Chapter II
Octavia awoke, surprised, confused, and with a pounding headache. It wasn’t the headache she was surprised and confused about, though – she vaguely remembered going to a club and drinking more alcohol than was necessary, and probably more than was healthy. What was confusing her was why she could see the sky, and why her bed felt so… sandy?
She reached a hoof over to grab at her alarm clock, but instead found the warm, furry body of Vinyl Scratch. Holy Celestia, how drunk was I last night?
“Miss Scratch.”
No response.
Octavia smashed her hoof down on the sleeping Unicorn mare.
“Miss Scratch!”
No response.
Octavia repeated the endeavor, only to be met with a violent fit of coughing and sputtering, and a face-full of regurgitated… salt water.
Octavia slowly began to piece together where she was, and what that implied.
Sand… sky… on a beach… didn’t get here consciously… Miss Scratch is practically drowned… oh my Celestia. There must have been an accident. But why are we not in a lifeboat? Why are we just on a beach? Why are Vinyl and I the only ponies here? Why-
“Octavia! Oh thank Celestia you’re ok!” Vinyl coughed a couple more times and threw herself at the cellist, hugging her perhaps a little longer and a little tighter than Octavia would have deemed appropriate.
“I’m glad I’m ok too… but… Miss Scratch,” Octavia wedged her forelegs between herself and the unicorn, prying free, “Would you be so kind as to explain where the hell we are and what the hell we’re doing here?”
“Well,” Vinyl began, coughing again, “I can't tell you where we are. I got you off the ship and then passed out in the water. Honestly, I’m shocked I didn’t drown. As for what we’re doing here… I only kind of know. After you passed out drunk at the club, I brought you back to our room and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night, hearing this super-loud bass, thinking someone was partying without me. When I got out of bed, I realized the floor wasn’t level and that there was water covering it. I panicked. I grabbed you and your cello, and tried to get off the ship, but the water was coming from above us. I prayed and guessed, and teleported us out of the ship. The last thing I remember was… oh my Celestia, Octavia, there were no lifeboats. None. Not one in the water, but the ship was going down. Octavia, I think… I think…” Tears began flowing from behind the purple glasses, Vinyl’s body contorting in sobs. Octavia took a moment to make the same connections, before letting out a gasp, her eyes shrinking to mere pinheads.
“Vinyl,” she said, forgetting formality entirely, “You mean to say… you think everypony on board the Harmonious… drowned? They’re all… dead?” Octavia felt awful. Not for the apparent deaths of nearly thirteen hundred ponies, but for lack of feelings – her mind had simply shut down. She did not feel. She did not think. She could hardly breathe without focusing every conscious, functioning mental faculty she had on doing just that. Slowly, her brain turned back on, and her ragged, unsteady breathing turned into a wail of anguish. She sat there on the beach, crying, sobbing, wailing, mourning, with the DJ for what felt like an incalculable amount of time. Her parents, Beauty Brass, her conductor, that kind yellow stallion in the audience… all of them, gone. Octavia would have been content to sit there and waste away, if not for the muffled thud of a pony crashing into the sand that shook her back to reality. She looked up, seeing a frantic yellow Pegasus mare with a fiery mane and hollow, horrified eyes. Octavia had just opened her mouth to speak when the mare cut her off.
“Have you seen him? Have you seen him? I can’t find him, I need to tell him! I need to tell him I love him! Have you seen him? Anywhere? Have you found him? Tell me where he is! I need to tell him I love him!”
The Pegasus had clearly gone mad with grief, but both Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were so close to doing the same that neither pony could articulate a reply. Her wings were ragged and her mane was disheveled, it seemed as though she’d been flying since the accident.
“You haven’t seen him? I have to find him! I need to tell him I love him!” The Pegasus turned back to face the ocean and took off, still raving about “needing to find him.” Almost as if in slow motion, Octavia raised a hoof, several minutes after the crazed mare had left, and mouthed the word “Wait.” But it was far too late – the fire-maned mare had been gone for nearly half an hour by the time Octavia completed her vain action.
“H-hey, Oc-octavia…” Vinyl Scratch managed to choke out, “I think… I think we should try to find somewhere to sleep… it’s… the sun is setting… come on, let’s see if we can find some shelter.”
Octavia said nothing, but nodded her head, sniffling as the last of her tears fell on the sand. She stood and moped towards Vinyl Scratch, still unable to bring out any words. Vinyl looked around, seeing nothing on the beach that could be used as a suitable place to spend the night. With a reluctant glance, she looked towards the tropical forest that marked the end of the beach and the start of the rest of the island.
“Come on, Octavia, maybe we can find a cave or something… and we can’t see in the dark. Oh, I know. I could use an illumination spell…” Vinyl scrunched up her face in concentration, holding her breath and focusing, before exhaling, panting, as nothing happened.
“I… I can't use magic…? Wha… why…” Vinyl’s heart sank. Without magic, what was she? An Earth Pony. Her livelihood depended on her Unicorn magic. Sure, she could scratch by hoof, but she relied entirely on her magic for changing records and mixing audio on the fly. As a slightly more relevant thought entered her mind, she realized this meant no illumination spells, no heat spells, no food spells.
“Vinyl? What’s wrong?” Octavia formed her first real words since the morning.
“I… I can’t use my magic. There’s just nothing there when I try to access it. Maybe I used it up teleporting us off the ship, or maybe it has something to do with having almost drowned… oh, I don’t know…” Vinyl moped, voice quivering as she tried to hold back more tears.
“Hey, come on,” Octavia said, encouragingly, forcing a weak smile to her face, “At least we’re alive. We can figure out why your magic doesn’t work later. Let’s just find a cave or something.”
The pair trotted slowly through the forest, a dull roar of birds and other animals growing louder by the minute as the last dregs of daylight drained from the sky. Fortunately, they were able to find a small cave, which, after some tentative exploration, they determined was uninhabited and would provide enough shelter for the night. After settling down at opposite ends of the miniature cavern, Octavia began to speak.
“Miss Scratch… I’ve got a couple questions for you…”
“Okay, fire away, I guess,” Vinyl nervously replied
“Well, first off, where’s my cello? You said you brought it with you, but it was nowhere to be found on the beach… and why did you bring it in the first place?”
“To be honest, I figured it could be used to keep your passed-out flank out of the water so you wouldn’t drown. I guess it worked, since we’re both here. We must have floated to this place on it, and it must have washed back out to sea afterwards. I’m sorry, Octavia, I know how much it meant to you.”
“No, it’s fine… I mean, I’m sad it’s gone, but I’d rather lose my cello than my life. Secondly, then, why did you risk yourself to save me? It must have been difficult dragging an unconscious mare through the bowels of a sinking cruise liner.”
Vinyl blushed a little, thankful the darkness hid her face. “Umm, well, you see… like you said, we might not be friends but I don’t want to see you hurt,” she hastily explained.
Octavia was surprised at the unicorn’s response. It seemed nervous, rushed, almost like… a lie. She was about to call the DJ on it, when she began to speak again.
“Say, Octavia… it’s probably going to get pretty cold overnight, and since I can’t do any heating spells, do you think we should… umm…” she trailed off, once again grateful for the darkness.
“Sleep together?” Octavia supplemented, a genuine smile, even if it barely classified as that, breaching her face for the first time that day.
“Well yeah, but… wait, no not like that!” Vinyl sputtered through a wave of embarrassment.
“I know what you meant. Here, come on over. Just don’t get any funny ideas.”
Vinyl slowly walked over to her ex-roommate, now-cavemate, and settled down behind her, subconsciously draping a hoof over her shoulder, tucking Octavia’s body against her own. It was now Octavia’s turn to be thankful to the night, as her face could have rivaled the Element of Honesty’s brother in terms of redness. In truth, though, she welcomed the physical contact – Vinyl’s warm, soft body felt oddly comforting, strangely safe, almost as though in a mother’s embrace. She smiled, and let sleep take her.
Vinyl took a little longer to drift to sleep, relishing in the calm, rhythmic feeling of Octavia’s slow, steady breaths, secretly wishing for the moment to never end. Alas, it had to, and she fell asleep shortly afterwards.
***
Morning came all too soon for the exhausted mares. Sunlight seeped into the cave, waking Octavia first. She was initially surprised at how soft and fuzzy the cave felt, before realizing that at some point in the night, Vinyl Scratch had somehow gotten herself underneath the cellist. Winning a mental battle to extricate herself from the (admittedly, extremely comfortable) position that was more suited to lovers than stranded roommates, she rose to her hooves and tried in vain to get her mane to cooperate. Losing the war with her hair, she decided to try to find a pond, or lake, or something where she could clean up a little before heading to the beach to await rescue. She walked out of the cave and into the woods.
Several minutes passed before the lack of the warmth of another body penetrated the subconscious of the snoozing unicorn. Grumbling and snorting as she woke up, two thoughts invaded her mind. The first was the solemn realization that it hadn’t been a dream. The second was the fear induced by the lack of Octavia.
“Octavia?” Vinyl called out, still mostly asleep. “Octavia! Octavia, where are you?” Vinyl’s voice was rapidly rising from a groggy curiosity to a terrified wail.
“Octavia? Octavia!” Vinyl was on her hooves now, galloping out of the cave, screaming, “Where are you? Octavia! Where did you go?”
Octavia had found a small lake, and was busy trying her best to clean her mane and coat despite her lack of soap. When the gray mare heard the panicked shrieking emanating from the woods, and hesitantly called back, “Miss Scratch? What’s wrong?”
A white and blue blur erupted from the tree line and charged into the lake before wrapping itself tightly around the confused gray mare. Unlike on the beach yesterday, this time Octavia’s forelegs were trapped and she was powerless to resist yet another slightly-too-long hug.
“Miss Scratch, I’m bat-”
“Where did you go? Why did you leave? I thought you were gone! I was afraid you had died!” Vinyl was distraught, openly weeping into Octavia’s chest.
“Miss Scratch, I’m fine… why would you think I was dead? I’m just trying to wash off… even if we’re on an island in the middle of nowhere, I intend to perform something that vaguely resembles bathing each day, and I would appreciate it if you did as well. Now, if you wouldn’t mind… can I finish my… well, I can’t honestly call it a bath. My wash? Yes, would you mind removing yourself so I can finish my wash?” Vinyl reluctantly let go and began wading back to the shore.
“Hey, Octavia… I think I’ll head down to the beach. You know, see if there’s any ships in looking for...” a lump formed in her throat. She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. All the same, Octavia knew what she meant, and nodded her consent for Vinyl’s intentions.
As she trudged back in the direction she thought was towards the beach, Vinyl had some time to herself to think.
Why did I react like that? What on earth was I thinking? I mean… I… Octavia probably thinks I’m a total creep now. I acted like a mother who’d lost her foal. Even still, despite how I feel, even if I didn’t feel that way… losing my only companion right now would be awful. Under any other circumstances, being on an island alone with this mare would be great, but this… I don’t even want to think about it.
Despite her best efforts, she did think about it, though thankfully the change in texture under her hooves snapped her out of her thoughts as she noticed she had made it to the beach. As she scanned the horizons, hoping to see… anything, really, she noticed a black object on the water’s edge. Trotting down the length of the beach, she broke into a light jog, and then a full gallop as she realized what it was. Approaching the object, Vinyl tried to use her magic to pick it up, and for the second time in as many days found herself unable to conjure that familiar light blue aura that would have allowed her to levitate the case. Giving a frustrated sigh, Vinyl bent down and grabbed the handle on the side of the case with her teeth and slung it over her back, a strap magically winding it’s way under her stomach to keep the case from sliding off.
Must be a permanent enchantment, she thought, so why does this still work but my magic doesn’t? Again resolving to figure it out later, Vinyl began a happy trot back in what she thought was the direction of the cave.
As her luck would have it, she had not gone in the direction of the cave. Looking around her, all she saw were patterns of trees and plants even less familiar than those she thought she would have recognized from the trip down to the beach. Thinking better of starting to scream Octavia’s name again, Vinyl thought that perhaps the other mare would have thought to go down to the shoreline after she finished washing. Turning on her heels, Vinyl Scratch proceeded to trot as calmly as she could back in the direction she came. Eventually finding the sandy shoreline once again, she looked out over the ocean. Come to think of it… this is a rather beautiful place, despite the circumstances. Not that I’d want to stay here… no, goodness no, but I could see this being a popular resort island, maybe.
Again, forcing herself to remain as calm as possible, she strode to the waterline and sat down, staring blankly over the seemingly endless blue waves. It’s a big ship. It’s a fancy ship. It’s an important ship. Surely there are ponies looking for it now. But… Vinyl’s mind suddenly remembered a marine biology class from her last year of high school. Ocean surface currents can be surprisingly strong, reaching velocities of up to four meters per second, her teacher had said. Doing some quick math in her head, Vinyl made a horrifying realization – she and Octavia were stranded, possibly dozens of kilometers away from where the ship had actually gone down. They might not be anywhere near where the search parties would be. Trying desperately to force the thought from her mind, Vinyl Scratch ended up staring out over the ocean, searching for any telltale signs of another ship, or a Pegasus even, something to hint that rescue may be coming. Some time passed like this, simply staring out, eyes only partially focused, before a gasp woke Vinyl from her trance.
“Hey Vinyl, I found some stuff we can ea- Oh, by Celestia, is that… is that my cello? Miss Scratch, wherever did you find it? I thought you said it had washed out to sea?”
“Huh? What time is it?” Vinyl chastised herself for not having the scruples to see neither pony wore a watch, before looking into the sky, seeing the sun practically at the horizon now. How long have I been sitting here? She thought, before continuing out loud, “Oh, yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s your cello. And I had only guessed that your cello had floated off, like I said the last I saw of it we were in the middle of the ocean. But yeah, you wanna see if it’s ok?” Vinyl paused for a second, thinking over what Octavia had just said. “Wait a minute, how did you know what you found was safe to eat?”
“I was in Filly Scouts when I was younger. We read all about what kind of plants and berries are safe to eat if we ever got lost in the woods. I guess this counts,” Octavia held a hoof behind her head, blushing slightly and chuckling, “As for my cello, well, it is magically sealed from water, but seeing as something happened that made it so you can’t use magic,” Vinyl shot her an annoyed look, “I mean no offense by that, I simply meant to say if you, an actual unicorn, can’t use your magic, then it’s probable that the seal has broken.”
Vinyl made a noise of understanding, before slipping the case off her back and plopping it down unceremoniously on the beach.
“Be careful with that! It’s worth thousands of bits!” Octavia sputtered, terrified.
“Come off it, Octy. It’s probably waterlogged anyway.”
“What did you just call me?”
Despite being white already, Vinyl paled.
“Umm… I called you… uh…” she stammered, unable to come up with an excuse. Shit, how’d I let that slip out? Now she’s going to be angry an- why’s she crying?
“Octavia, what’s wrong? Are you ok?”
“It… it’s just…” her tears were rapidly increasing from just a trickle and some sniffles to open sobbing, before collapsing onto the beach in a wailing heap, leaving Vinyl thoroughly confused.
“Octavia, are you… what’s the matter?”
“My… my p…” she trailed off, body wracked with sobs.
“Huh?” Vinyl inquired, leaning in closer to the mare, wrapping a hoof around her shoulder. “Come on, tell me what’s wrong.”
Despite her gruff exterior, and her own continuous sobbing, Octavia noticed the sincerity in Vinyl’s words and her effort to make her feel better. It would prove to be a fruitless effort soon enough, though. After crying for several more minutes, she finally was able to speak, if only momentarily before the tears returned.
“Vinyl… my… the only ponies that ever called me Octy… were my parents… and they…” she choked again, her voice catching on the enormous lump in her throat, before finishing, much quieter than before, “they were on that ship.”
Vinyl’s grip on Octavia loosened momentarily as she sat back in stunned shock, unable to come up with anything at all to reply to what she had just heard. Then she tightened her grip, pulling Octavia into a tighter hug than ever before, stroking a hoof through her mane as the distraught mare let it all out.
“Why? Why! They weren’t supposed to be on that ship! Why did they have to die?” Octavia practically screamed, “Why couldn’t it have been me? Or why couldn’t I be with them? Why did they have to die?” Vinyl wanted to soothe her, to tell her it would be ok, but she wouldn’t lie. Suddenly, Octavia’s voice shifted from sorrow to anger.
“Why did you save me? Why didn’t you save them? Or save six or seven other ponies who you wouldn’t have had to haul through the ship over your back? Why not that kind yellow stallion? Why me? What gives you the right to decide whose life is worth saving? What makes you so special? What makes you so much… god damned better than everyone else? What gives you the right…” Octavia felt her anger ebbing, and despite how much she wanted somepony to blame, she couldn’t focus anger on Vinyl. There has to be a reason… somewhere, somepony has a reason I’m alive… She didn’t want to accept it. She didn’t want to hear, or deal with, anything. She just wanted to cry, into the chest of this mare she hardly knew, yet who had risked her own life to save her wretchedly intoxicated hide from a sinking cruise liner. Why?
“Because I-” Vinyl cut herself off. Octavia looked up at the white unicorn, eyes wide, bloodshot, and shrunken down to pins. I can’t say it, not yet.
Was she about to say…? No, that would be ridiculous.
The two sat for a while in the fading light. Vinyl held Octavia until she’d finished crying, which was a good while after sun down, and they began to head back to the cave. Once they made it back, Vinyl was surprised at the substantial amount of supposedly safe food Octavia had gathered. A decently sized pile of berries and leaves sat on a rock Octavia must have found and rolled or pushed into the cave, with two smaller rocks that almost looked like they represented… chairs? It almost looked like an attempt to turn the cave into a house. Vinyl tried and failed to suppress a light snicker at the setup, getting an annoyed look from Octavia. She trotted over to the table and took a berry in her hoof.
“You’re sure this is safe to eat?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I can't guarantee tas-” Octavia didn’t get to finish her warning before Vinyl had spit the berry out again and tried to clean her tongue off with her hoof. It was Octavia’s turn to fail to suppress a laugh, getting awarded with an eye-roll from Vinyl.
“This stuff tastes like sh… manure,” Vinyl self-censored for reasons she couldn’t fully explain, “Why did you bother picking stuff that tastes so bad?”
“Because food that tastes awful is better than no food at all.”
“Debatable.”
Octavia rolled her eyes, and picked up a hooffull of berries herself, putting them into her mouth and forcing herself not to gag them out, chewing just enough so that she wouldn’t choke as she swallowed them, eager to get them out of her mouth, but not willing to admit defeat in front of her DJ companion. Grimacing and taking another couple berries, she forced them down as well. She glanced up as Vinyl snorted.
“You make… the funniest faces sometimes,” she stammered out between fits of giggles. Octavia tried to restrain herself, but fell into a fit of laughter as well, knowing full well her face had been contorted into some ridiculous expression to force down the disgusting food. Not to be outdone, Vinyl grabbed some of the leaves and shoved them into her mouth, before letting out a gasp.
“Oh my Celestia, Octavia… these leaves are delicious! What are they?” Vinyl asked, eyes wide, giving a genuine smile.
“I don’t know, but I do remember being taught that they were tasty when I was younger.”
“Good memory,” Vinyl managed to mutter between mouthfuls of the delectable greens. Octavia tentatively put a small bite in her mouth, eyes widening in surprise at just how good the food tasted. Maybe it was because she hadn’t eaten in more than a day and the leaves were just pretty good, but Octavia was convinced that they really were simply the most delicious leaves she’d ever eaten. The pair of ponies attacked the pile of food with a vigor that would have been deemed improper in the situations Octavia normally dined under, but she didn’t care, and Vinyl hardly changed at all. After finishing the leaves, and forcing down some of the berries as well, Octavia had led Vinyl to the lake for something to drink, and then back to the cave where they settled in for the night. Curling up together again, Octavia began to speak just before Vinyl fell asleep.
“Vinyl?”
“… yeah?”
“I’m sorry about earlier. I shouldn’t be angry with you. I should be thanking you. You saved my life, and I threw that back at you. You didn’t deserve that.”
“Eh, it’s alright. What are friends for, anyways?” Octavia’s eyes widened in shock as Vinyl finished the question.
“You consider us… friends?”
“Well, I guess. I certainly would like to be if we’re stuck on this island together. Would kinda suck if we weren’t friends, you know?”
For the second time today, Octavia felt tears forming in her eyes.
“Thank you, Vinyl… thank you so much.”
“Hey, don’t mention it.”
“Vinyl?”
“Hmm?”
“You can call me ‘Tavi’ if you want.”
Vinyl snickered.
“Alright. Goodnight, Tavi.”
“Goodnight, Vinyl.”
***
Vinyl woke with a start. It was still the middle of the night, but the moon cast a surprising amount of light on the ground at the mouth of the cave. She heard a soft whimpering, and sat up. Still tucked against one another, Octavia was crying in her sleep, softly calling out a name every couple of seconds. Trying not to wake her, Vinyl rolled Octavia over so she was facing her, and pulled her into a hug.
“It’s ok, Tavi… I won’t let you go. I won’t ever let you go.”
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Woohoo, update!
As an avid fan of rich descriptions, I gotta say this story is looking great! It's also pretty nice to see a, say, 'serious' take on the theme (I've seen some other like these around, but I think most were comedy? Can't rightfully remember.).
Regardless, I can't wait to see more!
“It’s ok, Tavi… I won’t let you go. I won’t ever let you go.”
D'AWW
So far this is up the list near the top for Vinyl/Tavi stories that I've read (and I've read ALOT). The depth you put into it; the emotion, the dialogue, their actions. It flows so well and I love it. I hope this one makes it to 100K words or more! :)
Much improved over the first chapter. Your writing ability seems to get better over time... Chapter3 is going to be incredible.
1512182
Thank you. My biggest fear when I was writing this was that I wouldn't be able to get emotion properly. All the fiction I've tried before has either been action or extremely shallow emotion-wise (case in point: the protagonist's relationship with Luna in "A Long Journey Home"). I'm not sure if this will hit the 100k mark, though... that's... that's a LOT of writing. That would be five times the length of my first fic, which at the time was (and currently, still is) the longest thing I'd ever written by nearly 400%.
1512194
Thanks. I dunno, chapter 3 might be kinda short... we'll see.
That last line made me think of this:
This is turning into a really good story. Keep it up!
1512255
Well, I've seen it happen a hundred times already if not more, a writer will start off with 5 or 6 amazing chapters at around 4-8K words each and then basically run out of steam. I think if you'd break them down into sections of around 1500 words each and post frequently not only will you get more followers but you'll find yourself able to write more creatively and be able to keep the readers bloodlust for updates sated.
100K sounds like alot but maybe it's a goal to strive for? Just a thought.
Indents! Yay!
Oh, out of curiosity, what do y'all think about the title? I originally put it in as a placeholder since I couldn't think of a better one, but I think I've come to kind of like it.
Well, it does say it has shipping
Srsly great story
wow, i did not expect this when i saw this story. truly great writing
The title is great! Don't change it!
That was a very heart warming but sad chapter. Also, awsome Titanic reference at the end.