Melodys' Island
Everything felt calm, quiet and serene while Octavia watched the sunset from the railed ledge of Canterlot looking over the beautiful land of Equestria. The cool breeze lightly swayed her dark mane and tail as it cooled her coat, caressing it to a comfortable level. For the first time in a long time, she breathed in and let all of her frustrations out. She felt at peace, right until some pony pocked her right cheek.
“Hey, Tavi… You still alive?” The familiar raspy voice called out to her as the owner of the voice pocked her cheek once more.
Octavia waved her away with a tired hoof as she turned over with an irritated moan, “Go away, Vinyl…” She mumbled to her housemate as she tried to go back to the sweet embrace of sleep.
“Fine…” Vinyl whined in defeat with a huff. “Want me to find a Coconut for you?” she suddenly asked.
“Mm…” Octavia moaned in response, begging for the mare to go off to her shenanigans and wub-music. The sound of her adorable whine and hooves crunching away on wet sand was music to her ears, Especially the sound of waves washing up on the shore and the serene trees blowing in the cool breeze. Curling herself a little on the sand, she smiled and thought “Mm… finally. Time to rest on this soft, wet, cool… sand…” she nestled in, tucking her legs closer to herself as well as covering her muzzle with her fore hooves. After a long moment, the gears in her head started to come back to life as they slowly spun, “Mm… why does it feel so… strange?” she thought as the gears started gradually speeding up. “Hm… I feel just fine… Maybe I forgot something?” she pondered long and hard trying to find when or anything she might have forgotten, an important meeting with somepony or anything , but nothing came in her mental chart. She sighed and nestled back down, “Well, nothing like a good long sleep will fix…” she murmured with a quiet, sleepy tone as she moved around to get herself more comfortable as wet sand clung to her light grey coat. “Mmm… comfy, wet, cool sand… Sand? SAND!?”
She quickly scrambled up to her hooves with wide eyes, just now seeing what Vinyl meant by “find a Coconut”. She screamed at the top of her lungs at the sight before her, causing a few birds in the trees to fly off; they were now stranded in the middle of nowhere on a tropical island.
She started to hyperventilate at the thought of being stuck here forever, with no food or shelter. They’ll DIE of dehydration, or from an unknown infection, or get ripped apart by a wild animal!
Her thoughts raced a mile a second from one point to another of how they’ll DIE, but then her line of thought was interrupted by the mare she’d been stuck with the most part of her life.
“Hey, Tavi!” She looked to her right as she continued to heavily breathe and saw the white coated, Unicorn mare, Vinyl, waving at her happily, clinging onto a Coconut tree upside down as the tree bent down with the extra weight, her Electric Blue mane and tail hanging freely and swaying lightly in the gentle breeze. She then lost her grip on the tree and fell into a bush below with a yelp as three Coconuts shook themselves off their parent tree and made audible ‘Bonks’ within the bush. “Ow!” she then heard the mare mumbling to herself angrily about ‘traitorous’ coconuts.
As Vinyl simply slurped on her coconut without her Violet shades on, a few empty shells laying around her, Octavia watched her housemate in fascination as the DJ was propped up against a tree she tried to climb up earlier. Vinyl threw the empty shell to the side, relieving her stomach of its built up gasses with a loud, long belch, causing a few exotic birds within the forest to be, yet again, disturbed from their rightful nests. She sighed blissfully and patted her stomach with a smile like a happy, glutinous couch potato.
“How and why are you so relaxed?” Octavia asked in shock.
“Huh?” Vinyl looked up at her questioningly.
“How are you so relaxed?” Octavia raised her volume a little more to send her message straight.
“Why not?” Vinyl shrugged with a small smirk, leaned back onto the tree and used her forelegs as pillows.
“Why not?” the Cellist hissed, glaring daggers at the relaxing, party mare in front of her, “We’re stranded, in the middle of nowhere!” She yelled angrily, stumping down and kicked up some sand repeatedly in a tantrum. She swung her gaze back to her housemate as Vinyl watched her with confusion and with the slight hint of concern. Octavia stumped over to her, scrunching up her muzzle, “Can’t you even see the downsides to this!?” she growled.
“Well…” she looked down to her side and drew out her favorite shades, the left eyeglass revealing a small crack, “I need a replacement glass for my shades.” She then levitated it up and rested them on the base of her horn.
Octavia just stared at her for a long moment, right before she twitched her right eye and blew up the gates, “AAAAAAAAUUGH!!! We’re stranded on an Island, Vinyl!” she turned to her right and put up a hoof to her brows to shield her eyes from the sun to look across the ocean, “Oh! Look here!” She swiftly turned around and did the same thing, causing Vinyl to look as well in interest, “Oh! And look there! Do you see it!?” she pointed out into the horizon and looked at Vinyl with a comically, manic big grin.
“No! What is it!?” Vinyl excitedly got up and stood beside her friend, squinting her eyes to see more clearly while wagging her short tail to and fro.
“NOTHING!!!” Octavia screamed into her ear, causing the poor mare to fall back onto her rump and rub her ear with a wince. “We’re going to die out here!” Octavia cried out in despair and galloped over to a rock near the waterline and collapsed on it in a heap. She cried mournfully for a few moments before she felt a comforting hoof rub her back, calming her to a few sniffles while wiping her eyes.
When she opened her eyes though, she saw a cell phone half way embed in the sand, its little screen glowing away brightly. She quickly scrambled over to it like a staving pony and grabbed it in her hooves desperately, rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. She than jabbed herself on the thigh to make sure, receiving a shock of blissful pain. The little item brought a tear to her already drenched puffy eyes as she saw the bar count for the signal was full, ready to make a call.
She got up to her hind hooves with the phone on hoof and scooped up her housemate in a bear hug, “Yes-Yes-Yes-Yes-Yes-Yes-Yes! We’re going to be saved!” she cried out and twirled around with an oxygen deprived mare in her tight grasp.
“Tavi…” Vinyl croaked out as she began to feel lightheaded. Right after she spoke, she was unceremoniously tossed away like garbage, or like a deflated balloon just landing after a ridiculous fly around.
The moment Vinyl gasp for air on the sand, Octavia had already dialed a number for the Coastguard. Vinyl gasped and coughed for air, but was quickly shushed by the mare, whom almost crushed her spine and ribs. Vinyl returned Octavia’s lifted hoof with a scowl.
After a few rings, it was picked up by a mare.
“This is the Prancific Coastguard, how may I help you?” She asked.
“Hello, this is Octavia Melody with Vinyl Scratch. We’re stranded on-”
“Beep-Beep!”
Octavia blinked at first, “Hello?” she said, but no one answered back.
She looked at the screen, wondering what was happening, but then her eyes went wide in sheer terror of what the little cell told her on the small screen.
“Battery level: 0%” and just like that, it shuts off like a light right in front of her.
Octavia just sat there, staring at the cell phone with a blank expression. Vinyl slowly went up beside her friend and looked at the phone as well for a few moments before she looked at Octavia.
“So… what now?” she asked and sat down with her.
Octavias’ hoof holding the cell gradually started to shake till the phone fell out of her grasp. She stumped her shaky hoof down and swiftly lifted her head up and stared at Vinyl with a grin that was dangerously close to splitting her face into two, her mane now fizzled up and her right ear started twitching. She hopped up to her hooves and started galloping around, stopping at random points.
“Oh! Maybe we can set fire to the whole island!? Somepony will see that!” she stared at the exotic, luscious forest for a brief moment before turning her gaze to a small sparkle of light on the beach nearby. She zoomed over to the twinkle of light like a lightning bolt, noticing it was a glass, empty, cracked wine bottle embedded within the sand. She scooped it up with a swing of her hoof, “Or maybe, we can send a message in a bottle! Y-yeah! That should work!” Her ears perked up and turned her crazed gaze at the open ocean, “Ah! We can Swim back!” she finished, tossing the bottle over her as she galloped in the forest.
Vinyl, on the other hand, was just sitting nearby, watching her once sane companion losing it. She sighed and looked down at her lifted hoof, checking on her imaginary watch. When she looked back up, she saw Octavia galloping out the forest with a coconut in mouth and skidded to a holt in front of her, spitting out the hard shell fruit.
“Yeah-Yeah! It’s hundred percent full proof! Are you coming, Vinyl!?” she looked at her friend with a look of blind excitement. Vinyl just gave her a deadpan stare and lightly raised an eyebrow. “Okay-okay! I’ll grab help and get back to save you! Wish me luck!” she sucked up the coconut and galloped into the tropical waves, splashing up sea water with her hooves. “I’ll be baaack!” Octavia yelled as she swam away, and dropping her coconut into the water. “Hey! Get back here!” she swam after her only food and water sours for the trip.
Vinyl sighed with a light shake of her head. She got up to her hooves and strolled over to the coconut tree with empty shells of coconuts littered around her, stood beside it and checked her imaginary watch once more. As she checked, it was quickly followed by a sound of a screaming mare with splashes of water. Vinyl nodded to herself, levitated up an empty shell of a coconut and waited as she stared ahead.
The screaming increased in volume, as well as hooves splashing on the shore. Octavia got out of water with a baby shark clamped down onto her tail, wiggling its body as it tried to gnaw of her tail.
“Get-it-off, get-it-off, get-it-off-” she screamed repeatedly, as she galloped around with a dripping wet body.
Just as she passed by Vinyl, the DJ knocked the baby shark off her companion with a swing of her shell and held up the wiggling infant by its tail with her magic. She strolled on over to the shore and released it.
“Bye, little fella!” she waved happily at the baby shark as it swam away from the beach shore. She went back over to the shaking mare, hugging herself while rocking back and forth on her rump, looking even more terrible by the second. She sat down beside her hyperventilating friend, “Okay, Tavi, deep breaths.” she took a deep breath to show her friend. Octavia looked at her with a pinked eyes, “Deep breaths, Tavi.” She did it again, as Octavia started doing what her friend was telling her to do. “In…” they both breathed in a lung full, “Oooouuuut…” they both breathed out at the same time. After a few more, Octavia calmed down exponentially, but continued to shiver in the cool breeze. “Want to go in the jungle? It’s a little warmer and shady.” Vinyl suggested in a quiet, caring tone, acting as motherly as possible for a DJ to be while rubbing her back. Octavia nodded shakily in response, slowly getting herself up to her hooves. “Okay, let’s go in the shades.” Vinyl let her friend lean against her side, as they slowly went into the dim forest.
Vinyl gave the resting mare a makeshift coconut bowl filled with cool, clear water with her magic, slowly and gently tipping it on Octavia’s lips so she could drink her fill. Octavia empted the water from the coconut bowl and rested her chin back down to her hooves.
“Feeling better?” Vinyl asked like a mother to her foal, as she gently stroked the mare’s back, just like she liked it.
“Thank you, Vinyl…” she murmured loud enough for her friend to hear and closed her eyes to rest, as Vinyl’s gentle strokes lulled her to sleep.
When Octavia awoke once more from a dreamless sleep, she made a wide yawn and held it for a few seconds before fluttering her eyes open. She lifted her head lazily while stretching her body, and looked around to find herself surrounded by exotic, tropical plants of many species and sizes. She sighed sadly, hoping to herself it was all just a bad dream. After finally accepting she and Vinyl were stranded in the middle of nowhere, she took a good look once more to see if she hadn’t noticed anything.
The ground was covered in brown, dead leaves, planet matter and a few snapped twigs, covering the dirt like a possessive creature. She then noticed she was leaning against the base of a tall tree, the base of its roots towering over her like a small wall, protecting her from the elements and a few vines growing against it like a latter to promise land. She slowly got herself up, brushed herself off calmly and took a few steps to examine the plants that interested her.
Vines hung loose overhead, as well as the leaves from the trees, few fallen logs lay rotting on their sides and bird songs echoing out new tunes in the calm air. Her ears than twitched at distant waves washing up the shore; turning her gaze towards a tiny brake in the forest canopy, showing her the open ocean as well as the cyan blue sky.
All was calm and quiet for a good few minutes, till she felt something tickling her side. At first, it started out as little giggles for a good moment as she tried to contain her laughter, but quickly turned into chuckles and as the dam broke, turned into an all-out laughing fit as pin and needles started invading her body. The poor mare collapsed on the jungle floor, hollering out laughter as tears started forming, blurring her vision.
Suddenly, the tickling increased ten folds all over her body, causing Octavia to roll around the soil, making the tickling effect worse as tiny pins and needles continued coating her body like a swarm of angry bees.
She struggled up to her hooves and limped over to a tree, propping herself up in a fit of laughter. The moment she looked down, her eyes bulged out at the sight of her body being covered with thousands of dark brown, crawling Ants. With an ear-shattering screech, she started to frantically shake her body violently to get rid of the small insects off her coat, while continuing screaming bloody-murder.
While she continued screaming and flopping around on the jungle floor like a fish out of water, she managed to get herself closer to a small drop without her noticing the calling of a river. She quickly got up to her hooves, backing away from the last Ant that flew off of her, but suddenly her hind legs slipping over the edge. With a yelp, she flopped down on the hard, unforgiving ground and started sliding down. Realizing what was happening to her; she tried to dig her hooves in the slick soil frantically to crawl back up, trying to get herself out but to no avail.
She goes over the edge, screaming and flailed her hooves around as she fell down. With a splash, she sank down, nearly hitting the rocky bottom but quickly started being carried away downstream. The current threw her body around like a rag doll for a few moments, but as her mind went back to working order, she quickly swam herself up to the surface.
She gasps loudly, desperately filling her lunges of the precious oxygen her body needed, but also causing her to cough out water she accidentally inhaled.
This continued for a good few minutes; trying to keep her head out of the racing water, muscles strained by the constant paddling, cold water keeping her from thinking and breathing straight, and trying to avoid being smashed against the water breaking rocks.
By the time she got herself on the somewhat dry land, she was back on the beach. She dragged herself out of the now wide and shallower mouth of the river, hacking out water from her lungs while still trying to gasp for air. She flopped down onto the warm sand and started panting, breathing more properly as the water in her sore and burning lungs were dispelled.
She whimpered as she rested on the sand, letting the hot sun dry her dripping, damp coat. She just got out of sleep not a moment ago, but now she was, yet again, incredibly tired. All she wanted was a little, relaxing vacation on a cruise with her friend, Vinyl. But because she made one wrong slip in the middle of the night with Vinyl in the open deck to stargaze, she and her friend was now stuck in a middle of nowhere. How she and her friend were still alive, was a mystery to her.
With another whimper, she slowly opened her eyes and looked down at the sand with a defeated expression.
“Why can’t I have a peaceful life?” she mumbled, and with a grunt, she gets herself up back to her four shaky hooves and started brushing off the sand. As she continued to brush herself off, her thought went right to her friend, Vinyl. “Oh, of course I can’t get a peaceful, simple life because of that crazy mare.” She frown at herself and shook her head aggressively, “No, bad mare! Don’t you dare think of her like that!” she scolds herself and shook her head a little more violently and finished with a snort. “Vinyl is your dearest, and the most thoughtful friend you’ll ever get in your whole life!” she held her nose up high, beating down the parasitic, angering thought and brushing it aside like a common, fine dust.
“There you are!” Octavia jumped at the sudden sound and turned back at the forest to see the culprit. Vinyl grinned sheepishly near a tree she was under, “Ah… sorry, Tavi.” She gently pawed at the leafy and sandy ground and lightly whipped her tail nervously.
Octavia sighed in relief, feeling her heart slowing, “It’s okay, Vinyl. Just… clear your throat, or knock next time, okay?” she said and Vinyl nodded in understanding, a smile coming back to the DJ mares’ lips. Octavia started looking around curiously, “Now… any idea where we are?” she asked as she watched seagulls glide overhead.
Vinyl went up to her side, “Don’t really know, but it’s a pretty neat place. I looked around while ya slept. This place is Huge!” She answered with a grin and motioned her head for her friend to follow her back into the forest. With a bit of hesitation and a shudder of creepy crawlies crawling all over her again, she huffs in determination and starts following Vinyl, just a few paces away from her.
As they strode through the forest like amateur explorers, Octavia slowly following right on Vinyl’s tail, she glanced from left to right at the various plants and insects with great caution. The sound of birds singing within the trees overhead and the brushing of leaves being caused by a light breeze in the canopy, calming what was left in her-.
“Aaah!” She hopped away from where she once stood and quickly shook her fore hooves frantically as little Ants fell off of her once more.
“Oh yeah… I forgot to mention, watch where you step.” Vinyl spoke back at her friend as she tip-hoofed over the highroads of ants like a tap dancer, giggling like a little filly like she was playing Lava-Floor.
Octavia glared at her, “Oh? Really? I was thinking of blinding myself while using flippers, later.” She said sarcastically and checked her hooves for anymore creepy crawlies still attached, causing a shudder to go down her spine from the thought of going through the ordeal once more.
“Oh don’t be a big filly, these Ants don’t even sting or bite. They just crawl around you.” Vinyl chuckled and continued on, playfully hopping from point to another.
Octavia huffed and tried to catch up, but also tried to watch where she stood and tip-hoofed out of the rather large Ant highway coating the forest floor like a living carpet. She could almost hear their little legs pitter-patter like pop-rocks.
“Okay, Vinyl, where are w-Aaah!” a sudden weight flopped down onto her back. Octavia started galloping around and shook her body to try and get rid of the small weight clinging onto her back, till Vinyl stopped in mid air with her magic.
“Calm down, Tavi!” Vinyl laughed and levitated a small green lizard off her back, “It’s just a little lizard. See!” she glides the gecko over to Octavia, causing the Cellist to lean her head away with a cringe as her body was still held by the Unicorns’ magic.
“Vinyl! Please! Just… Just take that thing away from me! I’m having a rough morning as it is.” Octavia begged and quickly nudged her head back as the lizard’s tongue licked its own large, bulbous eye.
Vinyl snickered and let loose the Gecko to the hoard of ants. As the mares left the area, but Octavia swore she heard tiny barely audible screaming coming from where she came from but shrugged it off as she saw the little green lizard lapping up the Ants by the dozens with quick movements, moving from one target to another. Soon later as the mares became out of sight, more Geckos scurried in and terrorized the ants and their home. A slaughter of countless ants died that day and no survivors were left alive, not even the Queen herself as she joined her children in the afterlife in the great ant hill in the sky.
The Clan Geckos’ assault was a success.
An hour or so later, Octavia was having trouble just keeping up with her friend as they went through the wall of plant matter. The only thing keeping her in line with her friend was that she kept her head low and followed Vinyls’ blue tail. But the occasional light slap to the face caused by the plants and the muddy ground sucking in her hooves were not helping making the treck easier.
“W- alm- ther-” Vinyl murmured.
Octavia looked up at her, “What was that?” she asked, but was quickly followed by a hard slap to the face by a leafy branch. She tripped back to her rump and rubbed her stinging face with her hooves. “Ow…” she whimpered.
Vinyl looked back in slight annoyance, “Tavi, it’s not the time to sit around and whine all day. Now, come on! We’re almost there.” She chirped.
Octavia glared at her for a moment with a reddened face, got up to her hooves and started following her once more, choosing just to stay quiet and soldier-on.
But now that she was quiet, she couldn’t hear anything else but their hooves strolling through the thick wall of plants. She couldn’t hear frogs crocking or exotic birds singing. It was just… silent. It unnerved her to know something was wrong, she knew from experience, just an hour ago at least, that this jungle was supposed to be quite musical with all the animals, but all she could hear now were her heart beating in her ears and the now loud moving branches caused by Vinyl and herself.
She starts looking around for any life moving and living around them, but nothing seemed to move, not even the insects buzzing around the air or crawling on the forest floor. She saw a large yellow Snake retreating up a tree but that was all she could see. But she quickly stopped in her tracks as the yellow Python moved its body away to reveal a capital letter ‘M’ carved into the tree, barely noticeable with the growing moss, but it was there. She then shook her head, figuring she was just seeing things and continued on to follow her friend.
The thought of animals being so quiet and possibly hiding started to scare her. The only time animals were this quiet was because something big or predatory creature was nearby.
She gasped and froze on the spot as she heard a distant twig snapping. She felt her pupils dilate into pin pricks and her heart pounding in her ears. The hairs on the back of her neck stood erect as a familiar feeling took hold of her whenever she tried to practiced ‘alone’; they were being watched.
“V-Vinyl…” she called out quietly to her oblivious companion, as the said mare continued on through the forest but stopped and looked back at Octavia.
“Yeah, Tavi?” she replied with a small smile.
“Do you hear that?” Octavia quickly and shakily scurried over to her friend and started looking around in paranoia.
Vinyl scrunched up her muzzle and started flicking her ears in every direction. After a moment, she lightly shook her head, “No, I don’t hear anything.” She simply answered as Octavia stuck close to her.
“Exactly!” she hissed with a terrified expression, “It’s too Quiet! Nothing in this jungle should be quiet!” she said and continued looking once more as her body gently shook in fear.
Vinyl turned to her friend, “Tavi, it’s okay.” She spoke with care and gently pulled her friends’ chin to look at her in the eyes. “Nothing bad’s going to happen to us. I promise.” She finished with a wider smile.
“H-how do you know that? We don’t know where the hay we are!?” Octavia replied.
“I know because I found a safe spot on the island while you slept, Tavi. It has all the things we need to keep ourselves going while we’re stuck here; food, clean water and shelter. That’s where we’re going.” Vinyl gently ruffled Octavia’s already un-kept mane playfully, “And I went through here before, Tavi. Like before, it was as quiet and creepy as Tartarus.” She chuckled nervously and looked around the thick undergrowth. “It’s just a little creepy like the Everfree, but nothing came after me while I went through. Nothing to worry about.” She finished and looked back at her with a small, confident smile.
Octavia shakily nodded and started taking deep breaths. “Okay, okay…” she said with a flushed face and took one last, long breath and slowly let it out with a sigh. “Okay… I’m fine now.” She said.
Vinyl grinned, “Good! Now let’s head to our new home to settle in!” she happily said and started going through the forest once more without a care in the world.
Now calm once more, Octavia shook her head and continued following her friend with her head down.
When they broke through the thick foliage, Vinyl stepped aside and gestured the area. “Behold! Paradise!”.
Octavia dragged her hooves with heaving grunts as she went up beside her housemate like a tired slave pony. She slowly looked up with tired eyes and immediately her eyes grew three times bigger the second time that day.
The land before her was indeed a ‘Paradise’. To their right was a smooth rocky ledge as a glacial, waterfall sparkled down to a pool of fresh water, a little stream flowing out to the forest of berry bushes and fruit baring trees right up ahead, clear paths leading through the forest as well. To their left, was a small clearing where a cave mouth was located, as well as a large twisting tree right beside the entrance. She looked around a little more, and sees they were in a large crater of some sort, near a mountain top of white glacier resting at the very tip, a whole living forest smacked right in the middle of the crater as the ridges shielded the little haven from the rest of the world like a baby in a cradle.
“Like it?” Octavia looked at Vinyl as the unicorn mare smiled hopefully.
“It’s a beautiful place.” She looked back at the scenery. “How in the world did you find this?” she asked as a small flock of birds flew out of some bushes and circled around in the sky.
“Oh, Fluffy helped me!” Vinyl answered with an upbeat voice. Octavia looked at her with a questioning look. Vinyl chuckled, “He’s just a fluffy fella.” She waved a hoof at her dismissively, and looked down at the haven, “He should be here somewhere…” she said as she search the forest below with a small, playful smile, shaking her rump in the air, ready to pounce like a cat.
“Oh… well… may I have a grand tour?” Octavia asked and gestured the forest.
“Sure! Right this way, madam.” Vinyl answered regally and strolled down the dirt path with a little skip in her step as she held her head high. Octavia smiled and followed her housemate down the path, her once tired limbs finding back their energy as excitement flooded her body and mind.
She then quickly stopped in her tracks once more an looked down at the flat surface of a rock, noticing the crude, carved out letter ‘M’ once more with a raised brow.
“Hm…” she tried to inspect the symbol a little closer but the voice of her friend broke her concentration.
“You coming!?” Vinyl yelled near the bottom of the now noticed, strange path of gravel. Everything on this island said ‘Wild’ but these little hints were telling something else in Octavias’ mind. But then her mind blanked at the sound of her growling stomach, demanding fresh food and water. With the promise of potential, fresh food in mind, she quickly galloped over to her friend.
But as they strode down the path, a creature uses its slimy, oral appendage to move aside some leaves from behind the two mares. With a low, throaty growl, it slid back into the shadowy forest like a stalking ghost.
To Octavia’s relief, this smaller jungle was pleasant and quiet with birds chirping happily in the air and within the more dispersed trees. The sun shined like there’s no tomorrow and the small pond and waterfall sparkled like stars in the night. When Vinyl showed her a few berries, she ate a few to see if they were good and immediately devoured the small berries, Vinyl’s hoof almost going alone with the process. Eating a few more berries right out of the bushes like a greedy dog, satisfying the hunger in her stomach, she continued to follow Vinyl to their new home while wiping her stained lips; the cave.
“Honey! We’re Hooome!” Vinyl yelled at the mouth of the rather large cave with an excited grin.
Octavia’s mouth was slightly ajar from the sheer open space of the cavern; rays of sunlight going down from the few openings from the high ceiling. Surprisingly enough, she saw a few ledges on the far side of the cave to sleep on and were shielded by bars of stalactites and stalagmites like protective barriers. She even saw a stage like flat area to her right. If only she had her Cello with her.
“Like it?” Vinyl spoke up, causing Octavia to get out of her stupor with a light shake of her head.
“It’s… quite cozy looking with the lights to be honest. How did you find this?” she asked and stepped in the cave to get a better look around her new surroundings.
“Fluffy helped out.” Vinyl started looking around curiously, “Where’d he run off to now, though? I wanted him to meet you.” She quickly galloped up to the stage and looked at the flat surface, closely inspecting it, “He should be here.”
Octavia looked around the new settlement and spots something that was out of place within the natural cage, like the phantom letters of this island. She strolled on over and stepped through, to be met with a crude, carved out word, each letter in different levitation but was clear of what it said.
“Melody…” she whispered and leaned in to get a better look. “Vinyl… did you see this when-”
Before she could finish properly, a loud screech echoed into the cavern, followed by thunderous wing beats as shadows briefly covered the sunlight from the ceiling leading to the mouth of the cave. After a moment of silence, Octavia quickly hopped in the circular, bowl like ledge and spoke.
“W-what was that?” she asked with a shaky voice.
Vinyl held a light frown while starring at the cave, “It wasn’t Fluffy, that’s for sure.” Vinyl quickly and quietly trots over to the mouth of the cave, sticking close to the smooth wall. She peeks out cautiously, “Fluffy?” she spoke out.
With another screech, Vinyl yelped and galloped back in; get’s in the cell with her friend and jumps in the bowl with Octavia shakily.
“Nope. That wasn’t Fluffy. Fluffy’s nice.” She said with a quivering voice.
“D-did you see it?” Octavia whispered.
“Um… uh… i-it was b-big… with big w-wings… an-and had a pointy h-head.” Vinyl answered. “We need help from Fluffy. He should get that wingy-thing away.”
“Oh for goodness sake, Vinyl. Who’s Fluffy!?” Octavia whispered with a hiss.
The moment she finished speaking, a shadow loomed in front of the cave with a heavy thump, dry dust mixing in the air. Both mares slowly moved their gaze towards the cave mouth and slowly sank down at the creatures’ presents. The large creature slowly goes in the cave, looking around with its spear like head and a long boney crest going backwards from its skull. Its front legs were large, leathery wings with three tiny toes, while the membrane of its wings connected to the back of its short legs, its long tail jutted out from its boney pelvis as a fin like growth located at the very tip. The creature surprised both mares as it created its own Blood red light source coming from its broad chest, stomach, throat, to the tips of its wings and at the very end of its long tail. The red shinning light bounced off the walls and back to the creature, making the winged-terror even more horrifying.
The Pterasaur made a throaty growl and continued on in, still looking for its supposed prey it spotted from above.
“What are we going to do!?” Octavia whispered as they both huddled together.
“I-I don’t know. Fluffy should get this thing out, though.” Vinyl replied and peeked over the edge to see the creature now looking around the stage. “Where the heck are you, Fluffy?” she whispered, but did so a little too loudly.
The winged terror swiftly turned its beady eyes at them both, quickly shutting them both with a squeak. With an ear shattering screech, the creature propelled itself with its powerful fore legs and crashed onto the barbed minerals, but held strong. Both mares screamed and tried to back away from the creature trying to break through to get to them. It speared its head between the gaps of the columns and snapped its beak at them repeatedly.
“Crap!” Vinyl yelped and ducked down just as the sharp beak lanced towards her, cracking the wall of hard mineral just behind her head. But as she ducked down, she accidentally nudged Octavia out of her spot, causing Octavia to flail her hooves in their air to regain her balance with an ‘Eep!’.
Seeing this, the creature took advantage of Octavia’s situation and snapped its large beak onto the mare’s hoof. With a pained yell, Octavia desperately started pulling back to get back her limb. Vinyl saw this and started pulling Octavia’s hoof with gritted teeth.
“Let! Go!” Vinyl yelled as the mares played tug of war with the creature. The winged monster growled and started pulling a little harder; causing the mare it held to make a short scream.
“Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Ow-Get this thing off, Vinyl!” Octavia cried out as tears started to form at the edges of her eyelids as the pressure on her hoof being bitten increased by the creature’s jaw muscles as well as digging its tiny teeth into her hoof.
Vinyl glared at the creature and started pounding its head with her hooves, but once she knew her hits weren’t doing anything, she started using her magic to try and pry the beasts’ large beak as well as using her hooves to get its jaw open, but she immediately regretted doing so as the monster bit down harder to compensate.
“Aaah! Vinyl, Stop!” Octavia cried out in pain as tears started pouring down her cheeks.
“Crap-I’m So Sorry, Tav-”
Suddenly, everything in the cave went silent as a bloodcurdling screech echoed into the cave and lingered around, bouncing off the stone walls.
The monster suddenly yanked Octavia urgently and dragged her out her safe zone as it started prancing towards the cave mouth with her. Vinyl quickly gets out of the cell, leaped out and caught her friends’ hind legs and was now being dragged along the ground with her friend just off the ground as the creature hauled them out of the cave. Octavia cried out in pain and started pounding the beast’s lower beak desperately to get the now flapping creature to let her go before it flies off with her and her friend.
The creature tried to fly off the ground with a few desperate flaps but with the extra weight of another pony it couldn’t get away. Once it knew why it couldn’t take off it started flailing around its large head to get rid of the second pony that held onto its meal of the day.
Vinyl held on tightly to her friend as the creature continued to thrash around its head to get rid of her, but once she hit the large tree that rested beside the cave mouth, she had no choice but to let go. She screamed out in pain as she felt few of her ribs cracking from the sheer force and rolled onto the ground in a heap, hissing in pain.
“Vinyl!” Octavia cried out to her curled up companion as the monster holding her started prancing away once more to gain momentum to fly.
Vinyl looked at her friend as her eyes widen from the sudden realization.
“T-Tavi!” she cried her name and tried to get up to go after the hopping monster preparing to fly, but fell back down in a heap once more while yelping in pain.
With a mighty hop by using its muscular front legs, it quickly spread its wings wide and started flapping, gaining height to get away from the ground.
“No! Vinyl!” Octavia yelled and started hitting the creature once more on its head, beak and neck to make it let go of her, but trying to hit a target while dangling uncontrollably was too hard for her. She immediately had flash backs of her foal hood, playing peeka-boo with her mother and father in her small crib, then moved onto her first school day where she met her dear friend Vinyl Scratch the first time in recess, then flashed forward when she got her Cutie Mark and celebrated in her home with her parents and Vinyl, having cake and sweets and playing games like there’s no tomorrow. Her life moved onto her first live performance in the Canterlot Opera Theater, nervously looking around the crowd of ponies with a forced smile but once she spotted her housemate Vinyl sitting within the crowd with comforting smile, her nerves calmed down exponentially and took deep breaths before starting, it then flashed when they received a letter telling them that they won two tickets for a week long cruise in the new expensive ship.
The moment her flashback ended, she was hearing a waterfall roaring right under her as small droplets peppered her dangling legs and the loud wing beats of the monster’s wings as well as the rushing wind going past her limp ears. She wanted to live a little longer, to grow old to a right old age with Vinyl Scratch in their home to let time do its work right up to their time of passing. Octavia closed her eyes as her warm tears dripped off her chin, now believing she’ll never get to live her full life.
With another defining screech, Octavia snapped her eyes open and looked back as a large hairy creature bursts out with a large maw gapping out as it extended out it surprisingly long tongue towards the monster that carried her.
The slimy oral appendage wrapped around the creatures’ neck and yanked it down with it. The pterosaur screeched in response, letting go of the pony it held.
With a scream Octavia plunged towards the rushing shallow water, both monsters falling right after her. The mare splashed down but sense fell head first with her hooves out, the pain in her right hoof worsened at the hard impact of the bottom. She started washing down as the heavy creatures splashed down not far from her.
Octavia gasped up for air and tried to stop herself from getting close to the roaring fall, but she could only use her left fore hoof and combined with the strength of the shallow yet strong, cold current of the river, she knew she’ll eventually fall over the fall.
Remembering the fall itself wasn’t that high off the ledge she began to prepare herself by tucking her injured her hoof against her barrel and curled into a tight ball as she fell over the edge, the thrashing monsters quickly followed after as they fought.
To say splashing down onto the small but deep lake back first wasn’t painful would be a great lie. Octavia sank down quickly and nearly touching the sandy bottom. She opened her eyes with a wince of pain and a small throaty whimper, but shot them open as both monsters splashed down right above her, still struggling with another with muffle roared and cries. She flipped herself around and started swimming away to get away from the two fighting beasts while still tucking her pained hoof close to her body.
She gasped at the surface and struggled on over to the shore now at the other side of the small river while trying to keep her head above water. She trudged out onto the wet gravel ground and gasped to fuel her body of oxygen to regain part of her strength back. With a quick look around, she limped over to a tree and leaned against and flopped down onto her rump while still gasping for air.
She inspected her injured limb; parts of her grey coat were missing, showing bruised skin as well as a few cuts to go with it as small drops of blood leaked out. She sighed in relief that she got to keep her bow holding hoof, it may hurt for a couple days, but it was still attached to her.
Sudden splashing and roaring and screeched caused her to whip her head around at the lake to see the creatures still brawling with one another as they threw each other around, bit and slashed out to injure the other.
The new monstrous creature looked like a large black bear with a large head and a maw that held sharp teeth and large canines to go with it. But its most prominent feature was its irregularly large, long and muscular tongue that lashed out at the winged creature like a striking snake.
Octavia quickly hid herself behind the tree she was leaning against and watched the creatures brawl like wild rabid animals in a safe distance. Well, as safe she can get herself, she couldn’t go very fast with her injured hoof.
The black hairy beast wrapped its long tongue around the Pterasaurs’ neck and flung it over to a tree with a loud thud and cracking trunk, a few leaves being shaken off. The winged monster yelps in pain, but slowly got itself back and looked at its opponent head on and screeches its loudest yet, causing its attacker to wince and whimper as it wrapped its head along with its ears with its own tongue to try and lessen the pain. The winged monster quickly pranced over to it and swung its large head to the side and struck its attacker with its thick beak, sending the dazed creature on the ground with a limp tongue as it groaned in pain.
With a snap of a twig the winged monster swung its head over to its meal of the day.
Octavia lightly whimpered as she slowly started backing off with a limp, still staring at her attacker. With a screech, the monster started prancing after her and leaps over the small river with thundering steps. Octavia quickly swung around and started limping away as fast as her three hooves could take her through the undergrowth beside the river and rounded around the trees to try and slow the winged beast down, but the trees did very little to slow monster itself.
The moment she looked back, it swung its mighty head from her side and sent her flying over the river with a pained cry. She rolled for a few feet and suddenly stopped with a whimper as fresh tears started to form while wincing in pain. She looked up and saw the winged monster loaming over her like a giant, raising its large head to prepare to strike her with its sharp beak to end her struggling.
But as she was sure her life was ending there, a loud roared echoed through the air and was quickly followed by a large slimy tongue wrapped around the winged monsters’ throat and sent it flying away from her against a large bolder. The new monster then charged right by her, scaring her to a breaking point.
Now crying in udder defeat, she quickly got herself up and started quickly limping away through the path she came through to get as far away from the fighting scene and disappeared into the forest.
As the distraught mare fled the scene in haste, the winged creature gasped for air as it tried to recover from its latest surprise attack from its challenger. The lumbering beast strolled on over to its enemy with glaring eyes with a rumbling growl. Seeing this, the Pterasaur quickly got back up and started staggering back in fear to get away from the much stronger beast. The shaggy creatures’ tongue slithered back into it maw with took a deep breath through its wet nose, it made a screeching roar that frightened its trespasser to the bone.
The winged monster stumbled back with a trip, pranced away and started flying away in hast to get away from the island. The monster roared in victory, but was suddenly stopped by a distant voice.
“Fluffy!” Vinyl yelled.
The creature quickly looked back towards its cave home in concern and started hastily going over to the injured pony.
Vinyl smiled at the lumbering beast as she laid on the ground, her shades laying just nearby. As the creature got close to her she reached out and gently patted the monstrous creatures’ cheek and nuzzled its chin.
“You did great, Fluffy.” She whispered and chuckled as the beast licked the whole side of her face in response. “Yah kicked his skinny flank back to where he came from, Fluffy, but do you know where Tavi is?” she asked and as she got herself to sit up on her rump with pained grunts and winces. The beasts nuzzled her, making her chuckle once more but pushed him away with a small smile, “I’m fine, Fluffy, but do you know where my friend went? She needs help and comforting.” She asked once more.
With a little knowing huff, it turned its head and pointed the tip of its tongue towards the path her and Octavia went through before.
“Okay, Fluffy, let’s go find ‘er.” She groaned as she got herself up and levitated up her shades up to her horn and looked at her new companion as it rested down. Its long tongue gently wrapped around her barrel and with a wince it lifted up off the ground and placed her on its shaggy back. Taking a few quick breaths to lessen the pain on her side, she took a quick look around, spotting a strange, small mound of dirt with a single, beautiful, blue flower sprouting from it near the tree she hit, but paid no mind to it. She smiled and pointed towards the path and yelled, “Tally-Ho, Fluffy!” with that, the beast sniffed the air and started following Octavia’s scent as it started going towards the path in a brisk pace like a blood hound.
Octavia quickly limped through the darkening forest, her cheeks damp with her salty tears as well as bloodshot eyes. While gasping for air, she looked back in paranoia, but trips while doing so and started rolling down a muddy hill with yelps and grunts and suddenly stopped hard with a thump, dead leaves being thrown up to the air like confetti.
She coughed and spat out dirt from her mouth and groaned from her beaten body. She spat out more dirt and opened her eyes to be met with a large black Scorpion, its broad pincers spread out defensively and its big black stinger ready to strike.
With a screech she jumps back up to her hooves and started galloping once more as best she can through the thick, darkening undergrowth.
She was tired, in both physically and mentally. All she wanted was a quiet and relaxing cruise with her friend for a good week before going back to their quaint little home and work. Yes, Vinyl was more or less goofing around on the ship with the young fillies and colts and playing pranks of the ships’ crew but she never gone beyond that because she knew her friend wanted to have a relaxing cruise.
She took a quick glance up at the sky and saw the stars were out and shinning as she hurriedly limped across the ground with tired and aching hooves.
After a few more moments, she bursts out of the forest and collapsed on the sandy ground, the sound of waves washing up as well as the cool light breeze brushing by her ears. The moon shined brightly in the sky, coating both land and sea with its cool gentle light.
Staring at the moon for a good moment or two to rest, she took a deep breath and sat herself up with closed eyes concentrating on calming down her emotions to think more clearly. Though, it was hard to concentrate clearly without her friend to be there with her, she managed to calm down enough to start searching her surroundings with tear drenched cheeks.
She was sure this was a different part of the island’s shoreline; it was more of a small lagoon than anything else as short wall of dark rocks and stone curved around her sides but gradually shrank down into the ocean.
She breathes out shakily and rested down onto the warm sand and inspected her injured hoof closely. The small cuts were still there but long stopped bleeding out. She gently tucked it away close to her barrel and covered parts of her exposed skin with her other hoof to keep it warm.
She hung her head and continued to rest. Her mind was yelling at her to go find her companion Vinyl to make sure she was okay, but she gave up. She was too tired to do anything anymore, she was defeated and battered like a broken solder left behind after battling endlessly till their body and mind couldn’t function anymore to continue. She was a broken glass that couldn’t be brought back together with a simple clear sticky tape.
She continued to hang her head, accepting defeat like a grieving mare. She accepted she was stuck here on an Island that couldn’t stop giving her hard time right from the start, turning her into a living stress that made her blood boil like a whistling kettle, raising her blood pressure like a volcano ready to erupt and stressing her body to the breaking point. That point, part of her mind was screaming at her to rest and sleep, and right before she could, loud brushing of leaves, snapping twigs and swaying trees caught her attention like an Elephant was going through the forest.
Using her last bit of energy, she crawled and dragged herself to a large rock and hid herself behind it as best she could and curled into a small ball against the rough surface. She couldn’t do anything else; she was starving as her stomach ached, her dry throat thirst for cool water, her mind numb from the lack of nutrients and liquid and her muscles dead from being overworked to the breaking point. In the back of her mind, she knew she wouldn’t last for too long without help, sooner if that new monster wanted to have a little pony snack.
As she slowly closed her eyes, being lulled to sleep by the gentle waves, she heard light murmuring of her friend behind the rock but passed out not a second later the moment she closed her eyes.
Waking from a dreamless slumber, Octavia cracked her eyes open but quickly shut them as the suns’ light bombarded her blurring sight. She whimpered and tried cover up her face with both her hooves but winced as the other stung from inside and out. She just covered her eyes with the other as her body slowly started to wake from sleep.
Her mind ached as if she had a hangover of a lifetime from a night of hard party. Her mouth and tongue felt dry as well as her throat, her stomach ached of emptiness and her limbs felt stiff as a log.
Yes, she’s still alive.
She blinked her eyes to get them used to the light as she started looking around her surroundings with squinty eyes.
She was resting beside a large tree with comfortable green moss bed cushioning her body from the ground and the leaves of the tree over head shaded her from the sun… well, somewhat anyways. The sandy beach was right in front of her, gentle waves washing up the shore and against the dark rocky ridge. The birds sang with the forest right behind her and distant, giant clouds slowly drifted through the sky in a snails’ pace. If she wasn’t trapped on the Island and was in a vacation, she might have considered staying for a couple more days. Who knows, maybe she’ll be stuck here for the rest of her life with…
“Vinyl?” she said out loud and started looking around for her companion. “Vinyl?!” she yelled out but quickly coughed as her sore throat tickled.
With a quick whiff of odd oater, she looked down and saw some type of seaweed wrapped around her injured hoof. She wondered what good the marine plant was doing to her but just shook her head and continued to wonder where her friend went off to this time-
Knock-knock…
She whips her head to her right and saw Vinyl smiling at her, with her barrel wrapped in the same weed as well as a leaf basket resting on her back.
“Good morning, Tavi.” She greets and moved closer to the laying mare.
Octavia smiles in relief at the site before her, “I got worried about you.” She nuzzles the mares’ neck with a small smile.
Vinyl chuckles and levitated the bowl down for Octavia with a small wince, filled to the rim of various fruits and even a few rolled up Sea Weeds. “Hungry?” she asks and rested down beside her friend. Her answer came in a form of Octavia burying her face into the basket, her cheeks bulging out like a Chipmunk with full cheeks, munching and crunching messily with juices leaking out.
After filling her stomach of fresh food, Octavia made the most unladylike belch ever heard from between the two. She quickly covered up her lips with a surprised expression. Vinyl giggled at her blushing friend and levitated up a Pear to eat herself, taking out a large bite.
“Geez, Tavi. You almost beet my record with that burp of yours.” She snickered as she spotted her friend shrinking from embarrassment, turning redder than an Apple. She gently nudged the mares’ side, gaining Octavia attention as she tried to hide behind her hooves, “Oh lighten up, Tavi, we’re the only ones out here to witness that.” But right after she finished saying, a short roar was heard with the forest. “Um… actually add another one to that list of Island residents.” She corrected herself as she looked to the direction of the roar.
Octavia cowered and shook in fear, trying to hide herself behind her companion, peeking out from under Vinyls’ neck with pin pricked eyes. “W-what in Equestria… was th-that?” she squeaked out as the thrashing within the forest increased in volume with birds flying out there perches from the disturbance.
Vinyl looked at her with a happy smile, “Fluffy.” She answered as the hairy beast leaps out of the forests’ tree line a dozen meters away, looking from to and fro with a worried, urgent look. Vinyl quickly notice Octavias’ terrified expression, scooted herself closer to the mare and started gently shushing as well as caressing her mane, down her neck and on to the mid of her back. “Sshhh… Tavi, it’s okay, Fluffy won’t hurt, yah. He’s more scared of you than you are to him. Come on, it’s okay.” She continued to whisper comforting words to the shaking mare.
The large beast slowly lumbered over warily, taking each calculated step onto the warm sand and then stopped, leaned its head up to peek at the shaking mare in curiosity, just staying in place about ten feet away.
Octavia pressed herself closer to Vinyl, anchoring herself onto the DJ to calm herself.
“It’s okay, Tavi. Fluffy won’t hurt you and me. He’s just a big softy with a heart of a Manticore.” Vinyl continued whispering to her and nuzzled her cheek to get the mare out of her shell.
After a while trying to coach the mare to calm down, Octavia finally opened one of her clenched, purple eyes and looked up at her. She smiled proudly and playfully tussled the Cellists’ mane.
“There’s my girl.” Vinyl congratulated and briefly hugged her with one hoof, resting her chin on top of Octavias’ head, gaining a small smile from the cellist. Vinyl looked down at her as Octavia gave her her full attention, “Now, Tavi. I know you don’t wanna meet or even see my new friend, but you have to give him a chance… He saved us.” Octavia then looked down at her hooves in hesitation. “It doesn’t have to be now, maybe later, but he is here now. Like you said in the past, ‘Get it over with so we can get going.’…” The phrase itself caused a slight wince from Octavia as a memory briefly clouded her mind. Vinyl notices this and reassures her with a little nuzzle to the cheek, “It’s okay, Tavi. It’s in the past and you apologized. That’s more than enough for me.” She said but Octavia continued to stare down at her hooves. “So do you want to meet him now?” she quietly asked.
Octavia continued to look down at her hooves and fidgeted a little. After a moment of waiting she eventually gently nodded her head in agreement, also tensing her body in the process.
Vinyl notices, “Tavi, I promise I won’t let Fluffy get too close to you, you can just take a peek at him as well.” She assured. Octavia internally sighed a relief and nodded her head and looked up at her.
Vinyl looked back to see Fluffy just resting down on the sand, watching them from a short distance. Octavia moved her leaf bowl to the side with her good hoof and gradually inches forward with quiet grunts and pants. She leaned her head down and slowly peeked out from behind Vinyls’ lower neck.
When she saw the large, dark creature just quietly watching them like a curious dog watching its owners speaking to one another, she froze and held her breath as they both locked eyes. She wanted to scoot back to hide but her body was petrified to even acknowledge her command and Vinyls’ back hoof was firmly planted on her flank to stop her.
Few moments of silence later, she finally released her breath and blinked a couple times to moist her dry eyes, quickly rubbing off the irritation with her good hoof. Tears formed by how dry her eyes became but quickly, she felt a cool sensation being gently wiped across her forehead, cooling her temperature to a blissful level and wiped her cheeks and eyelids from her salty tears. She smiled at how quickly she felt better and opened her eyes, expecting Vinyl carrying a wet cloth in her magical grasp but only saw a long, large tongue slithering back over to its owner, the beas-… Fluffy.
Octavia sheepishly smiled with a small flush on her cheeks, “Thank you… F-Fluffy.” she thanked the monstrous, dark, gentle giant and leaned herself on her friend beside her.
Fluffy made a throaty coo and formed a sort of a smile at her in response as he started to gently sway his tail from to a fro.
“See? He’s just a big softy.” Vinyl chuckled but quickly winced, “Ow…” she squeaked out as she held her sides, planting her chin on the sand.
“Vinyl?!” Octavia frantically started looking at her friend as Vinyls’ breathing calmed down.
“It… it’s okay, Tavi…” Vinyl panted for a few more moments before relaxing and smiling at her friend, “That buck-beaked loser got me pretty good…” she looked at her seaweed bandage and started slowly pealing it off with the help of her hairy friend. Octavia gasped at the large, hoof size bruise; it was swollen, at its center was nearly black and gradually turned to a sickly purple, than blue, and finally to red and pink at its rims.
Fluffy gathered up the used seaweed with his tongue and went off into the forest with heavy steps, making the calm forest air echo with mighty thumps.
Octavia looked at her friend with a newfound determination and slowly got herself up, “Vinyl, it’s your turn to rest for once.” She nudges the bowl-leaf closer to the Unicorn and started looking around, “My turn to take care of us and figure out how to get off this island.” She said and faced the open ocean, spotting a few distant, lush islands at the horizon. “Okay!” she started hopping on three of her hooves, trying to get herself hyped, “F-first things first!” she suddenly stopped as her mind jammed itself, “U-um… First things first… is…” she started looking around once more.
“Find food and water!” Vinyl called out behind her.
“Right! Food and water! Where could those be?” she moved on over to the forests’ edge and started limping around, looking around for anything edible.
“Um… Tavi!” Vinyl called out once more.
“Yes!?” Octavia stuffs her head into a bush.
“We already know where food and water sources are!”
Octavia suddenly pops out, “I knew that!” she called out as Vinyl quietly giggled. “Okay second is…”
“Find or make a shelter!” Vinyl answered.
Octavia just stopped, and after a moment, turned and limped on over to her companion and stared at her.
“What? Do I have something on my face?” Vinyl started brushing her muzzled with her hoof to get something off that wasn’t there.
“How do you know all these things?” she asked.
“Know what?”
“How to survive out here?”
“Oh! That. Yeah, I was with the Filly Scouts before I met you. My mom enlisted me because I had nothing else better to do. I wasn’t the best Scout but I was average with the grades.” She answered.
“Oh… why didn’t you tell me you were a Filly Scout?” Octavia asked out of curiosity.
“Simple. You never asked.” Vinyl answered and popped in a berry into her mouth with her magic and happily chewed.
“Oh… sorry.” Octavia crestfallen.
“Nah, it’s fine, Tavi.” Vinyl waved it off with a chuckle. “It was fun, but not that much.” She assured and threw in another berry.
After a moment of silence while Octavia was thinking, thundering steps was going towards them. Octavia squeaked and quickly hid herself beside her friend, peeking out through the crook of her neck. Vinyl lightly chuckled at her friend as Fluffy jumped out of the forest, a rolled up, fresh seaweed being held by his oral appendage and happily went closer to her. He gently un-roles it on the mossy ground near the forest floor, lifted one up into the air and looked at her expectantly.
Vinyl looked at her companion with a smile, “Okay, Tavi,” she gains her attention, “I need to help me get up so Fluffy can patch me up. Can yah do that for me?” she asks and Octavia shakily nods in response.
Vinyl gently leans onto her friend and Octavia slowly stood up, gaining a wince and a few hisses from her friend. As they finally stood up, Fluffys’ tongue stretches out and started wrapping the long seaweed around her barrel carefully and applied a light layer of saliva onto her bruised wound, gaining a relieved, blissful sigh from Vinyl with a small delighted shiver.
Vinyl gently rested herself back down and laid her head down with a small smile, “That’s better.” She says with closed eyes.
“Um… Vinyl?” The mare in question looks up at her friend. “What do I… do next?” she asks.
“Oh! First off, Fluffy’s going to change that seaweed on your hoof.” Octavia quietly whimpered and drooped her ears, “Oh you’ll be fine, Tavi, it doesn’t hurt very much, you’ll barely feel it! Now come on and rest down beside me.” She orders.
With some hesitation Octavia lays down beside her friend and eyes her bandaged hoof with the fear of feeling a burning pain or some sort. Then taken by surprise, Vinyl hushes her and brought the mares’ head against her chest with her hoof, comforting her somewhat.
“I promise, Octavia, nothing’s going to happen.” Vinyl whispered to her.
After a moment of letting the words sink in, she buries her face into Vinyls’ chest to look away and gently brought out her hoof. A moment later, she felt a gentle prod onto her hoof from the creatures’ tongue, causing Octavia to whimper and shake in fear. But her shaking quickly subsided as she felt Vinyl caress her mane and quietly hushed into her ear. Octavia quickly held onto Vinyls’ voice and thumping heart to distract her from the slimy appendage.
After what felt like hours of listening to Vinyls’ heart, a voice spoke up.
“There! All done with your boo-boo.” Vinyl says and planted a quick peck on top of her head.
Octavia opens her eyes in surprise and slowly looked at her hoof. The once nearly dried seaweed was now replaced with a new vibrant, livelier one, as well as coated with a light layer of cool slime within and out the bandages.
“H-how…?” she tries to speak up.
“See? Was it that hard?” Vinyl ruffles up her already messy mane, “Fluffy knows what he’s doing. I don’t know how, but he knows.”
Octavia looks up at the beast with a small, timid smile and paws at the sandy ground, “Thank you… Fluffy.” And the reply she gets was one big, wet lick on the cheek, completely covering the whole left side of her face with slimy saliva, causing Vinyl to laugh at Octavias’ sudden, surprised expression as her mane stood up in the air by Fluffys’ thick saliva. Their big companion happily wagged his tail and panted with his tongue lolling out like dogs do when they know their owners were happy with them.
As the day slowly went on for the trio, Octavia continued to collect items within the forest to make a temporary campsite for her and her companion with the help of the mighty, gentle giant.
Octavia flopped her rump down on the forest floor and panted. She gently put her makeshift satchel bag down, full of fruits and three bamboo water bottles filled with fresh and cool water. She found the bamboo with the help of her new friend deep in the forest. She continued to take her breath, while Fluffy looked at her with worry and quietly whined to her and picked up the bag from her and a pile of freshly cut bamboo with his tongue. He rested down onto his stomach and motioned her to get on up with a nudge of his head.
Octavia stared at him for a moment of consideration and eventually nodded her head with a sigh and slowly got back up to her three hooves. She got up to the massive body and looked up, trying to figure out how to get up to the top of the beast. But then she yelped in surprise as she felt something wet and slippery press against her tush, urging her against the body. She looked back and saw part of Fluffys’ tongue was gently pushing against her. She quickly understands after a brief moment of confusion and planted her fore hooves against his shaggy coat as Fluffy started pushing her up while she climbed up.
She grunts as she pulls herself up at the rest of the way and rested down with a sigh and closed eyes. When she heard Fluffy grunting at her, she looked down at him and just nodded her head and rested her head back down on his soft, comfy back.
The beast slowly rises up and starts lumbering back to the shore in a casual pace while carrying her bag and the bamboos with his tongue.
Octavia repositions herself to face ahead, slowly sat up to her hunches and fixed her bowtie, tried to smooth out her mane and tail and rested back down with a tired sigh. She started looking around her surroundings curiously and saw the light has dimmed from the setting sun. The forest was audibly getting a little quiet with a relaxing sound of Crickets making a chorus in the first hours of the coming evening, a few birds and frogs joining in with the insects.
Moments later, Fluffy brakes through the forest and onto the sandy shore. But the moment they went out into the open, a light, salty ocean breeze passes by, cooling the matted fur on her flank, causing the unprepared mare to tense up as a light layer of blush goes across her muzzle. As Fluffy started going over to their campsite, she quickly started wiping her flank with her tail in embarrassment as a few of Fluffys’ fur clung to her rump like a possessive vine.
As they reached their friend, Fluffy rested back down while Octavia carefully slid herself down on his side. Fluffy then put down the bamboo and bag nearby, making Vinyl smile at the items they found.
“Where’d you find the bamboo!?” Vinyl asked excitedly as she dragged a one pole of a bamboo over to her with her magic and examined the stem with a big smile.
“Fluffy, did.” Octavia went on over to her bag and took out one of the makeshift bottles and showed it to her friend, “We got water too.” She smiled weakly.
“Oh wow!” Vinyl took the offering, opened the lid and chugged down the cool water inside, a few leaks streaking down her chin and cheeks. She finished with a sigh of relief and wiped her muzzle with her hoof, “That hit the spot.” She said and closed the lid.
Octavia smiled at her and then looked back at the pile of bamboo right behind her, “So… what do we do with these?” she asked and strolled on over and rolled a pole to and fro.
“Did you get the vines?” Vinyl asked and Octavia nodded as she pulled out a hefty length of green vines from her satchel.
Octavia scrunches up her muzzle at the thin vine on her hoof, “These were hard to get.” She remembered trying to pull one out of a tree with all her might, but suddenly flew back with a squeak when Fluffy cut the thing with one of his claws and landed in mud with a splatter. It took an hour and a half to wash off the brown substance from her coat in cold river water. Octavia shuddered at the memory.
“Good! We’re going to make a bed frame under this tree.” Vinyl said as she slowly got up to her hooves with a wince. She looked at the worried Fluffy and Octavia with a smirk but had one eye closed as she fought back against the pain on her side.
“What?” Octavia worried expression soon gave way to confusion, “Why?” She looked at the moss bedding she and Vinyl rested on, “Isn’t it easier to just rest on that?” she pointed.
Vinyl nodded while slowly limping on over to the bamboo, “Yeah, but what’s going to happen if it started to rain? We can’t reach the cave without getting drenched and cold first, and I’m pretty sure you’ll agree it’s a lot better to sleep on something dry and not have creepy crawlies crawlin’ on yah while we sleep.” She chuckled at Octavia’s face drained of blood with her eyes wide, her irises turning into pin pricks. Vinyl then looked at her shaggy friend with a smile and motioned her head for him to come over, “Get over here, Fluffy.” She says happily, making the beast perk his ears and wag his tail as he quickly scurried over to her. She looked at a bamboo pole in front of her, measuring it with her eyes before she gently gripped Fluffys’ clawed paw. “Fluffy. Cut.” She made a slashing motion with her hoof, showing Fluffy what to do and pointed at the bamboo. She levitated a sharp rock over to her with a wince and made a mark with a little cut on the hard stem. She pointed at the mark while looked at her new companion, “Fluffy, cut.” She made a slashing motion again and point at the marker once more.
Fluffy looked back and forth at her and the bamboo with his paw raised, but quickly understood her. He slashed the bamboo in half at the small marker.
“That’s a, good boy!” Vinyl congratulated and started rubbing his head. Fluffy leaned in on her hoof and started kicking one of his hind legs in bliss and licked his master on the whole right side of her face in thanks.
Octavia giggled at them both before looking out into the horizon, watching the setting sun, ever so slowly descend to make way for the coming night.
By the time they were finished making the bed frame, the stars were shinning and twinkling in the night sky with the bright moon shinning down on the island, making the ocean sparkle of its silvery light.
The small bomb fire crackled, bathing Vinyl and Octavia with a blanket of warmth as they finally finished their bamboo-bed-frame-contraption. Their bodies were a full three feet off the ground, had a roof over their heads that could collect fresh rainwater if it started raining and had a small three step staircase made of boulders that Fluffy found for them around the beach.
“Aaaand… through the hole… aand… you’re Done!” Vinyl congratulated as she ruffled Octavias’ mane from their ‘bed’, gaining a relived sigh from the tired mare. The Cellist rested down on her rump and hung her head back to stretch and rest her strained muscles in her neck.
“Goodness, that was a hassle to tie.” She voiced her complaint and looked at her latest knot that tied the bamboo column to the roofing. She huffs and looked at her friend resting and nudged her head to the side as she slowly got up, “Scoot over, Vinyl.” She got up to the steps with a commanding tone and waited for her friend to move aside to make space for her.
With a little chuckle and a nod, Vinyl carefully shimmies herself closer to the bark of the tree, making room for her friend. Octavia gets herself comfortable; tucking her hooves inward, whipping her tail to surround her left side that’s exposed to the elements and cuddles a little closer to friends’ side for some warmth while nestling her muzzle into the DJs’ chest, making Vinyl chuckle.
Vinyl looked over at their beastly companion resting under a Coconut tree as it got ready to sleep, “Goodnight, Fluffy.” She whispered, making the beast whine in return. Vinyl makes a throaty chuckle before a mighty yawning escaped her system, making her eyes droop and drossy. She snuggles up with her friend to go to sleep as well.
The lolling sound of a crackling fire, gentle washing waves, brushing leaves of the trees caused by the ocean breeze and nocturnal insects, frogs and toads making a calming chorus within their forest home. It was the perfect combination to make any day dwelling creature to go into slumber, but a certain mare had a question to ask before going to sleep.
“Vinyl…?” Octavia whispered in her friends’ warm coat.
“Mm?”
“How are you so calm about this whole… turn of events’?” she asked. It took a good minute to get her answer from the mare in question.
“Actually… I was freaking out just like you when I woke up washed up on the beach. But when I found you, I knew I had to be calm for you, so I took my breath and inspected you for any injuries or even if you were breathing.” Vinyls’ body shivered as she got cozy with her friend, “After that, I accidentally woke you up to see if you were in a coma or something. I was relieved when you were your grumpy-self.” She quietly giggled and nuzzled her nose into Octavias’ coat, “When you went back to sleep, I knew you’d be out for some time after sleeping on wet sand, so I went out to go find some fresh water and maybe a little bit of food. When I got into the creepy, quiet part of the forest, I got tackled down by Fluffy.” She giggled once more, “Oh, you should’ve see my face, Tavi, I was freakin’ out like a drugged out colt. All I saw at the time was a big mouth full of sharp teeth and a big, long tongue. When I hit him with a rock with my magic, I crawled myself over to a tree and used a broken off branch to protect myself. When I saw the big guy, he was pouting like big-o’l-puppy while showing me a small branch of berries for me. Oh, I just fell in love with the cutie, so that’s when I started calling him, Fluffy. When we made peace, he threw me up on his back and showed me where he lived. After that, I told him to ‘stay’ and galloped back to get you.” She finished her little story.
After a minute of getting no response, she slowly lifted her head and saw Octavia was fast asleep with quiet, little snores. Vinyl smiled, pecked Octavia on top of her head and rested back down.
“Goodnight, Tavi.” She whispered.
BOOOOooooom!
Octavia and Vinyl suddenly woke from their slumber from the sound barrier braking right above them. Octavia rolled off their sleeping place with an ‘Eeep!’ and crunched on down on the sandy ground. Vinyl just shot her head up, but quickly hissed in pain as her side was bombarded by red hot needles.
Quickly recovering from her fall and drossy mind, Octavia shot up to her hooves and looked around the area to notice nothing had change, but couldn’t see Fluffy from where he slept the night before. So she looked up to the sky to see a large, expanding, halo of firry rainbow right above them, with dive bombing projectile heading straight for their position, with a rainbow trailing in its wake… wait…
Her eyes widen at the realization and duck under their bed frame with an ‘Eeep!’. Noticing Octavia diving under their ‘bed’, Vinyl winced as she strained with her magic, casting a blue bubble to surround them in protection. A second later the sandy beach exploded in a shower of wet and dry grains, a small wave of sand bouncing off of Vinyls’ shield.
The sound of disgusted spitting started to echo out, “Ugh! Should’ve slowed down first…” the tomboyish female voice spoke out as she continued spitting out salty sand from her mouth.
Both Vinyl and Octavia looked with wide eyes as they saw the Element of Loyalty standing in front of them in a small crater. Rainbow Dash shook off the countless grains from her body as best she could and continued spitting at the ground. She finally looks up while trying to clean out her right ear, one eye closed.
“You know, you two…” she trots out of her crater and shook her head violently to get the remaining sand out of her rainbow mane and whipped her tail from side to side to do the same, “When the ship got quiet, I knew something was wrong.” She brushed her chest and shook one of her hind legs, “I checked to see if you two were okay, then ‘Poof’! You both were gone! I searched-And I mean Literally Search every part of the ship to look for you both.” The brash mare then started looking around and whistled with a nod, “Wow… I like stay here for a while.” She said.
“Oh thank goodness!” Octavia crawls out with a grunt while smiling up at Rainbow. “Finally, we’re saved!” she praised to the sky, now stand on her hind hooves and throwing her free one up in the air.
But suddenly, a mass of dark fur leaps out of the jungle and pinned Rainbow Dash back down in the crater, peppering the poor mares’ face and mane with slobbering licks. Rainbow struggled to get the beast off of her, but to no avail as Fluffy continued to smother her.
“Fluffy! Down!” Vinyl yelled as she carefully got herself down with a wince, standing beside her grinning companion. The beast obeyed loyally and took a few paces back from the matted Pegasus. Vinyl smiled approvingly with a quick nod, “Good boy!” she levitates up a stick from under the tree and waved it around, gaining the beasts’ attention as he eyed the stick with great concentration, his tail now wagging from side to side. Vinyl flings the stick to the other side of the beach, “Go, Boy! Go!” she said with enthusiasm and with that, Fluffy ran off to retrieve the stick with loud thumps.
Rainbow quickly sat up to her haunches and wiped the slippery, thick, oozing saliva from her face and shook both her hooves as the slobber slowly oozed down from her matted coat. Rainbow shivered in disgust and spat, “Groooss…” her face cringed and whipped her hooves once again in front of her, leaning her head away with a scrunch.
Octavia chuckled nervously, “Y-yes, Fluffy gets excited easily… but it does come off easily with a little bathing, Miss Dash.” She said as the lumbering beast came back and started carefully playing Tug of War with Vinyl with a playful growl.
Rainbow slowly got up on her hooves, sand now sticking to her coat. She sniffed her hoof, but pulled away with a scrunched up muzzle, “What about the smell?” she asked.
Octavias’ smile flew away in a dash, “Not… really.” She answered with a sigh and hung her head, but jumped as the large tongue of Fluffy licked her cheek. She winced at first at the slobber, but once she looked up, she smiled at the happy look of Fluffy, his tongue hanging out as he panted while wagging his tail excitedly. “But he means very well.” She added, went up to the large beast and petted him on the head, gaining groan of appreciation from him.
It was strange; she noticed that the shaggy beast seemed to be a little more loyal and kind to her than the enthusiastic DJ herself.
A second later, the sound of running boat echoed into their ears. They all looked out and saw three Zodiac boats coming their way with a few ponies on board, wearing bright red life vests. Octavia couldn’t recognize any of them but the farm mare of Ponyville, Applejack. She believed both Rainbow Dash and Applejack were sent to the cruise ship to relax. It was strange, but enlightening to speak with them both at the first night of dinner. They told her their friends practically forced them to go on this cruise, and she believed she saw a glimpse of them trying to argue back at them in the docks. It reminded them of herself and Vinyl in some ways; they were competitive.
The three mares strolled down onto the edge of the water with Fluffy right in their wake, while Rainbow Dash continued to wipe and shake the slobber off of her coat in the best of her abilities, which was not much as her fur was still matted, sticky and stank of Fluffys’ saliva.
The inflated boat got close but didn’t move up to the shore as the ponies on it stared warily at the shaggy beast behind the trio.
“What intarnation is that thin’!?” Applejack yelled.
“His name’s Fluffy!” Vinyl yelled and petted the beasts’ head happily with a smile.
“Is this… Fluffy, hostile?” a random stallion spoke up.
“If being slobbered on excitedly by an easily excitable…” Octavia stopped with a blink and looked at Fluffy in confusion, trying to figure out what in the world the creature was. After a second she turned back to the ponies on the boat, “‘beast’, then yes, Fluffy’s hostile.” She finished sarcastically.
The small, three pony crew looked at each other for a moment, debating whether they should land or stay back. Applejack snorts and looked at the driver.
“Well, get goin’! We’re not leavin’ ‘em jus’ because of a li’le, ol’ vermin. Or are the big stallions scared of gettin’ a li’le wet?” she taunted them both with a teasing, challenging grin. The two stallions frowned looked at one another in a silent agreement and the driver and drove up to the beach. AJ tossed three Life Vests and beckoned, “Hurry on up, yah three. Every pony’s worried sick about, yah two.”
Octavia easily put the red vest on and helped Vinyl in hers, making the mare wince and grunt when she zipped her up. She then felt a nudge on her rump, making her squeak and twist around to find a sad looking Fluffy. She and Vinyl smiled sadly back at him and hugged the beasts’ neck in a loving embrace. Octavia nuzzled her muzzled into his thick fur.
“I’m sorry, Fluffy, but we have to go back home.” she said, making Fluffy whine and hung his head in defeat and depression. Octavia looked at him sadly, feeling terrible for leaving such a gentle giant by himself on the island.
“Strange…” the little group looked at cyan stallion.
“Wha’ was that?” AJ asked.
“This island, it’s not in our records or maps. It’s pretty far from mainland, but… how did it hide for so long? it’s huge!” he said and jogged over to the tree line. “This is a new Island!” he yelled back and continued to examine the surrounding flora.
“New?” Octavia question, “Than how do you explain all the ‘M’s I’ve been seeing all over the island? This place have been visited before by some pony named ‘Melody’.” Fluffys’ ears quickly perked up at the name and gave Octavia his full attention.
“Wait… isn’t your last name Melody?” Vinyl question.
“Yes, but I don’t go by that name. I got it from my grandmother.” she replied while stroking Fluffys’ head to calm him down, making him purr in delight.
“Oh…” She said, a little surprised, “Where is she now?” Vinyl asked once again.
“She went… missing…” Octavia looked down at the sandy ground a little sadly, “She went missing when I was five actually. My parents don’t know what happened to her. The last ponies that saw her said she went on a boating trip on her last day of vacation.”
“So… yah think y’er gran’ma somehow ended up here, maybe?” AJ said and gestured to the island itself.
“I-I don’t know, it might be some other pony named Melody.” Octavia rubbed her bandaged hoof; feeling confusion and hope welling up inside her. She always did love her Grandma Melody dearly, and she was the reason why she took up learning how to play the Cello, to be like her… well, not like her entirely. She wasn’t too keen on exploring the world on a sailboat.
“Well, your grandmother or not, by the laws of ‘Equestrian Exploration’, you both own this island now sense no other is here to claim it.” the cyan stallion said while going over the boat and started digging their his waterproof satchel. Both Octavia and Vinyl’s mouth hung agape at the sudden news.
“W-what?” Octavia voice, dumbstruck.
He pulled out sheet of paper and showed it to them. The face of the page was littered with numbers and words with different codes; coordinates, and two empty lines right under them; one for the owner or owners, and the second for the name of the island.
“You both own the island, now. This is just one part of the paperwork that has to be done, but it’s a start.” he said and brought out a quill and a small jar of ink for them to use.
Vinyl and Octavia looked back and forth between them and the paper for a moment before Octavia signed her name, as well as Vinyl. They both looked at the empty slot, and blinked, but then Vinyl looked at her.
“Any ideas for a name?” she asked.
“W-why me?” she looked at the mare like she just grew a new head.
Vinyl chuckled, “Well, it’ll be your birthday in about a month, and I don’t really have anything in mind on what to give yet, so why not a whole Island!?” she gestured to the forest with a big smile.
Octavia took the quill from her magical grasp and looked down at the page, thinking through list upon list of names to choose from. Fluffy then whined and nudged her, and an inspiration quickly popped into her mind and wrote down the name.
She spits out the pencil, “Melodys’ Island.” she said out loud with a proud smile adorning for face.
“Huh… I thought it would be something twenty percent cooler.” Rainbow commented, but yelped in pain once AJ kicked her side.
Octavia paid no mind to the mare and looked at the stallion, “Does this mean I and Vinyl can visit the Island whenever we want?” she asked with a big hopeful smile and the stallion nodded. She giggled and pranced in place like a giddy little filly and quickly hugged Fluffy, “We’re coming back, Fluffy.” she said.
“Really!? Awesome!” Vinyl cheered with a hoof pump, but hissed in pain right after as she gently touched her side with a wince.
Octavia smiled as Fluffy started groaning around happily. She reached out and stopped him by holding his head, “Stay still, Fluffy.” she ordered and took off her pink bow tie and strung it around his right ear in a snug fit. “There…” she said and pulled his head into a loving hug.
~Three Months Later~
Octavia never knew she had it in her, but she was actually enjoying-No! Thrilled to sail on the sea! She had her own sailboat now, donated generously by the crown so she could visit her island whenever she wanted.
The E.S. (Equestrian Ship) Sound Wave.
It was not small by any means and she was proud to call it her own.
The boat was thirty five feet long from stern to bow and eighteen feet from port to starboard, and the pull holding up the massive sail was fifty feet high. On the sides of the smooth, glinting hall of her ship, printed in bold, electric blue letters was SOUND WAVE. The boat was rather plain looking like a regular wind-powered boat, but inside, there was plenty of room to fit in a small household.
There were at least two sleeping courters located near the stern, a small kitchen with a stove and a fridge around the middle and where they store all their food and water, a living room located near the bow, and of course, a working rest room. Right above those was the radio room, where all the maps, radios and paper works were, but last and not least the steering wheel right in front of that little workspace. But sense this is the modern time, she ship was equipped with a powerful engine that could propel the ship up to forty miles per hour when there are no winds to pull the sails. The boat also had a zodiac and a small crane for them to get off the boat to get to shallower areas.
All and all, this little ship was a cross-bread between a yaut and a research vessel.
The ship wasn’t the only thing that got her excited; it was the looming, tropical island right ahead of them, eclipsing the setting sun.
“We’ll reach the island in twenty min’ts, capt’in’!” Vinyl yelled from the wheel
Octavia lightly shook her head with a small smirk; she still could believe Vinyl insisted on talking like an old-time sailor during this trip.
She turned around to head for the wheel to see Applejack lying down on her beck with her hind legs crossed and using her fore hooves as a pillow, while tilting her Stetson hat down to shield her eyes from the sun. Rainbow Dash swooped over the ship, flying circles and flips around the vastly open sky quite literally all day.
She invited both mares along to have a week of vacation on the island with them, after what happened three months ago; she felt she needed to pay them back for rescuing them.
Octavia strolled on over to her housemate beside the wheel; the DJ going so far as to wearing an eye-patch over her right eyes with a small, white skull in the middle of it, a painted scar on her left cheek, capping one of her teeth with a fate gold one and wore a black bandana to cover her mane. It amused her, though, knowing her friend was as excited to go back to the island.
“Any word from our guests?” she asked and looked towards the stern to see another bigger ship tagging along with them. The whole Elements of Harmony, their little sisters and a baby dragon were tagging along as well.
“Ney, Capt’in’! Them land-lovers said no word al’ day.” she replied with a thick accent and a grin on her lips.
“Inform them to get ready hit land. We’ll camp out on the shore for the night, and then move out to the crater in the morning.”
“Aye-Aye, Cap’tin’!” she grabs the radio and turned it on, “Sound Wave teh Krystal Clear, Sound Wave teh Krystal, ovah!”
The device statics for a second before a reply came, “This is Krystal Clear to Sound Wave. What is it that you need? Over.” a stallion replied.
“Capt’in’ Tavi ordered fer yer land-lovers teh get might ready fer land-ho. Oveah”
“Roger that. I’ll inform the Elements right now. Over.” with that the call was over.
“You keep steering the wheel, Vinyl. Miss Applejack?” she called out for the farm mare.
AJ pulled off her hat and looked up at Octavia, “Yeah?”
“Can you help me to pack things up?” she asked.
“Sure thin’, sugar cube.” she replied and both mares went down to the deck together.
Vinyl eased the inflated zodiac down onto the calm waters with Rainbow Dash on the small boat. Once it hit water and floating, Rainbow unhooked the straps from the crane but was still firmly tied onto the ship to keep it from drifting away as Rainbow dash started loading the supplies onto the boat with Applejack passing the load onto her.
Vinyl then quickly went over to her friends’ side with the speakers on the side. She checked the equipment and adjusted the volume before tapping the mike, causing loud thumping sounds to escape the speakers.
Octavia looked back at the second ship behind their own boat anchored in place. Those ponies were getting ready as well to head for land for the vacation. She could see the mares looking at their direction, waiting for what will happen next.
Both mares cleared their voices and took deep breaths before they yelled out.
“FLUUUUUFFY!!!”
Vinyl quickly turned the speakers off to wait for a reply. They didn’t have to wait long as they all heard a roaring screech echoing out from the forest, a few birds flying away from their perches to escape to another part of the island to get away from the loud visitors.
Author's Note
Oh my goodness, that took longer to finish than it needed to. Nearly a whole year in the making; going on and off on this one, changing things from here and there and editing. At least it's finally here just in time for the Summer Holiday!
I hope you enjoyed this 'little' reading, and if any of you hadn't figured it out yet, this story is inspired by the song "Tropical Octav3" by AnimatedJames.
If you're wondering just what they did later that night, here's a little hint.
Next Time!
September
So till next time, have a nice day/night and good reading, everyone.
Non-fanfic versions are right here:
Inkitt
FictionPress
