//------------------------------// // Two Months Late // Story: Trash.demo // by dfkingerperson //------------------------------// Vinyl ended up tasting iron at a small café a few minutes from her apartment. The shock of almost shearing her tongue off had been enough to shake her out of her weariness and get her out the door before she really realized what she was doing. From there she had stumbled down the stairwell of her apartment building until she was on the street. Her body automatically started walking to Bushwhackers café on Gorgonzola Boulevard. She had walked there hundreds of times before, and she had no doubt that she could have made it there in her sleep. As it was she walked with her eyes lowered to the ground to try and avoid the glare of the sun in her eyes. She listened to her hooves clop on the cobblestones and tried to think of something to say once she got there. She had managed to string together the rough framework of her apology to start off with between bemoaning her injured tongue and hoping that she was too late to meet the pony that was waiting for her. It would be for the best she told herself. She would get to the café and after seeing no one she would go back home, take a nice long bath and be ready to come tomorrow looking her best. In fact, it was probably already one o’ clock and she stuck to schedule better than any other pony Vinyl knew. By one she would have paid her check and be off in the city hobnobbing and whatever with the high society. She glanced up just to make sure she wouldn’t bump into anypony when she turned around to go back to her apartment. The pony she was on her way to meet was sitting at their table under the awning of the café, drinking iced tea with a slight look of annoyance. Vinyl briefly considered just continuing to walk, avoiding what would probably be the worst conversation with her best friend she would ever have. But then she made eye-contact with the gray pony and understood that if she kept walking her chances of being thrown into a lake with cement hooves would skyrocket. So she bit the bullet and sat down across from Octavia. Her tongue throbbed again. Damn, she needed some ice. --- Octavia sipped her iced tea out of a straw and stared at her best friend, a neutral expression on her face. When she had first seen the unicorn walking down the street she had at thought it was just somepony with a passing resemblence. A blue mane and a white coat certainly wasn’t the rarest combination, and living in Canterlot meant meeting a look-alike of someone as relatively well-known as Vinyl was not impossible. But then she made eye-contact and the recognition on the unicorns face blew any doubt away. This was the friend she hadn’t seen in more than two months finally showing up for what used to be their daily lunch ritual. After the recognition in Vinyl’s eyes of course came the fear, but a slight narrowing of her own eyes stopped any thoughts Vinyl may have had of running away. So reluctantly Vinyl approached her table and took a seat, avoiding looking directly into her eyes. Examining her long departed friend Octavia found that Vinyl resembled a bum much more than usual. She also wasn’t starting the conversation like she usually would. Her mane was overgrown and actually messy, rather than the usual fake messy she opted for; her coat was dearly in need of trim with bits of dust and debris stuck in it, and her eyes were bloodshot and, even stranger, able to be seen. The fact that she had forgotten her ever-present shades when she left her home that morning was the most shocking thing about her. Octavia had enough hooves to count how many times she had seen Vinyl without some form of glasses on, and most of them had involved Vinyl getting hit in the face. While she took in her companions bedraggled state Vinyl opened her mouth to try and say something. Another glare cowed her back into submission though. Sipping her iced tea Octavia wondered just what had put the great Vinyl Scratch in such a state. The mare she knew was fearless, confident, and almost depressingly bad at reading social cues. Normally her glares were brushed past with a hearty chuckle and bad sexual innuendo. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with Vinyl but it was obviously important and it was her duty as a friend to help her, regardless of how pissed off she was at having been stood up for two months. However she was also acutely aware that her last glare had now made it impossible for Vinyl to start the conversation. As per usual, she silently cursed her over-aggression towards her friends. She had no real idea of how to be comforting to Vinyl about her unknown problem. Asking how she was doing was stupid, as she was obviously doing terribly. Not only that but Vinyl hated being offered help so offering some was a no-go as well. She could have asked where she had been for the last few months but she wasn’t sure she could ask the question without spitting a pint of venom at Vinyl at the same time. The silence lengthened from frosty to awkward as Octavia considered and then rejected conversation starters. Finally she just said the first thing that came to mind. “You look abysmal.” Shit. Vinyl winced at her statement and Octavia almost winced with her. Her voice came out harsh and judgmental when she had been trying to go for caring. She should have just gotten up and put a comforting hoof on Vinyl’s shoulder or something. A non-verbal way to express comfort rather than speak and fuck it up like always. “Heh. Yeah I guess I do.” Vinyl tried to force a smile on her face as she finally met Octavia’s eyes. They both stared at one another again, Vinyl’s smile melting off her face as the new silence stretched, ice broken in perhaps the worst way possible. Fuck it, might as well forge on through. “So where have you been for the last two months?” “Uh, well,” She coughed into her hoof and tried to plaster on the fake smile again. “I’ve been having, uh, problems.” “Obviously.” Dammit, could she sound bitchier? A faker chuckle came from Vinyl as she continued. “Well, I’ve been in my apartment mostly, you know, working on music and stuff for my next album. You know how it is when you get into the zone while composing, can’t be stopping my rhythm for anything, right? “Well, so I’ve been cooped up there for a while and just, you know, musicing? Been setting up some mad beats and got sort of carried away for, uh, a few months, I guess. Really sort of got, um… ” Octavia could feel her glare intensifying against her will as Vinyl trailed off. She took another sip of her tea and wondered how best to approach the bullshit sandwich she had just been served. She decided directly was the best. “I’m going to do you a favor and pretend that you didn’t just try and lie to me, and instead did something embarrassing like burp. Now I’m going to ask again: Where have you been?” Vinyl looked everywhere but at Octavia before finally answering in a scratchy, unused voice. “Um, well, I wasn’t exactly lying about being in my apartment for the last couple of months. I have been there mostly.” Octavia stared into Vinyl’s eyes, which were quite content with avoiding her own. “I mean I haven’t been there the entire time. I had to go out shopping coupla times. But I bought stuff to last, ya know, like oats. So I haven’t actually been out of the there for the last, uh, month or so, maybe?” Octavia stared at Vinyl. “And I’ve been doing stuff, ya know. Maybe not exactly working on the album like I said. I mean, I tried to but I didn’t exactly get a lot of work done, heh. Mostly just household chores and stuff... I finally cleaned my bedroom like you suggested but I think the mattress might’ve been a home to a colony of rats or something. There was a lot of squeaking when I laid down on it anyway, so I threw it out. My window.” Octavia stared. Vinyl went quiet for a moment before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. “I thought about killing myself this morning.” She closed her eyes and looked as if she was bracing herself, like she was expecting Octavia to reach out over the table and start shaking her with indignation at the knowledge of her friend having suicidal thoughts. Octavia mulled over Vinyl’s confession for about a moment, debating how to deal with this admission. “So,” she finally asked calmly, “Why didn’t you?” Vinyl opened one of her eyes. “What?” Octavia leaned forward onto the table, supporting her head with her hooves. “I asked why you didn’t kill yourself.” Vinyl uncoiled and tried to smirk a little. “Well, you know, cause it’s bad. I can’t very well deprive the Equestria of me and my sweet beats, can I?” “Vinyl, I thought we had already covered lies.” Vinyl deflated and her eyes went straight towards the ground before mumbling something under her breath. Octavia let out an exasperated sigh. “Speak up, I am not going to bite your head off.” “…I felt like getting up to grab a knife was too much work.” With Vinyl slouching on her chair like a sack of potatoes Octavia knew that she wasn’t going to get much more out of her. She sighed and straightened up closing her own eyes and thinking about what to say. Octavia wasn’t a stranger to being suicidal. When she was younger she had entertained the odd suicide fantasy. The therapist her parents had sent her to was a hack as far as she was concerned, content in prescribing medicine and then throwing her out of his office. She had fought her way through her depression alone, confronting her problems, fears, and inadequacies head on and fighting through them. Except… she had also met Vinyl around the same time; a young idealistic filly on her own in the big city looking for her fame and fortune. She had stuck to Octavia like glue for years before Octavia had even consciously entertained the thought of calling her and the other kids they had hung out with 'friends'. When she thought about it Vinyl was probably the first real friend Octavia had ever made. She never told Vinyl about her problems but she could clearly remember times in her own darker episodes where Vinyl had ‘just happened’ to be around and had stayed by her side against her own wishes. The DJ had frequently went out of her way to be available and helpful when Octavia was at her bitchiest and lashed out against her. Vinyl always just let it go and stuck by her, and Octavia could admit that if Vinyl hadn’t she might not have even been alive right now. Octavia’s best friend was in a similar place she had been, and sometimes still returned to. It was her duty to help her however she could, and to stick by Vinyl’s side like she had stuck by hers. She could finally pay Vinyl back for everything Octavia had felt she owed the unicorn for years, and show through action what she couldn’t always put into words. Unfortunately she had no idea what to say. Even after her own experiences and knowing that there wasn’t some magical sentence or speech she could say to fix her friend she still wished there was. All she could think of was that she was failing a friend the one time Vinyl clearly needed her and she hated how that made her feel. “Octy… please help me.” She heard Vinyl finally whisper. She had known Vinyl for almost eight years. In that time she had learned that the one thing the pony across from her hated more than anything else was other ponies trying to help her. Even if she needed it she would only let it happen begrudgingly and seemed to resent it, at least until her short attention span was distracted by something else. The fact that she had dragged herself out of her depressive funk and came to her so desperately spoke deeply to just how bad Vinyl felt her situation was and how much she needed aid. Octavia knew then that she would do absolutely everything in her power to help Vinyl Scratch. As far as she was concerned, that was all there was to it. Octavia took a final sip of her tea and let out a sigh of satisfaction. Then she began. “So, essentially, the only reason you did not kill yourself because you were too tired.” Vinyl glanced up and nodded. “This was also obviously not the first expression of ennui you have been feeling in recent months.” Vinyl cocked an eyebrow. “What’s ennui?” “It basically means really tired.” Octavia sighed. “Oh. Yeah I guess” “You have been feeling useless, put out and can’t even summon the energy to eat on some days. The lethar- tiredness has been more or less constant and contributing to your misery while you lie in bed all day and wish you were better than you clearly are.” “Yup. Well, except for the bed part. I sleep on the couch now.” “Of course. Well I expect our best course of action is to decide where you are going to go from here. You could always go back to your apartment and wallow in your self-hatred for a while before you finally expire from malnutrition or dehydration. Perhaps you could go to a therapist and have her stuff you to the gills with every prescription drug she thinks she can con you into buy. Or I suppose you could trade your self-hatred for self-pity and waddle along in your life alienating your friends and accidentally destroying everything you hold dear.” “Um... all those options all sound kinda pretty shitty Octy.” “They are all undoubtedly shitty Vinyl. However, they are your only options. So choose, Scratch.” Vinyl considered something for a moment before she spoke. “Can I choose D? None of the above?” Octavia felt a corner of her mouth move up a fraction of an inch. That sounded a bit more like her best friend. With an exaggerated sigh she continued. “Well if you insist on being difficult then I suppose we will have to find another solution to your conundrum. I suggest that tomorrow, after my recital tonight, I will come by your apartment and we will begin cohabiting until such a time that I deem you are ready to take care of yourself and won’t expire the next time a mood such as this one overtakes you. We will spend out time together trying to nurture you back in to best Vinyl Scratch you can be. After all, ‘DJ PON3’ can’t be seen by her fans like this, can she? Does that grab you as a more amiable resolution?” “A bit, yeah.” Vinyl mumbled. “I’m glad we could reach a satisfactory conclusion then. Until then we are going to sit here at this table, talk like friends, and I will watch you eat an entire daisy sandwich because, frankly, you look like a strong wind could blow you over.” “…Okay.” Octavia looked at her best friend, and how defeated and broken she sounded, even after her earlier flash of vitality. She felt, not pity, but a deep sense of obligation and responsibility. She had always felt that without her Vinyl would be like a filly without their mother, lost and liable to break anything expensive she saw. But now she felt, not like a mother, but like a true friend, ready and willing to stick by another friend during their time of trouble. Then she frowned as she considered what she had to ask next. “Listen Vinyl, I want you to look me in the eyes and answer honestly.” Vinyl looked up tentatively. Octavia took a deep breath and asked a question she wished that someone had asked her on her darkest days. “Do you actually want to die? Do you feel that your life is actually so miserable that you cannot stand it anymore? Did you come here out of concern for yourself or did you do it because you thought I and the others would be sad if you died and you didn’t want to hurt m- us? ” Vinyl closed her eyes and seemed to think about the question for a moment. When she opened them her voice was stronger. “I don’t wanna die. Not yet.” Octavia relaxed at the unicorns answer. “Well then, now that that’s settled I suppose we should order your lunch, shouldn’t we.” She turned to look for the waitress. Vinyl lowered her gaze for a second, before a confused look came upon her face. “If I had said I did want to die what would you have done Octy?” For once Octavia was the one who avoided eye-contact. “I… most likely would have taken you back to my house to talk. Tried to get you a therapist that wasn’t a hack. Help you as much as I could, perhaps resort to anti-depressants as a last resort. In the end though, if all that wasn’t enough and you were still in pain…” Octavia closed her eyes and sighed before staring unwaveringly at Vinyl. “I would have helped you... to the best of my ability. With whatever you thought was best. Let us leave it at that.” “…Okay.” The silence between them began to stretch again as Octavia finally caught sight of the waitress, out of uniform, rushing out of the restaurant and weaving between the tables outside. Octavia raised a hoof to her mouth and gave a polite cough, causing the orange earth pony’s ears to instantly swivel to the sound like a trained dog. Changing her direction the mare approached the table, though she kept bouncing on her hooves, anxious to be on her way. “I’m really sorry Miss Octavia, but I can't serve you for the rest of your lunch. My mom just called the restaurant and you know how she is. If I don’t go right now she might start burning things.” Then the mare noticed the white unicorn trying to shrink into her seat. “Oh, Vinyl, you came back! That’s great! Miss Octavia has been up a tree with worry since you stopped coming to lunch.” Vinyl gave a weak wave to their regular waitress, looking slightly embarrassed at having been seen in her current state. Octavia gave a small smile as she answered “Well I do hope that your mother feels better soon Chatty. Tell her hello for me and I’ll hopefully see you tomorrow.” “Oh don’t worry, you will. Have a good lunch! Your replacement server should be out soon.” Chatty gave Octavia and Vinyl a bright smile before hurrying on her way. Once she was gone Octavia’s smile melted off of her face as she turned back to Vinyl. “She is the dumbest mare I have ever met.” She muttered under her breath, but loud enough for Vinyl to hear. “She’s also the only one willing to serve us here anymore. You don’t always have to insult ponies who aren’t scared of you. She probably just wants to be your friend. Besides, that smile of yours wasn’t completely fake, was it?” Vinyl had a bad habit of showing sudden insight into Octavia’s actions that always surprised her, even after experiencing them so many times. If Octavia was a lesser pony she might have pouted. As it was she just changed the subject. “Ugh. Regardless, if you were so depressed this morning what got you out of… I suppose your couch?” “I bit my tongue really hard. Tried to shock my brain to get moving, you know. I guess it worked ‘cause I was out the door and headed here before I knew it. Even forgot to put my shades on like an idiot. Tongue still really hurts though. I think I can taste the blood and it’s throbbing like crazy.” Octavia gave a theatric sigh and leaned forward, “Open your mouth you big foal. Let me see your ‘booboo.’” Vinyl leaned over the table and let her tongue roll out of her mouth as Octavia got a closer look at it. “You didn’t even break the skin. You have perhaps three teeth marks.” Octavia said as she leaned back again, nose wrinkled. “Ya tangue isthn’t sthkin, ith’s a musthcle.” Vinyl lisped. Octavia narrowed her eyes again. “Vinyl, shut up.” Vinyl giggled as she retreated back to her seat. --- Nutty Taste, blue hair impeccably brushed and green coat recently groomed, bounded up to his very first table of the day, happier than anypony had a right to be in a service job. He levitated a pitcher of fresh made tea next to here that was sweating in the afternoon sun. He approached the pair of mares, one a gray earth pony and the other a thin white unicorn, put on his best smile and poured the tea into the gray ones glass. “Hello ma’am, my name is Nutty Taste and I just came by to refill your iced tea. Your waitress had an emergency and had to leave unfortunately. I'm happy to be able to serve you in her place though! It truly is a beautiful day to eat outside don’t you think?” The earth pony turned her gaze away from the unicorn to affix on the young waiter, who beamed back at her with beatific smile. “You are new, are you not?” She asked. Nutty’s smile increased by a few inches “Why yes ma’am, I am! I just started today and this is my first real job, actually. And may I just say it is my complete and utter pleasure to serve you and your lady friend today. Is there anything else you would like, or do you want the check?” The earth pony’s expressionless face slid into a scowl, though the Nutty didn’t notice at first, so glad to be having his first rapport with a customer. “I’ll have some Everclear. She’ll have some ice water and a daisy sandwich.” “I’m not sure if I’m familiar with that brand of tea ma’am. But I’m sure if you tell us the provider we’ll be able to get some by your next visit!” He said cheerfully, not consciously noticing the gray pony begin to glare. “It’s not tea. It’s alcohol.” “Ahem, well I do apologize ma’am but this restaurant doesn’t actually serve alcohol.” He said, slightly confused. “However we do have a fine selection of fruit juices that I’m sure-“ The gray pony’s eye narrowed. “I know this establishment doesn’t serve alcohol. I happen to come him quite regularly and have partaken in the entire menu at one time or another. However, at the moment I am not feeling parched for something sweet, or creamy, or fruity. I would much prefer something that burns. Understand?” “Oh dear,” the waiter was starting to regret his decision to take this as his first table of the day. But as his mother used to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. Besides, the customer was always right, right? “Well, I can certainly ask the kitchen if they have any but-“ “The kitchen won’t have any. However, there is a small convenience store two blocks over that carries the brand I’m asking for. I’m sure that you could take a quick jaunt over there and pick up a bottle for me before coming back and getting my friend her lunch.” “Um ma’am, I don’t think…” “Nutty, I am afraid that I have to insist. As a patron of this fine restaurant I believe you have a duty to make me as happy as possible, correct? Well what would make me happy right now is a bottle of alcohol with an astonishingly high proof.” The customer was always right, but he was pretty sure that skipping out on work to get a bottle of alcohol on his first day was an offense that could get him fired, even if a customer did ask for it. He could go ask his supervisor what to do but running to her after his very first table wouldn’t leave a very good impression of his competence. Besides running errands wasn’t part of his job! He had dignity after all! It was time to get tough! “Listen ma’am, now I’m sure that after you leave you, uh, you can…” He trailed off as the gray mare glowered and drew his own gaze into their purple embrace. His bluster seemed to evaporate as quickly as it came as she kept eye contact, not even blinking, while his own eyes began to water. For some reason though closing them seemed like a very bad idea. She was staring at him much harder than he was comfortable with and he could feel himself start to sweat under the collar of his uniform. He managed to break the stare to glance at her unicorn companion, thinking he might have better luck with the scary pony’s friend but the white pony just gave him a small smile and shrugged apologetically. “Don’t look at her child, look at me.” The gray one stated, startling waiter into resuming the horrid eye-contact. Her gaze seem to make it impossible to look away again and her purple eyes seemed to drill into his brain the longer he held them. He tried to rally himself. The customer may always be right but… “Go.” The gray pony said interrupting his thoughts. Then a small, malicious smile crept onto her face. “After all, the customer is always right, are they not?” “Uh I-I’ll be r-right back ma’am, I mean Miss, Madam, Sir.” He stuttered as he slowly started to back away from the possibly mind reading earth pony. As soon as he was far enough away that she wouldn’t be able to reach him as soon as he turned his back he started to run, pitcher of ice tea still in his levitation's grasp shaking and spilling down the road. --- “That was kind of mean, wasn’t it Octy?” “Breaking the new ones in early is for the best. Otherwise they keep acting… chipper.” She spat the last word like a curse. She kept the scowl that had reasserted on her face as soon as the waiter had left for a moment before sighing and rolling her eyes. “Fine, I will talk to the manager and make sure he isn’t punished for leaving. I’ll even reimburse them for the bottle. Satisfied?” “A bit, yeah.” Vinyl chuckled. A silence came over them again, but unlike the first one this one was calm and welcoming. It was the silence of two friends just enjoying each other’s company. Octavia had finished her iced tea again when the waiter came jogging up to their table, levitating a bottle of clear liquid along with the tea pitcher, now filled with only ice. “Here you go madam!” He huffed out, placing the bottle carefully on the table before staggering away as quickly as possible back into the interior of the restaurant. She examined the bottle the waiter had dropped on the table, giving a small scoff of distaste at him having brought a weaker version of the spirit. Octavia opened and then took the bottle by the neck in her mouth. She poured a mouthful of it into her empty tea glass before moving it over to Vinyl’s side of the table with a hoof. “Take a nip of this and swish it around in your mouth. Then spit.” “Huh?” “Your mouth smells like something died in it. Take a swig of Everclear and it’ll wipe out at least some of the villages of bacteria that must be in mouth right now.” Vinyl picked up the glass with her magic, slightly flinching at the exertion. “But then won’t my breath just smell like I’m drunk?” “Smelling drunk is better than smelling dead. I’d buy enough to make you bathe in it if I had brought anymore bits.” Vinyl took a swig and grimaced as she swirled the burning concoction around in her mouth. She spit it onto the grass a few seconds later, gagging. “Holy shit, it feels like my mouth is on fire.” “Good. Maybe that will teach you not to neglect basic hygiene, no matter how depressed you get.” Octavia said, swallowing her own mouthful of the alcohol straight from the bottle. “You’re like a foal sometimes, I swear.” “Heh, maybe. But you still love me, right Octy?” She smiled genuinely even though her eyes were tearing up. Octavia sighed and rolled her eyes again. “Unfortunately, yes.”