Octavia Melody had always been a mare of refined elegance and class. Even among her peers in the lesser nobility, she was proud to say that she always carried herself with the poise of a duchess or even one of the princesses. And yet, sitting in a little compartment speeding on its way upon the winding tracks leading to Canterlot, she found herself fidgeting and on the edge of her seat like a nervous filly.
Why am I acting like this? she thought to herself as she looked down to the floor. It’s just Vinyl Scratch, after all. Not mere hours before, I was content to just… let her be. Granted, I don’t want to be responsible or guilty for her damages, even if it is absurd of me to think I would be, but...
Her train of thought drifted away through the foggy quagmire of incoherent babble coming from the other occupants of the compartment. Octavia did not care to listen in on the conversations in detail, but the words ‘vinyl’ or ‘scratch’ seemed to stick out in her mind like lights in the troublesome fog. That mare… Before she came into her life, she would never associate with common riff-raff like her friends, and especially not her worst enemy, Lyra Heartstrings, who now sat opposite of her.
Vinyl was impetuous, insane, and filled with bravado: all together a pony Octavia should not have lingered around, never mind share an apartment with. And yet… half-tuned into her friends’ conversations about her, Octavia was beginning to see further past her idiosyncrasies than she ever did before. While all the flaws of her personality were still intact, she was seeing her roommate in a completely different light, and that made her stomach turn.
“You’ve been awfully quiet, Octavia! Bit for your thoughts?” an uncommonly loud and confident Beauty Brass half-shouted over the others. The slight blush on her cheeks only confirmed Octavia’s suspicion that she had snuck alcohol into her water somehow. Normally, she would have been content to ignore her inebriated friend, but a quick glance upward forbade that course of action as everypony was now looking at her.
“Oh, um…” she started awkwardly, not really sure she could put her inner turmoil into words. “I was just thinking about… er… what we would do if we got to the apartment and Vinyl was, indeed, not present?”
Blind Charge, Colgate, Quick Fix and Berry Punch all blinked in unison; a fact that only further churned the cellist’s stomach a little more. Silence hung in the compartment for a couple of seconds before anypony decided to break it. “Isn’t it obvious? We’ll have to split up and look for her.” All heads turned to face Lyra.
Split up and look for a single missing pony at night in downtown Canterlot? While the city was no Manehattan, it would still be dangerous for a pony to wander around so late. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to protest, and so she complied. “While your loyalty is admirable, could we not just contact the police, or city guard instead? I mean, no one here has seen her in days, so that could qualify her as being missing, does it not? I mean… I am worried, but I am not about to risk my life looking for her.”
Lyra seemed to sigh and nodded her head once before taking her turn to look at the floor. “I can see your concern, Octavia, and it is valid. And yes, we could indeed get the police to help, but… as she is now, I don’t think she’d go with them willingly and she doesn’t need ‘assaulting a police officer’ on her records. Only a pony who knows her can get her to come along willingly. Otherwise, we’ll just make things worse.”
“I am going to have to side with Octavia, Lye,” Colgate spoke, drawing attention. “Don’t get me wrong, Vinyl is a good friend. But there are risks to playing Mysterious Mare-do-Well, even in Canterlot.”
“If you’re that concerned, toothpaste, you can always partner up with me,” Blind Charge suggested with his chest puffed out and his wings spread.
“Yeah, you’d fall into the category of a stallion I’d be worried about. Not gonna happen,” she replied, before pushing the puffed-up pegasus onto the train’s floor with a derisive shove.
“I… I was being serious,” he said with a frown. “You know that I am not like that!”
“Ha! I got you going!” the mare grinned with those perfect pearly white teeth. “I didn’t mean to shove you that hard, Charger. Sorry.”
“Are we done with the schoolyard shenanigans yet!?” Octavia asked in annoyance, perhaps with more volume than she intended.
“How about a compromise?” Lyra said. “If Vinyl is not at the apartment, we will split into pairs and go searching. If we do not find her by midnight, we will go home and call the police in the morning. It’s almost eight o’clock now, so that will give us four hours to search, and given that we all know her favourite hideouts, we should be able to cover them. Is that acceptable?”
After a brief moment’s consideration, all of the mares nodded in agreement. Never before had Octavia seen Lyra Heartstrings so diplomatic. In all of their encounters, she had come off as a commoner biting at the heels of an upper crust pony like her. Perhaps it was something to do with her attitude, or maybe now that she knew Lyra was an even higher rank than her, she was willing to start seeing her as an equal. Either way, she somehow felt a little dirty for having pegged her the way she did. Maybe that change in view even applied to Vinyl now as well.
Now arriving at Canterlot. Canterlot Station. A magical voice chimed through the train.
“I’m glad that’s all decided,” Quick Fix said. Until then, she had been mostly quiet during the journey from Ponyville. “But sadly, the trains don’t run after midnight, Lyra. We’ll be stuck in Canterlot and I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t have enough bits on me for a hotel right now.”
“Oh, right,” Lyra spoked with slightly widened eyes. “Well... You can all stay at my place then! It’s not like I am lacking on space and my… parents, are in Las Pegasus for the weekend, so it should be no trouble.”
“Alright! We get to stay at a RICH pony’s house!” Colgate shouted as she stood from her seat.
“Colgate,” said Berry Punch warningly. Octavia could not help but look over at her since she had not spoken a single word since guzzling down what had to be ten gallons of coffee in about thirty seconds. However, her voice was successful in wiping the cheerful grin off the den--- oral health practitioner's face.
“Er… Sorry, Lye. You know I didn’t mean anything by that,” the minty mare replied with her ears drooping slightly. “Right?”
All Lyra did was smile and nod her head before the train started to squeal and slow to a crawl. Together with everypony else, they exited the compartment and trotted to the end of the car while they waited for the train to come to a complete stop. Octavia hung towards the back of the group because the space was tight and she did not want to feel herded along like common cattle.
At last, the doors opened and the ponies piled onto the Canterlot Station platform, allowing Octavia to breath a sigh of relief. The scent of freshly fallen rain tickled her nose as she inhaled, the familiar and comforting sense almost washing away the knot she felt in the pit of her stomach. She followed the group out onto the city streets where several of them had paused to take in their first real look at the city, if not in their lives, than probably in a long time. The rest, mostly just herself and Lyra, watched them.
“I suppose I should lead for now,” Octavia spoke after giving them a moment’s admiration.
“Lead on, Miss Melody,” Lyra said while doing her best to support an ungainly Beauty Brass.
Octavia started the group forward with a sure step and a light gait down the cobbled streets of the royal city. And yet, she did not feel nearly as confident inside as she looked on the outside. Only now, marching back home, after learning why Vinyl treasured those tacky sunglasses so much, did she start to feel sick at the prospect of trying to talk to her roommate. Granted, she usually felt a little sick trying to talk to her anyway, but that was usually because of some foul odor that lingered around her.
I destroyed one of the most precious gifts she ever received and tossed it away with zero regard for her feelings, Octavia reviewed. If she had told me, I would have tried to fix them! And yet… how can I ever apologize to her? I have no idea how she feels. I don’t even have a good understanding of what she’s lost.
Every scenario of the apology that cropped up in her head only ended badly for her. But at the same time, she almost wanted it to end badly so that she could disassociate with her, once and for all. Octavia’s head felt split against itself as one side tried to use this as a way to be rid herself of the nuisance she had experienced for the past year, while the other was curious to see what, exactly, could be found behind the curtain of egotism and impetuous impulse.
The twisted feeling in her stomach churned and turned the more Octavia thought about the conflict, and yet she could not pin down where, exactly, they were coming from. She had been lied to this whole time, but given how she would act towards her, it made sense for her to be left in the dark. For all she knew, Vinyl might have actually hated her while putting on a friendly mask. Her stomach pain only grew with that thought.
“Are we there yet?” Colgate said impatiently, like a foal on a long road trip. The cellist was ripped from her revery by the sudden conversation.
“We’ll be there when Octavia says we’re there!” Quick Fix angrily replied. “If you don’t stop asking, I’m going to put a muzzle on you!”
Berry’s voice from behind sighed before speaking, “Stop fighting before I make you two go stand in the corner.” Now that was a surprise! Octavia would not have pegged her as the kind to help settle arguments.
“Actually, we’re here now,” the cellist answered after a quick look up and down the street. “If you are coming inside, please try to be quiet. My landlady is… well… anal about things being kept at a minimal volume.”
Octavia walked up to the doors and pulled one open with her mouth, as per usual, and stepped inside the lobby of her apartment building. Seeing that the coast was clear she trotted past the spartan entrance hall and up the stairs, forgoing the broken elevator. Seriously, when is that cheapskate going to fix it!? she thought angrily to herself as she, once again, had to walk up the eight flights of stairs to her apartment.
Nearly out of breath from the long climb up, Octavia finally was at the door of her abode. Oh well, here it goes, she mentally braced. Extending a hoof out, she rapped gently on the door before inserting her key into the lock and turning the knob. All the while, her heart was pounding from the fear of the unknown. Yet when she turned the light on and walked inside, not a hair had changed since she left it earlier in the afternoon.
“Wow!” Colgate exclaimed after an impressed whistle. “This place is clean! Far more clean than I expected Pon-3’s crib to ever be!”
“It’s probably because Miss Octavia’s had the place to herself the past couple of days and could clean, toothpaste,” Blind Charge said.
“Oh. Right,” she said with an embarrassed grin. “Even so, this is a pretty snazzy place you’ve got here.”
“Who ushes wordsh like shnazzy an crib anymore?” the inebriated Beauty Brass slurred before being dumped onto the couch by an irritated Lyra Heartstrings. “You shound like commershal for the 90’s!” she continued before giggling.
“Is that what I act like when I am drunk?” Berry asked.
“You’re uh…” Lyra started, though hesitant. “Mostly, you’re uh… yeah, cheerful and making jokes. But other times you… uh… aren’t.”
“Oh,” the normally drunk pony said simply before turning away. “Maybe we should get her home before we look for Vinyl.”
“There’s no harm in letting her stay here,” Octavia said. “After all, she is one of my oldest and best friends. My couch is her couch. And besides, carrying her would be a chore and waste the little time we do have.”
“Agreed,” Lyra replied. “I don’t think my back could take much more of it anyway. If only we had a cart, or a good pair of hands.”
“Wha-”
“No.” Quick Fix interrupted. “Just.. no.”
“Right, well… uh… I’ll go check a little farther in,” the cellist said before she absconded from the awkward situation developing in her living room. As she checked the other rooms and places a pony could hide, she was once again left with her thoughts and the low mumble coming from down the hall.
Opening the doors was challenging for Octavia because, in her mind, she could see Vinyl just beyond each one, as inconsolable as she was that dreadful morning. And then the question would rear up, the question that had haunted the cellist ever since she learned why that blasted lump of plastic was important to the DJ: What can I possibly say? Octavia never had a sibling, she had never lost a pony close to her before, and yet it was her responsibility to apologize for her grievous mistake and try to comfort her roommate. But how!?
Thankfully, she was spared answering the question for the moment as she checked the last possible hiding place and was met with nothing once more. Perhaps they would need to call the police after all, as it was looking less and less likely that the search party could find her. She secretly hoped that they would so she would have some sturdy bars between her and Vinyl when she flubbed the apology.
“Nothing?” Lyra asked as Octavia emerged from the bathroom. The cellist shook her head in defeat and said nothing as she joined the other ponies. “I guess that means we’ll have to go out in a search pattern then. There are six of us, so three teams of two should be sufficient.” She trotted over the the kitchen and took three sheets of paper hanging from the fridge and pulled a pen out from a side drawer.
“What are you doing, Lye?” Colgate questioned.
“I’m drawing up a list of all of Vinyl’s favourite hang outs and I am laying them out in three circles for each group to follow around so that they end up back here. If we walk at a good clip, it should only take an hour, so we can investigate each place nice and thoroughly.”
“Oooh!” Quick Fix exclaimed with a smile. “I’ve rubbed off on you!”
“Let’s meet up outside the building then,” Blind Charge added. “Miss Octavia is the only one with the key anyway. And that way, if her group comes back first, she can let the rest of us back in or whatever we decide.”
“Okay, that is acceptable,” Octavia replied.
“Great. I’ve divided the teams by least likely to most likely to make contact with the objective,” Lyra said before passing out sheets with her magic. “Octavia is coming with me to the most likely places since she’s the one who needs to apologize, and I’ve paired the rest of you up so that there is one unicorn in the group who knows the Telepathy Spell. That way, if one of you finds her, the unicorn of the group can tell the rest of us to come to them!” she said with a grin very similar to Vinyl’s.
“Well, it looks like we’re going together after all, Toothpaste,” the lone stallion said with an awkward smile. “Er… I hope you know I’m a better stallion than to mug somepony…”
“Like I said, it was a joke, you lug,” Colgate replied before walking over to him. “Yes! We got the Copa Coconut!” she exclaimed after seeing their list.
“Don’t worry, Wrench,” Berry said when the other groups were settled. “I’m mostly sober by now. Well… more so than Beauty.” An awkward smile spread on her face when she said that.
“I’m guessing we got the least likely places, Lyra?” Quick Fix asked as she looked over their list map.
“Er… that’s not a problem, is it?” the noblemare asked.
“No, not at all. I just wanted to be sure because, well, I am not exactly the most practiced with that spell you mentioned. So I uh.. didn’t really want the pressure of being in the next most likely group.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lyra replied. “Okay, so now that we have our groups and partners, let’s split up and go.” She looked up to the clock that hung on the kitchen wall. “It’s quarter past eight now, so we have three and three quarter hours to search. Good luck, everypony!”
Octavia and Lyra stayed behind for a moment as the other ponies started off out the door and down the stairs. She had suspicions as to the unicorn’s methods, especially given their history together, but it seemed like she was putting them aside for Vinyl’s sake. After a couple of moments of waiting and examining their route, the two mares departed from the building after locking up the apartment.
It wasn’t until a couple of minutes after leaving the building that the tense silence between them was broken.. “So,” Lyra said, trailing off like she was unsure of herself. “I’ve been waiting a long time for a civil moment between us to ask you something, Octavia.”
Here it comes, the cellist thought. For a long time she had wondered just what exactly had set her off to spark their bitter rivalry with one another.
“You remember when we first met? At that music school that old mare, I can’t remember her name, ran? What did I say or do to get you to hate me so quickly? I don’t think we shared more than a sentence before you started this silly rivalry”
“I started!?” Octavia said incredulously. “You were the one, if anyone, to germinate the bad blood between us!”
“Was it because you thought I was a commoner?” she replied as if Octavia had not spoken.
“Of course not, I-”
“Don’t bullshit me, Octavia,” Lyra said as they turned down the next street. “You’ve only started acting civil to me when I revealed that I’m nobility too and don’t you deny it.” Octavia was about to retort when she saw a flicker in the unicorn’s eye and decided to think better of it. “I used to be like that, don’t forget.”
“So why did you start pretending to be common?”
“In short, the fallout from Alto passing on,” Lyra said solemnly. “Everypony started talking bad about her behind her family’s backs. I never wanted to be like that, so I decided to all but reject my heritage, until I got the stones to move to Ponyville to be with my penpal and now marefriend.”
“Oh,” Octavia said simply, choosing to find great and sudden interest in the cobbles beneath her hooves. “To be fair… most of my ensemble are commoners, and they are better friends to me than any other noble. At least, I realized that a while ago.”
“After Vinyl came into your life?” Lyra asked pointedly.
“Yes… After... Vinyl moved in with me.”
“Vinyl used to be a lot like you too, Octavia. She’d sneer at common ponies like the rest of us noble foals. Thankfully, Uncle Ebony and Aunt Ivory (I call them that since they’re like family) were in favour of public education and gave her a fresh perspective on things. I can’t say for sure, but… she’s probably extra flamboyant around you to get you to loosen up
“Mmm,” Octavia replied thoughtlessly. In her mind, she tried to picture Vinyl just like her: a straight and well-kept mane, a bow tie to match, and perhaps even a monocle for added effect. But it looked very silly. Almost as silly as the notion of Scratch talking down to ponies instead of getting in fights at clubs to, now that she thought about it, stand up for others. “Wait,” she said suddenly, looking up into Lyra’s eyes. “You mean she’s crazy on purpose!?”
/***\/***\/***\
“So…” Blind Charge started awkwardly as he flew to the side of and just a few feet above his partner. “Am I really a stallion you think you’d need to watch out for here?”
“Oh my celestia!” Colgate shouted. “You’re still on about that!? I told you, it was a celestia-damned joke! Twice! You’re like a dog with a fucking bone, aren’t you!? Or maybe in this case a damned bird with an updraft.” She sighed and looked over to him, but then looked quickly back down the road when she noticed he had landed next to her. “I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, Charger,” she said after a few minutes of awkward silence as they trotted down the street.
“You? Sorry? Ha, now that’s a new one, Toothpaste,” the stallion smiled with a small laugh. “Oh… you were… you were serious,” he added after seeing her expression. “Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing all the time. Maybe then you’ll get a marefriend. But… yeah, you heard me. I’m sorry. I know how sensitive you are about your whole ‘white knight’ shtick and upholding your reputation as a gentlecolt. So I’m sorry, okay?” She did her best to hide the slight tinge that must have accompanied the heat in her cheeks.
Colgate nearly jumped when she felt a hoof drape over her back, but calmed down when she saw her friend’s smiling face. He then pulled the leg back, ruffling the fur where it had once been in a way that irritated her a lot; no doubt her comeuppance for one of her less tactful jokes. “You know you don’t need to play the clown while Scratch isn’t around, right?” he changed the topic.
“Says you. It’s the only time I get to be funny! You know how she steals the spotlight, whether she intends to or not. I blame her mane for that,” the dentist replied.
He laughed at the remark. “If not that, then it’s how loud and animated she is.” Again, there was another slight pause, his wings ruffling slightly as he developed an itch to fly.
“Fly if you want to,” Colgate said, seeing the minor twitch. “Just fly where I can’t see your undercarriage.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to be tempted,” Blind Charge said with a smirk before taking to the air again.
She laughed before shaking her head at the joke. “You’re weird. First you’re all pissy that I insulted you as a gentlecolt, and next thing I know you make a lewd joke. Ugh. Colts,” she said dismissively as she continued to walk down the street towards their first search area.
“Who says that mares get to be the only ones who are self-contradictory?” he said before swooping in front of her, making her jump, before gliding back up. “All’s fair in love and war, after all. Or is that ages-old saying only for fil-”
“Bored. New topic. Let’s talk about teeth. I’ve noticed, Mr. Daredevil, that you haven’t been flossing~!” Colgate said with a strange, seductive tone that, to her friends, meant anything but. “Come down here and let Doctor Minuette have a nice, long look.”
“Uh, no thanks, I’m good,” Blind Charge said to try and get out of it. “Besides, we’re on Scratch Patrol, remember?”
“What makes you think you had a choice in the matter?” she said before her horn started glowing.
/***\/***\/***\
Berry Punch and Quick Fix walked down the darkened streets of Canterlot together in near silence, as the only sound either made was their hoofsteps upon the uneven and ancient cobbles of the road. They would both look up and down the road and pause at every alley to give a quick glance down before moving on. No words were shared between them, but that was because they did not need them.
Well, it was that and the fact that the all-too familiar feeling of a hangover was knocking at the door of Berry Punch’s skull. Ugh she thought in anguish. I should have had a few glasses of water before we left Octavia’s place. Every step that either of them made was beginning to feel like a jackhammer going to town on her skull, sapping her concentration a little more every time they stopped to check something their friend could be hiding in. If water is free at the first place, I am going Camel-mode on their flanks.
Berry’s anguish, meanwhile, was simply a hoof note in the mind of Quick Fix. Not that she didn’t care about her friend’s well being, but rather because another friend had been suffering for longer. That, and Vinyl’s brand of pain was not self-inflicted. At least Berry isn’t moaning about it like she used to, she thought. Granted, it’s been that way since Pinchy started to question it. Poor Berry. She tries so hard and yet life continues to dump all these hardships on her.
Poor Vinyl, Berry thought to try and take her mind off her own pain. Even if they are jerks, I can’t imagine how I’d feel if I lost any of my brothers or sisters. She’s… she’s really a strong mare. Far stronger than I am anyway. She sniffled as she felt her nose get runny, probably from the dust and dander stirred up from the previous rainfall. It was far too late to stop herself from making a mistake and she was not going to let Vinyl do the same… not that she’d call her precious daughter a mistake. Not… now, anyway.
It’s a shame I didn’t meet you sooner, Berry, is what Quick Fix would have loved to say if she had the nerve. Then, maybe I could have helped you out and made you happier than you are today. She cast a quick glance at her earth pony friend and could not help but smile. And yet, for all your problems, you have the strength to try. To try to be a good mother, a good mare, a good friend. I wish I was as strong as you are.
But I can’t be too hard on myself, Berry Punch thought to herself. I might not have an easy time, but everypony has their pain. She quietly turned her head to watch her friend, who continued to look ahead of them. Wrench, for example. She was bullied pretty much every day until she made friends with Vinyl and because of it, she seldom speaks her feelings. Even to us. Berry turned her head away with a quiet sigh.
I have to try too, the unicorn thought with finality. “So…” she spoke quietly. “It’s a… uh… nice night out. Regardless.”
Berry was taken aback slightly by the sudden conversation, but smiled despite herself. “Yes, it’s… very cool and uh… damp…”
~*/\/\/\*/\/\/\*/\/\/\*~
While Lyra Heartstrings had always been a clever mare, Octavia was willing to admit, she never was fluid enough to change her plans on the fly. Little more than an hour after they set out to search for the missing pony, they found themselves back on Octavia’s street with little more than a few tales of the unicorn's actions, and no clues as to where she could be. The cellist looked over to the lyrist, but dared not to speak for fear the mare would snap at her as Vinyl once had.
“I can’t believe it!” Lyra exclaimed for the fifteenth time. “I can’t believe she’d just go into all of those clubs and drink until she got kicked out without any sort of hijinks, or even saying more than her orders!”
“Even when drunk, she does not strike me as a talkative pony when it comes to any sort of feelings,” Octavia dared to speak.
Lyra sighed and finally looked up from the pavement as they came to a stop in front of the apartment building. “I guess,” Lyra said, defeated. “Perhaps the others are having better luck than we are right now?” Even though she said that, Octavia was not exactly sure that the unicorn even believed her own words.
“I suppose that means all we can do now is just sit here and wait,” she replied, earning an noncommittal grunt from Vinyl’s friend.
We’ve done all we can, spoke a part of Octavia’s mind. We called around, asked her friends about why those sunglasses meant enough to commit physical assault (we can totally sue her for a ton of money by the way), and even went searching. I think that’s enough to show we’re sorry rather than tell her.
Even so, another part spoke up, something tells me that it won’t be enough, and that she’ll actually want to hear the words. Besides, the night is still young. Maybe we can think of one more thing we can do before we have to call the police? The other side of her internal argument was about to retort when all thought was stripped away by two figures appearing out of the corner of her eye.
“Hey Charger, Toothpaste,” Lyra said with a wave when she noticed them too. “I take it there was no luck?”
“No, but we were regaled with some tales of her exploits,” Colgate replied, looking surprisingly annoyed. “I can’t believe she’d go on such an epic bender and NOT invite any of us!” Everypony gave her a withering look at that, which seemed to help her realize what she had just said. “Oh. Yeah. Right.”
“Well, that and got my teeth cleaned nine ways to Sunday,” Blind Charge muttered.
“Come again? It’s impolite to mumble,” Octavia questioned.
“It’s nothing,” he replied quickly. “The point of the matter is that Vinyl is at least at stage two of drunkenness. Every club or bar we went to was filled with exploits of her accosting mares, stallions, and even a couple of poles at some of the more… uh… unsavory places.”
“Oh stop bullshitting, Charger, you were looking at those mares and don’t you deny it. But hey, male gaze. I understand. I get the same way, but with colts, when I get into heat,” Colgate replied with an almost predatory smile.
“Could we, perhaps, NOT talk about such bodily functions for the moment?” Octavia asked while trying to hide her irritation.
“I agree. Did you two find anything out? The Vinyl we tracked was soft-spoken and barely said or did anything to anyone,” Lyra spoke. “So, basically stage one.”
“Could you elaborate on these stages, perhaps?”
“It’s not very complicated,” Blind Charge said. “Basically, stage one is tipsy, stage two is drunk and stage three is wasted.”
“Right, because having a staging system makes so much sense,” Octavia said sarcastically. “Never mind, I’ve decided that I do not want to know anymore.”
“I’m surprised we finished so early though,” Lyra said after a couple of moment’s silence. “I would have thought we might have got at least a clue or something about where she would have gone, but she was really mum on the subject.”
“Yeah, and in our case, the ponies didn’t really care where she went just as long as she was gone,” Colgate replied. Silence reigned from there on out as the ponies sat quietly outside of the apartment building for the last of the search party to return. Although Octavia was more than ready to call the police by then, she could see genuine worry on their faces, especially as time ticked away and the others were still nowhere to be seen.
“Grape! Wrench! There you are!” Lyra shouted some twenty minutes later. “Did you two have any luck at-” she stopped herself when they shook their heads. “Damn. Well… we still have a couple of hours left until midnight.”
“Actually, we did receive a very good clue,” Quick Fix said. “I just couldn’t remember that stupid spell, so we came back. We didn’t expect everypony else to be finished too.”
“The ponies at the Blue Danube said they had kicked out a pony that looked like Vinyl just half an hour before we arrived,” Berry Punch recalled. “So we aren’t too far behind, but by now she may have crawled off to who knows where.”
Octavia balked, “The Blue Danube!? But that’s one of the most high-class lounges in Canterlot! Not even I can get into it! How could she-?”
“Her mother owns it Octavia, remember? Lady Ivory Song?” Lyra interrupted. “If she went there, then that means she was probably kicked out of everywhere else that sells liquor and was getting desperate, which give us the advantage!”
“How so? She could be on the other side of town by now, Lye,” Colgate reasoned.
“Think like Vinyl for a second, if you can,” she replied.
“I don’t think I can, even if I wanted to,” Octavia said bitterly.
“Regardless,” Lyra continued, “think about it. If you were Vinyl and dead-set on getting drunk, but knew you had no clubs left to go to, no liquor stores open, and probably VERY few bits, would you really be up to going across town?” She let the silence hang for a couple of brief moments before answering her own question. “No! She’d be more likely to stick around and wallow in her own self-misery.”
“So she’s still hanging around the Blue Danube?” Blind Charge questioned idly. “Okay, that is all well and good, but we still have a problem that I think we need to address first.”
“Indeed,” Quick Fix nodded her head. “Vinyl still doesn’t want to be found.”
“And as long as she doesn’t,” Colgate continued, “then there is nothing we can do. Even when drunk, she still knows enough magic to give most ponies the slip. I don’t think any of us can compete with that.”
“So we have to lure her out somehow,” Lyra concluded. “That’s not going to be easy. I know Vinyl Scratch the best and when she’s feeling miserable, she’s pretty good at shutting everything out. It’ll be hard to even get her attention, never mind her curiosity.” The noblemare sighed heavily.
“There has to be something, right?” Blind Charge spoke. “Vinyl and the police are never a good mix. I mean, there has to be something she values, perhaps enough to get her out from wherever she is hiding.”
“Music, pretty much,” Lyra replied. “But I don’t think we could ever make music good enough between Octavia, Charger and I that would do little more than aggravate what must already be an epic hangover.”
“The only thing that ever gets me to pay attention to Vinyl is her horrendous noise that she calls music. I mean, dubtrot cannot be a legitimate genre, can it?” Octavia said to herself with annoyance at the mere memory of it. Countless mornings of being awoken to ear-splitting, pounding bass and what had to be the screeching of a hundred different banshees. How in Tartarus could she have possibly ignored something like that?
“Well, I suppose there is no choice,” Colgate said with a sigh. “Should we call the police now or in the morning?”
“I’d say we wait until the morning,” Lyra said. “It would give her some more time to detox and come back on her own. I’d say that would be far superior to forcing her to go to jail to sober up. Less likely to end in charges either.”
“Music…” Octavia trailed. Unintentionally, she grabbed the attention of everypony present. However, she noticed the eyes on her and broke out of her musings. “Um… Well… I’m not normally one to abide by this, but how about fighting fire with fire?”
“Come again?” Quick Fix asked after a long and awkward silence.
“I just mean, well, she always wakes me or annoys me with her awful music, so, if we somehow made music that was so bad that she couldn’t ignore it, we could draw her out to us,” the cellist clarified. “Granted, it might spoil my musical reputation worse than the Grand Galloping Gala incident… no, never mind.”
“That’s a shame, because it sounds like the perfect idea to me,” Lyra said. “Poorly played classical music is a huge irritant to her. I’m actually impressed that you came up with something so brilliant, Octavia!”
“Gah!” the cellist squeaked as she was suddenly wrapped in a tight hug by what was once her most bitter rival. She tried to wiggle out of it as hard as she could, but the vice-like grip of the green mare was a lot like one of those gorillas or perhaps even a python. “Let… me… go!” she wheezed.
“Oh, uh, sorry,” Lyra said before letting Octavia free. “So, um… to make your plan work, we’ll need instruments and a way to amplify the sound to make sure she hears it.” An awkward smile crossed her face, obviously just as eager to forget the hug ever happened in the first place.
“I’m not sure about instruments, but Vinyl keeps a lot of speakers and microphones in her room,” Octavia replied. “Under the circumstances, it might be wise to borrow them.”
“What about the instruments?” Berry Punch asked. “Neither I, Colgate or Quick have instruments and Charger’s guitar is all the way back in Cloudsdale, leaving only a lyre and a bass.”
“Good point,” Colgate agreed. “We can’t really make bad music if we can’t make music in the first place.”
“Well, if worse comes to worse, I suppose we'll just have to borrow a record or two and her mixing table,” Octavia replied. “Unless, of course, any of you can see a glaring flaw in that plan, such as angering Vinyl enough to buck me in the face again.”
“I don’t think she’d have any problem with that,” Blind Charge said. “If anything, I’m sure she would be willing to give pointers under normal circumstances.”
“Right, well, we’re wasting time here ladies and colt. Let’s get this metaphorical party started,” Quick Fix said. Without another word, the group of six ponies followed Octavia back into the building and up the stairs to the eighth floor apartment, all the while keeping in mind to be as quiet as possible, lest they attract the ire of the dread Pretty Penny.
When Octavia opened the door to Vinyl’s bedroom, there was a hushed whisper of awe-inspired gasps coming from most of the others. Thinking back, she had to wonder if she too had made such a face when she found the cleanliness of the room quite the contrary to the character of its occupant. “There are the speakers,” Octavia said, pointing them out. “And I believe that is the mixing table over there.”
The ponies set to work after taking a moment to collect themselves. Quick Fix and Lyra took the mixing table in tandem while Colgate started with a couple of speakers. Blind Change and Berry scooped up the wires and a box filled with records to get things working, leaving Octavia the important job of making sure they did not break all of the furniture while navigating the building with the large and awkward equipment. How did Vinyl manage to do this in the first place?
However, just as Octavia was about to leave the room, a curious shape caught her eye. Even if she wanted to just ignore it and move on, something inside her told her what she was looking at. But she had to know for sure, or else it might eat at her for the rest of the night. The black, curvey shape sat behind where a speaker had once been, explaining why she had not seen it before.
Octavia grasped the handle gingerly by the teeth and pulled the box from off the floor and onto Vinyl’s bed, heart beginning to beat noticeably as she did. With a couple of sharp, prompt nudges from her muzzle she undid the clasps and opened the case. She almost regretted it. Almost. For inside was a violin, the likes of which she had never seen before: white as snow with a high-gloss finish that made it look as if it were chiseled out of the finest marble that Mother Earth had born. The rest; the tuning knobs, bridge, chinrest and tailpiece, even a decorative piece at the end of the bow in the shape of a unicorn’s head, were all done in chrome to make the light sparkle as it hit. This was a true Moldavi --- art that could make art.
“Wow,” said a quiet voice right behind Octavia, causing her to jump and nearly have a heart attack. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen it, I forgot how beautiful it was,” Lyra continued. “I didn’t think it’d ever be this close by. Not since the day of the funeral. I was convinced she kept it with her parents… but I guess some bonds are harder to break than others.”
“Lyra,” Octavia said quietly as she dared to let the darkest recesses of her mind speak. “I have an idea, and you may hate me for suggesting this, but…”
/***\/***\/***\
Everything was cold and dreary: everything from her body down to her very soul was permeated by the sharp, crisp air. Even though the rain had come and gone, the clouds hanging high above in the night sky still seemed threatening, despite overhearing no more rain was scheduled for that night. It did not matter: she was too numb to feel it anyway.
She rested her back against the side of the wall, flanked on either side by empty cardboard boxes that shielded her from sight. They looked a lot like how she felt: cold, soggy, and empty on the inside with a slight mildew scent lingering around them. Yet, aside from the odd rat or insect, she was perfectly alone and unlikely to be disturbed by anypony. How long had she sat there? An hour? Two perhaps, and yet no matter how long she waited, the alcohol refused to take hold and let her forget.
Vinyl Scratch sighed a deep sigh and slumped down into the wet cobbles. Sometimes, she really hated having a high tolerance, as it made it hard to get drunk and harder to keep her buzz. She looked up at the slightly wobbly wall and determined that yes, she was drunk, but not nearly enough in order to forget what had happened and how she had broken the promise she made all those years ago.
It’s impossible for me to make it up to her, she thought though the haze of the liquor. Especially now that… But she trailed off, unwilling to face that dark horror quite yet. She buried her face into her hooves and sniffed with a snort. “What am I gonna do?” she cried. In her frustration, she delivered a swift kick from a hind leg into a box at her side which did nothing to comfort her.
Vinyl growled and flopped again onto the ground in a huff, not caring how dirty her off-white coat became since it was already a mess. She stared ahead at the blank wall in front of her and did her best to blank out too: just forget everything and feel nothing. Yet all the stillness of her mind brought was pain as she flashed back to those terrible days of anger, worry, and fear. Days she had thought she had tamed into staying in the back of her mind.
Her body heaved with a big sigh as she spent innumerable minutes just lying there and thinking on the past, the present and the future and how they intermingled. Though her emotions were a torrent, she knew she would need to go back and face Octavia eventually. Besides, she was out of money and the idea of sleeping in a ditch, again, but on a rainy night, did not bode well for her health.
Vinyl picked herself up from the dirty, muddy ground and looked at her reflection in a lingering puddle. Her eyes were puffy and red instead of magenta, her mane was filthy, and she had not eaten real food in days. Yet, as much as she wanted to leave, she was still hesitant. The dark pit of her stomach howled at her to stay and consume; if she did not have bits to buy, she could steal more booze and finally forget.
“Okay, that does it,” she said quietly to herself. She was many things, but she was not a thief. Besides, there was an easier solution, a bottle of vodka she kept hidden in the apartment for such occasions. “It’s time to go home.” She picked herself up with a heave and groaned, not really looking forward to the trip, or the next morning, but, well, she hadn’t worried about tomorrow in days anyway, so screw it!
But just as she emerged from the dark alley like some kind of shambling monster, she was overcome by the sense that there was an even greater monster lurking about somewhere. Vinyl’s legs quaked as the sound washed over her, making her grit her teeth as the relentless barrage continued. “Argh!” she said before relenting and covering her ears. “What in Tartarus is that noise!?”
Unless her ears deceived her, it sounded a lot like a classical song she knew, but it was being assaulted by foals on a mega-dose of caffeine and a heavy metal band. She could not even tell if it was a live performance, or some novice working a mixing table, but it didn’t matter. Octavia could wait a little while longer; she had to know what demon was capable of making such horrible sound!
Vinyl closed her eyes and, though her ears screamed in protest, turned around and followed them down the other end of the alley and up the street to the right. Deep down inside, she was glad for this Celestia-awful music so that she would not have to keep focused on those pesky emotions that had robbed her a few good nights’ sleep.
Evidently, she was not the only one curious by the insult to all things music as she noticed many other ponies whom were still out and about that night walking with her towards the source. But, the closer she got, the less sure Vinyl became that it was either just a bad mixing attempt or some live event where the point might have been to play as badly as possible. Or… perhaps it could be both, the last logical part of her tired and alcohol-suffused mind suggested.
Mercifully, she found herself coming to the end of her short journey sooner rather than later as a musical setup of a mixing table and speakers could be sighted on the side of the street near a crowd of ponies. The mass kept a respectful distance from the booth; close enough for others to know that they were looking, yet far enough away as to not be associated with the ponies making asses of themselves for all of Canterlot to see.
In the low light, Vinyl could make out six ponies silhouetted by the streetlight behind them; mostly mares by the shapes and mostly unicorns, meaning they were likely Canterlot natives. You’d think they’d know better than to piss of the aristocrats, Vinyl thought as she once again covered her ears and watched. But then again, I never gave a shit about not pissing them off either. Normally, her curiosity would be satisfied by now, but the alcohol pushed her to get closer in order to know who would throw such a bad concert so late.
“How long do we have to keep this up!?” one of the ponies behind the console asked, shouting it in order to be heard over the music.
“Until either the cops show up and tell us to stop, or until she does!” another one answered.
Wait a tick, Vinyl thought as she drew close to the crowd. I know that voice, that’s--- but before she had a chance to complete her thought, a pony stepped out from behind the speakers. It was a grey earth pony mare with a pink bow tie with a rather gloomy look on her face, but that was not what was important at the moment. What mattered was what she was carrying!
She has my- so that means that equipment is- What in Celestia’s name is she DOING!? Vinyl had to stop herself from screaming as she saw the grey mare pull back the bow of the violin, her violin.
*** *** ***
Trepidation filled Octavia’s entire being as she stared at the instrument in her hooves. Already, she was committing sacrilege just by holding it and not being judged as worthy by the Moldavi family. What she was about to do was an atrocity, and for that she deserved a buck to the face from Vinyl, if she felt so inclined. Just… Just pretend you are not here, Octavia, she thought. You are not in your own body. You’ve been… hijacked by a spell! Yes, and it’s making you play horribly!
Her muscles tensed as she pulled back the bow and placed it on the strings. If she were in the audience, let her come out now and spare Octavia from making a foal of herself. Yet, the ponies in front of her continued to stare, and so there was no helping it. She drew the bow back over the strings and was surprised to find that she was not as bad as she feared: she was much worse!
This is beyond humiliating, the cellist thought to herself as she played the beautiful instrument like a foal in a music shop. Here I am, playing a Moldavi of all things, and I am completely butchering it! A shiver ran up her spine as the mere idea of the musical sin she was committing hit home. Please show up soon so I can maintain some dignity, Vinyl!
“What on Celestia’s green earth are you doing, Octy!?” shouted a voice among the crowd. Not a moment later, Vinyl Scratch shoved past the other ponies and trotted right up to Octavia with a similar look on her face as the last time she saw her. “And how in Tartarus did you get all of my equipment out here!?” Suddenly, the music died.
“Okay, ponies, show’s over, go on home!” Colgate shouted, popping up from behind one of the speakers. “Thank you for participating, you’ll get a cheque in the mail half past never! Nice mane, Scratchy.” The crowd started to disperse immediately afterward.
“Colgate?” Vinyl balked, only now looking away from Octavia. “Berry? Blind? Quick? Lyra!? What’s going on here?” Never before had the cellist seen such confusion on her face.
“It was story night and you never showed up,” Blind Charge said, standing atop of another speaker. “So we got worried and decided to look for you.”
“Fair enough, but that doesn’t explain why you stole my violin!” Vinyl shouted before taking it from Octavia in a swift wave of magic. The earth pony shook and recoiled slightly before she realized that she was not hit. Vinyl’s face immediately softened, having forgotten its former rage. She looked down at the instrument in her magical grip and drew the bow across once, generating a series of squeaks. “You didn’t even tune it,” she said before the knobs on the end twisted and she drew the bow back, creating a perfect note to the cellist’s ear.
“Well, Octavia, don’t you have something you need to say?” Lyra asked before stepping out from behind the booth.
“Yes… yes, I do. Vinyl?” Octavia asked, turning her head back to see the messy unicorn still transfixed by the instrument. “Vinyl,” she repeated, gently nudging her shoulder.
“Hmm?” the errant unicorn said, looking up and into Octavia’s eyes. “Oh, sorry. Just been a long time since this thing’s been outta the case is all,” she smiled.” I actually got it second-hoof at this neat shop down in Manehattan th-”
“Don’t lie to me, Vinyl,” Octavia interrupted. “One does not buy such an instrument second-hoof. Give me at least that much credit, would you?”
“Right, sorry,” she said quietly.
“No, don’t be. I’m the one who is sorry here,” the cellist said. There was a very brief silence as she considered her next words carefully, not knowing how violent a drunken unicorn could be. She could smell the nauseating amount of liquor on her breath and wondered in passing how she was even conscious, much less lucid. Octavia took a deep breath and closed her eyes, deciding to wing it.
“Vinyl Scratch, it was wrong of me to break your sunglasses and then toss them into the garbage, regardless of where they were or whose fault it might have been as to why they were there. I am sorry that I did not even ask before I threw them away, or why they were important to you in the first place. I’m… I can never imagine what it must feel like to lose something so precious to you, and to then have that reminder thrown away by one who could not see that same value.”
“Huh?” Vinyl interrupted. “What do you mea-”
“If you had told me why they meant so much to you, even one of those fake little stories you told most of your other friends, I would have hesitated to toss them in the trash. I don’t expect forgiveness, but still I offer you my most sincere apologies, Vinyl,” Octavia finished with a bow of her head.
“Is she high?” Vinyl looked to Lyra.
“I must apologize too, Vee,” the other unicorn replied. “I… I broke one of our oldest promises. I did so for your sake, but I still… I told them all about Alty. Please forgive me.”
At first, the mortified look returned to Vinyl Scratch’s face only to fade to anger, then back to upset, and finally settle on a deep frown in the space of a couple of seconds.
“No,” the DJ said sternly. “No I… you…” she trailed off. Silence came back over the scene as the others drew in close, worried about what they were hearing, yet keeping some distance from Vinyl. Octavia took a subconscious step back, expecting either a fight or flight reaction from the unicorn. She looked up and gave a quick glance at everypony present before looking down at the ground. “It was a stupid promise anyway, Lye,” Scratch sniffed. “But that still doesn’t forgive me for breaking mine…”
“Vinyl,” Octavia said, taking a step forward. “Alto Harmony sounds like she was a very loving and considerate pony.”
“Of course she was!”
“Well,” she continued. “do you honestly think she would want you to be so upset over just a pair of sunglasses? I understand they had sentimental value to you, but I don’t think she would have wanted you to go on a three day debauch and be this distraught over them when they were broken; she’d have known you could never keep them safe forever.”
Not a pony stirred or said a word after Octavia spoke. She figured most of them were waiting to see her reaction before they said or did anything, just in case. But what nopony ever expected was to hear what Vinyl had to say. “I’m not upset because of the sunglasses.”
“Huh!?” most of the ponies exclaimed.
“Come again?” Octavia spoke, blinking a little bit in shock.
“I mean,” she continued, voice a little low and an expression of pure shame in her eyes. “At first, I was upset that they were broken, yes, but that only lasted a couple of hours. What… what really upset me was… well…” she paused, eyes beginning to shimmer a little bit. “I made a promise to myself that I would never, under any circumstances, hit one of my friends… and yet I… and yet I… I…” The normally composed and cool mare sobbed like a little filly.
Octavia looked awkwardly towards the rest of Vinyl’s friends, but they all, including Lyra, looked just as perplexed as she did. She could empathize with the loss of the sunglasses affecting her roommate, certainly (though she herself would not have reacted the same way). Yet, to do what she did and to be gone for as long as she had, over hitting her once in the face? She… she really does see me as a friend. Deep down inside. But what about her? Did she see Vinyl Scratch as a friend, regardless of whatever social rank she might have?
Here was the most irksome mare she ever met sobbing like a lost filly right in front of her. She could have thought of a million ways to be mean or to hold this over head head when she got really annoying… but Octavia could not stomach those thoughts anymore. She took a deep breath and trotted over to the distraught unicorn and wrapped her into a tight hug.
“I forgive you, Vinyl,” Octavia said gently into her ear. However, rather than calm her down, it served only to make her cry even harder. She turned her head and looked over Vinyl’s shoulder, gesturing to the others with her eyes. At first, they just stood there, but with a little more encouragement, the friends finally got the message and joined in for a group hug.
“Ugh! What in Celestia’s mane is that smell!?” Quick Fix exclaimed after a moment of hugging.
“Eww. It smells like one of Pinchy’s old diapers,” Berry recoiled slightly.
“Vinyl…” Octavia said, not breaking off the hug. “What have you been rolling in?”
“Uh… the white pony replied. “I may have gone to the dump and dug through all the garbage to find my shades. I found them, and well, I gotta agree that they were beyond saving. That’s why I’m not upset about them!”
“Eugh!” everypony else said in disgust before quickly removing themselves from her proximity. “Well, we found her, Octavia apologized and all's right with the world again. Who wants to go spend the night at my place?” Lyra asked quickly. “But I have dibs on the bathroom first. I might be your friend, but I must also be a proper hostess.”
“Speaking of baths,” Octavia said, rounding on the white unicorn. “I’ll see you ponies later. I have about three washes to do before this one is presentable.”
Vinyl Scratch squeaked slightly as she felt Octavia clamp down on her tail and start dragging her away. “W-wait! No! I can bathe myself! Lyra! Grape! Charger! Anypony! Talk her out of it!”
“Sorry Vinyl,” Colgate said while wafting her hoof in front of her face. “But we’re with Octavia on this one.”
“Nooo~! You’re not supposed to agree with her yet! How did you become friends so fast!? Heeeelllllp~!” she cried uselessly as she was dragged off to her soapy fate.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby, Scratch. Even Pinchy loves her bathy-wathys now~!” Berry said in a sing-song tone.
Fruitlessly, the white unicorn continued to thrash and writhe, all the while giving her friends, whom were putting everything away, a most venomous and betrayed look. “Honestly, Scratch, what would you do without me?” Octavia shook her head as she dragged the unicorn along. And when nopony else could see her melodrama, Vinyl Scratch allowed herself a smile.
~*/\/\/\*/\/\/\*/\/\/\*~
~Four Months Later~
The autumn breeze was light yet still chilled the bones when it blew, as her winter coat had not yet grown. But despite that, it was a clear and sunny afternoon: almost perfect for a stroll outdoors before the snow and cold robbed her of that luxury. Octavia Melody could not help but look around at the leaves on the trees and imagine, for a brief while, a million pegasi painting the colours on each individual leaf. To think all of this splendor and colour was natural --- well, it hardly seemed possible.
“This is a very beautiful spot,” Octavia said to her companion. Vinyl Scratch trotted alongside her, confident and wearing that smug smile as always. Though she herself decided to wear a purple scarf that afternoon, the DJ was content to wear nothing out of the ordinary. She looked around when the cellist spoke for a minute before focusing back on the path.
“Yeah, it kinda is,” she said with a little more restraint and less volume than normal.
“Are you… sure that you want to wear those here?” the cellist asked. “I mean, I know they’re not the same, and I know how you feel abou-”
“No, no,” Vinyl interrupted, looking into Octavia’s eyes from behind her purple shades. “It’s fine. I just… never saw another pair like them ever again. I kinda thought they were unique and stuff. Maybe that’s why I treasured them so much. Thanks for them again, by the way.” They were exactly like the ones she used to have, but were a little newer and better-kept.
“We’ve been over this, there is nothing wrong with placing sentimental value on an object,” Octavia said, gesturing to the big, black case slung on her back as an example. “I told you the story of how my nana gave me her cello before she passed, remember?”
“Yeah,” the unicorn said with a sigh. “I wish you told me that before I used your bow to help… um… relieve myself that one time,” she added with a slight blush.
“I thought it would have been implicit that you not use my things like a back scratcher, but I suppose I was wrong in that regard. Apology accepted.”
The two mares fell silent as a group of ponies came past from the opposite direction, not a smile on one of their faces, in true Canterlot fashion. Even Vinyl’s grin faded away for the moment that they came by, which was surprised to Octavia, to say the least. She had thought that the unicorn never cared about such things. I suppose some habits are hard to kill, she mused.
“Do you really still want to do this, Vinyl?” Octavia asked when they were out of earshot of the group. She cast her gaze to the violin case on the unicorn’s back, still a little taken aback about how they would use the afternoon.
“I don’t want to,” Vinyl admitted quietly as they went under a canopy of multihued leaves. “But I need to. I’ve turned a corner, thanks in no small part to you, Octy, but…” she trailed, looking around before she stopped in the middle of the path, causing Octavia to pause as well. “I need to turn this corner on my own.”
The cellist frowned and walked ahead of the unicorn to face her directly, indignant at having carried around her rather heavy cello all this way only to be told not to follow. “Then why am I here if you need to do this on your own!?” she asked with her voice raised. “I thought you brought me out here because you needed emotional support!”
Vinyl took off her shades and blinked, tucking them above her horn. There was a slight bit of confusion in those magenta eyes, which caused Octavia to back off a little. “Every melody needs a harmony, Octavia. Surely, you know that, and there’s nopony I’d rather have as my harmony than you,” she smiled.
“I… yo-... wa- what!?” Octavia stammered, feeling her cheeks heat up in a blush and the cold wind lash against her tongue with her mouth open so wide. It did not help matters that Vinyl inched closer, causing the cellist to sit on her flank like a scared school filly.
“You heard me, Octy,” she continued with a sultry tone and a seductive sparkle in her eyes. “I brought you here because I want… no… I need you to be my harmony. So… will you?”
Octavia’s heart started doing laps in her chest and, if she had any little Octavias in her head, they would all be screaming and throwing a combined fit as her mind had lost its ability to form a coherent response. Especially as the two mare’s lips inched closer and closer together by the second. “Th-this isn’t… isn’t a good place to talk about such things!” she squeaked, blushing even harder.
“Really, because I can’t think of anywhere more fitting to ask this of you,” Vinyl said with her voice low, almost whispering into her ears. Their eyes were glued on one another, though Octavia could see Vinyl’s mouth open just a tiny little bit as the gap closed. “So, will you Octavia?”
The cellist opened her mouth to protest, but all that come out was a groan and incoherent babble as the gap between their muzzles practically vanished from existence. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening! she thought in a panic as the blush on her cheeks threatened to engulf her entire face. She squeaked as she thought she felt something poke her muzzle. “Aaahhh~!” she shouted before jumping and nearly falling onto her back.
Vinyl Scratch stood there grinning at her for a second, before a bout of giggles started to overcome her. “Oh Celestia, the look on your face!” she managed through the mirth. “Did you really think I was gonna kiss you? I mean, not that you ain’t bad to look at, but seriously? Out here!? Hahahaha~!”
A new kind of blush developed on Octavia’s cheeks as she picked herself up from the ground. “You… you acted amorous on purpose! I can’t believe you brought me out here, lugging my cello, which is incredibly heavy I must emphasize, and make some stupid joke! Vinyl Scratch, you, you, you… shit disturber!”
“I got you to swe-ear~! I got you to swe-ear~!” Vinyl chanted in sing-song while grinning victoriously.
“I’m going home!” Octavia shouted before turning her back on Vinyl and trotting away.
“Woah, woah, woah, hold the phone, Tavi!” Vinyl said quickly, rushing over to stop her from leaving. “I was being serious. I mean, maybe not the romancy tone and kissing and stuff, but I… I really do need a harmony for this. I have a promise to keep and, well, it won’t sound as good without you there. Please?” Doleful eyes looked back into Octavia’s and, while she was mad at her, she could not help but feel herself relent.
“Fine,” she sighed. “But let’s do this seriously.”
“Sure,” the DJ replied simply. They continued walking down the path together, with little space between the two of them as they went, Octavia noted. However, it was not close enough for her to call attention to it either. Not that she minded in particular, especially due to how nippy the air was.
More ponies, this time dressed in black, came down the path towards them and eventually passed the two mares in silence. Octavia had no problem keeping her stoic demeanour, as she was well-practiced in doing so under just about any circumstance. Vinyl, on the other hoof, just kept grinning except for when a group of ponies would come their way. She could not say for sure, since reading Vinyl was a challenge even on a good day, but she liked to think that she was grinning because she was nervous.
Finally, after many minutes of walking, Vinyl stopped and gestured for Octavia to follow. She stepped off the path and between the rows of graves flanking her at either side. The grass was green and very well-kept, scarcely showing that fall was there and that soon enough the ground would be frozen and covered in snow.
With the exception of a family congregating a few hundred yards away, the two mares were alone as they crossed the row, going past graves of ponies past. It was a queer feeling of serenity and sadness as Octavia followed, having not really been to a cemetery in living memory. A frown manifested on her face as she wondered what was going on inside of Vinyl’s head at that moment.
However, inevitably Vinyl stopped in front of one of the larger headstones and looked down at it with a frown. Octavia cast her glance to the monument as well and read the epitaph, just below the symbol of a cutie mark: an old fashioned microphone.
Here lies Alto Harmony, alias “DJ Flare”
Beloved daughter, sister, and musician of renown. May your song ring loud, proud and true in the Elysian Fields so that your loved ones may be reunited in time.
“No mare is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent; a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Equestria is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own or of thine friend’s were. Each pony’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in Ponykind. Therefore, send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee. - L. Dreamwalker”
Rest in Peace.
Thankfully nothing had happened or been said until Octavia had finished reading, but only just barely. “Alty,” Vinyl spoke so softly that she had almost not heard it. “I’m… I’m so sorry I haven’t visited. Not since that day. I… I was afraid. I thought you might think me a coward or something even worse, so I didn’t come back until now. Please, forgive me for keeping my promise not to play again until you were better. I know you would have wanted me to play for your burial… I hope this will suffice instead.”
A glow of magic encapsulated the violin case and lifted it off of her back before opening to show the beautiful violin that lay within it. Octavia had to do a little more work to get her cello off her back and set up, but Vinyl waited patiently. When Octavia finally stood on her hind legs and prepared to play, she was surprised to see the unicorn doing the same. Vinyl too stood on her hind legs with her forehooves poised to play, nodding her head to let her know that she was ready.
Vinyl drew her bow across the strings once before the knobs on the instrument became enveloped in magic, obviously not correct to her discerning ears. But it only took one more draw for her to be satisfied and actually begin to play. While Octavia knew what song they were to play, what she did not count on was to be be left speechless as the slow, sad melody started. She was meant to come in immediately, and yet she lingered.
She had heard musicians play before and while most had been adequate, and a few even decent, as the few notes that played echoed in her ears she found Vinyl to be… exceptional. Every note was deliberate, precise and, most importantly of all, was a window into her saddened heart. Octavia could more than just hear how sad Vinyl was in the moment; she could feel it as if she too felt that way, causing her eyes to water.
And yet, a pointed look from the DJ reminded her of the part she had to play in this piece and so she drew her bow and entered at an opportune moment. The contrast was staggering to Octavia as she played. By comparison, her part felt… wooden and rigid where Vinyl was weaving a fine silk. For the first time in her life, she was completely and utterly outclassed. And yet, instead of being mad or upset, she was joyful: joyful that she could share in this music, and that she had given her friend the peace of mind to finally bare her soul this way for the first time since she was a filly.
Tears crept from her eyes as the song continued, staining her grey cheeks despite herself. Yet, while Vinyl was completely and wholly concentrated, Octavia’s eye wandered through the cemetery. Everypony in earshot had stopped to listen to them, even ponies for the burial taking place just a short distance away had turned their heads to listen while the priest continued his sermon.
Octavia had never been more aware of her playing than she was in those few, scant moments the song lasted for. While she did her best to not be completely hollow and lifeless, she still could never hold a candle to the DJ, and in the end she stopped trying to compete and just played, reveling in the moment instead.
All too soon, the song ended and she pulled her bow off the strings. Unlike every other audience, there was no applause, just still, deathly silence. And yet, somehow she felt it was the most appreciative audience she had ever played for. “Not bad,” Vinyl smirked as she got back onto four legs. “Thank you, Octavia. Thank you so much. I couldn’t have done it alone.” And when Octavia looked back at her, she could see she was crying.
“And thank you, Vinyl,” Octavia said before giving her a hug. “I’ve never played with a better violinist.” The hug lasted a moment or two while she let her friend cry in private, breaking off only when she was sure she was finished. “How about we go get something to eat. My treat,” she suggested. As much as it felt awkward to see the DJ cry, she knew that, deep inside, it was good for her to let those bottled emotions out at last, and if it were appropriate, she would smile. But the time for mirth and merriment would be soon anyway.
“I’d love that, Tavi,” Vinyl said as they packed up. Together the two friends left the headstone to their tails and walked off. They walked onwards to a happier and brighter future where the two of them could be more open with one another and hopefully remain friends until the end of their days. And yet, someone had not moved on: not yet, at any rate.
*** *** ***
“Heh, what did I tell you?” A disembodied voice said quietly in a place no pony could hear. She sat in front of the stone with a smile as wide as a mile on her muzzle, nudging an old stallion that sat beside her. “Did I tell you she was the shit or what?”
“Yes, yes you did, Alto,” the stallion said in a grump. “And you don’t need to swear like that either.”
Alto Harmony grinned. “‘Course I do. I’m dead and can do whatever the hell I want!” She sat up and stretched. “Dear Vinyl… It was so good to see you again, and to hear you play one last time.” The grin she shared with her sibling faded and became more of a sad smile. “I think I can move on, now that you have.” And to every other ghost, or spiritually aware pony, she began to fade. “Goodbye, my dear sister. Make me proud. I want to hear all of your awesome stories when you come to join me.” Her ghostly voice echoed long after she finally passed on.
*** *** ***
As Vinyl trotted away from the cemetery, she felt as if her hoofsteps had become ten times lighter and that a great weight on her soul had been lifted. Never in a million years would she forget her dear sister, but now she could finally move on and be free to… to just be herself instead of hiding her sorrow. With her friends, old and new at her side, why, she could do just about anything!
~The End~