Truth

by shawnay631

Chapter Seven

The silence was deafening. That is, if you could call it silence. Vinyl Scratch's heartbeat seemed to be obliterating itself in her ear cavity. The moment seemed to last longer than any other moment in Scratch's life. She felt that the nervous heat emanating from the blush on her face could power a small city.

Scratch hadn't looked Octavia in the eye for some time now. She had no idea what her reaction was. Sure, most ponies in Equestria were tolerant and loving, but not all were. If Scratch saw Octavia's face full of hate it would destroy her. Reluctantly, she looked up into those perfect lavender eyes. To her relief, Octavia didn't seem angry. She looked like she hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary, and just wanted Vinyl to continue with her story.

"Okay? Then what?"

Scratch cocked an unsure eyebrow. "You're not mad at me? You don't want to throw me out of a fiery pit into a more better fire-ier pit? Full of manticores to destroy me and bunny rabbits that will cute me to my demise?"

Octavia laughed at Vinyl's preposterous ideas.

"What does it matter to me who you like? It doesn't affect me one way or another. This ex-filly friend thing, though, I am quite curious about. Who is this ex of yours?"

Scratch's heart soared high into the sky. So high, in fact, it was probably looking down on the Wonderbolts. She had goofy grin to match her light heart, as well. She felt free, as if she could bare her soul to Octavia and Octy wouldn't bat an eye. After a long moment contemplating their interesting relationship, she shrugged.

"Before I start, I'm going to need a glass of rum and an explanation from you."

Octavia cocked her head to the side, her face curious. "Explanation of what?"

"Why do you get so defensive about talking proper? Why do you do it at all?"

"I am a lady and a lady is proper." Octavia shoved her nose into the air and huffed in jest.

"Well, I am a lady and that is not good enough." Scratch snorted, amused.

"I would hardly call you a lady, Vinyl."

"What?! I am the ladiest of ladies. I'm such a lady, the princess takes proper lady classes from me!"

Octavia couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped from her mouth. "I'm certain I've met rocks more proper than you."

"I've met some pretty fancy rocks, Octy! Some of them speak that Frenchy language thing! Now THAT is fancy! You know what's not fancy? Carrying a giant monster on your back that you use to punish those around you with your so called musi-"

Scratch was cut off by a speeding pillow colliding with her muzzle and knocking her to her back. She looked up to see Octavia standing over her, smiling, with another pillow in range.

"This is a fight you don't want to start."

"You said don't agai-"

Octavia laughed as she silenced Scratch with another pillow. Octavia looked down at her fallen enemy, beaming and proud. The white unicorn entertained the idea of a surprise pillow attack, but just enjoyed Octavia being so close to her. And so dominant. Scratch shook her head clear of thoughts that she really didn't need to be having.

"I will neither confirm nor deny that I speak properly when I am in the company of those I don't know. I will also neither confirm nor deny that I am comfortable enough around you to be a little less… proper. Though, perhaps it is you corrupting a poor and innocent pony like myself."

Scratch roared with laughter. "Yeah, you're so poor and innocent that you picked a fight with the biggest badass in all of Equestria."

"… Says the pony lying on her back."

"BOOM!"

Before Octavia could question Scratch's random outburst, she was pegged square in the face with a pillow. And then another. And another. The sudden onslaught caused Octavia to melodramatically fall to the ground and crawl behind the arm of her couch, out of Scratch's reach. Both mares were giggling with the excitement and joy of school fillies. Octavia poked her head out into the clearing but quickly retracted when a pillow came shooting past.

"Have you had enough, oh master of the stringed monster?"

"I will never cease fire! It is you that will fall to the ground in agony!" Octavia shouted, still pinned against the side of the couch.

"Oh, we'll see about that. This DJ is about to pwn three! Uh… wait. Hold on. That was going to sound a lot cooler."

Scratch tip-hooved towards the side of the couch, trying to throw her voice behind her so Octavia wouldn't get suspicious. She got inches away when a grey blur came jumping from behind the arm of the couch and grabbed her. The two somersaulted backwards with Octavia ultimately landing on top of Scratch, holding her forelegs together tightly. Scratch squirmed but Octavia's grip was vice-like and refused to budge. Finally, Scratch decided to just enjoy the moment and try to make the contact between the two last. She was more than a little excited that Octavia was sitting on top of her, even if they were at pillow war.

"You're stronger than I gave you credit for, Octy."

"Yes, well, I don't mean to brag but my lifestyle has worked my muscles quite nicely."

Oh, I can work those muscles… I mean what.

Scratch's face flushed a little having caught herself before actually saying anything. In Scratch's life, there had been more than once when she had said something out loud when she didn't want to. Like the time she told Chad Kroger that if he ever started a band, it would be the worst band in the history of existence, record far too many albums that all sound like the same terrible song, and probably bring everypony together in their hatred of the band. Unfortunately, he did.

"Do you admit defeat, oh ruler of the the noisy records?"

Scratch snapped out of her guilt-filled reverie.

"Never! You're monstrous ways will never cause me harm!"

"Oh really?"

Octavia's eyebrow cocked, accepting the challenge. Vinyl became uneasy with the look on Octavia's face.

"What... uh, what are you... uh... AHH!"

Octavia attacked Vinyl with an onslaught of tickles. An electric blue mane squirmed wildly on the floor, fighting hard to get away from her assailant. Octavia had the upper hand in leverage, which in turn gave her a strength advantage. Vinyl started to make her escape but Octavia grabbed her by the hoof and pulled her back. Vinyl's sides were hurting from laughing so hard and reluctantly she had to tap out. Octavia beamed down at the scowling Vinyl.

"This is stupid."

"You tapped out."

"Still stupid."

"You love it."

"I fail to see how that has anything to do with anything."

Octavia gently sat herself down on the couch and stared into Vinyl's eyes. Vinyl, still riding high from her 'fight' with Octavia, lost her train of thought. Which wasn't all there to begin with.

"Alright now. No getting out of this one. Who's this ex of yours?"

Vinyl grinned. "Alright Octy. But first, I'm gonna need that rum."

******

"I met her through Rainbow Dash, who you met at the party. She was the blue pegasus that was next to AJ all night, you know, the one that owned the barn? Anyway, years ago Dash and I were best friends. We did everything together all the time. Well, Dash was pretty good friends with Lyra for some reason I still don't understand, and through the magic of friendship…"

Scratch looked away from Octavia and seemed to be staring intently at something. She wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

"What are you doing, Vinyl?"

"Just making sure everypony reading sees what I did there."

"Sees what? Who? Reading? No one is reading." Octavia continued to look confused as Scratch merely continued her story, acting like there was no random interruption.

"Anyway, through Dash I met Lyra. And we became good friends really fast. And, to younger me, Lyra was gorgeous. She was kind and if I had a crappy day she was there for me. We were silly and had lots of fun together. Of course, she always seemed to be having some sort of fight with somepony, like everypony was out to get her. But I was young and stupid and I didn't really see that. I never stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, she wasn't the innocent party in all these fights she was having. I just saw what she told me. I was totally infatuated with her. She had amazing eyes, and she was smart and funny, and had a nice body and just… she was awesome. So, I fell in love with her.

I never thought I had a chance. She liked colts. Plus, she was so oblivious to my feelings… it killed me to see colt after colt leave her for heartache. All I knew was that I loved her and I wanted to be there for her, no matter how much it hurt me. Well, eventually, she figured it out. And she fell in love with me too. It all happened really suddenly, but who am I to question that? Maybe she just woke up in the morning and saw how awesome I am."

Octavia rolled her eyes. "But I thought you said she liked colts?"

"Yeah, she did. But I think that someponies are just the type that do whatever they feel like. Like, I don't really buy into roles, you know? I feel like emotions are way too heavy to let a pony stay one way or the other for life. No one is 100 percent anything."

My Celestia that was deep. Dang I'm good.

Octavia smiled. "So you could be with a colt someday?"

Scratch scrunched up her face in mock disgust. "Yeah, in theory, it could happen. You never know."

Octavia's eyes bore into Scratch's. The gray mare grinned hard as she waved Scratch on to continue her story. Scratch needed a moment to recover from the trance those lavender gems put her in.

"Yeah, uh… anyway. Lyra and I dated for like, I don't know, a year and a half? It was all pretty good… for the first year or so. Then she started to change. She became this controlling, ego maniacal, self-righteous, narcissistic know-it-all. Anything I did was either wrong or proved I was cheating on her. I gave Rarity a present on her birthday and she was convinced I wanted to sleep with her. Wouldn't let it go. Never really did, either. To this day whenever I mention Rarity, Lyra's makes that stupid face of hers when she doesn't like somepony that I do. Though, she thinks that Rarity was leading me on and I was infatuated with her and, honestly, I don't know. Rarity was my friend, you know? Sure, she's pretty but we were just friends. Not that that mattered to her. There was a point where she would talk and I just wouldn't listen.

We fought a lot. We stopped being intimate. We even stopped sleeping in the same bed for the last month or so. It was ridiculous. But I still loved her, somehow. I didn't see any of this happening. Sure, I was getting frustrated with her being so… HER. But I didn't let it stop me from loving her as hard as I could. But then… then, finally, two weeks after my birthday, just shy of us being together for a year and a half, she broke up with me. I was devastated. I was depressed. I had no life left in me. I thought, like a foal, we would make it through. That we were just having a rough patch. But here she was just waiting to do it after my birthday. Not that she's not good at screwing up special occasions in the first place. She's great at it. Here's the kicker though. Two months later, she got together with… somepony. Celestia, I don't even remember his name. Banana something or another I think. Like, he handled bananas every day of his life. That was his talent. Handling bananas. But she swore up and down he was the one for her. Oh, did I mention that she didn't move out? Not until TWO YEARS after we broke up. So she's with some raging douche and living with me. Bringing him home. Asking me if I plan on going out for the rest of the weekend so she can do whatever with this colt. "

Something shifted in Octavia's eyes. Scratch continued her story, getting angrier every second she spoke about Lyra. There was a satisfied feeling in the pit of her chest, though, when she saw the anger flowing into her crush's face. The corner of her mouth lifted ever so slightly.

SOMEpony is getting defensive of you! Don't giggle! Just… stay calm, stay cool. You're the coolest unicorn in the land. Don't act a foal.

"Then she moved home because her parents needed help. Something was going on that I neither know or care about. She still kept me close to her. Close enough to watch her go through colt after colt after occasional mare. She kept me far enough away so that I knew I never had a chance again. I don't really remember anything from those two years. Every day blended into the next. They're as seamless as my music transitions. I was pretty much a living dead mare. It was terrible. Here I was, in love with somepony that could give a hoot about me and doing everything I could to make her happy. She told me what to do, when to do it, how to do it. She even decided when and where I would DJ. She was in control of my JOB.

Then… she met Bon Bon. They hit it off but there was one problem. Well, there were a lot of problems. But to sum it up, Lyra didn't know if she really wanted Bon Bon because, get this, Bon Bon was too nice. Yeah. No sense make, right? One of her problems was that Bon Bon still lived with her parents. Which, so did Lyra, but that was different because Lyra doesn't do anything wrong. No, it was different for Bon. It was one of the reasons Lyra didn't know if she could be with her. Besides her being nice, that is.

I liked Bon Bon. I thought she was nice. I wanted to see her be happy, but I also wanted to tell her to run like hell. But I didn't. Lyra still had my leash nice and tight, so I wouldn't have felt right ruining it for her. Lyra knew I had an empty bedroom. And she knew that I would bend over backwards for her, because I always did. So… that's how I ended up living with Bon Bon. To save Lyra's relationship. And the reason I'm here? Is because I didn't tell Lyra that I found this amaz-"

Scratch's heart skipped a beat as she realized what exactly she almost told Octavia.

Evasive comment number 76, go!

"Uh, that I had a new friend that I was getting to know really well. She acted like she always did, which is like a jealous foal, and I got sick of it and left. And I'm sure I'll get a talking to when I get back because, well, I can't do anything for myself when she's around, but whatever. I'm just sick of it. I feel like I need to break free, and I feel like that needs to happen soon. But there's still a part of me that wants to try to keep her as a friend. Even though she's proven less than great."

Octavia looked utterly livid. Her eyes were slimmed and cold, her nostrils slightly flared. Scratch noted how cute she looked when she was angry.

"Can I meet her?"

"Huh buh guh wha?"

Octavia did her best to not grin. "I want to put a face to the monster mare. Besides, she seems like she needs to get taken down a notch or two and we all know who is the best at taming monsters."

"You want to meet Lyra." Scratch wasn't asking as much as she was trying to make her brain catch up to what was going on.

"Yes."

"When?"

"Let's go now."

"But it's late. She won't be there."

"You just said you'd get a 'talking to' when you got home."

"Well, I was taking liberties with time. She'll be in bed sleeping."

"Then I'll stay there until she comes around."

"What if she flies into a fit of jealous rage?"

"Then I'll give her something to be jealous about."

Octavia got up before Scratch could counter and grabbed her coat. She walked towards the door and opened it, turning to stare at Scratch who was half mortified and have excited about how Octy would make Lyra jealous.

"Are you coming?"

"Uh… wait. You can't start a fight with her. I know that she sounds… well, like a pretty unpleasant pony… and she is. But I don't really want to rock the boat. Especially when I'm living with Bon-deuced. So I'll take you to meet her if you promise to play nice."

The smirk that played on Octavia's face could only be described as predatory. Her eyes were still wild with anger as she slowly trotted up to Scratch.

"Vina, I can't promise you anything, because I do not make promises that I cannot keep. I will be the most proper lady in the room… until she starts something."

"She won't. She's too fake for that. She'll put on her best face until the second you close the door."

Octavia looked dangerous. Scratch noted that perhaps she shouldn't get Octy mad on purpose in the future. "Then we shan't have a problem, shall we dear Vinyl? Please. Lead the way."

"You're scary when you're angry." Vinyl muttered as she slowly trotted out the door. Octavia chuckled light-heartedly.

"I'm not angry. I'm just interested to meet a mare who has so little value for another pony."

As much as Scratch didn't want a fight, she was overjoyed that Octavia was ready to throw hooves at a pony that seemed to be actively trying to control everything in Scratch's life.

She's defensive of me. She makes me smile. We have good times together. Lyra can suck it, I never felt this way about her. Oh… crap.

Scratch eyed Octavia suspiciously, not wanting her to turn out to be another Lyra. Though, she trusted Octy in a way she never trusted Lyra. Scratch decided that Octavia probably was into colts anyway, so nothing bad could happen. With a smile, her horn began to glow. Octavia looked over in time to get beamed in the back of the head with a pillow. She smiled and watched as Scratch trotted away.

"Why you little… Get back here!"

"Gotta catch me treble clef!"

Octavia gave chase after Scratch, the two giggling loudly. It wouldn't take long before they were at Scratch's house, looking a certain still-angry, mint green unicorn in the eyes.

Comments

[shawnay631]

93469

And NOW you get.

[SonOfTheNorthe]

First?
Anyways, awesome chapter. Lovely pillow fight.

"Oh, I can work those muscles… I mean what." I LOLed.

[psychoteddy87]

I am so damn ready for the next chapter. SO READY.

[Fox-Sama]

Loved it loved it loved it!! Cant wait for the next one!!!

and take it easy on your Rum

[NotATree]

Some times the best way to deal with a problem is head on... Like hitting them head on with a sledgehammer to the forehead...

[Blue Breeze]

damn lyra is a bitch in this. some real shit is going down next chapter

[Mother3Forever]

....Lyra sounds like my mom......

[ScootzTheRipper]

MOAR

[Zerg]

MORE! Great story so far, I finally got around to reading it ( it has been on my watch list since chapter 2) and it did not dissappoint.

[TheRealShadowFoot]

nickelback and a rob zombie reference? woo!

[Mothykins]

A dig at Nickle-Suck.
THANK YOU. I have to live within fifteen minutes of that dolt.

[Faust Fan Five]

iaza.com/work/120909C/iaza11560214797700.gif

[ProofNegative]

and through the magic of friendship…"

Scratch looked away from Octavia and seemed to be staring intently at something. She wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

"What are you doing, Vinyl?"

"Just making sure everypony reading sees what I did there."

"Sees what? Who? Reading? No one is reading." Octavia continued to look confused as Scratch merely continued her story, acting like there was no random interruption.

Vinyl must've learned it from Pinkie: Breakin' the fourth wall. Like a boss