//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Ponyville // Story: Equestria Exiled // by AndrewRogue //------------------------------// Vinyl sighed, staring at the tiny plastic tiles in front of her as the other two mares chatted, laughed, and, continued winning this stupid game. Unfortunately, while she considered a lot of things better than sitting here, eating fake oats, and staring at these stupid tiles with their baffling rules, moping alone in the cabin wasn’t one of them. “Your turn, Vinyl!” Octavia said, smiling brightly. Her magic flickered as she wrapped it around one of the tiles and stood it up in front of her, struggling to remember the multitude of different hooves the two of them had tried to tell her she could build. Something about amassing flower tiles sounded familiar, so she discarded one of her rock tiles to the central stack. “Yay!” Ditzy chirped, collecting the tile before it had settled on the table. “That is exactly what I needed!” She shuffled her tiles enthusiastically for a moment before returning one to the central pile and smiling. “You’ve really never played before, have you?” “Wonderful,” Vinyl grumbled, not bothering to try and conceal her annoyance. “You should never discard the Six of Stones unless it’s a final play,” Octavia offered. “It is the core of some of the strongest hooves you can make.” “Great. Glad to know.” She prodded at the tiny – and quickly shrinking – stack of cookies sitting next to her tiles with a hoof. The only edible thing on the entire ship and Tavi and Ditzy had decided they wanted to use them for this stupid game. “So, Ditzy, you were saying that they actually kicked you out of the Wonderbolts Academy?” Octavia asked, resuming their previous conversation. “Well, not literally kicked. More just politely told that I might want to consider other professions. Or trade schools. Or stations to live on. Or empires to be a citizen of.” Ditzy grinned as she pushed a tile to the center of the table. “It worked out, though! I don’t think I would’ve liked being part of the Wonderbolts. As an independent, I get to make my own hours, choose my own jobs, and Drifter here gets to be my home.” Vinyl’s stomach lurched as her chair wobbled slightly in response to Ditzy’s enthusiastic stomp on the floor. “You actually live here? On the ship?” Octavia asked. “Yeah. Pretty great, isn’t it?” “Well, it certainly compares quite favorably to my unit in Manehattan.” Octavia smiled, quickly drawing and discarding a tile. “Your turn again, Vinyl.” “Yeah, yeah, I figured that much out at least.” Vinyl wanted to just fold, go back to the cabin, and do something besides play this stupid game or listen to their pilot gleefully describe exactly how many accidents she’d had in flight school, but, if she did, she’d probably be doing it alone. While the last two days hadn’t been pleasant, they’d at least been bearable when it was just her and Tavi chatting or musicing or watching the tablet. “Don’t get me wrong. I had to do a lot of work to poor Drifter here to get him up to speed and make him livable, but I enjoyed every minute of it. He’s not perfect or anything, but, well, neither am I! Besides, how many ponies get to combine the joys of travel with all the comforts of home?” “I am a little jealous of you, Ditzy. I always liked the idea of travelling the Empire, bringing my music from station to station, absorbing the serene beauty of space between shows… The view from the cockpit really is incredible. Hundreds and thousands of lights painted over a perfect black.” “I wish there were a nebula or something along the way to show you. If you like the stars, that’d totally wow you.” Flattening her ears to muffle the conversation, Vinyl tried to focus on her turn instead of the endless emptiness that was only a few sheets of metal away. “Yes, great, wonderful stuff out in the vacuum of space,” she mumbled, drawing and then discarding a tile at random. “Still feeling a little spacesick, huh?” Ditzy asked. “Among other things.” She didn’t need to look to feel the sympathetic look from Tavi. The fact that she seemed to have humiliated herself time and time again since they first met was not making her feel better. Ditzy tipped her tiles over, grinning broadly as she arranged them. “I’ll call here. Six stone with a full garden.” Octavia shook her head and then pushed her tiles to the center. “Damnation. I would have had that one if you hadn’t gotten the Six of Stones.” After passing a trio of cookies to Ditzy, Tavi nudged Vinyl in the side. “I need to teach you to play. Or, at least, make you sit on the other side of me.” Before Vinyl could snap something back, the lights flashed red and wailing siren sounded, flooding the room with noise and causing her heart to skip as panic seized her, her body going rigid and her mind going blank as she struggled to breathe. “Ah! We’re almost to Ponyville, it sounds like!” Ditzy yelled, hopping out of her seat. “Sorry! The intercom’s been a bit broken lately, so I re-routed the auto-pilot announcements through the alarm system!” Vinyl managed something like a real breath. “Though, I guess that doesn’t actually preclude it being a real emergency! Pretty sure it’s just letting us know we’re like an hour out of Ponyville, but I should really check on that.” The sheepish grin she offered as she rushed out of the room did nothing to help. Avoiding passing out was the important thing. All she had to do was breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, focus on the rhythm and ignore— “I’m sure everything really is fine,” Tavi said, putting a leg around her. The next breath came a little easier. “Y-Yeah.” The pounding of her heart in her ears was still nearly drowning out the siren, but she could at least make out individual beats. Tavi was right. They were supposed to get to Ponyville soon and the idiot probably would link her systems like that. Focus on the rhythm. Breathe in, breathe out. After a moment, the lights went white and the wailing siren was replaced by the crackling and half-garbled sound of Ditzy on the speakers, “Yep! Just like I thought! We’re nearly—” The speaker’s shriek was earsplitting and nearly sent Vinyl into another panic attack, “And yeah, intercom is still messed up. We’ll have to finish our game later. Need to take us in manually!” A few more deep breaths and the panic was nearly gone. “Feeling better?” Octavia asked. Vinyl nodded, her face warming as embarrassment cut through the last of the fear. “Thanks,” she mumbled as Tavi pulled her leg back. “Well, it at least makes me feel a little less guilty for forcing you to suffer through several hands of Marejong with barely any idea of how to play,” Tavi teased. “Do you have it in you to call Mister Rich? We should let him know we will be arriving shortly.” It took a moment for the statement to register as a request. “Huh? Oh, yeah, definitely, I can call him. You got the tablet?” She nodded, placing it in front of Vinyl. It took a few moments for Filthy to answer, but he managed right before she hung up. “Hello?” He grunted, barely even looking at the screen as he fixed his tie. “Yo, Filthy.” His grimace faded. “Ah, Vinyl. And Miss Melody. My apologies. I thought you were Flim or Flam.” His sigh said all it needed to. “Sorry I haven’t had the opportunity to call. We’ve been dealing with some big shipments to Las Pegasus Station, renegotiating contracts in Manehattan, and few other big things, so those two have been really cracking the whip.” “No prob, no prob. Just wanted to let you know we’re like an hour out from Ponyville.” “You are?” He looked down for a second, then shook his head. “That’s unfortunate. I mean, I would still be more than happy to meet with you and Miss Octavia, but I forgot a storm week was starting. It’s why we’ve been running around like mad trying to make sure we got this shipment out.” Vinyl frowned. “Storm week?” “It happens every few months on the agricultural stations,” Octavia answered. “Cloudsdale exports some of their fiercest storms and lets them run wild on the station for a few days. The station, in turn, collects the excess water and electricity to supplement the station’s systems and make it easier and cheaper to maintain.” “So what’s that got to do with anything?” Octavia shook her head. “It will be raining nonstop the entire week.” “And? Afraid to get your mane wet or something, Tavi? It rains on Manehattan too, you know.” “Not like this it doesn’t,” Filthy said. “I am really sorry. Completely forgot about it between everything else that was going on. You’re still welcome to come by and we can talk to a few potentials and dig through some records together, but you’d have to walk. They take the trains offline while the storms are loose.” Vinyl shrugged and glanced at Octavia. “I’m cool hoofing it. Beats just waiting around here, right?” Octavia stayed silent for a long moment. “As much as I loathe the idea,” she finally said, “I really cannot afford to waste time. Could you please send us a map of the station, Mister Rich?” “Of course, Octavia. Just a little tip: you’ll want to cut through the greendome. I’m pretty much on the opposite end of the station from the docks. Have you made lodging arrangements?” Vinyl stared blankly at the tablet. “Uh… you know, didn’t really think about that one.” “I assumed we would simply stay on the Drifter with Ditzy,” Octavia said. “That won’t do. I can’t have one of my biggest buyers and her friend stuck trudging back across the station during a storm to sleep in a ship. Why don’t you stay with me? It isn’t much, but I could certainly put both of you up for a night or two.” “We’ll take you up on that, Filthy!” Vinyl said before Octavia could get a polite word in edgewise. The more time off the ship, the better. Filthy shook his head, but managed a small smile at Octavia. “I will see to it that things are ready for you. Is there anything else you’ll need?” “Dinner’d be good!” Vinyl interjected. “We are fine,” Octavia said. “You are already doing more than enough for us.“ Filthy suddenly jerked his head back towards a noise, then rolled his eyes. “Looks like I need to get back to work. I will try to wrap up quickly so that I can greet you properly. Otherwise, I’ll make sure the door is unlocked and the two of you can just make yourselves at home.” “Awesome! Thanks a million, Filthy!” She shut the tablet off and grinned at Octavia, who had a look prepared for her. “Oh come on. Both of you were complaining about the rain, so it just makes sense to crash with him.” “There’s a difference between worrying about a storm and imposing on somepony who’s already doing us a favor.” Vinyl snorted. “He owes me. I’ve probably spent more Bits with him than anypony else in the Empire. The least he could do is give us a bed for a couple nights.” “And you are really not worried about endangering him?” Octavia asked, causing Vinyl to hesitate. “Even if we are not listed as the Empire’s most wanted, I cannot imagine the Council Guard being particularly gentle with anyone they suspect has seen us, let alone harbored us.” “You really think they’d arrest him or something?” She shrugged. “I honestly do not know, but I do worry about it. Ditzy at least understands the situation, but we are basically blindsiding Mister Rich.” Leaning back on her seat, she sighed. “But I will admit, I also don’t like the idea of having to make the same trip twice in one day. I suppose it should be fine, so long as we keep our heads down and don’t overstay our welcome.” “Yeah,” Vinyl agreed hesitantly. “You think they’d be able to find us that quickly, though?” “I hope not. But running to a station at the far edge of the Empire also seems like something they might predict.” She lapsed into silence, suddenly intent on cleaning up the game on the table. “We could tell him, if you want. He’s a good pony.” Vinyl levitated a bunch of the tiles into a stack near Octavia. “I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t turn us over. I mean, absolute worst case, we let him know at the first sign of trouble and tell him to just sell us out, right? We’d have time to run ‘cause we knew it was coming and Sombra would probably give him a medal or something.” “Possibly.” She pushed the little tower Vinyl had made into the game’s case, then returned it to the drawer Ditzy had pulled it from. “Come on. We should make sure we’re ready to leave as soon as we dock.” ~~~~~ Frowning as she stared out from under the dock’s alcove, Vinyl had come to understand why both Filthy and Tavi had been total foals about the whole storm week thing. “This is not rain.” “This is what it looks like before the pegasi bring those nice, tired clouds to the larger stations.” While Vinyl had been quite happy to finally set hoof on a station again, that joy had faded pretty fast the instant she saw that the area inside the dome seemed to consist of nothing more than an endless sheet of water down from thick, black clouds. Even after removing her shades, she could barely make out the dark, squat shapes of what must have been buildings and the faint – and depressingly distant – glow of the smaller dome that apparently housed all the plants and stuff. “It too late to change my mind and say we should wait on the ship until this finishes?” “Yes. Besides, it is called storm week for a reason. We would be waiting for quite a while.” Octavia still hesitated as she stared out into the station proper, watching the thick clouds churning above them. “I don’t suppose you are able to make a magical umbrella or something similar?” Vinyl grinned. “That I can. A totally awesome one.” Concentrating, she manifested a thin, slightly curved sheet of magical energy above her, then ran a much more complicated spell through the magical energy. After checking to make sure the secondary spell was complete, she stepped out into the rain, turning back to watch Tavi’s expression as the rain hit the surface of the magical energy. Each of the dozens upon dozens of drops that hit it caused ripples of brilliant, multicolor light to course through it, transforming the world around her into something resembling a kaleidoscope. Right as Octavia started to open her mouth, the second part of the spell kicked in, silencing her as the rhythmic pounding of the rain melded with a series of harmonic thrums that synced perfectly to the frantic light. Vinyl beamed as Tavi just stood and stared at the spectacle. “So? Most awesome umbrella you’ve ever seen, right?” “Yes. It’s beautiful,” Tavi said. “I didn’t know you could do something like that.” The weeks she spent working on that spell felt totally worth it in that moment. “I told you when you asked about magic: I’m a pro with light and sound.” “Apparently.” Octavia offered her a smile as she continued, “You might want to tone it down a little, though. We are trying to lay low.” “Heh. Right. Gotcha.” Vinyl pulled the sound element completely, then simplified the light, leaving the magical sheer glowing just enough to pierce the misty darkness around them. “Better?” “Much. Could you make it a bit bigger though?” Viny laughed uncomfortably. “Nope. That’s about as big as it goes.” “You can make it musical, you can make it glow, but you can’t make it big enough for two ponies to stand comfortably under?” Octavia asked, her amazement apparently fading. Sidestepping, Vinyl waved a hoof in the empty space next to her. “Check it! There’s totally enough room for two ponies!” Tavi sighed and shook her head. “I suppose we should be glad Ditzy preferred to stay on the ship while we took care of our business.” Actually walking proved much harder than Vinyl had expected, since “room for two ponies” proved kinda exact, forcing the two of them to lean into each other to stay mostly dry. Unfortunately, that also meant they spent a lot of time stumbling over each other’s hooves, accidentally bumping each other, and struggling to match pace. Worse, after just a couple minutes of walking through the cramped, maze-like alleys between the short, squat buildings that made up Ponyville, Vinyl’d completely lost track of where they were. Octavia seemed to have some idea of where she was going, at least, but even she had to stop every few moments, look around, and occasionally completely change direction. “Are you absolutely sure you cannot make the umbrella any larger, Vinyl?” she grumbled after the third reversal, her wet tail slapping against Vinyl’s legs as the two bumped into each other again. Despite Vinyl’s best efforts, between the water running off the edges of the magical umbrella and the puddles collecting on the ground, they were still getting soaked. “Yes, I’m sure! I go any bigger, I’m likely to drop the whole spell on accident.” “Seriously, Vinyl. How is it possible that you can transform it into a musical light show, but not make it just a little bit bigger?” “Look, do you want to try making the magical umbrella, Tavi?” Vinyl snapped. Even making it this big was straining her abilities and making her regret how many classes she’d skipped, slept through, or just plain ignored. “I’m just not good at this sorta magic, ‘kay?” A look of annoyance briefly crossed her face before she simply sighed and leaned further into Vinyl, trying to keep as much of herself out of the rain as possible. “Then could you at least try to keep pace with me? It is hard to keep adjusting my speed to match you.” “I’m trying! It’s hard to conjure this stupid thing, keep up with you, and watch where I’m going, okay?” Vinyl shuddered as her hoof went straight into a puddle of icy water, drenching her chest and belly. “Seriously, buck this! Can’t bucking see, the walkways are a bucking maze, it’s bucking freezing out, and we’re basically bucking swimming! How do these ponies deal with this bull?” “We usually just took the week off, stayed inside, piled on the blankets, and hoped we didn’t need to leave the unit.” It took a moment to pierce Vinyl’s growing frustration, but she she eventually glanced over at Tavi, the little clues clicking into place. “You from here?” Octavia shook her head gently, cringing as her bangs plastered themselves to her face with a wet smack. “No, but I am from an agriculture station. Trottingham. I only moved to Manehattan a few years ago.” “Huh. I wouldn’t have guessed. You don’t seem like it.” She hesitated, the words not sounding quite right in her head. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being from one of the little stations way out on the edges. Just, you know, it’s all farm ponies and stuff out here, ain’t it?” The stare Octavia was giving her indicated that that had not really been a better clarification. “I just mean that you’re pretty damn classy and—” “Your ability to continue speaking with your hoof inserted so deeply in your mouth is impressive.” “Okay. Look. I just think of the snobs as coming from the big stations. Nothing says you can’t be a snob all the way out here too. Just didn’t think about it, that’s all.” As she spoke, she slowly shifted the umbrella to her side, giving Octavia less and less room to avoid getting wet. To Vinyl’s surprise, the mare simply shoulder-checked her, almost sending her sprawling and certainly sending her out into the rain. “Oh buck you, Tavi!” she shouted, as she threw herself back under the cover, her coat and mane already drenched from the few seconds of exposure. “I believe you were asking for it, Vinyl,” Octavia said, her quiet chuckle barely audible over the pouring rain. “Anyhow, how would you know what ponies outside of Manehattan are like? Have you even left the station before?” “Hey, I’ve been off Manehattan!” Even if she couldn’t see Tavi’s face, she could feel the mare’s disbelieving look. “A couple times when I was a filly, okay? My folks took me. I like it in Manehattan, and, in case you didn’t notice, me and shuttles don’t get along too well.” “Be careful about the assumptions you make, then. The Empire is a very big place with a lot of different ponies, many of whom I imagine will not be as understanding of your particular quirks and idiosyncrasies as I am.” Vinyl ran a foreleg across her face, trying to clear the water from her eyes while she considered dropping the umbrella completely. There’d be Tartarus to pay after, but it’d almost be worth it to wipe that smug – if kinda cute – smile off Tavi’s face. “You know, I sorta figured you’d be in a worse mood ‘cause of the rain.” “I did too.” Tavi stopped walking, staring up at the rain. “There is something pleasantly nostalgic about all this, though. The smell of storms and mulch, the biting chill in the air, the rhythm of the falling rain…” She took a deep breath, her smile widening. “It really does make me think about home. I—” “You…?” Vinyl asked. For the briefest moment she was sure she saw Tavi’s eyes flash violet, then the mare collapsed, hitting the floor with all the grace of a drunk who’d long since passed their limit.