A symphony of sounds echoed throughout Octavia's room as her bow glided along the strings with the simplest of ease. Each note precise, every signature perfectly timed. Her head hung low causing her hair that was once a neatly formed bow to fall before her eyes, slightly covering up the mares face. Her eyes had closed shut to further her concentration on the music at hoof.
With one final curl of her bow, Octavia began he descent of the minor pentatonic scale that she had been playing in until she finally ended on the dominant G note. Octavia let the note sustain itself for a while, slowly allowing the remaining sound to escape her cello until silence befell the room.
For a few seconds the only sound in the quaint room was her heavy breathing, slowly becoming quieter as she regained her breath. With a worn creek from her wooden chair, displaying its age, Octavia stood up and made her way over to the cellos case that laid upon her bed. With each hoofstep Octavia took, a slight knock on the wooden floor could be heard, breaking the rooms silence.
Giving off an accomplished sigh before wiping the sweat from her brow, Octavia slowly slid her cello along the edge of her bed until it was fully on top. With a few quick flicks of her hoof, the cases locks flew open with a loud snap. Pulling the top of the black, hard-shelled case off, Octavia picked up her cello and delicately placed it within its confines for a much needed rest.
Just as quickly as she had opened it, the cellist had closed the case up once more. Moving up along the side of her bed, she gently placed the cellos bow on her nightstand that stood along side of the mattress. Sitting down on the edge of the bed first, Octavia allowed her body to fall on to the cushioned furniture, creating a low and deep thud.
Facing upwards, Octavia placed one of her hooves at her guts level whilst the other one remained be side, lightly tapping on the bed to a beat with in the grey mares mind.
"That should just about do it." She thought aloud to herself. "With all those pieces memorized, I should have no problem making first chair this year for the Grand Galloping Gala Symphony." With a quick puff of air, Octavia blew a few strands of hair out of her face.
A long drawn out yawn escaped the mares mouth, quickly to be followed by an extensive stretch of her forelegs behind her head. With the yawn subsided, Octavia let a small smile play across her lips.
Rolling to her side, she reached out to her nightstand and put a hoof on the alarm clock that was set on the nightstand. Turning the clock to face her, Octavia could see what time it was. The time that the clock shown was one well past what Octavia had initially planned for the evening.
With another yawn rapidly approaching, Octavia rolled back onto her back and lifted the covers onto her. Reaching back over to the nightstand, she clicked her lamps switch, turning her once well lit room into one of pitch black darkness. With some rustling, Octavia lowered herself further within the covers, obtaining a comfortable position to which she could fall asleep in.
As she settled in her position, she let out a relaxed sigh and closed her weary eyes to the world, letting her thoughts go and her mind to be set a drift as she fell into dreamland.
Minutes flew by as Octavia could feel her body become more relaxed and less connected to the world around her. With one final sigh, her breathing turned to snores. She had fallen into a slumber only moments before a loud obnoxious noise broke her blissful state. Jumping up out of the covers and out of bed, Octavia let out a yelp of a scream. Landing face first against the hard wooden floor below, she let out another cry as the pain from her impact began to set in. Rubbing her snout Octavia reached her free hoof up and clicked the lamp on her nightstand back on.
With a loud audible groan of mixed slurs and swears, Octavia raised herself back up onto her hind hooves. Leaning on the nightstand a bit, Octavia opened its small drawer and saw the source of the obnoxious noise that had startled Octavia half to death. It was her phone, and the noise was her marefriend, Vinyl's, ringtone.
"Oh what the hell could she want at this time of night?" She questioned, still in a half dazed state.
After much inner debate, Octavia reluctantly decided to answer the call rather than to ignore it and go back to sleep.
"Ughh, hello?" Octavia said with a groan as the pain from her tumble still remained.
"Tavi? Oh thank you thank you thank you! We got a major problem here." Vinyl said in a strained, desperate voice.
"Wh-What? What's going on?"
"Uhh, well... You see, Colgate is kind of - No! Give that guy his wig back Colgate! It is not changeling in disguise! No, no no no no! Put down the torch! Where the hell did you get a torch?!" Vinyl's voice became faint as she could be heard yelling at Colgate in the background. Octavia's mouth hung agape as she heard the noise of shattering plates and yelling ponies on the other line. "-Colgate is kind of loosing her mind right now." Vinyl said as she continued her conversation with Octavia.
"What the hell is going on over there?!" Octavia said in a frazzled voice.
"It's kind of hard to explain over the phone - Colgate wait! He's not after your lucky charms! - Just get over here please Tavi, I need your help." Vinyl pleaded to her marefriend.
"What? No, tell me what's going on over there. Is Colgate alright?!" Octavia becoming more concerned as she continued to hear various noises and shouting in the background.
"What? No, I mean yes. I mean, she's fine. Look just get over to the Apple Bobber club down on Sugar Cube corner, I really, really need your help."
With that, Vinyl hung up her phone leaving Octavia standing there. Her eyes were beaded and her mind was blank, trying to comprehend what just happened.
Finally after a few moments had passed, Octavia was able to snap herself out of her dumbfounded state.Hanging up her side of the line, Octavia threw her phone back into the drawer of her nightstand, slamming the drawer in the process. Bouncing up off of the bed and onto her hooves, Octavia ran out of her room, quickly grabbing her house keys before exiting her house, heading in the direction of the club.
~~~~
With multiple beads of sweat rolling down the sides of her face, Octavia slowed her sprint to a light canter as the site of the club grew closer. Her breathing had become heavy and strained from the unexpected exercise.
The name 'Apple Bobber' hung on top of a large brick building, all in crimson red neon. Huge and bright search lights were scattered at both ends of the structure, attracting the attention of any onlooker that may happen to pass by. The entrance had a red velvet carpet draped down the five stairs one would have to walk up in order to enter the club adding a bit of class to it.
Along side the stairs stood three bouncers, one on either side and one in the middle, holding a clipboard with various pieces of paper. The middle bouncer controlled the flow of ponies entering the club, every so often turning some down for 'not being on the list'.
Leading away from the door was a line of dozens of ponies, confined to the restraints of a purple security rope. Each one of them had an eager expression on their face as they mingled among themselves. Nopony could wait to get in and party hard.
Looking at the huge line, Octavia gulped down hard. There was no way she was going to be getting in anytime soon, or at all. She knew that her name wouldn't be on the approved list. Giving a slight huff, and quick run through her hair with her hoof, Octavia walked up to one of the bouncers.
"Ahem, excuse me sir." Octavia said in a rather timid voice. Her only response was a quick glare from the bouncer. " Umm yes, well. I was wondering if you'd be as so kind as to let me in. You see my maref-" Octavia's request was instantly cut off by a onslaught of jeering at her from the ponies inline.
"You gotta wait inline like everypony else." The bouncer finally said in a low booming voice. His eyes gazing down at the clipboard. Waving his hoof to the next ponies inline. "Name?"
"Sunset Shimmer, and Trixie." The flame haired pony responded, first pointing to herself, then to her friend beside her.
Skimming through a few pages, the stallion finally lifted a pen that hung on necklace, scratching something off on the sheet. "Alright, Sunset Shimmer and Trixie, got you two right here. Go on in." Turning around he unshackled the security rope behind him allowing the two mares access.
As the two walked in, a huge bass boom escaped through the doors of the club. The quick glimpse into the club revealed hundreds of ponies dancing to the music. The entire club shined with strobe lights going off in all different directions, each stream of light flickering on and off in a eye searing rhythm. Octavia tried to her best to see around the large stallion and mares, hopefully catching a glimpse of her marefriend and friend inside; To no avail. Once the doors closed behind them, the muffled bass thumps continued.
Re-shackling the rope, the bouncer turned around to see Octavia still standing there. Giving her another quick glare he repeated himself, "Get to the back of the line miss. I can't let you cut in front of everypony else."
Taking another gulp, and with a shuffle of her hooves, Octavia continued. "Right, and normally I would follow the rules, truly I would. But you see I got a called from my marefriend saying that she needed my help, I really just want to find her real quick that's all."
"Rules are rules ma'am. Back of the line." The bouncers response earned applaud and cheers from the ponies inline.
Octavia's brow furrowed with annoyance at the stubborn stallion. Her expression quickly changed from her frustrated look to a sly, devious one as a light smile graced her lips. "Alright then Mr - " Octavia rolled her hoof at the bouncer as she asked for his name.
"Strongmane." He responded, expression unchanged.
"Right, well Mr. Strongmane. Right now my friend Colgate is in there with my marefriend Vinyl, your clubs weekly entertainer. Now with that being said I'll be more than happy and willing to go to the back of the line, but know this-" Octavia leaned in towards the stallion, practically brushing her chest with his. "When I get into this establishment - and I will get in - I will seek out my marefriend and convince her to no longer play at your club thanks to you, meaning your club looses its prime slice of bread and butter."
"Yeah, so?" Strongmane responded un-phased from Octavia's threat. Taken back a bit, Octavia scoffed slightly before she backed off and gave another furrow of her brow.
"So, in addition to convincing Vinyl, I will also discuss your actions to the owner of the club, meaning he will know exactly who caused him to loose a massive chunk of the clubs profits this month." Octavia resumed her position against the stallions chest, this time however she leaned over into his ear. "So if I were you, I'd let me in. This way no one has to loose their job."
The gears in the brutes head must have finally begun to turn as he realized what Octavia was hinting at. He was now fully aware that this mare now held his job in her hooves. Slouching a bit, he backed away from Octavia as he turned around to unshackle the the security rope.
"Welcome to the Apple Bobber Miss." Strongmane said in a defeated tone.
"Thank you sir." Octavia held her head up high as she thanked the stallion. Her face completely engulfed with a look of pure satisfaction and victory.
Her head snapped back down as she felt something against her chest, stopping her from moving forward. Strongmane had put his hoof out in front of Octavia. Lowering his head down to her level, he began to whisper to her.
"If I so much as hear any trouble coming from you or your friends within the club, I'll be the one to personally kick you out."
"Very well." Octavia stated. "Now if you'd please be so kind as to remove your hoof from my path, I'm kind of in a hurry here." She had become rather short with the stallion. Obliging, Strongmane lowered his hoof and retained his upright position as the head bouncer.
As Octavia walked up the red carpeted stairs, another round of jeers could be heard coming from the 'peanut gallery' inline. Octavia gave a quick glance back over to the distraught ponies, smiling a bit in amusement at their ill manners. She never understood the appeal of these kinds of places, nor the great desire to enter one.
She pushed one of the twin doors open with her right foreleg and entered the club. Instantly three of the five senses Octavia possessed were attacked. The strobe lights with their constant barrage burned her retina's to a crisp. The repetitive dropping of the musics bass echoed throughout Octavia's ear canals. Even being a cello player - a more or less bass instrument - had not prepared her for this evenings 'music'.
As she walked away from the entrance of the club and towards the dance floor where hundreds still danced to the music, her third sense was attacked. Taking an inhale she could smell something in the air, a smell that she had smelt a couple of times before when Berry would come over to visit Vinyl, and another time when she had been taken on a date to a Hoofie Brothers concert.
She held her hoof up to her muzzle, trying to cover her nostrils to prevent any more of the smell for invade nose.
Looking around through the crowd of dancers that had now engulfed her, Octavia could see no sign of either Colgate or Vinyl.
Continuing to look around for them, Octavia began to get shoved to and fro as clumsy ponies knocked into her, muttering under their breath as if she was at fault for them stepping on her hooves. Eventually the constant shoving first led her to the middle of the dance floor, until it moved her to the opposite end of the club of where she had entered, finally popping her out and propelling her into a bar stool.
Stumbling a bit to get to her hooves, Octavia let a few coughs escape her as air began to penetrate her lungs again. The mare gave off a wobbly shake as she tried to straighten her foreleg as she continued to light herself up.
"Not used to this kind of crowd are you hun?" A loud voice could be heard emanating from behind the wooden wall that was the bar. The voice, barely able to be heard of the consistent thumps of the relentless music.
Looking up, Octavia could see a cyan haired mare with a yellow coat to boot. "No, I uhh don't usually attend these kind of social events." She give a slight smile to the mare.
"Social event? You mean a rave?" The mare - who Octavia assumed was the establishments bartender - questioned.
"Right a rave..." The grey mare turned her head around, looking at the blood chilling sight of the dance floor. She definitely didn't want to reenter the labyrinth.
"Names Raindrops." She introduced herself as she spat into a glass she was currently polishing off with a old tattered rag. "What's your poison tonight?"
Turning her head back over to Raindrops, she gave a quick glance at the fully stocked bar behind the new friendly face. "Oh, I'm not looking to 'party' tonight." Octavia quoted herself with her hooves to add emphasis on the word 'party'. "I'm really just in here for a minute to find my friends. I got a call from one of them for me to get down here as soon as possible, it sounded like things were going awry, so I rushed down here; And now I can't find them."
"Well-" Raindrops put her elbow on the bar, leaning towards Octavia. "Maybe I can help ya. Working here every night has its advantages, I can spot somepony in just a few seconds, even if they're in the sea of ponies behind ya." Confidence evident within her voice.
Octavia gave a quick glance back over at the dance floor, then one back over at Raindrops. Taking a seat on the stool, Octavia turned herself around and leaned onto the bar with her elbows. "Well, they both have blue hair. One has two shades of blue, one light and one dark, while my other friend has white and a blue mane."
"Is that one of them over there?" Raindrops asked as she pointed back in a general direction into the crowd.
Twisting herself back around, Octavia began to duck and weave her head around trying to catch the glimpse of the mare or mares Raindrop was pointing at. "Nooo, I don't think that's one of them."
"Hmm, well is there anything more you can give me?" Raindrops asked as she scratched the bottom of her chin.
"Well, Vinyl performs here every wee-"
"You know Vinyl!?" The bartenders expression turned from one of deep in thought to one of pure excitement.
"Yeah?"
"Oh my Luna I love her! God, whenever she plays here the club becomes an entirely new place." The mares gaze lifted itself from Octavia to the roof of the club, obviously reminiscing of times Vinyl had played here.
Waving a hoof in front of Raindrops face, Octavia got her attention back. "So have you seen her?"
"Hmm? Ah right! Yeah I've seen her."
"Really?!" Octavia jumped up out of her seat and slammed both of her hooves onto the bar. "Where is she? Was Colgate with her?"
"Col-who?"
"Colgate... The other mare I was talking about just now. You know, dark blue coat, white and blue mane." Octavia brushed her hoof on her coat before tugging on her bangs some, displaying the sections of the mare she was describing.
"That was your friend?!" Raindrops nearly dropped the glass she had returned to polishing.
"Yeah...? Is that a bad thing?"
"Well kind of yeah. That mare caused a hell of a scene here tonight." She regained her grip on the glass as she continued on.
"Oh no..." Octavia rubbed her hooves against her temples as she groaned loudly. "What happened?" Octavia deadpanned, letting her hooves flop onto the bar top.
"Uh jeez, where to begin?" She asked herself rhetorically as she set the glass down, picking up another in its place. She gave off a slight chuckle and head shake before continuing. "Well lets see, first she started swiping everyone's glow sticks, saying that she needed them so save the 'force'."
"The force?"
"Yeah I know, it was the damnedest things." She gave a heartier chuckle this time. "She even had a different way of talking when she said it too. How'd it go again? I think it was like 'Surrender the sabers you will, save the force.. I must'."
"What?" Octavia squinted her eyes some as she tried to comprehend what Raindrops had just said.
"I know right?" The yellow mare let her head go a little limp. " And then there was the plates..."
"Plates?"
"Yeah, somehow - don't ask me how - she got a hold of a whole stack of plates from the kitchen in the back. Then somehow - again don't ask me how - got up on stage - on one of the nights performers speakers - and started throwing them at everypony in sight while chanting 'Dropping plates'. Hay if I know what that means, but she did it." Octavia gave another groan in response. "And that's when she got the torch-"
Octavia held a hoof up to Raindrops, her head hung low in shame, disappointment, all tied off with a nice hint of rage at Vinyl. "Please, just stop. I don't need to hear about the torch or the lucky charms..."
"The lucky charms?" Raindrops reflected on the nights evens before her eyes went wide and she broke out in a smile. "Oh yeah! I almost forgot about that one. Man I have never seen a stallion bend that way."
"Wha- I don't wanna know... Just please, please please please tell me, where are they now?" Octavia clapped her hooves together as she pleaded to her.
"Heh, well... She's kind of on lock down right now."
"Lock down?"
"Yeah. It's obvious she was tripping out, pretty badly at that. Normally we would bounce her out, but she's slippery, and I do mean 'slippery'. Eventually she wound up heading into the bathroom, Vinyl right behind her. We - the bouncers - closed off the restroom and called the police. They'll be here shortly to help us escort her out."
Worry and adrenaline shot through Octavia as she heard the news of the police. "Where is the bathroom!?" Octavia demanded of her new ally.
Raising a hoof from the glass, Raindrops pointed to her left. Octavia followed Raindrops hoof with her gaze, leading her to a little alleyway in the club where the restrooms were tucked away. Turning her head back over to Raindrop, Octavia tapped on the bar a few times before running off in a hurry.
"Thanks, I owe you big time!"
"No problem."
Octavia ran down along side of the bar as to avoid the dance floor as she made her way down to the restrooms. Once in the alleyway, she could see a couple of bouncers standing guard in front of the little mares room.
Octavia slowed her pacing as she approached the two guards, both of them giving her a harsh glare. She bit her time as she thought about how to approach them. She figured out a quick plan as she came face to face with the bouncers.
"Excuse me sirs. I'm just going in to use the little filly's room." Octavia said with a shy, almost timid voice as she batted her eyelashes at the guards, hoping to gain easy access.
"Sorry Ma'am. Restrooms closed until further notice."
"Oh?" Octavia asked innocently. "Why is that?"
"There's a troublesome mare in there. We got her locked in until some of Ponyvilles finest arrive." The guard replied.
"Oh really? Did the mare have a dark blue coat?"
"Yeah?"
"White and blue mane?"
"Yeah...?"
"And an hour glass for a cutie mark?"
The guard now turned to his partner. "Yeah....?"
"Oh..." Octavia replied in a uncertain voice. "And your certain you have her in there?"
"Of course we do." The bouncer said reassuringly.
"Then how is she out there?"
"She's what?!"
"Yeah, she's up on stage putting on one heck of a show."
Both bouncers took a quick glance at one another. Both their eyes had become beaded as worry spread across their face. Looking back at Octavia then once again at each other, they gave a slight nod.
"How the hell did she get out again?!" One of the guards stated as the two ran away from the door to check out Octavia's claim.
Octavia allowed a quick moment of smugness display itself on her face before it turned back into worry and fright as she turned to face the now un-secure door. Taking a deep breath, Octavia closed her eyes as as she pushed the restrooms door wide open. When she opened her eyes back up, the sight she saw left her speechless.
Vinyl was laying on top of Colgate, struggling to keep the blue mare still as she laid sprawled out across the floor.. Vinyl had heard the creak of the doors hinges and lifted her head up to see the new pony who had just entered. The flustered, frustrated look on Vinyls face turned to pure joy as she laid eyes on the awestruck mare that stood in the door way.
A few moments passed, neither Vinyl or Octavia moved or made a sound. Colgate on the other hand was as giddy as a school filly, wiping her hooves across the side of Vinyl's face, her tongue slightly hanging out of the side of her mouth.
The tapping of Colgate's hooves across Vinyl finally gained her attention long enough for her to look down at the blue mare, finally realizing the awkward position she was in. Looking back to her marefriend, then back to Colgate, and back to Octavia once more.
Pushing herself off and stumbling to her haunches, Vinyl started waving her hooves at Octavia.
"No no no no no no. This isn't what it looks like!" Vinyl stammered trying to defend herself.
"Explanations, now!" Octavia stomped her hoof on the floor.
"Ooooh, busteeeedddd." Colgate chimed in on the two's awkward moment.
Octavia took a few forceful steps towards Vinyl, confusion - with the slightest bit of blind fury - coated in her eyes.
"Just what the hell is going on here?" Octavia cried as she flailed her right hoof up in the air. "First you call me; waking me up at an unholy hour, pleading me to come over here because you need me. And then I see you lying down on top of Colgate!"
"It's not what it looks like!" Vinyl continued to plea to her marefriend. Colgate took advantage of her new found freedom and slunk away into a nearby stall, stumbling a bit along the way. "I was just holding her down against her will, preventing her from movin- Oh sweet Celestia it's as bad as it looks... But I was doing it for her own good!"
"Her own good? How is that a good thing? And why have I heard stories of Colgate running a rampage throughout the club tonight?"
Vinyl hung her head low in shame before responding to her. Gathering a large gulp of air, she began. "Well because, they're true. Ya see, I kind of, sort of, may of, given Colgate the slightest, tiniest, smallest most insignificant amount of acid." The truth was now out.
"Acid!? You gave Colgate acid!?" Octavia snapped at Vinyl, earning her a shudder from her. Octavia swished around, taking a few paces away and then repeated the process, this time heading towards Vinyl. "How could you be so reckless as to give Colgate-"
"Cakaw!" A screech could be heard above the two mares.
"-Acid..."
Looking up they saw their friend, perched up on the top ledge of the restroom stall. Her hooves flapping at her sides, mimicking the motions of a bird trying to take flight. Averting her sight from the bird brain above, Octavia shot a harsh glare to her marefriend who was still looking at the spectacle.
Finally feeling the wrath of Octavia's glare, Vinyl too averted her eyes.
"Oh come on! That's not even fair!" Vinyl flailed her hoof, pointing at Colgate. "How the hell did she even climb up there?"
Giving a sigh and another turn around Octavia began to talk aloud. "I knew it." She said with a flop of her forelegs. "I just bucking knew it! I ask you one simple favor. Take Colgate out for an early birthday present while I study for my audition tomorrow. And you couldn't even do that!" Octavia thrashed herself around, coming mere inches from her maresfriends face. The two stood there still for a moment as a blue blur could be seen falling down out of the corner of their eyes.
The two turned to face Colgate, her whole lower half of her body hanging above her head in an arc. She gave a goofy smile to her friends and rolled over back onto her back. Vinyl turned back to face Octavia.
"And that's what I was doing. I know this kind of place isn't really her scene but I thought she might enjoy the change of pace. She wasn't getting into it, so I offered her some."
Octavia turned back to Vinyl. "You just offered our friend some drugs... You seriously just said that..."
"Well yeah, she's not a mind reader Tavi." Vinyl retorted
"Damnit Vinyl! We've talked about this drug habit of yours! It's got to stop! I mean look at what it's done to Colgate!" Octavia pointed a hoof to the mare that was half curled up into a ball, pawing at her tail like a kitten.
"Yeah but-"
Octavia held up a hoof to her marefriends mouth, silencing any further arguments. Giving off a heavy sigh, Octavia asked. "How many hits did you give her exactly?" She removed her hoof from Vinyls mouth to allow her to answer.
Shifting her gaze to the ceiling, Vinyl began to tap her hooves lightly together. Her mouth slightly agape, allowing a few mumbled numbers to escape.
"Well?"
"Umm, three? I think."
"Three!?"
"Well she kind of kept asking me for some more. I didn't really see the harm in it at the time." Vinyl gave a shrug.
The blue mare rolled back over onto her belly and slithered back behind Octavia before flopping back down onto her back, pawing at Octavia's tail now.
Falling onto her haunches, Octavia exhaled a sigh. In a much calmer voice she spoke. "So why did you call me over here?"
Vinyl just pointed a hoof over at Colgate. Which in turn caused Octavia to point a hoof onto her face.
"Yes, I know Colgate is the reason. But why did you need me to come over right away?"
"Well I was hoping you'd help me take her home."
"Take her where now?"
"Home. Ya know, that place where you sleep, eat and basically live in. She's obviously tripping her mind out right now, girl can't handle her acid. She needs to crash."
"She wouldn't need to if you were responsible!" Octavia stomped a hoof down onto the tiled floor below. Giving a huff Octavia's mind subsided from her rage allowing her the opportunity to question what Vinyl had just said. "Crash? What's that."
Vinyl gave a little snicker as she found her obliviousness to slang terms adorable. "Crash, basically you let whatever you're on take its course - in a safe environment - and let it leave your system naturally." The explanation seemed like something straight out of a dictionary.
"So you called me here to help you take her home..."
"Well, I didn't really wanna call you at first. Because I knew you'd give me that 'silent disappointment' look. And there it is..." Octavia's face had become frowned.
"I don't have any face like that!"
"Right, well. Colgate, she's kind of a handful right now. That is why I was pinning her down earlier when you walked in. She had tried squirming her way out of here multiple times already."
"So let me get this straight... You take Colgate - for her birthday - to a place that you'd enjoy. You ended up giving her not one or two hits, but three hits of acid. And then finally when she starts to loose her mind, that's when you call me in to help you. And your big master plan to solve all of this, is to just take her home..."
"Umm, yeah?" Vinyl said in a voice that seemed to question Octavia's intelligence.
"Oh yeah sure, right. That sounds like a great idea! Let's just take Colgate home!" Octavia bonked her hoof on her head before giving Vinyl a shocked look. "Why hadn't I thought of that? Let's just waltz on up to her home, knock on the door and when Roseluck answers we'll just tell her that you bucked up and her marefriend is tripping out on acid right now. Then after we relieve the burden off on her, we'll walk away and act like none of this happened." Octavia's tone the entire time was sarcastic, earning a frown from Vinyl.
"Well when you say it like that you can make any idea sound dumb..." Vinyl gave a pout.
"Vinyl sweetie, I'm not trying to make you upset but damnit, we gotta think this through." Octavia began to rub her temples from the migraine she could feel coming on. Lifting her head up she began. "First things first, we gotta deal with the cops."
"Cops? Woah wait a second here. Who said anything about the cops?" Vinyl instantly broke out into a cold sweat.
"There were two bouncers guarding the door out there. I had a brief encounter with one and he had made mention that the cops were coming." Octavia gave a quick once over at Vinyl before her eyes became half lidded. "Your still holding, aren't you?"
"Mmhmm." Vinyl hummed.
Giving a sigh, Octavia held out her hoof. "Give it here."
"Tavi, Tavi, Tavi, Taviii, Taviiiiiiiiiiiii." Colgate began to chant the grey mares name as Vinyl shuffled through her saddlebags, looking for the acid. When Colgate received no answer, she grabbed the base of Vinyls tail and pulled herself up with it.
"Tavvvvvviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii." Colgate drawled out in the most annoying voice Octavia could imagine a mare would have.
"What?!" Octavia twisted herself around, knocking Colgate back onto the floor. Her legs all sprawled out in an awkward position, as her face withheld a serious and stern look.
"Tavi, I can taste purple." Octavia's head jerked back a bit as her eyes stared off into space. Quite unsure of how she was suppose to respond to that. Colgate on the other hoof, let a satisfactory smile cross her lips as she began to laugh hysterically at Octavia.
"Perfect..." Octavia huffed as she turned back over to Vinyl who was now holding the 'goods'. "Okay, hand it over Vinyl."
Vinyl placed them in her hoof before asking. "What are you gonna do with them?"
"I'm gonna flush them. We need to get rid of the evidence before the police show up. I am not bailing your sorry flank out of jail again."
"Oh one time!"
"Too many."
As Octavia opened on the bathroom stalls to flush the incriminating evidence down the drain, a familiar creak was heard.
The restrooms door had been opened. Within its pathway stood a policecolt. The two mares looked at the colt who in turn stared at them. Looking away, Octavia took a quick glimpse at her hoof, the acid cubes all wrapped inside a plastic baggy. Octavia gave a heavy groan at the situation.
"You got to be kidding me... She thought to herself.
"Everyone put your hooves in there air!" The colt demanded as he brushed a hoof against his mace can.
"Tally ho lads!" Colgate yelled aloud. All three looked over to see her rump and legs, squirming through the small window that was at the top of the restroom. The policecolt instantly made a rush for the mare.
"Halt! PVPD!" That line all too familiar to Vinyl.
The rush was too little too late. Colgate had slipped through and landed on what sounded like some bushes. A few crunches of leafs could be heard among the hoofsteps as Colgate trotted away. Lifting himself up to look through the window, the policecolt started giving directions to his fellow colts in blue as to where the mare was heading next.
"How the hell did she do th-" Vinyl muttered to herself, cut off by a sudden jerk from Octavia. The grey mare charging with her marefriend in hoof at the exit.
"Come on, while he's over there looking for her through the window." Octavia said in a low hush.
Vinyl was astonished to see Octavia of all mares to be running from the police, and encouraging it at that!
Dropping down, the policecolt saw that the two mares were gone. Leaning his head in to his walkie-talkie, the colt gave more directions out.
"I got a white and grey mare heading for the south entrance. I need assistance, over."
Octavia turned the corner of the restroom alleyway, Vinyl in toe when she heard those words. Rushing for the nearest exit she gave another sigh.
Octavia overestimated her speed as she sped out of the little fillies room, into the wall of the hallway that led out to the dance floor. She naturally winced a bit at her shoulder before continuing her pace with a new limp in her step. She gave a quick glance behind herself to see if the poliecolt was in pursuit. Much to her surprise he didn't see him or the bouncers that had previously been guarding the restroom. Octavia just chalked up a few possible reasons for that being. One since the policecolt had already called for back up, he knew they would be able to apprehend the two without much fuss. That being the case he would try to follow Colgate through the path she had chosen to go a few moments prior. And as for the guards, she would have expected them to have come back by now to chew or even through Octavia out for lying at them. That or the policecolt had dismissed them. Whatever the reasoning for this stroke of luck, Octavia was glad to have it grace their current situation.
As the two fugitives reached the end of the hallway, they could see the massive crowd of party-goers engulfing over half the club, making it all but impossible to swim through in a direct line to the exit. Octavia had originally planned on that, hopefully managing to slip past the cops before they had any time to react and go inside the club. No such luck with this crowd then.
"Shit..."Octavia muttered under her breath, only for her to hear mentally. The bass from the Dj was muffling any and all other sounds being made.
Octavia stood there for a minute, holding onto Vinyl's hoof tightly as she looked upon the crowd. Taking a gulp and a mental jab to the base of her brain for her plan that was about to be set in motion, Octavia set out towards the mid of the crowd. She was welcomed just like before with jabs from various shoulders, kicking and stepping of hooves on hers. With each new strike, her anger rose higher and higher. And with each swear she would shout aloud, a dozen others would follow suit at her.
Smoke, body odor, and sweat was abundant in the crowd. Octavia struggled to keep her sanity as she continued onwards. The further she made her way in, the closer to end of the crowd seemed to get. With one final push, Octavia yelled aloud popping her and Vinyl right out of the crowd and face first onto the floor below them. With another sigh, she rose up looking at Vinyl.
"You okay?" Octavia questioned as she brushed her coat off. Vinyl gave no response as she started blankly ahead. "Vinyl! Are you okay!?" Octavia questioned again. This time Vinyl raised her right hoof towards the entrance. Turning her head to what Vinyl was pointing at, she could see the rest of the policecolts squad standing in front of them.
As if planned out, the song that blasted throughout the club ended, "We're so boned."
"You two, you match the description. You're coming with us." One of the policecolts said.
"What? Oh no, there must be some misunderstanding here sir." Octavia said ignorantly, hoping to pass off innocence to the two lawcolts in front of her. "I'm sure there are tons of mares that look like us." Octavia shrugged her forelegs up, not realizing she still had the baggy in hoof.
"So there are tons of mares running towards the exit with a bag of narcotics in hoof?" On of the officers asked, obviously amused with Octavia.
Octavia's eyes shot open as her head jerked to look at her right hoof. Once she saw the drugs in hoof she sunk her head low and replied to Vinyl. "Yup, we're boned."
The two officers approached the mares and placed cuffs on each of them. The two of them hung their heads low as they were escorted out of the club. This was nothing new to Vinyl, she had been arrested and escorted out of the club dozens of times before. Only one of which Octavia actually knew about. Octavia on the other hand couldn't wrap her head around the fact that now she was going to have a criminal record.
"This can't be happening. I can't get arrested!" Octavia screamed at herself mentally. "What if I get separated from Vinyl? What then? I don't even know what goes on in such facilities!" Just then a thought occurred to her. "What if I get a cellmate?! What if they make me their prison bitch!?"
Octavia continued her haunting thoughts as her head was tucked down to allow her easier access into the police cruiser. With a slamming of the door, the policecolt closed the door and began walking back with his partner to talk with the owner of the club who was now standing outside in front of the entrance. Octavia looked behind her to watch them. She could almost guarantee that he was going to be pressing charges on them, and Colgate once she was apprehended.
The owner was a portly fellow. He wore a dark brown suit, something that was classy and sophisticated, nothing at all like the drag his customers were wearing. He wore a thin comb over to try and cover his shining dome that could be seen from a mile away thanks to the neon lights above the club. He chewed on a cigar whilst he spoke to the cops, all the while craning his neck back as if he was going to throw up any second from now.
Octavia turned herself around and made a ruckus from the leather interior. Slowly she began lightly tapping her head against the window of the cruiser. And with each repetition she increased the amount of force she was putting into it.
Vinyl who up until now had been quietly humming to herself as if nothing bad was going on. Now that Octavia was banging her head against the window, Vinyl was now fully focused on her marefriend. She wasn't quite sure, but she swore she could hear Octavia muttering 'stupid' under her breath.
"What's eating you up?" Vinyl asked, still not sure why Octavia was doing what she was doing.
With one final slam against the window, Octavia stopped her motion. Her head was still touching the cold inside of the window, remaining perfectly still until she took a large inhale through her nose and turned to face Vinyl.
"What do you think is eating me up? I just got caught with a bag of drugs, Vinyl! We're being arrested! Our friend is Luna knows where, out of her mind, probably getting herself into more trouble, or even being hurt! I'm not longer going to have a clean record, and once word reaches the music community, I won't be able to get hired ever again! I'm going to be forced to play on the streets! Train Stations... Little kids birthday parties...And you wanna know what's eating me up." Octavia could feel a tear streak down her right cheek as she finished her rant. Turning herself around again, she leaned her head on the window and began looking out of it, hopefully to escape the reality of things for a little while.
"Wow, that sucks." Vinyl replied, still somehow un-phased about everything.
Rolling her head around on the window, Octavia looked at Vinyl with a dumbfounded expression. "How. How can you not be upset about this? Do you not care of what's happening to Colgate? To you? To me?"
Vinyl blinked a few times at the question, "Of course I do."
"Then why are you not upset!? Hell if anything, I'd say you're happy with this!"
"Oh yeah Tavi, I love being arrested in front of all my friends and my marefriend. This night is just a dream come true." Vinyl raised her tone to Octavia before settling back down with a sigh. "Look. This is no biggie." Vinyl paused for a second to look over her shoulder. She could see the policecolts making their way back over to them. "When they get into the car, don't say a word. Wait for my signal, and follow my lead."
"What? Vinyl what are you talking ab-" Octavia cut herself off as the passenger door opened up. Octavia however continued to look at Vinyl with a worried look, the white mare only gave a wink in response. Octavia took a gulp and faced forward.
The two colts got into the cruiser, buckling themselves in before starting the car up. The driver flipped a switch on the front panel of the cruiser, alighting the car and turning the sirens on. Red and blue flashed around the squad car as they began to pull away from the front of the club.
Not a word was said from the colts to the two mares. Octavia welcomed the silence, she couldn't be bothered to speak now anyways. Octavia took a glance out of the window again and saw the long line of party-goers still waiting outside passing by them. When the line disappeared, Octavia slowly lugged her head away from the window and turn back over to Vinyl. Vinyl looked at Octavia with a warm smile as she waved her right hoof to her. Octavia didn't pay any attention to her, she let out a deflating sigh and bumped her head against the front passenger seat slightly. The grey mare remained there for a second or two before her head shot back up. Her eyes were the size of pins, her brow was already breaking into a cold sweat, and a thousands jolts of fear shot through her spine. Slowly moving her gaze over to Vinyl, she could see that she did indeed have her right hoof free, and was still waving at her.
How in the hell did she do that?! She screamed in her mind as her jaw became agape.
Without another moments notice, Vinyl lunged towards Octavia and wrapped her hooves around her marefriend. Giving a headbutt to the protect glass that separated the mares from the police, Vinyl gained the attention of the two colts. With a coy smile she shouted at them, "You dun goofed!".
With that said, Vinyl tucked her head into Octavia's neck and her horn shone a bright blue. Vinyl's side door flung open and the light faded right after that. Still dumbfounded, and confused as to what was going to, Octavia could feel a tugging at the back of her neck as Vinyl leaned backwards towards the opened cruiser door. The two mares flung themselves out of the cruiser, Vinyl having wrapped herself around Octavia took a majority of the blows that came from landing on the streets asphalt.
The two spun for about twenty feet before they became separated. Both of them coughing and wincing at their pain as they stood up. The police cruiser was just now starting to screech and turn back around for them.
With the realization that they were now outside of the police cruiser, Octavia turn to Vinyl, "What the hell was that! You could have killed us!" Octavia cried. The grey mare was about to yell another sentence at Vinyl when they heard the roar of the cruiser revving its engine.
Turning around, Octavia could see the police cruiser, now fully turned around, facing them. Octavia jerked her head back over to Vinyl who was also looking at the car. Another rev from the cruiser could be heard.
"Cheese it!" Vinyl cried aloud and began running into an open alleyway that was to the left of them, between two tall shops. One being the Sofa and Quills shop. The other being Roseluck's custom flower arrangement.
"Wait Vinyl, what!?" Octavia yelled at her marefriend who was already 30 or so yards away from her. A screech from the cruiser echoed through the streets as it started making its way towards Octavia who was still standing in the same place that she had stopped rolling at. Without another thought, Octavia began to run in the same direction that Vinyl had headed down a few seconds ago, "Cheesing it!".
Octavia could feel her heart throb inside of her chest as she gasped for air. Typically physical activity wouldn't make her wheeze like this, but the extended amount of sprinting was starting to take its toll on the mare.
For the past couple of minutes Octavia had been chasing down the miniscule flash of Vinyl's electric blue tail that always seemed to slip out of sight after each corner she would turn. The lights from buildings hung off of the walls illuminating her path, yet she still had to squint to see where she was heading. Everywhere in front of her, cardboard, bags of garbage, homeless and even occasional drunk, staggering around in a drunken stupor. Each obstacle set in her path, she maneuvered around with some difficulty. She hated admitting it to herself, but even still early in her twenties, she was no spry filly.
Craning her head back she could better hear the thundering hoofsteps of the cops in hot pursuit of her. Once Octavia had reached the entrance of the alleyway, a fit far too small for any car to squeeze through in, they proceeded to chase her on hoof and had been close on her tail the entire time. Octavia could even begin to see a large silhouette on one of the walls at the last corner she had just went by. Their shadows striking fear into Octavia.
She took a gulp at the sight and turned her head around to see her path ahead. As she got a quick glance of her path, she could feel her hoof slip across the ground forcing Octavia to stumble to the ground. Groaning a bit, she could feel the new wet presence on her coat that came from the puddle that had forced her slip up. Struggling up to all fours, Octavia began her run again, this time with a obvious limp in her hind legs.
She could feel her legs giving way under the weight of her body as she was reaching the next turn of the alleyway. She slowed her pace a bit in order to make the sharpest turn she could make without injuring herself more so from the force of her sprint. Just as she was slowed to a decent pace, she felt a something tug on her mane, ripping her body forward as her hair stayed in the same place, motionless in the air, surrounded by a blue aura. There was a moments pause before the blue aura quickly sucked her up into a cardboard box that laid next to her.
Her vision went black. She could hear a low pitched hiss, telling her to be quiet, Octavia obliged considering there was a hoof covering her mouth now.
That didn't stop her from crying aloud. "Help! I'm being abducte-". She was cut off from the hoof being replaced on her mouth, this time firmer than before.
"Do you want to get caught? No? Then shut up!" The familiar voice scolded her in a hushed tone.
This time she remained quiet and still as she could hear the policecolts quickly approaching them. Octavia's heart was racing, she knew she was going to be found. There is no way that she was going to get away. But just as quickly as they had come, they were gone, heading down the same path Octavia would have taken moments before. The mare breathed a sigh of relief as she removed the hoof that was muzzling her mouth.
A small dim light began to illuminate the damp, dark occupied box. Octavia looked up and could see Vinyl with a large grin across her face.
"You cheesed it." Vinyl said as she climbed out of the box. Octavia didn't understand her but joined her on the outside anyways.
Shaking off a can that had engulfed her hoof, and removing an old rotten banana peel from her hindquarter Octavia replied,"What else was I suppose to do? Not like I can say 'Oh no officers, I didn't mean to jump out of a moving vehicle, and try to escape.' Somehow I don't think that would have gone over too well." Octavia cracked her neck a few times before a thought occurred in her mind. "Hey Vinyl, how the hell did you get out of your cuffs?" She asked as she pointed towards her hooves.
Following Octavia's gaze to her hooves, Vinyl looked at the too before scuffing one on the ground. "Oh that? Psh, can't really arrest a unicorn with just hoofcuffs now can ya?"
Octavia could feel another mental jab to the brain when she heard the simplistic response that was somehow to complicated for her to figure out. In the end though she just chalked it up 'being too in the moment' to really think about what was happening.
Shrugging off the spare adrenaline she still retained from her chase from just moments ago, Octavia regained her regular breathing patterns. With closed eyes she let loose a deep breath and took a momentary still pause before looking at Vinyl. With eyes now reopened she looked at her partner in crime. As if a bolt of lightning striking the ground at the midnight hour, Octavia jolted her right arm at Vinyl, striking her square in the shoulder. Fierce anger burned within her eyes.
"What in the world was that for?!" Vinyl wailed at Octavia as she hissed a bit at the pain.
"What do you think?!"
"I don't know, you've been in a pissy mood all night so far."
"Pissy?! You think that's how I am right now!?" Octavia let loose another flurry onto Vinyl. Most of her punches missing their intended target and just hitting wherever they pleased. "Do you think I'm suppose to act excited about this?" She questioned once her rage had subsided enough for her to create a coherent sentence. "I mean, did it ever once occur to you that maybe jail for a couple of days might had been preferable to running away from the law? Again? Not only did we just run from them, we're technically escapees. And oh no we couldn't just end it there, nu uh." Octavia shook her hoof in the air a bit. "No, you had to egg them on too! They're so going to add harassing a police officer to the charges once they've caught our flanks."
"I think you're making apples out of oranges." Vinyl replied.
Octavia only squinted at her. Her mouth slightly open, positioned to say something but couldn't quite find the words to say to that. "What? Ho- What does that even mean?"
"It means that you're seeing this situation totally different then what it should be." She finally replied.
"No I think you misused an analogy." Octavia replied flatly.
"Not even. Let's look at the facts. Yes we're fugitives. Yes we have two really irritated police colts after us. Yes you got caught with a baggy of drugs."
"We got caught, and they were yours to begin with. I was just trying to fix the situation." Octavia quickly interjected.
"Whatever. Anyways. Our friend might be out somewhere in town, quite possibly having the most psychodelic experience of her young life with no one to guide her through it. And she may even somehow stumble home and we'd be busted by Roseluck the next time we see her."
"Ya know, this isn't really helping. Not. One. Bit"
"Not yet, because that's what you see. What I see is a golden opportunity to solve all of this."
Octavia's ears perked up at Vinyl's claim. "And just how do you plan on doing that?"
"Well, let's assume just for one second that the police colts really are mad at us and completely hellbent on capturing us again. If they weren't able to capture us to begin with, or keep us contained at least, then what would they do? They'd have to call for back up, and who do you think they'd call? The only other police colt that was with them over at the club. The one who was chasing after Colgate."
"I really don't see the point in all of this..."
"Shh." Vinyl quieted Octavia by slowly raising her hoof to Octavia's mouth and tapping it gently. "Shh." Vinyl added in another quick hushing to verify she'd be quiet. Octavia looked on at Vinyl with a un-amused expression and half lidded eyes. "The point is, if he hasn't caught Colgate yet, then he'll be dropping that to come after us. I mean who's on their priority list here? The fugitives that made idiots out of them, of the mare that's a little induced right now."
Octavia raised a hoof to respond but quickly lowered it back down afterwards. "That-That's actually well thought out."
"See? You gotta look at the world through a half full glass, not half empty."
"Okay so if you're so clever, then how are we going to go through the streets to find Colgate without being caught with a bigger squad after us than before?"
"Who said anything about finding Colgate?" Vinyl replied, clueless.
"Vinyl!" Octavia jabbed her again.
"Ow, jeesh relax. It was just a joke." Vinyl raised a hoof to her chin and began to ponder. "I need a minute to think..."
***
The air was crisp, cool and chilled the bones of one stallion by the name of Quake Marble who rolled down the street of his fair city of where he had been born. His hair was a light green, almost a lime if you'd like. While the rest of his body was a deep red that he always felt was the worst possible luck to have such clashing colors. His face was not rugged, but showed a great deal of years, with bags under his eyes, wrinkles just now starting to from on his foreheads and his eyes quite plainly displaying crows feet.
Quake Marble ran the local roller ring, a popular hangout for all the youngsters of the town to enjoy after school and during the weekend. It was a mild means of making a living and he had always been more than content with it. Throughout his childhood and into his adulthood he had always held a stiff upper lip. Through marriage, fatherhood and every other endeavor he has been challenged with he had always taken it in strive.
Recently Quake had had an accident while doing the daily round at the roller ring. While testing out the recently cleaned ring for himself before letting the eagerly awaiting customers outside to come in, a malfunction occurred with his skates causing him to loose control and veer into the wall of the ring, instantly breaking one of his legs. After a quick reset of his bones and a newly applied cast added to the wounded limb, he was ready to go on with his life as normal, if you don't count the addition of the wheelchair.
For the past week Quake Marble had learned how difficult life could be with a wheelchair, even if it was only temporary. Feeling restless in his house from sitting around all day, he decided to take a stroll around his neighborhood to clear his mind and get some fresh air.
The light ahead of him flickered on and off as he continued to stroll himself along the sidewalk, not really paying any attention to anything in general, just enjoying the night he had been blessed with. He turned his head to see what was ahead of him for the next couple of feet. Light were the only thing ahead of him. One of lights bulbs were appearing to be going out. Quickly flickering on and off. Not paying much mind to the light, Quake turned his focus else where. For a moment the light went completely black for a before coming back on. When they were fully on again, there stood a lone blue mare with a white streak through her mane and tail. Her head hung downwards as she stood up on her hind legs. Her forelegs slouched at her sides, ridden with mud. Her mane was thick with twigs and leaves. Quake caught the mare out of the corner of his eye and quickly gave it his full attention. He slowed down from his roll earning him a squeak from his old hospital issued wheelchair.
"H-Hello?" He asked, now completely stopped. The mare did not respond. He decided to call out again. "Are you okay?" There was still no response.
Quake Marble gripped his wheelchair with one of his hooves, ready to start moving away just as the light from the streetlight faded again. Quake's eyes widened as he searched frantically in the dark where the mare had stood just moments before. When the streetlight decided to come back online, the mare was standing just a few feet from him. Instantly he jerked the wheels on his wheelchair, pushing himself back only a foot or so.
"Don't come any closer!" Startled, confused and a bit nervous at the mares actions he demanded that of her, in hopes that she'd listen.
The blue mare muttered something under her breath, inaudible to anyone except her. Her head still hung down as she spoke.
"What?"
"Tally ho..." Colgate stated as she raised her head, letting it lean to a side as she smiled at the stallion.
"Wh-What?"
Without another moments notice, the mare lunged forward, landing on Quake Marbles wheelchair, propelling him down the sidewalk at a great speed. The sidewalk he had been strolling on just second before slowly began to slope further downwards until it was a continuous downhill path for as far as the eye could see.
Quake Marble's eyes bolted out of his sockets as he jerked his head backwards, seeing his life flashing before his eyes. The silence that the night had once held a minute ago had disappeared, quickly being replaced with a scream. However, the screams by Mr. Quake Marble were whispers in comparison to the ear deafening scream of Colgate riding her heart out on the wheelchair shouting.
The ear shattering sound of metal clashing against metal broke Vinyl's internal pondering of what to do next. Both mares gave a quick yelp and nearly jumped out of their skin as they gripped each other in fear. A moment passed before another sound was heard, some pony a block or so down the way could be heard yelling something barely decipherable through their thick accent. It was something along the lines of cursing out adolescents for screwing around with the wheel board and their rolling shoes.
Look away from the direction that the sound came from, Vinyl turned to Octavia, "What was that?"
"I don't know to be honest. Didn't sound too good whatever it was."
Octavia was the first of the two to loosen her grip and move away from the other. She took a couple of steps towards the sound, wondering what could have made such an awful sound, especially the late at night. Craning her neck back around to Vinyl, she gave a nudge at the general direction.
"Come on, let's go see what happened."
"What? Hey! Wait up a second. Why would we go see what happened, what about Colgate?" Vinyl leaned out with a hoof in hopes to stop the mare that was well out of reach.
"Oh come on. Strange sound in the middle of the night, within the general area surrounding the club we just came from and a missing friend that has sober thoughts right now. I'd say whatever that noise is, it's going to be our best bet for finding Colgate. It's either that, or somepony actually needs some assistance right now and if that's the case we need to be there to lend a hoof."
"You're joking right..." Vinyl questioned with no amusement to Octavia's statement. It was clear she thought what a poor idea Octavia had just come up with was.
"No, why?" She asked innocently.
"Okay so, we, " Vinyl waved her hoof to the both of them as she took a couple of steps towards Octavia, "You and I should just go towards a strange sound that has quite possibly woken up half of the town on the off chance that our induced friend is over there. Not only that but you want to pull the good samaritan card and go help them. Do I seriously have to remind you of what just happened here?"
"No." Octavia had almost forgotten about the chase just moments before.
"Well apparently you do. They. Were. Chasing. Us. Do you realize what they would have done to us if they caught us?!"
"Arrest us?"
"Yes! Maybe worse. Maybe they'd be so annoyed with us that they'd make us disappear for good, chop us up into little bits and feed us as kibble to their dogs!" Vinyl stretched her lower eyelids down her cheeks some to get her gruesome image across.
"How many..."
"How many what?"
"You know damn well what. How many hits did you take with Colgate."
"Just two." Octavia raised an eyebrow. "Three"
"Great. So I'm the only one with any brains right now..."
"Say's the pony that would be in jail if it weren't for me right now."
"Say's the pony that's the reason for me going to jail in the first place!" Octavia struck a pointed hoof at Vinyl's direction.
"Oh right. Well it was your fault for trusting me in the first place! Ha!" Vinyl repeated Octavia's pose before her ears drooped down some and she sat back on her haunches. "Wait, that's not right..."
"Look," Octavia started off in hopes of changing the conversation. "Yelling at each other isn't going to solve anything for us right now. That sound, whatever it may be is still most likely our best bet. Seeing as we have no idea on where she'd be right now. But, and as much as I hate to admit it, you're right."
"I am?"
"Yes. The police colts are probably already over there, especially since they were already running off in the direction of where it came from. So let's think for one second. If, hypothetically, Colgate is over there. What are the chances that she hasn't been caught yet and how would we be able to get to her first?"
"Not good. Colgate was kind of... The highlight of the party. She was impossible to miss over there. So assuming she's still acting the same crazy she was over at the club, she's gonna get noticed."
"What we need, is a way to check out the scene without getting noticed."
Vinyl looked up at the sky in thought, hoping that the cosmos would somehow give her an answer while Octavia paced around in circles, one hoof held to her mouth as she looked at the ground. Tilting her head back down to the alleyway, something caught her attention out of the corner of her.
"I think I have an idea." Vinyl looked at her idea with a keen smirk.
Octavia walked to the side of her and gave a quick concerned look to her before looking at Vinyl's idea.
"You can't be serious..."
"What? What's wrong with it?"
"Everything! Do you really think they'd be that stupid not to notice us?!"
"Well do you have any better ideas genius? We are kind of on a tight schedule here."
~~~~
"I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my life." Was Octavia's internal mantra as she scurried close to her marefriends rear end in the tight confines of the moldy, smelly, wet cardboard. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this!" Octavia hissed at Vinyl in a hushed volume.
"Quit your bitching." Vinyl replied.
"Oh I'll show you bitching once we get home. Ugh, I think I'm walking on a rotten pepperoni slice." She groaned in detest.
"Shut up, we're almost there."
"And where is 'there' exactly?"
"Just over this hill top. Easy now, it's about to become steep."
Vinyl had been the navigator of this trek with the use of two eye holes she had fashioned with the use of her horn prodding the exterior of the box.
. From the alleyway, they had waddled their way towards the area they remember the sound coming from. That just so happened to be Ponyvilles public park. The public land was usually a bustling area for families and friends alike to enjoy their day in peace during the day. But at night it had become the stalking grounds for one high mare and one disgruntled mare crammed in a waddling cardboard box.
"What hill? I can't see anything."
"This hill. Careful now, the grass is slick."
Octavia gave a flustered huff as she puffed Vinyl's tail away from her face. Just being in the confines of the box was driving her up the wall with the greatest of ease.
"Hold." Vinyl stated as she shot up her right arm straight up to the sky, almost punching a whole right through their disguise. The box that had been hovering a couple of inches above the ground below collapsed down making a hollow thud sound.
Throughout the trek Vinyl had taken command of the actions Octavia was to take. And although these actions only consisted of 'hold' and 'go', it annoyed her to no end to be force led by Vinyl.
"Oh come on! Why are we stopped this time!"
"A hunch..." Vinyl replied.
"A what?! A hunch!" Octavia shouted at her in the lowest tone she could possibly manage while in her state.
"Yes a hunch, and my hunches have gotten us this far have they not?"
"You're counting us crossing the street aren't you..."
"Yes."
"The light was green! You nearly got us killed. Good thing that car swerved out of the way."
"Right, and if wasn't for my hunch to waddle faster, we would be pancakes right now."
Octavia took a long exasperated blink, "I'm going to kill you."
"I had a hunch you'd betray me." Vinyl replied honestly.
"I'll hunch you!" Octavia shoved at Vinyl, forcing her to topple forward and in turn flipping the entire box over.
The two mares slid down the deep slope that Vinyl had warned about just a couple of seconds earlier. Now instead of moving at their own pace they were now forced to weave in and out of rocks, bushes, benches and trash cans that seemed to be littered all through their path, or they would had been weaving in and out of rocks, bushes, benches and trash cans if either one of them were sitting right side up. With their rear ends towards the sky, the two slid out of control rolling over multiple times before the started to skip down the hill landing on every part of their body instantly gaining bruises ranging from purple to blue. With one final skip the box landed in the sand, spitting the two from the inside. Landing on the stomach the two began groaning and rubbing various parts of their body.
"Mutinous traitor." Vinyl whined out.
"Self fulfilling tyrant." replied in the same tone. "Where are we now?"
Spitting out a few grains of sand Vinyl answered, "Kiddy sand box."
"Are we at the bottom of the hill?"
"I think so."
"How's the disguise?"
"It's... seen better days."
"Really? And being mold ridden wasn't it's golden days?" Octavia asked as she lifted herself up, soon helping Vinyl up as well. "Ah crap." Octavia exhaled as she could see the tattered box lying over a swaying swing seat. "Now what..."
"Excuse me." A voice called out at them.
The two froze in place. Both quickly breaking into a cold sweat with beaded eyes. Both of them shot looks at one another, communicating only with their eyes.
"Excuse me, a little help here?" The voice called out again.
Octavia reluctantly turned her head over to see a shocking scene. There laid a elder colt on a metal trash bin. A massive indent on it's side where he laid. His leg covered in a cast and his head bleeding slightly from a cut just above his eyebrow. Rushing over, Octavia got down onto his level.
"Oh my- are you alright?" Octavia asked.
"Oh yeah I'm dandy don't ya know? I'm just here, freezing my ass off, gazing at the stars while the trash can shoves its pointed edges into my back some more. No I'm not alright! What's wrong with you!" The elder colt yelled at Octavia.
"Not her leg." Vinyl hushed under breath having recently come to the side of Octavia who was still kneeling down helping the colt up.
"Zip it missy." Quake snapped at her, pointing his hoof towards her.
"Sorry for my friend, she's a bit... Much at times." Octavia apologizing for Vinyl who was glaring down Quake. "Here, let me help you up." Octavia wrapped her hooves underneath Quakes pits and begin lifting him up to his hind legs. Leaning on her on his one good leg her, he gained his bearings once more. "What happened to you? I can't imagine you did this to yourself."
"Of course not! Some crazy blue mare showed up out of nowhere, yelled 'tally ho' at me and rode me like a freaking bike down the hill over there and I ended up crashing down here."
"That's Colgate!" Octavia cried jumping up again. Quake still a bit unstable lost his balance and fell down onto the cement again letting out a massive cry of pain.
"Oh this is going to be fun." Vinyl noted as she smirked at Octavia who glared back at Vinyl.
The trio straggled along as they walked up the hill Quake had previously been ridden down on. Vinyl was far ahead of the pack and Octavia took notice.
"Ya know, a little help would be appreciated here..." Octavia proclaimed in a strained tone to the white mare. Octavia had been carrying the older stallion up the hill thus far but was quickly running out of steam to keep him aloft.
"Yes, yes it would." Was her only response as she slowly sauntered ahead of them some more.
"Vinyl, help!" Octavia demanded this time rather than giving a subtle suggestion, hoping to get the gears in the white mares mind running.
"Why? You're the one that decided to help him," Vinyl responded turning back to face the duo. "But you're the one that kept going on and on and on about how we have to help this guy. Why? We know which way she went, let's go get her!" Vinyl, still trying to persuade Octavia to leave Quake to rummage in the garbage that had begun to engulf him from the impact earlier.
"We coudln't just leave him down there!"
"Why the hell not?" Her voice cracked at the peak of her new found octave. "Is it our fault he crashed? No. Is it our fault he decided to get ridden like a bike down a ridiculously steep hill? No. Is it our fault that Colga-"
"Yes, it is our fault..."
"How!?"
"Well technically it's your fault, and you know damn well how. Not stop your crying and get over here and help me."
With a pouted look and ears pinned back, Vinyl took her time to reach the two who were still struggling up the hill. Once she reached them she took the other free hoof and draped it over her back taking a great deal of weight off of Octavia instantly.
After a few moments of silence, Vinyl puffed some of her stray hair from the front of her face. She could now see the full brightness of the yellow beams of light being sprawled through to every crack and crevice of the neighborhood via the lamp lights. She looked up into the distance, to the base of the hill and then back towards Mr. Quake.
"So just what the hell were you doing out here this late at night anyways?" She questioned.
"I-I was out for a walk." Quake stammered out.
"A walk?"
"Yes, a walk. What? You never go outside every now and again to clear your mind? There's nothing wrong with that!" Quake took a defensive tone as he completed his explanation.
"Vinyl has - other means of clearing her mind. Or at least that's what she claims." Vinyl shot daggers at Octavia for her unsubtle comment.
"Well I'm sorry we're not all born with a stick up our butts." Vinyl shot back at her with head held high, and eyes fully shut.
"Yes and we're not all competent enough to take a friend out for a nice night on the town and not loose her." Octavia calmly and coldly retorted.
"I told you already, It's not my fault!"
"Well it sure wasn't mine, so that only leaves you..."
"Ya know what!?"
"No I don't know 'what', please enlighten me." Octavia quickly shot back.
A few puffs of air escaped Vinyls mouth. What were meant to be the words of a sassy comeback were coming out in a flustered bunch of grumbles. She couldn't pick one thing to say in response to Octavia other than 'Forget this!', before she shrugged Quake off of her, forcing all of the weight to come back onto Octavia. The grey mare nearly topped over from the sudden shove. Octavia cried out to Vinyl to come back to her and help but Vinyl was already walking away at a speedy pace with no intentions of coming back to help her.
"Dammit Vinyl..." Octavia muttered as she struggled to keep a wincing Mr Quake off the ground. Barely regaining both of their composure, Octavia stood there panting for a few moments to catch her breath. The two of them took only a few steps more before Octavia's legs began to buckle underneath their combined weight. "W-would you mind if we rest for a moment?". Quake only responded with a simple nod.
Carefully positioning her body, Octavia slowly leaned Quake downwards onto the grass besides the sidewalk, in hopes not to harm him any further. Once he was firmly down on the grass, Octavia collapsed her rump onto the grass as well, having to shoot her forelegs behind her quickly to prevent a stumble. She panted aloud as she looked up at the sky silently thinking to herself of how out of shape she had gotten. Quake on the other hand just sat there staring at the grey mare.
"She's a bit brash isn't she?" He questioned, breaking Octavia's heavy breathing. She chuckled at the question as she steadied her breath.
"Yeah, she can be at times. Well, most of the time at least."
"I couldn't tell." Quake earned another chuckle from Octavia. "So, what's the story with your friend?".
"Oh I don't know... Sometimes I wonder why I'm even with someone like that. I mean, I guess I love her. But I can't help but feel like she takes me for granted. She tries, and I know she does but it just seems like whenever something gets to be too much she just bails on me." Octavia turned to face Quake and put her hoof on his leg and leaned in to him to put more weight on her words. "And this isn't even the first time shes done something like this! Oh no. No, she's left me plenty of times before. Just this last month, at our friend Roses party, she announced that her and her marefriend had just been approved for adopting a foal of their own. They've only been together for two years! Me and Vinyl, five. Five years and no signs of commitment. I ask her if we'd ever consider having a foal of our own and she gets incredibly defensive with me and leaves the party! Not right away of course and not obviously, but she slid out when no one was looking. When we all got together at the end of the party to take a group picture was when we all finally noticed she had left. I was the only person standing there by myself! I couldn't believe her. I felt so embarrassed!"
Quake stood there, his stare blank as he let her vent to him. When she finally stopped talking, Quake spoke up. "I was actually talking about the friend of yours that rode me like a bike down the hill back there..."
"Oh... O-of course you did." Octavia turned away from Quake and tried covering her face with one of her hooves to hid her immense blushing.
"Do you want to keep talking about her?" He questioned.
"Oh no no!" She waved her hooves in disapproval at the proposal in hopes to stop the topic dead in it's tracks. "We uh-" she cleared her throat, "we can talk about Colgate, sure."
"So why did she do what she did?"
"It's a long story..." She took a deep breath as she looked up at the night sky once more. "It's her birthday today you see. And although I wanted to help her make it special, I actually have an audition in the morning for a cellist spot and was unable to join her. So, I entrusted Vinyl, Ms. Brash rather, with taking her out this evening and treating her to a nice night out. I had 'assumed' that she would just take her out to dinner or do something that 'she' wanted to do. Instead I come to find out, quite rudely at that, that she had in fact taken the birthday girl to a club that Vinyl frequents. And because Colgate felt like a fish out of water, Vinyl offered her acid... Multiple hits at that. And thanks to the fact that she, to the best of my knowledge, has never been on drugs before in her life, is currently out of her mind somewhere out in the city tonight."
"Well that wasn't a very long story."
"No there's more..." Octavia hung her head in shame. "We're kind of sort of maybe just the littlest smidgen bit of fugitives from the police now..."
"What!?"
"Yeah... Remember how I said I had a rude way of finding out about all this? Well, I was actually just about to fall asleep so that I could get an early start in the morning, when I get a phone call from Vinyl. She was completely freaked out on the phone and ended up hanging up on me. Knowing the kind of messes she gets into I decided to see what was going on... You know, in hindsight I probably shouldn't have trusted her with something this simple in the first place. Anyways, upon arrival I searched the club and eventually found them in the bathroom, or Colgate's makeshift prison for the time being. Apparently she had made so much ruckus they had to confine her in the bathroom."
"Why didn't they just throw her out?"
"From the events of tonight, I'm assuming they couldn't truly catch her. Only lead her into a trap. So I began questioning Vinyl about what was going on exactly. During our conversation I come to learn that Vinyl still had some drugs on her. I demanded she give them to me so I could get rid of the evidence and just as she hands it to me, the cops bust the door in and catch me red-hoofed. So naturally I just ran away, Vinyl in hoof..."
"Wait, you just left your friend there?"
"No, of course not... She wiggled her way through a ceiling window right as the cops busted in. We've been trying to catch her ever since." Mr. Quake began to chuckle at the very idea of a mare being able to perform such an act. Slowly his chuckle became a full on chuckle. "And just what the hell is so damn funny?" Octavia scowled.
"I think you mares are going about things all wrong. Think about it? You've escaped for now, but then what? You think the police are just going to let you go? Tomorrow they're still going to be after you. And the day after that, and the day after that. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's not going to work out well for any of you..."
"So why in the world are you laughing?!" Octavia was growing impatient with Quake's words.
"I'm laughing because there is an obvious solution for all of this..."
"This is it?" Octavia questioned Quake as the two sauntered towards a house.
"Yup that's her alright. How do I look?" Quake jokingly asked.
Through her broken breathing pattern she had developed from hauling the two of them up the steep hill she replied, "Like trash."
The two shared a laugh that was highlighted from the clanging of wind chimes that hung suspended from a wire in front of Quake's home. The house was a two story, victorian styling. Support beams covered in white, slightly chipped, pant accented the overhead roof that led in front of the entrance. The entrance way was a massive entity split between two wooden doors, one could pick and choose which to enter or exit from. A large window displayed a warm homely setting on the inside where Octavia could make out Quakes wife in her chair sitting next to a lit fire place, focusing on her book.
"Look." Quake spoke up. Octavia turned her attention from the house back to the stallion. "My wife is known for... Being a bit over dramatic. If I look half as bad as I think I do, then she's gonna get hysterical. Best let me do all the talking for a bit alright?"
"Uh, sure yeah." Octavia responded as they reached the door to the house.
Quake padded himself all over his body a few times before slumping his head down and muttering a curse. Lifting his head back he looked at Octavia with an ironic smile. "Seems I've lost my keys somewhere along this trek. Just my luck huh?" He chuckled slightly along with Octavia before he cleared his throat. He straightened his back up a bit and knocked the door several times.
An immediate motion was heard from the other side, heading closer and closer. The door creaked open a bit. All that could be seen was a small slit of the inside accompanied with a sliver of a face and one full blue eye peering through. Without even a second passing by, the door slung fully open and an audible gasp could be heard from the mare inside as she put a hoof to her mouth.
"Hi honey." Quake said as warmly as possible before a knee jerk slap struck him across the face. The stallion quickly fell to the ground from Octavia's grip.
"Oh crap, you alright Quake?!" Octavia cried as she reached down towards the stallion.
****
"I mean, it's not my fault right?! I-I mean, come on! That stuck up...Prissy... Annoying, know it all! Gah!" Vinyl cried aloud as she flailed her hooves over her head before letting them fall behind her head, slinging over the bus stops bench, almost hitting her new found friend. Her eyes focusing at the sky above before she looked over at a hefty mare, half way in a fetal position. Clearly uncomfortable with Vinyl. "You don't think I'm wrong right?" Vinyl asked as she turned her body towards the mare, lifting one of her hooves away from behind the bench to point at herself. The mare instantly shook her head as a firm 'no', maintaining the look of fear that had been in her eyes the entire time. "Ha!" Vinyl cried again as a bus pulled up to the station. "I knew I was right! She can't be the queen of I told you land forever now can she?" Vinyl proclaimed as the mare once again shook no as she got up and walked towards the bus in a hurried pace.
The door hissed as it opened for the mare who couldn't wait to shove herself into the vehicle. The driver tried to welcome her with a friendly 'hello' before being silenced by the mare. "That pony is crazy! Just drive and get us the hell out of here." She hushed at the driver. Without an hesitation the driver closed the door back up and pulled away leaving Vinyl at the stop alone.
Vinyl watched as the bus pulled away from her, still caught up on the thought of possibly being right before snapping out of her daze. "H-Hey, good talking to ya! I knew I could count on you!" She cried, "Whoever you were..." She whispered, biting her hoof in the process. Vinyl leaned back into the bench and let out a large sigh. "Doesn't matter anyways." Her ears drooped down as low as they can drop. She stayed motionless for a minute or two before crying out in anger, "Argh! What the hell good is being right if everyone is either pissed off at you, or you can't even find them!?" Her sudden burst ended and she fell back down into a slumped position on the bench.
This whole night is so fucked up... Hell who am I kidding? I'm not right, this entire thing is my fault.It's not enough that I ruined Colgate's birthday, but probably messed things up with her and Roseluck... Man, not enough that I probably messed what they had going on up, but Oct-.
Vinyl tried snapping herself out of her thoughts, slapping her face with both hooves multiple times. before slowly letting them slid down her cheeks into her lap. She sniffled a bit before clearing her throat.
"What the hell do I do Tavi?"
A rattling of a nearby trash can at the corner of the street echoed into Vinyl's ears. She glanced over it slightly before turning her gaze to its point of origin again.
"Stupid raccoons..." Another noise shook through the nights air. "Hey! Can you not see I'm having a crisis over here you filthy rodent!?" Vinyl proclaimed as loudly as she could, turning her vision back over to the trash can. She could now see the swishing of a blue and white tail dancing just above the rim of the trash can. "What the hell is that?" She questioned as she got up from her seat.
Taking very cautious steps she made her way towards the trash. During her walk various objects were being thrown out of the top of the Trash. Anything ranging from wrappers, to old moldy food, to yesterdays newspaper.
"H-Hello?" Vinyl called out as she began to use her horn to illuminate the area. The creature stopped its rummaging as the tail disappeared into the can. Vinyl repeated herself and called out to the creature again. Instantly Colgate's head popped out of the trash, a pair of panties in mouth. Startled, Vinyl shot back a foot or two before realizing it was her friend within the can.
"Colgate? holy crap, is that you?" Colgate's entire face was covered in smears of various colors. Her hair looked to be slightly singed at the tips and her pupils were now the size of saucers. Vinyl took a step forward her friend. "It's okay Colgate, Just relax. I'm here to help..." Vinyl said as calmly as she possibly could. Her heart continued racing at a steady pace from the startling she had just received. Colgate's saucers for eyes took a quick look at Vinyl's motion towards her and reacted with a large hiss. "You little shit, did you just hiss at me?!" Vinyl proclaimed in a stern voice as she took another step forward, this time with a pouted chest. Colgate let out a yelp as she shot out from the trash can and began running through the streets, leaving a trail of rubbish in her wake. "Wait! No, crap! Hey come back here!" Vinyl cried as she quickly followed in suit of the deranged mare.
****
"Well you deserved it. Dammit Quake, I was worried sick! Imagine my surprise when I walk upstairs, dinner in hoof, expecting you to be there in bed and then you're gone! Celestia only knows how in the hell you got down the stairs with that wheelchair of yours without making a ruckus." Penny Marble, Mr. Quake's wife exclaimed as her cleaning of the dishes became more intense. She took a pause and let loose a sigh, setting down the dishes before turning around from the sink. "I guess I should thank you though Ms.?"
Octavia looked up from her cup of tea that she had been given by Penny. "Oh- Uh, Octavia ma'am. And it was no problem really, it was the least I could do for somepony in trouble." Octavia smiled a bit as she set down her tea onto a brown cork coaster that rested on the wooden dining room table where her and Quake were both seated.
Quake winced a bit as he positioned himself to a more pleasing position. In addition to a reapplied casting on his broken leg, his front forearm was now hanging within a sling. His head where the cut had been exposed was not completely concealed by fabric, knitted tightly in the back by Penny Quake. "Like I said dear, I didn't mean to make you worry. I just wanted to get out of the house is all. It's been so damned frustrating having everything done for me lately. I just wanted to have a minute alone is all."
A quick huff of air was all the response Penny gave to Quake before turning around and focusing her attention back to the dishes. "Well I hope you got all the fresh air your lungs could hold. Lord knows you're not going anywhere for a while longer now." Penny said with a aggravated tone.
Octavia sipped from her tea again, darting her eyes back and forth between the two. Setting her drink back down she leaned in and hushed at Quake. "Is uh, is everything okay?"
Quake glanced at his wife's backside before leaning in towards Octavia. "Believe me this is nothing. You should have seen the kind of backlash I got when I was going through my midlife crisis and bought a boat. She's never lived that one down."
"That doesn't sound like that terrible of a thing..."
"Oh it wasn't buying the boat. It was when we first set sail. She must have fallen overboard at least ten times. Each time I died laughing." Quake chucked a bit in amusement in the memory. "She didn't speak to me for a week and made me sale the dang thing too."
Octavia shared in the laugh Quake got from his reminiscing. She leaned back in her chair and picked her cup back up for another drink, pausing halfway through. "Hey, Quake?"
"Hmm?" Quake hummed as he was taking a sip from his drink as well.
"Back at the hill," Octavia started off before setting the cup back down onto the coaster. "you said that you had a solution?" Octavia had begun to swirl her hoof on the rim of the cup a bit. "What exactly do you have in mind?"
Gulping down his drink Quake set his cup back down and looked saddened by Octavia's question. "Really? Hmm, I thought the answer would have seemed obvious. I took you to be the one who wore the brain in your relationship."
"I am!" Octavia cried out. "I mean... Vinyl has her moments... But that's besides the point." Octavia shook off her comment as she waved her hoof at Quake. " I've played through every single scenario and I honestly can't come up with a way where we end up scotch free in this. Option one, is we all get caught by the police, I loose my audition and Colgate, along with Roseluck. If I throw Vinyl under the bus, I loose my marefriend but I keep my audition and my friends. Last If I just let Colgate get captured we both loose Roseluck and Colgate." Octavia pinned her ears back and looked down at the oaken floor. "I-I just don't see any way of winning..." She muttered.
"Obviously." Quake exclaimed nonchalantly. "That's cause there is none. You can't let any of them go down cause the police know about all three of you. What do you think is going to happen when they find one of you? They're gonna ask where the other two are and so on."
"But-"
"But nothing. I hate to be the bearer of bad news hun, but you're in a no win predicament. But there is the best option available to you still."
"There is?" Octavia perked back up waiting intently for the next words to come.
"Turn yourselves in..."
Octavia instantly drooped back down. "That's a horrible idea." She pouted.
"Is it?" He questioned the mare. "Let's see. Your friend is not only a danger to herself but those around her. The longer she's out there, the larger the hole she's going to be digging. Likewise for yourselves. Each time you bail her out and try to help her escape, that's just more of aiding a fugitive and resisting arrest. Best option for everyone is to capture your friend or at least try and corner her and give yourselves up. Will you loose your friends? Maybe. But you're doing what's best in a crap situation. Will you loose your marefriend? Probably not. She's done worse from what you tell me. The least she can do is forgive you this once, especially since she's the one that dragged you into this." Quake swished around his drink before killing it off. "That's the only real option you have darling. Wether or not you choose to use it, is completely up to you."
Octavia bit her bottom lip as Quake finished speaking.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Quake asked from his slouched position within his leather reclining chair.
The two sat in Quake's living room. His wife could be seen from where Octavia sat, across the house finishing up her chores within the kitchen. The living room was wide and welcoming. A giant fur rug laid underneath multiple pieces of furniture almost engulfing the entire floor.
White drapes, laced at their ends like doilies, covered the main window from prying eyes. A bookshelf stood tall behind Quake who was a mere arms length away from Octavia, placing his beverage upon an old end table that sat beside his chair.
Octavia, was pale. Quake's idea had left her fear stricken for what the rest of the night, and the days to follow had in store for her. Her hoof just hovering over his telephone. A bead of sweat running down the side of her face as she remained motionless.
"I don't know." She replied as she dropped the suspended hoof to her side. "Maybe for you to talk me out of this?" She looked over at the stallion and gave him a forced smile. Her only response was a furrowed brow. "I know, I know. Get it over with." She waved her hoof at him. "It's not as easy as it sounds ya know..."
Octavia raised her hoof back up from her side, picking up the phone this time. She held the phone in hoof a moment. Biting her lip she reluctantly pressed the numbers into the pad. The ringing could barely be made out throughout the room. A brief crackling noise was heard before a voice spoke on the other side of the line.
"Ponyville Police Department, please state your emergency." A female voice stated.
"Hi, um. I'd like to report a tip about the incident that took place tonight at the Apple Bobber night club."
"Yes, what would you like to report?"
"Well. I guess it's not really a tip..." Octavia said as she looked at Quake. He shook his hooves at her, urging her to continue. "I mean yes, I uh, well-"
"Ma'am this line needs to be kept as open as possible, please state the information you wish to relate."
"Right! Sorry!" Octavia's posture shot straight up, as if someone replaced her spine with a broom handle. "Ya see, I'm kind of, well I'm one of the mares the police are looking for right now." There was silence on the other line of the phone. "I-I'd like to turn myself in, if that's alright."
The mare's voice on the other side of the line became faint, Octavia could tell she was conversing with someone else at the station. A bit of muffled noises came through the phone before a new voice echoed into Octavia's ears.
"This is Police Chief Raindrops, I've just been informed you're one of the fugitives that more forces have been trying to apprehend for the evening. State your name."
"My name?" Octavia had forgotten who she was for but a brief moment. "Right, sorry yes. My name is Octavia."
"So you're one of the mares that caused the incident at the club this evening?"
"Yes."
"Are you also one of the mares that escaped from the back of a police cruiser?"
With a reluctant sigh she replied with a groaned, "Yes..." Scribbling on paper could be heard across the line.
"Is the rest of your party turning themselves in as well?" The chief questioned.
"No, not at the moment. I mean, we were but then we had this fight words were exchanged and long story short my marefrie- err, the other mare went her separate way."
"Uh huh, and this would be the white unicorn that you're referring to, yes?"
"Yeah that's right. Her name is Vinyl. She's actually a regular at the Apple Bobber. She's their go to DJ on any given night."
"Right, and do you know where she is? Or the blue mare per chance?"
"Colgate? I mean that's her, the blue mare. No I don't know where either one of them are ma'am. That's actually partially why I'm calling you myself."
There was silence on the other side of the line.
"I want to strike a deal."
"A deal?" The Police chief responded with extreme hesitance.
"Yes." Yes Octavia replied with the best stern tone she could give. Albeit failing to accomplish the tone she set out for as she could no longer control it, cracking a bit at the end of her response.
"Ms. as it currently stands, you're in no position to be making demands of a deal. Need I remind yourself of just exactly what you're confessing to? Evading arrest, police harassment, private property destruction, carrying paraphernalia, destruction of evidence, disturbing the peace. The list here is extensive, even for a couple of hours I gotta say I'm impressed, albeit pissed at the fact that you've evaded me for this long."
"Right I know, and believe me half of what I did tonight I wouldn't have done if it were with any other pony. I'm usually very law abiding and never dreamed that I would have a night like tonight. But it's not the kind of deal that you might be thinking of." Octavia withdrew the phone from her cheek and covered the mouth piece with her hoof. She drew in a sharp breath and released it with a slow steady flow before placing the phone back to her mouth." I'll gladly accept any and all punishment that'll be brought down upon me. Or the other two of my friends. But you see, one of them isn't well. She's intoxicated and well out of her mind. She's not only a danger to herself but those around her as well. I wanna help capture them, before anyone gets seriously hurt. Please, understand I just want to help and put an end to this."
"Where are you?" Was the Policemares only response.
"Is that a yes then?" Octavia questioned, a bit hopeful.
She was met with the exact same response, a bit harsher in tone this time. "Where are you..."
She lowered the phone from her face and looked on at Quake with the saddened eyes. He shrugged at her trying to comprehend what was said. She closed her eyes and shook her head as a response.
Lifting the phone back to her face she whimpered out the address of Quake's home before limply placing the phone back on it's base.
****
She cries out for us... Hark! Hear my name and engrave it upon the inside of your skulls. I am the one that strikes fear within my foes. I am the one who's name is hushed under the breath of scum that scurry the streets. I am the one who lays waiting within their own shadow, ready to pounce and strike a mighty force of justice upon the lower jaw of my enemies. I am both night and day, life and death. But not good nor evil. I am, the bat mare!
"Hey, get down here you little shit!" Vinyl cried out at Colgate.
Colgate's ears drooped a bit, annoyed that her rant was ended. She peered down below and saw Vinyl. Vinyl's hair was completely frazzled. Her breathing erratic. Her lower eyelid of her right eye was twitching with fury, accented with her grinding teeth. Colgate sneered at first before a large grin overtook her face.
Colgate had somehow managed to perch herself upon a old diner in the middle of town and begun ranting off a monologue of a recent movie she Vinyl and Octavia went to see the week before.
"You dare to challenge the likes of me?!" Colgate shrieked at Vinyl, pouting her chest out in confidence to her foe.
"When I get my hands on you, I'm gonna give you the beating of a lifetime for making me go through all this crap."
"Ha! I like your spunk evildoer. But one must have more than spunk if you wish the face me. One must also have, speed!" With the completion of her sentence Colgate jumped off the ledge of the diner's roof.
"Shit no!" Vinyl cried out as she dashed towards the now air born mare.
Vinyl took only a couple of sprinted steps before Colgate crash landed into a pile of trash bags that laid aside the edge of the diner.
Vinyl paused a moment looking at the bags, her friend had been completely engulfed within the garbage. "Are you okay Colgate?!" She cried out, fear and worry washing over her entire being as she steadily walked towards the rubbage.
Standing but a foot away from the bags Vinyl lifted one of her hooves, leaning in to see the status of her friend. Before her hoof touched the bags Colgates blue and white tail popped right up and begun swerving around like a spyglass on a submarine before turning it's attention to Vinyl.
"mmmhmmm-mmhmm" The blue mare exclaimed, muffled.
"Wh-what?" A confused Vinyl responded.
Colgate's head popped up this time. "Not quick enough evildoer!" She exclaimed before jumping out of the garbage, sprinting away from the now enraged mare.
"Hey! Celestia damnit not this again! Get back here right now!" Vinyl cried as she chased the insane mare down the alleyway of the diner.
*did i do the right thing?* she questioned. *What's to happen to me? To us?* She shuddered at the thought. Pausing for a moment she reaffirmed her actions as she looked up at Quake who had a solemn look upon his face.
"You did well." He exclaimed. A smirk arrived on his face.
"I feel dirty. Like I betrayed my friends." Octavia sunk her head back down to the hard wood floor beneath.
"Why? There's no reason to feel the way you do." Quake retorted back at her. "In fact, i'm rather proud that you followed through with it. It takes guts, real courage to do what you did. And you showed that, with flying colors!" Quake streaked his hoof across the sky, painting an imaginary rainbow.
Octavia could only bashfully sigh. "I know. What you say is true. And I believe it. But, it's difficult. I tought-" Octavia took a pause before lifting her head up to meet Quakes gaze, "I thought I could handle this on my own. Take charge, and sweep it under the rug, ya know?" Octavia sighed for a pause, "It's just so- so frustrating. Here I am, a mare. Of order, of sophistication, elegance incarnate. And my marefriend just had to go and muff the whole damned thing!" Octavia exclaimed as she thrust her hoof into the air, and her body back into the chair. She lazily let her hoof drop down by her side as she regained her composure. "its just difficult."
Quake sat there, looking upon Octavia in her strained state. "Yeah, I know I wouldn't want to be in your position right now." He chuckled out.
"Gee, thanks. That makes this situation all the more pleasurable." Octavia said as she swirled her hoof into the air. Not to make trace anything, just to exude her frustration.
"Now now," Quake interjected. "What you did took guts. Real courage. Now, I'm positive, to my bones, that what you did tonight will fix things for the long haul. I mean, how often is one presented with the difficult position of turning oneself in? Even more so, admit their guilt. You're getting locked up darling. Yet, here you are. Still worrying about your friends, not about what's to come of you. That, that's remarkable."
Octavia strained out a laugh. "I suppose you're right-" Octavia gathered herself up into an upright position. "still, what I wouldn't give for five minutes alone with those two. Especially Vinyl..." Octavia muttered the last bit out, glaring out the window.
"I'm sure" Quake followed up with, just allowing Octavia to vent out her frustrations.
A solemn pause overtook the room as Octavia continued to glare out the window, almost as if she was searching for her friends.
"Hey-" Octavia started up, as she obstructed her view from the window back to Quake. "do you think it's possible I can trouble you for a cup of coffee?" She asked bashfully.
Taken back, Quake hesitated for a moment before slouching himself back down. "Why not at all. I'll ask the misses to put a fresh pot on." He said with a warm smile that gave Octavia every bit of ease she could desire.
****
"Can I freshen that cup up for ya sugar?" The hostess asked Vinyl who had been staring into an empty cup for the past couple of minutes.
"What? oh- y-yeah sure. Sorry." Vinyl replied as she snapped out of her daze only to go back to her slouched position. One hoof in cheek and both eyes into the abyss that was her drink.
"Something on your mind sugar?" The mare asked as she refilled Vinyl's empty cup.
"No. I mean yes, but- ahh you wouldn't understood." Vinyl muttered out.
"Well, try me." The hostess retorted back as she finished the last bit of pouring.
Vinyls head slammed against the counter top of the dinner. It took her a few moments, partnered with a long exasperated sigh before she raised her head back up to the inquisitive mare. Her eyes were a radiant blue, while her mane was unkempt. Apron stained with every color under the sun. Her fur was a brindle, a spectrum of black, brown, and white. No doubt she was reaching the end of her shift.
I long exasperated inhale, quickly followed by an exhale left Vinyls nostrils.
"Okay, you wanna know? Well, sister lemme tell ya sister! I, was SUPPOSED to show my friend a good time for her birthday. A big to do right? So i thought, gee vinyl you dont wanna muff this up right? of course not. Ya know what makes for a fun time? Acid. Acid makes everything more fun. So what do I do? I slip a couple of small, meezly, insignificant hits into my friends drink-" Vinyl begun, squeezing both her hooves together to exclaim just how small the hits were. "And you know what? For a while there, she WAS fun! By golly, she was the funnest mare you've ever seen. Gawking it up with everypony, loving life and having a grand old time. And then everything, and sister when i say everything, i mean every-thing, went wrong. She became belligerent. Uncontrollable. And I mean Uncontrollable. She was over the top, bananas, in every sense of the word, bananas. Then, oho you'll love this part-"Vinyl gave an air shoulder nudge to the hostess, "my marefriend, whom of which I PERSONALLY reassured that everything would be handled, shows up at thee absolute worst time!" Vinyl poured out the words with such a veracity that the hostess had already begun regretting her interest. "You think that's it?!" Vinyl questioned, as she leaned forward, grabbing the hostess by her stained apron. "That's not the least of it. My Marefriend is to the point of breaking up with me. My friend is reciting movie quotes while under the influence. I can only imagine how mad they're gonna be at me when they're finally sober." Vinyl took a pause before continuing. Pulling on the strap of apron she had grabbed, she pulled the hostess closer to her. Leaning her face in, closer as well. "And you wanna know the worst part is? What really gets my goat?" Vinyl asked.
The hostess, with her head tilted as far back as ones anatomy would permit, nodded reluctantly.
"I'm a wanted criminal." She deadpanned, releasing her deathgrip on the hostess. "So there, that's how i'm doing. Thanks for asking."
The Hostess finished filling up the cup of coffee before scurrying to the back of the kitchen, alarmed as Vinyl's behavior.
" How am I doing? Are you kidding me?" Vinyl exclaimed to nobody but herself. The diner was empty. Itwas an odd hour after all. She reached for some packets of sugar along with the cream container beside them and fixed her cup up.
Sugar, cream alike we added to the blackened water and stirred with a spoon with the aide of Vinyls unicorn magic.
Setting the spoon back down, she took a long sip, before setting the cup back down.
"Tonight's been a disaster... I damned disaster." She paused for a moment. "And I have no one to blame but myself..." She mopped, before laying her face on the counter.
"Hi there! Are you tired of paying premiums for apples? I know I am. You know folks, after a hard days work, I want to come home to a hefty batch of lovely apples. Thick, juicy, and ripe for the eating. I don't want to worry about the nuances of living after eight plus hours of hard labor. That's why I trust Applejack farms, the premier and number one rated in customer satisfaction when it comes to apples and apple deliveries of all kind. Be ya old, small, tall, young, or just plain dumb, you can rest assured that when it comes to Applejack acres, all your troubles will melt away." a familiar voice sounded off on the small TV screen within the diner.
The voice was so abrupt Vinyl had to choice but to look up and see what was playing on the tube.
"Son of a bitch..." Vinyl could only mutter out, astounded, as she saw her friend on the TV. Cowboy hat, leather chaps along with a fake country accent to boot. "How in the hell did she get on there." Vinyl questioned. "No wait... How in the hell did the have time to shoot this, and then put it to TV?! It's been ten flipping minutes since she burst out of the trash and ran off down the alley way!" Vinyl screamed as she slammed her hooves against the counter top, rattling her newly topped off coffee.
The white mare took a pause.
"Its fine, this is fine." She said to herself, trying to reaffirm the situation. A moment passed. "This is not fine! How in the hell was she cast so quickly!? No, not that. Why would they allow someone, clearly not in the right mindset- no wait I take that back. They do that sort of thing all the time. But why my Colgate?!" Vinyl cried out. "That's it, I'm putting an end to this night. To hell with this." The mare exclaimed as she threw a few bits onto the counter. Vinyl was many things, a good tipper being one of them. "I'm gonna make everything right. With Colgate, With the Bobber, with Octavia, I'm gonna set the whole thing straight." Vinyl got up from the diner stool. A new found passion evident in her eyes. She stomped towards the door, clearly driven on a new mission.
As she approached the diner door she could see a flicker of blue and red lights across the street from the corner. Not thinking twice, she made her way out the diner and into the street.
As she existed, she was blinded by a bright and warm, white light.
The mare immediately covered her eyes with both hooves. Squinting hard, trying to get an image of the situation, Vinyl peered through the light and saw what appeared to be multiple police cruisers that had parked themselves in front whilst she had been taking in a coffee.
"Vinyl Scratch," A loud borrowing voice called out over a microphone. "This is Canterlot Police. Surrender now, and this will all end quietly. The voice exclaimed.
Vinyl, still squinted, tried peering through her hooves to see just who was shining the light upon her. It was the Canterlot Police Department. They had her, and the entire diner, cornered.
Vinyl grunted from the light before starting up. "You got the wrong mare, Colgate is-"
"Vinyl. This is Octi-" A voice called over a microphone. Sweet, warm, and all too familiar. It was Octavia. "I had to put an end to tonight. It's, it's all gotten so out of hoof. Just accept it. They're here to help. Lay down. They'll take care of Colgate, and whatever will be, will be."
"Are you freaking kidding me?!" Vinyl cried to herself, eyes still being shielded from the light.
reluctantly, Vinyl took her hooves away from her eyes, raised them behind her head, and knelt down before the blinding light. Still unable to see properly, she head the sound of hooves running towards her, and eventually around her before she felt the icy sting of metal wrap around her hooves. Almost immediately as she became used to the cold that radiated from the hoovecuffs, she was grabbed and lifted up before being tossed in the back of a squad car where her marefriend sat waiting.
Octavia didn't say a word as Vinyl's eyes were still blinking, trying to focus.
"You narked?!" Vinyl said, still unable to see. She fidgeted a bit, trying to get somewhat comfortable.
"I didnt 'nark' as you so put it." Octavia harshly retorted. "What, you think they don't know who you and I are?"
"No, clearly not." Vinyl hissed back.
"Well, they did." Octavia slammed back with a stern tone. "Look-" Octavia started off "I know. Things tonight, they haven't exactly gone to plan. Your plan at least, but still not as planned. I want what's best. Not just for Colgate, but for us. You had to turn yourself in you know that." Octavia took a moment to gather herself. "And, you know as well as I do, that you'd never turn yourself in... That;s why, I did it for you. These policemares are here to help. You know that, I know that. Everypony knows that. You just have to accept it."
"You sold us out... Why, just why couldn't you have just the littlest amount of faith in me?! Just one ounce?! I told you, I had you when you asked me to take care of Colgate. And yeah, things got out of hand, but i was on it! And you sold not just me, but yourself out... so now here we are. Way to go" Vinyl lashed out as Octavia before finally slouching back down onto the leather seating of the squad car they were sharing.
Octavia was about to lash out with the the same veracity as Vinyl. before she saw the dew that had formed in her eyes. Biting her tongue, Octavia slouched back into her corner of the squad car, looking down at her feet.
"I only did what I thought was best..." Octavia mumbled. Vinyl didn't hear a word.
A small pitter patter could be heard on the windows of the squad car as Octavia looked outwards. Was this the right move? Was she truly doing the right thing? What else could she have done? Her friend was on the loose, her marefriend was a wanted criminal and she was just trying to put an end to the nightmare that was Colgates birthday.
Her head in hoof, she lifted herself up and looked back at Vinyl. Vinyl’s eyes still wet with the dew of her pouting. Initially, she felt remorse but immediately evaporated and was replaced with anger or was it frustration? Her emotions had become so convoluted that she herself couldn’t pinpoint the exact nature of what she was feeling.
Reluctantly she let out a sigh of exhaustion and returned her head to her hoof, looking back out to the slight drizzle that had begun rolling down the window of the police cruiser.
Colgate on the other hoof was just sitting there, uncharacteristically quiet for her usual brash loud self. Her eyes were fixated at the cuffs that had just recently become bestowed upon her. Periodically wincing from the police lights that flooded through the window by the neighboring squad cruisers. She broke her mindless gaze to quickly peer at her marefriend. Or at least what she could tell was still her marefriend. Her mind raced with the right words to say to break the silence between them as soon as she fixated on her. The flood was too much for her brain to take before she quickly broke her line of sight and returned to her new fashion statement.
The random calls from dispatch could be heard coming from the police cruiser, calling out different events of the evening not related to theirs. Vinyl let out a sigh and clunked her head against the window on the right side of the cruiser, never breaking sight of her hooves. The melodic sound of rain continued on, now getting ever increasingly heavier as the continued their cruise towards the police station. Suddenly it lightened up and Vinyl raised her vision upwards, seeing the red light that had stopped them in their tracks. The stop gave a quick moment of reprieve from the moving car and the silence had become even more deafening. Her eyes darted to the front and could see the cops chattering between each other. The driver, an older grizzled veteran from the look of things. His mane whiter than snow and his fur a strike contrast. Blacker than night. His voice raspy, periodically clearing his throat as her talked to his partner. The opposing mare was the complete opposite. Bright cyan blue was her mane, with a streak of purple riding on its edges. Her fur was a warm, hazelnut colored. What a clash thought Vinyl, but she made it work. Vinyl’s eyes drooped down again, slowly making their way towards Octavia.
“You just couldn’t trust me. Not even for one evening.” Mumbled Vinyl.
The break of silence perked Octavia’s ears up as she quickly twisted her head towards Vinyl who continued not to make direct eye contact with her. Instead, she saw her fixated at the seat in front of her.
Octavia shifted herself to face her marefirend. Her rump making a rough sound against the leather making an ever-greater break in the silence. The policemares paid no mind to the noise, they were still fully engaged in their conversation. Octavia took notice of this and pursed her lips. Her eyes met the image of Vinyl before she retorted.
“Don’t you pin this on me.” She stated firmly. “None of this would of happened if you could’ve, oh I don’t know. Maybe just take her out to a nice dinner? But no. No. You had to take her out and do something that you wanted to do.” Her words were hushed but did nothing to hide the venom laced within them.
Vinyl shifted her head at Octavia, locking eyes for but a second before reluctantly leaning her head back over onto the cruisers glass. Her head meeting the glass with a loud thud.
“You’ve never trusted me.” She retorted. With no sign of emotion evident in her voice. To her, she was just stating facts at this point.
Octavia hadn’t left her gaze from Vinyl. However, they had begun shifting back and forth, looking her up and down as she searched for the right words to come back with. Dumbstruck with what she just heard; she couldn’t believe her ears.
“How fucking dare, you.” She whispered. A pause came through as the police cruiser became illuminated with a green light. The cruiser once again picked up speed and the pitter patter of the rain returned in full force. “How fucking- dare you.” She said again, this time taking an aggressive body posture. “I don’t trust you? After everything. After everything we have been through. Screw up after screw up, that I looked the other way and forgave because I believed you could do better. That I thought, wholeheartedly with every single fiber of my being that you could do better. You have the absolute audacity to believe I don’t trust you?” Her words still tainted with scorn. But the scorn wasn’t due to the present situation. They were built up on resentment. No reaction could be seen from Vinyl as she continued to look out the window, prompting Octavia to continue. “I have been nothing but understanding, loving, supportive. Everything that you haven’t been for me. Who was the one that bailed you out of jail not once. Not two, but five times from jail. Who’s the one that looked the other way when I found clothes neither of us owned in our own laundry and you said it was just a ‘friends’?” She made air quotes with her hooves. “Who’s the one that spotted you the last five grand for your student loans? Who’s the one that pays all the rent for our ridiculously priced apartment that YOU chose? Even when I said it wouldn’t be a wise decision, but you assured me that you’ll cover YOUR end of the rent. Who’s the one that even now, with complete and justified rage towards you still believes there is something redeemable in you?!” He words raised from a hush to a slight yell prompting a quick tap on the glass that separated them from the police in the front of the car followed by a ‘be quiet back there.’ Octavia looked back at them and remained silent for a second before the policemare turned back around and continued her conversation with the driver. She noticed a freshly made tear had begun to pool under her eye. Wiping it away, she followed with a sniffle and slouched herself back down. Her anger had been replaced with sadness. “Why do I even bother with you. Celestia damn you.” She muttered.
Those words did not fall on deaf ears. Vinyl heard every single one of them, and they resonated in her mind. Still not moving a muscle but her lips, she answered Octavia’s words. “You think you’re without blame? Do you realize the pressure I’m under? Compared to you? Honestly, why do you bother with me? I have no job, no money, and here I am. With one of Canterlots premier musicians that for some reason decided it would be a fantastic idea to be with, move in with, and deal with me. I must live up to your standards. Not my own. I have to struggle every day to be the mare you think I am. Not the mare I want to be. Sure, I’m a klutz. A screw up. A numbskull… The list is never ending, and yet, I continue to strive and try and be the mare you think I am. And even now, even when I’ve fucked up more than I ever have, I still wanted to do right. Even if that meant I was in the wrong. I wanted to bring Colgate home safely. I wanted to get you out of this mess, scotch free. I wanted to have this whole thing fixed. So, years down the road we could just look back at it. Like a fond memory.” Colgate shifted her head, finally making eye contact with Octavia. She noticed the fresh tear smear that graced her coat. Forcing a smile through her sheepish demeanor. “And now. Now, I don’t know.”
Her body slumped over, again clunking down her head against the glass. Octavia was taken aback. She never knew how Vinyl had perceived her, or the pressure she put herself under. Octavia wanted to snap back quickly with something witty and filled to the brim with scorn. The words escaped her though. Her mouth agape instead spewed out air. Letting her frustration and rage flood out of her as she herself slumped back into her seat. Her head now took on an uncomfortable position, looking upwards towards the ceiling of the squad car. Deafness returned to the car as she searched the remnants of her mind for what to say next. A purely blank slate were the only results. A few stop lights came and went before she continued on with her marefriend.
“It would have been funny huh?” She questioned, her vision never leaving the ceiling. The only response from Vinyl was her eyes shifting away from the seat in front of her, only to look into the corner of her eye, barely revealing Octavia’s silhouette coming in and out of the lights. “I mean, who else can have a story like this?” She continued, almost talking to herself. “Every event I go to, it’s always me me me. Every single one I meet, gushes and boasts about their achievements. And it’s all so- boring. Meanwhile, I’m living this absurd life, I mean hell, I’m in the back of a police cruiser.” She chuckled slightly to herself. “I have never, felt more rage. And resentment. And pain in my life than tonight. Nothing right now, is a single emotion of positivity.” She paused for but a moment, wiping another new tear that had begun to form. “And yet-“ She stalled on finishing her sentence.
“And yet?” Vinyl interested in what she had to say, had shifted her gaze more towards Octavia.
“And yet, I have never felt more alive than tonight. More excitement. More, I don’t know, real?” She chuckled again to herself at the thought. “I have lived my entire life, set by rules. Law. Order. Everything that a civilized society deems appropriate. Then here you are, a living embodiment of anarchy. That for one reason or another I decided to let into my life. Maybe I knew this would be the road you ultimately lead me down, or maybe I simply knew you’d be able to bring excitement to me. Whatever it is, you’re here now. With me.” Vinyl perked up even more. “I’m sorry you feel the pressure to impress me, or I suppose impress others around me. To make you feel, worthy? I never asked for you to, and you never had to.” Octavia shifted her head over, still resting firmly on the headrest behind her. Her eyes now meeting with Vinyl’s. “I knew who you were before. And I still know who you are now. I accepted you as an imperfectly perfect being. Flaws and all.” A weak smile graced her lips. “I loved you for who you are. Maybe I was a fool for trying to think I could change you, when you didn’t need changing. Granted tonight was an extreme and I’m still filled with such anger. But, - “ She let loose another sigh. “It’s what I signed up for. Maybe I didn’t expect ‘this’ to ever happen, still. I’m here aren’t I?” An uncomfortable chortle came from Octavia trying to lift Vinyl’s spirit up. She returned in kind.
“Yeah, not exactly willingly though.” Vinyl shift her hooves a bit, rattling the cuffs bestowed upon her from the police in front.
“Yeah, not the quiet night I was hoping for. You’re right about that part. Still, regardless of why I’m here, I’m here.” Octavia slowly lifted her head, breaking their gaze with each other. Her head returning back to the headrest behind her, “Are you?”
Vinyl, who had the full attention of Octavia looked her up and down. Puzzled with the question. “I mean, obviously? Yeah. We’re clearly in the same squad car.” Stating the obvious.
“Mmhmm. We are. Physically, sure. We’re here right now. But, are you here.” She deadpanned, still fixated on the ceiling above.
Still unsure of her meaning behind her words Vinyl questioned her once more. “I-I’m not sure what you’re getting at here Octi.”
Octavia chuckled to herself once more and shook her head left to right ever so slowly. “Clearly you’re not. The vinyl I know couldn’t be contained. Believe you me, I’ve tried. The vinyl I know, wouldn’t let a small speed bump get in her way. The vinyl I know would come up with something. Even if it was stupid, and ill conceived and would probably never work out in the end. That vinyl, that Vinyl would have a plan. But I guess she’s not here right now.” Octavia Slouched herself over as she finished, her back facing the cyan mare.
She now understood what she was getting it. She swallowed hard. “Octi, I don’t have a plan. Every plan that I’ve had tonight has just ended up making things worse and worse. To the point of where you’ve got caught up in all of it. I-I can’t do that again.”
