Every human being has a list of things they’d rather forget. This list usually exists somewhere in the back of their head, pushed there so they can retain their sanity. It only surfaces when something needs to be added to the list, or when you’re reminded of the fact your parents had to have sex to create you. Otherwise, it retreats firmly into your subconscious, never to be thought of.
But the latest addition to Octavia’s list didn’t seem to want to leave her mind. The image of Twilight lying that bed was most definitely going to haunt her for a while; the bandages wrapped around her arms and throat to hide what Octavia could only assume were claw marks. There had been a gash peeking out from underneath the bandages on her neck. The crown of her head completely wrapped up from where she been banged against something.
“And according to Vinyl those injuries aren’t even the full extent of what Twilight suffered.” A sense of uneasiness washed over Octavia just thinking about it. But that wasn’t even the worst part for her. No, the worse part had been seeing how still she was while lying there.
The Twilight that had looked at her with so much energy and life earlier while asking for her help, was silent now. And there was something about that that deeply disturbed Octavia. And that’s the main reason that she was poking her lunch with a fork—chicken nuggets that looked more like they were chipped off of a golem then an actual piece of poultry.
It was just as well, she didn’t feel like eating much anyway. But now Bon-Bon was looking at her for an explanation about her sudden down turn in mood from yesterday, and she really didn’t have a proper answer for her at the moment. So instead she moped, and hoped that her friend wouldn’t say anything.
“Alright, Octi, what’s wrong? Is this about Twilight?” Octavia looked up from her lunch she was slowly turning into gravel. Bon-Bon leaving her alone had been a bit too much to ask for, and now she was looking at her with those big doughy eyes that were completely unfair when you were trying to hide something.
Octavia’s lips quivered a bit, and she buckled, “Yes,” she replied softly. She felt like she was going to cry again, but somehow managed to hold herself together. Maybe she’d cried herself out yesterday with Vinyl.
Bon-Bon, reached across the table to place a comforting hand on her friend. “Hey, Octi, it’s okay. The whole schools a bit shook up over what happened. Hell, even Sunset Shimmer looks like she swallowed a barrel of lemon juice.” Octavia blinked, Sunset Shimmer actually showing a bit of restrain that was rare. She would have thought more on this, but Bon-Bon wasn’t done speaking. “I just didn’t think you’d be so broken up about this, weren’t you just talking yesterday, about how you don’t have any friends?”
Bon-Bon was trying to joke with her, but Octavia wasn’t exactly in a joking mood. “We-we were starting to get to know each other. She saved me from Sunset Shimmer and her goons yesterday, and then asked me if I could help her out with a-a project.” There, that wasn’t too far from the truth, and it seemed to satisfy Bon-Bon as she was nodding in agreement.
“Well, don’t worry about it too much, okay?” Bon-Bon offered her a sad smile, and Octavia couldn’t help but return it. “From the way Principal Celestia told it, she’s stable and everything, plus Twilight’s not exactly the type of person to let something like this get her down . . .,” she leaned over, bridging the distance between, the two, “Unlike some people.” She whispered, pointing down the table at one of the reasons Octavia wasn’t sure she shouldn’t put that whole night on the list, Rainbow Dash.
After everyone had had a chance to see Twilight something of a yelling match had ensued between Vinyl and Applejack. “Well, I’m not sure you can call it a yelling match, since there wasn’t any actual yelling.” Regardless, it was clear to anyone watching that two astounding personalities were clashing.
Vinyl was trying to convince Applejack that taking Octavia along was the best possible solution. It was admittedly a pretty hard sell. She basically wanted Applejack to take along an untrained, untested component into the field with her. They went back and forth arguing over whether Octavia was coming or not, but eventually they struck on a deal.
Octavia could come along, providing Vinyl looked after Rainbow Dash while the investigation went on. From what Applejack could discern from their conversation, Rainbow was important to Twilight in some way or another, and there was a risk that the person that did this might come after her specifically.
Rainbow couldn’t stay with any of her friends for obvious reasons. And there was a good possibility that whoever did this wasn’t specifically targeting Twilight, but was trying to send a message to Celestia by attacking her prized student. No matter how powerful the covenant leader was, Applejack didn’t want to run the risk.
So that left a very unwilling Vinyl to protect Rainbow Dash. The vampire had argued back and forth with Applejack for a while before eventually agreeing to take the girl home with her. “And that was it, we left after that. We didn’t mention Twilight or Rainbow, we didn’t even discuss our argument from earlier. We were both tired and it just didn’t seem like the time for it.” Octavia let out a sigh, glancing at the Rainbow haired girl with her head face down on the table. “And now both Applejack and Vinyl expect me to watch over her while we’re in school. Well, at east Vinyl expects that of me,. I’m pretty sure Applejack just hopes I can pull her out her funk, but how am I supposed to do that, when I’ve never even said two words to the girl?”
Octavia groaned, because in the long run it didn’t really matter if she knew Rainbow well or not. Right now the girl was in pain, and since no one seemed willing to help her at the moment, she supposed it was up to her. Grabbing her plate of “food” she stood up and began to walk over to where Rainbow Dash was sitting. Bon-Bon started to follow her, but Octavia waved her down. Telling her she’d be back and to just wait here for her.
Octavia sat down in the seat across from Rainbow Dash. Putting on what can only be described as her winningest look, she offered her a brief smile and a briefer “Hello”. The distraught teen didn’t answer, choosing to keep her head glued to the table and her arm pillow.
After a few moments of sitting there and picking at her plate and attempting to start up a conversation with the lump of a human sitting across from her, Octavia was about ready to give up. "You know, I don’t think anyone would fault me if I just got up and walked away right now. I could get up throw away my plate, and no one would ever call me on it, because this is hope . . .”
A loud snore rung out, disrupting Octavia’s train of thought. She stared down at the Rainbow-headed source of the commotion and blinked. “You’re asleep aren’t you?” Another snore rang out as a response.
Octavia groaned, she really wasn’t in the mood for this at the moment. Picking up her fork she jabbed Rainbow Dash in the arm, and repeated the action again, and again—“Ugh, will you just fuck off already!”
Octavia paused in her prodding, “Uhm, I—“
“I’m serious, Applejack. I don’t care about any of your fancy powers, if you don’t leave me alone I swear I’ll kick your ass.” Octavia wasn’t really sure what to say to that. It was clearly a threat, even though it wasn’t intentionally directed at her. And she’d probably have an easier time taking it seriously if Rainbow would actually lift her head from her arms. Partly because it looked adorable, and the other part because it had come out sounding like a muffled mess, though she’d gotten most of it.
“Well,” said Octavia taking a somewhat haughty tone in her voice. “It’s a good thing I’m not Applejack, huh.”
Rainbow finally lifted her head from its positioned nestled between her arms. She was confused for a second, until she realized who exactly was in front of her. “Oh, it’s you.” Rainbow shrugged, and prepared to lay back down, at least she wasn’t being bothered by one of her traitorous ex-friends.
Octavia huffed, “Yes, it’s me.” She caught Rainbow head before it could fully hit the table, “And I was hoping we could talk for a moment.”
Rainbow stared of into the distance for a moment, and then shrugged. “Sure, as long as you don’t bug me.”
Octavia frowned, she was going to put up with who know how long of this on a daily basis. “Well, I was hoping since you’re going to be living at the mansion we could get to know one another a bit better.” Rainbow Dash didn’t seem very interested. “That and Vinyl wants me to make sure your safe while we’re at school.”
Now she had Rainbow’s attention. Eyes still glossed over from sleep, she propped her head up on one hand. “You mean the blue haired chick from last night? What’s her deal anyway?”
“Deal?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, “You know. What is she? Some sort of weird exhibitionist monster.” Rainbow had snuck one of the nuggets off her plate, and was focusing on twiddling it through her fingers to see if it was edible.
Octavia blushed, flustered, “What gave you that idea.”
“I dunno, maybe the fact you both showed up to the hospital half naked.” Confirming that the item in her hands was indeed food, she popped it into her mouth and began to chew.
Octavia scoffed in disbelief, “She’s a vampire, a vampire lord to be exact.”
“Ah,” said Rainbow, mouth still full, and only slightly impressed by the revelation. “Well, if Fluttershy can be a vampire I guess anyone can.” She smirked.
Octavia blinked, “Fluttershy? You mean the girl who couldn’t stop crying last night.” Although, they’d only met last night, what she knew of the girl didn’t really line up with her perceptions of the ones she’d met so far. “Then again no one was really acting themselves last night.”
Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, she—was my oldest friend?” Rainbow’s smile faded, and she looked down at the table again.
Octavia felt uncomfortable, as rude and annoying the girl had been in the past five minutes, she still didn’t deserve what was happening to her. “You know you could go talk to them,” Octavia said with a touch more sympathy then she’d had a few seconds ago.
Rainbow shook her head, “You don’t get it. I’ve known some of those girls since kindergarten, Fluttershy even before that. And just the idea that they’ve been lying to me all this time hurts.” Rainbow’s face was set into a hard line, trying to mask the deep feeling of emptiness her friends betrayal had left her with.
Normally, Twilight would be here to fix things. She’d drag both Rainbow and Applejack's stubborn asses to a nice quiet area where no one could hear the sound of their pride being shattered, and then she’d refuse to let them leave until they’d started to at least talk to each other again, even if they hadn’t entirely forgiven each other. Meanwhile, Twilight would be standing over them, easing things along, and making sure neither of them said anything too stupid. Or at least that they apologized if they did.
Rainbow huffed, as a renewed flush of anger flooded her cheeks. But Twilight wasn’t there, was she? Twilight was lying in a hospital bed, half-dead after being attacked by a werewolf, and her other so-called friends would have probably never told her if Rarity hadn’t having one of her dumb sleepovers when they got the call. Hell the only reason they’d alerted the school to Twilight’s accident was because Rainbow had thrown an outright fit about it. There was no way she was going to let everyone think her Twilight had "gone on vacation" when she knew the truth.
“And now I have to deal with this,” thought Rainbow, “Vampire Protective Services, and my very own Igor Guidance Counselor.” All of it was enough to make Rainbow want to let her head fall back into her waiting arms and never get up again. No one had asked Octavia to come over he—Oh wait, they had. And somehow that made it even worse.
“Look,” said Octavia, trying to be and look as empathetic as possible to the pissed off girl in front of her. “I’m about as new to all of this is you are, and I’m even newer to the idea of having more than one friend. But I do know that having absolutely no one to talk to when you’re hurt is one of the worst things imaginable.”
Rainbow was still angry, but her glare softened when she saw the tense look on her face. “I also know that even though we’ve only known each other for a little while, Twilight Sparkle is my friend, and…uh, I-I don’t think she’d want me to leave you alone with the way you are now.”
Rainbow blinked, “I-I’m sorry.” She said. ‘You can probably tell, but I haven’t exactly been sane since Twilight got hurt. But that’s no reason for me to be mad at you.” She smiled, “So if you’re willing to make the effort to deal with me for the next couple, I dunno weeks, I can try and not be a complete and total bitch about all of this.”
Octavia chuckled, “I wouldn’t exactly say you being a bitch, more of a moody, annoying…”
“Cunt,” supplied Rainbow, a sincere smile on her face.
" Octavia shrugged, "Not what I was going for, but sure, let’s go with that.”
Rainbow chuckled, Octavia had finally broken through to her. She stood grabbing her plate, “You’re pretty cool, Philharmonica. And I’d like to stay and talk about how fucked up I am at the moment, and how you ended up as Igor for that wicked looking vampire girl, but I have practice right now. I’ll see you after school so we can swing by my house and grab a couple things.”
Waving goodbye, Rainbow walked away, leaving Octavia to consume the remainder of her lunch. And she would have too if a pair of hands hadn’t clasped down on both her shoulders causing her to jump. She spun around in her seat, part of her expecting to see a muzzle of snarling teeth and pinprick yellow eyes, but was instead put face to face with Bon-Bon.
“That was really sweet, Octi.” At the sight of her friend Octavia calmed herself. There’s no way a rouge werewolf would attack her at school, in the middle of the day with all of these witnesses around. Now that she thought about it how would a werewolf go about getting rid of someone in broad daylight in the first place. Things to think about when she met up with Applejack later. For now though, her incredibly cute best friend was praising her and looking especially intriguing while she did it.
Bon-Bon sat down next to Octavia, “Seriously, though, Octi, that was a really nice thing to do. Pretty much everyone’s noticed that our schools little dream team has been basically destroyed by what happened to Twilight, and seeing them so broken up has just been eerie.” She visibly shuddered to emphasize her point.
“You helping you poor Rainbow is the first step in getting them all back together again. And I just know Twilight’s going to be uber happy that you helped keep her friends together once she gets back.”
Octavia was blushing now, “I was just trying to do the right thing, you know.”
“No, I don’t know, because I wasn’t considerate enough to actually go over here and talk to her, and you know what, you deserve reward.”
Octavia snorted her friend was just over exaggerating now, but one look at those puckered lips told Octavia she was serious. “Bon, seriously, I don’t—“
Bon-Bon cut her off shaking her head, “Nope, I won’t hear it. For your kindest and generosity, Lady Octavia, I am hereby granting you a day where we’ll do anything you want.”
“Wait, what?”
“How does this Saturday sound to you? I hear there’s a new movie out, and it’s supposed to be phenomenal.”
“But wait, Bon, I-“
Bon-Bon sighed, “Octi, if you haven’t noticed, this is my very over-the-top way of asking you out on a date. So could you please just say yes?” Octavia stopped. All motion, breathing, and relative brain functions were reworking themselves to focus directly on the girl to the left of her and processing what she’d just said.
Until then she was staring, deadpan into her big pleading eyes. Eyes that were starting to look more and more panicked every second that ticked by. “Or you know, don’t say yes,” said Bon-Bon nervously. “I mean you don’t have to say yes, no one is forcing you or anything. I’d just assumed, ya’ know, since you’d been staring at me so much lately and—I dunno!” she shrugged violently, her voice rising in pitch.
“It’s just you’ve been spending so much time at your job lately, and I guess I just realized how important you are to me. It’s a “Don’t know how good it is, until its’ gone” sort of thing, and seeing over here with Rainbow Dash, I just got super jealous. But a part of me was also like, “That’s my Octi, so—“
Octavia grabbed ahold of Bon-Bon by the shoulders, finally getting her chance to interrupt the girl mid-rant. She smiled, looking her oldest friend dead in the eye. She was blushing. She looked nice like that. “There is nothing I would love more than to go out with you this weekend.”
Bon-Bon, let out squeak, an adorable little thing to match the light blush. A fact that didn’t go unnoticed by her companion. And in a moment she decided that as long as Suave Octavia was making an appearance she might as well go all out.
Without a second thought she leaned forward and gave the girl a slight peck on the lips. Just enough to elicit another small squeak from Bon-Bon, but leave her wanting more. She stood up, and probably would have walked away looking like a complete and total badass if her foot hadn’t gotten slightly stuck underneath the table nearly tripping her. Instead she had to resort to hopping away from it on one foot, leaving Bon-Bon in stitches.
Well, at least for a second there she’d been cool.
The rest of the school day went by rather quickly, because as far as Octavia was concerned her day had peaked at lunch. But on top of that a lot of kids just plain hadn’t shown up at school, thus teachers weren’t inclined to actually teach with most of their classes missing. Word had begun to spread that Twilight had been attacked on school grounds, and until a culprit was found some parents just didn’t feel like it was worth the risk to send their kids to school.
Personally, Octavia wouldn’t put it past Sunset Shimmer to have spread the news, and she probably would have told someone(Bon-Bon) as much if it weren’t for the fact the Queen Bee herself wasn’t at school either. Leaving, Trixie and Lightning Dust looking about as lost as Rainbow Dash. She might have even called it sad, if they all didn’t act like terrible people on a regular basis.
As horrible as it all was, though, it did allow her to get out of school early by a whole two hours. Which meant dropping off Rainbow at Vinyl’s earlier on. They’d swung by her house once the final bell rung, Octavia had waited outside while Rainbow packed and presumably explained somethings to her parents. Whatever Principal Celestia and The Apples had organized it seemed to work as thirty minutes later, she came bursting out of her home, a blue suitcase trailing behind her and a much weightier backpack on her shoulders.
She’d dumped her on the steps to Vinyl’s mansion, giving her a swift warning about disturbing her mistress and trusting Lyra as she’d left. She’d promised Applejack she’d meet her in front of the school as soon as possible, and with her heightened speed it wasn’t long before a tan cowboy hat sitting on the head of a dusty blond came into view, standing in front of the doorway.
“Alright,” said Applejack. “Now that you’re here we can get things started.” She pulled out a key card from her pocket, unlocking the doors and pushing them open. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time to devote to teaching you stuff,” she explained as she walked inside with Octavia trailing after her.
She pressed a hand against one of the very first lockers in the hall, and kept walking running her hand over each as she went. “If you want to learn how to defend yourself and survive not only in this world but as Vinyl’s assistant, we can do that later.” They turned into another hall but Applejack kept letting her hand clang against the metal lockers. “Right now though, I want to solve this case as soon as possible and because of a bunch of political bullshit I’m stuck with you until this is all over.”
Another turn and then another, “Basically, what I’m saying is listen to everything I say and we’ll catch the son of a bitch who put Twilight in the hospital by the end of the week, maybe less if we work quick.”
“Understood,” Octavia replied rather curtly. “But just so you know I’m as out of my element on this as you are with having me along. On top of that, I’m supposed to help Rainbow Dash settle into the mansion, and the thought of leaving her alone with Vinyl and Lyra is disturbing to say the least.” Octavia shuddered, you she could just imagine Lyra goading Rainbow into doing something stupid, while Vinyl threatened to eviscerate them both.
Or at least to eviscerate Rainbow. Lyra was an ephemeral ghost, who was incapable of taking physical damage…or was she? Lately Octavia was discovering that there were a lot of things she didn’t understand about supernatural beings. And she supposed that Lyra’s spirit was tied to the piano so any damage that received may translate over to her-and where were they.
While Octavia had been lost in their thoughts, the pair had arrived at a door at the end of the hall. It looked rather normal in nature, nothing to distinguish it from any other door in the rest of the school. But the way it felt made Octavia shudder, and perhaps it’s silly to be afraid of a door, but Octavia was beginning to develop something of a sixth sense for doors, and this one felt strange. Not foreboding or inherently danger, but not right either. “Room 234” it was labeled. The only problem with that was they were still on the first floor, or at least Octavia swore they were, she couldn’t remember walking up a flight of stairs or any sort of incline.
Applejack didn’t seem to notice the strangeness though. She was too busy nursing her sore fingers, and fishing through her pockets, for what Octavia could only assume was the key. “Applejack? Where are we?” She asked.
“In school,” said the blonde as she pried the key from her pocket, placing it in the lock. “Just a part of the school people normally don’t see, because Principal Celestia doesn’t want them to.” The lock clicked, but the handle seemed stuck. “This is The Sun Witch’s class, where she teaches all her fledgling students how to use their magic. Think Xavier’s mixed with Hogwarts, but nowhere near as interesting or deadly...usually. Normally, we’d have a much harder time getting here, but most of the magical protection for this place has been smashed to Tartarus and back. It’s why we were able to make our way through the maze trap relatively easily.”
After a few moments of working with it, the door flew open. Inside was a scene that Octavia only half expected. It looked almost like a normal high school lab, with beakers and a shower to rinse off any horrible mistakes, only it was nearly the size of their gym. The right side of the room held the classroom set up, with the left entirely devoted to open space. It didn’t smell like a lab either, instead there was an unmistakable sweet smell in the air. There weren’t any strange posters either, the wall space was occupied by shelves of jars filled with-well if Octavia had to guess she’d say things like eye of newt and puppy dog tails.
Oh, yes, and then there was the blood.
Quite a lot of it really. Most of it centered at the front area where the desks had been smashed to pieces and beakers and test tubes had been thrown to the ground spilling a strange orange liquid that Octavia was hesitant to go near. But here and there, there were streaks across the walls and splatters across sinks mixed with claw marks. All of it couldn’t possibly belong to Twilight though, “Or could it,” thought Octavia pessimistically. “I don’t really know much about witch physiology either.”
Applejack answered her question when she let out a quiet huff. Stepping into the classroom and immediately gravitating towards the area with the most blood and damage. Octavia did the exact opposite, heading towards the more open area near the back of the classroom. The open space made more sense once she saw the chalk markings and overturned cauldron, presumably left by Twilight. This was still a place for experiments, just sligthyl bigger ones that couldn't fit in a beaker.
“Looks like Twi put up a pretty good fight." Shouted Applejack after a moment or two. "Though I can’t really tell how much of this is her and how much is someone else, she added. Even from across the room she could see the look of hope on Octavia's face disappear. They couldn't afford to underestimate their opponent right now.
“Twilight’s always been more about practicality and research then fighting. She knows a thing or two about brawling with magic from Celestia, but not a lot. Not enough to take down a rouge werewolf, that’s for sure.”
Side stepping a broken pile of glass, Octavia marveled at the grisly scene. “I just don’t understand how a werewolf could have done all this. I mean-” she said turning to Applejack, “I don’t mean to prejudice, but the werewolves I’ve always read about have been more snarl and bark. More animal than man, I thought that was sort of the point of it.”
Applejack snorted at the girls description as she poked and prodded at shreds of what remained of Twillight's clothing. This was probably where Twilight's shields had started to fail. “No, your right, and that’s what worries me. Werewolves aren’t exactly the most tactful creatures when they're transformed, Rouges especially. They can think, and they got animal instincts working for them, hell the older ones can even talk while their like that. But once they’re lost in the blood lust of a hunt all the pre-planning in the world won’t stop them from throwing all that out the window and just going for the throat.” Applejack knelt down, running her hands through the blood. “Hey, tell me do you see any hair over there?” shouted Applejack.
“Hair?” questioned Octavia. She gave her area a more though look. There wasn’t any hairs, but there were burn marks that Octavia assumed were left by Twilight trying to defend herself. There was also some sort of bracelet or collar cleaved in half lying on the floor. “No, no hair! But there’s this.” Carefully, Octavia picked up both hands of the collar, holding it high so Applejack could get a good look at it.
Applejack eyed the halves of the collar, her face scrunching up in initial confusion and then solemn understanding. She did one last sweep of her are with her eyes before nodding towards the exit. “Let’s go, we’ve got everything we need from here.
“What?” Octavia was confused, they’d barely been here half an hour and Applejack already knew basically everything about this place. She knew that most of what she saw on those crime dramas was horribly exaggerated, but she’d imagined that scoping out a scene for evidence would take a little more time, effort, equipment of the magical variety. Anything really!
“Yep,” she replied nonchalantly as she started walking towards the exit. This place paints a pretty good picture of what happened and who we’re looking for.”
“Well can you explain to the rest of the remedial class what that means, Detective Applejack?”
Choosing to ignore the sarcastic tone, Applejack turned back around. “It’s like I said werewolves aren’t exactly the sanest creatures when they’re fully formed. So doesn’t it seem strange that whoever this asshole was, was able to break through heavy magical security, and then go toe to toe with Twilight without transforming.”
“How-?”
“Scorch and claw marks. The marks from the spells Twilight was flinging around start over there where you’re standing. But the claw marks don’t appear until you get closer to the front of the class, which coincidentally is also where things start to become a lot bloodier. Wich means that our culprit didn't immediately transform straight out the bat. They managed to hold their own against Twilight, even trying to nullify her powers with that collar you're holding before resorting to transformation. Which means they would have had wolfs bane on hand to force a tansformation, meaning our culprit has some thrifty connections and deep pockets to buy the stuff on the black market.” The rough and tumble organization member was biting her lip, trying to see if she’d forgotten anything.
“As for more nitty gritty forensic stuff, I’m not really that good at that. My big brother Mac came by earlier though and did a nice sweep of the place. Even then it’ll be a while before we can get any kind of lock on who might have done this.” She took a deep breathe, tugging her hat down below her eyes to hide any sign of the tears that were starting to form.
“All I know is that whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing. This was a precise and well thought out plan to have gone under Celestia’s nose, disarming all her defenses with ease. Only thing I can’t figure out is why Twilight? This couldn’t be for Celestia, any enemies that old witch has died a long time ago, or are too afraid to lift a finger to her. Whoever did this knew who they were going after, and the aftermath that would ensue. Most importantly though, they knew exactly when Twilight would be alone in school.” Her eyes narrowed and Octavia blinked.
The only ones who would have known where Twilight was were Vinyl and herself. And despite the fact her new friend hadn’t said a single accusatory word yet, Octavia still found her voice rising. “Are you suggesting that both my master and I had a hand in this, because if you are—!”
“Whoa,” said Applejack raising her hands to stop Octavia from making a threat they both knew she couldn’t carry out. “I’m not suggesting anything. I’m just saying the two of you were the last ones to see Twilight and hear about her plans. You’re not criminals, but you are suspects even more so with how weird Vinyl’s been lately.
"But even with that, I still don’t think Vinyl would have any reason to attack or want to hurt Twilight.” Octavia’s shoulders were still tense, and part of her still wanted to lay into the bigger girl for even suggesting they’d planned to hurt Twilight, but before she could say anything, Applejack strode towards her. Throwing both arms around her, as she tried to ease tensions. Her southern drawl putting a bit of honey to her soothing words. “Look, I’m just trying to solve this case. And I want whoever did this to rot in a place much worse than hell.”
Octavia said nothing, her lips still puckered into a frown as she reciprocated the hug. “I know I said I don’t need any help to solve this-and before you ask I’m not taking that back- but I could use any help you’d be willing to give. Two brains are better than one- and all that.”
Applejack leaned out of the hug smiling, and despite the pepper of red that still coated her cheeks, Octavia relented under it. “Alright.” She sighed.
“Great!” exclaimed her companion. “Now come on.” She said leading her back towards the doorway. “We should probably grab something to eat. My treat. And while that’s happening you can tell me all about your hot date on Saturday.”
“How do you even know about that?” Octavia was definitely certain she hadn’t told anyone, and Bon-Bon wasn’t really the type of girl to brag about this sort of thing.
“Lyra.” Said her friend.
“Of course.” The ghost would do leak her private information like that. Walking side by side the pair walked away from the crime scene.