Tap tap tap tap tap.
Ugh, this day is lasting forever. I'm sitting here, typing up a report on Saddle Arabian exports while the rest of New Colt City is out enjoying the day. Working at the North Tower at the Equus Trade Center is about as exciting as it sounds. It's just 8:30 and I already have that annoying headache. I stifle a yawn and get back to typing.
"Hey, Octavia, how'd you sleep?" asked a certain griffon. Gilda had been working in the cubicle next to me for the past six months, constantly checking on me to see if I was alright. The rest of the workers near us found her irritable in the highest degree, but I thought that her worrying about my health was, in a way, endearing.
"Not much," I replied. "Vinyl kept me up all night with one of her bass cannon remixes." I shook my head, partly in amusement, partly to clear the cobwebs from my brain. "You know what those are like. I swear car alarms were set off three blocks away from our house."
Gilda chuckled, probably remembering the night that Octavia had invited her over for a dinner party and Vinyl, my room mate, decided to break out her sound equipment. "When are you gonna' decide to move out and get your own apartment?"
"Most likely never." I sighed, thinking about my roommate. My insufferable roommate with the wub machine and nocturnal-ness of an owl.
Gilda replied over the cubicle wall, "It's about Vinyl, isn't it? How do you stand her?"
I returned to my typing away at the computer, thinking over my answer carefully. "Well, I enjoy her company." Of course that wasn't the real reason that I put up with the white unicorn. And Gilda knew it, based on her silence, as if she were expecting me to go on. I tried to immerse myself in my work. I glanced at the clock on my computer. 8:35.
"I know you're lying." Gilda told me.
"Well, what if I am? Does that really matter?"
"Octavia, you've shied away from this question since the day we met, and I want an answer."
I didn't want to say it. But it's time she knew. It wasn't that big of a deal, was it? "Well, you know how she likes to play her dubstep outside the South Tower? How many people do you think actually throw her tips?"
The truth gushed out of me like a flood of water stuck behind a dam far too long. It felt good, though, telling somepony. "Vinyl makes about five bits everyday. It's not enough to support anypony. I tried to tell her to get a real job, but that sound system means everything to her. She says that if she's not working with her bass cannon, she's not going to work at all." I bit my lip to hold back the tears that were forming. "No pony will take her seriously, because whenever she goes in for a job interview, she's either tired, not showered, late, or just not there at all! She can't support herself, and quite honestly, I feel sorry for her. That's how I manage to deal with the sleepless nights, the jarring mornings, the constant, 'Can you give me your honest opinion?' Hell, I even gave up my dream of being a world-renowned cellist so I could work here to pay for the both of us!"
I returned to my keyboard, leaning over the computer, breathing heavily. After a few seconds of that, reality came back to me. I noticed several things. One was that the office around me was deathly quiet. Another was that Gilda had stopped working on whatever it was that she had been doing. But thing that was the most prominent was that Ms. Sparkle, Head of the Board of International Transaction for New Colt was standing outside my cubicle door. I silently cursed myself for saying what I had said as I turned her way.
"Err, Ms. Melody, could you please see me in my office?" she asked. She was just promoted last week, so she didn't carry the air of superiority the past HBIT's did. But she was it what she was, and I needed to respect that. Sighing, I complied. What a wonderful day this was so far.
The chair I sat in faced Twilight's desk and gave me a perfect view of the clock. 8:37. There was a word-a-day calendar on the top right corner of her desk. September 11th's word was "homogenous". The Alicorn took a seat on the opposite side of the desk.
"Octavia, how has your life been?"
I must admit, the question surprised me. I was expecting get called out for disrupting the work environment. What was Ms. Sparkle trying?
"I think we both heard my little outburst two minutes ago," I said, as politely as I could.
"I heard you say that you took this job opportunity to support a friend. A "Vinyl?" asked the purple Alicorn.
"Yes, she's my roommate."
"I can imagine that paying for the expenses of two ponies would be very difficult." She raised an eyebrow, obviously expecting some sort of answer.
"It can get a bit hard at times, but we always pull through and it's all worth it to see the smile on her face as she…" I paused, looking for the right word. "Composes."
"Octavia, don't lie to me. What's actually happening at home?"
The smile that I had been faking this entire conversation dropped. She had seen through my lie. "Smile on her face." Do you realize how dumb that sounds? I lowered my head.
"We in debt to almost everyone we know, and I've been forced to take side-jobs during the night to keep up with basic utilities. I try not to let anypony know, not even Vinyl, because I don't want them to worry too much about me."
Twilight got up from behind the desk and started pacing. She stopped after a little bit a turned toward me. "Listen, Octavia, I'm going to do something for you. I want you to take the day off."
My eyes widened. "Why?"
"You know, just trying to be homogenous." I resisted the urge to ask her if she knew what the word meant.
The purple HBIT went on. "Times are tough for you, that much you've made clear. And it sounds like you don't get much sleep thanks to your side-jobs. So I think that a day off with pay will do you some good.
I was still a little surprised by this offer. Sure, Twilight was new, but even she wouldn't make an offer like this on a regular Tuesday. She'd probably take a little off my paycheck for causing a ruckus in the office. I shrugged it off. A day of sleep was just what I needed.
Still, I stuttered a little as I said, "Thank you, Ms. Sparkle." I quickly removed myself from the chair and left the office before whatever kindness had possessed her left. I quickly gathered up my things and started towards the elevator.
Then the strangest thing happened. I saw firefighter ponies buck down the door, yelling to anyone who heard them that they if they were alright, then help was on the way. I turned toward the office and saw what appeared to be the remains of an airplane that had crashed through the window and exploded. Fires were everywhere, licking away at the mangled corpses… I shook my head, clearing away the sleep-deprivation-induced vision. Twilight's right. I need a nap.
I walked down the stairwell, entered the lobby and exited the building. I couldn't wait to get home as I walked past the botany shop and the frozen yogurt parlor. I saw a family with two foals ordering some delicious vanilla frozen yogurt. I could go for some of that. I grabbed two bits from my purse and approached counter. I ordered my yogurt and sat down at a table to enjoy the creamy goodness. An orange stallion sat next to me. I didn't have a hoofwatch like he did, so I quickly asked him, "Excuse me, sir do you have the time?"
The stallion looked at me, and then down at his watch. "It should be 8:4-"
But he never finished, because at that moment, an explosion reached my ears. My swiveled my head around to see flames engulfing the North Tower. A plane must have accidentally flown to low. I rationalized. But my eyes widened when I realized that the plane had hit the floor that I was in in not ten minutes ago. I didn't ask why I had been blessed with such incredible luck, because I was worried about Gilda and the rest of the office. Don't worry. I thought. The Towers were made to withstand small crashes. I'm surely that they should be fine. But still, I had to check. And more importantly, I had to tell Vinyl.
I thanked the stallion for his time and head back toward the Towers. For whatever reason, there were crowds on the sidewalk now, all walking in a steady stream away from the two tallest buildings in New Colt City. And me, the salmon in the river, had to push past them all. It must have taken me a good twenty minutes to get where I wanted to go. I could see Vinyl now, her stereo blasting out whatever she had been working on last night. Then I heard it. Everypony did. It was the sound of an airplane engine. Why would two planes be flying at such speeds so low to the ground within twenty minutes of each other? I asked, watching with growing alarm as the aircraft neared the South Tower. Unless-
My thoughts were cut off by the explosion as the plane hit the second tower. Even my roommate's music was lost in the noise. Oh, no, this is bad. Very bad! I started to run toward my roommate as I saw it in slow motion. Part of the building had been jarred loose from the explosion and was falling downward. Toward Vinyl. All around me, ponies started to panic, they'd figured it out. Of course, the general mentality behind the stampede was to get as far away from the Towers as possible. Mine was the opposite. I was kicked in the face over and over again, tripped, trampled. But I still pushed on. I was so close…
And I was there, I pushed her out of the way as the chunk of the building came crashing down. She was safe from the worst of the impact, but couldn't say the same for myself. My leg had been crushed by the sheet of metal before I could evade the thing myself. I heard the sickening crunch as my leg snapped like a twig. The pain made it's way to my brain and then black. Nothing but black. Something was dragging me, I knew that, but that was all I could tell about what was happening as I slipped in and out of consciousness. Then I saw Vinyl's face, tears streaming down her cheeks. We were in an alleyway. How did we get here again? I didn't know. I collapsed onto my white roommate in a hug as I fell into darkness completely. There was no pain here. There was no stress over this month's taxes. There was simply nothing but black. And I welcomed my fate, my fate of forever not existing in the black. I would finally be satisfied, content for once in my life. And so, I floated in the black.
I awoke with a start. A pain seared through my brain like nothing I'd felt before today. I slowly ran my hoof through my hair.
"What the buck happened?"
I looked around. It was all blurry, but the world seemed to be coming back into focus. It look like I was in my apartment living room. Is this what the afterlife is supposed to be like? I seemed to be laid out on the couch, my leg propped up on a couple of pillows. I turned toward the T.V. It was switched off. I didn't understand. I was trying to save Vinyl when the metal hit my leg. Then what happened? Vinyl probably dragged me into an alleyway to avoid anymore debris. And then what happened? Did I die? Was this heaven? I groaned, lifting myself up.
"Oh! You're awake!" cried a very familiar voice. The white unicorn raced into the room.
"No, you have to lay back down. You shouldn't put too much stress on that hoof." She was worrying over me like I was an old lady. What happened to the Vinyl who was too incompetent to make cereal?
"Vinyl, what happened?" I asked as I rested my shoulders on the hoofrest of the couch. I winced as another lance of pain stabbed through my body.
Vinyl took a few deep breaths before responding. "You broke your leg while saving me from that hunk of metal. I think you lost a lot of blood and blacked out. You kept mumbling things like, 'Sorry Vinyl' and 'Goodbye' and 'Black'. It was freaking me out." A visible shudder passed through her body. "So once we were behind the stampede, I grabbed you with my magic and set you on top of my back. I got you to our house as soon as I could. It's only been a couple of hours since the attack."
I was, of course, impressed by her actions. She'd saved my life. And not to mention took care of me so well. Was this concerned, clever, and resourceful Vinyl Scratch always hiding behind the mask that she usually wore?
"So you've taken care of me all by yourself?" I inquired.
"I've had some help." And, right on time, Gilda walked through the door.
"Gilda! You're alive!" I smiled from ear to ear. She was still alive!
She smiled at me, too. "Yeah, I was on one of the top floors for my coffee break. I saw the plane through the window and jumped. I glided down from there. I was looking for you but I couldn't see you anywhere." She shrugged. "But I'm glad to see you're safe."
"Well, I'll go write some new lyrics. You two have fun," called Vinyl as she trotted out of the room.
"Oh, no you don't!" said Gilda and I in perfect unison. "We're getting you a job tomorrow," I said as she turned around. "And you'll be getting up at 6:00. Sharp."
"But I-" She stopped herself when she saw the looks we were giving her.
"Okay, fine." She turned around. "6:00. Sharp."
"Right, that's over with. Now, let's see what's on TV." Octavia reached for the remote and hit the power button. She was immediately greeted with a picture of the towers, flames surrounding the center floors. The newspony wore a saddened expression. "About 3000 civilians are thought to be dead after the attacks on the Towers in New York and the Pentagon."
Octavia stared at the screen. Not comprehending. 3000? How could anypony do something like this?
The gray earth pony turned toward her griffon friend. "What happened?"
Gilda showed some hesitation before answering. "After Vinyl brought you home, both of the towers fell. New Colt was covered in dust for a couple of hours." She looked directly at Octavia. "It was bad. Unicorns and earth ponies jumping to their deaths in an attempt to get down. Some died in the fire, and most of the firefighters and anypony in the building when in collapsed died. It's a tragedy."
Octavia was silent, stewing in her anger. "Who did it?" Her voice filled with rage. "Who in the bat-shit insane mind would ever think to cause anything like this?"
Gilda gulped. "I…I…" She sighed. "An origination of rouge griffons are under suspicion." She stepped back as if she were expecting Octavia to attack her. But the mare was lost in her thoughts. Griffons? Oh, poor Gilda.
"I've, um, I've gotta go. See you later Octy." Gilda jogged out the door and flew off.
Octavia said nothing. Gilda must be facing ridicule all over the place. She remember that she had left the the TV on. "And now, the incredibly tragic story of Todd Beamer." said the newspony. Octavia turned off the television. She needed some time to think.
