//------------------------------// // Chapter Four // Story: Dual Melody // by Coolestninja1242 //------------------------------// Chapter Four I can’t sleep. I’ve been laying on the sofa since I came in from the rain. It’s raining harder now. I hope nothing bad happened to Vinyl. She late again. She’s never this late unless she stays out drinking. I’m very worried. I’ve also been thinking. Thinking about a lot of things actually. Mostly about how badly this will ruin things for Vinyl and I. I should have left ages ago, left her, went back to the hive. None of this would have happened if I could just admit to myself that I am only a simple changeling. A monster that was only born to play pretend. Maybe that’s why this has all been so difficult for me. “Don’t be a coward Octavia.” I tell myself aloud. I’m still waiting on the sofa staring down the door. My brain going a mile a minute thinking not only of all the ways in which Vinyl will react to finding out the truth but also the reason she’s taking so long. She’s never this late unless something has gone horribly wrong or she’s been drinking. My mind fabricates the image of Vinyl being hit by a taxi. Both her and the driver are seriously hurt and they are taken to the hospital. They call me and I rush right down. In my minds eye I see Vinyl hooked up to thousands of machines…and… I shake it off. That isn’t what happened. Vinyl is fine. She’s probably just out drinking with some fans. Fans who loved her set. Fans who think she’s attractive. Fans who are buying her drinks. Fans who have their grubby little hooves, and claws…for some reason that griffin from down the street is there, on my Vinyl. I begin to fume at the idea. No that can’t be what happened either. Okay, maybe she’s having a few drinks with some of the regulars and maybe they’re paying for her but they all know me there. They wouldn’t dare lay one hoof on Vinyl’s wonderfully messy mane. What if…and I’m not sure if I can even bare to think this, but what if the changeling army went to her club. What if Chrissie tried to get to Vinyl by using me. She walks in as me and starts…No! Nope! Nope! Nope! I will not think about that! I can’t take it any more. I get up from the sofa and begin to pace. My eyes never leave the clock in the corner of the room next to Vinyl’s records and my music stand. I watch as the minutes tick away, minutes that feel like hours, and hours that feel like days. I shortly become panicked and out of breath, only a few minutes have passed but it feels like I’ve been running for weeks. My mind is playing tricks on me. I need sleep. I need Vinyl to come home. I need to go find her! I have to make sure she’s alright! I rush to the front door and then stop. This is stupid. She’ll probably be home any second now. No need to panic Octavia. You’re just going to tell her that you’re a changeling and that the entire life you’ve built with her is a lie. My rational mind suddenly doesn’t sound so rational. I open the door and run down the steps back out into the cold. I run in the direction of the club Vinyl is working at tonight. I’m not sure why I’m running so fast or even why I’m running at all. All I know is right now I really need to see Vinyl. I know I’m running to Vinyl but at the same time I can’t help but feel I’m running away. I feel like if Lyra was here right now she’d be questioning what I was doing. This wasn’t part of the plan. Heck, even I’m questioning what I’m doing right now. It feels like I’m on auto-pilot. Like I have no control over what I’m doing and frankly I don’t care. I just really need to see my Vinyl right now. The realization that this wasn’t the plan at all and my want to see the mare I love just makes me run faster. My hooves seem to fly off the ground as I ram into a pony walking the opposite direction of me. I hurtle over them crushing into some trash cans left out for the night, flying out into the street with an unholy crack only to be greeted by a taxi nearly hitting me and the trash cans. Luckily, I avoid being hit by the taxi thanks to a last minutes save by some dark gray magic that grabs me by my likely already broken foreleg. “Tavi!” I hear the other pony cry out in a slurred tone as I hit the ground once more. I can feel my right foreleg snap back and bend in a way it really shouldn’t have. The worse part was it did that naturally. If it wasn’t broken before, it most certainly is broken now. I catch a better look at the pony who tripped me as they kneel down into the light to help me. Of course it’s Vinyl and of course she is very intoxicated. Well at least Chrissie didn’t get her. Silly brain making up things. She calls out to me in a very slow, very slurred tone, “You alright Tavi baby?” She nudges me under the neck with her muzzle. “My little Octi.” She’s practically singing the words in my ears. I bite my tongue and clench my teeth. “Vinyl,” I say sounding very much in pain. “You’re late. You’re late and you’re drunk and” She gently brushes against the offending foreleg and I hiss in pain, “I think I’ve broken my foreleg.” She instantly looks both panicked and downtrodden. “Vinyl, honey, listen to me.” It hurts so much. I still have to tell her the truth. I have to. “I need you to set the bone with your magic.” She’s far to drunk for this. Who am I kidding Vinyl wouldn’t be able to do anything this delicate even if she was sober. Luckily she sobers up enough to say, “No Octavia we need to get you to a hospital.” She levitates me with her magic and begins to run back the way she came. “I’m so, so, so, so, so , so sorry Tavi. If I would’ve come home when I was suppose to your foreleg wouldn’t be busted right now.” I can feel my changeling magic starting to heal my leg. Shape shifters in general have healing abilities and changelings are no different. It also helps that Vinyl is amplifying my powers with her love and concern right now. You’d think with all these powers taking over a place would be simple right? I blame bad management. “Vinyl I’m fine, I think it was just a sprain.” Please don’t notice the green flow of energy. “Please, Vinyl its very late can we just go home?” She stops turning around a bit. She shakes and stumbles a bit. I see her close her eyes under her glasses and her cheeks turn a pale green. Oh Celestia no. She makes to talk but the only thing that comes out is…I’d rather not talk about it. Lets just go with Vinyl is in no shape to be running home or to the hospital for my leg. I hop off her back. My leg is nearly healed now, just a minor sprain. I was always the fastest healer in the hive. “Vinyl,” I say raising her face up with my better hoof resting on my flank as to keep my balance. “Look at me.” I can see her eyes shift under her purple sunglasses. Honestly no wonder we ran into each other. She’s blind as a bat and drunk as a skunk. While I was running blind with no sleep fueled by fear and paranoia. “We need to get home. We need to talk and I don’t want to do that here. My leg is fine but do you think you can walk drunk as you are?” “Buh you’re leg Tavi?” She stammers out still looking rather ill. I stand on all fours the leg completely healed. “It’s fine see?” Still not believing me she pokes the leg. No pain what so ever. I managed to heal it perfectly with out her even noticing. I shrug her foreleg around my back to help her balance. I can see by the look on her face that she’s trying really hard to concentrate on what’s going on around her and failing miserably. By some miracle we end up back at the apartment. It’s now five in the morning and I’m so exhausted. I think Vinyl might be even more tired then I am though. She wobbles against me but I manage to keep her steady. “Come now you drunker. Off to bed.” I laugh a little bit. We take it one hoof at a time off to the bed room and then to the bed. I help Vinyl up and pull the blanket up to her neck. “I’m sorry Tavi…” she mutters out half drunk half tired. “You must’a been so worried…I really should’ve called. I was playing this awesome set and it went on a little long and then after some of the fans and the dude who owns the place wanted to have a few drinks…maybe talk money.” Her eye brows scrunch up as she tries to recall the night. To be fair I’m also saying it how she meant it, not how it sounded. It sounded a little more like this, “Iff Tavi. Sue muster worried….called. Epic…epic night. Oh! The monies!” I’ve gotten rather good at translating drunk Vinyl. She goes on to say, “Fish are friends not fish.” I’m not exactly sure what she means by that and I frankly don’t want to know. I chuckle a little bit crawling into bed with her. I’m so tired. I can wait until she sobers up tomorrow to tell her everything. Tonight has already been far to long. I hear Vinyl snore quietly next to me. Already out like a light. Good. I sigh contently throwing my forelegs over her. I’m not sure who to ask for just one more wonderful night with Vinyl before I tell her that I’m a changeling so I’ll ask everypony. I’ll ask anypony really. Just give me one more night of empty bliss.