//------------------------------// // Don't Speak // Story: Octavia Crashes a Party and Wins a Roomate // by ChaseTheChangeling //------------------------------// "So what's wrong?" Fredric asked, the three of the four ensemble had traversed from their homes into Ponyville once more, their faces bearing a look of concern as Fredric had just broken the long and respectably established silence between them. Beauty and Harpo trotted ahead, their faces staying forward, focusing on anything but their thoughts. Harpo had feared the worse, Fredric remained clueless, but Beauty had a heavy load bearing on her shoulders, gifted with the damned "blessing" that was knowing the situation. Beauty only sighed and looked back at the stern faced stallion, he looked as if he could care less, but Beauty knew him well, he was always thinking behind the solid eyes, that stone face of his hiding the immature hot headed and easily jealous brain of a master composer. "Well, she and Vinyl had a falling out this morning, so I guess she just wants to be with her friends?" Beauty trailed a bit towards the end, hoping Fredric wouldn't question her, or ask for more details. "Well, what happened?" Beauty sighed again, she knew hoping Fredric would leave it alone would be a long shot that would never be made. "I guess Vinyl just made Octavia upset or something, that's really all I can tell you." "Why?" "It's her story to tell..." "Why not tell me, and then I'll act like I never knew about it when she tells me?" "Because she'll know that Beauty told you, trust me, I know how you get." Harpo added quickly. His head turned and he gave Fredric an exasperated look. "She hasn't been this upset since her father found out about her love of dubstep." Fredric bit his lip. He had heard stories about her times as a teen, how her father had been upset about her choices in life, and how horribly she was punished for even dabbling in the idea of dubstep. If it weren't for her father, Beauty had said Octavia might have become an instrumentalist in a dubstep group. But dreams die, you get older, and you grow out of phases. Although this wasn't much of a phase as it was a heartbreaking tale of a poor pony not allowed to follow her dreams. "It must have been pretty bad... are you sure you can't tell me?" "Yes I'm sure, besides, we're here, just ask her when we get inside." Beauty growled. Harpo and a scowling Beauty began to grow more agitated as Fredric had pestered them. 'I hope I don't end up snapping about this with Fredric being such a child....' Beauty's mind was snapped back into reality after the door to the town home swung open. However, instead of Octavia being there with a little grin, the little grin she made when she saw them, preparing herself for a day of mischievous fun, the cellist was disheveled, her mane a tousled mess and her coat almost worse. She had dark matted lines down her cheeks, despite the tears that made them having long since dried away, her eyes were red and glassy, and under them were bags large enough to pack away the contents of Carousel Boutique. Beauty gasped lightly, leaving silence to reign once more around the group. "Hey guys..." Octavia's voice was scratchy and tired. The voice of a mare that had been sitting up crying and contemplating. Fredric pushed the others aside to reach Octavia, his hoof reaching out to lift her head, however Octavia pulled back quickly to avoid the contact. "Fredric, leave her be, she's not well..." Harpo whispered. Fredric turned to see the Octavia was still looking down at the floor, her eyes seeming to look past the ground itself. "You guys can come in.... it's just been.... really quite lately..." Octavia finished and turned to let her friends in. It was odd, it had only been a few days since they last saw her, but it seemed like their friend had changed so much in that little bit of time. The entire ensemble gathered together, taking their favorite seats; Fredric in his little ottoman seat, Harpo in the arm chair, Beauty in the love seat, and Octavia on the three man couch opposite the arm chair and ottoman. The four friends sat in silence, the room's foreboding menace pierced them. Had it always been this dark in here? Was it always this creepy? Who long has Octavia been living in this kind of silence? "So what did that vile DJ do to you?" Fredric had once again shattered the silence, his voice nearly blowing away the shield of the other's ears. "Whatever it was, I'm sure I could help rectify it." "Fredric! Don't pester the poor girl!" Harpo shouted in seething anger. "Don't you dare make me the villain! I know you're just upset because I'm brave enough to ask!" "Brave or insensitive and ignorant?" "How dare you! I try to be a good friend and you insult me? What's wrong with me wanting to help her?!" The two stallions continued to argue, their voices having broken the silence, but to Octavia, the silence was still there, looming over her. "It's so strange," Octavia began quietly, her words attracted the attention of Beauty who had since tuned out the other two's bickering. "What is, Octavia?" Beauty asked, her face bearing the look of a concerned mother. "Well, even though Vinyl didn't talk much, everything seemed so much more... lively, and, well, better. Now that she's gone, it's like no matter what I hear, it's always quite compared to being with her? Does that make sense?" "She was keeping your attention?" "Yes, but... now I don't know..." "Did you... like... like her or something?" "I don't know..." Octavia wasn't about to reveal to Beauty if she was really into Vinyl. Not like that anyway. As far as Beauty was going to be concerned, Octavia had a moment of weakness, and she slept with a pony she really enjoyed being around. Not that being a fillyfooler was some big secret, but what would they think of her being in love with Vinyl? They would likely scold her and tell her she was being crazy, that she shouldn't have fallen for a pony like Vinyl. She was a DJ, and DJ's were known for being loose and sleeping with fans. "I'm going to take that as a yes..." "Please don't." The two stallions had not once taken a break from their arguing. The both of them now standing and shouting at each other, although it wasn't quite clear about what, it sounded like they were arguing about Vinyl being a heathen or something, but Octavia didn't feel like getting involved. Regardless of it were true or not. Beauty and Octavia sat in silence as they just watched the two stallions bicker. Octavia soon began to regret calling them all over at once. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So you just left?" Spitfire asked, her drink balancing in her hooves as she juggled it between them. Vinyl sighed and nodded. "She seemed so upset, I didn't want to make it worse." "But you could have spoken up?" "Yeah right, half of the conversations you and I share are a game of charades, not like I would shout... especially with her." "So what do you plan to do?" "Move away, never look back?" "That's not an option." "Why not?" Spitfire sat back in her seat and sighed. "You like this filly, right?" Vinyl nodded, still looking past anything in particular as she listened. "So you just wanna, get up and leave? Like, just up and go away, leaving her here to wonder where you went? Maybe she liked you too, and you're just going to leave her and break her heart?" "That's what being a DJ's all about, right?" deadpanned Vinyl as she pushed her drink away from herself. "Wrong! You're supposed to make ponies happy, get them dancing and making friends!" "I don't know... I just need to think..." "About what, Vinyl?" "About what I should do, you know? Like I don't even know...." "What would help you think?" "Playing a set usually gets me thinking..." Spitfire gave Vinyl a small grin. Taking a quick swig from her glass, Spitfire stood up and walked towards the door of the bus, leaving Vinyl confused. Spitfire only turned to give Vinyl a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Vinyl, I've got a plan, and I know just the stallion to help us make it work..."