Octavia couldn’t bring herself to move. Maybe if she didn’t move, everything would go back to normal. She would have her monotonous life back, free of DJs. No having her life ruined by a pony she once called a friend. Maybe she could go find that stallion who was always muttering to himself about time-travel and have him make them never meet.
        The front door closing caused her to start. She could have sworn she had shut it when she ran inside. Must not have closed it all the way and the wind got it, she rationalized, not raising her head. Tears still pouring onto her leg, she let out a choked sob.
A small shuffling in front of her caused her to freeze. She didn’t move, hoping she had just imagined it. This thought was quickly refuted as a small cough came from the direction the shuffling had settled.
        “Octavia. We need to talk.” She should have known who it would be. She dug her face further into her leg, hoping to make it all go away.
        “Leave me alone, Vinyl,” she sobbed, hoping the unicorn would listen to her for once.
        There was silence, followed by slight shuffling. For a moment, she thought Vinyl was actually leaving. She wasn’t sure if that thought made her happy or sad. Her thoughts were broken a moment later when Vinyl spoke again, though she was still unsure how it made her feel.
        “No,” Vinyl said, her tone soft, but determined. “I... I came here to do something, and I refuse to leave until I am done.”
        “What, you come to make fun of the pony you humiliated?” she asked, her head still not leaving its resting place. “Come to finish messing with my emotions so I won’t be able to play anymore and challenge your ‘greatness’?”
        Vinyl released a sigh, steadying her shaky voice. “No, I came to apologize and try to help you in any way I can. I didn’t want to ruin your career, you’ve done too much for me. I didn’t even know it was you until I saw you on stage. Hell, I didn’t even know I had the thing till shortly before. If I had known, I’d’ve declined.” Vinyl paused, seeming to be thinking of what to say. “I didn’t want to hurt you...”
        “‘Didn’t want to hurt me’?” Octavia whispered, looking up at the distraught unicorn. “I took you in, gave you shelter, fed you, heck, I practically gave you the job you have, and you just up and leave without a word, but you ‘didn’t want to hurt me’?”
        “Octavia, I-” Vinyl was cut off as Octavia stood up, quickly closing the distance to stand face-to-face with the other mare. The fur on Octavia’s face was matted down with tears. Her eyes were bloodshot and still watering. Vinyl had two rivers start flowing down either side of her face, not able to hold her emotions back any longer.
“I sat up that night. Did you know that?” Octavia asked quietly. “I sat up, waiting for you to get home. I needed to talk to you, so I sat up. You didn’t get home around your normal time, so I figured you had got one of your ‘gigs’. But then you didn’t come home at the time you normally do for one of them.” Octavia took a quick pause to steady her voice. Her tears still flowed freely, but Vinyl’s did, too. Vinyl didn’t even try to interrupt, figuring Octavia had been holding this in ever since it happened.
“I figured maybe it was just a really good ‘gig’ this time and maybe you were asked to play longer than normal, so I sat up. I sat up because I really needed to talk to you, but you seemed to be running late. I made coffee, because I started to feel sleepy. I sat there, waiting. I thought maybe you had just got exhausted and fell asleep at the bar. Or maybe you were drunk and passed out in an alley. But you were a big pony, and you can make big pony decisions.
“I fell asleep waiting. I woke up late in the afternoon, having been up all night. I went up to your room, expecting to find you passed out in your bed, but it hadn’t been slept in. Maybe you had just went to a friend's house because it was closer and you were exhausted. I wasn’t too worried.” She paused as she tried to wipe some of the tears from her eyes. “But then you still didn’t come home. I started to think you had maybe got hurt. Maybe you were in the hospital. But the next day, as I was getting groceries, I heard some ponies talking about the ‘show Vinyl Scratch played at last night in Ponyville’.
“I ran home without even completing my shopping. I collapsed on the first piece of furniture I came across and cried. I cried for hours. I called in sick the next day and cried some more. One of the few ponies I had called my friend had just up and left. She had been using me. I had a place I was willing to share with her, food I was happy to give her, and plenty of contacts in the musical industry I was glad to introduce her to. But she left when she got the chance. And I had thought we were friends.” She stopped and looked intently into Vinyl’s eyes before whispering, “I thought you cared.”
Vinyl tried to work her mouth, but she couldn’t seem to get anything to come out. She hadn’t known how bad her leaving had hurt Octavia. “I didn’t want to leave so abruptly, but they needed me right then. Then, from there, I had gotten some job offers. I kept trying to get back to Canterlot to drop in on ya, but I couldn’t seem to get any shows up here and I wasn’t able to get time off. I’m really sorry, Tavi.”
“But you still didn’t tell me!” Octavia shouted. “No call, no text, no email, not even a damn letter!”
“I wanted to call you to tell you the news, but I had left my phone here and, ah, hehe, we both know I was never good with remembering phone numbers.” She sheepishly scratched the back of her head as she finished.
“But you still could have written me or found out my number.”
“I did write you a letter! I had Lyxer drop it off at the Ponyville post office for me while I was preparing for the fashion show,” Vinyl said despairingly, hoping Octavia would believe her. “And I did try to call you. It took me about a week before I was able to get enough time to find your number, but I called. You just never picked up or called me back.”
“Because I thought... you... I was mad. I never got your letter and I thought you didn’t care anymore.” Octavia was starting to calm down. She realized how foalish she had been acting these past months, holding onto misplaced hate. She looked into Vinyl’s ruby eyes for the first time not without some amount anger, but with understanding. As she prepared to try to make amends, a thought came to her. “Wait, who’s ‘Lyxer’?”
“Oh, my old manager, Lyrical Mixer. It was shorter and bugged her for a while, but eventually stuck. Why?” Vinyl asked, unsure of what she had to do with anything.
“So, correct me if I’m wrong; you gave your letter for me to your manager, who didn’t seem to like how much time we spent together?”
“You don’t think she would do that, do you?” Vinyl asked, confused. “How would she get anything from us no longer being friends?”
Octavia’s anger was starting to resurface, but was directed at a different mare than the one standing in front of her. Her tears came to a stop and her breathing stopped hitching. “Because, with me out of the picture, you would not have anything keeping you from wanting to go on long tours to make her more money.”
Vinyl looked to the ground. It all made sense. That was why she had always kept her away from Canterlot. She hadn’t wanted her to reconcile with Octavia so she could keep her touring. Vinyl now felt what Octavia must have felt when she left. Betrayed by someone she trusted.
She looked up to the grey cellist with hurt in her eyes. “Why?”
All the anger left Octavia, replace with sorrow. Seeing Vinyl like that reminded her of herself when the unicorn left. Hurt. Confused. Alone. Tears started to flow down her face again as she embraced the white mare. They cried into each others shoulder for a few minutes.
Finally, Octavia spoke up. “I’m sorry I acted so abhorrently toward you. I jumped to conclusions and it was uncalled for,” she managed, her voice cracking, not moving her head from Vinyl’s shoulder.
“And I’m sorry I made you feel as though I didn’t care about you. I should have tried harder to get ahold of you.” She tightened her hold on the mare who meant the most to her, tears flowing freely.
Both mares’ reveries were shattered by a frantic pounding at the door, followed by shouting. “Octavia! Octavia, I don’t know what you heard, but you probably have it all wrong.”
Octavia didn’t want to deal with Fleur at the moment. She ignored her, hoping she would go away, holding onto Vinyl as though she could make her problem disappear.
“Octavia, please! Let me explain.” Fleur sounded dejected. The long nights of work and the fact that one of her friends thought she had done something to ruin her were seeming to take their toll.
“Go away!” Octavia cried.
“Please! It’s not what you think.”
“Octavia,” Vinyl said quietly from her side. “You should give her a chance.”
“But she lied to me,” Octavia whispered. “She..”
Vinyl held Octavia at legs length and looked her in the eye. “Maybe it was just another misunderstanding.” Octavia looked looked away. Vinyl pushed her face back so she could look into Octavia’s teary amethyst eyes. She wiped a few tears from the grey mare’s cheek before continuing. “She sounds like she is hurting. Talk to her. You don’t want to lose her as a friend, do you?”
Octavia gave a small nod of acknowledgement, hugging Vinyl once more, before standing up and walking to the door. She looked back and saw that Vinyl was walking toward the loveseat. As she lay down, Octavia could no longer see her. Turning back to the door, she cracked it open and stuck her head out.
She saw Fleur sitting just outside the door. Her cherry blossom mane was matted down with rain. Her eyeliner was running down her face, either from the rain or tears, Octavia didn’t know. Behind her was the unicorn Fleur had been talking with at the restaurant. The mare saw Octavia looking at her and looked away.
“Octavia...” Fleur began, her eyes watering. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I... I know.” Octavia’s voice was laced with understanding.
“I can explain it all to you. Please.”
“I... not right now.” Octavia looked away.
“Please, I’m sorry.”
“I know, Fleur. I... just need some time to think some things over. I will stop by your office tomorrow. BOTH of you can explain it then. Okay?” Octavia said, trying to get her tears under control.
“Okay,” Fleur said. The green unicorn gave a small nod. As the two walked off the porch, Fleur turned around and said, “I’m really sorry.”
Octavia stepped back into the house, closing and locking the door. She took a deep breath, then walked over to the loveseat upon which Vinyl lay. She lay down on the cushion next to her and embraced her again. The unicorn was quick to return it.
“I missed you so much,” Octavia whispered. Her eyes started to droop. She was emotionally spent and the warmth from Vinyl was making it even harder for her to stay awake. Before her eyes closed for a nice, restful sleep, she heard Vinyl respond.
“I missed you, too.”