//------------------------------// // Just Lost! Part 2 // Story: Lady and the DJ // by JerryTheHouseGhost //------------------------------// Octavia stared at the group of businesstallions with her mouth wide open, shock written on her face. She shook her head slowly and cleared her throat before speaking. “W-well hello, there. Ummm, I’m sure we can talk things through, can’t we?” One of the stallions sneered at her. “Oh, we’ll talk this through alright. Right after we cut your tails off!” At that, Octavia had two choices: Faint or run. Being the intelligent filly that she was, she only partly fainted, her legs buckling slightly. This caused the water in the fountain to splash her. Immediately she became alert again, and decided that running was the best option. Quickly she looked at Vinyl. “Well, I hope you have fun settling this, Vinyl. I’ll see you back at the train station!” With that, she hopped awkwardly over the fountain ledge, grabbed her saddlebag, and starting running down the street. Vinyl watched her friend run away from the fountain. “Wait!” She looked at the stallions running towards her, then back to Octavia. “Hey! Wait for me!” Vinyl jumped out of the fountain and almost ran off without her saddlebag. At the last second, she stopped and returned to grab her saddlebag, laughing nervously at the angry stallions quickly approaching, and ran to catch up with her friend. The two fillies proceeded to dodge through the various ponies in the streets, listening to the group of angry stallions hot on their hooves. They turned a corner and immediately spotted various stalls that were set up as a marketplace. “Octavia, look!” Vinyl stopped her friend then pointed a hoof at the stalls. “We could lose them amongst the daily marketplace crowd!” The two fillies continued on through the marketplace, having a hard time getting through the crowd that was occupying the streets. Chancing a look back, Octavia noticed that the businesstallions were having a worse time, often shoving ponies aside to try and keep up. Octavia looked forward and tried to come up with a good plan of action. Unfortunately, she noticed that the path split into two up ahead. But that might be a good thing, Octavia realized. “Let’s dodge around the corner and hide in a stall!” “Good idea!” The two immediately turned to the right and looked for a stall to hide in. Octavia quickly gestured to a full rug stall, complete with a cloth covering the opening under the stall counter.. “There! Quickly, get under the stall.” The two fillies dove under the stall without hesitation. Thankfully, the merchant was busy with a customer and did not notice two small blurs hide underneath his makeshift shop. Under the covered stall, Octavia huddled against her companion. The two tried to quiet their breathing to try and listen for the sounds of the stallions. After what seemed like an eternity, Octavia began to hear the sounds of a commotion approaching the stand. “I saw them go this way!” Smash.         “They couldn’t a gone far!” Thump. “Hey, watch it!” “You watch it, mare! I’m walkin’ here!” “How rude!” Squish! “Mah t’maters!” “Ay, Quiet old timah!” The voices grew in volume until they seemed like they were right on top of the stall. Much to the fillies’ relief, the voices passed the stand and continued on, often accompanied with more shouting from other innocent ponies. Octavia let out a sigh of relief. I believe they have left now, she thought to herself, allowing herself a small smile. Just then, she froze up once more, intensely listening at the sounds that she started hearing. Sluuurrrppppp. Crinkle crinkle, crunch, crunch, crunch. Slurrrrppppppp. Octavia started to turn towards the source of the noise, “What in Celestia’s bonnet---”  What she saw was her blue-maned friend huddled in the corner with a bag of what seemed to be kale chips and a small drink, greedily reaching a hoof into the bag while taking large gulps of the drink.         “Vinyl Scratch, what--where on Equestria did you get that?” Vinyl looked at the stuff she had in her hooves. “Some food stall over there.” Vinyl waggled her hoof in various directions.          Octavia looked at Vinyl with utter confusion. “But--how--we--” She shook her head. “Did you even pay for it?” “Wait, these weren’t free!?!?” Vinyl took one look at the soda before drinking some more of it. Octavia facehoofed and shook her head. “You are absolutely incorrigible, Vinyl. You are the reason we can’t have nice things.” Vinyl threw her food and drink on the ground. “I was hungry! Leave me alone!” “Even if you dispose of that stolen food, you can’t throw out the fact you had a bunch of angry businesstallions chasing after us and got us lost!” “So this is all my fault now!?” Vinyl thought about the facts. “Huh, I guess it was me, wasn’t it? Oops.” “Exactly. I hope you’re happy.” Octavia sat on her haunches and started stroking her mane. “I just hope we can remedy our situation soon.” “Wait, what about that Canterlot map you brought in your saddlebag? We could use that to find the train station and subsequently find our class as a result!” The only response Vinyl got was a wide-eyed stare from her grey companion. “I don’t even...” Octavia maintained eye contact with Vinyl as she pulled her damp saddlebag to her and dug through it for the map, Vinyl only giving a lopsided grin in response. Octavia quickly pulled out the map and looked at it. After a few seconds, she frowned and gave it to Vinyl without saying another word. “What? What is this? This is just the paper we played tic-tac-hoof on. Why did you give this to- ooooohhhhhh...” Vinyl just realized that the paper they played tic-tac-hoof on was the map, and that the map was now unreadable due to their unfortunate choice of writing material. “Okay, this one was both of our faults.” Octavia stared straight ahead and sniffed once before slowly leaning forward until she fell face first into the ground and laid there motionless. Vinyl poked her once with a forehoof, which just elicited a small groan before Octavia mumbled into the ground, “For once, you’re right.” A small sob was heard before she continued. “Now we’re never going to find our way back.” Just then, the backflap of the stall opened to reveal the merchant that owned the stall, who jumped at the sight of the two fillies sitting on the ground. “Oh! You two startled me! What are you little ones even doing in my stall?” Vinyl looked at the pony with wide, sad eyes and said, “I’m hungry.” The merchant’s face softened into one of concern. “Well, let’s remedy that shall we?” His head disappeared from under the stall, returning quickly with a small bag. He dropped it in front of the white filly, revealing a dandelion sandwich and an apple. Vinyl Scratch stared at the food, then back up at the merchant. “For free?” “Well, yes; I’m not hungry, so why not let you eat my lunch? I can just go to the local cafe when I do get hungry.” “Thank you, kind sir, but I wouldn't go to the cafe if I were you; I heard it stinks there,” Vinyl said before devouring the sandwich in a matter of seconds. She smelled the apple, hissed, then threw it at Octavia. Octavia squeaked in surprise and narrowly avoided the cataclysmic fruit that came hurtling by her muzzle. She glared at her companion and barely resisted the urge to strangle the white filly. She then turned to the stallion and smiled sweetly at him, blinking her eyes quickly. “We are very grateful for your kindness. My name is Octavia Philharmonic, and this... filly with me is Vinyl Scratch. Maybe you could help us find our way?” “Why of course, little fillies. My name is Ruginold, but you can just call me Rugsy. Where are you trying to get to?” Octavia and Vinyl looked at each other with gleeful looks and back at him. “We’re trying to get to the train station; do you know where that is?” Rugsy looked questioningly at the two fillies. “You didn’t notice it on the way to my stall? It’s right down the road; you can see it from here!” Vinyl Scratch climbed on top of Rugsy and looked down the road. “This stallion does not lie, Octavia, for the train station is down this road yonder!” Rugsy narrowed his eyes. “Get off.” “Oh, sorry about using your body as a stand, Rugsy.” Vinyl looked at Octavia, who was excited that they finally weren’t lost anymore. “Come on Octavia, it’s just down this way!” Vinyl led Octavia out of the rug stall and pointed at the train station. “See, it’s right there! We’re saved!”          Octavia let her overjoyed emotions get the best of her as she immediately hugged Rugsy. Then she realized her mistake and quickly recovered, blushing. “I-I’m sorry, Mister Ruginold. I’m just happy to finally be headed home. We are forever grateful for your help.” The grey filly turned to her counterpart. “Come along Vinyl, let’s blow this rug stand.” The two quickly made a mad dash through the groups of ponies. Rugsy watched the two fillies run into the crowd, filled with joy. He smiled and called to the duo, “Take care, little fillies!” The two fillies scrambled through the market, narrowly avoiding many disgruntled ponies. However, the two could see the train station growing ever closer. After a few minutes, the two made it out of the market crowds and were close enough to the station to see a group of foals and a mare outside the station. “That’s the class! Hurry, Vinyl! I bet they’ve been worried sick!” “I’d be worried about me if I were them!“ The two fillies continued to close the distance to the station. Unbeknownst to the two fillies, the class had also noticed the two quickly approaching. The class was in a state of panic, but their teacher quickly ushered them into the station. “Hurry, students. We need to get to the train immediately!” “Teacher, they’re gaining! They must’ve seen us!” “I’m scared!” “Where’s my shoe?” “My leg!” As the class quickly made it to the train, Octavia and Vinyl caught up to them as they were quickly getting into their seats. “Hey, we’re here! We were lost and scared, but now we’ve finally made it back to you! Aren’t you all happy that we made it!?” Vinyl Scratch was smiling widely. The class let out a unanimous moan, followed by scattered complaints. One colt was heard saying, “I was sure we had lost them.” With a sigh, their teacher spoke loudly. “Well, it looks like we have almost everypony-- Wait, where are Candle Wick and Strong Winds?” With a shout of victory and a raised forehoof, Vinyl Scratch turned to a seething Octavia. “Yes! Woohoo!!! Yeah! I won the bet! HAHAHA!! In your face, Octavia! You know what you owe me!?!? Five whole bits! Hand ‘em over, chump! No excuses. No! I SAID NO! Don’t you make that face at me! You know what? Keep making that face! It doesn’t change the fact that five of your bits are now mine! YES! I am the master commander!!!!”         Angrily, Octavia threw five bits at Vinyls face. “You cheated, you ragamuffin! You scoundrel! You...” In another part of the city, Strong Winds and Candle Wick were utterly lost. The small brown stallion clung to the shivering blue pegasus. The two were sitting on a fountain surrounded by passing ponies. Candle Wick took the note that Vinyl handed them back in the train out of his saddlebag. “It says right here that Octavia would meet us at the fountain!” Unfortunately, a group of stallions in suits approached them. One smirked at the two scared colts. “Well, well, well, whudda we have heah?”