Interviews With Equestrians

by Jmaster49

Subject 225: Octavia's Obstacles

In the third interrogation room with Octavia and Quick Draw…

Subject was a bit of a daze when she was first brought in. Nothing a little careful speaking can’t fix. Octavia was a pretty seasoned musician with a well-respected background. I couldn’t really imagine what Grogar could go after her for. After all, wouldn't you want to go for more, er, unstable individuals? Suri Polomare was the only logical choice here which made the mere idea of Octavia being under some sort of demonic possession even scarier.

But for the sake of her partner, Vinyl, I wouldn’t skimp out on my efforts to bring her back.

“Ahem. Ms. Melody,” I began, “Everything okay up there?” I pointed to her head. “You’re looking a bit worse for wear today. Did a concert performance keep you up for too long? Maybe some preparations that you didn’t get done in time?”

“Shut it, cretin,” the elegant mare snapped at me.

I paused, and took a second to blink. To say that her response caught me off-guard was a massive understatement. What exactly happened to her? “Erm...excuse me?”

“You heard me,” the gray mare turned her head away from me with a scathing glare, “It’s thanks to organizations like these that Vinyl is always putting her life in danger. I don’t understand why she feels the need to participate in something so dangerous.”

Ah...so that was it. Jeez, why did that sound so familiar? At any rate, I’d handle this with some good old-fashioned empathy.

“Ma’am, do you know why I have this job?” I asked, while I did my best to remain respectful.

“Why?” she asked.

I leaned forward with my hooves on the table. “Because I wanted to devote my own life to protecting others who couldn’t defend themselves. It’s because of agencies such as this one and SMILE that ponies don’t have to live in fear of being attacked in their sleep by unknown threats.”

For whatever reason, Octavia didn’t seem moved by this. Instead she doubled-down on her stance. “We live in a world where immortal ponies with near-infinite magic exist. Just how do we continuously run into enough situations that justify such tactics?”

That was something I couldn’t quite answer. Mainly because of how broad the question was. “I...look. There’s a lot that goes on in this world that we don’t understand. But just because you don’t doesn’t mean we all need to drop what we’re doing.” I sat back down, and thought over how to approach the rest of the subject with a bit more tact. “And besides, have you ever considered why Vinyl fights?”

“No...but why hasn’t she considered me?” the musician of a mare looked down at the floor, “I’ve constantly told her how dangerous it was and yet she still wants to risk her neck for ponies she doesn’t even know! You have to be honest and admit how ridiculous that sounds on paper. How can a regular pony with no sort of immortal safeguards really do such a thing? Isn’t that why the Elements have always been around?”

To a fault, she had a point. However…

“Listen. Sometimes, there are things that the power of friendship alone just can’t solve,” I replied, “There’s more to it than that. And if we don’t all band together to face this evil, then nothing would get done. Don’t you see?”

“...I want to hear it from her myself.”

I let out an exasperated sigh at that response. I could’ve sworn that I saw steam leave out of my nostrils but I took a deep breath. I knew that Octavia was under some sort of corruption and that it had to have amplified her deepest regrets into absurdity. There was no way she really thought these things...right?

“Fine,” I got up from the table, and went to the door. I looked down the hall to see the mare on the bench. “Hey VInyl. She’s ready to speak with ya.”

“...!” In a purple flash of teleportation, the white unicorn disappeared from her spot at the end of the hall and reappeared in the room behind me. “Thank goodness!” she cheered as she went over to hug her roommate, “I was gonna go crazy if they didn’t let me see you soon.”

“Or just...teleport right in, yeah,” I muttered under my breath and closed the door once more.

“Vinyl...why do you do all of this?” the gray mare asked with a stoic glare. “What do you hope to gain by laying your life on the line with every waking moment that you draw breath? Have you never considered how I’d feel if you were to die out there?”

Vinyl let her go and took a step back. “Haha...good one, Tavi,” she tried to play it off with an awkward laugh. But that didn’t fool me. I could see the beads of sweat roll down the sides of her face. “You know I do all this fighting for you. If I can’t come home to see your cute face then life isn’t worth--”

WOOSH!

“WOAH!”

The folding chair that Octavia sat in was suddenly flung across the room and directly at Vinyl! Luckily she was able to evade it in time with a quick duck of her head, but yeesh!

“Enough excuses!” she screamed, “If you won’t listen. Then perhaps a bit of persuasion will work…” Her eyes quickly changed to a shade of cherry red, and a pentagram appeared in front of her.

“NO!” I tried to charge at her, but it was too late.

With a clap of her hooves, it disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

I stopped dead in my tracks, and looked around. Nothing seemed to have changed. “Hrm...just what did she do…?”

“TAVI!” Vinyl raced over to her friend, and found her body limp and on the floor. “Stay with me. The exorcists are gonna be here soon! I swear!”

Joy. Now I was bombarded with issues from all angles. Think, Quick. Think.

Comments

[Neo4K]

I can gander a guess on the name of the next chapter: The Exorcism of Octavia Melody. 😁 Catchy, ain't it?