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// Lottery Odds 
// Story: After So Long 
// by ChaseTheChangeling 
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Vinyl sat on a bench enjoying the harsh sunlight on her pale fur, her mane blowing in the light breeze, and the smoke filling her lungs as she puffed at a freshly lit cigarette. The day was bright and reeked of summer, despite it being mid spring. The sky was clear and the idle chatter of ponies rustled the clear warm air. It was no latter ten in the morning and the mall was already busy with ponies getting lunch and running about. Vinyl had just finished a venue viewing for work with her manger, the time to revel in the small chaos had given her a much needed break. The only thing not giving her a break was her mind. Racing and aching with a probing thought, she took another strong pull of the cigarette, despite its dry and nasty taste (she would much rather be smoking a black menthol rather than a cowpony killer).

"So, we've finished the viewing, you've had yer smoke, we should be ready to head back at some point." the manager mare said with a flick of her mane. The shorter manager was a typical pegasus mare, nothing special, a blowout black mane with burgundy highlights and a redish sheen to it, her fur a shade of light purple, and her green eyes hiding behind stylish shades. Her body was draped in a lovely lace dress shirt and in her lips she held a small cigar that was half puffed away. Vinyl simply shrugged and looked around the mall a bit more. 

"I don't know.... I'm just happy we got to come here." Vinyl sighed a cloud of smoke from her nose, her magical grip grabbing the cigarette and flicking it hard to rid it of the excess ash. 

"Why? What's on your mind?" the manager asked as she pulled the cigar from her mouth in curiosity. Vinyl simply took another drag and blew a sizable cloud before speaking up.

"Well... me and an old friend from school used to come here when we were young," Vinyl flicked the burned up cigarette into the parking lot beside her, "we would get fed up with the crowds in school and come here, only to face a crowd just as thick. Heh..." Vinyl shrugged and shook her head. "Guess I thought how funny it would be if I saw her here. Then again, the odds of me ever seeing her again are pretty slim..."

"That's a shame, I'm sure you'll see her again." The manager was busy tapping away at her phone, obviously brushing off Vinyl's feelings. The lanky unicorn could have reacted any way, but given her nature simply sighed and went back into her head. "Well, we better get you home, you have to get ready for that gig next week." Vinyl sighed and trudged across the parking lot and climbed into the car with her manager, opting to sit in the back seat and look out the window, avoiding having to speak to the mare. 

Vinyl had decided, for once, that she would not sleep as she normally did, it might have been because she was asked to pump gas into the car, or maybe it was because she was busy mulling over thoughts of the past again. Why would she be thinking so hard on it now? Not that she hadn't been searching relentlessly for the past five years, and only two months or so ago had she been given the grisly news of a drug related death. Despite knowing better to succumb to such ludicrous ideas, Vinyl couldn't help but feel a lead pit in her gut drag her body down. Vinyl looked out the window as she watched the city drift by quickly, as if it were nothing to her, she had seen it all, smelled the smog, and walked over the trash and filth, waved to the homeless and lived among them, she knew the faces, the places, the ethnic stores and restaurants, the litter and polluted rivers, the schools the alleyways, the ponds, the trees and the cars, and she knew the buses that whizzed by fighting for road space with other cars and battling with the taxi cabs that had places to be. Sick of it all Vinyl simply sighed on the window and rolled her eyes, however they remained on the street and sidewalk beside her.

"So here we are at Rodney Square, what street do I turn on to get you home?" the manager asked half distracted with a phone in her hoof. Vinyl opened her mouth to answer until her eyes caught a familiar sight. It was vague but it was there, and it pierced like cold steel heating fast in her chest, a lump in her throat and a flutter of her chest Vinyl held her mouth agape as the car began to drive past the bus hub and a sudden shock! A jolt of energy burst from the unicorn as her eyes went wider. 

"STOP THE CAR!" Vinyl shouted eagerly, the manager looking back in shock before pulling off the road in confusion. 

"WHAT THE HELL IS YOUR PRO-" before the manager could finish, Vinyl had already grabbed her bags and jumped from the car, bolting to the Square with slight tears in her eyes. It was like a blur, it had all happened in a matter of seconds, but it felt like it took all day, the realisation, the flutter in her heart, the smile, the shout, the car, the running, she wasn't even out of breath, but that moment when Vinyl stood there with her mouth open and the bustling streets stopped around her and that lovely grey mare looked up with slight confusion, and then shock, and then a smile, that smile, the beautiful, beautiful smile! That impact, that call of her name, that hug, her arms tight around Vinyl's body and the lanky unicorn hugging her back. A flash unlike anything Vinyl had dealt with before. 

"Octavia! Where... what... you have... no idea..."

"Wow! Vinyl you look..."

"I know, it's so weird isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's been so long!"

"Yeah like... oh I'm bad with math, how old were we? What year?"

"Oh yes, high school, I hated that place, we were 15."

"Yeah, I'm 20 now, so it's been 'bout five years?"

"Yeah, it's been so long."

"Too long."

"How is everything?" 

"Had a gig t' attend, and I'm just, you know, doin' me...."

"Why are you.... are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine, love."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, where've you been?"

"Moving around, you know the normal stuff."

"I see, y'know, I've been looking for you for that whole time?"

"Yeah, we used to go past the city and I'd think of you every time..."

Vinyl blushed and coughed.

"You missed me too?"

"Well duh, I mean.. yeah why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know.... have you... have you seen anybody from school around?"

"Saw our toaster child a little before I just stopped talking to people, but it was weird."

"Yeah, we still talk every now and again, but she's really into the trans thing now, so there isn't much else to talk about outside of her name changing and how thick testosterone is and how hard it is to inject."

Octavia made a face of mild disgust. Likely because injecting thick hormones into you body was not a decent topic. 

"What brings you here? I mean, into the city?" Vinyl slowed down, her head stopped spinning, and things seemed to make more sense, her world slowed and her heart calmed.. but just a little bit. Octavia had smiled and calmed as well, likely the shock of seeing Vinyl after so long had created a similar feeling. 

"Well, I'm on my way to the mall, you going that way?" Vinyl only chuckled thinking about it.

"I actually just came from there," the lanky unicorn simply scratched her mane a bit as she kicked a hoof on the ground, "I was actually thinking I would run into you while I was there. Weird I actually see you in the last place I expect to see you." Vinyl and Octavia simply laughed at the thought of it. They had talked the whole time, as if five years hadn't passed, as if it was another regularly scheduled visit into the laundry room and playing their bass and drums, strumming guitars and annoying Gab. Vinyl looked at her friend again and smiled, that's all she could really do was smile, it was surreal, almost too unlikely that such a thing could occur. What mathematical odds were there that this would ever happen. So many variables and options, so many things could have happened, and yet, this, this one thing, after so long, happened on this day. 

"Yeah I haven't really having much else going on though." Octavia sighed as she looked out to the street watching for her bus. Vinyl simply chuckled and thought about it. 

"But we've changed a lot, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Octavia asked curiously. Vinyl had only just now noticed, but from the last time they had seen each other, they looked different.

"I mean, look at us, we're 20 years old, we're adults, and we just look... y'know?" Vinyl wasn't lying, they had graduated from edgy emo teens to not as edgy nerdy adults. Vinyl was likely looking more like herself, with a biker jacket and her signature glasses still covering her eyes, but her mane had been groomed into a spiky mess unlike the frizzy pony tail, but still fitting of her friendly and adventurous personality. Octavia on the other hoof had completely changed, her wardrobe was more feminine, a bow tie adorned her neck with a white collar, and her mane long and draping over her shoulders. Octavia simply looked over herself and smiled. 

"Yeah, I guess we did, didn't we?" was all that she could say before hearing the roaring of a bus engine storming its way down the street to gather the patrons. Vinyl panicked slightly and jumped up from her seat levitating out her phone. 

"Uh, before you go... can I uh.. get your number?" Vinyl asked as if she were unsure if she would get a slap to the face for posing such a suggestion. Octavia only chuckled nervously before nodding and swapping information. 

"I'll text you later, k? Maybe we can hang out tonight if you're not busy?"

"I was thinking the same thing." Vinyl said with a small smile before Octavia waved and ran to her bus. Vinyl stayed there with that goofy grin at the bus stop, the entirety of Rodney Square having gone on about their lives, ignorant of the magic that had just occurred beside them. But that was just to be expected in this city. Vinyl simply trotted off to sit by the large cast iron horse statue, a large memorial to the great Rodney that had done some amazing feat in the early years of Equestria, trotting through a storm or something to Fillydelphia to sign some treaty with them. But whatever amazing thing that pony had done was nothing compared to what Vinyl had accomplished. 

Vinyl just relaxed on the stairs enjoying the sights and sounds of the city as if were all new to her, and promptly fell asleep beside the statue.





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