//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Discoveries // Story: Vinyl and Octavia: Ponyville Duet // by generalsnaz //------------------------------// Chapter 12: Discoveries Freak Freak Freak The word had the indecency to keep repeating itself in Octavia's head. Around and around it went, never sounding any less horrible than before. It was cold... and unforgiving. Vinyl's a freeeeeeeeak. Berry Punch had whispered these poisonous words into Octavia's unsuspecting ears. Her tone was full of malice and bitterness, as if there was nothing in this world more foul and vile than Vinyl Scratch. She'll ruin you. Never before had the privileged Octavia Melody been witness to such passionate loathing so intimately. Even during her arguments with Vinyl, there was more frustration than actual animosity coming from the DJ. But this... this was hate. Pure and simple. Before Octavia could fully process the words, Berry Punch abruptly released her, subsequently giving her a bubbly smile that was completely devoid of the intense contempt she had just shown. "Have a naish *hic* night~ Octy-tavia~!" The drunk pony stumbled away, hiccupping occasionally and singing some out of tune song between giggles. Octavia's mind seemed to have simply turned her off, perhaps to protect her from doing something barbaric that she might regret later, like throwing a punch. After an unknown amount of time being numb, she came to her senses. Immediately she had to cover her mouth and lean over to prevent her stomach from committing treason by vomiting. The smell of alcohol lingering in the night air only exacerbated the problem. 'Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!' Octavia tightly closed her eyes and forced her body to stop shivering. She recently came to the unpleasant realization that a monotonous, privileged Canterlot life never prepared her to deal with intense unfamiliar circumstances and emotions. The events of the past few days made that painfully obvious, as she freaked out at every little thing. A deep breath stabilized the treacherous nausea in her gut. Glancing upwards, she saw that Berry Punch was gone; nothing remained underneath the streetlamp besides a sea of moths dancing around to the tempo of their impending death. (Hey, that's pretty poetic!) 'It's alright, Octavia. Calm yourself,' she told herself. Using her finely developed deducing skills, Octavia set her mind to unraveling the strange occurrence. 'Miss Berry has much more ill-will towards Vinyl than I previously ascertained.' Octavia recalled her first encounter with Berry Punch. Vinyl hadn't wanted to speak to the fruit colored pony, but Berry wasn't at all vicious back then. She did seem however, to have some hidden issue with Vinyl. 'Perhaps she was simply being courteous enough to not allow their personal conflict to arise in public. She... seems to be a relatively nice pony under normal circumstances...' Octavia backed up her conclusion with the fact that Berry had hugged her out of the blue. (Objection, your honor! She was drunk!) Octavia's nose cringed at the recollection of Berry's breath. 'She must have been drinking heavily. ...Maybe her intoxication caused her to fabricate or misconstrue an event in her memory?' Octavia tried to give the pony the benefit of the doubt, but she couldn't deny the truth: Berry Punch's words were as sober as they were cruel. The out of place Canterlot cellist tapped her head while sitting by herself in the street in the middle of the night. 'However, if Miss Berry was fully aware of what she was saying, then she really does consider Vinyl a... "freak." But why in Equestria would she-?' The obvious answer came to mind before she could finish asking the question to herself. Octavia clearly remembered how she felt when Vinyl first revealed her eyes. Those red eyes. The cellist was struck with the realization of how horrifying it really was, to feel like there was a terrible force trying to crush her and wipe her smeared existence off the face of Equestria. It strangled her throat, it punctured her skull, and it twisted her organs. If she didn't become so determined to befriend Vinyl at that moment, Octavia realized she would've run away in fear, if she could have even moved. Anypony would have. Berry Punch must have. 'Miss Berry must know about Vinyl's secret then, and she must have rejected her,' Octavia concluded. She recalled how Vinyl was so relieved when she didn't flee at the sight of her eyes. With a blush, Octavia remembered how Vinyl even, um... "rewarded" her when she endured it. 'Vinyl did say it meant a lot to her,' the cellist thought, remembering the conversation earlier that day. She sighed in relief, believing to have figured it out. But the last part of what Berry said... Octavia didn't understand it. She almost forgot since the "freak" bit was so striking. '"She'll ruin you." ...Does Miss Berry think Vinyl is dangerous? Was she simply trying to warn me? She did stress how important is was to tell me.' Octavia shifted uncomfortably; her packs were carrying several books from Twilight that were weighing her down. She looked up at the moon, shining indifferently down on her. But she didn't fantasize about Princess Luna at that moment, she was far too preoccupied with her best friend. Aware of her surroundings once again, she shivered. It was cold that night. Exhausted from a hectic day, Octavia trotted back to Vinyl's abode, sure to find the promised warmth and company of her friend. Arriving after a short time, she opened the still creaky front door (somepony needs to oil that thing). It was dark inside, but she remembered where the lamps were and soon enough the room glowed warm. But Octavia didn't find Vinyl there. She didn't even find the house she spent cleaning the past two days. Instead she was greeted with a disaster and her stomach sunk. The room was wrecked! The couch was on it's head; the cushions were misplaced. The record stacks were gone: instead, somepony had opened every single sleeve and tossed aside the contents as evidenced of the pile of partially broken records across the room. The remains of Vinyl's equipment had been pushed down. Loose pieces of scrap and wire were scattered around the room. Even Octavia's own suitcases were open, and the useless items inside were dumped on top of the other wreckage. "V-Vinyl!?" Octavia called after several moments of shock. Vinyl's a freak. She'll ruin you. 'Did Vinyl do this? Is she upset?' Octavia thought, swallowing nervously, but she quickly shook the accusing thoughts off. 'Vinyl is my best friend! She is not a freak! She is not dangerous!,' she convinced herself. 'But what in Equestria what happened here? Was there an intruder?' Was it the bad stallions Vinyl warned me about!?' Octavia's stomach sunk further than before at the thought of facing a criminal. She stood for what seemed like ages listening for any hoofsteps or creaking boards. She unconfidently concluded whoever did this was no longer present. Octavia cautiously inspected the rest of the house, keeping her ears perked and readying herself to gallop away at a moment's notice. The kitchen fared no better than the living room. Each neatly put away pot or pan was now laying on the floor. Several plates had broken at the impact of being thrown aside. The sight of broken dishes put more butterflies in Octavia's stomach. 'My cello!' In a panic, she bolted upstairs and lit the lamps. Vinyl's room was the worst. Her mattress was across the room, the bedframe turned upside down. The posters lining the wall were torn down. Her dresser was knocked over, the dresser drawers were emptied on the floor, each article of clothing was strewn about. A chest near the staircase was toppled open, its contents scattered. Octavia quickly sighted her cello, laying on top of the various band-endorsed t-shirts the DJ owned. Octavia rushed over to check the condition. Luckily it seemed the perpetrator had thrown the cello onto the pile of clothes, softening the fall. After giving her precious possession a hug, she turned to the rest of the mess. Deciding to use those fantastic deduction powers again, she set out to solve the mystery. 'Nothing appears to be missing, but absolutely everything has been disturbed,' Octavia realized. 'Somepony was searching for a specific item?' (Nice deduction, Sherlock!) She started checking for clues in the rubble. She quickly spotted a collection of bits near the open chest by the stairs. Trotting over she inspected the scene. 'They were not interested in the money?' This would have disturbed her further except the bits were sitting on something that greatly caught her attention. It was a magazine. On the cover was a picture of an incredibly beautiful and seductively posed mare. With minimal thinking, she picked up the issue. The bits slid off it as she raised the magazine up revealing the title: Playpony. Blood rushed to Octavia's face at realization of what she held. Forgetting every single thing she believed in about privacy, she opened the pamphlet to confirm her suspicions and was validated instantly. 'Oh... my... Celestia...' Octavia knew of the concept of pornography well enough, but hadn't had any... interest (*cough*) to view any herself. It was a shocking sight for an uncorrupted pony. Each page was more suggestive than the last: the gorgeous mares promptly put their personal business on display for the reader's enjoyment and Octavia subconsciously let out a squeak/gasp at every new image. The sophisticated pony's face burned red as she flipped through the booklet finding acts she never imagined before. All thoughts of the burglar investigation were gone. Octavia looked down at the floor beneath her, there were several different issues of the magazine before her. Each one would surely hold the same obscene imagery and Octavia felt tempted to check each one to affirm it. As she reached for the next one, she found it was a different magazine entirely. She only saw the title briefly before becoming entranced by the cover: Mare Meets Mare. The words hovered above the photograph of two gorgeous ponies of the female persuasion entwined together, performing a rather gratuitous kiss (with excessive tongue use.) Octavia's mind raced faster than it ever had before, creating jumbled and incomprehensible thoughts, yet somehow it managed to command her trembling hoof to open the mysterious magazine. Never before had Octavia's face burned so red. Never before had anypony's face burned so red. A world unbeknownst to the innocent Canterlot cellist had opened up in front of her. A lewd world of improper acts between mares shimmered up from glossy ink covered pages. Octavia stared intently at each photograph, at each absurdly erotic position, and at each ecstasy-filled face. Her eyes devoured each image like a starving pony looking at a full-course meal. Her shallow breathing filled the silent room. An electric tingling ran through her body. A tingling that originated from a certain place between her cutie marks. Octavia's legs wobbled for a moment before she full-on collapsed on the floor. A mixture of exhaustion, stress, and excitement left her without any energy to stand with. Octavia looked desperately over the magazines before her. There was no denying it: they belonged to Vinyl. Supposedly there was nothing wrong with a young adult pony owning pornography, but... there were no stallions in them. There was nothing but pretty mares. Pretty mares kissing each other on the lips (and other places.) 'Oh, Celestia... Vinyl is gay.' Octavia buried her face in her hooves. She remembered every encounter she had with Vinyl, checking over every detail. She remembered how Vinyl was admiring her body from behind her shades on the train. She remembered sharing a bed and how Vinyl was having a sensual dream about her. She remembered how Berry Punch quite nearly accused her of being Vinyl's "fillyfriend." She remembered every time Vinyl squeezed her tight and didn't want to let go. She remembered how Vinyl kissed her. "OH BUCK ME!" Octavia screamed in frustration and smacked her face into the floor. The simplistic act removed all pretense of privilege to reveal a rare sight of the raw emotion underneath. Then that voice spoke up. That annoying, wretched voice that had pestered her for years. That voice that seemed keen on Vinyl the past two days. That voice that reared it's ugly head every time Octavia saw a pretty mare. '...But you enjoyed that kiss.' 'SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE BUCK UP!' Never before did Octavia want to silence that voice in her head so intensely. Never before did she want to claw open her skull, rip the screeching thing out, and stomp it to a bloody pulp so madly. It plagued her and she hated it. She hated how it taunted her. She hated how it made her feel. She hated how the pony behind the voice was none other than herself... and she hated what that meant. 'I don't want to deal with this right now... I can't...' she whimpered to herself as a stream of tears ran their regular course down her face. 'I'm just... so tired...' It was very late and she had several stressful experiences in one day. Unfortunately for her, the stress wasn't over yet. Miss Vinyl had returned. "What the buck!?!?" Vinyl cried out below at the discovery of her trashed house. The unicorn's distinctive voice shot a jolt through Octavia, even through the muffling of the floor. Panic-stricken, she jumped up and wiped her eyes. The calling from downstairs continued as Vinyl became flustered, "Octavia!? Where are you!?" "Upstairs!" Octavia weakly replied after clearing her throat. "I will be right down!" Thinking on her hooves, she grabbed several of the DJ's t-shirts and tossed them over the magazines. With any luck, Vinyl wouldn't realize she had seen them. It was a conversation she did not want to have right then (or ever, actually.) She frantically tried to straighten her mane and regain her composure, Vinyl mustn't think anything was amiss with her, or she'd start asking questions. After deep breaths and swallowing her fear, Octavia descended the stairs to face Vinyl. The cellist arrived on the scene; it was the same as before except with the addition of a white unicorn mournfully sorting through several broken records. At her arrival, Vinyl instantly bolted up and nearly galloped over to her. The Canterlot pony tried to look away, but no amount of gaze averting could stop the collision and embracing hug that followed. "Filly, are you okay? What happened? Are you hurt?" Vinyl muffled questions as she buried her face into Octavia's mane. Every single hair on Octavia's body shot up as the well-intentioned squeezing terrified the poor cellist. The first instinct of her body told her to push Vinyl away. Far away. She wasn't afraid of the DJ, but she wasn't comfortable being so close to her anymore. She hadn't had any time to sort everything out, to make sense of it, to make her decisions. On the other hoof, she also didn't want to lose her best friend either. Together they had the most intimate friendship Octavia had ever experienced. It was wonderful and fun and she didn't want to push her away. In the end, she nervously waited for Vinyl to finish. "I am fine, Vinyl," Octavia muttered as she was released. "Thank Celestia! But what the buck happened in here? Why is my place trashed?" Vinyl asked. "I do not know, I just returned from Twilight's..." Octavia said, deliberately avoiding Vinyl's worried gaze. "It was like this when I- ..." "Wait, what? You were at Twilight's? For how long!? What for!?" This unexpected response prompted a startled Octavia to actually peer into Vinyl's face. The white unicorn certainly looked worried, but that expression... was there a hint of anger? Vinyl almost immediately lowered her ears in embarrassment, and glanced away. "Oh, um... sorry, I meant... You met Twi, huh?" "Yes, I just borrowed some books from her collection..." Octavia murmured shamefully. "Really? Was that it?" Vinyl sighed in relief. "Yes, they're right over there, see?" Octavia pointed to the packs she dropped by the door, but immediately caught sight of something. Vinyl saw it too as she followed Octavia's gaze. They both missed it on the way in (and good thing too! It's much more dramatic for them to see it at the same time.) Fastened to the door was a parchment, on which a warning in red ink soaked the page: I SAW THEM. DO NOT RUN. -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Octavia shifted uncomfortably under the covers on the freshly realigned bed. Behind her snored a unicorn who occasionally murmured something ridiculous in her sleep. The gray Earth pony stared blankly towards Vinyl's wall at the shredded remains of a poster. She couldn't fall asleep and she hardly even tried. Her mind was abuzz. But it wasn't fantasies of incredible music that kept Octavia awake. Nor was it despair over the argument she had that morning, or happy memories of the food fight at Pinkie's. It was neither joy at being called a "best friend' for the first time in her life, or embarrassment over making a fool of herself at the library. It wasn't excitement at the prospect of meeting Princess Luna. She did not dwell on the mystery of Berry Punch, nor on the intruder and the strange message they left behind. There was only one thing on her mind that night. Octavia took a cautious glance at Vinyl before looking towards the shirts that covered those buried magazines. It was the longest night in Octavia's life.