The pain began to subside in my waist as the many cuts began healing. It still caused the group to move slower, which I guessed was Discord’s plan along with the soap roads. We moved as a group to stay safer as the Everfree evolved into a plethora of balloons, bubble gum, and milkshakes. We couldn’t expect anything from how reality seemed to just be ignored and tossed aside as if it was a boring towel. I couldn’t stop retracing my mind back to the last incident, and how I had acted. The way I cuddled up in Discord’s hands thinking he was protecting me. I felt wronged and violated, which only caused my hatred for him to increase.
Vinyl must have seen my disgust as she looked at me from behind her glasses. She believed that no one could see where she was looking from behind her glasses, but after living with her for so long, I learned to watch her eyebrows as she had watched mine. She was concerned, and I couldn’t blame her. If Vinyl had been in my position, I would be doing the same. It came with our bond that we had created over the years, one that only filled my mind, but never igniting. When I had felt that my life was in danger, the spark ignited and I had called out to her. I question my thoughts again, but they have been lit now. I couldn’t deny my feelings that had grown between us, and I wanted something more with her. I had to look away, hiding my blushed cheeks and dreamy eyes, but it managed a smile, even if it was only a small one.
I tried to snap out of it and focus at the task at hand, not trusting completely to the feelings that had grown, but I found myself glancing over to the white unicorn. I questioned what I saw in her that made my hooves tingle. I always had my eyes on stallions be them pegasus, earth, or unicorn, and none ever interested me. The closest anypony came to catching my eye was Albion Grand. Turns out the only thing I loved the sound of his piano and how he could make it sing just as I could massage my cello. It felt like a duty to be together with him, our interests so similar, but seeing the pony for which he truly was ruined my appetite. I again fell into a dismal depression of never finding a proper pony to please my picky preferences.
I had already lived with Vinyl beyond the time that she had dumped her lover and saved my cello from tampering at this time when things began to turn inside me. We enjoyed each other more than we had ever enjoyed our ex’s, and on plenty of occasions, we discussed such a fact. Our friendship blossomed quickly after that, until it evolved into a sisterhood, or so I thought. Instead now I feel a stronger pull, a pull that was familiar, but the meaning became much renewed and revised. I wanted, no, I needed to tell her how I felt, but it stayed as a lump in my throat.
I couldn’t bring myself to tell her. Thoughts of rejection and being “weirded” out came up. I could see her in disbelief, seeing as her joke was more truth than whimsical. One side of me pointed to how she had acted to me. How she was obviously showing some feelings that I knew I shared with her. Another side pointed to Vinyl’s carefree attitude being a cause for her flirts. I had to agree with the observation. The joke of us being together had made us laugh plenty of times, but the idea of us actually being together made it feel cliché and more of an anti-joke. How would she even view me?
I knew Lyra and Bon-Bon were one of the few couples that had thrived. I knew a few ponies began to talk about the “unnaturalness” of their union, but nothing was ever too major. Then again, I don’t fully know the full story behind them. She was a mare just as I was, and I couldn’t bring myself to fully accepting my feelings. Something had to have happened with Discord. Maybe it was some sort of love spell so he could watch me cringe and look away. Maybe it was there just to torment my heart and not let my thoughts remain clear. It felt far too sudden to be real, yet my feelings insisted that they’ve existed much longer than that. I tried to not believe my emotions. I tried to flush my mind out of the future and the past. I tried to flush my mind of her, yet she remained.
“What’s on your mind, Tavi?” Vinyl questioned.
“Just how absurd all of this is becoming.” I answered.
“I’m sorry about dragging you along. I didn’t know any of this would happen or for Eyn to actually be true.”
“You didn’t believe he was true either?” I felt a tug of anger pull me away from my absorbing thoughts. “Then why did you-?“
“I wanted you to loosen up and come along, I would be bored if I could talk to you on our little journey. It was more meant as an evening stroll through the woods, almost like a romantic date, except as sisters.” She tossed a grin in hopes that it would cheer me up, it didn’t.
Instead, I brooded over her words. She still saw us as sisters and nothing more. She isn’t interested in me as I am interested in her. All the times I had walked in on her bathing or dancing would be chalked up under me just looking at her. We are only sisters. The words hurt more than I should have let them, but the bad thoughts cascaded inside of my head. I smiled at her to say I was fine. She took it for once, which I was grateful for.
“It isn’t so bad. I mean Ditsy and Doctor Whooves are hysterical now.” We both looked up at the two leading the pack.
“How do you even use these things?” The Ditsy Doctor inquired, aimlessly flapping Ditsy’s wings.
“I don’t think I am the best teacher for that, but my father told me to just feel it inside of yourself.” Doctor Ditsy explained.
“I feel a lot of nothing inside me.” He proclaimed.
“Oh yeah… Discord stole my muffins…” She grunted.
“Why do you like muffins so much?” The Ditsy Doctor asked.
“Because they make me happy. A happy Ditsy is a flying Ditsy, and flying Ditsy is a faster Ditsy. You have to be quick to be a messenger you know.” She tossed him a wink.
The pegasus’s eyes raised in contemplation. “That would make sense, yes.”
Ditsy took a big whiff of her new body and giggled. “And how do you smell so wonderful?” She tried to stifle her giggles.
“I believe I have always smelled like that, came with the body.”
“I could just carry you around all day and be the fastest pegasus around.” She giggled.
“Are you sure?” He teased.
She bumped into him and kept walking, chuckling from being ornery. The Ditsy Doctor shared in the laughter and bumped her back, losing his balance with his new body and falling onto the ground as Doctor Ditsy lost hers and found herself inside of a bush made of cotton candy. I disliked that we had to stop because of their shenanigans, but I found myself smiling again. Just seeing Ditsy wiggle The Doctor’s body’s legs, brought this atmosphere of security given the events that had just occurred.
I questioned how Ditsy could do it. She has lost so much, a body, voice, flight, and her life, yet she still made jokes. I guess such a circumstance was just how she coped when her husband vanished. She had to have a strong character and a much stronger metabolism to burn all of her muffins. I enjoyed her how she was, and I wouldn’t ask for any other pony to be one of my friends.
By the time we had her free, we were all giggling, finally enjoying ourselves. The journey almost began to feel as if it was quickening, and not just because the roads were made of soap. The mountains were quickly coming into view through the small cracks within the tree canopy. It made me feel good and hopeful of our journey. The sun vanished again and was quickly replaced by the moon, casting the woods in a shroud. I could just barely see the brighter hair of Vinyl before her horn erupted in a magical light.
“Shall we pitch camp?” She asked, looking around at the rest of the group for confirmation.
The Doctor agreed. “It isn’t any use of us trying to travel in this darkness and the erratic changing of day and night may not favor us. We’ve made a sizeable dent in the journey and we need our rest. Everyone needs to bunk with someone else, just in case Discord tries any of his tricks.”
Everypony nodded in approval. I needed to rest as it was as I began to feel my flanks starting to burn from the walking. Vinyl trotted past me, magically setting up our tent as Lyra and The Doctor combined their tents so that the three could all sleep together.
“Come on, Octavia. You need your rest.” She crawled inside the tent and turned to me.
I disliked having this sort of treatment. It was only a few scratches, nothing to be concerned about. I crawled in next to Vinyl and found that she had laid down a soft padding of moss and leaves. Was this how real camping was like? I turned and groaned at the slight discomfort of my minor injuries before I finally sat down. The fatigue in my legs caught up to me as a flood of relief and comfort took me. I had absorbed myself in my thoughts longer than I had expected, and even now, I found myself lost in thought.
It took me a second to realize how small the shelter was. It was nothing like the living room setup where most of the room had been converted into a tent allowing Vinyl and me to sleep at decent distances. In this tent, however, she was laying right up against me. Her heat felt welcoming and warm. I had a short fantasy of her turning around and for us to embrace each other before going to sleep, but she stayed where she was. I took to my bedding next to her, smelling her scent as it permeated the tent and my nostrils. I had never known her to harbor such a natural smell to her. I wondered if this was similar to the scent that Ditsy smelled on The Doctor.
“You are weird sometimes.” Vinyl spoke.
I hadn’t realized that I had been staring at her, or that she was equally staring at me. I shook myself from my feelings. Why were they growing now? I stifled my heart and shut it out with my head. I quickly created a lie and tried my best to make it sound convincing.
“You look nice.” I didn’t say my lie. My tongue slipped and my heart had obviously drenched the words. I turned away from her and laid down my head, hoping to let my words vanish.
Vinyl bumped my shoulder playfully. “Still managing to keep the joke.” She projected her voice more so that the other tent could hear her. “Goodnight, Tavi. I love you.”
“Can it you two.” Lyra giggled in the other tent.
I could feel the box resting on my side, still hidden in my bag, still locked by Vinyl’s key. I wondered what could possibly be within its space. Vinyl had never been the patient type when it came to gifts, but for some reason this present was different. It was much too small to be anything of great value, though I wouldn’t put it past her to find some way of cramming something into it. Much more thought had gone into this present, and I couldn’t decide if it was her way of making me come, or if something else was afoot. It was no use trying to guess, not now. I repositioned my head a tried to fall asleep. It wasn’t long before I drifted off.
I woke up groggy, but feeling a degree of refreshed. I breathed in, not yet wishing to open my eyes to the brightness of the sun. I cracked them slowly as not to blind myself. All I could see was white at first, which frightened me slightly. I opened my eyes the rest of the way and let the details be absorbed until I saw that I was looking at Vinyl whose face was mere inches from mine. As I pulled away from her, I found that our noses had been touching and that our hooves had intertwined. My movement woke her from her slumber. She cracked her eyes open similar to mine, grunting at the light. She flipped her sunglasses down and grunted, as she stood, unknowing of the position we had been for who knows how long that night.
“I slept like ambient trance, so serene.” She stretched her back and scratched her messy mane.
“I slept like a soft cello score.” I complimented her observation.
She sniffed and rubbed her nose. “Is your nose wet?” She asked, digging inside of her bag for a rag.
“What?” I felt my nose and found it to be wet and why her nose had a wet spot. My mind flew into a panic. “Yeah, a little.”
“We must have slept soundly then.” She chuckled to herself as she ran the comb through her mane. “There!” She finished combing and cracked her neck before turning to me. “You’re a mess. Let me help you.”
The comb magically moved over to my mane and began to softly comb through my hair. Vinyl hummed a tune as she focused her magic to sort through my messy mane. I found there to be twigs and burs. I moaned at the disgrace my mane was sitting. Maybe I could take a shower in the waterfall. I hadn’t noticed it the first time we had arrived at the site, but hearing it now, put my mind at ease.
“I think I’m going to take a shower.” I spoke, poking my head out of tent and looking around the lighted woods.
“Room for two?” Vinyl giggled from behind me.
“You’ll have to beat me there!” I felt a strange flood of excitement.
The creek and the waterfall were just a few trots from where the other pony’s tents were. The water seemed untainted by Discord’s corruption. I stuck my hoof in the water and found it to be soothing and relaxing. Remembering the burs and sticks, I could only guess how much dirt and bugs had gotten in there. I extended my hoof again, but felt a strong push from behind.
“How’s the water, Tavi?” I heard Vinyl ask as I flailed in the air and hit the pool of water, completely submerging. I poked my head up to see a white and blue mass eclipse the sun. “Watch out below!” She bellowed.
My heart stopped as I tried to swim away, but it was to no prevail. She broke the water and set me to the side of the pool. She arose from the depths, whipping her hair and looking at me smiling.
“I’m glad to see your feeling better.” Vinyl chimed, swimming toward me, her eyes locked on mine. Those wonderful red eyes- no, I shook the thoughts from my head.
“Tavi, have I ever told you how you have wonderful eyes?” She asked playfully, arriving close to me.
I felt my cheeks begin to burn as I looked into her eyes. I wanted to admit the same thing, but instead I averted my gaze down to the water. “And what brought this up, Vi?”
“Vi?” She sounded amused. “I kinda like that name.” She stopped approaching me, and thought about the name. “Ta-Vi. I think we have a winner.” She laughed shook her head of water. “That was what you were saying in your sleep. ‘Have I ever told you how you have wonderful eyes?’ I’m glad you think so. I just wanted to tell you that I am envious of your purple eyes. They would glow brilliantly under a black light even under my shades. Awesome.”
I couldn’t determine if what she was saying was playful or romantic. It irritated me, but the water felt too nice to let my mind ruin it. Our noise had drawn the attention of the other tent sending Lyra out quickly, a smile plastered on her face as she bolted to the pool. Ditsy and The Doctor rose out of the tent together, both looking groggy and not themselves, though that was a given.
“Hey Dits! How are you feeling?” Vinyl yelled from the pool.
Ditsy looked up and shook her head. “I need muffins.” She groaned.
I looked at The Doctor who equally seemed rough. “Why is she always hungry?” I could have sworn I could hear his stomach growl from the pool.
The entire group eventually found themselves inside of the pool, smiles back on their faces. This slice of normalcy inside of the forest felt off, but good. I wondered how long this pool would last, or more so, how long we would stay at this pool. I leaned back against the rocks and relaxed, feeling the water soothe my injuries. Another splash rippled through the water sending our vision over to the source. The happiness quickly faded as we saw an elongated body emerge from the water. The dissimilar horns and random appendages clashed heavily with the black sunglasses, but the mere existence of him now, sickened me.
“Hello ponies! I see that you are enjoying a nice little swim.” He jumped up from the water and stepped on the water as if it was solid. “How are the bodies? Enjoying them?” He asked Ditsy and Doctor He chuckled at their annoyed faces. “I’ve found that there isn’t enough chaos in Ponyville and feel that a more rigorous expansion is needed. Now I could just do, but what is the fun in that? I like an audience and I happen to have one. Yes!” He pumped his arm and teleported to the top of the waterfall, his feet corrupting the water into chocolate milk. I watched as the rocks transformed into rock candy, and the trees became giant lollipops.
I inched away from Discord, feeling less afraid of him, but still enough to not let him have a chance to do anything to me.
“I am just warming up. Chaos is such a wonderful thing, and with those other friends out of the way, I can finally spend some more quality time with you!” He teleported behind us, group hugging us. “We are going to have so much fun!” He squealed before teleporting into nothingness, his laughter still filling the forest as everything began to change into chaos.