Octavia watched with a detached horror as Vinyl walked over to the bullies that had stolen her money. Her birthday money, that she was going to use to get a new set of strings for her cello.
“Oi!” said Vinyl, “You took my roommate’s money.”
“Yeah? What are you gonna do about it, scholarship?” said the bully, his cronies sneering and jeering. Before Octavia could even so much as call out, Vinyl landed a solid blow right on the leader’s nose.
“Give it back,” growled Vinyl, lowering herself into a much wider stance, her horn lighting up. Octavia winced as Vinyl propelled her rear hooves into one of the charging bullies, and at the same time, magically slammed a nearby chair into the back of the other ones’ head. Vinyl ducked under a punch and a kick from the leader, and lashed out with her own attack, cracking him across the nose again.
As the fight progressed, Octavia gasped every time that Vinyl got hit, and couldn’t quite contain the grim smile as the bullies that had been harassing her all year got a taste of their own medicine.
Eventually, when Vinyl slammed a chair over the lead bully’s head, the lead decided that he’d had enough.
“Okay, okay, stop!” he cried, blood leaking from his nose, “Here’s your stupid money!” He tossed the bag of bits at Vinyl’s hooves, and he and his compatriots ran off. Vinyl grinned, and set the chair down, and magically picked up the bag of bits, and trotted back over to Octavia.
Vinyl was covered in scrapes and bruises, and from what limited knowledge Octavia had about injuries, what looked like a rapidly developing black eye.
“Here you go!” said Vinyl, levitating the bag back into Octavia’s bag. The two stood there for a moment, Octavia staring at Vinyl like she had never seen her before, and Vinyl shifting uncomfortably beneath Octavia’s gaze.
“This is usually the part where you say thanks, you know,” said Vinyl. Octavia was still for a few moments more, and then launched herself forward. She wrapped her hooves around Vinyl, and sobbed into the unicorn’s shoulder.
“Whoa, hey, you don’t need to be sad. I got your money back.”
“I’m crying because I’m happy, you idiot,” muttered Octavia, “Nopony’s ever done anything that nice for me before.” Vinyl, unsure of what to do, gently patted Octavia’s back as the earth pony continued to cry.
Eventually, Octavia managed to control her emotions, and disentangled herself from Vinyl.
“So, I guess this is the part where you now say that that never happened, and we go back to our mutual ignorance of each other?” said Vinyl.
“Well, I suppose that you aren’t too terrible,” said Octavia, still wiping tears from her eyes, “I suppose that we can talk every now and again, though don’t assume that this makes us friends.”
“Of course not,” Vinyl muttered under her breath as she began to walk away from Octavia, “you do something nice for somepony, and of course she throws it back. Well,” continued Vinyl, at a more audible volume, “See you, Octavia.”
“Goodbye, Vinyl.”