//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty Four- Fixing a Record // Story: The Strings Of Life // by MLPxMaestro //------------------------------// The Strings Of Life: Chapter 24- Fixing a Record: With the door now being closed by Maestro, and with Vinyl now giving him a dirty look; with the same going for Octavia, she wanted to honestly throw something at him. She knew that certainly wouldn’t help solve the situation, but merely add ridiculous and pointless extra drama into it. “Can you both…just…” he could notice Vinyl’s voice for some odd reason get easier now, but why exactly? “Take a seat, and I’ll explain everything to you Vinyl.” He pointed to her couch for her to sit on by herself. Octavia knew Vinyl started changing just then, almost like she was holding something back from them. It looked like feelings of pain stored up inside of her, but she was still holding it all back. Vinyl then immediately turned around and reached for her favorite pair of shades she loved to DJ in especially. Those awesome purple tinted oval lenses were eye catching, but being eye catching is obviously not what they wanted. Vinyl put them on for some reason though, but why? Over an hour has gone by surprisingly to the three of them, and Maestro had nearly finished explaining every single detail he possibly could, and as specifically as he could too, he just hoped Vinyl would buy it. “So with that being said Vinyl, you know…that…um…” Maestro was stopped, noticing what looked like tears coming out from behind her favorite pair of shades; those shades everypony knew her by, pretty much a trademark for her. “You okay?” he wondered. “W-what, shoot yeah, me? Pfft, I’ll be just fine.” Octavia then heard a sniffle in Vinyl’s voice, as she was still holding back her feelings from them as best as she could. “Vinyl…are you crying?” Maestro asked her curiously. Vinyl looked away from them, now having her back faced towards the both of them. Octavia could see however her back moving and slightly jerking in a fashion of somepony silently crying. Octavia then knew what she had to do after Maestro had done what he was supposed to do, which he did a surprisingly good job. Now it was Octavia’s chance to finally turn things around, and hopefully make things the way they used to be. Maestro sitting back in the chair noticed Octavia pass up his chair, moving towards Vinyl. She then stopped beside him, but still focused on Vinyl as she for what appeared to be silently crying to herself. “I need to do this.” Octavia whispered. “Then do it, it’s your time to shine.” He replied, and lightly nudged her in the appropriate direction. Octavia was now standing right behind her former best friend. “Uh…Vinyl? Is-” she was them met immediately interrupted by Vinyl’s sudden tight hug over her. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Octy! I’ve been terrible without you!” she cried into Octavia’s shoulder, letting out all of the pain she had been holding inside of her all at that one moment. “It’s okay Vinyl…I…I forgive you…but do you f-” “Yes I forgive you Octy, I forgive you!” she continued crying into her shoulder, her voice being muffled as her face buried into her shoulder. Tears being felt running down her shoulder would make Octavia a little uneasy any other time, but at this time, she could care in the least. Maestro felt a little awkward at the moment, seeing two mares forgiving each other with tears and hugs, and not being able to take part in it. “The usual mare drama I suppose…but what do I know? I hope to Celestia this never happens again…for the better of course.” he mumbles to himself. Another half hour or so had gone by, and Vinyl was now explaining to Octavia the true reason why she became a DJ. Her parents were not exactly the best parents, mostly centered on their marriage and didn’t have very much family time with Vinyl. This caused her to feel lonely, but a while afterward, inspired enough to become a DJ. To express her feelings through her music, and even show Equestria what she was capable of. After they managed to get everything settled, explained, and taken care of between the three of them, Vinyl then realized she needed to move back into Ponyville. “Um…thanks for uh…helping me Maestro, with my…stuff I guess.” she looked off. “You’re welcome, and you know you’re welcome anytime to visit me or Octavia here.” “Yeah, I suppose…well I need to get back to…re-packing I think.” “Do you need any help?” Octavia asks. Vinyl looks back at the two with a slight smile, and tears from her eyes still coming down her face. “I’ll just need some help is all.” She replied. “If you’re moving back to Ponyville, I’ll help you. That is your goal, right?” Maestro asks. “Can I just get help so I can move back?” Maestro chuckled knowing what that meant, she was moving back into the quaint little town of Ponyville, many things for the town were urban, but with a touch of rural nonetheless. With the three of them finally at ease with each other, emotions subsided to a minimum now, and everything was in order and taken care of, questions answered and all. Octavia tried to get Vinyl warmed up to her and Maestro more, and get their friendship levels you could say back into a comfortable level. Trying and wanting to do this, Octavia helps Vinyl pack her things, but however she stumbled upon a photo album she had never knew Vinyl even had. Maestro had already left her apartment to go find a moving business to help them out. “What’s this? I never knew you even had a photo album?” Octavia then reached for the album, but then being stopped by Vinyl grabbing it before she did. “That’s…that’s private stuff.” Said Vinyl. “Is it bad?” “No, no it’s not.” Vinyl shakes her head, continuing to hold her album close to her. “Surely you can tell me?” “Maybe one day…just not today.” Vinyl then proceeds packing it with her vinyl record collection. Everything was now packed and ready to go, and the sun was on its way of going down, which meant they needed to get this stuff packed into the cargo area of the train the three of them were going to be heading out on, but Maestro hadn’t arrived back yet. “Goodness, where is-” Heavy hoofsteps could be heard running up the flights of stairs, Maestro then barged right into her place. “O-okay…every…thing’s…t-taken c-care of.” He gives Octavia and Vinyl their train tickets then falls right onto the floor feeling temporarily exhausted. “What have you been doing Maestro?” He looks up at Octavia after she asked him that, gasping for breaths in-between his words. “T-train…t-taken…goodness why…are my lungs acting…like…like I ran a marathon?” “Because you probably just did dude, Las Pegasus isn’t a small place to be you know?” Vinyl replied. “Well I think I can already tell you didn’t run all of this time for nothing, so thank you for getting everything set for us.” Octavia added. The doorbell then went off, which must have meant the movers have arrived to help them. “Are these the-” Maestro interrupts Vinyl with a mere nod of his head, still taking a breather. “You really need to get out more you know that?” said Octavia looking back at him. “Oh yeah…I know I do.” He replied. Vinyl opens up the door for the movers, as they gave her a tip of their hats then walking into her middle bedroom to take care of most of the boxes. “You doin okay kid?” asked one of the movers. Maestro then springs up off of the floor with a fake smile on his face. “Uh he-he…yeah, I’m feeling great!” “Good…then how about you be a gentleman and help move these boxes for these two gorgeous young ladies, eh? The mover pony chuckled. “What a delightful idea sir.” Octavia then looked to Maestro with a sarcastic expression of approval on her face. “I hate you.” Maestro mumbled to himself. “Yeah, I don’t see why that would hurt, ya know? Come on Maestro…be a stallion, not a little colt!” Vinyl said to him. “I can’t believe she just said that.” he thought to himself. “Well then, here we go champ, on three…” The large male earth pony’s helping them move then grabbed a hold of some of the boxes and brought them onto their backs. With the load eventually being brought down to the ground floor, and onto a cart to haul off to their destination. “I think that about covers it ma’am, you sure you have everything packed?” one of the movers asked. “I think that’s everything. You guys do know where to go, right?” replied Vinyl. “Don’t worry, your friend here told us to head off to the train station.” With her hearing that, she realized that she was leaving tonight apparently. “Maestro…you…you scheduled my move for tonight?” “Yeah! Me, you, and Octavia here will be leaving and heading back to Ponyville in just a few hours.” “That’s like nine o’ clock tonight?!” “Yep, pretty much.” He nodded grinning. “Well we’re going to get this stuff loaded up on the train, you three have a nice day.” The two large earth ponies then galloped off with the cart latched onto the both of them, as they sped off towards the train station. “Wait…did you-” “Yes, I took care of the timing of arrivals too. Your things will be on the train before us, same goes for you. You’ll be on the same train as your things, as for me and Octavia, we’ll be the next train ride back home to Canterlot.” “So you two will be heading home, and I’ll be back in Ponyville with my things? What if my old place is moved into already?” “It’s not, I even got the Las Pegasus Post Office to send out a letter to the mayor of that town letting her know of everything that would be taking place. I just hope she gets it before the train actually arrives there. I even paid a little extra for the letter to be express delivered to her.” Maestro stated. “Wow…I didn’t know you’d be this thorough on planning, Maestro.” Octavia added. “I improvise at critical times, and I usually end up making things work in time of doubt. If I really feel like putting my mind to it that is.” He replies. “Well I must say that you doing this for all of us yourself…that’s awfully sweet of you, thank you Maestro.” Octavia then approached him and kissed his cheek, which of course made his cheek become red. “Uh yeah, don’t um…don’t mention it.” “Are you two officially back together?” Vinyl wondered. Octavia still ending up next to Maestro, stood there feeling dumb for the moment. “Aw come on, you may consider him as a very good friend or something else, or whatever it is you did Octavia. But I’ve known you for too long now…and that look you gave him…” “Vinyl, shut your mouth this instant!” Maestro simply let them go about their controversy about the touchy subject it felt to Octavia. “I’m just gonna head back to the hotel room and get everything set up for tomorrow. I’ll meet you back there.” Maestro stated, then walking his way back to their hotel for the remainder of the evening. As he was making his way back, he kept hearing them following him but still a good distance back thankfully, as he wanted no part of it. From the looks of it, things were off to a surprisingly great start for the three of them. It looked like the gang was finally and officially back together…but would something else come into play to separate them once again in the future? “Vinyl, what did I say about him?!” “Ha ha ha ha! I still got it in me!” Vinyl laughed outloud.