Oh, Octavia!

by Bubblegum

Oh, Octavia! (Act VI)

Oh, Octavia! (Act VI)

The Truth Will Set You Free

by ScoopDaily

Luna reclined on her throne, shifting back onto her haunches and lifting a hoof to her chin, her elbow (or whatever ponies have for elbows) resting on one armrest. She had been attempting, for the last half-hour, not to look bored and had failed miserably. The infinitely-rambling pony in front of her... one Sunny Day, who needed a royal grant for... something... had been grating on her nerves for the duration of her allotted time.

Without warning, a harsh signal screamed in the moon princess’ mind. Nopony else could hear it but her, and as she cried out in alarm, the throne room went silent. Sunny took a step back, her brow furrowing in concern.

“P-princess? Did I say something wrong?”

“NO! I...uh, I mean, no. I’ve just... I have to cut our meeting short, I am afraid! Duty calls! Celestia, please mediate Sunny’s fascinating and intricate situation, won’t you please? I have other urgent matters to attend to!”

Celestia, looking just as surprised as the other members of Canterlot’s royal court, nodded slowly to signal her dismissal. Luna smiled gratefully and cantered out one of the side doors located behind the Solar Sisters’ throne pedestal.

The door opened into a darkened hallway, as narrow as any in the whole palace. In times of war, the doors had been used as emergency escape routes and had, at one point, been concealed behind cases of books to elude the notice of those ponies whose intent was anything less than beneficial. The hallway proceeded into darkness in one direction, to the left; at the right it dead-ended into a solid wall of stone brick.

Luna cantered swiftly down the narrow corridor, her path barely lit by the forever-flickering torches bolted to the wall by bands of iron. The hallway had not been modified since the Canterlot Palace had been constructed nearly 1,000 years before, and Luna had to tread carefully so as to avoid stumbling over the many stones that had broken loose in the path under her hooves.

Finally reaching a small, wooden door at the end of the hall, she magicked it open and crossed the threshold into a dimly lit scrying room. A large, stone pedestal stood in the direct center of the circular, sparsely-furnished room. On the pedestal set a simple white bowl which was filled nearly to the brim with water. Luna stepped to the pedestal and leaned over the bowl. She shut her eyes as her horn began to glow; the waters in the bowl began to swirl with color. Those colors quickly asserted themselves into an image.

As Luna opened her eyes to gaze into the bowl, she gasped in alarm. “Scoop! What have you done?”

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“My humblest apologies, Princess, for disturbing your daily routine, but we seem to be in a bit of a bind here.”

Scoop bowed, though the Mistress of the Moon was not actually in his presence. Scoop’s eyes remained closed as he focused all his energy on maintaining the long-distance connection between himself and the Princess.

Behind Scoop, a carnival was in full swing. Small, easily-transportable roller coasters had been erected and patrons waited in long lines to enjoy a few moments of up-and-down fun on the squealing metal machines. A Ferris wheel towered above the other rides and attractions, slowly turning through its cycle as love-struck ponies enjoyed the view with their significant others.

What had startled Luna was not the carnival itself, but rather a slight tinging in the color of the scene; the edges of her scrying pool were a faded sienna-brown and the entire memory was tinged with yellow. A pony not well-versed in the practice of memory diving wouldn’t have known the significance of the strange coloration, but Luna understood Scoop’s predicament. The memory in which he stood was on the verge of collapse into the construct layer below it. Such a collapse could send Scoop into a swirling sea of nightmares, dreams, memories, and feelings so intense they could drive a pony insane just by the knowing of them.

“Scoop, you have to get out of there now!” Luna expostulated. “What were you even thinking remaining under long enough for the memory to reach this point?”

Scoop smiled sheepishly at first, but quickly cocked an eyebrow and gave the Moon Goddess a roguish grin. “Now now, princess, there is no cause to use your ‘Canterlot Voice’ on me. The blame for our current state of affairs falls squarely on the shoulders of Mistress Octavia herself. She forced us into a damaged memory and promptly disappeared, leaving Vinyl and me to wander aimlessly about this fair. Sadly, we have been unable to locate Octavia and I fear we are running out of time. Would you be so kind as to message Vinyl’s aid and have him wake us immediately?”

Luna gave Scoop a firm yet allayed look and, sighing in relief, nodded. Closing her eyes once more, she focused her magical energies on finding a certain pony. For even the most powerful of unicorns, locating one pony among the millions that inhabited the land of Equestria, to say nothing of the ones who lived beyond its borders, would be a worthy challenge of their skill. To an alicorn Princess, however, the ability was gifted at birth and was no harder than lifting a heavy object with telekinesis. Luna easily located Ebony and entered his mind.

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Ebony Song, a fledgling pegasus DJ who hailed from Hoofton, had been enjoying a book and a cup of Vinyl’s favorite coffee. Working for a famous DJ had its pros and cons; Vinyl was fun to be around, but when it came to her job, she was demanding enough to drive everypony around her crazy. She had gone through secretary after assistant, firing anypony who dared question anything she told them while on her crazy work-related rants.

Finally, Ebony had been discovered by the disgruntled DJ through a talent agency. As a wannabe DJ himself, Ebony understood the pressures and demands of the challenging industry. He, therefore, understood Vinyl’s exigencyc during her work and was happy to oblige her by following her orders to the letter.

Vinyl rarely spoke to Ebony outside of work and, when she did, it was usually to make sure he had completed an assigned task or work list and remind him of upcoming events and concerts. Today, however, Vinyl had contacted Ebony and asked if he would help her with a “special project” that she, Octavia, and a reporter had been working on. Ebony had eagerly agreed.

Upon arriving at Octavia’s secret mansion, Ebony had been informed that his only part in the mission would be to wake the three ponies from their dream-like state after half an hour. The three had quickly descended into what Ebony had assumed was a trance and hadn’t spoken a word to him since.

Having grown bored of simply watching the three dream, Ebony had pulled a book from his saddlebag and began to read. The book, “Techniques for Successful Scratching” by none other than DJ Pon3, had been Ebony’s favorite from the time he was young and he had long-past memorized every word. He never tired of the sage wisdom contained within, however, and had continued to carry it about with him wherever he went should he have need of some reading material.

He had just finished the 14th chapter, “Tuning Your Table,” when he suddenly felt very strange. He lowered the book and surveyed the room, having garnered the impression that he was being watched. Seeing nothing, he returned to reading, though the feeling had not dissipated. This made concentration on the literature taxing, and he quickly set the book down and surveyed the area once again.

“Ebony, is it?” a voice said. Ebony jumped and glanced about wildly, trying to find the source of the voice.

“Y-yes...” Ebony said, feeling alarmed.

“Don’t be frightened, Ebony. You are in the presence of royalty... or rather, royalty is in the presence of you.”

Ebony recognized the voice almost immediately. He had attended many events as DJ Pon3’s aid and had spoken with both Princesses personally at least once. Luna had always been kind to him, but she had seemed distant; he would rather have spoken to Princess Celestia, who always had a kind smile and a few words of praise or encouragement for anypony she met. It was well known that Celestia always remembered a pony’s name and face once she met them; this trait apparently extended to Luna as well.

“Princess Luna? Where are you?”

“I’m in you, Ebony. I have projected myself astrally... astral projection, you see! I have been contacted by Scoop and informed that he is in grave straits and requires you to wake him from his reverie... or, lack thereof.”

“Scoop... contacted you? How?”

“How is unimportant. Please, do as I ask.”

Ebony scratched his head confusedly. “So... wake Scoop up?”

Sighing inwardly, Luna responded in the affirmative.

Ebony stepped forward and placed a hoof on Scoop’s shoulder. “Hey, Mr. Daily?” When Scoop didn’t respond, Ebony tried a little louder. “Mr. Daily, I’ve been told to wake you up, sir.” He shook Scoop gently. The latter’s eyes cracked slightly and he stretched his legs before rising to his feet and shaking out his mane.

“Good... good job, Ebony,” he said as Vinyl began to stir. She, too, had been woken when Scoop had surfaced.

“Whatimezit? she slurred.

Ebony looked at an ornate clock conveniently place on the wall opposite. “Just after 11, Missus Scratch. I hope you enjoyed your... um... excursion?” He realized with a smile that he had no idea what to call Vinyl’s little adventure into another pony’s mind.

“Thank you, Bone. I did enjoy myself up until the last few hours,” said Vinyl, using one of her nicknames for the night-black pegasus.

It was only after Scratch, Vinyl, and Ebony/Luna had a few minutes of conversation amongst themselves that they noticed Octavia had not yet risen. Vinyl trotted to where she lay on the shag carpet, sprawled out as if she were sleeping. “Hey, Octy! Wake up!” she shouted.

Octavia did not stir. Vinyl went through the waking motions, going so far as to strike Octavia in the face with her hoof. At this attempt, Scoop stepped forward to restrain the now-panicking unicorn, who was kicking and screaming in his grasp.

“Octy, wake up! Come back to us, Octavia! Fix this, Scoop, you’ve gotta fix this! Octaviaaaa!”

Scoop eventually shoved a hoof in the DJ’s mouth, all premise of professionalism completely forgotten. Scoop was deep in his own thoughts, however. Had he caused Octavia’s current state? Had extricating that small portion of Octavia’s memory caused her mind to collapse? Octavia’s mental state had not seemed that fragile, and Scoop sincerely doubted that this was entirely his fault. Regaining immersion with the world around him, Scoop began to lecture the still-struggling DJ.

“Vinyl, for Octavia’s sake, you have to calm down. Screaming and hitting her is no way to solve this problem. This situation must be handled delicately, lest we damage Octavia’s mind or body in the process.”

This seemed to calm Vinyl down to some degree, so Scoop released her. “Now. I am going to attempt to reenter Octavia’s mind. Hopefully I will be able to bring her around from inside. Vinyl, I need you to keep calm and wake me if I’m under for too long. Since Octavia’s memories are self-contained once more, she should be safe from mental collapse as long as we handle this properly.”

Scoop knew that he sounded calm and collected to the two ponies who nodded in agreement and set about preparing for Scoop’s reinsertion. Inside, however, his heart and mind were in turmoil. There was no question that he had overstepped his professional boundaries in his theft of Octavia’s memory, but he had been convinced that this was a necessary evil. Now his faith in his abilities wavered as he closed his eyes and began to calm himself. Would he need to reinsert the memory in order to awaken the comatose Octavia? How would his benefactor handle the failure of his mission.

Luna, guessing Scoop’s thoughts, spoke through Ebony. “Scoop, that memory is not hers. It belongs to the refugees and their associates; Octavia was never meant to stumble upon Whooves’ time machine and she was not meant to discover the existence of Cloud Chaser! In time we will reveal their existence, but for now, this must remain a secret! Find a way to bring her back without replacing the memory or the secret we’ve tried so hard to keep will be endangered!”

Feeling the first pulls of his psychic insertion, Scoop managed a single, resolute nod before he was once again plunged below the surface of Octavia’s swirling memory pool.

While Scoop and Vinyl had surfaced, Octavia had remained imprisoned within her own body. Unbeknown to them, the pony that Vinyl and Scoop had greeted had indeed been the true Octavia. Entering the fractured memory had pulled Octavia’s psychic being into her own memory self; she began to live her own memory. Sadly, she had not known Scoop or Vinyl when the memory had been created and did not recognize them, though she had felt the pull of familiarity.

Octavia wandered the fair in a daze, taking in her surroundings. The note in her locker had said to meet her mystery date at the ferris wheel at 4:00, and she had plenty of time to kill. Sidling up to a midway game, she slapped down her bits and the game began. She tried in vain to pop balloons filled with different colored liquids by throwing tiny, blunt darts; the small prize she received in no way measured up to the bits she had lost.

This put her in a dismal mood, and she walked about miserably, waiting for her hour to arrive. “I just want to go home,” she mumbled to herself, plodding slowly past the other ponies enjoying the fair. Suddenly, a vaguely familiar face appeared before her; a roguishly handsome pony in his mid thirties wearing a fedora with a press-pass tucked in the band.

“Pardon me, miss, but have you seen a pony who looks just like you around here anywhere?” Scoop said, half jokingly.

“I beg your pardon. A pony who looks just like me?”

“Yes indeed, Miss Octavia! I’m looking for a pony who looks just like you, but a lot older. Perhaps... as old as me, okay?” Scoop had begun to theorize that, if this Octavia could see him and Vinyl, perhaps she could see Octavia as well. She seemed to be the only pony in the memory that he could interact with, and he would therefore have to find Octavia using her. Four eyes were better than two, as the saying went... or did it?

“I’m afraid I haven’t. Do you need help looking? I have plenty of time to kill before my date shows up.”

Scoop could hardly contain himself. “That would be wonderful! Thank you very much, Miss Octavia!” Scoop cantered joyously beside the slightly-confused, young Octavia.

“So... where’s that groovy-looking unicorn you were with earlier? Ditched her to find another mare, huh?”

Scoop decided to play along. “Well, you know... I actually lead a double life. There are just too many mares in this world for me to only have one.”

“Too many mares...” Octavia mumbled, failing to rise to Scoop’s joking banter. “So many.”

Scoop nodded, not catching Octavia’s remarks. “Yes indeed! Now, I supposed we had best set about finding Oct... er, excuse me, finding my friend. I believe she was meeting somepony at the ferris wheel at 4.”

Octavia ears perked up at that. “Wait... meeting somepony? At 4? I’m meeting somepony at 4 also! At the ferris wheel!”

“Ah, so you are! What an astounding coincidence!”The gears in Octavia’s head were turning, and for some strange reason she found herself with a splitting headache. If this reporter’s friend was going to meet someone at the same place and time as her... how could that be coincidence? The reporter’s friend had to be her mystery date! But... why didn’t that seem right?

“Your friend... she looks a lot like me?” Octavia asked excitedly.

“Exactly like you!” Scoop said, once again failing to notice the young Octavia’s elation in his desperation to find the elder. “The spitting image, though she’s had time to age and mature more than you, I suppose.”

Octavia thought for a moment. She supposed that she wouldn’t mind having an older partner. She was most excited that her date was a mare! She had never considered the prospect of dating someone of the same gender before, but somehow... well, somehow that just felt right!

“And she’s a mare!” Maybe dating someone who looked just like her wouldn’t be that weird. It would be an exciting and stimulating experience, certainly. Octavia’s anticipation grew as she walked past a standing clock; the large timepiece showed that they had but fifteen minutes until Octavia’s date would meet her.

“Well, we’re coming down to the wire, I guess,” Scoop postulated. “Perhaps we had best wait at the ferris wheel for her, don’t you suppose? We can meet your date there as well!”

“Oh, reporter-pony, don’t you see? Your friend has to be my date! How could it be a coincidence that we are both meeting our dates at the ferris wheel at the exact same time? Impossible! Or at least, highly unlikely.”

Finally, Scoop realized his error. Noticing the look of excitement on the young Octavia’s face, Scoop hemmed and hawed whilst searching for the words to explain his situation to to her. “Well, you see, young Octavia, I’m afraid that’s quite impossible. My friend, she’s... far too much like you! It would be creepy... and she doesn’t like mares!” Scoop almost facehoofed at his terrible lie, but at the sight of Octavia deflating, he sighed in relief. She had believed him, thank Celestia!

“Okay,” said the sarcastically effervescent voice of Luna. “Stop bucking around and find Octavia!”

Scoop was stopped in his tracks by the Lunar Goddess’s vulgarity, to say nothing of her sudden vocal appearance, but he quickly recovered enough to nod in response. He turned to the memory-Octavia. “Well, it has been a pleasure talking to you, Miss Octavia, but I really must be going to find my friend. I wish you success in your musical career and I’ll see you again soon...!” Scoop restrained himself from physically stuffing a hoof in his own mouth, but mentally bucked himself for this discrepancy. He really would see Octavia soon, but not this Octavia!

“See me soon?” the dejected Octavia queried, her ears perking with interest. “Where?”

“I swear, Daily, I am going to dig your grave if you do not stop sticking your hoof in your mouth!” said Luna. With a bamf! she appeared next to him, magically inserting herself into Octavia’s memory world. Her horn flashed and the memory ground to a halt, freezing all activity around the duo. “Will this make things easier? I wouldn’t want to be you if the situation merits any further intervention on my part. Do I make my self abundantly clear?”

Scoop bowed low before the imposing Moon Princess, quivering with fear at her suddenly harsh words. “You do indeed, Princess. Forgive me for my indiscretion.” He rose and began to search the petrified crowd for Octavia.

Luna stood rooted to the spot, scanning the crowd slowly and methodically in a semicircle. Her thoughts, however, were elsewhere. She felt suddenly guilty over the way she had spoken to and treated the bumbling reporter, although her self-righteous justification was winning the mental argument.

‘He deserved it. Never have I seen anypony screw up a conversation so badly as to need divine intervention in order to save themselves!’

‘I know that isn’t true... he’s just nervous.’

‘Inexcusable! I’m nervous too, and do I mess up? No! I stop time! It isn’t like he couldn’t have done the same thing.’

‘Perhaps it didn’t cross his mind...’

‘Well, it should have!’

With that, she set aside her petty inner argument and began to search the crowd in earnest, weaving in and out amongst the suspended ponies.

Scoop was having no luck finding Octavia, though he had only searched a small portion of the ponies present. He had entered the memory at the fair’s peak; ponies were packed into the midway like sardines in a can. With barely enough walking space between them, Scoop found it hard to thoroughly search the crowd, especially when his mind was so busy.

“I wish I were a unicorn. I could just cast a locator spell and be done with it. Wait a second... I’m with the Princess! She can locate Octavia no problem!”

Scoop turned and cantered in the opposite direction. He easily picked out Luna among the crowd of frozen ponies by her height and movement. In a sea of frozen ponies, an ethereal alicorn stood out like a sore hoof.

Luna watched Scoop’s urgent advance through the crowd. ‘Here he comes. Either he found her, or he has an idea.’

“Princess, it is not within my station to make a request of you, but please, hear me out. It may be easier to find Mistress Octavia should we use a locator spell. I believe that, even in the dream construct, a filament would appear and lead us right to her.”

Surprised and a little disappointed that she herself had not thought of the idea first, Luna continued to stare stonily at the groveling reporter. “It is in our mutual interest to do such a thing,” she said coldly. “Only because of this will I acquiesce to your pleas.”

Luna’s horn was enveloped by a purple aura and a thin filament of the same color appeared in midair. It disappeared straight through a nearby stallion, whose seeming expression of shock at being impaled by the filament tickled the Lunar Goddess immensely. Still trying to maintain her aloof composure, however, she restrained herself from even a grin. She adjusted the spell mid-cast to twist the filament in and out amongst the crowd’s ponies instead of going straight through them. She began to follow the magic trail and Scoop walked in her wake.

Soon enough they came to the standing figure of the young Octavia. The filament connected squarely with her chest and she herself was surrounded by a shimmering purple aura.

“Well, that did absolutely nothing!” the moon princess spat. “It simply located the memory Octavia!”

“But...” Scoop interjected. “That’s impossible. None of these ponies are real. If you had tried to locate anyone else, the filament would have led upwards, out of the dream construct. That... somehow... has to be the real Octavia!”

All along, Octavia had been frozen like the rest of the ponies. When a time-freeze spell is cast, the victims of the spell are suspended, both mind and body. This being a memory, however, only the memory-ponies were frozen. This included the young Octavia, who stood stock still and ceased all brain and bodily functions. Finally freed from her adolescent counterpart’s thoughts, Octavia became fully aware of herself. Yet unable to move, she had been pondering her current situation when Scoop and Princess Luna had shown up in front of her.

“Could it be?” Luna asked, temporarily abandoning her icy facade. “She has somehow inserted herself into her memory self?”

Scoop snapped his forehooves together. “When we entered the memory, a trace of the damage from removing the other memory remained. Something must have gone wrong! She didn’t insert herself into herself. She was pulled there by her own mind, which was trying to correct whatever it believed was wrong!”

Octavia had heard the comment about Scoop removing her memory. She was at once confused, frustrated, and angry. ‘If I could move,’ she thought. ‘I would strike you across your muzzle, Scoop Daily!’

Luna’s horn glowed once more, and the memory began to move again. This time, however, Luna began to weave a more difficult spell. Having spent many thousands of years supervising the growth of the pony race, Luna had become exceedingly familiar with the way a pony’s soul felt: what signals it gave off, how to speak to it, and how to touch it. She now began to remove Octavia’s soul from her memory-self’s body. Being extracted from herself, Octavia’s mature form once again became visible to Scoop and the Moon Princess alike. The touch of the Princess’s magic did something else, however. Luna’s healing aura gripped her, and she at once felt stronger, more awake... and more mentally alert. She recovered a shard of memory as Scoop Daily stood before her, his eyes glowing with a mysterious light. “Forget...” he whispered. “It will all be over soon.” Instantly, the real Scoop cried out as the memory he had stolen was yanked from his body and was pulled into Octavia. She remembered everything, from the appearance of Doctor Whooves and his posse to the brainwashing touch of Scoop’s telepathy. As soon as she was freed from the princess magic, she acted upon her previous impulse.

She struck Scoop across the muzzle with a hoof with a sickening crack! Immediately Luna flew into action, gripping Octavia with telekenesis and suspending her in the air. Octavia kicked and struggle, all the while yelling at the stunned reporter, who had been knocked to the ground by Octavia’s surprisingly strong punch.

“How could you, Mister Daily? I trusted you! I allowed you access to my deepest, darkest secrets... all for your article! I was going to let you have everything, and what did you do? You stole from me! You stole my memories and you lied about it! You brainwashed me and my wife! If the Princess weren’t protecting your sorry flank, I would bucking kill you!”

Her tirade was halted when Scoop looked up with tears in his eyes. “I’m so sorry, Octavia. You have every right to be angry. I bucked up, and I’m sorry. I should never have agreed to steal a memory from you. Memories are private and personal... messing with a pony’s body is bad enough, but messing with a pony’s mind is just plain evil. I’m... evil...” He broke down into racking sobs and freely flowing tears.

All of this Luna observed with growing remorse. She saw her perfect plan to recover information about the refugees unravel before her. It brought Luna much pain to see her plan fail, but it cut her to the heart to see her pony’s in suffering. Octavia had become a squirming ball of rage and Scoop had been reduced to tears. What had she done? Had she destroyed these ponies’ relationship just to further her own knowledge. “It’s not worth it,” she whispered. Neither Scoop nor Octavia heard her; Octavia continued to spout obscenities and threats, and Scoop continue to sob in remorse, begging for Octavia’s forgiveness.

Luna called upon her magic to pacify Octavia, who immediately calmed as a pleasant breeze washed over her. She did the same to Scoop, whose tears subsided slowly. She released Octavia, who stumbled once before regaining her hoofing. “Mistress Octavia,” Luna began. “It was at my request that Scoop tried to take your memory. He was not ‘stealing,’ as you suggest. He was following my order, and it is I who deserve your hatred and distrust. For that I am sorry, but I will ask that you trust me as your Princess; it was for a reason beyond your ability to understand.”

Octavia seemed to comprehend Luna’s words and looked begrudgingly in Scoop’s direction. He had stopped crying, but had not risen from where he lay; he looked up from between his hooves at Octavia, his eyes hopeful.

“That doesn’t change anything,” Octavia said, sounding unsure. “He... he could have declined...”

“If I or Celestia asked you to do anything, Octavia, would you decline? Even if it were something as vile as stealing somepony’s memory?”

Octavia bowed her head in shame. “N-no, Princess, I don’t believe I would.”

“Then what right have you to judge Scoop for his actions?”

“None,” she said, her own eyes stinging with a rising tide of tears. “I... I’m sorry, Scoop. I’m sorry for what I said. Yes, I forgive you.”

Scoop jumped to his hooves and ran to Octavia. Overcome with relief that he no longer had to bear the burden of the memory or the guilt over having stole it from Octavia, he wrapped the musical mare in an embrace. “Thank you!” he said. “Thank you, thank you, I’m sorry, thank you!”

Noticing his blunder, he quickly released her, blushing. Octavia’s own face had reddened, but she smiled at Scoop, wiping her lavender eyes with a hoof. “And forgive me, Scoop... for saying all that. I... I do trust you. You’re not a bad pony, and you’re not evil.”

She and Scoop embraced again, both crying softly. Luna’s own heart ached at the display of forgiveness and kindness between two of her little ponies, and she grew even more ashamed of her own actions. “Forgive me, Scoop and Octavia. It was wrong for me to ask this of you, Scoop, and it was wrong for me to make you the victim of my scheme, Octavia. I am sorry.”

“I forgive you, P-Princess,” Octavia said, bowing low before the repentant Goddess.

“We forgive you!” Scoop corrected, miming Octavia’s bow.

With her memory returned to its rightful place, the pale sepia of the damaged memory which they inhabited brightened into full Equestrian color. The fair was in full swing around them, and ponies passed through their ethereal forms as the Princess considered her next move. “Rise, my little ponies,” she said, feeling her own throat tighten with emotion. “I feel I should explain myself... to Octavia, at least. The memory you hold is important not for the time-traveling Doctor Whooves or his compatriot Ditzy... it is important for the blue pegasus called Cloud Chaser. He came to Equestria recently with a group of... refugees and promptly disappeared into the time stream with Whooves and the Tardis. His fellow exiles wish to see him.”

Octavia and Scoop had risen for the princess’s brief, and Octavia nodded. “I don’t quite understand, Princess. If I may speak frankly, I don’t believe I need to. If you feel the memory is that important, you may have it.”

Luna smiled. “Thank you for your generosity, but I don’t feel I need the memory. Scoop has already explained to me the contents and I don’t feel there is anything of further importance to me within it. If I feel differently in the future, I will be sure to ask you before I view it, and I will do so in the same way Scoop does, without removing it from your mind. Does this sound acceptable?”

Octavia nodded again. “Yes, Princess.”

“Well. I will be off then, my little ponies. I do believe you have an interview to finish.”

Scoop turned to Octavia. “I know that I have no right to ask you for a continued interview after I betrayed your trust. We don’t have to finish this if you don’t want to. I won’t even release the article.”

Octavia smiled kindly at Scoop. “What kind of pony would I be if I held this against you? I believe I would have done the same thing if I were in your ponyshoes. I wouldn’t dream now of inhibiting your interview or your article.”

Scoop beamed and wrapped Octavia in another hug. “I don’t care if this is unacceptable professional behaviour! You’re a wonderful pony, Octavia, and I want you to feel that!”

She embraced him in return. After they released each other, they both turned to find that Luna had already vanished. “Well,” Octavia conjectured. “Shall we go and meet my date?”

Comments

[AppleTank]

Wouldn't "horseshoes" make more sense?