//------------------------------// // Game 2: The Vice: Vinyl Scratch vs. Octavia // Story: Pony Strikers Charged // by ZeroChill //------------------------------// Since this universe had no perception of nighttime, the crowd stayed at the stands with loud roars. The teams gathered at their respective sides of the field. Octavia, Toad and Birdo all looked at the other team, their enemy, in pure confidence. Octavia’s Shy Guy stared down the other team with aggressive eyesockets. The Dry Bones and two Hammer Bros on Vinyl Scratch’s team stared just as viciously towards Octavia. The crowd screamed to the top of their lungs as they saw Vinyl Scratch fall down from the sky in a nosedive. As she neared the ground, she readied her legs so that she can fall on them. She collided with the ground with her hind legs split and her foreleg poised to distribute the force of the impact. She looked towards Octavia with her piercing red eyes and had a grin on her face. “I would like to say that I would enjoy engaging you in Madden Kombat, but that’s an entirely different form of hoofball, and I’m pretty sure that the “K” in Kombat is already trademarked.” Octavia huffed before she threw her hair to the side with a flick of her head. “I know that you wouldn’t be above stealing possessions, so why start being above it? It won’t change anything now that we are at the end.” Octavia stated coldly. “Anyways, talk is cheap. Action shows proficiency.” As she said this, the hoofball spawned at the center of the field. Both Vinyl Scratch and Octavia rushed at the ball at the same speeds. Just as Octavia got the ball under her possession, Vinyl Scratch tackled her behind her team’s line. She was in control of the ball and ran below the line on the field. Octavia’s Shy Guy tried running after Vinyl Scratch, but he was too slow to catch up to the speedy unicorn. Birdo charged into her direction. Seeing as there was no way she would evade the crazed dinosaur creature, she looked towards a nearby Hammer Bro. “Hey Bro, get ready!” Vinyl Scratch jumped into the air and kicked the ball towards Hammer Bro. As the Hammer Bro was ready to receive the ball, he noticed that Octavia’s Toad was speeding towards the ball and was ready to intercept it. He ran after the Toad and tackled him, which allowed the ball to stop towards him. This aggressive act gave Octavia’s team five red shells topped with spikes. Birdo tackled Vinyl Scratch into the electric fence. The rush of violent energy rushed through her body, but she kept her teeth clenched and tried to tough out the situation. Even though the uniform absorbed most of the damage, she eventually gave into the sensation of pain as she screamed to the top of her lungs. She fell off of the fence, as if the force of gravity pried her off a wall. Despite suffering from some burns, she stood back up to support her teammate. The Hammer Bro with the ball ran near the goalie box. He readied his foot until the angry Birdo was running towards him. In the midst of the charge, he kicked the ball to the goalie, while gaining Vinyl Scratch’s team a mushroom power-up. The Birdo tackled The Hammer Bro, which lead to Octavia’s Kritter smacking the Hammer Bro across the face into the ground near it. The Kritter then kicked the ball all the way towards Vinyl Scratch’s side of the arena. Octavia jumped towards the ball and knocked it down to her using her forelegs. The other Hammer Bro ran towards her. She winked before she jumped over the Hammer Bro with a vertical flip. The Dry Bones saw this maneuver coming and charged into Octavia and grabbed the ball. He passed it over to the Hammer Bro, giving the ball a red glow. He then passed it to the other Hammer Bro across the field. The ball flashed a yellow. Octavia’s Birdo ran after the Hammer Bro. However, The Hammer Bro jumped into the air and slammed his hammer into the ground, smashing Birdo into the ground nearby. Hammer Bro passed it over to Vinyl Scratch, who recuperated from the sudden shock she received. She ran towards the center of Octavia’s side of the field. As Octavia’s Shy Guy was going to charge into her, Vinyl Scratch smirked. Her horn flashed a blue color, which allowed her to disappear on the spot. The Shy Guy stopped in his path, confused at the sudden disappearance. Vinyl Scratch suddenly appeared behind the goalie, right inside the proximity of the goal net. The horn blared, which signified that Vinyl Scratch had scored a goal. Vinyl Scratch’s horn flashed a blue, which caused a white and blue turntable set and two black, large stereos to appear. She put her headphones over her ears and started to scratch the vinyl records. Upbeat music started to blast from the stereos around the turntables. Octavia looked back at Vinyl Scratch with vengeance burning in her eyes. As Vinyl Scratch saw Octavia approaching her, she took off her headphones, satisfied with her opponent’s reaction. “What was that!? That was an incredibly cheap move you did there!” Octavia screamed. Vinyl Scratch smirked and jumped over the turntables. “Are you mad that your plan didn’t include Defensive-based players having a ridiculously gamebreaking dodging ability?” Vinyl Scratch stated happily. “I’m not as dumb as you take me for Octavia.” Octavia seethed for a bit, but regained her composure and straightened out her black scarf. “There’s no use in getting angry with you. After all, you are just another filthy unicorn that relies on cheap tactics just to get by in life. That’s why you are just a lowly DJ and I’m an affluent cellist.” Octavia walked away from Vinyl Scratch and approached the center of the field. Vinyl Scratch shrugged her shoulders and followed her to the center of the field. As the hoofball reappeared under Octavia’s hoof, the time, which had four minutes and twenty seconds on it started to count down. Octavia made haste and went past Vinyl Scratch. Her Toad tried to cross over to Vinyl Scratch’s side of the field, but a line of five spiny red shells shot out from Vinyl Scratch’s Dry Bones, which collided with the Toad and stopped him. Octavia’s eyes scrunched with displeasure as she saw her lancing character taken down by the shells. The Dry Bones sped towards her with intentions of inflicting bodily harm. She closed her eyes and passed the ball back to her side of the field, where her Birdo caught it. The Dry Bones tackled Octavia into the electric fence. All what she saw were flashes of blue before her body was caught in the agonizing burning sensation of electricity searing her. The Birdo traveled towards the line and charged the ball for a bit. Vinyl Scratch saw what the Birdo was trying to do, and ran towards her in an effort to tackle her. The Birdo saw that the Shy Guy was wide open, so she passed it over to him just before Vinyl Scratch tackled her. The charge gave the ball a yellow glow as it was passed to Shy Guy. The two Hammer Bros ran up to the Shy Guy. However, he used the Mushroom power-up to double his speed, which allowed him to out-speed the two slow Hammer Bros. As he traveled towards Octavia, the Dry Bones reared his body in order to tackle him. However, Octavia’s Toad ran up to Dry Bones and slid into him. He was not happy with being attacked by the shells from before. The Shy Guy charged up his kick until a blue aura surrounded him. What resulted from the energy released was not a kick. Instead, a giant bullet with a menacing face materialized from an invisible pocket on him. He jumped on the bullet and had it set towards Vinyl Scratch’s Kritter. The two Hammer Bros, Dry Bones and Vinyl Scratch tried to reach the bullet and stop it, but it was too late. The bullet moved to the point where only the goalie could stop it. As it reached the Kritter, a huge explosion enveloped all of Vinyl Scratch’s team and the Shy Guy. Octavia, who recovered from her attack, saw that no one was guarding the goal. Using her superior speed, she reached the ball before anyone can get up and kicked it into the goal. The horn blared and the game was tied. Octavia had a smile of relief on her face as she saw the score change in her favor. She looked back at Vinyl Scratch, who was angry beyond belief. She had char marks all over her body and uniform. Parts of her mane were filled with smoke that came from the resulted explosion. “What was that!? Couldn’t score yourself, so you had to step on one of your teammates to do so, didn’t you?” Vinyl Scratch angrily stated. Octavia huffed. “I don’t need your approval to justify my actions. Besides, he did it out of his own free will for the team. I just happened to be at the right place and the right time for the score. You wouldn’t know about time and place, considering that you have just sent your entire team after that one shot in order to stop it.” The Shy Guy ran up to Octavia and shook his arms in the air. Octavia nodded. “Besides, it makes up for that dirty trick you pulled earlier.” Vinyl Scratched growled before she looked down on her item screen and saw a sprite of her head. She smiled in delight. As the two ponies approached the center of the field again, the hoofball spawned underneath Vinyl Scratch’s hoof. The timer was set to three minutes and fifty seconds. Vinyl Scratch blasted towards Octavia’s side of the field. Octavia was accompanied by her Toad and Birdo as she went towards her enemy’s direction. Vinyl Scratch saw this formation and ran towards the leftmost electric fence. She grew a smile when she saw that her Shy Guy also joined in the formation. Vinyl Scratch immediately activated her captain’s ability, which spawned an impossibly large speaker and two smaller speakers, all of which had the user’s color scheme. All of Octavia’s team tackled into the speaker system. Each member rebounded off of them. Then, the large speaker had its screen split vertically. The screens moved apart from each other and the speaker behind them extended outwards, revealing a large cannon. Octavia’s eyes became as large as dinner plates. “Say hello to my bass cannon!” Vinyl Scratch screamed. There was a white button on the dashboard of the large stereo with blue lettering that read “Drop the bass.” She smashed the button. Octavia closed her eyes and covered her ears as much as she possibly could. “This is going to suck.” This was all she could mutter before the entire stadium was drowned in a sonic wave of Wubstep. The large stereo fired a sound wave so powerful that it was visible as a beam. The two slightly smaller stereos fired sound waves to accompany the alpha one. The powered beam shot Octavia’s entire team and sent them flying to different parts of the field. Neither of them can move because each member was stunned by the noise emitted from the bass cannon. The crowd in the stands had to cover their ears in preparation for avoiding the noise. The bass cannon disappeared and Vinyl Scratch was free from the other team. She charged to the point in where she kicked the ball into the air. She jumped into the air along with the ball. As she was higher than the ball, she took out a small stereo and set it to the maximum volume. A sound wave slammed against the ball, which split it into six different hoofballs going at sonic speed. Octavia’s Kritter readied his body and spread his arms wide open, ready to intercept the balls. As they came one after one, the Kritter proved that he had the reflexes to knock away the first three balls. However, as the other three balls came down, he missed the next ball. His reflexes were thrown off by this, which caused the other balls to move by him without any difficulty. The horn blared and Vinyl Scratch scored three goals for her team with her megastrike. Octavia got up from the ground and shook her head. She was surprised to be able to hear everything around her. She looked at the scoreboard and grew a sense of despair when she saw the 4-1 score. She felt a sense of helplessness grip her, but was able to shake it off. “Just remember Octavia, you’ve faced worse when you were younger.” Her team got back up from the dirt and went into their positions on the field. Vinyl Scratch came to the center of the field with a smirk on her face followed by the rest of her team, which remained in their positions last round. The hoofball materialized under Octavia’s hoof, and the clock counted down from three minutes and forty seconds. Octavia had a scowl on her face. She passed the ball over to her Toad and ran into Vinyl Scratch’s side of the field. One of Vinyl Scratch’s Hammer Bros detected her and made chase. The Toad maneuvered around Vinyl Scratch’s Dry Bones with ease, as he jumped right before he performed a tackle. Toad performed a midway charged shot, which Vinyl Scratch’s Kritter caught without much of a problem. However, Octavia’s team obtained the fabled Captain’s Item, represented by a sprite of Octavia’s head. As Vinyl Scratch’s Kritter tossed the ball over to Vinyl Scratch, Octavia tackled Vinyl Scratch and took possession of the ball. As she ran past the nearby Dry Bones, she activated her captain’s ability. A giant, brown cello appeared from the sky. A bow descended upon it and crossed over the strings. The instrument began to play wondrously soft music that hit all the notes in perfect harmony. All of Octavia’s team felt at peace, enraptured in a soft yellow glow. Suddenly, Octavia’s Toad, Birdo and Shy Guy moved faster than what the eye can see and began to tackle away Vinyl Scratch’s team. The fierce punches and tackles caused audible blows to the Dry Bones, the two Hammer Bros and Vinyl Scratch herself. After the power within Octavia’s teammates vanished, Vinyl Scratch’s team members were left with bruises beaten onto various parts of their bodies. Octavia charged her ball to the limit, which allowed her to kick the ball into the sky. She jumped after the ball and her flowing scarf extended in length. Her coat grew a slightly darker color before she grabbed her scarf by her teeth. With a powerful slash of her whip, the ball split into six different balls that aimed towards the goal for Vinyl Scratch’s team. The Kritter attempted to prepare himself, but felt fazed by the power of Octavia’s music. Because he was unable to concentrate, the balls flew right by him. He tried to catch each individual ball, but aimed the wrong way. Soon, the final ball shot right into his face and into the goal. The horn blared, and Octavia scored six points for her team with her megastrike. Vinyl Scratch looked at Octavia with cold eyes. She went up to her Dry Bones on the ground. As she helped him up, he gave a happy cheer. She threw a powerful punch with her hoof across his skeletal face. The Dry Bones separated into individual bones. “We got to do better team! We can’t let this filthy wench take away what rightfully belongs to us!” Vinyl Scratch screamed. The score difference caused her to lose her cool. The hammer bros looked at their captain with fear in their eyes. Yet, despite their fear and bruises, they stood tall. “This time, we can’t let Octavia win. Her abilities and cunning have proven to be a powerful disturbance in terms of our performance. Her other teammates are small fries. Hammer Bros, you take the offense. I and Dry Bones will take the defense. Agreed?” Each of her teammates nodded in agreement. “Alright then, let’s go kick some ass!” The morale of her team boosted to the point where everyone cheered in excitement. As they went towards the center, they saw Octavia. She had the largest grin on her face. Vinyl Scratch’s eyes met her eyes, but no words were spoken. The ball spawned underneath Vinyl Scratch’s hoof, and the timer began counting down from three minutes. Vinyl Scratch passed the ball over to one of her Hammer Bros and waited at the line along with her Dry Bones. Octavia and her Birdo moved towards the Hammer Bro with the ball. Her Birdo moved in first. The Dry Bones grabbed a giant hammer from hammerspace and slammed it on the ground. Seeing this window of opportunity, Octavia moved in to seize control of the ball by sliding into the Hammer Bro. However, the other Hammer Bro smashed his hammer into Octavia and tackled her into the electric fence. Her eyes were filled with dread as her body collided with the electric fence. For some reason, her body felt more in pain than what it should be as if the voltage was increased. The Hammer Bro that knocked Octavia into the electric fence lifted a thumb up to the other Hammer Bro, which greenlit movement. The Shy Guy saw the Hammer Bro charging towards him. Normally, the Shy Guy had such bravado. Yet, seeing as how the Toad was on the other side of his team’s field, he shook nervously. In fear, he ran right into the electric fence, giving him a horrible shock. For a moment, one could’ve seen his skeletal features present, but no skull. The Toad tried to run after the Hammer Bro, only to be slammed by the other Hammer Bro. The Hammer Bro with the ball charged his ball and was surrounded by a blue energy. He jumped into the air slightly and started throwing hammers at Octavia’s Kritter. The hammers collided with the Kritter, which knocked him out. He then shot the ball right into the goal, scoring a goal for Vinyl Scratch’s team. The game was now at 5-7. As Octavia finally fell of the fence, she looked around her body. She noticed that a particular area on the side of her body was so badly burned that blood started to rise from it. As she touched the area lightly, a sharp pain caused her legs to drop her. She ignored the pain and dealt with it. She walked over to the center of the field. She tried to not show any pain. As the hoofball spawned underneath her hoof, she immediately passed it over to her Toad. Octavia ran as fast away from Vinyl Scratch’s team as possible. Vinyl Scratch saw what her enemy did. She followed Octavia, leaving her Dry Bones and Hammer Bros to play against Octavia’s team. As the Toad crossed into Vinyl Scratch’s team’s side of the field, he passed the ball over to the Birdo. She tried to shoot it into the goal, but one of the Hammer Bros tackled into her and took possession of the ball. The Hammer Bros passed the ball to each other until it flashed a white color. The Shy Guy appeared before the same Hammer Bro that scared it off before. However, rather than run away, the Shy Guy stood his place. When the Hammer Bro approached him, the Shy Guy tackled him. The Hammer Bro, who did not expect the hit, was unable to dodge the blow. The Shy Guy took the ball and passed it over to the Birdo. When the Dry Bones got near the Birdo, she winked once before engaging in a spin. Finally, she passed it over to the Toad, who charged his shot. As he was enshrouded in the energy, his kick became filled with burning energy and shot a fireball at Vinyl Scratch’s Kritter. The Kritter knocked it back, but started running around as he screamed from the infernal fires that scorched him. The Toad had a smirk on his face, but the smile turned into shock as the Dry Bones jumped into the air and kicked the ball over to the Hammer Bro. When the Hammer Bro received the ball, he ran towards Octavia’s side of the field. Seeing as she was the only one on her team’s side, Octavia reluctantly chased after the Hammer Bro. Unfortunately, a passively angry Vinyl Scratch appeared in her way. “Hey Octavia, where do you think you’re going? You want to stop my chum from scoring, don’t you? Unfortunately, it won’t be that easy. In fact, the both of us have a date of destiny to settle here now.” Vinyl Scratch noticed Octavia’s injury on her side near her flank. She smiled. “That’s a nice bruise you got there. It would be a shame if somepony were to exacerbate it.” Vinyl Scratch’s direct words prompted Octavia to hide her injury away from Vinyl Scratch’s sight. “You’d like to hurt me more, wouldn’t you Vanilla? You were always a rough pony from the start. You fought to where you are now. In a way, I can appreciate it. Unfortunately, you’ll just have to settle for being hurt.” Octavia stated with a pained smile. Vinyl Scratch’s mouth moved as she didn’t understand the situation. Octavia jumped towards Vinyl Scratch’s side. She was confused until she realized one important detail: she was a very small distance away from the electric fence. “You’re going to knock me into there, aren’t you? You’ll step all over me just because you never liked me!? Just know that I wo-“but it was too late. Octavia smashed her head into Vinyl Scratch’s side just before she finished. The impact pushed her into the electric fence. The burning sensation of flesh being fused permeated throughout Vinyl Scratch’s body. Every fiber of her body screamed for the pain to stop. Octavia chased after the Hammer Bro with the ball and left Vinyl Scratch alone to suffer her torment. The Hammer Bro saw Octavia coming a fair distance away. Just as Octavia was nearing the Hammer Bro, the Hammer Bro performed his hammer dodge. He jumped into the air and smashed the ground underneath with the giant hammer. Octavia barely dodged with a well-timed jump. Unfortunately for her, the Hammer Bro got into a position on the field that made scoring a very possible situation. The Hammer Bro smashed his hammer against the ball. The only thing that Octavia’s Kritter saw was a white beam fly past him before he registered the horn blare of a score. Vinyl Scratch was released from the oppressive shackles of electricity. For her, the horn blare was a sign of hope. This moment was short-lived when a wet, sticky feeling came up from her throat. As she spit out the material, she saw that it was blood. She felt a bit dizzy, but shrugged off the sensation. “I can’t let Octavia win. I have to keep doing it for my team.” Vinyl Scratch stood up from her place and slowly walked over to the center of the field. Both ponies’ bodies have been abused to the point of death, but neither pony wanted to give up. They both looked at each other with hate-filled stares. When the hoofball spawned underneath Octavia’s hoof and the time began to count down with one minute left, both mares bolted from their positions. Vinyl Scratch attempted to tackle Octavia, but she jumped into the air to her left. She passed the ball to her Toad, who then passed the ball to her Birdo. The Dry Bones waited patiently near the Birdo. As the Birdo began to charge her skill shot, Dry Bones dashed towards the effeminate dinosaur. From her mouth launched a giant egg which contained the ball. The egg traveled towards the goalie. However, the Dry Bones’ s body acted as a shield that fractured the fragile egg. Birdo got near the ball only to register the chilling sensation of a blue shell heading her way. She froze in place, which allowed the Hammer Bro who threw the shell to be in possession of the ball. The Hammer Bro passed it over to Vinyl Scratch. As Vinyl Scratch got near the possession of the ball, Octavia took this time to catch it through a sliding kick. She succeeded in retaking possession of the ball, but failed to register Vinyl Scratch’s disappearance from the path. Then, she felt a full-force tackle striker her on her injured side. Her body became paralyzed through the pain of the injury. The Hammer Bro traveled a good distance into Octavia’s territory. Vinyl Scratch passed the ball to the Hammer Bro, who then shot the ball past the goalie with his hammer. The horn blared, which signified the score. Now, both Vinyl Scratch and Octavia are tied 7-7. Vinyl Scratch’s body was in terrible condition. She had severe burns across her body and suffered horrible internal injuries. She still coughed up a bit of blood here and now. The only thing that kept her alive is the protective uniform, which took on a brunt amount of the blows. Octavia did not fare any better. From when she saw the horrifying injury, it had only worsened. It reached the point where the blood flowing through the open wound stained her long-sleeve shirt. The two of them stood at the center of the field. They both were writhed in pain, but their facial expressions did not show any of it. The ball spawned underneath Octavia’s hoof. There were only twenty-five seconds left on the clock. As soon as the timer began, Octavia ran over to the other side of the field. She had a noticeable limp in her gait. Vinyl Scratch dashed towards Octavia’s direction. However, her speed suffered a significant decrease, and her vision blurred rapidly. Her confidence pushed through the ailments as she caught up with Octavia. Vinyl Scratch shoved Octavia into the direction of the electric fence. Octavia tried to maintain control of the ball, but repeated jabs from Vinyl Scratch’s body proved too much for her body to handle. The ball spun out of control and was grabbed by a Hammer Bro. As the two captains approached the Electric Fence, Vinyl Scratch lifted Octavia by her forehooves. Vinyl Scratch then came to the conclusion of what she wanted to do: she would force Octavia to remain on the electric fence by holding her on there to prevent her from winning. She threw Octavia at the fence and pinned her there with her hooves. The powerful voltage surged through both of their bodies, with Octavia taking most of the unfiltered electricity. Vinyl Scratch’s cleats were taking a good portion of the electricity, but she still felt the horrible sting of electricity shooting into her hooves. Yet, she still stood strongly against the flow. It had only past ten seconds, but it felt as if a day of pain passed through them. Neither of them screamed from the pain, but Octavia’s breathing became more erratic. She could see all of the hatred burning in Vinyl Scratch’s eyes and recalled her words on the airship before they teleported out. “I just found out that you are just a diseased branch on the tree of my life. I’ll be sure to forcefully rip that branch from that tree and tear it apart in the hoofball stadium!” She realized just how badly she hurt Vinyl Scratch, the only pony who she can fully consider to be her friend. She realized just how her pride had put a tremendous strain on their relationship and how this match had destroyed her friendship. Her eyes began to water from the realization. Vinyl Scratch picked up on her tears, so she tightened her grip on her fore ankles. “Octavia… are there any last… words you have for me?” She said in pained breath. Octavia closed her eyes, which welled up the tears in her eyes. “Vinyl Scratch, I’m sorry.” The anger in Vinyl Scratch’s eyes lightened up, and her grip lightened up. “I’m sorry for ignoring you. I’ve been a terrible friend. I have never taken your feelings into account for decisions involving the two of us. I have always focused more on my career than our friendship. Friendship is a sacred treasure for anypony. I have neglected our friendship just to feel accepted by the wrong crowd. You were truly my best friend. Vinyl Scratch, please know that I am sorry for destroying it just for the sake of moving on. My only regret is that it took me this long to realize how one friend can make all the difference in the world.” Octavia stated, with each sentence having a significant amount of pauses in between them. She finally opened her eyes and let a stream of tears pour down her body. “…Tavi?” Vinyl Scratch’s grip finally released from Octavia’s fore ankles. She pried her off of the fence. The chaotic energy was released from both of their bodies, which caused the uniforms to slowly disintegrate. The coding on their teammates began to vanish, which caused their teammates to disappear. Octavia’s body was charred to the point where her gray coat was all black. Her severe wound was cauterized by the sheer voltage passing through her body. She could not move without feeling any sort of pain. Blood leaked through her eyes, mouth and nose from how badly her internal organs were damaged. She could not even breathe without Vinyl Scratch smelling a hint of copper in there. Vinyl Scratch’s red eyes became coated from a sudden surge of tears that overcame her. “Tavi, you’ll make it! Please, you gotta hang on! You got to live! Please, don’t die!” She closed her eyes in order to block the tears from flowing. However, they still formed a stream that dripped downwards. Octavia slowly, but shakily moved her hoof towards Vinyl Scratch’s face to wipe away the stray tears. She looked up to her with nearly glazed-over eyes. All she could see was the face of her friend. “Vinyl… I forgive you…” Octavia stated softly and weakly. “I just… want you… to forgive me. Please… live on… for the both of us……” Everything blurred to an indistinguishable white as Octavia breathed her last breath. Her hoof fell limp along with the rest of her body. “Tavi…Tavi!!!” Vinyl Scratch shook her body hard in order to elicit a response. Octavia didn’t move. The realization hit her harder than a rave of drug-crazed ponies. She was dead. Vinyl Scratch embraced the corpse of her best friend. She dug her face into the corpse’s chest and bawled. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry I killed you! I’m sorry that I let my anger the better of me! Why did you have to die!?!? You were my best friend! Nopony could’ve been as unique as you were. I should’ve been more supportive of you and your career!” She blubbered out. Octavia’s chest was filled with the tears and blood from Vinyl Scratch. She heard a wave of gasps come from behind her. She turned around and saw Discord and all the ponies with shocked expressions on their faces. Twilight’s eyes watered rapidly. She walked up to Vinyl Scratch, whose body was badly beaten. “Vinyl… did you do this?” Twilight asked, scared about what just happened. Vinyl Scratch didn’t dare to look into the eyes of her princess. She turned her body with Octavia still in her forehooves towards everypony. She stared downward and saw her friend’s body, which is what her focus was on. “I’m a killer. I shed blood for the sake of a sport. I’m… I’m a horrible pony! I should’ve died in her place! She had such promise as a cellist, and I robbed Canterlot of one of its finest musicians! I’m just a lowly DJ going down a path of self-destruction.” Guilt was riddled in her voice. Vinyl Scratch felt a spell of wooziness overcome her with a blur of vision veiling her eyes. This time, she made no attempt to fight it back and entered into the darkness of unconsciousness. The last thing she heard was a horrified scream from Twilight. __________________________________________________________________________________ Vinyl Scratch’s vision started to come around. She lied down on a very soft bed with a plush pillow. As she regained her vision, she saw that she was in a dully-lit room that was blue in nature. She tried to move, but felt bound to various different tubes and bandages on her. She lifted her head and took a good look around. She saw that there were various empty beds topped with white sheets, but there was only one bed that looked full. There was a white sheet covering the contents of the bed. She noticed that there was a bipedal robot with long, slender arms and legs. It had fingers similar to Star’s fingers. It was black in nature and had a single red eye as its face. It was currently mopping up the floors of the room. Out of curiosity, she spoke in order to get its attention. “Excuse me sir, but where am I?” The robot turned towards Vinyl Scratch. It spoke in a very electronic voice. “You are in the infirmary aboard the Stormship. You suffered horrible injuries and you are lucky to be alive. You were tended to after being brought up here. However, I couldn’t say the same thing about your friend over in that bed over there.” Vinyl Scratch’s heart began to palpitate at hearing the robots words. “You mean that it wasn’t a dream? Octavia is actually dead!?” Vinyl Scratch began to feel sick about what happened. Just knowing that Octavia’s corpse was rotting away near her made her panic. The robot walked over to her. “Do not dread Vinyl Scratch. Just watch.” The robot then walked over to the sheets and pulled them away. The body under the sheets was burned black with an even darker burn on its side. Its eyes were milky white. The robot held out its arms above the body. The hands of the robot were enveloped in a yellow glow. The hands of the robot touched the body, which allowed it to be coated in the same energy. Octavia began to develop her gray coat again. Her eyes were changing from milky white to her rosy pink eyes. Her bleeding regressed back into her body and her wounds were patched up. She regained the ability to breath and her strength and movement were restored. Vinyl Scratch’s eyes watered with tears of joy. Octavia looked to her right to see an injured Vinyl Scratch. “Vinyl Scratch? Where am I? What happened?” Octavia said as she was confused. Vinyl Scratch yanked out all of the IVs in her legs and ran over to her. She embraced her. “Tavi! You’re alive! I thought I would’ve had to live with the fact that you were gone from my life! I wouldn’t have been able to live on without you.” Octavia saw the genuine tears in Vinyl Scratch’s eyes. She returned the hug back. “Listen Vinyl Scratch, I wanted to apologize to you about what happened. This was my entire fault. I thought I was better than you because of how I was trained. What it led to was one of the bloodiest things I have ever been a part of. I’m sorry for putting you through so much.” “I’m sorry too Tavi. I’m sorry too. I should have never overreacted the way I did, even if it was the gauntlet talking.” Vinyl Scratch said. Octavia looked around to see that only she, Vinyl Scratch and a robot were around. “You know Vinyl, when everything is all said and done, do you mind if I sometimes became your partner when playing music? It’s the least I could do for, well, everything.” Vinyl Scratch had a large smile on her face with what Octavia said. “You are the best friend that a DJ can ever have!” She turned her face to the robot. “What can I do to ever repay you?” The robot looked down on her. “I am just a robot, not a miracle worker. When the time comes, you shall be able to repay me.” The robot walked away. Vinyl Scratch kept her embrace on Octavia. “Ooookay Vinyl, you can let go of me now. This is starting to get somewhat creepy.” Vinyl Scratch blushed out of embarrassment and distanced herself away from Octavia. “Hehe, sorry.” Vinyl Scrach limped back to her bed as she felt the effects of exhaustion overcome her body. She relaxed herself on the bed. In the hallway, the robot that mopped the floors in the infirmary chuckled. “You shall be able to repay me sooner than you think.”