Broken strings

Octavia had always had trouble falling asleep, but that night her insomnia was acting worse than ever. She kept rolling around in bed, having all kinds of random thoughts and guesses about Vinyl. Who is the other pony? Vinyl must be sorry. She promised Octavia that she would wait for her, but she didn’t. Octavia felt cheated on, but on the other hoof she felt she didn’t have a reason good enough to stop Vinyl. She was the one who abandoned her and went on with her own career. Octavia chose her own dream over Vinyl, which is unfair even though Vinyl might have accidently crashed Octavia’s reputation once.

Come to think of it, it wasn’t even Vinyl’s fault. She did say that she was not comfortable with the high class parties, and she did really tried to stay on her best behavior that night. When the incident happened, she did apologize right away as well. On the other hoof, it didn’t turn out so bad either. Octavia thought that when they meet they could finally get a nice little chat and clear this thing up. After all, they had been friends for years. Even if they couldn’t be lovers, they could still be music buddies.

The second day, everypony gathered at Twilight’s library. Then they started moving towards the other side of town where Vinyl lives. Strangely, everypony was quiet. Rarity wasn’t gossiping about the Canterlot celebrities, Twilight wasn’t giving a lecture on Ponyville history, Pinkie wasn’t jumping around and whoo’ing at all kinds of thing… even Rainbow Dash was trotting by her side instead of soaring high in the air.

“We’re here.” Twilight said as they reached the front door of Vinyl’s house. The door was shut tight, the curtains were closed, and the front yard had become a little messy. Even though Vinyl didn’t take care of the plants much anyway, Octavia felt like there hadn’t been any pony living here for a while.

“Urg, I am sorry, I thought you guys are taking me to Vinyl.”

“Vinyl said you need to come here first when you are ready.”

Octavia walked up, but Applejack suddenly dashed forward and stopped her with a hoof.

“lit’ Octavia, before you go in.” Applejack took a deep breath and said, “No matter what you see, we would like you to know that Vinyl had loved you, a lot.”

“You mean you all know about it?” Octavia’s eyes widened with shock.

“Well, yeah. Down here fillies’ love is actually not that uncommon.” Rainbow Dash said, shooting a weird look at Fluttershy, who blushed and turned away.

“All right, I’ll keep that in mind…” Octavia thought as she placed her hoof on the wooden hoofle of the door. She pressed it downwards, and the door slowly opened with a loud crack noise. Octavia was immediate greeted with some weird smell and a cloud of dusk. She stepped back a little and waited till the dust fell onto the ground, then she carefully walked in.

The house was empty. Everything was covered in a thin layer of dust, and of course extremely messy. Octavia smiled. Vinyl had always been such a careless pony. She never put anything back after using them, so her room had always been like a disaster. Octavia remember telling her to be more organized, but Vinyl simply shrugged her off and said she could find anything anytime she wanted.

“Oh yeah, prove it.” Octavia once said when she was visiting Vinyl.

Vinyl raised her muzzle. “All right, name one thing that I have.”

Octavia said the flash light, and Vinyl went on with the search which lasted roughly three hours. Vinyl gave up in the end and spent the entire afternoon putting stuff back to where they belong. But when Octavia came to visit again just a week later, everything was back to the way it was: scattered around all over the place.

Oh right. Octavia suddenly remembered what she was doing. She turned around and gave a smile of apology to the mane 6 who just trotted into the room. Octavia then turned around and started looking.

What could Vinyl want her to see in here? Octavia walked around and sudden something on the dining table caught her attention. She quickly walked up and realized that it was a thick, blue envelope. Octavia picked it up. On the front it says. “To Octavia. From: Vinyl Scratch”

Octavia’s felt her heart drop and stop. She quickly sat down on the chair nearby and opened the envelope with her hooves.

“All right girls, let’s leave lit’ Octavia alone and wait in the living room for now.” Applejack said quietly, and every other pony walked away with her.

Octavia tore open the light blue envelope and what looked like a long letter fell out. Octavia quickly picked it up and started reading eagerly.

“Dear Octavia:

Wow, this is the first time I had actually written a serious letter, Octavia. You have no idea what I had to go through to spell all the words correctly.”

Octavia giggled. She could read this in Vinyl’s voice, and she could almost see Vinyl sitting right next to her, scratching her head complaining how hard English is.

“Any way, I left this letter here so that you could see it someday.” Octavia continued with the letter, “I hope that you won’t get mad at me even though I knew you totally would, but yeah… when you see this, I will be gone.”

Gone? What does she mean by that? Octavia wondered.

“I am sorry. I knew I said I would stay and wait for you, but I just can’t. (Vinyl drew a very sad pony face here). I am sorry, I really am. You know I don’t lie. Well I do but you can tell right that right now I am seriously sorry. Please don’t feel too sad. You are much prettier when you are happy. Forget about me and go on with what you love and enjoy. Go play the cello like the boss you are Octy. I can’t let myself stop you from your dream again.

Yours

Vinyl Scratch”

The letter ended with the signature of Vinyl. Octavia sat on the dusty sofa. Her hooves were holding the letter. Her cello was brought back by Rainbow Dash and placed down next to her.

No, it can’t be…

Octavia felt everything around her spinning. She tried to stand up, but her knees slipped and she tripped over the table. She fell on the floor, still holding onto the letter for her dear life.

The other ponies heard the noise and rushed over. Applejack was the first. She sprinted into the room and saw Octavia lying down on the floor. She quickly moved over and pulled her up.

“Hey ya’all right sugar cube?”

“WHAT happened to Vinyl? Please, I need to know, tell me EVERYTHING!”

Applejack looked at Twilight, who sighed and said, “Octavia, please, calm down.”

“SHE WAS MY BEST FRIEND!”

“We know. But we don’t think…”

“Please, just cut it and tell me. I really can’t take this anymore. I will be fine. I promise.”

The ponies looked at each other and sighed. Then Twilight said, “I am terribly sorry, we did everything we can, but Vinyl… is not with us any more.”