Harmony from Harm

by Autum Breeze

Prologue

Octavia listened to the silence that followed after her performance was over, a single tear sliding down her muzzle.

Vinyl didn't come. Their friendship was over. She hated that it was, but she had done her best to go to every single one of Vinyl's gigs, as she called them, and yet Vinyl somehow always missed every one of Octavia's own performances, and always because "something came up" or "sorry, Tavi, I just forgot."

Even if it had caused herself massive, sometimes horrible problems, whether those problems be with her parents, her manager, her cousins (finding a way out of anything Pinkie Pie was involved in was almost always next to impossible) anypony, it didn't matter. Octivia had always done everything she could do to make it to every single one of Vinyl's shows, on time, without fail, and yet that white unicorn never even once returned that curtesy in kind.

Suddenly, her phone started ringing.

Octavia turned and took it from one of the stage ponies, the one who had been assigned to watch over her things whilst she was performing, and thanked the stage pony, who nodded and headed off and looked down at the Caller ID, a frown creasing her brow.

Vinyl. She pushed the Cancel Call button, ending it. Like I want to talk to you, of all ponies, right now.

However, mere seconds later, it started ringing again, the Caller ID once again saying it was Vinyl calling.

Scowling, Octavia answered the call, saying, "What do you want, Vinyl? Is it to say you're done with your recording and if there's still time for you to come and see me play? Well, news flash, my performance just ended and, oh, what a surprise, you aren't here. Then again, you never are, are you? At first you always were, but now it's always "Oh, sorry, Octy, that was tonight? Man, I'm at a party. I promise I'll come next time." and "Oh, that was tonight? Sorry, I totally forgot and I'm in the middle or a really important deal here about this new beat I just finished. Hey, you wanna hear it?" Well, guess what, Vinyl? There's a reason I broke—"

"Octavia?"

The Earth Pony blinked and her anger and rant halted. That wasn't Vinyl's voice. That was a stallion's voice. She was sure it was, "Neon? Neon Lights, what in Celestia are you doing calling me with Vinyl's phone? What, couldn't she be bothered to call me herself?"

"Well, you were the last to call her, so I thought you could maybe tell me why she ran out during our recording session," the stallion replied, seeming to ignore the Earth Mare's anger.

Octavia blinked in surprise. Vinyl ran out during a recording session? That didn't sound like the unicorn she knew at all.

"Wha... what happened?" she asked, slightly worried. Though she had broken their friendship, Octavia knew Vinyl would never ever, ever run out on a recording session, even if it cost her... everything.

Well, in the end, it did, in a way, I suppose. It cost her our friendship. Her face saddened. Though, maybe there wasn't any friendship in the first place. Just... business. I suppose that would explain why she never had time to come to my shows, even though I always made time to go to hers.

"Still, maybe you have an idea why she did it?" Neon asked, sounding confused. "She seemed really distracted after your call. Kept zoning out every time we started recording, for some reason."

A small knot appeared in the cellist's heart. Vinyl never got distracted while she was recording for a disc. Never. Even if Pinkie Pie were to come into the recording booth with a marching band (Octavia was still trying to figure out how she'd managed to fit nine tuba players, ten drummers and twenty harpists in that tiny booth without the whole thing exploding from the pressure) Vinyl wouldn't even notice. Had... had her breaking up their friendship... been what was making her "zone out"' as Neon put it?

"At one point she even started crying, right before running out saying, "I just gotta go"," Neon continued, not knowing Octavia's mind was somewhere else, though she still heard that last part.

The knot in her heart grew tighter, making it slightly harder to breathe.

Vinyl... had been crying? She... she never cried... Unless it was something trivial, like a broken record or misplacing her glasses.

Wait. She said " just gotta go? Where did she have to go?

Did... did she try and make it to the performance after all? Was she somewhere in the crowd and Octavia just hadn't noticed because she'd been so focused on playing her music and singing her song.

Octavia quickly looked around the room, her eyes peeled, searching ever face, ever inch of the room for the white coat, red eyes and electric-blue mane of the pony she'd thought wasn't her friend, but maybe, just maybe, she was.

Nothing. Not one pony amongst the crowd was the one white pony she knew. Vinyl wasn't here.

Her ears drooped and she looked down at the floor.

Maybe... maybe Vinyl had been distracted and crying for some other reason. If it had been about their friendship, wouldn't she be here?

The knot started to unravel and despair flowed throughout the cellist, stronger than before.

I guess... I guess we really never were friends, after all. Her heart was heavy. I suppose it was a stupid thing to hope for. We drifted apart long ago, back in college. We've been roommates for so long now, but... I should've known it wouldn't change anything, just because we now share the same apartment.

At once there was a blue flash Octavia recognized right away, in the centre of the room, at once followed by a horrible, ear-piercing scream and several ponies ran away from the centre of the room, revealing what was there.

Octavia's heart leaped into her throat.

Lying on the floor was Vinyl... but not as she should be.

Her lower half was detached, just separated, lying inches from where it should connect to her middle. Her right forehoof was the same, inches from where it attached to her foreleg. Blood was pouring quickly, spreading into a puddle around the unicorn.

"Vinyl!"

Octavia bound off the stage, running to her friend and held her, what she could of her, in her forelimbs.

Oh, sweet Celestia! Octavia screamed in her mind as she looked over the mangled form of her the unicorn DJ who had become a fixed part of her life for several years now. She'd spliched herself!

Octavia knew that was what had happened. Vinyl had told her about it several years ago, shortly after they'd started living together.

Spliching was when a unicorn used a teleportation spell, either on themself or something else, but wasn't focused enough and, while the teleport still went through, when the teleported arrived at their destination, they had split randomly.

In this case, it seemed Vinyl had spliched herself as she teleported.

Vinyl gave a weak smile. "Did... did I make it in time for your performance... Tavi…? Vinyl's eyes closed.

"Vinyl? VINYL!" Octavia cried eyes welling with tears. No. Not like this. This can't happen.

She looked around at all the ponies standing still, watching.

"Don't just stand there!" she shouted, stirring them all out of their stupors. "Call an ambulance! Get help!"

Several ponies started running outside towards the direction of Canterlot Hospital, while others went to get the medics of the performance center.

"Vinyl," Octavia whispered, brushing a strand of mane out of the DJ's closed eyes. "Hold on. Please, just hold on." She held the unicorn closer. "Please, don't leave me."

This is all my fault. This is all my fault. This is all. My. Fault!