The Best Time of Our Lives

by ThisIsMyFateNow


Chapter 6 - Starting Over

“What the buck do you want, Octavia?!” the harsh voice asks as it echoes across a suddenly empty cafeteria. The unknown voice continues, “All week you’ve been stalking me and following me and harassing me.”

Stepping back slightly, the grey mare hesitates as she tries to form a proper sentence. She’s still stunned that the young mare in front of her is one of the greatest electronic music composers out there.

“I… uh…” she says rather lamely. Nothing at all like her normal composed, arrogant self. Head drooping, she raises her eyes to meet the striking magenta eyes currently glaring at her. With a frustrated huff, Vinyl turns back to the table to grasp her lunch tray in her magic’s aura before trotting over to the waste bin and depositing the tray next to it.

Turning back, she sighs before muttering, “That’s what you get for opening your big mouth, Vinyl.” Looking at the stunned faces of the ponies scattered about the cavernous room, she blushes slightly as she hurriedly makes her escape.

Heading to an empty room, she peeks in to see that no one is there before slipping into the darkened classroom. All she wanted to do was think. It had been a week since she was fired. True to her word, the next day she had returned to Trot and removed her turntable, record crates, and the rest of her gear. It was at that time that Fire Hooves tried to convince her to stay on, which, to his credit, almost worked. Or it would have if Vinyl’s emotions didn’t range anywhere from furious anger to the verge of tears at any given moment. She did manage to find out that Octavia’s family owned the club. Which would explain how the owner knew of her… less than legal employment activities.

Sighing heavily, she sits in the dark room considering her options. She has some money saved, but she’ll need that to help cover the rent while she looks for a new club to work at. Maybe Night Promenade over at Aurora Aetherica would give her her old job back. Neon Lights was good, but she knows that she’s better. As she rests her weary head on her hooves, she wrestles with the moment’s biggest question. Should she continue to pay for tuition at Canterlot Prep?

Knowing what she needs to do, she gets up and heads over to the office.

~~~

At the Melody Household later that evening

Octavia paced back and forth in her room, chewing on her lower lip, mind racing over the same problem it’s been dwelling on all week, Vinyl Scratch. Looking back now, she could see the similarities. How many mares have an electric blue mane like that?

Sighing as her thoughts continue to run in circles, she knew she had to do something. She had already tried to make her father re-hire Vinyl, but that didn’t go over so well. She realised too late that she looked like a foal throwing a temper tantrum. Dwelling on the past was getting her nowhere. She needed to try and set things right. However, all week, she had been at a loss for words. She managed to get her favorite artist fired.

“Gahhh!” she screams as she throws herself onto her bed, burying her face into one of the numerous pillows so as to not alarm any of the household staff. Rolling over onto her back, she lets her head continue to roll until it comes to a rest facing off to her left. Staring blankly at the DJ-PON3 poster, she let her mind continue on it’s endless loop. Looking at DJ-PON3’s signature cocky and surefire grin, she feels her mind grind to a halt, too tired to continue. Hopefully she’ll be able to sleep tonight and come up with a solution in the morning.

~~~

“What do you mean she’s not here?!” Octavia asks Lyra incredulously. Ears laid flat against her head, Lyra takes a step back, not liking the slightly crazed look in Octavia’s eyes.

“I haven’t seen her all day,” she says guardedly. Looking around, she starts to back away from Octavia, hoping to get to an exit and away from what is quickly becoming one of the most awkward experiences she’s had at this school.

Looking about frantically, Octavia trots off to see if she can’t find the current queen of elusivity. She knows that Vinyl is avoiding her. But she’s smarter than that silly white mare. And she’s also well connected. A plan quickly forms and she changes course and heads to the office.

Pushing the door to the Administrative Office open, she almost marches up to the receptionist. “I am looking to see if a particular student is here today,” she says in her most authoritative voice.

The frazzled mare behind the large, curved desk looks at Octavia over the top of her half-moon glasses. Sighing in recognition of the student before her, she offers up “Who are you looking for Miss Melody?”

“I would like to know if Miss Vinyl Scratch is here today.”

Shuffling a few papers about and muttering “Scratch” to herself a few times, the secretary finds the papers that she wants. Flipping through them, she stops suddenly. “It appears that she no longer goes to this school. She dropped out this morning.”

Octavia feels her eyes climbing as they grow as large as saucers. “Dropped... out?” she whispers hoarsely, not believing it. Standing motionless for a few moments, her mind processes this new information. Working quickly, she arrives at a conclusion, “I drove her out.” With tears starting to flow down her face, she turns quickly and gallops out of the office, nearly bowling over the young stallion that happened to spring out of the way at the last moment.

Crashing through the front doors of the school, she heads out to wander the streets of Canterlot, hoping that she can figure out what she should do next.

After hours of wandering, she finds herself taking a familiar path back to her family’s estate. Having mulled the problem over, she feels that she needs to go visit Vinyl at home and see if she can’t set things right. Thankfully, as her family owns the club that previously employed her, they would have her personal information on hoof.

Slipping into the manor, she makes her way to her father’s office and resolutely knocks on the door. “Enter,” the deep, booming voice commands. Pushing the door open, she steps nervously inside. Steeling her resolve, she meets his eyes. “What can I do for you Octavia?”

“Father, I was wondering if I can see the information sheet on Ms. Vinyl Scratch?”

Mulling it over for a moment, the stallion shrugs and slides open the drawer containing Vinyl’s employee information. “Why do you want it?” he asks, resting his front hooves on the folder.

Sighing at what she had hoped to avoid, she summoned the courage to continue. “Father, I have wronged Miss Scratch and need to set things right.” Hanging her head in apparent shame, she tries to hide the flush in her cheeks.

Looking at his daughter, a small grin tugs at one corner of his mouth. “I wish you didn’t have to learn this lesson the hard way, but as you can see, there are consequences for everything.” Adopting a lecturing tone he continues, “While I’m pretty sure your intentions were to just make Miss Scratch miserable at school, it’s set off a chain reaction that’s left a mare unemployed, and who knows what else?”

Tears welling in her eyes, she whispers “I drove her out. She dropped out of school today.”

“See? Everything has a consequence. Be it good or bad. Now, what do you plan to do about it?”

“I will need to discuss things with mother and see if we can come up with something appropriate.”

Nodding in agreement, the stallion slides the requested piece of paper over to his daughter. “I do hope that you take something away from all of this.”

Stepping forward, she takes the paper and thanks her father before heading off to find her mother.

After a brief stop to drop off the paper in her bedroom, she proceeds to trot through the manor looking for the mare in question. Poking her head into the kitchen, she smiles as she sees a grey mare with a brilliant purple mane working with a variety of devices. By the look of things, Octavia surmised that she was attempting to make a pie. And judging by the small mound of peeled and sliced apples, she guessed that her mother had just started to make the dough.

Entering the spacious kitchen, she clears her throat so as to not startle her mother.

“Oh! Octavia! I didn’t hear you come in,” the bubbly mare says with a smile.

Stepping forward, Octavia attempts to brush some of the flour out of her mother’s hair while trying to figure out how to word her question. “Mother…” hesitation evident in her voice, “I need some help.”

“Oh? Help with what, sweetie?”

“I need to make amends with somepony and I’m not sure how to go about it. I feel as though I’ve made quite a mess of things. I fear this will be difficult from which to extract myself.”

“Well, have you tried just talking to them?

“Umm, no. Every time I tried to, I froze up. And now all I’ve got to go on is her address.”

“Then go talk to her, honey. If you feel like you’ve done her wrong, you need to set things right. Talking to her will let you two clear the air and hopefully, set you on a path of recovery.”

Leaning in, Octavia gives her mom a hug and whispers, “Thank you, Mother. I knew I could count on you.” Stepping back, she flashes a grin before heading off to get the address from the paper she left in her room.

~~~

Trotting down the steps that lead to one of the lower sections of Canterlot, Octavia felt a bit repulsed at the general state of disrepair in which this portion of the city found itself. “If Vinyl lives down here, how was she able to afford tuition at the school?” she thought idly to herself as she kept an eye open for her destination. Watching the address numbers drop lower and lower, she spies the desired address. Before she can take one step further, she hears the door open and sees the outline of a pony silhouetted against the setting sun. Squinting slightly she is able to make out the electric blue color of her target’s mane. Increasing her speed in an attempt to catch up, she starts to follow Vinyl as she heads away from Octavia’s direction.

Continually squinting to keep the barely visible pony in view, Octavia breathes a sigh of relief as Vinyl makes a turn down a small side street. Chastising herself about acting very stalkerish, she hesitates only slightly before continuing to follow Vinyl. That is until she sees Vinyl slow down at the wrought iron gate of the Canterlot Memorial Cemetery. Even though the gates are open in welcome, a shudder passes through Octavia as Vinyl resolutely walks through the gates and deeper into the cemetery.

Curiosity piqued, she continues in after the DJ. Listening to the clip clop of hooves on the stone path, Octavia works her way deeper into the cemetery, shadows growing longer as the sun starts to dip below the horizon. Repressing a shiver of fright, she strongly debates leaving and trying to talk to Vinyl another time, but curiosity drives her on.

Soon, she overhears a broken, muted voice. Stepping off of the path to keep her hooves from echoing off of the stones, she crept along, moving closer to the voice. Using the headstones for cover, she finally spied Vinyl seated in front of a rather diminutive head stone.

“Hi mom.I guess you should know that I failed again. I couldn’t even follow the dream you had for me. I tried so hard to not let her get to me. But I couldn’t do it. I let her get to me. What did I even do to make her hate me..” she says brokenly, sobbing all the while. Trailing off, Vinyl lowers her head and sinks to the ground, her body wracked with sobs as she lets out all of the pent-up emotions that she’s been bottling.

Ears wilting, Octavia sits there, hidden from view. Unable to move, she tries to figure out what to do. As the minutes crawl by, she notices that Vinyls sobbing quietly subsides. Taking a chance, she peeks out from behind her hiding spot to see what’s happened. Watching Vinyl wipe the tears from her eyes, she guiltily returns to hiding, not wanting to interrupt this moment.

With a heavy sigh, Vinyl continues. “Sorry about that. I know I need to be stronger. I just don’t know how. I feel so… broken. I’ve been fired, dropped out of school, and now I need to find a new place to live. I can’t afford the apartment for much longer. I’m so lost without you, Mom. I just don’t know what to do anymore.” Smiling slightly she says, “Anyway, Mom, it’s getting dark. The moon will be up soon. Luna has managed to make another beautiful tapestry. I think you would have enjoyed it.”

Reaching into her saddlebags, Vinyl pulls out a bouquet of lovely flowers and gently sets them in front of the headstone. Giving the cold piece of stone a brief kiss and nuzzle, she whispers, “I miss you so much,” before turning around and setting off, working her way out of the now dark cemetery.

Stunned, Octavia sits there, unable to move for a bit. Finally shaking herself out of her stupor, she picks her way out of the graves and back onto the path. Lost in thought, she continues onward until she was standing outside of the gate’s to her family’s estate. Absently pushing the door open, she works her way up to her room, not hearing as her mother called after her. Feeling guilty for spying on a very private conversation, she throws herself onto her bed and lays there until sleep finally overcomes her.

~~~

Finally starting to feel somewhat normal, Vinyl bumps against her old friends at Canterlot High. They make their way out of the school as the last bell rings, signalling the end of the day’s classes.Grinning at her friends, she waves goodbye as she turns to head to the train station that will take her home. Before she can get more than three feet, she spies a familiar grey earth pony waiting with an anxious expression on her face. Feeling the tension in her shoulders increase, she grits her teeth and approaches the mare.

“What can I do for you Miss Melody?” she asks rather forcefully.

Snapping out of her daze, Octavia looks at the angry pony standing in front of her. Stepping back with a bit of trepidation, she takes a deep breath, steeling her nerves to finally talk about what’s been bugging her. “I, uh, wanted to, uh…” she trails off rather lamely.

“You’ve already gotten me fired and thanks to that, I had to drop out from the prep school as I could no longer afford tuition. And now I can barely pay rent and keep myself fed. So, unless you’ve come to get me arrested for something that I may have done to you, I bid you good day.” With those last words, she turns away from Octavia and continues along her way. It’s not long before she hears the other pony fall into step with her. Maintaining her silence, she does her best to ignore the rather massive thorn in her side.

“I’m sorry.” The barely whispered phrase causes Vinyl to stop.

Sorry?!?! What, is that supposed to magically make everything better?” she asks scathingly, causing Octavia to wilt. “I’ll be lucky if I’m not out on the streets within the month. How will your ‘sorry’ help with that? Can I use it to pay rent or buy food? So, unless you’re here to actually be useful, I think we’re done here.” Turning her head, she continues onward, leaving Octavia standing there, mouth agape at the onslaught.

“My family will pay for your tuition to come back to Canterlot Prep,” Octavia blurts out without thinking.

Realizing that she’s not going to get rid of Octavia anytime soon, she turns to face her and deal with this head on. “Oh? And why would I even want to go back? SO that you can lord it over me how I need a hand out from you? So that you can continue to make my life miserable? Haven’t you done enough?” she shouts, tears starting to trickle down her face. “You’ve managed to take everything from me. Why can’t you just let me keep what little shred of dignity I have?” Once again, Vinyl finds herself wracked by sobs. “What did I even do to you?”

Wilting under the brutal questions, Octavia feels her rump plant itself firmly on the road. “Nothing. You didn’t do anything.”

“Then why do this? Why hurt me like this? Do you even know what it’s like to now know how much longer you’ll be able to feed yourself?”

“I don’t what that’s like. You were new and I hadn’t seen you before. I just wanted to impress my friends,” she says, voice dwindling down. Looking at the ground, hoof drawing small circles on the well kept street, she continues “And when you acted mute, it gave me something to latch onto. I felt that my putting you down, I would feel better about myself. And for a while I did. But then it took me seeing my idol go from the top of her game to this to make me realise what I’ve actually done. I’m not asking you to forgive me..”

“That’s good because I wasn’t planning on it.”

“... But I do want to try and make things right,” she finished. “I want to help start bringing DJ-PON3, and Vinyl Scratch to the top of their game. Anything I can do, just name it.” Looking at Vinyl with a hint of desperation in her eyes, she waits with expectation.

“You want to help? Get me hired back at Trot.”

With a crestfallen look, she whispers “I can’t.”

Letting a derisive snort out, Vinyl says “Of course you can’t. And even if you could, my reputation has already taken a massive hit. My record sales have plummeted and I’m now ranked behind Neon Lights. Do you have any idea of how hard I’m going to have to work to try and get back on top of my game?”

Shaking her head, Octavia could only listen as Vinyl laid into her.

“If you really, truly want to try and set things right, you can help me hunt for a new job. I need to get back in the game and start creating new music.”

Eyes lighting up, she nods, “I can talk to my dad and see if any clubs need a DJ!” Feeling relieved that this will hopefully start to set things right she manages a weak smile before looking at Vinyl for anything else.

Giving Octavia a deadpan look, Vinyl just nods and says “Good. The sooner I get a job or even a gig, the better.”

Getting back up on all fours, Octavia shakes her head to clear up the cobwebs before making a plan of action. “I’ll be in touch,” she says hesitantly hoping to get any sort of reaction from Vinyl.

“Good.”

Turning away from Octavia, Vinyl continues on her way to catch the train home, a blossom of hope starting to bloom within her.