Chapter 9 - Together and Alone
Octavia shifted on the bunk, trying to find just a little extra space. While she did not mind sharing the tight quarters with Vinyl too much, the fact that the mare had managed to trap her with a foreleg and nuzzle up against her at some point during the night was a little much.
She sighed, allowing a small smile to creep across her muzzle.This still beat her unit back in Manehattan. And, all told, she did have to agree with Vinyl on one thing: it felt nice to not be alone.
The smile fled as the door to the cabin was pushed open and Ditzy stuck her head in. Catching Octavia’s open eyes, she started, “Hey, just wanted to let…” but slowly trailed off as she noticed the two of them sharing the same bunk and wrapped in what must have looked to all the galaxy like an intimate embrace. “Oh.”
Heat filled Octavia’s cheeks – only increasing as Vinyl’s grip on her tightened – but she suppressed the urge to throw herself out of bed and instead gestured for the pegasus to lower her voice.
“Sorry,” Ditzy whispered. “Just wanted to let you know I’m going to make some breakfast since it’s getting pretty late, but I can see you’re busy right now. Whenever the two of you feel like getting up, just come by the mess. I’ll make plenty, so don’t worry about rushing!”
Octavia forced a smile and nodded before mouthing “Thank you.”
As the pegasus retreated, the door clicking shut behind her, Octavia wondered why she ever allowed herself to believe that the tiniest good deeds or momentary pleasantries would somehow go unpunished.
Food sounded nice, though. Besides, as much as she liked the idea of just one or two more indolent days, she needed to plan for their arrival at Ponyville Station.
Trying to get out of bed proved more difficult than expected, with Vinyl resisting any attempt to move her leg. Octavia finally settled on just sliding out of the bed, but she stiffened as her friend’s muzzle pressed against the nape of her neck.
“Don’t wanna get up yet,” she mumbled.
“You can keep sleeping, but I want to get up,” Octavia whispered, relaxing as Vinyl’s hold on her loosened and finally allowed escape.
Vinyl curled up tighter on the bed, sighing. Hopefully she would be all right when she woke up.
While the promise of food tempted Octavia, other business needed to be dealt with first. Trotting along to the washroom, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it contained a small shower stall. Unfortunately, she was less pleasantly surprised to find that even the hottest setting barely broke ice cold. It was better than nothing, though. The universe felt easier to face when clean and groomed.
She found Ditzy, as promised, in the mess, enjoying a plate of what vaguely resembled fried hay and eggs, but smelled distinctly like their synthetic counterparts. It made sense to stock a ship with food that would likely survive the heat death of the universe, but she still could not manage to restrain her sigh. After a week of real food, she did not relish the thought of returning to her old diet.
At least there seemed to be plenty of it.
The pegasus looked up from her food and grinned as Octavia joined her at the table. “Good morning-ish! And sorry for barging in like that! I didn’t know you two were—”
“We were not anything except sleeping,” Octavia grumbled, not wanting to hear that thought finished. “She was still feeling sick and laying next to me helped.”
“Well, that has to be the weirdest cure for spacesickness I’ve ever seen. I bet a lot of ponies would love to try it, though.”
Another sigh escaped Octavia as she served herself. “Can we talk about something else?”
“Sorry.”
“It is fine. Just, please, do not encourage Vinyl with talk like that. In fact, please do not even mention you saw us sharing the bed. She will not let me live it down if you do.”
Ditzy chuckled as she pushed her nearly empty plate aside. “Shouldn’t she be the one embarrassed she had to snuggle up to you like a scared little filly?”
“She should, but somehow she won’t be.”
“I won’t be what?” Vinyl said from the doorway. While she looked a little better than she had last night, she still seemed rather listless.
“Nothing at all, Vinyl.”
The mare simply grunted, a definite sign she was still uncomfortable. “Is that breakfast? Is it even breakfast time?”
“Yes and close enough that it doesn’t really matter!” Ditzy chimed in. “Glad to see you’re feeling better. Not a big fan of ships, huh?”
Vinyl took a seat at the table next to Octavia and laid her head on it. “Don’t say that word. I’m cool as long as I don’t think about it.”
Octavia nudged her. “You should actually introduce yourself.”
“Huh? Oh. Right. I guess we didn’t actually do that, eh?” She managed to lift her head up long to flash a sickly smile. “I’m Vinyl Scratch, the absolute best DJ in Manehattan. Get us to Ponyville soon and I promise I’ll sign anything you want.”
“I will do my best!” Ditzy said, offering a mock salute. “Though if I try to go too fast, poor Drifter might just fall apart.”
The little bit of food Vinyl had levitated out of the mountain splattered onto the plate in front of her as she breathed in sharply.
“Poor phrasing?” Ditzy said sheepishly. “Don’t worry! My ship is totally, perfectly, absolutely, one-hundred percent safe. Nothing’s broken in—” Octavia’s look must have been enough of a warning, as she finished, “In a very, very long time.”
“Great,” Vinyl mumbled, picking daintily at her food.
“Do either of you know anypony who lives on Ponyville Station?” Octavia asked, changing the conversation’s course.
Ditzy shook her head.
“I prolly know a few ponies. Why?”
“Lyra’s notes indicated that they found my stone buried in a storeroom in Cloudsdale Station. I am hoping that the other Elements might also be hiding in plain sight. If they are, it is entirely possible somepony has seen them.”
Ditzy’s plate clattered as she stood up and dropped it into the washer. “I think I’ll go make sure we’re still on course. I’d like to be able to pretend I wasn’t totally aware I was smuggling criminals and such.” She smiled and pointed at the still substantial pile of food on the table. “Eat as much as you want, but please put whatever you don’t finish in the cooler.”
“Of course,” Octavia said, watching her go. That served as an excellent reminder that she needed to be very careful. There were very few ponies she could trust, and, even then, it would probably be safest to watch what she said around most of them. After all, today’s friend might well abandon you tomorrow, she thought bitterly. Still, the only way she would be able to get anywhere would be to take risks; there was no way Octavia would be able to scour the whole of the Empire herself.
“You okay there, Tavi?”
She started, realizing she had been staring at her food. “Oh. Sorry. I was just thinking.” She smiled at her friend. “Do you think you could you contact any of them and ask if they have seen anything that looks like my stone?”
“Probably. Dunno if they’d know anything, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask.” Vinyl pushed her half-empty plate towards the center of the table and sighed. “You mind getting the tablet?”
“Not feeling much better?”
“I’m totally awesome as long as I try not to taste the food, don’t move much, and avoid thinking about where we are right now.” She smiled weakly and continued, “But thanks for asking. And, you know, for last night.”
“You’re welcome. But please, for the love of Celestia, do not phrase it like that.”
Vinyl was silent for a long moment, the smile slowly strengthening. “Oh. I get it. I get it. You don’t want the captain to know what we did last night, eh? No worries. I don’t consider what we do in the privacy of our cabin to be anypony’s business but ours.”
Octavia rolled her eyes. She had brought that one on herself. “Keep it up and it will just be your cabin tonight, Vinyl,” she grumbled. Still, it was nice to see that, despite the threat lacking heart, the mare still acted appropriately cowed.
It only took a minute to fetch the tablet and return, a question rising to the forefront of her mind. “What are the biggest news sites besides ENN?”
“EQD, OCN, and MT, I guess. Why?”
“We should check all of them and make sure we are not the headlines.”
“Think we would be?” Vinyl asked, pulling the tablet closer to her.
“You have assaulted Commander Lulamoon twice. I am carrying around an ancient and powerful magical relic. We are both on the run from incredibly powerful and influential ponies. I would not be surprised if we were listed as the Empire’s most wanted criminals.”
“I guess you got a point. Not seeing our names anywhere, though. Actually, doesn’t look like there’s anything about the fight at all. Guess they wanna keep Trixie getting her flank kicked all hush-hush, eh?”
“Maybe,” Octavia said. That news proved much less comforting than she had expected. While having ponies know about them would be rather inconvenient, it was much easier to disappear when nopony knew you existed.
“If I call and do an intro, you mind taking over from there? Not really up for talking, plus you know way more about what you need than I do.”
“I believe so.”
“Great. Let’s try Filthy Rich then. He handles all my business on Ponyville. Oh, and he’s an earth pony too!” After setting the tablet up so Octavia could see it but was out of view of the camera, Vinyl opened an application and dialed out. After just a few moments the window opened to the face of an older and tired looking stallion.
“Good aftern— Oh. Vinyl.” He peered closely at his device for a moment and frowned. “Did you change your network address?”
“Hey Filthy! Yeah, sorry, didn’t think about that. I’m actually on my way to Ponyville Station right now, so I had to use a different device.”
A brief look of annoyance crossed the stallion’s face, but curiosity quickly replaced it. “You actually left Manehattan? What in Celestia’s name could be important enough to get you to do that? Is the universe ending?”
Vinyl’s laugh had a slightly manic tone to it, but she kept it under control. “Nah, nah, nothing like that. It’s a super secret project that I’m helping a friend with.” Wrapping her foreleg around Octavia, Vinyl pulled her in front of the screen. “Filthy, this is Octavia. Octavia, this is Filthy. She had a few things we were hoping you could help with!”
He cleared his throat and smoothed his mane back before speaking up again, “A pleasure, Miss Octavia. I would prefer if you called me Filthy Rich. Or just Rich. Vinyl is chronically incapable of using the right part of my name.”
Octavia smiled, struggling to maintain her composure as she gently pushed Vinyl away. “It is my pleasure, Mister Rich.”
“Wonderful, it has been ages since I dealt with a pony who had a sense of decorum,” he said, returning the smile. “What can I do for you?”
Octavia hesitated for a moment, working the story out in her head. “I am helping a collector from Manehattan find a few relics from old Equestria and am hoping that some of them might just be cluttering up station storages or decorating units. They are spherical stones about the size of a hoof and have a variety of designs carved on them.”
He looked away from the screen for a moment, his eyebrows knitting in thought. “They’re made of actual stone?”
“Yes.”
“Well, nothing jumps to mind immediately, but there are a few ponies I could ask. A lot of them have lived on this station for ages, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find that all sorts of curiosities have piled up over the years. Going through the station’s storage records is an option too, but that will be a bit of a slog.” He rubbed one of his temples. “How long until you arrive at the station?”
“We are about two days out, but please, don’t rush on our account. We have time.” In fact, the more time we spend on the fringes of the Empire, the better. “Besides, rather than rushing things, I would much rather you kept your investigations discreet. I can afford time, but competition would be a problem.”
“Of course. Well, things are a little busy because we have a harvest coming up, but I will do what I can. Any friend of Vinyl’s is a friend of mine.” Raising his voice slightly, he added, “But I do expect her next order to properly express her gratitude.”
Vinyl remained silent, only responding once Octavia nudged her. “Huh? Oh, right, yeah. Definitely will double up next time I order. Probably tip too.”
“I will hold you to that, Vinyl.” He refocused his attention and continued, “Should I send any information I turn up to this network address?”
“Yes, that will be fine. Thank you very much, Mister Rich.”
“Thanks Filthy. We owe ya.”
“You are quite welcome, Miss Octavia. And you definitely do, Vinyl.”
Octavia closed the window, letting out a deep breath. “I wonder if that was a good idea.”
“It was. I mean, Ponyville isn’t huge or nothing, but searching it ourselves would be a serious pain in the flank. Besides, Filthy’s reliable. It’s why I go through him directly instead of dealing with Flim and Flam.”
“Still, we should be careful.” Despite the taste of cardboard still lingering on her tongue, Octavia helped herself to another plateful of food. “I suppose I should also spend a bit of time staring at the Element and seeing if I can learn anything about how it works or how to talk to it or anything really.”
“Oh.” Vinyl’s ears flattened. “You think you’re gonna be at it for a while?”
“I don’t know. But I could use a helping hoof. I really know next to nothing about magic.”
“Not really sure I’d be much help there.”
“Really?” Octavia asked, prodding Vinyl’s horn.
“Hey, magic is some complicated bull! Just ‘cause I can do it doesn’t mean I know all the fancy mumbo jumbo about how it works.”
Octavia smiled. “Well, I am still reasonably sure that even a complete dunce knows more about it than me. Besides, helping a poor, silly earth pony try to figure out a magical item beats doing nothing, right?”
~~~~~
Lyra stood in front of the council building, shading her eyes against the light reflecting off the building’s brilliant surface. Despite the crowd flowing endlessly around her, filling almost every available inch of space, she felt completely and utterly alone. Inside that building was the pony who’d ruined her life, and there was a good chance he was going to finish what he‘d started when she stepped inside.
Doing this after a full night’s rest would have been much more pleasant, but there was no putting it off.
Marching into the building, she approached the reception desk and smiled at the pony sitting behind it. “Lyra Heartstrings, here to see Councilor Sombra.”
The stallion at the desk glance up from his console and stared at her for a moment. “You have a meeting?”
She sighed. The gatekeepers of the council’s bureaucracy were the worst. Summoning up what she remembered of a councilpony’s airs, she said, “Yes. He specifically asked to speak with me. And, if you waste time with questions like that, you are going to keep him waiting.”
The pony at the desk blanched, glancing at the screen in front of him. Barely five seconds passed before he said, “Ah! Yes, Miss Heartstrings, you are correct. Please forgive me. Councilor Sombra is indeed waiting for you.” He waved desperately at a guard. “Please escort Miss Heartstrings to Councilor Sombra’s office.”
She followed the guard quietly as he led her through the building’s halls. Watching the stern and silent mare, her mind drifted to Flash. Despite working for Shimmer, he somehow managed to retain a much brighter disposition than most of the ponies that worked with the council.
Hopefully he was okay.
“You may enter, Miss Heartstrings,” the guard said, the door sliding open as she pressed her hoof to a panel.
Taking a deep breath, Lyra stepped through the door.
~~~~~
An hour later, Lyra staggered out of the council building, the station spinning around her. The meeting with Sombra had passed by in a blur, leaving behind memories that were quickly melting into the soup of exhaustion and visions that made up her mind. Still, one thought managed to dominate her consciousness, rising above the tumult: Sombra wanted her help.
The stallion who had humiliated her and ruined her life wanted her, of all ponies, to help him find the Elements.
She had expected the meeting to consist of subtle threats and blatant cajoling, but he had done nothing of the sort. He’d just politely asked for her assistance. He’d even invited her to lunch tomorrow to discuss it further. He wanted to close the rift between them. He wanted her to help him protect the Empire.
The last two blocks to her home proved two blocks too many, forcing her to step into an alley and lean up against a wall, trying to regain control.
She felt adrift. The station seemed to pull away from her as she squeezed her eyes shut, straining against confusion and exhaustion and magic and what still felt like madness. The noises all around her dulled and the reports of her body became fainter as if her mind had finally decided to take leave of the long abused vessel.
Everything Sombra had said during the meeting had been true. The council needed strong leadership and guidance. Most of the modern councilors use the position to play games. The Empire was rotting. The Elements were a force that could protect it.
“Damn him,” Lyra growled, bouncing her head against the wall in the hopes that it would magically clear her thoughts. Sombra made it so easy to forget how he had mercilessly torn her apart on the network stations, how he’d laid her life bare for the entire Empire to see, and convinced ponies she’d thought at least respected her to turn on her.
Maybe he was right, though. She had never wanted to be on the Council. The only reason she’d even cared about losing her stupid seat in the first place was because it had made her into a pariah.
Pushing off the wall, Lyra resumed the arduous walk, drifting through the crowds like a phantom. She needed to get home and clear her head. She had already agreed to meet him again tomorrow for lunch and provide an answer that there was no way she would be ready to give.
She slammed the door to her unit shut and threw herself onto one of the cushions hiding amongst the stacks of books. If she didn’t want to work with Sombra, she could just notify the stacks and pass the books over to his aides.
A chime from the desk drew her attention. Even from her low position, it was possible to see that she had acquired a half-dozen new messages while absent.
Standing took more effort than expected, but she managed to make it to the desk without tripping over a stack of priceless tomes. The messages proved to be mostly what she expected: an official invitation from Sombra, a pair of annoyed demands for an update from Shimmer, junk messages… the only surprise was a response from Hooves.
The console chimed again, a notification that Shimmer was trying to reach her appearing on the screen. Against her better judgement, she decided to stop the noise by answering. “Yes, Shimmer?”
“About time. I heard you left the council building ages ago. What happened?”
Lyra rubbed her eyes. Just the sound of her voice was grating. “He knows I’ve been looking into the elements and wants my help.”
“And you turned him down, right?”
“No, I didn’t turn him down yet.”
“What?” The near scream reverberated painfully in Lyra’s ears. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that I don’t have any reason to turn him down yet. Why not hear him out?”
Shimmer brought her hooves down on her desk. “Because he’s a snake, Lyra! He’s a manipulative sociopath with all the moral fiber of a changeling! If you—”
“As opposed to you, Shimmer?” Lyra snapped. “What makes you any better? You both play games with other ponies, you both want power, and you both screwed me over, but at least he actually seems to have an actual goal! A vision for the Empire! Something beyond just amassing power for power’s sake! Maybe I’ve been wrong this whole time about which of you is the lesser of two evils.”
Shaking furiously, Shimmer opened her mouth to speak again, but Lyra put an end to it by killing the console’s power.
“I feel much better now,” she mumbled. The consequences could be future Lyra’s problem. For now, a nap felt like the best course of action. Sleep to drive away the memories and hopefully get her head clear enough to decide what to do next.
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Ah don't see how doin' each investigation individually will prevent competition. Although ah suppose maybe that way it'd be a little easier to focus on each task so you can make sure yer bein' discreet about it.
Hmm, Sombra.... What with Lyra's sudden change of heart, methinks some dark magic may be at play.
5998117 Ahem. Fixed. Thank you.
Would you believe I'm a professional editor?
Hmm It feels as if something else is afoot...
great chapter, as always.
can't wait to read the next one!
Or perhaps he's much cleverer than any MLP villains thus far and is telling you exactly what you want to hear so you'll do all the work for him and then after he takes over the universe he can take his time vivisecting you alive while gloating about what a naive beeyatch you are?
It's what I'd do!
Er... if... if I were pure evil, that is... cuz I'm not.... really... >_____>
6001852 I have no idea what you mean. Why would anything be going on?
6002611 I actually had to google this one, and I'm still not quite sure what it is. Seems like an FTL-ish game?
6003986 Man. Folks are so rude to poor Sombra. =(
6012136 I just know proper evil.
I studied the habits of Wall Street executives.
“Can we talk about something else? ”
as he lead her through
1. Extra spacing at the end.
2. Led.
Exhaustion can lead to ponies only hearing what they want to hear. Careful Lyra, politics is always a dangerous game that's got many snakes. Some obvious, others not so.
I wonder if the destructive trio is also present in Ponyville Station? Who knows, one of them might have found some dumb rock.
6031524 Well. Seeing that many elementary errors still laying about is kind of embarrassing.
I'll get those fixed this weekend. Thanks for both the read and pointing 'em out! Hope you enjoyed (and will keep enjoying)!
6031576 Oh trust me, there's always one trying to hide somewhere. And don't worry, sci-fi is one of my favourite genres.
6032207 All of those errors should now be fixed (except for "It okay?" which was active choice)
Thanks again. If anyone ever sees any errors, please feel free to point them out! I seriously appreciate it.
Have to say here, you've got something good here. I hope the muse and the potency of it keeps going strong.
6043636 Thanks. I appreciate it. Hoping it does too.
Knowing that people are reading and enjoying does quite a bit to help me push through the "I am a garbage writer and I could do so much better if I just went back and re-edited everything just one more time" and allow me to accept, post, move on, and (hopefully) improve.
The full re-edit can wait until I finish the story for y'all. :p
we are not the headlines.” (insert on between not and the)
We were not anything except sleeping,” Octavia grumbled (insert doing between not and anything)
Vinyl pulled her into line of sight (insert the after into)
Doing this after a full night’s of rest would have been much more pleasant (replace night's with night)
A chime the desk drew her attention. (Add from or on after chime)