Welcome to the Jungle

Vinyl landed back on the bed with enough force to startle Octavia awake. The gray mare bolted upwards, hooves reaching for the nightstand beside her, before she spotted Vinyl and visibly relaxed.

“Ah, startled me there.” Octavia said, chuckling softly before yawning and stretching. “So, how are you this fine morning?” she asked with a smirk.

The question and accompanying smirk probably had to do with the fact that Vinyl was panting like she’d run a marathon. She glared at Octavia.

“Why the hell did you set the alarm to go off like that?” she demanded.

“I’m a heavy sleeper.” Octavia said as she yawned again. “Especially after a night with such a happy ending.” she added with a lecherous wink.

Vinyl groaned and rubbed her temples, the throbbing in her head becoming prominent again.

“You alright there, dear?” Octavia asked as she slipped out of the bed.

“No.” Vinyl answered irritably. “My head feels like a it just got a visit from somepony that it owed money.”

Octavia chuckled again, rummaging around in the pile of clothes on the floor. After a moment she made a soft sound of triumph and straightened with a silver flask clutched in her hoof. The grey mare tilted her head back and took a swig of the liquid. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hoof and proffered the flask to Vinyl.

“Hair of the diamond dog?” the cellist said.

Vinyl eyed the flask for a moment and then hesitantly took it. She took a small swallow of the strong-smelling liquid and sputtered. This was far from the scotch Octavia had been drinking the night before. The burning sensation it left in her throat was far stronger and it tasted distinctly of apples.

Vinyl coughed into the crook of her foreleg, the flask rattling in her grip. Octavia quickly sprang to her side, snatching the flask away before Vinyl could drop it and spill its precious contents.

After her coughing fit subsided, Vinyl shot Octavia a glare. “What the Tartarus is that?” she said, hoarse from the drink.

(Hey Vinyl, feeling a little… horse?)

“It’s cider.” Octavia said as she screwed the top back on the flask.

“That’s cider?” Vinyl asked incredulously.

“Well, it’s technically hard cider…” Octavia said, inspecting the bed for stains.

Something clicked in Vinyl’s brain and her mouth said it before she could stop herself.

“Isn’t that illegal?”

Octavia looked up from her stain inspection, eyes suddenly appearing colder than they had before. It was a tense moment as Vinyl stared into those violet hues, suddenly remembering that the cellist was a pony of interest in a number of murders.

But the moment passed and Octavia’s eyes regained their usual warmth. She then resumed her stain hunt, speaking as she searched. “I don’t let that bother me.”

“Oh.” Vinyl tried to keep her tones even. “Well, that’s awesome.”

A small grin appeared on Octavia’s face.

The mare pushed away from the bed, apparently satisfied that Vinyl hadn’t spilled any of her cider. She then glanced at Vinyl and said, “You know, we never did get to listen to any music last night…” her grin became a lecherous smile.

Vinyl smiled back. “Yeah, I suppose we didn’t.” and as the tone of the room became lighter, Vinyl was suddenly reminded of the pounding in her skull. “Uh, Octavia, not that I don’t appreciate you sharing your cider and all, but I don’t suppose you have anything…?” she lightly tapped her forehead.

Octavia rolled her eyes and scoffed. “And I thought you Deejays were party animals.” she smirked in an almost snide way. “I’ll get you some medicine you big baby.” she made her way to the door, snatching up a black fedora with a pink band off a lamp and placing it on her head. She paused in the door frame.

“Now don’t you go anywhere.” she said like she was speaking to a puppy, even waggling a hoof. She chuckled and left with that.

Vinyl let out a huff when she was sure Octavia was well out of earshot and rubbed her eyes. What in Tartarus did she and the cellist drink last night? Vinyl rapidly became bored with waiting and ignored her body’s faint protests as she slipped out of the bed.

Looking for something to do to occupy her mind, the unicorn went over to the little glittering pile that was her dress from the previous evening. She picked it up, noticing that not only was it severely rumpled, but at some point a liquid of a startling red shade had been spilled all over it, leaving a very large blotch of an ugly brownish color down the front.

Vinyl sighed and let the dress fall back to the floor. Wasn’t like it was hers anyhow. She moved on to the bottles on the floor, wondering exactly how many and how much had entered her system.

She glanced over at the dildo and the blueberry pie it currently laid in. Vinyl certainly had been to more than a few wild parties and had certainly seen some shit. But this? Intentional or not, the fact that a dildo that had almost certainly been in at least one of their orifices, was now in a blueberry pie disturbed her.

Vinyl sighed and rubbed her eyes again. She went over to the pie, gingerly picked it up with her magic, and dumped it in the wastebasket. The dildo she allowed to flop to the floor, trying desperately not to look at it; trying to not imagine where it might have bee-

Shit, now she was.

“Great,” Vinyl said, gritting her teeth as the pounding in her head flared up. “Just fuckin’ great.”

The pounding lessened and Vinyl could once more form a full thought. Of course, that first full thought brought her back to the problem she had woken up with that morning.

You were supposed to pump her for information, Vinyl. Not let her pump you.

Vinyl sighed again, annoyed that sighing was suddenly becoming the thing she did. She needed to focus. There was a way to turn this around, right? Octavia liked her, why else would she offer the cider? So that’s what Vinyl would do. She would go along with Octavia as long as she could, playing off the mare’s affection, or at the very least attraction to her.

She was trained for this. Get close to a target, make them your best friend. She could do that. So what if the target was a skilled cellist/hardened mob enforcer? She seemed like a decent mare.

Vinyl winced as she wandered into the sunlight. She wished she had her glasses. They would have been a lot of help right now.

The sound of the door opening shook her from her thoughts and made her remember the pain in her skull. She was really starting to wish she had bothered learning some healing spells back in school.

Octavia entered the room with a slight swagger, a white bottle clutched in her hoof.

“What took you so long?” Vinyl asked.

“Oh, stop your whining.” Octavia said, a snide smirk on her face. “Here’s your pills.”

“Grabbin’ pillz.” Vinyl muttered as she took the bottle and twisted the cap off. She popped a few in her mouth and then searched for something to wash them down with. Octavia offered her flask, smirk showing some of her pristine white teeth. Vinyl glared at her and dry swallowed the pills.

Octavia placed her flask on the table as Vinyl sank onto the bed, falling all the way onto her back and rubbing her eyes.

“How long till these things take effect?”

“I got the fast-acting ones for you.” Octavia said as she flopped on the bed, seeming more chipper than she had any right to be. “…Baby.” she added.

Vinyl groaned and slowly slipped from the bed to the floor. “Stop calling me that.” she mumbled.

Octavia poked her head over the edge of the bed, her black locks just long enough to tickle Vinyl’s nose. “And what would you prefer I call you?”

“I don’t know.” Vinyl rubbed her eyes again, noticing the pain was dulling. “Why don’t you just call me Vinyl?”

Octavia seemed to think about it for a moment, and then smirked again. Vinyl was starting to get tired of her doing that. “Nah, I think I prefer calling you ‘Baby’, baby.” she giggled as her head vanished from Vinyl’s sight.

The DJ sighed and then felt a smile on her lips as a thought popped into her head. “Whatever you say… Octy.”

Octavia head immediately popped back over the side of the bed. “What was that?” her face was drawn in a scowl, but the anger didn’t reach her eyes.

“Octy.” Vinyl repeated, feeling her wit come back to her as the pain grew fainter and fainter. “Do you like it?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t.” Octavia said.

It was Vinyl’s turn to smirk. “Aw, but I do. I really can’t get it out of my head.”

Octavia look away from Vinyl, breathing in and then blowing a few errant stands of mane from her eyes. “Fine, I’ll call you Vinyl.” she looked back at the unicorn. “Happy?”

“Immensely.” Vinyl put her foreleg under her head as a cushion. “Thank you for the pills, Octavia.”

“You’re welcome.” the earth pony grumbled, clearly not happy she had been the one to compromise.

Vinyl leaned her head back, eyes closed, a faint smirk in her lip. Octavia fluffed up a pillow and leaned against it, forelegs crossed. She wasn’t used to being outfoxed, being made to back down. It was a rare occasion for her. The fact that this mare had been able to do that… intrigued her.

Vinyl was content to lay on the floor, eyes closed, allowing the medicine to do its work. As the pounding receded to more of a tickle at the back of her skull, she began bobbing her head and humming a tune. After a time she cracked her eyes open and leaned her head back to look under the bed, not really expecting to find anything. However, she did notice there was a very large leather case there.

“Hey Octavia.”

“Yes, Vinyl?”

Vinyl rolled onto her front and extracted the case from beneath the bed. She huffed as she dragged in out into the open. The thing weighed a ton. “Is this your cello case?”

“Hm?” Octavia glanced over at Vinyl, having become lost bobbing her head to the DJ’s earlier humming. At the sight of her cello case, she suddenly sprang from the bed. “Whoa, wait!”

Vinyl, never one to let her curiosity run the risk of being unsatisfied, had already begun opening the case. You could tell a lot about a musician from their instrument and Vinyl certainly wanted to know as much as she could about Octavia. However, it would seem that Octavia was not one to give away her life secrets willy nilly.

Just as Vinyl was beginning to open the case after undoing the latches, Octavia’s front hooves slammed down on the lid, almost clipping the tips of Vinyl’s hooves. The cellist then hoisted the case up onto the bed like it was a simple gallon of milk and patted it as it settled on the bed next to her.

There was an awkward silence which Octavia mercifully broke first.

“Sorry dear, but this cello is… well, it’s very special to me. I don’t like just anypony touching it or even looking at it.” the cellist pulled the brim of her fedora down to cover her eyes, embarrassed.

Vinyl just waved her off. “I get it. I don’t like ponies touching my equipment either.” she smiled pleasantly, meanwhile filing away the knowledge that Octavia must be crazy strong to be able to lift that thing so easily.

Octavia smiled and peered from underneath her hat. “I’m glad you understand, Vinyl.” she paused. “Although, I did promise you some music, didn’t I?”

Vinyl smiled. “Oh yeah. Lay it on me.”

Octavia just smiled and shook her head. “I just told you, this is my special cello. You’re going to have to do a lot more than talk me into bed to get a peek at it. However,” Octavia turned the case to face her and opened it, the lid blocking Vinyl’s view. She rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a cassette tape. “I can play you this.”

Octavia leaned over to the conveniently placed cassette player on the nightstand, popping the cassette tape in and pressing play.

“Is this thing working? Yes?” a male voice emanated from the speakers, soundly almost stereotypically like a nerd. “Okay, to access the codes, you’ll need to-”

The voice cut out as Octavia hit the stop button and ejected the tape faster than a sprinter that owed money to a loan shark.

Vinyl blinked. “Hey, what was that for? He was just about to tell us how to access the secret codes.”

Octavia flushed. “Oh you’re, uh, familiar with this radio drama?”

Vinyl shook her head. “No, but I do like the sound of this one.” she smiled at Octavia.

The grey mare returned the smile, hers a tad forced. “Well, that’s not even the start of the series, so another time perhaps?”

Vinyl nodded and Octavia seemed to visibly relax, stowing the tape away in her cello case and extracting a new one.

What are you hiding? Vinyl thought, watching Octavia put the new tape in. What’s a gang enforcer doing with tapes with codes on them?

Her musings were interrupted as the sounds of a cello being played came from the speakers.

“This is just a sound test.” Octavia explained. “A short little piece I wrote. Nothing special. The one after this is a cover I did at my producer’s insistence.”

Vinyl made her way over to the other side of the bed, her back now to the window, getting closer to the player and the music.

“I like this one.” Vinyl said, closing her eyes to better enjoy the music.

“Thank you.” Octavia said, sounding embarrassed.

The grey mare smiled as she watched the unicorn begin swaying to the music. The damned mare was just so cute at times. Like back at the party last night: the way she entertained herself with the punch, the bored look on her face the rest of the time. The way her speech slowed down when she became intoxicated, her gracefulness turning into clumsiness. Octavia sighed in a content way. She could do worse.

And then a flicker of movement caught her eye. It was out there, on the balcony. A shadow that moved too quickly to be a curtain and was too large to be a bird. In years past, a small voice would have told Octavia she was being paranoid. She had learned to stop listening to that voice.

The cellist stared intently out the window, tracking every movement. There. The silhouette of what could only be a pony. They must have been on the balcony above and adjacent to this one. The silhouette raised an foreleg, showing the clear outline of a gun in their hoof.

Moving quietly and slowly, Octavia reached over to the nightstand, opening the drawer and extracting the .45 pistol from within it. She slipped off the bed and got close to Vinyl, their bodies just inches apart.

“Vinyl.” Octavia said softly, hoof poised to shove in her mouth should the unicorn make any sort of noise.

“Hm?” Vinyl opened her eyes. “Whoa,” she said, noticing Octavia’s face mere inches from hers. “Oct- mmph.”

Octavia pressed her hoof to Vinyl’s lips. “Shh!” she shushed harshly. She glanced at the balcony. The shadow was still there, waiting for something. “Listen closely, Vinyl. There’s a pony nearby with a gun and I’m pretty sure he’s coming here.” she shushed Vinyl again when the unicorn attempted to speak. “Quiet. Now, I need to know: have you ever used a gun before?”

Vinyl nodded, afraid Octavia would shove her hoof down her throat should she make any more noise.

“Good. Move over to the bed and open my cello case.”

Vinyl gave her a look.

“Dire circumstances.”

Vinyl just nodded and moved away from Octavia, who never took her eyes off the balcony. She pulled the case to the edge of the bed and undid the latches, opening it. Inside was-

A cello.

“Octavia?” Vinyl said, suddenly remembering the saying that all talented artists are insane.

“There’s a little lever near the neck.” Octavia said, slowly moving over to the foot of the bed, still keeping an eye on the balcony.

It took Vinyl a few moments to find the lever, but she soon flipped it and there was a soft sound of latches releasing. Funny she didn’t notice that earlier. The top of the cello flipped upwards like a second lid, revealing a multitude of items held down by straps inside the case’s red felt innards. Octavia was soon next to her, pulling one of the items out of the case and blocking Vinyl’s view, but she had seen a number of guns, knives, what looked like a grenade or two, and, of course, a bottle of cider.

“Here, cover the door.” Octavia said, handing Vinyl a sawed-off shotgun.

The unicorn looked in surprise at the firearm suddenly placed in her hooves. Her training quickly came back to her and she did a quick check of the gun: ensuring it was loaded, cocking back both hammers, and flicking the safety off.

Octavia spared Vinyl a quick glance, happily noting the unicorn seemed to be able to handle a gun better than she handled alcohol. She noticed the shadow on the balcony seemed to tense up.

There was the thud of hooves on stone as the stallion hit the balcony. He was bringing his gun up when the bullet from Octavia’s gun hit him in the shoulder. Before he could recover, Octavia was already on him, knocking his gun from his grip and tossing him back into the room. He hit the edge of the bed, bouncing back up only to have a hoof knock him back down.

“How many?” Octavia demanded, shoving her gun in the stallion’s face.

Before he could answer, the door to the room burst open, another stallion standing there. Vinyl fired more by instinct than anything else: the shotgun bucking powerfully in her hooves, pellets making tiny little holes all over the wall as the stallion ducked behind the it.

Octavia made the mistake of taking her eyes off the stallion she was interrogating, the loud blast of the shotgun distracting her. The pony punched her in the gut and shoved her aside, charging for his fallen gun on the balcony.

Hearing Octavia’s grunt, Vinyl whirled around, shoving the shotgun towards the balcony. She fired just as the stallion was getting up, the force of the blast knocking him back over the railing.

Octavia used the edge of the bed to pull herself up, seeing and subsequently shooting the stallion at the door as he came back into view. His body jerked as the three bullets drilled into his chest, dropping to the carpet without any grandeur.

Vinyl found herself breathing heavily as the ringing in her ears from the gunshots quieted down.

“Holy shit.” she said.

Octavia merely grunted, pushing herself up onto her hooves proper and quickly making her way to the closet. From with in it she put on a white collar with a pink tie and a black trench coat. She then tossed a purple shirt over to Vinyl.

“Put that on; we might as well look nice since we’re going out in public.” Octavia said as she straightened her tie. “By the way, be a dear and bar the door.”

Vinyl caught the shirt automatically, pulling it on without much thought. It was honestly bugging her a little, killing that pony. She’d been told numerous times during training that there was a good chance she would spill blood before her career ended, but it still bugged her. Although, the one thing they mentioned during training had been correct: when somepony is trying to kill you, you don’t feel too bad when you kill them first.

Octavia was beside the bed again, reloading her pistol and putting it in a holster within her coat. She then pulled out a rifle, attaching a large drum magazine to it and pulling the bolt back.

The grey mare glance over at Vinyl, who had put on the shirt, but was now just staring out at the balcony.

“Vinyl, you alright there, dear?”

Vinyl blinked and nodded. “Yeah, I’m… I’m fine.” a faint grin suddenly appeared on her face. “I guess I shouldn’t feel too bad. He was probably going to the lobby anyway.”

Octavia blew some air through her nose in something close to a laugh. “That’s the spirit. But you may want to work on your lines. Anyway, how’s that door coming?”

Vinyl just nodded and slid off the bed, closing the door and jamming a chair underneath the doorknob. That bothered her little too, that casual dismissal of the life she took. Not just from her, but from Octavia as well.

Octavia handed the shotgun back to Vinyl, throwing in a hoofful of shells.

“Alright, they’re probably in the hotel, so we’re going down the fire escape.” Octavia said as she closed the ‘cello’ case as hefted it up onto her shoulder.

Vinyl nodded. “Alright. But, hey Octavia?”

“Yes?”

“Who the hell are these guys anyhow?”

The mare shrugged. “Hell if I know.”

Octavia made to go out onto the balcony, but she paused and went over to the cassette player, turning the volume all the way up just as it started on the next song.

“What? I like music while I work.” Octavia said with a grin, moving out onto the balcony. Vinyl followed her, feeling a little uneasy.

Octavia, cello case slung over one shoulder, looked around, searching for more assailants. Vinyl jumped as she heard the loud thud of somepony’s hoof against the door. She tapped Octavia on the shoulder and the mare just sighed, turning and firing a burst off from her rifle though the door, the gun held almost casually in one hoof. There were yelps form the other side of the door and Octavia quickly got up onto the railing of the balcony, jumping to the rusty red fire escape next to it.

Vinyl followed her, letting out a yelp of her own as several bullets flew through the door, bouncing off the metal railing. She noted with some measure of envy that Octavia was moving rather fluidly and gracefully for somepony carrying a cello case full of guns.

The two mares made their way down the fire escape, the metal rattling under their hooves, Vinyl cursing Octavia for picking such a high floor. There was then a shout from above followed by the cracks of guns firing. Vinyl barely had time to assess where the shots were coming from when Octavia began shooting off her rifle again.

Cries came from the balconies above, both from gun ponies and other alarmed guests of the hotel. The ponies shooting at them seemed to be quickly upgrading their firepower, the cracks of pistols soon being replaced by the boom of rifles.

Octavia spat a curse and leapt to another balcony, throwing her cello case through the glass. Vinyl shot off both barrels of her shotgun, wincing as it bucked in her grip, buying herself enough time to follow Octavia. The grey mare was already opening the door and storming into the hallway as Vinyl came through the window.

Vinyl quickly reloaded her shotgun as she followed Octavia, hearing the distinct sound of the mare’s rifle firing as she entered the hallway. Octavia was walking backwards, holding her cello case before her like a shield, firing her gun around it.

“Behind me! Get behind me!” she shouted at Vinyl as she cut down a pony emerging from the stairwell, letting out a short bark of laughter.

Well, that was certainly something Vinyl should think about later, but for now she did as Octavia asked, getting behind her and covering her back.

They soon reached the elevator, Vinyl hitting the button and then being suddenly handed the cello case.

“Hold this, dear” Octavia said, swapping out magazines on her gun.

Vinyl nodded, letting off a pair of shotgun blasts as she saw some more ponies try to come from the stairwell, causing them to duck back into it.

There was a ding as the elevator doors opened and the two mares quickly got inside, Vinyl mashing the ‘close doors’ button as she saw more armed ponies sticking their heads out from the stairwell and a few from the room she and Octavia had gone through. Octavia let off a few more controlled bursts from her gun, possibly hitting a few ponies but more likely just scaring them back into cover.

Finally the doors closed and Vinyl hit the button for lobby.

There were a few tense moments as the elevator descended, the music playing over the speakers sounding strangely like the song that had been playing on the cassette tape. Well, she did say it was a cover song.

Octavia crouched down, taking something from her cello case and putting it in her pocket. After she closed the case, she examined it, noting with a slightly miffed look that the bullets had scratched some of the leather. Vinyl glanced over and suddenly noticed the complete lack of bullet holes on the cello case.

“Whoa, is that thing bullet-proof?” she asked.

“Yes.” Octavia said matter-of-factly as she straightened up, hefting the case. “Get ready.” she said, straightening her hat as the elevator settled down on the ground floor.

The ding sounded again as the elevator doors parted to reveal-

The lobby.

“Huh.” Vinyl said to herself.

The two mare rapidly made their way across the lobby’s carpeted floor, startling more than a few ponies that noticed the weapons in their hooves. They surprisingly made it out of the lobby without incident, getting out onto the sidewalk where Octavia pointed towards a black automobile, the machines having become rather popular in larger cities as of late.

Octavia pulled the keys from her pocket and opened the car, shoving her cello case in the back seat while she hustled Vinyl into the passenger seat. Vinyl heard several shots come from behind them, the bullets pinging off the metal chassis. She shouted to Octavia as the latter circled in front of the car.

“Behind us!”

The grey mare nodded and pulled out the object she had stuffed in her pocket previously. Vinyl saw the drab green spherical body of a grenade clutched in one hoof, Octavia’s gun held in the other. The mare pulled the pin with her teeth and tossed the grenade in the direction of the gunfire. She then quickly got in the car and stomped on the gas pedal, the car peeling and jumping forward on the road just as a large explosion rocked it, the fireball lighting up the street.

Octavia placed her gun onto of her cello case as she drove, turning down the first street she saw, trying to distance herself from the hotel as quickly as possible.

There was about a minute or two of silence as they drove, which Octavia broke with, “I should probably mention that being a cellist isn’t all I do.” she said with a grin.

Vinyl just looked at Octavia.

Octavia Philharmonica

Cello Player/Badass

Author's Note

Finally! Some good old ponies shooting other ponies!

Artwork was drawn by Air Heart

And here's some random notes no one cares about!

The pistol Octavia is using is a 1911.
The shotgun Vinyl is using is your generic double-barrel sawed-off.
And of course, Octavia is using a Thompson Sub-machine gun.

I have no idea what the first song on the tape would be, so feel free to make suggestions!

In other news, there were two rather blatant references in this chapter. One to a video game and one to a movie I love. See if you can find them and feel free to ask for hints!