Old Habits
'Maybe I should just skip this and head to the bar...It's not like she would notice me, right?' I asked myself as I stood outside a bland looking building that stood tall above the streets below
'I mean, why would she care if she didn't see me until tomorrow?' I asked myself, apparently trying to convince myself that I didn't need to see her anyways.
My mind drifted back to a previous thought; the bar. If Shakes's plan was as devious and risky as it was vague, I might not even be able to walk by tomorrow. After a few more seconds of pride swallowing and useless convincing of myself that I would not be coming back from the bar, I decided to step up to the door.
'Better safe than sorry I guess, what if she was searching for me because something had happened to someone else?' I thought to myself, trying to give myself another reason to do it.
I stared at the door, gathering both my patience and self control that I reserved for Beauty before even attempting to open it, and after another few seconds, I had gathered all that I could.
I raised a hoof to the door and moved it in, tapping on the wood lightly enough to be almost inaudible.
It was no more than a half of a minute later that the door practically flung open, an anxious looking Beauty apparently the one who had ripped open the door with an unexpected speed and strength for her.
"Octavia," She began, her eyes softening at first, but then hardening not but a second after, when she saw me. They probably softened because she saw that I had actually come, but they had undoubtedly hardened for my "not immediate" timing. I saw her mouth begin to open, the floodgate of questions, remarks, statements, observations and all the other good things she tends to do when something doesn't go perfectly, preparing to release.
I was quick to stop her with a raise of the hoof, I wasn't in a mood for those things, and neither were my stomach or conscious for that matter.
I honestly don't know what happened to her, I remember the times when she used to be so carefree; the spitting image of a female Harpo. I honestly thought that her and Harpo were perfect for each other, at that time, but time changes all things; as do the events that follow along with time.
"Please, Beauty, not now." I said with a voice sounding both pleading and desperate that was apparently enough to silence her, and even take her aback a little. I decided to take full advantage of my unexpected results.
"I know why you came by, and I'm prepared to oblige." I said carefully as I looked at her hard in the eyes for a response, one that came in the form of a nod.
"We can talk, but only under two conditions that I decide." I began.
"One being that Harpo comes with us." I saw a flicker in her eyes at the mention of his name, as well as heard a stumbling from somewhere else in the house. She apparently heard it as well and a small smile formed on her lips, quite the unusual sight for her.
"Two, being the most important, that it's over a good salad or something." I added with a small smile of my own.
I stared at her for a few seconds before she lifted a hoof up and began lowering my own, grabbing my attention from her eyes. When I looked back up at her, her eyes were soft with a smile to match, but not like before where they were only soft because I had actually shown up, these were like a flash of what remained of her laid back attitude. These eyes were not only soft and lax; they were happy.
"That..." She began, her voice more quiet and kind than it had ever been in a long time. "That...sounds great." She finished, looking up to me with a new found smile, one which I happily returned.
"I'll get Harpo." She said before turning and walking casually back into her house.
All I could do was smile at this point; it was good to see an old friend again, though I wonder what it was that brought this side of her back.
It wasn't that long of wait before they both came out, about five minutes or so, but when Harpo came out with a shocked look at the way Beauty was acting now, I couldn't blame him; I was shocked as well. Maybe it was something I said to her earlier?
"So where are we going Octavia?" Beauty said cheerfully, shocking us furthermore as she began a trot down the street, me and Harpo following behind at a bit more of a reluctant pace.
"Um, I just figured a cafe somewhere, but we can go other places if you want." I said, though she only shook her head.
"Oh no, a cafe sounds lovely." She responded.
I was about to follow, but a hoof poke at me from the side. I turned to see that it was Harpo with the same shocked face still present.
"What did you do?" He asked. I could tell he wasn't mad, quite the opposite in fact and I could only respond with a shrug.
"She hasn't been like this in...well, forever." He said, taking a look at Beauty who was now walking casually and looking around, admiring the scenery. I could only agree with his statement.
"That's true...but I'm not complaining about it." I said with a smile as I turned and went to join her, leaving Harpo dumbstruck for a moment, but he quickly recovered and followed along.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
We arrived at the Cafe, placed our orders, me being the only one that ordered a good amount of food, and took a pair of seats at an outside table that was covered by an umbrella. We had idle chat as we waited for someone to bring our food, careful not to go into any form of deep conversation in a hope to preserve Beauty's newly relaxed state.
It was rather clear that Harpo was enjoying this state just as much, if not more, than I was; he was talking happily and jokingly, poking fun at her in good sport. That was something Beauty almost never let him do anymore, though it would take more than that to stop Harpo.
It sounds weird, but it was odd, seeing her laughing, telling jokes, having a genuinely good time with a real smile for once. Not like any of those dinner parties she went to where the smile she had was clearly faked, and she was obviously having a bad time.
Soon enough a serving mare brought us the plate with "our" food, a plate which was literally just my food, and our drinks. I was quick to dig in, throwing the odd stares and suppressed laughs my other two guests were giving me to the wind; I was hungry, and nothing was about to stop me.
Once I had finished all but licking the plate of food, I leaned back into my chair and let out a content sigh. Harpo and Beauty giving me one more chuckle that, one that I disregarded. After letting my stomach settle for a few minutes, that was accompanied by more chatter, I leaned back up in a more appropriate posture. There was one question I didn't want to ask, but I knew that I needed to; I had promised Beauty we would get to the subject.
"So Beauty, I heard you came looking for me earlier?" I asked, I figured that I would just bring it up and let her do the rest of the explaining. Her eyes flickered when I brought it up, and at first I panicked a bit, but when I saw that her attitude didn't change in the slightest, I relaxed a little.
"Well, it's just that you had missed practice...again." She added a bit sheepishly.
"So I decided to come by and ask what it was that you had been doing all those other times you had missed it. It's not really like you to miss it so often." She said with a more serious tone, though I could tell she was still laid back.
"In all honesty, I was a bit worried about you.; Thought that you might quit." She said with a sheepish and awkward laugh.
I couldn't blame her, I had a perfect record of attendance up until I had met up with Vinyl. So it probably could have been assumed that some might get suspicious.
"Why would I do that? I love the orchestra." I said in my defense.
"Then why do you never show up?" She responded quickly, almost angrily.
"Well it's not like it's supposed to be a steady job or anything? I mean we only get paid after an event or something along those lines. We barley have any shows this time of year anyways."
"The idea of having a steady job is appealing..." Harpo broke in dreamily as he looked to the sky, day dreaming about having a steady job.
"So what are you doing when you're not at your 'Shaky Job' then?" She asked playfully, but with a hint of seriousness on the end.
I couldn't respond, not in the sense that I didn't have a response, but that I didn't want to say it. If I told her all that I had been doing, she would flip out undoubtedly, heck, Harpo might even flip out.
"She's just been busy." Harpo butted in, shocking both me and Beauty a little.
"Family matters, right Octavia? you were telling me about them last time we met up." He said as I finally saw what he was doing.
"Oh yeah, I've been helping my family out lately." I said, going off Harpo's quickly thought lie.
"Oh." Beauty said with a bit of relief.
"I thought you were still getting cozy with that mare." I could see the flame about to ignite at just the thought of Vinyl, so I was quick to let it die out and change topics. Though I still felt that little cringe over her attitude towards Vinyl.
As the rest of our meal passed in friendly talk, I saw the sun moving across the sky and realized that I should be getting to the bar pretty soon. I stood up, left my share of the bill, said my goodbyes and blamed my leaving on the same "Family Matters" lie from before that Harpo had so graciously saved me with. Beauty seemed to be suspicious, but she let me go with a smile and a wave as she turned back to Harpo.
The bar wasn't too far from here, about a good block or two of walking, so I should be able to get there pretty quickly and let Shakes fill me in on her little plan that I had been fearing just a while ago.
'Guess we shouldn't delay the inevitable should we?' I asked myself as I began the walk to the bar, playing out a variety of 'Plans' Shakes might have in store.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
It was only about fifteen minutes before I arrived outside the bar, the streets beginning to dim as the sun crept away and out of sight. I noticed that some of the debris had been cleaned up that had been made during my last 'visit' to the bar as I stepped over a few remaining chunks of wood and over to the door, that had been roughly patched up. I gave the door three solid knocks and called out to anyone that might be inside.
Soon enough the door opened, but where I expected to see Shakes, I saw her sister.
"Good to see you're alright Octavia, my sister said the bar was a disaster," She took a quick look around to admire the carnage.
"And from what I can see, it was" She said as she looked back at me with a smile, stepped aside and allowed me entry into the bar.
"Shakes is over at the bar." She said as I stepped in, immediately directing my attention to where she said Shakes was.
She was there, behind the bar, pouring a variety of things into a shaker as sweat was beginning to drip from her brow and onto the wooden surface. She cast a quick glance up to me, giving a small smile before returning to mixing whatever it was.
"I'll be with you in a sec, after I finish this, feel free to lounge around until then. It shouldn't take me too much longer anyways." She said, most of her focus not on me, but on her chemist like mixing of drinks.
I decided to do just that, taking a seat in one of the few booths that had remained untouched during the fight that had gone on at the bar just last night. Slowly, the smell of alcohol began to fill the air, up until the point where I could have sworn I was getting drunk from just the scent of it as it burnt my nose. Sweeps had decided to sit with me and make idle conversation as her sister finished whatever pesticide it was she was brewing. Shakes would occasionally ask Sweeps to bring her more drinks, which Sweeps would do with her magic so she could keep up a conversation with me at the same time.
Soon enough, she had finished and stepped away from her creation, wiping sweat from her brow with a handkerchief that she grabbed from under the bar. Afterwards, she trotted over to me and Sweeps, a wide and cocky grin plastered on her face as she took a seat beside her sister.
"Glad to see you got here before it got dark." She said with a smile. I returned the smile, though I was reluctant since I still had absolutely no idea what her plan was, and what role I had to do in it.
"So what was that 'plan' you spoke of before we split up earlier?" I decided, cutting right to the chase.
"Oh yeah." She said with another cocky grin.
"It's a pretty simple plan, but just encase you don't get it, I'll explain." She said, hopping up.
"You might have smelled and noticed that poisonous excuse of that drink I have been busting my butt over for the past hour or so." She said, pointing to the shaker.
"Well, that batch of what could pass as hoof sanitizer is our way of subduing Vinyl." She said before turning to me.
"You remember that silver shaker I gave you, the one you used on her when she was trying to feed off of you?" She asked.
I nodded.
"Well this one aims to have the same effect; knock her out cold. Though this batch should be significantly stronger than the one I gave you." She explained.
"So what do I have to do with this plan?" I asked, brow raised.
"Well, the main problem with my plan is getting her to drink the drink, which is where you come in." She said as she scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
"You want me to try and make her drink that?!" I asked, taken aback by the suicidal idea. Her eyes went wide and she quickly denied the idea.
"No no! That's suicidal!" She said, agreeing with my thoughts exactly. "That's why I got Sweeps here, she is going to slip it into Vinyl's mouth with her magic." She said.
"Oh." I said, though that didn't answer my question.
"So why am I here?" I wouldn't mind being there to help Vinyl, but not in a suicidal fashion.
"Well..." She put her hoof back behind her head again, the sheepish look returning.
"What?" I said, pressuring her into saying it.
"You're bait." She said quickly.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
The doors of the bar flung open as I walked out, Shakes holding onto my hind legs as she was dragged along with me.
"Hey! Come on! You're not in any real danger! I had Sweeps clean up most the debris so you wouldn't trip on any of it!" She said in a last ditch effort to convince me.
"I'm sorry, if you were right, I'd agree with you." I said as I shook my hind leg hard enough to get her to let go.
"Celestia you're unbelievable." She sighed.
"My apologies for holding my life dear." I responded.
"Here I was, thinking that you would go through thick and thin for Vinyl, and here you are giving up on her just because you're life is on the line." This was enough to stop me in my tracks. Her voice had changed from whining, to a combination of both deep disappointment and frustration, maybe a little hate as well.
"You went to the Everfree forest just to try and find her; those odds were just as suicidal as these, probably even more suicidal than this."
That was true.
"You want her, that's clear. So why would you stop now? Is it because the odds were told to you? Because you're scared?"
Maybe it was because I was told the odds, though the forest seemed to be more dangerous, and the odds even more known. My father even told me about them to me before I left.
"Look, It's getting dark out." She said as she looked up to see the sun beginning to fall behind the top of buildings.
"I'm not going to stop you from walking away from this, but I am going to leave you with a little something; a question to be exact." She walked up to me, placed a hoof on my shoulder, and spun around to look at her in the eyes.
"What would Vinyl do?" She paused, looking at me deeply, as she let the words sink in before she left, taking care to shut the door a bit harder than needed.
I sat there for awhile, just thinking about what I should do. I mean, I should value my life closely, that's a given, but I also want Vinyl to snap out of whatever it is she was in more than anything. Shakes's words certainly carried weight, especially "What would Vinyl do?" since I knew the answer to that. She would dive in right away with no hesitation, I knew that even with the little that I knew about her. Like when she didn't hesitate to get up and go to the bar when she heard Shakes was in trouble.
Though, since Vinyl was the one supposedly "Coming after me" it changed that question a little bit. This was practically asking me "Do you value you're life more than someone that you had just met for about a week, or would you put it on the line to save them?" That would sound ridiculous to just about everyone, and they probably wouldn't hesitate to answer that their lives were more important.
In the end, the answer was obvious: My life was more important than someone that I could still call a stranger.
Except when that someone is Vinyl.
I turned on my heels, back towards the bar, and began a walk.
'I've invested to much into the case of this mare just to come this far and say the price is to high.' I thought to myself as I reached the door, not bothering to knock when I opened the door.
Shakes was sat at the bar, but looked up when she saw me, Sweeps as well.
"Sorry." I said honestly. "I don't know what I was thinking." I admitted.
It sounded kind of dumb now that I thought it over again, I risk something, whether it be my life or my safety, multiple times just to see her, and then when she needs me, I walk out on her because the odds were shown to me and I have time to think about them; how selfish of me.
On another account of it being dumb, it probably would have been dumber to leave them and go hide, but the idea at that moment just seemed insane after seeing what Vinyl did to a mare that spooked her.
Shakes cracked a toothy grin before getting up to slap me on the shoulder.
"We all think irrationally when times are desperate, that was one of the factors when I came up with this plan anyways." She said with a chuckle, getting a much smaller one out of me.
"So, ready to know what you gotta do?" She asked, a bit too anxious.
I nodded.
"Great! We'll get started right away, after all, we've only got a few hours before she gets here anyways." She said as she began her explanation of my role.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
"So basically, you just want me to act as helpless and distractingly as possible so you guys can get her to chug a drink that could literally kill a grown stallion?" I asked with a raised brow.
"Yep." She said curtly.
"What if it goes wrong and I mess up?"
"How will you mess up? You're bait." She replied giving me a look as if I was crazy.
"What if I'm not distracting enough or I do everything wrong." She only gave me a shrug.
"What's right is what's left when you've done everything wrong." She said as she turned and walked off, leaving me dumbstruck as I looked back and forth from my right and left hooves.
"So mess up as much as possible, and then you'll have to get it right if you mess up everything." I said to myself.
'So if I mess up everything, the only thing else I can do has to be right? How reassuring.' I thought to myself with a huff and a sigh.
"Hey so what's your job!?" I asked as she walked away casually, catching her attention as she turned her head over her shoulder.
"Well, the first part of my job was making the drink, my second job is making sure Vinyl drinks it. While Sweeps might get it to her lips, there is no guarantee she'll drink it, so I figured I would try my best to make her a bit more 'willing'." She said with a devious grin, earning a glare out of me.
"Maybe give her a good punch to the gut." She said, the look I gave her must have made her a bit more willing to explain her actions.
"Don't worry, Vinyl can take a hit, especially from me, trust me on that one." She said sheepishly.
I was reluctant with my nod.
"Well, we best be getting into position, she could be getting here at any second now." She said, a bit too optimistically as she trotted over and took up a position crouched behind a bar.
I looked over just in time to see her sister slide far back into the booth, far enough so that she couldn't be seen unless you walked far into the bar and peered into the booth. Sweeps gave me a smile and a wink as she got herself nice and comfortable inside the booth.
"Um, Shakes...am I supposed to hide anywhere?" I asked towards the bar, sounding a bit panicky and scared. Her head popped up with another "You must be crazy" look on her face.
"Octavia, for the last time, you're bait." She said, clearly annoyed, but decided to explain further just in case I still didn't get it. "You're supposed to be obvious and distracting so we don't get caught."
"Oh." I said, understanding my position in this role as I sat myself in the middle of the open bar floor, getting comfortable for what would be the most intense and nerve racking wait of my entire life up until this point.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
It had been nearly an hour of nothing but sitting there in dead silence doing absolutely nothing. There hadn't even been the slightest sound of movement from outside, and I was beginning to lose hope. Maybe Vinyl wouldn't come to get me right away, but would wait until I'm least expecting it. Though, when I brought this up Shakes, she claimed that Vinyl would come tonight.
"She's not the type that tends to be very patient." She said, probably in an attempt to reassure me that Vinyl would actually show up, but once the next half hour had past and my butt began to cramp, I was officially done.
"Shakes, I really don't think she's coming." I called out to her again. "That, and I'm getting tired of just sitting here. I think I'll just head home, and I hope that you two will as well." I said as I got up from the floor and stretched my legs.
"Octavia, now that's more suicidal than my plan." She said, peering over the bar counter with a look aimed at me that said one thing very clearly:
"Stupid".
"Look," I began. "Let's all just get some sleep and try tomorrow. We all need it." I said as I overlooked both of them, observing the toll that the waiting had put on them.
"Or," She began mockingly. "We wait until she comes to us instead of going out and into the night where she could kill all of us in a moments notice." She said, clearly getting annoyed, though she wasn't the only one.
"We've been here for nearly two hours and nothing has even moved." I said in a huff.
"Sis," Sweeps said, getting up from the booth. "She might have a point, Vinyl's always been unpredictable."
Shakes, reaching her final nerves at this point, threw her hooves up from her spot behind the bar.
"Fine, but we travel together if we go out ther-" Her voice was cut off by the light sound of something tapping the wood on the other side of the door.
Soon enough, the door knob jiggled, though it wouldn't open thanks to Sweeps locking it after I decided to stay and help.
We were quick to silently scramble back into our positions, well they were at least, I was technically always in position. Shakes practically fell over to get down under the bar, nearly taking a few bottles of liquor and a stack of shot glasses down with her, though she made sure to leave the drink for Vinyl untouched. Meanwhile, Sweeps did a sort of a slide tackle into the booth she was in before, nearly hitting the wall but coming up a bit short before turning back and giving me another wink.
I stood there, literally shaking in fear, as the door knob jiggled, though the door remained shut and locked. After a few more second constant shaking, the door knob stopped moving and thing fell silent once more. I waited a few seconds before letting out a breath that I had been unknowingly holding; a sigh of relief.
The second the breath left my mouth, the door began to glow a familiar dark blue.
"Crap." Was all I could say before the door was ripped from its hinges, pulled outside and tossed loosely to the side, revealing someone I had been both anticipating and dreading their arrival.
Vinyl.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
She was still as stoic as ever, her eyes still half lidded and her pupils still dilated, giving her a half conscious appearance as she walked menacingly towards me.
It was scary, seeing someone you had come to once enjoy look at you with twisted smile gracing their lips as they held a slow and steady walk towards you, probably with an intent of draining every ounce of blood from your body. It really puts a new spin on things.
I began to back away from her as she started getting a bit too close for comfort, which in this case, was about twenty feet. I was still shaking, sweating even, as she kept going with her cryptic look, and even more cryptic intent. I eventually had backed as far away as possible, the front of the bar blocking me from moving backwards anymore.
While I stood still, she moved closer, up until the point where she was nearly nose to nose with me. I had begun to sink down at that point in a childish attempt to to gain more distance between us. Though, once I hit the ground, I regretted my decision immediately. She was now towering over me, looking down at me with a devious glint in her dulled eyes which seemed to hold me in place with an unknown force.
'What are you waiting on Shakes?!' I screamed in my mind, and as much as I wanted to shout them, I knew that doing that would only get them hurt, or worse, killed.
Vinyl lowered her head down to my level, half lidded eyes giving her smile a more terrifying look. Her mouth opened, teeth clinched to maintain a smile, but she was definitely making sure to bear her fangs.
She began to open her mouth to, what looked liked, bite down on my neck, but a sudden shout from behind the bar shook her from her smile. Enough so that it caused her to raise her head with her mouth still open in the biting position.
"Sweeps! Now!" The voice belonged to Shakes obviously, and I think that Vinyl recognized it as the voice from before, maybe that was why she looked up.
The drink shaker was instantly wrapped in magic, quickly flying over to Vinyl's still open mouth as it practically forced itself into her mouth and tipped up. Shakes decided to join in by jumping over the bar counter, grabbing me, and dragging me over to the booth near Sweeps.
"Is she drinking it?" I asked as Shakes finished pulling me away, not particularly to either of the sisters.
"Heck if I know, she could be." Shakes said, a hint of fatigue in her breath.
"I dunno, look." Sweeps said, raising a hoof up at Vinyl.
Vinyl's hooves were just now getting up to the shaker with her eyes now wide, it appeared she was just now recovering from the initial shock of having a drink unexpectedly shoved into her mouth from out of nowhere.
At first I was scared she would just pull the drink Shaker away, but she appeared to be only weakly clawing at the drink. She even stopped clawing at it and fell over backwards after a few seconds, presumable from the alcohol, though her eyes were still open so she had to have still been conscious.
Sweeps was quick to keep the shaker close to her lips as she fell, only spilling a little bit of the drink on the trip downwards to the floor.
"Ha!" Shakes shouted with glee. "It worked! She's drinking it!" She said, practically jumping up and down with the joy she got from having her plan work.
While she was jumping with glee, I was still staring at Vinyl, and while I was, I noticed something about her, specifically with her hooves.
"I don't know about that Shakes." I said, pointing back at Vinyl.
"Wha?" She said as she calmed down enough to take a good look at Vinyl.
She was doing something none of us expected: her hooves were back up at the shaker, though she wasn't trying to pry it away, quite the opposite; she was tilting it upwards to make more of the drink flow in. Her eyes were half lidded again, even her smile was back on her face as she greedily drank up all of the liquid.
"What the..." Sweeps chimed in, her magic letting go of the shaker and allowing Vinyl to turn the drink up until it was nearly upside down.
We all stood there in a shocked silence, watching as our plan literally went down with the drink Vinyl had.
Soon enough, she had finished the drink, tossing the shaker aside with a hiccup as she relaxed herself into a spread eagle position. She even turned her head lazily to the side to look at us with a toothy grin, then she did something else none of us expected.
She let out a giggle.
"That drink should have been enough to kill a grown stallion, and if not that, knock him out cold..." Shakes said, interrupting my train of though, almost dreamily, eyes wide as she watched on with seeming awe.
"And here it is, only getting her tipsy..." Her voice was in a whisper, like she didn't want to ruin this moment of drinking history.
She was snapped out of her daze when Vinyl began to get up, stumbling a lot, but getting up none the less. Her smile, I noticed, was not of the same sinister nature, this one was a more of a happy drunk smile.
"Don't get too comfy," Shakes spoke up. "She may look harmlessly drunk right now, but she still undoubtedly has the same goal in mind." She said standing tall.
Vinyl staggered over towards us, nearly falling on several occasions.
'Jeez...What was in that drink?' I asked myself as I watched her hobble her way over to us. When she began getting to close, Shakes bent over in a defensive stance.
Pretty soon she was right in front of us, the smell of alcohol tainting the air around us as she took the final steps to close in on us. Shakes was ready for her to try something, as was Sweeps, as they remained ducked into their defensive positions.
However, Vinyl tripped and fell. Whether it was because of the drink or she actually tripped on something I probably would never know. What I did know was that she was aimed to fall directly onto me, and with my reaction timing, there was nothing I could do.
Her body made contact with mine, falling limply and making me trip with her weight, causing me to fall onto the ground and lean up against the side of the booth. She was still as soft as the first time I held her, though the smell of beer burning my nose wasn't there the first time, and honestly made the whole experience much better, but it was still good to hold her again.
That is, until she lifted her head lazily up to my ear and whispered something that I honestly didn't know what to make of.
"You seem like fun..." Her voice was slurred heavily, but I made out what she said. "Wanna play?" The air from her voice tickled my ear and made me laugh a little, even in the current situation.
"I'll take that as a," She paused and hiccuped.
"Yes." She said forming a smile that I could literally feel with my ear.
I turned and looked at both Shakes and Sweeps who were simply staring at me with wide eyes, apparently they weren't expecting this either.
Opposite of her other statement of wanting to 'play', she remained still as she simply relaxed herself on my body. Not that I am complaining, but with her current state of mind, it wasn't exactly reassuringly safe. She did move though, but she only adjusted into a more comfortable position on my body as she nuzzled into my neck.
I cast Shakes a glance that screamed "Well what now?!" but all she could do was shrug, until she straightened up and gave me a wink before trotting silently off and out of sight, leaving me sat there with a drunken, dangerously delusional, violent, tipsy vampire and a vampire hunters sister. A position I never thought that I would find myself in.
Pretty soon though, Shakes came back with something held behind her and a grin on her face; A grin that I raised a brow at.
She smiled and pulled a bottle out from behind her as her grin turned sheepish, but that only puzzled me more. She apparently saw this and took a few practice swings at Vinyl's head, getting the point across that her plan was to hit Vinyl on the back of the head with a bottle of liquor.
I silently mouthed: "What?!" She was harmless right now, I think we should keep her that way for both my sake and theirs.
She began acting out something like a game of charades, pretending to hit herself on the head and then imitating someone passing out.
I shook my head no as violently as I could with out disturbing Vinyl, only to have her respond by looking at me, then at the bottle and then back at me before giving a violent nod of the head as she raised the bottle above her head, intent on hitting Vinyl.
I shook no once more, eyes growing wide with fear of what would happen to me if this didn't work, only to get the same energetic nod with a growing smile, her eyes widening with anxiety and excitement instead. I tried my best to stop her, but with the way Vinyl lay atop me and her enthusiasm, it seemed like she was intent on sticking with her decision to smash the bottle over Vinyl's head and I could do little more than watch in horror as the bottle quickly came down.
The bottle made contact with a solid 'clank', though it didn't break thanks to it being so thick. Vinyl didn't react to it and, in fact, didn't even move after the bottle had hit her. I began to wonder if that actually had knocked her unconscious, and judging by the raised brow and look of confusion on Shakes's face, she was too.
"Did it work?" I asked in a whisper.
"I think so." Shakes replied, also in a whisper.
"No, it didn't." Chimed in Vinyl in an almost amused voice, a hint of disappointment also noticeable in the slur. This managed to shock both me and Shakes, though I'm pretty sure that I had the worst of it since Vinyl still remained wrapped around me. Shakes backed away in shock, even dropping the bottle in the process.
"Well," Vinyl began. "this was fun and all, but I really have to finish up here." She slurred as I felt her mouth open and fangs press down into my neck, but not hard enough to puncture it. I instantly tensed up, my body freezing up and holding stock still as my eyes went wide at the feeling. She was tipsy indeed, but she was actually able to use that to her advantage and get right where she wanted: My neck.
"I'll try and make this," She hiccuped again. "as painless as possible." She said, signaling she was about to bite down.
"Hey Sweeps? You mind stepping in already? I mean, I didn't bring you here just to clean up and hand me bottles." I heard Shakes say, a bit annoyed, just before a pulse of magic came from behind me and Vinyl was quickly tossed across the room, wrapped in a magical aura.
She landed back first into a table, breaking it upon impact as she slammed into the ground and let out another unamused sounding sigh.
"You guy are really starting to get annoying." She slurred from her place under the rubble of the wooden table and chairs that she had crashed into. Soon enough, her dark blue magic grasped at the rubble and lazily tossed it off of her.
"We need to knock her out before that drink wears off." Shakes said, prying my attention off of Vinyl.
"Any ideas?" She said, looking to me.
I looked back at Vinyl, who was now struggling to get back up off the floor, trying to think of something that could help knock her out. I thought back on all the times we had spent together in the past days, when I finally remembered something that had actually hurt her, even if it was an accident.
"Well, I didn't think of anything that could knock her out immediately." I admitted, earning a look of disappointment from Shakes.
"But I did think of a way to hurt her." I said, getting her attention again, this time with a look of both confusion and excitement from her.
"And what is that?" She asked.
I raised a hoof and pointed to her horn.
"Right around when I met Vinyl, and also when she tried to feed on me, I accidentally hit her horn trying to avoid her. It seemed to hurt her enough to the point where she was curled up in pain." I said.
"Go for the horn?" Shakes said with a cocked brow.
"Go for the horn." I nodded.
"Okay...well that shouldn't be too hard to get to." She said before turning to her sister.
"You think you could hit her horn sis?" Shakes asked, getting a nod from her sister as she wrapped her magic around the bottle Shakes had dropped from earlier.
A bolt of blue came from seemingly nowhere, hitting the bottle with surprising accuracy, and shattering it to pieces. We could only turn our heads in time to see another bolt come, hitting Sweeps and knocking her back with enough force to send her up against the wall of the booth with a thud, the sound of wood cracking also present.
Both me and Shakes turned to see where the bolts had come from, already having a good suspect in mind, and when we saw the faintest glow of a matching blue fading away on Vinyl's horn, our assumptions were confirmed.
"Dammit." Was all Shakes could mutter as she did a double take on her sister to be sure she wasn't injured too badly before turning to face Vinyl again.
"Well, there goes the easy way of doing this." She said as she locked eyes with Vinyl.
Vinyl had a ditzy, yet sinister, smirk on her face as she looked up, stray strands of hair covering up parts of her eyes.
"You're next." She said with a bone chilling voice, the slur not making it any less frightening, as she locked eyes with Shakes.
"You're gonna have to be more creative than that to hit me." She said, bending over and picking up a broken stool leg and giving it a little spin before catching it firmly.
"Octavia," She began. "I can't hit her horn alone." She said with a bit of disappointment before tossing me the stool leg.
"So I'm going to need you to do it, I'll be a distraction." While I normally would have refused to do anything remotely related to this, the look on her face convinced me otherwise.
I barley caught the stool leg when she tossed it to me.
"O-okay." I stuttered. I didn't want to do it, I don't think anyone would want to do it, just from seeing what she did to Sweeps with one shot from her horn was enough to detour me from going anywhere near her, much less try and pose a threat to her.
'Let's just hope that this knocks some sense back into her.' I thought to myself, trying to get a more firm grip on the stool leg as I continued to shake.
"I'm gonna try and get you behind her, that's when you hit her. Got it?" She said just before giving me a quick hard stare.
"Y-yeah." I stuttered, looking down at the stool she had given me, hoping it wouldn't just break over her horn and do nothing, or worse, if it didn't break over her horn and it still didn't do anything to her. Judging from what that mare back in forest got from a surprised Vinyl, I would hate to see what me or Shakes got from an angry and drunk Vinyl considering we would even make it long enough to see an angry Vinyl.
Shakes started a slow walk towards Vinyl as I tried my best to gather some courage and picked myself up off the floor. Vinyl turned to me, her sinister smirk turning into a believably happy one, which confused me.
"You're going to play too?! " She said with a voice that sounded genuinely happy, something that scared me a little.
"That will make winning all the more tastier." She said, her voice drifting off into something that resembled lust at the mention of 'tastier' as she returned her attention to Shakes. This was enough to practically smash the small amount of courage I was able to collect, leaving me shaking, but still standing, again.
"Don't listen to her Octavia." Shakes said, not taking her eyes of Vinyl as she closed the distance between the two.
"Just stick to the plan, and you'll be fine." She said in an attempt to reassure me. It worked for the most part after I saw how Vinyl's attention was remaining on Shakes as she was beginning to circle around Vinyl, who was barely standing up as it was thanks to the drink, which appeared to still be in full effect.
I began a shaky circle myself, going in the opposite direction of Shakes so I would get a good position behind Vinyl. While I was looking at Vinyl, I noticed her flick her attention behind her to me, Shakes must have seen it too, since it was then that she decided to charge.
Vinyl didn't react how I expected, she simply wobbled weakly to the side and fell to the ground, though it was out of the way of Shakes's charge. Apparently Shakes wasn't expecting that either, since she had to jump over Vinyl to avoid tripping on her.
"Now Octavia!" She yelled loud enough for me to throw my senses to the wind and run up, literally jumping on top of Vinyl's collapsed body, stool leg in hoof, and line up a shot directly with Vinyl's horn. I felt my heart begin to race as I began the swing, my swing even speeding up a little as I felt more sharper.
Vinyl simply smiled a ditzy smile with half lidded eyes, her horn beginning to charge as I brought the stool leg down just in time for a flash of darkened blue light to envelope Vinyl and causing my eyes to close reflexively from the light. I felt my stick hit something hard, but when I opened my eyes, I saw that it was only the floor I had hit and Vinyl was nowhere to be found.
I was surprised to see that I had even left a mark on the wood.
I picked myself up off the floor, stool leg still in hoof, and turned to Shakes who was looking around cautiously.
"Did you see where she teleported to?" She asked nervously, still taking small glances around the room.
I was going to respond, but a flash of blue from behind Shakes stopped me just before I did and forced me to close my eyes again.
"What the-?!" I heard Shakes yell during the flash, and when I opened my eyes, I saw why.
Vinyl sat atop Shakes's back, wrapping herself around her neck with her front hooves while her head poked up over Shakes's own head.
"Get off of me!" Shakes said angrily, trying to figure out how to get Vinyl off her back. This apparently was funny to Vinyl, who began to giggle wildly.
"Nope." She said, her voice sounding the slightest hint more sober. "I think I'll stay right here." She said happily.
"Octavia," She said, turning her anger towards me.
"You gonna just stand there and grow old or are you gonna hit her?" She asked, clearly flustered by her position.
I shook my head before trying to line up another shot with Vinyl, who was now rocking side to side unsteadily on the back of Shakes, who was struggling to stay still for me. I finally though I had a good angle lined up and took a swing, closing my eyes for one reason or another. When I felt the other end of the stool leg hit something, I opened my eyes to see if my aim was true, or if I was off and had just hit Shakes.
Fortunately, I didn't hit Shakes. My swing was true, or it would have been if it hadn't been blocked by a well placed hoof from Vinyl, who was still smiling oh so brightly, so much that it was beginning to get annoying how cocky she was being.
"So close." She said, the slurring becoming less frequent. She must have been coming down from her buzz off of the drink, a fact that didn't exactly go in my favor.
"Closer than you would think." Shakes chimed in before twisting her body, using the hoof that Vinyl had used to block as a way to get out of her grasp and throw her off balance. For once, Vinyl looked surprised as she fell from Shakes's back and onto the ground, quickly getting pinned by the same mare, and leaving Vinyl stuck on her back.
Shakes held Vinyl so that her front hooves were above her head, leaving her hind legs to flail around as she tried to push Shakes off, but just couldn't seem to do it.
"Octavia, now!" She yelled at me as she struggled to keep Vinyl under a good pin. It must have been the drink that had left her weaker, I knew Vinyl could have easily throw her off, whether it have been by magic or her hooves alone. Come to think of it, why wasn't she using her magic?
I decided to not wait for her to realize the same idea and straddled her stomach, pinning her even more and even somewhat stopping her hind legs from flailing. I quickly lined up another shot, and thanks to the little room for failure, I was ready to swing as soon as Shakes moved her hooves to give me a clean swing.
Shakes saw that she needed to move her hooves so that I could Vinyl's horn, which was now beginning to glow so she could teleport out of the pin. She moved her hooves at a surprising speed just as Vinyl's horn reached it's brightest, and even with the speed my swing was going at, it would be too late.
Though Vinyl didn't teleport, but instead, shot another dark blue bolt directly into Shakes's stomach, hitting hard enough to send her up into the air about five feet and have her land a good ways away. Before I knew it, her horn was charged up again, ready to fire another bolt at me as she stared at me with panic in her eyes.
But it was too late, thanks to Shakes taking the first bolt, it had given my bar stool leg enough time to connect with her horn, the force hard enough to break the end of the stool leg.
The effects of the hit were immediate, she howled in pain as her body seized up from the pain of the hit. Though one thing caught my eye, the color of her horn changed upon impact; going from the darkened blue aura and flashing a bright neon blue before returning back to the original dulled blue. Something about the neon blue color seemed familiar, and I realized why quickly, it was the color of her horn before she went with that bouncer stallion.
An idea popped in my head as I reeled the, now shorter, stool leg back for another swing. The idea was only that, an idea; so it had the possibility of failing, but anything was worth a shot right about now.
I let the stool leg fly loose once more, making another solid hit, with a pained howl to match, against the still glowing dark blue horn and, just like in my idea, it flashed neon blue once more. Though, this time, it held the lively neon blue state for longer than before - about a second - until it slowly died back down to its darkened opposite.
I reeled back once more, this time hopefully being the last time, and put my entire weight into the swing. The hit landed, with enough force behind it to break the stool leg in half and rendering it practically useless.
The pained howl came out as more of a shriek this time as Vinyl struggled weakly underneath me. I hated to see Vinyl in this heart wrenching state, but I was only trying to get my Vinyl back, not this deranged one that hurts her friends. Though this time, the lively neon came back for around five seconds, during which Vinyl opened one of her eyes, keeping the other clenched in pain, and looked at me long enough to whisper something.
"...T-tavi?" Was all that came out before the neon blue went out and back to the dark blue. Something about her voice when she said that was different, different from the Vinyl that tried to hurt me intentionally, it sounded like the real Vinyl; my Vinyl.
I looked at what remained of the stool leg, now no longer than a ruler, and back at Vinyl before realizing what I had to do. I raised the leg once more, breathing heavy as I lined up my last swing. I put everything I had into it, my courage, my care, my love, everything, into that swing. It came down faster than I thought I could swing, probably thanks to the adrenaline that was probably pumping through my veins at this point.
The hit was louder, and so was the scream that followed it, and I thought that I might pass out after it hit. But I couldn't pass out yet, I had to see if it worked first; I wouldn't stop until she was fixed.
Her horn faded back to its bright, lively, neon blue as her scream subsided as I felt myself growing weaker, nearly collapsing on the spot as the adrenalin from the past few minutes began to take its toll on my body. I fell over, barley stopping myself with my hooves as my face landed directly in front of Vinyl's as her horn remained the renewed and revived blue.
"Please..." I begged to no one in particular. "Please...just come back." I said as I looked at her clenched eyes just in time to see them open up, reveling the same dulled red eyes.
I didn't know if they were good Vinyl's eyes or crazy Vinyl's eyes, but I feared that I wouldn't be given the opportunity to find out as I felt the cold darkness begin to creep upon my senses and the world around me beginning to fade into blackness. I struggled to stay awake, even smiling at the sight of her beautiful scarlet eyes.
"Vinyl..." I said, finally collapsing into her, letting her soft fur comfort me as I drifted into sleep.
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This is great fic right here. If vinyl is indeed back I want to see her turn her skill against this evil vampire. Stupid ass getting between poNY ship needs a whooping. I do enjoy tipsy evil vinyl. She is hilarious!
I must ask about the description, you said that vinyl dies in allot of fics and I was wondering which ones you mean.
4871892
Though most were on another site, but there are still a couple here. I did a quick skim through the OctaScratch folder and found a couple to name.
Temporary by Butt Stallion
A Final Goodbye by Teal-Tome
Like I said, most were on another site, I can't even remember the names at this point, but trust me when I say that they're out there.
Gah man! Cliffhangers!
geez that was nerve wracking.
I'm excited for the next update and see what happens next!
4872150 Thanks.
Damnit.. This is too exciting!
Cliffhangers!
I demand to know what the hay happened to vinyl so they can avoid it happening again.
And please for the love of luna. Confess to vinyl, octavia. You know you love vinyl.
Very good chapter :3
Didnt see any mistakes so good job and keep bieng amazing.
Loved this chapter, can't wait for more!
Beauty, if your using a normally non-name word as a proper name make sure to capitalize, reading through the first time I had to reread this a few times before realizing you meant the pony, not the act of looking so.
Where
I believe you mean her magic
"I"?
Thought
Adrenaline
fixes and nitpicks that I found, i love this story thus far though and can not wait for the next chapter.
Have a good day, and see you for the next chapter!
--Silver Nightshade
This chapter was amazing! I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Props to Tavi, hitting Vinyl like that must have been really hard to do. A fantastic chapter to perhaps my favorite story on this site,
literally can't wait for more. Please, never stop being awesome.
Great chapter.
What was with Octavia's "I won't be a bait, because I don't want to die." Vinyl was HUNTING HER, this plan was maybe only way to keep her alive or did I missed something?
Heart? You are currently feeding it to me, with the choo-choo train, and I am loving it!
Missing Octavia's response in between. Or Shakes didn't give her a chance to.
Though, when I brought this up with Shakes,
but I really have to finish up here.
I barely caught the stool leg when she tossed it to me
so that I could hit Vinyl's horn
I fell over, barely stopping myself with my hooves
I like how Vinyl didn't come back from a cheesy display of love like the cliche, but just a repeated bashing over the horn with a stool leg.