Vinyl and Octavia's Freaky Day

by DoctorSpectrum

Chapter Two: Dissension

“Ouch…Vinyl, your horn is hurting me,” mumbled Octavia hoarsely. One could say that she had woken up to an intense pain in her skull, but that would be implying that she was fully awake and ready to leave bed. Her eyes still closed, Octavia lazily reached out with a hoof to gently push Vinyl’s head aside and to a less painful position, only to find empty air there.

What? wondered Octavia a few moments after the implication sunk in, surprised. She opened her eyes to see the other side of Vinyl’s bed empty. Then she remembered that she and Vinyl hadn’t slept together the previous night, a memory which was shortly followed by the vague recollection that she and Vinyl had had a fight. Octavia closed her eyes and groaned. It had been such a good morning before she remembered that, in spite of how little of it Octavia had actually been awake for. Vinyl’s bed was newer than Octavia’s – Vinyl had broken her previous one by bouncing on it too much – and so it was a bit softer, the blankets were warmer, and –

Hang on a moment, thought Octavia, realising that something was wrong. If I didn’t go to bed in Vinyl’s room last night, then how did I end up here? And where has Vinyl gone?

Opening her eyes a bit easier now that some more serious thoughts had entered her head, Octavia reluctantly put her hooves to the mattress and leaned forwards, about to -

“CELESTIA!” shouted Octavia, noticing her hooves for the first time and recoiling violently. They were a pale white, exactly like Vinyl’s. Octavia’s heart had shot up to a million miles a minute upon seeing hooves that were not hers, but it swiftly slowed down as she examined them and realised that they were just as functional as her regular ones. But how had they gotten that way?

In her focus on her new hooves, Octavia had failed to notice that her legs and what she could see of the rest of her body were also coated in this strange, new white fur, but as she adjusted to the strange colouring, a thought occurred to her. Reluctantly, Octavia reached up to touch her mane. Yes, her luscious, lengthy, smoothly combed mane was gone, replaced with a shorter, shaggier mane which Octavia knew from touch was similar to Vinyl’s. Moving her hoof forwards along her head, Octavia also found what appeared to be a horn jutting out of her head, the apparent source of the pain in her skull.

Knowing what the conclusion would be, but still needing definite confirmation, Octavia got out of bed properly and walked over to the dresser that was in Vinyl’s room. The small, round mirror which was supposed to be on top of it wasn’t there, but that was hardly a surprise to Octavia. Looking downwards, Octavia began sifting through the debris that made up Vinyl’s floor. It was mostly made up of clothes - which Octavia rarely saw Vinyl wearing - and old food packets, but every now and then Octavia found something which felt slightly more out of place, like the spiral-bound notebook which Octavia haphazardly tossed aside, or the set of photos she and Vinyl had taken in a coin-operated photo booth a while ago (why are they on the floor, Vinyl? Octavia briefly wondered).

Finally, Octavia found the mirror, and upon looking into it, saw her suspicions confirmed – the face reflected back in the mirror’s shiny surface was not her own grey-coated one, but Vinyl’s. Octavia twitched her – Vinyl’s – ears and waved a hoof at the mirror to confirm that, yes, it really was her doing this. She frowned. What the hell was this? Was this some stupid prank of Vinyl’s, or was it something different?

Octavia bit her lip. She didn’t know whether she wanted to scream or to cry. Her own body, changed into…this. Or…her mind transferred. For the moment, Octavia wasn’t quite sure what was going on. She knew that she probably shouldn’t feel this way, but dammit, was it so much to ask for that she at least got to keep her own body? That she was allowed to take that for granted?

Octavia dropped Vinyl’s mirror dismissively, took a deep breath, and then crossed the ocean of mess and exited Vinyl’s room. Whatever the hell had happened to her, she should go see Vinyl before anything else. Perhaps it was just a prank after all? Or perhaps Vinyl would miraculously know of a magical spell which could undo this? Reasoning that Vinyl would be in her own room, Octavia walked the short distance to her door and knocked on it.

“Vinyl?” asked Octavia softly, surprising herself slightly as she properly heard her voice for the first time. As was to be expected, it was Vinyl’s hoarse tone which came out, but it still felt odd to Octavia even though it logically made sense. “Are you in there?” Octavia added after hearing no reply. “I, um…I have something to show to you.”

“Hee…” Octavia strained her ears. That was Vinyl’s – well, her own – voice, giggling, wasn’t it?

“Vinyl?” asked Octavia. “May I please come in?”

“Hee hee…sure, Octavia!” called out Vinyl.

Octavia hesitated a moment, wondering what would be causing Vinyl to giggle, before pushing down the handle and entering her room. As always, it was clean, neat, and well-organised, with the few existing examples of mess being confined to small patches of the room. Just as Octavia had suspected, Vinyl – or rather, what she suspected was Vinyl in her own body – was in the bed. Vinyl was lying on her back with her eyes closed, still giggling under her breath. Every now and then, her body would twitch or shake, although why that was, Octavia couldn’t tell.

“Vinyl?” Octavia asked cautiously. “Is everything alright?” After a moment of no reply, Octavia added, “I don’t suppose you’re laughing because this is all some hilarious joke of yours gone horribly right, are you?”

“Ahh…oh, gosh, Octavia,” said Vinyl, rolling over and opening her eyes, so that she was facing Octavia. “I – ah, heh…” She snickered again. “Earth ponies sure are great, aren’t they, Octavia?” Vinyl finally got out.

“I beg your pardon?” asked Octavia.

“It sure isn’t a feeling a unicorn would understand, is it?” continued Vinyl. She was still lying on the bed, but she was rolling back and forth slightly in apparent joy. She had a large grin on her face, something which looked odd to Octavia (not because I never smile, she thought to herself. It’s because I’ve never seen my body from this perspective.)

“Vinyl, are you alright?” Octavia asked, raising an eyebrow in concern. She was beginning to suspect why Vinyl was in such a good mood, but didn’t want to be the first to raise it.

“Earth ponies really are great!” said Vinyl, giggling uncontrollably once more.

Octavia slammed a hoof into her face. “How about we just get you out of bed and let us talk about this?” she suggested wearily. She had barely been awake for five minutes and Vinyl was already driving her insane.

“Heh…sure, Octavia, if you say so,” said Vinyl, climbing out of bed, although not without Octavia giving her a helping hoof. The two ponies headed to their lounge room, ignoring breakfast for the time being in lieu of the more pressing problem.

“So…I don’t suppose you know anything about this little problem we have, do you?” Octavia asked.

Vinyl shrugged. “I’d say that it’s a spell of some sort, but how to get rid of it or why it’s targeting us? No clue.”

“Damn,” said Octavia. “I’m certainly out of ideas. In that case, what do you suppose we should do now?”

“First thing – we need new names, so that we can differentiate between each other!” declared Vinyl. “It means that it’s not confusing when describing bodies and minds!”

“But it’s just us here,” said Octavia, slightly confused. “And we know who is who. Who would be confused by this?”

“For example, you are?” continued Vinyl, having completely ignored Octavia.

“I suppose that I am myself, but in your body,” said Octavia, reluctantly deciding to humour Vinyl. “But since we know that it’s me – and again, it is just us here – you can simply refer to me as Octavia. Why wouldn’t that work?”

“Or… you could be Voctavia!” said Vinyl, holding out her hooves to her marefriend as if presenting her with something.

Voctavia gave Vinyl a look.

“Okay, see, I know it sounds dumb, but you’re yourself on the inside, but Vinyl on the outside, so that’s why it’s Voctavia,” explained the former unicorn. “Whereas I’m myself on the inside but you on the outside, so I guess that makes me…Octavinyl!” finished Octavinyl. “Won’t this be fun?”

“Please never call us those names again,” said Octavia. “May we please focus on the more serious matters?”

“Sure, sure,” said Vinyl. “Maybe you should cast a spell to see whether there’s any lingering magic in the air; see whether we can track the source of this?”

“Me?!” exclaimed Octavia. “Why do I have to cast the spell? I’ve never done magic in my entire life!”

“Yeah, but between the two of us, which is the one in the sexy unicorn bod- oh my gosh OCTAVIA!” exclaimed Vinyl, suddenly getting excited and jumping on the couch she had been seated on. “HAVE YOU EVER HAD ONE OF THOSE FANTASIES THAT YOU THOUGHT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN, BUT, BUT, BUT THEN THE OPPORTUNITY ACTUALLY COMES UP AND IT’S A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY AND-”

Vinyl’s excited speech was silenced as a pillow flew through the air and hit her in the face. “Hey!” her muffled voice came from behind it a moment before it fell to the ground. “I was in the middle of explaining my brilliant plan there!”

“Don’t even – Celestia, what was I thinking, going to you to discuss this maturely and sensibly?” sighed Octavia. “Of course you can’t be serious about this, because you can’t be serious about anything!”

Vinyl scowled - a look which was fitting given the body she was in. “Hey, excuse me for trying to make light of the situation. I’m just saying this crap to help stop us from getting too worked up about all this.”

“Sure, Vinyl, that’s what you say now,” growled Octavia. “But if I actually went along with one of your silly suggestions, you wouldn’t hesitate; you wouldn’t back out. You’d go the full mile with your zany scheme.”

“Don’t you ever, ever, imply that I wouldn’t put your safety and care above my own needs,” snapped Vinyl. “Just because I like to joke around doesn’t mean I don’t know when it’s appropriate to be serious!”

“Oh, and this isn’t an appropriate time, Vinyl?” replied Octavia. “We wake up in swapped bodies every other day of the week, hmm?”

“Hay, this might not be a great situation, but I’d rather this than having to deal with pirates, or the terrorists we accidentally joined, or, or, or ninjas!” Vinyl retorted. She paused after a brief moment of thought, her rage seemingly dissipated. “Or is it ninja?” She shook her head and cleared her thoughts almost immediately. “Look, whatever. The point is, we can get through this. We can deal with this; this isn’t something impossible where our lives are on the line.

“Are our lives inconvenienced? Hay yeah they are, this is flat-out freaky! But I reckon we can get through this like we get through everything else we get through, only even easier than usual since there’s less threat to us. So am I gonna goof around a little more? Of course I am! Because I know that I can afford to! Because I know that we will work as a team, and we will trust each other, and we’ll deal with this problem the same way we’ve gotten through everything else up to this point – by working together.”

Octavia was silent. She hadn’t considered it that way, but Vinyl was right. Compared to some of the other troubles the two mares had been through, swapping bodies was comparatively minor. In addition, it was nice to hear Vinyl’s words about working together. “I – you’re right, Vinyl,” she said. “Sorry.”

“S’all right,” said Vinyl. A moment later she added, “It hurts to have you not trust me to do the smart thing. Um…sorry for putting you in a situation where you feel you can’t trust me, by the way.”

Hearing that stung Octavia. She chose her next words carefully, not wishing to hurt Vinyl, but neither did she wish to lie to Vinyl to make her feel better. “I…I would like to trust you a bit more,” admitted Octavia reluctantly. “And I suppose that I should more than I currently do, should I not?”

To Octavia’s surprise, rather than Vinyl saying something arrogant or blasé, the former unicorn simply smiled, and said, “Only if you feel comfortable with it.”

If Octavia had been closer to Vinyl – sitting next to her, or laying across the couch and using her former body as a pillow – she would have kissed Vinyl at hearing that. As it was, she simply looked away slightly (were here cheeks heating up? Well, even if they were, it was always hard to see when Octavia blushed because of her dark f- wait, crap, I’m in Vinyl’s body!). “So, um, about this situation then…” said Octavia, attempting to re-rail the conversation.

“Oh yeah, the body swap thing! I bet it was those spirit zombies we fought yesterday that did it!” said Vinyl. “Or zombie spirits, whatever. Maybe both of them!”

“Hmm, now that you point that out, we certainly haven’t encountered strange magic like that before, at least not that I can recall,” commented Octavia. “What did they say before we rung the final bell in the temple, and cast them back to their former plane, again?”

“I totally remember this one – I took note of it because it sounded really weird,” said Vinyl, picking up the pillow Octavia had thrown at her earlier and placing it under her front hooves. “Something along the lines of… ‘Foolish mortals! You may have defeated us, but the stars tell that the harbinger of doom approaches you! But you will know him not, for he appears to you in the form of a friend, one whom you would never suspect after knowing for so many years! We shall enjoy watching him inevitably leading you to your doom…doom…doom’. That’s what his voice sounded like – it was fading away and being all echo-y.”

“Well, regardless, if they were boasting, one would suspect that they would have mocked us for this situation were they responsible for it,” suggested Octavia. “Although I do wonder whether there’s any merit to their final words. Are we expecting any old friends any time soon?”

“Only Natural Twenty tonight for dinner as far as I know,” said Vinyl, shrugging. “And we both know he’d never betray us or turn out to be evil.”

“Agreed,” said Octavia. “He’s such an excellent game master, and it shall be good to see him again.”

“Yeah, I’m looking forwards to cooking that soufflé for him,” agreed Vinyl. “I hope he likes – oh, crap,” she suddenly said.

“Vinyl?” asked Octavia, frowning. “What’s the matter?”

Looking at her hooves, and then displaying them to Octavia, Vinyl asked, “How am I supposed to cook something awesome for Natural Twenty with these blunt hooves?”

“Hay!” exclaimed Octavia. “My hooves may not be as precise as your magic, but that does not mean that they are blunt and useless.”

“Pfft. Watch this,” said Vinyl. Shifting her position backwards slightly, she touched a hoof to the pillow she had been lying on, and then lifted up her leg. She did this several times without explanation. “See? Can’t pick up anything properly. And if I use two hooves…” Attempting to pick up the pillow with her front two hooves, she was successful in her task, but fell forwards due to the lack of balance or support a moment later. “I don’t know how the hay you Earth ponies pick up things with one hoof all the time. Did I forget to put on your invisible magnetic horseshoes this morning or something?”

“Trade secret,” said Octavia mysteriously. “Anyway, given how much effort I understand you unicorns have to put into learning your magic, I fail to see why it’s inherently better than what every other species uses when we need to pick something up. It seems like a lot of effort for little payoff.”

“Well, yeah, I can see why you’d think that, but telekinesis is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to magic, baby,” said Vinyl. She was still struggling with the pillow, but it was more playful this time. “And even then, telekinesis can do all kinds of cool things – pick locks, break windows, create a distraction somewhere out of sight – you name it, it can do it!”

“I can’t help but notice that those are all tasks related to burglary,” commented Octavia drily.

“Says the former member of terrorist organisation COBRA,” countered Vinyl. In response, Octavia stuck her tongue out at Vinyl. “Anyway,” continued Vinyl, “the point is that magic is awesome! Try levitating…” Vinyl looked around the room for something Octavia could safely levitate, then spotted the perfect item. “Try levitating this pillow,” Vinyl suggested, pointing to it with a hoof. “If you can lift this up after I couldn’t with your silly hooves, you have to agree that magic is cooler than hooves.”

“Agreed,” said Octavia. “Though you will need to explain to me exactly what I am trying to do, and give me at least a few tries with the magic. That way, when I fail to do it you can’t say I didn’t give magic a fair chance.”

“Sure,” said Vinyl. “Levitation’s simple – there’s a reason most unicorns learn it, or a lumination spell, as their first spell. Now, all you’ve gotta do is concentrate on the pillow.” She shuffled backwards a bit to allow the pillow room to be levitated up once Octavia used her magic on it, which would definitely happen because magic was definitely better than silly Earth pony hooves. “Now, while you’re looking at it, do you feel a sorta… I dunno how to describe it exactly…tingle, in your horn?” Vinyl asked.

“…I think so,” said Octavia, concentrating.

“Cool,” said Vinyl. “Now, you know when you get pins and needles, and you focus on them to get rid of them faster?”

“Um…no?” asked Octavia, still trying to concentrate.

“Oh. Well, you know when you break a leg, and you use Zen techniques to ignore the pain and use it even better than before it was broken?”

“You’ve never broken a leg,” pointed out Octavia. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be doing exactly, and had her eyes scrunched up tight. Her tongue was sticking out slightly.

“True, but I’ve read up a lot on the theory,” said Vinyl. “Anyway, basically just, like, focus on the tingly thing, then think about the pillow moving a lot, and then the rest should come naturally!”

“Are you sure I should be able to do this?” asked Octavia. “I mean, young unicorns train a bit in using magic before they can do even properly, correct? I don’t think I can cast this spell on the first try like this.”

“Pfft, whatever. You’re in my damn awesome body; that thing’s got years of magical experience in it,” claimed Vinyl.

“Well…if you say so, Vinyl,” said Octavia. “I just concentrate on the pillow and think about moving it?”

“Yep! Easy-peasy,” said Vinyl.

The room was silent for a minute or two as Octavia concentrated on the pillow, as Vinyl had instructed her. A few times the pillow was surrounded by the magical aura from Vinyl’s horn, but nothing else happened. For her part, Vinyl didn’t mock Octavia or condescendingly suggest more tips; she simply sat back and hoped.

“This is impossible,” said Octavia, finally giving up. “Vinyl, I can’t do magic.”

“One more try?” asked Vinyl. “Then if you can’t do it after that, I’ll agree that hooves are better than magic.”

“Deal,” said Octavia after briefly thinking it over. Once more, she closed her eyes, focused on where she imagined the pillow to be, and concentrated on the slight tingle in her horn. She still wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be doing since Vinyl’s instructions hadn’t exactly been informative, but Octavia tried her best. A few times the tingle felt…more intense, somehow, and so she concentrated on that, and tried to imagine the feeling; to replicate it.

“Any luck?” asked Octavia, opening her eyes as she got a particularly intense tingle. Her jaw opened slightly in surprised as she saw what was happening – the pillow was, as she had wanted it to be, levitating in the air. For a moment she nearly lost her concentration, which would surely cause the pillow to drop again, but she managed to hold on and watch it. The pillow was only barely hovering above the couch, but as Octavia watched, it very slowly ascended vertically.

“Yeah! You go girl!” said Vinyl, cheering on Octavia.

“I’m – I’m doing magic!” Octavia said. In spite of the friendly argument she and Vinyl had had about the merits of hooves versus magic, she could honestly say she was happy with this outcome. She was doing a spell all on her own! How many Earth ponies could claim that? “Is it – do you think I’m doing well for my first time?” Octavia squeaked, which sounded strange in Vinyl’s voice.

“This is way better than the first time I managed to get a levitation spell working,” said Vinyl proudly. “Look how high it’s gotten!” The pillow had, by now, ascended quite high above the couch, and was nearing the ceiling.

“I’m not going to deny it, I am very pleased with this,” Octavia admitted. “You’re correct, Vinyl; magic is quite cool and efficient. How do I get it down?”

“Oh, just stop concentrating and it’ll fall,” tutored Vinyl. “It’s just a pillow, it won’t hurt anypony if it hits them.”

“Certainly,” said Octavia. She stopped concentrating on the tingle in her horn and the pillow in the air, and immediately the magical aura disappeared from both.

The lack of gravity affecting the pillow, however, did not.

“Um…is that usual for levitation spells?” asked Octavia after a few moments of both ponies staring at the pillow, still slowly ascending.

“Not to my knowledge,” said Vinyl. “Don’t worry though, I can get it down.” Standing on her hind legs and placing a front hoof against the back of the couch for support, Vinyl made her best attempt to swat down the pillow, but by now it was already out of reach. “Well, horseapples,” said Vinyl, collapsing back down to the couch, “now we have a pillow on the ceiling.”

“Do you think I should, you know, get it down?” asked Octavia hesitantly.

“Pfft, whatever. Knowing our luck you’ll just accelerate it and it’ll punch a hole through the ceiling,” said Vinyl. “Anyway, that was a nice little distraction, but that still doesn’t solve the problem of what I’m going to do about cooking for Natural Twenty.” Vinyl put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Unless…Octavia, how do you feel about me teaching you how to cook? You’re always saying how much you love my food, so this’d also mean that you could cook for yourself the few times I’m unable to, in addition to making some crap for Natural Twenty tonight.”

Octavia shook her head. “Sorry, Vinyl, but I have that interview today, remem- oh crap!” Octavia swore. She jumped from the armchair she had been sitting on and to the floor, panicking now. “I have the interview today and I completely forgot about it! How am I supposed to play the cello as – no, how am I supposed to explain what’s happened to the interviewers?! What will they think? What if they prefer my playing in your body and we need to find a way to swap bodies whenever I have a concert or practice with this group?!”

“Relax, Octavia, it’s all cool,” said Vinyl, getting up from the couch and stretching out. “I’ll just go to the interview in your place and pretend to be you since they’ll never know the difference. We swap bodies back before you get the job, and then you get your fancy schmancy new job with no problems.” Vinyl kicked a back leg once or twice to stretch it out properly, then seemed pleased with how her current body felt.

“Vinyl, darling, I appreciate the gesture, but you don’t know how to play cello,” Octavia said gently. “Recall what happened last time you tried?”

Visions of burning hot flames and smoke rose, unbidden, in Vinyl’s mind’s eye. “Those poor orphans…that new orphanage was going to be so big and comfortable for them…” Vinyl muttered, staring blankly into the distance. She shook her head slightly and said, “Right, well, uh, sure, last time wasn’t so great. But have you ever heard of a little thing called muscle memory?”

Octavia raised an eyebrow. “You mean…you think that you may be able to play the cello using the natural skills of my body? It didn’t exactly work when I tried casting that spell…”

“Hay, even I’ll admit that physical muscles are different to magical ones,” said Vinyl. “And I mean, you’ll give me a quick lesson in the time we have, right?”

Octavia thought about it. Unless she could miraculously return to her body before the interview, was she likely to find a better solution? “I suppose that is as good a plan as any,” she agreed. “And in turn, I shall attempt my best to prepare a meal for Natural Twenty – I take it you won’t mind giving me a few pointers before leaving for the interview?”

“Of course not!” said Vinyl. She walked over to Octavia and gave her a hug – something which felt very odd given that it was her own body she was hugging. “See, I told you that by working together we could do anything! You’ll teach me how to play the cello, I’ll teach you how to cook, and then by this evening we’ll be telling Natural Twenty how well everything in our day went. After all of that’s done with, we’ll have plenty of time to search for a way to return to our regular bodies!”

Octavia had already been returning Vinyl’s hug, so she gave an extra tight squeeze to her marefriend upon hearing that. “You are absolutely correct, Vinyl. Working as a team, we really can do anything!”

“Yeah!” said Vinyl, withdrawing from Octavia and holding out a hoof. Octavia immediately bumped it with a hoof of her own. Both mares simply stood that way for a few moments, smiling and basking in the fixes they’d found for what could have been a horrible time.

“This is all going to end in tears, isn’t it?” asked Octavia, suddenly deadpan.

“Oh, hay yeah,” said Vinyl, nodding sagely.

Comments

[Draco Loco]

Good to see they're not actually fooling themselves into believing nothing's going to go wrong.

[redsopine]

I love how tavi just deadpans that its gonna fail badly