Vinyl and Octavia's Freaky Day

by DoctorSpectrum

Chapter Three: Tempest

“Alright, let’s try this from the start,” said Octavia, restraining a sigh. “Place the bow against the strings of the cello.”

“Like this?” Vinyl asked, adjusting her hoof to a different position to that it had been.

“Well…that’s a bit closer, yes,” admitted Octavia, “but try adjusting it so that the hair of the bow is against the strings rather than the shaft.”

“Oh, right!” said Vinyl. She adjusted her hoof again. “There we go. Am I ready to learn yet?”

Octavia studied Vinyl’s position, trying her best not to cringe. She succeeded this time, but it was a close call for a few seconds. “That’s definitely…progress, but the bow hair should be perpendicular to the cello strings, not the way that you have it.” Vinyl’s hoof was currently holding the bow out almost as though it were a sword, with the tip pointed in the same direction she was facing. With the advice Octavia had given her though, she readjusted so that it was finally in a vaguely sensible position.

“Cool,” said Vinyl. After a few seconds she said, “So, now am I ready to learn?”

“After one more change,” instructed Octavia, ignoring the groan that came from her former body. “You must stand up before you can begin playing the cello if you wish to look professional.”

“What? That’s stupid,” complained Vinyl. “I see celloists… celloers… cello players sit down and play all the time!”

“Since when?” asked Octavia, frowning in confusion.

“Sometimes I flick through your magazines when I’m bored,” said Vinyl, waving a hoof dismissively. “And if they’re allowed to do it, why aren’t I?” It was her turn to frown in confusion as a new thought occurred to her. “And for that matter, why don’t you sit down while you play the cello?”

“According to a public relations manager working for an ensemble I was once part of claimed, if I stand up during a performance, due to the overall aesthetic the crowd reacts something along the lines of forty percent more positively than they would have otherwise,” explained Octavia.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of,” said Vinyl bluntly.

“I completely agree,” agreed Octavia completely. “But as ridiculous as it is, ever since finding that out I have strived to perform upright as much as possible, in spite of the strain it puts on my legs, in the off chance that it really does help with the crowd’s opinion of myself and whichever group I am part of at the time.”

“Pfft,” scoffed Vinyl, “well, I still maintain you shouldn’t do it, but I know that you really want this job, so I guess that means that I’d better stand up if I’m going to be doing this audition later.” Holding the fingerboard of the cello with one hoof and the cello’s bow with another, as Octavia had taught her, Vinyl started to push herself up from the armchair she was seated in and into a standing position, but fell back almost immediately.

“Do you need me to balance the cello for you?” asked Octavia, moving around to the other side of Vinyl’s armchair.

“No…I, uh, I got this,” said Vinyl, pushing herself up. It seemed that once more she was going to fall backwards, but this time she managed to force herself forwards with a little momentum, and balance herself, even as her legs shook from the strain and attempts to balance herself properly.

“Alright!” said Vinyl confidently. “I really do have this! Now, what am I going to play? Whatchya gonna teach me, hot stuff?”

“Start off by placing your hoof on the furthest-most string, and slowly sliding the cello bow across the strings,” instructed Octavia. “I’ll teach you the notes first; that is the most important thing, after all.”

“Right, so I just –gyorg!” The moment Vinyl had begun moving the hoof holding the bow, the subtle shift in balance affected the rest of her weight enough that it was only moments before she was once more falling backwards and sinking into the armchair, Octavia’s cello following moments after. Fortunately, it was relatively unharmed by the incident.

“That was great! Let’s do that again!” said Vinyl enthusiastically, scrambling into a slightly more dignified position.

“Or perhaps we could take a break?” Octavia suggested weakly. “We’ve been at this for nearly an hour now and considering how long it took to teach you simply to hold the cello properly, I feel as though we may need a break for a short interlude.”

“You sure, pretty lady?” asked Vinyl, carefully placing Octavia’s cello out of the way in such a manner that it wouldn’t carelessly fall down the moment either pony looked away. “I know I’m kinda slow with this stuff, but I am trying to do my best for you. And it’s fun!”

Octavia knew that Vinyl was being honest when she said she was doing her best, and that was what made it so frustrating. She wanted – no, she needed – Vinyl to play the cello at her skill level, or at least close to it, if she wanted a chance of getting the job. But what more could she do than what she already was? What more could she ask of Vinyl? It wasn’t possible to force the former unicorn to learn everything quickly enough, and even if it were possible, Octavia wouldn’t have done it to Vinyl. So she was hoping that with a quick break, Vinyl’s mind would clear and she could hopefully pick up some of the basics a lot faster afterwards.

“It’s no problem at all, Vinyl,” said Octavia, her smile slightly more forced than she wished for it to be. “How about you teach me some of your cooking techniques? Then when you come back from successfully getting me the new job, you can be confident that the prepared meal for Natural Twenty will be equally succulent as if you had prepared it yourself.”

“Sure!” said Vinyl enthusiastically, jumping up from the armchair. “What do you want to cook?” she asked as she and Octavia slowly made their way into the kitchen.

“I sincerely doubt that I’ll have the skills to cook the soufflé as you wished to, so I suppose I should start with something smaller,” said Octavia after thinking over it for a few moments. “That way we should hopefully have a nice dessert prepared for Natural Twenty before you leave for the interview, and I can focus on dinner whilst you are out.”

“Yeah, I like that plan!” agreed Vinyl. “I mean, I’d rather you cook a soufflé for Natural Twenty so that we have something awesome to give him, but I trust you to cook something pretty great anyways for him. What were you thinking of?”

“Ha, you’ll have to try harder than that to get me to try a soufflé,” said Octavia. “And as to your question…how about I attempt that Black Forest Cake recipe of yours? It blows me away each time I eat it.”

“Sure,” said Vinyl. By now the two mares were in the kitchen, so she started opening cupboards (somewhat clumsily – she still hadn’t entirely gotten the hang of Earth pony hooves) and retrieving bowls and measuring cups. “Let’s spin this, baby!” said Vinyl, the phrase sounding slightly strange in Octavia’s voice.

“Naturally,” said Octavia. “Do you have a recipe book somewhere? I’m not sure whether I’ve ever actually seen you use one when cooking.”

“Pfft. And ruin a perfectly improvised meal?” Vinyl asked. “Where’s the fun in that?” Whilst Octavia had been neatly arranging the implements Vinyl had been retrieving, the former unicorn had been getting out ingredients now, and was haphazardly sliding them along the kitchen bench to Octavia.

“I would rather follow a recipe myself, but I shall trust your judgement,” said Octavia positively. “What do I begin with?”

“Throw some of that flour and sugar into a bowl…yeah, a little more than that…or do you think we could do with some more than that?” Vinyl instructed, casually looking over Octavia’s shoulder.

“I’m…not sure. I don’t wish to put in too much or the ratio of ingredients will all be off,” said Octavia, hesitating as she sifted flour into a bowl.

“So what? We put in too much now, at least later down the track we know we need to put in a bit more of other things to compensate, dig?” Vinyl said. “Now, add that cocoa powder in… yeah, that’s good that you’re mixing it together a bit. Don’t forget the baking powder!”

“…I think that was too much baking powder,” said Octavia, grimacing as she shook the container a little too much.

“Eh, who cares?” asked Vinyl. “Nopony’s perfect…and hey, Octavia?”

“Yes, Vinyl?”

“You got some flour in my mane! Get that crap outta there!”

Octavia blinked, a sudden, impulsive thought occurring to her, stopping her from saying the words she had been about to say. “Oh, you don’t like flour in your mane?” Octavia asked mischievously. “It would certainly be a pity then, if I were to do…this!” Holding a cup with a small amount of flour in it in one hoof, Octavia lightly threw it at her former body. Most of it missed, but a small amount floated through the air and, before Vinyl could react, hit her in the face.

“Urgh! Ptah! Ptah!” spat Vinyl. “What is wrong with you? This is your body!”

“So you don’t mind if I keep doing it?” asked Octavia, flashing one of Vinyl’s trademark grins back to the unicorn. She clumsily lifted a measuring cup into the air with Vinyl’s telekinesis and dipped it into the jar of flour which Vinyl had retrieved earlier.

“Aww, no fair, using glorious unicorn telekinesis!” complained Vinyl. She looked around for something similar to throw at Octavia, but gave up almost immediately as a better idea came to her. She dashed forwards to Octavia and wrapped her front hooves around her. “There’s only one thing left to do – hug you until you give up!”

“Argh! My one weakness!” Octavia laughed. As she returned Vinyl’s hug, her distracted mind released its grip on the measuring cup of flour, spilling it all over the kitchen bench, but she didn’t care one iota. All she cared about was returning her marefriend’s warm embrace as much as possible and showing how much she cared for Vinyl whilst speaking only the language of love.

Octavia pushed herself into Vinyl, nuzzling into her neck. It didn’t matter to her that it was her former body she was so joyfully embracing, only the mare whose mind was currently occupying it. Right now, Octavia didn’t care about the cake, or the body swap, or even the interview she was supposed to be preparing Vinyl for. She cared only about Vinyl being there, faithful as always. Where this sudden burst of passion had come from, she couldn’t say, only that she needed to express it to Vinyl in whatever way she could.

“Uh, not that I’m complaining, but we might want to get up from the floor,” said Vinyl, interrupting Octavia’s thoughts.

Octavia opened her eyes and blinked. She looked around her. When had she and Vinyl fallen to the floor to cuddle? It can’t have been very long; she had only been nuzzling her for a few brief moments. Or at least, that’s what it had felt like to Octavia. Well. It had felt too short, at any rate.

“I’m fine here,” said Octavia, pressing herself into Vinyl the small amount she was able to.

“Okay,” said Vinyl. There were a few moments of silence as Octavia continued her work, before Vinyl added, “Should we be doing this?” The question surprised Octavia.

“What do you mean?”

“Last night was…hectic,” said Vinyl awkwardly. “And we kinda haven’t talked about it, even though we said we would. So…is this just us not thinking things through and acting on our emotions?”

“Why do you ask?” Octavia asked after giving it some thought. She would be lying if she said that she didn’t think Vinyl had a point, and in any other situation, their roles would probably be reversed, with Octavia stopping the two ponies before they got too far. But with the mood she was in, she didn’t want to think about it. Somewhere in the back of her mind though, she wondered whether Vinyl often if not always felt the way she did right now, which would certainly explain some things about the unicorn.

“Because, well…I don’t want to hurt you by going along with something like this without thinking,” said Vinyl. “And I don’t want you to hurt me. It feels like…like there could be this horrible tempest, just waiting in the wings, ready to sweep us apart and away from each other, and if we don’t weather the storm properly, we’ll just be cast away from each other; lost in the typhoon forever.”

“That’s a terrible metaphor,” commented Octavia.

Vinyl jokingly punched her before continuing. “Well, whatever. That’s why I’m asking: what is this?”

It was a surprisingly mature question from Vinyl. Why were the two mares, who had had a large argument last night, now cuddling each other on a cold kitchen floor? Octavia went through a few answers in her mind, trying to work it out, before settling on the answer she should have known from the start.

“This,” she said softly, “is proof that we may not be as far apart as we think we are.” She tilted her head forwards and softly kissed Vinyl on the nose. “Perhaps we will be hurt if we go along with something like this…this cuddling and such. I won’t deny that. But I would rather take a chance and go with my feelings for a potential good thing than give up and turn my back on it to avoid being hurt.” She softly kissed Vinyl again, still not caring that it was her former body.

“I think…I think that I like that answer,” said Vinyl, stroking Octavia’s mane with a hoof. There were a few moments of silence between the two. “You’re very beautiful, you know,” said Vinyl.

Octavia chuckled. “You’re just saying that because I’m in your body right now, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Ha, no, although I see where you’re coming from,” said Vinyl. “I just think you have a very beautiful body. I should know; I’m occupying it right now.”

“Well then, thank you for the comment, Miss Scratch,” said Octavia, giving Vinyl another light kiss.

“Any time, Miss Philharmonica,” replied Vinyl softly.

Octavia’s breath caught. “Vinyl, you…you’ve never called me Miss Philharmonica before,” she said, stammering slightly.

“No,” said Vinyl, “I haven’t.” The former unicorn was still softly stroking Octavia’s mane, and in that moment, Octavia couldn’t think of anything more romantic.

“…I wish that my last name was Philharmonica, so that it meant something,” said Octavia after giving it a moment of thought.

“Mmm,” agreed Vinyl. Softly, slowly, she pressed herself away from Octavia. “C’mon, hot bod,” she said, yawning as she got up, “how about we get off this cold floor and get back to cooking?”

As much as Octavia wanted to pull Vinyl back down to the floor, or to complain, she could see the wisdom in Vinyl’s words, so she reluctantly pulled herself to her hooves (or rather, Vinyl’s).

“Right, well then,” said Octavia, attempting to regain her composure, “I’ve mixed most of the dry ingredients: what’s next?”

“Okay, so you’re going to want to grab that egg…”

===============================

Hesitantly, cautiously, Octavia placed an item down. It looked very out of place in the kitchen, but still, she had no time to worry about the effects of the item on the aesthetics of her home when its functionality was what mattered to her. “There,” she muttered under her breath to herself, “that should be the last one.”

As Octavia took a few steps back to admire her hoofiwork, she heard a thumping at the front door. Barely a moment after she registered the noise, the door burst open, revealing a pony wearing a…full-body hazmat suit?

“Um…hello?” asked Octavia after a moment of hesitation. “May I help you?” She had seen some strange things in her time, but this was something else. Who was this mysterious pony? Was it a door-to-door salespony, showing off a stylish new fashion? Was it a beekeeper, wearing and showing off a stylish new fashion? Or, worst of all, was it an assassin from the surviving remnants of COBRA, come to kill Octavia whilst disguised as a beekeeper who was showing off a stylish new fashion?

Without answering Octavia’s question, the pony reached up with a hoof and removed the suit’s bulky mask, revealing the occupant of the suit to be –

“Vinyl!” exclaimed Octavia. “What in Equestria are you doing in that…thing?”

“Well,” said Vinyl, sounding slightly nervous, “it’s a hazmat suit.” She stopped there and swallowed. Octavia made a gesture for her to continue. “And, y’know, it’s, um, kinda worn when necessary. Like when there’s radiation around?”

“Well, yes, that makes sense,” said Octavia. “But why would you be wearing it? Actually, wait, I have a much more important question: how did my interview go?”

“Er…” Vinyl looked around, as though worried that a COBRA assassin disguised as a stylish beekeeper was going to leap out of the shadows and throttle her. “Would you believe that both those questions are related?”

Octavia went it over in her head. “Wait, are you saying -?”

“Yes.”

“B-but surely your cello playing isn’t that bad-”

“That’s what I thought, too,” said Vinyl sadly, “but…yeah, it, uh, turns out that I was wrong.”

“W-well then,” said Octavia, taken aback slightly but attempting to maintain her composure, “thank you regardless for your attempt at…” She trailed off without noticing, before unexpectedly saying, “Radiation? Really?”

“I tried,” said Vinyl sheepishly. “Although I think considering what I was up against, I didn’t do too bad- what the hay?!” Vinyl exclaimed as she walked into the kitchen. “Octavia, darling, I don’t want to alarm you, but there are friggin’ bear traps all over the kitchen!”

“Ssh!” said Octavia, grabbing Vinyl and ushering her away from the kitchen. “Don’t say it too loudly, or it will hear you!”

“What will?” asked Vinyl, slowly removing the hazmat suit as she spoke.

“Well, you remember how before you left, you told me that the secret to making a good meal was to improvise with whatever you have around?” Octavia said, her turn to be sheepish. “I followed that advice and I um, ended up somewhat opening a portal to the Dark Dimension,” she said, her voice mumbling towards the end.

“Uh, what?” asked Vinyl, frowning.

“Never mind the details, the important thing is that I’ve started some damage control,” said Octavia, waving a hoof. “By the way, do you know where we can buy…” She ran her hoof over the page of a book open on the kitchen bench for a moment before finding what she was looking for. “…bloodstones?”

“What?!”

“I’m not quite sure what they are, but according to this book I hastily borrowed from the library, we’ll need them if we want to seal the portal,” Octavia explained.

“Lucky for you I have a few bloodstones in the cupboard,” muttered Vinyl, “and no, I won’t say why.” She went into the kitchen, edging carefully around the bear traps, and opened up a cupboard. “I keep them right here, next to the – hey! Where did the bloodstones go?”

“We already have bloodstones?” asked Octavia, a few steps behind. “I didn’t see any in there when I was arranging the glacé cherries on the – oh,” she said, the truth dawning on her. “I think I know how I opened the portal now.”

“You put bloodstones on top of a cake?!” Vinyl exclaimed. She followed it up with a groan and a facehoof. “Please tell me that you at least didn’t arrange them in any sorta specific pattern.”

“Only the pattern that the whispering voices from another, older, place told me to put them in,” Octavia explained, her voice taking on an odd tone and echo. “Although now that I think about it…that might have been my own voice, whispering of its own accord. I’m not quite sure; my memory of the past few hours is a bit hazy. Still, hopefully we should be able to – Vinyl?” Octavia had just noticed Vinyl’s expression, a moody and sullen one. “Vinyl? What’s on your mind right now?” Octavia asked.

“Oh, nothing,” sighed Vinyl. “I was just remembering the days when I would come home and not only be inside my own body, but not have eldritch abominations summoned into my kitchen which I’d have to deal with because my marefriend didn’t think.”

“I didn’t think?” Octavia asked. “With due respect, Vinyl, that’s a bit rich coming from you.” She didn’t want to get into an argument with Vinyl again, but at the same time, she didn’t like Vinyl’s blunt criticism, and was trying to gently point out Vinyl’s hypocrisy.

“Hay, I may make dumb decisions, but at least I deal with the fallout on my own,” said Vinyl dismissively.

“Since when?!” exclaimed Octavia. “And how is placing bear traps around the kitchen not a solution?”

“What the hay is wrong with the situation when placing bear traps around the kitchen, a place where bear traps are not traditionally found, is the solution?!” retorted Vinyl. The former unicorn was, by now, standing on the opposite side of the kitchen bench to Octavia, leaning with her front hooves on it. She somehow felt more comfortable with a large physical object between her and Octavia.

“Maybe it wouldn’t have come to this if you hadn’t been storing your bloodstones – whatever the hay those even are – in our kitchen cupboard!” countered Octavia. “Have you ever mentioned that to me? Because I sure don’t recall so!”

“I didn’t mention them because I didn’t think I’d need to,” Vinyl growled. “And I still wouldn’t have needed to if I hadn’t been doing your stupid interview for you.”

“Yes, thank you for that, Vinyl,” Octavia said. “Thank you for taking my cello, and somehow using it to – hay, wait a minute! Where is my cello?”

Vinyl’s anger dissipated in an instant and was replaced with a somewhat more awkward look.

“Vinyl,” Octavia stated, all emotion drained from her voice, “if anything has happened to that cello, I do not know what will happen, but rest assured, it will make everything that…that that thing I accidentally summoned into our oven has done look trivial by comparison.”

“Has it even actually done anything?” Vinyl asked.

“Well, no, not yet,” admitted Octavia, emotion flowing back into her. “Although one of its tentacles attempted to drag me into an abyss it created by slicing through several different dimensions.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” agreed Octavia. A moment later, her voice was once more cold and indifferent as she asked, “Vinyl, where is my cello?”

Vinyl sighed. “Octavia, I’m really sorry. I was going to tell you at a more appropriate time, but…in the maelstrom of chaos that I accidentally released when I first touched the bow to its strings, the cello…it was destroyed.”

Octavia was silent.

“I’m…I’m so, so, sorry, Octavia. I- I knew I shouldn’t have gone to the interview as you in the first place, but I- I’m sorry, I know it must be a family heirloom or, or-”

“Actually, I’ve only had that cello a few years,” interrupted Octavia. “I think I bought it a little before I met you, as a matter of fact.”

“Oh. Not a family heirloom?” asked Vinyl. Octavia shook her head. “Oh, huh, if you’d asked me I would have pictured…does this mean that you’re not annoyed at me?” she asked hopefully.

“Of course I’m bloody annoyed!” Octavia shouted. “Just because I- no, I’m not explaining this to you; you should know better.” Her breath caught as she seemed prepared to add more, but after a moment of hesitation, she turned away from Vinyl and stormed off.

“Octavia?” Vinyl asked awkwardly.

“I’m going to my room, Vinyl!” called out Octavia. “Don’t disturb me!” A door slammed, punctuating the sentence.

“…That’s my room, Octavia,” Vinyl called out, even though she knew Octavia wouldn’t react well to what she perceived as Vinyl pointing out her mistake.

“What’s the difference at this stage?” muttered Octavia to herself without thinking as Vinyl’s words reached her. She was lying on Vinyl’s bed on her back, facing the ceiling, but after a moment of contemplation, she rolled over and put her face into Vinyl’s pillow, doing her best to muffle out the sounds and sensations of the world, and experience naught but her emotions.

Octavia didn’t know what she wanted to feel right now. Logic dictated that she should want to feel happy, but you couldn’t feel happy continuously, right? So what other options were there? Being angry at Vinyl felt wrong, no matter how right Octavia felt about her stance, and her feelings hadn’t quite crossed over into disgust at the former unicorn yet.

That meant that Octavia felt…sad, yes, that felt about right. Sad that she had let herself get angry over something stupid like her cello, which she had been planning to replace soon anyway. Sad that she had screwed up and made Vinyl angry at her. Sad that after a fun time cooking together things were still falling apart. Yes, the more Octavia thought about it, the more things she found that made her sad.

Where had it all gone wrong with Vinyl? Things had started out so simply between them, and evolved so beautifully…Octavia began to go over some of her memories with Vinyl from the very first time they had met, but then remembered that she hated clip shows, and so stopped thinking such thoughts. But still, that didn’t stop her from remembering the main beats of the story she and Vinyl had shared together.

Thinking that Vinyl was an idiotic, selfish pony who cared only about herself. Hearing Vinyl call her by her proper name for the first time. Agreeing to move in with Vinyl, and then several months later, going out drinking with Vinyl, because she secretly didn’t want to disappoint the unicorn. Kissing Vinyl for the first time on that boat. Fighting ninjas (or was it ninja?) to save Vinyl, even as she realised how she felt about the unicorn. Going on a date with Vinyl for the first time, and then the two of them mutually agreeing to start dating several days later.

Yes, Octavia had formed many wonderful memories with Vinyl. They had been through thick and thin, they had been through highs and lows, and after all of that, they had still stuck together. So why were things falling apart now of all times? Why weren’t things getting better? Somewhere, deep inside her, Octavia knew that with the way things were going, she should probably prepare to dump Vinyl and move onwards, abandoning their relationship as a lost cause. It was the logical thing to do, and it pained Octavia to think so.

Octavia didn’t want to break up with Vinyl; she just wanted to push through this rough patch and have everything return to the status quo. Even as she thought that, though, she knew that breaking up with Vinyl was probably the smarter option in the long run. Did she realistically see herself and Vinyl working things out, with the way things had been between them for the past few days? Octavia wanted to say yes, but there were times where she wondered what she even felt towards Vinyl on days when the two of them weren’t arguing. Wouldn’t it be better for Vinyl if they broke up now rather than attempting to make something that couldn’t work, work? Even…even if Octavia didn’t feel like it was what she wanted to do.

“Octavia, you idiot,” she mumbled into the pillow, “why did you have to fall in love with such a stupid pony?” Why did you have to fall in love at all…for this much pain, was it all worth it?

It took her a while, but slowly, eventually, Octavia rolled over and sat up in bed. She felt very dazed, as though she were piloting Vinyl’s body via remote control. She wasn’t going to just barge into Viny’s (her) room and break up with the mare – especially not whilst she was in possession of Vinyl’s body - but she could at least patch things up between the two ponies as they were now so that it wouldn’t come as such a raw shock to Vinyl.

“It’s for the best,” sighed Octavia to herself as she caught herself procrastinating, “it’s not as though Vinyl will even care. She’ll be with some other pony within a week, and it will be somepony who actually likes drinking, and being silly, and mares with great manes…” Octavia got up from the bed and stepped into the pile of debris surrounding Vinyl’s floor. It was time to kick start the beginning of the end.

But then, Octavia noticed something. Something she had found earlier that day, but which hadn’t fully caught her attention at the time. In the swath of mess that comprised Vinyl’s floor, Octavia had spotted a small, spiral-bound notebook, which she vaguely recalled tossing aside that morning whilst looking for Vinyl’s mirror. What she hadn’t noticed at that time was the hastily scrawled note on the cover of the book – My Diary.

Octavia stared at that diary for several long minutes, unsure what to do. She knew it would be invading Vinyl’s privacy to read it – not for a second did she think that just because she was in Vinyl’s body, it automatically gave her access to Vinyl’s privacy – but her curiosity was urging her to read it. Go on, read it, it said to her. Find out what she really thinks of you. Find the pages where she says that she’s never truly loved you, or that she’s only been sticking through this all recently because she feels sorry for you. It’ll make everything easier when you break up with her.

Swallowing her guilt, Octavia slowly reached down with a hoof and picked up the diary. It makes sense to start at the beginning, I suppose, she thought. Opening the cover as she sat down on the bed, Octavia began reading Vinyl’s innermost thoughts.

Thursday. Got back from the Amarezon Jungle last night, and hay, guess what, Diary – I totally got that treasure for my dad! It turned out to be a flower, which kinda explains its supposed healing properties. With a bit of luck, it can save him from that mysterious disease he inexplicably caught. If it doesn’t…welp, guess I should have looked for a proper cure, which… yeah, no, that’ll be kinda crappy. Let’s not think about that.

But hey, want to know the cool thing about the Amarezon trip, Diary? Other than getting the flower, I also totally met this pony called Tavi. Whoops, that is to say, Octavia. For some reason she prefers to go by her full first name, which is weeeeeiiiiirrrrd. But yeah, I totally suckered her into coming with me to find the flower, and even though she was a bit stuffy at first, she turned out to be really cool! She knew all of this cool stuff for surviving in the jungle, and she adjusted surprisingly well. She said she lives here in Canterlot, so maybe I’ll see her some time? She didn’t give me her address, but I wonder whether she’s registered with the public records office.

Oh man, and the other weird thing about the Amarezon – there was this weird pegasus guy there who called himself – get this – Baron von Darkhoof! What the hay kinda name is that? Anyway, luckily that’s the last I’ll ever see of him, because…

Octavia flipped through a few pages, seeing nothing else in the current entry that piqued her curiosity after a quick scan. She randomly stopped a few pages further along, and decided to try reading another entry.

Thursday. Hey Diary, you remember how I said Octavia’s been acting weirdly recently? Well it’s hit the epitome of weirdness recently, because get this – not only did she actually come out drinking with me last night, which I was totally expecting her to try and get out of, but at the end of the night we…well, I know how dumb this sounds, but we kinda…slept together?

Not in like, a sex way – which is good, because I’m pretty sure I’m not into mares – but she said that she wanted me to sleep with her – while she was drunk off her hooves, of course – because it was cold and stuff, and then we just sorta cuddled and stuff. So yeah, that was really unexpected. Though even as I say that, I guess that when you’re drunk, you’re kinda less inhibited, so she did just kinda want me to cuddle with her? Wait, does that mean that she wants to cuddle with me more often? That…okay, I’d be lying if I said that I disliked cuddling with her, but that’s kinda…I dunno. It should feel weird, but instead it feels kinda like a, ‘Yeah, whatever, I’d be up for that if you asked, but I won’t prompt you’-type thing, if that makes sense. Huh. I’m not sure whether I realised that until I wrote it just then, Diary. Well. Maybe I’ll flirt with her a bit more – jokingly, natch – and see how she reacts to that.

Well, that doesn’t surprise me as much as it should, thought Octavia to herself. She knew that Vinyl cared about her, or at least tried to, but it fit the former unicorn’s personality perfectly to just flirt with Octavia at times for laughs. Very classy, Vinyl, thought Octavia. She flipped a few diary pages ahead.

Thursday. So, last night went pretty well, yeah. My set went pretty well, and Hypno Hustler’s one following was pretty good from what I heard of it. It was also pretty And then of course ninjas – or is it Celestia damn it all

So, uh, Diary, you remember when I said I kissed Octavia and I pretended that I didn’t like it but her lips kinda felt soft and nice? And how I said I was feeling bad last week because she was hanging out with some friends and I wasn’t invited even though I sorta didn’t want to be there?

Diary, I…I kinda think that I might like Octavia? Or even…could it maybe be love? We were fighting ninjas and it kinda looked like we might die – again – and just…knowing that Octavia might die felt, like, bad. Not just the sort of badness that I’d feel if it was one of my other friends, or even the sort of badness that I felt when I heard that dad was sick. Just this…utter wrongness, you know? And think that the reason I feel that is because I like her.

Celestia, I don’t know what to do. Does Octavia like mares? Does she notice me as more than just a friend? I just really want to go and ask her out and have her say yes, but I feel this…argh, there’s no damn way that she’ll say yes! And if she says no, which she will, then great, now I’ve got this crush on my housemate, who won’t want to live with me any more when she realises how awkward things will be between us after she says no screw this

Diary, if my writing today feels kinda ramble-y, it’s because I’m finding it kinda hard to think. I just – I know what I want, and it’s to be with Octavia. Dammit. I suppose I’d better go ask her out so I find out. No more procrastinating. Right now. No, now. After this sentence. Actually, after this entry, yes.

I just Dammit, this is so scary. I act like such an idiot around her, and I guess I act dismissive towards her (hey, look at who’s the armchair psychologist now) because that’s what I’ve always done with people I’ve gone out with, and hay, even my fans, to an extent. Vinyl Scratch: always on the move, because if I stop and stay in one place for too long, I might get attached, or hurt, and I can’t let that happen because – well, just because I’ve never been dumped, it doesn’t mean that I don’t see how much it hurts the other pony. I dunno. Is that a stupid reason? I guess if I want to go out with Octavia I should act a bit more serious around her, but…it’s scary, is all. I want to tell Octavia so badly how I feel about her, but I guess that even if this miraculously works out, it’s something I’ll have to ease into.

There was some more to the entry, but Octavia’s eyes were glazing over as the words as her mind processed the emotions she was feeling. Vinyl was…scared? All of this time? All those times she’s done something stupid, or been dismissive…it’s just her way of helping to protect herself? It was a strange emotion that Octavia was feeling, although confusion certainly came close to it.

Vinyl had been scared of asking out Octavia, and if this entry was still true, to an extent, then Vinyl was still scared of being hurt. Octavia had never considered that, but upon reading this entry, it felt like it all made sense. What’s more, it made Octavia not want to break up with Vinyl. It made Octavia want to stay with Vinyl forever.

“Vinyl was scared, but she still asked me out,” whispered Octavia to herself, voicing her thoughts out loud. And I… I may not be pleased with how things have been between us recently, but I think that I understand her a bit better now. Octavia had made her decision. She wasn’t going to make a guarantee that she and Vinyl would definitely stay together forever – that would be stupid – but she could sure as hay do her best to get through this –what had Vinyl referred to it as? A tempest? – this tempest with her marefriend.

Leaving Vinyl’s room, still feeling a bit dazed, Octavia walked out to the kitchen, hoping that Vinyl was still there. Unsurprisingly, she wasn’t, and so Octavia headed to the next natural place that Vinyl would be: her own room.

Getting no response when she knocked on the door, Octavia slowly opened the door. “Vinyl?” she asked softly. All of the lights were off, and the room was dark. “Vinyl?” Octavia asked after not getting a reply. It was hard to see in the darkness, but it didn’t look as though Vinyl was anywhere in the room.

Octavia nearly jumped into the air in surprise when she heard a vague, low noise coming from the bed just as she sat on it. Squinting in the darkness, it took Octavia a moment to realise that Vinyl was currently lying under the covers, with the blanket over her head. “Vinyl, are you feeling alright?” Octavia asked. Another quiet noise came from the bed, which once again was indecipherable. “Hang on a minute, Vinyl, I’ll join you,” said Octavia. “Maybe I’ll be able to hear you better then.”

Lifting up the cover, Octavia crawled under it, where sure enough, she found Vinyl lying on her side, facing away from Octavia. “You’ve been drinking, haven’t you?” Octavia asked, smelling the strong aroma of alcohol below the cover.

“Sorry,” mumbled Vinyl. There was the sound of liquid moving around, and Octavia realised that Vinyl was still drinking.

“You have nothing to apologise for, Vinyl,” said Octavia, shifting her body closer to the former unicorn. After a moment of hesitation, Octavia wrapped her hooves around Vinyl as best she could.

“Y-yes I do, Octavia,” said Vinyl. Her voice was very shaky, and she was talking slowly. It looked like she had gotten quite drunk, which was impressive given both the amount of time that had passed and how resilient Octavia’s Earth pony body normally was to alcohol. “I screwed up everything as – as usual, and I made you angry, like I always do, and then I…” Vinyl went silent for a few moments. “Can you leave me alone? I’m…I’m not feeling good.”

“No, I said that you don’t have anything to apologise for, Vinyl, and I am not just saying that to make you feel better,” Octavia said sincerely. “I’m always getting angry at you over little things, even when you haven’t done anything wrong. I – I’m sorry if that makes you feel inadequate, or scared. I don’t mean to make you feel that way.” Octavia softly kissed the part of Vinyl’s body that her mouth was nearest to, which in this case was a shoulderblade.

“…Thanks,” said Vinyl after a few moments of silence. “I, uh…what got you thinking this?”

Octavia hesitated. This could be awkward. “I…I read your diary, Vinyl,” admitted Octavia, “and I am sorry for it. I don’t have any sort of excuse for why I did other than my curiosity. But regardless, I read a bit about your feelings, and now that I have, I think that the problem has never been you. I think the problem has always been my misunderstanding your way of expressing your feelings.”

“Maybe I’m just bad at expressing my feelings to you,” said Vinyl, although her tone was a little more light-hearted than before.

“Well then, that is my fault for not being able to see through to what you’re properly attempting to say,” said Octavia. “I apologise. And I apologise if I’ve ever made you feel awkward or uncomfortable or…or anything else along those lines.”

There were a few moments in which Vinyl began to process these words, and then, slowly, she rolled over, so that she was facing Octavia. “Really?” she asked softly.

“Of course,” said Octavia. “Though I won’t deny it’s a little unsettling that you don’t believe me immediately.”

Vinyl laughed then, a rich, hearty thing. Being in Octavia’s body when she did so, it sounded different to one of her usual laughs. It felt nice to Octavia, and she hoped there was some way she could get Vinyl to laugh that way in the future once they went back to their original bodies.

How long the two mares lay there for, neither could say. It felt like hours, even though all that they were doing was lying there and occasionally kissing, or stroking the other’s mane. But that was all that they needed. Without words, they had reached an understanding. They had made it through the roughest part of the tempest and would be fine after all.

Eventually, Vinyl reluctantly pushed Octavia away from her, stretched, and got up. “Man, not that this isn’t great, but you know what would make this even better?” she asked, her voice still slightly slurred from the alcohol.

“Oh – no, Vinyl, not now – maybe later tonight..? ”

“Oh, no, not that,” said Vinyl as she picked up a bottle that had fallen over and spilled some of its contents onto the bed. “No, I was thinking, it’d be great if we were back in our original bodies again, eh?”

“Definitely so, although it has certainly been a bit of a learning experience for the two of us,” said Octavia. “It’s as they say – walk a mile in another pony’s horseshoes before judging them. Perhaps we wouldn’t have been able to make up like this if we hadn’t swapped bodies.” She nodded once, pleased with her assertion.

“The hay are you talking about, babe?” asked Vinyl. “If we hadn’t swapped bodies, I wouldn’t have had to go to your interview, so I wouldn’t have broken your cello, so you wouldn’t have gone to my room and found my diary. That has nothing to do with experiencing stuff as each other, it’s just a bunch of random crap that happened as a result of us switching bodies.”

“Eh, close enough,” said Octavia, waving a hoof. “I wonder what caused us to swap bodies, though? We never found out.”

“Who cares?” Vinyl said, lying back down in bed and putting a hoof around Octavia. “I’ve spent – what, a day or something? – as you, and even though it’s interesting to see how you Earth ponies experience things, I’m kinda ready to go back to my body.”

“Myself too,” said Octavia, yawning as a sudden bout of tiredness hit her body, “although I must say, having telekinesis is fun. Until we swap back, I could…could… I could get used to this…” Octavia’s voice drifted off as everything went black, and she lost consciousness.

Barely a moment later, Octavia opened her eyes, her loss of consciousness apparently already over. Although a side effect of it seemed to be that she was feeling light-headed. “That was…odd,” said Octavia, slurring slightly. “Vinyl, did I just fall unconscious for a moment? And…did you swap positions in the bed with me?”

“Aargh!” shouted Vinyl , attempting to literally leap out of the bed with joy, but getting tangled in the sheets and falling flat on her face. “It worked! I dunno what did, but it did! We’re back in our original bodies!”

“What?!” Even though Octavia had been staring at Vinyl directly – the unicorn back in her original body, as she had stated – it wasn’t until Vinyl said that that Octavia realised what had apparently happened. Looking down at her body, she confirmed that, yes, she really was herself again. “But…what caused this? Was it something we’re unaware of, or something we said, or –” Octavia gasped as she realised what it was. “It was the understanding! You realised that you had understood how it was to be me, whilst I realised how things were from your perspective! And just then, when we talked about it, it somehow triggered the switch back!”

“I dunno, really?” asked Vinyl. At the moment, she was levitating random objects in Octavia’s room for the sheer fun of it. “That sounds dodgy as hell to me.”

“I don’t see how it could be anything-”

“Even a devil may cry when he loses a loved one,” Vinyl read out from a random piece of paper as she levitated it past her head.

“ – else than – oh, that’s just my fortune from last night,” Octavia said.

“Yeah, I thought I’d heard it before. Did you see this stuff on the other side though?” Vinyl asked, hovering the paper through the air to Octavia. “I sure didn’t.”

“Huh. I wasn’t aware that it was double-sided,” Octavia said, taking the paper in her hooves.

“Well go on, read it out!” said Vinyl. “Don’t leave us hanging!”

“Congratulations! You are one of ten lucky winners to have won one of Lucky Fortune’s Authentic Ancient Spells®! You will swap bodies with the next pony whose eyes you look into, twelve hours after looking into their eyes,” read out Octavia.

“WHAT?!” Vinyl exclaimed.

“Wait, there’s more. This body swap shall last for twelve hours. Please make the most of it, and don’t forget that for legal reasons, you must tell the pony of the spell when you look into their eyes! Otherwise you could get sued!”

“That’s the stupidest thing in Equestria!” Vinyl shouted. “We swapped bodies because of a random lottery draw?!”

“I don’t know, Vinyl,” said Octavia, “as we said, it was good to experience- WAIT A MINUTE, I COULD HAVE POSTPONED THE INTERVIEW IF I’D KNOWN THAT DAMN THING WOULD WEAR OFF! DIE, INFERNAL PAPER!” As furiously as she could, Octavia ripped up the piece of paper into tiny bits. She then stood there for several moments, panting slightly as she watched the scraps of paper, as though they would leap up and attempt to cast the spell on her and Vinyl again. Vinyl had backed away slightly, rarely having seen this side of Octavia, and unsure how to react as a result.

“Well then,” said Octavia sweetly after a few moments, when her breathing had returned to a more normal rate, “it’s fairly late, and we haven’t heard from Natural Twenty yet. Shall we go rescue him from the eldritch abomination in the kitchen?”

Comments

[henke37]

Huh? This isn't complete? Well, it doesn't really matter to me if the story continues in a new chapter or in a new erm... story.