The Sound And Fury From Seaddle

by Nic-Fit

News Of The World

Chapter 17 : News Of The World

In which somepony has a bad day, I guess

~

"EXTRA! EXTRA!" Cried the foal, flogging the latest copy of the Seaddle Post.

"Child, are you selling the weekly paper?" Asked Octavia from her bedroom window.

"Yes'm! Just one Bit! Want one?" Replied the lovable scruffy urchin.

"Oh my, if you had asked later I would've said yes." Said Octavia. "But as it is right now YOU ARE SHOUTING OUTSIDE OF MY BEDROOM AT HALF FIVE IN THE MORNING! I would suggest you move on before I COME DOWN THERE AND SHUT YOU UP MYSELF."

The foal stood stock still, eyes wide, staring up at the grey earth pony, not entirely sure what to do.

"I WILL MESS YOU UP, KID! "

He ran, pretty swiftly at that. He even left behind his stock pile of papers, not even looking back.

Octavia can be scary as shit in the mornings.

Of course, Vinyl didn't know this. She'd never been up early enough to see morning Octavia, outside of work, anyway, but work was work, so she couldn't really be queen bitch.

Today was no exception to this. After the previous night's activities, the injured unicorn had stumbled her way into Octavia's home, and with Vinyl too drunk to walk properly, and Octavia too tired to argue, she stayed the night. She'd slept right through the actually-quite-loud exchange of words, and was currently (unknowingly) on the receiving end of a pretty disapproving look from Octavia. Probably to do with the blood-soaked bandage on her head and the flecks of vomit around her mouth.

Finishing with a huff, Octavia clambered back into her bed and attempted to claw back any extra sleep she could.

~

"Euuuughghghgh." Was the indication that Vinyl had woken up. Nopony but her knew it, but still.

"This isn't my houuuSSAAAAHG!" She groaned as she sat up too quickly, head injury AND hangover making themselves known. Also becoming apparent was the horrific taste in her mouth, and the fact that the way she'd slept had left her with two dead legs.

Why was she even on the floor of Octavia's bedroom, anyway? It was easily one of the less optimal spots for comfort in the house. Not that she was going to do anything about it, but dammit, she wanted an explanation! 'Octavia would probably have an explanation. She usually does, anyway. Or she just sighs and looks at me like an idiot-Hey! She thinks I'm an idiot!' Glancing up, she saw Octavia's form in bed, body slowly rising and falling, still asleep.

'Not on my watch!'

"Tavi."

Nothing.

"Pssst. Hey. Tavi."

Still nothing.

"Tavi. Wake up." She said louder this time, even going as far to nudge the sleeping mare with her magic.

At this point, Vinyl was getting irritated at the lack of response.

"TAVI WAKE UP."

The grey earth pony just had time to let out a yelp before she was flung at the wall by an abnormally strong display of magic from Vinyl.

"Wow! I didn't even know I could do that!" Said an excited Vinyl.

"Augh, Vinyl, WHAT. THE. HELL?" Shouted Octavia, pulling herself buck up onto the bed.

"Well, I tried being nice, but you still weren't getting up so-SWEET MOTHER OF CELESTIA!"

"What? What is it?" Came Octavia's irritated reply.

"Y-your eye, Tavi!" Said Vinyl, pointing a hoof at the other mare's face.

"What?" My eye?" Octavia trotted over to a chest of drawers, a mirror residing on top.

Sure enough, a look in the mirror revealed something was indeed up with her eye. Namely, it was red. Very red. Just the left one, though, her right eye was just peachy.

Octavia was less than impressed.

"Fantastic, Vinyl. I let you spend the night here and you repay me by breaking the blood vessels in my eye. For what reason did you feel it necessary for me to get better acquainted with my bedroom wall, hmmm?" She asked, getting up in Vinyl's face.

Vinyl shrunk under Octavia's creepy, mismatched gaze. It was an intense stare that she had gotten used to since meeting the cellist, but now, with her eye like that, it was just..wrong? No, not wrong, terrifying.

"W-well....uh...I was trying to wake you up...so I could ask you a question..."

"And what, pray tell, was so important about this question that it warranted launching me at my own house?" Octavia narrowed her eyes at the unicorn.

"I forget..." Was her meek reply.

"Hmm? Speak up."

"I said...I f-forgot..." Vinyl looked away, finding anything other than Octavia's face very interesting right now.

"Oh, how marvelous. How positively spectacular." Octavia turned away and trotted towards the bathroom. "You are a piece of work, Vinyl Scratch." She slammed the door behind her, leaving Vinyl alone in the room.

'Yeah...probably could've gone better...'

~

Lunch (not even Vinyl could call it breakfast, it was well past noon by now) was...awkward. Octavia was still furious (although, sightly less so, considering she hadn't kicked Vinyl out yet) and Vinyl was still nursing a hangover, head wound, and a slight (rather deserved) sense of guilt, which left her feeling less than talkative. Plus, she'd be lying if she said she didn't think Octavia now looked like some kind of super villain, and it kinda freaked her out.

Still, Tavi couldn't be that angry at her, she hadn't asked her to leave or anything. And had given her food. And painkillers.

Okay, so it's safe to say Vinyl was feeling like a bit of a dick right about now. Rightfully so, let's be honest. Right now, what she needed was an exit strategy that wouldn't make things any more awkward, somehow she didn't think 'I'm gonna go' would cut it this time. Luckily(?) her stewing was interrupted by a rapping at the door, which Octavia swiftly left to go an answer, leaving Vinyl alone at the table.

"Hey Tavi, how's-WAH!"

That'll be Lyra, then.

"Tavi, what happened?"Asked Lyra, concern practically dripping from her voice.

"Vinyl." Said Octavia, flatly.

"Oh." There was a pause. "Again?"

"HEY!" Shouted Vinyl. "What do you mean 'again'? I am not that bad, ms. punch-another-mare-until-I-break-my-legs!"

It probably sounded better in her head.

"Vinyl, not 24 hours ago you basically started a two-pony bar fight and lost. Two weeks ago you got detained for trying to beat up an awful, awful pony with a guitar." Lyra retorted.

"You shut your mouth!" Vinyl brought her hooves down on the table in outrage. "How can you say I go about things the wrong way? Like you're miss perfect!"

"Hmph. At least I show up everywhere on time." Lyra said with a slight feeling of superiority.

"Oh yeah, well at least I don't drive ponies out of their own houses!" Accused Vinyl.

"That was one t-"

"QUIET!" Roared Octavia. The other two mares complied.

"If you just came here to argue, you can both just leave."

Still silence.

"Better. Now, besides causing a fracas, was there any reason for you being here? Because I have a splitting headache and half a mind to just ask the both of you to leave anyway." She asked Lyra, with a (probably intentional) edge to her voice.

"W-well, two things I guess. One was that Ponyman from Below Class called and said he wanted to meet with us for drinks and to talk sometime tonight-"

"What! Why didn't he call me?" Interrupted Octavia.

"He said he did. 5 times. This morning." Lyra replied with a flat look.

"Well, if he had I would have heard...the...phone..."

Octavia had turned to look at the phone, only to find a burned out, melted wreck of plastic sat atop the windowsill in the kitchen, where the phone was supposed to be.

"Ahaheheeh....that maaaayyyy have been me." Said Vinyl, rubbing the back of her neck with a hoof and not making direct eye contact with the irate earth pony.

"Care to explain any further?" Octavia said with an oddly calm tone. And a twitchy eye.

"Well when we got back last night I was really hungry. I think I tried to order pizza, it's kinda a blur. Anyway, I tried to use your phone, but I think I kinda overcooked it a bit." Vinyl said, tapping the end of her horn.

"HOW DO YOU BURN SOMETHING ATTEMPTING TO PICK IT UP!?" Exploded Octavia.

"It wasn't my fault! I was drunk!" Came the unicorn's defense.

To that all Octavia could do was sit down and cradle her head in her hooves. She'd just about reached the maximum amount of stupidity she could deal with in one day.

"What time are we meeting Ponyman, Lyra?" Asked Octavia, slightly muffled.

"About 8, at the Hoof And Wing."

Octavia shuddered, she would have to thoroughly clean herself when she got back. Anytime spent in the Hoof And Wing was too long. Why he would want to meet there she had no idea.

"So be it. Now, if you wouldn't mind, I would quite like to be alone for a while."

"But what about-" Lyra started, but Octavia's glare told her that there wasn't another option.

"Oooookaaaaay then, see you later I guess." Lyra said over her shoulder "Coming, Scratch?"

"Yeah, one second." Said Vinyl, pre-occupied with Octavia's toaster "Damn thing is stuck." She said, poking a fork in to try and free the bread.

"VINYL." Octavia's tone signaled something bad WAS going to happen if Vinyl didn't leave immediately.

"Rodger, out of here!" Vinyl practically leapt over Lyra and was out the front door in seconds "Later, Termarenator!"

Lyra followed her out with a sigh, closing the door behind her. She turned around only to be met with Vinyl's face much too close for comfort.

"Waaaaiiit a second, you said there were TWO things you needed to talk about. What was the other one?"

"Well" started Lyra, pushing Vinyl back at the same time "I was going to ask why her house was all covered in newspapers."

Sure enough, out front were newspapers all strewn about in the breeze. A lot of newspapers.

"Boy, Tavi's gonna be pissed when she sees this." Observed Vinyl. "Yeah, I'm not gonna be the one to tell her. Besides, I gotta go fix this." She pointed up to her bandages. Or maybe even her whole face, it was hard to tell. "Later gator."

With that, Vinyl was gone.

Deciding it would probably be better for her health if she wasn't around when Octavia saw the state of her house, Lyra decided to go too, much less chance of injury that way.

~

Author's Note:

CELEBRATING A YEAR OF NOT MUCH STORYTELLING!

Aaaaaand we're back. Sort of.

Man, I should keep a tally of how many times characters have gotten injured in this story.

Includes one or two obvious, ham-fisted references!

Comments

[akarock]

Heh, News of The World, more like, All Mare Cons amiright?

[Nic-Fit]

5753490
(Trying to think of another The Jam pun is impossible)

[Dark Avenger]

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