Vinyl and Octavia Fight Ten Thousand Ninjas
Octavia galloped as fast as she could. Straining her ears, she tried to listen out for danger. Was she still being pursued? Were the attackers still coming after her? And where was Vinyl Scratch in all of this?
Octavia found herself blushing upon thinking of Vinyl Scratch. True, it had only been a few days ago that they’d met, but she’d already fallen deeply in love with the unicorn, and the feeling was mutual. She couldn’t think of anypony she’d rather spend the rest of her life with – once she had escaped her pursuers and found Vinyl, she wanted to make the most of their time together. She wanted Vinyl to nibble upon her ears, to kiss her tenderly and look after her – she even wanted Vinyl to lick –
“Bloody hell, why am I reading this again?” Octavia sighed angrily and threw her book over her shoulder, although not so carelessly that it would hit something delicate.
“Because you got it for free?” Vinyl asked, an eternal grin upon her face. She was currently lying on a couch in the lounge room of the house she and Octavia shared, listening to music through her headphones. “That, or you love the idea of us in a relationship.”
Octavia rolled her eyes at this comment, choosing to ignore it. She was sitting at the kitchen table, a few metres away from Vinyl. “It was nice of Exposition to give us a free copy, given that she wrote the darn book based upon our adventure in the Amarezon Jungle, but did she have to add in a romantic subplot? You and I have never been anything but friends from the day we met.”
Vinyl looked up from the couch, her grin growing wider. “Damn, looks like I’m losing my touch,” she said.
Octavia frowned. Her and Vinyl had always had a somewhat…odd… relationship, but they had strictly been friends. Yet recently Vinyl had been making more and more comments like this one. Was it just Vinyl being Vinyl, or was there something more to it…?
The grey Earth pony shook her head slightly. Vinyl was just being her usual silly self. “At any rate, she could have changed the names of the characters,” she commented. “Some of my friends and family believe that we really are in love thanks to this book, you know. They think that the events in it are true!”
Although Octavia couldn’t see it, behind her glasses Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “What, you’re saying we didn’t meet each other in the Amarezon Jungle? We didn’t go on that totally epic adventure and find that treasure?”
“You know what I mean, Vinyl,” Octavia said, rolling her eyes once more. “Even leaving aside the subplot of us falling in love, this book exaggerates even the smallest of details. It claims that we were chased by that tribe of natives for three days straight, when in reality it was likely barely fifteen minutes! How this book came to be a bestseller in the few weeks it’s been out, I will never understand.”
Vinyl shrugged. “I guess we’re just that damn awesome,” she said. A moment later, she rolled herself off the couch and to the floor.
“Finally getting up, are we?” Octavia teased. Vinyl had spent the previous evening lying on the couch getting drunk, and had barely moved since.
“Babe, you know I’ve gotta get to work, and I wouldn’t leave my fans for anything!” Vinyl said. Her voice had a subtle slur to it. “’Cept you, maybe.”
“Naturally,” Octavia replied dully. Whatever game Vinyl was playing, she wasn’t going to be sucked into it. Vinyl may have been her best friend, but she could also be incredibly annoying when she put her mind to it, which was no doubt the purpose of all of the recent flirting and teasing.
Vinyl Scratch headed to her room, and after spending a few minutes preparing herself – which mostly consisted of cleaning alcohol out of her mane and coat – she was ready. “How do I look?” she asked as she came back into the area between the kitchen and lounge room.
Octavia glanced up from the newspaper she had started reading to her housemate. “Your mane is even messier than usual, you look as though you can barely support yourself, and I’d be willing to bet that after last night your eyes are bloodshot beneath those glasses.”
“Sweet! Looks like I’m ready then!” said Vinyl, not put off in the slightest by Octavia’s critiquing. “Tonight should be an early one, so stay up ‘til midnight if you want to see my sexy flank when I’m back.” After realising that Octavia wasn’t going to respond, Vinyl added, “You know you want to,” before heading out the door and to the nightclub she was currently employed at.
Octavia sighed as the door closed behind Vinyl. Although she was trying to concentrate on reading the paper, her mind kept going to Vinyl. Why was the unicorn teasing her so much lately? Vinyl’s patience was short enough that repeating the same joke over and over again surely should have worn off by now – indeed, after overreacting to a few of Vinyl’s more saucy comments, Octavia had swiftly become determined not to do so any more.
As Octavia pondered the question, her newspaper completely forgotten, an answer she hadn’t considered yet made its way to her mind. Was it possible that after living together for over a year…Vinyl really had gotten a crush on her? It wasn’t as though the idea was completely impossible, after all. Barely two months ago the two ponies had been forcibly shipped together and it was… well, it had been an interesting experience for both of them. Heck, Octavia could even admit that in those brief moments they had been kissing, Vinyl’s lips had been incredibly soft and nice to kiss… and it wasn’t as though the unicorn was a bad kisser…
Octavia shook her head. What sort of idiotic thoughts was she thinking? Vinyl wasn’t the type to develop a serious crush on a pony, and she herself definitely had not enjoyed kissing Vinyl during the aforementioned shipping. Anypony who envisioned herself and Vinyl being together romantically – or who would want to read stories about such a thing – was obviously mad, since it would never happen.
Sighing for reasons she wasn’t quite sure of, Octavia was about to return to her newspaper when she heard the sound of breaking glass from somewhere in the back of the house. Turning her head slightly, one of her ears swivelled in the direction the noise had come from. Is that the sound of… voices? Octavia wondered. Not sure what to expect, she got up from her seat and cautiously headed down the corridor in the direction she thought the noise had come from.
As Octavia approached, it was clear that the sound she was hearing was a set of voices, all arguing over something. The noise was coming from the bathroom. Hesitantly, Octavia placed an ear to the door, hoping to make some sense of the ponies whom had apparently broken into her and Vinyl’s house.
“…we’re supposed to be stealthy!” said a voice. “Why would you smash the window like that?!”
“We’re ninjas!” replied a second voice. “Haven’t you read any books? The ninjas always make an entrance by leaping through windows and stuff!”
“Oh really?” the first voice answered back, sounding angrier. “Then why did you climb through the window and smash it once you were inside the bathroom?”
“Because you wouldn’t let me jump through it from the outside!” the second voice said. “Like I said, as ninjas –”
“Wait, are we ninjas?” a third, female voice interrupted. “I thought the plural of ninja was ninja.”
“Is it? I mean, it sort of sounds right, but –”
“I don’t give a flying feather!” the first voice growled. “Smoke Shadow and Vanishing Act, we need to quiet the f-”
“Actually, Rutona, we’re supposed to go by our codenames, remember?” the second voice interrupted. “I mean, you don’t see me calling you Shadow Clone, do you?”
From outside the room, Octavia heard the distinct sound of a hoof meeting a face. She frowned. What were ninjas doing in the house? Were they after her, or Vinyl? And why didn’t they understand that ninjas were supposed to be stealthy?
“Okay then,” Rutona replied, clearly speaking through gritted teeth, “Susake and Kurasa, you two need to stay quiet. We are ninjas! That means stealth!”
“Got it, boss,” the ninja whom Octavia assumed was Susake whispered back. A moment later, there was the sound of hoofsteps – they were going to leave the bathroom, and Octavia was still outside it!
Taken by surprise and not thinking quickly enough, Octavia simply took a step or two backwards as the door opened to reveal three ponies dressed in black bodysuits. One was a unicorn, whilst the other two were Earth ponies. Only their eyes were visible beneath the cloth. Before Octavia could do anything else, one of them screamed.
“Aargh! She saw us! What do we do, Shadow Clo- I mean, Rutona?”
“The smoke bomb, you fool!” said the unicorn who was apparently the leader. From some sort of hidden pouch he produced a dull sphere and threw it to the floor. Instantly, smoke filled the corridor.
Octavia took a step or two backwards from the smoke. For a moment she looked behind herself, imagining that one of the ninjas had somehow gotten past her in the confusion… before she heard the coughing from the cloud of smoke.
The smoke cleared swiftly – the bomb mustn’t have been designed to release much – to reveal the three ninjas coughing and spluttering from the smoke, still in the same spot. Octavia raised an eyebrow – these didn’t seem like the smartest ninjas around.
“Can I help you?” she asked. Although she tried to inject some venom into her voice, the general incompetence of the ninjas inadvertently made her come out sounding more sorry for them than anything.
“You – you can help us by doing one thing,” coughed one of the ninjas, recovering faster than the other two. He took a step or two towards Octavia and shifted his body into what Octavia assumed was some sort of martial art stance. “You can die!”
“Susake you idiot, we’re just capturing her!” called out one of the other two ninjas.
“Oh? Are we, Rutona?” asked Susake in confusion, turning back to the ninjas. The two of them nodded in unison. “Oh. I could have sworn that the leaders… anyway!” He turned back to Octavia as though nothing had happened. “You can get knocked out!”
Octavia was going to offer a witty reply only to find that she couldn’t – Susake had spun around and bucked her in the chest, knocking her to the ground and leaving her choking for air. It looked like he knew his martial arts if nothing else. Just as Octavia picked herself up, he did so again, this time knocking her out of the corridor and into the lounge room.
Oh horseapples, Octavia thought, picking herself up once more. How is it that my evening consists not of a light novel or a nice play at the theatre, but fighting a ninja in my lounge room? Susake cantered into the lounge room, closely followed by the other two ninjas. Judging by the way they were hanging back, it looked like they were going to leave Susake to take care of it himself.
Fortunately for Octavia, she knew what to expect this time, and so she responded to Susake’s entry with a buck of her own. The ninja was briefly stunned, but he’d managed to roll with the blow somewhat and reduce the strength of it.
“You’re pretty good,” he said to Octavia as the two ponies circled the coffee table, each glaring into the eyes of the other, “but unfortunately for you, I graduated fifth in my martial arts class in the Village of the Hidden Hay!”
“How many ponies were there in the class?” Octavia responded. Susake hesitated before answering.
“…Five,” he admitted. “But the others were all really good!”
“I’m sure they were,” Octavia said, “but I’ll bet that I’m better!” With that, she leapt across the coffee table and tackled her foe. Rather than waiting for him to attack her, she was going to take the initiative and try to take him by surprise.
Octavia was a very lucky pony, as her surprise tackle was not only successful, but Susake had been in too awkward a position to roll with her tackle, and took the full force of the attack. Before he could do anything else, Octavia punched his chin with a hoof – enough to force the ninja into unconsciousness.
One down, two to go, thought Octavia. A moment later, a shuriken embedded itself in the floor next to her.
“What? You think that just because you take down one of us, the other two will leave you alone?” Rutona asked. It was he who had thrown the shuriken, using his unicorn magic to levitate and hurl it through the air. He had another few shuriken hanging in the air, ready to be thrown at a moment’s notice. Meanwhile Kurasa, the ninja whom Octavia had identified as being female from her voice, had shifted her body into a fighting stance similar to Susake’s.
Buck. Where’s Vinyl Scratch when you need her? Octavia wondered grimly. Thinking swiftly, she did the only thing she could think of. “Here! Catch!” she said, picking up Susake’s unconscious body and throwing it as hard as she could at Rutona. His body was heavy and so it wasn’t a perfect throw, but it was accurate enough to cause Rutona to hesitate for fear of hitting his associate.
Octavia took advantage of the distraction to then jump onto an armchair and use that as a springboard from which to perform a flying kick to Kurasa. Not expecting the attack from on high, Kurasa was hit firstly by the kick, and then secondly when Octavia grabbed her head and slammed it into the wall, breaking through the plaster in the process.
Oh horseapples, Octavia briefly thought, dropping Kurasa to the ground once she confirmed that she was unconscious, how much does it cost to repair a wall again? Now there was just Rutona left to face. He had several shuriken hovering, ready to throw directly at Octavia.
For a few moments the two ponies stared at each other, weighing the other up. Neither moved, save for breathing. Finally, Rutona broke the silence.
“I know what you’re thinking, pony,” he said. “’Does he have six shurikens, or only five?’”
“What? That’s not what I’m thinking!” Octavia protested.
“Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself,” Rutona continued, not listening to Octavia.
“But you can see them right there! You’ve got five!” Octavia pointed out.
“But seeing as how these are 4.4-sided shurikens-”
“How in the hay does that make sense?!”
“- the most powerful shurikens in the world, and would slice your head right open, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: ‘Do I feel lucky?’” Receiving no answer from Octavia, Rutona added, “Well, do ya, pony?”
“Oh, shut up,” Octavia said, spinning around on her front hooves and bucking Rutona. Although the force of her blow sent him flying into a wall and knocked him out instantly – being a unicorn, he wasn’t as resilient to her blow as the other two ninjas – he still had time to magically throw the shurikens in Octavia’s direction.
“Aargh!” Octavia cried out in pain as the shurikens sliced her sides. One or two missed her, but the remaining ones managed to inflict new wounds upon her, with one managing to bury itself deep in her flank. She stumbled slightly, nearly falling over from the pain.
Urgh – back to the bathroom, she thought, heading in that direction. I’ve got to clean these wounds – get myself fixed up. Using some disinfectant, Octavia managed to stop her bleeding and clean the wounds as best as she could. It was a good thing that the shurikens hadn’t sliced Octavia too deeply. There was just one problem.
I can’t get this shuriken out of my flank, Octavia thought. It was at too awkward a position for her to remove on her own using her hooves. Normally Octavia was content being a mere Earth pony, but this was one time that she wished she was a unicorn, so that she could simply levitate the shuriken out of her flesh. I suppose that I’ll have to get Vinyl to help – Vinyl! Octavia suddenly thought. What if more ninjas have gone after her?!
As fast as she could, Octavia headed to the kitchen. What was the name of that ridiculous nightclub she works at? Octavia thought. She had only been there once - on Vinyl’s first night working there - and had vowed never to return unless the situation was dire. It looked like that time was now.
“Ah ha! That’s it!” Octavia said, finding the fridge magnet advertising the club. “Cloudsdale Nine. Silly name for a club if you ask me, but it’s not really my business as to what it’s called…Now, how do I get there again?” she thought out loud, looking around for a map.
“Your tea, Madame Octavia,” said Octavia’s maid as she came into the room, placing a mug of tea upon the kitchen bench.
“Thank you, maid,” Octavia said. She reached a hoof for the mug before stopping. “Wait a moment… I don’t have a maid!” she exclaimed. Stopping her search for a map, she turned around to glare at the “maid”. She was a white-coated Earth pony wearing a red kimono. Her black mane was neatly tied up in a bun.
“What is matter, Madame?” the pony asked in broken Equestrian. “Is tea not to your liking?”
“Who are you, and how did you – wait a moment… I get it. You’re another ninja in disguise!” deduced Octavia. “The others couldn’t take me out with force, so you’re trying to stop me with… what, does this tea have poison in it or something?”
“No, no, is perfectly good tea!” insisted the ninja. “You should drink now, before it is cold!”
“Only if you try some first,” Octavia said. She leaned against the kitchen bench on her hind legs and crossed her front hooves. Did this ninja really think she would fall for such an obvious ploy?
“No, I have own tea,” the ninja said, seemingly procuring a mug from thin air. “See? Is much tastier. Much better for maid to drink.” She took a sip to demonstrate.
“Well if that’s better, then why can’t I have some of that?” Octavia asked.
“No!” the ninja said, jerking the mug away from Octavia. “Is special maid tea. Only maids can drink!”
Octavia sighed. “Look, I’ve already worked out that you’re a ninja. Why don’t we just drop the pretence and get to the gratuitous fight… or better yet, discuss things. Why have you been sent to capture me?”
“Is secret to everypony!” the ninja explained. A moment later, she realised her mistake and corrected herself. “I mean, I am no ninja. I am maid!” She took a sip from her tea, blindly hoping that Octavia hadn’t heard her obvious slip up.
Octavia smirked. “Oh, you’re a maid, are you? Drinking your special tea, meant only for maids?”
“Yes! Of course I am!”
“Then how come you just drank from the tea you poured for me?”
The ninja paused. “I…what?”
“I swapped around the mugs when you weren’t looking,” Octavia said smugly. “You just drank from the mug of tea you poured for me – the one which I suspect has been poisoned.”
“Then… tea with antidote is…” the maid said, looking to the mug on the kitchen bench. Octavia said nothing, and merely continued to smirk.
The ninja dived for the mug on the bench and drank it down as fast as she could, in spite of how hot it must have been. “Ha!” she said as she finished, wiping a few stray drops from her muzzle, “Your silly plan failed! You…” She faltered, blinking once or twice.
“Something wrong?” Octavia asked, still as smug as she had been the past few minutes. “Feeling somewhat tired?”
“You…you didn’t swap tea around, did you?” the ninja asked, the truth dawning on her. She blinked a few more times, more heavily than before.
“Well, obviously,” Octavia said. “How the hay would I swap a mug on the bench with one in your hoof without you realising?”
“I – I will…” the ninja stammered, struggling to stay awake now. “I… I sleep now,” she said, finally giving into the drugged tea’s poison and falling asleep. She fell to the ground a moment later, her limbs unable to support her.
“Wow, what an idiot,” said Octavia, shaking her head.
==============
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, an ominous meeting was taking place. Leaping into a darkened warehouse through the upper windows using some excellent parkour, a ninja found himself standing before his two masters. All the ninja knew about them was that they were two stallions – nopony in the clan had ever seen their faces or cutie marks. Even their races were unknown. To know their identities was to invite death. In the shadows of the warehouse, all that could be made out were their vague silhouettes.
“Kashika is your codename, is it not?” one of the stallions asked the ninja. His voice had a touch of upper class to it. The two stallions had only started ruling the clan for a few weeks, but Kashika had already begun to suspect that this stallion was from Canterlot’s elite upper class, seeking to control Equestria from the shadows through the ninja clan.
“Y-yes, master,” Kashika stammered.
“Sweet as name,” said the other stallion. In spite of his dual role as the leader of the clan, he sounded more laid back than the first stallion. “I like you, Kashika! You’re one cool ninja!”
“B.D.!” the first stallion exclaimed. “Can’t you at least try to act more secretive? I didn’t suggest we meet in this darkened warehouse to meet with a lieutenant of our secret ninja clan for you to blow it all by acting neither mysterious nor ominous!” Kashika winced. Surely he wouldn’t be executed for hearing the apparent nickname of the second master of the clan, would he?
“Sorry,” B.D. apologised. Changing his tone to sound somewhat deeper, and hopefully more mysterious, he said, “Anyway, Kashika, has the plan begun? No, wait, I mean – has the strategy been put into motion? Are our pieces moving together to, um, masterfully execute our superior stratagem?” In spite of the darkness, Kashika could see B.D. turn his head to the other clan leader, who gave a nod of seeming approval.
“Yes,”Kashika answered. “I have sent three of our ninjas to the house of our targets, with a fourth lying in wait should they fail. They shall surely capture the first target – the Earth pony known as Octavia.”
“Why are they only capturing Octavia?” the first stallion asked. “The second target, the unicorn known as Vinyl Scratch, should be at the house too, should she not?”
“We determined that it would be opportune if we were to send ninjas after the two targets whilst they were separated, therefore depriving them of the chance to work together,” Kashika explained. “Thus have I sent another group of ninjas to capture Vinyl Scratch whilst she is at her workplace, separate from Octavia.”
“Hmm… that sounds reasonable enough,” the first stallion replied.
“How many ninjas are being sent after Vinyl Scratch?” asked B.D. Despite his earlier attempt at mystery, he had already slipped back to mindless enthusiasm.
“Six,” Kashika answered. “As she is a unicorn, we decided that it would be safer to send a few extra ninjas after her. When confronting unicorns, one never knows how many spells they may or may not know.”
“Damn straight! Unicorn master race!” said B.D. happily. A moment later, the sound of a hoof hitting a pony’s head echoed out through the darkness.
“Excellent report, Kashika,” the first stallion said, speaking over B.D.’s muttered swearing. “We shall expect Octavia and Vinyl Scratch within the next few hours. You may leave now.”
“Of course, masters,” said Kashika. He withdrew a smoke bomb and threw it to the ground.
CLINK!
“Oh, uh, sorry. Looks like that one’s a dud,” Kashika apologised. He drew another smoke bomb, and this time managed to successfully vanish using the smoke it provided as cover. Once they were sure that he was gone, the two stallions turned to each other.
“Oh man, how cool is this? We’re totally gonna capture Vinyl and Octavia!” exclaimed B.D.
“Yes… after these few weeks of being stuck here, we’ll finally be able to execute our plan,” said the first stallion smugly. He grinned at B.D., who could somehow see perfectly in the darkness. “But before we do that, there’s another ‘plan’ I want to execute…” he said, leaning towards B.D., who grinned back at him.
It was probably best for Kashika that he had left when he had, as if he had stayed around, watching and hearing the silhouette of his clan leaders making out likely would have traumatised him for life.
==============
At Cloudsdale Nine, Vinyl’s set was going as smoothly as possible. The ponies on the dance floor all looked to be having a good time moving to the tempo of the music, expressing their joy for the beat of the music through the different movements of their bodies. Hay, there were even some ponies in the crowd throwing things at Vinyl to show their appreciation for her! A lot of them were just barely missing the unicorn – in response she raised a hoof and nodded vaguely in the direction of the throwers. Ah, fans, she thought to herself. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
As Vinyl switched tracks, she suddenly noticed something odd about the ponies throwing items at her. Those ponies in the crowd… they – they have really weird taste in fashion. Although ponies didn’t usually wear clothing, it wasn’t unusual for ponies heading to a nightclub to throw on a hat or a tie, so as to try and look more attractive to the opposite sex. These ponies, however, were wearing black bodysuits that completely covered themselves up. From the main stage, it looked to Vinyl as though the ponies were wearing giant socks. Huh. Good luck trying to pick up anypony wearing those clothes.
Vinyl was interrupted from her silent critiquing of the ponies’ fashion sense by a tap on her shoulder. “YOU’RE OFF IN TWO MINUTES!” shouted one of the managers of the nightclub, straining to make himself heard over the music. Vinyl gave him a nod in return. On most nights, including this one, she’d and one or two other DJs would alternate playing music, both to give themselves a break and to give the clubbers a decent variety of music.
Vinyl looked back to the dance floor. That’s odd. Those weird ponies in the black suits are gone, she noted. At first she thought it was strange, before it occurred to her that being the crazy fans they seemed to be, they probably had left once they’d realised that she wouldn’t be playing for a little while. Silly fans, she thought, I’ll be back on in an hour. A few minutes later, Vinyl finished her current set and left the DJ booth. As she walked out, she took notice of the items that the ‘fans’ had been throwing at her.
“Whoah…” Vinyl muttered, looking at the shurikens and kunai embedded deeply within the wall. “These are really realistic replicas! That’s so cool!” Leaving the booth to the next DJ, the white and pink Hypno Hustler, Vinyl headed backstage to the VIP room.
Such a nice room, thought Vinyl a few minutes later, slightly tipsy from the whiskey and coke she had started to drink once she came into the room. I like that I get to stay here between sets and stuff… this room is so cool. Her gaze wandering around the room, Vinyl found herself drawn to a skylight above the room. I wonder why they have that there… hey, it’s my fans!
A moment later, the skylight was opened and six ninjas descended from above, landing with catlike grace. And by that, it was of course meant that the ninjas landed in a big pile, falling on top of each other and cursing as they did so.
“You idiot, Raiyaji!” said one of the ninjas. “I told you we should have practiced this! Now our dramatic entrance is totally ruined!”
“Urgh… sorry, Maruorochi!” replied another ninja from somewhere at the bottom of the pile.
“’Sup,” Vinyl said, taking a sip from her drink. Between not noticing that the ninjas had been trying to incapacitate her earlier and her general tipsiness, she wasn’t too fazed by the group falling through a skylight and into a pile in front of her. “You guys like the show?”
Taken aback slightly, the ninjas gave each other glances as they untangled themselves from the pile they had collapsed into. “Uh, it’s not really my genre,” admitted one ninja after a moment. The other ninjas all nodded and murmured in agreement.
Vinyl Scratch frowned. “Then… what are you doing here?” she asked, still missing the obvious. One ninja facehoofed.
“Isn’t it obvious? We’re here to capture you!” said the apparent leader of the group; the ninja identified as Maruorochi. “Battle formations, everypony!”
“What the-” Vinyl began before a ninja managed to do a complex kick which sent both her and the couch she was on flying backwards into the wall, flipping it over. As Vinyl pulled herself out of the wreckage, she was met by a buck to the face which knocked her backwards into the wall.
“Ha! Kashika needn’t have sent us six ninja – you are not even worthy of our honour!” laughed Maruorochi. “Why he thought that –”
“Wait, honour?” asked another ninja.
Turning to face the ninja, Maruorochi explained, “Our ninja honour, of course. She’s not worthy of facing us in battle, for she is-”
“No, no, no – you’ve got it all wrong,” interrupted the other ninja. “You’ve got us mixed up with samurai. Samurai are the honourable ones; ninjas stealthily assassinate our targets from the dark.”
“Oh, really?” asked Maruorochi, confused now. “I could have sworn that Kashika told me...damn, I wouldn’t have insisted we burst through the skylight like that if I’d realised.”
Picking herself up from the couch again, Vinyl interrupted the conversation, asking, “Wait, you guys are ninja? Or is it ninjas? I can never get that right…”
Maruorochi could be heard to irritably sigh. “I am so over this job,” he muttered to himself. “Team! Take her out and take her back to the clan leaders!”
Vinyl grinned. “Oh, you think you can take me out just like that, huh? Well I’ll have you know I’m- argh!” She was interrupted in her speech as a ninja leapt towards her and kicked her right in the muzzle. “Hey! I was talking!” she said angrily.
“Only a fool talks when his life is on the line,” replied the ninja. He went to kick Vinyl again, only to be stopped as Vinyl levitated him using her unicorn magic.
“Now, as I was saying –” Vinyl continued, pausing to throw the ninja at one of his friends who had been moving in for an attack, “- I am motherbucking Vinyl Scratch, and it’ll take a lot more than a bunch of guys in pyjamas to stop me!” As she spoke, she continually used her telekinesis to stop attacking ninjas in their tracks before throwing them away as though they were stray pieces of rubbish, all the while advancing towards Maruorochi. As she reached him, her grin grew larger. “You sure you want to take me on? Because I guarantee that you won’t win.”
In response, Maruorochi merely smirked below his facial covering. “You are a fool Vinyl Scratch. You are already defeated, and you don’t even know it.”
As cocky as Vinyl could be, this made her hesitate. “What do you mean by –argh!” Once more, Vinyl Scratch was interrupted as a ninja attacked her, this time from behind. As she turned around to face the ninja, another one which she had thrown with her telekinesis leapt at her from a different angle, managing to strike a blow at her from a blind spot.
Over and over again this pattern repeated, with each ninja attacking her as she turned to strike another one. As most of the ninjas were Earth ponies, their heavy blows were able to hurt Vinyl enough that before long, she felt her strength start to wane. Argh… looks like this is one fight I won’t win… thought Vinyl. The room was starting to spin, her head was aching, and she was feeling more and more determined to close her eyes each time she was hit. Her reaction time was slowing down too, so whatever chance she had of defeating the ninjas at first was decreasing more and more.
Octavia, I’m sorry…I… I never got to tell you- thought Vinyl as another ninja managed to kick her; this blow being powerful enough to knock her to the ground. She weakly looked up through the broken frame of her glasses to the group of ninjas who now surrounded her.
“Admirable of you to put up a fight, but you were destined from the start to lose,” said Maruorochi smugly. Vinyl wasn’t listening to him, however – she had her eyes fixed on the skylight.
A moment later, there was a crash and a shattering of glass. Leaping through the skylight was Octavia, whom Vinyl had spotted as she was knocked to the ground. Taken by surprise, the ninjas all spun around to see what was happening.
“Stay the buck away from my friend,” Octavia growled.
“Alright, now that was a cool entrance,” admitted Maruorochi.
Rather than replying to Maruorochi, Octavia simply threw as many ninjas aside as she needed to in order to reach Vinyl. The combination of her dramatic entrance combined with her relentlessness was shocking most of them too much to react. Octavia held a hoof out for Vinyl and helped her to her hooves.
“Are you alright, Vinyl?” she asked, turning around after speaking to hit a ninja who was sneaking up behind her.
“Y-yeah,” Vinyl lied, shaking her head in the hopes that the pain from her body would vanish. Her horn lit up as she spoke, and although she was too weak to start throwing ninjas around as she had been earlier, she was at least able to trip over a ninja who was approaching her from the side.
Without thinking about it, the two ponies had positioned themselves with their backs to one another, leaving no blind spots in the room. Between their miscellaneous adventures over the past year or so, they had somehow managed to work out a fighting system for when the occasion called for it, so that each complimented the other. As they were now, they could cover each other and attack the ninjas as they repeatedly tried to perform their complex martial arts on their targets. For whatever reason, the ninjas weren’t using any ranged weapons – either they’d used them all up earlier when trying to attack Vinyl from the dance floor, or they were afraid to use them in the small room for fear of hitting each other.
Working together as a team, the two ponies were able to wear down the ninjas; Vinyl’s telekinesis slowed down the ninjas enough for Octavia to take them out, whilst Octavia was able to step in and defend Vinyl whenever the unicorn felt herself growing weaker. Eventually, all of the ninjas were defeated.
“Phew,” Vinyl said, exhausted from both overtaxing her magic and her earlier beating, “that was a close one, Octavia.” She sat down on the ground, idly looking around the room at the unconscious bodies of five ninjas.
“Just be grateful that I came in when I did,” Octavia said, a small smile on her face. She too sat down, next to Vinyl.
“Yeah… how did you know I was being attacked?” Vinyl asked. “And for that matter, why did you enter through the skylight? There was a door, y’know!”
“Ah, now there’s a perfectly valid reason for that,” Octavia started. “You see, I was –”
CLINK!
Both ponies looked to the ground in front of them, where a small spherical object had just been thrown. A split second later, the object released a cloud of thick, green gas.
“Vinyl, hold your – your –” Octavia began. The gas was very potent, and as she had opened her mouth to speak she had unintentionally breathed some in. The grey mare found herself suddenly very tired, and after resisting sleep for a moment, she closed her eyes and gave in. Vinyl, on the other hoof, was already asleep – she hadn’t even considered holding her breath as an option.
The gas dispersed quickly, leaving the two mares sleeping. From the shadows, a dark figure approached the two ponies. It was Maruorochi.
“Only a fool lets his guard down post-battle,” he said quietly. “You should have counted the number of ninjas you were facing.” His mission nearly completed, Maruorochi picked the two ponies up. It was time to deliver them to his masters…
==============
“…let her coat get so filthy?”
“Really, B.D.? Our secret ninja clan delivers our two targets to us, and the first thing you comment on is the state of one’s coat?”
Who…who’s talking? Octavia wondered blearily as she slowly regained consciousness.
“I’m just saying, look at how badass my coat is! Hay, my coat is fabulous!”
“At the moment it does. When you’ve been drinking, it’s just as bad as hers does now.”
“Hay, nopony said I’m a perfect stallion. Anyway, you love when I’m drunk because you can do what you want with me, you slut.”
Octavia stirred slightly. The voices of her and Vinyl’s captors sounded oddly familiar. Almost eerily so, in fact.
It seemed that they had noticed her stirring, as the next thing Octavia heard was “Hey, looks like Octavia’s awake!”
“Octavia? Are you with us?” For the apparent head of a secret ninja clan, this voice sounded somewhat posh. Even more strange, it sounded somewhat caring and sympathetic.
Octavia forced her eyes open – not that it made much difference. The room she was in was incredibly dark, although it seemed quite large judging by the slight echoes of the abductors’ voices. Octavia herself was currently tied to a chair with chains. She grimaced. These ponies clearly hadn’t underestimated her natural Earth pony strength.
“Ah good, you are awake,” said the posh voice. Although Octavia could tell where the voice was coming from, the pony it belonged to was invisible in the darkness. “Now we just need to wait for Vinyl, and then we can – oh, wait, she seems to be waking up too.”
Octavia glanced to her side, spotting Vinyl Scratch, who was naturally also tied to a chair. Within a few moments, the unicorn was awake. She looked to Octavia, who gave a small shrug. She had no idea what was happening, where they were, or what they could do to escape the situation.
“Excellent. Now we can begin,” said the posh voice. “B.D.?”
The voice from earlier began speaking. This voice was much huskier, but it was definitely a stallion speaking. “To protect Equestria from devas-” The voice abruptly stopped, as though a hoof had been put in the speakers’ mouth.
“I didn’t mean begin with the theme,” the posh voice said in a deadpan tone.
“I just wanted your hoof in my mouth,” the husky voice replied mischievously. “You know I love that kinky shit.”
“Okay, what the actual buck is going on?!” Vinyl burst out, asking the question Octavia had been wondering since regaining consciousness. For a few moments, there was silence.
“Should we tell them?” asked the husky voice.
“It’s only fair,” replied the posh voice. There was the sound of hooves taking a few steps. “Octavia, Vinyl Scratch… prepare yourself,” the voice said. There was a small click! noise, and then a spotlight activated, revealing the captors of Vinyl and Octavia; the ponies who had sent the ninjas after them.
At first, Octavia thought that the harsh light coming so unexpectedly in the darkness was tricking her sight. Even as her eyes adjusted, she refused to believe it. There was no way in Equestria that the abductors could be whom her eyes were telling her they were.
The stallion with the posh voice was an Earth pony with a grey coat. His short, dark mane was neatly combed back, and he was wearing a small red bow tie. There was nothing particularly odd about this pony – until you got to his flank and realised that he had the same cutie mark as Octavia.
The other pony, the one with the husky voice, was a male unicorn. He had a white coat and a messy streaked blue mane. Resting above his horn was a pair of purple glasses, similar to Vinyl’s distinct pair but more like a visor. As with the first stallion, there was nothing notably strange about this pony. Discounting the fact that his cutie mark was the same as Vinyl Scratch’s, of course.
Octavia hadn’t even realised it, but her jaw had dropped. Vinyl Scratch was similarly stunned. “You – you’re, you’re… you’re us!” she stammered out.
“Octavius and Bass Drop at your service,” said the grey pony simply, walking away from the spotlight switch and back to the unicorn. In spite of her shock, Octavia noticed how closely Octavius stood to Bass Drop.
“Okay, now what the hay is this crap?!” Vinyl shouted. “Are you guys, like – what are you? Clones, or… or, I dunno, magical creatures?”
“I assure you that we’re ponies, just the same as you,” Octavius said. “We’re from an alternate universe, and we-”
“Wait a minute, what?” Octavia asked. “That is even less believable than Vinyl’s stupid ideas.”
“As I was saying,” Octavius continued, glaring at Octavia, “we’re from an alternate universe. Whilst fighting the evil sorceress Baroness van Darkhoof, we-”
“You guys fought a sorceress?!” Vinyl exclaimed excitedly. “That’s so cool!” Turning to Octavia, she asked, “Why don’t we ever fight anything cool?”
Octavia shrugged. “We just defeated a few ninjas. How does that rate on the Vinyl Scratch scale?”
Vinyl thought it over for a moment. “An eight, maybe a nine out of ten? Ninjas are pretty cool.”
“Yeah, I’m not gonna deny that I’m kinda jealous of you guys,” said Bass Drop, who had been fairly quiet since the spotlight had come on. “But I mean, I guess I’m one half of the head of the ninja clan, so glass houses and whatnot.” He turned to Octavius. “That is what glass houses means, right?”
“That is pretty cool,” Vinyl said, agreeing with Bass Drop’s statement. “How did you end up the head of a ninja clan anyway?”
“Oh, well Octy and me –”
“As I was saying,” Octavius interrupted loudly. He had looked to be fairly annoyed at being interrupted, and his frustration had only increased as the conversation had continued to digress. “Bass Drop and I are from an alternate dimension, and during a fight with Baroness van Darkhoof, she decided that the simplest way to get rid of us was to cast some sort of spell which sent us to another dimension – thus did we land in this one.”
“And oooohhhhhh man is it weird!” commented Bass Drop, a serious expression on his face. “I mean, you guys are ruled by a Princess. A Princess! What the hay is up with that?”
“Alright…” Octavia said, ignoring Bass Drop as she put the pieces together, “so you are both from another dimension. So why did you send ninjas to kidnap us? What do you want from us?” Exhausted from the fighting, Octavia was definitely not in the mood for this. Where is Exposition when you need her? she wondered. She’d be perfect in a situation like this.
“Well, in a nutshell,” began Octavius, his expression suddenly turning apologetic, “we need you two to get back home.”
“…How?” asked Octavia, a hint of fear creeping into her voice. I don’t like the way this is going, she thought.
“It’s because you two appear to be our dimensional counterparts,” Octavius stated. “After searching through many libraries for some sort of dimension-hopping spell –thanks for the help, B.D.-”
“No problem,” said Bass Drop, missing the anger and sarcasm.
“ – the best thing I could find was a spell which-”
“Huzzah!” exclaimed Vinyl Scratch, jumping out of her chair. Everypony looked at her in surprise. “What?” she asked. “Nopony noticed me using my magic to pick the lock on the chains?” Silent stares responded. “Huh. Oh, horseapples, I probably wouldn’t have jumped out if I’d realised that I’d gotten away with it.”
“Well, that won’t do,” said Octavius, annoyed. Stomping his hooves to the ground twice, he called out, “Ninjas!” A moment later, a ninja appeared in front of him, leaping down from…somewhere. Octavia had a quick glance up, but from what she could see of the room – which appeared to be a warehouse, now that her eyes had adjusted – there were no places for the ninja to have dropped down from.
“Restrain Vinyl Scratch,” Octavius commanded the ninja.
“But…master, I- I’m not supposed to see your face…” he stuttered in fear. “How can I –”
“Never mind that, just take out Vinyl!” Octavius commanded. The ninja nodded, and leapt towards Vinyl, planning a flying kick… only to be interrupted by Octavia, who tackled him in mid-air.
“You didn’t think Vinyl would free me once she had escaped?” Octavia asked smugly once she had confirmed that the ninja she had stopped was unconscious.
“Ha! Who cares?” laughed Bass Drop. “We have ten thousand ninjas – or is that ninja? – in our clan!”
“Really?” asked Octavius, generally surprised. Bass Drop shrugged.
“I may be exaggerating a bit,” he admitted.
Octavius facehoofed, but he had a smile upon his face which he wasn’t hiding very well. “Why am I in a relationship with you?”
In response, Bass Drop’s grin grew larger. “Because you love my sexy looks, my intelligence, and my – hey! Do you think I could catch my tail if I chased it really quickly?” Without waiting for a response, he started eagerly chasing his short, blue tail.
In response to all of this, Vinyl and Octavia exchanged confused stares. “Remember the days when we did normal things like getting lost in the jungle and going treasure hunting? I miss them,” Octavia said.
“Personally, I miss that time we made out,” Vinyl said mischievously. Octavia looked away, hoping that Vinyl hadn’t noticed her subtle blushing in response to this. Unfortunately for her, Octavius and Bass Drop had. Somehow.
“Ooh, does somepony have feelings they’re not quite sure about?” teased Octavius.
“Yeah, what’s this about you two making out?” asked Bass Drop, a grin as large as Vinyl’s on his face.
“I – we were – you see, we had been shipped, and – Vinyl grabbed me…” Octavia stuttered, trying to make sense of both her emotions and the situation. The other three ponies were all grinning at her, waiting for a response. Octavia’s blushing was much more noticeable now, and feeling rather awkward, she decided to change the subject by blurting out, “Since when the hay did this become a light-hearted romantic comedy?!”
“Oh, you want the ninjas back?” Octavius asked, a sinister tone creeping into his voice. “Because I am fine with that. Bass Drop and I still do want to get back to our dimension, you realise.”
Octavia cringed. Fighting more ninjas? Somehow she didn’t see her and Vinyl’s chances of escaping being that high. Fortunately for her, Vinyl had a much better idea than fighting ninjas.
“Yo Tavi – guy Tavi that is, not girl Tavi – how about this?” she offered. “You guys just want to get back to your dimension, yeah? Preferably without hurting ponies if possible? What say Bass Drop and I have a music duel, and if I win, you guys let us go and try to find a better way to get back home?”
Octavius paused and considered Vinyl’s proposal. It seemed she had hit the nail on the head when she had suggested that Octavius and Bass Drop didn’t actually want to hurt anypony – they were more or less exactly the same as Octavia and Vinyl, after all. However, Octavius shook his head. “No, they’d be too similar in skill level. That wouldn’t work at all.”
“Could we still do it for fun? That sounds cool!” said Bass Drop. Octavia and Octavius ignored him, whilst Vinyl flashed him a smile.
“Hmm… I’ll tell you what, you two: If Vinyl can defeat me in a sword duel, I shall agree to your proposition,” said Octavius after some further thinking.
“What?!” exclaimed Octavia and Bass Drop in unison. Vinyl simply grinned.
“Bring it on, motherbucker,” she swore.
“Vinyl, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Octavia asked Vinyl in a whisper. Vinyl shrugged.
“Sure I do. I’m going to save us from having to fight a buckton of ninjas and ending up in the same situation we were fifteen minutes ago,” she said seriously. “Or would you rather that happen? This is the first chance we’ve got to get out of here, Octavia, and I’m taking it!”
“Well, now that you mention it, I’ve got the oddest feeling that we’ve got an obligation to fight ten thousand ninjas,” Octavia admitted. Biting her lip, she added, “But what if he defeats you? I’m sure he suggested a swordfight because he can actually use a sword; whereas if you and Bass Drop were having a music battle we’d have a bit more of a chance.”
“I’ll be fine,” said Vinyl. She glanced over to Octavius, who had procured two katanas from Celestia-knows-where and was examining both of them with Bass Drop. “I mean, he’s basically you, right? We both know you don’t have an aggressive bone in your body, Octavia. That’s why you’re so adorable!”
“Did you see me take out those ninjas before?” Octavia growled. “I am not adorable!”
“That was ‘cos you saw me in danger, naturally,” Vinyl said, grinning. “And you wanted to protect me, just like I’d protect you! Thanks for that, by the way. Love you too, Tavi.” She blew a kiss to Octavia, unfazed by the grey pony’s grimace. She knew that Octavia hated nicknames.
“Anyway,” Vinyl continued, “how hard can using a sword be? It’s pretty much a turntable, and I really know how to use turntables. Say, I wonder what happened back at Cloudsdale Nine after we got kidnapped?”
It was all Octavia could do to stop herself from facehoofing. “How in the name of Celestia is a turntable like a sword?”
Vinyl shrugged. “I dunno. They’re both weapons, right?” Turning to Octavius, she called out, “You ready, guy-Tavi?”
Octavius had been practicing swinging one of the katanas around whilst Vinyl and Octavia spoke. “When you are, Vinyl,” he said, examining the edge of the blade with a keen eye. “And don’t call me Tavi.”
“N’aww, you hate nicknames too. You’re just like my Tavi!” Vinyl said cheerfully. She and Octavius found a spot in the warehouse that would be appropriate for their duel, and he passed her a sword. Octavia and Bass Drop stood to either side, leaving plenty of space for the swordsponies.
“Ooh, shiny!” said Vinyl as she levitated the katana out of its sheath. Using her magic to have it hover in the air beside her, she asked, “We good to start?”
“Naturally,” replied Octavius. “Once you’ve finished levitating the katana and placed it into your hooves.” He was doing so with his own sword; standing on his back hooves and holding it with his front.
Vinyl faltered a little. “W-wait, seriously?”
“Do not forget that I control the rules of our game, Vinyl,” he pointed out. “I see no reason why you shouldn’t hold it in your hooves if I must hold mine with mine.”
“…Fine,” said Vinyl. She awkwardly got to her back hooves and held the katana in one of her front hooves, nearly falling over in the process. Octavia winced. The duel hadn’t even started and Vinyl was already at a disadvantage. Standing on back hooves was something that took ponies months or sometimes even years to learn. She herself had had to learn how to as part of her cello training, as had Octavius, presumably, but Vinyl… Vinyl had little chance of winning the duel now. Octavia was tempted to intervene and find some way to save Vinyl, but with the army of ninjas at Octavius and Bass Drop’s beck and call, there was little they could do even if they somehow managed to escape the warehouse.
“En garde,” said Octavius softly, taking a few steps forwards and swinging at Vinyl. His blade made a small cut in her chest. In response, Vinyl swung her sword at Octavius, who simply stood still and allowed Vinyl to miss, as he knew she would. Vinyl’s momentum, combined with her already bad posture, sent her tumbling to the ground, giving Octavius the opportunity to add a few more slashes to Vinyl, this time to her back.
Octavia couldn’t help but notice that although Octavius had Vinyl at a disadvantage, the slashes he dealt to her were only thin cuts, going deeply enough to bleed but not seriously. It seemed that Vinyl’s prediction about Octavius and Bass Drop not really wanting to hurt anypony was correct.
Vinyl picked herself up, and the duel continued. Despite some creative moves by Vinyl, such as switching which hoof was holding the sword, Octavius was simply the better swordspony, and was hurting Vinyl much more than she was hurting him. Octavia bit her lip watching the ongoing struggle – Vinyl was clearly not doing well, and it was clear which way the fight was going.
“Ah-ha!” Vinyl shouted as she took a step forwards, slashing at Octavius. To everypony’s surprise, including Vinyl’s, she managed to inflict a fairly deep wound upon Octavius’ hoof.
Looking at his hoof in shock, Octavius stared at it for a moment before moving his gaze to Vinyl. His expression changed from one of surprise to one of anger. “You…!” he started. Without warning, he moved towards Vinyl, and rather than inflicting a small slash on her, as he had been doing so far, he stabbed his sword into her gut.
There was a gasp; Octavia wasn’t sure whether it came from her or Vinyl. It felt like everything was happening in slow motion. Vinyl collapsed to the ground, crying out in pain. If Octavia had been paying more attention, she would have questioned the small amount of blood coming from the wound.
As it was, Octavia instead approached the sword. Somewhere Octavius was saying something about how he had won fairly, but Octavia wasn’t listening to him. Seeing Vinyl injured so badly had awoken something within her, and right now all she wanted to do was stop Octavius. Standing upon her back legs, Octavia reached down and picked up the katana, holding it with both hooves as she had noticed Octavius doing.
As she turned to face Octavius, some of his words finally reached her. “…father insisted upon fencing lessons during my youth – this should be interesting.” Part of Octavia’s brain found this interesting, as she had never had any sort of fencing lessons, thus showing that her universe and Octavius’ weren’t entirely parallel, but she told that part of her brain to shut up and stop Octavius.
Breathing deeply, Octavia took a step forwards. She concentrated on the blade in her hooves, imagining it to be an extension of her own body. She took another step forwards, concentrating on Octavius. He had an odd look on his face – it wasn’t exactly arrogance, but it wasn’t exactly a worried expression, either. It looked more as though he was weighing Octavia up. Taking the final few steps towards Octavius, Octavia swung the katana, planning to hurt him as he had hurt Vinyl.
She missed.
As the blade swung towards him, Octavius merely leaned back, not even moving the position of his hooves on the floor. As Octavia’s swing continued past him, he used his own katana to slice upwards, from Octavia’s navel to her chest. She winced as the affected areas began stinging sharply. Did Vinyl put up with this her entire duel?
Rather than withdrawing, Octavia continued to attack. Her slash had missed Octavius and her hooves had gone past him, but there was no reason for her to consider it a failed attack. She moved her hooves back the other way, so that the hilt of the katana went flying into the side of Octavius’ head. With Octavia’s natural strength behind it, it was enough to knock him to the ground. In his surprise, Octavius dropped his own katana.
Octavia pointed the tip of her katana to Octavius’ throat. “Looks like I won,” she said coldly.
“So you did,” Octavius agreed. “However… I challenged Vinyl to a duel, not you. That invalidates the deal she suggested.”
Octavia’s eyes narrowed. “You stabbed Vinyl in a fit of rage- you may have hurt her badly enough for her to die of her wounds, and you –” Octavia paused, distracted as something light and soft brushed her flank. “- you have the nerve to dishonour the deal?”
“Man, you sure do love being dramatic,” Vinyl said from just behind Octavia, her tail continuing to brush Octavia’s flank. “All this for me? I’m flattered.”
“Vinyl?!” Octavia gasped, taking her eyes off Octavius to see whether her ears were betraying her. “But – that stab! It looked so deep!”
Vinyl grinned. “Takes more than that to get rid of me,” she said. Balancing on her hind legs for a moment, she pulled aside some of the fur covering her belly to reveal a small speaker strapped to her skin, looking incredibly damaged. Although Octavius’ katana had pierced her skin, the speaker had taken the blunt of the damage. “I kinda like to have a subwoofer on my stomach. Don’t judge me,” Vinyl said, blushing a little.
Octavia raised an eyebrow. If she hadn’t been pointing a katana at her interdimensional male counterpart, she would have facehoofed for the countless time that night. “Seriously?” she asked.
“Hey, the old Deus Ex Machina 9000 is a good model!” Vinyl said, grinning. “The wubs tickle my stomach, and it makes me feel really–”
“Please don’t finish that sentence,” Octavia said, rolling her eyes. Turning back to Octavius, she said, “So, Octavius? How about it? Willing to find a better way to return to your home dimension? One that doesn’t involve Vinyl and myself for… for whatever you needed us for?”
Octavius scowled. “You still didn’t technically win fairly.”
“You would have done the same for Bass Drop,” Octavia pointed out.
“Hmm?” Bass Drop said, straightening up. “Sorry, kinda dozed off there. What’s happening?”
There was a moment of silence as Octavius considered his female counterpart’s point.
“Fine,” he said. “You’ve got a deal. Vinyl Scratch had a point; neither of us really wanted to hurt anypony. It’s just that- that we’re so damn sick of being away from home! And everything here is just the slightest bit off –you know what I mean?”
Octavia stepped back and placed the katana on the floor before dropping back to four hooves. “I can imagine,” she said.
“Hey, I don’t see what’s so bad about it,” said Vinyl casually. Everypony in the room looked to her.
“Seriously, Vinyl?” Octavia asked her friend. “You’d be fine with being dragged out of your home dimension and stuck in another for potentially Celestia-knows-how-long?”
“Hay, you know one notable thing I’ve noticed about Equestria? This one, at least?” Vinyl asked, smiling broadly. Oh Celestia, why do I have the feeling she’s about to say something incredibly stupid? thought Octavia. “It’s that we’ve got an absolute buckton of mares! Seriously, you ever notice that?” she exclaimed happily. “If I were one of you guys, I’d be out there trying to bu- hey, what did I say?” Both Octavius (who was still lying on the ground) and Bass Drop were snickering.
“Haven’t you paid attention to us at all?” Bass Drop asked. “We’re gay! We both like stallions, and we both like each other!” He turned and stared to his partner.
Octavius grinned. “Hey Bass Drop?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks to Octavia, I’m lying on my back… and I feel as though I simply can’t move from this position…”
“Ooh, you’re one dirty pony,” said Bass Drop, swiftly walking over to Octavius. Octavia and Vinyl found their gazes meeting each other in a combination of confusion and horror.
“S-should we go?” Vinyl whispered to Octavia.
“I think that would be somewhat –” Octavia paused as a new sound entered the air: that of two stallion lovers sloppily kissing each other. “Yes. Now.”
Starting out with a swift trot but soon speeding up to gallops as …other… noises could be heard from the two stallions, Vinyl and Octavia exited the warehouse as fast as possible.
==============
It was a few days later. Vinyl and Octavia had both been treated for their injuries, and aside from a bandage over Octavia’s flank where Rutona’s shuriken had been embedded and a bandage around Vinyl’s stomach, both mares were in fairly good condition.
Vinyl Scratch was currently in her room, her hooves fiddling with each other. Okay, Vinyl, it’s time to spin this! she thought to herself. No stupid jokes. No flirting that she doesn’t care about. Just go up to Octavia and ask her out. After being kidnapped by the ninjas the other night, she had decided that it was time to reveal to Octavia what should already be obvious: that Vinyl had developed feelings for Octavia after living and going on wacky adventures with her.
Taking a deep breath, Vinyl opened the door from her room to exit. To her surprise, Octavia was standing there, a hoof raised in preparation of knocking the door. “Oh, hello Vinyl,” said Octavia. “Do you mind if I come in?”
“Nah, of course not,” Vinyl said, trying to act casual. The two mares went over to Vinyl’s bed and lay down on it.
“Now… I know this may sound somewhat strange coming from me… but the other night when we were captured by the ninjas, I, um, realised something,” said Octavia, avoiding Vinyl’s gaze.
“Y-yeah?” Vinyl asked, unable to think of anything else to say. Surely she’s not gonna say what I want her to say, is she?
“When I thought that Octavius stabbed you, I – something inside me just felt… bad. As though… as though I couldn’t bear to see you hurt, or- or picture not having you here,” Octavia said, her voice shaking. Oh my Celestia, she is saying it! thought Vinyl. “So…whilst I realise that it’s likely somewhat unexpected, I… I think I’ve developed a crush on you.”
This is my chance, thought Vinyl. Opening her mouth, she blurted out, “CoolTaviwannagoonadate?”
At the same time, Octavia hastily said, “So, would you consider going out with me at some point?” It took both ponies a few moments to realise what had happened.
“…Soooo, I guess we could go on two dates?” said Vinyl, breaking the awkward silence.
“Well, that seems as good an idea as any,” Octavia agreed, blushing and avoiding Vinyl’s gaze.
Oh yeah, I am so totally in, thought Vinyl.
What in the name of Celestia have I gotten myself into? wondered Octavia.
THE END.
Author's Note
Time for author notes!
*I give respect to anyone who picks up on the obscure Spider-Man reference
*Even more respect to anyone who picks up the even more obscure reference to the Dark Phoenix Saga (or at least the Hellfire Club issues preceding it)
*How did this fic come about? My last fic in this series had Vinyl and Octavia fighting pirates. Screw that, I thought, ninjas are way cooler than pirates! They should fight ninjas! And so they did.
*No idea what R63 Vinyl's name is - the best I could find was DJ COL-7, which I don't like, so I made my own. Hey, maybe it'll stick!
*The next story in this series will be called Vinyl and Octavia Have Multiple Dates.
EDIT: Hey, someone who's presumably really awesome drew some fan art of the revelations scene! Check it out here, it's super good!
Thanks for reading, everyone!
