The soft yet slightly coarse sound of a cello playing gently woke Vinyl Scratch from her slumber. Yawning, she looked out the window; it was already well past noon. No surprise there, seeing as her internal clock was whacked after so many years working as a DJ.
It sure felt weird being back to Ponyville after living in Canterlot for so many years. She got out of bed and put on her trademark glasses before she went down the stairs towards the living room.
She saw her wife standing on her hind legs in the living room surrounded by unopened cardboard boxes, playing her cello.
The sight made the DJ smile; there weren’t many things in life she enjoyed more than watching her beloved play her music. Octavia noticed the warm smile and responded in kind, her eyes kind and inviting.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a series of loud knocks on the door, and still smiling she went to open it. As she opened the door she came face to face with a pair of huge blue eyes inches from her face and a loud voice yelling,
“Hey, you’re new! I’m Pinkie Pie! Welcome to Ponyville! What’s your name!?”
The large blue eyes took a step backwards revealing a pony who’s physical description most certainly gave her name justice. The rather large bouncing pony had a bright pink coat and a large curly cotton candy mane complete with what could best be described as a “hat basket” on her head filled with what looked like postcards.
In all honesty, Vinyl was rather shocked at the pink pony’s antics but she wasn’t about to be upstaged by some newcomer in being loud and obnoxious.
“Hey I’m Vinyl Scratch! Yup, THAT Vinyl Scratch! And behind me-“
“Hey Vinyl!” The bright pink pony interrupted, bouncing in place before lowering her head and poking the DJ with the basket hat.
“Take one!” She said happily, still bouncing in place.
A white aura enveloped one of the cards and brought it close enough for Vinyl to read it. It was a party invitation of some sort. Vinyl raised an eyebrow behind her massive glasses and looked at the jumping, hyperactive pony.
“A party? What are we celebrating?”
“Why, you of course! I throw a party for everypony that moves to Ponyville! A Pinkie Pie Welc-Ohhhh! There’s more of you!”
Vinyl realized that the music had stopped playing and that Octavia was standing next to her.
“Like I was trying to say earlier, this is Octavia, she’s my-“
Vinyl was once again interrupted by Pinkie Pie who waved happily at Octavia.
“Hey Octavia! Welcome to Ponyville! See you at the party!”
And with that the hyperactive pony turned and bounced away, humming a tune to herself.
“What was that all about?” asked Octavia, the mild confusion evident in her voice.
“Looks like we got invited to some sort of party; might be fun,” Vinyl answered with a shrug.
What happened next surprised Vinyl so much that she jumped far enough into the air to be mistaken for a Pegasus.
“A PARTY WITH THAT CRAZY PONY!? ARE YOU INSANE!?” Octavia’s purple eyes were filled with a mix of disgust, surprise, and pure hatred.
Vinyl took a few steps back, not quite sure what had caused her beloved’s mood to turn so sour.
“Wait, you know that pony!?”
“Do I know her!? She’s one of those foolish fools who foolishly turned the Gala into a disaster!”
“You mean that that pony was-“
“Yes! She’s the one that convinced us to play Pony Pokey of all songs, how she did it I have no idea, and then she proceeded to more or less trash the whole reception along with her featherbrained friends!”
Vinyl nervously swallowed, She hadn’t seen Octavia this upset since the Gala in question.
“Well, we’ll just decline then, nothing to it.” Vinyl couldn’t hide the slight disappointment in her voice. No crazy party was worth risking Octavia’s wrath over.
The grey pony’s sudden fury vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared, leaving cold and indifferent eyes in its wake. To Vinyl it was in many ways worse than the earlier anger.
“I’m not saying that you can’t go Vinyl, I know how you just LOVE crazy parties with crazy ponies.”
Vinyl said nothing; she knew her wife well enough to just stay quiet when she got like this. It would blow over soon and everything would return back to normal. Trying to argue with her right now wasn’t an option as anything she said would just be held against her, even an agreement would be seen as an insult. Vinyl had learned that the hard way over the years.
The DJ felt that the best course of action was to change the subject followed by a hasty exit from the house.
“Yeah well I think I’ll go out and see if I can find someplace that might need a mad DJ or something- you know, a job.”
With that and a quick wave of the hoof, Vinyl left the house as quickly as she could without running off.
Octavia sighed. She knew she shouldn’t have snapped at the DJ: it wasn’t her fault.
It was just that the pink pony dragged with her so many bad memories from the gala, not to mention how furious Prince Blueblood had been afterwards. He had yelled at her and her ensemble for what felt like an eternity, and if it wasn't for Princess Luna, it might as well had lasted an eternity. Not that Luna had saved their jobs; she had just saved them from further harassment from the prince. They were all fired right there on the spot. Octavia shook her head to try and get rid of the painful memories.
Oh well, she might as well go for a walk as well:it might help her clear her head and familiarize her with her new town.
It was a warm day with very few clouds in the sky along with a slight breeze, close to the perfect weather for a market day.
Octavia found herself walking towards the Ponyville marketplace, taking in her new surroundings.
The town was much smaller than Canterlot and seemed to lack the class she was used to but on the other hoof it did have its own rustic charm. Deep in her own thoughts she failed to hear the loud buzzing noise that was rapidly coming towards her until a yell voice rang out:
“Hey, watch out!”
Octavia looked towards the source of the noise and saw a small orange filly on a scooter rushing towards her in midair. Having no time to react, she just closed her eyes and braced for impact.
Along with the impact came the pain and Octavia collapsed.
She could hear the sound of hooves and shouting, but she couldn’t focus on what they were shouting, the only things that she could think of was the immense pain and the stream of blood that she felt trickling down her face. Soon the welcoming dark embrace of unconsciousness enveloped the mare as she felt herself being picked up on a stretcher.
A slight breeze slipped through the open window, lightly ruffling the sleeping pony’s hair.
She slowly opened her eyes, trying to make sense of where she was.
The room was white, very white; it was white to the point that the only two things that weren’t white were the green curtains and her own grey fur. Even the sleeping unicorn in the chair next to the bed was white.
Wait, a sleeping unicorn? She squinted her eyes at the pony trying to make head or tails of the situation at hoof.
Why was she in the hospital?
Who was the sleeping unicorn in the chair?
It was right then that she realized there was a much more important question she had overlooked.
Who was she? She couldn’t even remember her own name. Dread filled her as she felt panic flowing into her.
Along with the feelings of dread and panic came a splitting headache; it felt like her forehead wanted to split open.
Moving her front hooves towards her forehead she felt it wrapped in heavy bandages.
Panic was quickly winning the battle inside of her head for supremacy, and she shakily got out of the bed and tried to take a few steps only to have her vision blur and dizziness take over.
She tried to take a few more steps defying the overwhelming dizziness she felt but it didn’t last very long. She fell to the floor, the entire room swirling above her, going in circles like some crazy pegasus. She felt nauseous but refused to lose yet another battle and swallowed the bile that had been forming in her throat.
Suddenly her view was filled with a face: a white face with worried magenta eyes that looked down at her.
The face shouted something but she couldn’t hear what. Everything felt cloudy and unreal. As the world became less and less focused, she felt two pair of hooves carefully lift her up to the bed.
She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to focus again, trying to will the room to stop spinning.
“-tavia? Octavia? Can you hear me Octavia?”
The voice was gentle but sounded frightened, who was that? Was it that unicorn?
She opened her eyes only to see the white unicorn and a white earth pony clad in a nurse’s uniform looking at her.
The unicorn forced a smile and cocked her head, warm eyes looking at her.
“Hey Tavi, how are you feeling?”
She just looked at the strange unicorn, not entirely sure what to say.
After a moment of awkward silence, the unicorn’s smile faltered.
“Octavia? What’s wrong?”
Where should she even start? A better question would be what wasn’t wrong. Ignoring the question she decided to ask what had been on her mind since as far as she could remember, which admittedly wasn’t very long at all. But then again that was the entire problem, wasn’t it?
“Who am I?”
The white unicorn’s face went blank and her pupils shrank until they reached the size of two peas.
“W-w-what do you mean Tavi?”
Feeling frustration taking the place of her earlier panic, her face hardened as she raised her voice.
“I ASKED YOU WHO I AM!” She all but shouted at the poor unicorn.
The earth pony, who she could only guess was one of the nurses at the hospital moved towards her.
“I’m afraid you had an accident earlier, you suffered a rather heavy concussion as the result of…”
The nurse cleared her throat, not really sure how to continue. It wasn’t really an everyday occurrence to say the least.
“A filly crashed her scooter into your head.” The unicorn finished for the nurse.
“What?” It was the only form of reply that really made any sense to the grey pony.
“It’s just as Vinyl Scratch said, a filly crashed her scooter straight into your forehead. Luckily there were no fractures to your skull but you still needed stitches. It seems like the concussions that you suffered during the crash caused some rather severe memory loss. How are you feeling otherwise? Are you feeling dizzy perhaps?”
“Well yes, I’m feeling dizzy and I have splitting headache.” The grey pony sighed, feeling frustrated that her question had gone unanswered.
“But you still haven’t answered my question. Who am I? And where am I for that matter?”
“Your name is Octavia and you’re at the Ponyville General Hospital.” The nurse then pointed a hoof towards Vinyl before she continued.
“And this is Vinyl Scratch. She’s your wife. Does any of this feel familiar to you?”
Octavia felt her eyes getting wider by the second, she was married? To a mare?
“I’m married?” She couldn’t keep the disbelief out of her voice, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Vinyl.
The white unicorn moved closer to her wife slowly and carefully, the way one might approach an injured animal. When she got close enough she raised a hoof and started to gently brush it against her cheek.
Octavia’s first instinct was to jerk back but she forced herself to relax, slowly starting to enjoy the sensation. It just felt right. She felt safe near the other mare. She felt a slight pull at the edges of her lips and before she knew it, she was smiling for the first time since she woke up.
“So you remember?” Vinyl asked hopeful, a smile mirroring Octavia’s was plastered on her features.
Octavia slowly shook her head, leaning into Vinyl’s hoof.
“No, but I remember...” There was a lengthy pause as she struggled to find the words.
“I remember this feeling, it’s so familiar. I feel safe, like we belong together.”
The grey mare froze as Vinyl lowered her head towards her, but she but she relaxed as she felt the unicorn’s soft lips against her cheek. It felt so very familiar.
“I guess I’ll have to take what I can get right now, won’t I?” Vinyl said with a chuckle as she pulled away from her wife. She turned her head around and looked at the nurse, hoof not leaving Octavia’s cheek.
“So Nurse Red Heart, how do we fix this exactly?”
The white earth pony shook her head before she met Vinyl’s eyes.
“I’m afraid it isn’t that simple Vinyl, there’s no medical cure for memory loss and the only magical ones are simply too risky.” Nurse Red Heart steeled herself for what she was about to say next, it was never easy to inform patients of the worst case scenarios.
“I’m afraid there’s a chance that Octavia may never make a full recovery; quite a few patients never truly recover from memory loss associated with blunt force trauma. The good news is that there’s also patients that make a full recovery and with some hope Octavia might be among them.”
The pair looked at the nurse, shocked,the same thoughts echoing in their heads.
Vinyl was the first one to voice what was on both of their minds.
“So all we can do is to sit down on our flanks and hope? Is that really all we can do?”
At this the nurse smiled gently.
“No, not at all Vinyl, there are plenty of small things that you can do to help her remember. Put up photos of her life on the wall, put up souvenirs, anything that might help her remember. But whatever you do, don’t try to force the memories. Trying to force a person to remember usually does more harm than good. Let her take it in her own pace.”
Vinyl looked towards the bed again and realized that she was still brushing her hoof against Octavia’s cheek; she was doing it without thinking now. Not that her wife seemed to mind it very much, quite the opposite actually. It seemed like it was the only thing in the world that Octavia was able to find comfort in right now.
She nodded to herself, she could do this. She could do this for herself and more importantly, she could do this for Octavia.
