Freedom Through Harmony: Book II

by Electricut

Three

Three
Scratch's Journal
Year 490, Equestrian Calendar

It all began exactly eight years, ten months and eight days before the second civil war of Equestria; Octavia's Time. I was sixteen years old. And in spite of everything, it was a rather nice day.

Octavia and I had the morning off from school that day. We started early anyway, wandering aimlessly around town, doing anything that struck our fancy. We played games, listened to some live music (played some live music), gorged ourselves on sweets, and just generally had a good, pointless time.

In the afternoon, we retreated to our favorite hideaway- the Starswept Cliffside. It was an overgrown, overlooked spot a mile or so from town, overlooking a rocky ravine that had once housed a rapid river. The cliffs were unremarkable to most, but it was a precious place to Octavia and I- as well as Doc, and Octavia's friend Lyra. As far as I could tell, no-one but us four knew about it. It was called the Starswept Cliffside because of its spectacular viewpoint during meteor showers, which I had watched a few of there.

It was the very same spot at which my aforementioned first memory took place, when Doc, Tavi (my pet name for Octavia) and I had been eating ice cream. Doc was somewhere else this time around, but the scene was otherwise similar. I sat at the very edge, my legs dangling calmly over the drop. Octavia was sprawled lazily across the grass beside me, her head resting on my lap.

I stroked her long, jet-black hair gently with one hand, a mint ice cream cone in the other. Octavia's eyes were closed and a smile was on her lips as she basked in the weak, early autumn sunlight. She held her own chocolate ice cream bar, half eaten, over her chest like a bouquet of flowers. Every once in a while she would lift her head up to take a few licks or a tiny bite, then she would flop back down onto my knees.

"Vinny..." She began, using her pet name for me. She was one of the few people in the world who knew first name- Vinyl. This fact, and my time-travel abilities, were secrets that only Doc, Tavi and Raphael knew. By extension of Octavia, I had ended up telling Lyra most of it too, and thankfully she agreed to keep it between us as well. It wasn't as though having people know my name was dangerous or anything, I just thought using my last name instead was cooler. But Tavi wanted to have something more intimate to call me, so when we were alone, I was her Vinny.

"Yeah?" I prompted, since she had fallen silent. She opened her eyes to meet mine, brilliant pools of violet glinting in the sun, round and curious.

"I've been giving this some thought... Is Queen Celestia evil?"

This was, of course, years before any large scale resistance would form, and Celestia was only spoken ill of in hushed voices currently. I also knew that Octavia would, at some point in the future, enlist in the royal army with Lyra, acting as a double-agent for the Moonlight Resistance. I hadn't told her that of course; one of the first things Doc made clear to me about time travel was not to tell anyone specific details of their future. Don't get me wrong, it wouldn't have changed the future- because anything I was going to do in the past has already been accounted for in the future, and in reality, one cannot change fate. Time may have been nothing but a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, but there was some degree of linearity to it. What I had to worry about was people's mental state: if someone learned a detail about their future, they would invariably become obsessed with it- making sure it happened, or trying desperately to stop it- and they would waste their lives in that pursuit.

As such, I answered carefully. "Well... It depends on who you ask. A lot of people would say yes, she is evil, but plenty of others would defend her, too."

"But I'm asking you." She insisted. "What do you think about her? And what will become of her in the future?"

"... I can't say I care for her." I replied, deciding it was harmless enough to tell Tavi. "And... Someday in the future, the throne will change hands. That you can count on. Why do you ask?"

"It's just... I've been seeing some of the things she's done lately, and... And I just can't stand by it anymore. The only times she intervenes in other people's lives is to punish them for defying her- otherwise, she just leaves them for dead. So many people have been hurt in this world, and Celestia could have made things better or- or stopped them from happening in the first place! But she doesn't. And she won't. I... I believe we need a new leader, one who cares about their subjects. I don't know what we can do about it... But I know we need to do something."

I nodded sadly. A jolt of sorrow had struck me as she spoke, so vehement about her beliefs. I didn't know exactly when, but sometime soon she was bound to begin her destiny as a double-agent soldier in the royal army. I was happy for her, of course; she would tear through the ranks, earning the respect and love of countless souls, and would live on after the war, right here in her old home. But I was sad all the same. It felt like the Octavia I knew all my life was slipping away from me.

To know someone else's destiny, especially that of someone close to you, is truly a haunting thing, and a part of time travel I would gladly do without.

"I think you're right." I told Octavia. "This country needs change, and the people need to step up and act. Too many people would rather not gamble what they have, and would just as soon sit back and let someone else lead. We don't have enough people who are willing to be the spark."

She hummed lightly in answer, taking a bite out of her ice cream. "Sorry, just... Had to get that off my chest. Thanks, Vinny. I feel much better about my conviction now. I still can't imagine what I'm going to do for it, but now... I know I'll do something."

We lapsed into silence again, but it wasn't an awkward silence. We simply enjoyed each others' presence, basked in the pale rays of sunlight, and finished our ice creams happily. Once she was finished, Octavia sat up and scooted in close next to me, wrapping her arm tightly around my waist. The wooden stick from her ice cream was clutched cutely between her teeth, and it almost sounded like the tiny growl of a small animal when she said 'I love you, Vinny'.

"I know that." I stated. She turned and glared slightly at me. I laughed as I slipped my arm around her. "I love you too, Tavi."
______________

We parted ways to head for home shortly after that. As we reached town, I gave her a parting kiss, before she skipped off cheerily to her parent's large home. It may have been a silly thing to notice, but my lips now carried a distinct minty-chocolate flavor.

I made my own way home as well; Doc's Base 'A'. As I said, we had a few outposts dotted all over the world- small homes that contained little more than two beds, a bathroom, and food supplies. Base A was an apartment in town, surrounded by others so as not to stand out. Having others around did make it seem strange when the base went unused for a while, but most people had gathered that Doc and I traveled a lot. They just didn't know it was through time. Base B was a shack in the middle of nowhere, also Equestria. C and D were in Tellius, while E and F were in Ivoire.

I dug around in my pocket for a moment, then pulled out the old brass key to the apartment triumphantly and let myself in. The apartment had a small living-room area at the entrance, with a set of bunk beds set up in the room off to the side. Strangely, though, two backpacks were splayed out atop the table in the center of the room, halfway finished with being packed.

Curious, I moved over to the table, examining the contents of the backpacks. All the basic traveling supplies one would expect were there: clothes, food, two sleep rolls, hunting knives, a tool kit, a med kit. What didn't add up was why it was being packed up in the first place. We had all this stuff at all our other bases. Why move the belongings out of this one?

"Doc?" I called, not sure if he was even home. I got no response. He must have gone out to grab something else... I wonder what all this is about. Having nothing else to do but wait, I decided to do my part in whatever this was and make sure my pack had everything I would want in it. It wasn't easy, since I didn't even know where we were going. My pack was upside-down, so I wasn't able to see what was underneath, strapped to the back, until I picked it up to shift its contents. What I saw was the icing on the cake of confusion.

My twin battle discs. The only usable weapon between me and Doc. Two things were wrong with this- one was that these discs hadn't existed in this time before now, as I always left them in Raphael's time, and never brought them to Octavia's. Doc could have brought them here easily enough, but that was the second problem: that Doc felt the need to have me armed where we were going.

Thankfully, he chose this moment to bound in through the door and explain the situation. Or at least, that's what would have normally happened. This time, he was all business, moving straight to the packs without breaking stride. He acknowledged me as I moved aside to let him at the backpacks: "Oh, hello Scratch. I didn't think you'd be finished with your date yet. Ah, just as well."

"What is all this?" I asked, getting right to the subject. I didn't speak urgently, despite the fact that Doc was acting as such. I remained more curious than anything.

"We've... We've got somewhere we need to go." He answered vaguely, standing up and facing me. "Some people to help. Some others to stop."

"Where? When?" I asked, detecting and reacting to the seriousness Doc was showing.

"Tellius. Year Four-ninety eight, or fourteen-sixty five over there. There's a bad group making trouble there, and it's imperative that we stop them. They are active in other times as well, and all over the world... But we need to stop them then, there, first."

Four-ninety eight. That was just before the second civil war, the Moonlight uprising. Do we have to stop someone from adding another critical element into play, potentially changing the outcome of the war?... No, we're going to Tellius. This probably has nothing to do with that war.

"There is... One thing that needs to be squared away before we leave." Doc continued, speaking reluctantly, almost pained. "I didn't want it to come to this, but it doesn't look like there's a choice any longer. Scratch... I'm so sorry, but... I think it would be best if you broke up with Octavia before we leave."

Any words in my mind I could have said abandoned me. I wanted to believe I hadn't heard him right, or maybe that he was joking. But I knew I was kidding myself. Doc didn't kid about things like that. But it didn't make any sense.

"Wha-" I stuttered, at a complete loss for words. "You can't be serious! Why?!"

"I'm sorry." He repeated. "I wish it didn't have to be this way. But we're going to be gone for a long time. We'll be in constant danger, and... For the first time in a long, long time, I can't even guarantee we will make it out alive."

Doc's words kept hitting harder and harder. I still couldn't believe what I was hearing. "At the very least, it might be years before we can rest." He continued. "And at most, we might never be back here. I'm not asking you do this for us, but for her. If we leave with her expecting us back, she'll spend years waiting for us, waiting for you to return. She'd experience such heartbreak... But if you sever the ties now, she'll at least have a fair chance to recover and move on."

I couldn't say I ever truly hated anyone before that day, at least nowhere near as much as I hated Doc right then. I wanted him to be wrong, to be playing some sick joke, to be anything but absolutely right.

I knew he was though, and I hated myself just as much for admitting it.

But I wasn't about to do what he was asking, no way. He was the one who brought me together with Octavia in the first place! How could we be blamed that we fell in love? I felt too strongly about her to even think about leaving her. I could still feel her gentle breathing and heartbeat as though she were pressed against me, could still picture her deep violet eyes every time I closed mine... Could still taste the chocolate on my lips.

"And what if I say no?" I rasped. "Not to breaking up with her, but no to leaving altogether? To abandoning my old life here to go fight someone for years, maybe to the death?! What if I just... Don't? You couldn't stop me."

Doc closed his eyes, looking like he truly regretted having to do this, but not letting it stop him. He gave me a mournful look, and said simply, and sadly: "You won't".

My hands were balled into fists, held stiffly at my sides. My teeth were clenched, and my eyes began to sting with angry tears. I wanted to attack him, to keep arguing, to do anything to make him stop, but I knew I'd probably break down and start crying if I tried. He walked over and put what was meant to be a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. It's just... This is what's best for her. For you too."

I had had enough. I wasn't going to stand there and let him do this any longer. Wordlessly, I yanked my arm away from him and stormed over to the door. The door flew open, slamming into the wall, and I turned around for a moment.

"You don't think I'll stay and let you go on your own to get killed?!" I growled, my voice barely level. The first tear began to roll down my face, and I screamed: "Well just TRY AND STOP ME!" before slamming the door satisfyingly behind me. I stormed out of the building without once looking back.