//------------------------------// // Return of the Narrator! // Story: To Feel the Music // by Secret Pony //------------------------------// Octavia cautiously walked out of Lyra’s house looking like the Band-Aid mummy. Not seeing any sign of her target, she began walking down the street trying to look as casual as possible. Well, as casual as one can look when a famous gray mare walks through town wearing a badly torn white cloak and having the majority of her visible body covered in bright neon pink bandages. Despite this glaring attention draw, the ninja wannabe continued to trot cheerfully down the street, hopefully buying herself some time whilst she formulated herself a plan. ‘Hmm, well I’m definitely in Ponyville, that much is certain,’ she thought to herself as she walked into the town square. Had she been paying attention, she would have noticed a distinct lack of the town residents in the merry square. ‘Now I need to figure out when I am. Let’s see, Lyra was defiantly still completely a pony so I must be before Ponyville got infected...’ “Well well well, Octavia. Judging by your attire you must have been in a fight recently.” The narrator cooed, looking down at her from his perch atop Princess Celestia’s fountain statue. Octavia quickly drew her daggers and jumped headlong at the omnipotent silhouette of a man. The narrator calmly opened his book and read, “ 'But tripped on a rock and fell into the fountain.', Now now, Octy. We can’t have you attacking me before we finish our lines. After all, it’s in the script. And the fans need to hear the big reveals from the right ponies.” He gave her a devious grin to which Octavia only sneered at. “Fine then, but I don’t know what’s scarier. The fact that you can smile and I can see it, or that you ruined everything because you forgot your lunch!” Octavia yelled back at the shadowrific being. “And furthermore...” " 'Octavia started but bit her tongue in her rage and let out a roar of pain.' " The Narrator read. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. No big spoilers yet, my dearest. That comes in the next scene, until then you'll have to just make do with small hints and unnecessary violence. 'The pain finally began to subside once the narrator and his devilishly good looks finished warning her about spoiling the story.' " Octavia spat out some blood before shooting the narrator another look. “Anger!” She growled and stabbed the concrete with her dagger, thus breaking it. “Look, I do not need this right now. I just wasted a whole lot of band aids,” She looked at the floating mass of pink currently clogging up the fountain’s filter. “My lover is about to go on stage all alone,” She pointed her her hoof in the general direction of Canterlot. “And worst of all, I just broke my antique dagger!” She threw the broken stub at the featureless idiot. The Narrator dodged the dagger and closed his book, he knew this scene by heart. “Oh boo hoo! Because of you I didn’t get to eat my lunch!” He pouted, dramatically draping himself down Celestia’s side, waiting for Octavia to continue. Octavia shook her head and facehoofed. “Then how come you’re chasing me around the story and not eating it?” The narrator rolled over on the statue, facing away from Octavia. “Oh do you even care?” “No, not really.” She admitted, finally getting up and out of the water. The narrator chuckled and laid back on the statue, spinning the script above his finger like a basketball before replying. “Well whatever, I’m staying here whether you like it or not!” Octavia's face became hidden under her hood as she gave a grim chuckle. “Well if that’s the case,” She held up her second dagger. “Then die!” She screamed, as she lunged at the laughing idiot. The aforementioned idiot simply laughed harder and grabbed the mare’s arm. “Spin Cycle!” *** Vinyl smiled to herself as she skipped into her apartment. She was quite pleased that she had indeed remembered to lock her front door in her heavily intoxicated state a few nights ago. She was definitely going to have to reward herself with something later, probably something chocolaty. Vinyl’s grin grew much larger at that thought. She loved chocolate. Octavia, on the other hand, was much worse for wear. As the usually prim and proper earth pony staggered into the doorway of the DJ’s abode, one could not help but notice that her appearance was something reminiscent to that of a low grade adult film star, complete with lipstick kisses covering a vast majority of her flank. With a final grunt, she pulled herself past the doorway, kicking off the last of the groupies that had yet to detach themselves from her leg and acquainted her face with Vinyl’s floor for what could only be considered as the beginning of a long lasting, and almost heartfelt relationship. The floor, who had been minding its own business up until moments ago, was caught completely off guard by the classical musician’s accidental advances and attempted to blush madly, only to realize that it had no face on which to portray its emotions and quickly fell into a deep depression. Had Octavia realized that she had caused any of this emotional duress upon the all-important surface which held her above the ground, she would have immediately apologized before offering to go on a date with it, in hopes of easing its suffering. However, seeing that she was unaware of all this, the floor proceeded to seek companionship from the ceiling, who immediately turned it down in hopes of getting a date with the ceiling fan. Oddly enough, upon further investigation, the ceiling fan turned out to not be sentient at all. A few moments later, Vinyl walked back into the room across the now silently sobbing floor, absent mindedly humming a strange tune and carrying a bowl and spoon in her magic. “Hey Octy…uh…you okay?” She asked, lightly nudging crumpled shape with her front hoof. At first Vinyl had assumed that her gray companion had passed out. Having that many groupies attack anypony in the sewer like that was bound to be a traumatic and exhausting experience, but Vinyl was soon corrected as an annoyed grumble was heard coming from Octavia’s form. “Oh good, you’re alive. I just wanted to know what you want for breakfast and then you can go back to making out with the carpeting, mmkay?” As soon as Vinyl’s words had sunk in, Octavia’s initial reaction was to shoot up and give her a cold stare. “I was doing no such thing!” She stated matter-of-factly. The DJ grinned. “Oh yes you were, I saw tongue and everything.” Octavia’s face turned bright red as Vinyl’s drapes suddenly became quite interesting. After a moment, Octavia spoke up. “H-how would that even work?” She had a confused look on her face. Vinyl simply shrugged. “Dunno, but you somehow made it work, anywho, what do ya want for breakfast? I got cold cereal, cold cereal, whatever’s leftover from last Tuesday’s Chinese takeout, aaaaaand..." she paused for dramatic effect. "...cold cereal.” “Ugh…I’ll take some cereal please.” Octavia mumbled defeatedly, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “Filly Flakes it is!” Vinyl yelled, loud enough to wake the neighbors, while walking into the kitchen. Octavia simply shook her head and sat down on the couch. The apartment was quaint, small, and much neater than Octavia remembered, although it certainly wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot. The orange carpeting looked to be in need of some serious hoovering, as did the orange and brown plaid couch that she was currently sitting on. The old coffee table, which was completely different from the one she remembered, had hoofmarks and scratches all over it, most likely from Vinyl's habit of placing her hind legs in the table when she ate. Octavia sighed, a few minutes in here was actually bearable compared to the mess she had found when they moved in together in the future. She smiled to herself when she saw Vinyl's equipment. She had known that Vinyl was a DJ from the mission briefing she had received a few days prior, as well as 'past' experiences, but she hadn’t expected Vinyl to be that high-tech. Octavia chuckled. ‘Just like old times, or future times, or...Ah! This is so confusing!’ she thought, before a loud crash was heard from the kitchen. Without thinking, Octavia leapt to her hooves and galloped to the kitchen. “Vinyl dear, are you alright?” She instinctively yelled out, before realizing what she had said. “Uh…yeah I’m alright…. Wait, what did you just say?” Vinyl stopped digging herself out of the pile of wood and canned food and looked right at the gray mare. “I asked if you required any assistance, Miss Scratch.” Octavia replied in her usual stiff manner, hoping Vinyl hadn’t caught what she had actually said. When Vinyl gave her a look that read ‘do you think I am deaf?’ Octavia gave a sheepish grin while attempting to keep her perspiration rate under control. “Uhh, yeah. Whatever. Um, can you come over here and give me a hand in digging myself out?” The white pony asked skeptically. Vinyl might have been a bit laid back, but that definitely didn’t mean she was stupid. She heard every word Octavia had said. "O-Of course, Miss Scratch." Octavia lept to the DJ's side and began pulling cans out of the way. She had a feeling this was just the beginning of a long day...