Love Brings Out Who You Are

“Vinyl?”

“Octavia, can we please talk?”

Octavia sighs, “What is there to talk about? You hurt me both physically and mentally.”

Vinyl, starts to tear up, “I know, Octavia, I know.”

Octavia lets Vinyl enter her apartment. Vinyl looks around, interested by the look and set up of the apartment, including the large window view of Ponyville.

“Nice place, Octavia.”

“Thanks. It’s not much, but at least I have somewhere to stay.”

Vinyl smells and sees the pizza Octavia ordered.

“I see you ordered pizza.”

“Yup, I couldn’t decide so I went with something simple. Help yourself to a slice, if you want.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I came because I wanted to talk to you about what’s been happening between us.”

Vinyl and Octavia sit down on the couch in front of the large window. After sitting down, Octavia looks at Vinyl with a curious, but disappointed look on her face.

Vinyl starts to cry a little, but tries to hide it, even though it is quite difficult, “Octavia, I know my behavior has been horrible, I know I have yelled at you because I have been coming home drunk, and I know that I broke your cello, and I want to say I’m sorry and hope we can at least be friends, if you’re not above that.”

Octavia sighs, “Vinyl, I’m glad that you decided to come talk to me and apologize. It’s not that easy though, you have hurt my feelings so many times, and you made it ten times worse when you broke my cello. Why? Why do you come home so drunk, to where you get mad? To where you smash stuff?”

Vinyl, with tears now sliding down her face, “Octavia, I don’t know! I drink because I’ve been getting way less gigs, and I’m starting to be barely able to keep the house! I’m at a point now to where I may have to sell some of my gear just to make some money! Just to keep myself fed! I’ve been drinking so I could avoid all the stress that’s been hammering me for a while! I don’t what else to do, DJ’ing is what I’m known for, it’s what I love to do, but if I can’t keep my gear just to stay with the bills, I don’t know what else I’m going to be able to do!” Now she’s really crying, her face cherry red with many tears sliding down her face.

Octavia, now starting to cry herself, “Vinyl, why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve helped you. I could’ve split some of the money I made from my concerts with you. Why did you have to drink, knowing it wasn’t going to help you? Do you even realize that your constant drinking is splitting us up even further, every sip of alcohol, making it worse? Do you not care about us? Do you not care about me? What is it, Vinyl?! Tell me, please! Why do you do this to me, to yourself, to both of us?!”

Vinyl, speechless, “I-I-I-I-I don’t know what to say, Octavia! I guess it’s just been easier to drink my stress away rather than actually saying anything! And even if I wasn’t drinking, I still wouldn’t know how to say it to you!”

Octavia, with her eyes widened, “Vinyl, remember, you can tell me anything that’s been bugging you, whether it was your job stressing you out, or you felt like drinking because of it! All of that could’ve been avoided if you had just told me that you were stressed! I care so much about you, more than I care about anything else!” With nothing else to say, Octavia buries her head in her hooves, sobbing.

Vinyl, with nothing else to say as well, goes to her jacket she left on one of Octavia’s chairs and pulls out of small bottle of alcohol she kept in her pocket for a couple of days. Octavia brings her head out of her hooves and sees Vinyl open the bottle of alcohol, which infuriates her, causing her to whack the bottle out of Vinyl’s hands.

“Vinyl, just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Vinyl now ashamed, “Something that’s kept the stress from me, but now thanks to you, I have to go buy more!”

Octavia has really had enough. She cares too much about Vinyl to even think about her having another drop of alcohol, and so she knocks Vinyl to the ground. “You are NOT going to buy anymore alcohol! Period!”

Vinyl stutters, “B-B-B-B-But…”

Octavia wasn’t having any excuses, “no buts, and no excuses, none of that crap! You are not drinking anymore from this day forward! I don’t care if you’re stressed. If you feel the need to drink again, call me. I’ll be there for you. I’ll help you fight the urge to drink, even though it may be quite difficult, but the result I’m looking for is you avoiding alcohol by any means necessary. But, before we do anything else, let’s go to bed, we’re both tired and I can tell you really need sleep. However, I’m going to ask that you sleep with me so that I can be sure you won’t try and drink behind my back.

Vinyl is feeling a little more confident now that she has someone helping her through her rough times of life, especially when it’s Octavia, the one pony she loves and believes in the most.

“Octavia?”

“Yes, Vinyl?”

“Thank you, for being there for me, for helping me at times like this.”

“You’re welcome, Vinyl, I can’t stand to watch you hurt yourself like this, so that’s why I do this.”

Vinyl pulls Octavia into a tight embrace, Octavia hugging back.

Just when they were about to go to bed, Octavia feels the need to do one last thing: make sure Vinyl isn’t hiding any bottles of alcohol. She goes to Vinyl’s jacket and feels 2 bottles in one of her pockets. She immediately unzips the pockets, takes the bottles out, and as she begins to dump them into the sink, Vinyl stops her with a hoof on the shoulder.

“Octavia, I think I should be the one to do it.”

Octavia nods and hands the bottles over to Vinyl, still watching her, making sure she doesn’t try to sip another drop, instead, she dumps the bottles into the sink and while doing so, she says something that makes Octavia smile: “buck you, beer!”

After a crazy night, which included Vinyl giving up her drinking, she and Octavia can sleep a little more easily. They shut off the lights and go peacefully to sleep, in each other’s arms.