Letting out the most satisfied sigh she’d ever released in her life, Vinyl flushed the toilet and meandered back out into the hall. That was probably saying something extreme considering the number of stallions she’d brought home, but right now she was solely proud of not having urinated on the carpet. As clarity returned to her thoughts, she realized Octavia was still waiting for her downstairs, and the coming discussion/argument/fight wasn’t going to be a fun one. Dropping a much more dour sigh, Vinyl hurried down the stairs.
Octavia was waiting in her large gray armchair with a small frown on her face. The end-table next to the chair was notably short a small glass of red wine that she normally had in the evenings. At the sight of Vinyl, she pointed toward the sofa, and then folded her forelegs together.
“Alright, Vinyl, I hope you don’t have anymore tricks planned now. I’m being serious here, and I hope we can get this all worked out shortly, so there are no more problems, and so you can be off to work shortly.”
Vinyl plopped down on the sofa and stared over at Octavia. “Nope, nothin’ but realtalk here. So what are we going to do?”
“Well, I was hoping we could just swear off pranking each other. It’s costing a small fortune in time, energy, home repairs, and duct tape.”
“You’re telling me.” Vinyl winced. “I think I spent about thirty bits on that stuff in the last week.”
“So, is that it? Can we just call it off now?” Octavia looked over at Vinyl warily.
“Yeah, it’s done. Not much fun anymore, so there isn’t any point. Shake on it?”
“Please.”
Vinyl got up, walked halfway across the living room, then lifted up her right forehoof and spat on it. Octavia made a grimace, then tried to stand up to return the gesture. As she shifted forward, some invisible force grabbed her rump and pulled it right back. Twice more she scrunched up and pushed away from the chair, only to get nowhere at all. Looking up to see Vinyl’s smiling face and outstretched hoof, Octavia’s complexion darkened.
“Octy, what’s going on?”
“I’m stuck!”
“Why...oh….” Vinyl winced.
“What do you mean, ‘oh?!’”
“Well...I might have done other things while you were in the shower. Like maybe I could have possibly put just a little two-sided tape on your chair -- in theory. Just a potential thing. You know?”
“Vinyl…” Octavia started to frown, and just didn’t stop. It turned into a visage of hatred and disgust. “You just said no more tricks.”
“Ahaha...ha...you see, I did that before I surprised you in the bathroom. I didn’t break any promise here. Seriously, I swear! We never even shook on it, because you can’t get out of the chair.” Still twisting back and forth, Octavia was thoroughly stuck in her armchair. “Oh look at you! You’re like a puppy stuck under a blanket.” Vinyl couldn’t help it any longer, and her laughter burst forth at Octavia.
“You let me up this instant!” If you don’t--”
“If I don’t you’ll what, exactly? Your stupid pride got us into this at the start. Can’t you just apologize now and call it done?”
The stream of expletives that dropped from Octavia’s mouth caused Vinyl’s to drop in turn. She slowly shook her head, and trotted over toward the kitchen. No more using trying now.
“Vinyl, I will slay you! I vow to the Sun, and to the Moon, and to my late mother that I will be the end of you! You will not know peace, you will not know rest! There will only be fear of hellfire in your mind and fear of death in your bones as you run. And when you finally meet your maker, you will spend an eternity thinking over the evil you caused and lamenting your treachery!”
Well, if I’m really going to go to hell for this, time to get my eternity’s worth. Whistling merrily to herself, Vinyl pulled open the junk-drawer. Sadly, there was no duct tape left at all. Turning instead to the cabinet under the sink, she considered her options. There was a roll of plastic wrap, and a new box of aluminum foil. Thoughtfully, she looked at one, and then the other, then made her choice.