//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: The Great Escape // Story: Vinyl and Octavia Bust Out of Prison // by DoctorSpectrum //------------------------------// “Lights out in five minutes!” cried out a guard, walking along the length of the corridor. He was on the first deck, going past every cell and shouting out how long it was until the lights were out every thirty seconds or so. All throughout the ship, down to the lower cells, other guards were performing this nightly ritual.   It was the night of the breakout, and as the guard walked past Vinyl and Octavia’s cell, the two mares looked at each other and nodded, silently readying themselves. They had told Blackheart that they would meet on the top deck fifteen minutes after lights out. They were planning to wait five minutes until after the lights were turned out then break out, giving them ten minutes to make their way to the deck.   Octavia held her breath, waiting for a guard to inevitably decide to search their cell and discover their escape plan. Of course, she still wasn’t sure on how Vinyl was going to get out of their cell – Vinyl had insisted on keeping it a surprise for the sake of what she classified as fun – but if the guards saw what she was wearing, they would immediately grow suspicious. Prisoners weren’t exactly supposed to modify their bedsheets the way Vinyl had, and if they saw that Octavia was wearing the device created by Vinyl’s modifications, they’d definitely keep a close eye on their cell for the rest of the night, perhaps even separating the pair.   As it was, Octavia lay under her sheets and pretended to be asleep as the guard walked past in the other direction, still repeating the same lines. Octavia was sure that the guard was going to knock on the bars and tell her to make her heart beat slower and quieter, but instead he kept going, not even glancing in the direction of the cell.   Then, it was time. The lights were extinguished. Darkness fell upon the corridor, and although Octavia couldn’t see it, she knew that the lights had been extinguished in all of the other prisoner decks.   “Octavia?” asked Vinyl, a few minutes after the lights had been turned off. “Yes, Vinyl?” replied Octavia in a whisper.   “Are you ready to break out?”   “Is it time to?”   “Uh…no,” replied Vinyl, sounding a little sheepish. “I just thought I’d ask if you were ready.”   “Well, I suppose I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Octavia admitted.   “Awesome,” said Vinyl. A moment later, she added, “Hey Octavia, want to break out of here?”   “I thought you’d never ask,” Octavia answered. “What do you need me to do?”   “Stay away from the door,” said Vinyl, jumping off the top bed. Octavia’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, so she was able to see what happened next: Vinyl reached a hoof to some of the fur on her chest and withdrew something small and mechanical from underneath it.   “Is that-?” began Octavia.   “- the Chekov’s Gun you bought me earlier this year?” finished Vinyl. Her wide grin was visible even in the darkness. Chekov’s Gun was a model of miniature sub-woofer which Vinyl liked to strap to her chest for some reason. “The guards didn’t find it when we were sent here, so I figured that I can probably overcharge it – my magic’s dulled, but I should be able to do that – and use it to blow a hole in our cell lock.”   “You’re brilliant, Vinyl!” said Octavia, genuinely impressed. She had forgotten about buying Vinyl the Chekov’s Gun those long months ago, around the time they tried tabletop roleplaying with her friend Natural Twenty.   “And you’re beautiful and sexy,” said Vinyl. A small glow illuminated her horn as she levitated the Chekov’s Gun from her hoof to the cell lock, and somehow locked it into place. She took a few steps back, to the far wall of the cell, and then looked away as another glow illuminated both her horn and the Chekov’s Gun. A moment later, there was a loud BANG! as though several firecrackers had gone off.   “Told you it’d work,” said Vinyl confidently. “Now, do as I say and we should be able to take out the guards without any fuss.”   It was less than a minute before the guards arrived. There was a pair of them – one a large pegasus, the other a small unicorn.   “Aw, nuts,” said the unicorn, examining the door via the light of the torch he was levitating. “They somehow burned a hole in the lock or something. They must ‘a scarpered!”   “Not entirely true,” said the pegasus, pointing a hoof at the top bunk, where Octavia lay, wrapped in sheets. Her eyes were closed as she mumbled something, seemingly asleep. The bottom bunk was empty.   The unicorn moved the torch for a better look just as a dread thought hit him. “Hey Night Watch,” he said to the pegasus, “if one of these ponies escaped, how come they didn’t pass us in the corridor? We were guarding the only exit.”   Before Night Watch could answer, two things happened. Firstly, a leg swept out from underneath the bed and into the unicorn’s hooves, knocking him to the ground. Secondly, the seemingly-asleep Octavia threw herself upright, and then in one swift moment leapt from the top of the bunk bed and tackled Night Watch. A few seconds later, Vinyl Scratch slid herself out from under the bed and slammed the unicorn’s head to the ground. There was a pause.   “I got my guy with that head slam,” whispered Vinyl. “You need help with yours?”   Octavia was covering Night Watch’s mouth – he had been knocked to the ground, but was struggling to shout out and get up. A moment later, Octavia lifted up Night Watch’s head and slammed it to the ground, mimicking Vinyl’s attack. Night Watch fell silent, Octavia’s natural Earth pony strength allowing for him to be knocked out with the one decent blow. “I’m alright, thank you Vinyl,” said Octavia.   The two ponies fell silent, both of them listening for alarms of some sort. Both of them were panting and had racing hearts, partially from the sudden amount of energy expended in knocking out the guards, partially in fear of being caught.   “I don’t think that we alerted anypony,” said Octavia, breaking the silence which had stood for almost a minute.   “Damn,” said Vinyl, “this means that we’ll have to get Blackheart off the Fort after all.”   Octavia raised an eyebrow at Vinyl, concerned. “You’re really not looking forwards to this, are you?”   “Well, I have a backup plan, but… argh!” Vinyl made a motion to kick the wall of the cell, only stopping at the last moment as it occurred to her that it would just make more noise. “That stupid bitch has us over a barrel, and she knows it.”   “…We’ll work something out,” said Octavia unconvincingly. She gave Vinyl a kiss on the cheek and trotted out of the cell. “Let’s just head to the deck now. Where are we meeting Blackheart?”   “Towards the south side of the ship,” Vinyl said, following Octavia out of the cell. “Underneath the sign that says Gay Old Exercise Yard.” A moment later, Vinyl bumped into Octavia. “Oof!”   “What did you say the sign said?” Octavia asked, sounding mortified.   “Gay Old Exercise Yard. You know the one – they showed it to us on our second day when we were let up to the deck.”   “The word,” Octavia began, barely keeping the impatience out of her voice, “is gaol! It’s pronounced the same as jail!”   “Pfft. I’m right and you know it,” said Vinyl, trotting past Octavia to the upper deck.     ===============================   “-and so the other way I was thinking of breaking out of our cell was to get some relatives of ours to bake us a cake in the shape of a file and send it to us, only it’s not a cake, it’s really a poisonous Zanzibarian ha- are you listening to me?” Vinyl was talking to Octavia as they emerged to the deck of the Fort.   “Blackheart’s done it,” breathed Octavia, looking up at the night sky. The usual pink force field which had surrounded the Fort from the first day Vinyl and Octavia had arrived had disappeared at some point, and above the ship was a night full of stars. To the right of the ship, Octavia could see the moon Luna had raised, a sight she hadn’t seen in weeks.   “Whoah,” said Vinyl, staring at the night sky alongside Octavia. “I guess you kinda forget how pretty the stars are after a few weeks of not seeing them, hey?”   “‘Pretty’?” repeated Octavia, smirking at Vinyl. “Not like you to use such terms.”   “Hey, just because I’m a rough-and-tumble unicorn who acts like she’s got nothing to lose, doesn’t mean that I can’t use fancy words,” said Vinyl. “For example, I can say that you look positively beautiful tonight, Octavia.” As she spoke, her accent changed to match the one Octavia usually spoke with.   Octavia didn’t care about the ship, the force field, or even the prison break in that moment. All she cared about was Vinyl. Taking a step or two closer, she leant in and kissed Vinyl, the most amazing mare she knew, or would ever know. They held the kiss for as long as they could, exploring each other’s’ lips and mouths. However, they eventually had to pull back.   “Octavia –” stammered Vinyl, her legs shaking slightly.   “I- I know, we need to get to Blackheart before the force field is reactivated,” said Octavia. “Sorry, it just felt – I mean, I felt very connected to you, you know? And I wanted to show you that.”   “It’s all good, Octavia,” said Vinyl. “I wasn’t going to say we should meet Blackheart. I, um –” Vinyl looked away from Octavia and to the ground “- thanks. I really liked that.”   There were no words spoken between the two ponies, but they smiled at each other, thinking the same thoughts. Vinyl and Octavia silently walked towards the meeting place with Blackheart, slightly closer to each other as they walked than they had before.   “Is she here yet?” asked Vinyl as they approached the rendezvous point. There were no signs of any ponies other than guards, who were thankfully far away enough on the deck not to recognise Vinyl and Octavia as prisoners. Although they didn’t seem to be any more alert than usual with regards to the force field, it probably wasn’t going to stay that way for long once they realised that the force field wasn’t supposed to be off.   “I’m not sure,” said Octavia, looking around. “If she’s not here, then what do we do?”   “We jump off the side and hope that we –” Vinyl began, before being interrupted.   “Let’s not let it get to that,” said Blackheart, stepping out from some shadows, along with her bodyguards from before. “I’ve upheld my end of the deal, Miss Scratch, and disabled the force field. I estimate we have a maximum of five minutes before the guards regain consciousness and re-enable it.” Vinyl stayed silent. “Are you going to get my associates and I off this ship?”   Octavia glanced at Vinyl, who rather than answering, was staring at the deck of the ship. “Vinyl?” Octavia asked quietly. It took Vinyl a few moments before she looked at Blackheart.   “Blackheart,” said Vinyl quietly, “I… I have a way to get off the Fort before the force field is reactivated. You see what Octavia’s wearing? That’s what can get us ponies off the Fort.”   “Ah, I see,” said Blackheart, after examining the apparatus that Octavia was wearing. “Very ingenious. Made from your bedsheets, I assume?” Octavia nodded.   “See, the thing is, though, I’m not sure that I want you off the Fort,” continued Vinyl to Blackheart. “I’ve heard about some of the horrible, horrible things that you’ve done, and I’m sure that you’ve done more, so I’m a little hesitant about letting you out into society.”   “And yet if you don’t, not only will the guards catch us all once the force field is reactivated, I will also make you regret not getting us all off now,” Blackheart said, almost sounding impatient for the first time since Vinyl and Octavia had met her. “Now, get us off this ship, or you will regret it.”   Vinyl smirked. It should have been a happy, mocking smirk, as she usually did. Instead, it was a cold, bitter smirk, laughing at Blackheart with one simple muscle movement. “Hey Octavia,” she said, not looking at the Earth pony, “remember that time that we were on that pirate ship?”   Around the Fort, the pink force field flickered into existence for a moment before disappearing again.   “Y-yes?” Octavia asked, wondering why Vinyl was bringing up their adventure at a time like this.   Vinyl grinned at Blackheart as the force field flickered again. It seemed that Blackheart had not only disabled it, she had also had its mechanism damaged to buy them a few more minutes whilst it was fixed.   “EPIC OCTAVIA MANEUVEUR!!!” Vinyl shouted. She had surrounded Octavia in a magical aura, and after taking a moment to gather her strength, threw her Earth pony friend off the edge of the ship. She only had time to see Blackheart’s expression of confusion and anger before jumping backwards off the ship herself.   “VINYL – WHY DID YOU-?” shouted Octavia as Vinyl reached her a few moments after the force field around the Fort flickered back into existence. The two were falling, naturally, and as Vinyl reached Octavia, she held her close and wrapped her hooves around the Earth pony’s body.   “IT’S OKAY, OCTAVIA!” replied Vinyl, shouting to be heard over the wind rushing past their ears. “I’VE GOT THIS!”   “NO YOU DON’T! NO YOU BLOODY DON’T, VINYL SCRATCH!” shouted Octavia back. “WE’RE GOING TO DIE AND IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!”   Vinyl ignored Octavia. Reaching a hoof, she pulled a small string on the device Octavia had been wearing since they had left their cell. It was, naturally, a parachute, albeit a crudely constructed one made only from materials which could be found in a prison cell.   The parachute billowed out, only attached to Octavia via some crude knots, with Vinyl attached to Octavia by way of hoof. There was a jerk, and then Vinyl and Octavia’s velocity was dramatically slowed as air filled the parachute.   The two ponies were sweating and panting, Octavia moreso than Vinyl. Although Vinyl wasn’t going to admit it to Octavia, she wasn’t sure whether the parachute would work – she had designed it based off what she had heard and seen of parachutes, and hadn’t had the opportunity to test it.   “Really, Vinyl?” Octavia asked after a few minutes of drifting. Her heart was still racing from the adrenaline rush and fear. “Your brilliant plan was to throw me off the ship?”   “Hey, you wouldn’t have agreed to it, right?” asked Vinyl. “And it worked, so what’s the big deal?”   Octavia shook her head. “You are the craziest mare I know,” she said, not so ready to forgive Vinyl. There was silence for a few more minutes. By now, the mares were only a few hundred metres from the ground.   “You seemed quite hesitant up there,” commented Octavia. “Did you actually have a way to get Blackheart and her goons off the ship, or were you just acting?”   “A bit of both,” said Vinyl. “Part of me was tempted to try and throw them off the ship – don’t think that that would have worked well – and part of me was tempted to just throw you off and stay back to reap the consequences myself. Oh, and I also wasn’t sure whether this would work, so part of me kinda wanted to grab you and drag you back to our cell.”   “Craziest mare,” said Octavia, shaking her head once more.   But this time, there was a small smile on her lips.   ===============================   It took Vinyl and Octavia ten more minutes to reach the ground. They landed by a small lake by what seemed to be a dirt road. By Octavia’s estimate, they were somewhere out to the east, a long way from their home in Canterlot.   “So, we’re two mares – sorry, escaped prisoners - in the middle of nowhere, with nothing on us except for a parachute and the fur on our back,” said Vinyl, somehow cheerful about the whole business.   “Are you going to ask what I think you’re going to ask?” Octavia said.   Vinyl grinned. “What happens next?”   THE END (?)