Shipwrecked

by VashTheStampede

Chapter VII-2

Octavia awoke with a warm, soft body under her, and a gentle rocking sensation rolling through her entire body. As she opened her eyes, the blinding light of the sun met her gaze, and she quickly shut them again against the painful light.

“Vinyl?” Octavia said, through gritted teeth and eyes screwed shut.

Nothing but a groan in reply.

“Vinyl!” She shook the white unicorn violently, rousing her.

“Hmm, what? Octavia? What’s going on? Where are we?”

She hasn’t called me Octavia since… onboard the Harmonious… oh no…

“Vinyl! I love you! It’s me! Tavi! I think…” Octavia risked opening her eyes again, and looked around. The small raft was beached on the island she – well, thought she – had been on for the last week with her new marefriend, “I think we’re on our island. Come on, babe, wake up, I love you…” Oh Celestia, I haven’t dreamt this all, have I?

“‘Our’ island? Octavia what are you talking about?” Vinyl sat up, mind still largely asleep, displacing the gray mare laying on her.

Oh no. Octavia’s eyes went wide, disregarding the pain of the massive intake of sunlight, as the small world she thought she had on the island with the love of her life shattered. She broke into sobs, burying her face in her hooves, and collapsed into Vinyl’s lap.

“Hey, Tavi, what’s wrong? I thought we were on that little boat going home?”

She called me Tavi.

“Y-you remember that?”

“Yeah. They found you in the pool, and I came and got you, and then we got on the boat. Weren’t they bringing us back to the mainland?” Vinyl asked, cocking her head to the side.

“You… you don’t r-remember anything aft-after that?” Octavia asked through the tears, looking up into Vinyl’s big, beautiful, red eyes.

“No… the last thing I remember was eating a delicious dinner on the boat. Why are we back on the island?”

“I… if you honestly don’t know, I’d prefer to keep it that way… it… wasn’t very good. Vinyl, though, dear… you still love me, right?”

“Mmm,” Vinyl grunted, before exiting the boat and striding across the beach.

Oh Celestia please kill me. I can’t live like this. I don’t want to live like this. She doesn’t love me, she never did… but I love her… that can happen, right? You can fall in love with a pony through a dream? Or perhaps just realize a love… no, no no no… Octavia’s mind, to prevent a critical error rendering her incapable of movement, quarantined the thoughts in an instant, and rebooted itself, trying to clear out any lingering sadness. Here I am, with a pleasant mare, surviving on an island after a cruise liner sank. I did not fall in love with her. She has not saved my life. I was not almost raped.

Right?

Octavia, not without concentrated effort, pushed the doubt back and set off after her lov- friend. Is she even that? Oh… I told her I loved her! Twice! If she doesn’t even know me… she probably thinks I’m some weird stalker or something! Oh what have I done… No. Octavia Philharmonica. You are a good mare. Think positive. Go to the cave.

“Miss Scratch?” Octavia called.

“Yeah?” the unicorn looked over her shoulder, smiling slightly.

“Shall we find shelter?”

Why’s Tavi acting so weird?

“Uh… sure. Isn’t the cave that way?” Vinyl Scratch lifted a hoof and waved it in the general direction of where she thought the cave had been.

Octavia’s trot faltered for a moment. “You know where the cave is?”

“Um… yeah? We’ve been on this island for what, a week now?”

Octavia’s legs stopped working. It wasn’t a graceful collapse to her haunches, either – she was mid-step and the leg she put her weight on simply failed to hold. Her face impacted the sand with a thud. Her mind waged a war within itself – had she dreamed it all? Had it actually happened? Was she dreaming now? Her mind failed to answer any of these question, losing control over her body, and, surprisingly, not caring that said body was currently about to suffocate. She found herself curiously unable to lift her body, despite her inability to inhale. Panic overtook her momentarily, her body seizing and lurching as her diaphragm attempted to vacuum air into her lungs and failed, finding too much resistance and moisture and too little air in the dense sand. Her hooves flailed uselessly at her sides for just a second, before she reached a surprising state of calm, and allowed herself to fall limp as her consciousness began to fade.

I’m sorry. I love her. I can’t deny that. I don’t want to. Vinyl Scratch, I love you beyond reason should allow, and I cannot bear to be in this world without you. I… I can only hope that this doesn’t hurt you as much as it hurt me.

Seconds later her vision returned and a pain grew in her side. Octavia was vaguely aware she was lying on her back, staring up at the sky.

“Octavia… be careful. You did a face-plant and then didn’t get back up. It was funny for a second, but then you looked like you started to suffocate. You were flailing and twitching… it was really scary. Please, don’t ever do that again. I can’t use magic anymore, remember? And even then, I can’t raise the dead. Tavi, don’t do something that’ll leave me here alone.”

“I… what? Why do you care? What… Vinyl Scratch. I need to know something,” Octavia grimaced, her head still throbbing. She grit her teeth and prepared for the worst. “Do you love me?”

“Huh? Wh-” Vinyl cut herself off, mind working. Octavia’s heart stopped at the hesitation.

Oh, Celestia no! I knew it was a dream!

She has told me she loves me like… a lot more than usual today. I haven't said the same. Now she’s crying. Come to think of it, this is kinda how we first got on the island… Oh, Celestia – she thinks it was a dream!

“Of course I still love you, Tavi! I have for years! I always will!” Vinyl nearly yelled,” If you were dreaming, you still are… and I am too, then… if we are… I hope we never wake up. I love you so much, Tavi. Please, stop… stop crying, or I’m gonna… gonna start… I’ll always love you…” Vinyl reached towards her marefriend, putting a hoof on either side of her face, lifting it.

“Octavia… Philharmonica…” she whispered, voice trembling, “I love you so very much. I will never, ever leave you. Not ever. Ok? Even if this is a dream, you wake up, you come find me, and I will love you. You understand that, don’t you?”

“V-vinyl, that doesn’t m-make any sen-”

“I don’t care. What I care about is you listening to me right now when I tell you I am yours, forever and always. Thick and thin, this island or back in Equestria, I will be there for you, helping you, loving you. You are everything to me, Octavia. I’ve lost magic, I could lose my job, my music, my sight, my hearing – but none of that will matter if I am with you. I want to be with you until I die, Octavia. The more I think, the more I remember what happened to us last night. We were on that ship, and they tried to rape us. That one stallion is the only reason we’re not… well, he saved us, and he lost his life doing so. While I was doing nothing. I sat by and let it happen. I don’t ever want anypony else to have to do that. I want to be the one protecting you, saving you, being there for you when you need me most,” Vinyl said, a look of loving determination in her eyes. She kissed Octavia lightly, before sitting back on her haunches, her hooves sliding down Octavia’s face, past her neck, over her chest, and down her arms, until Vinyl held the cellist’s beautiful, supple, wonderfully skilled gray hooves in her own. “I would willingly give my life for you, but… I would rather give my life to you. I… I… I want to… will you…” Vinyl Scratch trailed off. Without warning, she lunged forward, kissing Octavia forcefully. “I want you to marry me!”

Comments

[MemoryLane]

images.wikia.com/dragonage/images/2/2a/Anchorman-well-that-escalated-quickly.jpg

[Decepticon Barricade]

1742401 Same here

[QuickFix]

Holy mother of Celestia! Hell yeah that was amazing!!!

Short or not, that was awesome. I'm so glad you didn't change it! It worked SO well with what you were doing with the last chapter!

[chaos2012]

At first I was like, what the heck is happening? Then At the end I'm like, Dawww!!

Great chapter